This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," April 15, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

LAURA INGRAHAM, HOST: I'm Laura Ingraham, this is "Ingraham Angle" from DC tonight. We have so much to get to. We're going to take you live to Paris for the latest on what was a devastating fire that tore through the Notre-Dame Cathedral, and you don't want to miss a minute of that. The physical structure is, of course, badly damaged. But France is vowing to rebuild it and there were real signs of hope this holy week.

Plus with the Mueller report to be released on Thursday, we examine the newest smears against Bill Barr, and a perplexing alliance within the House Intel Committee, Dan Bongino, Robert Ray are here on that.

And tonight Ben Shapiro on the new line from Rep. Ilhan Omar that any criticism of her is basically an incitement of violence. And President Trump's Chief Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow is here with his response to Bernie Sanders claim tonight that President Trump does not deserve any credit for the booming economy.

But first, the triumphal entry of Pete Buttigieg, that's the focus of tonight's "Angle". On Palm Sunday South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg threw himself into the Presidential unveiling party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And that's why I'm here today to tell a different story than Make America Great Again, because there's a myth being sold to industrial and rural communities. The myth that we can stop the clock and turn it back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Now never mind that Trump has sparked a manufacturing job Renaissance that's been unseen in decades. Now since he took office more than 450,000 manufacturing jobs have been added to this economy. But when you got fancy magazine cover spreads and media acolytes who needs these facts.

And all the right media types, have you noticed, they're still dejected after the Russian collusion flop. They found themselves a brand new political Messiah.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE SCARBOROUGH, HOST MSNBC: A really special day yesterday. Everybody stopped they were watching Tiger and they watched Mayor Pete, and I don't know 10 years from now, 20 years from now just maybe a day that a lot of people look back on and see history being made.

MIKE BARNICLE, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR MSNBC: It was a remarkable day and two remarkable events. You're right to call them both remarkable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Now scintillating analysis, as always. They're comparing Tiger Woods, one of the greatest athletes of all time, who wins the Masters after an 11-year drought that included huge personal and physical struggles, to Mayor Pete. Mayor of a mid-sized city who announces he's running for President, what?

And by the way, Tiger is an original. Buttigieg sounds awfully like he's channeling the last Democrat President.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUTTIGIEG: I recognize the audacity of doing this as a Midwestern millennial Mayor.

BARACK OBAMA, 44TH U.S. PRESIDENT: I recognize that there is a certain presumptuousness in this, a certain audacity to this announcement.

BUTTIGIEG: We live in a moment that compels us each to act. Change is coming ready or not.

OBAMA: We are choosing hope over fear. We're choosing unity over division and sending a powerful message that change is coming to America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Well, look beneath the Obama cadence - it was pretty good by the way, and the Boy Scout demeanor, Mayor Pete's rap doesn't quite add up - at least not yet. Now here's the first principle of his campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUTTIGIEG: First comes freedom. Something our conservative friends have come to think of as their own. But let me tell you freedom does not belong to just one political party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Well that's just silly and patently false who said it did. But when you have little to run on in a race with 17 other Democrat primary challengers, if it sounds good just say it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUTTIGIEG: Our conservative friends care about freedom, but they only make it part of the way. They only see freedom from, as though government were the only thing that can make somebody unfree. But it's not true. Your neighbor can make you unfree.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: OK. Well, he didn't quite explain what that meant. He just went on to the next thing. But could your neighbor take away your freedom? A neighbor can disagree with you and be annoying and even commit a crime or a civil infraction against you. But how can a neighbor make you unfree, we'll find out maybe.

Well Mayor Pete seems to see the federal government as a crusading force for good that should be used to protect us from our neighbors. Now understand this, that view itself is pretty radical.

In Federalist 45, James Madison explained that, "The powers delegated by the proposed constitution of the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain on the state governments are numerous, and indefinite".

Now the sentiment of what the federal government - the federal government should do, power should be was repeated by numerous state delegations during the constitutional ratification process, including by New York.

Now they understood that freedom contracts with an ever-expanding federal government presence, because it moves into every area of your life. But, again, for a supposedly trailblazing candidate Buttigieg is just another conventional liberal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUTTIGIEG: Women's equality is freedom, because you're not free if your reproductive health choices are dictated by male politicians or bosses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: OK. Well, we've heard that before. But abortion is freedom? Well, certainly not for the unborn child in the womb or for that matter the child born after born - after a botched abortion in this new Democrat Party. I don't see the freedom there.

Well, again, push past the carefully studied, meticulously measured rhetoric, and what Mayor Pete really has is a beef with our Constitution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUTTIGIEG: And we can't say it's much of a democracy when twice in my lifetime the Electoral College has overruled the American people.

Why should our vote in Indiana only count once or twice in a century or your vote Wyoming or New York?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: OK. Well, we live in a representative democracy not a pure democracy - maybe they left out that entire discussion from the Harvard government lectures. But the Electoral College protects the votes of people in states like Indiana. Otherwise, back to the framers, this is government of by and for the people of California and New York.

Oh, and by the way, this revolutionary candidate is basically a carbon copy of the most radical house freshmen on the issue of climate change, asking all the skeptics--

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WALLACE, ANCHOR, FOX NEWS: Are you saying for instance that some of the talk about retrofitting every building in America or trying to make the country carbon free by 2030 that that's just unrealistic?

BUTTIGIEG: We're going to have to do it. Look--

WALLACE: By 2030?

BUTTIGIEG: --if we can't do carbon free, then we'll do net carbon free, which means that we're taking out as much as we're putting in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Now translation, a massive wealth confiscations needed forced and overseen by the federal government to fulfill this Green New Deal. And by the way, a government whose elites under President Pete would decide which cars need to be sent to the trash heap and which buildings are up to code.

Mayor Pete is academically very accomplished and he deserves real respect for serving in the Naval Reserves, seven months in Afghanistan. But he's a run-of-the-mill liberal on most issues, and he's running against an economy that is on fire, because of the policies of President Trump, who has largely kept us out of more foreign entanglements that most liberals are against.

So if this were maybe George W. Bush presiding over a cratering economy with an unpopular war abroad, maybe a guy like Buttigieg would stand a strong chance. But given the prosperity at home and America's current place in the world, the Left had better find a new messiah. There's going to be no resurrection for this one, and that's "The Angle".

All right joining me now with reaction is Monica Crowley, Washington Times Opinion Editor; Byron York, Chief Political Correspondent at the Washington Examiner and a Fox News Contributor; and Kevin Walling, Democratic Strategist, who has known Pete Buttigieg for nearly a decade.

All right, Kevin, it's clear that the Democrats are - they are looking for some as a big and crowded field. How is he unconventional and how is his experience stronger than, let's say, a Cory Booker or Kamala Harris?

KEVIN WALLING, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Sure. It's a great question Laura. I think, as you saw in his announcement, he realizes that this is an audacious thing for a 37-year-old small-town mayor to be running for the presidency of the United States. But he says these times call for different kinds of leadership.

INGRAHAM: But how is he different from them?

WALLING: He's absolutely different that he's actually run a city, unlike a lot of the folks in--

INGRAHAM: Cory Booker has too.

WALLING: Sure. He ran Newark. But the 17 other candidates likely haven't had that kind of executive experience that a small-town mayor has when the lights go out, when the potholes need to be fixed, when the hospital system government breaks down.

INGRAHAM: The federal government doesn't do potholes so, right.

WALLING: Sure.

INGRAHAM: We went back to Federalist 45 where it does - government federal government is supposed to be small, states have that power.

WALLING: But when you start small and you realize the needs of everyday people, which he has done for eight years, I think that puts him a cut above some of the other folks running in in this field.

INGRAHAM: Buttigieg, tonight Byron York was on with Rachel Maddow and he was pressed on the issue of policies, like it's - his package looks - and he looks like a attractive guy and is - he'd be a first gay man married. But what about the policies? This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUTTIGIEG: But I do want everybody to understand where I stand on any important policy issue. I do think as Democrats, we sometimes have a tendency to lead with the policy minutiae. Of course, it's important for people to know where we stand.

But I also think, one thing conservatives did very effectively was they sort of claimed the idea space. They talked a lot about values and kind of won a lot of the arguments - or at least won lot of the media space for their value. And so it's very important to me to make sure that we're winning a values argument too--

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: I can't - I still can't follow it, what's the - I mean--

BYRON YORK, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, WASHINGTON EXAMINER AND FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well he's saying policies to come, OK. At first I want you to get me to notice me and to like me and then maybe I'll tell you what I'm actually for, I don't want to get bogged down in these details.

I think one of the things about Buttigieg is he is very, very well-spoken. He is very polished. There was a town hall a while back on CNN that got a lot of notice and Democrats really kind of began to swoon over him after that. And I do think that the gayness is a very important factor with him, because--

INGRAHAM: I thought we're not supposed to care about sexual preference or lifestyle a that--

YORK: Oh, come on. It's an identity--

INGRAHAM: --does that indicate an ability in and of itself to distinguish you from the field? I mean is that - because what about the first African- American woman? Why doesn't she get to be the first, why would he get to be first?

YORK: Democrats will choose for that, because they do have - they have an African-American woman, African-American man. They have - they have--

INGRAHAM: They like first, as I said--

YORK: --80-years-old as President. And they have who would be the first gay President. So that's a very big thing for Democrats.

INGRAHAM: Monica, Andrea Mitchell addressed this issue of why Pete versus other presumably be historic figures, let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREA MITCHELL, HOST, MSNBC: There are a number of women who have not been getting very much traction, have been overlooked, shall we say, Klobuchar, Gillibrand - even Kamala Harris with her very big rollout has not been getting as much attention as Pete Buttigieg. Is it possible that a married gay, white man from South Bend Indiana, is less threatening to some of the voters then a woman, for a woman of color?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that's one thing that Democrats - some Democrats are believing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Monica, that's a bit of an interesting dynamic in the Democratic Party, because you have a lot of people who want to claim that there are the aggrieved people or they're not - I don't even think he's not necessarily been saying but, I think others are. Where does the Democratic Party come down on this? Again the backdrop is a booming economy and America not getting thrown into new foreign conflicts.

MONICA CROWLEY, WASHINGTON TIMES OPINION EDITOR: Well, Laura, you'll remember the old adage that Republicans - excuse me, Democrats fall in love and Republicans fall in line, when it comes to their presidential nominees.

Democrats really want to fall in love with their nominee as they did with JFK, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama. When they don't fall in love with their nominee i.e. Hillary Clinton, they see disaster.

So first they thought Beto O'Rourke work was the swoon-worthy candidate and then Kamala Harris, but both of them have seemed to have stalled out. So now they're settling on their crush of the moment, which is Mayor Pete. And me Mayor Pete, as you guys have said, brings a lot of interesting aspects.

He's young. He's from the Midwest, openly-gay, served in the U.S. military. But I also think, as you pointed out, he's a garden-variety progressive. And now that he has gained some real traction in terms of fundraising and polling numbers, it's going to be very interesting to see how he stands up with the rest of the field 17 other Democrats - may be more gunning for him.

The national spotlight is very intense and you either shine or you meltdown when that spotlight is turned on you.

INGRAHAM: He is a pretty Cool Cat--

CROWLEY: So we'll see how the Mayor puts up with that.

INGRAHAM: Yes, he is a pretty Cool Cat. He doesn't - I mean, he was channeling Obama. I'd like to have a vocal expert kind of go through the patter, like the way - and even when he said it's audacious, I wouldn't have done that. I wouldn't have gone that close to Obama with the hop and the audacity. That was just like you're giving it to - not that the late- night comics or whatever ridicule a Democrat.

But he didn't reference the Constitution issue, because he talked about getting rid of the Electoral College and then he talked about this more tonight, let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUTTIGIEG: The question before us is, can our democracy accommodate the forces that are hitting us through the 21st Century, I think I can. But to get there we've got to use some of the most elegant features built into the Constitution like the ability to amend it to make our country stronger. I think we ought to have that level of ambition.

we're proposing using the Constitution's processes for a kind of self- healing--

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: What does that mean - a self-healing?

WALLING: Yes, it's an interesting point brought up by the Mayor. I think you've seen some frustrations with Democratic voters - and in case Americans across the board that elections are not reflective of the electorate and we've had--

INGRAHAM: They're reflective of what the framers believed America--

WALLING: Well, sure. But we--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: --maybe it's just not a pure democracy, otherwise we're--

(CROSSTALK)

WALLING: --serving that didn't get the popular vote. I mean, Hillary Clinton won three more million more votes than Donald Trump did and that's not truly reflective of the populace of this country.

INGRAHAM: If we're not a true democracy--

WALLING: Sure.

INGRAHAM: --does he want to change the country from a true democracy to - I mean, from a representative democracy to a true democracy, because our framers didn't want a true democracy.

WALLING: I think he's laying that--

INGRAHAM: --because they feared what would happen with certain parts of the country overriding other parts of the country. In this case Indiana's influence would be completely wiped out.

WALLING: Sure. I think, well, if you do away with that then you have to campaign everywhere. You have to campaign in Indiana, you have to campaign in Montana, you have to campaign all over.

INGRAHAM: Not really--

WALLING: Absolutely, if it's based on--

INGRAHAM: --you can campaign in California and New York and not many other places - California, New York and maybe in Illinois.

WALLING: First you got to compete for votes and other popular issues - Democrat going to Texas, for example--

INGRAHAM: Who is going to go to Iowa?

WALLING: A number of people.

INGRAHAM: Who's going to go to Arkansas, who's going to go to maybe Georgia? But you're not going to have to go too small states.

WALLING: You're going to have to visit all 50 states to have some kind of presence on the ground.

INGRAHAM: But he - but this is my point.

WALLING: Interesting conversation--

INGRAHAM: This is my point Byron. Obama had a certain - he had a swagger and a charm. Mayor Pete is trying to take that Obama magic and say look at me I'm here. Is there enough of a parallel? But what was Obama's experience, what was his experience?

YORK: Well, he U.S. Senator.

INGRAHAM: Major Pete has more experience than he did.

YORK: --a recently elected United States Senator who had been a state Senator before that.

INGRAHAM: Never run anything.

YORK: He had written an autobiography at a early - very young age. And look - and also, remember the economy had fallen off the table. There was a terrible, terrible failure of a war. I mean, come on, the wins (ph) were in his favor.

Another really big argument Buttigieg is making is generational one, not against Donald Trump, against Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Joe Biden will be 78 years old on an inauguration day. Bernie Sanders would be 79. There could not be a greater contrast.

INGRAHAM: Yes. And again, we're going to be following this closely. Panel, thank you so much.

Now we now know when we're going to get to see the Mueller report finally. And conspiracy theories are spiraling out of control. On the Thursday timing - it's Holy Thursday, remember. Now plus, why is Devin Nunes teaming up with Adam Schiff - wait is that the right script? Yes, it is. Dan Bongino here on the bizarre developments, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: The Mueller report is coming. Now, everyone is finally going to get to see what's in it Thursday morning. Of course, there'll be some redactions. And we think by Thursday afternoon, the Democrats will have stopped insisting that Trump colluded with Russia, but maybe not who knows.

Now as we know from Attorney General Barr's summary, it didn't happen. But now House Intel Committee leaders Adam Schiff and Devin Nunes want the Committee to be briefed by Mueller on every aspect of his findings.

So why would Devin Nunes ever sign onto that? He knows what's going to happen. Somehow Schiff's buddies in the media are going to get a hold of a redacted report and use it to try to do what - to inflict as much pain as possible on Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DEVIN NUNES, R-CALIF.: Democrats are saying they're running a real investigation. Well, if they're running a real investigation they wouldn't have staffers leak out things that end up not being true. That's what we've been dealing with around here for two years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: OK. So he's making my point here. Joining me now is Fox News Contributor Dan Bongino. Dan you heard what Nunes said there. That was on March 6th. So how can he trust Schiff today? What is going on here?

DAN BONGINO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, he can't - nobody can trust Schiff. I mean, trusting Schiff would be a disaster. You know, someone once told me, "Your friend is a guy you can trust with your kids and your car". I don't trust Adam Schiff with any of that stuff. He's going to leak it, of course.

But Nunes already knows that. Nunes understands Schiff is going to leak this information. So what Nunes is doing, I believe, is very strategic. He wants to find out what Mueller has on the counterintelligence front.

Because I believe, Laura, he has absolutely nothing because no single piece of intelligence has ever emerged as per Mueller's report which was summarized by Barr, linking Donald Trump to the Russians.

I'm not saying the Russians are not a geopolitical foe, that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying there was no evidence whatsoever out there that this collusion with them via the Trump campaign ever happened. It's a hoax, and Nunes wants to get out in front of it.

INGRAHAM: Now Eric Swalwell, you might have heard he's running for President, Dan, he actually announced it last week, no one really covered it. But we were nice and we actually covered it on the show. But he is actually continued the nasty attacks on Bill Barr and using a particular word. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ERIC SWALWELL, D-CALIF., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The way Attorney General Barr is acting is embedded. He is parroting the same lines that the President is as to the validity of the investigation, even suggesting that the Department of Justice or the intelligence community was spying on the Trump administration. So I have very little faith in Attorney General Barr at this point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: He's embedded, Dan.

BONGINO: Laura, Swalwell, like most Democrats are panicking right now, because the tides have turned. The real investigation shortly - mark my words on this on your show tonight. It's going to start to turn into - not to forget collusion, that's dead.

I'm talking about among sane people, in other words, not the people on MSDNC and elsewhere. Rational people no that's dead. What's happening now are two things are going to emerge. One, you're going to get the big scope picture of the FBI malfeasance in this "SpyGate", "RussiaGate", whatever you choose to call it, fiasco.

But secondly, people are going to start to ask the key question - real quick, which is, what the heck was Bob Mueller doing for 675 days? Devin Nunes said something key on this channel or on this is network, this weekend.

He said when Mueller got into that office right away with the special counsel, there's no question he went to the FBI that was investigating Trump for two years, Laura - two years, National Security Letters, FISA warrants, looking at all their e-mail traffic through the "two-hop" rule.

Do you think Mueller didn't sit those investigators down and say "Fellas, ladies what do you got?" And when they looked him in the eye and said we've got nothing, what do you think that - what was he doing for 675 days? They had nothing.

INGRAHAM: Well--

BONGINO: He was investigating obstruction, because they had to make it up.

INGRAHAM: Yes. Well, they'll try to get Trump to testify and his lawyers were smart enough never to let that happen. Dan, awesome as always, thank you so much.

BONGINO: Thanks.

INGRAHAM: And the media, of course, they're not going to stop trying to smear Attorney General Barr or his Justice Department. They're now questioning the timing, this Thursday, of the Mueller report release.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITCHELL: They're putting this this release as late as possible before Easter weekend when they might get the least amount of attention.

ARI MELBER, HOST, MSNBC: If the report really exonerated Donald Trump fully, he wouldn't need a counter report from their perspective. You'd expect they want the thing out there for days of coverage in time for victory laps. Burien controversial moves around the holidays is a go to Washington move, because it works.

INGRAHAM: Joining me now Robert Ray, former Whitewater independent counsel. Robert, in this day of the social media 24-hour news, I mean there's no hiding anything. So what do you think now is behind this sustained effort to delegitimize Barr?

And I have to get your quick take on the timing, it's Thursday, which is Holy Thursday. I mean - are they going to do some enter into Jerusalem "Last Supper" analogy, I have no idea. But what do you make that.

ROBERT RAY, FORMER WHITEWATER INDEPENDENT COUNSEL: Grasping at straws. I mean we had to listen for 22 months as the Democrats had to continue to say it was inappropriate and Bob Mueller was untouchable.

And then we reach a point - once we get to the end of the investigation where if they don't like the result, then of course, the next best thing is to attack Bill Barr and try to undermine him before the redacted report is even released. So it's the same old playbook.

I don't think that really much of anything is new. And I also agree that, that I think Devon Nunes is being strategic here. I think he knows that there are redactions in the report related, obviously to sources and methods and national security information. What he's really after, of course, are the origins of the counterintelligence investigation and the FISA application and what was going on with the FBI.

And the best way to get it is to essentially force Adam Schiff's hand. He, on the one hand, can't have it both ways if he asked for that access from the Attorney General for national security information as to what the Democrats want.

The easiest way to be able to get it from the perspective of furthering an investigation, which obviously should occur eventually, right?

INGRAHAM: Yes, it's out.

RAY: The best way to do that is to join at the hip. So I think he's playing the long game. I mean, how it works out, of course, remains to be seen. But it's an interesting move.

INGRAHAM: Now Robert an interesting tactic that's been used by the Left and I want to focus here on Nancy Pelosi. She was on "60 Minutes" over the weekend and she joins the chorus of attacking a man with an impeccable professional record, was Attorney General 30 years ago, Attorney General now. This is what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LESLEY STAHL, ANCHOR, CBS: Do you think that the Attorney General is covering anything up?

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): I have no idea. I have no idea.

STAHL: You want to--

PELOSI: He maybe whitewashing, but I don't know if he's covering anything up. It's no use having that discussion. All we need to do is see the Mueller report.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Well, she wouldn't answer that particular part of the question, but before that buildup she was hitting him pretty hard as were so many other Democrats - Nadler over the weekend.

RAY: Well, the - look, the last refuge of a scoundrel when it comes to attacking Special Counsel/Independent Counsel investigations - when all else fails and you have nothing else to work with, is attack the prosecutor.

I don't - look, I don't think the American people are going to buy this for one second. I think the real test will be, again, who is running the Congress here on the House side. Are they really serious, notwithstanding the release of the report and the findings that established no collusion and insufficient evidence of obviously to actually proceed with impeachment proceedings or not?

And I think that's a legitimate question to be asking the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. It's clear to me that the leadership wants nothing to do with it and doesn't want to be part of it. But it's not entirely clear who is running the House, whether the inmates are running the asylum or whether leadership is running the House of Representatives, and I think they should be pressed for an answer.

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Absolutely. Robert, thank you so much. Great to see you tonight.

RAY: Nice to be with you.

INGRAHAM: And there is an interesting tactic used by the left right now, and Rep. Ilhan Omar, she has perfected it in the wake of her 9/11 remarks. Ben Shapiro is here in moments to tell us what that tactic is.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Congressman Ilhan Omar and her allies now using a new tactic against Donald Trump and the GOP. So after the president dinged the freshman rep in a tweet over her insensitive comments about 9/11, the freshman rep said that the mere criticism of her was akin to the incitement of violence. The media echo chamber of course was quick to highlight her concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY BRUCE, ABC NEWS SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The freshman congresswoman says she has seen an increase in direct threats against her life after President Trump tweeted a video mixing footage of the congresswoman, who is Muslim, giving a recent speech with footage of the 9/11 attack.

ED O'KEEFE, CBS NEWS POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Nancy Pelosi is asking the U.S. Capitol police to conduct a security assessment for Congresswoman Omar. The Speaker is one of many Democrats now accusing the president of trying to incite violence against the first term lawmaker.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Joining me now is Ben Shapiro, "The Daily Wire's" editor in chief and author of the brand-new book "The Right Side of History," which is fantastic. Ben, this isn't about free speech. This is about downplaying one of the darkest in our nation's history. Your take?

BEN SHAPIRO: That's, of course, true, and she has a long history of not taking terrorism particularly seriously. In 2013 she did an interview in Minnesota in which she joked about people taking Al Qaeda and Hezbollah more serious than they took America and England. And then in 2016 she wrote a letter in which he tried to have judge be more lenient with people who try to join ISIS, saying that of course these were people who only became violent because of American marginalization. And then in 2017 try a column for "TIME" magazine in which she suggested that America was routed and founded on slavery and genocide, and in order for us to not look that in the face, instead we focused on international terror.

This is not someone who takes terrorism particularly seriously, so I am bewildered as to why quoting her would constitute some form of violation of her personage, a violation of free speech or something nonsensical like that.

INGRAHAM: Ben, just so people know what we're talking about here, I want that you're referencing where she talks about the way people say Al Qaeda. Let's watch. I think we --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ILHAN OMAR, D-MINN.: When I was in college, I took a terrorism class. Every time the professor said "Al Qaeda," he sort of -- his shoulders went up. Al Qaeda. You don't say "America" with an intensity, you don't say "England" with and intensity. You don't say "the army" with an intensity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Ben, Pete Buttigieg, we talked about him earlier, he's the new star of the Democrat Party. He has edged out Beto O'Rourke, and now he's taken that spot in the spotlight. He talked today about the consequences of otherizing people like her. I thought you'd love this. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE BUTTIGIEG, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: One of the worst things that's happening right now is otherizing people. And if we're wondering whether this has real world consequences, look no further than what happened not long ago in New Zealand. And yes, by the way, the president demonizing Representative Omar is part of this. It's dangerous and it's got to stop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Otherizing, Ben.

SHAPIRO: Very odd since Representative Omar has three times in the last three months been chided for openly anti-Semitic statements of the Democratic Party has defended her. I'm amused to watch the Democratic Party suggest that criticism and quoting of Ilhan Omar amounts to violent incitement. Where Representative Omar can say whatever Jew-hating thing she wants on a daily basis, and that is not incitement. I agree, it's not incitement in either case, but to pretend that it is incitement when it's stuff you don't like and it's not incitement when it's stuff that you do seems pretty irresponsible at the mildest.

INGRAHAM: Ben, thank you so much. Great to have you on tonight.

SHAPIRO: Thanks a lot.

INGRAHAM: And up next, Tax Day truths from a liberal newspaper. They finally admit that Trump's tax cuts are actually a good thing? I can't believe it. White House economy adviser Larry Kudlow is here next to react.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Midnight deadline to file your 2018 taxes just moments away, and thanks to President Trump, the majority of Americans will be keeping more of their hard-earned money due to the historic tax reform. Now, that's despite, by the way, the absolute lies told by the liberal media and certain Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF., HOUSE SPEAKER: What they are doing is dishonest in terms of telling the middle-class they are getting a tax hike when in fact they're getting rich off them.

RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC HOST: Ten years out, 60 percent of Americans will see their taxes go up because of this bill, and it's the lower 60 percent of Americans.

CHUCK SCHUMER, D-N.Y., SENATE MINORITY LEADER: Who would've thought they could've made the bill even less favorable to the middle-class and more slanted towards the wealthy?

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW": When they said this tax cut would help millions of people, they meant people with millions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Colbert, that economics PhD. The echo chamber of negative news on the Trump tax cuts is having an impact on the voters. According to a new Gallup poll, 49 percent apparently disapprove of the president's tax bill, 40 percent approve. And that's the highest approval for the measure since Gallup started measuring reaction.

But finally, there is some pushback to the lies, and now even the liberal "New York Times" admits it was wrong, writing, quote, "The gap between perception and reality on the tax cuts appears to flow from a sustained and misleading effort by liberal opponents of the law to brand it as a broad middle-class tax increase." Huh. Joining me now, White House National Economic Director Larry Kudlow. Larry, how much is the average American saving this year?

LARRY KUDLOW, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DIRECTOR: About $2,300. That is a big number. Average family of $75,000 year will save $2,300. That is a very big number. Businesses are going to save huge amounts of money, not just big businesses, but medium and small businesses, which may be driving the economy right now, with the most incredible drop in unemployment in 50 years across the spectrum, all manner of minority groups, including women who are the biggest job gainers last year.

INGRAHAM: But could you argue that the administration might not have done the best job on selling with his tax cut would do from the beginning? To have that poll number with this economy where it is and small business owners calling me, a friend of mine is an accountant over in Maryland, said thank you, president Trump. I just go an extra $3,000 or $4,000 this year because of this tax cut. Those stories are everywhere, and look at the poll, still pretty lame.

KUDLOW: So, OK, let's look at this. Trump policies, lower taxes, deregulation, opening up energy, good trade deals. We are in a rising tide of prosperity. His policies are rebuilding the economy. Polls, let's look at polls -- 58 percent Harvard/Harris, Georgetown, or George Washington battleground poll, and NBC/"Wall Street Journal," 58 percent believe we are in a positive, prosperous economy.

INGRAHAM: By the way, Bernie Sanders tonight was on with Martha and Bret, and he said you all don't get any credit for this economy, Larry. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, I-VT, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Do you know what unemployment is in Germany now? It's 3.1 percent. In Japan it's 2.8 percent. In the U.K., in other words, the entire global economy, thank God, is bouncing back from the terrible, terrible Wall Street disaster. The global economy is coming back and unemployment is relatively low. I know Trump will give a slightly different spin on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Earlier he said the president is trying to take all the credit. He basically doesn't deserve it. Your reaction to that. The real truth of the G7 versus the United States.

KUDLOW: Listen, the G7 in nearly in recession. You can argue Germany -- he mentioned German, I don't get that. Germany is either flat or in a recession. The Eurozone, flat or in a recession. China is slumping. We are the hottest economy in the world, growing three percent or better, with a 3.8 percent unemployment rate, with wages rising. Mr. Sanders neglects this, the biggest beneficiaries are the blue-collar workers, not the supervisors. We've never seen blue-collar employment like this in 50 years. The wage rates are above three percent. But in that cohort, look at overall wages, the biggest gainers, the blue-collar, nonsupervisory workers, he is precisely wrong. And I'll go back to this point, 58 percent believe that we are in economic prosperity from Trump's policies. Tax cuts are a means to an end.

INGRAHAM: What about the debt, $22 trillion.

KUDLOW: The end is jobs and wages.

INGRAHAM: Bernie hit that idea, though. That debt is a killer. We're adding huge spending added onto the economy.

KUDLOW: We will grow at better than three percent in our estimates. That is the best measure to bring down deficits. President Trump also has the toughest budget he's put out, five percent cuts in the domestic side. If the so-called spending caps are not met, guess what, we are going to sequester across the board spending cuts.

INGRAHAM: I say bring back the sequester. Pete Buttigieg, what do you think.

KUDLOW: The old Gramm-Rudman, the old Gramm-Rudman --

INGRAHAM: Everybody hates the sequester. I'm glad, 10 percent across-the- board, you've got to start cutting.

KUDLOW: The president is going to be -- the toughest budget.

INGRAHAM: Next year.

KUDLOW: Better growth, better growth, more limited government, that will help on that side.

INGRAHAM: What do you think of Buttigieg out there talking about how Trump is trying to capture the middle of America but is selling basically fear and a bygone era that's never coming back? What do you make of that?

KUDLOW: President Trump is going to win middle America. This is going to be -- listen to this. Old Reagan guy, me. I've seen this before. This is going to be the biggest economic big tent you've ever seen. You go down the list, African-Americans, Asians, whites, adult men and women, teenagers, the unemployment rates are so low in the wages have improved so much at the lower end that they are going to come into the Trump economy big tent.

INGRAHAM: Democrats freak out. Are they freaking out right now?

KUDLOW: Yes, because they're going to lose all the hardhats, all the construction guys, we're building pipelines, we're opening up trade deals that are going to have farmers, ranchers --

INGRAHAM: Do let China off easy, though, Lar.

KUDLOW: China is going to be a tough deal.

INGRAHAM: Are they going to live up to those promises?

KUDLOW: We won't make the deal if it's not --

INGRAHAM: Better not, because I'll be coming after you if you do.

KUDLOW: But the biggest winners in that will be farmers and ranchers, OK, ordinary folks.

INGRAHAM: We've got to go.

KUDLOW: And the USMCA deal, a little plug.

INGRAHAM: But Bernie, Bernie, Bernie is -- I've got to tell you.

KUDLOW: So let's do it. One last one.

INGRAHAM: Got to go. Got to go.

KUDLOW: Senator Sanders, 180 million Americans will lose their private insurance under Sanders. He will take out 15 percent of the GDP inside of 10 years. At the very moment where we have a new prosperity cycle from Trump policies, he wants to turn it back into a deep recession. That is nuts. That is just crazy.

INGRAHAM: Larry Kudlow.

KUDLOW: That's the economic big tent that coming.

INGRAHAM: Good to see you, my friend.

KUDLOW: Thank you.

INGRAHAM: Coming up, a devastating fire nearly destroyed the historic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, but there are reasons for hope, and we'll bring them to you when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: The flames are finally out, but firefighters are still working tonight to cool down the historic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris after that devastating fire raged for hours earlier today. FOX Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent Greg Palkot is live in Paris tonight with the full story as what we know now. Greg?

GREG PALKOT, FOX NEWS SENIOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Amazing stuff. We are about 300 yards away from the Notre Dame Cathedral, and in the last half hour or so we can safely say it really seems like the fire is out. But this is about nine hours after it started. And when it started late in the day, it was an inferno. It is believed it was triggered by some renovation work around the spire in the back part of the nave of the cathedral, and then the entire roof burned out. The spire itself toppled over. Timbers were falling in, and flames were reaching inside the cathedral.

Luckily there was about 600 firefighters, and they, after several hours, several long hours, got most of the fire under control. They can say that the structure, including the two belfry towers in the front and the sides, the flying buttresses, they are in place. But inside, some officials are estimating as much as two-thirds of the timber, the woodwork, the artifacts destroyed. President Macron, however, saying tonight that in fact it will be rebuilt, Laura.

INGRAHAM: Greg, the artistry, the wood carving, the stained glass is just irreplaceable. People aren't around they can do this work anymore. So even if you can rebuild some of those artifacts, including the Crown of Thorns, Greg, one of the most iconic of all Christian relics, what do we know about that? It's thought to be from the time of Christ, and a lot of Christians believe it's actually the crown that was used and put on Christ's head. Of course, it's holy week.

PALKOT: Absolutely, the crown, which is venerated by Catholics, by Christians as the crown that was on Jesus Christ's head, in fact was one of the items that were miraculously -- this is what they are describing it as, miraculously saved from the interior of the church, as well as artifacts -- the one still that I saw, in fact, that really moved me, Laura, was a gold cross over the altar. You look inside the church, the still, you see darkness, you see timbers on the floor. Bu that cross is there over the altar, not touched, Laura.

INGRAHAM: Greg Palkot, thank you for staying up and being there and our eyes and ears there tonight. Such a difficult and horrific scene, and we are blessed there wasn't a loss of life to accompany this great tragedy of architecture and for the Christian faith. But you see the cross there in the distance, reminds us of 9/11 with the cross from the girders that remains now in a museum.

When we come back, final thoughts. The enduring Christian spirit in the wake of the Notre Dame fire.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: As Notre Dame burned today, a powerful sign that our faith, our Christian faith, for those of us are Catholics, it's not found in the structure. It's found in hearts and souls. Singing "Ave Maria" spontaneously, the faithful.

(SINGING)

INGRAHAM: I'm going to hold on to that.

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