This is a rush transcript from "The Five," October 8, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

JESSE WATTERS, HOST: Hello, everybody. I'm Jesse Watters along with Jedediah Bila, Juan Williams, Dana Perino, and Greg. Stop talking.

GREG GUTFELD, HOST: I'm sorry.

WATTERS: It's 5 o'clock in New York City, and this is “The Five.”

Joe Biden feeling the hit over the Ukraine scandal, the controversy now threatening to derail his presidential campaign, here's why. If Democrats plow ahead on impeachment, Joe and his son, Hunter, could be forced to testify in an official senate trial. And now, Lindsey Graham is offering Rudy Giuliani the chance to testify before his committee about potential Biden wrongdoing.

And that's just the beginning of sleepy Joe's troubles. He's got another huge problem, big money Democrat donors who are reportedly frustrated over his many gaffes, disastrous debate performances, and how he's handling Trump's attacks. So far, Biden's main response to the Ukraine controversy is rage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: Here's what I know. I know Trump deserves to be investigated. You should be asking him the questions. Why is he on the phone with a foreign leader? You should be looking at Trump. Trump's doing this because he knows I'll beat him like a drum.

It's not a conflict of interest. There's been no indication of any conflict of interest. (INAUDIBLE), period. I'm not gonna respond to that. Let's focus on the problem. Focus on this man. What he's doing that no president has ever done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: And just breaking, the White House sending a letter to House Democrats demanding they drop impeachment, the letter calling the inquiry constitutionally invalid, unfair, and an attempt to overturn the 2016 election, and influence 2020, and says they will not comply with this impeachment inquiry.

All right. So, the New York Times over the weekend, Dana, came out with this big story about how Biden's reaction was a case study in political indecision, and he just struggled to meet the moment. He waited a week or two to do anything. And at the end, he just yelled at a reporter and put out an op-ed. I mean, an op-ed? Where's he's been?

DANA PERINO, HOST: Right. And the Biden campaign said you too, New York Times? I can't even believe you're doing this to me. The quote in the article that I thought were the most troubling if I was a Biden person, are the ones that are anonymous from the donors. Now donors don't always have the best feel for what needs to happen on a campaign. They will always call you up and say you need to be doing something different than you are. But you don't see this kind of thing for Warren, Mayor Pete, even Harris, or Booker, who has not been able to raise a lot of money. Klobuchar.

You don't actually see blind quotes in a paper basically saying they're screwing this up. And I think that's often because you have donors who have friendships with people in the media and they want to be called upon in the future, so they're basically trying to show their cards that they're about to turn. Then they're going to pivot away from him. And that's what I would be worried about if I were Biden team.

WATTERS: And some of them have been pivoting away because he did not have the fund-raising he expected. Remember when Biden said, you know, he wants to meet Donald Trump outside of the gym and he's gonna knock him out. Well, Donald's been waiting outside the gym, and where's Joe been?

GUTFELD: I said this last week, or maybe it's a week before. I can't remember. Biden's cozy swampy nepotism resonates far more clearly than Trump's inquiries about it, right? This is a conflict of interest base on favors for his incompetent son. If Biden is beholden to China or Ukraine, should the media welcome this inquiry? After all, they spent 3 years talking about collusion and obstruction. Shouldn't they want to revisit this relationship if it had an impact on an election?

Of course, in between your writing of books about Russian collusion, maybe you can look into this. I know you're still working on you advance -- getting your advance for your book on Russia, but you can actually do this. But -- you know who Biden's remind me of? I'm playing -- because you've told a nice story yesterday about buying throwing stars.

WATTERS: Throwing stars, yeah.

GUTFELD: So, when I was -- living in London, I was invited to play soccer among a group of high school kids. And I decided to play, because I played soccer before, and I felt like, yeah, I could handle this. In my head in the sidelines I'm watching them play, and I'm going, you know, I could pass and score among these guys. I might even impress them. You know, the moment I set foot on the field I was like a tackling dummy that just went around me. I look like a tackling dummy in sunglasses. I was completely out of my league. That is Biden now.

When he was on the sidelines he saw that he could compete and he could play. Now he's in the game and he can't keep up and it's noticeable. I feel like when you're walking around him you want to tighten every bolt with an Allen wrench because he's just all shaky and stuff. And I think that it's -- I think he's gonna be out in a few months.

WATTERS: Yeah, he's definitely on the decline. Juan, this letter that just came out calling the whole thing constitutionally illegitimate, saying it's rigged against the president and Republicans. Adam Schiff who's leading it is tainted. He can't be trusted. And basically throwing down the gauntlet, says put up or shut up to the Democrats.

JUAN WILLIAMS, HOST: I think you can throw that letter in the trash. I mean, I guess that's in the president's great and unmatched wisdom as he advertised.

WATTERS: Very stable genius, Juan.

WILLIAMS: Very stable genius. And now he has his lawyers putting out letters. I don't know. I guess it's really, you know, it's supposedly addressed to the Democrats. I think it's really intended for Republicans. But I think the Biden's story -- just let me come on it before I come back to that letter, Jesse. I think that it's very interesting that in polls that are out today, for the first time you see Elizabeth Warren as the number 1 Democrat in the poll. This is a Quinnipiac poll has her at 29, Joe Biden at 26.

And now in the Real Clear Politics average, she's, you know, it's clearly within the margin of error. I think it's 0.2 percent ahead of Joe Biden. To me, that's much more interesting. Let me just go a little bit further on that. Her gain is not coming out of Joe Biden. Her gain is coming out of people like Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, they are going down, down. We are now down to a three-way race, which is Biden, Warren, and Bernie Sanders who recently was ill with a heart attack. We'll see how he does if he can get the energy up -- upcoming debate.

But to me, this is shaping up as a three-way race. Now, if we go back to this letter, it seems to me Biden may not be doing so great. And by the way, all these donors, they're nervous at least all the time. They're always nervous, and they want Biden to be more combative. From your perspective, they want him to really go after Trump in a vicious way. And Biden is just not that guy right now.

WATTERS: Well, you think if someone, Jedediah, was going after your integrity, going after your family, you might come out hibernation and throw a few punches, but instead, he's just waiting for the media to defend him.

JEDEDIAH BILA, HOST: Well, the thing is, he is combative, like pointing his finger at reporters' faces. He's combative in the wrong way. He looks like a guy who's already lost. He's very defensive. He's on defense all the time. He's worried about his son's business dealings. He's worried about Elizabeth Warren. And the problem is that all of the worry shows in every interaction he has. When he gets on the debate stage he doesn't look confident. He doesn't look like he's in control. Many people cannot even cite what Joe Biden would actually do as president.

He's so in -- unable to really prioritize what his stands on the issues, because he's so worried about all these things. Once I saw that op-ed in the Washington Post come out, I said to myself, this guy doesn't even know how to create a populous grassroots movement. He is so -- he is back in a political time when you would hand over talking points to the Washington Post and try to sell yourself that way and that would be successful. That's not how it goes anymore. Now you're going against the likes of Warren and Sanders who have that populous energy, who knows how to tap into a crowd, and he's lost.

And now you have donors come out and looking at him and saying this guy is not able to defend this issue with Ukraine, and he's not able to defend his own record. He's not able to defend himself on the stage. Where is he going to shine in the end that's gonna enable us to feel confident to hand over our --

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: Do you know who will defend him beside himself?

PERINO: Obama.

WATTERS: Barack Obama. Where's Obama been? I mean, there've been these accusations that Barack Obama's vice-president is involved with some very, very sketchy stuff overseas, right under his nose, and he hasn't said one word. I'm just wondering if he's going to.

PERINO: Can I mention one thing about the New Yorker -- so the New Yorker writes this piece in July. It was very long. It was about Hunter Biden. And all of these allegations are laid out in the article. And Hunter Biden does an interview and he's trying to defend himself there. And what's interesting to me is that we're in the middle of a presidential election. This big -- huge feature piece shows up in the New Yorker and no one brought it up.

The only time that it got attention was when President Trump brought it up, appropriately -- or appropriately on the call, whenever. That is the only time that the media then started to actually take action about it. What surprises me is that the Biden campaign didn't have something ready knowing that that New Yorker piece was coming out.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: I think this is part of the failure of Democrats to know how to deal with this kind of onslaught that comes from the conspiracy theory crowd on the right.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: They should actually look at themselves because they've been doing it for three years. This is the beautiful irony of all of this. I feel bad for Joe, but I really don't, because they made their bed. The media and the Democrats attempt to undo an election in the 2016. And now, the slow-rolling orchestrated coup is coming back and it's gonna suck him in. And what you're gonna have left is Liz Warren who used native- Americans and her own child to fabricate divisive to portray her as a victim. I'm waiting for her to be like Steve Martin in the Jerk, in which he just said I was born a poor black child.

(LAUGHTER)

WATTERS: All right. Well, we'll see what happens tomorrow. The media hysteria over impeachment reaches as absurd new level, Greg is going to tell you all about it, up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUTFELD: So, did you hear Carl Bernstein go on CNN to say the president increasingly unstable. It was a special day on CNN, they call it Monday, also Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With all of this becomes more and more is considerable evidence building that we have a fundamentally corrupt president who is a danger to the national security, has undermined our Democratic system, and is also increasingly unstable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: Ah. That was a formerly famous reporter who used to look like Dustin Hoffman, commenting over the shocking appearance of another whistleblower to follow the first one that didn't quite work out. Actually, he really did blow. The Dems and media are like 3D printers, they create the whistleblower mold so they're made to order. Like an omelet station.

And unlike actual whistleblower, the only risk here is writer's cramp from inking their first book deal. And what will Carl do if it weren't for Trump or CNN? He'd be on the street corner in a bathrobe made of news clippings holding a sign that said everything is worse than Watergate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we are watching in the Trump presidency is worse than Watergate. I keep getting asked are there echoes of Watergate in this? And there are.

We're also witnessing something we did not see in Watergate, which is a meltdown by a president who is demonstrably unhinged.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we're seeing is worse than Watergate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

GUTFELD: Now, it's not his fault. CNN puts him on. It's the news carousel for the befuddled. Remember that playground carousel as a kid. You got on the thing, going -- if you push it from your foot then round and round it went. That's the media business model. They get the story started and up to speed, then add the same old faces.

Nothing like David Gergen talking to Gloria Borger to feel like you're getting the latest news from the Golden Acres card room, from old hacks with free afternoon, it beats feeding the pigeons. And if it wasn't for Carl it would be somebody else. That shouty lawyer. That shouty ex-agent. The shouty former Republican. That shouty consultant who needs work. Further proof, though, that a Trump economy raises all boats, including the diggiest of his dopiest critics.

Got a good laugh out of that one, Jesse, when he says I keep getting asked is this worse than Watergate. He keeps getting asked by Anderson Cooper.

WATTERS: Exactly. I mean, the manager of the -- hotel, even he's sticking here for Bernstein. The manager is like, yeah, look at the transcript. There's no burglary. If we have a burglary, stop using Watergate like that. Get it out of your mouth. Listen, Trump has been under permanent investigation for three years at this point. They can't get him. The guy is bulletproof at this point. And if he cooperates he's guilty. If he doesn't cooperate he's guilty. He can't win.

So, what is America gonna do? They're going to have one anonymous CIA agent overturn the will of 60 million people? That's not gonna fly in this country. And to make Adam Schiff the face of impeachment is a huge miscalculation. Adam Schiff is like the Jussie Smollett of John Brennan's. He's got no credibility, he's totally compromise, and everything he says no one believes at this point.

And I do want to do a mini deep dive into the deep state because I have some new information to bring you guys. One of the lawyers for the whistleblower used to worked for the southern poverty law center, the ACLU, Hillary Clinton, and Chuck Schumer. The other lawyer for the whistleblower is being advised by John Podesta, Hillary's campaign manager. And the actual whistleblower himself, not only is he a registered Democrat, but he has a professional relationship with one of the Democrat running against Trump in 2020.

GUTFELD: Just a coincidence, Jesse.

WATTERS: Yes.

GUTFELD: That's just a coincidence --

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: Jedediah, what happens if Carl actually finds something that is worse than Watergate? Then, his whole career is over.

BILA: Oh, forget it. Forget it. And I feel like as I'm watching that, I'm like isn't that the Russian collusion? It's just on loop over at CNN. It's the same thing. It's like let's decide that somebody is this guilty before we even see the transcript. You had Nancy Pelosi calling for an impeachment inquiry. She hasn't even seen the transcript of the call.

GUTFELD: Yeah.

BILA: She's not embarrass. It's this willingness to convict on day 1, and that's the big issue really. Not that Democrats are saying, OK, someone has come forth. We want to investigate it. OK, go do your investigation. The problem is that they decide even before they do that investigation that Trump is guilty of X, Y, and Z.

And then when you have the transcript of the call and you look at it and you say, OK, I have two pair of functioning eyes and there's no quid pro quo. There's no exchange where Trump says -- you're laughing, Juan. But there's no point in that call where he says, OK, if you do this for me, I will do this for you. Then you still have people who will distort and say, oh, no, but you can infer. This is -- we're talking about impeachment. Impeachment is serious. I'm interested in your inferences. I'm interested what's actually on the call and the facts, and it would be great if some --

GUTFELD: I want to pivot now to the letter from the White House to Congress --

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: Comment of John Kasich and Don Lemmon.

GUTFELD: Oh, we could save that for tomorrow. I love me some lemon. But you know, the thing is, this is an interesting letter. Page two, Dana, there's this art where they go -- in addition, Greg Gutfeld has been a tremendous asset to Fox News.

PERINO: Amazing.

GUTFELD: He deserves a large raise, and should probably have an entire day just devoted to himself. Maybe all of Sunday.

PERINO: And I can't believe they buried that on page two.

GUTFELD: I know. I know. I hope people are listening.

BILA: It's not in my copy, Greg.

GUTFELD: What?

BILA: It's not in my copy.

GUTFELD: What -- thoughts on letter, and then Juan --

PERINO: I love letter -- I like when lawyers write really great letters. I love that. I'm kind of a nerd that way. This is an excellent letter. I think it will be taught in law schools.

GUTFELD: Really?

PERINO: Yeah, sure.

(LAUGHTER)

PERINO: When they talk about Watergate, and if it's worse than Watergate. That will be exhibit-A. And there will be -- it has even footnotes and everything.

GUTFELD: Yeah, footnotes. I find footnotes to take up space.

PERINO: It makes it very official, though.

WATTERS: Well, I mean, I think it's a pretty well-written letter because they layout a very specific case. They say we do not, the Republicans, have co-equal subpoena power. We've been denied due process. We can't cross-examine. We can't look at evidence. And the person running the investigation has been tainted and compromised. And we don't trust him.

And then, they're threatening state department employees with docking their pay if they don't comply -- not with the subpoena, but with just the request. And they say it's such a great undertaking impeachment that this can't be done in the dark.

GUTFELD: All right, Juan.

BILA: You're laughing you way over here.

WILLIAMS: Because I listen with interest to my colleagues.

(LAUGHTER)

WILLIAMS: But I still wait for substance. I mean, the idea --

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: You hammer the table on some process because the facts stand against you. That's what a lawyer leans in law school. Basically, Trump is blocking today, tells diplomats, oh, you can't testify after midnight. Midnight call --

GUTFELD: He can do that.

WILLIAMS: -- oh, no, we don't want him to testify, even though the guy is already flying here.

GUTFELD: He can do that.

WILLIAMS: So it's delay, distraction and, of course, demonized Joe Biden.

GUTFELD: But it's not obstruction.

WILLIAMS: If this was the perfect call. If this was so perfect, oh, then why can't anyone talk about it? By the way, Jedediah --

WATTERS: We've been talking about it for two weeks. Juan.

WILLIAMS: No, no, Trump says he doesn't want anybody to talk to Congress - -

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: Jesse, I let you go on and on. Jedediah, when he says we've been very kind to the Ukraine, and I'm asking you for a favor, and the timeline suggests that he blocked the aid a week before. Maybe you'll say, hmm, very suspicious.

(CROSSTALK)

BILA: Hold on a second.

(CROSSTALK)

BILA: The guy you're talking about -- you're talking about someone, oh, he doesn't want to testify. The guy who said the president has been crystal clear --

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: We have texts on the record where someone is saying to Bill Taylor, let's not talk about the quid pro quo, because we should do that --

BILA: He says no quid pro quo call of any kind, Juan. He said that directly.

WILLIAMS: Yeah, because he's under pressure, and he's a big Trump donor. But let me get back --

GUTFELD: We've got to go to the next block.

WILLIAMS: No, no, I want to tell you about your point, because, to me, you're -- the accusation --

GUTFELD: You mean me having my own show on Sunday?

WILLIAMS: -- the president would use federal money to extort a foreign government is far bigger than breaking and entering in the Watergate Hotel.

WATTERS: Oh, this is bigger than Watergate.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: I don't think there's any question that using a foreign government to interfere is bigger than what we saw --

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: Why not?

GUTFELD: Why not? Because we have other people on the show.

WILLIAMS: In the Washington Post poll today, for the first time what you see is 28 percent of Republicans saying they support this impeachment inquiry, 18 percent of Republicans saying remove this president --

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: -- 36 percent of Republicans saying it's necessary for Democrats to take a stand against --

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: -- you're starting to see Republicans, as Colin Powel said, get a grip.

GUTFELD: Yeah, and that is a direct result of a media and the Democrats teaming up together.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: That's what it's all about, creating a narrative. After caving to China over a tweet, the NBA now claims the league is defending free speech.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PERINO: The NBA trying to contain the fallout after backing down to China over a tweet. Houston Rocket created the controversy by showing support for the Hong Kong protest and quickly apologized, and the league called it, quote, regrettable. Now, China is still refusing to budge and is now suspending broadcasts of NBA preseason games. And politicians back here in the U.S., not so happy about how the situation was handled. NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, responded by defending free speech earlier, and then adding this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADAM SILVER, NBA COMMISSIONER: I'm sympathetic to our interests here and to our partners who are upset. And I don't think it's inconsistent on one hand to be sympathetic to them, and at the same time stand by our principles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: Greg, did the NBA learn nothing from the NFL when it went through its whole --

GUTFELD: Apparently not.

PERINO: -- crisis.

GUTFELD: Repeat after me, Trump was right about China. Now you see the level of involvement in all of our stuff. The best comparison, stark contrast here, South Park and the NBA. South Park and Steve Kerr. Remember Steve Kerr? Outspoken liberal, not so outspoken now. So it's a great contrast between the great, real, authentic risk takers like South Park, and the preening virtue signalers of Steve Kerr and others in the NBA who wants to be seen as risk takers.

I mean, South Park gave China the finger, the NBA gave them a happy ending. And to Steve Kerr's point -- OK, I want to -- it's easy to virtue signal when you've got nothing to lose, and that's what Steve Kerr did. He put out his easy political stances for the benefit of twitter and CNN. He wants to be woke, Dana, but he doesn't want to be broke. So that is why he's not talking about China. So he'll talk about transgender bathrooms, but he won't talk about China.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: Poke the bear.

GUTFELD: Don't poke --

WILLIAMS: I think it's bigger than Steve Kerr. I mean, Steve Kerr's dad was killed, as you recall, in the Middle East.

GUTFELD: No, I didn't know that.

WILLIAMS: Yeah. And so he's a guy who definitely stands for Democratic principles --

GUTFELD: But then, what did you think of his response?

WILLIAMS: No, I think his response is a guy who's biting his tongue because, you know what, he works for the NBA, and he's trying to be a good employee. But now, what you just heard from Commissioner Silver is, you know what, I'm not silencing my employees, my players, the administrators, everybody can speak. But he's gonna try to stand by the vow, because I think it's damaging to the NBA's brand to be so aggressive in terms of social justice issues here in the USA, and then to just become --

GUTFELD: True.

WILLIAMS: Supines, when it comes to dealing with this authoritarian communist regime. By the way, I don't know what to me, I remember Trump congratulating the communist Chinese--

GUTFELD: That's saying they're eating our lunch and they are our number threat.

WILLIAMS: Yes, but I think that if the NFL was doing this by the way, you know it's a money deal business, everybody say, it's the NFL.

GUTFELD: Why?

WILLIAMS: NBA - no, because the NBA is always about saying we are awake to injustice in America. They didn't have the problem with the players kneeling to protest police brutality. They worked it out. Now, it looks like the NBA is just as you know—
 
WATTERS: Well, the NFL doesn't make money in China. The NBA does. That's the big difference. So, and I'm glad you brought up Trump, because Trump yesterday just blacklisted 28 Chinese entities because what they do is, they stole our technology and they use that technology to round up all these Muslims and put them in reeducation camps.

PERINO: Yes.

WATTERS: And that's a really big deal that Trump just did that. But I'm not going to sit here and point fingers at the NBA guys and act like you know these guys aren't really knowing what they're talking about. This is made in China. This is - everything I owe is--

GUTFELD: Your hair is made in China.

WATTERS: The hairspray. Oh, my head is made in Beijing. So, you know this is not new for the last two decades, politicians have let all these companies go to China because they have no labor standards, no environmental regulations, so they can all get rich. So, this is not something that's happened over a long period of time. This has been going on for decades. And the NBA just got caught out in the open sucking up to China--

PERINO: And all because of a tweet, Jedediah.

BILA: Yes. That's true. And you know Trump was talking about China when no one was talking about China, and I just realized this in my own life, I was looking for baby toys that were made in the USA and realized how impossible it is to find stuff that's made in the USA and it really opens your eyes to how--

GUTFELD: Baby toys from China are great and safe by the way.

BILA: Says you.

GUTFELD: Just go buy them all.

BILA: But you realize how much leverage they have financially and you realize why the bullying works and so many times American companies will cave, because China will come back and say, oh, really, well, we're going to haul merchandise sales, we're going to take you know sponsorships off the air, in this case, we're going to pull broadcasting. I mean this is a lot of power and a lot of clout. This is a much bigger issue that has to be dealt with because it's not going anywhere, it just seems to be getting worse.

And I do give President Trump credit for talking about this when no one was talking about this, because it's something that until you oftentimes live this in your own life and the impact of it, you really don't realize where all of this leverage comes from. And I think these companies need to make a decision.

Look, if you want to prioritize your finances over American values like freedom of speech and over what potentially is going on in terms of human rights violations in those countries and that's a decision you make, but you make it at your own peril.

PERINO: All right.

GUTFELD: Why are you getting baby toys?

BILA: Because I'm having a baby.

GUTFELD: I just thought--

BILA: You thought I'd just like swallowed a watermelon.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: No, she didn't. She's going to have a baby and this baby is coming soon. Ellen DeGeneres firing back at the Twitter mob furious that she sat next to President Bush of all people at a football game. Her response next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIAMS: That Twitter mob out in force again, this time they're going after Ellen DeGeneres. It's all because she sat next to former President George W. Bush at a Dallas Cowboys football game on Sunday. And instead of bowing to the pressure, the daytime TV host she's taking on the critics. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELLEN DEGENERES, TV HOST: People were upset. They thought why a gay Hollywood liberal sitting next to a conservative Republican President is. Didn't even notice, I'm holding the brand-new iPhone 11. But a lot of people were mad, and they did what people do when they're mad. They tweet. I'm friends with George Bush. In fact, I'm friends with a lot of people who don't share the same beliefs that I have. We're all different. And I think that we have forgotten that that's OK that we're all different.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: President Bush putting out a statement, he says he appreciates Ellen's comments about respecting each other. Well, I tell you I think on this table, I respect you guys and we have disagreements. I'm all for it. She - her brand is kindness and understanding and empathy, so I think this fits her pretty strong. But I understand that a lot of liberals are still mad Dana at George W. Bush over the Iraq war, over hanging chads and they think, oh, is he now being canonized because he's not Donald Trump. What do you think?

PERINO: OK. Well, first of all, I think the only people that were actually mad are - they're not conservatives. And they're not even liberals, right. It's the progressives that were really mad and they were coming after her and she decided oh wait, I'm going to stand up because I have a platform in which I can say don't let this consume your lives, live your life in a way that you can enjoy the company of your fellow human beings.

And on the point about George W. Bush, it is true that the only reason that people are kind of look back fondly on presidents is because they get out of the public eye. He wrote a book explaining his decisions. He's given the new president, the meaning Obama and Trump like the room that they need. Call me if you need me, but other than that I'm going to be a former president and I'm going to try to do good things. And that's what she was trying to say. We could re-litigate all of those things over and over again and I'm happy to if we want to go point-by-point, but I will give the rest of my colleagues the floor.

WILLIAMS: Jesse, what do you think about this? Would you be so kind if you were Ellen DeGeneres to a Democrat?

BILA: Yes.

WATTERS: Yes. I mean if I sat next to Ellen, she'd probably love me. I mean to know me is to love me. I mean everybody knows that. Listen, the point is that she's a Packers fan and she was invited to the Cowboys box in Dallas and the Packers won. That was the awkward part. And she'll never be allowed to come back, because she's bad luck at this point.

But here's the deal, everyone should listen to Ellen because they need to hear it from people like Ellen. Think about who the people have been saying this recently are. Michael Moore said Trump's going to win because of the blue-collar connection. Kanye said, it's OK for blacks to wear MAGA hats. Bill Maher said political correctness is destroying this country. And now you have Ellen saying you know we can be friends with conservatives.

But if you listen to politicians, the politicians tell you the exact opposite. They say you have to chase conservatives out of restaurants. They say you have to ban them and boycott them. And you can't be nice to them. You said her brand is kind and compassionate. I think that's a great brand. I think that so everyone's brand should be.

WILLIAMS: Really?

WATTERS: Even mine.

WILLIAMS: How about Donald Trump?

WATTERS: Well, listen, he's a very nice gentleman.

WILLIAMS: All right. Greg, what do you think, is this possible that in fact Ellen is just pursuing her brand or do you think this is genuine?

GUTFELD: Oh! I think it's genuine. But to Dana's point, I think it's also kind of easy in the sense that former President Bush no longer suits up for the team. Right. So, the media entertainment and academia aren't that interested in going after him. But they would have, and they have, they demonized Bush, they demonized Romney, they demonized McCain, they demonized Reagan. You can go back. You know that's what they do when you're in power, but when you're out of power, we don't care about you anymore. Kind of the way the Republicans feel about when Carter started going and building houses, we thought that was great.

So, I am actually all for the message, but I think Kanye West does a better job of it in the sense that his message is for people who would directly benefit it now, basically saying, you may hate Trump, but that doesn't mean you should hate his supporters. Whether you like it or not, they saw something valuable in the person they voted for. They saw him as an outsider who rejected platitudes. You may think - he may not be your cup of tea, but he's there you know Jolt Cola and I think that's - I like her message, but you've got to talk about the people who would benefit from it now.

Bush is fine, he's at home painting.

PERINO: He's doing a lot of other things too.

GUTFELD: No, he's just painting, Dana. I just talked to him this morning. He's painting me a portrait of me.

PERINO: I would love to see his portrait of you.

GUTFELD: I'm in a bathtub.

PERINO: President Bush, if you're watching, please make me a portrait of Greg.

WILLIAMS: Jedediah, I once had people get mad at me because I said I was praying for George W. Bush and found him interesting in an interview. I said this to him. But it's like people just have such a strong political reaction that it's sometimes it seems to me they lose touch with humanity.

BILA: Yes, and I think social media has a lot to do with that because it thrives on that. It thrives on that polarization. At first, I felt sad for her because I felt like she had to come out and defend herself. And I said oh why is she doing that. But then I thought about it and I said you know what, she's seizing an opportunity. She lived a real life moment. She saw a real life response. And she happens to be lucky enough to have that kind of platform to come out and make a statement. And I liked that she did it with humor that is her signature.

I have found her hilarious for years and I think it's important for people who have those microphones to take those opportunities that when they do live these real life moments they step up on the platform and they say, listen, there was a time when it wasn't so crazy that you would get along with people that you had disagreements with. That time seems to be vanishing. Let's bring it back.

GUTFELD: We should also play a role, the media, and stop pretending that these are actual stories that somebody on Twitter is upset, like how many tweets - there were 10 people and that became a national story. It's just 10 people 10 years ago - well, 12 years ago, there wasn't Twitter, this would never have existed.

PERINO: And it adds to the polarization, the idea that there is more polarization than there actually is.

BILA: She might have gotten a lot of heat from inside Hollywood too though that came out her.

WILLIAMS: I think sometimes we pay too much attention to it. And we've said, Twitter is a very small percent--

GUTFELD: Very small world. Jim Comey is getting the Hollywood treatment. That's next right here on “The Five.”

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BILA: Welcome back. We all know James Comey loves the spotlight. Now, the former FBI Director is going Hollywood. Jeff Daniels is set to play him in a four-hour CBS miniseries based on Comey's book a higher loyalty. President Trump will be portrayed by Brendan Gleeson. So, you know Juan just what I need is more Comey in my life. Are you excited? Is this something you would tune into?

WILLIAMS: Sure, I'll check it out. I mean I like politics. I mean you know Veep and all those kinds of political shows, I look to just see because half the time you think, I'm not sure they really get it right. I want to see where they get it right, when they get it wrong. How difficult is it to dramatize the reality of American politics when there is a lot of drama?

But I will say I think Jeff Daniels is a great actor. I just saw him in To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway. He did a wonderful job. As for Comey, I don't know. You know Democrats have maybe have more problems with Comey than Republicans, because I think he cost Hillary the election.

But you know I think people are just curious and this - the thing about the Donald Trump era is so entertaining, Jedediah in some ways, and it lends itself to Hollywood. And so here is going to be a Hollywood presentation.

BILA: He's just such an insufferable figure though, Jesse. I mean Comey, I feel like people on both sides of the aisle are just like really, I've had enough just step away, step away.

WATTERS: Yes. That's not going to rate. The real stuff that rates, we're watching it right now unfold in reality. That's the good stuff. You can't overdramatize what's happening. I mean it doesn't get any better than this. Of course, Trump is going to get impeached, of course. He's going to give us everything, just wait till the second term.

And it is appropriate that the guy that played Dumb and Dumber is going to be playing James Comey. But Hollywood has to white knight this guy. They have to memorialize him as the hero in order to lock into the American psyche that this guy was the right man to take out a dastardly president. But once the Durham report comes out, they might have to rewrite the thing.

BILA: Yes, I mean to Juan's point though Dana, Democrats had a lot of issues with Comey as well, it wasn't just Republicans.

PERINO: Yes. If you ask them who - well, I think that any candidate that loses needs to take that on the responsibility for themselves, they lost it. Nobody else can lose that for you. But if they were to say that - if there was one person that caused them a lot of anxiety, a lot of problems, it was James Comey. So, they really can't stand up. I think it's pretty interesting, a premiere date hasn't been set. Let's be honest. This will happen two weeks before the election of 2020.

We know when that will happen. Also, I'll be very interested to see who the contributing producers are. Who are the people in the current drama outside of it that all are going to get paid to consult for this production? BILA: Who is the--

PERINO: You know who it's going to be?

BILA: Who is the actual audience?

GUTFELD: The people that actually make it. You know it's basically - it's kind of like when people - when guys used to write for GQ, they were writing for the guys at Esquire. You know they're all like - they're all try to impress.

PERINO: The Washington Post--

GUTFELD: Yes, they're always trying to impress the peers. Look, I think they're making a huge mistake. They need to make - they need to focus on him taking down that vicious criminal Martha Stewart because that really is the high point of his heroic career, is getting that vicious criminal off the street, Martha Stewart and putting her in jail.

But to Juan's point, it's true, it's like these things you have no idea what they get wrong or get right. Unless until it's about you and being at Fox and seeing all these things come out, it's interesting to see how much is wrong and how much is right. And it's - I would say, it's probably like 60 percent wrong and 40 percent right. There's somebody playing me by the way, Dana. Did you know that?

PERINO: Who is that?

GUTFELD: I don't know his name.

PERINO: Tall, dark and handsome.

GUTFELD: I think he doesn't even have a speaking role, but he plays me--

PERINO: He's just like lurking in the background.

GUTFELD: Yes, he's lurking in the background. Maybe it's just a PR photo of me on a wall played by somebody.

WATTERS: Who was the guy that played Rudy.

GUTFELD: Rudy in what.

WATTERS: Not Rudy Giuliani. The football player.

GUTFELD: The football player. I can't think of his name.

WATTERS: You know that actor?

GUTFELD: I know what you're talking about. That should be me.

WATTERS: Who is it?

GUTFELD: Producer is telling me right now Sean Ashton.

WATTERS: Yes, Sean should play Gutfeld.

GUTFELD: I was thinking more about Gilbert Gottfried.

WATTERS: I could see that too.

GUTFELD: Or the guy from the Progressive commercial. The insurance commercial.

BILA: Yes, that guy for sure.

WILLIAMS: Why don't you pick someone heroic, Greg?

BILA: Yes.

WILLIAMS: We want you to present--

GUTFELD: Have to be the right height.

WILLIAMS: What?

GUTFELD: I was saying Tom Cruise, but he's homely. Hideous man.

WATTERS: Tom Cruise. That's exactly what I thought.

GUTFELD: And he's 10-years older than me.

WATTERS: He is?

GUTFELD: Yes. 40.

WATTERS: You look great.

GUTFELD: Thanks.

BILA: You think people will tune in. Show of hands. I think people tune in. I do. Out of curiosity at least first episode, right.

WATTERS: Trump is definitely going to watch.

BILA: Trump is definitely going to watch. OK. One More Thing is coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WATTERS: It is time now One More Thing. Dana?

PERINO: Thank you very much, Jesse. All right, the student who disarmed a gunman during a Colorado high school shooting, well he's now a U.S. Marine. It's only been four months since Brendan Bialy hurdled over desks inside his Colorado high school to help disarm the shooter. He's a U.S. Marine and here he is talking about what moved him to serve.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRENDAN BIALY, U.S. MARINE: My thoughts on becoming a Marine were nothing but reinforced after the shooting. What I saw that day was complete and total malevolence, bad overcome by good and I lost an amazing person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: At the time of the shooting, he had already signed up to become a Marine, but he hadn't been through boot camp and now he has graduated as his platoon's honor man and he is headed to the School of Infantry, he wants to be an electro optical ordnance repairer.

GUTFELD: Me too.

PERINO: And you know what you can learn more about him because he's going to be on Martha MacCallum show tonight.

WATTERS: Oh, nice book. Gregory.

GUTFELD: All right. Let's do this. Animals Are Great. It never ends. Your own private hell. Every day. This is a disgusting video. I almost don't want to show it. It shows different species involved in some kind of perverse water sport and obviously an illegal massage parlor or something. It's a bloodhound named Ruby Jane, affectionate toward pet, actually petting the head of a five-week-old rescue kitten named Bodie. Control yourself, Jedediah.

PERINO: Rescuers are free.

GUTFELD: Rescuers are free. You can get them anywhere. We used to call them pound kittens, pound cats, pound - now we call them rescue, disgusting.

WATTERS: All right, Jedediah, are you doing a gender reveal, or have you guys done that?

BILA: It's a boy.

WATTERS: OK. He just said it well--

GUTFELD: Wait, wait, named Greg. Viewers she said Greg,

WATTERS: Go along with that, Jedediah.

GUTFELD: No, Greg it is.

WATTERS: This gender reveal did not go so well for this happy couple. Check this out. All right. So, they're banging this big ball. I guess it's supposed to burst and then show if it's pink or blue, but it doesn't go as planned, knocks her a little bit and then it's untethered. And then he tries to save it. And down he goes. Sorry. Maybe that baby doesn't have a gender. You never know.

GUTFELD: And then a tortoise choked on the balloon.

WATTERS: Juan Williams.

WILLIAMS: All right. Talk about taking a deep dive for fun. Take a look at this video. Yes. These scuba divers in Key Largo Florida went underwater to carve pumpkins. The contest held every year in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. This weekend 24 divers were challenged to carve sea creatures into Jacko lanterns. Their biggest problem keeping the hollow pumpkins from floating away. The winning pumpkin had two more eels and a heart carved in it. Maybe the saltwater will preserve that great pumpkin because you know Halloween still three weeks away.

GUTFELD: They're out of their gourd, Juan.

WILLIAMS: There you go, man.

WATTERS: Very good. Jedediah.

BILA: All right. Well, I have some news about Sienna, the sloth. Adorable she visited the Baptist Children's Hospital in San Antonio, Texas on Monday Sienna was brought by the staff at Zoomagination, which is a San Antonio based animal outreach organization. And it would dangle from - look, how beautiful she is, pose for photos with the children. They even fed her carrots; they fed her snacks and the visitors also helping medical professionals at the hospital to kick off National Pediatric Nurses Week.

And if you don't know this about sloths, they're super calming kind of like horses, so they're often brought into atmospheres.

GUTFELD: We actually had one on the sets.

PERINO: We couldn't touch the one that came.

WATTERS: We know all about sloths, Jedediah.

GUTFELD: Yes, don't lecture us.

WATTERS: We're very close with sloths.

BILA: You've got the one that beat you up?

WILLIAMS: No, he didn't beat you up, they told us, don't go near the sloth.

GUTFELD: I spent a wild weekend with that sloth.

WATTERS: Greg took the sloth home.

GUTFELD: Yes.

WATTERS: All right.

GUTFELD: Lot faster than I thought.

WATTERS: Set your DVRs. Never miss an episode of “The Five.” "Special Report" is up next.

Hey, Bret.

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