‘The Five’ on Dems’ ‘WOKE 1’ WALKBACK

[0:02] Hello, everyone. I'm Shannon Bream, along with Emily Campano, Jessica Tarlov, Charlie Hurt, and Greg Gutfeld. [0:09] It is 5 o'clock in New York City, and this is The Five. [0:18] Are Democrats really done with woke one? [0:22] New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani following the lead of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [0:27] in distancing himself from left-wing positions that exploded during the 2020 pandemic among progressives, [0:34] including his own calls to defund the police. [0:37] Do you think woke one was crazy? [0:42] Look, I think that each person has a responsibility to tell New Yorkers, [0:53] to tell Americans when they're running for office what they believe. [0:56] And sometimes what you believe can change. It can develop. It can grow. [1:01] And I know that there are some for whom they still believe in that. [1:04] I've made very clear that I do not believe in defunding the police, that I will not be defunding the police. [1:10] But Chris Matthews is not letting AOC and the left off that easy on this woke one walk back, [1:17] arguing the whole big tent for the DSA puts Democrats in a bad spot. [1:21] They've listed what they believe in. Their chair made that clear. [1:26] We're going to get rid of ice, not just ice, we're going to get rid of the border. [1:29] We're not going to have a border anymore. [1:30] We're not going to effectively control people coming in and out of the country. [1:35] We're going to get rid of prisons. [1:37] You know, we're going to get rid of the Pentagon. [1:39] You need an army. [1:41] You don't like to like to have an army, but you do need to have one. [1:44] But the problem with the big tent defense is every Democrat has to defend all this crap coming from the left. [1:51] Okay, so woke one, we're told is bye-bye, Emily. [1:55] But that begs the question about this whole woke two, [1:58] because everything that Chris Matthews just outlined is exactly what the co-chair of the DSA, Megan Romer, told me. [2:02] No jails, no enforcement, no ICE, no Senate, no Supreme Court. [2:07] I mean, the list goes on and on. [2:08] And it's why 120,000 people apparently have pledged and are dues-carrying members of the DSA. [2:16] I want to focus on woke one just for a second, because to me, the concept that things are simply undoable [2:22] is particularly farcical and horrifying here. [2:26] Some things just cannot be undone. [2:27] And I think about the lives lost as the direct result of their woke protests and their woke ideology. [2:34] So, FPS officer David Patrick Underwood, that was in my old building at the Oakland Federal Courthouse. [2:40] He was shot and killed during all of these riots, defund the police I'm talking about specifically. [2:44] We know Captain David Dorn in St. Louis. [2:47] And then we know 16-year-old Antonio Mays Jr., who, remember, died in the CHOP zone. [2:51] And here's why that death is so prescient here. [2:54] Because the city of Seattle had to pay his family $30 million admitting criminal negligence [3:01] because they didn't let the ambulances in. [3:03] They didn't let the cops in. [3:05] They didn't let what we all pay taxes for and what we deem morally important for crucial societies, [3:10] which is, yeah, you let in law enforcement and you let in the authorities. [3:14] And because of his loss of life, then the city is on the hook. [3:17] And my point here is that what is considered legally negligent and criminal is their ideology. [3:24] And then you're telling me that they're telling us that their beliefs have changed or we have evolved and I grew. [3:32] Maybe, but it means that it's worse because these people died. [3:36] They consider them collateral damage for the cause. [3:39] But now they've changed their mind. [3:41] So now these deaths are just absolutely tragic. [3:44] And they always were. [3:45] But now it's because of the whim of this fanatical infantile mob. [3:50] Well, you've got Rahm Emanuel out there. [3:51] And Jessica, I know that you have a relationship with him and, you know, he's saying he's praising AOC saying, [3:56] OK, good, let's let's be reasonable here and say that some of that stuff was bonkers. [4:01] But what he's telling them is you're 10 times worse now with some of the stuff that we're allowing into the tent. [4:05] He's not playing with a lot of Democrat voters. [4:08] He says he's worried about black voters and others who aren't down with this DSA stuff. [4:11] No. [4:11] And the result in the Wisconsin primary for governor showcases that. [4:16] I mean, David Crowley, who won, wasn't even in the race three weeks before, basically. [4:20] And Tony Evers showed up and was like, I'm not letting this happen. [4:24] I'm going to put him on my back and we're going to go around and have ice cream cones everywhere. [4:30] And I know this state better than anyone else. [4:32] Remember, he was asked, are you going to endorse Francesca Hong if she wins and what are you going to do? [4:36] And he said, we'll deal with it when we get there. [4:38] But Dan Crowley is going to win. [4:40] Sorry, I called him Dave, I think, at first. [4:42] So, there is a rejection, especially in the black community, of these far left positions. [4:49] I think that it is very smart and tactical, obviously, of folks like AOC and Momdani to modify on some of the more extreme positions. [4:59] And, you know, Momdani takes every opportunity to talk about the historic drops in crime, works very closely with Jessica Tish, the NYPD commissioner, [5:07] who has the support of the rank and file officers, which is incredibly important and something that people were afraid of when Momdani was coming in, [5:15] that he wasn't going to have a good relationship with them. [5:16] I will say, though, that mounting a 2026 campaign or midterms election based on a bunch of footage of people from 2020, [5:27] and I'm not talking about the DSA co-chair, who I think should never do a television interview again. [5:32] But going back to that, when people are living in their lives right now in 2026, is not going to be an effective electoral strategy. [5:40] And we've already seen that because Democrats have won 90 percent of the elections in the Trump 2.0 era. [5:45] The reality is we are in the midst of a war of choice from President Trump that has the largest amount of disapproval that we've seen in the modern era. [5:53] Gas is over $4 a gallon, cost of living up. [5:56] Seventy-five percent of Americans say the economy is only fair or poor. [6:00] And Trump's out there saying this is the greatest economy of all time. [6:03] That's what people are going to vote on, not whether AOC said defund the police during the Black Lives Matter riots. [6:10] And the Republicans could get better talking points. [6:13] Well, Charlie, I think it's not just that she said it then. [6:15] It's that she's trying to disown it now. [6:17] Yeah. [6:17] Yeah. [6:18] And these were not casual positions. [6:20] These were really hard-held positions that, you know, as Emily points out, actually led to the loss of lives, led to people's businesses being burned to the ground, [6:29] people losing, you know, a drugstore in their community. [6:36] So now they have to drive across the city to get drugs. [6:39] These are real things that were the result of defund the police and everything else. [6:44] But to me, the fact that they're now distancing themselves, I think, reveals just how fundamentally unserious these people are. [6:51] It's almost like they want this, like, invisibility cape where they can say, oh, no, this is what I believe to sort of gin up support and then say, oh, no, no, no, I didn't really mean that. [7:00] It's like, I'm sorry. [7:02] No, no, no, the words you use, the things you say you believe in are what we stupid voters out here try to figure out and decide elections on. [7:12] And if you suddenly think that you can just say, oh, no, I didn't really mean that. [7:16] Well, what are you saying now that you don't mean? [7:19] Do you not mean abolish ICE? [7:21] Do you not mean free grocery stores? [7:23] And I think that what but I think what actually is going on here is AOC has smelled power. [7:30] She's got a whiff of it. [7:31] And she has decided that, you know what, I'm going to moderate all these things because I want to reach for the brass ring. [7:38] And and she's very effective, especially if you don't really believe in anything. [7:42] It's very easy to sort of do your line of B.S., which is what she's doing. [7:47] She's very effective at it. [7:49] I think ultimately it doesn't work in a general election. [7:52] But to me, it's no different than when the establishment decided to sell out all of their Democrat-based voters who support Bernie Sanders. [8:03] And they rigged their primaries to in order to disenfranchise them in order to keep the establishment. [8:09] They have become the establishment. [8:11] Well, and that's what they're trying to hold on to. [8:13] Well, well, and the thing is, when you look at Bernie Sanders and what happened, and we all covered this back at the conventions and all those years ago. [8:18] I mean, there are a lot of people, Greg, who think within the Democratic Party, they never handled that faction who was very important to them. [8:25] That faction has just grown. [8:26] And now they, from the inside, say, oh, no, it's time to now bend the party to our will. [8:31] Well, you know why AOC is disowning these woke policies? [8:36] She dumped that beta male. [8:38] Now she's ready for a real man. [8:40] You know what I'm talking about. [8:41] My prediction in six months will be engaged to Daniel Penny. [8:45] Oh, my God. [8:46] So here's the deal. [8:47] Poor Daniel. [8:48] Okay. [8:49] So if you look at how they're backing away from this stuff, I had to ask, like, has there ever been a moment when, over time, progressivism got less progressive? [9:00] But at best, at least for my limited time on this earth, I've only seen these tactical consolidations after prior gains. [9:09] And then it always creates a new baseline. [9:12] And that baseline becomes the new normal. [9:14] And that's where you start the next leap forward. [9:17] Progressive ideology treats present-day events as provisional. [9:21] Once a reform is in place, it's not like, we're done, close up shop. [9:29] That wouldn't make sense if you're a progressive. [9:31] It's no, reorient yourself toward a next frontier of injustice. [9:37] This is why what Democrats would consider unthinkable 20 years ago, surgically, you know, mutate a healthy child. [9:48] No, nobody would agree to that. [9:50] Now, it's heroic to talk about, you know, what's the phrase, the euphemism they use? [9:58] Gender. [9:59] Gender affirmation, whatever. [10:00] They always have to use a euphemism. [10:02] You look at clips of Obama and Hillary talking about immigration. [10:05] They sound tougher than Trump, you know, 15, 20 years ago. [10:10] The distancing is a tactical pause. [10:13] It doesn't dial back. [10:14] It waits, wins elections, ratchets forward. [10:17] Civil rights used to mean no Jim Crow. [10:21] Now it means voter ID is racist. [10:25] Criminal justice used to mean, criminal justice reform used to mean don't arrest people for smoking a joint. [10:33] Now it's cut them loose if they beat a person senseless on the subway. [10:37] Environmentalists used to say, give a hoot, don't pollute. [10:40] You'd have a crying Indian. [10:41] Now it's stop having kids. [10:44] And we should really think about banning AC. [10:47] Now, you know, with abortion used to be, what was it, safe, legal and rare. [10:51] Now it's, if you don't like your baby, you can kill your baby. [10:54] So there's this, it's like, they call it woke one, [10:57] probably because they just gave away the game [11:00] that there's going to be a sequel, woke two. [11:03] It'll be under a different name. [11:05] Politically correct, became woke, woke will become something else. [11:08] Well, whatever this new version is with DSA, [11:11] Democrats got to decide what their brand is [11:13] and how much of their tent they're going to share. [11:15] And I was right. [11:16] It was David, not Dan. [11:17] I corrected myself improperly. [11:19] I can't believe you, Jessica. [11:20] I know. [11:20] I've been thinking about it. [11:21] It's because I was on vacation. [11:22] I have. [11:24] Okay. [11:24] Be sure to like and subscribe for all the Fox News latest on YouTube [11:29] and catch full shows streaming now on Fox One.