Jesse Watters calls out General Milley's 'savior complex' on 'The Five'
'The Five' reacts to allegations about General Milley's calls with China and interfering with Trump's duties
This is a rush transcript from "The Five," September 15, 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 Judge Jeanine Pirro, Jessica Tarlov, Jesse Watters, and I think it's Greg Gutfeld. It's five o'clock in New York City. This is THE FIVE.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: Sir, did General Milley do the right thing, sir? In your opinion, did General Milley do the right thing?
(CROSSTALK)
UNKNOWN: Thank you, guys. Thank you. Let's go. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Let's go.
(CROSSTALK)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I have great confidence in General Milley.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: President Biden and the White House defending chairman of the joint chiefs General Mark Milley after explosive allegations in a new book claiming that the general made secret calls to Chinese officials in an effort to undermine then President Trump. And that he would warn China if the U.S. was going to attack.
Another allegation details how Nancy Pelosi called General Milley after the capitol riots and told him to protect the nuclear codes from former President Trump. Milley reportedly agreed and then took steps to potentially limit Trump's power.
Defense officials are telling Jennifer Griffin those two allegations are not true and the calls with China were not secret and Milley's office issuing a statement today saying his actions were routine and part of his normal duties. But Republicans are demanding answers, but some are calling for Milley to step down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): I think General Milley has a lot of explaining to do and I think he ought to stop bellowing and honking on like a goose about white rage and actually try to make our country more secure.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): Imagine if General Milley decides I think Joe Biden is senile, and so you know what? I'm not going to follow his orders, I'm going to collude with Russia and China to prevent us from acting -- or our future president, I don't think he is in his right mind either because it is the essence, a military coup.
SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): He should be investigated immediately today, he should be questioned under oath, if not with a polygraph test, whether it happened, if it did, he should be immediately relieved of his duties and court-martial.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: So here we go, Jesse, another one of these books with some blind quotes, nothing like that to get the juices flowing in cable news.
JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: I never say this, Dana.
PERINO: Yes.
WATTERS: But I don't know what happened. But I do know that my sources in Trump world are saying that he probably had his team leak this, Milley, to make himself look heroic, and it's blowing up in his face. They say this guy wants to be loved by the left and he wants to be known as the guy that saved America from Trump.
Remember, he was part of this cabal with Mattis and General Kelly that were going to protect America from Trump's base or instincts. I'm also told he's always been very dismissive of civilian control, always kind of disrespectful when civilians pipe up about what they think the military should be doing. And he's always said the same thing. The military is independent, the military is independent. It's actually not independent, it's underneath civilian control.
And I know he is a four-star general and I respect him for that, but he is also a four-star leaker. Because as you know, Dana, I have read every single mainstream media book about 2020. And this guy, Milley, comes off better than Joe Biden. It's almost like he would write his own book like, I don't know, "How I Saved the World."
That's the kind of savior complex that this general has. So, let's look at the allegation. Let's say the Chinese did think, falsely, that we were about to launch some sort of strike on the Chinese mainland and Milley takes that information. Milley should take it to the defense secretary then go the commander in chief and let the commander in chief's administration decide what message to send to China.
If anything at all, maybe keep them guessing, but he said he carved out, allegedly, the commander in chief, the civilian side from this, this is the greatest intel ever. Our biggest enemy thinks we are about to hit him, and you don't tell the commander in chief that? That's crazy.
And to say, we won't going to hit you, you know, if we do hit you, we'll let you know. That is not how the U.S. military speaks to our enemies. And it also tells the Chinese that the civilian side in not even in control of the country that the U.S. military is running America, and that's very dangerous.
The other allegation, which has been widely reported, was that he went to Nancy and Chuck -- I'm not going to say crying, but he does cry, and say, listen, we are going to put up roadblocks in case Trump wants to launch a use of force. Now anybody that knows Trump knows he wouldn't do that, very reticent and precise with his use of force.
And if you are a Republican, Democrat, it's dangerous from a democracy to do that. So, if he goes out there and testifies, he has to be honest with the American people and flat out say, I either did this or I didn't and let the chips fall.
PERINO: So, thoughts and prayers to --
(CROSSTALK)
GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS CO-HOST: She's going to blow.
PERINO: Yes, I'm going to go to her. I was going to go to you but I think that I can't contain the energy.
(CROSSTALK)
JEANINE PIRRO, FOX NEWS HOST: I'm not -- I'm not that (Inaudible) but I'll tell you what.
PERINO: Like thoughts and prayers or whoever has to prepare him for his hearing on the 28th.
PIRRO: I don't know who this guy thinks he is that he has the authority to call his equal in the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party to tell Xi Jinping, listen, I'll give you a heads up before coming after you, and apparently as Nancy Pelosi who called him after January 6 and said, I want -- I want this guy arrested on the spot. She allegedly was screaming, she was hysterical, so he then calls everyone together and says, look, the only way this is going to work with the nuclear football, is we got to go through x, y, and z.
Look, he is a political -- I don't want to call him what I want to call him, but he is a political person. He went to the church with President Trump, when President Trump carried the bible, when everybody on the left said, you know, the National Guard moved everyone out, they didn't move everyone out. OK? And then he apologized for walking with the president.
This guy is a political operative, he's got no command, his role is to advise, and you know what, as if Afghanistan wasn't enough. We now need this to get him the hell out of the Pentagon. He needs to be gone. And shame on him. And by the way, if you were any kind of man, he would have gotten together and at least told the cabinet, for the 25th amendment, as opposed to running around, if didn't want to tell the president.
And the fact that he told Esper, it's not enough for me, that's not enough. He should have gone and spoken to the president with Esper. Who the hell is he to call the Chinese? And that's all I have to say.
PERINO: A lot of attention was already on General Milley because of the last month in Afghanistan, he is going to have testify at the end of the month, but President Biden is already being asked, do you still have confidence in General Milley, he said yes today. Do you think that holds?
JESSICA TARLOV, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: We'll see how the reporting actually bears out when the book actually gets to us and then the reporters are done doing this. I mean, Jennifer Griffin who is obviously incredibly reliable, went against the report last night, saying that her sources are telling her that everyone who is in the chain of command that was supposed to be on those calls was there, up to 15 people.
That's now been confirmed by an Axios report today. Josh Rogan is also in agreement with what he is hearing from his sources. His chain of command would be to go to Esper, to have the secretary of defense there when he is having this conversation. And he said that he absolutely, or his office said, did not violate the chain of command when it comes to the nuclear codes.
So, I understand why President Biden isn't hurrying to fire his joint chiefs of staff because Twitter has their pennies in his tweets today. But --
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: It's actually --
TARLOV: Man can wear pan --
PERINO: Boxers, maybe?
TARLOV: Your undergarments.
GUTFELD: Thank you.
TARLOV: If you choose to wear them. To the point about him being someone that's a political figure, yes, he went with the present, but there was more that went on that day which was also that there was tear gas used against peaceful demonstrators. It was first amendment violation and something that's been widely looked into.
And for him to say that he was on the side of the people who were coming out to peacefully protest there while the president walked over to the church, I think it's actually the appropriate thing to do.
GUTFELD: But hey, that had nothing to do with Trump, right?
TARLOV: What?
(CROSSTALK)
PIRRO: It had nothing to do with Trump.
PERINO: Because she brought the --
(CROSSTALK)
TARLOV: Just the walking with him.
PERINO: That whole thing.
WATTERS: Yes.
GUTFELD: That was a really wuss move on his part.
WATTERS: Yes.
PERINO: So, the people who criticize President Trump for insufficient dedication to the rule of law, many of them are praising General Milley for the idea that maybe he went outside, you know, the rule of law or the process. Here's some media folks, a montage.
GUTFELD: I love the media.
PERINO: Let's play this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOY REID, HOST, MSNBC: he seems to be the greatest patriot that was on duty during the previous administration.
STEVE SCHMIDT, FORMER REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I don't blame General Milley for any of this in as much I blamed Donald Trump.
JOY BEHAR, CO-HOST, ABC: God bless General Milley for straightening things out. I know that the chain of command is sacrosanct. I understand that. But this was an emergency. This guy -- we had an uncertifiable nuthouse in the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PIRRO: She thinks it's an emergency.
GUTFELD: No, no. this is their cognitive bias. They will condemn you for saying the same thing in a minute that barking bag of nonsense. And I'm not talking about Joy Behar, I'm talking about the guy that talks like this. What's his name, Scott Schmidt?
PERINO: Steve Schmidt.
GUTFELD: Yes, he's a nobody. They have like a dude, they entered this emotional, delusional state that causes the amnesia. What they can't remember saying the exact opposite thing. So, what, this, to me, smells true because of all the want-to-be heroes who were so emotionally invested and fantasizing this good versus evil battle in which they are going to -- they are going to save the world from Trump, right?
And we saw that a lot with the anonymous sources, there's always people that were going to prevent the country from this evil man, and what happens is they elect somebody that then puts our troops in harm's way and creates basically a duck shoot in Afghanistan.
The idea -- if this is true, OK, again, if this is true, it's a great idea for a segment.
PERINO: Yes.
WATTERS: If this is true.
GUTFELD: If this is true, is that -- can somebody actually believe that we were going -- can anybody actually believe that we were going to invade China back in January?
PIRRO: Yes.
GUTFELD: If somebody actually believed that, that's the person who is crazy. That's -- it's Milley who was insane. If you are acting, my God, he is going to invade China.
PERINO: The Chinese were insane.
PIRRO: Pelosi.
GUTFELD: They are all insane. That's -- it's -- that -- but I'm telling you, that is what shows you how delusional and emotionally invested these people were, that they lost their common sense. The one thing I also hate about this story, is that it's going to sell books.
PERINO: Yes.
GUTFELD: Because this is a --
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: This is what they do every single time.
GUTFELD: Yes, exactly. And we all --I don't say we all fall for because it is a new story but it's so absurd to think that this is the actual like, reason, like, if he called is hysterical.
WATTERS: And if it's true, that they held the books for profit --
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: Yes, exactly.
WATTERS: -- instead of getting it out there.
GUTFELD: And imagine if they hadn't held the story, there might have been a different outcome in Afghanistan because Milley would have been gone.
WATTERS: Boom.
PERINO: I'm tired of the dialogue the books with the blind quotes.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: I'm tired of them.
WATTERS: I'm so tired of them I just can't stop.
PERINO: You can't stop reading on them.
TARLOV: Yes.
PERINO: All right. I have other things to say but we got to move on. President Biden speaking at the White House at a new national security event initiative. We are going to monitor that for any news. We don't anticipate breaking into this show.
Ahead, President Biden's bad summer the White House reeling as Americans lose faith in the president's leadership.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PERINO: President Biden's brutal summer of bad decisions and poor leadership is coming back to bite him, from the botched Afghanistan exit to a massive surge in COVID, Americans have had enough of his incompetence.
According to a new poll, only 42 percent approve of Biden's performance while 50 percent disapprove. And just 34 percent approve of the president's handling of foreign policy.
All right, so, Dana, I'll start with you.
PERINO: OK.
PIRRO: Since we never got to you in the last segment.
PERINO: All right.
PIRRO: You know, he promised that he was going to make everything right, that Trump botched the COVID response, that he was going to make everything right. Now COVID is a disaster, and the numbers show it.
PERINO: So, I think that's -- you are picking up on something I was thinking about earlier today. So, when he ran, he basically said I'm going to be a transitional person, like transitional candidate. I think kind of he wouldn't necessarily run for a second term. He said you don't have to worry about me. I'll just be the caretaker, everything will be really smooth, no one will ever have to think about it.
He didn't run on fundamentally changing the economic system of the United States, he didn't run on basically beating a hasty retreat out of Afghanistan and leaving Americans behind and green card holders, and then the people that helped us have no help either.
In and the polls that you saw, in Quinnipiac poll in particular, the independents are down to, I think, 32 percent approval, and women was then, I think more like 47, 46 -- I'm looking at Jessica she looks at these polls a little bit more closely than I do, but women are really like the bread and butter for the Democratic Party.
So, if all those numbers are going down, then you have to look at the durability of the negativity. So, these numbers have been going down for a while, polls take a little bit of time to catch up, the Afghanistan issue has been going on for about 30 days, now you're starting to see that manifest.
And even though so many in the media are helping, it doesn't seem to be improving his numbers at all. They are pretty bad. I also think that they are really out of touch. They seem detached. They -- he hasn't gotten out too much. He went to California to campaign for Gavin Newsom, stopped in Idaho to make it an official trip, talking about wildfires.
Other than that, I think that they seemed pretty disconnected because people don't want this $3.5 trillion necessarily, but their main concern right now for workers out there is inflation. Because the increased cost of all the goods and services like meat, for example, and gasoline and milk --
PIRRO: Everything.
PERINO: -- that's eating up their wages.
PIRRO: And you know, Jesse, the economy, Biden stands a 42 percent approval, while 52 percent disapprove of how he is handling the economy.
WATTERS: So, he'll try to tax and spend his way out of it. That's what Democrats do.
PERINO: Right.
WATTERS: And whenever Democrats do that, they lose big in the midterms. And if that happens and you have them with sub 45 approval and 60 percent of the country thinks we are going in the wrong direction, that's going to be pretty deadly. COVID is the x factor because he said we killed it this summer --
PIRRO: Yes.
WATTERS: -- then it came back we're at nearly 2,000 daily deaths on average. So, the problem for him is tricky because the Democrats who are largely vaxxed, don't act like everything is good. They are scared of everything. They are scared of the unvaxxed. Democrats are scared of the vaxxed. They are scared of traveling.
So, his group of people that supports him they're not acting like things are going back to normal, and he needs people to believe that things are going back to normal. That's why he was elected.
PIRRO: OK. Are the Democrats scared?
TARLOV: I'm personally frightened at this moment.
WATTERS: Just because you are sitting next to me.
TARLOV: I didn't say it, you said it, but now that it's out there. Yes, Democrats are scared. And there are so much conflicting information about how you are going to get breakthrough infection, why people are getting hospitalize, masking work, it doesn't work, et cetera.
But the core thing at least that I'm focused on, is for the midterms, will economy become untethered from the COVID question. Because Biden was able to win in 2020 because the economy was linked to what's going on with COVID. Everyone knew that the economy was shut down because we have this health emergency.
So by the midterms, we are largely back to normal, which is my expectation, then will there be a punishment against Democrats for what's going on if inflation continues to grow, et cetera, versus people saying, yes, I may like how we're handling the vaccine mandate and the masking or whatever.
And to Dana's point about women, I think it's really valuable one because Democrats have a shifting coalition right now. I used to be pretty straight up that it was minority voters that were driving our positive results, but then when you look at 2020, a lot of white suburban women specifically, that's how we won states like Georgia and Arizona. And if that because his --
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: Won.
TARLOV: Sorry. Parenthetical versus scare quotes, not parenthesis. Then that obviously affects what's going to happen.
PIRRO: All right. So very quickly.
GUTFELD: Very quickly?
(CROSSTALK)
PIRRO: Yes, very, very, very quickly.
WATTERS: It's the first time, guys. Very quickly.
PIRRO: Now surgeries --
GUTFELD: You have to ask me a question.
PIRRO: OK, surgeries are being canceled in hospitals in Washington.
GUTFELD: She's going to take up all the time the question.
PIRRO: OK. And severe shortages of beds and lack of beds in Tennessee and Kentucky and Alabama. I mean, that's real, isn't it?
GUTFELD: Yes, it is real. I mean, he was elected to be a caretaker, it turns out he's our undertaker. America is dying under Joe Biden's watch. I believe he is playing a game of crisis croquet. Is that how you say it? Croquet?
PIRRO: Yes.
GUTFELD: That little game. So, he's trying to knock inflation, he's trying to knock Afghanistan. He's trying to knock crime. These are all the top balls that could get -- that could destroy the Democrats. he's trying to knock that off by filling it up with COVID stuff. I don't think the COVID stuff would affect him as much as crime, homelessness, education, Afghanistan, and especially your point, inflation because that's where it hurts everybody across the board especially the blue-collar worker.
So, I think that right now they are benefiting from anything from COVID because they've got so many other problems. I also want to make a comparison to Trump's numbers. You could say that in polling the Trump's numbers were similar at this point. But it's a false comparison because Trump numbers were actually amazingly good given the relentless vomit of fake news and smoking gun stories and general emotional hysteria.
Biden's numbers aren't about his personality. They are about his incompetence.
PIRRO: Yes.
GUTFELD: And he was supposed to be the competent. We knew what Trump was. We knew what the package was. We saw him in The Apprentice. But we were promised a caretaker. We got like Dr. Death.
PIRRO: Yes. We got someone that we have to take care of. Anyway, Democrats pushing new COVID mandates while playing by a different set of rules than the rest of us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WATTERS: While president Biden's White House pushes new COVID mandates, liberals and Democrats get to play by a different set of rules. Former Virginia Democratic Governor, Terry McAuliffe, got caught flouting federal regulations by going maskless on an Amtrak train.
And journalist Glenn Greenwald is a tearing into AOC and maskless Met Gala celebs with a scathing article, quote, "It is now commonplace to see two distinct classes of people. Those who remain maskless as they are served, and those who they employ as their servants who must have their faces covered at all times.
The pandemic generated a new form of crude cultural segregation, a series of protocols which ensure that maskless elites need not ever cast eyes up on the faces of their servant class."
Well, that was a very eloquent putdown, Greg.
GUTFELD: Did you know that I own a pair of maskless chaps?
WATTERS: I never want to see that.
PIRRO: Chaps?
GUTFELD: The good news is with servants wearing masks, you never have to hear about their screenplay. Right? But if you ever -- Greenwald is right. If you ever wanted to see kind of like a better image of have nots serving the haves, just look at the Met Gala it's the slaves, you know, obeying their masters.
They wear the masks, you don't, and the masks tell you the power structure, right? You go like, OK, the people not wearing the masks, they are important. They are celebrities. People wearing the masks, they have to do it or they are going to lose their jobs.
So, it's like even AOC's dress, I don't even care about that dress. In fact, I might argue that was pretty -- that was really cool for going in there, but the problem is nobody there was made uncomfortable by it because they think, wow. That's so beautiful, yes, we'll pay more taxes because we're like billionaires.
So, what would have been more interesting is dresses that say things that would have made them uncomfortable like, you know, I'm against the death penalty unless it's an unborn child. Something that would just be, you know, something that would like make people go, my God. You know? But they didn't, that's a safe -- that's a safe message.
WATTERS: I think you should wear a dress to the Met Gala next year, Greg.
GUTFELD: I wore that same dress at the Oscars last year. You just don't remember.
WATTERS: No, no one could see you. Dana, we saw this again. Remember, there was that Nancy Pelosi fund-raiser when everyone was drinking chardonnay.
PERINO: Yes.
WATTERS: Again, the servers masked, and everybody else unmasked.
PERINO: You see it, if you walk up to your neighborhood, which is the fancy one in town.
GUTFELD: Yes.
WATTERS: You mean the lower east side?
PERINO: Yes, right.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: You walk up there, and any restaurant that you go, that you go by, everybody is sitting there eating at these fancy restaurants and all the staff is having to wear masks. Now, restaurant workers were given the opportunity to get -- have vaccines. They were amongst the first. And I'm assuming that many of them are vaccinated, and yet they sought to do this.
Plus, I don't understand this whole thing. They want everyone to get vaccinated. I want people to get vaccinated. I got vaccinated. I was really glad when we could then go shopping, without having to wear a mask. Yesterday, I go to a fancy department store in Jesse's neighborhood. And I'm walking in and I immediately felt uncomfortable because like, wait, my -- wait, why is everyone wearing a mask again? I don't understand.
The vaccination rate in New York is sky-high. And there's this little sign that says, even if you're vaccinated, we just asked you please wear a mask. Well, guess what? I'm not shopping there anymore.
GUTFELD: Exactly.
PERINO: I will shop online.
PIRRO: Good for you.
WATTERS: They just lost a lot of business. And u mean a lot of business.
GUTFELD: Restoration Hardware.
PERINO: Peter has never been so happy.
WATTERS: Restoration Hardware?
GUTFELD: They have a bar on the roof and I -- and they said -- they said we needed our passports. And I like, my wife isn't vaccinated. By the way, you made a great -- I'm sorry, I'm hijacking. You made a great point as a pregnant woman. What's the percentage of women who want to get pregnant and are pregnant who don't have the vaccine?
TARLOV: 75 percent have not had the vaccine.
GUTFELD: So, they can't go with their husband to a restaurant.
WATTERS: Some husbands might think that's a good thing.
TARLOV: With the amount that we eat, I can tell you it's cutting --
WATTERS: That's right. It's economical. Inflation is the kicker. Your thoughts.
TARLOV: A couple of thoughts. There was a piece in The Atlantic very early on in the pandemic that was particularly meaningful. And it was written by a guy who checks out people at the grocery store. And he said, I don't want to be a hero, I have to have this job. Like when we were all standing out on our balconies, like you were saying yesterday at 7:00, and they became essential workers and the heroes of the pandemic.
And they did do incredible things. They kept us fed, clothed, et cetera, doing all these deliveries. But it was the beginning of creating another level of an underclass, and they weren't the doctors who were saving us in the hospitals, they were the guy who was giving us our tofu.
WATTERS: It's a power move.
TARLOV: It's a power move. It's also a safety concern. And I just want to say on top of it for -- that A, it's become part of the uniform and that people who serve do wear uniforms. And that's something that just exists. But we have seen, and this was in the Monmouth poll from today, an amazing turn of events that we had 24 percent of people said that they wouldn't get vaccinated, absolutely, in January. That's down to only 15 percent today.
So, the mandates and the enforcement of masking is helping getting people to the goal, which is herd immunity, and that we can all be safer if we're vaccinated.
WATTERS: Judge.
PIRRO: OK, there is a place in Rye where I live in Westchester County and - -
GUTFELD: What's the street?
PIRRO: What?
WATTERS: I didn't say it.
PERINO: It's a fancy place.
PIRRO: OK. Well, as the governor is lifted mask mandate, some of our staff choose to wear masks, some of them don't. When you come in, you don't have to show proof of vaccination. You can wear a mask or you don't have to. So, they're saying everybody's free to do whatever they want. We ask our guests to respect our employees' personal and private health choices, and any further discussion will not be allowed. No exceptions.
Good for the Ride Bar and Grill. They're saying, you know what, everybody is free to do what they want. It's right near the train station. People go in, they get hamburgers, salads, whatever they want. And they're saying look, we don't even want to hear it if you want to complain about this one or that one.
WATTERS: And the judge will be appearing at the bar tonight, won't you, Judge.
PIRRO: Yes, yes, I will. I'm on the 7:00 show.
WATTERS: I want everybody to know that a couch or a bed from Restoration Hardware where Greg shops is like $30,000.
PIRRO: You shop there?
GUTFELD: No, I was going to the bar.
WATTERS: We got to go. Up next, Facebook under fire over new report that shows just how destructive the social media giant can be.
PIRRO: Do you get discount there?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TARLOV: A shocking new report shedding new light on the destructive nature of social media. Facebook, apparently, aware that its app Instagram increases anxiety and depression among young users, especially girls. And another study highlighting how social media divides the country and leads to an increase in polarization.
So, I don't think anyone was surprised that Instagram and all these filters are bad for young girls. From a legal perspective, Judge, does Facebook have a responsibility to share the findings of these studies and or alter the program?
PIRRO: You know, it's a great question. And I'm not sure I know the answer to that. I think that, you know, if there are lawsuits that begin, I think that a court can order that Facebook share the information that they have, but I'm sure it would have to be a court order. Clearly, the evidence is there. It is damaging to young girls, what is it, 11 to 13, whatever that age is, because their body images such that it doesn't match what they're seeing, as you know, identified as beautiful.
And I think the deliberate decision by people like Facebook that enabled the spread of this kind of thing, and apparently, a whistleblower had to come forward. But here's the problem, Congress is not doing the work and should be doing as it relates to any of these social media companies. They still continue to have protection under 230. I don't know why they have that protection.
And then you know, the monitoring of some people and the discarding of other people information and whatever you post, I've had things that were bumped everyone I know, has had things that were bumped. There's no control. Congress has to take and regulate them. That's just my feeling.
TARLOV: Do you think -- so, the probe into this is bipartisan. It's led by Senators Leahy and Blackburn, two people who I'm sure don't agree all that often. What do you think comes out of it, if anything, Dana?
PERINO: Well, specific to this issue on body image in girls, this is not a new problem. So, you worked in magazines for a long time.
GUTFELD: That I did, Dana.
PERINO: And I don't know -- I mean, do you remember those -- all those debates about how the magazine -- the women's magazines, were causing problems for young women because -- or girls, because they were body image- conscious because they wanted to be skinnier and prettier. And so, they would target the magazines and say you need to change things.
Even on Section 230, I don't think that actually is an issue here for this particular one because it's more of an issue -- it's a cultural issue. It's a subconscious issue for young girls. And it can lead to really disruptive behavior, of course. I know that in Utah, they're trying to deal with the fact that there had been a lot of, unfortunately, a terrible trend of teen suicide.
And one of the things they decided to do was to try to create a three- number suicide hotline so that people would have -- be able to have more immediate access. The one -- but one thing that might be able to help is some of these options like you can limit the amount of time you have available to you on your phone. Like, it could automatically turn off.
But then if you have somebody like Britney Spears, an influencer. So, she just got engaged, and she announced to her fans, I'm taking a break from Instagram so that I can celebrate my engagement. And that tells you something about how destructive Instagram might be to somebody who is really aware of her image.
GUTFELD: She just was naked on Instagram, wasn't she?
PERINO: Well, maybe that was not a great thing.
GUTFELD: She was on a lot. Look, the last 30 years or, so we've denied the reality that teenage brains aren't fully formed. They aren't. And so -- and we have a pop culture that targets every one of their needs, desires, and infatuations. And we think that there's some kind of wisdom in their thoughtfulness, there is none.
There is no wisdom to be found in a young person. And we were allowing him to indulge themselves in the worst way. If you look at the future of child stars, they're overwhelmingly bad. You have drugs, mental illness, suicide, early death. Essentially, they were indulged without discipline. This is what Instagram is doing. It democratized fame. So, all of these young girls now can get the same effects that were available to other people that were famous. They create their own little famous pool. And that's what happens.
To the point about the magazine things, this is a girls problem created by girls. There's no men have anything to do with this. If girls don't want to look at plus-size models on Sports Illustrated, they want to look at beautiful models on the front of glamour or Cosmo, right? They want to go on Instagram and they want to look sexy and hot.
So, these are girls indulging girls. The parents need to be there and the parents aren't there anymore. And by the way, whistleblowing is sexist, Judge.
PIRRO: It is not sexist.
GUTFELD: What, blowing whistles? Come on. I have another joke. Do you want to read my joke?
PIRRO: Oh, you know what? I have a joke too, but let it go. Jesse, what do you think?
WATTERS: Well, Greg stole my line. Blame the girls. Do you know why everybody loved the 80s?
PIRRO: Why?
WATTERS: And it's not just about Reagan. It's because there was no internet. So, if you live somewhere, you were only comparing yourself to other people in town.
GUTFELD: Right.
WATTERS: Kathy, not that good-looking.
PERINO: Oh, my God.
WATTERS: Carl, probably had a limp, you know. So, like most people in these towns, their eights, their nines, right? All of a sudden, the internet comes along, a solid eight or a nine, not just women, a solid eight or a nine is now a four compared to what you see on social media.
Now, I look at social media and I don't feel bad about myself. I get inspired. I see a guy ripped with a perfect haircut and a six-pack.
PIRRO: Because you only look at yourself.
WATTERS: I say I'm going to the gym. That's how you should feed into this stuff. Don't feel bad about it. Use it as inspiration.
GUTFELD: You know what I always notice when the producers get nervous when you're talking is when the T suddenly goes up in the teleprompter.
TARLOV: Yes. I'm getting -- we got to go. We got to go. We got to go.
WATTERS: I have more on that. Do you want me to have some more?
TARLOV: No.
GUTFELD: I have a joke that I decided not to use.
TARLOV: It's like actually real. Like, we have to go.
WATTERS: We really have to go?
TARLOV: OK, "THE FASTEST" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUTFELD: Welcome back. Time for "THE FASTEST." Whatever. One company wants to hear you scream. They'll be paying out horror fan to watch 13 different scary movies in order to gauge whether or not high-budget horror flicks deliver strong scares than low-budget ones. They'll even track your heart rate. Jesse, you'd have to have a heart for that.
WATTERS: Well, thank you, Greg.
GUTFELD: That wasn't a compliment.
WATTERS: The scariest -- I know. The scariest movies for me are the ones where college students go off into the woods, you know, and then all of a sudden those hill people come out and they're infected. And then if you get touched by a hill person, then you get infected and you die.
GUTFELD: Those are called zombies or Antifa.
WATTERS: Antifa? Yes, so that -- those are the scariest movies for me. Like, Wrong Turn, Cabin in the Woods.
GUTFELD: I like a home invasion movies like --
PERINO: Yes.
GUTFELD: Oh, yes. Do you ever -- the best one, Funny Games, 1997, Austrian. Judge, you would love it.
PIRRO: What's the name of it?
GUTFELD: It's called Funny Games? A Michael Haneke film.
PIRRO: Really?
GUTFELD: It's about two guys that just show up at somebody's house and terrorize the family.
PIRRO: Yes.
GUTFELD: You'd love it.
PIRRO: Yes, I would. Yes. Because I'd be figuring what crimes to indict them for, you know.
GUTFELD: Yes,
PIRRO: But scary movies, I mean, I like all of them. So, what do they do? They pay you $1,000 or $10.00 a month?
GUTFELD: You weren't even listening to the segment, were you?
PIRRO: I was listening to this segment. What are you talking about? The newest subscription service, that's the other one. That's Taco Bell.
GUTFELD: Yes, that's the other story.
PIRRO: All right, what do you want to ask me? Nothing now.
GUTFELD: All right, Jessica, is your time isn't worth this, right, to be paid or maybe it is.
TARLOV: To be on the show?
WATTERS: You mean, on the show?
GUTFELD: Yes.
TARLOV: Well, look, same joke, same time.
GUTFELD: This is a horror movie.
TARLOV: No, and I wouldn't fall --
GUTFELD: If this were a horror movie, which one of us would die first? Great question.
PERINO: Probably me.
TARLOV: No.
GUTFELD: No, you'd be the one --
WATTERS: No, I'd save you.
GUTFELD: Then you would die first.
WATTERS: No, why would I die first.
TARLOV: He's leaving with her.
GUTFELD: I would turn against you on the side of the zombies and kill all of you.
PIRRO: But they get $50.00 --
WATTERS: You'd definitely die first.
PIRRO: They get $50.00 gift cards. I was on the right page. They get $50.00 gift cards. I could watch it because I watched autopsies. I want to be that person.
TARLOV: That's weird.
PIRRO: Yes.
TARLOV: Home invasions, I just want to shout out, there's a movie called hostage with Bruce Willis where he was a hostage negotiator and a family gets taken over. And it's like one of those amazing house. I love also like --
GUTFELD: Those big houses.
TARLOV: -- contextual porn in those movies where it's like they actually have safe humans can fit in.
GUTFELD: Yes.
TARLOV: And they're like riding below the pool.
PIRRO: Yes, safe places.
TARLOV: That's my jam.
GUTFELD: There was a movie like that. What's it called?
WATTERS: There was.
GUTFELD: I don't know.
TARLOV: It's safer.
PERINO: I would be a great candidate for this because I have never watched scary movies.
PIRRO: Why?
PERINO: My parents didn't allow it.
PIRRO: Well, you're not living with them.
PERINO: And then, I remember I went to a slumber party and watch Carrie. I'm still scarred from that. I did watch Nightmare on Elm Street, but I don't really know -- I haven't watched many scary movies. So, if you do -- if you want to clean slate for this experiment, I'm your brain.
GUTFELD: Me and my buddy, Joe, came up with an idea for like a photo -- regular photo thing for you. It's Dana fitting into small things. Like, could she fit into this suitcase? Could she fit into this vase? People would love that, right?
PIRRO: No.
GUTFELD: No? That should be my "ONE MORE THING" just Dana fitting into --
PERINO: Vase, that would have to be a pretty big base.
GUTFELD: Well, I don't know.
PERINO: It's a big bouquet.
GUTFELD: I don't know. I guess I should just say "ONE MORE THING" is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PERINO: It's time now for "ONE MORE THING," fellow, pal.
GUTFELD: What a terrible piece of news, Norm Macdonald passing away. He was 61. He died from a long and very private battle with cancer. That was me with him on a train. We both went back and forth on a train to see him. It's my buddy Paul. And you can see a woman drinking a beer behind us. I think that was -- I actually think that was my beer. And that's my -- that's Paul, Joni's husband who is one of my producers.
There's absolutely no way to replace somebody like Norm. And if you've never really listened to him, all you got to do is go on YouTube, start with one video. I would just type in Norm and moth joke, and then you'll probably be there for seven hours going through -- because he also did an amazing podcast. He was he might have been the funniest person alive during the time that he was alive.
And he was also a very good, very moral, very honest person. He used to watch THE FIVE and used to, you know, say nice things on Twitter whenever he was watching it. He was a fan and just a wonderful person. Rest in peace, Norm.
PERINO: He will be missed. A lot of people are upset about that one. As you all know -- so, I mentioned last week, actually, Greg helped me to announce that Jasper had passed away. And I just want to thank you. The outpouring from here, my friends, and colleagues at Fox -- but the fans, you guys keep sending these -- me so many notes and poems and all of these things that you made. It's been really incredible.
And then this cartoon came, and this was done by John Rasmussen. And he lost his dog jack in 2015. And he has since drawn over 5000 of these cartoons for people. So, that is jack and Jasper there at the -- at the bridge. I also want to thank Leah. She's 7 years old. Leah Bonewald, Jason Bonewald who works at Fox radio. She's 7 years old. She drew this freehand. And she had the marker that match the color exactly.
So, anyway, it's given us a lot of comfort and we thank you so much. I'm going to call on the judge now because we have this in common over this past week.
PIRRO: Yes, Dana. My Standard Poodle Sir Lancelot died a couple of days ago. And for those of you, there he is. He's a white Standard Poodle. For those of you who follow me and I appreciate and thank you for all of your notes, you know that Sir Lancelot was my sweetheart But Sir Lancelot and Mikimoto there on the left were very, very close. And Mikimoto went to the Rainbow Bridge five years ago.
And Sir Lancelot now, he was a sweet dog with an old man's soul. And now, Sir Lancelot has gone to join Mikimoto with the Rainbow Bridge. And there's no question that the one absolutely unselfish friend, woman or man can have is their dog. And I miss you so much Lancelot. But the good news is you with Mikimoto?
PERINO: Yes, he was a very good boy. And well done. We didn't even need the whistle in case she cried because she didn't cry. She got through it. Jessica.
TARLOV: OK. Well, I'm sorry to both of you, obviously, on your losses.
PERINO: Thank you.
GUTFELD: We're three for three in death right now.
PERINO: Yes.
GUTFELD: Well, take us out.
TARLOV: Let's talk about betting from our friends at Fox Bet. Download the Fox Bet Super 6 app and enter for a free chance to win $1 million of Terry Bradshaw's money. Who doesn't want to take his money? All you need to do is pick six outcomes from Sunday games, then watch to see how it all plays out. It's free to play. Download the Fox Bet Super 6 app now to get started. So how's that for an uplifting story?
PERINO: Well done. I mean, if you're going to take Terry Bradshaw's money, but for sure. What do you -- what do you have?
WATTERS: Rose McGowan? Everybody knows Rose. She helped expose Harvey Weinstein. So, she is joining "TUCKER CARLSON TODAY." And she's going to talk about how Democrats like the Clintons and Gavin Newsom's wife helped enable Harvey Weinstein's culture of sexual harassment. And it's going to be a two-part episode. "TUCKER CARLSON TODAY" on Fox Nation later to air today and Friday at 4:00 p.m. Eastern, so head over to Fox Nation now for part one, and check that out.
PERINO: Well, we have -- Greg, would you like to tell you a joke that you were -- that you held back?
GUTFELD: No, because I believe that joke would get me fired.
PERINO: No.
PIRRO: Well, can you tell us later?
WATTERS: Well, then, we'd like to read your joke.
PERINO: And we'll just tell everyone that it was yours. All right, great show. That's it for us. "SPECIAL REPORT" is up next with Bret Baier. Hey, Bret.
BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS CHANNEL ANCHOR: Are you sure. Are you sure Greg doesn't want more time?
GUTFELD: Who would want me to stay here?
BAIER: All right, all right. We do.
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