Published January 07, 2019
This is a rush transcript from "The Five," January 7, 2019. 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 our new Fox News contributor Emily Compagno, Juan Williams, Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld. It's 5:00 in New York City and this is "The Five."
President Trump taking his case for border security to the American people. In week three of the shutdown stalemate, the president is set to deliver his first prime time Oval Office address tomorrow night on what he's calling the, quote, "humanitarian and national security crisis on our southern border."
And on Thursday, President Trump is heading to McAllen, Texas, to survey the situation on the ground and meet with immigration officials. The president also now saying he's willing to compromise on building a concrete wall and Trump isn't ruling out declaring a national emergency if Congress doesn't give him the necessary funding.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They don't like concrete, so we will give them steel. Steel is actually more expensive than concrete, but it will look beautiful and it is very strong. It's actually stronger.
We're looking at a national emergency because we have a national emergency. Just read the papers. It is national security. It's a national emergency.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: Democrat congressman, Jerry Nadler, says he doubts the president will be truthful in his address to the nation tomorrow night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JERRY NADLER, D-N.Y.: The president has announced that he's going to address the country tomorrow night on the so-called crisis of the border. I expect the president to lie to the American people. Why do I expect this? Because he has been lying to the American people and his spokespeople continue to lie to the American people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: And Senator Lindsey Graham is slamming the, quote, "radical left," for refusing to negotiate with the GOP.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.: As long as the radical left is in charge, we are never going to get anywhere. The president will compromise but he will not capitulate. So that's where we are at.
I'm not going to negotiate with somebody who calls the Border Patrol agents a bunch of Nazis when they are trying to defend the border against a mob.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: All right. I think we have to start with our newest Fox News contributor, Emily. Congratulations. We are glad that you are a contributor to Fox News. So, we'll give you the first shot of talking about the president making a decision to address the nation tomorrow night.
EMILY COMPAGNO, GUEST HOST, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Thank you so much. First of all, really, it is such an honor to be a part of this family so thank you guys.
JESSE WATTERS, CO- HOST: You're welcome.
COMPAGNO: So, I think what's important for me is for viewers to understand what it would look like if the president actually declared a national emergency and what that -- what trickles down from that. And basically, in the '70s, this act was passed. It was post-Watergate, it was post-Vietnam.
And the main thing that he would have to do is cite a specific emergency provision, a specific emergency power, right, that activates what he's asking for. And so, there are hundreds of them by the way. There are hundreds of provisions under this act and he just has to specifically cite it.
And underneath that, he gets extraordinary authority. He can take land. He can seize property. He can restrict travel, et cetera. And we are hearing already from the left and some of those comments things like, well you know, we are going to take this to court and this is just like the steel (ph) thing and it's not. It's totally separate.
The only challengeable aspect would be whether that specificity is tied together, right? And the other thing that people should understand is that those specific provisions, there's monetary associations with it. So, if he went under the immigration act for example, that caps at $20 million.
So really -- and there is a ton more options and what not, but basically a kind of overview would be cobbling together the money and the funding and whether that's in articulable (ph) specificity. And by the way, it pretty much is because, for example, under that immigration act, all that needs to happen is for him to cite the fact that the current resources are basically being stretched thin, they are not keeping up with it.
So, there's that. And I also think -- on Representative Jeffries' comment about, well, we don't want to hold the American people hostage any longer over this medieval wall --
PERINO: I also have that. Let's listen to that and then we will get you and Jesse to comment on this because he wanted to comment too. Do we have that montage please?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES , D-N.Y.: We need to actually reopen the government and stop holding the American people hostage simply because Donald Trump wants a medieval border wall.
SEN. CHRIS COONS, D-DEL.: A fourth century concrete wall that you can't see through will be a less effective border barrier.
SEN. JEFF MERKLEY, D-ORE.: Let's spend the citizens' money in a smart fashion, not with some fourth century basically pointless strategy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: The fourth century talking point has gone out, the signal.
COMPAGNO: Yes and here's my point. He said that that holds us hostage right now, there's the standoff. We are already held hostage. We are held hostage throughout the entire nation right now with everything that is coming over the southern border and how it impacts all aspects of the criminal justice system.
It's not just the drugs coming across or migrants seeking asylum. It goes so much deeper than that. When we have -- what's the currency of all the gangs riddling in these cities? It is drugs. What are -- how are the sheriff's prevent it? How are the, you know, relations between ICE, et cetera. It's multi-layers.
PERINO: It is indeed. What do you think about the fourth century comment?
WATTERS: Well, he's not using leeches at the southern border. He's using proven security techniques.
GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: Not yet, Jesse.
WATTERS: Yes, just wait. Listen, a lot of things are useful that have been used for very long time from medieval times, shackles, blades, men on horseback, prisons, shields, you know, those things are useful because they work.
GUTFELD: Some of your favorite things, Jesse.
WATTERS: Some of the things in Gutfeld's basement. So, you know, the president likes to use the analogy of the wheel. The wheel works over time and it's because it's effective, just like walls are effective. I don't like how Nadler is saying that the president is going to lie tomorrow night.
The president has told the truth on the caravan from the beginning. He said it was mostly men, not a bunch of women and children. The men were looking for money, not asylum. And what happened when the caravan finally reached the southern border? Uptick 300 percent in violence perpetrated against the border agents.
If anything the president has compromised and moderated his position, if you look at he's offering out $800 million for humanitarian situation. He is saying now we want a steel fence. The steel fence has been voted on positively by Democrats in the past. It's an environmentally friendly. Water can just trickle through it.
It helps the U.S. steel industry as well. People can see through it so they have visibility on the other side. A lot of these things that the president is doing is trying to bring Nancy Pelosi to the negotiating table. If anything, Nancy looks like the one stuck in the mud.
PERINO: But Juan, I do think that the Democrats seem vulnerable on that point, that they did vote for secure fencing in the past and does it really matter if it is steel or concrete?
JUAN WILLIAMS, CO-HOST: No, this whole thing is a manufactured, you know, political --
PERINO: From both sides?
WILLIAMS: No, from the -- Trump is the one who has created this. The Democrats didn't create this.
PERINO: But my question was they voted in the past for secure fencing.
WILLIAMS: Yes, in order for border security. I mean, unless -- I mean, if the argument is Democrats don't click here on border security that is patently false. This whole thing though is striking to me and that the only way to understand it is that Trump is playing base, tribal politics.
Most independents don't support it. Obviously, most Democrats don't support it. There is no national emergency. You can go back to the midterms. There was -- remember, we were being invaded. Now, it looks like there was no invasion. It was a bunch of desperate people.
At the moment, he says, oh, there are all these criminals coming over. If you watch Fox News Sunday yesterday, Chris Wallace absolutely dismantled Sarah Huckabee Sanders on this point. There is no evidence, even from Trump's own Justice Department, his own immigration services.
So, he is doing this for some political reason, and it's not quite clear what it is except to me, to distract from his own problems with Wall Street going on to us, the failure to enact an asylum ban, to the problems that he has with John Bolton contradicting him about the pullout in Syria.
PERINO: There is plenty that we can talk about. But let's talk -- let's stick on this. So the president is going to address the nation tomorrow night. Can he address all those things that Juan is saying for independents that might not be on board?
GUTFELD: Yes. I think he should address the crux of the argument of the Democrats when they are constantly saying walls are immoral, OK. That's the whole point and that's kind of like what everybody is saying. It's horrible. It's immoral. Well, what about the walls that we already have then?
Should we ask Nancy Pelosi about removing the walls that we already have on the border because there are walls on the border. This stance is so weak. You could blow it over with a sneeze. And also, I know -- Juan always keeps saying, oh, it's appealing to the base.
Essentially, that's what politics is, is you are appealing to the people who voted for you and he made a promise that he was going to build a wall. It might have put him in a corner, it might, but he has to actually address it because no one really addressed it in this way before. The fact is the Democrats agree with him on everything and the only reason why they won't do it is because it's him.
So the bottom line is, it's a personal vendetta. And President Trump tomorrow should talk about the wall but also to talk about the personal vendetta and say look, hey, clearly, the Democrats were for this but they don't like me so I'm going to step out of this. I want somebody else to take charge of this. I will step out of the room so you guys -- I don't want the credit. I will step out of here.
You get the engineers involved because you just heard Schumer say that it's not so much about the money now. It's the fact that they don't have a plan. Well, that's the step. So now you come up with a plan with the engineers involved.
PERINO: Ask the experts what they need.
GUTFELD: Ask the experts what they need, but I'm going to step out of this.
WATTERS: That's what you said, you wanted Dr. Phil to be the expert.
GUTFELD: No, no, no, Dr. Drew, not Dr. Phil.
WATTERS: Dr. Drew, sorry. No offense.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: -- call him Dr. Frankenstein. But I just want to say to you, if that's the case, if it's just about the way you post it, Trump hatred, well how come we had two years of a Republican majority in the House and the Senate and Trump and the White House, didn't get done? How come we have a situation --
WATTERS: Because you need 60 votes in the Senate, Juan.
WILLIAMS: -- Trump says the Mexicans will pay for this wall. I don't see that. How about he says the wall is being built and there's no wall. He keeps lying and you guys keep buying.
GUTFELD: No, I'm not buying anything, but I will say this. I do love a stalemate. And I'll tell you why because I like slow government. I am like a slow cooker.
So I'm OK with this going on and the thing is -- and here's this -- one of -- here's an interesting truth. What if you threw a government shutdown and nobody came? I mean, it really is interesting. We sit here and we go, it's day 14 or its third week.
WATTERS: I want to hike in the national parks tomorrow and I can't.
GUTFELD: Really?
WATTERS: And I really need a good hike.
GUTFELD: You do. I've seen you put on weight.
WATTERS: Thank you.
WILLIAMS: How about 800,000 people who don't get paid plus, I guess, 40,000 contractors. Those are real people.
GUTFELD: Yes, but the real people that -- if you look at employment across the board, Juan, it's been an amazing achievement across the board.
WILLIAMS: So we should punish these people? I don't think that's fair.
GUTFELD: No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that there is something to get with the pluses and the minuses, and right now, Trump, this is it. This is a shutdown that is happening after -- I hear you, we have to go (ph).
WATTERS: And I say Juan doesn't get paid during the shutdown. Can we agree on that?
WILLIAMS: Give me your money buddy.
PERINO: All right. We're going to go. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez making tons of headlines and creating a new controversy. Greg's take, up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUTFELD: AOC was on "60 Minutes" last night, quite a feat for a newcomer, must be all her great new ideas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ, D-N.Y.: People are going to have to start paying their fair share in taxes.
Once you get to like the tippy top, on your $10 millionth, sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: What an expression. Now, the real story is in AOC's very old ideas. It's the media's gushy view of her. Even with her old ideas, she gets on "60 Minutes." The past is called the future and you better love it. Take AOC's delightful dancing video from last week. The media created a fake story that conservatives attacked her over this delightful trifle.
Not really. In fact, the only stories written about the dance were by liberals using it to falsely smear the right. So the press creates a shield around her, in which any criticism must be due to sexism or bigotry, when in fact, it is in their heads and not ours.
But the strategy works by preventing real criticism about her actual beliefs, which are retreads of horrible ideas from previous centuries, socialism with a smile, fascism among friends, Venezuela meets vegan.
The sad news is that we have proof of such utopian nightmares. Sadder news, so many young people don't care. Socialism is a brand that happily reinvents itself with every naive generation.
AOC's fans like to say she is living in our heads like Pharrell Williams singing "Happy." But in fact, it's the policies that live in our heads, and they should live there because we know so many people who have been brutalized by such ideas.
When you hear someone talk about socialism like it's a fun new way to pay down my college debt, you've got to scream. Just prepare to be called awful things for doing so. Today, pointing out the evil of the past makes you the bane of the present.
You know, Jesse, you know that I love? Here's the left, suddenly they want to return to the 1950s.
WATTERS: That's a great point. I mean, all of her ideas are displayed on the socialist playbook. I do think she's very talented on social media and she's got a big following, but she's now a member of Congress as a Democrat and there are certain rules as a Democrat that you have to play by.
Now, she's just a freshman. She has to realize Pinocchios are for Donald Trump. She can't be so sloppy she's getting fact-checked all the time by "The Washington Post."
WILLIAMS: Slow down. Did you really, I mean, you are putting her down by comparing her to Trump?
WATTERS: Well, I am saying that the only reason she --
GUTFELD: No, she is complementing her.
WILLIAMS: No, he said Pinocchio. That means she's lying like Trump.
WATTERS: No, when "The Washington Post" fact checks her more than Donald Trump, it's a problem for the Democrats. Also, she's also so out there politically that the Republicans can now use her as a wedge issue against their own party and the leadership hates that.
She is also hot-dogging Nancy Pelosi. She is starting to steal her thunder and a lot of people in leadership are saying, hey, slow down a little bit. Let's be honest. This reminds me of a rookie, you know.
PERINO: OK.
WATTERS: Got a great college career, now they got drafted, top draft, picked, they entered the league, and given the opposite -- opposing teams a lot of bulletin board material, kind of bad with chemistry in the locker room, a lot of the vets on the team don't really like her that much, getting called for a lot of personal fouls in the field. The coaches are a little --
WILLIAMS: Are you talking about her?
WATTERS: No.
GUTFERLD: No.
WILLIAMS: No, no, we love --
WATTERS: I would never.
WILLIAMS: -- rookie --
WATTERS: I'm saying she's in page six a lot. You know, she might burn out but she might have a long career. We don't really know yet.
WILLIAMS: Jesse, let me just point some things at you. One, she voted for Nancy Pelosi and then the Republicans hissed at her because guess what, she is gold for Republicans. They are making her the star.
GUTFELD: Not really.
WILLIAMS: More of the Democrats. It's Republicans who love her because she represents --
WATTERS: Republicans didn't put her on "60 Minutes."
WILLIAMS: I think they did because they gave her so much attention that "60 Minutes" said, wow, who is this woman?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my god.
WATTERS: She is wrong a lot of the time.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: What is she wrong about?
WATTERS: Everything that she has advocated as a policy, 70 percent tax rate, social security, universal healthcare.
WILLIAMS: Social security? How about that? Remember when that was radical? Oh, yes, great society. Terrible. What about raising tax rates? Under President Roosevelt, President Eisenhower --
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: OK, Juan, if you want to throw in with the 70 percent tax rate, you can check that box on the return and voluntarily pay it.
WILLIAMS: If you make more than 10 million and if you have no objections to the fact that under Trump right now the deficit is blowing sky-high. You don't even mention it.
WATTERS: You will never get 10 million if you have policies like that.
GUTFELD: By the way, the rich pay now more than ever. I think the top one percent pays 40 percent total tax. In 1980, it was 19 percent. So, it's gotten a lot worse and it's not actually affecting the debt whatsoever. I want to go to this interesting thing --
WILLIAMS: Why do you say that?
GUTFELD: It doesn't have -- we are still in -- we're still in totally in debt.
WILLIAMS: The deficit has been increasing radically.
GUTFELD: That's my point. It doesn't matter how much you tax people. In fact, I have argued stop taxing people. It doesn't matter because we are spending addicts, right. If you stop -- if you stop taxing our country for one year, it would bloom with $4 trillion? Would we even care? That would be great. We'd all may save all of our money and we'd be in debt but we don't care.
WILLIAMS: We live in anarchy, you would love that.
GUTFELD: That's an anarchy. All right, Dana.
PERINO: Yes.
GUTFELD: OK, one thing I've noticed just a comparison and the correlation to Donald Trump, AOC comes in and calls out the establishment Democrats. You got Whoopi Goldberg on "The View," saying, hold your horses, lady. There were a bunch of Democrats before you, there are thousands (ph) of Democrats who worked their butts off to get this and that. Isn't that a pretty fair course (ph)?
PERINO: People that we're voting for Democrats in deep blue districts like AOC, were definitely saying that, that they are done with the status (ph). We've been thinking a lot of Bernie Bros.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: Bernie Bros wanted something -- they didn't want Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton didn't win because there are not enough Democrats who wanted her to come out and win. I knew that Nancy Pelosi at some point would be eclipsed by this younger generation. I just didn't know it will happen in three days. That's pretty interesting.
The other thing is, AOC beat one of Pelosi's most ardent allies in the Congress. She owes Pelosi nothing.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: And yes, she -- but I do think, Jesse makes a great point.
WATTERS: Let that sink in.
GUTFELD: Everybody went quiet.
PERINO: Even I did.
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: It came out of your mouth.
PERINO: -- the more she actually talks about the ideas, not her personally, not the dance and all of that, but the ideas, right?
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: That you could retrofit all of America within 10 years with renewable energy. Policy wise, you have to go, OK, that's not possible and she would say, why not just say it?
GUTFELD: Every day she has got a build the wall comment, right? She goes way -- she goes forward, Emily, every time. I think the upside is when she's talking about like socialism in Sweden or she's talking about 70 percent rates, it reminds other people to go read up on this stuff and find out the truth.
COMPAGNO: Totally, which in Sweden, it's a violent reality. Sweden is absolutely going down in flames, those parallel societies.
GUTFELD: Sweden? (Inaudible).
WILLIAMS: (Inaudible), that's true. I got to give Greg one.
COMPAGNO: The violent crimes there have risen by 40 percent.
WILLIAMS: We got zero, it is nothing.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: If I mug Greg, it's suddenly like 100 percent jump in crime. Oh, my God.
COMPAGNO: -- wants to take this up further, I think the use of as analogy a culturally, formerly homogenous society in a tiny country is not accurate.
GUTFELD: Right.
COMPAGNO: It's applicable here. That's kind of ridiculous. And I think for AOC, her time to be popular is over. Now is her time to get to work. She already won. So there, I think like everyone, we could benefit from specificity and accuracy in Congress.
So, it would only help her further and further her cause and the people that could rally behind -- even if she doesn't -- isn't owed anything by anyone or she doesn't owe, I think there's a certain amount of homage she should pay by being specific and accurate and not so --
PERINO: I wonder if she has going -- everybody wants to have a beer with her.
GUTFELD: OK, Elizabeth Warren with a new spin on her disastrous DNA test and Joe Biden's 2020 plans, that's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIAMS: The Democrats race for the White House underway in January. Joe Biden may be nearing his decision, the former vice president reportedly set to decide within the next two weeks if he's going to run. Biden's allies and Biden himself saying he is the party's best hope.
Bernie Sanders being snubbed by his hometown newspaper, the editorial board of the Vermont paper begging the senator to not run for president again.
And Elizabeth warren taking her pitch to Iowa over the weekend, the potential 2020 hopeful hitting the key battleground state where she defended her decision to take a DNA test.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, D-MASS.: I am not a person of color. I'm not a citizen of a tribe. Tribal citizenship is very different from ancestry. Tribes and only tribes determine tribal citizenship, and I respect that difference.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Well, you know, I am a guy who loves a joke especially at the start of the year. And so I thought, let me start with Greg and Pocahontas. How can that loose, Greg?
GUTFELD: Well, the funny thing is, is she's trying to reduce her fib with a little bit of a diversion. She is saying -- she is started talking about how she didn't say she was -- and I realized now that ancestry is different than a tribe. And now that she gets it, but that's not what she's guilty of.
She used Native-American claims to gain an edge over other people in teaching positions at Harvard. It was -- she notified them and put that in the directory and comically she also used her Cherokee background for a cookbook in which may be she lifted those recipes from "The New York Times."
WATTERS: Pow Wow Chow.
GUTFELD: Pow Wow Chow. Did we talk about Biden?
WILLIAMS: No.
GUTFELD: OK.
WILLIAMS: I mentioned him but I -- go right ahead.
GUTFELD: OK, so Biden endorsed himself -- did you see this?
WILLIAMS: Yes.
PERINO: Yes.
GUTFELD: By saying he doesn't see anybody better and that reminded me of when I go into a really weird Skivvy (ph) bar and I ordered the chicken fingers because how can they ruin chicken fingers? He is like saying I am the least and probably the least bad meal in this restaurant.
WATTERS: Safe.
GUTELD: It's a --- he is endorsing -- he barely endorsed himself.
PERINO: It doesn't really scream excitement without --
GUTFELD: Yes, vote for me. I am the least worst thing on the menu.
WILLIAMS: Yes, I mean, it sounds so Trumpian.
GUTFELD: No, Trump, he said he was better than everybody else and what do you got to lose?
WILLIAMS: Dana, so they have another poll out, Des Moines Register and CNN, and for the second time they say Biden is the top candidate.
PERINO: I just think that all of these polls right now are only about name ID. So, I think -- so, she got what she wanted, right. So she wanted to be first so that she could get some headlines. And the problem is she's grounding the rationale for her candidacy in her personal story, which goes back to her hardscrabble roots in Oklahoma, which inevitably it's not that that media asked her questions about her ancestry. That was from a member of the audience, somebody from Iowa who really wanted to know.
So I don't know if she can shake it in terms of getting that story off of her tail. But it will be --
GUTFELD: Tail?
PERINO: I know. I don't know. Shake it -- I don't know.
GUTFELD: Shake it off her tail? Is that some kind of weird --
PERINO: I have jet lag. That's my only excuse. But --
WATTERS: I'm going to try that one.
WILLIAMS: Don't do that. Don't do that.
PERINO: I'm going to give it to Jesse.
GUTFELD: Can she shake it off her tail, Jesse?
WILLIAMS: Hey, Jesse, I have an interesting one, though.
WATTERS: Yes.
WILLIAMS: What if Trump's not the Republican nominee? What if it's someone like --
GUTFELD: Mitt Romney?
WILLIAMS: -- let's say Mitt Romney or Jeff Flake. Then what are the Democrats to do?
PERINO: What? Right now?
WATTERS: Yes, it's going to be Jeff Flake, Juan.
WILLIAMS: I'm just asking. Because you never know what happens in 2019.
WATTERS: Yes, I don't see that. I think Trump is going to get the nomination.
I think Biden knows he can't win; and he's been hemming and hawing and donors like -- donors don't like him that much. And I don't think he has the stomach to fight it out with other Democrats, being an old, straight, white male, this time around.
He knows that it's going to devolve into an insult fest, if he does get the nomination, with Donald Trump. The race would be about the pasts, not the future. And he's never really had a natural base in politics. That's why Trump called him 1 Percent Joe.
On -- I wouldn't call her Pocahontas. I'd call her Elizabeth Warren. But you remember, Juan: We did the DNA test. I am more black than she is Native American.
GUTFELD: I'm more Native American than she is, and my last name is Gutfeld.
WATTERS: Right.
GUTFELD: Come on!
WATTERS: So that would be like if I wrote a soul food cookbook and said that, you know, "Jesse Watters, black person." Like, that's what she did. She wrote "Powwow Chow, Native American Cherokee, Elizabeth Warren."
WILLIAMS: Yes?
WATTERS: Could you imagine the hell I'd catch if I did that?
WILLIAMS: Yes. You'd get it right here on "The Five." But I must say, I don't think it was Elizabeth Warren who advanced -- I mean, you guys were saying she advanced her career. I think Harvard put her down in that way.
GUTFELD: They used each other. They used each other. Harvard used her, and she used Harvard.
WILLIAMS: By the way, you know, Bernie Sanders is 77. I think Biden is 76 or something like that. Elizabeth Warren, Emily, 69. So it's not like -- and they're all white. So I don't get what you guys are -- "Oh, the problem is that they're white." I don't see that.
PERINO: What?
COMPAGNO: Well, I think to answer, respond to the last point, I think for the Democrats championing the fact that the GOP right now and Trump is full of racism and that it's the, you know, party of white men, then to offer only a white man, for example, for Biden, saying, "I'm the most qualified person to represent this entire party" and all these people of color and all these other colorful people that he's supposed to represent. Like, to me, that's a huge disconnect. Who does he think he is to do that?
WILLIAMS: He was vice president twice, and he was in the Senate forever.
COMPAGNO: So why should that experience automatically lend itself and his failed prior campaigns, as well, to represent all of these people whose voices now recently have -- have become louder? And people are saying, "Give me a seat at the table, too." So I just think there's a certain, like, hubris associated with it, and he just rubs me the wrong way. And obviously --
GUTFELD: He rubs a lot of people.
COMPAGNO: And for that aspect, too. And Elizabeth Warren is obviously the most unrelatable person, and that video is just ridiculous.
WILLIAMS: Did he rub any tails the wrong way? We'll see.
GUTFELD: He probably did.
WILLIAMS: Is the coverage of the president not negative enough? What a New York Times writer is arguing, straight ahead on "The Five."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC: BEETHOVEN'S FIFTH)
PERINO: Very nice.
WATTERS: It's Beethoven's Fifth, for you guys keeping score at home. Bring a little more refinement to "The Five."
New York Times columnist Frank Bruni is defending the media's overwhelming negative coverage of President Trump and says the press should be even tougher on him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: This idea that the new coverage is negative, is too negative, where's the truth behind it?
FRANK BRUNI, COLUMNIST, NEW YORK TIMES: I disagree wholeheartedly with that. He's a singular president. He was a singular candidate. No one has lied like him.
"Anti-Trump" connotes driven by some kind of animus regardless of the facts. I don't think we've been anti-Trump. I think we have been negative, and I think that's the only honest way to cover this president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: Wow. This comes as the president ramps up his attacks on the media, blasting them on Twitter as, quote, "crazed lunatics."
Emily, I don't have a problem with media covering the president negatively. I think that's fine. But they should also point out when there are positive achievements coming out of this White House.
COMPAGNO: I agree with you 100 percent, except I will say that, for the defense of the coverage, to say, "Well, we're going to be consistently negatively covering the president, because that's all he deserves," well, what do we deserve? What do the people deserve?
Meaning cover the office, then. Cover the executive branch. Cover the legislator -- legislature. Give us more specificity again, like I always talk about, so that it's not just dumping on the president. Let's honor the office a little bit more, because that trickles down, too.
And you know, we saw that -- that coverage consistently for the last few years has been 90 percent negative and 37 percent dedicated to policy and then 63 percent scandals. And I think there's a lot of comments out there, as well, with FOX News coverage. And now, we're hearing, "Well, that's -- that's a negative based" -- what did he say? He said a mocking and sneering tone, not just of opinion but also of the actual coverage. So I think the spectrum goes, certainly, both ways.
WATTERS: Juan, don't you think, if this were a Democrat president and the ISIS caliphate have been destroyed and wage growth was up best it has been in a decade, and you're going to reach 3 percent GDP growth this year, and NAFTA had been renegotiated after there had been promised to be renegotiated for two decades, don't you think the coverage would be a little more positive?
WILLIAMS: No. If a Democrat lied as much as this guy?
WATTERS: No, I'm saying if he had accomplished as much is this guy.
WILLIAMS: Well, you talked about NAFTA. Basically, there's no change, in whatever they call it now, U.S., Mexico --
PERINO: MCA.
WILLIAMS: MCA. There's no -- there's basically no change. OK.
WATTERS: OK.
WILLIAMS: And then you say ISIS --
WATTERS: It's not true, but go ahead.
WILLIAMS: ISIS destroyed. Even the president now and Bolton are saying, "Well, no, not quite. We're going to have to protect the Kurds, et cetera."
So it's all, like -- it's exaggerate -- I don't know how a legitimate reporter is supposed to get away from the -- from being attacked as being too negative when you're just saying this is what's going on in America.
WATTERS: OK.
WILLIAMS: This is what the president -- Mitt Romney said the same thing last week.
WATTERS: OK. So Juan thinks the coverage is fair, Dana.
PERINO: One of the things that's interesting is as I was watching that over the weekend, I said it reminded me of the media that was, you know, self-flagellating after the invasion of Iraq, saying, "We should have vetted it more. We should have been more careful. We shouldn't have gotten caught up in it."
Well, during the campaign, the -- all the media was giving President Trump a lot of attention. And it wasn't all negative. Ask Hillary Clinton. Right? She would say that The New York Time, in particular, Clinton Global Initiative, her emails, she was very frustrated with them.
The other thing is the media is, like, the only industry that grades itself. And it's a constant self-grading. Every other industry, the media is looking at you. So Facebook and Silicon Valley --
WATTERS: Right.
PERINO: -- is under pressure. Pharmaceuticals companies under pressure, oil companies under pressure. The media is only -- they're not under pressure from anyone else. So getting the --
WATTERS: Except Trump.
PERINO: Yes.
WATTERS: He's the only one who pushes back.
PERINO: -- that pushback. Yes, they're getting that pushback. This was really the first time they've ever really had to do that.
WATTERS: And they're a little sensitive about that, Greg. That's why they have to justify the coverage all the time.
GUTFELD: I think, No. 1, Bruni was upset over all the news that Jill Abramson got, when she admitted the truth, which is that dumping on Trump is big business, and business is booming.
And I always use the restaurant metaphor, that all media right now, every one of us is now a restaurant; and we're all serving Trump burgers, because you can't serve it enough. Whether you love Trump, you'll sit and listen. Whether you hate Trump, you'll sit and listen.
So he was hypersensitive. But there's a leftist principle also behind his statement, and that is "If I believe that you are immoral, if I believe that Donald Trump is immoral and that his followers or his supporters are immoral, then I don't have to play fair. I don't have to be an objective journalist anymore. I don't have to be objective in my headlines or on the front page."
Opinion journalism can then infect every area, which is really convenient for them. Because the right, we think you're wrong. Juan, we think you're wrong, but we'll debate and engage. But the left thinks you're evil, so they don't have to. And that's incredibly convenient for them to justify what he just said, which is that our biases are moral, OK, so we can say whatever you want before -- about Trump. But the fact is, those biases existed before Trump.
They hate everybody outside of New York. Outside of the cities. What you like, they hate, and because you like Trump, they hate you.
WATTERS: How do you like --
WATTERS: This is the contrast between how the media is portraying Trump versus when you talk to somebody on the street about Trump is so vast. When you seem you have low unemployment records. Men, women, minorities, and teens. Teen unemployment is down. Optimism has never been higher. So you're on two different planets here. You talk to this guy, he says the world is ending. You talk to the world, they're saying things are going pretty good.
WATTERS: How do you like your Trump burger?
GUTFELD: I like it medium well with a lot of ketchup.
WILLIAMS: I think he likes it with a wall built in.
GUTFELD: Yes, a wall of fries.
WATTERS: Better than the taco bowl?
GUTFELD: Oh, I miss the taco bowl. Remember that?
WILLIAMS: I think -- I think he sells it with a lot of sizzle, not much meat. Where's the burger?
WATTERS: All right, Juan. We're chasing you out of the restaurant.
Coming up, Kevin Spacey's bizarre court appearance to face a sexual assault allegation. Up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COMPAGNO: Actor Kevin Spacey made his first appearance in a Massachusetts court room today. The two-time Oscar-winner facing a sex assault charge for allegedly groping an 18-year-old man at a Nantucket bar in 2016. He pled not guilty and was ordered to not have contact with his accuser. The next court date is set for March 4.
All right. So Juan, I'm going to start with you. Over 30 men have come out and accused Kevin Spacey of some type of sexual misconduct. Is this the one where he's going to face a reckoning?
WILLIAMS: I don't know. I guess we have to see what -- what comes of it. I mean, what's so interesting to me about this case is that he went, Emily, on video. And he did this video where he pretends to be the character out of "House of Cards," Frank Underwood. I think the video is called "Let Me Be Frank." And then he starts saying, "Oh, if it was only so simple. Everybody wants me to be guilty. People are assuming this and assuming that, and the whole story hasn't come out."
To be fair to him, let the story come out. But wow, what you just said is telling. So it's not only in the U.S., this case up in Massachusetts. But you also have people in London, where he was the artistic director at a theater there, saying that over a span of 20 years, he was guilty of such behavior. So these allegations now touch so many parts of his life and career that he's been -- not only was he canceled out of "House of Cards," but he lost the opportunity to be in a biopic about Gore Vidal. And he's lost other opportunities.
And, you know, we'll see what comes of it. I'm just stunned that he's only the second man to be criminally charged in all we've heard from the #MeToo movement.
COMPAGNO: Right. And on that video, that was -- the same day that he released it was the day, actually, that the D.A. there announced those charges in Nantucket. What did you make of his demeanor in court today?
WATTERS: He seemed cocky and detached. Looks like a guy that knows he's going to beat the rap. Most rich guys do, especially Hollywood stars.
WILLIAMS: Don't tell Bill Cosby.
WATTERS: It's true. It's true, Juan, you're right. I mean, we've learned a few things from the #MeToo movement. One: men in positions of power can abuse their authority. and industries can protect them in order to protect the bottom line. But also, two, he's innocent until he's proven guilty. And you've got to follow the facts.
And in this case, it's going to be adjudicated in the courtroom, not the court of public opinion. So that's a good thing.
Usually in cases like this, you need eyewitness testimony. You need some sort of video surveillance. We're hearing there's a Snapchat video involved of him using his hands to touch someone.
But, you know, traditionally, guys like this will skate on a -- on a situation like this. But you know, I'll just follow the case, and I'll decide afterwards.
COMPAGNO: Dana, we already heard -- we heard today in court that there are attorneys asking to preserve the record, the cell phone record.
PERINO: Right.
COMPAGNO: So do we think that's already setting up for, basically, a victim shaming approach?
PERINO: Well, perhaps. I talked to a friend from Boston, and they said -- is it Mitchell Garabedian. I think that's how you say his name. That his presence on the case apparently will mean that there's a lot of headlines in this case. He was part of the Boston clergy defense and so there -- just he gets a lot of media. So that will be part of it.
But this is also the first time a high-profile gay celebrity has been targeted in the #MeToo movement. And I don't know exactly where it will go. Just obviously, I don't know.
The Frank Underwood video, I don't know -- again, I feel like it's all part of a P.R. strategy and it's perhaps something that his lawyer suggested that he do.
COMPAGNO: Greg, what do you think?
GUTFELD: I don't think anybody suggested him to do that. That was so -- this is why -- I mean, you know, obviously, this is the hard thing about this topic, because we don't know. It's the first day. We have no information.
I don't think he will -- he will be found guilty on this, precisely because of that bizarre video. He's acting like someone who's not guilty.
WATTERS: Oh, yes.
GUTFELD: The way he acted in that courtroom is he knows. There's something else going on there. And when the lawyer asked about Bubble over the email stuff, it leads me to believe that there's some kind of correspondence that's going on there that may still -- that may exonerate him. But again, I don't know.
I think a person can be guilty of many things, which he probably is, but also be a victim of scapegoating --
PERINO: Yes. Yes.
GUTFELD: -- when the system itself was aware and implicitly condoned his behavior, the behavior of many men for 100 years. Let's say Hollywood has been around for 100 years. They condoned, they allowed this behavior to take place. But so now in the #MeToo era, you must sacrifice the most well-known offenders to this funeral pyre or whatever it is. No question he's a sexual boor. The -- B-O -- what's the boor?
PERINO: B-O-O-R.
GUTFELD: B-O-O-R. It's not that he's boring. But what I'm saying is that I think right now -- I think right now, he could be innocent of this but be guilty of other things.
COMPAGNO: "One More Thing" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PERINO: It's time now for "One More Thing." So I'll go first.
I missed you all last week. I went on a little trip with friends and family. We went to Kenya, and it was a great trip. We were in Nairobi and visited this orphanage and school, the Thomas Barnardo House. We did a little career day assembly with those kids, and they could ask us all sorts of questions. We had a barbecue, and they were out. There was dancing, as you can see. They were trying to teach us to dance. We were not very good. We were giving it our best shot.
And then, my young friend -- and Greg knows her, too -- Macy English, there you see her. She's 14. And she's with these other 14-year-old girls, finding out that, you know, they have the same concerns, problems, hopes and dreams as any other kids.
And I saw giraffes and elephants and lions on the safari part of our trip.
GUTFELD: Great picture.
PERINO: I tries to do a selfie with the giraffe.
WATTERS: A forehead.
PERINO: I'll have more things to show later on in the week. That was the lion. That was the big catch that we saw. We didn't catch them; we just looked at him. Very respectfully, of course.
Kenya does a great job of conservation. It was a wonderful trip. Highly recommend it.
Juan.
WILLIAMS: That was awesome.
Well, the Christmas lights are still up all over town, but the holiday is over for me. And while it's great to be back at work, the memories are still fresh.
Here I am on Christmas day with my wife, Delise, wearing the suit that Jesse gave me for Christmas --
GUTFELD: Nice.
WILLIAMS: -- because I'm a snowflake.
WATTERS: Sharp.
WILLIAMS: Then it was off to Jamaica. Here we are at the airport in matching running suits.
WATTERS: Oh, my God.
WILLIAMS: And here are my grandkids on a boat that took us snorkeling, having fun.
Here's Delise relaxing, and here I am hanging out with my wife at the pool. Here are my three grandkids having some fun in the sun, and here I am giving a big hug to my youngest son, Raffi. It was that kind of vacation, full of fun. But a delight to be back here at work.
PERINO: Indeed. All right, Jesse, what do you have. Something good? Something funny?
WATTERS: Yes. Well, not funny. Eagles pulled off a miraculous win against Chicago at Soldier Field. Look at this. Nick Foles, under a minute left, throws a little out to Golden Tate, who we acquired midseason. I'd think that played off pretty well right there for the go-ahead score.
They didn't get the two-point diversion. So they're down -- they're up one. This is Cody Parkey lining up. I think it's, like, a 42-yard field goal.
I wanted to, guys -- show you guys the Spanish version of the call. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CHEERS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING SPANISH)
No, senor! No, senor! No, senor! No, senor!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: That's the double doink in Espanol. He missed a field goal. Cody Parkey on suicide watch. Poor guy.
PERINO: You think --
WATTERS: I feel bad for him.
PERINO: You call that -- you think they pulled off a miraculous win? It was more like they failed to lose.
WATTERS: They're a big underdog, Dana. Nice try.
PERINO: I know. I don't know. All right. Gutfeld, what you got?
GUTFELD: I haven't done this in a while.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: I hate these people!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: Oh, no.
GUTFELD: So for the first time in 26 years or 25 years, I bought a car.
PERINO: Ooh.
GUTFELD: I bought a car, and you know what? I hate to say it, nothing has changed. The first time I bought a car from a dealership. So they emailed me, not with one, not with two, not with three, not with four, not with five; six warranties. Six warranties!
What in God's name are they trying to do to me? They're trying to kill me with warranties. Warranties for your tires, warranties for your wipers! What happened to the good old full warranty, people? I hate -- I mean, come on! Has nothing changed! What is wrong with you?
WATTERS: What kind of car did you get?
GUTFELD: I'm not talking about it. BMW.
PERINO: Emily, go, go, go.
COMPAGNO: All right. So you guys know I used to cheer in the NFL, and I feel very strongly about veterans' causes, so I wanted to draw your attention to this particular organization. It's called Merging Vets and Players, so MVP.
And the mission is to match up combat veterans and former pro athletes together after the uniform comes off to give them a new team to tackle the transition together. MVP shows them they are not alone.
And this was started by founder Jay Glazer and founder Nate Boyer in 2015.
PERINO: Awesome.
COMPAGNO: And it -- the two core components, physical fitness, peer-to- peer support. Go to VetsandPlayers.org to donate or to refer a combat vet or pro athlete.
PERINO: All right. Set your DVRs. Never miss an episode of "The Five." "Special Report" is up next.
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