The Five 05-27-2025

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Five – May 27, 2025 Episode

Released on May 27, 2025, FOX News Radio's "The Five" delves into the pressing political strategies of the Democratic Party, critiques recent administrative actions, and comments on current cultural events. Hosted by Dana Perino, the panel includes Kayleigh McEnany, Harold Ford Jr., Jesse Waters, and Greg Gutfeld.

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1. Democrats' Strategic Investment: Codenamed SAM

[01:04] Dana Perino opens the discussion by addressing the Democratic Party's substantial financial commitment to regaining support among young men who previously favored President Trump and figures like Joe Rogan.

• Dana Perino: "Can $20 million buy the Democrats some street cred with the cool kids? Well, they certainly hope so."

The strategy, dubbed Codenamed SAM (Speaking with American Men, a Strategic Plan), involves invasive studies into language and content that resonate within this demographic, including advertising within video games.

2. Authenticity and Messaging Challenges for Democrats

The panel expresses skepticism about the effectiveness of SAM, emphasizing the importance of authenticity over purely strategic messaging.

• Harold Ford Jr. [02:06]: "If the effort is trying to come up with new words or language that may make you seem more masculine... I'm using the terminology they're using. I think not only will you not persuade voters, you'll just continue to confuse yourself."

• Greg Gutfeld [02:53] critiques the Democratic approach: "Democrat men are afraid of offending minorities and women... They smell fear, and it's just all over the Democrat process."

3. Impact of Democratic Rebranding Efforts

The conversation shifts to broader rebranding challenges, with references to Rahm Emanuel labeling the Democratic brand as "weak and woke."

• Kayleigh McEnany [02:53] suggests a return to grassroots engagement: "The Democrats have forgot that maybe we should just talk to people, like people."

4. Biden Administration and 'Proof of Life' Allegations

A contentious topic emerges regarding claims from a new book alleging that Biden aides intended to conceal the President's health status, potentially keeping him in a comatose state controlled by a committee.

• Greg Gutfeld [12:48] questions the credibility: "If you believe... that Donald Trump was an essential threat to democracy, you can rationalize anything, including sometimes doing undemocratic things."

• Kayleigh McEnany [11:29] adds: "You're hemorrhaging all of these podcasters. So what do you do about that?"

The panel debates the implications of these allegations, weighing them against historical Democratic actions.

5. President Trump's Actions Against Harvard

[24:15] Kayleigh McEnany introduces a segment on President Trump's administrative actions targeting Harvard University, accusing it of allowing anti-Semitism and failing to disclose foreign student lists.

• Dana Perino [24:05] questions the clarity of the administration's objectives: "It's not clear what is the problem we are trying to solve."

• Kayleigh McEnany [25:12] highlights the legal and diplomatic tensions: "Bill Ackman... put together a very thoughtful piece about why did you sue Hegseth in his personal capacity?"

The panel criticizes both the administration's methods and Harvard's compliance, suggesting administrative overreach and institutional vulnerability.

6. Critique of Scott Pelley's Commencement Speech

The episode lampoons CBS anchor Scott Pelley's controversial commencement speech at the age of 47, labeling it as an example of biased journalism.

• Kayleigh McEnany [33:18]: "They wanted a sunny speech about going off into their careers and instead they got a load of garbage."

• Dana Perino [36:09] emphasizes the disconnect between the speech's content and the audience's expectations: "Why can't the commencement address be... 'You guys are going to do great.'"

7. Sports Highlights

Transitioning to lighter topics, Harold Ford Jr. [43:14] celebrates the USA Hockey team's historic win:

• Harold Ford Jr.: "USA Hockey team won its first world title in 92 years, beating Switzerland in overtime... Congrats to these boys."

8. Cultural Commentary: Macron's Slap Incident

The panel briefly discusses French President Emmanuel Macron's publicized altercation, speculating humorously about the nature of his relationship.

• Greg Gutfeld [38:39]: "President Macron... claims, 'we were just horsing around.' Do you and Peter horse around like this?"

• Jesse Waters [39:45]: "This is just another example of toxic masculinity. But it could be a misunderstanding."

9. Final Thoughts and Closing Remarks

As the episode concludes, the hosts recap the day's discussions, reinforcing their critical stance on Democratic strategies and highlighting the ongoing political tensions.

• Harold Ford Jr. [43:04]: "We are the most innovative country in the world. We have the greatest military... this is what provides us leverage as a nation."

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Notable Quotes:

• Dana Perino [01:04]: "Democrats are dropping $20 million on a new project called Codenamed SAM... can you actually buy authenticity?"

• Greg Gutfeld [02:53]: "Democrat men are afraid of offending minorities and women... They smell fear."

• Kayleigh McEnany [24:15]: "The courthouse coworkers still don't have an illegal alien from Guatemala."

• Harold Ford Jr. [02:35]: "Affordability, what's going to make America stronger and smarter over the next 25, 50 years..."

• Jesse Waters [08:34]: "These are basic traits all men have... We like to win. We like to be first, we like to compete."

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Conclusion

In this episode of "The Five," the panel incisively critiques the Democratic Party's current strategies to reconnect with disenfranchised voters, particularly young men. They challenge the authenticity and effectiveness of Democratic messaging while scrutinizing recent administrative actions against institutions like Harvard. Balancing political analysis with cultural commentary, the hosts maintain a consistent theme of advocating for traditional American values and questioning the prevailing Democratic approaches.

Transcript

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[Dana Perino]

Hello everyone. I'm Dana Perino along with Kayleigh McEnany, Harold Ford Jr. Jesse Waters, and Greg Gutfeld. It's five o' clock in New York City and this is the five. Can $20 million buy the Democrats some street cred with the cool kids? Well, they certainly hope so. The party is spending big to win back those Joe Rogan loving men who who flocked to President Trump. Apparently, Tim Walls doing manly things like fixing cars and pheasant hunting didn't quite resonate. And according to the New York Times, democrats are dropping $20 million on a new project. It's called Codenamed SAM, short for speaking with American A Strategic Plan. And it promises investment to study the syntax, language and content that gains attention and virality in in these spaces. I do not know why they spent 20 million on it. It recommends buying advertisements in video games, amongst other things. But can you actually buy authenticity? This Democratic strategist apparently does think you're.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

Going to find a lot of silly stuff. You're going to find people asking a lot of questions, people asking about syntax and do I drop the G for this word and this and that. And it's going to be a lot of that. So let me just warn everybody, that process is going to be very obnoxious. We're really talking about young men, right? Right. Young men who Democrats have not figured out a consistent pitch for how to get in front of. And I think it starts with authenticity. Stop creating purity tests for people because they don't agree with you eight or nine, 10 times.

[Dana Perino]

But getting young guns back on Team Democrat is just one piece of the rebrand puzzle. Barack Obama's former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel is calling his party's brand weak and woke as speculation mounts that he'll run for president in 2028. And Rahm's not the only one with ideas on how can win again.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

The Democrats have forgot that maybe we should just talk to people, like people. We don't need to do studies on it. We don't need to meet at hotels. How about we just go to community meetings? Is not the question of what the.

[Greg Gutfeld]

Party'S image is, but is what does the party stand for.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

The party takes positions on issues that.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Are weak and woke.

[Greg Gutfeld]

It will seem weak and weak and woke.

[Jesse Waters]

Yeah, I don't think nationally the Democratic brand helps very much anyway. I mean, anywhere if it did, we wouldn't have lost to Donald Trump twice.

[Dana Perino]

Well, Harold, it's great to be back around the table.

[Jesse Waters]

Great to be with you.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

I'm glad you're back.

[Dana Perino]

Do Democrats love to just waste money?

[Harold Ford Jr.]

I hope everybody had a good weekend. I don't think Democrats are wasting money on this effort. If the effort is organized and designed right. I think if the effort is trying to come up with new words or words that you think will appeal to people, then it will be a waste of money. If the exercise is to try to figure out how you develop and implement an affordability agenda for every working American, be they middle class Americans, wealthy Americans, Americans trying to enter and graduate into the middle class, if the effort is to find ways in which to show that not investing in critical research, not investing in things that so many of our universities, from the University of Florida to Harvard University to the University of Michigan are engaged in, that are making the world a safer place, America a safer place and healthier place, if the focus is there, then you begin to try to populate words around that agenda that will resonate and connect with voters, that's one thing. But if you're only looking to try and find words that may make you seem more masculine or may make you seem more manly, I'm using the terminology they're using. I think not only will you not persuade voters, you'll just continue to confuse yourself. So affordability, what's going to make America stronger and smarter over the next 25, 50 years and what's going to make our national security better? If we figure that out first, then you can develop the words and the language that can help you convey that, but not in reverse order. Then it would be a waste of money.

[Dana Perino]

So I think Jesse, what he's saying and your comment is basically you have to know what you stand for before you decide what you're going to say about it.

[Greg Gutfeld]

Right. It's like hiring Don Draper for an ad campaign for a product that doesn't even exist. Usually the commercial happens after you have a new product. Harold is the only real man left in the Democrat party. Democrats should save 20 mil and watch the 5 for free. Democrat men are afraid of offending minorities and women. And the woke snobs and the voters are like dogs. We smell fear, and it's just all over the Democrat process. Saying the right thing doesn't matter. It's about doing the right thing. Democrats need to figure out what the right thing is and then do it instead of trying to trick men into believing they're doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. Remember when they couldn't define what a woman was? Now they're trying to define what a man is. It's like an anthropologist studying the uncontacted tribes of the Amazon jungle. Except Democrats aren't even flying to Brazil. They're paying other people to listen to Rogan. There's the NBA playoffs going on. We just finished with football. They've been talking about going to sports. I haven't seen them in a single game. They're not even putting in the work that needs to be done. Males are half the voting population. Whites are like two thirds of the country. I mean, these are large blocks of voters that they have no idea how to deal with. Bottom line, men don't like to be controlled. We don't like being told we can't say what vaccines we have to be putting in our body, what cars to drive, what food to eat. And if they ever find a liberal Rogan, they're going to control them. They're going to tell them what topics not to do, what guests not to have. It's going to be the same thing. And they're admitting by this stupid study for 20 mil that the legacy media has no real men in it. They've run them all out. They fired them. You can't be a real man and go on the Today show. All the rest of them are henpecked or women on these legacy media platforms. That's what they should try to figure out because the infrastructure is already there.

[Dana Perino]

So, Greg, this is my favorite genre of all time. This is just the same story over and over again. Because remember that Kamala Harris rebrand story? Every 20 days, they were like having, oh, like we have a new. We're gonna roll her out again. We're gonna have some sort of a new thing. They'll spend $20 million rather than have to actually Touch grass.

[Jesse Waters]

Yeah. They're rearranging the furniture when they really need just a complete demolition. Tear it all down. It's what Sam, speaking with American men, Sam, should stand for. Shitting away money. How to get that out of my way. All right, so the question is not like how and where you lost men, it's whether you're actually going to listen to the answer that is given to you. The party in its current state cannot listen to the answer, because if you define the natural traits of men, the masculine traits is toxic. Whatever you hear from men is going to strengthen your distaste. There's some basic traits all men have that essentially they're born with, literally, self defense.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

They're built.

[Jesse Waters]

They have more muscle, Self defense, security, meritocracy. We like to win. We like to be first, we like to compete. And then, of course, there's women, real women, not women that say they're women. These are the basic things that all men want. I'll throw in pizza. But if you look at all of those things through the prism of oppression, you just give it up, your party's dead. So let's say you anthropologically look at these men and he says, I really care about protecting myself and my family. And they might say, well, does that mean you're for the Second Amendment or gun control? How do you feel about boundaries? I mean, do you think borders are important? So that's oppressive. What about the desire to build, achieve, make money? Well, capitalism is oppressive. How do you feel about DEI or equity? So that's oppressive. What about my desire for real women to raise a family? Do you not believe that men can have babies? You don't believe that. You don't believe women can have penises? That's a bit cisnormative. So. So the Democrats have to expunge all this ideology. They need a wrecking ball because they're not going to listen to any of this stuff. And that is why they ended up with Tim Waltz, who was basically just cosplaying as a male. He makes Don Knotts look like Lee Marvin. The other thing. So I want to. Jake Tapper was on some website, no website. What do you call it? Podcast. He was talking about a teenage son, plays video games, plays football. And he says, you know, the Democratic Party has no way to reach that person. And I'm like, how is that a problem? The problem is wanting a political party to reach your children. The problem is letting a political party invade certain parts of your life that they have no business being in. Whether we used to Say, stay out of my bedroom. Stay out of my house, stay out of my backyard. Stay out of everything. What killed the Democrat Party was deciding that they could be in everything. And what they're deciding, what they're discovering late in the game, is that men are apolitical. But if you come, if you come at my family, I'm going to kill you. You know, if you stop me from trying to do a great job, I'm gone. You know, if you reduce women to men in drag, you know, we are so out of here. So they politicized the sexes. That was the last straw.

[Dana Perino]

And then Kaylee, they'll get together and they'll say, okay, well, if we can get our donors to give us another $20 million, we can continue on this. To have the mirage that it's a communications problem, Right. It's a fact problem. They blame the communicators all the time. They've got fact problems.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Yeah. And Harold, I think you're exactly right. You have to solve that fact problem. You're not the only man in the Democratic Party, though I would say John Fetterman is, too. I'd add him to the list.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

I think there are a lot of us.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

No man in the Democratic Party.

[Jesse Waters]

There's three.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Look there. Yes, maybe three. I'll try to think of a third. They did 250 focus groups, according to that New York Times article, and they found a theme at the top of the article, and they found that the Republicans are analogous to lions, tigers, and sharks in the focus groups, whereas the Democrats are tortoises, slugs, and sloths. So which team do you want to be on? Team Sloth or Team Lion? I think the men chose Team lion to that point. Alex Brucewicz, the architect of the podcast strategy geared at young men, told me every single podcast Donald Trump did had a host that at one point was a leftist. It wasn't just Joe Rogan who endorsed Bernie. It was all of these podcasters. They hemorrhaged all of these podcasters. So what do you do about that? Young men fled by 30 points. You have a fact point problem, to your point, Dana, not just a messaging problem. And that problem extends beyond men lost Latinos by 13 points, African Americans by 15 points as compared to the last election. That's the shift. 19 points for Gen Z. That was the shift from 2020 to 2024. You have an existential crisis. It's not just a man plan. You need.

[Dana Perino]

Wow, what a block to come back to. All right, coming up next, proof of Life, the shocking plot amongst Biden's aides to take over the country and hide the President's condition if he wants.

[Greg Gutfeld]

I sleep like a baby. I never show up late for work.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

I don't drink.

[Greg Gutfeld]

It's a great feeling to note.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

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[Jesse Waters]

These are a White House aides. These were unelected people. And one of the things that really, I think comes out in our reporting.

[Greg Gutfeld]

Here is that if you believe, and.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

I think a lot of these people.

[Greg Gutfeld]

Do sincerely believe, that Donald Trump was.

[Jesse Waters]

And is an essential threat to democracy, you can rationalize anything, including sometimes doing undemocratic things, which I think is what this person is talking about.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

And now famed intellectual Sam Harris admits he's okay with a comatose president. If Trump was the alternative.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

That's what I assumed was true. That because. Because of how effective this cover up was, I no longer, I no longer believe that to have been true many Democrats than having someone who we consider to be genuinely evil, genuinely 100% purposed to serving himself in the office of the presidency.

[Jesse Waters]

I would rather have a pres. I would rather have a president in.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

A coma where the duties of the presidency are executed by a committee of just normal people.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Right.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

So that, that's the. And that's the choice that many of us believe was before us.

[Jesse Waters]

And so therefore not much materially changes.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Okay, Greg. Because I'm pretty sure the founding fathers wanted George Washington and not Medusa with or six heads.

[Jesse Waters]

Yeah, well, Sam's kind of in a downward spiral. Somehow he can see without evidence that Trump is genuinely evil. But what is really evil to Sam Harris is admitting that he is wrong. And this has been driving him crazy on Covid, on Trump, probably some other things. But how does this seemingly moral intelligentsia justify evil? Whether it's totalitarianism or pedophilia, they create in their heads an evil that they define as worse. They don't even need evidence for that. So they can justify the COVID up of a non functioning president because they will say, well the alternative is worse. Trump, he's evil. I don't have proof, I just know it. He is his words genuinely evil. That's something you would say about somebody you would murder. So it raises the obvious question. If you could justify a brain dead president in the context of a greater artificial evil, is there a limit to the evil that you can justify on your side? If I say no over there, it's worse. There is no limit. The Democrats or Sam Harris. Sam Harris could protect a pedophile in this framework. He famously said he didn't care if they found a dead body in Hunter Biden's basement. Didn't matter to him. So he set the bar to accept all evil. And I think this is, it's, it's, it's a problem with ego. He cannot accept that he is wrong. This, I call it a greater evil hoax. It is allowed the Holocaust, a great leap forward. You can go down to smaller things like the Manson family, Jonestown, Rwanda, all of these things you go to, you could do COVID lockdowns, punishment of COVID dissent, the post Floyd riots. All these things happen because they say the alternative is way worse.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Yeah. And here's what we got and said Harold, this is what gets me in this Alex Thompson book. Anonymous Cabinet secretary on the issue of immigration. If you had a 20 years younger Joe Biden, I think he would have been more on top of the issue. We all know 11 million legal immigrants made their way in on the gitmo release of 11. Senator Warren said he had a conversation with Biden who is clearly not up to speed. Wondered if Biden's aging issue had something to do with it. On the economy. I've never seen a situation like this. A cabinet secretary with so few people having so much power. They didn't even tell Janet Yellen what they were doing. That's a problem. Those are issues that were affected.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

Yeah, they were. I don't, we, as I've said many times, this is, this is, this story is not getting any better for those around President Biden, for his family or for him. But I'm not, I'm not, I'm not stuck here. I think the going forward is the midterm elections and you can't win a midterm election by reminding people that they did the right thing by voting the other guy out. They knew that he was wrong on the border, they knew he was wrong on immigration. They knew he was wrong on things that were dear to them. I happen to think that for Republicans, I sometimes give advice to Democrats. If I were Republicans, I'd stop with him. Because at the end of the day, the midterm is going to be one. And usually, as we all know, the midterm is a referendum on the incumbent in the White House. Doesn't matter whom the incumbent is, Democrat or Republican. It's been that way for a long, long time. And I happen to think two things. One, if the tariffs don't produce more good manufacturing jobs, if the tariffs don't produce a great amount of revenue for the country, or if the tariffs don't produce new trade deals that are beneficial to the country, President Trump will have a lot of explaining to do and so will, so will Republicans. Secondarily and I think equally important, if Putin is as strong as he is today, if he continues, I'm going to use President Trump's words, tag him along. If we're here having this conversation three to six months from now, Kayleigh and or if she is continuing to make deals in South America, in Africa, in Europe and Asia because he thinks that we are weaker, then I think it doesn't matter if his name is Trump or Biden, whomever the incumbent is, it happens to be President Trump, his party will be disadvantaged. Disadvantage. As we head into the fall, the one thing you have working in your favor is that Democrats suck and we have no real alternative. The things we've been trying to address around the table, there's an opening if we are willing to get the substance and the purpose and the reasons right. And then, and then you focus on the language. But an opening is there if Democrats are willing to take it.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

That's quite an admission. Democrats suck. Just you put it bluntly.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

Look, I mean, you guys do too.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Here's where I. We do too. A little bit. At least only a little bit. Jesse. Democrats always said we can do two things at once. And they did. They did. The January six committee and then they governed and they actually over performed in the midterms by historical standards. So I don't believe this. Like leave this in the rear view. I believe in getting to the bottom of it.

[Greg Gutfeld]

Yeah, we're going to have hearings. We had Comer on the other night and he said he's already subpoenaed several Biden insiders and he's going to bring them in and he's going to have them do depositions and then they'll go to hearings. And if they dodge the subpoena, then he can refer it to the Department of Justice. I Have a feeling Pam Bondi might take action against those people. But the Biden aides are admitting to crimes we charged them with years ago. This book tour is like the five. Five years ago. How many times is Greg and I and everybody around the table said, if you call him Hitler, it justifies anything. They can get away with murder if he's Hitler. And they almost did, Harold. They almost did. If it wasn't for that big, beautiful chart. They lied to themselves about Trump being Hitler. They knew he wasn't Hitler. His whole agenda was stuff that the whole country agreed upon just a few years ago, that men and women are different and China's a threat and the border should be secure. Those aren't radical ideas.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

That's.

[Greg Gutfeld]

Everyone knows that stuff. They just said it so they could justify anything they could do to break the rules because he was a political threat. After Obama, they thought they had this coalition that was going to put the Republican Party out to pasture and they were going to be permanently in power. And Trump upset everything and then ripped their base right out from under them. And now they're just staring into the wilderness. The media is admitting we were right about everything. I mean, if we were right about the biggest story of this century, we were probably right about pretty much everything else. We were like, the laptop and the lab leak and inflation and the border. They think this book's, like, great, and they're gonna sell a couple copies. Big whoop. This book is like the legacy media stabbing themselves in the heart and admitting Fox and everybody else on the right was right.

[Jesse Waters]

We should do a book on things we were wrong on.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Yes, Dana, you know, they have the 25th amendment there for a reason. It was put in place in 1967. You can remove.

[Dana Perino]

They wanted to use it on.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

They didn't use it.

[Dana Perino]

The Democrats in the media demanded they use it on Trump at the end of that term. You remember? But I'm going to steal a line from Abe Greenwald from Commentary magazine, who on their podcast always says, oh, guys, it's worse than that, because this is what my mind went to. I think I agree with everything that's been said, so I won't rehash that. They're saying that the alternative was way worse. And it was, because if you have a comatose president, the alternative is Kamala Harris. And that was way worse. Not only to the country at large, which voted against her, but for the Democrats and for the Bidens in particular, who believe she was so bad that he couldn't get out, that she couldn't win a primary on her own that she wasn't going to be able to win even if he dropped out. And to this day, they're going to try to wait this out. And Harold's got a great point. I'm trying to remember a story where nothing got better. With time, the story continues to get worse. So there's a thing. If you're going to have to eat crowd, it's best to eat it early.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Yes.

[Dana Perino]

Because you're gonna have to eat it and it's gonna taste like crap.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

My dad always says that too. And he says, eat it while it's hot.

[Dana Perino]

Exactly.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

It was better. Okay.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

Cold crow.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Cold crow. Yum. Up next, President Trump hitting Harvard where it hurts its pocketbook after they let anti Semitism explode on campus.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

I said I'm from the front pew.

[Greg Gutfeld]

Of the wooden white church.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

The courthouse crockets still don't an illegal alien from Guatemala.

[Dana Perino]

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[Kayleigh McEnany]

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[Greg Gutfeld]

President Trump putting the squeeze on what he calls very anti Semitic. Harvard. His administration's pulling the plug on the remaining $100 million in federal contracts with the elite Ivy League school after already freezing 3 billion bucks. President Trump says Harvard failed to turn over the full list of its foreign students so the Trump administration can identify, quote, radical lunatics and troublemakers that should not be let back into the United States.

[Jesse Waters]

They refuse to tell us who the people are.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

We want to know who the people now.

[Jesse Waters]

A lot of the foreign students we wouldn't have a problem with.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

I'm not going to have a problem.

[Jesse Waters]

With foreign students, but it shouldn't be 31%. It's too much. We want a list of those foreign students and we'll find out what? Whether or not they're okay.

[Greg Gutfeld]

All right. Someone at this table went to Harvard.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Yes.

[Greg Gutfeld]

Oh, there she is.

[Dana Perino]

Oh, wait.

[Jesse Waters]

They let women in.

[Greg Gutfeld]

You'd be surprised what they let schools do these.

[Jesse Waters]

That's amazing. Well, congratulations.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Thank you.

[Jesse Waters]

Wow.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Thank you. I wanted to be Al woods, and they let me know. Look, Bill Ackman also went to Harvard and he put out this tweet, I thought they were supposed to be 180 characters. It goes six pages, 12.5 times special access. It's really good, though. He says he loves Harvard and he greatly benefited from it. I put myself in that category. I love it. I greatly benefited from it. But what gets me, in his letter, he talks about he has made personal outreach to Harvard because he wants to help and the President said he would call him back and the President hasn't even called him back. This is the man you need to help. He put together a very thoughtful piece about why did you sue Hegseth in his personal capacity? Why did you sue Bondi McMahon? There's no legal reason for that. You could have sued the government. You sued these people to harass them. It's a really well thought out six page document. And Harvard, get in a room with the Trump administration, fix this, because you're going to go down in the rankings. You start losing money or losing students, get in a room and fix it.

[Greg Gutfeld]

You think Harvard was filled with sophisticated people that could handle something like this? Why haven't they been able to come to an agreement with the Trump administration, Harold?

[Harold Ford Jr.]

I don't know. I hope they were able to quickly, Jesse, because I agree there's so many great Americans who've come from that university and I think they are becoming a little bit of a metaphor for some of the things that the Trump administration, I think largely we've had a conversation around this table and Dana has been an instigator and a leader in this regard. We've talked about the cost of higher education and you know, even during the Biden administration when they tried to retire all of the, all of American student debt, it was unconstitutional, shouldn't have done it. They kept doing it. I would say to Democrats, you, you supported that, but you don't support when Trump, some of you did. You don't support when Trump is, I think, violating what the court is saying by doing some of the things he's doing. But we have to be consistent in that regard. But we shouldn't conflate the fact that we do need more engineers and plumbers and electricians in the country, that we do need more, we do need to provide more, more routes into the employment ranks in our country by educating and training young people for the amount of middle aged people who may want to switch professions. But where I differ with the President, this isn't the way to do it. The way to do it is to actually drill down and get very specific. The example that Kaylee Gave regarding Bill Ackman. Maybe there's a reason the president of the school has not contacted Bill, but Bill makes some good points. I disagree with him on a lot of things, but I think he's a really smart guy and I think he loves his university. We are the most innovative country in the world. We are the most important country in the world. We have the greatest military in the world. We have the best universities in the world. This is what provides us leverage as a nation. And I would only hope that saner minds, saner heads, because President Trump, I think, is trying to get at something good here. I just don't like the way he's doing it. There's no need to go after these universities, these top research centers like you are, because you may have a political issue. I think cleaning up and making them be stronger and how they protect students on campus, be they Jewish students or any students, is something they must do. But when you take a school like Harvard, which I don't believe we have a greater. And this is. I went to University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, and I love these schools, but there's not a university asset, a college asset in the world that is more aligned with excellence than Harvard has been throughout its existence. We ought to fix it and not destroy it. And I think what President Trump is doing is bordering on something not good here.

[Greg Gutfeld]

Well, what is the argument that it's not good? He's saying, can you hand over the list of foreign students that you're letting in? Because we have a national security situation and an anti Semitism situation.

[Dana Perino]

Right. So one of the things that over and over again, I think is a problem is it's not clear what is the problem we are trying to solve.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

Right.

[Dana Perino]

Okay. So I think if the White House could say this is the exact problem we want to solve, then be a little bit more. Is it anti Semitism, like, even, like with trade? Is it this? Is it that it could change? It could be all of those things. And I think what Harvard is failing to do is one say, sir, what problem do you want us to solve? Like, let's talk about it. And you don't do it in public. Do it behind the closed doors. Everybody's got good lawyers. Go behind closed doors and say, how do we get this done? What I liked hearing from him is that he said, I'm not against foreign students being here. He said, we're not against the people. In fact, we're probably fine with most of them. Okay, that's a great starting place. All right, so let's start there. If you feel like if you're at Harvard and you think most of your students are great, let's talk it all through. We can go through and do it behind the scenes. It doesn't have to be public and nobody has to be shamed and maybe everybody's fine and that ends up being good. But I do believe that this opens up another question, which is the bigger problem we should try to solve, which is which ones of our adversaries I will name China, Russia, and I'm going to throw Qatar in there as well, because they fund a lot of this anti Semitism stuff across America. They are funding programs at universities to indoctrinate students because they don't want to have to deal with having to be persuasive and lobby our government in Washington, D.C. so what's happened, that's been going on for about 35, 40 years. So now you have. The professors are indoctrinated the student, and it continues on. I also maintain that this doesn't start in college. This is much, much younger. And that's why there is a educational revolt in this country for more school choice or more homeschooling, because people do not want this kind of thing taught to their kids.

[Greg Gutfeld]

And the real question, Greg, is when are they going to go after Brown? I mean, that's. They're the real villains here.

[Jesse Waters]

Shut up, Jesse. We still talking about this?

[Greg Gutfeld]

Yeah. Harvard.

[Jesse Waters]

I'm worried about Harvard. I'm also worried about the price of Faberge eggs, the future development of Evie Bentley's. I worry about the Hamptons. Sometimes I'll wake up at night and go, my God, are the Hamptons. Are the Hamptons in danger? What if people can no longer go to the Hamptons? Does that mean they'll go to Aspen?

[Harold Ford Jr.]

It's a city.

[Jesse Waters]

I love the argument. You know, if he keeps at it with Harvard, some of these students are going to go to Oxford. You don't know what. I went home immediately. I told my wife. Do you know that while we're talking about, you know, Israel and we're talking about Russia, there are. There's a possibility that some students will be going to Oxford instead of Harvard. I want this issue to be picked up by the Democrats. This should be a hill you should die on. Speak out for the oppressed at Harvard who almost, almost might have to go to Oxford. God forbid, by the way, you're telling me, if Harvard, you're not going to be able to find other families who will pay full price in America? Come on.

[Greg Gutfeld]

Oh, man, that was good. Up next, a CBS anchor unloads his TDS on college grads. You know, no harbor freight for a. This episode is brought to you by Lifelock. Not everyone is careful with your personal information, which might explain why there's a.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

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[Greg Gutfeld]

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[Dana Perino]

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[Harold Ford Jr.]

I like you so much.

[Jesse Waters]

CBS anchor Scott Pelley unloading his BS on 47 while giving a college commencement speech.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

In this moment, this moment, this morning, our sacred rule of law is under attack.

[Greg Gutfeld]

Journalism is under attack.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

Universities are under attack. Freedom of speech is under attack. And insidious fear. The fear to speak in America.

[Jesse Waters]

He wasn't arrested after that, you know. He wasn't arrested, Kaylee.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Yeah, well, look, he should have been because there is an overlap. What do you know about journalism being under attack? What does he know about that? I mean, 60 minutes should be reduced to zero minutes. He is literally the man who brought on Mark Delias to talk about law firms being targeted. The guy who paid for the dossier he had Andy McCabe on and literally asked the question afterwards. He opened a counterintelligence investigation. In other words, is the President an agent of Russia? No, Scott Pelley, he wasn't. And his colleague Leslie stall with the cherry on top of the. Were they giving you less food to the hostage or did Hamas just not have enough to give? They know nothing about journalism. And how dare you lecture these graduates? They wanted a sunny speech about going off into their careers and instead they got a load of garbage.

[Jesse Waters]

Yeah, it seemed like, like an ego trip for him, Harold. You know, it's the thing that gets me is that these people choose to say these things on a one way street, like at award ceremonies and commencement addresses, because they know that people can't talk back. It's not a conversation when you go up there and shout at people like.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

We do, you know, I try. So I watched over the weekend, I think it was this weekend, I watched President Trump. I watched a lot of lacrosse. Congratulations, Cornell, by the way. I watched. I watched President Trump. I do. This is the weekend to do it because of the final four in the finals. But I watched President Trump give a speech at West Point and I thought some of it was inspiring and some of it was a challenge to those young men and women and other parts were not. I went back and watched a little bit of this afternoon. We were going to talk about him today. And look, he spoke from a place that he thought was honest and true. It's not what I would do. And I just think graduates deserve to have commencement addresses where there's no doubt you want the person giving the address to give a little sense of whom they are and have some of that be a part of their speech, which is why I think we accept a lot of how President Trump presents. But I would have done this a little differently. I understand. I think he believes honesty, that journalism is under attack, and he has every right to say it. But tell these graduates what they can do to reverse the things they think are going that he believes are going wrong in the country. That's what I think every commencement address should be about. And if I've ever. If I get to give one again, I'll do what I've always done, which is to try to provide a little humor, try to provide a challenge, and try to provide a little magnanimous state of myself about what I didn't do right and how they can do better.

[Jesse Waters]

That's what we need, more opportunity for a nap. I'm kidding, Harold. I'm kidding.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

I was falling asleep as I was saying.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

No.

[Jesse Waters]

You know what I was thinking about? If somebody had started heckling him, would that person have been removed? And then you would have had the. Because of course they would. If somebody stood there and said, I disagree with you, that person would be taken out.

[Dana Perino]

And this is a crazy thing. First of all, is he. Who does he think he was asked to speak to?

[Jesse Waters]

Yeah, Us.

[Dana Perino]

Trump. Who is his audience? This is what really gets me. These universities pay a lot of money for a speaker like that to come in because they want to invest in their students. They want to give. Do. Does Wake Forest want this speech? You think this is the audience for this? Those kids are sitting there going, I just worked my butt off for four years. I want to go to the bar. I have a party to go to. Let's get this show on the road. And why can't the commencement address be. Guess what? You guys are going to do great. Here's my top five pieces of advice. You know what? I'll cut it down to three, because I know you want to go get a beer. Here's 1, 2, 3. Good job. And you know what? Everybody would applaud. I do not understand this whole thing of going and using this as a policy platform. If he really wants to make that case, maybe make it to the person that's the head of the network that's trying to sell it.

[Jesse Waters]

Very good. You know, Jesse, if on the off chance you ever get asked to do a commencement address, would you ever. Would you ever inject politics?

[Greg Gutfeld]

Absolutely.

[Jesse Waters]

Of course you would.

[Greg Gutfeld]

Absolutely. I just want to say the sport of lacrosse has come such a long way where Harold Ford Jr. Is given a shot out, probably the whitest shot out in the history of the five.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

You know where the game started?

[Greg Gutfeld]

Native American League Lacrosse Championship.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

Native American started. I'm part Native American. It started lacrosse.

[Greg Gutfeld]

0.1% black Herald. And that was a white comment.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Oh, my goodness.

[Jesse Waters]

Do you have anything to add?

[Greg Gutfeld]

I mean, I do, but we gotta go.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

He had it enough. He said it up. All right.

[Jesse Waters]

Macron explains the love.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

Shove the love.

[Greg Gutfeld]

The love.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

See you soon.

[Jesse Waters]

Hello, America.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

I'm host Havlas Espanol.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

Spritz du Jom. If you've heard that sound from Babbel before, I bet you do. Babbel is the science backed language learning app that actually works with quick 10 minute lessons. Handcrafted by over 200 language experts. Babbel gets you on your way to speaking a new language in just a few weeks with over 16 million subscriptions sold and a 20 day money back guarantee. Just start speaking another language with Babbel right now. Up to 55% off your Babbel subscription. @babbel.com spelled B A B-B-E-L.com Spotify podcast rules and restrictions may apply. It's a slap seen around the world. French president Emmanuel Macron breaking his silence on the bizarre moment when his wife Brigitte appeared to shove him in the face. The President claims, quote, we were just horsing around. Dana, do you and Peter horse around like this?

[Dana Perino]

I know.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

I mean, Peter probably couldn't.

[Dana Perino]

I think that all of us who are in relationships, many people here, people like when you, it's, you see it with your own eyes, you know what happened. Like, that's not horsing around. And also he immediately looks for the camera because he knows that they were caught. So then they just have to, you know, basically you need to get Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper to go over and write a book about this. Find out four years later. Yeah, in a decade.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

Kaylee, what do you, what do you think about this?

[Kayleigh McEnany]

I mean, two weeks ago I learned that Bill Belichick was a half century older than Jordan, whatever her name is. And then I learned in this, she's 25 years older than him. So I thought this, this was crazy. I don't know what happened with the slap, but I'm just mesmerized by the age difference.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

Got to say prime time. Your thoughts on this?

[Greg Gutfeld]

Well, Emma hit me this weekend if you can look in closely above the eyebrow. We were just horsing around and it happens often. Jesse, why I don't get her back?

[Harold Ford Jr.]

Oh, gosh. Greg, you have thoughts on this?

[Jesse Waters]

This is going to be another one of those flat tire stories where you have to tell everybody.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

You.

[Dana Perino]

You're kidding. I had planned time off. I was already planning to be off.

[Jesse Waters]

You know what this is, Harold? This is just another example of toxic masculinity. But it could be a misunderstanding. He said, please don't hit me, and she hit him.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

Yikes.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

Jesse, why don't you just clear up the.

[Greg Gutfeld]

I walked into a door.

[Jesse Waters]

Isn't that what they always say it?

[Dana Perino]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Greg Gutfeld]

I walked into a door. And when I say door, I mean her fist.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

One more thing is up next.

[Jesse Waters]

Let's together.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

After challenges you.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

This episode is brought to you by Select Quote. Life insurance can have a huge impact on our family's future with Select Quote.

[Dana Perino]

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[Jesse Waters]

They shop, you save.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

Go to selectquote.com SpotifyPod today to get started.

[Dana Perino]

It's time now for one more thing. I will go first because Dana's baby brigade continues. Yes. Check out this little cutie. Her name is Ray Randellovich. She was born last week to Misha and Dakota. Last Tuesday, actually, I believe, or maybe Monday. She's like a full head of blonde hair, this girl. So, so cute. And she is destined for greatness. Congrats to Misha and Dakota. All right, great.

[Jesse Waters]

All right, tonight we got a great show. We've got Tom Shalue, Adam Hunter at Emily Campagno. Let's do this.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

Yeah. All right, let's roll this tape, shall we?

[Jesse Waters]

You know, Springsteen's been on tour and he had to take a break, so he's out at his farm in New Jersey just enjoying a watermelon. There he is, Springsteen. Looking pretty tired from the nonstop touring. Yeah, he's getting up there in ages. Some say he should retire, but I don't know. I'm really interested in his political opinions.

[Dana Perino]

Well, maybe he'll tell you with all that watermelon. Jesse.

[Greg Gutfeld]

Well, we go through countries sometimes. We make observations. This is England. Enough said. These people are rolling down the hill looking for cheese.

[Dana Perino]

Ouch.

[Greg Gutfeld]

And you know who won?

[Dana Perino]

An American, a German.

[Greg Gutfeld]

I think that says everything we need to know about everything. Tonight, Jesse Waters, primetime Johnny celebrates Memorial Day.

[Jesse Waters]

Watch what event led to the war on terror.

[Dana Perino]

Trump's election.

[Greg Gutfeld]

No, not at all.

[Dana Perino]

Right, Harold.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

USA Hockey team won its first world title in 92 years. Wins a world championship, and they beat Switzerland overtime. Two minutes in overtime. Tage Thompson and Buffalo Sabre kid scored it. But I'll tell you, they were what's so exciting. Also, they helped the jersey of Johnny, Johnny Goudreau, who. Who died last year, the Columbus Blue Jackets player drafted by Calgary. Congrats to these boys, Gold boy.

[Dana Perino]

Congrats.

[Greg Gutfeld]

Squash that's.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

Come on, squash tomorrow.

[Kayleigh McEnany]

I just wanted to highlight the artwork of Andrei Kozlov. He was a hostage for eight months and celebrated his emergence from darkness to light with these beautiful paintings. I became a symbol of hope, he said. Indeed you did. Andre Kozlo.

[Harold Ford Jr.]

Andre, go ahead. All right, well, it's the Will Kane Show. Watch it live at noon Eastern Monday through Thursday on fox news.com or on the Fox News YouTube channel. And don't miss a show. Get the podcast five days a week at foxnewspodcasts.com or wherever you download your favorite podcasts. Listen to the 5ad free on Amazon Music with your prime membership or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.