'The Five' on Biden admin spinning supply chain meltdown

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'The Five' knocks Biden administration for spinning supply chain meltdown

Jesse Watters, Dana Perino, Greg Gutfeld, Richard Fowler and Katie Pavlich discuss the White House's response to the U.S. supply crisis

This is a rush transcript of "The Five" on October 18, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

DANA PERINO, FOX NEWS HOST (on camera): Hello, everyone. I'm Dana Perino along with Katie Pavlich, Richard Fowler, Jesse Watters, and Greg Gutfeld.

It's five o'clock in New York City, and this is THE FIVE.

Democrats caught breaking COVID rules at the fight over vaccine mandates reaches a critical point. President Biden defined a city-wide mandate in D.C. after he and the first lady were spotted maskless at a Ritzy restaurant while Secret Service members were covered up. The White House excusing the behavior this way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: There is a mask requirement inside D.C. restaurants, yet President Biden and the first lady were not wearing masks while walking around a D.C. restaurant on Saturday, why?

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, I think what we are referring to is a photo of them walking out of a restaurant after they had eaten, masks in hand where they are not yet put them back on yet. So, I would say, of course there are moments when we all don't put masks back on as quickly as we should, but I don't think we should lose the forest through the trees here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO (on camera): President Biden not alone, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot being accused of COVID hypocrisy after posing maskless for a photo at a basketball game. Mayor Lightfoot is locked in a bitter standoff with police over vaccine mandates after half of the city's 13,000 officers could reportedly be fired if they don't get the shot.

Today is also the deadline for Seattle police officers to submit their vaccination status. Here is the one police officer (Inaudible) right away, a Washington trooper signing out for the last time. Let's listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: I would like to thank the citizens of Yakima County, as well as my fellow officers within the valley, without you guys I wouldn't have been very successful. You kept me safe and got me home with my family every night. Thank you for that.

I wish I could say more, but this is it. So state 10-34 this is the last time you'll hear me in a state patrol car. And J. Ainsley (Ph) can kiss my (muted).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO (on camera): So, he is now left the building and the police force, Jesse.

JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: Did any of these politicians think about attrition, I mean, that's what's going to happen when you slap these vast mandates on these people. Right now in Seattle, they are going to lose what, 140 officers in the middle of a crime wave, historic. We've already seen retirements there, and they are going into what's called phase four mobilization, Dana, and they only use this during riots. It's when every single sworn officer has to come in seven days a week, --

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: No have no choice.

WATTERS: -- 12-hour shifts and cover each other's -- I just don't know how they will do that after they have had -- they just shattered a three-decade murder number last year. They are already on pace to top that. And in Kings County 80 percent of the drive-bys are black Americans.

So, Jenny Durkan, the mayor, black lives matter, don't they? You are going to keep police off the streets in that type of environment? But I could talk about Joe Biden's dinner, Dana.

PERINO: OK.

WATTERS: Hunter Biden must have picked up the tab on this thing, because this restaurant is even too pricey for Gutfeld. They have a caviar tasting for $250, then they have something I've never even heard before, and the New Zealand scorpion fish for $275, a dover sold for 115.

PERINO: Wow.

WATTERS: I've never seen it over 110. And then the guy must've had a lot of cocktails last night, because he did not even show up to work today. Joe Biden has no public events on his schedule today. I hope it was worth it.

This is why this guy is so discombobulated. He walks indoors through a D.C. restaurant with no mask, but does a Zoom call by himself in the White House with a full mask on. That's why this country is so confused about COVID --

PERINO: Yes.

WATTERS: -- because he is confused. And then in Washington, D.C., why do they even have a mask mandate? Seven-day death average in D.C. is zero. It is zero. Why doesn't the mayor put on a bullet proof vest mandate? More people are dying from bullets than COVID-19.

PERINO: You live in Washington, D.C.

RICHARD FOWLER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I do.

PERINO: You need a mask mandate there?

FOWLER: Listen, I will say that we've done a really good job of getting a good majority of our city vaccinated, so bravo to Mayor Bowser for that. Listen, and I get it. I think the truth of the matter is that these mask mandates can be annoying and sometimes are misleading because one city has them and the neighboring city does not have them, but when you have elected leaders who are supposed to lead the people not wearing a mask, it's really hard to then tell John Q public, you need to have your mask on when the elected official doesn't do that.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: What about Mayor Lori Lightfoot on that?

FOWLER: I have --

PERINO: It's not the first time.

FOWLER: I have a lot of problems with Mayor Lori Lightfoot especially how she happens to be running the Chicago public school system and how she is not testing the students there. But it's worth pointing out that what's happening the police department like all the other city employees have been for -- have been asked to take the vaccine, right?

The educators in Chicago -- the educators in Chicago, 90 percent of them are vaccinated. And they turn in their vaccine cards no problem, city employees, the same. She has also allowed and said if you don't want to get the vaccine, if you do not want to turn in the vaccine card, you can test twice a week, so if you test twice a week you don't have to turn in the vaccination card.

PERINO: OK.

FOWLER: What I can't fathom here is this, this is about making sure that we keep police officers safe and keep them working. And when we know an officer down reported that the number one cause of death for police officers in 2021 and 2020 has been COVID-19, why would you not want to keep your police officer safe which is the battle that she seems to be having with the head of the police --

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: Katie, listen to Mayor Lori Lightfoot, this is what she said about police unions and an insurrection.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT (D), CHICAGO: Police unions are not authorized to strike, it's in their collective bargaining agreement and some matter of state law. What we have seen from the Fraternal Order of Police in particular, leadership is a lot of misinformation, a lot of half-truths, and frankly flat out lies in order to induce an insurrection.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: And I imagine some of those officers who decide that don't want to be vaccinated were frustrated that she goes to the basketball game and she doesn't have to wear a mask.

KATIE PAVLICH, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: She gets to live her life with armed security while she tried to defund the police last year, she gets to do that, and now she's lecturing and telling these police officers essentially that they are domestic terrorists who are trying to rise -- you know, create an insurrection because they happen to have a union that's standing up for their right of choice about whether they want to be vaccinated or not for whatever reason.

Natural immunity, they have some other condition, maybe they just don't want the vaccine, but when you look at the way that politicians in general like Lori Lightfoot have handled this and Joe Biden in particular, you know, it can seem like well, it's just a mask that he didn't have when he walked out.

But when you look at the videos of toddlers on airplanes getting kicked off with their parents and screaming, when you look at kids sitting in school all day who are a little who have to wear that for eight hours is infuriating to watch the president in the United States do this and then the press secretary justify and say, well, we don't really need to focus on that.

There are consequences for this in D.C. There's a thousand dollar fine if you don't comply, if you are on Amtrak and you don't have your mask on, they can kick you off the train. And so, you know, they can laugh about it and I would argue that nobody should be wearing masks given the vaccination rate --

PERINO: Yes.

PAVLICH: -- and the natural immunity, but if you are going to force other people to do it and you are going to throw kids off at airplanes with their parents that are trying to see their families, then he should be leading and, you know, take it away from everyone if that's the case.

PERINO: Greg, for a brief moment this morning I thought, well maybe with the hypocrisy on the mask, maybe they'll just decide that we can let it go and let it be people's choice if they want to wear a mask or not, but apparently that's not happening.

GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS CO-HOST: No, you got to separate the power from the powerless and the mask does that wonderfully. And why should Lori Lightfoot have to wear a mask and hide that beautiful smile? Because you know, she has so much to smile about.

PAVLICH: Yes.

GUTFELD: And to hide it in my opinion is a crime. I think when you're talking about, when you're talking about the kids and everything like that, we are -- we are now in the tyranny of safety phase where I had to go get a medical procedure on Friday, an endoscopy. They -- it was required that the person driving me there and the person picking me up had to be either mandated a shot or negative COVID, even if they didn't enter the building.

That's insane. All right. But this isn't about the practical benefits of masking, it's about how the jack asses that relish reprimanding us do not follow their own protocols, that's why they got into politics so they can create the laws that they are immune from. We hate line cutters. That's in our blood, our genetics. And people who scoff at laws that we follow. But when the line cutters are the people who control the line, that's war.

I mean, that's the let them eat cake phase of this, is when somebody is actually telling you the rules and violating them in front of you on the smaller scale it's like political -- politicians who start wars, but their kids are immune from the draft.

PERINO: Yes.

GUTFELD: It's like we create and enforce the laws that we are -- that we then mock and we see this and it's from -- look, from Ted Kennedy in Chappaquiddick to Hunter Biden with his guns in his crack, political power is that safety net that keeps you from being arrested or being in trouble, especially if you're a Democrat.

WATTERS: How was your procedure? How did it --

GUTFELD: It went smooth.

WATTERS: Yes, very smooth.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: That's what you want in that.

GUTFELD: Yes.

FOWLER: You want that to go well.

GUTFELD: They put the little camera down there, they did find your class ring, Dana. yes, I apologize.

PERINO: I mean, it's small.

GUTFELD: And the diamonds will be coming out later.

PERINO: OK, great, if you could just pick those out for me.

GUTFELD: Yes, I will. Just let --

PERINO: And sanitize. That would be great. All right up next, President Biden supply chain nightmare not going away anytime soon, the alarming message from his transportation secretary, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WATTERS (on camera): The Biden White House doing little to reassure Americans worried about the supply chain crisis and rampant inflation. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg actually trying to spin the disaster as a result of Biden's success.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE BUTTIGIEG, U.S. SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION: Well, certainly a lot of challenges that we've been experiencing this year will continue into next year, but there are both short-term and long-term steps that we can take to do something about it.

Look, part of what's happening isn't just the supply side, it's the demand side. Demand is up because income is up because the president has successfully guided this economy out of the teeth of a terrifying recession.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS (on camera): Meanwhile, Americans are getting crushed by inflation as we get closer to the holidays. One in five Americans already started their holiday shopping last month.

All right, Dana, so we have empty shelves, high inflation, soaring gas prices, labor shortages, high crime, and a migration crisis and in this country and probably any other country, if you just have maybe three of those things, that's a political crisis, Biden has all of them.

PERINO: And you can trace all of those issues back. Are there policy decisions. And policy decisions that have consequences, and so you have all of those things happening especially when you over stimulate the economy.

And you saw it just last week over 50 percent of people polled by Gallup said we don't want government to get any bigger, we don't think we need any of this extra money. Like they realize that what happens is if you have a situation where you have increased demand, not enough supply, what's going to happen? This is exactly what's going to happen.

The other thing is that Mayor Pete has been quite indignant, right? He is frustrated that people say that maybe he shouldn't have been on paternity leave. I'm fine. Take your paternity leave, but if you take leave, that means that someday fills in for your job.

And I looked it up and there is a deputy transportation secretary.

WATTERS: Wow.

PERINO: Her name is Polly Trottenberg, and I don't remember seeing her out there either. I feel like all of these issues seem to come in late because they are really focus on trying to pass things like the human infrastructure bill and then they forget that all of these other things are happening.

WATTERS: When I took my paternity leave, I was only gone for a couple of days and someone took my place here at the table. What did they call it the four the entire paternity? That's not how it works.

GUTFELD: This is a great test for government, if no one notices the loss of services or that you are not there, maybe get rid of him.

PAVLICH: Yes.

GUTFELD: Maybe you should be fired if no one care. Even the fact that no one in the media did a welfare check, we haven't seen the transportation secretary since --

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: Mayor Pete, are you OK?

GUTFELD: Mayor Pete, are you OK? Are you OK? Shut up, I'm bottle feeding. I'm going to start using the excuse of bottle-feeding. Because technically I am feeding myself, but look, as a person, Pete is right to take off that time if it's available. But as a leader, he is an embarrassment.

No leader in the time of crisis would take two months off, even professional athletes don't do that, they take off a few games here and there. But I mean, you know, you have to come to work when there's something going on, but the chaos with this whole cargo thing, his experience is the perfect metaphor. It did not disturb his lifestyle.

He is an elite who is able to take the eight weeks off, because it didn't hammer him. It hammers the middle class and it's going to hammer the working class, but someday like him well educated, got a great job in government, you know, he can -- he can weather it.

There's just something weird about a mayor of a city, of a city that wasn't so much trouble like Cleveland that he decided instead of sticking to the job and fixing things, he ran for president. So that makes you smart, but it makes you a terrible leader. That's what we are finding out. He abandoned the city, the city of twinkly lights according to Joe Biden.

PERINO: South Bend.

GUTFELD: South Bend.

WATTERS: My favorite, Richard, he says our supply chains can't keep up. Well, where did he and all of his McKinsey guys put the supply chains? In China!

(CROSSTALK)

FOWLER: Look, I don't think --

WATTERS: They can't keep up because they are halfway around the world.

FOWLER: I don't think he put the supply chain --

WATTERS: He advice -- McKinsey advice the politicians along with the Fortune 500 companies, put them in China, you avoid regulations, taxes and you have to pay your workers less.

FOWELR: Listen, there's -- there's nothing more than I want then to all of our -- for all of our supply chains to be here in the United States. The reality is that, you know, and I will also grant you that I think the Biden administration was a little bit slow to the mic in addressing how we deal with the supply chain issue.

But it's worth pointing out that the supply chain issue that we have are far bigger than Joe Biden and they are far bigger than the White House. We have a global supply --

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: Joe Biden has been in public life for four decades.

FOWLER: Wait a minute, I didn't interrupt you. I didn't interrupt you. So, we are dealing with the global chain issue. If you are paying attention to the global news what you'll find out is that last week in the United Kingdom they ran out of fuel, right, because they have the supply chain issue happening there.

WATTERS: Yes.

FOWLER: So, and the supply chain issue happened because it started in 2001 when Chinese factory shut down because of COVID-19, and when they -- and we had orders in China that were two months behind and then when China trying to send their products to the United States, our ports shut down because we had -- we had COVID-19 and we had social distancing issues.

So now what we are dealing with is a relay race that is about 100 yards back and we are trying to catch up. So yes, you are right, the Biden administration was slow to the path to say America, here's what we are dealing with. Here's why the slowdown is happening.

Like you said at the beginning of the segment, right, we have a labor shortage. It's happening with truckers, it's happening with longshoremen, which is also impacting which has downward pressure on what's actually happening right now. So, the American people are seeing empty shelves, they are waiting three and four months to get their sofas, to get their --

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: Their mini coopers.

FOWLER: -- their mini coopers.

PAVLICH: Longer than that.

FOWLER: To get their iPhone 13s, but the result of it is a globalized problem that is a result of the fact that we just dealt with a global pandemic that affected the whole world and where we shut the light switch off of the entire global economy.

PAVLICH: And why was that, because of government policy?

(CROSSTALK)

FOWLER: Because millions of Americans died.

PAVLICH: And decisions that were made.

FOWLER: That's why it was.

PAVLICH: And also, again, and a result of government policy --

(CROSSTALK)

FOLWER: And millions of -- and millions of people around the world died because of a disease that spread by nasal droplets.

PAVLICH: -- to stop production and to stop this -- to stop production and implement restrictions that didn't allow people to get back to work and held on to those restrictions were far too long because of some political motives like with Gavin Newsom in California.

Back to Pete Buttigieg, when he was running for president, people in the primary and Democratic primary were saying, look, he can't even fix potholes in South Bend, why are we going to not only elect him as president, but he's going to be Joe Biden's transportation secretary.

Pete Buttigieg was on paternity leave, says he didn't have time to appoint someone to take over his job, was off the clock. He had plenty of time to participate in a documentary. He had plenty of time to do an interview with People magazine about his new life.

So, it's just a matter of prioritizing his fame and wanting to pull a Fauci being on the cover of magazines versus dealing with real problems that America is having right now with the supply chain.

The final thing I'll say is now that the ports are back up in California, they need people to off-load what's in the port and they need drivers, that's the shortage of workers. Well California labor law through AB5 doesn't allow that, because we can't hire dig workers.

The PRO Act which is in the infrastructure bill that Joe Biden wants to pass does the same thing on a national level. Every single person you hire has to be a full-time employee with full benefits and they do that because they want the unions for political capital.

And so, this problem is not getting fixed on a policy level anytime soon whether it's through the Biden administration or through California politics either.

WATTERS: So, I hear you saying, Katie, it's the Democrats fault?

PAVLICH: Yes, very much so.

WATTERS: OK. That's what I heard you.

PAVLICH: Yes.

WATTERS: And by the way, Richard, the reason they are having fuels to shortages in Europe is because Putin is playing energy politics.

FOWLER: Actually, it's because they have a shortage of truckers --

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: That's why.

FOWLER: That's why global news.

WATTERS: Coming up --

FOWLER: Pay attention.

WATTERS: -- the left about to go bonkers on Joe Biden about what he said about the police.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAVLICH: President Biden sure to set off the left after rejecting calls to defund the police over the weekend and promising more resources for law enforcement during historic surge in violent crime.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Twenty-twenty was the deadliest year for law enforcement on record, and today we are here to remember nearly 500 of your brothers and sisters.

There are going to be more resources, not fewer resources to help you do your job, that's why I propose we investing -- we invest again in community policing we know works. One thing that protects cops and other cops.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAVLICH: So, Greg, that's a convenient narrative now, would've been better off last summer when --

GUTFELD: Yes.

PAVLICH: -- this whole crime surge started.

GUTFELD: I guess this was occurring during national police week, right? Which is, I think CNN calls it as the national appreciation of white supremacy.

PAVLICH: Yes.

GUTFELD: So, I don't know if they cover it. Yes, thank you for joining us in the real world, but where were you when the cities were burning and cops were getting attacked? He couldn't take the stand because that stand aligned himself with Trump, so he let politics replace his spine and he retreated to his basement as this country burn.

Billions and billions of dollars' worth of damage and people dying, cops committing suicide and the only reason why he is talking about it now is because it's a political weapon to use against the Republicans by tying it to January 6th. But it falls apart because his inconsistency exposed the truth.

He didn't give a damn about cops. He didn't give a single damn about cops before January 6th, now he does. So, screw him. I know that I should be -- I should be more diplomatic in saying that I am glad that he finally came around, but I'm so cynical at this point because he didn't do jack for so long, it actually infuriates me. And it's hard to infuriate me, Dana.

PERINO: I know, you have a very, very calm.

GUTFELD: I'm jovial most of the time.

PERINO: Yes, I know, I know.

PAVLICH: You're also a wonderful diplomat.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: He is mad. He is mad.

GUTFELD: I'm very mad right now, Dana, very mad.

PAVLICH: But Dana, on that the cynical point, you know, Democrats were getting destroyed when it came to the defund the police issue in the South Carolina Senate race, in the Virginia House races, so is this a way to kind of change the narrative ahead of 2022?

PERINO: I think in the way one of the reasons it's cynical and it's frustrating is that you actually believe that that is the real Joe Biden speaking. If you go back to 1994 and the thing that the crime bill then, things he has had in the past to support for police. And there was this political moment and he did not stand up when we needed him to, so then you think, will the real Joe Biden please stand up.

If crime is in the headlines, President Biden knows that he is losing because that is something that everybody will pay attention to. And the first story that will always get covered is going to be crime. And so, like Inspector Gadget, the left's message is self-destructing.

And it's not just on this issue. I would say it's also happening on immigration. What happened this weekend? The Biden administration says they're going to return to the return -- remain in Mexico policy that President Trump had. And the left-wing people that were on the Zoom call with the Biden administration walked out of the meeting.

They found out this week, that it's likely that the climate proposals and the big infrastructure bill are going to be pulled out. So, they're dejected over that. They're depressed because the Biden administration will not be able to deliver on this voting rights bill that they want to pass. So, all of this is leading the president to maybe rethink some things.

PAVLICH: You know, Jesse, the speech from President Biden over the weekend, had a lot of nice things that he said, but personnel is policy. And if you look at DOJ, and you look, Kristen Clarke, or Vanita Gupta, both people who call to defend the police who believe the whole system is racist, those are the people running the show when it comes to investigations and policies on a federal level for police departments across the country, and they haven't really offered much in terms of backing the police in the way that the President called for.

WATTERS: That's why people think he's a puppet because he doesn't even pick his own people to staff some of these departments. You guys are both right. He was anti-crime in the 90s and tack back during the primary when he was getting hammered. Then after Floyd, he said, oh, we have systemic racism in our police departments, but we should redirect funding from the police, and then he hid in silence in his basement.

And then when he saw the democrats almost lose the house in November because of this, he tried to attack back again. So, that's why no one trusts him. He's too wishy-washy. And he hasn't even pushed his anti-crime and police reform bills through Congress. He controls both houses and they're both DOA.

Police departments need strong leadership, vocal support from the commander in chief, because they're putting their lives on the line. They're making split-second calls, car pursuits, foot pursuits, dealing with some of the most horrific people, as Greg says, people on their worst days in America, and they're just going to retire or stick around and stay in their squad cars, not do proactive policing, if they're not getting vocal support from the White House. And that's what we're seeing right now.

He has to convince his party to be less anti-police if he's going to stand a shot for people to believe him.

PAVLICH: Yes. Guys that put their lives on the line every day for decades are getting fired because they won't comply with Biden's vaccine mandate. Richard, what is the Democrats' plan to handle this new crime with? What are they going to do about it?

FOWLER: Well, I can't speak to -- I mean, I'm not a lawmaker, but I think what can be done is -- because I don't think it's about defunding the police. I don't think you can mandate policy via hashtag. But I think what we've got to do is one, end bad policing practices like stop and frisk, profiling, excessive police -- excessive over policing, and actually focus on how we do policing better, right? Because what you have --

PAVLICH: What about the criminals? What do you with about the criminals?

FOWLER: Hold on a second. Hold on a second.

PAVLICH: Anything?

GUTFELD: He's talking about the criminals. It's the police, right?

PAVLICH: No, it's the police.

FOWLER: I'm not talking about the criminals. I said nothing like that.

GUTFELD: But that's what -- you went -- you did that -- you did that wish list --

FOWLER: No, excuse me.

GUTFELD: -- of things that has decimated.

FOWLER: Excuse me.

WATTERS: She asked you how you deal with crime, and you went after the police.

FOWLER: I'm getting there, right? What you have is this. When you talk to communities of color, when you talk to Black communities, what they tell you is that 64 percent of them favor street patrols. 60 percent of them favor more money going towards reform and training.

And you also have communities that say there's a fear and mistrust when it comes to police and police cannot be effective if the people who they need to be affected towards don't trust them. So, what you've got to do is have reform in place so that when you call 911, you're going to trust the person on the other end of the phone.

And when communities don't trust who's on the other end of the phone, or who's going to show up when they call 911 we have a problem. And until we're willing to acknowledge a problem exists, we'll -- we will continue to have this circular conversation that gets us nowhere, which is where we are right now.

PAVLICH: I don't think we're in a circular conversation.

FOWLER: That's exactly --

GUTFELD: No, it's not.

FOWLER: That's exactly where we are. Republicans believe one thing, Democrats believe something else, and we're in a circular conversation.

GUTFELD: We refuse to fall into this prism of two ideas.

FOWLER: OK.

GUTFELD: There is that there is so many options on the table. But the moment that you defend the police at all, then you're considered a racist.

FOWLER: No, because I'm telling you that Black people favor the police but they also believe --

PAVLICH: All right, we got to go. All right, up ahead -- we got to go.

FOWLER: -- they also believe in trust.

PAVLICH: Ahead, a former Obama official torching Biden's foreign policy failures.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUTFELD: Obama's former Defense Secretary Robert Gates is doubling down on his long-held belief that President Biden has been wrong on nearly every foreign policy issue going back decades.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You wrote, Joe Biden was a man of integrity, still I think he's been wrong in nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.

ROBERT GATES, FORMER U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: I think he's gotten a lot wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're talking all through the years as vice president - -

GATES: I think he opposed every one of Ronald Reagan's military programs to contest the Soviet Union. He opposed the first Gulf War. That list goes on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But do you think he made a mistake in Afghanistan in the way he handled the withdrawal?

GATES: Yes.

GUTFELD: And the State Department just announced its inspector general will review Biden's chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal. I can't wait for that, Katie. You know, Gates is right. It's -- but when somebody is wrong on everything for a long period of time, what's that -- it's like you can't learn from your mistakes. There's a lack of wisdom, there's a lack of gut instinct.

WATTERS: So, you make him president.

GUTFELD: So, you make him president.

PAVLICH: I don't think he's going to change, guys.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PAVLICH: He's pretty sure that pretty solid way of making decisions. So, Afghanistan is one thing, the inspector general will investigate. I doubt anybody will be fired as a result because I haven't seen resignations or anything. But I would like to learn a lot more about the way everything went down especially given that there are still Americans there, and we're trying to get them out.

But if you move forward the conversation outside of just Afghanistan, you look at China, for example, over the weekend, sending up the supersonic missile that can carry a nuke, and the White House response is, we welcome the competition. And the Intelligence Community was thrown off guard and surprised about this.

And then oh, by the way, in our education system, we are banning math and gifted programs and math is racist. So, I would say we're in a little bit of trouble.

GUTFELD: I find that -- Katie, I find that white rage is far more harmful than that missile. And how dare you?

Dana, he was -- Joe Biden was always more into the trappings of the job and not the decision making. He likes the bomber jacket, the aviator sunglasses, or rating, going to restaurants patting people on the back --

PERINO: But he was -- so, he was chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee -- Foreign Relations Committee -- Foreign Affairs Committee for a long time.

GUTFELD: So was I though.

PERINO: And you were -- and you were great.

GUTFELD: Thank you.

PERINO: I mean, you're amazing. I was going to mention the China thing also. The thing that -- about the China issue is that the initial response from the White House is well, we welcome the competition. The question is like, so -- but how did we miss it? And then, what else are we missing?

So, that has to be a concern. And I think that people are paying attention to that. Two weeks ago, the same Gallup poll I mentioned earlier said that 54 percent of people trust Republicans more on security than on President Biden.

GUTFELD: Yes. Richard, give me one thing foreign policy wise that you could say, Joe, hit it out of the park. Come on.

FOWLER: On China, he's sold nuclear -- a nuclear sub to Australia counterbalancing.

WATTERS: Except he didn't even know -- he dint even know about the deal. Remember, Kerry said he had no clue?

FOWLER: Yes, but Kerry does not supposed to know.

GUTFELD: No, Kerry didn't --

PERINO: No. Kerry said Biden didn't know.

WATTERS: Kerry said, Biden didn't know.

FOWLER: I think Biden knew that he sold a nuclear missile to China. Look, here's the thing. When you talk about Gates -- I mean, it's very clear if you look at the histrionics of the Obama administration that Gates and Joe Biden just didn't get along, right?

And I think -- and one of the reasons they didn't get along is because it seems as though Obama listened to Gates more than he listened to Biden. And to take a word -- to take -- you know, to take a page out of Gates' his book, Jessie, I think you're a genuine -- you have genuine integrity and character, but I disagree with you on most policies.

WATTERS: Thank you.

GUTFELD: Yes. When they -- when they lead with a compliment, you're screwed, Jesse.

WATTERS: Yes. Yes. I think this was the first time the audience at CBS had ever heard the Joe Biden was dumb with foreign policy. Remember, they canceled the second debate that was supposed to be a foreign policy debate. They wanted to make it remote, remember, because Trump got COVID? And that was just so Joe Biden could cheat.

I mean, he's never asked anything about foreign policy. He hasn't even been asked, why did you lie and say that you were not advised to leave 2500 troops in Afghanistan.

PERINO: He's not done any interview.

WATTERS: He hasn't done any interviews. He hasn't even done a press conference in three months. Like I said, he was hungover all day from the expensive dinner last night. I never went out and said anything today. This is just more about the protect Joe Biden at any cost campaign. They won't let him talk. He's a controlled puppet. And it it's at the expense of the country.

GUTFELD: All right, we'll have to leave it there.

PERINO: Right. Very nice.

GUTFELD: I always wanted to say that. Up next, Jon Stewart lays into the media's obsession with former President Trump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOWLER: Welcome back. Comedian Jon Stewart is calling out the media for their focus on former President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON STEWART, COMEDIAN: I think we make a mistake focusing this on Donald Trump as though he's, I don't know, Magneto and some incredible supervillain. I think it's a mistake to focus it all on this one individual.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOWLER: And to some extent, I mean, he could be right in this. Dana, you've been in the Republican Party for quite some time. And do you think that this over-focus by the media on Donald Trump is sort of having a harm of the Republican Party and their -- and their ability to breed new leaders and have more lead -- new leaders come to the forefront because everybody's sort of laser-focused on what Trump's going to do next?

PERINO: Let me take the question and look at it from a different perspective, which is that I don't think that there is much coverage of President Trump except maybe watching other channels. What has happened in the past six months is that because President Trump is not front and center all the time, you now have the ability for media to focus on the Democrats' policies themselves and what has happened.

When that -- as soon as you shine a light on what these policies actually are, they become very unpopular, which is one of the reasons Biden, I think, has missed a window of opportunity. They did that COVID bill right away instead of some of the other priorities that they had. And as the longer that hung out there, and now they're in freefall when it comes to their approval ratings. And the smaller his capital gets, then the less he's going to be able to do.

So, I actually don't think there is as much focus on President Trump anymore. Perhaps whatever Jon Stuart is reading, that's where he sees that. But I think that the focus on the actual policies has made a difference, and that's what's helped Republicans.

FOWLER: Greg?

GUTFELD: I get the sense whether it's Jon Stuart, or it's Bill Maher, that a lot of these liberal comedians or commentators are playing catch up. I think they're -- I mean, this is not news, right? They -- we regularly made fun of the other networks for their Trump arrangement syndrome. He's actually talking about something that is five years old, at least to me.

But when the Savior comes down to say something, suddenly it's news. Maybe it was the viewers at CNN, that was the first time they ever heard that so it was a big deal. I'm not complaining. I'm glad that he is actually admitting this. I'm glad that Bill Maher is actually taking it to his viewers and you know, probably because he sees the immense success of exclamation points.

PERINO: I mean, it's incredible.

GUTFELD: They're trying to get into my lane and I say, you know what, the more the merrier.

WATTERS: You welcome the competition.

GUTFELD: I welcome the competition.

PERINO: Just use your -- just use you turn signal if you're coming over.

GUTFELD: Exactly. And they're all in their late 70s, so you'll never know.

FOWLER: So, Jesse, to the point that Jon Stewart is making. So, today for example, on other networks, they focus on the fact that the President had a deposition today and they had like, stakeouts at the Trump Tower focusing - - like, literally staring at the President's motorcade, right, which is this over-focus on Trump because he had a deposition, like, people don't have depositions every day.

Is this over-focus on the president taking away from other things happening in the Republican Party?

WATTERS: Or the Democratic Party.

FOWLER: Fair enough.

WATTERS: You just questioned Dana's excellent analysis.

FOWLER: No, no, fair enough.

WATTERS: And she's right. But I remember Jon Stewart a couple of years back making about $30 million a year dividing this country, ridiculing Republicans, dehumanizing Fox News hosts for profit. I forgive him. It's just hypocritical now all of a sudden he kind of comes out from retirement and says we need to focus on holding the powerful accountable and focus on policy.

OK, OK, we got -- you got rich doing the exact opposite. But he's right. We -- the Democratic Party has merged with the powerful institutions in this country to put a laser focus on Trump and populism and not focus on themselves. Do you think the CIA, the FBI, Pfizer, Hunter Biden and his laptop want any scrutiny whatsoever? Of course not. Companies don't want scrutiny, Richard. The Pentagon doesn't want scrutiny. No one wants that. No one wants CNN and MSNBC asking questions.

They want everything focused on the threat of Donald Trump and populism, because in a way, that threat does threaten their profits and their power. So it just look over here, look at that threat, don't look at what we're doing.

FOWLER: You just put Pfizer and Hunter Biden's e-mails --

WATTERS: Yes, I did. Yes, I did.

FOWLER: Katie?

PAVLICH: It's just a distraction from their failure. So, every time the Biden administration fails, whether it's on the border, or at the beginning of the year, getting COVID vaccination numbers up, they just throw out Donald Trump as a lazy argument because they can't defend their own policy.

And at the beginning, the media would run with it, but people are tired of hearing about it. They're saying there's a new president. He said he had lots of experience to get things done. That's what he should be doing. And instead, he's blaming it on the other guy instead of taking responsibility for it. So, it's just a lazy argument.

FOWLER: We'll see if it's a lazy argument or not.

PAVLICH: It is.

FOWLER: But "ONE MORE THING" is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PERINO: It's time now for "ONE MORE THING. Greg is singing.

GUTFELD: I am. I am. I was thinking about what I'm going to do next. All right, let's do this. It's very exciting. Greg's Jesse's Spirit Animals. The definition of a Jesse spirit animal is an animal that kind of evocative -- evokes Jesse's vanity. Jessie cannot walk by a film camera or a mirror without stopping, much like these sea lions who are noticed that they're being filmed and cannot stop but -- this is totally Jesse move just looking in trying to -- you know, they don't have your hair though, Jesse.

WATTERS: Where did this thing that I'm vain start?

GUTFELD: It started -- well, it started on 4chan and Reddit.

WATTERS: I don't know what that is.

PERINO: He doesn't surf the board.

GUTFELD: People on TikTok are doing these total (INAUDIBLE). It's terrible.

WATTERS: I don't surf the board.

WATTERS: All right.

PERINO: Jesse

WATTERS: All right, check out this crazy video from Oklahoma.

PERINO: Oh, that's terrible. I can't watch.

WATTERS: Every buddy died.

GUTFELD: No.

WATTERS: No one died.

PERINO: Jesse.

WATTERS: The semi-truck, hauling about four or five cars, got stuck on a railroad track and couldn't get free before a massive Amtrak train came flying by. No one was even seriously hurt, minor injuries.

PERINO: Incredible. Thank goodness.

WATTERS: Someone and his dog was shaken up, but I mean, who hasn't been shaken up? Amazing no one got hurt. Yes.

PAVLICH: Oh my goodness.

WATTERS: And you can't -- you got to watch the trucks. There's a trucking shortage. So, it's one less truck.

PERINO: But the driver survived.

WATTERS: Right, Amtrak. There you go.

PERINO: OK, so anybody ever have a younger sibling that tried to play an instrument?

WATTERS: Yes.

PERINO: My sister tried to play the trumpet. It was so horrendous. Angie, I'm sorry. It's true. And I found a picture of my face on our little video. Here's what I looked like when Angie tried to play the trumpet..

I'm looking at my mom saying please make her stop. That's obviously a saxophone.

WATTERS: Dana, we got my younger sister piano lessons for two years and all she could play were Hot Cross Buns. One song for two years.

PERINO: Not even (INAUDIBLE)

WATTERS: He's burning money.

PERINO: All right, Katie.

PAVLICH: I quit piano. My mom took the lessons instead because I wasn't using them. So, good job, mom.

PERINO: I could use some money.

PAVLICH: All right, so this weekend, I ran my first tough mudder with my friend and colleague Matt Vespa. It's a 9-mile 30 obstacle course mud run. It was super fun. I invited lots of people to take the challenge on, and Matt was the only one who said yes. There I am on one of the first obstacles. The first mile is really hard, but we finished it.

And you have to clean your ears out during that tough mudder, there's lots of pretty gross stuff there. but it was fun.

PERINO: I'm volunteering Jesse to go on the next one with you.

PAVLICH: Jesse, you'd come next time?

WATTERS: That's something I won't be challenging you to do.

PAVLICH: We're doing it again next year.

WATTERS: No, thank you so much.

PAVLICH: You will lose, so good call.

PERINO: You don't want mud in your hands?

WATTERS: Yes. I had a lot of mud on my hair this weekend for the horse race.

PERINO: Richard.

FOWLER: Have you ever thought that you -- what you would do if you're the mayor of a town?

PAVLICH: No.

PERINO: Oh, yes.

WATTERS: All night long.

FOWLER: Well, Dana, you could be the mayor of Water Valley because Water Valley is up for sale for the low, low, low price of $725,000. It's a seven-acre parcel of land. It has a barn and it has a creek, and it has 715 residents, plus pets and livestock.

PERINO: Pets and livestock?

FOWLER: Yes, it does.

PERINO: That sounds like Schitt's Creek.

WATTERS: Wait, it's only seven acres?

FOWLER: Yes. Yes it is just like Schitt's Creek and it is available for sale.

PERINO: Are going to buy -- are you going to put it into bid?

FOWLER: I am going to put it --

PERINO: Where is it?

FOWLER: We could buy it together.

PAVLICH: Tennessee.

PERINO: Tennessee?

FOWLER: It's in Tennessee and we can all buy it together. We can do -- we can have a five-way split and we could be co-mayors.

PERINO: There's no income tax.

GUTFELD: Yes, that's true.

(CROSSTALK)

FOWLER: We can -- we can implement all of Jesse's policies and see if they work.

PERINO: New headquarters, seven acres, that's all we need, really. That's it for us. "SPECIAL REPORT" is up next. Hey, Bret! Are you in?

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