White House on response to Parkland, NRA boycott

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White House on response to Parkland, NRA boycott

Hogan Gidley, White House deputy press secretary, on President Trump's criticism of first responders to school shooting and growing calls for Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel's dismissal.

This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," February 26, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

LAURA INGRAHAM: All right, Sean, thanks so much. Great to see you.

Good evening from Washington. I'm Laura Ingraham, and this is THE INGRAHAM ANGLE. We have big news from coast to coast tonight, including exclusive information about that Florida school shooting that he will only here on THE INGRAHAM ANGLE and it details how the Broward County Sheriff's Department may have mishandled the shooting and its aftermath.

Plus, a Democrat's outrageous stunt to protect illegal immigrants that you will not believe, and with the Oakland mayor is doing to undermine law enforcement.

But first, controversy and question stocking the Broward County Sheriff's Office. That is the focus of tonight's ANGLE.

Who is Scott Israel and what do we really know about him? He is a colorful, brash, outspoken Broward County sheriff who has been speaking for law enforcement since the Valentine's Day massacre at Stoneman Douglas High School.

Just eight days after the shooting, before his department had even concluded its own investigation, Sheriff Israel found time to join a CNN town hall where he decided to join forces with the pro-gun-control lobby.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF SCOTT ISRAEL, BROWARD COUNTY: The 18-year-olds should never have a rifle. An 18-year-old kid should not have a rifle, 18-year-old kids, they're not adults yet. They're in high school. These kids should not have a rifle. Automatic rifle should be outlawed, and anybody who says different, I don't know about other people, we are calling B.S. on that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: I'm sorry, but he is such a blowhard. I mean, the sheriff had to know that the automatic weapons that he referenced in that sound bite were banned by the feds years ago and that the NRA it does not advocate for legalizing them, Sheriff. You got to know that or you should be in that job at all.

But it sounded good in front of that crowd and it brought the audience to its feet. And just a few days later, Israel revealed the existence of videotape and a little piece of information that I thought was kind of important.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ISRAEL: Well, what I saw was a deputy arrived at the west side of Building 12, take up a position, and he never went in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Well, once that choice piece of information became public and more began to trickle out about the department's handling of at least 23 calls to the Cruz residence, Florida Governor Rick Scott and others asked for Sheriff Israel's resignation.

Now yesterday, the not camera-shy sheriff was asked about the call for him to step down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ISRAEL: I have given amazing leadership to this agency --

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Amazing leadership?

ISRAEL: I've worked -- yes, Jake. There is a lot of things we have done throughout this. You don't measure a person's leadership --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: You don't measure a person's leadership? Yes, we do measure a person's leadership. Look, police in Broward wear body cameras, and we know there was security camera footage because authorities refused to publicly release it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ISRAEL: We are not going to disclose the video at this time, and we may never disclose the video depending on the prosecution and the criminal case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: That seems really bogus to me and really weird. We may never release the video? We've already seen video of the kids leaving the building and so why won't the sheriff release the video that would arguably be of the most interest to the public?

Now, the video reveals how Officer Peterson and other deputies responded to this active shooter situation. It's kind of important, don't you think?
Now, could it be that the video would be perhaps highly damaging to the sheriff's office and perhaps to the sheriff personally?

And back to his appearance at that CNN town hall meeting, why on earth did he choose to go on TV to make himself the center of his heated political debate? Is that really his role? Then he went on television the next week, just yesterday, to praise his own leadership as amazing. Just bizarre.

By the way, this wasn't the first time Sheriff Israel ignited controversy for making himself the main attraction, back in September of 2015, he took major heat for putting his big face on five taxpayer financed Broward Sheriff's Office cars.

They were called jokingly Israel-mobiles, and to a lot of people, they're more about politics and policing. The cars were to be assigned to members of Israel's community outreach team, which itself had been staffed by, it looks like just the sheriff campaign supporters. He got hammered for that as well.

Just a few hours ago, THE INGRAHAM ANGLE received copies of internal e- mails from a source close to the Broward Sheriff's Office which has since been confirmed by a second source this evening by one of our producers.

Now, it urges all staff members to vigorously support Sheriff Israel, "At the moment, we find our agency up against a flurry of media allegations and a personal attack against our sheriff, Sheriff Israel, Sheriff Israel stood with us and now we must stand with him. It is important they know we stand as one."

The focus should be on getting to the bottom of what happened leading up to the shooting, not some CYA deal for the sheriff. We need to know about the actions of law enforcement on the day of the shooting. It shouldn't be about saving Sheriff Israel's job because that would be really pathetic.

Now, the governor yesterday announced that Florida's Department of Law Enforcement will investigate Broward County's response to the shooting, with which Sheriff Israel said he would cooperate fully.

Now President Trump and with the governors at the White House and they discussed school safety in the aftermath of the Parkland shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have to take steps to harden our schools so that they are less vulnerable to attacks. This includes allowing well trained and certified school personnel to carry concealed firearms. At some point, you need volume.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Before this administration, in the end, embarks on some legislative response to the shooting, the president should request that Attorney General Sessions open his own federal investigation into this entire matter.

And that means not only examine what happened on that horrible day, but also the FBI's failure to follow up on critical tips, the school's internal disciplinary record, and Broward's own interactions with Cruz and the family.

No law-abiding American's Second Amendment rights should be diluted or compromised before we know exactly what happened from the moment that first distress call came into the Broward Sheriff's Office, and Sheriff Israel should spend a lot less time patting himself on the back and a lot more time being transparent with a public that demands answers. And that is THE ANGLE.

Joining us now for reaction from San Antonio is Terry Lane, a former FBI special agent, in Idaho, former LAPD detective, Mark Fuhrman, who is also a Fox News contributor, and in Tallahassee, Florida State Rep Randy Fine, is one of the 73 Republican members of the House of Representatives who signed a letter urging Florida Governor Rick Scott to suspend Sheriff Israel.

Well, to start a conversation, guys, I want to share another exclusive report with you tonight. Now, our sources near the Broward County Sheriff's Department are telling us that the deputies who arrived at the scene of the shooting were told not to enter the school unless their body cameras were turned on.

And then we found out that the deputies did not have body cameras so they did not enter the building or engage the shooter. Curiously, police also lost radio communication during the Parkland shooting.

And our resource claims that radio communication also went dead during the Fort Lauderdale Airport shooting in 2017 that he also got a lot of criticism for. I want to start with you, Representative Fine, your reaction to this news that they were told to enter without body cams, which they lacked at the time, your reaction?

REPRESENTATIVE RANDY FINE, R, FLORIDA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: Thank you, Laura. Thanks for having me on. Look, the more we learn about the situation, the more obvious it is that Sheriff Israel needs to resign or be removed immediately. That is why I signed that letter.

And that is by the Florida House is moving this week to subpoena all records of Sheriff Israel, and we are going to be subpoenaing him and making them come to Tallahassee to explain himself. What happened is a disgrace.

INGRAHAM: Mark, I want to go to you on this. The report we got tonight that some of these radio communications are missing or weren't recorded which, I think, are very important, are going to be critical as we try to determine what really happened in the aftermath here. What's your reaction to what we have learned, frankly, just today and tonight?

MARK FUHRMAN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, it's pretty shocking that, one, it even occurred, and then, two, we were able to find out any of this information. But what's interesting is, Sheriff Israel is a character, he is a politician. Let's not forget that. But it really has nothing to do with the actions of the deputies at the scene.

I don't care if they had radios. I don't care if they were on or off. They should have done exactly what they knew they had to do regardless of who told them what to do over radio. You ignore that, and you go in and you to try to save the lives of those children and you contact the shooter and kill him.

INGRAHAM: Terry, let's go to you. We are also learning that in the training of some of these police officers, they were taught a kind of -- deconflict the situation, don't rush in, assess the situation first, and Scot Peterson's attorney is also kind of indicating that in some of his comments.

We tried to get him on the show tonight, he would not join us, which is unfortunate. But if the police are being trained in a way that is not really helpful in this type of active-shooter situation, that also is something we'd better find out fast.

TERRY LANE, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Laura, that is against any protocol that I have been aware of since Columbine. All officers that I am aware of are always taught to go in -- don't be stupid, but go in tactically but go in. Protect the innocents there. If they are being trained that way, I don't know why they would be trained that way.

INGRAHAM: Well, one of the reports we also heard, Rep. Fine, is that the deputy on-site thought that apparently some of the shooting was taking place outside of the building because again, radio transmissions, that I think we may or may not have, indicated that someone was injured on or near the football field.

And so that is one of the reasons he stayed behind the cement barrier or car and was just 4 minutes went by and people were being shot one after the other after the other in this building. Maybe it was just an honest mistake? I don't know, but it seems like we should have a lot of video already publicly available.

FINE: Yes, and if Sheriff Israel wasn't so busy bloviating on CNN town halls, we might have some of those answers. That is why Speaker Corcoran has asked us all support him getting Sheriff Israel either to resign or be removed. That should happen immediately.

INGRAHAM: Mark Fuhrman, there is a sound bite that I thought of you when I heard this yesterday. I know you know which one it is, but I'll just read it. I don't think we have it ready. But Jake Tapper basically asked him about the Broward County Sheriff's, you know, reaction, if they had done things differently, wouldn't have happened or not.

And Sheriff Israel said, listen, ifs and buts were candy and nuts, O.J. Simpson would still be in the record books. And Tapper, is like I don't know what that means, there's 17 people dead and a long list of things you could have done differently.

He had this glib way of responding to questions, and I think you hit the nail in the head, he is more of a politician than someone to head the largest police department in the country of its type of stature apparently.

I didn't realize that it is the largest police department in the country. I don't even understand how it can be with New York and so forth, but of its type, I guess it is the largest.

FUHRMAN: Well, Laura, you know, he seems awfully impressed with himself, very flippant. It almost like he doesn't see the gravity of exactly what happened, like it's an opportunity for somebody to know his first and last name and all of his career.

But when he had to, he had to actually give up this information on the deputy that was sitting outside of that building number 12 listening to those gunshots -- and I'm going to tell you right now, they knew full well that shooting was going on inside of that building.

I will guarantee something for Deputy Peterson or ex-Deputy Peterson. He will relive that 4 minutes outside of that building for the rest of his life.

INGRAHAM: That's for sure. Let's go to Terry on this. Speaking of the need for a real thorough investigation that is not tainted or questioned, could the Justice Department, I should say, could they conduct a real investigation here given the fact that the FBI clearly dropped the ball on at least two of these tips. The most recent one was really disturbing.
Involving the woman who actually had him living in her house? Could the Justice Department really do this investigation?

LANE: I believe they can, Laura, but the fundamental problem here is the FBI has dropped the ball for the last several years, as I mentioned to a number of my colleagues, the FBI no longer communicates with the community.

When you contact the FBI anymore, even myself as a retired FBI agent, when I called the agency I used to work out, I get a recording. I don't speak to a human being. When I was an FBI agent, we answer the phone. We talked to the people in the community.

We were there to provide safety to the community, and in order to do that, you have to be able to communicate with them. They have to be able to speak with you as an agent, a trained agent, not an analyst, not an analyst, but a special agent of the FBI.

The FBI has tried to centralize all their activity for so long now that they have lost touch with the communities. That is the fundamental issue.
Whether the DOJ can investigate that and come up with a conclusion, I'm certain they can. With the FBI needs to work within itself and it needs to start providing the services to the community.

INGRAHAM: A lot of problems. When law enforcement is finding out that this 19-year-old was obsessed with ISIS, coming to $25,000, buying all of these guns, talked about shooting up schools and ripping animals apart. I mean, ding, ding, ding, all the warning bells are coming off, I'm not an expert, but I guess in hindsight, 20/20 hindsight. To me, this is a wild situation. Why don't you wrap it up?

FUHRMAN: Laura, on the FBI got that tip on Nikolas Cruz, it's probably very specific way, all that FBI agent had to do was go to a federal database for gun registration and just find out if he Nikolas Cruz had purchased any weapons. Lo and behold, it would have popped up.

INGRAHAM: Bingo.

FUHRMAN: He just got an AR-15. He is in Parkland, Florida. Go door knock it.

INGRAHAM: Fantastic. Guys, appreciate it. Great panel.

By the way, President Trump had really harsh words today for the first responders for the Florida school shooting. Hear that and the administration's reaction to the latest developments. White House Spokesman Hogan Gidley, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: The NRA boycott has mushroomed to more than a dozen major corporations cutting ties with the Second Amendment group, and they include Delta and United Airlines. Meanwhile, President Trump criticized the first responders at the Parkland Florida high school shooting after reports surfaced that as many as four deputies took cover instead of pursuing the shooter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The way they performed was, frankly, disgusting. They were listening to what was going on. You don't know until you're tested, but I think I really believe I would run in there even if I didn't have a weapon. I think most of the people in this room would have done that too, but the way they performed was really a disgrace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Joining us now to react to the latest on the shooting is White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley. Hogan, great to have you in tonight. You had a long day today. Thank you for coming.

HOGAN GIDLEY, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: Absolutely.

INGRAHAM: So, I want to get into what the president's reaction was, but first, I want your reaction to what we uncovered tonight about Sheriff Israel, who was -- quite a piece of work. Now we find out that they are sending over these system-wide email saying, support the sheriff, support the sheriff. Kind of a CYA mode over there. What is your take?

GIDLEY: Well, you were right when you point out -- the point here is to find out what exactly happened. For him to use this time to go out on this political tour to try to bolster his own political agenda, which is a gun grab, which is so fascinating.

Because Democrats in these times, as you know, go immediately to ending the Second Amendment and taking our guns, let the government protect you. We have seen what the government did at the FBI. We saw what it did at the local level.

And now we saw deputies outside who were trained and had guns and didn't go in. I had to protect myself with my own gun or I'm going to let the government do it, I'll take myself every day of the week.

INGRAHAM: It's very odd that the authorities saw ISIS flagged in one of these visits, like, obsessed with ISIS. I would think that a kid who was like amassing these weapons, obsessed with ISIS, talked about a school shooting, that is kind of an easy one. You probably don't get all of those factors together -- and he tortures animals. You don't get all those factors together very often.

GIDLEY: It is so sad what was missed here and what could have been avoided. I mean, you know, the president had an incredible meeting with grieving parents and grieving children, students and people from around the area who were so just angry and frustrated and furious.

But also, just so sad at what happened, and now we know so much of this could have been prevented had any of these one flags been taken through the proper channels, this could have all been stopped. That is what makes it so egregious.

INGRAHAM: What about my suggestion that the president asked Sessions to investigate this?

GIDLEY: That is a very interesting suggestion. I mean, obviously, the president wants to get to the bottom of this --

INGRAHAM: Florida law enforcement to investigate this -- Rick Scott said, they're going to do that today.

GIDLEY: Well, I haven't spoken to him directly about that, but I will say that the DOJ obviously has a role here if it so chooses.

INGRAHAM: The media, they are obsessed with the Republicans' relationship with the NRA. What is the president's view on these boycotts?

GIDLEY: Well, I mean, look, this reminds me so much of -- this is a more grievous issue. Remember when everyone came out against the Dixie Chicks, kind of their blowback for what they said about President Bush when they were on foreign soil.

INGRAHAM: It made a lot of headlines lately.

GIDLEY: I heard about that. I know the author, but this is the type of thing that is ridiculous from the standpoint of, we have a Second Amendment in this country. The president supports that Second Amendment, supports the NRA. The NRA supports this president. Corporations can do what they want to, but to count how to pressure like this on something that is written in our Constitution that is afforded to every human -- American citizen is absolutely ridiculous.

INGRAHAM: But the president is in favor of some new restrictions, get rid of the pump stock for sure, that is obvious for him, perhaps still raising the age for purchase, first-time purchase of a semi-auto raffle? Is he in favor of that or no?

GIDLEY: Well, look, we have a meeting today, it is interesting to bring this up because other than the grieving families we talked about, and the students are distraught, we also met with law enforcement officials. Then today at the White House, we have governors from across the country, Republicans and Democrats, dozens of them --

INGRAHAM: What is the consensus? They want a ban on assault weapons? They want to raise the age of --

GIDLEY: They didn't bring up the age raising one time in that meeting. Again, the president is listening to all the stakeholders here, and when you sit with the governors at the local level who could help stop some of these shootings, when they don't bring it up, that is very telling to him.

INGRAHAM: What do you mean? If you go to war at 18 and you vote at 18, you can buy make a rifle at 18. I guess. I'm not even making a comment. We let people do a lot at 18. Maybe we should raise the age of everything to 21. What about the DACA decision? The Supreme Court decides not to come up for now, take the case. What's the administration's reaction?

GIDLEY: On its face, the simplicity of it and I think your viewers can understand this, the Democrats say that President Barack Obama was well within his rights, it wasn't unconstitutional, it wasn't unlawful. He has the power as president to establish DACA and start DACA.

If he has the power to start DACA, then doesn't this president have the power to stop DACA? It would make sense if it is a presidential power. The problem is, it's not, it's unconstitutional. It's unlawful. We are upset by the decision. Eventually, this has to get solved one way or the other.

INGRAHAM: The court doesn't usually like that. You can go back to the Ninth Circuit, then go back to the Supreme Court, they might accept the case at that point.

GIDLEY: It's going to be a lot longer than we had anticipated.

INGRAHAM: Hogan, thanks for working double duty for us tonight. Appreciate it. Thanks so much.

Oakland's mayor, speaking of awarding federal law, she did something so outrageous, you're not going to believe it. She might get her wish.
Details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Oakland, California's Democrat Mayor Libby Schaaf tweeted a warning over the weekend that she had learned about an upcoming Immigration Customs Enforcement operation. Schaaf said it was her duty to warn families even though ICE sweeps in California have targeted illegal immigrants with criminal records.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR LIBBY SCHAAF, D, OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA: My priority is to keep the community safe. It is not my wish to panic people but to ensure that they are prepared with information. I feel confident that my sharing this information because I did not receive it through official channels is legal and, frankly, it's my ethical apple obligation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Ethics she is talking about now. The mayor has said she would go to jail to protect Oakland's sanctuary status, raising the question, did she break the law with her warning?

Let's ask our guest. Claude Arnold is a former special agent in charge for ICE in Los Angeles, and Joe Alioto Veronese -- I'm getting that right -- a former San Francisco police commissioner. Great to see both of you. All right, Joe, let's start with you because Libby Schaaf is a very popular mayor, she's very colorful, and now she is saying that not only we are not going to cooperate with ICE, that's throughout the state you're not cooperating with ICE and businesses and so forth, but she is going to send out these warnings apparently any time gets word of an impending raid or operation to target criminal aliens. So not just a farmworker who walks across the border, but aliens who are already judged criminals who have either not been showing up for their deportation hearings or who have just absconded. So why are we protecting the criminals now, Joe?

JOE ALITO VERONESE, FORMER POLICE COMMISSIONER: I think what you're seeing here is a breakdown between the local and the federal government and the relationship there. I don't think there's a whole lot of trust from the mayor all the way up to the president, or between the two, rather, that you are specifically targeting hardline criminals. And you read some of the headlines, and that's not really what we're seeing.

But the fundamentals of what's going on here is that law enforcement officer, and some of your previous guests have even talked about it on your show, Terry Lane said, the FBI dropped the ball in the Florida incident.
You were talking but the sheriff and his relationship with the public. The most fundamental tool that law enforcement has is that relationship with the public. And we have a very diverse community here in San Francisco and Oakland and the Bay Area --

INGRAHAM: What does that mean, Joe? Honestly, When I hear 'diverse community,' that's fine. That's all well and good. But you also have criminals. You have criminals who are doing real damage and real harm to both legal immigrants and American citizens. You have people who are just working, and yes, we get that. But ICE maintains that they are targeting individuals who pose a threat to national security, public safety, border security, et cetera. We do not conduct sweeps or raids that target aliens indiscriminately.

INGRAHAM: Claude, I want to get you in on this, so Joe, you can get back in with a comment. Claude, I've got to say, it's not like they're going through 10 restaurants looking for the dishwashers. They are looking for people who are real problems, and now Oakland says, no, guess what, we are going to warn them so they can go to the next community.

CLAUDE ARNOLD, FORMER SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, ICE LOS ANGELES: Yes, you've got it right, Laura. They're going after criminals, almost all of these targets. You can never say all because there's exceptions to the rule. But almost all these targets are people with criminal convictions or some sort of criminal history. So we are talking rapists, child molesters, drug dealers, gang bangers. ICE doesn't have the resources to go after the street vendor. This is something that's always alleged on the other side, they're arresting the street vendor. They don't have the time or the inclination to go after those people.

And by facilitating these people to escape ICE's grasp, all the city of Oakland is doing is endangering their own community and, I daresay, the diverse part of their community because that is where these people reside.
So the national recidivism rate, the rate at which people recommit crime, is about 57 percent. So we know that more than half of these people when released, they are going to commit more crimes. So if you are not releasing these people to ICE -- and by the way, the county of San Francisco has not released someone to ICE since 2010 -- they are going back on the street to commit more crimes against their communities.

INGRAHAM: Joe, your reaction?

VERONESE: Releasing people to ICE and enforcing immigration policy is, frankly, not the job of local law enforcement. Claude, I read a couple articles that you have written. You acknowledge in the sex trafficking, the relationship between law enforcement and the community is absolutely essential. We cannot be scaring the community into hiding because, frankly, the evidence comes from them, that is how we solve crimes. It is not our job to do federal immigration law, and that is the bottom line.

INGRAHAM: We have people embedded in communities, the diverse community, who are known criminals. They are trafficking drugs. There is human trafficking. They are pushing child porn. They're involved in all sorts of crimes that hurt people, Joe. And for this mayor to get up there on her high horse and say, "I'm going to go to jail because" -- you know something that my work in some parts of northern California and other communities, but most Americans see this and they think we have gone totally off the rails. So now you exist this to defend criminal aliens, not the people in those communities.

VERONESE: No that's not necessarily true. I read what Libby Schaaf put out, and frankly, it was more of broad, hey, ICE is coming. But it's not targeting any specific neighborhood. We need these communities to cooperate with us. So if ICE has information about these rapists you are talking about, we don't tolerate that stuff in San Francisco.

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: Apparently you do tolerate it.

(CROSSTALK)

VERONESE: There is no way San Francisco tolerates rapists and these other criminals that you are talking about.

ARNOLD: They're releasing every criminal alien since 2010.

INGRAHAM: You're releasing them into the system, Joe. Again, we don't want to pile on you. You are not the one setting policy. But it is frustrating when an immigration detainer is put on these individuals and they are simply released into the system to commit further crimes. You're right, that's a breakdown.

VERONESE: ICE can could go get a lawful warrant and serve a lawful on the sheriff's department --

INGRAHAM: So we're just going to make ICE do that every time? That's ridiculous. That shows such bad will on the part of Oakland and San Francisco and the whole state. I don't know why you guys think this is good for your state, I really don't. That I will not understand except you guys want new voters or something. I just don't know why you think any of this is good. But it's a great conversation.

And by the way, there's a new major development in the House Russia investigation, speaking of legal issues. But it doesn't seem to pack the punch that some Democrats promised. Two top insiders are going to debate whether the Democrats' FISA memo actually did more to confirm Republicans'
version of events next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: The latest in the Russia investigation, the FISA memo released by House Intel Democrats over the weekend has some key differences from the one released a few weeks ago by the Republicans. Democrats said the FISA warrant made only narrow use of that phony Russian dossier, and Republicans claim there would have been no warrant without it. The two sides also disagree whether the FBI informed the court of the political origins of the document, which was paid for by the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign. So who is telling the truth?

Let's debate it with Republican congressman Matt Gaetz, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Philippe Reines who is the former advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Don't laugh.

PHILIPPE REINES, FORMER HILLARY CLINTON ADVISOR: Different pronunciation there.

INGRAHAM: I like to keep you guessing.

(LAUGHTER)

INGRAHAM: Let's talk about what this memo said. The Democrats were kind of celebrating over the weekend, Congressman Gaetz. They say, look, it really wasn't the reason this Russia investigation began. They were surveilling Carter Page for some time, then the Papadopoulos information came up in the summer of 2016. So the Republicans are, you know, making a mountain out of a molehill.

REP. MATT GAETZ, R—FLORIDA: What's most fascinating, Laura, is what's not in the Democratic memo. The fundamental premise of argument is that cash at the Democratic National Committee was convertible into a government sponsored warrant to spy American citizens, and surprisingly the Democratic memo does not say Hillary Clinton's name once and it doesn't mentioned the DNC once. And so I think it is pretty evident that there are a lot of the Republican claims that are actually bolstered by the Democratic memo, including the fact that the dossier was used to get this warrant and that a Yahoo! News article planted by Christopher Steele was also served as a valid basis for the fake dossier. It's shameful.

INGRAHAM: Philippe?

(LAUGHTER)

REINES: Laurie. I have learned in the last couple of months that if I'm going to play poker with someone, there are four people I want to play with, Donald Trump Congressman Gaetz, Jim Jordan -- you started this -- and Devin Nunes, because these guys where their fear on their sleeves. When they yell 'memo,' when they introduce legislation, it means they know what is coming. Literally they probably have a heads up, but they know there is a problem.

In this case, I'll let you introduce your legislation in the previous case when you called for Special Counsel Mueller to be fired, that was in November. Mueller was appointed in May. Six months go by. Why do you wait? I'll tell you why you waited. Because five days before his legislation, Paul Manafort was indicted. Five days before the legislation, the indictment, Mike Flynn was rumored to be talking to Mueller.

INGRAHAM: The same one that Comey said didn't lie when he was interviewed.

REINES: But I think the pattern here is we see memos coming out of the sky and legislation coming out of the sky when the House Republicans are doing Donald Trump's bidding.

GAETZ: We'll play poker any time, but we hold the aces in that poker game when you've got a circumstance where Mueller's team has strong evidence of bias and still to this day not a single piece of evidence that there was any collusion. When you guys lost this campaign, you had to blame the Russians, you had to blame Bernie Sanders. I think at one point you guys blamed Jill Stein. At what point does the Hillary Clinton team say we just lost because we had a worse candidate and Donald Trump had the more compelling message.

INGRAHAM: Guys --

REINES: At what point do you say I am concerned about Russia meddling in our election?

GAETZ: I am concerned about Russian meddling in elections all over the world. They do it everywhere. But you guys --

REINES: Here. Here. You took an oath to preserve and protect --

INGRAHAM: What did Obama -- hold on. It's fun watching you two.

REINES: Why do you allow Russia --

(CROSSTALK)

GAETZ: Was your campaign so bad that you got beat by 100 Russian trolls? You guys were spending millions of dollars every day and you're saying 100 Russian trolls are what --

REINES: Again I'm hearing Republicans say --

INGRAHAM: OK, I'm glad Democrats finally care about the Russians, because last time I checked they were trying to do the reset and the button, and we were smiling with Putin at conferences and so forth.

Carter Page, who obviously was the target of the surveillance, I interviewed him a few weeks back. And I asked him specifically about this guy Igor Sechin who is mentioned in the Democrat's memo as someone the Steele dossier claimed he met with. I asked him about that specific individual. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARTER PAGE, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN FOREIGN POLICY ADVISER: So I gave a speech, and there was one seedier government official who spoke after me. He was walking out of the building after he gave his speech, and we had a very brief conversation for less than 10 seconds.

INGRAHAM: Was that Igor Sechin?

PAGE: No, I have never met Sechin in my life.

INGRAHAM: You've saying tonight that you have never met Igor Sechin, you've never met him?

PAGE: I've never met him in my entire life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REINES: I think in the spirit of bipartisan comity I think we can say that Carter Page is the dumbest person in this entire scandal.

INGRAHAM: If that is the characteristic of not being able to speak on television we'd have an empty --

REINES: But he is the basis, his trip in July, 2016, and his work going back as far as 2013, 2014 is the basis for the FBI looking at him.

INGRAHAM: So you're comfortable with the fact that in the end that this memo, the FISA warrant did not include a reference to Hillary Clinton? Real quick, I'm going to go black.

REINES: It said that it came from oppo sources.

INGRAHAM: It wouldn't have bothered you if you were the target of this investigation? It would have bothered me.

REINES: Friends don't give the FBI information on friends.

INGRAHAM: If you were the target you wouldn't have liked that.

REINESE: I wouldn't be the target because I didn't collude with Russia.

INGRAHAM: One look at Carter Page. Guys, guys, guys, Philippe, he can't be both dumb and kind of doing this super-secret spy network.

REINES: Sure, he could be a bad spy which is how he got caught. Donald Trump Jr. isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer either.

INGRAHAM: Well, what does that say about Hillary Clinton if the dumb person ends up winning the election?

How the left's PC police boys may have spoiled an Olympian's golden moment, and an A-list movie star's hopeful prayer, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Celebrities are discovering the dangers of tweeting when the PC police are lurking about. First this adorable selfie was taken by U.S.
Olympic bobsledder and silver medalist Lauren Gibbs with first daughter Ivanka Trump and White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. Gibbs tweeted out "It is important to remember that we don't have to agree on everything to get along. Be civil to each other and enjoy each other's company. It was a pleasure to meet you both." Seems like a perfectly innocent expression of the Olympic spirit, right?

Not to the left. They went ballistic over Gibbs fraternizing with the enemy. Some of the mean tweets, 'Congratulations, you just got used for propaganda.' Gibbs replied gracefully but firmly. 'I'm not falling for anything.' But being nasty would not solve the issue. Don't get me wrong, there are many issues.

Lauren Gibbs was eventually bullied into deleting the picture from her Twitter feed. Can't Americans celebrate Team USA's victory together? This is insane.

And now even prayer is not safe from social media scorn. After learning of Director Kevin Smith's massive heart attack the other day, actor Chris Pratt tweeted, 'Kevin, we don't know each other too good, but I've loved you since 'Clerks,' and I'm praying my blank off for you because I believe in the healing power of prayer. Can you please pray with me, people?'

An avalanche of ridicule and hatred followed. One person tweeted, 'Prayer does nothing. Only doctors and nurses and how healthy he is will save Smith.' Another said, 'That's cool and everything, but doctors and nurses save lives, not prayer.' Those comments were overwhelmed, though, by those supporting Pratt's sentiments. Man, it never ceases to amaze me how often the left will leap at any excuse to attack what society held sacred not so long ago.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Before we go, USA Today is reporting that FedEx and that CEO of that great company is Fred Smith, will not sever its partnership ties with the NRA. They put out a statement that distances itself from some of the NRA views, but that is a smart call. Otherwise what are businesses going to have to do, ideology checks on every organization, what it supports on climate change versus pro-life or immigration, it's crazy. So good for Fred Smith and good for FedEx. You don't have to agree with everything the NRA does to have a partnership with it.

And up next is Shannon Bream and the Fox News @ Night team is going to have another great show. Shannon, take it from here.

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