This is a rush transcript of "The Five" on February 9, 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 Judge Jeanine Pirro, Geraldo Rivera, Jesse Watters, and Greg Gutfeld.
PERINO: It's five o'clock in New York City, and this is THE FIVE.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VIVEK MURTHY, U.S SURGEON GENERAL: I'm deeply concerned as a parent, and as a doctor, that the obstacles of this generation of young people face are unprecedented and uniquely hard to navigate. And the impact that's having on their mental health is devastating.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO (on camera): The Biden administration admitting mandates are hurting America's school kids, but it is still refusing a full return to normal. That dire warning from the surgeon general about children's mental health not swaying the White House and some Democrats to unmask kids.
New York the latest state to end an indoor mask mandate for businesses but not for schools. And while Dr. Fauci says we are almost passed the, quote, "full-blown" stage of the pandemic, the CDC director is not ready to move on from masks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROCHELLE WALENSKY, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL: We've always said that these decisions are going to have to be made at the local level, and that policies at the local level will look at local cases.
At this time we continue to recommend masking in areas of high and substantial transmission. That's much of the country right now in public indoor things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO (on camera): And even though blue states are ditching mask mandates and the media is getting on board, the White House is not ready to budge either.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: People are tired of masks. I would say not even if you look at the polling, though. There's also a huge chunk of people who still want masks. When you are in a high transmission area which is everywhere in the country, you should wear a mask in indoor settings, including schools.
There are states who have rolled back their mask guidelines, that have given more flexibility to communities. They're different. It's not uniform whatever state has done. And certainly, we continue to advise and recommend abiding by public health guidelines.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO (on camera): They are not giving her a lot to work with, Jesse.
JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: Dana, I've never been this confused about what's going on. I had to write this all down because even I couldn't remember it. So, Democrat governors have full statewide mask mandates, and other Democrat governors just have mandates in schools, and other Democrat governors are lifting mask mandates in schools. And the White House agrees with all of that, but if a Republican governor does not, then that they don't agree with. All right. So, we have that.
Now this is where it gets really complicated. So, what specifically does the White House support? Well, the White House says they are listening to the CDC. Well, what does the CDC say? The CDC says they still support masks, yet masks hurt children.
And then they ask well, who should the American people listen to, the CDC or the governors? And the CDC says listen to the governors. OK? It gets better. And then you ask the White House well, White House, what if the governor says no mask but the CDC recommends mask, what should the people do? And the White House says listen to the CDC and also listen to the governor.
They can't understand what they are doing themselves. They say they are following the science and the science is changing so the Democrats are changing with the science, but Republicans didn't follow the science but got to the science before the Democrats?
PERINO: Yes.
WATTERS: So, it looks like the Republicans were right the whole time.
PERINO: I can see why you are confused.
WATTERS: Yes. It's very complicated.
JEANINE PIRRO, FOX NEWS HOST: Yes.
PERINO: I want to ask Greg about this. Because Sean Patrick Maloney is a Democrat in charge of trying to reelect House Democrats. And he basically had this tweet here. Democrats' plan to fight COVID is working. Cases are down and vaccines are widely available. Now it's time to give people their lives back. With science as our guide, we are ready to start getting back to normal.
GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS CO-HOST: You know, I said this yesterday that they're trying to look like they are leading the parade rather than chasing it. Because it's the people that are chase -- when he says we're going to - - it's time to give people back their lives, no. The people actually are taking it back.
WATTERS: Right.
GUTFELD: You can't give it to them. I mean, this is a bona fide public moment where the American public knew that the government wasn't going to give up -- give up anything because they're too scared. So, the public had to exert their will, and it's all over the world.
Now you are seeing it in every country. And it's amazing. This is true democracy. People are voting with their feet and with their faces, because they knew that -- they saw how the government work. The Democrats always love to ask in any kind of issue what about the children? What about the children? When it's climate change, what about the children? Nutrition, what about the children. But not here. And the reason is it's guilt by association.
Who's with the children? The rubes, the domestic terrorists, the white supremacists, the other people. Right? So, you can't be on the same side as them even if they are correct. So, this is what happens when you smear entire groups, with like one bad apple you see a confederate flag, you go, they're all racist.
So, right now, they are being stubborn, they would rather just look like idiots and be triple vaxxed, you know, double masked, wear a plastic face guard -- which I call the Pelosi, rather than just actually live a free life the way everyone else is.
GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT-AT-LARGE: I like it.
GUTFELD: However, I want to make a point. It's absolutely necessary and helpful to change your mind based on data. Right? There's nothing wrong with that, there's nothing wrong with being late, but you should think of the possibility for that before you mock the dude who got there before you. When you make --
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: When you call them Neanderthals.
GUTFELD: Yes. When you call them Neanderthals or just idiots or whatever, and then you change your mind. If you think there's a possibility, you're going to change your mind, maybe hold off on mocking the guy who was brave enough to go first, because he was. He was brave enough to go enough and you're all now following him.
PERINO: And you know what else the Democrats are following, Geraldo? It's the changing political signs. They got information that said that the American people were way passed it, that they understood what Omicron -- it was not as deadly, but that it's better to be vaccinated, so you don't go to the hospital. Now cases are dropping and people are moving on and all of a sudden, the Democrats are like, yes, me too.
RIVERA: Well, I think that Greg, for all his eloquence, which way too political a spin on it. I understand the politics, but your point, Dana, is the working point, that's the active point. Omicron killed COVID. Everybody got COVID.
PERINO: Yes.
RIVERA: Everybody who was vaccinated, it was like this, is that all there is?
PERINO: Yes.
RIVERA: And then now, suddenly, with people with the herd immunity spreading, and everybody now having tasted the poison and lived. Now, they want out. Everybody wanted out from the get-go.
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: They had to be forced, Geraldo. That's not a political point. That's a real point. The government had to be forced to do this, or else they'd still be clinging to this like some of the -- the White House is still clinging.
RIVERA: But I think why make that political? Why not say Omicron --
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: I'm not making it political. I'm telling you what I think.
RIVERA: Omicron happened. Omicron changed the field?
GUTFELD: Yes.
RIVERA: Omicron changed the whole reality.
(CROSSTALK)
PIRRO: Well then why is the CDC saying you still need to wear a mask if Omicron --
RIVERA: Because everybody is trying to spin --
PIRRO: No, because it is political, Geraldo. It is absolutely political. When Youngkin was elected, it was ground zero for parents and children. Everyone said this guy is the villain. So, when New Jersey Governor Murphy says no masks for kids, he is a hero, but Youngkin was a villain. OK?
This is the left recognizing that this is an election year. It's 2022. They are going to lose like crazy in November. John Hopkins came out and they said look, the closures, the lockdowns, the masks made virtually no difference in our society. So, let's get this over with.
And when the CDC comes out and they said, well, Rochelle Walensky says, quote, "we've always said the decision should be made at the local level."
WATTERS: She does.
PIRRO: This woman doesn't have the backbone to say what she thinks!
(CROSSTALK)
RIVERA: It's about Omicron --
PERINO: Can I ask you something, judge? Given that the surgeon general testified today about the very dangers for children and mental health, would parents have some sort of a collective action --
PIRRO: No.
PERINO: -- against them for not taking the masks off?
PIRRO: No, the only collective action they have is at the voting booth. You know, the damage, --
RIVERA: I agree.
PIRRO: -- and I have said this before, history will not look kindly upon us for what we have done to our children. For these teachers to not be masked and for the kids to have to be masked when the kids are the least vulnerable and the most susceptible to the psychological/emotional damage is a crime. It should be actionable, but realistically it's not.
RIVERA: I have to make one last statistical point. If you had Omicron and you -- and got well, because everyone got well but just about who -- if you are vaccinated, double vaccinated and boosted and you got Omicron that was a nonevent in your life, other than an inconvenience, and maybe you couldn't compete in the Olympics. That's what changed. A year ago --
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: In your life!
RIVERA: A year ago -- a year ago, no one knew where this was going.
GUTFELD: I did.
RIVERA: They were just trying. Give them the benefit of the doubt. They were just trying to make the best of a horrible situation.
PERINO: Well, and we have vaccines.
PIRRO: The benefit of the doubt when they wouldn't even tell us where it came from or that they were funding --
(CROSSTALK)
RIVERA: They didn't know!
PIRRO: -- gain of function. They were funding gain of function when we were trying to figure it out when China wouldn't help us out. Look, this has been political --
(CROSSTALK)
RIVERA: We'll see what history says about that, I don't know.
GUTFELD: Here's the deal.
PIRRO: I know.
GUTFELD: Dana?
PERINO: Yes.
GUTFELD: Which one of you is going to nominate me for the Nobel Prize? Because who said on this show, February 1st was going to start.
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: I mailed it -- I mailed it yesterday.
GUTFELD: And look at this. It is -- it has unfolded like a glorious production, a giant dream!
PIRRO: Like who knows?
GUTFELD: I don't even think I belong on television anymore.
RIVERA: We're already given you the MVP over Tom Brady from your high school.
PERINO: All right.
RIVERA: Enough.
PERINO: Up next, a squad member claims defunding the police is not the problem, even during a crime wave.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WATTERS (on camera): It's defund forever for the radical left as President Biden and other Democrats desperately try to get away from the movement that is political kryptonite. Squad member Cori Bush, whose own car got riddled with bullets during the crime wave is refusing to stop using the slogan ahead of the midterms, saying quote. "Defund the police is not the problem. We dangled the carrot in front of people's faces and said we could get it done, and that Democrats deliver, when we haven't totally delivered."
Meantime, the liberal crime free for all continues. Who needs to worry about Biden inflation, when you can just steal to your heart's content? The New York Post capturing this guy nabbing 10 steaks from the Trader Joe's.
I don't know, judge, if my ride got riddled with bullets, I might think twice about defunding the police.
PIRRO: Well, you know, when she was asked that question, not the specific one, but when she was asked, you know, about the hypocrisy of it all, and I'm so tired of using that word, I want to like put it away for the rest of the year. When she was asked, you spent over $300,000 for your own security, her response there was, you want to see me dead? Is that what you want? You want to see me dead?
WATTERS: Her life is more important --
PIRRO: OK.
WATTERS: -- than everyone else.
PIRRO: Right.
WATTERS: That's what people don't understand.
PIRRO: Right. Right. So, you have to say to yourself, what is going on here? What is going on that we are masking our kids when we know that they are emotionally suffering as a result of it? What is going on that the mom- and-pop stores are being shut down and the big box stores are being saved? You know, like what is going on when you've got truckers all over the world now? You've got Canada, you've got the United States, France, other countries.
People are saying we want to be able to work, we want to be able to live our lives in freedom, and we want to law and order. And these people who brought in this social justice nonsense have ruined it. The truth is we knew how to fight law and order. We knew it a long time ago. And now, they want to just eliminate it and talk about defunding police while other people died.
Last point. I'd like to know, in the inner city, in New York City, and any other city, how many -- how many people of color have died as a result of taking out street crime units or anti-crime units? You know, what is the impact on real people as opposed to these criminals running around, or guys with 16 priors for robbery, assault, burglary?
It takes a baseball bat, whines himself up and beats an Asian woman across the head from behind, she's got a fractured skull unconscious in several places. Who knows if she'll lived? He has been charged with 16 other crimes. Look at him right there whining up.
WATTERS: Yes. And Greg, he went out after bashing her skull in and grabbed a slice of pizza.
GUTFELD: What is with this attack on Asians? I mean, we -- the ones --
PERINO: Yes.
GUTFELD: -- we, the media used to talk about this when they thought they had the appropriate narrative that they like, and then all of a sudden, the races change. You can't -- no one brings it up, but it is overwhelming how many times you hear about Asian, elderly Asian, Asian women, it's really --
(CROSSTALK)
RIVERA: And a black perpetrator.
GUTFELD: And a black -- yes, yes. I mean, it's like, it's insane! Anyway, I'm mad at the New York Post for not using the correct headline which would have been the purloiner of the sirloiner (Ph). This has got really --
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: I got to see the guy without the mask, that might have been you, by the way.
GUTFELD: It might have been me.
WATTERS: I saw you ribs the other day.
GUTFELD: Look, you know who is really upset about this? The day after Mayor Adams tries to push veganism.
PIRRO: Yes.
GUTFELD: What happens? Here's the guy that's stealing a stock of steak -- I'm talking about a slap in the face with a T-bone. I mean, it's like, it's like, why don't you steal plant-based foods? Why don't you do that?
Meanwhile, I mean, and the other thing, too, is Tom Cotton is investigating this arson sentence for this guy -- set fire to a pawn shop, killed the person.
PIRRO: Yes.
GUTFELD: Got a lenient sentence. A sentence cut in half because it happened during the George Floyd riots. So, what's the lesson? Hey, if you want a better chance of getting away with a crime like murder maybe, do it in a media or Democrat approved insurrection, but if you try anything like in a riot in D.C. on January 6th, if you happen to walk in, you are going to get five years.
WATTERS: And this D.A., Bragg, what's going on with him? Did he walk it back, is he scared?
PERINO: Which -- you mean, his memo?
WATTERS: Yes, this crazy guy, this D.A. here.
PERINO: Yes, I think that he -- I think that he has realized that it's not going to fly. You said something the first day we talked about him. You said New York will never stand for that.
WATTERS: No, we won't.
PERINO: And I remember -- I'm fairly new to New York, right, I've only lived -- I've lived here for 10 years, but it feels like I'm new. But when you said that, I thought, OK, I can see that where people are like no, we're not going to deal with this in this way.
And Greg pointed out to me in the green room that Al Sharpton is now complaining about the crime and saying --
WATTERS: My God.
PERINO: -- and asking the mayor to do something.
WATTERS: Al Sharpton, Bill Maher, THE FIVE, we are in agreement on everything.
PIRRO: Really?
PERINO: So, I'd say one thing about Cori Bush.
WATTERS: So, it's Al Sharpton --
PERINO: Yes.
WATTERS: -- and Bill Maher and THE FIVE, we're all in agreement on everything.
PERINO: yes.
GUTFELD: And why Al Sharpton is mad? Why? Because he -- it is Duane Reade, they lock up the toothpaste.
PERINO: Yes.
WATTERS: Wait, what? That's why. You know, he has a point.
PERINO: He has a point.
PIRRO: He said that -- he said that --
WATTERS: Everything is locked up! Have you gone to buy toiletries recently?
PIRRO: Not in --
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: Deodorants.
WATTERS: You have to keep something and then you have to say, you know, can someone help me in the blank aisle?
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: That's why you just order from Amazon.
WATTERS: Yes.
RIVERA: Al Sharpton is one of the smartest people in public life, I tell you. I've known him forever. He is.
WATTERS: Geraldo?
GUTFELD: He is.
WATTERS: I have to cut you off.
RIVERA: I think defund the police is the gift the Democrats are giving the Republicans; they won't stop giving. I mean, it is absolutely preposterous.
GUTFELD: Yes.
RIVERA: It is why they almost lost Congress the last time around. It's why they are going to lose Congress this time around --
GUTFELD: This time.
RIVERA: -- if they can focus from -- Republicans can stay focused. You know, I really think that what we need, we need more cops, we need more minority cops, we need better paid cops. We need stop question and frisk back. We need to hold store owners like Trader Joe's responsible when they intentionally allow a thief to walk out and they do nothing to stop it. That only perpetuates this misery and adds to this epidemic.
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: There are lawsuits, Geraldo.
PIRRO: But they are afraid of being sued.
RIVERA: But they should get sued by the municipality --
PIRRO: I agree. I agree.
RIVERA: -- for encouraging and creating a climate of lawlessness.
PIRRO: I like that.
WATTERS: Now everybody sues everybody.
PERINO: Yes.
WATTERS: Did you want to say one other thing?
PERINO: Well, I just want to say about Cori Bush real quick. The reason that the Democrats are having to try to distance themselves from her is because Speaker Pelosi gave her so much clout --
GUTFELD: Right.
PERINO: -- in the beginning. Remember when she stayed the night on the capitol steps, and she wanted the illegal eviction moratorium to be extended? And Biden said we can't, and everybody knew that that would be the end result and they still allowed her to do that. That's why she has the platform that she has. They gave her it.
WATTERS: All right.
PIRRO: Yes.
WATTERS: Trader Joe's, we'll be there in a little bit.
GUTFELD: Yes.
WATTERS: Not plant-based. We're coming for the meat. Up next, liberal cities losing control. Why a homeless person could end up being your next roommate.
GUTFELD: Yes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
RIVERA (on camera): How would you like a homeless person as your next remake? It was no secret that homelessness in liberal California has gotten way out of control. And now things are getting so bad people are being asked to open up their own homes.
Charities in the San Francisco Bay where an estimated 30,000 homeless reside are asking landlords to allow the vagrants to rent apartments at super-low rates, and want families, private families to open up spare rooms as a charitable act, or in exchange for a small stipend. So, are you ready to do that? Jesse, are you ready to open up? Ready --
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: I'm ready. Right next to Jesse Jr.'s crib.
RIVERA: Right next to --
WATTERS: We'll make a little comfortable area.
RIVERA: And with a spare door, right?
GUTFELD: Hide the baseball bat.
WATTERS: You know, maybe overnights that can work. You know, sometimes, you don't feel like waking up at 2 a.m. The government has quit.
GUTFELD: Yes.
WATTERS: They've just said, you know what, we can't do this anymore.
PERINO: Yes.
WATTERS: You take them.
GUTFELD: Exactly.
WATTERS: I've never seen this happen before. Well, they did it with the border. So, they're now doing it with homeless people. And now they're also, I think are they buying crack pipes? Was that a real story?
PERINO: Yes.
WATTERS: They are sending crack pipes.
GUTFELD: Smoking kits is what's called.
WATTERS: Right. And there is a crack pipe in the kit?
GUTFELD: Right.
WATTERS: Right. So, it's like here is your crack pipe, take the homeless, the border is open. We are just going to fiddle around with racism for the next three years.
This is what we are dealing with, Geraldo! I mean, no one would ever do it, no woman would ever do it. No family would ever do it. It would probably be some like mangy single due just out of college really hungry for some cash. But that's a roll of the dice.
RIVERA: but there are some mangy dudes right out of college looking for a couple of bucks.
WATTERS: All in San Francisco.
RIVERA: All in -- there and elsewhere.
WATTERS: Yes, but I don't know. I don't think it's worth the risk, Geraldo, and you know it better than anybody.
PIRRO: Yes.
RIVERA: Remember when Ed Koch was mayor?
PIRRO: Sure.
RIVERA: We had the liberal, you know, ethos to be compassionate. Ed Koch stunned New York when he said -- the mayor of New York said, pass them by, give them nothing.
PIRRO: The homelessness.
RIVERA: Because when you give them something, they use it to buy drugs or alcohol.
PIRRO: Homeless.
RIVERA: And it really started a hardening of New Yorkers, you know, establishment New Yorkers towards the homeless. And I think it made the problem less severe for a time.
PIRRO: Well, you know, I looked it up today. Because I couldn't -- I couldn't figure out who is responsible for this. First of all, as a matter of fact, California has the most homeless people in the country.
RIVERA: The best climate, too.
PIRRO: And the best climate. Maybe that's why they go there.
RIVERA: Right.
PIRRO: Maybe they don't want -- OK, I'm not going to go there. There is an agency in the federal government, and it's called the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. It's the only agency at a federal level whose sole responsibility it is to end homelessness, and it works with 19 other federal agencies. They have money, they say the number one cause of homelessness is the lack of affordable housing. We've got section eight. We've got all that stuff. That's what I read. I'm looking it up.
GUTFELD: Yes, it's wrong, but, yes.
RIVERA: I agree.
PIRRO: OK, let's say it's wrong. I don't know what the reason.
GUTFELD: I do.
(CROSSTALK)
PIRRO: But what I do know is this.
RIVERA: Mental illness and nutrition.
PIRRO: OK, mental illness, that's fine. Here's my point. Would I let them of my house? Not a chance! Not a chance. Because most of the people that we are seeing right now who are on the street, who are taking bats to people - - how many times have you heard they are homeless? They're homeless. They've got a mental health illness. They've got a mental health problem. We have to fix the mental health problem.
WATTERS: And maybe if you are filling a baseball team, but you know, not to sleep over, seriously. But you hear the thing in The Times, I read that paper now, Dana?
PERINO: Got it. They had a report, the guy that runs the biggest homeless shelter in New York City, just got arrested for taking $300,000 in kickbacks.
RIVERA: And his name is Rivera.
PIRRO: Kickbacks?
WATTERS: Unrelated.
RIVERA: No relation. Mayor Adams did say something very interesting today, Dana. He said, the problem -- much of the problem lies in, as I mentioned with the judge, lack of facilities for the mentally ill. He wants to immediately create many more beds for the acute -- you know, the problem is they get off their meds. But he wants to create, you know, not institutions, but facilities for the medically ill.
PERINO: Well, look, the previous mayor gave his wife $1 billion to spend on this very issue. And then they had to come out with a report a year and a half ago that said, whoops, we have no idea how that money was spent.
So, if we talk about compassion, none of this is compassion. Like letting people sit there in their own filth is not compassionate in any way. And I do think that, you know, the government giving up and saying, could you guys just take these people in because that'd be really helpful, what's the next step?
You know, I do think that the question about how many people we are allowing into this country illegally is that question. Like, will you take more people in? No. At some point, there has to be some sort of tough love. And I know Greg has a lot to say and I'm going to leave it there.
RIVERA: Are you into tough love today?
GUTFELD: Well, in many, many ways, Geraldo, I am. This would make sense, right? If you were talking about a child who lost their family in a fire, with somebody who is temporary without a roof.
PERINO: Yes.
RIVERA: But those usually exist.
GUTFELD: They're -- you can count them on your hands.
PERINO: Hurricane victims.
GUTFELD: Metaphorically giant hand. That's not the issue. We've all seen the homeless situation. We've seen it up close. We don't need to pretend there are two million children down on their luck. These are not children, right? These are men, many are criminal, many are mentally ill, many are drug addicts. That's a fact that you don't hear in these commission on homelessness, right? They paint it as just the little teary-eyed people that are down on their luck. No, they're not.
These are not characteristics for a sound roommate unless Gavin Newsom takes four of them into one of his mansions, I do not believe this will ever happen. You brought up the idea of -- it's all about affordable housing. If you Google stuff on homelessness, that's the number one hit. It's about affordable housing.
That is a lie. It has no effect on the transient population. If you do not contribute to society through work, the only affordable housing has to be free. It doesn't matter if it's $300 a month or $200, they're not going to pay. The money for most homeless goes to drugs and alcohol. I know that's politically incorrect to say but it's an unspeakable truth.
Geraldo brought up the idea that California has the most because of the climate. That's what you call a choice, right? It's preferable. So, it's -- many people prefer to be homeless, no rent, no food to buy no bills, find a shelter, free meals, get drugs, sustainable lifestyle. And you know why it's sustainable or you know the proof that it's sustainable? It's not shrinking. It's growing.
PERINO: It's growing.
GUTFELD: It's growing because it's possible. The idea that it's not enough affordable housing, that is true for people who are working, who are -- who have low-income people. Yes, but they're not the homeless people. Do not be tricked to do this. Because that is why we're not fixing --
PIRRO: So you think all the homeless, they just don't want anywhere to live.
GUTFELD: I think --
PIRRO: So, why the -- who are they taking in? We've read about these this article. This woman said, this woman said I took a homeless person.
GUTFELD: Look at the numbers. There's -- you can -- again, you could count them. It's so few that they can get. They can't match them.
RIVERA: The other thing that Ed Koch did during his administration was to give bus tickets to anywhere they wanted to go -- anywhere you want to go. But then they had to go. The cop would take them to the Port Authority. They get on the bus for wherever. Then the wherever started saying, we don't want you either.
Straight ahead, have woke liberal policies and soaring costs killed college as we know it?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PIRRO: More proof that college may not be worth it thanks to the high -- the sky-high cost of tuition that is set to get even higher and campuses becoming a breeding ground for radical left-wing indoctrination. 55 percent of high schoolers say they don't think college is even needed for a successful career. And they're right.
All right, so what we've got are a lot of kids saying now, Dana, that they don't need to go to college, that you know, they're going to do whatever they want in terms of what their passion is. They don't feel that obligation. What do you think that is?
PERINO: Well, I think some of them want -- really focus and do a good job in the -- even in our public school system and K through 12, because you can get a good education if you focus. You don't have to go to a fancy school where there's like lots of partying and socializing. Like, that is fun. Don't get me wrong.
GUTFELD: You were crazy back then.
PERINO: Unbelievable the things that I got up to, the sporting events and things like that. But you pay a prize for it later, right? There's a wonderful book called The Defining Decade by Dr. Meg Jay. She's out of UVA. And it's about how you have to invest in yourself in your 20s, so that you can have a better rest of your life.
I highly recommend it to anybody, especially graduates if you have them in your life right now. Because if you go to college, and you end up in debt, and then you come out of it, and you're trying to figure out a way to get out of that cycle, it's really bad.
I do think that college can be very good and rewarding for people. But there are -- there comes a limit, all of that that I just mentioned. Plus, when you go into the classroom, if it's all just going to be about woke identity politics, you're not going to learn anything.
PIRRO: Well, you know, Greg, even in terms of what Dana is saying, there are 10 universities that are absolutely considered non free speech universities from Stanford to the University of -- what is it -- North Carolina at Chapel Hill? And, you know, I think they even have Georgetown in there.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PIRRO: It's pretty amazing.
GUTFELD: Georgetown sucks. That's -- a lot of people don't realize that but --
RIVERA: How nice of you to mention that.
GUTFELD: Would -- they're weirdos that go to Georgetown. What students are experiencing is reverse knowledge. They're going to college and they exited dumber. And why would you -- and as college costs go up, the quality of education just gets worse. It has to change and that parents have to be more educated about these colleges, figure out which ones are actually great. They're not expensive.
But the real cause of all of our problems happens before college. By the time someone is 17, they're either on a good track or they're in a hole. And we see that the state of the public high schools were kind of like building a second floor on a house where there is no first floor when we're talking about college.
The first floor, we don't even have that anymore. Our public high schools are terrible. We got to get these -- we got to get these kids before they get to college.
PIRRO: Yes. And you know, Geraldo, I mean, of the kids who don't really have a plan, half of those kids postgraduate after high school don't even know what their options are, which in itself suggests that they're not even aware of some of the skilled trades and that maybe they're not getting taught things that some of these kids might want to work at.
RIVERA: I think that is absolutely true. They -- we denigrate the skilled trades. I had an old bronze piece I had brought home from Africa that was all broken up. And these guys, these welders came, they're making 100 grand a year.
PIRRO: Yes. Good for them.
RIVERA: They kids. I mean, it's great. The problem is student loans.
WATTERS: Are you looting African entrepreneurs?
RIVERA: Student loans -- I paid full retail.
WATTERS: OK.
RIVERA: Student loans are what's destroying --
GUTFELD: Yes.
RIVERA: -- many men. I was famous for three years before I paid off my student loan. People get the money, kids get the money. They have no economic education. They have no financial education.
PIRRO: Right. They don't know the reality.
RIVERA: So, they get the money, they spend the money, they have the party, they have nice apartment.
PERINO: They major in sociology.
RIVERA: And they -- a trade that has absolutely no market value. And they graduate $200,000 in debt. So if you're -- if you get an education degree and you're 200,000 debt, you'll never pay it off. You'll never -- you're better off becoming something where you don't have to borrow that money.
PIRRO: Well --
RIVERA: You know, different strokes for different folks.
PIRRO: OK, Jesse, you can wrap it up. I mean, AOC wants to eliminate student debt.
WATTERS: Her student debt. That's what she wants to get rid of. You guys are sounding a little negative, you know. I don't like that. You guys loved college. All of you loved college.
GUTFELD: I hate it.
WATTERS: Greg, I loved college and you all go back to college. And your kids, you want your kids to go to college.
PERINO: Yes, I do. it's true.
WATTERS: I want my kids and they will go to college. And the best part about college is the networking you get. You meet people that are also maybe from successful families that can afford to send you to college. And then when you get out of college --
PIRRO: Isn't that like old --
WATTERS: -- you get -- you have relationships and then your life kind of ticked off.
PERINO: How many people you still talk to from college?
GUTFELD: Yes, I don't --
WATTERS: I talk to no one from college.
RIVERA: Where did you go to college?
WATTERS: But people tell me that's really important.
GUTFELD: Only to Georgetown.
RIVERA: I heard you're very unpopular.
PIRRO: All right, ahead, act up on a flight and you could end up on a list reserved for terrorists.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUTFELD: Throw a fit on your next flight and you could wind up in the same category as Bin Laden. Delta CEO urged the Biden administration to create a national no-fly list for unruly passengers. And Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says they could be on board with the idea. He's dead that guy.
PETE BUTTIGIEG, SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION: I think we need to take a look at it. This is happening at an unacceptable rate. Anything besides zero is an unacceptable rate. If you are on board an aircraft you need to be -- I can't believe we've even have to say this. But you need to listen to what flight crews say and you need to act in a way that is safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: Bin Laden was on a no fly list. That's award-winning writing. OK, Judge --
PIRRO: Yes.
GUTFELD: The Democrats love to create new rules, but they hate taking them away, don't they? But it's just that they salivate.
PIRRO: Yes. Well, look, I think that this new rule, honestly, is a good rule. I do, OK, because I've been flying --
GUTFELD: Damn you.
PIRRO: I've been flying since the pandemic allowed us to fly, right? And there's crazy people out there. They're in the airports and they're on the airplane. And people are edgy, and they want to fight. And they shouldn't be allowed on planes because planes are very tight -- they're tight quarters. I mean, other people get involved, other people get hit.
You've got flight attendants, you've got the crew, you've got 80-year-olds in there, and you've got nut jobs. And they're not even serving alcohol on the plane.
GUTFELD: I know.
PIRRO: So, wait until they do that.
GUTFELD: Geraldo, you fly private so this doesn't concern you. But don't you think that the people that flip out on planes generally don't fly that often anyway. They're usually not --
RIVERA: Well, I don't know about that, but I think they should be gaffer- taped by the crews to their chairs. I'd love to volunteer to do that. I was on a no-fly list.
GUTFELD: Oh, really.
PIRRO: You were?
RIVERA: And we could never find out what it was for. It lasted for months. And we were pounding Washington. I came to the conclusion because I had a mustache and there was the war on drugs going on at the time.
But I agree that there's some places you cannot mess, you cannot mess around. And in an airplane, you don't mess around. That's my safety, my kids safety, my wife safety. You're acting up. Who knows what could happen? Forget about it. No fly. Plus, diamond, unique like you in Delta, so we deserve --
WATTERS: Geraldo, I agree with you. I agree with you. You can't slow me down. I have places to go. And if you're going to cause a ruckus, and then do it again a month later, put them on a list. You get kicked out of casinos if you misbehave.
GUTFELD: That's true.
WATTERS: You know, you get your license revoked if you drive drunk too many times. Strip these guys have their freedom. Put them on the ground. Make them walk. Make them take a train, a bus. If you're going to screw around 10,000 feet up in the air, forget about it. You're done.
PIRRO: 30,000.
WATTERS: And you know what? It's probably mostly Democrats.
GUTFELD: Thank you. Thank you for finally getting to the interesting part. Dana, why should Democrats be allowed to fly? Liberals --
WATTERS: You always stumble on something profound.
GUTFELD: Keep them on Amtrak, the liberals on Amtrak, and then leave the skies to Republicans.
PERINO: You mean like if they actually had to take Amtrak?
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: Then they would realize that they need to actually fix it. If they would relax -- if President Biden would relax the federal mask mandate for the FAA, 90 percent of these things would go away.
GUTFELD: That is so true. Again, you pierce through the miasma.
PIRRO: Yes.
GUTFELD: So, find the truth.
RIVERA: What about that lady that made the plane turn around 500 mile en route to England from Miami?
PERINO: Oh, I would have been furious.
WATTERS: Put her to Gitmo.
RIVERA: Imagine if you were on that plane.
PIRRO: Furious.
RIVERA: On that plane and your whole vacation screwed up. You get a connecting flight from London or someplace else.
GUTFELD: Oh, yes, you're right.
RIVERA: Jail.
GUTFELD: I agree. "ONE MORE THING" up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PERINO: It's time now for "ONE MORE THING." Jesse.
WATTERS: Japan may have Godzilla but Thailand, they have lizards, Dana. This woman freaks out when she encounters a monitor lizard.
PERINO: Oh, that's terrible.
WATTERS: And --
PERINO: They're bad. They're poisonous.
WATTERS: They're poisonous? Oh, now, I can't make --
GUTFELD: Don't swear, Dana.
WATTERS: All right, so the guy takes off a shoe and just starts beating this poor lizard in the face.
PERINO: Poor lizard.
WATTERS: Well, I mean, Dana, these are God's great creatures. I mean, come on. What are you going to do? Lizard is going to lizard. He doesn't know anything.
GUTFELD: You are sympathetic to the alligator.
WATTERS: I know.
PIRRO: Oh, that's disgusting.
WATTERS: All right, so these things happen in Thailand among many other things. Many things are going to be happening tonight on "JESSE WATTERS PRIMETIME" and we are going to do a how-to on how to defend yourself against a home invasion. So, watch out for that because these things are happening all across the country.
PERINO: They are?
WATTERS: All across.
PERINO: OK, Geraldo.
RIVERA: OK, time for Geraldo's Geraldo news with Geraldo news from the vault. News from the vault. It's a sad news, actually. Seriously, a sad news. New York City's first Latina broadcaster Gloria Rojas passed away last week.
Gloria made her debut 1968. She was a school teacher until she became a broadcaster. She recruited me. I was a street lawyer at the time to a fellowship program that she had attended also at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
So, she was the first Latina on TV and I was the first Latino as the article in The New York Times in 1971 makes clear. So, I was very proud of that association. I always -- I never would have been a broadcaster but for Gloria.
WATTERS: There he is.
RIVERA: And I -- condolences to her family and she was a wonderful person. That's Melba Tolliver. Wonderful -- also wonderful.
PERINO: I love those. I love local news, indeed. All right, we'll switch gears a little bit because I have these picture of these -- you know, we all -- we all want to get outside. You want to feel the wind in your hair. This is what I feel like when I listen to Ben Shapiro's podcast at 1.5 speed. It's like, so fast. Everything is fast.
GUTFELD: I saw his gum.
WATTERS: Yes.
PERINO: A lot of wind. Clear the cobwebs out of those pups. All right, Judge, what do you have?
PIRRO: OK, so I want you to imagine cars pulled over on the side of the road by cops because there are controlled substances in the car, but two dogs and a cat. So, they're waiting for animal control since they got the humans in cuffs. And the cat is sitting there and attempts a feline getaway. So, this cop, not to be deterred, chases that cat.
PERINO: Wow.
PIRRO: And as always, the cop gets the criminal.
PERINO: Wow.
PIRRO: The feline is back in the car. And I've got to tell you --
(CROSSTALK)
PIRRO: All right. That shows you how hard it is for cops to do their job. But they never -- they never faint. They never resist doing their job.
PERINO: It's pretty good. What do you have for us?
GUTFELD: Well, tonight, on my show, it's really great. I have Emily Compagno. You've ever heard of her?
WATTERS: No.
GUTFELD: Okay. And Joe DeVito, I got Tyrus, I got Kat. That's going to be great. And let's do this. Two minutes. Greg's commuter news. Of course everybody's been following the truckers. They're going here, they're going there. Leftists are now saying and suggesting strongly that honking the horn is a secret rallying cry for Nazis and white supremacist.
WATTERS: No.
GUTFELD: That if you honk -- because H stands for honking and Hitler.
WATTERS: Oh, no.
GUTFELD: Honk, honk.
WATTERS: You did not. No.
GUTFELD: Yes. So, in this case, I went to the experts to find out some flamingos. Here they are.
WATTERS: Nazi.
GUTFELD: Yes, they're all Nazis.
PIRRO: Ever yone of them.
GUTFELD: But their either -- they may be pink, they may be pink, but some of them are whites. Look at them. Clearly they're racists.
RIVERA: Sort of off-white.
PIRRO: Yes. But it couldn't be bad apples, right?
GUTFELD: Yes.
PIRRO: And they're all paying the price.
GUTFELD: Yes. They're all paying the price, Judge.
RIVERA: They're pincos.
GUTFELD: Pink -- there you go.
PIRRO: Oh, that's even better.
PERINO: You have anything else you would like to promote, Judge?
GUTFELD: That was at the zoo, by the way.
PERINO: We have a little bit of time.
PIRRO: What do I want to promote? No.
PERINO: Geraldo? What about Cops? Are you doing Cops?
RIVERA: Oh, Cops, second season starts next Friday.
PIRRO: On Fox Nation.
RIVERA: On Fox Nation. Fox Nation. Valentine's Day is coming up. Jesse is going to have some interesting things on his program. I won't -- I won't take his announcement. But Valentine's Day in my house, very, very big event.
GUTFELD: I'm taking my show to Dallas for a week.
RIVERA: You are? You're going to be in Dallas?
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: What week is that?
GUTFELD: Not this next week, but the week after.
PIRRO: Good for you.
WATTERS: Yes. And we'll be having a Valentine's Day special on "PRIMETIME." It's kind of like the newlyweds. How well do couples know each other, and Fox News couples will be involved and competing against each other for cash prizes.
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: Oh, cash. Oh, OK, that's it for us, but cash sounds good. "SPECIAL REPORT" is up next. Hey, Bret.
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