Will Palin endorsement torpedo Cruz's chances in Iowa?
Tea Party favorite and former vice presidential nominee throws her support behind Donald Trump for president
This is a rush transcript from "The Five," January 19, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, CO-HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Kimberly
Guilfoyle along with Juan Williams, Eric Bolling, Dana Perino and Greg
Gutfeld. It is 5 o'clock in New York City and this is "The Five."
In a short while from now, Donald Trump is going to make a big
announcement, and that's going to be an endorsement from 2008 GOP vice
presidential nominee Sarah Palin. She's going to join him at his rally in
Ames, Iowa at 6:00 p.m. eastern. This is just two weeks away from the all-
important first vote in the nation. In a statement released ahead of the
event, Trump said he's honored to receive Palin's endorsement and calls her
a great friend who he has great respect for. OK, big deal, Bolling?
ERIC BOLLING, CO-HOST: So this morning I woke up and there
was all this chatter about conservative radio hosts saying that Donald
Trump shouldn't be attacking Ted Cruz, because they're frankly fans of Ted
Cruz. They call him one of the stronger conservatives of the bunch, and
they were getting agitated about it, and that was the talking for the
morning. Now all of a sudden, Donald Trump says he has a big endorsement
he's going to announce this evening.
This man is so skilled at playing the media, it's unbelievable. Because
there was going to probably be some pushback, some a little bit of negative
news cycle going on for him. And he took it right out of their hands and he
said this is a big announcement. He got -- now it's been confirmed. He got
Sarah Palin to decide to endorse him.
A lot of people thought Sarah Palin was going to go with Ted Cruz, they're
both, you know, Tea Party people, they've been good friends for a long
time. Sarah Palin went with Donald Trump. That's big, even bigger, on the
same exact day. Governor Branstad of Iowa says, "don't endorse Ted Cruz for
president, he's bad for our state because of where he stands on corn,
ethanol and subsidies." And he said, he's quote, "damaging to the state."
Wow, this was one moment for the news cycle to go negative on Trump, and it
somehow came right back into his backyard.
GUILFOYLE: Do you think these are significant obviously.
BOLLING: Oh, yeah.
GUILFOYLE: In the lead-up to the --
BOLLING: Those are few things.
GUILFOYLE: Yeah, to the caucus.
GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: Why did he say he was bad on ethanol?
BOLLING: Why did Ted -- Branstad on.
GUTFELD: Yeah, why -- yeah, yeah, yeah.
BOLLING: Ted Cruz was?
GUTFELD: Yeah.
BOLLING: Because he was against ethanol subsidies.
GUTFELD: So here you have, you know, pretty much hard-core staunch
Christians backing Trump over Cruz. It seems to me that Jesus didn't turn
loaves into ethanol. He turned it into food. So it seems kind of odd to me
that you would back Trump over Cruz, who is more interested in getting food
to people than fuel. Palin's endorsement is massive, because it will
definitely get Palin's vote. And I think that is really important, and I
think it is bigger than Hillary, rather Clinton having top-secret
classified information on her e-mail.
So I'm glad that we were suckered into leading with this huge, huge
announcement. But the rub here is you have a staunch religious
conservative, tossing aside a staunch religious conservative for a
Rockefeller Republican. And it shows in a way the opportunism of a lot of
top conservative leaders. When they see the bandwagon, they jump on the
bandwagon.
GUILFOYLE: OK. Well, this news is just breaking, it sends. So we got nice
little alert banner there, Greg, for you. You wanted me to bong in on it.
GUTFELD: I did.
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: I wanted to bong.
GUILFOYLE: Fox News alert -- bong.
Dana, so I give it to you. What do you think about this? Is this going to
be significant going up to Iowa? Were you surprised by it? How do you think
it's going to play with like the grassroots groups in Iowa?
DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: I'm actually not sure how much pull
Sarah Palin still has amongst the grassroots in Iowa, maybe it's a lie. I
mean, she was very effective in helping Ted Cruz get elected in Texas,
where she spent a lot of time.
GUILFOYLE: The point.
PERINO: And she helped pull him over to the finish line there, so I don't
know what happened between that race in Texas, and then the rise of Donald
Trump and the change there. Everyone has a willingness or an ability to
change their minds. But at this point, if you're in a race in Iowa, and
it's neck and neck, and the only thing that you have now at this point is
momentum, and possibly endorsement that help you build that momentum, it's
a net plus for Donald Trump.
GUILFOYLE: And you think it might help a little bit, depending? I mean --
PERINO: I'm just saying it's a net plus, I don't know how much it actually
helps.
GUILFOYLE: And two weeks ahead. What about the timing of it?
PERINO: Smart. I mean, it's smart. It does when you want to start rolling
those out. I mentioned yesterday, and so of some people rolled their eyes.
John Kasich just got the endorsement of three additional papers in New
Hampshire that brings them to five. I mean, that kind of thing in the last
three weeks, it matters.
GUILFOYLE: Well, he's up in some (inaudible) polls about 6 percent.
PERINO: Yes.
GUILFOYLE: So he's doing quite well.
PERINO: Number to --
GUILFOYLE: Yeah.
PERINO: He's second in New Hampshire, but --
GUILFOYLE: He's second in New Hampshire --
PERINO: Say far -- I mean far behind, Trump is way up and then you're
second at Kasich, but still he's there. And I still think that these
endorsements or not just from the papers, but from celebrity, possibly
political celebrities. Yeah, it can help you, it's a net plus.
GUILFOYLE: OK. All right, Juan, what do you think? What's the other side
thinking about this development?
JUAN WILLIAMS, CO-HOST: Well, I mean, obviously, Democrats
don't have a great deal of love for Sarah Palin. They never have. So, I
mean, it's interesting to watch because I think it is what Dana was talking
about celebrity political endorsement. So to get back to what Greg was
saying, well, how many people really think -- I'm going to change my vote
on the basis of what Sarah Palin. I don't know.
But I do think that what Eric said is very, very, very, very true, which is
that the talk radio world, which I think has been driving a lot of
Democratic -- Republican primary votes and so forth, is going to change.
They're going to pay attention to this. They're going to play it, because
it's like a national thing. I don't know if it has to do with Iowa. But if
you are a heart-felt, you know, true red Republican, and you hear Sarah
Palin's name, you stop. I'm amazed too, about evangelicals. Can you believe
evangelicals are all over Donald Trump? I really don't see that, but it's
true.
BOLLING: Can I just clarify that -- yes, I think the Sarah Palin
endorsement is important for him because you want every endorsement,
especially someone who was perceived this close to Cruz. But I think the
value of Sarah Palin came out today when they enrolled the endorsement as
this potentially negative news cycle, it's going to hit the Trump campaign.
WILLIAMS: Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
BOLLING: And you just completely divert the attention to -- no one is even
talking about that right now. It's like wall to wall in all the networks
right now. Sarah Palin, in a surprise announcement, backs Donald Trump
instead of Cruz.
GUTFELD: It's wall to wall on Fox.
BOLLING: No, no. It's on the others as well.
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: Have you been watching the other networks, Eric?
BOLLING: Yes, I have. I've watched --
(LAUGHTER)
GUILFOYLE: Punish it.
BOLLING: It literally going all, to all three networks to see how they were
playing it and it's consistent. You know, they're calling it a surprise.
When there's a surprise, you grab the attention.
GUTFELD: But I don't know if this is a surprise, is it a surprise? Because
I do see a lot of religious conservatives and hard-right conservatives
going to Trump because they sense he might be a winner and Cruz isn't.
WILLIAMS: Wow, I didn't think that.
GUTFELD: Why would you be sacrificing your ideological beliefs otherwise?
WILLIAMS: I don't know --
PERINO: Well, what if we -- I mean on the subsidy thing, so the Iowa
governor, who is a Democrat, says we don't want Cruz in our -- to win our
state because he would be against subsidies. But for the last --
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: Is he a Republican? Excuse me.
BOLLING: Yeah.
PERINO: But for -- so that's important, I guess, in Iowa. Cruz knew from
the beginning, if he planned to run for president, I think he probably had
intentions of running for president when he first ran for Senate, and won
that seat in Texas. He probably has been planning this for a long time.
He's always been against the subsidies. I think the problem really for him
is that he flip-flopped on it in order to gain political favor in Iowa. It
wasn't satisfactory to the people there. And so I think Branstad and others
are pushing him on that. But conservatives have been pushing on ethanol
subsidies for years, and saying that we should be against them. Now, all of
a sudden, because we're two weeks from Iowa, people are changing their
position or softening it up. I think that's kind of unhelpful.
WILLIAMS: You know what's the most interesting thing I've heard in this
conversation, Kimberly? Is what Dana said. I forgot that Sarah Palin
backed.
GUILFOYLE: Yup.
WILLIAMS: Cruz in Texas when he was running against the establishment
Republican candidate in Texas.
GUILFOYLE: That's a great point.
WILLIAMS: But now, apparently -- what do you think happened? Do you know?
PERINO: I don't know.
GUILFOYLE: Obviously, some back, and you know, behind the scenes like
courtship going on. But what I'm very curious about is the extent to which
he's going to champion his candidacy, and does that mean she's going to go
out and campaign very hard for him in the field, you know, prior to the
caucus?
BOLLING: She's a Tea Party sweetheart. The Tea Party adores Sarah Palin,
that's for sure. She has four or five million followers on Facebook. She'll
show up to a rally, and you know, thousands of people will show up. So she
will get some of that, that Ted Cruz Tea Party support to jump -- to as
Juan points out, soften the blow. If I had, you know, she supports Trump. I
guess, you know, I'm kind of torn between the two. Maybe I'll go with that
way.
Look, you -- everyone gives me a lot of grief on Twitter, even in the
building, for being, you know, for saying some of the things I say about
what's going on with the Trump campaign. But I've been saying it for six
months or eight months, and it's continues to roll this way. I'm -- look,
don't like me? I'm sorry. I'm just calling it the way I see it. The guy is
either gift -- completely gifted.
GUTFELD: Nobody says they don't like you Eric.
BOLLING: Or lucky or both.
GUTFELD: We love you.
BOLLING: Oh, that's good.
GUTFELD: We love you.
BOLLING: Thank you, Greg.
GUILFOYLE: It's written all over Greg's face.
BOLLING: Yeah.
GUILFOYLE: Can't you tell by his sweet, toothy grin?
All right, so let's talk about a feud shall we, family feud? All right,
let's do it, moving on now to the war between Trump and Ted Cruz. Trump now
insisting he'd be much better for evangelicals than his opponent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The Ronald Reagan wasn't a, you know,
totally, he didn't read the Bible every day, seven days a week. But he was
a great president and he was a great president for Christianity. And
frankly, I would say that I would be a far better leader. I'll be much
strong on borders. I'll be much strong in protecting the evangelicals. I'll
be much stronger, much, much stronger in protecting our country. And I
think I'll be a much better person for evangelical, but also for everybody
else.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: And the Texas senator launched one of his toughest attacks yet,
on Trump, last night on the issue of immigration.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TED CRUZ, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We were on the verge of losing this
fight, and 12 million people here illegally being granted amnesty. When
that fight was being fought, Donald was nowhere to be found. And I would
suggest as voters, you have reason to doubt the credibility of the promises
of a political candidate who discovers the issue after he announces for
president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: All right, so is Cruz making any traction when he's taking hits
like this against Trump?
PERINO: Possibly. I think -- interestingly, neither of them brought up the
culture of life. Which for evangelical Christians is still, like one of the
most important issues is being a pro-life candidate. And I think that Trump
is vulnerable on that because of previous position, but neither of them is
bringing it up. Similarly, and I think this is actually a good thing.
Neither is bringing up issues like gay marriage. I think that this is a
first presidential election where it will not be a wedge issue and that is,
I consider that to be progress.
GUILFOYLE: Well, are you surprised by that? Were you forecasting that in
six months ago?
PERINO: I think that after the Supreme Court decision, there's been time
for the country to sort of -- absorb, sort of absorb it and then nobody is
running on it. And I guess -- for people who wanted to see the Republican
Party move away from this using gay marriage as a wedge issue, I think
that's a positive.
GUILFOYLE: OK. All, right, Greg, you're shaking your head.
GUTFELD: Oh, well it's interesting because you were talking -- you talked
about how important is pro-life. Well, you have seen some conservative
commentators just totally abandon that. There was one famous one, who said
she didn't care if Donald Trump would perform abortions in the White House.
She said that. We know who that is. But I have no sympathy for Ted Cruz
right now, because there an appeaser is that saying goes, an appeaser is a
person who feeds a crocodile, hoping that the crocodile eats him last,
yeah. Cruz declined to denounce Trump's attacks on McCain, as well as other
notable righties, did not go after Trump for making fun of McCain, for
being a POW. So now Trump is eating him last.
GUILFOYLE: What an appetite on that. I can relate to that.
(LAUGHTER)
BOLLING: It's --
GUILFOYLE: That's a tease to my One More Thing, later --
GUTFELD: I know.
BOLLING: Look, I got to tell you. If it were anyone else -- if it were Cruz
or if it's Jeb Bush, whoever it is, I want that person to be Hillary
Clinton. I clearly want that. I'm not like -- but for me, it's that Trump,
I think he's the one who can do it with this kind of momentum. If he wins
Iowa and it feels like, though, as Dana points out. The momentum is
shifting back away from Cruz towards Trump. If he wins Iowa, he has a
massive lead in New Hampshire. You take Iowa and New Hampshire, turn south
and he's crushing it in the southern -- what they called it, SEC Primaries.
What's to stop him? Who's going to -- instead, we should -- I would love to
see everyone go. You know what? Don't love the guy, but he's our guy and we
got to get behind him. Maybe it's time.
GUTFELD: No, but you know, what that is? That's about the -- what he's
saying, but that's not about what, what can be done. There's a two
different things. You like what he's hearing, but what about the policy?
That's the gap that people are waiting for. Like you know, it's not enough
to say ban all Muslims and build a wall. There actually has to be policies,
and I think that's what people are waiting for. So it's actually, it's not
about like or dislike, it's whether or not it's serious. And I agree with
you. The decision should be based on whether this person can beat Hillary
Clinton. Not about how great it feels to have an anti-establishment
candidate.
WILLIAMS: Yeah, but he's so --
GUILFOYLE: So far, all of them are in the latest polls. All of the -- the
main like top five or six.
GUTFELD: Yeah.
GUILFOYLE: Are beating here, some by greater margins than others.
WILLIAMS: No, not Trump. I think Trump beats her in ever -- no, I think
that's, that's really shady, but I -- I just want to come back to
evangelical thing for a second.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: Which is -- you know, as a Christian, I'm surprised when Trump
says stuff like, "oh yeah, I've had the little wafer and."
GUTFELD: The cracker.
WILLIAMS: And the -- I mean.
(LAUGHTER)
WILLIAMS: Please, I don't bring that up. You don't have to get racial. But
I -- I don't --
(LAUGHTER)
WILLIAMS: I don't get it. I don't get it. To me that's -- yeah, I won't.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: I will go offensive. But I just like --
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: Well, Christians are forgiving.
WILLIAMS: Well, I'm, I'm all for forgiving, but if I'm an evangelical?
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: No, I hear you. I get it.
WILLIAMS: OK, that's my point.
GUTFELD: I mean, could --
BOLLING: But Juan --
GUTFELD: Could Trump be the next -- the second agnostic president, in a
row? It's possible. I don't mind it.
WILLIAMS: Well he says Ronald Reagan.
GUTFELD: Yeah.
WILLIAMS: He said, it's not that --
GUTFELD: Yeah.
WILLIAMS: Well, Ronald Reagan didn't go to church.
GUTFELD: I don't mind.
WILLIAMS: That Ronald Reagan --
GUTFELD: I don't mind Trump.
WILLIAMS: Ronald Reagan.
GUTFELD: Not being religious, in fact.
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: It doesn't affect me at all. It's the people who are religious,
who are suddenly abandoning their religion for him.
BOLLING: One final thought, there's an interesting study going around.
GUILFOYLE: Yes.
BOLLING: Some discussion. If it weren't Trump and was Ted Cruz, because
he's the number two, he's really going neck and neck with Trump. There that
this establishment in D.C. would be just as horrified, if not more
horrified.
WILLIAMS: More.
BOLLING: More so horrified.
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: I think, no. I think Trump has a better chance, way better chance
than Cruz of winning. There's no question.
BOLLING: So therefore, I mean, you're talking of 60 percent of the 59
percent of the vote between the two of them.
GUILFOYLE: Well, which you're referring to, too, is though that, a lot of
people on the Hill and D.C. are not, you know, they're not in love. They
don't want love so much for Ted Cruz. So he's not very popular with some of
his colleagues, you know, that have know him and spent time with him, and
many of them have been quite vocal about that. So, you know, that's been
alluded too as well. Well, certainly it's getting interesting, if any of
the others like Rubio and others you like, hey, about --
GUTFELD: Dana --
PERINO: What?
GUTFELD: Last words?
PERINO: No, I'm good.
(LAUGHTER)
PERINO: I'm fine. I'm good.
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: No, I'm good. I thought she, she said we had a tease, I'm good.
(CROSSTALK)
GUILFOYLE: Well, they've been saying that I've been disobeying our parents?
(LAUGHTER)
GUILFOYLE: Just kidding.
Coming up, Bill O'Reilly has a warning to Republicans. What he says could
be the worst-case scenario.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BOLLING: Last night Bill O'Reilly's talking points memo summed up the
Democratic presidential campaigns perfectly. After explaining why Bernie
Sanders' presidency would bankrupt America. And quickly, Bill warned
against a third-term Obama presidency, if Hillary Clinton wins. So, are you
for them on those? And then, Bill ended his memo with a warning for the
Republicans, "Be careful GOPers, or the worst could happen." Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL O'REILLY, O'REILLY FACTOR SHOW HOST: Hillary Clinton made it clear,
she's running as Barack Obama's second, pretty much saying he's been a
successful president and she would carry on his programs. If the
Republicans cannot beat the Democratic Party in 2016, when will they ever
beat it? But you know what? The GOP is so confused, the leadership so
divided, that Hillary Clinton could win. She could win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: Now, KG, when you think about it, two-thirds of the governors and
State Houses are Republican, they have the House, the Senate. Bill is right
this would be the time to win.
GUILFOYLE: Well, they -- gosh, they should have won last time. I mean,
seriously, but it's enough, already. If you want a third term of, you know,
President Barack Obama, aka, pseudo name HRC, then you know, have at it. Be
apathetic. Don't show up. Complain. Otherwise, you can get involved, make
sure your vote counts and move forward for positive change in this country,
because we've had enough, enough already. I have as a lawyer, of all the
discussion of Barack Obama's executive action, the behavior, the
administration's ideology, that's that.
BOLLING: You know, Juan, can we just, right now say Bernie Sanders is not
going to be the next president, can we just do that right now?
WILLIAMS: I don't know.
BOLLING: Socialist who advocated for 90 percent --
GUILFOYLE: New poll.
WILLIAMS: Here's the thing, you know, you got to remember that.
GUILFOYLE: New poll, New Hampshire.
WILLIAMS: Democrats look at Republicans right now, with fear and loathing.
And so, I don't think there's is a Democrat --
PERINO: But that's a Republican's fault, right? Based on your column this
morning?
WILLIAMS: No, I think --
(LAUGHTER)
GUILFOYLE: Well-read, DP?
WILLIAMS: I think that that is about Obama. I think there's a lot of
antipathy among Republicans for --
PERINO: We should do a blog on that.
WILLIAMS: That will be interesting towards Barack Obama, a lot of questions
about why that exists. But with regard to Bernie Sanders, you know, I mean,
I don't know. I think that Democrats would back Sanders over Republican.
BOLLING: What is it with Bill? Do you think he's hinting on that, that
Republicans should reunite around a candidate?
GUTFELD: Yeah, you know, the -- right now, the Democrats are counting on
Hillary. It's like a temporary clunker the mechanic gives you while your
car is in the shop, just to get you to over the next four years because
they know -- they know she's a failed product -- she's actually. You don't
need to be a great salesman or have a great product. She's neither. She's
Richard Simmons selling chipotle. It's a dual-dose of misery. At least
Bernie Sanders has one of the equations. He's a good salesman, sound (ph)
he's selling a failed product, which is socialism, but at least he seems
real. The problem with the election is that the Democrat -- the
demographics for the Republicans look grim.
BOLLING: And growing worse.
GUTFELD: Yeah, yeah.
BOLLING: Over time.
GUTFELD: Yeah.
GUILFOYLE: You're right. Nobody is saying Bernie Sanders is a liar or a
phony.
GUTFELD: Yeah.
PERINO: No, he has some of the highest favorability of all the --
GUILFOYLE: You know? It's true.
PERINO: Of any of the candidates. He has some of the highest favorability
out there.
GUILFOYLE: He's very --
PERINO: Trustworthy.
GUILFOYLE: Genuine.
BOLLING: Would you rather --
GUILFOYLE: Authentic for what he believes in.
BOLLING: You're running a campaign no matter who it is, under Republican
side. Would you rather go up against Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton?
PERINO: On -- from the Republican standpoint?
BOLLING: Yeah.
PERINO: Sanders.
GUILFOYLE: Yeah.
BOLLING: Yeah.
GUILFOYLE: Stark contrast, more so.
BOLLING: All right. By the way, he -- some recent polling has Hillary
Clinton 46.8. Hillary -- Bernie Sanders, 42.8, and that's most recent in
Iowa, specifically right. The Democrat race is definitely.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: Like I mention, how it is for New Hampshire?
GUILFOYLE: New Hampshire.
BOLLING: On a --
GUILFOYLE: Twenty-seven percent.
BOLLING: Forget about that one.
(LAUGHTER)
WILLIAMS: Well, yeah. So let them know. Let them know.
PERINO: It just came out.
BOLLING: Just came out, Bernie Sanders, has a 27 something, 27 percent.
PERINO: Twenty-seven percent.
BOLLING: Lead over Hillary Clinton.
GUILFOYLE: It's a CNN/WMUR poll, Sanders is trouncing Clinton in New
Hampshire by 27 points, 60 percent to 33 --
BOLLING: Stay right there, KG. Feel the burn. Listen to Bernie Sanders, a
confident Bernie.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BERNIE SANDERS, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We were 15 points behind the
inevitable, inevitable Democratic nominee. Well guess what, that inevitable
candidate ain't so inevitable today.
(APPLAUSE)
SANDERS: All over the country we're seeing huge turnouts of people who are
sick and tired of establishment politics.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: All right, hang in there, control room. We get to that last sound
bite really quickly, but you want to comment on this?
WILLIAMS: Yeah, because if you look at that visual, there were so many
black face behind Bernie Sanders. I was like, whoa, what's going on? But
obviously, what's going on is Bernie is reaching out in a big way.
GUILFOYLE: Yup.
WILLIAMS: Go looking beyond Iowa, New Hampshire. He's got to make inroads
with the black vote, with the Latino vote. Especially, look at the Latinos
in Nevada.
GUTFELD: The opposite of the (inaudible).
WILLIAMS: It's the --
(LAUGHTER)
WILLIAMS: You know you are so race conscious.
BOLLING: No, but the --
GUILFOYLE: Will Smith is (inaudible).
WILLIAMS: You know it's just two black lives matter people.
BOLLING: Can I --
WILLIAMS: You irritate me.
BOLLING: I can talk to Dana about that? Bernie is going after the African-
American vote, but it's not working for him. She's increasing her lead
among African-Americans.
PERINO: Well, the thing for Hillary Clinton, especially in New Hampshire,
and possibly in Iowa, especially -- if Bernie Sanders can get the youth is
vote out, one of the ways that Barack Obama beat her is you brought new
voters to the polls. And so that was more blacks voting and more students
voting. And so I think the Bernie Sanders staff has a really good ground
game in Iowa on that. And she has no more debates left. So she has to be
force -- she's going to be forced to go out and campaign. And she's going
to -- you'll going to possibly see her in a lot more shows in the next two
weeks, and we know what happens when she does that. It's not good. If I
could just say one last thing, her side tells The New York Times today that
they always expected this race to tighten up with Bernie Sanders, and I
think that the results are demonstrably proving that that's not true.
GUILFOYLE: I wonder about a big surprise that you think it's going to be a
big surprise if you think it's going to beat, that Sanders is going to bet
her in both Iowa --
GUTFELD: The Palin's endorsing Sanders.
(LAUGHTER)
BOLLING: Yes. By the way --
GUILFOYLE: In New Hampshire.
GUTFELD: In New Hampshire, the dual endorsement.
GUILFOYLE: OK.
WILLIAMS: That will be great.
GUILFOYLE: It's good. Thanks for breaking that at bong.
GUTFELD: At bong.
GUILFOYLE: Yeah.
(CROSSTALK)
BOLLING: All right, we'll add that, or wrapping it. I'm sorry, that's -- 13
Hours is a movie about heroes, not politics. So why is it making the middle
of liberal media so uncomfortable? Greg is on the left's effort to diminish
the film when The Five returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUTFELD: Since Friday, liberal critics have been claiming that other movies
outsold the Benghazi film, "13 Hours." Gawker, the blog for failures, noted
that "Ride Along 2" did way better than Michael Bay's quote, "fan fiction",
which made $20 million that weekend. How odd, left-wingers are now
interested in profit to gain success. Wasn't seeking the almighty dollar
evil? Which is why they prefer plotless, independent films that star James
Franco? More important, if this were a film that bashed capitalism or was
exposing the homophobia of Middle America, would the media be focused on
receipts? Imagine a liberal blogger heralding the financial failure of that
movie about transgender issues, "The Danish Girl." That person would lose
his or her job.
Suddenly for "13 Hours," it's way different because it's the one film
in Hollywood out of thousands that escaped their grubby little progressive
paws.
If the flick had been about an indictment of America, then profit
wouldn't have come up. But they hate that a movie with Western sympathies
actually exist, so they delight that a move by chronicling the tragic
deaths of four Americans was outsold by crud.
True, the Benghazi movie didn't make as much money as others. But
let's use that metric of success on the sad lefty blogger. You're still at
home in your stained sweats, eating Top Ramen over the sink, waiting for
the next comic book blockbuster to rescue you from your finger-sniffing
misery.
GUILFOYLE: Gross.
GUTFELD: And finger-sniffing it is.
Hey, you know who's going to be on Bill O'Reilly tonight? Michael
Bay. Let's show that clip, America.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL BAY, DIRECTOR: Listen we've got an amazing feedback on this
movie. I've had two, two four-star generals and several other generals
really praise the movie.
And both people, both sides of the aisle have really -- really
impressed with the movie and the emotional story that's told. The politics
got in the way of this great human story that happened. And this is really
to honor these type of men that do this every day, that put themselves in
harm's way. That's what this movie is about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: Eric, he makes a point that politics gets -- got in the way.
And that's what happened with these lefty bloggers. That can't see the
movie.
BOLLING: He didn't put politics in the movie. He put no -- he didn't
even mention Hillary Clinton's name in that movie. It was, it was a -- an
account. He recreated the account that he got from Michael Zukoff. Is
that his name, Zukoff? Which was written with the help of five people who
were there, on the rooftop defending the CIA Annex and the Benghazi
consulate.
So I don't know. The politics got injected by the left. Only when it
suits their narrative, right. They're worried that it was going to be too
honest, too sincere and too documentary-like. But I will tell you, see the
movie.
GUILFOYLE: And bad timing for her for Iowa, New Hampshire and good
timing for "Weekend at Bernie's."
WILLIAMS: The left introduced politics? You say? I mean, my
experience is that the right made it out. Everybody should go see this
film because then you will be more aware of Benghazi and the failures, and
it was supposed to be an indictment of Hillary Clinton and the Obama
administration.
GUTFELD: Don't you think that we conservatives are just desperate for
finding an objective firm about history that's not Oliver Stone, that's not
Michael Moore? Does it hurt that we're grateful?
WILLIAMS: No, no, I would appreciate it. This is not a documentary.
Let me just tell you. Not a documentary.
BOLLING: I would agree. Put no politics in it.
WILLIAMS: What? No. What I'm saying, that this thing has been so
politicized by the right. When you have Tom Cotton...
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: ... and Trump and the other guys buying tickets and telling
people to go, come on. Of course it's politicized. The left doesn't like
it.
GUILFOYLE: It smacks of hypocrisy. Your commentary. OK? Because
all you do is bash, oh, they're politicizing it. Let me tell you
something. Your side ain't so innocent.
WILLIAMS: What are we talking about, this movie?
GUILFOYLE: I'm talking about all of it.
WILLIAMS: I don't know what you're...
GUTFELD: What she's saying is...
PERINO: She's like the wife that gets in a fight with you, and she
keeps bringing up the same issue over and over.
You know it wasn't about what you did this morning. It's what you do
always, the whole relationship.
GUTFELD: She can't believe this relationship.
WILLIAMS: It's just gone to hell.
GUTFELD: Yes.
GUILFOYLE: Counseling is probably not going to help. But I do have a
very long memory.
GUTFELD: Dana, if this movie had a left-wing vice -- let's say it was
an indictment of an American fault, something horrible we did. Maybe it
was Abu Ghraib or maybe this movie was about Gitmo.
PERINO: Michael Bay would be, you know, the toast of the town. I
think -- I hope that he's very proud of the movie, and I think there is
something very gratifying to hear from the four-star generals that they
thought that it was well done, and it is an entertaining movie, as well.
It's a fascinating story.
Having covered it here from as a news story since 2012 when it
happened, to then actually watch it and then feel that emotion -- it gave
it a whole added dimension for me to watch it. And I hope people that do
have a chance to see it, regardless of politics...
GUILFOYLE: We were all moved when we walked out of that movie.
PERINO: And a lot of people feel angry when they leave. And it's not
necessarily about the right or the left. And it's not about Hillary
Clinton, because they don't even mention her in the movie. It's about
government incompetence and that we should have done better.
WILLIAMS: Well, I think the CIA has said this movie, you know, is not
a documentary.
PERINO: It's so funny to me to watch the left defend the CIA. That's
been delightful to me.
WILLIAMS: I'm just telling you, you don't have to defend them. This
is what the CIA says.
GUILFOYLE: OK. Well, yes what do think...
PERINO: You mean the disgruntled CIA?
GUILFOYLE: Exactly. But basically, what you're saying is the other
military men that were in it, the Rangers, the Navy SEALs, that those --
they're liars? OK, Juan.
WILLIAMS: Yes.
PERINO: That's what you started.
GUTFELD: Yes. Woo.
Anyway, Democratic candidates keep pushing to increase the minimum
wage. But is it actually hurting the working class, Juan? An update on
how that wage hike turned out for employees at Wal-Mart, the greatest place
ever.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PERINO: It's a vow of all the Democratic candidates to raise the
minimum wage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We should raise
the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Raising the minimum
wage.
MARTIN O'MALLEY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Raising the minimum wage
to $15 an hour, however we can, wherever we can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: The nation's largest retailer just found out the consequences
of raising its minimum wage. After cage -- caving to pressure from the
left, Wal-Mart hiked its minimum pay to $9 an hour in April.
In November, it announced a 10 percent decline in earnings per share,
its CEO citing higher wages as the biggest driver of the decline. Last
week, the retail giant announced it's closing more than 150 stores in the
U.S., - putting 10,000 Americans out of jobs. Many are -- many are tying
it to the wage hike. And Wal-Mart just scrapped plans to open two new
stores in D.C. And in a closed-door meeting the company cited wage as a
factor there, too.
An Oakland, California, store was shut down over the weekend. City
officials there blaming wage hikes.
So there seems to be a theme here, Eric. It's wage hikes that are
causing, the companies are saying the wage hikes are leading them to do
some closures.
BOLLING: Something we've been hitting on for years here. And we were
talking about a $10 minimum wage, which President Obama thought originally
that's where he was going to go that that was going to create job losses.
Well, how stores would close, because they couldn't afford it. A lot of
these stores, big-box stores are on very small margins. They rely on mass
sales with small margins to make it over the hump and make profits.
When you reduce the margin or eliminate the margin because of wages,
which is their biggest cost, then you put them out of business. It's not
just Wal-Mart. It's Costco. It's the restaurants in Seattle. Seattle has
a $15 million wage minimum wage on its way over the course of, I believe it
was eight years. And restaurants are shutting down; people are going away.
It's pure economics. It's going to happen. We predicted it here.
But the issue -- the issue is, mandate versus recommend. You should
recommend a minimum wage. Federally, whatever you, statewide, recommend it
but don't mandate it because when you mandate it you drive people out of
business. When you recommend it, you guilt companies into doing it if they
can afford it.
PERINO: And I think Wal-Mart, actually, they were -- that was not
under a mandate. They were trying to say, "Look, we want to pay our
employees more. We're going to try this. It was, I think, pressure from
the left, because they were going to face more strikes or boycotts. But to
your point the minimum wage was never supposed to be the place where you
hung out on the lower rung of the ladder for their whole career.
GUTFELD: Yes, I just want to make a point. As a conservative I'm
against mandating.
PERINO: OK. I thought we were not using that any more.
GUTFELD: Yes, whatever.
GUILFOYLE: Glass houses.
GUTFELD: OK. Do you ever notice the people that are arguing for
increases in minimum wage have never run a business? They've never hired
entry-level employees. They don't understand that the entry level is a
first rung on a ladder, not the last rung. It's for teenagers. It's for
young people to get experience.
Minimum wage illustrates the one problem of being a leftist: you
cannot connect one dot. So if you increase the size of the pizza slices,
there are fewer pizza slices. The pizza slice is analogous to a job, Mr.
Michael Moore. It doesn't really mean pizza.
The point is, if you want to connect the dot ultimately and show how
morally bankrupt the minimum wage is, just raise it to $150 an hour. You
won't, because it will cost jobs. Therefore, it makes that it would cost
jobs if you raised it against the business's wishes, you assume
suspiciously that businesses are greedy when they just want to do right.
WILLIAMS: Let me just say, I have a totally different perspective,
based on the idea that it's not teenagers, but more and more adults.
GUTFELD: Unfortunately...
WILLIAMS: OK. But I'm saying, and the second thing to say is that
Wal-Mart has been raising its wages voluntarily, as you point out.
GUILFOYLE: Right.
WILLIAMS: And more and more of these big cities that previously kept
Wal-Mart out, because of unions who said, you know, Wal-Mart doesn't allow
their workers to organize on you, these cities, these politicians said,
"Wal-Mart, come on in. We want the jobs. We want the opportunity that
comes with the presence of a Wal-Mart."
But Wal-Mart promised they would build in D.C. in the poor areas.
Guess what? They put up their first stores in, like, my neighborhood.
They didn't put them up in the poor neighborhoods. And now they're a
backing out of putting it in the poor neighborhood.
And so you guys sit here and say, "Well, it's the minimum wage." I
don't think it's the minimum wage.
GUTFELD: OK.
WILLIAMS: I think they can say that because it's popular. But the
fact is -- the fact is that it's not minimum wage. If you look across
country, it hasn't shut down business, minimum wage hikes.
BOLLING: Oh, gosh. You can't throw that in there at the end of a
long...
GUILFOYLE: That's what he's doing.
WILLIAMS: I think it's correct. I don't think there's any evidence.
PERINO: You think the CEOs are lying?
WILLIAMS: No, I think that what they're saying is there's high
building costs. There's lots of reasons. They know this is an issue that
will people -- will polarize people.
GUILFOYLE: Come on, Juan. This is enough, already. What is that,
your hand?
A hundred and fifty-four U.S. locations alone. Right? But guess
what? Your party is committing the war against poor people, trying to get
entry-level jobs. And your party is causing Americans' jobs right now.
Think about that.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: You're so mean. You're so mean, know what you should think
about? You should think about income inequality and hard-working people
who work full-time and still can't support a family.
GUILFOYLE: And you should have thought about it before you put those
families out of jobs.
WILLIAMS: And you should have thought about it before you put them on
welfare.
PERINO: All right. Juan -- time's up, Juan, because your segment is
coming up. A fight has erupted in Hollywood. I was going to say row here
-- row?
GUTFELD: Row.
PERINO: Some celebrities calling for a boycott ahead of this year's
Academy Awards show over the lack of diversity among its nominees. We
discuss when "The Five" returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIAMS: For a second year in a row, no people of color were
nominated for an Academy Award, and another firestorm has erupted. Actor
David Oyelowo, who didn't get the nod for last year's "Selma," just joined
the pack of critics. He's calling it unforgivable that it happened again.
Director Spike Lee says he won't attend the Oscars next month, and
neither will actress Jada Pinkett Smith.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JADA PINKETT SMITH, ACTRESS: The academy has the right to acknowledge
whoever they choose, to invite whoever they choose. And now I think that
it is our responsibility now, to make the change, begging for
acknowledgement, or even asking, diminishes dignity and diminishes power.
I will not be at the Academy Awards, and I won't be watching.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Wow. Remember, Aunt Viv on "The Fresh Prince", the show
Pinkett's husband, Will, starred in? Well, she had some pretty strong
words for Jada on that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANET HUBERT, ACTRESS: Girlfriend, there's a lot of (EXPLETIVE
DELETED) going on in the world that you all don't seem to recognize.
People are dying. Our boys are being shot left and right. People are
hungry. People are starving. People are trying to pay bills. And you
talk about some (EXPLETIVE DELETED) actors. And Oscars. And -- it just
ain't that deep.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Kimberly, you liked "Creed." I remember you telling me I
should go see "Creed." Remember?
GUILFOYLE: Yes, I loved it.
WILLIAMS: OK, so that actor didn't get any nominations. Is that
unfair? Do you think it was racial?
GUILFOYLE: I'm not going to impugn everyone's motives. There's
multiple people voting on this. I think that these were stand-out
performances in a number of cases. Like, for example, Will Smith, right,
in "Concussion." And a lot of, you know, positive praise from critics.
I would hope that people that were the most talented and gave the best
performances would be recognized. And I would hope that when people go,
they're not seeing color, but they're seeing the purity of a performance
that's compelling and commanding to them.
WILLIAMS: Eric, do you see a pattern here? Is there a pattern?
BOLLING: I don't know enough about how the voting works. I guess...
GUILFOYLE: Academy members.
BOLLING: Academy members. How many of them are there? My point is
this. Like, in sports and in money, the most talented, the most capable,
the most successful. Those are the ones who make the most money, win the
most awards, maybe it's time to open up the Academy Awards to people
voting. I know there's a viewer's choice awards and that type of thing.
GUILFOYLE: And the Screen Actors' Guild, SAG Awards, is for members
of SAG. I vote on the movies. So Dana tells me...
BOLLING: So if you know going into it that it's going to be a closed
group of people voting on it, then I don't think these people who are
complaining about racism, they shouldn't be.
WILLIAMS: You know what?
BOLLING: You know what the rules are going in.
WILLIAMS: But Dana, you know what they're complaining about is the
decision-makers. The bosses in Hollywood are still white men. And they
fear that they are being locked out. What do you think?
PERINO: I hope that's not true. I mean, I watch Hollywood, because I
think whoever -- whoever is in the movie, I'll watch it, if I think that
it's good. And so I guess -- I'll be watching. And I like Jada Pinkett
Smith. I hope that she changes her mind.
WILLIAMS: Well, but I thought that Aunt Viv had a real good point.
Hey, there's a lot more going on in the world than actors having a hard
time.
But Greg, conservatives now, I suspect, are going to agree with Jada
Pinkett. Because they don't like Hollywood, and Jada Pinkett doesn't like
Hollywood.
GUTFELD: Yes. We just enjoy watching the leaders of identity
politics finally get a dose of their own medicine, watching Hollywood
squirm. Because let's face it: Hollywood is racist, and they are
homophobic. They prefer white performers, because that gets larger box
office, because the population is larger. And they prefer that their gay
actors and gay actresses stay in the closet or else they might not sell as
many movie tickets.
And Spike Lee, I find it interesting that he's boycotting the Oscars,
since America pretty much boycotts his terrible movies. He leaves more bad
films than a drunken dishwasher.
BOLLING: There is a little bit of good news if they're right, and
they do get -- their grievances met, maybe conservatives can get our
grievances met, too.
GUILFOYLE: Can I tell you, there's so many incredible actors out
there that are African-American and Latino in television movies now.
WILLIAMS: "13 Hours" for an Oscar.
GUTFELD: Juan, I'm boycotting the NBA, because there's not enough
Hispanics. And I'm boycotting hip hop, because it's lacking in Asians.
WILLIAMS: I thought it was -- all right. "One More Thing" up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUILFOYLE: Time now for "One More Thing" -- Greg.
GUTFELD: I've got two plugs, OK? And a Band-Aid. I'm on "O'Reilly"
tonight, talking about whatever. It's fun. And if you want to find out
what I named the best album of 2015, go to Breitbart.com. I have my column
up there where I go through my list of favorite albums from the last year.
And I also tweeted it. So you can go on Twitter to find it, if you like.
BOLLING: Fall Out Boy.
GUILFOYLE: All right.
GUTFELD: Maroon 5.
GUILFOYLE: All right. Dana Perino, what do you have.
PERINO: I have a little announcement to make of our own. Actually,
we've said it before. I just want to make sure everybody at home heard
this. If you're in Florida or you can get to the villages on January 31 --
that's a Sunday -- there's no football game.
GUTFELD: Oh, my God.
PERINO: It's the book-off between Dana and Greg. Jasper will not be
making an appearance. Larry Gatlin is going to be there at the Villages.
And we hope that you'll join us, because I really need to win.
GUILFOYLE: You've got to bring Jasper. Otherwise, it's false
advertising.
PERINO: Maybe we'll have a little Jasper.
GUILFOYLE: All right. Juan what do you have to redeem yourself?
Everyone is looking at the sky looking for snow. But I'm looking up
because of the stars. Guess what? There's a special treat in the few
weeks. Five of the eight planets in the solar system will be visible at
once to the naked eye in the predawn hours. Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars
and Jupiter, not the one that Greg wants me to say, will be able to see
them. In the predawn hours. And that's January 20 through February 20.
First time since 2005.
GUILFOYLE: All right. Go.
BOLLING: OK. Very quickly. This is something I didn't get to in the
B-block. But here's a Bernie Sanders supporter, Killer Mike.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How does a rapper end up supporting Senator
Sanders?
KILLER MIKE, RAPPER: Smoking a joint, reading a tweet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: What a winning endorsement.
How about this? I've been feasting on this. I ate almost all of it
before the show. That was the problem. National Popcorn Day. And did you
know this was discovered. This is from Mexico.
GUTFELD: Build a wall around it.
GUILFOYLE: It's amazing.
Explorer Hernan Cortez, introduced popcorn to the rest of the world.
BOLLING: That's the best invention. The plastic top on that thing.
WILLIAMS: The plastic top?
BOLLING: It comes with a plastic top. And you -- you can share the
bucket of popcorn by pouring some into the plastic top.
WILLIAMS: What about tequila? Is there tequila in that? Because I
think the Mexicans have tequila.
PERINO: It must have been a fun experiment when he first invented
popcorn. Like, "Oh, wow!"
GUILFOYLE: I just really love it. It's a nice, good healthy snack,
except if it's doused in butter, like I just did.
GUTFELD: Dana would love to have the tub when you're through, because
she's going to make a Jacuzzi.
GUILFOYLE: She's going to bathe in it?
All right. Set your DVR so you never miss an episode of "The Five."
Yum, yum, yummy. That's it for us. "Special Report" is next.
PERINO: Wait, we have a...
GUTFELD: So yummy.
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