'The Five' share their lessons from the midterm elections

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'The Five' share their lessons from the midterm elections

Democrats retake House of Representatives, while Republicans expand Senate lead; reaction and analysis from 'The Five.'

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," November 7, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

JESSE WATTERS, CO-HOST: Hello, I'm Jesse Watters along with Martha MacCallum, Juan Williams, Dana Perino, and Greg Gutfeld. It's 5 o'clock in New York City, and this is "The Five."

Fox News alert, a lot of breaking news to tell you about, Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigning at President Trump's request. The president already naming Sessions' chief of staff Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general. Sources telling Fox News that Whitaker is now charge of everything at the DOJ, including the Russia investigation. This resignation follows President Trump's news conference today where he was repeatedly asked about Sessions and the Mueller investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you give us clarity, sir, on your thinking currently now after the midterm about your attorney general and your deputy attorney general, do they have long term job security?

PRESIDEN DONALD TRUMP: I'd rather answer that at a little bit, different time. We're looking at a lot of different things, including Kavanaugh. I'm very happy with most of my cabinet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you consider removing Mr. Mueller from his position?

TRUMP: I could have ended it anytime I wanted. I didn't. And there was no collusion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: We'll have our reaction to this breaking news and to the president's epic clash with the media later in the show. But first to our top story, the historic midterm elections. Democrats retaking the house but Republicans making key gains in the senate. President Trump calling the outcome a major success.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Carlos Curbelo, Mike Coffman. Too bad, Mike. Mia Love gave me no love and she lost. Too bad. Sorry about that, Mia. And Barbara Comstock was another one. I mean, I think she could have won that race but she didn't go and have any embrace. Those are some of the people that, you know, decided for their own reason not to embrace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: All right. The president also slamming Republicans, which you just saw, who lost for not backing his agenda fully.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I thought it was a very close to complete victory. I won Georgia. President Obama campaign very hard in Georgia. Oprah Winfrey campaigned very, very hard all over the television. I said this is going to be tough. I only had me. And then we went to Florida and they had celebrities all over the place. And a man who happens to be a very smart person was running. Ron DeSantis. And people didn't give him a chance, and I went and we had -- we did some great work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: You like how I set those sound bites up, did you?

GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: That was excellent.

DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: Kept everyone on their toes.

WATTERS: That's right. Just to make sure they're watching. I do want to make sure everybody knows I basically nailed my prediction the night before. I said the house -- the Democrats were going to pick up 20 to 28 seats. Right now they're at 26. I said in the senate they're going to gain four. They've gained three. So, I'm basically a genius. Going to you though, Greg.

GUTFELD: Yes.

WATTERS: A lot of big wins for Republicans in the senate and key governor races, but they did lose the house.

GUTFELD: I don't think you could get a better outcome than this for President Trump.

WATTERS: Success.

GUTFELD: I want to say I'm kidding. But today it's about teaching liberals a lesson about losing. Nobody this morning was out setting fire to a car because they lost the house. Nobody was hitting someone in a resistant shirt in the face because they lost the house. I went to the gym. That's what conservatives do. They just get on with their lives.

WATTERS: You look buff tonight.

GUTFELD: Thank you very much. And I'm really, actually -- and I'm really happy for the Democrats. And I think because -- I think it's important to share power. And I don't think -- they may not feel that way, but I think it is good for them to have a voice in government, and granted it's the house. I mean, who cares. But I think it's good news. And also the people that won aren't crazy progressives. In the suburbs, a lot of them are veterans. And the one that loss, a lot of them like Beto and a few other people were progressive. So that's good. So the good news is the Dems get the house so the kids get to play with the toys. The Republicans get the senate so the adults handle the heavy machinery. And it creates a whole new story line for us, for us in the media. It's like your favorite sitcom getting a new neighbor, right? So now you have a whole new thing, the nemesis. It's like the Six Million Dollar Man when they brought in the bionic woman. It's great. We have so much more information. Martha, you're staring at me like I'm crazy.

(LAUGHTER)

JUAN WILLIAMS, CO-HOST: Wait a minute.

(CROSSTALK)

MARTHA MACCALLUM, GUEST CO-HOST: I didn't realize I was just sort of watching.

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: Martha, you basically took us down to the wire last night, very late. You saw it right out of the gate until the very end and you don't seem tired at all. But what's your take away from last night?

MACCALLUM: You know, I think what we ended up with was a map that looks like America. America is very divided. You now have a house that is dominated by the Democrats, and that's going to change things dramatically. They're already sort of chomping at the bit to get their hands on a number of these committee leaderships which is going to, I think -- one of the things I think that's very interesting this morning is that, you know, the day after the election, it was sort of that feeling, and I'm talking about the presidential election, that, you know, you sort of have the feeling -- oh, wow, you know, this is an incredible outcome.

President Trump won so I guess this is the new reality and everyone is just going to sort of -- maybe accept this and the country moves on and you see where it goes next. But, no, it was like, bam, right out of the gate. And I felt that way this morning as well, watching the president's news conference this afternoon. You know, you sort felt like after last night, OK, so maybe things settle in a little bit. You've got, you know, divided government which is a very American reality situation. And right out of the gate, we have an incredibly contentious, and I know were going to talk about this a little bit more later, but incredibly contentious news conference and a very clear new reality in America.

WATTERS: Well, looking at Juan's face, he doesn't seem as happy as I thought he would be considering -- I mean, it was not the blue wave that a lot of people predicted, Juan, and there were some, you know, worrying signs for the Trump campaign about, you know, going forward in 2020. But you don't seem that excited about retaking the house.

WILLIAMS: Well, you know, to me, I love the idea, as Martha was suggesting, there's a check that the congress, the house, is now a check on the president.

WATTERS: Right.

WILLIAMS: I think that's what the founding fathers intended with our form of government. I embrace that. I think it's terrific. But with regard to the blue wave, I feel more like I got purple rain.

(LAUGHTER)

MACCALLUM: It's a very good song.

WILLIAMS: Yes, thank you, Martha. Yeah, I mean, because I was so disappointed by what happened with the governor and the Democratic governor, would have been the first black governor of Florida -- or Stacey Abrams who is still in a contest in Florida. I think lots of Democrats were heavily emotionally as well as financially invested in Beto O'Rourke in Texas that came close. So, to me, it was terrific in terms of looking at the house races. And as I say, the big news is the Democrats now control the house. So when Greg says that's really good news, I was so pleased to hear my friends say that. But I think that it's big news in part because it's change the political landscape. That where you had one party rule in our country for the last two years, you now have Democrats in position not only to act as a check but to participate in terms of the legislative process, ideas and policies, in ways that we have grown accustomed to.

But I just come back to the idea that when we have such a divided country, it's dangerous. I think there are a lot of feelings -- and I'm just disappointed and, you know, I would have liked a stronger sort of signal to President Trump that people don't like the divisive rhetoric and the anger and the kind of things he does. And you look at it and the results are that women, especially white women in the suburbs, went for the Democrats. The independents went for the Democrats. In rural America, President Trump had a very successful political strategy--

WATTERS: Right.

WILLIAMS: -- which is I don't care about the suburbs. I only care about my base and I'm going out, I'll talk to the biggest red base and give them culture wars and migrant invasions and they bought it. That's a shock to me.

WATTERS: Well, I mean, the president, Dana, does have a lot of work to do in the rust belt, in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan. There are some warning signs there. And in the suburbs. And, obviously, health care played a major role in the Democrats' victory. How do you see it?

PERINO: I think all of that is true. I was really interested in the deepening divide, not just partisan wise, but geographically. So rural America versus urban America. And if you look at the big map, right, there's red all the way across in all the rural areas. Republicans are so strong there. But in the cities, these big major population centers including in Texas, you have Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, and those are growing cities that Republicans are going to have to keep -- I'm thinking 20 years down the road, you've got to think about that. Republicans usually had won the suburbs for a couple of decades. And to see that ground to Democrats is--

WATTERS: What do you think that signals, policy wise or is it more about the president's style?

PERINO: Well, I don't know yet. I think that we'll have to see how things shake out. Certainly, health care is a thing. But in our voter analysis it shows 50 percent of people want to go sort of the progressive way, and 50 percent of the people like the conservative way. So, how do you get those minds to come together? But everyone thinks--

GUTFELD: You don't. You know what? May be divided government reduces the divisiveness in a country because -- my libertarian streak likes the fact that it's just -- it's self-canceling. So -- and that's good as opposed to--

MACCALLUM: One of the problems -- I'm sorry. One of the problems about divided government in this environment is that it doesn't work. You know, what we see is we've got gridlock, right? So the ideal situations where you've got Republicans and Democrats but they find things that they agree on and move forward on.

GUTFELD: I don't want them to move forward, that's the thing. As a libertarian, I want it to be stuck in the mud.

WATTERS: You're pro-gridlock.

GUTFELD: I'm pro-gridlock.

WILLIAMS: But I just think -- unbelievable -- like men still voted strongly for Trump and Republicans--

GUTFELD: I can't believe women vote for Democrats.

WILLIAMS: Women voted by 20 points for the Democrats. The marriage isn't working, Greg. They're at each other.

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: May be the man can't tell the women that they're married to.

GUTFELD: Yes.

WATTERS: Maybe she got that wrong. Juan is going to listen to Purple Rain in the break. But when we come back, breaking news out of Washington, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has resigned. "The Five's" reaction next.

Plus, President Trump's epic clash with the media early today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: That's enough. That's enough. That's enough. That's enough.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pardon me, ma'am--

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: That's all coming up on The Five.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: So we'll following a breaking news out of Washington today. Just moments ago Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigning at the request of President Trump. Rocky relationship this has been and it's really been documented in the media since Sessions recused himself from the Mueller investigation. The president announcing that Matthew Whitaker who currently served as chief of staff to Sessions will become the acting attorney general. In a tweet earlier, President tweet -- President Trump - - you could call him president tweet.

(LAUGHTER)

GUTFELD: I like that.

MACCALLUM: We thank Attorney General Jeff Sessions for his service and we wish him well, exclamation point. A permanent replacement will be nominated at a later date. So, Dana, I heard you earlier today saying that it sort of reminded you of your days at the Bush White House and the falling of the Rumsfeld tree.

PERINO: Yes. So leading into the midterms in 2006, people go back in time, the Iraq war in 2006, we suffered many casualties, many more Iraqi casualties. The American public was getting frustrated. The war was considered not to be going in a good direction. It was right after that that the surge was created. But what happened was everyone was mad at Secretary Rumsfeld, not necessarily President Bush, but he knew that the frustration was really pent-up, especially on Capitol Hill. So you lose. You should make a change, right? You should do something to show that you got it, you heard it, and you're moving on to try to fix something.

So it was like the next -- I believe it was the very next day after the midterm, President Bush did let Rumsfeld go, said goodbye to him. And as Secretary Gates came onboard it was interesting just thinking back on that, so many people in the senate and legislators were so upset and said if you had fired Rumsfeld before the midterm, then we wouldn't have lost all these seats. I don't know if that's necessarily true. I think it was maybe, sort of, baked in the cake. But, yes, this feels like that. The president, from a communications standpoint, I think very smart not to reveal that he was going to fire Jeff Sessions after the press conference that he did for 87 minutes. But he gave a couple of tales. One of the things I think to watch for is throughout the press conference the president said over and over again the Mueller investigation is costing the American people too much money. It's too expensive. It's too expensive. Matt Whitaker is on record saying that it is within the power of the attorney general's office to whittle down the budget of the special counsel. And so, I don't know if that's what's going to happen, but that's a tell to me.

MACCALLUM: There's been some speculation that he might suggest defunding the investigation over all. He has also indicated that he felt that the investigation has run amok of its purview in terms of investigating the actual Russia attempts to potentially hurt the -- affect the election. And it is, you know, sort of bled into family finances for the Trumps and all of that. Question, Jesse, in terms of Rod Rosenstein because a lot of people -- you know, he's the deputy attorney general. He was not moved up. Matt Whitaker was pulled in which is an odd succession for Sessions.

WATTERS: Right. So they've sidelined Rod and put Whitaker at the top. So when the Mueller report comes in, it goes to Whitaker. It doesn't go to Rod. And, you know, whoever gets this report they can disclose whatever they want. They can keep it close to the vest. They could disclose everything. It's really up to Whitaker to do what he sees fit with this report from Robert Mueller. I was talking to your cohort, Stirewalt, and he was briefing me on the politics of this. And you know what? He's a lot smarter than you give him credit for.

(LAUGHTER)

WATTERS: I think I might actually do a podcast with him and steal him away because this is what he said. He said this is all about leverage with the negotiations about the interview that presidents supposed to give to Mueller. Right now they've been jockeying for position. Is it going to be oral? Is it going to be written? And they put it off until after the midterms. And right down now you're basically at the finish line. And is the president going to sit down and answer questions or it's all going to be written? And what this does by appointing Whitaker to oversee this thing, it gives leverage to the president. It signals to Robert Mueller that I'm in charge. I have more control than you do. And let's wrap this thing up based off on what Whitaker has said in writing. And in the past people call him a political operative. I understand why. But this is, right now, I think the next two months is -- you know, were going to see the end of this Mueller investigation.

MACCALLUM: You know, one of the things that surprised me was how surprised everyone was because there's been talk about this for months and months and months. And even suggestion that it was going to happen after the midterms. And suddenly there's all these shock and outrage, Greg. You know, everybody can't believe that the president did something that he'd been talking about and has the right to do for some time.

GUTFELD: This is not a big story. It is not a big story. It's the yawn of the day, Dana. He made it two years. In Trump years, that's actually eight years. And so -- and the real casualty here is Jim Acosta because he had that 50 seconds of heroic outrage fame and it's kind of been quickly forgotten, although we'll bring it back in the next block. But the winner here pot smokers. Right now, I mean, you're watching marijuana stocks go up since this decision because we all kind of implicitly knew that Sessions was going to be a barrier to decriminalization and whatnot. So I think this is going to make that much easier. The love that the letter, the firing letter was probably dated and signed ages ago, right? I mean, it wasn't dated. It was signed ages ago and written. I think Trump does this with his marriages too. I'm not sure. But they're like pre-nups. He has them ready. Pulls them out, there you go.

MACCALLUM: Today's the day. Juan, you know, some folks look at this and say President Trump, you know, he and Jeff Sessions had a great relationship early on. He was one of the first people to come on board, the Trump campaign. But it soured quickly when he recused himself from the Russia administration. And some people feel like, you know, President Obama had Eric Holder. They were symbiotic. They were on the same page in a lot of ways. And that a president deserves to have someone who he doesn't feel as an adversary in a difficult environment for him leading the justice department.

WILLIAMS: I don't think Jeff Sessions was ever an adversary to Donald Trump. I think the question was whether or not he should have recused himself and the president said the opinion that he should not have recused himself. And what you heard from Jeff Sessions is that he felt he had no choice because he not only had been in the campaign, remember he was being question, Martha, about contacts with Russian officials. So what strikes me here is that Whitaker is almost like mark. Whitaker has written articles saying he would have indicted Hillary Clinton, and that he does not think that the finances, the president's finances should be investigated by Robert Mueller.

WATTERS: Sounds like a smart guy.

WILLIAMS: No.

MACCALLUM: Sounds like the kind of attorney general President Trump would want.

WATTERS: Exactly.

WILLIAMS: No. But that's the thing, Dana. I think it's now highly politicized. In fact, the president tweeted today that most Americans, and it's overwhelming Republicans, don't think that this investigation should continue. That it should stop.

MACCALLUM: But that's true. I mean, there's a CNN poll, basically, that says that most people think that there are--

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: But the point I was making to you is that the poll is based on a disproportionate number of Republicans, Trump supporters saying this, not independents, not Democrats. And I think the president has now made the case that this is all politics. This has nothing to do with any real investigation. They're just going after me. And you, my supporters, ignore it.

WATTERS: Well, at least the pot smokers can be happy.

GUTFELD: Yeah, let's get out of this segment. I'm falling asleep.

MACCALLUM: All right. It's game on, President Trump ready to brawl as Democrats are already threatening several investigations, coming up next on The Five.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PERINO: Now that the Democrats have taken the house, they're already threatening to launch investigations against President Trump and his administration. The president says he welcomes the challenge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Almost from the time I announced I was going to run, they've been giving us this investigation fatigue. It's been a long time. They've got nothing, zero. Just take a look at us, then we can look at them, and it'll go back and forth. And it will probably be very good for me, politically. I could see it being extremely good, but I think I'm better at that game than they are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: So, Jesse, in 2006 when the Republicans lost the majority, we immediately had all these investigations. One of them was the stupid U.S. attorney scandal. And I tried to answer every question appropriately. And I wish I would have had a little bit more of that like -- bring it on. We don't care.

WATTERS: You need a little more Trump, bring it on, in your life.

PERINO: Yeah, I needed that.

WATTERS: Yeah. That's definitely you, Dana. Listen, Pelosi can launch investigations all day. McConnell can just sit around and confirm judges. If they want to play that game, they can play that game, and Trump said it. He goes, we could either negotiate, and if not we'll go on a war footing because it means war. And Pelosi was a mess last night when she, you know, was celebrating. She didn't look good. She was reading off a teleprompter. At one point she goes, let's give a hand to everybody with pre-existing conditions. I mean, like, what was that? I mean, she sounded like -- she's not ready to have won the house but she gained her composure today and I thought she said some good things about unity. And I think there's potential to do deals on health care and infrastructure.

PERINO: You can segue to a call for like no one I've ever seen. Can we play the Pelosi bipartisanship sought, please?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is going to be a big problem for President Trump going forward. If he thinks that the media is annoying, wait until he meets a Democratic house that has subpoena power and actually has the legal ability to force them to turn over documents. We're going to look like nothing compared to that. I mean, he is going to find an opposition that he has never really encountered before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: Well, Dana, Pelosi got a lot of work done.

(LAUGHTER)

PERINO: How about I just read to you what Pelosi said? She said conversation with the president, Martha, about how we can work together over the years. We've been able to work together regionally, bipartisan across the aisle, across the capitol, and down Pennsylvania Avenue. I hope that we can do that. Is this going to last beyond this week?

MACCALLUM: Well, they've both sort of threaten each other with the same thing. You know, she said the other day, well, we do have subpoena power. And when we need to use it, we'll use it judiciously, but we certainly will use it. And if we don't need to use it, then, of course, we're open to negotiations. And the president says the same thing. I'm happy to deal with you to talk about infrastructure. He said Nancy and I could get along well he believes. And you know what? It's possible that they could. But he said if you hold this kind of acts over my head with more investigations, it's not going to be on the table. So I think they're both sort of in their corner and it's a question about who the bigger person is who can actually come forward and say let's try to work on something. And I think it's all about 2020 as well, in terms of figuring out, you know, do you want to host something that you can say this is what we accomplished and we're able to cross the aisle"? I don't know. I mean, I don't like it looks very optimistic at this point. But we'll see.

PERINO: Jerry Nadler, who is likely to be the Democrat that takes over the Judiciary Committee, he was all up in arms with the yawn (ph) of the day, the Sessions story, and he said, "We're going to have to maybe investigate."

GUTFELD: Yes, of course. And I was watching another network, and they were laying out all the investigations. They were so excited. They even mentioned Puerto Rico, to investigate what happened down there. So they're, like, lining them all up.

Look, there's one thing I've learned about Donald Trump over two years, reciprocity. It's like, if you do right by him, he will do right by you.

And for example, I mean, he's a salesman. So he's always willing to -- like he talked to Kim Jong-un. So he can talk to anybody. So there is hope there that they can negotiate with him.

However, if you do something bad, then it's mutually assured destruction. If you have a pie and he has a pie, and you throw that pie, he's going to throw the pie. It's far better to share the pie. Right? Share the pie with the American voter and negotiate instead of investigate.

PERINO: You say a lot of -- a lot of what the president was able to accomplish in the past few years has been by executive action because of the margins in the Congress. So now he actually can talk about gridlock in Congress. It's not his fault. It's because of the Democrats. So he has someone to fight against, Juan.

WILLIAMS: Yes, but your premise is that he would have to say somehow different than what was happening before. And of course, it's not going to be different is there's gridlock.

What was interesting to me was, I thought it was so Machiavellian today. Did you see this tweet, Dana, where he tweets out that, in fact, Nancy Pelosi deserves to be speaker of the House.

PERINO: Yes.

WILLIAMS: This is the same woman that he has been demonizing and belittling as the face of the Democrats.

GUTFELD: He's being conciliatory.

PERINO: And also, she won.

WILLIAMS: And not only conciliatory, but you know what he said, Greg? He would get her Republican votes.

GUTFELD: Exactly.

WILLIAMS: Oh, my God. How do you make sense of this guy?

GUTFELD: You should be -- you should thank him.

WILLIAMS: Well, I should thank him for giving me a lesson in Machiavellian politics.

GUTFELD: Why don't you take him at his word?

WILLIAMS: Because I don't believe him. So I think either it's the case, as you guys were saying, it's about 2020 and he loves having her as a foil --

GUTFELD: Right.

WILLIAMS: -- because he says to his backers, I mean, even yesterday when we were here on the set, and Pelosi's picture came up on the wall, you could hear people outside in FOX Square, "Boo."

GUTFELD: And that was her family.

WILLIAMS: Is that right? I didn't know they were invited.

So what you get is a situation where Pelosi, I think, is now in a trap, because guess what? Democrats don't want her to play with Donald Trump.

PERINO: Well, not only that, but Jesse, a lot of these new members of Congress from the Democratic side, they have already pledged that they would not vote for Nancy Pelosi. It was one of the ways that they figured out how to win.

And now, President Trump was setting her up to ask these new members of Congress for their very first vote, to vote to be for her to be speaker of the House.

WATTERS: Yes, obviously, it was good the Republicans lost the House. We have them right where we want them.

To your point, Greg, I think the Democrats are going to follow the media over a cliff on these investigations. They're going to get egged on, and they're going to fall in the same trap, which cost them the House.

The last time, when they went far to the left and then what happened? A couple years later, Republicans won, like, 60-something seats in 2010. And Pelosi doesn't want to go out like that. This is the end of the road for her. She wants a legacy. She really wants on health care.

And I think the president and Nancy can get together on health care and do something, which is going to be good for the American people.

PERINO: OK, are you making that prediction?

WATTERS: Take it to the bank. Just like last night, I predicted. I'm making it here.

PERINO: Let's bookmark this one.

All right. Sparks fly at President Trump's news conference. The fireworks at the White House next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIAMS: So here is Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, or I should say now, the former attorney general, leaving the Justice Department. As you can see, there's a group people congratulating him, giving him well wishes as he departs. This is two years that he's been there come this January. And Jeff Sessions, as you can see, being applauded at the moment.

This is right outside the Justice Department on Constitution. That's his new -- the new attorney general Mr. Whitaker, shaking hands with him.

It looks like he's about to get emotional air, and you can understand why. It's been a rough road. And that letter, as Jesse pointed out, was unsigned that he had given to the president. The president releasing the letter today and Jeff Sessions leaving tonight.

So this was all done in rapid fashion. Sessions getting into a car there right outside the Justice Department, surrounded by senior staff.

Back to "The Five." President Trump's first news conference after the midterms turned out to be must-see TV. The event featuring some very wild moments, including clashes with the media. There were also some classic Trump lines. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Here we go.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN: Well, if you don't mind, Mr. President.

TRUMP: Honestly, I think you should let me run the country. You run CNN.

ACOSTA: All right.

TRUMP: And if you did it well, your ratings would be better.

ACOSTA: Let me ask, if I may, Mr. President --

TRUMP: That's enough. Peter, go ahead.

ACOSTA: If I may ask one other question. Are you worried --

TRUMP: That's enough. That's enough.

ACOSTA: Mr. President, I was going to ask one other --

TRUMP: That's enough. That's enough. That's enough.

ACOSTA: Pardon me, ma'am. Mr. President --

TRUMP: That's enough. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn't be working for CNN.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why are you pitting Americans against one another, sir?

TRUMP: Peter -- Peter, what, are you trying to be him? Why do I like --

What kind of a question is that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just asking. Just curious. But the real question --

TRUMP: He's a comedian here.

Let me tell you. That's a racist question. It's such a hostile media. It's so sad.

When you get bored, would you please tell me? Seriously.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: Wow. I don't know where to start, so I go to a former White House press secretary.

GUTFELD: OK, well --

WILLIAMS: Wait a second. Wait a second.

PERINO: You know, I -- Jim Acosta was not at the White House briefing room when I was there there. In fact, there weren't too many characters. Helen Thomas comes to mind. Sometimes she was a bit of a character and liked to get a little tension going.

But this is a little bit different, because it's just different. Like, the president handles it differently. He likes to push back against the media.

Republicans have complained about the media for a long time. Conservatives have always felt that the media is unfair to them. Sort of call it out as your logs (ph) and weekly magazines that you get. But this is on a whole different scale.

Some of the polling from last night about the dismal state of affairs for how people believe the president or don't believe the president; believe the media, don't believe the media. It's also part of this polarization that's happening. It did feel -- I felt bad for the young woman there that is -- she works for the president. He's telling her to move the microphone around, because that's what her job is. And then Jim Acosta was holding onto it, and she got caught up in that crossfire. She did as best she could in that situation.

WILLIAMS: Jesse, I put this question to you, someone who likes Donald Trump, I think. And --

GUTFELD: No.

WILLIAMS: I'm just shocked.

WATTERS: I think I cover it pretty fairly.

WILLIAMS: I've never -- I've never seen -- I can't believe, you know, I've been a White House reporter. I've asked questions. My job is to hold powerful people accountable, to ask difficult questions, to try to break news. He seems to me to have had a tantrum. He just got --

WATTERS: Are you talking about Jim Acosta? I agree.

WILLIAMS: No, Trump.

WATTERS: Listen, Juan, you know how these things go. They've been doing this for three generations. Reporters in the TV age, they stand up. The president gets to pick who he wants to ask. The president gets to answer however he wants, and then the president gets to move on and pick the next question.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

WATTERS: Never have I ever seen before -- no one else has either -- someone refusing to let the president move on, refusing to hand over the microphone to the point where he's actually instigating a physical confrontation with a young female White House staffer who's just trying to move the press conference along. He's arguing with the president. He's hostile to the president.

And this is not a question about a Watergate-era scandal, the future of the republic, war and peace. This is just about how he's characterizing the caravan. It's a difference of opinion.

WILLIAMS: Right, but he doesn't get to choose the question, Jesse.

WATTERS: OK.

WILLIAMS: But then -- and then --

WATTERS: He can choose the reporter, and he can choose how to answer it.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

WATTERS: And then he can choose which next reporter to call on.

WILLIAMS: Fine, but when Peter Alexander stood up, he said, "I don't think you're the best either." I mean, it was unbelievable to me.

WATTERS: OK, so that he was just sharing his opinion about another reporter.

WILLIAMS: All right. Well, I don't get it.

So Martha, the other part was the president said last night this was close to a complete and total victory, in terms of the midterms.

MACCALLUM: Yes, I really think the president walked into that room today feeling good. He was -- you know, he's thinking, "I thought I was going to get shellacked," which was President Obama's word after he lost 63 seats. I think the president thought, "You know what? Let's go out there do a news conference today, because I'm feeling good. We picked up some significant seats in the Senate. We didn't do as poorly in the House as they thought, picked up some very significant governorships."

And he walked in there, and he didn't realize that a lot of the folks in the room had something totally different for breakfast. They were feeling I think, in some individual cases, emboldened in their rudeness.

WATTERS: Right.

MACCALLUM: And that now they could basically knock him around even harder than we usually do because they're empowered, I guess. You know, the press does not -- should not be aligned with political parties.

However, it felt like that. It felt like they were emboldened by last night's election. And they wanted to try to push back. I mean, there were moments in there today that I actually thought that a brawl might break out.

WILLIAMS: Oh, my gosh.

PERINO: It was uncomfortable.

MACCALLUM: Felt like it was about to go off -- off the rails.

WILLIAMS: I think it did go off the rails.

WATTERS: Walking back from the podium, catching some breaths.

MACCALLUM: I mean, that -- that is unbelievable --

WATTERS: I've never seen that.

MACCALLUM: -- what we saw there today.

WILLIAMS: So Greg, the part that I thought was unbelievable was when you pushed the playback machine earlier and ran a tape of President Trump putting down Republicans who lost yesterday.

GUTFELD: I -- I did enjoy that, especially when he said Maya Love showed him no love.

But I do want to talk about Acosta, because I saw the pregame. I was -- before Trump was up there, I had it on another station. And the media was sharpening --

WILLIAMS: Do you never watch FOX?

GUTFELD: I'm at the gym. They don't show FOX. They -- they were sharpening their knives. CNN was going through the list of possible investigations, like I said before. Acosta was talking about the immigration ad and that stuff.

And then Acosta and Gloria Borger, I think her name, were both wondering if Trump would use the word "shellacking," because it was a shellacking. It wasn't a shellacking, you bozos. It wasn't even a blue wave.

So I think that Jim Acosta actually embarrassed all of those people in there with his behavior. Because in a nutshell, what he said was "President Trump, will you agree with me that I -- would you agree with me that you are a racist?" That was what he was saying, and that's what CNN wanted them to say. They cannot move from their bitter emotional position.

The president came out there sounding positive and conciliatory. It didn't matter. It just proves that CNN can't have nice things. You give them something, they can't do -- they don't know what to do. They throw a tantrum. Trump, I thought, handled it pretty well.

PERINO: Calm. Calmish.

GUTFELD: Calmish.

PERINO: I wanted to say something else that's going to happen to this White House press corps, and they might not realize it. When the balance of power switches, the attention from the media switches, too.

Now, the people that will be driving the media coverage for the most part are Hill reporters; they're not at the White House. Of course, the president can still break news. All of those editing decisiont things are happening up on the Hill.

Now, the Democrats are driving the news and that the White House, if you're on defense, you're constantly trying to figure how to get back on offense. This might not be a problem for this White House, but I saw it happen in 2006 and '07 when, all of a sudden, the White House reporters didn't matter as much.

And there's another reason. A lot of reporters -- and maybe Acosta will be one of them -- will head out pretty soon for the presidential campaign trail.

WILLIAMS: Right. So but it looked to me like a verbal brawl, and it just was so disappointing. I just think, you know -- I don't understand why the president is calling reporters racist, telling them to shut up and sit down. I just think --

GUTFELD: I like the fact that we're seeing the real thing.

WILLIAMS: That wasn't a racist question to ask him.

WATTERS: He didn't call them racist. He said it was a racist question.

WILLIAMS: I don't get it. I don't understand what's going on in America.

MACCALLUM: She basically said, "Why are you a white supremacist?" Or why are you --

WILLIAMS: No, no, no.

MACCALLUM: Yes, she did.

WILLIAMS: She said "nationalist."

MACCALLUM: She said you used that word.

WILLIAMS: Nationalist.

MACCALLUM: "Basically everyone understands it's a dog whistle by white supremacy."

And he said, "I'm offended by that question."

WILLIAMS: He can say that, Martha, but he said he said it was a racist -- and I don't get it.

GUTFELD: It was great. He put it back on the people who accuse you of racism.

WILLIAMS: Oh, this is crazy.

The clash over Trump's Supreme Court pick backfires on some battleground Democrats. The Kavanaugh effect on the midterms, from Greg, next on "The Five."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: What do you think?

WATTERS: Peach tree (ph).

GUTFELD: The Republicans won back the Senate, where they appoint judges. The Dems took the House, where they fix parking tickets. But the real chumps: those who rejected due process. Republicans unseated four senators: Heitkamp, McCaskill, Donnelly, Bill Nelson. All known for -- what? -- leading the mob and trying to destroy Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HEIDI HEITKAMP, D-N.D.: I wanted to hear directly from me about why I'm voting against confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh.

SEN. CLAIRE MCCASKILL, D-MO.: I think the vote against Judge Kavanaugh was going to be tough, no matter what.

SEN. JOE DONNELLY (D), INDIANA: I voted against Judge Kavanaugh because of concerns about his impartiality.

SEN. BILL NELSON (D), FLORIDA: I will vote no on Judge Kavanaugh.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: Yes. Four out of the six vulnerable Senate Democrats in Trump land lost. Jon Tester, who voted against Kavanaugh, barely squeaked it out.

The one who refused the accusatory bait and voted for Kavanaugh, Joe Manchin. He won. This is good news. It shows that many Americans saw a witch trial unfold before their very eyes, and they didn't shrug it off.

It's true that the two biggest monsters, Feinstein and Crazy Mazie, did fine in the land of sunstroke and fish paste, but for the rest, their currently actions had consequences. Four people lost their jobs. So maybe the next time they're asked -- asked to play fair, Democrats might fear for their careers before destroying another's.

Sure, it would be nice if they didn't resort to such horrible tactics, because they're good people, but they're politicians. On the evolutionary table of people we admire, you'll find nurses at the top and politicians at the bottom. They do what they do out of desire for power. So if they can't understand right and wrong, maybe they'll understand living their crap out in boxes.

Do you think it had an effect, Dana?

PERINO: I absolutely do. We should say Nelson is going -- has asked for a recount.

GUTFELD: He's still going to lose.

PERINO: We'll see. Yes, of course.

GUTFELD: I believe he's going to lose. That's my prediction.

PERINO: McCaskill actually declared that she would vote against Kavanaugh before the Doctor Ford allegations came forward.

GUTFELD: Right.

PERINO: Right? So she didn't even give them a chance on that. I also feel like Chuck Schumer made a mistake.

I don't even know if you remember how brilliant I was back in August, and I said, why don't they just -- the Democrats should just cave early, because he's going to get confirmed.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: So instead of dragging this out, just let the red-state Democrats vote for Kavanaugh and move on and focus on health care or whatever. But instead, they had to have this moment; and it backfired.

GUTFELD: They should have cave-anaughed.

WATTERS: I can't believe the Democrats don't take political advice from FOX News. You'd think that they would really listen.

So the question is, you're right, they made a mistake. But are they going to repeat the same mistake? And I think they probably will.

I want to take this opportunity to talk about how bad the polls were. NBC News, look how bad they botched this. They were eight points off in Indiana. Nine points off in Missouri. Seven points off in Arizona, and I could go down the list. The worst poll I've ever seen in a midterm election in these Senate races. I could go on and on.

Also, look at these approval numbers for President Trump in crucial states. Michigan, he's at 45. PA, 45. Wisconsin, 47. Florida, 51 percent. Ohio, 52 percent. Those are really good approval rating numbers going into 2020, and if people think that, you know, this was a blue wave, this was nothing.

WILLIAMS: Oh, stop. And who won the governor's race in Wisconsin?

WATTERS (singing): Purple rain, purple rain.

WILLIAMS: You know -- yes, yes, that's why he had such an impact. But you know what is interesting to me? Going back to poll numbers, I'm looking at poll numbers on Kavanaugh. Was Kavanaugh -- the vote on Kavanaugh, very important. Guess what? Forty-two percent of Republicans say it was very important to them.

But 55 percent of the Democrats say it was very important to them.

GUTFELD: Because they hate due process.

WILLIAMS: They don't hate due process. They gave the guy due process.

GUTFELD: That was not due process.

WILLIAMS: You know who didn't get due process? Merrick Garland didn't get due process.

GUTFELD: Merrick. He didn't get his life ruined.

WILLIAMS: Oh, please.

PERINO: Not due process.

WILLIAMS: So what you get --

PERINO: It's a hearing, not due process.

GUTFELD: Merrick Garland is a murderer to the Democrats.

WILLIAMS: Yes, yes, yes.

GUTFELD: He didn't -- you didn't parade his family in front of a group of judges --

WILLIAMS: He didn't even get -- he didn't even get a hearing.

GUTFELD: Thank God for that. He's probably relieved.

WILLIAMS: Mitch McConnell shut it out, played unfair, played brutal politics. And you guys say, "Oh, that's all right."

GUTFELD: Let me get Martha in.

MACCALLUM: Joe Manchin, you know, in the polls right before the election, they said would you vote for him if he had voted no on Kavanaugh? And people said, "No, I wouldn't."

So the polls have been really all over the place on the Kavanaugh issue, because some of the once that we got late yesterday also indicated that it was more positive for Democrats --

WILLIAMS: Right.

MACCALLUM: -- than it was positive for Republicans, but that's not what we saw play out with Donnelly either.

And it's interesting. Donnelly said, "Oh, but you know, it had nothing to do with the whole Doctor Ford thing." It was just because he's impartial.

So you know, Democrats were all over the map. It would outrage so many people, I think, just in terms of the issue of wanting a fair process.

GUTFELD: Yes.

MACCALLUM: That's what it really got back to, I think, for so many people. And you look at something that is such an old, old delegation without enough corroboration. And they just don't want to see someone be hurt for that, because it's not provable at that point in the situation. It's something that I think people feel very deeply, and I do think it had a major impact on the Senate.

GUTFELD: All right. We've got to move on, everybody. You OK?

"One More Thing" is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WATTERS: Time now for "One More Thing." I'll go ahead.

Nevadans elected a dead pimp. Check this out. For general assembly in Nevada, Dennis Hof, who owned the Bunny Ranch, he was actually elected but he died. And he's a pimp. And he's a dead pimp who got elected in Nevada. Can you guys believe that?

GUTFELD: Yes, I know him.

WATTERS: He started the HBO show "Cathouse," wrote a book called "The Art of the Pimp," and he won. They would rather have a dead pimp in office than a --

GUTFELD: Democrat.

WATTERS: -- living Democrat.

GUTFELD: Yes, he's a Republican. He used to do "Red Eye."

MACCALLUM: If they reelect him, it's going to be a real problem. Yes, that will be a problem.

WATTERS: It's going to be a cheap campaign, though.

WATTERS: All right, Juan, go ahead.

WILLIAMS: So did you vote yesterday? Well, one young man in Suwanee, Georgia didn't get to vote. So he threw a tantrum. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They didn't let me go vote.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They didn't let you go vote?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. I want to vote!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: Yes. Christi Pichon, his mom, posted the video. She joked that it was a case of voter suppression. The little boy did get an "I voted" sticker, but as you can see, he wanted the real thing.

Yesterday's midterms, you should know, set a record with 113 million people voting. First time in voting history where over 100 million people went to the polls in a midterm.

MACCALLUM: He was suppressed. He was locked in that seat.

WATTERS: Physically suppressed, I think.

All right. Greg.

GUTFELD: The youth vote didn't happen, though. Thirteen percent.

WATTERS: Yes.

GUTFELD: All right. Hey, you know, I've got a podcast up. It's the FOX News podcast. I'm interviewing this lady, Dana Perino. We're going to talk about election stuff. And also, actually, just a great podcast.

PERINO: The ailments.

GUTFELD: And all of my physical ailments. And yours, as well.

And it's time for --

GRAPHIC: Greg's Travel News

GUTFELD: "Greg's Travel News." You know, my book is on sale. You can get it almost anywhere. Barnes & Noble. I think I have tape of one fellow getting in a cab, racing in Peru to get my book. This is actually a Peruvian taxi.

That's an alpaca, Dana. This is a busy street in Cusco (ph), Peru. There's a Barnes & Noble approximately three miles away. The animal waits for its owner to get in, says -- tells him where it's going, because it needs to get my -- a copy of "The Gutfeld Monologues," which is available now. And there he is, isn't this great? An alpaca.

PERINO: The alpaca's actually in the car.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: It's in the car.

MACCALLUM: Like he does it every day.

GUTFELD: He got packed into the car. An al-packed car.

PERINO: I just said that.

GUTFELD: Oh, did you? I wasn't listening. I just tune you out by the end of the show.

PERINO: I can tell.

You're going to like this. So you know there are number of outstanding races from the midterm elections that are waiting to be called, and FOX News just received exclusive footage of Florida's Bill Nelson discovering a new batch of uncounted ballots.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(DOG PLAYS IN THE SAND WITH A CLAM)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: A Vizsla down in Florida. You can see right there just how enthusiastic Senator Nelson is about those boats. Actually, it's just a Vizsla with a clam, and he's so excited.

GUTFELD: Wow.

PERINO: A Jasper cousin right there.

WATTERS: It looks like Jasper right there. All right. Martha.

MACCALLUM: So I'm going to try again. OK.

So you know how they knight people in England? I know Greg is always big on royal stories.

GUTFELD: Right.

MACCALLUM: So Emma Thompson is now Dame Emma Thompson and she actually grew up -- you know, Prince William grew up knowing her. So she asked him, "Could I please give you a kiss?" in the middle of this, and he said, "No, don't."

GUTFELD: Wow.

MACCALLUM: You're not really supposed to touch royalty.

My question is for Jesse, because everyone knows she is a great actress. So what would be my favorite movie starring Emma Thompson?

GUTFELD: "Love Actually," and it sucks.

WILLIAMS: God.

GUTFELD: I saw it coming. It's a terrible film.

MACCALLUM: I said my favorite movie starring Emma Thompson, which actually isn't true. "Sense and Sensibility" is fantastic.

GUTFELD: But you wanted "Love Actually."

MACCALLUM: I can't believe that Jesse has never seen "Love Actually."

WATTERS: No.

PERINO: You love "Love Actually"?

MACCALLUM: Of course!

PERINO: I love --

GUTFELD: Worst movie ever! It's the worst.

PERINO: You're the only one who's ever been here who loves it as much as I do.

WATTERS: I'm going to rent it tonight. Set your DVRs. Never miss an episode of "The Five." "Special Report" is up next -- Bret.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS: It's a good movie, Jesse. Thank you.

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