This is a rush transcript from “The Ingraham Angle," July 24, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
LISA BOOTHE, FOX NEWS HOST: I'm Lisa Boothe in for Laura Ingraham tonight and this is a special edition of "The Ingraham Angle" live from New York. We have a packed show for you tonight. So let's get to it.
Tonight is day 58 of violent protests that have shaken the City of Portland. That's right, eight weeks of sustained chaos and the American public has been told by the media and politicians on the Left that somehow it's peaceful. They would tell you that it is nothing but a wall of moms and folks congregating for greater racial justice.
But all you have to do is take a look at the scenes night in and night out to realize that that narrative is a complete farce. As a result, the administration sent in 114 officers led by the Department of Homeland Security during the 4th of July weekend. Their goal, to stop the swell of violence and protect monuments and federal buildings that the mayor surrendered to the mob.
During the course of their time there these agents have seen flagrant acts of violence and crime, so, of course, they made arrests, which the state attorney general has actually tried to stop. Apparently breaking the law, setting fire to a federal building and attacking officers isn't cause for concern to these liberal leaders.
Today, a federal judge smacked down the state's attempt to stop these arrests. And just for doing their jobs it has led to disgusting accusations being hurled at these agents, not just from the Left Wing media, but powerful Leftist politicians. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): The use of stormtroopers under the guise of law and order is a tactic that is not appropriate to our country.
MAYOR TED WHEELER (D-OR), PORTLAND: Nonviolent Americans are going to be killed for doing nothing other than standing up for American democratic principles.
REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-CA): They've been pulling people off the street. This is what you see in countries where you have dictators.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOOTHE: Wow. Well, here to respond to these mayors directly is Ken Cuccinelli, acting DHS Deputy Secretary. Mr. Cuccinelli, before we get some of these crazy things that we're hearing on the Left, there's also been criticism from the Right.
You have people that some say, look, these citizens of places like Portland, Oregon, they voted for a radical mayor, they voted for a radical governor, let the city burn, let them deal with the consequences of the policies that they voted for. What do you say to those critics?
KEN CUCCINELLI, DHS ACTING DEPUTY SECRETARY: You know, I'm this close to agreeing, except we have a federal mission at the Department of Homeland Security, governed by statute. And we've also heard people, this isn't constitutional.
And real quick, Lisa, I'd point people to Article I, Section 8 Paragraphs 1, 9 and 18 and the statutes that have been written under it. And one of those statutes charges the Department of Homeland Security with protecting federal properties like this courthouse and Edith Green building there in Portland. So we're not only within the boundaries of the Constitution, we have a statutory charge, and that's the mission we're pursuing there.
And when you see such libelous, slanderous comments from people who know better, let's not kid ourselves. The Speaker of the House knows that she's using Nazi allusions to refer to correct professional law enforcement officers. If I was a CBP agent, if I was an ICE agent, if I was an FPS agent, I might just sue her for libel.
BOOTHE: Why is she doing that?
CUCCINELLI: I mean, that's what that is.
BOOTHE: Why is she doing that?
CUCCINELLI: Well, one of the sad things right now about the political arena is that the Left views an important part of their base, as people who believe violence is an acceptable way to achieve your goals. And we saw the Mayor Wheeler go out last night. He is way out there. He's radical Left, as you said in your introduction. He's basically turned much of the city over to these violent criminals. And he's tied the hands of his own police department. I feel bad for them - the Portland Police Bureau.
And last night he thought he could go out and appease the mob and control them. And he went out and spoke to them. He was booed they called for his resignation. And the right historical analogy has nothing to do with Germany. It has to do with the Bolsheviks. And last night that mayor was a Menshevik, the socialists who went out and thought they could control that revolution, and the bloodthirsty Bolsheviks came in and killed them all.
This mob is out for blood. They are not there to protect the First Amendment or to exercise first amendment rights. We all respect those people. At every night that 75 to 100 people and then 1,000 more come later, and start attacking these buildings and the law enforcement officers protecting them.
BOOTHE: And sir, the mayor was on the receiving end of things like "F" you Ted Wheeler, calls for his resignation, so why does he keep standing up for the mob?
CUCCINELLI: You know, his own police last night had to declare a riot. It was quite an interesting display, frankly, and hopefully - or two nights ago. Hopefully, he learned a lesson. I don't know he hasn't learned lessons before, Portland has done this before. And honestly, I think he believes that's where Portland is politically. That's what he needs to do to get reelected in his mind.
But how much destruction can Portland take? How much violence are they willing to tolerate? And, honestly, the answer to that goes back to your first question. To a certain extent, that's their business. But now when it impinges on the federal mission, that we are legally charged with protecting and executing.
We've got to keep that courthouse working. We've got to keep the federal government functioning there. And that's - our mission is to protect that opportunity for the benefit, frankly, of the residents of Portland and Oregon. So--
BOOTHE: And let's stay on that mission, sir.
CUCCINELLI: There's a real big difference.
BOOTHE: Well, I want to play you something.
CUCCINELLI: Yes, sorry, Lisa.
BOOTHE: I'm sure you're not surprised. But the former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson has weighed in here. I want you to listen to what he has to say and then I'd love to hear your reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEH JOHNSON, FORMER DHS SECRETARY: The militaristic presence on the streets of the United States and our cities during moments of high tension can actually make matters worse. I used to say to people within DHS, let's not let sideshows, ancillary missions like this derail our core mission and discredit us in the communities where we need to operate. And plainly no one is making that calculation right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOOTHE: Your reaction?
CUCCINELLI: Well, look, we all have the right to our opinion, so long as these violent crimes don't overthrow the First Amendment. And Jeh Johnson has a good - lot of experience. But we have a situation here where the President has made it very clear to us that we are not just surrendering the courthouse, we're not just surrendering these properties. And that's really the alternative that former Secretary Johnson didn't address in his comments.
His alternative is nothing, because the Portland Police have made it clear, as this Mayor did two years ago, when an ICE facility in Portland was attacked, he publicly withdrew the support of the police and basically declared Open Season. And they're doing it again. So this isn't the first time for Portland, although 58 days in a row violence is pretty extraordinary.
If we don't do this mission, no one else will do it. And I don't think people in this country - ordinary Americans are ready to start letting violent criminals and insurrectionists overthrow even a single building of the federal government in a place like Portland.
And I will say Portland is totally unique. You look at so many of our other relationships, even in cities where the President and the mayors don't necessarily get along, law enforcement still works together. We still try to pull gangs off the street there. We still work with their police to do that, and they let their police work with us.
Only Portland has gone so far and so radical in not just appeasement, but in withdrawing - openly withdrawing even protection from their fellow Americans who are performing their federal mission.
BOOTHE: Well, and Governor Inslee actually tweeted out tonight, I believe, that the President is itching for a confrontation, that he wants attention. Is that what it's about?
CUCCINELLI: Well, that's pretty ridiculous, really. I mean, the President doesn't need attention. He's the president. He gets plenty doing his day job without these violent interludes that are allowed to happen. And Governor Inslee, like others here in in Oregon, so long as they hold the police back irresponsibly, by which I mean, letting violence run amok, where responsible policing could bring down that level of violence or end it entirely.
For instance, in Portland, if they just instituted a midnight to 5:00 am curfew and enforced it, that's when the violence is overwhelmingly happening in that city.
BOOTHE: And I--
CUCCINELLI: They would protect their city, their citizens, their businesses.
BOOTHE: Deputy Secretary, thank you. We also want to say there's three federal agents that were blinded by lasers. You had rioters trying to board up a federal courthouse and light it on fire with people inside--
CUCCINELLI: And burn it down. Yes.
BOOTHE: So we're praying for the safety of federal agents as well with the dangerous situation that's going on there, sir.
CUCCINELLI: Thank you.
BOOTHE: Thank you for joining us tonight.
CUCCINELLI: We appreciate it.
BOOTHE: So it isn't just Portland seeing chaos on the streets, teams of tactical border officers are also being sent to Chicago, Albuquerque and Seattle to help fight the rising crime wave. It's gotten so bad that Seattle's Chief of Police is even warning officers not to put themselves at risk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARMEN BEST, SEATTLE POLICE CHIEF: They had frozen water bottles, some road construction and mortars thrown at them. So we want to make sure, particularly now that we don't have any tools in our tool belt to protect the officers as we did before, that we have some protection around each of the facilities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOOTHE: Wow. So Joining me now is Bernie Kerik, former NYPD Commissioner. Bernie, so the chief there is referring to a law the City Council passed, banning the use of tear gas and pepper spray. This puts officers in a pretty dangerous situation. So my question to you, can police officers even do their jobs right now in the country and particularly cities like Seattle?
BERNARD KERIK, FORMER NYPD COMMISSIONER: Well, listen, whether it's Seattle, Chicago, Portland or anywhere else, any of these cities run by Democrats these days, it's extremely difficult for them to do their jobs because they don't have the backing, the support, the resources, they need to do the job, the equipment they need to do the job.
And I want to touch on one thing, Lisa, when you were talking to Secretary Cuccinelli. Everybody's talking about stormtroopers and the paramilitary and the military - like Jeh Johnson said, we can't have these in our cities.
The only thing that's different about those people that's out there making the arrest is their uniform. They're wearing tactical uniforms. They're wearing tactical uniforms, because they can't be out there in dress blues, because they're getting feces and urine thrown at them and Molotov cocktails and all kind of bombardment from these lunatics. They're not going to wear dress blues or whites, they have to be in tactical uniforms and that's the uniforms they're wearing. This isn't about a military operation.
BOOTHE: Why do you think that narrative is out there, then? I mean, you just disputed some of the attacks that are going on from the Left and the media, why are we seeing that from them?
KERIK: Well, the narrative is out there because these radical Leftist, Marxist politicians, they need to jazz up the lunatics in the field. They want them to - they want to incite them, they want to instigate them. And the only way to do that is basically saying, this is a military attack on our city, this is a military attack on our people. And in therefore, you have to get out and fight.
And I will say, I'm going to tell you, as Cuccinelli said, the federal government is charged with protecting the courthouse and the federal buildings. Those politicians, the mayor, the Governor of Portland, Seattle, in these other places, they took an oath - they took a constitutional oath of office to enforce the laws and the Constitution of the of the Federal Constitution, the U.S. Constitution and their state laws.
BOOTHE: Well, why aren't they?
KERIK: That's exactly right. Why aren't they?
BOOTHE: Hello.
KERIK: There has to be some way to hold them accountable. Whether it's a civil rights issue, can the FBI come in and look at the civil rights issues? Why aren't they protecting the citizens of Portland? They're obligated by law.
BOOTHE: And what's the impact on all of this? We've looked at, as you pointed out, some of the terminology, the way that we're seeing the Left speak about federal police officers, we've seen local police officers also be on the receiving end of just vitriol violence, as well. Look, you're a former NYPD Commissioner, you're talking to police officers on the ground all the time, what's the impact been on them?
KERIK: Completely demoralized, whether it's New York City, Seattle, Portland. I talk the New York City cops every day. They're completely demoralized. And the only - the only real comfort they have is the President support. That's it.
This Operation Legend - right away Nancy Pelosi who sounds like a kook when she's talking these days. She's basically talking about these stormtroopers. The reality is we have federal agents in New York City, and FBI joint terrorist Task Force, a DEA task force that consist of New York City detectives, State Police, federal agents.
When I was a cop, a detective, I was in the DEA Task Force. We already have tons of federal agents in our cities. All the President wants to do is enhance those numbers, go into the communities go after gangs, guns and drugs. That's what has to happen.
BOOTHE: Will it be effective?
KERIK: That way - yes, it'll be effective, because you're going to charge them federally. No turnstile justice. You're not going to let some state prosecutor let him go. You're going to charge them federally. The U.S. Attorneys are going to prosecute them. They're going to get mandatory minimums, and they're going to go to prison for a long time.
BOOTHE: Interesting. Bernie, thank you for joining us. We appreciate it.
KERIK: Thank you.
BOOTHE: Democrats in the media are working overtime to fear monger over Trump sending in troops to end the wave of violence. This insane talking point that he's turning into a dictator is not only going unchallenged, it's being magnified.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN HEILEMANN, MSNBC NATIONAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Who doesn't think that Donald Trump would try to employ martial law if he thought it was the only way you could stay in power.
SEN. RON WYDEN (D-OR): This country may be looking down the barrel of martial law in the middle of an election.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG, "THE VIEW" CO-HOST: This feels like a planned attack against the American people.
ERIC HOLDER, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: We have to be prepared for things that this nation has never faced before. And, unfortunately, that could involve the use of these forces.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOOTHE: It's almost like some sort of talking point is being circulated out there. Well, here now is Ben Weingarten, Senior Contributor at the Federalist, Columnist at Newsweek and author of American Ingrate. And Sara Carter, Fox News Contributor and host of the "Sara Carter Show" podcast.
So, Sara, as Democrats are saying, President Trump's not going to accept the results of the 2020 election, have Democrats accepted the results of the 2016 election?
SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I was just going to say that Lisa, and it's really tragic. The Democrats haven't accepted it since 2016. They're continually trying to remove a duly elected President from office and they're weaponizing now not just law enforcement, but the people in communities that are drastically suffering from not only the COVID shut down with their businesses, but also their children, their education systems, complete social injustice that they feel.
These, Democrats, these - I call them Marxist Socialists like to rile up the communities against the government. They don't care about the people that they represent. If they cared about the people they represent. They wouldn't want the people in the streets, rioting, destroying their property, destroying businesses. And unfortunately, we've seen lives lost, so many lives lost.
Children as young as one, three years old in Chicago, teenagers, people injured, like you said, law enforcement officials, they're shameful actually and something actually should really be done. I think the President's doing the right thing. I think our federal law enforcement officers are doing the right thing. They are not stormtroopers. And I think we need to move forward as a nation. We need to find a way to unify, but I don't think the Left is going to do that.
BOOTHE: And Ben, I want to pull up this article from the "Wall Street Journal." I think it was an opinion column actually from Barton Swaim, and he argues that this is a classic case of projection.
He's write - he wrote this. "I mean, no disrespect to my liberal friends when I say, to borrow Mr. Biden's phrase, that I am absolutely convinced the Democrats won't accept the result if the Republican wins. I say this because with only two exceptions, liberals have considered every GOP presidential victory in the last half century, more or less illegitimate."
And that was the exception, I think, since 1968, with the exception of two which were 49 State, landslide. So I think maybe the Left are the ones that aren't accepting the results here. What say you?
BEN WEINGARTEN, NEWSWEEK COLUMNIST: I think - well, look - well, first of all, Hillary Clinton herself has clearly not accepted the results of the 2016 election and the election before the night was over was called illegitimate and the President was challenged on it.
But look, it says everything you need to know about the modern Democratic Party, that restoring the rule of law on our streets is considered a totalitarian act, but anarchy and mob rule and rioting is considered legitimate activity.
Also to your point, which is a great one. The fact of the matter is that it is the Left that has been engaging in totalitarian acts since before the President was elected. We haven't even gotten yet to the depths of the weaponization and politicization of the national security and intelligence apparatus, precisely because the Left and the media, but I repeat myself, the resistance have done everything they possibly could to halt the peaceful transition of power, which is the hallmark of our representative democracy, which they love to talk about so much, but they don't actually want to let it function.
So I think what this really comes down to is, once again, the Left is trying to de legitimize the president again, even before he is potentially reelected and make it seem as if it's not a real victory and this isn't a real serious President. And then the other thing is, I think it's very clear, they think very little of the American people that they think we're stupid. They think that we can't see through the lies and the smears and innuendo and propaganda.
BOOTHE: And about--
WEINGARTEN: This President has been checked more than any president in our lifetime.
BOOTHE: Well, and about that, Sara, so first of all, this seems very similar to the Russia hysteria that we've all gone through - where we went through for years. But also you have Democrats that say that President Trump is undermining - he's undermining norms and institutions.
But they were the ones who called for the abolishing of the Electoral College. They are the ones who call for faithless electors. And they are the ones that use the DOJ and the FBI to spy on a political opponent.
CARTER: Right. And they were the ones that call for defunding police and they're the ones that instigating all of this anger inside the communities that they should be caring for and nurturing. Look, the bigger problems we've seen have been in communities actually run by Democratic politicians.
Chicago, we see it in Portland, Oregon, we see it in Seattle. We've seen it in New York City. We've even seen it here in Washington, DC, and the only people that are paying the price for this are the American people.
And you brought up a really great point there, Lisa, because when you talk about weaponization I thought about this tonight. I thought not only did they weaponize our law enforcement, our intelligence agencies, but they're trying to weaponize the people against each other.
BOOTHE: Right.
CARTER: The President of the United States is not going to call martial law or he's not sending stormtroopers. He's trying to protect the citizens of this country. Maybe the Democrats should try doing that a little bit, so we don't see more bloodshed and we don't lose more children. And maybe they should resolve the problems in their own home.
BOOTHE: And Ben real quick, 15 seconds before we got to go, close this out.
WEINGARTEN: The President is the one standing up for the Constitution. The Democrats are the ones trying to shred it. He can't even overturn an awful Obama administration Executive Order and he's being called a tyrant. It's laughable.
BOOTHE: All right, Benefit, Sara, thank you.
Coming up, we are way past tearing down Confederate statues. We'll show you what happened in Chicago last night with Horace Cooper and Steve Cortez. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BOOTHE: After violent clashes with police, Chicago's Christopher Columbus statues had been removed. When the crowds protesting outside of Mayor Lightfoot's home learned that the one in Grant Park would be taken down in the dead of the night, they cheered. Then reportedly demanded police to be defunded.
Joining me now to discuss all of this is Horace Cooper, Co-Chair of Project 21 and author of "Trump is Making Black America Great Again". Also with me is Steve Cortes, Salem Radio Host.
Steve so it's Christopher Columbus, it's Abraham Lincoln. It's an Elk in Portland, Oregon that got lit on fire. I am starting to get the sense that this isn't about the Confederacy or racism.
STEVE CORTES, SALEM RADIO HOST: No, it sure isn't. All you know, unfortunately here in Chicago, we saw a dangerous dereliction of duty. This was really an abdication by Mayor Lightfoot as she is unfortunately presiding over a city - my city which is devolving into chaos.
Last weekend, we had 70 people shot in the city of Chicago, and the weekend began, as you mentioned last Friday, one week ago, with a pitched battle at that statue between a lot of brave police officers facing off with a bunch of Marxist malcontents who wanted to inflict their will and tear that statue down.
Now the cops held their ground, they paid a heavy price for it. 18 of them went to the emergency room, but they won that battle, thankfully, and not just preserving this and protecting the statue, but more importantly, protecting the principle of the rule of law and public order.
And what did Mayor Lightfoot do then? She completely betrayed those cops, and she gave in and caved to the mob. This was a complete capitulation and unfortunately sends a message to those kinds of mobs that they can win and that they can get political power, not through persuasion, but through force and intimidation. It's a very dangerous precedent.
BOOTHE: So Horace, we saw on Wednesday night, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler trying to go out to the mob and talk to them. He was met with things thrown at him, "F" you, resign. The Mayor of Minneapolis faced a similar scenario when he tried to go out and talk to the mob. So why does the Left keep trying to appease the mob when they clearly cannot be appeased?
HORACE COOPER, CO-CHAIRMAN, PROJECT 21: The Left is the mob, that's exactly the problem. You see, this is not about the tragic death of George Floyd. This is about the cancel culture having an opportunity and taking the advantage.
Black Americans have not said universally that their big problem that they face every day is that they see an occasional Confederate statue, or that there's a military base named after a former Confederate General or leader. What really matters in America, Black, White, or Brown are the kinds of things that the cancel culture could care less about.
Here's the truth, after statues are taken down in the dark of night without using the legislative process, without persuasion, and discussion, people who are looking for jobs are still going to be looking for jobs. People who have struggles with poor education in their community are still going to have those.
The Amazing - amazing thing about how the cancel culture is getting away with pushing its radical agenda, and in light of all of the scrutiny that America is saying that it wants to pay attention to that these issues have moved front and center. This is just a good example of them never letting an opportunity to do the radical thing go by.
STEVE CORTES, SALEM RADIO HOST: Horace --
BOOTHE: Well, and we also saw -- hold on just one second. There's one other topic I'd like to discuss with you guys. So we all saw the former vice president, Democratic nominee Joe Biden, he called President Trump racist. On top of that, this is what Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush claims Trump is really doing by deploying federal agents.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BOBBY RUSH (D-IL): Trump wants to instigate a race war. He wants to have black folks fighting white folks so he can rise up and say I'm the real the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and I'm the president. Reelect me. That's what he's trying to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOOTHE: Steve?
CORTES: Look, a deranged rant, unfortunately, from Bobby Rush. I'm not surprise there. But Joe Biden should know better. He doesn't, unfortunately. This is, unfortunately, the default position of the left when they no longer want to talk policy. They just call us racist.
The people of America, though, and Horace was exactly right, the people of America want jobs, not mobs. And you mentioned previously, Lisa, about the inability to mollify, the inability to satisfy the mob by giving them what they allegedly want. They will always come back for more.
And I would also say this. I think there is something way more sinister than just trying to take down statues. That's bad enough. The statues, I believe, are a dress rehearsal, because these Marxists will not be sated with trophies merely of granite and stone. They are going to come for real people, for living, breathing human beings, people like me who dare to disagree with them. That is where at the left is trying to take this country. And we have to meet it with force and resolve. Unfortunately, Mayor Lightfoot showed exactly the opposite.
BOOTHE: Horace?
COOPER: I just want to understand, was Bull Connor trying to achieve a race war? What about Governor Orville Faubus? When the president of the United States, Dwight Eisenhower was forced to send in a federal force to ensure that the rights of Americans were protected, is this what I'm hearing Bobby Rush say? Is this what I'm hearing the modern progressives say?
What is amazing to me is that the racial segregationists of the 18th century, the 19th century, the 20th century, and even now the 21st century, all, like FDR said, that all we have to fear is fear itself. Today's modern liberal movement, all they have to offer is race itself.
BOOTHE: Also the congressman might want to take a look at some of the things that the former vice president has said, like former President Obama was the first mainstream African-American who was bright, clean, and articulate, saying poor kids could be just as bright as white kids, or you have to have a slight Indian accent to go into a Dunkin Donuts or a 7- Eleven. So maybe he should take a look at those comments as well.
Steve, Horace, thank you.
CORTES: Thank you.
BOOTHE: Thank you.
Up next, the worst media offenders of the week, "The Ingraham Angle" has got its eyes on you. The tape you don't want to miss is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BOOTHE: I left that intro. So it's really easy to become numb about the media bias these days. So "The Ingraham Angle" is keeping track of the worst offenders of the week. Joining me now is Rachel Campos-Duffey, FOX News contributor, and Jeffrey Lord, former CNN contributor and author of "Swamp Wars."
Panel, let's begin with CNN's Don Lemon, who after shaming President Trump had a bit of trouble with his own cognitive abilities test.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: What were the animal shapes?
DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Well, it's a lion, a hippo, and a camel.
CUOMO: Isn't that a rhino in the middle?
LEMON: A rhino.
CUOMO: You don't even know a hippo from a rhino. You've got no acuity, son. You've got no acuity.
LEMON: I'm looking at it backwards. I'm looking at it backwards.
CUOMO: What does it mean if you don't know an elephant from a rhino?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOOTHE: Apparently, it's really hard. The embarrassment for CNN didn't end there. Here is what happened when Erin Burnett tried to go to the doctor who created the cognitive test.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: There is one, a question that asked if a patient can recognize the drawing of a lion, they have doing this to sort of suggested that it is a very easy test.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Certainly, questions are harder than others, especially the five word recall, and most patients do not get the five words. Most of them get 3.7 words. So it's not that easy.
BURNETT: Is that fair, the last five questions are hard and a fully normal person who didn't have memory issues would have trouble?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is challenging.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOOTHE: Rachel, Burnett seemed really disappointed to.
RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, she did. First of all, let me say, I can't even remember my kids' names, so I was really impressed with how the president did on this. And this really shows bias. The story here isn't about the president who actually aced the test. The story is about Joe Biden who claimed that he has repeatedly taken this test and yet he refuses to release the results. It's about the candidate who is showing cognitive decline, the candidate who busts into very bizarre rants about children combing his leg hair and nurses blowing up his nose. That's the story. Why hasn't Joe Biden taken this test and released the results?
BOOTHE: And Jeffrey, about that, Democrats have made that an issue themselves. Joe Biden has brought up his age on the campaign trail. There was a "Politico" article talking about how they were debating if he should just say he's going to be a one-term president. They are the ones that made this an issue, right?
CAMPOS-DUFFY: Sure.
JEFFREY LORD, FORMER CNN CONTRIBUTOR: They have. This is one of the problems they're going to have when Joe Biden gets out there. Just the other day he referred to Arizona as a city. I can't wait for him to be doing his debates with President Trump, who really does have a pretty good memory and is really good at this kind of thing.
And I just have to say, I have to laugh that Don Lemon, my old CNN colleague, didn't know that a RINO is, and I have could have told him had I been there, that that stands for "Republican in name only."
(LAUGHTER)
BOOTHE: Panel, this week the Trump administration busted a massive illegal spying ring at the Chinese consulate in Houston, they rightfully ordered it close, but this is how MSNBC Andrea Mitchell tried to spin it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREA MITCHELL, MSNBC HOST: Do you suspect there is a political motive? We're sorry to say, but in this context where the president keeps talking about the China virus, albeit China did mishandle their original reporting on the COVID-19.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They certainly did. They certainly did.
MITCHELL: But do you think this is partly to find a scapegoat?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOOTHE: Jeff, why is she making it political?
LORD: Yes, well, this is what you do when you start with anti-Trump bias. And I want to say this on behalf of the president. The president when he was a private citizen, long before he was elected president, spoke to me when I was talking to him at length about China. He has been very much the hardliner, said that his predecessors weren't doing the job. The idea that this is suddenly some political move on his part is absurd. He is not going to be taken advantage of here, and he feels certainly in the current circumstances that's what has happened, and he is not going to put up with it.
BOOTHE: Rachel, I want you to weigh in on this one. So MSNBC's Joy Reid found her favorite word of the day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOY REID, MSNBC HOST: He's using that trumped up charge to justify what in any other country, particularly an authoritarian one, would be called the secret police.
He needs to have his secret police.
There is the secret police aspect of it.
These federal secret police.
The deploying of secret police.
It's a secret police vibe.
Using his own secret police.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOOTHE: So we kept count, and "secret police" was said a total of seven times that night, Rachel.
CAMPOS-DUFFY: Right, and it's so rich because the real secret police story is the scandal, the Obama scandal that they refused to cover, which is President Obama spying on the Donald Trump campaign. That is really third world, banana republic, secret police stuff.
Here is the deal, they are calling on these federal agents stormtroopers. They're calling them -- they're comparing them to Pinochet and Putin. It's outrageous. These are federal agents who are defending federal buildings against anarchists and Antifa. That's what they're supposed to do.
BOOTHE: Jeff?
LORD: Yes, Article Two, Section Three of the Constitution says the president quite specifically shall take care to see that the laws are faithfully executed. The president is upholding his constitutional duty. And to say in doing so he is violating the Constitution is nonsense, upside down.
BOOTHE: Rachel, Jeff, thanks so much for joining us.
CAMPOS-DUFFY: Of course, thank you.
BOOTHE: Coming up, you've seen the Black Lives Matter murals -- I can't say, it's a hard word to say -- painted on streets across the country. So what happened when one Trump supporter tried to get a MAGA mural? Laura spoke with her, and it's next.
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LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: In cities big and small across America, activists have the full support of local officials to paint Black Lives Matter murals on prominent city blocks. When the issue came to Redwood City, California, on July 4th, it was quickly proved. And in this case local resident Dan Pease not only got permission, the city supplied him with all of the paint and so forth, to do it.
That's when Redwood citizen and real estate attorney Maria Rutenburg stepped in. She didn't have an issue with the BLM message being displayed at all, but she just argued if city streets were now a public forum, she should be able to display her own mural, MAGA 2020. Instead of allowing both to exist simultaneously, the city took down the BLM signage as a way to keep anything pro-Trump off of their streets.
Maria Rutenburg joins us now. Maria, thank you for being here. Now, I understand that you even offered to pay the cost of the painting, but the city still shut it down? Now, why do you think that is?
MARIA RUTENBURG: That's right. Well, I guess they didn't want to see MAGA 2020 painted on a main street in the city.
BOOTHE: Well, they actually issued a statement, Maria, where they basically said this was only going to be a temporary Black Lives Matter mural, and they never intended it to be, I'll read it. "The Black Lives Matter was intended for a short duration. Staff's concern about public safety issues that may arise from painting murals on public streets which could result in driver confusion and traffic accidents. Thus, the existing mural has been removed." But you maintain it is because you were going to call them on this, and if it's a public forum, let it rip.
RUTENBURG: That's exactly right. And I believe that the city has obligations not to discriminate on the basis of content of political speech. We are all equal when it comes to the First Amendment, and if somebody has the right to speak, which is BLM, and I have no problem with them expressing themselves on asphalt. This is completely their right even if I don't agree with the message. So should they allow me to speak. And I have one message, I'm sure somebody else has something else. And the moment you open up asphalt as a public forum, you are stuck with so many different opinions you're not going to know what to do with them.
INGRAHAM: Maria, I can tell because I lived in the former Soviet Union that that's a Russian accent that you have.
RUTENBURG: Yes.
INGRAHAM: So explain why -- does that play into at all your appreciation of the freedom you have in this country to speak out without fear of being intimidated, both whether it's on the right or the left?
RUTENBURG: Exactly. And I became a lawyer because I admire the Constitution. I think we need the document in this country, and it is our duty to defend it. And in these trying times, if anything is uniting us it's Constitution. And cities, instead of looking for ways to divide us and create a political firestorm, they should look for something that gets us all together. And if they want to have us do a political discussion, that's totally fine. But they should honor every single side that has something to say.
As an American I think it's my obligation to honor and respect other people's opinion, but I want them to respect mine as well. And if I have something to say, they should let me do it. And my biggest problem was with the city, because when cities become arbiters of private expression, that is basically the end of the United States. They should not be picking and choosing the messages they like to hear and not to hear. If they open up something for discussion, it's open season for everybody, and we can all say what we want. That's a basic American principle.
INGRAHAM: That is fair, and that's a truly liberal perspective. Earlier in the month, by the way, the Redwood City public library had an artwork display featuring pieces from the city's BLM protest. Now, something tells me they wouldn't put up an art display for a pro-life protest, in other words.
RUTENBURG: Don't worry about that, yes.
INGRAHAM: Never going to happen.
RUTENBURG: For sure, for sure. But it's their right, they can display things. But that's their right to censorship things. So we're all equal. We all live in the city. There's a lot of people expressing different things, and their obligation is to bring us together, not to divide us.
INGRAHAM: Maria, thank you for joining us, and it was a clever thing you did. And who knows, it might catch on across the United States?
RUTENBURG: Thank you so much for having me.
INGRAHAM: More speech, not less. Thanks so much.
RUTENBURG: Exactly. Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BOOTHE: Amen to that, more speech, not less.
Coming up, Governor Cuomo has a new COVID rule for now New Yorkers, but he better watch out. The folks in Buffalo might not be too thrilled. The Last Bite is next.
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BOOTHE: Michael Bloomberg had his war on soda, now Governor Cuomo has his war on appetizers in New York.
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GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): To be a bar, you had to have food available, soups, sandwiches, et cetera. More than just hors d'oeuvres, chicken wings, you had to have some substantive of food.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOOTHE: So I am directly offended by this, because wings, that is a meal, and it is substantive food. But yes, so in 90 degrees, it's going to 90 degrees in New York this weekend, so perfect weather for sitting at an outdoor bar with a cold beer and a hot bowl of chicken noodle soup, right.
That's all the time we have tonight. Thank you for watching this special edition of "The Ingraham Angle." I'm Lisa Boothe in for Laura Ingraham.
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