Zelenskyy has reportedly avoided 3 assassination attempts
Fox News correspondent Mike Tobin discusses the alleged assassination attempts on Zelenskyy thwarted due to leaked information from Russians in opposition to War on ‘The Five.’
This is a rush transcript of "The Five" on March 4, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: Hello, everybody. I'm Jesse Watters along with Judge Jeanine Pirro, Martha MacCallum, Katie Pavlich, and Greg Gutfeld. It's five o'clock in New York City, and this is THE FIVE.
Putin's invasion of Ukraine taking the most terrifying turn yet after Russian forces took control of Europe's largest nuclear power plant during a middle of a attack on night. The facility was damaged but regulators are reporting that radiation levels appear to be normal.
Putin now has control of one quarter of Ukraine's power supply and can pull the plug any time at once. And workers at the plant who are being held at gunpoint are warning that Russia could use it to blackmail all of Europe. To the east, the city of Kharkiv continues to be pounded by Russian shellings, and then in the north, Putin's convoy of tanks and armored vehicles inches closer to Ukraine's capital.
Benjamin Hall is live in Kyiv, Ukraine with the latest. Benjamin?
BENJAMIN HALL, FOX NEWS STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Hi, Jesse. Well, look, what you just laid out this war is escalating, and it's heating up as well. The north, the south, the east, the Russian forces are taking more territory. They've surrounded the city of Mariupol. They are moving on the city of Odessa. Kharkiv is being bombed to the ground, and as you say, Kyiv is being approached more gradually by the Russians.
You know, what we have seen in this conflict, though, is the sheer number of videos that come out. We're able to track this conflict or what just has happened. And there are some incredible videos release almost daily on social media and elsewhere.
take a look at this one for example.
(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
HALL: Just one example of how Putin's atrocities are being documented and firsthand. And there are countless other stories to go with that as well. Another school was hit today in the city of Zhytomyr, half of it left destroyed, 22 civilians killed in another bombing in Chernihiv. While south of Kyiv today at least a few children were killed in various strikes, some killed in their home, some killed in their cars.
And all the while Russia is tightening the noose on the capital. The Russians defense ministry releasing this video overnight that shows tanks and armored vehicles now crossing into the Kyiv region, and they have been intense air campaigns just outside Kyiv.
Speaking remotely today to rallies, to gathered -- people gathering in European countries. Zelenskyy urged supporters to keep speaking out and he held a minute of silence for those who had died.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translator): Don't be silent, come to the streets, support Ukraine, support our freedom. Because this is a victory not only over the Russian military, it's a victory of light over darkness, this is the victory of good over evil.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HALL (on camera): And I can tell you tonight in Kyiv, we've certainly seen more action than we have for the last couple of nights. The thud of artillery flashes on the horizon, a short gun battle early on, the sense is that Russian forces are moving towards the city and it's only a matter of time until they stop bombing more heavily or they move in.
I can tell you that the streets right now they are empty. People are prepping, people are ready. The defenses are up. Russians have made it very clear that if they fight --encounter resistance they will crush it. Or they will encounter resistance. The people here are brave, they are motivated, and so, we will see that escalation no doubt in the coming days or week, perhaps. Jesse?
WATTERS: Thank you. I appreciate it. Martha, seeing that video in the beginning of that, that strike behind the gentleman of the building, it reminds me the American people have not seen this type of warfare. We've seen it in Desert Storm, we've seen it a little but in Iraq in operation and during freedom, but that was when we had American photojournalists embedded with our guys, so it's a different perspective.
Now, you are seeing large-scale conventional war from the side of defense. And it's getting more and more graphic. I'm not sure the American people are going to be comfortable watching this thing as it continues to go on. Do you?
MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: I think you're right. I mean, I think anybody who sort of look back at World War II and wonders how -- how could this have happened, right? How did the world standby stand by and allow all of these people to be killed? And those kinds of questions are going to be raised when we watch this because there is a very clear aggressor in this situation.
Ukraine did not invade Russia. Russia invaded Ukraine. It's been an independent nation for over 30 years. They have chosen their own government, they elected them democratically. And now you have this very clear invasion.
I think it would've very been different if -- if, you know, it had been that disputed area of in the Donbas. I think if he had left it to that area, it might have come down to some sort of very difficult struggled negotiation. But when he was blocked in that effort which came as a surprise to even as top generals, that he announced the independence of those nations, he decided to encircle essentially the whole country and start attacking them and putting people in situations that we haven't seen since World War II.
And we've seen in some of the situations that you just talked about, Jesse. But in terms of Europe with crumbled buildings and --
WATTERS: Yes.
MACCALLUM: -- and villages that have been there since the 1800s, you know, lying on their sides, it's an extraordinary image. I think you're right. I think that people are going to become horrified that these people are not getting air cover. And I'm not saying I'm in favor of it. I understand the arguments against it, but it's going to continue to incite a lot of emotional reaction in America.
WATTERS: The types of civilians targeting that you are seeing now, Jeanine, if Bin Laden had access to Russia's artillery, those are the types of targets he would be heading. Schools, residential towers. Those things. And it's alarming to see that kind of devastation. And now, he's gone after a nuclear power plant, which makes it even scarier.
JEANINE PIRRO, FOX NEWS CO-HOST: Well, you know what, Martha is saying is so accurate. I mean, there isn't even a hint of justification on the part of Putin, there isn't any historical, you know, fight going on. There is not a religious fight going on. Putin just made a decision I want to take over this country. And if it means killing innocent civilians and children, it doesn't matter to me.
And you know, initially we thought, well, maybe, he's keeping the infrastructure strong. He's not doing that. Now what's happening in Kharkiv is he is destroying everything. And we are, the American people, we're not used to this, we're not used to seeing this kind of thing. A father kneeling over the body of a 6-year-old whose lost his legs in a bombing.
It's almost as a war of voyeurs. And Americans are good people. Americans are not accustomed to just looking at this and saying, well. And I think it's one of the reasons why we talked about this last week that there is -- there was a poll that 48 percent of Americans were willing to accept even higher gas prices to get involved in the Ukraine. But this is too close and personal. This is too painful. And at some point, I think the American people are going to be angry that there isn't a better response on our part.
WATTERS: And the American people are going to be really angry if they cut the lights out through this nuclear reactor, Katie.
KATIE PAVLICH, FOX NEWS CO-HOST: Yes.
WATTERS: And you are seeing people in the dark, the ability to keep the lights on, feeds themselves, running water, all kinds of things. I mean, that could be something we've never ever seen.
PAVLICH: Yes, I know we're going to --
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: From this scale.
PAVLICH: -- get to the humanitarian crisis in a minute. But, you know, I think that what's going on in Ukraine, we are not even seeing the worst of it.
WATTERS: Yes.
PAVLICH: We're not seeing the dead bodies of civilians on the television. It's extremely graphic. I think the numbers aren't going to come up for a long time. It's a time game. NATO made it clear that they are not going to institute a no-fly zone. The United States has said the same thing. So the question is how long can the Ukrainian forces hold off Russia when it comes to what they want to do?
And according to the French president Putin is going to continue to take Ukraine. There's been nothing done so far up to this point or indications even with the west helping the Ukrainians that he plans to turn back.
Martha today interviewed John Kirby who was the Pentagon spokesperson, she asked him what the goal was for what the west is doing, and they said the goal is to get Putin to retreat. Well, all indications are that that's not happening.
WATTERS: Retreat is the goal?
PAVLICH: That is the goal is to repeal this, the invasion, to make it stop. So far, that's not happening. Again, time will tell, but the most recent example of the way operates is Syria. Aleppo was completely destroyed, flattened. The photos from Syria. Hundreds of thousands of civilians dead as a result of this partnership with Bashir al-Assad.
And so, given his behavior then and the fact that he didn't suffer much from the international community I'm not surprised that he thinks he can do it again.
WATTERS: Yes, it's barbaric, isn't it, Greg?
GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS CO-HOST: Yes. I mean, I talked to a Ukrainian M.P. and he base -- I asked what do you guys want? And this was today. And he said -- he said they need to get that humanitarian corridor agreed on so people can get out safely, but Putin doesn't care about that. He doesn't negotiate.
Like, if you agree to that, that actually makes the devastation less devastating, and therefore, not as urgent to surrender. So, he doesn't care about that. So, they talk about the no-fly zone, and our fear is you shoot down a Russian jet, that's war. But what the Ukrainian will tell you is it is already war, it's already World War III. And if you don't establish a no-fly zone, then we're going to have a lot of dead people. We already have a lot of dead people. You are going to have unless you dare. I'm sorry. I lost my train of thought.
WATTERS: The no-fly zones.
GUTFELD: Yes. So, the no-fly zone. So here is the problem. Here is the problem. We can't push this narrative of Ukrainian fighting back heroically and it's an amazing -- it's the little guy versus the big guy, and then, we don't help them out. We can't pretend to be their bodyguard and not agree to this.
In fact, in many ways, we are complicit in this. Right? We engage -- we are using Ukraine to annoy Russia and Ukraine used us to protect them. So now we are in a situation where we are saying no to a no-fly zone, and we're sending Kamala there. These are not moves of person would make whose intent on winning a war.
And I go back to the first thing I said which is that, who does Ukraine matter more to? Putin or the United States? It's obviously Russia. He is willing to destroy his own country, right? He's essentially creating a civil war. He believes t Ukraine is part of Russia.
WATTERS: Right.
GUTFELD: So, in a sense, he's attacking his own country. And now that we are call him a war criminal, which you can argue he is, and it's a good point -- there's no way he can lose. Because if you are a war criminal and you lose, then you die. So, the war criminal has to win, so that kind of language means that he is going -- he is going all the way to the end.
WATTERS: Yes.
GUTFELD: There is a goal amongst the Ukrainians to convince the elite Russians and these top circles that they need to save Russia from Putin. It's not about Ukraine anymore, it's about you need to save your country from Putin because he has taken, he has literally taken a fairly large country and he shrunk it, he shrunk it economically. This thing is going to be -- going to take generations.
WATTERS: He's destroying the country.
GUTFELD: he's destroying this country over this. And it's going to take generations. He sees it as a long-term economic gamble that in 50, 100 years having Ukraine part of Russia is a really good thing. But in -- so he doesn't mind the devastation. They have to argue with the Russians that when the war crimes come to the court, you will be incriminated, not just Putin. If you stand by and you don't do something, you will also be put to death. That's the, I think that's the only persuasion you have at this point.
WATTERS: That's a really strong and effective argument. And I hope they make that case really strongly. All right. Coming up, millions of refugees fleeing Putin's brutal invasion, including Greg's mother-in-law. An incredible update on that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUTFELD (on camera): The refugee crisis in Ukraine getting worse. There is unimaginable suffering happening right now as Russia pummels residential areas. The U.N. says 1.2 million Ukrainian have fled the country and another 800,000 have been displaced. That includes over a half million children.
And as you know my mother-in-law is one of the lucky ones who just made her escape from Ukraine, arriving in Poland yesterday. Reuniting with her daughter, my wife Elena. I have to warn you though, this video has been known to cause a ran on tissues.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELENA MOUSSA, GREG GUTFELD'S WIFE: Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
STEVE HARRIGAN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: What was it like waiting?
MOUSSA: I'm sorry?
HARRIGAN: What was it like waiting?
MOUSSA: My God. It was awful. It was absolutely awful. But, I'm so happy to have my mom. My God.
(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD (on camera): Turn it off, she says! That was arrogant. It's amazing they were still wearing their masks.
PIRRO: Yes.
GUTFELD: You drive across a war- turn country for two days, I think you can probably take off your mask. But this was possible, thanks to my incredible colleagues here at Fox. Steve Harrigan who you heard there interviewing my wife. Trey Yingst and Scott Wilder. So, she was fortunate enough to make it to safety. But there are still millions in danger.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: You don't know what to do, that's why we cross into another country.
UNKNOWN: My colleagues were shot by Russian soldiers in when she tried to go out of Kyiv to Zhytomyr. And she was shot. She is dead now.
UNKNOWN: I'm a mother. I just want to protect my son.
UNKNOWN: I feel a lot of pain, a lot of pain for my country and my people.
UNKNOWN: What did you leave behind?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD (on camera): But in the face of evil, there's still good in the world and heroes everywhere like the people on the ground risking their own lives to lead others to safety. And others who were doing what they can to help out. Charities like Project Dynamo is rescuing people in the middle of this fighting, and getting them out of the country. Private companies are also stepping.
For example, Uber is offering free rides between the Poland and Ukrainian border, although Jesse, they won't drive you because you're one-star rating.
WATTERS: I've been tipping.
GUTFELD: That's good. That's good. I think I've done my job.
(CROSSTALK)
PIRRO: Good for you!
GUTFELD: Jesse, I think I've done my job. Who are you going to rescue?
WATTERS: Myself.
GUTFELD: Yes.
WATTERS: Well, Greg, that was great. And we used a Fox News alert for that.
GUTFELD: I know.
WATTERS: I didn't -- I didn't think that was possible.
GUTFELD: Yes.
WATTERS: But that was a great video and we're all really happy for you and your entire family, I think you should throw a party for everybody when they get back to the United States. And you know, listen, I want to make a joke, but I don't think it's appropriate, so I won't. but it was great to see that and great to see your wife so happy. You know, she's not always a happy person. I'm glad you can finally make her happy.
GUTFELD: That is so, you know, that is closer to the truth than you might expect. So, you know.
PIRRO: Yes.
GUTFELD: But Judge, I feel guilty, I mean, I feel guilty because that is just one person.
PIRRO: Right.
GUTFELD: I mean, we know that there are people with their grandmothers, and what can they do? And what should -- how do they -- what do they do? I mean, Project Dynamo is one, one group I was in contact with but they -- and they had gone to Afghanistan before and got people out.
PIRRO: There are so many organizations, I mean, whether it's Project Dynamo or even Bethenny Frankel has an organization. Look, people want to help. People are essentially good and charitable. But you shouldn't feel guilty at all. I mean, the truth is that you were able to help in one way.
But I think that this is an example of the hard choices that people are making. Every one of those people that we've seen has been separated from a loved one. The women from their husbands, or their brothers or their fathers, you know. And the men from their children, and their wives. And it is -- it is so devastating to think that this thug in Russia is doing nothing but destroying the lives of innocent people who have done nothing.
And you know, whether its people going there with meals, like the chef Andre's or, you know, just sending money to non-government organizations to do good things. I mean, we bleed for people. And I think the more this goes on, and as Macron said, the worse is going to get, I think the more Americans are going to start to say, you know, let's do something, we got to do something.
But where are these people going? We got 1.2 million refugees going all over Europe now. Where is the U.N.? Are they setting up? Are they taking care of these people? What housing do we have? What about the orphanages, you know?
GUTFELD: Yes.
PIRRO: Where these kids going?
GUTFELD: What do you think, Martha?
MACCALLUM: I think it's an extraordinary story. Your mother-in-law was in Ukraine. And had she come Russia or was she living in Ukraine?
GUTFELD: Sure. You know, her husband passed away from COVID like last year, so she had been spending time and she's born in Ukraine, she's a Ukrainian-Russian, so she was with her cousins or whatnot in this little tiny village when all of this stuff happened.
So, and then we had -- so we had to get her out and get her back, you know, and thanks to Fox. I mean, you know.
MACCALLUM: Well, it really makes you, you know, going through what you've gone through.
GUTFELD: Yes.
MACCALLUM: It makes you so sympathetic to what all of these people are going through. And that one woman who starts to cry at the end of that video we just play it, I'm pretty sure that she said after that she had left her husband when they said, what did you leave behind? Because the husbands are not allowed to leave if they are age 18 to 60.
PIRRO: Right.
MACCALLUM: So, they're all staying behind to fight. And the more we learn about how long this could go on -- I asked John Kirby what this -- what the Pentagon thinks, and he said, you know, weeks or months. but I think that may be overly optimistic. I think this is potentially years --
GUTFELD: Yes.
MACCALLUM: -- in terms of an insurgency and how long this could go on. Those fathers could be separated from their children for years, potentially.
GUTFELD: Yes. And think about also, you know, there are people in Russia, these are their relatives, too.
PAVLICH: Yes.
GUTFELD: And so, I mean, there are people in Russia who have loved ones that they're not going to see anymore.
MACCALLUM: Absolutely.
GUTFELD: Because they are going to bifurcate that air, no one is going to be able to cross.
MACCALLUM: And all because Putin said they were one -- one country.
GUTFELD: Yes. And --
(CROSSTALK)
MACCALLUM: Right? He's like, we're all -- you're all Russians. This is all Ukraine is part of Russia, so we should all be together. As if he was doing some altruistic thing --
GUTFELD: Yes.
MACCALLUM: -- to bring the country back together for his egomaniacal dream of a Russian empire that they don't want.
PAVLICH: Yes. And I mean, women are saying goodbye to their husbands possibly forever. I mean, they may never be reunited if they're killed in this war that they're fighting. But, you know, thank God for Fox, they -- during the Afghanistan withdrawal they were helping to get interpreters and people who the State Department and the federal government left behind out of there as much as they could. Great that they were able to help with this situation as well.
You know, Ukraine is a country of 44 million people, there's already 1.2 million who cross the border into Poland. Poland has also been an amazing neighbor --
GUTFELD: Yes.
PAVLICH: -- in all of this. They welcomed them with open arms. And there are a number of international, also U.S. organizations that are providing food and humanitarian aid. And that's just going to get worse. Because a week ago, people were saying in Kyiv and all these other cities that they had three days worth of food. And they may be in an orphanage where there are dozens or hundreds of kids who need to be fed.
But we're a week out from that. And when society breaks on very quickly when people can't get basic things like food and water. So, this humanitarian, this humanitarian path that they are trying to make up with the Russians, Putin hasn't shown that he's actually doing that.
We heard that there was some kind of agreement, but we haven't seen really any movement on setting up that flow of humanitarian aid. So, we'll just have to see what happens. But it's amazing always how quickly things change. You know, people have to leave and make the decision overnight whether to leave their families.
My husband is telling me a story today about their organization who is helping to get people out as well. And a man who is 59 years old came to the border with six kids and dropped them all off, and had to go back. And so, you know, there's millions of this same kind of stories.
GUTFELD: Yes. Well, I'm very, very lucky to be working here, that's for sure. All right.
PIRRO: That's for sure.
PAVLICH: Yes. All right. Well, Russian backed mercenaries going after Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. We are now learning Zelenskyy has avoided three assassination attempts since the Russian invasion began.
Mike Tobin is in Lviv, Ukraine with the latest there. Mike?
MIKE TOBIN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, a lot of information is coming through reporting from the Times of London, particularly related to two of the assassination attempts. And this involved mercenaries, with this shadowy group called the Wagner Group. And essentially, they are subcontracts who would have been working for the Russian government, providing the Russian with some deniability and some padding here.
But they, according to the story, were preplaced in Kyiv and activated but there were Russians who don't support the war, so they leaked the information to the Ukrainian security services, and these two assassination plots were thwarted.
The other involved a Chechen hit squad that were part of this Kadyrov's brigade, and the Kadyrov brigades are the elite unit named after Ramzan Kadyrov. And they were inserted into the country when the fighting was so bad at the Hostomel airport there. They came in during the chaos.
But once again, there were Russian turncoats who tipped off the Ukrainians, apparently with very detailed information, and the Ukrainians were able to locate the assassins and kill them right there at the airport.
That information came through the national security chief out here in Ukraine. So, a real spy stuff going on out here. Real (Inaudible) stuff playing out in real life.
PAVLICH: So, Mike, we are obviously seeing that play out in Ukraine, but in Russia now, we're seeing Vladimir Putin shut down Facebook and a number of other social media companies and there is this fear now of him invoking martial law. We're actually seeing a number of Russians try to leave the country. So, can you comment a little about the propaganda war on that edge as well?
TOBIN: Well, as they say, the first casualty in war is the truth. There's certainly is a lot of propaganda out here and a lot of bad information that comes out. When you start to see the casualty figures you can't really trust any of them. You saw the number of the casualties that came up from the Ukrainians was dramatically different than what came out from the Russians.
You get a lot of stories and then you go to find video of the evidence or find something that will support these different stories that come out, and it's just not there. So, when you are in an environment like this, you have to double check everything. And the hope that you don't get bamboozled in the process.
WATTERS: Tell us a little about this Wagner Group. I had no idea you could subcontract out a hit internationally and then wipe your hands clean. And that clip you had plausible deniability. Did Putin actually think he could pull the trigger on something like this and no one would think he was behind it?
TOBIN: Well, a lot of it goes back to that gentleman known as the baker in Russian circles. And he was tight with Putin, primary -- or the chef, I should say. And he was tight with because Putin liked the way he cooked, and he got folded into the inner circles here. So, he does a lot of odd jobs, and he is tied with right down to that internet research association. And he is tied into that Wagner Group. Of course, I can't provide too much information because they are shadowy organization, their whole -- their backbone of the organization is their secrecy.
WATTERS: That's fascinating. Thank you.
PAVLICH: Judge, do you have a question?
PIRRO: Yes. Actually, I do, Mike. You know, we are talking about these assassination attempts on Zelenskyy. Have you heard anything about assassination attempts on Putin? I mean, even Putin's own people are leaking information to the Ukrainians.
And you know, now, they are getting their social media shutdown, they've got this statewide propaganda going on about, you know, how they are militarizing and de-Nazifying Ukraine. Have you heard anything about that?
TOBIN: Well, I can tell you it's very apparent that Putin is paranoid. If you look at the way he sits in all of the meetings he has. Even with some of his closest advisors, you could --- you could have a bowling match set up between him and his closest advisors. He has to shout down the table and that's because he is fearful of COVID. They know that if they get swabbed that means that someone could get their DNA in custom design a poison that could just kill him. So, there's a great deal of paranoia on Putin's part, but assassination plots, I would imagine they'd keep that secret.
PIRRO: Yes, I imagine they do.
PAVLICH: Martha?
MACCALLUM: Mike, I would tap people at home to look up Yevgeny Prigozhin because he is the chef that you talked about and he has been very tight with Putin for a really long time.
TOBIN: Right.
MACCALLUM: And he is believed to be overseeing some of these operations to kill -- to kill Zelenskyy.
And you know, there were 42 plots they think, probably more than that to try to kill Hitler during World War II, and none of them succeeded until he killed himself in a bunker in Berlin. So, Zelenskyy is obviously under so much daily pressure. What can you tell us about how he's sort of changing the way that he navigates?
And I also read that, that one of the ways they could do it is to drop like a laser pin on him to try to figure out -- you know, to try to stick something on him physically so that they can find him.
TOBIN: Well, that's really advanced. I don't have a whole lot about that. But as far as the pressure that Zelenskyy is under on what he's doing, you keep in mind, while you have the Russian leaders are paranoid, and they won't sit next to their closest advisors, Zelenskyy is doing press conferences, and he is in the middle of all of this.
And one thing that has happened out here, particularly in the West, he wasn't that popular and he wasn't that respected. This is a guy who was an actor who fell into this job. And even his political party is named after the political party from the TV series he was in. And a lot of people just thought that he wasn't up to the task. And he has risen to the occasion.
Not only so the people who didn't like him in the western part of the country are now backing him. If you saw some of the scenes of this broadcast address you just did, the Wenceslas Square there in the Czech Republic is just packed with people who are now rallying behind the Zelenskyy. So, it's remarkable the extent to which this guy has risen to the occasion.
PAVLICH: Greg?
GUTFELD: Yes. Like --so, I read and I should have double-checked this, but I had read that Russia passed a new law and posing prison terms for spreading misinformation about the Russian military. And the depressing part about this is that there were no lawmakers or in the --- or in their parliamentary chambers that oppose the bill.
And if -- I'm coming from the point of view that the key here is you have to persuade powerful Russians, not just the population but powerful Russians that Putin is not destroying Ukraine, but destroying Russia, and they have to save it. But when you see lawmakers in these chambers not opposing this bill, that's kind of depressing, no?
TOBIN: Sure, and then now that it goes through, when you start to talk about misinformation in the press, well, the definition of fake news, is as popularly interpreted is anything you don't want to hear. So, if a reporter puts out something that government doesn't like, it's -- you could be looking to prison time, and therefore, you're going to have a controlled media.
And I've been in these countries where the media is controlled, and usually the front page of the newspapers just ridiculous. It's praising whoever is in power at the time. And then, what you get is no mistrust with the people because they know what they're looking at on the front page in the newspaper is just entirely controlled.
PAVLICH: All right, Mike Tobin, thank you so much. Stay safe.
All right, up next, President Biden facing fire from Democrats as he continues to refuse to cut off Russian oil.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PIRRO: President Biden facing even more pressure to cut off Putin's blood money and ban importing Russian oil. The backlash is so intense that even liberals are jumping on board.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): Energy has been weaponized. We have the ability to basically counter that weapon. We really do.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): I think that means it should all be on the table, including banning the import of Russian oil, not just here in the United States, but among all of the nations.
SEN. JON TESTER (D-MT): I don't believe this country should be importing anything from Russia.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where do you stand?
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): I'm all for that. Ban it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ban the oil --
PELOSI: Ban the oil coming from Russia, yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PIRRO: And why the White House keeps rejecting the idea of the ban, they're trying to pass the buck on surging gas prices.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: To be very clear, and I think you all heard the President convey this in his speech the other night, the reason why we are seeing volatility in the global oil markets, the reason why the price of gas is going up is not because of steps the President has taken, they are because President Putin is invading Ukraine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PIRRO: OK, before I get to that question, I'll ask you the question, Martha. It seems that there's bipartisan support to stop buying oil from Russia. But it's the next sentence that everybody seems to disagree on or that where they stop. Like, but then what do we do?
MACCALLUM: Yes, I mean, there's no doubt that it would drive prices higher. It's a strategic question. It's also a commitment that would have to be made to going back to some of our resources that we have in this country.
And you know, I know Jen Psaki the other day said, Keystone Pipeline, like, you know, how long it would take to get that back up and rolling? Well, yes, it would take some time, but you know how long it would take to have, as Elizabeth Warren has just adjusted, wind power and solar that are filling the need? That also would take quite a bit of time.
So, maybe it's time for all of the above approach, which we've talked about for a very long time in this country, and allowing the resources that we have to try to make up that difference. We also could be supplying Europe with LNG gas, and that would also put Russia in a very difficult position.
PIRRO: And Jesse, I mean, the LNG, you know, which is the clean natural gas, I mean, that's something that we could do here with no problem. And yet we can -- we insist on buying Russian gas, which is dirt and gas, and paying for it, and indirectly funding the war. Why are they so resistant, and now they're talking about Iran and getting oil from Iran?
WATTERS: They don't like how it looks with the left. That's really what this is about. They don't like the idea of American oil and gas. They want to get off it. They want to get off fast. And they don't care if prices a little high. They don't care.
I actually looked into how much we import, Judge. It's only 700,000 Russian barrels of oil a day. That's less than four percent of what we consume. It would be like a marginal effect. But it's moral. It's a symbolic move for us to do this. And we can bring in more oil from South America or for our African partners, we'd make up the difference, it wouldn't do anything.
And riddle me this because this is something I don't understand. If global warming is something that warms all the globe, then what's the difference between Saudi oil and American oil? Both warming the globe, right? So we might as well get paid for it. We might have American -- we might as well have American jobs doing the warming, right, Joe? It's the same oil, and it's the same world. So we might as well benefit and keep it in America.
The other thing is, you've been begging the Saudis to keep pumping so hard. Saudis hate Joe Biden because he called him out over the Khashoggi killing.
PIRRO: Oh yes.
WATTERS: They don't give a damn about our president, and they're sticking it to him because they have bad blood between each other. And that's why you got to be a little more diplomatic with the Saudis. You can't just leave and call them all killers. We need oil. We need free-flowing, beautiful oil, because that makes a peaceful world and it makes a very inexpensive world.
PIRRO: Well, you know, as Joe Manchin said, Katie, that -- he basically said energy has been weaponized and it has. And we never thought this was a bad energy. In the end, when you peel back the layer of the onion, it's about energy.
PAVLICH: It's like the Biden administration completely shoved aside this longstanding idea that energy is national security. It's not like energy has just been weaponized all of a sudden. The reason why people have been advocating for American energy independence is because when you're independent, you don't have to worry about getting involved in wars that are thousands of miles away where your only interest is energy. That's why energy independence is so important.
But it's interesting to watch the White House talk about this. They keep saying they don't want to stop the imports of Russian oil because they don't want to hurt the American people. They're using this invasion as an excuse to pass the buck on the responsibility for gas prices which went up last year. They didn't just start going up. And they're going to continue going up as a result, again, of the Vita administration policies of the assaults on domestic drilling and gas inside this country.
And the issue to what Jesse was saying is it's about virtue signaling, because we're not drilling here. They don't want to have oil and gas produced here, but they're still buying it. So, they're willing to buy it from Russia which were, as you said is not clean. They're willing to buy it from Iran. So, it's not like they're not using or buying oil. John Kerry has a lot of private jet travel he has to do to go around the world and advocate against climate change. But they want to be able to say that, well, we are making sure that our emissions are down and that we are doing this when really they're just shoving it to a different country which doesn't have our best interests at heart.
WATTERS: And same globe, remember?
PAVLICH: The same globe.
WATTERS: It's the same globe.
PAVLICH: One globe.
PIRRO: And you know what, it is the same -- it's the same globe, Greg. I mean, the truth is that you know, that dirty oil that's coming out of Russia is affecting global warming.
GUTFELD: I know. I know. Well, the left prefers to fuel a war instead of a country. And the absurd part is we have been instructed by the media and the Democrats for decades that energy is a moral issue. As far as far as a planet goes, coal, fracking, fossil fuels, these are immoral things. These are crimes against the environment. And yet it's OK to buy the dirty oil from a war machine.
So, it shows you that the moral stances of these people who had been telling us for decades how much better they were than us, us evil right- wingers in our pickup trucks and our gas-guzzling SUVs, they're actually the most immoral people because they were phonies, and they were liars.
But there is an amazing -- Russia played us for the longest time. They love that we denigrated our energy prowess. They loved that we bought the idea that nuclear power was bad and that solar was good and that Greta was a hero, because that made us more reliant on Russian oil and now Iran's oil because we're sitting -- we were convinced, probably through the help of Russia, that we -- our fuel industry was bad.
So, now you look at Ukraine, there are fingerprints there of the hard -- of the hard green movement, because the Russia used the green movement to play us and preserve their own power by selling oil.
WATTERS: Yes, they funded all those campaigns, anti-fracking, anti-nuclear. They did it.
GUTFELD: Yes.
MACCALLUM: And they're willing to take away their Google Pay and their Apple Pay, but not -- but don't -- yes, but we still need to buy their oil.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PIRRO: Ahead ---
MACCALLUM: It's absolutely no sense. There's no moral equivalence at all.
PIRRO: Ahead, because it worked out so well the last time, President Biden is sending Kamala Harris back to Europe.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MACCALLUM: President Biden is sending a Kamala Harris back to Europe. The Vice President will be in Poland and Romania next week to show solidarity with Ukraine as it faces an escalating Russian invasion. But Harris is facing criticism for how she's handled this crisis like in this moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine. So, basically, that's wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: OK, they said layman's terms, they did not say, kindergarten terms. I think we have to assume that people are, you know, generally knowledgeable. I understand, Jeanine, that you want to, you know, start at the beginning. But that was really the beginning and it really raised questions about how much -- how much she understands about what's going on.
PIRRO: What makes you think she even understands what's going on?
MACCALLUM: That's my question to you.
PIRRO: Well, OK. I don't believe she does. Because based on everything that she's done, from the time she's gotten into the Oval with Biden, everything is either a laugh, it's a joke, she ends up cackling all the time. And she, she gives word salad answers that make absolutely no sense.
So, I have no idea what she's going to do when she goes over there other than give us a geography lesson as to where she flew. I mean, when asked why she isn't doing -- why she isn't visiting the border, she said she hadn't gone to Europe. So, now she can't use that excuse anymore, because she's been to Europe, if she realizes that Ukraine is in Europe. You know, that assumes something.
MACCALLUM: Yes. I don't know if you guys have that other soundbite but, you know, there was also the moment Jesse when she basically, you know, talked about how work could happen in Europe. And that would be very, very bad if something -- if war were to break out in Europe and not the possible thing that we're facing now.
WATTERS: See, Martha, war is bad and peace is good.
MACCALLUM: Thank you.
WATTERS: All right. Yes, Cliff Notes Kamala is a joke.
MACCALLUM: Did you put that layman's terms --
WATTERS: Yes.
MACCALLUM: Or kindergarten term.
WATTERS: Exactly. Jesse Junior understands this better than she does. But who else are you going to send? You have to send -- Biden is not going. He can't go. He's only going if it's really important. So, he's got to send the Vice President, and they're just going to have a big entourage around her with these deputy national security adviser.
Those are the people they're going to be doing the real talking over there. Their deputy talk to their deputy, and then Kamala tries to get through a press conference, and then she comes back. That's it. It's symbolic.
MACCALLUM: It's scary.
WATTERS: You have to send somebody. Who are you going to send?
PAVLICH: Well, Biden can't go because he's going to Delaware this weekend.
WATTERS: Oh, right, right.
PAVLICH: So, he has his priorities. He's busy with that.
WATTERS: And Katie, Delaware is a small state.
PAVLICH: Next to --
WATTERS: Next to a bigger state.
PAVLICH: Next to actually lots of other small states too. You remember when the Vice President said that she hasn't been to Europe? Well, I think they took that very seriously, so now they're going to send her to Europe. But let's talk about it in her terms.
There's this country called Mexico that is on the border of the United States. And there are millions of people illegally crossing into the United States every single year, 200,000 a month, many of them are violent criminals from all over the world, not just from South America, and that's bad.
And so, I would prefer that she deal with domestic issues that she is completely pushed aside before they send her over to deal with an international conflict that involves nuclear weapons.
MACCALLUM: If she was in charge of root causes at the border, then she was put in charge of voting rights which also did not end up going their way. So now, she's going to go to Poland and Romania to try to straighten out this situation, Greg.
GUTFELD: Yes, it's not -- the problem isn't that we're sending her places, it's that she returns. Can't you just pick a country and stay there and have a great time rather than -- but actually, I'm kidding because she does provide us with a lot of entertainment value. But this is really a true virtue signal in the sense that it has no practical outcomes.
If you actually thought that you could help the Ukrainians, you wouldn't send her, right? And you could also do no fly zone if you thought you could help. But we're not interested in helping them, or we wouldn't send her. I said at the beginning of the show. These are actions of a person who's not serious about winning a war. So, the sad thing about it is we send her as a virtue signal and all the virtue signals do is replace real action.
We can say, oh, look, we went to the -- we sent her to the border. That to them is a replacement for real action and this is the case here. This is a replacement for something that could have been constructive and save lives but it won't.
PIRRO: Can I ask you a question. Did she ever figure out what the root causes were of the immigration problem?
WATTERS: Yes, the root cause is in the White House.
GUTFELD: Climate change.
WATTERS: It's in the Oval Office.
PIRRO: Climate change, that is.
GUTFELD: And then you do the root causes of climate change.
MACCALLUM: COVID also has -- COVID is also a problem.
GUTFELD: Yes.
MACCALLUM: It's pushing people north.
GUTFELD: Yes.
MACCALLUM: All right, we're going to have more breaking news for you out of Ukraine coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WATTERS: President Zelenskyy begging for a no fly zone, but look at what the administration is saying.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The only way to actually implement something like a no fly zone is to send NATO planes into Ukrainian airspace and to shoot down Russian planes. And that could lead to a full-fledged war in Europe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: You can't argue with that, can you Greg?
GUTFELD: Well, yes. You can say the war has already started. And because we had been basically energizing Ukraine for years to mess with -- you know, to mess with that area. I mean, like -- and now we're not back at him?
WATTERS: Well, you don't want a no-fly zone, do you?
GUTFELD: I want a no-fly zone.
WATTERS: You want us to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine?
GUTFELD: I'm watching people die.
WATTERS: Really?
GUTFELD: Yes. And I mean, this is -- it's so pointless to talk about it, because this has no -- it's kind of over.
WATTERS: For Ukrainians?
GUTFELD: Yes. It's kind of over when the United States is basically not doing it. So, it's -- I think -- I think the point is --
WATTERS: Yes, eventually, they will have to move to an insurgency pretty quickly. Katie?
PAVLICH: I don't really understand how Secretary of State Tony Blinken still has a job after the failure in Afghanistan and this abysmal failure of diplomacy headed into this Russian invasion. When the bombs start dropping diplomacy -- you know, things have failed. And they continue to try to say that the doors still open to some kind of talking. But having two massive foreign policy diplomatic failures in the last six months is not a success.
WATTERS: Yes. He makes John Kerry look good. What do you think?
GUTFELD: That's impossible.
MACCALLUM: Well, I think it's clear that determined and diplomacy, which was their mission, completely failed. I think it's a tough argument to say that we're not going to protect them in some way. And I think that we may see this conversation change.
WATTERS: Do you think it might go into a no-fly zone?
MACCALLUM: I think it's possible. I think it's possible. You know, basically, there's one argument that you're protecting -- Ukraine is asking you to protect their airspace, and it would be -- Russia would have to enter that airspace in order to invade it. So, that would be their choice.
PIRRO: Right, exactly.
WATTERS: But you got to get all NATO countries to agree to that, wouldn't you?
PAVLICH: Yes.
PIRRO: Yes. You would have to --
MACCALLUM: Yes, unless you want to do it alone, which we should not do.
PIRRO: Right, we would have to do it as Article Five. But a no-fly zone would guarantee that Russia won't bomb from the skies. And I think we absolutely need that. I think that the attack on the nuclear site which it appears was intentional and they're now surrounding it with ammunition and they could put a lot of Europe in trouble with that. I think, you know, now we can say that they haven't attacked NATO, but I think we're getting close.
WATTERS: All right, you heard it. People here at the table think we're getting close to a no-fly zone. That's pretty big. That's it for us. "SPECIAL REPORT" is up next with Bret Baier.
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