'The Five' on mask mandates, Biden's comment on Facebook

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Lawrence Jones worries new mask mandates will be 'harmful'

'The Five' reacts to mask rules back in Los Angeles regardless of vaccine status

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," July 19, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS HOST (on camera): Hey, I'm Greg Gutfeld along with Dagen McDowell, Richard Fowler, Lawrence Jones, and Ainsley Earhardt, "The Five."

Check this, Democrats voting stunt now turning into a super spreader tour. Sounds like fun. But the media is no way to be found. There's no widespread outrage, condemnation, or even claims these Democrats are going to slaughter Americans.

Five Texas state lawmakers, so far, have tested positive for COVID after fleeing their state and posing for selfies, maskless on private planes, the group going on around D.C. last week meeting with top Democrats like Chuck Schumer, having a powwow with Liz Warren that's not tasteful and potentially exposing Kamala Harris to the virus. The V.P. even made a trip to Walter Reed Medical Center yesterday, but the White House is calling that visit a routine appointment. And Jen Psaki doesn't seem to be concerned in the least bit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Is there any safety concern about her spending time around the president until a certain amount of time has passed?

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: She was tested and that she -- there was no detection of COVID-19.

UNKNOWN: There is no separation of the president and the vice president.

PSAKI: There haven't been additional precautions taken out.

DOOCY: Do officials wish that those Texas Democrats would have been more careful and take in more precautions like wearing masks on the flight here?

PSAKI: Again, I don't think I'm going to be in a position here to assess what safety precautions they may or may not have taken.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD (on camera): Ainsley, welcome to the show.

AINSLEY EARHARDT, FOX NEWS HOST: Thank you, Greg.

GUTFELD: I'm not used to having someone taller than me to my right.

EARHARDT: I am sitting on a pillow. These chairs are very low. If I take it off, here we go. Is that better?

GUTFELD: You think we could afford better chairs. You know what, you know what's great about these Democrats. They thought they were Frederick Douglass but they looked more like Fred Flintstone. They turned into a cartoonish vision of what they thought they were going to be.

EARHARDT: I wonder what Kamala thinks of them now.

GUTFELD: Yes.

EARHARDT: Remember she called them heroes? And she said this routine doctor's appointment on a Sunday. Who get the check up on a Sunday? But I wrote down a few things when I started just thinking about how this all has unfolded. They filibuster in Texas, yet they go to Washington encouraging the Dems to eliminate the filibuster. They want everyone in masks on airplanes, you have to wear a mask when you get on an airplane, and sometimes you have to wear it indoors now even if you are vaccinated, yet they didn't wear them on these private planes.

They fly on their private planes to D.C., and they stay in hotels with laundry service, yet they claim hardships. They say sacrifices when they have to wash and hang their wet clothes, sometimes their underwear, in the bathrooms, and they tweet about it.

Kamala Harris says if you're exposed you need to quarantine. She met with them on Tuesday, some of them were testing positive at the end of the week. Yet, when the Democrats asked her, when the media asked her, are you going to quarantine? Her spokesperson said she didn't need to do it.

I'm looking at polling right now. According to the Convention of State Action and Trafalgar survey, pulling for her is so low, you all. She has 60 percent of the voters think she's not ready to be president and 43 percent of them are Democrats. And where is the media outrage, Greg?

GUTFELD: I have this equation, it's like, what would m do if it was r and not d? What would the media do if it was Republicans and not Democrats?

EARHARDT: Correct.

GUTFELD: They'd be cut, we be murderers. Anybody to the right who was part of this would be murderers.

EARHARDT: Hypocrisy.

GUTFELD: Lawrence, this seems to me like the worst trip since Ainsley took mushrooms in college.

EARHARDT: Never done it, never done it.

LAWRENCE JONES, FOX NEWS HOST: On a serious note, --

GUTFELD: Yes.

JONES: -- I think your open was correct. This is about the moment, the fact that they wanted to paint themselves like MLK.

GUTFELD: Yes.

JONES: They wanted to be Douglass. But you've got to do the work to be Douglass.

GUTFELD: Yes.

JONES: You've got to do the work to be MLK. And I think from the media standpoint, they stumbled because the moment never produced itself. Let's be honest what's going to happen. The bill is going to be passed, right? They are going to be arrested when they come back to the state of Texas. They won't be written in the history books. The media won't cover the story anymore, and every single thing that the Republicans want head after negotiating with them for months is going to be drafted in this bill.

So, the question is, where do we go from here? They've got to run on this now. I mean, they already in. The Democratic National Committee is already invested in this. But it was never about Texas, about H.R. 1. It's about better lives in this. They're going to say, look, we tried to fight back in Texas. Even though Politico gave us four Pinocchio's, just like Georgia.

We tried to fight. And this is why we have to run on this in the next election. That it has to be a federalized election system. And then that's when you're going to see the voters push back, because if you know anything about southern states, especially the state of Texas, we don't like the feds being involved in our election system. It's going to backfire.

GUTFELD: I was dismayed that these were actually Democrats from Texas.

JONES: Yes.

GUTFELD: Because I thought they'd be a little bit different. If they get arrested, they can't go to jail, though, because the jails won't hold COVID patients, right?

JONES: Right. That's a good point.

GUTFELD: Richard, what do you make of this? Are we overstating this? You must admit though that there is quite an imbalance from the media perspective. Like the media, this is not a story. But if you just reversed it, it would be leading every show on every network.

EARHARDT: Absolutely.

RICHARD FOWLER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Listen, you know I call balls and strikes. So, I would call the strike on this.

GUTFELD: That's baseball, correct?

FOWLER: That is baseball.

GUTFELD: Thank you.

FOWLER: Just making sure you know your sports. Listen, so where I will give, where I will give a strike here is that they should have had mask on the plane. You can't say that you want everybody else to wear mask in the general public and then you don't wear mask on a plane. So, this is why I call a strike.

Now where I think we lie -- well, herein lies the problem. There are Democrats, Joe Manchin and others, that are actually trying to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Now the John Lewis Voting Rights Act as a rename of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that was passed by LBJ, that was re- passed by Ronald Reagan, that was signed by George H.W. Bush, that was signed by George W. Bush.

It is a very basic piece of law that was -- that has been bipartisan ever since. What it says, in states where there is actual voter suppression, a history of voter suppression, that there should be preclearance by the Justice Department for new voter rules.

This bill can get passed. Right? This bill has bipartisan support in the Senate, it needs 10 votes. It's very close to getting that. I think the story creates a mass. We should have a conversation about the John Lewis Voting Rights Act in this segment. Instead we are talking about these --

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: But the problem is they are pairing what happened during the pandemic as civil rights legislation. This is supposed to be temporary. So, to make --

(CROSSTALK)

FOWLER: Wait a minute. Hold on a second. Hold on a second.

JONES: -- to make the comparison to legislation that was doing during the Civil Rights movement --

FOWLER: I didn't interrupt.

JONES: -- that's the problem.

FOWLER: But to your point, let's also remember that, during the last election, we had more voters vote than ever in America.

GUTFELD: But that's a fair point, though. This was -- we were -- everything that we were being told was temporary.

FOWLER: But wait a minute.

GUTFELD: We are now being told it's permanent.

EARHARDT: Right.

FOWLER: But wait a minute. But wait a minute. And to be fair, in this past election, right, there was no widespread voter fraud that we can -- that passes the court test, right? No federal judge has said we've seen widespread voter fraud.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: Have they been looking at the evidence?

FOWLER: They've -- I mean, I think what --

GUTFELD: I don't know.

FOWLER: There's been more than 48, 50 cases --

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: Yes.

FOWLER: All these cases --

GUTFELD: have they actually been looking at the --

FOWLER: -- have been tracked down by federal

GUTFELD: I don't know. I'm just asking.

FOWLER: -- including the Supreme Court.

DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX NEWS BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: But the rhetoric from the left about what the Texas Republicans want to do. It's just a full pitcher of hogwash.

(CROSSTALK)

FOWLER: But it takes away.

MCDOWELL: Let me finish. That somehow you need 24-hour a day drive-in voting, and if you don't get that which was during the pandemic in one part of Texas, then that's Jim Crow 8.0.

EARHARDT: You know what?

MCDOWELL: That's what doesn't make any sense. I want to focus -- can I just quickly focus on the whole issue of COVID?

GUTFELD: Yes.

MCDOWELL: These Democrats, it doesn't sound like anybody is sick, so wouldn't it be a success story? If they were totally -- if they were fully vaccinated and even if you have a case, it's mild, it is asymptomatic, it wouldn't that be something they are crowing about?

But I can tell you the percentage of people who say they are fully vaccinated, are they telling the truth? Because the percentage of people who got COVID from being on this plane is way out of whack with the study from Harvard. It's one out of 10,000 people who are vaccinated get breakthrough COVID. This is, like, based on the simple back- of-the- envelope math, this is like 10 percent.

GUTFELD: Right.

MCDOWELL: It might be more. So, is somebody not telling the truth here? I'll leave it -- number one. Number two, Kamala Harris should be treating this as a nonevent, going about her business. Because that's the message if you are vaccinated you want to send to the American people. If you come in contact with somebody who has gotten COVID, I've been vaccinated, going about my business. You want to ask me about the media?

GUTFELD: Yes, what about the media, Dagen?

MCDOWELL: I fully expect the screeching, shrieking, preening peacocks and peahens in the media to totally go silent when their fellow asshats in the left wing, in the Democratic Party, make butts out of themselves by completely not following the norms and rules that they breathlessly preach to each other.

FOWELR: I just think we should be having conversation about voting rights.

(CROSSTALK)

MCDOWELL: You know what, they are busy looking for their next --

GUTFELD: We always have -- we have that -- we have that conversation every day. And meanwhile, I want to bring --

(CROSSTALK)

FOWLER: Not voter fraud, voting rights.

GUTFELD: Yes. No, we have talked voting rights.

EARHARDT: But that's --

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: It's very simple, voter I.D. We've been told that voter I.D. --

FOWLER: I'm not against -- I'm not against voter I.D.

GUTFELD: I know. But you're bringing this up.

FOWLER: The voter I.D. should be the college I.D., it should be utility bill.

GUTFELD: Let's get to the heart of it. You guys are saying that voter I.D. is the worst thing since the Civil War.

FOWELR: That's not what I said.

GUTFELD: Well, I'm saying your team that you are defending.

FOWLER: I'm just saying it should be a college I.D., it should be a utility bill. It should be anything that identifies who you are and where you live.

(CROSSTALK)

EARHARDT: OK. Can we -- can we compromise on that. I say then Democrats need to say yes, everyone needs to have a voter I.D., and then I think Republicans can say, so what? We'll let you vote in the middle of the night.

(CROSSTALK)

FOWLER: That's fine. And I'm also for a voter holiday.

EARHARDT: If you want to -- you can vote 24 hours.

FOWLER: If you want to make election day holiday, I'm for that, too.

MCDOWELL: This is for you.

GUTFELD: Yes.

MCDOWELL: While the left-wing media is ignoring what's going on with these Texas Democrats, I'm sure that they are out looking for their next Michael Avenatti.

GUTFELD: Yes, that's true.

MCDOWELL: So, I'm very excited about that.

GUTFELD: I demand a commission. I demand a set of hearings immediately to look into this trip, perhaps an impeachment proceeding. I'm not going to call it an insurrection, but I'm going to think about it tonight. Maybe tomorrow I will.

All right. Up next, crime wave chaos, fans running for their lives after gun fire erupts outside a crowded baseball stadium.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MCDOWELL (on camera): Crime wave chaos coming to President Biden's backyard. Panicked fans and players running for their lives after several loud gunshots rang out during the Washington Nationals Baseball game this weekend. The game had to be suspended.

The Washington, D.C. Police Union is now slamming politicians for the rise in crime, tweeting this. Welcome to Washington, D.C., where violent crime permeates everything. It's a tragedy that elected officials won't let us do our job.

Lawrence, it's not just Washington, D.C., where you've seen spikes in violent crime. It's in major cities across the country. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, I could go on.

JONES: And I've been reporting from the cities for the last three years.

MCDOWELL: Yes.

JONES: It's almost up. Murders, 25 percent. And this is what I call Russian roulette with American people. It's only a matter of time before it hits you or someone that you know. The Democrats, look, I don't think they are evil people. I wouldn't suggest that.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: That's for Richard.

JONES: Even Richard is a nice guy.

EARHARDT: No.

JONES: Richard is a nice guy. I think they know that this is a problem.

GUTFELD: Yes.

JONES: The problem with Democrats is they are married to ideology. That means even when they see their ideology doesn't work, they still stick with it. What's happening with our bill, the fact that violent offenders, even after you commit violent crime, their back on the streets.

EARHARDT: They're out immediately.

JONES: The fact is, when you have D.A.s that don't believe anyone should be behind bars, you've got judges letting people out of the jails, you got the defund the police movement, you have all of this that create a problem that is just bad, and you see it every single day. But they cannot turn their back on the movement.

And as a result, you know what's going to happen? If they don't like the state now, it's going to get a lot worse. Because when people get so tired, they don't care about ideology anymore. They don't care if they're Democrat. They just want someone to stop the bleeding.

And I've -- I've been saying this on Fox, where the solution is very simple. You bring the mayor, you bring the beat cops, the D.A., and you get one judge to look at all the warrants and you kicked down the doors until you find every single one of them.

The problem is no one wants to do the dirty work because of this climate. And look, all of us want equal justice under the law. I've been a criminal justice reform advocate for my entire life. But the way that they are putting these reforms in place, there's no reform for the victims. How about victim reform?

EARHARDT: Good point. Indeed.

MCDOWELL: I want your reaction to this piece, what the police chief said. And I just want to point out this, Nyiah Courtney, the 6-year-old who was shot over the weekend and killed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT CONTEE III, CHIEF OF POLICE, WASHINGTON, D.C.: I want everyone to look at this. Six years old, of southeast D.C., was struck by gunfire and did not survive her injuries. No more. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCDOWELL (on camera): Ainsley, there are young children like that all over this country, weekend after weekend who were shot and killed.

EARHARDT: Yes, you are right, Dagen. And her name is Nyiah Courtney, she was six years old, she was walking on the street just like we all do as mothers with our little girls, and she was shot. Car comes by, guns down. Mom is shot, mom is in the ICU, the grandmother was on Fox & Friends this morning. I don't even know even though she did it, how she got the interview.

But look how beautiful this little girl is. She wanted to be a dancer. Her teacher said she was so smart, they thought maybe a veterinarian or some sort of a doctor. She was going into first grade. She got accepted into a charter school. She had an older sister who she adored, she wanted to look just like her grandmother, so she had her hair braided last week and said, "we look like twins."

This little girl, do not forget her face. Her grandmother came on Fox & Friends this morning and said, I hope whoever shot her will go to sleep for the rest of her lives and always think about her, and think about her when they wake up in the morning, and turn themselves in. That is the grandmother's prayer. She wants justice for these killers.

But when you hear about all these cities that we love and all the crimes that are being committed, kids can't walk down the street. Every morning on Fox & Friends -- we get a stack of packet, too. We get a stack of packets of all the people that were shot in Chicago over the weekend, all the people that were shot in New York.

You go through the list, it's like a 5-year-old walking on the street, 6- year-old walking on the street with a parent, the list goes on and on, teenagers being killed. We've got to do something about it. These are lives and we need to remember their faces and their names, too.

MCDOWELL: I want to point out that bail reform, getting rid of cash bail here in New York City has been part of the problem. Because there are people -- there are criminals who wind up back on the street immediately. There's no bail. Vice President Harris and President Biden both backed bail reform, Richard.

FOWLER: Listen. Nyiah Courtney lived six blocks from my house. This girl lives in my neighborhood. I live in this neighborhood. Sn to sit there and say it's just defund -- it's just the defund the police is really trying to -- is really putting --

(CROSSTALK)

MCDOWELL: I didn't say --

FOWLER: No, no, no. I'm not saying you. I'm saying in general.

JONES: She gave a whole list.

FOWLER: I'm saying what happened on that, what's happening on this particular block, on the corner of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, is you have six liquor stores on the same block. Right? And that's the problem and the community, my community, since I moved there, have been having a conversation with the city about how do we shut down six liquor stores.

And it took Nyiah dying for the city of D.C. to finally shut down Mark liquors. mark liquors and because of ANC commissioner who said these liquor stores got to be shut down because these liquor stores are a nuisance to the community. It has been 11 homicides on this particular corner where Nyiah died.

So, when we have a conversation about how we fix the community, my point here is we have to have community as part of the conversation.

(CROSSTALK)

MCDOWELL: Wait --

FOWLER: It's can't just be elected officials, --

JONES: You know what --

FOWLER: -- it can't just be police. It has to be --

JONES: That is so wrong.

FOWLER: What do you --

JONES: To blame the location as the cause of the crime?

FOWLER: That's not what I said.

JONES: You know what it is?

FOWLER: That's not what I said.

JONES: You said it's the liquor stores.

FOWLER: I said when you have seven liquor stores --

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: How about the criminal -- how about the people not turning the people in?

FOWLER: -- in a community that's causing a nuisance.

JONES: the chief got on national TV and said --

(CROSSTALK)

FOWLER: Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.

MCDOWELL: I want to get Greg in here.

JONES: That's ridiculous.

MCDOWELL: Greg.

FOWLER: Hold up.

MCDOWELL: Go.

GUTFELD: Yes. You know what, I want to talk -- there is an interesting thing that happened, and it was a stadium shooting. It sounds terrible. You know, people thought it was coming from inside, it was outside. To you guys, to your points, imagine that's on your street in front of your yard, whether it's D.C. or Chicago and it's your kids playing outside. You don't have to imagine it, because that happens every single day. Right?

EARHARDT: Yes.

GUTFELD: So, now, this story is really a big story because the press were there. CNN covered this because CNN reporters were there. They were enjoying a game. Right? I said this, I think it was two weeks ago, I said crime doesn't matter until the people removed from it experience the reality firsthand. And now CNN realized it, and you finally covered crime.

After mocking us every single day when we were talking about crime, and Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo, mocking us for caring about black on black crime, and joking about it. Actually, joking about it. And then finally admitting it had a political ramification. Not a moral one.

So now, now you have it happening at a baseball game, where the press are, and that was shocking. And their families got scared, and it's a terrible experience. But now they are reacting because it hurt them intimately and now, they understand how other people feel.

The problem with the press right now, and how they deal with crime, is that they are so divorced from it. On Canal Street on Saturday, at 10.30 in the morning, the Asian mother and her son were thrown down a flight of stairs. She's in critical condition, her head is bashed in. The guy is still on the loose.

The press doesn't really cover it, they don't care because you know what. They don't know them. They don't know them. But they know the professional athletes. They have tickets to that game, so that's why that was so important to them.

I really think the reason why people aren't covering this stuff, it's this demonization by association. If we come out against crime, they can be on our side. So they have to step away and go, hold on, you know, maybe this is racist. Right? Maybe they are just going against -- they conflate black on black crime with blacks.

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: Well, they better --

GUTFELD: They're the ones doing it.

JONES: They better get ready, because they're coming to the suburbs, as well.

GUTFELD: Yes.

JONES: It's no longer just the major cities. Whether you like it or not, and we all have a part in this.

FOWLER: Of course, we do. And I think part of it is also --

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: And it is not the liquor stores.

FOWLER: -- that we get illegal guns off of our streets. The man who shot Nyiah wasn't a concealed gun carry owner. He had an illegal gun. So, we are not having a conversation about illegal guns.

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: In case you didn't --

FOWLER: It's that we're having the wrong conversation.

JONES: In case you didn't notice, New York has some of the toughest gun -- but everybody is shooting everybody.

FOWLER: Yes, but we're -- those guns are legal.

(CROSSTALK)

MCDOWELL: We've got to go. It's a whole lot of problems, just look at New York, because it's bail reform. It's getting rid of the anti-gun, anti- crime street unit, it is letting prisoners out of Rikers Island. It was, you know what? Guess who uses illegal guns? Criminals!

FOWLER: Criminals! I agree.

MCDOWELL: That's why -- and they're full -- our streets are full of them because of the liberal policies, period. I don't even know who I'm yelling at. Bad.

President Biden trying to clean up a huge mess after the White House pushes Facebook to censor Americans.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JONES (on camera): Welcome back. President Biden trying to clean up a big mess after the White House said it was working with Facebook to censor Americans. The president even claim Facebook had blood on its hands. But now after the backlash Biden is trying to walk it back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated. And they are killing people.

I was asked that question about what I do think is happening. Facebook isn't killing people. These 12 people are out there giving misinformation. Anyone listening to it is getting hurt by it. It's killing people. It's bad information. My hope is that Facebook, instead of taking it personally, that somehow, I'm saying Facebook is killing people, that they would do something about the misinformation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES (on camera): Dagen, does that spin pass the smell test?

MCDOWELL: No, I love how Facebook now is like, they're just mad because they miss their vaccine target, so they're going to blame us. So, does Facebook understand what is dealing with? Biden and company and all the liberal lemmings they are neither your friend nor your ally. They want to control you, and they will, if you don't get on board with what they are doing, they will call you a murderer, in essence.

I know that Biden walked that back, but this is essentially what Jen Psaki said last week, oh, if you're bothered by the White House trampling on the Constitution, the First Amendment, censoring speech online, government overreach, well then somehow you want people to die from COVID, that that's the choice.

And it's threatening language. It's -- you know, they're trying -- they're doing what all fascists do as Karol Markowicz would say, every fascist always has a great reason why they want to shut down information and speech. It's always for your own good.

I will add one last thing. Anybody who wants to talk about the vaccine blame game, let's start with Kamala Harris and her fear-mongering about the vaccine in the kind of anti -- the kind of anti-vax science denier last year talking about the Trump vaccine. Joe Biden did it. Andy Cuomo did it. So, if they're talking about people not getting vaccinated, it is on the Biden administration's shoulders because it started last year.

JONES: Richard, you're someone that values liberty, right? So, are you concerned that the White House has coordinated with a private company?

FOWLER: I could -- I'll be real on this one. I could care less about whether they're talking to Facebook or asking them to do this or do that because for me, I think it's about American lives. I think what we know is this. Right now, COVID, through this Delta variant is on the spread.

And like you guys said this morning, Ainsley on the show, you, Steve, and Brian talked about if you have a chance to get this vaccine, please get this vaccine because I don't want to see another American lose their life, whether it be because of misinformation, whether it be because you hate the Democrats, whether it because you hate me, because I'm a Democrat, whether because you don't like your doctor. It really doesn't matter.

The information is out there, go to the CDC Web site. Read up on it. Please get the vaccine so you can save your life, you can save your family's life, because I don't want to see another American lose their life when they have a chance to get this vaccine and be saved, period.

JONES: Thankfully, you follow it up by saying also on the show, it's your choice.

EARHARDT: Right. So, and that's -- we can dive into what Facebook is saying, let's be honest, we all have the information now. We know we should wear a mask if you -- if you feel safer that way. We know about social distancing. We know that there are three vaccines that are readily available for all of us. We have the information in front of us. Now it's up to you to decide.

I'm OK with Facebook putting everything on there, and then I can flip through all the research, I can print out the articles, and I can make a decision that's best for my family, I can sit down with my doctor. What was best for me was to get the vaccine. I don't know if it's offered to my daughter. I'll have to have conversations with her doctor whether or not that's going to be best for her and what that means for her down the road. But I get to make that decision. And that's what is great about America. They're giving us the information.

And listen, there's the lady who's pregnant who says I'm going to wait till after the baby is born because I'm worried. There's the lady that has that rare disease, and her doctor said you are not getting this. And that's their decision. So, I think we have all the information now. Everyone needs to take a step back, realize this is serious, talk to your doctor and make your own choice.

JONES: Greg, this is rooted in laziness. Instead of doing the work to convince the population and giving the information that they need, they want to force it down your throat.

GUTFELD: Yes, I mean, I disagree completely with Richard on this. It has nothing to do with information. It has to do with a violation of the First Amendment. With the government is pressuring the spigots of information, that is a violation of the First Amendment. It doesn't matter if it's for wrong information. We're not all going to be right.

A hundred -- like, if you're expecting 100 percent right information, it's never going to happen. This is for wrong information. The people -- and you can't expect the people who pushed a four-year collusion lie to have any authority on information much -- well, they're not authority on misinformation, but that's that label is also nonsense, because it's designed to remove you from a conversation and it's being wielded by the last people on earth you should trust, social media giants and the media and the government in general.

They believe you have blood on your hands over misinformation, but do not even talk about murder, they don't talk about crime rates, but they talk about whether or not your aunt, you know, sent a meme that was critical of Fauci.

FOWLER: But Greg -- but Greg, to be fair, I mean, every amendment, every -- the whole constitution has limits. And one of the limits on the constitution was you can't walk into a movie theater know that and you'll fire.

GUTFELD: We know that.

FOWLER: But wait a minute. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Allow me to make my point. But if you're going to -- if you're saying --

EARHARDT: You already --

FOWLER: But if you're saying that the vaccine gives you COVID, that's the same thing. That's a justifiable thing.

JONES: We're going to finish this up in a commercial, but --

MCDOWELL: Can I say -- can I say one thing. Please, for the love of God, we 30 percent of migrants won't take the vaccine. Did they get it from Facebook? There's an insidious motive by this Biden administration. Two NFL teams didn't hit the 50 percent vaccination mark. Did they get it from 12 people on Facebook? Hell, no, they didn't.

JONES: And that would be the last word. Coming up, get ready to cover up again. Mask mandates are making a big return. That's next on THE FIVE.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

EARHARDT: Good song. Well, the mask mandates are making a big comeback. Current CDC guidelines say that vaccinated Americans -- they told us that we didn't have to cover up, right, we didn't have to wear the mask. But Los Angeles and Nevada are now telling people they need to wear them indoors even if they got the shot. And President Biden's Surgeon General is backing the move.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VIVEK MURTHY, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: In areas where there are low numbers of vaccinated people or where cases are rising, it's very reasonable for counties to take more mitigation measures like the mask rules that you see coming out in LA. And I anticipate that will happen in other parts of the country too.

EARHARDT: So, Lawrence, I want everyone to stay safe. And I know the Delta variant is spreading. However, this is not what they told us. So, many people got the shot so that they could take that mask off?

JONES: Well, I was one of them. It took me a while to get the -- I was very open with it because I thought it was great to be transparent with the audience. And I had a lot of antibodies. And I kept getting test after test after test. But when they ran out, then I said, you know what, I want to go back to normal. I don't want -- I don't want to have to wear my mask in the gym. And so, I made the commitment. It talked with my doctor, got all the information.

The problem here is the inconsistent messaging here, right? If the vaccine works, it should be in the story. But now, it's become dot, dot, dot variable after variable. And as a result, that's why people aren't getting the vaccine. And so, I just think this is harmful. This is harmful for the cause. They want to point fingers at everyone else, the Republicans. They even point fingers at Fox News, but it's them, the inconsistent messaging.

EARHARDT: So, Greg, there's a report out of Israel today, and it says the efficacy of the vaccine does go down according to this report with the Delta variant. So, how do we handle this variant?

GUTFELD: I don't know enough about it. I've heard -- I've read that it's not as fatal, but it's more contagious. And my sense is that this could be around forever, that COVID becomes something as like, as its own independent thing, like a flu, and that -- and it has -- it will be there and we have to deal with it over and over or the mechanism could just be there.

Every time an expert comes up and says there's a new variant, the masks come back on. So, it may not end. The solution is, you know, if you're -- if you want to wear a mask, wear a mask. If you're vaccinated, and you don't want to wear a mask, don't wear a mask. If a store says they don't want you and there, you go, fine, I'm not going to go there.

But I know that you know, a year and a half ago, you know, everybody's concerned about facts and information. I'm going to say what I said and I still hold by it, there are two major risk factors, age and weight. You can only control one of those. So, if you -- if you -- if we have a new threat to our lives for the rest of our lives, you have to be responsible about your physical health.

You have to look in the mirror and go, well, you know what, maybe it's time that I get on a routine, that I start losing weight, because people -- you know, obesity, when you talk to any doctor, that's up there, right? It's up there. You can -- you can deal with that.

EARHARDT: Dagen, that's pretty scary when you think about it. A new variant, another mask, we could go on for the rest of our lives like this.

MCDOWELL: I'm not afraid at all. I've got antibodies, I've been vaccinated, no more mask. I've been wearing them and got blepharitis and like (INAUDIBLE) all over my eyes.

EARHARDT: That doesn't seem to matter anymore.

MCDOWELL: That doesn't matter anymore. You still might have to wear it.

MCDOWELL: You know what, actually I don't have to wear it. L.A. County -- this is -- I'm talking about government mandates, local mandates like L.A. County and parts in Nevada, they're going to tell people if you're inside, you have to wear a mask, everybody in that area, even if you're vaccinated. That is the equivalent of lowering the speed limit to 10 miles per hour because some people, a minority of people refuse to wear a seatbelt. It makes no sense.

EARHARDT: Richard, what do you think about these colleges? The Biden administration, Biden said I'm, I'm fine with colleges telling you have to have the vaccine to come back here. What about our civil liberties? What about privacy? I mean, opening up our medical charts to a college?

FOWLER: Well, I think this is a very, very -- I'm very mixed on this because I understand where Lawrence is about this. You know, listen, I got the vaccine. I was where Dagen is. I got the vaccine, I don't want to wear a mask. But I also understand what the Surgeon General saying, look, we have places that have a very low vaccination rate, we have a spike in the Delta variant. This delta variant is more deadly than previous variants.

EARHARDT: More contagious.

GUTFELD: I don't know if it's more deadly.

FOWLER: There's no -- the data is out. The jury is out on that particular point.

EARHARDT: Yes, you'll never know it could change.

FOWLER: Right. But my point is that there is -- there's two mixed messages here. And I think it's hard -- I literally as I was sitting up there prepping for this. I'm like, I see both sides of this argument and it's very hard to say --

JONES: Don't you think, Richard, a little bit of it is mental, though. I mean, I was just in the store the other day. The clerk told the lady that had her mask on, you don't have to wear your mask anymore. And she literally said that they were psychological and made him just stared at each other, because that's what it's becoming about. But don't force it on other people. If you don't want to wear a mask, do it.

FOWLER: I think -- but to Greg's point, if -- I think if you walk into a store, I think if you're on a college campus, and said to be on this campus, you have to wear a mask, I think -- or you have to be vaccinated, I think that's fair.

GUTFELD: Outside absurd.

JONES: No, I never wore it outside.

EARHARDT: Outside absurd.

GUTFELD: Yes. Well, there's till people jogging in this --

EARHARDT: I know. There's still people out in New York. Okay, "THE FASTEST" is up next. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOWLER: Welcome back. It's time for "THE FASTEST." First up, don't try this at home. A Colorado teen drove his car into a swimming pool after mistakenly hitting the gas instead of the brakes. Divers were able to use a towing service to recover the car and the team was issued a citation. Ainsley, I mean, an infinity and a car in a pool.

EARHARDT: OK, first of all -- I know, an Infinity. I'm so sorry. But I'm glad he's OK. I'm glad he's okay. So, the police station, once they knew that he was OK, they said check out our new infinity pool. My dad would kill me though. I'm telling you. I'd be scared -- I'd be more terrified of my dad than I would be in that water.

FOWLER: Greg?

GUTFELD: Yes, the only thing worse than driving a car to a pool is beginning to segment with don't try this at home. That's not your fault, Richard. Whoever wrote that, see me after the show. I'm totally against swimming while driving. This is idiotic. But you know what he was doing. He was texting.

JONES: That's exactly it.

GUTFELD: And it's like, if you kill anybody when you're texting, you should be charged with murder. That's fair enough.

FOWLER: Dagen?

MCDOWELL: So, you hit the gas instead of the break.

GUTFELD: He was texting.

MCDOWELL: Right? But it's -- but what happens is when you're running out of the road, you hit the gas -- you hit the accelerator, and you wind up in a pool. I know from personal experience, six months -- six weeks after I got my driver's license, I had a full size bronco, I had a boom box between the two seats and I was looking down --

GUTFELD: There you go.

MCDOWELL: -- adjusting it. And I hit the gas and uprooted the 12-foot diameter Juniper bush at Virginia elder's house. And my father is texting me about it today because he won't let me forget it.

GUTFELD: Not well driving.

FOWLER: So, Lawrence, how much do you think the ticket was?

JONES: Oh, it's a lot. It's a lot.

EARHARDT: And they have to buy a new car.

JONES: All I could think of is, you know, whenever I got in trouble young, I would always say just don't call my parents.

EARHARDT: Me too.

JONES: They got to call your parents. When this happens --

(CROSSTALK)

FOWLER: (INAUDIBLE)

JONES: Exactly. Like, it's there. Everybody in the community knows about this poor guy.

EARHARDT: Oh my gosh.

FOWLER: I just -- I mean, but they have like professional divers there. This is a whole setup, man. They have to float it up. Listen -- anyway, "ONE MORE THING" is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUTFELD: Time now for one more thring, thring, it's a thring. I'm a little hungover.

JONES: Yes, you're tired.

GUTFELD: All right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: It's Greg's international, global, amazing, awesome, national flattery week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: That's right. We're day five of flattery week. It started on Thursday and it is crazy out there. Let's go to the charts. OK, the first chart. There you go. Flattery week update, we've had -- we've seen a quite -- 58 percent mainly the flatteries towards grandparents, 29 percent towards spouses, 12 percent co-workers, and weird, creepy one percent on plants. People are flattering their plants.

Let's go to the flattery week update bar graph. Northeast is leading the way with about 40 percent, followed by the southeast, northeast -- southwest and northwest are kind of tied. My last chart here flattery week update as you see as the flattery week goes up, as the flattery increases, CNN viewership plummets. And I think that's more than a correlation, it's actually causation.

And as you know, during flattery week, I flatter everybody at the table usually with flattery that is right on the edge. So --

JONES: Let's hear it.

GUTFELD: So, Dagen, you're a tough hot broad.

JONES: OK.

GUTFELD: How's that?

JONES: Are you flattered?

MCDOWELL: Yes.

GUTFELD: OK, cool. Richard, you are --

MCDOWELL: I was like, what?

GUTFELD: You were extremely well-groomed.

JONES: OK.

FOWLER: Yes, I'll take that.

GUTFELD: Lawrence, I love your style.

JONES: I love that.

GUTFELD: Yes.

JONES: Thank you.

GUTFELD: And Ainsley, you're just a babe. So, there you go.

EARHARDT: Thank you.

GUTFELD: So, send your H.R. complaints to me, care of Greg Gutfeld. Next, Lawrence.

JONES: I like this segment. Jesse would never do this segment.

GUTFELD: You're helping Jesse by doing this.

MCDOWELL: You know what I actually do?

JONES: What?

MCDOWELL: I do flatter my plants. I talk to my orchids and tell them how fabulously gorgeous they are.

JONES: Oh, wow.

GUTFELD: They're very sexy.

JONES: Are they growing or they're dying.

MCDOWELL: They're dying.

JONES: I want you guys to meet Rex. He's a pet, maybe the wildest pet I've ever seen. He's a six-foot-long monitor lizard that weighs over 40 pounds, but also lives in a home in U.K. with a family of four. They even take him on walks when in leash. Rex's owner, Matt, said that lizard is more like a puppy than a reptile.

EARHARDT: Does he kiss him.

JONES: And he loves nothing more than going on walks with the kids. Look at this. And check this out, guys. The pet is allowed to have free range in the house. He can -- and he even got lost in the sofa. This is crazy.

GUTFELD: Yes. I wonder what his poops are like.

JONES: I don't understand why --

GUTFELD: I think about that anytime I see an animal. That's all I think about.

JONES: Can we just let animal stay in their natural habitat?

GUTFELD: I don't know.

EARHARDT: Right.

MCDOWELL: By the way, they're not venomous. Most monitor lizards, the komodo dragon is a type of monitor lizard.

GUTFELD: Yes.

MCDOWELL: But if you do get bitten by one, they have horrible bacteria in their mouths and their saliva and so you could get very, very --

JONES: Dagen, how do you know this?

GUTFELD: Dagen, it's your turn.

MCDOWELL: OK. Here's a -- here's a French dude in a sumo suit body surfing. Take a look. I'm going to say this -- do we have it? There you go.

GUTFELD: There you go.

MCDOWELL: He's in a sumo suit. Oh, it's a sumo and rash guard combo.

EARHARDT: Oh, without a surfboard.

MCDOWELL: Yes, apparently, unless it's some trick. Anyway, his name is Guillaume Mangiarotti and he's a badass. I think this is a trend, actually, which I will not be trying.

JONES: Oh, wow.

MCDOWELL: That's just me -- that's just me in a one-piece at the beach.

EARHARDT: That's right.

MCDOWELL: Me too. I'm with you.

GUTFELD: That was like fun.

EARHARDT: OK.

GUTFELD: All right, Ainsley.

EARHARDT: I have one about the Olympics. So, we know the Olympics are coming up and Specialists Bernard Keter, he's going to be there to represent Team USA and the U.S. military. He's 29 years old. He's an immigrant from Kenya. He joined the army in 2016 while attending, Lawrence, Texas Tech. He came to the U.S. on a scholarship. He runs with the Army's world-class athlete program.

He said of his 3000-meter steeplechase Olympic run, I'll be doing this for you the U.S., doing it for the Army, doing it for myself, and doing it for my family. And we can't wait to watch him because he makes us proud.

JONES: That's right.

GUTFELD: It's going to be a crazy Olympics. Very strange.

EARHARDT: It will be.

JONES: No fans.

GUTFELD: No, yes. They should have a separate COVID-only Olympics where you test for -- it's a bad idea. I already just know when I just said.

JONES: Yes.

GUTFELD: It's a stupid idea, Greg. What am I thinking? I should just shut up and tell Richard it's his turn. Richard, it's your turn.

EARHARDT: At least you recognize it.

FOWLER: At least you caught it.

(CROSSTALK)

EARHARDT: He fought it before the time is up.

JONES: And Dana didn't have to hold your hand.

GUTFELD: Yes, it's true.

FOWLER: She would be very proud of you. She would be very proud. So, last week, I served as a trainer for the Congressional Black Caucus Institute's boot camp. It's a seven-day intensive, nonpartisan candidate training focused on providing training for -- a cutting-edge training in leadership, communications, fundraising and voter engagement. Bravo to the 35 graduates. That's my group there. They were great.

And so, they are -- they're going to do bright things from all across the country, from California, from Alabama, from Georgia, from Texas. They're from all over and they spent a week with us in Piney Point, Maryland where we train them on everything it takes to be a candidate. They were from both sides of the aisle. It's amazing. So, I wish these kids nothing but the best. And you know, they're going to be great.

EARHARDT: You are a good person. That is so great, Richard.

JONES: You know that guy that's next to you, his name DeMarcus. He's from my hometown.

FOWLER: Yes. We actually talked about you.

JONES: Yes, yes. I know that guy.

FOWLER: He actually talked about you.

MCDOWELL: Welcome to the south.

GUTFELD: Yes.

JONES: He knows all the school board --

(CROSSTALK)

MCDOWELL: It's such a small world. Everybody knows everybody.

GUTFELD: Watch my show tonight 11:00 p.m. I have Steve Hilton, Rob Long, Kat Timpf, Jimmy Failla. That's it for us. "SPECIAL REPORT" is up next. Hello, Bret.

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