Sen. Rand Paul: 'Wouldn't surprise me' if John Bolton is behind Ukraine leaks

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Sen. Rand Paul: 'Wouldn't surprise me' if John Bolton is behind Ukraine leaks

Republican Sen. Rand Paul reacts to a new report suggesting President Trump is suspicious that a bitter John Bolton is behind recent White House leaks.

This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," October 15, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

LAURA INGRAHAM, HOST: I'm Laura Ingraham. This is “The Ingraham Angle” from another busy Washington tonight. Eric trump will be here in moments. He'll respond to Hunter Biden's softball ABC interview. He's not going to hold back. He promises.

Also on their first day back from break, the house GOP is ready to fight back against a sham of an impeachment probe - it's about time. They are going to target Adam Schiff. Congressman Devin Nunes, Lee Zeldin, Steve Scalise all here and they will reveal their plan. Don't miss it.

Plus, one mother fights for her daughter's right to compete against other girls in track and field. A warning about what the left pushes for trans- athletes will do to women's and girl's sport? And I will have my list response to LeBron James' comments on China a little later in this show.

But first, unmasked and unanswered, that's the focus of tonight's ANGLE. Well, Joe Biden has spent weeks deflecting the flood of questions about his son's shady business deals in Ukraine and China.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever had a conversation with my son about anything that I was doing. There is zero, zero, zero evidence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Nothing, nothing, nothing to see here! That should be Biden's new campaign slogan, I've decided. Of course Joe Biden is bloviating denials are enough to satisfy and aggressively in curiously lame stream media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hunter Biden and Joe Biden are also the targets of it so it basically stitches together the entire right wing conspiracy theory.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is pushing these conspiracy theories about Hunter Biden--

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This whole Ukraine conspiracy theory with Joe Biden and his son--

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is smart of him to be dismissing this because there is factual evidence to back up the conspiracy theory.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: After months of hiding out, Hunter Biden showed his face for a media interview with an amicable anchor GMAs Amy Robach. It was filmed at cozy kitchen and the exchange at times felt more like an episode of "Oprah."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If your last name wasn't Biden, do you think he would've been asked to be on the board of Burisma?

HUNTER BIDEN, JOE BIDEN's SON: I don't know. I don't know, probably not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Almost burst into laughter throughout this entire interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTER: I was Vice Chairman of the board of Amtrak for 4-5 years. I was the Chairman of the board of the U.N. World Food Program. I was a lawyer for Boy Sheller Freshener one of the most prestigious law firms in the world.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You didn't have any extensive knowledge about natural gas or Ukraine itself though?

BIDEN: No, but I think that I had as much knowledge as anybody else who was on the board. If not more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Another laugh out loud moment! I'm glad she had the follow-up. That was good. His relevant experience was that he worked for a big law firm. So did I, but I don't have any experience in the Ukraine. Or he sat on the Amtrak board I wonder how we got that position? Unbelievable. Robach's China question and did that hit the right mark?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The President has repeatedly said that you received $1.5 billion from China despite no experience and for no apparent reason. Obviously fact-checkers have said that that is not true--

HUNTER: Look, this is literally has no basis in fact in any way--

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you received any money for non-business dealings?

HUNTER: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: --at all - not 1 cent.

HUNTER: Not 1 cent.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Definitely not $1.5 billion?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Do you see how she's always throwing a lifeline to Hunter? Let me save you from yourself. Well, no one believed Hunter himself personally got $1.5 billion from China. Reporting shows he did however manage to secure that amount for another investment firm of which he owns a nice chunk.

And that's how much Biden reportedly raised for the company BHR Investments. According to author Peter Schweizer, Hunter sat on BHR's board since 2013. So either Robach didn't know that fact or she chose to omit any reference to it.

The question should have been is it true that ten days after you and your dad returned from a trip in China in late 2013, your firm secured that exact amount in financing from China's state owned bank? And if diamonds are a girl's best friend, Hunter Biden seems to like them plenty too.

A Chinese businessman Yeh Yaming gave Hunter a huge diamond ones and asked them to represent someone later convicted in a bribery scheme. Hunter negotiated for a gas company involved in that very same scheme. But ABC did not ask about the precious stone payment either. Why bother? Everyone is supposed to be satisfied with any acting indignant dismissals of questions about ethics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Did I make a mistake? Well, may be in the grand scheme of things, yes. Did I make a mistake based on some unethical laps? Absolutely not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Absolutely not. By the way, Hunter does plan to step down from BHR's board, though - this is a big though, he has not pledged to divest his 10 percent stake in that company that's were that money comes to him. And the one probing question I think when it was probing but it was told us something that Robach did ask isn't getting enough attention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you and your father ever discuss Ukraine?

BIDEN: No. As I said the only time was after a news accounts - it wasn't a discussion in any way. There is no but to this. No we never did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Oh, well, wait a second. That's convincing. It's like he forgot that his dad had repeatedly denied ever talking business with Hunter at all. And then he remembered midsentence and went on the sick, no, we never took it.

If Joe and Hunter actually time this interview to drop before tonight's Democrat debate, that was another colossal lapse in judgment which sent the Biden campaign surrogates of course scrambling to explain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you wish that he didn't do it this morning and may be did it tomorrow or the next day?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Martha, Hunter Biden said - I'm sorry, it was a little hard to hear you, but I'll say you Hunter Biden said today and answered every single question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Now that is funny. Joe Biden knows full and well that his son's business dealing stink to high heaven. At the very least have a stark conflict of interest when he was sitting as Vice President and involved running Ukraine policy? Now his campaign team is a warning Democrat rivals don't even think about going back to the Ukraine story.

Bloomberg reporting an aide to Biden said that any candidate who calls themselves a Democrat and repeats what the aides said were discredited lies about Biden and his son would be making a profound statement about themselves.

Well, look, none of this is going to go away anytime soon and it's obviously terrible for candidate Biden. The swamping us of the Biden just reminds folks why they elected Trump in the first place to drain the swamp. And that's “The Angle.”

Joining me now is Eric Trump, the President's son and Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization. All right, Eric, you just heard “The Angle,” you saw at least parts of what Hunter Biden said in his interview on ABC. What's your take away?

ERIC TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S SON: First of all, I think he did an incredible job. Honestly Laura, I do not like attacking politicians' kids I've been on the receiving end of this. I will never do it to the Obama kids, I've never done it to the Bush kids, and I wouldn't do it to the Chelsea.

The problem is this is rampant corruption. I mean, think about though the one question, what qualifies you to sit on the board of Ukrainian gas company, you have no knowledge, you don't speak the language, you had no dishonorable duties? All the things he went through. I was on the board of Amtrak. What qualifies you?

Isn't the next obvious question, what qualified you to sit on the board of Amtrak? I went to Georgetown University. I took Amtrak every single weekend for a four week period of time back and forth to D.C. That does not qualify me to sit on the board of Amtrak. The obvious answer is because his father was Vice President and he was cashing in on that no different than he was cashing in on the Ukraine, no different from he was cashing in on China and a whole lot of other things.

There is rampant corruption, and it sucks and it shouldn't have been and it's disgusting and quite frankly it is disqualifying.

INGRAHAM: Well, it's see it's a swamp. This is why your father was elected. People see what this town is all about. It's a never ending series of fund- raisers from this or that big organization that wants its piece of the pie. That's it. The idea that in an interview, you kind of let them get away with saying, well, I worked at a big law firm - you have to just burst out laughing.

As someone who worked at a big law firm, I'm not qualified to work on an investment fund or raise a billion and a half dollars from China to be deposited in that fund. I wouldn't be qualified to do that for that's not what I'm qualified to do.

TRUMP: Well, not only did they let him get away with that, next question is well, what about the Trump kids? Somebody when into some of the hotels that they built ten years ago when they bought a martini at the bar and no one knew who they were, that's got to be in the emoluments. And then you have Elijah Cummings every single night send us subpoenas about how many martinis were purchased at a bar in a hotel that we owned long before even my father started running. It's insanity.

INGRAHAM: I want to hit this. This is how he characterized you in the ABC sit down. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTER: The most unethical group of people that we've ever seen in this republic. Say whatever they want to say about me. May be "Lock her up" goes to "Lock him up"!

I mean, who cares that Barnum & Bailey say anything, do anything you want? You know, Donald Prince Humperdinck Trump Jr. is not somebody that I really care about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: The video was a view but that's beside the point. Your response?

TRUMP: He's not doing well there. We have a lot of supporters in Minneapolis so that's pretty good. The difference between us and Hunter is when my father became Commander in Chief of this country; we got out of all international business, right? When his father became Vice President of United States he got into international business that's the difference.

I don't think there will ever be, Laura, a President who has sacrificed so much of his wealth, made so many personal sacrifices. My father got into politics to drain the swamp, to stop this nonsense from happening, exactly what you see here because it's rampant. He made so many sacrifices including putting a ton of his own money in it and losing an absolute fortune because of it.

All these guys are cashing in on it. They are getting board positions, cashing in on their father. Do you see me on any boards? Do you see Don on any boards? Do you see Ivanka on any boards?

INGRAHAM: I'd like to check Eric, you had to get rid of the St. Jude Foundation, well, and the foundation you had that raise all those money for St. Jude. That's how bad it got, the people who are actually helped by the foundation work that you did lost that help.

TRUMP: I won the lowest excess ratios of any charity in the world, raising millions of dollars, building ICU's for their problem.

INGRAHAM: That's the problems. I have to play some - there is a tactic and I want to expose this tonight on the show. It's very important for people to understand how the Democrats are trying to parlay this Hunter Biden saga into an attack on you and your brother and I guess to some extent your sister. This was Claire McCaskill of course, very well respected Democrat Senator. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLAIRE MCCASKILL, FORMER UNITED STATES SENATOR: The most grifters President in the history of our country, all of his kid's grifters they're all have the nerve to go after Joe Biden and his family. Particularly Joe, he needs to turn and go like a scalding cat against Trump and the kids that are making all this money off of the presidency.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: And Former Senator McCaskill, your response?

TRUMP: Do you know what's ironic? These people, her, Nancy Pelosi, Biden - Biden has been in politics for 50 years. Nancy has been in politics for 35 years they made their entire livelihood for their entire life off of politics. My father has never taken a penny from the U.S. government. In fact, he's only done the exact opposite, he given up ton of money in taxes to the U.S. government. He didn't even make a penny; he doesn't even take a salary.

My sister works in the White House, she doesn't take a salary. No one takes salaries. My father paid for hundreds of millions of dollars of his presidential run. He has contributed so much to these things. These people have lived off of our taxpayer money for years.

It's the perfect reason, Laura, that quite frankly, we need term limits in this country, but Joe Biden has been a politician for 50 years! They are talking about us being grifters? The hypocrisy of this stuff--

INGRAHAM: Longer than you have been alive, Eric.

TRUMP: In fact, he was in the Senate, Laura, longer than I've been alive. I mean, I'm a young guy but I'm not like a spring chicken, right? He is in the Senate longer than I've been alive.

INGRAHAM: He Eric, Pelosi we're going to get into this later on the show, but Pelosi made it official they're not doing an impeachment inquiry vote your response quickly to that.

TRUMP: The whole thing is a sham. And no one on the stage tonight can be my father. They knew that. We have the lowest jobless claims in the history of our nation, the lowest unemployment. You see where the stock market is today?

Our country is doing phenomenally well. They can't beat the guy, right? So what do they have to do? Impeach, impeach, impeach, let's distract. Let's tell lies, let's make up stories. Let's get the whole mainstream media to come out against him. They know they can't beat this guy.

This is like their Hail Mary with two seconds left in the fourth quarter. By the way, they are failing at it and I'm telling you, when you see that energy in Minneapolis and you see these crowds and you see what we have going out there and you see the fund-raising numbers? Laura, they aren't going to win. I'm just telling you, they're not going win.

INGRAHAM: Well, what they keep say your dad looks like he doesn't want to be President any longer. That was the new thing I heard over the weekend. He's done, he's sick of it. He is happy to be only a one term. That's their new thing. Am I right?

TRUMP: There's no one who knows my father better than I do, and I can tell you that's not the case. And by the way you play harder the second time around and we will as a family think, this is nonsense and this nonsense will take down the country and we're not going to let that happen.

He is going to win, he is going to win by the widest margin of any President in history and you watch this backfire on them, Laura. I'm just telling you. You are start further.

INGRAHAM: Thanks for being with us tonight. Really appreciate it. And the Hunter Biden saga is just the latest example of elites getting caught red- handed taking care of their own. And like the rest of his ilk, younger Biden tried to talk evasive actions with very confused explanations to put it charitably.

Joining me with the reaction is Kim Strassel, Fox's Contributor and Member of "The Wall Street Journal" editorial board and author of the great new book "Resistance At All Costs" along with Davis Hanson Senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Kim, let's start with you. What does it tell you that the media seem to have no issue with Hunter's myriad swampy arrangements? We find out that interesting edit that was done in this interview that "The Washington Examiner" is writing about tonight right at that critical point where she asked him, what about your experience in the Ukraine?

You can hear someone off camera apparently saying, sorry, so that's being talked about tonight. That's conservative media. The rest of the media seemed to be just be letting it go?

KIM STRASSEL: WSJ EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBER: It's a story of the past three years, Laura. Why do we actually know a lot of the information that we know about Hunter Biden? It's because before this became an issue about Trump, before they decided that they were going to make this entirely about Donald Trump and Ukraine, they were the ones writing the stories about the Bidens being problems with Hunter Biden and the enormous conflict of interest.

You put up a screenshot earlier of a piece that was done Adam that actually quoted Former Vice President Biden aides saying how much worry they had about the way he was writing on the Vice President's coattails and getting access. So they knew all this.

But now as with everything because they want this now to be entirely story about Donald Trump they completely change their tune and everything is a false allegation, nothing to see here, nothing was bad. They understood the conflict and now they are closing their eyes to it.

INGRAHAM: Yes and Victor, the Deputy Campaign Manager for Biden today saying this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Biden helps run one of the most ethical White Houses that we've seen in modern history, eight years in the Obama-Biden White House without a hint of scandal so voters know what kind of leader he'll be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: This is said unchallenged over at the other network.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, SENIOR FELLOW, HOOVER INSTITUTION: The irony is that, Biden himself in that clip of the foreign council of foreign relations brought the whole thing back up when he bragged about using his influence. And they sent a suicide missile when they went after Trump and Ukraine because it just made u-turn and came back and all of the sudden people said we forgot about Biden's clip and the media had covered it up. Not only did Hunter Biden get $85,000 a month - why not ten, 15? 85 were at the going rate for board members?

INGRAHAM: That's 50.

HANSON: Peter Schweizer said 85 some say 50. So--

INGRAHAM: But there was a flash of anger. I want to play this flash of anger which I think gets to some of this. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I have gone through my own struggles.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In and out of rehab 70 times--

BIDEN: See it nice trip to me. Sought treatment for an issue.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sought treatment for substance abuse issues. I think this is a human question - Do you worry?

BIDEN: No but for real--

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you worry that all of this noise, even though it is just noise that it could affect your sobriety?

BIDEN: Of course!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: It's very insensitive.

HANSON: Well, I mean the whole media they - we've had Hollywood people who've been fighting about it whether to kill or blow up or cut off down Trump's head and he is complaining about a soft ball question like that. I think the larger question is when you put juxtapose the NBA, LeBron, that cowardice towards China, the Epstein/Weinstein matter, the Hunter Biden, college admissions, you're starting to get a picture of this, this whole elite culture, progressive culture was corrupt and Trump's problem is that he's not like George W. Bush or John McCain or Mitt Romney that focuses on politics.

For him, it is a few 360-degree war on the Hollywood entertainment, Academia Foundations, the use of quid pro quo swamped creature type culture and it's a 24/7 war for him. They've never seen anything like it. He's questioning the very fundamentals of this entire elite edifice.

INGRAHAM: And Kim, we were talking before this segment began about what happened tonight when suddenly it's inadvertent jiu-jitsu, but now all the Democrats except for Tulsi Gabbard are basically are for more war in the Middle East after years of trashing Bush and Cheney with the movies and the books and all the trashing of Bush and Cheney and the Iraq war and Afghanistan but now because they have to attack Trump, they go after him and say he caused Syria, I love that.

He caused the fighting in Syria that's been going on for how many years? This is what he's done to the Democrat Party and the masks are off. I really think the masks are off whether it's LeBron James in the NBA or these other elites over the Democrat Party.

STRASSEL: Look, this is why you don't see the needle really moving on impeachment. Americans look at Democrats and it's not just that they've been going after him for three years. There is a certain point at which, you can't say here is the next thing and honestly we believe this one really matters, but it's also the double standard and I keep pointing this out.

How can you look at Americans and say - it was okay that Hillary Clinton's campaign funneled this information to the FBI from Russia, which was used as part of surveillance warrants of this investigation - that was all good? In fact, that was just saving our country and then turns around and says that what Donald Trump did somehow rises to the level of an impeachable offense.

It just doesn't pass the meter for most Americans. I think that's what you are pointing out here is that you can't just switch your position based on whether or not it's good for you or not. And that is what we see happening on nearly a daily basis because people want to oppose Trump.

INGRAHAM: And real quick, Victor. Again back to the Syria thing. Suddenly the people who don't care about enforcing our southern border are okay with people including criminals coming across the border are now saying, oh, but these criminals are escaping from Syrian prisons tonight.

HANSON: The only logic is whatever Trump is for, they're against. Very quickly, they told us that Trump is weakening NATO, by asking NATO members to contribute more and now they want to put more troops in between Syria, American troops between Syria and the Turks and we may have to attack a Turkish ally that's a member of NATO, that would be the first time in the alliance--

INGRAHAM: They are twisted up Victor with their hatred of Trump and their own internal struggle was visible. Tonight and it continues to be visible. Victor and Kim, thank you so much. And just hours ago, Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff strolled to the mike to announce they still will not open a formal impeachment probe I think its official now. What does that tell us? Nunes, Zeldin, and Scalise here with answers. Stay there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are not ready to have a vote yet. Why not call the administration's bluff and say--

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why because we aren't here to call bluff. We are here to find the truth to pull the constitution of the United States. This is not a game for us. This is deadly serious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Apparently not serious enough for Nancy Pelosi to actually bring it to a formal impeachment vote. Not to the House floor. Not happening. The House Speaker telling reporters that Democrats would continue these - well, we are saying the sham impeachment probes against President Trump.

But House Republicans are readying plans to fight back to join me now, Congressman Steve Scalise, House Minority Whip Congressman Devin Nunes, Ranking Member of the Intel Committee, and Congressman Lee Zeldin of the Foreign Affairs Committee, all of you great to see you tonight.

I'll start with you Congressman Nunes, what does Pelosi's refuse of the whole this vote tells tonight about the state of things?

REP. DEVIN NUNES, R-CALIF.: There are clearly some differences in her caucus that she still has the problem that she cannot hold onto power unless she impeaches. And so what they're trying to do is to short-circuit the process. I don't think they're going to end up having this formal process and they may just submit a report and then just go straight to a vote on an impeachment because it's all about her holding power.

INGRAHAM: Congressman Zeldin, there is now some thought that maybe they're seeing this is in the big silver bullet that they thought it was against President Trump. A certain poll notwithstanding, doesn't seem like the needle has moved as Kim Strassel just said on this impeachment thing.

I think what you saw tonight with that Democrat debates - my god, this is a war on capitalism, the free market, religious liberty and apparently general principles of due process. This is a sham behind closed doors and it's becoming more and more obvious. I think they are freaking out about this. I did not think they are cool as cue converse at all.

LEE ZELDIN, R-N.Y.: They are wrong on the process, they're wrong on the substance. A lot of people who are pushing this, they wanted the President to impeach when his hand on the bible getting sworn into office. On the process there should be a vote. The minority party should have subpoena powers.

The President should have - counsel present at the hearing should be able to cross-examine witnesses, to be able to present evidence and precedent. House Republicans when they were impeaching Bill Clinton in the 90s provided all of these rights and there was a voting same thing with the Nixon impeachment.

By the way, we are the ones calling for total transparency. We want - all sunlight, as much as possible. We think that the American public should be able to watch this live because of the importance of it on the substance. Ambassador Volker, which was the first deposition, the transcribed interview telling everyone we are allowed to talk about. Ambassador Volker blew up at this quid pro quo charge but it's a fairy tale that Adam Schiff has been making--

INGRAHAM: But there are other people testifying since and the Democrats seem to be banking on that.

ZELDIN: I'm telling you, I've been at all the depositions, the entire day. I can't talk about the depositions that happened after it--

INGRAHAM: Someone is talking. This stuff is all coming out.

ZELDIN: We don't - there are strict rules on deposition that's why the Republicans have not been the sources of any of those leaks. I will tell you what I knew going into it and what I saw during Ambassador Volker's testimony. Zelensky did a July 25th call he had no idea there was a hold on aide the readout of the call nothing about quid pro quo or hold on aide.

INGRAHAM: There's nothing about it to the aide isn't connected to what he is saying. He is talking about the missiles that were part of the military packages that he wanted more off. But they paid for this. This wasn't being given to the Ukraine.

ZELDIN: 100 percent no quid pro quo.

INGRAHAM: I've got to get here to Congressman Scalise because Schiff tonight is standing by the entire process, it's aboveboard, it's what the American people need. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADAM SCHIFF, HOUSE INTEL COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN, D-CALIF.: Republicans are completely represented. All of the members of these three committees have been invited to attend and participate and ask questions, notwithstanding I think some of the representations are to the contrary, there was full participation by the GOP in each one of these interviews and depositions and there will be in the open hearings.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: How many witnesses have y'all been able to call?

STEVE SCALISE, HOUSE MINORITY WHIP, R-LA: Laura, you know who is not invited to these meetings by Schiff? The American people. He is trying to hide from the American people which really going on behind these closed doors and think about it. They are trying to remove a President of the United States.

Donald Trump was duly elected in 2016. They don't agree with the election, they are trying to overturn the election. We got in the election next year but and Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi are single handedly trying to take that ability away from the American people. It all ought to be in public.

What is Adam Schiff trying to hide? Why is he trying to have this sham witch hunt type meandering run? They thought the Mueller investigation was going to be their silver bullet. They thought the whistleblower was going to be the silver bullet now they don't even want the whistleblower--

INGRAHAM: But they're saying John Bolton is going their silver bullet. Perhaps, now do you notice how this stuff comes up? Well, Bolton says that Rudy this and that, he is running renegade and he's wrecking everything.

But it's all these tactical little leaks, and what are you guys to do except everyone leaks and we complain about the process. So how do you guys defeat this?

REP. DEVIN NUNES, R-CALIF.: I think, Laura, what they are doing IS, it's the same thing why your viewers are so frustrated right now as they watch this, because every day is Groundhog Day, a new leak, a new narrative, a new story. But what's ultimately going to happen to them is their stories aren't adding up, right. So we can't talk about everything that went on in these depositions, but I can tell you that their star witnesses, the testimony conflicts, just within their star witnesses. Now you see that they don't want to bring the whistleblower. OK, the whistleblower is not going to come forward.

INGRAHAM: At a secure location.

NUNES: They're going to bring the whistleblower at all because --

INGRAHAM: Christine Blasey Ford can testify.

NUNES: It's going to be deadly for this whistleblower --

SCALISE: they are keeping the whistleblower wherever they are keeping Jerry Nadler. They're trying to keep him away. Every impeachment goes through the Judiciary Committee, you can't find Jerry Nadler because Pelosi is trying to hide him from this whole thing. He's in witness protection program somewhere.

INGRAHAM: But here's what I'm going to say -- again, it dovetails into what we were saying about Hunter Biden. They are turning the Hunter Biden saga where he gets all this money with no expertise in Ukraine into what about the Trump kids? OK, so they're trying to switch that. It's lame, doesn't work. But they are trying to do the same thing, Congressman Zeldin, with you're all complaining about this transparency thing, saying, you are all just stonewalling -- this is a new narrative of the day, Republican stonewall, #stonewall. That's what they're saying, and you guys are afraid of actually seeing this vote come to fruition because in the end they say Donald Trump is going to be impeached, so you all try to throw up some pixie dust in the air, but the facts are the facts. That's their argument.

REP. LEE ZELDIN, R-N.Y., HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: This whole thing, Adam Schiff, you know about the cherry-picked leaks. He's also withholding key facts, and he outright lies. This entire thing started with, actually, Adam Schiff and his team were in contact with the whistleblower before there was a whistleblower complaint, before he had a whistleblower attorney. He goes on national television and he says we haven't been in touch with the whistleblower but we'd like to be. That was a lie. When he said President Trump called him President Zelensky to, quote, manufacture dirt on the Bidens, that was a lie. When he stood before the House Intelligence Committee, the acting director of national intelligence, and gave an opening statement, there's a precious look on Devin Nunes' face, like, is he really saying this?

INGRAHAM: The ends justify the means. We have the censure tomorrow, are you going through that on Adam Schiff? Which one of you are doing that?

SCALISE: We ought to bring that up. This is Andy Biggs' censure resolution. I'm a cosponsor. I think my colleagues here --

INGRAHAM: What does that get you. For people who don't understand, what does a censure actually get?

SCALISE: You need to get more Democrats on record because they are trying to play both sides of this impeachment thing. Back home they are going we're not really for impeachment, and up here they are pushing for impeachment, and that's why Pelosi refuses to have a vote on the House floor. All three times that there have been impeachment inquiries before, they went to vote on the House floor.

INGRAHAM: They don't care. They don't care about that. They don't care about precedent. It's about getting Trump.

Congress Nunes, we're out of time, but as far as I see it, AOC is really as close to a thought leader in today's Democrat Party. What she thinks now will be the position, maybe not today, but maybe two weeks or a month or two months or three months. Is that accurate?

NUNES: I think it's not only accurate, but you saw on tonight on the stage on the Democratic debate. You had, as you said you have these people who are totally against capitalism, they are going to take out all businesses, and that's what really AOC, her Green New Deal, that's what it was all about. Don't forget, Bernie Sanders and others were cosponsors of the Green New Deal.

INGRAHAM: Yes, so this is the direction we're going. But that's the thought leader. So again, Trump is taking the masks off a lot of people, and a lot of people are being revealed. I think that's healthy. We know where everybody stands.

ZELDIN: They are ripping the country in half. They are willing to do it to appease a radical.

SCALISE: Sunshine is the best disinfectant.

INGRAHAM: They don't care. It's about winning at all costs. That's what this is all about.

ZELDIN: Great news. The president cut a new deal today with China.

INGRAHAM: I know. We saw it. We're getting into that later this week. Congressmen, thank you so much, great to see you.

And after the break, are the neoconservatives seeking revenge against Trump? We mentioned this. Senator Rand Paul on that. Plus, my message to LeBron James. Oh, boy. Stay there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Could the Ukraine-gate leaks be the revenge of the neocons? According to "The Daily Beast" today, I don't know if you can believe them, but President Trump suspects former National Security Advisor John Bolton leaking information to the media out of spite. Bolton, for his part, has denied leaking any negative information on Trump.

Joining me now, Rand Paul, Republican Senator from Kentucky and author of the fantastic, go out and get it, new book, "The Case Against Socialism." Your kids need to read it, college kids, high school kids, adults who toy with this liberalism idea and socialism idea. Senator Paul, we'll get to your book.

You have long opposed this perpetual interventionist policy in the Middle East, long before yours truly woke up and smelled the coffee. But what do you think about John Bolton and this idea the president has that he's behind these leaks?

SEN. RAND PAUL, R-KY: It didn't take him too long. He was in New York within days of leaving the White House, or being asked to leave the White House, within days he was up there saying how terrible the president was and why we needed to invade North Korea and why we needed to be in Syria forever and why we needed to fix up Afghanistan after 19 years by staying there another 19 years.

So it doesn't surprise me that John Bolton might have his own agenda, and probably he defines a leak different than you and I do. But no, it wouldn't surprise me that he's part of this.

INGRAHAM: Today, President Trump seemed to walk back his Syria withdrawal plan ever so slightly, saying "As United States forces have defeated ISIS physical caliphate, United States troops coming out of Syria will now redeploy and remain in the region to monitor the situation. A small footprint of U.S. forces will remain at At Tanf Garrison in southern Syria to continue to disrupt remnants of ISIS." What is that? Is this the military-industrial complex saying no, you want? Or is this prudent, does it make sense given what could be happening, empowering Iran?

PAUL: I think the president gets the big picture, and he also gets the American people. When you even ask just veterans, U.S. veterans, was the Iraq War a good idea, over 60 percent of them now say the Iraq War wasn't a good idea. It destabilized the Middle East, emboldened Iran, made them worse. The president gets more than any other person I've ever met in elected office, particularly the presidency. He gets it.

So I think with Syria he gets it. He gets that the American people would rather, as somebody told me, would rather be defending the southern border of the United States than defending a border between Syria and Turkey. And I think that's absolutely true.

INGRAHAM: But he had Lindsey Graham was with him for a few hours, and then after that everything seemed to change. Lindsey Graham, speaking of him, I'm sure he loves your book, but he was attacking you kind of tonight about your position on Syria. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C., SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: Senator Paul is an avowed libertarian. I respect his point of view, but I think it's dangerous. If we abandon the Kurds, who is going to help us in the future? And the last thing we want is another front against Israel. Israel is worried as I speak tonight about Iran coming into Syria and getting the oil fields and being more powerful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Lindsay has been wrong about every foreign policy decision since he's been up here. Let's say the Iraq War. The Iraq War actually led to less stability, led to a stronger Iran. How about Libya? He wanted to topple Gadhafi in Libya. What did that lead to? Chaos and more terrorism. So really I think we should discount the neoconservatives, the war caucus like Lindsey Graham, and listen more to the president who I think has his finger on the pulse of the people.

It's a really messy war. If Lindsey wants to go to war in this area, he should come back to Congress --

INGRAHAM: Vote on it.

PAUL: Have a vote. But who would we declare war on? Turkey? I don't know, the Free Syrian Army which used to be our allies? Assad? And really, is he going to explain to the mothers and fathers of these kids why they had to go war in Syria, why they were blown up?

INGRAHAM: I'm telling you, what I saw tonight in that debate where the Democrats are all now the war party. I've never seen anything like it. They've twisted themselves into pretzels, and now completely contradicting themselves on what they've been saying about these wars for a long time, unbelievable.

"The Case Against Socialism," it's a must read. I know you put a lot of work into it. You got a good blurb from someone I know. Great, great book.

PAUL: Thank you.

INGRAHAM: Congratulations on writing it. Go out and get it, everyone.

And after a week of silence, the NBA's biggest star, LeBron James, finally broke his silence on the furor over the Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey's tweet in support of the Hong Kong protests. Silence would have been preferable to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEBRON JAMES, LOS ANGELES LAKERS FORWARD: I don't want to get into a word or sentence feud with Daryl. I believe he wasn't educated on the situation at hand. And he spoke. So many people could have been harmed not only financially but physically, emotionally, spiritually.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: For the record, the uneducated Morey is considered one of the smartest man in the league. He has a computer science degree from Northwestern University and an MBA from that little-known institution MIT.

But degrees aside, Morey clearly knows more than LeBron about China's human rights abuses. We get it. LeBron has many lucrative reasons to play ball with China. For starters, he signed a $1 billion lifetime Nike endorsement, which heavily depends on selling gear to new Chinese markets, and a lot of Nikes' merchandise over the years of course has been made by slave labor in China. But at least the NBA players make a lot of money from Nike.

And the "Space Jam" remake LeBron stars in, that's going to debut in China in 2021, though don't want to upset the applecart with distribution deals on the line. But just say that, instead of overwrought lectures about how brave you are.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES: I get an opportunity to be the inspiration around what all these kids are looking up to, and for me to just sit back and not say -- when a lot of my peers didn't say -- it didn't feel right. When I decided I was going to start speaking up and not giving a -- about the backlash or if it affects me, my whole mindset is it's not about me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: It's all about him, protecting endorsement deals, NBA access to the China market, even if it means, well, looking the other way or attacking basically someone in your own league. We'll have a lot more to get to on this.

But joining us now, John Daniel Davidson, political editor for "The Federalist." John, LeBron has been lionized by the press for his political activism. But suddenly after all this tough talk, Trump is this, Trump is that, he fall silent in the face of Chinese human rights abuses and basically says this guy who even mentions Hong Kong is uneducated. What gives?

JOHN DANIEL DAVIDSON, POLITICAL EDITOR, "THE FEDERALIST": The best thing you can say about this situation, the best face to put on it, is that LeBron is just ignorant or stupid or both about China. But more realistically, he knows exactly what's going on and he knows that this is about money. We all know it's about money. As you just laid out there, LeBron has made a big deal about speaking out about domestic political issues, he's speaking out about Trump, oh, I don't care what it cost me. It didn't cost him anything to speak out against Trump.

INGRAHAM: He was lionized.

DAVIDSON: Yes, exactly.

INGRAHAM: He's celebrated. You're celebrated in Hollywood or the sports world for the most part, most of the sports world, if you don't go to the White House, I'm not going to go -- big deal. But when big money is on the line, suddenly, oh, no, no, you can't criticize China. They have like a million people in internment camps, does he even know about that? Is he even aware of what they've done to women who have more than one child? They have ripped children out of the wombs of women in China. That's what they've done to their own people, let alone to Christians and dissidents who are in reeducation camps.

That's fine, just say I'm doing it for the money and just be honest about it.

DAVIDSON: Yes, exactly. And the gall of saying this literally while pro- democracy protesters in Hong Kong were running from riot police, were being beaten and chased in the streets of Hong Kong while he was saying this is appalling. And I think most people in America are deeply turned off by this. Maybe the NBA fans in America should send a message to LeBron and the rest of the league that they owe something to American principles and ideals in solidarity.

INGRAHAM: By the way, I've got to say this, though, because today he had the opportunity -- you can't really clarify what he did to Morey. That was so obvious what was going on there, his initial comments. But he did come back to the cameras today. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEBRON JAMES, LOS ANGELES LAKERS FORWARD: It's a tough situation that we're all in right now as an association, us as athletes, owners, GM's whatever, so forth. There's multiple things that we haven't talked about that happen in our own country that we don't bring up. 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 it puts you in a tough position.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: What about that?

DAVIDSON: He's talking out of both sides of his mouth. Look, we shouldn't be listening to LeBron James talk about politics, whether it's politics at home or politics in China. But if he is going to talk about politics, you think he would at least speak up on behalf of human rights and democracy where it really counts and forget about the bottom line for once. He's not willing to do it.

INGRAHAM: No, no, no. They've got billions and billions of dollars, and it's just one business that's sold out the principles of what we believe in for the bottom line. So the NBA is just the latest of many, many. But again, the masks are off. We know what everyone really thinks, so don't tell us you are this incredible social justice warrior when an American GM can't send an innocuous tweet without getting knocked back on his heels by the NBA. John, thanks so much.

DAVIDSON: Thanks a lot.

INGRAHAM: And coming up, could the left's push for transgender athletes mean the end of girls sports? A mother who has watched her standout daughter literally left in the dust is here in moments with this tragic, tragic sports story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Even before I get to the track, I already know that I'm not going to get first place or maybe even second place, and it's really hard knowing that because I know that no matter how hard I work, I won't be able to have the top spot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: That was Alanna Smith, a rising high school track and field star. Her dreams of being a college athlete are being shattered because two teenage boys who identify as girls are allowed to compete against her. It's a question at the heart of a new complaint at the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights.

Cheryl Radachowsky is the concerned mother of the female athlete you just heard, and she joins me now along with her attorney Christiana Holcomb from the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is a fantastic organization, by the way. Cheryl, why do you feel it's so important for your daughter at this moment in time with all the politics of gender issues floating around that she compete with only biological females?

CHERYL RADACHOWSKY, MOTHER OF TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETE: Girls deserve the right to compete on a level playing field, and forcing female athletes to compete against biological males isn't fair, and it destroys their athletic opportunities.

INGRAHAM: This is not a political issue, right? This is about your daughter working her tail off, and I played quite a few sports in high school, and some in college, and it's a lot of work. And boys are built differently, and all the studies are showing that, Christiana, even if it turns out if someone takes hormones, you're still stronger, faster, biologically bigger, internal organs, lung capacity -- all gives an edge to the biological male regardless of hormonal treatment. So Christiana, as the lawyer here, what's the case you may?

CHRISTIANA HOLCOMB, ALLIANCE DEFENDING FREEDOM ATTORNEY: As Cheryl said, girls deserve to compete on a level playing field. Title IX is a federal law that was designed to stop discrimination against women and to ensure that girls like Cheryl's daughter Allana have equal athletic opportunities with boys. But when you allow males to come in and to dominate women's sports, that destroys these girls' athletic opportunities, not just their opportunities but potentially their future athletic careers as well. So Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a Title IX complaint on behalf of Cheryl's daughter Alanna as well as two other young female athletes in Connecticut just asking the department to restore fairness and a level playing field to women's sports.

INGRAHAM: Yes, the ACLU has responded, Cheryl saying the following. "Attacking two black young women who are simply participating in the sport they love because they are transgender is wrong. It's dangerous and it distorts Title IX which is a law that protects all students on the basis of sex." Are you all trying to discriminate against people on the basis of sex, or do you want a sense of fairness on the playing field, or in this case, on the track?

RADACHOWSKY: This is about fairness to women's sports. My daughter trains countless hours to shave mere fractions of a second off her race time, yet when she positions herself at the starting line, she knows the odds are against her and fairness doesn't exist.

INGRAHAM: And Cheryl, what's her mindset. It's got to be tough for her. I remember being a high school athlete. I miss it. I miss those fall afternoons on the hockey field or spring on the softball diamond. These are just the best times to be an athlete and a female athlete especially, there's a lot of opportunities. But it must be tough for your daughter given the politically correct push on this particular issue. How is she doing?

RADACHOWSKY: She continues to train hard and she is motivated to do her best. But at the end of the day, fairness doesn't exist. And she knows that the odds are against her.

INGRAHAM: This is insanity. If this is where feminism takes us, and gender politics takes us, it's not feminism. It's gender politics. All feminists across the country should think about it again, because this will destroy girls sports eventually. Thank you, ladies, for being here tonight.

And stay tuned. We have final thoughts on this wild night in the Last Bite, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: It's time for the Last Bite. Not all professional athletes boycott White House championship visits. The president hosted the Stanley Cup champs, the St. Louis Blues, at the White House today, and he brought the laughs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT: I just want to tell you that the stock market is way up today because of probably the trade deal that we've made with China. We made a fantastic deal. You guys would have been very proud of it. Your agents would have been very proud.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: Those agents, right. They sit in bed, they weigh 350 pounds and they complain you're not playing very well today. Come on.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Seriously, he could have been a comedian. Kill them in Vegas.

That's all the time we have tonight. Shannon Bream and the "Fox News @ Night" team, take it all from here. See you tomorrow.

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