Friday on FNC’s “The Five,” during a segment about the lack of public appearances by President Joe Biden headed into the 2024 presidential election cycle, co-host Jeanine Pirro suggested putting President Joe Biden “on a milk carton.”
According to the panel, the incumbent president was taking a similar approach with his 2024 effort as he did in the 2020 presidential election.
Partial transcript as follows:
PIRRO: You might as well put the president on a milk carton because Joe Biden is nowhere to be found. The king of calling a lid has barely been seen in public these days. Biden will do just about anything to avoid reporters where he can’t use a teleprompter or cue cards. Even the White House doesn’t want to talk about his record-low news conferences.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I appreciate the question. We had a joint press conference just recently. So, that occurred. I don’t have anything to share about Spain and their travels. It is a diplomatic conversation that occurs when we talk about what they’re going to be doing here at the White House. I just don’t have anything more to share on that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PIRRO: Nothing more to share. The Biden campaign, following a similar strategy of keeping Joe locked up. Joe Rogan and Charlamagne tha God are not pleased.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE ROGAN, PODCAST HOST: You have to go well, who could do it better? Could it be a Republican or it could be a better Democrat? And if it’s not a better Democrat, like how are we going to get a better Democrat if you don’t let the president debate?
So, it’s like, that’s not that Democratic.
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD, “THE BREAKFAST CLUB” HOST: Let’s whack that the DNC won’t let nobody pry. They won’t do no primaries. Put Joe Biden up on that stage with Bobby Kennedy, who’s challenging him, and Marianne Williamson, and whoever steps up to the plate. And let’s have a discussion, yo.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PIRRO: Makes sense to me.
WATTERS: Yes, he’s got to debate. He won’t, but he has to and he should. RFK Jr. is pulling at 18 percent. That’s not insignificant. And he doesn’t even appear on television. And when he does appear on television, they edit him out. So, he’s a real threat to the base, and they’re going to cook it just like they did against Bernie, and it’s corrupt.
Now, Trump has to debate too. Trump can’t duck. He says he’s not going to debate. I think he’s just using that as leverage, but he should debate as well. Both of them should debate, just so they can get loose for the real debate before the general.
Joe Biden isn’t going to campaign. He’s going to maybe even do less than he did in 2020, and I don’t blame him. And I don’t blame his people for putting him in that position, because they’re allowed to campaign from the basement, because the media allows them to do it. It’s a conspiracy between the media and the White House against the American people. And it’s up to the American people to say, are you going to put up with it?
PIRRO: You know, Kennedy, what amazes me is that here you’ve got this weakling, OK, that we call a president, and everybody’s afraid to come out and say, I want to run for president. Gavin Newsom is like foaming at the mouth to run. And yet it’s almost like the godfather. It’s like no one will come out against him. Is he that strong? And who — or is it the people behind him?
KENNEDY: No, it’s the establishment. It is the Democrat establishment. It is the machine. And if you dare stand up against that, you will be consumed and emulsified. And they know that. And they’re all just going to wait for their turn in 2028. Gavin Newsom would love nothing more than to elbow Kamala Harris out of the way and run for president because he thinks that he has a very good shot of winning.
I saw him last weekend at the UTA party in D.C., the night before the correspondence there. And I told him to cut taxes and cut spending in California. You’re welcome, California. I don’t think he’ll listen to me. But yes, they all want to run. They know they can beat whomever is running on the Republican side. That’s how they feel. That may not be reality.
But my question is when Karine Jean-Pierre stands up and says, oh, the President just had a press conference a couple of weeks ago where he had — he took two questions that were pre-written, he knew exactly who was going to ask what. That’s not a news conference. I want to see a Trump-style 75- minute, no holds barred, no questions, people yelling at him press conference. I want to see if he can withstand that. And if he’s got stamina for that, he will instill a lot more confidence in his voters.
And why is the press — so, tell me with this White House, they obviously hate the press and they should be adversarial.
PIRRO: All right, Harold, I want you to listen to Symone Sanders who comes to Biden’s defense on this need for debate.
FORD JR.: OK.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SYMONE SANDERS-TOWNSEND, HOST, MSNBC: And the reality is this, the sitting president of the United States of America is a Democrat, a Democrat that would like to run for reelection so much so that he has declared a reelection campaign. In that case, the Democratic National Committee will not facilitate a primary process. There will be no debate stage for Bobby Kennedy, Marine William — Marianne Williamson or anyone else. And they’re not going to set up a primary process for debates too for someone to challenge the head of the Democratic Party.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PIRRO: Wow.
PERINO: Shame on her.
FORD JR.: So, I think that the president should spend more time with the media, more time with voters. And there’s probably a threshold that you have to have for the president to debate in your own party. And certainly, the debate commission has a threshold. You have to meet to be able to get on a debate stage.
Now, I think the debate commission’s threshold is 15 percent. So, it appears that Bobby Kennedy Jr., Robert of Kennedy Jr. is polling it somewhere between — he’s polling north of 15 percent.
PIRRO: Yes.
FORD JR.: Marianne Williamson, I don’t think — I’ve not seen numbers where she is above eight or nine percent.
PIRRO: Right.
FORD JR.: I think the troubling thing for the White House and for this president is this. Bobby Kennedy Jr. is a serious guy, but he’s not — I don’t view him as a serious candidate for the president of the United States. Marianne Williamson is a serious person, but she is not someone I would deem that I would consider voting for president, yet a quarter of Democratic voters are siding with them against this president.
I think the next four to eight weeks are critical for President Biden and his team. And the way I think you counter this is you’ve got to get out, you’ve got to talk about your records, you’ve got to get a positive message, and you’ve got to — you got to really go out and talk about it. Because if you find four to eight weeks from now, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Marianne Williamson are still polling above 25 percent, that’s when you’re going to see a Gavin Newsom, that’s when you’re going to see a Gretchen Whitmer, that’s when you may see other — I don’t mean to leave anybody out. I think you’re going to see people say — you know, fine people saying, if they can poll here and people don’t know them and people may not take them as seriously, why don’t I get in this race?
This is why I think it’s critical that President Biden and his team get him in front of the media, get him in front of voters, and get him out there with his message.
PIRRO: Greg, we know they’re not going to do that because they can’t trust this man in front of the public without a cue card, all right. So, let’s talk about — whether it’s four to six weeks, it doesn’t matter. The bottom line is you’ve got a guy who barely announced who’s got 19 — 18, 19 percent. Who are they to say? Well, he is the head of the party. I mean, this isn’t Russia.
GUTFELD: And RFK Jr. would destroy Joe Biden. And he’s my second favorite junior. So — but you know, there’s an — there’s a trend here, right? The emblem of this administration is a vacuum because wherever you go, a vacuum has been made. There’s a vacuum in crime leadership, there’s a vacuum in education, there’s a vacuum in the Oval Office. We’re experiencing this emptying out of order, structure, common sense. What is a woman? We’re like watching things kind of drain out. The feeling is you either have to step up or you got to leave.
It’s kind of what happened in the subway. And it’s what’s happening in the education with people doing, you know, at homeschooling or tutoring. Joe is scary. It’s not like American needs a micromanaging president, but you just have to have somebody with a brain stem who can kind of lead and address serious problems.
The perfect example always — I always go back to the whip gate story because when you’re not engaged, and for example, here, not engaged in immigration, you can be easily tricked. And that’s what we saw. And we know whenever he talks about a story that he just heard about from someone read to him, he’s always easily tricked. He always has the wrong take. You can’t have that person running this country anymore.
And even though I disagree with RFK on I think his earliest stances on vaccines, he’s a serious person. He really, truly is.
FORD JR.: I think he is, but I just don’t think — I don’t consider him serious for the president is all I’m saying.
PIRRO: But you know what, that isn’t the test. The test is he’s got 15 percent. Let him go.
FORD JR.: Judge, I don’t disagree. I was just telling you what I thought about him. But he should debate him. He’s at 15 percent. I agree.
PIRRO: All right. We all agree, right?
WATTERS: We do.
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