Media take Trump's 'animals' remark out of context

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Media take Trump's 'animals' remark out of context

The president and White House addresses outrageous headlines from mainstream media; reaction and analysis on 'The Five.'

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

JESSE WATTERS, CO-HOST: Hello, everybody. I'm Jesse Watters along with Kimberly, Juan, Dana and Greg. It's 5 o'clock in New York City, and this is "The Five."

Media bias exposed. It's no surprise that the left-wing media hates President Trump, but this next story might be one of the most grotesquely irresponsible examples yet. During yesterday's sanctuary state roundtable the president was asked about the dangerous MS-13 gang. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: There could be an MS-13 gang members, I know that. If they don't reach a certain threshold, I cannot tell ICE about them.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We have people coming into the country, trying to come in, we're stopping a lot of them, but we're taking people out of the country. You wouldn't believe how bad these people are. These aren't people. These are animals. And we're taking them out of the country at a level and in a rate that's never happened before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: The mainstream press including the New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, and many others took Trump out of context, suggesting he called all illegal immigrants animals, not just MS-13. The morning papers flat out misleading readers with headlines like this from the New York Times, quote, Trump calls some unauthorized immigrants animals in rant. And from USA Today, quote, Trump calls undocumented people animals, rhetoric with a dark past. The president addressing the outrageous reports.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You know I'm referring to the MS-13 gangs that are coming in. And I was talking about the MS-13, and also, if you look a little bit further on the tape, you'll see that. We have laws that are laughed at on immigration. So, when the MS-13 comes in, when the other gang members come in to our country, I refer to them as animals. And guess what. I'll always will. But we're getting them out by the thousands. But it's a big dangerous job, and they're able, in some cases, to come back in or new groups come in, also from the gangs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: Sarah Sanders also issuing this epic takedown of the liberal Trump hating media earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president was very clearly referring to MS-13 gang members who enter the country illegally and whose deportations are hamstrung by our laws. This is one of the most vicious and deadly gangs that operate by the motto of rape, control and kill. If the media and liberals wants to defend MS-13, they're more than welcome to. Frankly, I don't think the term that the president use was strong enough. MS-13 has done heinous acts. It took an animal to stab a man 100 times and decapitate him and ripped his heart out. It took an animal to beat a woman, they were sex-trafficking with a bat. Twenty- eight times indicting part of her body. And it took an animal to kidnap, drugged and rape a 14-year-old Houston girl. Frankly, I think that the term animal doesn't go far enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: Dana, this is devastating for the mainstream media. This wasn't just a few outlets. These were some of the biggest, most credible media companies out there really just botching something that's pretty simple.

DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: Well, and also -- it grew because of social media. So, I remember there were times when -- like an editor up here in New York would write a headline or a caption or choose a photo that was out of context. And you would actually have White House reporters -- let's just call the New York Times as a hypothetical. They would call up to New York, and I, woo, woo, woo, that's not what he was saying. That's not what he was doing. And I don't know what happened here. Possibly could have happened, but it can happen soon enough. And then, some of the outlets like the A.P. deleted the tweet which is better than nothing, but it does show you that immediately they heard animals and immigrants and they put it together without that context, and so that's unfortunate.

I do want to make one point about this, it's not -- it does have -- the president on this MS-13 issue. But it also happened to somebody recently, Ed Gillespie when he was running for governor of Virginia, he was one of this issues -- one of his issues was MS-13. And the Washington Post had several headlines. I think if we have them here, we can show you about how Ed -- basically describing Ed as a racists, saying that Ed -- poisonous. OK. So, a month later and since, the Washington Post all of a sudden had a change of heart about MS-13 in their headlines, post-election, after Ed Gillespie loses, they talk about how MS-13 is terrible. They're -- the violence. Then, the talking feud, they show a couple of examples. But it's just very interesting that they -- the media tends to defend MS-13 in the strangest ways in order to help -- to hurt a Republican. It's an unfortunate set of events. But also, here's the thing, this helps Trump.

WATTERS: It does helps Trump.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: You don't want this to happen to anybody, but, at the end of the day, he certainly won on this one.

WATTERS: And like Dana said, Greg, some very strange things have come out of this. I saw some people on twitter saying, you know, even MS-13 members aren't animals. They are humans--

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: -- too seriously here.

GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: That's because they had to shift the -- once the story fell apart they had to find a new avenue, so now they're defending a murderous gang of rapists. Like I've said, MS-13 is now, yet, another victim class.

PERINO: Right.

GUTFELD: And if you go after them, you're the bad guy. And how dare you judge. They're just a misguided -- they're like a book club without the books. You know what this is? This is the Laurel-Yanny experiment writ large. You know, normal people heard what they heard correctly which was he was referring to a gang. The media heard racist. So that's the -- it's the Laurel-Yanny, except it's different because they're mishearing this on purpose. This isn't an accident. They are -- I guess, maybe because of their own confirmation bias they're selectively hear something. And then, you know what's the next strategy is?

OK. So they know that they're wrong, they know they made a mistake, what they're going to say is, well, Trump has said bad things before, and he will probably say them again. So, it doesn't really matter that they're wrong here. That's the same argument that it's used defending hate crimes. Oh, that racist graffiti was fake, but somewhere around the country it is real. That's the last argument they're going to have to defend this, and it's going to be hilarious. This has been done a lot. I always credit -- well, give time to other people, but--

WATTERS: OK. As Sarah Sanders mentioned and did a very good job of mentioning, just the amount of heinous crimes committed by MS-13, Kimberly. I mean, you've had experience with them. I don't see how the Democrats can even go near a gang like that.

KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, CO-HOST: No, absolutely. And just saying, over the years, and prosecuting and working as a gang crime specialist. I'll tell you this is by far the worst most notorious gang that I ever come across. And that's even with the Aaron brothers having a contract down on me to have me killed. It's expired. But when this--

GUTFELD: That wasn't my fault, by the way. I tried to talk them out of it, Kimberly.

(LAUGHTER)

GUILFOYLE: So this was a prime example of media bias exposed, right? Because you see a situation like this, because the level of vitriol that they have and the angst and upset towards the president, they just took it too far. They tried to say, oh, look, this is a situation where he's being racist talking about this. I don't think the president took a far enough saying animals and I'll tell you why, because when you see their handiwork and you're actually at the crime scene, you see these photos, you talked to the family members of MS-13 and other gang members, they commit these heinous atrocities, just vicious gangs and killing. Showing no regard for human life. Use of the machete.

Another favorite is they love to put nails on baseball bats to beat people to death. The types of crimes they commit. The young girl who is a teenager who they felt disrespected. The gang leader's shrine to a demon. And family members not even able to identify their children because of the state that their bodies are left in dealing with these guys. You know what? Not even animals. Not wild animals even behave like this. So, when you really think about the facts and about what the president was saying, he was showing a respect for victims, respect for law enforcement, and a total -- you know, flat out, you know, saying I have no tolerance for heinous crimes committed, and I look to public safety and the law enforcement to do something about this.

WATTERS: Juan, you've worked in the mainstream media before.

JUAN WILLIAMS, CO-HOST: I have.

WATTERS: Any excuse for something like this? Is it sloppiness or is it something more do you think?

WILLIAMS: Yeah, it's called accuracy.

WATTERS: Woo, what do you mean about that?

WILLIAMS: Because it's accurate. I mean, saying about this is -- I'm loving this because you guys are like feeding the grievance on the right by saying, oh, yeah, that terrible mainstream media, how could they say -- this is so awful. They misinterpreted the president. You know what, the president called people animals. And then you say, oh, no, no, it wasn't people. He was referring, you know, to the Hannibal Lector's of the world is MS-13 gang. You know what? That's not--

GUILFOYLE: But they're growing.

WILLIAMS: You do not talk about other people as animals. And I don't care who you are or who they are. You do not become a monster by demonizing your opponent.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: Hold on. Hold on. I want to finish. And you know what--

WATTERS: They demonized themselves, Juan.

WILLIAMS: I think they're terrible, but I don't think--

GUTFELD: Wait a minute, you called them terrible, Juan? How insulting are you. How dare you call them terrible. That's hurtful. Hurtful.

WILLIAMS: I call you hilarious. Here's the thing. You have the president -- a president who says that people who are coming to this country who aren't white are coming from S-hole countries. You have the president talking about people coming from Mexico -- oh, murderers, rapists, right?

WATTERS: Some of them are good people.

WILLIAMS: Oh, some of them are good people. This is exactly the kind of excuse you hear from the right wing echo chamber.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: No, no, I'm telling you. You know, you guys are Trump apologists today, because the president--

GUTFELD: Oh.

WATTERS: You're a fake news apologist, Juan. Because the basis of the story is the president is taken out of context.

WILLIAMS: It was not. That's a distortion.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: You guys loved to make immigrants into the evil because it fires up Trump's base.

WATTERS: We're not conflating MS-13 with immigrants.

GUILFOYLE: Did you hear what dana said?

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: This Laurel-Yanny thing, which you're seeing, again, right here is Juan here is Yanny, which is sad because it's definitely Laurel.

GUILFOYLE: I heard Laurel.

GUTFELD: This is a valuable lesson. And I hope, somehow, we learn from this. Because a couple of weeks ago, something Chris Hayes did from MSNBC, which I thought was pretty admirable. Trump was talking to Paralympic athletes and he said he wanted to watch them perform but he found it hard. And so, there was a group of people that said how disgusting it was that he was saying how hard it was to watch people with disabilities perform. What, actually, what he was saying it's hard to watch because he's busy.

As the president, it's hard for him to watch the Olympics or the Paralympics. Chris Hayes originally tweeted out that this was disgusting. And then, he watched it again and he goes the Yanny went to Laurel. And he goes, you know what? I was wrong. That he was talking about the schedule. And if people just go and they listen it's so obvious, he's talking about a gang. He's calling them animals. Everybody knows that. But you have to - -people have to learn that may be they have to step out of their own delusions, their own emotions and relies that your first initial response is incorrect.

WILLIAMS: Do you think that anybody who's a criminal is an animal?

GUTFELD: Well, I think that's insulting to animals.

WILLIAMS: OK.

GUTFELD: By the way, we're all animals. We're all animals, Juan.

WILLIAMS: And I think in our society lots of people who are judged guilty of crimes later return, and we want them to -- we don't say they're animals.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: No, no, no, and I like what Greg said about -- I forget which host. Chris Hayes. Because I think people make mistakes. Remember when the Dr. King statue they say was removed from the oval office and they had to correct it.

GUTFELD: Right.

WILLIAMS: People in media make mistakes, but this is no mistake.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: It happens the other way too. And I don't know all of the details. But, Crystal is a CNN -- there was something this week about a graphic or something, and then the right media went crazy with it and said, oh, he put a target over President Trump, saying, no, I didn't, but it already, like, gone halfway around the world. So, it does happens on both sides.

GUTFELD: It's just worse on their sides.

(LAUGHTER)

WATTERS: Yeah. And they're getting all these news stories wrong and they always damage President Trump. So, that's why they're not honest mistakes. So they never make mistakes about Democrats.

GUILFOYLE: Take a moment and look at the context.

WATTERS: That's right. Coming up, a bombshell new report claiming the FBI allegedly spied, spied on the Trump campaign.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIAMS: Today marks the one-year anniversary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe. President Trump firing back against the investigation today tweeting, congratulations America, we are now into the second year of the greatest witch hunt in American history. And there is still no collusion, no obstruction. The only collusion was that done by Democrats who are unable to win an election despite the spending of far more money, end quote. Team Trump is also coming out swinging.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

RUDY GIULIANI, LAWYER OF PRESIDENT TRUMP: If we're in for a long investigation, we'll fight every single thing whether people think it's nice or not nice, or -- if you're innocent, you've got to fight back. The president is clearly innocent and he's absolutely right. He wants to get insulted, you get -- damn witch hunt.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: As the president likes to say, we'll see what happens. We'll see what the facts may reveal. But I think those who have been digging and conjecturing for over a year should be careful what they wish for.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

WILLIAMS: This comes on the heels of a stunning New York Times report claiming the FBI allegedly spied on the Trump campaign. A lot of people are fired up about this, arguing the investigation was launched without evidence. Giuliani also reacting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GIULIANI: In this case, I think we're going to have to look into it whether we can challenge the legitimacy of the entire investigation. Maybe a special prosecutor -- special -- should have never been appointed. Not based on an illegal leak, not based on a set of facts that go back to -- I mean, I'm shocked to hear that they put a spy in the campaign of a major party candidates, or maybe two spies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: So, Jesse, it's one year. One year since Mueller started and, actually, if you go back to these -- what these latest reports reveal, it was all the way back to, I guess, October 2016, right before the election. So, the fact that it has lasted this long, is that evidence that it is misguided and a witch hunt?

WATTERS: What a question.

WILLIAMS: That's a fair question. Tell me.

WATTERS: I would say happy anniversary, Juan.

WILLIAMS: OK.

WATTERS: It's been long enough. This New York Times story--

GUILFOYLE: Are you going to give him a card?

WATTERS: No. This New York Times story is pretty explosive. I see it as a confession. It's probably a pre-buttal by leakers at the FBI and the DOJ because they know the I.G. is coming out with some pretty damning stuff. And there is an abuse of power, I believe, in the way this whole thing started. When you look at how it started, Papadopoulos is a 28-year-old kid. He gets invited to an event at Cambridge in England. Who invited him? It's a good question.

We're going to find out more about that later. At the event, some professors say, you know what? I've heard that the Russians hacked some Democrat emails. So, he then gets set up for drinks with the Australian ambassador. Set up for drinks, also interesting. Where he passes it along, he says, listen, you know, I heard that the Russians had some Democrat emails. Not that the Trump campaign had anything to do with the hacking or were involved at all. Just passed it on.

And so, then, the ambassador calls the FBI, says this is want I hear. The FBI, guess who they send? They sent Peter Strzok, the infamous Peter Strzok over to London to check things out. And what do you know? They open up not a criminal investigation, which is important, a counterintelligence investigation because for a criminal investigation you actually have to have hard evidence of treason or espionage.

Didn't have either of that, OK. So, they open up this thing on four members of the Trump campaign. Flynn, Papadopoulos, Carter Page and Manafort. To this day, none of these people have been charged with anything relating to collusion, espionage, spying or treason, OK. And what do they do? They use these highly secretive subpoenas. They're called national security letters, very controversial. Extremely secretive. To get information from computers and from phone logs. And they had at least one spy in their campaign.

Now, I think I know who it is. I was talking to someone today about it. There's no way I'm going to say the name. I have enough problems already. But the name will come out, OK. And everybody -- it will be very clear. It will be very clear. So, to put it in perspective, the Obama FBI had spies in the Trump campaign a couple of months before an election, illegally surveilled, we believe, people in the Trump campaign based on political opposition research paid for by Hillary and gotten through Russian sources.

And, any time you try to ask questions, they stonewall or put out this highly redacted nonsense, and all the people involved are Trump haters. Strzok, Page, Comey, Yates. Everybody involves hates Trump and are bias, and you can't get any straight answers.

WILLIAMS: You know what, I just want to cry.

PERINO: We've got to go to break now.

(LAUGHTER)

WILLIAMS: Dana, you look like you want to explode while I cry--

PERINO: I don't want to explode.

WILLIAMS: -- because I just feel for the president, go ahead.

PERINO: No, I don't want to explode. I'm actually quite entertained by Jesse using 5 minutes to watch over the whole thing.

(LAUGHTER)

GUILFOYLE: And the body movements.

PERINO: I thought the New York Times thing was interesting. I do also -- it's always fun to see that that -- it depends on the day. If it's fake news media or it's an actual news organization that is reporting facts and information that they have. There's a lot here that we don't know. I do wonder about the whole issue and hope that we find out one day. The investigation about Russia wanting to influence election starts in the spring of 2015, before President Trump or anybody was really campaigning. I think Rubio have already announced. And so, how that fits into all of this, I don't know.

WILLIAMS: OK. Kimberly?

GUILFOYLE: OK. So, yeah, I think this is interesting because I agree with Jesse in the first graph out of his body, which -- this was a prebuttal in terms of trying to get ahead of it, preempt the story that's going to come out because of expectations as it relates to the I.G. report. It's going to be quite damaging. That's what they do, they're trying to get out ahead of the story to say, OK, this is what happen. By the way, Democrats, Republicans, independence, questioning, whatever you are, you should be really concerned that this level of spying and duplicity would be happening to any person in this country. There has to be facts and evidence to support it. You can't just have an open-ended investigation. There has to be scope, focus, evidences to back it up to make sure.

And that's what I get concerned about as a former prosecutor. I mean, I've gone before judges. I would never go before a judge, for example, unless I had some very good specific, hard facts, pursuant to an investigation that my unit has conducted versus getting information from an outside source, from a dossier that came from a campaign that was from somebody who had, you know, foreign contacts, et cetera. So, when you look at this type of thing, it's worth the examination that's gone into it. Depends on the flip side, you see what Rudy Giuliani is saying, which is the president is innocent. He's been trying to prove himself innocent. This has been going on forever. It's a year now. What do you have? You can't just keep going and going and going to try to come up with something to get him to trip, because it looks like that your whole goal and focus is to try to undermine the president versus seeking justice.

WILLIAMS: So, Greg, oftentimes you want to say something, but I have a real question. Do you want to say something, I'll quickly ask you a question, let me--

GUTFELD: Do whatever you think is correct, Juan.

WILLIAMS: Well, no, I love what you do, so I don't want to get in the way. But I'm just saying, I think there's real news on two counts. One, Giuliani said that the Mueller people had told him the president cannot be indicted, and they agree. Now, he said that. We don't know what the Giuliani team. This comes from -- sorry, we don't know what the Mueller team. This comes from Rudy Giuliani alone. There's been no confirmation elsewhere. And the second thing is that, I think a lot of people are surprised that the New York Times did not report as a headline, but way back in October, oh, my God, the FBI is looking into a possible tie between Russia and the Trump campaign. That this was buried in some story.

GUTFELD: It's an interesting thing. It's like -- this probe is supposed to somehow expose Trump and unseat a president, but it keeps coming out and hurting Democrats. It's like -- they're like -- the media, they're like pigs digging for truffles, but they just keep coming up with turds. You know what this is? Collusion -- this whole collusion narrative is like that jar of mayonnaise in your fridge that's nearly empty. And they're just trying to get in there and they can't get any more, it's almost gone. As it's almost gone, all this new great stuff comes out that makes Dems look bad. My favorite part of this whole story that we haven't talked about is the name of the secret investigation.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: Cross fire hurricane.

WILLIAMS: Because it's a Rolling Stone?

GUTFELD: So, get this. These mid-level bureaucrats are so addicted to their emotional anger over Trump that they have a secret investigation called cross fire hurricane, a line from Jumping Jack Flash because in their heads they think they're Mick Jagger and Keith Richards when they're not. They're just some emotional bureaucrat trying to even a score, probably propelled by a mad affair. It's all emotional and it's all falling apart, I'm loving every minute of it. Cross fire hurricane.

WILLIAMS: Wow, wow, wow, OK.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: Trump rhetoric creating trouble for my fellow Democrats heading into these midterms? On The Five you'll get details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUILFOYLE: The Democrats midterm poll numbers are taking another dip big. Well, the RealClearPolitics generic ballot edge is now just plus 4.7 percent, down from double digits earlier this year. So what is behind the slide? Is it because of comments like these?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, D-MASS.: Men like Trump only wind up in power when democracies are already decaying.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you favoring the government actually regulating the relationship between CEO pay and the average worker?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's a very good idea, and I think we should start talking about it.

REP. MAXINE WATERS, D-CALIF.: And I resent the remark about making America great again. He's down here making a speech for this dishonorable president of the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

GUILFOYLE: All right. So Dana, obviously, the left pretty fired up. You see a lot them, you know, pretty excited rhetoric coming from that side and then also sort of a mixed bag in terms of people saying, "Listen, we better knock it off, slow it down," about talking about impeachment. Don't want to be alienating people. So what do you make of it?

PERINO: Well, I do think that the Democrats have done this bat signal out to everybody, like, stop talking about impeachment. Stop talking about Russia. There was a piece this week from the left saying that the Democrats have an MSNBC problem. Dana Millbank, a columnist for The Washington Post, went to that conference that we were showing you. And he said this isn't going to cut it. I mean, you could win 2018 by being against President Trump, but this is not going to win you a presidential election. You have to have better ideas than that. So I do think that that is starting to catch up with them.

Plus, conservative policies are actually proving themselves to work. So I think that, as people start to realize that, oh, wow, the country is doing a little bit better. They all feel better.

It's not as if the Democrats don't have some things to focus on. Certainly, health care is a vulnerability for Republicans. They don't talk about it enough. They don't seem to have a plan.

And then the other piece is, like, United Way put out a study today that said 40 percent of the middle class can't make ends meet. So there are things that they could talk about, but they are wrapped around the axle on the other stuff.

GUILFOYLE: You just gave them all the ideas. Were you listening? Did you take notes?

PERINO: No, they're not listening. Nobody's listening to me.

GUILFOYLE: Great points journal.

So you know, Greg, Dana touched on something here in terms of, you know, what works? The conservative, you know, different policies, the different practices that the president is implementing? We talked about it on this show, about inner cities or urban areas that are having a lot of strife, that have a lot of crime, that have a lot of unemployment, et cetera; and those are cities that have been run by Democrats. Right? So some of those policies have proven to fail in the past.

And now the president is trying a new and fresh approach that seems to be working, certainly, as it relates to the economy. And if the economy and the numbers are good, people tend to vote in support of.

GUTFELD: That was a great question. You know what the Democrats need, Kimberly? They need an asteroid to crash into Earth, because the biggest obstacle for the Democrats is good news. Right? It's Gutfeld's Law. I'm making it up right now. The more good news there is, the fewer Democrats there are.

So as long as you have low unemployment, you have high optimism, you've got a hope for peace, there's no war, pestilence, there's no rain of frogs coming down. So the Dems might be in trouble. The Dems need an asteroid. They need something big and ugly so they can have something to say, "Look at this world."

But I don't think Republicans should be complacent. This story is designed to pump up the Democrats, to get them to panic and come out. That's why this story's around.

GUILFOYLE: Get out the vote.

GUTFELD: Right.

WATTERS: I thought Gutfeld's Law was ribs for lunch and dinner.

GUTFELD: That's Gutfeld's Law No. 2.

WATTERS: OK.

GUTFELD: And you left out breakfast.

WATTERS: Sorry.

GUTFELD: Which were rib tips.

WATTERS: Rib tips.

I would just quickly say, either consciously or unconsciously, President Trump, though his actions and rhetoric, has driven the left into crazy town. They've, over the course of the year, sided with Little Rocket Man, MS-13, Hamas, Iran, Farrakhan, and people that kneel during the national anthem. Not a good place to be in this country. That's just simple.

And I would agree with Dana. When you have tax cuts giving people $2,000 extra in their wallet, and ISIS gone, you have safety, security and prosperity. He just needs to run on that.

GUILFOYLE: And spending money.

OK. Juan, do you dare to disagree with Professor Watters?

WILLIAMS: With Jesse? I would never disagree with Jesse. I find it ridiculous. Why would I be -- why would I make myself the target of such derision in our audience? Because Jesse is the font of wisdom.

WATTERS: Thank you.

WILLIAMS: But I did listen to Dana Perino. Because I listen to Dana anyway, but I listen when she said that, you know, this report indicates 40 percent of Americans, right? What did you say, having trouble making ends meet? I think that's not a sign of an economy that's exactly serving everybody in the society.

But the key point I take away from this, we can actually -- again, I go back to Dana Perino, because she sent some lovely articles around. About how you see a lot of the kind of more moderate Democrats not winning in the primaries --

PERINO: Right.

WILLIAMS: -- that were held this week on Tuesday. Instead what you see is more of the people on the far left.

GUILFOYLE: Progressive.

WILLIAMS: And -- whatever you want to call them. Liberals, progressive, whatever. Far-left end of the party really carrying the energy. Because so much of the energy in the party is anti-Trump. People outraged that this guy is president.

But I must say it is also an indication that on the far right, the things that stir up the base, the things that appeal to people, get people engaged are also extreme. And I just thought -- I think that's who we are in American politics today. I don't like it, but I think that's the reality.

GUILFOYLE: But that's not good news for the Democrats. Because the far- left progressives have been polarizing, and they haven't been able to pull off wins against more reasonable candidates.

WILLIAMS: Well, of course, they are energized to come after --

GUILFOYLE: We're going. We're going.

WILLIAMS: OK.

GUILFOYLE: A heroic school officer stopping a potential mass tragedy. The incredible story the media missed, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUTFELD: An amazing thing took place Wednesday, but I bet you didn't hear much about it. A school resource officer in Illinois stopped a 19-year-old gunman at a high school, saving countless lives. When the suspect started shooting near the school gym, the officer confronted him, chased him, shot him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE HOWELL JR., DIXON POLICE CHIEF: I cannot be more proud of the police officer and the way he responded to the situation. With shots ringing out through the hallways of the school, he charged toward the suspect and confronted him head-on. Because of his heroic actions, countless lives were saved. We are forever indebted to him for his service and his bravery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: So the obvious question is: Why isn't this all over the news? After all, someone once said that news isn't just what happens, it's what doesn't happen. The problem is in this case, the media isn't interested in what doesn't happen. Lives were saved, thankfully, so the story didn't fit the narrative. And the press therefore moved on to other non-happening things like collusion.

So obviously, it's good news that this wasn't a big story. But it's also bad news that it isn't a big story for its own sake, because in this non-news story, truth is revealed: That one can save lives by actually protecting people. For the duration of a gun attack is always dictated by the arrival of a second gun. And this incident is no exception: Look up the unpublished CDC report that indicates nearly 2.5 million defensive uses of guns a year. Didn't hear about that either? I did say it was unpublished. I wonder why.

It's the way the press uses silence selectively to create only one story angle that carries the seal of media approval. Which is why I did this monologue in the first place, so someone might hear it, and you know the name of Mark Dallas.

So K.G., Mark Dallas was the officer who --

GUILFOYLE: Yes.

GUTFELD: I just find it interesting the media is interested in gun stories except for these kind.

GUILFOYLE: Yes, well, they're not interested in where guns save lives and are used to put down somebody that, in fact, is trying to do harm. So I like the way you ended up, too. Because that's important. To know the name of the individual that actually committed, you know, a heroic act and saved lives, and that's the whole point.

When we talk about schools and gun-free zones and things like that that are very, very vulnerable, they're soft targets, think about it over and over again. Like I said, I've responded to scenes of the crime when I was on the officer-involved shooting team. Any time there was a discharge of a weapon or a shooting like that, and the police had to go out on it. You see what happens.

And you go to the movie theater, and you go to the school, and you go to these places and you say, "If only someone had been armed there to be able to do something and act decisively, lives could be saved." So, you know, weapons are used in many instances and in wars to create peace, ultimately.

GUTFELD: Dana, the left often uses every story as some kind of political tool. This is -- this is something that says -- is an argument for more guns in schools, but you don't really hear that.

PERINO: Well, part of the reason is because it works.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: Like, the process that was in place for that school district worked. If the policy works, you often don't write about it.

But I also think that it, in some ways, it can do what you're saying. Which is remember when Rahm Emanuel said never let an opportunity go to waste?

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: So I think that this is actually true on the other side. Which is that if you're a local school district and you're worried about the possibility of a shooter in your school, having an armed resource officer could actually be your answer.

GUTFELD: Yes. Jesse, should the officer not have been there with a gun? Should it have been a gun-free zone?

WATTERS: No.

GUILFOYLE: That was a trick question.

WATTERS: So this officer did the exact opposite of what the officer did in Parkland.

GUILFOYLE: Yes.

WATTERS: Remember, he hid and cowered and waited outside. This one followed protocol and directly addressed to neutralize the shooter.

But your point is exactly right. News isn't necessarily about what you cover. It's about what you don't cover.

And your asteroid analogy rings true here. They don't always cover good economic news for the Trump administration. They don't cover news that might benefit the NRA narrative, and that's fine.

Every outlet has to make their own editorial decision about what they do or don't cover. But when 90 percent of the media is liberal, and 10 percent isn't, there's a lot of impact about what that 90 percent does not cover. And it does a disservice to the readers and viewers who aren't fully informed before they can make a decision or have an opinion.

GUTFELD: Juan, I'm sure my monologue changed your mind completely.

GUILFOYLE: Hearts and minds.

WILLIAMS: You know, it felt to me like someone had a gun pointed at me. I said, "You know what?"

GUTFELD: You've felt that before.

WILLIAMS: Yes, but the thing is, you know, what's interesting to me is not that it doesn't get covered. Because you're right. I think it's like, you know, the famous saying: we don't cover safe landings at national airports.

GUTFELD: Yes.

WILLIAMS: Right? So that's not typically what gets covered.

But you make it into a policy argument about whether or not guns should be in schools and in classrooms and all over. And that's where I think I disengage, because to my mind, I look at Stoneman that Jesse mentioned, and there was an armed guard. I look at Columbine, Virginia Tech. I look at the Pulse nightclub. There were armed guards at all of these mass shootings. Did it stop them? No.

And then you look and you say, "Well, let's ask the people involved. Let's get away from a bunch of TV people. Let's ask the teachers in these schools. Do they think that there should -- they should have guns, that there should be armed guards?" No. What about the parents? Parents love kids, I think we can all agree with that. The parents that know, parents say they don't want these guns in their schools. Maybe because they know when guns are around, more accidents, actually more fatalities.

WATTERS: What poll is that that you're citing?

GUTFELD: I've got to move on. Anyway, more guns, less crime. The CDC report, 2.5 defensive uses of guns. So that's facts, too.

Big news for us on "The Five" -- hmm -- as we get closer to unlocking our family secrets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PERINO: All right. I'm really excited about this segment. Off-camera we've all been asking questions about our heritage, and really I want to know, Italian or Swiss? Could Jesse's biggest fear of being French be true? Could Kimberly actually be a royal? And who knows? Maybe Juan and Greg are related.

WATTERS: Ooh!

PERINO: So we have decided to put the speculation to rest, and "The Five" is going to take ancestry tests. We're not going to do it on air, but we have them here.

GUILFOYLE: Because we don't want to gross anyone out.

PERINO: From 23AndMe. And so it's all going to happen. You're going to get this -- you're going to have to take the test, and then we'll get the results. And we'll reveal them on "The Five."

WATTERS: Oh, ancestry.

GUILFOYLE: Health and ancestry.

WATTERS: Yes, I don't want health. I just want ancestry.

PERINO: Ok, well, I'll take health.

GUTFELD: I have ancestry.

PERINO: Want health?

GUTFELD: I don't even want -- I hate identity politics. This is identity politics. It's like -- it's all self-absorption. People want -- I don't want to know about your heritage or ancestry. I don't care.

GUILFOYLE: But you were willing to do this segment.

GUTFELD: People talk about astrology or their vacation pictures. Now I'm going to be in the elevator and someone is going to say, "Hey, I'm 18 percent Samoan." I don't care. The whole point is, we're not supposed to care.

WATTERS: We're all American. Right, Greg?

PERINO: We're very excited about this segment.

GUTFELD: I am sitting this out. I refuse to be part of it.

GUILFOYLE: Oh, my gosh.

WATTERS: What if we find out we're, like, a little Native American?

GUTFELD: Then run for president.

WILLIAMS: Here's a better one. What if you find out you're the Golden State Killer? Remember that? That's how they found him.

WATTERS: Is that right?

GUILFOYLE: Now Jesse is more worried. Every day he's like, "I hope I'm not French. I hope I'm not French."

WATTERS: Yes, this can't ever be used against me in a crime.

GUTFELD: Why are they different?

WILLIAMS: What?

GUTFELD: Why are they different?

PERINO: This is health and ancestry.

GUILFOYLE: It's like the "The Five" can't read unless the prompter says it. It says health and ancestry on everyone's boxes.

GUTFELD: Thank God it's a saliva collection.

WATTERS: As opposed to what, Greg.

GUILFOYLE: Hold on.

PERINO: We have health and ancestry. Well, I mean, I guess we'll find out who's healthy.

GUTFELD: You're doing ancestry.

GUILFOYLE: We're just doing ancestry. But I'm very curious.

PERINO: We're curious. All right. "One More Thing" is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIAMS: I heard "Laurel."

WATTERS: Time now for "One More Thing" -- Dana.

PERINO: Still talking about Yanny and Laurel. OK. So you know my husband is British. I'm pretty into the wedding. He's not really into the wedding, the royal wedding on Saturday.

But did you know that Meghan Markle has to take a citizenship test to become a British citizen? I'm going to ask you three questions to see if you could pass this test.

All right. Who is this patron saint of Scotland? A, St. Andrew; or B, St. Patrick?

WILLIAMS: Andrew.

PERINO: Andrew, that's true. All right. Well done, Juan.

GUILFOYLE: That was easy.

GUTFELD: You know what their animal is? The unicorn.

PERINO: Yes, that's true.

OK. What is the title given to the person who chairs the debates in the House of Commons? A, Leader of the House; B, Speaker.

WILLIAMS: Leader?

PERINO: In the House of Commons. Speaker.

WILLIAMS: Speaker.

GUILFOYLE: Speaker.

PERINO: Juan, you're pretty good at this British stuff.

GUILFOYLE: You could be royalty.

PERINO: In 1801, a new version of the official flag of the United Kingdom was created. What is it often called? A, the Royal Banner; or B, the Union Jack?

WILLIAMS: I go with B.

GUILFOYLE: Union Jack?

WILLIAMS: Yes, that's what I would --

PERINO: Yes, of course, it's the Union Jack.

GUILFOYLE: Only this end of the table knows things.

GUTFELD: I thought maybe they changed the name.

PERINO: It's not a trick question.

WILLIAMS: It wasn't a trick.

GUTFELD: I don't know.

PERINO: All right. So good luck on that test, Meghan.

WATTERS: All right. Kimberly.

PERINO: Markle.

GUTFELD: What if she flunks?

GUILFOYLE: Oh, excuse me. Yes. OK.

GUTFELD: She just stole your royal news, by the way.

GUILFOYLE: By the way, snatched it. And now the crown must be passed on. Yes. Dana Perino. We have a new crown, by the way.

OK. So everyone knows that I love perfect attendance. I love it. I had perfect attendance in law school. But I --

WATTERS: You weren't here yesterday.

GUILFOYLE: That's correct, Jesse. My amazing record has been blown to shreds. Haven't missed a show since last year sometime. And anyway, I was out yesterday in Washington, D.C., and it was really fantastic. I got to spend time with Andy Card, who was former chief of staff for Bush 43, transportation secretary under Bush '41, and he served in the Reagan White House. And Jack Lew, who was former chief of staff for Barack Obama, as well as former treasury secretary. He was also special assistant to the president under Bill Clinton. What do they have in common? In fact, all three of us knew Dana Perino. That's very good to moderate a panel.

PERINO: I could have used that, since that commercial break shock I took earlier.

GUILFOYLE: It was a really good time.

GUTFELD: Looks like a real barn burner there, Kimberly.

GUILFOYLE: It's like, you know, we can get bipartisan.

WATTERS: Very highbrow.

GUILFOYLE: People from both sides.

WATTERS: All right, Juan.

WILLIAMS: So as you know, I'm a grandfather of twin girls, Pepper and Wesley, soon to be six. So when I saw this video, it went viral, had more than 5 million hits, there was a spark of recognition. Take a look at twins Caleb and Weston Lineman, showing them reuniting in the birth room after their February birth in Orlando, Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(BABIES CRYING)

(BABIES CALM DOWN WHEN PLACED NEXT TO EACH OTHER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: Twins.

WILLIAMS: Yes. So the twin boys were born four weeks prematurely, but they're doing great, by the way. But what I noticed in the video was that, having grown together in their mother's womb, they had a connection like no other. As you can see, when there's skin to skin contact, they stop crying. Everything is good with Caleb and Weston as long as they can feel each other.

And here they are with her sisters, Corinne and Amelia, who can't get enough --

GUILFOYLE: How cute.

WILLIAMS: -- of their happy, healthy twin brothers.

GUILFOYLE: How cute.

WILLIAMS: They're very cute.

WATTERS: Adorable.

GUILFOYLE: Greg should have twins.

GUTFELD: Yes, I already do, by the way. They're ferrets, though. Much more lovable.

All right. I'm on Martha MacCallum tonight. I'm going to be talking about pot and commencement speaking. But first this.

GUILFOYLE: Giving one while on?

GUTFELD: Yes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAPHIC: Greg's Celebrities on Holiday

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: "Greg's Celebrities on Holiday." I love celebrities. I love holiday. I think we've got some pictures of David Spade in Tulum, enjoying the cool pool back there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(TAN DOG WEARING SUNGLASSES SWIMMING IN POOL)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: You know, he just loves to hang out and just pick up chicks. It's incredible, David Spade.

WATTERS: He looks pretty good.

GUTFELD: Well, he does. He's fit.

WATTERS: Looks great.

GUTFELD: Do you know he's 73 years old?

GUILFOYLE: Is he sitting while dog paddling? Quite interesting.

WATTERS: OK. So they have this thing in Russia called the National Slapping Championships in Moscow. Let's take a look at these brutes. This is what they do for fun.

PERINO: Oh, my God.

GUILFOYLE: I don't like this.

PERINO: This is terrible.

WATTERS: It's supposed to encourage camaraderie.

GUILFOYLE: Jesse, this isn't nice.

WATTERS: And Yuri Guzman was crowned the king of the slappers and took home 25,000 rubles --

GUTFELD: This is great.

WATTERS: -- which is only 400 U.S. dollars. He's not doing that well.

GUTFELD: I love this.

GUILFOYLE: Your "One More Things" are very different from Juan's.

GUTFELD: They're fantastic.

Watters: Set your DVRs. Never miss an episode of "The Five." Bret Baier plays that all the time down there in the D.C. bureau.

GUILFOYLE: Oh, my goodness.

WILLIAMS: Oh, my goodness.

GUILFOYLE: Terrible.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS: I miss you guys, I really do.

WATTERS: We miss you, too.

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