Bernie Sanders campaign blames the media for candidate's slip in the polls

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Bernie Sanders campaign blames the media for candidate's slip in the polls

Sanders campaign manager slams the coverage of the Democratic presidential candidate; reaction and analysis on 'The Five.'

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," July 17, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

JUAN WILLIAMS, HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Juan Williams along with Katie Pavlich, Jesse Watters, Dana Perino, and Greg Gutfeld. It's 5 o'clock in New York City, this is “The Five.”

The squad renewing their feud with Nancy Pelosi, the four progressive congresswomen, once again, criticizing the speaker even after she strongly rebuked President Trump's controversial comments about them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you speaking to Nancy Pelosi?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our teams are in communication --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Which shouldn't it be a face to face with --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I agree, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's the new member, not the speaker.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She has every right to sit down with her in any moment, any time with any of us. She is Speaker of the House. She can ask for a meeting to sit down with us for clarification. The fact of the knowledge is not been racial justice working our country for a long time, acknowledge the fact that we are women of color.

So when you single us out, be aware of that and what you're doing. Especially, because some of us are getting death threats, because some of us are being singled out in many ways because of our background, because of our experiences, and so forth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: And a moderate Democrat, slamming the squad for threatening to primary him. Here's Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HENRY CUELLAR, D-TX: There this group called the justice Democrats. I think they're not Democrats. Quite honestly, they're socialists, and they want to impose their vision to Texas, and we certainly know that in Texas, our vision is very different. Their vision is not the vision of most Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: Dana, this is so interesting. So here they are at a time when you think, you know, President Trump has opened the door to Democrats getting back together. Now they're being critical of Nancy Pelosi for not getting together. And I wonder if you think that when they mentioned the death threats and saying Pelosi should be careful in criticizing them, do they have a point?

DANA PERINO, HOST: Well, I would -- I don't know. I'm not saying the threat assessment, but I'm assuming that there are many people including -- and in particular, Nancy Pelosi who probably has had death threats against her for decades. So, death threats are wrong across the board. And actual shooting --

GREG GUTFELD, HOST: Way to take a stance.

PERINO: You know, I've been working on that all day.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: I also think that their interview with Gail King I believe showed -- there must be a lot more division within the Democratic caucus than we even realized, because instead of them saying we'd love to do an event with you, Nancy Pelosi, thank you for putting the resolution on the floor, thank you for going through all of that when there was a mix-up and kerfuffle on the rule, and let's all -- might have a suggestion, would you stand with us? Would you come with us? We would love to be -- they don't want that.

I think they want this fight with Nancy Pelosi. And I think that they're isolating themselves away from the Democratic caucus forgetting about President Trump. Here's the other thing I would say. Everybody has the opportunity right now to convene a meeting. That's one of the things that you have as a congress person or a senator or speaker or a president. If they wanted to get past this, they could all get together in a room, getting to know each other better, that always helps with things, but no one is suggesting that.

They're actually just saying -- they're saying that the speaker should come to them for a meeting? Like, I don't think so. I think Speaker Pelosi is wise, like, they could come to me.

WILLIAMS: Greg, I noticed that the economist, you two have said that the three most unpopular Democrats among Trump voters are Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib. By the way, number four is Pelosi. They're more popular among Trump voters and Pelosi, and then Elizabeth Warren who's number five. So all the top five are women.

GUTFELD: Oh, women. Oh, that is disgusting. You know what? I have a list here. Here's just a list I came up with, Jeff Sessions, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mitt Romney, Rand Paul, Jim Acosta, Amazon, Jeff Bezos, Bloomberg, John McCain, Rosy O'Donnell, Mitch Mulvaney, Ted Cruz, Ted Cruz's wife, according to the media, they're all women of color, Dana, because Donald Trump only goes after women of color.

PERINO: And you should be mindful of that.

GUTFELD: You should be mindful that he attacks women of color. No, he's a trash talker and he covers everybody. In fact, I think at this point, he has trash talked about every single person on the planet except for me because, you know, I'm such a pleasant person. This may be the most lopsided story we've ever covered because the media outrage is inversely proportional to the outrage of the public.

Summer time, people are out. You ask -- they're like -- this is about a tweet? You're talking about a resolution about a tweet? This is what you're talking about? You know, life is --isn't so bad. If this is the biggest story you've ever heard in your life. It's a tweet. By the way, who did it upset?

JESSE WATTERS, HOST: When you walk home from walk do you talk to people --

GUTFELD: Yes, you know, I'm the man of the people.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: And then you have Al Green pushing -- Al Green pushing impeachment for his tweets? That would matter maybe if he wasn't pushing impeachment every day. He pushes it every day.

PERINO: Even Nancy Pelosi saying she will vote against Al Green's piece. I mean, that's why I say that there's divisions within the Democrat.

WILLIAMS: Well -- OK, so, Jesse, is the president, though, aware that you got, you know -- Republicans who voted for the resolution Greg was referring to, which found that the president's tweet was deeply offensive and, of course, it's widely been condemned as racist, so you had Will Hurd of Texas, Bryan Patrick of Pennsylvania, Fred Upton of Michigan, Susan Brooks of Indiana, as well as Justin Amash all saying yes to what the Democrats --

WATTERS: Do I think Trump is aware of who these guys are?

WILLIAMS: No, I think, what do you --

WATTERS: I think he is aware, and I think they're all dead to him. This is a rock solid coalition. They only had four defections. That's not a big deal. And the Reuters poll shows that Republicans were jump after this weekend. So I don't think he's worried about his base. His base is activated as activated it can be. For me, it's not about race. It's about respecting your elders.

When I came on this show, Greg was so much older than I am, I was so differential. I never got out of line. I always acquiesced to whatever he wanted. And I always knew how to respect him because he was so much older than I am. And that's what this is about. These four freshmen --

GUTFELD: It's so unnecessary, this analogy. You could have use --

WATTERS: Are you not giving me permission to make an analogy?

GUTFELD: You could have brought up your parents or your grandparents.

WATTERS: I'll get to my mom in a second. You should see these texts after the squad got hit yesterday. These four freshmen came -- in the first five months, impeach the mother F-er. Israel is bad. Eliminate capitalism. Eliminate ICE. All of a sudden, you criticize them, they play the race card, the gender card, the Islam card. You can't say anything about them at all.

And Nancy knows this, and that's why she's scared. And the mainstream media is protecting them. Meanwhile --

WILLIAMS: Nancy Pelosi is scared?

WATTERS: I don't think she's handled this smoothly, have you?

WILLIAMS: Yeah, I do think she's handled it pretty well.

WATTERS: You think Nancy has handled this well? They have now been elevated to basically Trump's opponent in 2020. He's running against people who a lot of people think hate America, and want socialism, and no one is talking about Joe Biden. Joe Biden is taking a nap.

WILLIAMS: All right. So, Katie --

KATIE PAVLICH, HOST: And their problem isn't just with Republicans, it's with Democrats outside of the beltway who also see these four as very toxic to the future of the Democratic Party --

WILLIAMS: Well, that's what I wanted to say. In fact, according to that YouTube economist poll, these people, these four who are, you know --

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: -- are better known among Republicans than they are among Democrats. And I wonder if you think, therefore, this is helping or hurting President Trump to have made these racist comments?

PAVLICH: I think that President Trump making these women the face of the Democratic Party as they want to be, they want to burn it down, they want their socialist policies to reign. Democrats are going to find out a whole lot more about who they are if they know who they are now because they're going to primary them. As we just saw Democrats are accusing them of being socialist who are trying to rip down and tear down the party.

This is beneficial to President Trump in this way. This will pass. The story will go away. The outrage over another offensive thing that President Trump said will go away. But the long-term implications of the rift within the Democrat Party on that side will certainly be a long-term problem. Not only just in presidential elections but in keeping the House with Nancy Pelosi.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: I don't want us to become CNN, you know. You don't say something is racist. You say it's perceive -- if you believe it's racist, but that's not -- I don't believe it's racist. CNN can put it in their lowest third. We don't do that crap. We divide our facts from our opinions, so that's your opinion.

WILLIAMS: No, I will tell you, I don't think -- I mean --

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: -- if you wanted to say, does Anthony Scaramucci think it's racist? Ah, I think --

GUTFELD: Oh, now you're -- Scaramucci.

(LAUGHTER)

WILLIAMS: No, no, I'm citing them as Republicans because I would give -- I would think that would give added credibility because I don't want you view this as --

GUTFELD: But I didn't know he had credibility in your life.

WILLIAMS: No -- OK. George Conway who's Kellyanne --

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: OK. OK. I'll keep -- you want me to keep going. I mean, you can go through the A.P., the Associated Press. Everybody who previously was filling -- you know what you shouldn't --

GUTFELD: Yeah, those guys are all objective before.

WILLIAMS: I'll tell you, I don't see how you can get away from a comment that to me has been used to demonize people --

GUTFELD: What part of the comment bothers you again?

WILLIAMS: Against the Irish, the Italians, the Jews --

GUTFELD: Go back to where you came from, fix it and come back. Racists don't ask you to come back.

WILLIAMS: How about they're Americans? They don't have anywhere to go too. But, Katie, I just wanted to come to you and say this.

PAVLICH: I mean, if we're going to talk about bad comments, I think we can go back to exactly what all of these women have said, including Ilhan Omar today who's talking about introducing legislation against -- or Israel with BDS, which actually hurts Palestinians. And she clearly doesn't really care about that.

So, if we're going to talk about bad rhetoric let's not have a double standard from both sides --

WILLIAMS: Is there a chance that Trump really prefers --

PAVLICH: I think the things that she said are pretty racist too.

WILLIAMS: OK. Is there a chance that Trump prefers having these four as his targets rather than any -- because he doesn't have a Democratic --

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: In fact, right now, the House of Representatives has just taking up -- debating right now the impeachment. And I think that will probably go down, but I think they'll bring it up over and over again. And the president is just been speaking to reporters and we're going to have that in just a moment for you because he's got some new things to say.

You can say -- I don't like the tweet -- I said it the other day. I wouldn't never have sent it. I would never have said that. I can see how people think that it was the wrong thing to do. But I also think that with all -- like with the resolution, vote your heart, like whatever you want to do. But also know that no matter if you're a Republican, no matter what you do, it will never be enough.

PAVLICH: Right.

PERINO: It will never be enough. The next thing would be, like -- oh, so you think it's racist, OK. Then, what you're going to do? Are you going to leave the party? Oh, wait, here's the president.

WILLIAMS: Hold on, Dana. We've to go to President Trump in the Rose Garden making some comments before he goes to this rally in North Carolina.

(INAUDIBLE)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT: No, if people want to leave our country, they can. If they don't want to love our country, if they don't want to fight for our country, they can. I'll never change on that. No.

(INAUDIBLE)

TRUMP: What?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think you're winning this political fight?

TRUMP: I do think I'm winning the political fight --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why?

TRUMP: I think I'm winning it by a lot.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why?

TRUMP: I think that they are not espousing the views of our country, the four congresswomen. I think that they've said horrible things that the press doesn't cover. I think you should try covering it. When you look at some of the things they said, they're unthinkable. If somebody else, or me, or anybody else said things like that, it would be historic. So you ought to look at some of the horrible statements because there's never been statements like that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, you've been very unspoken about the anti-Israel friend (INAUDIBLE) of the Democratic Party. How do you think that all began? And is there anyone in particular you blame on that?

TRUMP: Well, the Democratic Party is really going in a direction that nobody thought possible. They go as so far left they're going to fall off a cliff. So I think they're making a big mistake. But who knows. That's up to them.

(INAUDIBLE)

TRUMP: Well, there's a lot of talk about the fact that she was married to her brother. I know nothing about it. I hear she was married to her brother. You're asking me a question about it. I don't know. But I'm sure that somebody will be looking at that.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, do you believe people should be allowed, sir, to --

(INAUDIBLE)

TRUMP: Well, I think the story last night was that 187 Republicans voted in favor of Trump and four voted against. I think that was the big story. That seems to be the story. There's great unity in the Republican Party. It's very unfair what's happened with respect to the way -- I would say Republicans are being treated, frankly, but certainly way -- certainly the way this president has been treated.

In the history of our country, there's never been anything like this. And this should never be allowed to happen to another president again. Should never be allowed to happen. Despite that, we've created the greatest economy in the history of our country. We're doing things like nobody has ever done. We have the best jobs numbers in the history of our country.

African-American, Asian-American, women, Hispanic-American, best job numbers we've ever had. And I have to go because I see it's starting to pour.

(INAUDIBLE)

TRUMP: I'm not relishing the fight. I'm enjoying it because I have to get the word out to the American people. And you have to enjoy what you do. I enjoy what I do. The key is -- the key is -- it's not a question of relishing. They're wrong. They're absolutely wrong. That's not where our country wants to be. We're not going to go and we're not going to be a socialist country. It's not going to happen.

(INAUDIBLE)

WILLIAMS: President Trump on his way to North Carolina for a rally tonight. You can see some of it here on the Fox News Channel. And you see, he might as well be a member of THE FIVE the way he was reacting the questions that we were talking about. Katie, what did you think? Anything stand out?

PAVLICH: I mean, he's just thinking the same argument that he's been making. I'm interested to see what he does tonight at his rally, if he extends his remarks to these four during his first rally since this thing has kicked off. He does think he's winning the political fight. We'll see, long term, if that's the case.

But what he's saying about people can leave if they want to, reminds me of Hollywood actresses and musical artists who said they're going to move out of the country if Trump becomes president. They never did. These four aren't going to never leave it either, so we'll see what happens.

WILLIAMS: So, Jesse, he seemed to be quoting Jesse Watters when he said, hey, it was four but they still have a unified Republican Party that has not reacted negatively to his controversial tweets.

WATTERS: Yes, he is very confident that he's got the base behind him, and that's clear. He thinks he's winning the argument, and I think he is, too. Love it or leave is not controversial. It's not racist. The media is trying to make this out to be Charlottesville. They're making it out to be the S-hole country controversy. It doesn't even come close to that.

If you think about what these four women had said about laughing about al- Qaeda, some people knocked down the towers, bragging about kicking out 25,000 jobs from New York City, abolishing capitalism, abolishing ICE, opening up the borders, and calling the president a Nazi rapist, to say that that is not controversial and love it or leave it is, shows how dishonest the press is.

I think right now he'll go out and double down, triple down at the rally, and the media is not be able to do anything about it.

WILLIAMS: Dana, one of the questions that was repeatedly shouted but the president didn't take was he has been critical of America in the past, and now he is going after these women and saying, hey, you've guys have been critical of the USA.

PERINO: Go ahead, Jesse.

WATTERS: Can I answer that, though, because I really, really want to answer that question. When he's saying that these people can't criticize me, that's not what he saying or criticize America. He's fixing problems. He ran on fixing problems in the country. He didn't just run to criticize. The Democrats who are in Congress are not fixing problems. They got in there, had the opportunity to fix the crisis at the border, send millions of dollars to these young kids in these detention centers, and they voted no to fund those detention --

WILLIAMS: I think they just voted yes.

WATTERS: No, no, no. They -- the four of them voted no to send money to the kids --

WILLIAMS: Oh, you mean those four --

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: That's not the Democrats. In other words, the Democrats --

WATTERS: Juan, I'm talking about the squad. I am talking about the squad and so is he.

WILLIAMS: OK, all right. Dana?

PERINO: Well, I don't know -- wait, what's the question?

WILLIAMS: Well, so -- one of the questions that was repeatedly asked --

PERINO: Oh, because he used to say -- like the American carnage speech. And he said America is the laughingstock of the world.

WILLIAMS: He was so harsh about healthcare, about the economy --

PERINO: Right, he was trying -- and he was saying these are the things that I want to try to fix. Now he's trying to make the case that he's fixed all those things or that they're on their way to being fix --

WILLIAMS: Healthcare?

PERINO: I'm saying that's what he's saying. I'm not saying that is true.

WILLIAMS: OK.

PERINO: He's saying make America great again is now transitioning to his reelection effort which is keep American great. So all you have to do is conclude that he thinks that he has accomplished those things. He goes through the list. We go through the list over and over again of all the accomplishments. You start listing them out.

Now these four or other members of Congress, they don't -- you don't typically run for Congress just because you don't like your country. Like, if you're going to actually run for Congress is because you think that you want to do something. The problem with these guys is that they don't have the votes and they're totally un-persuading. They do not persuade anybody except, possibly, within their blue districts. But that's not how you grow a coalition. It's not how you say -- look, we can give a little here -- you're not going to have a green new deal revolution. The revolution is not happening in 2020.

And what Nancy Pelosi is trying to say is, this -- a lot of the stuff has to be incremental, so why don't we try to do this? Like, she's working her way through the system to try to keep that majority so that they could see if they can try to win back the White House and the Senate. Right now it looks like that -- absolutely isn't going to happen.

What was Tom Freidman's headline today in his column in the New York Times? He has asked over and over again this question, Donald Trump is going to win again, isn't he? And that's what all the Democrats are coming up to Tom Friedman and saying, I think right now the answer is, like, yeah.

GUTFELD: Can I just -- there is a difference in the criticism. Trump's criticism is predicated on what he perceives harms America. Their criticism is predicated on what America harms. So it's such a clear distinction, anybody can see it. It's the difference between radical leftist and patriotic Americans. Americans can criticize -- patriotic Americans can see what harms America. They only see what America harms. That is the underlying engine for those tweets which you talked about on Monday.

Trump reacts in the perception of disloyalty. Now, you can disagree with that and find it simplistic and shallow and incorrected, but it ain't racist. It's based on a unifying concept of loyalty to your country. By the way, if you were born after 2000, you might find that whole idea so stupid and old fashioned like ribbon candy, you know, and bicycles with giant tires. Oh, what is patriotism? What is love it or leave it? It's an old concept, I agree.

WILLIAMS: I think racism is very divisive.

GUTFELD: I agree, too. Try to look for it sometime, Juan.

WILLIAMS: I think we saw some of it. But I just wanted to --

GUTFELD: Where? Tell me.

WILLIAMS: -- ask you, one of the arguments also is that maybe the president is tweeting because he had some problems with the senseless --

PAVLICH: No, he saw the polling numbers last week that show that these people are toxic within the Democratic Party --

WILLIAMS: Yes, especially among Republicans.

PAVLICH: -- and he decided to make them the face of the Democratic Party. And then Nancy Pelosi swoops in after she's accused of racism, and totally backs them with a resolution on the House floor, and she's back exactly where she was now trying to stay off impeachment. No good deeds, goes unpunished. She's now still being accused of racism and being told by the four that they need -- that she needs to watch her tone when she talks to them, because she needs to respect the fact that they have a different skin tones that she does.

WATTERS: And they are also toxic with white working class men and women in the rust belt which Democrats desperately need back. And it's in between the Democrat debates. Who else is he going to contrast himself up against? It's July, Juan.

WILLIAMS: Go low. More on “The Five” coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAVLICH: Well, it looks like Americans are no longer feeling the burn after sliding in the polls. Bernie Sanders campaign aides are apparently furious, and guess who they're blaming? The mainstream media. His campaign manager telling Politico, quote, this isn't intended to be a sweeping generalization of all journalist, but there are a healthy number who just find Bernie annoying, discount his seriousness, and wish his supporters and movement would just go away.

And an anonymous campaign aide also saying, quote, every time there's a story about how Bernie can't win, it fans the flame of our base and we can get more donations and more volunteers. We'll never be the favorites in the media. So, Greg, Bernie is pretty sad. He's no longer getting the attention. Everyone stole his ideas and they're getting all the poll numbers and the money.

GUTFELD: I get why they're mad. I mean, he manage to jerk the entire wheel from the party and drive the car headlong into Trump -- he just drove on the left side of the road and they -- but he has a point. I mean, for the Democrats, the media controls the narrative. CNN proved that when they corrupted a debate so he'll lose. The activist media decides who's gonna win, and they don't want him to win.

Compare this to 2016, the media could not control the Republican voters because they think for themselves. You remember “The Five” in 2015? Microcosm of America. Everybody was scream -- at this table, we were screaming and yelling at each other.

PERINO: Those were the days.

GUTFELD: Those were the days. And, I mean, Fox, overall, was a noisy froth of disagreeable voices. We're all disagreeing with each other. But the media couldn't control the narrative. The Democrats have a real problem because the media does control their narrative. Whatever CNN picks, Democrats are going to do.

PAVLICH: But, Jesse, the people who cover Bernie say it's actually his fault because he's grumpy. He doesn't do gaggles or press conferences. He doesn't take any questions. He just leaves, and he always says the same thing.

WATTERS: Well, he's a horrible personality and it's degrading and irritating, and that he's never gonna change.

PAVLICH: People would see that and say that's a media person.

WATTERS: People have to expect that. But I can't believe I'm saying this, Bernie is right. He gets a raw deal. They're biased against him. They were biased in 2016. They're bias again. He's consistently polled at number two nationally. Little slippage recently, consistently right at number two. He's raised more money than any other Democrat, $36 million. He has bigger crowds than any other Democrat, and he matches up very favorably head-to-head with Donald Trump.

With that said, he whiffed at the debate and let Kamala steal everyone's thunder because he didn't contrast himself against the frontrunner. He should have just said, hey, man, I'm the original socialist. I dove into this pool head first. Everyone else is sticking their toes in. But I think deep down everybody knows he would get shredded by Trump in the general. And we saw that how radical he was when he said he wanted to let the Boston bomber vote from prison.

PAVLICH: But, Dana, I think the most telling indicator of Bernie's down fall is the polling numbers in New Hampshire with Elizabeth Warren taking over in his backyard.

PERINO: Yes. So we heard this before. The media is biased. The polls are wrong. And the system is rigged, right?

GUTFELD: He's their Trump.

PERINO: It worked for somebody else. He's going to give it a shot. But who else said this before? Hillary Clinton, right? In 2008, she said that the media was biased against her because they wanted Obama to win. She said the same thing in 2016 when she was mad about Bernie.

The thing about Bernie is that -- what he should have done for his legacy is not run for office this time, but what he should have done is give a big speech and said mission accomplished. I pulled the entire party to the left.

GUTFELD: Yeah.

PERINO: I have been able to make the DNC, the Democrat National Committee has completely changed its process to accommodate him, and all for somebody who is so reluctant to call himself a Democrat that he has to switch back and forth every time he wants to run for president.

PAVLICH: All right, Juan.

WILLIAMS: Well, he's not just attacking the media, by the way, he's also attacking the pollsters. And the pollsters are pretty consistent. Jesse's right that for the longest time he's basically been at number two, a good distance behind Biden, but consistently number two. But now he's not number two in many polls. And he's fading, that's the big problem.

Now his people say that's because the pollsters don't capture young voters, you're all on cell phones and all the like, and they can't capture the energy of those young voters, and especially small young -- you know, small donors who are young voters who have given him a lot of money. Pete Buttigieg, actually, is the biggest surprise among donors on the Democratic side.

But I would say my problem with Bernie is it feels to me like I've seen this movie before. It feels like a rerun. It's a little-bit like Trump and his Florida relaunch. Hmm, I think the reporters who covered him in 2016 could give the same speech because they've all heard it before. It's not much new here. And Bernie is boring on that level.

PAVLICH: I think you can say the same thing about Joe Biden, Juan. But we will see--

WILLIAMS: Yes. There we go.

PAVLICH: --all right, directly ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DREW PINSKY, ADDICTION MEDICINE SPECIALIST: The people go why - why are you so concerned now? And there's one word rats. We have been - if you've seen what's happened with the rats, we have like 12 million rats in Los Angeles now.

And the last time we had more than 2 million, plague broke out. If 2 percent of the rat population harbors plague, humans will get plague and that's all we need for - and with the millions of rats we have here, it's going to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAVLICH: All right. Health officials issuing a dire warning about the rat infestation in California and are demanding lawmakers act immediately. Dr. Drew Pinsky has been raising the alarm for months. He joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PINSKY: How many must die? How many must die before you to drop the housing hoax and start dealing with this. We have a 1,000 so far in 2019, is it 1,200 is it 10,000. How many must die before you stop the rhetoric, stop the hoax and start dealing with the problem. How many must die? Gee, do I have to ask that question as a doctor?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAVLICH: That was Dr. Drew with Greg on Fox Nation with the homelessness crisis in California, hitting a breaking point. Health experts have been issuing dire warnings and an alarming new report saying the rise in homelessness is dealing a dangerous rat infestation in Los Angeles and other major cities across the state.

Some of these experts are now demanding the governor stop ignoring the problem and declare a public health emergency. And we have a special treat, Dr. Drew Pinsky joins us now and is so good to have you here.

PINSKY: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Big fan.

PERINO: You're quite passionate about this and for good reason.

PINSKY: I am.

GUTFELD: You scared me.

PINSKY: I scared Greg. But as a physician I wake up every day looking at this and it incensed me. I practiced in the area for 30 years and of course one is one talk show host to another whom you should never trust the talk show host as he pointed out. But just--

WILLIAMS: I would agree.

PINSKY: But just - and making sure we both - we understand - but I've practiced basically for years, please don't confuse my success in the media with my day job where I've been in the system - profession of clinical professor of medicine and psychiatry and I've run departments in the psychiatric.

But these are my patients on the street. I know who they are. I've treated this population for years and it is ridiculous that they're calling it a home - a housing problem. It is ridiculous.

The rat thing, I saw that coming 18 months ago. I predicted the typhus epidemic. It hit and is amongst us now. The problem is there are things that follow typhus. Given that they've done nothing for this rat population, there are other illnesses that will follow.

We have tuberculosis exploding. We will see Yersinia, which you may know as plague. We have potential measles. We have people - their excrement and their bleeding and they're urinating in the street every day. That is getting washed directly with LA River. 60,000 people's excrement is getting into the river, into the ocean every day.

If I had a city of 60,000 people that was disconnected from the sewage treatment plant, my god, the environmentalists would have - would freak out. Where are they?

Then we have mammalian die-off off our coast now. Mammalian sea life - dolphins, sea lions dying because of all this garbage, untreated, going directly to the ocean, where's the help?

GUTFELD: But what about the plastic straws?

PINSKY: The plastic straw got a turtle. But this is insane. We've gone insane. And unfortunately, the city of Los Angeles is maintaining this rhetoric that it's a housing problem.

Look guys, conservatively - conservatively, the City of Los Angeles absorb about 800,000 undocumented immigrants in the last year or so. They're all living in a house. None of them are on the street. 800,000 people without a penny, without a family, without a country, found a place to live.

Now either they push people into the streets, which I'm prepared to say, where they found a place to live. And this housing rhetoric is a hoax. It's a mental health crisis. This is an addiction crisis and it is a general health crisis.

PAVLICH: What do the hospitals look like in the ERs with--

PINSKY: Its catastrophe and we can't do anything for or to these people if they say I don't want treatment or care.

PAVLICH: Oh, that's what people are saying?

PINSKY: That's the problem. They don't want the care and we can't do anything to render the care. Unless we do something to change the Lanterman-Petris Act, which is what is the current law--

PERINO: Is that a state or federal law.

PINSKY: It's - I believe it's a federal decision, if I'm correct. But it has to be sort of modified in some way to include a broader definition of gravely disabled that includes inability to care for your nutrition or your medical needs, so people can help these people.

Right now most - this is the dirty little secret. Most of them don't want to help and don't want the housing and this because of the brain condition. Imagine, if they were demented patients walking around saying this, you'd be - people will be insensitive. This people--

WILLIAMS: Well, I mean, if it's that - well, then if the problem is as you've described, it wouldn't be the compassionate thing to say we have to find a way to help these people.

PINSKY: 100 percent.

WILLIAMS: But instead what it looks like is, "Oh, you know what, rats, health - let's attack a vulnerable population --"

PINSKY: No, no, no, I beg your pardon.

WILLIAMS: --these homeless people. And secondly, let's cite statistics that come - they're published, by guess what, the exterminators, the Orkin people and 23. And what do they say, "Oh, well, LA is not the - LA has the most rats, that's Chicago and others" But LA has rats and therefore we want to use the most dangerous pesticides to kill the rats. So they have a piece of legislation in two weeks--

(CROSSTALK)

PINSKY: You guys have a simple question.

WATTERS: Is this a conspiracy theory.

WILLIAMS: Because in 2 weeks there was California State legislature. They are trying to say there is green alternatives and so you get the pest control people and the anti-homeless people--

PAVLICH: Oh, there's green alternative--

PINSKY: Guys on my KBC show today I spent one hour with these pest control people. And they said, look, the problem isn't - their concern is that we're going to give this poison to the rats and it's going to eat by the mountain lions and the bears. It turns out the exact opposite. The professionals know how to do this in such a way that it preserves the ecosystem.

And I have one question - only one question. The question is how many people must die? How many must die before you change the rhetoric? How many Juan?

WILLIAMS: What do you mean? Right now--

PINSKY: I would like to ask this to profession and politician--

WILLIAMS: The people in California--

PINSKY: There are 1,000 dead, how many must die - and how many typhus deaths?

WILLIAMS: --are not only concerned about people, they're concerned about the exterminators killing pets, killing wildlife--

PINSKY: They are absolutely.

WILLIAMS: And so when you just come in and focus on rats and on homeless, you create that question--

PINSKY: Here is what is going to happen is if the non-professionals are going to put poisons out and that's going to kill the wildlife and the pets.

PAVLICH: I think helping people is lot more important than killing rats or- -

PINSKY: What is - people?

PAVLICH: Helping people.

PINSKY: It's all important. But we must change. We must listen to experts. So must make changes.

GUTFELD: So I came up with a suggestion that I said to you. I thought that Donald Trump should declare a national emergency and form a task force--

PINSKY: Yes.

GUTFELD: --put you either in charge or part of it.

PINSKY: No, no. Put Juan in charge.

GUTFELD: But it should be a nonpolitical group of experts--

PINSKY: Yes

GUTFELD: --to tackle this problem.

PINSKY: Well, the good news is the governor put together group of experts - like 16 experts. All the politicians that have created this problem and I don't see any experts on--

PERINO: Right. No, you have to be--

PINSKY: --that really know what they're doing.

PERINO: --there needs to be a surge.

PINSKY: But here's the deal. The guy named Reverend Andy Bales, who's run the LA Union Mission for 20 years. He is - he's been struggling with this population for decades. He looked at me two weeks and goes, we have to have a FEMA style intervention here. FEMA style emergency with the National Guard triage people - sprung tents - hundreds of sprung tents around the city, around the county and we just have to go out and--

WILLIAMS: You know what, we've finally reached the point of agreement, because I think that it's not about anything that any individual can do, but we need the government - Republicans and Democrats--

GUTFELD: Yes, government did a great job.

PERINO: Government indeed--

PINSKY: I'm good. I just want people to be healthy. I want the government of healthy people thank.

PERINO: Dr. Drew, thank you. We love having you.

PINSKY: OK. Thank you.

WATTERS: How many lines.

PINSKY: How many must die?

PERINO: "Fastest 7" is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WATTERS: Welcome back. Time for the "Fastest 7". There it is. First up. Sometimes you have to take the law into your own hands. A Missouri woman did just that by stealing her own car back from thieves after 48 hours of amateur sleuthing.

She finally hunted them down by tracking purchases made on her credit card near a local Applebee's.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my god. So before I call the cops, I wanted to show you guys what I just found - got my car back.

There she is and I have a picture of her with that same shirt on. And those are mine, give me my shoes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ah-a, back up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have nothing to do--

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She has my wallet in her hand and my keys in her hand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: I mean, I guess the phone was in the car while it was going around, Greg, and then she saw everybody swiping and they followed her to an Applebee's, and "Those are my shoes".

GUTFELD: Yes. It's something - like who steals cars anymore so casually. Like there has to be - Applebee's after you steal a car. There is something that--

WATTERS: I need a Ossum Blossom.

GUTFELD: --not in this story that should be in this story that they - maybe they know each other. Also, well, somebody tell me if it's that easy to steal a car. Because when we watch the action movies, all you got to do is take the two wires - and you go like this. And then anybody can steal--

WATTERS: With the screwdriver.

GUTFELD: And then you put in screw - I don't believe it.

WATTERS: Dana, you've stolen a lot of cars--

GUTFELD: Yes, gone in 60 seconds.

PERINO: Yes, little matchbox cars.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: I think that this is amazing. I think she probably watched a lot of SPU and she could figure it out. It's pretty interesting what you can do now with Find My Phone, things like that. You are trackable, not just by the police, but by people that you're stealing from. Not cool.

WATTERS: Would you ever do this Juan or would you just call 911 right away?

WILLIAMS: I will call 911, because I mean - this lady looks like she's in shock that she's been found out. But they're violent, crazy people who steal cars and I don't want to deal with them.

WATTERS: Juan, you and I agree for the first time today.

PAVLICH: I mean, the lady stole her car and put on all of her clothes--

WATTERS: That is weird.

PAVLICH: That's so bizarre.

WATTERS: That is so weird.

GUTFELD: Don't knock it tell you try--

PAVLICH: They don't say that criminals are the smartest--

WATTERS: And they didn't look like they were the same size. It looks--

PAVLICH: That was very nice Jesse.

WILLIAMS: By the way in the video it looks like the steering wheel is on the wrong side. What she steal a British car?

PAVLICH: I think it's the opposite.

WATTERS: I don't know. Anyways, up next drugs are bad.

GUTFELD: Really?

WATTERS: And alligators on drugs are even worse. Police in Tennessee are asking residents to stop flushing their drugs down the toilet, Greg, warning that doing so may taint the water supply and create a mutant species of hyper aggressive meth-gators.

PAVLICH: Oh, my gosh.

GUTFELD: I wish this was true. I already have bought the rights to the movie of meth-gator. So Tara Reid is going to play the marine biologist that discovers one of these meth-gators in a swamp while studying frogs.

Dean Cain placed a sanitation worker who notices the connection between the shenanigans at the sewage treatment plant and the Gators. Of course, Tara and Dean Cain they fall in love, they cross paths, fall in love and fight the meth-gator themselves who is played by Lou Dobbs.

PERINO: It must be good.

WATTERS: I'm going to theater for that, Dana.

PERINO: You know, we spent a long time in South Carolina. I'm scared about this. And we also - we've tried to be very good about you, all you have to do is you can take--

GUTFELD: Would you flush your meth? What do you do with your meth, Dana?

PERINO: My meth, I keep it in the safe. But you just take it back to your drugstore and you put it in the little special box.

GUTFELD: You don't - you know they have a special box for the meth?

PERINO: No questions--

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: I know, Dana Perino, the meth expert.

PERINO: What is meth? Is meth bad?

WATTERS: Is meth bad. OK. Moving on - Juan.

WILLIAMS: By the way, I'm so disappointed in Greg, because normally Greg says there's something wrong with this story.

GUTFELD: Yes, there is something. I know what you're going to say--

WILLIAMS: There's something wrong. Because to me, first of all, it would be a high level of dilution if you flush it down the toilet.

WATTERS: Yes.

WILLIAMS: But secondly, I mean let's - I mean, if you want say, I'll say this. Don't do drugs don't flush them. But I think the cops are saying, "Hey, you guys don't flush the drugs, because we want to bust you.

WATTERS: Oh, Juan, I think you're right.

PERINO: Wow.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: There isn't really a meth-gator.

WATTERS: --meth-gators.

PERINO: It's bad for the water supply.

WATTERS: If there was a meth-gator what would it look like?

GUTFELD: I don't know.

WATTERS: No teeth?

PAVLICH: No, maybe not, maybe their teeth start falling out.

GUTFELD: You know what it looked like, Anthony Kiedis. It would look like Anthony Kiedis.

PAVLICH: But the side effects of meth are very bad.

WATTERS: Very bad.

WILLIAMS: That's true.

PAVLICH: --gators want to keep their teeth erect, when they don't do meth.

WILLIAMS: Good idea.

PERINO: Gators didn't have teeth that would actually be a good thing.

WATTERS: That's right.

PAVLICH: True.

GUTFELD: So you're saying then they just put gators on meth, so they lose their teeth?

PERINO: Yes.

GUTFELD: You're terrible person, Dana.

WATTERS: All right. And finally it is World Emoji Day and we're celebrating by showing you which ones we use the most or which ones we like the most. Dana's favorite emojis.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

WATTERS: We have crying.

PERINO: Crying with laughter.

WATTERS: Yes, laughing, crying. Mine too. Shocked, awkward teeth emoji--

PERINO: That's a grimace.

WATTERS: What does that mean?

PERINO: That's a grimace like yikes.

WATTERS: What she does when you talk?

WILLIAMS: No, when you talk.

PAVLICH: When you talk.

WATTERS: Oh, OK. Thank you. And then turtle, which I don't get, what's that?

PERINO: It's a secret.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

WATTERS: Is it a meth turtle?

PERINO: No, it's a cocaine turtle.

WATTERS: OK. Seems like the majority leader. Jesse's favorite emojis.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

WATTERS: We have the heart. Such a lover. Crying laughing, like Dana, the rolling of the eyes, which I love and that fire.

PERINO: What's that fire for?

WATTERS: Anytime anyone looks cute or hot or--

PERINO: Oh, wow.

WATTERS: --cute or hot. That's why it's like one of the most used - or when I make a really good point.

WILLIAMS: I know it's humility.

WATTERS: Yes, Juan, that stands for humility. Juan's favorite emojis are--

(VIDEO PLAYING)

WATTERS: The balloon, the sunglasses, because he's so cool and heart.

PERINO: He needs a guess what emoji.

GUTFELD: Yes.

WILLIAMS: Yes, I do.

WATTERS: Like this.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

WATTERS: That guy. Katie's favorite emojis.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

WATTERS: We have the American flag --very patriotic. The kiss and the hug.

PAVLICH: I thought that was an excited thing, not--

WATTERS: That's like jazz--

PAVLICH: No, you're like so slow.

WATTERS: And drumroll please, Greg's favorite emoji.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

WATTERS: Poop.

PERINO: At least its happy poop.

WATTERS: Dr. Drew's favorite emoji.

GUTFELD: Look how happy the poop is.

WATTERS: Oh, little happy poop.

GUTFELD: Its filled with meth.

WATTERS: All right. Let's go. "One More Thing" is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIAMS: Time now for "One More Thing", Dana?

PERINO: All right it's time for this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TEXT: Dana's Crony Jokes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: Corny jokes. All right. Number one, why do bananas use sunscreen?

WATTERS: Because they don't peel - so they don't peel.

PERINO: Yes, yes. Very good. OK. Where did the sheep go on vacation?

WILLIAMS: Bahamas.

PERINO: Bahamas.

WATTERS: Good one.

PERINO: Where do sharks go on vacation?

GUTFELD: Finland.

PERINO: Well, how does everybody know these things?

WATTERS: Excellent.

PERINO: Very good. OK. How can you tell that the ocean is friendly?

WILLIAMS: It waves.

PERINO: Do you guys - they gave them to you.

WATTERS: I'm closing my eyes. I close my eyes the whole time.

PAVLICH: They're cheating.

PERINO: They gave. Why do you - why do fish like to eat worms?

WILLIAMS: I don't know - they get hooked.

PERINO: Yes. But you know what, I'm calling Johnny, Cake (ph) on this.

PAVLICH: Yes, Johnny.

PERINO: They gave these answers to you.

WILLIAMS: Oh, no.

GUTFELD: I can't believe you think these were that hard.

PAVLICH: I didn't get any of them.

PERINO: You need them for your kids, there you go.

WATTERS: Thank you.

WILLIAMS: All right. It's my turn. Here we go. I had a day off yesterday and I decided to venture into the wild.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

WILLIAMS: Yes, I took the grandkids to the National Zoo in D. C. and we were fearless. Here we are wrangling wild animals on the carousel. Here's Pepper on a cheetah. You see me in the background on a Lama. Here's Wesley on a gorilla and here's Eli on an elephant.

We also got to stop by the reptile house and expressed ourselves through art here we are tracing patterns on snake scales. And on our way to the big cats, we stopped for a photo op on top of a bear cub statue.

I hadn't been to the zoo in a while, so I forgot how much fun it was to answer the call of a wild.

PERINO: No meth-gators.

WILLIAMS: No. No, no, no.

GUTFELD: --dancing on those animals in cages.

WILLIAMS: I know it's terrible, right. OK. Gregory, you're up.

GUTFELD: Oh me?

WILLIAMS: Yes.

GUTFELD: What am I doing. Oh.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: "Animals are Great!"

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: All right. Let's check.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

GUTFELD: Why is this guy so happy? Why is he so happy? He's happy, because I've got a Fox Nation now available it's with Dr. Drew, still sounded off on the homeless crisis.

Man, he goes off. Plus, I got a brand new podcast that's at Fox News--

PERINO: podcast.com

GUTFELD: --podcast.com, thank you. I talked to former "Red Eye" fan favorite Alison Rosen. And she's - it's a great it's a great podcast. We walked down memory lane and stumped down it. And that's it for me.

WILLIAMS: Jesse, you're up.

WATTERS: Have you ever been to a fun house?

WILLIAMS: Yes.

WATTERS: Well, they can be very dangerous when they have those Hall of Mirrors.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

WATTERS: Look at this little tyke have some problems.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my god.

PAVLICH: oh, no.

PERINO: Why do they probably show the ones that - where they could hurt.

WATTERS: No one got injured. The family licensed the video. Everyone is fine, Dana.

GUTFELD: That's not what I heard. I heard the kid is in intensive care, Jesse.

WATTERS: Not true. Fake news just like the meth-gator. Also I'm on Martha tonight, "Wednesdays with Watters" and set your alarms tomorrow morning, Fox & Friends, baby.

GUTFELD: What are you doing to yourself?

WATTERS: I don't know.

WILLIAMS: All right. Katie you are up.

PAVLICH: All right.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

Well, a pair of penguins were caught red flippered. They were sneaking into a sushi restaurant in Wellington, New Zealand, Monday evening. They were waddling vagrants. And this is there second act of vandalism. They were repeat offenders.

And you can see them waddling into the restaurant and the staffers there notice something was amiss after hearing a cooing and humming sound from the kitchen.

PERINO: Oh, my god.

PAVLICH: And they were identified. And the cops came in to get them and they were hiding from them underneath the refrigerator.

PERINO: They are smart.

PAVLICH: So police worked with the Department of Conservation and the Wellington Zoo to send the adventurous birds back to--

PERINO: And do you know that's probably like the most controversial thing that happened in New Zealand all week.

PAVLICH: Yes.

GUTFELD: Let me tell you New Zealand, I'm with you girl.

PERINO: Girlfriend.

GUTFELD: Girlfriend, I will be in New Zealand.

PAVLICH: You're so right now.

WILLIAMS: We had meth-gators in New Zealand - that's what we have. All right. Set your DVRs, never miss an episode of “The Five.” "Special Report" up next with Bret Baier.

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