Trump: Religious liberty is under siege, it was the right time to do it

close

Video

Trump: Religious liberty is under siege, it was the right time to do it

President Donald Trump discusses being the first president to speak at March for Life with Fox News' Raymond Arroyo.

This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle,” January 24, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: I'm Laura Ingraham, and this is THE INGRAHAM ANGLE. And what a show we have for you tonight from Washington. Our own Raymond Arroyo spoke with President Trump today about Lev Parnas impeachment and his historic address to the March for Life. It was a tour de force.

The two-part exclusive is straight ahead. And we unpack all the impeachment madness. It was Groundhog Day today. We need Bill Murray to show up in the House. Democrat, House managers just wrapped up their case and Trump impeachment lawyer, Robert Ray, Congressman Mark Meadows, Senator David Perdue are all here to break it all down. Plus 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard is here. She's going to talk about her party's Russia obsession and her present impeachment vote.

And we have part three of our investigation into a 2016 White House meeting that involves Obama officials and Ukrainian prosecutors. We've spoken to one of the Ukrainians now who was in that meeting. What he told us will be later on in the show.

But first, despite what many in the public might think, Democrats keep telling us that their case against President Trump isn't complicated at all. It's simple like basic math.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is no doubt. That's obstruction. Plain and simple.

(Senate Impeachment Trial)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): The conclusion as simple as two plus two equals four.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: This is nursery school. While Adam Schiff may need to go back to primary school because what the Democrats told us in their closing arguments today doesn't really add up. Now first, they keep claiming that they have proof of this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHIFF: Witness testimony, text messages, e-mails.

(Senate Impeachment Trial)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it is damning evidence of a corrupt quid pro quo.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: If any of them are lawyers they should lose their bar license just over that statement because it's funny how they always leave out this part of Ambassador Sondland's testimony.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GORDON SONDLAND, AMBASSADOR TO EU: President Trump never told me directly that the aid was conditioned on the meetings.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: So, the President cannot be impeached on innuendo and there are just sense of things, speculation especially from someone as slippery as Sondland. Second, Democrats also contend that Trump held up Ukrainian aid to help himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): The evidence is clear.

(Senate Impeachment Trial)

For a personal political benefit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Personal political benefit was never discussed. And for the record, Trump ran on a platform committed to reforming the distribution of foreign aid much to the chagrin of the establishment GOP, I might add and one of the reasons so many of us supported him. And he's also held up taxpayer funds to several countries to get them to change their policies.

The truth is that Trump's anti foreign aid agenda has ruffled feathers of all these career globalists embedded in the State Department, who sometimes have more of a focus on their countries of focus and their own little sections where they work than they do what's good for the United States.

And by the way even if what Congressman Crow here said is true, it's just a ludicrous legal standard. Law professor Josh Blackman explains it best. He writes in The New York Times otherwise legal conduct even when plainly politically motivated does not amount to an impeachable abuse of power. The House's short-sighted standard will fail to knock out Mr. Trump, but if taken seriously threatens to put virtually every elected official in peril.

Third, and this is a favorite of Adam Schiff that Trump is basically just a Manchurian candidate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHIFF: They've got the President of the United States to discredit his own intelligence agencies.

(Senate Impeachment Trial)

Has there ever been such a coup?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Wait. Is there a Russian under the desk here? What. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is cuckoo stuff. Trump has not only increased sanctions against Russia. He also gave Ukraine lethal military aid to protect itself from Russia. And remember, the Obama administration refused to provide the aid. How many times can we say this?

Adam Schiff is supposed to be so smart, is he just forget all this and sublimate it all. And let's not forget that under Trump, we are now the world's largest oil producer. Thanks in part to the President's energy dominance agenda. That fact alone gives the Russians nightmares. This impeachment trial will eventually come to an end.

Trump is going to be acquitted and Democrats will still have to face voters in November. We think with an agenda at some point. Now, when that happens, Trump will have a massive list of accomplishments. The USMCA, the China deal deregulation 100 - what 60 judges now. A booming economy and so on and so on. So, what will the Democrats have?

Joining me now is Congressman Mark Meadows, Trump impeachment defense team member. Congressman, over the last week it's apparent that the Democrats case is just a smear job. It's intended to cast Trump's every move as somehow just orchestrated by Russia. He's just a marionette and Putin is upstairs pulling the strings.

REP. MARK MEADOWS (R-NC): Well, it's interesting. Adam Schiff talked about the President being a Russian asset again. We had Jerry Nadler talking about him being a dictator and this is not about the American voter. This is not even about the Senate. This is about their own fragile ego.

The Democrat House managers want so much to make an impact that they're out there exaggerating, mischaracterizing, lying and instead of it being the end of a President Trump's presidency, this is going to be the end of a Joe Biden nomination. I can tell you; senators are upset by what they believe has been a false narrative that has been tried to be perpetrated on the American people. Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, we haven't seen the end of it, you're going to hear from Senator David Perdue, a real serious and thorough senator. He was there today I was behind him on the Senate floor. I look forward to seeing what he has to say about that very subject.

INGRAHAM: Adam Schiff says that Trump, Congressman is so dangerous that we cannot risk waiting nine months to the people who get to decide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHIFF: There is powerful evidence.

(Senate Impeachment Trial)

This creates an urgent need to remove him from office before the next election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MEADOWS: You know it's amazing. Here we have Adam Schiff, a Democrat House manager on the Senate floor suggesting that his opinion is better than the American people. I mean what are we? We are a democracy where every four years we get to go to the ballot box and pick a new president. He's suggesting that he has a better idea than the voters in my home state. The voters across the country?

INGRAHAM: He's from California. So, he's in the L.A. area. So, of course, they all - that's a majority that despises Trump right off the bat.

MEADOWS: Well, they do. But--

INGRAHAM: That's his constituency.

MEADOWS: But here's the thing is we've wasted three years of attacks from Adam Schiff. He's lied about the Russia collusion. When that didn't work, he says well just wait, the Mueller Report. When that didn't work then what did he say? Well, we're going to have a new Russian narrative with a Ukrainian spin, and he's been spinning for the last three days. I can tell you is three days wasted days and three days of wasted nights. And yet, here we are today trying to understand all these false narratives. Well, tomorrow morning, Saturday morning, I can tell you the Trump defense team will--

INGRAHAM: They're itching to go. They're ready. They're like they're chomping at the bit.

MEADOWS: They are going to highlight so many false statements that were made by my Democrat colleagues that it will make your head spin.

INGRAHAM: KASIE Hunt of MSNBC, one of your favorites has something to say. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KASIE HUNT, MSNBC CORRESPONDENT: There are so many Republicans in this building, who we all know are horrified by what the President is doing. That is not my opinion. That is simply what we hear as reporters on Capitol Hill day in and day out in a private setting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MEADOWS: Well, listen, I challenge Kasie to go ahead and start naming those senators. I saw Kasie down there, actually she was one level below the Senate chamber where she was actually doing most of her coverage. That was in Statuary Hall.

Listen, it's real easy to say that there are some senators somewhere that has a problem with it. But I can tell you, I know that there were 53 senators that stood together motion after motion to make sure that they stood with this President. And at the end of the day, they're going to not only vindicate this President, but they're going to tell the American people one important thing, we trust you more than Democrat House members here in the Senate. We'll wait until November to let you be the judge.

INGRAHAM: We want you to have your say. Talk about us, they think things are simple. How's that for a simple proposition.

MEADOWS: That's exactly where we need to go.

INGRAHAM: Congressman, I know you've had long days working on the team. Thank you so much for being here tonight.

MEADOWS: Thank you.

INGRAHAM: We'll check in with you next week. And President Trump making history today. He became the first U.S. President to ever in person address the March for Life. He spoke with our own Raymond Arroyo on the sidelines of the pro-life rally. He addressed new recordings allegedly revealing Lev Parnas' role in the firing of that Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and the House impeachment managers efforts to absolve Hunter Biden of any wrongdoing at all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAYMOND ARROYO, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: They claimed the other day that Hunter Biden had nothing to do with this. These are groundless charges. Your reaction to that?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, when you look at the Biden's and the Biden family when somebody with actually not a job, who just was taken out of the Navy, I mean thrown out of the Navy had nothing. All of a sudden, the father becomes Vice President and he's making millions of dollars. The son is making millions and millions of dollars and we're not only talking about Ukraine. We're talking about from China and they think there are other countries too that will be found out as we go along.

And there are those that are saying that's extremely dishonest. That's corruption. And it is corruption.

ARROYO: You heard what they said. They said you weren't interested until Biden was rising in the polls.

TRUMP: Well, it looks to me like he might not even make it. And he was one of how many 25 or 26 people. And it's so ridiculous to think that - and you have to understand, when I made that call, there might have been 25 people on the call. You know I know that there are many people on all this - because when you talk into a world leader, they even have a printout on the call. They have a lot of people on the call.

So, can you imagine, I wouldn't do it anyway. But can you imagine with all of these people, Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State was on with all of these people on the call, I'm going to say something that's inappropriate. That call was perfect.

I mean people have - when they read the transcript, they say that call was perfect.

ARROYO: Before I get back to the Pro Life, this major event, history making moment. The ABC News is reporting a recording of Lev Parnas, another Rudy Giuliani affiliate. And you purportedly at the Trump Hotel from April of 2018 where you were quoted as saying of Marie Yovanovitch, the Ukrainian Ambassador. Get rid of her. Take her out. OK. Do it. Were you relying on Lev Parnas to get rid of your ambassador?

TRUMP: No. But I have a lot of people and you know he's somebody that I guess based on pictures that I see; he goes to fundraisers. But I am not a fan of that ambassador just so you understand. From what I understand, and I heard this a long time ago, she wouldn't put my picture up. She was an Obama appointee I believe, and she wouldn't put--

ARROYO: Did you tell Parnas to get rid of her. I mean you have a State Department.

TRUMP: Well, I wouldn't have been saying that. I probably would have said it was Rudy there or somebody, but I make no bones about it. I wouldn't have ambassadors. I have every right. I want ambassadors that are chosen by me. I have a right to hire and fire ambassadors and that's a very important thing.

But even if you look at the conversation I had with the President, he her, like it because in there he didn't like her. So, I don't know, I didn't hear this. But if they hadn't - I will tell you right now. I feel strongly that this is somebody that shouldn't be with us. She wasn't popular even in the country and the new President who ran on a corruption--

ARROYO: But Parnas might have been at a table you were at or at a function.

TRUMP: Something could be sure. But you have to understand, I would see - I see thousands of people. I just left Florida where I was shaking hands, taking pictures with hundreds and hundreds of people in one night.

ARROYO: What would be your advice to your defense team. Look, you're a man of TV after Ronald Reagan or with Ronald Reagan probably the man who knows TV better than anybody. What do you want to see from your defense team? What would be your advice to them?

TRUMP: So, I watched all the lies and I watched all of the misstatements, it's a fraud. I watched Schiff prior to this. He wouldn't say it now, can't. But he tried to make up a statement that I made. That's why I released the transcript. They were making up a lot of statements that were just false.

I watched him say that there were eight quid pro quos. There were none. I watched him - this is why I had releases. I mean we got approval from Ukraine and I released it. I don't want to do it. Many people heard the conversation that were on the line, but I don't want to do this. But we've got approval from Ukraine. I watched him say, the end - like a mob kind of. Don't call me, I'll call you. That's like a mob. That's from The Godfather or someplace.

So, I watched all of this, Raymond and I said, this is terrible. We have to release it. It was a total lie. It was a fabrication. It was a made-up statement. What my people have to do is just be honest, just tell the truth.

They've been testifying. The Democrats, they've been telling so many lies, so many fabrications, so much exaggeration and this is not impeachable. In fact, I don't even know how to determine this, but they say it's not a crime. Everybody says that the other side says it, it's not a crime. They say, but it doesn't have to be a crime. Well, maybe it doesn't have to be a crime, but can you imagine being impeach and you didn't commit a crime.

So, there's no crime. This is a political horrible witch hunt. And they're doing it to try and win an election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: More from our exclusive interview with President Trump later on in the show. And you just heard the President's advice to his legal team as they prepare for oral arguments to begin tomorrow.

Well, Robert Ray is a member of Trump's defense team and he joins us now. Robert. Now you all began bright and early tomorrow at around 10 AM, so what will be the main point you try to get across to the Senate jurors and whatever time you have allotted tomorrow. We understand, it's going to be perhaps about two hours.

ROBERT RAY, TRUMP DEFENSE TEAM: Just what the - you heard the President say, be honest, tell the truth. And the President's own words to me were very simple instruction. Do what you think is right. You know what better client to have than that. So that's what we aim to do.

I think probably a couple of hours tomorrow. And the message will be to be organized, to be persuasive, to not be repetitive and to do only what is necessary to persuade members of the Senate that these impeachment articles are not sustainable and do not warrant the President's removal from office.

INGRAHAM: Well Congressman. OK, we get it. We have a lot to hit on this, in this story Roberts. So, I want to keep it moving. Congressman Demings made a kind of outrageous claim today that if Trump isn't removed, his obstruction will keep rolling. Check it out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. VAL DEMINGS (R-FL): The president abused the powers entrusted in him by the American people.

(Senate Impeachment Trial)

His obstruction remains ongoing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: So that's basically claiming that you all in refusing to provide documents and texts and witnesses, you're all part of the obstruction. That's kind of an outrageous claim to make against the entire defense team for the President.

RAY: Well, and it's not been limited to that, they've essentially tried to make also the argument that if the Senate doesn't do what they want that the Senate is part of that cover up. I don't think it's a particularly good idea to essentially being in a position of impugning the integrity of the decision maker in this process.

Look, I mean - look, they can make that argument all they want. You heard from the President. The President released the full transcript of the call that led to his own impeachment. How you could possibly conclude that his conduct warrants an obstruction of Congress charge is beyond me.

I mean that's just a very sort of basic understanding of what's going on here.

INGRAHAM: Well, they're trying to infer intent which is the most ridiculous thing ever when he had 15 people listening to the call. He somehow had criminal intent knowing that people were listening and transcribing the phone call. It doesn't pass the straight face test.

RAY: No, and it could never be - it could never be corrupt intent. That's the point. And that's the only relevant consideration for purposes of impeachment.

INGRAHAM: Let's talk about what the Democrats curiously open the door to in yesterday's presentation when they kept mentioning over and over again the Biden's.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHIFF: Now that Biden's in the picture, he's got a problem.

(Senate Impeachment Trial)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Biden are groundless.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: And yet Robert today, Schiff claimed this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHIFF: Shouldn't matter that was Joe Biden.

(Senate Impeachment Trial)

Which American citizens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: They're just American citizens. I guess just like Carter Page was before they serve him down.

RAY: Look, you can expect that we'll have a section of our presentation that will address the question of the Biden's, because House impeachment managers have injected that into the proceedings at their own peril and have opened the door to it.

But I will say this, one of the problems of having a standard less impeachment is really two things. One is that you can pour pretty much anything that you want into vague articles of impeachment.

And the second is just that you wander all over the place on factual issues that really don't go to the question about whether or not the articles as charged warrant the President's removal from office. This is not an oversight hearing. This is an impeachment trial and the Senate needs only to decide whether or not they need witnesses or further evidence to render judgment about whether the President's conduct warrants removal from office. That's it.

INGRAHAM: I'll take it a step further, Robert. This is a campaign commercial that they hope that this is going to be--

RAY: Well, sure.

INGRAHAM: This is an attack ad. That's all this is. It's an attack ad on Trump paid for by the U.S. taxpayers. Robert, we're going to be watching tomorrow. We look forward to it. We'll talk to you next week.

RAY: Thanks very much, Laura.

INGRAHAM: Absolutely. In moments, we speak to 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard on her party's new - not really that new now, but very odd obsession with a new cold war. Plus, more from our exclusive investigation into a secret 2016 White House meeting on the Biden's and Burisma. A former Ukrainian official who was at that meeting speaks out to THE INGRAHAM ANGLE. And stay tuned for part two of Raymond's interview with President Trump from the March for Life. That's all coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHIFF: CBS News reported last night.

(Senate Impeachment Trial)

Head on a pike.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: House Democrats just wrapped up their closing arguments in a Senate impeachment trial. And it was those comments from Adam Schiff that really riled two moderates, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski that Democrats desperately need of course, they need those two senators if they want to get witnesses. They weren't happy about hearing that.

Joining me now is Senator David Perdue who endured Groundhog Day today from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Senator, head on a pike, did anyone say anything close to that to you?

SEN. DAVID PERDUE (R-GA): Of course not, Laura. I mean this is - but this is just one more lie in a series of lies this entire week. I've never been more embarrassed about being the United States Senate than I am now. Listen to these House members come over and lecture us about being complicit in the cover up, calling the President's defense team liars right out of the gate. The hypocrisy of this presentation over the last three days is just something that you can't describe.

INGRAHAM: And actually, just openly insulting the Senate.

PERDUE: Well, too. Accused us.

INGRAHAM: I mean look, everyone has their own little power play here going on. But to come in and say that they were warned that you either get in line and they're all scared of Trump that they think the dictator. And when Murkowski and Collins apparently audibly said no, well that's what it was reported.

PERDUE: It was ridiculous. Yes, I heard that too. But this is like I said the very first get go in the opening statement, Adam Schiff gave away their real theory and that is you can't trust elections. Therefore, we have impeachment. So anytime you have an opposing party that has a majority in the House and a different party in the White House, you're going to have an impeachment.

INGRAHAM: Schiff actually spoke to that.

PERDUE: He did.

INGRAHAM: Unwittingly, I think.

PERDUE: He did.

INGRAHAM: Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHIFF: Do you think if we do nothing.

(Senate Impeachment Trial)

It's not going to stop unless the Congress does something about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: I think we need to check on Adam Schiff tonight. He seemed a little uneasy there.

PERDUE: He's disappointed. What's he going to do tomorrow? He can't talk for 10 hours tomorrow. But what Jason Crow said to that point was just so - I mean so unnerving to me. He said, this impeachment is not about convicting past wrongdoings. It's about protecting America from future wrongdoings. That sounds like the Minority Report to me.

I mean this is incredible what they're talking about and they're going at something about - this whole thing article one around motive. The principle is if a President does something, what they want you to believe is he does something lawful, but they can convince you that it's for political gain. That's impeachable.

Well, they have not proved that this was done for his political advantage. And what he was doing after the five-year legacy of corruption that we now know is coming out about this Biden-Burisma baloney, if you will, it's certainly requires--

INGRAHAM: The Obama administration was having meetings about the conflict, which we're going to get into in our next segment.

PERDUE: Well, wait till you see what Joe Biden himself did with Poroshenko. He actually did a quid pro quo about firing Shokin and if he didn't fire Shokin, he was going to withhold a $1 billion of loan guarantee. That's never come out here and that's there.

Not only that, but Devon Archer, Devon Archer, the partner of Hunter Biden who was also a Board Member of Burisma actually has a meeting with John Kerry, the Secretary of State. Two days later, the Assistant Secretary of State calls and demand Shokin to be fired. A week later is when Joe Biden had that Poroshenko conversation about withholding loan guarantees.

INGRAHAM: So, who is getting whom fired here.

PERDUE: Exactly. Well, they're trying to get Shokin fired who was a prosecutor going after the Burisma issue.

INGRAHAM: So, next week, you're going to hear from the President.

PERDUE: For the first time since this whole travesty started, Laura, we finally give the president an opportunity to present his side of the case, finally.

INGRAHAM: It's great to see you, come back next week if you can.

PERDUE: God bless you. I'll be there.

INGRAHAM: Great to see you, Senator.

And if there's one thing that we've learned from watching the House impeachment managers this week, it's that Russian paranoia has completely overtaken the Democrat Party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHIFF: This is how alliances wither and die, and how Russia wins.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Russia was watching very closely for any sign of weakness. The damage was done.

SCHIFF: In a war with Russia, has there ever been such a coup? I would submit to you, in the entire length of the cold war, the Soviet Union had no such success.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Joining me now is Congresswoman and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard. Congresswoman, great to have you on tonight.

REP. TULSI GABBARD (D-HI), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thanks, Laura.

INGRAHAM: I'm curious, when did your party start buying into the neoconservative desire to resuscitate the cold war?

GABBARD: I can tell you what the consequence of it is. We just saw in all of these headlines that broke yesterday with the doomsday clock being moved to 100 seconds before midnight as the bulletin of atomic scientists are announcing that we are closer yet again to nuclear catastrophe, and we are seeing the results of this new cold war, this ratcheting up of tensions between the United States and Russia.

I think a lot of people maybe not remembering that we have a lot of missiles still pointed at each other's countries on hair trigger alert, within minutes those missiles could be launched, and so there are serious consequences to this new cold war that pose an existential threat to our country. We've got to take it seriously.

INGRAHAM: And congresswoman, the thing about this is Russia's economy is about the size of France now, and meanwhile we have China that has a larger standing army than the United States, has a billion plus people, has assets all of the world and growing. If you want to talk about threats to, in general, freedom, or encroaching upon freedom, it would be China, yet suddenly we are freaking out about the former eastern bloc countries? I just don't think that is what the American people are, yet anytime someone raises the issue of maybe a reset with Russia, you are called a Russian asset. You've been called a Russian asset. I'm sure somewhere I am called a Russian asset. I don't particularly like Russia, but I also don't want war if we can avoid it.

GABBARD: Exactly, exactly. And that is really the point here. And this has been the major reason why I decided to run for president, because we had a huge nuclear wakeup call in Hawaii back in 2018 that really was a wake-up call about this existential threat that is posed with these increasing tensions between the U.S. and nuclear-armed countries like Russia and China, and the need for courage in leadership to exercise diplomacy to de- escalate these tensions to try to put some of these treaties back together again that Reagan and Gorbachev negotiated so long ago, to actually deal with the problem, walk us back from the brink of nuclear catastrophe, to ensure the safety, security, and freedom of the American people, because that is the most important responsibility that the president has and that our government should have, and that should be the driver behind the decisions that are being made.

INGRAHAM: And congresswoman, I know you voted present on impeachment in the House, and you've gotten a lot of grief about that on the campaign trail. What are your thoughts now? I'm sure you've caught snippets of the Senate trial. Any changes in your thinking?

GABBARD: Only snippets, to be honest. I am here in New Hampshire. We are spending every day campaigning across the state. We're 18 days out from Election Day here. And you might be surprised, Laura, that not many people are asking about impeachment in the town halls that we are holding every single day here. Their minds are focused on things like the opioid crisis that families here in New Hampshire and across the country are still being devastated by. They are focused on things like education, on our national security, things that really are directly impacting their lives, and are sick and tired of a Washington that is not focusing on them, and not hearing their voices and their calls for a government that is actually working for them.

INGRAHAM: Do you agree with President Trump that the Democrats are trying to sabotage Bernie Sanders?

GABBARD: I think that there's clearly some powerful forces who are trying to keep him from gaining more traction. I think that people like Bernie and myself scare a lot of the Democratic establishment in Washington because they can't control us. Bernie and I agree on some things, disagree on others.

But my loyalty, my focus, my mission is to serve the people of our country. And I'll call it straight. I say what I mean, I mean what I say, and no one can have any doubt that as I make decisions, the kind of leadership I will bring will continue this commitment to service that I've had throughout my entire adult life, service to our country and the American people.

INGRAHAM: Congressman, it's great to see you tonight. And we have a lot of people want to know, are you ever going to wear anything other than white? Because your cleaning bills on the trail must be very difficult.

(LAUGHTER)

INGRAHAM: I'm just teasing. You look great in white. It's like the Tom Wolfe of political campaigning.

GABBARD: Thank you, there you go.

INGRAHAM: Thanks so much.

GABBARD: I had my New England flannel on earlier tonight, but I don't know. It was good for the town hall.

INGRAHAM: OK, sounds great. Take care of yourself.

And up next, the third installment of our exclusive "Ingraham Angle" investigation into the secret 2016 White House meeting on the Bidens and Burisma. One of the Ukrainians in that meeting spoke to THE INGRAHAM ANGLE. Plus, part two of our exclusive interview with President Trump from the March for Life. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Over the past few nights we've laid out details of a 2016 White House meeting between Obama officials and Ukrainian prosecutors. The Bidens and Burisma were the main topic. We discovered the existence of this meeting in an email chain between State Department staffers in "The New York Times" reporter Ken Vogel. We obtained those emails exclusively.

In examining archive White House visitor logs, we came across two names that piqued our interest. The first, the person who checked the Ukrainians into the White House the day of the meeting. That person has been identified by some as the impeachment whistleblower. The second point, another person at the 2016 meeting, Andriy Telizhenko, he worked at the Ukrainian embassy at the time, and as we reported last night, was quoted in a 2017 political article, also by Ken Vogel, explaining how he was forced to work with a DNC operative to hurt Trump.

Telizhenko saw part two of our investigation last night, and tonight he has decided to speak out. "I'm being pressured to hobble Trump's 2016 campaign," he told THE INGRAHAM ANGLE. "I was told to work and cooperate with Mrs. Chalupa, a DNC operative, by Ambassador Chaliy. Chalupa asked me to help her get dirt on presidential candidate Donald Trump. I never coordinated any work with her or the DNC because I did not support the unethical orders to work and assist one party." He also provided these documents, a White House invite and a schedule of the meeting, listing two names, one associated with the whistleblower, whose name we blacked out, and Elizabeth Zentos, both from Obama's NSC.

Telizhenko also told us that while the meeting was touted as a, quote, prosecutors training program, much of the conversation revolved around the Bidens and Burisma. And it wasn't the Ukrainians who brought up Bidens and Burisma. Telizhenko said "The representatives of the DOJ, U.S. embassy in Kiev, and NSC staff raised the question of the Burisma investigation. Most of the NSC staff were people from Bidens team." Wow. You getting this focus now?

Joining me now, Byron York, chief political correspondent for the "Examiner," and Sara Carter, host of "The Sara Carter Podcast," both Fox News Contributors, and Lee Smith, investigative journalist, author of "The Plot Against The President." All right, Sara, how can Democrats continue to claim the Bidens and Burisma have no relevance to this?

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: They can't, this is the point. And this is the reason why Adam Schiff doesn't want to call the whistleblower. This is the reason why he doesn't want any more information coming out, because what we know now is those connections were so deep inside the State Department. And by the way, it's not only Ukraine, you hear this coming from other countries with the Obama administration, officials in other countries. I'll give you an example. In Guatemala, the same thing, pressure from the State Department to do things their way or they'll withhold aid. So this is nothing new.

I think right now we're at the cusp of something really big. This is an explosive report, Laura. This is huge and it absolutely has to be investigated. But who is going to investigate it, the DOJ? The Senate Judiciary?

INGRAHAM: Someone should be doing this other than "THE INGRAHAM ANGLE." Byron?

BRYON YORK, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "WASHINGTON EXAMINER": This could be the nexus between the whistleblower and the Biden-Burisma story, where you have concerns in the Obama White House about Hunter Biden's connections in Ukraine. His father is obviously the vice president. And now we have, we know, that the person alleged to be the whistleblower was involved with that.

And so it makes it very hard -- senators do not want -- Republicans do not want to call witnesses. They don't want any witnesses. But if they had to have a witness, it seems that whistleblower is the one. I do not believe it is possible to call for the removal of the president of the United States and say, some of the evidence has to stay secret. It's just got to be a secret.

INGRAHAM: To invalidate a presidential election? Lee Smith, that whistleblower's name, if that is the whistleblower, reported whistleblower, is on every log for that meeting, meaning he checked everyone in from anticorruption prosecutor in the Ukraine where it looks like they were discussing what to do about the Bidens and what to do about this corruption in Burisma. That was the focus, and it was billed as something generic so as not to raise eyebrows.

LEE SMITH, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: Another key point which you have a statement from Mr. Telizhenko is that they are looking for information on candidate Donald Trump at that point. That seems to cut right to the heart of the impeachment issue here. If their complaint is that the president was looking for information on Biden and what we are really looking at is, in its sources, they were collecting dirt on candidate Trump in 2016.

INGRAHAM: And remember, Senator Grassley, we should get into this, Senator Grassley and Senator Johnson wrote our request for records from 2016 White House meetings between the Obama administration and the Ukrainian government official, and they asked for the records. This is an outstanding request for information. Byron, you know this information is out there, you know every single person at this meeting knows a lot about how this started and how the concern about the conflict arose.

YORK: I'll tell you, interest in the whole Hunter Biden story among Republican senators has just gone through the roof in the last 24 hours because they believe Democrats yesterday just completely opened the door to it by being so defensive about it. They want to know more now.

INGRAHAM: Schiff reacted to this today, made this claim.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHIFF: Now you will hear the further defense that Biden is corrupt, that Joe Biden is corrupt, that Hunter Biden is corrupt. If they couldn't get Ukraine to smear the Bidens, they want to use this trial to do it instead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: This is, in light of what we have now discovered, this is really funny.

CARTER: This is really funny, because right now not only did he open the door, and the president's attorney, Jay Sekulow, is so right, it's like, why would you go there? Because now this is where we are going to go, and we are going to expose this corruption. And even more importantly, all of these documents, Laura, that you have been able to show here on this show, that you've been able to expose, actually show that Joe Biden obviously knew everything that was going on before he made those demands.

INGRAHAM: Good point. Good point, because he has claimed all along that he knew very little. It kind of changed, the story, but he basically didn't talked to his son about all of this when they were flying over to Ukraine together, they didn't really talk much about this.

SMITH: The American public has now been exposed to four consecutive days of Schiff-ism as Adam Schiff been holding forth and defending all sorts of things. Of course, this is what he has been doing for three years, obscuring all sorts of abuses, fomenting conspiracy theories, and this is what has been going on for the last four days.

INGRAHAM: But Byron, I have to say, the Democrats have been pretty consistent in trying to tar any conversation about the Bidens as a conspiracy theory. That is part of the conspiracy theory that Ukraine had anything to do with any kind of negative campaigning on Trump.

YORK: That was a complaint from Pat Cipollone and a legal team, that running for president somehow conferred immunity on Biden. And you can talk about this.

The bigger thing, though, to remember about the impeachment right now is Republicans want to get this over with. They want to have the defense present its case, they want to have some questions, and they want to vote it and end it now.

INGRAHAM: Is there any sense that the moderate Republicans are waffling? I don't get it, but maybe you're hearing something I'm not, Sara?

CARTER: I think Byron is right on this, and this is what I keep hearing, too. But I also think there's a very important point. I think that once they opened the door, just as you showed with Adam Schiff, just as we've been hearing over and over ad nauseam for the last three days about Biden and about Burisma, we have seen now may be a little bit of a shift, saying, OK, if you are going in this direction, if you really want to push for witnesses, maybe we should just do it.

INGRAHAM: That'll be months of this. We will all be having a lot of fun.

(LAUGHTER)

INGRAHAM: Thank you all very much.

And stay tuned for part two of Raymond Arroyo's interview with President Trump where he discusses his commitment to the life issue. Plus, what the March for Life participants in D.C. really think of the president. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We cannot know what our citizens yet unborn will achieve, the dreams they will imagine, the masterpieces they will create, the discoveries they will make. But we know this -- every life brings love into this world. Every child brings joy to a family. Every person is worth protecting.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: I think that was my favorite part of that speech. Mr. President, well said. He made history today by being the very first commander-in-chief to speak at the March for Life. And can you believe that no other president, none, had ever done that before. We sent our own Raymond Arroyo to the rally to see how the marchers reacted to the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is really empowering just to know that we are being heard and that something is actually being done.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's the most pro-life president that we have ever had.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I pray every day in church for our leaders, and so it's good to see that prayers actually work. He is here and he is supporting life in all its beauty.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Number one most pro-life president we've had so far just from the amount of change that we've seen with him in office.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We love our president. We love life. To unite the two is awesome.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: And here's part of two of Raymond one-on-one with President Trump from earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAYMOND ARROYO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Mr. President, talking to people coming in here, they were saying you elevated this movement and that you made them feel included. Others are saying you are doing this for politics. It's an election year. When was the moment when you went from pro-choice to pro-life? Was there a moment?

TRUMP: It was, and there was a specific moment. And it was quite a while ago, but it was something that's turned out to be even more, I think probably even more of a truth than I would have thought at the time. But it's just an honor to be here today. They have tens of thousands of people outside, too, Raymond. So this was their all-time record. And I think they beat it by a lot. And incredible people, they're just incredible people.

ARROYO: I've got to ask you this. You came here and marched with this March for Life and this pro-life community for the first time in history. Why did you feel you had to come at this moment in American history?

TRUMP: I think it's just timing. It's under siege. Religious liberty is under siege. If you look at everything that the folks here stand for that we're surrounded by, that's under siege. I just thought it would be good. I was here. I was in D.C. The March was going to be successful, but we made it much more successful. And I think it sets a good tone. I know now they are going to march down to the Supreme Court, and that will be a beautiful thing to see. And there won't be riots and they're won't be fighting. And these are incredible people.

ARROYO: All over the country.

TRUMP: And I just felt it was a great time to do it. You really are bringing a lot of people together, and that's good.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

INGRAHAM: Raymond Arroyo, Fox News contributor, joins us now. Raymond, what a great interview. The president just seemed really kind of at peace. It was just such a nice moment.

ARROYO: He is comfortable in this place, Laura. And thousands and thousands of young people, high schoolers, middle-schoolers, college kids got on buses for hours to come here. This is a youthful movement. And to a person they said we feel affirmed. We feel we are part of the rest of the country after 47 years of marching for this cause of life. They feel a part of the political establishment, part of the fabric of the nation. That's what having the president go this live meant to those people.

INGRAHAM: And CNN and MSNBC didn't even cover this.

ARROYO: No. And then a CNN reporter had this to say. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was just last month that we saw that editorial that was published in an evangelical publication that called for President Trump's removal. And it really sent the White House into damage control mode. This is now being part of that damage control.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Bless her heart, but, my goodness, the synapses were not firing with that comment.

ARROYO: Damage control? First of all, this isn't damage control. This is consistent pro-life policy. This is the man who restored the Mexico City policy, rolled back Obama's contraceptive mandate. He defunded parts of abortion --

INGRAHAM: Alex Azar, Alex Azar at HHS has been incredible on the life issue.

ARROYO: Incredibly. So to say that this is damage control --

INGRAHAM: These are reporters who are zealots.

ARROYO: Ill-informed, ill-informed.

INGRAHAM: They're zealots blinded by their Trump-hatred, and they're not reporting the facts. If you don't like the president, that's your right not to like the president. But at least don't make up facts or purposely avoid facts that cut against your argument.

ARROYO: The other problem here is they are saying this is an evangelical search and rescue mission. No, no, no. This is primarily a Catholic undertaking. He knew what he was doing. These are people who, again, they marched quietly and prayed for 47 years. This new Marist poll, I'm going to point this out, while even Joe Biden who for many years supported cutting federal funding of abortion, 70 percent in this new Marist poll want abortion restrictions, 60 percent, including a third of Democrats, want taxpayer funding out of abortion, 60 percent.

INGRAHAM: And Biden has gone back on what he used to believe on that.

ARROYO: The Democrat Party has abandoned the pro-life movement, and he's embracing it.

INGRAHAM: And Mini Mike Bloomberg tweeted this today -- that just came off. That was not nice. Mike Bloomberg tweeted, "Trump's decision to speak at the #MarchforLife is an example of this administration's relentless assault on women." Apparently not women in womb. They're OK under this. "Everyone at the march has a right to voice their opinion" grammatically mistaken, "but that does not preclude a woman's right to make decisions about her own body."

ARROYO: You know who founded this march? A woman name Nellie Gray who fought in World War II. This is all about women and mothers. And if you go there, it's women marching. So to think that this is somehow a bunch of men, or this is handmaid's tale, that's not what is at play here. And Donald Trump, I have to tell you, years ago he told me the full story. We will get into it another time, where he personally had this epiphany. It was a couple he knew. One wanted an abortion, one didn't. He ended up knowing and understanding the child that came from that decision. The child was born. And he said that turned my thinking entirely.

INGRAHAM: Can people not change their minds?

ARROYO: Redemption, Laura. And this is a crowd that cherishes and embraces and salutes redemption.

INGRAHAM: And I do not care for the conservatives who are saying he is just doing this for this. You shouldn't go to be part of the March for Life. These are bitter never-Trumpers, bitter people.

ARROYO: I don't care. I don't care what people say. Show me what you do. And the fact is his policies are consistently pro-life.

INGRAHAM: And it was a beautiful, beautiful thing for the president to be there and for all of those wonderful young people who showed up. We'll be in impeachment all next week.

Content and Programming Copyright 2020 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2020 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.