Rep. Goodlatte talks GOP immigration reform goals
Virginia congressman explains what is inside his bill on 'The Ingraham Angle.'
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," January 17, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
LAURA INGRAHAM, HOST: I'm Laura Ingraham and tonight "The Ingraham Angle" comes to you from Las Vegas. We are going to hammer away at the police stone wall over the worst shooting in U.S. history that happened here last October, and we're going to ask some basic questions that are still hard to find answers for.
Also, the inside scoop from Congressman Bob Goodlatte on the Democrat's threat to shut down the government. Unbelievable. If they don't get an amnesty deal for the DREAMers.
And, Senator Flake supposed bombshell speech, did you see this? Denouncing the president, he's a dictator. Came across a more like a total dud.
Plus, even when the doctors on CNN are talking about Trump, they make up their own facts. You aren't going to believe this one.
First, unanswered questions and hidden agendas. That's the focus of tonight's ANGLE. I'm reporting tonight from Las Vegas where almost four months after the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, there's still so many unanswered questions. It's bizarre.
We made repeated requests to Vegas PD for one law enforcement representative to update us on the investigation on air, of course, into killer Steven Paddock. They provided this. It's a terse e-mail from the public information officer, Laura Meltcer (ph) that reads in part.
"No one from the LVMPD will be participating in any interviews about the 1 October incident for "The Ingraham Angle." Oh, thanks. Well, some new information has trickled out over the last few days, I say most of it, when I really culled through it, only raises more questions.
A lawyer for the police department says charges may be coming soon against someone else and is stemming from what officers discovered in that Mandalay Bay Hotel room on October 1. Remember, inside they found Paddock dead, 47 guns, thousands of spent cartridges and other equipment.
All of those bags that he somehow was able to get into the hotel by himself. His girlfriend, Marilou Danley, who claims no fore knowledge of the shooting spree has admitted, now, that her fingerprints are found probably on some of the ammo because, get this, she helped load the cartridges.
I have other information on her, too, you won't want to miss that coming up. Federal court documents that were just made public because the press was pressing for them, revealed that the FBI as early as October 6, just five days after the shooting, believe that Danley was the most likely person who aided and abetted Steven Paddock.
So where is she now? Why don't we have more information on this woman? Why were they so eager early on to say Paddock acted alone? After reporters pressed for the contents of search warrants in the aftermath of the killings, the federal government did release 315 pages of material in the last few days.
But the Las Vegas Police Department has basically gone radio silent, citing concerns the ongoing investigation. Well, now, a federal judge is mulling the request from the Associated Press and the "Las Vegas Review Journal" to force the release of search warrant affidavits and other evidence, such as inventories of what was obtained from their searches, very important.
There are many questions that remain unanswered. The Paddock home was ransacked before authorities could return. That was October 10. Again, why wasn't that locked down? And what happened to Jesus Campos, the Mandalay Bay security guard who exchanged fire with Paddock and was injured?
We saw him on "Ellen" once and then never again. Where is all the surveillance video of Paddock gambling at the casino, checking in with all of those bags and anyone entering or leaving his hotel room? Why wouldn't they release that? Why given all that we're now learning, again, were authorities so quick to declare this a lone wolf shooting with no accomplices?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now we believe it's a sole actor, a lone wolf type actor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a sole shooter. There is no further threat that we are aware of. No immediate threat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to emphasize we believe Paddock is solely responsible for this heinous act.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now authorities should do what's necessary, of course, to protect the integrity of the investigation. That's a no-brainer. But they've gone in the other direction, I think, trying to lock down as much information as possible.
They're extremely defensive over there at the Las Vegas Police Department. We're big supporters of the police as you all know. And we know, by the way, what happens in the absence of real information, conspiracy theories. You see them all over the internet where they incubate and then they end up coming to life.
Distrust and resentment builds among the public and of course, the victims' families. We'll hear from one of the shooting survivors coming up. But that absence of information, the vacuum, it's totally unconscionable. The biggest, worst mass shooting in U.S. history.
Now the same game of hide the ball happens in politics as well. We've seen scenarios where both government bodies and journalists end up revealing or reporting only part of the story. Of course, the part that they need to advance their own agendas or cover, you know, cover their own posteriors.
The public's interest isn't served in either case when the government does it or when journalists do it. Now look at what the press has been doing, just in the past week. They've been fat shaming Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell me how a guy who eats McDonald's and Kentucky fried chicken, all those Diet Cokes, never exercises is in as good a shape as you say he's in?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Too much McDonalds, too many burgers, do you think that's a problematic?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Border line obese, could you characterize that as excellent health?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have a waist measurement for the president? His weight is 239, seems just shy of obesity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Speaking of weight, while they're trying to push the narrative that the president is physically unfit for the office or mentally unfit, they keep insisting that he's a racist. That's the other stump they're pulling. All the while they advance countless nonstop, such emotional immigration sob stories.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have this Christmas which I guess in the back of your mind you're thinking this is the last at this point in time, this is my husband, about to have to go to Mexico, what did you do with your family?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: By the way, that went on for about 10 minutes. How was your Christmas, how do you feel? Those types of really hard-hitting interviews. I have a question for CNN, have they ever done such an empathetic interview with victims of an illegal immigrant crime or expose of the American workers displaced by cheap immigrant labor?
I don't think I've seen interviews with presidents or heads of state that went on as long as that interview. You saw a tiny snippet. It has the band of jackal circle on the president on the most ridiculous matters, such as the ones we just discussed.
Major stories and developments both domestic and international are given short shrift, North Korea, Middle East, China, the trade war, no, we don't talk about that. We talk about Trump's waist and his BMI.
Well, no wonder a recent Pew survey indicates Americans thinks that they have the most biased media in the world. Only 21 percent of Trump supporters think the U.S. media is fair. I can't believe it's that high.
Only 55 percent of those opposed to the president think the media is fair. I've seen worse poll than that. By the way, who are the new John Chancellors out there, David Brinkley, Peter Jennings, remember them?
They actually reported on real stories, it wasn't all about them and making their moment in the press. Of course, our own Bret Baier, he's a respected professional, who plays it down the middle.
But other than Bret who else is out there? At the same time, our government, both the executive branch and Congress hide too much from us as well. To all those senators resisting the Trump agenda on trade, immigration for instance, what are the big donors demanding?
How has that changed your public position on these major issues, isn't that something you'd like to know? Who actually writes these bills that are hundreds and even thousands of pages long, and are filled with all sorts of goodies inserted at the last minute, are they 24-year-old staffers or other people, I mean, is there a collaboration of people who sit around writing this junk?
This is the swamp at its worst, no wonder they don't want us to know what's going on. As for the White House, I'd say open up as much as you can without hurting the delicate process of governing. Be BFH, before f-hole meeting that Trump with those congressional leaders on immigration, that was excellent. I hope we see more of that.
The American people want facts and they want answers. Not the big brushoff especially from those entrusted to serve the public good whether it's the police, federal government, and public servants in the press, they call themselves public servants, too.
At the same time, many people, I guess they probably want to hear less from politicians, certain politicians like Jeff Flake or Cory Booker, whose pitiful preening reminds us of why we elected Trump in the first place. That's The Angle.
Let's turn now to the biggest story back in Washington, the Democrats' threat to shut down the government if they don't get a DACA deal giving amnesty to hundreds of thousands of DREAMers.
My first guest was in that infamous meeting last week when President Trump rejected that weak gang of six plan and allegedly uttered the horrible s- word. This lawmaker has also offered his own DACA plan that is strong on border security, and immigration enforcement.
And the president and the White House complimented back on January 10th. We welcome the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Bob Goodlatte in Washington. Great to see you, Congressman.
I know you weren't at the meeting today that General Kelly had with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. He did have some interesting things to say. I want to play a sound bite for you. This was General Kelly on Bret Baier tonight. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SPECIAL REPORT")
GEN. JOHN KELLY, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: There's been an evolutionary process that this president has gone through. As a campaign and I pointed out to all the members in the room that they all say things during the course of campaigns that may or may not be fully informed. But this president, if you've seen what he's done, he has changed the quays he looks at a number of things. Campaign to governing are two different things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: OK, when we hear words like evolve, Congressman, a lot of Trump supporters get nervous on issues like the wall, Mexico was supposed to pay for it, where are we?
REPRESENTATIVE BOB GOODLATTE, R-VA., CHAIRMAN, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Well, I think we're in a strong position because General Kelly, Secretary Nielsen of the Department of Homeland Security, have been up here a lot on Capitol Hill. I wasn't at the meeting you just referred to.
But I know they're conveying, two members of Congress, that the president is keeping his commitment, both with regard to security at the border and to making sure that when people get across the border and they are apprehended or even turn themselves in that they are safely returned home and not simply released into the interior of the country.
We have to end chain migration. The president as you noted had a great meeting at the White House last Tuesday. Millions of Americans got to see that on television live or on tape and they know this president is trying to solve this problem.
But to solve the problem you have to stop and make sure that people respect the law. That's what Republicans in the House are all about, that's what the legislation we have introduced is all about.
Yes, we'll do something for the DACA recipients, but we have to make absolutely sure that as the speaker of the House has said, this shouldn't be allowed to continue. And therefore, we have lots of border security, lots of interior enforcement.
INGRAHAM: I want to get to specifically what that is, Congressman, but your bill, your bill, you co-authored it with Raul Labrador, it has a lot most if not all of what the president has asked for to give this relief to the DACA folks.
Why does Mitch McConnell -- I want to play a soundbite for you from Mitch McConnell earlier today. He seems confused about what the president can sign. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL, R-KY., MAJORITY LEADER: He's not yet indicated what measure he's willing to sign. As soon as we figure out what he is for, then I would be convinced that we were not just spinning our wheels.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Wait a second, spinning your wheels? On January 10th, the White House came out in support of your bill, Congressman. How is that confusing for Senator McConnell? I'm not clear on that.
GOODLATTE: Well, I think it's very important that the House pass this bill so that the Senate sees that there is strong, strong support for addressing DACA, but making sure that we have strong borders and making sure that our laws are respected.
INGRAHAM: But Congressman, we know all that. Why won't Paul Ryan bring this bill up for a vote? That would give this whole conversation a lot of momentum don't you think and take the wind out of the sails of all these open border types, saying oh, Trump is a racist, Trump doesn't want to help these people, Trump uses foul language in the oval office, we're going to shut down the government.
Your bill gives him what he said he will do, and a lot of these Democrats claim they're for border security. Then you will take this other toxic element out of the equation. Why won't Paul Ryan bring it up for a vote?
GOODLATTE: Well, I think we are taking steps in that direction and the speaker and the leader have both indicated, today, that they're going to start having member listening sessions so that they can learn more about this bill --
INGRAHAM: Listening? Listen to the people. You listen to the people in what you did in your legislation. Kelly was saying on Bret Baier, it's only going to be 700 miles, I guess, but that's not what the president said, he's evolving.
You and your bill, you actually tracked what the president campaigned on for the most part, with the DACA piece, he didn't campaign on. But I think president has shown he's moving to compromise and all the while Jeff Flake goes out there, calls him essentially Stalin, Lindsay Graham leaking elements of that meeting.
The negativity is coming from the same crowd that almost grove us drove us into the ground back in 2013 and 2007 with the gang of eight and those other amnesty attempt. I don't like that one bit.
GOODLATTE: No, neither do it and that's why we're pushing hard for this bill, things are moving in the right direction now. Yes, we have to get the leader to bring this bill to the floor of the House.
INGRAHAM: He better do it.
GOODLATTE: We absolutely have to do it. We have to get the members rallying behind it. We've been working hard on this bill for months. Now we're educating the members about what exactly is in the bill. Your viewers can help by letting members of Congress know that they want these important security measures brought to the floor of the House for a vote.
INGRAHAM: They are. Ending chain migration, ending visa lottery, we have people in the Senate want to just move the deck chairs on the Titanic and give the visa lottery spots to the temporary protected status people from hurricanes that happened decades ago, correct?
GOODLATTE: That's correct and we absolutely cannot do that. The House will not do that.
INGRAHAM: That's ridiculous, nonstarter.
GOODLATTE: I don't think the Senate will after all things are said and done as well. I think there are many, many senators who are gun shy about that approach.
INGRAHAM: Congressman, we appreciate your joining us tonight and explaining this to us. And I think a lot of our viewers, my listeners on radio, are jacked up about this and they know what Flake was up to and know what Lindsay Graham was up, and they're not going to tolerate it. That's non-sense. Thank you so much.
By the way, we are live in Los Angeles tonight and we are going to seek answers to many of those questions surrounding last October's mass shooting. We have new developments. Mark Fuhrman and a former Las Vegas police lieutenant are here to help us break it all down for you. Do not go anywhere.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: All right, welcome back to "The Ingraham Angle." Here from Las Vegas, we're almost four months after the deadly mass shooting, worst in American history. Why do we still have so many unanswered questions?
Let's turn to a couple of experts to break it all down, former LAPD Detective Mark Fuhrman, who became a household name during the O.J. Simpson trial and Randy Sutton, a former lieutenant with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Great to see both of you.
Mark, let's start with you. It is four months, almost, since the shooting. We're now only hearing that they might be charging another individual after we've heard almost nothing from the Las Vegas Police Department after the press had to press for a lot of these documents to be released. What's going here?
MARK FUHRMAN (RET.), LAPD HOMICIDE DETECTIVE: Well, Laura, let's pause for a second and understand that we had 58 homicides, that's 58 individual homicide investigations, and hundreds of people that were wounded and that had to be documented and handled by the detectives.
We haven't heard from one detective yet in this, which is unfortunate. Let's look at some of the things that had to be processed. One is DNA, if there was DNA on anything that Paddock hand or that was in that room, they probably pursued that.
It is probably his girlfriend that they're actually targeting. I don't think that's going to solve anything in this case as far as why, the motive, or really how Paddock pulled this off.
INGRAHAM: Randy, you are a veteran of the Las Vegas Police Department. I have a couple of friends that you probably know who are homicide detectives there, just retired a couple of years ago. And it's a tight knit group at the Las Vegas Police. They deal with a lot every day.
But this was so horrific on every level. What happens when we don't have regular updates, or even press briefings, I think, in a case like this is that people start saying what's really going on.
Well, why aren't we seeing -- where's the video of Steven Paddock checking into the hotel. I've been asking this question, my producers laugh at me, I ask the question every day, where's the video of Steven Paddock checking into the hotel. Nobody ever gives me an answer.
RANDY SUTTON (RET.), LIEUTENANT, LAS VEGAS POLICE DEPARTMENT: There's a lot going on here. And one of the things that you probably heard, has been inexplicable to me, is that when Metro took on this investigation and the scope of it, of course, is huge, for some reason a decision was made to relieve the homicide unit of this investigation and give it to a rather innocuous unit that handles officer-involved shootings.
That's one of the major questions that I have had. Here's the thing, the initial law enforcement response was amazing. Courage that these officers showed and the dedication they showed was absolutely stunning.
But then you have this media blackout, as you have termed it, and it's very difficult to understand. It's a little inexplicable to me, how the sheriff has not been keeping the public --
INGRAHAM: I know you aren't going to say this, Randy, but did they screw up or are they worried that Vegas, I mean, it's a place that survives on tourism. People have to feel safe. They have to feel like when they check into a hotel there's not a guy checking ten bags with thousands of rounds of ammunition in the next hotel room.
I get these casinos, they want to be thriving and hiring people. I get it. I find this would be really odd. Frankly, infuriating, we got the big brushoff from the police today, we're big supporters of the police, big brushoff. What do you mean you're not going to talk about it?
We aren't asking you to compromise the investigation. Why do we know so little about his movements inside that hotel, no one ever went inside the hotel and no one came in and out, no maids? Where's that security guard, he was on "Ellen," he did one appearance on "Ellen" because she has some deal with the Mandalay Bay Hotel.
SUTTON: Well, there's no doubt -- first of all, did the police screw up, no, they didn't. They have handled this investigation at the initial outset, with the professionalism that one would expect. However, you know, when you talk about giving the responsibility of this investigation to the proper authorities, well, that would be the homicide unit.
INGRAHAM: Those guys are great, I know them, great guys. I have to get Fuhrman in on this. Mark, I don't -- I'm a big supporter of the police, everyone knows that. But this was, we have 58 Americans dead. We had 498 injured and we're not going to release this search warrant, not going to release that search warrant.
Apparently, we have one woman who got paid money while this thing was happening, he wired her money. She deleted her Facebook account, Mark, before his name was released to the public she's deleting Facebook accounts. That was odd.
FUHRMAN: Well, Laura, Randy is absolutely correct, I think it's slap in the face of the homicide detectives that do this for a living, officer- involved shooting team deal with deaths but usually involves officers.
I'm sure that the thought process was that they handle a lot of ballistics and a lot of tracking, the path of bullets, they would be better, I guess, informed to handle this since the shooter is dead.
That being said, the one thing I didn't like about this investigation, you had too many heavies, too many chiefs, too many from the big tower talking in these press conferences instead people that do this for a living.
I think that's one of the things that became a mistake that now we don't have that information, we also have civil litigation, we have hundreds of civil lawsuits that are undoubtedly we're looking at.
The city of Las Vegas, Mandalay Bay, the police department, even though I believe just like Randy, the police department did nothing, they had such a small window to actually act. And I think they did it as he's put, bravely and heroically, they actually closed as fast as they could with the suspect.
But Mandalay Bay and Las Vegas and an elected official that's handling the investigation as sheriff, I think there's a lot of unsaid politics going on here.
INGRAHAM: Bingo, follow the money.
FUHRMAN: I believe they're just slowing it down.
INGRAHAM: Follow the money.
FUHRMAN: There's no doubt in my mind, no doubt in my mind the Mandalay Bay is the one controlling --
INGRAHAM: The information flow.
FUHRMAN: Especially when it comes to the employee, Campos. I mean, he disappeared after appearing on "Ellen," very contrived.
INGRAHAM: That's what I mean, on "Ellen." We're going to continue. We're not done with this story. Later on, we'll speak to a survivor of the Vegas shooting who has his own questions for the police department. You're not going to want to miss that.
Can you imagine if you were injured or lost a family member, not getting answers? Back in Washington, Senator Flake gave his big speech blasting the president today. Everyone yawned, tumble weeds blowing through, but disturbing Durbin and CNN were there. Our message for them next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM,: Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, he gave this much ballyhooed and hyped speech today of course against Trump. What a surprise, what a shock. It was rolled out like a Broadway show with promotional interviews on morning television.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKA BRZEZINSKI, MSNBC HOST: It's a message being echoed today from the Senate floor as Republican Senator Jeff Flake calls out the president for using the phrase "enemy of the people" to describe the free press.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Then Flake unveiled his big Broadway-like debut on the Senate floor, a one-man show that could have been called "Snowflake, a tragedy in one act." That's a playbill I wouldn't collect. Sadly few attended the big opening, just Dick Durbin and Amy Klobuchar, they were there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JEFF FLAKE, R-ARIZ.: It is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by Joseph Stalin to describe his enemies.
The president has it precisely backward. Despotism is the enemy of the people. The free press is the despot's enemy, which makes the free press the guardian of democracy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Huge response from the floor of the Senate.
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: Well, like so many Broadway production, the Flake show got lousy reviews, lost its backers, and opened and closed in the same day. That's showbiz.
Joining us now from California is Victor Davis Hanson from Stanford University. And he's the author of the new book "The Second World War, How The First Global Conflict was Fought and Won." VDH, great to see you. The Flake show opened and closed in one day, can you imagine? Joseph Stalin and the president -- take it away.
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, NATIONAL REVIEW INSTITUTE FELLOW: Yes, we have -- it's sad. He's become a tragic-comic figure. We have a mass murderer of 25 million people, destroyed the Russian people, compared to an elected president.
If he really wants to be historical, we've had examples in our recent past of presidents that overstepped and went after the press. The FCCA was formed under Roosevelt in part to monitor radio stations, to silence them. He went after the Hearst family, he went after the "New York Times."
Barack Obama, we forgot, Eric Holder's Justice Department went after 20 A.P. reporters, they jailed a video maker, they went after FOX News's James Rosen. They weaponized the FBI. They let Lois Learner weaponize the IRS. So these are actual, concrete examples. They're not rhetorical. But it's sad because he's talked himself into this never Trump position where he was going to fail in the primaries, fail in the general election, fail in his first year that almost the rhetoric has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. And it's not going to happen.
Then the other argument is he's saying even if Trump's Reagan-esque message is conservative and is good, his fingerprint is so tainted that I can't accept it. But that would imply that Trump is doing or saying or acting things that we haven't seen in presidential history. But if the news coverage was 90 percent negative about LBJ, we would hear that he exposed himself to his aides and we wouldn't hear anything about the Civil Rights Act. Trump hasn't even done anything remotely near that, or JFK.
INGRAHAM: Victor, they are so deranged at this point. They are questioning Trump's mental fitness? These people, they don't have one oar in the water, they have lost their oars and their boat. They don't know where they're going.
Since we're in Nevada, Victor, and Nevada has, like California, opened its doors to a lot of illegal immigrants, I want to put up a full screen for our viewers that I want you to react to. Nevada and Las Vegas immigration, 170,000 illegal immigrants live right here in the Las Vegas metro area, 170,000. Nevada illegal immigrant population is 4.5 percent more than the national average. And illegal immigrants account for 35 percent of the foreign born Las Vegas residents. Back in 2009, Victor, the last time they were tracking the actual cost of illegal immigration to Nevada, it cost the taxpayers, according to the group FAIR, $630 million. You know nine years later that figure is exceedingly higher.
HANSON: Yes, we have the same situation in California where in the last 30 years we have had 10 million people cross the border from Latin America and Mexico illegally. And when you do that and it's not meritocratic -- the immigration is not measured, it's not legal, and people are coming from one of the most impoverished areas, we want to give them parity, and you don't embrace the melting pot, you don't assimilate, you don't integrate, then you get what you have in California where you have 22 percent of the people in the richest state in the country live below the poverty line. One-third of welfare recipients, 40 percent of CSU, the flagship, blue collar university system where I taught had to go under remediation the first year. We have one out of every three people admitted to a California hospital has diabetes. And one out of every four Californians is not, was not born in the United States.
These are existential challenges. And when you don't assimilate or you don't integrate you end up with something like California with the highest income, sales, and gasoline tax, then we're rated 48th in infrastructure. And our school scores are 46. It's the un-Midas touch.
INGRAHAM: No, no, Victor, I know you live in the Central Valley of California, which is agricultural land, beautiful place, that's been transformed. Much of California has been. It's beautiful place, love the state. But you should have seen the footage we were just showing. It doesn't exactly look like what the Beach Boys were writing about in "Surfing USA."
So one more question to you. When you think about Jeff Flake, just tying it back to the immigration debate, why should Donald Trump in any way debate in his own mind, gee, I'm going do a deal with Durbin, Flake, and Graham after what Durbin said about him, Trump is a racist, and what Flake has said about him, Trump is Joseph Stalin. So now they're going to try to guilt Trump into doing a deal with those characters? It's madness.
HANSON: No, he shouldn't -- they don't believe the immigration system is broken. They're only going for a deal now because DACA is threatened to expire on its own terms. They feel open borders has helped flip the southwest from purple from red. Mexico is getting $25 billion remittance, they like it. And the ethnic tribunes like the narrative. The Democratic Party likes it. In their idea, it's great. The only people say it's broken are the people worried about putting their children in public schools with English as a second language.
INGRAHAM: The schools, Victor, that they don't send their kids to. Phenomenal segment.
HANSON: They don't send their kids there. They're never subject to the consequences of their own ideology. They're boutique apartheid-ists.
INGRAHAM: No, as long as they get their yards done for really cheap prices, they're good. Victor Davis Hanson, great segment, as always. And by the way, VDH, if you think Flake is out of touch, just wait, because up next we take a trip to CNN Dr. Gupta's alternative universe.
And before we go and take a break, a touching moment on Capitol Hill today, lawmakers paying tribute to one of our last of his great generation statesmen and patriot Bob Dole. He received the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress's highest award giving given to a civilian, and he's an American hero. He incidentally supported President Trump when many others, like the Bushs, were running from him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB DOLE, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've always said that you're no better than your staff. And I thank them for all they've done for me over the years. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time --
(LAUGHTER)
DOLE: -- to this distinguished gentlewomen from North Carolina.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: We all know all about media bias but sometimes it's just outright denial of reality. First, check out CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, crashing the White House briefing to grill the president's doctor. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He does have heart disease, is that what you said?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He does not have heart disease.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Then Gupta leapt to this conclusion on CNN this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Because of his diet and because of his lack have exercise, the president has heart disease. Those numbers qualify him for having heart disease.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Sanjay, did anyone every tell you no means no? But the media only knows one story line, it's their own. Today the very first question at the White House press briefing, mindboggling. It was questioning the Navy doctor, Ronny Jackson's, report that Trump is in excellent health. Here with us tonight to separate fact from fiction is a real expert, cardiologist, renowned cardiologist, Dr. Ramin Oskoui back in Washington. Dr. O., tell us about Sanjay's remote diagnosis of the president.
DR. RAMIN OSKOUI, CARDIOLOGIST: It just tells you the Goldwater rule should apply to neurosurgeons. Sanjay is simply wrong. Ronny Johnson did an excellent job, did a thorough exam, and he's proven Dr. Gupta should stick to neurosurgery.
INGRAHAM: What is he talking about? He's saying the calcium levels are too high, his cholesterol, his weight? They were basically saying Trump is going to have a heart attack in the next three to five years. I'm sorry, I know this sounds harsh, but because Mueller hasn't gotten Trump yet, the only thing they can look to now is well, we can hope he dies. Honestly it seems like this is wishful thinking on the part of the media.
OSKOUI: I characterize it as magical medical thinking. The reality is that Admiral Johnson did a very thorough exam. He looked at his cholesterol levels, but he also did a stress test, an echo cardiogram, and he checked for possible diabetes. President Trump actually, shockingly, has, despite this purported diet of Big Macs, has cholesterol numbers that are pretty average for his age and numbers that suggest he's farther from diabetes than you or I, Laura.
INGRAHAM: But he does need to lose some weight, right? He has put on a few LBS as many of us do as we get older, and that happens. But he has to lose a little weight, maybe eat fewer Big Macs. But he has great genes. He just has unbelievable genes. I couldn't eat his diet and not be really heavy. But he's apparently OK.
OSKOUI: I couldn't, either. I was shocked. It's interesting, the reporters ask such detailed questions, but they never talked about President Obama's smoking, they never talked about candidate Clinton's passing out in 72 degree weather and having to be carried into her Scooby van. It's sort of interesting they're so determined to dig something up where nothing is.
INGRAHAM: OK, well, we appreciate it Dr. O.
And by the way, when we return, back to the question of the hour for us tonight from tonight from Vegas, seeking answers on the mass shooting here, the worst in U.S. history. We're going to talk to someone who literally had the front row seat to that horrific night and has been trying to help other survivors and victims' families ever since.
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INGRAHAM: Welcome back. Here with us now is a man who survived the shooting from the front row of the VIP section of that fateful Las Vegas concert back in October. Brian Claypool joins us now. He's also an attorney, assisting dozens of survivors and victims' families in their search for answers.
Brian, to be back here in Las Vegas, the second time I've been here since the shooting, I thought by this time I would have more answers to report on. But every time we get a new piece of information it seems raise another question. What is the burning question in your mind now that we hear that there may be charges, more charges in this case?
BRIAN CLAYPOOL, LAS VEGAS MASSACRE SURVIVOR: Well, Laura, thanks for having me, by the way. And to let you know, this is my first day back in Las Vegas since being a survivor of the shooting. I had a meeting out here today on the Vegas shooting case. I have got to tell you, when I got off the plane I was talking toward the exit of the airport and I saw the Mandalay Bay right out the window. And I had two feelings that came to me. I had anxiety, and then the second feeling was anger.
And I speak for all of those survivors out there and all those family members who lost loved ones in the shooting. Here's what we want to know. We want to know why the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, why the FBI in concert with the MGM and Mandalay Bay are scripting a narrative that this is just a lone wolf shooting, that this is just some 64-year-old or however old this dude was, Paddock, some depressed guy that wanted to do a mass shooting. We know for a fact that that's likely not to be the case.
But you hit the nail on the head earlier. Greed in this shooting eclipses public safety. And we want answers why the MGM and Mandalay Bay did not better prepare for this mass shooting, because remember, you talked about this before, in May of this year, of last year, there was a credible report of a potential ISIS attack in Vegas. So this was no, you know, no fictional event that was going to happen. And I know we're going to find out in discovery in this case that the metropolitan PD and Sheriff Lombardo met with these casinos to make sure they had some kind of plans in place to prevent a mass shooting.
INGRAHAM: A friend of mine messaged me when he knew I was doing this segment who was also there that night. And he said, and you could confirm this, that when finally they allowed people to leave the vicinity, the ones who didn't already get out, they didn't check anyone who was leaving. So the police actually didn't, there was no check -- sometimes people blend in with the crowd. Obviously this guy was on the multiple floors up. But even that was odd here. We're almost out of time. Just final thoughts from you.
CLAYPOOL: Yes, Laura, let me just tell you this, I was in the Mandalay Bay. I stayed there. I was on the 26th floor. Let me tell you how bad the security was. The day after the shooting, I finally went to try to get back in my room. And there was finally a security guard there. He didn't even ask me for any I.D. I just went right up to my room.
INGRAHAM: I'm sorry to cut you off, but unbelievable story. We'll stay on this. We're not letting it go.
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INGRAHAM: Remember when the experts scoffed at the Trump plan to revive the economy? Headlines like this captured the sentiment. Absurd. Oh, come one. Well, Apple today announced that because of the Trump tax cuts it will spend $30 billion over five years, creating 20,000 new jobs in the United States. Hallelujah. Not quite the apocalypse Nancy Pelosi predicted after the tax cuts. But don't worry, Nancy.
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