CDC completely flip-flops on mask guidance for schools within just 2 weeks -- What's behind it?
One mother tells Laura her son almost didn't survive the pandemic due to the mental health impact of these restrictions
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," July 27, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: I'm Laura Ingraham. This is THE INGRAHAM ANGLE from Washington tonight. There's a lot of talk, of course about the Olympics, but we're handing out our own awards tonight. We'll get to them later on in the show. But first, the day, Fauci became president. That's the focus of tonight's ANGLE. It seems just like yesterday--
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: One of our 100 day challenges is asking the American people to mask up for the first 100 days, the next 99 days; the mask could become a partisan issue, unfortunately. But it's a patriotic act. The fact is that the single best thing we can do the more important in the vaccines because they take time to work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now, at the time, of any angle knew that Biden's 100 days appeal was just a stick. The mask had become a political symbol for too many on the left. They didn't want to give it up so soon, this emergency will never pass.
Remember, it was 15 days to slow the spread 100 days to mask up. They keep changing the rules of the game. Why? Because that's what megalomaniacs do, just as with 100 days of mask wearing, there's always a catch, right?
The good news always comes with a big fat asterisk. But whatever marginal benefit we get from wet cloth masks, they became a security blanket for Democrats who wanted to get rid of Trump and of course, all the old traditions of America.
Bad actors inside and outside government perversely kind of ended up loving COVID-19 of course, not the death but the opportunity that the COVID crisis presented to usher in a permanent new normal. They knew that as long as Americans were forced to social distance and mask up, the lot of Americans would conclude that we were indeed in a crisis mode.
Thus, that would justify keeping kids and workers at home and the government checks coming. The great reset of America, but politically Biden had to offer something to a beleaguered nation. So one of his main pitches as you remember in 2020 was elect me because I have a plan. We're going to be disciplined and organized and we can beat the virus. Remember what he told us just a few months ago?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: If you've been fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask. Let me repeat, if you are fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Well, let me repeat that was a lie. Of course they were just words. Today the CDC announced a stunning reversal rendering Biden's pledge meaningless. The CDC Director for some reason too scared to actually show her face on camera inadvertently blew up much of the incentive to get vaccinated.
She announced in a teleconference that both unvaccinated and vaccinated Americans should once again wear masks indoors, if they're living in virus hotspots.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: Some vaccinated people infected with the Delta variants after vaccination may be contagious and spread the virus to other. It's actually possible if you're a rare breakthrough infection that you can transmit further, which is the reason for the change.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: OK, well, what is really the White House explanation though, for President Biden's flip flopping and backtracking?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We're all dealing with an evolving virus where there's no playbook and no historic precedent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Well, do they actually think that Americans are this stupid? For weeks, we've been saying that the vaccines still experimental have some limitations. We reported on the risk of inflammatory cardiac reaction. We noted the Israeli data showing that breakthrough cases weren't so rare after all.
And we told you about the numbers in Tennessee. The Health Director there reported 1000 so called breakthrough infections of COVID among vaccinated individuals, with the full 75 percent being symptomatic cases. Well, for that, we were vilified by the same media figures. And by the way, some never Trump malcontents desperate for attention.
Do the math. It doesn't mean that the vaccine is useless but it does mean we have to be realistic. We already have what nearly 90 percent of those over the age of 65 vaccinated in the U.S.? It's literally insane or diabolical to issue new directives that punish Americans who are just getting back on their feet. The White House's messaging is so bad, so idiotic. They're even infuriating their allies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIN BRUNETT, CNN HOST: We all remember at the very beginning here, mask up even if you're vaccinated, because you could spread it. And then the yes, guess what, you can't spread it. And now oh, my gosh, now you can maybe spread it.
And they're making the change to the masking guidance based on unpublished data. But it shows that vaccinated and unvaccinated people infected by the Delta variant can have the same viral road - viral load really confusing. And it does beg the question of, do they really know?
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Let's be transparent. Let's explain to the public what the problem is and what the fix is. And I don't get that vibe from CDC now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: They don't get that vibe. OK. Well, wherever you come down on this, the CDC has been moving the COVID goalposts since March of 2020. It was two weeks to slow the spread where we had Mike Pence up there, it got to save the hospitals.
Of course, we have to do that. Then it went to lock downs and capacity restrictions until we had a vaccine. Well, have a vaccine now and now it's entirely conceivable that Democrats will be wearing masks at their 2024 convention, there's always going to be a reason to take a step backward for people who prefer lock downs to actual living.
We could have 90 percent of the entire country vaccinated, and then still come up with new reasons that we need COVID restrictions in place.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the whole world will have enough volumes by the end of 2020 to - vaccinated and protected everyone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Everyone in the world? Well, in Palm Beach, Florida, we're 100 percent of the population has been vaccinated. They just impose new mask mandates yesterday, after all the visitors to Palm Beach may not be vacced.
Look, if they could the COVID control freaks would have us in and out of lockdown forever. I don't know if you've been watching what's going on in Australia, but they locked down for a few dozen cases. And in Sydney, they've been in a hard lockdown already for four weeks.
And they announced today that it's going to extend for another four weeks. I kid you not. And when people go to protest the lockdowns there, as they did, by the way last weekend by the thousands well, what happens they're blamed again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT MORRISON, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: Let me deal with what we saw in Sydney yesterday. Of course, it was selfish. It was also self-defeating. It achieves no purpose. It will not end the lockdown sooner. It will only risk the lockdowns running further. There were millions of Sydneysiders who stayed home. They're the ones who are bringing an end to the lockdown sooner in a city and the lockdown to engage in that was reckless. And it was selfish.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Crikey, what a nightmare? The Biden Administration has fallen right into a COVID trap of their own making. Governors from multiple red states have already announced they're not going to be doing any new masks mandates or lockdowns, period. For them Fauci has blown whatever credibility had left. And by the way, it wasn't a lot.
But if you live in one of the blue states, whether you're vaccinated or not, you're not going to really know what rules will be, in effect day to day. Are you in a hot spot today or not? What's the exact metric on being a hot spot?
As happened a year ago, blue state residents are going to start wondering why the heck life is so much better in the red states. And then the blue staters are going to demand that the restrictions be lifted the roller coaster ride that never ends.
This is a political disaster for Biden, he wasn't elected to create giant new entitlement programs or to throw open the southern border. He was elected in large part to solve the virus issue. But his experts are fighting him on that. And he's either too out of it or too ignorant to know this.
Every time you change the rules. It's not sufficient to explain it away. It's simply we're listening to the scientists. The scientists aren't president or are they? Now I think I figured out how they make their COVID policy over at the White House.
Well, they watch what the health experts on the other cables are saying the demands for new restrictions usually start there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Before calling it so onerous, such an imposition really wearing a mask is not that big a deal.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wear a mask for them for the short term to keep them protected. Wow! We try to get this back under control.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And that mean as well we're in indoor crowded settings to continue wearing a mask in order to protect our children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: She's the creepiest person of all I want to protect my children from her. Then Fauci takes that right. And he forcefully just starts to push it through, ram it through the bureaucracy, then Biden comes out, or if Psaki and says, oh, we're listening to the doctors to the experts, before they end up lashing out at Americans for making their own risk assessments.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: We have a pandemic because the unvaccinated and there's only one thing we know for sure. If the other 100 people got vaccinated, we'd be in a very different world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: They're accusing other people of confusing the situation. The Democrats made a massive mistake by nominating a man who's either too impaired to think for himself, or just doesn't want to he can't see the political buzz-saw that he's walking into.
And then by the way, Biden ended up making a colossal mistake by not sending Fauci out to pasture. Now it's clear who's really the Commander in Chief? And he's going to command you and the president to follow his - if we let him and that's THE ANGLE.
Joining me now is Dr. Martin Kulldorff, Harvard Medical School Professor Dr. Kulldorff is anything prolonging this pandemic, more than this on, again, off again, policy guidance from the Biden Administration and the CDC. What do you make of this?
DR. MARTIN KULLDORFF, PROFESSOR, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL: It's very strange. And I don't know if we have reached the end of the scientific era here. Because if we look at the data, currently, the COVID deaths in the United States is lower than it has been ever since pandemic started in March of 2022 when it took off the first wave.
So I'm not sure why all of these things are happening right now. The key thing to realize is that cases have now disconnected from death. We have cases but because of the vaccines, and because there are many people with natural immunity, the fact that cases goes up a little doesn't that mean that deaths are going up?
And that we see that in the United States? Yes, we have seen it in the United Kingdom and Sweden, for example.
INGRAHAM: Now, the CDC today, Professor admitted, what came as a surprise to many people about the vaccines efficacy against the COVID variants and then transmitting them watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. WALENSKY: The largest concern that I think we in Public Health and Science are more worried about is that virus and the potential mutations away we are from a very transmissible virus that has the potential to evade our vaccines in terms of how it protects us from severe disease and death.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Doctor are we expected to keep taking new boosters every year as this virus continues to mutate down to the last letter in the alphabet?
DR. KULLDORFF: No. And while there could be mutation that the base the vaccine, that has always been the case, so there's nothing new to that. But there was a study recently, a week ago, I think, coming out from Hutchinson and Emory that shows that people with natural immunity, who have high COVID, they have immunity not only to reinfection, but also to the other four common Coronaviruses, and to COVID, SARS COVID I.
So we know that people who have had the disease, they have sort of cross immunity, which is - which seems very promising for any variants that come out. And we don't know exactly about the vaccine.
But the key thing to realize with whether you are immune from vaccine or whether you immune from having had COVID is that it doesn't necessarily protect you from being infected again, because the virus will enter the body it and it might start with it using the body what the immune system do for you is that it prevents you from getting serious illness or death.
And that's what's important. And that's, that's why we see now that while cases are going up in the U.S. the death or not the death--
INGRAHAM: Dr. Kulldorff very quickly masks on children in school six and seven hours a day. What about that?
DR. KULLDORFF: There's no scientific evidence for efficacy of mask in children, mask have - children have extremely low risk of serious disease and mortality. Rather than putting a mask on children, we should just make sure that all older people get the vaccine. We shouldn't put a burden on the children again.
INGRAHAM: This is insane Dr. Kulldorff great to see you tonight as always, thank you. And to that point I want to show you two headlines about the CDC guidance that came just days apart. The first is from July 9th, just two weeks ago.
Vaccinated teachers and students don't need masks, CDC says and today CDC as I just noted, Dr. Kulldorff recommends everyone in K through 12 wear a mask, regardless of vaccination status. But what the heck is going on here?
Joining me now is Sharon McKeeman, Founder of "Let Them Breathe", Sharon. So many parents are reaching out to me all day long after this news broke. Just moments ago, Teachers Union had Randi Weingarten said that when science and evidence speak, we listen, if that means requiring everyone in school buildings to be masked, so we will do it?
These teachers unions, of course, have proven themselves to work against parents' wishes throughout this pandemic, your reaction to the news?
SHARON MCKEEMAN, FOUNDER OF "LET THEM BREATHE": Well, as you read that tweet, these government agencies apparently can't even agree with themselves. They told us to vax to unmask, and now they're saying they're going to keep masks on kids indefinitely. And their justification for that is that there's a lot they don't know about these virus.
And so what we do know for sure is that children are at very low risk from COVID. But they're very high risk from what the mental health impacts of these masking restrictions are doing. And I'm saddened, but I'm not surprised that this government overreach is continuing.
And that's why "Let Them Breathe", just filed a lawsuit because we're at the point where we're realizing legal action is our only hope to get our kids' lives their smiles back.
INGRAHAM: Well, the parents just have to say no, I mean, exactly. We're not doing this. And they're finding out, by the way, in a lot of these big liberal public school systems, like in Fairfax County, Virginia, they're losing students. And so then they'll lose budget, that's when they start paying attention when they're starting to lose students.
A lot of people are homeschooling the numbers are way up. And, and this part of the country, I'm sure they're way up in blue states across the country, but I just think people are going to vote with their feet. Sharon, I really do.
MCKEEMAN: Exactly. We just had a smile fest. And during that we helped parents explore all their educational aspects, all their options, because exactly parents, we just need to say not on our watch enough is enough. We're not going to allow this to happen to our kids.
My son almost didn't survive the pandemic. And it wasn't due to COVID. It was due to the mental health impact of these restrictions on him and of the masking. And so we just have to just stand up together. That's why so many people are joining, "Let Them Breathe" we're advocating we're taking legal action. And I know there's going to be a lot of parents and families on the first day of school that are sharing their smiles.
INGRAHAM: Sharon, thank you. It's good to see you.
MCKEEMAN: Thank you so much.
INGRAHAM: Now what was today's January 6 Committee hearing really all about? We're going to discuss it with a Republican Pelosi through off the panel, Jim Banks and even hand out some awards for best dramatic performances stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Pelosi's January 6 Committee held its first hearing today. And because of her actions leading up to today, the whole thing turned into the eyes of many nothing more than performance art. Now, as this show has reiterated time, and again, all criminal activity at the Capitol that day, should be prosecuted and punished.
There was certainly a lot of violence that day, but it was not a terrorist attack. It wasn't a 9/11 it wasn't the worst thing that ever happened to America. It wasn't an insurrection. There is also something else happening a transparent attempt by Democrats to drag this all out ahead of 2022.
They know they're going to lose big and they're trying not to, but they're casting their political opponents as the enemies of the state. So the theatrical were intended to produce an emotional reaction, logic and facts are damned. It is with that knowledge that we will unveil the angle awards for today's best performances.
First for best use of tears and dramatic pauses in a leading role we have a tie. It's between Congressman Kinzinger and Schiff.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): I never expected today to be quite as emotional for me as it has been because one you guys held. You know democracies are not defined by our bad days.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): We're so driven by bigotry and hate that we attack our fellow citizens as traitors. If they're born in another country where they don't look like us, God help us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: God save us from this third rate theatrics. Now the award for best use of an exaggeration in a supporting role, the winner is Aquilino Gonell who thinks the pen is literally mightier than the sword?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AQUILINO GONELL, CAPITOL POLICE SERGEANT: He had all these items and things that were thrown at us and attack and use to attack us. Those are weapons, no matter if it is a pen. The way that we're using these items it was to hurt officers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: The award for blatant use of partisan politics when facts fail, the angle award goes to Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRY DUNN, CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER: I'm a law enforcement officer. And I do my best to keep politics out of my job. But in this circumstance, I responded, well, I voted for Joe Biden. Does my vote not count? Am I nobody?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: He later deployed all his art to accuse Trump of being a Hitman.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DUNN: If a Hitman is hired, and he kills somebody, Hitman goes to jail. But not only does the Hitman go to jail, but the person who hired them does. There was an attack carried out on January 6th, and a Hitman sent them. I want you to get to the bottom of that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: We have Warren Hammond a moment, but it's not about politics at all. And for best performance in an action role the winner is Michael Fanone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL FANONE, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE OFFICER: Too many are now telling me that hell doesn't exist, or that hell actually wasn't that bad. The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Joining us now Congressman Jim Banks of Indiana who was blocked by Speaker Pelosi for the January 6 Committee, Congressman Officer Dunn who testified today previously defended the violent and deadly George Floyd riots in Kenosha. Isn't that part of the double standard you and your colleagues are trying to get at?
REP. JIM BANKS (R-IN): Yes, Laura, he also attacked you a year ago on Twitter. He later deleted his tweet. He is obviously has very strong partisan feelings. And you got to see that on full display today. Everything that you saw today was carefully scripted, by Speaker Pelosi and her staff.
Even the statements that these police officers read, you could tell at times, they didn't write the statements they were merely reading them, as they stumbled over some of the words that they weren't familiar with as they were reading.
This was carefully scripted even that, obviously, the members of Congress who were selected to be in the room were picked Republicans, including Liz Cheney, and Adam Kinzinger. By the way, those two do not want Republicans to win back the majority next year. They want Democrats to remain in control.
And the American people should keep that in mind, especially Republicans, in their states and in their districts knowing that these two would rather Nancy Pelosi stay in charge. And the radical Democrats advanced their socialist agenda, then Republicans winning back the majority to save our country so this was a political stunt by the Democrats. It's clear to the American people; they're not falling for it.
INGRAHAM: Yes, Tucker made the point earlier, I think it was well put that these were hand-picked officers who were going to say a certain thing, and they're phenomenal people out there and the Capitol Police, we all know that.
But they came across as political actors. That doesn't help anything. I mean, we want the police to be just the police. I mean, not picking and choosing. I thought that was the whole point of what they were saying last year, that the police had to be even handed now we have to have the police making political statements.
BANKS: It's so true. That's why last week, Laura, I called on the Chairman of this Committee, Bennie Thompson to bring the head of the Capitol Police Union. I thought Democrats were pro union. In this case, they refused to hear from the Capitol Police Union Chief who would have come before this committee and spoke on behalf of every single rank and file member of the United States Capitol Police.
The heroes who show up every day to protect me to protect my staff to protect my family when they're on Capitol Hill and he would have provided a different perspective than what these four police officers provided today.
He would have told the members of Congress and the American people if he was allowed to testify that on January 6th, they weren't prepared for what was going to happen that day, even though they had intelligence reports that were provided to the highest levels of the Capitol Police three weeks before January 6th, there's something dangerous was going to happen.
They weren't trained for what was going to happen that day. And they weren't equipped for what was going to happen that day. In fact, he said that the rioters had better equipment than the Capitol Police officers did. And they knew it.
They knew it heading into that day that they lacked the equipment that they needed would have been a whole different story if the leadership of the Capitol Police would have done their job and if those responsible with Capitol Police officer would have provided as well.
INGRAHAM: Let's get to the bottom. Democrats want to try to take Trump out off the table before 2024. They impeached him twice. Maybe this is the third bite of the apple. This is really about, this is a lot about Trump here. They didn't think it was a real attempt to stop the government from ever working again, or like fur-boy was going to, what, come up against the U.S. military and take over the government? Do they really blink believe that Congressman? Yes or no.
BANKS: They don't want to talk about what's going on in the country today, from inflation, the crimewaves to the border crisis. They don't want to talk about that. They want to talk about this.
INGRAHAM: January 6th all the way to 2022. Congressman, good to see you.
And the Democrats' screaming lack of credibility extends well beyond COVID or January 6th. They have demonstrated nothing but bad faith with their infrastructure shell game as well. There's absolutely zero reason for the Romney group to be playing footsie with the White House on infrastructure, unless they actually want Democrats to keep the majority next year.
It's one big set up, and it gives Biden the political cover of bipartisanship as he rams through a massive bailout of the very blue states that want to stay locked down and masked up forever. The Senate Republicans should do to the Democrats what the red state governors did to the CDC, just tuned them out.
Joining us now is Phil Klein, editor at "National Review." Philip, Senator Joe Manchin today revealed that the real goal of this infrastructure bill is if a bipartisan infrastructure bill falls apart, everything could fall apart. Phil, how stupid do the Republicans look, like, of course, Cassidy in Louisiana, Romney, et cetera, for being rolled on this?
PHILIP KLEIN, EDITOR, "NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE": It's ridiculous. For months, the argument that defenders of this bipartisan charade have been making to a lot of conservatives has been, well, if we get this bipartisan, this smaller bipartisan deal, than it will convinced moderates such as Manchin and Sinema to oppose the bigger deal. And you could say that there is some logic to that, right. It's better to spend $600 billion then $3.5 trillion, right?
But Manchin just gave away the game now. What he's saying is that, actually, the opposite of what Republicans have been arguing to conservatives is true, that is that the bipartisan bill is actually greasing the wheels for the larger bill, so that if they want the whole $4 trillion spending with expanding Medicare and Medicaid, childcare, Green New Deal, all of these things sandwiched in, that they need the bipartisan deal.
Manchin needs to go back to West Virginia and say he cut this bipartisan deal.
INGRAHAM: But wait, Phil, the people of West Virginia did not vote for this, they did not vote for expanding mass transit in San Francisco, right? So where is McConnell on this? Is he going to allow Portman to go in there and make some absurd deal? Where is Mitch?
KLEIN: So far he has been relatively quiet. He's said skeptical things a few times, but he hasn't really fully revealed his hand. I just don't know if the idea is that he thinks that there is some value in sort of running out the clock, so to speak. But Schumer is saying that they are going to stay through August recess to get this done. But the fact that Democrats and Biden are so desperate for this bipartisan deal, and the fact that they have allowed these talks to go on for so long, suggest that they are really desperate for this bipartisan deal.
INGRAHAM: Take it to the voters. Take it to the voters next year, Republicans, walk away, take it to the voters. Phil, you have done great writing on this, great to see you tonight.
And do you think those thousands of illegals apprehended at the border actually report for their ICE hearings? Senator Josh Hawley is here next on some stunning numbers that we just got our hands on, plus why he thinks his new brief calling on the Supreme Court to overturn Roe could actually work. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOSH HAWLEY, (R-MO): Is that your answer? Your policies are working at the border?
ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: That is a complete mischaracterization --
HAWLEY: Are your policies working at the border?
MAYORKAS: What I have said, what I have said before, and I repeat it now - -
HAWLEY: No, no, answer my question. Are your policies working at the border, Mr. Secretary, yes or no, are they working?
MAYORKAS: We have a plan, we are executing the plan, the plan takes time to execute. What makes the plan more challenging is number one, COVID.
HAWLEY: COVID was at its height a year ago, Mr. Secretary. And with all due respect, we saw none of these numbers a year ago. This crisis has occurred under your tenure. This is a crisis that you have engineered with your policies.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: That was Senator Josh Hawley making an important point to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. This is engineered by the Democrats, what they're doing at the border is purposeful. Look no further than what we learned from "Axios" tonight -- 50,000 illegal immigrants have been released into the country without a court date and told to report to an ICE office instead. Just 13 percent have showed up so far.
Senator Hawley joins me now. Senator, they won't come out and say it, but you can't convince me that this isn't what they Democrats want, a massive influx of humanity into the United States.
SEN. JOSH HAWLEY, (R-MO): Laura, it's exactly what they want. And I think one of the reasons that Secretary Mayorkas wouldn't say that their plans weren't working, he just wouldn't answer that question, is because there plan is an open border. Their plan is amnesty. And their plan is to dismantle ICE. And by the way, they're doing every single one of those things. And they're trying to call it different things. They're trying to label it in different ways. They're trying to hide it. But when you look at what's happening, you see a border that is open, you see easy effective amnesty for criminals. And then you see them taking away ICE's enforcement capability. This is their plan, and they are executing on it. And boy, is it bad for this country.
INGRAHAM: Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds today suggested that some of these aliens are partially to blame for rising COVID-19 cases, saying "Part of the problem is the southern border is open. We've got 88 countries that are coming across the border. They don't have vaccines, so none of them are vaccinated, and they're getting dispersed throughout the country." For that, Senator Hawley, Governor Reynolds was attacked by Joe Henry, state political for Latin American Citizens Group, and said that Reynolds comments amounted to "hate-mongering."
So Senator, this really isn't about the COVID, really. It's not about COVID. This is about protecting the sensitivities of illegals against apparently name-calling, what they were called for decades in the U.S. code, aliens.
HAWLEY: It's amazing to at a time when we've got the CDC today reversing they're guidance on masks and now saying that even vaccinated people have to wear masks indoors, which is insane in some way, Laura. But, at the same time, to allow a flood of illegal immigrants across the border, it's not as if we're testing people when they come across. They are allowed into the country, allowed into the interior of the country. And the Biden administration just doesn't care. On the one hand, they it's a public health crisis. On the other hand, they're doing nothing at the border to try to stem it. So this is part of their plan, Laura. The truth is they want an open border, and that's what they're getting.
INGRAHAM: So their plan is working, I think that is your point, and that was a phenomenal series of questions. But their plan is working because they want to bring in, as they already have this year, double the size of the city of Cleveland, 1 million people so far have been apprehended at the border, 1 million.
There is some good news, Senator. I've got to get to this. This is fresh polling from the NRCC see saying seven out of 10 voters in battleground districts expressed high levels of concern about rising prices and the higher cost of living. Further voters in these battleground districts trust Republicans over Democrats in Congress to deal with crime and public safety. Independents and Hispanics, Senator, also disapproving of Biden's handling of the border crisis by a staggering 23 percentage points. This is terrible news for the Democrats, and maybe there is a silver lining here at least for next year's midterm. Senator, your thoughts?
HAWLEY: It's just reality. And what you see is you see Joe Biden totally out of touch with reality. And the American people don't want an open border. The American people don't want the crimewave that he is allowing to crash all over the country. The American people don't want runaway inflation, yet he's allowing and pushing forward all of these things.
And when it comes to the border, Laura, you look at the chaos there, you look at the violence, you look at the drugs that are coming across, it's insane. And the American people don't want it. And I think they are trying to send Joe Biden a message, and he is not listening.
INGRAHAM: Senator, finally, today, you filed, I know, an amicus brief at the Supreme Court, and it states in part "This status quo is untenable. Roe and Casey should be overruled. The question of abortion legislation should be returned to the states." Senator, given some wobbly members of the Supreme Court, their very averse to rocking the boat, especially with this court commission bubbling over with potential court packing in the offing. Do you really think that this court is going to want to overturn Roe versus Wade at this point?
HAWLEY: I sure hope that they will. That's a decision that I think is a historically unjust decision, Laura, one of the worst decisions in American history -- 62 million innocent unborn babies have lost their lives since Roe. And listen, the state of Mississippi, who is the lead plaintiff in this case, petitioner, has asked the court to overturn Roe. That was the right thing to do, to ask them. And I'm proud to ask for the same, and joined by Senator Lee, Senator Cruz. We're asking the court to do the same.
So we'll see. I'm hopeful that the court will see that they committed a historic injustice when they just invented this constitutional right to an abortion all these years ago, and now it's time to put it right.
INGRAHAM: Senator, great to see you tonight, thank you.
And if you want an example of how our current military leadership is not just failing the country, but our vets as well, look no further than a current general in the Army who is disparaging a Marine on Twitter. That Marine is here next. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: A disturbing story tonight of high-level intimidation campaigns being used at the top of our military, as recounted by a retired Marine, Josiah Lippincott. He said on July 22nd, Major General Patrick Donahoe, the commanding general of Fort Benning, reported from his official Twitter account that he was seeing a surge surgeon in ICU visit among young soldiers due to COVID. He reported he would mandate the vaccine if he had the power to do so.
Then Josiah replied, pointing out that the DOD had lost a total of 26 out of over 2 million personnel to the virus. In the fourth quarter of 2020 alone, 26 additional servicemembers took their lives compared to the prior year. General Donahoe accused Josiah of engaging in false equivalency and of downplaying the vaccine. He also tweeted at the university where Josiah is now a student, at Hillsdale College, and told them "come get your boy" for questioning the military's quarantine and lockdown policies.
Joining me now is Josiah Lippincott, former Marine officer. Josiah, this is such a wild, wild story. First of all, I love Hillsdale. Second of all, is General Donahue the norm in our military leadership today?
JOSIAH LIPPINCOTT, FORMER MARINE OFFICER: Absolutely. When you hear him spouting MSNBC talking points, that shows you the quality and the level of education and thought process that goes across all of the services. Laura, we have 906 admirals and generals in our military, and it's increasingly a bloated group, and an ideologically similar group as well.
INGRAHAM: Americans have a romanticized vision of the leadership of our military, I think, because of film and movies, and we're all still in World War II. And a lot of them have done amazing stuff. But here are some other reasonable restrictions General Donahoe enacted at Fort Benning last July. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. GEN. PATRICK DONAHOE, U.S. ARMY: We're going to require anyone coming on the installation that they don't eat in enclosed sit-in restaurants downtown. If folks want to go to the gym downtown, they can't go do in indoor gym facility.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Josiah, why won't leaders like Donahoe address the psychological torment that all of this inflicted on their troops with these restrictions.
LIPPINCOTT: Laura, I want to make really clear -- these guys are woke losers who love cancel culture, and they can't see reality. These guys spent 20 years in Afghanistan, spent $2.4 trillion of American taxpayer money, we lost 2,300 servicemembers, and we left Bagram Air Force base in the middle of the night. Americans should be angry, they should be demanding answers. So instead of this January 6th commission, I suggest we have a commission on the wars in the Middle East. Bring these guys before Congress and make them testify as to what they were doing. This disconnect from reality has been there for a long time, and it needs to be held to account.
INGRAHAM: Why couldn't they beat the tallow band?
LIPPINCOTT: Laura, basically it comes down to this -- our military was designed to win against a conventional peer force. The problem is all of those peers have nuclear weapons. Our military is not designed to fight a nuclear war. That's not how that works.
INGRAHAM: Josiah, we're going to bring you back tomorrow night to continue this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What am I doing here? I'm going to lose track here.
We used to be, when I first got here as a U.S. senator actually three-and- a-half decades ago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: We did a little fact checking there. It was actually about five decades ago when you got to D.C. You served as a senator for three-and-a- half decades. But that's not the only biographical note he got wrong.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: One of the things I miss most during the four years between my time serving as vice president and being a professor at the college, the PDB. You think I'm joking. I am not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: I can't believe we actually have to fact check go Biden on his own resume twice in one day. Joe, you were not a professor after being vice president. You were paid nearly $1 million, though, by U Penn to be what they called a presidential practice professor. He didn't even teach classes. Oh, well, just minor details.
That's all the time we have tonight. Greg Gutfeld takes it all from here.
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