Laura Ingraham on Democrats destroying prospects for 2022 and 2024, Cuomo making $5M on COVID book

close

Video

Ingraham: Democrats are 'slowly but surely' destroying prospects for 2022, 2024

'The Ingraham Angle' host discusses how the Democrats will fare during upcoming elections

This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," May 17, 2021. 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. We have a lot to get through tonight. So, let's jump right in. We're still winning. That's the focus of tonight's ANGLE.

Now, in case you haven't noticed, things are really beginning to fall apart for the Democrats on a variety of issues in a variety of ways. Now, at the same time, things are looking up for conservatives who believe of course, in Trump's America first agenda, talk about a reversal of political fortunes. Remember, it was only what four months ago, when the Biden team took over, Democrats were giddy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): What Joe Biden got in this election with a mandate, a mandate to address the challenges that our country faces.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the things I'm most excited about is that we have had so much talent in our democratic caucus, they'll be able to showcase their talents can accomplish great things. It excites me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: He looked excited, didn't he? Then a blizzard of executive orders that had been issued by Biden ended up burying the old Trump agenda.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Biden just moments ago, that's tape signing an executive order reversing the Trump ban on transgender Americans serving the United States Military.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Biden will actually sign three executive orders to undo some of Trump's harsh immigration policies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Another day, another round of executive orders.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He has signed more than 30. Thus far in his first five days in office.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Joe Biden made it clear, he's not wasting any time, he immediately went to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: They were thrilled because on multiple fronts, Biden decided to bow to the leftists who had demanded a crackdown on conservative speech, the oil and gas industry, so on and so forth. So, they focused on things like purging the military of extremists and rejoining the Paris Climate Accord.

Now, for many conservatives, this situation seemed hopeless. Well, now we see the table's turning, because as they damage our economy and our foreign policy, the Democrats are also slowly but surely destroying their own prospects for 2022 and 2024.

Now, let's go through it all point-by-point. Number one, GOP unity. Now, contrary to the fake news claiming a post-Trump Republican civil war will be in the offing. Republicans are extremely united, for example, on the issue of the ever tedious Liz Cheney, the new CBS YouGov poll showing that 80 percent of the party supported her removal, mostly for the obvious reason that she doesn't advance the thing called the Republican agenda.

Similarly, the GOP voters broadly support Trump's economic and immigration agenda. So, does any of that sound like a party at war with itself? Of course not. Number two, mystery masks theater. Well, Democrats just screwed this one up royally.

A few weeks ago, it was clear that Democrats are going to start caving on the pandemic controls that they've clung to so passionately for now what 14 months and on masks, when the CDC announced that vaccinated people could drop them. the Far Left Church of COVID went into total revolt mode.

AOC proclaimed her dismay by saying she would keep wearing masks regardless of the fact that she was already vaccinated. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who defied her own lockdown orders to get her hair done in early days of pandemic said the same.

Basically, the Democrats have bumbled the mask issue look like total goofballs from day one. Now for the 100th time stated on THE INGRAHAM ANGLE. There is no evidence that cloth face coverings are effective in stopping the spread of a respiratory virus.

The CDC's own website has the study posted on the ineffectiveness of masks against the Influenza virus. We talked about that a year ago. Even The Washington Post had to admit that masks did not work to slow the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic either. But as usual, the red States had to lead us out of this mess. And ultimately, they shame the CDC to give in dropping mask mandates months ago.

But at the time, the experts and the Biden folks were predicting the worst.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: I think that was ill advised. That has happened in the past. When you pull back on measures of public health. Invariably, you've seen a surge back up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's premature to declare victory. We do need to be cautious about new variants that might emerge there.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think is a big mistake. The last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking that that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: I was reacting to Texas when it first dropped its masks mandate two months ago. Well, yesterday announced - Texas announced its first day with zero COVID deaths in 14 months. And we know there was never any surge of COVID linked to ditching masks mandates across the United States.

Mandating the masking of children though, that is going to go down as a very dark chapter for the Democrats and the public health experts who advocated it. It's both anti-science and abusive to force children to wear mask at playgrounds, summer camps, on planes at any time. Yet, that is still what the CDC is recommending if you can believe it, it's totally illogical. Democrats and their union buddies are hoping though that masks rules for kids will force parents to relent and get their kids vaccinated even if they're uncomfortable with that.

But here's some advice for the Left. injecting children with an experimental vaccine for a disease they rarely get sick from and don't efficiently spread is a non-starter for most parents. It's going to cost you votes and possibly help lose you control of Congress and the presidency. Frankly, it's disgusting.

Number three, loser lockdowns. Well, look, Democrats won't only feel the electoral pain from their vaccine insanity, but also, of course, their destructive lockdowns. Don't think Republicans won't remind voters which party decided that schools were non-essential. But marijuana dispensaries and big box stores were. The fact is the teachers' unions own Biden, we all know that now. And that ended up doing enormous damage to our kids learning.

And by the way, in New York, it's still unclear if schools will fully be open next fall, because teachers, many of them simply don't wish to return to the classroom. And unions are making impossible demands. I'm telling you more than anything else, I think this issue is galvanizing mothers and fathers nationwide and blue states and in blue cities that have slow rolled these reopenings It's a minefield for Democrats.

Number four, race obsession. Now, whether they're in class or not, kids across America are being forced fed the critical race theory, poison we've exposed on this show night-after-night. And our own president who served with twice elected Barack Obama, he's declared America himself to be systemically racist.

And his own party, of course, it's totally on board with the Marxists who are trying to engineer, reengineer I should say schooling in America toward a social justice style radicalism. This kind of stuff is poison.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This will tear this country apart if it becomes a part of our fabric. If you sink this into our kids, if you divide our kids up and have them see only race, creed, culture, religion, you will be destroying this country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just because, I do not want critical race theory taught to my children in school does not mean that I'm a racist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Loathing your own country is not a winning posture to take. But that's where the Democrats are. Most Americans don't want to pay taxes for schools that teach them to hate their own nation. That's repulsive. And some red states, by the way, like Idaho and Oklahoma, they've banned it. And the good news, the parent led movement against the racial industrial complex is building and THE ANGLE will help them as much as possible by exposing the true agenda of the race baiters, power and money. That's what they're after.

Border madness. Let's go on to that. That's number five. We learned today that 531,533 migrants have been apprehended at our southern border between January and April. Those are just the people we've caught. And this is totally a crisis of Biden's own making.

Think about this, if this pace keeps up, by the end of this year, Biden's first year in office, 2 million illegals will have been given full access to our country, free health care, free education, food stamps, even housing. And more than any other issue, this one represents the worst dereliction of duty of any president in modern times. And by the way, putting Kamala Harris in-charge, that was a telltale sign that Biden didn't care about, or didn't even want the influx of humanity to continue unabated.

Now, she hasn't been by the way to the border, of course, and it's so afraid to answer questions. Kamala Harris hasn't even held a press conference for 54 days. So much for that problem solver presidency we were hearing so much about. Biden and his DHS Secretary should be impeached for the crime of conspiring to keep the southern border open during a national health emergency.

Number six, inflation surges. The Democrats dream of a wild massive fake spenderama is slowly fading away as their own party's economic gurus are reading them out. Now. Former Clinton treasury secretary Larry Summers has been warning about the dark clouds forming over the Biden economy for months, data are pointing more towards higher inflation than I expected and sooner with more inflation signs sooner than I would have expected.

With a consumer price index growing fastest pace since 2008, Biden's got himself in a box. And under these circumstances, there is no way that the Democrats will be able to do this multi trillion dollar cramdown of spending and massive tax hikes, and also at the same time think they're going to keep the economy growing. It's not possible.

But of course, his party's Left-wing, they're going to be furious if they lose this opportunity to soak the rich, and what they really want to do redistribute wealth to their pet projects.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): We're constantly told that we cannot afford tuition free public colleges, expansion of health care in the United States because we can't afford it. But the official estimates pegged the national tax gap at 381 billion per year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Now Republicans can honestly say, you can't say we didn't try to warn you about what was coming.

Number seven, the insurrection flop. This is one of my favorites. Now, I think the Democrats really did believe that the Capitol riots on January 6th, would doom Republicans for a generation. That's how they were playing it, that somehow the images of the fur boy and face pain would make Americans forget that the Democrats themselves are incapable of sound governance.

But it turns out that Americans are a lot smarter than the Democrats think. Much more important to them is the fact that crime, for instance, is exploding under Biden's watch. As you know, Democrats continue to misread Biden's mandate from day one.

After four years of Trump and the pandemic, they thought they had convinced the electorate to support a much more expanded role for the federal government, didn't they? But they failed. It turns out according to a new Pew poll, Americans views haven't changed that much. In August 2020, about six and 10, 59 percent Americans said the government should do more to solve problems. Today, 55 percent hold that view. So, it's actually gone down some

Oh, and by the way, trust in government with the Democrats and total control of all branches of government is still at a pathetic 24 percent. If Biden wants to turn things around for America, let's just assume he does. What he'd do is simply brush off the Far Left and implement the sound policies that we already know work. schools open no matter what, low taxes, a strong energy sector, and a tight labor market helped by a tight border that keeps wages up. But I'm not holding my breath, he is going to do any of that. And that's THE ANGLE.

Joining me now Victor Davis Hanson, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Dinesh D'Souza, conservative author, filmmaker host of the Dinesh D'Souza Podcast. Democrats are not setting themselves up to look too good in 2022 and 2024, Victor, but it's amazing how despondent conservatives were, of course, maybe understandably after the election. But they miss read the electorate big time, and how far they thought the country had moved to the Left. Victor, your reaction.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, SENIOR FELLOW HOOVER INSTITUTION: Yes, they did. Every one of those issues you mentioned, Laura, now on that CBS YouGov polls below, well below 50 percent. But you knew that anyway, because nobody in the primary who embraced them did anything other than fail. Joe Biden didn't get near them.

And remember that Joe Biden during the campaign and the transition, didn't get near them. He ran on Donald Trump's tweets, he was uniter that he was going to the COVID pandemic, the lockdown the recession, George Floyd's debt, the rise anything but those issues. And then guess what everything that he touched that he inherited, that was golden, turned to dross once he had no more excuses. He had 115 days, there was no - COVID was dying, the lockdown was ending.

Donald Trump was not there anymore. So, he didn't have any other excuse, but to embrace that agenda that he didn't want to embrace, because he knew it was toxic. But we've had 115 days of it now. And it's not working. It's a disaster. And what are we left with? We're left basically with executive order, executive order, executive order, or let's try to lead in Puerto Rico or change the process with the court packing or the filibuster, or the national voter law or maybe scare everybody by saying when you go to bed tonight, there's Donald Trump are racist under it. And that's about all there is it's really sad.

They've taken the playbook of the Oscars in the NBA, and they've doubled down on it and they're becoming twice as irrelevant.

INGRAHAM: Dinesh, I want to get to something Fauci said over the weekend in his commencement speech at Emory. Check it out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAUCI: Let us promise ourselves that our corporate memory of this tragic reality that an infectious disease desperately hospitalized and kills people of color does not fade after we return to some form of normality. Writing this wrong will take a decade's long commitment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Dinesh, your response?

DINESH D'SOUZA, CONSERVATIVE AUTHOR: Well, I think it's, it's genuinely frightening to have an infectious disease expert wade into the race debate in this kind of clumsy and destructive way. I think it's fair to say that every disease, particularly diseases that target people, for example, and that have a disparate impact on people who are obese people who have pre- existing conditions, for example, people live in poor neighborhoods where sanitation is not as good. There are all kinds of factors that contribute to why some group is more vulnerable to a disease than another.

It's a completely different thing to say that there's some kind of systemic bias in the hospital system, or in the health care system that is causing these inequities. And so, I think what Fauci is doing is he's playing into this idea that American institutions that for whatever reason, produce disparate outcomes. I mean, think about it, the NBA and the NFL produced racially disparate outcomes, far more disparate than the health system. And yet nobody calls those racist why, because they're not.

INGRAHAM: Well, Victor, also it completely discounting what we know about COVID, which what we reported in March of 2020 on THE INGRAHAM ANGLE, that a high health risks, comorbidities, lead to severe results of getting affected from COVID, which was hospitalizations, and even death. The Italian showed us that with obesity, high BMI, hypertensive disorder, diabetes, this was - that's what he should be talking about America needs basic focus on their own personal health, because that had an effect on COVID. That's been proven.

HANSON: Well, you just quoted Dr. Fauci for 10 months. That's what he said. He said, be careful about comorbidities like obesity and cardio pulmonary issues, and especially age. And when he talked about vaccination, the order of vaccinations, that's what he said. But he's talking to a specialized audience now. And he feels that he's going to demagogue the issue. But he'd never said that to the American people in total when he was in front of them most cameras.

I think he's getting really desperate, Laura, because I think he knows that most of his advice was wrong. Scott Atlas was much more correct than he was, their historical record starting to show that and we're getting a lot of disturbing information out of these reinvestigations of how this virus started and the role the United States played in funding some of this enhanced function research, which was an absolute disaster and should never happen. And his footprints, hand prints, whatever we say. They're all over that subsidy that we gave to the Wuhan laboratory.

INGRAHAM: Imagine if we had an honest press corps, an independent press corps. Gentlemen, thank you. Now why is the CDC limiting the review of Americans who get infected with COVID after their vaccinations, they're called breakthrough infections. We're going to investigate, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Now as the Left is threatening to punish unvaccinated Americans. Here's something they haven't been telling you. At the end of April, more than 9200 Americans contracted COVID after being fully vaccinated, but that's only a small fraction, of course of the 95 million who were vaccinated at the time, but each case offers a clue as to why the vaccine doesn't always work. So, it was a little shocking to see the CDC announced that it would not be reviewing all cases where vaccinated people do end up becoming infected.

Instead, the agency is only going to monitor so-called vaccine breakthroughs that result in hospitalizations or death. Joining me now is Dr. Martin Kulldorff, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Kulldorff, why is the CDC doing this? And is this information not useful?

DR. MARTIN KULLDORFF, PROFESSOR, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL: I don't know, it's not surprising that there are breakthrough cases from the vaccines because we cannot expect it to be as good as immunity from natural disease. But it's still very good vaccines, and it's very important that all the people receive these vaccines.

But of course, for any breakthrough cases, it's important to investigate it as long as there are symptoms. If you're asymptomatic, it doesn't matter. But if there are symptoms, hospitalization or death, it's important to investigate them. And it's also important to compare to comparative studies of the efficacy of the different vaccines to see which vaccines work best, and maybe some work better in some groups and others.

INGRAHAM: And Dr. Kulldorff, it's now a T-cell that can be ordered has emergency use authorization from the CDC and FDA. So given that, and T- cells are the first line of defense against COVID, it shouldn't people who are hesitant about the vaccine, at least get that T-cell test that tells them whether they were exposed and kind of threw off the virus.

KULLDORFF: They can get that test or they can get the regular antibody test to see if they have been exposed, so.

INGRAHAM: But it's better than the antibody test. I understand. It's certainly more - it's more accurate than the antibody test. But I want to ask you about the so-called experts rush to get Americans vaccinated. They seem less in a hurry to do so at the government agency that Fauci works for. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What percentage of the employees in your institute, your center or your agency of your employees has been vaccinated?

FAUCI: I'm not 100 percent sure, Senator, but I think it's probably a little bit more than half probably around 60 percent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Dr. Kulldorff, should Americans be concerned that public health officials pushing the vaccines aren't rushing to get them?

KULLDORFF: Well, if you've had the disease, you don't need the vaccine. So that's not, it doesn't have to be 100 percent people getting the vaccines. The really key thing is that older people who have not had the disease that they need to get vaccinated. And I think that's especially important that we ensure that less affluent people get the vaccines because they sometimes have more hurdles to get the health services. And we already saw with the lockdowns that the loved ones protected the laptop class or the professionals, people like journalists, like U.S. scientists, like me, lawyers and so on, while the workers were not protected.

So that's why we have a much higher burden of this disease among the workers compared to more affluent people, and especially inner city workers, because infectious diseases are often more serious in an urban crowded setting.

INGRAHAM: But Dr. Kulldorff, I just want to reiterate, I want to reiterate something you just said, if you've gotten the disease, if the T-cells or the antibodies, there's tests for both. If you've gotten the disease, you should not get vaccinated. That's what you're saying tonight.

KULLDORFF: You don't need the vaccine in that case, maybe five or 10 years from now, but right now you don't need it and it's better that other people get vaccinated who haven't been - who haven't received it, including people in India or Brazil or other countries where a lot of older people have not been vaccinated.

INGRAHAM: Dr. Kulldorff, I hope everybody hears this tonight because there are a lot of people who got COVID or were exposed and never knew about it. And getting those tests and finding that information out is critical. Thank you so much.

And as we played for you in THE ANGLE, President Biden claimed it was Neanderthal thinking for Texas to end the mass mandates two months ago. So, let's see how they measure up versus a state that kept those strict mask mandates in place. Now Texas has 29 million people or so reported just 388 new COVID infections and zero deaths yesterday.

Meanwhile, New York has about 20 million people had 1085 new COVID cases and 39 deaths. Of course, Governor Cuomo of New York has been handsomely rewarded though for his gross mismanagement.

According to these new disclosures, the love Gov raked in $5 million for his book on leadership. I love that. Not bad for a total fraud.

Here with me now is Lee Zeldin, New York congressman and candidate for governor. Wow, Congressman, how big of an issue is this going to be, the COVID decisions in your race?

REP. LEE ZELDIN, (R-NY) RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK: Big time. Over $5 million? Are you kidding me? Last time I got an update about a month ago, he had sold about 45,000 copies of this book. So that rough math seems like it's over $100 a copy. You can go buy it for $15 a copy right now on Amazon. I don't think that you will be doing that at the end of the show, and neither will I.

But the nursing home order and cover up, you're talking about the loss of life, you're profiting off of -- this is blood money, profiting off of the suffering physically, emotionally, financially of your constituents, of New Yorkers. What he should have done this time last year was show remorse, publicly apologize for the mistake of his order, be transparent with the public. He said he was too busy to provide that transparency. But he wasn't too busy to go after this multimillion-dollar, self-congratulatory deal that has New Yorkers outraged.

INGRAHAM: It's the ultimate hypocrisy. And Governor Cuomo made an announcement today on masks. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO, (D) NEW YORK: Effective this Wednesday, we are going to adopt the CDC's new guidance and regulations on masks and social distancing for vaccinated people. You will still need to wear a mask on public transportation, the subways, the buses, nursing homes, homeless shelters, correctional facilities, schools.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Congressman, are New Yorkers ready to dish the mass?

ZELDIN: Yes. I hear from New Yorkers all across the state, especially all these New Yorkers who have been vaccinated. And then they see the CDC guidance came out several days ago, and Andrew Cuomo is still saying that he wasn't going to loosen up the mask restrictions here in New York. So you have a whole lot of people scratching their head.

And what it comes down to is the governor's ego. He wants to be the one to give you your freedoms back. You have New Yorkers looking at places like Florida and Governor Ron DeSantis where your money goes further, people feel safer, they are living life freer, and they are leaving. And those who are staying saying why can't we have that here? This governor's ego is getting in the way of a whole lot of different decisions restricting individual liberty, impacting the operations of businesses where they haven't survived, and freedoms and privacy. In so many respects, this governor has been infringing upon it. And that's why you're hearing from not just Republicans but Democrats, too. They want to save the state. They've had enough. They say Cuomo has got to go.

INGRAHAM: You've got to pull over this disaffected Democrats who are seeing their state hollow out to places like, of course, Florida and other places. Congressman, we'll be following you. Thank you.

And a royal, you've heard about it, Sean and I talked about it, attacking the mayor, and two of the biggest officials in D.C. completely ignoring the COVID guidance. We're going to tell you who they are. "Seen and Unseen," Raymond Arroyo, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: It's time for our "Seen and Unseen" segment where we expose the big cultural stories of the day. And for that we turn to FOX News contributor Raymond Arroyo. All right, Ray, Prince Harry is out making a lot of friends again, I understand.

RAYMOND ARROYO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: He is. Everywhere you turn, there is a Sussex today, Laura. Prince Harry is promoting a new series with Oprah Winfrey. And while making the podcast rounds, he dropped this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRINCE HARRY, DUKE OF SUSSEX: I've got so much I want to say about the First Amendment, as I still don't understand it, but it is bonkers. You can find a loophole in anything. And you can capitalize or exploit what is not said rather than uphold what is said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARROYO: Laura, I think King George has more fan than Prince Harry at this point. It takes real brass to come to America, use our First Amendment to spin your privilege and pose as a victim with Oprah while defaming of the Constitution that gives you the right. That's a neat trick. I'd like to ask him exactly what is bonkers, as he calls it? Our right to free speech? Religious expression? Assembly? This is why we broke from England, to protect those God-given rights. But if you would like to know what is really bonkers, how about this one, Laura. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRINCE HARRY, DUKE OF SUSSEX: My wife had the most amazing sort of explanation to that, which is you don't need to be a princess. You can create the life that will be better than any princess. And that's coming from her own lived experience.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARROYO: Her own experience of building a better life using the princess title. They both need to fully renounce the titles, Laura, and see how many invites they get to the award shows or, frankly, anywhere else. They will be awfully quiet. The phones won't ring in Montecito, I can promise you.

INGRAHAM: Imagine if they just had to live on their talent. Imagine that.

ARROYO: Well, Laura, the Aspen Institute has brought Harry on. He is a board member of the Commission on Information Disorder. This is like bringing Bill Gates in to be your marriage counselor. What talent does he have in this area? He spins message disinformation. It is very confusing.

Laura, last week we reported on a truly bonkers story. The Audubon Zoo here in New Orleans canceled an event to show solidarity with the police over concerns that it might offend members inside and outside of the community. I imagine the folks at the zoo heard what I heard when I asked people in person about that decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't see anything wrong with supporting anybody who serves the public.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For a city so crime-ridden, to not support the police is kind of -- it just doesn't make a lot of sense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We support the police. Most everybody I know does 1,000 percent. It's absolutely ridiculous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARROYO: It is absolutely ridiculous. And Laura, to demonstrate THE INGRAHAM ANGLE gets results, the Audubon Zoo quietly walked back their decision over the weekend. In a note to members, the CEO of the Audubon Nature Institute writes "Our participation in and cancellation of Blue at the Zoo has caused pain in our community and was unsupportive of the hardworking people of our police department who put their lives on the line to protect and serve this community. That was never our intention." They are promising to partner with the police on a new event. Good idea.

INGRAHAM: I have a question. Is it the Audubon Zoo? Or is it the Audubon Zoo? You say Audubon? Is it Audubon? Maybe it is. I've been saying it wrong the whole time.

ARROYO: In New Orleans, we pronounce the Audubon, the Audubon Zoo. That's the local vernacular. That's how we pronounce it. But look, Charter Street is actually Chartres street, so you know, it's the way we do things here in New Orleans. What do you want from us? Don't fight us on this.

INGRAHAM: By the way, I am someone who wants called Brett Favre, Brett Fav-ray. So don't listen to me about anything. I had a whole radio segment about that.

ARROYO: Remember.

INGRAHAM: OK, thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

INGRAHAM: And as long as we're speaking of bad decisions, the CDC is now saying that vaccinated people don't need to wear masks outdoors or indoors. But the president has even come up with his very own pithy version of the guidance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's vaxxed or masked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARROYO: Isn't that catchy, Laura? I think that's all they could get from him in one breath. But the president has been vaxxed twice, yet here he is coming out of mass this Sunday in a mask. And the other day at George Washington University, Dr. Fauci took some selfies with students outdoors. He also wore a mask.

You see, I think this example undermines whatever they are saying. It actually erodes public confidence in the ability of the CDC to say go out, you are vaccinated, indoor or outdoor, no masks. And then you've got the two leading figures of the government on the issue wearing masks outside. I don't know how you follow this.

INGRAHAM: Raymond, the Democrats need to ditch the donkey as their mascot and just have a mask. It's got to be a dirty old mask that people have hanging from their blinkers in their cars. Just a dirty old mask, that is their religion. The mask is their new COVID, church, religion, whatever you want to call it. All right, finally.

ARROYO: Laura, there is a new "Hill" Harris poll, and in it 42 percent of people say they want people to continue wearing masks indoor and outdoor no matter what the CDC says.

INGRAHAM: Good. I'm not doing it, sorry.

ARROYO: I think these people need therapy. Maybe Prince Harry could advise them of a good physician too.

INGRAHAM: I'm heading off to the Audubon Zoo.

ARROYO: Audubon Zoo.

INGRAHAM: Raymond, thank you. We're going to have a poll on this.

Now the number two and the Norfolk police department's internal affairs division, remember, was fired after it was revealed that he donated a whopping $25 to the defense fund of Kyle Rittenhouse. Well, he is here exclusively next with his side of the story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Norfolk, Virginia, Police Lieutenant William Kelly served on the force for nearly 20 years. He loved being an officer. But last month he was abruptly fired after it came to light that he made a completely legal and anonymous $25 donation to Kyle Rittenhouse's defense fund. Of course, we only know about the donation because of a malicious media campaign to try to ruin the lives of all of Rittenhouse's donors. But Lieutenant Kelly isn't about to roll over. He is fighting back, and he joins me now exclusively along with his attorney, Ray Hogge. Lieutenant Kelly, tell us about how you felt, what happened that day you were fired.

LR. WILLIAM KELLY, FIRED FOR DONATING TO RITTENHOUSE: I was shocked. I didn't think it was an egregious thing that I had done. I thought I was a private citizen just making a contribution and some comforting words. I thought that Mr. Rittenhouse had a strong case for self-defense. And when I was fired, it came out of nowhere.

INGRAHAM: Ray, you are representing our client. You are challenging this firing with the city. On what grounds?

RAY HOGGE, ATTORNEY FOR WILLIAM KELLY: First and foremost, First Amendment, free speech. Police officers have a right to free speech, and the law is very well established on that. If a police officer is speaking as a private citizen, which he was, on a matter of public concern, which he was, then the police department and the city have to have a pretty substantial reason to punish him for that speech, which they don't.

Also, they completely deprived him of due process. They gave him -- they handed him his notice of his opportunity to respond and his chargers and simultaneously terminated him, which is completely unheard of.

INGRAHAM: Norfolk is in a heap of trouble over this, I can tell you that. Lieutenant, the Norfolk police department, not surprisingly, declined our request for additional information regarding your termination. But you did challenge them filing this grievance. And in it you allege that city of Norfolk, and particularly the police chief, terminated your employment because of your donation, and your message was perceived by them and some as opposing or impeding the Black Lives Matter political movement. Lieutenant, was race and politics at all a part of your basis for your termination?

KELLY: I am not sure what the personal politics are of the chief or the city manager, but I am confident that it was the pressure put on the city by a very small but vocal group of people that caused them to terminate me.

INGRAHAM: And lieutenant, as a now former police officer, and you loved being a police officer, I know that.

KELLY: Yes, ma'am.

INGRAHAM: What is your message to America today, tonight, about how police are being treated? In this case it seems like being worse than the criminals on the streets, given less rights then the criminals on the street who are in a revolving door, being arrested, let out the next day.

KELLY: Police officers all across the country, not just in Norfolk, they go to work every day, they want to protect people's rights, people's rights to assemble and to peacefully protest. They want to protect the right to self-defense and free expression. And I don't think those rights are in conflict with each other. I think that's important to protect them for all citizens, not just private citizens, but also public employees, teachers, police officers, firefighters.

INGRAHAM: Everyone has to see this. Back to this point about the politicization, perhaps, of this charge, which I think it is. You don't have to say it. I will. Your grievance that has already been filed includes the shocking photo of the Norfolk police chief, his name is Larry Boone, I want to repeat his name, Larry Boone, wearing his official uniform while holding a Black Lives Matter sign. Apparently, that's OK. So how is his public activism at a police protest acceptable, but a $25 anonymous donation to Kyle Rittenhouse's legal defense fund is grounds for termination? I will leave that to the lawyer to respond to, Mr. Hogge.

HOGGE: Well, it's not. And that picture speaks 1,000 words because, as you said, Chief Boone is walking in a march with Black Lives Matter activists protesting against police, carrying the sign saying Black Lives Matter in his dress blues.

INGRAHAM: What a joke.

HOGGE: And you know what, if Chief Boone wants to do that, that is OK with us. And if the city wants to let him do that, that's OK with us. But you can't have it both ways. You can't have a double standard. And this is even worse than a double standard because the lieutenant did not walk around in a parade with any message. He donated a tiny amount of money anonymously.

INGRAHAM: He has every right to donate any amount of money to any group he wants to donate to, frankly. A legal defense fund? But you can march with BLM in your uniform, and that is to be celebrated? You may be OK with that. I am not. I don't think it's in -- anyway, we're going to end this way. Lieutenant Kelly and Ray, thank you and good luck.

Up next, a shocking, or tough Last Bite.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOY REID, MSNBC HOST: It would be like the dog catching car. So I guess my question to you, I hope we're not losing your shot. Let's take a break. We'll come right back.

Glad that we got you back, Senator. Thank you for your patience.

Uh-oh. No. Unfortunately, I'm so sorry guys. We really want to do this segment, but it is just not working out for us with this shot. So we're going to take another break.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: That's when technical difficulties actually work in the viewers' interest.

Content and Programming Copyright 2021 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2021 VIQ Media Transcription, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of VIQ Media Transcription, Inc. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.