Charlie Kirk: Democrats are trying to 'provoke' conservatives
The National Center's Horace Cooper and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk reflect on Democrats' messaging ahead of the upcoming midterm elections on 'The Ingraham Angle.'
This is a rush transcript of "The Ingraham Angle" on September 27, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Oh my gosh, Sean, first of all our hearts and our prayers go out to the people of Florida.
HANNITY: Big time.
INGRAHAM: This is going to be a brutal storm. And there are a lot of elderly people who don't want to leave their homes. But they must leave their homes in you know, if they haven't left them. We have to say prayers for them. Because this is going to be really bad. We're going to have a press conference. It looks like from--
HANNITY: This looks bad.
INGRAHAM: Yes, from Ron DeSantis coming out. But thank you so much. And we'll check back with you and we'll see you tomorrow.
HANNITY: We'll be watching. Have a great show.
INGRAHAM: All right. I'm Laura Ingraham. This is THE INGRAHAM ANGLE from a very busy Washington tonight. So let's get right to it. 'The True Extremist Threat' that's the focus of tonight's 'Angle'.
Oh, at the end of his speech today, I don't know if you saw it at the White House, Biden ended on a note that was it was sweet. It was hopeful, it was unifying.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: There are simply nothing, nothing beyond our capacity to get done, if we do it together. So God bless you all and pray that we can figure out how to come together better than we have so far. Because a lot of people's lives and futures depend upon it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: If you actually believe that, then you're just as naive as one of those poor rejected girls on The Bachelor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I never stopped waiting for you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know you dint. I know you dint. That's what, I know you dint.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're going to put me in this car right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know it could be the tax mistake.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is, I promise you it is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: The truth about this administration and the Democrat party in general, it's not funny at all. In fact, it's dark and it's sinister. While they've been busy destroying our prosperity, our border and our safety, they've also been working overtime to sell a lie to the American people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, Representative extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Every single American should stand in opposition against these radical, MAGA Republican views.
KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS, SENIOR ADVISOR TO PRESIDENT BIDEN ON PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT: Because MAGA Republican agenda is an effort to disrupt our democracies.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is sort of a big reveal of the riot, and frankly the danger of the modern GOP.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now, this toxic mantra, it's all silly. It's drilled into the national conversation day-after-day and it pits Americans against Americans, solely based on political differences. Now, how sickeningly cynical is that how transparent.
The argument that conservative Republicans are the most dangerous threat facing us today. Not the crippling recession, not fentanyl coming from China, not high energy costs, not skyrocketing murder rates. But those people who supported Trump, they're the real menace. Now, this is why Biden can't quit Charlottesville.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Their veins bulging. The vein bulging on their skin as they were screaming. Repeatedly coming out of the fields carrying torches with swastika. Those folks coming out of that field down in Virginia carrying swastikas and torches, chanting the same anti-Semitic bile that was chanted in Germany in the early 30s. Chanting the same anti-Semitic bile heard across Europe in the 30s.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: And then there's the Insurrection that wasn't. Whenever the news gets bad politically for Biden, the Democrats and the media tried to save the party by going back to Jan 6th.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we will be presenting new information, new evidence to the American people, because the investigation goes on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I promise you it will be interesting for people who have followed it up until now and hey, in a democracy the people have the right to knowledge about what's taking place with their government.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it'll be potentially more sweeping than some of the other hearings. And so I think it will be as the others hearing worth watching.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: OK, you want to know the new information. Today the Dow dropped for the sixth straight day. Trillions of dollars of wealth had been wiped away. And it increasingly looks bad for the Democrats in the midterms.
Now Sunday's Washington Post ABC News poll shows that Democrats are getting killed on the issues that the voters care most about, the economy and crime. Among registered voters, Republicans have a 17 point advantage on trust and how to handle the economy and 18 point advantage on inflation and a 22 point advantage on handling crime.
It's not enough though that they've whipped themselves the Democrats into a panic. They're now whipping their activism. Their activists into true violent extremism over cultural issues like abortion. Yes, I'm talking about the same people who insist right that President Trump incited the Capitol riot with his words on January 6th. They now sound pretty cool to incitement themselves.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are at war with these people. These folks are evil, they have allowed evil into their house with Donald Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The MAGA movement is a threat.
SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D-HI): This is an outright attack on women in this country. This is a literally call to arms in our country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe now it is all about the violence, it all is about an insurrection, it all is in his mind about a civil war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now their message is being received loud and clear. Stop the Pro- Life Movement by any means necessary stop the parents who are outraged about trans propaganda at schools by any means necessary. And our Vice President, she seems to think that people who pray outside of abortion clinics or who volunteer at crisis pregnancy centers, that they're evil incarnate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So called extremist leaders are passing laws to criminalize these folks. Passing laws to punish women. I met with many of you in my office at the White House. And we discussed the innovative strategies that you have used to defend women's reproductive freedom. You are taking on rightly, the crisis pregnancy centers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Taking them on, is that what she said? Now how tone deaf. Kamala gave those inflammatory remarks just a week after yet another crisis pregnancy center was vandalized with threatening messages. It was a second attack on that same center.
They're trying to do to Pro-Life volunteers, I think what they've tried to do with Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. They're trying to intimidate them and scare them. They have zero respect for the decorum or even the houses of worship where people go pray. Because yesterday, the same type of activist took their vile rants to New York, St. Patrick's Cathedral.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The people much decide our fate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: And even the FBI is getting in on the act, charging a Pro-Life volunteer and a father of seven Mark Houck with a federal crime now for what, a nothing skirmish outside an abortion clinic that was entirely provoked by a left wing activist.
Now this is perhaps the most despicable action taken by the FBI next to the vindictive, disproportionate prosecutions of some of the January 6th defendants. And it speaks both to the politicized nature of our own DOJ and the desperation of the Democrats. Now the angle saw this coming with the left's role and encouraging and even rewarding the depraved behavior of the summer of 2020.
The Democrats message to their base at the time was keep it up, hold on to that energy because they wanted to harness that emotion toward a political victory over Trump and the Republicans. For Democrats that dozens of lives lost the Police officers unfairly targeted and the property losses incurred by cities across the country. That was all collateral damage for the greater good. It was all though a power grab.
But now, Democrats see that that power is threatened. The voters didn't bargain for any of what they're suffering through right now. And rather than reassessing their policies, maybe tacking to the middle a little bit. Liberals in the Democrat Party are growing more vicious by the minute. They're even attacking one of their own. One minute they suck up to Joe Manchin for the climate change deal. The next they trash him. And now they're doing the same thing with Kyrsten Sinema, hitting her for the crime of occasionally thinking for herself. And actually once in a while talking to a Republican.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOY BEHAR, AMERICAN COMEDIAN: The only person who seems to like her is Mitch McConnell. And Mitch McConnell likes her because she works with him to obstruct the Democrats. She does not help the Democrats. We don't need her. We need a strong Democrat in Arizona. Like--
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mark Kelly.
BEHAR: Mark Kelly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Joy, why don't you move there and run? And we're supposed to believe, after listening to stuff like that, that they actually care about women. Not women who dare question their twisted orthodoxy, they don't count. But the gals on the view, I think they are good for one thing, for reminding us that today's feminists are the real male chauvinist. Yes, you're witnessing a full-fledged Democrat meltdown happening. They don't care about preventing violence and ever have.
They don't care about saving democracy. They never did or preserving respect for our government institutions. They are so consumed by hatred for the 74 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump, that they're willing to compromise all that they want to believe in, including the right to free speech and impartial justice, in order to punish those same Trump supporters.
Well that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I call dangerous extremism. But Democrats, they're the ones who will be punished less than six weeks from now, when the voters finally have their say. And that's 'The Angle'.
Joining me now is Horace Cooper, Co-chair of Project 21, author of the forthcoming book, 'PUT Y'ALL BACK IN CHAINS!'. Also with me, Charlie Kirk, Founder and President of Turning Point USA and author of The College Scam. Charlie, the Democrats are out of ideas, I mean, their bag of tricks is spent. And so now they're the ones who are with a wink and a nod, kind of egging the activist class on, pushing them toward violence, and that they call the GOP the dangerous ones here.
CHARLIE KIRK, TURNING POINT USA FOUNDER: That's exactly right, Laura. Great open, by the way. So look, they're trying to provoke I think conservatives and Republicans to do something that we shouldn't do and that's uncharacteristic. We have to remember. We have to stay peaceful in these next six weeks for the midterms, because their language that Democrats are using, seems to almost try to get Republicans and get grassroots activists just to say, I'm mad as heck, and I'm not going to take it any longer. You see what happened in North Dakota, just a week and a half ago, where a 41- year old man ran over an 18-year old because of political views, Cayler Ellingson, and we have to be lectured by Joe Biden, on domestic violent extremism.
Meanwhile, over 60 pregnancy crisis centers were terrorized by Antifa and far left-wing groups. Laure, you're spot on, if you look at some of the polling and it happened gradually and then suddenly, over the last week, almost every single one of these Democrat Senate races are flipping in the direction of Republicans, whether it be Laxalt in Nevada, Walker in Georgia, Blake Masters in Arizona is looking very good, Pennsylvania and Ohio, you're starting to see the Democrats really act as if it's the last gasp of a dying regime. We have to remember that the more that we focus on these issues, the more we organize, the more they're going to be threatened and their language, I'm afraid is only to get more outrageous now to the midterms.
INGRAHAM: Yes. Horace I think they've tried, and they've had a lot of help in the media to spin away the economic news and focus on January 6, or Charlottesville or the jobs decision. But in the end, people know what their accounts look like, or their lack of bank account after what happened to this economy. You can't spend that, it is what it is, and they've screwed it all up royally.
HORACE COOPER, PROJECT 21 CO-CHAIR: Not only did they screw it up all royally. They did it in such a quick period that people can see what it was like just a couple of years ago, and what it is like now, you know, if you took the little frog, put them in a pan, turn the water up just a little bit, you might be able to cook the frog until it's dead. But if you put a lot of heat on it, like this administration has bringing crime to unprecedented levels all over the country, inflation, gasoline prices, every single, not to mention the canceled culture. It is making the frog jump out. And guess what, we have an election coming. And the greatest way for people on the right to exercise power, to exercise control is to punish the very people that have caused the problems that this country faces.
INGRAHAM: Well stated. And Charlie, Eugene Robinson is a columnist liberal for The Washington Post decided to double down on hurling smears against Republicans today, watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EUGENE ROBINSON, WASHINGTON POST COLUMNIST: They'd have no plan for governing, and they have no interest really in governing. It's it will all be about revenge. That's what's happened to the Republican Party. It is shocking, a shocking example of devolution into you know, again, what's, what's essentially a criminal slash authoritarian organization.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Criminal slash authoritarian organization, Charlie from the Democrats who can't tolerate one or two of their own questioning trillions of dollars in spending, which is what Cinnamon (ph) mentioned it at least for a few minutes.
KIRK: He actually used to be really interesting about like a decade and a half ago. I don't know what's happened. Actually was has happened, Laura they've run out of words honestly. I mean what else besides despotic, authoritarian, dictator, they just have to keep on repeating and recycling these words, and they're accusing Republicans of going on a revenge campaign, after I don't know the 45th you know, 49th impeachment attempt of Donald Trump with the January 6th committee. We're the ones that are doing the revenge campaign when they go after anyone in Trump's orbit for just the idea that they were associated with the President that wasn't supposed to win in 2016.
Look, if that's their message, good luck. I'm telling you these - this next six weeks, I think you're going to see momentum like we've never seen before. You said it perfectly. Laura, they're losing on every issue voters care about their narrative is collapsing. And all they have left are these outrageous hyperbolic insults that are falling flat with voters.
INGRAHAM: Horace, the question I think is going to be when will New England and when will California and Washington State and Minnesota and Oregon when will those States finally say, you know, we've tried this for decades. It just isn't working. That will be the watershed moment for this country?
COOPER: Well, I keep my eye out on those places. Connecticut is a race that I'm watching both for the governor's race, as well as the Senate race, the Washington State Governor's race, the Washington State Senate race, Trafalgar has been putting out numbers showing surprisingly close in dark blue States like that.
Let me tell you what the problem is, I see it is, when I was younger, there was a playbook that the left use. They lied, they pretended I'm for you, Americans, I'm for building the economy. I love the American flag. I'm doing everything I can, because I support you just as you are, and I love you. And then they get elected. And they do exactly whatever it was that they wanted. This time around, they've thrown that playbook out. And they're doing every crazy thing and saying, elect us, and we'll do more of it. Well, guess what? I predict you're going to see this fall, the biggest repudiation that we have seen in a generation.
INGRAHAM: Horace, and Charlie, great to see it tonight. Thank you.
Now, what if we told you that the polls are not just wildly off again, but that some polling outlets are suppressing that information? Well, especially the tidbits that matter most. We're going to explain it in moments. And as violent crime skyrockets in Philly, we speak to one of the only Republican council members about where the city goes from here, stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: A headline in Politico today caught our eye, Pollsters fear they're blowing it again in 2022. OK, they're right. Now take the most recent ABC Washington Post poll we were talking about earlier, a found that among registered voters, Republicans only hold a one point lead in the generic ballot. Well, that doesn't really sound like a red wave, right. But deep inside this analysis was this finding. Among those living in congressional districts that are rated somewhat competitive by ABCs FiveThirtyEight registered voters favor Republican candidates by 21 points.
So let me explain this. Basically the only reason the generic ballot is this close one point is because the Democrats are running up huge margins in these very deep blue districts.
Joining us now is Ari Fleischer, Former White House Press Secretary and Fox News Contributor - already, Ari, it's pretty important as a data point, is it not about those deep blue districts and pretty important not to include prominently in these write-ups? Don't you think?
ARI FLEISCHER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: It's just an amazingly distorted way to present news to people who want to know what's, what's the shape of November looking like? It doesn't matter what happens in the cities, it doesn't matter what happens in some of the more rural districts where Republicans are going to win 80, 20. It matters in those battleground districts. So that's where control of the House is at stake. And so the only polling we should be looking at are in the battleground districts, the battleground States in the Senate.
And one other point, look Laura, you talked about that Washington Post poll was of registered voters, registered voters don't vote. Voters vote. And so you need to switch to likely voters. Likely voters always vote more Republican than registered voters. And right now the media is still using an overbroad pool of people called registered voters, when that is not indicative of who was actually going to show up in November. This is why the polls right now have a Democrat bias to them.
INGRAHAM: Now Ari, the New York Times is reporting tonight, finally, this headline, Are Political Winds Blowing In Republicans Favor Again? There are some signs of drift toward issues where the party has an advantage, like the economy and immigration, they're reporting. Now, where did I hear that about six weeks ago, Ari.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: The same Democrat operatives masquerading as journalists are doing the same thing they've always done. They try to sell Democrat failures as wins. But Americans aren't buying it. You have to go back to Jimmy Carter to hit approval numbers lower than Biden stay at same point in his presidency. So only in Liberal La La Land, would any of this qualify as Joe momentum?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Yes, so they were trying to sell this momentum thing all summer long, Ari. But you and I talked about this before, the numbers are what the numbers are, and the failure is not going away.
FLEISCHER: Joe Biden's job approval in August was a 37 percent, which is just dismal. He's improved. He's up to poor. His job approval rating now is that about 43 percent up from 37 percent from dismal the poor. The problem with having a 43 percent job approval Laura, is that is exactly what Donald Trump had in 2018. He was 44 percent when Republicans lost the house and lost the Senate. It's same thing as Barack Obama had when his party lost the house.
It is a poor number for a President to have. The last time you had a President gain seats in the midterm election was George W. Bush, his job approval was around 70 percent. So it doesn't matter what this many bounces that Joe Biden's had. It's not going to rescue the Democrats, and they're focused on abortion now. I think that's helpful to Democrats in some places, I do think it's going to create some more of an interest in the election by women who previously may have just thought there's no point in churning out I'm just sick of Joe Biden. And even though I don't like Republicans, but I don't like Biden.
It's going to create a little more of a turnout for the Democrats, but not enough. And that's the big picture. Republicans, Laura are still going to win the house. And I think they have a 55 percent, 45 percent chance of winning the Senate probably 51 percent, 49 percent.
INGRAHAM: Wow, Ari, this is so exciting. Can't wait to see how it plays out. Thanks so much.
So what's the end result of stoking division and anger as the left did, which we referenced earlier that Summer of Love, will suddenly street protests, even those ending in violence became almost like a virtue? It got your magazine covers. It meant the soon to be Vice President will ask for donations to bail you out of jail. And you were heralded as the new generation of activists. So should it really come as a surprise that teens now think they can do whatever the heck they want, take whatever they want, hurt whomever they want, all without consequences.
And you can see this, can't you in cities like Philly, or over the weekend 100 kids ransacked a Wawa convenience store, even jumping on cars in the parking lot. It's the searing contempt for your city and your fellow citizens that produces this heinous level of violence. And last week, a mother and her teenage daughter in Philadelphia were ambushed outside their home just after six in the morning. The suspect threatened them with a gun then drove off in the family car. Police say, that he was lying and wait for them.
And then on Saturday night, a 2-year old was shot in the back twice. That boy is in critical condition. Yesterday, a 19-year old died after being shot. Get this 21 times. And just a few hours ago, five members of the high school football team were shot after a scrimmage. Now a 14-year old is dead. So how much longer will residents from the City of Brotherly Love put up with this?
Joining us now is David Oh, Republican Philadelphia City Councilman. David, it's good to see you tonight. Are Philadelphia residents just number this or are they finally going to demand change?
DAVID OH (R), PHILADELPHIA CITY COUNCILMAN: They are demanding change. But I don't think this has ended I think it will continue to get worse because the leadership of our city is not recognizing that the policies that they've installed have produced this type of wanton violence in every which direction we can say what you said is true.
And we hear about it all the time. Innocent children, seniors, people just going about their own business being shot multiple times. And people who really have nothing to do with any criminal situation sometimes, they're just in a social media photograph with someone that other people are looking for.
They can't find that person so they pick it out on someone who's simply in a photograph. And all of this has resulted from just a lack of law enforcement, a disrespect of the law and a failure to hold people accountable. And so this is what is leading to this type of crime and violence in our city.
INGRAHAM: There's no consequences. There's both no consequences, and when you rip down a bunch of statues and you rampage through the city, claiming that everything that came before was awful, rotten, and racist, guess what, nothing happened to you. You were celebrated. That's where we are now. And take families out of the equation and then you're really screwed.
OH: Right. We can look at six years ago where the murders in this city was about 280, or exactly 280. And last year it was 561. As of right now, we're at 401 and murders, and it continues.
INGRAHAM: Oh, my God.
OH: And the thing is that we need to reverse a lot of these policies that were put in place in our city, in our universities, in our public transportation system, and in our schools. Very permissive, very lenient on people committing violent crimes. Our prosecutor does not believe that prosecuting people with illegal weapons will reduce the crime rate. There is --
INGRAHAM: Yes, that's worked well.
OH: Yes, there's just many examples of the failure to hold people accountable.
INGRAHAM: Yes, Councilman, we know what to do. You are doing yeoman's work. We know what needs to be done. There needs to be consequences for criminals. They've got to be locked up, and there's got to be a total change in leadership. Otherwise, what you see happening tonight in Philadelphia.
Hurricane Ian barrels toward the coast. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Hurricane Ian is hurling itself towards the east coast and it's expected to become a category four before making landfall in Florida. FOX Weather's Will Nunley is standing by in Fort Myers tonight. Will?
WILL NUNLEY, FOX NEWS WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: And Laura, even though we are not expected to have that landfall of this powerful hurricane until tomorrow night, we have been in the rain now for hours. As a matter of fact, as I speak, there's a tornado warning about a county away.
And let me tell you some of the logistics happening right now. You have thousands of people evacuating, trying to get to central Florida, heeding those evacuation orders from the coast, all along the coast, from Tampa on down. And you also have power crews trying to get in the hotel rooms as well. We have the National Guard, of course, that has been mobilized to deal with this emergency as well. So that's leading to a shortage of hotel rooms around here. Gas is still in short supply, and there's still lines for some of those last minute supplies.
But it's really now the crucial hours before this storm. This is going to be a statewide emergency, OK? This is going to be a statewide event. Even if you're not in the path of this storm when it makes landfall, which is expected here around Fort Myers, you have the entire state that has several major airports closed down, including Tampa, including Orlando and southwest Florida as well. You also have Disneyworld shutting down for a couple of days, and so many people on the move.
This is going to be a critical 48 hours, a dangerous 48 hours ahead for the state of Florida. We're going to stay on top of it for you here on FOX Weather.
INGRAHAM: Will, thanks so much.
All right, conspiracy theorists, dangerous -- conspiracy theorists, dangerous grandma killers, they were just a few of the things that this show and any others that raised skeptical voices to COVID groupthink were called. But now some of those same censorious voices are suddenly feeling more comfortable.
Here's a recent piece in "The Atlantic." "Did a famous doctor's COVID shot make his cancer worse?" If this article was written just last year, it would have been flagged as dangerous information. Or this new study published in the pediatric edition of "The Journal of the America Medical Association," "The vaccine can be detected in breast milk." They say "Caution is warranted when breastfeeding infants younger than six months."
What makes this all the more enraging is that voices like ours were threatened when we asked questions. In 2021 when the medical bureaucracy was urging pregnant women to get the vaccine, we invited some of the most respected epidemiologists in the world to share their thoughts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. HARVEY RISCH, YALE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Now we've started to see in the VAERS database 15-year-old children getting heart attacks, two-year- olds dying a day after the vaccination, a six-month-old dying from the child's mother's vaccination and getting it through breastmilk. So children have no reason to die from vaccination.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now, voices like Dr. Risch and other medical professionals were brave enough to speak out. They saw their careers threatened, and their reputations in some cases trashed. And sadly, after all of the walk-backs, the censors are still out there. A piece published today in the influential medical website StatNews reads "Doctors who knowingly spread COVID-19 lies should be held accountable." Author Juliana Morris has nothing to say about the lies surrounding masks or social distancing or the one about vaccines stopping you from spreading, or getting COVID-19. But rather she wants to target anyone who raised a contrarian note about the vaccine.
So given what we keep learning, it's vital that we never cow to these medical bullies, but rather keep speaking the truth and seeking the truth, no matter the cost.
And it wasn't just doctors who paid the price. NBA superstar Kyrie Irving famously refused to get the vaccine, and it cost him dearly. Not only was he barred from playing in Brooklyn Nets home games due to the city's vax mandate, he also said it cost him a contract.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KYRIE IRVING, NBA PLAYER: I gave up four years, $100 and something million deciding to be unvaccinated, and that was the decision. It was contract, get vaccinated, or be unvaccinated, and there's a level of uncertainty of your future, whether you're going to be in this league, whether you're going to be on this team.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Here now is Clay Travis, OutKick founder and FOX News contributor. Clay, he was a role model for young athletes who didn't want to risk myocarditis or other ill effects of the vaccine. So why isn't he held up the same way Colin Kaepernick was? He was standing for conscience?
CLAY TRAVIS, OUTKICK FOUNDER: Yes, it's a fantastic point, Laura. And thanks for having me on. Kyrie Irving did what everybody in the sports media and everybody in the larger media claims they want celebrities to do, which is stand up and say exactly what they think, even if there are potentially severe consequences.
Now, exactly how much money Kyrie Irving lost we don't know. He says potentially $100 million. Certainly, it's in the tens of millions. And Laura, if you contrast that, for instance, with Colin Kaepernick who actually has made tens of millions of dollars based on his leftwing protests, what you see is that when you do something and speak out and you are not on the far leftwing woke agenda, there are actually consequences, but none of the praise.
Megan Rapinoe, Colin Kaepernick, LeBron James, all of them are super woke. They get tons of praise and more money for their political opinions, whereas you have guys like Kyrie Irving, and don't forget Novak Djokovic, who wasn't even allowed into our country to play in the U.S. Open which he would have been favored to win, and their stories just get completely ignored, or they continue to be ridiculed even though, Laura, the data reflects that they are correct. Dr. Marty Makary was tweeting about this, great work he's done during this whole COVID era, saying guys like Kyrie Irving who already had COVID and are young, health athletes, are actually at greater risk when they get the COVID shot because then they have a risk of myocarditis based on the data, and they have zero risk, statistically, because they already have the COVID antibodies from their natural immunity.
INGRAHAM: The whole reason for the vax mandate was that they didn't want people to spread the virus. But that's obviously completely out the window. So the vax mandate should have gone away a long time ago. And yet they cling to it like a security blanket, right? They're just not dropping it.
TRAVIS: Yes, and what I said, Laura, I think on your show last week remains true. What people are actually doing in their own private lives outside of the blue check marks on Twitter who are still saying everybody is killing grandmas, I think, only two percent of children now, six months to five years old, are fully vaccinated in this country, 49 out of 50 parents based on the most recent data, again, are making the choice not to get their kids these COVID shots.
And most people are not getting whatever the latest version of this booster is either.
INGRAHAM: Ridiculous.
TRAVIS: A very tiny minority of people are going out and getting these, too. So the vast majority of the American public is agreeing with Kyrie Irving even if a lot of them are still not saying it publicly.
INGRAHAM: Clay, great to see you tonight. Thanks so much.
And Biden's unconstitutional student loan debt relief bill is finally getting a challenge. Trace Gallagher is going to break it all down before the lead attorney in the case joins us exclusively. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Just a day after learning Biden's student loan forgiveness plan would cost $400 billion, we are finally seeing a major legal challenge to it. Here with all the details is Trace Gallagher, FOX's chief breaking news correspondent and brand-new anchor of FOX NEWS AT NIGHT. So excited about that, Trace. Congrats again, on the new gig. What can you tell us, though, for now about this lawsuit?
TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Laura, thank you, first of all. The lawsuit itself is pretty cut and dried. The Pacific Legal Foundation, a libertarian law firm, says President Biden's plan to forgive a half- trillion dollars in student loan debt is flagrantly illegal because, quote, here, only Congress has the power to pass laws and spend money under the Constitution.
But it's interesting because the plaintiff in the lawsuit is a man named Frank Garrison. He is a lawyer for Pacific Legal Foundation, or PLF, and it turns out Mr. Garrison took out a federal student loans to pay for law school. And after paying down those loans for 10 years, he is now getting debt relief under public service loan forgiveness. Now, that's a program for borrowers who work in public service for nonprofits.
But in three states, including Indiana, where Frank Garrison lives, the Biden debt relief plan would subject him to state taxes, which would make him worse off than simply repaying his federal loan. And because of those damages, PLF argues that Garrison has that legal standing to sue the Department of Education.
You see the map there. By the way, we should note four other states are considering also imposing state taxes on those who get Biden's debt relief. Today, the White House was asked about the lawsuit. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: The Biden-Harris administration student loan plan, are trying to stop it because they know it will provide much-needed, again, relief for working families. Anyone who does not want to give that debt relief can choose to opt out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GALLAGHER: Garrison and PLF say there is no way for him to opt out of the tax. We should note the Congressional Budget Office you referred to this estimates the relief plan will cost $430 billion. Other studies put the numbers a few hundred billion dollars higher. Laura?
INGRAHAM: My goodness. Trace, thank you. And we're going to be tuning in, I cannot wait on October 3rd. Congrats again.
GALLAGHER: Thank you. Thank you very much.
INGRAHAM: Joining me now is a lead attorney on the case, Caleb Kruckenberg, of the Pacific Legal Foundation. Caleb, we've been waiting for a lawsuit like this. The response to your critics saying that your suit has no standing because you are not an aggrieved party. What are the damages to you in the Pacific Legal Foundation?
CALEB KRUCKENBERG, ATTORNEY SUING BIDEN'S EDUCATION DEPARTMENT: Well, the question is not what's the damage to me or the Pacific Legal Foundation, it's to the people that are getting this student loan cancellation forced upon them. And for my client, Frank Garrison, who happens to be one of my colleagues, the damages are pretty clear. He is going to be stuck with a tax bill that he didn't ask for, for this cancellation that he doesn't want, that is going to put him in worse position than if nothing happened.
And to the extent that the White House just said, we heard the clip, they said, well, nobody is going to get this if they don't want it. That is just not true. The Department of Education still on their website today says that as many as 8 million people in the U.S. are going to get automatic cancellation, at least starting this week potentially.
INGRAHAM: Now, Caleb, Larry Tribe tweeted about the lawsuit, saying the big weakness of it is the strength, the statutory ground on which Biden's plant stands both under the HEROES Act and under the Health and Education Act. Caleb, he went on to say that the lawsuit was a stretch. So again, focusing on those two acts, the president is supposedly finding the ability to appropriate essentially hundreds of billions of dollars.
KRUCKENBERG: Well, I think just taking a step back and think about how absurd that is that it's even an argument that the president can, all by himself, just appropriate $500 billion. Or, I mean, we will take the conservative estimate, $400 billion. That is a ridiculous amount of money.
But if you look at the HEROES Act, and that is really the statute that the Department of Education is relying on, the president is relying on, that was a bill that was passed in 2003 in reaction to the Iraq War for --
INGRAHAM: We've got to go. But we get the point. You can't go back to Iraq and vets to spend $400 billion. I think Tribe is wrong. I think you're right. We'll see. Caleb, thanks.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: CNN never misses an opportunity to politicize everything, including a deadly hurricane.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: How much is the climate crisis to blame for any of this?
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: A lot. Mainly the one word you mentioned there, intensification. Warm water is hurricane-fueled. It's vitamins, it's steroids to a hurricane.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Of course, it's been the least active start to the hurricane season in 30 years. And is that black t-shirt required?
Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2022 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2022 VIQ Media Transcription, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of VIQ Media Transcription, Inc. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox