Schlapp: Democrats are making a play for union voters

close

Video

Schlapp: Democrats are making a play for union voters

Trump 2020 campaign senior adviser Mercedes Schlapp shares her thoughts on the Democratic presidential debate and 2020 candidates.

This is a rush transcript from "Ingraham Angle," July 30, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

LAURA INGRAHAM, HOST: You take care. I am Laura Ingraham and this is “The Ingraham Angle” from Washington tonight. We are here with a very first Fox reaction to that second 2020 Democratic Debate. We're going to take you through all the highlights, couple of the yox, and many of the low lights in minutes. Rudy Giuliani will be here with his reaction.

We have an all-star cast. You're going to love this. Don't miss a minute. We've got Mike Huckabee. He knows a little bit about blue-collar retail politics. Mark Penn, who knows a lot about polling especially for Democrat candidates, Mercedes Schlapp is here and she's here with us exclusively with the Trump campaign's first official response to tonight's Democrat Debate.

And we couldn't let the night go without our body language expert telling us what the candidates did not say very fascinating. First, we go live to Detroit where Shannon Bream, Host of "FOX NEWS @ NIGHT," is here with the on the ground reaction to this standout moment from tonight's debate. Shannon, what are you hearing?

SHANNON BREAM, ANCHOR: Hey, Laura, you know we saw tonight that was getting a lot of steam again. Is this growing division between the wings of the Party? You can hear the cheering for the two different sides, the more progressive the others here on the stage who were urging come back from the cliff. You're going too far to the left and were going to lose this reelection to President Trump.

One of the strong these warnings came from Democrat Congressman Tim Ryan. He has said over and over again tonight along with Delaney and Hickenlooper and couple of others, we've got to pull back from this edge. Here's how he spelled it out to those who want to go full left.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TIM RYAN, D-OH, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In this discussion already tonight we've talked about taking private health insurance away from union members in the industrial mid-west. We've talked about decriminalizing the border, and we've talked about getting free health care to undocumented workers when so many Americans are struggling to pay for their health care. I quite frankly don't think that's an agenda that we can move forward on and win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BREAM: So a lot of pushback from some of them is more leftist candidates saying listen, we've got to dream big. John Delaney called it fairy tale politics and getting wishes. I think they can't possibly actually deliver to the American people.

Someone who is not a politician, Marianne Williamson, a lot of people think she's a special, odd candidate in this group because she isn't one of the politicos. She tonight called them out when they started talking about getting money out of politics. She called him on it and she got huge applause from this audience. Here's what she said her fellow candidates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIANNE WILLIAMSON, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: For politicians, including my fellow candidates, who themselves have taken tens of thousands and in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars from the same corporate donors to think that they now have the moral authority to say we're going to take them on, I don't think the Democratic Party should be surprised that so many Americans believe yada yada yada. It's time for us to start over with people who have not taken donations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BREAM: Okay, and again, another candidate getting a lot of attention here tonight, Pete Buttigieg, the South Bend Mayor, who has faced a lot of trouble regarding the police force and the recent shooting by a white officer of an African-American man who was killed there in South Bend. He's polling next to zero among potential African-American voters. He was asked about the issue of race tonight and here's how he addressed it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG, D-IND., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Systemic racism has touched every part of American life from housing, to health, to home ownership. You walk into an emergency room and you are black, your reports of pain will be taken less seriously. If you apply for a job and you are black, you're less likely to be called just because of the name on the resume.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BREAM: You know, he's also talked about the idea of racism being peppered all through our law enforcement agencies and is gotten a lot of backlash from the police and others who stand on that thin blue line. But tonight he is trying to say, listen I haven't been perfect at this but I'm trying to work on it. There are things that I can do as President. Elect me and I'll prove it.

But as you would imagine a roller coaster here tonight. A lot of people looking forward to tomorrow night when they think the big guns are going to be out for plenty of fireworks here in Detroit tonight as well, Laura.

INGRAHAM: All right, Shannon. Thank you so much. We are going to be checking back in the spin room later on in the broadcast. We have as I said an all-star lineup tonight. We have Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's Attorney. We've got Mike Huckabee, of course 2016 Presidential Candidate, Fox News Contributor. We have Mark Penn, Democrat Pollster, Former Clinton Advisor and Sara Carter, Fox News Contributor and writer. So many great topics on issues.

Now first to you Rudy, did any Democrat in tonight's debate emerge in your mind as a viable challenger to Trump? Take your representation of the President out of it for a moment, just as an observer.

RUDY GUILIANI, ATTORNEY TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: So what I really felt to take away from tonight's debate was Sanders and Warren defined themselves as very, very radical, fiscally irresponsible left-wingers.

I thought the attempt of the moderates to kind of give them a little room to move a little toward the middle -- if you just add up, let's take Medicare for all. Right now we spend half a trillion dollars on Medicare for 18 percent of the population. You multiply that by five, which is the entire population, it is $2.5 trillion a year.

That would bankrupt us. It would also lead to the closing of about one- third of our hospitals because Medicare doesn't support hospitals. Private insurance does. One-third of our hospitals will go down. We would have very poor coverage and now then they're not even paying for their free tuition which would probably cost another 2 trillion.

We would have nothing left for defense or anything else the government does unless we move the tax rate to about 90 percent. It's insane. So if one of them gets the nomination, I preserve tonight's debate and I played against them and say would you like to have a bankrupt country?

INGRAHAM: All right, and I want to get to something else because Rudy just mentioned a really important point. I think this dominated - this theme dominated the entire debate. Warren and Bernie were kind of put off to the leftist corner and people were slightly more moderate, more will real-world extremes over and over kept exposing them.

I don't know if CNN planned it this way but that's how it went down. This was Warren and Bernie doubling down, basically throwing open our borders and dangling a bunch of free beast up for the people crossing the border. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Would you decriminalize illegal border crossings?

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, D-MASS., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes. The point is not about criminalization. That has given Donald Trump the tool.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, D-VT, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If a mother and a child walked thousands of miles on a dangerous path, in my view, they are not criminals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Sara Carter. This is Donald Trump's issue. Clearly we have several crisis of the border, even with apprehensions down. Still unbelievably high number of people coming into our country. This is not where most Americans are?

SARA CARTER, CONTRIBUTOR: No, they are completely off base. Here most Americans are not on board with this. They don't want to see it decriminalize. People coming into our country, what's the option? If Elizabeth Warren and she want to decriminalize this, if that happens, what's the option? Open the borders for everyone? What about the people who come in here legally and what about those people who are affected by the drug cartels and the human traffickers that are bringing them into this country?

I agree with Delaney and others and I think this is why they were so ostracized. We see Sanders and Elizabeth Warren being pushed aside. I almost think it was a strategy by the rest of the team to say this is fantasyland.

If we move forward with these kinds of issues that they are talking about, Medicare for all, open borders for everyone, we're going to lose. We're going to lose. They are right about that. They will lose.

INGRAHAM: I want to dovetail from what Sara just said and I will go to Mark Penn, or I'll go to Huckabee first then Mark. Governor, this is where John Delaney, who in the 90s, started a couple really successful companies, health care companies. Super smart guy. He had just about enough of the pie-in-the-sky arguments from the far left of the party. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN DELANEY, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The data is clear. Medicare does not cover the cost of healthcare it covers 80 percent of cost of health care in this country. Private insurance covers 120 percent. I had been going around rural America, and I asked rural hospital administrators one question. If all your bills were paid at the Medicare rate last year, what would happen? They all look at me and say we would close.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: That was a killer moment. Governor Huckabee, your reaction to the businessman, former congressman hitting it out of the park.

MIKE HUCKABEE, FORMER GOVERNOR OF ARKANSAS: Well, what in the heck is he doing on that stage with those people? It's like that photo, which one of these people doesn't belong in this lineup. And it's Delaney. He's not a Trump fan or anything like that but he's clearly not in sync with the rest of the Democratic field or the rest of the Democratic Party.

I've got to tell you something, Laura. Let me go out on a limb here. I think I may end up abandoning President Trump this next election cycle. I'm going to stand with Marianne. She captured me tonight. I lit a candle. I stroked a crystal. I sat back and decided to take a yoga pose and chant. I could feel the love.

(LAUGHTER)

HUCKABEE: This was an interesting stage just to tell you that. I think she's the one who stands out more than anybody else. And I member where I first met her. It was at Woodstock, that's where it was.

INGRAHAM: How were you there? I would pay to see that. Rudy, wouldn't you pay to see Huck at Woodstock six years ago? I don't think any amount of money I wouldn't pay to see that.

GUILIANI: I don't think he will number this but in 2007 when we were debating, one time I went up to him and I said you better not drop out because you are the only one who keeps me awake during the debate. He had the best sense of humor. That guy is unbelievable.

The reality is they got cornered and Delaney has no chance. He helped us a lot tonight by cornering them. Think of the idea of letting anybody over the border who wants to come in. MS-13, the Cartels, and the terrorists must've been applauding tonight because if these other people can come in, they can come in with them. We'll never know they're here and then they will go kill people in Islip New York where they happened to have killed a few too many people. It's insane.

INGRAHAM: Now, and let's get Mark Penn on this. Mark, I'm just fascinated, longtime Democrat pollster, you watched this tonight. The two big dogs on the stage were Bernie who had to be told not to shout at least once and Warren who got into a war of words with a couple of the more moderate folks. We'll get into that.

But just your take on how this all plays in the real world, which is America because I think a lot of these debates don't actually apply to America. It's like they are running for Prime Minister of Sweden, this would make sense, some of these concepts would make sense but in America they're not going to give up their guns. They are not going to give up their cars. They're not going to give up their employer-provided insurance. It's never going to happen. I am like back in the real world right now and that's why I have you on the panel.

MARK PENN, DEMOCRATIC POLLSTER: Let's remember that these candidates are talking to a Democratic primary audience which is a totally different audience right now than the rest of America. Now, look, I thought the moderates put on a great show and they showed some of the differences between kinds of what would happen if some of these proposals really go into the general election.

I think that really on that state, what was happening, there's a fight for the progressive vote in the Democratic Party. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have been battling out for that and Elizabeth Warren remarkably has been winning that fight. I think she comes out of this debate probably the winner. She consistently hit the bells of Democratic primary voters.

Bernie Sanders is continuing to fade. The moderates made a good attempt. I don't think they got a lot of traction out of it. I think Senator Klobuchar also did well, particularly on guns. This is not a debate for America. This is a debate for Democratic primary voters and I think quite surprisingly Warren is getting stronger and stronger.

INGRAHAM: All right. I want to go to Rudy on this because there was a moment where the phrase "Republican talking points" was used as the Democrats tend to do this, maybe it's just a human trait. You want to avoid a topic so you either attack the questioner or you say no, that's - actually it's a serious question. Let's watch how they deployed this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARREN: We should stop using--

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Yes, she said we should stop using Republican talking points. We had a glitch there. We will get a backup. That was then repeated by two or three others at different points in this debate. So when Jake Tapper is asking a question about, are you going to raise taxes on the middle class, really good question actually, most everyone ducked the question except Beto who said no. Somehow he is still posing for vogue somewhere. Rudy, saying something is a Republican talking point, that's like giving up. That's like putting your hands like I'll give up.

GUILIANI: Well, yes, sure. I mean, if raising taxes is a Republican talking point, then the entire middle class is going to vote Republican because they don't want taxes raised and it's not possible to do. 20 percent of what they talked about tonight without raising taxes. It's impossible.

It's a complete fiction that they presented, and I agree with Mark Penn that probably if you think about just the Democratic electorate, Warren probably won tonight because of the two crazy, crazy socialists, she was the more articulate, she was the better prepared, and if I were socialist, I would bet on her rather than Bernie. But I want her as an opponent. My goodness. People in Ohio and Michigan in that part of the country that we have to win that has sensible middle-class people, they had to be frightened out of their minds listening to this.

INGRAHAM: You see people like Tim Ryan and even, what's his name from Montana, whose name I always forget. Bullock, yes, of course and you see Delaney. They all could probably be in Trump's cabinet. On the trade question, we are going to get into it later because it happened late in the debate. The trade question, none of them could answer the trade question because Trump has killed it on trade.

He has done phenomenal and they know it and they are relegated saying we shouldn't do any trade deals. By the end, that's what Warren was saying along with Bernie Sanders. So Trump has so box them in on trade, that's where they are.

So I want to get into this before we get to the trade thing because that is also really important. Bernie Sanders got into it, Governor Huckabee, with Delaney on the health care issue where he extolled the virtues of socialized medicine. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: 5 minutes away from here, John, is a country it's called Canada. They guarantee health care to every man, woman, and child as a human right. They spend half of what we spent and by the way, when you end up in a hospital in Canada, you come out with no bill at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Well, Bernie needs to check his facts because according to the Canadian Public Policy think tank The Fraser Institute, over 63,000 Canadians actually got medical care outside the country in 2017, largely due to wait times. The same group reports that in 2018 many residents had to wait an average of 20 weeks to actually get a treatment. Governor, your thoughts?

HUCKABEE: A couple points, Laura. First of all, I thought Delaney made a great point when he mentioned that what Bernie wants to do is not so much give people health care but take it away for 180 million people who currently have it. He said if we approach to social security like that and said we are going to get rid of social security and give you some other kind of deal, if they're going to take that away from you, you don't have to take something away to give people something you don't have it.

That was a great point. The second observation is this I think we were this close to seeing Bernie look out there on the stage and just say get off my lawn. This is one angry man. He's like that great uncle, the curmudgeon, who just needs to calm down a little bit. He is so angry. Number one rule that you need to be as a candidate, you've got to have some level of likability to win a general election. Maybe not the primary but in the general, you have to be likable to somebody.

INGRAHAM: Kind of like what is that "Sesame Street," Statler and Waldorf, those guys yelling at people. He did get a little heated a few times tonight and we'll have Sara Carter and Mark take a gander at this. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DELANEY: I think if we're going to force Americans to make these radical changes, they're not going to go along. Throw your hands up but--

SANDERS: This is not radical. This is what virtually every other country on earth does.

REPORTER: Thank you, Senator. Welcome to you in a second. You don't know that.

SANDERS: I do when I wrote the damn bill.

DELANEY: Bernie, you don't have to yell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

INGRAHAM: Well, should we be worried about Bernie's demeanor? It is a little mud, because he points out everyone that--

CARTER: It's his personality.

INGRAHAM: It's kind of fun. It's like an old Church bell. Rudy, Church bell attacked right--

(LAUGHTER)

INGRAHAM: And I know that everything is like--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: Yes, it is -- but there's no tonality change. It's all one note.

CARTER: That's right. I wrote the damn bill. Everyone said tonight that was the line of the night. Bernie actually stole the show with a one line of the night "I wrote the damn bill". He's like the uncle that comes over to dinner and everybody's worried, don't upset Uncle Bernie. He's going to go off on you.

I don't really know if this is going to work for him, Laura. It never really has in the past. You also need the demeanor as a politician. But, look, stranger things have happened, and we have a huge demographic of young people, Millennials and others, that people are very concerned about.

Socialism and these ideas, these progressive ideas, have kind of seeped into the system and they looked towards Bernie Sanders. I don't think he should be dismissed. I actually think we have to keep an open mind and really say he could possibly be a contender. We just don't know yet.

INGRAHAM: He could be a contender! Mark Penn. I'm literally going to quit my job for just doing impersonations.

GUILIANI: You could've been a contender!

INGRAHAM: Yes, you are right exactly.

GUILIANI: You could've been a contender!

INGRAHAM: So Rudy and Laura get it.

GUILIANI: "On the waterfront."

CARTER: "On the border."

INGRAHAM: You all know what I'm saying here. I'm sorry we're getting out of hand. Now, we're getting out of hand. Mark Penn, in all seriousness, he's a Senator from Vermont. He feels pretty big venues. He has a very loyal following. But he does come across as a bit of a hector. We tend to like happy warriors, especially at a time when the country is doing pretty well. We have stuff we have to deal with but we are doing pretty well. So the kind of hectoring thing seems a little off. It doesn't seem all that approachable. Maybe that's where the Democrats are?

PENN: Well, but that's the difference between Bernie Sanders who won four years ago and Bernie Sanders today. Bernie Sanders after the election was one of the most beloved people particularly among young people, regardless of whether or not people agreed with his views on socialism.

They still liked him. They liked him as everybody's uncle. Those polling numbers were quite remarkable. If you look in the last six months, he's been going down virtually every month because Bernie Sanders 2 isn't wearing very well. He's not in the technological age with his issues. He is repeating a similar wrap, although he's changed it a little bit to be somewhat more about diversity.

He hasn't had a really much appeal over into the minority communities. And as I come back and tell you, if Sanders and Warren both split the progressive vote, than actually it'll make it easier for a moderate to win. They each know that. One of them has to knock out the other, or they are both going to split the vote and they know that.

INGRAGHAM: I think that he and Beto should have a point off. Like whom points better. Bernie does the fast point and Beto does the point that doesn't really go with what he is saying. It's a big disconnect on gesticulation for Beto. Rudy, I got to get to you on this because Democrat voters are repeatedly saying Mark knows this well that they don't really care that much of the candidate meshes with all their views.

They want to beat Trump. That is the golden goose they have to get. They want to beat Trump. They will make compromises as long as it's a candidate who can beat President Trump. These head-to-head polls, which I don't put much stock in, they all say they are all going to beat Trump. They kind of put aside their concerns about the issues for wind ability. Your thought?

GUILIANI: Well, I think Sanders and Warren don't agree with that. They were trying to make an appeal tonight to Democrats to vote for what they believe in. Not on the practical theory of who can win. I think it's too early to figure that out. But I think would be unrealistic if we didn't think it's come down to four people.

It's Bernie, Warren, Biden, Harris. It would be really hard for anybody else to break into that. I think those are the four we are dealing with. And I think that Biden probably gains tonight if he can have a decent performance tomorrow night.

INGRAHAM: I completely agree.

GUILIANI: Because he is the one that naturally people would think of as a moderate. However, Biden has been running to pretend that he can out- socialist all of them. I don't know what Joe's theory is but he would ordinarily be the one that would have won tonight, except for the way he's running in posturing himself. We will see tomorrow night. If Harris wipes them out tomorrow night, the way she did the last time, then I think Harris will be the one to gain. She hasn't really defined herself.

INGRAHAM: All right. We guys got to stay. Rudy, hold on. Panel, you're going to stay with me. We are going to be going back to you throughout the hour. You don't want to miss this. Where else also going to get impersonations?

The Democrats continue the leftward lurch tonight and it was no doubt music to the President's years. A new report saying that his reelection campaign hopes to use the left most radical positions to draw away party moderates and independent voters. So the question is now did the 2020 Dems strengthen Trump's case? Joining me live from the debate Spin room, Fox News Peter Doocy. Peter.

PETER DOOCY, CORRESPONDENT: One of the positions Laura that you would be referring there, decriminalizing illegal immigration was something that Elizabeth Warren reiterated tonight. She does support it. She was asked point-blank, do you support making it legal essentially to cross the border she said yes.

Despite the fact that Joe Biden is the front runner in the race, just like the last debate where he was not on the stage, his name has not come up. Instead, some of the more moderate members are going after Bernie Sanders, really beating up on him. At one point Tim Ryan, the Ohio Congressman, who had a lot of one-liners tonight, try to tell Bernie Sanders that he didn't know what he was talking about with regard to union contracts in health care and Bernie Sanders who keeps talking about Medicare for all, looked at Tim Ryan and said I do know. I wrote the damn bill.

Bernie Sanders also at one point tried to argue that these big ideas, Medicare for all, Green New Deal, are things are feasible and he used the example of the Republican tax cut bill. He said the Democrats can't be the party that doesn't have a big idea, like the Republicans have. They have one and we have a bunch.

Perhaps the biggest applause line of the night actually came when the Spiritualist Author Marianne Williamson was talking about something horrible that happened in Michigan in the last couple years, that's the water crisis. She said that she lived in Grosse Pointe, which is one of the nicer suburbs of Detroit.

She said the water crisis would not have happened in Grosse Pointe the way that it happened in Flint. That got the crowd going. They stay cheering when she started talking about the Presidents, what she described as a dark psychic force. Laura.

INGRAHAM: Yes, Peter. We are going to explore the dark psyching force later on in the hour. Thank you so much for that report. Let us know when you pull candidates aside. I want to come back right here in Washington now. For the first official response from the Trump campaign and joining me now exclusively Mercedes Schlapp, Trump Senior Campaign Adviser and Former White House Director of Strategic Comms. Mercedes, are you guys worried about anyone tonight? Be honest, are you trembling?

MERCEDES SCHLAPP, TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: No it is quite an entertaining night you have to admit because we are starting to see is this divide among Democrats where you have these Governors saying wait a second. These policies are way too radical for America and we can't force it down her throat.

They are admitting to it. They're admitting, some of these candidates are admitting that the Democrat Party is going far left and that's where you're starting to see the Democrat Party in disarray, the Democrat Party being chaotic. They don't really know what direction they're going in.

INGRAHAM: So Hickenlooper, Bullock from Montana. Various points in time, they bashed Trump. They have to. But I looked at them going gosh, if he only worked with the President on some of these issues, you could probably accomplish a lot. So it's hard for them and Tim Ryan was just totally up on trade because he's Ohio. He's like; I don't want to answer on steel tariffs because it helps Ohio. They are boxed in on the working class voter. I saw that repeatedly. That's a problem for the Democrats. Just it is.

SCHLAPP: Yes, there is no question obviously that they're making a play for the union voters. You saw Trump go out and give the pre-debate speech. At one point I was asking myself, is Trump could get a run for President next. And so they're trying to make a play. The problem has really becomes that President Trump - or that really has honed in on helping the American worker.

This is why we've seen a boom when it comes to manufacturing jobs. You've seen wages increase and it's increased particularly for blue-collar workers. The President, because he's been strong on trade, strong against China being the bad actor, it's benefited the American worker. The Democrats, they don't even have a coherent line of where they are headed with the American worker which is I think troubling for them and their only solution is let's get more government involved. Let's get make sure you get free health care. We can get her wages up, that's great.

INGRAHAM: One of the other things they kept saying is this is towards the end of the debate, well, we need to work more with the E.U. to put pressure on China. I'm thinking what do they think the Trump Administration has been doing? The answer to so much of what they said tonight is, and certainly tomorrow with Biden, you had eight years. These ideas are so obvious and you could have transformed economy, what -- where was that?

SCHLAPP: And I mean, just remember that President Trump has also made the comment of well, Bernie has been the one against NAFTA and the one against TPP. But remember, we still have USMCA that is stuck in Congress because Nancy Pelosi hasn't moved it forward. So here you have these Democrats again you see more chaos, more division. They're not agreeing on the policies but the policies that are the loudest in that room are the more radical ones. Its Medicare for all that we know is going to be tremendously costly. We know they're going to increase taxes on the middle class.

INGRAHAM: Each of them stumbled except Beto who just in fantasyland know - Okay.

SCHLAPP: And Warren said that too. IT's not going to be middle class we are getting tax.

INGRAHAM: She said overall.

SCHLAPP: Overall.

INGRAHAM: She dodged it. Overall the cost will go up.

OK, Mercedes, I also want to get your reaction to CNN's latest focus group fiasco.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: How many of you, show of hands, are optimistic that a Democrat will win in 2020?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that a blind optimism is how we got Trump. We really need a candidate that is going to increase Democratic turnout and not a candidate that's going to convince Trump voters to vote for them, because it's not going to happen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm usually optimistic about a lot of things, but I'm really afraid of this next election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Of course, we find out that Detroit is actually doing a little bit better. Michigan is doing better, a lot of it, because of Trump's policies, trade policies, and so forth.

SCHLAPP: Look, I really think that the Democrats are trying to find their player, the person they think who can win. That's what they want to focus on. Yet their options are those that will just take America far to the left. And so here you have a president that's been results oriented, common sense, practical, trying to find solutions.

INGRAHAM: You've got to take the temperature down, though, Mercedes, right? The temperature has got to come down a little bit. Suburban women, you do want them to turn out. I think a lot of them do like the president, but the temperature can't stay hot, hot, hot, hot all the time.

SCHLAPP: But Laura, the hypocrisy of the Democrats saying that they want to secure the border, yet they have done nothing on the Hill to get this done.

INGRAHAM: I think President Trump could go into Baltimore with four or five public-sector, private-sector folks, and in a week come up with five policies that have worked elsewhere. And just say try these. Let's try these. I'll help you.

SCHLAPP: And he is starting with opportunity zones and investments, with criminal justice reform, with the fact we've got to move towards school choice and not just allow for these broken schools. We have policies that we know are going to work. The question is the Democrat leaderships that have been ingrained in these cities, in these urban cities, are they willing to try new ways instead of sticking to the status quo?

INGRAHAM: It's almost like Shelby Steele, Bob Woodson, said on my podcast today, I would go around Elijah Cummings to the people, the real disruptors on the ground who are making a difference in places like Baltimore. The president could work with them, make a huge difference. Mercedes, great to see you in your new role.

Race and reparations were front and center tonight, which one moderator, of course, used to attack Trump. Horace Cooper, Leo Terrell join our powerhouse roundtable next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Congressman O'Rourke, President Trump is pursuing a reelection strategy based in part on racial division. How do you convince primary voters that you'd be the best nominee to take on President Trump and heal the racial divide in America?

Senator Klobuchar, what do you say to those Trump voters who prioritize the economy over the president's bigotry?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Don Lemon summing up how CNN handled that issue tonight. I think the other two guys, Tapper and Bash, did a pretty fair job. Pretty interesting debate, actually, substantive. But our star-studded panel is back, Rudy G., Mike Huckabee, Mark Penn, Sara Carter. Joining them -- I don't think we've ever have this many people on at once, Horace Cooper, co- chair of Project 21, and Leo Terrell, civil rights attorney. It looks like the jumble, the puzzle. Horace, questions like that, how does CNN defend having Lemon moderate this debate? Just proclaiming Trump as someone who traffics in racial division. That was actually a question.

HORACE COOPER, CO-CHAIR, PROJECT 21: It's like what happens in a forest when no one's around, and people ask, is there a sound? The ratings at CNN are in such a floor state it's not clear even when they have the Democrats on for a debate with one-sided questions offered by Mr. Lemon, it's not clear that anyone is paying attention anyway.

INGRAHAM: Leo, Beto O'Rourke pushed for reparations tonight by dissing basically all of the American history that at least we know of. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETO O'ROURKE, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The legacy of slavery and segregation and Jim Crow and suppression is alive and well in every aspect of the economy and in the country today. As president, I will sign into law a new voting rights act. I will focus on education, address health care disparities, but I will also sign into law Sheila Jackson Lee's reparations bill so that we can have the national conversation we have waited too long in this country to have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Is Jim Crow still alive and well, Leo, with black employment at record levels?

LEO TERRELL, CIVIL RIGHT ATTORNEY: No, it's not alive and well. But Laura, I want to give you some news for everyone. "New York Post," a FOX publication, came out and quoted the Quinnipiac poll, 51 percent of the country, Laura, said that President Trump is a racist. And I applaud you for saying right in the previous segment, Trump needs to lower the temperature. He said a couple years ago what have you got to lose, give me a chance. Why don't he go to Baltimore like you were suggesting with Shelby Steele? But 51 percent of this country right now believes that Trump is a racist. What does that tell you about this messaging?

COOPER: Do you know why that is?

TERRELL: Let me finish. The only person who's been honest about it is Laura Ingraham because she said he needs to lower the temperature, and he's committed unforced errors.

COOPER: Do you know why that is?

TERRELL: Why? Tell me why 51 percent is wrong.

COOPER: "The New York Times," "The Washington Post," all of the talking heads lie about the president.

TERRELL: "New York Post."

COOPER: They lie about the president. Our organization, Project 21, came out last year with a blueprint --

TERRELL: No promotions.

COOPER: -- for a better deal for America. And we were addressing issues like in Baltimore.

TERRELL: Horace, this was the "New York Post." Comment on the "New York Post."

COOPER: Do you know who responded?

TERRELL: Comment on the "New York Post."

COOPER: The White House did. The White House invited us to the White House.

TERRELL: Is the "New York Post" fake news?

COOPER: Not the CBC, not the mayor of Baltimore, not any of these Democrat leaders were willing to do it.

TERRELL: Can he answer that question Laura? See, those are talking points.

INGRAHAM: I think Leo and Horace --

COOPER: That's not a talking point. That's a reality.

INGRAHAM: -- what I like to do, and Rudy, as mayor of New York during one of the most tumultuous and difficult times, tragic times for the city, you, I think, appointed people based on results, and fired them if they didn't actually deliver results. To me, and I've known Trump for about 20 years, that's what he does. He will get rid -- you don't give him results. He'll get rid of you. If you deliver results, he thinks thumbs up for now.

But he's impatient for change. He wants change in Baltimore and L.A. and San Francisco. And Rudy, that's how I see him. And maybe he's rough around the edges, but a lot of us are, OK. And you're walking on eggshells, you don't say the right thing, you take on Elijah Cummings and then you're a terrible person. That's not true, OK. He wants results for the inner-city, and he thinks there are better ways. I think now it's up to him to offer a couple of concrete ideas that could be implemented. Rudy?

TERRELL: Bravo, Laura, bravo. Bravo. Thank you, Laura. Thank you for giving Trump some good advice right now.

INGRAHAM: OK, let's get Rudy on this. I don't need the bravo. Go ahead.

RUDY GIULIANI, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S ATTORNEY: I think being called a racist now is not what it was 10, 20 years ago. I think they've demeaned it. I don't know what the American people even think a racist is anymore because it's used all the time.

And frankly, I don't worry for my friend, the president, about false charges. He will have plenty of opportunities over the next year to show - - first, he's not a racist. False charges can always be dismissed. And the reality is that he's done more for the African-American community, Hispanic, white, everybody else, than any president in 50 years.

COOPER: Absolutely. For America.

GIULIANI: In 50 years. So I think there are enough really intelligent, smart African-American voters who are tired of the crooks that have been representing them and doing nothing for them. I faced that in Harlem, Laura. Charlie Rangel and his crowd didn't do a damn thing for Harlem for 30 years. They just became millionaires. I think if you check, Mr. Cummings has become a millionaire. And people suffered and were killed, and I turned it around because they needed -- not because I'm so terrific. Because I didn't owe anything to these crooks. And the reality is that's what's going on in inner-city Baltimore.

INGRAHAM: Results. Rudy, you delivered results.

GIULIANI: I saved more African-American lives --

INGRAHAM: If people know Trump, he is results oriented. I have got to ask Mike Huckabee. Should the president go to Baltimore and work with those disruptive, and I mean disruptive in a good way, groups on the grounds that are getting it done but need some extra help?

MIKE HUCKABEE, FORMER ARKANSAS GOVERNOR: I think it would be a terrific idea, Laura. And there are number of pastors and churches in that area with whom he could partner. It ain't going to be the politicians.

But there was a great missed opportunity tonight with Bernie Sanders standing there, Buttigieg or somebody should have turned to him and said, you know, Senator, you once just a few years ago said Baltimore was a third world country. Are you a racist, sir? Are you a racist, because you said the same thing about Baltimore that President Trump said, and yet today you called him a racist? But you said the same thing, so are you a racist?

INGRAHAM: Panel, stay there. Coming up, 2020 Democrats say that they are fighting for our country's soul. So why the hostility towards religion? Ralph Reed joins our panel next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMSON: An amoral economic system has turned short-term profits for huge multinational corporations into a false God.

O'ROURKE: In the face of cruelty and fear from a lawless president, we will choose to be the nation that stands up for the human rights of everyone.

BUTTIGIEG: Ask yourself how somebody like Donald Trump ever gets within cheating distance of the Oval Office in the first place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: The party of tolerance did a lot of moral grandstanding tonight. Democrats love to say they are fighting for the soul of the country now. So why the disdain for religious Americans. Back with more reaction is our panel, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Mark Penn, Sara Carter, also joining them is Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition. Ralph, what do you make of Democrats trying to claim the moral high ground all of a sudden?

RALPH REED, CHAIRMAN, FAITH AND FREEDOM COALITION: I think you've got a lot of attempt to invoke moral and spiritual language. Obviously, you had the new age talk of Marianne Williamson, and some of the leftwing social gospel that Mayor Pete was trying to mouth.

But what's really disturbing about the modern Democratic Party, Laura, and why I can't believe these Democratic presidential candidates don't see this storm cloud on the horizon, is this past week the Senate confirmed Brian Buescher to be a district court judge and every single Democratic senator voted against him. And Kamala Harris and others, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Democratic side essentially said in so many words that he was disqualified because he was a faithful Roman Catholic who was a member of the Knights of the Columbus, and not a single Democratic presidential candidate has condemned the anti-Catholic bigotry.

Six decades ago John F. Kennedy said, and I quote, "I do not believe that I lost my chance to be president of the United States on the day I was baptized." But today in the modern Democratic Party, your disqualified from being a federal judge if you're a faithful Christian.

INGRAHAM: They have a big problem with, I think, voters of faith, deeply convicted voters. And Sara, we were talking during the break about this. The Democrats are trying to kind of steel the moral high ground from Trump, saying he's got a bunch of marriages, Billy Bush tapes. They are going to go back to that, saying but we're going to save the climate.

SARA CARTER, CONTRIBUTOR: But we're going to save the country. I think that's an insult to Americans, first of all, and Mayor Pete Buttigieg's statements about Trump and about how he got into office.

INGRAHAM: Pence.

CARTER: Yes, and Pence, is an insult to all Americans who voted for him, for those who voted for him and put him into office. So they are not going to win this way.

I want to say something else. They come out with the race card, they say he's a racist, they twist his words. But facts are facts. And I think that what makes Donald Trump so important as far as the American people responding to him is the fact that he's not afraid to call out anyone when he sees failure. In Baltimore there are serious issues. There is a serious crisis. Baltimore, San Francisco, Los Angeles. In New York City, in some areas, we are seeing it now, there is a serious crisis, and the president is willing to call them out on it. And that makes him, in my opinion, not a racist.

INGRAHAM: And Mark Penn, it is true that urban America in many ways, my old hometown city of Hartford, Connecticut, suffering, St. Louis, these are Democrat strongholds. Trump kicked off this conversation. Is there some traction to begin there in unlikely places for this president? Or is he just trying to say to the rest of America, unless you want to end up looking like, you know, the streets of San Francisco where we've got rats and human feces and homelessness rampant, vote for me, Mark Penn?

MARK PENN, FORMER CLINTON ADVISER: Look, I think there's a lot of room for a candidate, whether it's on the Republican or Democratic side, that really wants to bring back a modern notion of urban renewal, of building more charter schools rather than fewer, of dealing with the gang violence and drugs that are holding people back.

But on the same token, by the same token, America wants a uniter, not a divider. So they want to see somebody attacking these issues in a way that brings the country together. And they want both of those things at the same time. No one is actually, I think, hitting that formula in either direction. Trump has raised some legitimate issues here about what's going on in the cities, but he's done it in a way that's turning off the very voters, those voters in the suburbs, who actually want the cities to become safe places again and places where minorities who are in those cities can get a good education, right, and break into this economic system in the best way possible. And Trump is not reaching those voters with this message. He's turning them off.

INGRAHAM: Mike Huckabee, the idea of this election being about, are you better off than you were four years ago? That's usually the barometer. And the right track, wrong track numbers are trending really well for Trump. But he's down among suburban women. Without a doubt the race stuff, you don't like 51 percent of the country, if that poll is wrong or right, thinking the president is racist. I know he's not. And I think Sara hit it out of the park. He's willing to criticize anyone who doesn't deliver results. But how do you get those female voters to turn out and young people who have this drumbeat in their head morning, noon, and night, that he's the worst thing ever and you're a bad person if you vote for him?

HUCKABEE: I think we've got to be honest and say that Donald Trump's bedside manner is not going to change. He 72 years old. He's president. He's a billionaire. He's achieved things most people never will. So the likelihood that he is suddenly going to find some new demeanor is simply not going to happen.

What we've got to do, those of us who support them, is to remind people that you've got a choice between doctors. You choose a guy whose bedside manners a little gruff but he successfully does the surgery that saves your grandma. Or you can pick a guy who's nice as can be, sits at the side of your bed, gives you a hug and holds your hand and says a prayer with you.

INGRAHAM: Mitt Romney.

HUCKABEE: Yes. And when he goes in the surgery room, you die. So which one do you want? I want someone who leads the country and does it effectively. And if I look at employment numbers, and if I look at some moral issues. Ralph Reed and I would agree on this, we don't have any illusion as evangelicals that Donald Trump is one of us. But on issues that matter to us, the sanctity of life, no president, not even Ronald Reagan has ever been as pro-life as this president. No president has ever been as defensive of Israel as this president has been. So the things that matter to us, he has done them.

INGRAHAM: We talk about radical policies, but some, including Buttigieg, want to go further than this. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUTTIGIEG: When I propose the actual structural Democratic reforms that might make a difference -- end the Electoral College, amend the Constitution if necessary to clear up Citizens United, have D.C. actually be a state, and depoliticize the Supreme Court with structural reform, people look at me funny.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Rudy, meaning upend the Constitution, basically.

GIULIANI: First of all, it's not going to happen. So he can say that all he wants. I also want to go back to something Mike said because I think it's probably really the best analysis of Donald Trump you can have. He is who he is. It's worked out really well for this country. I think he can do and will do even better job of explaining himself. But he's not going to change, and that's why we respect him.

And he cares about solving problems. And he doesn't care if they are white problems, black. He doesn't think that way. And in many ways, they are racist because they think in terms of color constantly. Somebody told a joke once, Mike, that said the only color Donald ever cared about was green. He's a businessman.

HUCKABEE: That's exactly right.

GIULIANI: He's a businessman. So he looks at inner-city Baltimore the way I looked at inner-city New York, and he's horrified by it. And I feel that I loved the people in Harlem a lot more than Charlie Rangel. I change their lives. He just became a millionaire off them and did not a damn thing for them. Harlem didn't change until they got a Republican mayor who cared about them.

I probably had the same gruff manner that Trump has, but Harlem is a lot better off now than it was when Charlie Rangel was running it and all of his cronies. The same thing is true of every American city that you just talked about, Laura. And I think we have to get that message across honestly with the real Donald Trump, not some make-believe, silly person.

INGRAHAM: And I think he's not going to be cowed by saying no, I'm not going to go into the cities to campaign.

GIULIANI: Thank God.

INGRAHAM: They are going to try to cordon those cities off and not allow him to campaign. He should say I'm everybody's president. He should go back to San Jose, go to Chicago, do not right off any American city if you're the president. You remember Mitt Romney rode off part of America. He went down in flames. Trump is not that kind of guy.

Panel, the best conversation on television tonight. Thank you so much.

(LAUGHTER)

GIULIANI: Thank you, Laura.

INGRAHAM: And you heard what the candidate said tonight, but what didn't they say is -- well, should get some attention. Here with me now to analyze is body language expert Tonya Reiman. Tonya, let's start with Governor Steve Bullock of Montana. We noticed several times he was talking with his chin up. What does that mean?

TONYA REIMAN, BODY LANGUAGE EXPERT: Right, yes. A lot of times when people do that, that's a superior gesture. They tilt their head up in this direction that says I'm above you.

INGRAHAM: Wait, so he is looking down at them? Like what are you talking about?

REIMAN: That is kind of what the generic term is, but quite often it's also posture related. So if you're looking at me and I look at you like this, sometimes it's because I'm looking down on you. Sometimes it's because my head is not in the right posture. So if my direction isn't right, you have to look at him in general. So the entire time he's doing this, he's talking the entire time, his head is back.

INGRAHAM: Very odd.

Tonya, we saw Tim Ryan doing a weird hand motion. It was pumping it up and down in a fist, and it looked awfully familiar to a gesture we've seen from another politician. Does it signify anything?

REIMAN: No. The difference is Obama is left-handed. So there's one generic difference. But in general, this is kind of like I feel strong, I feel powerful. But we see this from a lot of the candidates this year.

INGRAHAM: We had Bernie Sanders does the constant quick point, which we talked about earlier. And then Beto goes like this at weird times. The quick point, very question, what about that?

REIMAN: Bernie seemed, he is really on point when he speaks, but he also seems very angry at certain times. So he needs to calm his words down and his tone down, because his congruency is great, but his tonality seems angry.

INGRAHAM: Yes. The punctuation with the staccato gestures doesn't help.

Tonya, thank you so much. We'll be right back with my final thoughts.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMSON: This is part of the dark underbelly of American society.

(APPLAUSE)

WILLIAMSON: The racism, the bigotry, and the entire conversation that we're having tonight, if you think this wonkiness is going to deal with this dark psychic force of the collectivized hatred that this president is bringing up in this country, then I'm afraid that the Democrats are going to see some very dark days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: I thought it was "Star Wars." I mean, I heard the music playing, the dark force.

Well, that was fun. We're going to be back here tomorrow night. We're going to do it all over again. Don't forget, check out my new podcast, PodcastOne.

And Shannon Bream and the "Fox News @ Night" team, they take it here live from Detroit with great analysis.

Shannon?

Content and Programming Copyright 2019 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2019 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.