Kellyanne Conway: Congress and the courts have given us the border crisis

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Conway: Congress and the courts have given us the border crisis

Trump could declare national emergency to build border wall without approval from Congress; counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway weighs in.

This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," January 7, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

LAURA INGRAHAM, HOST: I'm Laura Ingraham. This is "The Ingraham Angle" from Washington tonight. It is great to be back. The President announcing an Oval Office address and a trip to the border. Kellyanne Conway is here later, and she'll tell us how the White House intends to go on the offense on this immigration crisis.

And plus, could President Trump really be in a position to pick a third Supreme Court Justice sometime this year? We have an important update for you later tonight. And Joe Biden versus Barack Obama? Once best buddies, we're going to explain how the 2020 nomination fight could actually lead to a bitter breakup over the future of the Democratic Party. Breaking up is very hard to do.

But first, the crisis of crisis denial. That's the focus on tonight's Angle.

Since getting back from Christmas break, Hannity is teasing me, I've tortured myself by reading and watching some of the usual suspects in the media. Fake news populated by fake thinkers. Now there are basically two movements in the coverage. First, the manufactured outrage about what is a partial and obviously temporary government shutdown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Yosemite, the nation's third busiest national park, they're also having huge problems with garbage and toilets filled to capacity.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Park visitors in some places are taking care of business, shall we say, along pathways or in the woods.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: --ironic that the people who are making the decisions are still getting paid, but we have not get paid and still do our job.

BRIAN TURNER, TSA AGENT WORKING WITHOUT PAY: A little about half hour from work, and it's going to come to a point where you say, do I put gas in my car or do I feed my family?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: They haven't missed a paycheck yet. I hope they don't. But by the way, second in this coverage is the downplayed concern about the actual effect that illegal immigration has in America, because in the media's way of thinking, it's not a crisis at all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mike Pence knows he was lying through his teeth last week when he talked about the crisis at the southern border.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It goes to the point of how the President had one election that there was a crisis at their border. He had to create that sense of crisis to end and he has to keep that sense of crisis to keep his popularity from going even further down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: OK. I am now completely confused. It's a crisis that certain nonessential government workers won't be paid starting on Friday, but they will ultimately get all their money when the government reopens. But it's not a crisis when just in the past fiscal year, a total of almost 400,000 individuals were caught crossing our southwest border?

Now, to give you a sense of just how bad it is, in October and November of this past year, that's the first two months of the new fiscal year, almost 102,000 people have been caught. That's quite a clip. The number of people crossing illegally with children has also skyrocketed. In the Rio Grande Valley sector alone, the number spiked 27 percent since last year, jumping from like 49,896 in fiscal year 2017 to 63,278 in the last fiscal year. Not a crisis?

This is and has been a crisis felt by average Americans far beyond the comfy confines of TV studios and far beyond the heady halls of Congress. Yet the media and deceitful politicians only acknowledge the crisis when the tragedy of an immigrant child makes the headlines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today's visit reaffirmed the fact that the federal government under the Trump administration still has a long way to go in making sure that migrants are treated humanely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: And you bet every life is precious. And you bet that every death is tragic. Deaths at the border, deaths beyond the border. But the fault here lies with irresponsible parents who expose their children to this perilous journey and the feckless politicians who refused to do their job and support a commonsense enforcement agenda that the president has and asylum reform that is beyond desperately needed.

Now, over the past year, I have repeatedly urged the President to address this critical issue and not just the wall in a major primetime address.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: The President needs to address this from the Oval, and this should become a flash point now, not after the midterms.

This is a crisis that must be addressed immediately.

I've begged him to do this for a year.

On air, it's the government and immigration. Those two issues are the top of the list for the people. The government, meaning working against the people, and immigration. That's it. You've got to address the country on this. Not tweets. Address the country, lay it out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Well, today I'm glad to see that he announced he's doing just that tomorrow night. And it's going to be followed by a trip to the actual border, McAllen, Texas. Good.

Now, I would hope that when he does this, the President personalizes the border crisis. Those statistics I just gave you, they're important. But we need to emphasize how illegal immigration has directly and at times tragically affected the lives of all Americans and including the people trying to come into the country. It's been dangerous for them.

The speech should be wide-ranging, hitting all the big immigration issues, from chain migration to the visa lottery, the need for mandatory e-verify in the workplace, and also yes, even the scam of so-called birthright citizenship.

That's where children of non-U.S. citizens are granted automatic citizenship, just for being born here. Every year, thousands of Chinese, Russians, and others travel to the United States to have babies just for the U.S. passport. It's called birth tourism. It is a complete outrage. It's big business. And no, it's not a constitutional right. So don't try me on that.

As for all those who claim, by the way, that illegal immigration is not a crisis, I think American families of these victims would disagree. The day after Christmas, California officer Ronil Singh was shot in cold blood during a routine traffic stop. He left behind a wife and a five-month-old baby. His murderer, illegal alien Gustavo Perez Arriaga. Thousands of citizens and hundreds of officers attended the funeral service. I wish all of you could watch it. And this happened over the weekend.

This is the Fiji Ambassador, the officer originally hailed from Fiji, speaking at the service, and I was watching him today. I hadn't seen it until today. He has a better grasp of this tragedy than many American commentators.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAIVAKARURUBALAVU SOLO MARA, FIJIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES: No words can take away their pains. No object can fill the void in their hearts. No embrace can be more comforting. No scheme can replace their shattered dreams. No death can be more untimely. This is what Ronil Singh's passing must mean to those closest to him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: And his parents are still alive as well, by the way.

And then on December 29th, 22-year-old Pierce Corcoran was killed in a collision in Knoxville, Tennessee. The man who swerved into him and took his life was another illegal alien, Franco Cambrany Francisco-Eduardo.

My friends, the families of both of these upstanding Americans are tonight in crisis. The President cannot relent. He must continue to speak for these families and frankly for the millions of you who believe that every country, not just our - every country around the world has the sovereign right to determine who can and cannot reside here. It's not immoral to do so.

And if our elected representatives refuse to do their solemn duty to defend our country, then we in essence - we kind of already have a government that shut down, shut down to the will of the people. And by the way, the people routinely rank illegal immigration as one of the most urgent problems facing this nation.

And as for the Republicans on Capitol Hill, think about it for a moment. Take a lesson from the Democrats. They never break ranks. Think about what you Republicans accomplished by supporting the President during the confirmation fight of Brett Kavanaugh. When things got tough, when the media were piling on, Republicans stood firm. Do it again here.

The Democrats are desperate to divide and conquer the GOP. Don't let them. And that's The Angle.

Joining me now is Tom Homan, former Acting ICE Director and a Fox News contributor, and former DNC Comms Director and former Communications Adviser to President Obama, Luis Miranda.

Tom, besides the wall, what other legislative fixes must Congress do?

TOM HOMAN, FORMER ACTING ICE DIRECTOR: Well, I think the two top ones are the TVPRA, Trafficking Victims Protection Act. This is - when unaccompanied children come across the border, the Central American children are treated differently than the children from Mexico and Canada.

Once they find out they're not true victims of trafficking, if you're from Mexico or Canada, they're going to move them right away, or from Central America, they get all these extra rights. They end up staying in the country for years going through the immigration process that the Mexican children and Canadian children don't get. We need to fix that. All the children need to be - have the same set of rules. And that will solve a lot of the UAC crisis.

The other thing is--

INGRAHAM: The unaccompanied children.

HOMAN: Right.

INGRAHAM: Unaccompanied minor children.

HOMAN: Unaccompanied children. Yes. Second thing is--

INGRAHAM: But Tom, those numbers - I mean, numbers kind of can be sterile. Those numbers are staggering. So when these people on television are like, well, the numbers have gone down from 2004 and they show the chart. We're all supposed to go, ooh, the chart. 63,000 people - I mean, those kids have to go to public school--

HOMAN: Right.

INGRAHAM: --they have to be cared for. They often have - are on food stamps, other public assistance. We've got, two blocks from here, people sleeping in the streets who have a sign that say, "I'm an Air Force veteran sleeping in the streets tonight."

HOMAN: That makes a good point. Let's say the other legislative priority that needs to take place, 160,000 family units. Now what we need to address here is the Florida settlement agreement because a ninth circuit judge ruled that we can't detain families for more than 20 days.

Now, back in FY '14, when we first started family detention, we had these hearings within 40, 45 days.

INGRAHAM: Yes.

HOMAN: And once we filled plains up (ph) of 90 percent that lost their hearings, the numbers went down of the illegal crossings. But some judge of the ninth circuit says, no, you can't detain more than 20 days--

INGRAHAM: The Florida has settled--

HOMAN: Exactly.

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: (inaudible).

HOMAN: --which means they get released. And that's why there's a surge of family members right now because they know they won't be detained. They get released into the public. Many don't show up in court. And if they show up in court and lose their case, which is 91 percent lose their case, less than 2 percent leave. That is an open border's agenda. So we need to address the Florida settlement agreement.

INGRAHAM: OK. The Florida settlement agreement has those (ph). Luis, it seems like just a few years ago, Democrats believed in border - not walls. I remember Operation Gatekeeper in San Diego. That was a Bill Clinton initiative. I covered it for CBS News. In 1996, I was down there at the border, like, "Wow! Operation Gatekeeper." Huge barrier. Steel barrier.

LUIS MIRANDA, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: Let's break this down.

INGRAHAM: They were all for it.

MIRANDA: Let's break this down with--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: What's changed?

MIRANDA: One of the issues here is that Donald Trump is an expert at creating a crisis like he did--

INGRAHAM: So you deny that this is a crisis at all?

MIRANDA: I think that this is a problem that we can deal with very efficiently. We have the resources, we have the people, we have the ability to fix this.

INGRAHAM: We don't have the people - I honestly want you to - I hate interrupting you.

MIRANDA: But--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: I don't want to interrupt. But we don't have the manpower--

MIRANDA: Let me clarify this.

INGRAHAM: --to process people.

MIRANDA: Donald Trump (inaudible) with North Korea as he does with China. He creates a crisis--

INGRAHAM: That is the talking point.

MIRANDA: --then compromises--

INGRAHAM: That's the talking point.

MIRANDA: --and then--

INGRAHAM: I just--

MIRANDA: --he comes in--

INGRAHAM: --laid out what in my Angle--

MIRANDA: --and pretends like he made a victim.

INGRAHAM: --what in my Angle that lay out--

MIRANDA: This is--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: --did you--

MIRANDA: This is Richard Haass, Council on Foreign Relations--

INGRAHAM: Oh, Richard Haass. Yes, he's a big--

MIRANDA: --former--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: --he's a big supporter of--

MIRANDA: --adviser.

INGRAHAM: Richard Haass is in favor of enforcing other people's borders, believe me, but not ours.

(CROSSTALK)

MIRANDA: --last is the immigration piece.

INGRAHAM: OK. So what in my Angle did you specifically disagree with? What numbers, what - what point did I miss?

MIRANDA: One of the important things to note is that the Trump administration itself, DHS under Donald Trump in 2017 pointed out that they are at some of the historically lowest numbers of people trying to cross the border.

Now, there does seem appear to be a surge in October and November, but we are not by any means at a crisis level. This is a situation that, yes, we need to do more to work with the three countries of Northern and Central America, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador to make sure that we're identifying ways to, one, reduce the violence there, fight some of the criminal organizations, and perhaps work with them to establish points where we can help with these people so that they can request asylum from them.

INGRAHAM: So 400,000--

MIRANDA: But people are crossing our borders--

INGRAHAM: --there are ways that we can do this.

MIRANDA: --without creating a crisis.

INGRAHAM: I just have to understand this. I just have to understand - I know you are well-intentioned. I know you - I think you want a solution to this. I get it. But how is it not a bipartisan issue when 400,000 people come into our country illegally every year? How is that - I don't care if it's down from 1.2 million from five years ago. That's bad too. But 400,000 people. They have to go to public school. They use our infrastructure. They get a--

MIRANDA: Democrats have--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: --a range of benefits.

MIRANDA: --plenty of border security. We have more than 16,000 border patrol agents right now. We have drones flying and we have more than 700 miles of fence.

INGRAHAM: What do drones do to pay for a kid's college - high school education?

HOMAN: And drones don't arrest people. Look, the same people who claim there isn't a crisis on the border claim there wasn't a caravan. And we found out differently. Didn't we? There's a crisis on the border. Two children have died. And if President Trump - if he wasn't sued by the ACLU and some ninth circuit judge says, no, you can enter illegally and still claim asylum, we're stuck with - what President Trump want is come to the port of entry, claim asylum. These two children would be alive there. They wouldn't have to cross between port of entry.

MIRANDA: There is definitely an important incentive to tell parents don't pay smugglers, don't work with these criminal elements that are--

INGRAHAM: Right.

MIRANDA: --taking you through all these countries to get to the southern border. That's fine. We can all agree on that because--

INGRAHAM: I don't think any of the - I don't think any country in Central America would want 400,000 people - I mean, I know it's different because they're smaller countries. They wouldn't want a big mass of people coming into their countries who they believe weren't invited or not welcome. They - no country wants a free flow of humanity across the border. I don't know any country personally that wants that.

MIRANDA: The reason that this is a--

INGRAHAM: I assume you don't want that.

MIRANDA: --a mass right now is because the wall is not necessarily the right way to fix this because we already have seven miles of fencing. There's definitely ways that we can improve the technology along the border.

INGRAHAM: Does Operation Gatekeeper work in San Diego?

MIRANDA: I don't recall the specifics of it. But--

INGRAHAM: It's a - it's a big, big--

MIRANDA: But the reality is we have - we have a lot of--

INGRAHAM: --a big mark in fences.

MIRANDA: We have a lot of friends there--

INGRAHAM: It worked.

MIRANDA: --already. We have it all the way to El Paso. And there is plenty of other things that we need to do. For example, the textures of seismic changes because of the tunnels that they build under now. And those are the true criminal--

HOMAN: That replace--

(CROSSTALK)

MIRANDA: --smugglers.

INGRAHAM: Yes. They are--

HOMAN: That replace a--

(CROSSTALK)

MIRANDA: So Democrats--

INGRAHAM: That's right.

MIRANDA: Democrats are all for that.

INGRAHAM: I'm in favor of that. I'm going to--

MIRANDA: But--

INGRAHAM: I'm good for that.

MIRANDA: --to shut down the government and have 500,000 people not getting paid here--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: To his point - to his point, a wall takes a long time. How does that address a crisis? A wall - it's not going to be built overnight. So how was that - how is that dealing with the crisis, Tom?

HOMAN: Well, first of all, let's be clear. I was at a meeting at the White House today. I made it clear, one thing we need to talk about is walls do work. Every place they've built a barrier, illegal immigration plummeted. In San Diego, you - El Paso, so he needs to put that false narrative that Nancy Pelosi pushed out that walls are ineffective, they're medieval. No. The data proves that wall works.

So let's educate American people first that wall will work. But we need to talk about legislative changes because families are going to keep coming and they keep getting released.

INGRAHAM: Yes.

HOMAN: I mean, that's enticement--

INGRAHAM: If you're released, you're coming. I--

MIRANDA: (inaudible)

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: I don't even blame them.

MIRANDA: A Trump-made crisis that is not worth shutting the government over when there are ways that we can deal with increases in immigration--

INGRAHAM: Right.

MIRANDA: --where ways that we can deal with the Central American problem of--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: So you think we - when they come, you want them to stay?

MIRANDA: --drug trafficking - I think that we obviously have to allow someone who wants to apply for asylum to apply for it. But there's ways to deal--

INGRAHAM: But they should stay--?

(CROSSTALK)

MIRANDA: There's ways to deal with these people even before they get to the border without creating an unnecessary crisis and shutting down the government and having 500,000 Americans who were not going to get a paycheck for over a month right now.

INGRAHAM: Well, they haven't not been paid. They will be paid when the government reopens.

MIRANDA: They haven't been paid since the 27th--

INGRAHAM: But the Democrats don't want a border at all. Isn't that the case--

MIRANDA: At the earliest--

INGRAHAM: --they don't want a border?

MIRANDA: --they will be paid at the 25th of this month.

INGRAHAM: OK. That's--

MIRANDA: So it'll be more than a month.

INGRAHAM: You don't answer the question. That kind of reveals a lot, and I love having one.

MIRANDA: No, no. I said very clearly that we have always prioritized--

INGRAHAM: Yes.

MIRANDA: --border security--

INGRAHAM: Right.

MIRANDA: --but do it smartly. Not just build a wall--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: Smart border security--

HOMAN: I just--

INGRAHAM: --like Swiss cheese. That's Swiss cheese border.

MIRANDA: Once we get it through the--

HOMAN: But I just can't believe--

(CROSSTALK)

MIRANDA: --national emergency and--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: I can't believe you're watching the media coverage - you're watching the media coverage - you're watching media coverage--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: Yes. Got to go.

HOMAN: --but you're going to say that Trump invented this crisis.

INGRAHAM: All right.

HOMAN: And--

INGRAHAM: It's just not - this has been - this has been--

(CROSSTALK)

MIRANDA: --worked on the same side--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: All right, guys. We're out of time.

HOMAN: (inaudible)--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: We're getting to the next - all right. Thank you, two.

(CROSSTALK)

MIRANDA: --smuggler.

INGRAHAM: Now onto a story that really raises the question. Do you - do elected officials actually care about our safety? Now, take Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Sheriff Garry McFadden. Just one month ago, on his first day in office, he ended a program called 287(g). Now, I wonder that program the Sheriff's office reported the immigration status of its inmates to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, something Tom Homan knows a lot about.

Now, McFadden says that the goal is to build a rapport with law enforcement and the community that they serve. But I wonder if the community knew what they were getting into when this guy was elected. Early last year, undocumented immigrant Kevin Santos shot a man during an attempted robbery. He was being held in Mecklenburg County jail under the 287(g) program that McFadden just ended.

The man he shot, he wants to remain anonymous. Can't hardly blame him. But he told local news in Charlotte that his dream of joining the army was snuffed out due to the severity of his injury. Meanwhile, Santos is free to walk. And he is walking the streets until his hearing in two months.

So my question is, why isn't this individual immediately deported? Any illegal who commits a felony is, by law, to be immediately deported in the United States. So why aren't local officials enforcing this? This should be fast-tracked out of the country. All told, McFadden's office says that 28 people who were held under this 287(g) provision have been released in just a month's time. 28.

And a source said that those release present a danger to the public. We invited Sheriff McFadden on. I truly want to hear how he explains this. Maybe there's a good explanation. He declined, citing an inconsistency in the reporting that's wholly separate from this whole 287(g) issue. That invitation now remains open.

For more on why Trump won and how the GOP could do it all again, grab a copy of my new paperback, Busting the Barricades: What I Saw at the Populist Revolt. It's in bookstores everywhere. It makes a great New Year gift.

And up next, President Trump is set to address the country tomorrow night about the real crisis at our southern border, saying that it could classify as a national emergency. Wow! We invoke this power on national television? Counselor to the President, Kellyanne Conway is here with an exclusive preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I may declare a national emergency depending on what's going to happen over the next few days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Absolutely. We can call a national emergency because of the security of our country. Absolutely. No, we can do it. I haven't done it. I may do it.

We have a crisis of the border of drugs, of human beings being trafficked all over the world. They're coming through. And we have an absolute crisis, and of criminals and gang members coming through. It is national security. It's a national emergency.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: So you've seen it. President Trump floating the idea of declaring that national emergency to completely go around Congress and get that border wall built. Is that what he's going to push for tomorrow night when he addresses the nation from the Oval?

Joining me now to answer that question, Counselor to the President, Kellyanne Conway.

Kellyanne, there are some Republicans who are worrying that by declaring a national emergency, the President could then open himself up to the months and years of legal disputes and get that all mocked up in the course.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: The President is going to address the nation tomorrow, Laura. He's going to lay out the facts and figures of what he considers to be humanitarian and security crisis at the border.

INGRAHAM: Is he going to talk about the national emergency aspect of--?

(CROSSTALK)

CONWAY: What he has said about that is that he is considering it. He's never committed to it. White House Counsel's office is researching the legal implications of it. But in many ways, we'd also let Congress off the hook one more time. And so there are probably some people who want him to declare it so that Congress again can fail to do its job.

The Congress and the courts have failed to do their job. They've given us this crisis. And when people deny the use of the word crisis of this border, it's very sad to me because what is not a crisis if not an increase in the drugs and the meth, the fentanyl, the cocaine and the heroin coming over the southern border. 90 percent of the heroin, the government statistics say, come over the southern border.

DHS says there's about a 73 percent increase in fentanyl coming over the border. Customs and border patrol just last year surveilled, captured enough fentanyl to have killed every man, woman and child in this country.

INGRAHAM: But a wall will take a long time to build. Playing devil's advocate here. I'm all for the wall.

CONWAY: I mean, the - but the humanitarian crisis is very real too. I mean- -

INGRAHAM: Yes.

CONWAY: --it just breaks my heart. I'm constantly being asked. As you - as a lawyer, as a mother--

INGRAHAM: Don't you care about the children, Kellyanne?

CONWAY: That's right. If you care about the children, you would agree with President Trump that they should not take this perilous track in the first place. We have this massive increase in family units--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: No. We talked about in THE ANGLE.

CONWAY: --coming here. And if you really care about them, as the Democrats and many news media claim they do, you would deter them from taking this perilous track in the first place. It's an increase in family units, an increase in people coming from the northern triangle--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: But that requires a legislative fix. It's an issue - you and I have been going around on this issue for years.

CONWAY: It requires admitting that it's true.

INGRAHAM: Congress--

CONWAY: And some are denying it.

INGRAHAM: But how do you get Thom Tillis, Cory Gardner, Susan Collins - I mean, they were great on--

CONWAY: Well, they're for border security.

INGRAHAM: --supporting the President on--

CONWAY: They care about it.

INGRAHAM: --on Kavanaugh. They were great on that. But they're getting antsy about the shutdown. I mean, I'm hearing all the little - I'm getting calls from people. The shutdown. We got to - if - the government has already shut down to the will of the people on this issue. Your polling, when you were just doing the polling business just a few years ago, demonstrated that. That's not changed.

CONWAY: 2014 it was--

INGRAHAM: That poll that you did, I still cite that poll. That was one of the best things ever done about level of immigration, people wanted to stay the same or go down.

CONWAY: Yes. Well, particularly - and by the way, in 2014, President Obama had the children at the border crisis. Secretary Jeh Johnson at Homeland Security then wrote some memos. I brought with me here tonight. Very fascinating read. So we were doing the polling in the midst of that.

And even then, Americans agreed that they want these children by and large to be returned safely to their home countries. Mexico has offered asylum and visas, safe passage to these northern triangle family units and unaccompanied children who are coming here. They can have their fears - their claims of fear processed while they are in Mexico. They don't want to do that.

INGRAHAM: Well, Congress, they don't agree to this. So - I mean, I also want to get your reaction--

CONWAY: The Congress--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: --though, Kellyanne, to a debate over just how many terrorists are apprehended at the border. The White House has thrown around a number of about 4,000, but U.S. Customs and Border Protection says they encountered six immigrants with terror ties on the border with Mexico in the first half of the fiscal year 2018. We don't know about the second half.

I personally think one terrorist is a problem. We know what one terrorist can do when you look at what happened in Paris, a few in each plane on 9/11. But you know what they do. They take that and say, oh, you're trying to put the - scare the people, and it's a much smaller threat than you describe. Doesn't that hurt the credibility of the White House when we don't get these basic facts right and someone is not doing their homework and the way they describe it?

CONWAY: So let me - this particular presentation put forth by the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Nielsen has now briefed, the Democratic principles who were in the meeting - the staffers who were in the meetings over the weekend, today, I sat there as she briefed about 50 reporters with a pen and pad with the Vice President. And then she also did it with some other journalists.

And I think this is important, because on page three, and as - I believe it's on the website as well. This is the - 3,755 number does not refer to people at the southern border. "Known or suspected terrorists prevented from traveling to or entering the U.S. by DHS in FY '17." I believe that includes some international airports where customs and border patrol--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: --overwhelmingly at the airports.

CONWAY: But the other two statistics on here were about the southern border. So I think it got--

INGRAHAM: Right. Yes.

CONWAY: It got unfortunately--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: I get it.

CONWAY: --colleague. But--

INGRAHAM: Yes.

CONWAY: But the apprehensions at the border of gang members, of known criminals--

INGRAHAM: Right.

CONWAY: --these are all - again, the media has this presentation. They want to be honest when citing facts and figures.

INGRAHAM: Well, they're - they're cherry-picking, but this is what they do. They do it to Supreme Court nominees if they get something up.

CONWAY: Yes. I think that was--

INGRAHAM: They do it to all of us. Everyone - like, we all kind of make mistakes. We're talking--

CONWAY: Yes.

INGRAHAM: --all day long.

CONWAY: That was an unfortunate misstatement.

INGRAHAM: Yes.

CONWAY: And everybody makes mistakes--

INGRAHAM: Right.

CONWAY: --all of us. The fact is it's corrected here. And anybody who turns a blind eye to the actual numbers of the human trafficking, the increase in the drugs, we are concerned about your children here in the United States not being subject to all these drugs and we are concerned about their children--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: Will this be personalized tomorrow night?

CONWAY: --a population.

INGRAHAM: Is it going to be personalized? Are we going to hear about the people much? Because numbers - numbers, people's eyes glaze over. They here 400,000 people cross the border, like--

(CROSSTALK)

CONWAY: In these private meetings, the President has made very many personal appeals. He feels--

INGRAHAM: Good.

CONWAY: --the humanitarian aspect of this--

INGRAHAM: I hope that's tomorrow night too.

CONWAY: --and he's been making that clear. Please don't take your children. These vulnerable populations are increasingly showing up at the border.

INGRAHAM: What about the nastiness of the rhetoric? You and I have felt it personally. Big deal. We're big girls. We have dealt with it for years.  But the comments from some of the Democrats who are revealing themselves day after day after day as this government shutdown goes on. Rashida Tlaib, newly elected congressman, said this about her previous comments, profane, about impeachment. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RASHIDA TLAIB, D-MICH.: I stand by impeaching the president of the United States. I ran on that. I'm very passionate, and I grew up in an incredibly beautiful urban community, the city of Detroit, born and raised. We say colorful things in interesting ways. But I tell you, the president of the United States is my focus. The residents back home are my focus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONWAY: I don't know why the president is her focus, except that they are all physiologically incapable of beginning or ending a sentence without saying Donald Trump seven times, and she proved it.

Let's go back to the context of her original profane comment. She said she had been talking to her son about becoming a congresswoman, and then she made it -- but I think that she was brushed back pretty severely and pretty swiftly by Congressman Nadler, incoming chairman, certainly by Senator Joe Manchin really blew back at her with respect to her comments, that we don't speak that way. It's not necessary.

And just this weekend, you saw the Democratic leadership in the House pulling way back on this notion of the impeachment.

INGRAHAM: They're worried about the impeachment mania.

CONWAY: They are very worried about -- they're worried about I think a number of these freshman members particularly coming in here and saying I thought that's why we're here. You're here to represent the constituents that elected you and you're here to represent their interests. This president has kept us safe and secure and more prosperous. And if they want to get in the way of that, then --

INGRAHAM: He's not going to relent on this shutdown if he doesn't get what he wants.

CONWAY: He's not going to relent on border security. His first and solemn duty is to keep us safe.

INGRAHAM: Wall or border security?

CONWAY: He has had it's all the same, meaning that it will be made of still now, U.S. steel, American steel.

INGRAHAM: He has compromised. He's already compromised. They are not will to compromise.

CONWAY: He compromised. The $25 billion number was never real by the Democrats. But this is important because many people say you should see through it. The Customs and Border Patrol say you need to see through it.

INGRAHAM: I don't get that.

CONWAY: They say slats are better for that. They need to see what's on the other side.

INGRAHAM: OK, well, Kellyanne, thank you.

CONWAY: The president is listening to them. They're brave and they're putting their lives on the line at the border.

INGRAHAM: Personalize, American love personal --

CONWAY: No question.

INGRAHAM: Our old friend Ronald Reagan understood that, personalize everything. Kellyanne, thank you so much.

CONWAY: Thank you.

INGRAHAM: And when word broke today that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg did not show up for her first oral arguments of the new year, liberals freaked out, and conservatives wondered. Her health condition is not unserious. She hasn't missed an oral argument in 25 years on the bench. And the activist left has spent the better part of the last two years lionizing Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She's a very colorful person. In fact, this film loosely based on her life hit the big screen on Christmas Day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Discrimination on the basis of sex is legal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need to right this wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's topple the whole damn system of discrimination.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Now, part of the reason they love Ginsburg so much isn't just because she's a reliable liberal on the bench. It's because she's been willing to speak out against President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Here is what she said, first to CNN, on a quote about Donald Trump. "He is a faker. He has no consistency about him. He says whatever comes into his head at the moment. He really has an ego."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: OK, if you think that Kavanaugh confirmation fight was brutal, and of course it was, imagine how of the Democrats are going to deal with Trump's next nominee, whenever that is. We hope Ruth Bader Ginsburg is OK and hope she's doing well. But that would actually change the balance of the court when she steps down. So the RBG groupie snowflakes will be melting all over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is fierce and fabulous, and she's still got it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is one of my role models.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This guy on YouTube, Jonathan Mann, is so inspired but the dissent that he decides to put it to music.

(SINGING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The court, I fear, has ventured into a minefield full of slut-shaming geezers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Oh, my gosh, off key much? Here now, Helgi Walker, she worked in the White House counsel's office for former President George W. Bush and was a former law clerk for my former boss, Justice Clarence Thomas. All right, Helgi, great to see you. We certainly wish Justice Ginsburg well and a speedy recovery. She had lung surgery on some nodules in her lung just in December, and she's recovering. She's at home. But after the Kavanaugh hearings, will the country really be ready for another confirmation battle?

HELGI WALKER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: You would help that people kind of ratchet it down and be reasonable about Supreme Court confirmation processes, but I don't think that's going to happen, Laura. You can almost hear the hysteria machine starting to crank up. And why do they get so hysterical, Laura? Because to them the Supreme Court is a tool of politics. To us and to your viewers it's about the rule of law. We just want judges, and President Trump has had a marvelous record so far of appointing judges and Supreme Court justices who follow the law, who apply the rule of law. That's all the president is looking to do. And there's no reason for people to start to spin out of control.

INGRAHAM: By the way, speaking of spinning out of control, Andrew Cuomo on what Kavanaugh and Gorsuch will do. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO, D-N.Y.: Kavanaugh is going to reverse Roe v Wade.  I have no doubt. Gorsuch is going to reverse Roe v Wade. I have no doubt.  So what do we do? Protect ourselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Helgi.

WALKER: Laura, that's fundraising. That's nothing but fundraising.  That's Andrew Cuomo and his friends raising money to fund their political campaigns with these scare tactics. There's not truth in that.

INGRAHAM: Who is the top of the list for the administration? Amy Coney Barrett?

WALKER: I think the president is going to stick to his list. Why quit with the success he's had on that list? Amy Barrett is great. Joan Larsen is great. There's a lot of great --

INGRAHAM: Helgi Walker is on the list in my view. Helgi, thanks so much.

WALKER: Laura's on my list.

INGRAHAM: All right.

(LAUGHTER)

INGRAHAM: Will Joe-mentum really --

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Joe Biden is mulling a run for the presidency. According to "The New York Times," he thinks he's the only candidate currently capable of defeating Trump. His brother took to the airwaves this morning to offer another reason.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANK BIDEN, JOE BIDEN'S BROTHER: He will be the most dynamic 70- something-year-old you've ever met in your entire life. Part of my job for Joe is to advise him on an exercise routine. Trump can't even walk 18 holes. Trump can't walk 18 holes. Joe benches 185 for repetition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Is that what it's all about? We at "The Ingraham Angle" have obtained exclusive footage -- no one else has it -- of Biden's pool regimen and his outreach to younger voters. His brother might be onto something.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I felt tremendous. I'm ready to take on the world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll never be sick. We won't get any older and we won't ever die.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: We'll see if that messaging actually works.

Here now to debate the phenomenon known as Joe-mentum is a former Arkansas governor, of course Fox News contributor, Mike Huckabee, and Juan Williams, cohost of "The Five." All right, is Joe, take them behind the bar and punch them, remember that, take him behind the barn or the gym, is that really the Democrats best hope? I kind of like Biden, I have got to say. Of all the Democrats, he's probably my favorite because he is kind of a gaffe-o-matic and he is kind of funny. But is that really the best hope.

MIKE HUCKABEE, FORMER ARKANSAS GOVERNOR: I hope so. I hope that's the best they've got. I am like you. I like Joe Biden. I like him a lot.  And I think there's a difference between the Joe Biden at the pulpit who is out there giving the heated rhetoric and then the Joe Biden who is the serious legislator. But Laura, let's be honest. Joe Biden has been a bridesmaid in the presidential campaigns to more weddings than Liz Taylor Larry King combined. And yet he's never quite made it. He and Mitt Romney both share the aspiration to be president without the likelihood that it will ever happen.

INGRAHAM: Juan, I was going through some old clips of Joe, not the gaffes, because that's easy to do. Everybody plays those. But something actually interesting, what he said last, I think it was last February if my memory serves me correct, about border enforcement and the wall. And this made me almost like him. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: If you had a wall that provided us security that wasn't just an absolute waste of money, meaning national technical means to protect it, and all these kids had a path to citizenship, I would be inclined to do that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You would give Trump the political victory in order to get the Dreamer deal done?

BIDEN: I don't care about his political victory. I don't think, I don't - - that's not how I view politics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Juan, listening to that, I think everyone forgot, I found that in the makeup chair tonight when I was typing. I was like, wow, I missed it. But that's really not today's Democratic Party. He's kind of pragmatic. Trump might get a win but we'll get the DACA stuff. Where is that Democrat today in the party, other than Joe Biden?

JUAN WILLIAMS, CO-HOST, "THE FIVE": Where are the Republicans? Remember, that was something that was in fact voted on last year, Laura, and it got the fewest votes of any of their proposals on immigration reform from a majority --

INGRAHAM: I know, but let's focus --

WILLIAMS: Laura, let me finish. A majority of Republicans, they gave it the least number of votes with Trump in the White House. So what you are seeing there I think is the real face of the Democrats who say, yes, we want border security, and we are definitely concerned about Dreamers, but we're not going to be foolish about it. So let's talk about Joe Biden.

INGRAHAM: No, no, no. Juan, you are missing my point. I'm not trying to be curt with you. He said he's OK with the wall if it's technologically supported if we get the Dreamers.

WILLIAMS: That's what he said, and as I said, Republican said no to it.

INGRAHAM: Nancy Pelosi said today a wall is immoral, no wall, not a penny for the wall. Nancy Pelosi said a wall is immoral. Did you ever see Nancy Pelosi's vineyard in Napa? It's beautiful. It has a wall around it. It's not that tall of a wall, but it's a pretty wall. It's not just for decoration, I imagine.

WILLIAMS: I enjoy your rhetoric, but I'm just telling you right now I think you have people concerned about border security, but it's Republicans and Democrats. It's not one side or another. But when you come to Joe Biden, let me say, I am so surprised to hear you and the governor be so enthusiastic about a Democrat who would run against and have a high likelihood of beating President Trump.

INGRAHAM: It's called analysis.

WILLIAMS: Oh, I see, OK.

INGRAHAM: I can like a Democrat. You have a stereotype about conservatives.

WILLIAMS: No, I don't.

INGRAHAM: I've always liked Joe Biden.

WILLIAMS: Well, good. That's what you and the governor said. I was just surprised that you would be so forthcoming, because I think among Democrats right now in the recent polls in Iowa nationally all say Joe Biden is the leading Democrat among primary voters.

INGRAHAM: OK, well, we also heard from Barack Obama today. It was reported from an Obama foundation event, governor, that he thinks they need new blood, fresh blood in the Democrat party. Maybe it was just convenient or inconvenient timing, depending on how you look at it, with the Biden float for run for office, but he seemed to throw some cold Obama water on that deal, at least implicitly.

HUCKABEE: Yes, he did. It's hard, though, to really blame him. The Democrats have a very young field. You've got Bernie Sanders and Hillary and Elizabeth Warren, and Joe's own brother can't remember exactly how old he is. He is just somewhere in his 70s. So I can understand where maybe President Obama would be coming from.

I don't care how old the guy is, in all honesty. But the issue is about ideas, and whether a person is going to come and just oil the machinery, or if a person is going to be disruptive and try to really change this country. That's how Donald Trump got to be the president. And I think that disruptive style, though it's unsettling to people in the D.C. -- I will not call it a swamp, because swamps have an ecological purpose -- the D.C. sewer, they can't stand it. But he's getting things done and the economic record shows it. And the deregulation, the tax cuts, the increased ability to defeat ISIS.

INGRAHAM: Yes, well, I want to focus on the Democrats. We all get it, but the Democrats are -- they are itching for victory. And they are going to have to make this calculation eventually, not today, but whether they are going to go with someone with experience like he has, blue-collar focus, and someone who's well-known, or one one of the shiny new interesting objects out there in Beto O'Rourke and Kamala Harris. And that's going to be a big decision. Juan, don't you love predicting in 2019 what's going to happen? If you had to predict, Juan, which one the Democrats will pick, which would it be?

WILLIAMS: I think obviously because of what I do for a living, what we all do, I think you could look at the polls. And it's pretty clear, this is not even close in terms of Democrats and who they would have. They would have Joe Biden. And the reason is Biden could win in places like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania. It was a narrow victory for President Trump, and I think looking forward, you would say oh, boy, just from a donor perspective, political strategist perspective, this is a guy who can go in there, and just like you and the governor said, we like Joe Biden, possibly win some Trump voters back over to the Democratic Party's ranks.

INGRAHAM: All right. And governor, you, yes, no, Biden to be the nominee in 2020?

HUCKABEE: No way. I just want to remind Juan that back around this same time in the previous election cycle I was near the top of the frontrunners, and here I sit talking to you two guys.

(LAUGHTER)

HUCKABEE: And everyone said there's no way Donald Trump could ever be president. He will never be president.

WILLIAMS: Yes, I said that.

HUCKABEE: He's president, I'm on TV. There you go.

HUCKABEE: We still love you, gov.

(LAUGHTER)

INGRAHAM: Guys, thank you. So we are spreading love around all over the place tonight. Guys, thanks so much.

Slanderous charges of racism, though, hurled at the president, no love there. And a hate crime that wasn't. Two important debates next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Do you believe President Trump is a racist?

REP. ALEXANDRA OCASIO-CORTEZD-N.Y.: Yes, yes. No question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: No question. Well, it's a new year but the Democrats are still employing the same old, tired tricks. Here now to discuss is Horace Cooper co-chair of Project 21, and Leo Terrell, civil right attorney. I miss you guys. Happy new year. You are not in the studio with me.

LEO TERRELL, CIVIL RIGHT ATTORNEY: Happy new year, Laura. I miss you, Laura.

INGRAHAM: And Leo, you never come into the studio, OK. So, I'm going to fly you in just hang out.

TERRELL: I'm coming to New York to see you.

INGRAHAM: OK, sounds good.

Horace, let me start with you. I guess we are supposed to just get used to the language, the slanderous language, that Trump, what they call him, a racist. But why is it important that we don't accept that?

HORACE COOPER, CO-CHAIR, PROJECT 21: First of all, the only reason this is being done is to encourage and create a political wedge to try to motivate black Americans as well as other groups to support radical progressive policies. That's the real issue, and we've got to push back against it because it's a lie, and it also diminishes the real actions where bigots and racists actually live.

INGRAHAM: He did criminal justice reform. Obviously great news just coming out of the last week with jobs and economic growth. That's good for all Americans, especially good for Americans entering the workforce for the first time. Leo, what did Horace say that you disagree with? Why is that word, why is that going to bring people together to pass good legislation, to get infrastructure past, why is that going to work?

TERRELL: First of all, you asked for the first question, what did I disagree with about what Horace said? Everything. I will submit to you that no president on this planet, in our country's history, have ever said the following -- at Charlottesville, there's equally good people on both sides, a Muslim ban, telling a Mexican judge that he can't get a fair trial because of the Mexican heritage of the U.S. federal judge, the issue about the birther. And then when it comes to African-Americans like LeBron James, low I.Q.

I would submit to you Laura that no president has ever demeaned minority groups than this president. And so there is your evidence to support the inference that he is sending out dog whistles.

INGRAHAM: OK, it would take an hour to unpack each one of those and go back through ancient history when it comes to politics. So you basically would deny the fact that when he did criminal justice reform, which President Obama pledged to do, he tried to being Democrats into the equation. He brought a lot of well-known Democrat leaders in other spheres into the equation, and they actually got it done with Democrats supporting him. Some Republicans didn't. He was willing to reach across the aisle to do that. Do you give him any credit for that?

TERRELL: I give him credit for that, but it does not ignore what has been uttered from his mouth, Laura. You can't deny what he has said the last two years. Those are his words. No other president in this country's history has --

INGRAHAM: Why would a racist do that? That's what I'm not following. Why would a person who is racist -- I know him so I know he's not. But it doesn't make any sense. Horace, I will let you close it out. Horace?

COOPER: That's exactly the point. More black Americans have brand-new pickup trucks. More black Americans have great new jobs. More poor, unemployed black Americans who lost their incomes, their houses during the eight years of the Obama administration, are seeing that turnaround. This is the weirdest Klan rally idea I've ever heard. Let's get the lowest --

TERRELL: Why can't we hold Donald Trump to the words that come out of his mouth? Those are called admissions. Int a court of law, Laura, those are called admissions.

COOPER: How about we hold him to --

INGRAHAM: There is a way of interpreting it, it's not an admission of anything. But coming up -- guys, thank you so much. And what the champions of the little people, you've got to hear this, have been up to during the government shutdown. I'll bring you the details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Democrats like to fancy themselves the champions of the little people, so surely during the shutdown that impacted so many government workers, they canceled their fancy Christmas vacations, right?

Let's take a look. House financial services chair Maxine Waters was a guest of the Bohemian government, seen here in a festive parade known as the Junkanoo. Nancy Pelosi was living large in the Pacific at a resort costing upwards of $5,000 a night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF., HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: I observed the Christmas holiday for a few days, and I cut in half the time I would have had with my family. The president may not know this, but Hawaii is part of the United States of America. Maybe he doesn't realize that. I don't know whether the president observe the religious holiday of Christmas. Do you?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Nice try, Nancy. By the way, I'm never taking this button off.  OK. I'm never taking it off. I'm going down with this ship. It's good.  Comebacks are possible.

All right, everybody. Up next, the great, the one, the only, Shannon Bream and the "Fox News @ Night" team, take it from here.

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