Former Maine governor on what liberalism does to our country
Wall Street Journal reports Portland, Maine is overrun with asylum seekers; former Maine Gov. Paul LePage weighs in.
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," January 30, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
LAURA INGRAHAM, HOST: All right. I'm Laura Ingraham. This is “The Ingraham Angle” from Washington. Chris Christie will be here live in the second half of the show. Two segments. He's done a lot of interviews, but guess what? He hasn't laid out how Trump can win in 2020 and whether in fact he might just end up eventually having a rollback with President Trump, either in a campaign or who knows the White House. I'm going to press it.
Plus, a new segment on the show coming up. This is your country on liberalism. The frigid city of Portland, Maine, overrun, yes, by asylum- seekers. Former Governor of Maine, Paul LePage, was called racist over his concern about illegal immigration and the asylee issue when he was governor. Well, he is here tonight to react and maybe say, "See, I told you so."
But first, Trump versus the party of death. That's the focus of tonight's “Angle.”
Democrats seem awfully cocky lately. Since winning the House in November and forcing Trump's hand on the shutdown, they feel like they're on a glide path to 2020. Every other day, it's a litany of smugness from the resistance. 21 months out from the election, of course, they are practically calling the race already. They hope that the sheer volume of negative headlines about Mueller and the showdowns with Pelosi and Schumer, they're all going to take their toll.
Well, objective reporting, of course, is the last thing on their minds because that would require a focus on the smashing success of the Trump economy, which is far and away the strongest in the world. So what is their goal? To demoralize Trump's base.
The Washington Post delivers dour headlines like this. "Walls around Trump are crumbling. Evangelicals may be his last resort." And why bother dissecting the genius of like Trump's maneuvers with China on trade when you can assign some flack to write headlines like this? "White evangelical support for President Trump slips in the midst of the government shutdown." Now, think about it.
While the President's approval numbers may have taken a hit during the shutdown, the President's numbers were identical before and after the shutdown, unlike Pelosi, who actually lost support during the shutdown battle.
So my prediction? The more full of themselves the Democrats get, the more voters learn about this new breed of radical zealots. The lefts are going to want to roll the dice with this crowd and the more they'll start to appreciate President Trump. And if, by the way, the bright lights of the pundit class think that evangelicals are going to abandon the GOP and Trump, they're suffering from delusions of electoral grandeur.
The Democrats have completely misread what happened in November. They captured one House of Congress and handily, of course. But this doesn't mean that the American people are willing to ditch capitalism for socialism or that they have abandoned totally their core humanity for cold convenience. But I'll tell you, many Democrats have. Like Virginia State Delegate Kathy Tran pressed here by House Majority Leader in Virginia about her latest abortion bill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TODD GILBERT, R-VIRGINIA HOUSE OF DELEGATES, MAJORITY LEADER: Where it's obvious that a woman is about to give birth, she has physical signs that she is about to give birth, would that still be a point at which she could request an abortion if she was so certified? She's dilating.
KATHY TRAN, D-VIRGINIA HOUSE OF DELEGATES: Mr. Chairman, that would be a decision that the doctor, the physician and the woman would make at that point.
GILBERT: I understand that. I'm asking if your bill allows that.
TRAN: My bill would allow that, yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Absolutely barbaric and sick. Now, Tran is a co-sponsor of the Repeal Act, which would eliminate all restrictions on late-term abortion. And here is Virginia Governor Ralph Northam. Now, he's also a pediatric neurologist, by the way, which is extra sick, endorsing this disgusting bill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. RALPH NORTHAM, D-VA: If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired. And then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Dr. Mengele would be proud. You'd be arrested if you did any of that to a dog in Virginia, by the way. And the infanticide movement, always cynically disguised as reproductive health, it's spreading. It was given a standing ovation in Albany just last week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The bill is passed.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: And now Rhode Island is jumping on the carnage express, as Democrat Governor Gina Raimondo, a Roman Catholic, says she'll sign a pro partial-birth abortion bill into law. Earlier this month, when Raimondo was sworn into office for a second term, she pledged to be "A beacon of hope." More like a harbinger of death.
Again, this is in America. This is the Democrat Party decomposing for all to see. While a good chunk of Trump voters, they might get tired of some of his tweets. I get it. Or they just want him to dial back the drama on occasion. It's really hard to see how independents in any way, shape, or form are going to cozy up to this Democrat Party.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, D-CALIF.: Do you agree that it is possible for men to both be friends with some women and treat other women badly?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll do whatever the committee wants. Of course--
HARRIS: And I've heard you say that, but--
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The witness statements--
HARRIS: --I've not heard you - I've not heard you answer a very specific question that's been asked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How the women--
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: It's - it--
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They don't--
HARRIS: I'm not - I don't want to debate with you how they do their business. I'm--
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I plan to. I plan to.
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: --thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: All right. That was a Kavanaugh hearing. She kept interrupting. She's incredibly boorish and rude to now the Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. And she totally flamed out. That was her big audition for the big top. Well, they do not, the American people, want to do things like tear down history in the middle of the night either any more than they want to blame men for things that happened 30 years ago that no one is witness to. They don't want to ban fossil fuels. They don't want Medicare for all if it means bankrupting the entire system. They don't want ration care and raising taxes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've come out with this wealth tax idea, which has not - which doesn't have a history in the U.S., unlike the top marginal rate. Though--
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. This is brand new.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: They don't want traditional religious organizations to be branded as hate groups, which Kamala Harris, by the way, tried to pull a few weeks ago when she chided judicial nominee Brian Bowsher for being a member of the Knights of Columbus, a group opposed to abortion, of course a Catholic organization. And who can forget this moment?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, D-CALIF.: The dogma lives loudly within you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: That was a gem. No. This is not the Democrat Party of JFK. He actually believed in religious liberty and he believed in low taxes and a robust military, et cetera, et cetera. So, my friends, next time if someone tells you "It's all over for Trump," just remember, the full effects and the start costs of the Democrat agenda are just now coming to light for many Americans. They say that there are two sure things in life: death and taxes. But do you really want to be a party that advocates for both? And that's “The Angle.”
Joining me now with reaction, to the war on religion in the Democrat Party is Bill Donohue, President of The Catholic League. Bill, why do you think the Democrat Party today is so hell-bent on removing all limitations on abortion. It used to be safe, legal, and rare. But now, it's full on embrace of infanticide, and many Roman Catholic politicians, I might add, advocating for it.
BILL DONOHUE, PRESIDENT, THE CATHOLIC LEAGUE: Well, secular militants now run the Democratic Party. The (inaudible) started after '68 and it's now in full force. And now you have in New York a situation where podiatrists and dentists and optometrists and chiropractors are now allowed to perform late-term abortions in New York under Governor Cuomo. And in Virginia, you have a man who is justifying infanticide. The American people, by the way, do not know about what's happening.
I live in New York. When - they didn't tell everybody here in New York what was happening. The way they poached it was saying, well, this is going to codify Roe v. Wade. No, no, no, no. We are talking about partial-birth abortion. You're talking about allowing a child to die on a table unattended if he survives a botched abortion. And you're talking about non- physicians performing abortions. We know which women they'll be. They'll be the ones that Kamala Harris likes to champion. They'll be Black and Hispanic poor women. Every white woman who gets an abortion in New York, I guarantee you, will have a doctor.
INGRAHAM: Bill, I want to get to what the President reacted to in this Virginia news. That sound bite from Governor Northam is just - I don't even have - I can't even speak when I see that because it's so outrageous. But it reminded me that he predicted this, in a way. Didn't he? This is what he said, of course, in the big debate in 2016.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: If you go with what Hillary is saying, in the ninth month, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother, just prior to the birth of the baby. You can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month, on the final day. And that's not acceptable.
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, that is not what happens in these cases.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: That's not what happens in these cases. Trump was right, and all of us who were watching it at that time were cheering on what he said because he spoke the truth.
DONOHUE: That--
INGRAHAM: And he's speaking more truth there than frankly - I know you're pals with Dolan, but he's speaking more forthrightly, Bill, than Dolan on this issue. I want to play Dolan. This was on SiriusXM radio earlier today. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIMOTHY DOLAN, ARCHBISHOP OF NEW YORK: The far right is criticizing me because they said, oh, that Dolan, he's too conciliatory. He ought to get rid of the Governor. He ought to excommunicate him. That would be completely counterproductive. I don't have much clout. Some fat, balding Irish bishop. They got votes, folks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Canon 916 or Canon 1364. Heretical, schismatic, automatic excommunication from the church for advocating grave sin or for a person obstinately persevering in grave sin of a public nature. If what Cuomo and - is Northam Roman Catholic? I think he is. I mean, what these guys are doing, I don't get it. Why doesn't the Catholic Church do something? Because if there is no penalty in the view of the Catholic Church, you can't blame the kids for thinking it's no big deal.
Bill?
DONOHUE: Yes. I'm not a Canonist, but there's another candidate who deals explicitly with abortion. And you have to be somebody who is engaged in actually performing it, this ugly procedure. I know that Cuomo would like to be excommunicated. Then he could call - he can claim martyrdom status. But the real question here is why are we allowing in this country a debate - why don't we have a debate about taking a scissors and jamming it into the skull of a child who is 80 percent born? That's what partial-birth abortion is. And then if he survives, then you don't have to attend to him.
Every - this I hear in Virginia, what the Governor said, well, it's up to the mother and the physician to decide whether or not the child is attended to.
INGRAHAM: We'll keep the baby comfortable. We'll keep the infant comfortable until we kill the infant.
DONOHUE: Right. But you see--
INGRAHAM: Anyone watching this in the Commonwealth of Virginia, I don't care if you are religious, not religious. How can we countenance this as a people? This is today's Democrat Party. It is shocking. It is not in the first three months of pregnancy. And a lot of people think that things are OK then. If you're a Catholic, you're not supposed to, but a lot of people do. But that's not it. This is a fully formed human being in the womb and getting no protection.
DONOHUE: Everybody knows that at least in the third trimester that the child feels pain.
INGRAHAM: Yes.
DONOHUE: There's no question about it. And in this case here, where the Governor of Virginia is so wrong, it's not up to the mother and the physician. You have an inalienable right.
INGRAHAM: It's homicide in Virginia.
DONOHUE: You have an inalienable right to life.
INGRAHAM: Right.
DONOHUE: That's not up for the debate. It's not up for a poll.
INGRAHAM: Well, it's also murder.
DONOHUE: Well, that's exactly it. That's a--
INGRAHAM: I mean, I'm sorry, but it - the Virginia statute. They have to change the statute. OK? If they don't want that bill, they've got to change the statute. We have to change a lot of statutes if that thing got to stand.
All right. Bill, we've got to go. Thank you so much for joining us.
DONOHUE: Thank you.
INGRAHAM: How badly, by the way, have the latest moves by the left damaged them ahead of 2020? The green agenda, Medicare for all, bankrupting the country, high taxes, bringing in more illegal immigrants. We all have to pay the tab. They win one House chamber and suddenly they want to turn America into like Mad Max meets Cuba, Venezuela. We just told you about their blatant support for infanticide. So, do Democratic leaders really feel like centrist Americans favoring the following, ending private health insurance, gun confiscation, abolishing gas-powered vehicles, cutting the military in half. Is that where we are today?
Joining me now, Fox News contributor, Dan Bongino, and former aide to Senator Chuck Schumer, Chris Hahn.
Chris, are you at all worried about your party going over the edge here? Forget going over their skis, going over to the real dark side, the dark side of death. You heard that Northam bite. I want you to react specifically to it. I'm horrified by that.
CHRIS HAHN, FORMER AIDE TO SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER: So the Northam bite - first of all, the Northam bite has to be out of context. If it's not, there's something wrong with him because--
INGRAHAM: Not.
HAHN: --once the baby is born--
INGRAHAM: OK.
HAHN: --the baby is born. OK?
INGRAHAM: Right.
HAHN: I'm not going to - I'm not going to go down that road. I've read a lot of stories about this in preparing for this interview. I didn't hear anything like that or read anything like that. It has to be out of context.
INGRAHAM: OK--
HAHN: I don't believe that the Governor of Virginia wants to kill born babies.
(CROSSTALK)
INGRAHAM: It is--
(CROSSTALK)
HAHN: --bill.
INGRAHAM: --not out of context. It is--
HAHN: --once we're born alive.
INGRAHAM: --Chris, Chris. I didn't bring you on the show tonight to play something, a cute little edited thing. It's not what we did. OK? We have New York. That's countenance and--
HAHN: He must not have--
INGRAHAM: --this is infanticide.
HAHN: He must not have understood what--
(CROSSTALK)
INGRAHAM: These are fully formed babies in the womb. Hillary Clinton, at that debate--
HAHN: Yes.
INGRAHAM: --with Trump, scoffed at the notion that you'd kill babies at nine months. Scoffed. You got to blow it off. And everyone was laughing at Trump, and he said that except for evangelicals--
HAHN: Yes.
INGRAHAM: --and devout Catholics and people of faith and conscience--
HAHN: But the shot that you played - but the shot that you played, the baby was out of the womb. The baby was alive.
INGRAHAM: Right. Didn't you hear him?
HAHN: The baby was born.
INGRAHAM: We'll keep the infant comfortable and then--
HAHN: So I - I did. I--
INGRAHAM: --they have to make a decision.
HAHN: I heard - I--
INGRAHAM: OK.
HAHN: I heard him. And--
INGRAHAM: So - OK. So if the bite is real--
HAHN: --frankly-
INGRAHAM: --I know you won't agree with it.
HAHN: --I don't know if he knew what he - I don't know if he knew what he was talking about. I don't know if - I don't know the full context of--
(CROSSTALK)
INGRAHAM: OK. Then he shouldn't be Governor of the great commonwealth--
(CROSSTALK)
HAHN: So--
INGRAHAM: --Thomas Jefferson of Virginia.
HAHN: Yes. Well--
INGRAHAM: Dan Bongino--
HAHN: --if one term--
INGRAHAM: Yes.
HAHN: --one in (inaudible) Virginia.
INGRAHAM: Yes. OK. Well, he shouldn't be governor.
Dan, I got to say--
DAN BONGINO, CONTRIBUTOR: Laura - yes.
INGRAHAM: --we could talk Medicare for all. We can talk all these issues. Green agenda.
BONGINO: Yes.
INGRAHAM: This is something that should be beyond debate. We would be--
BONGINO: Right.
INGRAHAM: --seeing PETA chaining themselves to people's houses if they did this to a puppy or a cat. OK? And you do this--
BONGINO: Yes.
INGRAHAM: --to a little baby and suddenly Planned Parenthood throws you more money or you get a standing ovation in Albany or now Rhode Island. What's happened to this country?
BONGINO: Yes.
INGRAHAM: This can't be our country.
BONGINO: Yes. Laura, God help us all. And Chris, I know you. I know you off the air. I know you better than this. This is a black-and-white moment. This isn't a joke. This isn't like a cutesy little debate where me and you can go back and forth. This is not - Chris, let me talk for a minute. I'm not here to attack you on this.
That was - Laura did not manipulate that. That was the Governor of the one of the most powerful states in the union arguing in an unmanipulated piece of video that an infant, a breathing child, should be made comfortable while a decision is made. What decision are you suggesting? This is the Governor of Virginia. The man is a medical doctor. This is not a stupid man. Chris, this isn't - I'm serious. You're a friend of mine off the air.
HAHN: I - I agree--
BONGINO: This is a time for moral clarity.
HAHN: Dan - Dan--
BONGINO: You can come out I am pro-life--
HAHN: Dan.
BONGINO: Wait, Chris. Life - conception until natural death. Even if you are pro-abortion, this is savage brutality. And someone like you should come out on this network and say this is just wrong--
HAHN: Hey, Dan.
BONGINO: --period, full stop.
HAHN: So let me respond to you. Look, I am pro-choice, but once the baby is born, there is no choice. It's a baby. It's alive. And we should take care of that baby. So I don't know what he was saying, what he was referring to, if he understood the question asked him. So we'll have to see that and he'll have to respond to what that is. But I don't think there's a person - I don't think there's a person in America who's sane who would say a living breathing baby, there's a choice--
INGRAHAM: But - but--
HAHN: --to be made, whether or not we're going to kill it or not.
INGRAHAM: OK. But this is where - this is where--
HAHN: So--
INGRAHAM: I mean, we can spend a whole hour on this, guys, but whether - I mean, whether the baby is actually out of the mother's womb or is a millimeter out of the mother's womb, this is a fully formed human being. I mean, the babies have like, what, an 80 percent chance of surviving in six months, let alone nine months. Right? I mean, we've all met beautiful premie babies that are inventing things, that are amazing volunteers, that do great things in the country. Which of them shouldn't be here today? I'm saying--
HAHN: So--
INGRAHAM: --sometimes it's beyond our ability to decide these things. These are people with their own unique DNA, their own personhood, their own ability to be. They - no one is advocating for them. That's why I'm doing this show. People say this stuff doesn't rate on TV. I don't care if it doesn't rate. Because this is who we are as a people. This is who we are as a people.
HAHN: So--
INGRAHAM: If we allow this to happen, we might as well forget the conversation about tax reform because really it doesn't matter. We'll move on to another topic--
(CROSSTALK)
HAHN: So the bill in question - the bill in question here is about the health of the mother. And a decision between--
INGRAHAM: Mental health?
HAHN: --the woman and her doctor--
INGRAHAM: Economic health?
BONGINO: No, no. No, no-
HAHN: --all of those - all those decisions should be between-
INGRAHAM: Economic health?
HAHN: --the woman and her doctor, not between-
(CROSSTALK)
BONGINO: Laura, Laura--
(CROSSTALK)
BONGINO: --that's not right. That's not right.
INGRAHAM: Right.
BONGINO: Laura - Laura, Chris knows that. There is - you talk to a professional OB-GYN, they will tell you. My brother is a - my brother-in- law is a perinatologist.
INGRAHAM: There's no reason--
(CROSSTALK)
BONGINO: There are few, if any, medical conditions that require an abortion in the ninth month of pregnancy. Come on, Chris. You know that. Don't come on the air with nonsense like that--
INGRAHAM: All right. Let's--
BONGINO: --again--
INGRAHAM: Let's just say this.
BONGINO: (inaudible).
INGRAHAM: Guys, we got to move off from this topic. But Paul Begala, who is not a dumb person, he's a smart guy, have been around politics a long time. He was assessing where the Democrat Party is today. OK? We all know they're all resisting Trump. But he said this. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL BEGALA, POLITICAL CONSULTANT AND COMMENTATOR: I think it's going to be very difficult to analyze the Democratic primary in a right-left continuum. The truth is there's not that much difference between the most moderate Democrat and the most liberal Democrat.
I think the Democrats are more looking for things like charisma, talent, brains, heart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Chris.
HAHN: Hey, if the election was held today, Kamala Harris would be elected President. And if Schultz got in the race, Donald Trump would come in third. So I think the Democratic Party has moved to the left, and I think that's a good thing.
INGRAHAM: OK.
HAHN: And I think that there is a lot of--
INGRAHAM: It's working so well around the world.
HAHN: --overreaction on the right to some things that are very popular in this country, like health care, like education--
INGRAHAM: Yes. Ration care.
HAHN: --like infrastructure. There are things people want.
INGRAHAM: Yes. Real quick. Dan, we're almost out of time. You've got 10 seconds.
BONGINO: If they're not popular, Chris, Medicare for all is only popular until you tell people what the price tag is. Doubling their taxes. And then you know what happens? It craters to 37 percent. That's not popular, only using liberal math.
HAHN: We've got to do something about health care in this country.
INGRAHAM: All right, guys. Out of time. Out of time, guys. If you thought, by the way, the crisis of the border wasn't affecting your state, think again. Maine - Portland, Maine under siege from an influx of asylum- seekers. Former Governor is here to tell us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is drugs. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Yes. I love that old PSA back in the '70s.
Well, this is liberalism. This is your country on liberalism. Well, kind of has the same effect. It fries it all up. I don't think that the left though realizes what sort of an impact their insane policies are having on the real middle-class working Americans, people who don't want any special recognition. They just want to get up in the morning, go to work, make a decent living, and get home, maybe crack open a beer.
All right. Well, take, for instance, Portland, Maine. It's pretty far from the border. So they shouldn't be impacted, right, by the illegal immigration crisis? Well, wrong. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the city is being overrun by asylum-seekers to the point where they are taking up 90 percent of Portland's family shelters. And city assistance for them is drying up. In fact, 75 percent of all population growth they saw between 2011 and 2016 was from foreign-born individuals. This is wild. For anyone who's spent time up in Portland, and it's cold up there tonight, that is wild.
OK. Former Governor of Maine, Paul LePage, warned about this years ago. And he was called every nasty name under the sun as a result, all the usuals. Racist, xenophobic, blah, blah, blah. Well, he joins me now.
Governor, how does this influx of asylum-seekers - now, there's some from Central America. There are also refugees from Africa. It's a different - different status.
PAUL LEPAGE, R-ME, FORMER GOVERNOR: Right.
INGRAHAM: But how does this affect everyday citizens, as I like to call them, the maniacs in Portland?
LEPAGE: Laura, what it really does, it takes away from the disabled, the elderly, people with intellectual disabilities. They are pushed aside. They are put on waiting lists. And the money goes to asylum-seekers and undocumented citizens that come to - people that come to the State of Maine. And that's been going on for years.
When I was Governor, we had a litigation against the City of Portland for that exact reason. I - when the economy started getting better, I removed all the wait lists. We - there was 4,200 people on wait lists. We budgeted for it totally, balanced budget, paid for it.
The Democrats came in, took the money, and put the people back on a wait- list. And they're still there now on a wait-list. People who've lived their lives in Maine are now without services in their aging years or with their disabilities, and particularly the one that is the most upsetting is intellectual disabilities have gone by the wayside.
INGRAHAM: OK. So--
LEPAGE: They've closed - they've closed hospitals.
INGRAHAM: --those are - those are mental health issues and so forth. A lot of people who, after the Great Recession, 2008, they still haven't gotten a leg up, even with the improved economy. And Maine has always had some struggles in that area, obviously. I want to play something from you, from just - this is back in a town hall you did in 2018 and the reaction from the crowd. Let's watch. 2016, sorry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEPAGE: Illegals or, I call, asylum-seekers are the biggest problem in our state.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shame on you.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: --in Portland country.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shame.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudible).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: "Shame on you," they were screaming. Where--
(CROSSTALK)
LEPAGE: Oh, I recall. I recall. I think the Speaker of the House was there that evening.
INGRAHAM: Yes. Well, what are they - what are they saying now? I mean, look at this. I mean, we have a situation, according to the statistics today, in Portland. 65 to 70 percent of 1,000 people now receiving general assistance are non-citizens.
LEPAGE: Right.
INGRAHAM: Everyone hear that?
LEPAGE: Oh, yes.
INGRAHAM: 65 to 70 percent of the people seeking - receiving government assistance are non-citizens. Another--
LEPAGE: Yes.
INGRAHAM: --the city budgets of about $200,000 annually to fill in gaps for asylum-seekers who don't qualify for general assistance, such as those who haven't yet filed an application. So you haven't filed and they are reaching out to give you money in Portland. This is the Democrat Party, though. This is a state that is now Democrat-controlled, Democrat, the state legislature still run by Democrats?
LEPAGE: That's correct. And the governor, and the incumbent governor invited them and said, when she was governor-elect, she said I will invite asylum-seekers to come to Maine, and I will give them services. And, well, if you invite, they will come.
INGRAHAM: When I think of all these other cities that are considering more generous policies towards both asylum-seekers, refugees, again, a different story, what do you say to them, given Maine's own experience?
LEPAGE: I would say that if you have the resources and you feel compassionate for these folks, go ahead and do it. But if you're going to be taking resources, very, very important resources for your citizens, then you are making a big mistake.
INGRAHAM: Well, again, 90 percent of the people living in Portland, city- run family shelter, an overflow shelter, are people who are asylum-seekers overwhelmingly, I guess, still from Africa, correct?
LEPAGE: That is correct, from Africa. And you know one thing --
INGRAHAM: I don't get the Africa, I don't get -- the Somalis all went to Minnesota. And then they went to Maine, the two climates. I don't get that at all. I don't get how that's the place where everybody goes. What is that?
LEPAGE: I don't know. But I will say this, the one thing that nobody is talking about right now, they're talking about the resources being eaten up by temporary housing. I will tell you when they get into housing, you should see the disgraceful housing that these people are being put into in the city of Portland. I visited this housing. It was housing that I was brought up in which gives me nightmares my whole entire life. It's terrible.
INGRAHAM: Well, governor, you are seeing a total transformation of New England cities and New England -- Lawrence, Massachusetts, another one. This is happening all across New England. But Portland brought it on itself, and people are going to be left to pick up the pieces. Governor, think you so much.
In a somewhat related story of how liberalism does damage under the guise of compassion, I don't really like to call it liberalism because it's kind of illiberal when you thing about it. But we're going to take you, though, to the state of Florida. The Sunshine State is also teaming with new immigrant children that not only need to be educated but need to learn the English language in the process, like all new immigrants. But to combat this issue, they aren't establishing more rigorous requirements to graduate but are considering, quote, alternate pathways for immigrants to get their high school diplomas.
So I was always taught to raise the bar for people, but now they want to lower the bar because you have such a big influx of immigrants. So Representative Susan Valdes, a Democrat from Tampa, has even proposed to establish test score substitutes for students who cannot pass any of the versions currently allowed. I wish they had that when I was a kid. In other words, the objective standard by which most American students are assessed have been deemed by some to be unfair because some of the kids can't keep up with the material. We've heard that from teachers in the past.
A couple nights ago, we defended Tom Brokaw against the completely unfair pile-on that he received following his suggestion that immigrant communities better assimilate to U.S. communities. Like the Brokaw critics, these Florida lawmakers fail to realize that the immigrant communities they wish to serve are only hamstrung, they're held back by lowering standards. And you are also insulting their abilities in limiting their potential in the process. Immigrants should be challenged to rise in America, given the opportunity to do so, but not given a diploma for staying down.
All right, coming up, Chris Christie is here live for the rest of the show. This is going to be fun. So does the former New Jersey governor really think he'd be a better president than Trump? His thoughts on the latest interview by the president, and a letter Lindsey Graham just sent the FBI about Roger Stone and the raid. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: We are very happy to have my next guest live for the remainder of the show. We have a lot to run through with him. His new book is titled "Let Me Finish," and it's in bookstores everywhere. Governor Chris Christie, thank you so much for being here. Congrats on the new book. You've been on every show except like Farm Tools Weekly.
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: What is this? What are we here? That's all right, because I have some questions you haven't --
CHRIS CHRISTIE, R-N.J., FORMER GOVERNOR: I can't believe I'm not on Farm Tools Weekly. How did I miss that?
INGRAHAM: Get the P.R. person on it, Chris.
CHRISTIE: Let's go, move, move.
INGRAHAM: All right, well, I want to start with something you said on "Colbert" last night. If you don't come on my show first, I'm going to have to really be mean to you. Just teasing. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW": Do you regret -- do you regret getting Donald Trump, helping him get elected?
CHRISTIE: I made a decision at the time that I thought he was going to win the nomination after I dropped out, and that I preferred him to Hillary Clinton. And that's why I made the decision. It wasn't a whole lot more complicated than that, and I still agree with what his policies are more than I agree with Hillary Clinton's.
Listen, he has turned the Republican Party into something different than it was when I started to run for president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now, would you consider that something different good or bad, ultimately, for the GOP, Governor?
CHRISTIE: In some ways good and in some ways bad, from my perspective. In the good ways that he's turned it, I think his toughness on China has been something that the party needed for quite some time, and I think his continued efforts in that regard, his continued efforts and trade in general I think are good. And he's gotten much better deal with Canada and Mexico than we had before. And I think he'll achieve the same things with the EU and with Japan. I think he's been better for us in terms of our regulatory policy, and has put much more of a focus than we were putting on one we controlled Congress and could have done more there, too, on regulatory issues.
Now, in the places where I disagree, I think there are times in foreign policy where he acts impulsively. Whether it's some discussions about Syria and the crosscurrents involved there. I think he should take a more deliberative approach. I think he is now taking a more deliberative approach. But listen, in the main, I would say he's made a party better because he won. He beat Hillary Clinton.
INGRAHAM: OK, yes, do you think -- I've been a big fan of yours for a long time. Everyone who's listened to my interviews with you on the radio know that. But do you think you could have beaten Hillary Clinton in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, al those states?
CHRISTIE: Yes.
INGRAHAM: You do?
CHRISTIE: I absolutely do. Sure. I absolutely do.
INGRAHAM: Because of your positions on trade, immigration, the things that motivated those voters to turn out? Obviously had the money raised, too.
CHRISTIE: There's no question that I think that Hillary Clinton was an extraordinary flawed candidate and she needed someone who was going to be direct and go at her, and call her out on all the things that she had done as secretary of state and the things she was proposing and how preposterous they were. The way we would lose to Clinton is if we had a candidate who was not direct, who is not blunt, who was part of the old guard, whether that was a Jeb Bush or a Marco Rubio or a Scott Walker. I don't know that those guys would've been able to pull it off because they would've been more P.C. I don't think you need a P.C. person.
INGRAHAM: They weren't in tune with the party. I'm getting you caught in a prosecutorial trap and you don't even know it. That's why I love having you on, because you're tired. I'm just teasing you.
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: So look, I asked you whether the party went into a good or bad direction, and you said the old guard wouldn't have beaten Hillary. And you are absolutely right. They would have gotten floored. They couldn't win their home state, governor. They couldn't win Florida. They couldn't win their key states. Mitt Romney couldn't win Michigan when he was up against Obama. So they couldn't win.
So the new guy comes in and says, look, I think all your policies have been wrong on trade. He thinks that foreign policy has been too interventionist in Iraq and other parts of the Middle East. We have upset the applecart there. And I think the people, that really got their attention, because people are very war-weary, whether it's Syria. They are very war-weary. We've got 2,000 troops in Syria. Everyone wants to knock the crap out of ISIS, and Trump's like, OK, why exactly are our guys still getting killed there? And I think ultimately he's probably going to be more cautious. But the party's turn was in the right direction under Trump, and I think you were closer to that than those other guys.
CHRISTIE: And that's what I said. I said in the main I think it was important because the biggest thing he did was win. And those areas in foreign policy where I've disagreed with him at times, and I maybe would have a more aggressive, more interventionist policy than he would have, I don't think that would've determined a loss in the election to me when contrasted up against Hillary Clinton with all the other advantages. But in the end, it doesn't matter. He was the nominee. I was the first person to go out and support him. You were telling me I should do that. And I went out and I did it.
And I think that represented a big moment in the campaign when someone who had been seen, at least, as part of the mainstream because I was a governor, even though a very different kind of governor in a blue state, I think that was a big turning point in the primary campaign which I believed he was going to win, and even more important, for the general election.
INGRAHAM: And we are going to get into more of what might be in your future down the road. But I want to play something from him today, or yesterday maybe. This is Chuck Schumer talking about these border negotiations that are ongoing, perhaps to avert another government shutdown. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, D-N.Y., SENATE MINORITY LEADER: We have come to big agreements before, for example, on budgets and Russian sanctions. What was the common theme? When the president stays out of the negotiations, we almost always succeed. When he mixes in, it's a formula for failure. So I would ask President Trump, let Congress deal with it on its own.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: What about Schumer, your old nemesis?
CHRISTIE: Listen, the reason he doesn't want Donald Trump involved is because he wants to try to roll over Congressional Republicans. And I just think the idea -- I used to have a saying in Trenton that there were only three important numbers in Trenton, 41, 21, and one -- 41 votes you needed in the lower house to pass a bill, 21 in the upper house, and one, which was the signature of the governor. It's the same thing with different numbers in the Congress. And if you don't have the president involves, you're not going to come to a solution.
And so the idea that he wants to keep the president out I think is very Machiavellian on his part. He doesn't want the toughest guy in the room at the table, and he wants to roll some people. And, quite frankly, I think the president has to be involved. Any negotiation without the president is doomed for failure because he won't agree.
INGRAHAM: I just thought it was ludicrous.
CHRISTIE: Yes.
INGRAHAM: When someone has their glasses down on their nose, they are a lot more credible and believable.
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: I stop and listen.
Governor, stay with us.
CHRISTIE: Yes.
INGRAHAM: When we come back, what does Governor Christie think Trump needs to do to win reelection in 2020? He's going to tell us. And the importance of the Ninth Circuit nominees who were announced today by the White House, up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Back with me now is Chris Christie. I want to start with your appearance on "Colbert" again last night, and an interesting comment you made on your book tour. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW": I'll join you on this one.
(APPLAUSE)
CHRISTIE: Good question. Here we go.
COLBERT: Would you have been a better president than Trump?
CHRISTIE: Yes.
(APPLAUSE)
COLBERT: I like that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: OK, so a lot of modesty, a lot of tequila. I like it.
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: Obviously some fun with Colbert last night. But what does Trump need to do to win in 2020? And are the Democrats, I started the show by talking about the lurch to the left of the Democrat Party, infanticide, green energy, all that. Are the left actually helping Trump now as we move into the election cycle?
CHRISTIE: They are significantly helping him by continuing to move to the left, putting people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez out in front, being a spokeswoman for the party, talking about a 70 percent tax rate, Kamala Harris talking about eliminating all health insurance companies and having insurance for all. And let's not forget our friend Howard Schultz. I'm going to get a t-shirt made up that says "Run, Howard, Run." Let's go, Howard, get in there, run as an independent.
All those things are process things that are helping to shape the landscape to make the contrast even better. What you want in an election politically is a great contrast. You had a great contrast between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. That's what we want again. We don't want people to muddle things up in the middle. We want contrast. Do you want a socialist society, or do you want a capitalistic society? Do you want a society that respects life, or do you want a society that denigrates life? Do you want a society that gives opportunity for everybody, or were government controls everything?
Donald Trump has to be able to draw that picture very starkly and clearly. The Democrats, doing what they are doing, are going to help them. He needs to get better people around him, Laura. So many of the mistakes in the first two years of this administration, and I write about this in the book, have been unforced errors, unnecessary errors by people who don't have the experience in Washington, D.C. It's great to be a disrupter. I was a disrupter in Trenton. I would have disrupted in Washington. But I also need to have people around me and he needs to people around him, me as a former prosecutor, him as a businessman, that understands the politics of the capital. And it helps to avoid some of those unforced errors like government shutdown.
INGRAHAM: Chris. I think -- I'm sorry, I should call you Governor, even though you're my friend.
CHRISTIE: It's all right.
INGRAHAM: Governor, I think that you are making the case for you to be the chief of staff. Everybody knows I pushed for you to be chief of staff. I talked about it on radio, tweeted about it. And I'm not getting into Kushner or the dad. I think that's pointless to talk about, and everyone has hit that to death and it's boring for my viewers. My viewers want to know, Chris Christie is no nonsense. You've known Trump for all these years. You have a good managerial sense. You are no-nonsense, and you can take criticism, because I've seen you take criticism because I've given it to you and you actually listen to people. Would you consider going into the White House as a chief of staff or even managing the 2020 reelection campaign for this president?
CHRISTIE: And I have always told the president that whenever he calls, I will answer the phone and I will listen to what he has to offer, and I always have, and I always will, for two reasons. One, because I love my country. And I can't imagine a country governed by the liberal Democrats that are out there running. And two, he's my friend and I'm loyal to my friends.
INGRAHAM: And even though, as you've accounted, you don't feel like he was loyal to you.
CHRISTIE: No, he wasn't. And the fact is --
INGRAHAM: That's in the book. And I've read it all.
CHRISTIE: It is what it is.
INGRAHAM: It's a lesson in humility, though. And you're a big personality, but you had to humble yourself. We all have gone through those moments. But that's in the book.
CHRISTIE: That's right. And the book talks about the ups and downs of my life. And when you get knocked down, it's about getting up and fighting for the things that you believe and in your heart, whether it's your family, whether it's a cause that you believe in, a philanthropic cause, or whether it's your country. And all those things are things worth fighting for, and it's never a straight line up, Laura. And it hasn't been for me.
INGRAHAM: Not for me.
CHRISTIE: And you know me. Not for you. And you know for us, we are fighters. And I'm going to fight, and if the president asked me to fight for him, I will always listen to a request to fight for my president on my country.
INGRAHAM: Did the book get in the way of you becoming chief of staff? That would've been kind of awkward if the book were coming out --
CHRISTIE: Listen, no, because if I had accepted chief of staff at that time, the book would not have come out, and that was part of the deal.
INGRAHAM: Governor, I want to talk about a report that bubbled up in "The Wall Street Journal," I know you saw it, that the White House counsel Pat Cipollone was cutting some secret deal with the Democrats that would've ensured that they would've gotten a liberal pick as a compromise on the Ninth Circuit. We learned today, and I learned today, that this was all complete bull, you know what. And tonight it was confirmed that the president announced his intention to nominate the stars in the Ninth Circuit, Daniel Collins, Daniel Bress, and Kenneth Lee, two of them Scalia clerks, all phenomenal. Governor, explain, why is it so important -- the president has really done well on judges. You didn't tick that off earlier. Why is it so important that this Ninth Circuit is not allowed to become a runaway injunction train that's going to run over the president's policies?
CHRISTIE: That's what it is right now, Laura. It is a runaway injunction train. Everybody runs to the Ninth Circuit and the lower district courts in the Ninth Circuit to challenge the president's actions, because they know that the Ninth Circuit is the most activist, ultraliberal of all our circuits. And that's why these nominations are so important.
Donald Trump promised to transform the federal courts, and he has done great work, great work at the Supreme Court and the circuit courts. But he has not been able to yet crack the code in the Ninth Circuit. He goes in with Lindsey Graham, pushes these nominations through and fights it, it's going to make a big difference for the last two years.
INGRAHAM: Governor, congrats on the book.
CHRISTIE: Thank you.
INGRAHAM: We really appreciate your spending some time with us. Good luck on Farm Tools Weekly. They just texted. They're booking you for tomorrow.
CHRISTIE: I am rushing there right now. I want to pre-tape.
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: Governor, thanks so much. My final thoughts are next.
CHRISTIE: Thanks, Laura.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: I hope you learned a little, laughed a little tonight, a little different show, having someone for two segments. I liked that. It's a lot like radio, a little longer form. The topics, the questions, the guests that entertain you, inform you, educate you, learning and laughing. You do a little of that on each show, it's not bad.
Podcast tomorrow, new one launches tomorrow afternoon. Go online and get it. It's easy. You'll love it. America, where we are and where we're going.
All right. Shannon Bream and the "Fox News @ Night" team, there they are. They take it from here. Shannon.
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