Trump accuses Obama of inaction over Russia

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Trump accuses Obama of inaction over Russia

President blames his predecessor for not doing enough on Russian election meddling; reaction and analysis on 'The Five.'

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," February 20, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

JESSE WATTERS, CO-HOST: Hello, everybody. I'm Jesse Watters along with Kimberly Guilfoyle, Juan Williams, Dana Perino and Greg Gutfeld. It's 5 o'clock in New York City, and this is "The Five."

Today, we heard directly from the White House for the first time since the indictment of Russians for meddling with our elections. The president has been unleashing on his predecessor for failing to prevent the sabotage. Sarah Sanders echoed that earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Everybody wants to blame this on the Trump administration. Let's not forget that this happened under the Obama administration. He has been tougher on Russia in the first year that Obama was in eight years combined.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: She also addressed the medias skepticism about Mr. Trump's admission of election interference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: The president has acknowledged that multiple times before. He acknowledged it during the transition. He acknowledged it during a press conference in Poland, and he acknowledged it for a third time at a press event in Poland. He has stated several times. I think one of the places where you guys seem to get very confused and it seems to happen regularly, the president hasn't said that Russia didn't meddle. What he's saying is it didn't have an impact and it certainly wasn't with help from the Trump campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: Dana, you brought up the point yesterday that Mr. Obama said he didn't want to say anything publicly about Russian interference in October or November because he didn't want to be seen as publicly creating a lot of drama there for political reasons. Could he have not done something in the shadows?

DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: Yes, and it is possible that they did. And that we don't know about it.

WATTERS: True.

PERINO: It could be something they aren't able to talk about. Maybe they could declassify it now. There's a range of things. I had Ambassador Dan Fried on The Daily Briefing show yesterday.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: He is a great guy. Worked in multiple administrations. He was -- as a career civil servant, became an ambassador under the Obama administration and working on Russia, Ukraine type issues. And he said in 2014, they were hyper focused on Ukraine and what to do there. There's confetti flying down.

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: Happy New Year everybody.

PERINO: They were hyper focused on that activity in 2014, and that they didn't realize the extent of the operation that Russia was going to try on the elections. And the technology was new and that he did say that there could have been more that they could have done back then. I don't know exactly what that might have been. And it could have been stuff that they did. I would say, there's another reason for President Trump to be mad at the Russians. Not only did they attack the country of which he's now the president. Even if he hadn't won, I think that everybody should be mad as Americans that this happened on our soil. But it's also because of what's Putin's -- Putin's actions here have worked to undermine President Trump's presidency. And if I were President Trump, I'd be mad about that. That's reason enough alone to try to take action against Putin.

WATTERS: It is. And a lot of people have criticized Mr. Trump, Greg, for not being stronger when it comes to sanctions. Although, President Trump has done a lot in terms of things that has put Russia back on their heels, more so than what Obama did. But on the sanctions front, people criticized him for being soft.

GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: There's a lot of hypocrisy to go around. We're going to talk about this, about the protests being sponsored by -- the anti-protest being sponsored in the B block. What the Russians replicated on the small scale is what we do to ourselves daily. So all they did was they came out -- they saw -- what they saw are our team sport politics. I am more worried about bigger threats. I'm worried about our banking and our power grid. And I think that's the stuff that's really -- like that's the stuff that we survive on. We can live with trolls, even though they're a pain in the neck. We can live with trolls. You have me on The Five. But the bigger problem here is that political party leaders don't care about threats unless they're a threat to their power, right? It's not so much a threat to the United States, but, you know, how does it affect our election. And I think that's what bugs me most about Democrats is that they really aren't that ticked off about the Russians until emotionally they were affected by the loss of Hillary Clinton. That's what is driving their anger and that Trump won. That's why they're mad at the Russians. I don't think it's about the country as much as is that they lost.

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: To your point, would you have had President Obama slapped sanctions on the Russians if Hillary had won? He may not have done it. He may have just said, you know what, it's not an issue. We're not going to make a thing out of it and cause.

PERINO: really?

WATTERS: Yeah.

PERINO: You think that they would have let it go?

WATTERS: If Hillary had won and there wasn't all this crazy Russia-Trump collusion election interference.

PERINO: Oh, I thought you meant if the Russians were trying to collude with the Clinton campaign.

WATTERS: No, no, no. I'm saying if Hillary had won do you think -- I don't even think Obama would have slapped sanctions on the Russians.

KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, CO-HOST: Well, I mean, look. Here's the thing. I think the -- it's a really concerted effort by the liberals, by the Democrats to delegitimize President Trump's election victory. There really isn't specific empirical evidence in that to suggest that in fact it had an impact on the outcome of the election. We certainly know there's no evidence to suggest that there was tampering with the election results. The suggestion is that these bots were operating and that they were doing this whole thing to try to create chaos within the American political system, within the election cycle and disrupting in that way. But there isn't any evidence to say that it actually affected the outcome. It was out there, and some of it was, you know, is out there but it wasn't in such a way in large-scale force that I think it would have an ultimate effect. So now everyone is like whining about it. Well, guess what? Russians or no Russians, Hillary lost.

WATTERS: Speaking of whining, President Obama, I think it was on October, said this to Mr. Trump who was complaining about rigged elections. Let's see it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THEN-PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: There is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America's elections. There's no evidence that that has happened in the past or that there're instances in which that will happen this time. And so, I would advise Mr. Trump to stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: Juan?

JUAN WILLIAMS, CO-HOST: Well, this is, to me.

GUILFOYLE: Jesse is waiting all day for this.

WILLIAMS: . is that President Obama was responding to then candidate Trump saying he was worried about voter fraud, that people are going to line up or that the big Democratic Party machines and cities were going to somehow rig the election against him. That's what President Obama was responding to. Now, today, President Trump comes back, uses that quote that you just saw on the screen and says that was about Russian meddling.

WATTERS: Can I respond? Because when Trump was talking about the election being rigged, I think he was talking about not only the potential for.

WILLIAMS: No.

WATTERS: . he was talking about state polls, he was talking about Comey letting Hillary off the hook, the whole system.

WATTERS: No, he's talking specifically about what he said was voter fraud and, usual, pointing to minorities in saying, oh, this is what's going to happen in the big cities. This is how they're going to win this election. They got it rig. Even suggesting that he wouldn't honor the results of the election because he was so concerned about this kind of activity. Had nothing to do at that point with the Russians. But here we are today, and we're having a discussion as if, oh, no. President Trump isn't distorting the news and isn't misquoting President Obama. We treated like it's serious. He's the president, so we have to have this discussion. But I mean, even over the weekend, you just go back and you stop and you think, he's attacking McMaster, his own national security advisor for saying the Russians definitely interfered in the election. You come forward and say why isn't he's imposing sanctions? He's not taking it -- you say, oh, he's doing more than Obama? Obama not only threw out 35 diplomats, he closed down two Russian diplomatic estates in the United States and imposed sanctions, and yet we're having discussions that he did more than Obama? He's not doing anything?

WATTERS: He actually did that after the election, and then ended up dropping the sanctions that Bush had put in place and allowed Russia to sell antiaircraft missiles to Iran. And to Greg's point though, just to respond to that, the Democrats when Russia were running wild under President Obama, didn't really care too much. They didn't seem very activated. But the minute they denigrate Hillary, that's when the Democrats really become cold warriors.

PERINO: Well, I think that's Greg's point, right? So that's why it's hard to take. If we know that if it had been the other way around, and as I was saying, which I misunderstood what you were saying earlier. But if Hillary had won and the Republicans had reason to believe that the Russians were trying to help Hillary win and make Trump lose, what would we be saying every day? So, I think that they're doing what they're going to do. But at the same time, they've spent so much time on Russia that now the Democrats, you can see it in the polling, they're starting to realize that they actually might be on their heels when it comes to these midterm elections because the tax reform piece has moved forward. And there was a quote from Jonathan Swan on Axios from the Democratic retreat -- Democratic pollster were saying that the Republicans have the wrong message but Democrats have no message. So that actually, I think -- while we're talking about Russia, the president has moved forward and the Republicans have helped him move forward on policy, and the Democrats have seeded that ground hoping that this would be their saving grace.

GUTFELD: I kind of said the same thing that Swan said, but so much better yesterday.

GUILFOYLE: And he has a nice accent.

GUTFELD: Yes. But it goes back to what I said about -- when you're an Olympic athlete and all you train is for curling and you don't have any backup jobs, so when the curling is over and the Olympics are gone and you didn't win, you can't go back because curling has no transferable skills.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: It's not going to help you get a job at FedEx.

GUILFOYLE: So you're still trying to make that one work?

GUTFELD: I do. I think it's a good point that right now the Russian collusion story is there curling and they've got to figure out their backup plan. They'll probably get one. You know what their back up plan will be, will be that Trump is awful because I think that you have enough people that are so vehemently opposed to him. Look, it worked with Republicans, you know, with Obama. All you had to do is say I don't like Obama and that will work. I think that will probably work for the Democrats with Trump. But they still don't have a plan. They're still curling.

WILLIAMS: No, I don't think that's it. I do agree they don't have a clear signal message other than anti-Trump.

GUTFELD: Yeah.

WILLIAMS: But I do think that what you're seeing is that people -- Dana was talking just a moment ago about the tax plan becoming more popular. I think it's now over 50 percent. But let me just say, if you were to have a poll on ice cream and apple pie, wouldn't you expect, like a tax cut for everybody, that your numbers would be in the 80's or 90's.

GUTFELD: Not me. My stomach cannot handle ice cream.

WILLIAMS: Because people realize so much of this money is actually going to the rich and to the corporations and they don't like it. I would say this about the Russia stuff, why isn't that this president won't impose the sanctions? Why won't he take proactive action in terms of stopping the ongoing interference in our politics by the Russians?

GUILFOYLE: By the way, why didn't President Obama do it? I love this. This is rich.

WILLIAMS: That's a good question. Can I answer that question? I want to answer your question, Kimberly. Because, guess what, Kimberly would have sat here and said look at Obama. He is saying that the Russians are interfering to benefit Trump. He's actually helping Hillary by doing it. That's what the conservatives would have said.

GUILFOYLE: Earned their votes. Make it happen. Don't whine and cry about it if you're not a good candidate.

GUTFELD: You know, a lot of the stuff that everybody are getting all ticked off about is -- Trump's tweeting. And the press keep saying he's lashing out. None of these people in the press have ever had a boss because bosses do this sort of thing all the time. They snapped, they yell. And then 5 minutes later they forget. It's like moving to Seattle and waking up every morning and being surprise -- or shocked that it's raining. That's the media after a year and half of Trump. Every morning they wake up and they're shocked. Shocked.

PERINO: I had a boss like that.

GUTFELD: Oh, my God. They're the best bosses in the world. The bosses that come in and shout.

WATTERS: Oh, man. I just praise from the Greg Gutfeld show staff. All right. Ahead, the same mainstream media carping about collusion played right into Putin's hands themselves. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUTFELD: According to the Mueller indictment after the 2016 election, Russians organized anti-Trump rallies which were then breathlessly covered by a hopeful CNN and MSNBC:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNINDENTIFIED ANCHOR, MSNBC: NBC's Morgan Radford is in Union Square in New York City, that is where the anti-Trump protest is just about to kick off.

UNINDENTIFIED REPORTER, MSNBC: I want to show you some of the signs and the posters they're holding up here. You can see one here that says knowledge, Trump, protect our public schools, teachers against Trump.

UNINDENTIFIED REPORTER, CNN: They're not going to be tolerating any sexism or homophobia.

UNINDENTIFIED REPORTER, MSNBC: This is something different. It's something unique. The energy here is electric.

UNINDENTIFIED REPORTER, CNN: There are thousands of people, right now, taking over Fifth Avenue with several messages, all aimed at our president-elect.

It is the most organized protests that I've seen happen here in New York City.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: Because it's organized by Russians.

OK. Now we ran a short clip of the same protest, but at least we showed some restraint. The point is, Russia is able to yank America's chain by picking at our own existing team sport mentality. They don't really need to organize these rallies. We hated each other already. But when one angry group won't accept an election how can the Russians resist? Like a global Iago, they spread rumors to undermine all sides. And the media, of course, as you can tell, laps it up.

So here's a tip: Don't trust the Russians. I know, talk about breaking news. But every conservative awake in the 1970s knew this, and that's what kills me about the left. Russia is a fraction of what they were during the cold war, and now the Democrats are worried? Decades ago when the right fiercely challenged the USSR, the left aided the Soviets, leading the anti-anti-communist charge. Meanwhile, communist influence helped repel American protests at rallies, backing every left-wing cause, charming every dumb celebrity on the left. They didn't mind at all. Better to be on Joe Stalin's side than Joe McCarthy's.

So now they're mad about the Russians? Screw them. They're like the guy who offers to help you move apartments but shows up when it's already done and the pizza's arrived.

GUILFOYLE: Totally.

GUTFELD: Sorry, we don't need you anymore. All of the heavy lifting has been done.

GUILFOYLE: I hate when that happens.

GUTFELD: You have professional movers, Kimberly.

(LAUGHTER)

GUILFOYLE: Half of my stuff ends up missing.

GUTFELD: I know. I apologize for that. Yes, I keep all the shoes. All right. Dana, I have a huge theory on this. In my mind, what changed America permanently was the Vietnam War. And according to -- who was a Russian defector, Soviet Union gave $100 billion to American antiwar movements. And that created -- we weren't that split. Our country wasn't split.

GUILFOYLE: Until then.

GUTFELD: Until then. They infused a billion dollars into the antiwar movement into a lot of other peace movements. They have so many shadow organizations with the word peace on it. We split in the Vietnam War and through the '70s, it continued. We never, ever came back. We never healed. And I believe the Russians, USSR, the biggest victory they've ever had was creating that division during the Vietnam War. And this stuff that we're seeing that the media ate up, this protests, that's nothing compared to what we've been through for 50 years.

PERINO: That's a great theory. And you know what country is doing that now in a different way?

GUTFELD: What?

PERINO: China, through these Confucius centers that they have at all these universities across the country. Little by little there are some university starting to reject that, but that is happening. The other thing is interesting on the media site of this is that it was a very different story in France. Last year they had an election as well. And Emanuel Macron ordered the media not to -- I'm sorry the electoral commission ordered the media not to cover any of the leaked emails.

GUTFELD: Right.

PERINO: And they could be prosecuted. That would never happen here because we have a first amendment. But it was a very different story there. They were able to block Russia from doing it because they were able to band together in say, you know, we're going to put France first.

GUTFELD: Yeah.

PERINO: Pretty much is what ended up happening there. And so, what the media did is they did -- they have some complicity unwitting possibly.

GUTFELD: Yes, useful.

PERINO: . in sowing the chaos.

GUTFELD: Right.

PERINO: But I'd like your theory about Vienna.

GUTFELD: Juan, you're slightly older than me. Do you remember how conservatives and the '70s were mocked for -- the Russian under every bed. Remember there's a Russian under every bed. It was considered hysteria. But fundamentally, we were right all along about the Russian influence, USSR influence, at least on campuses and all of these antiwar movements. Correct?

WILLIAMS: I don't remember it that way. But, I mean, just reading back, I mean, you cited Joe McCarthy is very real and traumatizing for the American body politic in the 50's that someone would be identifying, blacklisting people, labeling them as having communist associations. You look back at the civil rights movement, Dr. King, so many of his associates, even King himself. The attack.

GUTFELD: What happen is you take people who are anti-communist and you place it in the same, I guess, lump as Joe McCarthy.

WILLIAMS: No, I think that what you have to do is when you say people are anti-communist, you've got to take them seriously because I think most Americans are anti-communist. Most Americans.

GUTFELD: But the left was anti-anti-communist.

WILLIAMS: I think they were saying if you go to extremes here you're going to damage people's lives and careers through innuendo and kind of, you know, smearing them. But my feeling is, on this one, I mean, I read that Michael Moore was in attendance of that.

GUTFELD: Yes.

WILLIAMS: . protest that you showed us. So, but my feeling is that you get this in the aftermath of the overwhelming effort by the Russians to sow the discontent, the discord, to appeal to one side or another. And so, here Trump wins the election. They're going to -- now going to force all of a sudden the anti-Trump because all they want is to destabilize us, lose trust in our institutions, lose trust all around. So why isn't Trump doing anything now?

GUTFELD: Now you're just playing into it by saying why isn't Trump doing X?

WILLIAMS: I think the press -- your thing about the press is wild to me. If the press didn't cover all those leaked of the Podesta mails and the Clinton speeches, you would have said they're covering for Hillary.

GUTFELD: I don't know about that. I want to get to Kimberly. I actually disagree with you, but go, Kimberly.

GUILFOYLE: So the thing here is Russia has been doing this forever, right? This is what they've been doing. It's nothing new. This isn't something they came up with, like, last year to decide to try to create chaos in American politics. They thrive on disinformation campaigns where they put one side against each other and they'll flipped to the other side. They have no loyalty. They bear no allegiance except to their own cause. So today, they go -- OK, pro-Trump, tomorrow they go anti-Trump because they want everything in total disarray. So that's the bottom line. But again, I go back to the point which is I think the media was very complicit in this because they seized upon it like a mouse with cheese trying to like gobble up because they like the idea because it fit their narrative that they already have built in with their bias towards President Trump, now, at the time candidate Trump. And that's why you saw the minute the man was sworn in, more continuation of Russian collusion, and Trump Tower, and what kind of nexus was there between anybody working in his campaign and the Russians, everything to then get shifted to the next chapter, which was to delegitimize the American presidency, which is, of course, also playing into the hands of the Russians. So the media then became a pawn in this Russian chess.

WILLIAMS: The emails that were being covered were Hillary's emails.

GUTFELD: Yes. And by the way, to your point, I was at the table, Juan, saying that we had a responsibility not to cover these.

WILLIAMS: All right. But I hear you, today, you're saying the press was a pawn and I'm thinking the press, especially, the New York Times, they were all over Hillary Clinton on the basis of the Russian.

GUTFELD: You saw how breathless they were there. Jesse is falling asleep here.

WATTERS: Excuse me. The only thing I would say is that the American media looked like Pravda. They got duped and they unwittingly keyword colluded with the Russians.

GUILFOYLE: Do you agree with me?

WATTERS: So, I agree. You know who wittingly colluded? Hillary. You know who else wittingly colluded? Adam Schiff. And just to put this in perspective, this rally had tens of thousands of people. This was an anti- Trump sponsor rally by the Russians. The others sponsored Russian rallies were Trump, dozens showed up. So this was the biggest thing they did and it was anti-Trump.

GUTFELD: Got it. All right.

GUILFOYLE: Noted.

GUTFELD: We must move on. School shooting survivors are marching on Florida's capital to demand action on guns. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIAMS: Welcome back. Four more funerals were held today for victims of last week school massacre in Florida. Classmates of those late students have taken the helm of a push to prevent another mass shooting in America. Today many are traveling to the state's capital, Tallahassee, to demand changes to the state's gun laws. Tomorrow President Trump will meet with students and teachers at the White House to discuss solutions. He spoke about the meeting earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We must do more to protect our children. We have to do more to protect our children. This week I will be holding a number of discussions with students, local leaders, and law enforcement.

School safety is a top priority for my administration.

We must move past cliches and tired debates and focus on evidence-based solutions and security measures that actually work and that make it easier for men and women of law enforcement to protect our children and to protect our safety.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: The president also said he directed the Justice Department to ban gun modifications like bump stocks. A bump stock was used in the Las Vegas massacre.

So Kimberly, you have 100 students traveling 400 miles from Parkland to Tallahassee. They've got a walkout scheduled March 14, and then they've got a big March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C., on March 24. What do you think about the young people taking the lead here?

GUILFOYLE: Well, look, I'm always encouraged when I see young people expressing themselves and getting involved and caring about the community and getting involved in terms of legislation, the laws, and a movement like this. I have no problem with it.

That's why love this country, because everybody is able to express their viewpoints and do so in a way that, you know, is safe. So to let them do that. Why not? Let them express. And as long as also, you know, they're listening to both sides and equipping themselves, you know, with the facts and all the information, I think it's a healthy reaction.

WILLIAMS: So Jesse, Rush Limbaugh says, "Hey, these students and this march looks like a bunch of Democrats to me." What do you say?

WATTERS: Well, I hate to disagree with Rush. I don't know how he can prove that. I think you don't want to make policy based on someone who's just lost a friend to a deadly mass murderer. Because they're 17 and incredibly emotional. They have very noble feelings about this issue, and I think their voices need to be heard.

At the same time, I think the conversation we had the other day was really helpful. We talked about training students. We talked about arming guards at the school. We talked about enhancing funding and manpower at the FBI.

I mean, look what happened here in terms of preventing the next tragedy. No one shared information.

GUILFOYLE: Yes.

WATTERS: The FBI dropped the ball. It wasn't really about the gun itself. At all. I mean, people use handguns. Handguns are much more deadly in these cases.

So I agree with what President Trump said there. It's not about name- calling. I've heard student's name call. That's not going to help anything. I've heard people on the right name call. Let's just talk about evidence-based solutions. And I think the bump stocks ban is a great start, and I'm looking to do something more with background checks.

WILLIAMS: Right, and in fact, that leads me to the question for Dana.

Dana, the president says he's spoken with John Cornyn, the Republican from Texas. He's also apparently speaking with Chris Murphy, the Democrat from Connecticut, which is where Newtown happened, about more extensive background checks. What do you think? Is this something that could get past the NRA?

PERINO: Well, I think that if it's being introduced by John Cornyn and has him at the helm, then yes, I do.

GUILFOYLE: Yes.

PERINO: And you know, when the president talks about the immigration meeting with the bipartisan group that day at the -- in the cabinet room and he said, "I'll be willing to take the heat on immigration." He's probably one of the only ones that could take the heat politically and still survive but actually get something done on immigration. That hasn't panned out so far.

But it's also true that he could take the heat on this from the right if he chooses to lead on it.

The bump stock thing is, I think, is a little strange. I mean, that was October 2. That was that shooting. And Justice Department, his Justice Department, has said that they can't do anything about it until there is action in Congress. So I think the direction today, unless something has changed, was a little bit misplaced.

WILLIAMS: Greg, one last thing is Charles Schumer, the Democrats' leader in the Senate, says, "Oh, but you know, Trump is talking a good game, but he's cutting the budgets for two programs that will allow us to better record people with criminal records in the database." Is that a fair argument?

GUTFELD: I don't know. It's the first I've heard of it. So I will have to go back and read about it.

My concern is the trust quotient which I brought up before. What Jesse said is correct. We sat here and we offered at least six practical solutions that I think everybody could agree on. And as far as I can tell, people that have watched that show, that's the first time on television that they've actually heard practical solutions.

From the most vocal sides of this debate, you don't hear practical solutions. The reason is -- and I go back to this -- the trust quotient. If you say sensible gun laws, the others say, "You're taking my guns." If I say, "I want my gun rights," you call me a killer.

So I think the protests are real, and they're symbolic. There is a rational reason for them. However, going back to the trust quotient, you've got to be aware if other groups co-opt your protest. When far-left groups get involved with other groups, and it becomes more of an activist meme, a resist meme, it becomes something about Trump and not about this kind of violence.

PERINO: Yes.

GUTFELD: You're going to lose the trust quotient again, and that means people are going to say, as Rush said, "Oh, it's another -- it's just another Democrat rally."

So you have to make sure that you maintain an independence. If you're a protestor, you have to maintain an independence about your specific issue. Do not let others. I know the women's march is going to get involved. You're going to have Linda Sarsour there.

WATTERS: Yes.

GUTFELD: Is this going to help you? I don't know.

WATTERS: That's a great point. I understand why Rush says that, because you don't have CNN doing a town hall with all the friends and family of Kate Steinle. And you don't have their friends and family out there holding rallies and saying, "We need border security. We have to defund sanctuary cities."

GUILFOYLE: Yes.

WATTERS: The mainstream media only gets involved with these issues when it can serve their policy purposes, and that's why there's a lot of distrust.

WILLIAMS: Well, I think you make good points, because 95 percent of Americans favor stronger background checks. A surprise career change for Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence. She's quitting acting, for a while anyway, to fix our democracy. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUILFOYLE: She's got a big new movie coming out at the box office, but Jennifer Lawrence won't be acting anymore for a while, because she's decided to become a full-time activist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER LAWRENCE, ACTRESS/ACTIVIST: I'm going to take the next year off. I'm going to be working with this organization that I'm part of, Represent Us. It's just trying to get, you know, young -- young people engaged politically, you know, on a local level.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's awesome.

LAWRENCE: It doesn't have anything to do with partisan. It's just anticorruption and stuff, trying to pass state-by-state laws that can help prevent corruption, fix our democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUILFOYLE: Her publicist, however, claims that J. Law will return to acting as soon as her next projects are ready to go.

Greg, what do you have for us?

GUTFELD: Well, I've got to say it's easy to take a year off when you do one, two, three movies at, like, 22 million a pop. After seeing the movie "mother," she should take a decade off. No, you've got -- trust me.

Anyway, I have this theory. I've talked about this.

GUILFOYLE: Better or worse than the mop movie?

GUTFELD: The mop movie wasn't bad.

I call this the Gutfeld confidence-knowledge backwards principal. It's the adolescent energy of the newly politically converted. So you're confident.

GUILFOYLE: That's not catchy. It's too...

GUTFELD: I know. I've got to think of a better one. But the confidence is inversely proportional to your knowledge. So you have less knowledge, more passion. So she's talking about fixing democracy.

PERINO: No, she said, like -- she said fix corruption, fix our democracy. Corruption and corruption. And corruption.

GUTFELD: Yes, but she's literally -- she's assuming the identity of a student activist at age 27. That's the proof of my theory.

WATTERS: It's a good point.

GUILFOYLE: OK, fantastic.

GUTFELD: Thank you. We'll be right back.

PERINO: But she's saying this is nonpartisan, she just said there.

But you think of Katy Perry and how she spent a ton of time campaigning for Hillary Clinton, and it didn't really go that well.

GUILFOYLE: Went to all those dorm rooms and was, like, singing and chatting.

PERINO: Knock yourself out. Corruption.

GUILFOYLE: All right, fine. Look, I mean...

GUTFELD: On a state level, too.

WATTERS: I didn't know our democracy was broken. If it is broken, I wouldn't call Jennifer Lawrence to come fix it. She can have whatever opinion she wants. She is not -- doesn't have an informed opinion, from what I understand. She's not the type of celebrity who I'll listen to. Like someone goes on...

GUTFELD: Are you looking to Ted Nugent?

WATTERS: If someone goes on Bill Maher's show...

GUILFOYLE: Kid Rock.

WATTERS: No, no, no -- but you know, you can tell the celebrities that read about politics. Like, a Clooney will be well-read or, you know, Whoopi obviously, you know, reads the news. But I don't think she does, when last time I heard her, she was just hating on Donald Trump. So I do give her P.R. person credit.

GUTFELD: That might be from reading the news, too.

PERINO: Yes.

GUILFOYLE: She read the news.

WATTERS: She read his tweets.

GUTFELD: Yes.

WATTERS: But the corruption span is B.S. If she wants to go after corruption, I'd start with California. Where's all the money go there?

GUILFOYLE: Yes.

WATTERS: They're broke.

WILLIAMS: I think a lot of corruption is around things like how the maps get drawn. I see the courts are saying there's some corruption there.

GUILFOYLE: Election engineering.

PERINO: The Democrats just won in Pennsylvania.

WILLIAMS: I think the way that you guys are thinking is, "Hey, Jennifer Lawrence can't stand Donald Trump. She said if he got elected, it would be the end of the world."

GUTFELD: True.

WILLIAMS: So now you think, even though as Dana points out, she says this is nonpartisan and she's going after corruption, I think we should all celebrate it. You just think, "Oh, I don't like those Hollywood celebrities. They're always talking about..."

GUTFELD: I disagree. I think -- I think...

WILLIAMS: That's what you do.

GUTFELD: NO, I'm interested in what she has to say. I'm just saying taking a year off for her is me taking off a couple of days.

WILLIAMS: I'm saying, great, she has a platform. She should use it. If she wants to help America...

GUILFOYLE: Good for her to get involved.

WILLIAMS: ... God bless.

GUTFELD: I think she should come on "The Five."

GUILFOYLE: J. Law. J. Law.

WILLIAMS: Anyway, she comes from Republican parents.

GUTFELD: So she's rebelling.

PERINO: So did Katy Perry!

GUTFELD: Rebelling. It's like your kids, Juan. It's like your kids. All Republicans.

WILLIAMS: I'm telling you, this stuff, it's out of control, Greg.

GUTFELD: It is, it is.

GUILFOYLE: All right. We've got to go. Have a dream to compete in the Olympics? Well, anything is possible. How one mediocre skier gamed the system to make it to PyeongChang with the pros. That's up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PERINO: Not a pro athlete? No problem. One woman should get a gold medal for figuring out how to scam the system to compete in the Olympic Games. But she was a far cry from the best in the world.

While the top female half pipe competitors were pulling off all kinds of stunning tricks yesterday, 33-year-old skier Elizabeth Swaney barely pulled off a 180-degree turn in the most underwhelming run of the qualifying round.

So how did she get to PyeongChang? Some crafty maneuvering. Swaney is American, but she went representing Hungary, where her grandparents are from. All she needed to do was to consistently finish in the top 30 at World Cup events to make it to South Korea.

She finished dead last in her bid to get into the finals, but she won a lot of attention for what she managed to pull off.

Jesse, impressed? Or not impressed.

WATTERS: No. I would say she's the Elizabeth Warren of the Olympics.

GUILFOYLE: Oh, my God.

WATTERS: She pretended to have a heritage and denied someone from that country an actual spot.

GUTFELD: That is a great metaphor. My goodness.

WATTERS: Good night, everybody.

GUTFELD: I hate you.

PERINO: Wow. Wow. Juan, what do you think?

GUILFOYLE: Greg, you're slipping. You should have thought of that.

WILLIAMS: Was that lady in the Boston Marathon? Rosie...

GUTFELD: Rosie Ruiz.

WILLIAMS: That's what it -- because I mean, it's not that you could say that she was illegitimate. She obeyed the rules. It's just that not many people go out to do this. And she's just an ordinary --- it's like you or me. Well, probably better than you or me, because we don't ski. But she's just an ordinary skier. That's all.

PERINO: I know. I can't tell whether to be impressed or irritated by her. Kimberly.

GUILFOYLE: Well, look, I mean, I thought it was gutsy and she went after it, said, "I'm going to be in the Olympics."

"Oh, no, you're not. You can't ski at all."

And then she's like, "Oh, who cares?"

PERINO: "Watch me."

GUILFOYLE: Right. So you know, I don't know. Are they protesting her in Hungary? I don't know. She's gotten a lot of attention and press for it. She got to be in the Olympics. I mean...

PERINO: I predicted...

GUILFOYLE: Could you ski like that?

PERINO: No, I could never do that. But I predict, Greg, that she'll have a book deal by Monday.

GUTFELD: Perhaps. I have to improve upon Jesse's metaphor.

PERINO: OK.

GUTFELD: All right. So you know, he said you scam the system. We don't say scam anymore. We say they hacked the system. So, like, any system is going to be hacked. Like, I said this before. You introduce currency. There's counterfeiting. If you introduce credit, you get I.D. theft. Essentially this is I.D. theft. She's Rachel Dolezal. She assumed the identity of an Olympian.

WATTERS: That's why we need voter I.D. at the Olympics.

GUTFELD: At the Olympics.

PERINO: Skier I.D.

WATTERS: Skier I.D.

PERINO: All right. Well, that was fantastic. And aren't you proud of me, control room? We're done early. "One More Thing" is up next.

GUILFOYLE: Good job.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WATTERS: It's time now for "One More Thing" -- Dana.

PERINO: All right. So the Westminster Kennel Dog Show has been around 142 years, but rescue dogs got their shot last night. It was the first ever American Rescue Dog Show on Hallmark Channel. The dogs competed in ten categories including talking, kissing, senior dog, underbite, snoring, special needs and wiggle butt.

GUILFOYLE: What?

PERINO: The winner in each category got $5,000 to be donated to the shelter where they were rescued. The overall winner got 25 grand for her shelter. That was a senior. Her name was Jackie from Culver City, California. And do we have a picture here? Jackie is now 11 years old. She was adopted at the age of ten. She now lives with the family with two children and three other rescues.

GUILFOYLE: Wow.

PERINO: Beautiful story. Beautiful "One More Thing."

WATTERS: Good story. All right. Juan.

WILLIAMS: Well, today a heartwarming touch at a funeral for one of the students killed in the Florida school shooting just last week. The family of ROTC candidate Peter Wang received a U.S. Army heroism medal as he was laid to rest. In addition, U.S. military academy West Point posthumously admitted Cadet Wang, who died in his ROTC uniform, helping other students escape the shooting. He had dreamed of attending West Point. Two other victims are also receiving the heroism award Cadet Alaina Petty and Cadet Martin Duquesne. God bless. May they all rest in peace.

WATTERS: That gave me the chills.

GUILFOYLE: Incredible. God bless them.

WATTERS: Kimberly.

GUILFOYLE: Yes, so FOX News super fans, you know who you are. This is the time to rejoice, because FOX News announced today that it's going to launch an over-the-top opinion platform called FOX Nation.

And it is a stand-alone subscription service that you will be able to purchase without a cable package. And it's designed just for you, the network's biggest fans. And you see some of our fabulous stars there. So it's going to feature commentary from your favorite FOX News personalities. All brand-new, original, exclusive programming and in-depth analysis of the biggest news stories of the day.

So you're going to have access to special events and over 20 years of archived FOX News Channel programming. So that's pretty cool. All in one stop shopping.

So you can't find that anywhere else. And it's set to launch sometime later in the year. So you're going to keep a lookout for that. We're going to let you know, and we're really excited to share this with you.

WATTERS: Yes, I think they might actually have every single "Watters' World" package on there. Once we...

GUILFOYLE: I'm sure you're going to make sure.

WATTERS: ... clean those up. Greg.

GUTFELD: I'm wondering if 20 years of stuff is a good idea. We had a lot of high points, I've got to tell you, but sometimes, you know, we don't want to remember certain things.

GUILFOYLE: OK, we'll edit that.

GUTFELD: Anyway, that -- I didn't say that. That was somebody else. My evil twin.

You know, I did a great interview with the great writer Robert Wright. It's a blog. It's called Blogging Heads TV, if you go to BloggingHeadsTV. He's a great writer, and he interviews me. We talk about tribalism, division and meditation and other things. It's interesting. It's called "The Right Show." Check it out today.

But more important. Let's go to...

GUILFOYLE: Oh, my God.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAPHIC: Greg's Unicorn News.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: "Greg's Unicorn News." Now, I don't know what to make of this, because sometimes I'm getting a little tired of something that I created, which was unicorns. So they're -- Lucky Charms is now introducing a unicorn marbit. They're not called marshmallows. They're called marbits. Remember, marbits are the little small marshmallow things. So anyway, this is -- I don't know if you can see this. You'll see my dirty fingers. This is the unicorn.

GUILFOYLE: Eat it.

GUTFELD: I feel so magical. Anyway, this does not look like...

GUILFOYLE: Aren't those tasty, though?

GUTFELD: They really are.

WATTERS: Remember when you were a kid, put all the marshmallows into the bowl.

GUTFELD: Oh, yes.

WATTERS: Just marshmallows.

GUILFOYLE: I used to have a law school roommate, and she would dump the whole box out on the table and then just pick out all the charms.

GUTFELD: Yes, that's...

WATTERS: That's a good roommate.

GUTFELD: You know, they said according to General Mills, the unicorn is the first ever to be inspired and created by kids. That is so untrue. I have been pushing the unicorn movement for how long? Twenty years?

GUILFOYLE: Yes.

GUTFELD: If it wasn't for me, no one would know about unicorns.

PERINO: And you know where they can find that out?

GUTFELD: Where?

PERINO: On FOX Nation.

GUTFELD: FOX Nation. Go back.

WATTERS: There you go.

GUTFELD: I don't think FOX Nation is going to have any of my stuff.

GUILFOYLE: They're going to have, like, all the archives of "Red Eye."

WATTERS: Yes.

WATTERS: Yes. All right. Here we go. This is one of my favorite companies, Roback. And it's a great clothing company. And they donate some of their proceeds where they take shelter dogs and they become service dogs to assist veterans who have PTSD. It's through the American Humane's Shelter. It's a service program. I love the shirts. Best fit, best feel. Very sporty.

And they actually have a celebrity endorser besides myself.

GUILFOYLE: So ridiculous.

WATTERS: Chevy Chase loves the gear. He's a huge fan of Roback. So go to Roback.com.

GUTFELD: You have a lot in common with Chevy Chase.

WATTERS: Be specific.

GUILFOYLE: Utterly ridiculous.

WATTERS: You know, I love how Greg gets, like, three "One More Things." That's amazing.

GUTFELD: Never mind.

WATTERS: One day I'll be able to pull that off. You have a "Food Court," you have a promo and you have a "One More Thing."

GUILFOYLE: Yes, you stole my "Food Court."

GUTFELD: This was a "Unicorn News."

WATTERS: "Food Court" appropriation.

PERINO: It wasn't "Food Court," because he didn't share it with any of us.

WATTERS: Give me some of those? What are they called? Marbits?

WILLIAMS: I don't think your parents let you have that when you were a kid.

GUTFELD: They didn't.

WATTERS: Set your DVRs. Never miss an episode of "The Five." "Special Report" up next, and Bret's back. Take it away.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS: Thanks, Jesse.

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