Kamala Harris rejects criticism of 'identity politics'
Democratic senator from California says critics use phrase to 'minimize and marginalize'; reaction and analysis on 'The Five.'
This is a rush transcript from "The Five," August 6, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Dana Perino along with Tammy Bruce, Richard Fowler, Jesse Watters, and Greg Gutfeld. It's 5 o'clock in New York City, and this is "The Five."
President Trump hitting the campaign trail in Ohio over the weekend and predicting a possible red wave in the midterms. This comes ahead of a hotly contested special election in the buckeye state's 12th district tomorrow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They're talking about this blue wave. I don't think so. You win, and you're a little complacent, but, I mean, that was two years ago. So, I just said why? But we have the greatest economy in the history of our country. We have things that have never happened before. And, look, if the Democrats get in, they're going to raise your taxes. You're going to have crime all over the place. You're going to have people pouring across the border. So why would that be a blue wave? I think it could be a red wave.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: The economy is a big plus for the president, that's 3.9 percent unemployment rate, it's the lowest for a July of a midterm year since 1966. Meanwhile, Democrats are taking a different approach. Senator Kamala Harris is speaking out against the use of this political phrase.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, D-CALIF.: I have a problem, guys, with that phrase, identity politics, because, let's be clear, when people say that, it's a pejorative. That phrase is used to divide and it is used to distract. Its purpose is to minimize and marginalize issues that impact all of us. It is used to try to shut us up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: All right, Greg, and I have to go to you on that because you talk a lot about identity politics and how that helps divide the country, and she's saying, it's actually, if you say that, then you're being divisive.
GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: Well, here's -- that was a very powerful - - I mean, if you agree with her, she's very persuasive. I have to say she's a strong speaker. I do disagree with everything she is saying, but I have to say the way she said it was pretty strong. Identity politics used to be a rallying cry for the left. It was a positive thing. Now when you mention it, it's an insult.
PERINO: Right.
GUTFELD: And the reason is because, ultimately, the consequences of identity politics is putting their group before the individual. And what happens is everybody who in their specific groups then have to feel that their group is somehow more important than the other group, so what you end up having are warring factions. And you're seeing it a lot of times where one group accuses another group of cultural appropriation, and another group accused that group of something else. Ultimately, it's going to turn on itself. This is why Trump won was because he was talking about one identity politics which was American. Now, then you have the left saying no, that's racist, because what you're really saying is white when you're talking about America. That's the consequence of identity politics is what they're saying is that if you are white, you're part of the oppressor group. So when you say identity politics, you're obviously racist. So that's -- nothing good can come from identity politics because in its heart, it's about division.
PERINO: Tammy, welcome to "The Five."
TAMMY BRUCE, GUEST CO-HOST: Thank you, pleasure to be here.
PERINO: . it was a cry of a different message, right? So, President Trump is at a rally, that's a different scene for him. He loves it. He's into the crowd. Can you contrast that with Kamala Harris who was giving a speech at network nation? What do you think about the way that they're both setting things up?
BRUCE: Well, her attempt to retreat from identity politics, which they've relied on for decades, tells you that they've noticed it's not working. They've seen something internally that tells them we've got to stop this. And, actually, independent women's voice, which on the president and McLaughlin survey shows that 85 percent of people don't care, as an example, about gender. They're not going to base their vote on gender. Yet, that's what all of 2016 was really. Vote for Hillary, she'll be the first woman president. Or vote for this person, it will be the first of this thing or the other thing. Americans are not caring because they've realized that that's false. It doesn't work. So her position is, well, this is now not working. We've relied on this. Let's retreat a bit. The president just being consistent, it was what the campaign was. We're all in this together. The numbers prove that's correct. All of the unemployment numbers we know, of course, are extraordinary now. That everyone's boat has been lifted. It's the thing that he promised. And it's based on all of us -- actually, not seeing each other differently, but seeing each other as a neighbor. That's what resonates with the American people and that's why it's working.
PERINO: Richard, I imagine you disagree. I will give you the floor, you can tell us why.
GUTFELD: Don't give him the floor. Just give him the table.
PERINO: OK.
RICHARD FOWLER, GUEST CO-HOST: I'll take the floor and the table for $200. So, here's my take on this. So, here -- I think what Senator Harris was trying to say that she said very eloquently is this. When you fix an issue that -- for example, plaguing the African-American community, you help all Americans. When you properly fund public education, you help all Americans. When you fix our broken immigration system, you help all Americans. And you make sure that everybody has the right to vote without disenfranchisement, you help all Americans. So, it's not identity politics to make sure America works for everybody, no matter their color, no matter their race, no matter their sexuality, no matter their zip code, and I think that's the fight the Democrats are having.
PERINO: Don't you think that.
(CROSSTALK)
FOWLER: What we have in the White House is a president who only acknowledge a proud month as a thing. And we're still fighting for LGBTQ rights, right? You have a president in the White House.
GUTFELD: Who also accept a gay marriage before Obama did.
FOWLER: But you also have a president in the White House who gets into fights with NFL players or gets into fights with LeBron James.
GUTFELD: He gets to fight with Hillary Clinton. He gets to fight with everybody. He gets to fight with Rosie O'Donnell.
PERINO: That doesn't hurt any particular group when he's fighting with.
(CROSSTALK)
FOWLER: I think if you talk to the African-American community they would say when you pick on LeBron James for opening a school in Akron, Ohio, you're picking on the entire African-American community.
JESSE WATTERS, CO-HOST: He didn't pick on him because he opened up a school. He picked on him because LeBron James picked on Donald Trump, and that's.
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: And also, it was to make fun of Don Lemon.
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: We know Trump doesn't take the high road. He gets in the dirt and he fights it out.
FOWLER: Just saying.
WATTERS: OK. But you should be used to it. It's two years.
FOWLER: I am.
WATTERS: . going on eight. So, I think the identity politics thing is they're looking for differences, as Tammy said, instead of everything that unites us. And the Democratic Party they have coalitions, and they've group these coalitions together for electoral victories based on their identity. And what they do is they have these groups and they say these groups have grievances, and we're going to correct those grievances, we're going to right those wrongs or right those injustices, and we're going to take -- and use the government to do that by redistributing wealth and benefits. But what they do is they say everything that's wrong that's plaguing these identity groups is the fault of Republicans. It's not the groups fault. It's not the economy's fault. It's not something that has nothing to do with Republicans. It's all the Republicans fault. So they demonize the Republicans and create a war. There's a war in women. There's a war in minorities. There's a war on Muslims. And a lot of Republicans don't go out every day and wake up, eat breakfast, and say how can I wage war on other people in this country? They go to work. They get their money. And they don't want the government to keep all of it.
PERINO: Can I play a couple sound -- pieces of sound for you and --. I'm actually going to play this thought back-to-back, one is a senate candidates -- Republican senate candidate in Michigan, that primary election is tomorrow. And the other is from -- you know her well, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was in the same state of Michigan campaigning for somebody else over the weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
JOHN JAMES, MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: I don't have a black message. I don't have a white message. I have a red, white, and blue message. I have a message of everybody achieving the American dream.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ, NEW YORK CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: We can say that a Muslim man can be the first governor, that can be the first Muslim governor in this country, in the Midwest, and we don't have to be afraid of some other that won't vote for him because we know that ten years ago, they voted for a man named Barack Hussein Obama.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
PERINO: Tammy, your thoughts on that.
BRUCE: Look, and she uses it right there, she's some other, casting immediately everyone else as the other. Now, look, this is why it's not working and why Senator Harris is troubled. The Harvard-Harris poll showed a ten-point boost of approval for the president by Hispanics. And Rasmussen showing last year the president was at 15 percent approval among African-Americans. Today, he's at 29 percent. So you're looking at a trajectory where groups that have been protected are saying, wait a minute, we are the same. The money is the same, the amount of money that we're getting at the tax cuts. We've got a job that's actually not delivering pizza. It's actually a real good professional job.
FOWLER: Tammy, when have African-Americans have been protected? I mean, we're getting shot in the street by police with no accountability. When are we being protected?
BRUCE: I think.
PERINO: Well, that's the C-block, Richard.
GUTFELD: Yeah, and that's not true, by the way. There's a lot of accountability.
FOWLER: Eric Garner. Eric Garner was choked to death.
GUTFELD: Why don't you look at the -- look at the research of who's doing the shooting, Richard. You can slip that in, but that.
BRUCE: Very good example right now with those numbers for African- Americans. We immediately go to fear and victimhood. That's what we're rejecting.
FOWLER: Oh, because -- yeah, I'm very fearful when I get pulled over by police. I'm very fearful.
GUTFELD: All right. So here's the bottom line, we're taking about identity politics. Let's say you want to have a discussion with somebody by identity politics and you say I'm willing to listen to you and I want to know, and I agree with you. What do you get? You don't get the answer because it's never enough. The idea of identity politics is that as you are the oppressor and they're the oppressed, so there's actually no end in sight. So, if you say will you take our help? I would like to help you with this. That will not be enough. If you see any public disturbance between -- either with Antifa or activists, these are people who are not interested in a discussion, all right? So that's why people say, when they're talking about identity politics, they can't have a discussion because it never ends. They're never happy. Identity politics is not about solutions, all right? It's about undoing civilization.
(CROSSTALK)
FOWLER: . because that same argument made about the KKK. They're not trying to have a discussion with me about how to be less racist.
GUTFELD: I agree with you there. Antifa is like the KKK. That's a red herring.
FOWLER: When you talked to every day African-Americans they would say -- or you talked to every day brown folks they would say high quality in public schools, investments in our community, opportunities in our community.
BRUCE: Every American said that.
FOWLER: Exactly.
BRUCE: Every American wants that.
FOWLER: And still fighting for that.
GUTFELD: Everybody is fighting for it.
BRUCE: We're all fighting for it.
PERINO: I want to ask Jesse one last thing, which is that President Trump -- he has a way of basically disrupting everything, so you have Republicans across the country trying to lower expectations going into Ohio 12 tomorrow.
WATTERS: Yes.
PERINO: So that they can hopefully, you know, beat expectations. He says forget all that. He's like raising expectations and expecting a red wave in November.
WATTERS: They need a red wall because it shouldn't be this close here in Ohio. This is a district that they've won, the Republicans, I think, for decades going back to the '30s. Now it's tied. You know the Democrats running away from Nancy Pelosi. He's keeping it on kitchen table issues, education costs, and health care costs. And he doesn't really even mention Donald Trump that much. The Republican is a little bit older. Not as charismatic. So he's got a little personality problem there. And now the national media is coming in big time. They started going positive and touting the president's success, and now they're just smearing this Democrat. They're linking him to Elizabeth Warren, calling her Pocahontas. They're going dirty late, so that means they're worried about it. But I think the Republicans are going to hang on, but if the Democrat does win it's going to give the Democrats a lot of momentum going into the midterms.
PERINO: And get this, no matter what happens tomorrow, they both run again against each other in November. So, we'll be back talking about Ohio 12. President Trump continuing to attack the media, and his new tweet is creating all kinds of controversy, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WATTERS: President Trump taking aim at the media, yet, again, with a new round of blistering attacks this weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You know what we've done is -- they even say, it really has been, as you say, amazing. It's been a miracle to a lot of people. It's been a miracle. Because I campaigned and I purposely didn't mention the kind of numbers that we're achieving because I didn't want to be accused of exaggeration, right, by the fake news media. They're so dishonest. These are among the most dishonest human beings you will ever meet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: The president also whipping up media hysterics with this tweet, quote, fake news reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics. And it went nowhere. I did not know about it. Many of the press are claiming it's a stunning omission. But some have pointed out Trump's tweet isn't that different from what he said a year ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting. It's called opposition research or even research into your opponent. I've had many people. I have only been in politics for two years, but I've had many people call up O.G., we have information on this factor or this person or, frankly, Hillary. That's very standard in politics.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: All right, Dana, I was reading the Washington Post.
PERINO: Were you?
WATTERS: . over the weekend, and Marc Thiessen had a great column.
PERINO: OK.
WATTERS: I want to bring this. GUTFELD: What section of the paper he's in?
WATTERS: It would be A2.
(LAUGHTER)
WATTERS: And he asked this question, he said what's the difference between what Donald Jr. did at the Trump Tower meeting and what Hillary Clinton did? And one of the main differences, he points out, is that Hillary Clinton actively solicited Russian dirt on an opponent by paying that cut out in Britain to get it from Russian sources. Donald Trump Jr. didn't solicit anything. The Russians came to him. Do you see the difference there?
FOWLER: No, I don't see the difference at all.
WATTERS: How could you not, Richard? I drove that right through your head.
(LAUGHTER)
WATTERS: How simple can I make it, Richard?
FOWLER: It's more like ships passing in the night, because the facts are completely different.
WATTERS: What are the facts.
FOWLER: Even in the email that Don -- I'm getting ready to tell you if you allow me to do that.
WATTERS: I'm ready to listen.
FOWLER: Great. That's wonderful. So, even in the emails that Don Jr. released there was somebody -- like, we have somebody from -- connected to Putin, who is a lawyer in the Kremlin, and she has all this information on Hillary, would you meet with her? At that particular point -- yes, in that particular point in time that's where it becomes illegal.
WATTERS: What is the law.
(CROSSTALK) FOWLER: Well, first of all, you cannot accept contributions of any kind from foreign entities.
WATTERS: OK
FOWLER: That's the federal.
WATTERS: Did he accept them?
FOWLER: In accepting the meeting, one would argue.
WATTERS: The meeting is not information, and the law clearly states.
FOWLER: I'm going to give you examples.
WATTERS: Because I have the law right here. Two U.S. code, 301121, nothing about meetings. It is about a donation or a contribution. And what came of the meeting? Zilch, Richard. Zilch. There's no crime there.
FOWLER: Let me make a point.
WATTERS: Am I right, Tammy, or am I right?
BRUCE: Here's what -- this is the entire argument. This does happen all the time, right? The big differences -- well, obviously, it's happened twice here. You've got a meeting with people looking for dirt. But then you've got the DNC -- but then you've got the DNC, as you've noted, paying money for information from the Russians, while her husband is getting a $500,000 paycheck for Russian speech, while she's making deals to get 20 percent of our uranium.
(CROSSTALK)
BRUCE: But here is what has been, I think, a very good point over the weekend as well, that all of this pointing at Donald Trump is about really projections. That it's all the things the Democrats have been doing with the Russians, within that framework, to distract from that. It's a typical tactic. You accused your opponent of what you been doing so that nobody turns around to look at you. That's what's happening.
WATTERS: Dana, what you think about the latest iteration of the Trump Jr. Tower scandal?
PERINO: Maybe it's exactly what the president said last year, but it's not what Sekulow, his lawyer said. And this weekend he had to say I was given bad information. I passed along bad information. And he won't elaborate. But, you know, that seems to be a recurring problem in this situation.
BRUCE: He threw himself under the bus.
WATTERS: Greg?
GUTFELD: I am a broken record. I was actually going to write down, I'm a broken record.
(LAUGHTER)
GUTFELD: If I were home watching this, my head would explode because I would not care. And especially if I were a retired executive who worked in business who probably took half a half a dozen different meetings a day in your building. And I've said this to myself as an editor of a number of magazines, I took meetings with people I didn't even know or I sent people to meetings. It wasn't a big deal. You didn't care. Somebody come back and say, yeah, that guy turned out to be a drug dealer. I didn't know he was a drug dealer. He said he wanted to buy advertising. People have meetings all the time. They send their lowly assistance or whoever is around to these meetings. It drives me crazy that this is something that is somehow bigger than an actual candidate. Buying dirt sight unseen from the Russians through a British spy? That this -- getting a 20 minute meeting that you don't even give a damn about is somehow -- what also gets me about the media, a lot of these people have never worked in business before, so they don't understand this but they make phone call to you. A reporter would make a phone call to you to tell you or ask you about dirt about your coworker, all right? They are doing the same exact kind of thing. Every reporter that has written a thing about the media has done this kind of thing.
WATTERS: No one is calling you about dirt on me, right?
(LAUGHTER)
BRUCE: To your point about people not caring.
GUTFELD: Everybody takes the call, Jesse.
BRUCE: Literary, you're right about people not caring. Gallup did the list about the most important issue you're facing, what you care about, Russia didn't even -- it got an asterisk.
GUTFELD: Yes.
BRUCE: . below everything else in the world.
GUTFELD: They care more about Jesse's hair. We've proved this.
WATTERS: Against my better judgment, I'm going to give Richard the short last word. Short.
FOWLER: I'll be very brief. This is not a business, this is actually campaigning. Campaigns are governed by law. The law says you can't take foreign contributions. Every time a foreign entity has come to a campaign, they've usually called the FBI. In 2000, it happened to Al Gore campaign.
GUTFELD: How come they didn't do it?
FOWLER: What Don Jr. should have done.
GUTFELD: Should have?
FOWLER: . call the FBI.
GUTFELD: How come he didn't? Let me ask you, why do you think he didn't? No, no, no, why do you think he didn't? Because he didn't know. They're not politicians, Richard. They're not politicians. They're businessmen. They take meetings.
FOWLER: Ignorance of the law is not a defense.
GUTFELD: No, no, it's actually isn't a defense in this case because they didn't know.
BRUCE: And you know who did know, the FBI.
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: And lastly, Clinton paid for Russian dirt.
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: You said he was going to get the last word.
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: Imagine if she won.
WATTERS: Deafening silence from liberals after a wave of gun violence sweeps Chicago this weekend.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRUCE: All right. A shocking level of violence this weekend in Chicago, police say 11 people were killed and dozens more were shot over the three-day span. Democrat Mayor Rahm Emanuel is partially blaming the number of firearms on the streets despite the city's tough regulations.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHICAGO MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: There are too many guns on the streets, too many people with criminal records on the street, and there is a shortage of values about what is right, what is wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUCE: Well, meanwhile, the typical liberal outrage is mostly nonexistent here. Should we be surprised? And, you know, a lot of people with that statement, the kind of the heads were crashing onto that desks because it was, kind of, didn't make a lot of sense, Greg?
GUTFELD: Well, what I noticed was earlier, Giuliani made a mistake, right? He inverted the injuries and the murders so that -- he thought -- I think he said that 59 people were murdered and so he got -- so what I noticed from that was that Giuliani's mistake in his numbers got more press in the media than the actual deaths, which I think these were eight or nine.
BRUCE: Yeah.
GUTFELD: So the mistake that Giuliani made was more outrageous to the people that have been ignoring what's been unfolding in Chicago for years. That this is actually the story that Giuliani screwed up -- so the thing -- so I'm starting to think, well, maybe Giuliani, actually, by screwing up, did Chicago a favor because finally people are actually talking about it. The fact is some major flaws in the media about this. One, they need a singular spectacle, mass shooting or a missing teen, but this -- this just keeps begetting violence because this is a continuing unfolding event. They just treat it like the weather. Like, 69 and cloudy, 54 injured, you know, in one area. And because it's in a cordoned off area of Chicago, the wealthy don't have to worry about it. The politicians don't have to worry about it. They don't care. And, you know, you've got problems with sentencing. People are on the street. You've got to deal with this stuff. But, you know what, as long as it keeps going and it doesn't bother them, it's OK.
BRUCE: If they want to talk about, they'd have to discuss what the solution is. And they think they've applied the solution, which is the banning of guns, making guns virtually impossible to get. But it's gang activity and gang violence. Dana.
PERINO: Well, I didn't hear that as the only solution today from them. I mean, the chief of police is taking about the breakdown of trust between the police and.
BRUCE: Right.
PERINO: And Rahm Emanuel talks about that there's a lack of values. That's not a government solution.
BRUCE: No.
PERINO: Like, he's not saying that there's a magic government solution that can happen.
Like, that's actually a conservative position.
GUTFELD: Yes, but remember. Remember, what was his -- this is a guy who went after Chick-Fil-A over values.
PERINO: I get it. This is obviously a lot more important than Chick-Fil- A, and they have a huge problem there. But I don't think they're blind to it. And I think that the new chief of police also, he said that they were going to be conducting these coordinated enforcement missions.
Like, they need our help, not our condemnation. And so I hope that -- the president has offered to help Chicago. I hope that Mayor Emanuel will take him up on it. Because people -- one of the reasons that not more people died is because our trauma surgeons are really good.
GUTFELD: Yes, that's -- it's a sobering fact.
PERINO: That is a fact.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: But they should be able to not have to do that on a weekend.
GUTFELD: In the '70s, the numbers would be --
PERINO: It would have been 59.
GUTFELD: Yes, it would have. Yes.
BRUCE: This is really -- we do get very upset, understandably, about the horror of a mass shooting. This is like a mass shooting every weekend, and we do just kind of avoid it, because maybe we've gotten used to it. Is that part of the problem, why the media ignores it? Because they just generally do.
WATTERS: Well, the media needs a villain in a case like this. And they can't have Rahm be the villain, because he's a Democrat and he's protected. And they can't have an anonymous gang member be a villain, because that doesn't fit the bill. And it is like the weather. But -- like Greg said, but they've found their villain, and it's Rudy Giuliani.
So what they could do -- and there's and opportunity for the media to do, is treat this like a real humanitarian crisis. Like a hurricane or like a school shooting. They flood the zone with TV reporters. They bring an anchor to Chicago. They send undercover people. They talk with local pastors and leadership. And they can really shine a spotlight on something like that.
And what that will do, it will hold the mayor accountable. It will shame local politicians into actually doing something. And it might bring more philanthropists and charity, athletes, and celebrities into Chicago and see if we can fix this mess. Because it's really sad.
BRUCE: And of course we're looking at, everyone generally agrees we're dealing with gang shootings, who just drive by and shoot into gatherings, especially during the summer. You can shoot a lot of people all at once there, so we've got a gang problem.
Is this why we're still dealing with this and there's no major national outrage?
FOWLER: Well, I think to some extent, I agree with Dana, I agree with Jesse a little bit, in that I think this should be a main -- a main media story, because what's happening in the streets of Chicago is a genocide. One of our colleagues, Gianno Caldwell, has been on the ground there for a couple of days, covering what's happening there.
But I think to say that the liberals have been silent is -- is a farce, because thousands of people in Chicago have been protesting and have been talking about the lack of security and -- for the people and the lack of opportunity.
You cannot solve gangs without dealing with the root cause. And to deal -- the root cause of gangs is because there's no opportunity in these communities.
WATTERS: Right.
FOWLER: These young men have nothing to do. The schools are not working as though they should be, because they're not being properly funded by the mayor. And thus, they see the gangs. They see them as role models, and they join the gangs.
BRUCE: And there haven't been jobs.
FOWLER: We've got to deal with the fact --
BRUCE: Yes.
FOWLER: -- that there's no opportunity, and we've also got to deal with what Dana brought up, is there's a breakdown of trust between the community and police. Part of it was because of Laquan McDonald, who was shot 16 times by the police. And he -- there was a cover-up with the mayor involved, with paying the family off and no -- nobody saw the takes until it was finally pushed to be out.
PERINO: Right.
FOWLER: But there's people that are doing good work, and we've got to, you know, help them. We've got to get to the root problem.
BRUCE: We have touched, I think, on all the things that we need to deal with. And obviously, this is going to continue here.
Now, up next, Greg breaks down how an alleged drone attack on the Venezuelan president could be a new frontier in terrorism.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUTFELD: All right. A drone attack broke up Venezuelan President Maduro's speech on Saturday. Here's tape of his soldiers reacting heroically to the attack. Looks like they spotted Air Force One.
So two points to learn from this: First, Venezuela is a socialist paradise that was once rich, meaning if you like Bernie, this could be your future. Someone should page Alexandria and the Democrats. Hyper-inflation, depression, human rights violations, food shortages. There's your happy tomorrow. You, too, could eat your own zoo animals. Your currency could be worth less than toilet paper, except you couldn't buy toilet paper. Play your Bernie card right, and your medicine could vanish, your hospitals close. And for safety, you could do what Venezuelans do: Move to Colombia.
Think it can't happen? Venezuela was once the most prosperous country in South America. But boy, they traded it all in for a dime-store socialist. The point of socialism: to find something good made by somebody else, take it for yourself. It's shoplifting as a political theory. You convince poor people to give up everything they have to beat the crap out of them if they ask for it back. They've been doing this for a century now. Socialism is even older than Bernie. And it doesn't work either.
Second thing: The attack was by drone, equipped with C-4. I've been talking about this forever. Terror married to Amazon technology. It's a new scary reality. You can fret about it. The experts are already there. They don't want to ban socialists; they want to ban drones.
Frankly, you can't ban either. But any smarty-pants knows which one is worse.
Dana, I sat here and I said, technology in terror is the next wave.
PERINO: For years you've said that.
GUTFELD: I've said it since the early '70s when "The Five" first started. Remember that?
PERINO: Yes. It's been good working for you.
GUTFELD: We're at almost our 50th year. And I tell you, your surgery. You look just like you -- you look just like you did when the show started.
PERINO: Yes, I mean, it's been -- yes.
WATTERS: You're on thin ice, Greg.
GUTFELD: Anyway. You get my point.
PERINO: Yes, I do get your point. Mary Anastasia O'Grady, I'm sure your read her column today in The Wall Street Journal, Jesse.
WATTERS: After The Washington Post.
PERINO: She said that, for Maduro, if you -- if you want to murder Maduro, you need to get in line. Because there are so many people who think his leadership has been exactly how you just described it. It has absolutely destroyed the country.
But also, she said another thing, which is that Cuba is basically controlling this country. So everyone is basically dealing with a situation where, remember, during the Obama administration, he tried to make that overture, tried to change everything. It didn't actually work. Because you can't just make an overture without making recommendations or insisting on changes.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: And you won't get any of those changes. And then the drone thing, I'll let other people talk about that, but it's scary as you know what.
GUTFELD: Richard, you said -- we were talking about this in the break. I'm very pro-drone, but I do think -- and you are, too. But -- because drones save lives in war. You lose -- use fewer soldiers. And you -- the collateral damage is less.
But the down side is, other people can have drones and use them for evil. So where do you stand on this?
FOWLER: I'm OK with when we use drones in high-combat situations or our men and women, our veterans, our current armed forces are at risk. Right?
GUTFELD: Yes.
FOWLER: So situations like Iraq and Fallujah, if we had more drones, there'd be less American deaths.
I'm against drones in the use for surveillance purposes. When they use it to surveil Americans, when they're used to surveil -- like, you know, that type of thing.
But the ideal of having drones in war zones where we can have people sitting in Omaha, Nebraska, managing our drones, that's great because then we don't lose valuable American lives.
GUTFELD: Yes, I agree.
BRUCE: That's going to naturally move to robots then, too. Talking about this. Why keep it in the air? Why not just send, you know, the robots to go do, you know, the action? And so it's still going to be -- the end result is somebody's going to die.
GUTFELD: But more efficiently. The -- the great thing about technology is that they are -- you can -- they don't sleep. They don't get distracted. And you have them facing your target.
BRUCE: The operator well, to some degree.
GUTFELD: They have 60 for a drone.
BRUCE: The thing about Venezuela, there is a concern that, in fact, this was not something that was done from the outside. That he was doing this himself. The big surprise was that the military reacted the way they did. So if you find that there's military people suddenly disappearing.
PERINO: You'll know they are.
BRUCE: You'll know what happened.
GUTFELD: I can't blame them. What do -- the military, they want to defend of failing, dying system? I don't know, Jesse. Your thoughts?
WATTERS: Not the greatest military discipline I've seen on display. Not a good look.
BRUCE: Somebody's in trouble right now.
WATTERS: That's going to embolden the Colombians. They're just going to take over Venezuela.
GUTFELD: You know, you bring up -- OK, more people -- I've read this fact. I hope it's right. More people are fleeing Venezuela than people are fleeing Syria.
WATTERS: Yes.
PERINO: Well, there's no one really left to leave Syria, No. 1.
GUTFELD: Yes.
WATTERS: And the people that are fleeing Venezuela aren't coming to America and talking about how great socialism is. This's for sure.
I think this was the scariest monologue that you every did.
GUTFELD: Really?
WATTERS: I'm actually terrified of this. If you have a jihadist in the United States, and he straps some munition to some jury-rigged drone that he bought off the Internet, goes and flies it over a football game, how are you going to prevent that?
PERINO: When did you start watching "The Five"?
GUTFELD: I've been saying that. I've been saying that, that --
WATTERS: I don't listen to all your monologues.
FOWLER: Wow.
GUTFELD: It may have been before -- the idea of a drone married to a bio agent, say, anthrax.
WATTERS: Yes, I mean this is -- you're right.
GUTFELD: Fly it over a football field. You can kill thousands.
FOWLER: That 50 years of partnership, "The Gutfeld Monologues," that's great.
PERINO: When the news broke on Saturday, the first thing I did is forward it to Greg, and I said, "Here we go."
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: We didn't know what it was. I do think it could be possible that Maduro set this up for himself, because what did they have today? They had rallies of support for him today. And he needs that, because internally, people are mad.
BRUCE: And there was no extended security zone for him. There was no, you know, extra coverage.
WATTERS: Well, you're forgetting about the jackets they were holding up over his head.
FOWLER: The Kevlar jackets. I think only when we have our president outcome, you know, you put him in, like, a little cage, the bulletproof cage that they're in, even during the inauguration. Clearly, they weren't prepared for this drone coming.
GUTFELD: All right. A musician's flight ends on a sour note. Very clever, producer. Very clever, producer. Very clever.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOWLER: We all know how frustrating it can be to fly. For example, an American Airlines passenger got kicked off the flight because of the size of her cello.
The outraged musician says she was booted after the crew claimed the plane was too small for her $33,000 instrument, even though she had already bought a seat. The airline calls it a miscommunication.
Our very own fellow "Fiver" Greg posted an interesting tweet about his trip back from Texas this weekend. "Flights can be delayed at times indefinitely because people flush things down the toilet that shouldn't be flushed. Don't be that person."
PERINO: What happened?
FOWLER: Greg, who was that person?
GUTFELD: Well, first, the solution is for anybody, for the woman, play the flute. You save so much money. It's a tiny little instrument. And actually, it's more enjoyable than the cello.
I had a great flight. It was fantastic. The people -- I'm always against people tweeting against airlines, because I think it's petty. That's why I didn't mention the airline.
PERINO: Right.
GUTFELD: Somebody flushed something down the toilet, and that delayed a flight. We always think -- I mean, what delays flights? There are so many variables. But the No. 1 thing is always weather. But you don't consider the thousand variables.
And in this case, it was somebody -- you know, never flush anything down that's larger than a cocktail weenie. It's my rule for everything.
PERINO: That's a good rule.
WATTERS: Good rule.
FOWLER: I was one of those people that tweets the airlines, because I think airlines should have good customer service and hundreds and hundreds of dollars a flight to Israel and they were 12 hours delayed. And I was, like, 12-hour delay? Is that even possible?
GUTFELD: But they're looking out for you. It could be weather. It could be weather. They're trying to save your life.
FOWLER: You know when they oversell the flight, and they're like, "Oh, we need five people to volunteer." Maybe you shouldn't have oversold the flight.
PERINO: I think people, like, over -- across the board, you had a good flight yesterday.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: A lot of people, we get where we need to go. But I think across the board, people are super frustrated with the airlines. With the actual planes, with the delays, with the overselling, with the cost of it all. And people want to go -- get where they're going. And they're extremely frustrated. I knew somebody who tried to get to Milwaukee for a bachelor party, but they ended up sending them down to Richmond. Like, well, how did we get to Milwaukee?
And they said, "Well, you can't until Monday." So they missed the whole reason they left anyway and had to take a six-hour train back.
BRUCE: You know, one of the big things, too, I think, that's hurting how people view airlines, are the animal issues. There are so many stories about the animals not making it. That becomes a problem.
But then there's a very basic kind of thing. I was in -- on a flight in business class. I asked for a blanket, where you're supposed to get one. The flight attendant took it out of the overhead and threw it at me.
And one other flight, which was --
Watters: Assault with a blanket.
FOWLER: Tweet the airline.
BRUCE: Well, I tweeted at that point, and I tweeted about this other airline. It was so cold that -- and everyone was complaining this one flight attendant brought literally a water bottle with hot water in it.
PERINO: Oh, that works. I do that every day.
BRUCE: Yes. This is like -- handing it to us. It was just not the best customer service. And you do expect, at least, to have, you know, some kind of, at least, not frozen air when you're flying.
WATTERS: Here's what I think. People need to take flying much more seriously. It's a sport, OK. It's an athletic event. There's a lot of people trying to get on the flight quickly, and you have people not paying attention. They're on their phones. They can't find their bags. Their bags are mislaid. Their kids are this way.
This is like, once that flight opens up, you have your ticket ready. You scan it. You go. All right? And then you find your seat fast. Boom, you sit, buckle, blanket, overhead. Don't talk to anybody. Don't go to the bathroom. Nothing. Stop bothering other people and holding everything up.
FOWLER: Jesse, we're agreeing more these days. We're hanging out too much, America. Hanging out too much.
BRUCE: You remember when a woman was not allowed on the plane because her children were in leggings. Do you think there's too much put on that about how you appear, how you're dressed? The girl was in leggings, and they wouldn't let her on the plane.
WATTERS: Like Spandex.
BRUCE: She was on the voucher. She was on, like, a buddy system ticket. Do you think people should dress better when they get on planes? Because that's another.
FOWLER: There used to be a time when you had to dress up to get on a plane.
BRUCE: Yes.
FOWLER: But now it's 2018, and you can wear whatever the hell you want.
GUTFELD: You know, it's sad. OK, because it's more affordable to fly. More people are flying. It's a bus in the sky. That's what it is. And therefore, people are dressing -- but people are dressing like slobs everywhere. Sweatpants are replacing khakis, and --
WATTERS: I have to admit something.
GUTFELD: What?
WATTERS: I have transitioned from dressing nice on flights to sweatpants and sneakers.
GUTFELD: There you go.
PERINO: Sweatpants? Sweatpants?
WATTERS: Stylish sweatpants.
FOWLER: Sweatpants and a hoodie.
BRUCE: Because that's how bad the flights are. If you want some comfort, you're going to have to get it for yourself.
FOWLER: The only thing I think airlines could do that would make life great is if you had a children's only section in the back of the plane. All the families could sit in the back of the plane, and those business travelers who don't want to hear the kids could sit in the front.
PERINO: All right. I'm excited about my "One More Thing." So let's go.
FOWLER: "One More Thing" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PERINO: It's time now for "One More Thing."
I'm excited, because every summer there is a rodeo, and a county fair in Weston County. And I sponsor the Girls Saddle for whichever young girl wins a junior rodeo for the girls, I get them the saddle.
Well, this is Jocelyn Pischke -- excuse me, Jocelyn Pischke. Her horse is Houdini.
BRUCE: Wow.
PERINO: She won. She's only eight years old, but get this. It turns out she's my little cousin.
WATTERS: Aww.
WATTERS: Nepotism.
PERINO: Take a look at this video to see if you can tell we're related.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOCELYN PISCHKE, RODEO WINNER: Hi, Dana, this is me Jocelyn, and this is my horse, Houdini. We want to thank you so much for sponsoring the Jr. Girls all around a saddle. We're super, super excited. Aren't we, Houdini.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: Congratulations to Jocelyn. I can't wait to see. Hopefully, we can get there next year. I might bring Jesse.
BRUCE: A natural talker.
PERINO: All right, Jesse. I mean, Greg.
WATTERS: That's Greg.
GUTFELD: She's like, a little press -- She's good. She's good. I hope she comes and visits me in New York. That means she could get on television.
GUTFELD: Yes. Very sexist, too.
PERINO: Why?
FOWLER: "Watters's World."
GUTFELD: Sponsoring just a girl. Really, Dana.
PERINO: Well, the girls' saddle.
GUTFELD: OK, whatever. Disgusting. All right.
I want to thank everybody with the Barnes & Noble and Fort Worth and in Dallas to Woodland this weekend.
I met so many awesome people, and they make you stuff. They make paintings and they give you things. And it's absolutely crazy. I think I must have met at least maybe 3,000 people. And just -- and lots of families. Everybody asking about "The Five."
You know Darrell Evans from the San Francisco Giants. If you were a Giants fan of the '70s, you know Darrell Evans. He was, like, I think, a third baseman, if I remember. And I ran into my buddy Riley from Power Trip. This is for any metal bands who love "The Five," and liberals who hate the fact that Riley and I are buddies.
I can't see that far -- oh, I'm talking to Dusty Hill from Z.Z. Top. That's his wife. I know, are these great pictures, Dana? I've got 600 of them.
PERINO: OK, we're going to move on, though.
Guess what?
GUTFELD: Guess what?
PERINO: That's a call-back.
GUTFELD: The whole point of this, I'm going to be at Huntington Book Review.
WATTERS: Yes, Huntington.
GUTFELD: Huntington, New York, Book Review tomorrow night.
PERINO: Yes, you better go to that.
GUTFELD: That was the whole point.
PERINO: OK. Jesse now.
WATTERS: All right. It's time for Jesse's "Eyebrow News."
GUTFELD: Oh, wow.
WATTERS: We don't have an animation.
We don't need one. Eyebrow beatdown at a Brooklyn salon. Someone didn't like how their eyebrows were done and whips out a broomstick and some fists. Look at that. Look at that. It's getting violent in the beauty salon.
PERINO: That's terrible.
WATTERS: Yes. Everyone is OK.
PERINO: Why are you showing this?
PERINO: Because, listen, eyebrows are my beat, Dana. And if there's an eyebrow news in the media, I will cover it.
GUTFELD: You are first. Fair and balanced.
PERINO: Wow.
All right, Richard. We have a minute left.
FOWLER: All right. So this story, you can also check it out on my Instagram page, @RichardAFowler. The video is posted there. But this is a really cool story about a woman who was rejected from a nail salon because she had cerebral palsy. A Wal-Mart cashier saw it, They ran into the store, bought nail polish and did them.
PERINO: Did the nails herself.
FOWLER: But you can see the whole entire story on my Instagram page, @RichardAFowler, where you can catch the video and hear the story.
PERINO: I'm going to follow you right now.
BRUCE: More good news from the cancer research community. There is a new drug that is 93 percent effective with kids' cancers, 75 percent effective with some rare adult cancers. The drug is called Larotrectinib. It has been approved by the FDA, and it's a breakthrough therapy drug. It is remarkable.
I put this on social media. It goes viral, because you don't hear about the stuff these days. And anything you hear --
PERINO: Got to get the word out.
BRUCE: -- may be attached to Trump. So that is the new drug. It's going to be helping kids do this kind of stuff, which is what kids should be doing.
PERINO: All right. Thanks for being here. Set your DVRs, never miss an episode of "The Five."
She likes her coffee with sugar and cream. It's Shannon Bream.
SHANNON BREAM, FOX NEWS: It is soy, just to be clear.
PERINO: Nailed it.
BREAM: Love it Dana.
PERINO: Thank you.
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