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Published May 15, 2018
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," May 8, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
INGRAHAM: Good evening from Washington. I'm Laura Ingraham. This is "The Ingraham Angle." A historic day and two huge exclusive interviews for you. We've got the inside story on Trump pulling the plug on the Iranian nukes deal. In my exclusive interview with National Security Advisor John Bolton. He will also update us on North Korea talks as Secretary of State Pompeo just landing there for a second visit.
Plus, in another angle exclusive, the Israeli ambassador to the United States tells us what the end of the Iran deal means for his country and the entire Middle East. We are also watching important primary races around the country tonight. We are going to take you to Fox election headquarters when the results come in. And did the met gala in New York salute religion or mock it? Raymond Arroyo will tell us in our "Seen and Unseen segment" and Joe Piscopo is here to talk "Saturday Night Live" bias in the dearth of comedy. But first, when #metoo becomes he too. That's the focus of tonight's "Angle." Just a few hours after the New Yorker broke its story charging New York Democratic Attorney General Eric Schneiderman with abusing four women, he resigned his office. Now isn't it rich that he set himself up as the hero of the #metoo movement by using his office to sue Harvey Weinstein?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
New York Democratic Attorney General Eric Schneiderman: Women were coerced into facilitating Harvey Weinstein's misconduct, sometimes they were targets themselves. If they refused they were threatened. They knew how pervasive it was and not only did they fail to stop it, they enabled it and covered it up. We have never seen anything as despicable as what we have seen here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: I guess it takes one to no one. Schneiderman was also the darling of the anti-Trump media and fellow Dems for challenging Donald Trump's nearly every move. He has filed over 100 lawsuits or administrative actions against the president trying to stop his DACA plan, the travel ban, health care deregulation. It went on and on. If Schneiderman quickly became a champion of the left resistance, a kind of superhero, which was how comedian and fan girl, Samantha Bee, attempted to frame him on this now scrubbed episode of her show.
(VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: It depends on what getting engaged means. Next time, Samantha, be careful. That's so bad. Did we really write that? Next time do a better job choosing your superheroes. I've got to say, he did like to dress up apparently, so maybe this superhero thing does work. Well, Schneiderman tries to explain away the charges against him this way, he said, "In the privacy of intimate relationships I've engaged in role- playing and other consensual activity. I have not assaulted anyone."
Superman didn't beat the hell out of Lois Lane, Eric. Four women romantically involved allege that Schneiderman abused them, including claims that he smacked, spit on, choked, and demeaned his victims. What a guy. He threatened to tap their phones or have someone follow or even kill them if they attempted to leave the relationship. As New York's highest-ranking law enforcement official this is the guy who attended the Women's March alone, by the way, with Harvey Weinstein. And he would later use his prosecutorial authority against Weinstein and fought to get his victims greater compensation. It was Eric, thank you, thank you, thank you. As his profile rose as a leader of women in the wake of the "Me Too Movement," his victims were persuaded somehow to come forward. But they met their own resistance from the left.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In those conversations after the fact, a lot of their friends and loved ones said don't do it, don't speak out against him and in some cases that was because they feared the risk of reprisal, but also in some cases those friends warn them off of talking because they thought he had the power to do too much good for the Democratic Party.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Wow. In other words, so long as Schneiderman was willing to use his office to block the Trump agenda and was working to tear down Trump, keep your tales of abuse quiet, ladies. Take one for the team. What's a little collateral damage, right? It reminds me of how Harvey skated for so many years. Sure, he had money and he had power to make or break a career, but he also had the right political views. He had the coolest friends and all those politicians he raised millions for, valuable commodity.
But back to Schneiderman. Most of them knew or should have known about his history, a lot of the Democrats, people were championing him. A lot of the allegations against him. But they kept on their blinders, again, how convenient. If this were a Republican, he would be decried on every cable show with barely a break for breaking news on the Iran deal. But instead of going after Schneiderman for his misdeeds and his abuse of office, today's never- Trump media merely used the scandal as just another vehicle for trashing conservatives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Democrats have tried to be very consistent when members of their own have been called out to draw a contrast, but there is not a lot of indication that this administration, unfortunately likes to take the high road. Taken down by lifting women up. What a bizarre world we live that Donald Trump is accused of sexually harassing dozens of women and admits that he assaulted women on tape and yet people like Mike Pence talk about what a great Christian he is.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One of the president's biggest foes, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman resigned over abuse allegations. Is this a tipping point for Trump?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Wait a second, is this a tipping point for Trump? How about is this a tipping point for the left and the people who claim to be protecting America's women or is slapping, choking, spitting, making women of color call him master acceptable behavior? Well, until it's discovered. White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway certainly reached her tipping point yesterday. She nailed Schneiderman's hypocrisy when she tweeted out, "gotcha" above a Schneiderman tweet where he wrote no one is above the law and I will continue to remind President Trump and his administration of that every day. Instead of acknowledging Schneiderman's loathsome and perhaps even criminal behavior, Planned Parenthood action, that's the political arm of the abortion giant decided to go after, wait for it, Kellyanne. They tweeted out, "Kellyanne, delete your account." OK. What all this tells us is what so many of us have thought really for a long time. The left, while claiming to be the true honest champions of women at many times at many points consider them to be disposable, especially when they become politically inconvenient.
Eric Schneiderman was a stalwart political ally of the left, but he's out of the picture now, so move on, quickly, move on. And it's back to vilifying Trump and any woman who supports his agenda. Are any of you fed up with this rank hypocrisy? We too. And that's "The Angle." Joining us now for reaction is Harmeet Dhillon, an attorney and RNC committeewoman in California along with Monica Crowley from the London Center for Policy Research. OK. We have so much news to get to, Ladies. Let's start right here. The resistance loved Schneiderman because he represented for them this kind of superhero. You saw that Samantha Bee absurd little cartoon skid that you try to scrub off of her website until someone grabbed it first. He was a hero and then when he was exposed, literally and figuratively, they kind of brushed that aside and quickly move on. We get rid of people fast and you Republicans, you defend Donald Trump. Monica, how to respond to that?
MONICA CROWLEY, LONDON CENTER FOR POLICY RESEARCH: That's a complete b.s. argument, Laura, because the Democrats will only throw over those who are accused of this kind of stuff when it's politically expedient for them to do so. For example, Senator Al franken from a reliably Democratic state, Minnesota. If, for whatever reason, his seat was somehow in play for a Republican they would have fought tooth and nail to preserve the guy. I mean, that kind of argument really doesn't hold a lot of water. The Democratic Party now for decades has protected men who have advanced the left-wing agenda and in particular the pro-abortion. You go back to Ted Kennedy, who actually kills a woman and yet when he died he was praised as a lion of the Senate and a real champion for women. Same thing with Bill Clinton until just recently. It is a remarkable thing that the Democrats for so many years have said we embrace humanity in the abstract, but when it comes to actual individuals, actual people and actual women, they tend -- not everybody, I don't mean to make a sweeping generalization here, but some of their most high-profile men that they have celebrated have abused and assaulted women who have been closest to them.
INGRAHAM: You know what's just wild? If you go back and listen to his comments, we played one in THE ANGLE. He could be describing himself. You men who abuse women and threaten them, talking about of course Harvey Weinstein. It really could have been just a narrative about the charges these women are now making about him and they were in a consensual relationship that were twisted and slavish and abusive, et cetera, et cetera. When you watch the way this is being covered, even certain Republicans -- there was this woman, Amanda Carpenter who used to work for Ted Cruz. She was on MSNBC today I guess pushing a book. Listen to what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It is infuriating when I say -- I'm going to call out the women. Women who are believed to be Christians like Kellyanne Conway, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, McDaniels, go out and send hush payments, money to an alleged child molester in Alabama.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Harmeet?
HARMEET DHILLON, RNC NATIONAL COMMITTEEWOMAN: That's ridiculous. The moral equivalence is not there. The big difference between a consensual relationship in a private settlement versus sexual assault and violence as multiple Democrats have been accused of as Monica mentioned. The fact that this guy was forced to resign within three hours, you know what that tells me? It tells me that Democrats knew. Democrats were silent. They did not have any qualms about rushing to judgment because he's been doing this for eight years. The fifth woman came out today in "The New York Post" and told a story about a story in 2010 when he drove drunk, slapped her, choked her, demeaned her, et cetera. Don't tell me for a minute that Democrats close to this guy didn't know, his staff knew. Staff transportation was used sometimes with these women and his staff was used to deny the story to the New Yorker. They should be looking in the mirror today. The reason that Democrats quickly got rid of him in the evening was to hope that there wasn't going to be a news cycle around this today, but we do need to talk about it. We need to talk about the fact that this man was allowed to get away with this for so many years, that he was hiding in plain sight with all the statements. There were a lot of people, (inaudible) one of the famous people mentioned in the story who know about this because he dated one of the women who was abused by this guy. All of these people kept silent because of the greater good, the moral relativism.
INGRAHAM: You heard what Ronan Farrow said in an interview. I really salute his reporting on this. A young kid, 30 years old. He says -- I'm paraphrasing, he said it wasn't going to look good for the Democratic Party, Monica and --
DHILLON: The relativism, it's shocking. Everything is OK if you love abortion.
CROWLEY: That's absolutely true. The other part of this equation that is so important is the blatant hypocrisy part. I want to make this really clear. When you have a politician running for high office who professes to be a champion of family values, essentially a choir boy and then they are caught in something like this, the whole thing blows up. Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, they never professed to be a choir boy. Neither did Eric Schneiderman, but the difference with him is he was the chief law enforcement officer of the state of New York. He was the attorney general, very close to the governor, obviously wanted higher office. This is the man whose hypocrisy came in a different form. He was attacking Donald Trump in a whole range of ways. He was attacking Harvey Weinstein and using his legal authority as attorney general to go after these men. Properly so, but you know what? Those who shout the loudest are often the ones with the biggest skeletons in their closet and that's the problem with Eric Schneiderman.
INGRAHAM: The buddha says the finger is always pointed back at you. The more judgmental I guess run the risk, no one is perfect here. Some of the headlines that we have seen recently about this. Again, the left-wing superhero Eric Schneiderman. The real reason the left loves Schneiderman is they thought his neck he would take Donald Trump. Eric Schneiderman is gone but the New York legal resistance to Trump will go on. They think this new acting Attorney General Barbara Underwood would be a breakthrough attorney general if she received the permanent nomination from I guess the governor appoints her, Harmeet. She has argued 20 cases before the Supreme Court. She clerked for Thurgood Marshall. She's a reliably liberal. These cases against the president will go on. Some people think on legal blogs that I was reading, all of it should be considered fruit of the poisonous tree in a way because of this tainted figure who was running these investigations and running these prosecutions. But the cases against Trump and I think treating Trump as the big nemesis and maybe you can take some of the Mueller investigation under New York jurisdiction, so he couldn't fire anybody. The left is still going crazy about all of that tonight.
DHILLON: The left is going crazy about it, but the new attorney general is a career person. I don't think it's possible for somebody to be as biased and frankly is psycho about Trump as Schneiderman was. I think that maybe they will take a step back. There are Democrats who opposed Trump around the country, but they haven't been as vicious and personal as Eric Schneiderman and I have to think that the skeleton in his closet is one reason why he couldn't come to terms that he's that person and he sort of focused it on Donald Trump instead. A lot of even liberal commentators have pointed out that a lot of his anti- Trump legal actions have been sort of a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. There's this of filing stuff, very little comes out of it.
INGRAHAM: It was about him. Monica, I will let you close it out. Burnishing his own reputation and when Andy Cuomo thought I'm going to run for president, he wants to run for president. He had to be road kill for Cuomo. He had to get him out of the way because he wants to be the Democrat nominee against Trump in 2020 or against some Republican if Trump for some reason doesn't run. That's why they got rid of him so fast.
CROWLEY: It's a big loss for the left in this sense. You are right about Cuomo. He threw him overboard like that. Again, political expediency. The other part of this is that Schneiderman was going after Donald Trump and his administration at the state level because the argument was if you prosecute Trump and members of his administration and palaces of the state level that is immune from a presidential pardon. So now the left is going we lost our main guy, so we will see if his replacement does the same thing.
INGRAHAM: We've got to find a quickie replacement to get Trump out of office because lord knows we are losing all the substantive arguments. Fantastic panel, thank you both. Stay right there for insight on today's huge news you will not see anywhere else in moments. My exclusive interview with National Security Advisor John Bolton on a major breakthrough in the North Korea talks and the inside story of the U.S. withdrawal from the Iranian nuke deal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today's action sends a critical message. The United States no longer makes empty threats. When I make promises I keep them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: President Trump made the historic decision today to withdraw the U.S. from the nuclear deal with Iran. He also signed a memo slapping tough sanctions on the Iranian regime. U.S. allies have complained that leaving the deal could be dangerous, but the president said it's more dangerous to keep the deal in place.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT TRUMP: The Iran deal is defective at its core. If we do nothing we know exactly what will happen. In just a short period of time, the world's leading state sponsor of terror will be on the cusp of acquiring the world's most dangerous weapons. At the heart of the Iran deal was a giant fiction, that a murderous regime desired only a peaceful nuclear energy program. Today, we have definitive proof that this Iranian promise was a lie.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: On top of that, more huge news. The president announced that the time, date and location have been set for a settlement with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un. And Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is now in North Korea for a second time to pave the way for the talks. Moments ago, I spoke exclusively with president Trump's National Security Advisor John Bolton about today's developments.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
INGRAHAM: OK, this is a big day today. People are freaking out. The usual suspects are freaking out. A couple of other not so usual suspects.
This is what the Democrats said about this deal back in 2015 when Obama had negotiated it. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATOR BOB MENENDEZ, D—NEW JERSEY: The whole purpose of our negotiation was to ensure that there would be no pathway for Iran to achieve nuclear weapons capabilities. This deal doesn't achieve that.
SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER, D—NEW YORK: This agreement is too flawed and too dangerous for us.
REP. STEVE ISRAEL, D—NEW YORK: I read the joint comprehensive plan of action last night, over 100 pages. I will be honest, I was skeptical going in. There's nothing I read last night that alleviates my skepticism.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BOLTON, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: The fact is the deal has been flawed from the beginning. I think the president laid that case out in his statement today. He gave the Europeans and others a chance to fix it. It was not doable because the flaws go right to the foundations of the deal. He did what he clearly advertised he was going to do as far back as the 2016 campaign, pulled the united states out of the deal. Why? Because it's in our security interest to get out of this flawed deal.
INGRAHAM: John Kerry today explained why he was doing his own little version of talking to Iran.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KERRY, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE (via telephone): Until today, until this afternoon the policy of the united states of America was to be in the Iran agreement. Until today, our nation remained one of the guiding forces within that agreement and only today did the policy change. My conversations with these people have been normal conversations that I assure you every former secretary of state has with leaders of other countries and all I did was suggest to them, you guys really ought to try to keep the agreement.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: John Kerry's objective was to get a deal. It's not surprising John Kerry's objective today was to keep the deal. It's the wrong objective. The objective should be to prevent Iran from getting deliverable nuclear weapons. The deal not only didn't accomplish that objective, in many ways it facilitated Iran's efforts. What President Trump did by pulling out of the deal is get back to what the real objective should be, stopping this dangerous regime from threatening us and our friends around the world with nuclear weapons.
INGRAHAM: John Brennan, another good pal of yours, former CIA director, he said this about how the whole development with the Iran deal could affect our conversation with North Korea. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: I can understand how it helps in any way the ongoing discussions with North Korea and the efforts to try to denuclearize the peninsula. It totally undercuts the credibility of America's word.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLTON: As on so many other things Director Brennan is flatly wrong. In fact, he's 180 degrees in the wrong direction. As President Trump said this sends North Korea signal that we are not in these discussions with Kim Jong-un just to have a deal. We are in them to denuclearize North Korea.
It's an indication of how serious President Trump is. As he said, when he says he's going to do something, he carried through on it.
INGRAHAM: Iran today said they are going to continue to try to abide by the terms of the deal working with Russia, China, France and beyond. How do you respond to that?
BOLTON: I think Iran has demonstrated in so many ways it couldn't care less about the restrictions of this deal. What it wants are the economic advantages that Obama and Kerry gave to them. Of course, it will try and keep those.But we will see, I think the real performance is going to put them in a position where our European friends have got to come along and put sanctions back on and to do what we've already begun to an extent, we will do even more tomorrow.Work with the Europeans and others not only on nuclear issue but on Iran's ballistic missile development, its continuing support for terrorism and its military activities that jeopardize our friends like Israel and the Arab states in the region.
INGRAHAM: Samantha Powers, former U.N. ambassador for Obama tweeted this about what this deal and leaving it did, "Trump has demolished America's credibility and paved the way for Iran to restart its nuclear program. Trump has done the unthinkable, isolated the U.S. and rally the world around Iran. The cost of using military force have only increased." Basically, she's arguing that we could be getting closer to a war with Iran because of what you guys did today.
BOLTON: Once again it's exactly the opposite. This deal didn't stop the nuclear weapons program. That's part of the problem.
INGRAHAM: But they did get inspection. They did have some inspection of sites they got to choose. Where their inspections before the deal of any type that were useful?
BOLTON: There were, but they are certainly not adequate on the critical issue here of Iran's military activities before now and continuing. We saw from what the Israelis released, although the data went back some years, Iran clearly had a weapons program. We don't know the full extent of it today and by allowing this deal to continue we were simply giving Iran more time to get closer to nuclear weapons.
INGRAHAM: The former U.S. ambassador to NATO said it essentially today a month-long effort by the U.S. closest allies to persuade President Trump to stick to the deal has failed. The failure not only dooms the deal itself but also shows that when it comes to U.S. foreign policies, policy, allies no longer count. Is that the message that Macron, he comes, has a great state dinner. We have, of course, the German chancellor in town, Angela Markel and they feel like they are second-class citizens here. America will go her own way.
BOLTON: That statement was just completely the opposite of what the president's view is and it's why we are going to continue to work with the allies to do something effective about Iran's malign influence in the Middle East and not taper it over and pretend that we've actually stopped them.
INGRAHAM: The president's way of making decisions is fascinating. He likes a lot of input even though he campaigned against the Iran deal repeatedly saying it's the worst deal ever, when did he finally decided to leave the Iran deal?
BOLTON: I think just before the speech really.
INGRAHAM: Before the speech?
BOLTON: The process you've described is accurate. For people who don't understand how the president considers these things, he doesn't make spur of the moment decisions. He has listened to everybody who wanted to talk to him up to and including over the weekend with Prime Minister May of Great Britain. He gave every one of them a chance to try and fix the deal, and unfortunately they didn't come close because the deal itself is inherently flawed. Iran should not have uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing capabilities. That's what we are going to ask of North Korea. That's what we ought to be thinking of.
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: So what can you tell us about Pompeo's trip to North Korea? We see Kim Jong-un was walking on the beach today with the Chinese leader. This is all tangled up in U.S. trade policy too, and Lighthizer and company didn't get any real progress that we know of him with China last week on their big trip. We need China to help with North Korea. Are they an honest broker? Tell us what's going on here.
BOLTON: There's a lot of parts in motion, and Secretary Pompeo should be arriving in North Korea right now. He's there to talk about the preparations for the Kim Jong-un summit with President Trump. We are going to pursue this as aggressively as the president pursues any negotiation and see if we can't reach a historic deal.
INGRAHAM: Are we going to get these hostages back that we should've gotten back a long time ago?
BOLTON: The president said quite some time ago, I've repeated it, we want these people released. They shouldn't be part of the deal.
INGRAHAM: It shouldn't be part of the deal?
BOLTON: It should happen before the deal.
INGRAHAM: OK, so is that going to be you are going to let these people free or this is off, is that where we are going?
BOLTON: Mike Pompeo is on the peninsula now. We'll see how this comes out. Keep your fingers crossed overnight. But let's not miss the question as well of what the meeting with Kim Jong-un itself is going to produce.
INGRAHAM: Are you having fun in this job?
BOLTON: I'm having a great time.
INGRAHAM: This is kind of like your dream job. Let's face it. You are over at the U.N. and the State Department, and you have kind of seen it all. But you are right in the thick of it in historic times.
BOLTON: It's even more fun than being a FOX News commentator.
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: They think you are the devil. You are the Trump whisperer, you're getting them to do all neoconservative stuff, and you say?
BOLTON: I'm doing the best I can, but I think everyone should understand on the national security advisor, I'm not the national security decision- maker. He makes the decision. He knows what he's doing.
INGRAHAM: John Bolton, it's great to see you, thank you for joining us in primetime.
BOLTON: Glad to be here.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
INGRAHAM: Our thanks. That was a fun interview with John Bolton. And the end of the nuke deal has put Israel on high alert and a war footing, concerned that Iranian forces in Syria may attack. Up next, the Israeli ambassador joins us for analysis on what today's news means to America's closest allies in another "Angle" exclusive.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: The end of the Iran deal is even bigger news in Israel believe it or not then it is here. Joining is now exclusively to react to today's event is Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer. Mr.
Ambassador, thanks for being in here tonight. This is a wild day. The globally --
AMB. RON DERMER, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO U.S.: A great day.
INGRAHAM: A great day for America, our security, that of our allies in the Middle East. But the global elite, one after the other came out, even since my sit-down with John Bolton, Hillary Clinton just tweeting Iran is now more dangerous. She said anyone who thinks bombing is the answer is woefully misinformed, et cetera, et cetera. I didn't put the whole thing up there. But John Brennan, former CIA director, also coming out, simultaneously the president lied about the Iran nuke deal, undermined global confidence in the U.S. commitments, alienated our allies. This is a danger to America's national security. Obama same thing, it's one after the other after the other. And you say?
DERMER: Israel disagrees, and this is something that unites Israelis across the spectrum. The prime minister gave a full-throated endorsement to what President Trump did today. Look, there were people three years ago who said this deal was going to actually going to push more further away, and if you didn't do this deal than it was going to bring more closer. The exact opposite has happened. We argued then that this deal, by giving all of these billions of dollars to Iran, was going to fuel Iran's war machine and we would see its effects in the Middle East. And that's exactly what you have seen over the last three years, in Iraq, in Syria, in Lebanon, in Yemen. Iran is far more dangerous today because of this deal.
INGRAHAM: They have the cash.
DERMER: The chances of war are much higher because of this deal. What President Trump did today is he took a deal that basically puts us all on cruise control heading over a cliff, because in a few years all of those restrictions on Iran's nuclear program are going to automatically removed and then Iran doesn't have to sneak in or break into the nuclear club. They can just walk into the nuclear club. And he turned the wheel. That doesn't mean that there's not more challenges, but at least we know we are not heading off a cliff. And right now what Israel is dealing with our acute security challenges that actually increased in the wake of the deal. So it might be the people in Britain and in France and in Germany think the world is safe, but the people who actually were the guinea pigs in this experiment, the Israelis and the Arabs who came out both --
INGRAHAM: And you mention that obviously the Saudis came out big time in support, other Arab nations.
DERMER: And the Emirates gave a public endorsement of this because they have seen the consequences for their own country. And as I've said for years, when Israelis and Arabs are on the same page, people should pay attention. We were the guinea pigs in this experiment. It has gone very wrong, and we are very grateful for President Trump for making this courageous decision to shift course. And we hope that other parties now will unite behind his leadership and actually get a deal that will prevent Iran from ever developing nuclear weapons and confront them.
INGRAHAM: You have all these Democrats like Schumer and Menendez, all these people who were saying how rotten the Iran deal was when Obama was about to enter into it. Now you don't hear so much from them. By the way, I know you are going to be thrilled to hear that R.T., Russian television website, is saying the Israel lobby is calling the shots in Trump's rollback policy on Iran, Max Blumenthal, who I know you know well. So now President Trump who has been campaigning for years against this deal and speaking about it, apparently you are the one calling the shots. So it's either John Bolton calling the shots or the Israel lobby calling the shots even though the president has been single-mindedly focused on this issue for years. Unbelievable.
DERMER: It's been no secret what Israel's position has been on this deal. The prime minister of Israel came to Congress and spoke up against this deal. And what he said at the time, people should remember, is that the danger of the deal is not that Iran is going to violate it and get the bomb. It's that they can keep this deal and they can walk into an entire nuclear arsenal. What Prime Minister Netanyahu showed last week, last Monday, were the secret archives where Iran was keeping in these vaults all the information they need.
INGRAHAM: I love the props he had. All the binders, that was great.
DERMER: What are they doing with that information? They are going to use it in the future, and they want to use it to have nuclear weapons. And that's why this decision was --
INGRAHAM: The Trump critics don't let me look at the evidence, facts get in the way of my thinking. Tonight Golan Heights is on high alert. Reports from multiple outlets, I believe the BBC and others, Time magazine reporting that Israel attacked Syria an hour after the Iran deal was ended and that a couple missiles were intercepted by the Syrians, and Israel has not yet responded. What is happening?
DERMER: I'm not going to confirm those specific reports. I can tell you that Iran has a policy to try to establish military bases to attack Israel in Syria. We have been very clear that that's a redline for us, that we are not going to allow Iran to establish those bases.
INGRAHAM: Syrian army bases were apparently --
DERMER: Iranian bases and Syria from which to attack Israel. And Iran has vowed in recent days to launch attacks against Israel. So we will do whatever we have to do.
INGRAHAM: Why does Israel not confirm or deny whether it hit these bases that are in Syria that are run by the Revolutionary Guard if indeed it's in Israel's national security interest? I'm just curious.
DERMER: I will leave it to all sorts of speculation. We get accused of many things that we don't do, and this is our policy. But we are very clear, the prime minister has been very clear about what his redlines are. We are not going to allow Iran to establish a permanent military base, bases in Syria. We are not going to allow them to transfer sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah, which is effectively in control of Lebanon. And we are very serious about enforcing those redlines and we will do whatever we have to do to defend our citizens.
INGRAHAM: What's the difference between the relationship, if you could elaborate a little bit very briefly, between President Trump and Bibi Netanyahu and Bibi and Obama? What's the difference. Allies obviously, but what's the difference, the feel, the tenor?
DERMER: First of all, the prime minister and the president have a wonderful relationship. It's a very warm one and a very close one. They also see eye to eye on the major challenges facing the two countries.
INGRAHAM: President Obama did not.
DERMER: He did not. He thought this deal, and he said he thought --
INGRAHAM: Not just on this deal. On a lot of other elements.
DERMER: President Obama thought this deal was better for America and better for Israel, and I think he was being sincere. I think he was wrong, but Prime Minister Netanyahu thought this was a very dangerous deal. President Trump thinks this is a very dangerous deal, and that has actually brought us together. And the relationship between Israel and the United States under President Trump has never, ever been stronger.
INGRAHAM: Are you going to be there for the new unveiling of the embassy?
DERMER: The moving of the embassy, which is another great decision that is going to happen this week and we deeply appreciate that.
INGRAHAM: I didn't get my invitation.
DERMER: You are invited to our independence day event right here in Washington on May 14th celebrating the 70th year of Israel's birthday. I'm going to have to host that event here so I'm not going to be in Jerusalem for the opening of the U.S. embassy, but we are very grateful. And this is a historic day that will resonate for generations and generations to come.
INGRAHAM: We are so let delighted you came back and were able to talk to us tonight. Thank you so much Mr. Ambassador.
DERMER: Pleasure.
INGRAHAM: And up next, the fashion industry gets religion at the Met gala, or do they? And farewell tours that never end. Remember Barbra Streisand's? Seen and Unseen with Arroyo next.
(CROSSTALK)
INGRAHAM: Time now for our Seen and Unseen segment. We need some type of stage.
RAYMOND ARROYO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I'm waiting for that graph.
INGRAHAM: I'm going to do shadow puppets. We expose what's really behind the big cultural stories of the day, including last night's outrageous Met gala. The theme was heavenly bodies, fashion and Catholic imagination. Hollywood and the fashion industry showed off their finest, but did they cross the line into sacrilege? Here with answers, New York Times bestselling author and FOX News contributor Raymond Arroyo. Now, we are just spoil sports here, because honestly, as Cardinal Dolan said in New York, there's nothing offensive here about this, Raymond. I'm sure if they did a gala representing the Prophet Mohammed in curious ways everybody would be celebrating it over at CAIR tonight, right?
ARROYO: This is to show the Catholic imagination.
INGRAHAM: Who is this?
ARROYO: That's Katy Perry. Katy Perry in her angel wings. The stars traditionally come out. The theme -- this is Sarah Jessica Parker with a nativity atop her head. There's the problem with all of this.
INGRAHAM: What. Baby Jesus is up there?
ARROYO: Yes. There are some Catholics that look at this and they say these vestments that are on display from the Vatican, they mean something. And what they mean, they point to the reality of the mass. And Catholics believe in the mass. Jesus himself becomes present. That's what all the smells and bells and the art and the architecture is about. When you remove that meaning you are left basically with a very glitzy drag show.
INGRAHAM: Why are they doing this? What did Dolan give?
ARROYO: The Vatican. No, the Vatican gave sacred vestments to be displayed at the Metropolitan Museum. They should have attached -- they really should have put some conditions, though, on the line. That's Cardinal Dolan. Cardinal Dolan, it turns out, did you see Rihanna earlier? She had the papal miter on.
INGRAHAM: Do we have the Rihanna photo?
ARROYO: Apparently that is Cardinal Dolan's lighter. He admitted today he loaned Rihanna this miter. They retrofitted it for her. She returned it today. So I'm sure there are some people --
INGRAHAM: When Brad Pitt wants to go get a Halloween costume is he going to give it to him too? It's ridiculous.
ARROYO: Go to Cardinal Dolan's house.
INGRAHAM: They're not going to do it. They wouldn't allow it. Jewish people wouldn't allow this, rightly, and the Muslim people wouldn't allow it. It would be considered disrespectful. The Christians and the Catholics you can always trash. Dolan helps them apparently.
ARROYO: Last week we were talking about a girl in Utah who wore a Chinese dress and people said you are culturally appropriating. This is misappropriating religion. Here's my biggest problem with it. Next to these sacred vestments that Popes were, what you have on display, put this other item. There were other fashion, these designers created other items including a bondage mask with rosaries on it. You can't see it, it's on the righthand side there. And look at this other thing. This is Catholic inspired --
INGRAHAM: Shower curtain.
ARROYO: Shower curtain with a very low cleavage. This is side-by-side with people vestments.
INGRAHAM: A bondage? As Dolan, is he standing near the bondage hat? What is going on with that?
ARROYO: Cardinal Dolan said this was to bring up the good, the beautiful, and the true.
INGRAHAM: And the letter.
ARROYO: It's very hard to see that through this narcissistic --
INGRAHAM: This is 50 shades of Catholicism here. I'm going to get in all sorts of trouble.
ARROYO: I know. It's right on the edge of sacrilege, but we'll forgive you.
INGRAHAM: Forgive me. OK, let's move on. Our next topic of course --
ARROYO: Retirements in the farewell tours that never end. I know you've gotten in line for some of these. Elton John, 71 years old.
INGRAHAM: Is it finally goodbye yellow brick road? Finally, gone.
ARROYO: Except he's going to be saying goodbye for the next three years.
INGRAHAM: Is he going to weddings? I hear he did Russia's wedding years ago.
ARROYO: He did. But this goodbye tour is going to last for three years,300 concerts he's going to do to say goodbye. Apparently Elton John, Joan Baez, Paul Simon, Ozzy Osbourne, Anita Baker, they are all retiring.
INGRAHAM: Anita Baker, I love her. She's a great voice, but she's not exactly filling arenas. This is like Spinal Tap. Remember Spinal Tap? Remember in Spinal Tap when they're like used to fill arenas where now it's filling 800 seats in theaters or 1,000 seat theaters, and they thought we are still relevant.
ARROYO: Look at Ozzy Osbourne. He retired in 1992, and now he's back.
INGRAHAM: This is great! The left will be really happy.
ARROYO: I dug this up. Cher, the farewell tour of Cher. Can you play that bite quickly before we run out of time?
INGRAHAM: Cher, I got you babe.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHER, SINGER: OK, so I always wanted to do this. This is the last time I'm going around. And really this is the last time, OK? I promise you I am not lying, this is so farewell. I am so totally farewell honestly, OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: OK. Do you know when that was? 2002. She is still back -- in fact you can find her right over here at the MGM. Do you know what it proves? Old acts, they never die, they wait for the next booking. Like me. I'll be back next Friday.
INGRAHAM: So are we going to announce that we're retiring?
ARROYO: We retiring. This is a farewell tour.
INGRAHAM: It's going to go on.
ARROYO: Beyond Friday.
INGRAHAM: But Barbra Streisand promised us she was retiring.
ARROYO: I remember. I got $1,000 in the hole.
INGRAHAM: This is like the rug stores. The rug stores.
ARROYO: Going out of business.
INGRAHAM: They are going out of business. We lost our lease. Then you drive by, the kids are like, mommy, that rug store, what does lost lease mean? That's been up there for 10 years.
ARROYO: Laura, if you think it's the last time you will pay double.
INGRAHAM: Garth Brooks, didn't he retire? Barry Manilow?
ARROYO: Not yet.
INGRAHAM: That's still going on. Former stars of "Saturday Night Live" are forming their own resistance against the show's relentless leftwing bias and gasbags. Up next one of those voices is here, don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Joe Piscopo is the latest "Saturday Night Live" veteran to call out the show for its leftwing tilt and constant Trump bashing. But what did he think of porn star Stormy Daniels' appearance this past week? Joining us now live from New York is Joe Piscopo. Joe, great to see you. I grew up watching all the greats, Jane Curtin and Phil Hartman, Eddie Murphy. This is comedy to end all comedy. Your era of the show was great. Now it's so political that I think it turns a lot of people off. And then this weekend reality hits comedy I guess and Stormy shows up.
JOE PISCOPO, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": I'm not part of a resistance. What were you, like nine years old when you were watching?
INGRAHAM: Thank you. I appreciate that during
PISCOPO: Seriously. I have such immense respect for "SNL." that's where I come from and I'm so appreciative and grateful for everything that the show has given me, so I don't mean to criticize it at all. I had a nice conversation with Maria Bartiromo, and we started just joking back and forth about Stormy Daniels and now a porn star is on "SNL" and how did we get here? I don't even get on "SNL." It was a joke. And then of course it just blows up.
INGRAHAM: So you are now stepping back, Joe, because you probably got some blowback from your old pals at "SNL." I'm just guessing.
PISCOPO: No. I'm not stepping back at all. It was a mistake to put Stormy Daniels on the program. The show is better than that, and I don't back down -- I will double down and triple down on that. And what gets me really upset is when people tell me what to say, how to say it and what to think, and that's not going to happen. I'm on the radio every morning, I'm going to bed now, I've got to get up in a couple of hours on AM 970. And the one thing we always say. We say what we want, I don't care about the political correctness, the people don't care about Stormy Daniels. We don't care about Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. I don't care about LBJ. I don't care about John Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. We don't care. Tell me about North Korea, tell me about the Iran deal, tell me about infrastructure, tell me about helping the inner cities.
INGRAHAM: That's a riot. That's a laugh riot, the infrastructure.
PISCOPO: The fact of the matter is, Stormy Daniels has no place -- why didn't they get Kristen Wiig to play it? I just happened to mention that, but it was wrong to put her on. This is a role model? I don't go back on what I said.
INGRAHAM: I actually like a good laugh. We are all punk-able.
PISCOPO: Maxine Waters, how funny is Maxine Waters? How funny is Adam Schiff?
INGRAHAM: Where is Sheila Jackson, have you ever done Sheila Jackson Lee on "Saturday Night Live"? Really do Nancy Pelosi the way she really should be done. I want to play Baldwin doing Trump over the weekend, let's watch, compilation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEC BALDWIN, ACTOR: Siri, how do I kill ISIS?
(LAUGHTER)
BALDWIN: This is a BlackBerry.
(LAUGHTER)
BALDWIN: Thank you, judge, or what you call a lady judge, a flight attendant, something like that.
(LAUGHTER)
BALDWIN: Testing, testing, China, China, huge China.
(LAUGHTER)
BALDWIN: Vladimir is an amazing person and he knows me better than anyone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: I actually like the little Vladimir Putin guy. But what I think happens in comedy today is that you lose kind of it -- I'm really dating myself, but Rickles could be really cutting and rude, but it was hilarious. And if you are being spoofed, you laughed right along with it.
PISCOPO: You're right. I'm a huge Alec Baldwin fan, I will tell you straight up, and I don't back down on that, either. I always admired the man's talent. You've got to laugh a little bit, and I would suggest, and I've said this before, when I did Ronald Reagan and we took shots at Ronald Reagan, we did it with respect. But what did they do? And I said this before on the network here, Laura, Ronald Reagan invited me to the White House. And then when I met the great gipper and I shook hands with his great man, it changed my life. It changed my whole political outlook. You know what I'm saying? I'm saying everybody has got to lighten up. Donald Trump should invite Alec to the White House. Everybody has to stop the hate. Stop the hate. We can laugh a little bit. Don't put porn stars on national television. We don't need that. That's all I'm saying.
INGRAHAM: Got it. Joe Piscopo, thanks so much. When we come back, a special day in history, but will any students even have known about it? We'll fill you in next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Today was V.E. day. Seventy-three years ago the allies declared victory over Nazi Germany. But how many public school students, private school students for that matter, learned about this historic sacrifice that the day represents, one of the most important days in American history? The answer, sadly, is not many. The U.S. government's most recent report card found that only 18 percent of eighth graders scored proficient or better in knowledge of U.S. history, 29 percent had less than basic knowledge. A survey in February found two- thirds of American millennials could not identify Auschwitz, 22 percent hadn't heard of the holocaust. This isn't a small issue. Either we learn history, our nation's founding, our constitution, or my goodness, about the mistakes, we are doomed to repeat them. Remember to tweet me your thoughts @IngrahamAngle about the show. Things you want us to cover on the show, or just criticisms of Raymond. That's all the time we have tonight. Shannon Bream and the "FOX News at Night" team are up next.
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