'The Five' on Democrats blaming Republicans for border policies

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Greg Gutfeld: Republicans succeeded in exposing Democrats' 'phony compassion' in border crisis

'The Five' co-hosts discuss Republican governors sending migrants to Democratic-run cities and the public uproar after migrants were flown to Martha's Vineyard. 

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," September 19, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

DANA PERINO, FOX NEWS HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Dana Perino along with Judge Jeanine Pirro, Jessica Tarlov, Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld. It's 5 o'clock in New York City, and this is THE FIVE.

Well, it's clean up on aisle Biden. The commander-in-chief giving his first sit down interview in seven months. And to be a fly on the wall at the White House, the president giving some pretty revealing answers on the most important issue to voters that made staffers reach for their smelling salts. For example, Biden, downplayed sky-high inflation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT PELLEY, CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR, CBS NEWS: As you know, last Tuesday, the annual inflation rate came in at 8.3 percent. The stock market nosedived people are shocked by their grocery bills.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Inflation rate month to month was just a just an inch. Hardly at all.

PELLEY: You're not arguing that 8.3 is good news.

BIDEN: No, I'm not saying it is good news, but it was 8.2 or 8.2 before. I mean, it's not you or me I can make it sound like all of a sudden, my God, it went to 8.2 percent. It's been --

(CROSSTALK)

PELLEY: It's the highest inflation rate, Mr. President, in 40 years.

BIDEN: I got that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: But by far, the biggest slip up might have been this one over COVID. Biden has used the pandemic as the legal reasoning behind why he could cancel up to $20,000 worth of student loan debt. But it seems like he completely undercut his own argument.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PELLEY: Mr. President, first Detroit auto show in three years.

BIDEN: Yes.

PELLEY: Is the pandemic over?

BIDEN: The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with COVID. We're still doing a lot of work on it. It's, but the pandemic is over. If you notice no one is wearing mask, everybody seems to be in pretty good shape. And so, I think it's changing and I think this is a perfect example of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: Those remarks were apparently not scripted catching several of his top health officials by surprise. And they, I immediately wondered if they would say, he was speaking in his personal capacity, like they did to Rochelle Walensky of the CDC when she said kids should go back to school.

Judge, there are going to be incredible ads done on the inflation is only up an inch. And Republicans were given a little bit of a gift there.

JEANINE PIRRO, FOX NEWS CO-HOST: I think they were given a very big gift. I think everyone was shocked watching that. The second time I watched it, I was so shocked. It's only up an inch. Well, it's up like, what was it when Trump left. It was 1.2 percent. And now it's 8.3 and we shouldn't be bothered by that. You shouldn't worry about the fact that wages aren't keeping up with inflation. I mean, it's not really a big deal.

And obviously, they didn't know that he was going to go there. And then when he basically says, you know, COVID is over therefore, what I did was student debt is basically illegal. And since COVID is over, you can tell because people are not wearing masks. So, you know, there is your evidence that COVID is over.

But I think the real problem here is that he's not feeling the pain of ordinary Americans. And when he responds like that, you know, it's up a little bit from last month or a little bit from the month before. It's the highest COVID, it's the highest, excuse me, inflation that we've had in 40 years. And even -- even Pelley was shocked by his response to that.

And I think Americans understand now having seen that, that he is not someone who is feeling the pain, he doesn't think it's a big deal.

PERINO: Jessica, I noticed that the chief of staff, Ron Klain, he's usually a very prolific tweeter.

JESSICA TARLOV, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes.

PERINO: He was silent last night.

TARLOV: A little break.

PERINO: So, I'm not sure if he thought last night went too well.

TARLOV: I would guess not. He's definitely out there with the bragging rights for whatever, you know, when there's a good report or, whatever is going on.

I watched the interview made sure from the clips that I hadn't gotten it wrong. Wish I had gotten it wrong. It's obviously not good, especially now when we're in full campaign season, right. And the polls are tightening and that we know that that's the number one issue and people are prioritizing it. They're talking about the difference between, you know, being able to afford groceries for the next two, three weeks versus people who would typically be able to be saving, et cetera.

You obviously don't want something like that. And, but we've seen this before with the president that he gets indignant, right. He gets a little bit angry when people are coming at him and saying, aren't you too old to be running.

PERINO: Yes.

TARLOV: And he is saying, watch me, I've been doing this. I've been doing it at the most advanced age of any president. So, I don't think that that obviously is a good thing for us in terms of what the GOP is going to do with it, but that is who he and has been consistently, he goes off book.

PERINO: Yes.

TARLOV: He did it with Taiwan. Again, it was like the fourth time where he said that, yes, we defend them. And then everyone is sitting there saying, well, what's the one China policy situation.

PERINO: I can imagine as a former White House press secretary ever happy to call 60 Minutes and say, actually he didn't mean what he said.

TARLOV: Yes.

PERINO: Like that was --

(CROSSTALK)

TARLOV: About something that big.

PERINO: On the third time about China and Taiwan. Jesse, he also answered a question about Hunter. He said is not a big deal. Hunter is healed and he's better and nothing to see there.

JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS CO-HOST: Sixty Minutes broke the story that the Biden family has 150 flags from treasury that they have suspicious international wire transfers and Pelley gets Joe and right sitting down in front of him and he doesn't even ask about that.

PERINO: Ask him, you know.

WATTERS: So that was a layup. You know what I thought the minute I saw this interview? I thought to myself, I could be president.

GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS CO-HOST: Yes.

WATTERS: And not only could I be a Republican president, I could be a Democratic president easily. Here's what you do for you.

(CROSSTALK)

TARLOV: We're not voting for you.

WATTERS: If I answer like he should, have you might. Is the pandemic over, Mr. President. This is what you say as a communications expert.

PERINO: OK, yes, tell me.

WATTERS: And you say, the American people are putting the pandemic behind them. See what I did there. And then you go immediately to start praising nurses, doctors, and truck drivers. You say we're going to hold China accountable. We're going to restock the stockpile. We have therapeutics. We have vaccines. Thank God.

And you praise the American people and you honor the dead. Case closed. How is he not briefed on answering a question about COVID? It's not like he was asked about the lab leak or anything, or Mr. President, are you going to rehire all the people you illegally fired from your illegal vax mandate? Wasn't even asked about that.

And then the question he gets on inflation. Dana, he starts arguing about 8.2 versus 8.3, the American people don't care, 8.5, 8.6. They don't care about that. You don't argue about the numbers. He's supposed to be empathetic. They say that's show Biden's greatest asset. Show us your assets. Say I'm feeling your pain. I understand the struggle, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel. No.

And then he says, we're going to spend a lot of money on computer chips. People can't even afford potato chips. And it's the spending that got us in this inflation mess in the first place. And then if you're from Philly, you understand this at the end of the answer, he says, we have to trust the process.

Now, if you're a Sixers fan, they've been saying trust the process for over a decade that you lose, you lose, you, lose your draft, good draft picks, and you're going to make the championship. They haven't made the finals, Dana. It doesn't work.

These should be easy questions from Scott Pelley. He's working for you, Mr. President. He's like the guy, you know, Dana, everybody knows a guy like this. You go, hey Joe, here's $20. Go to the 7-Eleven and bring back a six- pack. Hour goes by. Joe is still not back with the six-pack. Another hour goes by, Joe shows up no six-pack, no $20, but he's got this long story about what happened and why he didn't get it. And that's Joe Biden.

PERINO: Has that ever happened to you?

WATTERS: All the time?

PERINO: I can tell. He hadn't given an interview in over 210 days. That was his first one. And there were many questions, I imagine that we would have like to have seen him ask but he wasn't, including he wasn't really pressed on immigration.

GUTFELD: Yes. He wasn't, you know, but I have, I got to take this moment to defend him, especially on the inflation piece. When he said inflation is up just an inch, he was probably referring to a chart. Right? He was probably just like going look, that's just an inch. That's just an inch.

PERINO: Maybe.

WATTERS: I think you're right.

GUTFELD: Thank you.

WATTERS: I was good.

GUTFELD: I thought that was a brilliant joke, but screw all of you.

PERINO: I thought --

GUTFELD: I am overly always overwhelmed when Biden talks, because it's like a -- it's like the Netflix menu. There's so many options and they all suck. He basically said that Trump was divisive. He saw the pandemic was over. There was no inflation. We forgot that if the pandemic is over, I mean, we did mention this. That means what he did with the loan forgiveness was exactly what we thought it was.

PERINO: Right.

PIRRO: Right.

GUTFELD: It was a trillion-dollar bribe to his voters that you and me, truck drivers, everybody else who's making a living has to pay for and who paid off their loans we have to pay for it.

That's pretty, all of this stuff is pretty exhausting. It's like, there's - - he gives you so much material to work from. It's almost brilliant, but do we get any clarity on anything. Right? Do we just listen to an interview with some guy whose kind of along for the ride, who's got some opinions about the pandemic and Taiwan and casually just throws him out there. And then you have to come up and clean up after him because no, we're not going to go to war over Taiwan. We have this thing called strategic ambivalence.

So, he's really like, he's almost like a hood ornament for the pandemic and that he truly is remotely working. And I think that has always been the message here that he's not really president. He's not even present, you know. He's there as a decoy. They send him out on 60 Minutes, all the birds run over there, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

But he's just a hollow representation and to be filled when necessary, with the right progressive, you know, rhetoric.

PERINO: Well, we have more to come on all of this because --

WATTERS: Hold it again.

PERINO: It's just an inch.

GUTFELD: See, it says an inch.

PERINO: An inch matters.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: Coming up next, liberal city's --

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: Perino.

PERINO: Come on.

GUTFELD: Yes. Yes, 5.09 p.m. September 19th. Count it.

PERINO: It's funny. This show is amazing. All right. Coming up next, liberal city is getting a taste with their own border policies. Republican governor say they aren't stopping anytime soon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WATTERS: Liberals continuing their collective meltdown over illegal immigrant showing up in their ritzy towns. It took only two days after arriving for migrants to be shipped away from Martha's Vineyard. Even though the island is flushed with cash and plenty of beds. It turns out Democrats simply don't practice what they preach on providing sanctuary.

And now they're lobbying some serious accusations over the matter, accusing Republicans, are you ready, of human trafficking and crimes against humanity? But red state governors are as defiant as ever.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): They want open borders. They want you to deal with the open borders, but they want to be immune from the consequences of these policies.

LIEUTENANT GOV. DAN PATRICK (R-TX): And now Texas is saying, we're fighting back. We're going to send them to your neighborhood and we're going to keep those buses coming until finally this, this administration wakes up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: Meanwhile, our so-called borders czar, Kamala Harris, I want to look in the mirror after making this accusation against Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think it is the height of irresponsibility, frankly, a dereliction of duty when you are an elected leader to play those kinds of games with human life and human beings. If you think there's a problem, be part of the solution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: And one border state Democrats telling Kamala how it really is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HENRY CUELLAR (D-TX): The border is not secure with all due respect to the V.P. This. look, we, we get thousands of people along the border, you know, from 6 to 8,000 people a day. They're releasing people and, and we can send you pictures and videos of what's happening Del Rio and the valley, El Paso and other places, that people are coming in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: Human trafficking, Jessica. Really? Really? That's a question. Really?

TARLOV: Really?

WATTERS: Really?

TARLOV: I don't know how those lawsuits are going to go, but I watched this happen and the people of Martha's Vineyard, who, by the way, aren't the fancy summering folks. It's the real people who live there. The average median income is around $70,000.

There are a majority/minority enclave except in the summer when a bunch of rich white people show up and, you know, they ignore Alan Dershowitz. So, Martha's Vineyard is -- everyone got that joke?

GUTFELD: Yes.

TARLOV: OK.

GUTFELD: But it was a very elitist joke.

TARLOV: It was --

GUTFELD: Typical.

TARLOV: Whatever.

WATTERS: Don't get distracted, just power quit.

TARLOV: It's only Monday. So, I didn't see that the argument that they were behaving, you know, not commensurate with their values. They shelter them.

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: What do you mean? They deport, they deported them in two days.

PERINO: Yes.

TARLOV: Well, they sent them to where they would go. It's supposed to be going. They were supposed to be going to Boston. I know there's some dispute about these pamphlets that were promising them, you know, eight months of cash assistance in job training and housing, et cetera. But these people were told that they were going to Boston. Now that they were going - -

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: They're told they're going to Massachusetts.

TARLOV: No. Well, first of all, that's not what they're --

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: Isn't the vineyard in Massachusetts?

TARLOV: Yes, it is in Massachusetts, but that's not what they were told in. This --

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: It's like being sent to New York and winding up in Long Island and being like you said, you were setting me to New York.

TARLOV: Let me power through.

WATTERS: Sorry.

TARLOV: When we get to the point where the performance of practical jokes on our political enemies is the standard. It's a really crappy place to be. And these are people, I understand, I I've seen pieces about how happy some people are to have gotten --

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: It wasn't a joke. He wanted them like --

PIRRO: This is not a joke.

TARLOV: Are you telling me that it's not a joke?

PIRRO: It is not a joke. These people are coming into the country illegally. The president has flown over 900 flights of these, of the illegals into the interior of the United States. He doesn't notify the people like in Westchester County where I live, the airport's a mile and a half from where I live and I know cops and they tell me every time they fly them in the dark of night so that no one sees them.

So, don't act like if we don't offer him a job where we don't give them, you know, the highest, the ability to get trained for a job, we're doing something wrong. I don't believe that there's any problem. There's no kidnapping. There's no human trafficking. It's a joke. That is not forced. They came here voluntarily. They forced their way in if you want to talk about force and coercion.

But, and by the way, the fact that Martha's Vineyard is $70,000 a year average income. What do you think those southern towns are --

PERINO: Yes.

PIRRO: -- that are being overrun at the border? Or the ranchers who can't afford the ranch anymore because they're the whole terrain of their ranch is destroyed.

You know what? The liberals are the ones who do all the talking and do all the complaining. They talked and talked. They don't walk the walk.

WATTERS: Yes, Greg, you're right, Judge. Feel like they break into the country breaking our laws. They don't get to go, I want a flight to Miami Beach.

GUTFELD: Yes.

WATTERS: You don't get to pick and choose.

GUTFELD: The United States is the United States.

WATTERS: Right.

GUTFELD: They're happy to be here. And I don't blame them. It's the greatest place in the world, whether you're in, what that island, that island that I'm not allowed in or anywhere for that matter.

But they, what the Republicans did is they succeeded in doing what the Democrats and media always say they want. A conversation, right? Whenever we would talk about a policy and talk about law enforcement or justice, or we have to follow the rules, they would go, we really need to have a conversation.

And it's -- and then, and so now you have a conversation and the only way you could get the conversation was to shame and expose the liberals for their phony compassion. So don't get mad over the -- get mad over the issue. Don't get mad about the people calling attention to the issue because after all we're just raising awareness.

And raising awareness is like the greatest thing liberals I've ever wanted to do from the beginning of time. We're just re -- so what we're seeing right here is not in my backyard.

WATTERS: Yes.

GUTFELD: Unless you're trimming the hedges.

WATTERS: Yes.

GUTFELD: And then we love you, but I'm so glad the leaf blower is so loud. So, I don't have to talk to you and no, you can't use the bathroom and you can't have any water either, but we love our migrants. Don't we? Yes. You're rich entitled freak. You panicked over 50 migrants coming over. And then when they're leaving, you learn two words, one of them adios. So, you can hug them on the way out. That was so compassionate.

And Kamala, what these governors did and what these Democratic mayors did, including the Democratic mayor of El Paso --

PIRRO: Yes.

GUTFELD: -- did what she couldn't do.

PIRRO: Right?

GUTFELD: They actually moved the ball down the field. This is something she wouldn't have the bravery or the intelligence to do because she's lazy, to quote the judge. These are the same people, these are the same people, you know, who volunteer for one day at the soup kitchen in 2015. And they still bring it up.

They go, yes, that's their version of it, you know what? I -- it was Thanksgiving. It was so great. And then meanwhile, for the rest of their lives they smear Republicans for being bigots. They've smear border agents for doing their job. And what they do is worse. They're an embarrassment. An absolute embarrassment.

My favorite story of the year, by the way. And it is not practical joke when you move the ball down a field, you guys mastered the art of the -- of the prop, the hands up don't shoot that never happened, right.

PIRRO: Yes.

GUTFELD: Using every criminal death, every suspect, death as re as a -- as a opportunity for reform. No, don't let a crisis go to waste. You would scream. Well, now here's our crisis and we're not letting it go to waste. Too bad. Sorry.

WATTERS: No, well said, Greg. The best part in --

GUTFELD: Coffee.

WATTERS: -- they brought in the National Guard.

PIRRO: Yes.

WATTERS: To deport them and they have them in a military base.

PIRRO: Yes.

PERINO: Right. And you know, and there's a Republican governor up there.

WATTERS: Yes.

PERINO: Right? And so, I think that he was probably a little bit empathetic to what the border states are going through, but he can't get the attention of the White House. The border, like Henry Cuellar who we just showed the representative from the border town. He can't even get the White House on the phone.

So, I think one of the reasons this is happening is that the liberal rules are embarrassed. Ben Shapiro on his podcast today said they're humiliated. And so, now they're like -- they're fighting back and they want to fight back about pamphlets.

Let me say like, if this is not an argument about pamphlets, where -- why didn't Biden call the cabinet together when there was going to be -- when you had 53 migrants die in that truck --

PIRRO: Yes.

PERINO: -- overnight. What about all these little girls that we've seen that were like dropped over the wall?

PIRRO: Yes.

PERINO: Walking by themselves. Some of them died. What about that little boy that died? Where's the emergency then? They only have an emergency now. And that's why I think the Republicans have been successful.

Now all of these people, we should care about them all. Whether they're at the border town or they're in Martha's Vineyard and that's what you don't see yet. The last thing I'd point out is you've mentioned this before. I can't remember the phrase you used, but it -- the story is out of sight out of sight, out of mind, if the media -- if it's not happening in their city or in their own backyard.

GUTFELD: You to bring --

PERINO: So now we are having the conversation, but how many people this weekend, all of a sudden was seeing everything about Martha's Vineyard that didn't really know how bad the migrant crisis was.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: Now they do.

WATTERS: So glad we had that conversation. Aren't you?

TARLOV: It was the best statement --

GUTFELD: It's the but kind of conversation we need to have.

PIRRO: Yes.

WATTERS: All right. Ahead, Joe Biden --

TARLOV: I'm for --

WATTERS: -- asked if he's going to run again, but some Democrats aren't waiting for his answer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUTFELD: Democrats are getting antsy for an answer from Biden on his 2024 plans. And last night's interview didn't clear any of that up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: If I were to say to you, I'm running again, all of a sudden, the whole range of things come into play that I have requirements I have to change and move and do.

PELLEY: In terms of election laws.

BIDEN: In terms of election laws. Then it's much too early to make that kind of decision. My intentions I said to begin with is that I would run again, but it's just an intention, but is it a firm decision that I run again? That remains to be seen?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: It remains to be seen. Biden's reluctant answer not keeping a hoard of power-hungry Democrats at bay. California. Governor Gavin Newsom is chomping at the bit. In a new report Newsom is unequivocally running for president in 2024 if Biden does it. With a fundraiser saying no ifs, ands, or buts.

Jessica, I'm not sure I can take that strong language. But does it really, do you think it's really going to matter to Gavin Newsom if Biden runs or not?

TARLOV: Yes.

GUTFELD: With would?

TARLOV: I don't think anyone will challenge him if he's running again, or certainly no one who wants to continue having a career in Democratic politics.

I mean, there could be some, you know, but he's looney-type person that does it. But Gavin Newsom plays by the rules and he wants to continue, obviously being governor, if you know, if Biden doesn't step aside.

And I really wish the president though, had been as clear as he had been in other interviews where he said, I am running again, we're going into the midterms, he is the president United States of America. And now it allows people to, you know, pick your favorite warrior, right? Now, I'm going to be a Kamala person, I'm going to be a Pete person. Amy Klobuchar is, you know, getting excited again at the prospect of this. You know, he's the president --

GUTFELD: An excited Klobuchar.

TARLOV: -- he's in -- she's excited. She's great.

GUTFELD: Yes. She eats her salad with a comb. Remember that?

TARLOV: That was about a man if we want to go back to this.

GUTFELD: It has been. Jesse eats everything with a comb.

WATTERS: And I mean, everything.

GUTFELD: So --

WATTERS: Yes.

GUTFELD: Jessica brought up, Kamala. Do you think that the reason why they're not answering the question is because she's a source of embarrassment?

WATTERS: No, I have a real -- they're doing it because it's not up to Biden, whether he's running again.

GUTFELD: Fair point.

WATTERS: I have a feeling someone's going to tell Biden whether he's going to run again, and he's going to say, OK, or are you sure? It's like Biden could announce he's running for reelection and the White House might have to walk it back.

GUTFELD: Yes.

WATTERS: You'd be like the American policy on the Biden campaign is that he will not be running for reelection. And imagine treating a woman this way, Greg. Imagine saying, my intention is to marry you but it's just an intention. Is it a firm decision? That remains to be seen? That's not what the American people want to hear. But it actually is because this is the most unifying Joe Biden has ever been. The Republicans and the Democrats hear he may not run and they're like, all right, way to go.

Also, it's not Republicans that are making this a story. It's the liberal media asking Joe Biden this question over and over again. It's the liberal media asking other Democrats, if he runs again, are you going to support him? This isn't our issue. They've been wanting him out for a long time. He was useful to beat Trump and that's it. Joe Biden is like a tuxedo. You wear it on special occasions, but if you wear it every day, you look ridiculous.

Gavin Newsom probably hosted a watch party for 60 Minutes, because he must have been popping bottles of champagne seeing that disastrous interview. He probably already calls his wife the First Lady. This is what's going to happen. He's not going to run and you're going to have Gavin Newsom, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, and Liz Warren --

PIRRO: Amy Klobuchar.

WATTERS: -- running for the president in an open Democratic primary. It's going to be a five-car pileup of identity politics, probably the best thing we've ever seen -- ever since. And I eat everything with a comb.

GUTFELD: Yes, there you go. What do you think, Judge?

PIRRO: You know, my favorite part of this, and I was going to use the line that Jesse just used about my intention is but it's not a firm decision. No. But here's my second favorite line. Do you -- do you have the mental acuity and the physical energy to be president to do this thing again? He says, you just watch. You watch. Keep my schedule. He's schedule. He's been on vacation in Delaware for 155 days.

TARLOV: That's not true.

PIRRO: And in addition to that, he says -- he says, I mean, it's a matter of, you know, that old expression, the proof of the pudding is in the eating? No, I don't know that expression. Nobody knows that expression.

GUTFELD: He loves pudding.

PIRRO: He keeps putting his foot in his mouth. I mean, this guy is -- he's just not totally with it. And I agree with Jesse, I think somebody else is making the decision to see how good --

GUTFELD: The flavor --

PIRRO: Yes, to see how well he's doing. And I don't think -- I think it would be a mistake for him to run again.

GUTFELD: Dana?

PERINO: I actually think that might be a little bit more practical why he made that answer. One is that there are these weird federal election laws that if you declare that you're running, then all of a sudden, you have to start counting the money that you get for your general election versus what you can pay for your primary and it gets a little complicated.

And I imagine also that the White House would like to have another one of those grand -- like, events in Philadelphia that they hopefully would not do as badly as the last speech where they advanced it differently. Because when he announces that he's running again, if he does, they want that to be a big deal. Not like something that you stay on 60 Minutes while everybody's watching football.

GUTFELD: Yes, that's fair enough. Yeah, they want to they want to curate it make it special. That makes so sense. Every inch matters. Coming up, Bill Clinton claims Republicans are just trying to scare the living daylights out of you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PIRRO: Former President Bill Clinton making a bold prediction about Democrats' chances in the Midterms and dismissing parents who don't want their children learning woke nonsense in classrooms.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We could hold both of these houses but we have to say the right things. And we have to note, the Republicans always close well. Why? Because they find some new way to scare the living daylights out of swing voters about something. That's what they did in 2021 where they made Critical Race Theory sound worse than smallpox. And it wasn't being taught in any public schools in America. But they didn't care. They just scare people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PIRRO: But perhaps he should listen to Bill Maher who's once again warning Democrats that woke education is driving voters to Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL MAHER, COMEDIAN: I don't have kids. I know people who say I have kids and I don't like it when they come home and say they divided the class today into oppressors and oppressed. And if I changed my sex, I don't have to tell my parents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

MAHER: There's (BLEEP) like that going on that makes people go, you know, I agree Donald Trump is a creep. He is everything wrong that could be stuffed into one man. But I have these other considerations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PIRRO: So, there you have it, Jesse. Education is on the ballot and the issue is whether or not is going to draw enough people to make a difference or is it an issue as Bill Clinton suggested of 2021

WATTERS: Well, Slick Willie is his name for a reason. Because if you look closely at what he said, he goes, it's not. The Democrats have to do the right thing. It's the Democrats have to say the right things. And that's the Democratic Party in a nutshell, right? It's all about the sales pitch. It's not about the product. The product is terrible, lousy policies, but if they can sell you hard and fool you, then it doesn't matter. You'll just buy a lousy product.

He says the Republicans scare. Yes, they do, but they were right. We all said that Biden was going to open the border and trigger a crime wave. It actually happened. You know, we were actually right. Now, he says, Democrats don't scare people. Democrats are constantly saying the Republicans would put Blacks in chains, they're going to steal your Social Security. Those things never happen. But Bill is smart. And he usually has his ear to the street. And he knows how horrible CRT is. And he knows that Hispanics, Black, and White parents, all are against it. And Maher knows that too. And that's the threat to their power.

PIRRO: Yes. And that's one of the reasons that Joe Biden is not doing well, Dana, with the Hispanics. This issue of Critical Race Theory and this gender identity, apparently, something like 70 percent of Americans do not think that that kind of education should be taught in grammar school, period.

PERINO: Right.

PIRRO: But you know, sometimes as Jesse suggested, and as Bill Clinton said, they say things that maybe are inaccurate. Is Critical Race Theory a problem in schools?

PERINO: I like Bill Maher. I don't have children, so I don't know. I only know what we cover and what I read, and I would say yes, it is. But regardless of what I think, the parents think it is. So -- in fact, I think Critical Race Theory is also becoming an umbrella term for all the woke stuff that has been taught in the schools. So, everything is being put under that.

And so, for example, if you ask this question, do you want your 5-year-old to learn about gender identity from the Gen Z government employees? Parents are like no, I don't want that. And parents -- I think that the gubernatorial races that are happening across the country, there's several competitive ones, that's where education can make a real difference because schools -- there's not a lot of federal policy that can happen, although the Department of Education does have a role, but schools are a little bit more local. And that's why you saw the school board's change power this year. And if that continues, Republicans could take some of these tight gubernatorial races and tip them in their favor.

PIRRO: And you know, Greg, one of the things that the Democrats are saying is that it's the Republicans, you know, who are destroying books and banning books, and you know, and the Republicans who are the semi-fascist. You know, all the analogies are there, but the books that they don't want their kids to read, have to do with, you know, I put it on my show. I mean, that's crazy stuff about sex that's totally inappropriate grammar school.

GUTFELD: Yes. You don't want to get between a parent and their child when it comes to those kinds of issues. Watch out. But I do take issue with Clinton, the cigar aficionado's claim that Republicans are good with fear. You want to talk about some serious fear stoking, both the media and the Democrats over this weekend, they spent two days comparing Trump supporters to Nazis because they saw a picture of the supporters doing the number one thing. And of course, they put that right next to the Nazi salute.

This is what people do when they have nothing to do, and I'm talking about Lawrence Tribe. We could very easily do this with Obama rallies. We could have done it with BLM protests. We could do it with rock concerts because everybody's got their hand up. But we don't do that because we have better things to do. Fear is an effective persuasion technique. 60 percent in a recent poll of Democrats actually believe that Trump supporters are an existential threat to democracy.

How did that happen even after Joe said he was only talking about a little -- a couple of Republicans? It doesn't matter, because what he did in that speech, and what Jan January 6 theater did was propagate the idea that there's some millions and millions of anonymous, unseen masses of violent white people, right? It worked so well. This thing -- this is the interesting point. It works so well, that poll -- that pollsters can't get an accurate reading of Republicans because their beliefs are forced into silence and it's called the submerged voter. It's even worse than the -- what he called -- the silent majority.

So, the weirdest point about this is Joe's speech and the January 6 mini- series was meant to scare Democrats about Trumpers, but instead it scared Republicans. It scared them into hiding because now they have a target on their back thanks to Captain Unity. No one talks about that. Can't you argue in reverse that that whole speech and that January 6 insurrection theater was nothing more than incitement against a bunch of people who are just not going to vote for you and that was enough to go after them? That's what we're seeing here right now.

And you know what? I don't think Bill Clinton ever would have gone down this road. But when you have somebody like Biden claiming he's for unity, and then smearing half the population using fear as a tool, you got to call that out.

PIRRO: All right, Jessica, do you think that this is an issue that -- education specifically, does it benefit the Republicans or the Democrats?

TARLOV: Well, if you look at the most recent surveys, Democrats still hold a 10 point advantage on the issue of education. But that's down a good amount. And I think if Republicans talked more about how they can improve public school education versus saying, we just want to take your dollars and let you go to a charter school or into a Catholic school system, they would do a lot better there. So, Dems still have the advantage because they actually are interested in making public schools better.

To this banned books thing, Beloved by Toni Morrison is on a banned books list. Tell me how that's about drag queen story hour or whatever.

PIRRO: Well, I could tell you other books that are but --

TARLOV: Well, but you said all of these books are about things that kids shouldn't be knowing about. That -- there's a portrait of the life of a slave in this country. How does that end up on a banned book list? And those are things that people in the middle independents, moderate Republicans and Democrats are asking. Why is that been looped in with CRT? And Dana is --

GUTFELD: Maybe because the people are nutty. Maybe they're -- there are two examples. Maybe those people are nutty or maybe it wasn't age-appropriate.

PIRRO: It's part of their woke agenda.

TARLOV: Yes.

GUTFELD: I have not read, Beloved. Maybe there's something in there that's not age appropriate.

TARLOV: Well, read it tonight and you get back to me.

GUTFELD: No, I'm not going to do that. You should actually bring more facts and tell us how this happened.

TARLOV: What do you mean how it happened?

GUTFELD: No, you say -- you're saying -- you brought two examples that one has heard of.

TARLOV: You said you wanted to have a conversation about racism in this county.

GUTFELD: You brought two examples.

TARLOV: That's not -- Dana is nodding along. She heard that Beloved was --

GUTFELD: The nodding along defense.

(CROSSTALK)

PIRRO: The point is that the books that have been -- that involves sex education, let's talk about that, it's inappropriate.

TARLOV: But CRT has race in the title.

PIRRO: It's everything under the umbrella.

TARLOV: Beloved is about race. I understand that.

PIRRO: It's under the woke umbrella.

TARLOV: Fine. And that's to Dana's point which I think is completely corrected. Everything is getting shoveled into this when CRT means a very specific thing. It's a legal framework that they use to analyze laws in this country to see where systemic racism had been disadvantaging people. Traditionally that's what it's about it's not about a lot of the things that Republicans whipped about.

PIRRO: OK.

GUTFELD: I just seem to remember when your side denied that it even existed.

PIRRO: Right.

GUTFELD: And now that we know that exists, you say whoa.

PIRRO: Now, it's legal.

TARLOV: No --

PIRRO: Up next, the payday gone wrong. Why some workers had to give back their bonuses.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TARLOV: Whatever happened to no takebacks. Automotive giant Honda getting blasted after ordering hundreds of workers at an Ohio factory to repay part of their bonuses. The company claims they overpaid many of the checks in error and now need that extra dough back. Dana?

PERINO: I think that when you make a mistake like this, the executives got to pony up and pay it back, not the people who work on the factory floor.

TARLOV: I like that. Greg?

GUTFELD: Yes. The interesting thing is thanks to shows like these, social media, cable, Twitter, no mistake by a corporation goes uncovered, right? So, we all hear about this because somebody leaked it. It's a shame we don't have this kind of accountability with government.

PIRRO: I agree. I think that's a wonderful point. You know, I feel bad for the people on the -- on the floor.

TARLOV: Yes, it's a lot of money.

PIRRO: And you know what? It's the kind of thing where you made a mistake, deal with it, OK.

WATTERS: If I made a mistake and said that a book was banned that wasn't banned, I would say after the commercial break that I was wrong. But --

PIRRO: But --

WATTERS: I mean, so far we just haven't found any evidence that Beloved has been banned.

TARLOV: That's not --

WATTERS: But you know, we're still looking. We're still looking.

PIRRO: It's been challenged. We know that.

TARLOV: Glenn Youngkin.

PIRRO: Banned? We have not seen evidence that it's been banned --

TARLOV: This is unreal, by the way.

WATTERS: -- in our early stage of investigation has not uncovered that it's been banned. But we're still looking.

TARLOV: The brain room is going to be up all -- no, no, no. Don't -- "ONE MORE THING" is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PERINO: It's time now for "ONE MORE THING." Jessica.

TARLOV: OK, so as most of you know, I'm a huge NBA fan. And one of my favorite NBA writers, unfortunately, passed away last week from a rare and aggressive form of cancer. He was just 34 years old, leaving behind his wife Melissa and his son Jackson who's only two and a half. He was based in Texas, the biggest Dallas, Mavericks fan. I'd recommend you check out his work. There's a GoFundMe for his family and just wanted to send our best to the Tjarks family. Very brave people.

PERINO: Yes. Sorry to hear that. All right, so it is national Service Dog Month this September. And I wanted to share a progress report. Remember the puppy named Dana. She is trained to be a companion with -- a companion -- Canine Companions for Independence. So, here is a little bit of what she's been learning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sit. Yes, good sit. Yes, good down. Dana, high five. Drop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: She knows -- she dropped that fast because she knows she's going to get a treat. So, for 16 months, she's going to grow and learn and learn all these life skills that she can help other people and then after that she goes on to get more training until she's eventually matched as a service dog.

So, Jen Williams is raising her doing a great job. Canine Companions is part of that. And they gave us socks. Look at these socks.

PIRRO: Oh, I love these socks.

PERINO: And everybody gets one. I can't wait to see everybody wearing these. All right.

TARLOV: Well, you guys have ankle chairs.

PIRRO: Yes.

PERINO: Congratulations to little puppy, Dana. Greg, your next.

GUTFELD: I knew exactly where I'm putting this. My feet.

WATTERS: Every inch counts.

GUTFELD: All right, Tonight's show, I got Steve Doocy -- I don't know who he is -- Terrence Williams, Kat Timpf, Tyrus. It's going to be a great show. Let's do this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: Animals are great. Animals are great. Animals are great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: All right, check this kind of interesting video at a Brookfield Zoo which is just outside of Chicago. You got -- a you got a gibbon, which is the monkey there, and you got a -- you got an otter. And they kind of started hanging out together. The otter becomes a little bit curious about the gibbon. Now, we can't show you the rest of the tape because it gets a little physical and it turns out they fall madly in love and mate and create a kind of a mutant otter monkey called onkey and we'll be doing that tomorrow on "SPECIAL REPORT."

PERINO: I feel bad for the PR person at the Brookfield Zoo. They're going to have to fact-check that. All right, Judge.

GUTFELD: What are you doing?

TARLOV: She put on the socks.

PIRRO: Take a look at my socks.

PERINO: Oh, you did.

WATTERS: Oh, nice.

PIRRO: OK, OK. So, missing cat reunites with his family. But here's how -- he was missing for four days. The cat use all its nine lives to figure out how to get home. And when the cat got home, guess what she did? She rang the doorbell. Take a look. And that's it.

PERINO: That's very cute.

TARLOV: That's adorable.

PIRRO: Yes, that's it.

PERINO: Jesse, what do you have?

WATTERS: After an exhaustive five-minute search, we have yet to find any evidence --

TARLOV: Are you actually still doing that?

WATTERS: -- that the Toni Morrison book Beloved has been banned by any school district. This is not to say that that is not a true statement, but we take this in information very seriously on THE FIVE and we want to make it clear that.

PERINO: What's on your show tonight?

TARLOV: He has no time.

WATTERS: This is Johnny asking questions that relate to education in the United States. Listen.

GUTFELD: I love it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNNY BELISARIO, FOX NEWS MEDIA ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: The Panama Canal was in the country. What country was Panama Canal in?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Damn, man, I don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: The Panama Canal.

PERINO: All right, that's it for us.

PIRRO: He's taking my sock off.

PERINO: "SPECIAL REPORT" is up next. Hey, Bret!

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