Ben Shapiro blasts 'idiotic' Statue of Liberty protest
DailyWire.com editor-in-chief says the Democrat Party's wild shift left on immigration issue does not bode well for the midterm elections.
This is a rush transcript from "The Story," July 5, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, no, when you see the Times how dishonest there, when you see the Washington Post how totally dishonest when we leave. And I actually say this. They are all doing numbers that they've -- like never done. When I announce they are going to endorse me. Because if I lose, should I lose? Or if I don't run, they're out of business. Who's going to cover? Are they going to cover Bernie? Hey, they going to cover like sleepy Joe Biden? They're going to cover Pocahontas? Who was they cover? Think of it.
She of the great tribal heritage, what tribe is it? Let me think about that one. Meantime, she's based her life on being a minority. Pocahontas, they always want me to apologize for saying it.
AMERICAN CROWD: No!
TRUMP: And I hereby -- oh no, I want to apologize I'll use tonight. Pocahontas, I apologize to you. I apologized. To you, I apologize. To the -- to the fake Pocahontas, I won't apologize.
Those causing a problems, you know that name is called. Because now even the liberals are saying, 'Take a test. Take a test.' You know, the -- I tell you, I shouldn't tell you because I like not to give away secrets. But this one, let's say I'm debating Pocahontas, right?
I promise you I'll do this. I will take -- you know those little kids they sell on television for $2. Learn your heritage. Guy says, 'I was born in Scotland.' It turns out he was born in Puerto Rico, and that's OK. It's good, you know.
A guy says, 'I was born in Germany.' Well, he wasn't born in Germany. Who's born someplace here? I'm going to get where to those little kids.
And in the middle of the debate when she proclaims that she's of Indian heritage because her mother said she has high cheekbones. That's a wrongly evidence that her mother said she had high cheekbones. We will take that little kid and say -- but we have to do it gently. Because were in the MeToo generation, so I have to be very gently.
And we will very gently take the kid, and we will slowly toss it. Hoping it doesn't hit her and injure her arm. Even though it only weighs probably two ounces.
And we will say, I will give you a million dollars to your favorite charity, paid for by Trump, if you take the test and it shows you're an Indian, you know. And let's see what she does, right?
I have a feeling she will say no, but we'll hold that for the debates. Do me a favor, keep it within this room because I don't want to give away any secrets and the press is very honorable, they won't, "Please don't tell her what I just said."
Democrats are launching outrageous attacks against our incredible law enforcement and our ICE and Border Patrol. The new platform of the Democrat Party. And by the way, I call it the Democrat Party. It sounds better rhetorically, you know, I wrote their sellers. I guess I speak well. You know we turned away thousands of people. They never say I'm a great speaker. Why the hell do so many people come? Why? I don't think, it soon. Why do they -- why?
Why, why do they come, it got to be something. I guess they like my policy. Maybe you like policy. No, sure have you ever noticed you never hear that? You never hear that. You never heard. I mean there's got to be a reason.
I have broken more Elton John records. He seems to have a lot of records. And we beat -- and I by the way I don't have a musical instrument. I don't have a guitar or organ. No organ, Elton has an organ, and lots of other people helping. No, we broke in a lot of -- we broke in virtually every record because you know, look, I only need this face, they need much more room.
For basketball, for hockey, for all the sports they need a lot of room. We don't need it, we have people in that space. So, we break all these records. But really, we do it without like the musical instruments. This is the only musical, the mouth. It's -- and hopefully -- attach to the mouth, right?
The brain, more important in the mouth is the brain. The brain is much more important. But that -- you ever notice you ever hear something, they say, you know, we had a case, last week we were in a great place in Wisconsin. And we had a tremendous crowd, and we have like the choice of a 22,000 seat arena. And in retrospect, we would have packed it and they would have sent away thousands of people.
But the people said to me very innocent people, they were great. But I hadn't met him. I said, why didn't you -- they filled up a 7,000 seat arena. Walked away thousands of people, like over 20. And we would have felt and say, 'Why didn't you use the bigger arena seat, sir?'
We know that if you had five vacant seats, empty seats, see vacant is because I was in the royal scepters, I use a scepter. If you had five empty seats, they would say, 'Donald Trump was unable to fill the arena.' And I said, 'You know what, you're right.' How about the one from The Washington Post? They got there four hours early and the arena hasn't started even letting people in.
So there was just a few people you all saw that story at home. You all saw that story -- there are four hours, five. This writer sleazebag, he didn't get fired. Then he said, 'Donald Trump had an empty arena, except when I showed up, the place was packed and they had a walk away thousands of people, right?
And I didn't see the story. But you know who saw the story? The people that were in the arena, and they went nuts. And they apologized. But you know where they apologized on Twitter? They didn't write there. They apologized, but they had in the story, 'Donald Trump, not very good crowd tonight.' And they show a totally empty arena at four hours later.
And by the way, hate to say it, take a look at the pictures for the inauguration. We had some monster crowd. Big monster, big monster. But take a look at that. So, they show an arena before the people started coming in, there were a few people four or five hours ahead. And they apologized, it's a disgrace. But let me just tell you, the Democrats, we call them the Democrat Party. You know why? The Democratic Party sounds too good. It sounds better, doesn't it?
I always say saying the Democrat Party, a lot of people say you're metaphysic, well, actually the name is the Democrat Party. The Democratic Party sounds too good so I don't want to use that, OK? The new platform of the Democrat Party is to abolish ICE.
In other words, they want to abolish immigration, enforcement, entirely that's what they want to do. They want -- they want everybody coming in. And you know, the beauty with ICE, they are so tough. When you have these MS-13 thugs come in, ICE goes in, wipes them out like nothing, because they're much tougher. They wipe them out and they liberate towns on Long Island and other places.
You know it's like, you're occupied. It's like a nation is occupying your country. So we're taking them out by the thousands and of it weren't for ICE, we wouldn't be doing it.
These are savage gangs MS-13 and others, we will not stand for these vile Democrats fears against our law enforcement. And that includes our great police. That includes our great Border Patrol that includes our military where they're always fighting against funding for the military.
We will always stand by proudly the heroes and there are heroes on ICE and Border Patrol, and law enforcement, and our military. Every day I'm president, we will track down the gang members, drug dealers, child predators, and criminal aliens that we find. We will get them. We will throw them the hell out of our country or put them in jail.
So, this year, in November if you want to save ICE, and frankly, if you want to save your law enforcement, if you want to save your military, getting military funding, we got 700 billion the biggest ever then, next year 716, we saved our military getting military funding from these Democrats is almost impossible. They don't want it, they don't care about our military, they don't care about our law enforcement, they couldn't give a damn. You better vote Republican, we need more Republican.
If you want to protect your family and your community, then, you have no choice you have to vote from that you have to vote for Republicans. If you want to have a country if you want borders. How about borders? Would it be nice to have borders?
AMERICAN CROWD: Yes! Build that wall! Build that wall! Build that wall! Build that wall! Build that wall!
TRUMP: And yes, we are already building the wall, it started in California, in San Diego. 1.6 billion, we're asking for 5 billion. And I tell you what, it's brutal with these people. They don't want it. They know it's the right thing to do, but they think it will help me. It's not even the reports, they think it'll help Trump.
If we do it, it's good for Trump. Let's not do it. They are great Americans. Every day we are keeping our promises. We've created 3.4 million jobs since Election Day which nobody can even believe. Nobody believes it. I always say, if I would have said that on the campaign trail when I was here or any place else, it would have been brutal. They would have said, "How can you possibly say a thing like that? 3.4 million new jobs, unemployment claims are at a 45 year low.
Freaking American and Hispanic American unemployment have reached the lowest levels in the history of our country. Remember what do you have to lose, remember? What do you have to lose? People didn't like it when I said that. What do you have to lose? Guess what? We're right.
In fact, the new poll came out last week, we're up in like a week 10 points with the Hispanic community, 10 points. Because they want to be safe.
Unemployment among women is at the lowest level it's been in 65 years and within a couple of week's history. Our economic policy can be summed up in three very simple but beautiful words, jobs, jobs, jobs.
Since the election, we have lifted 3 million people off of food stamps. And by the way, on a humanitarian basis, that's a great thing. Do you know how much money we saved by doing that as a country? 3 million people is going up fast. Wages for the first time in 18 years are rising again. People can go out, they can actually choose a job and they have wages that are rising.
And six months ago, Republicans passed the biggest tax cuts in American history, the biggest in American history. Everybody in this room is benefiting. Everybody is benefiting.
We slash taxes for working families and saved our family farms. We saved family farm. As a result of our tax cuts, 300 billion dollars poured back into the United States just in the first quarter of this year alone. And we got have a lot more than that.
300 billion came back. Money that would have never been able to come back into our country. It's coming back, it's pouring back. I think, the number is going to be 5 trillion, but 350 billion has already come back.
Apple, computer is spending $350 billion on new campuses, on new facilities. They're bringing back $350 billion. They're putting up their own money. They're going to actually have probably subject to the tax code about $230 billion comeback. 95 percent of U.S. manufacturers are optimistic about the future. That's the highest number ever.
Think of it, 95 percent of anything, you don't hear that. We also repealed despite the thumb down at 2:00 in the morning. We also repealed the most horrible aspect of the failed Obamacare health care. It's called the individual mandate, so it's gone -- it's gone, gone.
It's gone, and you know that was where you had to pay a lot of money for the privilege of not having to pay for bad healthcare, OK? One of the truly rip-offs, that was a big rip-off but we got rid of it so all of you people -- how many people were you paying for not to have? A lot of people right? Yes, a lot of people. A lot of people, they paid not to have health care. That doesn't work. We're allowing businesses to join forces to buy better health care for less money through association health plans they just came out two weeks ago and they cross state lines. We're allowed the cross state lines. You're going to get very low prices. Millions of people are already signing up.
And after decades of waiting, we opened ANWR in Alaska for energy development. They've been trying to get that approved for 40 years. We've eliminated record numbers of job-killing regulations. We've stopped called the assault on our farmers, our ranches, our hunters, 0 energy producers, and our great and loving miners. We love our miners. And we put our miners back to work. Clean coal, we are proudly and strongly protecting our public lands for future generations. You see that, you see it all over. You see what we're doing, you see legislation, you see what's happening. We approved the Keystone and the Dakota access pipelines right away, 48,000 jobs, 48,000 jobs. We withdrew from the job-killing Paris Climate Accord. One of the most unfair deals, I said, I am going to get killed when I approve this one.
When I sign off this, you know, it sounds so pretty right, the Paris Climate. Who wouldn't do that except it's horrible for us -- for other countries, but horrible for us. We took historic action to safeguard your constitutional freedoms protecting religious liberty, defending the Second Amendment, and confirming a record number of Circuit Court Judges. And we are bringing back our wealth from foreign country. You know this right? We are bringing back our wealth from foreign countries that have been ripping us off for years. For too long we watched and we waited and we saw as other countries stole our jobs, cheated our workers, and gutted our industry. You look at all the places, here yes, even here. But you look at some places you look at some -- you go up to New England and you still see the remnants when they move down to Mexico under NAFTA. One of the worst deals that we're negotiating and I have a feeling they'll come along. We'll see. And if they don't, we'll actually do better. We'll actually do better.
The United States of America was the piggy bank that everybody was robbing. And let me tell you, our allies in many cases were worse than our enemies. We opened our country to their goods but they put up massive barriers to keep our products and our goods the hell out of their country because they didn't want that competition. And that's not free trade that's stupid trade. We're not going to do that. We don't do that anymore. We have to have fair and reciprocal that being the more important word. We need reciprocal, they charge a 5o percent tax, we charge a 50 percent tax, then we say look, let's bring it to nothing or I don't care one way the other. Do whatever you want and then I'll have people complaining. They'll say it's incredible. So we have countries ripping us up for years. And then when I say well look, we're going to put tariffs in there because they have been ripping us. We have trade deficits, they have surpluses that would be unbelievable. So they have all of this and I say we are going to do something about it and I'll get clothes from some politicians. Oh, that's terrible. I said no, you don't understand. We're going to make great deals. No, no, that just leave it the way it is. Please just leave it the way it is. Leave it the way it is? I said no, no. We have all the cards with the bank that everybody is stealing from. You saw with China, $50 billion and another $200 billion frankly is waiting.
Nobody has ever seen this before because China and I have great respect for President Xi and for China. You have to respect him, you have to admire him. Now they'll say, Donald Trump loves China, loves China more than he loves the United States. These people but -- so you have to be careful what you say because if I say that I do, I respect China and I respect President Xi but they've been killing us $507 billion in trade deficits last year, 507. Who the hell can lose 500 then you want to do something about it, you get attacked. That's not nice that's not free trade. The war was lost on trade many years ago. You know, when they're saying not a free trader, I said no, the war was lost but now we're going to win it because we have all the cards. But it's always helpful when you don't have the little ones sniping at you heels because it's easier to negotiate when you have support. You don't have some senator that was forced out of office because he didn't like me saying bad things like oh we shouldn't be doing that against China. We shouldn't be doing that against so-and-so.
We are in such a great position. Other countries are calling us. Do you know that if we knock down the trade deficit right, trade deficit by just a little bit 25 percent, we can do that easily? That's easy. If we do that we pick up one point in GDP. Does anybody know that? That's $3 trillion and that's ten million jobs. That's just 25 percent. We pick up one point. And speaking of GDP, remember when I'd say it's going to go to three percent pretty quickly and all of this. Well, now the Atlanta Fed just predicted four point eight percent. Now, who knows? Who knows? Who knows? I can only tell you that it's going to be a lot better than you had with Obama and if these people got elected, you would have gone down like you've never seen anything go down. They wouldn't have taken the regulations off. They wouldn't have given you the tax cuts, the Democrats. You would have had an economy that was going to crash and burn. It was ready and now we've got something that's a rocket ship. And every time I meet a leader of another country which is often, they always stop by saying, sir, I'd like to congratulate you on the incredible job you've done with the United States. Japan, South Korea, every time they said, I'd like to congratulate you. And others are -- they are actually studying what we've done. They're studying what we've done. But we have the greatest people in the world that we're doing good. You know, that those hats, those beautiful, beautiful hats, make America great again, soon to be changed to keep America great. Keep America great. Soon to be changed.
I can't use Make America Great Again for the second run, right? Does it sort? They said why the hell did you do it the first time right? It's called keep America great because what we're doing is incredible. It's incredible. We've created think of this, since the election, we've created it well $7 trillion, 7 trillion, 7 trillion. We're the fastest growing nation on an economy basis, maybe it's for the big nations but I heard nation, we're the fastest growing economically nation in the world. Think of that. I add the big nation because they're probably back. I don't know. Maybe it said big -- whatever it is, we're doing really well. But we're one of the fastest and I think we're actually the fastest growing and we are certainly growing our military and growing our power in us right?
And we're taking care of our vets more than anybody's ever taken care of them. Thanks to Republican leadership America is winning again. We're winning. Remember I tell you the story. And America is being respected again all over the world. It's been a long time. We're respected. Somebody said, could you tell the winning story backstage? I said they've heard it but Steve Daines, great Senator comes up to me and I say hi Steve. And you can say sir, the people of Montana, they're really tired, sir, of all this winning. It's too much. They can't take it anymore. They can't take it. We've got to slow it down, sir. They can't take it. I say, Steve, go back to the people. Go back to the people and say I'm sorry, I cannot honor that request. We are going to win, and win, and we're going to win more. We are going to win like we've never won before like we've never won before. Because we are finally putting America first.
And by the way, you know, all the rhetoric you see, the thousand points of light, what the hell was that by the way? Thousand points of light, what did that mean? Does anyone know? I know one thing, make America great again we understand. Putting America first we understood, thousand points of light, I never quite got that one. What the hell is that? Has everyone ever figured that one out? I put up by Republican once and -- but we are indeed doing things for this country like nobody believed us. We're rebuilding our economy and at the same time, we are restoring our security. We have people flooding our borders like they have it flooded ever before. They're doing an incredible job but we've never had a rush like this. That's because people want a piece of our action. They want to come into our economy. They want to come in. The problem is you have to come in legally, you have to come in through legal (INAUDIBLE).
All of that money that we've secured for our military, all of that I've directed the Pentagon to begin a process of creating a sixth branch of the United States Armed Forces called the Space Force. You have the Air Force, you'll have the Space Force. You know, people are so excited by that. You know, it's not just sending rockets to the moon and rockets to Mars, this is also a military imperative. In fact, in Russia, they said we consider that very threatening and others did too but I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And you know, if it's a part of the Air Force, the Air Force is going to focus sort of on the Air Force, we need a separate branch and we're working on that. It's called this Space Force which is very exciting. And people love it, people love it. They get it and they love it. We passed a landmark V.A. accountability law that everybody said could not be passed. I won't blame the unions and I won't blame civil service but let's assume they had a little blame. Everyone said it couldn't be passed, has not been able to be passed for 45 years and we just got it passed, V.A. accountability so now you can fire people when they don't do their job.
We can fire people when they don't do it. You're fired. You get them the hell out. They're not taking care of our vets, we fired them. They're out of there. They're out of there. And the other thing we just passed a few weeks ago and you've heard me talk about this. I always said you know, our greatest people, they're the greatest people, the vets. They protected us. Some of them have suffered greatly and we weren't taking proper care of them. They were waiting in line for 12 days. How about anybody in this one just go to the doctor say I'm sorry I can't see you for 12 days even if you have like a bad cold, you have something. People were going in with nothing much and they were coming out six months later, they can't see a doctor. They were coming out with the terminal illness that could have been corrected easily.
And I said, why aren't we just sending people that have to wait for these long periods? Just send them across the street to a local doctor. They've taken care and we pay the bill. And everybody said, we've been trying to get that passed for 40 years, I got it past three weeks ago. I'm good at getting things fast. Remember, we had repeal and replace passed except for one person and all the Democrats I have to say. One person plus all of the Democrats, we got no Democratic votes including Tester. He wasn't there for us. President Trump is a great man. He's a great man. I really got a vote for us, I got a vote for us. We also believe that American foreign aid dollars should promote America's interest and values. We don't need to send your hard-earned money to countries that vote against the United States consistently in the United Nations and other places. We don't need to go.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Remember with Israel, remember when we had two votes something having to do with Israel. I said we are watching. With all of the aid we give all of these countries we are watching. We ended up getting 68 votes. We didn't do anything because they are ripping us, they are taking our money. They don't even vote for us because they didn't respect our country. But now they respect us a lot more. And in many cases they are not getting that money anymore too. We stopped that.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Instead of an apologizing for America, we are standing up for America and standing up for our great American flag.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: How about the NFL? Look, I don't want to cause with controversy. You're right, USA is right. I don't want to cause controversy. But how about they passed this stupid thing. You don't have to do this anymore. If you don't respect the flag or if you don't like the country or whatever it is, just go into the locker room. Just go into the locker room.
I think in many respects, that's worse. Isn't that worse than not standing? You know. I think that's worse. So they say go into the locker room. OK, the anthem is getting ready to play. They run into the locker room and then they come back out. You know what? That doesn't play! It doesn't play.
(CROWD BOOING)
TRUMP: I actually think in many ways, it's worse. I heard this thing. They were so happy the owners. This commissioner, where this guy comes from I have no idea. They pay him $40 million a year. Their ratings are down 20 percent. But you know why the ratings are down? Yes, the flag, but they are also down because people find politics -- in other words, hitting Trump incorrectly. But hitting Trump they find that to be much tougher and meaner and more interesting than watching the football.
And they are watching the cable networks instead of watching football. They are down 20 percent since this whole thing started with the flag and the anthem. Washington tried to change us, but instead we are actualy changing Washington. We had a big impact.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And now we need Matt Rosendale in the Senate to continue our fight to drain the swamp. We're going to get it done. We need to work every day from now until the election. For your family, for your community, your country, for your Constitution. This November I need you to get your friends, get your colleagues and get your neighbors and get your ass out to vote. Is that OK? Get your ass out to vote.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Vote for Matt! They are going to say that was not presidential. Watch! That was not presidential. Did I ever tell you how easy it would be for me to be presidential, you know, like we're all me, you, we're really smart people. I have by the way, the most loyal people in the world. They are the smartest people, they are the toughest people and the greatest people in the world.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: But they will say something like that's not presidential. And what I say, acting presidential is so easy. For me, it's much easier than what I do. Much easier. And sometimes I have to do. It you walk up to the microphone.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, of the great state of Montana.
You have to put a little emphasis, right? This is wonderful to be with you tonight. Thank you for being here. Good-bye.
Now the people of Montana they know. They know. Loyal citizens like you helped build this country. And together we are taking back our country. Returning the power where it belongs to the people.
(APPLAUSE)
(CROWD CHANTING)
TRUMP: Our proud American ancestors crossed oceans and scaled mountains, defeated empires and built the modern world with their own two hands. They were brilliant. This state, the State of Montana was forged by incredible pioneer men and women who braved the cold and came in the wilderness to build a beautiful life right out here in the open. I did look at those skies.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: You know, I heard so much about your skies.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I heard so much about your skies. I drawn in I looked at those skies. Not seeing pollution is a wonderful thing.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Those are beautiful skies. These Montana pioneers were tough! They were strong and they were brilliant. They didn't have a lot of money. They didn't have a lot of luxury, but they had faith. They had a heart, they had great and they had each other. They had each other.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And above all else, they love their families. They love their country and they love their God.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We stand on the shoulders of American patriots who knew how to fight. And they knew how to win. You talk about winning, they knew how to win!
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And with your help, your voice does your vote, we are going to keep on fighting and we are going to keep on winning. And the truth is you will never, ever get tired of winning. Never!
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We won't back down. We don't give in. And we will never, ever surrender. We will never, ever quit. We go forward to victory.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Because we are Americans. And our hearts bleed red, white and blue!
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We are one people. We are one family. We are one glorious nation under God. And together we will make American wealthy again.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Soon. We will make America strong again.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We will make America safe again.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And we will make America great again. Thank you, Montana. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
SANDRA SMITH, FOX NEWS HOST: President Trump in Great Falls, Montana. Wrapping up a rally there. Clearly back in campaign mode. Drumming up support for that state's Republican candidate for Senate, Matthew Rosendale. Saying you deserve a senator who doesn't just talk like you from Montana.
The president saying you deserve a senator who actually vote like you from Montano. The president went on to pressed for the midterm vote. You better vote Republican. We need more Republicans. You can right your wrong in November said the president in taking on the Democrat in that state Jon Tester.
The president said a vote for Tester is a vote for Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and the new leader of the Democratic Party Maxine Waters. He said vote for Matt.
A very optimistic President Trump there brought a crowd to their feet. At times they were chanting USA. He said Washington tried to change us and we changed Washington. Thanks to Republican leadership, the president touting America is winning again.
All of this clearly part of the president's plan to deny Democrats control of Congress in the November elections. But behind-the-scenes the White House may already be working on a contingency plan.
Today one of its most controversial cabinet members EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt tendered his resignation. Clearly he would have been the first target of an oversight committee run by a Democratic majority.
Joining me now, Brit Hume, Fox News senior political analyst. Brit, as we watch the president at the part of the stage there what a speech that was, going on a few reps, clearly off-script there and making some news but sounding incredibly optimistic about his party's chances in November.
BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: He gets more out of doing this I think personally. These rallies than anybody I've seen since Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton could come exhausted at the end of a long day to a rally. In the faithful were fired up he would get fired up too and stay and stay and stay. That's exactly what you see Donald Trump doing.
This is Trump in his element. He loves doing this. But as you suggested, I know that's obviously some strategic thinking going on. I mean, after all he's about to nominate another justice or make another nomination to the Supreme Court.
And Jon Tester the sitting Nevada -- the sitting Montana senator is one of the votes that he might, the president might have a chance of picking off for his nominee. And the more pressure is on Tester out there from his Republican challenger the better chance perhaps the president has of picking up that vote.
And then of course we got the Pruitt matter that you just raised. That was kind of an amazing story. That he lasted under the fire he took as long as he did but he's gone now.
SMITH: Is it perhaps a sign the resignation of Pruitt, Brit, a sign that there is a contingency plan for this White House?
HUME: Well, I don't know. I think he lasted as long as he did because Trump liked him and thought he was doing a good job. And Pruitt's problem really was not that he didn't know the issues or that he was unqualified to deal with them. He was very well qualified to do that.
His problem was he didn't understand, Sandra, that if you are going to be as aggressive in environmental deregulator as he has been and it was intent of being in this atmosphere in that agency you have to live your life in such a way that nobody can call anything into question. And he was quite careless about a lot of stuff. Some of it was quite petty.
But you add it all up and it looked bad. And it never stopped. It was that endless drum beat of these improper activities that might have been in many cases, minor, but they gave off a bad smell. There's no doubt about it. I think he was a -- I think a contingency plan in this sense that they don't want that guy hanging around their neck in the middle of a bunch of investigations as it's going into the fall elections.
SMITH: Well, a Democrat seize on that leadership Chuck Schumer--
HUME: Yes.
SMITH: -- took you long enough still a very long way to go to fully hash tag drain the swamp. He tweeted out. Nancy Pelosi, one down with the resignation of Pruitt. Dozens more to go until we drain the swamp. This was the Democratic response. Do you think Democrats are making any headway with that message?
HUME: I would think, my guess would be that Democrats would rather stay frankly, because now that he is gone the story dies down. They will focus a lot of fire on his successor there who is the acting guy because he came out of the same school of thought.
But unless he is nominated in their confirmation hearing where they can pound the guy, the story may down die. I have no doubt that that's what the Trump White House is hoping for. It may well happen.
SMITH: Fascinating stuff. And all of these just days before the president is expected to announce his pick for the Supreme Court. It could come Sunday night. So we will be watching all of that.
Brit Hume, thank you.
HUME: Yes, thank you, Sandra.
SMITH: Up next, the woman who scaled the Statue of Liberty in protest of President Trump tries to explain herself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THERESE PATRICIA OKOUMOU, MEMBER, RISE AND RESIST: Michelle Obama said when they go low, we go high. And I went as high as I could.
(APPLAUSE)
SMITH: Ben Shapiro will analyze that when we come back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You saw that clown yesterday on the Statue of Liberty. Did you see the guys that went up there? I would not have done it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL MOORE, FILMMAKER: The only way that we're going to stop this is eventually we're going to have to put our bodies on the line. You're going to have to be willing to do this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Some radical leftists listening to Michael Moore and taking the fight against President Trump to new heights. A protestor yesterday scaling the Statue of Liberty on Independence Day before captured by police 89 feet in the air.
She is part of the anti-Trump Rise and Resist group who were at the monument calling for the abolishment of ICE. Posting on Instagram, quote, "Rise and Resist is at the Statue of Liberty demanding Trump and the GOP. Hash tag abolish ICE, reunite families now, halt deportations and end detention as a deterrent."
Today Therese Patricia Okoumou pleaded not guilty at her federal court appearance afterward she addressed the press.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OKOUMOU: Michelle Obama, our beloved first lady that I care so much about, said when they go low, we go high. And I went as high as I could.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Here with some now Ben Shapiro, editor in chief of the Daily Wire.com. Ben, two hours she was first on that statue. What did you think of this stunt?
BEN SHAPIRO, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, DAILYWIRE.COM: It was idiotic. They had to evacuate the entire island because they decided to do the stunt. The real issue with the stunt is not that someone is pulling a public relations point or to get media attention that people resort to thing all the time.
The point is, is the session productive for her cause? Let's say you were her or you were she and you thought that you were going to bring attention to this particular cause. So the best way to do that is to climb up on the Statue of Liberty and annoy everyone in the country on the 4th of July?
(CROSSTALK)
SMITH: Hope they answer to that answer. Did she win over any supporters with this?
SHAPIRO: No. I mean, the only people who were into this were the people who already supported her. But I guess that's where we are in the country at this point, is that everybody is attempting to revved up the base more than they are attempting to win over people in the middle.
And that's particularly true for folks on the left who thinks the louder they scream the more people they are going to win over. It seems like precisely the opposite is true. It seems like the louder they scream the more people are looking at the Trump administration and saying well, at least they are not shutting down Statue of Liberty on the 4th of July.
SMITH: She was taking advice from Michael Moore as you heard him earlier. We have to, in his words, put our body on the line to stop Trump. Is this what the far left movement is pushing for at this point?
SHAPIRO: There is no question that I think the heart of the far left is with this particular part of the movement. The Maxine Waters shouting people down in gas stations. Let's go to a restaurant and shout Kirstjen Nielsen out of restaurant, let's badger Elaine Chao as she comes out of dinner.
This is where the left's heart is. And this is the real problem for the Democratic Party. Because Schumer and Pelosi are witting there saying guys, we are alienating a huge swath of the country. And the hard left say you have no heart, you don't have the passion.
Well, when the passion is not united with the leadership of the Democratic Party it's pretty clear who is going to lose. And it's not going to be the passion. The passion is going to win. There is a wild shift in the left that's happening, thanks to the far left part of the Democratic Party. It doesn't bode well for them in future election cycles if they continue which I supposed is fine with me.
SMITH: Well, obviously the 28-year-old Democratic socialist brought a lot of attention to this. The Hill, a piece on the Hill this morning, progressives poised to shape agenda if Dems take back House. Is that the case?
SHAPIRO: I mean there's no question that they believe that all of the spirit is with the Bernie Sanders left of the movement. Now what's really fascinating is that there was sort of a gap between the intersectional left and the Bernie Sanders left.
A lot of the people on the intersectional left, people who thought about identity politics and race they says that Bernie Sanders wasn't paying enough attention to issues race and sexual orientation and sex, that he was almost too focus on socialism.
Ocasio-Cortez is doing a good job of bridging that gap because she is an intersectional candidate. Obviously she is a minority admonishing (Ph) and she's a woman. And she is also preaching Bernie Sanders socialism. And that's why the party is seeing her as this sort of great uniting figure even though she is as radical as radical can be.
SMITH: You know, you wonder if they risk turning off from their own voters going this far to the left. But it's something that we're watching, and clearly the world was watching us as that woman scaled the Statue of Liberty on Independence Day yesterday. Ben Shapiro, thank you.
SHAPIRO: Thanks.
SMITH: Well, a live look at that cave rescue underway where experts are working around-the-clock to save the lives of a soccer team trapped a mile underground. We will take you there next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SMITH: Breaking tonight. You're looking live at Chiang Rai, Thailand where those 12 young boys and their soccer coach trapped in an underground cave almost a mile below ground, have been assessed by medial workers and deemed not well enough to make an escape at this hour.
Rescuers they are now working to not only get those boys strong enough but also to come up with a viable escape plan as rescue efforts enter day four.
Trace Gallagher live on our west coast newsroom with the latest on this. Trace?
TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Sandra. The water level inside the cave is now the primary concern. And on that note, earlier today there was a setback when some volunteers working on their own thought they were pumping water out of the cave and instead were pumping it into the ground forcing it back inside the cave level.
Tonight authorities on scene said the problem has been corrected and the water is again dropping. In fact, they believe a one mile stretch of the cave is now drained of water completely, meaning the boys and their coach would only have to swim about a mile to safety, but that is one treacherous mile including very narrow passage ways that can only fit one person at a time.
So even if each of the boys had two expert divers guiding them, there are still portions they would be forced to navigate on their own. Very scary when you consider that even the expert navy divers say the water is muddy and the channels are very tricky to navigate. On top of that, there are other potential issues. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They got tangled with the diving guideline, for example, or your face mask got knocked aside and air rushed out and water rushed in, all of those are possibilities which we've have to overcome either by the boys' concern or perhaps the divers who are accompanying them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GALLAGHER: And remember, most of the boys don't even know how to swim and they are all in the process of learning how to use the diving gear just in case the monsoon rains push the water levels inside the cave even higher and the forecast is calling for heavy rain beginning on Saturday.
Meantime, they continue looking at other options including drilling a new entry way into the cave complex which would also be time consuming. Some cave rescue expert said the safest way to handle this is to leave the boys and their coach where they are and supply them with food, water and medicine until the rainy season ends in October.
Authorities say the boys appear skinny, but overall they are in good health. The problem is some of the navy SEALS who were inside that cave taking care of them say some of those boys simply are not strong enough to make it out on their own right. But they are working on getting them nourished and so if need be, they can make the trip out. Sandra?
SMITH: Trace, I heard earlier some of the boys were responding to rescue workers when they arrive and they wanted an update on the World Cup.
GALLAGHER: Because they are soccer players, right? These are 11 soccer players and they were fascinated by the World Cup going in and they are still fascinated even though they've been on that cave for 14 days.
SMITH: Amazing stuff. We'll continue to follow that story. We hope the absolute best for those rescue efforts as they are ongoing. Trace Gallagher on our west coast newsroom, thank you.
Well, that's it for our show tonight. The story, what did you think of the show? I'd love to see your thoughts. Sent them to me @SandraSmithFox on Twitter, and on Facebook as well, if you like to weigh in there. And I will see you bright and early again tomorrow morning. 'America's Newsroom,' join us daily from 9 a.m. to noon Eastern Time. Tucker Carlson is up next.
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