'The Five' react to Biden, Harris speeches on Jan. 6
'The Five' panel discusses Joe Biden's and Kamala Harris's speeches reflecting on Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
This is a rush transcript of "The Five" on January 6, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
DANA PERINO, FOX NEWS HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Dana Perino along with Greg Gutfeld, Jesse Watters, Dagen McDowell, and Harold Ford, Jr. It's 5:00 in New York City, and this is THE FIVE.
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris starting the day at Statuary Hall with speeches marking the January 6th attacks on the U.S. Capitol.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: First time in our history a president had not just lost an election, he tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob reach the capital. The former president who lies about this election and the mob that attacked this capital could not be further away from the core American values.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: After he spoke the president took questions from the press where he was asked about the divisive tone of his speech.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: Does calling him out divide more than it heals?
BIDEN: Look, the way you have to heal, you have to recognize the extent of the wound. You can't pretend. You got to face it. That's what great nations do. They face the truth. Deal with it, and move on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: And the vice president comparing what happened one year ago to some of the worst tragedies in American history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Certain dates echo throughout history, including dates that instantly remind all who have lived through them, where they were and what they were doing when our democracy came under assault. Dates that occupy, not only a place on our calendars, but a place in our collective memory. December 7th, 1941, September 11th 2001, and January 6th, 2021.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: Jesse Watters, let me give you first crack at some reactions today on THE FIVE.
JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: Well, that was amateur hour with Kamala. What a goofball. But January 6th sucked, Dana. It sucked. Everybody knows it sucks. We watched it. I hated seeing what I saw. It hurt the brand and gave the left and excuse to crack down on innocent Trump supporters. But here is an objective analysis on what had culminated.
The populist wing erupted that day. The Trump wing, the populist wing of the Republican Party had felt disrespected for many, many years. They had propelled Trump to victory in 2016 and immediately every powerful interest in this country launched a scorched earth campaign against that guy. They went to war with him.
Illegal leaking of the tax returns, racial hoaxes, rape hoaxes, illegal targeting, spying, fabricating evidence, planting evidence. Vicious stuff, they tried everything. Then COVID hit and they sued to change the election laws and then blasted out millions of ballots like no one's ever seen.
Then all of a sudden Zuckerberg drops half a billion with a B to pay for these private election activists to layer on top of the state election officials, unprecedented. Then big tech spikes the laptop from hell the Republican's October surprise. And then it takes nearly a week to count the votes after the election, so republicans genuinely felt cheated. They felt robbed. They couldn't prove it in court, but they felt after four years of the shenanigans that something was off.
It was a culmination of a lot of just nasty skullduggery. Here are the facts, though, Dana. Reuters reports FBI has found no evidence that the January 6th attack was the result of an organized plot to overturn the presidential election. No evidence that Trump or his team were involved in organizing the violence.
No seditious conspiracy, no grand scheme. And the vast majority of the people charged were charged with trespassing, which by the way isn't even a crime in Manhattan anymore. "New York Times" reported there was an FBI informant, at least one, inside the mob. And mysteriously, we still don't have an answer as to why the capitol was left so unprotected that day. The feds are fighting us in court, withholding the video evidence of that day.
Now professor Watters, history major would like to share a few things with you guys because the Democrats are acting like oh, they have never had a soft spot for a political violence. In 1954, Puerto Rican nationals, they shot up the House chamber. They injured five members of Congress, Jimmy Carter commuted their sentence. In 1983, American communists bombed the Senate. They were targeting Republicans. Blew up the Senate wing on the second floor.
Who commuted their sentence? Oh, wait, that was President Bill Clinton. William Harris, whether (ph) underground bombed the Pentagon, his team. Barack Obama, best buds. And if I -- I mean, it has not been that long, but I think we all remember that it was the Harris/Biden ticket that bailed out the rioters who set the whole country on fire causing 30 deaths. So, just want make sure everybody knows that little history before they start pointing fingers.
PERINO: There was this other piece that I want to play for you some sound, Greg, that the president's team released an early excerpt of the speech. This was that excerpt. Here is the president saying it out loud.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: At this moment, we must decide what kind of nation are we going to be? Are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as a norm, or are we going to be a nation where we allow partisan election officials to overturn the legally expressed role of the people? Are we going to be a nation that lives not by the light of the truth, but in the shadow of lies? We cannot allow ourselves to be that kind of nation. The way forward is to recognize the truth and to live by it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: Greg, your thoughts on that.
GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS HOST: Well, this was the guy that was supposed to unite the country and we've -- we have pretty much seen what he's turned out to be. He, basically, what he did was he scolded millions of Americans for what he believes something very bad that they did. He is presuming their guilt. He is assuming they are guilty.
That's not what a president should do. He just reversed the presumption of innocence concluding that all of those people there were guilty, and he is doing it from the highest office in the land. This is exactly what he did with the border patrol agent. This is exactly what he did with Kyle Rittenhouse. There isn't a citizen in America that he wouldn't bash if it suited him politically without the actual facts, without the truth.
He keeps talking about the truth, but in every one of those instances, there are lies. There are lies. America -- what America needs right now is a triple vaccine dose of fair and balance because we are being force-fed brainwash from a media in an orgy of self-congratulation in a deliberate and coordinated scam to basically target their political enemies as Jesse pointed out.
And as usual, the Democrats are working in tandem with the media the same way they did with the Hunter Biden laptop cover up, the same way they did with Russian collusion, the same way they did with the shadow campaign. The "Time" magazine boasted about that saved, saved the 2020 election. They bragged about that. How can you not see this coordinated effort when you see everybody involved including the cast of "Hamilton" for god sake?
The fact is, why are we, probably the majority of Americans, letting anyone dictate a phony narrative under the guise of an anniversary unless it's about the anniversary of Ashley Babbitt's murder because that's more valuable than anything we listen to today.
And it's easy to commemorate one day, right, one day. Good luck commemorating the riots after George Floyd or the riots after Jacob Blake, or the riots after Trump was elected in 2016. You'd have to commemorate every single day. You would run out of damn candles if you commemorated that stuff.
But this is easy. This is easy. Its one day. They are trying to turn it into Pearl Harbor. They are trying to turn it into 9/11, but you can't commemorate their crimes because then you'll realize how little the media and the Democrats cared about your actual suffering during those riots.
So they do this to place the targets of the backs of their political enemies, the rubes. And they are doing it as a coordinated effort and they want this thing to be permanent. Every year we are going to have to do that. I say no, F you.
PERINO: The --
GUTFELD: I do not say the actual word.
PERINO: No, you didn't.
GUTFELD: I said -- F stands for forget, Dana.
PERINO: There's no bleeping.
GUTFELD: I said forget.
PERINO: #neverforget.
GUTFELD: By the way, congratulations, Dana, on the "Love Boat" reboot.
PERINO: I'm so excited.
GUTFELD: You're going to make a great Julie.
PERINO: I mean, that was a deep tease. That was going to be my one more thing.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: But stay tuned for that everybody. You're going to love it. One of the things Harold that the Democrats did today and Vice President Harris because she's in charge of the voting rights legislation that they're trying to get passed through the Congress. She made a pitch for why that legislation should be passed. Let's listen to her here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Let's be clear, we must pass the voting rights bills that are now before the Senate.
BIDEN: Right now in state after state, new laws are being written. Not to protect the vote, but to deny it, not only to suppress the vote, but to subvert it. Not to strengthen and protect our democracy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: Harold, they are in a similar position that they were in with Build Back Better, which is that they have two senators who are, at least two that we know of, that are not interested in busting the filibuster inn order to try to get this done. Are they going to basically set themselves up for failure once again?
HAROLD FORD, JR., FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I don't know. I hope that the John Lewis Act is what is eventually brought to the floor of the House and the Senate. But let me say just a few words. I watched last year on this Dana. I served in that capital. Some of those people that -- in that -- on that floor are my friends, still are my friends. I don't distinguish my friends Democrat or Republican.
I watched as I saw those people walking through the capitol, those Americans who I think were in every which way, I don't know who they might be. Greg, you're right. We should not cast blame or cast guilt until they have a chance to defend themselves.
But I never seen a scene like that. I know the capitol. I've taken children and young people and older people on tours in the mornings, in the nights and the evenings there. So, it touched me in a different kind of way. I read the things in the paper by Karl Rove saying, who I don't agree with on a lot of political or substantive issues, but one thing I do agree with him on is I love my country.
You talked about, Jesse, I thought rightly some of the things that you disagree with that some presidents have done in terms of commuting sentences, but I would remind all of us that in the Adams Jefferson race, that race was decided on the House floor. Adams won. Imagine that we had an effort to do what happened on January 6th, or even that Jackson Adams race where Jackson lost to Adams.
And as Dana knows, President Bush, George W. Bush when he beat Al Gore. I'll never forget being on that floor and I'll say watching on that floor and watching Al Gore say that I lost the race and asking Congresswoman Waters to not to challenge it.
We happened that day, I hope we can at some point forget about it, but we shouldn't wash it over. And I don't mean -- I think we separate some of the things that you guys have raised. But there was an effort to subvert the two most important things, one of the most important things Congress has, which is either to declare war and confer an election on the new president, which is where we peacefully transfer power. So, I hope one day we can forget this day, but I don't think we have gotten to that point yet.
PERINO: Certainly not. And there were a lot of people that were injured, and you can watch the coverage with your own eyes. We covered it here and we've seen a lot of the retrospectives. Dagen, I'll give you the last word today on the A block.
DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I don't know if Biden and company are the smart, but this seem to be the speeches by Kamala Harris and Biden, seem to be strategic. That right now the only chance that they have of retaining the White House is if Donald Trump runs again. Biden didn't win in 2020, he -- it was Trump that lost for him.
So this would seem like an effort to goad Trump into running again and to poke the bear so to speak because that's their best shot at winning. This is the only issue that the Democrats have that they can run on, and that is January 6th. So if Donald Trump tries to run again, this is the one thing that they will talk about over and over again.
That if you have a Ron DeSantis running as the nominee with a Tim Scott as his running mate, that pair is going to win 40 states. And who did -- who did Joe Biden convince today? Anybody who saw this as a horrible riot and not an insurrection and no threat to democracy, they're not going to listen to him and they're not going to believe him.
But I would love to see Joe Biden be this forceful and give at least some small damn for the people who are truly suffering under this man's presidency. Because of the leadership or rather lack thereof, whether it's giving a damn about the 13 service members who were killed because of his shoddy withdrawal from Afghanistan, or the -- all the murder victims and their families in Democrat-run states from coast-to-coast, because again, criminal justice is about the criminals and not the victims.
Fentanyl, tens of thousands dead because Fentanyl is pouring over the wide open border because of Joe Biden. So, how about showing a little bit of empathy and outrage for all those people hurt because of you, popo (ph) president.
PERINO: All right. We have more straight ahead. You won't be surprised by who is now praising the president's speech.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MCDOWELL: President Biden and Kamala Harris claiming democracy is under attack, a full year after January 6. And the speeches were music to the ears of liberal news anchors who lapped up every word.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: The president of the United States delivering an extremely powerful, very, very significant speech.
UNKNOWN: It was a rhetorically, very forceful speech.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: This may well become the strongest speech he's ever given. It was from the heart.
UNKNOWN: This was the clearest dissection of Trump's big lie we heard from President Biden.
KATE BOULDAN, CNN HOST: This speech by President Biden was really a remarkable one.
UNKNOWN: Extraordinary remarks up at the capital, the most powerful and consequential speech of his presidency today.
CHUCK TODD, MSNBC HOST: If you think that speech was partisan, then you believe the former president's lie.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCDOWELL: And I wonder what the media will think of this cringeworthy moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): We are privileged to have a contribution from one of the great creative talents of our time, Lin-Manuel Miranda. May his beautiful words be an inspiration to us. I call your attention to.
LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA, ACTOR: A new year brings hope for the future, new energy to face the tasks ahead of us, and a renewed promise to strengthen the foundations of our democracy.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
UNKNOWN: Do you feel adored (ph) what to say to you. You have my eyes. You have your mother's name.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCDOWELL: Not a parody, very real. Greg?
GUTFELD: Yes. You know, this is basically Christmas at CNN, you know? It's like all their show producers just got free subscriptions to "Barely Legal," you know. And you got to remember, they were bragging about their ratings to the after the riots. They weren't expressing outrage. They were expressing excitement that it was the biggest ratings day ever because they realized that their success is predicated on Americans being at each other's throats.
We've talked about this. Division is what pays for their so-called news division. And it helps pay for Toobin's porn and Stelter's hoagies. CNN has to go all in on this because they are in a -- they are in a huge mess. They have multiple anchors accused of sexual harassment. There are like two producers accused of alleged like deviant pedophile crap that would make John Wayne Gacy blush.
So they have to -- they have to instead obsess over, hey, did Fox News call it an insurrection or not? Well, we haven't called it an insurrection because no one has been found guilty of it. But I understand why you would -- why you'd be chasing that idea. Lastly, again, I go back to the coordination factor. You got the new republic "USA Today," "A.P.," "Hollywood Reporter."
They are all doing stories in which the media is interviewing the media. And it tells you that thing that I always say before that nothing happens in this world unless it happens to the media. They have to be the center of the story. The fearless media battling PTSD to revisit this trauma. That's why they didn't care about the riots. They didn't care about Portland because it wasn't about them. But this is about them and their political heroes.
MCDOWELL: And Dana, this is the only story that isn't bad for Democrats, so the media, again, has kind of a circle. They just keep pedaling and it's like who came up with the big lie? Was it the Democrats or the media? They just keep repeating it.
PERINO: Well, and I agree it was a strong speech. I mean, he obviously put some time into it, and they rehearsed it like it was a teleprompter speech. They had it this organized. He wasn't even late to give the speech. I mean, they got -- we got the two-minute warning just as 9:00 started this morning.
I mean, that's when you know that they are ready to, basically orchestrating the whole day including Lin-Manuel Miranda for example. I want to say one thing about the suggestion that if you think that that speech was partisan then you must believe the lie, that's ridiculous. Never believed that. Never believed that the election was stolen, never said that.
And I can still listen to that speech, but don't just take it from me. When Biden left Statuary Hall, he walks out, two reporters are there. They shove two questions to him. The first two are about why he gave such a divisive speech. Okay. So, maybe you think those reporters believe the big lie, I guess. I don't know. That was kind of ridiculous.
I also want to mention one other thing. There is something that all of these reporters are missing. And that the answer to making sure this never happens again is right there for the Democrat's taking because the Republicans have come forward and said, we want to clarify the Electoral Count Act. They're like, how it's done. It's called the Electoral Count Reform Act, which would clarify the language so that it's not ambiguous at all so that this could never happen again.
Mitch McConnell said we are ready to do this today. President Biden could have said today, take him up on it. I'm going to stop by his office on the way out of here. We can work out the details. We could have that done by Monday.
MCDOWELL: Right.
PERINO: But instead they want to do full scale (ph) federalization of voting rights which is obviously not going to pass and is going to just end up hurt them in the long run.
MCDOWELL: Instead, Harold, they had to shoehorn that ghastly lip sync in which did look like lip-synching from part of the cast of "Hamilton."
FORD: Yes, that was a little odd. But I do think, you know, it is -- I think it's hard for any news organization to legitimately make claims complaining about bias. I mean, I think we all at some point practice it, practice it a little freely. I think perhaps on today there is some -- there is probably more pent-up resentment around it because the issue is such a serious one.
And probably would've been better if, you know, if the president had not given such -- I thought there were elements of his speech that were a little bit more divisive than need be, but I thought the speech overall was a powerful one. I think Dana is right, you could disagree with the speech and not believe that the election was fairly and rightly won by Joe Biden.
I do hope that one of the things we take away from all of this is one of the lessons we learned just earlier, late last year, rather, when we saw elections happen in Virginia and New Jersey and voters went out and cast their ballots for the person they want to represent them as governor.
And Democrats didn't fare well. That's how you, in a democracy and a republic, that's how you show politicians that they're not performing the way you want them to perform. So, I hope we -- I hope we take that lesson from today as much as anything.
MCDOWELL: Jesse, wrap us up.
WATTERS: January 6th is the left's new July 4th. They can have it. I'll celebrate America in the summer with the rest of the normal people. Joe Biden famously said of Rudy Giuliani. Guy says three things, noun, verb, and 9/11.
Now he is guilty and all his team. Noun, verb, January 6, because Dagen, what else are they going to talk about? They can't report the real news about inflation and COVID closing down schools and open borders. Real news hurts Democrats. Only the fake news helps the Democratic Party. They have to resuscitate the bad guy because the hero, Joe, is not getting the base fired up.
I saw a transcript from a show on MSNBC for the whole year. They mentioned Donald Trump's name over 11,000 times. Only mention Biden's name a little over 4,000 times.
PERINO: Wow.
WATTERS: He's not a genie. You can't keep saying Trump and he's going to come out of a lamp. Here's the thing, he actually might beat Joe Biden if the election was held. Emerson says he'd beat Joe Biden if the election was held today. So, you know what, keep saying his name. It might hurt you.
MCDOWELL: Boom. Straight ahead, the media following President Biden's lead in vilifying and blaming the unvaccinated.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WATTERS: And Greg hates Coldplay. Welcome back, everybody. Despite a surgeon COVID cases proving that everybody can get and spread the virus, the media taking their cues from President Biden and ramping up the demonization of the unvaxxed, even demanding they be punished.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARTHUR CAPLAN, MEDICAL ETHICS PROFESSOR: When you're fighting a war, you need all hands on deck. I don't want to reject those who still haven't done the right thing. I'll condemn them. I'll shame them. I'll blame them. So, we can't write them off. We can penalize them more. We can say we got to pay more on your hospital bill if you weren't vaccinated. You can't get life insurance or disability insurance at affordable rates if you weren't vaccinated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: Hurt them, Dagen. Hurt them really badly.
MCDOWELL: Yes, does this apply to lung cancer, patients who smoked? Do they get treatment for lung cancer? Do you push them to the back of the line? Do you charge them more for their insurance through their employer? Somebody who's sedentary and obese? Are they going to be, you know, at the end of the line for say a bypass surgery?
I mean, that guy doesn't look like he's led like the healthiest life. You might want to pump the brakes on vilifying people in saying that people who didn't, you know, lead the most exemplary life and taking care of themselves might not, you know, have to pay more for treatment, have to pay more for insurance.
I'll say this. I asked somebody, is unvaccinated person a threat to a vaccinated person? Robert Redfield said no. I'm vaccinated. Guess what? I caught COVID again, and I was probably spreading it.
WATTERS: Harold Ford Jr.
FORD JR.: I'll say three quick things. You know, when you -- when you're looking for health insurance or you're reapplying at your company, they sometimes ask if you're a smoker, if you use drugs. So, these kinds of things -- or if you drink heavily, they want to know those things. And we - - that's certainly not out of the realm.
Two, Novak Djokovic probably won't be able to play in the Australian Open here in the next few weeks because he's not vaccinated. It's one of the penalties that he'll face. And we often and I often talk about how this is a challenge, our real geopolitical threat is with China.
I'd remind every American that on mainland China 86 percent of Mainland China is fully vaccinated versus 62 percent of America. I don't have all the answers to this, but I do wish it people will get vaccinated and I hope we don't have to talk about penalizing people, but it looks like that's where we are.
WATTERS: Greg, don't you hate it when they ask you? So, on average, how many drinks do you have a week?
GUTFELD: Yes, it's so ridiculous because no matter -- like, I can't count that high. Harold, Harold, Harold, Harold, did you just suggests we should be more like China? That is so un-Harold. Oh, I don't even know what to think.
I think, however, we need to arrange a special day to commemorate the evil nature of the unvaxxed. And every year, every year we talk about how the unvaxxed, you know, the worse than the terrorists of 911 They're worse than the Japanese at Pearl Harbor. They're just awful sick people. We just need to do this once a year until we finally heal as a nation. What do you guys think?
PERINO: Good idea.
WATTERS: Dana, do you like that idea?
PERINO: I love that idea. I would also point out, Harold, the Chinese vaccine doesn't work. So --
MCDOWELL: Yes.
PERINO: -- that would also be kind of a problem. One last thing. Merriam Webster's dictionary -- I wish we could have done the story on THE FIVE before, but did you know that it changed the definition of what it means to be anti-vax? They literally changed it to say, anyone who was against vaccine mandates.
WATTERS: Oh.
PERINO: That's not the same thing. So, I think the unvaccinated and those who might be against mandates are being vilified plenty.
WATTERS: I'm going to have to talk to Merriam or Webster, whoever they are.
GUTFELD: Webster's mom.
PERINO: Have you ever seen one of those?
WATTERS: Yes.
GUTFELD: It's Webster's mom.
WATTERS: Yes, well, I'm going to give him a stern talking too. Ahead, it's not just Chicago, teachers unions across the country trying to force your kids out of the classroom.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUTFELD: The School shut down chaos crippling Chicago could now be spreading to other liberal cities. Classes in the Windy City, that's Chicago, are closed again today. And unions are trying to go remote in places like San Francisco where teachers are planning a sickout as opposed to a poop-out.
And New York teachers unions are ramping up pressure to not work, which all flies in the face of the science. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ALLISON ARWADY, PUBLIC HEALTH COMMISSIONER, CHICAGO: What we've seen over and over again is that with the appropriate protocols in place, schools are not major sources of transmission of COVID.
We looked at how many children in a typical year are hospitalized with the flu in Chicago. It's comparable to what we're seeing with how many children are hospitalized with COVID. Schools first to open, last to close. And I don't -- in a city where bars are open, why would schools be closed?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: So true. Dagen, couldn't we respect the unions more if they just told the truth? They just don't want to work in the wintertime, it's cold, the car won't start?
MCDOWELL: No, they don't get respect even for telling the truth, because they're trampling on the future of this nation's children developmentally, educationally, mentally. And I do think we need to stop calling it the unions. It's the teachers. In Chicago, 73 percent of the union members, almost three-quarters, voted to go back to remote learning. That's a landslide.
And I think parents across the country are thanking, the people who have been educating my kids and will be educating my kids actually hate children and they don't know science. So, maybe I want to know who voted to go back to remote because I'm going to individually fire that teacher. I don't want that teacher teaching my kids or maybe that's the future.
GUTFELD: Harold, I learned remotely from you. What are your thoughts on what's going on with these unions?
FORD JR: Look, once again, children are being penalized for the mistakes and carelessness of adults. I said a few nights ago, this should have been avoided. The Chicago politicians and teachers union should have been able to reach an agreement.
I'm for full mitigation. I think these classrooms are to be made safe. But school should not close. The science, I think every doctor, the doctors we like, the doctors we don't like, the doctors we agree or disagree with, they all agree that kids need to be back in school. Chicago leaders, get your kids back in school. Get an agreement.
GUTFELD: Dana, you and I both despise children.
PERINO: Yes.
GUTFELD: So, do we -- what -- does this make children worse or better in our view, your view?
PERINO: I think it makes not the kids themselves worse, but their circumstances worse, especially because somebody -- in Chicago, the parents didn't learn until 11:00 p.m. the night before that they had to figure out a way to take care of their kids the next morning. So, it's also the ripple effect of -- for businesses and the economy.
And I really wish that President Biden would get on his plane, head to Chicago, be there with Lori Lightfoot and take some sort of leadership position on it.
GUTFELD: Jesse, do we need a special day to commemorate?
WATTERS: This is never going to end.
GUTFELD: Yes, I'm going to -- I'm going to suggest a special day for everything -- a Jesse Watters day.
WATTERS: I mean, as long as I get the day off, I'm all for it. But think about this. You have liberal teachers unions denying children, hundreds of thousands of them mostly minority in education, and Democrats spent the whole day talking about Donald Trump. Amazing, amazing. And follow the money, Greg.
So, the taxpayers pay the teacher salary. The teachers take some of that salary and pay dues to the union. The union takes those dues, and donates it to the Democrats. And then the Democrats take that and then give a lot of money to the teachers in COVID Relief. Then the teachers steer those contracts to Democrats but the teachers still aren't teaching. They're getting paid not to teach?
Greg, this COVID Relief bill looks like a money-laundering operation for the Democratic Party. And I'll just leave you with this. Just a couple months ago, the former head of the Chicago schools was just released after serving a five-year sentence for taking illegal kickbacks and embezzlement. I told you they're going to take the money and run.
GUTFELD: There you go. All right, up next, the White House claims Biden is just too busy even though he has had plenty of time for the beach.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FORD JR: President Biden taking some heat from critics. They accused him of spending too much time in his Delaware homes. Press Secretary Jen Psaki getting mocked for what she said about the President's schedule.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I know the President doesn't have public events today. He does have a number of meetings with policy teams. And that's often what he's doing behind the scenes. If you -- if you were standing here today, which I know he's always invited, is what you guys will say, but he would say we never give him any free time or any time to think.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FORD JR: Dana, you're the one with the most experience that can have, the most credibility in answering your question like this. Is this something you would have advised Ms. Psaki to say or is this something that President Bush ever asked you to say?
PERINO: I just think that all presidents -- from what I've understand, it wasn't just George W. Bush. Every president looks at their schedule every day and thinks, I don't have any time to even think and -- or do whatever they need to do.
Their days are very scheduled. I do think that the President has had many, many days where you just think, well, what is he doing? Part of it is that you have to continue to feed the beast, and they decide not to do that. So, then they don't -- they don't hold the reins when it comes to -- I'm thinking of reins, the whip law, the whipping ---they don't hold the reins when it comes to driving the new cycle.
And then that's when you get questions like this because people are like, well, where is he? And I'm sure that he's busy. I think she could have also just said, don't worry about him, he's busy.
FORD JR: Jesse, as someone who works his tail off, what do you think about an answer like this? Is it right for the President to complain?
WATTERS: No. You never complain when you're president. But I would probably if I were the Commander-in-Chief. He has the lightest schedule since Reagan. But here's the difference, Harold. Reagan was shot in his first year. A bullet came this close to his heart. And then for the next seven years, Reagan went out and delivered some of the most eloquent and inspiring speeches of all time. Perfect execution. He gave the whole country the chills.
And not only that, he was at the ranch horseback riding. He was out, you know, chopping wood. I don't see Joe Biden chopping wood in Delaware. He barely plays golf, Harold. I think it's the worst kept secret in Washington that Biden's firepower, not there.
FORD JR: Greg, your thoughts?
GUTFELD: Well, he doesn't have time to think but you need a brain to think. I kid the president. I'm -- look, I think this is a non-story. And I think all president should vacation as much as possible. I think it should be a constant vacation. I think they should be out of the office. When you email them, it should come back, sorry, I'm out of the office for whatever. I don't want a -- I think we -- I think we don't need a president. I don't think we need a government. I've decided to become an anarchist. Officially today I'm an anarchist.
FORD JR: Let me take notes. I'm going to write that down. Dagen, what are your thoughts?
MCDOWELL: I think that the President is clearly thinking it's probably about what kind of cookies he's going to have with his hot cocoa before he tucks in at night.
FORD JR: On that note, "ONE MORE THING" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PERINO: Well, it's time now for "ONE MORE THING." Jesse, what do you have in store today?
WATTERS: We have a little tasty Feeding Frenzy. So, let's begin with the outdated Nexio. All right, so Turkey Hill has a brand new mystery flavor. So, here's the deal. You have to taste the ice cream and you scan the QR code here on the top. You submit your answer to whatever it tastes like. And if you get it right, whatever the flavor may be, you get free ice cream for life. What do you guys think this tastes like?
PERINO: Blueberries?
MCDOWELL: Raspberries.
FORD JR: I don't have it.
PERINO: Oh, Harold.
MCDOWELL: A raspberry swirl maybe, a berry of some sort.
WATTERS: Boysenberry. I'm going with boysenberry.
PERINO: Maybe white chocolate.
WATTERS: Dana, let's not make it racial. All right, so everybody again, Turkey Hill, scan it.
GUTFELD: I'm going to say, girls and berry, as opposed to boysenberry.
WATTERS: All right, shut up, anarchist.
PERINO: It's exactly better than I thought it was going to.
MCDOWELL: Yes.
WATTERS: Better than I thought --
(CROSSTALK)
MCDOWELL: I ate the whole thing.
WATTERS: You should send a thought, better than I thought.
PERINO: It feels good on my throat too.
WATTERS: All right, I'm also on "HANNITY" tonight at 9:00, so check that out.
PERINO: We will see you there. I have a fascinating story I think to tell you about. There's a man named Li Jingwei. He's from China. So, when he was young, at 4 years old, he was abducted from his village. He was trafficked all across China.
And at the time, he was too young to recall his birth name, but he began drawing what he could remember of his home village every day as a kid. And 33 years later, after being inspired by other stories of Chinese children being reunited with their families, he drew the map once again and share the photo on social media.
It gained traction and authorities got involved. And through a DNA match, they found his local -- I'm sorry -- they found his birth mother. And there's the reunion there. When they first talked on the phone, she said, if you have a little scar on your chin, and that's how he knew that he had found her. So, it's pretty incredible story that at 4 years old, he can remember that map in his mind and draw it. So, a happy ending there, Greg.
GUTFELD: Incredible story given it was such an awful drawing. Anyway, tonight, Dagen is joining me. Also, I got Rob O'Neill, Matt Whittaker, and Kat Timpf. It's going to be great. Let's do this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: Animals are great! Animals are great! Animals are great!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: They certainly are. Yes. There's nothing like better than animals except when they're playing in the snow. Check out this panda, disgusting panda rolling around in the snow, big ball of fur rubbing up against that ice-cold delish. Then, you got a bear tussling in the snow as well. I think we might even have -- there, fighting in the snow. Snow makes them aggressive apparently according to scientists. They have been studying. That's a bison, they're actual animals, Dana. I don't know if you've ever seen one. And here's an elephant in the snow. Big animal, an elephant. It's got that big trunk.
PERINO: I like the panda. That's pretty cute.
GUTFELD: Yes, we should have stopped with the panda.
PERINO: All right, Harold.
FORD JR: So, animals in the down-under are notoriously more dangerous. So, just check out this giant coconut crap oh interrupting around the golf. Oh, and destroying a golf club. Look at that. He snaps it.
PERINO: Wow.
FORD JR: And just let some have it. These massive creatures are local in Australia and are known as robber crabs and you can see why. Coconut Crabs can weigh more than eight pounds and measure up to 3.3 feet in length. Jesse, we better hope no one comes on the course like that when we're playing next time.
WATTERS: Well, it depends how they taste, Harold.
PERINO: I hope that -- I hope that they don't serve that to Djokovic while he's waiting to get deported. All right, Dagen.
MCDOWELL: I'm going to one-up your crabs, Harold. Check out this little -- there's a man in Oklahoma named Simon Curtis who found -- in some salad he bought at Whole Foods, he found that guy. And he decided to keep him. Petco gave him actually a $500 gift card for terrarium and whatnot.
PERINO: He's so cute.
WATTERS: Put him in snow.
PERINO: He didn't freak out about it. That's -- well, that is it for us. Thanks, everyone. "SPECIAL REPORT" is up next. Hey Bret.
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