The Five slam supply chain handling: We are in a crisis of confidence danger zone
Panel reacts to supply chain crisis causing inflation, set to disrupt Christmas
This is a rush transcript from "The Five" October 12, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: Hello, everybody. I'm Jesse Watters along with Dagen McDowell, Geraldo Rivera, Dana Perino and Greg Gutfeld. It's 5:00 in New York City and this is THE FIVE.
President Biden facing a nightmare come Christmas time, thanks to rising inflation and a supply crisis. Gifts are going to cost a fortune and that's even if you're lucky enough to snag anything thanks to massive delays rocking the supply chain.
Store shelves are looking pretty empty as U.S. ports struggle to unload deliveries. And get this, major retailers are actually being forced to charter their own ships. And on top of all of that, Biden's massive spending plans are set to make things 100 times worse.
He is set to address the supply crisis tomorrow he says. And Jen Psaki was pressed on why the president isn't being more forceful with the unions to loosen work restrictions that would ease the flow of goods.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We have taken steps, at times, when warranted, to loosen restrictions, as you saw it in reaction to some natural disasters we've had over the course of the year. Ultimately, the president's focus is addressing the needs, the challenges, and the threats to the American people to their well-being, to their economic well-being and he'll consider a range of options. But again, the supply chain task force been working for months to address this issue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: They have a task force. And where is Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg? He hasn't been to a White House briefing since this whole crisis started. And when he manages to get in front of a camera, he doesn't say much.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE BUTTIGIEG, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: We believe there is a role for the federal government to play to help smooth out some of these supply chain issues. It's largely a private-sector system. We are funding, of course, as department, a lot of work on the rails, on the roads in supporting trucking, which is also a big issue.
We've got some real challenges on the labor side. We have the turnover of truck drivers that can make it harder to get goods to where they need to go.
Some of this is a bigger picture, longer-term issue that's going to take years and years to address.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: Years and years to address, Dana. Kind of a laid-back attitude from the administration.
DANA PERINO, FOX NEWS HOST: Is there like no urgency for anything?
WATTERS: No.
PERINO: Like where you just feel so much urgency. During the campaign for president, during the primary campaign, Joe Biden said about Mayor Pete that he is so inexperienced that while Joe Biden has been in Washington all this time, he's only been putting twinkly lights under a bridge. I mean, that was how insulting he was to him.
And now, you have some -- he was literally in charge of the ports and the airlines, and he's like, yes, I'm hanging out with AOC at the dog park. Yesterday, he tweeted about Indigenous Peoples Day. And you think, again, I mentioned this yesterday about Kamala Harris, like, you are in these positions of power.
You're in a position to do something or at least let people know we care because nothing says return to normal like a shortage of toilet paper, which is what we're about to see. And we are getting into these crisis of confidence danger zone. When little Jesse, Jr. can't get his Christmas presents, that's going to be bad.
WATTERS: Oh no!
PERINO: That will be bad and he will not be happy about it. However, I think there is another thing here beyond people not getting Christmas presents. Think of all the companies and the people who do seasonal, holiday work, right, where they are helping ship things out and get things on the stores, all those companies that hire people for the holidays, there will be no need to do that.
GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS: You're an elf.
PERINO: What's the ripple effect?
GUTFELD: You're an elf at the mall.
PERINO: I know, don't -- you and I have so much fun doing that.
GUTFELD: Oh, great.
PERINO: I know. I mean --
GUTFELD: Santa's always drunk.
PERINO: I mean -- and we do it for free.
GUTFELD: Yes. It's true.
WATTERS: All right, Greg, was it two months ago, Joe Biden came out and said our experts believe, this is a quote, "that these bottlenecks and price spikes will reduce as our company continues to heal." That was two months ago.
GUTFELD: First, I got to point out that the best part about this story is that there is a backlog of toilet paper. The worst thing to have when there's no TO is a backlog. So, yes. Thank you.
GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS HOST: That's about the best joke he's told this season.
WATTERS: You haven't been here.
RIVERA: That's so true.
GUTFELD: If you combine -- so what we're seeing right now is we're combining inflation with scarcity. This is a new thing.
PERINO: Yes.
GUTFELD: So we're finally getting the dystopia that the media said Trump was going to bring us, except its old Joe bringing who is bringing us soil and green and bringing us to the thunder dome that Trump didn't. I think our political leaders, why you are not sensing the urgency is don't mind these problems.
They don't mind that you pay more for gas because that's good. You drive less, right? And the fact that you have less money in the bank means you have to rely on them, so it becomes more of a government state. So there is no urgency.
Their kids are going to get the gifts that your kids aren't going to get because that's why they're in politics, to be exempt from the scarcity that we have to deal with. Remember, the politicians in power did nothing about crime because it didn't affect them, and they still haven't.
They preached total lockdowns because they were exempt from the total lockdowns. We need to abandon the idea that these people in power actually give a damn about us. The only way you're going to get any urgency at them is if they get scared.
WATTERS: To Greg's point, yes, they are not going to be affected by the rise in prices, Dagen, but it's also a P.R. thing for them. They don't want to appear that anything is a crisis.
PERINO: Right.
WATTERS: They want to appear that they have everything under control and this is just a smooth recovery. And that's not sitting well with the American people who are actually affected by this.
MCDOWELL: Right. They are trying to remain calm. Instead, they come across as uncaring asses.
WATTERS: Right.
MCDOWELL: This is what happens when people in power act according to their ideology and don't act according to basic, economic fundamentals. Everything described here in terms of the supply chain problems, the labor shortages, the spike in inflation, is a self-inflicted wound by the Biden administration.
It's intentional and even if it wasn't like directly related to some of the recovery from the pandemic, it is certainly exacerbating all the troubles. One, you don't pay people to stay-at-home. So you have the labor shortage, almost 10.5 million jobs still open. There are 3 million people who have completely left the labor force.
But then you pay people extra say unemployment that started early this year. It just expired. You don't use demand while supplies are tight. And this task force they are talking about -- because that creates inflation, this task force is ludicrous because we've known since at least beginning of this year that the ships coming in were going to be a huge headache.
That's when the big retailers started worrying about it. In terms of energy prices, this again, is intentional. You canceled the Keystone XL Pipeline. You cancel all new permits for drilling on federal land, and then, you, in a crisis, beg OPEC --
PERINO: Yes.
MCDOWELL: -- to pump more, which does nothing to fight global warming. And you know who gets screwed in all of this? The small businesses. They don't have inventory and they're -- they have nothing to sell to raise revenue. They can't even pay -- a woman burst into tears here in New York City. They can't get -- they're not going to get inventory, rug inventory until next year. They might not make it through the holiday season because they can't pay their rent.
WATTERS: Your thoughts, Geraldo.
RIVERA: Well, I think that you're putting way too much blame on Joe Biden, not that that is surprising. I understand that he's an easy target, but we have lived through the most disruptive health crisis in a century.
We have lost 700,000 Americans. It is not surprising that not just Joe Biden, but the owner and the guy who runs Walmart and all the Target and all the other big stores -- Amazon -- they did not anticipate this phenomenon either. He had all these people getting all this money. His $1,400 check for this.
WATTERS: Wait a second. You just said they did anticipate it and that was months and months ago.
RIVERA: They, well, they -- who is they that anticipated? What did they anticipated?
WATTERS: All the big retailers.
RIVERA: Listen, if you have a ship and you order the product in January and it gets there in March, don't order it in March -- the two weeks before you need it because you are trying to save money, spending money on inventory. I think it's really cruel.
Let me just give you a personal story, quickly. My youngest just turned 16. As I did with all of my children, I got her a car. I got her a Mini, okay. And I got her -- her oldest sister and the eldest sister, they all got minis. I sat down with great celebration, oh, so, you're 16, you passed your driver's test, isn't this great?" The car is going to be delivered in four months. I mean, it's like crazy, but these people --
GUTFELD: You're actually suffering, Geraldo. And your brand new car is delayed by four months.
RIVERA: Listen to the -- listen to the populist.
GUTFELD: How will you make it through this cold winter without your Mini?
RIVERA: Listen to -- listen to the populist, you know, who lives in his mansion in Greenwich Village.
GUTFELD: I wish.
RIVERA: My point is this is a cascading problem where plenty of people are responsible and didn't anticipate.
WATTERS: But Geraldo, this is the president of the United States. He says the buck stops with him.
RIVERA: What if it was Trump who was president?
WATTERS: Everybody knew this was coming months before and now he has a task force, okay.
PERINO: But he had one in February, too.
WATTERS: The task force hasn't done anything.
PERINO: They had a commission in February and they reported in June, the Biden administration on the supply chain issues, and one of the things they said is "you know what we need? More green energy."
WATTERS: Oh, it's always green energy. It's always the answer to everything.
MCDOWELL: They wiped the high gas prices because it forces people to use green energy that doesn't make economic sense unless gas is at $3.50 a gallon or five.
WATTERS: And we all pray for that Mini to come as soon as possible.
RIVERA: Thank you. Thank you. I think I'm going to wink the way you did last night.
WATTERS: Up next, more turmoil at Southwest as flight cancellations continue and pilots bash Biden's vax mandates.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PERINO: The blame game is on as chaos at Southwest Airlines enters its fifth day. Nearly 900 flights have been delayed and over 90 have been canceled just today. The disruptions once again leaving hundreds of passengers stranded at airports nationwide.
The airline saying air traffic control issues and weather were the main causes. The pilots union and the White House denying that mass cancellations have anything to do with vaccine mandates.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PSAKI: Well, I know world-renowned business travel and health expert Senator Ted Cruz has made that point, but I wouldn't say that that is widely acknowledged or echoed by business leaders who have implemented these mandates, by health experts. So, I know there was a little hubbub over the course of the last few days about Southwest Airlines. We now know that some of those claims were absolutely false and actually the issues were completely unrelated to vaccine mandates.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: But many pilots are still speaking out about how the requirements could severely impact the airline industry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON KUNISCH, COMMERCIAL AIRLINE PILOT: It's a stressful industry. It's a stressful job. And the Biden administration mandates being imposed through the federal government are putting added burden, added stress onto the employees of the airline industry.
SHAWN WALKER, COMMERCIAL AIRLINE PILOT: An ultimatum is not the right way to go about this. My health and medical choice is more important to me than my career at this point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: All right, Jesse, what's happening here?
WATTERS: Well, Psaki is not being honest. It actually is people upset with the vax mandates and they're coming from everywhere. And the Southwest CEO actually admitted that that's something that they are dealing with. He doesn't even want to do the vax mandates, he told CNBC.
He's doing it because of the Biden administration mandate. And that pilot who we had on first on "Prime Time" last night, he says because they make this Pfizer vaccine or many of these vaccines that include the fetal tissue from the unborn, he has a religious problem with that.
He wants a religious exemption. They were promised religious exemptions. They were promised medical exemptions. They were promised exemptions if you have antibodies. There has to be language that they have to be able to negotiate and Southwest is not negotiating with them.
So, if the White House and Congress were exempt from all of these mask mandates, why is everybody else not getting an exemption? It's not right. And now Texas has come in and said listen, if you're going to be headquartered here, Southwest is, you're not going to be having to go along with these federal mandates. So that set up a huge conflict between the Feds and the states.
Who knows how it's going to play out. I just think this is the beginning. You're going to have firefighters, police officers, teachers. Eventually, you're going to lose 10 percent of the workforce across the board on all union jobs. And that's not returning to normal, Dana.
PERINO: Geraldo?
RIVERA: I absolutely disagree with Jesse's tone and his anger.
WATTERS: Tone?
RIVERA: With that -- I may not --
WATTERS: You take issue with my tone?
RIVERA: I -- I -- I believe that mandates exist for a reason. The Supreme Court in a 1905 decision made very clear, unless this court reverses over a century of precedents --
WATTERS: That was about states. That wasn't federal.
RIVERA: The federal government has the constitutional right to impose a mandate --
WATTERS: You misread the law, Geraldo.
RIVERA: I misread nothing.
WATTERS: You did.
RIVERA: I absolutely got it exactly right.
WATTERS: No, you misread it.
RIVERA: They are -- and these airline pilots are screwing the public. And the worst of all, it's not the pilots because I say use whatever weapons you have. It's Chip Roy, the congressman from San Antonio and Austin. This guy is an ideological lunatic.
He said when he looked at the crowd of people who could not get on their Southwest flights because they were cancelled and so forth, "This makes me happier than I can possibly articulate. Eat it, Southwest Airlines." This is a guy getting almost sexual pleasure from the chaos and the destruction --
WATTERS: He's not getting sexual pleasure, Geraldo. You're sick!
RIVERA: -- the chaos and the disruption --
WATTERS: To make this this sexual, you're a sick man.
RIVERA: Congressman Roy, I challenge you. What did you mean when you said "eat it" to Southwest Airlines when you saw the people suffering?
WATTERS: Okay, Geraldo.
PERINO: Dagen, the economic impact of all of this, right. So, the passengers are inconvenienced and it looks like there could be more to come.
MCDOWELL: It could be. I think that you're going to have major, major -- in terms of supply, the shortage of pilots and other workers, if this keeps up, to Jesse's point. The Southwest still hadn't given a real credible answer as to what happened. I do know that a third of love's flights says its sticker symbol, flights were delayed over the summer, they were late and that was the worst performance than any other airline.
But what bothers me coming from the very top of this country is Joe Biden is at his most bilious when he's talking about the unvaccinated.
PERINO: Yes.
MCDOWELL: He talks about them with greater ire and disgust than he does about the Taliban, even about China that killed more than 700,000 Americans with this Wuhan flu. And he pits the vaccinated against the unvaccinated and suggest that you should be in fear of them and that you should target them.
I want a calm environment on my airlines. I don't want any pilots being upset. I don't think that's good. I don't think that's a good environment because you don't want to make any mistakes
PERINO: Having the companies being able to decide, right, if you're a private company being able to make a decision rather than having the government tell you either way.
GUTFELD: Let me tell you a personal story.
PERINO: Oh, okay.
RIVERA: Is it about a Mini?
GUTFELD: My niece -- my niece was flying back from, I guess it was from Utah yesterday from Southwest. Her flight was canceled so I had to buy her a Cessna to get her back. Fourth one I bought her.
PERINO: Good thing it wasn't a Mini.
GUTFELD: Yes. We need to wrestle the power away from the lawyers because they're too greedy to give it up. That's the big story here. The big story is that our leaders no longer can quantify acceptable risk or even a set goal. And that allows liability to replace living your life. So, any entity that might frightened to being sued is going to side with their legal team, right?
PERINO: Yes.
GUTFELD: Because they don't want -- so what happens is you have all those overcorrection everywhere in schools especially where kids have the same -- an unvaccinated kid has the same risk as a middle-aged person who is vaccinated, but we overcorrect, we ruin businesses, we shut down industries.
Let's say a lawyer takes a flight and he remember -- and he takes a flight and then he gets COVID, and he remembers the pilot who landed the plain safely in a windstorm wasn't wearing a mask. And that's not causation. It's not even correlation. Its two unrelated facts. The pilot wasn't wearing a mask, but I got COIVD. That's -- lawyer only needs these days are two points.
PERINO: Yes.
GUTFELD: To connect the dots right? And we no longer -- we don't rely on science. We don't rely on anything. It's just two facts we needed. What we needed, we talked about this last year.
PERINO: Yes.
GUTFELD: We needed a liability hiatus last year because we're paralyzed by the fear of being sued and that's the -- if we don't get out of this weird kind of like paralysis, we're screwed.
PERINO: We're just going to keep suing each other.
GUTFELD: Yes. I might sue you for that.
PERINO: Sue you.
GUTFELD: Sue you.
PERINO: All right, straight ahead, Americans are losing faith in President Biden's handling of the pandemic as the commander-in-chief's approval rating takes yet another hit. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUTFELD: Mounting crisis catching up to President Biden. His approval now 10 points lower than President Obama at the same point in his presidency and Americans no longer believe he could shut down the virus. Fewer than 45 percent trust Biden to provide accurate information about COVID. That's down 13 points from when he took office.
And while the country continues to falter, Biden, of course is out of sight. The president holding no on-camera public events today leaving the American people on their own to hope for the best. Geraldo, it's got to be hard when he's not around. I mean, it's like you're dealing with all of these car purchases. It's like you got four Mini coopers.
RIVERA: When I look at the president now, I really relate, you know, because of our age. You know, he's eight months older than I am. And I wonder how I would be walking around if I were him. I'll stump over. I - - I, you know, I like the guy. I want him to succeed. He seems, however, to be blundering.
And the worst thing to -- Dagen is the expert -- is how he's playing with the economy. How, you know -- you don't understand what happens when you flood free money to people who should have some incentive to get a job, to improve themselves, to bootstrap themselves. You know, self-improvement is the American dream, it's the American way.
But when you pay to suppress people and to placate people, and then you're surprised when inflation comes in they have all that money to spend and it's all these dollars chasing fewer and fewer goods. You know, I worry about Democrats. They're the smarty-pants in D.C. And they are the elite in terms of education and experience.
GUTFELD: And they ruin everything. They ruin everything.
RIVERA: It seems to me that the president has done more harm than good right now. Although I would submit that you compared his popularity to Obama's at this point, you didn't compare it to Trump's. And I don't recall exactly, but it seems to me, I think in the mid-'40s of where Trump was --.
GUTFELD: Yes, but the reason -- I think the reason why you can't compare it to Trump is because Trump scru -- you have to look at the context of the scrutiny. Trump endured more scrutiny so his numbers are meaningless. He was the greatest president we've ever had, Jesse, and probably will ever have.
WATTERS: Better than Lincoln. Better than Washington.
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: But I will say this to you, Jesse. Is it too soon to say that Joe Biden is the worst president we've ever seen?
WATTERS: It's getting close, Gutfeld.
GUTFELD: Yes.
WATTERS: Getting pretty close. We're going to see how it all plays out. But there's been some bad ones and I think we know who they were.
RIVERA: Who you thinking about? Who you thinking about?
WATTERS: And you can think of some pretty bad ones in the 19th century.
RIVERA: Jimmy Carter?
WATTERS: But we don't need to name them.
RIVERA: Warren Harding?
WATTERS: Yes. We don't need to name names. We had Johnny analyze Biden's calendar for the last month. And 25 percent of the time, he doesn't hold a public event, 25 percent of the time. He doesn't even go say anything to the American people on camera. He went six days straight, almost an entire week, without appearing to speak to the American people.
That worked in the summer of the pandemic because it put Trump out there and made it a referendum on Trump. He got to hide and lay back and stay out of the limelight and not make gas (ph). It doesn't work when you're the commander-in-chief. You have to show and we just talked about this, that you're actually listening to the American people and that you're doing something about these problems.
Now, on the COVID thing, one of the main reasons the COVID numbers for him are declining is because even though cases are going down, the pandemic is still affecting everything, from airlines to supply chains, to schooling, to labor shortages. It's not just getting people vaxxed. There's other issues as this thing kind of peters out that are causing huge headaches for the American people.
And he's just like lackadaisical. He doesn't seem -- he's not in touch -- and he keeps talking about $3.5 trillion, and the American people are like, no, let's focus on this.
GUTFELD: Isn't that what the Democrats wanted from him? He wasn't supposed to do anything. He was just the front. He was the hood ornament for this leftist machine that was going to be rolling into town.
MCDOWELL: A hood owner met that can -- has the ability to shake its head, yes.
GUTFELD: Yes.
MCDOWELL: But not no, but yes. Because all the Democrats want to do, and let's call them comrades, is just gather power and control. They don't care what it does to individual decision-making. They don't care what it does to the work ethic of this country and our ability to make something better for ourselves and our families.
They just care about -- money is power control, and they think they make better decisions about your life and with your money and about your health than you do because they're arrogant. What they -- if Joe Biden did nothing though, like, I'm fine with him staying hidden as long as he doesn't do anything.
He ran as a president mole man. Be the mole man. Just go into hiding. Because if he did nothing on the economy, if he did nothing on immigration, if he hadn't made any changes to immigration, if he did nothing on Afghanistan, we would be in a much better place as a country.
GUTFELD: Yes, he's got -- he's like, what do you call that, the thing that comes out six weeks and tells you that it's winter.
WATTERS: The hedgehog?
GUTFELD: He's like a hedgehog --
PERINO: A groundhog.
WATTERS: Groundhog.
GUTFELD: Oh, groundhog. He's like a groundhog but he's like a rabid groundhog. So, when he comes out, he starts biting everybody.
WATTERS: Yes.
GUTFELD: Then he goes back.
WATTERS: He just tell us about spring.
PERINO: So, maybe Bill de Blasio --
GUTFELD: To kill him, the hedgehog.
(CROSSTALK)
RIVERA: What -- do you think he plays pool?
PERINO: No, groundhog. Afghanistan was the open door to start questioning the competency of the administration.
GUTFELD: Right?
PERINO: If we remember at the time, one of those six days, I'm not sure, but that was right around Afghanistan when you didn't hear from the President. And you're just -- everybody's sitting here going, oh, my gosh. And remember, the White House kept telegraphing, people are going to forget about this.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: But actually, what it did is interrupt -- when you start questioning competence on one issue, it leads to the other issues that are making you irritated and mad. And just to put a period at the end of this sentence, today, it was announced that Terry McAuliffe, the Democrat who's running for --
RIVERA: Governor.
PERINO: Governor in Virginia. I was going to say re-election, but it's actually a second term but not consecutive. It was announced today that President Obama will be campaigning with him. That's what we announced this morning on "AMERICA'S NEWSROOM."
GUTFELD: Interesting.
PERINO: Well, what was the first thing you notice? Terry McAuliffe last week said Joe Biden is terrible. Like, we got some popularity problems here. But because the issue made it all political for the Democrats, guess what just got announced?
GUTFELD: Yes, he's --
PERINO: Now, President Biden will be campaigning with him as well. And I'm sure Terry McAuliffe is very much looking forward to it.
GUTFELD: There you go.
MCDOWELL: Can I add one thing being my home state? Please bring your travel and tire fire to that state, please. So we -- the folks down there know they can smell you and see your coming before you arrive.
RIVERA: Traveling what?
MCDOWELL: Tire fire.
RIVERA: Traveling tire fire.
WATTERS: Tire fire.
GUTFELD: There you go. Coming up, Netflix defending Dave Chappelle amid calls to yank his latest stand-up special.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
RIVERA: Nice, right?
WATTERS: I like it.
RIVERA: Netflix standing up against cancel culture, pushing back against calls to remove Dave Chappelle's latest stand-up special. The controversial comedian coming under fire from the LGBT advocacy groups after making jokes like these.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE CHAPPELLE, COMEDIAN: They canceled JK Rowling. Actually, she said gender was a fact. And then the trans community got mad they started calling her a TURF. TURF is an acronym. It stands for trans-exclusionary radical feminists. This is a real thing. I'm team TURF. I agree, man. Gender is a fact.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIVERA: And in an internal memo to staffers, the streaming service's CEO said that Netflix will work hard to support their stars and protect creative freedom. Sadly, Dagen, most broadcasters chicken out when confronted by activists.
MCDOWELL: Nothing is off-limits in comedy. And if you're a great comedian, you're a chronic button-pusher just like -- just like Dave Chappelle, to quote Charlie Murphy from Chappelle's old show, a habitual line stepper. You know where the line is, you step on it, and you cross it.
But part of this -- I watched this special over the weekend. Chappelle is also talking about something extremely nuanced that deserves conversation even after the fact. Like, sharing the jokes but also trying to get at the root of what he's talking about. But the people who are mad are invested in being chronically outraged. And they have a cultural deafness and a willingness to only regurgitate talking points that they read on social media so they will never get what he's trying to do.
And he kind of digs into that in the special, but I think he is the gold standard. Like, Jay Leno said, you have to change your, you know, comedy based on the times. What a hack. Jay Leno, a Beto O'Rourke stand up would be funnier than Jay Leno.
RIVERA: It sounds like a real knee slapper. So, are comedians immune then? Is comedy the one line you could draw against -- cancer culture is very scary. When they zero in on you, your whole life feels like, you know, it's hanging by a thread.
GUTFELD: It's interesting because I like -- I don't know if comedians should have more free speech than other people. I think we should all have the same free speech. And we should be able to be as offensive when we want and we pay the price because people can say that they don't like it.
However, something has changed in our culture. In the old days, if you didn't like something, what did you do? You didn't watch it. You didn't go, I don't like this man special. So, I'm going to go and tell everybody that I don't like it. And I probably didn't watch it. I probably saw a clip on Twitter.
And of course, Chappelle's best point on this special is that Twitter doesn't matter. But it only matter -- it doesn't matter if you're rich. And if you're -- he's un-cancelable, but Twitter can destroy people as a mob joins. But it is so interesting to watch these sad groups of people who can no longer stomach or enjoy the fact that something is on that they don't like.
You should just be able to be an adult at this point and not watch something that you don't want to watch. But the funny thing is, if you did watch it, you might like it. The fact that you get canceled because you're talking basic tenets of biology that, you know, gender is fact, it's kind of scary at this point.
So, he's necessary. He's incredibly necessary. He speaks unspeakable truths. They're honest, they're also funny because they're honest. That's what a comedian does, you know.
RIVERA: And yet, Dana, I have a teenager, and they're very, very sensitive, her friends, that you cannot joke about certain things.
PERINO: Yes.
RIVERA: And gender is one of them.
PERINO: I don't think Dave --
RIVERA: This one is this in that nuance, and this -- and I can hardly keep up. But --
PERINO: Yes, but I don't think that the audience wasn't 16-year-old girls, right?
RIVERA: True, true.
PERINO: I think -- this is an adult audience. And also, if you're 16, you can decide. Like, I love Eddie Murphy. When I was -- when I was at age, we had the VHS tape, I would rewind it and play again, rewind and play it again.
GUTFELD: You dirty minks.
RIVERA: Really?
PERINO: Oh, I did. I did. But let's talk about Netflix for a second. Obviously, that's a liberal company. But I think that they're showing other companies, this is how you deal with a mob. You ignore them and you say, OK, fine, now we hear you, whatever. Blow them off.
And remember last week, they talked about performative outrage by people here at Fox. Like, actually, this mob, that is what they do all the time, and they just got shut down. And the last thing I would say is if you watch the special, he telegraphs everything that they're going to go after, because they're so predictable. The whole time he's like, oh, here we go. Or he says a line and he's like, yes, that'll be the one. And so, he knows exactly what's going to happen.
RIVERA: And yet, Bill Maher is one of the few who can do it. Chappelle, you know, there aren't a lot, who feels so confident. And another thing. Actually, I don't want you to respond to that. What about there -- aren't some things off-limits, though? I mean, like the R-word. I mean, I'm very sensitive to that. The N-word, some things you can't do.
WATTERS: What is the R word?
RIVERA: I'll whisper it in your ear.
WATTERS: OK, yes, whisper -- don't whisper, Geraldo.
RIVERA: When you wink, when you wink.
WATTERS: OK. Well, first, I think it's very noble of Greg to just give up his little comedy pass. Take the pass, Gutfeld. And I also want to hear the gender jokes that aren't landing to your 16-year-old daughters and her friends. You can also whisper those jokes in my ear too, Geraldo.
But you're right about Maher and you're right about --
RIVERA: What am I going to say?
WATTERS: You're right about Chappelle is because this is really about -- and you said it, it's about the mob. Because when one of their own, and Adam Carolla mentioned this. When one of their own, like the liberal, kind of goes outside of the boundaries for liberal doctrine, they get hammered because the mob has to stick together to be effective.
You can't have people freelancing in the mob or else the mob can't search and destroy. This is about making sure you contain people like they did with Nicki Minaj, like they did with Kanye West. You got to stay inside the circle. If you start going out and making fun of things you're not allowed to make fun of, no, no, no, you're not allowed to do that.
RIVERA: I'd be interested to see however how bold Netflix remains as they get assailed now from all of these groups. I think it'd be very --
PERINO: I confer, they're probably just fine. whisper in my ear.
RIVERA: We'll see.
WATTERS: Whisper in my ear, Geraldo.
RIVERA: OK. Up next, Vice President Kamala Harris widely mocked space video -- did you see this one? That's an actor. It got a whole lot weirder even than you think. We'll tell you then after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To think about so much that's out there that we still have to learn, like, I love that. I love that. And so, I'm very excited about the Space Council. You're going to literally see the craters on the moon with your own eyes, with your own eyes, I'm telling you. It is to be unbelievable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCDOWELL: If you thought Kamala's space travel video for kids couldn't get any more phony, a new report reveals that child actors were used for the special, they even had to audition for their roles. Critics suggesting the veep doesn't know how to talk to real children. Kamala's office not denying the story saying they did not select the kids who participated.
Gregory, I'm dying to know what you think about this video.
GUTFELD: They should --
RIVERA: They laughed -- they got laughed at.
GUTFELD: They should have hired an actor to play her. She is the perfect VP for a deep fake right now, truly a space cadet. My question is how will Late Night and SNL handle this? Will they lampoon it or will they laugh with her? Will they have someone play her but it'll be an affectionate way, and the kids will be the punch lines, or will they completely ignore it?
PERINO: Ignore.
GUTFELD: And if none of these shows do this, you will know that they've always been in the tank for the left because this is comedy gold. You can't get any more lampoonish than this.
MCDOWELL: Dana, how did they let this happen?
PERINO: Well, one of the things was that her office put out a statement that said, we had no idea that, you know, this was happening. And I said oh, we believe that because you seem to have no idea what's going on.
The other thing is, the name of the company is Sinking Ship Entertainment. I mean, if you've seen the poll numbers, it absolutely sounds like it.
RIVERA: That Canadian.
PERINO: Also, it was a Canadian firm, so America's second. But did anyone have any doubt that she was a good actress? Do you remember the Kavanaugh hearings, right? To talk about that, like, she can do that kind of thing.
But this image consultant that they've hired at the White House to try to help her or that her team is hired to help her, it's doing her no favor. She should just be herself.
MCDOWELL: Is that really working? Would that really work?
GUTFELD: Don't ever be yourself. That's the worst advice, Dana.
WATTERS: No, no, yes.
RIVERA: Not if yourself is unpleasant.
GUTFELD: Exactly.
MCDOWELL: Somebody who doesn't work anymore told -- said to me, I was too much myself on air.
WATTERS: Really?
MCDOWELL: Yes, because that was unpleasant.
WATTERS: That's so mean. That is so mean. I mean, she has got to be the worst female VP in U.S. history. I'm just kidding.
GUTFELD: That was your best joke of the month.
WATTERS: Thank you.
RIVERA: And the best. And the best female.
WATTERS: I just -- we paid for these fake child actors. This is taxpayer money that they spend on fake children actors. That's crazy. And it's not just this.
GUTFELD: It's child exploitation.
WATTERS: It is child expectation. And they have it also a fake White House too that Joe stands in. Everything is fake. It's a fairy tale.
MCDOWELL: She doesn't have the Midas touch. She has the minus touch where everything turns to negative.
RIVERA: I feel -- I feel badly because I always need to cite her historic role, first South Asian, first Black woman, first woman. I want to give her some slack because you want her very much to succeed. She's not doing very well because some people just come off as insincere. Some people just come off as unlikable.
I hate to say that but that's just the vibe. And the fact that they're so clumsy that they put actors in from Canada and this and that, it just seems -- it all seems to have a desperate aspect. But when you look at her -- some people, when you see him on TV, like watching Jesse at 7:00. You're watching him and say this guy's evolving. He's going to -- he's going to be OK. He's like the best in his generation.
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: He's going to be OK.
RIVERA: But Kamala, you worry that she's never going to OK.
GUTFELD: It's not happening.
WATTERS: Thank you, I guess, Geraldo. But wait, these were Canadian kids?
RIVERA: No, a Canadian company.
WATTERS: Oh, OK, OK. I was going to say, if we offshore these actors --
PERINO: But I do think that we need to know how much -- how much taxpayer dollars went to pay for this.
WATTERS: Yes.
MCDOWELL: Yes, we do.
RIVERA: Not much.
MCDOWELL: Or too much. One --
GUTFELD: By the way, are you going to get the kids on your show?
RIVERA: Great idea.
WATTERS: Johnny? Not a bad idea.
MCDOWELL: Great idea. "ONE MORE THING" up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WATTERS: It's time now for "ONE MORE THING." So, your wedding day, very important. Some people like to videotape it and then watch it many, many, many years later. This couple did that. To watch their 30th anniversary, to celebrate, they popped in the movie and here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: So, the husband accidentally take over his wedding with Cops. Not good, buddy. So, speaking of Cops, you can watch it on Fox Nation, which I have been, and it's been really, really fun to watch.
Also fun, "FOX NEWS PRIMETIME." Watch it. Tonight, I'm hosting with Senator John Kennedy who's got a way with words, Representative Lauren Boebert, Dana Loesch, Lara Trump, Raymond Arroyo. I don't even know if you're supposed to roll your tongue like that, but I did it.
RIVERA: Yes.
WATTERS: 7:00. Check it out.
GUTFELD: Well, that's a damn good show.
WATTERS: Is that your Kennedy impression?
GUTFELD: Yes. That show is as excited as a pig stuck in a pig thing?
PERINO: It is. That was a terrible Southern accent. How about this? Dana's Crazy Tricks. OK, I love this. So, you have girls?
WATTERS: Yes.
PERINO: It's hard to do a ponytail sometimes.
WATTERS: Yes.
PERINO: Like the perfect ponytail. Watch this dad. He's figured out the way, Jesse, and I want you to try this at home. Here we go. This little vacuum, right? Put the vacuum on. Let's watch it again. You gather up the hair with a vacuum. You just take the little thing and there you go.
WATTERS: That's like one of those don't try this at home.
PERINO: I don't know.
RIVERA: I was going to say --
WATTERS: Like a Halloween --
PERINO: I'm giving that a nine.
WATTERS: All right.
PERINO: I'm giving that a nine.
WATTERS: I'm not going to try that though.
GUTFELD: You know -- you know what the thing is? You totally undermined it by, you know, boys can have ponytails too.
RIVERA: What's this? What's this?
GUTFELD: Maybe there needs to be an apology.
PERINO: OK, performative outrage mob.
WATTERS: It's a mullet.
GUTFELD: All right, let's do this quickly, shall we? Greg's Slide Show. Everybody loves a slide. But you know what? I hate outdoor slides. As a kid, I always wanted to have an indoor slide in my own room like this fellow here. He has an indoor slide. Check them out. That's how he gets up and down the -- that's a little French Bulldog.
RIVERA: I have one of those.
GUTFELD: Yes, see? Like, he just like -- I think it might have broken his leg or something. Maybe that's why he does it. I can't just believe this is due to sheer laziness. But it's got to be fun. I'm going to have those installed all around my penthouse.
PERINO: That's probably a good size for you.
WATTERS: Yes.
GUTFELD: How dare you.
WATTERS: The mansion in Greenwich Village?
GUTFELD: Yes, where all my MINI Coopers live.
RIVERA: Well, speaking of which, Geraldo's big surprise in Mexico news with Geraldo, of course. It was my sister Irene's 80th birthday. She went to San Miguel Allende outside of Mexico City. Craig and I and the whole family showed up, surprised her. That's Sol there in the -- Sol and Eric and I in front of Chapultepec palace.
Erica and I had a wonderful, wonderful time there. Mexico is hugely underrated. All you think about is the border and crises, but there's some great museums, anthropological museums. And Dagen.
WATTERS: All right, Dagen.
MCDOWELL: Greg wants slides in his house. I want just a house that does this. Let's see it. It spins. It doesn't just move. The thing actually spins.
PERINO: Why would you want that?
WATTERS: Really?
MCDOWELL: Multiple views. It's a Bosnian inventor.
GUTFELD: Just buy a bottle of vodka.
WATTERS: Yes. I felt like that after some Saturday nights. All right -- not that last Saturday night. That was another issue. That's it for us. "SPECIAL REPORT" is up next. Hey, Bret.
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