Gregg Jarrett on what's next in Baldwin-involved fatal prop gun accidental shooting
Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett reveals potential legal troubles after tragedy on set of Alec Baldwin movie.
This is a rush transcript of "Justice" on October 23, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
JEANINE PIRRO, FOX NEWS HOST: Hello and welcome to JUSTICE. I'm Judge Jeanine Pirro. Thanks so much for being with us tonight.
There's breaking news from coast to coast tonight. A shooting, a horrific accident on the scene of a major motion picture has left one person dead and another one injured and the man holding the gun, Alec Baldwin. We have the latest on this ongoing investigation.
Plus, the former host of "America's Most Wanted," John Walsh is here live on a shocking crime outbreak in America, and then Congressman Jim Jordan is standing by to expose how Joe Biden has politicized His Justice Department to protect his political allies and perhaps even his son.
A shocking investigation is straight ahead. But first, my open.
How would you feel if your daughter, sister, or mother were raped on a train over the course of 27 stops for 40 minutes while other train passengers -- and there were many -- picked up their phones not to call the police, not to call 9-1-1, but to videotape the act being perpetrated in front of them. No one interfered, no one yells "stop." No one tried to end the horror being inflicted upon this innocent helpless woman.
Instead, they chose to take out their phones and videotaped the maddening violence occurring before them. So far, none have volunteered those videos to police. What to conclude? It was for entertainment purposes.
We used to say if you see something, say something. Today, it is see something, say nothing.
Folks, not only is this a reflection of how our society has disintegrated, it is a reflection of the dehumanization of crime victims, of a culture that has no feeling for the victim of crime. The -- this can never happen to me attitude is adopted, so people feel they are immune, and so they only see the acts through the lens of entertainment.
But it gets worse. The rapist had been ordered deported, but an appellate immigration judge protected him in spite of his convictions for drugs and sex abuse. In the end, a woman was forced to suffer because the judge determined the criminal twice convicted deserve to live in America. And by the way, there are no Good Samaritan laws in the United States that require that anyone intervene in a situation like this.
Lawlessness in this country is worse than ever. What's different, however, is this sense of permission the criminals have that they're allowed to vent, to steal, to loot, after all, businesses have insurance. So, we let them steal with no consequence, no arrests, no conviction, no jail time. We will let them burn down neighborhoods and businesses because they want social justice, as if the destruction of property and lives brings them anything. It only hurts victims.
Murders are spiked in major Democrat run cities across this country, up in cities like Portland, 57 percent; Austin, 71 percent; Los Angeles, 65 percent; Las Vegas, 71 percent. Children going to buy candy are shot at, a one-year-old sitting in a stroller shot and killed.
Children in their own homes, in their own beds, a place that they have a right to be are shot and killed by criminals who don't deserve to breathe the same air that we do.
And a four-year-old girl shot on her way to a toy store in Times Square.
In cities across America, police are not only being handcuffed, they're being defunded, demoralized, and told to stand down order not to arrest and if they do, the sweeping door of no bail, lets the criminal out to reoffend.
Prosecutors funded by George Soros are all over this country. They do not take the mantle of victims. They spend their time refusing to prosecute crime, and then release criminals from prison.
Bail reform is nothing but a euphemism for letting the criminals out to reoffend, to reoffend, to steal, to assault, and yes, to kill again, and even the title gives the criminal top billing. It's the criminal justice system, when it should be the victim justice system. The victim, the one who never chose to be a part of the system in the first place.
And parents seeking to protect their children are impotent against a federation of teachers who seek to protect themselves and empower themselves. And when they finally show up to teach our children, they teach them to become little Marxist activists. They are so woke, they seek to allow students to determine their sex based on how they feel that day, which is how a 15-year-old boy in Loudoun County, wearing a skirt was able to rape and forcibly sodomize an innocent ninth grade girl in the girls' bathroom at school.
And when that victims dad tried to voice his opinion at the school board meeting on the issue of allowing transgender students into the students' bathrooms, he was arrested, called a domestic terrorist, a phrase that was then taken up by the National Association of School Boards, then made into a poster board that then provided the radical Attorney General Garland with the basis he used to deploy national law enforcement, the F.B.I. against parents in the United States of America.
And let's not forget the border, we don't screen them, we don't vet them, who among them is a criminal? Who among them is a gang member? Like the notorious MS-13. Who is a pedophile? Who's a sex offender? Who thinks they're entitled to beat their wives?
I want to know who has an alcohol problem, who is a drug problem, who likes to drive drunk and who has no problem hauling drugs for the cartel?
We, Americans are left to experience this ourselves because the Biden administration lies and says the border is closed. The border is closed? 1.7 million have entered since January and countless more haven't even been counted.
Have you had enough? Are you disgusted yet?
I'll tell you, it just got worse in New York City with a leftist radical mayor offering $1,000.00 a month to criminals to not commit a crime. San Francisco is not prosecuting any crime under $950.00 forcing scores of Walgreens drugstores to close. And now they're stealing from cars, where they smash windows, knowing they'll never be arrested so they can keep doing it again and again.
In Atlanta two days ago, crime witnesses again, videotape instead of calling 9-1-1 where a homicide occurs.
We are the greatest nation on Earth. We are quickly becoming like a third world nation and we can thank the Democrats, we can thank Joe Biden, and we can thank the leftist mayors and governors for allowing crime to go unpunished.
We cannot survive as a nation much longer with this kind of assault on our citizens. There is only one answer to the historic increase in crime and the catastrophic breakdown of morals in our society that leads to people not caring about one another.
Democrats who support a leftist Marxist socialist agenda, the ones who don't care about us have to be thrown out of office.
It's time to take crime personally. It's time to get angry about crime. If we don't, we will prove Abraham Lincoln right when he said America will never be conquered by a foreign power. But if we are to die, we die by suicide alone.
And that's why open. Let me know what you think on my Facebook and Twitter #JudgeJeanine.
Joining me now with reaction to by open and more on this dangerous crime eroding our cities across America, host of "In Pursuit with John Walsh," crime investigator and tireless victims' advocate, John Walsh.
Thanks so much, John, for being with us. I mean, I don't think there's anyone who has experienced a more horrific crime or who has spent more time fighting crime, with the energy and the enthusiasm that you have. Why are we here and how do we get out of this?
JOHN WALSH, HOST OF "IN PURSUIT WITH JOHN WALSH": Well, Judge, that was a hell of an open. I've known you for a long time. You are a kick ass prosecutor and you still got the passion just like I do, and we're in trouble, we're in trouble.
You know, since my son was murdered in 1981, I've been calling it the criminal injustice system, that the whole system is broken and it is everybody's problem. It does -- the criminals don't care if you're Republican right or left. I'm a registered Independent, but I've testified before Congress over a hundred times in the last 35 years.
I've testified before every State Legislature and we've never been in this shape. Just let me read you a couple of stats. Crime rates are now worse than they were after the Civil War. Three hundred and thirty eight cops went to work one day this past year and never made it home, men and women. We had a record number of homicides, 22,000 murders, it's the highest number of murders since the F.B.I. started keeping homicide records in 1960.
Murders are up 30 percent all over this country. Chicago, a beautiful, beautiful city. I've ridden with the Chicago police and task forces there, they had 875 murders last year, 4,000 people were shot in Chicago. That's a 50 percent increase in murders, 750 percent increase in car break-ins, you saw that video of that gang going up and down cars, banging the windows and taking stuff.
Portland, Oregon want to defund cops, you mentioned them. They are up 83 percent in murders. When that meth addict or that fentanyl addict is holding a knife to your throat because he broke in your house in the middle of the night, who are you going to call? Defund the cops? Murder rate is up 83 percent in there. Mass murders, we are the world's champion of mass murders. Four hundred and seventy mass murders in the United States last year, 437 dead, 2,000 wounded.
And you know what? We're the richest, most powerful country on the planet, but we had 24 school shootings. Nobody in the first world sends their kids to school except Americans and wonder whether they're going to come home alive.
We're still number one in sex trafficking the children. We put a man on the moon. We've got billionaires sending rockets up in the air for a five- minute ride, and we're number one in sex trafficking of children, and the border, I've ridden that border for years on horseback and Blackhawks. We broke the record this year, 278 percent more people came over that border, 1.7 million people were recorded and they guesstimate about 700,000 gotaways. Those are the young single guys that are going at night. They caught 325 gangbangers during the daytime, I am saying 500 of them got over the border at night.
PIRRO: At night. Okay, John --
WALSH: At night.
PIRRO: Your stats, I mean, you could go on forever. I love listening to you. How do we get out of this? I only have a minute left. How do we get out of this?
WALSH: Vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote. People are apathetic. In other parts of the , in Kabul, the women with the Taliban threatening them vote. In Australia, 100 percent people vote, 98 in New Zealand. I ask people all the time. Do you know your two U.S. senators? Do you know you sent to the House? Do you know who you sent to your State Legislature?
Nobody is able to tell me. We need to change -- we need to say, my God, we're the richest and most powerful country in the world and we're the most violent. Why? Why are we held prisoner in our homes by all these creeps?
And you mentioned, it's the public's apathy. Get off your ass and vote. Get out there and worry about -- I'm the father murdered child. I worry about people. It doesn't matter whether you live in Beverly Hills or out in the Hamptons, you still can be a crime victim. You can't hide yourself. You can isolate. We shouldn't put up with this.
And the media, start reporting all of these crimes, stop trying to cover up the guy at the White House.
I'm a centrist. I know Joe Biden, but they're doing a horrible job. America is out of control. Crime rates are skyrocketing and people are paying for it. How could we allow 875 murders in Chicago? One city. That's more than all the capitals in Europe put together. It is time to get off our ass.
PIRRO: And you know what? And the clearance rate in Chicago is one of the lowest in the country. In other words, they don't make arrests on these crimes. They don't even -- they don't even look to close these cases.
John Walsh, you are without a doubt one of the most impressive people on the issue of law enforcement in the United States. Thank you so much for being with us tonight.
WALSH: Thank you for having the passion you still do, Judge.
PIRRO: And you, too. And you can catch Season 3 of his ID series "In Pursuit with John Walsh," Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. or on Discovery+.
And just ahead as we've told you, Alec Baldwin is at the center of a tragic movie set accident that left one woman dead and another man wounded. We have the latest breaking details in this shocking story, next.
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SCRIPT SUPERVISOR: Bonanza Creek Ranch and we had two people accidentally shot on a movie set by a prop gun. We need help immediately.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
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PIRRO: Breaking tonight. Big questions remain as the investigation continues into the deadly and shocking Alec Baldwin movie set shooting that killed cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins and wounded the director. Take a listen to this 9-1-1 call after the shooting.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
CALLER: Bonanza Creek Ranch. We've had two people accidentally shot on a movie set by a prop gun. We need help immediately.
911 OPERATOR: So was it loaded with a real bullet or what --
CALLER: We don't -- I don't -- I cannot tell you that.
911 OPERATOR: Okay.
CALLER: We have two injuries from a movie gunshot.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
PIRRO: How could this have happened? And where does the investigation go from here? FOX News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett joins me now to break it all down.
All right, Gregg, thanks so much for being with us.
GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS CHANNEL LEGAL ANALYST: Sure.
PIRRO: Now, you and I both know that hopefully there was a camera that they were actually filming what happened here and if they do that would help the investigation along. But let's start with the fact that there are two trail -- two tracks here, a civil liability issue and criminal liability responsibility, and let's talk about the fact that Alec Baldwin is both the person who shot the gun and he is the executive producer of the company.
It goes back to him from -- "Rust" production goes back to Eldorado Pics, which he apparently owns. So talk to me about liability here.
JARRETT: Well, there will certainly be a civil lawsuit for money damages alleging wrongful death arising out of negligence. And frankly, that's an incredibly strong case.
PIRRO: Very.
JARRETT: Because you just don't have this kind of a tragedy happening absent some measure of negligence. The real question here is what about criminal culpability? If it's true that Alec Baldwin, Jeanine, had no idea that there was a live round bullet in the gun, then he most certainly would not be charged with murder, but there are other potential lesser charges.
For example, in New Mexico where this occurred, you know, involuntary manslaughter, which is grossly negligent conduct or reckless conduct resulting in death. The failure to exercise due care to recklessly fail to protect the health and safety of your co-workers. You know, as executive producer, he is potentially culpable in that regard.
In the final analysis, you know, it's up to him to make sure that everybody on that set including the licensed armorer who handles the gun is competent, sufficiently trained, and doing their job properly.
PIRRO: All right, and that is where I want to ask you a question, Gregg.
The armorer is 24-years-old. She is the daughter of a very famous Hollywood armorer, which brings issues and questions up as to how she got the job, who had just completed one film about which she had complained on a podcast, she wasn't sure she was up to it, she had anxiety, said her father taught her all this stuff.
And she, Gregg, think, think, think like the prosecutor that I do, she actually took the cartridge out of the gun before she gave it to the Sheriffs. That's been reported.
JARRETT: Yes, all of that. All of that is very suspicious, it is what law enforcement is investigating. They're obtaining affidavit and eyewitness testimony. They're looking for videotape or film of the incident.
Look, somebody who is a neophyte on the set in charge of a dangerous instrumentality known as a gun and if it's true that this was a live bullet round and she somehow mistakenly thought that it was a blank, an experienced, highly trained individual would know the difference immediately because you know, a blank is simply a casing that's been hollowed out. It still has you know, wax and paper and gunpowder to simulate the action, the firing, the image of a real bullet coming out of a gun. If she didn't know the difference and Alec Baldwin hired an individual who doesn't know the difference, they could both be criminally culpable.
PIRRO: There is a problem.
JARRETT: Yes.
PIRRO: All right, let me get in one more thing. The entire crew apparently walked out according to several publications for the reason they said they hadn't been paid in three weeks and on top of that, they said that was poor gun safety and they brought in four non-union guys to replace us and called cops. I mean, that's the complaint.
So if you've got an inexperienced 24-year-old armorer who was responsible for that gun safety and you and I both know, first of all, how does a bullet actually -- a real bullet get into a prop gun? Or were they using a real gun without a blank cartridge? And then the issue becomes, how did he point the gun at someone?
You know that onset you're taught not to point a gun at someone.
JARRETT: Yes, the standard safety protocol is using a blank with a real gun, you must be at least 20 feet away. So, you know they're going to be looking at the standard safety measurement. But you bring up a very good point about safety of workers, some of them walking off the set days earlier.
There are three former co-workers who have told "The New York Times" that on October 16, just days earlier, there were not one but two accidental discharges of guns. So that puts Alec Baldwin and everybody else associated with this production, not the least of which is the armorer on notice that there is a weapons safety issue here again, that would feed to criminal culpability.
One other thing?
PIRRO: Yes, quickly.
JARRETT: Because there was labor unrest, what if a disgruntled former employee slipped onto the set and swapped out a blank for a real bullet to harm somebody there, that would be murder.
PIRRO: I get that, Gregg, but at the same time, her job is to make sure that that doesn't happen. Before they bring the card out, but Gregg Jarrett, thanks so much for being with us, independent films, sometimes they cut corners and try not to spend what the big companies can do.
Anyway, the organization that compared frustrated parents to domestic terrorists is now apologizing for it. Will the Attorney General Merrick Garland do the same for us? Congressman Jim Jordan confronted America's top cop and he is here, next.
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ASHLEY STROHMIER, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to "FOX News Live." I'm Ashley Strohmier in New York.
A candlelight vigil is being held tonight in Albuquerque, New Mexico for Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer who was shot and killed Thursday by a prop gun fired by actor, Alec Baldwin. Court records show the assistant director who gave Baldwin the prop gun was unaware it was loaded with live rounds. The director of the movie was also hurt, but is expected to recover.
And it was a tumultuous scene in Mexico. More than 2,000 migrants who began marching out of a city there, they are walking along the highway leading toward the U.S. border. There were minor scuffles as the group pushed pass a line of State Police who were trying to stop them. Migrants from Honduras and El Salvador have been waiting in the southern city for refugee or asylum papers.
I'm Ashley Strohmier. Now back to JUSTICE WITH JUDGE JEANINE. For all of your headlines, log on to foxnews.com.
PIRRO: Remember the other week when the National School Boards Association wrote a letter to Biden likening frustrated parents to domestic terrorist. Well, they did a complete 180 yesterday saying quote, "There was no justification for some of the language included in the letter." But what about Attorney General Merrick Garland? Will he apologize for his gross abuse of power?
Joining me now to discuss, author of "Do What You Said You Would Do," Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan. Good evening, Congressman, is the Attorney General --
REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): Judge, good to be with you.
PIRRO: Is the Attorney Generals so politically biased and so malleable that he will get a letter for which there is no basis in fact, and then decide to deploy the F.B.I. to go after parents of children in school? Is this what we have for an Attorney General? I don't care if he never apologizes, but has he?
JORDAN: Well, that's exactly what happened. And he said so in the hearing this week. I mean, he gets the letter on September 29th -- well, excuse me, the letter goes to President Biden on September 29th asking for the President to get the F.B.I. involved in local school board matters. Five days later, the Attorney General of the United States does just that and his only basis for doing so was this letter from this left-wing political organization, the National School Boards Association. And yesterday, what did they do? They said we regret and apologize for the letter.
So, the basis for doing what he did is the letter which they now apologize for. Then, the logical thing for him to do is to rescind this memo. We'll see if he does, but this is how crazy this is -- oh, by the way, it looks like that the School Board Association was coordinating with the White House before they even sent the letter on September 29th.
That is not how the Justice Department is supposed to operate, and God bless these moms and dads who had the courage to go to school and say we don't want this racist anti-American curriculum taught to our children. And for that, they were going -- they were being harassed, and it looks like this whole coordinated plan from the White House with the School Boards Association and the Justice Department. God bless these parents.
PIRRO: You know, how can the American people trust this administration, trust this Attorney General when they use as a reason to call parents in the United States of America, domestic terrorists, they use a guy whose daughter was raped, forcibly raped, and sodomized in a bathroom by a boy -- a ninth grader by a boy who wore a skirt and decided he should use the bathroom. And then the superintendent gets up and says, oh, we don't have any crime like that.
This is the father of the girl who was raped, trying to talk at the meeting and look at what they do to him. This is not the United States of America anymore. What is going on?
JORDAN: Yes. Well, I think I said this in the hearing on Thursday. I think his memo, this memo that he sent out, I think this is the last straw. I think this is going to actually be a catalyst for a reawakening and a focus on freedom in this country.
You're seeing it play out. I think that's why the School Boards Association said we regret we sent this letter, we apologize for sending this letter because they were hearing from people, the people, they're supposed to represent, moms and dads, parents of kids in our education system, who they're supposed to -- they're hearing from them.
And they thought, wait a minute, we better back down from this.
Plus, the good work you guys did at FOX News and other conservative outlets talking about this, that all helped as well.
So this is, I think, a good sign to see that they're apologizing for this letter. Let's see what the Attorney General does. I hope he will say like, look, we were wrong. We'll have to wait and see.
PIRRO: Well, you know what, if he doesn't -- if he doesn't, the Biden administration is going to pay a very heavy price. You know, they -- it's like, they woke a sleeping giant as well. That giant now is awake.
JORDAN: You got that right.
PIRRO: Anyway, Jim Jordan, thanks so much for being with us.
And next, as if violent crime destroying our cities isn't enough, the Biden administration continues to let fentanyl pour in across our border. Should this drug be classified a WMD? JUSTICE investigates next. Stay right there.
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I guess, I should go down, but the whole point of it is, I haven't had a whole hell of a lot of time to get down. I've been spending time going around looking at the $900 billion worth of damage done by hurricanes and floods and weather and traveling around the world.
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PIRRO: That's Joe in his own words, saying he can't make time for the border. Really? He may want to rethink that as we not only face a catastrophic number of migrants/immigrants coming into the country but a deadly flood of fentanyl that is killing Americans at an increasingly alarming and record breaking rate.
Former D.E.A. agent in charge of Special Operations for the D.E.A. on an international level, Derek Maltz joins me now with more in this critical story that we continue to investigate.
Derek, thank you so much for being with us again. This week, in San Francisco, police seized enough fentanyl to kill 2.8 million people. What is going on with fentanyl? How is it getting into the country? And how is it changing, if at all?
DEREK MALTZ, FORMER D.E.A. AGENT IN CHARGE OF SPECIAL OPERATIONS: Judge, we have a tsunami of deadly fentanyl coming into America. Every day, the Mexican cartels are working with the Chinese transnational criminals. They are killing our youth at record levels. We've never seen this in the history of our country.
PIRRO: Right.
MALTZ: You have deadly fentanyl pills. We have fentanyl mixed with cocaine, meth, and heroin. It's killing athletes. It's killing actors. But most importantly, our future generation is being killed.
We have 12-year-olds going on social media buying these fake pills and they're dying instantly in their bedrooms. It's terrible.
PIRRO: Well, the pills -- the fentanyl is coming from China. The pills -- or the fentanyl is in Mexico, then they put an imprint on the pills, so these kids think they're getting OxyContin or they're getting Xanax or something. It looks like a legitimate pill, it is being pressed in Mexico by the cartels and then brought in through the border and throughout the United States.
Why is fentanyl -- why are they bringing in the fentanyl? Do they intentionally want to kill us?
MALTZ: Judge, the Mexican cartels want to make billions of dollars and that's what they're doing. And now because of the migrant crisis, they have like an unlimited cash flow. Plus the Chinese criminals, they do want to kill us. They want to destabilize our country. So, they're providing all the critical precursor chemicals that are coming in from these Chinese Wuhan style labs.
But what's happening is the cartels are making so much money because the fentanyl is very addictive. And the kids are getting addicted. They want these pills. Every kid wants to get a Xanax or an Adderall or a Percocet because they see mommy and daddy have taken legitimate pills. Unfortunately, they're being deceived.
And by the way, these are not overdose deaths anymore. These are fentanyl murders, drug-induced homicides and poisonings.
PIRRO: Right, but they're called overdoses when kids who normally don't do drugs, they get one pill, they're dead. Fentanyl has increased. What percentage of the pills that these kids are buying, that people are buying is counterfeit is from China through Mexico.
MALTZ: So Judge, China is now providing a lot of the precursor chemicals as stuff is being made in labs in Mexico, but they're also making these pills in our backyards throughout America. They are buying the pill presses and the dyes on these different social media sites and on the internet and then making the pills in our backyards.
But the D.E.A. just determined that they seized 9.5 million pills already this year, 40 percent of those pills had a lethal dose of fentanyl. So going back to your San Francisco story, one pound of fentanyl can kill 227,000 people. That's why it is a weapon of mass destruction. We're under a chemical attack and China is destabilizing our country. That's the bottom line. But our administration is not talking about it.
The parents need a warning. The kids don't understand what fentanyl is. It is really disturbing that nobody is talking about it, so thank you for bringing this important topic up.
PIRRO: This is called unrestricted warfare. Correct?
MALTZ: Well, this is what the experts that understand the Communist Chinese Party, basically they want to stabilize their adversary. America is a really strong adversary, an economic powerhouse. They want to sit back and let the cartels do the dirty work and our kids are dying -- a hundred thousand dying. The C.D.C. just put out the stats last year, 2021 at the end of March, 12-month period, there was like 99,000 under a provisional death data, that's how many Americans are dying. This is something we've never seen in the history of the country and our administration is not even talking about it.
Joe Biden hasn't even gone down and looked at the border.
PIRRO: Yes, he doesn't have time. He is busy. I don't know doing what, Derek Maltz, thank you so much for being with us again.
And up next, gas prices have hit nearly $8.00, yes $8.00 in America. We have the details after the break.
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BIDEN: My guess is, you'll start to see gas prices come down as we get by -- going into the winter -- I mean, excuse me, into next year in 2022. I don't see anything that's going to happen in the meantime that is going to significantly reduce gas prices.
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PIRRO: Confused Joe yet again can't explain the fact that gas prices in America have surpassed not only five, not only six, but well over $7.00. The West Wing is a whirlwind of confusion with an inability to help our clueless President.
Here with reaction is FOX Nation host, Tomi Lahren and FOX News contributor, Leo Terrell. Okay, gas prices, regular unleaded hits $7.59 in California town. Tomi, hit it.
TOMI LAHREN, FOX NATION HOST: Well, this is what happens when you prioritize climate change over Americans, American jobs, and affordability for Americans. This is also what happens when you spend billions of dollars on things like environmental justice and true equity.
And Joe Biden is what you get when you order your President vote by mail. All of this can be explained in the first few hours in his administration when he cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline. He is prioritizing climate change and he is prioritizing that as his biggest national security threat. That's why we're seeing gas prices go through the roof.
This is the California model nationalized and he doesn't seem to care because I mean, when really is the last time anyone let Joe Biden drive a car?
PIRRO: Yes, I can imagine. He has been in one recently. Go ahead, Leo.
LEO TERRELL, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, let me tell you right now, Judge, this is a self-inflicted wound. This did not have to happen. Biden changed every one of Donald Trump's energy policy.
We were energy independent. We didn't need foreign oil. And now, for Joe Biden to say this is going to continue, it never had to happen. I'm in that state where the gasoline is $7.50 for regular, $8.50 for premium. Never in my life has gas been this high.
This is simply because the Biden administration cannot stand to give Trump credit for what he did. We were energy independent. We didn't need foreign oil. That's why the gasoline prices are higher. No other reason.
PIRRO: Well, you know what, and when he stood in that Town Hall two nights ago, he said, well, you know, I could tap the oil reserves, but it probably only save 18 cents a gallon. This guy stopped the XL Keystone pipeline, and he gave Putin the ability to make sure that his survives. This man is so clueless, it infuriates me.
Let's talk about the fact that rising gas prices are a major problem. We've got a full screen on that, 67 percent of the country says it's a major problem. Only five percent says it's not a problem. So the pain at the pump with Biden saying, I don't have a near term answer for high gas prices. How clueless does this guy need to be before the before the midterms in 2022? What's it going to take, Tomi?
TERRELL: Well, I'll tell you what, let me just jump on this -- go ahead, Tomi.
PIRRO: Quick, Tomi.
LAHREN: Well, I will tell you, Leo, and I'm sure you're going to say it as well. This also is what happens when you're in a state like California that has a gas tax they had a chance to repeal, but quite frankly, I don't think the Democrats are worried about these high gas prices because I think they want to de-incentivize driving.
This is again their pledge to fight climate change. This is what they want. They want Americans to stay home to stop driving. Also, they're considering a mileage tax. I don't think that they quite frankly care that gas prices are high. They don't care about the average American.
PIRRO: They don't. Leo, 15 seconds.
TERRELL: Well, very simply, it's too late. They have already destroyed the economy and the gas prices. They are running into a disaster next November 2022. We're going to take the House. We're going to take the Senate. This is just the beginning of the end of the Biden administration.
PIRRO: Anyway, thank you. Leo and Tomi, thank you.
We'll be right back, everybody. Stay with us.
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PIRRO: Tonight, we close with hypocrisy on masks, as this week, we watched as Joe Biden and his wife emerge from a Washington, D.C. restaurant without a mask. FOX News medical contributor, Dr. Marc Siegel joins me now to weigh in on it all.
Good evening, Dr. Siegel. Good to have you back. All right, let's talk about the hypocrisy of the C.D.C. recommending that kids continue to wear masks even as they're vaccinated, what is going on?
DR. MARC SIEGEL, FOX NEWS CHANNEL MEDICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, look, they're actually focusing on the wrong thing because they should focus on the idea that the vaccine works. And that if kids take the vaccine, they're much less likely to spread it and they need to get more testing at home, Judge, so that you actually know if you have COVID or not. And let's make sure that teachers get vaccinated.
The people that are spreading it right now the most at schools are really, really young children who aren't yet vaccinated, and by the way, crowding kids together doesn't help, mask or no mask.
So they've got to be practical here. It's not like you go to the back of the room and you wear the dunce cap. We know in schools that that's not the way to teach, is it? It's teaching, learning, exchanging. Instead, there's always this -- the idea of the ruler, remember the ruler and the principal, that's what the Biden administration is using, the ruler on kids and that's going to get nowhere. Those mandates don't work.
PIRRO: Okay. So the mandates don't work. So, why are we masking kids? They want to vaccinate kids and then mask them. This is a negative influence on their psychological health, on their emotional health, on their social wellbeing. What is this all about?
SIEGEL: It sends the wrong message. It's the message -- it is always going to be us scolding you, us bullying you, us telling you what to do. I think that once you're vaccinated, your chances of spreading this are really low, especially kids. And again, there could be exceptions when kids are really close together in schools, but masks are no panacea.
And what we're seeing is dictum after dictum, which doesn't work, it backfires, and then there are rebellions, and then there's threats. And then there's counter threats, and then the judge comes in because then there's lawsuits.
PIRRO: Yes, but you know what --
SIEGEL: What we need is public health. Public health is about vaccine and testing and masks, if you're unvaccinated in close quarters.
PIRRO: Okay, well, everybody knows kids go to school in the fall, and it is flu season now. Kids always come home with the flu. And now all of a sudden, we've got to force them to take the vaccine. I mean -- can tell you how many people I know who say if they require me to vaccinate, my child, you know, I don't want to do it. My child is not going to get sick.
SIEGEL: I want to talk about that. I want to talk about that for a second, because you know what, they're going to end up approving this in the next couple of weeks for five to 11-year-olds.
PIRRO: Right.
SIEGEL: And I spoke to Dr. Kessler, who is the Chief Science Officer for the COVID Response Team and he has looked at the data and he says, it looks very good in terms of safety. But here's the point. This belongs in a pediatrician's office with a doctor like me, a very small needle that doesn't scare kids, a parent and a child making a decision. Not a dictum, not a mandate. That is not going to work. It's a one-on-one decision with the child and a parent and a doctor.
PIRRO: Okay, now this week, the mayor in New York City said that he was disturbed by a video of maskless cops dealing with a man out of a subway station, and Terry McAuliffe walks out of an interview, demands better questions.
I mean, they are so hypocritical on the left. You know, we've got these police who are like first responders who are saving us and then they want to fire them if they don't get vaccinated. Where is all this coming from?
SIEGEL: Contrast that, Judge, with what you started here, in which you have Lori Lightfoot, the mayor of Chicago at a crowded basketball game, no mask and then that's a photo-op and then you have the President of the United States in D.C. with its mask mandate, not wearing a mask.
PIRRO: Dr. Marc Siegel, we've got to go. Thank you so much.
That's it for us tonight. Don't forget to set your DVRs --
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