On Friday’s The Five, the panel weighed in how the media have reacted to the feud between President Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Along with a mash-up of media figures exulting Pelosi accompanied by the chyron “Familiar Phrase: Media Parrots Same Line to Describe Trump-Pelosi Feud,” co-host Greg Gutfeld described the media and the Democrats as “incestuous” and “interchangeable.”
As NewsBusters has previously reported, the media was clearly on Team Pelosi. Reacting to the media and the Democrats’ use of the “same talking point,” Gutfeld described how the montage showed that “the media and the Democrats are almost...they’re incestuous, they’re interchangeable,” adding “you don’t know which one’s on the leash and which one’s pulling the pet.”
Co-host Jesse Watters cited the media’s embrace of the phrase “constitutional crisis” as another example of the media parroting Democratic talking points. On that topic, a NewsBusters study found that the liberal media repeated the phrase nearly 400 times.
Later, Gutfeld cited the liberal media's embrace of Pelosi as “another lesson for American viewers about the media and...the direction the media takes,” asking “who do they mimic? Who do they champion?”
The FNC host answered his own question by listing off more examples of media malpractice such as “the attacks on Kavanaugh, as a mob, the elevation of Smollett, the elevation of Avenatti.” According to Gutfeld, “now Pelosi is kind of like their Avenatti, it’s like they switch out one Trump-killer for another Trump-killer because this Trump-killer didn’t work, right?”
Gutfeld concluded that the media feel like “Pelosi’s going to be the one” to take down President Trump before reiterating that “Avenatti, Smollett, none of this stuff is working so they have to keep trying new ones.” Guest co-host and Fox Business host Kennedy offered similar analysis: “They invest hopes in a new titan pretty much quarterly...it’s a new person that they’re hoping that they will have the magical combination for the Rubik’s cube that will be the President’s undoing.”
All told, the media appear to have ignored Einstein’s old adage “the definition of insanity is doing the exact same thing over and over again and expecting different results” as they line up behind Pelosi as the one to take down the President.
A transcript of the relevant portion of Friday’s edition of The Five is below. Click “expand” to read more.
The Five
05/24/19
05:00 p.m. Eastern
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Did you hear what she said about me long before I went after her? Did you hear? She made horrible statements. She knows they’re not true. She made…she said terrible things so I just responded in kind.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JESSE WATTERS: The feud intensifies. That was President Trump responding to Nancy Pelosi’s latest attack. The two have been going at each other all week. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI: We believe that the President of the United States is engaged in a cover-up.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t do cover-ups.
PELOSI: The White House is just crying out for impeachment.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t think anybody wants to be impeached.
PELOSI: I pray for the President of the United States.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: She’s a mess. Look, let’s face it.
PELOSI: And now this time, another tem…temper tantrum.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: She said I walked into the room right next door and I started screaming and yelling. When I watched Nancy and she was all crazy yesterday, she…with the hands and everything. She reminded me of Beto.
PELOSI: The President, again, stormed out, pound the table, walk out the door.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I walked out, I was so calm.
PELOSI: I wish that his family or his administration or his staff would have an intervention.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I’m an extremely stable genius.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
WATTERS: And of course, the media cheering Pelosi on, ignoring her attacks, while criticizing President Trump for his. They’re also using the exact same talking point.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
ANDERSON COOPER: Good evening and once again, the world is learning just how easy it is to get under the skin of the most powerful man on Earth.
HALLIE JACKSON: Why does Nancy Pelosi get under the President’s skin so much?
MAGGIE HABERMAN: Pelosi, for some reason, gets under his skin.
MATT MILLER: They very clearly got under his skin.
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY: He got petulant, he got small because Pelosi got under his skin.
DON LEMON: The Speaker’s really getting under the President’s skin.
CHRIS HAYES: She has a strategy for dealing with the President and is extremely effective at getting under his skin.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
WATTERS: And Joe Scarborough is floating this ridiculous conspiracy theory about the President.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE SCARBOROUGH: The President, of course, during the campaign, we’ve said it. People closest to him told us that they feared that he was in mental decline. People very close to him told us that they feared that he was in pre-dementia, that he had changed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: All right, Greg, I want to get to a lot here but first, the same talking point.
GREG GUTFELD: Yeah, just with Joe, he’s the last person who should be talking about mental decline. Was that played at half speed? I mean, seriously, he has lost…he’s lost a few steps. Okay. This, like, under your skin thing…
WATTERS: Right.
GUTFELD: …has, I heard that three times to my face by three different people and it’s, it’s now the news peg. And it, it shows the point how the media and the Democrats are almost…they’re incestuous, they’re interchangeable. You don’t know which one’s on the leash…
WATTERS: Right.
GUTFELD: …and which one’s pulling the pet.
WATTERS: Like Constitutional crisis.
GUTFELD: Yes, exactly.
WATTERS: Who started that?
GUTFELD: Who started that? And the thing is rather than, they’re almost like nonplaying characters in a video game. They don’t have any achievements, so all they…they’re marginalized now to “wow, Nancy really got under his skin.” That’s what they’re rooting for. Okay, so think about how lucky all of us are to be alive at this moment. Things are so good that two of the most powerful American politicians are in a roast, a public roast, and we’re actually enjoying it. It’s a, it’s a testament to the peace and prosperity that we’re experiencing now that a…an entire party could waste all their time making up stupid stories. It’s a libertarian’s dream because I think what Trump is done is he has shown that we never really needed politicians to begin with because the Democrats aren’t doing jack. Everything’s great.
KENNEDY: Yeah.
GUTFELD: He’s got them completely screwed up.
WATTERS: Well, do you think the media is just helping Pelosi in this battle because you don’t really want to get into an argument with the President, especially when it gets personal. I think, like, they’re just giving her a hand because I don’t know if she can go toe-to-toe with him.
KENNEDY: I would like to see them go toe-to-toe more often. I would like to see more of those open door meetings where Chuck and Nancy were at the White House and they were all kind of arguing, and they were ambushed by the cameras that the President invited in. The President said he’s a transparent person. I would like to see more of that. I…and I think Washington is by and large a pretty deplorable place for this very reason, and I think a lot of people watch this and they think they’re both nuts and they want to throw everyone out.
WATTERS: It’s like two people over 70 accusing each other of being mentally deficient. What do you think about now? So, it’s like, they…they’ve gotten over the Russia collusion. He’s no longer a traitor. They’re just going back to the mentally unstable line of attack.
GERALDO RIVERA: It reminds me of early “Saturday Night Live,” Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin.
GUTFELD: Don’t say it.
RIVERA: Jane, you ignorant slut. I will say it. I mean, I, I… you can laugh about it but I find it unsettling that the two most powerful people, they’re not just the two most powerful politicians, they’re the two most powerful people on Earth and when they’re going at each other, you know…your, your nose is leaking, or you know, the President is famously thin skinned to, to borrow a phrase there but he’s also very tempestuous and you, you push, you push back. You know, that kind of stuff. I…I don’t like it.
GUTFELD: That’s what the Brits have been doing forever though, Geraldo. We’ve seen the tapes of, of Labor and Tories just screaming at each other.
RIVERA: Well, yeah, I…I guess, but it is not traditional here and I’ve got a 13-year-old and she’s watching the news now and there’s the President of the United States and the Speaker of the House of Representatives…
GUTFELD: That’s your fault.
RIVERA: And it’s like, they’re like hazing each other; like a fraternity. He’s not President of (inaudible). He’s President of the United States.
KATIE PAVLICH: I think it’s fantastic. It actually is more honest about the way that they actually feel about each other. Instead of pretending like they like each other, they’re actually fighting it out in public. And I love how the phrase “getting under someone’s skin” is now defined by simply responding to attacks.
WATTERS: Right.
PAVLICH: Like, remember when Kavanaugh defended himself?
GUTFELD: Yes.
PAVLICH: And everyone was like, “he’s too angry to be…”
WATTERS: Right.
PAVLICH: “…on the Supreme Court.” This is basically the same thing. She accuses him of a cover-up in front of everybody to appease her Democratic caucus after an impeachment meeting, and then wonders why the President would have something to say about her behavior and what they’re doing.
RIVERA: But he didn’t have to say about her behavior. He had to say about her personally and…
PAVLICH: Why, she attacked him for behavior?
RIVERA: He inferred that she had, you know…
PAVLICH: And she inferred that he’s committed a crime.
RIVERA: …the shakes and dementia.
KENNEDY: Okay, can I just add something to that really quickly?
WATTERS: Go ahead.
KENNEDY: Because everyone is talking about the I word, impeachment, and Nancy Pelosi is the one who is most averse to it. She is the one who doesn’t want to go down that path because she says it’s too divisive but then she uses the word intervention, which is like diet impeachment. And it’s like…
RIVERA: Diet impeachment.
KENNEDY: …if you want impeachment, if you want to impeach him, just impeach him.
(CROSSTALK)
KENNEDY: Just go ahead and do it.
RIVERA: I think what she revealed…she revealed the true agenda. She, when she said cover-up, that’s what started it all. The President’s engaged in a cover-up. Then she went into that infrastructure meeting. It was clear that what she was... inadvertently, she revealed was the Speaker of the House is with the radical Democrats; that she wants impeachment. It’s just a question of tactically when to launch the “A” bomb.
PAVLICH: She went to that event right after that and said impeachment is certainly something maybe we should do right after she accused him of a cover-up.
GUTFELD: But it…it is another lesson for American viewers about the media and how the…what the direction that the media takes. Who do they mimic? Who do they champion? You go back to the attacks on Kavanaugh, as a mob, of the elevation of Smollett, the elevation of Avenatti. Now, Pelosi is kind of like their Avenatti. It’s like they switch out one Trump killer for another Trump killer because this Trump killer didn’t work, right? So Pelosi’s going to be the one. She should run actually. Avenatti, Smollett, none of this stuff is working so they have to keep trying new ones.
RIVERA: Avenatti, Smollett, and then the Speaker of the House of Representatives, that’s your trio. I know where your head’s at.
KENNEDY: But what about, what about Jerry Nadler? It’s the same thing. Like, they…they invest in…
GUTFELD: Right.
KENNEDY: And Greg’s right about that, they invest hopes in a new titan, pretty much quarterly.
RIVERA: I hate to be…
KENNEDY: It’s a new person that they’re hoping that they will have the magical combination for the Rubik’s cube that will be the President’s undoing.
