Ingraham: Trump's victory and the Democrats' race to defeat
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," November 7, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
LAURA INGRAHAM: I'm Laura Ingraham and this is "The Ingraham Angle" and we have breaking news on multiple fronts tonight. We are going to unpack it all for you. And I tell you, where the dust is still settling on the split midterm results, another bombshell appears to the news cycle.
Jeff Sessions is out. The attorney general has submitted his resignation at President Trump's request and we are going to have reaction to all the fallout in just moments including what this could mean for the Mueller probe. It's freaking everyone out.
Also tonight, my angle on what the midterm results mean for you and for this president. Plus, Trump takes it to the media -- this was unbelievable today. I scream in laughing. Why a raucous White House press conference earlier today reveals the media have basically learned zippo during these past two years.
And Raymond Arroyo is here for "Seen and Unseen." He tackles the big losers of last night, especially the celebrity stars who started to fall. But we begin tonight with the news that pushed the midterms off the front page, the resignation of Jeff Sessions.
All right, Sessions' departure comes less than two years after he angered Trump by recusing himself from the Russia probe. The president repeatedly expressed his frustration over that original decision to recuse. Now, stepping in as acting attorney general is Matt Whitaker. He is a former U.S. attorney from Iowa who is serving now or was, as Sessions' chief of staff.
Now, Trump is said to have a very strong personal rapport with Whitaker who at least for now will oversee the Mueller probe and the rest of the DOJ business, which includes, by the way, DOJ's other federal investigations including those New York prosecutors who were looking into the finances of the president and his former aides.
Now, for what this A.G. resignation could mean, we are joined now by former U.S. attorney Joe diGenova who is not in the studio -- so sad are we. Former assistant U.S. attorney and Fox News contributor Andy McCarthy and George Terwilliger, former DOJ deputy attorney general who actually became an acting A.G. himself.
Now Joe, let's start with you. Democrats are already calling for Whitaker to recuse himself because of his past statements on another network. He was a contributor and he made some comments about the Mueller probe in writing. We'll get to some of them in a moment, but your reaction?
JOE DIGENOVA, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Well, those previous comments are not recusable comments. Mr. Whitaker is a fine person. He is completely independent. He knows about the administration of this particular case. I am delighted that supervision of this case has been taken away from Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein in light of his conduct.
And I think that Mr. Whitaker will handle this fine. The Democrats are doing what they always do, when they don't have anything else, they just start screaming and yelling. This is an embarrassment to them, but it's going to continue and Mr. Whitaker is going to be just fine.
INGRAHAM: George, I want to go to you since you were acting A.G. and I remember now! I hadn't forgotten! All right, so Schumer today said the following, George. He said, given his previous comments advocating defunding and imposing limitations on the Mueller investigation, Mr. Whitaker shouldn't recuse himself from its oversight for the duration of his time as acting attorney general.
And just so people know what we are talking about, I want to play this sound bite from Mark Whitaker. Now, this George was from CNN and it was back in July of 2017. Let's take a look. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEW WHITAKER, ACTING ATTORNEY GEBERAL: Well, I can see a scenario where Jeff Sessions is replaced with a recess appointment, and that attorney general doesn't fire Bob Mueller but he just reduces the budget so low that his investigation grinds to almost halt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Different life, he was working for a network. Grounds for recusal?
GEORGE TERWILLIGER, FORMER DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: No. I mean, two quick points, Laura. One, if every time a lawyer made comments about some matter of public interest and then later got involved and would have to recuse himself, poor Joe for example, wouldn't be able to practice law. But secondly, your point is well taken. The fact of the matter is --
DIGENOVA: And I'm doing just fine.
TERWILLIGER: -- that this was a different time, a different set of facts. And I'm sure Matt will make his decisions in this case, based on whatever circumstances he becomes aware of.
INGRAHAM: So, and just for our viewers' edification here, as acting attorney general you have all the powers of the attorney general, correct. You just simply haven't gone through Senate confirmation, and it's thought to be temporary. Could it be indefinite?
TERWILLIGER: Well, under the vacancies act, there'll be some limitations of time. And Matt can't be nominated to succeed to his own position while he's in the position. And there are a couple of exceptions such as he cannot sign FISA's.
INGRAHAM: OK now, this is getting very interesting. All right. We got to go to Andy here. John Brennan, your favorite, Andy, was out today -- sorry, Joe's favorite -- was out today, of course, banging the same recusal drum that George were just referencing. Let's watch Brennan and company.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR (via telephone): Matt Whitaker comes with a lot of baggage and it's going to be quite evident I think whether or not he is going to fulfill his responsibilities now in that position.
NICOLE WALLACE, MSNBC HOST: Are you saying that Mr. Whitaker with his public statements, public writings and his comments on television should be recused from overseeing the Mueller probe based on those statements?
BRENNAN: I would think that there is a very strong case that given his public acknowledgment of this prejudice to view on this issue that he should recuse himself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Andy? More recusal talk. It's what they pushed Sessions into doing and I know there's a debate about that. I still say Sessions didn't have to recuse himself but he rushed to recuse himself. A lot of pressure put on him and he wilted under it in my view. But is there really legitimate grounds here for a former commentator to have to recuse here?
ANDY MCCARTHY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: No, Laura. I look very carefully at what he said when he was at CNN. I actually have a column up about this at "National Review" tomorrow. He didn't say anything that was in the nature of recusable commentary. He didn't make any prejudgments about the investigation. He didn't say anything to denigrate what Mueller is up to.
And what I find fascinating and I'm not casting aspersions, I want to be clear, on deputy attorney general Rosenstein's ethics. But I have not heard any of these guys complaining that Rosenstein is overseeing this investigation, notwithstanding that Mueller is investigating supposedly Trump for obstructing the investigation by firing Comey, a transaction in which Rosenstein is a key player.
So if there is anybody in this equation that has a screaming conflict of interest, it's Rod Rosenstein. And I haven't heard these guys say a word about that.
INGRAHAM: Joe, I have to ask you on picks for attorney general. We all have maybe a couple of ideas. What are your ideas?
DIGENOVA: Well, I have a couple of ideas which I have shared with the president and I'm not going to share them with anybody else.
INGRAHAM: OK.
DIGENOVA: So if I say any of my ideas, I will be sharing a conversation with the president, so.
INGRAHAM: I got it. Can you give us a vowel and you know, can we do a wheel of fortune? I mean, my gosh, this is so frustrating. Now everybody is going to want -- OK, forget it --
DIGENOVA: There are plenty of great people. There are plenty of great people.
INGRAHAM: OK, that's it. That's such an uncharacteristically vague answer from Joe diGenova. He's always going right into the day. All right, Terwilliger, couple of ideas. Come on, just throw it out. This is a fun conversation. We don't know who --
TERWILLIGER: I agree with Joe. There's lots of great people out there.
INGRAHAM: OK. Am I the only one who's going to give the president any advice here on who should be -- OK, Andy, do you have any -- other than Andy and Joe and George -- Andy, Joe, George, attorney general -- Andy, would you take it? If he asked you would you do it?
MCCARTHY: Laura, I do not need to be on a signature line. I'm content to not be in the caption under where it says "U.S. versus." That's what I'm trying to say at this point. Look, George Terwilliger and Joe diGenova have been on the top of every single list of this question every single time I've ever been asked it, and boy, could the president ever do a lot worse.
INGRAHAM: Yes, so we got Terwilliger on the list. I was just trying to hint around this, Andy. You gave it away. All right. So you got Joe on the list. You got Terwilliger on the list. I'm going to -- you are. All right, I'm going to make a suggestion. And just to throw it out there, you can all criticize and attack. It's fine. I'm going to make a suggestion of Chris Christie. And I'm going to tell you why, OK.
I think there are a number of reasons why Christie would be good and we might have him out of order if we have a graphic. Number one, he has about an 18-year personal relationship with the president. They get along. They know each other. He has already walked through the media fire.
He knows what it's like to be in the bright, white spotlight of the New York media, and frankly the national media. I think temperamentally he and Trump are similar. They get along as people. They have kind of a similar style. I don't think that's a detriment in this job whatsoever. He was known as a tough as nails prosecutor, very well respected by career prosecutors at DOJ.
I think, you know, bridge-gate -- I don't think any of that matters I think with the number of Republicans we have now in the Senate. Christie would get confirmed if the president said this is the guy I want. I think Chris Christie would get confirmed. I don't think it would be much of a problem and I don't think the beach photo or the beach closure is going to knock him out of it, OK. That's my view. All right, come on, Joe, give me some thoughts on that. Christie?
DIGENOVA: Chris Christie would be fine. He's experienced. He's smart. He's intelligent. He would have the full confidence of the president of the United States which to me was missing with the relationship with Jeff Sessions. The president is entitled to have a full-time attorney general and Christie could fulfill that role very nicely.
INGRAHAM: Andy McCarthy, what about Christie?
MCCARTHY: I've had my policy disagreements with him, but no one can question his credentials. I'd be worried that the bridgegate thing would be more of a problem than I think you are calculating because I think they would try to re-litigate that whole thing, but let --
INGRAHAM: But Republicans in the Senate aren't going to re-litigate it. If the president said, look, he's my guy. I know him. He's not going to wilt under pressure. He's not going to go, "recusal, recusal, recusal." He's not going to do that. Plus he has actually a good relationship with Mueller, right.
I mean, not good a relationship but he respects Mueller. He's not been on T.V. saying it's, you know, a witch hunt which I think would be a problem for him becoming attorney general. He's been quite, I think, dispassionate in his overall analysis, Andy
MCCARTHY: Yes -- no, look, all of that is true. I just think -- I probably think it would be more of a problem than you do in terms of the way it would play out at a confirmation hearing. But I do think he'd be confirmed and I think he'd do a good job. And by the way, his lawyer in bridgegate was Christopher Wray.
INGRAHAM: OK, the tangled tentacles all around. All right, George, before I let you go. What do the Republicans have in store in the House of Representatives? So they have subpoena power, all these very anxious Democrats have been out of power for a while, tax returns, emoluments clause, business dealings? They're itching for it.
TERWILLIGER: It has the promise of getting really ugly. And I think the White House is going -- and the administration in general are going to have to make some very hard decisions about what things to fight, when to fight, and how to fight, but they are going to have to fight.
INGRAHAM: And again, Chris Christie is a fighter. I mean, anyone who's seen his old press conferences from New Jersey is among the most entertaining, but he does it -- he's really smart.
TERWILLIGER: That's true. And he's also, I mean, I think it's really important that somebody at the top of the Justice Department, particularly with these issues actually be a real prosecutor, you know.
INGRAHAM: Who knows how to do it?
TERWILLIGER: Exactly. Yes.
INGRAHAM: Who knows what it's all about? And that's I think, that was a deficit, was it not, Joe, for Jeff Sessions. Jeff Sessions I think is a very nice person. He's phenomenal on so many of the issues that Trump cares about and was great. I love what he's doing on the marijuana thing. I'm with him on that. But temperament versus real nuts and bolts experience in that regard I think is hard.
DIGENOVA: Well, and he had another problem and that is the president insists on people who have command presence. That is certainly something which Chris Christie would bring to the job. And with Robert Mueller spending more than $38 million to produce absolutely nothing by way of Russian collusion, Christie would be the perfect overseer of that monstrosity.
INGRAHAM: And before I let you go, Andy, does the Mueller investigation -- how do you see it developing at this point with the change of Sessions?
MCCARTHY: I think it's probably pretty right. I think Mueller is towards the end of what he's doing anyway, but I love that you want a wartime consigliore.
INGRAHAM: You bet. I go for the Italians. It's the Italian mindsets with diGenova. I mean, now we like the Irish too.
MCCARTHY: Joe, did I pronounce that right. Joe?
INGRAHAM: Yes, you did.
DIGENOVA: Yes. Yes you did and by the way --
INGRAHAM: Have you never watched "Godfather?" My god. If you never watched "Godfather" 1 and 2, the best movies ever made. All right guys fantastic. Thank you so much for your insight. And George, great to have you. Will you come back?
TERWILLIGER: I'd love to. It's good to see you, Laura.
INGRAHAM: You're fantastic. I mean, you're much better than Joe and Andy. Oh, I'm just kidding. All right, for more on why Trump won and how the GOP can do it again, remember get a copy of my new paper back, you will love it, "Busting The Barricades: What I Saw at the Populist Revolt" in bookstores everywhere.
And coming up, I'm going to tell you what the midterm elections really mean in a special election edition of "The Angle." So stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Trump's victory and the Democrats' race to defeat. That's the focus of tonight's "Angle."
All things considered, it was a very, very good night for Republicans and a major win for Donald Trump. Now, the president was absolutely tireless on the campaign trail. He stumped for Republican senate candidates across the country. Trump ignored the advice of people like Paul Ryan, god bless him, and the liberal media consultants.
And that he followed his own political instincts. And I will say that those instincts are generally superior to all the so-called pros, many who a few months ago by the way were predicting a big blue wave, which in the Senate was more like a wave goodbye for Democrats. And in the end, the president accurately laid out what this midterm would hinge on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONADL TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This will be the election of the caravan, Kavanaugh, law and order, tax cuts, and common sense. That's what it is, common sense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: He couldn't have been more correct. In the end, the Republican saw historic gains in the Senates, something that has only happened three times since 1906. And certainly, Kavanaugh, and he ticked that off, was a huge factor. Almost all the Democratic senators in tight races who voted against Kavanaugh lost.
And those who suggested that the president should've muted his talk of immigration on the campaign trail -- hello, Paul Ryan -- were simply wrong. Most pro-amnesty Republicans -- well, they either retired or lost.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You have some that decided to, let's stay away, let's stay away. They did very poorly. Carlos Curbelo, Mike Coffman -- too bad, Mike. Mia Love. Mia Love gave me no love. And Barbara Comstock was another one. Peter Roskam, didn't want to embrace. Eric Paulson didn't want to embrace.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Why didn't they want the embrace? Mia Love didn't give me love - - I'm sorry but I'm screaming. It was so funny. All right, so most of those who bucked the president on immigration, they crashed and burned. Still others like Paul Ryan, Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, and as we said, they retired.
And of course there were some exceptions. We got to be fair. Kris Kobach was basically attached to the hip with Trump on immigration, but he lost in Kansas's gubernatorial contest. Sadly, he just wasn't a great campaigner.
But on the whole, Trump's strong immigration policies prove a deciding factor in both the senate and gubernatorial victories in Florida, Texas, and in Georgia. Now, in Florida, for example, voters rated immigration the second most important issue. Just a few points behind health care. Check it out, three points.
Now, these midterms also show that neither political nor Hollywood star power paid off in Georgia or in Florida. And what the Democrats did achieve in these midterms was a, well, below average pickup of seats in the House against the party of power. The amazing thing is with all this happening, the democrats still really haven't learned anything.
Since Donald Trump descended that big brass escalator in the Tower, they've been trying to cast him as a racist, a homophobe -- not homophobe -- xenophobe, biased, you know, he's kind of like an Archie Bunker in a long red tie. Actually, Archie Bunker, a lot of people would know (inaudible) but, you know, it's just you cannot put up with someone like Archie Bunker today.
My friends, the Democrats are bereft of real ideas. So rather than offering some, they propose socialist style freebies, in health care, college, universal pre-k. And the Democrats once again, by the way, went all in for identity politics in the midterms. They tried to argue that Brian Kemp in Georgia was trying to stop black people from voting. It's ridiculous.
They tried to argue that Ron DeSantis in Florida was some kind of closet racist for questioning Gillum's ethics. And it went on and on and on. And even after they got shellacked in 2016 and lost the Senate last night, they are still dealing the race card.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He used every race, dog whistle, every bigotry that he had.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Making overtly bigoted, racist statements, attacking brown people, attacking black people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want us to watch because he's going to replace the caravan with a New York (inaudible), west coast intellectual Jew (ph) Adam Schiff, a black man, elijah cummings, and a woman, Nancy Pelosi.
CHUCK TODD, MSNBC HOST: The president has enough support and enough places to win big races in states that have large enough rural populations to either offset suburban America or whatever.
(BEGI VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: It's those racist rural people. So, how dare those country bumpkins ruin the country for the urbanite elites? Now, when the country rejects the left's racialization of politics, well, basically the Democrats just write them off altogether.
I have a simple question though to ask. How do you build a political movement by hating on basically half of the American people? Rather than grapple with why this tactic fell flat last night, the media continued the race to the bottom during today's White House news conference.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On the campaign trail you called yourself a nationalist. Some people saw that as emboldening white nationalist. Now people are also saying that the president --
TRUMP: I don't know why you'd say that. It's such a racist question
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are some people that say that now the Republican Party is seen as supporting white nationalists because of your rhetoric. What do you make of it?
TRUMP: Oh, I don't believe that. I don't believe that. Why do I have my highest poll numbers ever with African-Americans? Why do I have among the highest poll numbers with African-Americans? I mean, why do I have my highest pollings? That such a racist question.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you ever made racist remarks?
TRUMP: I don't know. No, no, I would never do that and I don't use racist remarks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, one point of fact --
TRUMP: Go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, one point of fact, because you told her you have the highest poll among African- Americans. It's just eight percent, sir. Single digits.
TRUMP: So when you talk about division, it's people like this that cause division. Great division -- point of fact is that I never used a racist remark. That's the point of fact.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: The press was just absolutely reprehensible today. I have never seen anything like that. And the president is right. Rasmussen's tracking poll from October 29th has the president at a 40 percent approval among black respondents. So he can throw out those single digits all they want, let's take -- take a (inaudible), 40 to 8, let's say it's 25.
Now, it's good that the president smashed back against these obvious attempts to recast his victory and demonize his supporters. Here are the facts, the Democrats have lost two Supreme Court seats, the Senate, and the White House. And after two years of protest and nonstop attacks on Trump, they emerge from the midterms with no mandate. Good going, guys!
There is no doubt the president of course now will have his work cut out for him. He is going to have to recalibrate his approach as the New Year begins under Democratic house rule. So he would be wise to do a few things.
Begin to expand his movements beyond where it already is and he's got to adapt to the changing demographics in key states. Occasionally, he should shift to a more moderate tone while not moderating his policies. He should offer to work with Democrats on issues of common concern which by the way, he did today! Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I put that statement out on social media today about Nancy Pelosi and a lot of people thought I was being sarcastic or I was kidding. I wasn't. I think she deserves it. She's fought long and hard. She's a very capable person. Nancy Pelosi and I can work together and get a lot of things done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: That was a great moment, but he's getting no credit for that. Now, sometimes the president might seem to think that showing his humanity or soft -- I do not want to say soft, maybe his humanity is a sign of weakness. It's not.
And the turning on the charm sometimes, it resonates especially with female voters. So going forward, the president should urge by the way, separate from all the tone and how you should come off, the president should urge Mitch McConnell to go full steam ahead with Senate confirmation of both judges and members of the executive branch.
The next Supreme Court nominee should be chosen without regard to gender, skin color, none of the bean counting. It should only be based on his or her conservative bonafides up. Forget the bean counting, you don't need to do it.
Now, don't fret the House investigations Mr. President. We all know that Nadler, Maxine, Schiff, et cetera, will all take you the step too far in their fervor for payback, and the voters won't like that at all. President Trump will have to be more creative in advancing his agenda forward.
But in the meantime, he should feel really good about what he accomplished, especially since the voters may have unwittingly given the president something he has needed for so long. A clear and worthy opponent. And that's "The Angle."
All right, coming up, who were the biggest losers last night? Hollywood, for one. And they still haven't gotten the memo. Raymond Arroyo is here. "Seen and Unseen" next.
(COMMERCIAL BEAK)
INGRAHAM: Time for our "Seen and Unseen" segment where we explore some of the big cultural stories of the day.
Now it could be the biggest Hollywood flop ever, maybe since the "Ghostbusters" reboot. Their political advocacy did not achieve what they had hoped. Joining us now, Raymond Arroyo, Fox News contributor, "New York Times" bestselling author of the just released paperback, "Mother Angelica, Her Grand Silence." Everyone get out and get that.
Now, Raymond, Hollywood just had a horrible night. They accused me of trolling Taylor Swift, by the way, in "The Hollywood Reporter." I just sent a funny tweet. I think she's adorable. She's an adorable young woman.
RAYMOND ARROYO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: The goal for many in Hollywood, Laura, and the Hollywood community was to turn out that young vote. One of the biggest efforts was a star-studded telethon organized by comedian Ben Gleib. Jerry Lewis had the Love Network. This was the Resist Network. And as we reported the other night, the idea was that you called in and pledged to vote and a star would call you back. There was only one problem -- no one knew who host Ben Gleib was and they barely knew the stars at the phone back. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are going into our celebrity phone bank. This is amazing. Look at these incredible people we have here. Ariel. Oh, my God, hello, high five. Guys, Jamila here. We've got everybody here in the phone bank. We've got Erik Griffin. Oh, my God. We've got Matt Smith, everybody. We've got an incredible lineup right here. Hello, everybody, we've got Bill Bellamy, Debra Messing, Fortune, Ike Barinholtz. Holy crap.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Lovely, "holy crap."
ARROYO: Debra Messing is the only person I recognize in that entire lineup.
INGRAHAM: Only one. I literally was like, Joe Smith.
ARROYO: Mike Brown. Needless to say, this effort did not produce much. There was a bump, though, in the youth vote. According to a Tufts study, there was a 10 percent increase in voters 18 to 29, but two-thirds of those were Democratic. And this is where things fell apart. A third was conservative. So despite Taylor Swift and Will Farrell's efforts, there were young conservatives in the mix, which threw off Hollywood's intended efforts.
INGRAHAM: Charlie Kirk, maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campuses. It might be working, the crossroads.
ARROYO: The youth vote failed to flip any of the major races, Laura, in Florida, Georgia, Texas. Actresses Julianne Moore and Rosario Dawson even narrated an ad on Trump's immigration policy to try to move voters. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then they created a humanitarian crisis by cruelly separating many of those families and putting the children in cages.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They want to begin imprisoning these children indefinitely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: Imprisoning children indefinitely.
INGRAHAM: Indefinitely.
ARROYO: So we just take children from immigrant's arms and keep them. They keep them for a limited time while they await trial and make sure they are with the adults --
INGRAHAM: First of all, they might not be aware of a third branch of government. It's called the judiciary. And the judicial branch has said only 20 days. Maybe we should sent them a pocket copy of the constitution, Raymond.
ARROYO: Here's the unseen bit of this. This whole effort was organized by a group called We Stand United, Mark Ruffalo, Marisa Tomei, and others. These are filmmakers, people in the digital industry. They band their efforts, they tell stories they hope will move the electorate. So they got what they wanted partially.
INGRAHAM: Will they ever stop politicking? Tell me what happened at the Israel film festival in Beverly Hills. That actually sounds like a fun film festival.
ARROYO: This is the 32nd film festival. Jason Blum, the producer of "Halloween" and "Get Out," Oscar winner, he was given an award, a film award. When he got up, he started talking about Trump. And he said not only did he like the president, but the president is creating anti- Semitism. This crowd didn't like it. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And now I'm being physically removed. It's why Trump is not the right guy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: They are yelling, and pulling him off the stage. The film festival says, look, we got security in there to take him away for his own safety. But he picked the wrong crowd. Here's the unseen bit of this. This film festival has long been sponsored by the Sheldon Adelson Foundation, a very conservative funder of Republicans. There must've been a lot of pro-Israeli, pro-Trump people in the room. They didn't like this. I don't like this kind of civility. However, when you go up to get a film award and that's what the audience expects, you don't throw politics in. And some people were yelling. If you listen closely, it's a film festival, not a political rally.
INGRAHAM: We are sick of hearing your political views when you're accepting an award. We didn't go to the movie to hear your political views. They're not, frankly, very interesting. Sorry. But let me tell you, that was an interesting moment. They don't think he's anti-Semitic, do they?
ARROYO: Before I go, last night we were watching Nancy Pelosi's news conference, Laura, and you noticed that assistant Democratic leader Jim Clyburn standing here behind Pelosi, did not crack a smile throughout the whole presser. So it made me think of a song.
INGRAHAM: What song?
(MUSIC)
ARROYO: And you tweeted out, why is Jim Clyburn not smiling? Today he did his own interview with CNN. Look what happened. Wait till you see.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A big night for you. Back in the majority very soon. Should the focus now for Democrats be finding more common ground with the president?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: So he can't smile without you, Laura. He must have read your tweet.
INGRAHAM: I just saw them there, and it was after all the coverage -- by the way, great night for Fox News. Awesome, everybody. Great team effort. All the production, all the people behind the scenes. The people on camera, they are all right. But the people behind the scenes are the best. But I was just watching, they won the House. He looks like he lost his best friend with old Nancy.
ARROYO: He found his smile the next day, Laura.
INGRAHAM: But he also had a shawl collar on.
ARROYO: You're not going to get on people for the shawl collar sweaters. I like those sweaters.
INGRAHAM: We'll have to ask Tommy whether he is pro or anti, our executive producer, shawl collars. Sorry.
ARROYO: I've never seen anybody with a greater opinion of man's couture than you.
INGRAHAM: Shawl collars, ixnay. But he smiled. I was glad he was happy.
ARROYO: Andy Williams loves those.
INGRAHAM: Good. No big turtlenecks. Thank you, Raymond.
In one postelection press conference with the president, the media revealed they have learned a zippo in the past two years. Bongino, Schlapp, and York breakdown why the country sees the media as more divisive than the president, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: A short while ago, the White House announced they are suspending access to CNN reporter Jim Acosta after some absurd self-involved theatrics during a White House news conference today. Here are some choice moments.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I wanted to challenge you on one of the statements you made on the tail end of the campaign in the midterms.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Here we go --
ACOSTA: Well, if you don't mind, Mr. President, that this caravan was an invasion --
TRUMP: I consider it to be an invasion.
ACOSTA: Mr. President, that's not an invasion.
TRUMP: Honestly, I think you should let me run the country, you run CNN, and if you did it well your ratings would be much better.
ACOSTA: If I may ask one other question. Are you worried --
TRUMP: That's enough. That's enough.
ACOSTA: Mr. President, I was going to ask one other -- the other folks -- pardon me, ma'am.
TRUMP: That's enough. I'll tell you what. CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn't be working for CNN.
ACOSTA: Mr. President, you repeatedly over the course of --
TRUMP: Just sit down, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said the Democrats would unleash a wave of violent crime that endangers families everywhere.
TRUMP: Because they are very weak on crime.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you pitting Americans against one another?
TRUMP: Peter, what are you trying to be him?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I'm just asking a question. To be clear, the question is why are you --
TRUMP: Thank you very much. Sit down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you didn't answer my question. Just very simply, the question is why are you pitting Americans against one another, sir?
TRUMP: I'm not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, if it's unfair to the country and it's costing millions of dollars, why don't you just --
TRUMP: Give him the mic, please. I've answered the question. Go ahead, take -- thank you. I will give you voter suppression. You just have to sit down, please. Sit down. I didn't call you. I didn't call you. I didn't call you. Excuse me, I'm not responding to you. I'm talking to this gentleman. Will you please sit down? Excuse me. Excuse me. Would you please sit down? Please, go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President. Now that the House of Representatives --
TRUMP: Very hostile. It's such a hostile media. It's so sad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Joining us now, Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, Byron York, chief political correspondent at the "Washington Examiner," FOX News contributor, and Dan Bongino, former Secret Service agent, host of "The Dan Bongino Show." Dan, I've got to start with you. Have the media learned anything about how Trump rolls and about why he connects with the American people after you saw that disgraceful performance today by the reporters in the briefing?
DAN BONGINO, HOST, "THE DAN BONGINO SHOW": No, they've learned nothing, Laura. For four and a half years I've worked in the White House, and I'm old enough, Laura, to remember, and I'm sure you are as well, "The Daily Caller" reporter questioning Obama while he was making statements, and the media lost its mind, how disrespectful, how horrible it was. What you saw today was not a press conference. What you saw was an interrogation. And what they wanted was not answers. What they wanted was a confession. They came in there convinced Donald Trump was a fascist, a racist, and a xenophobe, and they wanted him to answer. That was the confession.
But one last thing on this, Laura, too, because this is -- I don't know what's more embarrassing, Acosta and the press corps behavior, or Jim Acosta singlehandedly changing the conversation from the Democrats' House takeover to a conversation about Jim Acosta? Well done, Jim. Really nice job. You learned a lot of lessons from that.
INGRAHAM: I've got to say, and Byron, I want to go to you on this. You are a working journalist every day, great columns. It seems like a lot of these reporters are really all about -- not me, them. The finger is always pointed back at them. Look at me, look at me, look at me, I'm having my moment, viral, viral, viral. It's so just unseemly. It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing for the country. And I want to show this graphic. This is Americans saying the media have divided more than united since Trump took office. More to unite, media, 17 percent, more to divide with the media's role, 64 percent. That's political morning console pole. So who is more divisive here?
BRYON YORK, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "WASHINGTON EXAMINER": A poll came just before the midterms, and it did ask does President Trump do more to divide or unite, and 56 percent said that he did more to divide. But then they asked about the press, and they said 64 with the press. So they thought the press was more divisive. And I think today what we saw is a perfect example of that. They just went overboard on the adversarial thing.
Chris Wallace, who has covered a lot of White Houses, called Jim Acosta's performance shameful and said he had embarrassed himself. And there comes a point when the president of the United States is the president of United States and you are the reporter standing there asking the question. You ask a question, you ask a follow-up, you try to persist. But you can't just keep doing --
INGRAHAM: When that Neil Munro from "The Daily Caller" asked that one tough question on immigration, it was one tough question he got throughout. They went nuts on him.
YORK: They did. He was completely out of line. Obama was just speaking, and Munro got up and interrupted him and Obama was clearly stunned.
INGRAHAM: Compared what they are doing now?
YORK: Yes, but Neil Munro was really out of line in doing that and deserves some sort of censure. And perhaps that will happen in the Acosta case as well.
MATT SCHLAPP, CONTRIBUTOR, "THE HILL": We have a censure. He's lost his hard pass to the White House. And there's no timeframe on that. I think that's the right decision.
There does have to be some decorum. There is another piece here which is the media is trying -- they are supposed to be facilitating a give-and-take with the president, you know who for, the American people, so they can learn. Here You have a president who said in the last 24 hours, maybe sometimes I should look at my tone. He says today, Pelosi is in charge of the House, maybe I should work with her. And they turned that which is an important moment for our republic into this ridiculous charade of trying to shame Trump. What about that PBS question about nationalism equates to white nationalism? This has to stop.
INGRAHAM: That whole nationalism thing -- my earring fell. Isn't that fun. The whole nationalism thing. Let me see if I can talk and put it in at the same time. The whole nationalism thing has been completely opposed. Yorum Hazony's piece on that, just totally exposed it.
CNN did put out a statement today, tonight. This is what they said. "This president's ongoing attacks on the press have gone too far. They're not only dangerous, they're disturbingly un-American. While president Trump has made it clear he does not respect a free press, he has a sworn obligation to protect it. Jim Acosta, fellow journalists everywhere, we stand behind him united."
Dan Bongino, again, this is the drumbeat. He's a tyrant, he's an autocrat. He's like Putin, Stalin, and Pol Pot combined. They been doing this from day one, Dan, and it does not resonate. I'm sorry, they don't learn. They should have asked the question, what's the first thing you're going to work on with Pelosi. How are you going to get it done? That's a tough question. How are you going to get it done after you've insulted her? I would ask that question. Go ahead, Dan.
BONGINO: Laura, what we witnessed again was like an intergalactic cosmic disgrace. Americans who work for a living had to be horrified at what they saw if you had happened to witness that live today. You're right. There were so many good questions to ask. How do we feel about it, making permanent the middle-class tax cuts that Nancy Pelosi, by the way, complained about because they were not permanent, how about that? How about portions of our health care law, government interference that are upping the prices on them? How about shooting loans? How about the opioid prices? And as Mark Levin said earlier on Hannity's show, what answers did we get, Laura? Nothing. We got a question about, Mr. Trump, are you a racist? Mr. Trump, are you going to obstruct justice by firing Bob Mueller? How out of touch in the bubble dwellers can they be?
INGRAHAM: Great point. You two, very quickly, Radio and Television Digital News Association says it condemns this obvious punitive action of the administration and call on it to restore Mr. Acosta's credentials immediately. Byron, the White House is not going to OK his credentials.
YORK: I think the reason the White House gave, somehow Acosta had harmed the young woman --
INGRAHAM: Laid his hand on her. Look at the tape.
YORK: Laid his hand on her. Listen, I don't think that's a very good reason. I think they could say they were doing it because he was disruptive at this event. But there's got to be some sort --
INGRAHAM: I disagree. If this had happened during Obama -- she's an intern. He's like wrestling over the microphone. What are you, 12?
SCHLAPP: I don't think he tried to punch her, but she was clearly shaken. She was nervous. She's on national TV. She's probably a 20-years-old kid, and she was so nervous because he would not relinquish the microphone, and that was really the wrong thing.
INGRAHAM: Panel, stay right there. We have a lot more to get to with you. Just a short time ago, Nancy Pelosi formally launched her bid to be the next speaker of the House. But will she be able to fend off the radical leftist heading to Washington? That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I was trying to hang onto the microphone so I could continue to ask the president questions. Obviously, I didn't put my hands on her or touch her as they are alleging, and it's just unfortunate that the White House is saying this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: That's all we need to hear from him. CNN, by the way, tonight issued a statement saying basically that the president's revocation of the press pass was a threat to democracy. Byron York, a threat to democracy, because it was a melee in there. He might as well have just taking the podium from the president and done the press conference himself. Why doesn't he just do that, next time?
YORK: If I remember correctly, this actually happened with Jim Acosta before during the transition. I think it was a news conference at Trump Tower, and Acosta treated it as if it were a one on one, as if there was nobody else sitting there, nobody else was going to ask questions. And you do not have a right to ask questions indefinitely of the president of the United States. You ask your question, you ask a follow-up, and it's over.
INGRAHAM: We don't have to dwell on. But you just can't keep the microphone -- and these other reporters, like, covering for -- what are they calling him? That's unfair. That's unfair, but it's a clever pun.
SCHLAPP: But let me tell you, he likes that microphone.
INGRAHAM: He should have said I paid for that microphone. He should have done a Reagan.
Let's now talk about Nancy Pelosi. We'll go to Bongino on this, because she was treated with kid gloves as you guys pointed out during the break. Dan, they are asking her, tell us how great all these new women are who got elected. It's like what's your favorite color kind of press conference with her. But she played it pretty nice and pretty down the middle today, a little different from Jerry Nadler who was absolutely on the Acela Express this morning rattling off all the investigations he's going to undertake according Mollie Hemingway's piece today.
BONGINO: Yes, I read the Mollie Hemingway piece. I encourage everybody to do so be. Jerry Nadler gave an interview to an entire car on the Acela heading back to D.C. and was totally unaware of that. And let me tell you, Laura, I've done this before talking a little too loud outside of the quiet car, so I know what Jerry Nadler is going through. So this impeachment thing that Nadler allegedly said, that this was going to be a goal number one, think about this. You have upwards to 12 to 15 Democrats who just won on the kind of hopey-changey stuff in Republican leaning or swingy districts. How do you think that's going to go over when they have to get on the record on impeachment, for instance, Steve Russell's seat in Oklahoma City that they just won that's like R plus six? Good luck with that. I think they've got to dial that back, and Jerry Nadler needs --
INGRAHAM: And the polls are showing, Matt, we're almost out of time, the polls are showing that people don't want the impeachment stuff.
SCHLAPP: No, they don't. And do you know who really gets that? Even Nancy Pelosi understands that. You saw the answer, she's like we're going to very careful and take these step-by-step. She's going kicking and screaming. She knows if they overplay their hand, they're going to lose all these seats they just picked up.
YORK: Real quick, Russia was not an issue in the midterms. The Democrats didn't bring it up, and we saw a poll from the exit polls saying that 54 of the people believe the investigation was politically motivated.
INGRAHAM: And immigration, number two issue in the state of Florida, immigration number two issue, only behind health care by three points. Interesting.
Guys, fantastic. Great to have you on two panels. Loved it.
Tonight's last bite is from a Republican woman in California making history, though you might have never heard of it. Certain firsts don't count, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: It's time for the last bite. The mainstream media fawning over the more than 85 women elected to Congress last night. That is kind of a cool thing. But they are forgetting the Republican who is also making a first.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YOUNG KIM, R—CALIF., FIRST KOREAN-AMERICAN ELECTED TO Congress: As you know I am an immigrant from South Korea. So I have a unique perspective into what it means to be and to live an American dream.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: I want to have her on. Maybe she'll come on tomorrow. Phenomenal. What a great story. Beautiful, well-spoken, an incredible first. Just selected to Congress in California's 39th district. And also, blue state, a red victory there. Congrats to her. That's all the time we have. Shannon Bream and the "Fox News @ Night" team, take it from here for us. Another fantastic show. Shannon?
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