'The Five' preview Trump's first State of the Union address

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'The Five' preview Trump's first State of the Union address

President Trump's speech to focus on economy, infrastructure, immigration, trade and national security; reaction and analysis on 'The Five.'

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," January 30, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: Live from Washington, D.C. Hello, everyone. I'm Dana Perino along with Kimberly Guilfoyle, Juan Williams, Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld. It's 5 o'clock in our nation's capital, and this is "The Five."

It's four hours away from the big annual show on Capitol Hill, the State of the Union address live at 9 p.m. Eastern. The bells are ringing. It's amazing. Greg Gutfeld is singing. It will be President Trump first, though he did addressed a joint session of congress last February soon after his inauguration. We're expecting to get excerpts soon. We'll bring those to you when they come in. The White House says the tone of the speech will be bright and optimistic. The president will speak bipartisanship on a number of issues, jobs and the economy, infrastructure, immigration, trade and national security. It's been a contentious year between Republicans and Democrats. Will there be more compromise ahead, more unity and less divisiveness? Let's go to the one who is so optimistic, bright and sunny. Greg, what do you say?

KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, CO-HOST: Oh, my gosh.

GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: Two observations. I think he's going to do a great job because the expectations are set so low by the media. They are so upset with him, and they expect so little from him that all he will have to do is just be.

PERINO: I think expectations are high for him this time.

GUTFELD: Oh, I don't think so at all. I think that people -- people are looking forward to him being evil and wrong and he'll be nice. But my other thing is someone will take a page out of Eddie Ferguson from The Weekly Standard, and Kevin Williams from National View. It would be much better if he got out there and he said, you know what, you don't need this. I tweet every day. You don't need the State of the Union. All you've got to do is follow me on twitter. I tell you everything that's on my mind. This is the first and last State of the Union I'm ever going to do. Take your family out to dinner on those bonuses. I'm going home. That would be the most awesome State of the Union of all time.

PERINO: He might get a standing ovation.

GUTFELD: He would. He would. But that's the problem with this stuff it's so fake. The reason why the State of the Union sucks is that it's so fake. People standing up, people sitting down.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: It's so choreographed, manufactured. It makes me sad inside, like a lot of things.

PERINO: Well, one thing -- when I look at those snapshot is I am like one of the shortest people ever on the planet.

JESSE WATTERS, CO-HOST: You've just realizing that right now?

PERINO: They gave me a choice between a pillow or a heated seats. And I went with the heated seat.

WATTERS: Yeah. I'm going to steal that heated seat in a moment. I'm a little.

GUTFELD: You're on the hot seat.

PERINO: All right, what do you think? Are you excited for tonight like Greg is?

WATTERS: I am excited. I don't want him to tweet it because I want to watch Ruth Bader Ginsburg fall asleep.

PERINO: She's not going to be there.

WATTERS: She's not going to be there? Oh, darn it. OK. Well, someone is going to fall asleep and someone will embarrass themselves. At one point the camera will go to a very old senator and that senator will be dozing off and those of the best moments. Also interesting to see who people bring, it turns outs the Democrats are bringing illegal aliens. A lot of people are saying they should bring ICE agents to just round them up right there. Other people are bringing transgender military members. And I'm hearing the congressional black caucus might do a black power fist and walk out. So, you know, all of these may be noble causes, but I really don't think the Democrats are connecting with mainstream Americans. The president is going to be on teleprompter, and a lot of people who support President Trump love teleprompter Trump. They used to make fun of Barack Obama when he was on the teleprompter, but we love President Trump when he's on the teleprompter because he fixed the script. It's going to be a lot of recounting all of the winning, which could take a very long time, Juan, especially with all the applause. And then he's going to be looking forward to the next year and try to bring unity and find some items like infrastructure, immigration and trade that the Democrats might be able to get on board with.

PERINO: Buy that, Juan?

JUAN WILLIAMS, CO-HOST: Oh, you know, I'm just overwhelmed by the winning. It's just been so much winning. So when I look at the numbers.

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: Trump said you would be sick of it.

WILLIAMS: I know because it's just so overwhelming. I am thrilled, Jesse. I am thrilled because I understand as his guest he'll have like stormy Daniels, may be, or how about Steve Wynn.

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: Maybe he should bring Lewinsky.

WILLIAMS: It was a $130,000 shot, I think. So, I think what you've got here, Dana, is a guy who is going to try to stay on prompter to pick up on what Jesse was talking about. And I think from what we hear, Gary Cohn, who did so well for the president in Davos is really in charge of this speech along with Stephen Miller. Now, Stephen miller is kind of a fire and brimstone guy, and I think they're going to try to bring a little bit of that. You look at the guest list and you're going to have people there whose children were killed by MS-13. I think they're going to go back hard on the immigration side of it, and that's going to come from Miller.

But I think from Cohn, you'll hear a lot of talk about the benefits of economics and the tax cut and the hope that -- while he talked about America first, he's not saying -- I'm just repeating a line that he said at Davos. It's not America alone. And so, in that sense, it really does speak to something I hope he does, which is reach out to the American people and say that there is a possibility. But my fear is that's not Donald Trump. And so, I just -- you know, I can dream about it.

PERINO: Even a year ago in February when he did the joint session speech, Kimberly, it was a teleprompter speech. Remember that is where many commentators from both the left and the right said now, that's a presidential speech.

GUILFOYLE: Absolutely, I think President Trump is going to exceed expectations tonight. He has a lot of material to work with in terms of the accomplishments, with the economy, infrastructure, tax reform, immigration, all of the above. So I think there's a lot of checkpoints that he can make in terms of saying, hey, this is what I promised the American people, the working class men and women across this country that felt forgotten. I'm honoring my promises that I made during the campaign, fulfilling them during my presidency. And the whole theme of a safe and strong America is one that resonates. There can't be anybody who's against a safe and strong, prosperous country. And that's what he's going to hit tonight.

PERINO: One of the things on economy, a good economy allows you to do, Greg, is to have some space to think about other things that you want to work on. So, if jobs are back and the American people feel like the economy is better and they have confidence and you can deal with other things. So, he's expected to talk tonight about infrastructure and opiate addiction in addition to immigration.

GUTFELD: I don't want him to talk about anything. I have to reiterate this that I don't want to hear what he can make government do more of. You should just do a little punch list. Here's the jobs numbers. Here's the economy. Here's how many ISIS fighters we've killed. OK. That's what happened this year. I'm going to try and do some other things this year. Another little punch list, like three little things, and then just be done with it. This is for the rest of America, not for the left of America. He shouldn't care about impressing people that want more government. He should just do it. You know what he is. The reason why he's so different and the reason why everybody has problems with him is that he's running a country like it's a business. He's like a boss and you can't shake it. So, he should just treat it like a meeting -- like he comes in and goes OK, so we did this. We did this. We did this. That's all right. We've got to do this. And if we don't do this, you're in trouble. I'm firing this guy. That's how he talks. He should just do that because the way it used to go before, let's face it, didn't matter who's doing the State of the Union, it was pompous and choreographed and we pretended to be interested. Let's just let it go.

PERINO: But you're definitely going to watch?

GUTFELD: Yes, I have to. But you know what it is? It's like the great thing about Trump is he -- look at the correspondents' dinner. All these traditional things implode under his watch. Why can't this one?

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: I think this is going to be the last State of the Union.

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: But the president does receive better numbers when he does these big, historic events. You get the pomp and circumstance, the majesty of it all. Trump does very well. The Democrats on the other hand have I think six different responses to the State of the Union, so they're totally fractured. And who knows what they're going to say. Bernie is doing his thing. I believe Kamala Harris is doing her thing. Who knows what the Democratic Party stands for anymore. So, I think Trump will receive a big bump after tonight.

PERINO: There was a headline today, Juan, that said Democrats, especially in red states, are starting to panic because of all the good economic news.

WILLIAMS: I don't think that's rational. One of the interesting things about Trump's poor poll numbers is that if you ask the American people about the economy, they say the economy is good, economic confidence, consumer confidence up. But they don't necessarily connect that to Donald Trump. They give lots of credit -- I think more credit to Barack Obama.

GUTFELD: Not true,

WILLIAMS: And obviously, most presidents, while they're in office, they take credit for anything because they also get blamed for everything. But here's a situation where the American people say it's clearly, the recovery was ongoing. Trump comes in. I think, by the way, in response to Greg's terrible attitude about our wonderful State of the Union address, you get - - you're going to have some reality TV. And you have got Mr. Reality TV delivering the speech.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: Wait. So I think you're going to have people who don't show up. I think lots of members of the Hispanic caucus, the black caucus who say, hey, why should I show up and listen to a guy.

PERINO: Oh, you're going to get arrested.

WATTERS: They're coming for you, Juan.

WILLIAMS: Yeah, because we've called Trump out on a lie. You can't do that. You can't do that.

PERINO: I do think, Kimberly, one of the things -- one of the reasons that Greg and others feel that way about the State of the Union is because it was never supposed to be that way. The State of the Union is supposed to be just a letter, really, or just a notification that everything is fine. Don't worry about stuff. But it has grown so much. But the visualization of who you bring, it's almost become more important than the actual words of the speech. And tonight, both sides are going to have very compelling and interesting members of the American public there.

GUILFOYLE: Yeah. It's also a visual presentation in terms of who you will get for your side, sort of be symbolic in terms of your party, your movement, the type of things that you want to accomplish. And also, maybe, some of the points that you want to make that you need to improve upon. So, OK, I have the support from this community or that community. But I do think that President Trump, besides having a visual presentation of who shows up for him, it's also really going to be strong in terms of the rhetoric and mirroring some of the themes that he laid out in Davos as well, because he does have quite a bit to work with. And for President Trump, I don't think he's going to miss the opportunity to capture the moment for the American people because there's a lot more that he wants to accomplish, and this is the way and the vehicle by which that he can really garner that support moving forward for some of the legislative policies and things that he like to accomplish.

PERINO: Jesse, last word?

WATTERS: And for all the Democrats that say this guy is the worst president of all time, they're going to be jumping over themselves to try to shake his hand as he walks down the aisle to get a nice photo opportunity so they can send it back.

WILLIAMS: Did you miss the idea that people aren't showing up to protest.

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: So Trump is not going to shake any Democratic hands? Do you want to take a bet, Juan? You want to make a bet?

WILLIAMS: I'm saying the news is -- it's like -- you know, they say it's not news about the jets that landed at national airport. It's news about the jets that crash.

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: No one cares who is not showing up.

WILLIAMS: It's not only not showing up, it's their protests in the streets.

PERINO: We have a whole 50 minutes left to talk about this. Coming up, celebrities and activists gather for an anti-Trump People's State of the Union. Greg breaks down why the left resistance event flops when The Five returns from Washington.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUTFELD: All right. Last night was the People's State of the Union. It's the left-wing tofu to tonight's State of the Union. Do you want a taste? Have a bucket nearby.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER STEVENS, ACTOR: This man name Zinke, who claims to be Teddy, got rid of climate science programs already. He actually rides his horse to work like a (BLEEP).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: That's Fisher Stevens -- I thought he was dead, but he's still alive and, apparently, a celebrity.

Afterwards, news outlets focused on one thing only: star power. Not the principles. Star power. Because without that the event was just a rehash of anti-West, hard-left diatribes. American-caused genocide? Check. Evil white male privilege? Check. Real winners there.

But what caught the press was not the radicalism but that it was star-studded. True, there was Mark Ruffalo and Kathy Najimy. If that's star-studded, so is any rest stop on Sunset Boulevard. I should know. What the press ignored: The same divisive politics that spooks most Americans. Blaming others for your problems is so last decade, and yet they can't stop.

But what's also weird, this event was last night before the actual speech, which tells you everything. They only want to hear themselves. But the curse of refusing to hear those you disagree with, you remove the one step that unites people, which is conversation, which leads only then to conflict without it, but maybe that's what they want.

The People's State of the Union may not be about people at all but division and emotional actors who celebrity provides cover for their unpopular radical beliefs. And they need the cover because no one wants leftism. It hurts too many lives. Look at history.

So last night may have felt like a great movie for the media, but it's one movie that America will happily skip.

You know, Jesse, what drove me nuts about this, and I say driving me nuts loosely because I really don't care.

GUILFOYLE: Because you're nuts already.

GUTFELD: I'm nuts already. Everything was about how star-studded it was. They totally left out the fact that what they were talking about was so purely anti-American drivel that you've heard for 40, 50 years, but that's just -- you know, a gossip columnist for people, they can't handle that.

WATTERS: Here's how I knew it wasn't star-studded. When Juan, yesterday, asked who was going to be at the event and we said Mark Ruffalo, and he said who's that? And then he said what movies he be in, and we all started googling Mark Ruffalo. These guys aren't A-listers. And they try -- all they care about is who they are, not what they say because if you put them on a panel up here like this, they can't debate the issues.

GUTFELD: That's true.

WATTERS: There's no substance to the argument. It's all anger. And something Mark Ruffalo said that really kind of bother me, he accused President Trump of being lazy. Ruffalo wakes up and does 10:00 AM yoga on a beach in Malibu, and then goes gets his fingernails waxed. This guy is not a hard worker. Being an actor in Hollywood is the easiest job in the world. Don't tell someone else you don't have a good workout.

PERINO: What is fingernail waxing?

WATTERS: I have no idea but he does that.

GUILFOYLE: I think he means fingernail buffing, but he also lives in New York.

GUTFELD: Juan, Michael Moore used the phrase cleanse when he was talking about white males, like we need to cleanse white male privilege. Do you think that's going to go over well with Middle America? Yeah, let's cleanse America of white male privilege, which basically says like get rid of white males.

WILLIAMS: No, it's not. It's about privilege. But, by the way, I mean, you could talk about low wattage celebrities, I mean, you know, this essentially is a left-wing version of the tea party back in 2010.

GUTFELD: Tea party was actually Americans.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: Every day Americans. Tell me what celebrity caution of the tea party?

WILLIAMS: That's what I've said, they didn't have any.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: The tea party was an actual organic, real movement by Americans.

WILLIAMS: This is not real? Let me tell you, this is so real they have town hall in the middle of Manhattan packed last night.

WATTERS: little of Manhattan. How did celebrity work out for Hillary, Juan?

WILLIAMS: Let me just say they have hundreds of thousands of people watching, streaming, including Greg Gutfeld. Oh, my gosh.

(CROSSTALK)

GUILFOYLE: Greg, it was also sort of your assignment to get a monologue on it. So on Greg's behalf, he sort of had to.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: Let me drop the bomb for you guys, de Blasio was in. Go ahead, guys, blow up, blow up. I know you don't like de Blasio.

(LAUGHTER)

PERINO: But it's not at all surprising that de Blasio was there.

GUTFELD: Kimberly, do you care that de Blasio was there? I like to call Lurch.

GUILFOYLE: I mean, if big bird was there that's definitely not an event you wanted to be. What can I tell you? I mean, look, I don't care if they have B or C-list, I would rather have the real people like you had in the tea party movement than like celebrities without scripts. Not a good idea. Trying to come forward to proffer some enthusiasm and a sense of honor and integrity to try to criticize what's happening in this country. I don't think it worked. It didn't do anything for me. It didn't move me. Didn't move my dial.

WATTERS: They used Clooney and Diddy, and now they have de Blasio. I think that says it all.

GUTFELD: You know, I mean, I will say this, Dana, I watched it and I saw - - Ruffalo really believes it. And he has the energy -- I could see him possibly running because he's not really a big star.

GUILFOYLE: He's very into the environments.

GUTFELD: Oh, he was bragging about -- not bragging, but talking about the whole pipeline protests. How that end up?

PERINO: Right, getting approved.

GUTFELD: Yes. Thank you, Mark.

PERINO: So the Democrats are in a real pickle.

GUTFELD: Oh, watch your mouth.

PERINO: They have this division and it's hard -- how do you figure it out. If you're Chuck Schumer and you're trying to figure it out, their goal in 2018 is to try to take back the senate.

GUTFELD: Right.

PERINO: . and the house, but the senate in particular. And he's got red state Democrats that are having to run for reelection in ten states where President Trump won some of those states by double digits. And yet he has a base that is pulling them so far to the left, and they are energized. Young people are energized by this type of Hollywood thing.

GUTFELD: And they don't read history. They don't know about communism and socialism and how many millions have died by these.

PERINO: Do you want to challenge them to a debate?

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: The celebrities versus The Five.

GUTFELD: Yes, Family Feud.

(LAUGHTER)

GUTFELD: Mark Ruffalo, Fisher Stevens and his crazy beard. Who else was there? Kathy Najimy -- I think that was.

WATTERS: Only if he brings a harmonica.

GUTFELD: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: Hey, you forgot my favorite, Cynthia Nixon. And she made a great point, which is that a year ago when Trump gave his speech, guess what, Russian was hanging over Trump's head. And tonight, as he gives his speech, Russia is still hanging over Trump's head.

GUTFELD: That's interesting. None of those liberals in the 70's or 60's, Russia wasn't never hanging over their heads. They were fellow travelers with the communist.

WILLIAMS: Yeah. Russia didn't help them get elected.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: But didn't Cynthia Nixon say she might run?

GUTFELD: I don't know. She better not run until she does the Sex and the City sequel because that's more important.

PERINO: Sex and the sequel?

GUTFELD: Sex and the sequel. That's very strange.

(CROSSTALK)

GUILFOYLE: Just be yourself, Greg, honestly.

GUTFELD: All right. Ahead, President Trump's speech tonight. Lawmakers on the hill are divided over secret Russia memo. Who wrote this? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WATTERS: House intelligence committee has voted to release a classified memo the Republican say the American people need to see. It allegedly reveals government surveillance abuses in the Russian investigation. President Trump has five days to decide whether he has any objections to the document before it can be made public. The committee's top Democrat slammed the decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF, D-CALIF.: A very sad day I think in the history of this committee. Sadly, we can fully expect that the president of the United States will not put the national interest over his own personal interests, but it is a sad day indeed when that is also true of our own committee because today this committee voted to put the president's personal interests, perhaps their own political interests, above the national interest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, take a step further accusing the GOP of ganging up on the FBI. Meanwhile, House Speaker Paul Ryan backs the memo's release.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOUSE SPEAKER PAUL RYAN, R-WIS.: There may have been malfeasance at the FBI by certain individuals, so it is our job in conducting transparent oversight of the executive branch to get to the bottom of that. Sunshine is the best disinfectant. And so, what we want is all of this information to come out so that transparency can reign supreme and accountability can occur.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: OK. So transparency, Juan, if there are abuses in the DOJ and FBI, what's wrong with finding out what they are?

WILLIAMS: I have no problem with finding out what they are, but this is written by Devin Nunes, head of house intel, who has been a total stooge, lackey for President Trump.

WATTERS: But it's based on facts.

WILLIAMS: It's based on cherry picked facts, Jesse. So, in other word.

WATTERS: Based on actual raw intelligence.

WILLIAMS: No, it's not.

WATTERS: How do you know?

WILLIAMS: Because if it was raw intelligence, then it would be classified and you couldn't see it.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: Listen, let me just tell you something. This is a set up. And, you know, you talk about transparency, and I'm all for government transparency, but this is not. This is about muddying the Waters, degrading the FBI, going after Justice. I think this is a lead up to potentially Trump going after Rod Rosenstein.

WATTERS: Well, if there are dirty cops, you want to know it on the street, and you want to know it in the federal government, I think.

What do you think about this? You just don't like the word "memo." You're sick of it.

GUTFELD: Yes. I've never seen an earth-shattering memo in my life. I'm very suspect. And this is because I love our viewers. Do not let yourself get let down by all the liberals, like they have over Russian collusion. Every day, they have the boom, tick-tock, it's happening, and it never happens.

You know, when I see the phrase like "earth-shattering" or "jaw-dropping," it reminds me of those late-night Cinemax movies that promise so much; and then you watch two hours and you're like, "Why did I watch this?" Nothing happened, and nobody is even that good-looking.

WATTERS: TMI, Gutfeld.

What do you say, Dana, about this? Do you really think this could be KGB- style surveillance? Or are you just going to wait until you see the memo?

PERINO: I'm going to wait. I'm going to wait. Well, I don't just want to see the memo, actually. I would like to see the underlying evidence, like the raw intelligence. Because...

WATTERS: Will we ever see that?

PERINO: I don't know. Here's the thing. I do think that the Congress has an oversight responsibility, and they are trying to execute it. I do think they've made a -- made an error. They think that they are able to say this memo has nothing to do with the Bob Mueller investigation. OK? That's what the speaker said today on the floor. That they're trying to say that there's a separation.

And yet, I don't see how they've actually effectively made that case, because pretty much everybody who's watching this is like, it's Carter Page. I's connected to the FISA warrant that went to the -- he worked on the Trump campaign, and therefore, Bob Mueller. So I don't think that's been successful.

And there's another thing. When we talk about the FISA Act, one of the things that is most important about it is how you have foreign terrorists talking to Americans, and that's how you end up being able to get a wiretap on that person to find out how can you prevent an attack?

I don't know what Greg is doing.

GUTFELD: I'm zipping.

PERINO: Apparently, the abuses in here are not part of that title in the law. It's something different, in Title I, and I don't think they've done a good job explaining that either. And so to me, it's gotten way too partisan and I think completely ineffective.

WATTERS: It's very partisan, because now the Democrats want to release their own memo; and the White House is worried about the Democrats leaking the memo at the wrong time.

WILLIAMS: That's so ridiculous. You talk about hypocrisy, wow.

WATTERS: You do talk a lot about it.

WILLIAMS: Yes, because that's Republicans...

WATTERS: Kimberly.

WILLIAMS: Go put your memo out.

WATTERS: The memo is the memo, OK?

GUTFELD: Secret show.

WATTERS: You don't even know what's in it.

GUTFELD: I'm on the show that never aired because of all that stuff that happened on the show.

WILLIAMS: What are you talking about?

GUTFELD: Do you remember the secret show?

GUILFOYLE: What the heck are you talking about?

GUTFELD: The secret show.

PERINO: #Releasethesecretshow.

GUILFOYLE: Wait, the one Susan edited?

GUTFELD: We're going to do it on Friday. We're going to do it on Friday.

GUILFOYLE: The one that Susan edited?

GUTFELD: Vote -- everybody has to vote. Does "The Five" release the secret show?

WILLIAMS: No, no, no, we send it -- how about we send it to a FISA judge?

WATTERS: That's right. Go to the website and cast your vote.

PERINO: Got to get going. Got to get going.

WATTERS: The president wants to release it. He just doesn't know when it should be released.

GUILFOYLE: Right, OK. Well, in the interest of transparency and trying to have full disclosure, that's what he would like to do. This is one of things that he campaigned on.

Of course, we would like to know what's in this, because we want to be able to sort it out. There's a lot of now, perhaps, hyperbole depending on what's in it, what's not, and there is a lot of partisan politics.

WATTERS: Right.

GUILFOYLE: So when you see something like this -- but it's interesting, because mostly it's just, like, the Democrat stuff that leaks out, not the Republicans. Why is that?

WATTERS: A few hundred Republicans have seen the memo, and it has not leaked yet. It must mean the Democrats are...

PERINO: And also, I think the media, who -- you know, if they -- if they got their hands on the memo, they would run it. It's not like they're, like, wanting to protect classified information.

WATTERS: You know, on "Watters' World," we would try to protect national security so we'd hold that back.

GUTFELD: Jesse...

WATTERS: Yes.

GUTFELD: We have to -- what I've seen on the missing "Five" show was jaw- dropping. And people are going -- people are going to lose their jobs. I'm not joking. There's a lost show.

PERINO: No, it was -- it was bigger than the American Revolution.

WATTERS: Oh, my gosh. All right. Well, stay tuned.

GUILFOYLE: People are going to believe this.

WATTERS: CNN and a Holocaust controversy. We'll explain that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIAMS: After stepping down from his post, outgoing FBI Director [SIC] Andrew McCabe has garnered support from the likes of Eric Holder, the former attorney general, and James Comey, the former FBI director. But one person's defense of McCabe, well, may have gone a bit too far.

CNN analyst Ana Navarro tweeted the rewording of a Holocaust poem to warn of McCabe's removal. The phrase, quote, "First he came for Comey," end quote, for example, was reworked from an anti-Nazi pastor whose poem criticized Germans for not speaking against Adolf Hitler. Navarro is taking heat for her controversial comparison. Let's take it around.

Kimberly, what did you make of this?

GUILFOYLE: I just don't understand sometimes where she's coming from with some of this. I think she just wants to be controversial for the sake of being controversial. I don't really understand sort of what is she getting at? I mean, she says a Trump apologist. She's trying to criticize all the time. I don't know. I'm not -- I'm not someone who actually understands her positioning, because I think it's just inconsistent.

WILLIAMS: But she's a Republican, right?

GUILFOYLE: Well, this is the point, Juan. Exactly.

WILLIAMS: Well, I'm just saying, it's a Republican, so I don't know. Jesse...

GUILFOYLE: Like a sleeper cell.

WILLIAMS: ... we've heard comparisons...

GUILFOYLE: Not a Republican.

WILLIAMS: We've heard comparisons to Stalin, and there's not explicit in this one but the suggestion -- by the way, the Stalin came from another Republican, Jeff Flake. And now you have suggestions, innuendo, that really, if you don't stand up, you're like people who didn't stand up to Hitler.

WATTERS: Well, that's an insult to people who were victims in the Holocaust.

But Juan, Ana Navarro is a Republican like you're a Republican.

WILLIAMS: Me?

WATTERS: Yes. Exactly. You're not.

WILLIAMS: You don't have to worry in that case.

WATTERS: OK? So that's a ruse to make CNN look fair and balanced. They book six Democrats, and they put Ana Navarro on, and they think that's squared away.

The other thing is here, if Hillary were elected president, she would've fired James Comey. You don't think for a minute Hillary wouldn't have canned Comey the second she took office?

WILLIAMS: Oh, my gosh.

WATTERS: She hated Comey. She hated him. So there's no difference in either of these things. She's ridiculous, and so is CNN.

WILLIAMS: Dana.

PERINO: I -- I think that there must be something there or else you wouldn't have somebody like Paul Ryan say that it's important for this memo to get out, so I think it's better for everybody to just wait. Let the process work, and see what is actually in the document.

WILLIAMS: Well, I think we're all waiting for the document, but when you think about the president's having removed Comey, as having removed McCabe. Sessions under pressure from the president.

PERINO: Well, but he...

GUILFOYLE: The president didn't remove McCabe.

PERINO: Christopher Wray removed McCabe. So...

GUILFOYLE: Yews.

WILLIAMS: Right, but the idea was that Christopher Wray was under pressure from the president.

PERINO: But he saw -- but he saw the memo on Sunday night and then made that decision Monday morning. So there must be something there.

WILLIAMS: Maybe. All right.

So Greg, what do you make of this?

GUTFELD: I love this. I love this. You know, for so -- for so long, the left has questioned all government agencies in terms of national security. Like, I mean, let's not forget, whether it was Snowden or whether it was Assange or the NSA abuses, we were sacrificing freedom for security. It's all they were talking about.

God forbid Republicans are questioning the FBI now. And all of a sudden, that's like a sacrilege.

WATTERS: Yes.

GUTFELD: And also, to Navarro, I'm going to let Navarro slide on this. Because maybe she wasn't even aware of what she was doing.

WILLIAMS: Oh. I think that's...

GUTFELD: I know, but I'm just going to -- a lot of times people make mistakes.

But the bigger question is, you can question the validity of an election, which was the American people, but you can't question an agency that does their stuff behind closed doors. That's strange.

WILLIAMS: Come on. You're a smart guy. Come on.

GUTFELD: Thank you. Leave it there. We'll be right there.

WILLIAMS: Do you think -- do you think this is all about questioning an agency? This is about protecting Donald Trump.

WATTERS: No, Juan, when the feds spied on radical Muslims, the left got really upset, but are OK with the feds spying on the Trump campaign?

WILLIAMS: What spying? What do you mean?

WATTERS: You can't have it both ways.

WILLIAMS: Dana just explained to you, you've got to go through a FISA judge. If the information...

WATTERS: If the FISA judge used a fake dossier...

WILLIAMS: Oh, my gosh. What fake dossier? Oh, my gosh.

WATTERS: .... to justify the spying, that's problematic.

WILLIAMS: If there was evidence that a Trump official is...

PERINO: But what if they didn't?

WILLIAMS: ... involved in collusion, you say, "Oh, don't pay any attention"?

WATTERS: If I see collusion, I'll say collusion.

WILLIAMS: Oh, OK.

WATTERS: I've not seen this with the Democrats.

WILLIAMS: Oh, yes. That's in your dreams.

GUTFELD: Juan, I have a question for you.

WILLIAMS: What?

GUTFELD: Do I look like -- do I look like the boy from "The Christmas Story"?

WILLIAMS: Huggable. Very huggable at the moment.

GUTFELD: All right.

WILLIAMS: I like that jacket.

PERINO: How many layers do you have on?

GUTFELD: Seventeen.

WILLIAMS: Calm down, calm down.

GUTFELD: I'm like an onion.

WILLIAMS: All right. All right, young people. Calm down. Lots of Democrats won't be at tonight's speech. They're boycotting. Maxine Waters, congresswoman from California, plans to give her own national address later. The protest drama heating up in cold D.C. Next.

PERINO: Freezing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WATTERS: That looks cool.

GUILFOYLE: Back to what's important today, bringing the country together. That's what the State of the Union is all about. Unity. But that can't happen if you don't show up.

At least 12 Democrat lawmakers say they're boycotting. One of them Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who's an outspoken critic of President Trump, will deliver her own rebuttal on BET. Meanwhile, another leftie lawmaker explains why he is going to be a no-show.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. EARL BLUMENAUR (D), OREGON: I respect deeply the office of president, but over the course of the last year, Donald Trump has demonstrated that he doesn't respect the office.

He's lied repeatedly to the American people. He's sowed discord. He's failed to take advantage of opportunities to bring us together. I don't think there's anything to be gained by my dignifying a performance of a reality TV star. What he reads off a teleprompter tells you nothing about what is in this man's head and in his heart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUILFOYLE: OK, Greg, what do you make of the no-shows?

GUTFELD: I wasn't listening to that man in the bowtie. I'll be honest with you. I looked at him and I said, "Don't need to hear him either." That's my point. See? I chose to boycott him. See how that doesn't work?

If you remove conversation from this, all you have left is conflict and anger and possibly violence. You know, we evolved as animals to have communication in order to move away from our impulses. If you go from impulse without debate, you have violence.

So I think you should talk more and hit people less. That's my perception for a good life. I'm freezing right now.

GUILFOYLE: I know. I can tell. And you put on your little gloves and...

PERINO: I had to start sitting on my hands.

GUILFOYLE: OK. Good place for them. All right, Dana.

PERINO: Boycotters, OK. I -- I worked for a congressman years ago when I first started on the Hill. He was a Republican from Colorado, and he never went to the State of the Union address. But he never told anybody he didn't go to the State of the Union address. He just went home and watched it on TV.

GUTFELD: I would do that.

PERINO: So that was like, if you don't want to go, like, there's a way to do that without making, you know, a spectacle of it.

GUILFOYLE: OK, Jesse, what do you make of the people that are boycotting it? Is it empty symbolism or effective boycotting?

WATTERS: I think it's symbolism, but I think it's selfish. Dana, I totally agree with Dana. These people are just drawing attention to themselves. They're not even drawing attention to the issues, because no one thinks about the issues that they're trying to fight for. Everyone is just seeing these people, if it's a bow tie, glasses, a crazy hat, usually the most flamboyant left-wing people are the boycotters.

And that may play well with their base, but that doesn't play well with most of the American people. If you poll it, most Americans want this country to come together and take action, and that's what you're going to see tonight with the president. He's trying to bring everybody together and do bold things for the American people.

GUTFELD: Do you think they'd like my jacket?

WILLIAMS: You know those flamboyant Supreme Court justices that won't be there. Oh, so self-serving, so self-aggrandizing. Let me just tell you: Who is the one that has destroyed unity in the country? Oh, gee. Oh, yes, yes, yes.

WATTERS: I think they're not there, because President Obama tried to show them up to their face on the last State of the Union.

WILLIAMS: President Obama?

WATTERS: You remember that?

WILLIAMS: You go so far back.

WATTERS: He called out the...

PERINO: So far back.

WATTERS: ... in the State of the Union address? You don't remember that?

GUILFOYLE: I do.

WATTERS: I have a memory, Juan. I know you don't, but I do.

WILLIAMS: I was just going to say, Donald Trump, all you've got to remember is the last -- or first year of Donald Trump and how divisive he has been. So the idea that people would exercise...

WATTERS: President Obama wasn't divisive, Juan?

WILLIAMS: Not like this guy.

WATTERS: Oh, never. Not divisive at all.

WILLIAMS: This guy has the lowest approval ratings in history.

WATTERS: Ratings only matter on election day, Juan.

WILLIAMS: Oh, I see. Well, anyway, for this moment, I don't see how you can say that the people who are saying, "This is not a good president, and I am objecting and making it clear by not showing up," that they're to blame. That's ridiculous.

GUILFOYLE: OK. Well, I mean, what are they really going to accomplish by not showing up?

PERINO: They get good press back home, and that's probably what they care about the most.

GUILFOYLE: So maybe it is. It's just self-serving. Is it really in the best interests of the country, Greg, if they're going to sit it out and take a knee?

GUTFELD: I don't know.

GUILFOYLE: I just want to remind you you're getting paid to be here.

GUTFELD: Yes, I am. I am.

PERINO: There's a minute thirty left.

GUTFELD: And this break, and then we've got to do a whole other whole segment about this. This messy SOTU, as they call it. That stands for State of the Union.

PERINO: State of the Union. Our final thoughts are going to be awesome.

GUTFELD: So painful.

GUILFOYLE: I can tell. Greg is like really -- why don't you sit on one of those little hand warmers?

GUTFELD: I do. I have one, and it's not working. My butt is cold, like my heart.

GUILFOYLE: Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

Jesse, what do you think in terms of communications from the White House to address any of the people that are boycotting that don't want to be there, you know, in face of the president's message of unification?

WATTERS: I would ignore it.

PERINO: Yes.

WATTERS: I wouldn't comment on it at all. If I was asked about it, I would deflect and not give them any attention.

PERINO: Agree.

GUILFOYLE: Just own your moment.

WATTERS: I can't believe Dana actually agreed with something I said. That felt really good.

GUILFOYLE: I think your mother is going to be very, very pleased.

WATTERS: I'm doing well down here in D.C.

GUILFOYLE: All right, fantastic. OK, final thoughts and our final moments here on "The Five." And Greg can man up.

GUTFELD: Aww.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PERINO: Back now here in our nation's capital with some final thoughts ahead of President Trump's first State of the Union address.

Kimberly, I'll start with you.

GUILFOYLE: Yes, I think it's a tremendous opportunity tonight that presents itself to the president of the United States, a message of unification, of a strong and proud and safe America, themes that should resonate well with the men and women across this country.

I think we've had tremendous inroads in terms of national security and foreign policy, especially with the accomplishments that he has made in terms of restoring the rules of engagement, ISIS, all of the above. I think really strong messaging there.

Also with the economy and the job numbers, that's something he can be very proud of. And people are going to feel it in their wallet. Tax reform getting done. He can really build the momentum for some of the other legislative efforts that he would like to accomplish during his presidency.

PERINO: OK. Juan.

WILLIAMS: So I think it's like "Real Housewives of D.C." Because all the talk around the town today was, oh, Mrs. Trump is going to be there, because people feel like she's been missing for the last several days. So that's good news. And I think it's just gossipy. It's just a lot of what we have come to in the Trump era. People just like, yes, as Greg said, it's a State of the Union, but it's all the sideshow. It's the reality TV that you can't take your eyes off of.

PERINO: OK, Jesse.

WATTERS: Oh, yes, I don't know who's gossiping about that, Juan.

WILLIAMS: I'll tell you.

WATTERS: I really don't know.

I've been thinking a lot about Greg's outfit tonight, and I think we came up with, he looks like the guy from "A Christmas Story." Grover Dill was, I think, his name. I think -- do we have a picture? Can we do, like, a side -- there we go!

GUILFOYLE: Oh, my God.

WATTERS: Just missing the hat.

GUILFOYLE: If only we had the hat.

WATTERS: Look at that. That should get you an invite to the State of the Union.

GRAPHIC: GRAY NEWSBOY HAT SUPERIMPOSED ON GREG'S HEAD

GUILFOYLE: Look at your hat on your little head.

PERINO: He wishes he had that hat.

WATTERS: So cute.

PERINO: Is that your final thought?

WATTERS: No, I would agree with Kimberly on prosperity and safety. He's got a great record to run on and just looking forward to the future. Trying to bring the country together, and I think there are some things the Democrats can get on board on. Whether they will, we will see.

PERINO: Well, I would say that the economy being so much better and the headlines all across the country being so good gives the president, obviously, a lot to talk about tonight; and a little victory lap is in order.

But it also is a time when the country can then start to think about OK, in this period when we have a good economy, what do we need to do to set us up for the future, for success? Whether that be worker retraining, the infrastructure, whatever it is. I'm going to be looking for those types of things tonight -- Greg.

GUTFELD: I think it should be like me, short and sweet.

WATTERS: Aww.

GUTFELD: And he should just move on and say, "See you later. This is the last one you're ever going to see, but I'll be talking all week. You just follow me on Twitter."

Having said that, in approximately seven or eight minutes, I will be drinking. I will be drinking.

WATTERS: Alone.

PERINO: To work off this chill.

GUILFOYLE: And complaining less?

GUTFELD: Yes, complaining less and drinking more. That's my -- basically, my advice for everything.

WILLIAMS: Alcohol is going to make you colder.

GUTFELD: No, it's not. Not this kind of alcohol. Trust me.

PERINO: Well, you've got one minute left in this show.

GUTFELD: Let's sing a song, a campfire song.

PERINO: Are we going to work on releasing the secret show?

GUTFELD: Yes, I think we should. I think we should. A lot of dirty stuff in there.

PERINO: We talked about in the commercial break, and we are going to take a vote on whether "The Five" should release the secret show we taped a while ago that had to get thrown in the trash.

GUTFELD: A lot of -- there was a lot of ugliness that went on in there.

WILLIAMS: Yes, I think the Republicans want it out.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: We're going to release...

GUILFOYLE: Release it.

PERINO: Are you with us, Juan?

GUTFELD: Is you had a Democrat, you'd probably leak it.

WILLIAMS: Remember, the Democrats, being obstructionist, having learned from the Republicans, may try to block it. But there's no -- it's futile. There's no keeping that show secret.

WATTERS: Juan is going to leak the secret show to CNN.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

GUILFOYLE: Of course he will.

GUTFELD: Get the real show out.

GUILFOYLE: Of course.

PERINO: It will just help build up ratings.

WILLIAMS: You know what? It's going to Greg's pal, Lou Dobbs.

GUTFELD: Don't smear Lou.

PERINO: Well, it's been fun, and it's been real cold. OK. That's it for us. We'll see you tomorrow with our break down of tonight's address. Keep it right here on "The Five" -- FOX News Channel for continuing news coverage. Over now to our friend, Bret Baier.

GUTFELD: Bret Brrr.

PERINO: Yay, Greg.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Thanks, Dana.

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