Are the media capable of covering President Trump fairly?
Are the media capable of covering President Trump fairly?
Pundits continue to attack the president; reaction and analysis on 'The Five'
This is a rush transcript from "The Five," August 1, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, CO-HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Kimberly Guilfoyle along with Juan Williams, Chris Stirewalt, Dana Perino and Greg Gutfeld. It's 9 o'clock in New York City and this is "The Five."
President Trump is renewing his attack today on both the press and the critics. This morning, the President made his case for using social media to bring his message directly to the American people. Tweeting, "Only the fake news media and Trump enemies want me to stop using social media (110 million people). Only way for me to get the truth out. This is the mainstream media sure seems to be proving Mr. Trump right.
Behold! CNN political analyst David Gregory's analysis of the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I just think it's been a joke. The behavior within the White House. I mean the lie from the President that as a business leader he was going to come in and run a great organization, like his own organization and then he has this nonsense. I mean, Scaramucci acting like, yes, this is seventh grade homeroom instead of the West Wing and the presidency. I mean, really a joke.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: And listen to MSNBC's Chris Matthews take a swipe at the President.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC HOST: Faced with a full scale investigation by the House, the Senate and the special counsel over collusion with Russia during the 2016 election, President Trump has engaged in a series of Russian style purges. I think all of this going around and purging people, just like Kim Jong-un, what is he doing? Knocks all of his relatives when he gets scared? When you get scared of your position, you start killing people around. We don't do that in this country, we fire them. Trump seems to know how to fire.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: Oh my goodness! Little crazy. All right. Greg, what do you think? Kim Jong-un. I mean, I like the first name.
(LAUGHTER)
GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: I mean, it's understandable coming from them, it's not a surprise. But you're seeing the two lanes, you're seeing the media lane and you're seeing the everybody else lane. The media is chasing rabbits. The rest of America is interested in the whales. So, the rabbits are rumors and conversations and maybe some meetings and some staffing changes, those are the rabbits that everybody chases and we chased them too.
But America is interested in the whales and the whales of the economy, economy, economy and security and terror. So, it's really, action. I had to frame it after the election as its action versus words. They are preoccupied, the media is preoccupied with his words. America is preoccupied with his deeds. And if you have problems with Trump's character or his jokes or the way he acts, concentrate on what he does.
And so, there are four things that I look at that make me feel like things are going well. ISIS, not entirely gone but it's getting there. He's rolled back a ton of regulations, he withdrew from the Paris accords, that symbolic bomb meant something, it meant something and then he's confirmed I think five judges so far. So, those are five whales that Trump has harpooned while the rest of the media just blubbers.
GUILFOYLE: We got it.
GUTFELD: Thank you very much, America. We'll be right back.
GUILFOYLE: All right. Weighty delivery. Okay. Dana, is this fair criticism?
DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: Well, I think, first of all, I just think that the whining about media bias is getting in their way of them actually being able to get credit for the things that Greg just mentioned.
GUTFELD: It's true.
PERINO: Every day we wake up and we have to talk about more stories about the fake news media except for when they actually confirm the stories that were in the fake news the night before, that's confirmed in the briefing 12 hours later. And actually I think that reporters, the media, his enemies want nothing more than for him to keep tweeting.
GUILFOYLE: Uh-hm.
PERINO: Because it gives them all that ammunition. And actually, if you look at some of the polling, it's like supporters of his are like, whoa, I don't know if this is actually helping you so much. And the President also, he wants to be taken for his word and his actions. So, when, I don't know, I can kind of separate it because I can sort of see like, I think some of this is bluster.
For example, tonight the other media is covering the story, that is reportedly the President told some friends at a golf club that the White House is real dump. Okay. So, they're running with this story. I can just imagine the President would be joking when he said that. Like, oh, yes, they're real dump. It's really hard to live at the White House. He actually in interviews that he did like with "Time" magazine and with Maggie Haberman of the "New York Times." He loves being at the White House, he think it's beautiful. He wants people to come and visit.
He hardly ever comes back to New York. So, I do think that the media has a tendency to run away with things that make the media look bad but I also think that the President hinders his own message in trying to get those results by talking about the media all the time.
GUILFOYLE: Yes. I mean, the White House is very nice, right?
CHRIS STIREWALT, GUEST CO-HOST: They got really good lemon cakes. No living person. No living, man, woman or child. I guess maybe outside of the people on Facebook want Donald Trump to stop tweeting. No one wants Donald Trump to stop tweeting. Not as you say his adversaries who say more, more. They want the crazy. But also his supporters and his administration want him to tweet, they just want him to tweet better, they want him to tweet --
PERINO: Different.
STIREWALT: -- differently than he's doing it. And no one is trying to take the social media platform away from him, but I am sure that Republicans in Congress and his staff at the White House says, okay, great, tweet all you want but don't blow up our message for the day.
GUILFOYLE: Yes. Dana has talked about that before. Because you want the messaging for the next day and something to thrive it. You have to give them something to talk about to fill the void.
All right. So, Juan, fair criticism? I mean, how did you really honestly feel about the President tweeting?
JUAN WILLIAMS, CO-HOST: Well, I mean, you know, I don't think it helps him but I'm not alone in that. I mean, you're right, there's I think most of the Trump voters say, he should continue tweeting. But a quarter of them say, no, I think it's actually more than a quarter of his own supporters. People who voted for Donald Trump say that they think this is the wrong way for him to go.
And if you ask all Americans, then you're like 70 percent of Americans say, this is ridiculous. This is not the way to do business. And in fact, after the communication about the ban on transgender people serving in the military where the Pentagon didn't know exactly what he's doing because he did it in the serious of tweets. And it got broken up. Then there are people who are concerned. Hey, what's he doing? Is he starting a bombing run or what's going on?
(LAUGHTER)
GUILFOYLE: They're like happy tasting.
WILLIAMS: So, you know, the thing is, when Greg says, oh, the press is chasing rabbits and then, you know, we are concerned about whales. Let me tell you. The President's accomplishments are more like minnows. When you talked about -- he's not gotten rid of ISIS. He's increase the military presence. When you talk about something like, out of the climate accord, that's a great accomplishment?
GUTFELD: Of course it is. And, you know, people who believe in climate change even admit that the Paris accord was a disaster.
WILLIAMS: Oh, yes.
GUTFELD: Because $100 trillion went to nowhere, that was a great move on his point and he's actually probably going to go further in the area of climate change than you would.
WILLIAMS: Well, that's fine. But again, your position is, anybody who denies climate change pulls away is doing good. That's not my --
GUTFELD: No, no. That is not my position. Do not say that. What I'm saying is the deal itself from an economic perspective was poor, he saw that. He wasn't in our best interest and he said, if he could do another deal, he would.
WILLIAMS: You know what? In environmental perspective, from melting glaciers and the like, it was a good deal.
GUTFELD: You just made a leap that was completely false.
WILLIAMS: Oh, yes, there you go.
GUILFOYLE: All right. Let's take a listen to NBC News special correspondent Tom Brokaw talked about what he learned on a recent trip to Wyoming.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM BROKAW, NBC NEWS SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Wyoming, a wonderful classic, small-town community college, prosperous farm community voted 70 percent for Trump. So, I went around and said, where are you now? 69.9 I would say at this point. And they blame us. They say, look, you guys are all in the hands of the Democratic Party, it's a liberal cabal against this president, they don't feel any connection between what we do and how they live their lives and they are not entirely wrong. Because they look at these shows were doing analysis and commenting on this thing and they don't see anybody who looks like them who lives a life that they do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: Greg?
GUTFELD: You know why he likes Wyoming? No L's in it. Tom Brokaw joked. He has a problem saying else. Anyway, if you look at the --
PERINO: Were you on the plane with him?
GUTFELD: If you look at the stories like I said before, the media would go to the pyramids and stare at the sand. They don't understand the bigger stories, they look at the -- let's admit we do too. We are talking about tweeting when we know that he's never going to stop tweeting, we did an entire segment on tweeting and we know he's not going to stop tweeting. But we like to talk about it.
All these things that you see from the morning to the evening, and the Scaramucci thing was a staff change but everybody lead with it. While we have stuff going on in Venezuela. And Venezuela, we are watching another great experiment in socialism turn into civil war, that's not on our show.
WILLIAMS: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You know, I listened to you so closely. But did you just say the Scaramucci thing was nothing but a staff change?
GUTFELD: Yes. To me it was. It will be over. No, okay. You can laugh, you can laugh but you can think about this. He was here for ten days, it was hilarious. We had a lot of fun with it. But the fact is, he came and he went. Meanwhile, you look at Venezuela, what's going on there?
GUILFOYLE: Yes.
GUTFELD: It's barely being covered, that means something.
WILLIAMS: I think he damaged President Trump. Let me just tell you something.
GUTFELD: In this greater scheme of things, that is tiny compared to other things.
WILLIAMS: Not if you have chaos in the White House and you are diminishing confidence in the White House's ability to perform central functions.
GUTFELD: That is not evidence of chaos. It is the evidence of establishing order.
STIREWALT: It's okay for people to be interested in politics.
GUILFOYLE: Uh-hm.
STIREWALT: It's okay that people like to watch this show. I'm interested in politics. I have devoted my entire profession and life to it. So, I hope it's okay.
GUTFELD: I'm sorry for that.
STIREWALT: And we're sort of like a sport center. Right?
GUTFELD: Yes. Absolutely.
STIREWALT: Some people are wanted to see the results, and that's okay. If you just want to tune in to the Super Bowl, that's okay. I have a different job and we play a different role, which is people want to know incrementally, day by day.
GUILFOYLE: Right.
STIREWALT: Minute by minute, what's changing and what's going on. That's a function we fill. There are political junkies out there, this is a big country, 325 million Americans. There is room for rabbits and whales.
GUTFELD: Uh-hm.
GUILFOYLE: Okay. What about Venezuela in Greg's point? And is there a lot of criticism about, why isn't that story getting covered, and it is, you know, loss of life and oppression, dictatorship and --
STIREWALT: Most of the world suffers. Most of the world lives in misery, we fail to understand very often how fortunate we are in the United States to have the system that we do and the prosperity that we do and occasionally we are forced to look outside of our bubble and say, my God, how blessed we are.
GUILFOYLE: Sure.
STIREWALT: But we can't spend every day all the time looking at every place in the world where human misery reigns. But Venezuela is definitely on a rocket ride to the top of those charts.
GUILFOYLE: Yes. Okay, Dana.
PERINO: Yes. Well, so, I had an opportunity to fill in for Martha MacCallum and we did the Venezuela --
(CROSSTALK)
And actually, you could do that. There's a direct tie because President Trump designated Maduro, as one of the four people who has personal sanctions against him. And what happens, there is a direct retaliation from Maduro against President Trump sending the signal by arresting two of the opposition leaders. And so, there is a tie, and there are consequences for things that are happening at the White House.
Now, President Trump comes out and give a statement about that today? Nope. Did he tweet about it? I don't think so. So, I mean, there are things at the White House could do to drive forth that message, the fact that he is taking decisive action to things like protecting freedom and human rights in Venezuela, they didn't do that today. They talked about tax reform.
GUILFOYLE: Right. Yes.
PERINO: There will be a little bit more. Tomorrow, they're also doing immigration. They are also talking about college administration affirmative-action on Friday, let me get the leak investigation too. And this is American dream week.
GUTFELD: Really?
PERINO: Yes. American dream.
GUTFELD: American dream week, every week.
STIREWALT: Yes!
GUILFOYLE: Especially here.
PERINO: This is why the suggestion is that they need to have somebody in communications who is behind scenes, not on television all the time doing some long-term strategy to help them make sure that they get credit for the successes that they're --
GUILFOYLE: Like a day planner, week planner, month planner.
WILLIAMS: It's a good idea, Dana. But that's politics as usual, that's just smart politics but guess what? Guess who just as you said, overrides the message every time. It's the principle, it's the President.
PERINO: I hear you.
GUILFOYLE: Coming up. Outrage after an illegal alien deported 20 times is accused of sexual assault. Greg's monologue on the brutal attack, next. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUTFELD: So, the Portland thug accused of sexually abusing two women, one a 65-year-old, had not just a history of arrests but was deported 20-plus times. But he was released by local authorities anyway.
Sergio Jose Martinez is in jail for robbery, kidnapping, burglary, sexual abuse. He committed his latest atrocities in as you know, a sanctuary city called Portland. Do you ever wonder how the victims feel about that label "sanctuary city"? Who is the sanctuary for?
It's an obvious but good question, because for many on the left it's always about language: give something a cozy title, you can get away with anything. A sanctuary city, it just sounds good like so many bad things do: daisy cutter, road apple, socialism. A sanctuary city allowed a repeat creep to assault two citizens. That's what I would call sanctuary rape.
GUILFOYLE: Wow!
GUTFELD: It's important we call it that, for links and ideas to a consequence. If you can apply to the city, then why not apply to the crime that occurred in that city? Portland didn't do the rapes, it just gave the rapist the space to rape. You don't have a sanctuary. You don't have sanctuary rape. If Martinez had been deported permanently, maybe even on the 20th time, two women wouldn't have been attacked. But he returned and he sanctuary raped in a sanctuary city. All because that word sounds so good to so many people, except to those victims who got no sanctuary at all.
The interesting thing, Dana, taxpayers may end up paying for it defense. I read that somewhere.
PERINO: Yep. That's how we do it.
GUTFELD: Yes. Exactly. Do you think these policies are to blame? Obviously the rapist rapes. But I think these policies encouraged authorities not to communicate with each other, what's the point?
PERINO: This happens repeatedly. Unfortunately, this is not a one off instance because we've talked about it a lot. And you always have local authorities in dispute with ICE officials saying, well, you did this and we did that. So, today there are some innovation. The Republican governor of Massachusetts, Governor Charlie Baker filed legislation that would permit local law enforcement to detain certain unauthorized immigrants at the request of federal officials without having to do all of this back and forth, giving law enforcement some leeway to be able to be within the law and to be able to protect people. So, there is actually some innovation at the state level that maybe could be applied other places.
GUTFELD: What do you think, Kimberly?
GUILFOYLE: I think that there's tremendous disparity that is really a threat to public safety, when you have about 300 different jurisdictions in this country that refuse to cooperate with the federal authorities and actually follow the laws that are on the books.
GUTFELD: Uh-hm.
GUILFOYLE: And the criminals and criminal legals are, you know, aware of this. And they said, okay, this is where I'm going to go in cities like Portland and San Francisco because it's a safe haven for them. And when you look at it in terms of prioritizing as a matter of public policy, you look at the balance and you say, wait a second -- why is the priority to harbor criminal illegals and not follow the law over the safety of law- abiding citizens.
GUTFELD: Uh-hm. You know, Juan, if this guy wasn't in the country, those women wouldn't have been attacked. So, this is obviously, you may say the crimes are fewer by illegal immigrants but this one is 100 percent preventable, you just don't have them here.
GUILFOYLE: Correct.
GUTFELD: The illegal criminals.
WILLIAMS: Well, that seems to me he committed a crime and he should be put away. In fact, they reported that he's a meth addict, psychosis and a crazy person. And, you know, there's just no way that he should be in the country having come and gone 20 times. But my objection to this whole thing is, that we are demonizing all immigrants and all illegal immigrants so severely.
GUTFELD: The monologue was just about him.
WILLIAMS: No. What I think is, I think this is part of the Trump effort to say, oh, illegal immigrants are terrible. They're rotten. And you know, I keep coming back and we've argued about it before. But the numbers remain the same. Illegals have a lower incarceration rate, there are lower crime rates where they live the native born American citizens and actually, when you have more immigrants in your community, you have a lower crime rate. But somehow it's preferable to do a political attack on immigrants as if that's going to boost the President.
GUTFELD: I think I responded to that before you even started that by saying that, even though the rates might be lower, this is actually 100 percent preventable. I don't think the victims will be happy with the statistical differences anyway.
WILLIAMS: No. But I'm saying, you're more in danger from your fellow American citizens but somehow all the focus is on the illegals.
GUTFELD: All right. That is because this story is about this instance. Chris, you could argue that this guy has more rights than you because you have 20 breaks. I don't think you would get 20 breaks anywhere.
STIREWALT: Well, we should point out how this happens, how does somebody 20 times --
GUTFELD: Yes.
STIREWALT: How did somebody get deported 20 times, I have no idea in this gentleman's case. Gentlemen, not at all. In this dudes case, but the reality is often times illegal immigrants game the system.
GUTFELD: Right.
STIREWALT: So, they're here but they want to go home especially for illegal immigrants from Mexico they want to get home. So, they get deported and they get home whether they need to get away from trouble where they are in the United States, and they want to get home, they get deported and then they come back. So, you see. How does somebody get deported 20 times to return to the United States? I don't know about his case. But very often they are gaming the system.
GUTFELD: Yes. I did not know that. Chris has taught me a new thing.
GUILFOYLE: Well, they get to commit a lot of free crimes until they escalate all the way up and graduate to murder and rape and sexual assault and then they get paid attention to.
GUTFELD: Uh-hm. All right. We need to change that revolving door to a catapult.
Up next, Paul Ryan declares it's time for the border wall as the White House is set to unveil a new immigration plan tomorrow, details ahead
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PERINO: Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is out with the new online video, this one, showing his support for President Trump's propose border wall. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL RYAN, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I had the opportunity to travel down to Texas to go to the Rio Grande Valley and spend time with our border control. When you see what they're up against, it gives you even greater respect for what they do. They clearly need more tools and more support to do their jobs effectively. That's why we're going to get this done this week.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: And we're getting words tonight that the President and two senators will propose legal immigration reform tomorrow at the White House. So, there's another message that we're going to get through to this week. Kimberly?
GUILFOYLE: Yes.
PERINO: The House funded the President's border wall request last week. So, this was a video following that up. Do you think that the House and the Senate will be able to come together and get it done?
GUILFOYLE: You know, I've tried to be very optimistic and say, yes, health care, yes, border wall, everything. I don't know. I think they intend too. I hope that they have figured this out ahead of time and putting this forward because they know that they can get it done. Meaning --
PERINO: What's interesting is that the polling on this Chris, has been consistent even from Rasmussen saying the majority of Americans some thinks that this is necessary, that they don't necessarily want a wall but this is what the President wants and he's going to get it.
STIREWALT: We just have to define wall the right way.
GUILFOYLE: Big, beautiful.
STIREWALT: Right. Big and beautiful.
GUILFOYLE: Transparent.
STIREWALT: I promised you, I guaranteed that by the time Donald Trump's term in office is over, he will hold a ribbon-cutting at something that he says is the wall. But I noticed and I think this is really significant for him. He was attacking the press but in the attack he said, how come nobody talks about -- but he said -- and this is important -- illegal immigration is down, border secure.
PERINO: And do you know why that is? Because as I always say, Trump is the wall.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: Right, Greg?
GUTFELD: I always say it.
STIREWALT: And there's a lot of truth in it. And I think as the President comes to accept the fact that illegal immigration is in fact down, and there are ways to enforce at the border and internally, the need for this giant structure goes down, they gave them a billion six and the spending package and that is enough to certainly beef up border security. But I think it's all just about -- it's a definitions game from here on in.
PERINO: What do you think? You have agreed with me when I've said that.
GUTFELD: Yes. Many times. I don't think that video was very persuasive. I mean, if the message is, it's time for the wall and you just start showing beautiful pristine rivers, and land, no, you've got to show --
PERINO: Oh, that is a good point.
GUTFELD: Yes. You have to show why it's time. You have to show why it's time.
GUILFOYLE: Tumbleweeds, people running.
GUTFELD: You know, gangs, drugs, arrests.
PERINO: Crime.
GUTFELD: Crime, and you've got to say, this is why the wall is necessary.
GUILFOYLE: Of course, human suffering.
GUTFELD: Yes. Human suffering.
STIREWALT: Always misery.
GUTFELD: Exactly. And also, it's interesting how Paul Ryan has comes off as so manufactured because now in this age of Trump, everything is so raw and in your face. That everyone else --
PERINO: And if you're sincere, you look fake?
GUTFELD: Yes. Yes. No, no. I'm just saying, that looked too artificial, too smooth.
GUILFOYLE: Good precious.
PERINO: Yes.
GUTFELD: It looked like a really manufactured video, I don't think that's compelling, if you want to persuade people, that's my take on it.
GUILFOYLE: Interesting.
WILLIAMS: Well, my take is that you should apply for this communications director, Greg, because you could put up better videos.
GUILFOYLE: That would be interesting.
WILLIAMS: That would be great. But here's what I take --
GUTFELD: I've already put out a few.
(LAUGHTER)
WILLIAMS: Right? Oh my goodness!
GUTFELD: That was what it was called!
(LAUGHTER)
WILLIAMS: What was that? I missed it.
DANA PERINO, FOX "The Five" SHOW HOST: Nothing, never mind.
GUILFOYLE: That is a great point Juan and we got to go.
(LAUGHTER)
WILLIAMS: I think the politics of this are fascinating. This is where the game is right now. Paul Ryan looks to be struggling. His numbers have been falling off the cliff. He has now a Democratic challenger back in Wisconsin, but he has a Republican challenger. It's interesting for me to watch all of this. He was in December, 47 percent favorable, 31 percent negative, today 48 percent negative, 34 percent favorable and you just see him being attacked by the President on the failure of all of these, why doesn't congress do more?
PERINO: The house has been pretty good about the senate --
WILLIAMS: You listen to conservative talk radio.
PERINO: They want to make them as bad as Nancy Pelosi.
WILLIAMS: I think this is Paul Ryan coming back and saying to the right- wing hard-core, I am the good guy, I'm with President Trump. You've got a special Senate election coming up in Alabama and you see people who are on with Trump. You're a little too close to Trump, but it's pretty much a red state referendum on President Trump. In Virginia there's a governor's race, in New Jersey there is a governor's race, you see candidates right now running away from Trump even as they need Trump support.
STIREWALT: Worst air wolf reboot ever.
GUTFELD: Can I just add that, with the strange relationships in China and North Korea, Donald Trump should name the wall the even greater wall.
STIREWALT: Even greater.
WILLIAMS: What if he offered Chinese food on the wall?
(LAUGHTER)
PERINO: We've got more coming, directly ahead as President Trump prepares to strike North Korea over there no their nuclear program, new details on the escalating tensions, coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIAMS: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, he is calling for a dialogue with North Korea and says we are not looking for war with the hermit nation. This after the regime carried out its longest ever missile tests which analysts say could put most of North America within North Korea's range. Tomorrow, the U.S. Air force will carry out its own long-range missile test, mean while South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, he says the President is ready to confront this escalating threat head on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: There is a military option to destroy North Korea's program and North's Korea itself. He has not been allowed President Trump the ability of this madman to have a missile of America if there's going to be a war to stop it, it will be over the air, if thousands die, they are going to die there, they're not going to die here. He is told me that to my face.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: What you think for that, Kimberly, the potential for war.
GUILFOYLE: I mean is it is always there?
WILLIAMS: But things are escalating now.
GUILFOYLE: I think this is right now presently the biggest national security threat is the United States is facing, the President thinks so. He is not going to allow it to continue, and just let North Korea decide what they are going to do. I mean it has to be dealt with. It's very serious, so I don't know, I would stay tuned.
WILLIAMS: Chris, the President over the weekend tweeted that China has done nothing. The Chinese responded in their media by saying Trumps emotional venting is no policy, what do you make of it?
STIREWALT: The name of the game is for China to become convinced that the United States is willing to do something to change the dynamic here. One of the things that the United States might do for example might be bring dependents home from South Korea. We have thousands of troops and this has always been considered safe portion where soldiers were allowed to bring their families, you take the dependents home, you fly them home, you put things on a war footing. You try to convince the Chinese essentially that something might go off here, because remember Lindsey Graham said thousands of people would die.
If we were to engage in the kind of strike necessary, to eradicate North Korea Nuclear program or if God helps us if there was a nuclear missile on the pad and we struck, we would not be talking about thousands of dead we would be talking about millions of dead. For the Chinese, we must always remember, for the Chinese, North Korea represents antagonism toward the United States, yes, antagonism toward Japan and South Korea. A good way to destabilize the region but it also represents a humanitarian crisis at any moment. 20 million North Koreans living as vassals to this madman, if this breaks bad China has a terrible problem on their hands. Then United States would try to convince them that might be the case.
WILLIAMS: So, Dana, you have South Koreans saying we are willing to talk. One of the potential points of leverage for Unites States is to say we will not engage in military exercises with South Korea. Ok, North Korea hold on let's talk, let's see if we can settle this.
PERINO: Sarah Huckabee Sanders said today from the White House is that all options are on the table, the President will not telegraph. I do believe a more wholesome statement or speech from the President is probably forthcoming and this is probably because he has a lot of people he needs to talk to beyond just saying at the end of a pulled spray, were going to handle it, because this is gone from being a theoretical exercise to a reality. When you have potential for strikes in San Francisco, Chicago, and New York, this gets real and people need to be assured. So he needs to speak several people all at once and the speech will do that. He needs to talk to the citizens of this country, our military, our allies, including the South Koreans and our enemies and that would be North Korea, and I think it will happen soon.
WILLIAMS: Greg this to me as Kimberly said it is the number one threat at the moment you can throw in Syria, ISIS.
GUILFOYLE: Not like this.
WILLIAMS: Given the immediacy of the behavior and the repeated tests, I mean even President Trump said I'm not going to allow you have those tests, while twice now had to major tests intercontinental ballistic missiles, and they say they could reach Denver in Chicago now.
GUTFELD: I like those cities.
WILLIAMS: Me too so are you worried?
GUTFELD: You know the interesting thing was the first said in the segment, that we haven't talked about which is Rex Tillerson said a dialogue. Why would he bring up dialogue when we keep calling this guy a madman? It makes me think we don't really think he is a madman, we think he doesn't really want to do this. I think we may be over blowing this a little bit that in fact this guy is exercising his options, as crazy as it may seem. Why else would we talk about dialogue if we didn't think that was possible?
There's the other point to this, we do have options until the strange house at the end of town. We didn't have to deal with, and other strange house is driving over past our house, throwing their bottles on our lawn and it could get worse. They have a landlord and the landlord is China and we have to ask ourselves is a country what are we willing to give up? We buy a lot of stuff from China, is that one way to do it? We stop buying stuff from China. That hurts them in a big way.
STIREWALT: they owe us a lot of money though. We owe them grounded.
GUTFELD: Skipped out on the bill, go to mars.
(LAUGHTER)
WILLIAMS: Do you think he thinks Kim Jong-un might be rational, we try to talk to them and then we had to act.
GUTFELD: I guess what I am thinking is if you know you're going to be completely annihilated. You have to think they know that. Everybody wants an off-ramp.
WILLIAMS: Off-ramp for us, up next. Should President Trump start delivering oval office addresses? We'll discuss that. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Fellow citizens I would like to speak to you tonight about our future, about a great historic effort to give the words freedom, fairness and hope a new meaning and power for every man and woman in America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STIREWALT: That was President Ronald Reagan in May of 1985 from the oval office. Who was pitching a massive tax reform plan, it worked. And Reagan delivered the last major overhaul of the U.S. Tax code. That was a long time ago, so is it time for President Trump to bring out the big guns with an oval office address? Any President's most powerful communication weapon if he wants to get Reagan's results. Bill McGurn former chief speechwriter for President George W. Bush suggests that Trump should consider boosting his twitter feed to the speech from the big desk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL MCGURN, FORMER CHIEF SPEECHWRITER TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: At the chance to the president to speak directly to the American people take them into the oval office, he is usually behind the desk and make his case. It's one of the greatest tools. It is like gems, it has to have a certain rarity to have some value. But it was surprising to me that when unused. It's a tremendous bully pulpit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STIREWALT: I don't know who that great journalist who asked him that question that he was talking too, but we would acknowledge the world has changed for oval office addresses, as much as it is the president most effective platform in a lot of ways. You're in America's living room. The world has changed. When Ronald Reagan did that, networks would be obliged to carry it. Now networks tell Presidents --
PERINO: There is no weight the networks would not cover the prime time oval office address from President Trump, there's absolutely no way they wouldn't do it. Use your best tool, use it. Especially of tax reform is your most important issue, now is your time. The setting is so important, it also tells your allies what you are for, it tells the congress what you will expect and it makes everybody stop for about a week as the preparation for the address starts. He gives the address and he is going to be on the road talking about it. I think you should do it. There are opponents to his mill, wherever you give that speech it will pale in comparison to setting of the oval office.
STIREWALT: Kimberly, Presidents think that address to the joint session of congress is the platform. That desk, the resolute desk in that setting in the oval office, lets everybody know what this is and what the magnitude is.
GUILFOYLE: I think it's a powerful tool, it should be utilized. It takes the message directly to the American people, instead of addressing just the congress. I like that feel of it. And I think it works best.
STIREWALT: Like television, it's a very intimate medium and people feel like they know you Greg, when you go out in the world they don't know you.
GUTFELD: They don't know anything about me. If you knew anything about me you'd run screaming, you human mess.
STIREWALT: And they do.
(LAUGHTER)
GUTFELD: Actually I think to use a golf metaphor. This is another club that you have in your bag. You do your tweets and you do the rallies, I would change the settings Dana. I wouldn't have it in the oval office, I would do it in the bedroom, in a robe, and Mike Pence would be fanning me.
PERINO: That would be great for tax reform.
GUTFELD: Really would.
STIREWALT: After dark. Juan, President Obama waited to use the oval office, he waited too long. He waited until the BP oil spill, had to use that to get control of it. Not everybody is suited for this gig. It is one of the toughest places in Presidential communication, but we've also seen Presidents in the past look like they are dying an end weathering behind the desk.
WILLIAMS: It's a big stage but you know it's a depreciating currency, when you use it to better use it well for the first time. Because just as you pointed out the networks especially after they see you use it as a political publicity stunt, they're going to buy offer that is going to hurt you, they didn't cover an oval office address. I think back to President George W. Bush after 9/11. The whole country sat down and watched and understood the magnitude of the situation. Unless you are saying the situation is truly a great situation of concern to every American and I need to speak to you America tonight, be careful about over using it.
GUILFOYLE: Don't listen to Juan.
(LAUGHTER)
WILLIAMS: Just recently what I was hearing from Republicans on Capitol Hill, why is the President not out there pushing the health care bill for us?
PERINO: He has a chance to do something different on tax reform.
STIREWALT: there you go, All right, and the greatest Presidential speech of the last generation was 5 minutes and 30 seconds long, it was Ronald Reagan's oval office address on the challenger disaster. One more thing is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUILFOYLE: It is time now for one more thing, Dana?
PERINO: Well we have some sad news today, Mark Silva the veteran journalist pass away from brain cancer, he is 63 years old, he had a fight against it and I just see that picture it makes me miss him, He was a wonderful reporter, kind of a - he had a lot of great sense of humor, really good sources, he has travel abroad covering the Bush presidency, I think he went to over 40 countries, on twitter he describes himself (inaudible), he is behind his wife and two children and one grandson, certainly Rest in peace Mark Silva.
GUILFOYLE: God bless him and his family, a young man. We have a new book out today, Dinesh D'Souza my friend has this book out and it is called the big lie, exposing the roots of the American left. He is made some compelling films that I've enjoyed. I suggest you check them out if you're brave enough.
GUTFELD: That looks totally main stream.
(LAUGHTER)
Serious typeface issues, all right Greg's charts, this new, today's chart is how am I? How is Greg? When you look at happiness, I am about 64. I got new shoes. My hangover residue is at 13, because it's getting late at night because it's wearing off. Desire for wine goes up to 83, because hangover residue goes down, the desire for wine goes up. Bloated, I am at 68. It's the vacation weight. Existential dread I met 28.
PERINO: I'm not as mad about stuff.
GUTFELD: I'm not as mad about stuff as I used to be or I would've done, I hate these people. Existential dread is at 28 which are pretty good. It's a charge that was done by Pugh and Rasmussen.
GUILFOYLE: That was compelling and also made up. Juan.
WILLIAMS: Today, August 1st but not just any August 1st, it's the fifth birthday for two very special girls, the twins Pepper and Wesley, my granddaughters. Over the weekend they had extremely wild and wet party at their home with 2,000 neighbors in the school friends, they neighbors, the theme of the party? Superheroes, Pepper and Wesley were superwoman and wonder woman.
GUILFOYLE: How cool.
WILLIAMS: Check out this beautiful cake that my daughter made for them. Happy birthday, grand dad's is known as pop-up.
GUILFOYLE: Big time. I remember last year they had gorgeous cakes too. That was fun, thank you for that. Chris what do you have for us?
STIREWALT: Every parent will know this feeling, this moment especially parents of young men. I want you to meet Charlie Edwards. He is from Britain and his parents arranged a sleepover party for him at the natural history museum. He was having a really good time. He noticed that if this play been identified wrongly and he told his parents and they said I'm sure you're wrong. And then he said no, dad, I'm sure I'm right and they went and told the museum and guess what, he knew more about that dinosaur that the natural history museum in London and they apologize to Charlie and change the display. Every parent of sons who has ever been shamed by their ignorance of dinosaurs, feel better because in fact even the great London natural history museum --
GUTFELD: You left out the best part. They fired the 75-year-old curator. That kid is a tattletale! You're encouraging kids to tattle on adults that are wrong.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: There is a movie, a movie about a kid in a museum.
GUILFOYLE: Keep talking. If you could kindly stretch your DVR so you'll never miss an episode of this, "Hannity" is up next.
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