Morgan Freeman's team accuses CNN of defamation
Morgan Freeman's team is seeking a retraction from CNN over a sexual harassment report; Raymond Arroyo breaks down 'seen and unseen' stories for 'The Ingraham Angle.'
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," May 30, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
INGRAHAM: Good evening from Washington, I'm Laura Ingraham and this is "The Ingraham Angle." We have some unbelievable stories. I say this every night by we really do. Republican representative Trey Gowdy disputes Trump's claim that the FBI spied on his campaign. We invited him on tonight, he declined. I guess he declined for the week. We hope he comes on next week but Dan Bongino is going to respond to the Congressman tonight. Meanwhile legal experts saying that Morgan Freeman has a good case for defamation against CNN, Ramon Arroyo has that. And a preacher who feels God as called him to have a fourth private jet, seen and unseen tonight. Plus we are going to bring you a story that no one else will talk about. One that blows the lid off Democrats claim to be the party of compassion. And last night we told you about foreign cartels infiltrating states where pot is now legal. Well a sheriff from one of those states was watching and we is with us tonight with the inside story, the truth from the front lines. But first, Roseanne and the race to blame Trump, that's the focus of tonight's Angle. Wouldn't you know it, we solved a Twitter mystery? Well it turns out if you believe the left that ever Trumpers, Donald Trump himself may have taken over Roseanne Barr's account and tapped out the tweet that lead to the demise of her hit sitcom, and her entire career. Now listen closely, all roads lead back to Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DON LEMON, CNN HOST: We know what Donald Trump thinks. We know what Roseanne Barr thinks. It's time for us to stop playing around with soft words by saying oh well they are saying insensitive things. No, it's racist, they're exhibiting racist behavior.
TARA SETMEYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I'm not some has that has Trump derangement syndrome and blames Donald Trump for everything but this right here, this kind of stuff is a direct by-product of how Donald Trump behaves--
MIKA BRZEZINSKI, MSNBC HOST: The thing that sort of is the background of all of this is that the President can racist and nothing happens to him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: So now they do believe in guilt by association. We they didn't subscribe to that belief when this happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REV JEREMIAH WRIGHT, PRESIDENT OBAMA'S PASTOR: No, no. no. Not God bless America, God damn America that's in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating citizens as less than humans. (END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Even though President Obama sat in Jeremiah Wright's pews for years, marinating in that hate, well we were told that Wright's comments were not representative of Obama's own beliefs. Well this despite the fact that unlike Tump and Roseanne the Obama's were close to Wright, they were all tight, he was the President's spiritual mentor for years. And who can forget this 2005 gem that was conveniently hidden from public view by the photographer for years. Oh, that's a beaut. Well we never saw that pic until Obama left office. Well you see the left protects and defends their own because they're immune to criticism for their unsavory political associations. But the President calls an actress and congratulates her for her rating success and suddenly he's responsible for everything she's ever done or will do.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REV AL SHARPTON, CICIL RGHTS ACTIVIST: When you have a President that started his political career on Birtherism saying that he's not one us when did everything he could to dog whistling around this issue of race, people like Roseanne feel they're empowered--
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: What a fraud. This is the man who brought us the fake Tawana Brawley case, the man who defended the claims of the lying Duke Lacrosse Accuser when he wasn't of course evading taxes or shaking down corporations. And this is who MSNBC wheels out as an expert? Sharpton on bigotry and civility in America? Please. The left has to tag Roseanne's racial misdeed to Trump, why? Well because they have no substantive answers to the problems facing minority communities today. So their only recourse is only to do what they do best. Race bait and demonize their opponents. Meanwhile President Trump is actually delivering undeniable results. We know unemployment among blacks and Hispanics is down to historic lows. We know he is trying to rid their communities of gangs like MS13.
And the President is now even working with Congress to pass prison reform. We'll get into a little about that later on. All of this has caused his support to grow among minority groups, modest gains. But the left of course refuses to applaud any of Trump's progress or work with him, even on issues where they have common ground. That's how fanatical they are. Instead what the left does is they plot away on how exploit the next moment of racial outrage. Here is how Hoover Institution fellow and phenomenal author Shelby Steele who actually lived through segregation in the south, how he sees it, from today on my radio show.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
SHELBY STEELE, AMERICAN AUHTOR: It's amazing to me the amount of creativity and imagination that goes into reinventing racism. Victimization is power and its money. These are people that are pursuing not a race-free world or a world free of racism, but these are people who are pursuing wealth. They are racial entrepreneurs, they want to make a career out of this. Much as the black middle class today sadly is supported through diversity work and programs.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Again, that's from an African American man who lived through real racism, suffered through segregation, his comments. Well people of course read Roseanne's tweet as racially biased and it's totally understandable. She herself said it was indefensible. But there are other forms of bias routinely expressed by the left that stereotype and malign good and hardworking Americans every day. Remember the women who voted for Trump?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: In light of this last election, I am concerned about us a women, how we think. We have to have that conversation with ourselves as women. This isn't an external conversation, that's on us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: And other comments like our husbands tell us what to do, really? A black rapper who supports Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: These celebrities desperate for attention and finding ways whether it's positive or negative to get it.
NIA MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN REPORTER: And now his wife is tweeting back at people basically saying don't be too hard on my husband. Don't necessarily make it seem like he is going through some sort of mental breakdown which we know he's had mental health problems.
STEPHEN COLBERT, CBS HOST: We have the right to independent thoughts and I independently think that Kanye West has lost his mind.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Traditional Christians
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They get bitter and they cling to guns or religion, or antipathy toward people who aren't like them.
(END AUDIO CLIP, BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOY BEHAR, ABC HOST: It's one thing to talk to Jesus, it's another thing when Jesus talks to you. That's called mental illness if I'm not correct.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: We're basically talking pretty much about any and all Trump supporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: You could put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Well think about it this other way. If Trump created a safe space for Roseanne to write this inflammatory tweet as the left is saying, well maybe with that deplorables comment, Hillary Clinton inspired this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELA ANGELA DAVIS, CULTURE CRITIC: Tens of millions of people voted for him after he showed his cards for years.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Are you suggesting that they're racist, or they're- -
DAVIS: Yes
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Well they're deplorables after all. Roseanna has now been excommunicated for the public square for comments that ABC rightfully characterized as "abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values". My question is when will the day of reckoning come for those on the left whose own abhorrent and repugnant views are inconsistent with our values? And that's the Angle. Let's discuss this Dr Suzan Johnson Cook, a former advisor to Presidents Clinton and Obama, Horace Cooper Co-Chairman of the Project 21 National Advisory Board and Niger Innes, National Spokesperson for the Congress of Racial Equality. Suzan your thoughts.
SUZAN JOHNSON COOK, FORMER ADVISOR TO PRESIDENTS CLINTON AND OBAMA: My thoughts are a whole lot went into that introduction. I think that she should have been released. I was very happy and I applaud Iger for releasing the show. I think that we have to take responsibility for our actions.
INGRAHAM: What about all the other things though and that's my point?
COOK: I mean there was a whole lot pointed out and most of the people who were pointing it out including Jeremiah Wright who was my classmate in my deanment program, they did suffer consequences for their actions. It wasn't like they just got a slap on the wrist. But I am saying is that what she did was wrong and deplorable. She compared a woman to an ape. And as a black woman we've had to deal sexism, racism and classism. Okay, no, no--
INGRAHAM: We agree with you though, we are not in disagreement about that but what my point was, was a simple point, I don't care about Roseanne. Our point was that the left routinely maligns and mocks entire classes of Americans with impunity. And the point about Wright was not about him, it was about when he questioned, when President Obama, Candidate Obama was questioned about, "oh you can't impute Reverend Wright's comments about US of KKK and all that on me," He was a lot closer to Wright than, the President is not close to Roseanne, he called and said congrats on the ratings, big deal, they don't even know each other.
COOK: Okay. But the point is we cannot be distracted but--
INGRAHAM: It's about blaming Trump, that's my point. It's not about Roseanne, that's just an analogy.
COOK: A lot of people do blame Trump. In the intro it also says how many minorities are growing in favor of Trump, you know I speak to the many groups myself and that is not the reality. So we don't want to have alternative facts, we want to make sure--
INGRAHAM: It's an actual poll, not my poll, an actual poll.
COOK: In fact I sit in minority groups and I am a minority and I don't feel that's the sentiment at all, whatsoever. So I think--
HORACE COOPER, CO-CHAIRMAN OF THE NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD: Okay so Reuters actually did a poll, and they have done several showing dramatic increases in support among black people, and by the way when I talk to many black people they do say this. But why don't we see when Alec Baldwin says to a black man, uses the N word, in reference to him, why doesn't he get to have his show taken away. Why does Joy Behar get to say and post some of the most obnoxious and all we see are great accolades? What I am just saying is I am not asking for anyone's show to be taken from them. What I'm asking about is why is it the condemnation seems to only go one way?
INGRAHAM: The fairness question. Niger
NIGER INNIS, AMERICAN ACTIVIST: Well it's simply because there's this belief that somehow minorities or blacks can't be racist. That we can't, that certain groups, certain protected groups can't be discriminatory and that's just bogus. I mean President Obama got elected and re-elected after this controversy about Jeremiah Wright and it did get a lot of oxygen. To connect President Trump with something that Roseanne Barr said is absurd.
INGRAHAM: Van Jones said this today on CNN, let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VAN JONES, FORMER ADVISOR TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: Three years ago, Trump came down the escalator, said stuff that was completely offensive in the ears of most people of the Mexican community and we have just been in free fall ever since. And usually you want the President to draw the line. The President crosses the line every day, so it does seem that corporate American and the culture are stepping up to fill that void that has been left by the collapse in our political system.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Suzan now the left is saying the culture matters, which I am kind about, that's awesome. I mean we've all been trying to talk about the culture for decades and mocked by people like Bill Maher and others who don't mind the free fall in the culture. But now the left is saying these things matter, words matter, great. Pictures matter, billboards matter, the way we represent women in songs matter. I don't care if you are Kanye West or you're Common who was featured in the Starbucks tutorial the other day. So did it all begin with Donald Trump coming down the escalator? We've had a free fall of a culture since 1967 or something like that if you want to go back.
COOK: That's a loaded question but I think if we care to look back--
INGRAHAM: No it's not a loaded question--
COOK: It is a loaded question, let me respond, let me respond--
INGRAHAM: It's a question about whether the cultural downfall began as Van Jones implied with Donald Trump and the escalator?
COOK: I don't know when it began but I can tell you that leadership has been divisive and I think that that's caused the culture to really be explosive now and I think Roseanne's was just one for the tipping points. And I think that Donald Trump's leadership has been a very divisive--
INGRAHAM: Do think Donald Trump is a racist?
COOK: Yes I do.
INGRAHAM: Why?
COOK: I think that he has said racist things. I think that he has alienated a lot of--
INGRAHAM: What other things has he said? COOK: Throughout his campaign he has--
INGRAHAM: Name three.
COOK: I'm not going to name three but you asked me a question, do I think so and I said yes.
INGRAHAM: Niger.
COOPER: That is religion.
INNIS: I am very disappointed in Suzan. I--
SUZAN: Well you can be disappointed, I'm disappointed in you but--
INNIS: You'd be disappointed at the saying--
COOK: You can be disappointed in me but--
INNIS: I'm disappointed that you automatically just say that Donald Trump is a racist. Racism today, can I speak?
INGRAHAM: And that ends the conversation.
COOPER: Can I get a word in edgeways?
COOK: I think it's divisive for our nation. You certainly can and so can I.
INNIS: Yes you can and you have. Racism is one of the most powerful words, and we are speaking about words, forgive me my earpiece is falling out here. But racism is one of the most powerful words and weapons that is used in our culture today. It is not 1955, it is not 1965, it's not 1980. Even today race and racism is a charge that is incredibly powerful and for you to say automatically and some what I believe flippantly that Donald Trump is a racist. Was he racist when he was having events with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton on Wall Street? Tell me?
COOPER: He is receiving awards for being pro-minority.
COOK: You can receive awards, as you know, for many things and so my point is, look at who, let me finish. Look at who surrounds him and who is absent from the table--
COOPER: Typically not for being pro-minority.
INGRAHAM: Who surrounds him?
COOK: Who's in his cabinet that's a minority? Okay
COOPER: He's his own man for one thing.
INGRAHAM: Does Ben Carson count or can we say he doesn't count at all?
COOK: I didn't say he didn't count I said look at who's around him and at the absence--
INNIS: (There are minorities in the) Trump administration but I don't want to out them, they have been targets for--
INGRAHAM: Elaine Cow is she a minority?
COOPER: When Condoleezza Rice was characterised as a nanny in cartoon strips--
INGRAHAM: She was called a house slave to be very specific.
COOPER: And another term that's close to that, where was the outrage? Where was the condemnation? Where-
INGRAHAM: If you want me to be discreet--
COOK: What happens is we distract what actually happened. The question initially was Rosanne making outrageous remarks?
INGRAHAM: No, it was about whether Trump should be blamed? We all agree Roseanne's comments. We're all in agreement, which is awesome.
COOK: We didn't have that discussion tonight. The opening said--
INGRAHAM: This segment is devoted to, which is why the big banner on the shows has been "Blaming Trump for Roseanne". That's what we're focused on
COOK: There's a whole lot to the big banner and the events adding up to it and saying that certain people on the left are not, are not--
INGRAHAM: Suzan, it's not-- If I may probably run my own show okay so that's what the focus is.
COOK: You may--
INGRAHAM: Chris Hayes today agrees to what Susan is saying. He says, "Roseanne's problem turned out that she far too authentically represented the actual world view of a significant chunk of the Trump base". So you Suzan you would agree with that. That most of the--
COOK: A minority
INGRAHAM: Suzan a significant chunk of the Trump base is racist? You agree with that?
COOK: I do and most people that I surround, and whether Reuters took the poll or not, I'm a minority and I'm in circles that totally agree with that. Yes
INGRAHAM: Okay.
COOPER: So when sources also show that people said I voted for Obama twice and now I voted for Trump, when did they become a racist? These are White Americans that changed their votes. And in fact, there's also Black Americans that changed their votes.
COOK: I think that the campaign fuelled racism. I think that they appealed to a crowd that said minorities are going to take your jobs from you. Minorities are going--
COOPER: So if I am willing to vote for Obama and I am willing to vote for Trump, because I'm a racist. This is such, this is religion. This is why people--
INGRAHAM: I thought it was interesting when I interviewed Shelby Steele, I don't care if you're Democrat or however, he's simply one of the most brilliant writers around period. He said, "Look I lived through the segregated south and I can't think of a better time to be an American today of any color. We have problems," He sighted societal breakdown, fallaceness, obviously crime, and despondency. And I said what one thing is the biggest hurdle for people today? He said family breakdown. Government cannot solve that problem. This is spiritual problem, this is a personal problem that cuts across all racial lines. But he specifically focused on that. And it was just interesting coming from a man who had dealt with this and he actually said, "I'd love to have had my youth be a difficult as they say their life is today I the United States. Because he has actually lived through it.
SUZAN: Well my parents lived in the Segregated South and I lived in the summers in the Segregated South so I am civil rights baby. I have seen it all the way from '57 until now. And I think that it's more than family breakdown, I think there was more emotional, spiritual strength of people. Families were not always together. Let's remember the history of slavery. So families were not always together, they were pulled apart just as many are being pulled apart today. But there was an emotional strength, a spiritual strength of people coming together, saying we are United Sates. Let's try to forget what has happened in the past. Let's try to build something together, let's build bridges and not walls.
INGRAHAM: Okay real quick, real quick, we've got about five--
INNIS: It's a strange type of racist that you say that Donald Trump is that talks about, on a regular basis, the record low unemployment among the Blacks and Hispanics and people of colour during -
COOK: Well building--
INNIS: And I will not use that term but I think it is critically important--
INGRAHAM: Got to go, got to go guys, really. Thank you very much, I wish I could keep you guys all for the hour, you are fantastic. Trey Gowdy by the way seems to be at odds with what the President calls Spygate. He has many Conservatives upset, Dan Bongino has a message for Gowdy, next. The major media are selectively reporting the FBI and DOJ's briefing of key law maker's last week about that informant in the Trump Presidential campaign. It's typical of today's headlines. ABC's website blared, "Gowdy disputes Trump's spy claim, says FBI acted properly". But that ignores a number of key points Oversight Chair Trey Gowdy made on Fox last night. The first was that the DOJ made clear that the President was not and is not a target of the Russia investigation despite the Democrats' constant disinformation on that point. Gowdy also could not explain why the FBI did not simply do that defensive briefing on the campaign instead of relying on an informant inside his campaign. On the Angle last night Former Federal Prosecutor Andy McCarthy laid out his theory.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDY MCCARTHY, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: There's no question that they spied on the campaign. If you were looking with a corporation and you thought the corporation was being corrupted by three people, you would go to the CEO and say, "I think we have a problem here, we need your cooperation. What they did instead was send covert operatives to pry information out".
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now this is why a number of Conservatives are unhappy that Gowdy muddied the waters or would downplay Trump's spy claims. One of them is Dan Bongino of NRI TV, and also joining us is Daniel Goldman Former Assistant US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, great to see both of you. Dan Bongino first let's go to you on this. We invited Gowdy on the show. We want him to come on, he's a really smart guy, a little confusing the way he approached this issue although a little misrepresented I think in the press. But where do you come down on what he said specifically about the Spygate question.
DAN BONGINO, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR: I think Gowdy's appearance was disgraceful. I think you are being nice to him, I understand Laura but Goedy's appearance is being used a propaganda for the left. And what he said is completely out of line and factually incorrect. Let's just run through some basic facts here okay. So according to Gowdy, the FBI read it by the book how the Americans would have wanted them to run the investigations. Really? So why didn't they notify Congress for eight moths Laura. Eight months about the investigation when prior procedure was to notify Congress quarterly on sensitive investigations. Another question for you, if they ran it by the book, how it is that suspiciously potentially felony leaks of information happened in both October and January to the New York Times and Washington post. Is that an example Mr Gowdy of a finely tuned investigation run like the Americans would have wanted? By the way, hidden from Congress? Seriously, give me a break. He did nothing but feed the leftist propaganda machine yesterday and he should go back and clarify those outrageous, absurd remarks.
INGRAHAM: I think he is obsessing over the definition of spy within the intelligence community versus an informant ongoing investigation which I think is beyond the point. Daniel Goldman I want to pay for you a sound bite from Jason Chaffetz earlier. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON CHAFFITZ, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Jeff Sessions as the Attorney General is there as a name only. He is absolutely worthless. As soon as the President names a new attorney general, the better. He should never has recused himself, he didn't need to on a counter intelligence operation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: This is of course regarding the Trump tweet today commenting on what Gowdy did say, that a of lot of us took note of which is that he could have any top lawyer be the Attorney General, and meanwhile you pick a guy who everyone likes or liked but recused himself right off the bat. Your reaction.
DANIEL GOLDMAN, FORMER ASSISTANT US ATTORNEY: Well I think that the President should probably do his homework a little bit more because this was an obvious recusal under the department of justice regulation. This should not have been a surprise to him or his lawyers. And so the fact that he then announced that he was recusing himself because he was an integral player in the campaign and therefore could not oversee an investigation into the campaign should not have been a surprise. The other problem that I see as a former federal prosecutor about the way that Trump views Sessions and the attorney general is that he seems to be talking a lot about wanting someone who's loyal to him, which on its face is fine, he gets to choose his cabinet and I get that. But what he's really indicating and implying in making that statement is that he wants someone loyal to him at the top of the justice department who will squash an investigation into either him or his campaign associates, children or whatever you have of it.
INGRAHAM: Well wait a second Dan, let me just clear this. Was Eric Holder perceived to be loyal to Barack Obama? Because I think you could go through number of scenarios where you could argue that Eric Holder went above and beyond what the left is now saying Trump should have relationship with Sessions. So I think like that loyalty went real deep between the two of them whether it was the IRS investigation, the way that they handled Fast and Furious, how they did the Rosen Oversight, whether the President knew anything about any of this was never briefed on it. I mean you couldn't get any information out of these people. I think loyalty really mattered to Obama at the top of the justice department.
GOLDMAN: I think loyalty in some respects matters but I think--
INGRAHAM: Yeah the President's wingman, he called himself.
GOLDMAN: I don't know if that's true or not.
INGRAHAM: It's true, that's what he called himself.
BONGINO: It's true.
GOLDMAN: When Trump is saying that he wants loyalty as a former organized crime prosecutor I hear something very different than wanting someone who is close to him, who is loyal to him. The critical difference that I think you have to acknowledge, both of you, is that Barack Obama was not under investigation by the department of justice. Whether you like it or not Dan, he is under investigation. So you have to recognize that there needs to be some division between that investigation into the President and the Department of Justice.
INGRAHAM: Well, he is also the chief executive officer of the executive branch, of the government. And as chief executive officer, if he wanted to, constitutionally, Dan Bongino, he could fire anyone he wants. Whether it's politically appropriate, I think Daniel Goldman is right. It wouldn't be politically appropriate to do that. That would send everyone into a frenzy. But if he decided he wanted to get rid of Comey, he can get rid of Comey. If he decided he wants to get rid of Rosenstein who was a disaster from the beginning, I would argue he should get rid of Rosenstein. He could get rid of Sessions if he wanted.
GOLDMAN: So what you're saying though is he is completely above the law and he could fire anybody for corrupt practices.
BONGINO: Dan, seriously, you are just making stuff up now and I wish she would stop doing that. You said before that the president, he is looking for someone to quash these investigations. I'm guessing you are not familiar with the details of the case because it's already open source that the president said multiple times that if there was a Russian intelligence asset in his campaign trying to compromise his campaign, he wants to know about it. So, Dan, you may be hearing this for the first time, and I will give you the chance to retract that, but who quashes an investigation well asking the FBI simultaneously to investigate it. I will wait for your answer. You may not know those facts.
INGRAHAM: He wants a fair investigation, I think. I think he wants it to be fair. I think he wants an attorney general who doesn't melt when "The New York Times" editorial board gets all upset about a recusal that he never had to do. I think that's probably what he wants. I think that's what most presidents want. Dan, go ahead.
GOLDMAN: He had to do it under the Department of Justice regulations.
INGRAHAM: No, he didn't. No, he didn't.
GOLDMAN: You don't think that he was an integral part of --
INGRAHAM: Because Kislyak saw him at a party.
GOLDMAN: It has nothing to do with Kislyak.
INGRAHAM: -- stopped in his office? What did he have to do with Russian collusion? He had zero to do with Russian collusion. I think that was convenient.
GOLDMAN: It has to do with it the fact that he was an integral part of the campaign and the campaign was a subject to investigation, or was involved - -
INGRAHAM: A phony investigation on contextual grounds that was started with a ridiculous informant who was trolling for God knows --
GOLDMAN: How do you know that?
INGRAHAM: You are saying Jeff Sessions was intricately involved in some way in the Russia investigation.
GOLDMAN: No, I'm not. I'm saying Jeff Sessions was involved in the campaign.
INGRAHAM: That was a prudential decision that he made and I would say it was not -- I have the regs here. I don't think it was required at all.
GOLDMAN: All right, read the rags, they are very clear.
INGRAHAM: How many of the Obama people ever recused themselves, rarely if ever?
GOLDMAN: Because Obama was never investigated. I'm here to defend Obama versus Trump. I'm just saying to you that if there is a confidential informant that has information about wrongdoing in the campaign --
INGRAHAM: Guys, we are out of time unfortunately. Guys, we will have you back. Fantastic segment.
CNN, by the way, may have to make another major retraction. We will tell you about it, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Time now for our "Seen and Unseen" segment where we expose what's really behind the big cultural stories of the day.
CNN may have to issue a major retraction after they charged Morgan Freeman with sexual harassment. And would you pay more than $1,000 a thousand dollars for a t-shirt? No. Here to explain it all, "New York Times" bestselling author of the "Will Wilder" series and FOX News contributor Raymond Arroyo.
Raymond, first thing is this Morgan Freeman deal. He is a renowned actor, he played God --
RAYMOND ARROYO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: An Academy award winner. Here's the problem. Chloe Melas is a CNN reporter. She wrote a piece exposing, charging Morgan Freeman with sexual harassment. She claimed she was on a junket interviewing Freeman, and in the middle of the interview, he looked over and said, oh, I wish I were there, and looked toward her. She was pregnant at the time. She took that as sexual harassment. He claims he was talking to Michael Caine who had just said he going to some locale and Freeman said I wish I were there.
Here's the problem with this entire report. If somebody is the charger, the one who claiming, making these accusations, why are they allowed to write the piece by CNN? This was also investigated by Time Warner HR, and they found nothing there.
INGRAHAM: This is the Me Too movement, which is exposing some real abuses, but this --
ARROYO: Harvey Weinstein --
INGRAHAM: When you say something like, you are looking at me, it's like kids, Maria is looking at me, stop her looking at me. You know what I mean. It's ten years later inappropriate hugs, all that. Come on.
ARROYO: Here's the problem. Freeman is now saying through his lawyer, this is defamation, he made a list. There are some who believe he really has a case here. And in this age when you have a black celebrity like this at this level, I think CNN --
INGRAHAM: Roseanne, this is a tear headline from the "New York Times," Roxane Gay, a columnist, "The problem is that Donald Trump is a toxic president who amassed his power through provocation of hate. The problem is having a major character on a prominent TV show as a Trump supporter normalizes racism and misogyny," and of course throw it in for good measure, xenophobia. So having a character, Raymond Arroyo, on a show who supports Trump is racism, misogyny, xenophobia?
ARROYO: We are seeing blanket racism being thrown around as a charge. And columnists who confuse Roseanne Barr the actor and Roseanne Conner, the character she plays on TV. Here is the bottom line for me on this Roseanne story. "Roseanne" did its job. You know what it did. It awakened at the entertainment community that there was middle America that was underserved and they were looking for someone to be their voice, someone who looked like them. It doesn't have to be Roseanne. We're going to see it in "Last Man Standing" and you'll see it in other characters. Watch. There are more stories.
INGRAHAM: There is too much money to be made in giving a voice to at least someone who is not demonized every five seconds because they support Trump. And they are still demonizing him. They are still demonizing the Trump supporters as the deplorables, troglodytes, xenophobes, et cetera.
ARROYO: Broad brush.
INGRAHAM: Jesse Duplantis, I have never heard of this person.
ARROYO: He's from my neck of the words in Louisiana.
INGRAHAM: What is he up to?
ARROYO: The lord has called him to have a fourth private jet. He already has three. And here's his explanation for this call.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JESSE DUPLANTIS, TELEVANGELIST: People say, can't you go with this one? Yes, but I can't go at one stop. You see if I can do it with one stop I can fly it for a lot cheaper because I have my own fuel for it.
I really believe that if Jesus was physically on the earth today, he wouldn't be riding a donkey.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
ARROYO: When the lord said store up your riches in heaven, I don't think this is what he had in mind. This guy is asking $54 million from his followers for a fourth private jet.
INGRAHAM: Is it be G-4, God-four?
ARROYO: It's a Falcon.
INGRAHAM: That's a nice plane.
ARROYO: He's not the only one. Creflo Dollar and this fellow Kenneth Copeland also have private planes, and they are on TV defending why they need private planes to spread the Gospel.
INGRAHAM: What's that thing about getting a rich person through the --
ARROYO: The eye of a camel. They eye of a camel apparently has two jet engines. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KENNETH COPELAND, TELEVANGELIST: The world is in such a shape, we can't get here without this. We've got to have this. I would have to stop, I'm being very conservative, at least 75-80, more like 90 percent of what we are doing because you can't get there from here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's impossible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: They don't like commercial airlines. There are too many people on you. They say it's like demons in a tube. I'd rather demons on a tube in a commercial flight than snakes on a private plane. I will leave it there. We'll talk t-shirts next time.
INGRAHAM: No, no, t-shirts.
ARROYO: Oh, t-shirts, you want to talk about this. A $1,290 t-shirt shirt has been released. This is it. You can spend $1,000 to essentially look like a laundry rack. It is a button up shirt sewn onto your t-shirt, or you can wear it interchangeably and have a t-shirt.
INGRAHAM: We could go back and get my old sewing machine out.
ARROYO: It looks like you walked out of your house with static cling. It looks terrible.
INGRAHAM: Is that homeless sheik.
ARROYO: I guess. I don't know what it is, but I'm not buying it. But I would like a private plane.
INGRAHAM: I wish I had. I have a little toy one that Dmitri has.
ARROYO: I'm going to open up my own ministry over here.
INGRAHAM: Next, a story that shows how bleeding heart lefties can actually be totally heartless. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Don't you know the left has a total monopoly on compassion? You don't know that? But where is the compassion here? Only 22 House Democrats supported the right to try bill that President Trump signed into law today. It will allow terminally ill patients to try experimental drugs not yet approved by the FDA. But wait a minute, I thought it was the heartless President Trump who doesn't care about America?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. GREGORY MEEKS, (D) NEW YORK: It seems clear to me that this president does not care about the United States of America. What this president cares about is Donald Trump.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, SENIOR ADVISER, MOVEON.ORG: Donald Trump doesn't really care about the country or people. He only cares about himself.
REP. LUIS GUTIERREZ, (D) ILLINOIS: What's the life of a human being worth? What's the life? It's priceless, and that is something that I think this president just never is going to understand.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: I think actions speak louder than words. We did reach out to Democrats who voted against the bill but none agreed to appear on this show, very sad about that. Please come on the show. Let's look at what's going on here with Monica Crowley, senior fellow at the London Research Center for Policy Research, and in Washington, radio talk show host, Garland Nixon. Great to see both of you. Garland, here are the Democrats who voted against, we're going to get into the right to try bill, but the prison reform bill, which I think is fascinating. We have Democrats Dick Durbin, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Sheila Jackson Lee, and John Lewis all voted against prison reform. That's like giving people a second chance, helping people get a second chance. It's like they want to prevent Donald Trump from having a victory on an issue that Democrats and Republicans, a lot of them are really united on. Why?
GARLAND NIXON, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: There are a couple things here. And I certainly there are politics being played, clearly. The Democrats don't want to block these bills. There's always going to be some token opposition. That's why you see a handful of people voting against it, and I think it has to do with the midterms. Their base is very animated in an anti-Trump way and they've got to keep them animated. But token opposition is what you're going to see.
INGRAHAM: But that's Kamala Harris and Cory Booker. They're always talking about how we need to reach out of the people who are really down on their luck and people who need a second chance in society. Trump is actually doing that. They are icons of the left. They are probably going to run for president in 2020.
NIXON: I think you just hit the nail on the head there. It's no coincidence that you're talking about people who are probably considering a presidential run.
INGRAHAM: Monica, on the right to try issue, we have all known people who are suffering at the end stages of life, terminal illness, glioblastoma which John McCain is suffering from, taken the lives of many of my friends, sadly. This is President Trump today at this bill signing ceremony. I think we have the voice over of it. And we see him with this little boy. It's absolutely amazing. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: The little boy has muscular dystrophy, he was waiting for his hug. He is like, come on, come on. I thought it was hilarious. People can tend to caricature one another. We all are guilty of that. But Donald Trump, the idea that he doesn't have a heart, he doesn't care about people, that whole narrative, Monica, is getting so tired. And it's preventing people from actually governing.
MONICA CROWLEY, LONDON CENTER FOR POLICY RESEARCH: Yes, it was tiresome three years ago when he announced for president, even more so now. We all understand politics, but when we are talking about an issue like this, Laura, of life and death, of patients with terminal illnesses who just want the chance to have experimental treatments, the idea that any Democrats would oppose this simply because Donald Trump is for it is absolutely outrageous.
This was the humane thing to do, and I think with the Democrats showed today in opposing this bill is that they prefer these decisions of life and death to be in the hands of the government, the FDA and other agencies, are not in the hands of the patients whose lives are hanging in the balance. And what this president, the Republicans who pushed this bill and got it through to the president's desk, what they have demonstrated is that they did do the moral and humane thing. And frankly Democrats who voted against this are going to have to answer for it.
INGRAHAM: Garland, this is what Marc Thiessen wrote today in the "Washington Post." "Democrats in Washington managed to take an issue that unified thousands of legislators from parties in 40 states and turned it into a divisive party line vote. Thanks to Trump Americans facing terminal diagnoses will now have a new chance at life. How tragic and pathetic that Democrats refused to join him in making that happen." Thiessen is not a big Trump fan, by the way.
NIXON: Right, and neither and I. But the Democrats are not by themselves. They're not alone in playing politics on Capitol Hill. Let's not forget that Mitch McConnell has the dubious distinction of being the only sitting senator to put in a bill and then to basically go against his own bill, to turn and fight against his own bill.
INGRAHAM: Which one was that.
NIXON: That was the one where he filibustered his own bill. He was playing politics, and it happens. And so I don't think the Democrats are terrible for playing. Now, if they blocked it, I would have a problem. We all know how the kabuki theater plays on --
INGRAHAM: I get it. I get it. Everyone has their resistance mode when the other party is in power. But at some point, guys, they are supposed to govern. If you can make people's lives better, and I'm for smaller government, but in this case more choice, they're supposed to be all prochoice, I think if you want to build out your majority, you have to do something.
NIXON: That's why they're not filibustering. And that's why they're not really trying to kill the bill.
INGRAHAM: Monica, final thoughts?
CROWLEY: Look, finally we did something right here. But if the Democrats have had their way, to Garland's point, they may have tried to block it. But they're going to have to answer for this. And we all know people. I have got a good friend whose mother was dying of breast cancer years ago at a top New York hospital, and her family was willing to pay whatever it costs out of their own pocket for experimental treatment, and she was denied. Now those kinds of patients will have a shot, a final shot at life. And what greater gift, thanks to the president.
INGRAHAM: Guys, thank you so much, fantastic segment.
Legalized pot, by the way, is turning the west back into the wild west according to one sheriff who will be with us, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: We told you last night about a shocking report that found that laws legalizing marijuana have not driven organized crime out of the pot trade, just the opposite. They have created a huge gold rush for foreign drug cartels. Our guest Mason Tvert of the Marijuana Policy Project disagreed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MASON TVERT: When states like Colorado and Washington and California, what we are seeing is that the demand amongst the population in those states is being met by a new legal market where the product is being controlled. It's being grown and sold by licensed businesses.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: That statement really irked Sheriff Bill Elder of El Paso County in Colorado and he joins us now from Denver. Sheriff, you are on the front lines. You see the results of pot legalization. I have been a staunch critic of this move to legalize drugs for years now. You see the money in it, it is huge money. Corporations and lobbyists are swarming all over Washington. I want to play for you what Chuck Schumer said about this. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHUCK SCHUMER, (D) SENATE MINORITY LEADER: I studied the issue, and we now have some evidence, the state of Washington, other states, where it has done lots of good and no harm. Justice Brandeis said, let the states be laboratories. Now we've had a few states, we've had a few laboratories. The experiment has been a success. Let's nationalize it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: He doesn't want the states to be laboratories of pro-life legislation, however. Sheriff?
SHERIFF BILL ELDER, EL PASO COUNTY SHERIFF: It has been a grand experiment, hasn't it? We have taken Colorado and we have opened the floodgates, and now we have black market marijuana everywhere.
INGRAHAM: And it was said yesterday that the only reason this is happening, Sheriff Elder, is because all the other states have a need for the pot. You can't buy it in all the other states where it's not legal. And once it's legalized nationally, then the cartels will move out. Do you buy that argument?
ELDER: Not at all. The cartels have infiltrated Colorado right and left. Right now we are tracking over 600 grows in El Paso County alone, another 150 or 200 in Pueblo County that are all cartel controlled black market marijuana. And that marijuana is being packaged and sold all over the east coast at two or two and a half times its value in Colorado. This is ridiculous.
INGRAHAM: They just say once all these other states legalize it -- it's driven by the desire, by the market. The market demands that pot be sent all over the country and all these other states need to get with it.
I do want to show our viewers statistics that they may not see anyone else. Here's the changing crime from 2013-2016 during the legalization period in Colorado. Colorado was up five percent, nationally it was down nine percent. Violent crime, same period, Colorado up 12.5 percent, and nationally up five percent corresponding to the periods of legalization. Does that comport with your own experience with the violent crime increase, sheriff?
ELDER: It absolutely does. We have now legalized marijuana for medicinal uses as well as recreational uses. We didn't put any caps on it. Before you could grow up to 99 plants in a residential zone. Today we have limited data to 12 plants in a residential zone, and every one of these grows that we have taken down since the first of the year has had well over 100 plants. Since the first of the year, we have executed 64 search warrants and recovered almost 5,300 marijuana plants that were destined for the east coast. This is no longer an experiment.
INGRAHAM: So this is Chinese, Mexican, and Cuban, a lot of the cartels, is that right?
ELDER: That's exactly right, and along with some Laotians in southern Colorado. This is ridiculous.
INGRAHAM: And a partridge in a pear tree. What a nightmare.
ELDER: Exactly.
INGRAHAM: This is a nightmare. This is about money, Sheriff. This is about huge money, the tobacco industry moving into the pot industry, and apparently we are off to the races. We are going to keep tabs on this and we are going to keep in contact with you. Thank you so much. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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