Fox hosts advocate appeasing Putin: “Maybe carve out the eastern provinces, recognize Crimea, something”
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From the March 2, 2022, edition of Fox News's The Five
GREG GUTFELD (HOST): What are you prepared to do if this feels like it's moving towards a bigger escalating war? There's a part of you that has to ask well if there's a way for Putin to save face. If he overestimated what he could do and underestimated Ukraine, and he underestimated the world reaction. How do you allow status-seeking culture, Russia is a status-seeking culture, they are very--it's about their place in the world. In the world of persuasion – mockery is great. But mocking them, calling them a war criminal, all these things, I don't think that's going to persuade anybody. However, finding a way as a – the off-ramp, the ability, the potential to save face – is one way to avoid further bloodshed. And that is something that we should be interested in more than anything; it's like, okay, maybe this guy knows he's in some deep doodoo, and is there a way to pull him out of it and get rid of him
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HAROLD FORD JR. (HOST): The fundamental question is what's being debated here at the table, and pondered at the table. I listened to Tony Blinken today, who made clear to your point, this is Putin's war, not the Russians'. We don't have a gripe with the Russian prople, we have a gripe with Putin.
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You're right, the offramp I think is something, that question to – that answer to the question about the war criminal question. I think that may have something to do with how they're thinking about, not giving him an off ramp but figuring out how we get out of this. And you have to give him an opportunity to get out of this, and with a – save face. You've got to give the Russian people an opportunity to believe they are still a vaulted people.
GUTFELD: Right.
JEANINE PIRRO (HOST): And how do you do that? How do you do that?
JESSE WATTERS (HOST): That track to do that is one track, and they have to pursue that through a World War II style mega-summit somewhere in Europe, bring the powers together. bringing them together. Putin walks up maybe before he lays siege to the capital. He will probably have to win a major victory, maybe he takes Odessa, maybe he takes Kharkiv, so he can save face. Let him consolidate and then in order to save the capital, you bring him down, you sit him down, and you'll say we'll do a cease-fire, something. Something but you have to ratchet up sanctions before that, because that's one way for him to save face, maybe carve out the eastern provinces, recognize Crimea, something. If Zelensky doesn't want to play that game, though, there's nothing you can do.