'The Five' discuss the deadly attacks in Afghanistan

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Gutfield: I have no idea who's deteriorating faster - Biden or Kabul

'The Five' discuss the deadly attacks in Afghanistan.

This is a rush transcript of "The Five" on August 26, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

DANA PERINO, FOX NEWS HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Dana Perino along with 

Katie Pavlich, Bill Hemmer, Jesse Watters, and Greg Gutfeld. It's 5:00 in 

New York City. This is "The Five."

Fox News Alert, President Biden set to speak at any moment on a devastating 

loss of life in Afghanistan. Multiple explosions rocking the area around 

Kabul airport. At least 12 U.S. service members killed in a suicide bombing 

with that number likely to rise. 

Countless others wounded and killed as well. The Pentagon calling it a 

complex terror attack and says the two ISIS suicide bombers were 

responsible. It comes just five days before President Biden's deadline to 

exit Afghanistan. 

And we've got a team of reporters who will give us updates throughout the 

hour. But first, chilling news from the CENTCO chief who says he expects 

these deadly ISIS attacks to continue. Hemmer, welcome to "The Five" --

BILL HEMMER, FOX NEWS HOST: Thank you, Dana.

PERINO: -- and we'll get your take in just a moment since you and I have 

had a chance this morning to give some thoughts, but Jesse, the day got 

even heavier as it went on.

JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: It didn't have to be like this. We created a 

power vacuum and all the bad guys filled the vacuum before we could leave. 

And now we're sitting ducks. We're surrounded in an airport in a land-

locked terror state, totally unsecure. And we're relying on our enemy to 

protect us.

We've been shooting at the Taliban for 20 years and then we put the Taliban 

in charge for making sure people don't shoot at us. It doesn't make any 

sense. And the Pentagon comes out and says we're sharing intelligence with 

the Taliban and we're not really sure if the Taliban let ISIS break through 

the check point to launch this attack. We don't think that they would do 

something like that? 

Come on. They don't know what is going on right now. We have no handle on 

the situation. And right now, we're basically sitting ducks. I have never 

seen a tactical blunder like this before. You have to go way back. Right 

now, it's like the deadliest incident in a decade in Afghanistan. And we 

still don't know how bad it's going to get. It's going to get dark soon.

And now, ISIS is taking pot shots into the airport at aircraft. So, Joe 

Biden has said all this stuff and none of it has come through. Remember, 

there was going to be no Taliban take over fast. That wasn't true. 

Americans can get to the airport. That wasn't true. Then he says go to the 

airport. No, wait, don't go to the airport. Wait, go to the airport. No, 

don't go to the airport. 

Now, do you think Americans will go to the airport? Of course not. Praising 

the Taliban for doing such a great job with security. Oh, they're 

cooperating big time. It doesn't look like they're doing that great of a 

job as TSA agents, so to speak. 

So, I don't know what the president is going to say. He has to come to 

grips with reality and tell the American people how bad it is and what the 

plan is moving forward. Right now he's got two options, Dana. He 

(inaudible) keep the evacuation going and stick to the deadline and get the 

hell out. 

Or you say I'm going to take Bagram, I'm going to expand the perimeter, 

we're going to do search and rescue for our guys. Taliban broke the deal. 

We got attacked. They broke the deal. Deal is off. We're staying as long as 

it takes. 

But I don't expect that because when I heard the Pentagon guy come out 

today, Lloyd, released a statement. He said he was really sad about the 

loss of life, but he never said that they were going to hunt down the bad 

guy that did this and bring them to justice. 

PERINO: He did not. Greg, you have to imagine the intel that we had last 

night and since the whole thing happens on the 14th, that this could get 

bad and so you have to imagine that those Marines knew the danger that they 

were in and they were doing it anyways and doing it valiantly. 

And just this morning, I want to play (inaudible) number eight please. This 

is Ross Wilson. He's U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan. This is what he said 

this morning on "Good Morning America."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

ROSS WILSON, ACTING AFGHANISTAN AMBASSADOR: There are safe ways to get 

here. There are safe ways to -- relatively safe ways to access the airport. 

And we're doing everything we can to facilitate that.

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

PERINO: Greg? 

GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS HOST: Yes. He's like that news anchor that says hey, 

it's a holiday weekend. Leave extra time getting to the airport. There 

might be some suicide bombers. So just watch out, kidnappings and murder. 

I go back to the eternal question. How can everybody but the people in 

charge get this so wrong? I'm an English grad from Berkeley. A magazine 

editor turned class clown, and I saw this coming. We all saw this coming. 

How could they not see this coming? It makes you think that they saw this 

coming and they didn't do and say anything, and they underestimated the 

risk that involved in this. 

They thought there might be some problems, but they could handle it. Boy, 

were they wrong. And, knock on wood that was their strategy. Knock on wood. 

Well, President Biden has a lot of wood to knock on now, 12 coffins so far. 

So -- we gave a list of American citizens to the Taliban to grant entry. We 

gave control of the perimeter, run the airport, to Taliban. This is a tell. 

When you ask -- when you ask somebody in charge, why would you do something 

so stupid, so moronic? 

The answer is we have no choice. And that is the mark of a failed leader 

and a failed administration when you are led to a place when there is no 

plan B when your plan A is moronic. We can understand plan C or plan D 

being a bit iffy. But when your plan A is this idiotic, I have no idea 

what's deteriorating faster, Kabul or Joe Biden at this point. 

Strategic thinking gives you these options and the fact that we don't -- 

they shouldn't have left the room until they had this ironed out. And II 

think that is what is so awful to everybody that spent so many years there, 

people who lost their lives, family members, right? People that have lost 

their limbs, people we know. And this is how it -- this is how it ends. And 

this may not be how it ends.

PERINO: Right.

GUTFELD: It could be worst. 

PERINO: Because the threats continue. Bill, you spent several weeks in 

Afghanistan after the attacks of 9/11. I just want to play this for you. 

Today, this was the Taliban spokesperson, yes they have one. And his 

thoughts about 9/11 and Osama bin Laden. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

ZABIHULLAH MUJAHID, TALIBAN SPOKESMAN (through translation): When Osama bin 

Laden became an issue for the Americans, he was in Afghanistan. Although 

there was no proof he was involved. Now, we have given promises that Afghan 

soil won't be used against anyone. 

RICHARD ENGEL, NBC NEWS CHIED FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: You still don't think 

that Osama bin Laden carried out 9/11? 

MUJAHID: There is no evidence. Even after 20 years of war we have no proof 

he was involved.

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

PERINO: Despite Osama bin Laden is on video saying that he is taking credit 

for it though. 

HEMMER: It's an amazing interview. I encourage the viewers to check it out. 

NBC News and Richard Engel there. It's a jaw dropper. So, what do you do? 

What do you say now? What you do is if you believe the Taliban knows 

exactly where this ISIS-K group is located before you leave the airport, 

you hit the target for ISIS-K, and you go back on offense. That's one thing 

he could do when he comes out and speaks. 

What does he say? I've been watching coverage all day today. I mean, one 

thing that's lacking from everybody that's been on the microphone -- we 

even heard from a lot of people that where is the empathy? Where is the 

anger? Where is the sadness? The American people are pissed off. And at the 

end of 20 years, this is what you get. 

GUTFELD: Right.

HEMMER: Well, put a voice to it. And Joe Biden was the empathetic leader. 

He did not show that the other day. He has a chance now to do that coming 

up momentarily after all. I went -- it was a week -- just a week ago you 

had the interview with George Stephanopoulos and ABC News. I went through 

it a bit earlier today as well. A lot in here guys. A lot of it is just 

frankly, it's wrong.

GUTFELD: Right.

HEMMER: The Taliban came up a lot. And Stephanopoulos said, do you believe 

the Taliban has changed. And the president said, I think they're going 

through sort of an existential crisis about what to do to be recognized by 

the international community as being a legitimate government. 

That's a lot. Well just today, and you played the sound bite, Dana, the 

Taliban after our marines were killed, blamed the United States, said your 

foreign fighters on their land. That is the same message that Osama bin 

Laden had 25 years ago when he talked about the U.S. military and Saudi 

Arabia. 

And to the point that you just played here in that NBC News interview, UBL 

was not responsible for 9/11. That's the spokesperson for the Taliban now 

speaking to western media, NBC News there. There is a ton of whoppers in 

that interview if you want to check it out. 

GUTFELD: Maybe he just watched the Spike Lee documentary on --

PERINO: Oh, yes, don't get me started on that one.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: No, we should talk about it some time. This is the end of 20 years, 

but terrorism is not finished with us, Katie. 

KATIE PAVLICH, FOX NEWS HOST: Right. And I think in processing all of this, 

I think the conclusion I have come to is just trying to understand the 

position of weakness that the United States is in. In July, the president 

of the United States said it is unlikely that the Taliban would overtake 

the country. 

They are now providing security for our people trying to get to the 

airport. We now see that the Taliban is in charge of security for the outer 

perimeter at the airport. We're now sharing intelligence with the Taliban, 

giving them names and -- names of Americans who by the way, many of them 

will be left behind on August 31st from the Taliban. And maybe other 

terrorist groups will also have access to that list and to that 

information. 

We were told that every single contingency plan was available and they had 

hammered it out before that happen. Clearly that is also not true. And the 

question now, Dana, is the point you make of Islamic terrorism where we 

move forward. Okay, so, we are to believe that the Taliban had nothing to 

do with the suicide bombing today. 

That maybe one of their guy's checkpoint didn't waived this suicide bombers 

right through in order to blame the attack on ISIS so that they could 

continue to be recognized by the international community and the United 

States as some kind of legitimate partner at this point. I don't believe 

that. 

I don't believe the Taliban is able and capable to keep their savages in 

line and that they won't go around here and there and attack the United 

States in these positions because we are so weak right now, we are on our 

heels. 

The other thing is, there are Americans trapped in Afghanistan. There are 

school kids there who are trapped. And okay, so say it was ISIS. What do we 

do about it? If we look at how Vice President Joe Biden under President 

Barack Obama handled ISIS, they called it the JV team and they took over a 

rock and then President Trump had to come in and get rid of it. 

So you have the issue of the Taliban taking over the country, Americans 

trapped there with really no legitimate plan to get them out at this point 

with the language being that it's your fault if you didn't get to the 

airport. They're going to blame the people and say, well, they didn't want 

to get out if they don't get thousands of people out. 

And finally, what's going to happen when it comes here? We have a wide open 

border. How is the president of the United States going to protect American 

citizens from Islamic terrorists in coming back to the United States? And I 

think he has to answer those questions and I'm not sure that he is up to 

the task. 

PERINO: All great comments. Trey Yingst is in Doha for us. He's been there 

all day. I don't think he slept in days, but we're grateful for your 

coverage, Trey. And I'm certain that when the president speaks today, he'll 

be speaking to the American people, to our military, to our allies, and to 

our adversaries especially there in the region. What's your update now? 

TREY YINGST, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is still a major problem 

for the Biden administration, and it's that they're relying on the Taliban 

for not only information, but also security outside the gates of the 

airport this. This was clearly a coordinated attack. 

Two blasts. One outside of the Abbey Gate where there were thousands of 

civilians, U.S. Marines as well trying to help those civilians onto the 

airfield. And then another blast very close by at the Baron Hotel. ISIS-K 

is reportedly responsible for the explosions outside of the airport. 

But it really begs the question how did these suicide bombers get there? 

We've heard the past week and a half about the Taliban having check points 

not only outside the airport but throughout the city. And the United States 

has made very clear they're supposed to be responsible for the area outside 

of the airport. 

We spoke yesterday with a Taliban spokesperson here in Doha and that 

spokesman made very clear that they want to see the Americans leave, but 

they also want them to leave safely. That's the word of the Taliban. Now, 

if that word is accepted by the Biden administration, then it would be a 

situation in which we simply have to rely on what the Taliban says.

So, moving forward, I think you're going to see more statements by the 

Taliban trying to distance themselves from what happened. And we already 

have heard from the group following these blasts saying they are not 

responsible and that they offer their condolences. That's what they have to 

say at face value. Dana? 

PERINO: Trey Yingst, thank you so much. Jesse, you were writing down 

something and I thought, come back to you. 

WATTERS: Well, I just that the airport, it's a battlefield now. So, we have 

to sort that out and make sure we don't sustain any more casualties. But in 

the meantime, this was predictable because we have cables in April from the 

State Department ordering the embassy staff to get out of Kabul because of 

a deteriorating (ph) security situation. Widespread military combat 

operations throughout the country. 

Another cable goes out from the embassy in May. Get out. Strongly 

suggesting all Americans leave Afghanistan because armed conflict is 

everywhere. July 15th, another embassy cable goes out. Level 4 travel 

alert. Terrorism, armed conflict. 

During this three month period, Joe Biden is out there saying we got this. 

Saying the Taliban is not going to take over. It's highly unlikely and we 

got a great Afghan army. Yet his people on the ground are telling Americans 

get out as soon as you can. We're losing it. You can't square that. And 

that is something that they're going to have to look at in the house 

strongly to hold the president accountable. 

PERINO: We also -- we have Trey Yingst still available in case any of you 

have a question for him. You do, Katie? 

PAVLICH: Yes. 

PERINO: Okay, go ahead. 

PAVLICH: Trey, hi, it's Katie. I just wanted to ask you, you have the 

Defense Department doing a briefing today saying that rescue and evacuation 

efforts will continue despite the horrific attacks today. Do you know any 

more about whether it's getting Americans our or getting interpreters or 

Afghans with visas considering how difficult and dangerous it has been to 

get to the airport? 

YINGST: Well, the blasts today totally changes the equation. We were on the 

ground in Kabul on Sunday speaking with these very service members there in 

Afghanistan. And I can tell you, today aside, they were actually happy to 

be there. They weren't there for war. They were there for peace. They were 

there to provide humanitarian assistance. 

And you saw the smiles on the faces of these men and women as they gave 

MRE's and water and candy bars to little Afghan children. They were there 

to help with this evacuation mission. And now, the thousands of American 

troops who are left on that airfield are sitting ducks to ISIS-K and to any 

other extremist organization on the ground in Afghanistan. 

We saw in the immediate aftermath of these blasts a slowed version of the 

evacuation, but we still know there are thousands of people on the airfield 

waiting to evacuate. And it's unclear if the Department of Defense will be 

able to come up with a reasonable plan to get people vetted through and 

onto the airport area, and then ultimately to planes and to safety, because 

you still have this major, major problem. 

We heard General McKenzie talk about it earlier. These men and women, 

American troops have to actually pat down individuals before they make it 

onto the runway because they don't want anyone getting onto one of these C-

17 military planes with a bomb or with another weapon that could harm the 

service members onboard or the other civilians. 

So they have to interact with these individuals very closely. And you can 

vet anyone coming onto the airfield independently and look at their 

background and do all of the checks that you want. But at the end of the 

day when they get to that airport and the entrances that we saw when we 

there in Afghanistan over the weekend, they are at a new location. 

And those troops on the ground face new risks. And it's something that if 

the Biden administration plans to move forward with and continue 

evacuations up until the very last minute, that August 31st deadline, they 

will have to contend with. 

HEMMER: Trey, Bill Hemmer. Great work over there. The president has talked 

about this over the horizon capability to go in and strike again in 

Afghanistan once the withdrawal is fully completed there. Well, as of 

today, we've got a new enemy, and that's ISIS-K. So, how far over the 

horizon will we be when it comes time to seek a strike against this group? 

YINGST: Well, the difficult part about striking ISIS-K is that they are a 

splinter cell, an off shoot of the Islamic state. They started back in 2014 

along with ISIS and a lot of them are former members of the Taliban. But in 

some cases, it's just a few hundred fighters in different areas who can 

launch these type of sleeper cell attacks against soft targets like the 

perimeter of an airport where you have thousands of civilians. 

So, even if President Biden wanted to respond, he would have to find the 

exact location to respond to an ISIS-K cell. And it wouldn't be like we've 

seen in other instances in the past when President Trump decided to strike 

Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq and Syria for example. There were specific bases 

and areas to hit. 

President Biden will have a very difficult time finding these terrorists in 

the location where they are in eastern Afghanistan. One important thing to 

note though, we heard this over and over again from the Biden 

administration that if there were any attacks against American forces that 

someone would be held responsible and it would be a very swift response. 

But we're looking at a situation now where so far, officials in D.C. are 

saying that the Taliban did not know about this and they didn't understand 

that it was going to happen. But yet, this massive, massive attack against 

U.S. forces outside of the Kabul airport taking place today and the people 

responsible for the security just outside that perimeter, the Taliban. 

GUTFELD: Yes, Trey, I have a question. It's Greg. You know, the question 

is, who should be held responsible for this? This kind of attack isn't 

going to speed up our exit. It's going to invite us back in. So, doesn't 

that kind of tell us who might have done this? Someone who still wants us 

there to remain as targets. 

YINGST: Look, I think we could analyze what happened for hours and you're 

going to hear a lot of opinion hosts and commentators in Washington and New 

York talk about failures of the administration and things that could have 

gone differently. I think one major question though that many people have 

on the ground in Afghanistan and around the world, why the United States 

didn't keep Bagram Air Base open because it could have avoided the 

situation that we are seeing today. 

Thousands of civilians from inside Kabul fleeing to the airport hoping with 

or without the proper documentation to get on a flight. You don't blame 

these civilians. They are afraid. I mean, we saw them. We spoke to them 

over the weekend. And they are terrified of the Taliban. They are doing 

anything they can to leave the country. 

We all saw those videos from the very runway in Kabul, of people clinging 

to the outside of a C-17 desperate to leave the country over fears they 

will be killed by the Taliban. But now we have this very, very large 

logistical problem of the United States trying to continue evacuations out 

of Kabul's airport and they don't have the security.

The Bagram Air Base outside the city has, and they also have this arbitrary 

dead line of August 31st that was made up by the Biden administration. And 

they have to have a window to retro grade. They have to be able to drawdown 

troops. 

It's not like they can pack their bags one morning and leave. You have 

thousands of American lives, service members on the ground in Afghanistan 

right now. And the Biden administration says they will continue 

evacuations, but Tuesday is the date set out by the president. 

PERINO: All right. Trey Yingst, thanks. I'm sure we'll see you a little bit 

later today on the channel. We're still waiting for President Biden to give 

his speech, but you also had a thought. 

GUTFELD: Well, I was just, I mean, it was about Biden. Is like, how do you 

have any confidence in our leaders after this? There is no way this would 

happen under a competent leader. Who is going to be fired? Who is going to 

resign? I don't know if anybody is going to want to impeach Biden when you 

see who the VP choice might be. 

But no one so far has taken responsibility for this and that's why I'd like 

to see him do it. There is all this really bad decisions made apparently by 

good people, smart people. Why do smart, good people make bad decisions? 

It's usually cognitive bias, right, that distorts their filter. 

This could all be because of Trump derangement, right. They polluted their 

good decision making so that they made the wrong choices for the wrong 

reasons like the deadline. Did the deadline create this problem? Did you 

have to make -- did you have turn this into something symbolic because of 

the 20th anniversary? 

PERINO: There has been arguments against the dates certain of a draw going 

back since I was press secretary, I mean --

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: -- and obviously, that is saying a lot. I'm a lot older now and so 

is this conflict, but I think the other thing is what -- when you say about 

the administration going forward, like what is the Biden doctrine?

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: And obviously his most solemn obligation is to protect the United 

States. We have a lot of enemies and one of the things about Afghanistan, 

Jesse, is the fact that you have had the Taliban allowed Al Qaeda to 

flourish there. That's where they plotted and planned the attacks, but it 

didn't just start with 9/11. If you go back to 1996 or so when they first 

constituted themselves and there were all these attacks that kept coming 

like the Cole for example, the USS Cole and our embassies in eastern 

Africa, like it just kept coming. 

WATTERS: Now Afghanistan is officially a failed state, terrorist state, 

armed to the teeth with our war chest. And like ants, all these terrorists 

are going to crawl right into these mountains and they're just going to 

fester and plan and plot and arm up and who knows what they're going to do. 

It's really about priorities. You touched on it. Milley focused on white 

rage, while Muslim rage is the real threat. House Democrats supposed to 

have oversight over this administration over the military. There is no 

oversight. They're focused on oversight of the last administration. They're 

focused on January 6th. They're slapping subpoenas everywhere. They're not 

focused on the future or the present. Nancy Pelosi today is in San 

Francisco (inaudible) it up with some of her liberal buddies. She's not 

focused. 

PERINO: About women's rights. 

WATTERS: Yes, about women's rights. Joe Biden has not been heard from 

today, the commander-in-chief. Donald Trump put out a press release before 

he did. Bill de Blasio put out a press release before the commander-in-

chief. 

The president is acting like he can just walk and chew gum at the same 

time. You know, is he going to lead with Build Back Better tonight? Is he 

going to congratulate Nancy for just shepherding all these pending bills 

through? 

In the beginning, he went back and forth from vacation. Imagine triggering 

a hostage crisis and then going back on vacation.

PERINO: Right.

WATTERS: So, you know, I don't know what he's going to say, but he has to 

do a lot better than he has been. He's unfocused. He's undisciplined. And 

he -- there is no priority here. He was kneeling with WNBA players the 

other day, flashing the jersey, having a nice photo op. And this was all 

because he wanted the 9/11 20th anniversary photo op for him to have, to 

bookend the war on his watch and it blew up in his face. 

HEMMER: Just a couple of things here.

PERINO: Two-minute warning for the president -- 

HEMMER: On the Biden doctrine, Dana, we were on the air this morning. I 

think it's quite clear what the doctrine is. It's get out of Afghanistan. 

Don't spend the money overseas. Spend it here at home and work on the $% 

trillion in spending that's now proposed. 

We put that to a Democratic congressman earlier today. He said he was 

offended by the suggestion. I think this polling that came out, I think it 

was 24 hours ago, about being around 41 percent. Dana, I know you think 

that might go a little lower, you're probably right about that. 

What I think the polls fail to sense is the feeling that America has 

suddenly and without warning over the past two weeks, the images on your 

screen that everything we did 20 years ago against the guys who helped 

perpetrate what happened here in lower Manhattan have all come back. And 

they are stronger and they're bigger sand they're more enforced and they've 

got modern technology. And that is something the American people just 

cannot understand. 

PERINO: And they have modern language -- modern language, right? They're 

talking about climate change and echo credits to make sure that, you know, 

the IMF money keeps coming. I believe that we have the president of the 

United States is about to address the nation on this very somber day.

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