‘The Five’ Gets Heated As Jessica Tarlov Reminds Co-Hosts Russian State TV Called Tulsi Gabbard ‘Our Girlfriend’

 

Co-host of Fox News’s The Five, Jessica Tarlov, pulled no punches on Tuesday while analyzing the Democratic Party’s perspective on former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) announcing she was leaving the party earlier in the day.

Tarlov was asked how it feels to be “down one” Democrat and her lengthy answer elicited strong responses from two of her fellow co-hosts.

“We were already down that one,” quipped Tarlov to begin. “And probably everybody else who says that they’re a Democrat and is supporting her online or tuning in. I think that’s a part of a show that she’s going to have this new like 30 minute show,” she continued, adding:

Tulsi Gabbard hasn’t been a Democrat for a very long time. And it’s not because I’m pissed off that she criticized the 2016 primary process and, you know, upset Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

She has been vindictive and spiteful and angry towards Democrats. She’s attacked our infrastructure. She’s, I thought, certainly in the last primary, in the 2020 primary, that she would have been a lot happier if Donald Trump had ended up winning. She does things that are completely inexplicable.

“I’m certainly not going to sit here and say that she has any direct ties to Russia, but I don’t know how you end up in a position where they refer to you as ‘our girlfriend’ on Russian state TV,” Tarlov said, referencing a March appearance by Gabbard on Tucker Carlson’s show, which was later shown in Russia.

“You can’t control that!” interjected Greg Gutfeld.

“Yes, you can. You can control what you say,” Tarlov hit back.

“How? You go to Russia, tell them, ‘Please don’t say those things,’” replied Gutfeld.

“No, you could do things like not go on television and say that what we’re doing here in the US in terms of the free press isn’t that different from what’s going on in Russia. They throw people, journalists out windows in Russia. What happens here? Maybe you don’t get to ask your question,” Tarlov said in response, adding:

She went to visit Assad in 2017 without telling the party leadership and came back and said that the people that she met supported him. This is someone guilty of terrible war crimes.

Steve Bannon liked her so much that he had to get her a Trump Tower meeting right after he won the election. Why would Steve Bannon take such a shining…

“That’s so cheap!” jumped in Gutfeld again. “What you what you’re trying to do, first you do it with Russia and now you do it with Bannon. You are saying if somebody else likes you, that’s on you. I can’t help it, I have some fans that can be kind of strange,” Gutfeld added. “That is not my fault.”

“Steve Bannon isn’t just kind of strange,” Tarlov shot back, referencing the far-right podcaster who was fired for the Trump administration for winking at white nationalism. “Well, if you’re a Democratic official and Steve Bannon and Donald Trump think that you’re aces and they want to meet with you and maybe consider you for being in the administration, you are doing something wrong,” she continued as Jesse Watters chuckled.

“It’s not Biden’s fault that Joy Reid likes him, but Joy Reid is a nutcase,” Gutfeld hit back, referencing the MSNBC host.

“Are you are you comparing Steve Bannon and Joy Reid?” asked Tarlov.

“I would say yeah. I feel the same way about Joy Reid that you probably feel about Bannon,” clarified Gutfeld.

“What about the 75 million Americans who don’t mind being connected to Donald Trump who voted for it? Is there something wrong with them?” then asked Judge Jeanine Pirro.

“Some of them like Steve Bannon,” replied Tarlov.

“Oh, cut it out,” Pirro replied.

“Oh, come on. That’s not, that’s not intellectual,” Pirro hit back as the host spoke over each other.

Dana Perino moved the conversation back to Gabbard.

“Okay, let’s go back to Tulsi. Look, this is very interesting,” began Pirro adding:

We just spoke about the Democrats vice president that they chose based on identity politics, a woman who can’t get out of her own way to discuss anything, what she has, the power she has, the ability to get things done in this country and in the world. She is a halfwit compared to other vice presidents. That’s number one.

You’ve got Tulsi Gabbard who put her life on the line for this country compared to the halfwit that we have as vice president who can’t even address the issue. She’s supposed to let me tell you something, I give her credit for calling out what happened with the Democratic Party, the DNC, when Bernie Sanders was edged out by Hillary Clinton, when she got the questions from what’s her name, who said that we were criticizing her because she’s a good Christian woman. What was her name? Donna Brazile. I mean, let’s talk turkey. You want to talk turkey? Let’s talk turkey. This woman, Tulsi Gabbard, has and she is an educated and she is far from vindictive, spiteful and angry. You call her those things? I have never…

“You just called the vice president a halfwit,” jumped in Tarlov.

“She is a halfwit!” replied Pirro, adding:

Let me tell you something. Your own party makes fun of her. Your own party runs away from her. I have never seen Tulsi Gabbard raise her voice and she put her life on the line. So don’t you dare criticize her.

“I thank her for her service, but because you served, it doesn’t mean that you are free of criticism for the rest of your life,” Tarlov said as Perino moved on.

Watch the full clip above via Fox News

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Alex Griffing is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Send tips via email: alexanderg@mediaite.com. Follow him on Twitter: @alexgriffing