Democrats use coronavirus fears to take aim at Trump
Reaction and analysis from former Clinton aide Richard Goodstein and Fox News contributor Dan Bongino.
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," February 26, 2020. 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 another busy Washington tonight. The president of course addressed the nation on the coronavirus response just a few short hours ago.
Senator Tom Cotton has been at the forefront of this conversation and he joins us. Plus, we're going to take you live to South Korea where a U.S. military contractor explains what it's like living inside a country where the virus is spreading like wildfire. And also, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Dan Bongino, Richard Goodstein are all here in moments with reaction to last night's debate that does have Democrat voters panicked.
And on the same day, the Trump administration scores a court victory against sanctuary cities. You heard Sean talk about that. We bring you a report of how these reckless policies are endangering children and the communities that allow them. But first, the pandemic party. That's the focus of tonight's Angle.
If you're worried about the spread of the Coronavirus, well you're obviously not alone. It's unsettling to see doctors and what look like hazmat suits in China. People quarantined, hanging out of hotel windows in Italy and of course, your fellow airline passengers wearing face masks.
Yet more unsettling is something happening right here in the United States. And it's not medical. It's political. Democrats and their media cronies have decided to weaponize fear and also weaponize suffering to improve their chances against Trump, in November.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM STEYER, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Trump is incompetent. We're seeing this in Coronavirus.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald Trump in general not just with the Coronavirus, but in general doesn't take important things seriously.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're scared to death about - the Trump administration has no idea of what they're doing.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, D-N.Y.: Four words describe the administration's response to the Coronavirus towering and dangerous incompetence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Well, a few hours ago the President and his team gave us an important update on how they're preparing for any outbreak should they happen here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The number one priority from our standpoint is the health and safety of the American people. The risk to the American people remains very low. We have the greatest experts in the world - really in the world right here. We're ready to adapt and we're ready to do whatever we have to as the disease spreads, if it spreads.
ALEX AZAR, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: The Trump administration is going to continue to be aggressively transparent keeping the American people and the media apprised of the situation and what everyone can do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: All right perhaps they could have done this a week ago, but the most important thing, the thing that matters to Americans coast-to-coast is that this effort is highly organized, extremely thorough and very well managed. But facts don't matter to the Trump haters. They learn from, they never let a crisis go to waste philosophy of Rahm Emanuel that many of them are frankly so sick with their anti-Trump fever that they actually consider this virus a political godsend.
Finally, they think they might have something that may stick to Trump. Well, let's face it. They're really frustrated right now, these Democrats, think about it. After Mueller flopped, after the impeachment failed, after they constantly demonized Trump as a racist, sexist and every other ist you can think of, the economy and his approval numbers continued to grow.
All they know how to do though is stoke panic. What else they really have at this point. I guess they have Bernie's laundry list of freebies, free health care, free pre-K, free college, free medical care, free housing, it's all a fraud. No one takes any of this seriously.
Remember, when Reagan told us, it's morning in America. And then Trump vowed to make America great again. And Obama, he offered hope and change. Well, the 2020 Democrats on the other hand are either hoping for misery or actually peddling it. None of the candidates have an answer to Trump's booming economy. So, they pretend as they did at last night's debate that Americans really aren't better off at all.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, D-MA., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We need a strong economy and to work worldwide on that economy.
STEYER: We all know unchecked capitalism has failed.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, I-VT., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know what the ordinary American things are not so good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Really Bernie? Well, even with the recent gyrations, the stock market, every piece of economic data show that middle America is doing much better than they did three years ago.
Not to mention that Americans are the happiest they've been in decades. And that optimism is fueling more prosperity. Just today, we learned that the new home sales number hit a 12-year high last month. But again remember, good news for you is bad news for the misery party. If you weren't sufficiently freaked out about the Coronavirus, you should believe that at our core America, we are just a racist rotten country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR, D-MINN., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is racism in the criminal justice system.
JOE BIDEN, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We've got to deal with the institutional racism.
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If I were black, my success would have been a lot harder to achieve.
PETE BUTTIGIEG, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm conscious of the fact that there's seven white people on this stage talking about racial justice.
STEYER: I'm the only person on this stage who believes in reparations for slavery.
BIDEN: Sometimes I wake up and I think it's 1920 and not 2020.
SANDERS: We have a criminal justice system today that is not only broken, it is racist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Just call them bad news, Bernie. It's a wonder after listening to that marinate yourself on that for a while. It's a wonder that millions have immigrated here from all across the globe. Many of them people of color. Why would they do that given how the decks are apparently stacked against all of them, a terrible rotten racist country.
You'd have thought that the word would have gotten around by now. Don't go there. They hate you. It's all pretty weird though don't you think that such a racist society would see unemployment at record lows for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans.
Friends, it's frankly just - thinking about this all day. It's just pathetic at this point. The Democrats are coming up empty. The great American comeback is a fact and everyone who wants a job, wants to work is benefiting. That's great news and it's happening because of President Trump's America First policies. That takes us back though to where we started.
The Democrats latest desperate attempt to gain the political upper hand when nothing else is stuck. When all else fails, argue that well we should just spend more money.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KLOBUCHAR: This President has not invested like he should have in his budget. He tried to cut back on the CDC.
BLOOMBERG: He's defunded Centers for Disease Control CDC, so we don't have the organization we need.
BIDEN: We increased the budget of the CDC. We increased the NIH budget. We should - it was President today and he's wiped all out. We did it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Joe. Actually, the funding for the CDC and NIH during the Trump administration is higher than it was during the Obama-Biden administration.
Congress has been kept fully apprised of the crisis with the first briefing how last month when the President called all of this a public health emergency. And he imposed travel restrictions on foreigners coming in from China.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We should all be working together. She's trying to create a panic. Nancy Pelosi shouldn't - and she knows it's not true. She knows - all they're trying to do is get a political advantage. This isn't about political advantage. We're all trying to do the right thing. They shouldn't be saying, this is terrible, President Trump isn't asking for enough money. How stupid a thing to say?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Well, this is the time for calm measured pragmatism, not panic and not political opportunism by a party that's been buffeted by its own missteps and failed strategies. If they appear to be rooting for Americans suffering and pain during an election year, I promise you that the voters will put them in a political quarantine come November. And that's THE ANGLE.
All right, joining me now, Dan Bongino, Former Secret Service Agent, Fox News Contributor and host of The Dan Bongino Show. Also, with me is Richard Goodstein, Former Clinton Aide, Democratic Strategist and Attorney.
Richard why did Democrats seem to love it when people are freaking out and making everybody else around them miserable. That's what it seemed like over the past 48 hours.
RICHARD GOODSTEIN, FORMER CLINTON AIDE: Right. So, I don't know a single Democrat anybody actually who really is hoping their neighbor comes down with the Coronavirus so they can gloat about the fact that the Trump administration didn't do enough.
What the concern of Democrats is two things, one, the public doesn't trust Donald Trump. That's undisputable if you look at every poll from the start to today of the Trump administration. And that raises concerns when he's trying to kind of assure the public saying oh by April this will be over, things like that, it just doesn't ring true. And secondly, when you attack science, you use a sharpie to change a hurricane map. When you say climate, change is a hoax.
INGRAHAM: OK. Richard, I know a sharpie and a stupid hurricane.
GOODSTEIN: I'm saying--
INGRAHAM: We're talking about the Coronavirus. You're turning this into a political diatribe.
GOODSTEIN: This is all about science.
INGRAHAM: That's why you guys are going to lose in November.
GOODSTEIN: No.
INGRAHAM: No one told people don't believe, people don't believe that Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer gave a rat you know what about Coronavirus until this week. OK. When impeachment went down the tubes and their poll numbers were flat-lining and Bernie is going to get the nomination then they're freaking out, because nothing else worked. OK, so it's all good, Trump's wrong. Trump can't trust Trump. Where were they last month when people were being infected in China. They were nowhere. This week because everything else they've tried has bombed.
GOODSTEIN: It's because Trump is anti-science. It's because he's anti- science. That's the problem.
INGRAHAM: All right, Dan Bongino, anti-science from a party that thinks a baby born alive isn't a baby, it's a fetus that happened to just appear. OK. So, who's anti-science.
GOODSTEIN: A fiction.
INGRAHAM: Now, I'm angry. Go ahead.
DAN BONGINO, HOST, THE DAN BONGINO SHOW: Yes. Richard comes from the party who thinks there's 7600 genders too. Nothing Richard said there is actually true. He's pretty good at that actually. It's funny how he said that you know nobody on the Democrat sides politicizing this.
GOODSTEIN: I didn't say that, Dan. Stick to the facts.
BONGINO: And Nancy Pelosi come out and actually refute - Richard, you don't have any facts. I can't stick the facts you don't have.
GOODSTEIN: Well, don't make stuff up that I said that I didn't say.
BONGINO: OK. You said that - what you said the Democrats weren't politicizing this thing. That's exactly what they're doing. We had the media, we had to meet - can I finish my point. Is that OK. I didn't interrupt you. Can I finish my point here?
We had CNN complain about the lack of white males on the Trump task force for this. We had Nancy Pelosi today openly attack the President saying, we should fund it as much as we did Ebola and then simultaneously Laura said, but we didn't spend all the Ebola money and complaining about Trump. And then we had the Washington Post and Democrats, Richard your party there complained that Trump's travel ban. I'm sure you would have said the same thing a few months ago too that the travel ban was racist, and it was terrible, which looks like it saved us right now and this Coronavirus.
So, spare me the Democrat nonsense talking points please. This is garbage. You know your party is in a retch right now and you know they're taking advantage of this thing. Sadly, for political reasons, you know it. Come on, just take your medicine.
INGRAHAM: I want to ask a question about what the Democrats would do given what we're facing. We're going to get into this also with Kevin McCarthy and what's happening politically right now.
But let's say like we want to take the approach that the Korean citizens want. The South Korean citizens are clamoring for travel lockdown from China altogether. And I would say to the Democrats today, are you willing to one up Trump on travel bans because that's what would really calm this thing down. If you really stop travel from the most affected province of China, but you have to extend it all to almost all of China, would Democrats be in favor of that. Or Richard would they say that was scapegoating an entire country.
GOODSTEIN: And this is what I mean about being anti-science. Yes, I understand people in Korea are scared about their neighbors from China coming in, but this is now not unique to China. This is a worldwide pandemic, every continent but Antarctica has people that are suffering with Coronavirus. Are we going to have a travel ban from Italy? Are we going to have a travel ban from France, from Brazil?
INGRAHAM: Part of Italy, absolutely. Absolutely. From Northern, where we have the ski towns, absolutely.
GOODSTEIN: Good luck.
INGRAHAM: They're not able to fly into other parts of Europe. Europe is freaking out now because of the transit from northern Italy into France. People in France are saying why are we doing this EU thing, it's not going to work out with us on a health basis. And Dan Bongino, I think a lot of people are reexamining a lot of things right now given this health situation and so, it's great to say, kumbaya, globalization, globalism. But when something like this happens people think the nation state isn't a bad idea after all.
BONGINO: Yes, and notice what Richard just did there. He can't concede a commonsense point that a deadly potentially deadly virus. We don't know how deadly yet to be fair, but that's entering the country clearly from China where it originated. He can't concede the point that Trump's travel ban was a huge tactical success in mitigating the effect this year.
So, what does he do, what do you want, a travel bans all over the world? You didn't say that. I didn't say that either. What the Trump administration wants to do is where is the probability that this would come from in certain countries, China, the probability is high. Maybe we should look at a travel ban, but Democrats don't do that because Richard has TDS level 6 Trump Derangement Syndrome.
GOODSTEIN: Listen.
INGRAHAM: You can't get pass the fact that Trump did the right thing--
GOODSTEIN: Dan, your hero Rush Limbaugh says this is the common cold. OK. That's the science that we have called the shots. This is the common cold. OK. Great.
INGRAHAM: All right, guys. We've got to roll. We've got to get to Kevin McCarthy, spirited conversation. We really appreciate it. Gentlemen, thanks so much. All right, President Trump and his team laid out and fairly painstaking detail today, their prep for a possible virus outbreak in the United States. But that was not good enough for the party of pain and misery.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF.: What he's doing is late, too late anemic. Hopefully, we can make up for the loss of time.
SCHUMER: Create a czar who knows what he's doing or she's doing to bring the agencies together, it should be a public health expert. Second, ask for the right amount of money.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Someone get him bifocals, I'm just buying him bifocals, so he doesn't have those glasses down there, makes you much smarter. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy joins us tonight. Congressman that right amount of money turns out to be $8.5 billion, Schumer suggested in a written request this morning. Are they just throwing money at this problem?
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY, R-CALIF.: It seems like Schumer just played politics. Because we had all the head of appropriations by Republicans and Democrats together to walk through and see, what do we need. And the interesting part, the President was out the other day, but I've been to numerous meetings down at the White House bicameral, bipartisan walking through long before anybody is talking about this.
And we've been preparing for this when Republicans were in the majority, the last four or five years, we've increased NIH and CDC funding almost 40 percent. You know what we created Infectious Disease Rapid Response Fund. Republicans created that wondering if this day would ever come. So, we have been preparing it. We have the best health care in the world.
INGRAHAM: Should the messaging hit sooner? Should this press conference have happened three weeks ago, would that have gotten - because all this stuff was in place already. But just you know people need to hear it. And then when they hear that oh, OK, now I get it.
MCCARTHY: Well you know it's interesting, if you're an elected official, you're going to go to your fourth meeting on this in the entire Congress, everybody together. So, they have been hearing about it.
INGRAHAM: But they weren't talking about it until this week. Am I right or wrong on that? They weren't talking about it in these feverish terms until- -
MCCARTHY: The Democrats weren't talking anything about this.
INGRAHAM: Yes.
MCCARTHY: They actually tried to criticize the President when he shut the planes down from China from coming into it.
INGRAHAM: That's what my point is they're not going to go further than Trump on preventing this disease from coming.
MCCARTHY: No, they're not. All they're trying to look at - one of those teachers you had that only once put a red mark on your paper instead of telling you where you're doing it right. And the President has been preparing for this. The challenge is what did China do, it started in November. Never told us about it.
We tried to send our scientists in there, our doctors, they wouldn't allow it.
INGRAHAM: The President has been pretty positive, President Xi way too positive in my view and how he's handled this crisis. I mean is that just - we have to do happy talk to keep China diplomacy going.
MCCARTHY: We put our CDC and China actually copied our CDC. Call it that. Between our scientists they have worked together. It's the leadership and I think what she has been doing. It's been trying to make sure the media is pushed down instead of spinning the time taking care of it.
INGRAHAM: Can we believe the numbers coming out of China.
MCCARTHY: No, you can't believe any numbers.
INGRAHAM: It could be a lot bigger than what they're saying.
MCCARTHY: And the concerning once it goes to other places that becomes a real problem for us.
INGRAHAM: What about the politics of this. The President riding high after failed impeachment conviction. Mueller bombed, they said a recession was going to happen, none of that happened. Economy vitals are very, very strong in this election year. Do Democrats see this as their opportunity. They're heck of a job Brownie moment there. You know their moment to seize on the aha.
MCCARTHY: They see it any moment to try to do that. But compare this when Ebola was here, and President Obama was in office. You had Republicans in the majority working together not playing politics. This is people's health. This is not the time to play politics.
Schumer went out and just picked a number out of the air just to try to go after the President. And for Nancy Pelosi to say that after the President's been preparing for this, they're trying to get away--
INGRAHAM: Has she been talking to the President about this one-on-one.
MCCARTHY: You'd have to ask President, because I don't know her ever calling, but we've had all the administration down giving us briefings, we're going to our fourth one just this week.
INGRAHAM: All right. I have to get your reaction of the last night's debate, Congressman. The Democrats are employing now a new talking point against Bernie and one of them even takes a shot at you. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUTTIGIEG: It adds up to four more years of Donald Trump. Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House and the inability to get the Senate into Democratic hands. The time has come for us to stop acting like the presidency is the only office that matters.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now the New York Times actually asked Speaker Pelosi about this today and here's what she told them. Are you comfortable with Bernie Sanders at the top of the ticket? Pelosi says, yes. Reporter says, do you worry, he'll jeopardize your majority. Pelosi says, no. Congressman, should she be worried?
MCCARTHY: Well, she should be worried because what they have done in Congress literally nothing and they should be worried about all the success the President has. She's not worried about Bernie Sanders because she has already surrendered to the socialist more than half of them have co- sponsored, not just support, but co-sponsored Medicare for All. I mean this is a party that rather commend communism than defend democracy. It is outrageous.
INGRAHAM: Remember, last year when the President said we'll never be a socialist country.
MCCARTHY: Exactly.
INGRAHAM: You all stood up and then the Democrats like, I'm not sure if I should sit, stand--
MCCARTHY: They're going to have a nominee that's a socialist. We only need 18 seats to win the majority. So, the answer is yes. So, they want to find it, we have some of the best recruits ever.
INGRAHAM: Got to find those seats. You've got a big recruit class. You've got--
MCCARTHY: So, they need to go to takethehouse.com, if they really want to see a new majority. They can make it happen.
INGRAHAM: Takethehouse.com. Congressman, great to see you tonight.
MCCARTHY: Thank you.
INGRAHAM: And President Trump firing back at Democrats in the media for trying to stoke this mass panic over the Coronavirus. Senator Tom Cotton in moments on that. Plus, an American living in South Korea tells us of the spooky streets what it looks like on the frontlines of the pandemic Don't move.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At what point would you be considering loosen the travel restrictions regarding China.
TRUMP: When we're at a point where we don't have a problem. We're not going to loosen the travel restriction, that's what saved us. Had I not made a decision very early on not to take people from a certain area, we wouldn't be talking this way, we'd be talking about many more people would have been infected. I was criticized by the Democrats. They called me a racist because I made that decision if you can believe that one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Excellent, excellent point and Trump was absolutely right to impose travel restrictions on China, especially since we really can't trust the information, they're giving us on the outbreak in the first place.
So, it's a little confusing watching the media asking about loosening restrictions. He's damned if he does, he's damned if he doesn't. But American people are smarter than this they see right through this.
Joining me now Senator Tom Cotton, who has been leading in the - I think asking very common-sense questions about this, weeks before senators from the other party started piling on. Now Senator, what else needs to be done to safeguard against the virus and frankly, the Chinese misinformation about it.
SEN. TOM COTTON, R-ARK.: Hey Laura. Thanks for having me on. I think the President's message tonight was exactly right. We are prepared for the worst, but we are doing everything we can to prevent it. Nothing is inevitable and neither the President nor I will tolerate the kind of defeatism you hear from some quarters that there's nothing we can do to try to stop outbreaks in the United States or at least contain outbreaks because of course there's a big difference from having one case and having a hundred cases in a community.
I know the President is very focused from my conversations with him on getting testing kits out to all 50 states. So, we don't have a bottleneck at the headquarters of the CDC in Atlanta. I think that's the one thing we could do right now that would help us either identify a potential outbreak and contain it if there is one.
INGRAHAM: Senator, media clearly and Democrats are trying to create a rift between the president and the Centers for Disease Control, the President addressed that directly today. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you seen evidence that the CDC is trying to hurt you--
TRUMP: No, I don't think the CDC is - they've been working really well together. They really are, they're professional. I think they want this to go away. They want to do it with as little disruption, and they don't want to lose life. I see the way they work, these people behind me and others that are in the other room. They're incredible people. No, I don't see that at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: I mean Senator Cotton; you have this working group. They've been briefing Congress. They've been working around the clock on this virus. And I guess you could say they could have come out a week ago and said the same thing a week. That's fine, if that's the big criticism, fine. But come on, I mean does this ring hollow from the media and the Democrats now?
COTTON: Very much so, Laura. I can tell you this working group that you saw tonight on TV has been meeting every single day for more than a month. When I first began focusing on this matter and early to mid-January, I was speaking to administration officials as they were going into these meetings and coming out of them as well.
And as the President has pointed out, one reason why we have the time now to try to control outbreaks, try to get testing kits out to the states is because he took decisive action last month to shut down travel from China. And what happened at the time, Joe Biden accused him of being xenophobic against the Chinese.
And Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi were too busy trying to impeach him at the time. So, it's very disappointing as the President sad to see the other party trying to politicize this matter, when it's something that we should be working together on. And when they criticize the President, really what they're doing are criticizing his advisers from public health agencies like the CDC and the FDA. They're not criticizing him. They're criticizing those advisers.
He's of course making sure that everyone is on top of it and as being as aggressive as they can. But that's who the Democrats are really criticizing when they attack the President.
INGRAHAM: Senator Cotton really quickly, Donna Shalala, Congresswoman from Florida, of course former HHS Secretary under Bill Clinton said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. DONNA SHALALA, D-FLA.: Here's a president that has been firing scientists and weakening the scientific infrastructure of this country. Now speaking on this disease, he should leave it to the scientists and the heads of the public health agencies. The last thing you want is the President of the United States talking about science.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Tell us Donna, Senator thoughts.
COTTON: A lot of these scientists have been around for decades doing great work, but ultimately these are policy questions and we elect a President to make policy decisions along with our elected representatives in Congress.
INGRAHAM: Senator, thanks so much for joining us tonight. We really appreciate it. And the center of this spread of the Coronavirus has the military on high alert. Officials have already confirmed one soldier station in South Korea has contracted the disease and more than 1200 have been infected in South Korea up from just 51 people last week. So, last week, there were 51. Now, there are 1200.
Now, just to give you a sense of how fast this could explode. There are now 50 Americans with confirmed cases. So, what is it like living in a country with highest number of cases outside China?
We're joined by Steve Tharp with the retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel who has lived in South Korea for 30 years. Steve, good to see you. Even the studio you're broadcasting from with us tonight, I understand ask you to wear a mask until you appear on our air. Wild. What's it like there?
STEPHEN THARP, RETIRED U.S. ARMY LIEUTENANT COLONEL: Well, that's pretty standard. This is a very serious thing, and it's greatly disturbed Korean life here since it exploded down in Daegu last week. And if I could just take a minute and explain it for your viewers back in the United States. Daegu is a town about the size of Kansas City. I am a Missouri guy so I like to use Kansas City as a reference.
But imagine everybody in Kansas City being told to stay home and stay off the streets, and you have nothing but completely empty streets, with maybe a piece of trash floating here or there. That's the way it is in Daegu. And here in Seoul, it's a little better. You still have people, but most people have stayed home. When they go out, they wear masks. That's how we have to deal with the situation here.
INGRAHAM: The issue of China and the close, obviously, trade relationship that South Korea has with China is a matter of great concern given the absolute bond that both countries have with each other economically. What are the thoughts on how that is all going to be affected by this infection rate?
THARP: I would tell you that that has affected this rate because the South Koreans probably should've started blocking Chinese earlier than they did. But instead the disease was allowed to get in. If I can correct your figures a little bit, it's up to 1,600 now. We had almost 400 overnight, with 12 deaths.
INGRAHAM: Those are the most recent ones we had. It's not surprising. I understand President Moon is under a huge amount of criticism for not stopping all travel from China, and that there is a big push from the people, and many scientists even signed letters saying we've got to stop the inputs into the country because that's what's exploded this disease. Correct?
THARP: Yes, that's exactly correct. Over 800,000 people have signed a petition wanting to impeach President Moon.
INGRAHAM: Well, it's about time we thought about all this really seriously, because if you aren't coming in who are from infected areas, you're going to have a lot slower spread of this disease. It's just common sense. Steve, thank you so much. Stay safe there. We wish you all the best.
And up ahead, one D.C. suburb's decision to become a sanctuary for illegals has made it a magnet for crime, and now it's spilling into neighboring counties. A local sheriff responds. Plus, an INGRAHAM ANGLE exclusive with the new DOJ unit that's created to strip criminal aliens of their citizenship. You don't want to miss it, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: This was a huge victory for the Trump administration today. A federal appeals court ruling that he can in fact withhold funding from so- called sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with ICE. Perhaps the president should start with the sanctuary in his own backyard, the D.C. suburb of Montgomery County, Maryland, just a few miles from where we are broadcasting tonight. In the span of just two months in 2019, the county saw at least nine illegal aliens arrested for rape and sex abuse crimes, many of them against children. And this week we saw perhaps the most disturbing case yet. Two high school students aged 19 and 20, yes, you read that right, heard that right, were arrested and charged with raping two different 11-year-old girls -- 11-year-olds. One of the suspects, the 20- year-old, is a Salvadoran national who is living here illegally.
So what's a 20-year-old man, illegal alien, doing enrolled in a public high school, paid for by the tax dollars obviously? Maryland law requires that all residents up to the age of 21 get free public education for high school, including illegal aliens. If you are a Maryland resident, maybe just think about calling your representative, ask why your tax dollars are going towards this? That would be a good idea.
And my next guest says Montgomery County has become a hotbed of illegal alien crime, and now it's bleeding into his county, Frederick County. Joining me now is Chuck Jenkins, sheriff of Frederick County, Maryland. Sheriff, what's your message tonight to the people watching all of this? They're thinking, oh, this is just one county, or two counties.
SHERIFF CHUCK JENKINS, FREDERICK COUNTY, MARYLAND: Hi, Laura. You know what, this has been affecting Frederick County for year. Prior to them even declaring century status, we were seeing the criminal element, the criminal illegal aliens come up from Montgomery and P.G. counties, bleed into Frederick County. We've been dealing with crime.
INGRAHAM: I just want to put this up on the screen so people understand the scope of what we're talking about. There are 10 illegals that were arrested for sexual assault from July to November of 2019. Here are their names. And this is during this span, this is when the Montgomery County executive Mark Elrich signed that executive order barring ICE agents from actually going into the court houses to arrest these people. And meanwhile we've got the laundry list of individuals raping, in many cases, young minors.
JENKINS: Absolutely. We've seen gang crime. We've seen machete killings in Frederick County. We have seen rape and sexual assault.
INGRAHAM: How long have you been in law enforcement?
JENKINS: I've been 30 years in Frederick County.
INGRAHAM: Let's go back 30 years because that's about the time I moved to this area. I can't believe I'm saying that. That's how long I've been here. That' about the time I moved here, 1987, pretty much right after college. It was a different place.
JENKINS: It was a different world up there, then, absolutely. Frederick County is still largely rural county, population 250,000 people, but we never saw the problems with the gang crime, the criminal element that has bled over from the hotbeds of illegal aliens in P.G. and Montgomery County.
INGRAHAM: So the people Frederick County, the law advising taxpayers who work hard and try to send their kids to public schools, why are they electing these people? Why are people getting elected in the state house?
JENKINS: I don't understand that. As a matter of fact, I was in Annapolis today fighting century state bills that may come into play this year. It's lunacy. It's absolute lunacy. Listen --
INGRAHAM: What do you say to the average American watching in middle America tonight, watching this and feeling helpless? They feel helpless like they can't -- if they are living in a blue county, they feel helpless.
JENKINS: They do. They need to put pressure on their elected officials, their legislators, their congressmen, their local sheriffs and chiefs of police. In Frederick County, we got a little bit different up there. We work with ICE, we cooperate with ICE. We're a 287-G county.
INGRAHAM: You are helping them.
JENKINS: We arrest, we detain, and we deport criminal aliens, absolutely. Over 12 years we have deported 1,563, including 110 criminal gang members. Our streets are fairly safe.
INGRAHAM: Have you ever seen machete killings, MS-13 a few years ago?
JENKINS: Never heard of them 30 years ago, ever.
INGRAHAM: How about 20 years ago?
JENKINS: Not even 20. I'd say in the past 10 to 12 years we've really seen the influence of this violence. And Laura, remember this, the populations that are coming to this country are from the most violent countries on the face the planet.
INGRAHAM: The best and the brightest, we are getting the best and the brightest. Sheriff, thank you for what you're doing. Stay safe and thank you.
JENKINS: Thank you.
INGRAHAM: And speaking of illegal alien criminals, the Trump administration is creating a special unit within the DOJ to denaturalize foreign-born individuals who lied about their criminal pasts in order to get citizenship in this country. The fraudsters that they are going after include not only serious criminals like sex offenders but also terrorists and war criminals. Given the massive spike in referral to the DOJ for these types of cases, this new task force is absolutely necessary.
Joining me now exclusively from Mexico City is John Bash, U.S. attorney for the western district of Texas. John, what can you tell us tonight about this new DOJ unit? We were dealing with county issue right outside of Washington, D.C., which is troubling. Tell us about this new unit.
JOHN BASH, U.S. ATTORNEY, WESTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS: Thank you, Laura, for having me on. This new unit addresses exactly the kind of issue you were just talking about, people who molest children, terrorists. We have stood up a unit of 20 to 30 attorneys who are going to work civil denaturalization cases. And what those cases are is when someone lies in the process of trying to get naturalized to be a citizen, usually about their criminal past, but then nevertheless obtain citizenship, we can actually go after the fact and strip them of citizenship so long as the judge agrees.
And we have been doing that. We have stepped that up 200 percent in the last three years. But it's getting to the point where we are getting enough referrals that it's time to stand up a standalone unit, and so we have 20 to 30 lawyers dedicated to bringing justice to victims of child molestation, to victims of terrorism, war crimes, and so forth.
INGRAHAM: John, I want to read for you what the ACLU is saying about this tonight, reacting to your new task force. "The Trump administration announced a new unit that aims to strip Americans of their citizenship. Despite the previous lies, Trump now confirms what we've known for years. His systematic campaign against black and brown people extends to U.S. citizens." Is that really what's going on here, John? You're just willy- nilly going after people of color and just stripping them of their citizenship for no reason?
BASH: That is an outrageous statement that really impugns the integrity of all the career attorneys at DOJ that work on these issues. This is about people that never should have been naturalized, never should have been American citizens in the first case. I will just give you a couple examples. We denaturalized two Balkan conflicts war criminals who murdered unarmed civilians in the Balkans conflict. We denaturalized in my home state of Texas a man who was molesting a seven-year-old girl who was a family member and of course didn't disclose it on his naturalization application. I would really like for the ACLU or anyone else to confront the actual facts of these cases and explain why someone who has been molesting children and lies about it should not be denaturalized.
INGRAHAM: John, we are almost out of time, but I did a little immigration law in my old days. And just because you have a green card doesn't mean it's a free pass that you can stay in the United States forever. You can get denaturalized if you have lied in the process, if you've committed fraud in the process. That's U.S. law. The ACLU might not like U.S. law, but that's just the way it is. I don't know what they want. The question is how these people ever became citizens in the first place. I imagine a lot of them are from chain migration, correct?
BASH: Well, they come all different ways. Some of them are people who might have lied about being a family member, but a lot of people come here as refugees but then lie about the fact that the very conflict they are fleeing from, they were the war criminal in that conflict. And the other thing the ACLU leaves out is we have to prove almost beyond a reasonable doubt to a judge's satisfaction this person never should have been a U.S. citizen. So there's all sorts of procedural protections in place to avoid discrimination or unfair treatment in this process.
INGRAHAM: You have a high hurdle to clear. John, thank you for what you're doing in Mexico City. We really appreciate you joining us exclusively tonight.
And the post-debate polls are in, and Democrat voters are not feeling good about the candidates that they have to pick from. Pollster Scott Rasmussen and Doug Schoen are going to tell us why next.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: Ours will cost about $45 billion, not $60 trillion.
(CROSSTALK)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Ouch. Despite that superb debate performance last night, Democrats didn't do anything to instill confidence in their voters. A new CBS poll found that 47 percent felt more nervous about their candidates after the date.
Joining me now, Scott Rasmussen, pollster and Ballotpedia editor at large, and Doug Schoen, Bloomberg 2020 campaign poster. Scott, why, pray tell, are the Democrats panicked after that amazing evening of thoughtful conversation and repartee?
SCOTT RASMUSSEN, POLLSTER: You know it really did remind me of a nice dinner salon where you debated seriously the issues of the day until they all started screaming at each other. And 69 percent of Democrats who watch that debate said that what they saw was that the candidates were all criticizing each other rather than talking about President Trump. And beyond that, there's a dynamic in play. It's Bernie Sanders versus the not Bernie Sanders team. The Sanders team is really upset that everybody isn't falling in line behind their leader. The rest of them are saying, why can't somebody stand up? A week ago, Laura, you were saying it's going to be Bloomberg, Mike Bloomberg is going to be the guy. But two debate performances, he's not there. Now maybe Joe Biden is going to get another look.
INGRAHAM: No, no. I said it was going to be Bernie.
RASMUSSEN: You said Bernie and Bloomberg were the two.
INGRAHAM: Yes. I stand by that.
RASMUSSEN: And I think now it's going to be Bernie and Biden.
INGRAHAM: We'll see. We'll see, because Biden is out of money. Biden is bleeding cash.
RASMUSSEN: If Michael Bloomberg --
INGRAHAM: I've got to get to Doug. We're talking about his candidate here.
RASMUSSEN: Sorry, sorry.
INGRAHAM: All right, Doug, so Bloomberg, let's say we go into South Carolina and the polls are right, Biden wins, Bernie comes in second. Where does that leave Bloomberg in the moderate lane? Does he get pushed out of the moderate lane then by Biden? And where do you go from there?
DOUG SCHOEN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I think South Carolina is going to be very close. And whoever wins, I don't think with Super Tuesday three days away, it's going to have a demonstrative effect on that contest. So I think the mayor is in very good shape and all the 14 or so states.
That being said, I worry that Bernie Sanders is so far left, so far outside the mainstream for this country as a frontrunner, the real problem is stopping him. His unapologetic support for the Cubans, his belief that every program needs to be enacted for free tuition, student loan elimination, Medicare for all without a price tag, to me, Laura, is completely crazy. And I can understand why people are nervous. I'm nervous, too.
INGRAHAM: This is what Biden said today, Scott, on MSNBC, about the possibility of a Bernie revolution.
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BIDEN: We have created jobs for people. The people know me. My entire career has been wrapped up in dealing with civil rights and civil liberties. I don't expect anything. I plan to earn the vote. I am here to ask. I am here to earn it.
(APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: But folks, I intend to win South Carolina.
Americans aren't looking for a revolution. They are looking for progress. They are looking for tell me how you're going to help me with my health care. Tell me how are you going to make me safer. He's not going to come anywhere near generating the kind of participation of young folks that Barack did in 2008. There is no evidence of that yet.
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INGRAHAM: Are they not ready for that yet, the great socialist promise?
RASMUSSEN: The American people are not ready for Bernie Sanders. It's a little late for some of the more moderate, centrist candidates in the Democratic Party to be turning their attention to Sanders. I think he is clearly the frontrunner. But if he becomes the nominee of the Democratic Party, assuming the economy holds up, it looks like it would probably be a very good night for Republicans. And there's a real good chance that the political left will become irrelevant for a generation.
INGRAHAM: Gentlemen, thanks so much.
And coming up, a hilarious Trump moment from tonight's briefing reminded us of a moment from a previous interview. The Last Bite explains when we return.
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TRUMP: I do it a lot anyway, as you probably heard. Wash your hands. When somebody sneezes, I try and bail out as much as possible when they are sneezing.
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INGRAHAM: That was a hilarious moment from today. It served as the inspiration for tonight's Last Bite. Think back to June when a certain ABC anchor interviewed Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: At some point I hope they get it, because it's a fantastic financial statement. It's a fantastic financial statement.
And let's do that over. He is coughing in the middle of my answer. I don't like that. If you're going to cough, please leave the room.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: OK. They just pile on Trump for that. He was so mean. It was pretty funny.
All right. That's all the time we have tonight. Shannon Bream and the "Fox News @ Night" team, take it all from here
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