BuzzFeed reporter doubles down on story despite being debunked by Mueller team

This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," January 21, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

LAURA INGRAHAM, HOST: All right. I'm Laura Ingraham. This is "The Ingraham Angle" from Washington. Tonight Donald Trump Jr. will be here in moments to react to the BuzzFeed bombshell that kind of fizzled out in spectacular fashion a lot more. But, first, the tale of the tape that's the focus of tonight's angle.

The left-wing smear and the "Never Trump" smear squad is at it again. With this piece of video from Friday--

A smattering of nasty Trump resistors set out to destroy the lives of a group of Kentucky High School students in D.C. for the March for Life. Well they're from Covington Catholic High and our scene in the video purportedly confronting this Native American activist at the Lincoln Memorial. They were immediately denounced by left-wing loons, the media and various know- nothing celebrities as basically just MAGA headed racists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

S.E. CUPP, HOST OF CNN'S "SE CUPP UNFILTERED": A mob of MAGA hat wearing high school students. Clearly, these boys are not getting a good education because it makes little sense to angrily chant build the wall to a population with literally zero illegal immigrants.

PETER ALEXANDER, FILL-IN HOST, KASIE DC: The net result is that video and Americans again trying to figure out where race relations stand in this country.

MICHAEL STEELE, FORMER RNC CHAIRMAN: We've come a long, long way from the from the days of dogs - police dogs and fire hoses and lynchings and those types of things. But those activities take different forms today. The KKK, the Nazis, they aren't running around in hoods and burning crosses, they're getting tiki torches and wearing Izods and pullovers, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Even Catholics like media darling Father James Martin jumped on the condemnation train tweeting, "Catholic school students at the March for Life attempt to shame and disrespect a man at the Indigenous People's March. These actions are not catholic, not Christian and not acceptable".

Well, in record time the school administrators and the Diocese of Covington also issued statements condemning the students' actions and they reserved the right to expel them. But perhaps most disappointing of all was when the Head of the March for Life, Jeanne Mancini rushed into virtue signal, tweeting. "The reprehensible behavior shown in the video in no way represents the 46 years and millions of people who have peacefully and respectfully gathered in Washington D.C. to stand up for the unborn".

Well she and Father Martin and some others later backed off when they all realized that there was another side to the story. It turns out when you look at an hour's worth of video covering the entire incident a few things emerge.

The students had gathered to listen to a group that calls itself the Black Hebrew Israelites, I've never heard of them before. But, for anyone, I guess, who's traverse Times Square, the routine of these activists is pretty predictable. They use racially charged rhetoric in an attempt to provoke reactions and then they capture it all on video. And this is what they were doing to the Covington High School students.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This child molesting - priest right there. That's "Make America Great Again" A bunch of child molesting - .

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at all those dusty - crackers with the racist garbage on. Look at these dirty - crackers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A bunch of incest babies! A bunch of babies made out of incest!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The biggest terrorist on the face of the earth is the pale face man, woman and child.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Well, contrary to the early reporting on this story, it became clear that the students didn't confront anyone. All they did was stand their ground as they were being verbally assaulted.

Now why wasn't that the focus of the media story? Like, imagine if a couple of white pastors started yelling racial epithets that say black students on MLK Day. You think that would be a story? You bet it would be, and it should be.

But let's face it this is different, because the Covington students had marched for the unborn. And the other sin they committed was daring to show up wearing red MAGA hats in D.C. So they were cast as a bunch of troublemakers.

The Native American activists initially claimed he was surrounded by the kids, but other video shows it was he, Nathan Phillips, who initially approached the students banging that drum in the face of Nick Sandmann, the student.

Well, Phillips, the activist, claims he did so to defuse the tensions between the Black Hebrew Israelites and the students. Well, does it look like his defusing tensions to you?

The Covington students started singing school chants, but not Sandmann, who despite someone yelling and beating a drum in his face, did not say a word. The Covington High School junior in a statement wrote yesterday.

"I believe that by remaining motionless and calm, I was helping to defuse the situation. I realized everyone had cameras and that perhaps a group of adults were trying to provoke a group of teenagers into a larger conflict. I'm being called every name in the book, including racist, and I'll not stand for this mob white character assassination of my family's name".

Well, the left isn't used to people standing their ground, are they? Not the way the Covington teen stood his. I think a lot of them get a perverse thrill when they drive their political targets out of restaurants or when they show up at their homes or in some cases even physically attack them, just for - what the clothing, they're wearing clothing with messaging that the left-wing activists don't like?

But these people - I'm going to stop calling them activists. They're not activists. And they're not simply professional rabble rousers. They're more like - I don't know - they're more like domestic terrorists.

And yes, that's how I characterize them, because they're used to operating with total impunity because they usually get cover from a complicit media, and sometimes even from local officials who do nothing as Trump supporters are literally taking a beating as they did during that 2016 - June 2016 campaign event in San Jose for Trump.

These Trotskyite trolls, incapable and uninterested in actually winning the war of ideas are instead at war with the First Amendment and the free expression of others. And by the way, who caused this caustic environment? This is the environment we live in today where leftist hacks engaged in these guerrilla tactics.

Trump? I mean, the President responsible for the booming economy, including the good low unemployment for young people and for minorities? Or how about the guy who defied all the skeptics to get Criminal Justice Reform passed? Look, he ain't perfect. None of us are. But he did not empower the mob. But meet a few of the people who did.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ, D-N.Y.: When the President first assumed office with his racist and violent rhetoric.

REP. GREGORY MEEKS, D-N.Y.: Racism is still alive and well in the United States of America and is just we have a President that seems to help unleash it and give people feeling that they can come out of the closet with that kind of racism.

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES, D-N.Y.: We have a hater in the White House, the Birther-in-Chief, the Grand Wizard of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. One of the things that we've learned is that while Jim Crow may be dead, he's still got some nieces and nephews that are alive and well

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Now this Covington Catholic High School episode also reveals something that reared its ugly head during the Kavanaugh battle, blatant anti-Catholic bigotry and an animus even toward catholic education.

The left was clearly attempting to spin this nothing story into an indictment, not only of Trump supporters, but of the pro-life cause and the faith that sustains it. If pressed, what they'll you their ultimate goal is. Is to shut down catholic and Christian education and eradicate all vestiges of those moral traditions underpinning them.

Here's a smattering of the weekend check it out. Former Chair of the DNC, Howard Dean howled the following. "Covington Catholic High School seems like a hate factory to me. Why not just close it?" An LA-based DJ named, Uncle Shoes tweeted, "Locked the kids in the school and burn that B - to the ground".

Jack Morrissey, a producer who worked on Disney's live-action Beauty and the Beast tweeted this beauty. "MAGA kids go screaming, hats first, into the woodchipper."

Erik Abriss of Vulture tweeted, "I don't know what it says about me, but I've truly lost the ability to articulate the hysterical rage, nausea and heartache this makes me feel. I just want these people to die. Simple as that. Every single one of them. And their parents".

CNN'S Bakari Sellers tweeted out of the Covington student saying this, "He is deplorable. Some people can also be punched in the face".

My friends you have to know the new rules, if someone is wearing a red MAGA hat, you're that person, well, you're a racist. And if you're a catholic at a pro-life march in red hat, you deserve whatever happens to you.

The real thugs, they're not the students, who stood and did nothing. They're the people who jeered the students in-person and online, and the people actually threaten them with actual violence. And by the way, most of these tweets have not been deleted and few accounts have even been suspended, that's only just a few of them. And what does that mean? It's going to happen again and again and again.

Though, if you have the right political views, you can actually assault law enforcement on the steps of the D.C. monuments, landmarks, like the Supreme Court. You're good to go, no questions asked.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Hoffman (ph), why is it you think you shouldn't be on the sides? Mr. Hoffman (ph) - Mr. Hoffman (ph), why is it you shouldn't be on the sides? Are you concerned about your safety and safety of your coworkers? Are you concerned about your safety and safety of your coworkers? Do you have reason to believe all they were throwing muffins (ph). That they are armed? I know you believe that there are some safety concerns for your co-officers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Verbal assaults that the police have to put up with every day. Well, it's the First Amendment. And why wasn't that a story though? Lots of other stories like it. The Covington students deserve more than an apology. Lucky for them, there was that additional clarifying video that made so many of these malevolent morons eat crow.

Still, though, these anti-male, anti-religious zealots have already done their damage. Lives have been threatened just like lives on the Duke Lacrosse team, the UVA Fraternity Brothers or Brett Kavanaugh. They're all treated as disposable, kind of like collateral cultural damage. The question is, though, how will we as a society hold the real thugs accountable, and that's the angle.

Here now Glenn Greenwald, Co-Founding Editor and Columnist for "The Intercept" that covers a lot of media issues. Glenn, why was this such a potentially juicy narrative for the media? I happily was not focusing on this over the weekend. I was with my family. But I started seeing it blow up, and I was wondering, this is really a wild story. I wonder if there's any other video and then, of course, other video came up.

GLENN GREENWALD, CO-FOUNDING EDITOR "THE INTERCEPT": So I didn't comment it all over the weekend, because it was immediately clear to me that these snippets of video would make it impossible to know with any confidence what actually took place.

And maybe that's my lawyer background, maybe it's yours as well, even in the controlled courtroom setting, where there's due process and all kinds of controls to make sure evidence is presented authentically and without distortion. It's very difficult to know who's telling the truth and who isn't, what happened and what didn't.

And so when you start having this kind of trial by Twitter mob, it's just obvious that there's no way to have any confidence about what took place. Having said that, and I think that's dangerous. I do think that even the full video reveals some things that I do think are disturbing in the students actions, even when it's true that some of the worst things said about them are clearly false.

There's some of them at least who were doing things like mocking the Native American with tomahawk chants, mocking the way in which he was singing. They were 15 years old, but at the same time, I don't consider that exemplary behavior. I think there is a question about why this captured so much media attention.

And I think one of the reasons is, is that a lot of our politics is very racially polarized. And you can blame the left and I think sometimes that's legitimate. But a lot of President Trump's rhetoric is responsible for that as well--

INGRAHAM: I got it.

GREENWALD: - and I think that's the subtext to here.

INGRAHAM: Yes, I understand that and I appreciate your analysis, because it's even-handed. I mean, thank god, I didn't have video of stuff I was doing when I was 15, 16. I wasn't going to - I didn't travel to Washington, I didn't go to stuff like this, but it stupid things.

But when you think about the way that people are approaching, whether it's law enforcement, members of the military, things they say to them on a daily basis, get to an inch away from their face and scream and yell, and I mean, horrible things. I mean, maybe people think they deserve it, maybe these people they don't deserve it. But the media never ever, ever roll with that for like a weekend of story - of coverage.

But if these kids were wearing those MAGA hats and it reminded me a lot of the Kavanaugh story. It reminded me of like Georgetown Prep. They're all a bunch of horrible people, they're all a bunch of drunks. They don't do - it was it was that stereotype. And it's almost, Glenn, the kind of profiling that the left accuses police of doing regularly.

But they're doing it, like everybody's profiling each other like snap judgments, without taking a breath, without saying, "OK, what - let's look at really what happened here". And let's look at some of the background on the activists himself who's accused other people wrongly of things in the past. But they didn't do that, because it's a kid with a red hat who looks like he has a smirk on his face. So he must be a racist. That really was the conclusion by the dominant media.

GREENWALD: I mean, I think the worst thing that you showed was the tweet from a CNN paid commentator, who essentially was urging that a 15-year-old child be physically and violently attacked. I mean, that's really pervert. It's actually kind of - not just perverse, but perverted to have fantasies about punching a 15-year-old boy in the face based on things that, as it turned out, there's at least questions about what he did.

Why isn't that kind of incitement to violence something at least is disturbing? But, again, I think the context here is really important, which is, there are a lot of people in the country who are African American, who are Latino, who are Native American, who are Muslim who feel, I think with good reason, vulnerable and attacked and this is the context for all of these debates.

Imagine, Laura--

INGRAHAM: What's the role of the media, though? What's media's role in this, Glenn?

GREENWALD: Well, in this case the media was incredibly reckless and they've been reckless in many cases inflaming it and a lot of them even admitted that. But imagine, Laura, if this had been a elderly white priest who was leading the pro-life movement surrounded by black or Latino teenagers chanting, mocking him, I think, things would be seen differently by both sides.

So, I think, you're right, that journalist in this case and many others, wildly and recklessly inflame the situation. But I also think it's not without justification and validity that a lot of people see this as concerning behavior.

INGRAHAM: And Glenn what about the BuzzFeed story, I've got to pick your brain on that real quickly. We're going to talk to Don Jr. about it as well. I mean, firestorm last week. Now they still stand by their story, even though the Special Counsel says, we don't - it didn't happen.

GREENWALD: When the history of the Trump-Russia story is written, unquestionably one of the most shocking parts will be how reckless the U.S. media has been in their reporting. There's - I just did yesterday the Top 10 Most Humiliating Failures where they didn't just get stories a little bit wrong, but radically and fundamentally wrong - major, major stories.

In this case, I think, we should be a little careful with BuzzFeed, because we don't want to treat Robert Mueller like this infallible deity who passes down the word of god from the mountaintop and we all just immediately accept it.

INGRAHAM: No.

GREENWALD: But, I do think that it's very strange that he chose this story for the first time to come out and say that it was inaccurate, which seems to be clear that there's something very odd going on in BuzzFeed's reporting that made a lot of people justifiably question it.

INGRAHAM: All right, Glenn. We're going to track all these stories. We really appreciate your perspective tonight on all of this. Thanks so much.

GREENWALD: All right, Laura, thank you.

INGRAHAM: All right. And up ahead the media in crisis, Donald Trump Jr. is here. Exclusively his first reaction to that BuzzFeed now debunked - scoop.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: The media is in crisis. From the warped confrontation in D.C., we just discussed to BuzzFeed's embarrassing debacle. And in just moments Don Trump Jr. will join me exclusively to talk about that now debunked bombshell report.

But first, we want to break down exactly what's been happening, starting with some new developments this weekend and today. Trace Gallagher joins us from the West Coast Newsroom, Trace.

TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: And Laura, to be clear, that reporting by BuzzFeed said the Special Counsel learned that Trump ordered his lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about Trump Tower negotiations with Russia, through "Interviews with multiple witnesses, internal company e- mails, text messages and a cache of other documents".

But despite this alleged litany of damning documents, it's unclear if BuzzFeed actually saw any of them. One reporter said he did, the other said he didn't and now neither of them will comment. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY CORMIER, BUZZFEED NEWS, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Really, at this point because of the calls for a leak investigation and the sort of sensitivity around that matter, we really can't go any further at all in order not to jeopardize our sources.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: And yet Special Counsel made it crystal clear the evidence BuzzFeed cited is wrong, "BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the Special Counsel's Office and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office regarding Michael Cohen's congressional testimony, are not accurate".

So why did Mueller's team take the highly unusual step of issuing a statement? Our Chief White House Correspondent, John Roberts, says Rudy Giuliani says his office spoke to Mueller's office on Friday regarding the article and there was ultimate agreement that a significant portion of the BuzzFeed story was false.

Giuliani says there are no texts, no e-mails or other corroborating documents. So then why didn't Mueller respond to BuzzFeed when it notified them the story was about to break? Well, because BuzzFeed e-mailed Special Counsel saying it had, "A story coming" stating that Michael Cohen was directed by President Trump himself to lie to Congress about his negotiations related to the Trump Moscow project. Not a single word about the Special Counsel.

And the Washington Post wrote, "People familiar with the matter said, Mueller spokesperson Peter Carr told others in the government that he would have more vigorously discouraged the reporters from proceeding with the story, had he known it would allege Cohen had told the Special Counsel Trump directed him to lie".

BuzzFeed's Editor-in-Chief told CNN, he thought the e-mail stayed at "The heart of the story" and BuzzFeed continues to stand behind its reporting, Laura.

INGRAHAM: Trace, thanks so much. And apparently being called out by the Mueller team wasn't enough. Paring on the ironically named reliable sources show Sunday, one of the authors of the BuzzFeed piece tripled down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY CORMIER, BUZZFEED NEWS, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: I have further confirmation that this is right. We're being told to stand our ground. This is - our reporting is going to be borne not to be accurate and we're 100% behind it.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST: What if what if the sources are just wrong?

CORMIER: They're not.

STELTER: Not intentionally, not trying to hurt you, but just what if they're wrong.

CORMIER: They're not. They're not. I'm confident.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: I will follow-up there. Here now exclusively and it's very first appearance on the Ingraham Angle is Donald Trump Jr. Don thanks so much for being here tonight.

DONALD TRUMP JR., EXECUTIVE VP, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: Good to be with you.

INGRAHAM: When this story first came out, reporters were quick to pounce, quick to turn the spotlight on you.

TRUMP JR: They always are, Laura and this isn't the first time that happened. You saw it right after I did my testimony and they said, Donald Trump Jr. had the WikiLeaks information, because presumably Adam Schiff leaked it right after my testimony to them and conveniently took out the one before the four, turning the 14th into the 4th. Meaning, I had it six days to before the world saw it as opposed to four days after the entire world saw it.

This has gone on time and time again. It also happened when Lanny Davis said something along the effective, "I told my father about the Russia meeting" and he was there. He was CNN source. He then walked it back and realized it was totally wrong. Their own source did it and yet today they still haven't pulled that back.

And the reason is they need it to be true, Laura. They've been pushing this nonsense for two years. They've found nothing. But anytime there's a negative, anytime there's a chance to get Trump, they're going to jump on it. They're basically leftists policing leftist at this point.

I love watching some of the CNN commentary. Well, this is going to give us all a - of course it is, because you jump on it each and every time. They cover themselves with the, "Well, if true, if true".

INGRAHAM: Now, this is what--

TRUMP JR: Well, if you're not sure it's true, don't push it for 14 hours straight.

INGRAHAM: But you have to see it, 2:00 p.m. on Friday, Don. This is what they were going with at CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: "What about the family here? I mean, when you read this BuzzFeed piece, it's Ivanka Trump and Don Jr. who are implicated. Don Jr. testified to Congress in September of '17, saying he was, his words, "Peripherally aware of it". Afterwards Democrats Chris Coons and Jackie Speier said, it is possible that he lied. How much jeopardy could these family members be?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I think that's what we have to wait and see what happens. And if family members of Trump are going to be implicated, that could be a reason for him to resign and try to work out a deal to save his family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Don they were going to right to impeachment, then to resignation and then--

TRUMP JR: I mean they got him this time Laura. Like the other 75 times because they haven't exactly panned out. By the way, no different than the story you covered at the beginning. Right?

You had some catholic school boys that were at a Right to Life March. OK? They were wearing a MAGA hat. They had to pounce, because the media wants that to be true. They want a bunch of nice catholic kids that happen to be white - they want them to be the enemy. This is what they've created.

The media has done this to themselves. They have shot themselves in the foot time and time again, because they so desperately want this to be the truth. As opposed to, saying, "You know what, Trump's done a darn good job as President."

If you look at any economic metric today, Laura, we are substantially better off than we were two short years ago before he took office, because he's doing a great job. Imagine, what he could do without the noise. Without the - every day there's a new reason for impeachment. Let him do his job, that's the job he was elected to do.

And the media right now is really trying to subvert this democracy. They have done more to hurt the credibility of this country's institution as a democracy than anything in history.

INGRAHAM: Not only the President, but anyone who supports the President, doesn't matter if you're 14 or you're my age or you've - so none of that matters.

TRUMP JR: Not that you wear (ph) a MAGA hat, Laura, because that must make you all sorts of things. I mean--

INGRAHAM: Don, the issue with this Trump Tower thing keeps coming back, keeps coming back, keeps coming back, and we know the BuzzFeed deal and they claim they have - it's all sourced and everything.

TRUMP JR: Of course, it.

INGRAHAM: When - you've had time to think about this, you testified. When was the last discussion about this Trump Tower deal, because Rudy got everybody really confused, I have to say. I love Rudy. He hasn't been on the show in a while. I love him.

But he goes on "Meet the Press," and he says, well, it could have been right through the election. Then he was talking to mike talking in hypothetical terms today.

TRUMP JR.: I don't know. I don't talk about things that I don't know about. Unfortunately, that sometimes happens, no different than anyone else. The reality is, this wasn't a deal. We don't know the developer. We don't know the site.  We don't know anything about it. Ultimately, it was Michael Cohen essentially trying to get a deal done. He was there for a long time. He wasn't exactly a deal guy. He didn't bring too many to the table, so I don't think anyone took it all that seriously.

That is the reality of what went on. But it's the constant link. Now we've got him. You saw the story last week. Donald Trump is a Russian agent. Yes, the guy that's a billionaire, leading a pretty incredible lifestyle, he left all of that to go into this snake pit, to go into the swamp, to run against 16, 17 Republican contenders, he's got zero chance of doing that, to then defeat Hillary Clinton, he had zero chance of doing that. He did all of this because he's a Russian agent. The reason the media has no credibility is because this is what they do. This is what they do to themselves each and every time.

INGRAHAM: Well, Adam Schiff, who has the ability now to call witnesses --

DONALD TRUMP JR.: Of course, he does.

INGRAHAM: -- said he isn't going to stop, BuzzFeed report, no BuzzFeed report. I want to play something for you and get your reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you still going to investigate the claims?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF, D-CALIF.: Absolutely. Absolutely. Congress has a fundamental interest two things. First, in getting to the bottom of why a witness came before us and lied, and who else was knowledgeable that this was a lie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Even though it's been debunked, Don, he's going to proceed. I imagine he's going to call you back to Capitol Hill.

DONALD TRUMP JR.: Yes, in reality he has got nothing else. There is a 99.9 percent chance he was the guy who was leaking my testimony as I was testifying. I came out of testimony at about 8:00 at night looking, and CNN is running quotes from 12:00 on about my testimony in the House Intelligence Committee. That has to say something about what is going on in there. Since he's never met a camera he didn't love, I would bet a lot of money that it was him.

And of their reality is, I've done 25 hours of testimony on a 20-minute meeting. This has been the greatest witch hunt in American history, perhaps world history. In three hours, they found the bomber that was the fake bomber, and in two years they haven't found anything other than they've got big bombshell. They go Trump this time. I've heard it too many times, Laura. The American people don't take this stuff seriously anymore. They look at these people like jokers at this point.

INGRAHAM: Kamala Harris was out there today, and she's announcing that she is going to run for president. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, D-CALIF.: The path is going to be about talking to people who are right now aware that this economy is not working for working people. It's going to be about talking with people about the fact that right now we have an administration that has waged a full on assault on American values and American ideals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Now, Don, when you hear a sitting senator say an assault on American values and American ideals, your dad is called a racist, I've known him for 20 years. I'm sorry --

DONALD TRUMP JR.: Laura, the insanity is there. You saw this with the social media platforms attacking the word "family," because God forbid you have family, right? This is this leftist assault. When you talk about this economy not working for the American working class, Donald Trump is the first president to speak to the American worker in generations at this point. He is the guy delivering it. As I said earlier, there's not a single economic metric where we are not better off as a country today than we were two years ago under Barack Obama. But with the media carrying the Democrats baggage, they will say whatever they want. They should be paid as lobbyists of the DNC at this point.

INGRAHAM: Are you now still thinking of politics the future? It's been thought they were going to go into politics at some point.

DONALD TRUMP JR.: Listen, I haven't thought about it that way. For me, it's about right now, whatever I can do to help my father win I am going to do, because I love what's going on as an American, as a patriot, as a father of five young children. I see what he's doing, what he's fighting, and the nonsense barrage that he's taking from the insanity that has become the left. Let's not kid ourselves. This is not your grandfather's Democratic Party. They have really lost their way, they have no interest in protecting Americans, only pushing and furthering their insane agenda.  And I'm going to do what I can to help him. Whatever happens in the future, I will deal with that then. But in the meantime, he's making it pretty easy given what he's doing because he's doing a phenomenal job for this country.

INGRAHAM: 2020 is coming already. They are all lining up. Don, thanks so much. Don't be a stranger. Thanks for coming on.

DONALD TRUMP JR.: I'll be back.

INGRAHAM: All right, the Duke lacrosse case, the Virginia fraternity rape that wasn't, the Kavanaugh smears, Covington Catholic high school boys, what do the targets of these media missteps or purposeful missteps have in common? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: All right, Joe diGenova's with us now. We're going to get to a lot of issues, including that Covington Catholic high school boys fiasco and the media jumping all over it. But I have to get him to talk about what we just heard from Don Trump, first reaction from Don Jr., Joe, about this BuzzFeed story. I asked him a question about the Trump Tower issue as well. Didn't spend a lot of time on that. His lawyer probably told him not to -- to stay away from that until you probably have to go back to committee. What was your reaction to that?

JOE DIGENOVA, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: My reaction is the president has a wonderful son, a smart son, an honest son, a dedicated son, a frustrated son, who has watched the American press destroy itself while it was attempting to destroy the president of the United States, Donald Trump, duly elected. I think that what has happened to this president over the last two years is part of an awful part of American history caused by the American press as a result of doing the bidding of the Democratic Party.

Remember, Laura, all of this stems from the plot that started inside the FBI and the DOJ and the Obama administration to illegally exonerate Hillary Clinton, and if she lost, to then figure out a way to frame Donald Trump.  And what you saw from John Jr. tonight was that frustration of how that plot with the complicity of the American media has taken its toll on everybody, including the public and of the republic.

INGRAHAM: Joe, what do you make of BuzzFeed? I watched that interlude on CNN or the weekend on "Reliable Sources." And they were like, no, we stand by our report. They were absolutely adamant that this story is true.  They don't care what the special counsel says, they maintain that they have separate sourcing, double, triple dog down on it, that it's true. And the story --

DIGENOVA: Well, they have to --

INGRAHAM: If it's true, it's obviously not a good story. But they looked right into the camera and say it's true. Well, I guess we'll find out.

DIGENOVA: I think they're lying. And I think the pedigree of these reporters, and the history of BuzzFeed is not one of credible journalism.  And I think what you saw, by the way, when Robert Mueller corrected their story, was that Robert Mueller realized there is a new sheriff in town, and that's Bill Barr, who will be sworn in after he's confirmed. And he knew that he had to correct the record because Bill Barr would have been outraged had this whole story not being corrected by Mr. Mueller, who knew the story was false.

So I think BuzzFeed is not worthy of anything at this point other than complete disrespect. And even the rest of the media doesn't want to really give BuzzFeed a hard time because they also believe, just as Don Jr. said --

INGRAHAM: They are all invested.

DIGENOVA: -- they want the story to be true.

INGRAHAM: Joe, the comments about, this comment, this guy -- I don't know if we can pull it up. This guy, Harry Litman, he goes on television. I don't even know what he's on, MSNBC. He goes on and he just leaps to all of these conclusions. Again, it's the same thing, though, in a different, bigger way. It's the same thing that we saw with these kids at this pro- life march. It's all provocation, all provocation. Everyone believes just what they want to believe. There is not a moment where someone pauses and says, maybe there's another side to this story.

And I guess we all can be guilty of that. I get it. But that was just wild. But it's the same herd mentality. It's a stampede to condemn anyone who is connected with Trump, call him a racist, call him out, say they should be in jail, say they should be impeached, with not so much as an apology when they get it wrong.

DIGENOVA: This is what has happened to journalism. It's what's happened to politics. When you have a party like the Democratic Party which has thrown away its soul for the purpose of power and winning elections, when you have a media, which, by the way, the enemy of the media is the media.  The enemy of the press is the press. They are supposed to be the repository of the power of the First Amendment. They are destroying the First Amendment. They are destroying the respect that people should have for journalism because they have thrown away objectivity and all of the hard work that is supposed to go into telling a true story.

You look at Bill Kristol. He went after these poor Catholic kids who were here to do a nice thing, to show up for a pro-life rally. And what does Bill Kristol do? He attacks these kids without knowing anything about them. And then later, all he does is delete his tweet and doesn't apologize to them. Just like that Jesuit priest who criticized these kids, at they own school, for heaven's sakes.

INGRAHAM: Father James Martin is the worst. Father James Martin is a leftist. Sorry, he's a leftist, and he hates Trump, and he wants open borders. I'm like, OK, when the Vatican takes down their 40-foot wall, you can tell me about house walls don't work, OK?

(LAUGHTER)

INGRAHAM: Joe, thank you so much. It's great to see you tonight. I like the lumberjack outfit.

DIGENOVA: Thank you.

INGRAHAM: That's a good one on you. You look like you are about to take down a tree.

DIGENOVA: In fact, I just did today. We are down on the eastern shore of Maryland.

INGRAHAM: All right, I love it. Joe, thanks so much.

And, Rudy Giuliani, boy, he made news when he said this yesterday on "Meet the Press."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S ATTORNEY: The conversation lasted throughout parts of 2016. The president is not sure exactly when they ended. I would say Michael Cohen would have a much better recollection of it than the president. It went on throughout 2016. There weren't a lot of them, but there were conversations. Can't be sure of the exact dates, but the president can remember having conversations with him about it. It could up to you as far as October, November. Our answers cover until the election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: OK, well, he clarified that, saying "My recent statements about discussions during the 2016 campaign between Cohen and Donald Trump about a potentially Trump-Moscow project were hypothetical and not based on conversations I had with the president."

Joining me now is Judge Ken Starr, former independent counsel in the Whitewater investigation, author of the book "Contempt, A Memoir of the Clinton Investigation." Judge, I've got to say, as a recovering attorney, myself, I know when you're going to on television and you're going to comment on things as an attorney, you have to be very precise with your language because, especially in this situation, the stakes are very high.  Is there some method to Rudy's madness and that commentary?

KEN STARR, FORMER INDICATE COUNSEL, WHITEWATER: Rudy is very smart. He's very clever. But this seems a little bit odd to me, especially since the understanding has been that the president was running for the presidency, and he was not pitching the deal or involved with Michael Cohen or anyone else in terms of pitching the deal. We just heard from Don Jr. that Michael was out there on his own. So we'll sort all this out.

But yes, I was a little bit surprised about Rudy's comment in terms of being hypothetical. But you've got to be absolutely sure of your facts.  You are so right. You are not a recovering lawyer. You are a lawyer. And as a great lawyer, and a Supreme Court law clerk, you full well know you've got to know the facts and be on top of them. So Rudy, I think, is going to do a great job for the president. They are both smart. They are both clever. But we'll see. This was hard to figure out.

INGRAHAM: And Judge, on last Wednesday or Thursday -- I lost track -- he was on with Chris Cuomo, and then made a comment about, well, I wasn't talking about collusion on the campaign. I was talking about collusion with the president and Russia. Again, I don't want to pick on Rudy. We love Rudy, but what the heck was that? I'm watching this, going, wait a second. He has a really good lawyers, Emmet Flood, another former clerk, he's brilliant. You've got Cipollini in there as White House Counsel, brilliant. They are friends of mine, so I have to say that. But they are brilliant people. But this is specific language, you can't get this wrong.  You cannot get that language wrong, representing the president. I'm sorry.  They're going to be mad at me, but I tell the truth.

STARR: Listen, and I'm not going to criticize Rudy, but I think Rudy would be the first to agree, as a fantastic United States attorney, as a great assistant United States attorney --

INGRAHAM: Great mayor.

STARR: -- all the positions he held, and as a great man, very courageous man, he would say yes, you have to be on top of the case, right? And so we'll see you. This too shall pass.

But listen, this is MLK Jr. Day, and I'll say in light of all the terrible things that we have been hearing tonight, especially about the Covington, Kentucky, school, I will just say this. We need to reread "Letter from the Birmingham Jail" and listen to a little bit of the voice of Martin Luther King Jr. This rancor is just so unfortunate. And I agree with much of what has been said, it is so bad for the country.

INGRAHAM: Inspiring, we need more inspiring and probably less condemning without thinking, at least.

STARR: Hear, hear.

INGRAHAM: Judge, thank you so much for that thought and bringing that up.  Excellent point.

And how did the media and the 2020 Democrats pay tribute to MLK today? By attacking President Trump, of course. Horace Cooper and Leo Terrell, you don't want to miss this debate, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, I-VT.: We now have a president of the United States who is a racist.

SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, D-N.Y.: Our president has chosen to tear this country apart on every line, every division, every racial line.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, D-MASS.: Donald Trump is a racist bully, and we know how to deal with bullies.

No matter what they throw at us, nevertheless, we persist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Meet the Democratic 2020 conductors, using MLK Day to brand Trump as, yes a racist. I guess that beats having an agenda for black America, is that what MLK Jr. would have wanted?

Joining me now to debate is Horace Cooper, co-chair of Project 21, Leo Terrell, civil rights attorney. Leo, let's start right with you. Weren't these kind cheap shots? Martin Luther King, Judge Starr just mentioned that, the "Letter from the Birmingham Jail," inspirational rhetoric, lifting people up with aspiration and optimism, hope for a better future.  I've got to say, I think they failed in honoring him today with that kind of nonsense.

LEO TERRELL, CIVIL RIGHT ATTORNEY: Well, Laura, first of all, thank you for having me on. Happy MLK Day. But let's just deal with facts. I saw the Starr interview. You want to deal with facts, because I'm a lawyer.  There have been three opinion polls taken last year, and over half this country, about 50 percent of the country believes that Donald Trump is a racist. So you hear these presidential candidates supporting half this country. And 82 percent of Democrats believe he's a racist, 21 percent.  So I'm submitting to you some facts. Three opinion polls taken in 2018, and I would submit that the majority, half of the country believe that Donald Trump is a racist. So --

INGRAHAM: Do you know what the public thought about Barack Obama's divisiveness?

TERRELL: Those are facts.

INGRAHAM: If you cite public opinion poll as a fact --

TERRELL: Three of them, three.

INGRAHAM: After Barack Obama's presidency, his last year, I think a majority, and Horace, you jump in here, I believe it was a majority of Americans, it was Pew or Gallup, I will post it on Twitter afterwards, said the country was more divided racially.

HORACE COOPER, CO-CHAIR, PROJECT 21: Oh, absolutely.

INGRAHAM: After Barack Obama was president.

COOPER: Absolutely, nearly two-thirds.

INGRAHAM: I knew you would know that.

COOPER: Absolutely, what we have seen is the president's policies have been amazing for blacks, for women, for browns, for America, has been amazing. This is the weirdest Klan mindset I have ever heard. I can't believe you would go to Klan rally and hear them yell "more jobs were blacks." But yet when Barack Obama's policies destroyed the livelihood of Americans, I never heard a single one of these criticisms. Actions that were hurtful versus --

TERRELL: Mr. Horace Cooper, I would submit to everyone listening, watching your program, no other president has ever been viewed as a racist in the numbers that have been presented in Donald Trump.

INGRAHAM: We've never had more dishonest media than we've had today. The media today, what they did to those kids at the pro-life march is a small example of the herd mentality.

TERRELL: Laura, can you support Trump's position on Charlottesville? The Muslim ban? And the situation where he said why do we get all these people from these blank countries?

INGRAHAM: The Supreme Court did.

TERRELL: Oh, come on, Laura. Charlottesville --

INGRAHAM: He is well within his rights. The court actually said his vested power, plenary power to keep this country safe, you bet he had a right.

TERRELL: What about Charlottesville? What about Charlottesville? What about Charlottesville?

COOPER: We keep forgetting the reality. The reality is real American lives are improved.

INGRAHAM: Are better.

COOPER: That's the tell.

INGRAHAM: Jobs are better, wages are better, and the answer is Trump is a racist? I don't get it. It's not convincing going into 2020. They have to come up with something better than that. Gentlemen, I wish we had more time. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: OK, this is the real Last Bite. I had a chance this past weekend to go sail fishing. All right, check out these pictures. OK, yes, I reeled that in. No one in the studio believed I actually reeled it in.  Yes, I did. I couldn't feel my hands or my arm for the next seven hours or so. Wild. Thanks to Roger and to Anthony who helped me and my family do this. We had a great time.

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