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Kavanaugh to speak to Senate Judiciary Committee staffers

A source telling Fox News that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh will speak to Senate Judiciary Committee staffers to answer questions about allegations of sexual misconduct; reaction and analysis on 'The Five.'

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," September 17, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Dana Perino along with Trish Regan, good to have her back, Juan Williams, Jesse Watters, and Greg Gutfeld. It's 5 o'clock in New York City, and this is "The Five."

A source telling Fox News, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is set to speak this hour to Senate Judiciary Committee staffers to answer questions about allegations of sexual misconduct. Peter Doocy is on Capitol Hill with what we can expect from this call. Peter.

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS: Dana, today, Chuck Grassley turns 85 and he got what he wanted for his birthday. Brett Kavanaugh is going to call in to speak to judiciary committee staffers for about an hour to answer questions that have arisen over the weekend about new allegations of sexual misconduct. And we don't know exactly what he's going to say. We haven't seen a script, but his answers might mirror what he told Senator Orrin Hatch a little while ago. His office said this, Senator Hatch spoke to Judge Kavanaugh earlier, and Judge Kavanaugh continue to categorically deny Dr. Ford's allegations. He told Senator Hatch he was not at a party like the ones she described, and that Dr. Ford, who acknowledged to the Washington Post, that she did not remember some key details of the incident, may be mistaking him for someone else.

The top Democrat on the judiciary committee, Dianne Feinstein, sat on a letter outlining allegations of sexual misconduct for six weeks, all ten Democrats from that committee signed on to a letter earlier today calling for a delay and a committee vote set for Thursday that would send Kavanaugh to the full senate for confirmation. And all ten say, they're not going to be letting their staff dial into tonight's call, writing, with only a few hours noticed and over the objections of ranking member Feinstein, judiciary committee Republican scheduled a staff level call with Brett Kavanaugh concerning allegations that he sexually assaulted a young woman. In view of the enormity and seriousness of these allegations, a staff only phone call behind closed doors is unacceptable and Democratic staff will not participate. So, nobody from a Democratic office is going to call in to get answers that might clear things up about Kavanaugh. Then again, all the Democratic members already said they weren't going to vote for him anyway. Dana.

PERINO: All right. Thank you, Peter. President Trump reacting today to the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I'd like to see a complete process. I'd like everybody to be very happy. Most importantly, I want the American people to be happy because they're getting somebody that is great. I want him to go in at the absolute highest level and I think to do that, you have to go through this. If it takes a little delay, it will take a little delay. It shouldn't certainly be very much. But again, this is something that should have been brought up long before this. They have the information in July, as I understand it. That's a long time ago. And nobody mentioned it until the other day. It's very -- you know, it's very unfortunate that they didn't mention it sooner.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is strongly criticizing Democrats for how these allegations became public.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL, R-KY.: Now, at the 11th hour, with committee votes on scheduled, after Democrats has spent weeks and weeks searching for any possible reason that the nomination should be delayed, now, now they choose to introduce this allegation. Not through the standard bipartisan process, not by advising the judiciary committee colleagues and committee staff through proper channels, oh, but by leaking it to the press.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: The lawyer for the accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, is saying her client will testify if necessary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is your client willing to testify before the judiciary committee publicly and tell this story?

UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is. She's willing to do whatever it takes to get her story forward. Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: All right. So we're going to take it around the table here. Just to note, tonight at 7 p.m. on Martha MacCallum's show, "The Story," she'll be intervening two women who signed a letter in support of Brett Kavanaugh. Both will be on her program. Jesse, I'll turn to you for some comments about -- let's -- maybe talk about the fact, what Peter Doocy said, there's this conference call happening in 26 minutes, like, Brian Kilmeade would do, and the Democrats don't want to participate.

JESSE WATTERS, CO-HOST: Why not, Democrats? I mean, they've behaved very untoward throughout this whole thing and they've politicized it from the very beginning. I don't know what the point of not participating in the call would be. I just don't know. So you have to ask the Democrats. I don't know what happened at this party 35 years ago. I'm never going to know what happened at this party. No one is ever going to know what happened. Perhaps, something happened at the party. Who knows? Was it groping? Was it first-degree attempted rape? You're never going to know. No one is ever going to find out, and maybe the people there don't remember it. Maybe they were.

PERINO: Brett Kavanaugh says he was not there.

WATTERS: Maybe they remember it differently. Maybe it was a case of mistaken identity. It's a very gray area and it's very subjective. But I know this, the woman, Ford, believes something happened.

PERINO: Yeah.

WATTERS: And she can document it because she went to a therapist about it, and that's been documented. She told her husband about it, and she passed a polygraph test. Yet, on the other hand, he says, Kavanaugh, I wasn't even there at a party like that. It was probably a mistaken identity. The person who is allegedly there also denies it. And he has no pattern of behavior like this, like some of the other men we've seen accused in the last couple of years. This came out of the blue. The woman told no one at the time, not even her best friend. And when you look into it, and I'm not saying this is something that, you know, disqualifies the allegation, she's donated to Democrats. She's donated to Bernie, to the DNC, to the Democrat congressional campaign committee. She marched in the women's march against Donald Trump. And she signed a petition against Donald Trump. With that said, all I'm saying is if you can have an uncorroborated, unsubstantiated allegation about something that happened in high school, 35 years ago, and that can derail a Supreme Court nominee without anything else, and that's the silver bullet going forward politically, and people are going to use that, whether the allegation is true or untrue, going forward, and it's just terrible.

PERINO: Juan, what about how Democrats -- I understand wanting to protect her identity. She asked to be remained anonymous. And so the congresswoman issue -- got the original letter, sent it to Dianne Feinstein. But she's had it since July. There were 65 meetings that Kavanaugh held with senators. There was an opportunity to ask him behind closed doors. There was nothing ever until the 11th hour. Is that a problem?

JUAN WILLIAMS, CO-HOST: I think the problem here is that, from what I understand, Ford did not want her identity disclosed. And so it would have been a totally anonymous allegation against the man who has been on the D.C. court of appeals, I think, 12 years, Dana. And so you have to have someone who's willing to stand up and put a face and a name to this allegation, I think, to give it any substance. I remember writing and being involved in the Clarence Thomas hearings. Let me just say, for anybody who's going to go running off that I was -- I'm a friend of Clarence Thomas. And I remember that when Anita Hill came forward, Anita Hill's allegation had been out there, and in fact, she had wanted to remain anonymous. And that then, people on the community were told about it and decided, in closed-door session, that they didn't feel it was enough there for any action to be taken. And it was subsequent to that that then the story gets into the press. And that there's pressure put on the committee and that, you know, it's very interesting time because compared to today, there were no women on the senate judiciary committee.

Today, there are four women on the senate judiciary committee, including Dianne Feinstein, who was mentioned before. All four now are Democrats. Contrast that with Biden who was senator then from Delaware, not vice president, who was running the committee. And who, many people to this day feel was unfair to Anita Hill. It's a very different time. You have President Trump in the White House with his own issues with regard to women and sex. And I think that's why, you talk about not wanting to hear anything. I think at this point, it's all come down to, are you going to delay the hearing, the vote, which was supposed to be Thursday, on sending the nominee to the floor. And secondly, is she going to testify, and when is she going to testify? Because, I think, anything that's said over the phone or in the back is not going to matter.

PERINO: Well, Greg, both people have said that they're willing to testify. Brett had said he's willing to testify. He's going to do this conference call. But he also said he's willing to do it publicly, I guess?

GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: Yeah. First of all, what Dianne Feinstein did was probably wrong, I think, because if these accusations are credible, what she did was make them look un-credible by holding on to them until the worst possible time. So it appears politically motivated in its -- therefore, it can be easily viewed with suspicion, even if they happen to be credible. And the sad thing is we're doing this all on the court of public opinion, which kind of bugs me, especially in the court of public opinion right now. You're only given two choices. Thanks to the way we do things around this world. It's either you believe her or you believe him. But there's actually another path and that is to say that an event occurred, but the memory of it could have changed. This is the way human beings are. Memory is the brains playdoh, you know. Over 35 years things could change and mistake could be made.

So, it could -- definitely it happened, but is it accurately remembered? That is an important distinction. Unfortunately, we don't like distinctions anymore. We just want to say he's guilty or she's telling the truth. Nobody wants to actually go into the nuance because we're so scared of being smeared. Like, if you say -- may be go slow and wait -- you know, you're enabling abuse. If you do not believe this right now, you're enabling abuse. No, I just happen to believe that the human mind and memory is incredibly fallible. It's a vulnerable thing. And this is a larger question for all of us because we're all vulnerable to this. It is about the accuracy of memory and its effect on the interpretation of events. And if you can't acknowledge this, you will be next. And this is the important point.

PERINO: Trish, let us get your thoughts in here. Anything you want to talk about.

TRISH REGAN, GUEST CO-HOST: I mean, as far as the call goes, you would think that, at least, want to hear his side. I mean, but unfortunately because we are living in such a divided place where people want to say she's telling the truth. He's guilty. They don't even want to spend so much as 30 seconds listening to his side of anything. He is guilty, as far as the left is concerned. He was guilty of something from the moment he was actually nominated for that position. They do not want him there. So I think that's a tragedy. Look, none of us know what happened. We will never know what happened. But, look, I feel for her. I mean, my god, no woman should ever be in that situation ever, ever, ever. But, also, if she isn't remembering everything clearly, if he wasn't the guy, if it was someone else, he's saying I'm innocent. And no man should be in a position of seeing his career derailed because of something that happened three decades ago where they can't piece all the facts together. So this is a very troubling situation. I think it is politically motivated. Call me a cynic but, you know, happening when it's happening. I think they should have come forward a whole lot sooner, Dana.

PERINO: All right. We're going to continue on this, and Peter Doocy will be there monitoring that conference call. We'll bring you the news as it happens. Next, life-threatening floodwaters continue to rise across the Carolinas, and we are live on the ground, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIAMS: Fox News alert, breakthrough for the city of Wilmington, North Carolina, one road is open, allowing access to the city that was previously cut off by massive flooding. Sadly, dozens have died from the now tropical depression Florence. We have Fox News team coverage with Rick Leventhal and Steve Harrigan, both on the ground in North Carolina. Let's go first to Rick who's live in Ogden with the latest on that open road, allowing access to Wilmington. Rick?

RICK LEVANTHAL, FOX NEWS: And, Juan, the governor is saying what happened to his state is a monumental disaster. And what you're seeing behind me is evidence of that. This is middle south loop road in Ogden, which is just a few miles north and east of downtown Wilmington. This stretch of road right here was washed away late Thursday into Friday morning when the storm was reaching its peak. And you see some of the workers here surveying the damages. They're getting ready to do what they need to do to try and start repairing this road. But this is 1 of 1200 roads across the state of North Carolina that are in need of some kind of repair or are flooded and impassable at this hour as floodwaters in some spots continue to rise and that created major problems.

You've mentioned Wilmington was essentially cut off for a while. Authorities have opened basically one main road into the city to allow rescue workers, relief workers, and food and water to be trucked in, but that's just one road. Most of the people here are really in a tough spot and can't get out. And the power slowly beginning to come back on. We passed a gas station just down the road where the line for fuel was at least a quarter-mile long. And we were hearing some people saying they were waiting two hours or more to fill their tanks and fill their extra gas tanks, gas cans, so that they could bring them home and power their generators to try and get some comfort. The biggest threats here, Juan, remain the floods. The trees that are coming down, the power lines that are coming down, and those treacherous roads which are responsible for some of the deaths where people don't realize they drive into floodwater and they wind up losing their lives. This can be repaired and will be repaired, but the person who lives next to it isn't confident it will happen within weeks, maybe even months.

WILLIAMS: Rick, thanks so much. Good reporting. Now to Steve Harrigan who's on the ground in Keith Hill, North Carolina. Steve.

STEVE HARRIGAN, FOX NEWS: Juan, we're right along the Cape Fear River. We're watching it flood backyards. You can see behind me just how swiftly it's moving now, big trees and pieces of debris just flying down the river. The real concern is how high it's going to get into Tuesday or Wednesday? It could reach peak historic levels here, and that's a real concern. It could produce catastrophic flooding for 1 mile around the entire area. Now there is mandatory evacuations. Deputies have been going door-to-door, knocking on doors, telling people they would not be rescued in the peak of the storm, but people are staying for the most part around here. This family here has sandbagged their house and move the valuable stuff up to higher floors. It is not easy to evacuate from here. Going 50 miles in one direction or another can take a day and night, and part of the next day. So many of the roads around here are flooded, downed power lines blocked by trees. You really almost need someone to guide you to try and get to where you're going, and that's going to have a lot of detours. Juan, back to you.

WILLIAMS: Steve, thanks so much. You know, you're standing there in flooded territory, Steve. I mean, was that not flooded before? Is that not a lake or a river?

HARRIGAN: Correct. Correct. No, it's a backyard and the river normally starts right out there. There're some stenches right over here we you'd normally sit.

WILLIAMS: Wow.

HARRIGAN: Yeah. They just shot a moccasin a short time ago and there's fit supply of fire ants in here. So I'm glad this is wrapping up.

(LAUGHTER)

WILLIAMS: Yes, Steve, you're too much. Thanks so much. Hillary Clinton jumping back into the political fray, claiming America's democracy is in crisis and under threat. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WATTERS: Democratic 2020 contenders aren't wasting any time lining up to bash President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

ERIC HOLDER, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL: This make America great mind-set is not only flawed. It's rooted in fear.

JOE BIDEN, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: This is deadly earnest. We are in a fight for America's soul. These forces of intolerance remain determined to undermine and rollback the progress you all have made. This time, they, not you, have an ally in the White House. This time they have an ally. There are a small percentage of the American people, virulent people, some of them the dregs of society.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

WATTERS: Wow. And Hillary Clinton refusing to go away, still whining about her election loss. In a new op-ed entitled, American democracy is in crisis, she says it's time to get rid of the Electoral College. Juan, I mean, where do we even begin? Let's just start with Biden. Is this a deplorable type of moment, dregs of society?

WILLIAMS: You know, I've always said that if you look at the numbers, there were people who said things like, you know, we don't think blacks are as intelligent, as patriotic. We don't think that gay people should be allowed to marry. And there was a high percentage.

GUTFELD: Of Democrats?

WILLIAMS: No, of people who are Trump supporters. But I think that it was damaging, if that's your point, to her campaign, and it was used by the opposition to suggest that she was condescending, rude, dismissive, all the rest. So -- but when I hear this, remember, they're speaking at the human rights campaign event in Washington this weekend. And so they're largely focused, not only on the idea of civil rights but human rights and, specific, gay, lesbian, transgender rights. And I think their point was, you're never going to get support from this president.

WATTERS: Well, what you think about the Electoral College abolition from Mrs. Hillary Clinton?

PERINO: I'm a strong believer and the founders were geniuses. And I think that they -- you know, I just saw Hamilton a couple of weeks ago. Everyone loves Hamilton. You go and see it. It helps you remember.

GUTFELD: George?

WATTERS: I can't afford tickets like that.

PERINO: Yeah, right.

WATTERS: That's true.

(LAUGHTER)

PERINO: Ask Juan -- ask Juan to take you. But, look, if you come from a small state, as I did, in terms of population of Wyoming, you really understand the Electoral College and how important it was, and how the founders of the country to have a federal government that had relationship with the states, but a representative government to prevent majority rule. And it was brilliant then. I think it's brilliant now. It's very frustrating I think to them. However, I do think that the pressure about the Electoral College is going to increase a lot in the next -- probably 20 to 30 years. And that's because -- soon, you are going to have about 70 percent of the population represented by only 30 percent of the senators because of where people are moving. They're moving to the big cities. And they're going to be very frustrated if the senators from Wyoming decide to block something in the senate. And that pressure about the Electoral College and the whole process is going to be immense, but I still maintain that the founders had it right and that they anticipated these things.

WILLIAMS: But let me just interject that, in fact, it's now 18 percent, Dana, 18 percent of the population.

PERINO: Yeah.

WILLIAMS: . is represented by half of the U.S. senate. And, to me, this is tyranny.

PERINO: How is that tyranny?

WILLIAMS: Because the agenda of that 18 -- of these half of the senate that's Republican, in terms of everything from the wall to abortion rights, is different than what the majority.

WILLIAMS: Let the record show that Juan is against the founding fathers.

WILLIAMS: Oh, yeah. Thank you.

WATTERS: Greg, take it away.

GUTFELD: Well, I mean, to that point, I feel like we've got to give these guys a little victory because the intensity of the vitriol and their delusional fears -- I mean, Juan just called the senate tyranny. We've got to let them have the house or they're going to burn down.

(LAUGHTER)

GUTFELD: I'm kind of half-joking. But if it's at this rate now, we're marching towards militancy. Like, by 2020, how bad is it going to get? And I am actually worried about how weird it's going to get. You've got your left-wing super friends, you know, with Holder, Biden, Obama, and Hillary. They're like the fantastic four, but slathered in Bengay. And they're here -- and now they're out there, they think it's OK to do -- say all this inflammatory stuff. But we've been lectured by the media about inflammatory rhetoric and how -- where that could lead. They don't seem to care that this could actually have a violent outcome.

WATTERS: What do you think, Trish?

REGAN: Yeah. I think you're absolutely right. I mean, I've said over and over again, I'm worried that our country is increasingly becoming ungovernable because two sides are so polarized against each other. By the way, remember when Donald Trump, when he was running back in '16 and he kept saying, well, you know, if I don't win, maybe this election system is rigged. And there were rumblings that it might be the fault of the Electoral College. And Hillary Clinton and company were out saying can you imagine that he would ever even -- you know, show this distrust in our system, et cetera? And now, well, he won, so now it's the reverse and she's doing the exact same thing that she worried he would do.

I mean, for her -- for her to criticize the system that has worked for hundreds and hundreds of years, a system that has made us the example, I would say, for the rest of the world, in terms of democracy, in terms of governments that transfer peacefully, at least they have been in the past, transferring peacefully. It's pretty despicable.

WILLIAMS: Hey, Trish, how many of the last six presidential elections have Republicans won the popular vote? Answer, one. But they've been in the White House I think now four times.

WATTERS: And that just shows me Democrats don't know how to run presidential campaigns.

REGAN: Right.

WATTERS: They campaign in the wrong states.

WILLIAMS: Oh, is that it?

WATTERS: You know the rules beforehand, don't complain.

GUTFELD: And NFL football games, you don't win by the amount of yardage you get, it's by the points.

WATTERS: Yeah. The Redskins would have won in that case.

GUTFELD: Oh!

WATTERS: Could John Kerry face criminal charges for secretly meeting with Iranian officials? Greg -- Greg, sit down -- next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUTFELD: Like an empty plastic cola bottle trapped in driftwood floating to the shore, John Kerry is back:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY: He really is a rare combination of an 8-year-old boy -- I mean, he's got the maturity of an 8-year-old boy with the insecurity of a teenage girl.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: How can he move his face? Now, he's got a new book out, and it's really a true reflection of Kerry. The book is awful, and it, too, is made from wood.

But there is some news in there. Apparently, while the Trump administration was busy with their own foreign policy, Kerry was busy with his own.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: There are people in the intelligence community who say that you've been telling the Iranians to wait out President Trump and the administration and to wait until there's a Democratic president in 2021. Is that accurate?

KERRY: Well, I think everybody in the world is sitting around talking about waiting out President Trump.

Every secretary of state, former secretary of state, continues to meet with foreign leaders, goes to security conferences, goes around the world. We all do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: See, that's what happens when an anchor actually reads the book.

So, I'm thinking holding secret meetings with a regime that's openly hostile to the American people seems a little like, what's that word? A hobby? Backstabbing? Oh, how about collusion? Yes, for two years, we've watched the media chase a phantom in an effort to undo an election. Meanwhile, Captain Corkboard here is meeting with the enemy, giving them cryptic advice on Trump.

Now, you might think, how is this different from working with North Korea? Well, Kerry is not the secretary of state. It's not his job. And it might even be illegal to have an alternative foreign policy going on that's separate from the White House.

Even more, it's worse to have it run from this guy in his basement in his spare time. And even when he was the secretary, who could forget his crowning achievement of international diplomacy?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES TAYLOR, MUSICIAN (singing): All you've got to do is call and I will be there. Yes, I'll be there. You've got a friend.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: Yes, when Kerry had the job, that was foreign policy. Today that might be an act of war, or just the act of an 8-year-old boy with the insecurity of a teenage girl. But taller.

All right, we've got a lot of smart people here. Let's go around the table. Against the law? Logan Act? Should he go -- should -- is this treason, Jesse?

WATTERS: Lock him up! That chant was for him, not Hillary.

I think Kerry owes an apology to teenage girls, because when I was in high school, I was much more insecure than the girls that I was in the class with.

I honestly think this is all about just giving CPR to his legacy, because when you think about his whole trajectory, he served honorably in Vietnam, and then he kind of tarnished that service when he came back and disparaged his fellow soldiers. Then he lost in kind of a humiliating fashion to George W. Bush.

Now, a nuclear deal as secretary of state is kind of like the crown jewel for these people, especially Democrats. So Trump comes in, just rips up the piece of paper, and Kerry's left saying, "What do I have left?" So he's desperate to salvage this thing.

And could you imagine if Mike Pompeo in seven and a half years, or maybe longer, goes out and tries to undermine the current Democratic presidential administration? He would get hammered by the media. I mean, you don't see Bill Clinton going down to Mexico City and trying to save NAFTA after Trump rips that up. It's unseemly, and he should be called out for it.

GUTFELD: Well, he does go to Mexico City but not for that.

Juan, Kerry met in Paris with enemy envoys, what in 1970. He met with Daniel Ortega while Reagan was president. That was outrageous. This guy is a traitor!

WILLIAMS: Is that right?

GUTFELD: Traitor, I say!

WILLIAMS: You just got it, Gregory. I'm hearing you. I'm hearing you.

WATTERS: He's swiftboating him over here.

WILLIAMS: We're back to that. We're back to that.

What I agree with you about is that the interviewer did a good job, Ms. Dana Perino.

WATTERS: We recommended questions, right?

WILLIAMS: It was Jesse. It was Jesse. You interfered.

PERINO: They wanted me to ask about John -- John Taylor. What's his name?

GUTFELD: James Taylor.

PERINO: James Taylor.

GUTFELD: You were going to say John Tesh.

TRISH REGAN, CO-HOST: Close enough, right?

WILLIAMS: Hey, hey, hey, give her a break.

All right. Anyway, back to the news. I think that there's a big difference to be made, distinction to be made between negotiating, and I don't think he is negotiating, and talking. And saying, which I think everybody says who's not a Trump fan, "Look, take it easy. Don't overreact. Don't get angry. Don't think that somehow this is nomination invitation now for you to go after Israel or do something else or to relaunch your nuclear program. Take it easy. Let's talk about that." I don't think there's anything criminal about that.

REGAN: He's undermining this administration.

By the way, that was a great interview, and you got him to admit, "Yes, OK, I'm sort of doing this but isn't everybody doing this?"

I mean, he hates this president so much, as so many on the left do. They think that they're totally fine, basically, to -- well, to use your words, commit treason. They think it's OK. They're justified, because they think there's some bigger, greater purpose that they're serving.

The American people didn't know they were doing when they elected Donald Trump, he's rationalizing to himself. "I need to save the country. I need to save the people."

I mean, you can go back to the anonymous article in The New York Times, right, the anonymous op-ed, where there's this sense that there's this greater good that they're somehow performing. And Kerry is part of that.

GUTFELD: Yes. If you believe that it's evil, then everything is acceptable.

Dana, do remember when everybody got upset about, during the transition, Donald Trump made some phone calls? Everybody was like, "Oh, my God."

PERINO: He made the first -- he made the first phone call to Taiwan. And that was like, "Whoa, the Chinese are going to get so mad." And a lot of the neocons were like, "Yes, this is awesome. We love that."

I also remember when Nancy Pelosi, during the Bush administration, Bush 43's administration, went to Syria to meet with Assad.

GUTFELD: That's right.

PERINO: With a photo op and everything. Right? So treason is in the eye of the beholder. She thought she was going and being very helpful and having talks.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: Meanwhile, the Bush administration is having actual sanctions talk at the U.N. So there is a problem; you have to wait.

It's also what Mike Flynn is accused of doing when he called Ambassador Kislyak and he talked about sanctions, which was against Obama administration policy. Could he have waited? Yes, maybe. But it's not that big a deal, because it's like two weeks later. His problem is that then he lied about it.

GUTFELD: OK, can I ask you a question? Did you read -- you read his book, didn't you?

PERINO: I read most of it. It is 600 pages. And that same weekend, I had to read Woodward's book. So I sort of felt like I was studying for finals.

WATTERS: I'd really like to make an announcement. I am now a member of Dana's book club. She invited me.

PERINO: That's right. That's right.

WATTERS: You sound like you're having second thoughts.

PERINO: No. No, I forgot. You can be a member.

GUTFELD: What's the first assignment? Is it a Hardy book?

PERINO: He read "Fear."

WATTERS: No, I'm reading "Fear." I haven't finished it.

REGAN: You guys get together and talk --

WATTERS: I have a life. I'm very busy.

PERINO: I don't. I read a novel this weekend.

WATTERS: Of course you did.

PERINO: I'm going to talk about it.

GUTFELD: I saw a movie.

WATTERS: What'd you see?

GUTFELD: I saw "Mandy," the new Nicolas Cage movie. It's amazing. It's like being trapped in a heavy metal song with demons.

PERINO: That sounds horrible.

GUTFELD: It's fantastic. No, it's great.

WILLIAMS: I had a better time.

GUTFELD: What did you --

WILLIAMS: I went to see Paul Simon. I was, like, the youngest person there.

WATTERS: You've seen ZZ Top and Paul Simon. Man, Juan, you're getting around.

PERINO: What did you do, Trish?

REGAN: I had an amazing, amazing weekend. I'm actually going to talk about it later.

WATTERS: That's a tease.

PERINO: That's a "One More Thing" tease.

GUTFELD: All right. President Trump set to declassify key FISA documents. The breaking news, next. Wait!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

REGAN: This is a FOX News alert. President Trump declassifying key FISA documents related to the Russia investigation. The president also authorizing the release of text messages from James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Bruce Ohr. The exact release date is not yet known.

But Jesse, it sounds like we're going to read all those texts. My goodness. And even James Comey in there, too.

WATTERS: I might have to put down "Fear" and pick up the texts.

So I mean, this has been a long time coming, and people have been asking the president to do this for almost a year. And I'm glad he's doing it before the midterms, because it is going to have a huge political impact.

Right now, the -- you know, looks like the Democrats have a very good shot at retaking the House. If this all comes out and people can see that a lot of what's been going on in terms of surveillance and the special counsel was rigged from the jump and people were corrupt to the very highest levels when it came to political persecution and things that should never have been done.

And I think people are going to take a very hard look at that and say, "You know what? I'm able to discount a lot of the drama and a lot of the -- the court filings and things like that in the investigations," and that's important for the American people to see.

REGAN: How quickly, Dana, do you think the American people will be able to see it? Like, what's the process?

PERINO: Well, because it's -- people have been asking, not just people but, like, The Wall Street Journal editorial board. Like, "Why don't we just release these documents?" This has been going back for about a year.

It could be that the Justice Department and the FBI and the White House are all comfortable with these being released momentarily. But it might take them a day or two just to figure out if they need any other sources to be dealt with.

I also wonder if this is a sign that things are starting to wrap up, because now you have Manafort's plea. You know, there's movement. And to me, this feels like another way to wrap this up.

REGAN: Greg, do you think the president knows or has any inkling what exactly is in there? I mean, I think we all are somewhat suspicious, given what we have seen. But why is he doing this?

GUTFELD: Well, I spoke to him this morning at length over -- at the omelet station at Applebee's, and he told me, you know, "We'll wait and see what happens." I can't say much else. My mike came off.

But the one big story is the story that didn't happen, which is the collusion story. I mean, if you look at the book "Fear," was there anything in there? He couldn't find it. He tried.

PERINO: He also defends President Trump in his book.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: And he did at the time, too.

WATTERS: The Peter Strzok texts reveal that there was no evidence of collusion at the time they handed the thing off to the special counsel.

GUTFELD: Could this collusion investigation be the biggest -- the biggest scandal in the history of mankind?

WATTERS: I thought you were going to go with "witch hunt."

GUTFELD: We're on the wild-goose chase for two years. Everybody should be arrested, including Juan Williams. I'm pressing charges against that tie.

WILLIAMS: You don't like it?

GUTFELD: I'm not sure I do.

WILLIAMS: You hurt my feelings.

All right. But anyway, I think, like Dana was saying, could be wrapped up. Also, could be an indication of a flailing president, because people have been asking on the conservative side of the Trump team, saying -- Devin Nunes has been the lead cheerleader for this, right, because he thinks it's going to embarrass somebody in the intelligence community.

So I think the president was somewhat restrained in saying, "Hey, listen, we can't just throw a FISA warrant out there, because FISA warrants are secret for a reason. You don't want your enemies to know about your sources."

But now after the Manafort flip, and Manafort is going to apparently cooperate with Mueller. And then you have, in addition, I think it's now we're up to, like, twenty- something people who've been either charged or pled guilty to charges brought by Robert Mueller.

GUTFELD: No collusion.

WILLIAMS: I think that you have a president who is desperate.

REGAN: I don't know. Don't you think --

WATTERS: Desperate for the truth. Desperate for transparency.

WILLIAMS: Yes. Oh, yes, he is a guy who's never told a lie. I think he set a record the other day.

WATTERS: Who's counting?

WILLIAMS: The Washington Post.

REGAN: I'll tell you, Juan, as a journalist, I want to know what caused them to go get that FISA warrant. I mean, other than this --

WATTERS: Dossier.

REGAN: -- dossier, which was funded by political operatives on the other side. I mean, Jesse, I think the American people want to know what really happened. By the way, we deserve to know, whatever it is. We deserve to know.

WATTERS: Listen, if it comes out that the dossier made up 90 percent of this warrant application, and that's all they had, then that's a huge scandal.

And if more text messages come out from Bruce Ohr and McCabe and Strzok and Page that show this thing started on the left with the Clinton team and then was funneled back door through the DOJ and into the FBI, and at the end of the day, they really had nothing hard to go along with any collusion, it looks like a huge hit piece against the Trump campaign, illegal hit piece. And then it looks like a big cover up for the last year and a half.

GUTFELD: How do you guys feel about that football player quitting at halftime?

PERINO: I feel -- I think it was really bad sportsmanship.

GUTFELD: Because they were losing. You don't quit when you're losing.

PERINO: No. You always quit when you're ahead.

WATTERS: You know, I'm out of here.

REGAN: Not yet. We've got "One More Thing" coming up next. I'm with you. You don't quit midstream. All thought. "One More Thing" next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PERINO: It's time now for "One More Thing." I'll go first.

This last Friday. FOX News's very own Chris Wallace got an aware. It's the Tex McCrary Award for journalism awarded by the Congressional Medal of Honor society at its annual convention.

The ceremony happened the day after Chris hosted a panel discussion with three Medal of Honor recipients. During his speech, Chris highlighted the relationship FOX News and military families share.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: I am honored to receive this award, especially from people I respect so greatly. I'm grateful you recognize the work of our "FOX News Sunday" team these past 15 years, telling your story. We understand the military and their families are a big part of our FOX audience.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: Dana, did you just get -- you got this award last year.

PERINO: I did get that award before. But it was aspirational. Chris Wallace is certainly much more accomplished than I am.

WILLIAMS: Oh, stop.

PERINO: Jesse.

WATTERS: Speaking of accomplished journalists, I'll go now. The -- do you guys remember when you started to learn how to drive, and you either had your father take you out for a spin or your uncle or something like that? Or a professional.

PERINO: Your mom could do that, too.

WATTERS: Or your mom. Sometimes things go well, and sometimes they don't. Here is an incident that happened in Maryland during a driving lesson.

WILLIAMS: Oh, my gosh.

WATTERS: Someone was teaching someone to park in a parking lot at a swimming pool, and they wound up in the swimming pool. They both escaped unharmed and swam to the shore. And I guess they had to pull the car out of the pool. And I would not give this guy a license, or girl. We don't know. We don't know who it was.

GUTFELD: Talk about a carpool. Shoot me.

WILLIAMS: That was great.

PERINO: You get to go next.

GUTFELD: All right. Let's do this.

GRAPHIC: Greg's New TV Show News

GUTFELD: "Greg's New TV Show News." All right. I've been pitching this show all around cable, and finally, they did it. It's called "Cat and Owl Staring at You for an Hour. That's what it's called. It's just an hour.

See the little owl? And see the cat? All they do is stare at you for one hour. This is going to rate; it's going to be big. Big, I tell you. Look at this. I've been watching this for days now.

PERINO: The cat's so scared. She's like, "Can I get in here?"

GUTFELD: But isn't that wonderful? If a cat and an owl can stay together like that, why can't Democrats and Republicans? And liberals and conservatives? Huh? If they can do it. By the way, after this show, the cat actually bit the head off the owl.

WILLIAMS: Oh.

GUTFELD: It was disgusting.

PERINO: Well, you've got to get a new cat or owl, I guess.

Juan.

GUTFELD: Doesn't matter.

WILLIAMS: All right. So I learned a new word today, and I bet you don't know what it means. The word is spy hop. So I'm going to show you what it means. Watch this video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(WHALES JUMPING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: Yes, that's three humpback whales breaching the service of the waters off Tiverton, Nova Scotia, last month. The incredible video as shot from a tour ship after the three humpback whales spent some time near the boat, lolling around.

They then seemed to disappear, but within minutes they took turns jumping out of the water, creating the incredible display that you're seeing.

So what does spy hop mean? Well, a spy hop is whenever an animal jumps out of the water to get a better view of the activity near the water's surface. It's like, you know, when your goldfish jumps out of the tank so he can see what's happening in the living room. That's a spy hop.

PERINO: I think the screaming would annoy me to no end.

WILLIAMS: The screaming of the tourists?

PERINO: Yes. I mean, that's probably why the whales are, like, going crazy.

WILLIAMS: Well, it's the same thing in your living room when the goldfish jumps out.

PERINO: Trish, save us.

REGAN: Well, I told you I was going to tell you about my weekend.

PERINO: That's right.

REGAN: I got a call on Saturday, and I was so happy when I heard. So I have a little sister I'm very, very close to, my sister Caitlin. We've always been close, and we're so close now we, like, talk almost every day. And she plays a big role in my children's lives now. Really, they just -- the sun just rises and sets on her. They are crazy about Caitlin.

And Caitlin met a great guy six months ago. And we got -- his name is Chris. And we got a call. They were in Barcelona, Spain, and my mom and I were walking down the street together, and we got this call. They're engaged!

WILLIAMS: Congratulations.

GUTFELD: I did not see that coming.

REGAN: And I was so happy I actually started crying. And my mom started crying. And --

PERINO: Happy tears are the best.

REGAN: Welcome to the family, Chris. Caitlin, we --

GUTFELD: He's not very attractive, though.

REGAN: They're so happy.

WATTERS: Looked like they met on "The Bachelor." God, good-looking people.

WILLIAMS: Can you just let her celebrate for a minute?

GUTFELD: We can't let anything sentimental go.

REGAN: Caitlin, you look way more like you should work here than me. I know. She's a beautiful girl and a wonderful girl. It will be great.

PERINO: Where do they live?

REGAN: New Hampshire, but probably Connecticut soon.

PERINO: Connecticut.

GUTFELD: Home address?

PERINO: Don't ever give your home address to Greg.

All right. Set your DVRs. Never miss an episode of "The Five." "Special Report" is up next. Hey, Bret.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS: Hey, Dana. Thanks.

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