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President Trump bypasses Congress with executive orders on COVID relief
Published August 10, 2020
This is a rush transcript from "The Five," August 10, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: Hello, everyone. I am Dana Perino, along with Greg Gutfeld, Donna Brazile, Lawrence Jones, and Dagen McDowell. It is 5 o'clock in New York City. This is "The Five." President Trump taking action on Coronavirus relief, bypassing Congress after negotiations failed. Moments from now, we will hear directly from the president.
He is blaming the Democrats for not acting. And he's holding a news conference where he is sure to talk about his decision to sign executive actions aimed at providing economic relief to millions of Americans. Here is the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They were asking for things that just had nothing to do with what we are talking about. And we have been going through this routine for a long time, number of weeks. And it was time to act. And actually, we've been largely praised. We have to get money out to the people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blasting Trump's executive actions as, quote, "absurdly unconstitutional" and threatening a legal challenge. But the Speaker also faced a grilling from the press over her role in the failed negotiations. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Having no bill at all, not coming to any agreement wasn't going to provide any of the things that you want either. You're known as a master negotiator. But didn't you mess this one up?
NANCY PELOSI, HOUSE SPEAKER: Clearly, you don't have an understanding of what is happening here.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- Madame Speaker.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I understand you, you know, you want to get the best possible for people. But at some point, you've got to work with the other side, right?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: All right. Dagen McDowell, I wanted to start with you. Just to set the stage for how important was it for people who are going to run out of the extra supplemental benefit. How important is it for them to have this money? And what -- tell me about those negotiations, because I don't think people are going to care where the check comes from as long as they get their check.
DAGEN MCDOWELL, GUEST CO-HOST: Exactly. I will just start with -- and from personal experience. When you have to bust out the finger, you're losing, just a note to Nancy Pelosi. The president really found -- I don't like executive orders. I didn't like them under President Obama. I don't love them now. But the president really found a sweet spot for what the economy and Americans need right now. They do need extra money.
People who can't go back to work need extra money and unemployment benefits. The $600 went away. Many argued that it was too generous. It was an incentive for people to stay home. They were getting more on unemployment than they would be back on the job. But $400 is a reasonable amount. It's higher than the Republicans proposed. There is that.
And then also, there is a benefit to people who are at work whose been hustling through the pandemic shutdown, risking their health, and also, an incentive for people to go back to work through the payroll tax deferral. He's got -- the president has the Democrats in a vice grip. Either they have got to give in to some of the Republicans' demands on what they want, or they are going to fight the president on giving people money, who -- people who need that money.
I have been a financial journalist for about a quarter of a century. And in technical terms, what we witnessed over the weekend were some folks getting their asses handed to them.
PERINO: I like that technical term indeed. Greg, it kind of reminded me of the Schumer shutdown. Do you remember when the -- President Trump was able to label the shutdown as the Schumer shutdown and then basically pin it on the Democrats. And they have had to cave. And there's another Democrat from our past who thinks that the president was just pulling a stunt. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER UNITED STATES FIRST LADY: It's a stunt. There is no doubt about it. But it's also meant to be a big diversion from the hard work the Congress should be engaged in to provide the kind of relief that tens of millions of Americans need.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: Greg, that's one way to put it. How would you put it?
GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: I don't know, Dana. First, we have Dagen swearing, and then you think that's funny. And then you have to run that while people are having dinner. I mean, really, this is disgusting. OK, politics is a magic show for the corrupt, right? Pelosi says, hey, but we had a bill and you did nothing. Yeah, but that COVID relief bill was way -- was so much pork you can roast it on a spit.
There -- that was their trick, their magic trick, tack on climates, student debt forgiveness. And then if you don't agree, you want people to die even though it's you who, you know, snuck in that extra relief for free eyeglasses for woodland tree nymphs. So what we have learned is we need -- we need a new streamlining system for real emergencies and not phony emergencies.
Because Congress -- Congress can handle fake emergencies. But the real ones where you need money fast, you've got to let the president handle that and then punish those who attach, like, BS pork with a public spanking. I wouldn't go as far as an actual execution. But I would say a public spanking. So if you say, you know, I know this is a relief bill for an earthquake, but what about the new breeding site for, I don't know, snailed orders (ph).
Then you have to be publicly spanked because this is the problem. The pandemic taught us that you cannot depend on Congress in times of emergency. We can depend on them during a benign period. We can -- they can do their stupid speeches and flight of climate summits. No one really cares because that's a burden we can handle.
But right now, in a time of destruction and disease and disorder, we can no longer indulge their pointless activities. So I say executive action all the way, and then sort it all out later.
PERINO: Donna, it does seem kind of hard to imagine that the Democrats would sue to stop the president's executive actions when they don't have an alternative to get money into people's hands as quickly as people might need it. What do you think?
DONNA BRAZILE, GUEST CO-HOST: Well, here's what I think. On May 15th, as you all know, the Democrats passed The Heroes Act. And while we can quibble about the amount, $2 trillion, $3 trillion, we can say it was pork or beef or even chicken. But what it did contain was a comprehensive way of looking at the crisis. At that time, Mitch McConnell and Republicans decided to drag their feet and say, well, let's put it on pause before we spend more money.
The Democrats understood that July 31st was going to come sooner rather than later. The Republicans came to the table on July 27th. So let's stop trying to figure out how to blame someone for sticking up a finger when the truth is millions of Americans are about to be evicted. Millions of Americans cannot make ends meet. And yes, the president has signed a piece of paper.
He got money from the Social Security. He got money from FEMA to make this happen. Whether they decide to sue or not sue, Congress should get back to work. Figure out what the final tally should look like and help the American people.
PERINO: I think everyone could agree with that, Lawrence. I think one of the things the president's action did is force people to get serious. One of the things the Wall Street Journal said is that when the Democrats are asking me for $3 plus trillion, that it wasn't so much as a negotiation as a stick up. And that's not really the way that you can -- to a compromise.
But now with the president having taken this action, could a compromise be possible?
LAWRENCE JONES, GUEST CO-HOST: Excellent analysis, as usual. Yes, we are at a negotiation table now because the game is much different. You know, my basketball coach used to always say basketball is a game of run. The score can change in the blink of our eye. Politics shouldn't be that way, but it is. The Democrats didn't want to negotiate as long as it was the Republicans that were going to take the blame.
They kind of painted this picture that the Republicans didn't care. And it was -- over 3.4 trillion to 1.5 trillion. They weren't being taken seriously. Well, the president played the saying game of politics by saying, you know what. I will do this executive order and you can take me to court. But now, you look like the bad guy, because what did you pass?
Because I'm already doing this, what are you going to do? So now, you see Democrats wanting to be reasonable. And I will say this. Nancy Pelosi, she did take an L. And she has to take the L on this and then get back to the negotiation table. Because right now, what she promised to her constituents was the post office funding, the hospitals, the state board of election.
And right now, she's going to get zero of that. And so now, she has to get to that table to get some type of win. But again, this is a game of runs. Right now, they cannot paint it that the Republicans are the bad guy. I do not like executive orders. But, you know, the president got a win right now.
PERINO: Lawrence, I have to tell you. I thought basketball was a game of baskets, and that baseball was a game of runs. But I could be wrong.
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: I'm probably wrong. People will tell me I'm (Inaudible). All right, coming up next, all eyes on Joe Biden as he is set to name his running mate, and that decision could come at any moment, even during a commercial break, so stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRAZILE: Hey, welcome back. After weeks of speculation, Vice President Joe Biden is ready to announce his vice presidential selection pick. I'm excited. Some of the names you are probably hearing out there, Senator Kamala Harris, Ambassador Susan Rice, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Congresswoman Karen Bass, Senator Tammy Duckworth, and of course, Michigan Governor, Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
I'm excited. The vice president has a few more days before the convention starts. So let me start by asking Dana. Dana, do you have a favorite?
PERINO: I have to say that I really felt like I should be the one asking you this question in this segment, because you might have your ear to the ground a little bit better than I do. I'm anxious to find out. Of course, I love politics. And I think that this is an announcement we've all been waiting for. Because whoever he chooses, it's almost as if he is suggesting, like, this would be the future of the Democratic Party.
And I know that -- most important, the first and foremost, he has to decide who would be somebody that could take over as president in an instant if it was needed. He needs somebody who would be a good governing partner with him and get along, and probably needs somebody who is not going to immediately start running for president the moment if they were to win.
So I do think that we will get it fairly soon. There's been a lot of opposition research dumped on all of these candidates. And David Axelrod tweeted that he thought that Joe Biden should take that as a sign. And I imagine that he was probably suggesting that at least one of these candidates is the one that is doing the dumping.
And that that might not be a very good loyal partner, but then in my mind, it shows whoever did it, they want to win.
BRAZILE: Well, I don't know if anybody is doing the oppo dumping from the Democratic Party. But we know that we have some serious contenders. And this is an exciting week. So Dagen, do you have a favorite among the women that have been listed so far?
MCDOWELL: I don't really care who it is. I think it's going to be exciting one way or another. I think that Joe Biden needs to pick somebody who can pull him back toward the middle. When Dana interviewed his wife, Jill, last week -- what was the quote, Dana? That he is a moderate and that's who he's always been. Well, he's been cutting some deals with the far left trying to kind of get enthusiasm up and bring more voters in.
But based on what he's promised so far, it's kind of the mistake that Hillary Clinton made four years ago where you are supposed to be left during the primary then move toward the middle. And we know how that worked out for her. And in a swing state like Florida, she was leading at this time by nine percentage points. Joe Biden is leading by four.
BRAZILE: Well, sometime when you're over the cliff, you can't see what's left or right. I can tell you that that platform and where the party has gone as going to help everyday Americans. So Lawrence, you must have a favorite among this group of women.
JONES: Well, I don't have a favorite with the ones that have been selected to be finalists. But I think he missed the opportunity when not picking Keisha Lance Bottoms, who is the mayor of Atlanta. She has a proven record when it comes to businesses and getting community engagement. She's a moderate. She's not as progressive. So I think he made a bad move on that.
But as I reported before that the progressive side, they want something. And they have made it very clear that they want a black woman to be on that list. And, you know there was a stunning letter that was released today by 100 black men. And I'm not talking about some little black men that don't have weight within the community.
You've got Van Jones. You've got Charlamagne tha God, Michael Eric Dyson, people that have a lot of influence on the progressive side. And they have made it very clear. They do not want to select the lesser of two evils. That's what they said. They're tired of holding their nose to vote for a candidate. And one of the concessions that they want is a black female.
Now, Joe Biden put himself in this predicament to begin with, because he said that he was going to select a woman. Now, they're making it very clear that he has to select a black woman.
BRAZILE: You know, 100 years and we've had, of course, three women on major party tickets. And we all know them, Geraldine Ferraro, Sarah Palin, and of course, Hillary Clinton. So I am prepared to see a black woman, and why not, because we are super qualified, ready to lead this country. And I'm excited to see such great names.
And Greg, I know I wanted to save the best for last, because 48 white males have served as vice president. And I know you're going to miss having a white man in the vice presidency. So do you have a woman that you would like to see?
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: Actually, no, because I don't like this playing this stupid game of gender and race. I don't give a damn what color they are. I don't give a damn what gender they are. Frankly, I just want competence. And I want bravery. And we are missing both of them in the Democratic Party. So here are the two questions that remain.
Number one, why did Willie Brown choose to say publicly that Kamala shouldn't run for -- shouldn't VP but AG. That was misdirection. He's telling her that she's going to be president because Joe Biden's just lingering. He's not supposed to be there. Right now, he's like that hovering chaperone, right, on a date, and the couple can't wait for him to bid good night so they can get down to business.
They -- Sleepy Joe has become Lingering Joe. They need a party bartender to go up to him and say, Joe, you don't have to go home but you can't stay here. Because the fact is he is not going to make it. And you guys can't come to grips with it. So here's the ideal thing. You have got to put two women on the ticket. I said this a year ago.
The 100th anniversary of the women's right to vote, the Democrats could've sown this up with two women. And if you did Kamala Harris and Val Demings, and by way, Val Demings is the stronger candidate than all of them, you've got two women, and get this, two cops. Think about that. Think about how that would shore up the Democrats' tattered reputation for being weak on law and order, for letting cities die. That would be a really smart choice, which means they won't do it.
BRAZILE: Well, Greg, I wish I had the rest of the hour to try to clean up some of the disinformation that you just --
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: You have time now. You have some time now. You have some time now. Clean up the disinformation.
(CROSSTALK)
BRAZILE: I am so excited to have two women. Now, I don't know how much time I have left, but let me just put it this way. I am very excited that we are going to have another woman on the ticket. And I hope this time it's not a game, because after 100 years of struggle, we are ready to have a woman on the ticket. Up next, speaking of Greg, we are going to discuss why more Americans say they're losing faith in the media.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUTFELD: Oh, to be this dumb.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you see entire media companies essentially exist to tear down Joe Biden, is there an equivalent to that on the left tearing down Trump?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There really isn't. And, you know, what I would say it's really a diet of this type of information that a lot of these voters are getting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: So wait. There's no anti-Trump network? Well, even CNN admits nobody watches CNN. But look, even if you despise Trump, you've got to admit this deception dares you to laugh in its face. There isn't an anti- Trump media company? Hell, there might be two dozen with CNN leading the hair on fire pack. The only reason every Trump book goes to number one is because it has two cable networks doing its PR, which explains why two recent massive surveys say media is overwhelmingly biased and cannot be trusted.
If only this delusional thinking were relegated to the silly world of politics or Brian Stelter's head, but it's not. The same people who deny this reality deny a lot of far uglier facts. Rising murder rates, shootings, looting, property destruction, attacks on the elderly, killings by released felons, attacks on free speech, riots described as peaceful protests.
And remember how the media pretended that de-funding the police was a reasonable ask? For this to succeed, they had to bury reality, like Gallup surveys showing that over 80 percent of blacks and Hispanics want the same amount or more police, funny how the white anchors never bring that stuff up. But in order for a left-wing view of the world to exist, you must pretend none of that other bad stuff exists.
Meaning, the consequences of left-wing action and Democratic leader inaction, you can thank a media and the left working together to preserve their power. Meanwhile, Stelter also denies the reality of Joe Biden's decline.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Joe Biden out there on a vigorous bike ride. Not wearing a helmet, but definitely wearing a mask, by the way. Fox's narrative and talk radio's narrative for months has been that Joe Biden is falling apart. You just heard Ben Shapiro say it, falling apart. And there he is riding a bike, out for a bike ride.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: Cool. So if you ride a bike, you can be president. That's good news for these fellows. Yup, check them out. You know, I've got my money on the pug. What can I say? He has got a sound fiscal policy. Thank you, Dana, for the courtesy laugh. So I shall go to you first. How can anybody say there are no anti-Trump networks with a straight face? Is that literally -- that is the literal definition of denial.
PERINO: I hope I wasn't disrupting your read -- of your monologue, because I was laughing through the entire thing. When I saw the topic for today, I thought this is just, like, basically, they just make material for you for your Monday monologues over there. There are absolutely entire networks devoted to -- and there have been from the beginning, well, really not until after he won, right?
If you remember, some of them were helpful to him when he was a candidate. And then they changed their tune.
GUTFELD: Right.
PERINO: The other thing is that -- if that's a vigorous bike ride, I would really like to see the candidates have to go on Kindle tools, 45-minutes intervals and arms (ph), and then we will find out if they have vigorous bike rides.
GUTFELD: You know, I did a tabata ride yesterday, the 15 minute one. It's perfect. It's just the right amount of time to do tabata. So Dagen, I -- whenever anybody describes some action as vigorous, it's as dog whistle for being old. It's, like saying, oh, look how spry he is. He went right up those stairs.
MCDOWELL: Look, he put two sentences together. Hear, hear, bravo, Joe Biden. I don't -- you know, I always learned if you can't say something nice about somebody or an entire network, don't say anything at all. So, I'll just sit here and do an audition for CNN with a sneer on my face in my mouth like that, because that's the equivalent of what you get. They did armchair psychoanalysis of President Trump for how many years.
GUTFELD: Yes.
MCDOWELL: Well, I would -- it's not really armchair, it's more like sandbox while they're eating the, you know, what the cat left behind in the sand. I get nothing from this. It is the equivalent of a toddler eating toilet paper, not you but the other guy.
GUTFELD: And we would not advise that at all.
MCDOWELL: Right.
GUTFELD: You know, Lawrence, we've all -- we all work in T.V. I envisioned that there were people in the control room where the producers and the directors work who just burst out laughing when they hear somebody say something like that. They go, don't you work at CNN?
JONES: I mean, honestly, the sad part about it is I actually feel like they believe this, which is really telling.
GUTFELD: Yes.
JONES: But we laugh at this, but when you look at it this from a logical standpoint, this is hurtful to their candidate, Joe Biden. He's not prepared for the base. He's not prepared for real, real questions. I mean, it seems like every week we spend time, because the President's done some big interview, and we have to pick it apart as we should, because he's the President of the United States, he's running for reelection, but we never have that opportunity to do that for Joe Biden, because he doesn't do those types of interviews. And when he does do a layup interview, we always have to talk about his gaffes. And his response to every tough question is "come on, man."
And that's telling because there's going to come a point where he has to be on the debate stage, he'll get some prep, but he's not going to be ready for some of those questions because he hasn't been interviewed. Those questions should come before the debate stage, and he hasn't been able to answer those. And I don't think he's going to be able to answer them on the debate stage either.
GUTFELD: Yes. Donna, I saved the best for last. Shouldn't Joe, a very old white male, if he was truly not racist, step aside and allow a woman of color to become president. By not stepping aside, isn't he reaffirming the subtle racism that we've seen him express over the past year with his commentary about Blacks?
BRAZILE: Well, you started off the segment -- you start off the segment talking about the media and bias, and I was going to tell you that if you look at the last five years, there's been an increased polarization in the media just like it is in our politics and our culture, so let's put that aside.
The second thing, Lawrence, he's done in 100 interviews. And while they're not all perfect, at least he's done 100, and he participated in at least 12 debates during the Democratic primary. So maybe he doesn't answer the questions the way you like to hear to the answer, but he is capable of holding his own --
JONES: Like when he said last week that Black folks were diversed?
BRAZILE: Lawrence, if I comment on everything President Trump has said in the last four years --
JONES: We do.
BRAZILE: No, you don't. You don't. You whitewash and airbrush what Trump says every day.
JONES: No, I don't. Actually, I don't.
BRAZILE: But here's the point I want to make. We're going to get to see Joe Biden and Donald Trump, two men in their 70s -- and by the way, I don't think 70 is old. I know that some of you do. But I do believe that if he is -- if he's up for the job, and he can handle the job, just like President Reagan was able to handle the job and President Trump, then let's debate the merits of their proposals and their issues.
JONES: See, that's what -- this is why Biden isn't ready, because every single time we have a conversation about Biden, his surrogates and people that support him go to President Trump. He's got to be able to defend what his ideology is but he doesn't.
BRAZILE: Hey, Lawrence, have me on your show and I can -- I can break it. I can break it down so well, so that when you talk about Joe Biden and his racism, I could tell you about Trump and his racism because it's white supremacy we're fighting not just white candidates, OK. I'm ready for you.
GUTFELD: All right, enough.
JONES: All right. We'll have a good time.
GUTFELD: White supremacy, it's everywhere. All right, another week of chaos. Violence is breaking out in cities across America. It's white supremacy gone wild. Not really. The crazy scenes up ahead on THE FIVE.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JONES: Major chaos erupted in American cities. More than 100 people arrested in Chicago after looter swarmed the city's Magnificent Mile, smashing windows and robbing stores. And in Portland, rioters descended on the police association's headquarters, setting dumpsters on fire and throwing objects at cops. Attorney General Bill Barr turn into the violent far-left protests. Take a look
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL, UNITED STATES: They are a revolutionary group that is interested in in some form of socialism, communism. They're essentially Bolsheviks. Their tactics are fascistic. The left wants power because that is essentially their state of grace and their secular religion. They want to run people's lives so they can design utopia for all of us. And that's what, you know, that's what turns them on. And it's the - - it's the lust for power.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: All right, Greg. Should we expect this? I mean, this is not going to change unless the same type of policies ran in these cities, right?
GUTFELD: This is not going to end until city leaders find their spines, which is now to be a distinct impossibility. I've never seen a more pathetic array of sad clowns from Ted Wheeler to Lori Lightfoot to De Blasio. They sell out the cops, they condemned the law-abiding, and then they hide when the looting starts.
I want to point out that there's a really disturbing trend going on in this -- in this criminal activity. There's too many incidents of looting going on at the same time, so it's coordinated. This is not about protests. Everybody knows that. This is a new strategy that you realize that if you coordinate the caravans, you can overwhelm the police. And so now everybody needs to have the police work overtime before they didn't want the police.
But my point is, this is not looting. This is an insurgency. So, you got to stop talking about police. This is not police being the problem here. This is now an insurgent -- an insurgency of organized crime. So, if you want it -- if an army was invading your city and doing the same thing, how would you expect your city to respond? You have to think like that because right now this is --- this is what happened in my neighborhood downtown. You can't stop it. It completely overwhelmed unless you overwhelm it with force.
Dialog and pleading with them and telling them oh, you're helping Trump with the optics, that doesn't work. Either that or we just don't care and we let the cities burn. Because if they -- if their leaders don't care, then why should you?
JONES: Dana, the mayor of Chicago didn't act at first, but now she's saying that they'll come for them. Take a look at this site.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LORI LIGHTFOOT, MAYOR, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Those who engaged in this criminal behavior, let's be clear, we are coming for you. We are already at work and finding you and we intend to hold you accountable for your actions. I don't care. I do not care whatever justification was given for this. There is no justification for criminal behavior ever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: Well, Dana, they let it happen before and then they let all those people out of jail, so is this too late?
PERINO: Yes. So earlier today, one of our reporters Garrett Tenney in Chicago was reporting that -- as Greg was pointing out, the looting it was taking place in the same place that it had taken before. And one of the stores that he showed was an Intermix store. And inside that store, you had the same kind of destruction.
It just opened since the last protest, and it opened about two weeks ago. So, if you're Intermix, would you think, wow, this one seems like a really great neighborhood for us to have a shop. I mean, twice is probably enough and then see you later. But one of the things that he also reported is that some of the looters had said they felt like they could get away with it because nobody got in trouble the first time. So perhaps Mayor Lightfoot is ready to you know, show a little bit more force here.
JONES: Donna, this is the -- I've been on the ground before in Chicago for the last month, and before that, a year before that. This is the first weekend I didn't call -- I get a call to travel Monday because a baby was killed. When is it going to end?
BRAZILE: As you well know -- as you well know, there was also a similar type of not like Chicago, but D.C. we had --
JONES: Right, in D.C., correct.
BRAZILE: So, look, here's the -- last night was a blatant display of criminal behavior. And I think the mayor is right, the police superintendent is absolutely right. These are looters. They came out with a coordinated attack, not just on those buildings but also on the police. This occurred after something happened in Chicago on Sunday where a young man was shot by the police -- a young man who shot at the police, and while that was going on, this was all happening on social media.
So we should not conflate peaceful protests which we've seen over the past few months with these violent looters.
GUTFELD: No one has.
BRAZILE: It's different. And we should. But the mayor is absolutely right. And not just the mayor of Chicago, but the mayor -- the mayor's in many of our major cities today are dealing with an increase in gun violence. And we should attack it and we should figure out the source, and we should continue to try to get the police and the community to work together.
JONES: So Dagen, now all of a sudden, it seems like the leaders are being reactive, OK. When you disband the anti-crime units in all these cities, when you tell the cops to hold back -- you know, we were having a great conversation about policing and community relations together. But when you paint all law enforcement officers as the problem and you take away their ability to do their job, shouldn't we expect this? I mean, this is a little reactive, right?
MCDOWELL: I've been talking about it literally for years in New York City. First, it's just the quality of light crimes. Oh, public urination and defecation. We're not going to write tickets for that. We're going to turn a blind eye. Oh, 90 percent of crimes now no bail. You assault a child under 11. We're going to write you a ticket. You get right out.
And so, it's lawlessness begets lawlessness. Inaction begets inaction. And you're seeing it play out across the country. This will be the election of public safety. These Democrats, Joe Biden and whoever he picks, they ought to speak loudly and often condemning what is going on in these cities, even condemning the actions and words of some of these mayors and governors in the states because it's appalling what's happening.
And watch out because people are arming themselves legally, I might add. Gun sales have doubled in July from a year ago. The largest increase among demographic groups in the first six months of this year as among Black Americans.
JONES: That's right.
MCDOWELL: Then we're going to start talking about the Second Amendment rights because if you live in New York City, you don't have any. You're a sitting duck and you're just walking out into the street every day just waiting to get mugged. That's what's going on. People are going to put a stop to it.
What about those blue-collar voters in the Midwest? They got -- they believe in their right to bear arms. The Democrats are going to get blindsided by this.
JONES: And at the same time, Greg, you have -- go ahead, Dana, you have the governor begging people to come back --
PERINO: I just wanted -- I wanted to point out something. You might remember, I think it was on Friday that I talked about a friend of mine who had left her apartment in the city and had been grabbed by the hair by a homeless person and then the doorman of that building had pushed the guy out.
OK, that happened two weeks ago. The police came. They walked him two blocks down, and then let them go. Guess what happened on Saturday. She's taking her little girl to the park. A different homeless guy grabs her by the hair again and tries to drag her away. And they tried -- and the same thing happened. They walked them two blocks away and says, you know, don't come back here.
But of course, like -- so guess what happened? They left the city. They went to stay with friends in a suburb because that's the safer place to be. So, when last week when Governor Cuomo was saying, please come back and I'll buy you dinner. I'll buy -- that's not -- nobody cares about dinner. They want to make sure that they can have a safe place to live.
They love the city, but it took 30 years to get it to the place where people felt safe and comfortable. And it took just like two months to destroy it.
MCDOWELL: Dana, can I just add -- can I just add one quick thing.
JONES: Yes, and then, Greg -- go ahead.
MCDOWELL: Cuomo is talking to his friends who have security details who can get a concealed carry permit in New York City because they're rich, and they know well the governor. So, they can -- you know, these people have protection. It's people who are trying to raise families on a -- you know, on a modest wage and take the subway to work every day were all -- were all at risk in this city and across the nation.
BRAZILE: Yes, should be worried and when we should do something about it. And this is the time to do something, especially during the summer when we always see an uptick in violent crimes across the country, especially gun violence. So, this is a time for us to focus on it. And if we're going to solve it, we got to make sure that the community is working with the police departments across the country.
JONES: Well, guys, if you can see at the bottom of your screen, we're waiting for the President to come for his news conference. But Greg, the governor is begging people to come back but De Blasio says, hey, I don't want you to come back. This is the greatest city. Even though people are shooting up with drugs and shootings are having happen in the city, we don't need you to come back.
GUTFELD: Well, De Blasio is that -- is that politician that lives off the success of the past. He has done nothing for this city. But the city became so beloved in its modern kind -- in its modern age among tourists and when it transformed itself in the 70s to the -- to the 90s over time, thanks to Giuliani and Bloomberg, so he had to do nothing.
JONES: It looks like we have the president right here. We'll watch together.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I thought I'd start by talking about some mail-in voting that just was revealed just the news. Half a million incorrect absentee ballot applications were sent all across the state of Virginia, including to many dead people. This was an unprecedented mailing flub that tightens concerns about the integrity of expanding mail-in voting and mail-in voting efforts. It's a disaster all over Virginia, half a million votes. So that's something you have to think about.
We don't have a rigged election. I know that. And you have to be very careful. When you mentioned, as you constantly do, Russia or you mentioned China or you mentioned Iran or others that attack our election system, and when you have this mail-in voting, it's a very susceptible. It's something that can be easily attacked by foreign countries and by, frankly, Democrats and by Republicans. And I think that it's something you have to start thinking about very seriously.
Our system is not equipped for it, the Post Office is not equipped for it, and people should vote like they did in World War I and World War II. And your numbers will be in 90 days or less. Your numbers will be very good, I think, much better on the Coronavirus or the China virus, but it's something you have to look about -- look at and say this is just crazy.
This just came out, half a million incorrect ballot application sent all over the state of Virginia to many people that weren't living. They had some sent to pets, dogs. This is what we're going to get into and it's going to be a disaster. And it's going to be thought of very poorly and it's going to hurt our country.
After our news conference Saturday night and the pro-growth announcement -- well, pro-jobs, pro-health safety executive orders, the stock market went up 358 points today. So we issue those executive orders and the stock market went up 358 points today. It's quite a reaction. The Dow Jones and the S&P 500 are now up 50 percent since March, 50 percent. Think if you had money in there, if you put your money in in March, you have 50 percent. The Nasdaq index continues to set new records. It's been up over 14 times, new record in Nasdaq and the S&P 500.
And the Dow Jones are going to be -- I mean, the way they're going, it looks like they're just about going to be topping records hopefully soon. Excuse me?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JONES: All right. So, the President just started his news conference and then he was whisked out. Somebody whispered something to him from the side. We don't know what that was. We will definitely keep -- you know, have we - - have fox news reporters there, we have our producers there, they will try to find out as quickly as possible.
That is very unusual, I will say, when the President starts a news conference, for him to be pulled out, it must mean there is something that he really needs to know or that they need his attention on. They didn't rush him out in a hurried way. It seemed very calm and orderly. But again, the President was just doing the press conference. We don't know what was said there.
We will try to get to our reporter in the room if we had one, because it's possible that what the agent said to the President was picked up on the microphone. I couldn't hear it. I don't know if any of my colleagues who are here -- it was not our day to have a reporter in the room. That basically because of Coronavirus, you have to stagger the people that you have in there.
Maybe I'll just bring in some of my colleagues here. Donna, Brazil, as you know, you've worked in Washington for a long time, something like that. It could be nothing. It could be that hey, you need to take this phone call or it might be something that was a little bit more serious. Anything from you?
BRAZILE: I was listening to what the President was saying, and all of a sudden, I started hearing a whisper. And, you know, I'm on a small screen here, and then I saw one of the -- I guess that was someone from the Secret Service come and escort him out. So hopefully everything is OK. But given everything that's happened in these days, we just don't know.
JONES: Yes.
PERINO: There is, of course, Greg, a lot that -- you know, you always have to be aware of -- the president is always the president. Like, you can go and you can do a news conference, you could go and throw out the first pitch at a baseball game, and it doesn't matter. At any point you could be called because you are the decider in chief.
GUTFELD: Yes. And whenever something leaves you with this giant space of uncertainty, you want to fill it. So your brain is naturally filling it. Is somebody ill or is something happening somewhere else? And you don't want to speculate because you don't know. We hope that it's nothing or it's something benign but I don't know. It's unusual. I've never seen that happen -- I've never seen that happen before so it's first for me.
PERINO: The only time that I remember seeing it happen, and -- it doesn't matter, it was way back in my previous career. And now you have a lot of the reporters who are outside. You have Secret Service there that you can see. We're trying to get our own John Roberts to be able to help us here as we try to figure out why the President was asked to leave the news -- the briefing room.
And again, it might not be anything very serious at all, but it is very unusual to interrupt a president at a public event that Americans have been waiting for all day because he was going to give an update on these executive actions as America continues to figure out how to deal with the consequences of this pandemic, the economic consequences indeed.
So, you have reporters there, they're on the phone. It doesn't seem like they seem to know a lot either. It doesn't perhaps there's something that was either they were told to go outside. I could imagine that the reporters were told to leave or they could be told to go back inside. So, we'll see here if we can get John Roberts up here in just a moment.
GUTFELD: You know --
PERINO: They trying to do that because he should be up and around there in a moment. And, of course, we have Bret Baier's show coming up in a moment as well. Dagen McDowell, any thoughts from you as we wait to find out what's happening here? The Secret Service there giving direction to reporters to move them to another location.
MCDOWELL: Well, Dana, talk about -- not to throw it back at you, but talk about working in the White House and how vigilant the Secret Service are. I mean, in terms of being on top of any noise or any movement, even outside of the White House, even around the perimeter of the White House grounds. You can speak to that.
PERINO: It's so interesting that you say that, Dagen, because yes, you know, one of the things that I will say and I think that our Secret Service is the best in the world. They're -- I would say that they're -- you know, they're overly cautious, which can be good, because you want to make sure you're safe. The President of the United States, no matter who he or she is, is the number one target for terrorists around the world or for assassinations and executions. So you want to make sure that you're always protected.
And when you're in that bubble, the closer you are to them, the more concerned you might be unless you have the United States Secret Service who takes care of you and make sure that the 18 acres of the White House are secure. As you look out there, I believe this is a view from the press briefing room, looking out onto what would have been, I believe, the North Lawn of the White House.
That's the North view right there, North Portico. And then the -- see where the trees are on the right side of your screen. Reporters, when you see our own John Roberts or Kristin Fisher, when they're doing their reports, they're right there kind of buy those trees. And it seems to me that's where the Secret Service or I'm sorry, where the camera was pointing at the time.
In case you're just tuning in, just to remind you, that the -- OK, so now we have information. The Secret Service has sent everybody back into the White House so that must mean that they perhaps were worried about something going on outside. Again, that's the view --
BRAZILE: It seems that they were on lockdown for a while.
PERINO: Yes, that's the view outside of -- when you're in the White House press briefing room, that's looking out towards the north lawn. And you see the Secret Service agent there or Capitol Police there, or maybe that's Secret Service.
JONES: Uniformed Division.
PERINO: Yes. Thank you.
BRAZILE: That's the Uniformed Division, yes.
PERINO: Thank you, Lawrence. I'm like, wait, now I'm confused. It's the Uniformed Division. So, the President was giving his news conference. He had just started. He was giving the opening comments, and he was in particular talking about mail-in ballots. There you have another -- well, you have --
JONES: That's a Secret Service Uniformed Division.
PERINO: That looks like. Yes, I don't know if that's Uniformed Division, but it's like those are the -- those are the guys that you want protecting you 100 percent.
JONES: Dana, real quickly, it does give me some calm that there wasn't a rush to get the president out of there. Normally, you will see the Secret Service actually physically lift the president out. But what you're seeing outside right now is the separation inside of the White House. Typically, the guys in suits are PPA -- I'm sorry, PPD, Presidential Protection Detail, and the guys outside with the long guns as you just seeing is the United States Secret Service Uniform Division. Same training, different group, normally we see them with long guns protecting --
PERINO: Lawrence, if I could interrupt because I think we have some good news that they're going to restart the briefing soon, which must mean that whatever the disturbance was or the concern, hopefully, it has now been alleviated. John Roberts, we have you with us now?
JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Hey, Dana. I'm here in the briefing room and I'm going to have to leave in a couple of seconds here because the President is coming back in. I was out in the north lawn position just as the president started his news conference and heard a couple of what sounded either like gunshots or firecrackers. It was difficult to ascertain exactly what it was. But it was two pops, very close together, very loud.
The Secret Service sprang into action, the Uniformed Division as well as the agents, and you saw them take the president his way, as well as the CAT team. Hang on two seconds. Hi, it's John. Can you tell me what happened? Yes, yes, yes. OK, one person hit.
PERINO: We're waiting for John Roberts who's getting a phone call with information.
ROBERTS: All right, great. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, Dana. So apparently, shots were fired at 17th and Penn. This was not initiated by the Secret Service. These shots came from somewhere else. And apparently now, the Secret Service is rendering aid to someone who is hit.
So, we do not know if it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound or if somebody was shooting at someone else, but again, this was the 17th and Penn just as the president started these -- there is a Secret Service station there of course, there's security all over but these shots were not initiated by the Secret Service.
PERINO: John Roberts, I'm going to -- I'm going to thank you. And I'm -- and I'm going to turn in to Bret Baier.
Bret Baier, take it away.
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