Swimming to extinction
Whatever 'competitional' integrity transgender UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas professed to believe in was shattered last night at the Ivy League championship.
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," February 18, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: I'm Laura Ingraham and this is THE INGRAHAM ANGLE on a very busy Friday night. Swimming to extinction. That's the focus of tonight's angle.
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LIA THOMAS, UPENN SWIMMER: I think the guidelines they set forward are very good and do a very good job of promoting inclusivity while keeping competition integrity going.
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INGRAHAM: Whatever competition will integrity transgender UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas profess to believe in was shattered last night at the Ivy League Championship.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thomas head's in for the final turn. It's going to be a race for second place, it might be 10 going one two, with broker making the turn currently in second place. And over the last half of the pool, nobody will touch Lia Thomas, who will finish at 437, 432, Lia Thomas Ivy league champion in the 500 free.
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INGRAHAM: Now, Thomas not only won that 500 yard freestyle race by a stunning margin, it was about a half a length of the pool. Thomas also established a new record for Harvard University's pool. Now, even the announcer's kind of tacitly admitted that it wasn't Thomas's intense training or dedication to the craft that was necessarily responsible for the victory. But something else.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see the stroke, the powerful stroke of Lia Thomas where there isn't a whole lot of movement in her leg. She's using a lot of upper body to reach in and pull and it's a much quieter stroke even if it's more powerful than a lot of these other swimmers right now.
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INGRAHAM: Well, I mean, he can't say, but he's probably thinking, but anyone who knows even the basics of competitive swimming realizes that deriving power from only the arms isn't natural. Now this is 2022. So of course, Thomas wasn't the only first who made it to the top of the podium. Yale's Iszac Henig, a transgender man who has not even yet begun hormone therapy, so remains eligible to swim on the women's team, set a new pool record in the 50 yard freestyle. So, what's wrong here?
Are we civilization as Americans really OK with what we're witnessing, is everyone afraid to speak out? Listen to the heartbreak and the words of Thomas's teammates. One anonymous Penn swimmer back in December described her teammates to out kick as upset and crying, feeling, so discouraged because no matter how much work they put in, they're going to lose.
A month later another told Fox News that the NCAA, they don't actually care about women at all. Well, I hate to say this, but she's right. Last month, the NCAA took the coward's route, saying it would differ to the rules of each sport and their governing body to determine the eligibility of trans athletes.
Now when USA Swimming released an update to its policies, a couple of weeks back, requiring these transgender women to have half the previous level of testosterone. Thomas was allowed to compete under originally, well the NCAA stepped in citing potentially detrimental impacts to schools and student athletes. What?
And last week the NCAA said it wouldn't alter the previously approved higher testosterone threshold for transgender women to compete, clearing the way for Thomas to be in the pool this week, and next month.
Now these fellow swimmers know this entire exercise is a charade. So why won't they stand up and refuse to participate? Well, I'll tell you why. They're intimidated because the entirety of society is weighing against them. The coaches are cowards. And one swimmer from Penn said, pretty much everyone individually has spoken to our coaches about not liking this. Our coach Mike Schnur just really likes winning though.
The media then of course, cheerleads the perversion of sex roles, Azeen Ghorayshi, an actual reporter for the New York Times wrote, Lia Thomas is just the latest elite athlete in the last century who has been subjected to anatomical chromosomal or hormonal scrutiny to compete in women's events. One thing they all have in common; they were winning. Of course, they push the propaganda.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, what is your message then to these state officials to these parents who are concerned that cisgendered athletes will be edged up by trans athletes?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, there is no reason to believe that. There has been no proof. Trans people have not ever dominated in sports. We are participating with our peers.
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INGRAHAM: Love the stache. I'll tell that to the girls in the pool last night. And finally, the most powerful liberals in America. They encourage it.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This administration have guidance for schools on dealing with disputes arising over trans girls competing against them with cisgirls,
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I would just say that the president's belief is that trans rights are human rights. And that's why he signed that executive order.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Believes schools should offer the opportunity for students to engage in extracurricular activities, even if they're transgender. I think that's their right.
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INGRAHAM: But what about the rights of the girls, the young women who trained for years, sometimes decades, in pursuit of their greatness, pursuit of pool records, all too bad, according to the White House, and pretty much all the culture, just like everything else in the past two years, it's left to GOP governors to stand for principles.
Now, several states have already passed laws protecting girls' sports by keeping transgender girls' college aged women from playing in school sports leagues matching their gender identity. They include Florida, Texas, Mississippi, and South Dakota among others. Now, that's interesting. Where have we seen those states leading the way before?
Remember COVID. But it takes more than just state action. That can always be challenged in court, you can find a judge overturned pretty much anything these days. And as we've seen from Virginia, though, to California and everywhere in-between, when concerned citizens get together unafraid and push back with logic and common sense, basic biology. parents and neighbors say this just isn't what we want for our future, for our kids' futures. You could all make a difference.
The issue of what's going on in the pools, track and field, girls' sports, women's sports, college athletics, deserves the same passion. And that's the angle.
Joining me now is Cynthia Millan, a former USA Swimming official who stepped away from officiating due to these transgender rules. Cynthia, what did I get wrong in my open? Did I get anything wrong in the analysis? I'm happy to be corrected.
CYNTHIA MILLEN, FORMER USA SWIMMING OFFICIAL: Thank you, Laura. No, no, absolutely not. You could be a swimming commentator actually.
INGRAHAM: I love that.
MILLEN: It's very sad. I was so sad to watch that race yesterday. What's really obvious is that Thomas was holding back. Thomas swam this event three years ago, under the name of Will Thomas and got a 420. OK. And just so you know, in the 500, you never in a championship event like this, where they're all seated. You never win by seven seconds, you maybe - you look at the men's Ivy League Championships and the difference between first and eighth place was like 2.5, 3 seconds. And first and second was like by a half a second.
So, there's never this big of a gap. And the fact that Thomas was cruising, I mean, Thomas had started out very fast, and then went faster. If you look at split times, as he went along, that's not how a normal 500 is swung. You start out with a fast 50 to get going. But then you try to maintain and typically what happens as you start to die towards the end, maybe you have that last burst of energy that last 50.
But time has kept getting faster, faster, faster. When it's 26 at the end, 26 or 50. That's amazing. And that's not something that girls can't do. So, the facts are clear, and it's so sad. This is a male body. This will always be a male body, no matter what Lia chooses to call himself or herself, and that it is grossly unfair. And all the people who are cheering for this, don't care about women or girls, because this is telling women and girls stand aside, you don't matter. It's awful.
INGRAHAM: I played three sports and pretty decent athlete and back in the day. And I think to myself, like would we have been the number one ranked field hockey team in Glastonbury, Connecticut, if boys had played on the Windsor or Simsbury teams? The answer is no we would not have been and I wouldn't have had that experience and that's just my own little experience because I know there's so much faster than we were if they'd never picked up a stick, they could have beaten us.
Yale Transgender swimmer Iszac Henig won the 50 yard freestyle swim last night. He had already gone through the surgery to remove breasts, but hasn't gone through the hormonal procedure. At every level. He said from elementary to collegiate, trans athletes have been competing for years and extremely negative predictions about what will happen to sports have already been shown to be false. Trans athletes are no different and don't change this.
Cynthia, they don't change anything about sports, when you have biological males competing against females?
MILLEN: Well, let's first talk about the right to privacy in a locker room, it changes that. It changes the fact that girls and women would like to have their own sacred safe space where they can undress, where they can talk, where they can have the monthly cycles, where they can deal with all the things that only women and girls deal with.
But number two, there may have been other athletes who just weren't that good. But that still deprives a spot for a girl. It still deprives privacy for a guy, if it's on the other side. And the bottom-line is, these are males and females embody and that can never change, no matter what they say, that can never change. You are in utero, you're either a boy or girl and that's who you are.
And the male especially has these legacy attributes that they can never get rid of. Iszac obviously is a good swimmer. I don't know, I know that. There has been no testosterone. So perhaps Iszac won just because Iszac was a very good swimmer. I don't know the effects of removing the breasts would have. I wasn't following that one very much. But what Lia Thomas is saying to people basically is that Ha-ha, I can do this, it gets clear to me that Thomas knew and paste himself exactly the - why you needed to do to win the race.
INGRAHAM: Cynthia, we've heard a lot of people like rigging something to be faster. Or baseball pitchers, gumming up the ball. But this is actually slowing down to make it look less of a blowout. And again, we don't know what happened. But in your professional judgment, watching this, it looked odd.
MILLEN: Yes. Then you can look at the splits and see that Thomas gets faster and faster, just when you should be going slower and slower at the end of a 500, right. Then at that last 50, it says if he turns and realizes he's that far ahead and then slows down a little bit.
INGRAHAM: Cynthia, thank you for having the courage to speak out. We hope others follow you. So, what state do we have to thank for marching us down this path towards destruction of women's sports. The incubator of all things radical, of course, is in California. Now back in 2013, then Governor Jerry Moonbeam Brown signed a law allowing transgender kindergarten through 12th grade students access to any bathroom that they wanted. And it let them choose their sports teams based on their own self- perception regardless of their birth gender.
Joining me now is Harmeet Dhillon, founder of the Center for American Liberty and RNC National Committee woman for California. Also joining me is Amala Ekpunobi, Prageru Personality. And Amala, sorry, I just botched your last name. Amala, 62 percent of Americans say that athletes should play in the teams that match their birth sex. But why is the minority winning this argument?
AMALA EKPUNOBI, PRAGERU PERSONALITY: Oh, because the Left is always going to go for that marginalized group and push as hard as they can, even though they are minority here in this argument. They're a very loud one. And they will push and be forceful until they get their way. And it's very clear, we don't come at this argument being having personal vendettas against trans people.
The issue is that we don't want people with an unmistakable biological advantage competing against women who have fought their entire lives to be at this point in their sport. Lia Thomas clearly has better bone density, better lung capacity, better wingspan than these women. And that is why she's going in and winning these races. It is simply unfair; it has nothing to do with being prominently anti-trans or attacking trans people. It's about saving these women.
Do we all remember when the woke Left used to be so pro-feminist and women were the victim in their eyes. And here's something I want people to know, as the victim changes, and it's trans people for now. But it'll be something else later down the line, and they will move on to a new movement that is just as ridiculous and push it just as forcefully as they are pushing this one.
INGRAHAM: Well, I've got to say, Harmeet, it's so discouraging for someone, for any of us who were athletes, because we try to put ourselves in the positions of the girls competing now. And it's just not fair. No one's ever going to convince me that it was ever fair to do this. But it's being done. This is happening except in states where it's illegal. My question is Harmeet, this is ultimately going to end up one way shape or form in the higher courts. Is this where the answer is, go to court to try to win, win against this madness.
HARMEET DHILLON, CENTER FOR AMERICAN LIBERTY CEO: Well, Americans should really consider Laura whether that's the solution that they want to these types of problems. And so, United States Supreme Court can only decide the cases that come before it, those cases have specific plaintiffs and facts and those fact patterns are often imperfect to craft rules that can be generally applied.
So, back in 1972, Richard Nixon signed Title 9, which gave federal funding requirements to schools and required schools that get federal funding to give access to women athletes, and that had a huge impact, overnight, 10 times the number of women began competing in collegiate athletics. And that was a great thing for the confidence of young women, their ability to get scholarships and so forth and their ability to succeed in life.
Where are the feminists today, because that advantage over the last 50 years has been slowly chipped away to the point where now, any girl who's being rational, for example, in the UPenn swim team should just give up and put their energy into some other way of succeeding because it's game over when you allow biological males to take the positions that women were previously allowed to compete for and given opportunities.
So right now, the courts are in a flux, the laws in a flux. The law keeps changing in DC, so the Department of Education has issued conflicting regulations with respect to transgender athletes. Under Obama, it was one thing, President Trump changed it 180 degrees, President Biden changed it back and advanced it further to effectively eviscerate the rights of women to compete in their own spaces.
INGRAHAM: This is just - it's the end of women's sports, it's just the end. It's the end. Now here's how one trans athlete frame that Connecticut lawsuit that was challenging trans participations in sports. Watch.
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KAREN TANG, MD: So many other factors of this, right. There's also racism and misogyny and white supremacy going on here, because if you look at the people who are being attacked like the landmark case that started all this to black athletes being attacked by a white cis girl, right? There's no coincidence. None of us can see that that's a coincidence, right? There's so much white supremacy involved.
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INGRAHAM: Amala, is this white supremacy to try to protect girls now. That's where we are.
EKPUNOBI: Yes, it's just ridiculous. They will throw out any buzzword that they can and I heard the word misogyny, what is more misogynistic than allowing a biological male to compete against females in sports? It's ridiculous.
INGRAHAM: All right, you can say Harmeet, it's a misogynist for the guys. It was like OK; I was an average swimmer against other guys and I'm going to - now I'm going to. I feel like I'm this and I'm going to compete like, I mean, how is that not misogynist? Like women don't deserve their own space? That's misogynistic.
DHILLON: Absolutely. And we're seeing this in so many different places. We're seeing it in locker rooms. We're seeing it in bathrooms. We're seeing it here. This Will Thomas was 462 and for three years competed as a male athlete and then switched. Where's the fairness, where the sense of decency. So, I don't contest Lia Thomas's right to live the way they want to, the question is whether they get to take away the rights of girls and they're getting away with it every day. The feminists have checked out--
INGRAHAM: It's getting worse.
DHILLON: And it is up to I think a law change in Washington and at every state to protect the rights of girls.
INGRAHAM: All right, guys. Harmeet, Amala, great to see you both. Thank you. And something troubling is happening in the UK, adolescent males are dying at increasing rates, and a group of doctor suspects COVID is not to blame. Dr. Peter McCullough has some interesting thoughts on that and what's going on there. He's here next.
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INGRAHAM: Our doctors and scientists in the UK have uncovered something really troubling. Data that seems to show a surge in deaths among young adolescent males. what's called the heart organization says that it received a letter from the British government's legal department and that letter stated that among boys ages 15 to 19 deaths were nearly 20 percent above the five-year average.
Meanwhile, excess deaths among girls of that age were below the five-year average. Even more disturbing is that they think the excess deaths among boys is understated due to counting delays in the sample.
Now, it's not clear why this is happening. But a group of doctors and researchers are demanding that the government investigated and given the questions swirling around myocarditis and young men. We should all want answers.
Joining me now is Dr. Peter McCullough, Cardiologist, and Epidemiologist in Dallas, Texas. Dr. McCullough, there have been similar concerns stateside, but we unfortunately just don't have a lot of good data collectors. And maybe the UK is better at that. So, what might be going on here?
DR. PETER MCCULLOUGH, EPIDEMIOLOGIST AND CARDIOLOGIST: This is in the context of a report by Gil and colleagues in archives of pathology of two American boys. teenage boys who died days three and four after the Pfizer vaccines and autopsies confirmed fatal myocarditis and now the heart group which is an NGO in the UK, an evidence-based group. They have pointed out this excess death in boys and a slight decrease in the girls. Now they started vaccinating in the UK for 16 and up in March and then in 15, 12 to 15, they started in September. But they did achieve 60 percent to 75 percent vaccination rates.
So, I think there's two key things they want to know. They want to know during the course of this time, did they have COVID-19, the respiratory illness? And did they have any exposure to the vaccine? And then for each one of these cases, and there's not too many, there should be an investigation to what was the cause of death, and it should be relatively straightforward to figure out if COVID-19, the respiratory illness, the vaccine or potentially both played a role.
INGRAHAM: Well, Biden's new science advisor keeps coming back like a boomerang, Francis Collins. Let's slip some inconvenient info about the vaccines. Watch.
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DR. FRANCIS COLLINS, FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: I think humility is appropriate also, in talking about the vaccines. Yes, we were quite confident that the results of the phase three trials were very clear. But of course, we found out later that there were rare events in the case of the mRNA vaccines of pericarditis, myocarditis, really rare side effects that could in fact, be significant.
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INGRAHAM: Dr. McCullough, he keeps saying they're rare. What does the data say?
MCCULLOUGH: The correct term to use in safety data research is called tip of the iceberg, because we don't check everybody for the problems, it comes through spontaneous reporting. So, back when the CDC and FDA looked at 200 cases of myocarditis, they said it was both rare and mild. I said just the opposite. It was tip of the iceberg and severe since 90 percent of the kids were being hospitalized with this.
Fast forward to today in our U.S. CDC very system, we have over 30,000 cases of myopericarditis reports from shower, from Truong and others suggest to at least two-thirds are still being hospitalized. And the most alarming thing is when an MRI is done. In fact, heart damage is being seen in nearly every case of vaccine induced myocarditis.
INGRAHAM: Dr. McCullough, it's great to see you as always. And the CDC is trying its hardest to convince pregnant women to get the vaccine. According to a new study, completion of the two dose vaccination series during pregnancy was associated with reduced risk for COVID hospitalization among infants and protection was even higher among infants whose mothers were vaccinated later in the pregnancy. Obviously, we have some questions.
To answer them, let's bring in Dr. Michael Yeadon, who is former Vice President and Chief Scientist at Pfizer. Dr. Yeadon, good to see you. Now last summer, you raised concerns about pregnant women receiving the vaccine. Does this new CDC analysis change your view?
DR. MICHAEL YEADON, FORMER PFIZER CHIEF SCIENTIST: Good evening, Laura. No, it doesn't. I haven't actually seen that study. But what we do know is that children and especially young children are simply not victims of COVID-19. Just a little example, in Germany and Sweden, through the whole of the first year of the pandemic, not a single previously healthy child, acquired this virus and died, not one. And there was a recent study in Britain of immuno suppressed children, and none of them caught the virus and died either.
So, I'm sorry, young children, luckily, are not victims of this virus, I don't know what CDC are talking about. So, we really, really should not be vaccinating pregnant women for three strong reasons if I could say. The first is most people will be familiar with thalidomide in around 1960, where a drug cause birth malformations, so we never ever give experimental medicines to pregnant women, not unless we've checked that they're really safe.
Second reason, not one of these vaccines has a reproductive toxicology package complete, so we don't know that they're OK. And then lastly, the pregnant women themselves are the rather younger and fitter end of the range. And the people who die of COVID tend to be 60, 70, 80 and already ill.
So, for those three reasons, Laura, we should not be exposing pregnant women to the vaccines. And since the last - go on.
INGRAHAM: Dr. Yeadon, what's really, really disconcerting about this is that where there is a vaccine requirement in place, pregnant women or women who want to become pregnant, feel like they don't have anywhere to turn that they're not able oftentimes to get a medical exemption. They don't want the vaccine but they need work.
YEADON: Yes, I understand--
INGRAHAM: How disturbing is that to you?
YEADON: It's very, very disturbing, because the three reasons that we don't expose pregnant women to experimental medicines, there's no reproductive toxicology, and the women themselves are not at risk from the disease are three really good reasons why they should not be receiving the vaccine. But things have happened. Things have moved. I've been studying these vaccines. I'm a toxicologist amongst other things by the way and I've started this all the way through 2020 and subsequently.
Before the first vaccine received emergency use authorization, I had written a public petition to the European Medicines Agencies amongst other things concerned about a risk of pregnancy. And it was this, that the spike protein and the vaccine are designed to raise an immune response against is slightly similar to a critical protein of pregnancy called cincintin (ph) one (ph). And my fear was that when you vaccinate, you raise an immune response to spike, and there's an overflow onto this critical protein at pregnancy. That has actually been confirmed Laura. There's a small paper out, and 15 women, it shows exactly that problem.
INGRAHAM: Dr. Yeadon, it's so valuable, your information, your insight, formally with Pfizer. Thank you so much.
The coming attraction we've all been waiting for. So what could it be? Raymond Arroyo will explain it in "Friday Follies." That's next.
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ASHLEY STROHMIER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to FOX News live. I'm Ashley Strohmier.
President Joe Biden says he is, quote, convinced his Russian counterpart will begin invading the Ukraine in the coming days. Tensions are soaring along the militarized Ukrainian border with attacks the west calls, quote, false flag operations. It's believed those attacks are meant to establish a reason for a Russian invasion. There are reports of a car bombing and shelling along conflict zones in the past few days, but so far, there's no word of any casualties.
And Canadian police arresting more than 100 people and towing away nearly two dozen vehicles in the capital city of Ottawa. Those arrests included four protest leaders. The trucker convoy is in protest of the country's coronavirus mandates. The arrests and towing of vehicles is one of Canada's biggest police enforcement actions ever.
I'm Ashley Strohmier. Now back to THE INGRAHAM ANGLE. For all of your headlines, log on to FOXnews.com.
INGRAHAM: It is Friday, thanks goodness, and that means it's time for "Friday Follies." And for that, we turn to FOX News contributor Raymond Arroyo. All right, Raymond, I hear you have some coming attractions for us.
RAYMOND ARROYO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Laura, these coming attractions may be more of a warning. After seeing some of them you may want to run for cover. Let's start with Lizzo. You will remember back in January she posted on Instagram a celebration of her weight gain. She's now spreading body positivity in a new way, in an expansive new show, "Watch Out for the Big Grrrls."
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LIZZO, SINGER: What's up, you all. It's Lizzo! I'm looking for dancers to join me on my tour. Girls that look like me don't get representation!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To be a background dancer for Lizzo would just mean everything.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's showtime.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm always doubting myself, and I feel like that has been detrimental in how I approach dance.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's more than just one image of beauty.
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ARROYO: Look, you may be beautiful the way you are, Laura, but you're not more healthy. And that's the big concern here. Why Amazon and Lizzo are promoting unhealthy lifestyles is beyond me. And as far as the representation question, 42 percent of Americans are obese, 50 percent of African Americans are obese. So this is a major problem, and there's plenty of representation.
INGRAHAM: Well, number one, I could never do what they do because they are really good dancers. No doubt. And she obviously has a great voice and a performer. But we just want people to be as healthy as they can, and happy. And it's probably tetter to try to be a little bit more healthy.
ARROYO: I agree. If you're a woman like Lizzo and you play multiple instruments, you sing, why not have "Look out for the talented girls," "Look out for the singing girls," something. To build a reality show around an epidemic that has tied to it Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, bad knees, bad hips, I don't see why this is positive. We're not even talking about COVID.
And I knew female swimmers, Laura, were being undercut by biological males competing in their sport, but now these female dancers can't even get a fair shake. You have the guy there saying there's more than one image of beauty. OK.
INGRAHAM: Well, what next? In Canada, Justin Trudeau just announced his own coming attractions this week. He was forecasting kind of where the trucker protest would end up leading.
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JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: This is not a peaceful protest. We cannot and will not allow the legal and dangerous activities to continue.
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ARROYO: Laura, those coming attractions have now come to pass. We have disturbing video of the cops moving in as these truckers mobilize in the streets. Watch.
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(INAUDIBLE)
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ARROYO: Laura, nothing says danger like a bouncy house. This is crazy.
And as far as Trudeau's promise of dangerous activities, we did obtain some shocking footage of a fight that broke out among these truckers. You may want to shield the eyes of children or sensitive adults for this.
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(LAUGHTER)
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(LAUGHTER)
ARROYO: All the danger of a snow day.
INGRAHAM: Yes, they definitely deserve to be on the terror watch list. Those ice crystals on those shovels can get really nasty, OK?
ARROYO: Very dangerous. Got to watch the bear hugs, Laura. There's got to be an offense somewhere, federal.
INGRAHAM: Let me just comment on something, hold on, before we get to the next item. Justin Trudeau comes across as so prissy, and I hate this word, but pissy. He's always pissy and prissy about everything. I don't care for him at all, OK. And he totally, totally abuses emergency authority, he's a want to be little tyrant. He's probably having late night texting with President Xi of China. He's a lucky man, that Xi, because he gets to do whatever he wants, but not old pretty boy.
ARROYO: Xi is not just tossing the snow, I can tell you.
And Laura, there is one coming attraction that I know you're going to want to stream on Showtime when it drops. It's a new show called "The First Lady," and Viola Davis is playing one of your favorites.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to look back and think what did I become living in that house?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Still got it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Never lost it.
(MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The world is always going to judge us. They want to turn me into a black Martha Stewart. I will pick my team, choose my causes. Understood.
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ARROYO: Laura, Gillian Anderson plays Eleanor Roosevelt, and Michelle Pfeiffer is Betty Ford in this series. The curious thing is, at least from the trailer, the series portrays Betty Ford as a frazzled drunk and Roosevelt as hiding a lesbian relationship. But Michelle Obama has no flaws or secrets at all. The biggest challenge seems to be that somebody might think she's a black Martha Stewart. With stakes that low, who cares? This is amazing.
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: Where is Michelle's mom? Did she get represented?
ARROYO: I don't know. But look, mother Robinson and Michelle, that would be something to do a series on. But the moment you try to canonize perfection in a dramatic series, it's a recipe for disaster. No conflict, no stakes, nobody cares.
INGRAHAM: Raymond, don't touch the person of the queen. Do not touch the person of the queen. She's untouchable, you can't -- there is no flaws at all.
ARROYO: Michelle violated that, remember? She went in for the hug with Elizabeth. But I won't talk about that.
INGRAHAM: That's right! She touched the queen, I forgot it!
Raymond, I know you're getting ready for your big Mardi Gras week, so we want to let you go and get your beauty rest tonight for the festivities, which we will check back in with, OK?
ARROYO: Get that throwing arm in order. I've got it.
INGRAHAM: Raymond, have a great weekend. Oh, yes, watch out!
If the Canadian truckers were looking for some inspiration from our GOP leadership class on the vaccine mandates issue, well, think again. Congressman Chip Roy is here next. He's going to name names. Plus, he will explain what lawmakers have to do to even attend the State of the Union. Stay there.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not an illegal protest. It's in our charter of rights and freedoms. She wants to know what my response would be if I get arrested.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's the response? Hold the line.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hold the line.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: That was one of the organizers of the Ottawa trucker protest Tamara Lich. And shortly after she gave that interview, she was arrested. And as that crackdown by Ottawa police continue throughout the day, these Canadian truckers never wavered in defiance of the country's vaccine mandates.
But sadly, if they were looking for any solidarity or maybe inspiration from the Republicans here, they would be sorely disappointed by what happened yesterday in the Senate. That's when Republican Senator Mike Lee introduced what was a great amendment that defunds the enforcement of the remaining federal vaccine mandates. And that amendment failed only because GOP senators Romney, Burr, Inhofe, and Graham were all absent.
In addition, Senator Ted Cruz, he introduced an amendment that would have barred the federal government from sending money to schools that required the COVID-19 vaccines. It too was defeated because of the absences of those senators. Plus, Senators Blunt and Collins, Republicans, threw in with the Democrats and opposed those amendments. Shameful.
Texas Congressman Chip Roy has been threatening to force a government shutdown over the funding of these mandates, and he joins me now. Congressman, that was heartbreaking to read and to learn about yesterday, about the absences of, I guess one of the senators, Inhofe was in Israel. But just not showing up.
REP. CHIP ROY, (R-TX): Senate Republicans when posed with a simple question, will you fund the bureaucracy that's going to target the American people to force them to take a jab or get fire, or are you just going to do business as usual? And unfortunately, four Republicans didn't even show up to support my good friend Mike Lee's great amendment or support Ted Cruz's great amendment, my former boss and friend. And 19 Republicans last night voted to fund the government anyway.
And I hear all these excuses that just says, in fact, one of them actually tweeted at me and said, hey, you know what, that's a twisted logic. That means you, Chip, because you voted against the continuing resolution, are saying you wouldn't fund border patrol. You know what I said, Laura. You know what, I own that. Yes, we should have a debate. We should temporarily shut down the government if we have to, to stand up for the American people. And you know what, we should do it again to stand up with Border Patrol who are left dangling in the wind by gutless Republicans who refuse to stand with them. The American people what us to lead.
INGRAHAM: Yes, they want to know that members of Congress, senators, are standing up to the people who are feeling very vulnerable and upset in this economy, and also feel a lot of pressure, especially if they've already had COVID, to get this vaccine. And then the no-show aspect of this is reprehensible. I respect Collins and Blunt more because at least they had the guts to take the vote, OK? But not the other ones. OK, I don't have any respect, none.
ROY: It's absolutely astounding. And to think that Mitt Romney and Jim Inhofe were both physically present in the building yesterday, voted to proceed to the bill, and then skipped town and didn't vote for Mike's amendment, Mike Lee's great amendment, that would have stopped vaccine mandates. So when Mitt Romney goes out and starts preaching, you remind him, he skipped out on the American people and refused to stand with the people when they were getting -- losing their jobs, like the doctor down the street where I am in Curbell (ph) who's facing losing her job because she thinks it's in her best interest not to get the vaccine.
INGRAHAM: Congressman, FOX is told now that the U.S. Capitol police will present a security briefing to congressional leadership today about the oversight of a potential trucker convoy coming to Capitol Hill on March 1st, I understand. What's your reaction to this?
ROY: First of all, god bless truckers. I appreciate that some of them are trying to come to the capitol to send a message. You know what they might want to do is get a twofer. They should go down to the southern border and line their trucks up and help us kill two birds with one stone. But I welcome them to D.C. I trust American truckers to stand up and follow the laws, but also send a message to the representatives in Washington who aren't actually leading right now, and to demand that the American leadership in our country stand up for them and fight for them just like the Canadian truckers are doing.
They're doing it peacefully. Justin Trudeau is an idiot. I stand with the Canadian truckers who represent the people are tired of government intervening with the American people's freedom or the Canadian people's freedom.
INGRAHAM: Congressman, before you go, everyone was heralding this news yesterday, that Biden's State of the Union speech is now open to all members, but there's some fine print. Members have to have a negative COVID test, adhere to social distancing, avoid physical contact with others -- they might be hard for Sheila Jackson Lee, she loves to hug there -- and wear a KN-95 or N-95mask. Congressman, are you going to attend?
ROY: This is more of the same old kabuki theater. No, I'm not going to stick a stick up my nose to listen to Biden's blathering for an hour. I think all Republicans should go to the border, all 252 Republicans should be in McAllen and send a message to Biden about the crisis at our border, or go stand out and stand with the truckers and stand in solidarity with them.
INGRAHAM: Great ideas. Congressman, good to see you tonight, thank you.
And when we return, final thoughts.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: That's it for us tonight. Don't forget, set your DVR so you always stay connected with us.
And finally, your USA made Freedom Matters gear, now we added mandate freedom gear, and you're going to love that, all for supporting all those fighting for our freedom abroad and here at home. Go to LauraIngraham.com. Most of it, I think almost all of it is made in the United States, and Freedom Matters gear, 100 percent of my profits goes to the Shady Grove Pregnancy Center. They do a great work for life in the Maryland area. So remember, LauraIngraham.com, made in the USA. You're going to love the gear. Hannity does, come on.
Have a great weekend. Gutfeld takes it from here.
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