This is a rush transcript from “The Five,” August 11, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS HOST (on camera): Hi. I’m Greg Gutfeld, along with Dagen McDowell, Austan Goolsbee, Brian Kilmeade, and a posted stamp is her face mask, Dana Perino. THE FIVE.

Out of the gate it’s another debate about another mandate, so how will it rate? Who will meet their fate? And who will take the bait, who will advocate, who will acclimate, who will constipate.

President Biden signaling a federal crackdown could be coming for states that don’t follow his COVID rules. That threat is the latest example in a major fight over mandate that is splitting the country apart, Dana.

Biden and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have been going after each other for days over mandates like wearing masks in schools. DeSantis says it should be up to the parents to decide, but now the president is looking into ways to overrule states like Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: My concerns are deep, one of the things that I find a little disingenuous, when I suggest that people in zones where there is a high risk, where the masks like you are all are doing. I’m told that the government should get out of the way.

UNKNOWN: Do you have presidential powers to intervene in states like Texas and Florida where they are banning masks mandates?

BIDEN: I don’t believe I do thus far. We are checking that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD (on camera): Does that matter? Governor DeSantis is defending his position and is refusing to cave to pressure from people like President Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): We are going to do whatever we can to vindicate the rights of parents and make sure that parents are in the driver’s seat when it comes to the health, education, and welfare of their kids.

And they should not be decreed by the government. They should be something that a parent is ultimately making the decision on. And there’s different parents that feel differently about it. I respect that. But I think to force one way is alienating and marginalizing a lot of parents throughout the state of Florida.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD (on camera): So, there you have it, Dagen. So, who is the face of coercion here? You know, the president says, it’s Governor DeSantis, but it’s DeSantis who claims he is creating a middle ground by saying let the parents decide, but then President Biden says no, we are going to override that. So, who is coercing who?

DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX NEWS BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Biden is not coercing anybody, Ron DeSantis says mask optional.

GUTFELD: Yes.

MCDOWELL: OK? It’s like, I’m going to let the parents decide.

GUTFELD: The middle ground.

MCDOWELL: And I know you are going to talk about this later, but there is no science behind children wearing masks. In fact, the hospitalization rate right now for children is the same, if not lower than it was last year.

BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX NEWS CO-HOST: Twitter is going to ban you, maybe YouTube, too.

MCDOWELL: Yes. Good luck. I have a way of coming back. I’ll find — I’ll get you. I’ve got a long memory.

So, Joe Biden, you can kind of hear him hemming and hawing and doing, look at the rainbow over there, he doesn’t really know what he is talking about because he’s trying to figure out how to hammer Ron DeSantis but not make the mommas and daddies in this important swing state angry if you put them in a situation where the school district mandates mask wearing.

And when I say Joe Biden is kind of gasping and grasping, he spent all of last year blaming Trump for the highest death rates in the country here in New York and in New Jersey. And now it was — he said he is going to come in and fix everything while he couldn’t get his target on the vaccinations.

So, he’s kind of in no man’s land, and notice he doesn’t go after the governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards, because he is a Democrat. He has a mask mandate in the state, but the country is one of the lowest vaccination rates and one of the highest death rates in the nation.

And Governor John Bel Edwards now is invoking the power of prayer and he is fasting trying to help cure his state. And wouldn’t that be the target of the left? If somebody — if some Republican governor said I’m fasting and praying for you all?

GUTFELD: Yes. I fast and I pray for Brian.

KILMEADE: Thank you.

GUTFELD: Yes, good to see you.

KILMEADE: Amen.

GUTFELD: I’m lying.

KILMEADE: I would — can I just make a suggestion; I would take that same open for Gutfeld.

GUTFELD: Yes, really?

KILMEADE: Right.

GUTFELD: That strong.

KILMEADE: That’s how good it was.

DANA PERINO, FOX NEWS CO-HOST: Wow. What’s wrong with you?

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: But Dagen makes a very —

PERINO: I love his monologue but I think you are sucking up, it’s like, come on?

KILMEADE: Why can I just be honest (Inaudible), why do you have to label me and put me in a corner? This is come out of my time?

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: Yes.

GUTFELD: No, no, we are going to take it out of her time —

KILMEADE: OK.

GUTFELD: — and give it to you.

KILMEADE: That was she is going to learn.

AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, FORMER CHIEF ECONOMIST FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA: I’m reclaiming my time.

GUTFELD: Yes. I remember that, but that was so much fun. Dagen was talking about this is the group of people who are at least risk and yet were mandating — people they’re mandating. Are we basically abusing children to protect teachers?

KILMEADE: Possibly. I mean, there is teacher mandates out there, there is individual companies, private companies that are mandating now, vaccines mandating masks. I get it, people are scrambling to a corner trying to figure it out. Meanwhile, we’re also trying to play politics on top of it.

I have news for you. We are going to be on THE FIVE (Inaudible) to fill in when you turn an ankle or you run a fever at some point, and we are going to be having the same debate for years to come because there is going to be variant after variant. And how we handle it is going to be a little bit more mature.

Are we going to have a national bedtime next? Where at nine o’clock Joe Biden proclaims by the power vested in him, same with the holy theme that we all have to go to bed at the same time?

And it is amazing that Joe Biden is actually postulating whether he has legal authority to mandate or override governors? I have retained a special lawyer Andy McCarthy, and I asked him legally does he have the ability to do this. And he writes, no. And I memorize that.

He does not have the right to do this, why are we battling on this, since when do parents need permission to be parents? Parents went to pick up, went to put the kids in corduroys even though all the other kids are wearing jeans. Should they be fine for that?

Parents are in charge, that’s the way it should be. And give Broward County a little bit of credit, because they said, OK, let’s try to broker this, let’s have a hope scholarship. Let’s say kids who don’t want to do a mask mandate will be able to go to a private school for where they can do masks at liberty for free. So at least they are trying to —

(CROSSTALK)

MCDOWELL: The whole state did that. They voted for it last week.

KILMEADE: In Florida.

MCDOWELL: Yes.

GUTFELD: You know, Austan, we don’t ask loaded questions around here, but I wanted to just pose this to you. Why does President Bush — Biden hate parents?

GOOLSBEE: Well, why do parents love President Biden? That’s the reverse question. Look, the thing here is Governor DeSantis is trying to overrule the school boards in Florida. So, he is saying I forbid you from requiring masks. On top of his head you can’t — you can’t require the vaccine. You can’t require testing. I think that combination —

(CROSSTALK)

KILMEADE: It’s called America.

GOOLSBEE: — lets — that combination I think is a little problematic. I think Brian is right that we are going to have variants, we got to figure out how we are going to navigate this, but it’s a contagious disease. And we’re not trying to make the roads easier and more open for drunk drivers, we’re not trying to change the laws that allow you to not have to clean up for your pet if they make a mess, and kids are getting infected.

The pediatric hospitals in Florida are overwhelmed, and they spread the disease to each other.

KILMEADE: They are not in school yet, how are you blaming the schools for that?

GOOLSBEE: Yes. I’m not blaming the schools. I’m saying there is a risk at a time when Florida’s infection rate if it were a separate country it would be the highest infection rate in the world. That’s a moment where for a temporary period, if some school district in Florida says it’s so high here, let’s wear masks for the next two weeks, why is the governor saying no?

GUTFELD: I’m so confused by this statistic, because I see that the case rate or the hospitalization rate of kids is roughly the same as it has been for a while, but the caseload goes up. And so, the media concentrate on the caseload because that’s the thing that’s mushrooming?

MCDOWELL: Yes. Real quick. The CDC had to amend its Florida COVID numbers —

GUTFELD: Right.

MCDOWELL: — because it was overreporting the daily case numbers.

GUTFELD: Yes.

MCDOWELL: I will shut up now.

PERINO: No, that’s fine.

GUTFELD: Dana, there is this concept that a brilliant philosopher came up where it’s the prison of two ideas. Yes. So, you either have to be in masks work or masks don’t work. We know that masks aren’t 100 percent effective. There is a research out there, but we also know it’s not zero.

PERINO: Right.

GUTFELD: It’s somewhere in the middle, but the news doesn’t like that. Right?

KILMEADE: They are nuance. Yes, well said.

GUTFELD: They like the two — it’s got to be — it’s got to be you’ve got to save your children or you are a murderer. But this isn’t like seat belts.

PERINO: No.

GUTFELD: It’s something that — there is a huge gray area and that’s kind of where Ron DeSantis is saying, who deals with the gray area? Not the freaking law.

KILMEADE: Parents.

GUTFELD: The parents, the gray area is for the parents.

PERINO: And you’ve talked before about how you assess risk, right, so for yourself and for your children. So, if you are not — if you are being told that there’s only two ideas and you are a parent, like we’ll actually we’ll wait.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: It gets a little bit overwhelming I can imagine that there are some parents who are saying I want my kids to be masks or even I want my kid in remote schools, because their level of tolerance for risk is really low.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: There are other parents who are like, everything I read says that the kids don’t get very sick and I think that the chances of them getting hit when he walks across the street if he doesn’t look both ways is a higher risk, so this whole debate is not allowing for that.

The other thing is, remember Dr. Osterholm who everybody really likes, he’s out of University of Minnesota, he was on air two weeks ago saying that cloth masks don’t work.

GUTFELD: Right.

PERINO: And then so Rand Paul said something similar, and then YouTube bans him.

GUTFELD: Right.

PERINO: But they don’t ban Dr. Osterholm, and so, talk about the prison of two ideas, it’s like if you are one doctor you can say it and be fine, and the other doctor gets banned.

GUTFELD: It’s also a weird one-way street about the banning and censorship, and the fact that a school board member can say if children doesn’t wear a mask, that child will — is committing murder.

(CROSSTALK)

GOOLSBEE: Right. But she apologized later.

GUTFELD: Yes, she did.

KILMEADE: That makes it all bad.

GUTFELD: But it seems like the censorship only goes in one direction. You can be — you can — they can view you extreme in your skepticism, but not extreme in your hysteria.

GOOLSBEE: Although in this case, DeSantis is saying if you as a school board vote against what I want, I’m literally going to confiscate your salary and you won’t be paid.

PERINO: Right.

GOOLSBEE: So, I think it’s a little bit of a both sides have got some extreme —

(CROSSTALK)

MCDOWELL: Why anybody bothered by Governor Murphy though in New Jersey who has mandate state wide that there are masks in all the schools, but that’s not overreach?

GUTFELD: I don’t know. Lots more to talk about. OK. Hey, did Chicago’s soft on crime policies cost the police officer her life? How a suspected cop killer slipped through the cracks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MCDOWELL (on camera): The consequences of liberal city as being soft on crime on full display in Chicago. We’re now learning that the two brothers charged with killing police officer Ella French are both felons, one reportedly on probation for robbery with his sibling getting busted for theft. That comes amid another twist in the story.

Watch as the mother of the brothers charged gets herself arrested after trying to see one of them in the hospital.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: I don’t give a (muted) what people want to hear. I need to be a voice for my boys, that’s all I have to say, let me get in this hospital and see my (muted) son.

I want to see my son. Marty. Don’t touch me! Get away from me! Get away!

UNKNOWN: Stop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCDOWELL (on camera): Greg, I’d like to hear screaming and crying like that for the murdered police officer from that woman.

GUTFELD: We are definitely in like a new era where you see — we see now all sorts of things because of this. It’s like you see the mother go in who doesn’t believe her son is a murderer. This is part of that unstoppable march towards a reform that because we like the sound of the word reform, and all of the practices that smell of the past that stink of old white men are inherently evil.

So, we get rid of, you know, cash bail, we get rid of — we think prison is bad now. We let felons out of jail in California everywhere. No one is being arrested for grand larceny. So not only through the baby out with the bathwater, we threw the parents in the bathtub in the quest for reform.

So, to use an analogy, you know, a semi-truck pulls into a dead-end alley it can’t turn around, it can only go in reverse. There’s no way forward for this country. We have to go backwards. We have to go in reverse and undo every one of these idiotic decisions ushered in under the lie of positive reform. No doubt there is good reform, we’ve seen it, but a lot of this stuff is based on some really wacky ideas from wacky D.A.’s.

MCDOWELL: There aren’t, there been changes in terms of how police officers in Chicago, Austan, conduct business. What do you make of everything that has happened in there now in terms of the spike in crime? What we do know is that there is one dead police officer, one woman who would spend potentially decades serving the city, protecting the city, and she is gone.

GOOLSBEE: And was a great officer by all accounts. Look, I live and work on the southside of Chicago. I’ve been there 26 years. If somebody killed a police officer, absolutely they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

I think in Chicago as in much of the country the pandemic has led to an increase in both the violent crime and nonviolent crimes, and for some reasons we understand and some we don’t.

I think that that’s a separate issue from one of the controversies in the city of Chicago is that the mayor has established kind of a civilian control of the police force that they can investigate, and that was because of some pretty public abuses on the part of the police department.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with the basic proposition which is let’s go after criminals and let’s not have police officers abusing their power, and I think we can do both of those things if we are getting to a situation where D.A.s are going to preannounce we will not prosecute you. We won’t throw you in jail for committing a crime, I do think you are going to get more crime and so they better think that throughout.

GUTFELD: Yes.

MCDOWELL: But Dana, it’s also the demonization and the demoralization of police officers lead to a recruitment price. Not only your people quitting the force but recruitment is a problem because these D.A.’s and these mayors and governors will not lock up criminals, violent ones.

PERINO: Yes, they won’t back them up. Senator Tom Cotton will probably make some heads explode with his new op-ed that he has at National Review, and the title of it is our — our national under incarceration problem. And he is making the case that there are actually a lot of people who should be in jail and arguably these two might have been two of them.

And also, there is just a total disrespect for the rule of law, total disregard for it. If you look at what happened in the situation, they had expired tags. Expired tags are red flag for police officers that’s why they got pulled over. And before they could even figure out what was going on in terms of in the car, that’s when they shot them.

So, when he talks about our under-incarceration problem, I think there might be, might be some merit to that.

MCDOWELL: Well, certainly a problem here in New York City that Rikers Island, there are thousands of prisoners who were let out of Rikers Island —

KILMEADE: Yes.

MCDOWELL: — with the plan of closing it and with the bail reform again —

GUTFELD: I see them every day.

MCDOWELL: Right. Right. They are — violent criminals are back out on the street. If somebody punches you in the nose, Brian, you got to the hospital, they are not — they are not going to stay in jail not for an hour.

KILMEADE: They’ll be out before you are.

MCDOWELL: Yes.

KILMEADE: Because the emergency room is —

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: That’s the case.

KILMEADE: Right.

GUTFELD: I’m first in line.

KILMEADE: OK. Thank you. I only have a minute left, but just to add to this. In Chicago it’s unbelievable, you see it’s emblematic of everything that’s wrong. You have a parent instead of saying, my goodness, my 21-year- old and my 22-year-old are probably going to be in jail for life and they are involved in the murder of a cop. And may be a second who got shot in the head who stole a phone and got so upset that he was drinking and driving, and when he was told to put down the drink, he wouldn’t do it.

Instead of the mom showing up and say how can my kids do that? She comes up vilifying the police. It seems like on the surface this 21 and 22-year-old never had a shot.

So, you have, how do we stop crime today, and then how do we stop another generation of killers and give them options before they become teens, before they realize that there is more to life than the life that they are seeing around them? Somehow, we got to get into the inner cities into the underprivilege communities and provide some of the guidance that the parents are not able to or are not just doing.

GUTFELD: But nothing you’ve said is new. That’s the problem, right? It’s the people in charge. What you just said makes total sense, but it’s not being done. Education sucks, right? We are now killing every stand — we are killing standards on the street in the schools. We are — we are actually telling people that we are in decline, and we don’t care.

KILMEADE: The working class, the urban class and many times the best teachers say they get the worst. Because they paid the less to take the greatest risk so they don’t show up. So somehow, we got to reverse that calculus, and there is a way to do it. They do it in small areas. I would love to see it bring it to larger areas because I think there’s a lot of people that want to solve this problem rather than vilifying today, they like to solve it within five years.

Give us a five-year program to get in and spread the opportunity to people, not the money, not the free lunches, but the opportunity and hope. Some of them are born and they have no hope.

MCDOWELL: We’ll leave it at that.

Up next, get ready for Biden’s socialist spending spree. Democrats ramming through trillions in liberal wish list spending without a single republican vote.

KILMEADE: I think that was a Gutfeld in —

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KILMEADE (on camera): All right. Democrats are pushing a social spending spree that would make Karl Marx blush. I’ve only seen him in black and white photos so that would certainly be interesting.

Senate Democrats are ramming through what could be the largest expansion of big government in decades. It’s not an exaggeration, try to follow this. With a $3.5 trillion filled, liberal filled bill of wish list items including everything from amnesty to clean energy, free pre-K, free community college, paid leave, and elder care. Republicans wasting no time tearing into it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: The policies they want to put behind this budget resolution read like somebody walked across a rotunda to the house and handed the squad a pen and piece of paper.

UNKNOWN: Senate Democrats have made it clear that they want to use this reckless tax spending spree to implement the Green New Deal.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): You’re spending money like drunken sailors. They’re just throwing every liberal idea and hope it sticks to the wall. They are going to change your country. It’s going to be more like Venezuela and less like America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KILMEADE (on camera): Don’t worry about how they are going to pay for it, they are going to up the corporate rate from 28 to 21. Didn’t they just negotiate the fact that Donald Trump tax reform plan was untouchable in the $1.2 trillion deal, and then they got to capital gains and take it from 23 percent to 43.4.

PERINO: My gosh.

KILMEADE: So, OK. We’re changing everything. Austan, does that please you?

GOOLSBEE: Brian, you know, as a, switch to decaf, but b, may be in honor of the compromise of yesterday we should agree that rather than have a liberal spending spree wish list let’s only do those things that are supported by the large majority of the American people.

Yes, that’s exactly what they did. The whole show that 69 percent of the country supports the build back better agenda including 50 percent of self- proclaimed Republicans. And if you look at this bill, it’s not a socialist mantra, whatever you said it is, it’s a list of investing in health care, investing in education, investing in manufacturing —

(CROSSTALK)

KILMEADE: With somebody else’s money.

GOOLSBEE: — and technology.

KILMEADE: With somebody else’s money.

GOOLSBEE: Paid for by raising taxes on high income corporations —

(CROSSTALK)

KILMEADE: Doubling them.

GOOLSBEE: And all I will point out is Joe Biden ran for president saying this is exactly what I will spend money on, and here’s how I will pay for it, he won by seven million votes, he got the House, he got the Senate.

KILMEADE: Right.

GOOLSBEE: And now he is doing what he said he would do.

KILMEADE: Austan, I think he is doing what Bernie Sanders said he would do, which Bernie Sanders didn’t get the domination. Dagen, is this still America, is this still a democracy, is this still capitalism?

MCDOWELL: The $3.5 trillion plus, let’s call it $5 trillion — $5 trillion plus plan that we’re now — that we are now talking about creates vast new entitlements that will last well beyond 10-year period. That means it gets the middle-class hooked on government handouts. It’s not investing. Its spending and handing over decision-making to the likes of Bernie and Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.

But I find it rich that say a Lindsey Graham, even Mitch McConnell are now bitching about spending. They signed on to this infrastructure package.

KILMEADE: The 1.1.

MCDOWELL: Yes, but we’d already spent, including what was passed this year, we had already spent $6 trillion. So, anyway, so you get — you get a bipartisan infrastructure plan. It was like more than two-thirds of the Senate. That never happens. So, where’s the media and calling out Nancy Pelosi and her nincompoops for not pushing it through?

Now, she’s tied it to the three and a half to $5 trillion plan. She won’t put a vote on it. This is a huge win for Joe Biden and she’s — you know, this is heinous (INAUDIBLE) on her part. She’s owned by the left. She’s owned by AOC. She’s owned by Bernie Sanders. Chuck Schumer is worried about AOC primarying him.

KILMEADE: Dana, nincompoops, we can’t approve of this language. But Dana, in particular, Joe Manchin said, I’m not happy with the 3.5. I’ll let this move forward, but I’m not going to go for all that money. Does that make you feel better?

PERINO: No. Because do you think that — I mean, every time — everybody thinks that Joe Manchin is the savior. But look at his historical voting record. That’s not to say — he might not be for 3.5, but he could be for 3.3, right? And – but I also think that some of these things, like, to your point about the polls, it’s a good one.

However, think back to the 2020 election and ask anybody. Medicare for all, do you like it? Yes, I love it, I love it. But do you like it if this happens? And that’s when all the polling starts to fall apart. So, Republicans do have a lot of work to do to try to explain their position on this.

KILMEADE: Quickly.

PERINO: They better –they better hurry. But there’s another piece which is on the immigration front. Now, this might get thrown out because it doesn’t have anything to do with the budget and reconciliation rules.

(CROSSTALK)

KILMEADE: (INAUDIBLE) would be the hero.

PERINO: However, this is what they want to do. The immigration language is very vague. So, what they’ve said is that basically, lawful permanent status for qualified immigrants. This is not just your DREAMers. DREAMers would be about 700,000. This would get you up to about 10 million.

So, now you have several senators who are in very tough races like Mark Kelly, and then I would put Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire in that category. And because of all of these policies, and in particular, this one, the Republicans are actually looking at Senator Michael Bennet as a turnover opportunity in Colorado.

KILMEADE: That’d be amazing for Republicans. And not only that, so if you say nine million are now illegal, Greg, we’re going to get another 10 million raging at our border and we don’t have — we have an administration that doesn’t really care about our border.

GUTFELD: Yes. I want to talk about China.

KILMEADE: OK. On this show?

GUTFELD: Yes, on this show.

KILMEADE: Because you do have your own show coming up in about four hours.

GUTFELD: So, you got the infrastructure bill, and it’s got these carve-outs for companies to use foreign labor and material if it’s too expensive in America. And that means one word, China, right? And so, people keep saying, oh, we’re in this new Cold War with China. But I grew up in the Cold War, and Nike, and Apple, and the NBA, they were blowing tongue kisses to this – – to Moscow while we were awaiting our annihilation, while we were hiding under desks and doing nuclear — you know, nuclear bomb testing. Our corporations weren’t playing games with them.

So, it’s starting to look like China is responsible for all our kids. I don’t have any masking up. Our relatives dying and our friends’ businesses being ruined. You can point to China for that. But we don’t want that to interfere with our cheap products and our — and our profits. So, the reality is until we accept paying higher prices for labor material, we’re going to be in bed with the nation responsible for the worst biological disaster in history. And I think there were 16 or 17 Republicans who signed on to that infrastructure bill knowing that.

KILMEADE: Right. That’s a good point.

GUTFELD: So, does that answer your immigration question, Mr. Kilmeade?

KILMEADE: No, but it makes you feel better, and I know most of your — most of your —

GUTFELD: If I feel better, I’m less abusive towards you.

KILMEADE: In a way, I think you’re 100 percent correct.

GUTFELD: Although, when I feel good, I want to hurt you more.

KILMEADE: And I think I speak for — I think I speak for Dana. I’m surprised the way you’re getting along with Austan. I still — I thought —

GUTFELD: Compared to you, he has (INAUDIBLE)

KILMEADE: It’s amazing.

AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, AMERICAN ECONOMIST: We agree about you.

GUTFELD: Yes. At least he’s not afraid to go without the toupee.

KILMEADE: Imagine if I had one, how personally I would take it.

MCDOWELL: Can you imagine.

KILMEADE: Coming straight ahead, this is the story. Another major twist for those runaway Texan Democrats, why they could end up in cuffs. Can you spot the beer?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GOOLSBEE: More trouble brewing for the Texas Democrats who fled the state. Now, they could be arrested if they don’t show up to vote on an election bill they’ve been blocking. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is offering up these tough words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN PAXTON, ATTORNEY GENERAL, TEXAS: Their strategy — there’s no end game to their strategy. The endgame would be they never come back. And so, that’s not representing the government. That doesn’t allow the rest of the legislature to have their right to vote. So, these small minority of Democrats are making the decision for all the other legislators as to — as to what’s going to be voted on. That’s minority rule. That’s not the way this country was set up.

GOOLSBEE: So, Dana, arresting the people who won’t come vote for your bill. Is this taking it too far?

PERINO: Well, look, are there consequences or not? And I think that if the Republicans have done the same thing, the Democrats would have done that as well. Look, they’re probably not going to get arrested, but should there be something? I imagine so. Participation means you’ve got to show up. And that’s why you ran.

And here’s the other thing. If you’re going to pull a political stunt, make sure you get results. This is the worst political stunt of all time because they actually didn’t even get anything that they wanted except for bad press. And then, they were trying to drum up more press And so, that was difficult because, you know, the whole nation is going through COVID. We were talking about all this crime increases, people worried about inflation, so nobody paid attention to them anymore.

So, two of them had non-refundable tickets to Portugal. And they’re like, yes, we’re just going to go on our trip. So, they’re willing to go to Portugal, but they’re not willing to go home and do their job in Texas.

GOOLSBEE: Right. Is this not the natural outcome of what we’ve seen in D.C. of procedural tricks to prevent hearings? You got Ted Cruz blocking hundreds of diplomatic appointments? Should he be handcuffed to his desk or jailed? You know, where does this go next?

KILMEADE: Just a second. Is he saying this happens all the time? Because it doesn’t happen all the time. Listen, it’s a private jet. They get some beer. They get COVID-19. They couldn’t meet with the President. They didn’t accomplish anything they want. They go to Portugal. They have — four trickled back and show up yesterday on Monday. They need 10. There’s a raging problem at the border. COVID-19 is raging in the state and they’re smiling on a private jet thanks to Beto O’Rourke who likes to stand on counters.

GOOLSBEE: They haven’t voted on the election bill, have they, Greg? Where does this go?

GUTFELD: I don’t know. I think to death penalty. I mean, why are we wasting — why are we wasting time with an arrest? I mean, this is —

KILMEADE: It is Texas.

GUTFELD: It is Texas. You know, I think that if you — they’ve embarrass themselves so much. To arrest them would reverse the charges, right? Suddenly, you’re going to martyr the whole crew if you arrest them. So, I say you got to do the absolute opposite. Welcome them back with the cheesiest little celebration with balloons, party hats, noisemakers, plenty of light beer, and turn it into a big joke. Because it’s like — it is the worst stunts in Snake River Canyon, Brian. There you go.

KILMEADE: He fell in the middle on a parachute.

GUTFELD: Yes.

GOOLSBEE: Dagen, what do you —

MCDOWELL: I thought that — I thought that was genius. These Democrats have already pickled their own cucumber, so to speak. You don’t need to do anything. And I can’t believe I would say this. No handcuffs. Because again, even if you approach one of them or two of them, they’re going to go, don’t touch me. So, it’s going to just going to look bad for the Republicans.

PERINO: And they’re all going to be filming it on their iPhones.

GUTFELD: Yes, exactly. That’s why you don’t want to give them that.

MCDOWELL: All the martyrs.

PERINO: Don’t show any of the video.

GUTFELD: Yes.

MCDOWELL: All the martyrs.

KILMEADE: We got to get something done.

GUTFELD: Where — are the — are the two ladies in Portugal, are they Instagramming any of this? I would like to see that.

GOOLSBEE: “THE FASTEST” is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PERINO: Welcome back. Time for “THE FASTEST.” First up, Tamyra Mensah-Stock capturing hearts everywhere after becoming the first black us woman wrestler to win gold at the Olympics and then putting her patriotism on display after saying she loves representing America. I got to ask her this morning about her win and that memorable moment earlier today. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAMYRA MENSAH-STOCK, OLYMPIC WRESTLER: It felt amazing. I just did what I practiced. And by the grace of God — like, my mantra is let go, let God, and it works. I know that there’s been a lot of negativity going on. And I just wanted to enlighten people of my feelings and just spread positivity and shoot, it happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: It happened, Brian. She finally got to come on.

KILMEADE: She did. And by the way, women’s wrestling save wrestling because with the whole Title IX thing, wrestling is about to go by the boards. And when women started wrestling at the highest level, it saved the sport. So, I appreciate —

PERINO: You’re welcome.

KILMEADE: And number two is real quick about her. It’s almost sad. Her enthusiasm for the country and appreciation for after traveling the world and how great this country is, it’s a story. It used to — it has become a story when someone celebrates. And it became a priority for you and Bill Hemmer to get her on because of her genuine enthusiasm for the country. And I think that it’s kind of sad.

PERINO: Yes, she made a point to say, Greg, that her dad was born in Ghana, then they emigrated here. So, she’s, you know, the first-generation American and she loved — there was a lot of pride there.

GUTFELD: Yes. But if you notice, she wasn’t wearing a mask. So, I find her to be a poor example for young America and I can’t believe we’re doing this segment. I think she’s got an amazing future. If I were her agent, two options. She should become either a peloton instructor —

PERINO: Great idea.

GUTFELD: — and she would be amazing. Or she’s got to check out the new Wrestling Federation, NWA. The new champion is Tyrus. She could be there — she could be a star. It’s owned by William Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins. He now goes by William. So, she should either become a big — join NWA, talk to Tyrus, or become a peloton instructor. Either way, she’d make millions.

KILMEADE: I think she could be the next governor of Florida.

GUTFELD: I would go with New Jersey.

PERINO: But she lives in Texas. Anything else on her, Austan?

GOOLSBEE: Look, it’s an inspiring story. And it’s great to see new sports trying to get more interest in the Olympics. You know, it was a kind of a tough Olympics as far as the ratings, as far as you know, people following it. And a story like this really get people, you know, juiced up about it.

PERINO: I think it was my favorite story of the — of the Olympics.

MCDOWELL: I watched a lot —

GUTFELD: It was the only story.

MCDOWELL: Yes, I watched a lot of the Olympics though, and there were so many athletes like female track stars gold medalist —

PERINO: Yes, Allyson Felix.

MCDOWELL: Athing Mu won the 800-meter gold. She — her parents emigrated from Sudan.

PERINO: Yes.

MCDOWELL: And she was the first woman to win a medal in that event for the United States or the gold since 1968. So, there’s just all these stories that’s not expressed with that. But can I do a pile driver on you speaking of wrestling, Brian?

KILMEADE: Yes.

PERINO: Permission granted.

KILMEADE: Absolutely, as — yes, as long as we both get paid for it. The only thing I would say about the Olympics is Tokyo didn’t even want it at the end. The question is, are we going to — are we going to boycott the China Olympics in seven months?

PERINO: Well, that’s something we will be talking about. But we also have to talk about this. We have to. Friends stars Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer are reportedly dating after both admitted to having crushes on each other during the show’s 10 year run with the spark allegedly being relit during this year’s reunion. Special but for —

KILMEADE: Is this live?

PERINO: — both Aniston and Schwimmer are pushing back and saying the story isn’t true. I checked with Jesse Watters today on his vacation. I said, sorry to bother you, but like what do you know about this? He claims to know nothing.

GUTFELD: This is all a scam. It’s a front. They are both raging a moral homosexuals destined to hell.

KILMEADE: Wow.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: That wasn’t — that wasn’t in the tabloid I ready today.

GUTFELD: Yes. I was trying to think of an interesting edge to this because I don’t believe this. I think this is just a drum-up interest for Friends.

PERINO: It could be a publicity stunt. What do you think, Dagen?

MCDOWELL: My first question being the cynic I am was what are they humping? Is it a book? Is it like, I don’t know, I mini-series coming up, not each other. It had to be a product of some sort. And by the way, that haircut was a plague on American women for 20 years. So, suck it, Jennifer Aniston.

GOOLSBEE: Brian is not available, so Jennifer thought out the second —

KILMEADE: Currently not. But I will say this. I’m going to — one year from now, we’re going to be talking about an engagement. And I hope you guys save this. I used to tape the show in the VCR. I want you to play this back because I believe that it is real love. I’m great at detecting real love when I see it. And when I see two people look at each other, I could tell that’s real.

GUTFELD: It’s like you —

KILMEADE: If this this work, who’s mugging for an invitation?

GUTFELD: It’s like you and Steve Ducey.

GOOLSBEE: That’s what that was.

KILMEADE: We just mark this. You’re taping in your office, everything.

PERINO: We will replay it in the prediction show. OK, “ONE MORE THING” is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUTFELD: It’s time now for “ONE MORE THING.” Dana.

PERINO: They improve my next show, so it’s time for this. All right, do you like that? It’s a little better, right? So, we’ve got crazy tricks.

GUTFELD: It’s very bar-like. It’s like at a bar.

PERINO: Yes. This is — check out this basketball dunk. I’ve never seen anything like this before. I’m going to give it a rating right after this. Here’s Christopher Spell. So, check him out. He can do a backflip and dunk. OK. It’s a world record for the highest standing jump, five feet seven inches, which is seven inches taller than me. I am going to give him a nine.

GUTFELD: Wow.

KILMEADE: How come you’re not giving 10?

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: I mean, it looks like it too easy for him, right? I feel like he just does that all the time. So, you have to grade him on the trick. Ready, one more time. There you go.

GUTFELD: There you go.

PERINO: All right. And that was Dana’s crazy trick.

GOOLSBEE: That reminds me of my first year of teaching.

GUTFELD: Let’s do this. We don’t do this enough. Greg’s Wombat News. You know, we don’t do wombat news a lot. You know why? Wombats never make any news. Check out this wombat out in Australia. This is Sydney. I’ve been — I’ve been keeping an eye on this guy for six months. He still hasn’t made any news. All he does is he feeds off some grass. And I’m thinking, come on, wombat. Do something. Do something, you damn wombat. This is why wombat news never works. I keep telling the producers, why do we have to have wombat news?

PERINO: Maybe you need a better next show.

GUTFELD: Yes, maybe so.

KILMEADE: I’ll tell you what, cuter than I thought.

GUTFELD: Well, you know, a lot of things are cuter than you think, Brian. Check your inbox after work.

KILMEADE: OK, fine.

GUTFELD: Go.

KILMEADE: I’m up? So, do you guys remember this scene from this movie?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you build in it, he will come.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, you must have heard that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: Satanist movie.

GOOLSBEE: Is this heaven?

KILMEADE: Top three movies ever made, Field of Dreams. For people who love baseball, to replay — it’s irreplaceable especially father-son relationships. Realizing that, Major League Baseball needing a boost, decided to take a real game, the White Sox in first place, the Yankees on the rampage to get the wildcard spot will be — will be facing off tomorrow at 7:00, pregame at 6:00. And look what Fox is doing to commemorate the very field from the movie in the middle of Iowa. They have set up — they set this great promotional vehicle out. I’ll go over here. How great is this?

Of course, Shoeless Joe Jackson would come out of the corn.

GUTFELD: People can get this?

KILMEADE: Yes — well, no. Only if you host a show and asked to film it on THE FIVE.

GUTFELD: So, basically, you’re showing off the swag to our viewers who can’t get it.

KILMEADE: Then our network came up with a very special game.

GUTFELD: But we can’t get it.

KILMEADE: You can’t, but —

GUTFELD: You should give that to somebody.

KILMEADE: Austan, Chicago it is.

GUTFELD: There you go.

KILMEADE: I wanted that. And you give it away. I can’t believe this.

GUTFELD: Congratulations, Austan.

KILMEADE: How does this — how does this happen? I never get to keep anything nice.

GOOLSBEE: With that, thank you, Brian. Well done. Here may be the most adorable takedown of an unruly fan that you’re going to see this week. You are looking at 2-year-old Zaydek getting in on the action at the Orlando City soccer game and running onto the field in the middle of the game. And his mom Morgan Tucker takes him down. She quickly catches up to him before he got close to any players.

The crowd went wild. They cheered her nice tackle. You know, baby Zaydek just wanted to play. Can you blame him?

KILMEADE: And I guess it was from an iPhone because I saw the overhead shot for the game. He was actually going for the ball, the kid. He was 2 years old.

GOOLSBEE: And look, this is a testament to moms everywhere. Look, she could have been injured, kicked in the head. But if the toddler is out on the field, she’s out there.

GUTFELD: What a brat. That kid is not driving until he’s 40.

KILMEADE: By the way, kids should not go to sporting events once and for all. This is a lesson.

GUTFELD: OK, Dagen.

MCDOWELL: Yes, give him two more years and he’ll hate soccer like the rest of us.

KILMEADE: That is — that is — he loves soccer. Where is he?

GOOLSBEE: We’re hosting the World Cup in the U.S. in the next year. We got to get on board.

MCDOWELL: Yes. Here’s a lightning bolt that struck both the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center at the very same time. I guess it’s two lightning bolts. I don’t know. But it’s awesome.

PERINO: It looks like it came from the same place.

KILMEADE: How long — how long are you sitting there with your camera hoping to get that?

GUTFELD: Brian, we got to go now. Stop with your nonsense. That’s it for us. “SPECIAL REPORT” is up next. Hey, Bret.

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