Graham: Let's get someone like Mueller to investigate FISA abuse scandal
Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Lindsey Graham on his plans to investigate FBI bias against Trump.
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," March 27, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
INGRAHAM: All right, this is “The Ingraham Angle” from Washington tonight. If you thought the last couple of nights were jam packed, wait until you see what we have for you tonight. Reaction to some of what the President just said.
Newt Gingrich, Jim Jordan, Lindsey Graham, many more here to dig into that and the Left's continued denial over the results of the Mueller probe. Plus we have the latest on the Jussie Smollett case. Tonight, “The Ingraham Angle” investigates how Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris and George Soros may have been involved.
Plus breaking news on how the FBI is now investigating the way prosecutors there handled the case. Raymond Arroyo is here. He'll break down all of the Hollywood latest buffoonery, hyperventilating over no collusion and the papal pulled back. What's that?
A hilarious ‘Seen and Unseen' is ahead but first, the five stages of Democrat grief. That's the focus of tonight's “Angle.” Now this may seem strange to you. But I'm here tonight to counsel Democrats, to help them. Yes, you heard right, to help. Since the Mueller report was handed down, millions of liberals across America have been suffering from my profound sense of loss.
These feelings at times seem overwhelming.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Read Ron, read.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: [Crying]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did the bad man do?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: [Crying] I'm in a glass case of emotion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Well, bless their hearts. After all, they have invested so much of themselves and their futures in Robert Mueller taking down the President. They named their dogs after him. They lit candles for him. They even wore his name, they venerated him. And they gave him thanks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you Robert Mueller and everyone working to make sure that we have sovereignty for the United States of America. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: You see, Mueller wasn't just a special prosecutor to Democrats, he was a deity, a messiah like figure who would deliver them from the evil of Trump. And wash away the sin of the 2016 election. Let's face it, even though built on rage, this was a religion for the Left.
And now with the results in and Mr. Mueller returning to private life, leftists of all ages are asking themselves, who will replace him? What to look forward to now that it's all over? How to go back to normal life without the excitement of the investigation unfolding, day after day? What will fill the void?
Well, recovery won't be easy I'm not going to lie to you because for Democrats, the end of this investigation is akin to the death of a loved one. They'll need to develop coping mechanisms and do a lot of interior work. Only then will the Trump haters be able to put their loss into perspective. And then move on.
Authors David Kessler and Elizabeth Kubler Ross have written a number of books about coping with tragic loss. They broke it down into five stages. We see the Democrats and the Trump-haters working their way through the grieving process.
Stage One: Denial.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know buy that he's completely exonerated, the way he just said.
LAURA COATES, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: After two years, if you still have questions and you still can't answer that question, it's not good enough to say, well you decide whether or not he's actually committed a crime.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the start of something apparently, not the end of something.
REP. MAXINE WATERS, D-CALIF.: There's so much that needs to be you know, taken a look at, at this point.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF, D-CALIF.: There is a big difference between whether there is evidence of collusion and I think that evidence is in plain sight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: And after denial, comes Stage Two: Anger.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why was there never an interrogation of this President? How can they let Trump off the hook?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In any other standard, the person would have been arrested, there would've been polygraph and they would have been put out or bought to trial.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is not an African-American person in this country that could have been investigated for 22 months, had their family investigated for 22 months and come away scot free.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It feels like the seeds of a cover are here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Let it all out. It's okay, we understand. You spent two years living in a fantasy world of her own making. After anger comes perhaps grief's most embarrassing stage where they try to convince themselves that up is down, black is white and Trump is guilty. It's called bargaining.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Mueller report will ultimately get out and there will be very damaging information there for the President.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was a finding and the government you know, Mueller did not exonerate this presidency.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have to be careful about what we think that this says and it doesn't mean that Trump is free and clear.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Well, bargaining, that stage is sort of the last gasp of a dying fantasy. But the fact is Mueller did not find any evidence of much of the ballyhoo Trump collusion with Russia, it just didn't happen. I know it's hard. Which brings us to Stage Four: Depression.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This weekend we received some troubling news. Our President is not a Russian assets.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Obviously right now, we have mostly just a ton of questions as to what Mueller's report says, how complete it is, who gets to see it, who gets to decide who gets to see it and when?
VAN JONES, CNN HOST: There is an honest level of sadness and disappointment and disorientation among progressives and Democrats and I think it goes deeper than just you know, what's in the report.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: As sad as it is, the next level of grief is perhaps the most important. Stage Five: Acceptance. And this is where liberals are in real trouble because for them there is no acceptance of the Mueller findings, there can't be. So they opt instead for vengeance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, D-CALIF.: Attorney General Barr should be required to testify before the United States Congress under oath.
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, D-CONN.: He should come before United States Congress. I do not deeply respect and trust the Starr summary.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will certainly recommend that we bring Bob Mueller in to testify, that that we take it to court if necessary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Okay, so many of them just will not accept this loss. But Rebecca Dudley certainly does. Remember, she was the woman who co-created this button and sold more than 48,000 of them to liberals all over the country. Who said faith was dead. She told The New York Times this week on the Mueller report that she knew there was no way anything could live up to two years of hype.
So she's thinking of creating a new button to restore hope in the hearts of leftists everywhere. It'll read. STNY as in Southern District of New York which may take them all the way back to the first stage of grief. Denial and that's “The Angle.”
All right, joining us now former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Fox News Contributor and host of a new podcast, it's fabulous called Newt's World. It's available on Apple podcast, and Congressman Jim Jordan, Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee.
Mr. Speaker, which stage of grief, do you think the liberals are in right now?
NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Oh, I think that they're in denial. I think they'll be in denial until 2025. I think they'll get up every morning and think he can't still be there. It's not true. And I think that's why they're as nutty as thy are.
INGRAHAM: Congressman Jordan, this has been a wild week. I mean, you predicted much of this so did Newt so did I that this was a fantasy cooked up by false information. You see the Democrats really, they're in a struggle now, they're in a struggle with reality, struggle with their own base.
Struggle with the fact that they devoted two years and they identified themselves with this religion of hating Trump.
REP. JIM JORDAN, R-OH: No, they - they - the Speaker's right, they are in denial because it was so strong what Bill Barr said about Bob Mueller's investigation. Remember the numbers, 19 - 40 - 500 - 2800.
19 lawyers, most of them Democrats. 40 FBI agents, 500 search warrants and 2800 subpoenas and what were the conclusions. No new indictment, no sealed indictments, no collusion, no obstruction, it could not be more definitive and so the two years of hype they build up based on this whole false dossier narrative that started the whole thing now comes kind of crashing down and so what are they going to do because they're in denial, they're going to launch a whole bunch of new investigations and they will not accept what the Special Counsel said to the Attorney General.
INGRAHAM: Maybe it's like Newt, when you find out that maybe the Easter bunny really isn't going to hop into their house and drop. Maybe it's a little more complicated than that, it's a little sense of disappointment but the President tonight spoke out in that interview with Sean Hannity.
He talked specifically about what Congressman Jordan was alluding to, what was going on at the FBI, let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP (on phone): Schiff is a bad guy because he knew he was lying. I mean, he's not a dummy and he knew he was lying and for a year and a half, he'd go on and just lie and lie and leak and call up CNN and others.
He should be forced out of office. He is a disgrace to our country.
You had dirty cops, he had people that are bad FBI folks. I know so many, they're incredible people but at the top, they were not clean to put it mildly and what they did to our country was a terrible - terrible thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Schiff, the FBI, hit both pretty hard.
GINGRICH: Okay, I think that there are three big investigations coming out of this. One is the deep state effort to really have a coup d'etat. I mean, you had from Obama, all the way down and Joe Biden's going to have an interesting problem because he was Vice President during this.
Now was--
INGRAHAM: Yes, play this out. We want to really understand what you're saying.
GINGRICH: Well, look, it was Biden's so out of the loop, they had no idea what's was going on, in which case he looks kind of weird or did Biden know and not say anything but it's very clear during the last phase of the Obama presidency, they were actively working.
I mean, I think, the point the President made in other part of this evening where he talked about Attorney General Lynch meeting with Bill Clinton. We got to get both of them under - under oath and then I'm hoping that Lindsey Graham is going to be very thorough.
So one investigation is what happened in the effort to destroy Trump. The second investigation is since it's exactly the same people--
INGRAHAM: Right.
GINGRICH: - what happened in the effort to protect Hillary and the third frankly, I've been urging the news media to create their own Special Commission because under freedom of the press, I don't think it's a government function but I think the New York Times, The Washington Post should return their Pulitzer prizes for fall - clearly for fake news.
INGRAHAM: Oh my Gosh, that's a complete fraud perpetrated on the Pulitzer committee.
GINGRICH: And then we ought to find out, we got to have news people look at how - how did they get to be this sick.
INGRAHAM: And Congressman Jordan, I forgot to add one other stage of dealing with grief, confusion. Okay, tonight in an interview with the NBC, fired FBI director Jim Comey seemed to be suffering from confusion, let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you convinced in your mind that there was a strong possibility that this campaign, this presidential candidate at the time was colluding with Russia?
JIM COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: I really didn't know. There was smoke and enough smoke to justify investigating.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are your questions?
COMEY: The obstruction piece confuses me. The purpose of the Special Counsel is to make sure that the politicals in this case, the Attorney General doesn't make the ultimate call.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: He's confused by Mueller not concluding that the President obstructed justice when the element of being an underlying climb wasn't there.
JORDAN: We've been confused by Jim Comey's comments for a couple years now, the way he handled the Clinton investigation and the things he did which were unprecedented. That's why he was fired.
Andy McCabe, the Deputy Director fired like three times under oath. Jim Baker demoted, left the FBI, under investigation by the Justice Department. Lisa Page, demoted, left the FBI.
INGRAHAM: Can you do this backwards by the way? Can you do what you just did--
JORDAN: Peter Strzok, Deputy Head of Counter Intelligence, demoted then fired. As the Speaker said, these are the same people who ran the Clinton investigation and then launched the Russia investigation.
You know, why - we know it was so biased, look at the names they gave each investigation. What do they call the Clinton investigation? The mid-year exam. What do they call the Trump-Russia investigation? Crossfire Hurricane.
You can almost see them pound their chests as they name the things.
INGRAHAM: They're like crossword clues here.
JORDAN: The bias was there from the start.
INGRAHAM: I didn't even know that.
JORDAN: And the one thing I would add in this is because exactly what the Speaker said, never forget what Chuck Schumer said on January 6th 2017 President-elect Trump. He said you mess with the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.
That is scary, that is not supposed to work that way in this country. What are they going to get back at President for? For winning an election for goodness sake? So that is what is so wrong and that's why we have to do the investigation.
INGRAHAM: It has to be but Newt, you and I talked have talked about this before. Repercussions for this bad behavior of government actors with an enormous amount of power, they - I'm so sick of the phrase, weaponized but they used the entire intelligence apparatus as a cudgel against various people, the President being the biggest target.
But a lot of other people were taken down in the process, a lot of other people suffered, they couldn't pay their kid's tuition bills as we heard from Mike Caputo yesterday.
GINGRICH: You know one of the things that Lindsey Graham ought to do as Chairman of Judiciary committee.
INGRAHAM: We're going to talk to him in a few minutes. It is - he ought to go out and ask everybody who was approached, how much did you have to spend - I talked to a person last night who was utterly totally innocent, he's like a bystander at a car wreck, cost $1.2 million to have done nothing.
I mean--
INGRAHAM: It's a complete outrage.
GINGRICH: And I think we'll find is probably a half billion dollars, you know cost to the citizens of United States to protect themselves from their own government.
INGRAHAM: But I don't think like - when you think of people like Samantha Power, you think of Ben Rhodes, this whole crowd in the Clinton, they're still - Ben is still going on TV.
JORDAN: Yes.
INGRAHAM: Still talking about how this is all - this all stinks to high heaven.
JORDAN: You can go back to Susan Rice who went on this show and said all kinds of wrong things about the whole - you can just goes on and on and it's scary and what bothers Americans most is the double standard.
One set of rules for regular people, people I get the privilege of representing. A different set if your name is Clinton, Comey, Lynch, Learner and that is never supposed to be how it works in our great country.
INGRAHAM: What about the Democrat party today, Newt? I know - I tried to give them a little counseling but what do you think they can do now? I mean, they've gotten themselves in a bit of a trick box and I'm not going to you know, get all cocky about this how they can't ever recover but they really are in a bit of a bind here.
With their base, with the leftists in their party now, what do they do?
GINGRICH: Well, I mean they - look, they have a real dilemma that I think you probably wouldn't totally agree with. In a way, being totally crazy about this may be less destructive than getting quiet and letting us see who they really are.
I was approached by a reporter this morning. Think about this.
INGRAHAM: I think, I see.
GINGRICH: I was approached by a reporter this morning who said, what did I think about Nancy Pelosi's effort to move the party toward the centre and talk down the Left wing. And I said that's baloney. I said, Pelosi is the leader of the semi-crazy wing of the party, trying to calm down the really crazy wing of the party.
But the semi crazy wing now, if you look at the presidential candidates, they're for infanticide, they're for abolishing all private insurance, they're for 70% tax rates, they're for eliminating all fossil fuels.
You get on the list what these people are already for you know, they're now seriously talking about reparations.
JORDAN: Non-citizens voting.
GINGRICH: Non-citizens--
INGRAHAM: So we can go down the list.
GINGRICH: By the way, that is the mildly crazy wing, that's not the crazy- crazy wing. So in a sense, the Democrats right now be getting saved because they just look really stupid, lying about Donald Trump.
INGRAHAM: Yes, so the Mueller obsession in a way was better because it obscured the rest of this stuff.
GINGRICH: That's right.
INGRAHAM: Now the rest - now it's kind of the rest of the stuff's gone. Now Congressman, the Democrats also seem like they will maybe don't want to learn any lessons from Mueller.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We see investigations going on literally from coast to coast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why doesn't he release his tax returns?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What we need to do is to follow the evidence, continue to investigate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: And it's going to be the inauguration Trump real estate deals going back, apparently 27-28 years, et cetera, et cetera.
Jordan: Chairman Cummings sent a letter to the President when he was a private citizen, his accounting firm, for the last ten years, this is craziness but this is how determined they are. They are so focused on stopping the President instead of doing things that will actually help-
INGRAHAM: But Newt's theory is interesting though maybe Newt, that really is because when you start letting Ocasio-Cortez and the rest of the crowd talk about policy and you have to kind of do this jujitsu thing with her, then you have to like, whoa, I have to defend this stuff.
GINGRICH: Look, if you're a normal Democrat--
INGRAHAM: I love this theory.
GINGRICH: Which means you're crazy but if you're a normal crazy Democrat and you go to a town hall meeting, would you rather rant and rave about Donald Trump or try to defend infanticide?
I mean, it's that bad. Would you like to try to explain how reparations would work? I mean these are people who are now engaged in insanity, disguised as public--
INGRAHAM: Remember, how Joe Biden said no white - a panel of white men can't be unbiased in dealing with the confirmation hearing, going after the- we're going to talk about this with Lindsay Graham, the Justice Thomas confirmation hearing.
I mean, I guess, they could get reparations too under this twisted theory. Great, having you both on tonight, thank you so much and with all the hysteria over Russia, we thought it was worth asking you, the viewer, who's the biggest threat to the United States, is it Russia, China, North Korea?
I just posted a poll on my Twitter feed so go there @IngrahamAngle and I will reveal the results at the end of the show but up next, we have some breaking news on the Jussie Smollett fall out.
How the FBI is now involved plus new details of that shady political connections, it's the State's attorney had, well, the Obamas are just the beginning, stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Chicago Police punching back tonight, releasing case files showing just how quickly Jussie Smollett's claims fell apart. Now the move came after they were thrown under the bus by the Cook County prosecutor's office and its head Kim Fox, we'll get to her in just a moment.
Now the police case files show that three detectives working on the case realized within days, "a plan was formulated and put into play by Smollett to conduct a staged incident." The case files also reveal that the FBI has been involved in the investigation from the start.
Wow and tonight we're learning that the FBI is now investigating why the charges were dropped. Yay.
That probe, no doubt revolves around State's attorney Kim Fox. Now last night, we brought you the details of how a former Michelle Obama staffer, Chief of Staff, Tina Tchen set up a conversation between Ms. Fox and the Smollett family, a conversation many believe was the catalyst for her ultimately dropping the case.
Now Fox defended that decision tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIM FOX, COOK COUNTY STATE'S ATTORNEY: He was avail to alternate prosecution model that anybody else without his riches, without his fame will also avail to and so while it's frustrating, the nature of his offense, we treated Mr. Smollett in the same way we would treat similarly situated folks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Well, tonight, we can reveal another political connection. When Fox was running for the position back in 2016, a Soros backed group, George Soros, bankrolled a large part of her campaign to the tune of $300,000. Another $108000 was given to another part of her campaign, a different you know, related PAC - super PAC.
And if this story could not get any shadier, here now, someone with deep background of just how the city works. A Chicago Tribune editorial member, Kristen McQueary. Kristen, what are your sources telling you tonight? This thing is getting messier by the moment.
KRISTEN MCQUEARY, CHICAGO TRIBUNE EDITORIAL BOARD: It's getting messier by the moment indeed and the State's Attorney Kim Fox today was the first time, she actually sort of spoke out and tried to defend her office and she seems to be digging herself deeper into a hole.
I have to tell you just on the ground here in Chicago, no one really believes that this was a case that was handled fairly. The Police detective work on this case was rock solid and even the State Attorney's office has conceded that point. So why they are not only drop the charges but sealed the case and expunged his record at the state level so that none of this would even show up in a search of him is really beyond?
Why they gave up all this leverage is very frustrating to Chicago residents by and large.
INGRAHAM: Right but what do you think about these questions, the political connections, the reaching out by former Michelle Obama top staffer, right to Kim Fox's officer, to her directly. And then Kim Fox reaching out--
MCQUEARY: To her cell phone.
INGRAHAM: Yes, and then reaching out to Kim Fox going from that to Mr. Johnson, the Police Superintendent basically saying, why don't we give this to the FBI.
MCQUEARY: Right, well, Chicago's a big city but it often operates as a small town and so the fact that you have someone who has the chief prosecutor's private cell phone number, making connections between her and a defendant, and a defendant who is facing criminal charges and her sort of trying to smooth - make a smoother glide path for him is very questionable and that's something that, it hasn't been talked about as much in the national media but it is something that Chicago is very focused on.
And I think you're going to see like you mentioned, perhaps federal authorities looking into this as well as others.
INGRAHAM: They are.
MCQUEARY: I mean, she - yes.
INGRAHAM: By the way, a statement that just came out, another one from Smollett's attorney, Patricia Brown, the facts are clear. She said the State Attorney - Assistant State Attorney appeared in court and dismissed the charges. Smollett forfeited his bond, the case is closed, no public official has the right to violate Mr. Smollett's due process rights.
Well, I can tell you what they're - what Kristen, what's clearly alleging is that the police and the Mayor in the process are violating Jussie's due process rights by even coming out yesterday and giving that statement.
What do you think the police and Mayor's office is going to say to that?
MCQUEARY: I mean, I think what you're saying is what we see in Chicago a lot, which is how it's a double helix of politics and clout governing basic day to day decisions, including - including prosecution of this case and I think the Police Department had no choice but to come out and defend themselves.
They spent thousands of man hours on this case, they had surveillance records, they proved it and then they have the State's Attorney basically throw their whole case, like I said out the window, including extra protections for him. Basically there's no exoneration of Jussie Smollett, just so we all are clear on that.
The State Attorney's office does not deny that the case was solid and he got a couple of days of community service for filing a false police report and alleging a hate crime that didn't happen.
INGRAHAM: And real hate crimes and real victims are hurt by all of this. Kristen, thank you so much. Now that Jussie Smollett is a free man, now he could be hitting the red carpet this weekend at the NAACP awards where he's nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama for his work on "Empire."
But the black activist group Project 21 is calling on the NAACP to rescind the nomination. Leaders say Smollett's crass display of celebrity privilege is harmful to both race relations and the reputation of the law enforcement community. Here now is Project 21 Co-Chair, Horace Cooper. Horace, you feel this to be a slap in the face.
HORACE COOPER, CO-CHAIR, PROJECT 21: Absolutely. Here's an example in Chicago where the police did what we wanted them to do. They gave this serious consideration. They brought the resources to bear. No one was injured. No one was accused of misbehavior. And they bring a case forward. The prosecutor's office says yes, you've done everything right. And the grand jury, 16 counts, they say this behavior needs to be accounted for. This time, they just allowed him to walk. If that's not privilege, I don't know what privilege is.
INGRAHAM: The "Empire" producers basically said in in a statement yesterday that, I think this was yesterday, said we are gratified to see the results.
COOPER: His colleagues, actually, several of the people who are not writers on the program, they are really concerned about this behavior. And one of the reasons is, if you or I or any other normal, mainstream American were to have engaged in these kinds of behaviors, we would be held accountable.
INGRAHAM: I think we all have to remember, he hired two Nigerian guys --
COOPER: That's right.
INGRAHAM: -- to actually fake an attack with a rope around his neck, and apparently he thought they threw bleach on him to I guess whiten his skin. That's what we were led to believe. Initially the report was MAGA hat wearing -- we all thought that was ridiculous from the beginning. But imagine if the shoe were on the other foot, and some white guy said two black guys approached because, and they called him a cracker and made fun of the fact that he loved Trump, and it was all made up in the end. The NAACP would want that guy's head.
COOPER: Absolutely.
INGRAHAM: And frankly, all of us would.
COOPER: The would rain down on them. Here's the point. This guy, he is proving privilege isn't about your race. It's not about your gender. People who are elites like these Hollywood types, they are able to come in. There is a divide in America, and it's between main street and these elites. It's about time that people recognize what's really going on, and it starts with the NAACP. He should not be considered for any kind of --
INGRAHAM: And the NAACP loses a lot of credibility, by the way. It's a host of the awards. Anthony Anderson, excuse me, said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTHONY ANDERSON, ACTOR: I hope he's here. I hope he's here, and I hope he wins. I hope everyone wins. It's a big event, and I'm glad everything has worked out for him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: It's a sin and a shame. This shouldn't happen. He should be held accountable.
INGRAHAM: Well, he wants him to win, wants him to win and he's glad it's all behind him.
COOPER: Tells us everything we need to know about Hollywood.
INGRAHAM: You know it's bad when Rahm Emanuel even thinks it's a travesty. The poor black police superintendent, he has reached the pinnacle of law enforcement, and this is the way he's going to be remembered? I don't think so. Horace, thank you so much.
And Smollett isn't the only celebrity escaping justice. We are going to expose a few others as well as the late-night comedians melting down over Mueller. Raymond Arroyo is here next with "Seen and Unseen"
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: It's time for our "Seen and Unseen" segment where we expose the big cultural stories of the day. Well, a new case of celebrity injustice, late-night hosts in Hollywood are melting down over the Mueller news, and why is the Pope withholding his ring from the faithful? Joining us with all the details, Raymond Arroyo, Fox News contributor, "New York Times" bestselling author of the brand-new book "Will Wilder, The Amulet of Power." Raymond, as we saw at the top of the show, the left is just losing their collective minds over the reporting of this Mueller, this fizzle dud letter.
RAYMOND ARROYO, CONTRIBUTOR: Late-night land is really imploding, and it's not a pretty scene, Laura. There is a great sadness in late- night. Here is Trevor Noah.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TREVOR NOAH, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": I'm a little disappointed. It's a little bit like coming down the stairs on Christmas morning. You were hoping for a brand-new BMX, but instead you find Santa's dead body. We have footage from when he found out that Mueller had let him off the hook.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When it comes to Donald J. Trump's collision with Russia, you did not collude.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
ARROYO: He went on to say that that is every liberal in America, the woman pounding the carpet.
INGRAHAM: Actually funny.
ARROYO: That part was funny. That may be the most truthful moment of the week.
The problem is when politics becomes the center of these comedy shows and the narrative begins to fall apart, things turn nasty very fast.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TREVOR NOAH, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": Over at Trump TV, they all agree that this was a terrible, terrible thing, and they want revenge. If you got rid of all of the conspiracy theorists, propagandists, and liars, FOX News would just be a bunch of empty couches.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: Now, wait a minute. They promoted a story line that fell apart, but you are the liar, propagandists, and conspiracy theorist? I'm not following this at all.
INGRAHAM: I literally have never seen his show but was he a big hit across the pond?
ARROYO: No, he's a South African.
INGRAHAM: As I was saying, that's a big pond. That's how much I don't know about him.
ARROYO: He was not a hit there either, but he's a big hit here.
INGRAHAM: Oh, OK.
ARROYO: Your fourth stage of grief, depression, was all over for Stephen Colbert face this week. But the laughs were few.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW": This weekend we received some troubling news. Our president is not a Russian asset.
If Trump is not working with the Russians, then what the hell is wrong with him?
(LAUGHTER)
COLBERT: Why does he keep saying nice things about Vladimir Putin?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: It doesn't work.
INGRAHAM: That doesn't work.
ARROYO: No. When your first obligation is to an agenda and not laughs, it runs aground fast.
INGRAHAM: He hasn't been funny since he was trying to channel O'Reilly.
ARROYO: He was great doing the O'Reilly --
INGRAHAM: But that got old. They are always living vicariously through someone else.
ARROYO: People want to bust a gut. They don't want him to cut political opponents.
INGRAHAM: Boring.
ARROYO: It's no fun.
Laura, you just reported on the Jussie Smollett story, a celebrity escaping justice because he is a celebrity. He's not alone. There's a culture of celebrity injustice emerging. Video hit social media this week of rapper Cardi B talking about her past three years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARDI B, RAPPER: Yes, yes, yes. And I drugged them and I robbed them, that's what I used to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: She is saying she drugged people and robbed them. She would take them to hotel rooms, drug them, and rob them.
INGRAHAM: Imagine if a white country music star went on television, three years ago. That was three years ago.
ARROYO: And said I'd drug girls, I would drug them and rob them. The authorities would be banging on the -- on the concert door.
INGRAHAM: I find her extremely articulate and fascinating. She's a fascinating cultural --
ARROYO: She is now saying she was just doing what she had to do to make a living.
INGRAHAM: So does the mafia. That's how they make a living, break people's legs.
ARROYO: The double standard is glaring. Dr. Dre this week, he bragged on Instagram that his daughter got into USC with no help from him. He quickly had to pull that Instagram posting down when he was reminded that he donated $70 million of the school and they named a building after him several years ago. So there is a double standard. They just keep playing it.
INGRAHAM: You have to explain one thing.
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: I was confused by this. This Vatican video emerged that enraged a lot of people this week. It shows Pope Francis greeting pilgrims that were coming to visit Rome. But he withholds his ring. They like to kiss the ring. It's kind of cool. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: He not only pulls it away, Laura. He swats a few of these poor people. I call it the papal pullback. According to those close to the Pope, I spoke to them this week at the Vatican, he's uncomfortable with the kissing of the papal ring. This is a medieval holdover, Laura. It's a way Catholics have for centuries shown their respect not for the Pope but for the office. It's the office.
INGRAHAM: Let them kiss the ring. Why can't they kiss the ring if they want to kiss the ring?
ARROYO: As Dora the explorer might say, papa, stops swiping. Leave the ring out. It looks rude. It makes people feel bad. And though the last two Popes didn't care for this either, they allowed people to do it, Laura, because it's a sign of generosity and respect and piety.
INGRAHAM: Was it a few years ago, didn't he have --
ARROYO: A few years ago he indulged others. He does it all the time, actually. There are other people, and look at this picture. A guy who was performing for him, he looks very happy to have them kiss the ring.
INGRAHAM: He seems delighted to have that. That's a very cozy photo.
ARROYO: Today there was a nun at the general audience, she kissed his ring, it was no problem at all. So I think there is an odd discomfort here for some, but he indulges a few others. So Laura, now it's your moment. Go ahead. Say goodbye to me and the only way possible -- nope.
INGRAHAM: Get out.
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: By the way --
ARROYO: I will give you the benediction on the way out.
INGRAHAM: By the way, I think it's fine. If people want to kiss the ring, the church has enough problems. Let them kiss the ring. It's virtue signaling.
ARROYO: Take the pious --
INGRAHAM: It's virtue signaling. Look at me. It's not a clericalism. I'm sick of that. All right, if you liked that segment, you can see more of one just like it on Fox Nation, the "Laura and Raymond" show. You can sign up your free trial today at FoxNation.com.
And up next, we told her there must be consequences for bad actors both in and out of government. Senate judiciary chair Lindsey Graham is here next with his plan to investigate clinical bias against President Trump. You do not want to miss it, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: As we have been arguing for months, there must be consequences for bad actors in and out of government. Innocent people who are unfairly targeted deserve justice, and so do the American people whose money is wasted.
And tonight, repercussions could be coming on two fronts. As we reported earlier, the FBI is now investigating what was behind the state attorney, Kim Foxx's decision, to drop those 16 charges against "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett. And my next guest, with the support of the Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, is preparing investigations into the political bias at the FBI that targeted President Trump. Joining me now, the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Lindsey Graham.
All right, senator, on the theme of repercussions, in both of these cases, can we expect the DOJ's full involvement?
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.: Yes, I think so. I think Bill Barr is a man of the Department of Justice. This has been his life's work, and I think he's very disappointed and concerned by the way the FBI handled the FISA warrant application, the counterintelligence investigation, and he's going to be very supportive of looking to find out how this got off the rails.
INGRAHAM: A lot of folks when they approach me and I'm traveling around the country, I'm sure you get the same thing. People say how do Hillary's people, how do they manage to smash BlackBerrys, how do they unmask all of these Americans with probably for dubious reasons. How is the U.N. ambassador unmasking, like Samantha Power, how is this all happening? There's never any repercussions. What do you say to them just on that score?
GRAHAM: One, let's find somebody to prove that it did happen we all trust. You know Mueller, I stood behind him because I thought he was a fair guy. A lot of people on our side thought he was on a witch hunt. I didn't, quite frankly. But the president has been vindicated. Let's take somebody like Mueller to ask these questions. Did they get a FISA warrant by using compromised, bogus information?
INGRAHAM: They did, didn't they?
GRAHAM: I think so, but let somebody other than Lindsey Graham and Laura Ingraham say it. Let's find somebody of the stature of Mueller to look at the other side of the story, because if they find something, I want to believe it's based on the evidence, not politics.
INGRAHAM: Is Bill Barr now looking into the possibility of appointing another special counsel?
GRAHAM: I am urging him for one simple reason. This is an emotional event. Most Republicans believe they were out to get Trump. Most people think that Strzok and Page and McCabe and Comey wanted Clinton to win and Trump to lose, and they took the law into their own hands. If that's true, it's horrible. Let's find somebody that can tell us if it's true, take the appropriate action. I think it's very important to have a Mueller-like figure looking --
INGRAHAM: I know that you think that, but you've had conversations with Barr. I know you had dinner with him the other night. Is he approaching that decision? Is there a timetable in which he'll make that decision?
GRAHAM: That's a good question. I think he's going to look at what happened. And the question for him, should it be me and the professionals here inside the building, or should I get somebody outside the system. It's not a question of if he looks. It's how he looks.
INGRAHAM: Well, they are attacking him now. They are trashing his credibility on the left. They are saying that he's just a political actor, that Mueller shouldn't have trusted him to make that obstruction decision. I've never heard of someone who is a Bush attorney general -- everyone is elevating the Bushs now for a variety of reasons. But I've never heard anyone attack Bill Barr and his professionalism until the left got into their multiple stages of grief here.
GRAHAM: So like Adam Schiff has become the new Oliver Stone of the House, there's nothing that will ever satisfy them. Bill Barr is one of the greatest people to ever serve in the Department of Justice, highly respected on both sides of the aisle until Trump got to be president. The point I'm making is let's have somebody that maybe we can find, like a Mueller, to look at the other side.
INGRAHAM: Let's talk about a man who you probably wouldn't recommend take over this investigation, Jim Comey. He was on NBC tonight.
GRAHAM: I think he's out.
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: He was last seen gazing up at the redwoods.
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: It looked like a lineup to me, Lindsey. Anyway, so he was on NBC tonight commenting. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: If there are questions that haven't been answered in the hours and hours and hours of testimony I've given, of course I'll answer them. I want it all done in the light of day, though. No more secretive positions. Public hearings serve the public interest. So if there are questions to be asked about how we handled this investigation or any other, let me know when you want me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: He's ready.
GRAHAM: OK, so one is going to be in public, and I'm going to give you a heads-up. One of the questions I'm going to ask, did Bruce Ohr tell you, you shouldn't trust Christopher Steele? And how much time and attention did you put into verifying the dossier before you certified to the court that it was reliable? So there you go. Think about it. Come to the committee here soon and you'll give me the answer in public. You will testify, my friend, in public, not behind closed doors, and you will answer for your time as FBI director.
INGRAHAM: Now, I want to get your take on another event that happened. One of your former colleagues, Senator Joe Biden. Now, he seems poised to launch a presidential bid, but like a lot of the Democrat candidates, he has to say that he's sorry about a lot of what he did. Here he's attempting to apologize for how Anita Hill, my old boss Clarence Thomas' confirmation hearings. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: They were a bunch of white guys. She faced a committee that didn't fully understand what the hell it was all about. To this day, I regret I couldn't come up with the way to get her the kind of hearing she deserved.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRAHAM: He's a good guy. If he's not proud of the life he's lived, why should we make him president? If you really have to apologize for most of the things you've done your political life, why should we take you for being president?
INGRAHAM: But I think his comment is actually racially charged. When I say that, I think by saying if it's a panel of white men, you can't be fair. What is that? That's judging someone based on race. I thought we weren't supposed to do that.
GRAHAM: The problem is the party of Joe Biden is dead, and he's trying to find a way in the new party. In the new party, you have to apologize because if you are a white guy, you can't possibly be fair. This is what's going to undercut him, because I like Joe Biden. I like the real Joe Biden. I think he's been wrong on policy, but what he's doing now is putting in question whether or not he's authentic. Do you really believe he thinks that this apology is sincere? Is he just trying to position himself for political advantage? I think he's apologizing to get an advantage in a crazy primary.
INGRAHAM: Lindsey Graham, it is so great to see you. Don't be a stranger.
GRAHAM: I'll be back.
INGRAHAM: Thanks for staying up late.
Don't forget to vote in my Twitter poll. Who is the biggest threat to the United States? Is it Russia or is it China or North Korea? We are going to reveal the results in just moments.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: As Maury Povich says, the results are in. I asked you who is the biggest threat to the United States, Russia, China, or North Korea. With nearly 33,000 votes in over the last hour, you decided correctly. China is the biggest threat to the United States, 86 percent of the vote, Russia trailing with a paltry nine percent, North Korea, sorry, just five percent for you.
That's all the time we have tonight. Remember, my new podcast dropped today. Trans-humanism, do you know what it is? You should, because it's coming. Subscribe at PodcastOne or just to go iTunes. Shannon Bream and the "Fox News @ Night" team take it all from here.
Shannon?
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