Breaking down Biden's plan to purge military of conservatives

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Breaking down Biden's plan to purge military of conservatives

Retired Navy SEAL Rob O'Neill and West Point graduate Jeremy Hunt weigh in on 'The Ingraham Angle'

This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," February 4, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

INGRAHAM: I'm Laura Ingraham. This is "The Ingraham Angle" from Washington tonight.

Now the left is targeting its political opponents for protected speech. Just existing as a conservative is enough for them to target you.

Well, tonight we are going to bring you the story of someone who has seen his life upended for just having attended Trump's January 6th speech. It's unreal. Plus, while Democrats in the media and obsess, and oh, I mean obsess over a freshman congresswoman's committee assignments, tonight we are hearing more stories about the flood of illegals that are already pouring over our southern border.

Tonight, Reporter Julio Rosas is on the ground and he has exclusive video. Other reporters aren't doing it but we are. But first, Biden turns on our troops, that's the focus of tonight's "Angle."

The leftist that now dominate the Democratic Party, hey, just about everything associated with American tradition from flags, to monuments, to even Christianity, which is why it was bitterly ironic that Joe Biden should communicate his latest ideological purge during an appearance at the national prayer breakfast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We just have to open our eyes. We have just witnessed images that we have never imagined. Images that now we will never forget. A violent assault of the U.S. Capitol, assault on our democracy, on our capitol. A violent attack that threatened lives and took lives. And we know now we must confront and defeat political extremism, white supremacy, and domestic terrorism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: While using the Capitol Hill riots, of course, as the justification, I knew it was only a matter of time until Biden and his administration would turn their sides on the U.S. military.

Now Biden's Pentagon chief has announced, and we mentioned this briefly last night when it broke, a stand-down of all U.S. military forces in order to scour the ranks for so-called extremist.

Lloyd Austin, the new Secretary of Defense, hinted at a possible purge during his confirmation hearing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LLOYD AUSTIN, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I will fight hard to stamp out sexual assault and to rid our ranks of racists and extremists. The job of the Department of Defense is to keep America safe from our enemies, but we can't do that if some of those enemies lie within our own ranks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Of course. Well, what he meant then and what he would like to do now is rid the military of all strong conservatives and, of course, Trump supporters.

Now think of all the challenges America is facing at this moment with the rise of China especially. And this is what our Defense Chief is focused on?

Now, Reuters is reporting that the Biden administration doesn't even have a plan for how to conduct its so-called review, or what the stand-down would even mean or look like. But one thing is for sure, if this is substantive and not symbolic, it will do grave damage to our military preparedness and morale.

Our men and women in uniform have been asked to sacrifice multiple tours, many of them, for so long, and oftentimes, ridiculous engagements, idiotic wars. And now the Biden administration rewards them by casting them as potential domestic terrorists? Ticking time bombs of white supremacy?

You can always count on think tank generals whose salaries are funded by rich donors to side with the Democrats on an issue like this. Like Thomas Kolditz, a retired army brigadier general, who told Fortune magazine, he is really worried about the enemy within saying, "We are probably talking about thousands across the Department of Defense. Many of them will have already run their mouth, put things on social media".

Now, people like him will claim that it's fine for defense personnel to have strong political views that are conservative, but in practice we already know how this is going to play out. Look at how fast the National Guard moved against its own ranks after the capitol riot. Apparently vetting more than 25,000 national guardsmen, removing a dozen or so from inaugural duty, some on dubious grounds by the way.

So you post something on Facebook about, I don't know, standing for the National Anthem at football games and the next thing you know, you could be labeled a white nationalist. You text a friend about how you think Trump stood for the forgotten men and women and you're practically a KKK member.

If Democrats were really concerned about stamping out extremism, they'd be looking in the mirror. How many wacky, incendiary, inflammatory, defamatory hateful things have been said by their members over the past five years? Heck, just over the past month. We should devote just an entire show just to left-wing extremism, which runs the gamut from Antifa to BLM to open borders zealots, who think we are all living on stolen land.

And where were Biden and friends when Islamic radicals infiltrated our military ranks during the war on terror? Now thankfully, some of these attacks were thwarted. While many innocent Americans were also killed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Muslim convert who killed a U.S. army recruiter in Little Rock, Arkansas.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The army private arrested in charge with allegedly plotting an attack at Fort Hood. Pfc. Naser Abdo was arrested at a motel in Killeen, Texas.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say Muslim-American, Muhammad Abdul Aziz, opened fire at two military centers killing four marines and a sailor.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The FBI is investigating the Pensacola shooting as an act of terror, while the gunman's time in Saudi Arabia is being examined.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: OK. Sometimes we forget that all of this happened. Where were the calls for the immediate vetting of all troops with connections to Islamic extremist groups? Now I was doing this on radio every day during most of this time period, and not only did Democrats not demand that type of vetting, they accused us of Islamophobia for even raising concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Racially profiling predominately Muslim neighborhoods, it's wrong, it's counterproductive, it's dangerous.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Republican hopefuls need to come out and be against this kind of Islamophobia.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's our responsibility to reject proposals that Muslim Americans should somehow be treated differently.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It would be an even greater tragedy if our diversity becomes casualty here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Well, diversity, unless of course it means respecting the opinions and beliefs of conservatives or devout Christians or other religious denominations. Instead of lecturing us about the importance of tolerance like they did back then, leftists are gleefully calling for an ideological cleansing of the ranks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you make about this line of military service and white supremacy?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was thinking, the guard is 90 some odd percent, I believe, male. Only about 20 percent of white males voted for Biden.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anybody who cannot pledge allegiance to their mission, and may be pulled by other views, they need to be removed by the guard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Safety has to be our first priority.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Safety for whom? It's certainly not going to make Americans safe for having the military turned to an arm of the DNC. What about the military members of faith or who vote Republican? I mean you heard the reference to, oh, they're all men. So if you're a white male, Christian, maybe you voted Republican, maybe you even like Trump, you're immediately suspicious, you're a suspect. How are any of those people supposed to feel safer now? Of course, they are not going to feel safe.

So what's the real goal here? Preventing any descent in the country when their policies slowly but surely are depriving us of liberty and prosperity? Well, did the Democrats plan more lockdowns for coronavirus mutations? The requirement for vaccine certificates for travel? Are they worried that members of the military are going to side with the constitution instead of crazy social justice warriors who want to remake America and even remake the military?

Finally, a message to the Republicans like Liz Cheney. This is your opportunity to show everyone that you will fight harder against the Democrats than you do against Donald Trump. Refuse to allow a single U.S. taxpayer dollar to fund this ideological and un-American purge of the U.S. military, or expect a lot of us to push for steep cuts in military spending. After all, why should we fund an organization that Democrats plan to use not to protect us, but to restrain us, in order to protect themselves and their grip on power? And that's the "Angle."

Joining me now is Rob O'Neill, retired navy SEAL Team Six operator, and Jeremy Hunt, West Point grad and army vet. Rob, what is this push to purge all about?

ROB O'NEILL, FORMER UNITED STATES NAVY SEAL: Thank you for having me tonight, Laura. Yes, the push to purge is what it always is that they are trying to politicize anything they can to hurt the right, everything from using the National Guard and bringing us on 20 plus thousand troops and surrounding the capitol with fences.

If you want 80 plus million votes, why did you need to protect it? Plus, we (inaudible) politicize as military, we are there to support and defend democracy and that's about it. But then you get these people who want to rewrite the rules for us and they politicize us. These are the people that jump behind their desks when the demons come. We are the ones that killed the demons. And all they're doing is using us.

You mentioned morale earlier. Morale is very, very important for these men and women to do their job which is very hard and underpaid. And certainly, this is just - they are losing morale. They are out there to fight for this country. I served President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, and I know President Trump, I have met President Biden. I was there to serve the country, not because I'm a Republican or a Democrat but because I'm an American.

INGRAHAM: Jeremy, when you look at the capitol, I find it incredibly depressing. We found out today that - Homeland Security Committee hearing that experts are saying, oh, this could be 10 to 20 years of a domestic extremist threat that requires fortification of the capitol. And meanwhile, our southern border is open. What are your thoughts on this?

JEREMY HUNT, WEST POINT GRAD & ARMY VETERAN: I'm telling you right now, when the left looks at the government and looks at levers of the government, looks at even nonpartisan institutions like the military, they see them as tools to use as political props, to use as tools to enact their vision.

And even with the order, Secretary Austin came out with today, I hope this is not another iteration of the Biden bait and switch where he says, hey, we're going to target white supremacy and racism where many of us, every American says that's wonderful, let's target extremism. Then he switches it up and says, well, actually when I see white supremacy, I mean if you think differently than the way we want you to think, if you're a conservative, if you are libertarian, my libertarian friends are now under fire, if you're a Christian as we mentioned earlier. All of these things are now grounds to say that you are a white supremacist or a racist.

And so I hope that's not the direction that Secretary Austin is going with us. He is an honorable man. He has served honorably, he has lot of respect across the aisle. But it's really unsettling. And here is the other part that I hope people will understand is that with these stand-down orders, what often happens is that there is a training accompanied with it. And what happens is they will train you, on this case it might be diversity training or equal opportunity training. And the question is, well, what's going to be a part of the curriculum? Is it going to be the critical race theory trash that says that all white people are evil, or is it going to be truth? Since we are all god's children, created in his images and we are all born equal.

So that's the question. And so right now, we have to do our job as Americans and put pressure on the Pentagon to defend the people who have been defending us for generations.

INGRAHAM: Yes. I just don't want to - I'm sorry to interrupt, Jeremy, but rather I don't want to spend a single U.S. taxpayer dollar on BLM style curriculum for the U.S. military, which last time I checked, none of you cared what color one person is to the next if you guys are working together or women working together. In a military operation, whether you're a mechanic, or whether you're a forward operator.

O'NEILL: Right. And before the - one of the first things they do when we get to boot camp or basic training, it doesn't matter where we're from or what we look like. We get our head shaved, we put on the same clothes because it's called being in uniform and they are going to break us down and realize we are one team and we are one fight.

And even when we got over there, even when I was a SEAL Team Six, I didn't care what they did behind closed doors, I didn't care who is gay or straight, what I cared about can you do the job? If I get hit, can you carry me and all my gear home? That's it.

There are two things in combat, you either win or you die. And I need people there, men and women that are there to fight. That's it.

INGRAHAM: But the phrase domestic terrorists, Jeremy, in reference to the U.S. military, I think all - I just know so many wonderful veterans and active duty, but I have a lot of veteran friends, young guys like Rob. All you guys are young. And the sacrifice, the hard work, what's happened to families back home who don't get enough credit for what they do, how many horrible injuries, and now this is what they get?

They are immediately suspicious if they voted for Republican or if they went to a rally and stood there? It's insanity.

HUNT: It really is. I remember when I was serving, we had people who were - they were leftists, we had liberals, we had libertarians, conservatives. And I remember even in 2016 we had some spirited debates about the future of our country and what that meant. But at the end of the day, we all packed up our stuff, completed the mission, and we are still one team. And that's the spirit of the military and that's what we stand to lose if we let the left use the army and other service branches as some type of political prop, as just another weapon in their war and their culture war.

So it's very important that now is the time that we speak up, we will not be silenced, and it's time that we start helping those who have helped us for so long.

INGRAHAM: Yes. Well, warriors, not social justice warriors. Other people want to do that, they can. You guys are warriors. Thank you so much, gentlemen, (inaudible). Great to see you.

And the message you hear from the left and current top of the Pentagon is, well, the military is a hot bed of white supremacy. We thought we talk to someone who knows a little bit about this.

Joining me now is Kash Patel, former Defense Department Chief of Staff and former Deputy Assistant to President Trump. Kash, what will happen if the BLM principles and activism starts to infect the Pentagon?

KASH PATEL, FORMER DEFENSE DEPARTMENT CHIEF OF STAFF: Well, thanks, Laura, for having me. And you hit it right on the head. What will happen is, it will allow the media to divide the last vestige of security and the greatest piece of democracy that we have, which is our men and women in uniform. And what they have done, what Austin and Biden have done is created a fictional narrative that the snowflake media will run and to say that white supremacy is an enemy within the Department of Defense. That is what they said, let that sink in for a minute.

I had apparently reject that having led the men and women of that department under Secretary Miller, under President Trump, that is an outrageous statement that is being played up by the media and they have no facts to base it because not one person I served with or under has ever, ever said anything about white supremacy being the enemy within. And I'm a minority brown man who served in the Department of Defense. I'm their target.

INGRAHAM: Yes. You don't count though, Kash. You have the wrong view. So you are authentic.

Now Biden's speech today, he gave his first big foreign policy speech and it pivoted to race at one point. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: We've taken steps to acknowledge and address systemic racism and the scourge of white supremacy in our own country. Racial equity will not just be an issue for one department in our administration. It has to be the business of all whole of government and all our federal policies and institutions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: For me, I think about this and I think, wait a second, how much of the white supremacy scourge existed when you were all those years in government? Did you witness any of this? Did you see any of this?

PATEL: No, absolutely not, Laura. I mean, this is a perfect example of the politicization of the defense department that they baselessly, baselessly attacked Secretary Miller and I for doing. And all we did was end generation long wars and cared after our service in men and women. What they are doing, I'll give you three perfect examples of politicization of the defense department.

One, they canceled maternity and paternity leave if you're employed in the defense department, be it by President Trump. So you can't go home and care for your newborn. Two, these are the same people giving Khalid Sheikh Mohammed a coronavirus vaccine instead of grandma, grandpa and frontline workers. And three, this is the top piece of it, is this now white supremacy narrative within the defense department. It does not exist, it doesn't exist in the national security arena. And I have served across all three branches of government and to do so is striking at the heart of American democracy with blank rhetoric that has no fact in base.

INGRAHAM: And Kash, we just found out how much it's costing for the National Guard to keep an encampment on Capitol Hill, barbed wire, all the rest. It's cost $438 million up until now from January 6 forward. And they are talking about 10 and 20 years. That's what they said at the Homeland Security Committee meeting today. The threat could exist for 10 to 20 years. And Nancy Pelosi put $500 million in the $1.9 trillion budget.

So again, Republicans pay for this or they don't make a big stink about this? They should be talking about this every single day. Open the capitol up, keep people safe, but this is crazy. Kash, thanks so much.

And you care about the committee fate of a freshman congresswoman or you care that illegals now see a big - a welcome sign at the border. Up next, we bring you some exclusive video about what agents are calling an Obama 2.0 situation. Stay there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW THOMAS, CHIEF DEPUTY SHERIFF, PINAL COUNTY: When Trump took office, we saw that this area here went completely dead, nobody was moving, nobody was smuggling. Now with the change of administration, I think they understand that it's back to how it was when President Biden was the Vice President. And those policies in place are most likely going to be in place again and maybe even better for them. So we've got the influx.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Or ending Trump's remain in Mexico policy and promising free health care and amnesty. Well, duh, it was bound to be a total disaster. And yes, you just heard from that Pinal County Arizona sheriff, migrants are already flocking towards southern border. And now they are just bringing themselves, this is a dream come true for the cartels.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS: Most of those sheriffs had a clear understanding that their county is a border county, because these people and these drugs are not coming here to Pinal County to stay. This is just a transport location, this is a spot that they get through to get to their final destination and they are being sent all over the country so you've got human trafficking going throughout the country. You've got drugs going throughout the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: My next guest is responsible for the footage you just saw, Julio Rosas, senior writer at Townhall.com, joins us live at the border in El Paso tonight.

Julio, we've been to the El Paso. They have a lot on their hands there. That's one of our major border crossings, legal border crossings, but the cartels are busy and they're calling it Obama 2.0. What does that mean?

JULIO ROSAS, SENIOR WRITER, TOWNHALL.COM: Well, so Deputy Chief Thomas there was saying that the reason why he was calling it kind of an era of Obama 2.0 is because that video that you just played. The cartels realized that the strict immigration policies that were under President Trump are now being reversed under now President Biden. And so they are going to have a lot more easier time and now they're willing to send more people and more contraband such as drugs like Fenton and all up through the United States.

And what's interesting about Pinal County is that it's not technically a border county, it is about 7 miles north of that. But it is very much on the front lines just because of the terrain and how open desert it is. There is not a lot of civilization between the border and Pinal County. So they get a lot of traffic through that area.

INGRAHAM: Julio, we all remember the outrage that was aired in major media outlets about the family detention centers and the separating of children from people who said they were the parents. We couldn't verify in some cases. But now the Biden administration is setting up new detention facilities for families, even though you can't keep children as long as you can keep adults under judge's order in California.

So, where's the outrage about detaining families from the media? Suddenly, Biden's commissioning new facilities and you hear nothing from MSNBC about this new issue.

ROSAS: Right. And really it just shows just that this issue of migration and families coming over, it's not going away anytime soon. And then when you add COVID into it, it definitely throws this whole very complicated immigration system into kind of a disarray.

And I can actually tell you, Laura, when I was scouting this location, I actually did come up upon right directly behind me a border patrol apprehending what appeared to be a family. And there was an older gentleman with two kids, a boy and a girl. And so, this is happening. It's happening every day.

INGRAHAM: And the Biden administration is releasing then into the United States now because there is no room for them in the facilities and we have to have COVID protocols. And so they're just released. So people are being caught and released as full units. We don't know if they are families are not. Some of them are, some of them aren't.

Julio, thank you so much.

And in 2019, the humanitarian crisis in Central America led to the massive border crash. Remember, tens of thousands of families and then a lot of unaccompanied minors flooded the border. And the Trump administration saw a deterrent. So naturally, the reaction from the left was really tem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A horrific act of separating young children from their parents and keeping them in cages.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Torturing in the horrors of possessions for human rights.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The deterrent was to try to torture immigrants at the border.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What he did to those children I consider a crime against humanity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Yes, you're supposed to just release them to human traffickers or others. It's just insanity. By their standard, of course, Biden must be a war criminal as well. As I just mentioned, the DHS is reopening a holding facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, one of the same facilities used by the Trump administration. Joining now is Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council. Brandon, man, the difference between the 2019 surge and today's is that Biden's policies are the magnet, correct?

BRANDON JUDD, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL BORDER PATROL COUNCIL: It is. It is. If you look at when you have -- people say that President Trump's immigration policies were strict. I disagree. I say that President Trump's policy on illegal immigration were to help the American public. It was also to help the migrants that were coming up through Mexico. The policies right now are encouraging people to put themselves into the hands of these dangerous criminal cartels. Our policies, the American government's policies, are enriching organized crime, rather than helping these individuals.

And when we open up these facilities, it's simply telling you that too many people are coming across. We don't have room to hold these people, so we have to open up those facilities. And again, to say that Trump's policies were wrong and then to see what we are facing right now, we obviously know what was the right thing to do. It is.

INGRAHAM: It's putting children's life in danger, and now releasing them into the United States to sponsors or people who say that they're relatives. We have no way of verifying half of the stuff, Brandon. And we have millions of Americans out of work. We have still a major COVID problem, even though hospitalizations are down. But suddenly COVID doesn't matter anymore. As long as it's illegal immigrants and it's lower wages for rich people, rich people's help, or whatever, they're fine to let them come in. I've never seen more in egregious hypocrisy on the part of the left about COVID the or the kids. They don't care about either.

JUDD: No, I was down processing the McAllen in 2019 for the month it was the highest -- I'm sorry, 2018, for the month it was the highest in apprehensions. And what we saw were adults were bringing children across the border. We started rapid DNA testing, and what we found was the vast majority of these adults, they weren't even family members of these children. These children were being brought across the border. They were being recycled and taken back across into Mexico and used again for other people to use them to come into the United States.

And that's why we have to look at the policies and say a legal, humane immigration system shuts this down and it doesn't allow the criminal cartels to prey on the innocent. But as long as we're opening up the border, as long as we're not shutting it down, we're allowing the cartels to enrich themselves.

INGRAHAM: It's beyond disgusting. Brandon, thank you so much.

And in the most pathetic display you're going to see, House Democrats held a group therapy session on your dime tonight. We will show you the video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RASHIDA TLAIB, (D-MI): My team, which I lovingly just adore, they are diverse. And I worry every day for their lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Raymond Arroyo is here later with all of the highlights.

Plus, how far will the left go to punish your ability to attend a rally for a candidate you support? We're going to show you in moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: The Capitol riot was horrible. Anyone who broke the law, we said this many times, should be punished, and to the fullest extent of the law. But that's not good enough for the Democrats. Oh, no. They want to destroy the lives of anyone who even showed up that day just to support President Trump, even if they just went to stand and hear him speak.

Case in point, a sheriff's deputy in Franklin County, Kentucky, is now under investigation for merely attending the Capitol rally. Deputy Jeff Farmer didn't participate in the riots, he broke no laws that day. But that didn't start a cabal of leftist public defenders from trying to get him fired. "In a letter to the sheriff's office, they wrote the fact that a substantial number of individuals who attended this event are white supremacists waving the flag of confederacy. How can minorities in Frankfort feel protected and served by an individual who so clearly flaunts his fraternization with racists?"

So no, I get it, liberals are all for guilt by association. I thought they were against that. And if you think this is just an isolated example, listen to this ominous warning from the newly confirmed DHS secretary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Our primary responsibility as the Department of Homeland Security is to protect the safety and security of the American people. And that means taking preventive actions before they occur.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Wait, wait, wait, taking preventive actions before they occur? What exactly does that mean? Does it mean they're going to be monitoring Trump supporters' social media accounts or text messages? Phone calls? If Trump ever holds rallies again, will attendants be monitored by, I don't know, drone surveillance? Since Democrats don't have the votes at the impeachment trial, I think they feel their only recourse now is to try to rob Trump of the ability to campaign or to hold rallies in the future. And they think they can silence his supporters with threats and fear. But I think a lot of people want to prove them wrong.

It was the events of January 6th that pushed the Democrats down this impeachment path, and it's their latest move that reveals, I think, this weak, weak hands they have. Impeachment manager Jamie Raskin sent a note asking Trump to testify under oath. The former president of the United States of course declined. He had to do something more important that day. Which prompted this response, "His immediate refusal speaks volumes and plainly establishes an adverse inference supporting his guilt."

Here to respond, Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law School Prof Emeritus, host of the podcast, "The Dershow." He defended Donald Trump, of course, during the first ridiculous impeachment trial. Alan, Raskin was a law professor before he went to Congress. What about this? Now apparently not testifying in a trial like this is evidence of guilt.

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, HARVARD LAW PROFESSOR EMERITUS: It's all my fault. I was Jamie Raskin's first year criminal law teacher.

INGRAHAM: I knew that.

DERSHOWITZ: And he must have learned it in my class. Of course, I taught exactly the opposite. Only if you take the Fifth Amendment and you refuse to answer on the ground that a truthful answer might tend to incriminate you can you draw a negative inference.

But if he hasn't been subpoenaed and he doesn't believe that the Senate has jurisdiction over a former president, and he's right about that, and he believes they have no jurisdiction over a constitutionally protected speech, and he's right about that, he's right not to testify. You can't draw any kind of a negative inference.

This is political theater. And the reason I'm not a lawyer in this case is I'm neither an actor nor a politician. And it's just showboating. They wrote the letter in order to get the president to say no, which they knew he would do, and then to be able to say, see, he wouldn't testify so he must be hiding something. He did the right thing by not testifying, he ought to defend himself sole on constitutional grounds. The Senate has no jurisdiction. Quote James Madison. James Madison in "Federalist 37" said only a sitting president can be impeached, not one who has already left office. And the text of the Constitution supports that conclusion.

And the brief that Jamie Raskin wrote said the First Amendment is not at all, at all underlined, relevant in the impeachment proceeding. In other words, you can use one part of the Constitution, impeachment, without being bound by the other part of the Constitution that says Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech. I have to tell you, it's a C- brief with grade inflation.

INGRAHAM: I was going to say, I wish we knew what he got in your class.

DERSHOWITZ: I'm sure he was a good. I'm sure he was a good student. He's a bright guy. He's just very partisan. And he doesn't understand the long- term implications. The short-term benefits to him are to get rid Trump for the future. But the long-term harm to the First Amendment and the Constitution is incalculable.

INGRAHAM: Really quickly, this idea of criminalizing the attendance at rallies, guilt by association, to merely to stand there.

DERSHOWITZ: It's another First Amendment right. The right peaceably to assemble and to redress grievances. You cannot punish somebody for exercising their First Amendment rights. That's in the First Amendment. It's as important as the right of free speech, the right of free exercise of religion. You cannot go after somebody who attends a peaceful rally.

INGRAHAM: Alan, thank you so much, great to see you tonight.

And AOC led an hour-long psychotherapy session on the floor of Congress tonight. You probably missed it, but we didn't. Raymond Arroyo is here to break down the most insane but highly emotional moments, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Earlier tonight, Congressman Ocasio-Cortez with Nancy Pelosi's permission led a bizarre, hour-long group therapy session on the House floor over the trauma they suffered on January 6th. Remember, Ocasio-Cortez wasn't actually in the Capitol Building that day, but her feelings don't care about your facts. Plus, AOC's taxpayer funded grief counseling was a big hit with her fellow radicals.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CORI BUSH, (D-MO): I feel like this was one of the days out there on the streets when the white supremacists would show up and start shooting at us. This is one of the days when the police would ambush us from behind trees and from behind buildings, and all of a sudden, we are on the ground being brutalized. It felt like one of those days. And I'm going to be real honest about it. My thought process was we banging to the end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Here to walk us through the best and the worth of this, Raymond Arroyo, FOX News contributor. Raymond, this is part Dr. Phil, part Oprah. I wasn't quite grasping it all on C-SPAN.

RAYMOND ARROYO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Laura, this was open mic night at the DNC. But you remember last night, we played that AOC Instagram post where she relived the drama of the moment even though she was in the Cannon Building, not in the Capitol, when these insurrectionists broke in. This is the reality show version of what we saw last night, the full ensemble. And it's all designed to exert political pressure on senators as they vote to convict the president in that impeachment hearing.

INGRAHAM: Let's get to it. This is a prelude, this is the emotional prelude to the impeachment trial. Listen to the groveling from the Congressman Dean Phillips.

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REP. DEAN PHILLIPS, (D-MN): I'm here tonight to say to my brothers and sisters in Congress and all around our country, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. For I had never understood, really understood what privilege really means. It took a violent mob of insurrectionists.

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INGRAHAM: Played with that mask a little bit too often, Raymond. The privilege came into this. So this is going to be a therapeutic of explaining and apologizing for your privilege. I think this is going to go on for years.

ARROYO: Somebody should apologize for Congresswoman Cori Bush who earlier said AOC had the same line, the big villain here where the cops. Remember, AOC was all worried about somebody coming in. It ended up being a Capitol policeman. Here we have Cori Bush saying I felt like the cops were going to be ambush us from behind. This demonization of police, demonization of comrades on the floor, fellow congresspeople, this has to end if there's going to be any unity, any together, and the politics has got to be dropped here.

INGRAHAM: It's not about coming together. It's about demonizing Trump ahead of the impeachment trial and ensuring that he never holds a rally again, good luck with that. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib could barely hold it together, Raymond.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RASHIDA TLAIB, (D-MI): My team, which I lovingly just adore, they are diverse. I have LGBTQ staff. I have a beautiful Muslim woman that wears her hijab proudly in the halls, I have black woman that are so proud to be here to serve their country. And I worry every day for their lives.

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ARROYO: Look, Laura, I don't want to minimize what these people went through. I'm sure they were traumatized by this. She said at one point hate rhetoric caused what she saw the capital. This is the same woman who after her election we're going to impeach the m-fer about Donald Trump. That's not exactly love talk. But the fake consolation, it's all too much.

INGRAHAM: Hold on, but Raymond, walking up to her -- didn't we do the Global Globe nominations last night? We could have added some. We should have held off and done --

ARROYO: Best ensemble in a political drama.

INGRAHAM: Best ensemble nomination. Raymond, here's the deal, when we had rand Paul hounded in the streets and mobs were descending on people leaving the Trump White House that night, elderly couples, where was the concern raised? Unless you have a congressional pin on, you can't feel traumatized. So if it was a consistent theme of empathize with people who felt traumatized, I would be a little bit I guess more convinced about all of this.

ARROYO: Again, look, why did they have to do this in public? Because they wanted it to be seen by the cameras. It creates the political pressure that they are looking for because, look, the lead player, the guest star they really wanted in this drama, Donald Trump, ripped up his SAG card today, he ain't coming. So you had to get this ensemble to do their best, and that's what they attempted.

INGRAHAM: And if anyone missed Trump's quitting the Screen Actors Guild today, we'll tweet it out. It is hilarious. Raymond, great to see you tonight.

When we come back, a message to every teacher choosing to sit on the sidelines. Tonight's Last Bite is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: -- refusing to go back to the classroom and the politicians protecting them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel like you are giving up on us. I felt like they're giving up on us. I feel like they just looked at the public-school kids, and was like, you know what, they're not really that important. Right now, I have friends who have not been able to apply to college because there's no leadership.

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