some action. >> hello, everyone. i'm eric bolling along with andrea tantaros, bob beckle, greg gutfeld, and jed adie i can't. this is "the five." president obama and his administration think you're so stupid that you'll actually believe president obama is learning about the massive failure by his veterans administration for the very first time from hearing about it in the news just like he did every other scandal on his administration's watch. >> i heard on the news about this story that fast and furious. >> let me take the irs situation first. i first learned about it from the same news reports that i

think most people learned about this. >> when did the president find out about the department of justice's subpoenas for the associated press? >> he found out about the news reports yesterday on the road. >> when was the president first made aware of these problems, of these fraud lent lists that were being kept to hide the wait times? >> we learn about them through the reports. >> carney, obama, and the rest of the clowns better stop pretending they don't know what's happening in the country. does anyone at this table believe these guys? bob, i have to ask you, really, all these scandals, after scandals. we're supposed to to believe president obama finds about it

read the reading the newspaper. >> the only defense i can come up with here is that about every scandal i know of, political scandal is always broken by the news first, whether it's watergate or tea pot dome. it's always been the news that's broken that and administrations react to it. in this case they are a a little bit tough though, they were told when they came into office in 2008, there was a real serious problem in the va, so they knew about it in advance, and the fact that nothing was -- >> we're not excusing the administration. we're just saying they are like other administrations. is that the defense? >> i think there is certainly -- yeah, like other administrations that talk about -- >> i don't buy it for one second that they didn't know about the irs. i don't buy that they didn't know about snooping at the ap and james rosen. i don't buy any of this stuff. do you? >> i don't. i think they were very well aware of the situation and you also have to look at their

response time to these scandals. let's go back and look at his presidency. it took him three days to comment on the irs scandal. five days to comment on the crotch bomber. nine days to comment on the bp oil spill. why does it take him so long to react? especially with something to important and radioactive like our veterans to say he read about it in the newspapers, the only excuse is he was worse he was on the phone with george clooney or with beyonce and jay z at dinner the other night. numerous memos made him aware. just maybe if one of these veterans would have come out of the closet as a former nba player and guess what i'm gay everybody and i can't get medical care, maybe the

president would comment, just a little bit faster. >> are you buying that the president just reads about this stuff? i don't know, in the times, in the "new york times" -- >> he says he gets it from the news and you guys are getting it wrong. it's hughey lewis and the news. the va represents what's called a forgotten priority in the modern era where pay tree to theism is secondary to the pigment. when you hear about veterans it's like hearing about rotary phones, it's not as important. the only good thing about scandal it reminds us what matters. they are people who are still out there willing to fight for this country and they understand war, when they go to war, there's a risk that they could die, but you don't compound that risk when they come home. the danger is supposed to be out there.

it's not supposed to be when you come back here. your ooefle should not be an incompetent bureaucrat. it should be who you are fighting. it reminds us of what our priorities are and it will always be the people who protect our country. >> or should be and maybe the priorities is a little bit misplaced right now. >> president obama warned there was problems with the va list. 2010, he was warned, and 2013 he was warned a third time. do you buy it? >> no, he knew there were problems in the va and he promised everybody that he was going to fix them. how can you all of a sudden say i'm learning about them in the news. it makes no sense and also it's stunning to me that he's not embarrassed to say that. does he not know that he's supposed to be running the show? i keep saying we need to remind the president that he's the president because i don't thinks he realizes he's responsible for all of this stuff that happens

while he's on his watch. >> i apologize profusely. we have three more -- maybe four more sound bites. take a listen to charles krauthammer. >> he acts as if and this is the same at irs with the eavesdropping on the ap, with all these other scandals, with the about obamacare launch as if he stumbled upon the presidency and discovered all of this horrible stuff is happening. he's in charge of these departments. at some point you've got to ask where has he been and where is the competency he promised when he ran in 2008? >> charles thoughts. >> i will compare it to my student body president when i was in high school. even he responded quicker when he had a trash can shortage at the prom. it reminds me of a student council. why they are waiting for

something before they react. the president is scheduled to make remarks on monday. i'm assuming this is where he's going to weigh in on this issue. a little too late on this. i predict he's going to say this is an outrage i'm very mad. he's very angry about this and he's going to say that we need to invest in our veterans and he's going to propose even more spending. the problem with this, eric, is that it's not a spending problem. they have been spending money at the va. it's an incentive issue. there's nowhere else to go for this care just like medicaid, so you can pile all the money that you want, this is not a problem that's going away. >> in 2008, the $85 billion. the estimated for 2014, $154 billion. almost doubling. >> it ought to be because it's that kind of problem. by the way, one thing i'm really

glad to see we have charles krauthammer back as one of our -- >>co hosts. >> because we very rarely use charles -- >> do you want to weigh in on the fact that obama -- >> i want to weigh in. the question was asked of him about phoenix and what happened in arizona. john mccain is a senator from arizona is very acutely aware what's going on with veterans. it's not a surprise that the president of the united states did not know about that particular issue in phoenix. >> i'm glad you said that. take a listen to then senator obama in 2008 saying the truest test of our pay tree to theism is how we treat our vets. >> at a time when we're facing the largest home coming since the second world war, the truest test is whether we will serve our returning heroes as well as they have served us. >> i think he thinks he's going to get away with this. he counts on the media to not

ask questions. i think he's counting on that for the veteran issue, i think he's going to be in for a big surprise. a lot of people on both sides of the aisle, enough is enough. you made a promise. you are the guy in charge. accountability now and it starts with you. >> do you think this guy doesn't care about returning veterans? >> why did he say he was going to address the issue and prioritize the issue and not -- >> i don't think he's outraged. >> it's about the definition of the job, and he has a different definition of the presidency than we would like. his presidency is based on the idea of righting the wrongs of a country that he feels is deeply flawed. this doesn't enter into the top ten of that. he believes that there are certain things that maybe we're fundamentally a prejudiced country which and we needs to address those things.

in his world, that is a priority. in this case, this isn't so much. when you've spent many years in school being told that one of biggest problems of the united states is a military, and that we are going around telling people what to do, he's more interested in fixing us, and not caring about how we treat our own vets. >> i also don't think he can. if he comes out to lecture about the problems at the va, then he under mines his own greatest cheext which is obamacare. here's the headlines, thousands of patients denied surgeries. this only emerged because of complaints from patients who had been waiting 23 months. this is from the guardian. this is a daily headline that happens in england where they have public options and socialized free medicine. that's what happens when it's free. you have people flooding the system and they can't get treatment. >> it's not free medicine. >> the first lady is smarter than her husband and one of her

missions is military families. i'm shocked she has not come out to weigh in on this. the headline today is talking about how she's talking about her let's move campaign. >> who agrees with you jon stewart? >> the president is madder than hell, and i've got the scars to prove it. >> oh. yeah. no, i'm sure the story of how you got those scars really impressed the guys waiting at the va for treatment. lost a leg down there in an ied in fallujah. >> when you lose the left, you are losing the battle. >> but even a corrupt cop has to make an arrest now and again so it looks like he's doing his job. so going after and condemning this scandal somehow excuses the negligence that they have had toward other scandals so finally now, well, join the club.

>>ed media. do you see the outrage that you would expect coming from the white house? >> no. i'm madder than hell whatever he said. he looks like hes bored. he doesn't look like -- you would think that he would able to do so. the president needs to make a statement and i think you are right. i think the first lady on this issue needs to make a statement. this is not a partisan political issue. it's about our >> it is a partisan political issue. >> no, it's not. >> the house of the representatives has responsibility for the veterans administration. at least part of it. all of a sudden you are all outraged about this. >> bob, hold on. you know what it was. shinseki, when he first was called to speak on it, said it was an isolated incident or a couple of isolated incidents.

we're finding out 19 different states are having issues where there are veterans on waiting lists and now we found an email listen here's what you don't want to do, you don't want to get the va officials ticked off at you so you play around with people on the waiting list. you don't report them on a list until you are within two weeks. >> and that's -- >> and the problem is, bob, we're outrage but where is the outrage. >> where is the coming from congress? >> where is the outrage from the bhous? he's the commander in chief. >> we haven't heard a single thing because the republicans have dropped the ball. >> you aren't going to tell us that are congress is on both sides of the aisle who are outraged by this. >> i think that's a fair point. i don't think that diminishes the responsibility of the president. >> you know why congress is hiding? because they passed a bill a couple of year ago that gave

these local hospitals lots more autonomy and lots more distance from washington, d.c. so we blame both parties on this one numerous times. >> one more piece of sound here. it's a big block. here's a daughter of a va victim on what she would say to the president of the united states if he were to call her. >> what would you say to the president of the united states and gave that speech right there in phoenix, if he called you tonight? >> if he called me tonight, i would simply say you are a liar. you don't trust you. >> that's the american people talking, bob. >> that's one person talking. i would say -- dedicated doctors and dedicated nurses and a lot of good things happen. taking care of people who are badly injured because of battle field medicine. >> what's the problem? we're not disputing there's some good doctors and good nurses and

assistants and whatever in the system. what's the problem? it's not money. it's not money. >> i don't think that you get anywhere deciding who is more outranled than the other. i think what you can agree upon is this reestablishing priorities that we've lost over the past, i don't know, it's not just obama, we've lost these priorities in a while and i think bob is right, in a lot of ways about the fact that there is a lot more that the va is dealing with than it ever has before with returning vets who normally won have survived and that's a lot -- that's a lot of pressure. but i don't think screaming about who is more outraged helps anybody and parading people out there, we know they are upset. what's important is finding someone -- electing a candidate who will reestablish the priorities and make these people the number one priority. >> can i ask you if the president says he still has confidence in the head str, shinseki, doesn't that send a signal? >> elect somebody that will do

what you want him to do. >> calling for shinseki to step down, what's that going to do? you still have a flawed system that needs addressed. >> i would like to see coming from the top down, from chief -- from obama to chief of staff, straight down the line, an outrage where heads can roll. >> the problem is that it's a pattern. there's no accountability on anything. it's not just about this issue. it's about an administration that has zero accountability for anything that they do. it's always somebody else's fault. that's why people point fingers. >> sarah palin slams the liberal media for hypocrisy regarding hillary clinton's health. after the break.

well, karl rove raised questions about hillary clinton's health and age as she weighs a possible 2016 presidential run and the left wing critic went wild. >> first of all, the karl rove effort was pathetic. >> i think his remarks were pathetic. >> let's start with represent present hencible comments by karl rove. >> may i say i think that's vaguely sexist. >> sarah palin is weighing in.

she said she wasn't spared questions when she was the gop's vice-presidential nominee and in a facebook post, hey, hillary's brain is off limits. leave her health records alone. democrats are right. scouring records of female fael is just politics of personal destruction and for the media, to engage in it would be unfair, unethical and absolutely unpr s unprecedent unprecedented. does chef a point? >> first of all, hillary should be happy. it's better that we talk about her big brain than her husband's little one. sarah palin is wrong. there isn't a double standard because there was never a standard to begin with and it's not sexist because the media never considered sarah palin as a woman or even a human being.

no one in the media had ever come in contact with anyone like sarah palin. they are constantly surrounded by people like hillary clinton. when sarah palin came into the picture, it's easy to dehumanize somebody if you don't think they are human to begin with. you could go after her children. you could say incredible things about her personally but it doesn't matter because she's not human. i don't think you can compare these two at all. >> and if i could compare them, if jewel -- you'll allowed them me to, about their kids. they really talked about sarah palin's kids. >> a lot of people were delving into it. they speculated on whether trig was actually bristol's child and

not sarah palins. karl rove asked a very legitimate question, and if she hit her head and it took her a month to recover, bill clinton said no, no, six months. it's a legitimate question whether there's any lingering damage to her brain or not. decision making matters. we should get a doctor to tell us -- explain exactly what a conclude ugs kosh -- concussion that's so severe it takes six months to recover from. she's right, they are both right. first families, second families are off limits and shouldn't be attacked. >> bob, i don't think that asking a or questioning a candidates health is off limits. we certainly did it with other presidential candidates. do you think karl rove was the right messager out there?

do you think it helps to have the idea floating around right now? >> no. i think it's too political. i do think that sarah palin did get a bad rap. the media went overboard. if the republicans think they are not going to have the scouring of a presidential candidate medical records, hillary clinton will be put through the ringer whether karl rove said anything or not. i've been there. i've had to supply medical records to the media before. it is nothing that's new. it is not -- and the only thing that's new about it is that karl decided to roll it out at this time in the campaign, you know, two or three years before it's going to happen, and i think it's very political. >> why i think it is fair game, isn't it exactly what the clintons want? if you have see karl rove, who is an enemy, this is exactly

what they want. it's the clintons versus karl rove. shouldn't he have gone away and somebody else brought it up? >> i think it's totally insulting to hillary clinton if the media is going to baby her. this is a woman is very capable of answering tough questions. she's smart. she's capable. yes, her record is a little i have she's perfectly capable of answering her question. i don't think -- hard questions that's what she's there for. if she's going to contemplate running for president and you are not going to ask those hard questions because she's a woman, how insulting would that be? >> i'm worried about the head injuries we've all had over the last six years after dealing with this couple. >> i'm not sure the timing is great. the republicans have a very good shot at not only holding the

house or getting the senate right now. why don't run that clock out? why play around with 2016 right now. >> because if she runs, she's such a big for midable candidate, they have to start chipping away at her now. >> we already talked about the health issue with karl rove. >> the republicans don't have a person to stand up against her. >> that's why. i think there's a rush to talk about 2016 and potential gop candidates and all of that because there's a fear among us that there's not going to be a republican. >> coming up, new research on ecigarettes, show they can actually help smokers quit for good. greg will explain next.

new researchers shows that smokers who try to quit using ecigarettes have success. i know this. bureaucrats want to restrict vaping. it doesn't matter what you do. it's what you appear to do. it's like sending a child home for making a gun motion with his hand or a so many barrow -- sombero on may 5th. here in new york, they have

banned ecigarette vapg -- vaping. you see this now with the purchase of -- purges of commencement speaker who aren't the left of mao. rage trumps reason once you've given into the mob. another dismall defeat for science. it's so depressing. i might take up smoking. >> this is good news, andrea. why do they still persist on attacking the innocent vapor. >> because the innocent vapor in the eyes of its enemy, big tobacco, see it as a threat. so what they will do is -- i only know because i used do this they will spend a lot of money to commission surveys on behalf

of some organization that they create. there's nothing to do with the tobacco company and they funnel the money to these organizations and then the organization will find someone to do a study and they will come out and say ecigarettes are bad for you. if you look at the money trail and who the clients are, it's usually one of the big tobacco firms or somebody who is threatened -- maybe the patches, the medical device folks, who create the biggest enemy to your friend. >> the beauty of this is it shows you it's not ahabity, it's mimicking smoking. >> what i don't understand here, if these things work and they take people off cigarettes and cigarette smoking is responsible for half a million deaths a year in the united states, what is their problem? i don't get it. if you could smoke cow dung, and

it would help you quit smoking, then you will smoke it. >> knowing that it works, what's the argument? i don't get the argument. >> the argument is, eric, that it -- because it appears to look like smoking, it will influence people to smoke more. so you could do that with anything. >> i think the tobacco lobby is huge and probably a behind a lot of the studies. the politicians say, you know what, maybe we should pull vaping out of the restaurants or wherever in new york. there's another group too. it's the health care lobby. there's a lot of people who are funding studies who say that's dangerous, so people continue to smoke, so much people die from

smoking, do you know how much -- hundreds of billions of dollars annually, i got to think -- >> that would be a huge scandal. if you can trace money back and say the reason they are doing this is to perpetuate lung cancer -- >> the other thing is though you also say if people die on average maybe 10% earlier from smoke-related diseases, that's a lot of people you don't have to take care of later in life as well. what do you make of this? >> the fear some people feel is that then becomes the new crutch so instead of quitting cigarettes completely, you spend 10 or 20 years smoking these, and we don't know the drgses dangers. if you can transition to somethi something, go for it. >> that's just a crutch. this is reduced the desire for smoking. >> and a lot of politicians who

are anti ecigarettes are pro smoking pot. >> can you put pot in one of those thing? >> i wouldn't know. you can retool that to put weed in there. ands there's a lot of weed oils and waxes that they are smoking. >> we've come a long way. that's good. >> we learn so much on "the five." >> directly ahead, rapper macklemore lands in hot water. he apologizes, but

rapper macklemore made millions off of his hit song

called same love. ♪ it turns out the grammy winner isn't the poster boy for tolerance. he posted an apology on his website, said he didn't mean to mock jewish people with a costume that he wore during a performance of his hit song thrift song. >> i'm just so happy that it's now finally okay to hate this untalented rip-off artist whose

one hit song was ripped off by a better rapper. he blamed the world trade center on our government. he's scum, but he used the veil of tolerance to spew this garbage. he's a racist boob. what else was he trying to do there? >> do you think he gets away with this kind of hypocrisy? >> i don't think they are paying any attention. he does look like a cab driver in my dad's hometown in greece. i actually don't care what he wants to sing about. he can sing about whatever he wants. don't lecture about tolerance then. rap about whatever you want, but if you are not going to hole yourself to the same standard, i don't really want to listen to your kmusk, and it's not very good anyway.

>> eric, do you believe he went and found a weird costume? the song is called thrift shop. >> my wife is jewish. he hit every jewish stereotype with that costume. he put this on for thrift shop. you hit every single one. i'm trying to figure out why he thought that was a good idea to do it. there's so many ways to disguise himself. >> you know what he did that. he's a bigot. only bigots do that. some of my best friends are black. only bigots do that. >> seth rogan, and other celebrities held him accountable on twitter. does it surprise you that

hollywood responded that way? >> i didn't know who this guy was until just now. i listened to that song. how anybody could buy that song is beyond me? rap music is about the lowest form -- you can do that by going into a junkyard and just throwing rocks at it and make noise. >> there's fantastic rap and hip-hop music. the interesting thing is there's a guy named leeth. this guy appropriated his kmusk and that's the bigger crime. >> you know how many suburban jewish kids downloaded -- >> if he wanted to be truly talking about tolerance, he should be talking about islam. >> up next, a mayor is defending

himself after landing in hot water for saying bullying victims should, quote, grow a pair. does he have a point or did he cross the line? ♪

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california mayor ignites a firestorm for criticizing a proposal to set up anti bullying zones in a city. >> i'm against bullying, i'm getting tired of it getting used for a mantra for everything and the ills of the world when all most people have to do it grow a

pair and stick up for themselves. >> in my mind, there is so many different ideas out there that tell us that it's a bullying situation when in fact it's not a bullying situation and it takes away from what is bullying situation and what needs to be addressed in our schools as well as families. >> doesn't he look like for willford brimley? >> we can you tell him -- we cut him off. he said cut he said they need to grow a pair. the point he makes is made in a lousy way. it's good to be right, but you got to be persuasively right. there's situations where bullying is overplayed. there's also real bullying.

you don't tell a 10-year-old girl to grow a pair. it doesn't work that way. at least biologically. >> i've been debating you on tv, i'm a little desensitized it bob. in these instances that he's referring to, there's legitimate cases of assault. he shouldn't use the phrase grow a pair and try to dismiss it. people do throw around the word bullying in instances where i don't think it applies. to me, bullying a very unique case. >> eric, you bully me all the time. >> i don't. i like what this mayor is saying. i see what he's saying. you have to pick and choose where that theory works and

doesn't work and it is -- bully that word is overused. i think we got to teach our kids to toughen up a little bit. >> i'm trying to figure out what a anti bullying safe zone is and how you would create that and attempt to enforce that. i can't even imagine in an outside place how you would enforce this kind of thing. there's serious cases of bullying and you have to take that seriously. it's a big problem. >> shouldn't the world be a safe zone? is there somebody there that's going to know i'm sorry, you can't come in. you are a bully. >> i think he was a bully when he was a kid. one more thing is up next.

time for one more thing. i'm going to kick it off. remember charles barkley got in trouble for saying the ladies of

san antonio were a little chubby. >> let's go happen. that woman ain't from here. they flew her here from dallas. those girls are not from san antonio. oh, boy. good camera work. >> charles, dig it away. >> the media research center quizzed students at george mason university about pop culture and benghazi and taking a listen to what they had to say. >> do you know the reason why benghazi is in the news? >> no. >> benghazi, it's a place in afghanistan. >> oh, is it with the save the children? >> my answer is going to be weird, but it reminds me with a guy i work with at the gym. >> who hits -- sing the hit song

happy? >> pharrell. >> this is why i worry about this country. >> i want to thank everybody for sending some cards and emails and stuff, i've been away visiting my mother who is in assisted living. she's very happy to receive the cards and stuff. i want to thank you for that. >> if you don't follow wheel of fortune wheel -- pat sajak. he bought a lot of vowels and couldn't son --. he tweeted i believe global warming alarmists are unpatriotic racists knowingly misleading for their own ends. good night. >> i want to congratulate

chipolte for banning guns in their restaurant. some whackos went in with their assault weapons and scared the hell out of their patrons. every business ought to ban these things, because the whackos who have got them are going to shoot each other. >> there's evidence of that happening all over. what about police officers with their guns? are they allowed to go in? >> they are allowed to go in. >> we're going to continue this. in the meantime, you can >> it is wednesday, may 21s21st. too little too late. taking action to help a hero jailed in mexico for weeks all

for taking a wrong turn. >> the claim from former football grates suing the nfl. why they blame the league for turning them into drug addicts. >> flying these filthy skies. the disgusting bacteria lurking on planes for days that could kill you. "fox & friends first" starts right now. ♪ >> still dark outside on the east coast. 4:59 to be exact as far as the time is concerned. it is early. thanks for watching "fox & friends first" on this wednesday morning. >> i am ainsley earhardt. >> i am heather childers. we begin with a fox news alert. it was super tuesday racing up

to the mid term elections. six states holding votes. >> kel ly wright joining us to talk about a few of those key races. >> the results are in from one of the busiest days. super tuesday they call it. five deciding senators to face off in the fall. in the kentucky senate race mitch mcconnell sailing to an easy victory against the tea party. in fact facing stiff competition but he will now face secretary of state allison leonard and grimes. >> harry reid wanted her to be in this race. there's a reason, my friends, a reason. every hollywood liberal is sending her a check. >> in arkansas incumbent democrat