'Ingraham Angle' on border crisis, bipartisan infrastructure package

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Lt Gov. Dan Patrick: People in every state are going to die because of Biden's policy

Texas lieutenant governor says every American should be worried about Biden's immigration policy on 'The Ingraham Angle'

This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," August 2, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST: She is on a fact-finding mission to Jonestown. She sadly knows firsthand about the weight of that word, cult.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Mr. Potato Head, stenographer, I hate Trump, I hate Hannity, I hate Fox. Rewind. And nobody watches his show or reads his books. Let not your heart be troubled. Laura Ingraham, how are you? How was your weekend?

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: I was great. Why are we giving him any publicity? It's like, no one watches his show except when they see it on your show, right? So you're actually--

HANNITY: Let me ask you a question.

INGRAHAM: --helping him.

HANNITY: Do you really consider that publicity?

INGRAHAM: Yes. Actually I do.

HANNITY: He's like a pathetic - I mean, it's like, hit Trump, hit Fox News, you and me and hit rewind. I mean, this guy - maybe he doesn't know that Trump is in his office right now. I can't figure it out.

INGRAHAM: Wait. Is he Mr. Potato Head, or is he Humpty Dumpty? I'm always confused. Is he both?

HANNITY: He's Humpty. Yes. No, he is not both. That's his boss.

INGRAHAM: I'm getting it all confused. All right, Hannity. Great show. Good to see you. I'm getting my characters mixed up. I'm Laura Ingraham. This is THE INGRAHAM ANGLE from Washington tonight.

Now, illegals aren't just crossing our border at record numbers, they're now being sent all over the United States oftentimes with governors and mayors knowing nothing about it. We have a report tonight from McAllen, Texas, where many of these odysseys begin.

Also, Hunter Biden offers a laughable justification for his art. And another Olympian, I don't know if you've seen this, uses the podium to protest. Raymond Arroyo has that in seen and unseen. But first, a bridge to nowhere. That's the focus of tonight's ANGLE.

Roads and bridges, broadband expansion, fixing potholes, repairing rusting bridges, fixing train tracks, increasing internet access for everybody. It all sounds pretty reasonable, right? Any country should have all that. Remember, Trump wanted to do infrastructure and yet Pelosi impeachment never got it done.

Well, tonight, I'm going to tell you what counts as infrastructure. The Republicans agreed to this without even ever having read a draft of the bill. They put - it was put together mostly by the majority parties' committee staff.

Now, in June, a bipartisan group of senators led by Mitt Romney thought it was a good idea to engage with President Biden on this thing called an infrastructure bill that would cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

Now, the deal included Biden's pledge and who they are all together in one room, that it would be a standalone. In other words, it wouldn't be linked with this $3.5 trillion or $4 trillion spendarama that the Democrats were cooking up to pass through this thing called reconciliation, which means you only need a simple majority.

Of course, Biden is so out of it, he couldn't remember though what he said to whom about the negotiations. And so he ended up tipping the Democrats hand.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, you said you want both of these measures to come to you in tandem. Did you receive any assurances that that would happen? And how do you anticipate - what will you do if they don't get to you?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I didn't do that. They don't come on the (inaudible).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Of course. This made the Republicans look like Charlie Brown on their back with Pelosi is Lucy, grinning, holding the football.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, do you support then speaker Pelosi's stated plan to uphold the bipartisan deal in the house until the Senate also passes reconciliation? Do you support that sequencing on her part?

BIDEN: Yes. Look, the bipartisan bill for the Americans and it was understood there's going to have to be the second part of it. I've not just signed the bipartisan bill to (inaudible) that I proposed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Everyone knew. There is always going to be another bill that was going to be linked. Well, a few days later, Biden claimed he misspoke. But we all know what he said about the two bills really being one bill is the truth. In other words, if you vote for the infrastructure plan, which needs a filibuster proof majority, you're effectively paving the way for this massive budget bill, multi-trillion dollar extravaganza creating brand new entitlement spending and transforming much of American society from top to bottom.

Oh, and that bill, as I said, will only need to pass by a simple majority. You get it. But the Republicans had once again, looks like they've been played. Remember, Pelosi, she doesn't mess around.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Let me be really clear on this. We will not take up a bill in the House until the Senate passes the bipartisan bill and an - and a reconciliation bill. There ain't going to be an infrastructure bill unless we have the reconciliation bill passed by the United States Senate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Ain't going to be one. Now again, she plays hardball while Republicans are waiting for a Wiffle ball game to start. She's not taking up infrastructure until they get their gargantuan spending package to a simple majority vote.

Simply put, by agreeing to this order of things, the Romney group gave up all of their leverage, as Democrats are able to bypass them entirely on their way to a simple majority vote on a $3.5 trillion package that no one's seen.

Now, some of what we do know that will be included in this second bill: Universal pre-k; free meals for all students; family medical leave; a pathway to citizenship for the DACA recipients; greener farming; and expansion of Medicare. And that's just the beginning.

And today, more than a month after the Romney group met with Biden, the Democrats finally released their Infrastructure Bill, $110 billion roads, bridges, major projects; $66 billion for railways; $65 billion for broadband. But that's not all.

There were more gems buried in the text, which most senators obviously won't have the time to read. It's 2700 pages after all. It includes funds for new state imposed carbon reduction requirements; $1 billion to the Appalachian Regional Commission, which is co-chaired by Joe Manchin's wife; millions for wildlife crossing structures; it refers to women as socially disadvantaged individuals; and in one part of the bill stipulates that gender identity will be a protected class under federal law.

Of course, this is how it always goes, all right, when one party has been given all the leverage. They get cocky, and they go too far, but in this case, who's going to stop them.

White House Senior Advisor Mike Donilon sent out a positively giddy note to Democrats today. In part, saying, "President Biden continues to propose and deliver plans that the American people, across party lines, agree are good for the country." He's doing exactly what he said he'd do when he ran for the job acting not as a president of the red or blue states, but a president of the United States.

Well, amidst an unprecedented crisis of Biden's own making at the White House amidst the new pessimism and confusion about Biden's handling of the COVID Delta variant on the border, it's breaking down. His approval numbers last week hit a low of 50 percent.

But now, courtesy of the Romney group, Republicans have given Biden bragging rights. They've given him a lifeline. He'll not only be able to claim a huge legislative victory, and more significantly a glide path to this gargantuan $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, legislation that can pass a single GOP vote, and it can transform huge sectors of American society perhaps forever. The Democrats justified the cost of the infrastructure bill by claiming, by the way, it was fully paid for. Huh.

Well, here's the Wall Street Journal's analysis that just came out tonight. "West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin and his Senate Republican friends are stressing that their deal is fully paid for, but read their lips: No new deficit spending, read their bill, though it relies on a great degree on savings and revenue already baked into the fisc or the treasury. And that's unlikely to happen.

Now, given that we already loaded an unconscionable burden of debt on our kids and our grandkids, and given how fast our economy began to recover from the pandemic, that's good news.

A smart path would be for the Romney group right now to reassess their support for this infrastructural deal and it includes Mitch McConnell, by the way, go to the voters. Explain how the Democrats changed the rules mid game and head into the midterms with a clear message that America just needs to open up for business fully without burdensome mandates, no more accounting gimmicks and no more legislative games. We're not going to do any of that. Otherwise, we may be rebuilding some bridges, but the country is going nowhere good. And that's THE ANGLE.

Joining me now and I'm really delighted he is with us, Senator Bill Cassidy, one of the Republicans who's been out in front on pushing this deal. Senator, I really appreciate you joining me tonight. You know my view on this. But I wanted to give you a chance to defend this bill as good for America. But first, have you had a chance to read the 2700 plus pages of text that comprise this bill?

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): My staff and I have read it totally. And defending it, my gosh, why wouldn't you want this is one of my colleagues said. $110 billion for broken down bridges to replace or to make them better, also to make them safer; $65 billion to bring broadband in areas that do not have it, creating jobs along the way; $16 billion for Army Corps of Engineers to address coastal restoration issues, and other things that place Americans at risk of losing their homes and their businesses from floods.

And by the way, did I mention, it creates a heck of a lot of jobs. And I disagree with your representation. It is paid for. Now, it may not be paid for the way CBO scores it, but it's paid for in a way that anybody looking at over common sense would say--

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: Yes. Senator, we had put all those bullets up, I think pretty accurately summing up what you just pointed out that's in the bill. And you're right, it does include all that. But it also spends billions on these carbon capture projects, almost a billion for a large scale - hold on a second, hold on, large-scale pilot projects. Our viewers don't know about this. In another 2.5 billion for what's called demonstration project.

So to some folks, and I think the journal would agree with this, sounds kind of like Solyndra 2.0. So how does a Republican and you're a fiscal conservative, how do you justify that, sir?

CASSIDY: Absolutely. If you speak to businesses, they're trying to export to markets like Europe, and they can't export to those markets unless they show that they are offsetting their carbon footprint. We're going to lose the European Union as a market. What this does is it helps build carbon dioxide pipelines, by the way, putting pipe fitters to work and construction workers to work to take that carbon off, and they use it for another product, or to sequester it beneath the ground.

Now, by the way, that makes our people more, more competitive. And going into markets like the EU, that is absolutely fiscal conservatism, because it puts Americans to work, and it makes our businesses more competitive.

INGRAHAM: So you think the rules of trade with Europe under Biden are - those are fair rules? So you are trusting the Biden trade regime?

CASSIDY: So that won't be up to Biden. It is the European Union that is putting these border adjustment taxes in place, this positions us so that our people don't lose those margins.

INGRAHAM: Or dancing to Europe's tune instead of using our leverage. But you're right. That's up to Biden. Your colleague, Mike Lee, has a different take, as you can imagine, on the bill and he went on the floor last night. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MIKE LEE (R-UT): Some of the wealthiest and most well connected Americans will get rich off of legislation like this. This is an enormous amount of money. $1.2 trillion that we'll be spending here. This at a time when Americans are feeling the pinch of inflation. We further diminished the buying power of the dollar through our reckless spending in order to bring praise and adulation from the media and from each other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: And the White House is, as I said, quite giddy about this. Reuters describes this as a glide path to the $3.5 trillion tonight and their write up of this, senator. So your response?

CASSIDY: So a couple things. It is the person in my state stuck in traffic, who's fearful of their home flooding, who wants to have a better job that actually would like to make more money, but doesn't make a lot of money now, who really likes this bill. I talked to Fox News watchers, they love this bill.

Now, is there somebody who's wealthy, but actually for the wealthy, this means less. They have chauffeurs, they have private jets, they can fly here and there if it floods. It's the people who live in their own home who are at risk of flooding, who like this. So now as we are going to $3.5 trillion - as we are going to $3.5 trillion, Pelosi wants to link the two. She doesn't think she has the votes for that $3.5 trillion.

INGRAHAM: Senator, are you on this show tonight saying that Nancy Pelosi hasn't gained out her votes? You actually think that the--

CASSIDY: She just failed to pass the renewal of the eviction to apartments. Believe me. She doesn't think she has to invest in the $3.5 trillion. She's hoping to fold these together so she can get it passed.

INGRAHAM: Well, so--

CASSIDY: And by the way, Mike Lee is helping. Republicans who are trying to send this bill are trying to help Nancy Pelosi. Can you believe that?

INGRAHAM: So, sir, the tax increase that the bipartisan infrastructure bill makes possible, the $3.5 trillion behemoth that you will not support, correct?

CASSIDY: So I reject your characterization. This bill makes that $3.5 trillion less likely to pass and the squad knows it. Bernie knows it. They're the ones who are objecting to this bill, because they think it's less likely that they pass their $3.5 trillion behemoth.

INGRAHAM: Why did you and McConnell and company not ask or say, look, we're happy to talk roads and bridges. Let's have that completely separate, because Biden did guarantee that, right? So why not do what Pelosi did, and say, show us your hand first, let's see the full text of your reconciliation bill, everything that's in a climate change, amnesty, tax increases, all the nightmares that we already delineated tonight. Let them show their hand, but it got flipped, didn't it? You guys got played on this. You had to vote first or agree first. They still haven't shown the text of their legislation, have they, sir?

CASSIDY: The ironic thing is you are agreeing with the squad and Bernie. It's amazing. You're agreeing with Pelosi. We think this makes that behemoth less likely to pass. And somehow you are trying - if I may leave, if I may, we make that bill less likely to pass. But if we sync this bill, and you marry them together, it's more likely to pass. That's just what simple logic tells you. So I'm not quite following--

INGRAHAM: So you don't follow the Wall Street Journal National Review, yours truly, any number of people online who have been writing about economics, exceed more for like 35 years?

CASSIDY: --separating them two makes it harder to pass the $3.5 trillion, they know Democratic politics. They know Democratic politics.

INGRAHAM: You made it easy for them. Make them show their text first. You realize that America's going to be changed forever?

CASSIDY: Hey, hey, Nancy, will you tell us everything that you have? Hey, Nancy, will you tell us everything? That's not going to happen, Laura.

INGRAHAM: Senator?

CASSIDY: You know that's not going to happen.

INGRAHAM: Senator, I know you're doing this--

CASSIDY: But what we have is $110 billion for roads and bridges, $65 billion for--

INGRAHAM: You could have gotten that without giving away the store. But I know you're talking loudly tonight because you're trying to be really, really persuasive. But it's just not working.

CASSIDY: But because we pass this, they're less likely to get their $3.5 trillion. That's the gorgeous thing.

INGRAHAM: When they pass the $3.5 trillion, you are going to come back on the show and say you were wrong?

CASSIDY: Oh, so in sum, I'm responsible, even though we've (inaudible) I'll come back on the show. But even though we've made it less possible, if it still happens somehow this is the blame. Now, Laura, that logic is speechless and you know that.

INGRAHAM: All right, Senator. We appreciate you coming on tonight. And I don't think I've ever heard Senator Cassidy talk so loudly to Democrats before, but I love the fact that you did that with me.

All right. Joining me now, Congressman Jim Banks, chair of the Republican Study Committee, who earlier today blasted this infrastructure bill in a memo to his members.

Congressman, look, you got 17 GOP senators, you got Mitch McConnell, you have Romney Portman. All these guys who have been in the Senate for a long time. They're very well respected in the business community. Why was Senator Kennedy wrong?

REP. JIM BANKS (R-IN): Well, Laura, this bill is twice as long as the Bible. I can guarantee you. There's not a senator that read the Bible cover to cover over the last 24 hours.

INGRAHAM: Now, Senator Cassidy said he read it.

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: Congressman, Senator Cassidy said he read it with his staff.

BANKS: It's hard for me to believe that anyone read the Bible cover to cover. They definitely didn't read this bill cover to cover as well. I have a lot of concerns about as I laid out in the Republicans Study Committee memo that we released to our members just a little bit ago. But my biggest concern is this, Laura, do the math with me go, back to January when we passed - when they passed the $1.9 trillion so-called COVID Relief Bill. And look today at what that has done to inflation in our country. The highest rates of inflation since 1991.

Now, do the math with this, a $1 trillion infrastructure deal and $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill that Nancy Pelosi says the infrastructure bill will not pass her house without the reconciliation bill passing with it. And imagine what that will do to inflation in this country. You're already paying more for a gallon of milk. Every time you pump up a gas, or fill up your gas tank at the gas pump, you're going to pay twice as much when these guys are done with it. And that's my biggest concern about what's about to happen on these guys' watch.

INGRAHAM: Well, the polling on this is interesting. The White House, I don't blame them for doing this. They're out there sending out memos, and oh the people support it. And voters do generally support an idea of bipartisan infrastructure. Again, Trump was pushing a version of this. "A majority of voters are concerned about the sheer size of the proposals. Together, the infrastructure bill and the spending plan would run the country $4.7 trillion, 55 percent of voters say that's too much, 64 percent oppose a federal tax hike to pay for this"

Now, I think, Congressman, we know that the infrastructure bill, that doesn't include a tax increase, obviously, the follow on bill, which Senator Cassidy thinks is less likely to pass, I do not understand that. He said - that's obviously does include a tax increase for people over $400,000. So what does this tell you? What the selective polling showcasing the White House is doing?

BANKS: Yes. It's like Donald Trump told us. In fact, he said that no deal is better than a bad deal. And this is a bad deal. Donald Trump understood this for four years trying to pass an infrastructure deal. This is a bad deal that's in front of us.

And you're right, the tax increases and everything else that comes with the almost $110 billion out of this $1 trillion deal will go toward roads and bridges and what anybody in America would define or consider is infrastructure. So that's it. That's a drop in the bucket. That's not going to be popular with the American people when they understand at the end of the day that they've been fooled by both sides of the aisle.

INGRAHAM: Congressman, we appreciate it. They all should have gone to the voters next year taking it to the voters don't get Biden the big win on this. Congressman, thank you.

And massive groups of illegals are pouring across our borders are not stopping there. In moments, we're going to take you to McAllen, Texas, for a report on where many of these illegals are starting their journey inside of our country. Stay there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: We certainly have a challenge at the border. We have remarkable people to address that challenge and a plan in place that we are executing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: I actually believe the secretary. At this point, why shouldn't Americans think this is exactly what they see as success flooding the country with illegals? Check out this video for Mission, Texas, up to 1000 migrants being held by Border Patrol, 1000. That's less than a mile from a popular crossing site. And over in McAllen, there's been busload after busload, migrants being dropped off at a Catholic charity, before of course, they're fanning out all over the country courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer.

Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin has that story for us tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL MELUGIN, FOX NEWS NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And, Laura, as I speak, there are still hundreds of migrants waiting underneath that bridge right now as they still have not been processed by Border Patrol. And DHS sources are telling us that border patrol stations here in the McAllen area were running nearly 600 percent over capacity this past weekend. And as a result of that, there are now mass releases of migrants happening pretty much nonstop.

Take a look at this remarkable video that we shot over the weekend from right here in Mission, Texas. This is Sunday afternoon. Our drone video showing a massive group of illegal immigrants being held by Border Patrol under Anzalduas Bridge. It's the largest group we have ever seen in all of our trips to the border. We're talking at least 1000 people as Border Patrol sources tell us more than 8000 illegal immigrants were apprehended just here in the Rio Grande Valley alone over the weekend.

Sunday night in La Joya, we came across this large group of more than 200 migrants who turned themselves into Border Patrol. Many of the migrants were visibly coughing as COVID-19 cases continue to surge amongst the migrant population here in the Rio Grande Valley, a more than 900 percent increase just in the month of July.

In downtown McAllen today, we watched all day long as Border Patrol released illegal immigrants from their custody in mass. Border Patrol buses dropped off loads of the migrants at a local Catholic charity every 30 minutes. We watched over and over as busloads of the migrants were emptied out and released to the charity. Several hundred in total. Staff members for Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley then walked the migrants across the street to McAllen Central Station. That's where they were given bus tickets to travel elsewhere across the country.

And Fox News has now learned of a second local hotel where the charity is housing COVID positive migrants, this time in Weslaco. City officials there say, they recently found out that charity has been quietly housing infected migrants at this Texas inn in Weslaco without ever being told by the charity.

And earlier today, I reached out to the executive director of that Catholic charity and I asked her straight up, how many COVID positive migrants are you guys housing in local hotels here in the Rio Grande Valley? She told me "I've been advised not to comment". Laura.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: This is so infuriating, but your kids have to mask up in schools. They care about COVID.

Now, the Biden administration say quietly extended title 42. Remember, that was Trump's idea. The Trump policy that allowed the U.S. to quickly send illegals back to help prevent the spread of COVID. But it's really not the same as what was in place under Trump in a way, because while it's technically the same, this administration not going to enforce it.

As you just heard from Bill, facilities are so overrun that busloads of illegals are being sent all over the United States, including many that are COVID positive. One senior Customs and Border Protection source told The Washington Examiner, "They aren't tested at encounter. Unaccompanied children and family units are moved out of custody quickly. If they're infected and don't have obvious symptoms, they're sent out."

Joining us now, Texas lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick. Dan, late tonight a U.S. official confirmed to the AAP that the number of unaccompanied children picked up by border authorities will likely hit the all-time high in July. Why is this not being covered?

DAN PATRICK, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF TEXAS: Yes. Going back, well, it's not being covered because of the Marxist stream media, not mainstream media, Laura. Fox is the only one telling the story. And Americans all over this country ought to be damn angry what's happening to their country. Total invasion. And people in every state are going to die through a combination of people coming in illegally with COVID, with the fentanyl drugs are setting an all-time record, and the criminals that are crossing the border. Imagine, Laura, if you lived in Mission, or La Joya, or Westlake. I've been to those towns many times. And at 2:00 in the morning and 3:00 in the morning you have people milling all around your streets, walking by your house. These people are everywhere.

When they leave the bridge, Laura, where did they go? They get on a bus and go to some city in America taking COVID, their crime background if they are criminals, or delivering drugs. This administration is putting American lives -- not at risk, not likely to die. Americans will die because of this policy.

INGRAHAM: He's getting the bipartisan infrastructure thing through, so that will help his popularity.

PATRICK: By the way, that senator, Laura, that you interviewed, he's the kind of senator that makes the Republicans not want to show up at the polls. Disgraceful.

INGRAHAM: Senator Cassidy, he came on the show. We couldn't get pretty much anyone to come on the show do defend this, so I give him credit for doing that.

PATRICK: Disgraceful.

INGRAHAM: Man, watch the media cover, by the way, for the, as you said, Dan, this public health crisis that the Biden administration has created. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIA AINSLEY, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Right now a lot of immigrants are in very overcrowded shelters, detention centers. And in order to move them out, whether that's to go live with their families or to go to other detention centers, they need to be able to put them on buses. This is very common. It is not new to the Biden administration. Immigrants have been transported out of the state of Texas throughout many administrations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: This happens all the time, Dan. This is always done this way. Is she kidding me?

PATRICK: No, they think the American public is stupid. I can tell you what is going to happen in the Rio Grande Valley. That Rio Grande Valley that Trump turned seven counties for the first time ever from Democrat to Republican, he is going to -- not he, but in the 2022 elections when all of us are up. Governor Abbott, myself, the statewide congressmen, we're going to turn that whole valley Republican.

Hispanics across this country that we've always said share our values, pro- life, for charter schools, lower taxes, economic opportunity, Second Amendment rights, and border security, Hispanics in this country are going to be, I think the leaders to throw the Democrats out on their rear end for a good. These socialist policies are what many of them escaped from.

And remember, Laura, if you took your family to Cabo or Cancun this weekend, you couldn't get back into the country unless you tested negative.

INGRAHAM: No, no, the border is closed.

PATRICK: But these people come in with no mask, no test, no nothing.

INGRAHAM: We've got to go.

PATRICK: Thank you, Laura.

INGRAHAM: Mayorkas, the secretary said the border is closed, Dan. It's closed. Does that look closed to you?

PATRICK: It's a joke. No, it's a joke.

INGRAHAM: All right, Dan, thank you.

And lefty mayors break their own COVID rule, Hunter's artful defense. Of course, it is Raymond Arroyo, he has it. "Seen and Unseen" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: It's time for our "Seen and Unseen" segment where we explore the cultural stories of the day. And for that we turn to FOX News contributor Raymond Arroyo. Ray, now, mayors across the country have begun to reinstate our favorite mask mandates for their citizens. But I guess the rules don't really apply to the mayors.

RAYMOND ARROYO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Apparently not, Laura. The day D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser issued her mask mandate, she partied with David Chapelle with no mask. Then on Saturday, the day the mask mandate went into effect, she officiated a wedding with no mask. And Bowser was photographed indoors at the wedding with, again, with no mask. So read into that what you'd like.

INGRAHAM: In a statement her office said she was actively eating or drinking, Raymond.

ARROYO: Come on, does it look like she's eating or in any way drinking in this shot? No one in the shot even has food or a fork in their hands. She was just ignoring her own mask guidance and not wanting the rule to impinge on her social life. By the way, she attended a party with Dave Chappelle Sunday night at the Kennedy Center as well. No report yet on whether she had a mask on.

Our mayor here in New Orleans, LaToya Cantrell, your favorite, she dropped a mask mandate on the city Friday. But just a few hours before she attended a luncheon at a French quarter restaurant without a mask.

(LAUGHTER)

ARROYO: The mayor even took pictures with diners, Laura. They were masks, but she didn't. She left it off for Wolf Blitzer, too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR LATOYA CANTRELL, NEW ORLEANS: Even in the state of Louisiana, I'm the first in the state to push for a mask mandate. It shouldn't be. People are dying. Children are dying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARROYO: According to "The Times-Picayune," Laura, exactly nine children have died in the state of Louisiana from COVID since it began. Our children are dying all right, but in the streets. It's gunfire taking them out. Five people were shot on Bourbon Street. It looked like a crazed wilding in the street Sunday morning, and a juvenile gunned down and killed nearby. That is the pandemic that this mayor needs to address and all of these mayors. They need to begin to implement and display what they are trying to force their citizenry to adopt. Be good role models.

INGRAHAM: But Raymond, we have been on this since March and April 20 when they rolled out all the perpetual crisis measures and they were going up to look at their boats and families going to Florida. And everyone else was supposed to stay inside and just suck their thumbs. It is so obvious from the beginning.

What else, Ray?

ARROYO: Look, we have been covering the Hunter Biden art sale, Laura, for weeks. I even went down to that gallery. Government ethicists say the sky- high prices and scant oversight of this art sale, it is a tempting target for those looking to buy influence with the Biden administration. Well, not Biden, Hunter Biden, has reacted this way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is your response to the people who are coming after the prices of the work?

HUNTER BIDEN, PRESIDENT BIDEN'S SON: Other than -- them?

Criticism of sharing art to a wider audience than your friends and family, it is a pretty courageous thing to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

ARROYO: Laura, it is courageous. Look, when you are facing federal investigation for failing to pay taxes on your foreign business dealings, it's courageous to set up influence peddling operation at a gallery with ties to China. That is courageous, I have to say.

INGRAHAM: Hunter, like the circle paintings and toilet holder stamped on it. I love that. But I can only pay $350,000 for it, man. So what can you do for me?

ARROYO: Look, it takes real courage to blow spit and ink through a pipe and call it art. That's courage.

INGRAHAM: Raymond, there is a U.S. Olympic shot-putter Raven Saunders, what was that big crossing the arms X-sign at the end of that medal ceremony the other day, what was that all about? The U.S. Olympic said she broke no rules by doing this protest, or did she, or not?

ARROYO: Right. Well, look, the Americans are trying to stretch the rules here. The Olympic committee restricted protests, Laura, to before events, but forbade them during medal ceremonies. Team USA says Saunders did this gesture during the time reserved for pictures after the medals were rewarded. But she is on the podium. The International Olympic Committee is still looking into sanctioning Saunders. They have to enforce these rules, Laura, or otherwise these games are going to turn into constant rolling protest ceremonies. That's not what people want.

INGRAHAM: I thought she was stretching. When I do my orange, I stretch like that. I didn't understand. The rules are the rules, but they are looking for loopholes. But I think it wrecks the games.

ARROYO: I agree.

INGRAHAM: We are there to watch the athleticism, which is impressive. But that's not. Raymond, thank you.

And with COVID deaths at the lowest level since the pandemic, why are we back to talking about these mask mandates and lockdowns, except for the mayors? Dr. Harvey Risch, Phil Kerpen are here on what team doom is selling and why they are selling it. Stay there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER: Things are going to get worse. If you look at the celebration of the number of cases, the seven-day average has gone up substantially. What we really need to do, John, we say it over and over again, and it's the truth, we have 100 million people in this country who are eligible to be vaccinated who are not getting vaccinated. We are seeing an outbreak of the unvaccinated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Now, take a look at the daily deaths. You can see a slight increase, they are still at the lowest numbers, see, of the pandemic. So what good does it do to talk like Fauci was talking?

The more the Biden team allows Dr. Doom to go on T.V. and talk like that, it feels like it's April, 2020. But it's not. Look at the narrative, the narrative they're spinning versus where we really are with daily COVID deaths.

According to "Politico," the spread "of the Delta variant and conflicting opinions about how best to address it has led to behind-the-scenes finger- pointing and weeklong tensions between the CDC and the White House," adding that Biden officials have "been openly frustrated by what they see as overly alarmed coverage" of so-called breakthrough case among the vaccinated.

Joining me now is Harvey Risch, professor of epidemiology at Yale School of Medicine, and Phil Kerpen, president of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity. Phil, they only have themselves to blame here, right, about Dr. Doom out in front again selling this message of it's going to get worse before it gets better, winter before summer.

PHIL KERPEN, PRESIDENT, THE COMMITTEE TO UNLEASH PROSPERITY: It's incredible, Laura, because they spent a year-and-a-half, everyone on the left and certainly everyone who is currently in this administration, stoking every over-the-top fear-hype narrative imaginable, overstating the risks to young people, overstating the risks to healthy people massively, scaring everyone as much as possible. And now they're saying whoa, wait a second, we didn't tell you to overhype and scare everyone who is vaccinated. That wasn't what we wanted at all, even though they're the ones who sent the vice president out last week to mask the White House press corps. So the idea that this is somehow not them, that its' the CDC, it is almost laughable.

INGRAHAM: Today, Dr. Michael Osterholm admitted this about masking. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, FORMER BIDEN COVID ADVISER: We know today that many of the face cloth coverings that people wear are not very effective at reducing any of the virus movement in or out. We need to talk about better masking. We need to talk about N95 respirators.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: OK, Dr. Risch, this show was attacked for saying this, specifically Dr. Ramin Oskoui and others for saying this 17 months ago, because that is what the CDC own published website, article about influenza virus, was on the CDC website, I think it is still there about cloth masks. So we were attacked for that. Guests on this show were attacked for that. Now he's saying, oh, yes, that is a good point. Unbelievable.

DR. HARVEY RISCH, YALE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Well, I don't understand why they are going with N95 mask. The last time, it was wear two masks. It doesn't work, so why not just keep piling it on? Nobody will tolerate those kinds of masks, not for any length of time.

INGRAHAM: So N95, Dr. Risch, are used in the, obviously the health care setting. They have to be tightly fitted. Obviously, you have worn them at length in various medical situations. How long could an average person just deal with that?

RISCH: I think that when you have an obligation to take care of a patient in an operating room, you will wear it for as long as it takes because that is your duty, that is your job. When you do it because you have been told by the state that you have to do it, it is not going to last more than a half-hour, 45 minutes before people find that they can't breathe, they feel like they can't breathe. They are not just standing around. They are walking through aisles. They are going places and doing things. And the energy requirement, the oxygen requirement is much larger.

INGRAHAM: And today Randi Weingarten, teachers union chief, made this shocking revelation, Phil. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: The reason for masks, right, is that the vaccinated can still spread this. You see the benefit of students masking going forward as the school year opens?

RANDI WEINGARTEN, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: Exactly, exactly. So that's why the next question about will they stay open, that's where we worry, because when you have lots of kids, particularly every child under 12 has not been vaccinated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: This is an evil woman. Tonight, she tweeted "The data is clear, until vaccination rates are up across the country, masking is the best way for schools to protect us and those around us regardless of vaccinate status." Phil, they don't want to go back to school, they don't want to go back to the classroom.

KERPEN: Laura, it is opposite of what the data show. We have very little data comparing masked to unmasked schools because the CDC has tried very carefully to avoid doing that comparison. The only time they ever did that study was for the first semester of Florida schools when they found that there was a little bit lower cases in the masked than the unmasked, and then they never updated the study, because if you look at the full year Florida data, which there is a preprint from Brown University researchers that do, they found that over the full school year the opposite was true, and it was the unmasked schools that had lower cases than the masked rules.

The reality is it makes no difference at all. The CDC's own numbers show that 40 percent of school aged kids already have this virus by March of 2021, which means it could be over 50 percent now, which means whatever we were doing didn't prevent them from getting the virus. What prevented them from having bad outcomes is that it's not dangerous for children. And this idea that we need to mask them or else Randi is going to walk off of the job again and close schools should be taken as what it is. It is just a naked thread to walk off of the job again for another shakedown, for another Zoom school relaxing on the couch or on the beach.

INGRAHAM: Maybe it's time for the governors to say they are essential employees. They don't actually show up for work, guess what, they are not needed anymore. They've got to pull a Reagan with the air traffic controllers from the gubernatorial level.

Gentlemen, thank you.

And a new ad takes on woke-a-cola. The Last Bite next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: This show has featured a consumer well-being group, Consumers First, it's up with a new anti-ad that's targeting Coca-Cola for kowtow to China abroad and embracing woke policies at home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We taught the world to sing in perfect harmony. Just drink Coke, the road to obesity.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: China is our labor supplier that drives our stock price even higher.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Actually, it does sound like the original Coke ad. That's how you fight back, with some humor.

Remember, Freedom Matters. It does matter, protect it. All made in the USA on LauraIngraham.com. Support a good charity.

This month, my favorite, Little Sisters of the Poor. Get your all cotton, where is it, beautiful t-shirt, all made in the U.S. Drive the liberals crazy. Freedom Matters.

Gutfeld next.

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