Should US go back into coronavirus lockdown?

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Should US go back into coronavirus lockdown?

Reaction from author Alex Berenson and Committee to Unleash Prosperity president Phil Kerpen.

This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," August 5, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

LAURA INGRAHAM, HOST: All right. I'm Laura Ingraham. This is "The Ingraham Angle" from Washington tonight. What a show we have for you. Dinesh D'Souza is here on the Michigan governor's declaring racism a public health crisis. What that would mean for you? Plus, Senator Kelly Loeffler is once again coming under attack from the WNBA for her refusal to support the BLM movement. The Atlanta Dream owner is here to tell us why she still refuses to back down. But first, Biden and the virus. That's the focus of tonight's ANGLE.

Last night, we tore the lid off a series of off repeated liberal lies about President Trump's handling of the Coronavirus. The pandemics fallout though of course extremely tragic, could have been far worse had he not shut down travel early and reopen the economy when he did. Hospital systems in a few states were stretched but not overwhelmed.

But given the Democrats constant wailing about what Trump supposedly got wrong, we decided tonight to sketch out what the situation would have looked like had Joe Biden and the Democrats been in-charge instead.

First, Biden would not have banned travel from China. There's no way he would have done that. Two months after Trump did just that, Biden was still worrying about hurting China's feelings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, D-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Being overly dismissive or spreading misinformation was only going to hurt us and further advantage the spread of the disease. But neither should we panic or fall back on xenophobia. Labeling COVID-19 a foreign virus does not displace accountability for the misjudgments that have been taken thus far by the Trump administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: There's a word about xenophobia, not the virus. Not only would Biden not have banned travel from China though, he would have effectively rewarded the CCP for unleashing this plague by allowing them to continue to steal our trade secrets and take our jobs. It's clear under Biden there'd be no tariffs and thus no Chinese concessions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some have said Trump's stance is a good one to counter China's influence. Would you keep the tariffs?

BIDEN: No. Hey look who said Trump's idea is a good one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: No, he would get rid of the tariffs. Day one. A Biden presidency is a dream scenario for the CCP. And given that the W.H.O has been pimping for China for years. How would dealing with them. He also suggested that health. And you know Biden wouldn't have banned travel from Europe either. Even Fauci admitted doing so save lives.

But under Biden, as under Obama Europe's feelings on a travel ban would have been more important that what was good for Americans. Heaven forbid can offend the French.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Banning all travel from Europe or any other part of the world may slow it. But as we've seen it will not stop it. And travel restrictions based on favoritism in politics rather than risk will be counterproductive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: You can't make this up. Under Biden, illegals then keep pouring in. And of course, forget ramped up border enforcement under Biden at all. Even European countries like Germany lock down their borders for three months. But Joe would never even consider a crackdown on illegal border crossings even during a pandemic. He'd open the ICE facilities; he'd release all detainees and then maybe ask questions later.

After all, what would Jorge Ramos say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trump campaigned on build that wall. Are you willing to tear that wall down?

BIDEN: There will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Of course, the border fence and the walls. They're meant to force foreigners to formal points of entry where we at least can do some minimal screening for illnesses. But Biden will always choose open borders ahead of the health, safety, and economic well-being of Americans.

Number three, Biden would keep you locked down until at least 2021. And while he's letting millions of illegal aliens flood the labor markets during a recession and bring in more cases of COVID, he'd make sure you're still locked down in your home and your kids were out of school. His allies in politics and the press who are messaging Biden's plans, they've spilled the beans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM, D-CALIF.: If you're not going to stay home and you're not going to wear masks in public, we have to enforce, and we will.

DR. SEEMA YASMIN, EPIDEMIOLOGIST: This could have been a very different summer if we'd had a better lockdown, a longer lockdown.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any concern that you've gone too far in any way with the stay at home restrictions?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: And Biden hinted at this himself just last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: From the beginning, in my view, the President has had - given us a false choice, he said that we have to get back to work and also deal with COVID. You can't get this country going again unless you get COVID under control.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: You know what that means. And number four, Biden's lockdowns would obliterate the recovery, the cost of taking the country back in the lockdown would be staggering.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KUDLOW, DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: This idea of more lockdowns, people just throw this out willy-nilly, forgetting the enormous human cost as well as the enormous economic cost, the country can't take that and there's no reason for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Biden's lockdowns would also lead to more health crises, even with a limited temporary lockdown, things were bad. And imagine if it had continued through most of the year. Last month, the Washington Post reported that suspected overdoses nationally jumped 18 percent in March. 29 percent in April and 42 percent in May. And lockdowns around the world are leading to a resurgence of things like tuberculosis, HIV, and malaria.

The New York Times reporting that a three-month lockdown across different parts of the world and a gradual return to normal over 10 months could result in an additional 6.3 million cases of TB, 1.4 million deaths. And the worst-case scenario, deaths from malaria could double to 770,000 per year.

Number six, Biden would use the pandemic to ram through Far-Left policies and of course, the old saying never let a crisis go to waste would be Biden's pandemic motto.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: And I truly think that if we do this right, we have an incredible opportunity to not just dig out of this crisis, but to fundamentally transform the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: It wouldn't be a country left. Of course, we all know what that means, ramming through every socialist wish list item, empty out the prisons, single payer health care, government paid childcare, the Green New Deal, guaranteed basic income and, of course, reparations.

And while President Biden went about transforming our country, hit, of course, get a free pass from the media. No antagonistic interviews with Axios, no aggressive questioning from Jim Acosta, just a lot of gauzy profiles about his Vice President and how she's a first and she's also a global superstar. This laundry list of horribles should make all Americans think about voting for change, think twice about it in November.

Now, given the violence in the streets and the leftward turn of the Democrats, we know what Biden will bring. Isn't that type of hope and change that Obama promised 12 years ago, it would be far more radical and now there's far more at stake. But they hope their lies and their misdirection will make you forget about the unparalleled prosperity that we enjoyed before the pandemic hit and what we're on a way to seeing again under President Trump.

Would you rather go back to that normal or experience the new normal that Democrats are giving us a glimpse of in California and in New York and on the streets of Chicago and Baltimore?

In Joe's new society, you'll be poorer, less safe, less free, and your kids will be less educated, and at that point a virus will be the least of our problems. And that's THE ANGLE.

Joining me now is Alex Berenson, former New York Times reporter, author of Unreported Truths about COVID-19 and Lockdowns, part of which just came out yesterday. Also, with me is Phil Kerpen, President of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity.

Alex, the Democrats say the science demands us to go back in the lockdown. Now, since you've literally written the book on this. What are they missing?

ALEX BERENSON, "UNREPORTED TRUTHS OF COVID" AUTHOR: First of all, what they're missing is that for 15 years, the W.H.O, the CDC experts on this thought that a lockdown would be a terrible idea. They also thought, by the way, that border closings and travel restrictions like that would be a bad idea. They really - the people who have really looked at this the hardest for the longest for a long time, all said the same thing, which is wash your hands, sneeze into your elbow. And there's only so much you can do about this. And trying to do too much is as likely to cause pain as it is to do any good.

OK, so fast forward to March. All of the sudden we all panic, and the media leads that panic and the other outlets lead that panic. And suddenly in a matter of days, we throw out 15 years of advice. And that was what was so stunning to me in writing this booklet that was seeing how strong the advice really was and how consistent it really was. So, we throw out all this advice and guess what? Now we're five months later and it's fascinating. Sweden, which didn't lock down at all, appears to be done with its pandemic.

We'll see. But right now, it looks like they are through it. In the Sunbelt states, the last six weeks, there has been a spike in positive tests. There has been some spike in hospitalizations, but the deaths are much lower than they were in the northeast in March and April. So, which lockdown really hard, really fast. So, if you look on either a country level or a state level, where is the support for lockdowns? And that is what people warned us about. That's what's so fascinating about this. We were told what would happen.

INGRAHAM: Well, I warned about it. I know you warned about it. We knew what was going to happen. And unfortunately, most of it did happen. Now, Phil, this is what the architect of Obamacare had to say about reopening schools.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ZEKE EMANUEL, NBC NEWS SENIOR MEDICAL CONTRIBUTOR: You cannot consider opening in most states in the country. Now, a lot of contact sports are out there. It's not a good idea. You have to not use the cafeteria where crowding can take place. Reduce the crowds, reduce the congestion, reduce time that kids spend with other kids and teachers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: He should lose his medical license for saying that Phil. OK, kids should spend less time with other kids and a disease that has infinitesimally small rate of infection and mortality among kids.

PHIL KERPEN, COMMITTEE TO UNLEASH PROSPERITY: The CDC says that the risk of a school age child dying from COVID is about one in one million, five to ten times less than the risk of dying from flu. The pediatric infection rates are also low, but when they do get infected, it's very unlikely to cause any kind of serious illness. The head of the CDC used the term. It has very limited pathogenicity. He said, for anyone under age 45, unless they have other serious pre-existing conditions.

So, this is not a situation in which children are in any danger, but children are being scapegoated. They're being punished. They're being denied social interaction. And we've unfortunately now seen a very steep rise in pediatric suicide and drug overdose that the CDC says dwarfs the number of pediatric COVID deaths we've seen. So, that is a reckless thing to say. It is a damaging thing to say. And it's something that unfortunately results in the deaths of children as we're seeing school systems all over this country extend their closures out into the fall.

INGRAHAM: Now, this is medical malpractice, journalistic malpractice, in some cases, political malpractice. Alex, I need you to listen to what Dr. Fauci had to say today about Americans who disagree with some of what he's advised.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE: There is a degree of anti-science feeling in this country. It's almost related to authority and a mistrust in authority that spills over into pushing back on authority is pushing back on government is the same as pushing back on science. We need to be more transparent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Alex, did the experts give us any reason to distrust what they've said about this virus, given everything you've documented and everything you've seen, it's an insult to the American public to say we're anti- science when we question what they've tried to cram down without a vote.

BERENSON: I mean, it's much worse than that, Laura. You can find without trying very hard quotes from the CDC, the W.H.O, the Institute of Medicine ran the very best scientific authorities and not just in the U.S., is the Swedish, the Swedish and German and Dutch national health authorities all talking about the risks in schools or the lack thereof, all talking about what we should and shouldn't do in a pandemic.

Just because I'm quoting you in a way that you don't like our quoting your agency, in a way that you don't like, because it reminds you of stuff you said before March that you wish you could make go away does not mean I'm anti-science. It means I'm doing my job as a journalist. And that's something else that we've forgotten. All these reporters who are happy to get in the face of the President and I understand that that's their right. That's their duty. They will not ask tough questions of Dr. Fauci or anybody else who claims to have a scientific authority. And that is a complete failure.

INGRAHAM: I think I've asked some of the toughest questions of Dr. Fauci from the beginning. Phil, despite being smacked down by Governor Hogan of Maryland, Montgomery County through its unelected health official, Dr. Travis Gayles is still claiming they have the authority to order parochial and other non-public schools closed for in school teaching, saying they continue to base their public health decisions on data and the data and the science, et cetera, et cetera. Your reaction to this on a non-public school ruling, Phil.

KERPEN: Montgomery County, Maryland, is averaging five people presenting at emergency rooms per day with COVID like symptoms. It's a county of over a million people. The percent positive in its testing is about 2.3 percent, half the level that Deborah Birx, the most anti-school of all of the experts, says is safe to open schools. We all know what this is about. This is about the public school union, which forced the closure, even though the health department would have been fine with them opening, not wanting people to disenroll and go to the public, to the private schools, in the Catholic schools that are open because they will lose money as a consequence of that.

This is grotesque politics. This is an example of liberal politicians insisting on the equal sharing of misery by imposing pain on private school children simply to match what's being imposed on public school children. It is being challenged in court and I think the order is illegal.

INGRAHAM: Gentlemen, thank you so much. Great to see both of you tonight, as always. And some of the Left's most pernicious lies regarding COVID have to do with what may be a potential prophylactic treatment off label use of hydroxychloroquine. We were the first show to discuss this and we haven't dropped it.

Now, they gleefully hype negative studies, many of them flawed. We've discussed that ad nauseum on the show, but they bury any good news. But will they be able to ignore the latest research? Using data collected for more than 2.6 billion people around the world? A new study finding that the risk of death from COVID is 79 percent lower in countries where HCQ was widespread and used early on versus those where it was limited.

Joining me now is Dr. Ramin Oskoui, original member of the medical cabinet and he's CEO of Foxhall Cardiology in D.C. Dr. Oskoui, is this data legitimate?

DR. RAMIN OSKOUI, CARDIOLOGIST: I think the data is legitimate and they provide over 150 references to support their findings. The data is really damning. What you see is that countries, countries that don't spend like we do 20 percent of our GDP on health care have done incredibly well with COVID. And it's really devastating to Dr. Fauci, Dr. Hahn, Dr. Redfield, and their performance. I think not only should they be embarrassed, but I think they really need to be held to account.

INGRAHAM: Yes, we heard, was it Dr. Redfield, I can't remember who said the other day, we have to move on from this. We'd have to move on from hydroxychloroquine. What? What are you talking about? I mean, they're threatening the medical license of that doctor in Texas, that woman who went viral. And they're trying to completely be malicious toward her because she said, I'm trying to save lives. That's all I'm trying to do. I'm not pleasing - she's not being political. She's trying to save lives. They're threatening people now.

OSKOUI: And physicians have a fiduciary responsibility to act in the best interests of their patients. Hydroxychloroquine as we know is very safe. It's been around for 65 years. You know, my own article in the British Medical Journal looked at the cardiac safety in COVID patients specifically and clearly showed that this was safe as well.

I think the real question was, given how much money we've spent in this way, we have to ask ourselves whether corporate and institutional research has really twisted, perverted, how we've handled this crisis and led us to have a very poor response, frankly.

INGRAHAM: Well, President Trump seems to understand this. He's talking about how Big Pharma is against his efforts to lower drug prices through that executive order and have most favored nation status. He gets it, but someone around President Trump clearly doesn't get it. And clearly, it's at the FDA. Clearly, it's at the NIH is a lot of bucks floating around there. Dr. Jonathan Reiner made the point about health and heart with HCQ on CNN today. Real quick, let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: This drug can hurt people if used, without careful EKG monitoring, this drug could cause fatal arrhythmia. The reason why this drug has been safe in some clinical trials is that it was studied carefully in clinical trials and most patients were monitored. That's much different than being out in the community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: You're a cardiologist, Dr. Oskoui. He is not, your response?

OSKOUI: Well, Dr. Reiner is a cardiologist and I respect.

INGRAHAM: Oh, he is. OK.

OSKOUI: Tremendously. But Jonathan just simply hasn't read the literature. He's not up to speed in this area of medicine. And the fact is, is that this drug has been used for decades without any cardiac monitoring and it's been used safely in closely monitored patients in France, the United States, throughout the world with tremendous results.

If this pill was so dangerous, why do we see countries that clearly don't have the ability to monitor these patients so carefully, having such tremendously positive outcomes? Go to see 19study.com, look for yourself. They list all the references. It's tremendous.

INGRAHAM: Turkey is one of them. And Dr. Oskoui, we appreciate it. And thank you for correcting me. I love being corrected by you. All right. Thanks so much. And first, Michigan's Witless Whitmer decimated her state with lockdowns, and now she signed a directive recognizing racism as a public health crisis. Now, why would she do this and what's at stake? Dinesh D'Souza explains it all.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRETCHEN WHITMER (D) MICHIGAN GOVERNOR: Today, I also signed an executive directive declaring racism as a public health crisis in Michigan. This pandemic has confirmed and highlighted the deadly nature of these pre- existing inequities caused by systemic racism. And this reflects longstanding deep societal, economic, and environmental disparities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: So, stay with me here, OK? The real public health crisis, according to Witless Whitmer is not COVID, it's racism. She also mandated that state employees go through implicit bias training and created a Black Leadership Advisory Council to eradicate racial inequality in her state.

Joining me now, Dinesh D'Souza, conservative commentator, author of United States of Socialism and writer and director of the film that'll be out any moment, Trump Card. Dinesh, this feels like it's all about Whitmer and the Democrats consolidating power, but what are they really doing here?

DINESH D'SOUZA, WRITER AND DIRECTOR, TRUMP CARD: Well, they're unleashing a set of geisha's balloons that have become completely untethered from the original source. I think this is actually where the new George Floyd video is a very illuminating, not only because they show that George was resisting arrest from start to finish, but more importantly, it's not even clear this was about race at all. It's very eye opening to watch and realize that race may not even have entered into the equation.

Now, what the Left has done is built a gigantic narrative on top of George Floyd, one that is obsessed with race, racism in sports, racism in education, racism in health care, as if somehow the virus itself is racist.

Now, of course, we have health care problems. Obesity, probably the biggest disparity in health care right now is caused by going to Black Lives Matter riots and rallies, because that is surely one easy way to get the virus. So, if you want to reduce racial disparities in health care, stop going to those riots.

INGRAHAM: Dinesh, it's so bad now that you have these Hollywood celebrities issuing these tearful on camera apologies for having weddings that I guess, old facilities that used to be plantations. They're apologizing for that. They're apologizing for playing a role where their race doesn't quite match the original character. And a biopic like Nina Simone, this is wild.

D'SOUZA: These are not genuine confessions because people who really think that they have privilege, undeserved privilege, you notice they never actually give up that privilege. A student, for example, on the campus who says, hey, my position here at Yale is purely the result of white privilege. If I say to him on the campus, OK, why don't you go to the registrar's office tomorrow, withdraw from Yale and turn over your position to an eligible minority, they go, oh, no, no, no, I wouldn't dream of doing that. I want to stay here and fight racism.

So, in other words, the bottom-line of it is, this is a form of pointless virtue signaling. It's actually an assertion of power over other students and a bogus claim of moral superiority.

INGRAHAM: I think Dinesh, a lot of it itself is racist because you're boiling down the differences between humans to skin color, which is what I thought we were supposed to try to get away from and treat each other as human beings. That includes George Floyd should be treated as a human being and someone with a different color. Skin color should be treated like a human being.

Everyone should be treated equally, which I know is maybe a dream, maybe it's not going to happen ever perfectly, but that's supposed to be the ideal. But that's not really what they want.

D'SOUZA: The reason that they don't want it is that the original formula to move America in a socialist direction was class warfare, the revolt of the working class. But that has never happened. And so the left has realized that there actually are soars of racial grievance in this country, and by trying to sort of use racial division to substitute for class division, they're hoping ultimately to achieve goals that couldn't be achieved in any other way, in other words, to move us more toward government control over our economy.

INGRAHAM: And dependency, yes, and dependency. Dinesh, great to see you tonight, thanks so much.

And shutdown fatigue, it's turning into shutdown fury, and combined with backfiring BLM protests and the things Dinesh has talked about, it might be driving key voters away from Biden. A crop of new swing state surveys shows that Biden's strategy of embracing these radicals may be faltering. According to a new Zogby, Trump is closing the gap with Biden in Florida, in Pennsylvania, and in Ohio. A recent Monmouth University poll has Trump with a three-point lead in Iowa.

Joining me now is John McLaughlin, Trump 2020 pollster. John, you also had a Harris-Hill survey out, I saw it tweeted out tonight, a national poll showing a seven-point lead for a Biden is now down to three points. Interesting. That was two weeks ago Biden was up seven points. What's at the heart of these apparent shifts?

JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN POLLSTER: Well, we know we're winning. In the campaign, we run like underdogs but we know we're winning. The president's message is strong. Ever since his Mount Rushmore speech, growing jobs, he shows that he knows how he can take care of the nation and keep us strong and keep us safe.

And now, I've been on your show for months talking about the fake media polls that would have too many adults or too many registered voters, that would dilute the number of Republicans. Now you're getting likely voter polls. And on top of that you have the Rasmussen report which showed us gaining three in a week and it had us down three, but we were down three nationally four years ago, and that's how we won. We won the key battleground states.

And also, if we win the states that Zogby is showing where he's got us tied in Florida, he's got us virtually tied in Pennsylvania, he's got us in all those battlegrounds he is at a virtually tie, Monmouth has us up in Iowa, this is way earlier than 2016 when we were trailing Hillary Clinton at this point. So the president is running strong, he's running like an underdog. People are responding. And Biden won't commit to if he's going to debate. He's still in the basement. They are hoping that the country remains sick and shut down. That's not a winning message.

INGRAHAM: Hold on, Biden is not going to his own convention, that was announced today. So not going to Wisconsin. I still say he doesn't debate Trump. I know they say he's going to do it. I don't see it. He can't get through a minute or two without some major verbal blunder. We all screw up occasionally, but it seems like this is a constant with him. And yet they rake Trump over the coals every time he does an interview that might not be his best, and I don't think the "Axios" interview was something I would have done. But nevertheless, people are focusing on the racial grievance game, they are getting tired of it, the crime, they are getting really tired of it, and they are sick of these shutdowns, and they want their kids back in school. I think that's driving this whole narrative right now. Close it out.

MCLAUGHLIN: They want this country to be strong and safe, and there's only one candidate that can make America strong and safe, and that is Donald Trump, President Trump. He's proven it before and he's going to prove it again, because we need jobs, we need people healthy and strong and safe. Tomorrow the president will be in Ohio talking about precisely how he's bringing manufacturing jobs back from China, right. And that's something that Joe Biden, he was in favor of the most favored nation status. He was - -

INGRAHAM: John, we've got to a role, but Biden said today explicitly that he would get rid of the Trump tariffs on China. That's music to China's ears. John, we'll have you back soon, thanks so much for the updates.

And even has murders spike by double digits, only one L.A. County supervisor voted against taking hundreds of millions of dollars away from the LAPD. She's here and she's going to tell us why she voted that way. Plus, reporter Bill Melugin has some breaking news out of L.A. tonight. And also despite new tactics by the players, WNBA owner and Senator Kelly Loeffler refuses to back down to BLM, one of the few who does refuse to back down, and she's here exclusively to tell us why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Remember when they told us that the lockdowns would reduce crime? Well, in the wake of these mass protests and riots, we know murder is on the rise in major cities, the rates are way up, 14 percent in L.A. just from this time last year. And despite this troubling trend, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors just voted on a proposal to gut its criminal justice system.

For more on this story let's go live to L.A. where KTTV's Bill Melugin is standing by. Bill?

BILL MELUGIN, KTTV INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Hey, Laura, good evening. So this proposal is a pretty big talker out here in L.A., a little bit controversial. It's called Reimagining Los Angeles County, and essentially in a nutshell, what it would do is it would potentially strip away about $400 million away from local law enforcement, the sheriff, the D.A., the court system, and instead redistribute that money to local social programs in underserved communities.

So this is going to go on the ballot for voters this November, and the L.A. County sheriff says look, there's no sugarcoating this. He feels this is a blatant attempt to plant the seeds to defund local law enforcement, specifically his sheriff's department, and he says if this passes it's going to have a catastrophic effect on public safety. He says if it does pass it's going to immediately cut $173 million from his department on top of $145 million that the L.A. County Board of Supervisors already cut from his budget.

He says if this happens he's going to have to lay off more than 1,000 deputies, close up to five patrol stations, greatly reduce patrols in unincorporated areas, and even close down some jails. He says this would end up hurting the minority and low income communities that L.A. County thinks they are protecting with this proposal. Take a listen to what he had to say to me in an interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX VILLANUEVA, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF: This motion is basically, they are laying the groundwork for defunding the sheriff's department as we know it, bottom line. That is their goal, and they are going to fund all of their ideas, their pet projects through the sheriff's department's budget. We take the lion's share of net county costs, and that's exactly what they're going for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MELUGIN: And only one L.A. County supervisor voted against this. That was Supervisor Kathryn Barger. She expressed concern about budget issues and potential mass layoffs with county staff. If this gets approved in the fall, it would permanently change L.A. County's charter, reallocate that roughly $400 million to those social programs, and local law enforcement would not be able to access that money at all. Laura?

INGRAHAM: Bill, thanks so much. We're going to have that lone L.A. County supervisor on now who voted against taking money from law enforcement, Kathryn Barger. Kathryn, thank you for being with us tonight. Murders in L.A. are up more than 14 percent since last year, so why would any of your colleagues, regardless of politics, be in favor of defunding the police at this time?

KATHRYN BARGER, L.A. COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: I think there is a movement across the nation to take money away from law enforcement and place it in programs in, especially in the inner cities. And what I've said all along is it not should not be an either/or. We need to invest in services outside of law enforcement because, quite frankly, law enforcement is taking the place of work that maybe social workers and others should be doing, but we don't have enough of it.

So I think that my frustration is that to defund law enforcement and call it reimagining is a bunch of baloney. I think what frustrates me is that the voters are going to look at the title and believe that this is something positive, not recognizing that what it's doing is taking money away from public safety. And it's not just the sheriff, it's the D.A., it's the prosecutors, it's going to impact this county in ways that, if this passes, will impact generations to come.

INGRAHAM: Kathryn, what I found interesting today is this new Gallup poll that found that 81 percent of black Americans want police to spend the same amount of time or more in their area. So this whole thing is about black lives, then why are we voting among county supervisors, and then other Democrats ignoring this, because you're not going to have more police spending more time in these troubled areas if you are cutting $400 million. That's just not going to happen.

BARGER: It's not going to happen. And I think the reality is that I believe it's going before the voters because I think many politicians are afraid of being blamed. Out here we had AB109 which was done legislatively to transfer prisoners down to local jurisdictions. They got a backlash. They got a lot of people upset because they are being transferred into their communities and crime went up. So next time around they put a proposition on, let the voters vote on it. And I say this, I hope people actually read the fine print when they're voting for propositions. In this state, we seem to be governing through propositions now, and through the ballot. And I think voters don't recognize these types of votes and the implications they're going to have on their community.

INGRAHAM: It's going to be staggering, and I love California. I'm still a member of the California bar, Kathryn. Maybe I have to come out and argue some of the cases out there. Thanks so much, great to see you tonight.

And for refusing to bend to the need to BLM, Senator and team owner Kelly Loeffler is once again under attack from the WNBA. She's here to explain their latest move and why she still will not back down, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Last month we got a big reaction, we told you about how the WNBA players tried to cancel team owner and Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler coming out against the radical agenda of the Black Lives Matter movement. Now they are not just trying to chase her out of the WNBA, they're going after her Senate seat. Players are now openly endorsing one of her challengers, Reverend Raphael Warnock. In fact, before Tuesday's game, players on the Atlanta Dream, which Loeffler co-owns, and the Chicago Sky wore shirts that read "Vote Warnock."

Senator Loeffler joins me now. Senator, what's your response to all this? I thought it was about winning games. Now it's about winning Senate seats?

SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER, R-GA., ATLANTA DREAM CO-OWNER: Well, Laura, thanks for having me on. It really proves my point -- this isn't about playing basketball. It's about playing politics. And it truly is about politics. Look, everyone has a right to choose who they want to vote for, but because I stood up for our American flag, suggested that we replace that with the divisive idea of this political organization, Black Lives Matter. Not the statement, we all agree with the statement, but this political organization that wants to defund the police, it promotes anti-Semitism and violence, it doesn't believe in the nuclear family. We are talking moms and dads. I said how can the league support that? Let's stand for the flag. And in fact, the players have walked out during the National Anthem. So I had to draw the line and I had to speak out.

INGRAHAM: Senator, here is who reportedly orchestrated this whole new campaign against you. "The New York Times" is reporting that one of your own players, Elizabeth Williams, "said the idea to publicly endorse Warnock came from Sue Bird. Both Williams and Bird are executives in the players' union. Top players also consulted with Stacey Abrams," what? "Abrams Joined the players' union board of advocates last summer." So now Stacey Abrams, she has nothing else to do, she's involved? This is just so petty, and I don't see how this brings more people into watching the WNBA. I think this turns people off. People want people to be treated equally and well, and want people to have full, wonderful lives, but this is just mind-numbingly absurd at this point.

LOEFFLER: Well, you're right, because Stacey Abrams has endorsed my opponent, so it's blatantly clear that this is all about politics and not about the unity that sports can provide. I grew up playing sports. I think we all know the power sports has to bring people together from all walks of life and to support people of different backgrounds and the tolerance that you get by being part of sports. And that's been totally eradicated here in this moment where because I have a conservative voice they want me out, they want to cancel me.

INGRAHAM: Silenced.

LOEFFLER: And they're basically saying our sport is not big enough or conservative. So I will always stand up for the conservative voice, and for all Americans who don't feel they have a voice right now.

INGRAHAM: Elizabeth Williams, who I just mentioned, one of your players, on why they wore the t-shirts. This is what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIZABETH WILLIAMS, ATLANTA DREAM PLAYER: We wanted to come in and where "Vote Warnock" shirts, he's currently running for U.S. Senate right now, and he supports everything that all the players in the WNBA support. So we wanted to make a statement and be really vocal about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: All the players in the WNBA, there's not one player? Everyone has to have the same orthodoxy? It's all -- everything is uniform, no dissent ever, apparently.

LOEFFLER: We've gone from a league of being one of tolerance and unity and diversity to being intolerant. And I think that's a cautionary tale. This is the direction, this is emblematic of what's happening across the country. This isn't about me. I'm standing up because I have a platform for Americans that feel like they can't have a voice. I'm speaking out. I worry about the student, the business owner, the employee who feels like they are silenced because of this. So I will not stop speaking out.

INGRAHAM: And maybe intimidation of players who disagree with this but who are afraid. Maybe there are not that many, but I bet there are a few. Senator, thanks so much.

Up next, what's the one phrase Biden can't live without? I reveal it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Where is the party? Come on, man.

Come on, man. You think -- this guy is not Barack Obama.

Falling down, let's say it's off by half. Come on, man.

Why the hell would I take a test? Come on, man.

I am -- I am very willing to let the American public judge my physical mental -- my physical as well as my mental fitness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Are you sure about that, Joe?

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

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