Clinton camp expresses regret over handling of health scare
Episode sparks new questions over nominee's health
This is a rush transcript from "The Five," September 12, 2016. 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, Eric Bolling, Dana Perino and Hillary Clinton. It's 5 o'clock in New York City and this is "The Five."
Hillary Clinton camp has accused Donald Trump of pushing, quote, "Deranged conspiracy theories" about of his opponent's health. They may be forced to change that narrative. However, after the secretary scary stumble yesterday. Clinton is recovering at home today after appearing to collapse while abruptly departing New York's 9/11 memorial ceremony. Her team initially said the democratic nominee overheated, but they finally came clean that a doctor had given her an ammonia diagnosis just two days before. Even Clinton ally David Axelrod thinks it was a mistake to keep that secret tweeting, "Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia." What's the cure for unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems? Her camp is expressing some regret today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN FALLON, CLINTON CAMPAIGN PRESS SECRETARY: Well, I think that in retrospect we could have handled it better in terms of providing more information more quickly. I should say that is soon as she got into the vehicle, she was alert the whole time and was telling staff that she was fine. I do think that in those 90 minutes that elapsed, we could have gotten more information out more quickly and that's on the staff, that's on us. And we regret that.
ANDREA MITCHELL, MSNBC HOST: Did she ever actually lose consciousness?
FALLON: No, Andrea. I don't think so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: All right, debatable. So we'll decide because we have a table of doctors here. Don't we?
(LAUGHTER)
GUILFOYLE: Just kidding. All right, so Dana, what did you think from a communications perspective? You've got Axelrod, kind of going on the offensive saying what people who are not necessarily supporting Hillary were thinking the same thing, why are you making more trouble for yourself?
DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: The interesting thing about David Axelrod coming out and saying that is that when he was working with Barack Obama and they were challenging Hillary Clinton in the primary in 2008, they know -- they knew their opponent very well. So David Axelrod knows that her team has this desire. And I think it comes from the top, to just try to keep everything very quiet. I had walking pneumonia two years ago on the show. If you remember, I coughed for six weeks and finally Greg said, "Dana, I don't think that's just a cough. I think pneumonia. Sure enough I did.
GUILFOYLE: It seemed like Ebola at the time, it was --
PERINO: And it was horrible.
GUILFOYLE: Yeah.
PERINO: And I remember -- but, I actually felt OK, so I--
GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: I saved your life.
PERINO: The thing is when he says that antibiotics can take care of pneumonia, not if it's viral pneumonia. I mean, you could split this in all sort of different ways and go on WMD -- WebMD and try to figure it out. But I do think that it wouldn't have been that big a deal for her team to come out on a Friday night. It was Friday night that they got the diagnosis and say, "She has been diagnosed with walking pneumonia" which after -- or pneumonia, whatever it is. But that would have explained a lot of things.
GUILFOYLE: Right.
PERINO: But now she seems -- they just made it so much worse for themselves. They're really good at that.
GUTFELD: It could -- actually, if they had done it Friday, they could have used that to explain the basket .
PERINO: Of deplorable.
GUTFELD: . of deplorable. It's all that's because she had pneumonia, right?
GUILFOYLE: No, I've --
GUTFELD: They could have married it together. Look, she's good at hiding an illness, but tells ISIS there are no ground troops. So she knows how to keep a secret if the secret is hers. And -- you know I look at this, is I brought this here. I have -- I know I'm not the first person to notice this, but it's like this way to the hospital.
GUILFOYLE: Oh my, God.
GUTFELD: I know other people have seen this. And it's like, it's like a weird symbol that I think, maybe they should change it. Maybe it should -- no, no, no.
PERINO: No, no, no.
GUTFELD: It should be up like -- Hillary rise, Hillary on the rise. That's, that's much better. But it's just -- it's strange. This is -- and the other thing, would you mind if I --
GUILFOYLE: Strange like this show.
GUTFELD: Yeah. The other point I want to make --
GUILFOYLE: Yes.
GUTFELD: What made this story? The e-mail story moves slowly. But this happened because of a video. This is, this is the way news works. Now you read -- when there was a video, literally, a viral video.
GUILFOYLE: Who pushed the video?
GUTFELD: Pneumonia.
GUTFELD: They now --
PERINO: And they can't fix that either.
GUTFELD: Yeah, exactly.
GUILFOYLE: All right, so that was good, a nice opening there from Marcus Welby, M.D. in there.
GUTFELD: I am not a doctor.
GUILFOYLE: Yes.
GUTFELD: Although I pretended to be one in small towns.
GUILFOYLE: And you also claimed to have saved Dana's life. This is also interesting. OK, let's hear now from Dr. McDreamy --
ERIC BOLLING, CO-HOST: So --
GUILFOYLE: Mr. Doctor McDreamy here.
BOLLING: Let's not, let's have diagnosed Clinton. Let's diagnose her campaign. And we'll look -- 2005, she faints before a speech, '09 she falls and braced her elbow, 2011, falls boarding the airplane, 2012 falls, gets a concussion, can't testify and Benghazi has to be delayed. She, in 2013, she needs the special lenses on her glasses to testify because of dizziness. February of this year falls, walking up the stairs. Recently the coughing fits the campaign. She jokes about --
PERINO: Can I add one other thing?
BOLLING: Yeah.
PERINO: When she did her interview with the FBI, and we got that information, she actually said that she couldn't remember several types.
BOLLING: I remember.
PERINO: So you can add one more --
BOLLING: I'm getting to that. We're not even there yet.
PERINO: Oh.
BOLLING: The cough recently. The coughing fits and she jokes about it being allergic reaction to Donald Trump, and the campaign jokes and says -- that doesn't even joke anymore, the campaign covers. They say you know what, she has had of seasonal allergies even, maybe even recommended or suggesting she was taking antihistamine., Then Sunday -- Dana, and then Dana is right, inserting there 40 times she can't remember, can't remember. And then Sunday, she blacks out. If you look at that video, and I've seen it probably a hundred times, that right foot is dragged along into the van, anyway you sliced it. And there's no way that she --
GUTFELD: Why would you slice it?
BOLLING: There's no way she is conscious being brought into that van. And remember, her legs are staggering. Here is the problem.
(CROSSTALK)
BOLLING: Ninety minutes, it took the campaign to say it was overheating and then nine hours later, nine hours later they realize that the video is out there. They got caught and they said, you know what, five days ago, four days ago, we knew about her being diagnosed with pneumonia. Now, come on guys, they've always reverts to the lies. That's the natural reaction of the Clintons and the Clinton campaign. I will tell you, she can't laugh it off anymore. I certainly hope the secretary is OK, but her campaign is in free fall right now. She is done. She is not fit to run the country.
GUILFOYLE: What's going to happen to the polls, Bolling?
BOLLING: Right.
GUILFOYLE: But this is -- it didn't cover that.
BOLLING: It does matter do is --
GUILFOYLE: It didn't cover this.
(LAUGHTER)
GUILFOYLE: There you go. So we've heard from Dr. Meredith Gray, Greg and I. So that means you got to be McSteamy, because Bolling is McDreamy. What do you have to say about this?
JUAN WILLIAMS, CO-HOST: No, I --
GUILFOYLE: Because you're sick, you got your colds from Hillary.
WILLIAMS: I may, I may have, but you know, but I -- I was just --what is the truth? I wanted -- so I thought you were building towards the truth.
BOLLING: She had -- listen, she needs to tell us. You know, let's find out.
WILLIAMS: Oh, because you know --
BOLLING: Let's get all the medical records.
WILLIAMS: Let me answer. You don't know the truth .
BOLLING: Let's get all the --
WILLIAMS: . but you build the --
BOLLING: Well, here is the, here's the truth.
WILLIAMS: Bolling case.
BOLLING: Her campaign is in free fall.
WILLIAMS: Oh, get out of town. Let me just say this.
BOLLING: OK.
WILLIAMS: I think that --
BOLLING: All right.
WILLIAMS: What's the real issue here is the lack of transparency by the campaign. I mean on Friday, she did a lot of stuff. You saw it here right here on "The Five," we had her meeting with the national security advisors. Then she has a press conference. Then she went on and did an -- I think an interview with CNN. So she was doing a lot of stuff even as she apparently had this -- we know about people working through a cold. I can tell you, I was doing that on Friday. But the real --
GUILFOYLE: You said it was allergy.
WILLIAMS: I don't know what it was.
GUILFOYLE: Now it's a cold.
WILLIAMS: But I know I went home, I was taking Claritin and all the kind. I was asking Greg, I was asking Dr. Greg for advice. But the reality is that she and her staff, I think reacting to people like Rudy Giuliani saying, "Oh, she has a concussion or she, or she's got low stamina. She can't do it." All the stuff that you just heard from Eric, I think they were overly protective to the point of being stupid.
GUILFOYLE: Right.
WILLIAMS: And then, not telling anybody that the woman is sick. And you know everybody gets sick.
GUILFOYLE: Yeah.
WILLIAMS: We're humans. Now, it comes into, oh, it's a serious issue because the people who are the birthers --
GUTFELD: You know what --
WILLIAMS: And then the (inaudible) -- all those, all those people with all their craziness. Now they get, hey, look at that video, Hillary Clinton. I don't know she was out, but she looked like she was disabled.
GUTFELD: OK, but Juan, this is what I don't understand. You are running for president. You must have the best physician outside of Barack Obama. You must have the best person there who can tell you exactly what to do. It blows my mind how sloppy they treated this.
PERINO: Well, you don't know that maybe -- the doctor maybe said why you don't take a few days off.
WILLIAMS: Yeah.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: And she said, "I can't. It's the 9/11 memorial." How's that gonna look like?
GUTFELD: Right, exactly.
GUILFOYLE: No, but apparently she got --
GUTFELD: She don't want to be proven --
GUILFOYLE: Fifteen of those .
GUTFELD: She didn't want her --
PERINO: Yeah.
GUILFOYLE: . doctors, but --
GUTFELD: Her skeptics, the skeptics to be proven correct. And by doing so, she proved them correct.
GUILFOYLE: Right.
GUTFELD: By going and fulfilling -- she actually showed them that she's not well. It's, it's also interesting to watch the media. Bend over backwards for this; originally, MSNBC, it was all about the humidity. How hot it was? Oh my God, you know, how could she wear that jacket in that heat? And then all of a sudden it was like, how brave it was that she had pneumonia and she was out there. It was -- they just could not bear the truth.
GUILFOYLE: It was like the most breezed that we had here in New York in a long time.
GUTFELD: Yeah, yeah.
GUILFOYLE: It was actually quite .
BOLLING: Here's the problem with --
GUILFOYLE: . refreshing.
BOLLING: With this whole theory .
GUILFOYLE: Yes.
BOLLING: . is that the campaign can none of them just say, no, secretary, we need to come clean on this?
PERINO: Right.
GUILFOYLE: Uh-huh.
BOLLING: So then she -- look, they knew Friday at the very latest. She was diagnosed earlier in the week, but she -- they knew at the very latest Friday that she had pneumonia allegedly .
PERINO: Right.
BOLLING: . from a few days prior. By the way, I would like to see -- I would love to see if we can get an x-ray. We can see pneumonia on that.
WILLIAMS: Now you want x-ray.
BOLLING: But it was great to see. Anyway, hold on. So they know Friday. She --
WILLIAMS: I think we got Doctor McStuffins here.
BOLLING: She has this episode that try and to hide. They hold the reporters back. She has this episode going into the van. At that point they should have said, "All right, we need to come clean. She had pneumonia. She still has pneumonia," instead they wait. First, they say it was overheated, and then they say nine hours later -- well, I guess what guys, it was -- we, we actually knew about it on Friday.
GUILFOYLE: Right. I mean --
BOLLING: She had pneumonia. They're always willing to lie --
GUTFELD: What if it's not pneumonia?
WILLIAMS: Yeah.
GUTFELD: I mean, look.
WILLIAMS: That would be a lie, but I'm just telling you --
GUTFELD: You can't -- you don't -- who do you trust?
BOLLING: You can see what's next, right?
WILLIAMS: But let me just --
BOLLING: That's all I'm saying.
WILLIAMS: Let me just say something positive here.
PERINO: Cable news.
WILLIAMS: I think that Dana was picking up on a moment ago. There are a lot of politicians -- I don't understand how they do it.
GUILFOYLE: Right.
WILLIAMS: I mean these guys, and women, go on and on. They work crazy hours, and I get tired covering them. I mean if you are on a -- if you are in the press pool, you are in trouble. By the way, there was no press pool with her if you know.
GUILFOYLE: I know, Juan.
WILLIAMS: And that's the problem.
GUILFOYLE: You probably got sick too, from making so many excuses from this.
WILLIAMS: No, no, no.
GUILFOYLE: That is exhausting, all right.
WILLIAMS: Thank you. But I'm just saying, seriously .
GUILFOYLE: OK.
WILLIAMS: I don't understand how they do it sometimes. And you -- and they have think that it's a badge of courage if you are like, oh, he, he just got a cold, work through it.
PERINO: Well --
WILLIAMS: Or your stomach is upset -- work through it. Eat the chicken dinner. That's all he got.
GUILFOYLE: Perhaps they should be a little bit worried about her health. But are democrats really worried about her health? I don't know. Maybe. It appears although according to two journalists, here is Cokie Roberts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COKIE ROBERTS, NPR "MORNING EDITION": The fact that it comes now when the polls are tightening and democrats were already saying that Hillary was the only candidate who could not beat Trump, and it's taking her off of the campaign trail, cancelling her trip to California today.
DAVID SHUSTER, FORMER MSNBC AND AL JAZEERA ANCHOR: Yeah, today. Yeah.
ROBERTS: All right. It has them very nervously beginning to whisper and about trying to having her step aside and finding another candidate. I think it's unlikely to be a real thing. And I'm sure it's an overreaction of an already skittish party.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: Hmm, interesting. A lot in there, and David Shuster tweeted this Intel from democratic operatives, "Expect emergency DNC meeting to consider a replacement." OK, so -- yes, Greg, go ahead.
GUTFELD: No. I was just gonna say --
GUILFOYLE: Hillary -- you are Hillary's --
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: I would not be surprised. I mean, you know, I mean it could just be pneumonia, but pneumonia -- I mean, there are a lot of things going on that we don't know about. I think you have to consider Joe Biden.
BOLLING: Just pneumonia?
GUTFELD: Yes.
GUILFOYLE: You said it, yes.
BOLLING: 57,000 people .
GUTFELD: I know.
BOLLING: . in America --
GUTFELD: If you are 69 with it.
BOLLING: CDC numbers, not mine. 57,000 people die .
GUTFELD: Yeah.
BOLLING: . from pneumonia and influenza in a minute -- that's why it matters. It's not just, oh, just pneumonia.
GUTFELD: Well --
BOLLING: It could kill her.
GUTFELD: Yeah, but a lot of people get over pneumonia.
WILLIAMS: Yeah, a lot of people who are sick and whose immune systems are weak, then get pneumonia and said they die pneumonia. But I mean, you know I mean, ordinary people get sick, Eric.
BOLLING: Then I'm just suggesting that not many ordinary people have this many instances of falling year after year, after year, after year --
WILLIAMS: Oh, Eric.
BOLLING: No, I'm just quite --
WILLIAMS: Yeah, here -- why don't you say --
BOLLING: But can I, can I ask yourself --
WILLIAMS: She has a --
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: She has a hyperthoid (ph) -- hyperthyroid problem, right?
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: Right. She has an allergy problem.
GUILFOYLE: It's hypo. She's hypothyroid --
WILLIAMS: But this is not like, oh this is not like, you know what? The way I get your -- it's almost like you start to think we should have all worn black in here .
BOLLING: Here's --
WILLIAMS: . because we're going to her funeral.
BOLLING: Here is what I think he was -- what ends up happening.
GUILFOYLE: I'm in black.
BOLLING: DNC, if they decide to do this, they can so it. And there's, there have been four instances where they have done this in the past where a candidate is removed for health reasons or other, and it's replaced --
GUILFOYLE: And if --
BOLLING: If the DNC -- but here's the issue.
GUILFOYLE: And if you are Trump, you want to run against Clinton or Joe Biden?
BOLLING: This is going to happen in the next day or two. You know why? Because some --
WILLIAMS: Would it --
BOLLING: Some ballots have already been sent out.
GUILFOYLE: If you are Trump, you want to run against Hillary Clinton or against Joe Biden.
WILLIAMS: Oh I thought you were suggesting that Bill Clinton could replace -- I was thinking no, no, you can't do that.
GUILFOYLE: thank you, Juan. Go ahead, Bolling.
BOLLING: No, I'm done.
(LAUGHTER)
GUILFOYLE: All right, this is a live shot here, yes -- sponsored by the Red Cross. So this is a live shot of her home there, we got Jennifer Griffin there, as well. You know, obviously, been a tremendous amount of interest in terms of how is she doing, is she going to be able to get better to fundraiser in California; Monday and Tuesday canceled there. This is not what you want going right into the debates.
GUTFELD: Well, it's also hard because she's been out of the spotlight for so long. And then when she's in the spotlight, this is what happens.
PERINO: Interesting.
GUILFOYLE: Hmm.
GUTFELD: We'll be right back.
GUILFOYLE: Thank you.
(LAUGHTER)
GUILFOYLE: A message from our sponsor, my pillow. Maybe she's on one. What's Clinton been doing today? We're going to check it with Jennifer Griffin who is live in her home in New York City, that's next. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PERINO: Back now to the questions swirling about Hillary Clinton's health. Her campaign initially said that she overheated while attending the 9/11 memorial, yesterday, but later admitted she had been diagnosed days before with pneumonia. Correspondent Jennifer Griffin is outside the democratic nominee's home in Chappaqua, New York, and joins us now. Jennifer, I'm sure you've been besieged with all sorts of requests from people all around Fox News asking you, what's the latest? So now it's our turn. What is the latest?
JENNIFER GRIFFIN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, the latest, Dana, is that we're told by her aides that she is at home resting and that she's feeling much better today. Remember, she started that course of antibiotics on Friday, and so those antibiotics should be working at this point. Her doctor issued a statement last night that I really did a double take when I read. Her doctor -- Dr. Laura (ph) Bardack wrote that she had diagnosed her on Friday with pneumonia. When I first read that I thought that she had perhaps diagnosed her when she saw her after the incident in 9/11 yesterday. But in fact, it was on Friday. And of course, nobody from the campaign shared that with any of the traveling press. And in fact, what was also worrisome, and you guys have talked about it, is that the protective pool who was with her at 9/11, they were held for about $90 minutes. They didn't know where they were. They weren't allowed to leave the site and they didn't know other than when our imbed producer who had heard from Rick Leventhal that she had left and had stumbled to the car on the way and had had some sort of medical incident. That protective pool was kept completely in the dark. Today, the campaign has said that they could have handled things better and they have apologized.
PERINO: And we're going to take around the table, Jennifer. Kimberly is next.
GUILFOYLE: Yes. So Jennifer, everyone wants to know, you know, really what is the, the true story here in terms of any chronic illnesses she has, any kind of, you know, precursors to this. There have been reports of like deep vein thrombosis, hypothyroidism, Hashimoto's disease, clotting disorders, and number of things, and then, of course, a concussion years priors, towards the end of her tenure as secretary of state. When are we going to get like the real firm answer on this, because the pressure is for them to release some more comprehensive records.
GRIFFIN: Well, her spokesman Brian Fallon was on the air today, and he said that there is no undisclosed, underlying condition other than pneumonia. Her doctors said that it was the -- she had had a long-term coughing fit. We saw that a week ago. There was the result of allergies and it developed into pneumonia. I just heard from several campaigns sources, just a little while ago, that there are about half a dozen of her top aides who have to had some sort of bug, and so serious that they have in fact ended up several of them in the hospital in recent weeks. So there's something going around campaign headquarters. A spokesman tells me that, that's not what happened to Hillary Clinton. They're not linking that bug. But some of the campaign aides have been on the plane with us. So I think the reason we know about the deep vein thrombosis and the concussion from 2012 is because Hillary Clinton has released some of her medical records. She's under pressure now to release more of those, and we understand from Brian Fallon, her spokesman, that she will be doing so of sometime in the coming weeks.
PERINO: And we want to get everyone in here, so have to keep it pretty pithy, Juan.
WILLIAMS: Jennifer, now, obviously, Mrs. Clinton was advised by the doctor, not to travel out to California. Is she still doing the fund-raisers by Skype or she's cancelling them all together?
GRIFFIN: No. They are not cancelling them. In fact, we just learned that Bill Clinton will fly out to Los Angeles and she -- he will be at those two fund-raisers hosted by Lionel Richie and Barry Diller. She is going to call in by teleconference, we're told tonight to the San Francisco fund-raiser. But she will not be flying. In fact, she'll not be flying out to Las Vegas on Wednesday when she was supposed to give a speech, either.
PERINO: All right, Eric?
BOLLING: You know Jennifer, when stuff doesn't add up, there -- usually it doesn't add up for a reason. Here's the -- here is the question I have. OK, so, now the campaign and Hillary Clinton know -- they know she has pneumonia. On Friday they know, so Sunday, she's at the memorial. They know she has pneumonia. They see her literally being carried into the van, yet they decide to go to Hillary -- to Chelsea Clinton's apartment, rather than a hospital. Rather than seeking immediate medical attention. There's trauma centers downtown. I know two major trauma centers down there that they could have taken her to. Why did they go to her, to her apartment? Number one; and number two, we didn't see Bill Clinton the whole weekend. Why is that?
GRIFFIN: Well, Bill Clinton was here in Chappaqua, we're told. In terms of why they went straight to Chelsea's apartment -- I don't know. For certain, I've asked whether she went to the hospital on Friday, for instance, to get a chest x-ray. And I have not gotten any response. But it's clear that they were concerned about optics. After 90 minutes she walked out of the -- Chelsea's apartment. She looked pretty good, frankly, for someone who had the kind of incident we have seen 90 minutes. She waived to the crowd. She walked on her own. She did not seem to be having trouble walking. I don't know why they didn't take her -- they did -- what we do know is that they did try do contact her doctor right away. They did get her on the phone. And they, they -- she also travels with a secret service agent, who I know has some medical training in addition to being on her service detail.
PERINO: All right; Gutfeld, for win.
GUTFELD: Jennifer, I -- does Donald Trump have be careful about asking for transparency? I know Thursday. Yes, it's, it's like a pre-emptive physical, right? It's, is to manage kind of the information. Does he have worry that they -- her staff or campaign or the media could ask the same questions of him?
GRIFFIN: Well, absolutely. I think the whole problem with both of these candidates is that the public is demanding more transparency. The Clinton campaign is fond of saying that Donald Trump needs to release not just his medical records, but also his taxes. And he wants her to release her e- mails, her private e-mails as well as more of her medical information. So, basically there's a lot of pressure on both candidates to be more transparent.
PERINO: All right. Thanks, Jennifer. We love having you on "The Five." See you again soon.
Another controversy for Clinton, she's also taking heat for calling half of Trump's supporters, deplorable. Trump called that the single biggest mistake of the political season. Is he right? We'll discuss it next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUILFOYLE: Awful music.
(LAUGHTER)
GUTFELD: Friday night, the opening act for Barbara Streisand preached the salivating choir, playing one of her recent hits, "basket of deplorables."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: To be just grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the "basket of deplorables."
(LAUGHTER)
CLINTON: Right?
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: The racists, sexists, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: Homophobic -- "basket of deplorables." Sounds like a Pixar film about Jeffrey Dumb and Dumber jump roar (ph), or the worst thing you could order from Hickory Farms. It insults millions of people, but it's nothing new from Hillary. This is not a gap, it's her plank. Now there are deplorables in every party, but Hillary exaggerated Trump to smear all of his supporters (inaudible), an odd strategy for someone accusing another person of divisiveness. But let's face it, the media and the democrats care more about some deplorables than others. Hate and paranoia exist in place on the right, but these are things the left have offered for years. Anti- Semitism has been excused on the left, as long as it hurts Israel. The left is the only place where cop killers and tyrants end up on t-shirts and a terrorist can throw a fund-raiser for a presidential candidate. Today, as the new right wages war with the old left using the left's worst tactics. Claims of polarization abound, something never raised when it was just the left that was pushing hate and rage inspired by Sir Welensky. Deplorable is what Hillary calls the world now when the right starts acting left.
Lastly, 2,997 flags, each representing a death on 9/11, were ripped out of the ground at a California college over the weekend. Whose deplorables did that?
So let's just roll Donald Trump's response to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I was thus deeply shocked and alarmed this Friday to hear my opponent attack, slander, smear, demean these wonderful, amazing people who are supporting our campaign.
She called half of our supporters a basket of deplorables, in both a speech and an interview. She divides people into baskets, as though they were objects, not human beings.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: Mm-hmm.
PERINO: Great line. That last line that he had in his speech.
The thing is, when Hillary Clinton starts to offer comments, she says, "Well, to just be grossly generalistic." So that's a cue...
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: ... that if you hear yourself about to say that, then don't say whatever you're about to say if you're on camera.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: But if you listen to the reaction of the crowd, she got laughs.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: And so she's very comfortable in front of the crowd that Barbra Streisand was hosting.
GUTFELD: Right.
PERINO: Because that crowd is going to laugh at something like that.
That's certainly not the Hillary Clinton that you saw that was giving a speech about the alt-right a few weeks ago, which I think was widely considered one of her best speeches of the campaign. And you think, OK, for both of these candidates, who is the real person? Right? So not a good weekend for Hillary Clinton all around.
GUTFELD: No, it's true.
PERINO: To be grossly generalistic.
GUTFELD: That's like saying, "This may sound racist, but..."
PERINO: Right.
GUTFELD: Don't say it. Stop right there, if it sounds racist.
Kimberly, I have a theory that this gaffe will have no effect, because she's not offending anybody who's going to vote for her. The people that she just insulted...
PERINO: Independents.
GUILFOYLE: Yes.
GUTFELD: Yes. Well, are there still some that are on the fence?
PERINO: There are.
GUILFOYLE: There are.
GUTFELD: All right. Explain.
GUILFOYLE: Important votes still out there to get. Independents is the key group that I think, obviously, Trump wants to get some sway with. I think it's going to be key in battleground states, as well.
And there's people, quite frankly -- and you've seen some of the polling out there -- where, for example, in states even like Pennsylvania, they like Bill Clinton. They do not like Hillary Clinton.
GUTFELD: Yes.
GUILFOYLE: And have elected to go for Donald Trump.
So you can see this actually matter, especially when you see the polls tightening the way they are. Like, now you see the battleground states mirroring the closeness of the nationwide polls.
So again, it's not a predictor of everything. But there are trends you should pay attention to.
Also, keep in mind -- yes, some of these are within 3 to 4 percent, margin of error, et cetera. So there's some wiggle room there. But when you are that close in a lot of these battleground states, you've got to pull votes from her.
And perhaps you can. Because when you couple her comments with the problem and the doubt, the lingering doubt from everybody about her health, it may be enough to say, "You know what? Nobody is perfect; and he has said some stuff, but he doesn't seem to be falling down on the trail. One thing. The guy does keep going. And so maybe why not give him a chance?"
Kind of like his outreach with the, you know, minority communities and African-American communities: "What have you got to lose? You've tried them. Look where they've gotten you."
GUTFELD: Eric, is this comparable to Mitt's 47 percent? Yes.
BOLLING: I was writing that down. Because we heard it all weekend. But it really is like that.
I mean, she insulted -- let's do the math on it. She insulted -- he'll get 60 million-plus votes in the general election. She insulted 30 million people right there, right? So if the general population is 120 million, she insulted 25 percent of the population.
Mitt Romney did the same thing when they said -- he had his 47 percent number. Now, it didn't affect his base. In fact, people who saw him as tone deaf and wrong and not someone they would want to vote for. And that is you where get the independents that you're talking about.
GUILFOYLE: That was picked up on mic. This was prepared.
BOLLING: Her apology was, "I wish I didn't say 'half'."
GUTFELD: Right.
BOLLING: What did she mean by that? Did she mean, "I wish I'd said all of them"? Fewer than half?
GUILFOYLE: Half an apology.
WILLIAMS: I can tell you, because I looked at the numbers. Because you know what? To me, it was important that she sharpened the focus on who Trump is a couple weeks out from the debates, Eric.
Because he's not a normal conservative. He's not a normal Republican. This is a guy who, according to a Washington Post poll that's out today, 60 percent of Trump supporters are biased against minorities and women, according to the American people. Forty-eight percent say, absolutely.
Sixty percent have an unfavorable view of Muslims and want to ban Muslims from coming into the United States, contrary to our Constitution.
They think -- a third of Trump's backers think blacks are more criminal. Half of them say blacks are more likely to be violent.
And of course, 60 percent are birthers. They don't think President Obama is an American citizen.
So when you talk about -- you say, oh, maybe she shouldn't have said this stylistically. Did she insult somebody? No, in fact, she told the truth. Maybe that's the problem.
She called out the Trump people who are bigots and said it. And guess what? Just like Dana said, it's not going to hurt her with Democrats. I don't think it's going to -- these numbers indicate it won't even hurt her with independents, because most Americans agree with her.
PERINO: It might energize her base.
GUTFELD: Well, that's the other strategy, is that they are so bored by her, this is all she has left, is to light a fire on their behinds.
BOLLING: Guess what else we didn't talk about all day today?
GUTFELD: What?
BOLLING: The e-mail scandals.
PERINO: That's a heck of a way to change the topic.
WILLIAMS: One thing we didn't talk about today, Trump says he doesn't invest in the stock mart. Of course, that's a lie. He invests millions in the stock market. He said that today. We don't even get to talk about it.
GUTFELD: You just -- you just were allowed.
PERINO: You know what? I think Porter has his run down for tomorrow.
GUTFELD: Yes. You're like Colin Kaepernick. You're saying, "Oh, the injustice." And we go, "Sure, go ahead."
Where does America stand in our fight against terror 15 years after 9/11? The Obama administration's take versus Dick Cheney's, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BOLLING: Yesterday while America commemorated the 15th anniversary of 9/11, our homeland security chief gave this optimistic assessment of where we stand now in our terror fight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEH JOHNSON, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: We are stronger against another 9/11-style terrorist directed attack from overseas. Our government has become pretty good at detecting and preventing something hatched from overseas, launched from overseas.
We're better than we were 15 years ago. Where we're challenged, however, is with the lone-wolf-style attack. The self-radicalized actor who is here in the homeland. And that's a relatively new environment, and it requires a whole of government response.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: Dick Cheney doesn't agree. He warned an even deadlier 9/11-style attack could happen here. The former vice president thinks the world is in greater danger 15 years after 9/11 and blames Obama in a new op-ed, written with his daughter, Liz.
Quote, "No American president has done more to weaken the U.S. The president who came into office promising to end wars has made war more likely. He has ensured that future wars will be longer and put more American lives at risk."
Greg, you've been saying this for a while. Yes.
PERINO: Greg concurs.
GUTFELD: You know what it is? It's simultaneously safer and less safe.
Because that's -- as technology expands, that's what happens. Like, comparing lifespans in the 1940s to the 1040s. You died much younger in 1040. But in the 1940s, you had mass destruction via technology. So fewer people died. But you have the technology to kill more people.
So while 9/11s might be fewer, a 9/12 with a magnitude of 10, has a greater chance of occurring.
BOLLING: Dana, out of curiosity, why -- I guess 9/11. But Dick Cheney, what's he doing?
PERINO: Well, I haven't spoken to him, so I'm not exactly sure. I think that one of the concerns is that if you think of the time period before 9/11, and the military and the intelligence communities had basically been stripped of some resources. And that is one of the things that you have the budget increases of the early 2000s, because we had to build that back up after 9/11.
And the worry is always going to be for whoever is president, are we having enough -- do we have enough resources that are being put forward? And also, do we have enough imagination to think about and conceive of what possible threats could be out there?
And what Secretary Johnson is saying is that the big catastrophic ones we're not going to have to worry about as much. I don't know if that's true. I hope it's true. He said the lone-wolf ones are a different problem.
He Whoever the next president is, is going to need the support of all Americans to figure out how do we fight this threat. Because the transition period will be very dicey.
I think what Dick Cheney is saying is that the military option has to be on table. And by constantly taking it off the table, it weakens diplomacy.
BOLLING: Well, bring it on.
K.G., these guys brought down -- they killed thousands, 3,500, with box cutters.
GUILFOYLE: Yes, I know. So listen, when you think about where we are now militarily in terms of a smaller force. Right? We're overcommitted in so many areas. And I think if you talk to anybody who works and is part of our elite special forces teams and units, they will tell you that one of the biggest problems they have right now are the rules of engagement that have hampered them and, in many instances, endangered their lives.
And that has been put forward by this administration. I mean, there's direct ties there in terms of it. And you see any of the people, like Marcus Luttrell talked about this quite extensively, that that's something they want to see dialed back.
Just that one thing alone, I think, is hugely problematic, because you have an administration that is more concerned about collateral damage than they are at many points about the lives of the men and women, the soldiers on the ground.
BOLLING: Are we safer now than we were in the last 15 years?
WILLIAMS: Absolutely. I mean, it's like to quote President Bush, we're safer, but we're never completely safe. You can never be completely safe.
But you know, the hard facts are that we have DHS, which didn't exist 15 years ago. We've put trillions of dollars into it. Everybody knows about going through the airports.
But I think the key point is here not only have we killed bin Laden, degraded al Qaeda, beat down ISIS. I mean, the Patriot Act in which we can look at the Internet, look at financial transactions, we are just a stronger country.
But I think it's Dick Cheney and a lot of the Republicans who play on fear and just try to stir people up and use it as a political weapon.
And the fact is...
GUTFELD: He's not in politics.
WILLIAMS: He is in politics.
GUTFELD: He doesn't care about politics anymore.
WILLIAMS: Oh, no, not at all. Yes.
GUTFELD: He just goes out and hunts.
WILLIAMS: Let me just say that this is, to me, part of what you have to understand is the changing nature of terrorism and what we have to confront. But to go on -- oh, yes, we're more danger -- I think it's just -- it's just playing on...
GUTFELD: Politics is one time, Juan.
GUILFOYLE: Look, I said yesterday on 9/11, Dana, remember, Dana, remember, you thanked all the TSA agents. The nice ones at the Reagan Airport. Very good.
GUTFELD: Blood's (ph) flying.
BOLLING: We need to go.
Ahead, more NFL players join Colin Kaepernick's national anthem protest and on 9/11 of all days. Will fans stand for this? Get it? Should they sit out their games? Next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIAMS: This weekend, several more NFL players joined 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's protest of racial inequality. Some Chiefs and Dolphins raised fists or knelt during the national anthem or right afterwards. The league's commissioner, he seems to be OK with it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROGER GOODELL, NFL COMMISSIONER: I support our players speaking out on issues they think need to be changed in our society. We don't live in a perfect society. Our players have strong views about things. So I support our players speaking out against that. But that's what the focus should be on, the changes he wants to see in our society.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Well, what about the fans? The hashtag #boycottNFL got a lot of traction on social media this weekend. If players keep sitting out anthems, will fans sit out games?
I've got some football fans here. So let me begin. I think you're a football fan.
GUILFOYLE: Yes, I am. And a 49er fan, indeed.
But you know, look, if you don't want to watch it, then don't, you know, turn on the TV. Don't go to the game if you're upset. Write them. Do whatever you want.
But bottom line is, the commissioner is right. They have -- they're OK to do it. There's no rule prohibiting somebody engaging in this kind of discourse, you know, by saying, "I'm going to take a knee or I want to sit it out." It just depends how you feel about it as a fan.
WILLIAMS: OK.
GUILFOYLE: OK. I don't like it. But that's me.
WILLIAMS: I think your Giants did well yesterday. How did you feel about this?
BOLLING: Remember, I'm a football fan. Giants I like as well as every single other team in the league.
Here's my problem. Yes, you're right, but they can change that. They can have clauses put into these contracts that say, "You will stand for the national anthem. If you don't like it, too bad." We won't -- you can put a clause. There are morality clauses in contracts.
WILLIAMS: But there's none there. But there's none there now.
BOLLING: So maybe going forward, you can start to do that.
My problem is when Victor Cruz and -- and the other wide receiver for the Giants, put some pro-9/11 thing on their cleats.
GUTFELD: Right.
BOLLING: They got fined $6,000 for doing it. I mean, if you're going to let these idiots...
GUILFOYLE: Right.
BOLLING: ... kneel during the national anthem, let Victor Cruz and Dale Beckham (ph) Jr., I guess it was.
GUTFELD: And a Titan linebacker did the same thing.
BOLLING: Let them do that.
GUILFOYLE: I love Victor Cruz.
BOLLING: And display pro-patriotism, too.
WILLIAMS: Well, and Dana Perino, you're a big football fan, as I know well.
GUILFOYLE: She picks all the winning teams.
PERINO: I do. I always pick a winner.
GUILFOYLE: Great record.
PERINO: I don't know to boycott. I just -- I don't think that they have thought through long-term consequences of their actions. What will it take for them to stand? What are they going to -- is this a permanent thing for them?
And I don't think they understand the impact of their actions not just on younger people but think of those guys, those vets, the greatest generation, and how sad they must be watching all of this.
WILLIAMS: Greg, in fact, to pick up on Dana's points, a lot of younger people now, you see high school teams now starting to pick up on the same thing.
GUTFELD: The reason why those -- some of the players were linking arms, that was an impression of Hillary.
Look, you know why a lot of these players are supporting Colin? Because the level of risk is so low. Sitting is not really free speech. Those men fought, soldiers fought and died for the right for you to be offensive. They're not offensive. If they were offensive, they would do something else. They would do the robot during "The Star-Spangled Banner" or the national anthem. They would do something deeply offensive.
To me, I think they're cowards. I defend the very worst kind of free speech. And this is what you give me? You sit down. Why? Because you are too scared. Colin's too scared to stand. Why doesn't he stand up and just give the finger? Why doesn't he do something so deeply offensive? Because he's scared, so he does this little thing where he sits down.
Just one last point about Colin. One obvious point, maybe he's just stupid. And why is it -- why is it the problem with this world that we must engage the dumb? Because it's on TV. So he does a stupid thing, and we engage it. Maybe he's just not bright.
WILLIAMS: But he certainly has a platform. The question is, is he persuading anyone or just polarizing people already angry?
GUTFELD: Do some real free speech.
WILLIAMS: All right.
GUTFELD: Do something really offensive.
WILLIAMS: "One More Thing" coming right at you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUILFOYLE: It's time now for "One More Thing." Wait until you see what's coming up -- Juan.
WILLIAMS: OK. So imagine that I'm Greg Gutfeld, and I hate birthdays. That's right. It's Greg's birthday. And I took the risk, because nobody else was willing to do it, to say happy birthday, Gregory. There's Gregory and me when he was wearing a unicorn outfit. And so guess what we're doing today for his birthday? Look at this.
GUTFELD: This was a beautiful ensemble. It's a -- it's a bubble wrap suit...
WILLIAMS: You look lovely.
GUTFELD: ... that was sent to me, because people know how much I love bubble wrap. I call this, actually, my birthday suit. What I do on my birthday is...
GUTFELD: Thank God you have clothes under this.
GUTFELD: ... I put this on, and I head over to Lou Dobbs' place. And he gets in his bare feet in a Speedo, and he just walks all over my body. And I don't leave until everything is popped.
WILLIAMS: When Greg first got this, he said to me, does my -- look big in this? No, you look lovely.
GUTFELD: Doesn't that sound great?
WILLIAMS: Terrific.
GUILFOYLE: Poor Lou. OK. Greg, does that count as your "One More Thing"?
GUTFELD: Yes.
GUILFOYLE: Thank God.
OK. So I have something really incredible this weekend. I was -- ability to go to D.C. to honor a great friend of mine, Dr. William Bennett, at the Faith, Freedom and Family gala dinner. Dr. Bennett received the well- deserved Family Research Council Vision and Leadership Award. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: I can think of no American more deserving of the Vision and Leadership Award than Dr. William J. Bennett. Congratulations, my dear friend, to you and to your wonderful family. May God bless you and may God bless the United States of America.
DR. WILLIAM J. BENNETT, AWARD RECIPIENT: She makes a great point, a lawyer point, philosopher point, a mother's point. Kimberly, it's a pleasure to know you, and thank you for taking care of my boys.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: I just want to say, thank you again for having me there. Wonderful family. And your wife, Elaine, as well. We're all very proud of you. We do enjoy seeing you on "The Kelly File" so very much.
BOLLING: Cool. Congratulations.
GUILFOYLE: Thank you.
BOLLING: And to you, Bill Bennett.
OK, so Saturday night, you know, with all the bad news with the national anthems lately, take a look at this. This is the largest crowd ever at an American football game; 157,000 people showed up for Tennessee/Virginia Tech at Bristol Motor Speedway. Turned into a football field. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC: "THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER")
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: That was amazing.
All right, Dana, we saved some time.
PERINO: OK. So I believe in trying new things. I just want to give a little shout-out to the Palmetto Blast Tennis Club. That's Mike Siklas (ph) and Michael Goola (ph). Mike is the pro.
And then I have a picture of Natalie Mathis (ph), who is the pro's assistant and Carol Crow (ph). They're all part of the tennis club. And they helped me to the point that, in four months, I was able to play doubles, and I won. But only because I chose a really good partner. Thanks, guys.
GUILFOYLE: OK. All right, Greg, be yourself. That's it for us. "Special Report" is next. Happy birthday.
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