This is a rush transcript from "The Five," September 10, 2014. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
DANA PERINO, THE FIVE HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Dana Perino along with Andrea Tantaros, Bob Beckel, Eric Bolling and Greg Gutfeld. It's 5 o'clock in New York City, and this is "The Five."
In just four hours, President Obama will address the nation on his plans to confront ISIS and the stakes are high. A new poll shows nearly half the country feels less safe now than before the 9/11 attacks. The White House says that we should trust that the government is doing everything it can.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think the American people should be confident that their commander in chief and that their government is expending significant time and resources to ensure that we're using every tool at our disposable -- at our disposal to protect the American people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: The president has been under pressure to define a strategy on ISIS after announcing that he didn't have one. Charles Krauthammer thinks it took the American to get into act.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: These men (ph) have been dragged, kicking and screaming to face reality. They took until we had the brutal, the murder, the contemptible murder of the Americans sort of throwing down the gauntlet. Two Americans where then thrown and slits where American public opinion, as you can see in the polls radically changed from being against air strikes to being heavily in favor that Obama decided to do airstrikes. This is a classic example of leading from behind when he waits for public opinion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: Joining us from Washington with some of what we can expect is Chief Political Anchor Bret Baier. Bret, I want to ask you if you get the sense in Washington today that the White House has any sort of regret that it has come to this. That the president is actually having reassure the nation, in the sixth year of his presidency that he actually have their best interest in mind and he's going to what it needs -- what he needs to do to protect the country.
BRET BAIER, CHIEF POLITICAL ANCHOR: Dana, I don't get the sense that the White House says any regret. In fact, I think they have more of a sense of opportunity here. They change the speech from what was going to be an afternoon speech to a prime time speech, basically we're told because they felt confident after the president's appearance on Meet The Press that he had turned some of the skeptics by explaining more about he is looking at, what he's going to do. I think tonight's speech is really going to be about talking about the coalition, talking about congress, getting involved money wise and talking about what's next going after this fight that he essentially remember, said was over a couple of years ago.
PERINO: All right, Bob?
BOB BECKEL, THE FIVE HOST: Bret, it's Bob, the -- I saw that Mitch McConnell among other republicans already using the ISIS as part of their campaigns for November. Given the fact that it's always a little dangerous to take on a president during times of crisis, but I assume that they believe that Obama is not going to be successful on this.
BAIER: Well, I think some republicans feel that way, Bob, but clearly, other republicans are signaling that they are on board with the president on this. Already you have seen the House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy come out and say there's now a hold on the continuing resolution, that's the funding of the government. They're not moving forward, waiting on the president's speech because they may insert this new funding request to train and arm Syrian rebels into that. There's push back is some republican quarters. There's frankly push back on the democratic side of the aisle as well on some of that funding, but for the most part, publicly they saying they stand with the president.
PERINO: Andrea.
ANDREA TANTAROS, THE FIVE HOST: Bret, we have heard the president in the past refer to congress as dysfunctional, and that he would have to circumvent them on issues like immigration reform if they don't act in an immediate fashion before, now he's OK with going to congress. Do you think that this is cover for the president politically and if he doesn't get that
$500 million request, will he act alone?
BAIER: I mean that's a great question, Andrea. I think, you know, this is going to congress for an element of this. But he has already signaled to them at a private meeting at the White House yesterday that he has the authority to strike, something that he obviously chose not to deal with last time he wanted to go into Syria when the chemical weapons, the red line and the Rose Garden Speech. I think, you know, this money pitch is a way to get congress to have buy in, in the words of White House, but not full authority. I do want to point out one thing, about this arming and training of the rebels. Remember that this is three years in the making, and in May, the senate -- the Head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Menendez, democrat from New Jersey was pushing for this, funding and training of Syrian rebels, the moderates, it pick now through the committee fifteen to three but the push back came from the administration and from Senator Reid and it died.
ERIC BOLLING, THE FIVE HOST: Brett, so one year ago, President Obama stood in front of the American people and said, you know -- by the way, in the days leading up to that speech, that the American sentiment had changed with regard to Syria, Americans didn't want to go into Syria. And so he -- President Obama stood and said, you know, I'm going to give this to congress and he turned it over to congress and that ended up not happening, the opposite is happening here, where the American sentiment is united.
Ninety one percent of people feel ISIS is a threat to the United States.
Will that give President Obama the -- I don't know, the idea that he doesn't need congress anymore and circumvent congress. Because I think a lot of people want that same authority, they want -- the American people still want him to go to congress and get approval before doing it, even though they agree with him doing it.
BAIER: You're exactly right. There -- I mean, it has changed dramatically, those two different scenarios. And you add to that the video of James Foley and Steven Sotloff being beheaded and that changed the entire dynamics, does anybody think that the Obama administration foreign policy in regards to ISIS in Syria in particular would be the same if we did not see those two beheading videos? Not many people here in Washington do.
PERINO: Go ahead, Greg.
GREG GUTFELD, THE FIVE HOST: Hello, Bret. Quick question, it's basically kind of going off what Krauthammer has said, do you get the sense that basically President Obama is looking at this, like a chore, as though it's America, almost like being the parents that are rousing a teenager out of his bed to go mow the lawn? That this is something that he actually wants to do, and if that's true, how can he rouse -- how can he inspire an American public to do something if he himself does not believe in it?
BAIER: I always love your analogies, Greg. Listen, clearly he has been taken to this and has been reticent to get involved, to hear the inside takes of the National Security meetings, some people telling reporters that it was all designed to convince one person and that's President Obama.
There's a sense that he's convinced now and after meeting with NATO, there's shots today, reporters were allowed to see him making a phone call to the king in Saudi Arabia, building this coalition with Muslim Nations, I think he's there now, but you're right, it took him a while to get there.
PERINO: Brett, so you've mentioned in May that the president rejected and I
-- Senator Menendez's call to have the plan in place, so then you have the
-- an entire summer, so May, June, July, August, now September the president is going to put forward a strategy. They decided late last week that they would do the interview with Chuck Todd. Now, an interview gave them confidence that they could have a prime time address. I'm curious, do you think they're actually going to be able to meet expectations, one, and number two, I wonder if this speech is really just specific to ISIS? I hope that it is not, because as these groups metastasize, al Qaeda 2.0, 4.0, 6.0, Ryan Crocker calls it 6.0, do you think it's more about a world view of how we're going to fight a global war on terror or just specific to this group in Syria?
BAIER: No, I think a couple of things, Dana, one it will probably be broader, we're already getting indications of that, the Department of Treasury putting out that they're going to have that their own efforts to go after ISIS funding, but also extremist -- radical extremist to Islamic extremist terrorist funding that's something that's I think he's going to have to address and remember also the context of this speech, this happened on September 10th, tomorrow obviously September 11th anniversary, so that all will have to be a part of this speech. Whether he can meet expectations or not, you know this better than anybody, that's a big thing, and this has been supercharged, this speech. And now, there's a lot riding on it, if you look at the polls, especially the democrats across the board.
BECKEL: Well, let me just give you a comment on your comment. By the way, thank you for allowing Charles Krauthammer (inaudible) we don't have a chance to have him very often, so we appreciate it that.
BAIER: I don't control his schedule.
BECKEL: I'm only kidding you. The expectations on Obama are quite low on this. I mean, the public believes that he's not very good at these things, he's weak on foreign policy, any pluses come out of this, and I believed so far, the evidence is pretty conclusive that ISIS has been driven back because of finally being bombed and the Kurds helping out. Isn't there really a risk, the risk is more on the republicans than the democrats if they oppose it?
BAIER: I mean, if you look at the polls and the latest Wall Street Journal NBC poll, Bob, has republicans now on the issue of being able to deal with foreign policy challenges up 38 points. You have Chuck Todd who just did that interview on meet the press saying that President Obama is at the risk of hurting democrats to the point of Jimmy Carter proportions for this midterm. So clearly, there are other who is feel like this is a dangerous moment for politically the democrats. I think you're right in the sense that the opportunity is there, if he hits all of the marks and the president does deliver on this speech tonight as much as he can without authorizing strikes and we're told he's not going to tonight. But if he does hit all the marks, there is up side potentially. But there are expectations.
PERINO: That's good point. Andrea.
TANTAROS: Brett, we're reading reports that he's going to argue for arming the Syrian rebels, the moderates. But there's also reports out there that these same moderates that the president's expected to argue need our weapons and our training were the ones that sold American journalists Steven Sotloff, how does the White House explains its position on the moderate, I mean it have the opportunity to arm them before, it did not, President Obama, you know, does he do that tonight? How does he convince them of a position that he himself has been opposed to?
BAIER: I think that's the biggest challenge. On the report that they -- the moderates sold Sotloff to ISIS, it's -- we don't have it independently confirmed, there are reports out there, but clearly there's a mixed bag of rebels in Syria and we've talked about this before, we talked about it months ago. When there were talks about arming these folks, and the concern was, we don't know really who they are, democrats and republicans have me concerned. You have President Obama in an interview with Thomas -- Tom Friedman with the New York Times, August 8th, say that it was fantasy to be able arm the Syrian rebels because there were doctors and farmers and pharmacist and radio operators and they were never going to have and now you see the interview, they were never going to have the skill to be able to change the ball game, move the needle, and now it has changed. The free Syrian army is the -- are the boots on the ground that the president will talk about tonight.
BOLLING: All right, Brett, I'm going to push back a little bit on the thoughts that -- that Chuck Todd interview was so great for the White House. I didn't it that way, so here's what I think his -- President Obama's big challenge is tonight, is to match the tone of the American people. So President Obama couple of months ago has called ISIS the JV team, the he gets asked by Chuck Todd about golfing, and he said I probably shouldn't type -- I misjudged the optics on that. For me, it would seem like, he would have to come -- in the meantime, the Americans are outraged about beheaded American journalists, who's next, is there a female that is going to get beheaded next, how many they have. So he has to somehow bring his own outrage or concern to the level of the American people, and clearly he hasn't with some 38 percent or so thinking he's doing a good job with regards to ISIS. So does he did it -- he come out there bold and fresh and go right at it. Is that what he -- you expect to see from him?
BAIER: Yeah and my point about the White House was that, the White House believes that the reaction to the Chuck Todd interview changed the dynamic, not that -- that in fact, it really did. The White House felt emboldened after that Chuck Todd interview, and that's why they moved that speech from afternoon to evening -- to prime time. I think that this will be the strongest you've heard on the president, you know, after we saw three false starts on those news conferences, I think this will be the strongest he's been, and they won't be JV.
PERINO: I actually think that the White House, they might say that that was why they changed it, but I have a feeling that their internal polling probably show what all the other polls have shown this week, and the only way to make sure the American people could focus attention was to pre-empt other programming and have a prime time address as my guess appropriately happen. Greg, get the last word.
BAIER: But remember, you can pre-empt a lot of people's viewing and go the other way in the polls, too.
PERINO: That's right. I guess expectation and risk, those are two things, I guess he's going to have to put in balance. But now, Greg, is going to get the last word. Greg.
GUTFELD: Well, he also said one thing, he said that we are far safer than we have ever been, which is true if you factor in, you know, evil things like fattening foods and bullying and evil business owners. Is he gonna address the overarching fear that right now, we are not safe and that the polls openly contradict what he has said?
BAIER: He'll have to address safety overall because of the timing, September 10th and September 11th. But, Greg, you look at those latest polls and we have new polls coming out in 45 minutes with Fox and they are upside down on people believing that we are safer than we were six years ago.
PERINO: I think that's absolutely remarkable in his six year of presidency.
OK, Brett, thank you for being here with us, we'll see you tonight. You can catch a special report of course at 6:00 P.M., and then also a special treat, 11:00 P.M. Eastern live tonight with Bret Baier. What would we like to hear the president say in the speech tonight? We're going to take it
around the table when we come back right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUTFELD: So what do I want to hear from our guy tonight? Here's what I don't want to hear.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: It's extraordinary, extraordinary, extraordinary, extraordinary, and extraordinary, and extraordinary, extraordinary, extraordinary skills, extraordinary, extraordinary team, extraordinary, extraordinary, extraordinary progress, an extraordinary investment, extraordinary summit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: Everything is extraordinary, except his (inaudible) but the time for repetitive rhetoric is over. No shoot-outs or (inaudible) to disturbances currently lighting up TMZ, we don't need that. Now, the president must address all Americans as we now face an external devastating threat. Being president is not the same as directing an ad for Benetton.
There are no gay Americans, black Americans, Mexican Americans, just Americans, defense trumps diversity. This means everything. For the past six years we have lived in a bubble of Obama's making, where all of our troubles are within our boarders, America is in turmoil, but not the world.
We were a patient needing an I.V. of tolerance. An emergency heart transplant because the old one was toxic. President Obama offered us alternative medicine, a fuzzy herbal supplement that sounds good but it's worst that a (inaudible). So, tonight, President Obama must abandon politics as team sport and unite us against the toxic threat that is radical Islam. Yes, he must speak of the evil that he dare not speak of before. Because it's the fear of that truth that led to the beheading and rapes in England and to Paris, riddled with radicals, it's Islamophobia phobia leading to all of this. It you can't face that, then we're done. But maybe Obama isn't that kind of unifier, and sadly it will take an event instead of a man that will unify us. It won't be extraordinary, it'll just be awful. So, Andrea, what do you want to hear? Not what you expect, but what would you love to hear?
TANTAROS: I would love to hear him walk out to the podium and talk about closing the border. If those polls are as we suspect them to be and the ones we have seen already come out, that more Americans feel less safe than they did before 9/11, that's a huge problem. He's could say that, he's not gonna say that, that's what I want him to say. I also want him to make a really compelling specific case for going after radical Islamist Jihadism.
And I want him to admit that he was wrong, that we're not at war with radical Islamist Jihadism, and that there is no war on terror. I would love it if he walks that back and said, you know, what? I was wrong, I should've backed in sooner.
He's not gonna do any of those things, I'm very deeply troubled by what he will say, which is arming the Syrian rebels. I have to say that the reports that these same moderates sold Steven Sotloff to Isis for $25,000. And that some of these moderates also are making beheading video themselves, are troubling. I mean, they're already riding around in our equipment in Libya, they're doing it in Iraq, I think it's very likely that if we arm them and train them, we're not gonna get a moderate government in Syria, we're not gonna the response that we want, Greg. And they're going to be not just wasting 500 million of our dollars, but we're gonna be turning them over to the hands of the enemy, which very well could be al Qaeda and Syria.
GUTFELD: What do you think, Bob? What do you want him to say?
BECKEL: What I would like to see him to say is that he has, in fact, put together a coalition that includes Muslim countries. That would be the first and most I think is important. And I would love to see Turkey as part of that, but I don't think we will.
PERINO: I they will. I think we'll get turkey but no one else.
BECKEL: Well, OK. We'll find out. What I would like to see, now, and in terms of -- you said they take an event, not a person. I think those events have happened. I that there's two beheadings in my political career, I don't think I have seen something that has turned the public as quickly as that did. Before just remember, before that the public was not interested in getting involved in all of this, now they have these two events and boom it turns it. It also turn, obviously turns Obama. So an event has to happen. And as a result to that, you got to meet that, and (inaudible) have to say is he campaigns as a domestic president and he has to realize that there's not the luxury as president -- picking out whether you want to be a domestic president or foreign policy president.
GUTFELD: And that's the point. I mean, if you only had to be a domestic president, that's not really a president at all, Eric. You have to hear a president to the world and he hasn't.
BOLLING: So the things I`d like to hear, number one, I'd like to hear we are going to step up or we have stepped up our attacks, air attacks, massively, not just 138 or 158 over a 32 day period, about 158 a day, in Syria as well. Make the decision to go ahead in Syria. I'd like to hear, I love to hear Turkey on board as well, and maybe Saudi Arabia, throw Iran in there as well. You're probably not gonna hear -- honestly, I don't think you're gonna hear any of it. I think he's gonna say, this is just us, we're gonna do it alone. But the most important thing I'd like to hear and, again, I'd say ask -- Bret about it. I'd like to him to say I'm gonna go get approval from congress, I'm gonna do it the right way. And I'm pretty darn sure that you're not gonna hear that tonight.
GUTFELD: Dana.
PERINO: I want to hear one thing very specifically about intelligence gathering. I want him to stay that our policy is not going to be just to bomb them, but to capture so that we bring them to Guantanamo bay, or if you want so maybe wanna ship them (ph), stay around the world for a year, that's fine. But I think the intelligence gathering piece is something that we desperately need so we can find out where the other one is hiding, where are they keeping our people and what their plans are so that we can -- why are you laughing at me?
GUTFELD: No, I'm not laughing.
PERINO: You were. It was working.
GUTFELD: Hangover.
PERINO: That was a really great point about intelligence gathering.
GUTFELD: Yes. It's a good point. No. I was thinking of the two things that I want him to say, that I know he's not gonna say, which is anything about energy independence, that we have to -- we have to frock, we have to do pipelines so we don't have to worry about these crazy people and stop the cuts in defense. But I don't I'm gonna hear that.
PERINO: If now -- if we took all the pieces of this speech, it would be very good.
GUTFELD: It would very good.
BECKEL: And one thing we go to see -- the war powers act allows and to go and make a decision to bomb. What does not -- he has to go to congress to get $500 million more to do training. No president can decide to get $500 million just sort of pick it out wherever he wants it.
PERINO: I think he'll get it. He'll get the money.
BOLLING: He'll get congressional approval too. How about you do it?
TANTAROS: And then he'll blame them if something goes wrong.
BOLLING: Right.
GUTFELD: All right. Next, had the NFL seen the second Ray Rice tape before suspending him for only two games? There's new information on that coming
up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BOLLING: Shocking new developments in the story we've brought you over the last couple of days, the brutal knockout by Ray Rice of his then fiancee Janay Rice. The accused reporting New Jersey Law Enforcement sources sent the NFL the video inside the elevator five months ago. But moments ago, the NFL gave brief statement to ESPN stating, they have no knowledge of this and are looking into it, Listen to Roger Goodell on the NFL's efforts in obtaining the video and TMZ's Harvey Levin smacking it down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROGER GOODELL, NFL COMMISSIONER: I don't know how TMZ or any other website gets their information. We are particularly relying on law enforcement.
It's the most reliable. It's the most credible and we don't seek to get that information from sources that are not credible.
HARVEY LEVIN, TMZ: He is just full of BS. For him to suggest the casino video is incredible is ridiculous, because where do you think the police got their video? They got it from the casino.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: All right. So Bob, you know, a couple of things that we need to sort out here. We have the NFL, we have the Ravens team and, you know, you have law enforcement. Law enforcement had this video, they didn't provide it to the Ravens or the NFL.
And one more thing to consider in this whole mix, this jambalaya of information. Ray Rice works for the Ravens; he doesn't work for the NFL.
So a lot of people are pointing the finger at Roger Goodell and the NFL.
Maybe they should be looking at law enforcement and the Ravens.
BECKEL: If you believe the story that the law enforcement official says they did send it to the NFL. And that, in his own words, Goodell said, "We trust law enforcement; we don't trust TMZ." It's sort of inconsistent, frankly. I think they probably did get the video and they didn't want to look at it.
BOLLING: You did see this part, it's unauthorized, right?
BECKEL: OK, unauthorized. I've never said anything is authorized necessarily. I never have made that claim.
GUTFELD: Your entire life is unauthorized.
BECKEL: That's right. But seriously, what I'm saying, but your point about Ray -- about the Ravens, I think the Ravens have been incredibly quiet in all of this.
BOLLING: Ultimately, and Ray Rice has an employment -- Ray Rice has an employment contract with the Ravens. He doesn't have one with the but everyone seems to want to point to the NFL as being -- I don't know -- asleep at the wheel with the punishment. Meanwhile, they're the ones who said, "We made a mistake," and they fixed their -- their punishment procedures.
TANTAROS: All three of them are to blame. Right? Law enforcement had the opportunity to throw the book at him, that prosecutor in Atlanta County.
He did not. We're not sure why, but we can guess, because he was probably pressured. Or because he's trying this very high-profile case.
You're right, the Ravens organization, a history of domestic violence. I believe he's the third player. And the NFL.
And Bob, you bring up a great point. Roger Goodell is talking out of both sides of his mouth. He says the police are the credible sources. Now the police are saying, "Hey, we gave you that video." Oopsie. Who's the discredited source now? It looks like the NFL.
Roger Goodell has a huge problem on his hands. I mean, is he going to act now retroactively to punish other players in the NFL? There's a credibility issue.
I mean, and I would not -- again, I said this yesterday. I would not take
on TMZ. They're not going to stop because their credibility is in question. And it is astounding that they're the only ones that have the guts to take on the most powerful sports agency, because without this video, they would still be playing.
GUTFELD: You know, I've been watching a lot of TV, since I was away, and one thing that keeps bothering me about this whole story, and I looked it up. None of Jenay's family have spoken up about this, the mother or father. And I'm thinking that, if I had seen that video or if I had seen that man do that to my daughter, I would kill them, wouldn't you?
And I find it strange that that happened -- they haven't said anything, and it makes me think was a deal was made so they assume it's no big deal?
That's what bugs me now. I guess because we've gotten to the point where we know that this is repulsive, what we saw was repulsive. It's bad, and if people knew about it's bad. But I'm wondering why there are specific people who aren't talking about it and are trying to make it into not a big deal, or some deal that was made.
BOLLING: I'm trying to figure out why this focuses on one man, Roger Goodell when there are so many other people that maybe we can look at.
Dana, before you weigh in, can we listen Roger Goodell on his job and then Jim Gray, a famous sportscaster on what the NFL owners of the NFL have to say about Goodell.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you feel like your job is on the line?
ROGER GOODELL, NFL COMMISSIONER: No, I'm used to criticism. I'm used to the -- every day I have to earn my stripes.
JIM GRAY, SPORTSCASTER: There is no support from anybody in ownership to see Roger Goodell leave. So a lot of pundits, a lot of commentators, a lot of very well thought out writers, a lot of people are calling for that, but it's not going to happen. No way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: Dana, this new information came while -- literally while we were on air. Do you think that changes the sentiments among the owners?
PERINO: You know at the White House, when they're asked about a cabinet secretary who's in trouble and you keep asking the White House press
secretary: Does the president still have confidence in so and so? And they do up until the moment that they don't. And I have a feeling it could get to the point where that sportscaster there would have to eat his words.
Now, there's a lot of professionals who are trained in dealing with domestic abuse. That's certainly not my specialty.
But when it comes to crisis communications, I'd be curious to see a case study written about this. What I would do if I were the NFL, I would hire a private investigator to look into everything and make sure that they have all the facts on the table and be totally transparent with it, because Andrea is exactly right. TMZ will continue to pull on these threads. And if you're the communicator; if you're the P.R. people at the NFL, you better be demanding that everybody get in a room and that you're not going to do any other work. You're not going to say anything else, until you are assured for your own self-respect and for that of the organization that they actually have all the facts before they take one further step.
BECKEL: You know, one comment on the thing about the NFL. Where I don't agree with it is that the NFL is the one that hands out punishment. I mean, the individual teams can punish their -- but the NFL ultimately is the one that makes the decision about tenure and whether you can play under their logo or not. So they really are involved in this sense.
BOLLING: I didn't say they were uninvolved. I said Ray Rice's employment contract is with the Ravens, not with the NFL. Now they have to adhere to the NFL policies and conduct clauses and whatnot. I get that. It's not unlike -- I don't know -- let's say a man works for a company, he's paid by the company but he violates an SEC law, or an FCC law. Well, they can go ahead and levy punishments, because they're the regulating body, but the employment contract is with the company. With FOX, not necessarily SEC.
BECKEL: How do you read this is the question, really? How do you read this? I thought they said that they released him.
BOLLING: No. The Ravens released -- that's my point. The Ravens released him on the same day that the NFL decided to disqualify him from playing, which means, everyone's pointing their finger at the NFL but not the Ravens. I mean, the Ravens -- where were the Ravens in investigating, where were the Ravens looking for the video?
TANTAROS: Right. And I'm sure the Ravens were probably even more motivated, since it was their organization, to get their hands on the video.
But Eric, even if they couldn't get the video -- let's assume they could not -- there is a police report, and the credible source here is law enforcement. There was a detailed report that dictates everything that was on that video. So they're telling me they couldn't even read the police report?
Look, I don't think Roger Goodell should lose his job over this. I don't think he should step down. It reminds me of politics in a way. Dana I thought of you right away. The candidate usually doesn't know, the senator doesn't know. You keep things from him. Maybe he didn't know. Maybe this is plausible deniability. But he does have a huge problem on his hands, because that means why didn't you know?
PERINO: Think of all the staff on the John -- the John Edwards campaign who basically had no -- they know "the National Enquirer" is sniffing around about the story about John Edwards for a long time, and they're all too scared to ask what's actually happening. And it craters John Edwards and the family. And puts a stain on...
BECKEL: And they knew what was going on.
PERINO: Yes.
BECKEL: Let's say that cleared up tomorrow. He's released. He could be picked up by another team.
BOLLING: Take a listen to this. I'm glad you asked that. Go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What does that mean, that he was suspended in definitely? Does that mean Ray Rice will never play in the NFL again?
GOODELL: I don't rule that out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: So, as far as the NFL's concerned, at some point he may be able to play again. Your thoughts on that?
GUTFELD: I don't know. You know the thing. I think I've seen this video about 1,000 times. And I'm beginning to question whether we have to keep seeing the video.
I mean, honestly, I was sitting at the airport. I must have seen it, like, over and over again. Everybody talking about how horrible this video is, people going, "This is repulsive; this is disgusting. Let's show it again."
BECKEL: You can bring back the t-shirts. Who puts the video?
GUTFELD: Who puts the video? There you go.
BECKEL: We're going to have to leave it right there.
GUTFELD: That is so Raven.
BECKEL: Coming up on "The Five," some schools are doing away with homework, but should they? "The Five" on that topic next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TANTAROS: Kids across America just got back to school, and that means long nights of dreaded homework, but not for all. Some schools in the country are beginning to experiment with no-homework policies, specifically ones with common core curriculum, which is rethinking how students spend their time.
So Greg, I understand common core is very difficult. You last week pointed to that very tricky problem. But do you think no homework is the answer?
I mean, shouldn't we push our kids, even if it is tough?
GUTFELD: I have -- I have a solution for homework, and I have a theory. I don't think you should have any more homework, but you should replace it with what's called a trade grade. And that is, you replace homework with a class on manufacturing, so you learn to weld instead of whine. You don't blog; you build.
I think that's what we're looking at right now, when we're seeing across the country there's all these jobs that are available, but no one's taking them because they don't know how to do it.
So right now, you have unemployment among millennials that is twice that of the young adults in the next generation. So there's a huge gap. They don't care, though. A huge gap between their electronic luxury and the state of the economy. They don't feel the pain.
So we need to explain, in school -- there should be home economics -- that unless the job situation improves, the luxury that you are experiencing with your iPad, your iPod, and whatnot is going to dwindle. It's not going to be this way forever. Those iPods aren't made by a giant iPod elephant that pumps them out of its butt. It's made by people.
TANTAROS: Really?
GUTFELD: That was -- that was actually a disgusting image.
BECKEL: It certainly was.
TANTAROS: Wait. You didn't have shop class? You never put together an engine and took one apart?
GUTFELD: I made a wallet.
TANTAROS: Really?
GUTFELD: I made a wallet.
PERINO: We had shop class.
BECKEL: I signed up for home economics. I took home economics. All the women...
TANTAROS: Did you make sweatpants?
BECKEL: No. Cake.
PERINO: I made a cupcake pillow.
GUTFELD: Well, of course you would. It was probably made from real cupcakes.
TANTAROS: NO. We had shop class. We'd solder and do all those different things and make key chains out of Plexiglas. It was fun.
GUTFELD: How do you know if -- how do you know if you're not going to like it if you don't take the class? People might actually like that?
BECKEL: Well, the -- let's keep in mind schools are not doing it. They're taking this policy. They're also saying you need to read half an hour or an hour.
TANTAROS: Big deal. Read what?
BECKEL: I never did answer.
TANTAROS: You could be reading labels.
BECKEL: It didn't matter. Well, that's true, too. But -- but I think it's a waste of time going homework. I mean, why -- what do you get out of doing homework? Parents get a rash; they generally can't handle their...
TANTAROS: I would have agreed, like, 20 years ago.
BOLLING: Here's what you get: you get structure. Now schools are adding a lot of study time within the school hours so kids are doing their -- they're rushing through their homework so that they can finish up. Once school is done, they can go out and do what their thing: hang out, play, whatever they do, depending on the age.
What you do, though, is you demand, whatever it is: a half hour, an hour, whatever your thing is, after school, to do. Whether you're done with it or not, you sit there and read, if you're done with your homework. It provides structure. And once that -- you stop doing that, then they have the -- then things start to fall apart. The structure of knowing you have to do it is amazingly helpful.
TANTAROS: Dana, what do you think about this? More than 80 percent of respondents in a Today.com poll complain that their kids have too much homework. Do you think that's true? Do you think parents are maybe exhausted helping their kids? Maybe they find it to be too hard, too challenging, this common core stuff, and they're like, "too much"?
PERINO: I didn't -- I don't think my parents were ever involved in my homework. They never had to worry if I was doing my homework. When I got home, the first thing I did was I sat at the breakfast bar and I did all my homework. And then I would make up Spanish vocabulary tests for my...
GUTFELD: You created your own homework, even if they didn't give it to you.
PERINO: I would.
GUTFELD: Her parents are like...
GUTFELD: "Dana, not so much homework."
PERINO: They probably were.
TANTAROS: Do it on your cupcake pillow?
PERINO: And here's the thing, it gave me more time to play and to exercise, which is possibly a good thing. But in the charter school studies that were just released. I think I read it on Friday or Saturday.
One of the most successful things of charter schools is that they have longer school days, so you're actually at school longer. So maybe that is a solution. You don't have to have so much homework after you go home.
BECKEL: You people out there who are shocked by this, only if you know Dana can you believe this is true. I mean, nobody but nobody but nobody would make up their own homework. Except her.
TANTAROS: I love your point about charter schools. Too bad the progressives are trying to get rid of them.
PERINO: Exactly my point.
BECKEL: Damn right. Crush them.
TANTAROS: Yes, we should. Coming up, all kinds of issues could impact November's midterm elections, but will foreign policy be the key issue for voters when they cast their ballots? That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECKEL: It's the economy, stupid. The famous electoral mantra made famous by James Carville in 1992 may not hold true this November. Some in the GOP have started targeting their opponents on what they see as the Democratic party's weakness on international affairs. GOP wave or not, will foreign policy dominate voter sentiment at the ballot box this midterm season?
Dana, what do you think?
PERINO: Well, this morning Rick Klein of ABC News -- I really like following him on Twitter and on his blog. He talked about a focus group in Arkansas last night with 10 moms.
And one of the things that they said -- that they described, their feelings about politics is just bad haywire, scary, horrible, unrest, downhill. It wasn't specifically about the economy.
One mom said, "It just feels unstable all the time."
The way I describe it is you know how the sky looks and feels right before a storm? That's what people are feeling, and that is one of the reasons they're motivated to vote this time around. It's not necessarily just the economy, but everything just feels unsettled.
BECKEL: Does international policy play into it?
TANTAROS: You know, it typically doesn't, as you know better than anyone, Bob, in midterm elections. I think, if anything, it will help decay the Democratic brand. Right? Because Republicans are stronger, typically, on foreign policy and national defense. So they could use this to go after their opponent.
Do I think it's the biggest issue? Probably not. But we'll see what happens now until election day.
Will it be a wave election? I think any time you can flip the Senate to your side, it's a wave election, but maybe five or six seats, I think.
BECKEL: Could be. Eric.
BOLLING: So let's do the numbers. Five seats brings it to a tie, which means Joe Biden would have to come from wherever he hangs out to go cast the deciding vote. So that wouldn't be good for -- may be good for -- not for the Republicans.
So you need six. So you have 538 in Ned Silver's (ph) group. You have Larry Sabato and Rosenberg, Stanley Rosenberg all looking at 6 to 7.
TANTAROS: Stu.
PERINO: Stu Rosenberg.
BECKEL: Stu Rosenberg.
PERINO: Stan Rosenberg, too.
BOLLING: OK, so yes. So they're all looking at 6 to 7 seats, which would flip it to the GOP. And then what do you get? You have GOP House, GOP Senate. And then you have Obama. And you can't beat all that kind of stuff. But it would be fun watching Joe catch that vote.
BECKEL: That's where I've got my count right now, is at 52. No, 52 for the Republicans.
And one of the things I've said before is that -- how critical it is that chairmanships of these committees? I mean, you cannot -- you can't begin to contemplate this until you the chance -- you can move legislation onto the floor. That's one thing.
But the second thing is foreign policy has got -- I mean, if you look at George H.W. Bush, he's 90 percent favorable on Desert Storm and got beaten.
If you look at -- the only time I remember where foreign policy played that big a thing was the Vietnam War.
I'll wrap in one damn second. And so anyway, never mind. "One More Thing."
BOLLING: What about Greg.
BECKEL: I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Greg. I was getting yelled at.
GUTFELD: I was actually going to agree with you on this. The issue is, is
-- what affects midterms might not be a person, but an event. Because the question is, do -- like for example like the Gulf War, do Americans care?
And I always talk about what is the opposition to FNC. It's not CNN or MSNBC. They don't actually matter. It's actually Bravo and the E!
network. Because that's where people go for their vapid distracted entertainment.
TANTAROS: Hey, watch it.
GUTFELD: I know. I know, you're a fan. I am, too. But people, I believe, are too distracted by the -- now they're yelling at me, Bob.
People are too distracted by disposable entertainment to follow what's going outside until an event comes and changes everything, sadly.
BECKEL: I agree with you. OK. Can we go now? OK. "One More Thing" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PERINO: It's time now for "One More Thing." We have to go very fast.
OK, I want to offer congratulations to Charles Krauthammer. He's a friend of the show. But he just sold over a million copies...
GUTFELD: Wow.
PERINO: ... of a collection of his essays, called "Things That Matter." I remember when they said this book would never tell. This has actually broken all records. It's unprecedented. And it's a terrific book. We want to offer him our sincere congratulations, and we hope he comes and visits us on "The Five"....
TANTAROS: Congratulations.
PERINO: ... sometime -- Andrea.
TANTAROS: OK. Good news in the story about pranksters who pulled a trick on this young autistic boy in Ohio. They found the vile little pigs that tricked this little autistic boy into participating in an ice bucket challenge, where instead of dumping ice water, they dumped feces and urine on him. They found these teens. Thank God. I hope prosecutors go after them.
But also, I want to give kudos out to Jenny McCarthy, Donny Wahlberg and Drew Carey, who each pledged $10,000 to anyone who had information to lead to the capture. I always liked Jenny McCarthy. I like her even more because of this. Very good. And they really should punish these kids.
BECKEL: And if they don't prosecute them, kill them.
BOLLING: They're...
PERINO: All right. Greg, you're next.
GUTFELD: All right. Well, I hate those people. But I also hate...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: I hate these people!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: There you go. So once again at a restaurant, enjoying myself, sitting outside on a picnic bench, minding my own business, smoking this thing. Somebody comes up to me and says, "Excuse me, sir. Could you put that out?"
And I go, "You can't put out an electric cigarette." It's -- it's water vapor. It's water.
Still, they go, "You know what? Other people think that it's a cigarette.
You must put it out."
So I put it out in the person's eye, and then I stabbed them.
NO, I just put it in my pocket. But I just had to say, we have to stop this madness. This is saving people's lives. It's saving people's lives.
PERINO: In California or here?
GUTFELD: California.
PERINO: All right. All right, Bob. Oh, Eric.
BOLLING: OK. Very quickly, it's called "When the Game Stands Tall," the audience loves this movie. It's in the theaters right now. It's a 78 percent in Rotten Tomatoes, but critics hate it because it's faith-based.
Watch a little bit of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRAPHIC: It's not about sports.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got lost, caught up in the hype, the glory and the relentless pressure. That's not who we are. We need to stand back up and find our way again.
GRAPHIC: It's not about winning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got to decide what you want to be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: All right. Check this out. Coaches are describing the movie.
They're sending -- they're renting the movie theaters out, and they're sending their teens to it. The Broncos, the Redskins, the Panthers, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Old Miss, colleges, high schools, even middle schools sending the whole team to watch this movie. It's a fantastic movie. Check it out.
PERINO: Maybe you should take all of us. OK, Bob.
BECKEL: We don't have much time, but the previews for employer based health insurance increased three percent this year, the lowest in 15 years.
And guess what? It's Obamacare.
PERINO: Blah, blah, blah. That's it. "Special Report" is next.
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