The Angle: Diversity, Equity & Exclusion
Liberals will use every bit of power to force you to live in a country dominated by diversity police.
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle" October 12, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
INGRAHAM: I'm Laura Ingraham. This is THE INGRAHAM ANGLE from Washington tonight.
On June 22, Loudoun County, Virginia, father, Scott Smith was arrested after an outburst at a local school board meeting. You probably saw the video. Well, that meeting was deemed an unlawful assembly after many attendees spoke out forcefully about policies surrounding transgender students.
Well, it became national news. And Smith himself became kind of a poster child for a new form of what they were calling, domestic terror. No one saw to uncover the source though of his anger. That until the Daily Wire Luke Rosiak wrote there, and he did some diggings. Smith claims now that, weeks prior to that, a boy allegedly wearing a skirt entered a girl's bathroom and sexually assaulted his ninth grade daughter. Scott Smith is here exclusively tonight with more.
But first, diversity, equity and exclusion. That's the focus of tonight's 'Angle'.
Now, every once in a while on on-air exchange slipped through the cracks on one of the other cable networks that's worth watching. Such was the case this morning on CNN of all places where they booked a point counterpoint on critical race theory.
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ASRA NOMANI, VA PARENT AGAINST TEACHING CRT IN SCHOOLS: Schools should absolutely be teaching reading, writing, arithmetic. They should not be radicalizing our kids. And unfortunately, schools are now radicalizing our kids.
I mean, this is the volume of the book from 'Critical Race Theory' that as these people say teach in law schools. But unfortunately, it is now trickling down into little books for children, like 'Woke Baby', 'Gender Queer'. In it, there is unfortunately very graphic symbol of pedophilia and pornography.
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INGRAHAM: Asra Nomani, who has been a guest frequently on the 'Angle' over the years came armed with tabbed copies of the books used in the schools with specific page citations, and a very calm, thorough, irrefutable presentation that left the host kind of grasping.
Enter the defender of critical race theory in this discussion, a guy who was billed as simply a concerned parent, but who actually works the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion racket in Austin, Texas. Telling companies and individuals to check their white privilege and re-examine their obsession with merit-based hiring. Turns out that's a lucrative business. But money can't buy you logic.
Instead of refuting Ms. Nomani's evidence, proving the poisonous effects of CRT curricula, he merely pulled a Terry McAuliffe, saying parents should generally stop butting in, leave education to the experts. Presumably, experts like him.
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KAZIQUE PRINCE, DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION CONSULTANT: Of too many people who know little or nothing about education, trying to tell professionals who are in this industry who've been working hard. We're coming in as weakened warriors, trying to tell them about what education should look like. You need to put a little bit more trust in our educators, because they actually spent the time and energy necessary to really understand some of the nuances that are being kind of just blown over here in this conversation.
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INGRAHAM: Now, what does that even mean? You may wonder. Well, it means it's not yours to question. These topics are simply too complex for the little people to understand. Yet, what's there to understand about reading assigned to our children that associates white people with the devil.
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NOMANI: It literally says here, whiteness is a bad deal, and it has a symbol of Satan. And this is the contract that they say whiteness brings, and children are getting this book. And I fit into the intersectional world. I'm a Muslim, I'm an immigrant, I'm a mom of color. I am a single mom. But yet I deny all of these privileges in the new paradigm of the oppression matrix, because we're all human beings.
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INGRAHAM: That Ms. Nomani is highly educated and a minority herself, doesn't matter. For the DEI cabal, all that matters is marketing guilt and shame to schools, corporations, entertainers, and sports figures. And of course, the churches are in on the act. Each comes under enormous pressure to comply.
They prove their DEI bona fide ease by linking to goofy DEI posters like this one, or by hiring people not on merit, but according to the latest woke rules. And of course, by shunning anyone who refuses to mount their platitudes, or who questions their goals.
DEI propaganda, like CCP propaganda, must never be questioned by the unenlightened masses.
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PRINCE: The language that I'm hearing used here doesn't really speak to the level of sophistication that I think is necessary to help our young people prepared for the world of work, for the society that they're going to be living in. As someone who worked in universities, we had too many students who were coming to the university, who had little or no experience of knowing how to navigate the conversations and relationships that were related to race.
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INGRAHAM: What gibberish! Don't you feel better about paying that fat college tuition now? But you may not know it, that schools and businesses are desperate to check the diversity equity inclusion box that they'll either hire a full time DEI coordinator, or they'll feel like they have to hire random DEI consultants they find on the web.
Meet Ritu Bhasin, founder of Boston Consulting Inc. Her firm is described as a world-renowned full service DEI consulting firm, dedicated to driving organizational change.
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RITU BHASIN, INCLUSION SPECIALIST: When I say whiteness, I'm talking about the embodiment of white American, white Anglo, white Eurocentric ways of behaving, puts you in a place where you are better, more deserving, more competent and more over people who embody behaviors that connect back to communities of color, and indigenous communities. And how - the connection between racism and white supremacy is that racism is a manifestation of white supremacy.
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INGRAHAM: What a terrible way to make a living! No real knowledge of history, zero appreciation of the great blessings of liberty and opportunity that America provides. Only resentment politics and a lot of hand movements.
And yes, the point of this is to turn neighbor against neighbor, student against student, citizen against country.
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ROBIN DIANGELO, AUTHOR, NICE RACISM: White populace has always been susceptible to manipulation around racial animus.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is really about white people, and particularly white children now being exposed to ideas that I think previously were segregated frankly.
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INGRAHAM: If your children's school teaches this nonsense, demand that your son or daughter be permitted to opt out in favor of, I don't know those unaccomplished writers like, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, other great American writers.
But remember, the goals are always shifting for the DEI crowd. 20 years ago, it was tolerance for different points of view. But that wasn't getting the far left anywhere. So then they shifted to demanding diversity. But that too they found to be limiting. So they moved on again.
Lecturer Paloma Medina gave a tutorial to a packed auditorium on how to establish true racial and gender equity in your workplace.
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PALOMA MEDINA, EQUITY CONSULTANT: We need to verbalize the right goal. The goal isn't diversity, the goal is equity. Instead of saying that you're going to form a diversity committee, hire outside experts to help you audit for and then achieve equity and salary and promotions. You can do it in two years. You can.
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INGRAHAM: Look at those clapping seals in the audience. They don't even realize that the speaker is shilling for her own industry. And her solutions would mean forcing a lot of them in the audience out of jobs and hiring others purely on racial or gender lines.
Now, the temptation is to laugh at this cottage industry for the perpetually aggrieved. Oh Yes. But to do that is just a mistake. Real racism is repugnant. And everyone but the lowest of the low know it.
But what we're doing to our schools, our workplaces, our everyday life is corrosive and divisive. The only people we really help by hiring, firing or promoting people based on immutable characteristics are the people getting rich off teaching bitterness and virtue signaling, where hard work and effort will usually suffice.
And remember, they're not alone. Every piece of this garbage that the hard left spouts is now treated as gospel by President Biden and his entire team.
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KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: America has a long history of systemic racism.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Systemic racism is a stain on our nation's soul. The knee on the neck of justice for Black Americans.
ANTHONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: We must improve equity within and between our countries, and close economic, political and social gaps that persists based on race, gender, and other parts of our identity.
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INGRAHAM: They'll use every bit of their power. And that's a lot of power to force you to live in a country dominated by the DEI police, which takes us back to that discussion that caught my attention earlier today. What a great country it is that a Muslim-American woman who arrived here not speaking our language is far better versed in the guarantees of our Constitution and the meaning of our declaration than countless native born DEI experts. Not to mention, the buffoons now occupying the White House.
Think of the tens and millions of immigrants, who becomes small business owners and successful professionals. And who did so by the way without relying on government handouts, or DEI mandates to clear the path for themselves. So maybe, just maybe, it's time for us to focus more on parenting and less on complaining. More on showcasing talent, and less obsessing on race, or ethnicity. And that's the 'Angle'.
Joining me now is Florida Congressman Byron Donalds. Congressman, this is backfiring on the left and minorities. I believe they're now beginning to move away from the Democrats. Your thoughts?
REP. BYRON DONALDS (R-FL): Laura, I think you're absolutely correct. Look, the left got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. They're the ones that spilled the milkshake on the table and tried to act like they didn't spill it themselves. And parents are waking up to this. They have realized that what they want to do unfortunately, is weaponize our children against American society.
This type of division does not help our children succeed. It doesn't help our children succeed. And so when Brianna Keilar and other people on the left get confronted with the evidence of what's happening in our schools, they can do nothing else but try to backtrack and blame other people. But the fault is theirs, because they got caught trying to divide our country. And that does not - that's not what's best for America.
INGRAHAM: Well, the Tampa Bay Times smeared concerned parents this week as quote 'activists' who are using the term 'critical race theory' as a catchall to describe a broad set of practices aimed at focusing public schools on the needs of a diverse student body. Among their targets are programs that encourage equity and anti-racism, and work to reduce unconscious bias in the classroom.
Congressman, this is the media's convenient framing. So the parents who are saying no, we want real education, they're the radicals. And the CRT experts, the pushers of all this division are the normal people. OK.
DONALDS: Absolutely correct. The Tampa Bay Times and media outlets like that, what they really want is to support the radical left in their agenda, which is, frankly, to unwind our entire country and our entire society. And they're not comfortable and they're not happy with just winning a political fight, or winning a political election. They want to distill it down to our kids.
What parents want more than anything else, is for their children to learn reading, writing, arithmetic. They want to learn history, so their children are empowered to take over the country that will be left to them. But if we let radical leftists and newspaper organizations and media organizations divide our country, there'll be nothing left for them to take over.
Our nation is great. People can come here, thrive and prosper, and make the best of their lives as they see fit. But we can never survive this rank division that the radical left wants to bring in a form of critical race theory. That's why it should not be taught. Its element should not be in textbooks. People should be free to learn our history, learn all our history, but be prepared to lead America going forward, not divide America going forward.
INGRAHAM: Now, I want to get your thoughts on those leaked Gruden emails. The Atlantic's Jemele Hills spoke out.
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JEMELE HILLS, HOST, "JEMELE HILL IS UNBOTHERED" PODCAST: I don't know if a league that has this deep of a problem when it comes to racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, if they can correct themselves. Because you still - the ownership groups look like what they look like. This is America as well. And what we have seen is what every Black person knows is that behind closed doors this is what we're facing.
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INGRAHAM: Congressman, is this an attack on Gruden trying to ruin and end his career after those emails, or is this a perpetual attack on football?
DONALDS: In part, I think it's a perpetual attack on football. Look, Jon Gruden's emails, number one, it shouldn't have been linked. But are they horrible? Yes, they are. Should it have cost him his job? I'm not quite sure. But the key point is this, what happens when these kind of emails come out is that the left seizes on them to perpetuate this division they think that exists in America.
Jon Gruden has been in football for longer, frankly, than I've been alive. And he's an exceptional football coach. What he said was absolutely wrong. Nobody condones it. But at the same time, that does not mean that there is a perpetuation of discrimination throughout the National Football League.
There have been so many people that have been able to earn a livelihood that has transformed their families through the National Football League. And I think the one thing we got to do is take a look at his emails, move that to the side and stay focused on the fact that people of all races and all creeds can enter the NFL, or any other major sport for that matter, and actually thrive and succeed in America.
What the left wants to do with it by taking that and have it be the new focus to make you think that all of America thinks that way, I think is the wrong way to go, is the wrong focus. But once again, this is the left's agenda all the time. It is the right America.
INGRAHAM: The NFL has made a lot of people of all racial backgrounds really rich, really rich. OK. And it's based on merit, which is, a good thing. Congressman, thank you.
And while Biden's administration is now seeking to target parents, protesting CRT in schools, they're missing the real problem that's hurting all communities. Nearly 4.3 million Americans at all-time record quit their jobs in August. Nearly 900,000 of those were workers at restaurants and hotels. In the meantime, inflation continues to outpace wages at an alarming rate.
Joining me now is Ohio Senate candidate, J.D. Vance. J.D., so Americans are suffering economically. Some are choosing to opt out of the workforce, I think, for a variety of reasons. But we're obsessing on Gruden, or DEI, or how awful America is on the left. That is their daily obsession.
J.D. VANCE, "HILLBILLY ELEGY" AUTHOR: Yes. I think it goes to show that so much of this is a distraction for the fact that Biden's policies have failed normal people. And you're exactly right. I mean, why does it matter what Jon Gruden said in an email 10 years ago. Who are the victims? Who are the people victimized? Certainly, not the recipients of his email, certainly nobody affected today by it. I think it's ridiculous that the guy lost his job over it.
But more importantly, I think it's ridiculous that our media is so focused on this when we have real problems to solve. I actually see - obviously the economic consequences of a lot of workers not working is a problem. I see the fact that so many workers are refusing these vaccine mandates as a good thing. It suggests there's some fight in the American people that they're not willing to accept these vaccine mandates and they're pushing back against it. That's a good thing at the end of the day, even though it is going to cause some short-term disruptions.
INGRAHAM: Were you surprised that America frankly, J.D., was as compliant as it was for all these months in these blue states, where - I mean, they were locked down far longer than they needed to be? Yet they just kept going along.
VANCE: Certainly, surprised by it, and also worried by it. I mean, I went to San Diego to visit some family over Christmas, and you walk outside into public beach, and it was like 99 percent of the people were wearing masks. And you realize that the mask and the entire lockdown regime, the anti- COVID thing became this sort of weird blue state culture war-ish.
It wasn't about public health. It wasn't about protecting people. It was really about showing that they were virtuous. And unfortunately, that's continued. I mean, we're now 18 months into this thing, we've got to get back to some level of normalcy. But you still have people who are, I think, attached to the old way of doing things, even though it's not good for our people anymore.
INGRAHAM: Well, they don't like the old normal. The old normal is rotten, racist, misogynist, homophobic. It's - they have to destroy what they believe America is in order to get to the New America. I mean, that seems like that's been happening for a while now. J.D., great to see you tonight.
And months ago, a Loudoun County father's brutal arrest at a school board meeting went viral, and was seized on by the left as an example of the new domestic terrorism. But tonight, he's here exclusively to reveal the shocking truth behind what upset him so much. The interview you cannot afford to miss in moments.
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INGRAHAM: That moment turned Scott Smith from an outraged father to the left's new embodiment of the right wing domestic terrorist. But what was the real reason Smith showed up at that June school board meeting in the first place? Because weeks earlier he says, his daughter was sexually assaulted by a boy wearing a skirt and the girl's bathroom at school. What's worse is that school officials attempted to cover it up.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do we have assaults in our bathrooms, in our locker rooms regularly?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To my knowledge, we don't have any records of assaults occurring in our restrooms. The issue of assaults taking place, or transgender students assaulting other students in the restrooms, Time Magazine in 2016 called that a red hearing. The predator transgender student is - or person simply does not exist.
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INGRAHAM: But that's not all. According to the stunning exposAc by the Daily Wire's Rosiak that covered all of this, it wasn't just Loudoun school officials trying to brush this under the rug, but the county's Soros back prosecutor as well.
Scott Smith joins me now exclusively. Scott, first of all, thank you for coming on the show. I know this is an emotionally grueling time for you and your family. Tell us if you can, what happened to your daughter, and how Loudoun County officials handled it.
SCOTT SMITH, LOUDOUN COUNTY PARENT: Hi. And thanks for having us on the show. This has been a crazy three months. But basically, my daughter was sexually assaulted at the end of school in May of last year. And I went to the school board meeting to see what was going on, because I had seen all this crazy stuff on TV. And I went to see what was going on after my daughter had been assaulted.
And there was some crazy stuff being talked about. People, for things, for - against things. I wasn't there for any - I'm good with gay people, cross gender people, everybody. Anybody who wants to be a good American, I'm good with. I went there to find out why our children weren't safe. And the next thing I know, another parent, activist, approached my wife and started antagonizing her. And I turned around and said, stop. And then I tried to tell the lady what had happened to my daughter. And she looked me down in the face and said, that's not what happened. And that just struck me, like, how do you know what happened? You don't even know me.
And then she kept going in and the police came and the officer was trying to help out. He said, we needed to be kind to one another. And I said, ok, and I turned my head and she started in on me again and threatened my family business, my livelihood, everything that gives my family what we need. She threatened to ruin my business on social media.
The next thing I know, I'm getting touched from all over the place. I didn't know who was touching me, who was grabbing me. I turn around, the police are grabbing me. And next thing I know, I'm tackled to the ground. I'm just shocked and horrified.
INGRAHAM: Do you feel like the--
SMITH: I do want to say, though, that we support our first responders, and our law enforcement. This didn't have to happen. And this could have been handled a lot differently.
INGRAHAM: But Scott, I got to ask you this. Yes, I want to ask you about that. The prosecutor knew about your daughter, but the school board officials at that meeting, they were drinking their diet coke or whatever they were drinking. They seem bored by the entire conversation, citing some article and some other media publication that had nothing to do with your - certainly what happened to your daughter, or any other possible assault. Did they seem to have a compassionate or concerned reaction at that meeting in June?
SMITH: To what? Just what was going on in general?
INGRAHAM: Yes, just all of it. All of - all the concerns of all the parents being raised.
SMITH: No. They were tuning this all out. They were looking away. They were reading magazines. It was a joke. They - I believe, and I've never been to a school board meeting before, so I didn't know what to expect. But I believe that they had full intentions on trying to shut that thing down early, because every time we clapped, or tried to support somebody, we got scolded for it.
Why aren't we allowed to clap? Why aren't we allowed to boo? Everybody has their own opinion. Why can't everybody just get along and discuss our differences? That's not what's been going on here in Loudoun County. It's all one sided.
INGRAHAM: Well, the county sheriff's office announced last week that a teenager from Ashburn has been charged with sexual battery and abduction of a fellow student at Broad Run High School. That suspect remains held at the Loudoun County juvenile detention center. The name of the suspect cannot be released due to the fact that he is a juvenile. Scott, you say this is the same boy who sexually assaulted your daughter. How do you know that?
SMITH: This is, in fact, the sexual predator that assaulted by daughter. We were under the impression from the prosecutor that this sexual predator was being held on in-house arrest with an ankle monitor and would not return to school until these court sessions were done. You are innocent until you are proven guilty. I understand that. But we do have to protect everyone at the same time.
I was told by everyone, my attorneys, the prosecuting attorney, friends of the family, people I don't even know, that if I wanted justice for my daughter, that I needed to keep my mouth quiet and not speak out because in order to get justice for my daughter, which is the most important thing to me, of course, was to not come out, and let justice prevail.
INGRAHAM: So you were supposed to be quiet?
SMITH: When I found out on Friday night --
INGRAHAM: You were supposed to be quite, not talk about this publicly.
SMITH: Correct. It was my decision not to speak out. Nobody muzzled me. But I was told that if I wanted justice for my daughter and wanted this case to have a finality and a possible conviction that I --
INGRAHAM: You have every right to speak out. I am sorry, Scott. You have every right to speak out. You are a father of a daughter who was sexually assaulted by someone who you said came into that bathroom wearing a skirt. And then they are making you out to be a domestic terrorist at the Department of Justice by implication?
SMITH: That just started. That just happened a week or two ago. So you've got to understand, this happened the last week of May. And then school ended. And the school board and the school system just went on summer break and abandoned us. My wife and I had to spend the entire summer rebuilding our daughter. Unfortunately, there was a couple of rough nights. It was hell. But the good news is my daughter is doing very well.
INGRAHAM: God bless her.
SMITH: She is a survivor, she's a winner, and so are me and my wife.
INGRAHAM: Scott, your message to parents across --
SMITH: What made me come out --
INGRAHAM: Yes, your message to parents across the country who also want to have their voices heard on any issue at any school board meeting, should they feel intimidated given what our political system is saying about possible meetings getting out of control and extremists or domestic terror, or threats? Should they feel intimidated, Scott.
SMITH: Well, that whole thing is nonsense, Laura, and I'll tell you why. First of all, I didn't go there to boycott anything. I went there to see what's going on.
INGRAHAM: You're not political. You established that. You established that. You are not political.
SMITH: OK, OK.
INGRAHAM: But other parents across the country are afraid now to go to school board meetings because of the intimidation.
SMITH: Right. So all summer long we were waiting for justice, and I'm keeping quiet. And then last Friday night the phone rang, I actually believe it was a text, from a concerned parent to my wife. It said I need to know what the boy's name is. And we said we will never discuss that. Why? And then they proceed to tell my wife that there was another assault at Broad Run High School and the rumor is that it's the same boy. I couldn't believe -- I started to argue with my wife about it, because is aid this is impossible. Stop feeding into social media. This didn't happen.
INGRAHAM: Well, Scott, we are going to --
SMITH: And within a half-an-hour, within a half-an-hour, it was confirmed that yes, this did happen. And I basically said that's it. I won't stay quiet anymore.
INGRAHAM: As we are having this ongoing discussion.
SMITH: And I'm out. I'm spreading the message. And this stuff has to stop, Laura.
INGRAHAM: The rights of transgender students being put over the rights of regular folks.
SMITH: You asked about the DOJ thing, too. That's scary. That's really scare that our government is going to weaponize themselves against parents, and their using my video across the nation to spread fear. That's wrong. I'm not a bully. I'm not a racist. I love everyone. I love this country. And I want better stuff for it.
INGRAHAM: Scott, we all want people to have freedom to speak out and not be intimidated or branded terrorists, especially if they are concerned about the safety of their children in schools.
SMITH: You're right.
INGRAHAM: Scott, we wish all the best luck, and your daughter especially, we'll pray a special prayer for her tonight and all victims of sexual assault. Thank you so much for being with us.
And Democrats are beginning to sweat over the increasingly unpopular Biden agenda ahead of the 2022 midterms. SPECIAL REPORT anchor Bret Baier has reaction. Plus, Congressman Jim Banks has exclusive details on how House Republicans intend to fight Democrats and their radical $3.5 trillion makeover of America coming up.
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INGRAHAM: Nancy Pelosi emerged for her weekly press conference today with a sobering message for the progressive wing of her party.
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NANCY PELOSI, (D-CA) HOUSE SPEAKER: We have some important decisions to make in the next few days so that we can proceed. I am very disappointed that we are not going with the original $3.5 trillion which was very transformative.
I think you all could do a better job of selling this, to be very frank with you.
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INGRAHAM: Of course she sees the media as her personal propaganda arm, but she also sees the writing on the wall. As "Politico" notes "Dems sweat size of Biden agenda. If the sprawling plan to expand the social safety net is too big, moderates worry they will lose their seats. But too small, and progressives think the base won't turnout."
Joining me now is Bret Baier, SPECIAL REPORT anchor, author of the brand new book out just today "To Rescue the Republic," everyone should buy about Ulysses S. Grant. Bret, we're going to get to your incredible new book in a moment. First, your thoughts on the bind that Democrats find themselves in.
BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: It's a big bind. Thanks for having me on, Laura. I'll tell you, Progressives feel if this is not too big they're not going to have the turnout to the midterms, and they fell like that is the thing that will lead to their demise. Moderates think that too big a package will lead to their demise and be a PR ploy and something to talk about for the GOP.
And you just have to look back at history. And we call always do that, look back in history. 2010, remember the midterms there after the Obamacare vote and what that led to. It was, in President Obama's words, a shellacking in the midterm that Republicans picked up even though Democrats and progressives believed that this was the thing that everyone wanted.
In that race in 2009 just before that, there was a governor's race that was kind of a canary on in the coalmine about what was to come. That governor's race was in Virginia, and the Republican beat the democrat significantly. Now there is a very contested Virginia governor's race, and it will interest to see if it follows history.
INGRAHAM: And Bret, speaking of history, I want to ask you about your new book, "To Rescue the Republic," which is about the underappreciated role of Ulysses S. Grant and his work in forging our nation. So what should politicians today during this really tumultuous time learn from how Grant and the GOP were able to hold the country together, Bret, after the Civil War?
BAIER: So this book is really about the forgotten history of Grant and how he saves the United States. And what people can take from it, and leaders especially, I think, is that we have to keep fighting for the republic every day. It's that important. And freedom is not free. It sounds like a cliche, but it really isn't. And it takes effort. And it takes really a lot of effort to get people together. Grant's eight years in office are characterized really broadly as being scandalous. And there were scandals. But he did amazing thing. The 13th, 14th, 15th amendments. He fought for black citizenship, the right to vote. And he also fought the KKK. But most importantly, he kept the union together, and that was his goal. I think to fight for the republic every day and not give us is what leaders could take away from it.
INGRAHAM: And Bret, I just jumped into the book in the middle because I haven't had time to read it yet. But that little terse meeting, which everyone is going to have to read about, between Grant and Robert E. Lee, 15 minutes long. Pick up the book. Congrats, Bret. "To Rescue the Republic," just out today. It's great to have you on.
BAIER: Thanks, Laura. Thanks for having me.
INGRAHAM: And speaking of Pelosi, the House tonight approved raising the debt limit for two more months. And unlike in the Senate, every single House Republican voted against this terrible bill, including my next guest. Indiana Congressman Jim Banks joins me now. Congressman, the media is framing this as staving off catastrophe. So we're kicking the can down the road, to use that terrible cliche, into December when before Christian nobody wants get the pile of coal in their stocking.
REP. JIM BANKS, (R-IN): That's right, Laura. Keep in might, they are racing the debt limit so that they have the room to pay for their massive, radical socialist agenda, the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. Speaker Pelosi talked about scaling it back a little bit today. But make no bones about it, this is still a massive bill that would transform American and make this a socialist nation overnight if the Biden agenda passes.
And that's why Republicans have to do a better job of communicating to the American people how dangerous this reconciliation bill really is. That's why I put out a memo today with a Republican study committee with 42 reasons that every Republican should vote against this bill, and 42 reasons that the American people should be aware that this bill is not just the price tag, it's not just what it will do to inflation. But the dangerous components in this bill that will affect your daily life, like shutting down your daycare facility, especially if it's faith-based daycare facility. It will give illegal immigrants free college tuition and child tax credits. It will create a climate police department. This was a whacky idea that AOC came out with a couple of years ago. We all laughed at it at the time because we thought it would never happen, and now it's on the brink of happening.
INGRAHAM: Congressman, I am sorry we are so short tonight. We got crunched with the other segments, but we'll have you back soon. And it's a word to the wise about raising the debt limit yet again. Thank you.
And why is Singapore with an 80 percent vaccination rate and strict COVID restrictions now seeing an explosion of cases and even deaths, while Scandinavia, free of mandates, they're wide open, they're seeing the opposite. Dr. Harvey Risch has some interesting data about why this is happening next.
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INGRAHAM: So if vaccines are really the ticket back to normalcy, why is Singapore where 83 percent of the population is fully vaxxed in the midst of another COVID wave. Meanwhile, in Scandinavia life is essentially back to normal, no mandates, vax passports, masks, everything is open. Despite a much lower vaccination rate places like Denmark are averaging fewer than one COVID death a day. So what is going on?
My next guest has some ideas. Dr. Harvey Risch, Yale epidemiology professor joins me now. Dr. Risch, what is going on here? It's confusing to average Americans.
DR. HARVEY RISCH, YALE PROFESSOR OF EPIDEMIOLOGY: Singapore has done very well, very thorough at vaccinating its population, but the population has very little natural immunity. Hardly anybody got the infection in the first place, and now the vaccines are wearing off. The vaccine immunity has a finite lifespan of somewhere between three and six months, and it's losing that over time, and more people are getting infected again.
People can get infected while the vax is working fully, but they're relatively protected from very severe outcomes, which is a good thing by and large for the people who take it. But they really need much more natural immunity from the infection going forward in order to prevent what they are seeing. And they need that natural immunity to combat other viruses, other strains that may be coming as well. And after a longer lasting protection, natural immunity is much longer lasting than vax immunity.
INGRAHAM: You mean the natural immunity that our own government claims isn't really protective at all. OK. Well, a big problem, professor, Doctor, that Singapore has is its mixed messaging from the leader. Watch.
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LEE HSIEN, SINGAPORE PRIME MINISTER: Cut back on social activities to slow the spread of the virus. Get vaccinated if you haven't already done so. Go for your booster shot when your turn comes. As more people are exposed to the virus and recover, our immunity levels will increase. COVID will spread less quickly among us.
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INGRAHAM: OK, so two different things, Dr. Risch. So it seems that outside of Scandinavia, none of these leaders know what they are doing. They just simply don't realize that locking down prolonged the pandemic for most of these countries, period.
RISCH: That's true. But he said it. He said as more people get the virus, more --
INGRAHAM: At the end. That's after he flip-flopped early on. So they didn't happen exactly at the same time. But herd immunity is a real thing, yes or no, Dr. Risch?
RISCH: Yes, absolutely. Natural immunity is a real thing in large scale. We have about 70 percent now in the United States, and it's increasing --
INGRAHAM: All right, I've herd immunity to a hard break. Dr. Risch, thank you.
Pelosi by the numbers is next.
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INGRAHAM: You know our little feature, Biden by the numbers. Well, here's Pelosi's try.
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NANCY PELOSI, (D-CA) HOUSE SPEAKER: The Build Back Better is three baskets. It's climate, which we spent some time talking about already. It's health, job security, and moral responsibility. It's healthcare. The issues that relate to the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid, and family care.
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