Laura Ingraham on Sarah Palin's Private E-mail Being Hacked

This is a rush transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," September 19, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the week in review from "The Ingraham Angle" segment tonight: The son of a Tennessee politician is under suspicion for hacking into Sarah Palin's private e-mail. But there is no confirmation the college student actually did it, so we're not putting out his identity. However, we're confident federal authorities will arrest and prosecute the hacker involved in this very terrible situation.

Joining us now from Washington, FOX News analyst and radio talk show star Laura Ingraham, whose book "Power to the People" is in paperback and in your bookstore right now. Available on all the dotcoms as well. I hope you sell a lot of that "Power to the People." That's a good book. I enjoyed that.

OK. We talked about this with Megyn Kelly Thursday night, and we all agree that federal law was broken. This hacker is probably going to probably go to jail. Do you see it that way?

Click here to watch "The Ingraham Angle."

LAURA INGRAHAM, AUTHOR, "POWER TO THE PEOPLE": Well, I would hope so.

Bill, a couple of things about this. No. 1, imagine if a Republican, whether a college student or not, had hacked into, let's say Michelle Obama's personal account or any other prominent Democrat. Let's say it was Nancy Pelosi's personal account. You would hear wails of protest from all of these privacy advocates that we always hear from every time there's terrorist surveillance or surveillance cameras put up in streets or in public places. The same people who are so quick to protect pornographers with privacy concerns and privacy rights are suddenly silent when it comes to this issue.

O'REILLY: I haven't heard the ACLU rallying to Sarah Palin's cause here.

INGRAHAM: Well, because — yes, yes, well, I mean, they go, "Oh, well, maybe she did some professional government business on her private accounts," which is ridiculous. Of course, it showed that she didn't. And it doesn't justify the initial electronic intrusion. And I think, Bill, we should ask this question: Who, if anyone, put this kid or whoever is responsible, up to this?

O'REILLY: That's an interesting question...

INGRAHAM: Any political motivation?

O'REILLY: ...because the Web sites that print this stuff often pay for this information. But Kelly tells me Thursday night, you can't prosecute those Web sites; they didn't break the law. The person who hacked it did but not — and I'm saying, hold it. That's like somebody stealing a letter out of my mailbox, your mailbox, giving the contents of the letter to somebody else. They're receiving stolen property. But in our laws here in America, the Web sites, even if they pay for this stuff, can't be prosecuted.

INGRAHAM: Well, it's similar to, you know, libel laws and the difficulties that public figures...

O'REILLY: Yes. Crazy.

INGRAHAM: ...have with libel and slander and so forth. If you republish libelous material, it's much more difficult to get at you than it is to get at the original culprit.

But I'm going to say this again. If there is some pressure that was put on this individual or encouragement to hack into her account for political purposes, I'd certainly hope all these privacy advocates that we always hear from when terrorists are being surveilled, I hope we hear from them.

O'REILLY: You won't hear from them, Laura.

INGRAHAM: And I hope they stand up for privacy.

O'REILLY: No, you won't.

INGRAHAM: It's an absolute...

O'REILLY: You know what the — you know what the hypocrisy level is.

Now Thursday on "The Factor"...

INGRAHAM: Yes, Bill, it's off the charts.

O'REILLY: ...we had our "Culture Warrior" segment, our debut. And we talked about the reason that some women in the media hate — and I mean hate with a capital "H" — Sarah Palin. It comes down to abortion, OK? That's what's driving the hatred.

Yes, she's a conservative, but it goes way beyond that. It goes into the personal. Her family has been attacked. She's been attacked in every way that you can attack the woman. Do you agree with that? It's the abortion issue driving that?

INGRAHAM: Yes, without a doubt, Bill. You know, on that Wednesday of the convention week in St. Paul, I had to fill in for Sarah Palin at the big pro-life event. She didn't go because she was getting ready for her big speech. So I stepped in.

And the first thing I said to hundreds and hundreds of people — I think it was like 1,000 people and a bank of television cameras — was they hate the fact that she exists, not just her position, but she exists because she lives her pro-life stance.

I mean, if you've noticed on the campaign trail and in her interviews, she doesn't spend a lot of time wagging her finger or lecturing on abortion, because her personal life story reveals what she really believes. And I think she lives her principles, and that, in and of itself, Bill is very threatening. And I think — and very difficult for these people who believe that abortion rights are the holy grail of politics and who are desperate to keep away facts from the people, like the fact that 90 percent of women abort their Down syndrome children.

So when she holds up that little boy in front of the camera, and the camera goes in and they say, "This is a living, breathing, beautiful little boy," wow, everybody stops for a moment and thinks. And I think that's very profound.

O'REILLY: Do you think there's any guilt on the other side that drives a lot of this stuff?

INGRAHAM: I think her life choices obviously expose, in other people's lives, maybe choices that they made that were different. And I'm not going to look into the hearts of other people, but I would imagine that there are a lot of women out there who have maybe made the decision to have an abortion that see Sarah Palin, and they think, "Wow, that's brave of her. Good for her." Or women who are carrying children that might have a disability, and they've already found out, and maybe they're going to change their mind on aborting that child.

I think it's a powerful testament for life, and in many ways, Bill, much more effective than lecturing. And...

O'REILLY: Oh yes, sure. But the hatred that comes along with it disturbs me as an American. I know the hatred that Governor Palin has directed toward her, and it shouldn't be there.

INGRAHAM: Yes, well, the more they hate her, the more interesting she becomes to a lot of women, and I think it ultimately backfires.

O'REILLY: OK, real quick, the Gallup daily tracking has Obama up by five. It's because of the economy and turbulence on Wall Street. The debate is a week from tonight. Do you want to make a prediction in the election right now, real fast?

INGRAHAM: Well, I think — I mean, I think betting people are, you know, out there still betting on Obama. I think John McCain has opportunity. I think he's uncomfortable talking about the economy, and it shows. I think he has to expose what Obama's plans are, which is frankly not going to do anything to grow this economy. I think he's had a bad week.

O'REILLY: All right. Laura, thanks very much.

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