Published February 13, 2020
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle,” February 13, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: "Malignant dictatorships we've hated in our foreign policy since WWII." Unfortunately you're insane Alec. We'll always seek the truth, we'll never be the media mob.
Please set your DVR every night. Let not your heart be troubled because Laura Ingraham's here. Hi.
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Hannity, I'm always glad when that dry ice special effect comes up and I'm not the villain of the day. I'm always happy.
HANNITY: Come on really?
INGRAHAM: Yes.
HANNITY: All right, so you really think that one day I'm going to choose you as the--
INGRAHAM: Yes.
HANNITY: You believe that.
INGRAHAM: Yes and then I'll make sure just let's cut corners, at least my staff will get to pitch fork and everything.
HANNITY: If you do something that deserves it, that's it. You're going to be middle of the day but you're going to have to earn it. Alec Baldwin's tough to beat.
INGRAHAM: But Hannity, I want to actually get real dry ice for your studio. I mean if you're going to do it, you got to do it right.
HANNITY: You want like a concert.
INGRAHAM: You got a fancy set up over there. I want the flames and the - I want the whole deal OK?
HANNITY: You have the fanciest set up - you have as fancy a set up as I do. You have the same exact fancy.
INGRAHAM: Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? I love our set. I'm not going to say anything else. We have a great set here. Tech people, you know the people when you ski, you go skiing, you don't ski but I'll just tell you the--
HANNITY: These sets cost millions of dollars to build these things.
INGRAHAM: Listen when someone goes skiing, right? And they have that $1000 pair of skis, it's fun to be on a pair of really old you know, old dogs on your feet and then you go whizzing right by because people are really nice studios. Then you have a rudimentary studio and you're number one. You're number one.
HANNITY: Something like that. Whatever you say. I don't care.
INGRAHAM: Hannity have a great night.
HANNITY: Have a good show.
INGRAHAM: All right, I'm Laura Ingraham. This is the Ingraham Angle from DC tonight. The Left is so overcome with their zeal to eject Trump from office that they're abandoning all their supposed principles to back perhaps a plutocrat like Mike Bloomberg. No. But will he sell out America to China?
My Angle explains how he might already have done it and speaking of Mini Mike, despite his old thoughts on stop and frisk resurfacing. We're hearing those tapes, the mayor made a pitch to black voters in Houston tonight. Did it work?
Well, we sent a special guest inside and he went into the event. You know who it is. I'm not going to tell you who it is. Oh, you see him on the screen. Dinesh D'Souza. Already shock. I wanted you to have a little trick there. All right, the exclusive video that we got ahead.
Plus, we were the only show to report on that deranged leftist who drove a van into a Trump voter registration tent in Florida and we have an important update on that story for you tonight.
But first, the big news today was Bill Barr defending decision to scale back Roger Stone's outrageous sentencing recommendation. Earlier today, the Attorney General told ABC news this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: When I first saw the news reports, I said, gee, the news is spinning this. This is not what we were going to do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you were surprised?
BARR: I was very surprised. I said that night to my staff that we had to get ready because we had to do something in the morning to a man that can clarify what our position was. I had made a decision that I thought was fair and reasonable in this particular case.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now Barr's right of course. Whatever your feelings about Roger Stone, he doesn't deserve nearly a decade in jail for lying about activity that's not even illegal. And on top of that Stone is 67 years old and has no criminal history.
But the media they're not interested in that part of the interview. No. Facts and details bore the chattering class. They unsurprisingly found this to be the big takeaway.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARR: To have public statements and tweets made about the department, about people in the department, our men and women here, about cases pending in the department and about judges before whom we have cases, make it impossible for me to do my job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Ah ha, a comment that almost everyone in Trump's orbit has said before is suddenly the new bomb shell.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARI MELBER, MSNBC HOST: News here from what can only be described now as the besieged Attorney General of the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In his warped imagination, this is a terrible disloyal thing to do and these people must be punished.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does Bill Barr have enough goodwill with the President and political capital that he can do something like this and get away with it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He fired Sessions after almost two full years of simmering. We might get Barr leaving on his own.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: She always looks happy but like so many others, they misread what's really going on. The White House released a statement shortly after the interview reading in part, the President wasn't bothered by the comments at all and he has the right just like any other American citizen to publicly offer his opinions.
The president has full faith and confidence in AG Barr to do his job and uphold the law. The White House denial second matter to Democrat so they're going to still try to use the Stone case to make up for their embarrassing impeachment failure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Something egregious like this demands that the Inspector General investigate.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What Barr has done should mean that we are demanding a resignation. In effect, I won't resign from the House should start impeachment proceedings against him.
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): Attorney General William Barr ought to be ashamed and be embarrassed and resign.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: And the media playing right along.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's almost every big decision that is coming through the Justice Department now has to be sent through the White House and checkout with the President and then do what the President - to the President bidding. We've never - we didn't see that in Watergate. This is why this is more sinister.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: It always goes back to being more sinister than Watergate. I mean they just have stock phrases. They just pull them off the shelf and spit him out on TV. Joining me now, John Eastman, Clairemont Institute Senior Fellow, constitutional scholar and Darrell Issa, former Chair of the House Oversight Committee that oversees the DOJ.
All right John, the media sees the sexy story of Trump versus Barr but they miss the fact that Barr was basically telling Trump, don't worry I got this.
JOHN EASTMAN, SENIOR FELLOW, CLAREMONT INSTITUTE: I got this and you know, the Democrats to seem to overlook article two of the constitution. The executive powers vested in the President.
The top law enforcement officer is the Attorney General. If he wants to counteract decisions of the line prosecutor, that is their job. There's nothing wrong with this. And what was wrong with it is the egregious you know, pre-dawn raid on Roger Stone and throwing the book at this guy because they don't like his politics.
INGRAHAM: And I have to say this Congressman Issa, that tweeting about a pending case, John and I know this, you know this, it is going to be a problematic thing because it's not - it's not going to necessarily affect any outcome nor should it.
However, it does put the Attorney General in a bit of a pickle, does it not? Because then - wait a second - he's pressured. He wasn't pressured. He's doing what he thought was right but hence, the tweet hangs out over his shoulder and it makes it a little trickier for him.
So I do get that point.
DARRELL ISSA (R-CA), FORMER CONGRESSMAN: Well, you know there's been no communicator in our history like Donald Trump and President Trump's need and desire and effectiveness to say what people are thinking including the unfair treatment of Roger Stone.
To be honest Trump's all these other things so yes, I understand how every member of the cabinet would prefer to have the Chief Executive just say, you've got this but in some cases like Eddie Gallagher who was unfairly treated, the navy seals or in the case of Roger Stone, the President having an opinion and if appropriate, the President using his ability to give clemency or pardoning, those are his rights.
And so I don't think there's any question and I don't see a rift between the Attorney General and the President. Just the opposite. I see the Attorney General doing what he needs to do and not being afraid to say that the line attorneys and by the way, a very questionable federal judge in Amy Berman Jackson, you might remember, she's the one that gave Eric Holder, an extra two years to slow walk, fast and furious.
I don't blame the President for doing what he's doing which is communicating to American people because they want to hear it now.
INGRAHAM: Well, John again, it's just so you - remind everyone what happened here. Roger Stone, the jury foreman, Tomeka Hart who is in the Roger Stone jury called Roger Stone, racist, pre-trial. Called Trump supporters, racist. Likened Trump to the KKK. The foreperson on the jury praised the Mueller investigation and ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Democrat.
Now is there a reason the President should be unhappy about this?
EASTMAN: Yes and in fact she lied in her - to the judge when she said she had no really - hadn't been following the Miller investigation. She had been tweeting about it the whole time. Look, there's another thing aspect of this and that's the gross double standard. President Obama gives a speech, exonerating Hillary Clinton before her Department of Justice lawyers do anything with Hillary Clinton and nobody's talking about that.
Trump tweets out something on a decision that's already going to be made and all of a sudden, it's a new impeachable offense. I mean this is laughable.
INGRAHAM: Now, I don't remember the media getting all bent out of shape when Obama weighed in on a myriad of legal cases.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The police acted stupidly.
If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you know about Hillary Clinton's use of private email server?
OBAMA: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While she was Secretary of State?
OBAMA: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think it posed a national security problem?
OBAMA: I don't think it posed a national security problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Remember that Congressman, you were in Congress when Obama was doing all this.
EASTMAN: The double standards.
ISSA: Exactly, the double standard and by the way the double standard for Eric Holder. They clearly got away with this, you know Clapper and Comey and plenty of people have lied to Congress and have not been held accountable.
You know I'm on the campaign trail and everyday people ask me one thing, which is you know, you were effective chairman. You held these people accountable but nothing happened. The fact is under the last administration, they made sure that none of the people who lied to Congress, none of the people who did much worse things were actually prosecuted.
Even Eric Holder who was referred for criminal contempt, the President bailed him out by claiming executive privilege only to later admit that those documents were never privileged documents but that's - that's forgotten by the so-called mainstream media and it's something that President Trump is not going to fail to say in real time because the American people need to hear it in real.
INGRAHAM: All right, speaking of which I want to show everybody this. You were talking about Eric Holder, former AG for Obama. This is what he had to say about Barr in a tweet. He said, "Do not underestimate the danger of the situation. The political appointees and the DOJ are involving themselves in an appropriate way in cases involving political allies of the President. This affects the rule of law and respect for it. Unprecedented." John.
EASTMAN: Unprecedented except for what he did when he was head of the DOJ. He launched the most political efforts in the Department of Justice in our nation's history. He was cited for contempt of Congress, the first attorney General.
INGRAHAM: Fast and furious.
EASTMAN: Yes. Fast and furious for lying to Congress, for withholding documents without a bases and a privilege and he politicized every aspect of the Department of Justice.
INGRAHAM: Remember when he did his first speech to the employees of the Department of Justice, let's see, a little quiz on the Ingraham Angle. You know what his first speech was to the employees?
EASTMAN: I don't.
INGRAHAM: We're a nation of cowards.
EASTMAN: Oh, that's right.
INGRAHAM: On the issue of race.
EASTMAN: That's right.
INGRAHAM: It was all about race and how the country's initiative - so that's how he introduced himself to the department.
EASTMAN: Right and worse, they got a lot of those guys in his political appointees and then they converted them to career appointees who are still there in the deep state, working against the elected president.
INGRAHAM: Congressman, how concerned are you that some of these same people are still burrowed in at DOJ and in agencies like the National Security Council.
ISSA: Well, I'm not just concerned that national security is - it's very clear that people see it. But the DOJ, I'm very concerned. You know, I talked to border patrol agents, rank and file, all the way up to their heads and they're frustrated that they're still being thwarted to do their job by those very people that were left embedded.
You know, one of the other things that Eric Holder should be remembered for, he came before Congress and asked about being the Chief Law Enforcement. He looked us in the eye and he said I wear two hats and in follow up, it became clear the two hats he wears, one is the chief law enforcement.
The other is a political appointee of President Obama.
INGRAHAM: Yes.
ISSA: That's something that Bill Barr never said and if he had said it, the Senate would have - the Democrats in the Senate would have had a hay day and yet openly, Eric Holder thought he was a political appointee and acted like one.
INGRAHAM: Yes, all right gentlemen, thank you so much. Great to see both of you tonight and the President today lambasted the lead juror in that case as I mentioned earlier. It looks like she did hide her anti-Trump bias during jury selection in the Roger Stone case.
But have no fear because the media quickly rode in to her defense.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was so struck by the President going after the foreperson on that jury today because you know, this is someone who has done their civic duty.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You see him interfering today, chastising the jurors in the Roger Stone case.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His allies are waging a war against the jury itself who convicted Roger Stone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump has also attacked a Roger Stone juror, that's an American citizen, alleging without evidence, significant biased.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're seeing jury nullification at a presidential level.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Joining me now is former Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker. General Whitaker, was Trump justified in being outraged about this juror?
MATT WHITAKER, FORMER ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL, UNITED STATES: Yes, this is an extraordinary moment and really, I remember when I was U.S. attorney and we'd have trials where there was allegations that jurors--
INGRAHAM: U.S. attorney in Iowa for people who don't know your resume.
WHITAKER: In Des Moines, Iowa. So well-qualified to talk about these issues. Both, have been the Attorney General plus have been a U.S. attorney and what I - what I know is that you know that once a juror is corrupt or has a bias that the whole system falls apart and this - and really you know, I think we should be concerned about jurors and especially here unfortunately in the district of Columbia, where they kind of game the system in and have biases that they aren't willing to admit.
This person clearly had maybe not prejudged the case but certainly, had a preferred outcome and opinions on the case.
INGRAHAM: Is there any way to go back in and try to - I mean, you are saying it was jury nullification on the part of Trump. Is there any way to go back in and try to overturn this you know, this case at this point? Under just because of the juror?
WHITAKER: Yes, so once the jury has rendered their decision, obviously there's all sorts of procedural things that attach and undoing a jury verdict is now is--
INGRAHAM: No, very hard.
WHITAKER: - is hard but not impossible.
INGRAHAM: The DC circuit. You have to go to the DC circuit.
WHITAKER: There's going to have to be a showing that it was bias and that you know, the outcome - it's harder. It's better to win a trial than to lose a trial and then try to appeal on various theories.
But - but there is - there is - the system will work and if this you know, person is demonstrated to have had these anti-Trump biases and anti-Stone biases, that can be undone.
INGRAHAM: Just going back to the Bill Bar thing for a moment. I mean, you've known Bill Barr for a long time. I certainly have as well. Are you surprised by the way the media is playing this? I mean Barr - Barr is just like a - he's a no nonsense guy.
He wants to do the job and get his job done but he's been incredibly supportive of the President's agenda and incredibly phenomenal cabinet secretary over at justice but it's like they're trying to put a wedge in the relationship and President is like I have no problem with this.
WHITAKER: There's no way. The president should and does have full confidence in Bill Barr. He's the perfect person to be Attorney General this time and let's - I mean, this idea that somehow the Attorney General is impotent to insert himself in the most important cases, highest profile cases facing the Department of Justice is just not true.
INGRAHAM: Yes, don't they work under him?
WHITAKER: Absolutely. They - all of them are.
INGRAHAM: These guys who quit in other words, were they justified - we're quitting because Bill Barr, were they political actors?
WHITAKER: It's been clear from his interview that they had told him, they were going to do quite the opposite and then did exactly what he had said no, let's go another direction or decision had been made and they went the other direction anyway.
This seems to be a little bit of a - of a setup to cause this exact kerfuffle.
INGRAHAM: Choreographed?
WHITAKER: Yes, very much choreographed and you know, fundamentally, all of their powers derivative from the President and the Attorney General and if the Attorney General was led to believe and says, we should recommend - make this recommendation and they don't, you know, they shouldn't really resign, they should be concerned about being removed because that's a - that's an insubordinate act.
INGRAHAM: I mean, this is article two. The President is the head of the executive branch. I mean this gets lost on a lot of people. It's like these runaway detailees from the CIA or from some other department or one prosecutor gets to run the show.
WHITAKER: And just remember, career doesn't mean nonpartisan. We keep using that as inter-changeable terms and it just is not true.
INGRAHAM: All right, Mr. Attorney General, great to see you.
WHITAKER: Good to see you.
INGRAHAM: Always great to see you. And coming up, the Democrat and media establishment seem to be warming to Mike Bloomberg but why won't they tell his full story? Up next, my Angle exposes how the former New York City Mayor has put China's interests perhaps ahead of ours.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: In Bloomberg's China cabinet. That's the focus of tonight's Angle. After I was counting chaos and slim wins for Pete and Bernie in the first two nominating contest and after Biden's campaign collapsed, you can kind of feel things changing in the Democratic Party.
You can feel it and you can hear it. I'm talking about the murmurs for Mike, the banter for Bloomy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A big winner last night could be Mayor Bloomberg.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bloomberg looks well-positioned now to swoop in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He wasn't given his money like Donald Trump was. He earned it the old fashioned way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's done more to reduce violence, not only in his own city but cities across America, more than any single living person.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mike Bloomberg can win this campaign. Donald Trump knows it. He's afraid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Well, Bloomberg in a way is everything that they love. Where Trump is a proud nationalist, Bloomberg's a citizen of the world. He's a globalist from Manhattan who is phase by mass abortions but agonizes over the climate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No matter what you think of climate change that it really has the potential to destroy our world. Which means stopping polluting and all those kinds of things.
If you want 32 ounces, take two cups to your seed, if you want 64 carry four but our hope is if you only take one, you won't go back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Oh, this is going to be fun. What's not to like? Well, a lot actually and it's not just that he's bad on guns, bad on immigration, terrible on healthcare and our food choices. Bloomberg's really bad when it comes to our chief economic and military threat.
I'm talking about China. In fact, he can't even bring himself to use the correct words to describe their government.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLOOMBERG: The communist party wants to stay in power in China and they listen to the public. When the public says, I can't breathe the air, Xi Jinping is not a dictator, he has to satisfy his constituents or he's not going to survive.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's not a dictator?
BLOOMBERG: No, he has to - he has a constituency to answer to. No government survives without the will of the majority of its people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The idea that the Chinese government is responsive to sort of the democratic expression of fresh air, clean air.
BLOOMBERG: Oh, come on, of course they are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: That, in and of itself should tell us all, he should never be President. They're responsive, the Chinese government? Oh, not to the people. To the dictatorship, oh OK, that makes it OK.
Now and he said this, remember China was in the midst of a brutal suppressing of the pro-democracy demonstration at Hong Kong and as we were just learning at the time, the true extent of China's vast array of concentration camps for those Uighur Muslims.
Bloomberg has been getting increasingly tight with the Chinese for years. He loves their massive market place and they love his money and influence in the United States.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLOOMBERG: I first met him 15 years ago at a dinner in my house when he was the Mayor of Beijing. Today he is the most influential political figure in China and in the world. Please join me in welcoming the Vice President of China, Wang Qishan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: He's gushing over China's Vice President. Took place at the New Economy Forum that Bloomberg's company holds every year. Now, guess where they hosted this 2019 conference?
Why Beijing, of course. Of course. I'm telling you, keep your eye on Bloomberg's business activities in China. They're actually increasing as he's running for President.
Democrats might not be asking any questions about this but Newt Gingrich sure is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEWT GINGRICH (R), FORMER SPEAKER OF HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: What percent of his fortune came from cutting deals with the dictatorship in China? What share of the money he's going to spend to try to buy the presidency actually came from China because of his willingness to be cozy with a dictatorship?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: While China was cheating at trades, stealing our intellectual property and putting American companies out of business, Bloomberg was helping Beijing get richer and more powerful.
The Washington Post is reporting, Bloomberg while showering praise on the Communist Party leaders whose goodwill is required to play a role in the fast-growing market, led efforts since 2015 to make it easier for U.S. companies to trade in Chinese currency and expanded one of his company's financial indexes which could steer $150 billion into China while earning his firm on undisclosed amount in fees.
Oh, my friends we're talking billions and billions of dollars in fees made in communist China and here's a fun little fact, Bloomberg's operations rake in more money each year from China and Hong Kong than all of the businesses of the Trump organization combined that they made in all of 2018.
So with all this, whom do you think China's rooting for in November? Do they want the current president who's forced them to make concessions on trade, the one who slapped tariffs on them or would they want the guy who will basically give them everything they want?
Follow the tweets from the Mayor's media company for any length of time and you'll see it's constantly pushing a pro-China agenda. They've even been called out for spiking stories critical of Beijing over at Bloomberg. Look at this headline about the coronavirus from last week.
China sacrifices a province to save the world from coronavirus. And this one. The U.S. charges a leading nanoscientist with lying about his work with the Thousand Talents program. Will China's most brilliant minds balk at coming to America? So you get the idea.
Now, it will be hilarious but not completely surprising if it ends up being Bloomberg versus Trump. Now think about it. Democrats, the self-anointed champions of human rights choosing a pro-China guy as their nominate. They're also supposedly pro-American worker.
So how would it look to pick a guy who will just end up making it easier for companies here to ship jobs over there? And my goodness, how will it make the squad feel if their party runs one New York billionaire against another billionaire? The answer. Now well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): It's physically impossible. The whole thing is a joke.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You guys are crazy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is simply a disruption and a distraction.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: You get the point. They're not going to be happy and that's the Angle. All right, joining me now, Richard Goodstein, Attorney, former adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton along with Charlie Hurt, Opinion Editor for The Washington Times and a Fox news contributor.
All right Richard, if it means beating Trump, will Democrats defend Bloomberg's remarks and business ties to China which are vast?
RICHARD GOODSTEIN, FORMER ADVISER TO BILL AND HILLARY CLINTON: Yes, so the short answer is of course. That's you know, Democrats are so intent on beating Donald Trump, I think that they would be happy to have Michael Bloomberg and indeed, they're probably thrilled to see in this Quinnipiac poll that I've seen cited repeatedly over the past few days on Fox news, Michael Bloomberg beating Donald Trump by nine points today.
This is after these best few weeks of Donald Trump's political life.
INGRAHAM: All right, stay on track. Stay on track what I'm focused on. The Democrat party has prided itself on being the party of human rights. Divestment in South Africa. They blast Israel with a boycott, divestment deal on college campuses and yet, there is a thought they may embrace this guy who can't even call the Chinese government, a Chinese dictatorship, a communist government system and is cosying up to the dictators over there and to the way that he is.
I mean how does that work Richard? How do you square that?
GOODSTEIN: So I actually agree with something that Newt Gingrich said on that tape that you ran, which is let's see how much business Mike Bloomberg made from China and there's a way to get to the bottom of it.
Same with Donald Trump, release your tax returns. OK? That's how we'll actually know how much is talk and how much is nonsense. And incidentally, running $1 trillion deficits is not exactly the way to get leverage over the Chinese. That's actually helps --
INGRAHAM: So, again, Charlie, I'm trying to just get my head wrapped around this. Michael Bloomberg, who makes billions of dollars in China, is going to be tougher on China than Donald Trump has been? Are you kidding me? These people hated tariffs. They hated his tariffs.
CHARLES HURT, OPINION EDITOR, "WASHINGTON TIMES": And that is exactly the point. Whatever investment the Trump companies have had in China, Donald Trump has been tougher on China than any president we have had in three decades.
And I'm so grateful to you, Laura, for running that package right there, because it is so important. Not only is it a wonderful precursor to what we are going to see in ads from the Trump against a candidate like Bloomberg, but it is also very important reminder -- and you were one of the few people in the media industry who caught onto this early. One of the most powerful platforms Donald Trump ran on was his opposition to China. He understood what people in regular America thought about China, what they had seen China doing to regular Americans' jobs over the past three decades that politicians in both parties had ignored for decades. And Donald Trump is the first one to call them on it. And we have seen in his first term he is willing to confront them on it. And that right there speaks --
INGRAHAM: Bernie Sanders is pretty good on China. It goes from Marco Rubio to Bernie Sanders. Republicans and Democrats are now waking up to the China threat. This is not some minor issue. The 21st century is either going to be ours or it's going to be China's. No doubt about it. And yet Bloomberg, he can't bring himself to say communist dictatorship. I don't know what you do.
GOODSTEIN: I love the fact that Donald Trump has imposed tens of billions of dollars of taxes, tariffs we'll call them, on American consumers. We know that. That is not disputable.
HURT: By standing up to China?
GOODSTEIN: And ostensibly that is opposing some hardship on China.
HURT: By standing up to China?
GOODSTEIN: And meanwhile, the bailout of our auto industry was a pittance compared to what we have now had to bail out our farmers because Donald Trump has basically imposed these tariffs to make their lives miserable.
HURT: Tariffs for selling goods into our country? I don't think -- that is not a tax on American people. That is actually money coming into the government coffers.
GOODSTEIN: But Chinese imports -- listen, goods coming from China into the United States are being tariffed.
INGRAHAM: Hold on, let's do a little economics. Why aren't we having inflation now then? Where's our inflation? If what you are saying is true, where are all the inflationary pressures on buying in the United States? They're not there. The answer is there is no inflationary tendency in this market right now.
GOODSTEIN: Yes. And the fact of the matter is if the public was so thrilled with the state of the economy, Donald Trump wouldn't be down nine points down to Michael Bloomberg, Republicans would not be minus eight in the generic ballot. Donald Trump would not be under water by --
INGRAHAM: Hillary was up by, what, 15 points nationally?
GOODSTEIN: I agree that polls can be off.
INGRAHAM: Your people were up 15 points, Hillary was up 15 points, and that went down in flames. This will too, as well. But Michael Bloomberg is a crafty person. He's very smart obviously, but this is the quintessential struggle, America versus China. Gentlemen, great conversation.
Speaking of Mike Bloomberg, fresh off his stop and frisk controversy, he held an event in Houston tonight to woo African-American voters. So what did they think? We sent Dinesh D'Souza inside to find out, and he has the video next. And then Herman Cain responds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Mike Bloomberg is making his pitch to African-Americans in Houston, Texas, tonight, and this comes after years old videos resurfacing showing Bloomberg saying un-woke things about stop and frisk and redlining. Bloomberg repudiated these past remarks, but what people at his campaign event tonight, what do they think? We sent conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza to find out, and he joins us now. Dinesh, here is a conversation you had with two ladies. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DINESH D'SOUZA, CONSERVATIVE FILMMAKER: You've heard about Bloomberg and the stop and frisk program. Is that something that bothers you about Mike, or are you OK with Mike's position on stop and frisk?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maybe with good intentions, but you can't implicate policies that are going to ostracize certain populations.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm a mother of a young black boy. I have an eight- year-old son. And ultimately, I don't want him to be judged just by what he has on or the color of his skin. So stop and frisk, do I agree with it? Absolutely not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: So Dinesh, those ladies were not happy about stop and frisk, but he apologized for it. He went to a church and he did a big mea culpa. And was that the common response tonight?
DINESH D'SOUZA, CONSERVATIVE FILMMAKER: Yes, I think this was a crowd of Democratic activists. There was a kind of skeptical openness to Bloomberg, not real enthusiasm I don't think, but a willingness to hear him out. I think the issues that they are concerned about is hypocrisy, because Bloomberg saying one thing and doing another.
And so my send, it was funny, because as I tried to interview people, I realized that half the people there worked for Bloomberg. So one after the other, I work for Bloomberg, I work for Bloomberg. I wouldn't be surprised if a fourth of the audience works for Bloomberg. I couldn't find people who were not on Bloomberg payroll to talk to. And the mood was open-minded, but a little doubtful.
INGRAHAM: Dinesh, is that a Bloomberg pin you have on I'm noticing on your lapel? What is that all about? Is that how you got in there?
D'SOUZA: I don't think I can keep it on much longer because I came here right from the event, but as I walked in, they slapped it on me. Everyone has to have one of these to get in. So this was the price of admission. I don't think it's good for my career for me to keep it on too long.
INGRAHAM: One of the more troubling interactions tonight was about black unemployment numbers. I want to play that. Watch.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't believe those numbers are reflective of what is actually happening with the employment situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: How does the president combat that disinformation? The economy has never been better for black America, and yet there are people in that audience saying I don't believe those numbers.
D'SOUZA: I think it is just sheer cognitive dissonance, because these are people who have been bombarded with anti-Trump propaganda. And so then when they see Trump at the State of the Union recite this litany of great things one after the other -- a strong economy, an economy that is disproportionately benefiting the working class and African-Americans and other minorities, it's almost as if, how can that be? And so a certain kind of dissonance I think creeps in which you are forced to deny the facts in order to support the hypothesis that you have been force-fed over many, many years.
INGRAHAM: Dinesh, the Quinnipiac poll that just came out, black support in the Democratic primary, Biden is at 27, he's fallen quite a bit, though, Bloomberg is at 22 percent, Sanders, 19, Buttigieg is at four. Poor little Amy is at zero, not sure what is going on there. But does that comport with what you saw tonight? This is after this tape was played, and Trump has been slamming him, but he seems pretty popular among African-Americans according to that poll.
D'SOUZA: The crowd I saw was -- they were all these local -- Houston is a Democratic city. People think because it's Texas, it's got to be conservative. No. It's a Democratic city, and all the Democratic local officials were there. They had rustled up their local audiences. There were like 25 speakers before Bloomberg got to the podium. So this was one of those coming together moments. And Bloomberg has got the money. Maybe there is a feeling that the cash ultimately will deliver the goods with Bloomberg. and I think ultimately Bloomberg may just be the beneficiary of Biden's rapid political hemorrhaging, which seems to be occurring on all fronts.
INGRAHAM: All right, Dinesh, thanks so much for going out tonight.
And as Bloomberg pitches black voters in Houston, major African-American donors are airing their grievances about the 2020 field. "Politico" reporting that "The Democratic Party's black donor class believes the candidates aren't doing enough to court the black community." I wonder why they are so worried.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE BUTTIGIEG, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There are things we can and should do right away that could deal with black money. I'm sorry, dark money.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: African-American money.
(LAUGHTER)
BUTTIGIEG: I'm always happy to take black money contributions.
BLOOMBERG: I think we disproportionately stop whites too much and minorities too little.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Oh, my gosh, that is quite a montage.
Joining me now is Herman Cain, former 2012 GOP presidential candidate, and Scott Bolden, attorney, former chair of the D.C. Democrat Party. Herman, is this an opening for President Trump to woo black voters given these various missteps, some of which you just saw.
HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think it is an opening for president Trump to woo black voters because President Trump is trying to woo the United States of America. The results that this president has been able to achieve have helped all people. That is the difference. The Democrats and the liberals continue to think that there are specific things that they can say or do that's going to woo black voters. The only thing that black voters and brown voters have in common is that they are black and brown. They are not politically aligned. They are not ideologically aligned. They're no monolithic. So to try to put them in a homogeneous group as one group all the time is a mistake. And all you have to do is look at the reputable polls, and you will see that the support for President Trump from black people has grown and grown and grown.
INGRAHAM: Scott, your response?
SCOTT BOLDEN, FORMER D.C. DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHAIRMAN: I don't think the polls are very credible just based on not just anecdotal, but the mythology that somehow Donald Trump, because of the economy and because of black unemployment at its lowest level is going to translate into votes for Donald Trump. Every poll, Quinnipiac or otherwise, has him in the single digits, and that is not going to change.
What's driving black support and black donors not giving isn't because they believe they've been taken for granted. We agree with Republicans that the Democrats take black people for granted and our money for granted. What the reason the money is being held right now is because the number one priority is beating Donald Trump, and none of the Democratic candidates at this point, given how early it is, no one is convinced as to who that nominee is going to be who is going to get Donald Trump one-on-one.
And so you're going to have a lot of money held up. I'm a black donor. I sit on the Democratic Business Council. I haven't given to a Democratic presidential candidate yet because ultimately beating Donald Trump and who is that nominee going to be, we are way early on this.
INGRAHAM: You've got to make a decision.
I want to play something that Elizabeth Warren had said going back to this Bloomberg issue where he does this mea culpa for standing up for stop and frisk, and makes comments about disproportionate crime. Then he walks them back, and he's just throwing money into this race, $150 million already spent, going to spend half-a-billion, I guess, on this race. This is what she said about Bloomberg. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Michael Bloomberg is saying, in effect, that the 2008 financial crash was caused because the banks weren't permitted to discriminate against black and brown people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: It is getting ugly out there, Herman Cain. Warren doesn't have much of a chance at this point, but she is staying in it, and she is going to pick up Bloomberg quite a bit on this race run. Does he have enough money to overcome it?
CAIN: No, he does not have enough money to overcome it. I have said this before and on your show -- many black people have left the Democrat plantation and they are not going back. They are not going to be swayed by Michael Bloomberg having a lot of money to go up against Donald Trump.
And I agree with your guest on one thing. Beat Trump, that is not a strategy. The reason that Joe Biden is falling and falling and falling in favor with the base is because they don't have an alternative to the policies that have proven to work so well. And I happen to believe that some of the black people who don't believe these low black unemployment numbers are simply victims of brainwashing by the news and the cable outlets that they watch. So no, I don't buy it. And there are some credible polls out there. Emerson is a credible poll, and Gallup is a credible poll, and they both came up with the same results.
INGRAHAM: We've got to roll, guys.
BOLDEN: Maybe, maybe not. But the bottom line is that black people aren't voting for Donald Trump in numbers. And when we get a Democratic nominee, black people are not going to leave Bloomberg or any of the other potential nominees simply because there is no litmus test on race or stop and frisk. There are no perfect white candidates who address all the African-American issues. They are all flawed.
INGRAHAM: They address the American issues, which is everybody's issues. Health, security, the border, and economic concerns.
BOLDEN: That's true, and beating Trump is the Democratic number one priority.
INGRAHAM: Herman and Scott, great to see you both tonight.
And coming up, last weekend a radical leftist plowed his van into supporters for Trump tent registering to vote. And this was in Florida over the weekend, so why isn't the media talking about this? For what reason? We have an update on that story. Plus, yet another act of political violence against Trump supporters. Stay there.
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INGRAHAM: Now the latest on that disturbing van attack on a GOP voter registration tent in Jacksonville, Florida, over the weekend. As I predicted, the driver, a man named Gregory Timm, admitted he was motivated by his dislike, his hatred for President Trump.
Joining me now is Dean Black, Duval County GOP chair. Dean, after it was confirmed this was politically motivated, there haven't been any media follow-ups on this story by the big three network, MSNBC and CNN as well. Why do you think that is?
DEAN BLACK, DUVAL COUNTY GOP CHAIRMAN: We know exactly why that is, Laura. Dinesh D'Souza said it a few moments ago. We will call it cognitive dissonance. Clearly, they are biased. Clearly, the mainstream media isn't interested in doing the job of journalism in this country. They would rather point the finger at us when it's their own house that's on fire.
And this violence is actually occurring all over the country. This is not just a Jacksonville thing, it's happened up in Maine, there was another incident down south of here. It happens all the time. And they refused to acknowledge it.
INGRAHAM: There was actually another act of political violence in New Hampshire. I don't know if it's being tolerated, and then OK, I can do something and nothing is going to happen to me, or because the media doesn't cover it, but this is just going to keep happening.
BLACK: That's right. And if they don't, like I said the other night, Laura, we are nine months away from the election. People are going to get more and more excited. And right now they have a duty to their profession and to the country to call this out, because this has no place in our electoral system. And no one, thankfully, was injured in Jacksonville.
INGRAHAM: It could've been, Dean. We've got to roll.
BLACK: It could've been.
INGRAHAM: But unbelievable story. Media very dishonest about it.
When we come back, the return of the Twitter smackdown.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The American Constitution is sexist by its very design. This country's laws have historically treated us like second class citizens. We still face tremendous barriers to our full participation in society.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: I had to bring back the Twitter smack down of the day after seeing that atrocity tweeted out by Pressley herself. Since facts are inconvenient to the Squad, I thought I would provide them the following facts.
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