'The Five' reacts to Biden's attempt to salvage massive spending plan
Panel discusses the president meeting with House Democrats to negotiate spending package
This is a rush transcript from "The Five," October 1, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST (on camera): Hello, everybody. I'm Jesse Watters along with Dagen McDowell, Richard Fowler, Kennedy, and Dan Bongino.
It's five o'clock in New York City, and this is THE FIVE.
President Biden on Capitol Hill moments ago trying to salvage his massive $3.5 trillion socialist agenda. The president not sounding too confident after stepping out of the meeting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I'm telling you we're going to get this done.
(CROSSTALK)
UNKNOWN: Why --
BIDEN: It doesn't matter when. It doesn't matter whether it's in six minutes, six days, or six weeks. We're going to get it done.
UNKNOWN: Is the party united --
BIDEN: Two-thirds, 50/50. Come on, man. United the party 50/50. I got it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS (on camera): Biden forced to step in because the Democrat dumpster fire has been burning all week and shows no signs of simmering down. Instead of coming together the party can't stop bickering over how far left this plan should go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: Senator Joe Manchin said $1.5 trillion is his number. Is that sufficient for the both of you?
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): For one year?
REP. CORI BUSH (D-MO): Who is he taking the money from? That's my question. He does not need any of the resources that we are talking about.
REP. STEVE COHEN (D-TN): I don't want to suggest that the progressives are wrong. They haven't been legislators most of them for a very long period of time. A lot of them have been activists and tried to get things in other ways. I have been a legislator for 44 years. I've got car. My car is older than quite a few of the progressives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS (on camera): That's a pretty good line. So, Dan, Jacqui Heinrich one of our reporters on Capitol Hill just spoke to a Democrat source who told her that Biden's visit just now nothing burger.
DAN BONGINO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, that's the chicken guy.
WATTERS: Yes.
KENNEDY MONTGOMERY, FOX BUSINESS HOST: Yes.
BONGINO: Remember him, the fried chicken?
WATTERS: I do.
BONGINO: The character of that guy. Here is the problem, obviously, this is a cesspool of government waste. Government as I said yesterday and I will say again can do nothing right, nobody can tell me -- everything they touch they burn to the ground. It's a cesspool. You are better off taking your money and burning it than giving it to the government because everything they give it too, they destroy.
So, this is kind of like sadly, you know, a win for Republican politics but a loss for the country either way. If it passes, Biden destroys the country, inflation goes crazy. He decimates home healthcare everything else the government introduce its disgusting tentacles into. Right? If it doesn't pass, his legislation goes down in flames.
Richard, you are looking at me. I assume you are going to show to me one area where government does anything right. That's OK, that's cool. I will disagree with you strongly. But, the one thing before I jet on this because it's really important.
Whenever you ask a Democrat this question, they'll never give an answer. You go, hey, I asked him on my show Unfiltered, shameless plug by the way. But I said to one of the Democrats. What's the red line for debt where the United States goes into, like potential de facto bankruptcy? They go, I don't know and you don't know either.
I go, yes, that's my point. Like, don't you think like we should probably like, take it a little slow now that we have no idea when the de facto bankruptcy comes? Because it happened in Argentina, in Venezuela, and elsewhere. It's not like this is unprecedented. But they just keep spending, you know, and it's an insult to drunken sailors everywhere, you know.
WATTERS: We have a drunken sailor right here. Richard Fowler, please respond to Dan Bongino's assessment that it's just worthless to spend --
(CROSSTALK)
RICHARD FOWLER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I didn't know I was a drunken sailor.
WATTERS: -- 3.5 trillion while we can't even keep track of the money that's still gone out?
FOWLER: Number one, I don't think it's going to -- I don't think the final bill is going to end up being $3.5 trillion. I think it's going to be a far smaller amount. Number two, I think that -- I think that what Biden did in this meeting that we just saw there was let some air out of the room so the actual legislators in the ways and means committee can actually get down and figure out how they come to semblance of a framework that allows all the Democrats to come together and vote on this.
And I think it's worth pointing out that both in the bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed the Senate with 17 Republican votes as well as what will be this reconciliation bill, what you are going to find is programs that will actually reinvest in America. Right? We are the world's --
WATTERS: Reinvest.
FOWLER: Yes. Well, wait a minute now. We are the world's largest economy and there are things that we need to do that other economies have us beat if we are trying to compete with the world. We are the only developed country that doesn't have high speed rail. Right? We are the only developed --
(CROSSTALK)
BONGINO: Thank god.
FOWLER: Well, why could you say that?
BONGINO: Because it's a boondoggle. California --
(CROSSTALK)
FOWLER: Yes. But we're not talking California when Japan and Europe have high speed rail.
WATTERS: Yes, those are tiny countries. Those are tiny countries we'd rather fly it's cheaper.
BONGINO: Yes, we have airplanes. They do it better.
FOWLER: OK, sure.
WATTERS: Sure.
FOWLER: We also have crumbling -- we also have crumbling bridges. We have airports that are outdated and falling apart. We can go on and on and talk about --
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: Right. We can fix the bridge for less than 3.5 trillion.
FOWLER: Yes, but there is multiple bridges in 50 states.
WATTERS: OK. Well, we can do it for less than 3.5. Dagen McDowell?
(CROSSTALK)
FOWLER: Well, but the transportation is over 1.5 trillion to be fair.
WATTERS: OK.
FOWLER: And Trump supported that as well, but I digress.
WATTERS: Yes, 1.5.
DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX NEWS BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: OK. On you point, if all -- if the roads and bridges need fixing then why can't these far-left progressives get on board and vote through this infrastructure package then if this is such a need. This is, as you pointed out, a bipartisan package. So, they should get this take.
FOWLER: I agree with that.
MCDOWELL: I find this whole thing -- I love watching a good catfight. Kennedy knows that. But this is like watching some chicks pulling each other's hair out in the parking lot while the gag and sips getting robbed at gun point behind you and the entire neighborhood is getting robbed. Really the entire country. That's what this looks like.
Nancy Pelosi is most concerned with how this is going to look a few weeks from now. Keeping the House in session overnight so today is still Thursday in case they vote on the infrastructure or Saturday is going to be Thursday.
In the meantime, we're -- how about we -- this never happens. That's the win. This country does not need any of this build back better reconciliation spending at all. People are talking about $1.5 trillion from Joe Manchin in his letter that he sent over the summer as some paltry amount.
Brian Riedl at the Manhattan Institute went through the numbers based on everything that Joe Manchin has voted for this year, it's actually $5 trillion in spending. One a half trillion was the last tax cut that we passed.
And if you go through Joe Biden's idea that the left hates so much, it's raising corporate taxes, raising the top rate back to about 40 percent. Raising capital gains tax rates and that destroys the economy. It doesn't help it grow. It hurts small businesses that are struggling mightily to recover from the pandemic.
Just one more thing, Bernie Sanders in that tweet, two senators cannot be allowed to defeat what 48 senators and 210 House members want? It's 52, comrade. Not two. It's 52 senators versus 48. A fundamental misunderstanding from Sanders of civics and math. That's who wants to spend your money, Dan.
WATTERS: And Bernie made Pelosi look pretty dumb yesterday. Basically, pulled the rug out from her. She said they were going to have the vote. They didn't have it because Bernie told the far-left squad, don't do it.
MONTGOMERY: Absolutely not. Do not vote for this infrastructure has to be tied to the 3.5 trillion which is a starting number. That's the floor. That's not the ceiling. Joe Manchin didn't build this House --
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: Can you do the rest of the show like that, please?
MONTGOMERY: Yes. That's -- because I know it's a big turn on for a lot of people. Richard, the thing I take issue with is this idea, this obsession with things like high speed rail because other countries have it? Do you know what other countries have? They have unfunded debt that they can't pay off. And then they enter into areas of austerity where they have to cut social spending and it ends up hurting the people that they claim they are going to help.
And to Dagen's point when you raise the corporate tax rate, when you raise the tax rate for the top income earners, you disincentivize economic growth. And when you do that, you have less capital, that means fewer businesses can invest in the economy. And that means fewer people are going to get jobs.
So, when you contract the economy by overspending, with no way of paying for it you know who gets hurt the most? The people you purportedly are trying to help with massive pieces of social legislation like this and this is a bill, this legislation, it's a series of programs that can never be unrun.
So, if we enter into another pandemic or war, or if there is an act of terrorism that we can't respond to, because we don't have any more economic flexibility? What are the progressives going to do about that?
FOWLER: I think it's worth pointing out that yes, earlier this week --
(CROSSTALK)
MONTGOMERY: And do you want to build high speed rail like China --
FOWLER: Hold on a second.
MONTGOMERY: -- with slave labor?
FOWLER: Hold on a second. I'm going to respond to that.
MONTGOMERY: Tell Uyghurs to come over here and their concentration camps and build high speed rail?
FOWLER: Allow me to respond. Allow me to respond. Earlier this week, Jerome Powell, the federal chair -- federal chairman -- Federal Reserve chair sat down with other federal chairman reserves from around Europe and they were talking about inflation. What he said very clearly is the reason why we are in -- the world is in inflation is because they have supply chain problem.
Part of that supply chain problem has bottlenecks at many of our ports in the United States. This transportation bill, the 1.5 trillion will send well need money to update ports including the ports in Long Beach, the ports in Miami, the ports in Virginia Beach, the ports right here in New York City. Updating these ports if we're talking about long --
(CROSSTALK)
MONTGOMERY: Because --
FOWLER: -- we're talking about long term economic growth --
MCDOWELL: Can I open --
FOWLER: -- then let's talk about how we update our ports and move goods and services --
MCDOWELL: You're actually --
FOWLER: -- to small businesses all across the country.
MCDOWELL: J. Powell want to keep his job in February so he is going to parrot, which he is, everything that's coming out of the White House literally we need --
(CROSSTALK)
FOWLER: But it's not only J. Powell saying that.
MCDOWELL: -- we need to spend --
FOWLER: It's all the --
(CROSSTALK)
BONGINO: The treasury secretary --
FOWLER: But it's also European -- European bank, the central bank leaders. Global central bank leaders --
MCDOWEL: Yes, OK.
FOWLER: And you are saying they are all wrong?
MCDOWELL: Well, let me just the sentence.
FOWLER: Because you are an economist.
MCDOWELL: We need to spend money to tame inflation. That is -- that is idiocy personified.
WATTERS: OK.
FOWLER: No, I'm saying we modernize our system so we can move goods and services to people.
(CROSSTALK)
MONTGOMERY: No, but that's how you create more inflation.
WATTERS: All right We do have to go. We do have to go. I just want to point out that the Democrat at the table is citing European central bankers.
(CROSSTALK)
FOWLER: No, I'm citing the global --
WATTERS: As the authority.
FOWLER: -- central bankers.
WATTERS: As authority on economic growth.
(CROSSTALK)
BONGINO: This is nonsense.
WATTERS: All right.
BONGINO: He (Inaudible) evidence.
FOWLER: What evidence?
BONGINO: This is crap. I just told you are not the only guy saying that.
WATTERS: Richard. You take the L. Ahead, new liberal crime insanity we'll tell you where cops are now telling people not to call 911.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BONGINO (on camera): Liberals doubling down on their awful, horrendous anti-police policy. Because they're terrible. That's what they do. Even after historic crime surge in violent crime. In Austin, Texas, if your life isn't in immediate Danger or crime is no longer in progress, residents are being told to no longer call 911. They are being told to call 311.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH CHACON, CHIEF, AUSTIN, TEXAS POLICE DEPARTMENT: We are experiencing staffing shortages. Many times, people do have to wait on hold when they're calling 311. And we are just going to be working the best that we can, given the circumstances that we have regarding staffing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BONGINO (on camera): This is crazy. And while crime rages in New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is rolling out a new initiative to hire greeters at precincts to act as customer service.
We go around the table. Dagen, customer service, you know. Crime stopping, I thought was number one. But apparently, now they are focused on other things like Christmas greeters and stuff.
MCDOWELL: These are more tales from the left-wing universe down in Austin, Texas -- or excuse me, the people's republic of Austin. I think most people in Texas would be happy if they strapped air balloons to that city and hope it floated somewhere to the northeast.
BONGINO: You Boston (Inaudible).
MCDOWELL: And then there is New York City, the big apple or as we refer to it, hell on earth. But this is all related to liberal policies of coddling the criminals of vilifying the cops and then the victims, what victims? They are just tossed away like garbage, like detritus.
If your -- just question, if your -- if your car is carjacked, you are standing on the side of the road, do you call 311 or 911? Anybody living in a liberal city is having the family conversation of, if I get attacked, what do I do? If I see somebody in the street getting attacked, what do I do? Because there is nobody there to -- that has your back. Like I'm thinking about carrying a hockey stick down the street just so I have --
BONGINO: Yes. It works.
MCDOWELL: I'm not joking.
BONGINO: It will work (Inaudible).
(CROSSTALK)
MCDOWELL: Like, every day I see dangerous mentally ill people in the street chasing people every day.
BONGINO: Yes. Yes. I just pretend I'm mentally ill myself. So, people generally leave me alone. Some liberals would argue I am. Maybe Richard. So, Richard, you know, listen, I find the real systemic racism being that I was a cop in overwhelmingly minority community, black and Hispanic in east New York, Brooklyn.
The real systemic racism is divorcing them from policing where they get preyed on by lunatics and animals every day and they would come out and tap me on the shoulder and like beg us to do something that say, please don't say anything. I think that's the real systemic racism. I think liberal -- liberalism itself is systemically racist. Your thoughts on that as a liberal?
FOWLER: Well, I think that's a very loaded question. But let's actually have a conversation around how we make policing better in this country, right? So, I think that's where we are all trying to start with at this table.
BONGINO: I agree.
FOWLER: And so, what we saw over the past couple of months was we saw Democrats and Republicans try to come together and get the George Floyd Policing Act done. They had everybody at the table. They had the policing at the table. They had Black Lives Matter at the table and they were making progress.
Recently we know those talks fell apart. The police union came out this week and they said, here's why. They thought that were actually -- they thought the talks are very productive. And they're like, these bills are going to give us more money. They were going to give us the ability to reform our police departments.
They were going to give us the ability to create a universal standard on how we do policing around the country. Unfortunately, Tim Scott walked away from that and that's really sad because we could have actually have gotten something done for this country that would make crime go down and also make people trust police more. Because the problem that we have in black communities to your point, Don.
BONGINO: Dan.
FOWLER: Dan. Sorry. My bad. I'm sorry.
(CROSSTALK)
MONTGOMERY: Don Lemon? Is that you?
BONGINO: I get that all the time.
FOWLER: The problem that we have is that there is a breakdown in trust and there is a breakdown in communication between policing -- police in communities of color. And so, yes. communities of color want police to be there to stop crime but they also oftentimes don't trust police at night and various times. So, we've got to figure out a way to bridge that divide. And this bill was a step in the right direction to do that.
WATTERS: OK. Well, Richard, you wanted to have a conversation about improving policing. We did have that conversation last year and you guys decided to defund the police.
FOWLER: No, we didn't.
WATTERS: That's what they did in Austin, Texas.
(CROSSTALK)
MONTGOMERY: Minneapolis. Seattle.
WATTERS: They defunded the police to the tune of --
(CROSSTALK)
FOWLER: I'm not -- to be very clear.
WATTERS: -- Richard, $150 million was slashed out of the police budget. It was the biggest defunding of any city in the country. They are short 400 officers. That's why there is a crime surge. That's why they have 60 murders so far in Austin. That's why it's a 60 year high in Austin, Texas. That's why last year a 911 call averaged seven minutes and this year it averages 9 minutes. A lot can happen in two minutes. You should know that.
So, when you talk about, you are not going to do anything except defund the police and when you have your house broken into, they steal the safe and they jack your car you are going to call someone? Who is coming? A guy like you in a suit is going to come and write something down. OK. So, what else did they take? That doesn't make people feel safe, Richard, don't you want to feel safe?
FOWLER: Yes.
WATTERS: I want you to feel safe.
FOWLER: But to be clear, I'm not for defunding police. I'm for defunding bad police officers.
WATTERS: Well, your whole party defunded them.
BONGINO: Kennedy, I know you have something to say about this.
MONTGOMERY: I don't disagree with that. I think that we have to make it easier to get rid of the bad cops who are oftentimes protected by police unions. Ninety-nine percent of the police officers out there who wear the badge and do the job, they are good people who want to protect citizens and make life better. They want to apprehend bad guys and do a good job.
The bad ones give the good ones a really bad name and that is one of the issues that I have and I think that's a conversation we can have in terms of criminal justice reform. This is breaking news, Dan.
BONGINO: No.
MONTGOMERY: Texas has voted to --
WATTERS: It's Don.
MONTGOMERY: -- kick Austin out of the state. No longer part of Texas.
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: Not really.
MONTGOMERY: So that's what it says.
WATTERS: Who gets Austin? Do we give it to Mexico?
MONTGOMERY: No, its own country.
WATTERS: Its own country.
MONTGOMERY: It's a city state. Like Austin used to be --
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: Austin stand.
MONTGOMERY: Yes, exactly.
WATTERS: OK.
BONGINO: So just finally --
MONTGOMERY: So, they are going to figure out their own way.
BONGINO: In closing, real quick, the reason there's this distrust in the back community precisely of Black Lives Matter telling people police are hunting black men. I have been in those rooms. Nobody is hunting black men. Trust me. I've been in those -- that's just nonsense.
(CROSSTALK)
MCDOWELL: And guess who those communities voted for, for New York City mayor, a black police officer.
BONGINO: Right. Eric Adams who was a police officer. Right. Up next, the surge at the border be damned. What the Biden administration is doing that will turn the crisis into a catastrophe.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOWLER (on camera): Conservatives are fuming over the president's latest move on immigration. Department of Homeland Security new rules on deportation. Saying being in the country illegally should not be the sole basis for being sent home. All this, comes as a new caravan makes its way north. And the immigration braces for 400,000 migrants coming to the southern border. Republicans are calling the president out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: We have a border crisis. There has been over 1.5 million illegal border crossings so far under President Biden. Small towns at our southern border are overwhelmed by migrants.
REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): March was the largest month on record for illegal crossings until April. April was the largest month until May. May until June. June until July when 210,000 illegal migrants encounter on our border. This is -- this is a complete disaster but it's all at the feet of Joe Biden and his administration.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOWLER (on camera): Now, Dagen, this new rule which is a zero tolerance when it comes to how ICE immigrant -- sort of deports folks was created under the Trump administration and it's gotten a lot -- it's got a lot of folks caught up one individual in particular was a seven-year army vet who served this country who was deported.
So, some people -- there is reason for some people to say this is a good rule or bad rule. But oftentimes there are people who get caught up in the melee that served this country like this particular individual who was here who served for seven years and then got deported back to Mexico and now trying to get his way back in our country after serving in our armed forces.
MCDOWELL: Yes.
FOWLER: So how do we sort of bridge the gap between yes and no, right? Because the answer is someplace probably in the middle?
MCDOWELL: Well, this directive is beyond just one individual. And it includes -- here it says, it argues against deporting an illegal immigrant who has committed a crime. Say, if you are of tender age or an advanced age, it goes on. If you are in this country illegally by that very word you have broken the law, number one.
And there is great pressure now being put on the Biden administration from the far left because they actually deported some of the Haitians that came into this country and now, they are upset, you know, people camping out in front of Alejandro Mayorkas' house with anyone being deported.
Let's say OK, how about let's start caring about the fentanyl that's crossing the border. Our resources are being sucked up by hundreds of thousands of people coming into the country and you've got, well, we talked about it yesterday, 93,000 people died from fentanyl poisonings.
How about the left starts caring about the loved ones and the families and the dead because our border isn't being protected. And just one more thing on this. This will only and, Jesse, everybody can weigh in. This will only make this crisis worse when they're planning on 400,000 hitting the border this month.
FOWLER: Jesse, your take?
WATTERS: I think you and I are going to agree on something, Richard.
BONGINO: Whoa, the cameras are rolling.
WATTERS: All right. Because you can't disagree with this. If you know that in June the Panamanians has tipped off sleepy and said hey, we got about 10,000 strong caravan of Haitians coming up through Panama and to Central America into your country and they didn't do anything about it. And then in October, late September, they tell you, you know what? It's going to go about 400,000 strong caravan coming up?
Now, we are a sophisticated country Richard, we have satellite technology, we have station chiefs all over that region, we have diplomats. How long do you think it takes to get from Colombia all the way to the Rio Grande? Probably a couple months, right?
FOWLER: Five months.
WATTERS: So, you're seeing it happen in real-time. So, Joe has what, maybe several months warning. You got 400,000 migrants. OK. Do you think Joe Biden could do anything, anything at all, Richard, to stop or even slow down 400,000 migrants coming from South America to North America? Do you think he has anything, you know, in his tool chest to figure that out?
FOWLER: No, actually -- I agree with you.
WATTERS: OK, so you agree, you agree. Now, my next question, do you think he will do anything about that?
FOWLER: I think he should.
WATTERS: You think he should, I think he should, but I don't think he will. And that's why the President is in over his head.
FOWLER: So, I will offer you a question.
WATTERS: Because he will not do anything about this.
FOWLER: So, I will offer you a question. So I will give you that. Will you then say that we have 11 million folks in this country living in the shadows?
WATTERS: Probably 20 million? They were using 11 million since I was in diapers.
FOWLER: Fair enough. Should we do something about them or should we just deport all of them?
WATTERS: No, I take out the criminals the best I could, you know, the hardcore ones.
FOWLER: And then, what should we do?
WATTERS: It's very difficult to get the ones that haven't committed a crime. It's very difficult, but I'd get everybody else out.
FOWLER: And then what should we do?
WATTERS: I'd deport them?
FOWLER: All 11 million or just the criminals?
WATTERS: I'll get all the nasty ones out and I'll get them out fast.
FOWLER: And then what should we do -- what should we do with the other ones?
WATTERS: What should we do with the other ones? I don't think I'd put them on a pathway.
FOWLER: OK.
WATTERS: I don't think I would.
KENNEDY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CONTRIBUTOR: I actually agree that I think citizenship is sacred, but I don't think we have proper legal means to deal with people here who are working hard, paying taxes, and raising families. And as for the people who've made their way from Colombia through Panama, there's a 65-mile stretch called the Darien Gap which is so incredibly treacherous, and they all have to go through it. There are black panthers. There are pit vipers. There are scorpions. There is -- there are massive swaths of jungles.
So, if people are literally going to put themselves in death's clutches to get United States, they're probably going to be some pretty badass people. So, we need to have better means of figuring out good people from bad people. The federal government, to your point at the top of the show, has been really, really bad at doing that.
Every administration, Republican, Democrat, they don't want to deal with immigration. Congress doesn't want to deal with immigration. They don't want to figure out the laws that are stupid and redundant from the ones that might be helpful getting people in who want to work hard and make this country better.
I'm sure we all have people in our family who came here from a different place with a big fat dream. I still think there are a lot of people like that. But I think the government has failed them utterly every step of the way, especially this administration. And shame on them for not actually doing something about it when they have the majority in Congress as well.
FOWLER: Dan, your take.
DAN BONGINO, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: This is only one of those conversations that happens amongst liberals who are generally like clueless, nonsensical dopes a lot. Like, this is a serious conversation -- present company. But this is, of course, a conversation on the left. Like, should being in the country illegally be the only reason we deport people for being in the country illegally? You're like, let's change the topic for a minute to make this make sense to liberals, because they're generally nonsense.
Should we arrest people for crack, and the only reason being we arrest them for crack because they smoked crack and you're like, this is a crime. Do you understand? Like, you want to deport people for illegal immigration and you're wondering if that's the only reason to deport them? You're going like, am I crazy?
WATTERS: We go into other countries -- you can't just stay in other countries.
(CROSSTALK)
FOWLER: Anyway, gents --
BONGINO: Wait, wait.
FOWLER: Coming up --
BONGINO: The DHS is seriously suggesting you can't deport people for illegal immigration, for being here illegally.
FOWLER: Coming up, does the government know how to best treat -- how to best do education? Well, a top Biden official thinks he does. We'll talk about it next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX NEWS CHANNEL ANCHOR: The latest big government overreach in the classroom may come from pushing parents out of the equation. President Biden's Education Secretary attempted to dodge the question when asked if parents should play a major role in their kids schooling.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MIKE BRAUN (R-IN): Do you think parents should be in charge of their child's education as the primary stakeholder?
MIGUEL CARDONA, U.S. SECRETARY OF EDUCATION: I believe parents are important stakeholders, but I also believe --
BRAUN: Primary
CARDONA: -- educators have a role in determining educational programming.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCDOWELL: Of course, after causing controversy, Secretary Cardona tried to clean up that situation. Kennedy, if somebody tells you who they are, believe them the first time.
KENNEDY: Absolutely. And this is something that I have long suspected since the first time I tried to help my daughter with math in third grade, when Common Core had really taken hold in public schools. And I realized that, you know, before there would be examples of math problems, and now there were none because math is being taught in a slightly different way. And it was a way to keep parents from helping kids.
And I had had this suspicion for a long time that that was happening. And it was -- it was sort of like a poorly kept dirty little secret. And now it's out in the open because the teachers' unions have grown so powerful. But there's so much hubris because they really overstep their mark during the pandemic.
MCDOWELL: Yes.
KENNEDY: And we got to realize how powerful they were. And it wasn't about learning. They have not talked about students. They have not talked about learning. They have -- they have not talked about suicide rates and mental health. They have just talked about safety and abundance of caution and $180 billion that doesn't even get doled out to public schools for the next five years.
So, yes, they want money, power, and control. And they want parents out because they know parents will demand accountability.
MCDOWELL: Power-hungry science deniers that hate our children. That's how I refer to the teachers unions. Dan, any -- these Democrats, and you see it with Secretary Cardona, they are afraid of the teachers' unions. They are afraid to say out loud parents should have a big say so in the education of their kids. That boggles the mind.
BONGINO: Listen, I love teachers. I mean that. They change my life. I am where I am because of great teachers. But teachers' unions just hate your kids. I'm sorry if that's like -- no, actually, I'm not sorry. They legit hate your kids. If that offends you, then wake up. They can't stand your kids. Like, everything they do is anti-kid, anti-parent.
Teachers are great, again. The organized interest representing them about one thing, that's teacher dues, who they take from good teachers and then screw the teachers and the kids. But Cardona -- you said it right, trust them when they tell you who they are. It reminds me of that -- what was that, Dennis Green? They are who we thought they were. Remember the coach thing?
WATTERS: Yes.
BONGINO: When the Democrats tell you that they are in charge and you aren't as apparent, they're not kidding. I mean, Hillary Clinton wrote a book about it. It takes a village. No, it doesn't. It takes two good parents. A village is cute and nice. It's great to have friends and cousins and uncles and, you know, buddies on the corner, but it takes two good parents.
And if the Democrats would never recognize that and get out of the live -- they don't want competition with the government. That's why they -- you know, the unions and big government hate parents and hate the -- you know, they hate anything that's competition for them.
MCDOWELL: Richard, after this week, Terry McAuliffe in the gubernatorial debate in Virginia made the slip up of what I call the basket of deplorables moment of I'm not going to let parents come into schools and make their own decisions -- actually, take books out and make their own decisions. I stopped the bill. And I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach. That kind of crosses party lines in terms of a follow-up.
FOWLER: Look, I think what Cardona said there was clearly inaccurate. I think parents are the primary stakeholders when it comes to public education, period. And to Dan's point, I think that you know, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for great teachers, but I think it's worth pointing out that what teachers unions do on a regular basis is they allow teachers to have a voice. And when teachers have a voice, they make change in the classroom, case and point.
For a very long time, for decades, teachers have talked about the -- how horrific standardized testing is for students, right? And it took -- I mean, when teachers union and -- when teachers unions and the Governor of Florida agree on something, you know we're making progress. Because for a long time, they were Republicans like Jeb Bush that said testing is great. Testing helps our students. Testing is the reason why we had Common Core, Kennedy. Testing is the reason why they change math problems. But teachers were against testing for the whole time because they said what testing does is it causes us not to teach actual mathematics and instead we're teaching towards the test. I was a student that graduated --
KENNEDY: The head of UCLA said the math doesn't matter anymore. It doesn't matter about math standards because kids now know what an insurrection is.
FOWLER: No, no, no. That's not what --
KENNEDY: That's exactly what she said.
FOWLER: That is not what she --
KENNEDY: That is what she said.
FOWLER: What she was talking about --
KENNEDY: She said, our babies don't know their timetables but they know what an insurrection means.
FOWLER: But what she was talking about was learning loss, and I think that's a different conversation. You're mixing apples and oranges.
MCDOWELL: I need to get Jesse in here. Speaking of California, Governor Haircut has mandated vaccines K through 12, private and public school.
WATTERS: So, you're saying he's not mandating the teachers' unions get vaccinated?
FOWLER: No, he's already mandated that.
WATTERS: Because I don't think he's enforcing that at all.
FOWLER: Yes, he does.
WATTERS: No, we'll check that, Richard.
FOWLER: You can check that.
WATTERS: I'm pretty sure he does not.
(CROSSTALK)
BONGINO: Last time we checked things during the break, it didn't went well. I watched that show.
MCDOWELL: Go ahead. You take the ball.
WATTERS: So, I mean, you can't -- you can't do that. You can't have the kids be mandated to be vaccinated and the teachers cannot do anything.
BONGINO: Here it is. Newsom will not as yet require California teachers and staff to get vaccine. Wrong again.
WATTERS: Live fact check.
FOWLER: Listen, in Los Angeles -- in Los Angeles, teachers are mandated to take the vaccine.
MCDOWELL: We're talking about the state.
FOWLER: As well as in Chicago, as well as in New York City.
BONGINO: Just take the L. Just take the L.
FOWLER: As well as in New York City, the teachers are mandated to take the vaccine.
MCDOWELL: Let Jesse -- Jesse, you have the floor.
WATTERS: It's OK. I'll just be quick because I know we have to run. No one has seen the failure of the education system more than I have, "WATTERS' WORLD." We used to go out in the streets and we used to ask people, where it in Columbus land? L.A., like stuff like that. But it wasn't just like one person, it was pretty much 50 percent of the country feels like that.
KENNEDY: Can I just make a very quick point.
WATTERS: Please.
KENNEDY: If -- I know your guys are talking about great teachers. Great teachers change lives. You want to hear about bad teachers? Sit kids down and ask them about bad teachers who have committed so much destruction in their lives. They're the ones that will give you the honest answers, not the unions.
MCDOWELL: And here's an honest answer. 27 urban school districts, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, not a single one say a majority of Black eighth- graders in their care are proficient in math, or reading. "FAN MAIL FRIDAY," next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KENNEDY: It is "FAN MAIL FRIDAY" and we are answering your questions. Here we go. This is a Facebook question from Billy D. I will ask you this question first. How do you pass the time while stuck in traffic, Jesse Watters?
WATTERS: I listen to Howard, Howard 100, Howard 101 when I'm in my car.
KENNEDY: Howard 100.
WATTERS: And that's all I listened to. Sometimes the Grateful Dead.
KENNEDY: Wonderful. Oh god, that was my first concert. Dagen.
MCDOWELL: I sing. It doesn't matter what's song. It's the only place I'll sing because I have the worst voice on planet earth, so I don't subject anybody else to it.
KENNEDY: Oh, Dan.
BONGINO: I definitely don't listen to Howard. I did in the old day because of the K Rock but he jumped out. When after Joe Rogan's --
WATTERS: You don't like him anymore?
BONGINO: No.
WATTERS: You know, I can put that aside.
BONGINO: I listen to anything -- ABH, anything but Howard.
WATTERS: It's like Eagles kneel during the anthem, I still watch the Eagles.
BONGINO: No, I can't do it. He sold me out. No, no, NFL, Howard, you're out.
WATTERS: I believe Green.
KENNEDY: Richard, how do you pass the time in traffic?
FOWLER: Oh, good R&B music.
KENNEDY: That's absolutely right.
KENNEDY: What about your friends? I'm with Dagen. I sing. I used to play drums but I gotten a fender bender and stop doing that.
BONGINO: Playing car drums?
KENNEDY: Yes. That's actually not safe. OK, here's a Facebook question from Bob S. What's up, Bobby? Did you have a nickname growing up, Richard?
FOWLER: Yes, JR. I'm Junior to my father.
KENNEDY: Oh that's sweet. That's just adorable. Dan, nickname?
BONGINO: No. Like, I don't -- no, I had no nickname at all. Like, I don't even nicknamed Dan. But I will say this.
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: I read one time -- Don -- Richard just gave me a nickname. But I did see one time on Twitter the top 10 names of jerks, one of them was Dan. It was like, number two. So, you know, I felt kind of bad when I heard that.
MCDOWELL: It's a bit much.
KENNEDY: Name, Jesse?
WATTERS: Dirty Watters.
BONGINO: Dirty Watters. Why is that?
WATTERS: I don't have enough time.
BONGINO: You don't want to share it?
WATTERS: I'm not going to share it.
BONGINO: We're not in the trust tree here?
WATTERS: Not on live TV.
KENNEDY: Dagen?
MCDOWELL: Mary Dagen which is my real name. I didn't have a really good nickname till high school given to me by one Saber Aires. I love you. But I can't say it on air. It's Dagen blank is what she called me.
BONGINO: Your real name is Mary Dagen?
MCDOWELL: Yes.
BONGINO: I called you Lisa on the other show.
MCDOWELL: Dagen blank because I was just was so full of blank.
KENNEDY: My nickname is (INAUDIBLE) because in seventh grade I got a really bad short haircut and I looked like I'd been had to (INAUDIBLE) and it stuck. All right, this is an Instagram question from Charha B. What childhood fear still haunts you today, Richard? Quick.
FOWLER: Pass.
KENNEDY: Jesse.
WATTERS: Rats, mice, vermin, possums.
KENNEDY: Rodentia. Dagen?
MCDOWELL: Eating liver, any kind of liver.
KENNEDY: I've got a really good one. Dan?
MCDOWELL: Chicken, calf --
BONGINO: Spiders. I never got over the Brady Bunch.
KENNEDY: Do you know what mine was?
BONGINO: Do you remember the scene?
KENNEDY: I was worried --
WATTERS: You're in the string? You can see the string?
BONGINO: No, no, no, the spider episode, the Brady Bunch. You don't remember it?
KENNEDY: Oh, yes. In Hawaii, of course.
BONGINO: I've never got over that.
KENNEDY: Yes. Mine was that my belly button is going to unravel. I still do not like anyone going near my belly button.
WATTERS: Come here, Kennedy
KENNEDY: No.
WATTERS: Come here, Kennedy.
KENNEDY: Oh my God.
MCDOWELL: Oh, my God.
KENNEDY: Human resources, where are you. "ONE MORE THING" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WATTERS: It's time now for "ONE MORE THING." So, next week, Fox is going to be celebrating 25 years. So, on Sunday, at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time, we're going to run a little special where a bunch of Fox hosts reflect on these 25 years or however many years they've been here at the channel. And here's a short clip of me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: There's a camaraderie behind the scenes at Fox that's very special. It's like being a Super Bowl champion. Everybody is involved and everybody feels like they're a part of something that's new and special and winning. And we win every single night.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: Yes we do every single night. And "WATTERS' WORLD" will be on at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. We have Senator Ted Cruz. It's going to be a blockbuster show, so tune in for that as well. Dan Bongino.
BONGINO: And when you're done with Jesse's probably excellent show, as it always is, right?
WATTERS: Yes.
BONGINO: You probably want to stay tuned for my show which is on a 10:00 p.m. There it is, "UNFILTERED" with me. That's amazing. They found a guy named Dan Bondgino to host the show who looks like me. But please check that out. We got a great lineup this week.
Hey, check this out. There was a drone filming a crocodile or something. And the crocodile like, ate the damn thing. And so -- yes. And somebody found the footage. Like, imagine -- lucky that drone doesn't have like a nervous system and feel pain. We get a lot of crocs in Florida, so the story -- when they asked me the story this morning if I want them, I'm like obviously, the crocodile story, you know. Florida. Check that out. It ate the darn thing.
WATTERS: It tastes good.
KENNEDY: That's actually Australia.
BONGINO: Is it? Sorry, I didn't pay attention to my "ONE MORE THING."
KENNEDY: Eaters are in Florida. They call them salties. Yes, guys.
BONGINO: Do they? Really?
KENNEDY: Yes.
WATTERS: All right, Dagen.
MCDOWELL: October is Adopt a Shelter Dog Month. And here is why you should adopt a shelter dog.
BONGINO: I love dogs.
MCDOWELL: The boys.
FOWLER: Those yours too?
BONGINO: How can you not love dogs?
MCDOWELL: Their sound -- I didn't know you're not going to play the sound. I'm sorry. That's Charlie, the fluffy one. His nickname is Chazmatazz or Chessmaster 5000. That's Dale. Dale is from Georgia. Charlie was an owner surrender here in New York. And here's Ramon. Charlie is 13, Dale is two and a half. Ramon is from Puerto Rico and he is 18. They're my fur babies. Get to a shelter. Change your life.
WATTERS: Very cute. Kennedy.
MCDOWELL: Well, Greg is not here but animals are great, aren't they?
WATTERS: They sure are.
MCDOWELL: Let's go to Oklahoma City, shall we? There was a mischievous little squirrel who was ring-a-ding-dinging on a doorbell, just ding dong, ding dong ditching, but just stood there for quite a while. It looks like it was a nest cam. The squirrel got very curious and just kept reaching up, ringing Dakota Anglin's door. And they didn't bring nothing. He just stole our Amazon packages and called their names. I love that guy.
WATTERS: That is cute. Richard.
FOWLER: Let's go to Inglewood, California, SoFi Stadium.
KENNEDY: SoFi Stadium. Thank you, Kennedy. It's the 2020 Super Bowl. And the halftime performance had been announced, and what a lineup it is. It's Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, and don't forget Dr. Dre. What a halftime show. I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be epic, the All-Stars of hip hop. You don't want to miss it. It's going to be pretty dope. Kennedy, will you be watching?
KENNEDY: I will be watching with all four of my eyeballs.
FOWLER: Yes.
BONGINO: They should bring Will Ferrell out. He should like, Snoop a little -- remember Snoop?
WATTERS: I do.
BONGINO: Maybe they could -- they could --
MCDOWELL: From old school.
BONGINO: Street to club afterwards.
FOWLER: Hey, listen. Collectively, these artists have 43 Grammys and 22 number one albums on the Billboard 200.
MCDOWELL: Are they single?
BONGINO: Get Shakira back.
WATTERS: But do they have the number one New York Times bestseller? I don't think they do, Richard.
FOWLER: Only you have that, Jesse.
WATTERS: That's it for us. See you guys back here on Monday. Have a great weekend, everybody.
MIKE EMANUEL, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good evening. Welcome to Washington.
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