Gutfeld on the Golden Globes
The script was set as Hollywood A-listers presented a show of unity condemning abuses most had ignored for decades. But when everyone gets the memo, it makes the memo less powerful.
This is a rush transcript from "The Five," January 8, 2018. 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 sunbathes on a waffle, Dana Perino -- "The Five."
To summarize the Golden Globes, women wore black. Men wore pins. People used words like "intersectional gender parity."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEBRA MESSING, ACTRESS: We want intersectional gender parity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: Yes. Nothing like messing on the carpet.
This script was set: A show of unity condemning abuses most in Hollywood had ignored for decades. It's about time. I don't think I can take another standing ovation for a child rapist. But when everyone gets the memo it makes the memo less powerful, one form of lockstep becomes another. But Hollywood therapy is always projection: Lecturing us on us when what's really wrong is Hollywood. For example, Connie Britton's shirt that reads "poverty is sexist." While it's true at least 60 percent of our homeless are men, I'm not sure that what she meant. But my point is this: It makes no sense to inject identity politics into shared suffering, unless of course it looks good on a shirt.
"The Handmaid's Tale won -- it was a horror fantasy were women are routinely abused. Keep the handmaid's tale from becoming real, says the guy who won. Sadly he wasn't referring to Iran. I think he meant us, because Hollywood tends to miss the real abuses: Iran, Venezuela, the USSR, Cuba -- they're always the last to know or care.
Then came Oprah, a planned, strong speech designed to bring moral clarity to an immoral terrain:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OPRAH WINFREY: For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dared to speak their truth to the power of those men. But their time is up.
(APPLAUSE)
I want all the girls watching here now to know that a new day is on the horizon!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: It went on. The "Time's Up" button didn't apply to her. But it was genius for having Oprah on. It made the night about her not and the scandals. Even NBC called her the next president. That sounds familiar:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
GUTFELD: What about Biden and Oprah?
DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: Oh, that's a ticket!
GUTFELD: Nominate Oprah, she wins. No, I'm not kidding. It's just like just skip it all, get to the point. Put Oprah up there. She wins. You don't even hold the election. It's over.
Oprah is an icon who, unlike traditional politicians, could match a wild card like Donald Trump. And if she won, she could give everyone a free car.
2020, Juan, Oprah versus Donald. Best, greatest election ever, correct?
Oprah-Franken
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, CO-HOST: And a woman ran for president of the United States and, if she wasn't such a bad candidate, maybe she would have won. Condoleezza Rice would have done better.
GUTFELD: Should have been Oprah
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
GUTFELD: Seriously, President Oprah is the best idea Hollywood has. Well, it's maybe the only one they have left. I watched, Kimberly, the entire show.
GUILFOYLE: The world knows.
GUTFELD: I thought that it was brilliant that Oprah came on because it overshadowed a lot of the negativity and people came away with a good feeling, whether you disagreed with it or not. It was -- people are talking about that.
GUILFOYLE: Well, look, I mean, that was probably the big pivotal moment of the night. You saw it across social media and all the blogs. People loved it. She looked great. She sounded fantastic, confident, poised, certain of her message, and it was externally well-received by achieving gender parity for men and women. So once again, Ms. O is winning.
GUTFELD: So Dana, when I think about this, I think that this could be the mirror of Trump, in a sense if there's a crowded Democratic field in 2019, if she is up on stage with 17 other politicians, she instantly vaults to the front because she's not a politician. She's a billionaire and she's like a hard-core persuader like Trump.
DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: And a business woman, OK. So, I think the thing is she doesn't want to run for president.
GUTFELD: Yeah.
PERINO: People keep asking her. I suppose that a couple of her friends say she's really considering it. But I guess now that we've broken the seal on taking a different approach to politics, I think that she would be as good a candidate as anyone else. It would be interesting though to see how the Democrats who support Bernie Sanders would react to an Oprah presidency. I don't think the Bernie bros are going to be very happy.
GUTFELD: Welcome back, Juan, by the way.
JUAN WILLIAMS, CO-HOST: Thanks.
GUTFELD: How was Jamaica?
WILLIAMS: Excellent.
GUTFELD: You have a good time? You missed some great weather, I have to say.
WILLIAMS: Well, I missed you guys.
GUTFELD: Oh, that's great.
JESSE WATTERS, CO-HOST: Don't lie, Juan.
WILLIAMS: That's the truth.
GUTFELD: The Dems would be crazy not to recruit her, right?
WILLIAMS: I don't get it. I mean, you know, Dana says we've broken the seal on this, so now it's like the biggest celebrity becomes the president?
PERINO: No -- she wouldn't be the first.
WILLIAMS: No, absolutely not. But I think -- So Stedman Graham, her longtime friend has said, yeah, she absolutely do it. But when she was interviewed sometime back by David Rubinstein, Rubinstein ask her and she said, well, I thought that was ridiculous because I know nothing about politics, I don't know nothing about foreign affairs. But now, with Donald Trump she says, oh, I thought, well, maybe. So, maybe the doors open. But for me, I just don't understand, what's the attraction of people who don't know what they're doing? I mean, she's a terrific personality. I happen to know her and like her very much. I just don't know if she would be president of the United States. I think the same thing about someone we know well.
GUTFELD: Yeah. How hard could it be, Jesse, running a business is harder than running the country, right?
WATTERS: Sure.
(LAUGHTER)
WATTERS: I just liked how self-satisfied you look when you're playing the clips of yourself. Could we see that look again on your face? Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: Also knock off the stuff about Connie Britton. I like Connie Britton. I thought that was a fine shirt. I like her in nationals, so just layoff her.
GUTFELD: All right. All right.
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: Listen, I want the people to pick the president. I don't want the press to pick it. I think the Draft Oprah movement shows how desperate the Democrats are, how weak their bench is. But to be honest, she is a threat. She's a self-made billionaire. She is incredibly captivating, as you've said Kimberly. She has wide appeal as a black woman to Middle America. She can self-finance. But I do wonder about, you know, what's her position on North Korea? Does President Oprah strike fear in the hearts of ISIS? What does she thinks about the border policy?
WILLIAMS: Wait, you sound like you're talking about Trump a year ago.
WATTERS: Trump was an international business tycoon who's been dabbling in politics and policy for decades, Juan.
WILLIAMS: Really?
WATTERS: Yeah.
WILLIAMS: Oh, national policy.
WATTERS: He'd been writing about it. Oprah is more a vessel, and even you would have to admit she's a vessel.
WILLIAMS: Like I said earlier, I don't think she knows much about politics or foreign affairs, but I don't get how you can say Trump knew everything.
WATTERS: I think Trump knows a lot more about politics and policies than Oprah.
WILLIAMS: Well, OK.
GUTFELD: But, you know what, speaking of business, Weight Watchers shares jumped 13 percent, Kimberly, because she owns 10 percent.
GUILFOYLE: OK, well, good. I mean, Weight Watchers helped a lot of people.
GUTFELD: It does.
GUILFOYLE: Don't you?
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: They deliver the food, don't they?
WATTERS: What was that again?
GUTFELD: Weight Watchers.
WATTERS: Got it.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: I read a thing today about how men are now becoming the spokespeople for companies like Weight Watchers.
GUTFELD: Yeah.
PERINO: Including Rob Lowe for the econ site.
GUILFOYLE: It's like Nutri-system and things like that. I think it's just like sitting up a little bit better might also help.
GUTFELD: Well, going after my posture.
GUILFOYLE: Dana knows that pre-posture.
GUTFELD: I like these other -- you watch the whole thing.
GUILFOYLE: Yes. I responded positively in the affirmative to an email from the producers.
GUTFELD: How did you feel of the tone overall from the Golden Globes? You think it was restrained and humble?
GUILFOYLE: Yes. But I think -- like the women dressed in black. It seemed a little bit more like somber, little bit more, you know, not as like -- and people being really raucous. It was just more like, dignified.
I didn't mind it. I thought I wasn't going to like it, but it wasn't bad for me. I liked the Oprah thing. I thought all the women looked really beautiful. I love the black dresses. At first, I thought it was going to be some kind of aggressive movement but it wasn't. It was just dignified.
So I think it was fine. I didn't have a problem with it. It was entertaining. I kept it on.
GUTFELD: The weird thing too is that they invited Tonya Harding there and I presumed they made a movie about her. She was there. And they kind of portrayed her as a feminist icon, but allegedly didn't she plan to attack, wasn't she part of the attack?
WILLIAMS: Yes.
GUTFELD: Nancy Kerrigan was a victim.
WILLIAMS: Nancy Kerrigan was kneecapped by someone that was trying to help her.
GUILFOYLE: She admitted she knew about it.
PERINO: Like a reluctant accomplice.
WILLIAMS: You know what strikes me though is that the culture is ahead of the politics in America all of a sudden. Everything is about the culture.
Everything is about the Golden Globes, Oprah, you don't need to really know anything to run for office. I'm like, what? The world has gone crazy.
GUTFELD: Or the world has gotten more awesome. You know, I'm going to play sound on tape of the host, Seth Meyers, who nobody remembers because of Oprah. You know how we always talk about Hollywood or a bunch of elites. He addresses that criticism.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNINDENTIFIED MALE: This looks like a room of privileged Hollywood elite and that's fair, but everyone in this room knows that Hollywood is so much more than that. When you on a film set, you meet hairdressers and camera people and script supervisors. Most of the jobs on film sets are jobs for people who work long, hard hours. They are American dream jobs. Those people aren't there thanks to their rich dad, except for that one P.A.
People in this room worked really hard to get here, but it's clear now than ever before that the women had to work even harder.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: So Jesse, what he's doing is he's taking the little people.
WATTERS: Yes.
GUTFELD: . the little people to make it so that the elites don't look so bad. Like, look, we have hairstylists. We have makeup. We have caterers.
WATTERS: My butler and my driver.
GUTFELD: My footman.
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: That's right. Who was the woman, I think, was on The View or one of those shows, she goes we need open borders because someone has to clean the bathrooms. That's what it comes off as. And then, NBC comes out and them promotes this whole presidency of Oprah because she did a Me Too speech, but then NBC also covered up for Matt Lauer and then spiked the Weinstein exclusive. So, I don't really know what NBC wants. I mean, you can't have it both ways.
GUTFELD: Dana, I forgot about that. NBC actually tweeted that Oprah was going to be the next president then they pulled the tweet.
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: What NBC said that they had outsourced twitter that night to a third-party who had tweeted that, so that's why they deleted it. But I thought -- I know how twitter works. It's not that hard and you do not have to hire a third-party to do it.
GUTFELD: No, no, no. Just have a party.
PERINO: Just do a party.
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: My tweets are remarkably mild, I believe.
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: They were well received. Across the board, well received.
(LAUGHTER)
GUTFELD: That's enough. I don't think we will be speaking about the Golden Globes at least for another year.
GUILFOYLE: We'll be talking about Oprah, though.
GUTFELD: Yeah, you know it. All right. We turn to Oprah's 2020 opponent.
Ahead, President Trump's staunch defense of his mental fitness. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WATTERS: Somebody call a psychiatrist. There was a crazy panic over the weekend after the president's critics poured through Fire and Fury -- wait, they're all psychiatrist now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNINDENTIFIED MALE: We can look back a year from now and say the warning signs were there and we did not do enough.
UNINDENTIFIED MALE: We're in a real constitutional crisis. The leadership of the country in congress, privately and in public, openly questions the fitness and stability of the president of the United States.
UNINDENTIFIED MALE: When you hear him put out the tweet stable genius, it's kind of like Richard Nixon, I am not a crook.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: Even a Democrat who supported Hillary Clinton suggest everybody, settle down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNINDENTIFIED MALE: It's very dangerous, you know. There's only one thing worse than trying to criminalize political differences and that's trying to psychiatrist them. These psychiatrists now who are trying to diagnose without ever having met the man, that's what they did in Russia. I've represented dissidents who they locked up in mental hospitals. That's what they did in China. That's what they did in apartheid South Africa. How dare liberals, people on the left, try to undo democracy by accusing a president of being mentally ill without any basis?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: President Trump didn't have to but he did address the mental health concerns from his critics in a tweet calling himself a, quote, very stable genius, and then appeared before cameras at Camp David.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I went to the best colleges or college. I went to -- I had a situation where I was a very excellent student, came out and made billions and billions of dollars, became one of the top business people. Went to television, and for ten years was a tremendous success, as you probably have heard. Ran for president one time and won. And then I hear this guy that doesn't not know me, doesn't know me at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: This is the same thing they do with Reagan and they did with Bush that all Republican presidents are dumb and crazy. And now they're doing it with President Trump.
PERINO: This went way over the line to me. The psychiatrists all getting together and have like a secret cabal to figure out, you know -- they first
-- they thought he didn't really want to run, then he didn't really want to win, and then he didn't really want to govern, and then today his deputy press secretary announces that he is for sure running again in 2020. And so, I think this is a big, one, waste of time by the Democrats because they're ceding all the policy ground to Republicans as they take off their agenda one by one. And the economy is fully recovered and President Trump is pushing down the gas pedal on that with the tax cuts. And so, you're left with the Democrats trying to hang their hat on their hope on some sort of mental instability claim which is really unfortunate. One, I think it's preposterous. But also I would say this, I think it's really unfortunate for this country, who has talked about mental health a lot in the last several years and how we need to do more to address it, and they're basically making a mockery of it. And there a lot of people out there are dealing with mental health issues, or whose children are, or whose family members are, and this is super irresponsible.
WATTERS: Do you agree with Dana's point that they failed to defeat President Trump in the arena of ideas so they're throwing this smear at him.
GUTFELD: Calling him Hitler, that didn't work. The Russia thing is stalling. So this is like in their toolshed, this is now the chainsaw because all the rifles are empty. None of the people calling him crazy could have pulled off what he did. And the thing is, let's say you're clinically mentally ill. You're consistent, consistently clinically mentally ill. You can't go out and do a rally and then a speech, and then all of a sudden go back privately and dissolve into some kind -- I don't know, jabbering like mess. That's not how it works. That's what they're suggesting. They're suggesting that when you see him he's fine, but then behind closed doors he just loses it.
I've questions about the psychiatrist. I look up on this stuff. There's some interesting things about her that I think warrants further explanation. But in defense of people using this, and I think Juan might agree with me on this, this is the mirror image of the birth certificate.
The 25th amendment argument and the birth certificate argument are both identically the same in terms of delegitimizing the person. So everything has a mirror here. When we're saying this is insane, and a lot of people were saying the same thing about the birth certificate. Even there might be a little bit more legitimacy to the birth certificate because we didn't have the real thing, but I think they're kind of similar. I will say this, Donald Trump, you can say that he's odd. People who do extraordinary things are often odd but they're not crazy. They might be a little bit off, you know, a little nutty, Kimberly.
GUILFOYLE: Greg.
GUTFELD: Yes.
GUILFOYLE: Man in the mirror.
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: Let's let Juan respond because is this an attempt to delegitimize the president?
WILLIAMS: No. What struck me was that -- you know, largely this comes out of the Michael Wolff book, right? And who is Wolff's quoting? He's quoting Republicans.
WATTERS: On the record?
WILLIAMS: Yeah. I mean, look.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: Rand Paul before that said this guy is a delusional narcissist.
I think Lindsey Graham, who this weekend came out and said everything is fine. Lindsey Graham said he's a kook. A kook, right? Bob Corker, Republican senator has said basically this is adult day care. This man has never demonstrated either the capacity president or the stability.
GUTFELD: But they're talking about a personality.
WILLIAMS: That's right.
GUTFELD: They're not talking about the actual mental state. That's way different.
WILLIAMS: No, no, no. I think this is the same, Greg. I think they're talking about the guy they deal with that they think is a little off and they're just reluctant to say it, and they don't attack him but they apparently said this stuff to Wolff, if he is to be believed. And then, once Wolff puts it out there, everybody says, wait a second, is this, you know, the king has no clothes and nobody is willing to say this especially among Republicans.
PERINO: But the psychiatrist getting together for their cabal was separate in part.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: No, no, no. What drive it I think is the book and all the revelations that Republicans are saying these things about Trump.
WATTERS: Juan, and I'll post this to Kimberly, you know what I think is crazy, when people say that global warming is a greater threat than ISIS.
That I think is mentally insane.
GUILFOYLE: Well, that's definitely disturbed. You know, I like what Alan Dershowitz have to say. Politically oppose someone. Don't sit there and try to cast aspersions about their mental state or faculties or ability to serve. I mean, OK, if he's crazy, then crazy is good. Sign me up for more because he's had tremendous amount of accomplishments. Everybody, pretty much, with the same mind has had to admit that in terms of what he's been able to achieve and get done in a very quick period of time. But this is something that disturbs people. They find it mentally disturbing that he's done as well as he has, so they're trying to now go back on him and cast these types of ideas on people to try to make it more mainstream and acceptable. This is a guy who doesn't have his faculties or lacks intelligence, really? So how did he get into the White House?
WATTERS: Yeah. He defeated a dynasty.
GUILFOYLE: I mean to be honest, you know, and 16 very qualified candidates that ran. He did all the debates. He campaigned out there. He made a tremendous amount of money and jobs created in terms of the economy with American businesses. Was this all, you know, dumb luck?
WATTERS: I think people are just sick of all these winning, Kimberly.
GUILFOYLE: Absolutely.
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: Ahead, Steve Bannon attempts to make amends after turning on the president, but did he close the books for good on his own political career?
Up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUILFOYLE: They say it's never too late to say sorry, but in Steve Bannon's case it may be. The former chief White House strategist appears to have done himself and with the president over disparaging remarks that turned up in the new book Fire and Fury. He's now attempting to backtrack, but will it get him back in the good graces of the man who stub him, Sloppy Steve. In a statement, a regretful Bannon says Donald Trump Jr. is both a patriot and a good man. He's support is also unwavering for the president and his agenda. My comments were aimed at Paul Manafort. He should have known the Russians are duplicitous, cunning, and not our friends. I regret that my delay in responding to the inaccurate reporting regarding Don Jr.
has diverted attention from the president's historical accomplishments in the first year of his presidency. OK. Is sorry good enough?
GUTFELD: You know what reminds -- Bannon is like your best friend telling you a drunken, disgusting story and then notices that your wife is in the other room and heard everything. So that's the script I'm writing for the movie that I want to make. It's never really happens. It's too late. He wanted to burn the world down, and now he has no matches and he has no lighter fluid. He has only one path, Dancing with the Stars.
GUILFOYLE: Oh, no.
GUTFELD: . and Hillary as his partner.
GUILFOYLE: You have to have a professional as your partner.
GUTFELD: Oh, but think how beautiful it would be.
GUILFOYLE: All right, shake it off, shake it off. OK. Dana, what do you make of this? First of all, in terms of the communications, do you like the message and was it too little too late?
PERINO: It doesn't really matter what I think. I would just say that hours after the book had hit the ground, and this guy is obviously smart, he knows communications pretty well. And he waited and waited, because I think he actually did say it. And now he's trying to figure out a way to sort of backtrack.
One thing he didn't backtrack was the comments that he made about Mueller's investigation actually zeroing in on money laundering and Jared Kushner.
That wasn't part of the statement that he released on Sunday.
And then the other thing is, I noticed in chapter seven of the book, there's this little detail, and it doesn't necessarily have to do with Bannon, but it is when Michael Flynn does an interview with Karen DeYoung of The Washington Post on background, and she asks him, "Did you have contacts with the Russians in which you discussed sanctions?" And he says no, and he denies it twice.
She calls back to the communications director, Michael Anton, and says, "Hey, Michael Flynn, he just denied this twice. It was on background, but is it cool if we put that on the record, since he denies it?"
GUILFOYLE: Right.
PERINO: And Anton says, "Yes, that's cool. Fine. No problem."
Then he called Michael Flynn and says, "Hey, by the way, I just want to let you know I told them that they could use that on the record. Is that OK?"
And he gets the, "Oh, actually." And now they can't pull it back. It was a very interesting detail in the book that I thought, "That's the moment that it all starts to unravel."
GUILFOYLE: Starts to unravel, OK.
And also notice, Jesse, that he didn't say, "I'm sorry" or regrets or anything about Jared or Ivanka or anything like that.
WATTERS: It was mostly about Don Jr., I think, was the apology...
GUILFOYLE: Right.
WATTERS: ... non-apology. But the book itself was designed kind of as a hand grenade to throw inside the Trump White House. But the only person it really killed was Bannon.
I think Trump survives this. Obviously, this guy came in as a wolf in sheep's clothing. He kind of punked his people in order to get in there, and then he tried to take down the White House. That was the guy's motivation. To take down Trump and actually lead to impeachment.
GUILFOYLE: You mean Michael Wolff?
WATTERS: Correct. And so how can you trust anything he says? The main point of the book was that Trump didn't want to win. So then, if he didn't want to win, why did he collude with the Russians to win? The whole thing doesn't make sense. Especially saying that all of the Trump family thought their father was a loser and insane and not a good guy. It's so erroneous.
And so CNN comes out, your hall monitor friend, and says the book is riddled with inaccuracies, sloppy and shoddy reporting. But it rings true.
GUILFOYLE: And that was their standard for truth?
WATTERS: "Rings true" is the standard at CNN? I mean, that's fake news.
That's why they get into so much trouble and have to fire people.
If a conservative author kind of finagled his way into the Obama White House and wrote an error-filled book that took down or attempted to take down Obama, do you think that he'd be on every single show on TV and people would be giving him the benefit of the doubt; and the media would say, "Oh, well, it rings true"? No. He wouldn't be invited anywhere.
WILLIAMS: Oh, yes?
WATTERS: His book would probably be boycotted, and he'd be totally trashed in the media.
WILLIAMS: Oh, gee, we've never seen anything like that with the Clintons.
Oh, gee. What was the name of that book?
WATTERS: Which one? The Dick Morris book?
WILLIAMS: No, no, no. Peter Schweizer's book.
WATTERS: Peter Schweizer didn't get any inside access.
WILLIAMS: That's the point.
GUTFELD: Ed Klein.
WILLIAMS: Crime books, right? All right. But the point here, to your rebuttal, which I thought was pretty good, but I must say...
WATTERS: Thank you.
WILLIAMS: ... who invited Wolff in?
WATTERS: I agree. They invited a Wolff in with sheep's clothing.
WILLIAMS: I'm saying they invited him in.
WATTERS: Yes, big self-inflicted error.
WILLIAMS: Right, big time.
WATTERS: Big time.
WILLIAMS: But that's their actions. They brought him in.
And similarly, does anybody really think Bannon is -- was not part of Trump; Trump didn't love Bannon? Bannon loved Trump. They served each other's purposes.
WATTERS: They had a nice relationship. For a while.
WILLIAMS: OK, so I'm saying this guy comes out, and he says what he says.
He does not retract it.
And Kimberly, I think you're right. He didn't apologize. He didn't say, "I'm sorry." He didn't say anything like that that. So to my mind...
GUILFOYLE: I think it just would've been better if he had come out right
away, like Dana said, and you know, said something.
WILLIAMS: Yes, but he didn't do that, because apparently, that's what he said.
GUILFOYLE: That's why people are having a hard time with it. Not an apology. And the president rejected it.
WILLIAMS: So in a sense, that confirms what Wolff wrote, right? So all of a sudden, they say, "Hmm, so apparently Wolff did some interviews here, and apparently people aren't running away from it."
PERINO: I'll say one thing. Steve Bannon is very quotable.
WILLIAMS: You got it.
PERINO: Says some pretty funny stuff.
WILLIAMS: He really has. But I think the bigger story here is that now that Bannon -- the question is does Bannon -- is Bannon out at Breitbart?
And that's still up in the air.
Secondly, what about Rebecca Mercer and her dad? Because they're the big conservative money people who've been backing Bannon all along.
GUILFOYLE: But that -- that broke up a while ago.
WILLIAMS: No, no, but they said last week that they're done now supporting Bannon. But what does that mean for Breitbart, for Bannon? And what does it mean for Mitch McConnell? Because all of a sudden, it looks like all the Senate incumbents that Bannon planned to attack won't be attacked.
PERINO: I think more importantly is that President Trump himself said at Camp David...
GUILFOYLE: Yes.
PERINO: ... that he does not plan to support any...
WILLIAMS: That -- that's why the question came up.
PERINO: ... insurgent, that he's -- if he's going to be campaigning hard, it will be for the incumbent. So I do think Mitch McConnell won that one.
WATTERS: That helps Trump.
PERINO: Exactly. That's what I think.
GUILFOYLE: The book has been widely criticized because of so many inaccuracies, so many people saying they didn't say this, this didn't happen that way. I mean, you know...
GUTFELD: It's free on WikiLeaks.
GUILFOYLE: Many people present (ph) for that, and I don't know what -- what was going on with this guy.
No distractions for the president as he continues to focus on a thriving economy and bringing jobs back to America. President Trump in Nashville.
That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PERINO: President Trump laid out his plan to help rural America today in the great state of Tennessee. He's the first president in a quarter- century to address the American Farm Bureau Federation's annual convention.
Here were some of the highlights.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have been working every day to deliver for America's farmers, just as they work every single day to deliver for us.
The American dream is roaring back to life, and we've just signed into law the most significant tax cuts and reforms in American history.
We're also putting an end to the regulatory assault on your way of life.
We are witnessing a new era of patriotism, prosperity, and pride. And at the forefront of this exciting new chapter is the great American farmer.
Farm country is God's country. So true.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: So Juan, one of the things the president did at the very end is he signed an executive order authorizing more broadband connectivity issues, so like, putting towers around so that people living in rural America could have the same type of access that everybody else does. So I thought that was a pretty positive thing. What about you?
WILLIAMS: Yes, it is. I mean, I don't know, with net neutrality, they might have to pay a little more, but I think it's a great thing. In fact, I think a lot of the cable companies been very aggressive in saying that is something that we can do, we should do. And so I think the support from the president is a big aid for that, and it's a big boon to rural America, which has been going through some very difficult economic times.
Where the president and the farmers are on different pages, when it comes to trade, Dana...
PERINO: Yes.
WILLIAMS: ... because on issues like NAFTA, and especially import export.
American farmers need that global marketplace. So he didn't say that he was going to change that.
PERINO: Liz Cheney was on "The Daily Briefing" today, Kimberly, and she said that the agriculture immunity had had really good meetings with the White House and that she thinks that their concerns about NAFTA have actually been addressed.
GUILFOYLE: Yes, this is what I thought was fascinating because of -- and persuasive. She seems to have the information about it, to say that it's something that's been discussed and now that they feel a sense of confidence.
And I think this really goes to the sense that President Trump, being very hands-on to try to address people's concerns, really understanding jobs and promising to connect with the working-class men and women, including yes, farmers. That farmers haven't been left behind, just like coal miners haven't been left behind.
So what are your particular interests and concerns of your core group, right? So as it relates to them, that these are able to meet. Address those issues and then move forward.
I think it's effective governing is what it is, and it's what's been needed. Because no two groups kind of are the same. They have different needs, different concerns. And so you have to be sensitive to those and really actually listen to them, and he did that when he was campaigning.
And now he's doing it while he's in the Oval.
PERINO: One of the things he led with Greg was something I know that you talk about often, and that is basically doing the -- what the tax reform bill did on death taxes, so that people with family farms can try to keep it in the family more and not be penalized.
GUTFELD: Yes, he made a funny joke out of it. What did he say? He goes, "This isn't really going to help you."
PERINO: It's your children.
GUTFELD: Yes, yes. Because you'll be dead. But no, this is an important thing. You can't tax something that's already been taxed. That's actually immoral; it's wrong. It's theft.
But I think I can speak for everybody that watches MSNBC and CNN. What's rural?
PERINO: What's a farm?
GUTFELD: What's a farm? What's heartland? What is that?
GUILFOYLE: What?
PERINO: He had a very receptive crowd, Jesse.
WATTERS: It's amazing that a billionaire real-estate developer...
PERINO: From New York, yes.
WATTERS: ... from Queens can bond so much with these farmers, and he has.
And it's amazing the -- the rural support...
GUILFOYLE: Who wants it (ph)?
WATTERS: ... that the president has had. And these are critical districts, in Ohio...
GUILFOYLE: Constituents, yes.
WATTERS: ... in Wisconsin, in -- in Iowa. And he's going to need these voters, and his ratings [SIC] are slipping just marginally.
But he comes out, and he tends to these voters, not necessarily with any tools, but he talks about cutting the estate tax; and he's selling his tax reduction plan. He's talking about broadband. And he's talking about slashing these regulations. He brought up the famous stream regulation, where the little trickle of a stream runs through your property. All of a sudden, the feds can regulate it.
PERINO: You know what it's called?
WATTERS: What's it called?
PERINO: WOTUS.
WATTERS: WOTUS.
PERINO: Waters of the United States.
WATTERS: Right.
PERINO: This is the bill named after you.
WATTERS: There you go.
GUTFELD: If you were president, you would be WOTUS.
WATTERS: That will never happen.
GUILFOYLE: Oh, my God.
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: ... another show. All right, coming up until then...
GUILFOYLE: Shaking in your chair, Juan.
PERINO: Some of you have told us you watch "The Five" while running on a treadmill, but you won't be able to anymore if you work out at one of national -- a national gym chain that's banned all cable news. Next.
WATTERS: Boo.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIAMS: Exercise, one way to keep healthy. But one gym chain is also suggesting that you cut out cable news, as well. Lifetime Fitness just banned channels like FOX News, CNN, MSNBC, and others from their TV sets to create environments that they see are, quote -- here I'm quoting -- "free of consistently negative or politically charged content," end quote. The company says the change is consistent with its healthy way of life philosophy.
Dana, is this good for you?
PERINO: No, I think just let people watch whatever they want to watch.
WILLIAMS: But then the "Y"...
[Especially if you have a machine that allows you to see just your screen, so that you don't have to worry about any of us.
WILLIAMS: I think they're talking about, if they have a bank of TVs.
PERINO: Yes, I know. Just let people watch whatever they want to watch.
WILLIAMS: But then at the "Y"...
PERINO: A lot of people watch while they're doing -- exercise while they're watching the show, and I'm sure that's true for the other cable channels.
WILLIAMS: It's a ton of people who...
PERINO: What if you don't have a lot of extra time to catch up on the news?
WILLIAMS: Well, it's true. But you know, Kimberly...
GUILFOYLE: Yes.
WILLIAMS: ... some of the "Y's" around the country had done something similar earlier, because people were getting into fights. People want to watch CNN. "Oh, no, we've got to watch FOX." What do you think?
GUILFOYLE: Well, I mean, half the time, yes, you'd have to tell them to, you know, put on FOX News or do this, though. But listen, I don't know, people should be able to watch what they want.
PERINO: Yes.
GUILFOYLE: And you know, I like it if people get excited and motivated and jumping around on the treadmill, watching "The Five."
WILLIAMS: Are you watching TV while you're pumping that iron?
WATTERS: I watch MSNBC. I'll hate watch it.
WILLIAMS: You hate watch.
WATTERS: Hate watch it. It makes me run really fast.
GUILFOYLE: Is this a true story?
WATTERS: No.
WILLIAMS: What do you think?
WATTERS: No. I mean, I just -- let them watch what they want. I mean, it's a safe space. The gym is creating a safe space.
GUILFOYLE: Right.
WATTERS: And I think people that go to the gym don't need safe spaces.
They're healthy. They want to work out. They want to get after it. I don't think the gym should coddle people. I think it should be a place where you, you know, sweat it out.
GUILFOYLE: Sweaty, melty little snowflakes.
WATTERS: Yes, melt the snowflakes. Come on, guys.
WILLIAMS: Mr. Snowflake?
GUTFELD: The biggest offender on TV, it's not politics. It's the E!
Channel, which basically shovels some of the most unsettling images you will ever see in your life. Whenever I'm at the gym, it's -- they show this show called "Botched," which is basically elective plastic cosmetic surgery gone bad. It's like watching amusement park accidents. Right before -- I'm sitting there -- I'm on my stair climber. I'm going, "Somebody turn this off." It's the worst stuff on TV. It's not cable.
PERINO: No.
GUTFELD: It's this pop culture. It's the Kardashians; it's plastic surgery, "The View." If someone from Planet X came down and looked at that TV, they'd think we are a bunch of vain, shallow, self-harming creatures.
WILLIAMS: You mean, maybe they have a point.
GUTFELD: Well, my gym, it might be true.
GUILFOYLE: But you're just usually writing your notes with your...
GUTFELD: I'm writing my notes. I'm on a stair climber...
GUILFOYLE: ... Magic Marker.
GUTFELD: ... writing my -- writing notes.
GUILFOYLE: And your "Beautiful Mind" stuff.
GUTFELD: I never see fights. People ask to change the channel: "Can I watch this? Can I watch that?" The fights are always over the machines, because jerks monopolize them. What they do is they sit on...
GUILFOYLE: Here we go.
GUTFELD: They sit on...
GUILFOYLE: I hear this all the time.
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: ... on this -- and they're on their phone when they're not working out.
PERINO: What they should ban at the gym is the phone.
GUTFELD: You should get thrown out immediately.
GUILFOYLE: What do you say? What do you say to them?
GUTFELD: I said, "Are you using that?"
GUILFOYLE: And they...
GUTFELD: And they say, "Yes."
And I say, "You're not. You're on your phone." And then they just...
PERINO: And you become the phone monitor.
GUTFELD: I've now become the phone monitor.
WILLIAMS: Well, you know, at least they're not smoking in the gym.
"One More Thing" up next.
GUILFOYLE: Wait, who was doing that?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUTFELD: Time for "One More Thing." Oh, it's me. Let's do this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRAPHIC: Greg's How to Clean Your Owl News
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: "Greg's How to Clean Your Owl News."
GUILFOYLE: Eww.
GUTFELD: All right. Let's go to it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MAN SPRAYING PET OWL WITH WATER BOTTLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: How to clean your owl news. What do you use? Just get a little handy, clean Windex bottle, make sure there's water. Just spray away.
Look at that. See how easy it is?
PERINO: He likes it. He likes it! Get under there. Get under there.
GUTFELD: Clean your owl -- only in "Clean Your Owl News" will you learn how to clean your owl. There you go.
PERINO: Very helpful.
GUILFOYLE: That's the underarm of the owl.
GUTFELD: I don't know what it is, but I find it...
PERINO: It's like, "Get it over here. Get it over here."
GUTFELD: It's a disturbing pet to have, I will admit. It's -- something that can rotate its head around makes me nervous. It can catch me doing things.
GUILFOYLE: Seems to be only getting the front side.
GUTFELD: Yes. All right. I think we've had enough of this bird.
WILLIAMS: I like it.
WATTERS: Can do this all day.
WILLIAMS: Yes, that's pretty good.
GUTFELD: All right, Juan.
WILLIAMS: So I'm back to frigid temperatures from my vacation in Jamaica.
GUTFELD: Here we go, pictures!
WILLIAMS: Yes. I'm about to say, Gregory asked for pictures, so here I am with Delise, my wife, overlooking Port Antonio. And here's a picture, I'm looking over the world famous blue lagoon, which was just a ton of fun. It was like Huck Finn for me.
And here's a rare picture of the family with no grandkids. That's the super moon in the background lighting up the ocean.
And here are the grandkids on New Year's Eve. The hats say "Happy Birthday" because the local store didn't have any hats...
WATTERS: It's all good.
WILLIAMS: ... that said "Happy New Year's Eve."
PERINO: It works.
WILLIAMS: And these are my kids. That's Tony, Raffi and Rae-Rae, Regan.
And here's a picture of me getting a well-deserved nap. So it's good to be back.
GUTFELD: Good to have you back, Juanzo.
All right, Dana.
PERINO: Mine's just real short.
GUTFELD: Appropriate.
PERINO: Obviously.
PERINO: I want to show you two new friends of mine. This is Lillian and Rose. And I met them at the Brick Diner in Brick, New Jersey. They are huge -- believe me, huge fans of "The Five." They even made the manager change the TV to FOX News from CNN while I was there. It was a big thing.
They watch every day. And I just want to say thanks for making new friends.
GUTFELD: Aww.
GUILFOYLE: Very sweet. God bless.
GUTFELD: Friends who have hands.
GUILFOYLE: Thank you for watching.
GUTFELD: All right. Let's go to Kimberly. Uh-oh. I don't want this to start.
GUILFOYLE: Kimberly's Royal News. Greg is such a hater.
GUTFELD: I am.
GUILFOYLE: So we have new royal photos that have been released today, the duke and duchess of Cambridge, they are two adorable photos. Do you see here there, Princess Charlotte. So, so cute as she headed off to her first day of nursery school. She's 2 years old. She'll be attending Wilcox Nursery School near Kensington Palace in London. And they were taken, actually, by her mom.
GUTFELD: Really?
GUILFOYLE: Yes.
GUTFELD: So now we know where she goes to school. Great for kidnappers, Kimberly.
WATTERS: Jeez. He went there.
GUTFELD: Why don't you just put -- put Google Maps up there.
GUILFOYLE: Why do you ruin my royalty segment?
PERINO: It was perfect.
GUILFOYLE: Thank you.
GUTFELD: You did a pretty good job, I have to say.
GUILFOYLE: Thank you.
GUTFELD: I'm very happy. This was very adorable royalty. A lot of them aren't as adorable. There's some hideous royalty out there.
WATTERS: Which ones, Greg?
GUTFELD: Let's go through the list of the ugly royalty.
WATTERS: Oh, come on.
GUTFELD: I have the list right here. There's Prince Charles, not a looker. Not hideous.
WATTERS: I find him quite handsome.
GUTFELD: Really? He's not a looker.
GUILFOYLE: He's very nice dinner company.
PERINO: What do you think of Andrew?
GUTFELD: Andrew, I can't remember.
GUILFOYLE: She brought it up for a reason.
GUTFELD: OK. I'm afraid. Prince Andrew? Wait a minute. Is that a dirty joke?
Anyway, Jesse.
WATTERS: Wow, I'm going to recover from this one.
All right, so this is kind of sad news actually. Langan's, this Irish pub that's right across the street from FOX is closing next Thursday.
GUILFOYLE: Aww.
WATTERS: Why? Because the rent is too damn high. They're, like, jacking up the rent, big time. Everyone is very sad about this. This place really came onto the scene when Rudy cleaned up Times Square. Everyone went here.
I think McCain, Meryl Streep, Baldwin, Greg Gutfeld has been there.
GUTFELD: True.
GUILFOYLE: Hannity.
WATTERS: Hannity.
GUILFOYLE: Geraldo.
WATTERS: We call it Studio L.
GUTFELD: Johnny Rotten.
WATTERS: Exactly, Johnny Rotten. The Sex Pistols. We called it Studio L, because that was basically another studio for us. Steve Dunleavy used to go there, famous "Post" reporter.
GUILFOYLE: We've had our "Five" parties there sometimes.
WILLIAMS: Yes.
WATTERS: We've done "The Five" -- we should actually go again. We should go one last time.
GUILFOYLE: Didn't Zach (ph) have an idea that Greg tried to steal?
WATTERS: Yes.
WILLIAMS: You know, this neighborhood is changing. Because, like, next door used to be a wonderful little sandwich shop. Gone.
WATTERS: They closed all the delis. And now Langan's is shutting down.
Thanks, de Blasio.
(CROSSTALK)
GUILFOYLE: The rent's too damn high.
WILLIAMS: Low crime rate.
GUTFELD: Communist. Wouldn't you know it?
WILLIAMS: You can't stop it, de Blasio. You're doing too good a job.
GUTFELD: Oh, please.
GUILFOYLE: Oh, my God.
GUTFELD: All right. Shall we go? Set your DVRs. Never miss an episode of "The Five." Why would you? "Special Report" is up next. That's with Bret Baier. Bret, take it away. Be like Calgon.
PERINO: He's got 10 more seconds.
BRET BAIER, ANCHOR: I've been -- I've been to Langan's.
GUTFELD: Yes, you have.
BAIER: I know that. OK. Have a good one, Studio L.
Thanks, Greg.
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