Should conservatives dismiss Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as an anomaly?
Reaction from Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, Democratic strategist Monique Pressley, and Raheem Kassam, former editor-in-chief of Breitbart News London.
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," January 16, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
LAURA INGRAHAM, HOST: All right good, it's good to see you. I'm Laura Ingraham, this is “The Ingraham Angle,” back in Washington, tonight. Progressives gone wild. Right off the bat, that's the focus of tonight's Angle.
INGRAHAM: The 2020 election cycle has already begun and the superstars of the Democratic Party are now more left wing than ever before and they're already trying to outdo another on the compassion scale.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well the first thing I would do is restore what's been lost. The integrity and the compassion of this country.
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO, D-N.Y.: New York loves you if you are L or G or B or T or Q. If you are black or white or brown. If you are Christian, a Muslim or you are Jewish. If you are new immigrant or an old immigrant, New York loves you and what makes us great is we have no tolerance for hate in our state.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Catchy, he left off Asians and Atheists. Okay, when Cuomo says no tolerance for hate, he really means no tolerance for conservatives in the positions that they hold because in Cuomo's compassionate New York, there's also no tolerance for the inalienable rights of the unborn.
You know, the life in the womb that his own church says is sacred.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: I believe we should pass a constitutional amendment not just a Roe V. Wade law. A constitutional amendment, let's write the rights of Roe V. Wade into the state constitution so it can never be changed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: I think got going on here is that Cuomo like so many on the left is really worried. He's worried that the Supreme Court might reverse Roe, might send it all back to the states. And he has to know that public opinion is shifting a bit toward the more pro-life position.
And by the way if America's declining fertility rate continues, Andy, I have a question, who's going pay all those taxes to support his pet projects. Of course, with zero regard for facts, Cuomo brags that he has this economic prosperity thing down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: With the most progressive government in the United States of America, we balanced budgets. We are the most - we have the most socially progressive accomplishments of any state in the nation and it's not even close. First big state to pass marriage equality, first state to pass $15, the highest minimum wage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Yay, the Democrat Zombies, they actually panned the audience, they're all standing, they're applauding, standing ovation. But they're unconcerned with the real world effects of some of those policies, namely this rise in the minimum wage.
John Bluestein who owns six restaurants in New York City told CBS, "We lost control of our largest controllable expense. So in order to live with that and stay in the business here, we're cutting hours."
Well this is the third wage hike in New York since 2016. So who does that really help? Well, certainly not the restaurants, not the workers getting the hours cut. And not the patrons.
A New York City hospitality aligned survey of 574 restaurants found that 75% of full service restaurants planned to cut employee hours this year due to that minimum wage hike. But that's not all 47% say they will cut jobs in 2019.
And 87% say they're going to raise menu prices. We went out to dinner last night in New York. It was pretty expensive already. Well, this is the opposite my friends, of compassion and this brings us to the freshest of congressional freshmen.
Fresh people, what can we say now? Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who happily refers to herself as both a socialist and a radical. Now by the way, I think it's a mistake for conservatives not to take her seriously, to brush her off as kind of a flash in the pan or an upstart.
She's as close to a thought leader that the Democratic Party has today and she has a massive social media following. She's both charismatic and she's committed to transforming both our economic system and our culture. First, she aims to create a socialist economic system with sky high marginal tax rates.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ, D-N.Y.: You know, you look at our tax rates back in the sixties and when you have a progressive tax rate system, your tax rate, you know, let's say from 0 to $75,000 may be 10% or 15%, etcetera.
But once you get to like the tippy-tops, on your ten-millionth dollar, sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60% or 70%, that doesn't mean all $10 million are taxed at an extremely high rate but it means that as you climb up this ladder, you should be contributing more.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Well, it doesn't stop there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CORTEZ: If we get people to speak to pay their fair share, that's 2 trillion in ten years. Now if we implement a carbon tax on top of that so that we can transition and financially incentivize people away from fossil fuels.
If we implement a carbon tax, that's an additional amount of a large amount of revenue that we can have.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Trevor Noah is like, eyes are glazing over how does any of this add up? Okay, it doesn't but on the cultural, she and others like her intend to use the government and their positions of influence now to mandate campus style political correctness.
What do I mean by that? Well, anyone who dares question this progressive agenda is not just wrong but they're downright evil. So there's no room for debate only demonization.
In a recent tweet she asserts, "Many have recognized that Fox news has crossed the line beyond conservatism and into outright bigotry with their financing of Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham."
Well, you see my friends, this isn't your Daddy's liberalism, where it was all about love and peace and live and let live. This is kind of the old school, New England puritanism with a radical twist. They're going to whip up their followers to try to intimidate and silence anyone who gets in their way.
Now she's only been on the job for like 6 days but she's already practicing Saul Alinsky's rules for radicals. Rule 13. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it. Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions. People hurt faster than institutions.
So rather than debating the merits of policies, these new left wing progressive Puritans aim to shame. A Wall is racist so people who want a wall are racist. End of story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF., SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: A Wall is an immorality, it's not who we are as a nation. It's a wall between reality and his constituents, his supporters.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now all of you are doing better in the Trump economy, you should know this, they plan to take your money away and redistribute it to you know, wherever their pet causes are.
And to all of our libertarian friends who believe that Trump is the big threat to the free market because of tariffs and so forth, open your eyes. These people including Nancy Pelosi who herself is moved to left, they're going to take it all away.
Freedom of speech, freedom of contract, freedom of religion or conscience you think, I'm exaggerating, I'm not. Because when you say the wrong thing in Ocasio-Cortez world, they put you in detention hall and you never get out.
Remember they believe that they are right and you're evil. And moderates even seem petrified of taking on these new progressives. This is former SEC Chair Richard Breeden today on CNBC.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joining the House Financial Services Committee led by Maxine Waters. What's that going to look like for the industry?
RICHARD BREEDEN, FORMER CHAIRMAN, U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION: Well, maybe she'll learn something.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you questioning some of the - some of her economic ideas that she's put out there.
BREEDEN: I've never seen any historic evidence that 70% tax rate facilitate GDP growth. Perhaps you know, we'll discover something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Oh my God, I was watching this, this morning going, is that all you have Richard? That's a really powerful refutation, real strong defense of the free market and capitalism. And Republicans ought to take the progressive take-over of the Democratic Party very seriously and offer a strong counter narrative.
If you want to know what it looks like to be a conservative and perpetually in the fetal position worried about being branded racist or evil, well, look no further than Theresa May. Okay? Didn't work out so well for her to be on her heels.
Now Trump is the opposite, he fights, he fights for law and order, he fights for sovereignty, he fights for judges who apply the law and don't rewrite it and he fights for a stronger economy.
So after two years of President Trump, we have higher wages, we have 500,000 new manufacturing jobs, we have the strongest GDP growth among all the G7 nations. But the progressives, they don't care because if enacting their Green contract with America requires your standard of living to go down, tough cookies.
These people are fanatics. And they're running for President.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But are you considering running for President?
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, D-N.Y.: I'm focused on my job but listen, right now our party is going through a serious debate and there's still a lot of moderate voices in the party that did not learn the lessons of 2016 and are not listening to what people need in this country. So I want to push this whole party -
We could go a lot farther, we could be a lot bolder than what we're doing now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you're ruling it out?
DE BLASIO: I never rule things out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Oh, watch your wallet. And what are the progressives actually learning themselves, moderates aren't learning, what are the progressive learning? Well, not much. Americans are fleeing the most progressive states in America due to high costs and high taxes. No wonder they're welcoming illegal immigrants in New York and California.
They need the citizens coming in, all the other citizens are leaving. Are Americans really ready to be ruled by the values and policies of progressives in New York and California? Let's hope not and that's The Angle.
All right, joining me now, Matt Schlapp, Chairman of the American Conservative Union; Raheem Kassam, former Editor-in-Chief from Breitbart news London and Monique Pressley, Democratic strategist.
All right, guys, I love the graphic, Girls gone Wild, remember that? That was a wild show, ‘The Progressives gone Wild,' kind of little funny, kind of laugh, you know. My feeling is you - it's kind of easy and I've fallen into that, to kind of like brush people off.
Oh, Ocasio-Cortez, ha-ha-ha, she's so funny. But I've said - I said at the very beginning, really impressive that she goes from being you know, she was working in a coffee shop.
MATT SCHLAPP, CHAIR, AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE UNION: Right.
INGRAHAM: You know, fairly modest means.
SCHLAPP: Yep.
INGRAHAM: And she takes on this fairly liberal you know, Crowley - Congressman Crowley, third in leadership in the Democratic party.
SCHLAPP: Right.
INGRAHAM: And she just organizes the heck out of it and rolls right over him and she's - I kind of like the fact, she's like you guys - you guys lost to Trump. I'm going to help take this party in a new direction. I kind of admire that. I mean her little tweet about me, it's just - I mean - I think she's probably -
I mean, my authentic self, I mean she's questioning my own truth, I think. As a single woman, I felt so offended by what she said about me. Woman to woman.
SCHLAPP: I think she should come on your show.
INGRAHAM: As a single mother.
SCHLAPP: I think you'll do just fine.
INGRAHAM: We called her, we tried to get in touch with her but haven't heard back. Would love to have you on, we'd have a good conversation actually but I don't think it's smart for conservatives to kind of ridicule her really or to write her off as some anomaly, I don't think so.
SCHLAPP: Look, we have CPAC coming up here in less than 50 days and what's happening on college campuses but also high school campuses and younger is this a radicalization of the education establishment and look at the results.
Look what's coming out of it, Laura. She has advanced expensive degrees and she doesn't seem to know basic fundamentals about constitutional government, American law and economics.
I'm not mocking her. I actually fear because it's working, people are listening to this, they're listening to the siren song. We need to wake up and we need to educate our kids to push back on this radicalism because America won't be the same if we don't win these battles.
INGRAHAM: Monique, is this enough, the California-New York coalition, obviously a lot of people in both states but is that enough to drive the party back into the heartland Ohio, Michigan Wisconsin states, they obviously need to win.
MONIQUE PRESSLEY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Look, we have to win everywhere and I'm not in favor of us just winning on coasts, I'm not from a coast, I'm from Texas, deep in the heart of Texas. So I believe that you have to have a message that speaks to everyone.
INGRAHAM: Does she speak for everyone?
PRESSLEY: But I don't think the message that Matt just gave us about the poor girl who really doesn't understand things like economics will work when we have a President who serves hamburgers but can't spell it. I mean, do you put a ham and then burger and then will it be easier?
INGRAHAM: Well, that's kind of - yes, but that's a snide - I mean that's what people do. Okay.
PRESSLEY: If he only misspelled one thing, it would be petty.
INGRAHAM: Okay, do you really want to go there? On spelling and grammar, do you really want to go there?
INGRAHAM: Well, I mean - I can spell and I know you can spell. Matt can spell.
INGRAHAM: I can go through AOC's tweets, I can go through Nancy Pelosi's.
SCHLAPP: I'm not such a good speller.
INGRAHAM: Is that really where we're going?
PRESSLEY: He's like a 70 - he's like a 70 plus year old billionaire and she's the youngest person to ever be a member of Congress.
INGRAHAM: I just said they should take her seriously.
PRESSLEY: So here's the thing and I think we should but when we look at mistakes like I said, we need to look at mistakes from the person who has the highest office in the land who regularly makes them.
INGRAHAM: You're actually making a point that I think reinforces what I was saying earlier in an odd way. I said you should take her seriously and I'm saying, I mean, I don't think she's - I don't think she's returning the favor to someone who's kind of worked her way up through the media.
No one no one really gave me anything, I has to work my tail off for what I have. Certainly a little snide, a little comment about being a bigot, it's just - she's better than that.
PRESSLEY: I looked at that tweet.
INGRAHAM: Hold on, hold on.
PRESSLEY: It was about Tucker.
INGRAHAM: No, but she threw me in.
PRESSLEY: She kind of threw you into the bus with Tucker.
INGRAHAM: Yes but conservative women never get - they never sort of get their due, it's only liberal women who get them - that's fine.
PRESSLEY: Oh, like Maxine Waters?
INGRAHAM: But I think, your point about well, Trump didn't know how to spell or his tweets - okay, fine but if Trump is that dumb as the liberals say.
PRESSLEY: He's not dumb.
INGRAHAM: Boy, how did you guys - how do you guys not beat him? You has Hillary, Obama supporting, you had all of Hollywood.
PRESSLEY: It's a nomination.
INGRAHAM: You had all the entertainment industry.
PRESSLEY: If it wasn't for the Russian assist, I think we would have beat him.
INGRAHAM: Yes, yes, okay.
PRESSLEY: Go figure.
RAHEEM KASSAM, BRITISH POLITICAL ACTIVIST: I'm not from deep in the heart of Texas, right? I'm from the United Kingdom where we have had now the in charge - and my parents are from Tanzania and we have had in charge of the Labor party now, a hard line socialist, Jeremy Corbyn.
And you guys need to take Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democrats need to take her more seriously and treat her as more of a danger than conservatives do because actually what Jeremy Corbyn is done in the Democrat party - in the Labor policy rather, he cannot get his policy to take power.
Even if he wanted an election, he wouldn't hold the confidence of parliament at the moment and if you allow somebody who's clearly read rules for radicals and who's clearly well versed on Mark Lilla's, ‘The Once and Future liberal' to take over both the cultural and she's very good at the cultural.
Take of both the cultural and the policy orientation of the party, you won't get those reigns back.
PRESSLEY: She's very good and she's very smart but I love that we're here discussing this a day after Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday, right? Because he was considered fringe, he was considered very good at the cultural. He was considered -
INGRAHAM: He came from the church.
PRESSLEY: It doesn't matter where he comes from.
KASSAM: And he was a nationalist. He was an American nationalist.
PRESSLEY: He had less popularity -he had less popularity at death than President Trump has -
SCHLAPP: And he also was a Republican so let's go through all this -
PRESSLEY: So here we go, let's take her seriously. I agree. Not because she's a threat.
KASSAM: I'm happy -
INGRAHAM: Who else on TV is saying to take her seriously? I am. And I don't - I haven't heard anyone on any any of the other shows is to take this very seriously.
PRESSLEY: I credit you for that, I just don't credit it as a threat. I think that -
SCHLAPP: I don't agree, let's go into this, real quickly. She is an amazing political leader, I disagree with what she's saying on politics. I owe it to her to take her on but I -
INGRAHAM: I don't have to agree with her ideas.
KASSAM: Socialism is a threat and she represents socialism.
PRESSLEY: It depends on whether what socialism is defined as or if you're talking about-
INGRAHAM: She's defining it for us. All right.
PRESSLEY: Was Bernie a threat?
INGRAHAM: Guys, I got to - hold on, there's a host here, here I am.
PRESSLEY: I'm sorry.
INGRAHAM: This is what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said to The Washington Post and I want to say this because we actually reached out to The Post tonight and we asked them for a full transcript of what they said.
In this interview and you know, sometimes you edit for length and I get that but I wanted to see the full content of what she said but they edited for space and for, I don't know what. But they didn't give us the full transcript but we got the printed transcript.
And she said, "There's nothing about the Republican ideology that is about wealth-building or prosperity for the working class. Okay now, that's really interesting in The Washington Post because The Washington Post just published a piece in September, talking about how blue collar wages, the wage increases, "Under Trump, the jobs boom has finally reached blue - collar workers. Will it last?"
Well, thank God, we're finally seeing wages go up. Wallstreet doesn't like that, they want to keep wages down. Trump's policies are constricting the labor market, that's good for regular people, African Americans, Latinos, Asians, all going up with wages.
How can she say that -
PRESSLEY: This is not good for African-American, Latinos, white people, etcetera. Everybody has those lower skill wages, there are more people who are poor, right? Who are considered white -
INGRAHAM: Are you not saying that wages are going up? Are you actually disagreeing with The Journal and the Bloomberg and The Washington Post?
PRESSLEY: I'm trying to explain. Wages increasing is not the same as wealth building, is it if I go from -
SCHLAPP: Yes, it is.
PRESSLEY: If I go from $10 to $11, that's -
SCHLAPP: Or $25.
PRESSLEY: If I go from renting to owning, that's wealth building. So -
INGRAHAM: Did you own a house, the first month you started working? I mean, I was -
SCHLAPP: Let me take a shot here.
INGRAHAM: It takes a while.
PRESSLEY: You have to check with people of color and you have to know the numbers to know that people own houses later when -
INGRAHAM: All right, all right, do you know what the phrase ‘run train' means?
PRESSLEY: The phrase what?
INGRAHAM: Run train.
PRESSLEY: No, what does run train mean?
INGRAHAM: She says and I quote, "I'm six days into the term and you already used all your ammo." Talking about Republicans here. "So enjoy being exhausted for the next two years," I kind of like, she's just kind of bearing them, I kind of like that, but then she said, "while we run train on the progressive agenda."
A law enforcement analyst, James Gagliano today says, "As someone who speaks live on-air, without a net - understand misspeaking. Happens to the best of us. But know no other context for this vile phrase. As someone who investigated violent street crime for years, this is vernacular of felons I've interrogated, not a sitting congressman."
So I guess everyone can misspeak.
PRESSLEY: Gosh, yes.
KASSAM: It is a particularly violent phrase by the way and it implies a lack of consent as well which is quite disturbing.
PRESSLEY: Like grabbing him by something.
KASSAM: Actually they let you, if you remember -
INGRAHAM: All I can say, all I can say is people are leaving California, New York and Venezuela, they're leaving all places.
PRESSLEY: So let's figure out the middle, like Texas.
INGRAHAM: We're out of time but guys, great panel, great debate and I gave a compliment to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and it's not just for Christmas, gracious guts. All right, up next Nancy Pelosi now wants to shut down the State of the Union but is she really just concerned about how she'll look after that maybe botched rebuttal to President last week. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Madam Speaker, do you hope he sees this as a consequence of the government shut down?
PELOSI: No, I just - this is a housekeeping matter in the Congress of the United States so we can honor the responsibility of the invitation we extended to the President. He can make it from the Oval office if he wants.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now it's time for another edition of petulant and pathetic politics with Nancy Pelosi. Well, Speaker Mimi is trying to pull a fast one and telling Trump to delay his State of Union address, how convenient!
Well, she's citing security concerns because of the shutdown but the authorities are calling her bluff. Joining me now with the latest is Chief National Correspondent Ed Henry. Ed, tell us what's the scoop?
ED HENRY, FOX NEWS NATIONAL REPORTER: Well, Laura, essentially the Speaker's trying to spin the snub of the President as a security matter when the facts do not seem to support that and it appears to be more a case of cold hard politics.
Some of the President's advisers tonight were saying maybe he should break with tradition, deliver his State of the Union on his own terms since the constitution says, the speech can be sent in writing to Congress.
Then the President could turn around and deliver those written remarks from say the Oval office or maybe even the southern border with the border patrol and ICE. Remember, he just visited there instead of Capitol Hill on January 29.
Those scenarios being dangled as Pelosi's gambit appears to be backfiring a bit. House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy tonight declaring, this is unbecoming of the Speaker. Pelosi also seeming to take some heat from the Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
She pushed back hard on the speaker's claim that security concerns caused by the 4-week shutdown could make the State of the Union unsafe, tweeting, "The Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Secret Service fully prepared to support and secure the State of the Union."
Now the President could also benefit from other cracks on the Democratic side. Senator Joe Manchin today seemed to rebuke Pelosi as he and other moderates in both parties work on a plan to give the Democrats what they want by trying to reopen the government for 3 weeks, to give time to negotiate a compromise on what the President wants, more money for border security, watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOE MANCHIN, D-W.V.: I'm not sure what her intentions are, have utmost respect for Speaker Pelosi but I think this is wrong approach to be taken.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: Now remember Pelosi's original invite to the President to deliver to the State of the Union was back on January 3rd when the shutdown had already started. She had just come back from a Hawaiian vacation while the President was at the White House.
Well Fox has obtained this exclusive video of several congressional Democrats enjoying a cocktail party with a lobbyist down in Puerto Rico during the shutdown. You can see at least a few lawmakers, Gil Cisneros, Pete Aguilar and Mike Levin on the Sereno Sand Patio is what they call it and the La Concha Hotel in San Juan.
Rooms were told cost more than 400 bucks, a night, that comes after of course the weekend photo of a shirtless Senator Bob Menendez on the beach down there, on the trip put together by lobbyists from various companies, Comcast, pharma, Microsoft ,Verizon.
Now Senator Menendez though told Fox, it was neither fair nor balanced in his words, to show that photo, a photo Laura, you cannot unsee.
INGRAHAM: Okay Ed, first of all, I love that overhead shot, that's like a balcony shot, do you have to do like the shadow graphic on that, that looked kind of fun but I thought they were against all the big money and politics and they always trash Republicans for hanging out with lobbyists.
And wasn't that just yesterday?
HENRY: That was and also it's obviously with the shutdown, we keep hearing about what people are not getting pay checks, there's long lines for TSA, we need to be focused on all of that and instead you see some other stuff going on.
INGRAHAM: Yes, I think Amazon could probably the government payroll with not even feeling it from Bezos-
HENRY: They were one of the companies involved in this party.
INGRAHAM: Yes, I mean, they could kind of cover it for a while for the good of the country. At least, give us a loan, all right Ed, fantastic report, thank you so much.
All right, joining me right now is House Minority Leader Steve Scalise and Congressman Scalise, I know you want to comment on the AOC lurch to the left of the Democratic Party but Schumer and Pelosi love to say that Trump throws temper tantrums.
So they say that he's petulant, he walked out of the meeting, well, what does this look like?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE SCALISE, R-LA, HOUSE MINORITY WHIP: Laura the left is becoming unhinged and look, I've been in all those meetings in the situation room with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, the top leaders in the House and Senate. In every single meeting the president was not only calm but he was putting options on the table to reopen the government while securing the border. Not one single time, Laura, did they ever put an alternative on the table. Not once. And so this has been going on for almost 30 days now. The president was there during Christmas waiting. He's there now. He's been talking to the American people, and, frankly, you're seen the polling getting better and better as people find out --
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: They want to ride this out. She thinks he can ride this all the way to getting Trump to cave. This is going to be Trump's no new taxes moment. By the way, I said you were House minor leader. Whip.
SCALISE: Minority whip. Republican whip.
INGRAHAM: Yes, you're whipping those votes.
But she thinks this is good for her politically. So for all the crocodile tears about the workers and they are hanging out in Puerto Rico, but the workers, the workers. Every difficult story of a worker not being able to pay for a bill, every single story is showing up. It's a drumbeat, and the pressure is on the president. They mean to put the pressure on the president to cave. I don't think the president is caving.
SCALISE: The president has been steadfast and consistent in saying that he is going to do everything it takes to secure America's border. He's pointed out just how bad the problems are. But look, Laura, this latest stunt, and it's not even a stunt. This is unprecedented where a Speaker of the House is uninviting a president to the State of the Union.
INGRAHAM: Do you think she's going to turn her back? I predict there are some in this progressive new caucus who will turn their back if that president walks down the aisle.
SCALISE: They have tried to do everything to insult the president, to not even acknowledge that he is the president. The bottom line is the American people want to know the facts about this. They want to watch. They've been tuning in. They watched last weekend and then saw Schumer and Pelosi give that ridiculous looking response.
I think they are saying that it's starting to come unhinged on their side. When you see more Democrat members of Congress getting really nervous about this because they are seeing people not get paychecks, and they are saying that their party is standing up for open borders. They don't want to secure the border. That's an untenable position to hold. So to say you're not going to let the president come to the capital to give a State of the Union, this never happened before.
INGRAHAM: I thought it was the people's house. I thought she always likes to say it's the people's house. Grandma Mimi with all the grandkids. What is this?
SCALISE: They might be holding the paychecks of government workers hostage, but now to literally hold the State of the Union hostage, Laura, it's an untenable position, and they --
INGRAHAM: Do you think the president should just say I'm coming? Stop me?
SCALISE: I'd like to see him pick another venue. Go near the border. Show exactly what's going on not only at the border, but if you live in Pennsylvania, you know somebody whose son died of an overdose from heroin. And 90 percent of the heroine is coming from the southern border. This problem affects everybody in this country. We have got to secure the border.
I don't think -- Pelosi can try to stop the truth from coming out. I talked to Secretary of Homeland Security Nielsen this evening about this very problem. She said the Secret Service, first of all, they've been planning --
INGRAHAM: It's a lie. Let's just call it what it is. They say that Trump lies. That was a lie. She lied about that.
SCALISE: The Democrats reached out to them to find out if this is a problem. It's not a problem. They're afraid of the facts coming out. Pelosi can't sustain this.
INGRAHAM: Cracks in the Democrat opposition to the wall.
SCALISE: They are feeling the heat. House members, some of these new House members that aren't far left like AOC, they are starting to feel the pressure. They tried to stop some of them from going to the White House the other day. That's how bad it is.
INGRAHAM: They're criticizing Clemson. They are criticizing Clemson. These people are criticizing the national football champions.
All right, this is Steny Hoyer on with Bret Baier today about whether the wall is immoral. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. STENY HOYER, D-MD: A wall is immoral if it tries to imprison people who shouldn't be in prison. A wall that protects people is not immoral.
BRET BAIER, ANCHOR: Do you think a wall, a barrier is racist?
HOYER: Look, Bret --
BAIER: Listen, Mr. Leader, here's the --
HOYER: I don't talk in those terms and I don't think that's the way we ought to look at it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: As I said in the angle, calling someone or something racist as a way to avoid a real, substantive debate is, that's a week sister move. That's a weak sister move.
SCALISE: And it defies the gravity of where they were. In 2006, Chuck Schumer voted not just for steel slat barriers as they want to build. Chuck Schumer and Barack Obama voted for over $50 billion. The president is asking for one-tenth of that amount.
INGRAHAM: I think the president has to stay. He has to be a wall of strength for the American people.
SCALISE: President Trump has been rock-solid, standing up for the American people to secure the border. The American people by and large want to get this done.
INGRAHAM: Tell Nancy to drop her security detail and keep the door open at Pacific Heights or wherever she's living now. Unlock the door to your house and then we'll talk. Great to see you, as always, Congressman. Thanks so much.
SCALISE: Good to be back, Laura.
INGRAHAM: And coming up, should transgender athletes be allowed to compete against the gender they identify as? That important debate, what this does to women's sports, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: South Dakota has become the latest state to wade into the transgender debate. The state legislature is now considering a controversial bill that would bar transgender students for playing on athletic teams based on their gender identity, and requiring a student's sex to be determined by their birth certificate. Trace Gallagher is live in our west coast newsroom with the whole story. Trace?
TRACE GALLAGHER, CORRESPONDENT: Laura, the primary sponsor of the South Dakota bill is Republican State Senator Jim Bolin who prior to becoming a state lawmaker was a high school athletic director for 10 years. Bolin says it's all about fair competition and is pattern after rules in taxes which require that students participate on sports teams that correspond with the sex listed on their birth certificate, saying, quote "This has nothing to do with bathrooms, locker rooms, or shower rooms. This has only has to do with the eligibility for athletic competition."
The South Dakota High School Activities Association and the South Dakota ACLU plan to fight the bill with the ACLU saying, quote, "participation in athletic activities has a widespread positive impact on the social, physical, and emotional well-being of students, and provides kids with lessons about self-discipline, teamwork, perseverance, success and failure."
In an op-ed for "Out" magazine, transgender Olympic athlete Chris Mosier said this about the South Dakota bill, quote, "Like other policies targeting trans youth, this bill sends a message to trans students that they are shameful and not worthy of the basic educational benefits available to their peers." But last summer in Connecticut, a transgender student won the girls track and field state championship, another transgender student came in second, prompting parents to circulate petitions questioning the fairness and calling for a rule change. In Texas, a transgender high school wrestler was booed after beating a female competitor and advancing to the state finals. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not fair for that individual that wants to transition and wrestle boys, and it's not fair for the female wrestlers. It's an unfair advantage.
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GALLAGHER: And a lot of parents feel that way. South Dakota's Republican governor is currently studying the newly introduced bill and is not yet commenting on it. Laura?
INGRAHAM: Very interesting. Thanks so much, Trace.
And here now is Bianca Stanescu. She is the mother of a girl that was beaten by a trans athlete in Connecticut that Trace just mentioned, and she has since circulated a petition calling on athletes to compete in sports based on the gender of their birth unless the athlete has undergone hormone therapy. It's very confusing. And Joanna Harper, she's been called the leading expert on trans athletes and happens to be one herself.
Bianca, as a mom who has seen her daughter beaten, defeated by a trans athlete, tell us about that experience. I played high school sports, and I remember the boys soccer team in Glastonbury, Connecticut, we were ranked number one in field hockey my junior year. The boys team, soccer team, came and played us for just fun. They beat us life five to zero. We were all really mad. They had not picked up a field hockey stick before. They were just a lot faster. But what did it feel like for you?
BIANCA STANESCU, STARTED PETITION ON TRANS ATHLETES: What it came down to is, first, it came as a shock because you expect athletes to compete at a certain level. When somebody stands out of the crowd at such an advantage over the others, you start questioning. When we first found out about this, we were not even aware that they were transgender females competing at that point. We were looking at the athlete just being another girl.
INGRAHAM: And we are looking at, just so people know, we're looking at Terry Miller I believe on this screen. Correct me if I'm wrong, guys. Yes, who won not only one race but broke two records, both in the 200-meter dash and the 100-meter dash, and these are very competitive districts, I remember them well, in Connecticut. Buckley high school, a great school, Glastonbury high school, another great school where I came from. But you can see, very speedy. So was your daughter upset at the athlete or hold anything against the athlete, or just upset because she thought it was just an unfair advantage?
STANESCU: It's the rule. And what Terry Miller made us aware of is that one day you can compete as a male and the next day you can compete as a female because that's what happened in this particular case, was listed and computed as a male up until the end of the indoor season in 2018, only to start the season two weeks later and compete as a female. And one question is, how is this possible?
INGRAHAM: OK, Joanna, I want to go. Hold on one second. I want to get Joanna's perspective here. Joanna, I have to say as someone who played sports pretty seriously, I love sports. I miss team sports. So much fun. I want everyone to play. I love the fact that girls are out there competing and they are doing so well. I love it. I think it's great. It's great for your self-esteem and so forth. But isn't it true that just a biological fact that men have faster small twitch muscles. They have larger internal organs, both lungs, hurts. This is physiological. It's not a political statement. So isn't that an inherent advantage no matter what you're going through, just your makeup, your hip size, all those things that lead to that type of strength?
JOANNA HARPER, TRANSGENDER ATHLETE: On average, men will run races 10 to 12 percent faster than women. And so that is why we separate males from female athletes. After hormone therapy, trans athletes lose much of their advantage. But in this particular case in Connecticut, these individuals were not on hormone therapy.
INGRAHAM: So you would not think that, especially in the races that were involved, that that was fair to the young women who were competing in the gender of their birth in that category? That wouldn't be something --
HARPER: You know, most high school athletes aren't really that serious about their sports. And so in terms of participation --
INGRAHAM: I was.
HARPER: Well --
INGRAHAM: OK, I get what you are saying. It was pretty competitive.
HARPER: OK, let me finish here, Laura, please. But in those cases where you are talking about state championships, you're talking about potential scholarships, in those cases I certainly would not let a trans woman compete without undergoing hormone therapy.
INGRAHAM: Bianca, was your daughter serious about sports? Did she take it seriously?
STANESCU: It's her life. It's her life. Every win, every jump, she feels she needs to set a personal record. Every single jump or every single run she takes.
INGRAHAM: She got robbed. Yes, she got robbed.
STANESCU: It's her whole life. One bad jump in its devastation. So to say that athletes, the ones that are in the elite varsity teams, to say that they don't care enough, it's not true. You watch every single Saturday, one false start for one athlete and they crumble. It's like the world has ended for them in that split of a second.
INGRAHAM: I can say I still remember losing the state championship in field hockey. I remember the goal. I remember how we didn't score the next goal. I remember everything about it. We took it very seriously, Glastonbury high school field hockey. And we had great, great athletes. But I think it's not good for the trans athletes. I don't it's good for the young women. I don't understand how this is fair at any level. I think it's a basic fairness question.
But this debate is going to continue, would like to have you both back and continue to follow this. And hopefully there will be some resolution that actually makes sense in all of this.
Coming up, striking teachers in Los Angeles are deploying some of the most despicable tactics imaginable. We'll reveal their shameful actions and debate it, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whose schools?
CROWD: Our schools!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whose schools?
CROWD: Our schools!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will fight on until we get what we need. We will not give up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is unacceptable to have teachers come in and then leave because the conditions are too hard and the pay isn't enough.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just don't have enough money to do everything that UTLA is asking Los Angeles Unified to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Despite those claims from the striking L.A. teachers, the actions of some of those educators call into question their true motives. They claim it's all about the kids, all about the kids, but that argument is tough to square with their other actions.
"The New York Post" is reporting that some striking teachers are posting the names of substitutes who cross the picket lines on social media. And here's a video of how some families trying to enter schools are treated themselves. These are families, kids, by the striking teachers. Look at this. Look at this. So it's really all about the kids who actually want to learn?
Here now is Rebecca Friedrichs. She's a former L.A. public school teacher who says the unions have turned their backs on the kids, and Joe Zeccola who is an L.A. county teacher currently on strike. Thanks to both of you for being here.
Joe, I get it. I get the desire for more resources, more pay, smaller classrooms. I understand it, believe me. I have teachers in my family and they do yeoman's work. But don't strike like this and up hurting the lower income families, kids with disabilities and so forth, since they struggle to find care for their kids while you are on strike. Is that a concern?
JOE ZECCOLA, HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHER IN L.A.: The strike is for the low income kids. If you're looking at the support that we are looking for, for more services in classrooms, that is for the low income kids. UTLA has a food drive that we are doing for low income kids as well. Strikes by their nature are hardships, they're struggles. And that's not a good thing. But the goal is to strike for those kids.
I spent 10 years in South Central, and no one is going to tell you I'm not there for the kids. And I guarantee this is why we are doing it. It is not weary. Everyone knows we are very close on money. The money is not the issue. The issue is class sizes, the issue is support services, a nurse full-time in every school. That's not a radical ask.
INGRAHAM: Rebecca, there are a lot of strains on public schools all across the country, especially in California. There are strains of the resources, class sizes, that's all hard, made more difficult by a lot of the immigration that's come into the state of California. Multiple languages spoken. Same thing not too far from here in Fairfax County, Virginia, Gaithersburg, Maryland, a lot of tough deals that the teachers are dealing with. But Joe says they want this to be better for the children. Is that what the unions are all about here?
REBECCA FRIEDRICHS, FORMER L.A. PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER: Well, I have to disagree completely. I have been a teacher for 28 years. Teachers put children first. And I can tell you that the teachers unions do not put children first. There are over 500,000 low income children in L.A. Unified who are not being serviced this week. A lot of their parents can't go to work. One of those parents called me last night. She was terrified. She said it was too frightening to take her kids to school, but the principals were putting pressure on because of course the schools lose ADA money when kids don't come to school. They are herding the kids into the cafeteria or the multipurpose room. These kids are losing out. This mom is very angry at unions. But as a taxpayer and parent, she's completely silenced. I would like to ask the unions what they are going to do for that family.
INGRAHAM: Joe, your response. You saw the video. I am sure, Joe, you're not in favor of screaming at the people going -- they are basically taunting the people, the kids and the parents that are going into be taught by substitutes. If it's about the kids, why are they hassling the kids and the parents going into the front door of the school? That doesn't look that gets pro kid to me.
ZECCOLA: I'm not going to talk about a video I didn't see. I can't tell you at my school --
INGRAHAM: I just described it for you.
ZECCOLA: Yes, that's fine. You are talking about an isolated incident. In my school, my parents are striking with us. At the schools of all my colleagues, are parents are striking with us. An isolated incident of a parent calling in, that's horrible. Of course we care about that. But the notion that we are not doing this for the kids is belied by the fact that we have been asking the same thing for 20 months. We are using the only weapon we have to get lower class size for kids. And the notion that it's not good for kids to have less than 40 of them in a class with a teacher, again, how is what we are asking for radical? This was not something that the union did. This was something that 98 percent of the teachers in LAUSD voted for.
INGRAHAM: Rebecca, OK.
ZECCOLA: And as of today, 80 percent of Los Angeles citizen support us.
INGRAHAM: Yes, OK, we're out of time. I would like to have you back on the podcast maybe tomorrow or next week. I think this is going to keep going on. Really interesting conversation, and we're going to dig a lot deeper. So thanks so much for joining us.
Ted Cruz's beard, oh, my gosh, the talk of Washington. So how did he grow it? He explains it in tonight's Last Bite.
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INGRAHAM: Senator Ted Cruz is sharing the secret to his new look.
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SEN. TED CRUZ, R-TX: This is a public service announcement. A number of people have asked me, how do you grow a beard? I'm going to do what I can to help you. This is a razor. Stop using it.
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