Former ACLU board member: Call for reparations is part of the 'blame whitey movement'
2020 Democrats renew reparation calls; reaction from former ACLU national board member Michael Meyers.
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," April 5, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
LAURA INGRAHAM, HOST: Happy Friday night. I'm Laura Ingraham and this is “The Ingraham Angle” from Washington. We're going to get to my message to the President in moments. It involves some, oh, but tough love, so stay right there.
But also tonight, we got a huge response to a question I posed last night in THE ANGLE. I was wondering what Martin Luther King Jr. would think about some of the stoking of racial division that we see from the modern day left and some of the hatred as well? His niece Alveda King is here with some of her thoughts.
Plus, something only going to see here a former ACLU Director saying that the 2020 Dems are falling for Al Sharpton's reparations scam. And he's calling it a scam tonight, don't want to miss it. And Raymond Arroyo is here with your "Friday Follies". Is that we're calling it's night follies.
Joe Biden finds humor and his hugging scandal and people have lost all sense of humor, we're going to get into that.
But first, as we look ahead to 2020, there are two inescapable political realities. #1, the Democratic Party is as far as I can tell, almost completely devoid of any clear or unifying policy message for the American people.
Now, we have known this to be true, though, for some time. Though, at Al Sharpton's National Action Network Conference this week, well, they all swept in to remind us anew.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, I-VT, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have a long way to go to end the institutional racism which permeates almost every aspect of American society.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, D-MASS., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Massive voter suppression prevented Stacey Abrams from becoming the rightful Governor of Georgia. They'll fight anyone who tries to stand up and push back.
SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, D-N.Y., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have to dismantle the institutional racism that pervades our society and holds back millions of families.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now for the left grievance has become a more animating principle than addressing a couple of key issues, like, how can we actually improve the lives of all Americans and how do we maybe keep them safe - security on our streets. And that leads us to the second inescapable reality, and a more troubling one perhaps for the White House.
I'm concerned tonight that President Trump could be in some ways squandering an opportunity to seize on the Democrats complete ineffectiveness by lacking a clear vision as it relates to the issue of immigration.
Now Mr. President sometimes - sometimes your rhetoric doesn't match the policy and we're getting a - sometimes mixed messages. And mixed messages do not help an already deficient Congress, let's face it. Never wanted to solve this issue in the first place, I'm talking Republicans and Democrats.
And you were right, to veto the rejection of your National Emergency - look what's happening in border today, of course, it's an emergency. Anyone with two eyes can see it. But the push cannot just stop there. It's got to be pedal to the metal right now.
In addition to all the raucous rallies and even the trips to the border, and they're great, it's time to give big specific policy speeches about what's happening specifically with illegal immigration.
So I'd go to one of these outrageous - and mention the issue of these outrageous birthing centers in the United States. It's a real scam that's going on with this birthright citizenship selling whether to Chinese or Russians and we have a big story on this. Next week we're going to bring you.
But you talked about birthright citizenship during the campaign, most Americans are completely outraged by how the system is being game. Insist that we enforce eVerify, so that businesses can no longer game the system and push American wages lower, just as we're seeing them start to rise.
Demand and enforce more deportations - not fewer. Now remember Mr. President this is an easy sell. Just 23 percent of Americans actually want more illegal immigration. And to reaffirm our sovereignty, another thing we can do, catch-and-release needs to be replaced with immediate border turn backs if anyone crossing illegally.
I know the law has to be changed to do that, because right now because of one federal judge, and Dianne Feinstein's Wilberforce Trafficking Act, we can't turn people to Central America. And you took, though, a good first step in this direction earlier today from Calexico, California.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT: Our country is full. Our area is full. The sector is full. Can't take any more, I'm sorry, it can't happen. So turn around that's the way it is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now, remember, this issue is yours and the GOPs - and now and that's a good thing. They didn't want it to be their issue, but you forced it on them, that's great. Stay there. Now, in the last decades - just one decade, the Democrats have gone from this--
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT: We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, unchecked and circumventing the line of people who are waiting patiently, diligently and lawfully--
-- do not send your children to the borders. If they do make it, they'll get sent back. More importantly, they may not make it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: And now to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, D-CALIF., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let's first acknowledge that this is a crisis of the President's own making.
CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC HOST: If you could, would you take the wall down now? Here?
BETO O'ROURKE, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes.
HAYES: Like you have a wall.
O'ROURKE: Absolutely.
HAYES: Knock it
JULIAN CASTRO, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I said that we should decriminalize people who are coming here, crossing the border--
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Those folks aren't going to keep us safe, they're not. But Mr. President you're doing the best job so far, and you can do even more. Now this message of security will also resonate - it's going to resonate with suburban women in the next election.
Mr. President you're the only leader on the scene who can keep Americans and their wages frankly safe. But for that to happen consistent, bold policy and follow-through with the determined rhetoric, got to have the policy follow-through.
Joining me now Hector Garza, Vice President of the National Border Patrol Council; and Derek Maltz, former DEA Head of Special Ops. Hector what do you need from President Trump?
HECTOR GARZA, NATIONAL BORDER PATROL COUNCIL, VICE PRESIDENT: Well actually what we need is a - President Trump is doing a great job, and he's been the only President that has been very proactive in trying to solve this border security mess that we've had for decades.
Unfortunately, we need Congress to act. We need Congress to make sure that they stop encouraging illegal immigration. When we talk about open borders and decriminalizing immigration, that's not a good move, look at the mess that we have right now.
Our agents are handling situations where they're being exposed to tuberculosis, hepatitis and some very dangerous infectious diseases in the processing areas. So, definitely, it's a mayhem on the border and Congress needs to act. President Trump has been trying, and we appreciate President Trump.
INGRAHAM: Derek, we have a situation now where we have hundreds of thousands of people in our country who have already been ordered deported by a federal immigration judge or they haven't shown up for their hearings, so they defaulted basically. But most of them just have already been adjudged illegally present or are subject to immediate deportation, but they don't show up for their hearings.
I've been told by numerous ICE officials that just doing that, finding those people, sending those people out of the country will create an enormous deterrent. In fact, whatever we want to call it, Operation Send Back or whatever you want to call it. That in and of itself is due process has already been given these people and they've refused to abide even by the due process findings of a federal immigration judge. What do you think about that?
DEREK MALTZ, FORMER DEA HEAD OF SPECIAL OPERATIONS: Well I think that the country has to get way more serious. Just look at Bambi Larson out there in California. I mean this monster that killed her, he was arrested - what like six times.
INGRAHAM: Yes.
MALTZ: --ICE detainee and they didn't even do anything about it. They just let him go and then he butchers the lady. So I think that these people need to be immediately removed. The law has to be updated clearly. But at the end of the day, we can't have illegals all in our country.
Look at Atlanta, like, I always bring up the Atlanta DEA case. We had a big takedown - 15 out of 24 of the subjects arrested on a major Jalisco Cartel case, they were illegally here. The lab that they hid 400 pounds of methamphetamine, six out of seven arrested were all illegal. They're causing chaos in our country and kids are dying everywhere. So they need to really start supporting these people immediately.
And it can't be just President Trump alone. I mean he wanted to shut down the border, then he backed off, and all these media people came out and said, "Well, he's in retreat. He talks a good game, but then in Mexico didn't pay for the wall and you didn't close the border and now you're given Mexico a year to figure it out".
I don't think we have a year, Hector. We don't have a year for Mexico to get their act together here, OK? This has to stop. We're going to have a million and a half people having to come into the country illegally, most of them released into the country. America never voted for it. They voted for Trump, which means they want the opposite of that. Hector?
GARZA: So think about it, almost a 100,000 apprehensions in the month of March, just within the Border Patrol, not counting the entire CBP apprehensions. And again that's due to catch and release, and it's only going to get worse. And unfortunately, if we don't control these caravans that are coming over here, we're no longer going to have Border Security operations of border.
As it is right now, we can't even patrol enough of the border because of our new duties of babysitting kids and feeding them and transporting them, when we're supposed to be stopping terrorists on the border, stopping dangerous drugs and stopping dangerous criminals from coming across. But right now we can't do that, and that's unacceptable.
INGRAHAM: We also had a situation in Fresno where a Sheriff there was describing just how bad the situation is. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARGARET MIMS, FRESNO, CA COUNTY SHERIFF: An uncontrolled, unsecure border directly affects our local communities. And without a secure border, transnational gangs, human traffickers and drug cartels will take advantage of any opportunity to exploit our current border crisis to further their criminal behavior in our local communities. We've experienced this firsthand.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Derek people can wave off the concern and say Trump is anti- immigrant, Trump is this, he doesn't like - this is really happening to America. This is not hyperbole. This is - these are American lives. And Congress is supposed to care about American lives. OK. We do a lot for other countries.
But when we have sheriff's saying, "Wait a second, we can't do this anymore". It would - I would assume that Republicans and Democrats take notice.
MALTZ: Well, one thing for sure, Laura. Just look at all this Secretary of Homeland Security's over the last several years. They all have waved the flag about how bad the border was, but no one acted. It's typical Washington. They talk about it, they don't act.
Secretary Nielsen is acting. She's trying hard to educate Congress, educate the public, educate the White House with the experts like all these Border Patrol agents that are dedicating their time and their lives. They're sacrificing lies and they're on the border, not making a lot of money, and nobody's listening.
That's the said - that's the really sad part. I mean this isn't anything new.
INGRAHAM: They don't want to listen. No, they hear. They know, but they'd rather hang out with Al Sharpton at Manhattan and talk about how the whole country is racist and that system is all rigged against everyone.
Instead of saying, maybe we could work with the Republicans on something. maybe we can actually figure this out, because it would be better for all people in our country, especially disadvantaged people who need to help up, to actually have it this to be an American centered immigration solution here, focusing on the American people.
That's what I can't for the life of me understand. It would be good for their communities that are dealing with the scourge of gang activity and meth and all the other problems we're seeing. So that what it gets me.
Hector, Hakeem Jeffries made a comment about the so-called emergency. He believes it's not really the emergency and he blames one person. Let's watch.
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES, D-N.Y.: Well, the President, unfortunately, continues to peddle xenophobia as part of a well calculated political strategy apparently to get elected. It's clear that we have a broken immigration system. It's clear that we need comprehensive immigration reform.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: OK. So the same old amnesty argument. We'll start enforcing the border when you give us amnesty. I mean, that's predictable. Your reaction and will close it out.
GARZA: No, so it's definitely a crisis on the border and this is not something that President Trump made. This has been a problem that we've been having for decades and decades, decades. And a lot of our congressmen and Members of Congress and our past Presidents have ignored the situation on the border.
And finally, we have a President that has the will and the internal fortitude to be able to make a difference--
INGRAHAM: Yes.
GARZA: --on the border and now he's being stopped in any way that he tries. And unfortunately the members of Congress are to blame for this crisis on both sides of the aisle.
INGRAHAM: Yes. And the President needs to stick with his instincts. His instincts on this are right. He's getting a lot of advice, I think, from a lot of people who want to take him away from his instincts. Panel, thank you so much.
GARZA: Laura.
INGRAHAM: Yes.
GARZA: He was down there at the border talking to Border Patrol agents to the rank-and-file Border Patrol agents that are seeing this crisis day in and day out. They're the ones that are being affected, and he was out there talking to them.
INGRAHAM: Fantastic. And while President Trump's messaging on immigration is - its driving the Left crazy. One thing that is for certain, is the support from Hispanic voters continuing to rise.
Unbelievable, according to a new poll, 50 percent think he's doing a good job, that's up four percent from just in February. Joining me now to discuss, Charlie Kirk, Founder and Executive Director of Turning Point USA; Former DNC Comms Director Luis Miranda; and Sara Carter, Fox News Contributor.
Sara, why do you think the President has this support of Hispanic folks. A lot of people would be surprised to see that.
SARA CARTER, CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I'm not surprised at all, and I've seen it in the Hispanic community. As you know Laura, I'm half Cuban. So I speak the language. I grew up in a Latino community. I'm very familiar with it.
Look, the job market is great. We're seeing an increase. Our economy is roaring, at least right now. Just today I heard the report that Target even raised the minimum wage on their own to keep their workers to $13 an hour, that's a big deal.
INGRAHAM: Wages are going up, people should be happy.
CARTER: Yes. Wages are going up naturally, not because the federal government is enforcing--
INGRAHAM: Tight labor market, that's what we want.
CARTER: That's right, and that's what Hispanics - look, Hispanics are conservative, they're hard workers, they're good people. They're family- oriented and this is - that type of messaging is reaching them. It needs to continue to reach them.
INGRAHAM: And Luis, I think a lot of folks who came here especially from Central America, Mexico, they left their countries for a variety of reasons, a lot of them economic, other reasons, family reasons.
But a lot of folks - and I spent a lot of time, as you know, in Guatemala - a lot of folks - they don't want America to turn into a corrupt country where they don't get real representation or leadership. They left Guatemala, because frankly Guatemala is corrupt. They don't want that to happen here. That's what I hear from a lot of people.
Do you deny that Trump's popularity is probably more than you would think it would have been with Hispanic--
LUIS MIRANDA, FORMER DNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Well, I don't think we can trust these kinds of polls, especially because they--
INGRAHAM: If they were bad, you'd trust them, though, right?
MIRANDA: No, that's true. The polling of Hispanics is traditionally bad, because you can't put this in a monolith to begin with. She was talking about being half Cuban American. I'm Colombian American, Mexican Americans, and Central Americans they're very different.
So the fact is that usually when this kind of polling happens, it's missing a lot of people because most Hispanics are for now not even on landlines. They're on mobile phones. They might be Spanish dominant and the polls aren't going up.
INGRAHAM: OK. So we can now - we never say the word Latino again.
MIRANDA: Polling on Hispanic voters--
INGRAHAM: How do you ever say Latino particularly bad?
MIRANDA: It just doesn't make sense.
INGRAHAM: Well, polling was bad before the 2016 election, all right.
MIRANDA: It was, but about Hispanics--
INGRAHAM: --it's a snapshot.
MIRANDA: Laura, but let me make - let me finish this point, because this is important. When you lump all Hispanics into that, that's not real because you actually had a stronger support for Republican candidates, for example, in Florida where it made sense because of higher Venezuela and Colombia American voters and Cuban American voters.
INGRAHAM: OK.
MIRANDA: --and different in Texas.
INGRAHAM: --well, we got Dan Patrick won 40 percent of the Latino vote in Texas.
MIRANDA: True.
INGRAHAM: Greg Abbott won 44 percent of the Latino vote. Both are tougher than I am on the border, OK. They want big chunks of the Hispanic vote in the state of Texas and that shocked a lot of people, because those guys and - Charlie, both of them are like, they're tough as nails on the border.
CHARLIE KIRK, FOUNDER TURNING POINT USA: Well, look I kind of chuckle, because I'm sure we could find - you're saying previously to trust the polls when it comes to Trump's popularity--
MIRANDA: No, you can't--
KIRK: --when it comes - OK. So you never trust any polls. So we'll never have you have a conversation while polling again, glad we have that on the record. Anyway, but you look at this poll even if it's off by 10 or 15 or 20 percent, it's remarkable, because it shows an increase.
And the increase, Laura, I believe is exactly related to the President's stance on the border, and as you said, his rhetoric and declaring the national emergency. And you look at some of the communities that are most negatively impacted by illegal immigration, it's legal immigrants in the Hispanic, Latino community--
INGRAHAM: Absolutely.
KIRK: --in Texas and in Arizona and New Mexico and California. And Sara can attest this quite well that these are the communities that see their wages going down, because they are the ones that actually had to apply for the Green Cards and come your legal.
CARTER: And let me tell you this, even here in Virginia, I speak to a lot of people in the Virginia communities - Latino communities, people from Guatemala, Honduras - hard workers with Green Cards. You know what they tell me Laura? This is what they tell me. I hope the President stops this mass caravan from coming in.
You don't understand what's happening to our communities. We are prisoners in our own communities by Ms-13. We are facing all kinds of issues. These are--
INGRAHAM: Let me say, Northern Virginia - let me just say Northern Virginia never had MS-13 when I grew up.
MIRANDA: I have no sympathy MS-13, OK. So let's not try to make these issues, because--
CARTER: Is this is real fear for the Latino communities?
MIRANDA: --I agree with that.
CARTER: Very real fear.
MIRANDA: But the difference in polling is a separate issue, which is--
INGRAHAM: We're not talking about polling. What we are talking about now is whose solutions are actually working for America. And when the New York Times yesterday wrote a piece about wages going up in the construction industry, I think they are up six percent. They were kind of like - they almost didn't like to report, that fact that wages are going up.
Hispanics dominate and certainly in the Northern Virginia, Maryland, DC area in the construction. That's good news. I think we should not be worried about businesses saying, "Oh god, we have a tight labor".
We should say good, we have a tight labor market. Wages are going up for blue-collar workers, a lot of Hispanic people. That's money in people's pockets, it's not rhetoric, it's not calling them a xenophobe, it's not saying - it's money in their pocket. And Luis, I think Democrats needs to care about that.
MIRANDA: I think that the gains for Donald Trump have come from - and for example in Florida, among Venezuelan Americans and Colombian Americans who lean more conservative. They're particularly in light of the things that are happening right now in Venezuela. I think that's why they're supporting, that's actually a significant part of it.
And then when you look at things like what Donald Trump said about Colombian President - the new Colombian President being a problem, because he hasn't done enough on the drug trafficking fight. That creates actually a potential detriment to the growth that he might be seeing, which I think is actually smaller than this poll shows.
CARTER: But that's a separate issue. I think when you dealing with the poll and politics--
MIRANDA: So what I'm talking about is that those foreign policy issues actually have a significant impact in those communities, right?
INGRAHAM: OK. I want to say--
MIRANDA: So what both parties have done wrong right now is that they think that they should only talk about immigration and that they try to take it as one big blob--
INGRAHAM: I'm doing China--
MIRANDA: The reality is--
INGRAHAM: --the economy, wages, all of it--
MIRANDA: --different issues matter. Puerto Ricans who came over after the hurricane are not necessarily Democrats. Many of them lean more conservative, so this is--
INGRAHAM: I got a play something for you guys. Julian Castro something today - I got to play this, because this kind of takes us to where the demonization game is going on in the Democrat Party, let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CASTRO: What he's trying to do - the President is trying to do is to dehumanize to otherize these immigrants. And that's very similar whether it's to what Congressman O'Rourke was talking about or other regimes that try and dehumanize people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Other regimes like - for example, the Third Reich, do you think that's kind of appropriate rhetoric here?
CASTRO: Well I think one of the things that that that regime did was to dehumanize people—
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KIRK: I mean what an unbelievable insult. And you know what really upsets me is you've heard Robert Francis O'Rourke, could have called Beto, say this on the campaign trail. It cheapens the horror of the Holocaust, when they dare insight that parallel.
INGRAHAM: How about calling America a regime.
KIRK: --a regime.
MIRANDA: I think the Donald Trump's reaction to Charlottesville situation--
INGRAHAM: Oh, my god. OK. It's - OK. All right. Now Charlottesville is wiped out everything else.
CARTER: That's - I mean, look this is--
(Cross Talk)
CARTER: This is just rhetoric.
(Cross Talk)
INGRAHAM: No, you know he wasn't saying that.
MIRANDA: --blood and soil are good--
CARTER: --rhetoric.
INGRAHAM: He was not - he
(Cross Talk)
CARTER: No, let's just talk about the fact--
MIRANDA: --entire religion as part of this--
CARTER: --no, we are not--
KIRK: never wanted to ban a religion.
MIRANDA: That is exactly what--
KIRK: He wanted to restrict immigration from Middle Eastern countries.
(Cross Talk)
INGRAHAM: But this is what you have. This is all you have, Luis.
CARTER: Let's talk about facts, 1700 percent increase in asylum claims in the last eight years. We have right now 620 percent increase in family units--
MIRANDA: And instead of working with The Northern Triangle to setup centers there--
CARTER: This isn't about the Northern Triangle.
INGRAHAM: --we got people sleeping on the street right here, Luis. Don't talk about the center.
MIRANDA: I'm talking about setting up centers to request asylum, so that they are not coming to--
CARTER: Like, we don't do anything. We can't perpetuate
INGRAHAM: --world, give me break.
CARTER: We can't perpetuate this terrible trafficking--
(Cross Talk)
MIRANDA: You have to work diplomatically with other countries to--
KIRK: We give them hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
MIRANDA: --and Laura, you agree with me on this--
INGRAHAM: Decades - we've been doing a lot for decades.
CARTER: Luis, if the Democrats care about the people in the country--
INGRAHAM: --don't blame your country. This is your country, don't blame it.
MIRANDA: I didn't blame it. I said we should be working to try and create solutions instead of waiting--
INGRAHAM: All right. Yes. Well, the President has given them a chance. We're out of time. We're going to go. Alveda King is coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REV. AL SHARPTON, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: We have already seen a black President. We've already seen a black first family. Now we want to know what it is going to mean symbolism is not enough now - it's substance and if there is substance then we've gotten over the aura of the first.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now those comments along with others at the National Action Network, we're dripping with kind of grievance. They led me to pose this question yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Today is the anniversary of the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. I was thinking, like, if he were alive today I wonder what to think about such dismissive comments, and about a Democrat party that believes it can regain power by living in a constant state of protest or racial hatred and denial.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now for highlighting how the manufactured outrage by some of the social justice warriors is creating racial division and hatred - I was attacked - I just asking a question. Well, kind of in the response to proving my point aren't they.
They're not interested in a real conversation about improving the lives of real people, the state of the economy for African Americans in this country, talking about criminal justice reform, school choice, all the things that conservatives love - the life issue.
Instead, they attempt to demonize anyone who rejects divisive negative way of thinking. Well they want to shut down speech. They don't believe in open dialogue. Joining me now is a woman who does, Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King Jr.
Alveda has the type of stuff you're seeing from Jesse Jackson and all the Democrats one after the other after the other kind of bowing down to his you know his identity over the last few days.
Now I just were just raised the question, because it's so negative. It's almost like even Obama's presidency was kind of dismissed by Al Sharpton saying, "Yes, he did some good things, but now it's on to the real work".
ALVEDA KING, NIECE OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: Isn't that amazing that Al Sharpton would say that. He forgets many things quickly. I think he forgot that Martin Luther King Jr. was a prophet. I think Jesse Jackson forgot that too. And in the spirit of Jesus Christ, it sounds like socialism, I guess, to say feed the poor and take care of the hungry. But that's the perspective of Martin Luther King and a prophetic voice, not a political voice.
INGRAHAM: Yes, so some of your relatives - you guys were tweeting back at each other - interfamily conversations about this. But you never know what anyone would think - it would be fun to think what Thomas Jefferson would think what would--
But it is - and going back, I was watching a lot of his speeches before this show and going back and watching - and he was - he was sounding more favorable into socialism and socialist ideals. I want to read part of one of his speeches. I think we have the full screen when he talked about socialism.
Well this is a description of him. That Dr. King was anti-war, anti- capitalism and pro socialism. He saw capitalism as exploitative by nature, an economic structure that bred poverty and injustice.
He spoke of his desire to fundamentally change society several times into a democratic form of socialism which the workers collectively owned and direct profit from the businesses in which they work. He saw capitalism as a method of organization that produced an extremely wealthy upper class, but left huge numbers in dire poverty. And that was Garrett Griffin.
But his - there are actual speeches from King where he discussed the need to fundamentally restructure the economic system in the United States, so maybe the push towards socialism kind of is in the tradition of - can you make that argument.
KING: But they're not exactly socialism because in restructuring that system he would want to see African Americans today own land, own property, work, contribute to society. So he would not necessarily have supported just handouts without hand up and equipping people with the fish forever rather than having a fish for a day.
So that's why I say his socialism was more remindful of Christ rather than a political structural system. But as far as perpetual protest, he was sowing hope, seeds of hope. One day this will end and we'll all have something together. That's the Martin Luther King Junior that I actually know.
INGRAHAM: He was also working with people in both parties, which he knew you had to do, which I also think is say. In the civil rights movement today, it's only -- you don't have a lot of diversity.
KING: It has to be either/or. And if you're an African-American everybody just insists that you need to be a Democrat, and that's not really true. Martin Luther King Junior was an independent. His dad started out as a Republican, but he was an independent. And people don't remember that either. And so that's why when Sharpton just dismisses and forgets, well, we can't forget. If we forget our history we'll repeat the bad part, but then we'll forget to do the good part over again.
INGRAHAM: Alveda, and also of course the pro-life community you do so much great work for. And that's another conversation that just isn't had.
KING: Civil rights for the unborn.
INGRAHAM: Not had.
KING: And I'm so glad to see more and more being done. And we really need to end racism, abortion, and infanticide from my perspective.
INGRAHAM: And that's something that, of course, as you call him, daddy King, in his core.
KING: He was always pro-life, daddy King, from life, from birth until when he left the planet, supported life.
INGRAHAM: Alveda King, so great to have you. Sorry if I cause any family squabbles.
KING: It will be OK.
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: God bless.
The 20 Democratic fanatics have renewed their calls for reparations while kissing the ring of the Reverend Al at the National Action Network convention this week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WARREN: Would you sign the bill for reparations?
WARREN: Yes, I would. I already support that bill.
(APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: When I am elected president, I'll sign it.
(APPLAUSE)
O'ROURKE: Absolutely I would sign that into law.
SANDERS: If the House and Senate pass it, of course I would sign it.
GILLIBRAND: I firmly support Congresswoman Jackson Lee's bill to create a commission to study reparations.
CASTRO: There are things that we need to do in this country that is a long time coming. One of those is to move forward with reparations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Here now is Michael Meyers, former ACLU National Board member. Now, Michael, you say that this is all a scam. Explain.
MICHAEL MEYERS, FORMER ACLU NATIONAL BOARD MEMBER: Of course it is. It's more of that blame whitey movement mania, madness. And it's sheer racial rhetoric, and that's what you get at the Al Sharpton so-called house of justice. You have befoolery, and you have diversion, you have distraction. You have this notion of farce. So at that house of so-called justice you have either a horror picture show showing, or you have a farce. Either way it is not to be taken seriously. I can't understand how serious presidential contenders can give legitimacy to a racial blowhard. And I think it is outrageous and silly and idiocy on the part of the presidential candidates. And anybody who thinks that white Americans are going to take the blame or going to feel guilty or give their land and their property away in some sort of reparations pot because they feel responsibility for the sins of their forebears, they're not.
INGRAHAM: Al Sharpton was also trying to address the improvements in the economic standing of African-Americans just in the last two years, and he dismissed it. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REV. AL SHARPTON, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: Blacks are still doubly unemployed to whites. Trump keeps saying it's the lowest black unemployment every was. Yes, but we still double the whites. How do you close the race gap? How do you close the race gap in wealth?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: So it doesn't mean -- Trump could literally cure cancer tomorrow, and Al Sharpton would have said, but he should have done it a year ago.
MEYERS: I cannot take Al Sharpton seriously. The whole racial movement is anti-intellectual. It's unintelligent. So I can't take buffoonery serious.
INGRAHAM: But what about all the 2020 candidates. One after the other just prostrated themselves to Al Sharpton.
MEYERS: Kissing his ring, kissing his butt. I just don't get it. If they want to be serious, they should take Al Sharpton and say, no, there's not going to be any reparations. There's not going to be a study of reparations. Where is this reparations pot coming from? James Foreman in 1969, he went to the Riverside Church and said we want $500 million, that's all, $500 million in a reparations, and he wanted it from the white churches and the white synagogues. Well, where did that money go to? It didn't go to black people or the descendants of African slaves. You know where that money goes to. It goes to people who are hustlers, who are pimps. And I resent it, and I think it's shameless, and it's racial idiots. And people who have sense, who are intelligent, must address this as such.
INGRAHAM: I think it -- I heard a lot of people today were saying what they're doing is racist, because you are actually saying the guy who just came here from Serbia six months ago somehow is going to have to write a check for a Somali refugee who came here 20 years ago. None of that makes any sense to most people.
MEYERS: That's why I say it's unintelligent. Nobody is giving up their house, nobody is giving up their land. Nobody is giving away acres, 40 acres are gone. And nobody -- not even a building is going into that reparations pot. So what are they talking about? These people are, they are chasing a farce.
INGRAHAM: It's a campaign issue. This is all a power grab, it's a total distraction.
MEYERS: It's buffoonery. It's buffoonery.
INGRAHAM: We've got to have back, Michael, we're going to have you back to talk about what the ACLU is doing, today's ACLU doing in lawsuits. We didn't have time to do it in this segment. We will have you back, essentially it is fascinating. Thanks for joining us.
And up next, uncle Joe jokes about some inappropriate behavior. But did he really mean it? And there was a tragic fall involved.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: It's Friday, and that means it's time for Friday Follies. Come on, you know by now.
Uncle Joe just doesn't know when to let it go, AOC sporting a new accent, and video that will make our male viewers cringe. Joining us all with all the details, Raymond Arroyo, FOX News contributor, "New York Times" bestselling author of number three in the series, "Will Wilder, The Amulet of Power." All right, Raymond, Joe Biden spoke publicly. He was at the Hinckley Hilton today, I understand.
RAYMOND ARROYO, CONTRIBUTOR: A lovely reference. He was speaking at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in D.C. The president of that union, Lonnie Stephenson, introduced the former veep with a hug.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: I just want you to know I had permission to hug Lonnie.
(LAUGHTER)
BIDEN: All those kids, you want to come up on the stage, you can come up. It's OK. I have to stand all wrong. But by the way, he gave me permission to touch him.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: Laura, some commentators are absolutely furious about what Biden - - that Biden would dare to joke about the hug and sniff gate. Look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was joking around on stage, but it just wasn't funny.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Making light of it sort of, I don't know, leaves me scratching my head.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The fact that he joked about it today is a problem.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He says he gets it. He doesn't get it. I suspect a lot of other people, especially the women involved here, are going to find offensive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Oh John, oh John, come on. Are you woke enough? You're not woke enough to have a sense of humor. He is of a different generation.
ARROYO: I agree with you entirely.
INGRAHAM: The left official lost any sense of humor.
ARROYO: Not only the left. There are people on the right who also have the torches nooses out for Joe Biden.
INGRAHAM: Come on.
ARROYO: My grandfather, whom you met, ran a restaurant for year. He would hug and touch and grab people by the face.
INGRAHAM: He did that to me a few times.
ARROYO: To everyone in my life. But he was being affectionate. It wasn't creepy. It wasn't lecherous. It was his generation and their way of being close to somebody.
INGRAHAM: I think we should all walk around with bubble wrap, and we should walk around like, hello, how are you? I'll text you later.
(LAUGHTER)
ARROYO: Did you see "The New York Times" said there should be 18 inches between intimates, and three to four inches between coworkers.
INGRAHAM: No wonder no one is having any kids today.
ARROYO: I would have to be 12 feet away from you to actually --
INGRAHAM: Hi.
ARROYO: Hello, Laura. Wonderful to be on your show.
INGRAHAM: You are in my aura space.
ARROYO: This is ridiculous.
Anyway, I have got to get to this. Meanwhile, over at Reverend Al's NAN convention today, your favorite Congress --
INGRAHAM: Is that Nancy Pelosi's convention, NAN?
ARROYO: No. it's the National Action Network. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was trying out a new accent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OCASIO-CORTEZ: The fight has been long, y'all. This is what organizing looks like. This is what building power looks like.
I'm proud to be a bartender. Ain't nothing wrong with that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: There may be something wrong with that. AOC seems like she is trying out this new African-American southern accent.
INGRAHAM: I'm not following it.
ARROYO: She has gotten a low of blowback, and it forced her to respond on Twitter. She wrote, said I'm from the Bronx. I act and talk like it, especially when I'm fired up, and especially when I'm --
INGRAHAM: Wait a second.
ARROYO: But that doesn't exactly sound like Queens to me.
INGRAHAM: The Bronx. The Bronx ain't Queens, OK. But I'm not getting that. Is ain't -- no way, remind me of --
ARROYO: It reminds us of who?
INGRAHAM: Wait, I ain't no way tired.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, D-FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't feel no way tired.
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: I come too far from where I started from. Nobody told me that the road would be easy.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: Somebody should remind these women all African-Americans are not beneath the Mason-Dixon line. And every time you are in front of an African-American audience you don't have to try to affect this. Very odd. Be yourself. Just be yourself.
INGRAHAM: She said this is the way we talk, or I talk? We've been playing sound bites from her for --
ARROYO: Remember when she said this, Laura, on a radio show?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's something that you always carry with you.
CLINTON: Hot sauce.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really?
CLINTON: Yes, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, listen, I want you to know. People are going to see this and say, OK, she is pandering to black people again.
(LAUGHTER)
CLINTON: OK. Is it working?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: Is it working. That is the revelatory line. This is obvious pandering to the crowd you're in front of. It is shameful.
INGRAHAM: But she was treated like a rock star. An overused phrase, but she walked in, she got more applause than hand-flailer Beto. Kamala Harris does that thing when she walks on a stage, she starts laughing. No one has made a joke. She laughs through every -- but AOC walks out. She owned that house. She did a good job at that speech.
ARROYO: Before we run out of time, this next bit of video could be called Friday fall-ies. This poor guy, he's a Florida lumberjack. He was removing a tree when things went very wrong. It is a reminder that when you cut down a tree, mind where you are standing. Men, you've been warned.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: We have to say he's --
ARROYO: He is all right, but it begs the question, when a prostate falls in the forest, can it get up again? I hurt when I saw that.
Now, Laura, I was thinking about Joe Biden, thinking through the pain. What we really perhaps need are pre-hug consent decrees.
INGRAHAM: We're still playing that lumberjack. By the way, women are lumberjacks, too.
ARROYO: I've been doing these pre-hug consent degrees where in case of a funeral or a school event, graduation, or Joe Biden's house, you get a pre- consent to hug people. I've been getting people to sign them all day long here at Fox. Oh, you have another. Thank you. Thank you. I don't need you to sign it. I have plenty of them.
INGRAHAM: So you were allowed to hug?
ARROYO: I have the consent form, yes. I'm going to go get Tucker to sign one next. Bye, Laura, have a good weekend.
INGRAHAM: I won't sign one. Tucker, do you mind? OK, I guess he signed it.
All right, Comedian Joe Piscopo has a prescription for stale late night comedy in the age of Trump. He is here to tell us what that is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Hey, comedy in the age of Trump has gotten so steal and so predictable it is downright boring, and most of the time it ain't funny. I'll do my AOC accent. But "Saturday Night Live" alum Joe Piscopo has the solution for it. I spoke with him a few days back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEC BALDWIN, ACTOR: Somebody once told me the world was going to roll me. I am the sharpest tool in the shed.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERT DE NIRE, ACTOR: In conclusion, it is my hope this report will be made public with a few redactions.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hella redactions.
(LAUGHTER)
BALDWIN: We're going to black out everything except the words "no" and "collusion."
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Joe, to see De Niro, the old great actor, this is how he is going to go out like doing Mueller? I don't know, the whole thing just seems very tedious. Your thoughts.
JOE PISCOPO, COMEDIAN: I thought De Niro did a great Mueller. I thought he was going to snap. I was waiting for him to snap, and just go off and be really, really offensive. But I have to tell you, Laura, and because that's my home, and please, don't yell at me, don't get upset. But it's my home, and it's so hard to produce that show. And if you look into the show, they did a very funny sketch with Beck Bennett playing Vladimir Putin, and they had Putin's generals angry with Vladimir because according to the Mueller report Vladimir did not own Donald Trump anymore. That was a very funny sketch.
INGRAHAM: The problem here with "SNL," though, and I know it's your old home, so it's probably not even a fair thing to throw that at you, is that if you've just just decided you are going to go all in on political comedy, then why write off half the country? If you are going to really do it, then my goodness, where is your Maxine Waters? My goodness, where is your weekly Nancy Pelosi? Why not do Adam Schiff, who is about as snakelike as they come?
PISCOPO: And you know what, you're not wrong, and I have no argument for you. You are absolutely right. Cecily Strong on "SNL" does the best AOC every week. This week should be about croissants, AOC "like" all the time. Like the Green New Deal, like croissants. They should go on that.
INGRAHAM: I have got to say, though, when you look back on the comedy that brings the country together, and I grew up watching all the great sitcoms of the 1970s, truly the golden age of television in my view. From Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, all the great shows, where comedy, and of course "SNL" where it was -- it could be tough on politicians, but that wasn't the essence of it. It was situational comedy, and it's why Seinfeld says he won't go to college campuses, because -- I actually think we have the clip. Let's play. Let's watch what he says.
PISCOPO: OK.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JERRY SEINFELD, COMEDIAN: And I don't play colleges, but I hear a lot of people tell me don't go near colleges, they are so P.C. They just want to use these words. That's racist, that's sexist, that's prejudice. They don't even know what they're talking about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PISCOPO: I'm so tired of the political correctness. When we're on the radio every morning, Salem, New York, A.M. 970, we are politically incorrect. I say what I want to say. There's so much material out there.
INGRAHAM: It's just not where most of the country is. They want comedy that kind of -- women making fun of men, making fun of women. It is like Don Rickles, could he exist today?
PISCOPO: He was the best. No, he couldn't.
INGRAHAM: Could he exist today?
PISCOPO: No, he couldn't.
INGRAHAM: Never?
PISCOPO: And when we were on TV we just tried to be funny. We've talked about this before where I satirized Ronald Reagan, you know. But it was nice. And then Ronald Reagan invited us down to the White House which was really, really great, which I would suggest President Trump does to "SNL," which I know I'm dreaming here. Because we've got to put aside the divide. The hate has got to stop, Laura. We're all in this together and we should all make fun of each other equally like that.
So I was thinking, and I was talking to your producers, Laura, we should start a conservative comedy channel where you come out and you answer all of that, because the material writes itself.
INGRAHAM: I'll watch that comedy network.
PISCOPO: You have to come on. You can do a bit. We'll do a bit together.
INGRAHAM: Darrell Hammond once said that I did the best Hillary impersonation that he had ever heard. He said I was much better than the gal on "Saturday Nigh Live." That's what Darrell said.
PISCOPO: Darrell, the genius. Can I book you now for the Hillary, the conservative comedy?
INGRAHAM: Done, Piscopo, got it.
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: You have a good night. Great to see you, Joe.
PISCOPO: You too, Laura. Thanks so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
INGRAHAM: OK, we'll be right back with the Last Bite, and hint -- hold onto your hair. You'll figure it out.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: It's time for the Last Bite.
We've got a real hair-raiser for you tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You sure we're good? We're secure?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope so.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't say you hope so.
(SCREAMING)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where did my wig go?
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My wig came off. They went to go get it. Thank you, Jesus.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: As someone who wore a wig when I was recovering from illness, they're expensive. I hope she got her wig back. The little girl's laughter is the best part of the video. Oh, my gosh, we all need time to really laugh, belly laughs are good for your health.
Don't forget, check out, it's three new podcasts this week. Awesome stuff. You'll love it. Subscribe. Go to the PodcastOne or iTunes.
And now, Shannon Bream. The "Fox News @ Night" team take it all from here.
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