NBC worried about Kaepernick backlash with Super Bowl halftime show
Are musical acts performing during the halftime show crossing a 'picket line'? Raymond Arroyo breaks down his 'Friday Follies' for 'The Ingraham Angle.'
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," February 1, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
LAURA INGRAHAM, HOST: I'm Laura Ingraham, and this is “The Ingraham Angle” live tonight from Florida.
There are calls for Virginia's Democratic Governor Ralph Northam to step down tonight, now, not because of his outrageous comments endorsing infanticide earlier this week, if you can believe it, but over this photo discovered from his past late today. Well, it's a yearbook photo from his med school.
Now, Virginia Democrats are on a conference call right now at this moment to discuss Northam's fate. It hangs in the balance. And he is offering an apology, but no resignation. Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King Jr. will be here in just moments to tell us if that's enough.
Plus, a remarkable jobs report set the economic pessimists back on their heels. Oh, boy, is it good? And President Trump's Chief Economic Advisor, Larry Kudlow is here with a message for all of them. I can't wait.
And the NFL gearing up for the Super Bowl. I'm going, never been. It's going to be fun. So why is Colin Kaepernick back and still giving everybody headaches? Raymond Arroyo breaks it all down in Friday Follies. Before, former NFL quarterback legend Joe Theismann is with me tonight reacting.
But first, Trump forces the Dems and media to show their real cards. That's the focus of tonight's “Angle.”
You know the economic news is stunningly good, when even the anti-Trump media has to concede the point.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a really good report. I mean, starting this year with a lot of hiring across the board, just shrugging off the government shutdown and private industry hiring now, this is 100 months in a row of job creation, you guys. That's really remarkable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now, with the backdrop of another astounding jobs report, it made it a little tougher for Cory Booker's big announcement, which was big, on doom and gloom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CORY BOOKER, D-N.J.: What my neighbors are concerned with and I've heard all around the country is that people in America are losing faith that this nation will work for them. They're beginning to believe that too many folks are going to get left out or left behind.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: What country does he live in? Now, has Cory Booker not been following the economic news for the past 24 months, the past month, or how about just today? Well, let's help him get up to speed, shall we?
304,000 jobs created in January, smashing all forecasts. Health care, leisure, construction are all up, up, up. And also remember, when Obama - he doubted that Trump could ever bring back manufacturing jobs. Well, with today's new numbers, CNN had to concede this. "Manufacturing, especially in durable goods, continued what is now a two-year-long stretch of healthy growth."
And by the way, how does Cory and the rest of the crowded Democratic field explain away that whole rising wages thing? Check this out. Total compensation rose more in 2018 than it has since 2008. Wages are up a whopping 3.2 percent year-over-year. Wow!
Now, it seems like yesterday, doesn't it, when The Washington Post was publishing pieces like this. "Be skeptical of Trump's claim that wages will soar after he cuts taxes." And last year, left wing think tanks were churning out papers warning, "Don't be fooled. Working Americans are worse off under Trump." Oh, my God!
And this is my favorite from Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman who in November embarrassed himself by saying "Trump's tax cut was a fizzle."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL KRUGMAN, 2008 NOBEL MEMORIAL PRIZE WINNER IN ECONOMIC SCIENCES: The GDP number looks fine. Wages are down, adjusted for inflation. People are not feeling it. People are not saying, "Gee, this is great, this is wonderful." People are saying, "I'm still having trouble making ends meet." And they have it sensed correctly that the tax cut was for - was for a few rich people and corporations and not for them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now, repeat. This guy won the Nobel Prize. But then again, so did Obama. So, big deal.
All right. The bottom line is, experts were wrong once again. Tariffs on China hurt the Chinese and had very little effect on us. Oh, and the shutdown, it didn't slow this red-hot economy. Right now, the Trump economy is the envy of the world.
So Democrats like Booker - he is kind of an interesting guy. I mean, I have to say that. He is an interesting person. They're in a very strange position because Trump has kind of taken a lot of issues that excited dependents and blue-collar workers off the table. Because - look, the Democrats aren't going to outdo Trump on border enforcement or trade or on wages and certainly not on the economy or manufacturing jobs.
Two years into the Trump economy, most Americans have more opportunities and more money in their pockets. And so they should be less anxious. They should be happier, right? But Democrats can't have that. No happy voters are allowed going into the 2020 election because happy voters means a Trump reelection. So Democrats are basically left with this. "Pay no attention to this booming economy because racism and sexism are still rampant and it's Trump's fault."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We now have a President of the United States who is a racist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you believe President Trump is a racist?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah. Yeah. No question.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The truth and the evidence points to him being a racist. He is a racist. His policies and his words are racist. End of story.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Sure. So they'll throw in maybe after that, pushes for Medicare for all and agreeing new deal, but to quote Bloomberg, that's the pie-in- the-sky stuff. Not going to ever happen, not going to work.
Now, what Bloomberg didn't say is that all of those policies, the policies also require massive wealth confiscation, and they will rob you of your decision-making and the power that you will once have had will now be gone and given to the government. By the way, under their scenario, the misery index won't be able to measure how bad it will be.
Trump's policy success is also - I was thinking about it today. It's kind of pulling the curtain back on the media, isn't it? Because we all knew they were biased. But now we see them actively covering for the left's radicalism. They don't really report, right, on the Virginia Governor Ralph Northam's comments, rationalizing infanticides - infanticide, but they do cover conservative pouncing on his comments.
Well, judging by tonight's coverage, they're not able to do the same with Northam's yearbook photos that just surfaced. And as - by the way, as long as we are talking about pouncing, it's reporters themselves who pounce anytime information services that could be bad for Trump. It doesn't matter if it's uncorroborated, incomplete, anonymously sourced or rank speculation. Just go with it.
Donald Trump knew about the infamous Trump Tower meeting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: NBC News has confirmed that Michael Cohen is willing to inform Robert Mueller that Donald Trump as a candidate knew about that 2016 meeting between Russians and his top campaign aides at Trump Tower.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: False. Totally false. Or how about this? A blocked call Don Jr. received before the Trump Tower meeting must have been to his father.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trump Jr. says he didn't tell his father, but there was a mysterious phone call that Trump Jr. made to a blocked number right after he learned more about the meeting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: False. They find out today, it never happened.
How about this? The Covington Catholic boys provoked a fight with a poor, Indian elder.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To surround an indigenous elder and chant "build the wall" kind of exposes that it really has nothing to do with border security. It seems like it's an issue of race and white supremacy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: False. Completely defamatory.
Now, sure. Trump's phrase, "the enemy of the people" is tough, and the press uniformly slams him for using it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's pernicious. It's dangerous. It's simply a Stalinist phrase, for god's sake.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That phrase is from Stalin and Hitler. They both used it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But it was used during the French revolution by radicals to describe their enemies. Let's try it out again during the Soviet era to justify mass murder by Lenin and Stalin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: I love when they use the black-and-white historical photos because then we're supposed to really believe them.
Well, come on. The press willfully misleads. They certainly don't seem like an ally of the people, do they? And look for their alliance with the Democratic field to become stronger, the more the economy improves and the closer we get to Election Day 2020.
And that brings us back to the vegan bachelor, Cory Booker. Things are pretty good in America. Cory and - I don't know. We're already rising. That was his big statement today. We're all going to rise. We just heard that even your imaginary friend T-Bone has found a job. Maybe that's why he wasn't at your big announcement today. It's very sad.
And that's “The Angle.”
All right. Joining me now, Howie Kurtz, Fox News media analyst and host of MediaBuzz Sunday is here on Fox News, and former U.S. attorney, Joe Digenova.
All right. Howie, let me start with you. I feel like we say this way too much. But it's not a good week for the media on a number of fronts. What stood out for you?
HOWARD KURTZ, HOST, MEDIABUZZ: Laura, by far, the most egregious case of this whole Republicans pounce game had to do with these late-term abortion bills in Virginia and New York. And I say this whether you are pro-life, whether you are pro-choice, pro-choice with reservations.
This is a dramatic shift. And yet New York Times, Washington Post framing this as it's only a case of partisan Republicans objecting to abortion rights even though instead of having a debate on the morality of allowing abortions even up to the day of birth, as Ralph Northam says in a videotaped interview that we have all looked at, rather than allowing for that possibility.
And by the way, CNN, MSNBC, other major networks have barely touched the story. It's just blatant ideological bias to declare it to be non-news.
INGRAHAM: Yeah. What about this latest news, Joe, when we see a yearbook photo of Ralph Northam who just came off of this partial birth abortion controversy, allowed to skate away from that by the press?
But then, we find this red school yearbook. You don't know whether he is a KKK guy or the blackface guy, but nevertheless, it's obviously an embarrassing photo for him. The double-standard if this had been a Republican with that photo, he would never be seen again, probably have to change his name and move to South America. But there is a big call going on right now in Virginia about his fate.
How about the media and what they will do in the coverage of this, Joe?
JOE DIGENOVA, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Well, let's remember that Ralph Northam called Ed Gillespie, the Republican candidate, a racist and a bigot. Now, ask yourself this question. How does a person like Ralph Northam live with himself knowing that he was either the guy in the Klan outfit or in blackface when he was an adult in medical school? This is not some youthful indiscretion. This is an adult acting as a racist. This is the Governor of Virginia. He is a racist. He needs to resign.
And if the Democratic Party in Virginia can't figure that out, they don't deserve to govern. Where is Terry McAuliffe, the great former Governor? What does he think? Has Terry ever been in blackface or worn Ku Klux Klan outfit? This is an abomination.
After claiming that killing a baby after birth is not murder, he then comes up with blackface or a Ku Klux Klan outfit. Ralph Northam needs to be gone. And The Washington Post and all the Richmond papers and The New York Times will figure out a way to excuse it. But the American--
INGRAHAM: Oh, yeah.
DIGENOVA: --people know a racist when they see one. Ralph Northam is a racist.
INGRAHAM: Well, Howie, when - it's beyond obvious that there is a wild double-standard. If someone has been subject to these types of attacks unfairly, branded all sorts of horrible names -- I mean, I deal with it every day. And I would say, let's debate the idea, stop with the pejoratives. But in this case, you have a man who aired that very controversial ad. I know, Joe, you'll remember it, during the campaign--
DIGENOVA: I can't forget it. Can't forget it.
INGRAHAM: --where you have a pickup truck with a confederate flag flying over it and chasing, I believe, an African-American and the import--
DIGENOVA: Yes.
INGRAHAM: --of that ad are Muslim or - and it was the - the import of that was, this guy is either a racist or racist like him, so you have to vote for me. So they played this cynical game, and it's a trap that they set and they got caught in it. And I think a lot of it is unfair. I'm not going to say that Ralph Northam is a racist. I'm not going to do that because I think that word is thrown around.
DIGENOVA: I believe it.
INGRAHAM: I think - I think that photo is obviously not a good photo.
DIGENOVA: Well, if you are in blackfaced or a Klan outfit, you are a racist.
INGRAHAM: Yeah. Yeah. But I don't know - I don't know what that - I don't know what this - I don't know what it is, but I do know this. The media--
DIGENOVA: He was an adult.
INGRAHAM: --has got to be called on this. Yeah.
KURTZ: Yeah.
INGRAHAM: Well, he's 25 years old.
DIGENOVA: He was an adult.
KURTZ: By the way, Northam needs to--
DIGENOVA: He was an adult.
KURTZ: Northam needs to come out and say--
INGRAHAM: Yeah.
KURTZ: --he was either in the KKK or in blackface. There shouldn't be a whole another debate.
INGRAHAM: We don't know which one, right, at this point? That's the big--
(CROSSTALK)
KURTZ: Some of his defendants will say, well, it was 35 years ago, he's mature. Compare that to some of the unsubstantiated allegations hurled at Brett Kavanaugh when he was in high school. Did he have a beer? Did he spike the punch?
INGRAHAM: Bingo.
KURTZ: Now, I have heard--
INGRAHAM: Bingo.
KURTZ: I have heard a couple of our commentators, since this broke, say that Northam should resign. And it's a real dilemma for the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, particularly African-Americans, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, because if they give him a pass, they're going to see very hypocritical because they throw around words like racism at the incumbent President. And so I think 2020 politics may force some Democrats to be a little harder on the Governor of Virginia than they otherwise might be.
INGRAHAM: Joe, I also have to play speaking of where the media is going on all of these conspiracy theories and Trump in Russia. This was Rachel Maddow this week during the middle of the cold snap - this horrible cold snap we've had in the Midwest. Could Russia and maybe Trump in some way be involved there? I don't know. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RACHEL MADDOW, HOST, THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW, MSNBC: What would happen if Russia killed the power in Fargo today? All right? What would happen if all the natural gas lines that service Sioux Falls just spoofed on the coldest day in recent memory? And it wasn't in our power whether or not to turn them back on. I mean, what would you do if you lost heat indefinitely as the act of a foreign power on the same day the temperature in your front yard match the temperature in Antarctica? I mean, what would you and your family do?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: I mean, pretty much anyone with a sophisticated person can probably hack into various power grids and do horrible things to countries, including our own. We hope that doesn't happen.
DIGENOVA: Yeah.
INGRAHAM: China can do it, Iran can do it, Russia could do it. But that was an interesting way of pulling in the meteorological challenges we've had this week. Joe?
DIGENOVA: Yeah. Well, Rachel Maddow is a loon. Let's underscore the word "loon." That rant that you just saw from the so-called intellectual led MSNBC was an example of how deranged the left has become over the President of the United States.
Let's remember that Rachel Maddow spent 30 minutes criticizing me, personally, on her show for claiming that Susan Rice had outed, unmasked a number of people. And she said it never happened. And of course, within 48 hours, Susan Rice admitted that she had unmasked a number of people in the interest of national security.
Rachel Maddow is a loon. And what you saw is an example of what happens when lunacy supplants journalism. That was an abomination. But of course, NBC has Tom Brokaw as their senior person, who apologizes regularly for saying the obvious.
INGRAHAM: All right, gentlemen, thank you so much.
And joining me now with reaction to all of these developments in the Governor Northam case is Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King Jr. And she is a staunch pro-life advocate for so many years.
Alveda, you've heard the conversation we just had. Does someone like Ralph Northam deserve at this point to remain in office with both the infanticide comments and this decades old photo from his yearbook?
ALVEDA KING, NIECE OF MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., PRIESTS FOR LIFE DIRECTOR, CIVIL RIGHTS FOR THE UNBORN: There's a serious question about the integrity of a governor who would say that if a child is born, there will be a conversation with the mother and the doctor to decide whether or not the child should live.
So we are talking every child in the womb or outside of the womb is a living human being. That has been established by science, philosophy, religion, and we know that. However, when the child is born, to still deny that that is a human being is just very questionable, very serious, and there's a moral issue there.
Morality is definitely an issue. So I believe that the people of Virginia need to rise up and challenge that. And we all around America must challenge him as well.
INGRAHAM: Well, Alveda, we see this trend spreading across the United States; New York, Virginia - rejected in Virginia, but still it will come back. You know, it will. Rhode Island, up in Vermont. This is going to be sweeping the country, this push for infanticide.
At the same time, there is his photo that emerges after the Democrats have lacerated conservatives for indiscretions in their youth or statements taken out of context, branded Trump a racist because he wants a wall.
And now we have a photo from - again, it's many years ago. It was 1984. He was 25 years old. A picture of him and someone wearing a Klan outfit and blackfaced. I assume it was Halloween or something like that. I have no idea.
For you, what does that picture say, if anything, about his fitness for office?
KING: We might ask right now, why that picture has emerged now, at this time in history. And as we ask that question, there is definitely a problem with morality. The heart of a leader that could still demonstrate that their heart has not changed. And let me say while we know the heart has not really changed because the Governor now is supporting legislation that would allow an infant baby to be killed at a decision of a doctor and a mother or whatever. So, the same--
INGRAHAM: No, we know that, Alveda, but does that photo bother you? Does that photo bother you or not?
KING: Let me tell you why the photo bothers me. Margaret Sanger, who is the Founder of Planned Parenthood, was a consultant to Planned Parenthood. And so, at - no. She founded Planned Parenthood, but she was a consultant to the Ku Klux Klan.
Now, the Governor is in league with Planned Parenthood and so is some of the other politicians that you just mentioned. And so they are sanctioning infanticide and abortion today. So it doesn't really matter how old the photo is, but what is happening today that was still happening in that photo and is again happening right now. That's why the photo bothers me.
Ku Klux Klan is still in league with Planned Parenthood, and anybody that sanctions Planned Parenthood is in league with the Ku Klux Klan.
INGRAHAM: Well, Alveda, I can say this. I've never - I never thought we would get to this place so fast with today's Democrat Party.
KING: We're one blood, Laura. We need to stop this. We've got to stop this. We're one blood. We're not separate races.
INGRAHAM: Yeah.
KING: Killing our babies is wrong. President Trump says that we need to fight for the lives of the babies.
INGRAHAM: Yeah, we've got to do it. We've got to do it.
Well, Alveda, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate your witness tonight. Thank you so much as always.
KING: Thank you.
INGRAHAM: And The New York Times, by the way, predicted today's jobs report was going to be "a mess." Was it? The opposite. Kudlow, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: A shocker to a lot of people. It wasn't a shocker to me. The country is doing really well. We have the strongest economy anywhere in the world by far, and we're the strongest nation in the world. So that was really good. But those numbers were very, very impressive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Those impressive numbers included 304,000 non-farm jobs added beating the estimate that was 170,000 and adding to the payrolls for the 100th consecutive month. It's unbelievable. Wages are up 3.2 percent, as I said during THE ANGLE. Labor participation rate was the highest it's been in six years. The good news keeps rolling in. But that wasn't enough for some of the sad sacks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: New number showed job growth, picked up for the 100th consecutive month. But not all the news is good on this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This number, this 304,000 number, is actually inflated due to the amount of part-time jobs that workers during the government shutdown.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The big question going forward is how long does this last, especially with the boost from the tax cuts kind of trailing off. That's what many economists are worried about going forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: I mean, I'm watching this on a plane coming down here. I was thinking, you've got to be kidding me. I mean, it's not going to get much better than this. Here and now, Director of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow.
Larry, first of all, thanks for being with us tonight. We really appreciate it. What is your message to those critics? They're looking for the cloud on the horizon because it must be a cloud-coming if Trump is involved.
LARRY KUDLOW, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DIRECTOR: Yeah, right. Look, all these ankle-biters coming up with these phony thoughts. If you - if you lower tax rates, if you rollback onerous regulations, if you unleash energy, if you have strong trade reform policies, well, guess what? America unbound. OK? Innovators, entrepreneurs. I call it the face of the new Trump economy.
I mean, look at these numbers, for heaven's sakes. We're not making this stuff up. And it keeps going on. And I want to make this point. I hear this all the time. The tax cuts are going to wear off. No, they are not. This is not a one-time spending stimulus. OK? These are supply side.
We lowered the marginal rates. We've created new incentives to work, to invest, to take risks, to start your own business, and guess what, the business tax cuts are permanent. OK? The business tax cuts are permanent. The individual tax cuts are going to go on for another five years or more, six years. So I just don't get this idea "they're going to wear off." Nothing is wearing off. What's happening is--
INGRAHAM: Well, Larry--
KUDLOW: --President Trump's pro-growth policies are working. They're working.
INGRAHAM: Well, Larry - Larry, they can't have happy voters. I said this during THE ANGLE. They can't have happy voters going into 2020. They need to -- they need to convince voters, ignore the extra money you have in your pocket, ignore the opportunities, ignore all these confidence and all of that. Ignore it all because there are racists and sexists around every corner because Trump is this or that. All the -isms come out. It's the victimology grievance industry. So that's what they're peddling.
And meanwhile - meanwhile you have people like poor old Cory Booker coming out today, and he says, well, people just don't think this economy works for them, it only works for the upper income earners. And I'm saying, is he not even - is he not watching the news purposely? I don't even get that.
KUDLOW: By the way, that's such an important point with respect to his misinformation. If you actually look inside the numbers, during the last two years when Trump policies are in place, it is the blue-collar workers, it is the mainstream - mainline workers who were doing the best. OK? Blue- collar employment is now running at the fastest pace since I was here at first time under Reagan in the mid '80s. Wages -- wages, OK, for blue- collar workers, middle income workers, wages are rising for them faster than they are for white-collar workers.
So that is just completely false. This is benefiting the entire country. Autoworkers, manufacturing workers, farmers, we have a really good trade deal. The USMCA is going to really help farmers, ranchers, people that own their own businesses who don't have to fill out all the paperwork. Clear out the debris and let Americans take a rip at the ball, and let them be entrepreneurs, and let free market capitalism go. And I guess they don't want to admit it, but it's working.
INGRAHAM: No, capitalism, no, no.
KUDLOW: It's working.
INGRAHAM: Capitalism, oh, no, Larry, that's the four-letter word. I have to say, how does the administration feel, though, about the new policy prescriptions from the far left? Let's watch.
KUDLOW: Yes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, D-MASS.: I want billionaires to stopping being freeloaders. I want them to pick up their fair share. That's how we make a system that works not just for the rich and the powerful but works for all of us.
All I'm asking for is a little slice from the tippy-tippy top.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We could increase the taxes that people are paying who are the extremely wealthy in our communities with 70 percent, 80 percent, we've had it as high as 90 percent.
The one percent must pay their fair share.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Remember, Larry, Warren, is talking about asset seizure, basically. This is a forfeiture of wealth made by others, and bringing to the government conference to do what they want. So making decision for other people, taking their power away from them, 70 percent to 90 percent taxation.
KUDLOW: You start taxing wealth like this, capital gains and inheritance taxes, all you're going to do is stop, is stop the momentum of new investments and new risk taking and new companies and new businesses and new technologies. Is that really what we want?
You know who pays the taxes in this country? The lower 50 percent pay three percent of the income taxes. The top one percent, Laura, they pay almost 40 percent. The top 10 percent pay about 80 percent. They are already paying the freight. How much do you want to load on them? I would like to see more supply side tax reform in years ahead. We can even do better on that. But do we want to emulate centrally planned, state run economies. Do we want everybody to be like Venezuela. You know, there's a lot of equality of income in Venezuela. Everybody is poor except for a handful of military generals. Is that really what we want?
INGRAHAM: It's insane. They're socialism. It doesn't work anywhere in the world.
Larry, this big controversy tonight, Ralph Northam, we are almost out of time, photo, 35 years ago, 1984, medical school, KKK outfit, blackface, it is a nightmare, a nightmare to look at, a nightmare to think about. But nevertheless, this comes off his infanticide comments earlier this week. They are having a big powwow right now as we speak at the 10:00 hour here about his fate. Thoughts?
KUDLOW: Well, look, I don't know all the facts. If it's true, he is going to have to resign right away, OK? Bing, bing, bing. But Laura, you know me, my biggest objection to this guy is his infanticide policies, as you put it, his abortion policies. This is crazy, you want to kill babies like this. This is unbelievable. And fortunately, I work for the most prolife president we've ever had in history. So this guy is a bad actor and it's time for him to go.
INGRAHAM: Larry, I got a go. Thank you so much for joining us.
When we come back, Colin Kaepernick making his way into the Super Bowl? Yes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: It's Friday, and that means it is time for --
(MUSIC)
INGRAHAM: -- Friday Follies. Of course, it is a Friday. Colin Kaepernick infiltrating the Super Bowl, a woman gets grounded in an outrageous viral video, and a congresswoman offers some lifestyle tips. Joining us now is all the details is Raymond Arroyo, FOX News contributor, "New York Times" bestselling author of the upcoming book "Will Wilder and The Amulet of Power."
All right, Raymond, what the heck is going on with Colin Kaepernick and the Super Bowl? I haven't heard of Colin Kaepernick in a while. He hasn't been around. So what's going on.
RAYMOND ARROYO, CONTRIBUTOR: Super Bowl LIII has a lot of major clouds hanging over it, OK. Now the halftime show has run into trouble because Colin Kaepernick and a number of celebrities like your friend Amy Schumer whom I know you have on your Netflix --
INGRAHAM: We love her.
ARROYO: -- they have dared musical acts to perform at the Super Bowl, claiming any musical act that performs at halftime is disrespecting Kaepernick and his kneeling protest. As you know, Maroon 5, Big Boi, and Travis Scott are performing this year. The public has moved on, but apparently some outlets haven't. The "Today" show just this morning asked Kaepernick's lawyer Mark Geragos to restoke the controversy. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does Colin Kaepernick see their participation during the halftime show as some sort of personal affront?
MARK GERAGOS, ATTORNEY: I think what it says is, number one, they do take a lot of heat, and I think rightfully so. The idea that you're going to basically cross a picket line, because that's what they're doing. They're crossing an intellectual picket line. They're saying to themselves, I care more about my career than I do about whether what I'm doing is right. I think there's something wrong with that, and they should be called out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: Now there's an intellectual picket line, Laura --
INGRAHAM: What?
ARROYO: -- that none of us knew existed.
INGRAHAM: What?
ARROYO: Kaepernick, this guy is so --
INGRAHAM: It makes no sense.
ARROYO: I have never seen nonaffiliated athlete talked about more since Rudy. This guy --
INGRAHAM: Geragos has got to get a new --
ARROYO: It's really ridiculous. The public has moved on. Later in the same interview, Geragos went further, blaming Kaepernick's troubles on, well, you watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK GERAGOS, ATTORNEY: The collusion actually was the NFL kowtowing to the president. The so-called divisiveness that this caused was actually ginned up or generated by a Russian disinformation effort.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Wait, wait a second, wait a second, wait a second.
ARROYO: We've got to get Mueller. Mueller has to come in and investigate the NFL.
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: No, no, no. This is the kind of nutty stuff that only Geragos from Chandra Levy fame can come up with, OK? He goes back to Chandra Levy, but this is, again, spoiling a -- I know you're upset about the Saints and were not talking about the Saints anymore.
ARROYO: I am.
INGRAHAM: We're not talking about Drew Brees, we're not talking about the Saints.
ARROYO: I'm reserving the right to talk about the Saints.
INGRAHAM: Even though I love Drew Brees and I wish he were in the Super Bowl, but we've moved on. It's the steps of grief. Grief and loss, you have to move on.
ARROYO: Look, Laura, there are a lot of reasons -- there are many reasons to get upset with this Super Bowl, OK. I can think of two of them, they're both missed calls. And the Who Dat Nation, by the way, we're doing Boycott Bowl this weekend, which I'll tell you about offline. But the very idea that we should get upset about entertainment and Colin Kaepernick, this is ridiculous. The NFL better move past this.
INGRAHAM: This week some video went viral of a woman in a middle seat of an airplane who began fat shaming her fellow passengers on a United flight from Vegas to Newark. Here is the video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know how I'm going to do this for the next four hours. This is just impossible, because they are squishing me. At least they'll keep me warm.
Find me a window, get me out of here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you find her another seat because I will not be verbally abused by this -- or anybody else. I'm not tolerating it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't say here because they're both so big. I can't even sit here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You should be ashamed of yourself. What you're doing is so terrible you should be ashamed of yourself.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I'm not politically correct.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Wait a second, Raymond, your reaction, did she say I eat salad? Is that what she said there? Oh, my goodness.
ARROYO: Look, no one should be verbally abused for the way they look. They shouldn't be shamed in public. This woman was wrong. I'm glad they walked her off the flight. That said, I sympathize with her plight some days, Laura, when I found myself in that middle seat. I was just on a plane, and a rather large fellow plopped down next to me. And as he went in, he lifted up that armrest. Now, that is like an opening salvo in a war. I'm fighting.
INGRAHAM: That's a border. Oh, no, armrest.
ARROYO: Yes, I'm fighting. That is a border no one should cross. That armrest should stay down. So I sympathize. The seats are going smaller, people going in the other direction, you can understand where this woman is coming from. But this is the wrong way to do it. And here she was on the way out, watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why don't you sit in between those two big pigs?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Wait, wait, what?
ARROYO: She is crude to the very end.
INGRAHAM: Does she know that people are filming her? People are always filming you. People get frustrated, flying is not easy today, but there's got to be another way to work this out. Borders of seats, you do pay for your seat, so you want your borders in force, but not that way. That's not the nice way. All right, what else?
INGRAHAM: The airline shouldn't be shrinking these seats.
Finally, Laura, I have another installment of our reoccurring segment, the days and nights of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
INGRAHAM: AOC, get the lingo.
ARROYO: AOC. The 29-year-old Queens congresswoman posted her skin care regimen this week.
INGRAHAM: I need one.
ARROYO: Did you know, Laura, did you know that you should always wash your face twice when you wear makeup? She says, once with oil and then with soap, or you can just put a makeup wipe at the bedside. She said it should stay there. And then she offered some advice about what you should wear at home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ALEXANDRA OCASIO-CORTEZ, D-N.Y.: Matching pajama sets is key to productivity. People talk about having a work uniform, but what does not get talked about is having kind of a lounge uniform of sorts so that you have something that you wear when you are working, and you have a set thing that you wear when you are not working. Now, that whole concept may seem kind of strange, but truly having work-life balance is very critical to mental health.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now, I'm just thinking, I'm just thinking, does Nancy Pelosi have that athleisure, formal, casual jammies, jammies, we call them jammies at my house.
ARROYO: Yes.
INGRAHAM: Does she have that kind of -- does she and Paul, her husband Paul Pelosi, have a matching footie-hoodie pajama? I think AOC is on to something.
ARROYO: I'm taking AOC's advice today. I'm taking her advice. She says that when you put your matching pajamas on --
INGRAHAM: What are you wearing?
ARROYO: -- it sends a message to your mind. So I'm wearing my Saints jersey with matching bottoms.
INGRAHAM: Oh, God, you are pathetic.
ARROYO: And I am remembering, I'm thinking of Drew Brees winning the Super Bowl next year. Who dat?
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: Raymond, that is so pathetic of a way to get that in.
All right, and less than 48 hours out from the Super Bowl, so what does an NFL legend think of the ongoing Kaepernick drama, the Saints controversy Raymond was just talking about, and whether Brady will ever retire. Former Redskins Quarterback Joe Theismann joins me next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Kaepernick controversy is casting a shadow over they have time show. Several big names like Rihanna and Cardi B reportedly refused to perform at the Super Bowl in support of Kaepernick.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This year's act has been in the news because many artists have said they would not do the Super Bowl halftime show in support of Colin Kaepernick.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Over 100 million Americans are expected to tune into the Super Bowl this Sunday, but sadly, much of the focus hasn't been on the game, the players, itself, but on the controversy from years past. We are fortunate enough to have an NFL legend here to help us break it all down, why the league is still struggling with this, former Redskins quarterback, Super Bowl winner himself, Joe Theismann joins us from Atlanta. Joe, it is great to have you on as always.
I know where you were earlier tonight, by the way. So I have evidence. I will not share that with the viewers, but I know where you were earlier tonight. Your thoughts on the NFL --
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: Exactly. We have pathetic politicians in Atlanta. I know the politicians are all glamming on to you tonight. But your thoughts on the NFL Having to spend all this time this week dealing with what most of us thought was now an issue that was kind of put in the backseat?
JOE THEISMANN, FORMER NFL QUARTERBACK: Well, I don't think the issue is going to be put on the backburner or in the backseat or anywhere out of people's minds until possibly the entire collusion case is settled. And I think there is always going to be an issue. And we know that they are social injustices that need to be worked on in this country. That is no question. We are trying to move forward into an era where we're able to try and handle those things.
I stink as Colin Kaepernick made the decision and a choice to do what he did, I think we have to honor and respect the fact that Maroon 5 made a choice to decide what they wanted to do. And so if we are going to say Colin Kaepernick, the flag has represented this country and the people in this country to be able to have the freedoms to be able to say the things they want to do and do the things they want to do, I don't understand why that wouldn't apply to the guys that want to perform at halftime.
It is sort of amazing to me. I'm not surprised that the issue continues to go on because Colin not being a part of the league, and you can look around the league, the quality of play that he had when he played, now it's almost three years ago, was of a better quality than some of what we see. But the --
INGRAHAM: Yes, yes, but Joe, people don't want politics in football. They don't want it.
THEISMANN: Right.
INGRAHAM: They have politics every minute of the day in this society through social media. This is a time for all of us to enjoy a game, see the sheer athleticism and all of the hard work these players, both teams have put in, and watch this amazing game. And I think that's part of it. It's nothing against Colin Kaepernick, I'm sure he is a really nice person. It's nothing against what he believes in or what any player believes in, but there has to be some moment where people just take a breath and say, we are Americans. Let's all get together and just root for whoever we want to root for and whomever we want to root for and have a good time. I think the exhaustion with politics is part of what's going on here.
THEISMANN: I think it is, too. I think athletics has always been a place to escape. You can get emotional. You can scream. You can yell. You can let all those frustrations out when you are at a ballgame. And I think that is really what is going to happen as we move forward. Here we are on this particular day 48 hours away, and the conversation has come up. I think once we roll around to Sunday and the game starts, it's all going to be about the game of football. We have got two great teams that are playing in this football game. There were four great teams in the AFC, NFC championship game. I was listening to Raymond --
INGRAHAM: We've got to talk about it.
THEISMANN: Yes. It's like --
INGRAHAM: We have got to talk about the Saints, got to talk about that heartburn moment, they egregious missed calls. Joe, I know --
THEISMANN: It was terrible. It was terrible.
INGRAHAM: -- as a competitor, so Goodell, how does he handle this? I'm going to play it for the viewers so everyone is on board of what we are talking about. Commissioner Goodell addressed the issue of these horrific pass interference calls. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROGER GOODELL, NFL COMMISSIONER: Whenever officiating is part of any kind of discussion postgame, it's never a good outcome for us. Technology is not going to solve all those issues. The game is not officiated by robots.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Well, that's leadership for you, Joe. I think a lot of people watching Goodell are like, OK, but this is what a leader is required to do is step up at a time like this and give people a sense that that kind of travesty doesn't happen again. And I happen to be a big Saints fan, Drew Brees fan, but it doesn't matter. That is about just right and wrong in football. Your thoughts on this?
THEISMANN: It was definitely wrong. It was egregious. As a matter of fact, if you look at the play, there is two penalties. There's pass interference and helmet to helmet. But in the playoffs, they let him play a little bit more. And I really believe they should. In this case, it was definitely wrong. But we saw the hit on Tom Brady in the Kansas City- Patriot game. Was that really roughing the passer? There's always these questionable calls. This one here was so obvious.
And to me the heartbreak of this whole situation is as a coach, if you make a mistake you live with it. As a player, you make a mistake you live with it. But when you do everything that you do right to create the opportunity for yourself to be able to advance, and something out of your control happens, it exacerbates the situation monumentally.
And I can understand why the Saints fans are upset. I can understand they want something to happen. There will be a change. What was Roger really going to say? What I found interesting, he talked about coaches are human, players are human, officials are human. Well, if they are all human, why do we have technology in the game? Let's just go back and let the humans do it the way they did 10, 20 years ago. I believe they will do something different.
And I have a real quick solution to that. You keep the two challenges that coaches have. If they are successful, they get a third. Don't change that. But give them one more. Outside the realm of challengeable plays. That way you've got one in your pocket just in case something like this comes up. There might be a way to do it without slowing the game down.
INGRAHAM: Joe, Joe, this is my first Super Bowl. I've never been. I'm going, I'm very excited. Maybe I will see you there.
THEISMANN: You'll love it. You're going to love it.
INGRAHAM: Maybe, maybe. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. We really appreciate it.
THEISMANN: Thank you for always having me Laura, good to see you.
INGRAHAM: All right, my final thoughts on a wild week, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: All right, all the time we have tonight, and this has been a wild week. We have learned a lot, Democrats moving further to the left, putting them in a trick box in a way. Trump's economy on fire, how are they going to run against that? Remember my podcast, you got to download it. Go to PodcastOne.com, easy to subscribe. Shannon Bream and the "Fox News @ Night" team take it from here. I will be tweeting from the Super Bowl.
Content and Programming Copyright 2019 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2019 ASC Services II Media, LLC. 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 ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.






















