Nunes tightens screws in his probe into surveillance abuses
Nunes referring 17 current and former DOJ and FBI officials to heads of House Judiciary Committee. Republican congressman from California speaks out on 'The Ingraham Angle.'
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," July 2, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
LAURA INGRAHAM, HOST: Good evening from Washington, I'm Laura Ingraham, this is "The Ingraham Angle." A big show tonight to kick off this holiday week. House Intel chair Devin Nunes is redoubling his efforts to find out whether the Trump campaign really was under surveillance. He has something exclusively to share with us tonight. Plus the left just cannot stop comparing themselves to the bright ones. Of course the Conservatives are the Nazis, Ben Shapiro joins us for reaction to a vile new slur against him. Meanwhile anti-Trump forces are salivating over the prospect that Michael Cohen could flip. Of course flip on the President, but did he really imply that in an ABC interview today?
But first, the Democratic melt down and the war on ICE, that's the focus of tonight's Angle. There were about 700 or so leftist marches over the weekend organized to protest President Trump's zero tolerance approach to border jumpers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, D-CALIF.: We have children being housed in cages crying for their mommies and daddies. We know we are better than this.
DIANNE GUERRO, ACTRESS: Do we want to be an America that values children and families?
TABOO, RAPPER: I would say the power of the people shall and will be stronger than the people in power. Did you hear that Donald Trump? Where's the love Donald Trump?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: I don't even know who that is, who that last person is. What is that? They were fulminating, about family separations, of course, at the border despite the fact that President Trump ended that policy two weekends ago, do they not read. Of course, what all of you smart people already know, because you watch the Ingraham Angle, the left isn't really worried about the kids. Is that cynical? Well, maybe it is but if they really worried about kids, they would be at regular rallies in Chicago and Baltimore where still an unacceptably high number of children are left fatherless of even die themselves because of gang bangers and fighting turf wars.
Now what's most upsetting to these protesters is that despite all their efforts, Trump's approval numbers keep edging up. So they're only recourse is to demonize Trump as a heartless baby jailor. Do you know something they say, kids in cages? Kids in cages, you hear that all the time. Well it's also an opportunity, of course, for Democrats to trot out new radical policy positions. Now, ever since that 28 year old socialist in New York, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez beat Democratic incumbent, of course Joe Cowely, Democrat from leadership number four in the party, the party's old guard has been reeling. Now they're straining for relevance and tripping all over themselves to align with that millennial socialist. They want to now abolish Immigration Customs and Enforcement because that was a big part of her platform, look at how well she did. So again, rather than challenging her flawed thinking, this the Homeland Security's major enforcement arm, let's not forget, Democrats have decided to just dash leftward and endorse her idea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, D-N.Y.: We believe that we should protect families that need or help and that is not what I.C.E is doing today. And that's why I believe you should get rid of it, start over, reimagine it and build something that actually works.
SEN. DICK DURBI, D-ILL.: Look at I.C.E, what a group of incompetents. At this point they are focused more on toddlers that terrorists. And instead of focusing on bad rats from coming in and stopping dirty drug money from going out, they're focusing on separating kids from their families.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Hey Dick, the policy doesn't exist any longer. And anyway, I.C.E does not separate kids at the border. Like many of the protesters surrounding Durbin, it seems like they're all confuse I.C.E with customs and border protection. It's border patrol that arrests illegals at the border and runs them through processing. I.C.E is the law enforcement agency that was set, remember, after 9/11 to protect us from international security threats, particularly those posed by the people in the country illegally. So how ironic is it that four New York politicians, Senator Gillibrand, Mayor De Blasio, gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon and Congressional candidate Ocasio Cortez are now leading the abolish I.C.E movement charge, nifty.
Well the problem for all of them is that the people just aren't buying this. The latest Harvard Harris Poll shows that 88 percent believe that families who cross the border illegally should not be separated, 76 percent want secure borders. Then 53 percent believe we should prosecute those entering the border illegally, while 64 percent believe that you should send the border crossers back home. But no matter where they stand on the nuances of immigration policy, a whopping 70 percent want stricter enforcement of existing immigration laws.
So how are you going to do that exactly if you abolish the agency that's charged with investigation human trafficking, drug smuggling, weapon smuggling? I.C.E is the agency that also tracks down criminal illegal immigrants and then they remove them from the country. Democrats claim that they're for that. So if criminals make it over the border, are we just to let them wrought across the country? Good luck on turning that into a platform that actually wins votes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You get rid of I.C.E, you're going to have a country that you're going to be afraid to walk out of your house. I love that if issue if they're going to actually do that, they're seriously talking about that because you are going to have a country that's crime ridden. The border patrol agents, I.C.E, these people are incredible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Well the President understands the political calculus here and his zero tolerance policy, remember, brought border arrests in June down to their lowest level since February, according to the AP, that's was the story. But if Democrats think melting down a national law enforcement agency with 20,000 employees that's working to keep Americans safe and communities across the US as a solution? I think they have another thing coming. It not only sounds like an idea that you'd hear at some undergrad student center, over some like Ben and Jerry's, it's also dangerous. The Democrats push to abolish I.C.E and it's as off key as the entertainment of some of their rallies over the weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LIN MANUEL MIRANDA, COMPOSER AND ACTOR: I'm just going to sing a lullaby that I wrote and this if for those parents. And we're not going to stop until they can sing them to their kids again. JOHN LEGEND, SINGER: We treat asylum seekers with compassion. We don't seek to punish them for trying to do what's right for their families.
MIRANDA: Oh as if you outshine the morning sun, my son. When you smile, I fall apart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Side note, wasn't he nominated but he lost the Tony for best musical performance, best actor but he was nominated though, come one. Hamilton was fantastic, his writing, his composing. As Trump scores a win after the one on the economy, international relations and trade and now the second Supreme Court pick, the spirited Democrats are looking for hope somewhere so what did they do this weekend, other than listening to some off key performances? They turned to the one, the community organizer in chief himself, Barack Obama appeared with all the little people at a Beverly Hills fundraiser this weekend making his first appearance in months. He declared the gathering a mope fee zone and while the word is that he's been devoting himself to fundraising in his library and writing his memoirs, Obama is now on a DNC fundraising swing commanding more than $100,000 a plate. And without mentioning Trump, he told the swanky crowd, ‘This is a moment of great urgency and you're right to be concerned,". Then with a self-referential air he mused, "We shouldn't expect politics to be entertaining all the time, and Christina Aguilera was wonderful but you don't need to have and amazing singer at every event. Sometimes you're just in a church basement making phone calls and eating cold pizza". That's easy for him to say, he spent a lot of the last year between like Tahiti and Richard Branson's private island in the Caribbean. Cold pizza though for the other people. Well, in many ways the explosion of protests that tilts to the left, the ineffective Democratic leadership, all of this is the fulfillment of what Obama first ushered in his party. The Obama era and the party it left behind always prized style over experience and results.
And now a new generation of inexperience charismatic leftists are moving to the fore of the party. They're giving speeches they're leading marches and they're resisting Trump. But original thinking and a governing strategy continues to elude them. With every tack to the left, they merely estrange themselves from the vast middle and working class of this country, catering only to the progressive elites in Manhattan and Malibu. Should this continue come November, well voters, even the Democratic ones, may be pulling the lever to abolish the Democrats, and that's the Angle.
Joining us now with reaction is Democratic Congressman from Illinois Raja Krishnamoorthi, former Pennsylvania Congressman and Democrat Jason Altmire and Democratic Strategist, LeDawn Jones. Let's first go to the Congressman, I feel like the Democrats are in a way where Republicans were kind of 2009 before the Tea Party really got going and their looking for traction somewhere. Now it's abolish I.C.E where, of course, I.C.E was working to deport people in large numbers when Obama was President but I didn't hear any of these fancy pants politicians talk about abolishing I.C.E back then so how does it actually get traction now, Congressman?
REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI, D-ILL.: Well thank you for having me on Laura. I think that the way we get traction is basically connecting to the real economic problems of working families and presenting our agenda for making sure everyone gets on the up escalator of the economy. If you're working poor, how do we get you into the middle class? If you're in the middle class, how do we allow you to succeed? And if you want to start and grow a small business, how do we allow you to do that as well? I think that's how you take the majority.
INGRAHAM: But isn't that what President Trump is doing right now? I mean he's bringing people back into the work force who hadn't been working, who basically gave up hope. Now they're returning to the workforce in very large numbers, some people say we have a dearth of employees, we need more in the country. But wages are starting to go up. African American unemployment very low, all-time low. Latino unemployment also at almost a record low so I get what you're describing and I think it's great. The problem is Trump is already doing it.
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well let me just point to a couple of things that people talk to me about every single day, just take for example healthcare. They're seeing their healthcare expenses go up under the Trump Presidency. The markets are becoming more and more unstable despite bi-partisan efforts to try to stabilize it. It appears that the Trump administration is not interested in necessarily doing that. A second issue that--
INGRAHAM: Okay so Obamacare will be your argument then? Mrs. Jones I want to go with you on that because, of course, what the Republicans worried about is that with Obamacare, contrary to what was argued, premiums would start to go up. It didn't happen immediately but when you mandate that people go into a pool of insured who obviously they are high risk because they have pre-exiting conditions, that cost is going to have to be spread around. Insurance is going to have more bills to pay, and rates start going up up up up up. That's exactly what's happened so it's no surprise that a lot of these exchanges couldn't keep up. How are you guys going to get the traction you need with this economy as hot as it is?
LADAWN JONES, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well the traction is already there and we're already seeing by the messages being spread, you know, I don't want to get back into the Obamacare debate and whether it's god because we've already seen Trump work very hard to dismantle Obamacare and the Healthcare that many Americans said that they need. But the way that we get the traction is with the recent elections. Democrats learned in the 2016 election that there is a voice trying to heard and rather than trying to move to the center to gather the votes of people who clearly were on a difference plane, those are the Trump voters and because you can't attract those voters so we have to stick to our principles. And our principles are making America a place for everyone to live. A place that has humanity and care and that includes healthcare, that includes sound immigration policy that is fair and right and just and humane. And that goes across the board and I think Democrats have learned--
INGRAHAM: But the polls aren't showing that Mrs. Jones and I hear what you're saying and I think that you're doing the best you can under the circumstances. But the polls aren't bearing that out. Most people believe that of you come into the country illegally, it's sad when your family gets separated, no body want to see that but it's your responsibility. You made a decision to cross the border, you didn't go into a normal port of entry and now you're complaining that America doesn't have a heart which is what one woman did today who was reunited with her daughter. It's nice that she was reunited but she made that decision. I understand the hard argument, I get the compassion argument but Americans have been struggling for like three decades and haven't seen a raise. There's only so much of the love you can spread around when your own family, an American citizens or an American veteran on the street is having trouble.
JONES: That's amazing though. So many Americans, at least those in your circle, complain that the reason why immigration is a problem is not just safety because they're taking American jobs.
INGRAHAM: They have taken American jobs. They actually interviewed people who had their jobs taken.
JONES: Things have change, we have avocados that are dying on the vine. There are farmers who are struggling to find people to the work. So it's not that they were taking jobs, they were doing jobs you didn't want.
INGRAHAM: That's fine 5 percent of the work force. And the argument that Americans are lazy is a loser Jason we got to get to you. This is what Chuck Todd said today, he's no great fan of the President, about where the Democrats are at this moment. Let's watch
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHUCK TODD, MNC HOST: The announced retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy this week helped make one political reality clear. Despite his overall unpopularity, President Trump is winning and the Democrats right now are reeling. But the Democrats reaction this week to the Kennedy retirement proved anything, it's that the Democratic Party has not figured out how to succeed in the Trump era.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Jason, you reaction.
JASON ALTMIRE, FORMER PENNSYLVANIA CONGRESSMAN: I saw that Chuck said that and I think he's right. I think he accurately diagnosed the problem. The Democrats if you go back say six months had controlled all the cards going into the midterm. You have the historical loss of seats by the incumbent party, you have some missteps that were made by the administration. The Democrats that successfully prevented the repeal of Obamacare where winning on the generic ballot had an issue that was very politically beneficial to them as well as, I feel, being on the morally just side in preventing the forcing the change in policy of the separations at the border. And then to move further to the left because of one election that occurred in one Congressional district now, to encourage uncivil disobedience. To confront the administration, members of the media, in a way that is outside the bounds of normal political discourse in this country. The Democrats are in great danger of blowing the advantage that they worked so hard to create.
INGRAHAM: Now Congressman I want to go to you on this because there's now this effort that's kind of gone viral. A young African American male who, I've never heard of before, goes on, I think he tweeted this originally that's when I saw it. You'll watch, let's see.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDON STRAKA: As from a year ago I was still a Liberal. I reject a system which allows an ambitious, misinformed and dogmatic mob to suppress free speech, create false narratives and apathetically steam roll over the truth. I reject hate. These are the reasons why I became a Liberal and these are the same reasons why I am now walking away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Yeah that's another one. The guy who originally started it was African American. Okay so interesting, is that just kind of a kitschy thing that doesn't really connect with you. Or could that be the Democrats version of nightmare where people say, "Okay, I'm a Democrat but I'm not for like harassing people in a restaurant. I'm not for abolishing a wing of an agency of 20,000 employees that fights human smugglers and drug cartels, like I'm going to walk away from that". Are you worried about that?
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Look, I'm concerned when we can't necessarily disagree without being disagreeable. We have to learn to talk to each other. We have to learn to talk to people who disagree with us if we are going to persuade them and come to our side. That's what I have to do in my district which is a suburban district of Chicago in the Heartland. I think that that being said I'm going to stay true to my principles. I believe, for instance, in making sure that the right to healthcare is still preserved for Americans, that people can educate their children and that they can afford childcare and at the same time see their wages go up. I believe that we can stay true to those principles, talk to people on the other side and also as someone mentioned earlier, also advocate for a humane treatment of immigrants and others true to our American tradition.
INGRAHAM: Mrs. Jones, Trump actually has done away with the family separation policy yet these rallies, they keep acting like it's still in existence, it's not, he did away with it.
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Laura can I address that for one moment please?
INGRAHAM: Okay real quick, we got to get back to Mrs. Jones.
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Yeah I think the one thing that people are still very upset about is there's still about 2,000 children who are separated from their parents, we don't know how they're going to be reunited with them. The second thing is--
INGRAHAM: The administration announced the date for that happening. But look guys, again, the Democrats whole platform, as far as I can tell, to reach voters is resist Trump and family separation policy that doesn't exist, it's getting fixed and abolish I.C.E. That's like the main deal that's getting all the media coverage and again, Mrs. Jones I want to go back to you. You have to win Pennsylvania, you have to win Ohio, you have to win Wisconsin, you have to win Florida. It might work in the Bronx or work in Brooklyn, or work in Malibu or Brentwood or even Madison, Wisconsin, but the vast majority of Americans in those heartland states, that's not what they're worried about. They want bread and butter issues, your reaction.
JONES: That's true and so those folks in the heartland of American should know that in Trump's firts three months of being President, he cut so many programs and federal programs and urban programs that included urban and rural business opportunities, water opportunities. So if we're worried about cutting federal programs then let's talk about it. They should get cut--
INGRAHAM: I don't they're worried about federal programs. They're worried about the jobs but they already have them now. We're out of time guys. Fantastic segment, thank you so much. We'll have you back, we'll have you on radio and then you can come on tomorrow. By the way surveillance abuses against the Trump administration coming up.
House Intel Chair Devin Nunes is tightening the screws in his investigation into alleged surveillance abuses of the Trump campaign. The Congressman in now referring the names of 17 current and former justice department and FBI officials to the heads of the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees for interviews. Just hours ago he added ten more names to the list, this time former Obama state department employees. Joining us now with more exclusively is Congressman Devin Nunes. Congressman, it's great to see you. Now, I know people across the country are getting ready for the fourth of July but Devin Nunes wants more information. I'm playing devil's advocate here, when will it end? You're always complaining about documents, now you're complaining about people but there are a lot of people on this list that are new names to people like Victoria Newland. Tell us why you want her to testify.
REP. DEVIN NUNES, D-CALIF.: Well first of all I want to make sure the American people know that this is just one more step in the process. I think we've been very transparent about how we've conduct this process. We went on to Pfizer abuse and other matters and I've said for a long time that we are looking at the state department. When we began looking state department, you had Victoria Newland and other people who decided to go out and talk about things publicly which actually helped our investigation out quite a bit. The reason why is we still don't understand how this investigation was actually opened but we know that many people in the Obama era state department were involved in the opening of that investigation. So it all comes down to how did the information make it from supposedly from an Australian High Commissioner Ambassador to the FBI?
So we know that that didn't come through what I would call Pfizer's Intelligence, it wasn't real intelligence product. It somehow short circuited that process. We also know that many people in the state department were also meeting with Christopher Steele. Christopher Steele is the person who was hired by the Democrats to dig up dirt on President Trump. So this is why this investigation has taken a while, but the good thing is that I believe that Chairman Gowdy and Goodlatte, I believe that their task force will interview these people and they will interview them in public so it will be the first time during this entire investigation that the American people get to see actual questions get answered to these potential witnesses.
INGRAHAM: Again, now why would the state department be involved with the Christopher Steele Dossier issue? Again, phony Dossier, Christopher Steele, MI6, worked as an agent, supposedly has all these Russian sources. And why would this woman Elizabeth Dibble be on your list. She was the deputy chief of the Mission in London for the state department? That seems like someone you might be looking at for one of the people put into the Trump campaign, allegedly, as an informant, correct?
NUNES: Well I wouldn't go there but the two parallel tracks here, you kind of touched on both of them. So one we have the London episode, somehow information made it from the Australian government to the FBI. We believe that went through London and somehow went to the Obama state department but then ended up in the justice department. So that's one track, the second track is Christopher Steele. What on earth was Christopher Steele doing meeting with state department officials? Why was the Steele Dossier that supposedly the FBI was trying to get their hands on, why was that also going through the state department?
So a lot of people had their hands on the Steele Dossier including many people in the media who knew about the Steele Dossier. And this is really a collapse. What we're having anything to do here as the legislative branch of government, we're having to do the work that the media won't do because there are very few in the media that actually cover this story to try to get to the bottom of it and that's part of what's taking so long. Typically you would have a free and fair and transparent media trying to get to the truth but in this case we haven't had that.
INGRAHAM: So Jonathan, is it Weiner, was on your list. Who was he and, I guess several months ago, he said he's being unfairly targeted by you?
NUNES: Yeah that was quite interesting that he thought that we were targeting him because, at the time, we weren't sure exactly what he knew or didn't know but thankfully he was very clear in the statements that he made that he was one of the people that was looking at the Steele information and was conveying that information in some form or fashion to the FBI. So look, we want to interview these folks. These folks work for the American tax payer, they were paid by the American tax payer.
INGRAHAM: But how do you compel that Congressman? How do you compel that? I'm sorry, you can subpoena them?
NUNES: Oh they're going to testify. Well they can plead the Fifth but this isn't like the documents where we've had to continue to fight with the justice department in order to have access to documents. This is much different, these are all American citizens. If they do not agree to appear under oath and testify, then they will be subpoenaed, that I can tell you for sure.
INGRAHAM: I want to get your reaction to something Congressman Schiff, ranking Democrat on your committee said about you and your colleagues last week on CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ADAM SCHIFF, D-CALIF.: The four horsemen of this apocalypse have been Devin Nunes and Trey Gowdy, Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan. They have been leading the charge, basically to require the justice department to give them materials that can be leaked of fed or misrepresented like the infamous Nunes Memorandum in the service of the President. And in the meantime they do enormous damage to these institutions. Ultimately they'll be held accountable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Sounds like a threat Congressman.
NUNES: Yeah, we are not going to be threatened by the Democrats. They are the ones that have all this blood on their hands. They are the ones who have completely destroyed the FBI and DOJ. How did they do that? They did that by digging up dirt, the Clinton campaign dug up dirt, put it into a dossier, fed into the FBI, and the FBI used our counterintelligence capabilities against a political campaign. That's what happened here.
So the Democrats in the House and Senate, they continue to want to obfuscate. They continue to want to cover up. If we'd listened to the Democrats, we would have never even found out that the Democrats and Hillary Clinton paid Christopher Steele to generate this dirt on President Trump.
So I tend to ignore everything that they say. We continue to do our work day in and day out to get you the truth, and gradually we are gritty to the truth. And I believe as these hearings take place and testimony is are given to Congress, it will be much needed sunlight in this investigation. I think the American people will begin to see who is telling the truth and who's not telling the truth.
INGRAHAM: Congressman, I think we all want an open session. A lot of us are getting tired of this closed session deal where the America people are kept in the dark, and then people come out, and somehow mysteriously we hear little bits and pieces about what happened, or the flavor of what happened behind closed doors. With someone like a Victoria Nuland, other Obama State Department people, and maybe even Joseph Pientka who interviewed Michael Flynn, he could -- sources tell me he could be a potential whistleblower to tell what he actually understood in that interview, namely, reportedly that Michael Flynn did not lie.
NUNES: I agree with you 100 percent. I agree with you 100 percent, and that is partly why I am sending these names over to Judiciary and Oversight Committee because they already have a task force that has been convened. They should be able to do all of these hearings in the public, full transparency, so that people can watch on live television. That is my recommendation to the committee chairman. I believe they will follow that recommendation. And they may have other names. So far we sent them the 17 plus the 10, it's 27 names we have sent them. We will be sending a more names here later this week this week.
INGRAHAM: All right, congressman, thank you so much for joining us tonight. We really appreciate it.
And former Trump attorney Michael Cohen breaks his silence, but why? What is going on there? And could the left to be missing his true message? Dan Bongino and Chris Hahn debate next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS: The big questions I asked him is, what will you do if prosecutors come to you and offer you leniency in return for information on President Trump? He said he wanted to respect the process, didn't get into specifics. But he added that is, and he added this with emphasis, "My wife, my daughter, and my son have my first loyalty and always will. I put family and country first." Nothing there about loyalty to President Trump. In fact, he didn't praise President Trump at all during that 45-minute interview.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: That from ABC's George Stephanopoulos recounting a 45-minute conversation he had with former Trump attorney Michael Cohen. Predictably the suggestion that he would not pledge loyalty to the president meant only one thing to the never Trump crowd. He's going to flip. Is that really the case? Let's bring in Dan Bongino, NRA TV host, and Chris Hahn, former aide to senator Chuck Schumer.
Dan, we've been hearing that Michael Cohen is going to flip. I think you and I were talking about this last week. He's going to flip, he's going to flip, he's going to flip. So Stephanopoulos sits down, he got the very dramatic photo sitting across from each other with a guy whose basic potential jail time. I don't blame him to be worried about his family. But it has to always be through the prism of, OK, we have more bad news for Donald Trump. What is this?
DAN BONGINO, NRA TV HOST: Yes, this is the umpteenth thousandth time, we've got him now, here we go. We heard this about Flynn. Flynn was going to flip. Then we got the fake news story. We actually had a journalist leave at network today supposedly because of reporting that story in advance.
I'm really getting tired of it. You're right, you do have to view this through the prism of the media that just can't stand Donald Trump. We don't know what is going on in Cohen's head. Is he trying to cozy up to the media to get the media on his side to a public pressure campaign.
But Laura, the one takeaway from this I think the audience needs to understand is this is clearly now an investigation into a person, not a crime. The investigation is into Donald Trump. They will do anything to get him. This has nothing to do with collusion, we know it because it was referred to the southern district from the special counsel. So they are looking for Trump. They're not looking for a crime.
INGRAHAM: Chris, this is what Michael Avenatti said about what Cohen really wants here. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL AVENATTI: This is Michael Cohen trying to send a message to the president that he wants the president to pay his legal bills or he's going to flip. He's playing games of the American people. If he has information that is damaging to this president, and I know for a fact that he does, then he should come forward and state it and disclose it now. What he's doing is playing games by giving these off-camera interviews, like you saw today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Chris, your reaction there?
CHRIS HAHN, FORMER AIDE TO SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER: I don't know. I don't know what Michael Avenatti was trying to say there.
Here is what my takeaway is. Two weeks ago when we were talking about him potentially flipping we were reacting to an ABC News story which had a single byline, George Stephanopoulos. Today, he gave an interview to George Stephanopoulos. So I don't know if those two things are connected, but they might be. So we don't know if they are going to do and what he might have.
As for the attorneys leaving, which was a big conversation and him taking on a new attorney, that has been a sign that people are about to make a deal and maybe he is about to make a deal. What he is going to make that deal on, I don't know. But there is nobody in America that knows Donald Trump better than Michael Cohen, at least as far as a lawyer goes. And we know he was the president's fixer. But we already know those things. So we want to know exactly what else the guy has. As far Flynn, Flynn did flip. And next week, he will be in court, and we all know exactly --
INGRAHAM: Yes, but Chris, you heard what he said, Avenatti. First of all, he said, I know for a fact. He knows for a fact -- he is representing a porn star. He knows for a fact. He knows for a fact it's going to be damaging to the president. Going back to Dan's point, this is about Trump. If Mueller sends it down to the southern extract, or Rosenstein sends it down to the southern district after Mueller sends it to Rosenstein, and gets down there, and now you can do things, you can look for information in a new venue with someone, you're right, who is closer to the president.
HAHN: I hear that argument a lot. This is about Trump. Well, if Trump did nothing wrong, then why is everybody so worried about it? Michael Cohen was his fixer. What was he fixing?
INGRAHAM: You know something, that fixer phrase -- and Dan, you can chime in here. I am so tired of hearing fixer. It's like fixer, fixer, fixer. What do you pay a lawyer for? Whether it's a parking ticket, you want a parking ticket and say I can't wait in line, or a speeding ticket, yes, I need you to handle it. A fixer, meaning fix the situation, I am going to pay you a lot of money per hour for you to fix my problem. So when they say it's a fixer, that is just more spin, more lingo. Of course every lawyer is a fixer or they're not worth it. Go ahead, Dan.
HAHN: The court found he didn't work as a lawyer.
BONGINO: Seriously, Chris, I thought better of you. I mean this. Is this seriously going to be the new liberal take? Please, don't embarrass yourself in the media by continuing to say if you didn't do something wrong, you have nothing to worry about. Are you serious? I'm going to sit a cop in front of you house --
HAHN: Yes Let me stop you.
BONGINO: Listen to me, hear me out here. You had your chance. You had your chance.
HAHN: I'm sure you defended stop and frisk with the same thing.
BONGINO: People like you say that. No, no, don't distract. People like you say that because you've never been a police officer or a federal agent like I have, and you don't understand the awesome power to ruin somebody's life.
HAHN: Hey, man. I am an attorney. I worked for a criminal court. I do.
BONGINO: You have never done it. You have never once put handcuffs on people. Not one time.
INGRAHAM: That's not how it supposed to work.
(CROSSTALK)
HAHN: I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm an attorney. I work at criminal court. I know the awesome power.
BONGINO: Chris, you're talking like a -- end of story, and you know it. You don't know squat. You've never done that.
INGRAHAM: OK, guys, I don't want to get --
BONGINO: The president is not a kid on the street with no lawyer. This is a very wealthy man who has all the --
(CROSSTALK)
INGRAHAM: Stop, stop, stop. You guys stop, stop for a second. Americans across the country are like -- stop. Stop for a second. You are both very passionate about this. But I think the point is, and civil libertarians on the left used to really care about this. There is only, like, three that I can think of right now, and two are people I know closely, whether it's Dershowitz and a few others, used to care about the power, unbridled power of prosecutors. I was a criminal defense attorney. I know Chris you're an attorney, dealt with criminal matters. It is a serious, awesome power.
HAHN: It is. It is.
INGRAHAM: The problem here in this situation is it started as Russia collusion and now we are at Michael Cohen is a fixer, and we are going to take all his computers and his phones and turn the screws on him so he's worried he's not going to see his children and his wife for 20 years. That is where we ended up. And I don't think that is where the country ever understood that the special prosecutor to end up through all these side channels, to end up with this southern district. I don't think that is what people expected. And that is not what the special prosecutor statute really was supposed to be all about. But you can close it out.
HAHN: Michael Cohen did not want to comment on the Russia collusion thing. He did say that he respected the investigation that Mueller was doing, and he wouldn't comment on that Russia meeting at the Trump Tower. So look, we don't know what is going to happen. I hope nothing bad happened. I don't want to think that our president committed any crimes. But let's get to the bottom of it and end it.
INGRAHAM: OK, so we went from Russia collusion, the election tampering, to a stripper-porn star who is cashing in on her 15 minutes of fame, and Michael Cohen and some check that somebody wrote -- again, starting off, it sounded really nefarious with Russian collusion, and now we are here. And a lot of money has been spent and a lot of time has been spent. And I think Mueller's approval numbers are going down for a reason. All right, guys --
BONGINO: They are investigating Trump.
INGRAHAM: They are investigating one man. And roadkill, the carnage on the side of the street are people like Cohen, which is a sad thing.
HAHN: They are following the evidence where it leads.
INGRAHAM: All right, happy Independence Day to both of you.
It's a new low, by the way, for the left. It's a horrific holocaust insult getting lobbed at Ben Shapiro. Ben joins us to respond next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: The unhinged left sinks even lawyer. Joshua Topolsky, cofounder of the tech website "The Verge" has sparked an uproar after a vile attack against conservative commentator and writer Ben Shapiro, tweeting, quote "Ben Shapiro is the Jew who helps other Jews onto the train." Topolsky has now deleted the tweet, but not because it's disgusting to compare Shapiro, who is Jewish, to a Nazi collaborator, for other reasons. And in a follow up he tweeted, quote, "I deleted it because a mob of the rightwing babies who were flooding my mentions, and it was frankly pretty annoying, as were the DM death threats."
Joining us now to respond is "The Daily Wire's" Ben Shapiro. Ben, we are always talking to -- when the left is unhinged. And you have a special way of unhinging them. But this was really -- I keep saying a new low, but this really is a new low. I've never heard of this person before, but I guess he is kind of big and the tech world. Where are we here?
BEN SHAPIRO, SYNDICATED RADIO HOST: I've been called worse by better. So that's the way things go I guess these days. I guess that he works for, said that he works over at Vox, and then it turns that he was not in fact a cofounder of FOX, if he was from VOX, and VOX is not sending its best. That is all I can really say about it.
INGRAHAM: But we have an individual who works for this tech website, saying that someone who is unobservant Jew is helping put other Jews on the train, meaning, I guess, the Trump train, can't ever look past that. But he's obviously -- I think he is Jewish, as well. But coming from him, who I believe is Jewish, does that have any special significance to you? Is it kind of a self-loathing deal? What is it?
SHAPIRO: Not particularly. I think he is calling me a Nazi. But he wouldn't be the only one. The way that the left works these days, anyone who disagrees with them is a Nazi. So it really isn't a giant surprise. And I always find it ironic when the left attacks me as an alt-right Nazi considering I was literally the number one recipient of alt-right hatred in 2016 according to the Anti-defamation League, which is not a rightwing source.
INGRAHAM: Right. And Ben, there are others on the left who have gone from their never Trump mania to just completely out of touch with reality of politics today. One of them is, I guess, a blogger for The Washington Post who is on television quite a bit. Her name and name is Jennifer Rubin. Lets' watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENNIFER RUBIN, WASHINGTON POST: Sarah Huckabee has no right to live a life of no fuss, no muss after lying to the press, after inciting against the press. These people should be made uncomfortable, and I think that is a life sentence, frankly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: You should be made uncomfortable for life. It should be a life sentence. You notice that the words that the left and the never Trump, I don't know, Republican, or Bush, I don't know idea how you describe Jennifer Rubin because there's literally no constituency other than like Bill Kristol for what she says. But they now use this criminal imagery. Trump is jailing babies. They are criminalizing parenthood with the separation of families. The concentration camps, the detention centers are concentration camps. It's all -- it's beyond descriptive. It is descriptive in this criminal, over-the-top, purposely outrageous manner. What of that now, coming from, I guess, a former Republican?
SHAPIRO: She is obviously engaged in the endorsement of thug tactics, and this is the desperation to which the left and some people formerly of the right have driven. Jen Rubin is a person who not only endorsed Mitt Romney and pushed very hard for Mitt Romney. Just a few years ago she was suggesting that Roe v. Wade needed to be overturned. Now she says that any judge who is appointed to the Supreme Court by President Trump cannot want to overturn Roe v. Wade.
There's a certain derangement obviously that's set in with a lot of people where they have reversed principles that they supposedly once specifically because they don't like Donald Trump, which I find not only troubling but morally vacuous. And when you look at Jen Rubin saying stuff like Sarah Huckabee Sanders should be made uncomfortable for life and she doesn't have a right to be comfortable in the United States. She does have a right to basically not be mobbed when she goes out to a gas station or when she goes out to eat dinner. The same people who are saying bake the cake to religious bakers are saying that it's a wonderful thing when a restaurant owner decides to deny service to someone based on political affinity.
Now, what people are the left have even gone further than that. They are talking about not just about restaurant owners saying they don't want Trump employees in their establishment. They are talking about how it is now Ok for mobs to descend on other people's establishments and drive people out of those establishments. That is what happened to Kirstjen Nielsen. So the level of insanity to which the left devolves every day is a testament to how much President Trump us in their heads and a testament to how their utopian idealism under President Obama has absolutely collapsed.
INGRAHAM: And the farther left they go, the higher his numbers seem to go. So they don't see the correlation. But perhaps saner minds will prevail ultimately. Ben, have a happy Independence Day. Thanks so much for being with us tonight.
And just ahead, a wild story out of Colorado to bring you. Tens of thousands of acres burning and a case of arson. The shocking revelation of who was behind it, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Now this is truly insane story of Colorado. An illegal immigrant has been arrested for arson after authorities reveal that he was behind starting a forest fire that has now destroyed about 53,000 precious acres of land. Jesper Jorgensen, whose nationality is Danish, according to The Denver Post, was nabbed by Costilla County Police Department and will be handed over to ICE. Don't you want to abolish ICE? And of course that agency insisted on tracking him down, as well. Yet, they are largely responsible for bringing this matter dresses going down to what we said in "The Angle."
To discuss, we are joined by Colorado State Senator Larry Crowder who represents Costilla County. Is it Costilla, I'm doing the Spanish version, or is it Costilla.
STATE SEN. LARRY CROWDER, R-COLO.: No, it's Castilla.
INGRAHAM: OK, great, fantastic. It's great to see you. And a very difficult situation for you in Colorado.
CROWDER: It is. Right now we have made a confirmed house loss of 104. They are just letting people go into their properties to evaluate, and it is just a small percentage of the acreage. We don't know exactly what the total loss of will be at this point in time, but it has been concerned that 104 houses have been totally burnt. I've seen pictures of --
INGRAHAM: The heartbreak. I don't mean to interrupt you but we have limited time.
CROWDER: I understand.
INGRAHAM: The house, it's terrific. It's horrific. The loss of property, of wildlife, of habitat. But we found out that the illegal immigrant, senator, an illegal immigrant has been charged with this. This, after we have had a weekend of protests to abolish ICE, which is largely responsible for nabbing him and getting him into custody. Your reaction to that aspect of this horrific story?
CROWDER: It is just kind of sickening. Right now we've had what they call a stage two under FEMA, no outside fires. So whether or not it was intentional or whether it was an accident, it still is a situation where there should not have been outside fires exposed. So it is terrific. And currently, we are reported at five percent contained and the biggest thing with that, our winds have died down considerably today. I think that --
INGRAHAM: Here's the problem. He shouldn't have been in the country. I know you are trying to dance around that, whether it was arson --
CROWDER: No, I'm not dancing around it.
INGRAHAM: But he should not have been in the country, senator. Not have been here.
CROWDER: That's right. That is correct. But if you look at his Facebook page, the anarchy that he has professed over a period of time, shows you basically -- yes, I would like to see this individual deported right away.
INGRAHAM: Well, there are a lot of people believe that ICE should be abolished. In the Democratic Party, major figures who are going to run for president, Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker, the list goes on and on, watch ICE abolished. They found this guy, nabbed him at least, and want to get him in custody and out of the country we hope.
CROWDER: The federal government is responsible for our borders, so ICE should not be abolished. ICE is a legal procedure that we go through. So I thought it was comical that people wanted to do away with ICE. It's about protecting this country. That's what it's about.
INGRAHAM: And 37 percent of your estate is now immigrant population, a very large illegal immigrant population in your state, and people think it's all great to have all these illegal immigrants. Well, sometimes we see what happens. Thank you very much. Our prayers are with you and all of the citizens of Colorado. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: We were debating whether I should tweet out a photo of what I was doing about six and a half hours ago. I think we have decided, just for fun, we're going to tweet it out. You have to go to Twitter. I haven't posted it. I will post it in about 30 seconds. It's a little foggy.
Be sure to tune into radio tomorrow morning and great show tomorrow night. One of my favorite people to talk to anywhere is joining us. The one and only Suzanne Somers is going to stop by. Until then tell us how we're doing @IngrahamAngle. I always love to read your tweets.
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