'The Five' react to Trump's Cabinet shakeup

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'The Five' react to Trump's Cabinet shakeup

President Trump fires Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, names CIA Director Mike Pompeo as replacement.

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," March 13, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

JESSE WATTERS, CO-HOST: That was President Trump speaking in Miramar Air Station in San Diego, after viewing wall prototypes and speaking in front of about a few thousand marines talking about reinvesting in the armed forces, and defeating ISIS, and the Iran deal, and also the creation, Greg, of a space force.

GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: I love -- I love the idea of a space force. He didn't say corps men, so that was already win. This is their president, and the fact -- I mean, he ran on this three-legged stool with security. One which was border security, one which was national defense against terror, which are these guys, and then you have law and order, the domestic leg of this. So this is -- this is what he's good at. But there's another part of this and -- something like this space force will sound comical like the way SDI was comical, but it wasn't. SDI was not -- it was a serious Reaganesque idea, it was Reagan idea that people laughed at, but he was talking basically about protection, security. Space force, the reason why it's important is it shows you that Trump is a long-term thinker and he's ready to basically give up being popular in the short run for long-term ideas. So his ideas generally like the wall, those are long- term. That's for the future. The hypersonic systems, the nukes, when he's talking about -- these are -- his long-term ideas for the long-term safety long after he's gone. And it's so funny when the left always talks about, oh, it's for the children. It's for the children. Everything he talked about right there is for the children.

WATTERS: Including the pay raises which got a big round of applause by the marines there. Dana, he'd just come fresh off a visit of wall prototypes, eight of them, and he seemed to like the ones that had invisibility where you could see through.

DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: See through. And he said that before. I think for his first trip to California, these two events -- not the fund- raising his doing tonight, but the trip to the border and then seeing the military, it's probably the best use of his time.

WATTERS: Yeah. He was roundly applauded by the marines there, especially when he said if Hillary was elected they would not be going to Mars, Juan. What do you think about the trip to California?

JUAN WILLIAMS, CO-HOST: Well, I hope he had a good time, beautiful state, great place to visit. But I think he's going to run into some demonstrations tonight when he gets out of his little protective bubble proposing new walls. I don't see Mexico paying for it, Mr. President. Or there where he looks to me like he was trying to buy-in to the goodwill of the American people have for our military. He's trying to identify with them. And then he says, but Obama administration or the previous -- some other administration, we wouldn't have done this. Hillary Clinton, we wouldn't have done that. And by the way, Greg, all he's doing is not visionary. He's just throwing stuff at the wall and hoping it sticks.

GUTFELD: No.

WILLIAMS: He doesn't have any idea.

GUTFELD: He's building the wall, not throwing stuff at the wall.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: This stuff about a space force? He doesn't know what that's about. He has no idea.

WATTERS: Juan is anti-space force.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: You're so short sighted. This is the problem with Democrats. They only have one half of an idea.

WILLIAMS: Yeah.

GUTFELD: They can't think of the future.

WILLIAMS: I think.

GUTFELD: It's all about world peace, but you can figure out.

WILLIAMS: My source, Dana Perino, tells me that the White House has even said.

GUTFELD: That was about the space corp..

PERINO: That is because someone named it wrong and congress proposed it.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: I guess Trump is colluding with the space aliens.

WILLIAMS: That's it.

WATTERS: OK. Kimberly, he was also asked about Governor Jerry Brown who really criticized the president's wall proposal and said he's ruining California. He's doing a terrible job. It's very political already.

KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, CO-HOST: Well, it isn't going well in California, let's be honest.

WATTERS: No.

GUILFOYLE: And it's probably about to get a lot worse. So it's a big problem, and we have to subsidize their failure. So the president is well within his rights to criticize and point out some of the problems that they've been having there in terms of the budget and all of the issues and just to circle back on this group. This is really, you know, President Trump at his best with the military. It is something he's been very strong on, national security and defense. Listen, the crowd, they loved the space force, right?

WATTERS: Yeah.

GUILFOYLE: They love it. I thought it was very good.

PERINO: It is the next front. It is where the next.

GUTFELD: It's where we have to go.

PERINO: . battles are going to be fought.

GUTFELD: Elon Musk -- I mean, everybody is looking to the skies because that's where we have to go.

GUILFOYLE: It's the next SDI, right?

GUTFELD: Yeah.

WATTERS: And I nominate Juan to lead the space force.

GUTFELD: To Mars.

WATTERS: Shoot him up next week. All right. Another shake-up in the White House, Rex Tillerson is out. That's next on The Five.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, CO-HOST: Welcome back. A new big shake-up to the president's cabinet today. Rex Tillerson fired his secretary of state. CIA director Mike Pompeo has been named to replace him. Here's the president on the stunning news earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Rex and I have been talking about this for a long time. We got along, actually, quite well, but we disagreed on things. When you look at the Iran deal, I think it's terrible. I guess he felt it was OK. I wanted to either break it or do something. And he felt a little bit differently.

So we were not really thinking the same. With Mike -- Mike Pompeo, we have a similar thought process. I think it's going to go very well. Rex is a very good man. I like Rex a lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUILFOYLE: This afternoon Tillerson also appeared before microphones.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REX TILLERSON, OUTGOING SECRETARY OF STATE: I want to give recognition to the State Department and our partners for a few of their accomplishments under this administration.

All of us, we know, want to leave this place as a better place for the next generation. I will now return to private life as a private citizen. As a proud American, proud of the opportunity I've had to serve my country.

God bless all of you. God bless the American people. God bless America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUILFOYLE: All right. So Dana, what did you make of that in terms of he wanted to do the statement. It was good that he was allowed to do that, obviously.

DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: Yes, I think so. So the timeline is always interesting, a story for Washington, D.C. He got a call, apparently, while he was overseas from General John Kelly, from the White House chief of staff, saying, "Hey, this is coming." And then Tillerson cut his trip to Africa short, comes back. He landed at 4 a.m. He found out he was fired for sure in a tweet at 9 a.m., speaks to the president at noon.

And then when he comes to the podium, it was almost like he was reluctant. He was somebody who did not want to be in Washington. He took great pleasure in reminding everybody he was not from Washington. He didn't want to be part of it. He didn't like the whole aspect of it. And then as he's speaking, you start to realize, you know what? Maybe he was really sort of starting to really respect the work the career foreign officials were doing. He's talked a lot about them.

But he had one fatal flaw. And that is that he had lost the confidence of the president. And around the country and the world, excuse me, once you see that there might be daylight between a secretary of state and a president, that's it. You have to go.

And so there will be a smooth transition now as Mike Pompeo from the CIA comes over to the State Department. He and the president will have to show, and I think they well, a united front from the get-go.

GUILFOYLE: Jesse, you know, Mike Pompeo had been rumored to be up for the job and wanted the job way back, actually. So there was some discussion about this. It really didn't come kind of as a surprise to some people have been following it, insiders in terms of the choice.

The president has always expressed a confidence and, you know,very similar viewpoint as Pompeo, someone he could relate to very well and trusted.

JESSE WATTERS, CO-HOST: They have always gelled during these briefings that they have on intelligence matters. The Democrats should be very happy. He's extremely hawkish about Russia --

GUILFOYLE: Yes.

WATTERS: -- much more so than Rex Tillerson.

And I agree with Dana. There was more than just a little daylight. There was a lot of daylight between Tillerson and President Trump when it came to the Paris climate deal, the Iran sanctions, moving the embassy to Jerusalem and Israel. And they undercut each other publicly with the Charlottesville situation and again on the North Korea negotiations.

We all remember the moron comment, which was a two- to three-day story, which was hard to get over.

But I mean, he's a great patriot and a great man and a great businessman and a great leader. But they're going to have great leadership at State.

And I love this woman. I believe her name is Gina Haspel, who's now going to lead the CIA. And, you know, people are saying that she was in charges of these black sites where there was torture that was happening. She was just following orders. She didn't design the interrogation program. She was doing what she was told to do. And she's going to be terrific. And it's a real historic moment for a woman to lead the agency.

GUILFOYLE: Greg.

GUTFELD: I think she should be proud of what she did.

GUILFOYLE: Yes.

GUTFELD: She has to make decisions that a lot of her critics don't have to make. She answered the call. And that call forces you to make decisions that could put you in jail.

So the thing is, if you are faced with a potential terror attack that could kill thousands, and they say, but if you do this, you go to jail. If you follow that order, you're wrong. If you follow the order that puts you in jail, that makes you a hero.

PERINO: And they save lives.

GUTFELD: And they save lives. So I think that she's a hero.

And if she was a TV character, she would be a hero. A woman running a black site. That's a -- that's a great character. But in real life, I'm sure the left will paint her as a killer and a heinous person.

PERINO: Already are.

GUTFELD: As for Tillerson, do not go on "Celebrity Big Brother." Hold out -- hold out for "Dancing with the Stars." Update your LinkedIn profile picture.

I do -- I have to say this. When he was hired, we loved Rex Tillerson.

WATTERS: Absolutely.

GUTFELD: He was, like, an adult. He was the businessman who was going to come in and play it straight. So I think that -- I guess for me. I'm a little bit sad the way it's handled. And I know that it's not true that he was fired on Twitter. We know that that's not true. He was -- but I still think that -- you know, I don't know. He could have -- I mean, we know, if you were hired by Trump, don't bring a lot of knickknacks and photos and framed diplomas into your office. Because you're not going to be there very long. But for some reason, I do feel that Rex Tillerson should have been handled better, because he's obviously a very good man.

GUILFOYLE: And yes. And Condoleezza Rice supported him. as well.

Juan.

JUAN WILLIAMS, CO-HOST: I thought Senator Menendez got this right today when he said this is more evidence of Commander Chaos, speaking of President Trump.

So I'm watching there Tillerson, and I'm waiting for Tillerson to say something wonderful about having served with honor President Trump. He never mentions Trump. Not once. He says we're all honored to be people who are here, have taken an oath to serve the Constitution. Not a word about Trump. Not a word about his experience with Trump.

GUILFOYLE: He got fired.

WILLIAMS: I think it's worse than fired. The way he was fired, just so disrespectful. Again, evidence of Captain Chaos.

How many people have left this administration within the last few days? I mean, it's hard to remember that Gary Cohn was just last week.

And then you have a situation where, you know, you look at what's going on at State, the morale, terrible. He was breaking down the morale at State, not filling positions, out of touch with the White House. I think he'll go down as one of the worst secretary of states if not the worst, in American history.

GUILFOYLE: Wow. That seems a little excessive.

WATTERS: Worse than Hillary?

GUTFELD: Not even close.

GUILFOYLE: Benghazi?

The GOP trying to stave off a Democratic upset in a special election being watched around the nation, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PERINO: Welcome back. We are closely following the special election today in Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District. Polls close in under three hours. Democrat Conor Lamb hoping to flip the seat left vacant by Republican Tim Murphy, who resigned in October.

It's a district President Trump won handily by 20 points in 2016. He was in the state stumping for Republican Rick Saccone this weekend. Lamb was polling just ahead of Saccone going into today's election.

And let's bring in our chief political anchor, Bret Baier, anchor of "Special Report," as well. Hey, Bret.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS: Hey, Dana.

PERINO: No matter what happens tonight, I don't think that either party is going to be able to say this is the harbinger of what's to come in November, especially because the district that they're running in, not only is it a special, lost after a Republican had a sex scandal, which never is good for the Republicans. But because this district is not going to exist in November. They have a redistricting in Pennsylvania.

BAIER: That's right. Unless the Supreme Court steps in and changes that, this district evaporates. So this -- this seat will eventually not exist.

However, it is being seen as a moment to test whether, one, President Trump has the juice to bring a candidate who is a little underwhelming, according to most Republicans, whether he can get him across the finish line. And two, whether Democrats really use this as a momentum builder.

You're right to say that, you know, it's early. And it doesn't predict, you know, what is going to happen months from now. But there are millions and millions of dollars being spent by Democrats and Republicans to win this election. And it could be a barn burner tonight. Polls close at 8.

PERINO: Indeed. We have one more question from Juan.

WILLIAMS: Hi, Bret. So it's interesting to me the advertising --

BAIER: Yes.

WILLIAMS: -- in this Pennsylvania 18th. Because going in, Republicans thought "We're going to advertise with tax cuts. And that's really going to push Rick Saccone." In fact, they have moved away from that argument now and gone back to the standards of attacking Nancy Pelosi and the like.

What is the deal here? What moves the needle for these voters going into tonight?

BAIER: Listen, there's a number of factors here. This is a heavy union district. It's 20, 25 percent. The tariff issue could play heavy. So President Trump being there and pushing that could mean a lot.

But, you know, Conor Lamb, Juan, has campaigned pretty much like a Republican, although with union support. And it is interesting to see. It wasn't like that Georgia race, remember, when they brought in all the heavy hitters from Hollywood and all the stars, and it didn't work. He is campaigning more traditionally in this district and would be somebody who Democrats would have to point to as being not close to Nancy Pelosi but somebody who could win in one of these districts that leans red. Twenty points red.

PERINO: Indeed. Well, we'll see what happens tonight. You're going to be, Bret, on "Special Report" in about 16 minutes, and of course, we'll be happy to toss it to you then.

GUTFELD: Bye, Bret.

PERINO: Bye, Bret.

GUILFOYLE: All right.

PERINO: All right. Hillary Clinton tearing into Trump voters again. Guess what? That's next on "The Five."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUTFELD: So imagine an inner circle in hell where you are doomed to defend the biggest screw-up of your life. That's where you'll find Hillary:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FORMER DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE HILLARY CLINTON: I won the places that represent two-thirds of America's gross domestic product. So I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward. And his whole campaign, "Make America Great Again," was looking backwards. You know, you didn't like black people getting rights; you don't like women, you know, getting jobs; you don't want to, you know, see that Indian-American succeeding more than you are -- whatever your problem is, I'm going to solve it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: Beautiful.

So there she is again, pointing out the places where she won. Imagine a quarterback who just lost the Super Bowl pointing out that he threw no interceptions. That doesn't matter. That's not how we keep score. You also threw no touchdowns. That's Hillary.

But also, not in this clip, she blamed white women who voted for Trump on a fear of disobeying their husbands or brothers or sons. How profoundly sexist is that? Women are too weak to make up their own minds? I guess she'd know, given her own weak subservience to her deceitful husband.

But that's not the worst part. That's when she worked in that Indian-American aside, because you know, she's in India talking to Indian people. That's how her mind works. "Oh, look, Indians. I'll say Trump voters hate Indians, too." And so she pandered using her default mechanism: divisive identity politics. She still lives in a world where you don't see actual people, just the group they belong to.

And so she looked at the audience and only saw "them." I wonder what they saw looking back. A sore loser? That could be why she lost. She's so bitter, you could make an old-fashioned out of her tears.

All right, Juan. Don't you just want her to go away? It's not a good look for your party.

WILLIAMS: I think she's doing great. She sounded like she was telling the truth and what is obvious to everyone.

GUTFELD: In India, telling her that half of America sucks? That's wonderful.

WILLIAMS: No.

GUTFELD: Oh, no, they're racist, sorry.

WILLIAMS: I think what she's saying was that guess what? Immigration and immigrants, huge issue that benefited Donald Trump in the last election.

GUTFELD: And -- and that women who voted for Trump are just, like, weak and --

WILLIAMS: No, what she said was that, once the Comey thing came out ten days before, that all the pressure coming from Republican white men, the biggest Trump supporters of all, on their wives and girlfriends.

GUTFELD: Yes, we are evil.

WILLIAMS: All of them said, "Oh, well, look, you know, you can't vote for her. She's going to end up in jail. Look at her. She's corrupt."

I don't think there's anything wrong here. I think, though, for you, Greg Gutfeld, and the minute mister sycophant of the Trump world, I will say this --

GUILFOYLE: Sycophant. Not "psycho."

WILLIAMS: I say it just the way I wanted.

GUTFELD: Pants.

WILLIAMS: Believe me. "Psycho-pant."

GUTFELD: I do own a pair of psycho pants.

WILLIAMS: Spongebob and Greg. But -- but I would say that, you know, you need her. You want her. You don't want her to go away.

GUTFELD: I want her to go away.

WILLIAMS: No, you don't.

GUTFELD: She just provides me --

WILLIAMS: You want to say that you want her to go, but you love her. Imagine you without Nancy Pelosi. How about you without Nancy -- Warren.

GUTFELD: I love this argument. It is so weak.

WILLIAMS: How about you without Elizabeth Warren?

GUTFELD: So weak.

WILLIAMS: Oh, yes.

GUTFELD: They are -- they are in this universe. It's not like I'm asking them to visit us. This is all over the news. You can say I want it, but it does fill a segment. But I don't want it.

WILLIAMS: I think you want her back.

GUTFELD: I would like her to retire into the woods.

WILLIAMS: Because you'd be out of a job without her.

GUTFELD: I think -- I think you might be.

Jesse.

WATTERS: Yes, I mean, Hillary doesn't like people, bottom line.

GUTFELD: That's what it is.

WATTERS: Doesn't like half the country. We know she called half of them deplorable. But she lost because she was a deplorable candidate.

She doesn't like women too much. She doesn't think much of women. To assume that women just will vote for someone because of their gender is to really not understand women. Women vote for whoever candidate they think is going to be the best president of the United States.

And how do you know, Juan or Hillary or whatever, what was going on in the living room after the Comey announcement. You know for a fact that husbands were telling their wives, "Don't vote for Hillary?" See? See, Comey? See what you did? You're not in every living room unless you're the NSA, Juan. You have no idea what's going on in the private rooms of people's houses.

WILLIAMS: You should do some studying and check the polls. You would be, like, wow.

WATTERS: I don't know. I checked the one on November 8, Juan.

GUTFELD: Kimberly.

GUILFOYLE: Listen, I think it's kind of like with you and President Trump. You enjoy him so much.

WILLIAMS: Oh, yes.

GUILFOYLE: You don't want him to go away either.

WILLIAMS: Really? I might regain my sanity.

GUILFOYLE: Yes, well, I just wish that Hillary Clinton was a little bit more positive and that she embraced everybody in this country and wasn't constantly demonizing and also blaming everyone else for the loss of the election besides yourself.

So those are, like, some familiar themes. And I think people get tired of hearing this kind of, like, bitter tone.

GUTFELD: But Dana, you know what happened before. She got up and looked around at the audience. "Oh, Indian people. Let me work this into the speech."

PERINO: Yes, and she knows how to do it well. And I think that it does prevent Democrats from accusing Republicans of only focusing on Hillary. If she is out there making comments like this. She can have a post- political career and give big speeches that were maybe inspirational. Like, "Yes, well, I lost but you know what? I tried."

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: There are ways to do that. There are stories out there about her wanting to play a role in 2018. I have a feeling her dance card is going to be kind of empty.

GUTFELD: Yes, yes.

WATTERS: Speaking of dancing, are we going to show her tiptoeing down the stairs? You're not going to show the video?

GUTFELD: I don't think so.

WATTERS: Maybe that will be my "One More Thing."

GUTFELD: There you go. Back in a moment.

PERINO: Tease.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WATTERS: Not enough time for "One More Thing." So let's go to your final thoughts, Dana.

PERINO: OK, well, my "One More Thing" was about Canine Veterans Day. This a day to honor the dogs who serve alongside our military personnel. They deserve a lot of support. They do so much great work for us. So we should all honor them.

WATTERS: All right. Greg.

GUTFELD: I haven't figured out what I'm going to eat after the show. Now, I'm on Atkins, which means it's very low-carb.

GUILFOYLE: Salt and pepper pork chops.

GUTFELD: I can't, because it's deep-fried. So you can tweet at me, "Greg, you should eat this." Give me a suggestion, something that's interesting but low-carb. High protein.

GUILFOYLE: Beef jerky.

GUTFELD: That's not a dinner. It goes right through me.

GUILFOYLE: Eat enough of it.

PERINO: Oh, wow.

WATTERS: More than we need to know.

GUTFELD: Are you sure?

GUILFOYLE: I'm pulling back on that one. I don't think that's a good idea.

I had a really nice "Kimberly's," you know, "Royal News," but I guess there's no time.

All right. My final thoughts, I thought the speech today with the president was fantastic, and I loved seeing all the military and the Marines there that serve our country. I thought that was really special.

WATTERS: All right. Juan.

WILLIAMS: So big election tonight, and the question is what happens in Pennsylvania, in a district that Trump won easily? But now it's going to be very close. So what comes next is so interesting to me, because you've got to think, those Democrats, do they have a message? What's their message going into the midterms? Well, at the moment it looks like the Republican message is what's not sure. We're not sure about the tax cut or anything else.

WATTERS: Juan, the Democrat message seems to be "try to be a Republican," because that's what Lamb the Sham is doing.

Let's do a quick who's going to win tonight? Saccone or Lamb the Sham?

GUTFELD: I think Lamb might. But what happens in Pennsylvania stays in Pennsylvania.

WATTERS: Dana, what do you think?

PERINO: I'm going to plus one for either one of them.

WATTERS: Way to put yourself on the line there.

PERINO: I don't know.

WATTERS: Juan thinks Lamb?

GUTFELD: Betting on red and black.

WILLIAMS: I don't know if I think Lamb, but I do think that this shouldn't be a great, tight contest and it is.

WATTERS: Kimberly.

GUILFOYLE: I would concur it shouldn't be, but Saccone.

PERINO: I have something else I could say.

WATTERS: All right. I'm going with Saccone, too.

PERINO: You vote Saccone? I had -- Representative Stivers, who runs the National Republican Congressional Committee will be on "The Daily Briefing" tomorrow.

WATTERS: Nice plug, Dana.

GUTFELD: She had two "Final Thoughts"!

WATTERS: Set your DVRs.

PERINO: I never do that.

WATTERS: Never miss an episode of "The Five." "Special Report" up next -- Bret.

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