Sen. Dick Durbin attacks Carlson, Ingraham on Senate floor
'The Ingraham Angle' host Laura Ingraham responds.
In her "Ingraham Angle" commentary on Monday, host Laura Ingraham responded to a Senate floor attack by Illinois Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin, who suggested that Fox News censor her and fellow host Tucker Carlson for their reporting on the risks of coronavirus vaccines.
Ingraham ripped Durbin, 76, as a 40-year "fossil" of establishment Washington, noting that he was first elected to Congress in 1982 – when Ingraham was a college freshman. Durbin moved on from the House to the Senate after then-Sen. Paul Simon, D-Ill., retired in 1996, and now serves in chamber leadership as the Majority Whip.
Durbin took to the Senate floor earlier in the evening to label Carlson and Ingraham "anti-vaxx Quacks" and said they have circulated "what I consider to be irresponsible information about vaccines."
The lawmaker appeared to pit the hosts against other Fox News anchors who took part in a pro-vaccine public service announcement, before telling the Senate that "if there are things that can remove you from the air from being said on a program, I certainly hope [Fox News] will caution Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham."
The host, who noted Durbin couldn't pronounce her last name correctly, said the Illinois lawmaker is the last person to be concerned with what people say in public or on television.
She pointed to 2005 remarks in which Durbin compared the treatment of Guantanamo Bay detainees by United States servicemembers to that of the Nazis, Soviet Union gulags and Cambodian dictator Pol Pot.
After the uproar that followed those remarks, Durbin said he was not comparing U.S. soldiers to Pot and the other oppressive, dictatorial regimes but was "attributing this form of interrogation to repressive regimes such as those that I note."
In 2020, Durbin also apologized for referring to a police reform bill spearheaded by Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., who is Black, as a "token" approach. The South Carolina Republican responded that the comments "hurt [his] soul."
"If our democracy is on the line, it's because for decades people like him have refused to address the issues that directly impact the lives of every American," Ingraham continued, going on to read egregious headlines from Illinois media that she said begets the ineffective representation Durbin has been giving them.
"The Illinois exodus is continuing through the COVID-19 pandemic with Illinois losing 40% more people than it gained in 2020, ranking it fourth-worst in the nation. And [Durbin] must know that Illinois' pension debt is a ticking time bomb," she said.
FLASHBACK: SEN. RICHARD DURBIN APOLOGIES FOR NAZI, GULAG, POL POT REMARKS
"Do Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker or Durbin give a darn about the state's jobs crisis? The data there is enraging. According to Illinois policy, 64% remain unemployed in May, 19% left the labor force altogether: The pro-COVID lunacy, the shutdown lunacy of Illinois -- the elected officials there, they have [Illinois] tied for eighth highest unemployment rate in the country."
"And Illinois crown jewel, Chicago, boasts among the highest crime rates in America."
Ingraham noted that instead of concerning himself with the problems of the people he has represented in Congress for decades, Durbin decided to be a supposed "valiant defender of democracy" by attacking her and Carlson.
"First off, none of this is about the vaccine. This is all about suppressing speech ahead of next year's midterm," she said of Durbin's criticism.
"This windbag has been in Washington for almost 40 years… What does he have to show for it? All those years? Does he have a state that is better-run, better off than his red state counterparts? No," she said.
"And no. Durbin, like the rest of the anti-Democrats, desires total control over the information flow to you, the voters. No contrary views allowed -- especially when those views are backed by actual facts and data," she said, referring to the crux of his argument – Ingraham's coverage of the vaccines.
Ingraham reiterated that she has reported accurately, with accredited experts, on the repercussions of COVID-related school closures, and about otherwise taboo coronavirus therapies that the establishment does not allow to be disseminated.
Ingraham pointed to the most recent example, that of a Northern Virginia septuagenarian who suffered a massive brain bleed after receiving a Moderna vaccine – an emergency that required a craniotomy and left her with limited use of the left side of her body.
"There is nothing more anti-democratic, anti-freedom, then pushing an experimental drug on Americans against their will. Threatening them: threatening to deprive them of basic liberties, if they don't comply. Especially if they don't have adequate information about the risk-benefit analysis of taking this experimental drug," she said.
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Carlson also responded to Durbin on Monday's edition of "Tucker Carlson Tonight", reiterating he is not opposed to vaccines – as they are a personal choice – but that he is in actuality opposed to the federal government and officials in the health bureaucracy to accuse hesitant Americans of disingenuousness – as the head of NIAID did on CNN over the weekend.
"It’s not that we are against vaccines, we’re certainly not, but because you have the right to know a lot before you take medicine --Tony Fauci isn’t stopping the vaccines in the U.S, instead he’s accusing anyone who has questions about the vaccine of having some kind of sinister political motivation."
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