'The Five' on Biden's COVID plan

This is a rush transcript of "The Five" on December 21, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: Hello everybody. I'm Jesse Watters along with Dagen McDowell, Dr. Nicole Saphier, Dana Perino, and Greg Gutfeld. It's 5:00 in New York City and this is THE FIVE.

Another huge day of breaking news. We have a lot to get to. President Biden giving his big speech on COVID and he's getting very defensive over the surge on omicron cases. Kamala Harris stepping in it again after contradicting the White House on a key issue.

And after Biden's agenda went up in flames, the squad pushing a radical plan for the president to still Build Back Better. But first, President Biden trying to convince Americans everything is under control as cases of COVID spike. The president with more harsh words for the unvaxxed while touting his response to the pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: If you're not fully vaccinated, you have good reason to be concerned. You are at a high risk of getting sick. Almost everyone who has died from COVID-19 in the past many months has been unvaccinated. Unvaccinated. Get vaccinated now. I believe it's your patriotic duty. We should all be concerned about omicron, but not panicked. This is a critical moment. We also have more tools we've ever had before. We're ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: And after getting caught off guard by omicron, even though they knew it was coming for weeks, Biden snapping at reporters daring to press him on Americans being forced to wait hours just to get a COVID test.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: No it's not because COVID is spreading so rapidly if you notice. It just happened almost overnight just in the last month.

UNKNOWN: What's your message to Americans who are trying to get tested now and who are not able to get tested and who are wondering what took so long to ramp up testing?

BIDEN: Come on, what took so long? What happened was the omicron virus spread more rapidly than anybody thought.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: All right, Dr. Nicole Saphier, what was your take on all of what you heard from the president this afternoon?

NICOLE SAPHIER, FOX NEWS MEDICAL CONTRIBUTOR: You know, Jesse, it felt like a little bit like deja vu, taking us back to spring 2020. We're talking about FEMA. We're talking about military help all coming in. And all of a sudden, I was like, wait, are we really in that same situation? And the answer is no. He kept saying, wait, wait, don't panic but FEMA is on its way.

And so I took a step back and I said listen, remember Governor Cuomo? He was like you have to send ventilators, you have to send help or people are going to die, yelling at President Trump, and what happened? He sent a military ship. It went unused. He sent thousands of ventilators, they went unused.

Here we are now nearly two years later. We are not in the same situation. Yes, omicron is highly transmissible, you are seeing cases surge across the country especially here in the northeast. We're still battling delta. But here's the thing, the hospitalization rate is less than a third of what it was in the last winter. And then not to mention, what it was initially.

What we have to look at is yes, our hospital stressed right now. Absolutely. It was stressed pre-omicron. Whys is that? That's because people weren't going in getting their medical care. This is a government made problem because of -- they shut it down. They didn't allow surgeries and other things that they considered to be voluntary to be done.

And not to mention the fact that you have thousands of doctors, nurses and other hospital staff and health care workers who have either quit or been fired because of this mandates. If you want to focus on helping hospitals, these are the ways that you do it.

And while President Biden was correct, yes, the cases and hospitalizations and deaths are being fueled by those 50 and above who are unvaccinated, the better thing to do right now is this tailored approach. We need to target the vulnerable, get them vaccinated, get them boosted, and do everything we possibly can to get treatments to the market because -- to keep people out of the hospital. That's what we can do.

Make sure there are workers there and keep patients out of the hospital. We have a lot of treatments that are anywhere from 30 to 90 percent effective at keeping people from being hospitalized with COVID. If they are given early on so patients need access to testing, their primary care doctors, and they need to expedite getting these treatments to patients.

WATTERS: Why, I hope the White House is watching Dr. Nicole Saphier. That certainly make a lot of sense --

SAPHIER: I may have had an opinion about that.

WATTERS: -- to a lot of people. Dagen, what was your take away from this afternoon?

DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: What the fudge is he talking about? Ventilators? Get the fudge out of here. That was my reaction. I didn't say fudge in my office.

WATTERS: I'm sure you didn't.

MCDOWELL: But I -- what you needed to do? Number one, he is a panic peddling (inaudible) still. The whispering scaremonger. Somebody tell him to stop whispering, that it is not effective and it is off-putting. He looked like he was auditioning to be a commentator on CNN talking about wrong and moral purveyors was. We know who he's trying to cast aspersions at.

He clearly thinks his job is done as president because he did nothing to placate the fears of Americans. He needed to change the narrative because we're going to -- probably a few days away from having one million positive cases of COVID in this country, just to like maybe by next week. So, start -- shift away from talking about, as Greg has said, as we have said for nearly two years, case numbers, and switch to hospitalizations and deaths, and how it's much better than it was.

Talk about the 95 percent of elderly Americans over 65 who have gotten least one shot. Talk about -- so, get away from that. And it would help him not only to preach safety and security to the American people, but also like the political narrative. Because a million cases, can you imagine the anvil being hung around Donald Trump's neck if he was still the president?

So politically, it helps him. But why aren't their tests? Ari Fleischer tweeted this. He states have $1 trillion. Why don't you have testing capabilities in these states? Because they don't know what they're doing.

WATTERS: And the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, this was a couple of weeks, a couple of days ago, downplayed the whole testing thing. Let's listen and you can react, Dana.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARA LIASSON, NPR NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Why not just make them free and give them out to -- and have them available everywhere?

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Should we just send one to every American?

LIASSON: Maybe.

PSAKI: Then -- then what happens if you -- if every American has one test? How much does that cost and then what happens after that?

LIASSON: All I know is that other countries seem to be making them available for -- in greater quantities for less money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DANA PERINO, FOX NEWS HOST: Someone in the White House was listening to that thing, Mara Liasson has a good point. I think the testing thing is absolutely abysmal. So, you've seen in New York City, and I know this is happening in other places, but I've witnessed it for myself and I'm sure you probably did too, because all over the city there are pop-up testing sites like on the corner like the food trucks.

WATTERS: All (inaudible). Yes.

PERINO: And people are waiting two and a half hours in the cold outside waiting to get a test. And still the CDC protocols I think are still way too stringent especially for this particular variant. They're saying you swab to isolate for 10 days. One of the reasons that you don't have workers at the hospital for example because of its highly transmissible.

I felt that the speech could have been given and should have been given last night. A quick evening speech, go do it at 6:30 p.m., let everybody have their evening because 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon, that's for roundtables on electric vehicles and charging stations. That is not the time to say like this is so serious.

The other problem is that we're technically in year three of the pandemic and the testing thing is still not good enough. And you can say that the Trump administration didn't hand you a good enough testing thing. Fine. Okay. But now you are 12 months in. And the testing is still this bad and no one is lighting a fire under the FDA.

You can find a test anywhere at CVS or anything. If you want to travel, you got to get a test so that you can get on. You want to make sure grandma and grandpa are okay, you got to get a test. But where are you going to get a test?

And it becomes just anxiety producing. The thing that was really missing from the speech and it has been for a while is hope and optimism.

WATTERS: Yes.

PERINO: There was really none -- there is some -- there are some good things to be able to say. He gets very defensive and he's mad that anybody is even questioning the situation. The other problem is there is nothing new or different.

Mark Halperin has a newsletter he puts out every morning and he pointed out that last month, the White House did a fact sheet on COVID and then they did one for today's speech and the lead paragraphs are the exact same. And we are not in the same exact situation.

When you are the president of the United States, you have the ability to convene different people, call people. Why not go and do something different or maybe stand there with a Republican. Imagine that. Like find some Republicans that are willing to stand with you.

WATTERS: Change it up.

PERINO: Like there is no way to change up the narrative. So I think that the headlines you're going to see in the morning are just more of the same, which is why their numbers are going down. They just feel like there is no way for them to move.

The other problem -- my last point is, when they say that they were surprised by the variant -- it makes me so mad because for the last two, now we're in year three, learning about viruses again, we all know that they mutate. November 8th, the South Africans said, hey, we got a mutation. We're going to keep an eye on it.

So that's November 8th. It's December 21st today. December 1st, the first one in America. So you know exactly what's going to happen. We saw it happen with delta. There -- it's already here. So now we're having all these right before Christmas and there are still no test? I really think that that fall squarely on them.

WATTERS: They are always surprised, Greg.

GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS HOST: Yes, I'm surprised.

WATERS: Yes? You're surprised that they're surprised.

GUTFELD: Yes, I'm surprised. Yes. This is almost over and the government doesn't know it.

PERINO: Yes.

GUTFELD: So it's up to the people to tell them that it's over. Right now, if you're at home, you're not in office like this, you have no idea what it's like in this building. You have no idea. I just sent home what, four - - four employees? Stress is peaking. It's a combination of holiday stress, a combination of hassles that you have to deal with when you're traveling. And they are adding this on top.

So there is an environment of panic gushing through the city, going through our offices that is 100 times worse than omicron. Its nuts. And it's creating psychosomatic symptoms. I'm very suggestible. One minute I feel great. The next, I think I'm dying. This is insane.

This is -- the point I'm making is, this is a panic from the top down. It's not from above. It's not a typical hysteria that you would get about some kind of strange phenomenon. This is a reverse hysteria. It's coming from government bureaucracy, right? So the problem here is that you have a mild but highly contagious strain that almost everybody is getting. You get tested, it's going to come positive. That's what is happening with everyone I know.

But the only tool that we have is a sledgehammer. So we have the testing and then what we do is we send everybody home.

PERINO: Right.

GUTFELD: It is a shutdown in reverse. Originally we were saying okay, we're going to shut down everything and maybe it will stop. But now we're doing it in reverse. We're testing. Now we're doing it. And it turns out if you get this thing, it's as tolerable as a cold. Most of the people that I know that have it had sniffles and that's it. But we have a government bureaucracy that is terrified of losing an election and terrified of litigation.

So what now is not a death panic, it's a hassle panic because we all want to go home and be with our families and they're screwing us over. But, what this intense panic tells you, the government is not an appropriate vehicle anymore for telling us what to do. They are done because the vehicle only has one speed and its panic.

It's driven by one incentive, re-election. It's not driven, it's not skewered towards risk management. Adults understand risk management. You saw that with Biden. He doesn't understand it. He believes that there should be zero risk. That is a child mentality. So it is up to us to pick the date. I've been having a conversation with Scott Adams. We decided that the date for this is February 1st.

We are the hostage negotiators on behalf of America to discuss with the government about what to do since no one else has volunteered. We have to talk to the government about a return to normalcy because they are not going to do it. They are too cowardly. So it's up to us to actually say this is what we want. February 1st, we are done.

WATTERS: I like that. Right before Super Bowl weekend. That's very appropriate.

GUTFELD: Yes. And it gives a bit of time to deal with the infections that come after the holidays naturally. You get through that, it's over. But we can't keep doing this to people. Biden has no idea the difference between the beginning and the end of a pandemic. He has no idea. Just keep going. One more time. Just -- we just got to keep -- he will say that until the end of time.

WATTERS: I'm glad you're in charge.

GUTFELD: Thank you. And you know what?

WATTERS: It's about time you're in charge.

PERINO: Thank you for stepping up.

GUTFELD: I have to because no one else is going to do it.

MCDOWELL: Well, I'm glad you clarified that February 1st. I saw in Adams' tweet and I was like, there's a party going on.

GUTFELD: Yes.

MCDOWELL: Now it's an even bigger party.

GUTFELD: Yes.

WATTERS: Coming up, Joe Biden's presidency already in a tailspin and he just submitted a key part of his COVID plan is very unpopular.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUTFELD: President Biden using his speech today to defend unpopular vaccine mandates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I want to start by acknowledging how tired, worried, and frustrated I know you are. I know how you are feeling. Are we going back to March 2020, not just last march 2021, but March 2020 when the pandemic first hit? That's what I keep getting asked. The answer is absolutely no.

I know vaccination requirements are popular for many. They are not even popular for those who are anxious to get them. My administration has put them in place not to control your life, but to save your life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: Policies like that have done a number on his deeply damaged presidency. Biden's disapproval continues to soar. Fifty-five percent think he is doing a terrible job. Seven in 10 say this year was a bad year for the country.

You know, Jesse, we were talking in the break that there is -- he has no power to express any optimism. And so it's like you have people that, yes, they think this year is bad, but they also think next year is going to suck --

PERINO: Yes.

GUTFELD: -- because he can't express a glimmer of hope.

WATTERS: And he told us that this year was going to be great.

GUTFELD: Yes.

WATTERS: And being president is kind of like being a parent. You have to manage expectations. We take the twins on a car ride to Maine from New York.

GUTFELD: Yes.

WATTERS: Depending on when you leave, depending on how much traffic, it's either six to eight hours. The night before we leave, I don't tell the twins we are going to get there in three hours. They are going to be cranky and confused and they are not going to trust me the next day. And that's how the people feel. They're cranky, confused, and they're distrustful of the president.

The guy ran on crushing the virus. Said Trump didn't crush it and then declared the summer that he crushed it. And then you have two successive waves and people don't think you are credible after that. You pull back your mandates that you said you weren't going to do. People don't think you're credible.

Anthony Fauci, remember what did you say, his favorite words. Could be, might be, maybe. That chips away at your credibility. And now he says no one saw these waves coming. I saw the waves coming. I text people. People smarter than I am, I know you don't think so, but there are people that are smarter than I am.

GUTFELD: It's a lot of people.

WATTERS: And they told me this summer, yes, this August is going to be bad. They told me as I saw the charts go up this winter. Not as bad as last winter, but it's going to be a rough winter. How does he not have people in the office that tell him that stuff?

GUTFELD: He should be fired on the spot.

WATTERS: How do I know that a lot of people go get tested before Thanksgiving and Christmas and he doesn't see that coming? How do I know that this thing is seasonal and regional and he doesn't know it is seasonal and reasonable and he doesn't know it's seasonal and reasonable?

So, this guy is out of his mind right now and you have to ramp up testing after, what, we spend $2 trillion on what? We don't have tests after $2 trillion? Where the money go? I've always thought it was embezzled, but that's just me.

And you can't go out there, and you said it, you can't whisper to the American people. You can't whisper and you can cough while you're whispering and expect people to pay attention. He is not clear or loud enough.

GUTFELD: You know, I'm going to -- Dana, I'm going to piggyback on his parent analogy. It seems like Biden is like the dad who is driving the station wagon and he's lost. And the kids are in the backseat. They're America going, where are we? Where are we? And he is saying, we're all good. We're all good. We're all good. And he is like already just crossed the border into some --

WATTERS: Yes. Stopped and he asked for directions.

PERINO: And it's like stop hitting your sister in the back.

GUTFELD: Yes.

WATTERS: Yes.

PERINO: So, you can do a little reverse psychology on America because, well, the question here in this block is does he have any political capital left? Looking at the poll numbers, I would say it's dwindling and then you have the Build Back Better that falls apart. Why not start his speech with something that says America, I want to thank you. You have done everything we asked.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: And in amazing numbers you have gotten vaccinated, you stayed home and I know that was hard for you. I know a lot of your businesses suffered. We are so grateful for the taxpayer support to make sure -- like imagine all the things that you could do to make people feel like, okay, you are bringing me along.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: Instead, immediately, it's like, boom, boom. The vaccine mandate was a distraction during Afghanistan.

WATTERS: Yes.

PERINO: It was a Friday afternoon in the middle of August. Ad all of a sudden, he is going to give a speech. Okay, great. He's going to maybe tell us like what's going to happen here. Are we going to be able to have an extra time to get these people out? Instead he comes on and said we have a vaccine mandate and that was super confusing.

If they are going to change something in the coverage, they have to have something or somebody new.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: And they could've done that today or he could have berated the FDA. He's -- basically, today, one of the things he said was that Goldman Sachs says things are going to be okay like, is that what your base wants to hear?

GUTFELD: Yes. They have been real good at that.

PERINO: Goldman Sachs.

GUTFELD: Yes. Dagen, to Dana's point here is that he's -- might not be the right person for this moment. He seems almost entirely divorced from the mood of the country.

MCDOWELL: It's because he is the farthest humanoid away from being persuader-in-chief. The only people he is persuasive with are people who already agree with him and they are the type of people who will agree with Bette Midler.

GUTFELD: Yes.

MCDOWELL: He is -- you're not a persuader if you vilify the unvaccinated which he continues to do. He did it again today. You're not persuader talking about the winner of death. If you hate Republicans and (inaudible) and are tribal, you're not a persuader. Where it divides -- and the most stark thing and we already mentioned, is the fact that he did not come out and say, this week, as based on reports, the Merck and Pfizer antiviral pills are going to be approved this week.

And I hate to keep pivoting back to President Trump, but Trump trusted and valued and wanted to cheer the private sector.

GUTFELD: Yes.

MCDOWELL: And these incredible things. While the left, Elizabeth Warren is blaming inflation on grocery stores. So you can't know Biden would stand up there and cheer the pharmaceutical companies.

GUTFELD: Yes.

MCDOWELL: As Trump once said, I'll paraphrase, people who work in governments are stupid. That should have been him. Those people are slow and stupid. They're bureaucrats. I'm going to go over there and shake some marbles out of their skull and get them to approve these antivirals. We're on the way to recovering and stopping the pandemic.

GUTFELD: Why -- how come they've been so slow in these therapeutics especially this pill that we keep hearing about, doc?

SAPHIER: Well, the administrative bull (ph) of the FDA is just long- standing and has always been there. President Trump through Operation Warp Speed was able to cut a lot of that Trump. I will say that Bloomberg reported today that the FDA announced that the EUA from molnupiravir as well as Paxlovid could be approved as early as tomorrow. Great news, but it's not just about that. It's also about fluvoxamine, which is an existing medication --

WATTERS: So a lot of medicines I'm going to have to learn how to pronounce. Slow that one down doctor.

SAPHIER: Those are the antivirals. Fluvoxamine is an existing medication that is being repurposed. It is shown to prevent death and hospitalizations up in 90 percent and it's a cheap medication that you can get from your pharmacy. Why aren't we talking about that?

MCDOWELL: It's an antidepressant so you get a one-two punch.

SAPHIER: And also the antibodies. We are in a dire shortage of antibody therapy right now. That is where the focus should be. If he truly wants to give that hope to American people, one, he should be transparent about the number of hospitalized of COVID patients. Yes, hospitals are full, but it is not with COVID patients.

GUTFELD: Right.

SAPHIER: We have a flu that is going around right now that the flu shot is not being very effective with. We also have a lot of chronic illness and yes, there are in increasing COVID patients but there is a way to keep them out of the hospital. Get these treatments to them.

GUTFELD: All right. More stuff in these two blocks than anything out of that White House.

WATTERS: President Gutfeld right here.

GUTFELD: Yes. February 1st. Coming up, Kamala Harris going off script again and President Biden is not going to like what she said.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PERINO: Kamala Harris going rogue on the White House's COVID messaging. The vice president contradicting her boss about unvaccinated Americans and appearing to give China a pass.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARGARET BRENNAN, CBS NEWS HOST: Is it the fault of the unvaccinated?

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I don't think this is a moment to talk about fault. It is no one's fault that this virus hit our shores or hit the world. But it is more about individual power and responsibility and it's about the decisions that everyone has the choice to make.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: Why is it the -- why -- they spent millions in ads attacking President Trump saying he was soft on China. Why isn't your initial instinct, your reflex to say, well, first of all, China's at fault. Then you could go on to something else.

JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: Well, because she's a democrat and we're grading on a curve, Dana. I think we're making progress that she is not blaming the unvaxxed because her boss --

PERINO: Yes, fair enough.

WATTERS: -- does blame the unvaxxed.

PERINO: Maybe she's -- yes, maybe she's trying to steer him in a different direction. I think that's the point.

WATTERS: Well, maybe this is a good cop bad cop strategy or maybe she's freelancing and creating some separation with the President with their COVID response that would help her long term because he's a disaster on COVID.

I'm vaxxed, I'm boosted, but people have unvaxxed and unboosted family members. And you can't have the President of the United States asking you to characterize your own family members as being enemies.

I mean, obviously, my family members are vast and boosted. They would have submitted to the clinical trials of Warp Speed if they could have. But there are people who have mothers and fathers and cousins that are unvaxxed and you can't ask people to say that these people are enemies right now.

Biden is an old-school politician, divide and conquer. It's only knows. You divide people by race, by gender, by social class, and you only have to get 50.1 percent and then you ride that majority. That doesn't work in a pandemic. You're trying to get as many people on your side as possible, so he has to unite.

And at least Kamala -- I can't believe I'm actually giving her credit here, but she is being a little bit more compassionate and not condemning the unvaxxed.

PERINO: Maybe she is trying to steer it in a different direction.

GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: Well, maybe she also understands it's not just white deplorables.

DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX NEWS CHANNEL ANCHOR: Right, thank you.

GUTFELD: That's probably what it is. This is also a transfer of roles that you see when parties exchange power. So, like, when the Dems are not in the White House, everything is the fault of the White House.

But then they're in the White House and suddenly it was an SUV that drove into a parade. No one was driving it just like how no one is driving this country. And therefore, they're not responsible for what's going on and why Americans are in charge. February 1st, I'm going to keep saying it every single day.

WATTERS: We're not going to get tired of this at all.

GUTFELD: No.

PERINO: No, not at all.

GUTFELD: It's going to be more irritating than Animals are Great.

WATTERS: That's a high bar.

PERINO: I do wonder about that, that she perhaps is suggesting a different direction for the President. Because if you think about it, President Biden remember what he did on vice president -- as vice president when he got President Obama to move on gay marriage. Like, you can do that as a vice president have an impact.

NICOLE SAPHIER, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, sure, absolutely. Especially if you say something publicly that probably has garnered some support when the president has been so criticized for blaming anti-vaxxers. I will say though that, I don't know, I think there is some blame that could go around. I mean you look at the CCP and they suppressed whistleblowers, they kept -- concealed information.

You could also blame the Trump administration, CDC, FDA, and NIH who had an inability to test early on and the fact that they weren't able to give us accurate information early on in the pandemic. You can also blame the teachers lobbying union powerhouse that kept children out of school to their detriment.

And what about the Biden administration? The fact that children are still being kept out of school despite the fact that he says they shouldn't be but he's not coming down hard on the schools that are closing right now and the fact that we still can't test.

But I do agree with her that Americans are not to blame for this pandemic. And while they should continue to encourage vaccination and boosting, at this point it needs to be a targeted approach saying here -- you have access to this, this is the information, but this is what we can do, expand access to treatments and allow people to move on, make sure we target those vulnerable, and those high risk but allow the rest of the population to move on. And that's the way that they're going to become more popular with the American people.

PERINO: Dagen, do you think a chill wind blows between the vice president's office and the West Wing or do you think that there's some simpatico.

MCDOWELL: Chill wind, a big -- a big blowing cold wind. She's not thinking about POTUS Biden, she's thinking about POTUS Harris because I think everything she does want to become the President of the United States. And everything at this point will be -- all of her thinking is directed at that. Because she was showing a modicum of political independence by just simply saying I'm not vilifying and demonizing the unvaccinated. Because as Greg pointed out, Black voters and Latino voters, voters of color, there's vaccine hesitancy in those groups of people along with a White Trump voters.

So, she was -- she was making a very calculated decision. You can almost see her inside her own head of where I'm going to go with this. And I think the tell was the interview that she did with Charlamagne as badly as it ended, it was still very focused on issues that matter to voters of color. And she is staying focused on that. She's like, I'm not -- I'm not going to say nasty things about my --

PERINO: Yes. Well, and midterm elections are base elections. You need them to turn out, so maybe this -- well, let's mark the occasion. We really were praising Kamala Harris on that segment. Up next, who needs Joe Manchin anyway? The Squad pushing Biden to bypass Congress on Build Back Better.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, did Senator Manchin break his commitment to you?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Senator Manchin and I are going to get something done. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCDOWELL: President Biden trying to put his best foot forward on healing the rift with Senator Joe Manchin after the White House called him a liar. But radical Democrats don't want to hear it. Progressives are focused on pressuring Biden to go it alone on the spending plan.

AOC tweeting this. Biden needs to lean on his executive authority now. He has been delaying and underutilizing it so far. Jesse, the same people who whinge and screech about the ruination of democracy are telling him to trample on the Constitution.

WATTERS: Yes, let's make him king. We'll build him a throne, put a crown on his head, we'll just have a monarchy. Squad can go home. We don't need Congress, power of the purse. Give it to Joe. Send the Supreme Court home too while we're at it, right? No checks and balances. We're just a monarchy now. Like, who talks like that? It doesn't even pass the if the shoe were on the other foot test which is a great test, and you know how much I hate tests.

This is like ---

PERINO: Did you pass that test?

WATTERS: Yes, the only one. If Trump were president and he didn't have a majority in the Senate, you think AOC would be like, yes, just let Trump enact the MAGA agenda. No, of course, she wouldn't. This just shows the mentality of the far left. Don't renegotiate this thing. You know, don't try to persuade anybody. Don't go back to the drawing board. Just jam it through. Just jam it right through. These instincts are crazy. This is a crazy kind of instinct.

MCDOWELL: Greg, Bette Midler is the new spokes broad for the Squad clearly or she's auditioning for that job. Poor, illiterate, and strong on drugs is how she described West Virginians and then kind of sort of apologized which clearly somebody told her to do that.

GUTFELD: I mean, you've got to be strung out to watch one of her movies. I mean, have you ever seen beaches?

WATTERS: No.

SAPHIER: Don't go there.

GUTFELD: You like Beaches?

SAPHIER: Yes, don't do that.

GUTFELD: Oh, it's a terrible film.

SAPHIER: Come on.

GUTFELD: You know, it's really funny when you see kind of clearly washed up people on Twitter because they've had a great career. And all it takes is a few tweets to kind of unravel a fan base because there are people in West Virginia Bette Midler, three or four. The media response to all this is interesting because they're like a down and out gambler, right, who put everything on red at the -- at the roulette table and then it went black.

This -- I mean, they're absolutely devastated. I've never seen so many people upset over something they didn't read with the exception of the Bible. A little religious food for thought for today --

WATTERS: Yes.

MCDOWELL: And by the way --

GUTFELD: -- as we approach the birth of Christ.

MCDOWELL: -- I put my hand in your shot, Greg. I apologize for that.

GUTFELD: You know, that's -- we're going to have a talk about that afterwards.

MCDOWELL: I was doing my wind beneath my wings.

SAPHIER: I mean, it's a good story.

MCDOWELL: No.

SAPHIER: I don't necessarily like her as an individual but it's a good story, you know.

MCDOWELL: No, she's dreadful. But West Virginians back Manchin. Listen to this, Dana. I want your reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I support Joe Manchin 120 percent for him not backing down to Biden because West Virginia suffered for Biden's choices.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I absolutely support him. Nothing in that bill was going to help West Virginia.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it was the right thing to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: And they're wearing masks in West Virginia, AOC. Wow.

PERINO: Wow. I think the condescension from the left about West Virginians is something that's been on display, but also they're really not very smart on politics. Joe Manchin knows his state and he's not there to represent the left. He's there to represent his state.

And his state was saying no, and so I think there's obviously some rethinking that needs to be done like a Bernie Sanders who says well, I'm going to go into West Virginia and tell them how wrong they are. They will not listen to him.

The last thing I would say on this. Do you know give a mouse -- Give a Mouse a Cookie? Yes, that book? This is like the policy version of it. If you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to want 10 more. If you give them -- if you give liberals a mandate for something, they'll take 10 more. If you give them a tax hike, they'll come for all of your income. And that's what they're trying to do with Build Back Better. It's like no, no, we were going to take that and then we're going to get even more. So, that's like the analogy.

WATTERS: You mean, like, give them --

GUTFELD: Should you -- what if you just teach the mouse to fish.

WATTERS: Yes. I think it's if you lead a horse to water.

GUTFELD: Then you teach the horse to fish.

PERINO: Don't you know the book if you give a mouse a cookie?

GUTFELD: You can lead a horse to water, but you can't teach them to fish.

WATTERS: I haven't read that one.

PERINO: Mrs. Watters, please text your son --

WATTERS: Please do not talk directly to my mother.

GUTFELD: Don't look at gift mouse --

WATTERS: Yes.

GUTFELD: Don't look at gift mouse in the tail because it stinks.

MCDOWELL: You help, Nicole.

PERINO: Like fish.

MCDOWELL: Get us home. Get us home.

SAPHIER: I will say that I also have three kids and I haven't read that book but I mean, I get the analogy. I know where she's going with this and she's right. They tend to do that. You give them one thing and they ask for more and more and more. That's what the Build Back Better was all about. Manchin was concerned about Social Security and Medicare and things that are already running out of funding, and he is looking out for the people that he represents and that's the bottom line.

WATTERS: Does Manchin like the movie Beaches though?

GUTFELD: Yes.

SAPHIER: I mean, he should.

WATTERS: We need to know that.

PERINO: I'm going to look up how many copies of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie have been sold.

GUTFELD: Why would you give a mouse a cookie when it's clearly they like cheese? This seems very -- like a strange book. Were you in a cult growing up?

PERINO: A little bit. Library cult.

MCDOWELL: Coming up --

WATTERS: I'm not a member.

MCDOWELL: Next, what the -- cursing is through the roof. Experts know exactly what's to blame.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAPHIER: All right. Well, cursing at the storm lately? Well, you're not alone. Experts noticing a rise in people using four-letter words, and they are blaming the pandemic and Zoom meetings for breaking down the boundary between professional and personal conduct.

You know, Dagen, one of my favorite things about you is -- you knew I'm going to start with you. Come on. I mean -- but honestly, one of my favourite things about talking to you is that well, you know, I'm Italian. I tend to use the F-bomb on occasion. It is not very lady-like --

GUTFELD: Fettuccine?

SAPHIER: Fettuccine is not the F-bomb.

WATTERS: What the fettuccine.

SAPHIER: But you have a very eloquent way of using some Southern slang and draw that it's -- you are saying what I want to say by screaming four- letter words but you're not actually cursing in some of your statements.

MCDOWELL: Because I came up -- when I started doing television, because I have a mouth that would make George Carlin turn red in the face. I came up with an alternate lexicon of all the words. So, all the curse words that I use all day long every day, I have an alternate.

But I know why cursing is up. It's because now Twitter and Facebook will tell -- try to stop you before you tweet like Shazam. And so, it makes you want to tweet the real Shazam not the fake or Shazam.

WATTERS: Or fudge.

MCDOWELL: Yes. French, what the French.

SAPHIER: Well, you know, and they said -- I think cursing was up 41 percent on Facebook and 27 percent on Twitter. My employer watches those things, so I haven't yet to venture on that. But Dana, you know, on a serious note, undoubtedly you know, people have been crossing the moral red line when it comes to their interactions ever since the start of the pandemic. I mean you have a lot of emotions rising.

Have you yourself seen some of the vitriol and have you even used it?

PERINO: Well, I mean, I'm like the only one who's actually been bleeped on this show maybe four times. I think also though -- the one thing I've noticed is that in particular, there are politicians using it more like in press conferences or in public statements, especially women.

And I would say, I think it's quite undignified. And it doesn't show that you're more powerful or tougher. And I think that the more that you're doing to show that you are able and competent is better than cursing because I think it takes away from your power.

SAPHIER: No doubt. And it muddies the message. Greg, what's your favorite curse word?

WATTERS: The C-word?

GUTFELD: No.

WATTERS: Is it the C-word?

GUTFELD: But cursing, you know, it's a bridge between your emotion and violence. It's a necessary release that -- it's an off-ramp from regrettable behavior. So, I prefer to swear as much as possible because it makes me less violent.

WATTERS: Yes, because you're such a violent guy.

SAPHIER: What about you, Jesse?

WATTERS: I stopped cursing during the pandemic because i had a baby and I cannot curse around Jesse Jr. or his first word is going to be the F-bomb, and I can't have him over to Christmas and have my mother hear him --

GUTFELD: He's got a different kind of F-bomb.

WATTERS: Yes, right. I changed one of those today.

SAPHIER: What about your older girls? Have they started cursing yet?

WATTERS: They know the words. And my one daughter thinks it's funny when she says Shih Tzu. She thinks that's hilarious.

PERINO: I think it's funny too.

WATTERS: Yes, it's so funny.

SAPHIER: All right, well, "ONE MORE THING" is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WATTERS: It's time now for "ONE MORE THING." Dana?

PERINO: Traditions continue. That's a good time for this tonight on "ONE MORE THING." So, we used to do Jasper wine for everyone. Of course, that is not happening this year. But everyone here at the table has a Percy wine, a Percy wine just for you. And I think it's a pretty good one. So, I hope you enjoy it.

GUTFELD: He's got quite a package. I mean, if you're going to do this -- I can't even show this. There are kids watching, but --

WATTERS: You got (INAUDIBLE).

GUTFELD: This is like --

PERINO: You think the kids don't see dogs?

GUTFELD: This gets you arrested in the subway if you do one of these things.

WATTERS: They'll bail you right out.

PERINO: Is that the first thing you're eye went to?

GUTFELD: Of course.

PERINO: Wow. Not his cute little face?

MCDOWELL: So, I always have purse wine. So, now I have Percy purse wine. You know, you always have wine in your pocketbook.

PERINO: Yes, there you go.

MCDOWELL: Just in case.

PERINO: OK.

GUTFELD: And I can't re-gift this because they all know it's from Dana.

PERINO: That's right.

GUTFELD: You can't re-gift it.

PERINO: You can sell it on eBay.

GUTFELD: That is true.

WATTERS: You can re-gift it.

GUTFELD: I'll sign it.

SAPHIER: You can't get it at total wine so it actually is more valuable.

PERINO: You should definitely take it to your holiday parties.

WATTERS: Christmas parties, Dana. Let's not be politically correct.

PERINO: Sorry.

WATTERS: All right, everyone is putting on the pounds for Thanksgiving, and now Christmas is right around the corner so it's getting ugly out there. Check out this bear. Same deal, just -- the bears are just like us.

GUTFELD: Great.

WATTERS: We're having a hard time squeezing through spaces that we used to be able to just glide through, doorways, subways, turnstiles. It's just very difficult. Don't shame us. Just give us a little push.

Speaking of needing a push, I'll be hosting "INGRAHAM ANGLE" tonight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern. So, watch that show. Greg Gutfeld.

GUTFELD: All right, do we know how to talk about this? Show the little animal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: Animals are great. Animals are great. Animals are great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: Skip it so you guys got more time. That's all right. All right, I -- do you know what that is? It's a baby. But you know what, it's a baby what?

WATTERS: Armadillo.

GUTFELD: No.

PERINO: An anteater.

WATTERS: Anteaters and armadillos are the same.

SAPHIER: Pangolin.

GUTFELD: No, it's not a pangolin. My goodness. It's a taper. It's born in Antwerp at a Belgian Zoo.

WATTERS: Antwerp.

GUTFELD: And his name is Willie. Willie -- maybe, for the right price.

PERINO: Well, I appreciate you.

GUTFELD: There you go.

WATTERS: Antwerp is in Belgium, we believe.

GUTFELD: Yes, it is. We believe.

SAPHIER: Well, a TikTok user is spreading the joy of delicious home-cooked meals to night-shift workers. Demi Leigh originally went to a 7-eleven for lighter fluid. And when she spoke to the clerk, he was surprised she was grilling and jokingly asked for some food. Well, she posted a video on TikTok returning that evening surprising the worker with a full meal. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I told you I was coming back.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're welcome. I'm going to come back and tell me how good it is, Ok.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. I'm eating it right now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Have a good night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Darling.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're welcome.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAPHIER: Well, that very grateful worker. He worked a 16-hour shift that day, Dagen, so I'm pretty sure he appreciated it.

WATTERS: I don't know why you need home cooking at 7-eleven.

GUTFELD: I know.

WATTERS: Hot dogs I got going on.

GUTFELD: Their burritos are amazing.

PERINO: Also, Jesse, armadillos and anteaters are two different animals.

WATTERS: No, they're pretty much the same. It's like the Netherlands and Holland. It's the same thing.

MCDOWELL: I don't have any time.

WATTERS: You don't have time?

MCDOWELL: Nope. We got --

WATTERS: You're blaming me?

MCDOWELL: Yes. We got ten seconds left.

GUTFELD: Fire him on the spot.

SAPHIER: Blame me. Blame me.

MCDOWELL: I had tasty holiday "ONE MORE THING."

WATTERS: Just remember, February 1st, that's the day we're free from the pandemic, right, Bret?

GUTFELD: You got it.

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