Stephen Miller: Biden plan most radical immigration bill ever written
Former Trump senior adviser reacts to Democratic immigration proposal on 'The Ingraham Angle'
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," February 18, 2021. 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. Disturbing video shows California school board members mocking parents as just wanting their babysitters back when an outraged mother from that community is here in a big exclusive tonight.
Also, who's populating the Biden administration. Tonight, the Ingraham Angle investigates Vanita Gupta who would be number 3 at the DOJ and after demurring on the campaign trail Joe Biden is now fully endorsing a study looking at reparations.
The legendary Bob Woodson reacts to that but first, they don't care about you. That's the focus of tonight's Angle. In May 2019, this show traveled to the border town of Del Rio Texas to document the growing illegal immigration crisis at the time. Now record numbers of illegals, family units and unaccompanied minors were flooding across the Rio Grande.
Human smuggling like drug smuggling was a big business. Soon afterward President Trump tightened processing of asylees, and refugee applications and he even struck historic agreements with Mexico and Central America to try to tackle the problem here.
The number of border crossers in turn dropped dramatically but now Joe Biden is in the process of reversing all that progress. Beyond creating a humanitarian nightmare at our southern border, his policies will create more economic and security problems for an America that's already on the edge.
Simply put, Biden is captive to two constituencies. The left that wants to remake our country with new more progressive voters and the donor class that wants an endless supply of cheap labor. Hard working Americans be damned. Listen to the pleas of the Mayor of Del Rio. This isn't a video you'll see on any other network.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNO LOZANO, MAYOR OF DEL RIO: Mr. President, I am pleading and requesting with you to please put a halt to any measures regarding the release of immigrants awaiting court dates into the city of Del Rio. We do not have the resources available to house and accommodate these migrants within our community. If you do send these individuals into our community, we will be forced to make a decision to leave them without resources under these dire circumstances.
We may be a small town that is off of your radar, but we are a community of 50,000 people who need your attention. We are requesting that you please listen and that you please come through.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: There's something that every American watching right now has to understand. You are not a priority for the Biden administration or congressional Democrats. Your safety, your job prospects, your kids going back to school, your mental health, your freedom. None of that is as important to the left as their desire to fundamentally transform America and achieving this requires that they pass an amnesty bill as soon as possible, certainly before the next election.
You kind of need to be replaced or at least canceled out by new voters who will be more compliant when new climate change or pandemic restrictions are enacted. They need new voters who won't obsess about protecting second amendment rights or frankly worry about the constitution at all.
We're just learning now the details of the Democrats new amnesty bill supported by President Biden of course that would grant citizenship to an untold number of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. What will happen? Well this legislation creates an 8-year path to citizenship. It immediately grants green cards to farmworkers, TPS designees and DACA recipients.
It expands the controversial work visa lottery from 55,000 to 80,000 a year and it exempts children and spouses from any visa cap numbers. It gives dependents green cards, it recaptures unused visas, I love this one, from previous years to clear a backlog and eliminates per country visa caps. It takes the word alien out of the U.S. code and it greatly expands the number of refugees allowed to settle here by creating refugee processing centers in Central America.
Well, it gets worse and worse if you can believe it. Basically, Biden is going to cease deporting all but the most violent criminals and border patrol officers will no longer be able to ban entry at our borders by those who have - had already been here illegally on previous occasions. Oh goody, well, most Americans aren't traveling out of the country due to the COVID stuff, illegals will be free to come and go, no questions asked.
Now this legislation is sponsored by rabidly pro open borders Senator Robert Menendez who will call you a racist if you don't support his efforts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ROBERT MENENDEZ (D-NJ): Time and time again we have compromised too much and capitulated too quickly to fringe voices who have refused to accept the humanity and contributions of immigrants to our country. From John Boehner to white nationalists like Steve King and Jeff Sessions to a manipulative madman named Donald Trump there will always be those who stand against immigrants.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Do you understand now first of all, he just completely blurs the distinction between legal immigrants which pretty much everybody supports and illegal immigrants. But you have to understand what he's saying. Believe in strong border enforcement, believe in the rule of law, believe that Americans, not illegal immigrants should be the number one priority of our government and you're no different from a KKK grand wizard.
Anything to avoid the top issue for most Americans. Opening schools. Because when Pelosi is pressed on that issue, she's her usual rambling mess.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): The important point to make on this is. Where there is a high incidence of COVID, most of those schools are virtual or hybrid anyway and the vaccination might not make it actual anyway. There has to be a judgment made from the community as to how they go forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Is she trying to conjure up the answer with the hand motions. I'll give you a translation of what Nancy said. Since roughly 89 percent of students living with the CDC classifies as COVID red zones, schools are out of session for in person learning as far as I can tell, forever.
And speaking of red zones, of the cities hit hardest by COVID, three of the top for are border towns. That's just a total coincidence I'm sure. So, at a time of mass unemployment with millions of American kids stuck in Zoom hell, why on earth would this be a priority for President Biden?
An old Biden used to be for border enforcement remember.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I voted for a fence. I voted unlike most Democrats and some of you won't like it. I voted for 700 miles of fence. People are driving across that border with tons, tons, hear me - tons of everything from by-products for methamphetamine to cocaine to heroin. All it's all coming up to corrupt Mexico.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Corrupt Mexico. The drug traffickers, well, those days are over. Biden's not talking about those problems. The goal is not to protect our border. What he's talking about in that video but to open it. It's so bad that starting tomorrow Biden is going to use taxpayer money to begin physically retrieving the 25,000 migrants now living in Mexico who were at least temporarily deported there by the Trump administration, pending their asylum hearings.
But don't worry, I'm sure he's going to get temperature checks before they board the buses. And maybe even their first dose of the COVID vaccine. I understand some are getting that too. Grandma can't get it but legal immigrants can. There may be room for compromise on immigration bill if there's any sense the Democrats would take enforcement seriously.
Maybe they could show us for - I don't know a couple of years that they'll lock down the border really enforce it. But we know they won't do that so this bill like all the others that came before will go down in flames. Democrats will turn off millions of already beleaguered voters in 2022, probably will be all masked up then too if the Democrats have their way and those voters are going to wonder why they ever voted for a party that never put them first and that's the Angle.
Joining me now is someone who knows this issue better than most. Former White House Senior Adviser Stephen Miller. Stephen, it's good to see you tonight. I mean you're kind of that - you're kind of that poster child other than President Trump himself for the Left's outrage and vile directed toward any of us who believe in border enforcement first.
What do Americans need to understand about what they're doing right now that's going to change America as we know it?
STEPHEN MILLER, FORMER W.H. SENIOR ADVISER TO TRUMP: Thank you Laura. I just had a chance to begin reading and studying the legislation that was introduced today with the full support of Joe Biden. It is the most radical immigration bill ever written, ever drafted, ever submitted in the history of this country.
It is breathtaking. As just a few examples Laura. Under this bill, every single illegal alien in the country who merely submits an application to the U.S. government, if they want to work, they are work authorized immediately just submitting the application, you are work authorized.
Furthermore, every employer in the country is immediately allowed to hire illegal aliens even if they haven't submitted their application. In other words, you can hire an illegal alien just on their word that someday they may want to submit an application.
INGRAHAM: Wow.
MILLER: So you have 20 million Americans who want full time jobs right now but because of the pandemic they can't find them. Illegal hiring is amnestied, illegal work is amnestied. This happens immediately day one. Additionally, and this might be the most insane thing of all Laura, the legislation orders the Secretary of State to develop an application process to allow illegal aliens deported by the Trump administration.
So from January 2017 to present day, to allow them to apply for reentry and citizenship.
INGRAHAM: Oh my God.
MILLER: Yes, it's in the bill, in the plain text.
INGRAHAM: So it's not - Stephen, it's not just the ones that were waiting in Mexico pending their asylum applications. You're saying everyone who was deported?
MILLER: Correct. In the legislation, it says anybody--
INGRAHAM: OK, I missed that.
MILLER: - anybody who arrived, anybody who's lived in the country for at least three years who was deported by Donald Trump can reapply and it orders the Secretary of State to develop a process to mail those applications out to the 200 countries in the world to wear illegal aliens are deported.
This is a full-scale attack on the very idea of nationhood. If you were - if you were trying to write a bill to eliminate the concept of having a nation, this is the bill you would write. It lets criminals back into the country. It says that as long as somebody has a need for family unity, their criminal conviction can be overlooked, even very serious felony convictions can be overlooked and waved by the Secretary in the name of family unity.
INGRAHAM: And Stephen, I want to - I want to - this is stunning information that you're revealing tonight. Reading the actual text of the bill. I want to make sure everyone understands because people are very charitable, and they want to give people a break and I understand that.
But this is not - we're not talking about a couple of million people. We're not talking about 11 million illegals Stephen. The actual number of illegal immigrants is much higher. A New Yale study says, it's as high as 19.8 million and it doesn't seem to be slowing down. The Wall Street Journal reporting that more than 75,000 people were arrested crossing the border illegally in January, the most in any January and more than a decade.
Why isn't this on every single network and why do people keep saying 11 million people. That is like a 2006 number, Stephen.
MILLER: Right yes, the time froze in 2006. This bill is so crazy Laura that under its own terms if you came here on a student visa say six months ago, you dropped out of school, you failed to show up in classes, you violated the terms of your arrival and you were supposed to go home but you didn't go home and you've been living here just for a few weeks even, you can get citizenship, full citizenship in this country.
It also - it also eliminates a law passed by Bill Clinton that establishes a waiting period to get free federal health care for people who get green cards. It just deletes it right in the bill and says that section of law is gone and just page after page after page. I'll give you another example.
This bill establishes a $50,000 fine if a federal worker refers an application to law enforcement because they're concerned about what they see on it. It fines them $50,000. I could go on and on and on. The last thing I want to say Laura.
INGRAHAM: Stephen, this is the Republicans--
MILLER: It doubles legal immigration too. It doubles legal immigration.
INGRAHAM: Republicans in the Senate have got to resist this. They need to get 10 to break any filibuster, I believe, 10 Republicans and there's a lot to Chamber of Commerce Republicans who are fine with you know endless supply of cheap labor. This is a complete attack on our sovereignty and our independence. Stephen, thank you for joining us tonight and giving us just at least a glimpse into what's going on.
And of course Texas is bearing the brunt of the mass influx of illegals that are surging across the border including 6,000 unaccompanied minors in the month of January alone but compounding that problem is of course the Texans are now enduring ongoing power outages after days of severe cold weather.
Democrats are claiming it's a state stubborn reliance on fossil fuels. That's the problem but is it right? Joining me now is Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. Dan, there's been a lot of debate about what's at the root of all of this. Why is there so much confusion?
LT. GOV. DAN PATRICK, (R-TX): Well part of the confusion Laura, is that first of all some data has been - has become fact when it's really a myth. We do not have 25 percent of renewables. On our best day in the summer when the sun's out for 12:00 hours, maybe we can get up to 23 percent - 24 percent but like right now we were planning during the winter when the sun doesn't shine and the wind does not blow as much about 12 percent.
INGRAHAM: Well, Ted Cruz - hold on, Lieutenant governor Ted Cruz was on Hannity and he said that you guys got 25 percent. I'm pretty sure 25 percent of your power from wind and so that's not right?
PATRICK: Ted's my friend. I'm sorry that's just incorrect. Wind and solar combined is about 23 percent at your best day. In other words a few days a year but during the winter time because the sun's not out as much and the wind does not blow as much, we were counting on about 11 or 12 percent, maybe 14 percent from wind during - during this last week.
We were down to 2 percent because the turbines were frozen and there's a lesson here. The lesson is we cannot go down this road, Laura of green energy because right now we have almost everyone's power back. We had millions out several days ago, we have generation now, power generation for almost everyone.
And it's not winds and it's not solar, it's dark out and I can't make the turbines go around. It's fossil fuel, it's clean burning coal, it's nuclear. That's what this country and this state need so we do lead the country in wind, but it is not 25 percent of our everyday power use.
INGRAHAM: Dan, this is become a political you know lightning rod. Obviously, it's the worst thing to happen to Texas since one of the worst worst hurricanes. If not worse than that and Beto O'Rourke is taking to the airwaves to make this a political issue. Not surprisingly. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BETO O'ROURKE, 2020 DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In Texas, you have an example of what happens when the state is governed by those who do not believe in government. State leadership that doesn't believe in climate change. Wind and solar renewable energy actually overperformed. We've got to take action as a state on reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Dan, what else he got wrong other than - other than everything.
PATRICK: Well, he wants to take our guns and our fossil fuel now. Apparently, he has two fistfuls of what he wants to take from Texas so Laura, look, we need a portfolio on America. We need a portfolio on Texas that's nuclear, clean burning coal, that's fossil fuel, that's natural gas.
You know we had this issue this week for a couple reasons, one an incredible freeze. There was - you were talking about Del Rio where I know you've been, and I've been on the border. They had 10 inches of snow today. It's unheralded but what happened should have never happened.
We have this overseeing group, a private company, non for profit called ERCOT and they told us, the leadership in the state last week, they were ready for this so either the power generators that power our energy lied to them or misled them or they misled us because four days later, this past Monday, ERCOT now says we were just a few megawatts away from the whole system going down.
We will have an investigation beginning this week in the Senate Laura and as President of the Senate, as lieutenant governor a bill doesn't come to the floor without my signature on it. There's not a bill coming to the floor unless we now mandate, we made recommendations 10 years ago. We thought they were doing everything they said they were doing.
Obviously, they have not so I'm angry like people are angry and they deserve to be angry. This should never have happened in Texas. Maybe it's time to get rid of ERCOT all together and start with a new firm but we're going to get to the answers, we're going to find out what the hell went wrong and we're going to fix it and we're not - no nonsense anymore.
INGRAHAM: All right.
PATRICK: We're not going to let the lobbyists $5000 suits come in and defend various - please understand this. What I understand is people were cold and shivering and hungry, didn't have water and this should have never happened.
INGRAHAM: All right.
PATRICK: We were not prepared. We were not told the truth and I'm not accepting it and I don't think anyone in the legislature is going to accept it. So we will move on and we will fix it.
INGRAHAM: We'll be following this next week as hearings begin. Our prayers are with the people of Texas their top people but this was this is hard to indoor Dan thank you.
Thanks, we'll be following this next week is hearings begin our prayers are with the people of Texas. They're tough people but this was - this was hard to endure. Dan, thank you very much for joining us tonight and think teachers and school boards are doing everything they can, right? To get kids back in school.
Well, not quite. Shocking new video shows California school board members mocking parents who had concerns about their kids not being in the classroom. One of the parents from that district is here to respond and I can't wait to hear what she has to say. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Now you all know this. Some teachers haven't set foot inside a classroom to teach kids who were there in the classroom for nearly a year and some are still refusing to do so even if they get vaccinated. Many parents are at a breaking point and many children are left distraught and it's just not learning.
So are school boards listening? Well, in one California school district, the answer is decidedly no. In a video conference that was recorded by a parent, school board members in Oakley, California were caught insulting district moms and dads when they thought no one was listening.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you're going to call me out, I'm going to [BEEP] you up. Sorry, that's just me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They want to pick on us because they want their babysitters back. Do we have the meeting open to the public right now?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's what Laurie just said.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Great.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Joining us now Ashley Stalf, Oakley Union School District parent who has a 6-year old daughter in the school system. Ashley, what did you think when you first saw that video? They - at one point, one of the participants said, this is private, right? So they thought nobody was listening but of course someone was.
ASHLEY STALF, OAKLEY UNION SCHOOL DISTRICT PARENT: yes.
INGRAHAM: So apparently there just - people like you are just sitting around, wanting to smoke pot and they don't really care about your kids, you just want a babysitter.
STALF: Apparently and that's far from the truth. I know I speak for many of my good friends around us or around me that we want the best for our children and for a lot of our children, distance learning is just not conducive. It's stressful.
There's you know a lot of crying, a lot of hair-pulling, a lot of attitude. It's just not the best form to be learning. We're doing our best. The teachers are doing their best but it's just at the end of the day you know it's not - it's not school.
INGRAHAM: Well Ashley, one school board trustee thinks that it's the parents who are the offensive ones for wanting the kids back in the classroom. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I forget that there's real people on the other side of those letters that they're writing. Yes, we're real community members. We have kids or have known kids that have gone to these schools.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have a vested interest in this process and they don't know what we go through behind the scenes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Well, now we do and it's not what's best for kids and their families Ashley.
STALF: No, I agree.
INGRAHAM: Well, these are elected school board officials so they're - they're - they're mocking parents when they think no one 's listening. They're saying that parents just want babysitters. They're saying that parents are just wanting to sit at home and smoke pot.
And they're supposed to represent the interests of the kids in the district, the students but they sound like they're representing the interests either of themselves or people who just don't want to go back into the classroom for whatever reason, even if vaccines are available.
STALF: Right and that's the perceived image and I think that's why a lot of not just me but a lot of you know, other moms and dads were so appalled at this is that you know we thought they had our backs. We thought that they were advocates as much as we were for our children.
And after yesterday's comments and jokes and laughing and just genuine insincerity, it really makes me question what their true motives are. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what made them think that they could feel that comfortable to make those kinds of comments.
INGRAHAM: Well, imagine what they - what else they've said.
STALF: Well, I imagined.
INGRAHAM: I bet this happens a lot across the country--
STALF: Oh, I'm sure.
INGRAHAM: - with teachers, with you know, we love teachers. I have a lot of teachers in my family and we love great teachers in America. They're so important to our children and we support them.
STALF: s do we, as do we and you know, with the distance learning, the teachers are in our homes every day so--
INGRAHAM: And by the way - by the way Ashley, I just want to chime in that the district superintendent issued an apology saying, "there were unfortunate and truly inappropriate comments made. These comments are not typical and more importantly they're not what the community should expect from our school district. I'm truly sorry for what took place."
But we had a school board member say I'm going to blank you up B-word. Should that person remain on the board?
STALF: You know I'm not going to be the one to hold people's fate in my hands. I just don't want that kind of power but I also don't want that type of person you know dictating my child's - my child's education so I'm a proud mama bear and she got me riled up so unfortunately she's going to have to see you know, what comes of that.
But you know if it's at the cost of her job, I'm not going to be the one to have to answer to that. That's--
INGRAHAM: Ashley, I appreciate it. I'll be the one that calls for it. Someone who speaks that way about parents who are worried about their kids not learning should go into a different line of work, OK. I'm sure there are other jobs where you can be a rapper or something. I don't know. Whatever you have a fun career doing something else.
STALF: Agreed. Agreed.
INGRAHAM: Ashley, thank you so much, and best of luck with your daughter, and thank you for speaking out.
And speaking of reopening schools, it's clear that the only experts team Biden is listening to on this issue aren't scientists, but the unions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SYMONE SANDERS, SENIOR ADVISER FOR VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: The president and vice president believe that teachers should be prioritized for receiving the vaccination along with other front-line workers.
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The states are making decisions individually about where they will be on the list of who gets vaccinated. I think they should be a priority.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think that we should be vaccinating teachers. We should move them up in the hierarchy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Remember they told us they would listen to the science? So why are they ignoring their savior?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I think to say that you are not going to open up schools until every single one of the teachers gets vaccinated, namely making it a sine qua non of opening, I don't think that we can go there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Is anyone confused yet? They see this issue is hurting them. Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover Institution senior fellow, joins us now. Victor, today, Ron Klain, chief of staff to Biden, blamed Trump for schools still being closed. These people clearly have no shame, and they know this is a devastating political blow to them even in places, as you just saw, like your home state of California.
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, HOOVER INSTITUTION: Absolutely. For over a year, he keeps saying the science is settled. Science is never settled, Laura. It's a fluid phenomenon. If we collated everything Anthony Fauci and the WHO said in the last 12 months, it's a maze of contradictions and adaptations and corrections. That's the way science works. And now science shows that it's probably better to get the schools open and to get the economy moving. We are going to save lives by doing that.
But Joe Biden weaponized this issue, and he appealed to his base, the teachers unions, and the so-called suburban zoom crowd that wanted it to be locked down. And he also politicized it, because as long as Trump was in an election cycle and he was running for president, he thought the narrative would hurt Trump by saying we are in a recession that Trump caused by locking us down, but we have to stay locked down. It was a lose-lose situation.
The irony, Laura, is that now the science really is -- we are getting new data, and it shows that about 100 million Americans according to the CDC have some sort of immunity through exposure, another 60 are vaccinated, may be 50 million are under the age of 15 and are not going to get serious cases. And we are inching up to the point where we may be approaching in another month some type of immunity that it's going to force Biden to act. And even the scientists that are in the minority now who say the lockdown are not going to be tenable.
INGRAHAM: Victor, let me just jump in really quickly. Let me jump in really quickly, because I think that we are at the point that until the voters say no to lockdowns by voting these people out of office, they are going to still keep as much power and control over people as possible. That Capitol fence isn't coming down, the troops aren't leaving D.C. Do you agree with that, that we are going to have to vote these people out because this is too much power, they don't want to give it up, real quick?
HANSON: I do. And I'm getting a little scared, because when you see the data that we are seeing, these dramatic drops in cases and deaths per day due to this huge vaccination, and the virus itself, and then what are they going to do with that data and truth? They're going to have to double down and use more authority, resort to more coercion as the science disappoints them every day. And that's what I'm really worried about. They are on the wrong side of the science, and it's a fluid, radical, changing environment that is antithetical to their agenda, and they are not compromising. They're doubling down and appealing to more coercion.
INGRAHAM: The virus is not cooperating with their agenda of control.
HANSON: No, it's not, not at all.
INGRAHAM: That looks like what's happening with the vaccine as well. Victor, thank you so much.
And who is Joe Biden staffing his administration with? Tonight, we investigate his number three pick at DOJ whose worldview on crime, on race, on climate should alarm you. THE INGRAHAM ANGLE investigates next.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As associate attorney general, the number three job at the department, I nominate Vanita Gupta to answer to the call to serve once again to ensure that our justice system is even more fair and more equitable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: So, who is Vanita Gupta? Gupta it an alum of Eric Holder's DOJ. And more recently she was described by "Rolling Stone" as the woman leading a strategic hub of the resistance in the age of Trump. The group she led was called the Leadership Conference on Human and Civil Rights, and it's a coalition that includes real moderate groups like La Raza, Southern Poverty Law Center, and of course Planned Parenthood. So what would DOJ priorities look like under her watch?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VANITA GUPTA: This moment of reckoning requires leaders together with communities to envision a new paradigm of public safety. That means not just changing policing practices and culture, but ultimately shrinking the footprint of the criminal legal system.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: In other words, no law enforcement. In fact, when BLM and Antifa radicals were torching cities over this summer, guess whose side she took?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VANITA GUPTA: The response that we are seeing on the streets right now is not proportionate, it is not safe. It is a demonstration of military force that is so beyond what is happening on the streets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: But apparently, she loves the military response right now in D.C. where, as far as we can tell, there is no threat. But will she at least use her perch to protect the First Amendment? Just the opposite. She personally met with the CEO of Facebook and Twitter ahead of the election to convince them to crack down on so-called disinformation. That move led to the banning of speech that was deemed harmful to the left. But perhaps most revealing about Miss Gupta was this exchange from last summer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you believe that basically all Americans are racist?
VANITA GUPTA: I think we all implicit bias and racial bias, yes, I do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow.
GUPTA: And I think we are an amazing country that strives to be better every single day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Nice try, but we all know that America will never be good enough for radicals like her.
Joining me now, Dinesh D'Souza, conservative commentator, host of "The Dinesh D'Souza Podcast" and Harmeet Dhillon, civil rights attorney and founder of the Center for American Liberty. Dinesh, the left really does think we are an evil, awful, racist country. But those people usually aren't in a top leadership position in the Justice Department. What is ahead with her?
DINESH D'SOUZA, CONSERVATIVE FILMMAKER: Yes, it's very clear just as Obama had Holder as his wingmen, Biden is bringing in some real radical figures into the Justice Department. Now, what is scary about this is that not the liberalism of Vanita Gupta, but her illiberalism. In other words, the willingness to turn the police agencies of government into weaponized agencies against political opponents. That's not liberalism, that is actually illiberalism. And she seems to have this kind of agenda in which she targets people who are against her, and she is willing to overlook even the unlawful activity of people who she deems to be on her side. The very fact that she is OK with policies like censorship, suppression of speech, she is part of that coordinated action on the left to shut down and criminalize her opponents. That is what makes her a truly scary person.
INGRAHAM: I want to skip something she said about using all the levers of government, Harmeet, when she was describing what she wanted to do when she got into the Justice Department. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VANITA GUPTA: Now is the time to ensure that our economic system works for everyone. We will harness all of the Justice Department's levers for civil rights, justice, and police reform, and climate justice, and so much more.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Climate justice, abolishing the police, Harmeet. All of the levers of government, back to what Dinesh said, squelching free speech, illiberal moves one and all.
HARMEET DHILLON, ATTORNEY: It looks like they are using the levers of government to dismantle the government. And I think most Americans would agree that one of the core functions of the government is to keep us safe. And this is what happens. This is part of the trend we have seen of Soros type prosecutors who are really public defenders coming in and dismantling justice at every level in our country. And now this is probably going to be the highest level of DOJ official who has these radical views, and her experience in the government shows she knows how to work those levers. She was acting head of the civil rights division under Obama.
And so she played a central role in the outcome of the election last year by helping the big tech companies justify censorship of speech that criticized how our elections were being run. So you can only imagine with this type of power how the government is going to be weaponized against the critics of the government.
INGRAHAM: And to that point --
DHILLON: -- in every way being contrary to what the job is supposed to be.
INGRAHAM: To that point, Dinesh, this is what she said about voting. This was last year. Watch.
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VANITA GUPTA: We need expanded vote by mail with things like prepaid postage stamps. You've seen and heard about the attacks on the U.S. Postal Service that are causing delays. You need extended online voter legislation. We need to be fighting disinformation on platforms like Facebook and others.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Dinesh, is there any doubt in your mind whatsoever that they're going to climate justice, racial justice, and pandemic concerns to push for universal mail-in ballots as a federal issue?
D'SOUZA: No doubt at all. And in some ways, I'm almost in admiration for the aggression that these Democrats and leftists show in pushing their cause. Just contrast this, for example, with Attorney General Barr who appeared before a Democratic committee just a few months ago. And they basically were accusing him, the Trump administration, of weaponizing the Justice Department. And Barr said something like, well, can you name a single Democrat I've gone after? Can you give me one case where I have used the Justice Department against a political opponent? And they couldn't, and he couldn't either. So he was using this as a demonstration of the Trump administration's fairness. So while our side bends over backwards to create not only the actuality, but the appearance of fairness, the other side just goes all out in pushing its agenda without having to worry about even the appearance of unfairness.
INGRAHAM: All right, Dinesh and Harmeet, thank you so much.
After hesitating during the campaign, President Biden is now leaning into the idea of reparations. The legendary Bob Woodson reacts to that next.
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INGRAHAM: President Biden is backing a study of reparations for black Americans as Congressional Democrats advance a bill to do just that. And now they are making outlandish claims.
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SHEILA JACKSON LEE, (D-TX): If reparation proposals had been implemented before the COVID-19 pandemic, narrowing the wealth gap, COVID-19 transmission rates in the states' overall population could have been reduced by anywhere from 31 to 68 percent.
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INGRAHAM: I thought there the party of science? According to one estimate, the price tag for reparations would be somewhere between $10 trillion and $12 trillion. Joining me now, Bob Woodson, former civil rights activist, founder of the Woodson Center. Bob, aside from the price tag, in a country with $25 trillion in debt or whatever we have now, what does it say about Joe Biden that he is allowing this to continue to percolate?
BOB WOODSON, FORMER CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: I just think the whole issue is a massive destruction. Even getting into the details of it, who pays? What about the descendants of five tribes, the Trail of Tears, they had thousands of slaves? There were free blacks who owned slaves. Do those descendants pay? The Nigerians and other Africans who came here, 3.5 million of them here, their incomes are better than whites. It's just a distraction so we don't have to deal with the fundamental, real challenges facing black America today.
INGRAHAM: Bob, do you think the Democrats like to hold this issue out as a carrot, and say, look, this is what -- and they know they're not going to deliver it. But it's a way to avoid the other problems.
WOODSON: They don't have to deal with the black-on-black crime. They don't have to answer why if racism were the primary barrier facing blacks, why have low income blacks suffered these inequities in these cities, all of these black run Democratic cities over the past 50 years where blacks have been -- why are blacks failing in institutions run by their own people?
And the fact that Proposition 16 in California has been rejected, in a liberal state like California, they are rejecting an affirmative action. So where is a market for this? I just think it's a distraction so they don't have to deal with the fundamental challenges facing it, and that is the self-inflicted wounds that are occurring in America today. What we are doing at the Woodson Center is we have to have solutions. The solutions cannot be found through transactions like reparations. It's going to be found by investing in institutions and individuals within those communities. It's more cultural than it is economic.
INGRAHAM: I could not agree with you more. And you do it every day, by the way.
Freshman Congresswoman Cori Bush offered a defense of this reparations bill. Watch.
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REP. CORI BUSH, (D-MO): The violence my family withstood from one generation to the next was not isolated. It was systemic. It was structural. It was political. The federal government must account for its ongoing role in perpetuating, supporting, and upholding white supremacy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Bob, there's a lot of white supremacy language being thrown around. Is this the federal government upholding white supremacy?
WOODSON: Laura, I almost prefer, as a civil rights veteran, I almost prefer the old-fashioned bigots, because they were obvious in their opposition, and it was clear that their intention was to hurt us. But we are suffering more by the so called friends and champions of blacks than we are our obvious enemies. And what they are communicating to blacks is that we don't have the capacity or ability to be agents of our own uplift, that somehow our destiny is going to be determined by what white people do or do not do. That's a more insidious form of racism is to assume that we don't have the capacity to achieve. When whites were at their worst in the past, blacks were at their best. We owned hotels, we had our own railroads. In Chicago, we have 731 black owned business, $100 million in real estate assets. We did this during segregation.
INGRAHAM: Bob, we have to run, but we want to have you back soon. Fascinating conversation.
When we come back, Chris Cuomo's Last Bite.
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INGRAHAM: This is a FOX News alert. The younger Cuo-bro has just called out his big brother Andy over his deadly nursing home policy.
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CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: He has been totally shamed, exposed for going full Trump. That means lying. I wonder who he's going to blame. You think it's going to be the media, or the left, or both. Who is going to get blamed for what he did? Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Whoops. This show usually doesn't have to apologize for a mistake, but that's apparently in reference to Senator Cruz flying to Cancun, not his brother's policies leading to the death of 15,000 seniors. We anxiously await his indignation on that.
That's all the time we have tonight. Mike Emanuel is in for Shannon Bream. He and the FOX NEWS AT NIGHT team take it all from here. Mike?
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