Ingraham Angle investigates veteran homelessness outside LA's VA campus
Fox News' Raymond Arroyo investigates neglected Los Angeles veterans as the U.S. welcomes refugees
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," September 2, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
RAYMOND ARROYO: Thank you. I'm Raymond Arroyo in for Laura Ingraham tonight. This is the "Ingraham Angle" from New York City.
Forgive this. Tonight, as we bring you Afghan refugees by the thousands, a similar number of American veterans are languishing in our streets. An exclusive report from LA will break your heart. Also, as media and political heads explode over the Texas heartbeat bill withstanding a Supreme Court challenge, Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick is here to give us his reaction to the uproar.
And while the Biden administration plays patty-cake with the Taliban, Lara Logan will tell us exactly who they are legitimising. But first, you probably have to go back to [ph] punches pilot to find a public official more committed to absolving himself of culpability for his actions, while throwing out shiny objects to distract people.
President Biden and his administration are laboring to offshore responsibility for the loss of life in Afghanistan, and the abandonment of Americans there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS HOST: So Americans should understand the troops might have to be there beyond August 31.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: And if you're American force, if there's American citizens left, we're going to stay till we get them all out.
The bottom line, 90 percent of Americans in Afghanistan who wanted to leave were able to leave.
JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: I mean, we have Americans that get stranded in countries all the time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: Meanwhile, the Biden Defense Department is focused on critical race theory. And the Deputy Defense Secretary in an op-ed is turning her attention not to bringing Americans home, but to addressing racial disparities in the military justice system.
Congress is holding hearings on terrorism this week. Oh, not about the people who killed our servicemen in Afghanistan. Forget about them. There are bigger threats among us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS): It was an international terrorist threat. If we talk to our intelligence bureau agencies now, they are telling us that their threat landscape is now a more of a domestic nature.
DANIEL BYMAN, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR: Today, in the United States, the right wing and white supremacist's violence is a much greater risk.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: These are partisans utterly detached from reality. They're doing everything they can to avoid responsibility for the real carnage in our midst, and avoid Americans questions about their culpability.
The other night, Laura spoke with Paula Knauss. She's the mother of the military hero slain in Afghanistan last week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAULA KNAUSS, MOTHER OF STAFF SGT RYAN KNAUSS: If Mr. Biden would like to tell me how I can sleep better at night right now, or any American can while he is serving in administration. Please give me a call.
We are in Congress, we are in our nation's capitol. Who will stand up and say, I messed up? I am responsible. Who will do that?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: Not Biden, nor his party. They don't give a damn. They're content to compound that woman's pain with their silence and pretend they're not responsible. And now, we're even trying to strike all memory of these men, these slain men and women from the public record.
On Tuesday, a group of Republican vets tried to read the names of our 13 American heroes into the Congressional Record. Congresswoman Debbie Dingell and the Democrat leadership gaveled the House out of session and shut down their request.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. DEBBIE DINGELL (D-MI): The House stands adjourned until noon on Friday, September 3, 2021.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: The People's House, the only conversation someone have about Afghanistan is about importing half the country here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's hope that our commitment to refugees who helped our country has not been forgotten.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: America has always been the country that opens our heart.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every Afghan who is interested in doing so should be given asylum inside the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: Do you know what did this cost the American taxpayer? The look over caucus doesn't want you thinking about that. Now, politicians and the media have found a new shiny object to draw your attention when floods swept away homes in Tennessee last week, it barely registered in the media.
This week when Ida wiped out thousands of homes and shut down power for millions of people, including in my city of New Orleans, the national media shrugged. But when Ida's remnants hit New York and New Jersey last night, it suddenly harm again [ph] Noah on Broadway.
After trying all night to avoid the Afghanistan disaster, CNN found a story in light and Brian Stelter became a storm chaser.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just crazy in from New York City so unprecedented.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST: I think the volume, the velocity as you were talking about the amount of rainwater coming down in the span of an hour or two overwhelms the infrastructure.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Where I live, the rain was just torrential. When I left my house this morning, a while ago now, I mean, there was a giant tree on the street. This is a site you don't think you're going to see which is a tree down blocking the road.
JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It is being overwhelmed by the climate crisis. And there needs to be massive investment to mitigate this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: Well, at least they're covering American suffering. And our hearts are with all our friends, not only here in the east, but deep south back home, suffering from Ida. And you can always count on the look over here caucus not to let tragedy go to waste.
The people responsible for Afghanistan, the COVID shutdowns, and inflation, go right to the playbook. Note, the coordinated language.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Woe is us, if we don't recognize these changes are due to climate change. Woe is us, if we don't do something about it quickly, both in building resilient infrastructure and going to clean power.
GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): A lot of it will be put into resilient infrastructure. Any amount of investment we can make in the years ahead in resilient infrastructure will be investment that will help us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: Yes. Stick to the message. Give us more money. Of the $2 trillion infrastructure bill, only 6 percent, 6 percent, $115 billion goes to actual roads and bridges. And the idea that flash floods on the East Coast are new is a lie. It has happened repeatedly.
A 2005 study found that from 1960 to 1990, there were as many disaster declarations for hurricanes as there were for inland flooding from former hurricanes. It's happened many times in New York and New Jersey. They need to change the narrative and get you to focus on anything but their border crisis, their Afghanistan disaster and their runaway spending.
The reason is this, Biden is sinking in the polls. A new poll found that president's approval rating is down to 43 percent. Among independents, Biden is down 36 percent. Now, this is what happens when a president looks like he's sleeping through meeting with the Israelis, when a president refuses to answer questions at [ph] pressors, and when a president ends a 20-year war with a disastrous retreat.
No matter how hard these partisans would like America to look over here, they're looking right there or there. And it's an image they'll be taking with them into the voting booth. Come midterms.
Joining me now, former congressman House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz; and Victor Davis Hanson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institute. Jason, Biden hopped on this climate bandwagon today to politicize hurricane Ida. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: These extreme storms in the climate crisis are here. We need to do - we must better prepare. I'm going to press further action on my build back better plan that's going to make historic investments in electrical infrastructure, modernizing our roads, bridges, our water systems, make them more resilient to these super storm.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: Resilience seems to be the new buzzword. Jason, why are all the places controlled by Democrats now, non resilient?
JASON CHAFFETZ, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: No, I love the way you frame this, Raymond. Because you use their own words, you show it time and time again. And it is crystal clear. They try to distract. And they try to re-create this narrative that just so happens to be conducive to the bill that they have in the trillions of dollars they want to give them more control over your life and how you act and what you can do and what you cannot do.
And look, how clairvoyant they were in order to predict all of these sudden things as if there were - suddenly wasn't going to be a storm. And you're right. They forget about Middle America, FlyOver America, they forget about the people in Tennessee and Louisiana. They only care when it happens to the right in downtown New York City and then they come up with a live shot and throw a guy out there for - it's just sickening.
But the American people see through this. They get this. It's - they understand it. That's the resilience of the American people they underestimate.
ARROYO: Victor, I want your take on Afghanistan, and the way they're trying to wash this away, turn the page, really? I mean, now, weather is the headline.
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, SENIOR FELLOW, HOOVER INSTITUTE: Yes. I don't think it's going to end. I wish it would. But I think that we're going to see in the next six weeks, eight weeks, 10 weeks, a lot of Bergen dolls situations where we have Americans, they're going to start appearing. And they're going to have to be some under the table, ransom paid or some way to get them out.
We're going to see retributions about - against our allies, all the promises we made are going to be exposed as fraudulent. And it's going to be a terrorist haven. We've given so much military equipment away. It's really the greatest transfer of weaponry in the history of the United States, and to a hostile power. So this is not the end. I think it's the beginning. And it's going to be bad news all the way around.
We don't ask enough of our general, Raymond. We - they are diplomats, they are lawyers, they are PR experts, they are now experts on race. They're experts on everything on except winning the war, whether it's Mogadishu or Benghazi, or Afghanistan. I don't know what the training is now, but social science, cultural science, gender, race, everything but history. The great generals, sunsuit, the acidities, the old war college curriculum that we used to see at the - and at the Naval Academy at West Point.
We're not emphasizing winning, and that's the primary mission of the generals. And we give them medals. And they have lucrative careers when they leave all out of office. But there's no punishments for failure. There's no resignations or firing.
ARROYO: Kirby is still trying to convince us that the Americans left behind in Afghanistan aren't really abandoned. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How can the Department of Defense go before the American people, those military service members and those veterans and say that the mission was accomplished when people were left behind?
KIRBY: We've been very clear that we don't believe the effort has concluded. The U.S. government is going to continue to look for ways to try to help them find safe passage out of the country. I don't foresee a military role in that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: Jason, who is going to find safe passage for Americans? The campfire girls, the Taliban, who?
CHAFFETZ: Do you want a highly trained SEAL team, or maybe some Marines, who actually know how to fire weapons? You know, they totally dismiss this whole Reagan adage of peace through strength. You can get in there and achieve a lot more peace when you got some badass guns with some badass people who know how to fire those guns and speak the language of the Taliban in their own language. That's what gets things done.
You can't just go in there with a social worker and say, hey, guess what, folks? I think it's in everybody's best interest that we just allow these people that we didn't let get out before. Let's just let them move along. That's not the Taliban. That is just a farce. And if you're on that end of the - in that part of Afghanistan, can you imagine you watch that military plane leave, the President of the United States to lie to you and told you that you are going to come get you and then they didn't.
ARROYO: Shameful. Victor, the Afghanistan debacle exposed the utter incompetence of the upper echelons of the military. But you say this rot in our military elite, it's just the tip of the iceberg, that it reflects something wrong with the country. So Victor, what's wrong with our generals and the country?
HANSON: I think we have a adopted therapeutic idea that when we act as if we're magnanimous to somebody like the Taliban that they're going to reciprocate with gratitude. In fact, everything we know about the Taliban, people like the Taliban and enemies in North Korea or throughout the world that are anti-constitutional, or they're anti-liberal or they're anti-human rights or anti-enlightenment. They look at our magnanimity with contempt and assign as weakness to be exploited rather than to be - to be reciprocated with kindness.
And so we keep talking about, we're working with the Taliban. And they have the same agenda that we do to get out quickly. They don't. They want to humiliate us and kill us and defeat us as we leave. And they did that tragically with 13 deaths. But I wish the Sermon on the mountain govern military affairs, but the people that we're dealing with, don't believe in the Sermon on the Mount.
And I don't know where this therapeutic culture caught all, it started where I work in the university. But it's not the tragic view of the world that George Marshall and George Patton and Admiral Nimitz once held. They were different breed than the current military establishment.
ARROYO: Victor, I thank you for being here. With this voice, I'm going to step aside and Jason is going to take over for the evening. So Jason, thank you. And I'll be back next week.
CHAFFETZ: Thanks, Raymond. And get better. Hope you feel better. I do appreciate it.
ARROYO: I feel fine. It's just the voice.
CHAFFETZ: Yes. You look fine. It just - you have the voice. I get it. We've all been there. We've all been there. See you around.
All right. Is Biden on track to legitimize the Taliban? Lara Logan is here on the Taliban (inaudible) and what he could mean to our security. Plus, what's the price tag of playing - paying for all those refugees for the rest of their lives? Kash Patel breaks down what taxpayers could be on the hook for. Stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHAFFETZ: All right. Now, that was actually a really good show. And I'm old enough to remember that show. So are you ready to meet our new best friends in America? Because they're - they enjoy growing beards, selling opium, enforcing Sharia law, and they recently acquired their own Airforce, courtesy of you, the American people. That's right. It's the Taliban. Here's team Biden in their own words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is the Taliban? Are they now our frenemy?
Well, it's hard to put a label on it. In part because we have yet to see what they are going to be now that they are in control.
GENERAL MARK MILLEY, CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: In war, you do what you must in order to reduce risk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any possibility of coordination against ISIS-K with them?
MILLEY: It's possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHAFFETZ: Aye, aye, aye. So just who is this group the administration seems so intent on legitimizing? Well, the leader of the Taliban is a blood- thirsty radical named Hibatullah Akhundzada. I sure I didn't pronounce his name right. But we'll all be learning it, because he's going to be given the title Commander of the Faithful, and will be the political and religious head of the country like a mini Iran, of the faithful. The faith that we're going to be the ones that just actually listen to him or get shot doing something else.
Simply put, this man, he's a psychopath. And he values Jihad over his own children. In fact, back in 2017, he gave his blessing for his youngest son to become a suicide bomber in the Helmand Province. This is who we're dealing with. This is who the Biden-Harris administration is going to work to legitimize.
And very soon the Biden-Harris administration can be sending that lunatic your hard earned money. They already have it. But you're going to be sending more. Here now is Lara Logan, host of the "Lara Logan Has No Agenda". Check out the new season, Sacrificing Afghanistan. This is going to be a great series. You're going to want to see this. It's now on foxnation.com.
Lara, you understand Afghanistan. You've covered it for years. How big of a mistake is it to take the - and grant these folks even one iota of legitimacy?
LARA LOGAN, "LARA LOGAN HAS NO AGENDA" HOST: You know, it's almost like a surreal experience, because it's that catastrophic. We are committing national suicide on the world stage, right in front of everybody's eyes. And the most incredible part is that Osama Bin Laden predicted all of this.
In 1993, he said that the U.S. was weak in its will to fight, that it would lose the commitment and its political - its politicians would be the ones that led us down the road to defeat. And by politicians he included in that, the generals who are politically appointed and trained once they get to a certain level.
And why do I say that, Jason? Because what you're actually looking at, the Islamic Emirate of the Taliban, which is the government that they're about to declare, I spoke to one Afghan leader today who said, make no mistake, what's being reported in the news is wrong, right. Because he's not in the Taliban. He said, there are no talks. They are declaring their government and it does not include anybody else but them.
And this Emirate is the basis. This is the foundation of the caliphate that Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda flew those planes into the World Trade Center for, right. This was the whole purpose. We are handing to Al Qaeda and the Taliban and all the other Islamic terrorists who share Al Qaeda's ideology, the greatest victory that they have ever known.
And they are celebrating it from Beirut to Jerusalem to Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines to these Islamic states in Nigeria, in West Africa. I mean, this is the greatest defeat of the world superpower that anyone has ever seen. Because what they achieved - this is what is different, Jason, this is what is different. When we lost battles and wars before it was with dignity and it was with honor, but in this war, it is with shame and it is drenched in the blood of betrayal. And we are isolated on the world stage and we are weak because of it. And the only people who benefit are America's enemies.
CHAFFETZ: Well, I do believe we could have left and we could have left with honor. We did not have to do this. We did not have to leave people behind enemy lines. As we wrap up here, I want to play part of a video that you received from a source in which you say is house to house executions in Kabul following the U.S. departure. Have a look.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
CHAFFETZ: I can't even imagine the horror that's going on there. We have just a few seconds. How does a woman in Afghanistan survive?
LOGAN: This is what you need to know, Jason? They won't. The women will not survive. This is a death sentence. We've turned the entire country into a prison for every Afghan woman, right? There's no other option.
And what I can tell you is that right now, all - across Afghanistan, there is a president and a resistance force, and they are fighting for freedom. And there are some seven to 10 to 20,000 Taliban, that over the last few hours when they've been fighting are making their way to the valley. They are armed with America's advanced weapon technology. They have a night vision and the capability they never had before. And they are going to slaughter every man, woman and child.
If this president doesn't use the over the horizon capability, remember, he said the U.S. preserved that, that over the horizon capability. If the U.S. and Europe and NATO and the American people and anyone who believes in freedom doesn't act, all of these people who are standing and fighting, who did not surrender, and who are fighting for their country, all of them will be slaughtered. And their deaths are the death of the American ideal. The ideal of freedom is being destroyed right now.
CHAFFETZ: Yes. I think it's playing out in real-time. Lara Logan, thank you so much. We appreciate you joining us on this great, beautiful Thursday night.
LOGAN: Thank you, Jason.
CHAFFETZ: All right. Do you all remember Julia? She was the fictional character created to sell the public on Obamacare and glorify a cradle to grave welfare state. Well, at every stage of Julia's life, we saw which federal programs allowed her to subsist off of your money.
Well, tonight, we're going to go turn to Julia and turn her into an Afghan refugee. Now, when Julia first arrives in the United States after being rescued, she applies for food stamps, housing assistance, refugee cash assistance. That's more than $7800 just for the first year. And if Julia gets sick, she can go on to Medicaid. That's going to be probably about $5700 right there.
And then of course, she attends public schools nationally, that cost about $13,000 per year. And so far, she's cost you, the taxpayers, about $26,500 per person. And that's just the first year.
Now, joining me is Kash Patel. And if you don't know Kash, you need to, because when I was serving in the Congress, and you wanted to know really in depth policy stuff, you go talk to Kash Patel. He is a former defense department Chief of Staff under President Trump. Sir, it's an honor to have you on.
And look, when you extrapolate the costs out here, you're talking about some real money. And there are undoubtedly some people who deserve it. No doubt, they put their lives on line for the United States of America. But when you look at what's happening on our southern border, and then you also look at what's going on in Afghanistan, and a lot of these people have not been vetted along the way.
KASH PATEL, FORMER PENTAGON CHIEF OF STAFF: Oh, great. It's great to be with you, Jason. And thank you for those kind words. And look, the average cost of a refugee in America, just to put it in context, as you did, is anywhere from $25,000 to $50,000 a year, depending on the housing situation and a couple other variable factors.
But the problem with the refugee crisis is one that could have been avoided, if we actually had a plan for withdrawal under Joe Biden. We saw this play out in 2012 under the Biden-Obama administration in Iraq, when we had an influx of refugees after the Iraq surge. And what happened then was, we spent the next year after that chasing down members of ISIS in America because there was a poor vetting procedure in place, or a total lack thereof.
If you fast forward to Afghanistan and you multiply that by a factor of 10, we are letting in tens of thousands of people that haven't been properly vetted, putting aside the money cost for one thing, just the national security interest of America. And that's because Joe Biden didn't have a plan to implement the vetting procedures that are in place that you're very familiar with, to run the analysis needed for a one-by-one basis. And we have no idea who's in America. But like you said, some of these folks deserve to be here, should be here. But some of them don't.
CHAFFETZ: I know, and it could be so disastrous, because a lot of these people, with all due respect, they can't spell their name, they can't -- they're illiterate. They don't even know their birthdate. In 10 second, why are we not actually out there destroying the equipment and the physical -- like the helicopters and guns that we left? Why are we not taking those out? Instead, we just like handed it over to the Taliban.
PATEL: It's simple. Under President Trump, that was part of the conditions- based withdrawal. Anything we couldn't remove we were going to blow up in country. President Biden had no plan. He had a reactionary evacuation that failed the American people and has left a disastrous amount of equipment in the hands of our enemies that's going to hurt us for years to come.
CHAFFETZ: We spent billions of dollars of American taxpayer dollars, and you have an administration that wants to take law-abiding people, suspicion-less Americans, it doesn't want them to have a gun, but they're willing to give billions of dollars of guns, ammo, tanks, helicopters to the Taliban, for goodness' sake. Kash, I cannot thank you enough for your service to our country. You've done yeoman's work and I appreciate you joining us tonight on THE INGRAHAM ANGLE.
PATEL: Thanks so much, Jason, appreciate it.
CHAFFETZ: All right, the left loves to claim we have a moral obligation to refugees, but what about our veterans? Next, Raymond's report from Los Angeles on veterans literally on the street, locked out of land intended for them. You don't want to miss this, because we're not treating our veterans as well as we're treating refugees. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHAFFETZ: The thousands of Afghan refugees being imported to American cities have access to top tier care, meals, and education. But the government is ignoring up to 40,000 homeless veterans languishing on the streets of American cities. So Raymond Arroyo went out to Los Angeles, and what he saw is pretty shocking, and I think you'll feel the same. Have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
RAYMOND ARROYO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: At the mouth of Brentwood sits a unique homeless encampment. Tents are emblazoned with American flags. It is a camp made up entirely of veterans. They run it like a military outpost, complete with chores and drop-off locations. But these vets are here fighting a new battle. Welcome to Veteran's Row.
In 1887, this 388 acres behind me were donated to the federal government to house disabled veterans. It's in the heart of Brentwood. During the Korean War, 4,000 vets called this place home, but since then it's hosted a parrot park, a UCLA baseball diamond, even a dog park. Today the veterans can't get in. They're out here on the street.
ROBERT REYNOLDS, IRAQ WAR VETERAN: It's unacceptable. If you're able to cut through the red tape and bring in refugees and house them at military bases or anything else, why can't you cut through the red tape and get the veterans off the street and get them housed?
ARROYO: Robert Reynolds is an Iraqi war vet who came here in 2018 for PTSD treatment. But the V.A. wouldn't let him in with his service animal.
REYNOLDS: It was like, I'm not going to get rid of the dog. So I ended up out here on the sidewalk. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I was like, why in the hell are all these veterans camped outside the V.A.? and since I have been involved with this, I have known six veterans that have passed away. And they're passing away on the street and they're dying in tents, and it's absolutely unacceptable what's happening.
ARROYO: Scotti (ph) served in Vietnam and has been out here for two years. He was recently hit by a drunk driver while sleeping in his van.
What do you think when you sit here outside these gates for property intended for veterans, and you can't get to the other side of those gates?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to bring out a flame thrower. That's how I feel. I'll tell you what, that's our land. It was given to us. And it says right on the front gate on a big plaque, dedicated or for disabled and homeless veterans. Not a Veterans Administration and their nasty police force. Get those people off of our land.
REYNOLDS: It's completely unacceptable. And you just think, this property is 388 acres. Put into comparison, Disneyland is 100 acres. So it's nearly four Disneylands of property that you can easily house everybody.
ARROYO: House thousands.
REYNOLDS: Thousands.
ARROYO: Much more than 4,000.
The vets sued over this land, and in 2016 they won. They were promised 1,600 units of veteran housing. So far they have exactly 54 units behind the gates at the Los Angeles National Veterans Park.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just looking for an apartment out here. I don't really even want to go in there.
REYNOLDS: This is the 33rd congressional direct. This is Congressman Ted Lieu's district. In the last two years, Congressman Ted Lieu does not answer anybody that requests help or services from this location. We have the Veteran Service Organization always reaching out to his office. Ted Lieu's office just kind of pushes this away.
ARROYO: This week and last week the Biden administration is bringing 60,000 Afghans to the United States, putting them in hotels, sending them to housing, military bases set aside to house them. Your thoughts as a veteran when you hear that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think you should take care of your own first before you open your doors and your gates to anybody else. But they need to focus on us, us that have been there. We have given our lives.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They fought for the country, and this is just unacceptable that they're living in these conditions.
ARROYO: Franklin (ph) is a Vietnam war vet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: America got the heart, and they got the money. They can do that. But take care of us first, because you never know. We might just have to defend the coast tomorrow.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
CHAFFETZ: Heart wrenching story. Raymond Arroyo, well done. We all need to see that.
FOX reached out to the Veterans Administration in Los Angeles for answers, and they told FOX "Staff has been in regular contact with the 45 veterans who live along San Vicente Boulevard. We have food services, supplies, and hygiene resources for our veterans." A weak attempt. It's just pathetic.
Joining me now is Eli Crane, a former Navy Seal and Republican Arizona congressional candidate. Eli, first of all, thank you for your service to our nation. We truly do appreciate that. When you see veterans who have put their lives on the line for their country now living on the sidewalk, as we see there in Los Angeles, it's just infuriating. What runs through your mind?
ELI CRANE, (R) ARIZONA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: It's pretty infuriating to see, Jason, and it really makes I think many of us hope and wonder why we can't get our priorities straight in this country, why we can't take care of Americans first, especially those of us that have actually fought and were willing to die for this country.
CHAFFETZ: There seems to be no excuse. You've got land that is four times the size of Disneyland, and yet we kick these people out onto the streets? And I also, I worry about the mental -- the physical is very difficult. But I also read that there were some 35,000 calls in to the hotline, people worried about suicides and whatnot after the debacle in Afghanistan. Do you have friends that have served that are just -- can't seem to get their bearings and not get the help that they should be getting?
CRANE: Yes, it is. It's actually pretty tough to come back to a country that struggles with patriotism. And when you see so much anti-patriotic rhetoric coming out of the media and Hollywood and everywhere else, and these men and women were willing to fight and die for it, that is really hard to deal with.
Not to mention the fact that if you think about it, a lot of the manufacturing jobs that veterans used to come home from wars to attend to and to build a family around have been shipped overseas to China. So that on top of it makes it really hard for a lot of our veterans to get by and to feel like they're welcome and taken care of in this society.
CHAFFETZ: So when you see President Biden and Kamala Harris, the vice president, rolling out the red carpet on our southern border, just essentially an open border, and rolling out the red carpet for refugees flagged as security risks, is there any way to justify the balance on how they're treating veterans versus the refugees?
CRANE: No, there really isn't. And it's actually really scary for those of us that understand security. And we're fighting overseas, and we understand the type of evil that we're dealing with. And we as Americans tend to think of warfare in the terms of presidential elections and two and five and 10 ten year cycles when our enemy thinks in decades and centuries.
And that's something that is extremely problematic. Jason, people used to ask me all the time, hey Eli, are you glad that you're oversees? Do you think that we need to be over there? And one thing that I would always remind them of whether or not they thought we should be there politically, I would remind them that we hadn't seen a major attack on U.S. soil since we started fighting and taking the fight to the enemy over there.
And when I see the situation on the border, and I see what is going on with folks coming over from Afghanistan by the tens of thousands, a lot of us veterans and those of us that have dedicated our lives to security are very concerned with the security risks that this presents.
CHAFFETZ: Eli Crane, thank you for your service to our country, and thanks to all the men and women just like you who got up, they served their nation, they deserve better than they are being shown right now. So thank you again.
All right, the left has blown a gasket over the Supreme Court's decision not to block Texas' new abortion law. Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick fires back when we return. Stay there. You're going to want to hear what he has to say.
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CHAFFETZ: The Supreme Court is allowing Texas' heartbeat bill the stay in force. It gives citizens the right to sue abortion providers if the child is six weeks old. But the court also stressed that other legal challenges can still be brought against the Texas statute, a totally reasonable decision. But the chattering class went into full meltdown.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People think it's hyperbolic when I tweet about "The Handmaid's Tale" coming to America. But I don't think it seems hyperbolic now. Does it to you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A very restrictive law and a dangerous moment for women in Texas.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The dark dystopian undertones of this cannot just be overstated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First they came for the immigrants. Then they came for the people of color. And now they have come for women.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHAFFETZ: Despite those worthy performances, the real star of the day was CNN's Jeffery Toobin. And who better to talk about bodies than Jeffrey Toobin. The serial philanderer was for some reason given a platform all day to weigh-in. Have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: They have done it in a way that I think calls in to question the legitimacy of the court as an institution.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHAFFETZ: Remember, the flasher slept with a colleague's daughter, tried to force her to get an abortion, which she refused, and then was forced by a judge to pay child support.
Joining me now is Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. Dan, thank you so much for joining us. Critics say it's open season on women in Texas. I tend to disagree. What is your take on things?
DAN PATRICK, (R) TEXAS LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR: First of all, what do those critics say, Jason, when they abort little girls with a heartbeat in the womb? I would say that's the ultimate attack on women.
The Supreme Court said in Roe v. Wade, and people never talk about this, that the state has a legitimate interest in protecting the potentiality of life. And that's what Senate Bill Eight does. When we passed this bill, we want to give that little Texan in the womb who has a heartbeat a chance to see their full potential.
And so everyone who is speaking against this bill obviously, for whatever their reason, very comfortable with taking the life of a little Texan who has a heartbeat. And in our bill, which has everyone apoplectic on the left, simply says that any doctor who performs an abortion once that doctor detects a heartbeat, can be sued by any citizen in Texas for up to $10,000. And anecdotally, Jason, what we hear now are Planned Parenthood abortion centers around the state have stopped doing abortions on little Texans with a heartbeat. That's the purpose of Senate Bill Eight.
CHAFFETZ: Texas taking the lead again. Hats off to them. Let's listen to the reaction here of the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and her reaction to this Supreme Court ruling. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY PELOSI, (D-CA) HOUSE SPEAKER: When we go back to Washington, we will be putting Roe v. Wade codification on the floor of the House to make sure that woman everywhere have access to the reproductive health that they need.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHAFFETZ: Yes, I hope she continues to do this. I'd like to have a national discussion.
PATRICK: You know, Jason, there's been a discussion, when does life begin. I believe it starts at conception, as many people do. But few can argue, even on the left, that that's not a baby. A little Texan alive in the womb when that heartbeat is detected. And so Senate Bill Eight has stopped the abortionists in their tracks because the doctors are afraid of being sued, because any citizen can bring a lawsuit against that doctor who performs an abortion. I'm proud that we passed it. When we passed the sonogram bill 10 years ago we dropped abortions in Texas from 80,000 to 55,000 a year, and this is going to greatly reduce abortions again, which mean little Texans are going to live to see their full potential.
CHAFFETZ: Look, Lieutenant Governor Patrick, thank you so much. The issue of abortion should mean that no one calls Joe Biden a practicing Catholic. There are a lot of people that feel like that. It has a heartbeat, for goodness' sake.
Stay with us. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHAFFETZ: President Biden understands hymnals about as good as politics. Have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My favorite hymn in the Catholic Church based on a psalm, and it says may he lift you up on wings and bear you on the breath of dawn and let the light shing upon you, et cetera, and hold you in the palm of his hand. And they played, and my mind is going blank now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
CHAFFETZ: I love that.
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