better about that. chad pergram. that's where we stand. it's an uphill battle for the republicans are going to give up the good fight and see where they stand. even if they pass in the house, this good fight. it's anyone's guess from there. "the five" is now. ♪ >> greg: hi, i'm greg gutfeld with lisa boothe, juan williams, jason chaffetz. a candy cane is her walking stick. dana perino. "the five" ." fox news alert. president trump now saying he won't sign a stopgap spending bill without the cash for the wall. we will get to that but for something more important. once again, donald trump attacked the media, accusing them of fake news. wait, i was half wrong. fake news, yes. but it wasn't trump. it was incoming congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez who

bashed politico for "gossip that masquerades as reporting." of one piece, she says this story has not a single name or verifiable source. my dad had a name for junk articles like this. birdcage lining. it's more awkward than fake news but it works. i am awaiting the media outreach. how dare she attacked the press. isn't she aware that she's putting reporters in harm's way? i kid. of course the press will save all that for trump and never shoot inside the tent. aoc is a socialist, putting her smack dab in the middle of their own yurt. i use the word yurt. good for her. see, trump's chief impact is giving voice to the ticked off masses who for so long have put up with half-truths passed off as whole truths. trump is you and me yelling at the tv back when there was such a thing as tv. bashing fake news is now spreading to people like aoc.

who should speak up. if she doesn't, if you don't, what happens? then reporters can decide what they want to write first and then find the sources to shape a piece to their liking. germany's most influential newsmagazine had its star reporter just confessed to making up stories for seven years. get this. he was cnn's journalist of the year in 2014. we are living in a simulation. i welcome aoc for joining trump in fighting fake news. pretty soon she will be eating well done steak with ketchup. dana. >> dana: issue begin? >> greg: know she eats salmon. >> dana: have you been watching the videos? >> greg: i think she has potential for being unoriginal person. even though she's a socialist. i think she is very and in the sense that literally she engages everything. she has an answer.

she will talk to people. she will say stupid stuff but she owns it. >> dana: in this case with the reporters, in my spirits, it's very rare that there is no truth to a story. i'm sure she's got a lot of people around her. i'm sure there is people speaking on her behalf. maybe they were talking in the hallway and he gets to politico and they read about it. how did that happen? she has to lock that down, and that she doesn't care. she might not. >> greg: i think everybody cares. here's my theory, jason. welcome to the show. you look great for a grandfather. he is a grandfather. you look younger than me. >> juan: imagine how i feel about that. >> greg: you look great as a grandfather too. you look terrible as a grandfather, lisa. where my going? here's my point.

people don't realize how biased the media is until they write about them, so when you get an article written about you, you go "this didn't happen." trump knows that because he's been in the media forever. aoc gets something written about her. if you've been the object or subject of a piece, you know. >> juan: what did he do for a living? >> jason: i go to washington, d.c., and articles in big publications, they never call you. they never ask a question. suddenly they are the expert. they write all these things about it. i like what donald trump jr. weeded out to ocasio-cortez which said imagine what it's like if they actually hate you. there is a lot of truth to that. it's endless how many things get written about somebody with no sources. "the five" can i ask you something? do you think it's not true that somebody on their staff so that

they were going to try to go after hakeem jeffries. >> greg: fake news. i'm defending her. fake news. >> lisa: we have seen genuinely fake news with abc's brian ross a story about michael flynn. cnn's story about wikileaks. there are legitimately sometimes these completely no facts at all, completely fake news which president trump has called out. i think one of the best things about this administration, pulling the curtain back in the sense that there's never been objectivity in the media, practically when it pertains to republicans. i'm kind of glad president trump is called out and exposed it. now you can make the argument that he's taken it too far. that's completely fair. i'm glad he's calling it out. one of my favorite moments with president trump, owner of the first interviews when he took office. david asked him about the women's march. he was like, you know, march for life is coming up. he never paid attention to it. you don't cover it. he should have seen his face.

he's not used to republicans calling him out. reporters aren't used to be called out on it. i appreciate that about president trump. putting that out me open is healthy and good for the country. >> greg: juan, obviously you are an award-winning journalist. you can answer this better than anybody. inaccurate news prospers. if it matches the assumptions of its peers. it could be on the right or left. the german writer, the pieces had pretty much matched the story lines they wanted. they didn't bother to question it. it's about stories that are almost too good to be true that people get away with. >> juan: what i think it's -- let me say we live in two errors here. the arrow where everything was in fragmented if you go to your media bubble to get your news and you want you want your

opinion is affirmed. your pre-existing opinion affirmed so you go to places that you think will agree with you. in the prior world, there were stories. janet cooke. jason blair and people like that, they made up stories. they made up stories. i think this guy fits into that mode, very young, very ambitious. fast rising star. >> dana: will why not just write fiction? >> greg: he was. [laughter] >> dana: write a novel or write short stories. >> greg: because he gotten so much -- so esteemed so quickly, he felt pressure to keep improving. >> juan: he's a lying dog. the thing about is it that it becomes in the moment where everyone is in the media bubble, becomes politicized. der >> -- a lot of people on te right were salivating

when you go to a lot of websites today, depending on your political orientation. you have to stop and think is it real? is it true? >> greg: i think that's healthy. >> juan: what i would call a gatekeeper function we could say for example jason was complaining about "the washington post." "the washington post" is not going away tomorrow. they have to protect their brand. what jason calls and complains or writes a letter, they do respond. >> lisa: you see stories like like -- remember the nikki haley story with the curtains. nikki haley said her staff told them this is the previous administration. they ran the story anyway. a lot of times you have media reporters that don't care particular wanted paint for said administration in a bad light or republicans. that bias does exist. >> dana: i think they are different things. it's different from what aoc is complaining about. if she's concerned about it, she needs to get a handle on the people around her.

she has to make sure she has people she trusts that are going to speak on her behalf. the editors of the piece said we have three sources. i don't think they are all lying. >> greg: i do. i'm defending her. >> dana: i'm not not defending her. >> greg: why do you hate her? i don't like unnamed sources. i feel like who could it be? >> dana: let me give you an example. three months ago i got a call from somebody, a friend close to somebody in the white house. i check it with somebody else in the white house. they say you can take this to the bank. this is true. so i say it. the on the record spokesperson says that's not the case. okay, if you think there's people in your building aren't telling a different story coming wrong. for her, for her success, surround yourself with people you trust. >> juan: she's a rookie. the democratic caucus chair. >> greg: we've got to move on.

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♪ >> dana: president trump defending his decision to remove 2,000 troops from syria. saying that the move shouldn't be a surprise because it's been his position for years. republicans like senator lindsey graham calling it a major mistake. >> this will be seen by the entire world as a decision not based on sound military advice, a decision based on frustration, and all of our allies are scratching their head right now. i just talked to the british. they don't know where to go. i do know this. that in this war, you will not win it by giving up. it's akin to surrendering. >> dana: the president fighting back. "so hard to believe that lindsey graham would be against saving soldier lives and billions of $$$. senator mike lee backing the decision. speaker one of my colleagues called it an obama-like decision.

i couldn't disagree more. this is the opposite of an obama decision. obama got us involved. trump is taking us out. congress never declared war or authorize the use of military force in syria. we shouldn't be there. >> dana: i was going to call you congressman. i could call you grandfather. i could call you my friend. jason, one of the things is president trump did campaign on a pope when he became president, he sent troops. he changed the rules of engagement and he kicked isis's rear end. >> greg: watch your mouth. >> dana: pretty low cost high reward win for him and i think it caught people by surprise. >> jason: i believe in what the president is doing. i believe if congress wants to do more than just write letters, they should declare war. if lindsey graham believes it is a war, then they should do that and get past the declaration of war. without that, i see no clear and

present danger to the united states. i want the president to have clear flexibility to use the forces of the military. no doubt the world is safer wherever our military is but the one thing that never gets done, afghanistan and here, what does victory actually look like? for our troops to come home. that i think has to be done and i'm with the president on this. let the rest of the world step up and let the bad guys continue to kill the bad guys. >> dana: i knew this was coming. in my ear just now the producer telling me jennifer griffin, a reporter at fox news, reporting president trump is planning to announce a significant drawdown of troops from afghanistan. south korea next? >> greg: may be. i think everybody including graham and our allies and the people even on this network are overdoing the hysteria. let's look at the guy we are talking about, donald trump. his goal was to crush isis. he even suggested killing their

families. that's kind of extreme. he hired mad dog matters. mattis. he has gone on about building up the military. i think there is something else going on here. there is another plan. on top of that, i'm optimistic about this. i am like you, jason. as a plan behind this strategy. this is part of a larger puzzle. plus it's only 2,000 troops. they are easy going out and they are just as easy coming back in, right? if you need them back in there. if ice has pops up again, you whack-a-mole. >> jason: go with everything. fight to win. the united states can do whatever it wants to go with everything and knock the living -- >> greg: watch it. you are mormon. >> lisa: i am conflicted on this. someone like senator lindsey graham, i would ask him, what does victory look like, as you

pointed out. my understanding was the mandate was to destroy isis. we have largely done then. although there is a concern about prematurely declaring war, or victory over a terrorist group. we have seen presidents make this mistake in the past. president obama said al qaeda was on the run and then benghazi happen. if it's not isis, we are fighting al-shabaab in somalia. fighting in yemen. the problem with prematurely declaring victory's ideology continues to live on and that's a broader problem. but there's also the concern that we are leaving a vacuum there as well for state actors like iran and russia and potentially terrorists as well. i don't really know what the answer is. seems like no one has one. seems like no one has any good answers which i imagine is why president trump decided to pull troops out. >> greg: i think he has the answer but he can't tell us. exactly what he did with isis. i can't tell you what i'm going

to do. why would i? >> juan: then what did he do? >> greg: he decimated them. he crushed them. >> juan: you talk to the people in the pentagon, they would say no. there still is a presence. >> greg: it's been decimated. >> juan: it is lower. here's the thing. when you said this about why doesn't congress declare war, i've been on this bandwagon forever. >> dana: i am against that. >> juan: when obama had a redline, they said go ahead. obama said have a vote. >> dana: no, but no. obama wanted to limit himself. he wanted to limit the commander in chief. yes, he did. republicans had known. >> jason: he should have done it in libya. he should have never gone into libya without declaring war. >> juan: congress, because they are afraid of actually saying this is our war, refused to do it. they have been doing this for decades. >> jason: both parties.

i totally agree. >> juan: the second thing is he ignored the advice coming from the defense department. >> dana: so did obama. >> juan: no. >> dana: he did. >> juan: fine. i don't know what what about-ism has to do with it. here's the thing, i think, at least i think you're right on it. this is nonstate actors. these are terrorists. it's not about a parade at the end of the day where everyone is marching to a confetti parade. you are destabilizing the middle east by allowing syrian forces, bashar al-assad's forces to gain strength under the support of iran and russia. they do not have our interests at heart. >> dana: we don't have time for the answer. >> juan: if you have terrorists fomenting there in the middle east, guess where they show up? at our doorstep. >> greg: i wouldn't mind letting the russians kill some terrorists. if they are not that good at it, we will come back. >> juan: what if they support

them, greg? >> greg: they have their own issues with radical islam. >> dana: big interviews coming up tonight on fox news. bret baier's exclusive sit down with ryan zinke. followed by senator susan collins on "the story with martha mccalla." ♪ heartburn and gas? ♪ fight both fast tums chewy bites with gas relief all in one relief of heartburn and gas ♪ ♪ tum tum tum tums tums chewy bites with gas relief

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>> juan: this is a fox news alert. president trump just tweeting secretary of defense james mattis will be retiring at the hand release though, what do you make of this? >> lisa: i find it sad. i love general mattis. this is a tough guy. one of the biggest criticisms. i guess he wasn't really listening to his generals regarding syria but one of the biggest criticisms was that he wasn't going to follow the advice of his advisors and he wasn't going to surround himself with necessarily the best people. in choosing general mattis, that

helped give a lot of confidence to naysayers and people that were concerned about the kind of decisions this president would make. i find it disappointing and sad that general mattis is leaving particularly at a time when we are dealing with north korea. we've got china on the rise as well. >> juan: jason, the thing is president trump recently said that mattis was like a democrat. now you have him, the president defying mattis' suggestions with regard to pulling the troops out of syria. >> jason: the country will owe a lot to general mattis. four decades of service to the country in the marines. in afghanistan, iraq. he will be remember for a long and storied career. if there is one great pick i think the president made early on in his cabinet it was general mattis. on both sides of the aisle, so much respect for this man and what he's done. one of the quotes i recently read from him, i won't get the quote exactly right but he was basically saying engage your brain before you engage your

guns. for a military leader to think like that, talk like that, and to be able to back it up, it's inspirational. there's a lot to learn from this man and we've got to think him -- thank him for his service. >> juan: general perino, what do you think? >> dana: i am no general at all. i can't hold a candle to him. general mattis was able to fulfill president trump's direction when he asked for troops to go to the border for support down there. he did that and pushback on media criticism or should say democratic criticism. he was willing to do that and he went to the mat for the president. i think the white house is going to have once again a big nomination fight on their hands. not a fight, but it will be an issue. now they have the ag at department of justice and dod.

i would say something about this. it's been rumored for a while and the demise of jim mattis have been rumored. you could reported every week, somebody said he was going to be out the door. but i will say if you think back to the obama administration, everyone who was on the national security team for president obama, on the left and wrote their books, every single one of them all said the president did not listen to us on syria. he didn't listen to us. he didn't take our advice. but they stayed. obviously this case, general mattis is saying okay. if you're not going to listen to me and i can't be part of this and i can't be part of it, i'm going to have to go. i admire that. >> juan: we have john roberts. >> greg: i love john. >> juan: john, did you hear that? greg loves you. feel good this christmas season. john, what are you hearing? >> this is something, as dana annual event saying, it's been rumored for quite a while.

seem to gain a lot of momentum in recent weeks when the president referred to james mattis as something of a democrat. you could sort of tell that the writing was on the wall. there was going to be a change at some point. a lot of people are going to look at this and be very dismayed because they really believe james mattis with his hand on the tiller at the pentagon was a real kind of moderating influence, very, very professional influence. there are not a lot of people who are going to say bad things about james mattis, particularly his tenure there at the helm of the pentagon. on the civilian side. he had to get that waiver because he hadn't been retired long enough to take over a civilian job at the pentagon. i think it was the sort of case where the president at the very beginning was all about jim mattis, calling him mad dog, one of my generals. they can recent months, there's been a little bit of a parting of ways on a number of issues. the president seemed to indicate

that mattis might not be hanging around for too much longer. now we learn that at the end of february, he's going to be departing the pentagon. have you read the tweet that the president sent out? >> juan: go ahead if you have it. >> we haven't. -- we have it. "general jim mattis will be retiring, with distinction, at the end of february, after having served my administration as secretary of defense for the past two years. during jim's tenure, tremendous progress has been made, especially with respect to the purchase of new fighting equipment. general mattis was a great help to me in getting allies and other countries to pay their share of military obligations. a new secretary of defense will be named shortly. i greatly thank jim for his service!" certainly mattis is going out on top here. unlike some of the other people who have departed the administration, either last year or in recent weeks. nikki haley was one who got an oval office and offered a lot of people still scratching their heads over how that went down. the president clearly happy with

mattis though i think again a little bit of a difference of opinion over the past few month months. i was not surprised to get this tweet. i think that a lot of people were probably thinking that this was something that was going to happen. again, i think there's a lot of people in this nation somewhat troubled over the fact that mattis is leaving. >> juan: the president ignored mattis' suggestion as to who would be the next chairman of the joint chiefs. the question that i am hearing around is what happened to "my generals," which the way the president who went to a military prep school set i'm going to bring in these generals. you see right now john kelly is gone. mattis gone. what's going on? do you have that sense that something is different? >> i think the president still likes his generals. he just likes different generals now that he liked back at the beginning the administration. he likes general mark millet, the army chief of staff who we named at the army-navy game a couple is go to succeed

general joad dunford is the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. i was told that was a brush back pitched in mattis who was looking at another -- naming the successor to joad dunford, that transition doesn't happen until october 1. it was another sign the president might be trying to box out some of mattis' choices. >> jason: how closely should we read the departure to the action in syria? is pulling out of syria a direct relation to what's happening with mattis? >> it might be coincidental more than anything, jason. i don't know for sure. one thing i do know is despite all the advice the president gets, there's one person who makes the decision. even though he was being advised by many, many people and we have heard the aftermath of that particularly from senator lindsey graham who just had a much longer tweet thread

that i've ever seen president trump put out there on twitter saying why we shouldn't pull out of syria despite all the advice against it. the president decided it's not doing us any good. this crescent of influence that iran was trying to establish from iran to the mediterranean has been accomplished despite the fact that u.s. forces are there. they are a continued risk and not really making that much of a difference on the ground. in terms of iran's influence, russia's influence and what's going on with bashar al-assad. you might as well pull them out. that decision was made literally against the advice of almost everyone that the president consulted about it. >> juan: john roberts at the white house. thank you, john. now we go from the white house to the pentagon jennifer griffi jennifer griffin. >> juan, we just received a letter, two-page letter signed by secretary mattis to the president dated today, december 20, in which he describes the reasons for why he

is retiring as the 26th defense secretary. i will read the key paragraph. the news was broken in a tweet from the president. secretary mattis says "because you have the right to have a secretary of defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, he is referring to the issue of alliances and the u.s. role in the world and the role of the u.s. military in the world. "i believe it's right for me to step down from my position. the end date for my tenure is february 28, 2019. a date that should allow sufficient time for a successor to be nominated and confirmed as well as to make sure the department's interests are properly articulated and protected at upcoming events to include," and he goes on. the point here is, juan, that this was not something that secretary mattis did lightly. i've been told by sources here in the pentagon amidst the rumors that mattis was leaving

during the past year, that he would not leave unless he was pushed out. this was not a decision he takes lightly. he clearly has been at odds with the president over a number of issues, especially if you look in the last few days, the issue of pulling all u.s. troops out of syria. that is something that mattis opposed. it is something that all of the top leaders here in the pentagon as well as u.s. central command generals opposed. i was told by a very well-placed source here in the pentagon that morale has never been lower at meetings here at the pentagon of the top brass in the last few days to discuss the pullout of troops from syria as well as now we are learning moments ago that the president is considering pulling out a significant number, thousands of u.s. troops from afghanistan. i am told that will begin in january. more than 3,000 troops that will be coming out. about 15,000 on the ground there. mattis' influence has waned in

recent months. we have seen it. we have seen him spend less time with the president. you heard the president himself undermined secretary mattis in that interview with "60 minutes," when he said he was a democrat. that was the first sign that things were really very tense. then there was the decision by chief of staff john kelly to leave his position. kelly had been an ally of secretary mattis and also of general joe dunford. all three of them marines. when the president took the unprecedented decision to announce the successor to general joe dunford who was not supposed to leave as chairman of the joint chiefs until next october, when he announced that at the army-navy game, that was something that also raised a lot of eyebrows in the building because there was a feeling that by announcing that general mark milley would be taking over as chairman of the joint chiefs,

the effect fact i would be undermining general dunford in that position in that general dunford, having been a longtime friend of john kelly's, that that was somehow related to perhaps kelly leaving his position. >> juan: jennifer, we have a question. >> dana: it's a quick one. i'm curious because -- it's great reporting the context. then the next question in washington is always who next? could it be mick mulvaney? chief of staff, omb director. i kid. any clues as to who? >> i think there have been some names floated in the past. senator tom cotton is a name that has appeared at times. there are, i think there will be a number of people considered for this position. it is very clear that with mick mulvaney coming in as chief of staff, he has long wanted to curtail the defense budget withh he thinks is much too high.

you are the president indicate he wanted to cut the defense budget. he's been all over the place in terms of where the real number for the 2020 defense budget will be. the notion of pulling troops out and saving money by pulling troops from overseas positions, i think you are clearly already seen the influence of mick mulvaney on the pentagon. i think many of these senior leaders who are leaving, mattis being the top of the chain, felt that they were going to be asked to do things that they don't believe in. i don't think any of the military brass here believes sending troops down to the border, active-duty troops, was the correct use of military funds or those active-duty troops. it was legally very complicated for them to figure out what they could legally do down of the border. there have been a number of areas where, starting really from the time that president trump took office and asked secretary mattis to take over here at the pentagon, they disagreed on the issue of torture. you heard secretary mattis stand

up in the early days and say that he explained to the president that torture doesn't work. and then i was on the first trip that secretary mattis took overseas to nato headquarters and at that time, he was -- it was a delicate balance between things that president trump was saying that was undermining his ability to talk to nato allies and deliver a message that was seen as very hostile to nato allies. there's been this very difficult balance. secretary mattis did not believe that the u.s., when negotiating with north korea, should be halting military exercises with south korea. >> juan: jennifer, let me go back to something that you read from the letter that struck me. it said you would be better served, mr. president, by someone "better aligned with your views." i thought it would be we had our problems but thank you, sir for the opportunity to serve. it's not that kind of letter. >> that is not the mood here in the pentagon right now.

i can tell you, juan, that the mood here at the pentagon at the senior level is one of great frustration. that their views are not being considered. that the interagency process is not being followed. that the is tweeting out policy rather than going through the normal process of sending over orders as commander in chief. it's a very disorganized process in which they are getting word from the white house as to how to proceed and move troops around. >> juan: let me ask some of my colleagues, beginning with greg gutfeld. >> greg: thank you. i don't really have a question but i do have a comment. maybe you could comment on my comments. i think a lot of it has to do with trump's work style. trump is extremely exhausting, right? two years working for trump is probably eight years for normal people. i have worked in the company and i know that when you have -- there are certain types of boss styles that are jarring. i think that might be -- this is

a guy that was retired who came back in and achieved in two years quite a lot. if you look at isis and the rebuilt military in china, look at north korea. he accomplished a hell of a lot into years. but it's exhausting and maybe it's like hey, it was a good ride. i don't need this. >> juan: what do you think, jennifer? >> i must say that's not exactly the secretary mattis that i know. from those who worked very closely with him, he is not somebody who gets tired. he spends very little time sleeping. he has been in war. he has led marines in combat. he's not exhaustive. but he does, and you see it in this letter of resignation and announcing his retirement, he says that he's not aligned with many of the president's policie policies. >> juan: let me ask lisa. >> lisa: i have more of a comment obviously with christmas

coming up. if you talk to people in the military, you do all the time, they love general medicine because he cares about them and he felt they cared about them and he served alongside them. there was a story when he was a brigadier general, he let a young marine go home and spend christmas with his family. he was married and has kids. i think it's that kind of attitude and the way he treated the troops of why he earned so much respect among his fellow marines and other military men and women. >> i can say he is beloved among the military that i talk to every day, not just here in the pentagon but out in the field. marines, soldiers, airmen. this is an iconic military leader. this is somebody who is still, at the last army-navy game, he got a rousing standing ovation and applause when his name was announced in that stadium. this is not somebody who is seen

as having served in the people think okay, he's past his prime and ready to retire. this is somebody who is still an icon in the u.s. military. >> juan: jennifer, thank you very much for joining us. that was terrific reporting. jennifer griffin at the pentagon. we are joined now by a bret baier, chief political correspondent in washington. the politics of this are going to have some strong repercussions. bret, what do you see? >> bret: a couple things. this, like the syria announcement about troop drawdown, came as a surprise to allies. they are just starting to get this word via twitter and other places. i think the key line in secretary mattis' resignation letter is this: "because you have the right to have a secretary of defense whose views are better aligned with yours, i believe it is right for me to step down from my position. the end date for my ten euros

february 28, 2019." history will record that this happened one day after the announcement of the syria withdrawal, that the pentagon was largely caught off guard by. it happened on the same day of "the wall street journal" reported and we confirmed that there is a plan to have a significant drawdown of troops in afghanistan. yes, the president campaign on that and had talked about up with the timing of it will obviously be questioned. about whether this was precipitating factor for secretary mattis leaving. >> juan: bret, the intriguing point here is that you have lots of trump supporters who are big military supporters. we just heard from jennifer jennifer griffin that this sequence of events is not being viewed positively by our military. do you anticipate there will be republican pushback of the sort that we've seen from lindsey graham from on the syria withd.

>> bret: they were comfortable with secretary mattis in that position. heading in, there was kind of this troika of secretary mattis, then secretary of state tillerson, and general john kelly is white house chief of staff. largely seen as a stabilizing force. now all three of them will be gone. secretary mattis the latest, as of the end of february. i think you look to who is going to fill those shoes. secretary mattis was well respected around the world primarily -- he did not always ci time with this president and told him so. and the president told mattis so. the "60 minutes" interview saying that he may be a democrat, answering one question. i asked secretary mattis about his plans and whether he was going to step down. he said he was not going to tell me. i was going to be the last to know and what do you know, i was the last to know. he felt it was his service to

the country, his duty to serve the president at the president's pleasure. he talked about a lot of important things happening around the world that he is integral in. it is going to be a challenge. there is obviously a right seat, left seat here for time for someone to be chosen and get up to speed. >> juan: bret, jason chaffetz has a question. >> obviously the person goes to who are the names that might be out there. i think one of the problems and challenges the problem is going to have is mattis was beloved on both sides of the aisle, house and senate. they were able to -- who can fill those shoes and have that same type of gravitas? >> bret: they are big shoes to fill. there are names floated around washington. it had been rumored, it's why i asked the question at the reagan defense forum, that he was considering it and that possibly he might leave. i agree with you that it's going

to be tough to fill. the other thing to point out is that the president came out at the army-navy game and made the early announcement that he was going to replace the chairman of the joint chiefs. general dunford with army general milley, also very well respected in all kinds of circles. announcing it early. that transition is happening as well next year. i think president trump has talked to jack keane a lot. he has talked to a number of other people on capitol hill who are possible. lindsey graham has expressed privately that he would love to be defense secretary. you know, the parlor game begins now. it's really going to be a matter of what the reaction is around the world. >> juan: i think the confirmation also was going to be very sticky in a year in which there's lots of political turbulence in the forecast for president trump.

>> bret: the confirmation of bill barr, then you're going to have this defense secretary confirmation. we don't know what else. >> dana: the good news is for the administration on the nominations front and confirmations, that they won though senate seats for the republicans. the president will probably be able to get those done pretty quickly. >> bret: exactly. >> dana: but it does take some time. >> bret: not only that, they also changed a couple of those republican seats that may have been no votes or maybe votes. >> dana: also do you hear there are other cabinet resignations coming soon or firings or whatever we are calling them? >> bret: there's always a circle out there about who's going next and what's going to happen. after any midterm election, there is usually a changeover, as you well know. we assumed that come the beginning of the year, there might be some change. i talked to interior secretary ryan zinke. we are not going to run that tonight because there's just a little breaking news. we will run it tomorrow.

that position will be open as well. >> juan: bret, thanks so much. we really appreciate the political perspective. there's more information now, from the white house. john roberts is there with the latest. john. >> i think too bret was reading from that letter that secretary mattis submitted to the president and some of the key elements of that in terms of having the right to have a secretary whose views are better aligned with yours. if we look at some of the other paragraphs in this letter, we get an idea where those views may have been divergent. when secretary mattis writes "one core belief i've always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and cooperative system of alliances and partnerships. while the u.s. remains the indispensable nation and the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies." president trump has been very critical of a number of our allies. germany in particular.

in his dealings with nato countries. browbeating them to come up to their commitment of 2% for nato. more so than that, sometimes being somewhat denigrating to some of our allies. also, mattis writes "similarly, i believe we must be resolute and unambiguous in our approach to those countries whose strategic interests are increasingly with ours. it's clear that china and russia want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model, getting veto authority over other nations economic, diplomatic, and security decisions to promote their interests at the expense of their neighbors." it's another area of diversions. many believe president trump has not been tough enough on russia, particularly on this issue of crimea. trump will be the first want to tell you he has been tougher on russia than anyone. there's a couple areas where i see their lines of delineation

between mattis' thinking and the presidents inking. that probably added to the friction that mattis felt was going to a point where it was time for them to leave on for the president to get somebody else in that position whose views were more clearly aligned with those of the president. >> juan: john, terrific job. thanks again. for all of you tuning in, what we know now is that james mattis, the defense secretary, is leaving. he will be leaving in february. this news came in the form of a tweet from president trump a day after the president announced the withdrawal of troops from syria, and we've had reporting and confirmed yard fox news that troops are going to be withdrawing from afghanistan. please stay with us for more. "the five" will be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ the greatest wish of all

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some side effects can lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. i discovered the potential with ozempic®. ♪ oh! oh! oh! ozempic®! ♪ (vo) ask your healthcare provider if ozempic® is right for you. >> greg: fox news alert -- what are you doing? were doing a fox news alert for "one more thing" -- this is a holiday crew. let's do another hour on staffing changes, go ahead. >> juan: it's a marshmallow world in the winter. what if it's also an ice cream winter wonderland? that's what happened to me today, last week i said this on the show. >> greg: if you are invited to someone's house for dinner, what do you bring? >> juan: ice cream.

a lot of people don't have let's go back to james mattis here, let's talk about what's going on with the general. >> greg: i'm going to tell you what's going on -- i am not a fan of arm chairing staff changes. i think it staffing turbulence is far preferable to actual turbulence, i don't see this as political turbulence, the world is more peaceful and more prosperous in the last couple of years and it has been so i take this with just another staff change, he did great work for 2 years. i just gave up a really good "one more thing." >> juan: will get to it tomorrow. >> lisa: i think one president trump -- people were nervous, what is he going to be like? and secretary mattis was one of the generals, he is amazing.

he's done terrific work, i admire him for saying in his letter that we have these differences, you deserve somebody who is more in-line with your thinking and he's willing to step down for that. there's not enough people in washington who stick up for their principles. >> juan: that line clearly is capturing attention in washington, he spoke about divergent views. >> dana: that's okay. >> greg: i've been fired three times, i disagreed with every boss i ever had. >> jesse: the show isn't over yet. >> juan: normal politics would be i'm glad to serve, you're a great president but he didn't say that. >> jason: i have the greatest respect for this man and i think he has won the hearts and minds of people not only in the united states but our military

partners across the world. the president has his hands full because not only does he have an attorney general who has to get through a confirmation fight, now a defense secretary -- as a republican i'm glad that the senate is still in republican hands and they can get through these fights but these people have to run the gauntlet -- i hope the president has somebody who was ready to go. there are good members in the senate, i don't think lindsey graham wants to do this, i think he wants to be the chairman of the judiciary committee. tom cotton would be a strong choice, a real hawk and somebody who served ably in the military. there are people in the house who also have done that, that's where we got mike pompeo. i think the president respects people in the military and there's a lot of good people to choose from.

>> lisa: on a serious note, we've already established republicans are going to have a 53 seat majority in the senate, president trump will see these nominees through. i think with the withdrawal from syria and this news from north korea saying they aren't going to denuclearize and some of these other things that are coming down the pipeline from a national security standpoint, it does complicate the landscape or at least gives more attention to who he ends up nominating and also general matt is stepping aside as well. >> juan: what do you think of the question of republicans and the president -- he's a military guy and now you see someone who is widely expected by the military saying i'm gone. >> lisa: i think president trump respects the military and i don't think it devalues that because general gl mattis is stepping aside.

he earned it so much respect from both the left and the right as well as military men and women so it's sad to see him go, who doesn't respect him? >> greg: set your dvrs, never miss an episode of "the five" ." "special report" is up next. >> bret: this is a fox news alert. there's plenty of breaking news to tell you about tonight, we are less than 30 hours away from a clock literally striking midnight on part of the federal budget. a stopgap spending bill that does not include money for the president's border wall appears to be in danger tonight. meanwhile the commander in chief is considering another major military withdrawal and is now looking for resumes for the top job. defense secretary james mattis is retiring, the president tweeting that out as his records h