'The Five' on COVID lockdowns, Jeff Zucker

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‘The Five’: People in positions of power think they’re God

Jeanine Pirro and 'The Five’ co-hosts expose the moral hypocrisy of the left amid CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker’s resignation over a relationship with a subordinate.

This is a rush transcript of "The Five" on February 2, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

JEANINE PIRRO, FOX NEWS HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Judge Jeanine Pirro along with Harold Ford, Jr., Jesse Watters, Dana Perino, and Greg Gutfeld. It's five o'clock in New York City, and this is THE FIVE.

A devastating blow being delivered to Democrats who cannot get enough of COVID lockdowns. It turns out they all made us suffer for nothing. A brand new evidence shows shutting everything down did little to stop COVID deaths, and instead wreaked havoc on every single aspect of our lives.

Johns Hopkins out with a bombshell study that shows restrictions only reduce deaths by .2 percent. At the same time, those lockdowns devastated our economy, our education system, and damaged our mental health. All the while fueling major political unrest. But many of us were never given an option. Remember President Biden and top health officials told us lockdowns were our only choice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Statewide, lockdowns that so many Americans lived under for months were intended to buy us time to get our act together.

ROCHELLE WALENSKY, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: When you have an acute situation, extraordinary number of cases, the answer to that is to really close things down, to go back to our basics, to shut things down, to flatten the curve.

ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The fact that we shut down when we did, and the rest of the world did, has saved hundreds of millions of infections, and millions of lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PIRRO (on camera): And now, while their policies have been proven wrong once again, the White House is looking on big tech to censor people like Joe Rogan and others who question them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Our hope is all major tech platforms and our major news sources, for that matter, be responsible and be vigilant to make sure the American people have access to accurate information on something as significant as COVID-19. So, this disclaimer it's a positive step, but we want every platform to continue doing more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PIRRO (on camera): Lockdown .2 percent. It helped.

(CROSSTALK)

GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS CO-HOST: You're looking at me.

PIRRO: And the destruction, -- I am looking at you. And the destruction and the collateral damages beyond what we ever thought. Why? Why did this happen?

GUTFELD: Well, first, I just got to comment on Psaki. Either she is an idiot or she thinks we're all idiots, that somehow, we can't tell the difference between a three-and-a-half-hour podcast in which the host is high and a spokesperson for the CDC. The human -- human beings can actually understand the context of the information, whether it's a conversation or something they read in the back of a pillbox.

So, this is such a nonstory. All of these actions, these shutdowns and everything they were driven by fear. But not fear of the pandemic, fear of litigation. And also, insurance claims. Right? The impact of litigation actually scared more people than the pandemic.

We aren't stopping massive theft, because the stores don't want the insurance claims to go up, so they let insurance take care of it. Employees are still masking up because they fear malingering employees might sue. We locked down basically over lawyers. We didn't want to be sued.

I'm not done. A lot of people aren't going to let go, and that's fine. If you want to hide, go for it. If you want to mask up outside, go for it. But it's now should be regarded strictly as a preference. It has to be regarded as a preference.

You can't tell me what to do, I won't tell you what to do, and that's the way it should be. And if it starts -- it is amazing that there isn't enough people getting out there and just saying I've had enough, but maybe that will happen.

PIRRO: You know, Dana, when they first shut us down in 2020, you know, the people who told President Trump you got to shut it down, shut down the economy, Fauci and the rest of them, they got it so wrong. But he had no choice but to listen to them.

DANA PERINO, FOX NEWS CO-HOST: Well, I think in a way we could go back in time. I remember sitting here. And I just had this really strong memory before the show started, knowing that everything was about to shut down and saying to you, is this a good idea, think of all the people that live month-to-month --

PIRRO: Yes.

PERINO: -- in terms of their paychecks, and the taxi drivers. There's not going to be nobody here. How are they going to feed themselves? And it was like, you could see kind of in your mind's eye. However, there were very compelling reasons, I thought, like when you would see news coverage of some of the overwhelmed hospitals. That I thought if this is what we need to do to flatten the curve, OK we can do that.

Remember, I said it was two weeks to flatten the curve. And like, for us, we were able to work from home. And Fox figured out a way to make us fill, to make sure that we could get on air. A lot of people weren't able to work.

Imagine if you were a mom whose daughter had a mental health crisis and committed suicide during the pandemic.

PIRRO: Yes.

PERINO: And then you find out that that John Hopkins says it helped to .2 percent? You will maybe never get over that. Well, thank goodness John Hopkins didn't go on Joe Rogan's podcast to explain this.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: Or we might not be able to talk about it.

GUTFELD: True.

PERINO: The last thing I would say is that the complete and total catastrophe overall, one for the people who died for all of that grief for the people who dies of the illness, but the people also who have had all these other long-standing effects. Long COVID is certainly one of them, but the people who have lost on career opportunities, educational opportunities, relationships. Not being able to go out and meet people. They have -- how do you make friends? Make most of your friends at out. I call you, my friends. People aren't even going to work.

The last point I will make is in all the campaign issues you are going to see in 2022, I just flashed back to something that Trump said in 2016. Do your remember the applause he got when he said this country is too politically incorrect? And it's a huge -- he had huge applause.

He's onto something there. I think kids having to wear mask in schools and continuing to have to do that will be the issue of 2022 that brings out the parents. Not the only issue, but like a real flash point.

JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: May be all the kids that were masked up now become Republicans when they are 18.

PERINO: Maybe.

PIRRO: Wow. Yes. You know what? They are --

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: The new Dr. Fauci?

GUTFELD: There was --

PIRRO: But you know, there are two schools of thought now. And one of them is OK, the Omicron is not a real problem, let's just cut the -- cut the tie, cut the cord and just get over it right away. So, the public now listens to us. So that if something terrible comes down the road, if there is a new variant that is more lethal, the public will listen to us. But right now, the American public, 70 percent is so over it, they are not listening to the health experts any more.

WATTERS: Well, because we were lied to. He said it was 15 days, and it ended up being 15 months. Because remember, a lot of Democratic governors stayed locked down, and then all the scaredy cats continued to stayed locked down.

Here was Dr. Fauci's plan. Shut down the entire U.S. economy. It's never been done before and told everybody to quarantine, including healthy people. And then he didn't do anything for early treatment at all, and then he says stay inside with a mask on, and if you catch COVID, wait until you can't breathe very well. Then get yourself to a hospital and strap yourself to a ventilator.

PIRRO: Yes, that was --

WATTERS: And then wait a couple years for a vaccine, which I get a cut from. That is insane. America has the most deaths of any country as a percentage and as a total. And he could have come out earlier and said take zinc, take vitamin D, get outside, eat healthy, exercise. Do all of those things that are helping with early treatment. He didn't do any of that.

Even today, doctors are still prescribing hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin. Still doing it. He didn't get on the phone. He didn't create a hotline to these doctors that were on the front lines during the pandemic. Hey, what's working, what's not working? He didn't do that. He just said wait for my vaccine and stay six feet apart.

What he did to the entire world was even worse. This plunged like 300 million people into poverty, starvation, malnourishment. What he did to our kids, what he did to the supply chains, alcoholism, drug addiction, child abuse.

And think about all the small businesses that he shut down. And it's like the biggest transfer of wealth in world history. He takes $4 trillion away from workers, and then about $4 trillion goes to billionaires. The billionaires and all these big tech, big media giants, they got super rich and they got more powerful, and then we just divided against each other.

Remember, he screwed up the election. You know, we all don't trust the science now, because the science was all wrong. I mean, this guy really screwed up.

PIRRO: He did screw up, Harold. And you know, he is the science.

WATTERS: Right.

PIRRO: You know, if you read -- if you listen to what Fauci's eye, the science. But he did. There was this massive transfer of money and power to the big box companies, while the mom-and-pop stores selling precisely the same things couldn't stay open, but the big box company could.

HAROLD FORD, JR., FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I have a slightly different point of view. I think, you think about a year ago today, I was not vaccinated. I didn't get my first shot until mid-March, and got my second shot early April. I appreciate studies like this because it gives us an opportunity, to Dana's point and everyone's point a time -- a chance to look back and understand what went right, what went wrong.

Robert O'Brien, who was the national security advisor to President Trump at the time, told President Trump this is bad. This is going to be the worst thing you deal with as president. Was he lying? No. It was the worst thing the president dealt but he didn't get reelected because the country felt like he didn't handle it correctly.

I think the takeaways from me, I'm a father of two young children, there's no doubt they have been impacted over the last year or two. Remote school, in school, remote school, now in school. But I look at the economy, and I look at the country, I hope that two or other three things come out.

We need to reform our health agencies, and reform the way we look at how we -- or part of the WHO and how we take part in studies around the globe, how we take part in efforts to strengthen the public health system.

Two, we need to not be so reliant on supply chains overseas. The fact that, I think one of the most important things that President Biden and the administration did in the last week was to make a $20 million public- private partnership investment in Columbus, Ohio for Intel to begin to make semiconductor chips there.

We have to modernize our ports. That ought to be the most important thing we do in terms of infrastructure. Without question, we'll have more studies like this. And I applaud John Hops and I hope my alma mater spend in Michigan and do some as well. But I think the real thing here is, let's look at the overall takeaways.

And even though it was only 0.2 percent, if you look at the numbers, that's 1,800 families that would not have had a loved one die. We can all debate whether it's worth it, but I got to tell you, I'm glad my dad who got it last in March of 2020 -- that he was not one of those families and mine was not either. And I'm praying for that none of us around the table and many of my other friends were not either.

So, look, a lot to learn from, and there will be a lot of chest pounding here. But at the end of the day, there were a lot of people deserve a lot of credit, and people deserve a little --

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: You know, the thing is, it will never be --

PIRRO: The problem is --

GUTFELD: It will never be settled science.

PIRRO: It won't be but in addition, --

WATTERS: Right.

PIRRO: -- we don't really talk about the collateral consequences. The other people who actually died because of the pandemic, the suicides, the alcohol, the drug overdoses, the domestic violence, the child abuse. You know, there is -- there is a huge downside. But coming up --

FORD: I blame -- I still blame COVID.

PIRRO: OK. Coming up, the liberal media rocked by scandals, as CNN's boss resigns, and Whoopi Goldberg gets suspended.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FORD (on camera): A major controversy in the media. New reports say Chris Cuomo may have forced his old boss out of CNN by exposing a consensual relationship Jeff Zucker had with a colleague. The CNN chief announcing his sudden resignation today, after admitting he failed to disclose the situation. It was uncovered as part of the investigation of the Chris Cuomo's tenure at the network.

Greg, you have strong thoughts about this network and about some of the things. How do you feel about this day at the network and for Jeff Zucker?

GUTFELD: Well, first, I want to thank Jeff Zucker for supplying this show and myself with so much amazing content. Sure, he could have gotten rid of Chris Cuomo a couple of years ago, got rid of the cricket muncher or Don Lemon. But he stuck by these incompetents and filled me with so much quality television that I can't -- I can't begin to thank him.

WATTERS: You should've been fired for that outfit.

GUTFELD: Exactly, exactly. Don Johnson.

PERINO: Look at that.

GUTFELD: I wanted to enjoy this story so much. But I was so naive, because I thought he was getting fired over the ratings. Not over an open secret relationship between two divorced adults. He should've have lost it over their collusion coverage, their anti-cop narrative, all the fake news that hey spewed and the targeting of civilians over memes. Stupid stuff like that.

But this relationship doesn't register in my brain. Perhaps, it's a violation of some kind of thing in human resources, but it's nothing compared to the hazardous waste that drips out of CNN every night. I mean, think about bad. He should have been fired.

How -- when you think about how bad CNN got under Zucker. It is a left-wing station that now Tucker Carlson has more Democrats watching his show. This show gets more Democrats watching than CNN does. He literally drank their milk shake on their home turf. That's humiliating.

So, this obviously is about Chris Cuomo exacting revenge. It was -- this was -- this is the -- this is like a relationship version of mutually assured destruction. So, you know, when powerful people know things about other powerful people and you come after me, well, you just better careful because I also know what's in your backyard. And that's what happened.

This was a sure takedown from Chris Cuomo, which somehow makes it a little sad for me to enjoy it because I wanted him to be fired for the crappy product that he creates, because it is a terrible, awful product that hurts so people. I wish he had gotten fired for that and not this. I hope CNN should start from scratch. You keep painting a turd, it still smells really bad. It's a conduit for a conflict click bait. That's what it is now.

FORD: I'm the magic Johnson here. Pass goes to you.

PERINO: OK. So, I found out about this at 11.01 this morning after Newsroom.

PIRRO: Yes.

PERINO: And I said to the team after the show everyone has to watch The Five. Because we talk about this stuff all the time. And you're right. You think -- you would think that there's a million things --

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: -- that the board would want to get rid of him for, and maybe actually I think there's more.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: Because you could have weathered this P.R. scandal.

GUTFELD: Right.

PERINO: This is not, well, as you said, consenting adults. And she is already at a high level. It's not like the president and the intern.

GUTFELD: Right.

PERINO: OK. So, you have to think there must have been something else. And if you go back to Chris Cuomo's statement that he brought on the day that he was finally let go, he signaled something. And it was along the lines of Jeff Zucker doesn't know exactly what's going to be that brings him down, but I have something in my back pocket and I will play it when I need to. So that seems to be what happened here.

I do feel -- one other thing. I want people to meet and fall in love wherever they meet. And you often meet people at work.

WATTERS: Yes, we do.

PERINO: That have similar interest in. Right?

GUTFELD: Story of my life.

PERINO: And so, yes, you know what I'm saying here. I just -- I just feel like I think these human resources rules are weird. So, he says the trouble he got in is that they were supposed to disclose -- he was supposed to disclose it sooner.

But if you are two consenting adults, you're both divorced, and you're not sure if the relationship is to be going anywhere and you both have really great jobs, at what point do you know this is going somewhere, why would we talk about this if we don't need to? It seems to me a little bit the human resources on this front is a little overwrought.

GUTFELD: See how this ruins a great story?

PERINO: Yes.

FORD: Let's go to the judge on this.

PERINO: Will they defend us?

GUTFELD: No.

FORD: Let's go to the judge.

PIRRO: You know, but apparently, he was going at the end of the year. So, it was already --

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: Yes, we don't want to go out like that.

PIRRO: -- a scenario where he was out. And whether it was --

(CROSSTALK)

FORD: End of '21.

PIRRO: -- at the end of -- yes. So, whether it was we've had enough of this guy, we don't want anything to do with love, ex marriage. But the interesting thing is that Katie Couric wrote a book and wrote about the fact that Zucker and his family live in an apartment right below the woman that he ended up having the affair with, while she was married and both of them are married and had their own families. So, who knows when it started? I don't really care.

But this is something that was totally an open secret. But what I find most fascinating about this, is that you get these people who are in positions of power, and they think they are God. And they know they are violating the law, whether it would be Andrew Cuomo or journalistic integrity, Chris Cuomo, or the rules and regulations, whether it's Jeff Zucker, but they think I'll get away with it, I'm above it, I am better than everyone else. The rules don't apply to me.

And that's what I think we are seeing now. We are seeing people come down - - there may be more to the story with Zucker, and I'm sure there is, but these are the people who tried to convince us that we were hateful fascists.

PERINO: Yes.

PIRRO: And in the end, they were the one who weren't following any of the rules.

FORD: Jesse.

WATTERS: Well, if I'm Toobin, I'm thinking wow, did I dodge a bullet here. I mean, I got off easy.

GUTFELD: He did get off easy.

WATTERS: Yes, he did. I hear there's tapes. I hear Cuomo has tapes. And if Zucker had just --

PIRRO: Which Cuomo?

WATTERS: I heard Chris might have some recordings. And if Zucker fired him and let him keep the rest of his contract, I think maybe he wouldn't have dropped this dirt. But I think he tried to fire him with cause, and claw back some of those millions that he was owed and that's what made him play so dirty.

Right now, so AT&T just spun off CNN into Warner Media. So, they are just like this now. And the whole company is open -- it's open season on CNN. Stelter doesn't have any protection, Lemon has no protection. Acosta has no protection. You know Toobin is not protected. So, all their talents looking around like, my God, I don't have Zucker here. He's not going to have my back.

They have to -- might have to change the whole business model of CNN. And just go breaking news, documentaries, and just cut the crap with all the opinion fake news conspiracy garbage because that, as a business model, it doesn't work. So might have someone as a takeover artist come in and turn it around.

GUTFELD: Joe Rogan.

WATTERS: Rogan.

PIRRO: Yes.

GUTFELD: Joe Rogan should run CNN. That is God who decide that.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: But Spotify should buy CNN.

GUTFELD: And then Joe takes it over.

PERINO: Exactly.

WATTERS: Yes.

FORD: Ahead, is Whoopi Goldberg about to quit? The latest drama after The View co-host gets suspended.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WATTERS (on camera): Things not going very well for the ladies at The View. Whoopi Goldberg reportedly threatening to quit after getting suspended from the show for two weeks over her comment about the Holocaust. Whoopi's co-hosts are said to be furious with the decision. Here's how the show very briefly addressed it today.

GUTFELD: Yes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOY BEHAR, CO-HOST, ABC: You all saw the news, Whoopi will be back here in two weeks. OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PIRRO (on camera): That's it.

WATTERS: Is that how you do it, Dana?

PERINO: Well, having done that a couple of times --

WATTERS: Yes.

PERINO: -- in my career.

WATTERS: Is that the news?

PERINO: Look, I think that's what the producers must have said.

WATTERS: Yes.

PERINO: Hit it and get out and move on.

WATTERS: Right.

PERINO: And that's what they have to do. I -- I don't think, I don't know of anybody who was calling for her to be fired that I know of that listen to that I follow. But I imagine that inside ABC News -- or ABC, excuse me. The outcry amongst the employees and the staff must have been high enough that the executives said we have to do something.

WATTERS: Right.

PERINO: They felt compelled that they have to do something. The apology made it worse. So, setting that aside, so they make a decision they suspend her for two weeks, she's probably furious about it. She's going to sit there and she thinks, it's like, what do they say? We want her to go back and we think that reflect on it, like when your mom sent you to your room - -

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: Think of the --

PERINO: -- and she's like, are you ready to come out yet? And my sister would say no, I love my room. But I would be mortified. I hate to be sent to my room. So that's the kind of punishment that you, that like when you're a kid, that's what you feel.

WATTERS: What about you, judge? Do you think she understands what she did wrong?

PIRRO: No.

WATTERS: And now she is facing --

PERINO: No. No.

WATTERS: -- suspension, she's like, you know what, screw it, I'm just going to wait.

PIRRO: Yes, she may quit. I don't know, I don't have a hotline to Whoopi these days. But here's the thing. She doesn't know that she was wrong. She sees it as white race -- white race all oppressors and blacks are being -- are the victims. OK? But aside from that, the whole idea of her needing time to reflect and learn I think is very important. I really do.

Because when you have anti-Semitic behavior, a lot of it is ignorance. They don't understand -

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: Yes.

PIRRO: -- the enormity --

WATTERS: She's ignorant about it.

PIRRO: -- of one of the greatest hate crimes the world has ever seen. And when I was D.A., I took all the D.A.s from New York State down to the Holocaust Museum in Washington. You want to see evidence of a hate crime? Go to the Holocaust Museum. Go to Simon Wiesenthal, learn about the pain, learn what a Swastika does to someone who was a survivor of the Holocaust.

I mean, they don't understand it. It's just -- I can't believe that she has any idea of the harm that that statement caused a lot of people.

WATTERS: So, ABC has got to be thinking, you know, can we cut her loose after two weeks? She's got a hefty salary. She could be damaged goods, Gutfeld. What would you do if you were running ABC?

GUTFELD: Oh, man, unicorns 24/7, buddy. This -- they should be applauding her. This is a historical first for The View. She said -- remember, she said the Holocaust wasn't about race. This is the first time in The View's history where they said something wasn't about race. So, I don't know.

The -- if you're looking for an analogy that will piss you off, remember how Chris Harrison got fired from The Bachelor, except what he said or did was nothing compared to this. Having said that, even though she enjoys liberal privilege, it's interesting -- if you think about liberal privilege too much, you come to this conclusion that you have fewer rights than liberals do.

In the world of free speech, there are just things we can't say because we'll get canned. So, there -- and it's something that people don't really understand or talk about it. But just think if you were at home, change your political ideology to be a liberal and think about the things that you could say. It opens up a whole new world.

WATTERS: It's enticing.

GUTFELD: It is enticing.

WATTERS: Yes.

GUTFELD: If you want to sell out -- yes, let's do it for one week. But she apologized. So, that's what makes us different. We're accepting their apology. Joy and company salt over this, even though just a few days before, Joy was saying Rogan cannot be reformed. And they love getting people canceled.

The last thing I want to say is that she did do a service by illustrating the kind of the core racist belief of critical race thinking. She did it by accident. The CRT cult cannot acknowledge Jewish suffering, because that undermines the hierarchy of oppression. The top of the oppression has to be White. It's just like the food pyramid. We're like the fats.

WATTERS: Is that -- what's that word that they use? It's trans -- transection --

GUTFELD: Transgression?

PERINO: Intersectionality

WATTERS: Intersectionality.

GUTFELD: Yes.

WATTERS: Wow. That was a first for THE FIVE. All right, Harold, it doesn't seem to be like a huge -- there's not people outside ABC with signs Whoopi must be fired. This has to be coming from the inside.

FORD JR.: So, I hope -- I hope -- three quick things. I hope that those of you and others who have espoused for people to be fired and have really embraced cancel culture recognize this as the reason you can't embrace cancel culture.

Two, I disagree with you, Judge. I think she realized what she did was wrong. And I think she learned. I think whenever you apologize for something and you're sincere, especially if it has to do with gender and race and culture and you say, you know what, I didn't realize I was talking about a race, that race was actually part -- I'm glad the Anti-Defamation League had called her and explained to her that. I actually believe she was telling the truth.

Now, she learned cancel culture has to end, and I hope not only The View, but every show. James Carville has said this over and over again particularly to my party, those progressives in my party and others who had any slight want to fire someone, not only want to fire them, want to banish them from ever being able to have a voice or presence again. It should all stop.

And hopefully maybe with Whoopi's fire -- Whoopi's suspension, this is one of the positive things that comes from it.

WATTERS: Well, I --

PIRRO: Well, I love that you're so peaceful -- you're a peaceful man, and that you like to think that she is redeemed. I don't know how she got redeemed between Stephen Culver the next morning. But what I think is interesting is that the co-hosts are furious, furious that she was put on suspension for two weeks.

GUTFELD: You love it, don't you, Judge? Because they were so mean to you on that show.

PIRRO: They were mean to me on the show. But here's the thing. How did they survive without Whoopi?

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: They couldn't even say pre-planned vacation.

GUTFELD: Whoopi goes to CNN as the new CEO.

WATTERS: I like that. I like that.

PERINO: With Joe Rogan.

WATTERS: With Joe Rogan. BLM under fire after $60 million just goes missing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUTFELD: Black Lives Matter has since -- had some serious money problems. The organization had $60 million on hand in 2020. But right now, no one seems to know what happened to it. California is demanding the group submit its financial records after it failed to report what it did with all that dough.

The last known person in charge of BLM's finances, Patrisse Cullors, left over questions about how she could afford to buy over $3 million in real estate. So, Harold, this is not to say obviously, there's a lot of very earnest activists who believe in the cause. But this often happens in groups that become very big very quickly. And then the money comes in. And then there's a few scammers and they're out the door.

You hear this with other charities as well. I mean, what are your thoughts on this?

FORD JR: I agree with you. First of all, if you form an organization, whatever the organization may be, you got to follow the rules. And I hope that if they're not following the rules that they're made to follow the rules. And if there are penalties, they have to play the penalties.

White lives matter, police lives matter. Black lives matter, all lives matter. I hope that we don't malign the notion, the idea in light of what we've dealt with as a country over the last two years, about why people thought an organization like this needs to be birthed.

But to give that organization all of the integrity it needs optically, substantively, I think they got to follow the rules. And if California, the state of California is saying that we want it -- we're questioning things, and they're going to have to answer. And whatever -- wherever the, you know, the facts flow, let the -- let the facts flow.

GUTFELD: You know, it's funny, Dana. There's one thing that California government matters more to them than wokeism, it's your tax money.

PERINO: You better not cheat.

GUTFELD: Yes, exactly.

PERINO: You better not cheat.

GUTFELD: Suddenly, they're not scared of being called a racist.

PERINO: Well, I mean, just imagine if this was the Federalist Society in Washington D.C.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: Like every media -- so this would be front page news, and Trump would be behind it, and all these things would be happening. So, it appears that no one has been in charge of this organization for eight months. Yeah. And one of the board members tried to get off of being on the board when a reporter started asking questions, so that -- clearly there's something going on.

GUTFELD: And then, one person named two other people, and then the two other people said, no, not me. And it's like, they know that there's trouble. And Judge Jeanine, part of the problem here is that the corruption was able to unfold because criticism was considered racist. Like you -- that was a great shield of immunity. Like, I can't actually look at your -- like, if I say there's something fishy going on, they're going to say, oh, it's because we're Black.

PIRRO: Yes, that's a good point. Look, they didn't file financial records. And when they tried to -- when they tried to find out who is running the organization, Cullors left, OK. And everybody else, as Dana said, just headed for the hills. Two people were supposed to take charge. And then one guy, he repeatedly tried to get away and conceal that he was involved with that.

But here's the bottom line. I seem to recall that the Clinton Foundation failed to file financial records, and it's kind of I guess what big charitable organizations do. I don't know. But here's -- this is the issue. You got $60 million, nobody's standing up and saying, I'm in charge here. So, my question is what happens to the $60 million.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PIRRO: And they got that $60 million, and under the law in the state of California, as I understand it, if nobody comes up and says, I'm on the board or I'm a board member who's responsible, you know, then maybe this state will seize the assets which California wouldn't hesitate to do.

But I think the sad part is that they used a lot of tough tactics in getting money from big corporations, yes, and then believers who spent small checks and gave them a little money. I mean, so it's tough. But I think they absconded with a lot of money.

GUTFELD: Yes. I wonder if that money -- if the judge is right, could go to the people whose buildings were torched.

WATTERS: Well, Tamir Rice's family complained they never saw a dime. I mean, they steal from Black Americans, White Americans, and corporate Americans. They make the Clinton Foundation look like they have integrity. Judge, what do you call a charity with no headquarters, no president, no accountant and no idea where the money went? You call it a scam?

And sadly, yes, Greg, they did do some good work. But luxury real estate spending sprees --

GUTFELD: A mansion in Canada.

WATTERS: -- to the tune of $10 million. I mean, if this was the Tea Party, they'd be in prison right now. And where's the IRS? I mean, the IRS wanted to target people with over $600 in their bank account. They're eluding tens of millions of dollars, the IRS is AWOL.

GUTFELD: Yes, that's true. Well, I have nothing more to say on this. So, why don't we just go to the tease? There it is. I am truly a professional.

PERINO: Magic.

GUTFELD: Up next, road rage is out of control in America. Two insane moments caught on video.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PERINO: Road rage is getting downright scary as incident surge across the country. A shocking new video showing a few going too far between two New Jersey drivers causing one of the vehicles to veer off the road and flip over. Cops say the driver that crashed is OK, unbelievably.

And dashcam footage catching the moment a man started firing his gun through his own windshield at another car in Florida. Luckily, no one was injured there. He said that they fired at him first but that car said no, I threw a water bottle at him. But look, he was like ready.

OK, Judge. I'm terrified of the road rage thing. I'm always -- I slow down. OK, Peter, sorry, I'm just saying. Like, I'm like, don't get mad. Let him go. Like, whatever. Because I'm so afraid that this could happen.

PIRRO: Well, I outrun them.

PERINO: Oh, wait, I forgot who I was talking to. That right.

PIRRO: No, road rage -- look, everybody is on edge. I'm afraid in the supermarket anymore. You never know who's going to flip their lid, take that carriage and beat you over the head. But you look at this and you realize that people are -- they've lost it. More people have guns now, OK. People are buying guns because they don't feel safe anymore.

But I mean I'm not I'm not justifying what he's doing, obviously. That's a crime. I'd arrest that guy and indict him in a minute. But people just -- they're just -- they've lost it. They've locked us down and we've lost our cool.

PERINO: You remember, Greg, when we did the reporting about -- in the pandemic when people were getting in more accidents?

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: And I think this is part of that.

GUTFELD: That's what I was going to say. Everything is up, right? Everything is up. You can take any statistic. Marriages, there's more marriages because of the pandemic. There's more divorces because of the pandemic.

PERINO: There's more babies.

GUTFELD: There's more babies. There's few -- the only thing that fewer is toothbrushing in England. I've looked it up. But -- so, like you -- we have like a 15 to 20 percent increase in fatalities in the-- in the United States overall, traffic fatalities. And you don't even want to get into the pedestrian deaths especially here in New York. We just experienced one outside of our building. Our security guard, Harvey, passed away. He was hit by a truck.

So, there's like -- I mean, this -- all this is going and there are two reasons why, fewer police and also fewer cars which allowed people to speed. So, you take those two things out of the equation, you can run lights, you can ignore signals, you can turn against the light and do all of those things, and pedestrians are getting hurt.

PERINO: When you're on the Garden State Parkway, are you calm, cool, and collective or do you get mad?

WATTERS: I'm thinking -- I'm getting mad right now just thinking about that.

PIRRO: You're getting ready.

WATTERS: I hate traffic so much. But I'd never pull a gun on someone like that. I would never do that. I agree with you and I agree with you, this country is stressed out. It's crime, it's COVID, you're on your phone, everything is intense right now.

And you just have to learn how to breathe. This country does not know how to just de-stress. You know, maybe go get an argan oil scalp massage or something like that. Whatever you need to do, self-care, to come down, so you don't take out all your aggression on random people in the middle of the highway.

GUTFELD: What happened to you, Jesse? What happened to you?

WATTERS: What didn't happen to me?

PERINO: Harold --

PIRRO: You did that today?

WATTERS: No, not today. A couple of weeks ago.

PERINO: Do you have any advice for people to avoid road rage like this?

FORD JR: Read your Bible in the morning. You got to watch a little Joel Olsteen on Sunday and get a little calmer. I mean, look, we had a little outrage here with the BLM thing. This guy here, I don't know -- even if he -- even if someone threw water or threw a rock at him, how do you fire your gun 10 times?

WATTERS: In your own car?

FORD JR: The bullet could have ricocheted and kill him.

PERINO: Yes.

PIRRO: Look at this idiot. No, he could have killed more people while he's driving.

GUTFELD: I need the backstory of this.

FORD JR: He could have shot himself and --

GUTFELD: Don't you think there's a backstory to this, that maybe somebody was trying to kill him.

PIRRO: See, here's the thing. We don't care.

PERINO: Yes, maybe.

PIRRO: This guy is committing a crime. You're watching a crime. You turn it on, you tell the jury go deliberate. It's over.

PERINO: Oh, well, in that case, "ONE MORE THING" is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PIRRO: It's time now for "ONE MORE THING." Harold, hit it.

FORD JR: 13-year-old entrepreneur --

WATTERS: Hit it.

FORD JR: A little road rage here. Brandon Ross is inspiring others with his motivational clothing branding -- brand, Studying Never Stops. Brandon began selling merchandise at pop up shops and malls throughout Philadelphia.

WATTERS: All right.

FORD JR: And uses 10 percent of the proceeds to buy and donate books to schools, barbershops, and lunch programs all across the city. His advice to other aspiring entrepreneurs is inspired by the great Jimmy Valvano who said, you should never give up.

WATTERS: Harold hit it.

PIRRO: I love it. I like that. No, I like what he did. I heard someone doing a show once. I think it was Spike Lee. Was it Spike Lee? He said, hit it. He did.

WATTERS: He did?

PIRRO: All right, who's next? Greg, hit it.

GUTFELD: I'm just glad that I get to inspire young men like that with every day on THE FIVE.

PERINO: Yes. I know it's your calling.

GUTFELD: It is my calling. Like this is my calling.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: Animals are great! Animals are great! Animals are great!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: They certainly are. They're not just good, they're great. You know, there's nothing better than a newborn two-toed sloth. Well, how about an orphaned two-toed sloth that was rescued by firefighters in rural Columbia? Yes, rural -- not urban, rural Columbia. And it's being taken care of by authorities.

The great thing about it -- I'm just convinced this has to be the greatest pet on Earth.

PERINO: He eats very quickly for a sloth.

GUTFELD: Yes, but it's very slow. They got to be fun to hang out with because they don't -- there's no stress. They're not expecting you to hurry. But you know, they wearing gloves because there's some kind of sticky stuff that --

PERINO: Remember when the sloth was here and they told you, don't touch it.

GUTFELD: Yes, don't touch the sloth. Oh, I had to touch it. Look how -- well, anyway.

PIRRO: You think that's cute?

GUTFELD: It's adorable. Don't you talk about -- don't say anything bad about the sloth.

FORD JR: My kids are jumping up and down right now. They love when he does Animals are great. I mean, that's the --

PIRRO: What do I know? OK, it's my turn. So, I am here to tell you that Fox Nation is still running and will run forever --

GUTFELD: Still running? Still running?

WATTERS: That was close.

PIRRO: No, it was running the Hunter Biden's show. The Hunter Biden, that's what I'm supposed to talk about, Hunter Biden.

WATTERS: Hunter Biden.

PIRRO: I want you to look at that guy. That guy is the epitome of a guy who is overcome with drugs. He's a drug -- he's a drug dealer, a drugoholic, a sexoholic, an alcoholic, you name it. And there I am introducing -- stop laughing, Jesse.

All right, now, if you want to know -- I want you to know this. Not only did he have an affair with his brother's wife, but he engaged in porn and uploaded it. You didn't know any of this stuff. You have to watch.

WATTERS: This should be on CNN.

PIRRO: You should have to watch Who Is Hunter Biden? And she was addicted. His brother's --

PERINO: OK, OK.

GUTFELD: Why tell the whole story?

PIRRO: No, there's so much more to it. You have to watch Who Is Hunter Biden on Fox Nation. It is unbelievable. It's an unbelievable story. This guy, he went around the world, he leveraged his father and made a fortune.

GUTFELD: All right. I get it.

PIRRO: It's a -- OK, they're interrupting me. But I think that there should be a prosecutor on this. OK, you hit it, Dana.

PERINO: OK, I will hit it then. All right, I'm going to switch gears and talk about our own, very own Shannon Bream, Evil Shannon Bream. So, she has a new book coming out. It's called the Mothers and Daughters of the Bible Speak. It hits the shelves on March 29.

You can preorder your copy now on foxnews.com/books. She examines the lives of Biblical women to see how God's plans can turn our worlds upside down. There's a great many stories as you of course you've read about them. And now, you can revisit them. And Shannon is a wonderful author to take you through all of that.

WATTERS: Wait, if she already wrote Women of the Bible, then aren't mothers and daughters women? So, she already wrote it.

PERINO: You know, we should have her on to talk about it and we can promote the book.

WATTERS: We should.

GUTFELD: And still, no calendar.

PIRRO: I think it's fascinating. OK, Jesse --

FORD JR: Jesse, hit it, man.

PIRRO: Hit it, Jesse.

WATTERS: I'll hit it. Congratulations to everybody here at Fox. Fox News became the first cable network to finish number one for 20 straight years.

FORD JR: Wow.

WATTERS: Both total day in primetime.

PERINO: Wow.

WATTERS: And in January, we crushed CNN and MSNBC combined six straight months. And I think THE FIVE was the number one show in January, weren't we?

PERINO: I think so. Yes.

WATTERS: It's pretty good. So, thank you everybody here at Fox and thanks for the great production staff of THE FIVE.

FORD JR: Hear, hear.

PERINO: Especially Megan, and Brett, Karen, Scott, Gwinnet, Christina --

WATTERS: You're going to leave someone out.

PERINO: Montana and Karen, and Scott Sanders, and Sean.

WATTERS: And Johnny.

PERINO: And Johnny.

PIRRO: OK, that's it for us. "SPECIAL REPORT" up next with John Roberts.


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