Denmark study finds masks provide limited protection from COVID-19

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Denmark study finds masks provide limited protection from COVID-19

Dr. William Grace and Alex Berenson discuss promising news about coronavirus immunity on 'The Ingraham Angle'

This is a rush transcript from “The Ingraham Angle” November 18, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

INGRAHAM: I'll see you tomorrow. I'm Laura Ingraham. This is THE INGRAHAM ANGLE from Washington tonight. From the folly of lockdowns to masks to T- cell immunity, now this show has been out and front of all others in separating fact from fiction since last spring.

And tonight, we bring you new developments on all of those issues that further validates our commentary. Plus, Leftist leaders from coast to coast are finding inventing new ways to destroy any holiday traditions, and Raymond Arroyo brings us an update in Seen and Unseen. But first, the tempting of AOC; that's the focus of tonight's ANGLE.

Now, shortly after she stunned House Democrats by beating long-time incumbent Queens Congressman Joe Crowley two years ago, Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez was being written off by many Republicans as just a flash in the pan

- just a far left progressive who caught an old establishment Democrat offguard. But I saw things differently.

I think it's a mistake for conservatives not to take her seriously, to brush her off as kind of a flash in the plan or an upstart. She's as close to a thought leader that the Democratic Party has today and she has a massive social media following. She's both charismatic and she's committed to transforming both our economic system and our culture.

And while her candidate Bernie Sanders didn't win the 2020 nomination, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has had enormous influence on her party. As a freshman Democrat, her coalition helped pull Joe Biden and her colleagues to the Left on key issues such as the Green New Deal, healthcare and impeachment.

And Democrats will do almost anything, albeit grudgingly, to avoid being primary-ed by her, one of her choices. She has presented herself as a strong voice for working-class Americans and a strong critic of multi- national corporations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): I'm proud to be a bartender; ain't nothing wrong with that. There is nothing wrong with working retail, folding clothes for other to buy. There is nothing wrong with being a working person in the United States of America. And there is everything dignified about it. The Democratic Party is supposed to be the champion of the working class.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: I agree. But with Joe Biden waiting in the wings, poised to announce major changes to US trade and foreign policy, AOC faces some difficult choices. How can she, who has always claimed to be a crusader for the working class - you just heard it - support the policies favored by big corporate interests, Wall Street, the billionaires of Silicon Valley?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OCASIO-CORTEZ: We cannot go back to a world where the rich are put first and working people are put last in Washington day in and day out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Well, given what Biden's team is already telling us, that's exactly where we are going, backward to the days where the rich get their way and the working class get shafted. Now remember, before the pandemic, blue-collar workers, middle-income and entry-level workers were all seeing real wage gains. Average median household income rose more than $6,000 after decades of wage stagnation.

A focus by President Trump on the American worker, protecting American manufacturing and holding China and other trade sheets accountable, that helped him grow his support among working-class Americans this election, including more Latinos, Black men and Asian-Americans.

Now, those people did not have to like his tweets to love his results.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The economy got way better. Under the Obama administration, unemployment went double - from eight to sixteen. Under President Trump, it got to the lowest ever recorded in US history. Yes, we need Trump forever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: But all the gains that our workers made are about to be wiped out, if Biden's new globalist cabal has its way. They are already sharpening their knives to cut wages and ship jobs offshore. This raises a question - will AOC and the squad stand mute while American workers are crushed under this agenda? Or will they work with American populous to resist anti-worker policies?

Here are a few examples of where she could work with Republicans to block corporatist Dems. Number one, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Biden's handlers want him to jump back into this trade agreement that Trump nixed.

Well, Trump was right; it's a job killer. Before the pandemic, we had the strongest economy in the G-7 and record-low unemployment, and we still do.

The last thing we need is a jobs killing trade deal. No matter what Biden's gurus claim, ruining lives of working people here will not give us more influence in Asia. So, if you are Democrat and you somehow think that TPP was a mis-Trump opportunity, recall what Hillary Clinton said about it in 2016.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: I will stop any trade deal that kills jobs or holds down wages including the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Well, Hillary knew that working-class voters didn't want this deal because they knew it would mean lower wages for them and fewer jobs at home. There is great chance for AOC here and she should take it. By the way, National Review is also for the TPP - so, that should give her some solace.

Number two, enforce the USMCA. Now, AOC voted against it which was an unfortunate mistake - it was because of climate issues. But, she could still insist that its labor provisions at the very least are honored. So, we force more auto production here in the United States; that's good for American workers.

Number three, continue to weaken the world trade organization. Ocasio- Cortez could insist that US trade policy be made here, by Americans and for Americans. After all she's a member of congress, so why would she want to give away congressional power over trade? She shouldn't.

Now number four, AOC could insist that the next US trade rep be a populous, or a corporatist. Heck, I know this seems bizarre or never going to happen, but she might even consider inviting Trump's USTR Ambassador Robert Lighthizer to lunch; he's brilliant. He knows all the tricks of multinational corporations and I think that actually both enjoy the exchange; no harm.

And number five, she could work to accelerate efforts to decouple from China both economically and politically. Her caucus members support human rights and China is among the worst offenders in the world. Why should our free economy be open to their worker abusing companies?

And finally number six, she could form a coalition with key conservatives and some Democrats to urge that we bring our troops home finally from the Middle East. If progressives are truly anti-war, then they must not be silent. As a bipartisan establishment, urges - urging that we still sent troops overseas and stop troop withdrawals.

Now, all six of these steps would be popular with Congresswoman Ocasio- Cortez's supporters on the Left. And if she doubts that, all she has to do is talk to unions like the steel workers and the UAW, or ask the young millennials, whether they think we should still be sending troops to Kandahar.

I know what many of you were thinking though, this is all - common on, Laura, this is just all a pipedream, but I'm not sure. AOC has already shown a willingness on some issues to work with conservatives. She and Ted Cruz signed a letter; they kind of snipe on Twitter sometimes, but they signed a letter criticizing Apple for removing a pro-Hong Kong app, also slammed the NBA for putting its profits from China over free speech rights.

They also want to work together to reign in lobbyists.

But look who is Biden's - look who is on Biden's transition team. According to the Wall Street Journal, atleast 40 people serving on President-Elect Joe Biden's transition team are or were once registered lobbyists.

Now, the establishment usually wins because the establishment has enough money to buy off candidates with fat donations and instant celebrity status. Now remember, Donald Trump didn't get the flattering magazine covers and neither did the First Lady despite her grace and beauty because neither agreed to play ball. Most people aren't strong enough to resist the temptation.

But this is an old tactic by the elites. Remember back in 1998, Hillary got glamor shots in Vogue; then Huma Abedin, remember her, she was in Vogue in 2007. And of course, Susan Rice got her shot in 2013. It's always the same.

Play ball on the economic issues, don't interfere with globalization or maybe even help out with outsourcing, and we'll make you a star.

We'll give you the cultural power to beat up on conservatives, but when it comes to money and foreign policy, we expect you to go along with the global elites. So Hillary and Huma and Susan, they all thought probably they were going to help the working people too. But in the end, the rich got richer and China got stronger. And the working people, well, they turned to Donald Trump.

So, it is going to be interesting to see AOC's next move. In the last few months, the establishment has shown her the carrot, the cover of Vanity Fair of course, and the stick leaks about how AOC is hurting the Democratic Party.

So if she goes along on the China and trade issue and helps the tech pros

(ph) richer, she'll have a one-way ticket with the in-crowd. And if she leaves politics, they will make her an instant multi-millionaire. But if she stands up to the establishment on China and if she fights against the TPP, if she tries to end foolish wars, well then she'll get a very different treatment.

The choice is hers and she'll have to make it soon. By working with the populous, she can really help working people. And for many folks, that's even better than being on the cover of Vogue or Vanity Fair, and that's THE ANGLE.

Joining me now is House Minority Whip Steve Scalise and Florida Congressman Michael Waltz. Congressman Waltz, you say that if Congresswoman Ocasio- Cortez is serious about what she claims to stand for, the working people, there in fact are a number of issues that comport with America First, explain.

REP. MICHAEL WALTZ (R-FL), HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Well, you listed a lot of them, Laura. I will work with anyone who will bring American manufacturing jobs back to the United States that fled in the '90s and the 2000s with the letting China enter the WTO and giving them these unfair trade deals, not only bring them back to the United States but reduce our dependency on China.

We've seen in the wake of COVID that they will withhold PPE, they will withhold our pharmaceuticals, they will withhold raw materials, they will withhold all kinds of things to play this geopolitical game. And if AOC is serious, not only we will bring them back to the United States, let's bring them to the opportunity zones, let's bring them to underserved poor minority areas where we can set that manufacturing up.

The other thing big priority for, obviously for her and progressives, Laura, is the Green New Deal. Well, guess what's critical to their utopian vision of the Green New Deal; I don't agree with all of it, but battery storage is critical. Who controls 90 percent of the world's battery production and the raw materials, Lithium, Cobalt and other? China does.

So, if - for a lot of their vision that they want - progressives want to see move forward, we can't have this dependency on China and we can't have the human rights abuses that come along with it, the labor abuses that come along with it. They are strip mining our oceans, they are dumping plastic - I mean, they are from environmental to human rights to manufacturing back at home, there are all kinds of things that we can and should be working on. This is an American issue.

INGRAHAM: Yes, I sense that Congressman Scalise may not be so optimistic.

Congressman, we are entering the holiday season; I'm seeing promise everywhere. We can't look at the glass half empty. But there are issues here, are there not? Where - there is a logical connection between the progressives and the populist America First conservatives.

REP. STEVE SCALISE (R-LA), HOUSE MINORITY WHIP: There really are, Laura, and first of all, I will be having Thanksgiving with my family. I will be eating a good turkey.

INGRAHAM: How dare you?

SCALISE: I hope everybody enjoys Thanksgiving with their family. All the liberal elites want to eat with their friends and family but tell you not to. But, now let's talk about a different form of hypocrisy. I think first of all, the items you laid out are very important, but let me add one to the list and that is AOC should work with us on opposing America's re- admittance into the Paris Accord.

Because think about this, Laura, the Chinese Communist Party could not have drawn up a better plan to destroy the economies of Europe and America than the Paris Accord. First of all, there is not one country in Europe in compliance, and the exempt China till 2030. So, China literally gets to wreck economies in the United States and Europe, take those jobs.

And by the way, if you are concerned about carbon emissions, China emits five times more carbon from making the same stuff we make in America because we actually have good environmental standards. Plus what the Paris Accord would do to increase the cost of electricity for household families in America, which by the way hits the lowest-income people the hardest, it would destroy manufacturing jobs which are those blue collar jobs you talked about.

So, she should join us in standing up for workers, standing up for low-cost energy and opposing the Paris Accord.

INGRAHAM: Yes, I think the climate change might be a higher hurdle to clear, but that point is well taken Congressman Scalise. And Congressman Waltz, last time we told viewers about Bloomberg's globalist conclave that's happening now called the New Economy Forum, this is what he hopes it will accomplish.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: The next few days was centered around some of the biggest challenges and opportunities we face.

We'll also discuss how to strengthen global trade at a time when it has been undermined by nationalism and protectionism.

Business leaders can help to strength and rebuild international ties that have been frayed over the last four years including between the East and the West.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: And the IPOs that they want in China.

WALTZ: That's right.

INGRAHAM: And the business they want in China.

WALTZ: That's right.

INGRAHAM: I mean, I love what they wrap it in this gauzy internationalism as if it is not in the end about IPOs, M&A work and business expansion regardless of human rights abuses.

WALTZ: That's right. And Wall Street making billions on fees from these mergers and acquisitions as the Chinese steel our IP and steel their way to the top often through a lot of these deals coming out of Bloomberg's Wall Street. But, Laura, I just want to hit one other point.

You made a great point in that if AOC does take and the progressives do take the stand for the American worker, they are going to - China is going to push back hard and they are going to do it Hollywood, they are going to do it through the celebrity athletes and they are going to do it through the favorite professors at their IV League schools, that are also basically spying for China and double-dipping through the Talents Program.

So, they are going to have to stand strong and really I think figure out what their true values are because all of their favorites, Hollywood and academia and athletic stars, NBA and others, are going to push back very hard.

INGRAHAM: Oh, big money. Yes.

WALTZ: Big money and that's going to be very tempting.

INGRAHAM: And Congressman Scalise, really quickly, do you not agree at this moment that the working class voter is the natural Republican Party voter at this point, given where they are aligning toward China and outs - more outsourcing, more global concerns versus American concerns?

SCALISE: They truly are and you can see that in so many of the swing states that we won, so many of the house districts where President Trump really did help us flip so many of the seats that we won in congress because President Trump stood up for those hardworking men and women who Washington left behind. Members of congress and Presidents from both parties were not looking out for those folks; President Trump was bringing those jobs back.

President Trump by the way stood up to bullies and the bullies are still around. China is still there, Russia is still there, Iran is still there, and if Joe Biden were to literally handover the keys to the store again like he did when he was in the White House last time - it was Joe Biden and Barack Obama--

INGRAHAM: Yes, well, it is a disaster.

SCALISE: --who gave Iran a nuclear weapon.

INGRAHAM: Yes.

SCALISE: That's not the route that those blue collar workers want to see us go.

INGRAHAM: No. I think there is progressive-populous coalition that could be in the offing. I am going to hold that hope. Congressmen, great to see you both on this very interesting topic tonight. Plus, the political realignment of the working class Americans against Democrat corporatists is underway in a few places - is it more obvious than in Minnesota's Iron Range?

Now, first remember President Trump won over the hardworking people of that region with this America First agenda, but now he is winning over their elected officials. Today, Tom Bakk and David Tomassoni, two prominent state senators represent the Iron Range split from their Democrat Party. This is by no means a small thing.

Now, Bakk served as the Dem's minority leader until earlier this year. The former Dems' split will help bolster the GOP majority's ability to get things done in that state much to the delight of my next guest, Minnesota State Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka joins me now. Paul, the defectors are going to get committee shares from the GOP majority. They are officially called independents now.

But, why does this matter and what should the rest of the country take from it?

SEN. PAUL GAZELKA (R-MN), STATE SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: They need to know that the blue collar workers, the blue collar senators that represent them are coming our way. Just in the last year, the State Democratic Party decided to have a ban on copper, nickel mining in Minnesota when on the Iron Range that's the second largest deposit in the whole world.

Prior to that, they wanted to stop replacement of a pipeline, rather than a 50-year-old pipe get a brand new one, they keep stopping all of the things that the blue collar workers want up there. First, we had seven mayors that stood up - Democrat mayors who stood up for President Trump. Now, we have two prominent Democrat leaders that have gone independent and are aligning with Republicans and it does show that we are making a difference in Minnesota and across the country for blue collar workers.

INGRAHAM: Yes, I am still stunned, Congressman, that the Minnesota voters went for Biden. I actually after the riots, after the leveling of all those buildings on East Lake Street, after the incompetence of the liberal response initially, the burning of the police precinct, I'm just - cannot believe Minnesota would vote for Joe Biden.

I frankly am stunned and I don't know what you think about that, but I really held out hope that Minnesota would frankly get it right.

GAZELKA: Yes, I honestly thought that we would win. Nixon was the last one to win in Minnesota. I do think there is something called Minnesota Nice or passive aggression, one of two. But at the same time, we kept the Republican majority in our states and that's the first time ever that we won back to back majority.

INGRAHAM: Yes.

GAZELKA: So, I'm hopeful the Minnesota Police Officers Association now endorses more Republicans than Democrats. Many of the blue collar unions now endorse more Republicans than Democrats. So, it is shifting. I sure wish Trump would have won Minnesota; I think he deserved to win for all the good things he has done for Minnesota.

INGRAHAM: Alright, Paul. Thank you so much for the update on these important state defections. We have to keep our eye on all levels of government and state, local and federal. Now remember, all the media hysteria about COVID immunity only lasting a couple of months.

Remember, if you got it, oh, it is only good for some people said weeks.

Well, that's why they said we needed to hand over billions to big pharma for vaccines. Well now, it looks like those dire predictions were wrong and THE ANGLE was once again proven right.

We are going to explain it all next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: We have an important update out of Kentucky tonight on the status of the increasingly endangered species known as the moderate Democrats. We thought Governor Andy Beshear may have been one of these rare creatures until today. Kentucky is basically going into lockdown mode under his orders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): Today, we are announcing significant but surgical and targeted steps designed to slow the virus. These steps range from three to six-week in duration private indoor gatherings are limited to your current household plus one other household, not to exceed a total of eight people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: And the 2019 Kentucky Governors races you might have remembered was very close with Beshear winning just over 5,000 votes. And if that race had turned out differently, a lot of folks in Kentucky would have a lot more freedom over the next few weeks. Beshear sold himself as a moderate Democrat. Democrat Andy Beshear whose father was a two-term Governor, ran a textbook campaign as a moderate, avoiding talk of impeachment or other hot- button issues that could polarize the electorate.

But now, Kentuckians are learning that there is no such thing as a moderate Democrat; they all follow the same playbook.

Now, for months THE INGRAHAM ANGLE has been ahead of the curve when it comes to COVID and the potential mitigation efforts that have followed.

From the split science on masks to the damaging effect of lockdowns and their effectiveness on a populous and on this virus, we have challenged the consensus, and time and again we have been proven right.

Now, that includes highlighting that the immunity to COVID doesn't hinge on antibodies alone but that other cells known as the killer T-cells also played a key role. For questioning the consensus, we were tarred and feathered, essentially, by the media medical cartel, but once again, our independent thinking has been vindicated.

The New York Times reporting on a new study that found eight months after infection, most people who have recovered still have enough immune cells to fend off the virus and prevent illness. These cells, including T-cells, may persist in the body for a very, very long time to come.

Joining me now is Dr. William Grace, oncologist and hematologist, and Alex Berenson, former New York Times reporter, author of " Unreported Truths about COVID-19 and Lockdowns: Part 2". Dr. Grace, this has been obvious for months, so why did it take the media and the medical establishment so long to catch up?

DR. WILLIAM GRACE, ONCOLOGIST AND HEMATOLOGIST: There may have been political motives for that. But, we have know that basically of the two components of the immune system, there is the chemical part that's the antibody, and the cellular immune system which is extremely important - they not only kill the cells but they store memory cells to know how to redo - when rechallenged with the same infection, they know how to fight that infection and do it more efficiently than the first time around.

And the good news, Laura, is that the new vaccines produce a greater immunity than the natural infection themselves, so there's a lot of great news here.

INGRAHAM: And Alex, on this issue of masks and the New York Times reporting on that Danish study that was considered to be so controversial, people didn't even want to talk about it, what should we take away from this?

ALEX BERENSON, FORMER NEW YORK TIMES REPORTER: What we should take away is that masks are basically useless as a protective measure. I mean there wasn't much doubt about that before, there had been a very good meta- analysis done several months ago that was published on the CDC Journal that suggested that.

But, this study was randomized. It had several thousand people, and it essentially showed that wearing masks does not protect the wearer at all from the coronavirus, not from the flu. This was done this spring in Denmark and it was done with the coronavirus. It was a very, very well- designed study. Frankly, if a drug company had a drug in trials that had this trial result, they would discontinue the drug. There is just no evidence that masks protect the wearer.

We can discuss this other issue of source control. We can discuss my mask protects you. There's not very good evidence for that, but that's much harder to test in a big randomized trial. But the CDC said last week, masks may protect the wearer, and they should just stop saying that. There is no evidence for that. They need to stop.

INGRAHAM:  Dr. Grace, this is just wild. You can't go anywhere in the United States without people in masks. You don't know how long they have been wearing them, whether they were supposed to be disposable and they have been wearing them for a week, but this is mask mandates on steroids now everywhere, pretty much everywhere.

DR. WILLIAM GRACE, ONCOLOGIST AND HEMATOLOGIST:  Yes, and I agree with Alex. The problem here is there's a big difference between masks. In the hospital we wear N95 masks and face protection because we're in an environment taking care of COVID patients where the virus is very active and very concentrated. But when you get out into the public, people where neckwear and fashionable masks, and these have been shown to be less than one-100th as effective as the N95 masks. The N95 masks is not something you can wear all day. It's awful thing to have to wear, but we put up with it because of the risks. But what you see out, the fashionable things people are wearing now offer very little, if any protection at all.

INGRAHAM:  And Alex, really quickly, the Twitter scolds are tweeting today, saying, oh, well, we said it only protects -- it's for others, not for you.

So if the virus can't get to you --

BERENSON:  There's not really evidence of that. That's right. Why would you think this works one way and not the other? There is a lot of complicated mechanistic stuff here, but the fact is, the doctor is right, N95s, they are a completely different species. And you can demonstrate that 100 different ways. But the masks, the cloth masks or even the surgical masks that the CDC recommends, this Danish study just puts the end to this. They are useless.

INGRAHAM:  We had the Marine quarantine survey, as well, that showed that Marines who were in the clearest lockdowns, they still got it with masks and social distancing. To me, that was even more devastating on both fronts.

BERENSON:  That's right.

INGRAHAM:  Let me get into what de Blasio is saying about schools. This was today, he announced schools in New York would be closing. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, (D) NEW YORK CITY:  We do need to close our schools for the coming days. We set a very clear standard, and we need to stick to that standard.

Our teams have been talking throughout the morning on exactly what it would take to come back and bring our schools back quickly, and it will be a higher standard. I want that to be clear. We have a stringent health and safety standard right now. We're going to have to raise that up even higher to be able to bring our schools back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM:  Dr. Grace, there's no science here. This is just a wrecking ball to our young people. I am so outraged by this. The testing of the kids, the positivity rate was like 0.23 percent as of Monday. This is insanity.

GRACE:  And it's also interfering with herd immunity, which is very important in the successful conquering of this virus and returning to normal.

INGRAHAM:  Alex, on schools, you've been such an outspoken critic of these closures. Final thoughts on this?

BERENSON:  It's disgusting. It's disgusting. It's punishing children for a virus they are effectively at no risk from. I'm not sure why we are doing this except to placate teachers' unions. And many jurisdictions now are talking about no schools through at least April, OK. And some places are saying don't expect school until fall of 2021. Already, you can see -- it is just wrong.

INGRAHAM:  This is child abuse. It's child abuse, and people voted for this. This is what I don't understand. Parents, if you voted for the Democrats, this is what you voted for. This is absolute insanity.

Gentlemen, I don't want to grandstand over you. Thank you, though, so much.

Holidays for me but not for thee? Blue state tyrants from coast to coast are working to destroy your holiday traditions while flouting their own rules. Raymond Arroyo explains in all. "Seen and Unseen" next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM:  It's time for our "Seen and Unseen" segment where we examine the stories behind the headlines, and for that we turn to Raymond Arroyo, author of the new book "The Spider Who Saved Christmas." Raymond, more holiday traditions being killed off by liberal leaders, even in your beloved New Orleans.

RAYMOND ARROYO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR:  Laura, I'd love to invite you back to Mardi Gras this year, but it turns out it's mostly canceled. Mayor LaToya Cantrell on her website says "Parades of any kind will not be permitted this year because gatherings have proved to be super-spreader events."

Laura, the spread last year was mostly at bars and areas where people were packed together and yelling and vaping over long periods of time. Locally, you know this, when people come out to see parades, they are usually standing with their families outdoors, and if they are masked and socially distanced, surely there's a creative way to deal with this. But the mayor is trying to have it both ways.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Can we get you really quickly on the Mardi Gras decision before this starts?

MAYOR LATOYA CANTRELL, (D) NEW ORLEANS:  What do you mean? I don't understand.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  On the city's website it said that no permits would be issued for Mardi Gras, 2021.

CANTRELL:  All alternatives to celebrating Mardi Gras are due in by December 5th, and of course under the current guidelines that are in place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARROYO:  Yes, the alternative is to sit at home for Mardi Gras, that is her alternative.

INGRAHAM:  Alternatives?

ARROYO:  I spoke to a number of leaders at a couple of Mardi Gras crews today. This was the deal. The mayor asked them to submit ideas to safely parade by December 5th. Remember, this is the beginning of lent for New Orleanians and people who come to visit. She sandbagged them with this November 17th decision. Cantrell may say Carnival is not canceled, but like Halloween, without trick-or-treating, it's over. It is. And that's a tragedy.

INGRAHAM:  First of all, we don't know if social distancing and masks work after that "New York Times" story about the Danish controlled study on masks. And we don't know really what works, but we do know people need to have their traditions, and there must be a safe way to do something fun.

ARROYO:  I agree. But they want to silo us, Laura, they want to keep us apart. And I don't like that. We need to come together as community and as family, certainly. As a symbol of the state of this holiday season, at least in New York City, the Rockefeller Center tree was erected this week.

It was not a pretty picture. This is like the Charlie Brown Christmas tree fully grown, Laura. What a sad, broken down, floppy looking mess this thing is. But it is the perfect image. It really does capture Christmas in New York this year, sadly.

INGRAHAM:  Well, that's a depressing sight.

Raymond, speaking of rather sad and broken-down messes, well, Barack Obama is making the rounds for his new book while tamping down expectations for his old pal Joe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT:  A new president and set a new tone.

That's not going to solve all the gridlock in Washington. It has now become a contest where issues, facts, policies, per se, don't matter, as much as identity and wanting to beat the other guy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM:  My God, he takes forever to say anything.

ARROYO:  And we edited that. But just a few days ago, Biden was promising to be the great healer, the unifier. Now he is apparently just a new tone.

Here he was today at an economic event, and if he isn't entirely coherent or promising change, at least there's this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE:  There is hope on the way, not because of me. I'm not like hope is on the way. But there is a realization that is coming upon everyone, and I promise you, I will be using the Defense Authorization Act. I will be using the bully pulpit. The words of a president matter, whether they're good, smart, bad, or good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARROYO:  Or bad.

INGRAHAM:  What was that?

ARROYO:  Laura, the amazing thing here, I listened to this press conference. It was like a medley of his old stump speeches kind of all thrown in a bag and shaken. Yes, hope is coming, hope is coming. None of it made any sense. It was very peculiar.

And Laura, even as recounts continue and lawsuits are being filed by the president's team, there is great pressure on President Trump to just concede and move on. Former first lady Michelle Obama is becoming upset.

INGRAHAM:  She said this on Instagram, "The presidency doesn't belong to any one individual or any one party. Donald Trump had spread racist lies that had put my family in danger. That wasn't something I was ready to forgive, but I knew that for the sake of our country I had to find the strength and maturity to put my anger aside." Thank goodness Michelle was kind enough to relinquish the presidency -- first lady status, sorry -- for the good of the country. She dismisses, Raymond, any election irregularities, the president's challenges as baseless conspiracy theories.

That's not surprising.

ARROYO:  They are not baseless, though. Look, whether the president can gain in the recount, we have seen movement in Georgia, in that hand ballot audit. An election audit today found more than 5,600 additional ballots across three counties, and it's shrinking Biden's lead over Trump in the state. It's not enough to change the outcome, but every legal vote must be counted. and we need to see, where are these ballots hiding? What hasn't been counted? Americans deserve that accounting, and that's what I think the president is after here.

INGRAHAM:  Rush Limbaugh had a great show today where he went through all of these affidavits from people who have been working in ballot counting for 20 years, who cited really disturbing things that they had seen. And just dismissing it because you are Michelle Obama and I guess you can, doesn't make it go away. Raymond, thank you so much.

ARROYO:  Thank you.

INGRAHAM:  And what would a Trump 2024 campaign look like, and how soon could he announce? And how good would his chances actually be? Marc Thiessen has laid out a step-by-step plan, and he is here to explain it all next. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM:  All right, these election challenges are still going on, and disturbing irregularities have been found and must be investigated to the fullest. And we've also heard all the rumors and read all the insider reports that if things don't go his way ultimately, President Trump will run again in 2024.

So let's assume for the sake of argument he is. What would he need to do in the near term to accomplish it? Are we getting way ahead of ourselves? Marc Thiessen has some ideas. He even laid out a nice eight-point blueprint for a Trump comeback in "The Washington Post." He writes "The left is hoping the Biden administration will be the beginning of a new progressive era. In fact, the Biden years could be little more than a brief interregnum, but only if Trump handles the next six weeks correctly." FOX News contributor Marc Thiessen joins us now.

MARC THIESSEN, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE:  Good to be with you.

INGRAHAM:  Marc, I can hear some of the right saying I can't believe you are writing off these legitimate claims for all of the votes have been counted, and that is that we are doing. But for the sake of the argument, and this is what we do on the show, it is interesting to see what's possible as we come up to the new year and what might Donald Trump actually plan to do. So tell me what your thoughts are.

THIESSEN:  Donald Trump is the first president in 132 years who has a realistic chance of coming back and reclaiming the White House after losing it four years earlier. The last president to do it was Grover Cleveland in 1888. That's how long it has been. When George H. W. Bush left office, when Jimmy Carter left office after one term, their political careers were finished. Donald Trump is still a very strong political force.

So if he wants the Republican nomination in 2024, it's his to have, and I think he could win. But to do it, he has to leave the presidency. How he leaves the presidency is very important. There is a large segment of voters in this country who like Donald Trump's policies, think they're better off now than they were four years ago, but didn't vote for him because they were just tired of the chaos, and that chaos is not necessarily all Donald Trump's fault, but they were just tired of it.

And so he has got to win those voters over if he wants to win his next term, so how he leaves is very important.

INGRAHAM:  The left is going crazy already. This year is not even over, the court cases are still ongoing, but they're already going crazy about even the possibility of a Trump run in 2024. Like David Corn. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CORN, MSNBC ANALYST:  Trump saying that he may run in 2024, that freezes everything. Ted, Marco, Nikki, Josh, you name them, they cannot make a move now because they are still being held hostage by Trump and the base.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM:  Marc, what are they afraid of? What are people on the left afraid of? If they won this fair and square --

THIESSEN:  -- 72 million people that he can take the presidency. He almost won it despite everything they threw at him, he almost won it this time, and he could win next time, especially if the Biden years, if he does all the things we expect them to do, which is to slow economic growth and to lock us down again and all the rest of it.

But to do that, Trump has to leave the presidency the right way. So my plan for him is this in short form. One, cooperate with the Biden transition even while you're pursuing the legal challenges. It doesn't hurt to give him the presidential daily brief, that way he can't blame you for screwing it up if we get a terrorist attack after Trump leaves office.

When Biden is finally declared the winner by the Electoral College, say you're stepping aside for the sake of the country, don't concede that the election was necessarily fair or that it was legitimate, but you're going to come and reclaim it in four years. Then immediately announce that you are running in 2024, before the inauguration. And then as the 2024 declared candidate, go and lead the Republican Party to keep control of the Senate in Georgia. We are not going to win that election unless Donald Trump does what he did in the closing days of the November election, by holding rallies and bringing on his base. Then he can leave with a big victory, and that will be the first salvo of the 2024 campaign.

Then give a farewell address. One of the traditions in politics today is every president gives a farewell address. This will be a farewell address unlike anyone has ever done, because it's going to be MacArthur-esque. It's going to be "I shall return."

And then have a gracious transfer of power, invite Biden to the White House, ride with him to the capital, attend the inauguration, and then immediately start your campaign. Go and take back the House in 2022. We almost took back the House under Donald Trump's leadership in this election, and there are 26 seats up that the Democrats won by 52 percent or less. He could win -- in two year's time, he could knock Nancy Pelosi out of the Speaker position, then go win the White House in 2024.

INGRAHAM:  Wow, that's quite a journey. I want to see all of these challenges play out, but Marc, that is a fascinating blueprint, and we really appreciate it.

Up next, the year's sexiest man alive, we'll tell you about it. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: "People" magazine unveiled who is on its sexiest man alive cover.

It is Michael B. Jordan. But how does he compare to the man who will grace the cover of the world-renowned ANGLE magazine. Without further ado, THE ANGLE Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive is none other than our own, Raymond Arroyo.

Raymond, how do you feel with this honor? It's the -- it's the man who saved magazines. Oh, he just disappeared. See?

That's all the time we out tonight. Shannon Bream and the "FOX NEWS @ NIGHT" take it all from here. Shannon, I ate 13 seconds of your time.

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