Pavlich: Biden has trouble defending his presidency
'The Five' panelists discuss how Biden has avoided questions from the media since taking office.
This is a rush transcript from "The Five," January 10, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
JON TAFFER, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER/HOST, BAR RESCUE: About 20 percent as beverage costs. When you put it together, just the costs can run 60 percent before you pay your rent and utilities.
(CROSSTALK)
NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR (on camera): There got to be something.
TAFFER: It's too tight of a margin to make it work. We really need this relief package.
CAVUTO: We shall see, Jon. We shall --
JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: Hello, everybody. I'm Jesse Watters along with Greg Gutfeld, Dana Perino, Katie Pavlich, and Harold Ford, Jr. It's five o'clock in New York City, and this is THE FIVE.
The country in utter chaos under Joe Biden's leadership. And the president does not want to answer any of the tough questions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: May God protect our troops. Thank you all very much.
(CROSSTALK)
UNKNOWN: Can you (Inaudible) in order to lower gasoline prices.
BIDEN: Thank you very much.
(CROSSTALK)
UNKNOWN: Mr. President --
BIDEN: Thank you very much.
UNKNOWN: Mr. President, what can you say (Inaudible) the children in the border facilities?
UNKNOWN: Are you willing to visit the border, Mr. President?
UNKNOWN: Mr. President --
BIDEN: Thank you very much.
UNKNOWN: Are you ready for the press conference tomorrow, sir?
BIDEN: What conference?
UNKNOWN: The press conference.
UNKNOWN: Can you put an (Inaudible) for the (Inaudible), sir?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS (on camera): The White House getting called out for putting Biden in the presidential witness protection program and things are getting so bad that even the left-wing Associated Press is knocking Biden for falling short on transparency and avoiding important questions.
In fact, Biden has done fewer news conferences and interviews than the last five presidents and it's not even close. Biden has only held nine news conferences since taking office compared to Trump's 22 and Obama's 27. He is outpacing the others with 200 informal Q&A's when he's relentlessly pounded by the media. But the White House says Biden is always eager to talk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He takes questions multiple times a week. His schedule has been quite packed. But he would like to do it. Hopefully we will be able to add some local interviews in the next couple of weeks.
The president is taking your questions. This president has done 140, I don't even know, maybe 150 by now, short Q&A's where he takes questions from the press. Typically, a couple times a week. It's just not accurate to suggest that he isn't accessible or doesn't answer questions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS (on camera): All right. So, Dana, I don't like the way they fudge these numbers on the count. These informal Q&A's? This is what they count as an informal Q&A? He leaves Marine One. He stops by. Someone goes how is Build Back Better going? He says it's going well and then he walks away and that's counted as one informal Q&A. So, if you take that out of there, he's barely talking to the press at all.
DANA PERINO, FOX NEWS CO-HOST: Well, if I could just start by saying we are going to celebrate your news at the end of the show. So, everyone, stick around. We are thrilled for you.
WATTERS: Thank you.
PERINO: And we are going to have a chance to talk about it. Mr. Primetime. So, hell hath no fury like a D.C. media scorned. But they are right to be. I mean, remember this is the campaign, the Biden campaign promised to return to normal and I have a feeling that a lot of people in the press corps don't think this is very normal, especially if you just look at those numbers.
All right. Counting informal Q&As really does feel like a cop-out. However, there's a little bit of cost benefit analysis or risk assessment that seems to be going on in the White House. Which is, is it better to put him out there to take questions or not? Is it better to have stories like this lead THE FIVE that says he's not taking enough questions rather than have him take questions and cause perhaps additional problems?
There's a calculation that you have to make which is why would we put the president out today? What message are we trying to deliver? Can he seal the deal, can he advance the legislative agenda? Can he move Joe Manchin by doing an interview in West Virginia, et cetera?
And to me, I think that their answer is they ask all those questions, they do all these calculations and they decide they'd much rather start off THE FIVE with this story rather than something else.
WATTERS: Katie, doesn't he have to create a story arc for his presidency? He has to do that himself rhetorically. No one is going to do it for him. And he's the most powerful man in the world. He's got to tell us what his presidency is all about.
KATIE PAVLICH, FOX NEWS CO-HOST: He has trouble defending his presidency. He has trouble defending the fact that Democrats are at odds with his agenda including moderate Democrats, when he ran as a moderate. And he has a very difficult time justifying what he's been trying to push through Congress or when he has done with executive orders through the press.
And it's interesting throughout his presidency for the last year, which is not typical, Jen Psaki, the press secretary, often briefs on the same day that Joe Biden --
PERINO: Yes.
PAVLICH: -- gives a big speech or does a press conference, which is strange. Usually, would allow the president's words to stand for themselves. But she is always on standby to clean up or to answer further questions or to clarify maybe what the president meant if he stumbled and doesn't say something that's quite accurate, which he has done a number of times.
Dana is absolutely right. This is all about risk and cost benefit to him going out there and saying something that Jen Psaki has to clean up for an entire week. We saw this with the last summer when the infrastructure bill and the spending bill where it was being debated for the first time and Joe Biden said he wasn't going to sign either one of them unless they came together, even though he had just negotiated with Republicans that they would be separate bills and they spent an entire week trying to clean that up and paragraphs of statement.
But when it comes to the press here, I don't know what they expected. This is what Joe Biden did on the campaign trail. He was in his basement. He never took questions. President Trump held press conferences for hours on end, so long that they ran out of questions and yet they spent all their energy attacking him instead of being grateful for the access.
WATTERS: Yes, Greg, they help elect a guy and then they complain that the guy they helped elect isn't talking to them enough.
GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS CO-HOST: GUTFELD: Well, that's part of that, that's part of their game. Right? They have to look like they are perturbed when they really are. Remember how much stuff, how much stuff we learned under Trump, whether we liked it or not? Because he did everything in front of you.
He was like those loud parents were all the kids can hear all the fights. He was doing it in real time and it was just the press interviews. Every day he was pulling back the curtain by ask -- by not just the press asking him questions but he was asking everybody else questions.
PERINO: Yes.
GUTFELD: And that, and so he literally was -- not literally, figuratively pulling back the curtain while Joe has the blinds drawn and the curtains are close to and the White House is as transparent as frosted mud. Now if - - because it's Monday and I want to do an analogy. It's been a long time since I've done that analogy.
If the presidency were a car, Donald Trump would be like a convertible doorless dune buggy. You know, you can see it all, as it's going up and down the dunes, just like the banana splits. Right? But Joe Biden he's like a black SUV with illegal tinted windows. You can't see in but they can see out. The whole key is you are not supposed to know who's actually driving that SUV.
Every day we knew who was driving that dune buggy. It was the crazy man with the orange hair. But this, we don't know what's going on. We don't know who's in control and they want to keep it that way.
Meanwhile, Joe is like the last customer at a diner, you know who was oblivious to everybody waiting around wanting to leave. You know? There's inflation. There is crime. There's school lockdowns and he's just having the best time because he's completely unaffected by these problems. He's is in his ninth decade, you know, he's just happy to have the soup.
WATTERS: Yes, he'll have another cup of coffee.
GUTFELD: Yes.
WATTERS: All right. Harold, who is driving the tinted-out SUV?
HAROLD FORD, JR., FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, first off, congrats, man.
WATTERS: Thank you.
FORD: That's heck of a metaphor that Greg used --
GUTFELD: Thank you.
FORD: -- with the cars there. I do know that every president tries to manage his coverage. Dana knows as well better than anybody on this panel. Some have been more successful than others. W had success. Reagan had success with Deaver and Baker.
I think as you think about Biden, I think one of the things that he's having the biggest challenge with, I think you and Katie nailed it when he said others are defining his presidency. He is letting others deliver the message and deliver the message around his message.
The presidency is really about developing, to your point, Jesse, a narrative, a compelling one, a constant one. Changing and adjusting as some of the circumstances and some of the press may change or facts may change around things but you have to have a compelling vision for why you want to be president. And you should be organized around it. Otherwise, people will define it for you.
Take Build Back Better. All Build Back Better was, was a big heap of money in the minds of people who were really opposed to it. People really didn't understand what was in it. Those who were against it defined it as a big grab for climate change when in fact there are other things there. When you pull separately or individually that measure up and measure well with the country.
So, I think they should take and learn from it, understand he has 215 or whatever that number was, 216 informal Q&As. Spend a little more time trying to define the presidency, define that narrative and allow the president's values and motives to come out as he's -- as he's explaining and as he's defending and trying to gather support within his own party and obviously with independents and Republicans alike.
WATTERS: Yes, I think initially the narrative was that he was going to beat the virus and then he failed, so what are we talking about here? It looks like Jen Psaki is the one driving the tinted-out SUV.
GUTFELD: Congratulations, Jesse.
WATTERS: Thank you, Greg.
GUTFELD: Yes. I guess I don't know what it's about but I'll just have to wait till the end of the show.
WATTERS: We will only invite you to the important meetings.
GUTFELD: That's right.
PERINO: Deep tease.
WATTERS: Coming up, never ending COVID confusion. Wait until you hear the bombshell admission from the CDC director.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUTFELD (on camera): More confusion from the government agency that we are supposed to trust for sound information on the virus. The CDC director unable to answer this important question.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Do you know how many of the 836,000 deaths in the U.S. linked to COVID are from COVID? Or how many with COVID but they had other comorbidities? Do you have that breakdown quest?
ROCHELLE WALENSKY, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: Yes, of course, with Omicron we are following that very carefully. Our death registry of course takes a few weeks to -- and this -- takes a few weeks to collect and of course Omicron has just been with us for a few weeks but there was data will be forthcoming.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD (on camera): So, after dodging that on Fox yesterday the CDC director now suddenly had all the info.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WALENSKY: The overwhelming number of deaths, over 75 percent, occurred in people who had at least four comorbidities. So really, these are people who were unwell to begin with.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD (on camera): So, Dana, I understand like, you know, it's a novel virus. So, people make mistakes. The information is always changing. But I guess what always bugged us is that it was often the experts in the media who scandalized a lot of the sensible assumptions that people were making about the origin, you know, of the virus. About the comorbidities. So, it's like, who do we trust at this point? Is it basically we can only trust ourselves?
PERINO: The CDC director is starting to say things that you used to get band on Twitter for saying.
GUTFELD: Exactly.
PERINO: And I admire the fact that she has decided to get somebody to help her on media relations and communications. She's a great scientist, I think probably a great doctor. Communicating to the public is not necessarily everyone's strong suit so I'm for that.
But I think one of the things that they should tell her in one of those sessions is that a lot -- a little humility can go a long way. To say like, imagine if they started every press conference by saying this is a novel virus. We are continuing to learn things every day. We are going to share with you what we have. It might not be all the information we are continuing to learn as we go along. We will keep you informed. All information welcome.
Something like that just to give people a little sense that they are doing that. But it's one thing for the CDC director. Right? But here you have a Supreme Court justice.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: And Sonia Sotomayor who is basically getting her COVID information from the bottom of the Facebook comments page and then she is going to rule --
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: -- on something that really matters? At a point when the vaccine mandate was for the Delta variant and is now obsolete. Because the vaccines don't help with Omicron. But that's what everybody is getting. Apparently, Pfizer says that their vaccine for Omicron will be ready in March. Well, that might be helpful for next year but we are going to hit the peak of this in the middle of the month.
I think that the White House would be better off withdrawing the mandates because they are going to take a loss in the Supreme Court and it would -- and for what? It might actually hurt them in the long run when it comes to agency, federal agency overreach. That might be a good thing for conservatives. But if I were in the White House and I'm fighting fires everywhere, I would take that one off the table.
GUTFELD: Yes. You know, Katie, is Dana is right that maybe Omicron has kind of slayed the vax mandate argument. I mean, we knew that it was unconstitutional but it seems like, it's like how are they going to argue this now and the people who are double and triple vaxxed are spreading it?
PAVLICH: Right. Well, it slayed the argument. It hasn't necessarily changed the behavior of government officials like in New York, for example, or at the White House who just today continued to justify the vaccine mandates for the postal workers who have said we are having a hard time delivering mail. You want us to send out 500 million tests and we are already short-staffed because of the mandate and they said that they are not going to budge.
When it comes to the CDC, there's no way at this point that they can claw themselves back to credibility at this point. And this all started back when they started counting COVID cases, whether it was with or from COVID in the sense that hospitals were getting paid more money to have COVID patients in the hospital.
So, they tested everybody for COVID whether you were in the hospital or whether you were there for a car accident, for example. Therefore, all the data got jumbled together. How do they go back now and determine, you know, the guy in Florida who was counted, he was in a motorcycle accident, he was counted as a COVID death?
Well, actually he died because he got in a motorcycle accident. Or the people in Colorado who died from gunshot wounds who were counted as COVID deaths but they actually died with COVID, not from COVID. There's no way they can go back through all this data from all the health departments all over the country and make a determination about with or from.
As Greg said, everybody has to be able to make their own decisions about their own risk. That we know now enough now about the virus. And let everybody move on with their lives.
GUTFELD: Yes. Harold, in the green room you said, Greg, you're probably the only person that's gotten everything right on COVID. And I appreciated you saying that. I just wanted to make sure everybody else heard it.
When we look back at this, how much of the information do you think will turn out to be true? And let me say, will we ever really know what we want to know? Like, how many deaths really were there? How many were due to COVID? Can we just admit that we may never know this stuff?
FORD: Well, I hope you don't share all the things that we talk about in the green room we're out -- when we're out on air.
GUTFELD: Yes.
FORD: Two, I do hope we're able to get to the bottom of some of the things you guys are talking about. I do think some of the data we may never know, much like we may never know the origins or be able to study this virus from its start. It's one of the first viruses we really didn't have a sense, because our virologists and epidemiologists and doctors were not able to be on the ground there in China in this regard.
One thing that public health officials though have all agreed on, whether they be ones that we find agreement with or disagreement with or ones who have been around longer than others, is that everyone should be vaccinated.
I think to Dana's point, the Omicron variant certainly seems to evade or elude the vaccine but I think that public health officials alike have all said that the vaccines real value is reducing hospitalizations --
PERINO: Yes.
FORD: -- and deaths. Now are there a number of people who may have died with the COVID designation because they had some other morbidity, be it an accident or something else, you know, I don't know. But one thing that we do know is that people whom are dying in hospitals are not those who have been double vaxxed. And for that matter those who have been boosted. So, I feel for Dr. Walensky. I do hope, to Dana's point is taken by them, they get her to some media training.
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: She hired one.
FORD: But most doctors I know just aren't good at media.
GUTFELD: Yes.
FORD: Yes, I know but I hope she listens. I hope she listens.
GUTFELD: Yes. I'd rather have a surgeon who's better -- good with a knife rather than a microphone. You know, we are about 20 minutes away from Jesse's big news. I can see that the -- we have the musicians are here. They are coming in. Put, just put the drums over there. Tuba right there.
WATTERS: Thank you.
GUTFELD: Anyway, last word to you, Mr. Watters.
WATTERS: I was going to say great Seagal is great with a mic and a knife. So.
GUTFELD: Yes.
WATTERS: So, you get two for one there. The government is good at two things. The government is good at fighting wars and collecting taxes. So, if COVID had been hiding money from the IRS, we would have beaten the crap out of it.
If COVID was an enemy battalion, we would've bombed to smithereens but COVID is an invisible contagion that the government for two years said we have all the answers too, but they didn't have any answers.
And for some reason people still continue to believe government is holier than that when government is basically a bunch of political appointees who oversee bureaucrats who you can't fire and they just nag you and nag you until you obey them and you disobey them and they fine you.
So, at this point we are wondering how wrong do you have to be before we just doubt everything you say. I remember at one point they said these little plastic dividers needed to be installed all over the country. They're useless.
GUTFELD: Yes.
WATTERS: The six feet social distancing number, they made that up. That was arbitrary. And now remember back in the day used to question the hospitalization numbers, they used to be called the conspiracy theorists. Now like half the people are in the hospital, they just happen to have COVID.
Doctors right now are prescribing people Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine and you don't -- you don't hear about that in the media right now. I don't know. I think the CDC was saying that schools were supposed to be opened and then they get a call from the teachers union and then they slow things down and now all of a sudden they say you know what, we are changing the guidelines because the science is fast-moving.
Whoa, wait a second. You said the science was settled. You said if you question the science, you were a science denier. And that's why we don't like the government because they treated us like chumps if we just asked a question about what they were doing. We were putting lives in danger.
And by the way they also funded the risky research at the sloppy Wuhan lab and covered that up. So no, we're little frustrated with the scientists.
GUTFELD: There you go. All right. Coming up, a radical D.A. shocked by the blowback to his order to go soft on criminals.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PAVLICH (on camera): While New York City suffers through a surge and rampant lawlessness and violence, a newly installed radical D.A., Alvin Bragg, is shocked that people are revolting over his soft on crime policies.
The NYPD's new commissioner calling out Bragg in an e-mail to the city's police officers, writing the new charging policies of the Manhattan District Attorney effectively decriminalizes much of the conduct that New Yorkers are asking the police to address. But Bragg just doesn't seem to get it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALVIN BRAGG, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, NEW YORK COUNTY: We've all seen the story of the person who is on their eighth arrest and people say, well how did that assault happen? Well, there were seven prior times with that person struggling with addiction or mental health. We need to connect that person to services.
UNKNOWN: Yes, yes.
BRAGG: This is going to make us safer. It's intuitive, it's common sense. I don't understand the pushback.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAVLICH: So, Jesse, Bragg is now basically accusing the new mayor and the police chief of reading the memo incorrectly and not understanding what he means by downgrading charges for violent felons.
WATTERS: Yes, the DA is not going to last in Manhattan. He just can't. This is not San Francisco or Philly. This is an international business mecha. This is like the biggest tourist attraction in the Western Hemisphere. This is the financial capital of the world. And you can already feel the fear factor rising.
I mean, just in the last year, you've had a Central Park rapist, a Time Square shooting, subway slashers, tree arsonists, a Columbia student murdered, anti-Asian hate crimes. And you know, this guy is going to supercharge what's going to be happening when his policies are implemented. And he's going to be the face of the crime wave.
And he seems confused as to why there's this immediate blowback. You can't hide as a public official in New York City. You can be a train conductor that pads his over time to juice his pension and you will get your face plastered all over the screen or the papers here. Reporters will show up to your doorstep and blow your career up.
This guy -- he's not just some low-level guy. You have the New York Post, The Daily News, all the local channels, Fox, The New York Times. He's on our radar now. Remember what happened with De Blasio, the New York media machine shoot him up and spit him out. He left with a 25 percent approval rating. A liberal and a liberal city 25 percent. He got laughed out of the Democrat presidential primary.
The guy was a joke because he was incompetent, Katie. You can't be an idealogue in New York City. You have to be competent. And we will not tolerate a crime wave in this city. If you're going to have a DA who's going to allow ex-cons to prey on innocent New Yorkers, and then just make sure they get into the therapy session that they need instead of prison. It's not going to happen.
PAVLICH: Yes. So, Danna, it's not just the police who are -- and the mayor, it's business leaders are going to meet with this DA to talk to him about the consequences for the employees, for their businesses of the new charging memo.
PERINO: Which I think follows what Jesse was just saying is that the business community is like, oh, wait, no, actually, we are going to have a say in this. And perhaps Mayor Adams, who apparently had a pretty good communication with the business community, has asked them to go in and try to help him try to rein this in. You know, time will tell on that.
I think it's very disingenuous of Bragg to say he had no idea. He's like, shocked that anybody would be surprised. Well, first, that's a dereliction of duty because you're supposed to be aware of things are going on in your community. The media and communities across the country have been talking about this for a couple of years now. So, that's not a surprise.
But I would also ask this. Why do you need all those campaign contributions then? I mean, if you're so uncontroversial, why didn't you just like walk in office without any problems? Oh, why do you have to take all that money? And also, how is it that on your first day in office, you decide that Andrew Cuomo doesn't deserve any sort of scrutiny or prosecution for what happened within nursing homes? How did you decide that on the first day? Someone had to follow the money back on that?
PAVLICH: So, Greg, I think this guy is totally fine with being the new face of the crime wave because this is his ideology of believing that, you know, allowing criminals to run free is their version of social justice.
GUTFELD: Yes, I don't see -- I actually do believe that he thinks there's nothing wrong with anything that he's saying because it's coming from an immovable belief that criminals are the real victims and actual victims are just collateral damage from a society that is plagued by endemic racism.
No doubt, and I we talked about it including the Christmas tree arsonists, there are mentally ill people on this -- on these streets of New York City, especially. But Bragg is using that to benefit the hardened street criminal. Mentally ill people are not robbing banks. Mentally ill people who are not breaking into homes. They're not assaulting women. Some of them -- some of them are doing some pretty crazy stuff.
But there are a lot of criminals that are taking advantage of, I guess, kind of like the absentee landlord-ism that's taken over our cities. You know, everything that comes out of this guy's mouth is laughing in wisdom. It's like he's never met a real criminal or he's never witnessed a violent crime.
PERINO: Right.
GUTFELD: His knowledge seems to come solely from the classroom, from the professor. And these are the people that end up really ruining society. When you mentioned De Blasio, like I'm very pessimistic. And I know that you know, Harold has talked a lot about Eric Adams and I -- and I keep hoping for it that things will return. But I don't know.
I mean, like, I look around and I feel like New York City is one city like Minneapolis and others that is permanently scarred, right? If you can't stop the moderate to severe crime, then criminals, we're just going to keep seeing how further they can push it along and push it along and push along. And if we can't even stop that level of crime, then you're not going to -- then it can't actually get better. It can only get worse.
We've set a new level of what we're willing to accept. It used to be down here now it's up here. You can't -- if you don't arrest this stuff, it's only going to get worse. We have to return to the broken windows philosophy -- of philosophy, but I have a feeling we won't.
PAVLICH: So, Harold, how do you see this battle between the DA and the mayor and the police chief playing out?
FORD JR.: So, I differ a little bit with Greg there at the end. I think his frame is right. If we don't do these things, New York won't come back. But never bet against New York. I think we all five would agree with that. I live in, my kids go to school in, and I vote in New York. I think if Mr. Bragg said these things during the campaign, I would not have voted for him. And I think he probably wouldn't have gotten a lot of the votes that he did get.
You would think that Mayor Adams said not to say -- I think Mayor Adams and his police commissioner, they are committed to the things that we've all articulated here. I would hope and would encourage the DA to think about changes to bail reform, to think about a coalition or partnership with the city and others around making our subway safer.
And to Greg's point and the points that we've made many times on this show, we need a mental health initiative, a real one, a serious one to address these issues. Addressing and starting off this way I think is an auspicious start. I don't think Mr. Bragg has thought a lot of this through. He's a smart guy and I hope he sits back and reevaluates here. The city needs it.
PAVLICH: Indeed. All right, up next, tributes pouring in for America's Dad Bob Saget after his sudden death. Plus, new details on what happened.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB SAGET, ACTOR: Messy room problem for me? No.
Wake up, San Francisco. Hi, I'm the perky Danny Tanner.
Girls, what's all the --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No shoes in the pool.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FORD JR: Millions heartbroken over the sudden death of Bob Saget after the beloved star Full House was found dead in his Florida hotel room. Housekeeping reportedly discovering the actor and trying to perform CPR after he missed checkout. The cause of death not yet known pending further review, but there were no signs of foul play or drug use.
Greg, you understand what it means and takes to be funny. Why was Bob Saget so beloved by so many?
GUTFELD: Oh, he was an awful person. Terrible, terrible guy. I've had to two interesting interactions with him. One, like a year ago, he's with Dave Rubin. They were out drinking or they were out. I don't know if he was drinking. And Dave goes, hey, Gutfeld, why don't you come out here, I'm with Bob Saget. I said, tell him I said hi. And you could hear in the background Saget say, tell him to go F himself.
So, that's what -- that's what -- my point being this, is that Saget probably would hate tributes about this. Like, he would -- he's -- like, even though he played the nice guy, he was a -- he had a dirty, dirty mind. Anybody who knows him will tell you that. He was a sick, sick guy.
So, for his sake, I want to say that I'm sad that he died because I wish it could have been kinkier. I wish that he had been tied to the bed surrounded by hookers.
WATTERS: Greg.
FORD JR: Dana, on that note, were you a fan of Full House? And if so, what are your thoughts about this.
PERINO: Yes, changing topics. Yes, I like Full House, but I will tell you my favorite show. Like, still to this day, one of my favorite shows is America's Funniest Home Videos.
PAVLICH: Yes.
PERINO: I love that whole thing. It was great Sunday night after 60 Minutes, of course. Just a terrific show and I had a great talent. He'll obviously be very missed.
FORD JR: Katie, you're the youngest on this panel. What are your thoughts on Bob Saget?
PAVLICH: Well, I grew up in a household where we didn't have satellite television until I was a teenager. And so, I remember watching America's Funniest Home Videos when we had three or four channels. You had to catch it at the right time. And I also loved Bob Saget on that show.
But I also love seeing the people who worked with him giving him tributes because it's clear that he was a funny guy on the screen and off, and that he treated the people he worked with really, really well. And it's heartbreaking to see all of them so sad to lose their friend and their coworker.
FORD JR: Jesse, he was a father and a family man. It has to be tough for his family. What are your thoughts on this day about Bob Saget?
WATTERS: Well, because I didn't have a very active social life in middle school, I spent every Friday night watching Full House. It was a great show and I look at the ratings at that time. They did eight seasons and averaged 15 million viewers an episode. I mean, that is a lot.
And then he parlays that into America's Funniest Home Videos which was the first viral video show ever. This was pre-internet. This was where it was home videos. The people shot on a camcorder of people falling down, animals falling down, or animals making people fall down. And for people with a really low-brow sense of humor, I loved it.
And then the audience got to vote on who the best video was. And then he get a cash prize. And that did that nine year run. So, there was a time in like, from like the late 80s to the mid-90s where Bob Saget was watched for hours on television by tens and tens of millions of people. And that's why people love him so much. And I'm -- I think a lot of people miss him.
PERINO: Yes.
FORD JR: I think you're right. Rest in peace, Bob Saget.
Coming up, Jesse Watters' world just got a whole lot bigger. Some very exciting news about Jesse that you're going to want to hear.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PERINO: So, we promised you at the top of the show some very big news for our own Jesse Watters. He has been named the permanent host of Fox News' 7:00 p.m. hour. It will be called Jesse Watters' Primetime. It starts two weeks from today on January 24.
And Jesse, one of the great joys in life is when you can be genuinely so happy for somebody else. And I think that's how all of us felt today learning of this great news. I do wonder, will your viewers be eligible for cash prizes at the end like on America's Funniest Home Videos?
WATTERS: Yes.
PERINO: That was a real ratings getter.
WATTERS: Yes, there will be cash prizes as of now. But I think Fox is going to look back at this and say this is the best programming decision that they have ever made. Either the best or the worst, one or the other. It's either the best thing or the worst decision they've ever made.
WATTERS: It destroyed this show. It's destroyed THE FIVE. You are destroying the fight because what's going to happen is our ratings are going to come out 4:30 p.m. every day, and when I beat you, you're going to be sad. And then when you beat me, I'm just not going to speak through the entire show. So, this is a terrible decision.
WATTERS: All right, so, if you want Gutfeld to speak less, watch the 7:00.
PERINO: Hey Jesse, did you think about putting an exclamation point at the end of primetime?
WATTERS: I wanted two exclamation points and legal is working on that. But some of the elevens putting up a hell of a fight.
PERINO: Double exclamation point. Harold, this is your buddy here getting a new show.
FORD JR: Congrats, man. You know, skill matters, performance matters, and talent matters. And you've been rewarded for it. I couldn't be prouder for you. I just hope you don't use the perch to come after me in the 7:00 hour.
WATTERS: No, no, I'm not going to lay a glove on you, Harold. You're safe.
PERINO: And Katie --
WATTERS: You're in a safe space.
FORD JR: Just keep it -- just keep it here.
WATTERS: OK.
PERINO: A word to you, Katie.
PAVLICH: Harold, I would add to what you just said and say Jesse, it's also about paying your dues and you have done that. You've earned it. We're so happy for you and I have some advice about your hair. Don't let them do it twice a day. You will damage it. And we'll have to keep the hair strong.
I also look forward to the Jesse and Greg wagers throughout the week, every single day, which I'm sure we will not get annoyed about at all.
GUTFELD: No.
WATTERS: I'm not competing with Gutfeld. I'm up against Wheel of Fortune, whoever is hosting Jeopardy.
PERINO: And Jeopardy.
WATTERS: They do about 8 million a night so I'm --
PERINO: Hey, Jesse, real quick.
WATTERS: Yes.
PERINO: What did Jesse Jr. say when he heard the news?
WATTERS: He wants an assistant, Jesse Jr. And I told Johnny that Johnny now has to have an assistant because you have to go through Johnny's assistant to get to Johnny now to get to me.
PERINO: Well, it's going to be great.
FORD JR: I'm going to write that down.
PERINO: Two weeks from today. Yes, write that down, Harold. And we will see that show when it starts on the 24th.
WATTERS: Thank you.
PERINO: "ONE MORE THING" is that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WATTERS: It's time now for "ONE MORE THING." Over the weekend, I was in Philly, went to the Eagles game with some buddies. They lost to the Cowboys. It didn't matter. We already clinched the playoffs. We have Tom Brady in the box on Sunday, so wish us luck.
Also, wish me luck on "TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT" at 8:00, and you can see us there. Dana Perino, take it away.
PERINO: All right, well, I have a future video, a video from the future. This is a video of Pat Sajak being really concerned that Jesse Watters is going to beat him in the ratings. He's trying to pull him back.
WATTERS: I'm coming for you, Pat.
PERINO: Yes, this Golden Retriever does not want his mom to go inside. You know how -- you know how that goes.
WATTERS: So cute. Greg Gutfeld.
GUTFELD: All right, let's do -- I don't know if I've ever done this before, so let's do it. It's called Greg Optical Illusion. Can you tell I'm stretching?
WATTERS: Yes.
GUTFELD: Yes. All right, so, I want you to take a look at this interesting video. Go slow, guys. Go slow. We have all the time in the world. Is that dog? What's going on there? Is that a dog's head? No, it's a cat. It's a cat. Can we do that again? Please, let's roll that again.
PERINO: That's a cat?
GUTFELD: That looks like -- it looks like a Labrador. It's look like a Labrador, doesn't it. Labrador's head peeping up.
PAVLICH: Yes.
GUTFELD: Oh, it's a cat.
PAVLICH: And a cat.
GUTFELD: It's a cat. I was watching this video --
PAVLICH: Oh, it's a cat.
GUTFELD: What, you couldn't see? You can't see. Maybe it's too --
PAVLICH: Wow.
PAVLICH: No, I think that's a good one.
GUTFELD: It is a good one.
PAVLICH: That's amazing.
GUTFELD: That's why -- that's why they call it an optical illusion. You know, maybe he identifies as a dog. We don't know. You know, it could be a cat who sees himself as a dog.
PERINO: Nothings wrong with that.
PAVLICH: We don't judge.
GUTFELD: The pronoun is arf.
WATTERS: That would have make Bob Saget very proud.
GUTFELD: It would. RIP.
WATTERS: America's Funniest Home Videos. All right, Harold.
FORD JR: That was good. Pastor Corey Brooks in Chicago is raising awareness and money to fight gun violence and poverty in an interesting way. Take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COREY BROOKS, CEO, PROJECT HOOD: We cannot wait on government to solve and fix our problems. That's the reason why I'm on this roof. That's the reason why Project HOOD is trying to do what we do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FORD JR: He founded this organization Project HOOD in Chicago back in 2011. His goal is to raise $35 million. HOOD stands for Helping Others Obtain Destiny. He believes that partnerships have to be forged with communities particularly on the south side. They want to build a community center to deliver services to these communities.
And I got to tell you, we at Fox News are doing a great job every day following this. If you want to track this, you can do it every morning. And we have a series called rooftop revelations on FoxNews.com where we're supporting him, rooting for him, and hoping he's able to raise money and help those kids.
WATTERS: Yes, it's where the south side with Pastor Books back on the factor. He's a great guy and he's doing a lot of really good work. Katie, you're up.
HEGSETH: Partnering with the Chicago Police Department too.
PAVLICH: We'll watch him on -- we'll watch him on "PRIMETIME."
WATTERS: They need help.
PAVLICH: They do. All right, yesterday there was a plane crash in Los Angeles. Take a look at this heart-pounding video when the officers rushed to save the pilot.
GUTFELD: Amazing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, go, go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAVLICH: The officers rushed in to pull the pilot out of the plane and within seconds, this Metrolink train ran over the plane. Luckily the pilot was taken to the hospital is now in stable condition with injuries, but that could have been so much worse. Thank God for those officers jumping in in the nick of time to save him. Good job.
GUTFELD: It's amazing.
WATTERS: LAPD to the rescue.
GUTFELD: That's incredible.
WATTERS: Yes, we got to give them props when they do good stuff like that. And that's what we do on THE FIVE.
PAVLICH: Yes.
WATTERS: All right, Greg, where's your fish?
GUTFELD: He's relaxing. A lot of people said he looked lonely. But I was told that my fish cannot be around other fish because like me, he will eat it. I cannibalize my panelists and he cannibalizes other fish, so he has to be alone, apparently.
WATTERS: OK. Well, we miss him and we want to see more of America's fish.
GUTFELD: Abe will be back and better than ever.
WATTERS: OK, he better be.
GUTFELD: An Abe 2.
WATTERS: All right, just don't --
GUTFELD: He was going to host "SPECIAL REPORT."
WATTERS: Don't forget to feed him. That's it for us. "SPECIAL REPORT" is up next with Bret.
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