Ingraham: Far-left billionaires uniting to remake America
Top Democratic billionaires Tom Steyer and George Soros put their money behind far-left Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum for Florida governor.
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," August 29, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Boom. Great job, Rush. All right. Let not your hear be troubled. The news continues. Ingraham, she does radio too. She knows everything.
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Oh, hi. Oh, sorry. I was just -
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: Oh, yeah. Why would I watch "Hannity" show? What's the point?
INGRAHAM: I'm getting ready - Hannity, I'm getting ready for college football.
HANNITY: Big time, me, too.
INGRAHAM: Can you see what this is? Can I zoom in -- sort of zoom in on this? Yes.
HANNITY: I got to tell you one thing. What are you doing -- what is the college? What does it say?
INGRAHAM: Alabama, A, roll tide.
HANNITY: Wow. Roll tide.
INGRAHAM: Only ranked number one of the country.
HANNITY: I got to tell you one thing -- I'm now a Saturday football guy. The NFL can fight over the anthem all they want. I'm done. I'm watching Saturday college football.
INGRAHAM: No, I love my Redskins.
HANNITY: Whatever.
INGRAHAM: I'm always one of those Redskin hopefuls, where it's going to win one day again.
HANNITY: One day again. I know. I thought they had the best quarterback ever and sadly injuries got to him.
INGRAHAM: No. Hannity, when you bring up the football, you are so right because when Alabama came to the White House, Nick Saban shows up -
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Greatest coach ever. No doubt about it.
INGRAHAM: The players were there. Every -- I'm sure a lot of people don't like Trump or the players, but they were respectful. They showed up. It was a great event. It was a beautiful day. That's the way it should -- just respect the office. You can have disagreements if not.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Of course, it's nothing political. I agree with you. Let's keep this -- get the politics out of sports, period, agreed. Have a great show.
INGRAHAM: All right, Hannity, fantastic show tonight. Great job on the CNN issue. We're going to continue with more of that. Thanks so much. And welcome to Washington. I'm Laura Ingraham. This is 'The Ingraham Angle' on a very busy Wednesday night.
Another black eye for CNN. Do they have any other eyes other than black eyes at this point? Now, it's not just those stories they're getting wrong. Now they're defending one of the most violent groups in the country. A former CNN contributor is here to tell us what the heck is going on.
Plus some interesting excuses from Catholic leadership as a sexual abuse scandal widens. And what former Trump official is unveiling a new musical off-Broadway? I will give you a hint - it will have a short run. Raymond Arroyo joins us with that and more in Seen and Unseen and some exclusive details from inside that Bruce Ohr hearing yesterday. Former Prosecutor Andy McCarthy is here.
But first, far left billionaires uniting to remake America. That's the focus of tonight's "Angle."
Remember when the Democratic Party had a shred of a belief in freedom and democracy? The far left Bernie Sanders contingent used to be existing kind of only on the fringes. While more establishment figures, like Hillary Clinton and so forth, they ran the show. But no more. Big Democratic donors have begun to support some of the hard left socialist candidates that have emerged on the scene recently.
Last night's election told us a lot. Top Democratic billionaires, Tom Steyer and George Soros, put their money behind far left Tallahassee mayor, Andrew Gillum, for Florida governor. Defying expectations, he pulled off our primary victory last night against six other candidates. Gillum is the African-American male version of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He's young, he's kind of dynamic, and he's running on a platform of universal Medicare, legalize marijuana, and abolishing ICE. Exciting.
And he is viewed by hard left Democrats as kind of a savior from the stranglehold of the party's establishment has had on their desires, hopes, and dreams. They picked the perfect guy. His city hall under investigation, FBI, corruption, and Tallahassee boasting Florida's highest crime rate three years running. Good going, guys. That is something to run on.
But let's look at who his supporters are. Of course, many of you will be familiar with George Soros, the billionaire who has funded the Liberal Center for American Progress, moveon.org, and his Open Society Foundation, which spreads money all over the place, globally by the way. In the 2016 campaign cycle, "The New York Times" magazine reports that Soros spent $25 million on that loser campaign of Hillary Clinton and other leftist candidates' causes. This year, he's already blown $15 million to support Democratic candidates and other causes.
Now, Gillum knew a good deal when he saw it. So last year, he courted Soros' organizations and spoke at a number of their gatherings. Then when they met at San Francisco, Soros promised to back his gubernatorial run. He was impressed with Gillum.
Billionaire San Francisco financier and philanthropist, Tom Steyer, also bankrolled Gillum's campaigning and he saw him as basically a new and almost improved version of Obama because he was more left wing. Now, remember, Steyer is the activist who just finished up a 30-city town hall tour. And you know, he is contemplating his own 2020 run for president. That's part of what he's doing here. And he's not letting the grass grow underneath him. Steyer is running as encouraging people to sign a Trump impeachment petition. Steyer himself is kind of the impeachment pitch man. He's openly urging the president's removal from office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM STEYER, AMERICAN BILLIONAIRE: How much more does Congress need to see? Donald Trump has now been implicated in two felony crimes, and he's all but confessed to them on Fox News. No one is above the law. So we have to make sure this president doesn't use pardons to cover up crime. If you agree that a president should not be allowed to pardon himself or his associates, join us at needtoimpeach.com. The Washington establishment doesn't have the courage to act, but the American people can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: I should add that Steyer funneled about $800,000 into the Get Out the Vote initiative prior to the Gillum run. So, he was critical in that Gillum race as well. But listening to that impeachment commercial for a second, he thinks about the Democratic establishment, right? They've tried to keep the impeachment talk at arm's length.
Well, what they are really doing is letting the billionaires boys club do their dirty work for them because they know that this mobilizes the far left base, keeps them kind of happy. And it gives Nancy Pelosi, and even Schumer, Swalwell, those types, kind of plausible deniability. That's not us. That's Tom Steyer. And Steyer has promised to spend at least $30 million to elect progressives this campaign season. This means, by the way, that he -- not Soros so far -- is the most important Democratic donor the United States.
But like Soros, Steyer is not content to support any Democratic -- anyone who is running, any Democratic establishment person who comes along. His is bankrolling far left radicals who will upend the political system. That's where his mind is. He was at that -- I like the call it the not roots convention -- not roots convention -- all of those far lefties -- I got to -- crash that. It match left. We got to correct that someday, Matt. And they were in New Orleans earlier this summer. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEYER: How many people in this room think that the Democratic establishment in Washington is listening to you and doing what you want?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: None of them.
STEYER: Seriously. They are message to me and the 5.5 million Americans who are demanding Donald Trump's impeachment is that it's bad politics. It is off message and it will galvanize the Republicans. To you and to me and to millions of Americans, this is all pretty obvious.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: He should have worn a hoodie instead of no tie. He's trying to be like a really cool blue-collar guy, no tie, button a shirt. That's weird. If you're going to have it, open it -- button the next button down. It's weird. Sorry. I'm a woman who makes these comments.
I have a question, did you think like Maxine Waters is out of town that day? It's like no one was talking about impeachment. Some of them are. Anyway, Steyer is using his billions to ensure the candidacy of these newly minted socialists who he hopes will swamp America, the whole electoral landscape for the Democrats.
And Florida is a great place to start because if you can flip Florida, keep it blue or get it back to where they think it should be blue, they think they can take the presidency as well. That's what this is really all about. It's about 2020.
But here's the irony, both Soros and Steyer, of course, made all of their dough being aggressive capitalists, global capitalists. Remember, Soros got all that money over in Eastern Europe where the Soviet Union fell, big money, that he shorts the dollar, and then these guys have an inside deal on the hard-core capitalism.
But now that they have their billions, they want to spread the gospel of socialism, that's devastating countries like Venezuela. Two million people have left Venezuela, a huge health crisis in Venezuela, and also now in Nicaragua. We have 200,000 who fled Nicaragua. I'm going to tell you more about that story as the weeks go on.
Even Europe is beginning to reject the old socialist way. In fact -- this is kind of funny -- George Soros' former protege, Viktor Orban, was just reelected prime minister of Hungary earlier this year and Orban ran against Soros' old buddy. So this is, like, anti-Soros mania. They had big billboards up and he won big in Hungary. The Soros-backed Open Society Foundation, in fact, had to close its Budapest offices less than a month after Orban, his former protege, got re-elected. I love that story.
Back here in the United States, it would be so foolish for us, the Republican Party, among conservatives, to just kind of dismiss this as a bunch of billionaires wasting their money. Sometimes they have wasted their money, like on Hillary. But this is not a passing fad. This is a direction the Democrats are going in. They got all these young people. They think socialism is just kind of a social club. They don't know the history of socialism.
So conservatives better redouble their efforts to educate the young about the false promises and the dangers of socialism. We know they are not being properly talked about the perils of socialism in the public schools, private schools either for that matter, and the universities. So we have to do it.
And we have to commit real dollars to social media campaigns, exposing what socialism is doing, make them cool, make them sexy looking, make them educational. We got to plaster social media with that. And we have to support conservative candidates who are good or great in front of the camera to repel the leftist advance. If we don't act now, you can expect Tom Steyer's impeachment petition to grow, grow longer and longer. And that's "The Angle"."
Joining me now for a reaction is Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union; Victor Davis Hanson, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Eric Johnson, attorney and Democratic strategist.
All right, Schlapp, let's start with you. I've heard some conservatives kind of -- oh, I hope they do just waste their money. But when you see that Steyer -- it's really Steyer, lesser extent Soros -- Steyer has picked this guy out as the person most likely to push forward the socialist agenda in the state of Florida. That is not an exaggeration. And by golly, he won the primary.
MATT SCHLAPP, CHAIRMAN, AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE UNION: It worked, yeah.
INGRAHAM: How serious should Republicans take this lurch to the left funded by some of the richest people on the left in America?
SCHLAPP: Very serious because one of the things about our campaign laws, Laura, we don't know how much money he spends. You threw some numbers out there. That's just what we have to account for with record-keeping. We don't know what they are spending and they are dead serious that they want to spend their billions to really retake these seats.
I think you're right. It's not just about winning these governor races or the Senate races or House races. It's about taking back the White House and completely stopping the Trump agenda.
One final thing, the Republican Party's platform is actually pretty popular, but sometimes our leaders are worried to embrace it. The Democrat -- when the American people really know what the Democratic Party is, it is frightening. It is left wing and it is radical. And so, to a certain extent, I'd like to see this completely exposed.
INGRAHAM: Yeah. Well, they media are saying that this is -- this is, like, mainstream -- this is more mainstream. This is where the country is. And Victor Davis Hanson, I want to go to you. Soros and Steyer, they made all their money on betting on markets, shorten the markets, going long in the markets, playing all these games in Europe. And now it is, oh, no. We got to bring America back to the failed policies of Europe that are being rejected to the Europeans and have devastated places like Venezuela and now we are seeing what's happening in Nicaragua. Your reaction to all of this?
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, HOOVER INSTITUTION SENIOR FELLOW: I mean Steyer got his wealth in part through investing in coal plants abroad and George Soros was indicted and injected in France and he was responsible for the crisis of the Bank of England. So, they don't have sterling ethical records.
But the point is, the Democratic Party of Humphrey, JFK, or even Bill Clinton no longer exists. It's a pyramid with a few grandees on top that have enough money they can be immune from the consequences of their own ideology and then a group on the bottom who depend on subsidies and they have alienated the middle class.
A lot of this passion comes from misreading the two elections of Barack Obama. They felt that that was a trajectory that was going to be permanent and create a progressive future. And really, it was unique to Obama and Hillary Clinton inherited all the downsides of losing the middle class under Obama, who, after all, lost the House and Senate in a thousand local races. But she got none of the upside, that is record minority turnout and block voting.
And finally, they've so delegitimized Trump or at least attempted to and demonized them, but socialism is sort of -- is portrayed as a legitimate opposition to an abnormal situation. So, we usually -- and America don't like socialists. But if we create enough chaos, analogous to the 2008 election or the Watergate, then socialism looks sober and judicious as a foil.
INGRAHAM: OK. The lack of is ignorance. So, Victor, it's what you've written about for years. Matt, you've talked about it. This is in a level of ignorance about basic historical facts subverted in universities, subverted in our high schools, or not taught at all. Eric, you are proud Democrat, and I admire that. If I were Democrat today, while it's exciting to have all this money funneling in, just like the Republicans need suburban women voters, Democrats need the American middle class to return to the Democrat Party as sympathetic to their cause. How does socialism answer the concerns of blue-collar America?
ERIC JOHNSON, CIVIL AND CRIMINAL ATTORNEY: Laura, the question is, if you it is all socialism then it's something that's -
(CROSSTALK)
INGRAHAM: No, they're talking about -- no, no, Eric, they are calling it socialism. What are you talking about?
JOHNSON: No, that is -- they are not necessarily calling it socialism --
INGRAHAM: Ocasio-Cortez does.
(CROSSTALK)
JOHNSON: I think that's more of a -- no, no, not really. The thing is, if you want to label it --
INGRAHAM: Yes, she is.
JOHNSON: -- many people can label some of the -- many people can label some of the things on the right as being sort of corporate autocracy or oligarchy and not for the American people. So the way you want to choose and put down these labels of the political system determines the political -- determines the public opinion on these particular subjects.
Now, if you look at the donations, what Soros and what the other individual is doing is nothing different than what the Koch brothers have been doing for years for the Republican Party, feeding their money into these --
(CROSSTALK)
INGRAHAM: No, no. I agree with you on that. I'm not disagreeing with you. Let's stick on the issues where we want -- advance the narrative. You are right.
JOHNSON: Laura, the question is -
INGRAHAM: Koch brothers spent a lot of money on local races. I'm not saying they can't spend their money. What I'm talking about --
JOHNSON: What the question is, you are labeling it -
INGRAHAM: It's because -
(CROSSTALK)
JOHNSON: You're labeling it as socialism.
INGRAHAM: Eric, you have to know what your own people is saying. Ocasio- Cortez says socialism is part of me, part of what I represent. Bernie Sanders did not run away from the socialist label. And this Andrew Gillum in Florida is for Medicare -- free Medicare, free healthcare for all -- most socialist countries have that -- abolish ICE, OK, no bordering. We're going to have no enforcement mechanisms to return people to their home countries --
(CROSSTALK)
JOHNSON: Well, I want to say -- no enforcement mechanism, I would say that is different than the way that has been implemented right now. I don't believe he said open the borders total --
INGRAHAM: Yeah. Effective. So, we're not going to have effective --
JOHNSON: Well, I mean, right now, it's not necessarily as effective as it is, but it can be done in such a way that is protecting the borders but also protecting those individuals who are here and proper citizens in this country and those who are taking the proper steps to become citizens in this country.
INGRAHAM: All I can say -- all I can say for all you guys -- and we got to go to our next block -- but Barack Obama was called a disappointment by George Soros, the big "New York Times" magazine piece. He said Obama disappointed him because he didn't consult him enough. Obama wasn't socialist enough for Soros. Soros wants to move -- open society is really about open borders. That is what it is, no borders, no restriction on movement, sovereignty is out the window, all those principles we hold dear as Americans, they are subverted in that world. And I don't see how it's great for the Democrat Party, I don't think it's great for the country. But look, that's where it's going.
SCHLAPP: Hasn't been so good for Venezuela either.
INGRAHAM: No, it's not so good. Speaking of Venezuela -- thank you for raising that. We had to go guys. Thank you for the incredible panel.
We had a somewhat related topic here. Giancarlo Sopo is a Democrat. He is the son of parents who fled Castro's Cuba. And in the "USA Today" op-ed, he is warning the party against embracing what we just discussed, Democratic socialism.
He wrote, "Given the horrific record of human suffering, it would be a moral disgrace for Democrats to embrace socialism just to win elections as some suggest." Giancarlo joined us now. We're happy to have him. Giancarlo, you heard the conversation. Schlapp and Victor Davis Hanson saying, warning, history tells us like a flashing morning sign, do not go down this path. They were embracing Democratic socialism. I don't care what they're trying to calling it, but they're embracing it. Your reaction?
GIANCARLO SOPO, COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT: Well, look, I mean the socialists love poor people so much that they duplicate them by the millions. So, that's a philosophy of failure and it's a moral disgrace, like I said in my op-ed. What has happened in countries like Cuba and countries like Venezuela are human disasters. Thousands and thousands of Cubans have died at sea trying to flee socialism, trying to come to the United States of America. You have Venezuelans, 2 million have left their country in the last three years alone.
And so, what you're seeing is a mass exodus away from socialism, yet they are some -- I want to be clear, I think most Democrats are honorable, good people. But I think there are some within the party that are trying to infiltrate democratic socialism and they are trying to confuse people by making them think that it is what the system that they have in Denmark. It is not what they have in Denmark.
Denmark is a free-market capitalist country. What groups like the Democratic socialists of America are proposing are -- it's like ideological counterparts of what you see in Havana and in Caracas.
INGRAHAM: I mean, how long will you stay a Democrat though, honestly? You're going to stay a Democrat if this is where the juice ends up? If this is where it ends up, all the excitement is in the Democratic socialist movement, I mean, we want you to become a Republican. We want you to become -- you are a common sense guy. Your party is going crazy. Crazy left. Wrap it up it up.
SOPO: Well, look, what I got to tell you is that the party of John F. Kennedy cannot become the party of Karl Marx, right? What we are seeing, what's happening now because of some people -- not all -- but because of some, is that a few years ago we are seeing --
(CROSSTALK)
INGRAHAM: And they should denounce it. Right.
SOPO: Yes. They should denounce it. Absolutely.
INGRAHAM: We're out of -- I want to have you on an extended conversation on radio about this. It's fascinating. Republicans have their own challenges. This is a critical conversation and will have you back. Thank you so much.
Up next, CNN embarrassing itself once again. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: So, it wasn't enough for CNN to quadruple the number of dubious Trump Tower story, you know, the one that use Lanny Davis as a primary source. Well, they're now defending Antifa. CNN's senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, I thought he was a lot smarter than this, reacting to the president's warning that liberals will violently turn back his agenda if Republicans lose in November. He specifically mentions Antifa.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Let's be clear also about what is going on here. The theme here is I'm Donald Trump and I'll protect you from the scary black people. Antifa is widely perceived of as an African- American organization. This is about black versus white. This is about Donald Trump's appeal to racism, and it just happens all the time and we never say it -- we don't say it enough for what it is, but that is what is going on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: I got to say, these are the faces of Antifa. OK? Here are some of the lovelies that were arrested recently -- the Berkeley deal. Does this look like an oppressed black organization to you? I mean it's mostly liberal white kids in scarves, headscarves. It's Toobin's ham-handed attack on the president wasn't bad enough, though, anchor Don Lemon chose to defend them altogether.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Listen, there is -- no organization is perfect. There are some violence. No one condones the violence. But there are different reasons for antifa and for these neo-nazis to be there, one, racist, fascist, the other group fighting racist fascist. There is a -- fascist -- there is a distinction there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: They say no organization is perfect? There's a lot of moments where you just can't believe this is happening in our country. But joining me now with their reactions to what's going on over at CNN, Jeffrey Lord, former Reagan official who once worked as a CNN contributor; and Chip Franklin, national talk show host and media commentator.
Jeffrey Lord, let's start with you. You worked at CNN. I got to say I played Toobin bite on the radio this morning. I had to have my guys play that again. I said I don't -- I never in my life thought of antifa as a black organization. It is mostly the anti-WTO crowd, right, they occupy Wall Street crowd, overwhelmingly white, probably most of them privileged liberals.
JEFFREY LORD, AMERICAN SPECTATOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: Correct. I know most of these people over there and I like them enormously. I heard that this morning, and I almost fell out of my chair sitting in the living room. I mean, what are they smoking? I mean, this is just unbelievable to me.
All you have to do is do what I can't see, but what I assume you just noticed show some pictures here. Pay attention to these folks. Not to mention these folks are out and out fascists. I mean, they should drop the anti-and just call it fa. I mean this is a bad group of people. They are into violence, they are into hurting people, they have no business in the American dialogue, period. And for CNN to be lending them support is mind- boggling.
INGRAHAM: Chip, the president today expanded on the comments about violence and he said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF America: I just hope there won't be violence. I can tell you that -- I can tell you that because that's the way I guess if you look at what happens there's a lot of -- there's a lot of unnecessary violence all over the world but also in this country and I don't want to see it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: He doesn't want to see violence. So, when you see those pictures, the video from Berkeley, the Trump supporters getting bashed in the head, smashing windows every time a conservative speaks on college campus or if they are upset about taking over ICE. It's just craziness. How was this a racial issue on the part of CNN?
CHIP FRANKLIN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, that's really selective, Laura, for starters. By the way, Lemon said -- and you didn't have this in the quote -- he said there are racist and fascists and one-sided and there are good people on the other, like in Charlottesville. Cornel West told me if it weren't for Antifa, if they hadn't been there, if Antifa had not protected them, they would have been crushed like cockroaches.
Look. This country is built on violence. And this president you just played, he is a guy that set the climate. He is the guy that told the NRA they could shoot Hillary. He is a guy that told cops, why do you put the prisoners in cars and not bang their heads when -- why do you lower their heads? He also said this is a nation that if come in protest, we'll take care of the protests. He said --
INGRAHAM: I get you. So, you just recited, which is very familiar, the liberal --
FRANKLIN: I didn't recite anything.
LORD: I got to -- I got to ask -
(CROSSTALK)
INGRAHAM: What -- you recited the liberal talking points and you deflected my point. My point is a very simple one. Don Lemon -- hold on, Jeff -- Don Lemon made a distinction, and he made the distinction by saying that Antifa was, in fact, an organization that was kind of -- its own way standing up for what is right. And I'm paraphrasing it. There is no difference there whether there is --
(CROSSTALK)
FRANKLIN: Well, it's a grassroots organization by a lot of people.
INGRAHAM: What?
FRANKLIN: That it's the grassroots organization of a lot of people who are -- look, this country is built on violence, 300 million guns in this country, they go and they show up. Charlottesville is a classic example. They show up to stop racists. This president says, oh, there is good and bad on both sides.
INGRAHAM: Well, we played video, Jeffrey Lord, of Antifa chasing down a car after the latest protest in Washington when 24 white nationalists showed up in D.C. You got people menacing -- just regular people driving down the road. So, what I'm talking about is how great the Antifa people were --
FRANKLIN: I'm not saying there great. I'm saying --
(CROSSTALK)
INGRAHAM: They are thugs and domestic terrorists. Jeffrey?
FRANKLIN: Oh -- and the Charlottesville all right --
LORD: The American left -- wait a minute. Wait a minute.
FRANKLIN: The Bannon -- the people -- no, you wait. Trump was the one encouraging that -
(CROSSTALK)
INGRAHAM: Now, Bannon wasn't in Charlottesville, Chip. Don't sell that garbage on this show. Come on.
FRANKLIN: No, but --
LORD: Chip.
FRANKLIN: It's not garbage. You know what? The one-sided approach you add to this, the people on the right that are con for violence. Trump said, he said if the midterms go the Democrats way, there's going to be violence. You don't find a problem with that? That doesn't bother you.
INGRAHAM: You go back to Charlottesville -- we have Antifa all across the country. Charlottesville has been condemned, including by the president.
FRANKLIN: They don't have a central organization. These are people standing up against the kind of violence that you are propagating.
INGRAHAM: They are standing for chaos and anarchy. Jeffrey?
LORD": Laura, in 1968 Donald Trump was, what, about 18-years-old or something like that? Where was he when the Democrats were under siege that their own Democratic convention by leftist protesters? Donald Trump was nowhere near these WTO protests. He was nowhere near when they were smashing windows --
FRANKLIN: Seriously, you're going back to '68? Mayor Daley is dead. Let's talk about today.
LORD: You're telling me this is Donald Trump's fault? You're telling me this is Donald Trump's fault? This is in the left, violence is in the DNA of the American left, and always has been.
FRANKLIN: You are high. Look, if this president comes out every day and calls for violence against people who disagree with his administration --
INGRAHAM: What? He comes out every day -- he just said, we got to tamp down on the violence, it's not good in this country, and we can't stand for it. We just literally played the soundbite, Chip. And you come out and say that you should work for CNN. God bless you, but we just played the sound bite work Trump said no violence. And you say the president --
FRANKLIN: This is a guy that lies. He's lied to 3,000 times in the year and half, and you're going to take one sound bite and say that exemplifies this president? Come on. You've got to be honest with yourselves.
INGRAHAM: I think, again, if the Democrats want to appeal to people in the middle who they need, and Republicans have their own set of challenges, you got to be very careful who is running the show on the protest front. And that applies to Charlottesville and it applies to Antifa.
Great conversation. Mounting calls to the Pope to resign. We'll tell you about it, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: It's time for our "Seen and Unseen" segment where we unravel some of the big cultural stories of the day.
Tonight we have Me Too comeback, a Trump musical, and a cardinal dismissing the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. I'm joined by Raymond Arroyo, FOX News contributor, "New York Times" bestselling author of the fantastic "Will Wilder" series. Raymond, the Me Too movement claimed a lot of careers, but now it seems like comedian Louis C.K., he was out. He's a big Trump basher by the way, and now he's in.
RAYMOND ARROYO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: FX, HBO, Netflix, they all canned him. You remember he exposed himself to women, sexual, inappropriate actions. He left. He apologized, though, Laura. Now he is staging a comeback. And in New York the other day, he did a 15-minute set at a little comedy club on the east side. And people are complaining, particularly victims, saying it's too early, you shouldn't have come back. This is a little taste of his comedy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LOUIS C.K., COMEDIAN: I'm the guy that women see and they go uh.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: And they are still going uh. And now Matt Lauer of "Today" show fame, he talked to some fans at a restaurant, it was reported in page six this week. He said, I'm going to back on TV soon. Matt Lauer had a list as long as my arm off accusations against him. The question is how long do you have to stay in Me Too purgatory? My sense is, you have to have a public contrition. You need to be called out and shamed publicly, I think. But then it's up to the audience. These guys can put their toes in the water and see if the audience will accept them. My guess is they want. The scandal is bigger.
INGRAHAM: Matt Lauer, a lot of the blue hairs were going up to him -- Matt, I love you and Willard Scott. You were great with Willard. They're the glory days. We like the Smuckers segment.
ARROYO: Where's Bryant?
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: Looking for Bryant Gumbel and Katie. I've got to tell you about a new off-Broadway musical that was unveiled the other day by a former, it's very brief, White House official. He introduced the cast of a new Trump musical at a New York press conference. I wish I were making this up. Here's Anthony Scaramucci.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: It just is great fun. My stock answer is I always wanted a second White House press conference, and I couldn't get one, because I only lasted 11 days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: So he introduced this cast, who are playing members of the Trump family. I will set this up very quickly. This is kind of like an Osmond special, Trump family is gathering, but daddy Trump doesn't show up. So Ivanka has to assume the role as hostess. And what does the family do when data is detained? They sing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SINGING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Oh, my God.
ARROYO: That is so lousy.
INGRAHAM: Did Anthony Scaramucci, who's been very nasty, by the way, to me, very nasty, even though he sat where you set a couple of times, not anytime soon, but did he have some creative -- was he better at producing or being involved in this than he was as five seconds as press secretary?
ARROYO: I think they just hired him to promote this thing. But why? It's so embarrassing. It's like a guy --
INGRAHAM: First of all, why is Ivana back? God bless her, Ivana is not a fat woman.
ARROYO: I will only go see this win the Mooch and Omarosa are fill-ins. When they come into the cast, I'll be there.
INGRAHAM: This weekend a former Vatican diplomat charged that the Pope and several bishops worked to conceal and protect sexual abusers in the Catholic Church. Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Blase Cupich told the local NBC affiliate of the Pope is just too busy for all this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARDINAL BLASE J. CUPICH ARCHBISHOP OF CHICAGO: The Pope has a bigger agenda. He's got on to other things, talking about the environment and protecting migrants and carrying on the work of the church. We're not going to go down a rabbit hole on this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: So wait a minute, charges that there are corruption and a culture of silence at the very upper echelons of the church, that is a rabbit hole, that affects victims today and victims to come? I don't think so.
INGRAHAM: Let me just tell you, that Cupich comment was disgusting, dismissive, and revealing of how far left the Catholic Church has gone.
ARROYO: I can top it. He said, here's the real reason that we are seeing this resistance to Pope Francis and these accusations. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARDINAL BLASE J. CUPICH ARCHBISHOP OF CHICAGO: Quite frankly, they also don't like him because he's a Latino.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: What?
ARROYO: They don't like him because he's Latino. Bergoglio is full- blooded Italian who grew up in Argentina. So I am more Latino than him. But I don't know if we're going to have time. There was a cheer that went up today at the Papal event, the Wednesday audience in Rome, and some people thought they were yelling "Vigano," who is the archbishop that made this --
INGRAHAM: Accusations that the Pope knew about McCarrick's sleeping the seminarians deal. Let's watch the audience.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CHANTING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: There is some dispute as to whether this is actually Vigano. There was a bishop on the stage with the Pope. His name is Italio. And they're saying this is a crowd of kids yelling Italio, Italio. Some friends who I knew were they, they claim that it was a blend of things.
INGRAHAM: It started Italio.
ARROYO: It ended Vigano.
INGRAHAM: This is like that viral thing. What was it?
ARROYO: Yanni or Laurel?
INGRAHAM: Yanni or Laurel? Vigano or Italio?
ARROYO: You be the judge.
INGRAHAM: We won't, except when I listened to it, sounds like Vigano to me. What is that telling the Pope up there, what is it telling him?
ARROYO: Let me tell you, he is, according to reports, embittered by this, but he hasn't said anything. People are crying --
INGRAHAM: Guess what Vigano said. He said I am completely serene and at peace because I said the truth.
As President Trump launches a new offensive against the DOJ's Bruce Ohr, we have new info tonight about what Mr. Ohr revealed during his closed-door testimony, next.
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INGRAHAM: President Trump took another shot earlier today at Bruce Ohr, that DOJ official thought to be behind the politically charged Steele dossier, tweeting, "How the hell is Bruce Ohr still employed at the Justice Department? Disgraceful. Witch hunt." I happen to agree.
We have now learned some inside details of what happened to Mr. Ohr when he testified behind closed doors yesterday. Joining me now to explain is former federal prosecutor and Fox News contributor Andy McCarthy. With me here in the studio, former DOJ attorney James Trusty. Andy, let's start with you. What can we conclude now about Ohr? Then we're going to move on to the Sessions and the Donald McGahn issue.
ANDY MCCARTHY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Apparently, Laura, Ohr is cooperating with the Congressional committees, and I think the most intriguing thing we heard was that he provided the names of a number of people who were in the loop in terms of what he was doing in communications with Steele.
He was in communication with Christopher Steele, who is the author of the dossier, throughout the period of time that the dossier was being written and compiled by Steele, and it seems that Ohr is an important person because he's really at the nexus of the Fusion GPS and the Justice Department, FBI side of what I think is actually the most interesting collusion we have seen so far.
INGRAHAM: You've written a great stuff about what the real collusion is here. And James, it is wild that we don't have any indication that Bruce Ohr was -- either he wasn't revealing that his wife was a Fusion GPS person to any of his superiors, or they didn't care. Meanwhile, meeting with Christopher Steele, and now apparently seeing a widening circle of people involved in this. What is your initial take on this?
JAMES TRUSTY, FORMER DOJ ATTORNEY: The whole thing is amazing. And at some point, the disclosure about where his wife is working obviously should have made its way through the channels. But I think that the whole circumstance of sitting down from his position with Christopher Steele a dozen times, with the FBI taking notes and creating a report, is just unheard of. I have to think, we'll find out eventually maybe, but I have to think it's freelancing, that he's on his own frolicking detour with the FBI, with nobody supervising, nobody looking at it, and we all find out --
INGRAHAM: We don't know, we don't know, though, do we? This went into 2017 with his having these conversations. This was proceeding past the election.
TRUSTY: Sure.
INGRAHAM: And we know about the insurance policy that they needed. That was discussed by Stzrok. They are freaking out that Trump is president. This is all they got, they got this dossier. They've got to keep this thing going, keep this thing going in order to get the surveillance to continue, the FISA warrant to continue against poor old Carter Page, the affable Carter Page, a sweet guy. But the whole thing, it's like, we've got to hold onto something. Christopher Steele, we are not supposed to talk to him because he's already talking to the media, the explicitly axed him out, but I can still have these backchannel conversations with him. That can't be ethical, is it?
TRUSTY: You can't, no.
INGRAHAM: Crazy. How is he working in the Justice Department still, by the way?
TRUSTY: Let me say this. When you are the Department of Justice, I was there for a long time, Andy was there for a long time, in main justice, although there some wonderful people that work in international affairs that choose to work there, there is no bigger sign of purgatory then being sent there against your will. So the fact that Bruce Ohr is an international affairs means that he is not an favored status. He's hanging by a thread. The cumbersome process of discharging a federal employee is very long, but that's a clear sign that he is not in cahoots or in step with the leadership there. They are not looking to keep them there.
INGRAHAM: Andy, let's talk about where we are with the Jeff Sessions in and Jeff Sessions out of favor at the White House. Democrats are now kind of rushing -- sometimes with Jeff Sessions, they don't like him on any policy, but you get the sense that if Trump is mad at Jeff Sessions, Democrats want to embrace Sessions. What is happening there?
MCCARTHY: It's hard to know, Laura, because in terms of what we are talking about tonight, we haven't seen anything happening. Sometime ago, the attorney general -- this is months ago -- said that he was referring this sort of investigation of the investigators to both the inspector general at the Justice Department, Mike Horowitz, and also to John Huber, the United States attorney for the district of Utah, who is supposed to be taking an independent look at this, as if he were a special counsel but one who is in house in the Justice Department rather than brought in from outside, like Robert Mueller.
That all sounds great. In fact, it is along the lines of what I and a number of other people recommended. The bizarre thing is we haven't heard a thing about it. And I'm all for investigative integrity and investigative secrecy, but at a certain point I think we are entitled to know what are they looking at, what have they come up with, and can we get some kind of an interim report of where they're at. We haven't heard a word.
INGRAHAM: Ben Sasse, quickly, James, said he's not going to push to confirm any replacement for Jeff Sessions. The never Trump people, they keep creating a narrative we've got to protect Mueller, special counsel, we've got to protect Rosenstein, we've got to protect Sessions. I never heard these people more willing to protect Republicans in my life.
TRUSTY: It is unusual stretch. How often have we seen a president basically publicly ridiculing the attorney general and the deputy attorney general? We are pretty far removed from John and Robert Kennedy at this point. But the bottom line if it is, the president is entitled to have faith in the people that he puts in those positions. He clearly has problems with him.
What I think is kind of interesting is you're starting to see little bits of backlash in very subtle ways from either the attorney general or the DAG, where they are getting very fatalistic, the deputy attorney general. They've just being very fatalistic. If you are going to fire me, fire me, and that's kind of the tone they are taking. But they are still chugging along and doing their business. So a lot of politics do it, but in terms of the day-to-day operations of the department, I think it is going to keep going.
INGRAHAM: Andy, does Don McGahn, his apparent departure after the confirmation of Kavanaugh it looks like, anything big that we should know there?
MCCARTHY: Laura, I really don't think so. For myself, I've heard this was going to happen for months, and I have much less good sources than you all down in Washington have. So it doesn't seem to me like --
INGRAHAM: They're freaking out about this all day long. So I figured Andy McCarthy would set us straight. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Now we have some horrifying revelations out of rural New Mexico in that horrible case there that the media is not showing you. According to the most recent evidence, the Wahhaj family has been using their compound as a terrorist training camp for the 11 children they were holding. Agents found these handwritten letters titled "Phases of a terrorist attack," which detail the steps to a successful suicide attack in the name of Allah, yes, in the United States of America.
Despite all of that, a judge in New Mexico today decided to release three of the five defendants, ruling authorities violated the state's 10-day rule. How do you botch that? Andy McCarthy is back with us. I'm so glad you stayed, Andy, because this also has an interesting connection to the case that you worked on, the '93 World Trade Center bombing. We're going to get to that in a moment. But explain how we could get to this place where three of the five defendants are released.
MCCARTHY: While, Laura, they made these arrests a couple of weeks ago, and I guess they have been investigating since, and they have gotten to the point where they either have to charge them and an indictment or go through what they call a probable cause or a preliminary hearing. And what I sense happens was they decided that two of these characters were the ringleaders, and they appear to have ratcheted up the charges on the two of them. And then decided perhaps that they couldn't make the case and the other three, so they didn't go forward on those. That doesn't mean that they can't at some future time indict them, but that seems unlikely to me.
INGRAHAM: I guess, it doesn't matter if they are flight risk because they are not charged with anything. But that is the concern obviously. Right?
MCCARTHY: Right. They had already been sprung on bail to begin with, which was I think in some ways more outrageous than what happened today, because if what happened today they didn't have enough evidence to go forward that's one thing. But letting any of them out I think is insane.
INGRAHAM: Can you explain -- the whole thing drives me -- this whole case is so hideous, what was done to their children, one dead. But Andy, explain your connection, I've got a minute left, to this case and the '93 World Trade Center bombing.
MCCARTHY: Laura, the father of the ringleader runs a fairly notorious mosque in Brooklyn. His name is also Siraj Wahhaj, and that mosque hosted the blind sheikh who I prosecuted in the early 1990s in connections with the World Trade Center bombing and a plot to bomb New York City landmarks. He actually appeared, that is, the eldest, Siraj Wahhaj, as a character witness for the defendants in the trial. So we are seeing a guy who was enmeshed in this ideology back when, and here you have the results of it.
INGRAHAM: We are welcoming this into the United States apparently. And then releasing people back into the system. I don't have a good feeling about this at all. Andy McCarthy, thank you so much for your insights, as always, so appreciated. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Raymond and I are going back and forth. Is it Italo or Vigano?
ARROYO: Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CHANTING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: Now I kind of hear Vigano. I kind of hear Vigano.
INGRAHAM: Vigano is the archbishop accusing the Pope about McCarrick.
ARROYO: Right. And Italio is a bishop that was standing next to the Pope at the Wednesday --
INGRAHAM: I'll say the Vatican tonight I bet is saying it's Italio. They don't want that archbishop's name to be shouted, the papal audience. What's causing trouble now over the Vatican? I think -- we out-troubled (ph) the cause (ph) here. Shannon Bream, by the way, and the "Fox News @ Night" team do not cause trouble. They just do a great show every night. And I watch every night before I go to sleep. Shannon?
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