'The Five' on Biden's trip to Europe

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'The Five' react to Biden's trip to Europe

'The Five' panel discusses President Biden's remarks, which critics said suggested regime change in Russia.

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," March 28, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
 

DANA PERINO, FOX NEWS HOST: We'll explain it. All right. Hello, everyone. I'm Dana Perino along with Judge Jeanine Pirro, Piers Morgan, Jesse Watters, and Greg Gutfeld. It's five o'clock in New York City, and this is THE FIVE.

The Oscars were a big hit but for all the wrong reason. The Academy now investigating Will Smith for smacking Chris Rock across the face over a joke Rock made about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith. Watch here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS ROCK, COMEDIAN: Jada, I love you. G.I. Jane 2 can't wait to see it. All right? It's-- That was a nice one. OK. I'm out here, Richard. Wow. Wow. Will Smith just smacked the (muted) out of me.

WILL SMITH, ACTOR: Keep my wife's name out your (muted) mouth.

ROCK: Wow, dude.

SMITH: Yes.

ROCK: It was a G.I. Jane joke.

SMITH: Keep my wife's name out your (muted) mouth.

ROCK: I'm going to, OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: Will Smith apologizing not to Rock but to the Academy for the altercation while accepting the award for best actor but offered no direct apology to Chris Rock.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: I want to apologize to the Academy. I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees. Love will make you do crazy things. I hope the Academy invites me back, thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: So far, Chris Rock declining to file a police report after the assault. And Will Smith was unfazed, seen dancing to getting jiggy with it at -- or with it, excuse me, a party afterwards. TMZ reporting that Chris Rock apparently had no idea Will's wife Jada had alopecia.

Piers Morgan, welcome to the show. Welcome to the network.

PIERS MORGAN, FOX NEWS HOST: Thank you.

PERINO: Great to have you. What did you make of all this you saw it live?

MORGAN: Well, first of all, lovely to be here on this fabulous show. I see myself as a reincarnation of George III. And we're two different same enthusiasm with my royal (Inaudible). So good to be here.

No, it was the most stunning piece of television, wasn't it? And it made the Oscars interesting, it boosted their ratings. And all the thing you've been sort of saying the Oscars have gone off the boil now in (Inaudible).

But I thought about it a lot. And what I thought it is actually quite complicated because if I was Will Smith and my wife had been through four years of alopecia, which is a very serious condition particularly I think for women where they lose their hair and clumps and eventually last summer, she shaved her head. And she talked about it being a terrifying experience that she had gone through losing all her hair.

To then sit there at the Oscars and have a billion people watching as a guy mocks you for that. Now, then comes down to mean to one of two things. Did Chris Rock know that she's had alopecia? In which case, I felt comedian or no comedian, he crossed the line. And if I've been Will Smith, I would've been pretty tempted to do the same thing. Don't condone the violence, I would've been tempted to do the same thing to defend my wife.

But Chris Rock has made it clear apparently through friends that he didn't know that she had alopecia, in which case it just becomes a joke about someone's aesthetic appearance which he probably thought she looked pretty cool. He compared her to G.I. Jane. Then he doesn't deserve any of the stuff that went down.

And to me it goes to a wider point to think about that marriage, about Will Smith's state of mind, about I don't know what was going on there we don't really know. But it was a stunning moment but I found myself gravitating unlike 99 percent of the people, I think to, feeling slightly defensive towards Will Smith.

PERINO: A lot of the people in the room were defending Smith, or like consoling him make him -- trying to make him feel better. But when he was doing that to Chris Rock, Judge, what do you think?

JEANINE PIRRO, FOX NEWS HOST: What do I think?

PERINO: Yes.

PIRRO: I think that the Oscars are not the hood, I don't think it's a bar, I don't think you march up on stage because a guy makes a joke about a wife which honestly, I think is complementary she can do G.I. Jane 2. She is -- Jada Smith is -- she's got a fabulous body, and she's beautiful as was Demi Moore in that film.

But aside from all that, in the middle of an event where people are going to get awards in their chosen profession that this guy takes it upon himself to disrupt the event, to go up on stage, to commit violence on stage, then come back and curse out so we can even put on television what he says because he feels slighted about a joke which most people, and by the way if that's a standard I should go to Saturday Night Live and really go crazy over there.

PERINO: Yes.

PIRRO: All right. But he doesn't have the right and the public should not have to be subjected to that. I don't want if I have little kids my kids seeing that kind of thing. And let me tell you something else. You tag what criminal privilege, you talk about celebrity privilege, that guy has it. He wasn't -- walked out of the Oscars he could been taken out in cuffs, that was a crime what he did, it's on tape, and it doesn't matter if Chris Rock doesn't want to file charges. It is the people of the State of California versus Will Smith.

And Hollywood, though, proves that they don't have to follow the rules, if you're on the right and you say something they don't like then they can respond with violence. I think by the way, Piers, the follow up on you said, I think the guy is an emotional wreck. He goes from cursing to fighting to crying, to, I mean, what is wrong with him? And the Academy should not condone it and honestly, he shouldn't be allowed to come to the Academy again. Look, Kanye -- Kanye West can't go to the Grammy's.

PERINO: Yes, he was pre-banned.

PIRRO: Yes, he was pre-banned. He can't do anything.

MORGAN: So, if I may come back to that. I mean, every cowboy film I've ever watched they go in a bar and one cowboy dishes another cowboy's wife. What happens? Right? The cowboy punches him or shoots him and everyone cheers him. Because they think he's a man of honor.

PIRRO: Right.

MORGAN: Defending the honor of his wife. You know, I ask my wife, Celia said, out of interest if you had alopecia and this was our situation and someone did that and I went up and slap him, what would you think? And she said, I would've had a conversation with our daughters. She's 10. And you said, you know, I'm afraid dad would have done the same thing. But violence is never the answer. At night, I sort of think that.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: But Jesse, you --

JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: But Piers, --

MORGAN: I think -- I think we do agree it was wrong.

PERINO: Jesse, you're asleep when all this happened.

WATTERS: I was.

PERINO: I think I was too, so we woke up and like, here we go.

WATTERS: It's one thing when a cowboy says it, another thing when a comedian says it, you wouldn't have done that because you have class. Or at least you sound like.

MORGAN: Well, don't be too hasty.

WATTERS: Because you have a British accent.

MORGAN: Don't be too hasty. Don't be misled by the accent.

WATTERS: This is the first time I've seen the media cover black on black crime.

PIRRO: Yes.

WATTERS: So, I'm actually quite surprised by this. If Mel Gibson had done this, can you believe -- Nancy Pelosi would be kneeling in the capitol right now. He would have been the only guy not being allowed out on bail in L.A. County.

Come on. He would have been allowed to go up on stage later and accept an award. Are you crazy? The fact that the L.A. sheriff didn't pull this guy out of there at the next commercial break explains why there's such a huge crime problem in this country. Because you can just go up as an audience member and just coldcocked a comedian on live television and get away with it.

MORGAN: He wasn't --

WATTERS: He slap -- a slap is more humiliating than a fist, you know it is a man and I know it is a man. And I respect the fact that Chris Rock didn't press charges, it's not a good look when another man charges other man for hitting them. I'm not saying I wouldn't do that, but Chris Rock does have a good chin and I respect that.

But I think you're right about one thing, not a lot of the other stuff but the one thing. They have this open marriage situation --

PIRRO: Exactly.

WATTERS: -- so this might have been deep-seated issue that had boiled up to the surface which would explain why he came out and did this. But come on, we don't live in the Middle Ages. You can't have people just go up there and slap someone that tells a joke and it explains why liberals have no sense of humor. Ricky Gervais says he'd be thinking himself, my God, how did I not get slapped.

PERINO: Well, Chris Rock -- not Chris Rock, excuse me, Will Smith does laugh initially and then I guess maybe something change or he looked at her and she was not happy or something.

GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS CO-HOST: I don't know. Part of me was just really grateful that something interesting happen. That was probably out proper the realist thing that has ever happened on the Oscars. There was no virtue signaling. You knew it wasn't a hoax because it didn't involve politics, right? That was real. I appreciated it.

I would, I have to say and also, it's interesting that in Hollywood chivalry is not dead, because apparently, Hollywood loves it, right? They immediately supported him over Chris Rock and this is an industry that has been anti-masculine values for decades, and now suddenly they're like, rah, rah, rah, to your point about the -- about westerns.

There's an interesting contrast between Hollywood's real life and Hollywood's entertainment fantasy world. In the fantasy world, that works, right?

WATTERS: Yes.

GUTFELD: You can shoot guns too, in the Hollywood movies you shoot guns but you better not have a gun in real life, and you see what happens with Alec Baldwin when he gets one. So, in this case, you saw Hollywood the movie blend into real life, you finally saw this as an active chivalry based on love and this is something that they do in their movies, to your point. This is exactly what happens in movies.

So, I think part of me, but I to say this, I have to say this. Professionally, this is wrong. You can't, it's out of line. You cannot go after somebody telling jokes and punch or slap them. And I do believe that Rock had no idea. If he had no -- if he had an idea that there's alopecia, he would've had a better joke.

That was a terrible joke. But that's the professional part of me. The personal part of me being a hothead I'm like Piers, I wouldn't know if I -- I don't know if I could say I wouldn't do the same thing if my wife had been sick and in public and it was known and I would -- I'm sorry, Judge, I would be a hypocrite.

WATTERS: No.

GUTFELD: I would be a hypocrite --

(CROSSTALK)

MORGAN: I agree with you.

PIRRO: But that is not a bar. That is not, as you say, a bar.

GUTFELD: Well, that makes you consistently true. I act -- Judge, you know me, I act the same whether I'm at a bar of --

(CROSSTALK)

MORGAN: Yes.

GUTFELD: -- or at this table.

WATTERS: But you would have done -- you would have gotten revenge.

GUTFELD: That's true.

WATTERS: You wouldn't have spotted out like you would've have waited, calculated, and three months later you would've just crushed Chris Rock, right, when he sees it coming.

GUTFELD: But also, I got to defend Rock. Class act in all of this.

WATTERS: Yes.

PERINO: Yes.

GUTFELD: Total classic.

PIRRO: Yes.

GUTFELD: It's such an interesting thing because there's a professional and a personal element to this. And I think that you have to like, you got to ask yourself, you know, somebody says about your wife. I've been there. I've been there. How many times did you want to reach into the laptop when you see somebody insulting your spouse and strangle them with your hand?

PERINO: Yes.

GUTFELD: Well, this might've been a culmination of years of that stuff.

PERINO: Maybe. But I still go back to the fact that he laughed initially.

PIRRO: So, should we -- yes.

GUTFELD: Well, he did that because he probably was like, nervous. People laugh when they're nervous. Look at Kamala Harris. She laughed during a thunder storm.

PIRRO: But so, should we change the law that allows you to react with violence --

GUTFELD: No.

PIRRO: -- if someone says words that you don't like. Is that where we're headed?

GUTFELD: No, no. Did I say that, Judge?

PIRRO: If they say words you don't like.

GUTFELD: I said it sound like. No, nobody said that, Judge. No one at this table said that. We said it was out of line but I understand it. You could -- somebody could be wrong, some behavior could be strong but you can understand why it was done.

MORGAN: Yes.

PERINO: Yes.

PIRRO: Yes. OK.

MORGAN: That's what I think about.

PERINO: OK. Agree on that. Up next, clean up on aisle Biden, The White House spend all weekend trying to clean up the president's gaffes, but he just made a new one.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUTFELD: The president just did it again. Biden contradicting himself and his own White House today after spending the weekend trying to walk back these comments on Putin's removal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We will a different future, a brighter future rooted in democracy and principle. Hope and light of decency and dignity and freedom of possibilities. For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power.

UNKNOWN: Mr. President, do you Putin removed? Mr. President, were you calling for regime change?

BIDEN: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: Wow. All right. But just hours ago Biden claiming none of what you just heard him say is actually true.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I'm not walking anything back. The fact of the matter is I was expressing the more outrage I felt toward the way Putin is dealing and the actions of this man.

UNKNOWN: Personal feelings, sir. Your personal feelings?

BIDEN: Personal, my personal feelings? The idea that he is going to do something outrageous because I called him for what he was and what he is doing I think is just not rational. Nobody believes we're going to take. I was going to -- I was talking about taking down Putin. Nobody believes that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: OK. So, Judge, he's -- it's our fault for lack -- we didn't hear any of that other stuff. We just heard him say he cannot remain in power so that's on us.

PIRRO: Yes.

GUTFELD: Of course, he didn't mean it.

PIRRO: Of course, he didn't mean it. Because he knows that he's going to dither and blather us into World War III. I mean, everything he says is being listened to by Putin. And Putin is in a corner right now. When there's stalemate in a war, you're in a corner, the question is what is Putin is going to do next?

And the truth is, this guy is too dangerous to be the president of the United States. And what I want to know is what does he say the troops just a few days ago you'll see when you go in what the Ukrainian soldiers are alike. Everything he says someone comes back and they clean it up.

What I want to know is the question that no one asked and that is, who is showing the order to clean it up, aside from this thing which could get us into war in three seconds because Putin should be outraged and probably is.

PERINO: Right.

PIRRO: The question really is when it relates to CDC, when it relates to the Pentagon, who comes in and says, all right, everybody, we got to walk that statement back? Who is in charge in the White House?

WATTERS: I think president Kirby.

PIRRO: Who is the president? You know, but you know it's not Kamala. She's got less fewer marbles than he does. So, it's a very dangerous time for America and 71 percent of Americans don't believe that he is equipped to handle this.

GUTFELD: You know, Dana, I have an analogy, I haven't use one in a while.

PERINO: All right, hit me.

GUTFELD: The president is like a contestant on Let's Make a Deal who always turns down the guaranteed cash and just wants what's behind door number three and it's always like a 25-year-old donkey tied -- tied to a rocking chair, he never makes the right decision.

PERINO: You know what's interesting. Kamala Harris might've had a better trip to Europe.

WATTERS: Yes.

PERINO: And she started they're thinking like, hey, I don't look so bad now.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: Now the truth is President Biden is, by all accounts, a lot of people thought that he gave a pretty good speech and his speech was written and he gives this speech and then he ad-libs the nine words.

Now, you ask a very good question, who decided to walk it back? Because immediately we're texting --

PIRRO: Yes.

PERINO: -- I'm like, my God, I can't believe he said that. We know what -- because Putin in his mind thinks that this is going to happen so that's why he's been using it as an excuse that you're so provocative, and then that has been our policy. Jen Psaki has said it. Tony Blinken has said. And then all of sudden, the president says that and then White House staffers, anonymous, on background tell the Washington Post, yes, he really screwed up there.

Then you have him today saying no. What I meant was this. Now he could've done that on the plane. What I would've done is said, we got a problem sir. This is what they heard you say, is that what you meant? No, it's not what I meant.

OK. I'm going to bring the pool, the reporters into the conference room in Air Force One, you can do it on the record of clarification and whatever they want to call out to him and put this to bed that night. Instead, they wait three days. They always do this. They wait three days till it solidify in people's mind and now people are even more confused.

GUTFELD: Piers, do you think this gaffe energize Putin and his supporters because they want to believe it's about decapitation, about getting, you know, getting Putin now. So, this just validates --

MORGAN: Well, that's why it's so fantastically dangerous.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: Yes.

MORGAN: As the judge says. Because what it does it emboldens Putin with his people because he's been trying to sell the message of look, the Americans and the west want to basically take us over. What more evidence do they need now than the President of United States on the record on camera in front of the world's media representing NATO, saying we've got to receive Vladimir Putin. That's what he said.

GUTFELD: Yes.

MORGAN: We heard him say it. And this thing I don't know if he's walking back all the walk backs. So, and I can't remember the last time I saw a world leader who takes time today to walk back the repeated walk backs of his own gaffes.

PERINO: Yes.

MORGAN: And there are four. You have the minor incursion gaffes which by the way probably gave Putin along with the Afghanistan fiasco the encouragement he needed to go into Ukraine. The chemical weapons gaffe we're going to respond in kind. That means he use chemical weapons.

PIRRO: Right.

MORGAN: That had to be walked back. The ground forces gaff which you mentioned. And then the remove (Inaudible). That's four times, three in the last week where the president of United States says something --

GUTFELD: Yes.

MORGAN: Then his people come out and say that's not what he said even though we just heard him say it. And now he comes out as a brass neck to look down the barrel of the camera to the American people and go, we didn't walk anything back. So not only did you not hear me say the original thing, but the walk back which was then announced about what I said originally, they didn't exist either.

In fact, we shouldn't be walking back and he walk backs about the walk backs. And I think you follow any of that you're a better man than me. And what I find also about this which I think is really unsettling, the desperate ways that the Democrats and many of the quite liberal skewed mainstream media go out of their way to try and defend this.

PERINO: Yes.

MORGAN: Go out of the way to try to portray this as commanding leadership when the polls as we just heard are crashing to new lows, when confidence in him and trust in President Biden because of all these gaffes is collapsing. They've got to get a grip of this because if you can't trust a word he says --

PIRRO: Yes.

MORGAN: -- maybe because he can't even remember saying it then there's a problem.

GUTFELD: Yes.

MORGAN: This guy is the leader of the free world.

GUTFELD: You know, Jesse, maybe this is a positive spin nobody really believes what he is saying. Like even the world leaders they got, you know, it's just, like he didn't really mean, everybody it's like they look at him like Forrest Gump at this point.

WATTERS: OK. The media used to mock Reagan --

GUTFELD: Right.

WATTERS: -- for being an actor. He used to work with chimpanzees. Not a traditional resume for a politician. But Reagan was considered the great communicator because he could get the script, show up on time, and deliver it with gusto and precision.

Now he was around the same age as Joe Biden is right now when he was president, we didn't have problems like this like that we're having now. Reagan would get up there and nail it. Even off prompter he was steady.

To your point, the White House needs an innervation because you can't have Kamala come away with less gaffes after a trip. And as a journalist I can't believe I'm going to say this, am I journalist?

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: Not really. I would not say that, Jesse.

GUTFELD: I shouldn't probably say that. But --

GUTFELD: You cross the line I'm going to have to slap you.

WATTERS: They -- the White House needs to make sure Joe Biden goes up there delivers the script on teleprompter and walks out because you can't have us in a proxy war with Russia in Europe him going off script. You're giving Putin the propaganda victory and you're dividing NATO.

So, they either need to set aside loner time in Air Force One to drill into his brain this is the message, this is what you say and have them had a little discipline and confidence and I volunteer to participate in those press.

GUTFELD: That's the solution --

(CROSSTALK)

MORGAN: I'm sure that would be very welcomed.

GUTFELD: Yes, yes.

WATTERS: It will be. I will save him.

GUTFELD: All right. Up next, President Biden trying to distract from his record low poll numbers by attacking a group of Americans.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MORGAN: Only brilliant British music you're playing today. The Jam, David Bowie super stuff.

President Biden's poll numbers sinking to a record new low. There's 40 percent of Americans like the job that he is doing. And the president looking to turn things around with a pivot today by rolling out a plan to tax billionaires. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Right now, billionaires pay an average rate of 8 percent on their total income. Now I'm in a capitalist, but just -- I'm -- if you can make a billion bucks, great. Just pay your fair share, pay a little bit. A firefighter and a teacher pay more than double, double the tax rate that a billionaire pays. That's not right. That's not fair.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: He's always that creepy when he started whispering. That's a weird thing that he has. Right? Greg, I remember in the U.K. that every time a left-wing leader either in or out of office wanted to try and get what he thought would be a bit of -- a bit of a bump in the polls, they stopped and they do envy taxing. They've started going after the rich. It's an easy win.

And we have one good Ed Miliband who wanted a mansion tax which was a great idea and taxed everyone with a mansion. It turned out that mansions in London, the price of a mansion basically bought you a little cubby hole. And it killed his election chances.

And when I heard Joe Biden do this, yes, this is it's envy tax. It's like my other policies aren't working. I keep telling the American people the economy's thriving, they keep looking at the prices at the pump and so on, and realize the opposite is happening. So, what can I do? I'm going to tax the billionaires because it's a good headline. But it doesn't actually solve any problems.

GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: No. And the thing is, they count on the fact that you don't know any billionaires. Well, you know, me. But it is low -- it's low-hanging fruit, because they just assume who's going to defend them. And the moment you defend anybody who is successful, then you come off as a greedy sycophant, and that's why you don't do it.

But the fact remains. They make a serious miscalculation every time they want to raise taxes, because it doesn't allow them to think what could be done. Like, there should be an experiment where Democrats decide, OK, we need to solve this problem but we can't say tax, all right. We can't say tax, and we can't blame systemic racism.

And then what happens is they might even sit down and come up with an actual solution. But they won't because they're lazy. And the opportunity costs of them always going to taxation means that we never actually solve so many problems -- the problems that still exist today.

MORGAN: What is the reality of the U.S. economy right now? Because if you listen to Joe Biden, he paints his gloriously successful picture. If you listen to most Americans, they're not feeling that. There's a total disconnect. I mean, the White House messaging which she keeps blaming on Putin and Ukraine, but the polling suggests the American people very firmly blame the president.

DANA PERINO, FOX NEWS CHANNEL ANCHOR: I thought that was a real issue. Like, it's the whole ballgame. So, when it comes to voting, especially in midterms, inflation is going to be the main issue, the economy. And in this NBC poll that we've been talking about, who is to blame for rising inflation, Biden and COVID -- Biden and policies with 38 percent, COVID 28 percent, Russia's invasion of Ukraine is only six percent blaming him.

And they even made a hashtag. And the hashtag apparently has not worked very well, because it's -- they're not able to get there. There's another reason Biden did this. And that is because he's losing his base completely. And to Greg -- what Greg said, who's going to say, well, billionaires shouldn't pay their fair share, right? Well, there's going to have to be -- there's a policy discussion, but then there's also the politics of it.

He is losing women, Latinos, and independents at an alarming rate. If you're in the -- in the White House, and you're a Democrat -- so, you're looking at these numbers and think we got to do something. What can we -- what can we do so that we have something to run on? And I -- this is what they came up with.

MORGAN: Jesse, I can think of one billionaire lurking in Florida, who's probably looking at all this chaos and laughing and planning another run of the presidency.

JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: I believe he is planning that run, Piers, if you've listened to anything he's been saying in the last year. And he probably licks his chops when he sees numbers like this. These are lethal numbers, especially within dependents.

So, yes, you're right. Joe is going full occupy Wall Street. Talking about paying your fair share, his son didn't even pay his fair share. His son is under investigation for tax evasion. My goodness.

GUTFELD: He did tip the hookers.

WATTERS: That's true. That's true. And can we get some of our money back by the way? The Feds just collected a record amount of revenue, and then they lost $800 billion with a B, Piers, in the COVID relief. So, why should we give you more of our money if you're just going to lose it?

I love these stories, not because I know that I was right about Joe Biden, because I love watching Chuck Todd report these horrible numbers from his own network. And that proves that he was wrong. And you can see the pain on his face.

Because NBC News, Chuck Todd specifically, was kind of like the Biden's co- chair of his campaign. Remember, they lied for him, they covered up for him. They dragged him over the finish line. The minute he gets in, they say is the new FDR. Then this guy blows up. So, that's what I like to see. Maybe that makes me small and petty, but Piers, I've been called worse.

MORGAN: There's nothing wrong with being small and petty. Judge, the midterms are coming and normally, you'd say the economy decides how these kinds of things go. Is it going to be the economy that does in the Democrats come November do you think?

JEANINE PIRRO, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: You can call it the economy but it really is about what people when they go to the supermarket are able to afford when they buy milk and they buy hamburger and they buy mea. Look, you don't get numbers this bad unless you work with really hard to earn them.

And Joe Biden has worked really hard. He's created a villain everywhere. Now, it's about taxes, so it's the billionaires. And before it was about Putin, it's a Putin price hike for gas. This is what they do. And they're not smart enough to create a new -- you know, a new argument that this is what we're going to do.

All they say are things like it's transitory inflation. You know, well, it's stagnation at this point. And there's nothing that he can do at this point unless he comes up with something that really makes sense to the average American. And nothing he says is making sense to anyone, whether you live here in Russia.

MORGAN: There's also the point, I think, which is it's the billionaires who when you come out of a pandemic in particular, and the depressive effect of a war, but when you come out of a pandemic, you need billionaires for job creation. I mean, this is the thing I was thinking. The politics of envy is fine. But actually, we're going to need these guys.

We're talking about one coming off the break, one of the world's richest men, if not the richest Elon Musk is ready to take on big tech censorship. What's he planning? But also, we need him to employ a lot of people to get us out of a pandemic. So you can tax these guys and make yourself feel better or we can encourage them. We can spare them on. I think that's the way that America should go and the way, frankly, any country should go. We'll talk about Elon Musk next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PIRRO: The richest person in history isn't taking censorship nonsense from the social media giants any longer. Billionaire Elon Musk says he is giving serious thought to launching his own Twitter rival.

All right, so what do you think? Should -- Piers, should he launched his own Twitter rival or should he just buy Twitter?

MORGAN: Well, I think Elon Musk is a genius. And I think he's a maverick risk-taker genius, the best type. And I think he's got a point here because I think what Twitter did, for example, with the Hunter Biden laptop story, was one of the most shameful acts of free speech suppression that I've witnessed in modern media.

And, you know, you look at the whole sort of farrago around Donald Trump saying the election was stolen from me. Well, I don't agree with the reasons why he thinks it was. But when I look at what happened with a suppression of the Hunter Biden story and the impact that could have had if it had been allowed to be covered in the normal way, that could have tipped the election in Donald Trump's way.

So, this wasn't a trivial thing. And to remind viewers who may not remember this, Twitter actually suppressed the story. It locked out the New York Post account who broke the story about the existence of a laptop, but they allowed the New York Times very recently to report that it was all genuine, because the New York Times said that apparently that was fine.

That is the worst example I can think of Twitter, and social media, suppressing information, which was highly relevant to the American people. And that should not be allowed to happen. So, if what Elon Musk is really saying is, we need a social media platform where that kind of thing won't happen, and we know it's always skewed against conservative right. It just is. You don't see the same suppression happening where it benefits the conservative right over the left. It's all one-way traffic.

I thought that was shameful. I think Musk has a point. And looking at his own polls that he conducted, I think a lot of people agree with it.

PIRRO: You know, Jesse, it's not just that the New York Times decided to print it, that all of a sudden it's OK. It really is the election is over, therefore we can talk all we want about Hunter Biden. I mean, this social media can impact national presidential elections.

WATTERS: I'm glad this is about the Hunter laptop, Judge, because that's what this is all about. This is what it's all about, the hunter laptop. They rigged the election. And now, I can say they rigged the election without someone calling me cuckoo crazy because it's true. If they hadn't done that they still will. It's true.

And here's why I like Musk buying Twitter instead of doing a competitor. I can go to lots of different places. I need to go to one place to see him saying something annoying about guns, you posting about your dog, you drunk tweeting about some stupid comedian. That's what I want. I don't want everybody scrambled around in different places. It's about convenience, one town square.

PIRRO: You know, Dana, some say like, some banks are too big to fail. I mean, Jesse wants to go to one place. If Elon would do his own Twitter and not by Twitter, his own Twitter type, do you think people will jump off of Twitter?

PERINO: Well, maybe. I mean, Twitter has had a 13-year headstart to figure out its platform, build a user base, and to work out a lot of bugs. I don't think the government could create a better mousetrap here. If somebody could do something, it would be like an Elon Musk who would have the money to put behind it and the creativity behind it.

But I agree with Jesse. Like, I'm drowning in social media. I can't take another one. But if there was a better one, I would consider that.

MORGAN: You could have had one show where you don't have Taliban officials who have Twitter accounts, but the former President of the United States is locked out.

PERINO: Yes.

MORGAN: I mean, that seems to me just incomprehensible.

PIRRO: Greg, wrap it up.

GUTFELD: You know, it would be a really ballsy move on his part is not to build one or buy one, but to buy Twitter and then shut it down.

PERINO: I love it.

GUTFELD: And then he launch --

MORGAN: No.

GUTFELD: And then he launches one and he hires me to run it. At $50 million a year, it'll be great. Trust me. But if he bought it and shut it down, that would be a hysterical.

PERINO: Yes, hero.

WATTERS: I thought you already were a billionaire.

PIRRO: Stay tuned. Piers Morgan will give us a preview of his brand new, uncensored show on Fox Nation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WATTERS: Piers Morgan has a brand new show premiering April 25 on Fox Nation that takes the fight to cancel culture. "PIERS MORGAN UNCENSORED" will celebrate free speech with a lively debate and agenda-setting interviews.

Piers, you described yourself in a very colorful way in the commercial. Like, how did you describe yourself?

MORGAN: Well, it's going to be airing in the U.S. every night, in the U.K. every night, in Australia every night. So, I'm now officially what I've always wanted to be, a global irritant. And I want to irritate all the right people, all the people that we all find uniquely irritating.

And it's this permanently offended, snowflakey canceled culture mob who descend like a pack of hornets on anything they can get themselves into trying to suppress everyone's right to an opinion, trying to tell us all how to think, how to act, how to how to laugh, or to find funny what statues to revere, what parts of history are acceptable, what parts aren't, and so on. And I think we're all just sick and tired of it.

Now, whether you're in in New York, whether you're in London, whether you're in Sydney, everyone is fed up with this. We're fed up with this small vocal, permanently angry, humorless horrible group of people, this woke brigade.

And by woke, I don't mean the original interpretation of it which meant just to be more socially aware of social racial injustice. I mean, this new creation of the woke canceled culture, which is somebody who believes their opinion is not just the only one that can be tolerated, but that anyone that deviates one iota from that opinion has to be destroyed, shamed, abused, and then canceled, have the job taken away from, have their livelihood wrecked simply for having a different opinion.

So, I think the world has become a small place. I think that in terms of debate, we're all having these same arguments around the world now. And I think the vast majority of people, whether it's an America, the U.K., Australia, or other countries, the vast majority agree with me, and I suspect with the panel here, that this pendulum has gone way too far. And that free speech has got to mean what free speech means.

And that doesn't just mean that you tolerate opinions you agree with, it actually means the opposite. As Churchill said, it means -- it means to listen to people whose opinions you vehemently disagree with, but you tolerate and you respect.

WATTERS: Are you going to allow him to drop Churchill quotes on an American television show, Greg?

GUTFELD: I'm disgusted by it, I'd get up and slap him.

MORGAN: If you do, I'm going to walk off. When you invite me to be on your show, I assume I'll be flown first class and stayed at one of the finer hotels.

MORGAN: You'll also be down the line from your studio just to save money, but thank you. But I'll take that as a yes. You're all invited, obviously, because I think you will share -- probably share my view about this, which is I think we all feel the same way, right? It's just nuts.

PERINO: Are you going to like, one interview per show or multiple people?

MORGAN: No, no. It's going to be -- No. I want to debate. I want to take -- it'll be my take on the day's news very much like this show, right? But I just want to have -- I want to have people from all sides of the political divide. I want to get back to what it used to be like where you could have a tear up argument with a good friend about some issue in the news, and afterwards, you're going to have a beer together.

WATTERS: Like Meghan Markle.

PIRRO: Yes, definitely, exactly, exactly.

MORGAN: There are some exceptions to my cancel culture rule, and I can only thank the American people for taking Miss Markle back. We couldn't be more right for her.

WATTERS: OK. Thank you, Piers, be watching on Fox Nation.

MORGAN: Thank you very much.

WATTERS: "ONE MORE THING" is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PERINO: It's time now for "ONE MORE THING." Greg. All right, tonight, it's going to be a doozy of a show. I got Larry Kudlow, Martha McCallum, Tyrus, Kat. We're going to talk about everything including the Oscars.

Let's do this. We have done this in a while. Greg's how many nuts. Piers, this is an interesting thing. I'll go around the table. You have to guess how many nuts.

PIRRO: OK.

GUTFELD: Judge, how many nuts?

PIRRO: I don't know yet. He hasn't --

GUTFELD: No, you're supposed -- you're not --

PERINO: What's your guess?

PIRRO: Ahead of time?

GUTFELD: Yes.

PIRRO: Seven.

GUTFELD: Seven. Piers?

MORGAN: 12.

WATTERS: 11.

GUTFELD: Yes?

PERINO: Darn, it was my mine. Nine.

GUTFELD: OK, let's go.

PERINO: One.

GUTFELD: That's one, two --

WATTERS: Oh, man, this --

GUTFELD: You know, they don't have this on British tele, Piers. This isn't you know --

PERINO: Come on, come one. Eight, nine -- eight nine -- oh, shoot, Piers is going to win.

MORGAN: 15.

WATTERS: Oh, 11. Did I get it?

GUTFELD: Wait, wait, wait.

PIRRO: Oh.

GUTFELD: Piers wins.

WATTERS: That's under protest.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: That's very good.

PIRRO: Is there a prize?

PERINO: That's the best one you had.

GUTFELD: He gets -- he gets into THE FIVE all week.

MORGAN: Thank you.

PERINO: Jesse.

WATTERS: That's a punishment. All right, so Sophie and Ellie were in a big play over the weekend in Long Island at their school St. Patrick. Sophie was the star of The Jungle Book. There she is there in the red shorts. Ellie is the monkey. She got a little sweaty in that costume but did a really, really great job. And I was very proud to see both daughters such performance artists. I wonder where they got that from, the need for attention, the drama. Oh my goodness.

I'm so very proud of you, girls. And I'm also proud of Jesse Jr. who apparently took his first steps today but I missed it. So, we will have that for you tomorrow as my "ONE MORE THING" that's what they call a deep tease.

Here's a deeper tease. "PRIMETIME" tonight, we have Rand Paul and Dave Portnoy on the slap. Not Rand Paul on the slap so much, but Portnoy on the slap, so check that out. And an investigation, new movement in the Hunter Biden laptop situation.

PERINO: Wow. All right, Piers.

MORGAN: Well, I've had to humanize myself somehow on the show. And the best way, we like the animals, I don't have any pets, or a picture of myself as a baby. So, here's a picture of me as a baby with my mom. And the reason is that yesterday was Mother's Day in the U.K.

PIRRO: Really?

MORGAN: We follow -- you know, we were pegged to Easter. So, because Easter moves around, the U.K. Mother's Day is paid to that. There's a picture of a firebrand who takes on authority and constantly challenges the status quo and Sean Penn. Well, that was us in in Hollywood a few years ago.

My mom has been my biggest supporter. She's a fantastic lady. And I wanted to say Happy Mother's Day, mom. And here I am back on TV. It's been a year since I was kicked off the morning show in the U.K. I'm I bounced back in New York. What could be a better way to celebrate your Mother's Day.

PERINO: Happy Mother's Day indeed.

PIRRO: Happy Mother's Day!

WATTERS: Did they celebrate July 4 in --

MORGAN: We actually have a Day of National Mourning and we plot our return.

WATTERS: Oh, OK. We'll be watching.

MORGAN: Because if there are two words that should concentrate your mind, Jesse, and his King Piers I think is the leader you never knew you wanted.

PERINO: Judge, I'll try to go real quick. The song I play today when my segment ended is by a talented country artist named Alex Velo. It's called Dying Breed. It's a patriotic song about his love for the country and where it is right now. If you go to andyvelo.com, you can see more of his work. Judge?

PIRRO: All right, most people try to get a salad in every day because it's healthy. Well, not this piggy. This piggy took a whole salad. Take a look. OK, now, that -- the pig -- the pig is running away with the salad. She make her getaway. Even the dog, the family dog tries to stop her. Now, I want you to know I had two pigs. Here's my own pig. There's a picture of my pig. That's one my pigs. So, we love pigs.

PERINO: All right, "SPECIAL REPORT" is up next. Hey, Bret.

MORGAN: We all love pigs.

END

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