White House refuses to label Democrats' DC trip as 'super-spreader'
'The Five' reacts to Democrats testing positive for COVID after fleeing Texas
This is a rush transcript from "The Five," July 21, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX NEWS HOST: Hello everybody. I'm Dagen McDowell, along with Harold Ford, Jr., Jesse Watters, Katie Pavlich and Greg Gutfeld. It's five o'clock in New York City, and this is The Five.
There's no end in sight to the crime wave rocking America, murders and shootings are surging coast-to-coast. In states like California are becoming the epicenter of other types of lawlessness where they have basically legalized theft.
Police say shoplifters in L.A. didn't even bother to run, they just casually walked out of a store carrying a bunch of clothes. And we've seen this happen before in San Francisco when thieves looted a different high- end department store in broad daylight, law enforcement is blaming scenes like this on proposition 47 which lowers jail sentences for shoplifting on theft less than $950 worth of goods.
California Governor Gavin Newsom was grilled about that specific law today but he says it's not to blame.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): The evidence doesn't back it up. The last three decades we've actually seen a significant decline in crime in the state. You are seeing crime increase in red states that had no criminal justice reform commensurate with the crime rates that we are seeing here in California particularly as it relates to gun-related crimes.
So, I think that's an easy scapegoat for a folks, people that never supported those initiatives in the first place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCDOWELL: But business owners and employees that have to deal with the surge in theft are calling his bluff.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: This lawlessness, people just are ultimately coming in and stealing stuff.
UNKNOWN: People don't want to leave their stuff out because they are afraid someone might snatch and grab it.
UNKNOWN: I see two to three, four or five cars up and down the street, and broken into in broad daylight and people walk out with stuff and police don't do anything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCDOWELL: Greg, I know you have something very exciting to say because he told me earlier, so the floor is yours, sir.
GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS CO-HOST: Is Gavin Newsom being that cynically -- I don't know, or stupid that the crime is going down simply because they are not processing it? Is it that obvious as you see these numbers, and he says, we don't have any stats on it because you are no longer keeping the stats?
By the way, when you watch these guys leave it is kind of funny, it's like they are boarding a flight. They are so -- and the only thing they are kind of concerned about is that their bags may not fit in the overhead bin but they look just like me boarding in, you know, group one, of course. Only group one.
KATIE PAVLICH, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Over pack (ph).
GUTFELD: All right. There is a weird bait and switch going on with this crime wave. If you bring up the violent crime wave, the Democrats will immediately say, not all Democrats but most of them will say it's a local problem, and pull a Pontius Pilate, it's a local problem, the police can handle it but then they will turn around and with a straight face look into a camera and say gun violence is a national epidemic. Right?
So, the criminal, the criminal act is a local problem but the weapon is a national problem. And I'm trying to figure out, why would they do that? Is that, I mean, in my brain, I'm going, they want the crime to proceed while disarming the public, is that why they are doing it? And I'm trying to think, who would do that? And I was thinking about what Harold said yesterday, which was the truth.
It's like every normal person, Democrats and Republicans alike, black-and- white, is against crime. We all, everybody, like nobody wants it so who is behind this? Who is behind the idea that law and order is a detriment to the world's greatest country? And it has to be this elite activist class.
We have radicals in our country who realize that if you want to, in order to remake society first you have to destroy it and they realize destroying it from within by marrying racial warfare to the concept of justice prevents politicians, and anybody from actually trying to protect themselves because that will be seen as an act of racism because law and order now is fundamentally racist.
This is why when you listen to the business owners and you listen to law enforcement they keep saying, we've never seen this before. We don't, this is so strange and crazy to see such brazen crime and that's because it's an internal mutiny of moral and civil order.
This is something that is new. It's scary and I hate using the phrase slippery slope because it's a cliche but I don't -- I think that there is - - it just keeps going, I don't see the stop on this.
MCDOWELL: No, especially you've prevented people, Katie, from protecting themselves.
PAVLICH: Yes.
MCDOWELL: That's what you try to do, is that even at the local level, you have gun control measures that are put in place to create criminals out of nonviolent citizens and residents who are simply trying to protect themselves.
You saw it in Virginia and that's why, again, it's all about guns but you are more and more removing people's ability to protect themselves and their families.
PAVLICH: But it's worse than that because these politicians have removed on the local and federal level a number of ways that Americans can protect themselves and now if you live in a place even where you are legally allowed to own a firearm and you defend yourself, you are the one who is vilified rather than the criminal who may break into your home or into your house.
And the prosecutors who have been elected and backed by these big left-wing activists are the ones who are prosecuting law-abiding citizens who simply just want criminals to leave them alone.
And the worst part of it is, these mayors and these congresswomen and congressmen who are for the defund the police movement, who are on the city councils who defunded the police for these communities and they use taxpayer dollars for their own personal security, for private security while they make rest of these people live in these crime-ridden, awful scenarios where they have no one to return to. And they think, well, even if I call the police the prosecutors aren't going to keep them in jail so it will continue to be our problem.
On the issue of the businesses, it's horrible to watch people walking out of T.J. Maxx which is a corporation with hundreds of dollars' worth of stuff. But what if you are a guy who has a bodega or you're a small business or you're an immigrant who came here with nothing from another country and you started a business. And this is the way that you are being treated.
And there's nobody in government, no politicians are willing to stand up for you and say enough is enough, we are not going to let your life savings and your life's work be wiped out by a bunch of criminals because we are incompetent and past these propositions that allow crime to continue.
And that's why I think about. And I think the people who work at T.J. Maxx for minimum wage who are trying to earn an honest living who have to watch these guys come in and this criminality and walk out the door and eventually it just feels really hopeless. And these politicians continue to put people in these horrible positions.
MCDOWELL: They won't try to stop them. They've actually been told here in New York City, don't stop anybody who is trying to shoplift. I see people shop-lifting from my local drugstore all the time. Because if you put your hands on someone, they scream rape, they scream racism and the like.
The upside-down logic of what you hear, Harold, from one of the Democrats is that here you'll say, if you prosecute shoplifting, if you treat theft as a crime then that's criminalizing poverty because poor people need to steal.
However, what happens is the more you let people steal, these businesses go away. They disappear, the jobs disappear and you have vast wastelands, deserts in these cities where you can't have, there are no bodegas.
PAVLICH: Right.
MCDOWELL: There won't be any drugstores. You are seeing that in San Francisco.
HAROLD FORD, JR., FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I don't disagree with you. I don't know any Democrat. I have a lot of Democratic friends and I have several Republican friends and we are unanimous about, we want crime to go down, we want people arrested for committing crime.
The bail reform effort that passed here in New York at the very beginning, I thought there were things about it that made a lot of sense in practice. It's not working so I don't fault people for trying things. But when they don't work you change those things.
AI think we've conflated two -- a few issues here, the gun issue, I don't disagree with you, Katie, about allowing everyday Americans and we see that gun purchases have gone up even amongst, I think we've -- some of the data has shown amongst Democrats and people who might be considered liberals. And for that matter people who want more gun control measures, people want to be, want to be protected.
I think when the Democrats talk about guns and we have that conversation about ghost guns and so forth. I do think that's a legitimate conversation. I wonder how Jesse (Inaudible) with me saying that these kids can get fresh apples but they, maybe some of the other things they can't get. But I don't understand how guns find their way into these communities.
But there is no excuse for what's happening in California. Gavin Newsom is a friend but I think he may be mistaken, at least the video I see and the data I see. There has to -- we should act about this. And there should be a change, small businesses or big businesses should not have to worry about people walking into their stores and doing what these young men are doing. These guys should be arrested and they should be prosecuted whether it's a small store or a big store.
MCDOWELL: Jesse?
JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: Well, the left-wing goal now is not to reduce crime. It's to reduce the prison population. So, proposition 47, they called it the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, sounds pretty. And this goal was to keep nonviolent offenders from overcrowding already crowded prisons.
But what it did was it just sent property crime skyrocketing. And guess who bankrolled proposition 47? George Soros. They had only $500,000 for the vote no side and the vote yes on proposition 47 had $9 million and a large chunk of that came from George Soros' open society institute so they didn't stand a chance.
And 30 years ago, you didn't have left-wing ideologue multimillionaires bankrolling propositions to soften crime and D.A.s, you didn't have that. All the money went to governor's races and Senate and presidential races. Now they're getting into local races and it's just blowing out because of the cash any opposition.
So that's why you have these soft D.A.s and these weak laws. So, it used to be you could steal 450 bucks and that was a felony, now you can steal up to a g, you can walk out of the store with a $900 TV and they're not going to do anything about it. It's a misdemeanor. It's like a trespassing ticket.
So, a lot of these high-end chains, they have insurance, they're not going to -- they have a no-confront policy. You can't go and stop shoplifters because that could end up in an accident that could cause a huge lawsuit. So, they just write that off and that's fine. But a lot of these, as you said, the smaller places can't afford to do that. And now, property crime is up and people are scared.
MCDOWELL: And they should be scared. Speaking of the D.A.s, the left-wing funded D.A.'s, I just want to point out Kim Gardner in St. Louis, that a judge had to dismiss a murder suspect, first-degree murder. The guy was arrested and had to dismiss it because the prosecutor never showed up. She was on maternity leave. And Kim Gardner just let it go.
And there were three -- two other murder cases dismissed this week, meantime the police are trying to hunt down this first-degree murder suspect.
WATTERS: Wow.
MCDOWELL: It's disgraceful. That's what they do, these left-wing prosecutors. Ahead, don't let them call you super spreader. The White House and the media covering up for those Texas Democrats who got COVID.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WATTERS: Is the White House acting like it's no big deal that these COVID- positive Texas Democrats are spreading the virus around like wildfire all over Washington? After flying maskless, six of those lawmakers now testing positive for COVID-19. Along with the White House aide and a Pelosi staffer link to them. But the White House is refusing to call them super spreaders while scolding the rest of America over arise in cases.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Is there any concerns that this trip that was intended to advocate for voting rights is now a super spreader event in Washington?
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, I would say that's not a characterization we are making from here. Since that are incredibly effective are not full proof. We know that these vaccines that these individuals, I think if I'm correct, have been vaccinated, that is a good sign.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: And where's the media to condemn these lawmakers and accuse them of putting lives at risk? They had no problem doing it with Republicans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN: He's moving ahead with a huge indoor event despite a record one-day increase of coronavirus cases in that state and warnings that his rally could be a super spreader of the virus.
JOY REID, HOST, MSNBC: All of these people packed in which what could be a COVID super spreader event at the White House.
JAKE TAPPER, HOST, CNN: President Trump is doing these rallies, people are not wearing masks. I mean, these are super spreader events, potentially.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: All right, Katie, it is interesting, you know, Pelosi, what is she, third in line?
PAVLICH: Yes.
WATTERS: Kamala Harris, second in line.
PAVLICH: Number two.
WATTERS: And there is a little bit of impact there.
PAVLICH: I wrote some headlines that the media would have written --
WATTERS: OK.
PAVLICH: -- if it was President Trump.
WATTERS: Good.
PAVLICH: So, I hope we're ready for this. The first is, how many people have to die before Texas Democrats keep -- take COVID seriously? Texas Democrats are literally killing people by denying their mask wearing science, endanger the lives of the vice president and speaker of the House after mask less anti-science stand.
On this, it's like, the bottom line is you are allowed to not follow the rules if you are a Democrat advocating against voter I.D. according to the White House. And if the media and Democrats hadn't made COVID so political maybe more people would've been on board with some of the measures and everything else.
But because they made it all about politics and using it as a political weapon in an election year, now they are looking pretty bad when it comes to the extent that they pulled on this private jet where they didn't wear a mask and then went to meet with some of the most important and powerful people in the country.
WATTERS: Dagen, I feel like there's a lot of unanswered questions about this.
MCDOWELL: Yes.
WATTERS: I love saying there's a lot of unanswered questions, it makes me sound really smart.
GUTFELD: That should be a show for you, unanswered questions.
WATTERS: Unanswered question.
GUTFELD: By Jesse Watters.
WATTERS: We never get to the bottom of anything, I promise you. But if everybody is vaccinated, allegedly, how do they get six COVID-positive tests? How does that happen? What are the chances of that happening?
MCDOWELL: We've all sucked face with an inappropriate person, haven't we? And some time. I don't know. But I think somebody is not telling the truth --
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: It seems weird.
(CROSSTALK)
MCDOWELL: -- about vaccination.
WATTERS: The whole story stinks to something.
MCDOWELL: I mentioned it earlier in the week that the breakthrough cases seem to be very high if all of these individuals are vaccinated. But to Katie's point, the White House only cares about things that it can benefit from politically, right?
WATTERS: Right.
MCDOWELL: During the election, Kamala Harris, anti-vax fearmongering.
PAVLICH: Right.
MCDOWELL: The same with Joe Biden and this is why the southern border is a total free-for-all with people, COVID-positive illegal immigrants coming in, 900 percent, what, it was a 900 percent increase --
WATTERS: Yes.
MCDOWELL: -- in Rio Grande Valley. That benefits them. They think that's great for them but look at what they said about the Canadian border today.
PAVLICH: Right.
MCDOWELL: They postponed the Canadian border reopening for Canadians to come into the U.S. until August 21st. Canada is letting vaccinated Americans into Canada starting on August 9th, so why would they do that? Because they don't -- it doesn't benefit them, the White House.
WATTERS: Are they saying that vaccinated Canadians can't come to this country but unvaccinated migrants can?
MCDOWELL: Illegals, yes.
WATTERS: Wow.
MCDOWELL: Actually, illegal -- if you are legal you can't cross to Mexico border.
(CROSSTALK)
PAVLICH: Not to Canada.
MCDOWELL: No, but if you're illegal, it's wide open very much.
WATTERS: So, in a way they put a wall up on the northern border, that is very interesting. All right. Harold, square that circle?
FORD: There's a lot of circle. So, let me -- the Texas legislators, something doesn't seem right, I would agree. If everyone is vaccinated, double vaccinated and you have this, there's a lot of questions that need to be answered and I hope your show gets to --
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: Yes, we're going to the bottom of that.
FORD: Number two, it's funny, the mask thing, I hope we don't have to go back to wearing masks. I don't want to go back to wearing mas. But the way to do it is we're not even 50 percent vaccinated as a nation yet, and I don't think there's anything wrong with Democrats and Republicans alike wherever you may sit on the political spectrum encouraging everyone to do it.
I actually think for those of us, and I'm a believer more so now than I did before, that this virus as a result of a leak out of that lab that the way we get back at the Chinese is we all get vaccinated because we keep our economy open, where we make vibrant, we don't have to wear masks, or the likelihood of wearing mask is much less.
And what more with those who want to hurt us like to see than our economy stalled, kids not in school and small businesses suffering? We talked about crime we got to do that but the mask thing and the vaccination thing are critical. But we got to get, we got to figure this thing out with these legislators, I don't understand.
WATTERS: Yes.
FORD: I don't disagree, there are probably be more headlines, but there is one big difference and I think we touched on it. A year ago, we didn't have vaccines. So, when people talk about President Trump and others who might have had indoor events happening, I think there is a difference there that should be noted. The fact that we have vaccines now makes it a different conversation.
WATTERS: Do you think these fleeing Texas Democrats feel bad at all for what they did?
GUTFELD: I don't know.
WATTERS: I would feel so guilty right now.
GUTFELD: If they were watching Fox they would feel really bad, but they are not watching Fox. They are watching CNN who is not covering this of course.
WATTERS: Right.
GUTFELD: You know, it is a contrast between how -- it shows what -- how corrupting power can be. So, you have the media, politicians smearing the powerless, right, citizens, you are stupid rubes who are skeptical of the vaccine. You are so dumb; you listen to right-wing radio.
Meanwhile, while they make fun of citizens, they create a mode of protection around politicians who actually spread the disease. So, they, it is always this thing where they are somehow exempt from their own, their own, I guess, judgment. That's why they got into politics is to be exempt from the rules that they create for others like private security, for example, and defunding.
But I do think, you know, Jesse, to be perfectly honest the real victims here are people who must wear masks at luxury massages. There are a lot of -- there are a lot of married couples who are wishing to go and enjoy a good massage and suddenly they are being told that they have to wear masks.
WATTERS: Up next, the White House struggling to stop Joe Biden from embarrassing himself when he speaks off-the-cuff.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUTFELD: It's been six months since Joe Biden became president, which means six months of the media kissing his butt, terrible language, and six months of hyperbolic, divisive and truly bizarre moments. The Hill points out, Biden's mouth has been getting him into trouble especially when he goes off scripts with -- script with comments like these.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The last thing we need is the Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime, everything is fine.
The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated and that's -- and they are killing people.
I got them $1.9 trillion relief so far.
Twenty-first century Jim Crow assault is real.
What do you -- what do you do? When did I say I was confident?
The economy was sputtering before I got here but now, six months later, we've changed that.
To be a good reporter you got to be negative. You've got to have a negative view of life, OK, it seems to me.
I wrote the bill on the environment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: You know, Katie, this stuff doesn't really bother me that much, you know, he's almost 90. So, it's OK. The thing that bugs me about it is that, is he failing to unify this country or was that a lie to begin with, the whole idea of unification?
PAVLICH: I'm pretty sure that was just a campaign slogan.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PAVLICH: He is like many politicians there has been no unifying especially when over the past couple weeks where they're saying that these voter I.D. laws which the vast majority of the country supports are the same thing as Jim Crow 2.0. He exaggerates about a lot of that, he's accused Facebook of killing people which they're obviously not doing.
I think it's funny to laugh at that but it's also troubling because he keeps telling everybody that, you know, he'll get in trouble if he takes certain questions from the press which makes you question who is really in charge. And there's just factors with the way the country is going. Inflation is through the roof, crimes has increased, violent crime has increased around the country, the border is completely overrun, COVID cases are going back up again, and Russia has a pipeline and Keystone is dead. So not a great six months.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PAVLICH: And no unity.
GUTFELD: Yes. And you know, Jesse, we spent four years being told how divisive Trump was. But I -- if he, Trump said anything and everything, but he was always focused on the media and the political machinery, whereas, it seems to me like President Biden goes after those people who didn't vote for him. Republicans or groups of people and I think there is a difference there, the -- that's truly divisive. There's -- I didn't think there was any divisive about Trump going after the media, but.
WATTERS: Yes, we expected that.
GUTFELD: Yes.
WATTERS: It's very entertaining to watch. But all the language so far from Joe has been sloppy, uninspiring, and wrong. I mean, he said some real Pinocchios. Facebook is killing people, had to walk that back. I mean, Facebook's got to be thinking, Joe, we had a deal here. We covered up your Hunter Biden problem, we covered up the lab leak theory, we donated to your campaign, you're going to call us killers? So, Joe has spoke to his handlers and realize the donations were going to dry up, and he had to walk that back.
Also, what happened to the infrastructure bipartisan deal that he announced weeks ago?
PAVLICH: It's about to die.
WATTERS: He had to walk that back. That never happened. So, a lot of this stuff, I mean, it's just so fat checkable but the media doesn't do anything about it. The media and his people know Joe has bad instincts and a sloppy mouth and they'll do anything to protect Joe from himself. So, that's why he's not allowed to talk to anybody and engage with the media. And it makes the rest of the country feel like, hey, this country feels leaderless right now and not responsive to growing crises at the border, at the gas pump, and it's not a good feeling.
GUTFELD: You know, Harold, I'm always troubled by the hyperbolic nature of this White House. But having said that, would you say that Joe Biden is the worst leader since Genghis Khan?
FORD JR.: So, I have a slightly different view.
WATTERS: Slightly different.
FORD JR.: If you look at some of the numbers here, he's six months in, his approval rating is at 53 percent according to the most Reuters -- most recent Reuters poll. He's 52 percent with independence. Six months into President Trump, who's the most recent president opposite, he was at 38 percent.
I think a strong argument can be made around three positives. One, the vaccinations are available, two the economy is worrying again. It roared a lot under President Trump without question, but it's worrying again. Three, we've unified our allies again, particularly in Europe, and we're finding ways I think, to marshal resources to go up to China.
We've said at this table, and I'll be brief here, crime and immigration. I would agree, if he does not -- if democrats are perceived as being the problem with these two issues rising and worsening, this certainly puts the rest of the agenda at risk.
On the infrastructure piece, it's reported today that there was a blow to Senator Schumer and Democrats in the Senate, but the negotiators continue to work. If we get a good -- $1 trillion bill, then it's amazing. The Chinese are spending trillions on their military and all kinds of technology advances and we're debating $1 trillion infrastructure bill. I got to think the Chinese are sitting back laughing at us.
So, he's got to make crime and immigration and infrastructure, make progress there, those numbers will continue to go up. But I got to tell you, if I was president, I had a 53 percent approval rating, I feel pretty good.
WATTERS: You can take four points off that approval rating. We already had the after-action report on the fake polling that came out. Take four points off.
FORD JR.: Or four points off.
WATTERS: So, he's underwater, under 50. And he hasn't brought our allies together. He's pushed our allies to Russia.
PAVLICH: Yes.
FORD JR.: I differ.
GUTFELD: I think -- I think -- I'm more concerned about their obsession with wokeism is actually keeping them from these questions on immigration and on crime. But the other thing about the Democratic Party and the left in general is they invented the concept of hate speech, right? And yet, the stuff that they traffic in is so incendiary, right? It's like you know, worst thing since the Civil War, worst thing since 9/11. Everything is the worst thing since the worst thing. That's kind of hate speech, right?
MCDOWELL: Because -- it is hate speech, but it's tolerated by their ilk. It's tolerated by --
GUTFELD: It's a one-way street.
MCDOWELL: Right. They don't -- they don't care. Listen, Joe Biden -- this is a two-year sprint to the midterms. They're going to push through with no mandate, 50-50 split in the Senate, the narrowest of margins of the House. They are going to push through an expansion of government and entitlement after entitlement after entitlement that will rival or even swamp FDR in '33, that will rival or swamp LBJ in 1965. That's what's so appalling.
But I want to end with I kind of like the Eastwoodian Biden when he's reading a teleprompter like he's squinting. It makes him look tougher than the wide-eyed Biden where he looks like grandpa lost in the Walmart and he's like walking up and down the feminine hygiene aisle.
GUTFELD: It's always been my excuse. Coming up, forget the pandemic. Climates czar John Kerry says global warming is a bigger crisis we need to focus on.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FORD JR.: Climate Czar John Kerry is demanding immediate global action on climate change. And he says we can't wait until the pandemic is over.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KERRY, WHITE HOUSE CLIMATE CZAR: I am very sorry to say the suffering of COVID will be magnified many times over in a world that does not grapple with and ultimately halt the climate crisis. We don't have the luxury of waiting until COVID is vanquished to take up the climate challenge.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FORD JR.: Katie, he obviously is very serious about this and you wouldn't be in that position if you were not someone focused on this. Is it right to focus on this right now?
PAVLICH: I just think I find it amazing that he's using COVID as a scare tactic to get people to start paying attention to his climate change agenda again. And I'm curious to know how he got to London, if he's flying again private because they still have a private jet.
John Kerry has been promoting climate change for years. I'm not sure what his qualifications are other than being well-connected to leaders around the world who want us to give them a lot of money like for the Paris Climate Agreement. During testimony a couple of months ago in front of Congress, John Kerry admitted that the United States knows that China is building solar panels, which the left says is green, with slave labor from the Uyghurs who they're trying to genocide from their country.
And he also did an interview this week saying that no matter what happens, we're going to work with China on this issue. China doesn't care about the environment. They're building coal plants. And the biggest issue moving forward is not what John Kerry says and tries to scare everyone into believing is that just like we saw with COVID, and the lab leak theory getting suppressed, big tech like Facebook and media are completely suppressing debate on this issue.
There's a scientist named Steven Koonin who worked in the Obama Energy Department who just wrote this book called Unsettled. It's about how climate change doesn't have to be this "the sky is falling" thing. And Facebook fact-checked it and buried it and said that everything in his book is discredited when he just has a different point of view on this issue.
So, I think that paying money to government bodies will not do anything to help solve the climate problem.
FORD JR.: What solves the climate? How should he be focused on this, Jesse if he's -- if which -- I think we can -- I hope there's agreement that the temperatures are rising and that we got to deal with our climate issues. So, how should he be dealing with this?
WATTERS: Well, he could use Skype, Harold. I got his itinerary so far from becoming envoy. He's been to London, Brussels, and Paris. Then, went to Shanghai, and Seoul, Abu Dhabi, New Delhi, Dhaka, Rome, London again, Berlin, Middle East, North Africa, London again, Moscow. Just right there, that's more than like a city's emissions if you just cut out the jet flights.
And do you really think the Chinese and these Middle Eastern oil kingdoms are going to listen to John Kerry and stop fossil fuels? Come on, man. He's just in it for the luxury travel. If you want to stop climate change, you don't fight climate change. If it's getting warmer, you adapt to it.
Let's just say the sea levels rise a couple of inches over the next century, Harold. OK. There's a great civilization we have here. I think we can adapt to that. The Netherlands, 25 percent below sea level, they're like a powerhouse in Europe. They didn't just destroy their economy to fight the rise in the sea levels right there. They built reservoirs and kind of adjusted around the coastline, and they're fine. They didn't have to break the bank to do it.
FORD JR.: Dagen, you got an opinion on this?
MCDOWELL: Oh, yes, I got a lot of opinions on it. America is awesome. And we aren't the problem. Because of the hydraulic fracturing boom, fracking, the use of natural gas, which by the way, Joe Biden wants to end, you know, we need -- even though we need electricity for the electric cars they want us to drive, I digress.
Our emissions per capita are the lowest they've been since 1950. And this Trojan doofus of John Kerry, they put him out there because they're up -- I think the Democrats want to mandate that everybody buy an electric vehicle by 2035, which Kamala Harris actually proposed.
But we are not the problem. We are doing the right thing in this country. And Kerry himself admitted that if we reduce our carbon emissions to zero, it would have no impact on global warming. So what is he doing other than racking up flight miles?
FORD JR.: But if we did do that, in fairness, because we're the biggest market, people buy things here, so people would make those things. But what's your thinking on this, Greg?
GUTFELD: I think he feels a little slighted. The pandemic pretty much peed on his lifestyle, took all the buzz out of his crusade. He kind of wanted to return to that rightful climate throne. He is the king of the climate. And he wants to be there up there with Queen Greta. Right now, he's just a fossil without his fuel.
And the only -- the only virus he has to worry about because he's clearly not worried that much about COVID is Dutch elm disease.
PAVLICH: What's that?
WATTERS: You made a Dutch elm disease joke on the show.
GUTFELD: Why, it's not a tree disease?
WATTERS: I have no idea.
PAVLICH: It sounds like it.
GUTFELD: It's a disease that trees get, because he's a tree. Also, gee (INAUDIBLE) Like, I'm going to have to annotate the jokes. He's his own worst enemy. And this is the problem with a lot of these kinds of climate apostles. No one trusts somebody who keeps saying the sky is falling.
There is evidence that we are getting warmer. There's a lot of conflict and debate over why it's happening, how it's happening, but we can understand - - the rational minds are great. But when you get into that irrational world, we are constantly being the boy who cried wolf. What happens is people just look at you kind of like a joke. You keep saying the world is going to end in eight years. Nobody's going to listen to you.
However, there are -- what are they called -- luke warmers. These are people that believe in global warming, but also are skeptical of the climate models, but realize that we must do something for the future. Those are the people like Bjorn Lomborg that people should be listening to, and he could learn something from that. I'm trying to help him.
PAVLICH: That's good.
GUTFELD: Get your leaves checked out.
MCDOWELL: You have the name of a good plastic surgeon?
FORD JR.: "THE FASTEST" is up next.
GUTFELD: I can't believe --
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PAVLICH: Welcome back. Time for "THE FASTEST." First up, regular people are making banks simply by renting out their pools Airbnb style. One couple says they made over $100,000 in less than a year by letting strangers take a splash in their backyard. So, Greg, this requires very special hosting skills because strangers in your pool, you'll have a lot of behavioral issues.
GUTFELD: This is -- especially if it's me, and I've been drinking. This is a brilliant thing. This is basically Uber for pools, puber. Call it puber. Puber or poolber.
PAVLICH: I think we can find another name.
GUTFELD: Let's just call it Puber. Why -- like everybody wants to go to that fancy rooftop hotel pool and hang out, but there's too many cheesy tattooed people there, right? There's all -- and it's just so annoying. Everybody is smelly. But you can go and find your rooftop pool in somebody's house. This is a brilliant idea.
PAVLICH: What if those smelly people you just talked about want to rent your pool?
GUTFELD: Well, I would be very -- I would -- I would have a very strict criteria. And I would have an all-nude clause.
PAVLICH: OK, got you. Jesse, your clause for the pool?
WATTERS: This is -- this is horny husbands who want to sit in their living room with a drink in their hand and watch strange girls in the bikinis jump into their pool all day and make money from it. That's what this is.
PAVLICH: OK, Harold, would you like to follow that?
FORD JR.: I agree with Jesse.
PAVLICH: OK, that's all you got?
FORD JR.: I'm not renting a pool. I'm not renting a pool.
GUTFELD: That's a good question. Are you supposed to be home when you rent the pool?
WATTERS: Yes, you can be home.
GUTFELD: See, I thought that you wouldn't be home.
PAVLICH: I'm curious what the liability is, Dagen.
FORD JR.: Yes, you got to have big insurance with this.
PAVLICH: Like if you rent your pool out and someone drowns or gets crazy, you get sued.
MCDOWELL: Huge liability. It would be -- I guess you would have to amend your homeowner's policy because that's what I think about. I also think about the cleaning cost of having to drain it because again, you can catch a lot of things and a dirty pool like folliculitis, disgusting.
PAVLICH: Or Dutch elm disease.
FORD JR.: You want to check the chlorine level. You need to know the chlorine level.
GUTFELD: I got that my freshman year playing soccer.
WATTERS: It's like Dutch elm a little bit.
GUTFELD: Yes, it's like Dutch elm.
PAVLICH: Just like Dutch elm.
GUTFELD: It's the tree. You know, but why -- people are OK with Airbnb-ing houses, why not do the pools.
WATTERS: You're not usually there.
GUTFELD: Yes, that's what -- so you won't be there. You don't have to see these people in your pool.
WATTERS: Yes, this is a voyeurs dream.
PAVLICH: It's pretty brilliant.
MCDOWELL: If there's a Web site for that, Jesse, or many Web sites for that.
PAVLICH: We're not going to talk about those Web sites. All right, "ONE MORE THING" up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MCDOWELL: Time now for "ONE MORE THING." I picked this video because I love the blow-up T-rex costume. And this young man, Sam Hutchinson, is 32 and he was following his grand -- his grandmother, Mary Jackson around a grocery store in England. And I just thought it was funny and sweet. So, that's all I got Greg.
GUTFELD: Yes, it looks a lot like John Kerry. Last time for --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: Greg's international, global, amazing, awesome National Flattery Week.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: Yes, this is it. That's the last day. Let's go to some of the flattery from our viewers, right? OK, hey, Jay Bower says Greg, you're the best and your points are right on. That's nice. And then John says, just being on the same planet as Greg is flattery enough. Greg, you're even more handsome than Jesse. True. And Greg, you have a sharp, sassy mind. You have been flattered.
Here's a -- here's a pictograph. We had a dip last weekend, but it's getting more intense for the last day. It looks like Tuesday we had a lot of flattery, but I think today we're going to over -- we're probably going to beat that number. The happy faces represents 40 million people. Yes, in case you didn't know that.
And now it's time to flatter the panelists. Dagen, you smell like gunpowder and gasoline.
MCDOWELL: Thank you.
GUTFELD: Harold, I like the way you buy people's books.
FORD JR.: Yes, sir.
GUTFELD: Jesse, your glutes look amazing.
WATTERS: Thank you.
GUTFELD: Yes. And, Katie, you know how to handle a piece.
PAVLICH: True.
GUTFELD: There you go.
PAVLICH: Fact check true.
GUTFELD: Last day.
PAVLICH: Thank you, Greg, for the flattery. It's very nice.
GUTFELD: You're welcome.
MCDOWELL: Jesse, serve it up.
WATTERS: All right, so it's National Hot Dog Day, a.k.a. Jesse's Feeding Frenzy. So, to celebrate, we brought in some classic New York hot dogs from Feltman's of Coney Island. That's Feltman's of Coney Island and they're veteran-owned and operated and they give to veterans charities throughout the year. We love that.
And Feldman's is actually named after Charles Feltman. Who was Charles Feltman? He only invented the hot dog back in 1867.
GUTFELD: No, he didn't.
WATTERS: I mean, that's up with the Internet, and maybe the Model T in terms of American --
GUTFELD: I thought it was some guy named Frank.
WATTERS: You'd be wrong. So, let's dig into these dogs while I also promote more of myself on "FOX NEWS PRIMETIME" with Brian Kilmeade at 7:00. You can catch me there.
MCDOWELL: Mama told me never to eat hot dogs or bananas in public but outdo a mustard drank out of the --
WATTERS: Oh, my God.
PAVLICH: That's better.
WATTERS: It's pretty good. It's really good.
MCDOWELL: Harold, go.
WATTERS: Go, Feltman.
FORD JR.: History was made last night at Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay and a first for Major League Baseball. You had an all-women aircrew or crew leading the game. Billie Jean King tweeted late last night, history was made. The broadcast featured Melanie Newman on play-by-play with Sarah Langs as the analysts, Alanna Rizzo -- I hope I'm not butchering names. Alanna Rizzo was the on-field reporter, and Heidi Watney and Lauren Gardner hosted the pregame and postgame coverage.
Hopefully, this becomes a regular in baseball, and for that matter, all of sports. Congratulations to those women.
WATTERS: So many jokes are going through Greg's mind.
GUTFELD: How did you know.
PAVLICH: Do not. Do not.
WATTERS: Because it's going through my mind.
GUTFELD: I'd say, you go, girl. That's what I'm saying.
WATTERS: That's what I would say too.
GUTFELD: I would say, you go, girl.
WATTERS: I was thinking that.
PAVLICH: I'm glad you're eating a hotdog right now.
MCDOWELL: Greg, when you say that, you have to put your hand on your hip.
GUTFELD: You go, girl.
PAVLICH: Go girl. All right, so last time, my husband I and two of our wonderful friends and our best friend, our furry friend, Gadsden, went to the Marine Corps Sunset Parade which takes place every Tuesday night, I believe, in the summertime at Iwo Jima Marine Corps Memorial just outside of Arlington Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, right across the river from Washington D.C.
It's been a tradition since 1956. They also have a different parade called the evening parade that happens down near the Marine barracks in Washington D.C. at nighttime as well. So, there are three more parades. If you're in the area and want to drive in, it' scheduled for the summer all on Tuesdays July 27, August 3, and August 10 7:00 p.m. We had a wonderful full time. They played the National Anthem. They played taps. It was just a great patriotic experience. So, Semper Fi, go Marines.
MCDOWELL: I love that Memorial. It's so beautiful.
PAVLICH: It's so beautiful.
MCDOWELL: That does it for us. "SPECIAL REPORT" is up next. Hey, Bret.
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