This is a rush transcript from "The Five," August 14, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: So Mitt is taking some hits in some polls. You can blame those negative ads in Nevada's Norman Bates, but this is Chicago. I guess we're all Chicagoans now.
Calling Mitt a murderer is nothing from a city where corpses litter the street like turgid tumble weeds. There is a reason Al Capone wasn't from Salt Lake City.
Anyway, we've got a war between a street fighter and a handsome barber. And Romney supporters worry if he brought a comb to a knife fight.
Meanwhile, the Dems are salivating over a sense of shift that makes every election into let's make a deal, where lefty politicians dangle rewards we can't afford to an electorate that doesn't mind. We call it bribery, which is in Chicago is known as campaigning.
So we have a party who knows when you pit free stuff against freedom, free stuff wins. If the Dems win, they will happily preside over declining entitlement mill minus the engine that made America great. They'll gladly remind you every election day that you didn't build that and that without them you would be starving in a cave or worse, paying for your own birth control.
And ultimately, we all pay, because to paraphrase Margaret Thatcher, you eventually run out of the wealth spread around.
And when we'll look back to 2012 and we'll say, maybe Obamanomics wasn't a good idea. But I'm so glad I took those Mandarin lessons.
BOB BECKEL, CO-HOST: Is -- are you sure you don't have any more? Is there a second chapter? Go ahead. I'm sorry.
GUTFELD: You didn't like that, Bob?
BECKEL: No, I --
ERIC BOLLING, CO-HOST: I liked the comb reference. Because you said spatula yesterday, I thought you can't beat that. And you did.
GUTFELD: The most amazing thing that happened today was Obama was in Colorado talking about negative ads. This is amazing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Over the next three months you will see more negative ads, more money spent than you have ever seen in your life. I mean, these super PACs, these guys are writing $10 million checks, giving them Mr. Romney supporters.
(BOOS)
OBAMA: And basically, they all have just the same argument. They all say the same thing. They say the economy is bad and it's Obama's fault.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: So, Andrea, Obama bashing negative ads. That's like the pope demeaning Catholicism. This is -- he owns this stuff.
ANDREA TANTAROS, CO-HOST: I don't -- I can't even believe he can do it with a straight face.
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, CO-HOST: He's good.
TANTAROS: It's so disingenuous. But he's gone so far off his script of hope and change. I mean, he's the one that goes out there and uses class warfare. And I got to say, I mean, Mitt Romney, I mean, I'm thinking combs, spatula, Nerf bat, maybe to a knife fight.
I mean, he was accused this week, Greg, of murder.
GUTFELD: Yes.
TANTAROS: You know what his response was? I'm disappointed.
If someone accused you or me or us of murder, we'd lash out more than that.
GUTFELD: It's happened to me.
TANTAROS: But these negative ads, they're working. And I will say this, the media is jumping on board. They are riding shotgun on this theme.
Just this week, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter echoed that same sentiment saying that under Romney, hundreds and thousands of people will die. They print this as the truth. And then Obama gets in front of a crowd and pretends like I had nothing to do with this. I hate this.
GUTFELD: So, now, Mitt is not just a murderer, he's a mass murderer.
TANTAROS: And he doesn't care, Greg. He doesn't care.
GUTFELD: If he cared about it, it would be different.
So, K.G., here is the thing. Should Romney rely on attack dogs like Sununu or should he become an attack dog? There is a theory that he should stay out of this.
GUILFOYLE: Well, is there enough time to train him between now and the election? I mean, you either kind of have it in you or you don't. He needs to step up definitely because that's the kind of rhetoric and the action the public wants, especially the Republicans and to motivate his base. He is going to get them out, if he's going to turn some of his numbers around, which there is still time to do it, they're going to have to hear something from him. It's not going to be enough to have it from the VP or Sununu or someone else.
GUTFELD: There is some bad polling for Obama. Not a lot. But there was a Gallup poll on the job approval, bob. Had him at 43 percent, 51 percent disapproval -- there it is.
Is it worrying given the context of the other polls?
BECKEL: It's not worrisome. I notice we didn't put the good polls on the board.
GUTFELD: I mentioned it at the start.
BECKEL: Oh, you did. Sorry.
First, I want to agree with Kimberly. One of the things here for a candidate, you either do have it in you or you don't, you know? Maybe that will move him to get a VP nominee to do that for him.
GUTFELD: Yes.
BECKEL: I don't know that.
But the fact is this is not an easy game we're playing here. All this whining by Republicans about poor Mitt and killing people. This is a tough ballgame we're playing. And Obama gets hit very hard from every direction.
GUTFELD: But now you're whining.
BECKEL: I'm not whining at all. I'm just saying. I come from a school of politics this is a normal situation.
GUTFELD: Right.
BOLLING: I beg to differ. You mentioned that earlier today, Bob. You said, it's politics. I don't think anyone has ever gone to this extent. He's a murderer, he's a felon, he's a tax cheat, he's responsible for --
GUTFELD: A mass murderer now.
BOLLING: -- responsible for cancer deaths.
BECKEL: I heard five times worse in a sheriff's race.
BOLLING: Here's the problem, we're talking about this again, what we really should be talking about, the white board, and I think Romney -- sorry, not trying to cover you. But Romney shouldn't do stuff like this. Don't do it. Don't touch it right now.
Health care premiums since Obama took over, even with Obamacare, gone up 20 percent. You know what that cost America? Two trillion dollars -- $2 trillion so far right now and counting.
Gas prices up 100 percent under Obama. You know what that cost us? A trillion dollars.
And how about this one? Household networths -- down 35 percent. Down 35 percent. That cost us $5 trillion.
Under Obama so far, at a very minimum, $8 trillion of worth has left the country. Thanks, President Obama. It ain't working.
Where are you? Camera six. Mitt, get back to the economy. That's how you're going to win. It's not going to be all these other games.
BECKEL: All housing values are fallen because of Obama? That's a new one. That's a new low to you.
GUTFELD: But we're not saying he killed anybody.
GUILFOYLE: Yes.
TANTAROS: Also, Greg, if you watch Romney, he does make a lot of the same points that you made. But he is not breaking through the noise.
GUTFELD: Yes.
TANTAROS: He is making these arguments. He is not playing dirty or taking the low road.
I mean, he's a moral guy. And Barack Obama has no problem lying and pulling out these stunts. Romney is not getting in the mud with him. That's the danger.
GUILFOYLE: But how does he win?
(CROSSTALK)
GUILFOYLE: If you fight with a skunk, you both come out smelling.
BECKEL: You are assuming here that Mitt Romney is clean on. I think Mitt Romney, the fact of the matter is that they closed that steel plant, they did it, they loaded it with debt and took it for the investors and for themselves. You can't make a connection to him, he was directly responsible for this woman dying, I understand that. But you can --
BOLLING: But they did. But that's what the ad is. This woman's widow -- the husband is saying Mitt Romney closed the plant. My wife died. See the connection?
BECKEL: Romney did close the plant.
BOLLING: His wife did fact die. Wow -- there's a good connection.
BECKEL: Jonathan Alter said, there is a truth in that, by the way.
GUTFELD: Jonathan Alter is full of bleep.
OK. I want to run this with Jay Carney was talking about this ad. I'm going to roll that and then I'll go to you, Kimberly, because you look great tonight.
GUILFOYLE: Thank you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I'm speaking for the president and defending and explaining his policies. And defending them when a campaign ad with millions and millions of dollars behind it, as opposed to zero dollars behind it is being broadcast around the country paid for, produced by the Romney campaign that is categorically false and blatantly dishonest about the president's policy position.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: Kimberly?
GUILFOYLE: Yes, you didn't even ask a question. I'm going to do the thinking and the speaking for you. Isn't that so nice?
GUTFELD: Thank you so much.
GUILFOYLE: OK. So, listen, what I think overall and the message was made today very clearly by top Romney aides and campaign headquarters. They feel that this rhetoric the way that the president, the administration, his campaign has behaved is diminishing the office of the presidency.
Ultimately, we're going to see, I believe, this will backfire. We have to get the polling, the tracking numbers in to see what impact if any the disingenuous, flat-out lying, desperate tactics by the Obama campaign if it's going to backfire. I don't think the American people will like this. I don't think they think it's politics as usual.
BECKEL: Something is sticking on him. By the way, do you think Romney's ads are a soft bean bag ads he is running here? The fact is that Romney, on taxes, for example, they should -- Romney is hiding stuff. We know that.
TANTAROS: No, we don't know that.
BECKEL: Yes, we do.
GUILFOYLE: No, we don't.
BECKEL: Absolutely. I got a good source.
GUTFELD: They are back tracking. First, they said it was a Republican investor at Bain, people that work for Harry Reid now. Now, they're saying, maybe he's not a Republican. I didn't say that. They clearly are on --
TANTAROS: How would a coworker get the taxes? That's a former Bain colleague -- I'm your colleague and I wouldn't access of your taxes. Did somebody made --
(CROSSTALK)
BECKEL: By the way, I talked to the chairman of the Republican national committee, to tell him I was sorry about what I said. We had a long talk about this. He said that Harry Reid is a dirty liar, which means that you must know what he has got for taxes. Otherwise you wouldn't say he's a liar because you would -- and, of course, chairman has never seen the taxes. Nobody else has either. So, maybe he's right.
BOLLING: Can we make a point that because Mitt Romney doesn't release his taxes, doesn't mean he is cheating on his taxes.
BECKEL: Why doesn't he release them?
BOLLING: Because he paid a lot of taxes and may not want to bring it out.
I will tell you, though, I will tell you, I agree with you. Just release them. Just get it out there. Even if it's the money you made, be proud you know how to use the tax code. That's all.
GUTFELD: The bottom line is Mitt has got to step up. That's the point.
BECKEL: He's got to step up.
TANTAROS: He's running like an incumbent.
BECKEL: He's running -- that's a very good point. He is running like an incumbent. I'll tell you, at this stage of the game, not that far out. He has yet to get people an idea about who he is. And the people know who Obama is. A lot of them don't like him.
But Romney has got to either respond or paint a picture for himself or get someone like Chris Christie who will go after Obama.
GUILFOYLE: There is still time for him to turn it around.
BECKEL: Sure there is. Absolutely there is. By the way, Romney had a bad week in the press. Once it's going to turn, I guarantee you, Obama is going to have a bad week or two.
GUILFOYLE: Or three or four.
BECKEL: No, not that many.
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