Democrats host retreat with celebrities while Trump hosts immigration roundtable

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Democrats host retreat with celebrities while Trump hosts immigration roundtable

Reaction and analysis from House Minority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," April 11, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

LAURA INGRAHAM, HOST: All right. I'm Laura Ingraham. This is “The Ingraham Angle” from Washington. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar casually kind of dismissing the atrocities of 9/11 and now she's claiming bigots are attacking her for it. A heated debate on this ahead. Plus, why was Obama's Intel czar Jim Clapper so quick to attack Attorney General Bill Barr after he revealed that the Trump team was spied upon. An “Ingraham Angle” investigation ahead. And the rise and fall of Michael Avenatti. It's so sad.

We examine how the media's embrace shielded a man who was on the wrong end of 36 federal indictments today. But first, Dems fail the vision test. That's the focus of tonight's “Angle.”

Yesterday gave us a bird's eye view of how starkly different the President's priorities are from those of the Democrats. Now yesterday, the President headed to Texas to focus on two important issues. First illegal immigration. And second, the energy secretary also had a couple of fundraisers. But back in Washington Congressional Democrats worked on their agenda which consists of basically harassing Attorney General Bill Barr about the Mueller Report. And well this. There he is, the goofy House Intel Committee Chair Adam Schiff taking a selfie like a junior high school girl at the House Democrats retreat. Now look at that. In the background there are two Trump painting elites from Tinsel Town singer John Legend and his wife model Chrissy Teigen.

Now Democrats including Speaker Pelosi., they sat mesmerized by the couple's take on politics in America.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISSY TEIGEN, AMERICAN MODEL: It's laughing through the pain. But it's also important to balance that and be able to say where that true pain is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chrissy was ahead of the curve on making fun of Donald Trump.

TEIGEN: I really was. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She knew well before a lot of America did that, he was a joke and a con man and a clown. And I think she was appreciate in making fun of him early, long before he ever thought about running for President.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Very classy if not grammatical. Prescient, appreciate or I think he means prescient, but who's counting. Now, meanwhile 2000 miles away near Houston Donald Trump was hanging out with a different crowd. Visiting a union training center for operating engineers, the President signed a pair of executive orders that will cut red tape for companies seeking to build oil and gas pipelines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT: With incredible grip and talent and spirit. You lay the pipes that power our indices. You raise the beams that build our skyscrapers and you are the men and women who get up every day and make this country run and frankly make this country great. You're doing a great job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Now it's funny isn't it how Democrats are spending millions on campaign consultants and these retreat things they're doing and they're trying to attract more of the hard hat voters who are with Trump yesterday. But it's not a new slogan or a slick marketing campaign that blue-collar voters want. What they want are policies that help business and put more money in their pockets. Well, yesterday showed that Trump isn't anti-union by the way, he's pro- worker.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Union training opportunities have given me a chance to better my operating engineer. Making more money, building retirement, security and having good health care. This opportunity at this international training center is going to pay my dividends. It has been a great experience. We appreciate what you're doing, President Trump to grow this industry. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: That applause went on for quite a while. Now, I'll take that hard hatter Brandon Cooper and his co-workers over the Hollywood glitterati any day. And I bet they're a lot more fun. But would Nancy?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF., SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I was reminiscing with Chrissy and John on the way over when we won the House the first time they were there and gauged on their way to Italy to be married and went to Italy whether it was an events for us here there and everywhere or at the Democratic national conventions or at the celebration of our victory, John Legend and Chrissy had been there for us

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Now. Trump doesn't have to beg for applause. What Pelosi seem to have to beg for applause. Interesting. And I said nothing says working class America like fawning over celebrities turned self-appointed political pundits.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mental health wise. It's been really, really hard for me to deal with this presidency. There is no other way to say it. I think it's possible to be really angry all the time. I think it's possible to constantly want to call out all the transgressions and all the lies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: I've heard that people with anger issues always seem to blame others for causing them. It's kind of - you can't find any joy in your life until Trump is out of office. It's kind of sounded like that. If that's true that is truly sad, but it's frankly not our problem. Back in Texas, the President was speaking with real Americans who had stories to tell that were truly sad. Ranchers who described in vivid detail the bodies of illegal immigrants that they had found on their property just over the past year. The President was so moved and so affected about the humanitarian problem at the border and all the pain it causes local communities that he decided in a closed-door event to bring the President.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And I said what can I do for you folks to create more jobs and we start talking and the first person gets up and said sir, we have many people dying coming across the border and we find dead people from Guatemala, Honduras From El Salvador, from Mexico, all over. You really should cover it right. This has nothing to do with politics. This has nothing to do with campaigning or my campaign. This is totally unexpected that I have you in here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: You see we do have an empathetic President. And he's actually trying to solve a real problem that our open borders are creating. He's genuinely interested in hearing from Americans who are dealing with the fallout of our failed border enforcement every single day. Pelosi, Schiff and the entire open borders caucus. They prefer to pretend the crisis isn't a crisis. Hang out at the Democrat retreat and go to your yoga sessions in the afternoon.

Well that leaves more time to hear from the real experts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald Trump treats everything like it's an episode of what's that movie The Village. Like where there is this wall and these monsters to keep outside that we shouldn't talk to or we shouldn't have anything to deal with because we're in this wall.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Brilliant. Yes. That's why the President said the wall should have a big beautiful door for people to come in legally. Do they not remember that? Now while the Democrats cater to the entertainment elites that's not a big surprise. Obama did it too. The President. Is working for the forgotten men and women of America. Now he hasn't accomplished everything he set out to do yet. We have some huge problems bearing down on us still. But this country is better by almost every measure under his leadership. Certainly, no reason to be so angry.

The Democrat's vision by contrast seems dark and mad. They're infuriated all the time. They see an America where racism and misogyny reigns supreme.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If there was one word you would help particularly women us, use more frequently, what would that one word be.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're very good at this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: That's what our young girls need. Just the message for those hardhats in Texas. That's what they've been waiting for all the blue-collar people. I think not. The Democrats better find a good eye doctor from their Russian obsession to their embrace of open borders to green lighting and infanticide. They just keep failing the vision tests for Middle America. And that's “The Angle.”

Joining me now with reaction is House Minority Whip, Steve Scalise and Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick who spent his day yesterday with President Trump. All right. Congressman Scalise I have a question for you. Has the GOP policy retreat ever centered on a celebrity telling you to just curse more?

STEVE SCALISE, HOUSE MINORITY WHIP: Laura no. And what you saw there is such a contrast between why they failed so much and I thought it was an appropriate term you use because tomorrow marks the 100th day of Nancy Pelosi's speakership and it's been defined by nothing but failure a, failure to secure the border, a failure to focus on lower in health care costs. Failure to end infanticide. Failure to stand up to the anti- Semitism. Look I mean here in New York and all I've heard today is anger about what Rep. Omar continues to not only offend Jewish people but now victims of 9/11 and their families. It's just one thing after another and they continue to want to harass President Trump and not deal with the real issues.

While President Trump's out there not only meeting with blue collar workers but helping create more jobs. He has helped create more women owned businesses. He's helped raise wages for families. And so that's what he's going to keep working on and that's what frankly what he was elected to do, while they focus on trying to harass him and his family.

INGRAHAM: Yes.

SCALISE: And not focus on the problems of this country.

INGRAHAM: Dan Patrick you were with the President all day yesterday.

DAN PATRICK, HOST, THE DAN PATRICK SHOW: Yes,

INGRAHAM: I was thinking of you, because I've known you for so many years. You're someone who focuses on a problem tries to get it solved just like Scalise says. But these Democrats today had a panel discussion. Maybe it was yesterday when the whole thing kicked off and it was called Who Are the People. That was the name of the panel discussion that kicked it off. And it was moderator hosted by a Yale professor and a Harvard professor I mean nothing against - look I went to an Ivy League school, but I just thought that was funny I mean you can't write that line. That's the funniest thing ever.

PATRICK: No, that's not exactly middle America. You know Laura, when I was with the President all day yesterday, one of the things that struck me at both locations. First of all, when we were with the union workers and he signed those executive orders. I said to a few people at the time you know what. one man Donald Trump in just a few years has transformed the entire Republican Party to no longer be seen as the party of the wealthy or the elite, but to be seen as the party of the people, the hardworking Americans and the left, the democrats have totally moved away for them as you have said and they're about to get a butt kicking in 2020.

Because the people that were on that stage from the Union yesterday, they love this president. Well we drove into Crosby Texas it was like a 4th of July parade. There were thousands along the parade route. And then when we were in San Antonio earlier in the morning and the first person spoke up and said the president said what can we do for you in San Antonio. And a gentleman named Jean Powell said well we need to build the barrier. And he said and this is the reason and one rancher after the other rancher after the next property owner talked about finding dead bodies on their property seven last week, three last month. And I said to the President, Mr. President we have recovered over 1000 dead bodies in Texas since 2011 just out nowhere--

INGRAHAM: He was done.

PATRICK: In the middle of nowhere.

INGRAHAM: No, he was not.

PATRICK: He was stunned.

INGRAHAM: I was stunned to hear that.

PATRICK: And let me tell you what the exact numbers are low. We did the checking today 1,671 dead bodies have been recovered in Texas near and along the border. That's women. That's children. That's old people. These are the most vulnerable people and the Democrats say they care about people. These are the most vulnerable people that the drug cartels and the human smugglers have taken across the border giving them a little bit of water and left them to die. And that 1,671 sixteen hundred and seventy-one more. That's the skeletal remains we find. There are thousands and thousands of people. And so, he called in the media and we said this is the story you want to cover a story go down. I'll take him in through the no man's land and we'll find some skeletons and we'll show them the photographs. Thousands of people have died coming to this country and it really impacted the President

INGRAHAM: No, if did. And Congressman Scalise, we had Julian Castro was out there today having a different take on Texas. Let's watch

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not going to treat migrants like criminals. We're going to treat them like human beings. We're going to let them claim asylum. This president wants us to believe that we have to choose between a border that is secure and compassion. He paints a picture of cities like El Paso and McKellen and other border cities that are unsafe. The truth is that these are some of the safest cities in the entire country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Congressman Scalise. We know how open borders has affected communities' other communities; certain communities can absorb more people. But when we have 159,000 practically that's what they're forecasting for the month of April in one month crossing the border illegally. That's just not fair to any community near or around the border.

SCALISE: Yes Laura, it's not only unfair to communities all across this country. What about those millions of people who are waiting to come here legally? The people that are actually following the rules in every country you can imagine from around the world people that want to seek their piece of the American dream they don't care about them and they're you know they're waiting years and Democrats that are open border Democrats want is the ability for just anybody to come across wherever they want without a system of laws. And you look at the drugs, you look at the human trafficking that's so real that Dan talks about and Dan's a good friend in Texas what he's doing to help highlight this and showing the President some of those areas and the President wants to know--

INGRAHAM: But you've got Hollywood celebrities guys lecturing us versus real Americas who are either doing the hard - the actual manual labor that keeps this economy going or people who are property owners dealing with livestock out who are saying this is what we're dealing with. These are human bodies we're finding every month of every year because of this broken border and they're just like they're like laughter. This is not an emergency. Castro is up there saying we're not compassionate. I mean this is lunacy. This is just pure lunacy.

SCALISE: Most Americans, Laura. Most Americans--

INGRAHAM: Real quick.

SCALISE: Want a secure border. They want us to follow the laws that are there and that's what this President is doing. He ran on it, he got elected on it. They don't like the fact that he got elected but you know what the American people sent him to do this job and he's carrying out; he's following through promises.

INGRAHAM: Democrats aren't getting it. Gentlemen, thank you so much. Good to have you on for the hour.

SCALISE: Thank you, Laura.

INGRAHAM: This so fascinating. And just this week we told you about how Democrats are now realizing that they might need these working-class white Americans to win again. But do visuals like last night help. Joining me now to understand all this former DNC Chair Ed Rendell. Governor we've got a huge response. Last time you came on this program and for good reason and a lot of common sense how to look at problems, look at situations and assess them pragmatically. But the Democrats when I was born the Democrats were - this is the party of the little guy. They were working for the working people and now we see them hobnobbing with the celebrities at a policy retreat. It's fun to have celebrities performing. That's great but offering policy advice. Is that politically advisable.

ED RENDELL, DNC CHAIR: No, it's not Laura. But you have to be fair. You're saying that the Democrats bring in these celebrities as I recall and correct me if I'm wrong. Didn't President Trump have Kim Kardashian in the Oval Office. Didn't he have Kanye West in the Oval Office. They're not exactly working-class dudes

INGRAHAM: Yes, and they also produce. I think that actually produced tangible results. Correct.

RENDELL: Kanye West produced tangible results.

INGRAHAM: I'm talking about Kim Kardashian and working on the criminal justice reform that one woman who I think is a pretty big Democrat who is released from prison who's become an inspirational figure across the United States. I'm not wild about the celebrities coming in for - I don't care if you're Republican or--

RENDELL: For the Oval Office.

INGRAHAM: I'm not wild about it, but I will say, except for Elvis and Nixon that was cool. But when you're bringing them in to a Democrat retreat governor you know what I'm talking about. When your first panel is about, it called Who Are the People. That is actually a panel discussion. Who Are the People? And what you spend all your time salivating over is people viciously insulting Donald Trump is that I mean we get it, you don't like Trump we get it, but what's next.

RENDELL: And I think its celebrities have a place they can support candidates to help you raise money and if they care about an issue as you said Kim Kardashian did, you can take some input from that. But to make them the focal point of anything makes no sense and I wouldn't have done that. But on the other hand, I don't want to hear that Donald Trump is I mean a compassionate PIs this guy who threw paper towels out to hurricane victims in Puerto Rico.

INGRAHAM: Are you kidding me. Are you honestly saying that when the President who had an unbelievable reception when he was there?

RENDELL: In Puerto Rico?

INGRAHAM: He was talking out stuff. He had a great reception when he was there in that center where he visited. And I get what the left does.

RENDELL: You didn't think it was demeaning.

INGRAHAM: It's terrible. That's again I'm about to take back my comment that you were so pragmatic even though I love you, Gov. The President has done more for the working people than the Democrats did in eight years under Obama. He's done more for the working people. You can take a snippet and complain about the paper towels but that doesn't prove jack what about- -

RENDELL: But that shows a lack of compassion. That show a lack of compassion. You're saying he's compassionate--

INGRAHAM: He is extremely compassionate.

RENDELL: Puerto Ricans not--

INGRAHAM: So, is that all you have. Is the paper towels all you have Governor, is that it?

RENDELL: He promised us during the campaign that he would do first. He would do a tax cut that would benefit only the middle class.

INGRAHAM: And so, you don't think the middle class is better off than they were two years ago. They're not better off under Trump? Economy is not doing better.

RENDELL: The tax cut 60 percent of the nation got less benefits from the tax cut than the top 1 percent. And that 60 percent has the working people you're talking about.

INGRAHAM: I think we should cut taxes. You want to go onboard with that to me tonight. Let's cut taxes again. I'm all for another tax cut. Let's cut taxes and cut spending.

RENDELL: I am all for cutting taxes for people who make between $40,000 and $80,000. No, time struck for anybody else,

INGRAHAM: I completely agree. We're telling the President that tonight, we're out of time, Governor. Love having you on. Another tax cut. Coming up, we have a lot more, Clapper, the real story behind the Mueller Report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: When Bill Barr told a Senate hearing yesterday that Trump was in fact spied on during the campaign. The unhinged response from the resistance was swift. I think the most telling reaction though was from former Obama Director of the National Intelligence Jim Clapper. What he said?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM CLAPPER, FORMER DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Rather disappointed that the Attorney General would say such a thing. We're focusing on this. The circus about you know whether or not somebody was spying on the campaign. Spying has a term I've never liked. I never liked that term being applied to me. It has a bad connotation. It's a pejorative term.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: I spy an attempt to deny. But why would Clapper be so defensive about this term. Well maybe because the document revealed that he spread the dossier around to the media like it was a note in class. After initially denying that suggestion Clapper quote subsequently acknowledged discussing the dossier with CNN journalist Jake Tapper and admitted that he might have spoken with other journalists about the same topic. Now is it because he recklessly claimed that Trump was a puppet of Vladimir Putin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This past weekend is illustrative of what a great case officer Vladimir Putin is. He knows how to handle an asset and that's what he's doing with the President.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Well, is it because this is just a sensitive subject for him. Now remember this is the man who lied to Congress about mass surveillance on American citizens and he is now used as a credible source to discuss possible illicit spying on a presidential campaign. That's rich.

Joining me now is John Yoo, a Former Deputy Attorney General and Professor now at UC Berkeley and Ken Starr, Former Whitewater Independent Counsel. Great to see both of you. Ken, this looks like a new battle brewing between the Obama intel folks and the new Trump DOJ team.

KEN STARR, FORMER WHITEWATER INDEPENDENT COUNSEL: Well, there seems to be a hypersensitivity Laura. But here is my take on the - and I am being prescient or whatever that word was.

INGRAHAM: Nice pick up, Ken.

STARR: I think it's prescient. You were exactly right. Here is my take. Bill Barr knows something Laura. He knows something. He said I have a concern and I believe I have a basis for that concern. Anyone who knows Bill Barr knows he doesn't just say things; he thinks about them. He's careful about what he says. And I think if Bill Barr says, I think there is a basis for my concern, he doesn't say what it is he said. I'm not going to say what it is. That is a stay tuned America.

INGRAHAM: Well, John there was - staying on this Clapper for a moment. I want to play a flashback and then something he said today about this whole deal. Let's watch. I think we have it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The FBI started to look into Trump's ties to Russia in the summer of 2016. He says that spying is bigger than Watergate. So, I ask you was the FBI spying on Trump's campaign.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, they were not. I can't speak specifically Alison to what the FBI did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Now do you think that this guy is in any way a credible source of intelligence information at this point John. I mean one story then another story now.

JOHN YOO, FORMER DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: First, it's ridiculous for him to say it's not spying. If President Trump ordered Clapper's emails and phone calls to be secretly read by agents, he'd be the first one out of the blocks accusing the president of spying on him. Of course, the government's spying on the Trump campaign. What we should be upset about is not about whether it's called spying or not, but we should be upset about is the red line that the Justice Department and the intelligence agencies under Obama including by Mr. Clapper authorized its use on a presidential campaign. That is a red line that had never been crossed since Watergate. That's the whole reason we have these courts and the FISA statute and all these protections as the attorney general Mr. Barr said in the hearings.

And so, I agree with Judge Starr. If the attorney general mentioned that this was going on, I would be worried if I were Clapper about all these changing stories and I'd be worried if I were some of these officials in the Obama DOJ, FBI and CIA who were misusing these authorities to spy on a presidential campaign

INGRAHAM: And yet can the tumult today in the media was about the fact that Bill Barr said he thinks there was spying on the campaign. That's what they were all upset but how dare he say what he thinks before they've done an investigation. How dare Bill Barr. He's just a puppet of Trump. Joe Scarborough is trashing him again, saying, basically, he's just worried about a bad tweet from Trump. That's how much they're demeaning a man with an impeccable record, impeccable record.

STARR: It's a very classic overreaction, but it's also unfair. I was very pleased to see, by the way, that James Comey soft-pedalled this. But here's I think another key takeaway from what Bill Barr said as opposed to these characterizations and the somewhat hysterical reaction, and that is he did not say anything to suggest that the FBI as an institution was somehow implicated or corrupted. He did say there appears to be, he's not come to a judgement, a problem with the former leadership. There we have it. The FBI is you know is filled as you, and I, and John, you know, is filled with men and women of integrity. They deserve better leadership than they've had, and they're getting better leadership. But we also have an attorney general who I think is going to frankly clean house.

INGRAHAM: I love it. And this next question applies to both of you. Both of you, John is still at a university, Ken Starr was at Pepperdine and then Baylor. But now, and I talked about this yesterday, the left, to both of you, is trying to make former Trump officials into pariahs. They'll never be able to work again. They have petitions urging CEOs and universities not to give them jobs. And this is what MSNBC's Chris Hayes said last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC HOST: We have lived through a George W. Bush administration in which someone like John Yoo wrote a legal memo that facilitated the U.S. implementing torture, which is a war crime. John Yoo has a nice tenured perch at Berkeley Law School of all places. John Yoo, torture architect, dodging through drum circle on his way to class.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: John, your response.

YOO: I didn't even see that. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, Laura. But I've got to say no one ever told me that one of the perks of being in the government would be being second guessed by some pipsqueak at MSNBC years later. While this guy is probably in college, trying to pull all-nighters and get hot coffee at 1:00 a.m., the serious point is we were sending men and women to Afghanistan, some of them to die, to stop a future terrorist attack, and I wanted to do my small part as a lawyer was to make sure they had all the tools at their disposal within the law to stop the next attack. And that's what we did in the Bush administration, and there were no other successful attacks. The Obama administration stopped these policies, and unfortunately we've had a litany of attacks, the Boston Marathon, San Bernardino, and so on.

INGRAHAM: They never want people to work again. We all know that, they never want people to be able to work again. That is how desperate the left has become. And I want conservatives to be able to work in any field including universities. Thank you both very much.

And up next, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: The Democrat three stooges are at it again, this time using grotesque commentary from one of their own to gaslight the critics. Now, there's a three-step process to this strategy. Stay with me. Step one, make an outrageously offensive statement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ILHAN OMAR, D-MINN: CAIR was founded after 911, because they recognized that some people did something, and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Forget for a moment that CAIR was founded in 1994, not after 9- 11. The casual way she describes the horror of 9-11 is deplorable. But here's where we get to step two, avoiding any responsibility.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ILHAN OMAR, D-MINN.: People get -- come after minorities for things that they say, they might have insinuated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Finally, step three. Have your allies then back you up, wing- women to push back the backlash and then claim it's all because of bigotry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RASHIDA TLAIB, D-MICH.: This is just pure racist act by many of those, hateful acts by those because she does speak truth.

REP. ALEXANDRA OCASIO-CORTEZ, D-N.Y.: We are getting to a level where this is an incitement of violence against progressive women of color.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Incitement of violence, I don't know what she's talking about. Joining me is Asra Nomani, co-founder of the Muslim Reform Movement, and Qasim Rashid, Virginia State Senate candidate. Asra, let's start with you. Can you find any way to defend what Congressman Omar said, and what do you make of the arguments of some of her colleagues?

ASRA NOMANI, CO-FOUNDER, MUSLIM REFORM MOVEMENT: What she said was completely callous and insensitive. And I have to tell you as a Muslim that has grown up in America, what she said is typical. It's typical of what we hear in our living rooms and in our mosques. The denial and obfuscation of tragedies that are expressed because of an extremist interpretation of Islam. What's happening now is you all are getting to see it in prime time. You're getting to live what we endure every day with denials, turning of the table, the victim card.

We as Muslim reformers are on the hit list of the organizations that folks like Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar are racing money for. The Council on American Islamic Relations are not founded after 9-11, but its agenda to push victimization of Muslims did begin after 9-11 because they didn't want to deal with the number one problem that we face in our Muslim community, the extremism.

INGRAHAM: Radicalization. Again, Qasim, she said 9/11, some people who did something. We had a lot of Americans dead. I was here in Washington. I saw the Pentagon in flames.

QASIM RASHID, D-VA, STATE SENATE CANDIDATE: It was a terrorist attack. I would say to my colleague if she's going to mosques where people are denying terrorism, she's hanging out with extremists, and she shouldn't do that. Every mosque that I have been to has been clear to contend terrorism. What Rep. Omar was clearly saying was that when we talk about civil liberty being taken away, there are people in the U.S. government taking away civil liberties. Your last segment talked about illegally spying on the president. Well, the NYPD spied on American Muslims without a warrant. That was the stripping away of our civil liberties.

NOMANI: This is again, this is the victimization --

RASHID: I'm sorry, I didn't interrupt you. I didn't interrupt you. I didn't interrupt you. Let me finish.

INGRAHAM: I just have one question --

RASHID: Today is a very important day in my family's life. Today, 22 years ago my brother graduated from the U.S. Marine Corps boot camp. And he was in the military, in the Marines during 9/11, when 9/11 happened. I remember calling him horrified of what might happen. He was very clear with me. He said I'm here to serve my country. I'm an American, I'm a Muslim. I'm an immigration who is here --

INGRAHAM: You're saying the right things. That doesn't excuse what she said. You're telling a good story. That's great.

(CROSSTALK)

RASHID: I'm telling the accurate story.

INGRAHAM: And George Bush went to the Islamic Center, did he not after the 9/11.

RASHID: Let me finish my story.

INGRAHAM: We have to be quick here.

RASHID: And despite the fact that he was in the U.S. marines, he was still profiled, he was still taken off planes, he was still questioned because of identity. That is what Representative Omar is condemning.

NOMANI: I don't need to go to a mosque in order to see the kind of denial that we hear. I have it right in front of me.

RASHID: I'm not in denial. It was a terrorist attack. It was perfect terrorism.

NOMANI: You said very explicitly that jihad only means a holy struggle.

RASHID: Where did I say that?

NOMANI: Right here. It does not in any way to mean to way holy war or kill the infidel, or commit terrorism.

RASHID: It permits self-defense. When people are killing Christians, Islam permits Muslim to fight against terrorism --

NOMANI: Could you stop turning your back on me.

INGRAHAM: Why are you turning your back on her? We'll all together here.

RASHID: I'm trying to talk to you.

NOMANI: I'm here.

RASHID: Islam permits self-defense when people are trying to kill Christians and trying to kill Jews or kill people of any faith, the Koran says you're allowed to defend churches. In fact the Koran commands you --

NOMANI: Like al Qaeda justified the killing of Americans on 9-11 --

RASHID: They were terrorists. There was nothing jihad about that. That was terrorism.

NOMANI: That was jihad.

RASHID: That was terrorism.

NOMANI: So you deny jihad as a violent --

INGRAHAM: I have got to play this video.

NOMANI: You are the problem.

INGRAHAM: You guys have to hear this. This is important. Newly unearthed video of Ilhan Omar mocking Americans for, get this, being anxious over al Qaeda.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ILHAN OMAR, D-MINN.: When I was in college, I took a terrorism class. Every time the professor said al Qaeda, he sort of like -- his shoulders went up, you know, al Qaeda. You don't say America with an intensity. You don't say England with an intensity. You don't say the army with an intensity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Because the army didn't try to knock down -- you can't defend that.

RASHID: I don't need to because she can speak for herself. My point is this, that if we're going to get anywhere as a country, we need to have dialogue. We need to work together. We need to recognize that the "New York Post" taking out a full-page ad accusing Representative Omar --

INGRAHAM: Here's your something. Put it up on the screen. I love this. I love this coverage.

RASHID: The sheer fact that she --

INGRAHAM: Here's your something. She referred to it as some people did something. My friends died in New York, my friends died here, it was very personal.

RASHID: It's very personal. It should be.

NOMANI: Excuse me.

INGRAHAM: She's laughing. She's laughing about al Qaeda.

RASHID: She's not laughing. Even today an American-Muslim whose uncle was killed on 9/11, and Republicans are mocking her. Why are they mocking --

NOMANI: Excuse me, do I not exist? Do I not exist right here? Are you doing the same kind of a denial of a voice.

RASHID: You don't need to be a victim. You can talk to me.

INGRAHAM: we're out of time.

NOMANI: We're happy to have Rashid Tlaib and Ilham Omar be the victim because they never do anything wrong. And that's exactly the problem. There's an inability to own up to the problems within our community --

INGRAHAM: I want to celebrate the fact that your brother is in the Marine Corps because I love the Marines. I don't care where you're from, I don't care what your faith is, I love that.

RASHID: Proud Muslim and a proud American.

INGRAHAM: God bless. I'm a proud Christian, you're a proud Muslim. But I think the sneering of anything to do with 9/11, you wouldn't do it. She shouldn't do it.

RASHID: She didn't do it. She sneered against our civil liberties being taken away, and I think we agree on that. Nobody should have their civil liberties taken away.

INGRAHAM: That's not what she said.

NOMANI: We don't agree. We don't agree.

RASHID: If you want to watch the full 20-minute clip that's pretty clear.

INGRAHAM: I wouldn't get that --

(CROSSTALK)

NOMANI: That's not offensive.

INGRAHAM: I have a provocative question to ask tonight. This is provocative. Come on, this is a show. Is it time for the U.S. to boycott all of China? I'm going to tell you why next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: I have a question tonight. Why isn't a full-on disengagement from China a realistic and smart approach for this country? Stay with me here. Are they not thieves of American ingenuity? In its latest report, the I.P. commission estimated that the cost to the U.S. economy from counterfeit goods, pirated software, and the theft of trade secrets could be as high as $600 billion annually.

Does China not pose a significant natural security threat to the country? According to Congressman Chris Stewart, China is mining intelligence from an estimated 23 million records of American federal workers, including intelligence and security personnel stolen in those OPM cyberattacks a few years ago.

Does China not strong arm American businesses? According to "Axios," China has forced U.S. companies to create joint ventures to do business there. American corporations do just that, handing over half of their companies to state controlled Communist Chinese partners.

These are just two examples of something the U.S. deals with on a daily basis, which, again, raises the question, why are we not doing more to isolate China as we did with the USSR? And why are American companies willing to sell out the long-term security and safety of their fellow citizens for a quick buck?

And by the way, 800,000 Muslims in reeducation camps in China. Reports are crematoriums are being built near these reeducation camps. Christian churches being levelled, last week, one of the biggest cathedrals in all of China smashed down by a cherry picker. This is unconscionable. Why are we doing this.

Up next, Gordon Chang on whether this type of disengagement is a serious policy prescription. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: So I asked this question again -- why isn't a full-on disengagement from China a smart and realistic approach given everything we know that they're doing on a humanitarian basis, on economic basis, national security? Here now is Gordon Chang, author of the book "The Coming Collapse of China." Gordon, I'm not sure China is going to collapse anytime soon, but what about this idea of treating China the way Reagan treated the Soviet Union? Broke them eventually, didn't it?

GORDON CHANG: It certainly did. And this is something we have to do, Laura, because we're funding our own destruction. China is using the profits from trade to expand its military while its senior military officers openly boast about killing Americans. Twice in December, senior PLA, People's Liberation Army officers talked about unprovoked attacks on the U.S. Navy in the global commons. And in the second of those attacks, on December 20th, a rear admiral said, let's use our missiles to kill 10,000 Americans by sinking two aircraft carriers. I don't understand why we're trading with this country. We have to protect ourselves.

INGRAHAM: Gordon, I remember in the 80s when I was in college, there was a big divestment from South Africa movement. And it ended up really having an effect on a lot of companies, pulled out of South Africa because of Apartheid. Tell us very quickly how on a scale China compares to what was happening, as horrific as it was, just the sheer numbers of those oppressed in China today?

CHANG: You talk about those reeducation centers, which are essentially concentration camps. Somewhere between 1.1 million to 2 million people. And as you pointed out, they're building crematoria to dispose of the bodies. These concentration camps are now spread from the northwest of China to the southwest, and its accompanying an unprecedented attack on Christians and a new attack on Buddhists. This is an attack on all people of faith in China, and this is horrific. This reminds me of what happened in Germany in the 1930s and the 1940s.

INGRAHAM: You used the phrase the Third Reich of the 21st century, I believe.

CHANG: Certainly, because we're seeing, and I just mentioned, this racial based attack, an attempt to eliminate a minority group. At the same time you have the Chinese state employing eugenics, this experiment in Shenzhen. They're taking human genes and putting them in monkeys. This is unprecedented, or at least since the 1930s and 1940s. You go through the list. This is an attack on all that is decent in the world.

INGRAHAM: And you have Apple, Microsoft, all these big tech companies setting up shop, and Texas Instruments, this is the money they make. This is a -- I think we're going to look back on this period and say we didn't we disengage sooner? Gordon Chang, we're never letting go of this issue. Thank you so much for your perspective, as always.

And coming up, the rise and fall of Michael Avenatti is tonight's Last Bite.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: It's time for the Last Bite. Oh, how the mighty have fallen, Michael Avenatti used to be a lot of people's favorite celebrity lawyer for some reason. To some in the media he was a true 2020 contender, and to others, a near Biblical figure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To me you are like the Holy Spirit.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are all places.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's out there saving the country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are something of a folk hero.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One reason I'm taking you seriously as a contender is because of your presence on cable news.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: I'm going to laugh for a long time after that. It kind of makes you a little nauseated, doesn't it? Well, we read through the federal indictment, 36 federal crimes showing he stole settlement money even from the disabled. That's all the time we have tonight. New podcast dropped today. Shannon Bream and the "Fox News @ Night" team, they take it from here.

Shannon?

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