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Published February 06, 2018
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," February 5, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
LAURA INGRAHAM, HOST: Welcome to "The Ingraham Angle." I am Laura Ingraham. We have a huge show for you tonight, beginning with something you are not going to see anywhere else.
My exclusive interview with the man who was at the center of the Russian investigation and featured in that fake Hillary funded dossier, Carter Page is here. He's a former Trump advisor the FBI surveilled and the subject of that FISA memo. Page will react to the memo in his first interview since its release and he is going to explain what he was doing on all of those trips to Russia.
But first, when Democrats cared about civil liberties. That's the focus of tonight's Angle. Since the Friday release of the GOP House Intel memo, Democrats and their lackeys in the lamestream media have been in overdrive, attacking on the forefront. First, they downplay the memo -- it's a big nothing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
MIKA BRZEZINSKI, "MORNING JOE"/MSNBC: As the new republic put it, "it would be easy to compare Nunes' memo to Geraldo Rivera opening Al Capone's vault."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, "MORNING JOE"/MSNBC: I was surprised that it was such a flimsy document on its face.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF, D-CALIF., "THIS WEEK"/ABC: The whole point here is not to be accurate. The point is to be misleading.
REP. KAREN BASS, D-CALIF., "NEW DAY"/CNN: I don't think that there's much to the memo.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
INGRAHAM: Now for a memo that is supposedly a big dud, liberals are sure spending a lot of time trying to debunk it. Second, they charge that the memo's author, Devin Nunes, is a really bad actor. Did you know he's colluding with the White House?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
BASS: I think the president was crystal clear. I think that especially Chairman Nunes is doing his bidding.
REP. MIKE QUIGLEY, D-ILL., "NEW DAY"/CNN: I believe that this White House worked with Chairman Nunes to concoct this idea.
SCHIFF: I think it's very possible that (inaudible) coordinated the whole effort with the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
INGRAHAM: Now that is a nice dodge. I love how they are trying to suggest that the memo was politically motivated while ignoring the facts in the memo that demonstrate the entire Russia investigation was politically motivated from its inception.
Devin Nunes has worked to ensure the integrity of both the Clinton and the Mueller investigations should be welcomed by all Americans, whatever your political persuasion. And I will tell you why because no one should be able to abuse or excuse the rule of law for political reasons.
Governments cannot be allowed to target their political enemy. Well, they do it, though, don't they in China and North Korea and, you bet, and Russia. My question is what happened to accountability? Holding government accountable?
Third. The Democrats claim that Trump is going to use the memo to stop the Russia investigation and maybe even fire Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, setting up a constitutional crisis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, CNN: If Rod Rosenstein was fired, could that trigger the worst constitution crisis since President Nixon's Saturday night massacre?
REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF.: If the president uses this fake, horrible release of distorted intelligence as an excuse to fire Deputy Acting Attorney General Rosenstein or Mueller, it could lead to a constitutional crisis.
SEN. DICK DURBIN, D-ILL., "STATE OF THE UNION"/CNN: I will just tell you, this could participate in in a constitutional crisis.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN: I know there would be a tremendous outcry. There would be a constitutional crisis.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
INGRAHAM: I mean, this redefines echo chamber, takes it to a new level. They pass around memo in the morning, OK, we will say cherry picked one day, we will go -- take it easy, there's no evidence that Donald Trump is going to fire Rosenstein despite, as I understand it, his displeasure with some of Rosenstein's stupid decisions, including signing off on one of those warrants to surveilled Carter Page.
But for just a moment, let's accept their silly scenario. The firing of Rosenstein may trigger a political fracas and maybe it would be unwise. I wouldn't do it. But the president surely has the constitutional authority to fire anyone in the executive branch.
So, I failed to exactly see how this would trigger a constitutional crisis. Finally. The Democrats insist that with the release of this memo, Trump and Nunes are putting the future of the entire FBI in jeopardy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
DURBIN: Trying to undermine the FBI and the Department of Justice is really not in the best interest of America.
SCHIFF: The goal here is to undermine the FBI, discredit the FBI, discredit the Mueller investigation, to the presidents bidding.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a war on the law. This is a war on justice. This is a war on the Justice Department. This is a war on the FBI.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
INGRAHAM: It's also a war on understatement, Joe. Now who was carrying out a war against the reputation and integrity of the FBI, if anyone did? Well, I'd say it's former Obama AG Loretta Lynch, former Obama FBI Director Jim Comey, and former Obama Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who wage war on the FBI by damaging its reputation.
How do they do that? They put the FBI's future in jeopardy by eroding confidence in one of our treasured law enforcement institutions. You cannot start spying on an American citizen as some kind of insurance policy against a presidential candidate you don't happen to like.
In fact, you cannot surveil an American citizen based on falsified evidence at all or by omitting a material fact in in a FISA application for a warrant. I tell you, the left refuses to address the central point of the Nunes House Intel memo.
I was thinking about this earlier today when I was hosting my radio show. Remember when Democrats use to care about protecting American civil liberties? Post 9/11, the ACLU warns about various ways the Bush administration was endangering the Bill of Rights.
They warned about the Patriot Act, the growing surveillance society -- by the way, I agree. They sounded alarms over the weakening of the Freedom of Information Act by reclassifying documents as unclassified but sensitive.
And the liberals even complained at some other civil libertarians, about the fairness of these long no-fly list. But this is my favorite part of this ACLU list of grievances with number eight, political spying, it was called political spying.
Government agencies including the FBI and the Department of Defense have conducted their own spying on innocent and law-abiding Americans through the Freedom of Information Act, the ACLU learned the FBI had been consistently monitoring peaceful groups such as Quakers, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Green Peace, and the Native American Antidefamation Committee, and indeed the ACLU itself.
Well, PETA got surveilled, apparently, but I guess Carter Page and the Trump campaign don't qualify for Fourth Amendment protection. The ACLU has been kind of silent. Now there was a time when Democrats cared about things like FISA court abuses.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
SEN. RON WYDEN, D-ORE., JULY 30, 2013: The FISA court process is one of the most one-sided approaches in American government. I know of no other court that doesn't have some kind of adversarial discussion where there are two points of views.
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, D-CONN., JULY 31, 2013: There should be some adversarial process, challenging it, questioning it, just as we do in the normal court.
SCHIFF, JULY 31, 2013: The opinion themselves will benefit by having an adversarial process in key cases where the court has the benefit of hearing the other side, seeing opposing case law.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
INGRAHAM: My gosh, my producer said in my ear, he was on RTTV. Did you see that? That's great. Look what could happen with the FISA court. But now, however, FISA is beyond reproach as long as it's used towards the ever noble goal of destroying Donald Trump or preventing him back then being president at all.
Today on my radio show, Newt Gingrich agreed that a criminal investigation should be undertaken to discover how the FBI purposefully misled the FISA court and may have obstructed justice in the Hillary email investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER (via telephone): I want to emphasize this, 98 percent of FBI agents are honest, patriotic Americans trying to enforce the law, but they are tainted by the people at the very top who clearly were corrupt, and were clearly violating the law. This will lead to a criminal investigation but frankly, I don't understand why the attorney general has not taken steps.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Great, great question. The question is with Rod Rosenstein and the deputy ag, could there be a special counsel appointed to explore any of this or will it be up to Congress to find all of the relevant documents and force his hand? Whatever happens, there is no doubt about the following.
After all their years of claiming to be advocates for fairness, civil liberties, the Dems have been outed as frauds of the worst order, and that's the Angle.
In moments, we'll be joined by the man at the center of the revelations inside the Nunes memo. But first, who is Carter Page and why did you become a target of the FISA court? Fox's Ed Henry joins us now from New York with more -- Ed.
ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Laura, great to see you. Carter Page is almost the Forrest Gump in this whole tale, keeps popping up everywhere, but after these many, many investigation, nobody can quite figure out what he did for the Trump campaign, let alone whether he did anything wrong.
The key Forrest Gump moment came on March 21st, 2016 when then Candidate Donald Trump appeared at a "Washington Post" at a board meeting, and the first question was about how he was going to finally reveal his foreign policy team.
The context being it was hard for an anti-establishment candidate to get Republican foreign policy stalwarts on his team, so he wanted outside the box choices. The future president revealed only five names.
One was, he called George Papadopoulos an excellent guy and referred to another advisor simply as, quote, "Carter Page, PhD," setting off a scramble over who this man of mystery was.
"Bloomberg News" quickly noted the only real connection was they were both contrarians on Russia, wanting to work with Vladimir Putin in part because they believe policy makers in both parties are still clinging to a cold war mindset.
Ronald Reagan, in fact, sparked Page's interest in Russia at an early age after he saw a Reagan on TV conducting arms control talks and noticed one of his advisors wearing a Navy uniform. The Gipper inspired to enroll into the U.S. Naval Academy.
He worked on arms control policy at the Pentagon, earned three graduate degrees, including that PhD from the University of London. By 2000, he jumped into investment banking at Merrill Lynch because of a friendship with Ukrainian billiionaire, the firm had him open the Moscow office in 2004.
For three years, he worked on deals with Russian state-owned energy companies. Fast forward to June 2013, Donald Trump was still on "The Apprentice," and U.S. Counterintelligence officials question Page about his contacts with a possible Russian spy.
So, he was on the radar before the campaign. During the campaign in July 2016, then Campaign Manager Cory Lewandowski reportedly approved Page's personal trip to Moscow, where he gave a speech criticizing U.S. policy toward Russia and met with Russian govt officials, none of that necessarily nefarious.
By September 2016, Page was out, and in fact, tonight Donald Trump Jr. told Tucker that Page was not a real player and suggested he was more of a, quote, "patsy," though he told the Senate Intel Committee last year he was a regular presence at Trump Tower.
Even more curious as we learned from Devin Nunes' memo, the FBI used the dossier to get a FISA warrant to listen in on Page's calls starting in October 2016 a month after we were told he left the campaign. The surveillance was renewed several times deep into 2017, after he was gone.
We noted this began at the March 2016 editorial board meeting with host George Papadopoulos has since pled guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russians. Carter Page has not been charged with anything -- Laura.
INGRAHAM: Ed, thank you so much for that report. Joining us now from New York, we are pleased to welcome an exclusive former Trump Campaign Advisor Carter Page. Carter, it's good to see you tonight. I know you have not spoken out about this House Intel memo yet or the reaction to it. What is your reaction?
CARTER PAGE, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN FOREIGN POLICY ADVISER: Well, my first reaction, Laura, when I saw it was, you know, there was a lot of details that kept tripping out. It sounded really bad. When I actually saw it, it was even worse than I could've possibly imagine.
But then what was particularly interesting is the next 48 hours after that where part of the attack on Chairman Nunes and the committee was to come up with any new information to discredit me and anything related to the investigation or the overall investigation and all the great work that HIPC has been doing.
So, it's pretty stark contrast between getting the facts out there and having -- you know, still getting attacked.
INGRAHAM: This is what Donnie Trump said earlier tonight. Ed referred to the interview he did a short while ago with Tucker Carlson. He was asked about you. This is what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP JR., PRESIDENT TRUMP'S SON: This is a low-level person who worked in the campaign. This is someone who -- well, this person is no longer working on the campaign. I believe one of my family members responded, "who the heck is that individual question. We never even heard of him."
So, to use that, again, as the basis to then try to attack the duly elected president, to do it when that person is no longer even part of a campaign, all of these people hang around going to get their book deal, to utilize that person -- they seem like a great patsy for that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Your reaction to what Donnie says, low-level figure in the campaign? I don't think you ever really disputed that, but your reaction?
PAGE: Well, it was really impossible to help out in anyway, because as you were alluding to, the attacks started almost immediately. Anyone who had any connection or had ever done any work positive or otherwise in Russia was constantly sort of the number one target for attack.
So, it was, you know, it became a liability pretty quick. I would say it though, and alluded to this early foreign policy committee, I was really impressed with a lot of the other people that were on the committee. As you mentioned, there was a few names that were mentioned. Really, the people that came on in the early months were pretty incredible.
INGRAHAM: Carter, there was only one meeting though, right? I mean, this was kind of slapped together in 24 hours. I talked to one of the people earlier involved, this was thrown together pretty fast. We've got to have a list of people advising us.
Not a lot of people were helping out Trump in the spring of 2016. They came up with his list, you had one meeting at the Trump International, I understood. After that, there was no formal gathering of this group. Is that correct?
PAGE: You actually raised an important point, Laura. I should've clarified the one point that ad had alluded to. That one meeting I actually had previous --
INGRAHAM: You were in Hawaii.
PAGE: Well, I have not said I was.
INGRAHAM: Carter, you know where I'm getting at. You were put on this list and your past work that you did in Russia, we'll get into that later, raised a red flag. The FBI apparently had been watching you for some time. OK. We fast-forward to July. You go to Moscow. You say you are invited to give a speech at a college there. When you went there, did you meet with government officials or people connected closely with Putin?
PAGE: I gave a speech. There was one senior government official who spoke after me. He was walking out of the building after he gave his speech. We had a very brief conversation for less than 10 seconds. It was really an exchange of pleasantries. You know, a lot of the things he was talking about, you can tell that there were positive opportunities on the horizon in terms of U.S.-Russian relations.
INGRAHAM: Was that Sechin (ph), what that Igor Setchin (ph)?
PAGE: No. I've never met Sechin (ph) in my life.
INGRAHAM: So, just so people know, I find this to be fascinating. In this fake dossier, there is an entire paragraph. I believe it's on page 31. Where it says in terms of the substance their discussion, Igor Sechin, who is a former KGB guy, president of Rosneft, the state-owned oil company, said that -- the Rosneft president was so keen to lift personal and corporate western sanctions imposed on the company that he offered Page, Trump's associate, the brokerage of up to 19 percent privatized stake in Rosneft in return.
And Page had expressed and confirmed that if Trump were elected president, sanctions on Russia would be lifted." That's right from the dossier, Carter. I think a lot of people hear about the dossier don't know what's in it. You are saying today that you never met Igor -- I forget his name, Igor Sechin.
PAGE: I've never met him in my entire life. What's interesting about it, if you do the math on that, the 19 percent had a market value of about $11 billion. So, if you think I'm going to get paid off someway, that seems like a pretty hefty sum, you know --
INGRAHAM: That's pretty good. Carter, hold right there. We have a lot more to talk about. It's actually fun to read through this dossier. It's like, crazy stuff. We are going to have more to talk about after this in a short break. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Welcome back. We now resume our exclusive interview with former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page, the man at the center of just released House Intel memo. Carter, when I saw that they started to listen in your phone calls in October, that was after the Trump campaign put a termination on the relationship with you.
I thought to myself, who wants to work in any campaign? It's an individual, an American citizen, can be surveilled by the use of a dossier that was funded by the opponent, the political opponents. They are all worried about Russia and their tactics?
I mean, Russia does stuff like that, frankly, to their political opponents. But we are not supposed to do that. Your reaction when you found out that you are called at that point where surveilled?
PAGE: The funny part about it is literally one week later after they started hacking me and wiretapping me, one of the e-mails I sent out was filing a complaint to the organization of security and cooperation in Europe.
It's an organization that the U.S. and many other countries is a part of. They had an election monitoring system going on in the United States, monitoring illegal influence and, you know, election rigging.
I lodged a complaint there. So, I think one of the first things they were picking up on was my (inaudible) complaint that I sent to Vienna and the OSCE. So, it will be interesting to hear what the reaction was to that --
INGRAHAM: When did you know, by the way, Carter, that you were of interest to the FBI? It predated the relationship with the Trump campaign. It predated that, according to the FBI. So, when did you know -- they ever call you up or try to talk to you, saying, what were you doing over there in Russia? You are very well connected. Did they ever approach you?
PAGE: I've talked to them. I actually mention this, I sent a letter to Director Comey on Sunday, September 25th, 2016, two days after the defamatory articles came out against me. As I mentioned there, I basically told him everything is totally false.
If you have any questions about this witch hunt, which is what I called it, please don't hesitate to contact me. I would love to set the record straight and talk to your agents.
In that memo to Mr. Comey, I said, well, I've been in contact with members of the intelligence community for many, many years, and I would be happy to help out, again, in terms of providing you some accurate intel itself.
INGRAHAM: I mean, the way you are portrayed and people who don't know you, I guess people reading quickly they had like, Carter Page is a spy for Russia. I think that's what regular folks who are focusing on a lot of these details, that's what they believe. That's what they think.
PAGE: I mean, that case I was a witness. There was a diplomat here in New York who I happened to meet at a conference and we struck up a conversation. I met him one time after that. I actually was teaching a course at New York University that semester. I told them a couple of things I was telling my students about. He wasn't really interested. I sent him a couple of course documents.
INGRAHAM: A couple of questions for you. There are some things don't really make sense to me. What about that letter that "Time" magazine said you wrote to the academic press? Where they quote you as saying, "Over the past half year, I have had the privilege to serve as an informal advisor to the staff of the kremlin during the presidency of the G20 Summit next month where energy issues will be prominent point on the agenda," the letter reads. Did you write that?
PAGE: Well, it's totally taken out of context. You know, I --
INGRAHAM: I would never say I had the privilege to serve as a informal advisor to the staff of the kremlin.
PAGE: The G20, President Trump was at the G20 last summer. A collection of countries from around the world --
INGRAHAM: We all know that. Why would you write that?
PAGE: I was offering -- I was invited to provide some -- they put together a roundtable of energy experts. Literally people from around the world, top companies around the world.
INGRAHAM: It sounds like, to me, you are really -- you were really close to the staff of the kremlin there. The way it's worded. I mean, I wouldn't have worded it that way. What happens is people see that and they say, well, he went to Moscow in July of 2016 to speak at a university. Why would you do that when you were with the Trump campaign? Who signed off on it? Was it really a cover for a meeting with government officials? I know that's what people think.
PAGE: This is where context is important. Basically, it was some ignorant academic who submitted -- it was a copy of my thesis. They were considering it at an academic press for publication. They were coming after me with all these false concepts about what's actually going on in Russia, across Eurasia and the Middle East, Asia, Europe. Essentially having served, been part of that informal group, we had a couple of meetings, big deal.
INGRAHAM: I got it. I think going to Moscow in July 2016, you are just setting yourself up for scrutiny. I mean, did someone in the Trump campaign, did they OK you going? Did you ask them? I've seen varying accounts of that from you. Did someone say, "go for it" or --
PAGE: There was no "go for it." Again, I was an informal, unpaid advisor - -
INGRAHAM: But did you tell anybody from the Trump campaign you were going?
PAGE: I've been grilled literally many hours on this in both chambers of Congress many times. Yes, I gave them a heads up and they said, it's fine to go, but you have nothing to do with the Trump campaign.
INGRAHAM: You are actually suing -- are you suing the federal government? I think I saw in "The New York Times" tonight is pushing a release for all the underlying documents in your case. Are you in favor of that?
PAGE: Absolutely. And actually one of the articles that's mentioned in the House Intelligence memo from Friday, it references one article. And actually, that was rebroadcast by state propaganda agency in Washington. Broadcasting Board of Governors funds Radio Free Europe. And for the last 70 years, most of its history, it was supposed to be used for, you know, offering ideas to countries around the world. They changed the law in 2013 and now they can push government propaganda in the U.S. So this was the first selection where that ever happened.
So when Sean on his show was mentioning a list of questions as they go to the next edge of this investigation, I think -- and actually, that's run by state departments.
INGRAHAM: The Broadcasting Board of Governors, they put a Yahoo! News story out. But you are assuming the Broadcasting Board of Governors and who else, very quickly?
PAGE: Oath Inc. which the parent company for Yahoo! and "Huffington Post" which has a ton of articles.
INGRAHAM: OK, Carter, we really appreciate your spending some time with us tonight. I know everybody's was after an interview with you, but I just think, an innocent American, from my understanding, is wrapped up in this whole thing, and I find the whole thing terrifying. We wish you the best. So thank you so much for joining us.
PAGE: Thank you.
INGRAHAM: All right, this has been unbelievable. Stay right here. We have a lot more when we return. Commentary from our experts on that interview and what it reveals. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Let's get expert reaction now to my exclusive interview with Carter Page. Joining us in studio, we've got all three of them, Republican Congressman Ron DeSantis, Fox News contributor and Washington Examiner reporter Byron York, and Fox News contributor, senior editor at The Federalist, Mollie Hemingway. Byron, let's start with you. Reaction?
BRYON YORK, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Sometimes it's hard to actually get all the facts out of Carter Page because he just doesn't speak all that directly. But that point where he said I have talked about this extensively with both houses of congress, which is true. If you read the interview that he had with the House Intelligence Committee, it just went on and on and on. I thought the most telling part of your questioning was about his saying, touting himself as an advisor to the Kremlin. Why would you do that? I think most people theorize, and we are just theorizing, that he was trying to make himself more like an insider than he was.
INGRAHAM: That never happens in Washington or New York where people inflate the resumes. Mollie?
MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, SENIOR EDITOR, THE FEDERALIST: Also, he was a businessman based in Russia for a long time? That's where he's done his life's work. He does have contacts in Russia. It's actually not a crime to have these things. So just seeing him talk about these things, it's very interesting. He's a man who has all the power of the federal government going up against him, they're surveilling him. And also this has very much affected his life and his reputation and his business relationships. I think it's time for the federal government, if they think he's guilty of something, they need to put up or shut up and let this man attempt to reclaim his life.
INGRAHAM: They have not told him he's a target of the investigation. Ron, your reaction to what he said tonight?
REP. RON DESANTIS, R-FLA.: He is kind of a weird dude. The fact that he has sent them a release all the FISA stuff, release it.
INGRAHAM: He doesn't seem worried about that at all.
DESANTIS: Yes. So to me it just seems like he wants all this stuff to come out because he doesn't think there's any there there. But remember, because he was a U.S. citizen, when they went to surveil him, it's not just that there's suspicion he could be acting as an agent of a foreign power, you also have to show he's violating a criminal statute. The Nunes memo doesn't say what statute did they cite as a potential violation. Was it just some pretextual thing or was there honestly something where they though he was violating the law? We need to release all this information.
INGRAHAM: I felt, this is my human reaction. I feel sorry for Carter Page. I mean, I know he was in Russia. I lived in Russia as a student. I know a lot of people doing business in Russia, commercial real estate, people in science and so forth. Just because you've done business in Russia doesn't mean you are a Russian spy. But most people, the hear Carter -- oh, he was a Russian spy, people just think that because of the way the fake media has reported this.
YORK: I've heard him referred to on network television as a known Russian agent.
INGRAHAM: A known Russian agent. This is the stuff that drives me crazy.
YORK: But you raised a really interesting idea about what is his status with the Mueller investigation because, if there is collusion, he is a really important part of this. Papadopoulos was the other person who is very important to this. He was not charge with any crime relating to a criminal conspiracy. He simply was charged of lying to the FBI. What's the deal with Carter Page? He has not been charged with anything. Are they complementing charging him with anything? And if they don't, where is the collusion?
INGRAHAM: Mollie, this is what the federal government can do, and this is, again, the angle I did before he came on, liberals used to care about civil liberties. I mean, those comments from Blumenthal, the FISA court, the abuses of the FISA court, you don't know what they're doing, they can spy on American. And here we have that happen starting in October after he left the Trump campaign.
HEMINGWAY: This is foundational to our understanding of what it means to be American, that the federal government cannot deprive you of life, liberty, property, they can't arrest you or spy on you without a really good reason. And if the civil rights and civil liberties of Carter Page can be violated, they can be violated for anyone. And that's why it's very important that we can trust these courts, particularly because the target of the investigation doesn't get the chance to plead his own case. So we rely on the government to make sure that they provide all the information that is key.
YORK: We should point out that the warrant, it's often pointed out, they didn't put the warrant on him until he after left the campaign. That not only gets his phone calls going forward, it gets all of his email going backward, back when he was with the campaign. Plus it allows the FBI to break into his home, search it, and plant electronics when he's not there.
DESANTIS: And potentially other locations. If they identify other locations, they could have surveilled other locations.
INGRAHAM: It's ironically we're talking about Russia when we do this in the United States of America, Russia, Russia, Russia. What are we doing to our own people? I want you to react congressman, to both Trey Gowdy and it was, who else, Nunes, of course, made the comment today about the footnote and reacting to it. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. DEVIN NUNES, R-CALIF.: A footnote saying that something might be political is a far cry from letting the American people know that the Democrats in the Hillary campaign paid for dirt that the FBI then used to get a warrant on an American citizen to spy on another campaign.
REP. TREY GOWDY, R-S.C.: I read the footnote. I know exactly what the footnote says. It took longer to explain it the way they did if they just came right out and said, Hillary Clinton for America and the DNC paid for it. But they did not do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Ron, is there anything that could be done to the people responsible for filing that, omitting a material fact, because it was omitted in that appropriate?
DESANTIS: Yes. Your bar license if you are practicing law, that goes into that. Look, there could be criminal liability. It would depend on the intent, and that's why we need all this information. But that footnote, I read it, I read the Schiff memo. It is the most circuitous way to say that there may -- I mean, they could've come out and say it. The way they did it was not enough candor for the court.
INGRAHAM: It's a material fact. You omitted a material fact from the application. If I were that FISA judge, I would be livid because it makes the judgment make potentially the wrong decision.
HEMINGWAY: It's the key question. Should the FBI be lured into surveilling a political opponent using opposition research bought and paid for by the opposing campaign. That's the key.
INGRAHAM: China would do it, Russia would do it, North Korea would do it, Cuba would do it, and apparently we can do that in the United States.
YORK: That paragraph in the Nunes memo, it was very clear. It says they didn't tell them that the DNC and Clinton campaign was paying for it. AND they did not.
DESANTIS: It's 100 percent true. Even the Schiff memo will not dispute that.
INGRAHAM: And we're going to be looking for the State Department shoe to drop perhaps on this. I know you have been writing about it, Mollie, you've been talking about it. Thank you, all. Great stuff, guys.
And by the way, while Democrats are fixating on Russia, another overseas threat is growing. Victor Davis Hanson explains in studio next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Welcome back to "The Ingraham Angle." While Democrats shriek about Russia, communist China is quietly expanding its power and influence across the globe. Joining us here in the studio to discuss is Stanford professor, columnist, great guy, brilliant, Victor Davis Hanson. VDH, it's good to see you, man, in the studio. Love it. I always have you on the radio but I hardly ever get to see you.
Before we get into that, I just want to get your reaction very quickly to the Carter Page interview, what he said.
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, PH.D., STANFORD UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR: I think he was a tragic -- comic, tragic figure. I feel bad because he wouldn't be where he has had there not been this crazy mythographic dossier and had he not just sort of volunteered for Trump. And he was used, Carter Page, he was at Russia and therefore we can surveil him and see what turns up from other people. So he was a tool. He's probably -- I think every trial lawyer in Washington, D.C., is watching your show tonight because he has a lot of possible suits against Fusion GPS, Steele, Glenn Simpson, DOJ, FBI. I hope he finds redemption.
INGRAHAM: And meanwhile, it's Russia, Russia, Russia. You and I talk about this a lot on the radio airwaves. But China is slowly but surely amassing a huge band of influence across the globe in academic institutions. Let's just start there.
HANSON: China has got the 10 times the GDP as Russia. It's got five times the population. It's a real threat. And it's sort of doing what Japan did in the 1930s with a greater Asia prosperity sphere. So it goes to these neighbors, the Philippines, the Japanese, and it says the United States is in isolation, it's on the wing. Cut a deal with us. And we used to check that with a huge Navy. That's what the American Navy did, World War II and during the cold war. And the Navy is down below 300 ships. At the same time we always would translate with Russians. We have issues, you have issues, but we have common ground against radical Islam and we're worrying about China. But we have given that card up because of this crazy hysteria over Russia.
INGRAHAM: So we could be working with Russia on various fronts. We don't agree with them on a bunch of things, but we could be working with them more, or at all on fighting the jihad.
HANSON: They have a border with North Korea. I mean, they have a nuclear Pakistan, they have a nuclear India, they have a nuclear China, they have a nuclear North Korea. They don't need another nuclear Iran on their border. And they have problems with their Muslim population.
INGRAHAM: So talk about why the global elites have flocked to protect China and now flock to demonize Russia. China is good and deserving of our attention. They have some problems. Russia is the real threat. Russia's economy is smaller than France's.
HANSON: Remember, Russia wasn't the real threat. After Bush clamped down on East Ossetia, I mean, Clinton and the Obama administration said you've been too hard on Russia. We're going to reset. We've got the plastic red button, I think it came from a jacuzzi in Geneva, and she pushed it. Romney was the person who was hysterical, then the hot mike exchange with Obama about missile defense and I'll be flexible after the election.
Russia was good, and then suddenly Russia was bad because the narrative changed. And China has always been the obstacle because one quarter of the world's trade, half it's oil goes right through the South China Sea. And now they have a valve at the Spratly Islands, they can control it. And they could stop North Korea tomorrow.
INGRAHAM: Victor Davis Hanson, come on radio tomorrow if you can. I would love to have you on, as always.
And up next, we will explain why CNN seemed so smug and satisfied with bad news today.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: And this just in, CNN finally has something to be happy about. Millions of Americans losing their money! Wolf Blitzer reported today's nearly 1,200 point drop in the Dow with an odd satisfaction that seemed to say it's bad for America, but it's OK because it's worse for Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news, nose dive. The Dow plunges more than 1,100 points at the closing bell. The visual was pretty awful.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I'm not mistaken, the 1,500 points, as low as it dropped was in the middle of his speech. Any president would be aware of that, this president uniquely so due to how much cable-television he consumes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Whatever cable TV he's consuming from the ratings, I can tell you, it ain't CNN. Had these guys actually been paying attention to the president's event in Cinci today, they would have seen clear signs of an economic renaissance in the heartland. About half of Americas aren't in the stock market, but they've seen record bonuses and pay raises generated, many of them, most of them by Trump tax cuts. So what Nancy Pelosi call crumbs ordinary Americans call a godsend, as they told the president today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What it means to my family is the same that it means to all hardworking American families who are reaping the benefits of your tax cuts. It means that we will have more money in the bank, more money to make ends meet. Personally for my family, my husband Tim and I are in the process of buying a home. And in the fall, both of my kids, Katie and Matthew, will be going to college. So we will be using that money to help us make ends meet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now, I will take that lady's common sense over Nancy Pelosi's crumbs any day. Main Street is getting helped by Trump policies. CNN and the rest of them better start noticing. More in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Before we go, you want to hear what you thought about my exclusive interview tonight with Carter Page. So be sure to tweet me about it at @Ingrahmangle.
And that is all the time we have left this evening. Miss Shannon Bream and the "Fox News @ Night" team take it from here. Shannon?
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