Trump taps Brad Parscale to manage re-election bid

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Trump taps Brad Parscale to manage re-election bid

Parscale worked with the Trump Organization, then helped bring the president's campaign to victory and went on to lead digital strategies for the RNC; reaction and analysis on 'The Five.'

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," February 27, 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."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Hey, we've got seven years to go, folks, you know. We've got a long time to go.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: He gave us a sneak peek at CPAC. The president is not only making America great again. He's going to keep it great with another run in 2020. And today, we learned who is going to take the helm of his reelection bid. His 2016 digital director, Brad Parscale, was named as campaign manager. He first worked with the Trump organization that helped bring the president's campaign to victory and went on to lead digital strategies for the RNC. Some exciting news for Trump supporters. OK. So Dana, this is very early in announcing the reelection. What do you think the strategy behind that is?

DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: I don't know. I mean.

WATTERS: All right, Greg. What do you think?

GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: I do. I know. But go ahead.

WATTERS: I'm teasing. Go ahead.

PERINO: Well, I think everybody knows President Trump is going to run again. I mean, it's not the first time that he -- CPAC wasn't the first time that he hinted that. In fact, he keeps talking about how the media, even though they can't stand him, they're going to end up vote for him so they can continue to have good ratings.

WATTERS: Right.

PERINO: I do think that -- it could have been something like -- just structurally that they wanted to say -- he wanted to send a message saying I've already had my person so stop bugging me. Stop calling me and telling me that you're going to be my campaign chairperson because I already have somebody in mind. In that way, giving brad that title now, quiet all of that. And they're going to have their work cut out for them. The American public usually gives a president a second term. It's very rare that they don't. In our lifetimes, it's really only Jimmy Carter. Well, my lifetime. Jimmy Carter and.

WATTERS: I was born in '78.

PERINO: So you usually can get a second term. The path to the Electoral College is what's so important. The popular vote is going to be difficult for the president to get. He didn't get it last time, but he was able to get the Electoral College. And Democrats are super invigorated, but they're also going to have probably 20 candidates, maybe more that are going to basically water all that down. And what's different this time is that President Trump will have a record to run on. So it's not just, I might do this, I might do that. It's I have done these things. And if you are a Republican, a conservative, you should be happy with these things.

WATTERS: And that's going to be tough to defend. It's better to be on the attack constantly. So.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: The other thing that this does is it allows President Trump to continue to define himself before other people define him for 2020. And he can spend his time defining those other people in the ways that he does.

WATTERS: By calling them nicknames.

PERINO: Yes, exactly.

WATTERS: Greg, you're just happy he made the announcement because you wanted some fresh news.

GUTFELD: Exactly.

WATTERS: . on top of the show.

GUTFELD: Just before I get to my main point, why he did this. The name Brad Parscale is actually an anagram for red cabals rap. So he's definitely a Russian spy. He's a red running a cabal to wrap up another election.

WATTERS: OK.

GUTFELD: All right.

KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, CO-HOST: Glad you got to the bottom of that.

GUTFELD: Exactly. I always get to the bottom of a lot of things, Kimberly. And here's why it matters. He is thinking beyond the sale. People are thinking about all these collusion stuff. He's saying, no, we're talking about the election. He's thinking beyond the sale. It's like when a real estate agent takes you to a house that's a little bit out of your range and you walk into one room and he goes, this is definitely your home office. So they're thinking beyond the sale. They want you to be in the house psychologically. This is a perfect bonus room for your pool table. Of course, bonus rooms are terrible because that means relatives stay. So never get a bonus room. You just get a bonus relative. It's essentially trying to look behind whatever present conflict there is. If you're in a fight with your spouse, you start talking about the trip you're going to go on for your anniversary. So you're thinking always beyond the sale.

GUILFOYLE: Right.

GUTFELD: And that's what a salesman does, to get -- to move beyond. And the thing is it works, because now people are going to be talking about this or interested in this guy. They're interested in the strategy, the fact that he's going to be implementing a social network strategy again, which is very controversial but very winning, and it's really important. So he's changing the game. This is what salesman do.

WATTERS: And Dana mentioned, Kimberly, he has a very large field in front of him. There's going to be a lot of names out there. How do you think that is going to impact the reelection? I think probably easier when you're running against such a crowded field.

GUILFOYLE: Yeah. I think this was a very smart move. It doesn't surprise me that he did this. I heard that they were going to make some kind of, you know, announcement. Get some word out there because also the midterm elections are coming up. This really shores up the base and say, OK, let's get fired up. This is a president who, despite what people are trying to say, wants to run for reelection. He's not tired of it of being president or frustrated. He actually wants to keep doing things and having accomplishments, including winning another term. So this way he can go out and have his surrogates as well, you know, campaign, essentially, fund- raise, go out and support the people they need to win reelection in the midterms and really kind of shore up the base. Also, kind of take some distraction away from all these other investigations. Like Greg said he saying, OK, we're going to get through this because the bottom line is I'm running and I'm going to win again.

WATTERS: And Juan Williams had a very provocative piece that was all over the internet the other day. You think three prominent black female Democrats can take out President Trump in 2020.

JUAN WILLIAMS, CO-HOST: Well, I think they have the capacity. And that would be Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, and then -- I mean, those two are really extraordinary because they're both in the Trump model as celebrities. Their political standing is a subset of their iconic status in American society. Kamala Harris, that's simply has the big pockets in California behind her. But in all three cases what's interesting to me is that you have women as kind of President Trump's kryptonite. And so, women, overwhelmingly, black women, Latino women, and I think it's 43 percent of white women voted against Trump, so you've get a strong, iconic female figure. And boy, I think that's why Trump went after her.

GUTFELD: You left out Maxine Waters. What did you do that? She's an icon. Are you ageist? Is that what it is? Why not Maxine Waters? If you're going to do a trend.

WILLIAMS: Look, if you're in love with Maxine I'll talk to her for you. But here's the thing, I think that President Trump is more interested in running a permanent campaign and that's what he's doing.

WATTERS: I think President Obama was accused of doing the exact same thing.

WILLIAMS: Let me just say there's no comparison. I mean, President Obama didn't announce that he was running until it was like two years before the next campaign. This guy announced on the inauguration day. BY the way, I know for everybody who read the -- reporter, is watching the show, oh, President Trump just announced that he's -- on inauguration day, he filed papers announcing that he was going to run again.

WATTERS: Obama was running for reelection as well.

WILLIAMS: There's no comparison in terms of the -- but the second thing to say is that when you look at Trump, he has raised $43 million in the last two years. That's four times more that Obama raised in his first two years. So you understand this is a permanent campaign. He gets a kick out of running. He loves the rallies. Remember, after the November 16th election, he was holding rallies. He had his first campaign rally for 2020 a month after he was inaugurated.

GUTFELD: So you're telling me that President Obama wasn't in love with campaigning. He was an amazing campaigner and a terrible leader.

WILLIAMS: I don't think he was a terrible leader. And obviously.

WATTERS: Juan, one of the big knocks on President Obama was he couldn't manage the government very well. And when he wasn't on the ballot, his party suffered. He was a great orator and he loved giving these speeches.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: If I was to draw a bottom line on what he did today, I would say, one, he loves campaigning. He loves the rallies. That when he's happy. He's not a governing guy. But the second thing to say is, Hope Hicks was before the house intelligence committee. Are we talking about what's going on with Hope Hicks talking to investigators? No, we're talking about the distraction.

WATTERS: Well, speaking of investigations, Dana. I think Jeff Sessions said that he was going to open up an investigation into FISA abuses under the Obama administration. I think it's just basically investigation warfare going on at this point. Is this going to do anything?

PERINO: Well, the investigation that Sessions ordered will fall under the inspector general, Michael Horowitz, who has his hands full. He's got a lot of stuff to do. Trey Gowdy was on The Daily Briefing today and said that he welcomed this investigation, but there could be other needs for investigation such as the state department in case this investigation that they're working on now turns up other funny business.

WATTERS: How was Trey Gowdy's hair when he.

PERINO: Good.

WATTERS: It was good? OK. Greg, what do you think about investigation gate?

GUTFELD: I believe there's an investigation gate and that bothers me. No, I was just thinking about announcing that I'm going to be running for reelection before I actually run for my first election.

PERINO: Why?

GUTFELD: I don't know. Just for the heck of it. I want my library to be in San Mateo, California, across the street from Sierra High School.

WATTERS: OK.

PERINO: Do you have to knock down anything to make.

GUTFELD: Yes, you've got to knock down a lot of stuff.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: There'll be free ribs and no books.

(LAUGHTER)

WATTERS: OK. Kimberly, is Sessions looking into the FISA abuses? This whole thing has boomerang on the Democrats, if you ask me. We have an unmasking memo that's about to drop and that's not going to be pretty for a lot of the Obama officials allegedly involved like Samantha Power and Susan Rice. Do you think he can make any headway or this just going to get lost in all the text-memo investigation kerfuffle?

GUILFOYLE: I think people are going to pay attention to it because there's been quite a lead up, you know, to this point. And there's been a lot of vocal pressure, you know, in the media, from people and from Trump supporters to examine this, especially given the fact that Democrats started this. They opened up this can of worms and made these accusations, and now this is follow-through. And follow-through eventually leads to justice. So we'll see here what happens. He's doing his job. He should be doing this. He would be derelict in his duty if he did not follow through on it. And then, what we need to do is cover it.

WATTERS: All right, Juan, last word.

WILLIAMS: Well, I just love what Kimberly said. Investigations lead to justice.

WATTERS: OK. Maybe we can investigate Sheriff Israel. I think that it might be a good idea. All right, President Obama caught on tape engaging in revisionist history about his time in office, up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUTFELD: Let's admit it, America: We miss Barack Obama.

GUILFOYLE: Juan does.

GUTFELD: There he is. In a recent speech, he said he had no real scandals in his White House. A jab at Trump:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We didn't have a scandal that embarrassed us…. I know that seems like a low bar…. Generally speaking, you didn't hear about a lot of drama inside our White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: No drama.

So to quote the TSA officer whose dog just sniffed my carry-on, let's unpack this.

So why didn't you hear much about O's White House? Well, who was brave enough to look? There was never a cozier relationship between a president and the media ever. If the White House were a bed, the press was the mutt dozing at the foot of it. Thank God Obama didn't eat it. Classic.

So the media voluntarily took an 8-year sleeping pill with this liver snap only to wake up when Obama's policies lead to the rejection of his party in the election of Trump. Then, no longer Obamatose, they sprung to action. And it wasn't like there were no scandals under Obama: DOJ, IRS, Benghazi. The media's bar was so high in terms of interest, however, they didn't exist. So now you have a woke press chasing down any incident where Trump has a burger whose center isn't hot pink.

Now, the funny part is Obama's speech was at a conference where participants were rejected if they shared any part of it. So, you want to know why you never heard about Obama? There's your answer: compliance. Compare that to Trump's White House, the most transparent entity since the invention of scotch tape. And still the press scrambles after him as if they're making up for lost time. It's like watching a fat man climb a mountain after a lifetime of couch surfing and pizza. No wonder they want a Democrat in 2020, they could use a rest.

Isn't it true, Dana, that Obama's lack of scandals were not about scandals but a compliant press that allowed him to operate in total secrecy.

PERINO: Well, having been a Republican press secretary, I would say, yes. Republican communicators always have to work harder.

GUTFELD: Yes, that is true.

PERINO: But I also think one of the things Obama said is there were no scandals that embarrassed us. If you're not capable of embarrassment, then that would be true. The other thing is that it is true that there is less drama.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: OK. And there was less drama in the Obama administration if you're looking at sort of personnel announcements and the backbiting in the first eight months of the Trump administration. But drama isn't necessarily a scandal.

GUTFELD: Exactly.

PERINO: The other thing.

GUTFELD: Unless it's scandal.

PERINO: That's true.

WATTERS: Good one.

PERINO: The other thing is that all of the Obama people who worked for him, they have said this from the beginning, that even as he ended his presidency, the one thing they were so proud of is they had no scandals. It became a wrote talking point. No scandals is the new no collusion. Everybody says it over and over again as though this was like going to finally sink in to all of our heads.

GUTFELD: You know, Jesse, I remember -- especially MSNBC, if you did criticized President Obama, you were racist.

WATTERS: Yeah.

GUTFELD: So that was a really good immune bubble to keep any criticism or anybody for actually looking into anything going on.

WATTERS: Very effective. I think you glossed over pretty big Obama scandal, Greg. The birth certificate, I mean, that was huge. Obviously, was a forgery. And he pulled one over on the American people. We're still getting to the bottom of that.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: You won't give up on the birther.

WATTERS: I'm teasing, Juan. I believe it's real. I believe him. I believe him. I think you're right. It's all about the press. Because this is what the press said about Benghazi. It was a Republican conspiracy. They didn't protect one of their own ambassadors on the anniversary of 9/11 after warning signs and then lied about it. And that's a Republican conspiracy? They said the IRS scandal was bipartisan, even though 95 percent of the groups who were targeted were conservative. They said the Iran deal was great diplomacy when we ship them a bunch of cash that wound up in Hezbollah's hands. And then, they said about fast and the furious, that happened under the Bush administration, even though it absolutely did not. So, we're even passing over Solyndra. We're passing over the Bergdahl trade.

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: Half a billion dollars in taxpayer money. The V.A. scandal. People died and government bureaucrats got bonuses. So I found a list of what the New York Times says or Trump scandals. Are you ready for these?

PERINO: OK.

WATTERS: Kellyanne Conway promoted Ivanka's fashion line on TV. Government officials stayed in Trump hotels. If that's the bar, I mean, come on. Anything is a scandal.

GUTFELD: That's a good point. I forgot about the V.A. and Solyndra. We did like months on.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: Solyndra was like a soap opera.

GUILFOYLE: We need Solyndra flashback.

GUTFELD: Yeah. You know, Juan, what I learned from President Obama, my life would be easier if I was a liberal because no one questions your competence, right?

WILLIAMS: Is that right.

GUTFELD: Yes. I should be a liberal.

WILLIAMS: You should be.

GUTFELD: My life would be easier.

WILLIAMS: Well, you'd have a hard time here at Fox.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: I think that Fox was absolutely vigorous in pursuing every Benghazi, IRS.

GUTFELD: Fair and balanced. We had to.

WILLIAMS: Oh, fine. That's legit. But I'm just saying, you say, oh, that's a scandal. Let me tell you, there's a difference between nitpicking pimples and stumbling, and a huge rock falling on your head and crushing you.

GUTFELD: Yeah.

WILLIAMS: And that rock is 19 people indicted, including 13 Russians, right? That's 5 people who pled guilty.

GUTFELD: They don't work for Trump.

(CROSSTALK)

GUILFOYLE: They're not even living here.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: What about national security advisor who said he lie. How about Trump in the oval office talking to Russians about national secrets.

WATTERS: What about Reverend Wright?

WILLIAMS: I'll tell you what, how about this, you talk about what's going on -- you know, I still don't know what happened in Niger. You've talked about Benghazi. In Niger, we've got four people dead, no report, yet nothing. I'm thinking to myself, you're dealing with -- somehow -- you know, how about Rob Porter beating up wives. Oh, yeah, you can stay. Oh boy, imagine if that -- imagine if Obama was paying -- had his personal lawyer paying off porn stars? Oh, my God.

GUTFELD: That would be impressive. Kimberly, last word to you.

WATTERS: Michelle wouldn't let him out.

GUILFOYLE: That would be interesting, actually, a lot of reasons. Pardon?

GUTFELD: Yes. Last word to you, my friend.

GUILFOYLE: OK. So I think it's important you have to cover -- covering the Mueller investigation. We're covering FISA warrants, how they were obtained, the propriety of it, the ethics behind it, the facts and substance behind it. So when you see what we did here, we covered everything in a healthy way. Whether it was Solyndra, whether it was Benghazi, whether it was fast and furious, whether it was Lois Lerner -- all of the above. There was a plethora, things that needed to be discussed. And so, I wouldn't take back any of it. I would, in fact, do it the way we did it.

GUTFELD: Damn straight. All right, President Trump signature campaign promise is one step closer to reality. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PERINO: California has blocked its immigration agenda, but President Trump is expected to make a trip there to look at prototypes for his border wall. His first visit in office to the state is scheduled for mid-March. Meanwhile, a U.S. district judge once criticized by the president rules in favor of his wall today. Gonzalo Curiel ruled the administration can continue waving environmental laws to proceed. That news comes as the DACA debate rages on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: We thought that the president's main goal was to build a wall from sea to shining sea, 19th century answer to a 21st century problem.

UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: It turns out his goal is the deportation of dreamers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: So immigration still big. And Jesse, Mark Meadows, the congressman from North Carolina, has told Speaker Paul Ryan that they must vote on the Goodlatte bill or else his speakership could be in danger. So there's lot of movement on immigration.

WATTERS: There is, but the judge's ruling on DACA definitely takes a little leverage away from the president when he negotiates the wall. But the wall will be built. It will be beautiful. And Mexico, Juan, will still pay for it. Just so everybody knows, there's about a 2,000-mile border with Mexico and the United States, because of the Rio Grande and the mountains and all that stuff, the virtual fence, you only really need about 800 miles of border wall. There's already 500 miles constructed. They want to improve upon that and add an additional 300. Now, the Tucson sector chief says when they put the fence up, illegal crossings dropped 95 percent. But what that does it pushes it down to another sector. So, it pushed it to the Yuma sector where you're seeing a lot of illegal crossing. The prototypes look good though. They're about 24 to 30 feet high, you're going to be able to see through them. And they're impenetrable. You had U.S. Special Forces tried to scale them, blowtorch through them. They couldn't do it. It became so dangerous, the testing, that they had to stop doing it. And he's going to go down there and he's going to try -- you know, like an architect would try to look at the specs and take a look. And he's going to have -- maybe a hard hat on and it's going to be a great photo op. But it looks like it's making progress.

PERINO: Yeah. I think more than a photo op, Juan, and especially with this judicial ruling that they can move forward because the environmentalists have tried to stop progress and a lot of these construction projects, not just at the border but across the country. But Curiel is saying it's a go.

WILLIAMS: Curiel said there's no basis for the courts to stop it. I think the politics is a whole different box of wax.

PERINO: Ball.

WILLIAMS: By the way, I think the Mexican president had just a very difficult conversation with President Trump about paying for the wall. It was so difficult, again, after the second time he canceled the trip to visit the White House.

GUTFELD: Could be a language issue.

WILLIAMS: Oh, it's a language issue. It could be. You know what strikes me is you have -- today, you had like 200 catholic nuns, priests in Russel protesting, singing, standing up for the dreamers. People saying this is just not acceptable. You saw there just a moment ago, Dick Durbin, the number two Democrat in the senate saying what appears now is that the president is just trying to stop the DREAMers. It's not only the DREAMers. He's trying to cut legal immigration.

PERINO: But do you think...

WATTERS: That would be the result of merit-based immigration.

PERINO: But Kimberly, do you think that, even though this deadline now is not really looming about the DREAMers...

GUILFOYLE: right.

PERINO: ... do you think the president, which we haven't heard from him yet. Is he going to try to continue to try to push Congress to do something this year? Or wait for the courts to play it out?

GUILFOYLE: Look, I think he's got to continue to try to push Congress. The courts are going to do what they're going to do.

Today this was a victory for the president, coming from Judge Curiel. And certainly, the courts aren't going to stop it. California had been quite vocal in trying to stop the president on environmental grounds from getting the wall up.

But this is -- this is really symbolic, I think, of President Trump. Not only his campaign but his presidency, that he made this promise. It's actually, like, a physical, tangible thing that people can go and look at to say, OK, he made this promise. He's running for reelection. He's announced it. He'd better get that wall up and start it.

So I think that's why we're seeing such focus and emphasis on it. And then it has the tie-in piece, as you aptly point out, with DACA and with immigration. And I think he's going to try to be compassionate about it and work with both sides. And they're going to get boxed in again if they don't try to come to the table and at least meet him partway on it.

WILLIAMS: But if this is about politics, Kimberly, just say it. It's not about national security.

GUILFOYLE: I think this is what he believes. And I think it is about national security.

WILLIAMS: Oh.

GUILFOYLE: I think that's a big piece of what he campaigned on. That we have to make America safe again. That we have to make American borders, you know, that aren't penetrable, that aren't porous. That people aren't coming in that are criminal recidivists that are taking, you know, hiding in sanctuary cities, taking cover and committing crimes against Americans. Legal citizens, et cetera.

There's a path to citizenship. There's a way to do this. You should do it like everybody else did. And you shouldn't come in here and try and cut the line and commit crimes and get back and forth, because we don't enforce the laws that are on the books. Put up the wall and tighten it up.

WILLIAMS: When you said...

PERINO: I was going to get Greg in here before we have to go. Maybe California secretly wants the wall. They say they don't want it, but inside, they're thinking, this might not be too bad?

GUTFELD: All it is, really, is a vertical highway. I mean, it's just a highway that you just push up. If we'd just sold it as a highway, that would've been a better idea.

PERINO: Not a wall?

GUTFELD: Not a wall. That was my original...

PERINO: Highway to nowhere?

GUTFELD: Yes. But the thing is, what -- if Trump plays this right, he's proving that the Democrats don't see people at all. They just see power.

Because what he's actually doing is something very compassionate. There's nothing better than a wall. Good fences make good neighbors. And legal, lawful immigrants should appreciate that.

All he's saying he wants an enforced system, and 1.7 million people can stay. That's pretty compassionate.

What the Dems are saying is the DREAMers can dream on, because it's not coming from us. The Democrats are ticked off, because he might come up with the solution and reverse the false perception that the Democrats have capitalized forever that they are compassionate and that Republicans aren't compassionate. And if Trump ends up being becoming pro-DREAMer, the pro- immigrant, that's going to reverse a polarity that's been around for long time, and it could be a really big deal.

It helps that there is no deadline. I really do think that helps.

WATTERS: And you?

PERINO: I can't decide. I'm of mixed mind on that, and I will continue to think about it. And I'm sure we'll talk about it again.

GUTFELD: And again, we can sell California to Mexico.

PERINO: All right. We love that. Some companies have severed ties with the NRA after the Parkland school massacre, but FedEx isn't caving to that pressure. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIAMS: More than a dozen companies like Delta, United and Hertz, have cut partnerships with the NRA after their Florida school massacre. But FedEx won't be joining them.

The company says it's, quote, "a common carrier under federal law and therefore does not and will not deny service or discriminate against any legal entity, regardless of their policy positions or political views," end quote.

FedEx says its position on gun policy differs from the rifle association. It opposes assault rifles in the hands of civilians, but it's not taking away discounted rates like other big organizations who are responding positively to boycott calls.

Kimberly, what do think?

GUILFOYLE: Well, I think it's interesting, because now we're seeing a continuation of the story. Right? Yesterday, we talked about Delta and then we talked about municipalities, state and local, federal governments, what is their proper role in getting involved? Right?

Because then we had Georgia getting upset because of the boycott against the NRA. So saying now we're going to take away your tax subsidies and your credits.

We're getting into a little bit of a back-and-forth. It's getting a little tricky. Where does it stop? Where does it end?

So that's -- and then there's going to be public pressure on any different company now to say, "Well, look, FedEx did this. Look, this is what Delta did." And on and on. So where does it stop? I'm not really 100 percent sure about the role that companies should be having in a situation like this. Public companies.

WILLIAMS: But Jesse, I remember when a lot of Trump people did not like Shakespeare in the Park last summer. Remember the Julius Caesar presentation.

GUILFOYLE: Definitely didn't like it.

WILLIAMS: You had companies like Bank of America, Delta, I think. They all said, "You know what? We're pulling back a little bit. We're not necessarily associated with this," even though they were funding Shakespeare in the Park.

WATTERS: Yes, some companies can't take the heat. Obviously, this company can. The CEO, Fred Smith, is a great American. He served in Vietnam. He was a Marine, Bronze Star, Silver Star, Purple Heart. He was actual roommates with George W. Bush at Yale.

And the NRA, let's remember, didn't kill anybody. They didn't break any laws. And it wasn't the NRA that failed to protect school safety. That was the sheriff and that was the FBI.

There are 5 to 10 million NRA members, and they're most upstanding citizens. Remember, it was an NRA member that actually shot dead that shooter in Texas last year.

So just because there's a few thousand activists, you know, bombarding these companies doesn't mean you don't have to cave to pressure. Businesses shouldn't discriminate against people because they support an amendment or not. The ACLU supports the First Amendment. NRA supports the Second. National Lawyers' Guild supports the Fourth. That's fine.

What is interesting is that there hasn't been a boycott of the NRA that was triggered by the Chicago situation. There's been almost 100 shootings in Chicago, victims in the last two weeks, and no one said anything about that. That's just interesting to me.

WILLIAMS: Are you calling for one?

WATTERS: I'm not calling for any boycotts. I'm not a big fan of boycotts. But I am saying it's just suspicious when people use death in order to fulfill their political purposes.

WILLIAMS: Well, so what's interesting, Dana, to me is the larger concept here, that our politics are so polarized, especially around an issue like guns. That you then see American corporations playing a role. They say, "Well, if everything is going to be tribal and divided, we're going to express our values very clearly. We're going to put them on the table."

FedEx has done that, even in this situation. They may not be saying, "We're going to take away the discount rate." But you have companies like Delta, Symantec, Hertz, others saying, "These are our values. We think these are American values, and we don't agree with the NRA."

PERINO: So I had a flight attendant reach out to me on Twitter. Somebody had actually been on one of her flights once, and she explained to me something about the United decision that I didn't know.

And I'm not -- I still don't think that it's right to basically segment populations and identify a financial benefit for one or the other based on partisan preferences. And I don't think that governments should punish companies for expressing their First Amendment right to decide to do whatever they want to do and who they want to give discounts to.

What I didn't know is that one of United's captains, his daughter was killed in Florida, in Parkland. She was one of the 17. Her name was Gina Montalto. And that United Airlines, perhaps trying to have solidarity with that captain, had decided to make -- made that decision.

But all in all, I am not for different financial systems based on your partisan preferences. I think that is a terrible road to go down.

WILLIAMS: What do think about when the big companies punish, you know, like Rush Limbaugh or somebody, for saying something they consider to be obnoxious? The other day in Boston, I think it's WEEI. Several companies pulled away, because they were saying bad stuff about Tom Brady's agent, who's Asian.

GUTFELD: I -- I am often suspicious about companies acting on so-called values. I think it's more about fear. The fear is based on the effective social networks in which their numerical significance is exaggerated.

A hundred people -- and we know this with the Russia bots -- 100 people can feel like a thousand. Can feel like ten thousand. So we see a lot of companies folding to that, and they fold, I think, they fold prematurely.

Because what happens is, what I've noticed on Twitter, there are people who will say, "I will never use Virgin American again." Until, of course, Virgin American is the only flight out of Aruba.

PERINO: Right.

GUTFELD: And then they change their minds. So a lot of these -- a lot of these boycotts are part of an initial onslaught from a couch.

There is a lot you can do. If you really are upset about this, you can. You can offer actual solutions. You can call your congressman, your senator. You can do things and you can talk to people and think hard about this and think about real solutions rather than getting mad at a company which is basically just people doing their jobs.

If you are more mad at FedEx then you are at the Broward sheriff, that's false concern.

GUILFOYLE: Yes.

GUTFELD: You're choosing the company purely as a virtue signal to say, "Look at me. Look how moral I am."

But it's clear that the failure lies with the sheriff, not with Federal Express. And I think more companies should listen to -- should follow in FedEx's footsteps, withstand the initial onslaught and hopefully, people will realize there are better things to do is.

GUILFOYLE: All right. Good example.

WILLIAMS: Ahead, since when is it a controversy to offer prayers -- prayers -- for someone who's ill?

GUILFOYLE: My God.

WILLIAMS: There's a backlash against actor Chris Pratt for doing just that.

GUILFOYLE: Can you believe this?

WILLIAMS: Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUILFOYLE: Some people don't believe in the power of prayer. I'm not one of them. Neither is actor Chris Pratt, who asked his Twitter followers to join him in prayer for "Clerks" director Kevin Smith who suffered a massive heart attack on Sunday. That nice gesture was attacked by online trolls, and here were some of the vile responses.

"Science and a team of caring hard working physicians and nurses saved Kevin Smith. The great sky theory doesn't exist."

Another one: "Praying clearly does not work." Then goes on to say, "He's been brainwashed to believe in God."

And another: "Yes, thoughts and prayers to mass murder victims, too."

So what do you make of this, Greg? That people respond in this way. And he's being attacked by trolls just for simply offering thoughts and prayers to his friend.

GUTFELD: Well, two things. One, I think we've established that Twitter is a dumbass X-ray. It's like it exposes all the dumbasses, and it does it fairly quickly.

As you know, I am not religious, but I'm also not some blue chip chucklehead that needs to do this.

The second part, it's also really unoriginal that this is done. Because this is a Neil DeGrasse Tyson move. Whenever anybody says hopes and prayers, he has to go out there and let them know: "Oh, hope and prayers, that stuff doesn't work. That stuff doesn't work." So anybody who does this is simply copying the original self-absorbed, attention-seeking fool.

GUILFOYLE: OK. Dana.

PERINO: Well, you saw this -- this isn't the first time. Over and over again you see this.

GUILFOYLE: Yes.

PERINO: And the point about thoughts and prayers for mass shooting victims is actually more of also a policy statement of, then why don't you then do something about it? Or maybe it's a political statement.

I -- I think one of the best ways that you can tell people that you care about them is to pick up the phone and call them. I'm finding this online stuff just so dissatisfying in terms of actually expressing sentiment. And it's time to get back to human connections.

GUILFOYLE: I totally agree. All right. Jesse.

WATTERS: Steve Scalise was on our air a couple nights ago and said when he was struggling and clinging to life, he could hear, and he kind of thought and felt the thoughts and prayers of the people in the country that were praying for him when he was in the hospital and he was getting all those surgeries. And that gave him the drive and the inspiration to keep fighting. And he fought through some really devastating bullet wounds that, you know, would make a lot of people just collapse.

GUILFOYLE: So many -- multiple surgeries.

WATTERS: Multiple surgeries. And it -- and it inspired him, and I was very impressed by that. So you can be agnostic or atheist, but let's just not discount the people that aren't. And, you know, why attack it?

GUILFOYLE: OK. All right. Interesting perspective. Juan.

WILLIAMS: Well, I think that really, what this is really about is, as Dana just described it, when you had the mass shootings and you had people, especially people on the right, the NRA crowd, saying "thoughts and prayers" but then not taking action. Then people say, "Oh, this is just like an evasive device."

PERINO: Right.

WILLIAMS: That you can say, "Oh, I have thoughts and prayers," and then not do anything.

But in fact, I think thoughts and prayers are, to me, essential. I think that we should pray. I think I don't have any problem with that kind of energy or that kind of exchange, communication and love between people. I think it's all positive.

I've got to tell you, I think Dana will be amused. I got in trouble once at NPR, because I said, you know, at my church we pray for President Bush every Sunday. They said, "Why did you say that in an interview? Why are you bringing religion into this?"

And I was like, "Well, no, I -- that's true. At my church, we pray for President Trump every Sunday." I don't think there's anything wrong with prayers. You can disagree with someone...

GUTFELD: I pray for you at my church.

WILLIAMS: It's no church.

GUTFELD: It's a very strange church. It's a very strange church.

WILLIAMS: Is it the Church of the (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

GUTFELD: I'm trying to -- trying to clear my apartment as a church. Tax purposes.

WATTERS: Tax purposes.

GUILFOYLE: But I mean, you're agnostic, but you don't have a problem with anybody praying or having religion in their life.

GUTFELD: Of course not.

GUILFOYLE: If that is their faith, and people shouldn't be attacked for it. I mean, it's just very small-minded. I pray for them.

"One More Thing" is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WATTERS: It is time for "One More Thing" -- Juan.

WILLIAMS: So imagine watching movies with a movie star who became president.

PERINO: Wow.

WILLIAMS: That means you're watching movies at Camp David with President Reagan. That's what Mark Weinberg did. When I was covering the Reagan White House, Mark was Reagan's speech writer, deputy press secretary. He spent eight years with the Gipper, and now he's written a memoir called "Movie Nights with the Reagans."

A couple things you'll learn from the book: One, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" was one of Reagan's favorites. And he learned a lot about leadership from the movie business. In any case, it's good reading for this Oscars weekend.

GUTFELD: Nice.

PERINO: I heard he cried also when he watched "E.T."

WATTERS: I did, too.

GUTFELD: "Entertainment Tonight"? Oh, I loved Mariette Hartley.

WATTERS: Very good. All right. I'm next. Time now for a new edition of "Mom Texts."

OK, No. 1: "Life is bigger than Hillary. Stop behaving like a one-trick pony."

GUTFELD: Nice.

WATTERS: How about this: "WRONG!!! Trump is NOT at 50 percent approval ratings. Like Juan, I worry about your sources! Where do you get your information???"

Rasmussen, Mom. Rasmussen.

GUTFELD: Nice.

WATTERS: "I am worried, Jesse, and I am very worried about that unusual jacket you are wearing!"

That was from last week.

GUTFELD: That is a good mom.

GUILFOYLE: What does she think about tonight?

WATTERS: I don't know. Wait until we hear.

GUILFOYLE: You doubled down.

WATTERS: And No. 4, "Remember, confidence is silent and insecurity is loud."

PERINO: Nice.

WATTERS: It's a talk show, Mom.

And "If Trump fires Rod Rosenstein, we will have people marching in the streets. Trust me on that. And I will not be alone."

There you have it, Mom. And I'm on "Hannity" tonight, so check that out. Even more than "The Five."

GUILFOYLE: A two-fer.

WATTERS: A two-fer.

All right. Dana.

PERINO: So a week from tonight there's going to be a primary election in Texas. And in Texas' 2nd congressional district, a crowded primary. Nine Republicans trying to replace Ted Poe. Have you ever heard of somebody that's running for Congress who was actually literally running for Congress? Dan Crenshaw, the former Navy SEAL, he ran 100 miles over five days to raise money, not for himself. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN CRENSHAW (R), TEXAS CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: The reason we did it was to really shine light on a lot of our neighbors that are still rebuilding after Hurricane Harvey that haven't been able to move back into their homes and really show people that the work is not done. What I saw was grit, resilience, hope. I saw that -- I saw Texans not giving up on each other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: So it raised money for hurricane relief. A 10-year career in the Navy SEALs. He was educated at Harvard, a master's degree in public policy. Injured in Afghanistan. And that's why he has the patch there. Two Bronze Stars, a Purple Heart and a Navy commendation medal with valor. The primary is next week. He's one of nine.

GUILFOYLE: Wow, God bless him for his service. It's amazing.

WATTERS: Greg.

GUTFELD: All right. It is time for...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAPHIC: Greg's Celebrity Corner

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: "Greg's Celebrity Corner." We got some amazing footage from TMZ.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(TWO BEARS HUGGING A TREE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: This is former secretary of state John Kerry arriving at an airport and met by two of his biggest fans. Look at John Kerry, shocked. They were all over him. John Kerry still very popular among his fans. They were kissing and hugging him. You can just see the charm and wit that exudes from the former secretary of state, John Kerry, as he tries to maneuver his way to baggage. But it's impossible for that sad man.

Anyway, that's "Celebrity Corner."

GUILFOYLE: Did they lick him? They licked the tree?

All right.

WATTERS: That was good. Kimberly,, I'm looking forward to this.

GUILFOYLE: Oh, indeed you are. Time for "Kimberly's Food Court." Na, na- na-naaa, na-na, na. La, la, la.

This is a good one. So this is interesting. We all have our little snack drawers. Do you? Do you keep some little snacks?

GUTFELD: I wear snack drawers.

GUILFOYLE: That is weird. OK. According -- I'm moving on.

According to a new survey, we have that drawer, but then we keep a secret stash on the side, too. OK? So this is a freeze-dried fruit manufacture Crispy Green conducted a study of 2,000 women, Greg, between the ages of 21 and 45. And they found that two-thirds, 66 percent of American moms have a super-secret supply of their favorite snacks that they keep hidden from their families. You know why? Because they don't want to share it.

WATTERS: No sharing. Set your DVRs. Never miss an episode of "The Five." "Special Report" up next.

Do you like my blazer, Bret?

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Yes.

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