Rep. McCarthy: Pelosi refused to read Trump's letter to Erdogan
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on what happened between Democratic leaders and Trump during White House meeting on Syria policy.
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," October 16, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
LAURA INGRAHAM, HOST: All right, I'm Laura Ingraham. This is "The Ingraham Angle" from another busy Washington. What really happened inside President Trump's explosive meeting with congressional leadership today. Pelosi and Schumer have their side of this story. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy will give his in moments.
Also, tonight, Judicial Watch is investigating about whether prominent conservatives including yours truly were unlawfully monitored at the request of ousted U.S. ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. Tom Fitton is here with the shocking details. Plus, Raymond Arroyo breaks down the gaffetastic moments from last night's debate. And Tonya Reiman reveals why Democrats body language was the real story. But first, Trump wins another Democrat debate. That's the focus of tonight's Angle.
Nearly three years ago, Donald Trump came to office and he promised peace and prosperity for America. And this he has delivered. Now even with a heavy anvil of the Mueller investigation tied around his neck, the President has worked tirelessly to drain the swamp with massive deregulation, phenomenal judges and a tax cut for working families.
Markets are up, wages are up, unemployment is way down across all key demographic groups. And on foreign policy he has likewise been remarkably consistent on his pledge to put America first. He said, he was going to do this and he's doing it, he's winding down foreign entanglements, long-term military interventions that I seem to recall Democrats used to be against.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They've been worrying for many years. It's a natural for us, but it's natural for them. They fight and they fight long, and they fight hard and they've been fighting Syria for a long time and on the border that's the border with Syria. And I say why are we protecting Syria's land, Assad is not a friend of ours, why are we protecting their land.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now remember when Democrats embraced this anti-interventionist approach.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT: This war diminishes our security, our standing in the world, our military, our economy and the resources that we need to confront the challenges of the 21st century.
By any measure, our single minded and open-ended focus on Iraq is not a sound strategy for keeping America safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: But now that's all apparently just totally out the window. Last night, Tulsi Gabbard was the only person on that Democrat debate stage who on this issue really channeled Obama.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. TULSI GABBARD, D-HAWAII, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You would continue this policy of the U.S. actually providing arms and support to terrorist groups in Syria because they are the ones who have been the ground force in this regime change--
MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG, D-IND., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, you could embrace. You can put an end to endless war without embracing Donald Trump--
GABBARD: Will you end the regime change wars is the question.
BUTTIGIEG: What we are doing--
GABBARD: What is an endless war if it's not yet another regime change war.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please allow him to respond.
BUTTIGIEG: What we are doing or what we were doing in Syria was keeping our word.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Nicer Pete. Well, by the end of the evening, it was obvious that the Democrats will say and do at this point almost anything including contort their own views on key issues just to oppose Trump.
Now, I don't recall any of them voicing any great concern for what might happen to the Kurds back in 2012 when Obama drew his red line and didn't enforce it the Kurds were still implicated there, remember. Well, maybe it was because they started seeing polls on invading Syria and what were they like back then. Well consider what Gallup found, 68 percent to 24 percent of Americans oppose military action "to attempt to end the conflict" even if all economic and diplomatic efforts fail to end the civil war in Syria.
So, have Americans today really become newly pro-interventionist. I don't think so. But the Democrats maybe they have all because that keeps them in opposition to Trump.
The AOC plus three party essentially believes that the American way of life in many ways has become evil and unsustainable. The candidates think Trump's a menace and he's got to go. But other than that, their policy prescriptions are kind of a mishmash. Biden thinks that if he wins, things will just magically go back to Obama. That whole era when Democrats were partying at the White House with Stevie Wonder and Tom Hanks.
As for Warren and Sanders, they want to adopt a European style socialist approach which last time I checked isn't working anywhere in the world now. Klobuchar, Buttigieg, well they're trying to hold themselves out I guess as more moderate, more reasonable Democrats. But neither of them can get out of single digits in the polls.
Beto, he's basically a less interesting, a less intelligent AOC. Castro, he's a radical open borders nightmare. Booker thinks Democrats should just be nicer to each other, that's realistic. Well, they're all either running to be Vice President or they're running because they don't have anything better to do. I don't know. But CNN did try its best to help them all by staying away from certain topics altogether last night.
For instance, there were zero questions or discussion about the most important threat to American long-term security. Talking about that small innocuous country called China mentioned a few times that was all in passing. So, we're supposed to take this crowd seriously.
Now remember voters are supposed to believe Elizabeth Warren is the new smart and savvy front runner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mayor Buttigieg you say Senator Warren has been "evasive" about how she's going to pay for Medicare for All.
BUTTIGIEG: Well we heard it tonight, a yes or no question that didn't get a yes or no answer. Your signature senators to have a plan for everything, except this.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, D-MASS., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So, let's be clear. Whenever someone hears the term Medicare for All who want it, understand what that really means. It's Medicare for All who can afford it.
BUTTIGIEG: I don't understand why you believe the only way to deliver affordable coverage to everybody is to obliterate private plans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Well, wait a second, she's going to out negotiate President Xi when she can't handle the Mayor of South Bend. I don't think so. Now, what we've learned from these debates, I think generally is the following.
The agenda list Democrats have no China policy other than complaining about Trump's tariffs. No coherent trade policy except we'll work with the Europeans more, OK, like Obama didn't already try that and fail. They have no coherent health care policy and someone to abolish health insurance as you saw altogether wildly unpopular. Others want a hybrid of sorts but it's still a jumble. They have no plan to raise your standard of living that I can see. They've actually kind of just given up even trying to argue that point but their answer for everything is to tax it if it moves, tax it, if it doesn't, tax it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, I-VT., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I do think it is appropriate to acknowledge that taxes will go up.
JOE BIDEN, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: For people making between 50 and $75,000, their taxes are going to go up about $5000.
ANDREW YANG, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We should look at what Germany, France, Denmark and Sweden still have which is a value added tax.
WARREN: Billionaires are making their money off their accumulated wealth. We need a wealth tax.
BETO O'ROURKE, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Sometimes I think that Senator Warren is more focused on being punitive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: You know it's bad when even Beto is saying, it's little too much for the taxes. Now even with the advanced age of the three top candidates at times it felt like last night you're watching a bunch of 19-year-old dilettantes sitting around their dorm common area shooting the ball about stuff they had just read the night before. So, cutting edge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That means that our whole solar system could be like one tiny atom in the fingernail of some other giant being.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: If it were only that interesting. Now on issue after issue, Donald Trump has literally turned the Democrats into human pretzels. They're all tied up in knots. They're defining themselves in a lot of other people out there are doing the same thing. But let's focus on the Democrats. They're defining themselves only through their opposition to Trump.
Now they used to be skeptical of spy agencies and government surveillance, but they now embrace the deep state's powers. They used to be for better trade deals to help blue collar workers, but they won't support the USMCA. They used to be forgetting out of endless wars as I said, but now they want back in. There is no consistency whatsoever except on there's many - for abortion. It seems that I guess.
Obama actually was a smart person. I didn't agree with him a lot, but really smart, incredibly talented politician. Elizabeth Warren, what am I missing? She cannot hold a candle to Obama. None of the Democrats that I can see on that stage can.
The Democrats hate Trump but have a whole lot of nothing to replace him. And I think smart people in the party know it. Look at the new Moody's study out today. Their calculations show a 2020 map that looks like this. And when you step back and you looked at that field last night, on that Democrat debate stage, you can see why so many Democrats think impeachment even if it takes secret hearings is their only answer. And that's The Angle.
All right, here to react Mercedes Schlapp, Senior Adviser to the Trump 2020 campaign along with Doug Schoen, Fox News Contributor and former Adviser for President Clinton. Doug can any Democrat claim victory at last night's debate? Were you surprised by the new war drums in the Democrat Party?
DOUG SCHOEN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, first I thought the clear winner as you suggested was Donald Trump because what we heard was division, discord and raising taxes. Democrats don't have a message. I think if anyone won, it's still Elizabeth Warren because she's been the front runner and she's emerged as that. But when the 12 or 14 candidates are all going into each other as you were showing Laura, it doesn't suggest this is a party ready for primetime or a general election with Donald Trump.
INGRAHAM: I watched it, Mercedes and I kept thinking to myself, this is it. I mean there's got to be someone else who's emerging. That's why you keep hearing about Bloomberg or Michelle Obama, she's going to emerge. But there's something about this field that I don't see as strong competitors to the President.
MERCEDES SCHLAPP, TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: Well, especially when Biden was supposed to be the strong competitor against the President. And what we're finding is, is he's getting weaker and weaker and especially when you're looking at the fact that he barely has cash on hand while you have these other candidates who are more extreme like a Warren, like a Sanders really taking off, getting small donor donations and also being able to push a much more radical agenda which is when you listen to them it's take away your private health insurance, raise your taxes, take away your guns.
So, the commonsense American is saying wait a second, this is going way too far. And plus, they don't even talk about the economy. They don't even talk about--
INGRAHAM: I mean how can you do a debate and not talk about China. How can you do a debate and they mentioned it like four times, but it was all in passing. There was no--
SCHOEN: There was no China. There were no jobs.
SCHLAPP: No job.
SCHOEN: I mean the Democratic Party has always consisted--
INGRAHAM: About blue collar workers. How are they going to raise the standard living of blue-collar workers better than Trump has done it? They have no answer for that. They know they have no answer for that.
SCHLAPP: That and also the fact that their villain is that are the corporations, they're going to go after the businesses.
SCHOEN: It's socialism.
SCHLAPP: It's completely socialism and that's why I think when they get excited because AOC just endorsed Bernie Sanders, I mean--
SCHOEN: The whole squad is doing.
SCHLAPP: Exactly.
INGRAHAM: What's going on there? Before I get to Beto and his gun grab, because this was unbelievable, what's coming out of his mouth. AOC and the Squad endorsing Bernie Sanders on Saturday.
SCHOEN: Right.
INGRAHAM: What's the thinking there? I mean I do consider her to be the true thought leader of the Democratic Party. I take her very seriously. I'd have since very day one people ridicule her and you know we can tease and it's fun. But she really believes a set of things and pretty much what she believes and a couple of weeks the Democrats are going to embrace as far as I can tell.
SCHOEN: Well, Sanders calls himself a socialist and they - the Squad and AOC want primacy and power in the party. If they went with Warren, they'd be also - and she calls herself a capitalist albeit one with socialist principles.
INGRAHAM: So, that's it.
SCHOEN: It's to maintain power and influence in the Democratic Party that increasingly looks to AOC and the Squad for leader.
SCHLAPP: And they are true believers. AOC and the Squad are true believers of socialism.
INGRAHAM: They're kind of like the opposite of Trump. I mean they believe different things, but they're warriors for what they believe in. And he's a warrior for what he believes in. May the best group win.
SCHLAPP: He was the one that started off the socialist revolution here in the United States. It's when you really you saw that the groundswell for that and Warren hasn't taken up that mantle as Bernie has.
INGRAHAM: I keep thinking it's really about a future presidential run for AOC. This is about list building.
SCHLAPP: Right.
INGRAHAM: This is about excitement and Bernie still had the excitement. I didn't see a great groundswell of excitement or hear it even in that room for Warren. I didn't hear it last night.
SCHOEN: You know what it is. She's the best of a very bad bunch to the Democrats because you're right. She doesn't offer much but AOC, Laura, I've looked at the polling. She is among the most popular Democrat in the country including the congressional leadership and the 14 odd candidates.
INGRAHAM: She knows social media. She's attractive. She believes which - I mean again people watching this, Laura why you're building her up, because this is where it's going, America has to understand, you might not like everything about Trump's tweets. But I'll tell you, this is a stark choice, this is why Ben Sasse, I'm going to be on the sidelines and people trashing. OK, Ben, you know Gentle Ben. We'll see how it all works out for you when we have Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders as President.
SCHOEN: It is free market Democrats like me who believe in a strong national defense, helping the middle class, we're left out. AOC does not speak for me. And there are a lot of Democrats who think like I do.
INGRAHAM: I want to talk about what this Beto gun grab thing is really all about. Again, he's speaking in many ways like AOC is thinking and tweeting, but he's out there running for President, he's not ready for primetime yet. But this is what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'ROURKE: OK, but let's just assume that there's a rancher in Texas that doesn't, it says I'm not going to do this because this is an unjust law and it's unconstitutional. What's the next step?
There have to be consequences or else there is no respect for the law. So, you know in that case, I think there would be a visit by law enforcement to recover that firearm.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: A visit, what did they say. They said they weren't for gun confiscation. They are for gun confiscation.
SCHLAPP: Completely. I always say that Beto is a stream of consciousness of the Democrat Party.
INGRAHAM: He is saying what they're kind of trying to hide.
SCHLAPP: Exactly.
INGRAHAM: Like gay marriage in 2008.
SCHLAPP: Exactly.
INGRAHAM: He knew exactly what he was going to do, but he's like not of course I'm not for that.
SCHLAPP: Remember, that's what you do in communist countries, you go in and you take away--
SCHOEN: This isn't a communist country. We can be for reasonable gun controls expanding background checks, red flag laws, but guns confiscation goes way too far.
INGRAHAM: But that's where it's going.
SCHLAPP: But that's where the Democrats are at.
SCHOEN: If I any voice, it won't.
SCHLAPP: Go save that party if you can.
SCHOEN: I'm doing all I can. Trust me.
INGRAHAM: Panel, thank you so much.
SCHOEN: Thank you.
INGRAHAM: And last week, ousted U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch testified behind closed doors for 10 hours, it was part of the impeachment Star Chamber against President Trump. Now most people didn't know who she even was. But since she was there to hit Trump, well the media and the Democrats were quick to note her deep integrity.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC ANCHOR: There are many civil servants like Marie Yovanovitch who are not afraid to stand up and tell the truth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Marie Yovanovitch who put on this unbelievably impressive display of integrity today and bravery today in Washington.
REP. CARLOS CURBELO, R-FLA.: Consummate professional very much on top of her game.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Credible, she is a state's person who has served her country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know Ambassador Yovanovitch to be a person of great integrity and significant accomplishments.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A really solid and reliable representation of U.S. government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Well, it turns out that praise may be a bit premature. The group Judicial Watch is investigating whether prominent conservatives including yours truly were unlawfully monitored by the State Department in Ukraine. Now this was reportedly all done at the request of Yovanovitch herself.
Joining me now the man who first uncovered this was Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch. He's here with us now. Tom, what's going on? What have you uncovered? What do we know?
TOM FITTON, JUDICIAL WATCH: Well, we understand that she had directed that a list of people including you, Donald Trump Jr., the president's lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
INGRAHAM: I feel so special.
FITTON: Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, other Fox.
INGRAHAM: All the cool kids.
FITTON: Yes, be tracked, she wanted to know - the staff wanted to know the social media postings of what you were saying about Biden, Soros, Giuliani and her.
INGRAHAM: Why so defensive you think?
FITTON: Well, because this supposedly happened back in March when noise started happening about whether she was a never Trumper and whether she was improperly protecting of that crowd.
INGRAHAM: So, people have to understand this, this is a U.S. Ambassador to the Ukraine at the State Department. And you have it on, is this solid gold authority, Tommy. Solid--
FITTON: It is.
INGRAHAM: OK.
FITTON: I wouldn't be here if it weren't.
INGRAHAM: I mean it's completely true. Make sure that she was ordering or requesting that we be tracked. Now, who did the tracking? Do we know?
FITTON: Well, the staff was doing it.
INGRAHAM: OK.
FITTON: And evidently was a big project and they asked the help of the State Department here in Washington D.C. someone took the request and looked at what was going on and said, wait, you can't be doing this.
INGRAHAM: They look at my dog tweets, are those--
FITTON: If you're tweeting about Biden.
INGRAHAM: Yes, exactly. Why is McFaul, why is he on the list. He's a Trump hater.
FITTON: Well, he's the former Ambassador to Russia under Barack Obama. And who knows maybe he was commenting about what was going on.
INGRAHAM: OK. I want to show the comment from March that might have triggered this on this show from me. Troublemaker. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: In May of 2018, former Congressman Pete Sessions sent Secretary of State Pompeo an urgent letter imploring him to remove the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, Yovanovitch and Obama holdover remains in the post today. She's reportedly demonstrated clear anti-Trump bias.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Well, she did get - that was the first time I mentioned her.
FITTON: And around the same time this list was generated and it's - the concern is it's in violation of the law. The government can't be tracking people like this.
INGRAHAM: The liberals seems to care about this going back to what I said in THE ANGLE. Liberals used to care about government police state like behavior, deep state, I mean endless wars. Do you see how they really turned into these political pretzels by just their opposition to Trump like nothing he does, you could ever agree with even a smidgen of it.
FITTON: And you know you're acting as a journalist and your fellow journalists were also on this list. So, the left doesn't care that journalists were being targeted. You know according to our source illegally because you were critical of--
INGRAHAM: What's the recourse.
FITTON: Privacy Act. You know there are civil remedies. And frankly you know look, who's being investigated. Wall Street Journal reports that Sessions gets a subpoena. The man who was sent a letter. Giuliani is being targeted. Violating the Privacy Act carries criminal penalties if you're found of--
INGRAHAM: I think my D.C. bar license is still pretty active, I could get little pro bono - I'll represent myself. So, not a problem.
FITTON: Well, maybe we can do it too. We're suing. We're asking under FOI. We want more information and I want to know where they're--
INGRAHAM: Spit out the emails. We want the e-mails. They don't like to turn over their e-mails, they hide the emails. All right, Tom, thank you for doing this. Thank you for finding out about the surveillance.
All right. Well, coming up, a meeting between President Trump and congressional leadership earlier today apparently. Well, it didn't go over all that well. The media gobbled it up. Pelosi and Schumer told one story, Kevin McCarty, the House Minority Leader has a different picture. Next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: President Trump's meeting with congressional leadership at the White House earlier today, it was fun. The Democrats left in a total huff. The three amigos quickly ran to the nearest camera to provide unintentional comedy routine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF>: We witnessed on the part that President was a meltdown. Sad to say.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He called you a communist.
PELOSI: He didn't call communist.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, D-N.Y.: Let me just clarify that, he said the communists are taking--
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of ISIS were communists.
SCHUMER: Communist and you would be happy.
PELOSI: It might make you happy.
SCHUMER: That might make you happy. When he started calling Speaker Pelosi- -
(CROSSTALK)
SCHUMER: Third rate politician.
PELOSI: Which I said, I wish you were a politician Mr. President. Then you would know the art of the possible.
REP. STENY HOYER, D-MD.: I have served with six presidents. Never have I seen a president treat so disrespectfully a coequal branch of the government of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Can dish it out but they can't take it. Wow. I was expecting one of them to go like the Three Stooges. All right, joining me now the other side of the story, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. All right, Congressman you were in the meeting. Accurate description.
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY, R-CALIF.: Not at all. You know the most interesting part. They left the meeting. Other Democrats stayed and we had the most normal meeting you could ever have. That was productive with the General, the Joint Chiefs, the Secretary of Defense and the President talking about how do we keep the homeland safe.
INGRAHAM: Tell us what happened.
MCCARTHY: This is how it all start. The President starts out and he provides the letter that he sent to the President of Turkey Erdogan. Very strong letter not to go into this area, as he passes it around, he starts with me, we hand it to every leader you know what, the Speaker Pelosi did. She doesn't read it, she turns it over flat to show in the President's face, she's not going to read his letter.
Then she starts to smile. The President calls her out, Nancy. Why are you laughing? This is a serious item. The General, the Joint Chief tells how he recommended to the President that he removed some of our men because they were in danger. He didn't want them to be harmed. We've got the Vice President over in Turkey trying to get a ceasefire and everything they care about is impeachment.
INGRAHAM: They were looking for a fight coming in. When I saw those three come out to the cameras, I literally that was like the Three Stooges. Like that whole thing.
MCCARTHY: They meet beforehand, and they say the exact same thing. When they'd ask the President a question, the Secretary of Defense goes, I had that. No, the President has to answer. And the President goes to answer - it was so amazing. I've never seen this.
INGRAHAM: But Trump has been listening to them, jaw boning about him for months and months. That's two, or three years now. I mean he's a liar. He's this. He's Russian asset frankly. I mean these have said the most hateful horrible things about him and he's supposed to just sit there and say, how the grandkids, Nancy? How's San Francisco? How's Paul? How are they all doing?
All right Congressman here's what your colleague Steny Hoyer, one of the three amigos said about your characterization of the meeting today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOYER: I worked closely with Mr. McCarthy and I tried to be constructive. I think many times he tries to be constructive, but I don't consider him an objective source of information on President Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: So, Americans shouldn't consider you, objective, but the media should just lap up anything they say because they would never ever mischaracterize.
MCCARTHY: Remember what this is. These are the same people that put Adam Schiff that lied to the American public, wish he knew who the whistleblower was when he had met with them. The idea that he lied to the American public that he had proof beyond circumstantial. These people are infatuated. They're fixated on impeaching this President instead of worrying about fixing our problems. You would be appalled.
INGRAHAM: I think they see after watching this debate last night, I mean there's just no one on that stage--
MCCARTHY: Not one of them.
INGRAHAM: I don't care what any - you could sell me Impeachment poll; you could show me all these polls. When two people are on a stage and you're not insulated by Anderson Cooper or by someone, it's going to be Trump versus Warren or Trump versus Sanders, that's it.
MCCARTHY: Yes.
INGRAHAM: I didn't see one person on that stage, and I think they know it. They've got to try to remove him from office. They know they're not going to win this election. I don't care. I'm just going to keep saying it. I think they know. And they have to come out of meeting saying, well, it was a meltdown, it was a meltdown. How many times has she said that? Back in May, they said, it was a meltdown.
MCCARTHY: This is the important part. Who is the leader? The person who stayed in the room and had a discussion.
INGRAHAM: Yes.
MCCARTHY: The people who left the room are the ones who can't handle it. If you're going to have an exchange of ideas, but you can't handle it, you get up and walk out. It was like--
INGRAHAM: It was planned, they plan, they walkout. It's like the kids who wanted new candy machine in the cafeteria, we're going to walk out, we didn't get the candy machine. That's exactly what's going on here.
MCCARTHY: This isn't the first time she's done it. This is pattern behavior. And when she left, she made a statement that was like threatening the President. And I believe -- I took it about an impeachment --
INGRAHAM: What did she say?
MCCARTHY: She said, you just watch what we'll do. You could see it in her eyes. And I took that to mean that you watch what we do about impeachment.
INGRAHAM: Don't mess with granny. Don't mess with granny. She's mad.
MCCARTHY: Yes. And she's trying to make a determination without having any facts, just as she moved to impeachment inquiry without waiting 48 hours to see the --
INGRAHAM: Was Trump mad about that vote, the Kurd vote?
MCCARTHY: Not at all. He supports it. Remember this is five things in there. The president, I'm sitting in the Oval Office, he says he supports all five. This isn't about the president. The president sent a letter to the president of Turkey and said don't come in this area. That is exactly what he said.
INGRAHAM: He said he was going to pull these troops out. Why is everyone surprised he wants to pull the troops out. He said he was going to pull the troops. He ran on it, Obama ran on it, and the American people didn't want to go into Syria. That's why Obama didn't go into Syria, they didn't want it.
MCCARTHY: You know what, I was in that same room when President Obama was president. He put a redline, and he said he was really going to --
INGRAHAM: How many of these Democrats who are complaining now complain about that? How many of them are complaining about what's going to happen to the Kurds, they're going to be in jeopardy? And no one ever talks about the poor Christians. They've been completely displaced and subjugated, and no one ever talks about the Christians.
MCCARTHY: You know why they are so shocked? They have a president now who keeps his word. The president likes to joke he kept more promises then he made. But he actually is governing exactly what he said he would do.
INGRAHAM: And then they care about the blue-collar workers, they won't pass the USMCA.
MCCARTHY: And think of this.
INGRAHAM: Where is it?
MCCARTHY: Mexico and Canada are our top traders, and here we're going to negotiate with China. Make the president stronger, pass USMCA.
INGRAHAM: Nancy Pelosi is hurting Mexico and she's hurting Canada. They want this thing done, too. They want some certainly in this, as do the markets.
MCCARTHY: Tell me one thing they achieved. Tell me one problem the Democrats have solved.
INGRAHAM: Secret Starr chamber-like inquiry. That's what they've -- anyway, that must've been a fun meeting.
MCCARTHY: It was a very fun meeting.
INGRAHAM: All right, Congressman, have fun behind closed doors with that crowd.
Democrats love to talk a big game. For example, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, you heard, he believes that the impeachment ordeal may be wrapped up by year's end. But my next guest says the Democrats actually don't actually know what they are doing.
Joining me now, John Yoo, former deputy assistant attorney general, University of California Berkeley law professor. All right, John, why do you think the Democrats have this process wrong?
JOHN YOO, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL: First, the Constitution doesn't force them to have any kind of process. It's completely up to them, and the courts aren't going to review it. But I think basic American principles call for due process for fairness, not just to the minority, to the Republicans, but also for the president. This is the way we've done all the modern impeachment -- Watergate, Bill Clinton. You had a vote in the House whether to start the proceedings, and then you had the minority had a right to subpoena and call witnesses, you have the White House is allowed to send representatives, and they're allowed to give alternative counts.
Most importantly, you can't rush something like this. If you really want to do justice, if you really want to find out what happened, you have to take it slowly, give everyone a chance to interview witnesses.
INGRAHAM: But John, they don't care. They do not care. As I've been saying and as they laid out at the top of the show, they are willing to abandon their entire belief system on foreign policy, on trade, on blue- collar workers, on the surveillance state. They upend everything for the noble goal that they believe is normal and imperative to remove Trump. So everyone thinks these are principled positions. Get out of town. It's ruthless, but don't call it principled.
But Nancy Pelosi, John, said, it's our rules. We get to make up the rules, and all you people, Cipollone and you, saying there's no rules, there's no constitutional implications. This is just your dream fantasyland of some type of fairness rubric being foisted upon the impeachment process.
YOO: What is going to happen, though, I think it's going to backfire on them, because the American people are going to see they're not taking their constitutional responsibility seriously. If we can't trust them to run impeachment proceedings fairly and transparently for the American people, how can we trust them to set a budget, fix entitlement programs, fix immigration.
INGRAHAM: They're not doing any of that. They're not doing any of that.
YOO: This is the most weighty thing the Constitution gives as a responsibility for the House of Representatives, and they are not going to take it seriously if they're going to try to rush it by some arbitrary deadline.
INGRAHAM: John, you've been at the top meetings, obviously, with your position high up in the Justice Department. You have been in meetings with presidents. That whole run out to the cameras today thing, didn't that just a smack of contrived theater on the part of the three amigos? They just ran out, Trump was in a meltdown. Trump probably called them on their you know what. That is what happened, they didn't like it.
YOO: Actually, if I were the president, I wouldn't have given them the time of day. I wouldn't even meet with them. Why should he meet with people who called him all these names and are trying to unseat him from office based on so far it looks like flimsy evidence? I'm actually surprised President Trump does them the respect of having a meeting with them at all and gives them an opportunity. He actually gives them a forum to attack them. He doesn't have to do that.
These are people who are trying to remove them from office and undo his election in 2016. If I were him, I would say I'm not going to meet with you until you end this impeachment.
INGRAHAM: He is kind of like, can I get USMCA, can I get some of these -- they're not going to give him anything. I have to say I kind of agree with you. He's being the adult in the room, frankly. They're the ones being the little dish it out and you can't take it people.
John, the Democrats, the 2020 Democrats, though, they are opining on the wisdom of impeachment, and I have to get your comments. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, D-CALIF., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our framers imagined this moment.
WARREN: Impeachment is the way that we establish that this man will not be permitted to break the law.
SEN. CORY BOOKER, D-N.J., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: A process that is making all the facts bare before the American public.
SANDERS: I look forward, by the way, not only to a speedy and expeditious impeachment process --
HARRIS: I don't really think this impeachment process is going to take very long.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: John, that's classic.
YOO: I'm glad they're reading the Constitution and studying the framers for once, but they've got it exactly backwards. What the framers thought was that the American people would judge a president at the time of the election. They would never have wanted impeachment within a year of an election. It's up to the American people. If the American think Trump has done wrong they don't have to return to office. If they don't think this was important, they'll reelect him.
INGRAHAM: All right, John, thanks so much. Great to see you.
And coming up, Biden's gaffes, Kamala tries to be hip, and the other revealing moment from last night's debate. Its' a "Seen and Unseen" with Raymond Arroyo, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: It's time for our "Seen and Unseen" segment where we expose the big cultural stories of the day. The telling moments from the Dem debate, and a saint rises. Joining us with all the details, Raymond Arroyo, FOX News contributor. All right, Raymond, last night's debate was sort of a disaster for some of the Democrats.
RAYMOND ARROYO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Laura, there were a few odd and revealing moments at this debate, like this one from Kamala Harris.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: It is on a long list of crises of Donald Trump's making, and that's why dude got to go. And when I am commander-in-chief, we will stop this madness.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
ARROYO: Give me liberty or give me death, a House divided against itself will fall, dude got a go. This is going to be ablaze on a monument someday.
INGRAHAM: She's cool. That is like what the cool kids are saying, right?
ARROYO: This is a sad attempt.
INGRAHAM: That's just embarrassing.
ARROYO: Kamala Harris, she is pulling beneath 10 percent with African- Americans in the Democratic Party. She's trying to ingratiate herself desperately --
INGRAHAM: Dude has got ago, socialism has got to come.
ARROYO: She's trying to get herself some street cred. It's not working.
Joe Biden brought the fire, if not the precision, to the debate, Laura.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: I would eliminate the capital gains tax. I would raise the capital gains tax. Why in God's name should someone who is clipping coupons in the stock market make in fact, pay a lower tax rate.
What does the president do? He says I believe Vladimir Putin. I believe Vladimir Putin. I don't believe our intelligence community.
SANDERS: Suggesting I'm Vladimir Putin?
(LAUGHTER)
BIDEN: No, no I'm not. No, no, no I'm not.
What is happening in Iraq is -- excuse me, in Afghanistan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
ARROYO: People tune into these debates, Laura, to get a feeling. This is the cultural edge of this. They want to get a feeling of confidence, of authority for these candidates. That is what they are really seeking. They don't understand the nuances of policy. And when you see Biden there struggling, unable to really string full thoughts together, confusing countries, and people having coupons at the stock market, it rattles them, and that is why he has fallen four points in addition to the Ukraine story.
INGRAHAM: My friend, you know her, in Houston say, bless his heart.
ARROYO: Bless his heart.
INGRAHAM: All right.
ARROYO: OK, Laura, the big news.
INGRAHAM: Big news out of that debate is Bernie's attempted resurgence.
ARROYO: Yes.
INGRAHAM: And his stamina, he was up there for all that time, including a big endorsement, a big rally with AOC. Raymond is going to be the reporting it for us. And quickly moving into pop star status within the Democratic Party.
ARROYO: She is more than a pop star, Laura. She already has a comic book from a company called Devil's Due. Look, they have got three editions. There is also a children's book that just hit the shelves, and get this, AOC is soon to be an action figure. I wish I was making this up.
INGRAHAM: I've got an action figure.
ARROYO: A group called FCTRY and an activist are producing these action figures.
INGRAHAM: I thought they would look like her. That doesn't look like her.
ARROYO: It's a kind of airbrushed AOC. AOC is not alone. They are adding to their line, Laura. It already includes Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and others. Hillary, Obama, and there's a little Trump, too. So this is really --
INGRAHAM: Wait a second, Hillary?
ARROYO: But let me tell you what's going on here.
INGRAHAM: That Hillary looks like Laura Bush.
ARROYO: You touched on earlier in the show. AOC isn't endorsing Bernie Sanders. She's endorsing the people supporting Bernie Sanders. She's trying to collect them for her next run.
INGRAHAM: She is running for president. She's going to run for president.
ARROYO: She wants to be queen of the left, and that is what she's attempting to do by endorsing him.
INGRAHAM: She's too young, she's only 30. But she's going to run for president, and I think this is setting it up.
ARROYO: OK, from make-believe action figure heroes to the real thing. I sat down this week with Saints linebacker Demario Davis in New Orleans. Davis has emerged as a leader on the team in Drew Brees' absence. He's got an incredible story. More than 800 tackles in his career, a man of faith who recently, you'll remember, made headlines for wearing that "Man of God" headband a few weeks ago at a game. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: You wear a "Man of God" headband. It got you into a little bit of hot water for the NFL. Why did you do it knowing that they have a ban on personal statements on the uniform?
DEMARIO DAVIS, NEW ORLEANS SAINTS LINEBACKER: So I thought the headband was good because I've been wearing it since week one. And it's under the helmet, so it's not really knowing or paying attention. I wasn't really clear about the rule, like if it was covered up or if it was out and exposed, and so when I got the fine I was just like, oh, man.
ARROYO: It's $7,000.
DAVIS: It's $7,000, $7,000 fine.
ARROYO: You decided to appeal it.
DAVIS: Yes, yes.
ARROYO: And then you try to turn it into something else.
DAVIS: Yes. I was in a conflict. So I'm like, man, this is strongly what I believe, and I can't do it, and because it says what it says I really don't want to take it off. And then I was like, it would be a problem for me to be obedient and follow the rule. And so I did that. But then I said, God is going to get glory from this headband whether I wear it or not. I didn't know what that meant, and all of a sudden, me and my team, we came up with the idea of marketing the headbands and using them for donations. And I have a partnership with Saint Dominic's who I've been helping raise money for their emergency room. I said why don't we just get the proceeds to go to them. Now it's over $60,000 has been raised.
ARROYO: And you've got a matching grant.
DAVIS: And there's a matching grant that the hospital has for every dollar that's raised up to the next $1 million. So now it's up to $120,000. I would have never thought this whole movement would have happened. And it's not just here in New Orleans. It's been national.
ARROYO: Right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: We'll share more of that exclusive with Demario Davis on Friday, than then the full interview will drop on FOX Nation. How he became a leader for the team in Drew Brees' absence, his prison time and how it transformed his life, and what makes the Saints so incredible this season. Laura, watch. Who Dat Nation is rising.
INGRAHAM: OK, can we get through one show? I love him, he's awesome, Demario is. Can we get through one show with the New Orleans Saints not being mentioned? It is so predictable.
ARROYO: I didn't wear the black and gold tonight.
INGRAHAM: That was a great interview. I can't wait to see the whole thing, Raymond. Thanks so much.
And coming up, our body language expert, she's going to be here. What the 2020 candidates really showed us, some of the moves last night. Don't miss it. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: More than a year ago, when basketball superstar LeBron James was trashing President Trump, I kind of warned him in a flip way about the perils of amateur punditry. LeBron took great umbrage to my suggestion. It was a joke. But this week when he was asked to comment on the Chinese government's furious reaction to an NBA general manager's tweet supporting Hong Kong and the freedom movement there, LeBron kind of threw that sharp elbow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEBRON JAMES, LOS ANGELES LAKERS FORWARD: I don't want to get into a word or sentence feud with Daryl, but Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn't educated on the situation at hand. And he spoke. And so many people could have been harmed, not only financially but physically, emotionally, spiritually.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: So in other words, LeBron thought, kind of, that the Rockets' GM should Morey have shut up and managed. An uproar ensued, even among his most ardent supporters and fans. So yesterday, LeBron he tried to defend his pro-China stance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEBRON JAMES, LOS ANGELES LAKERS FORWARD: It's a tough situation that we're all in right now. There's issues all over the world, and I think the best thing we can do is, if you feel passionate about it, talk about it. If you're not, you don't have a lot of knowledge about it or you don't quite understand it, I don't think you should talk about it, because that just puts you in a tough position.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Especially LeBron, who if he speaks out against the Chinese regime would risk losing millions of dollars, more than any other player in the league, certainly. He has a massive deal with Nike and a big movie release in China waiting in the wings. All the money has made Mr. Social Justice rethink the wisdom of wading into politics, at least some politics. And he is sounding a little bit more like me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEBRON JAMES, LOS ANGELES LAKERS FORWARD: I would be cheating my teammates by continuing to harp on something that won't benefit us. I'm trying to win a championship, because that's what we're here for. We're not politicians.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Thank you. I couldn't have said it better myself, but I already did.
Also tonight, you heard what the 2020 Democratic candidates said last night during the debate, but there's a lot to learn from what they didn't say. Joining me now, body language expert extraordinaire Tonya Reiman. All right, Tonya, let's start with the front runners. Let's do Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren. So at the end of the night, it seemed tensions were getting kind of hot. This is a good old Joe addressing Liz.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I agreed with the great job she did, and I went on the floor and got you votes. I got votes for that bill. I convinced people to vote for it. So let's get those things straight, too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: What did that tell you?
TONYA REIMAN, BODY LANGUAGE EXPERT: So the topping is authority, it's enforcing, it's I feel strong about this, but it's also anger. And when you're looking, see how his facial expression reads anger, and what did they do? They both pull apart and just release eye contact. And one of the things that Joe Biden makes a point of doing is pivoting his body towards the prison he is speaking to, and in this case, after he realized she was disrespecting him without even giving him eye contact, he pivots his body away as well.
INGRAHAM: Does the tight thumb, it's kind of like a tomahawk chop almost toward. I actually didn't mean that as a pun. I swear I didn't mean that. It just came out.
REIMAN: When you have your hand closed like this, it's more emphasis. So if you open up your hands, now you're really angry. This is more emphatic.
INGRAHAM: Tonya, you also noticed this about Elizabeth Warren when she was talking about the wealth tax last night. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WARREN: And all I'm saying is, you make it to the top, the top one-tenth of one percent, then pitch and two cents so every other kid in America has a chance to make.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Why was she up here?
REIMAN: So a lot of people don't understand her gestures, but her gestures actually follow her words. So when she's talking about, if you are up here financially, then her hand goes up here. And when she talks about what you need to do, she moves her hands in and out because that's her way of demonstrating the framing of her thought process. So her hand movements aren't really as wild as some might think they are. They're actually thought out.
INGRAHAM: Yes, well, I actually think some of the candidates, the hands don't go with the words, so I will take anything I can get at this point.
All right, Tonya, how about this from Amy Klobuchar going after Warren.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR, D-MINN., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm tired of hearing whenever I say these things, oh, it's Republican talking points. You are making Republican talking points right now in this room by coming out for a plan that is going to do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: A little shaky in the voice and more pointing.
REIMAN: Right. So when she gets, when she first starts off, Amy, she normally has a little bit shake to her voice, and then as she speaks a little bit more, gets a little bit comfortable, the shake tends to go away. Then when she gets passionate or frustrated or angry, you hear the shake again, and here you even hear a little bit of a breathiness in her voice.
INGRAHAM: Tonya, you also pointed out Beto O'Rourke, speaking of someone who can't gesticulate in the right way, looking down after he got a shellacking from Mayor Pete. What does this tell us? Watch. It's just b- roll. We're just showing the b-roll of it. There it is. Look at it now.
REIMAN: Here's the interesting thing. When we are watching, you have to realize, nonverbals, it's all about perception, right. So it's not that he was submissive in this clip. It's that people will perceive that looking down as a child now being scolded, because what Mayor Pete was saying was quite aggressive. So then he looks down and he kind of pouts his mouth, and then he starts shaking his head. See that slight head negation. So he came across as submissive even if that wasn't what he was intending to do, it's how we perceive it.
INGRAHAM: I think the winner still, Tonya, is Joe's tomahawk chop at Elizabeth Warren. Do you think he did that -- maybe it was subconscious, but it looked like the Atlanta Braves.
REIMAN: He was angry.
INGRAHAM: Look it was -- he was angry.
REIMAN: People do this for emphasis all the time, so that is just one more extra point for Joe.
INGRAHAM: All right, Tonya, fascinating. Thanks so much.
REIMAN: Thank you.
INGRAHAM: We'll be right back with a fabulous Last Bite.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Time for the Last Bite. One moment we didn't play from Pelosi's tantrum was this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PELOSI: I pray for the president all the time, and I tell him that. I pray for his safety and that of his family. We have to pray for his health, because this was a very serious meltdown.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: We're praying for your health as well, Nancy. Always. Mental, physical, all of it. That's what we do here at "The Ingraham Angle."
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