Laura Ingraham: Conservative speech under threat
Could Facebook outrage from the left just be a clever way to rev up the speech police against alternative points of view ahead of the election - all under the guise of protecting the children?
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," October 5, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: I'm Laura Ingraham. This is THE INGRAHAM ANGLE from Washington tonight. We have a huge show for you. We're going to get right to it, including breaking new details on Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller. That marine jailed for daring to call out his leaders. His attorney joins us exclusively. He'll tell us what's up. But first, the Zuckerberg trap. That's the focus of tonight's angle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANCES HAUGEN, FACEBOOK WHISTLEBLOWER: Facebook's internal research is aware that there are a variety of problems facing children on Instagram. They know that severe harm is happening to children. Kids who are bullied on Instagram. The bullying follows them home. It follows them into their bedrooms. Facebook's own research is aware that children's express feelings of loneliness and struggling with these things. I don't understand how Facebook can know all these things and not escalate it to someone like Congress for help and support in navigating these problems.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Appearing on 60 Minutes and in the hearings on the Hill. Well, former Facebook employee Frances Haugen claim that the social media giant was knowingly hurting kids through its algorithms and posted content. Now what's worse, she alleged the company knew about it and chose to do nothing to stop it. Now all of a sudden, the beast first conceived at Harvard by Boy Wonder Mark Zuckerberg was getting hit by a bipartisan onslaught of outrage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We know from what we have learned from her that this is helping us build bipartisan support.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Facebook has put profits ahead of people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My message for Mark Zuckerberg, your time of invading privacy, promoting toxic content and preying on children and teens is over.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: There's no one else think the timing of this is just a little too convenient. Biden's on the ropes and the Democrats are barreling toward a brutal beat down in the midterms. Could this just be a clever way to rev up the speech police against alternative points of view ahead of the election, all under the guise of protecting the children?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): The Reconciliation Bill was a combination of my service in Congress because it was about the children, the children, the children, the children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: They love saying the children. Well, let's begin with one basic fact. The Left doesn't care if the culture or big business spreads content that's not appropriate for children, they never have. They literally do not care. In fact, for decades, liberals have defended even celebrated cultural and political forces that harm children. Porn, drugs, gambling, gender bending, school shutdowns, mask mandates, and of course, their holy grail of abortion. Democrats support all of it.
Now some on the Left would prefer if we didn't even have children. A New York Magazine columnist named Emily Holloman (ph), recently called the decision to have children an essentially selfish one done for fulfillment or self-betterment or boredom or peer pressure. We should pray for her because she knows not what she says.
But the point is, after all they've done to damage our children and steal their innocence. We're supposed to trust them on the Facebook and Instagram issue. Color me (ph) skeptical. We've known for many years that parents should keep their kids off smartphones for as long as possible. We need to put our own phones down, myself included and do the hard job of parenting in this very messed up world.
Conservative parents have led the charge on these issues for as long as I can remember. But now suddenly, people like Far Left Senator Ed Markey agrees with staunch Republican Marsha Blackburn. And we're supposed to think that he's trustworthy. Not so fast.
The fact is Republicans may be walking straight into a trap. The Left's real beef with Facebook has nothing to do with the children. The kids are on TikTok, aren't they? The Left doesn't like Facebook, because Facebook has refused to suppress all conservative speech. That's it. The Left has decided to drive conservatives off of the Internet, and they're afraid Facebook won't be sufficiently loyal to their plans.
They actually got away with banning the former president of the United States. And that's not enough power for the Democrats. They're that afraid of voters and free speech. Think about that for a minute. Now this is why globalist don't mind China being in-charge frankly, because if they could, some of these really hardlined Democrats would ban all dissenting opinions on social media. And just like China, they probably call it something like a threat to the social order or a threat to security or threat to overall community or harmony.
Now this all makes sense if your goal is to maintain power by any means necessary, and let's face it, that's all they care about. Facebook could promote live sex acts and how to hunt a Christian instructionals. And the Left would take their side, but because there's still some conservatives on Facebook, some conservatives, the Left wants to shut it down. Democrats have seized upon the current Facebook scandal as an opportunity to silence conservatives for good.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): You know that the insurrection occurred January 6th, do you think that Facebook turned off the safeguards because they weren't costing the company money,
HAUGEN: Facebook changed those safety defaults in the run up to the election because they knew they were dangerous. And because they wanted that growth back. They wanted the acceleration on the platform back after the election, they returned to their original defaults. And the fact that they had to break the glass on January 6th, and turn them back on. I think that's deeply problematic.
KLOBUCHAR: Agree.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: If Democrats had a super majority, they wouldn't work with Republicans at all on these issues, they just pass maybe legislation that has the effect of silencing all dissenting speech. It would be directed broadly across all media and online platforms, but cloaked in terms again, of protecting national security, or their new favorite preventing domestic terrorism.
They would pack the courts to approve that legislation and your freedom of speech or freedom that generations of Americans have fought to preserve would be gone. That's the real goal. A land where we're silenced, and theirs are the only voices heard. But they're willing to get their - they'd take a little bit of time to get there. So, they'll use the bipartisan dust kicked up by one whistleblower as another nudge toward government control of political speech.
Although they dispute the whistleblower's claims, Facebook responded by inviting government regulation, saying we need to create standard rules for the Internet, it's time for Congress to act. Kind of makes perfect sense. Remember, Zuckerberg himself was heavily and personally coordinating with liberal activists and poured hundreds of millions of dollars into local election offices in places like Pennsylvania. And after Zuckerberg was mercilessly scorned by the Left for not silencing Trump in 2016, he kind of tried to make it up to his political comrades by keeping Trump's reach limited.
Prediction, this is not going to end well for conservatives who want to challenge the Left. Now how do I know this? Look who's licking their chops at the prospect of Facebook regulation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Facebook ought to be seriously regulated. It is a new source for a vast part of our country today, if it continues the way it continues, we're going to have January 6th, multiple, multiple times.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It allows lies to be spread unchecked, just like the big lie was spread around the world, in large part because of social media. And none of it is true. We should not allow those things in our society.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: I do like the sweater though. And what about the whistleblower herself? Who is she? What's her motivation for coming forward?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She says she agreed to take the job only if she could work against misinformation. But after this past election, there was a turning point.
HAUGEN: They told us; we're dissolving civic integrity. Like they basically said, good, we made it through the election, there wasn't riots. Fast forward a couple of months, we got the insurrection. And when they got rid of civic integrity, it was the moment where I was like, I don't trust that they're willing to actually invest what needs to be invested to keep Facebook from being dangerous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: The woman's a total ideolog sorry, those comments made my Spidey senses activated. Republicans ought to be very, very careful about how to proceed here. The Left can't be trusted on this issue, and the GOP may end up building a trap that will block conservative speech for years to come. Just look what the Biden's Justice Department is already doing to intimidate parents. We talked about this last night from attending school board meetings and expressing their outrage at the propaganda being taught in public schools.
Remember, when Biden told us that the Justice Department would be independent, what a joke that is. These days the DOJ is just another branch of the DNC. Because the liberal weaklings at the National School Board Association don't want to face criticism for their horrible policies. They're calling on the DOJ to criminalize their political opposition. The only speech they really want to protect is when you nod in agreement with every school decision these petty bureaucrats make.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): You're using the FBI to intervene in school board meetings. Tell me where the line is, with parents expressing their concerns, waiting for hours.
LISA MONACO, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: When and if a situation turns to violence, it's the job of the Justice Department and local law enforcement to address that. The Attorney General's memorandum simply ask the FBI and their counterparts to ensure that state and local law enforcement has an open line of communication to report threats.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: There's so much nonsense in her statement. I don't know where to begin. The FBI exists to investigate whether parents getting mad at a school board meeting rises to the level of intimidation or harassment. That's now a federal matter. Think about all the threats facing America from transnational criminal syndicates, CCP cybercrimes, and open borders and the FBI has time to zero in on what like a 45 year old mom complaining about her son's sophomore English reading list.
The only ones guilty of intimidation here are sitting behind the big desks at the DOJ. Just thank God that Mitch McConnell and thank God for him that Merrick Garland isn't sitting on the Supreme Court today. And by the way, we just learned tonight that the Defense Department is about to turn the screws on its own ranks, subjecting them to continuous vetting, supposedly to stop extremists within the military and other insider threats. And this will include surveillance of social media postings for starters.
We warned you last year that the Left has changed since the days of Clinton and Obama as the pain of their policy sinks in. They've just given up altogether trying to win rhetorically, the voters over, they're not going to do that kind of do that anymore. It's impossible. So, in their desperation, they now believe forced compliance is the only way to go. And the silencing of conservatives is the only way forward. God help any Republican who would assist them. And that's the angle.
Joining me now Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson and California Congressman Devin Nunes. Congressman Nunes, let's start with you, what we're seeing right now, do you see a possible bait and switch being pulled on the Republicans here?
REP. DEVIN NUNES (R-CA): Well, I do because you've kind of stated in your opening, but mostly on Facebook. It's folks that are older, you don't see a lot of kids on Facebook, Instagram, it's kind of the age between 20 to 50 that are on Instagram. There are some teenagers on Instagram. But the big Boogeyman here that nobody's talking about is TikTok, TikTok is where all the kids are, all the little kids and there's no regulation there.
So, I think Republicans should be very careful here. If anything, we ought to be investigating Zuckerberg for the $350 million that he invested into so-called nonprofit groups that got involved in our election. And I think that's where the focus should be. That's what every single member of Congress should be asking on an everyday basis, not fall into some trap of figuring out some scam where we're going to have a bureaucracy of people that are going to just do good things, which is i.e., means going to censor conservatives.
INGRAHAM: And Democrats, Senator Johnson aren't just looking to use social media to silence political dissent, but also scientific dissent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KLOBUCHAR: Last week, YouTube announced it was swiftly banning all anti- vaccine, misinformation. And I've long called on Facebook to take similar steps. We know the effect of this. We know that over half of the people that haven't gotten the vaccines is because of something that they've seen on social media.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Senator Johnson, you are actually blocked yourself from YouTube. What do people have to understand about what's at stake here?
SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): Well, first of all, I completely agree with your assessment. The Left by and large likes media and social media as they are, what they're trying to do is stomp out the last little tidbit of conservative thought that says sneaking through Facebook, and so, we shouldn't fall for it. Mark Zuckerberg as Devin Nunes was talking about, the financing of elections. He pretty well took over the election system in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and had a great deal of influence in four or five other Democrat counties.
So, he obviously is not to try and support free speech. I do agree that he's primarily about making money. And he's craven in terms of how he's willing to do it. But that starts with problem control. And quite honestly, the best pushback is going to be the free market solutions, the competitors to Facebook, but I've never felt there's really a legislative solution because the Democrats like the status quo. They're not going to cooperate with Republicans to really rein in the social media companies because I've never - what liberal misinformation has ever been labeled misinformation by Facebook.
INGRAHAM: Never.
JOHNSON: What they did do by the way is they actually shut down Facebook groups of the vaccine injured so that people lost touch with members of these groups that were suicidal they can no longer counsel. That's what Facebook did in terms of censorship of, I guess, conservative thought. You can't mention the vaccine injuries that we're all aware of.
INGRAHAM: And Facebook's Zuckerberg posted a statement tonight right before the show in response to the hearing. It's very long winded, but it says, in part, similar to balancing other social issues, I don't believe private companies should make all the decisions on their own. That's why we've advocated for updated Internet regs, for several years now. I've written op eds outlining the areas of regulation, we think are most important, related to elections, harmful content, privacy and competition.
Congressman Nunes, does he actually think there's going to be a law written about what you can post regarding an election. Is that what he's getting at.
NUNES: No, what's going on there is he had about 72 lawyers and all of his political people who said, look, this is the place you need to land, we need to land here to say that we're for something and look, you would need 60 votes in the senate to actually pass a law, number one.
Number two, of course, Biden in his regime would love to write the rules. And of course, Zuckerberg would welcome it, because if you have the Attorney General Merrick Garland, drafting the rules, it's got to be perfect for Zuckerberg and Twitter and Google and all of them. So, it's really where they're trying to take us to.
INGRAHAM: Senator Johnson very quickly on this DOD announcement tonight that there will be continual surveillance of social media posts. And that I promise you is just the start of what they're going to do with our troops and other DOD officials, staffers. Real quick, your take on that new development?
JOHNSON: I think we need to be very concerned that our generals are now more concerned with wokeness than they are military readiness, and I think they're purging the military. They're trying to get rid of any conservative. The military, particularly in the higher ranks.
INGRAHAM: It's part of the purge. Isn't it part of the purge here?
JOHNSON: Precisely and that should concern every American.
INGRAHAM: Gentleman, so great to have you both on tonight. Thank you. And the Left really wants you to believe that its motives regarding Facebook are beyond reproach. That's why they're comparing the current effort to taking down insidious industries, like big tobacco, but MSNBC today, let it slip, why this comparison should set off some alarm bells.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The comparisons being made to big tobacco, Big Pharma, others are saying it's actually even more than just what big tobacco went through in the sense that Facebook not only does harm to the people consuming it, but those that are consuming it, then go out and do harm to the greater society, whether it's disinformation on COVID, or the violence that we saw on January 6th.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Joining me now Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover Institution Senior Fellow, author of the fab new book, The Dying Citizen. And it just came out and you were on my podcast for a whole hour, Victor. It was so great to talk to you for a long period of time. But look, you see right through this, with this noble pursuit of the Democrats, suddenly they care about the kids. Victor, what's really happening here, the carcinogen of the conservative thought,
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, HOOVER INSTITUTION SENIOR FELLOW: Well, two things, I think. One is, as Joe Biden drops in popularity, and as every one of the issues of their agenda become more unpopular, they're going to try to increase and weaponize the federal government. And that's just because they don't have popular support. And we're already seeing it.
When you talk about Facebook, and use for improper purposes, we had 120 continuous days of riot, of arson and looting in all of those congregations, violating quarantines, violating mass, burning down stores, attacking federal property. They were coordinated on social media. Now one person on the Left said wow, we've got to stop this. It was injuries or when Chuck Schumer goes outside the Supreme Court and really threatens the justice, you will pay Justice Gorsuch, you will pay - that was - all of those things are so coordinated on social media, nobody said a word.
And the same thing is when we see - saw Jeff Flake swarmed by people in an elevator during the Kavanaugh hearings or even posting that atrocious video of Senator Sinema in a bathroom being confronted by--
INGRAHAM: But what do they want to get at. Victor, make it make it clear to our viewers. You wrote a whole book about the dying citizens.
HANSON: Yes.
INGRAHAM: Are there tactics, the tactics of what we have had understood to be an American citizen interested in an exchange of ideas?
HANSON: No, because when they have empowered middle class citizens that are informed and believe in borders, and they believe that tribalism is secondary to their identity, and they're in control, they're not controlled by, but they're in control of their administrative state. They don't win because you have a lot of enlightened inductive thinking citizens autonomous and they don't trust those people because they have this top down utopian agenda that they think there's some type of platonic guardians and they're going to tell us the stupid people you have to do this about quarantine, you do this of vaccination.
If you have COVID and you have antibodies, that doesn't matter. And they don't want an empowered citizenry. And they've done their best either through demographic change and open borders, or from trying to dismantle things like the filibuster or the electoral college or the nine person Supreme Court.
INGRAHAM: Are you surprised Victor about how obvious their tactics have become. I mean it's pretty obvious and even if you're a casual observer of politics, what this Facebook thing was really all about today. I didn't buy that woman, I'm sorry, my antenna went off about that I'm sure she's - whatever - maybe some of its true, maybe some it's not, but these people don't care about the kid's innocence or protecting the kid's innocence. If they did, they wouldn't have an open border and be pushing protections for the porn industry and mainlining pot, other drugs across the country.
HANSON: The only thing - Laura, the only thing that surprised me is how naive Mark Zuckerberg is, I think after he's infused maybe $500 million. And he thought that would be enough or he tried to put Parler out of business along with that consortium of social media. Or he banned Donald Trump, but not the Taliban from social media.
INGRAHAM: Not good enough.
HANSON: That was not good enough. He does not understand the mind of the Left. You're never going to satisfy them unless you give complete fealty and obsequiousness and he doesn't understand that and the more that he compromises with the Left, the more that they want more from him.
INGRAHAM: Well, Victor, he did a pretty good job when he went over there to China. Remember, he jogged in those short shorts, he did that speaking Mandarin. He tried to do it pretty well over there. Victor, congrats on the book, The Dying Citizen. It's fantastic.
HANSON: Thank you, Laura.
INGRAHAM: Joe Biden claims that his plan to explode the federal budget is all about just reversing American decline. Newt Gingrich has that. Plus, Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller may be out of the brig, but he's not out of legal trouble. His attorney joins us exclusively in moments to discuss what's next, don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These bills are not about Left versus Right. These bills are about competitiveness versus complacency. They're about opportunity versus decay to support these investments is to create a rising America, America's movie to pose these investments is to be complicit in America's decline.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Well, that was Joe Biden desperately pitching this multi-trillion dollar boondoggle to unions in Michigan today. But of course, the truth is, few have done more to facilitate America's decline than Joe Biden himself.
Remember, he voted to normalize trade relations with China and he supported its entry into the WTO. That costs us millions of jobs. For some Republicans, a lot of them supported it too. But now Joe wants to cause more misery for all working Americans by taxing and spending our economy into oblivion. What's even more worrisome is that Manchin seems to be cracking. We've predicted this. I knew it would happen.
Today, he opened the door to $2.2 trillion in spending. What happened at 1.5? Joining me now, Newt Gingrich, Fox News Contributor, former Speaker of the House, also the author of the upcoming book, Beyond Biden, Rebuilding the America We Love.
Newt, I always knew Manchin was going to be a soft touch here. I mean, they showed up on those kayaks around his yacht, and he just completely melted. Is there any room for - is there any room for hope here that this will blow up?
NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Well, I think it partly depends on whether or not the really committed big government socialists put their foot down. Depending on how they design the bill, can they really get what the Left wants at 2.2 billion or whatever it is? I recently wrote a newsletter and said, there are no moderates here. There's a choice between the timid big government socialists and the bold big government socialists, and then Manchin turns right around and proves what I was saying.
There's no reason for him to be for $2.2 trillion. I think. I saw a number this morning, that Joe Biden is at 18 percent approval in West Virginia. That means that the people that Manchin represents have like a five to one opposition.
INGRAHAM: That's ridiculous.
GINGRICH: To Biden. The whole thing is, it tells you that the Washington power structure is desperate to get all of this done before the Republicans take over, as they almost certainly are going to in the next election. And I don't know yet how it's all going to come out. We don't know what Sinema will do. Does being - having people come into the ladies' room and stand outside your stall while you're going to the bathroom. Does that intimidate her?
INGRAHAM: This is your party.
GINGRICH: Or does it infuriate her?
INGRAHAM: That's your party. I want to play something that Biden said today I think, again, to try to reframe what they're trying to push through, Newt, into something more palatable. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My infrastructure bill will put Americans to work and long overdue national environmental cleanup. I want a job corps just like Roosevelt had a job corps, but an environmental job corps of over 160,000 -- excuse me, 1.6 million people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Whatever, 160,000, 1.6 million, that's an honest mistake. But this is a new job corps, Newt.
GINGRICH: First of all, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in the middle of the Great Depression. There were millions and millions of Americans who wanted to work but couldn't find a job. We're now in a period where every time you turn around, businesses will tell they can't find workers. We have a huge logjam of shipments coming into the U.S. because they aren't enough truck drivers.
So in the middle of this labor shortage, what Joe Biden wants to do is go out and another 1.6 million, assuming that is the right number, whatever his staff told him, another 1.6 million and put them on a government payroll doing something when they are not in the private sector doing jobs that already exist.
This is just one more example of the kind of madness that we are dealing with in an administration that can't control inflation, can't control inflation, can't produce energy. You watch, they're going to have a massive Christmas when all these toys and all that these people want are still stuck on ships sitting off the coast of California because they can't unload them. And Biden is going to blissfully go around --
INGRAHAM: Remember the island. Remember the island --
GINGRICH: This is truly madness.
INGRAHAM: There's the island of misfit toys, Newt. This will be the tankers of misfit toys. They won't be able to leave the tankers.
GINGRICH: That's right.
INGRAHAM: Newt, we keep hearing that this is really going to make the rich pay their fair share and they're going to be subject to all these new regulations and edicts. But then it looks like they are going to surveil people's bank accounts if they are larger than $600. So they want to see every penny that Americans spend of their own hard-earned money. Getting their tax rate is not enough. They want total surveillance and control. Quick thought.
GINGRICH: It's exactly what you said earlier. big government socialists have to check out what you do at the school board, check out what you do in the military, now they want to check on into your wallet. These people want total control over your life so they can decide, so they have the power. If you like bureaucrats running your life, you have found a party that is eager to do that.
INGRAHAM: Manchin and Sinema save yourselves and the country before it's too late. Newt, thank you.
And we've been demanding that Lieutenant Colonel Scheller be released from the brig, and today, we have new details of where he is right now. His attorney joins us exclusively. Stay there.
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STUART SCHELLER, SR., FATHER OF LT. COL. STUART SCHELLER: They left hundreds of Americans in Afghanistan, or they're leaving our son tonight in prison. And that's not OK with us, and I challenge the American people, is that OK with you? He asked for accountability. He spoke his truth, and they couldn't handle it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: That was one week ago tonight when we last spoke with the parents of Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller. He was tossed into the brig for demanding accountability from our failing military leaders. Tonight, we are happy to report he has been released after this show's focus and others on this story. Scheller is no longer in solitary confinement.
Joining me now exclusively is Tony Buzbee, attorney for Colonel Scheller. Tony, where does the case stand right now?
TONY BUZBEE, ATTORNEY FOR LT. COL. STUART SCHELLER: Right now he's, of course, as you've said, been released. He is with his family. He faces a court-martial, and that might happen as early as next Friday. We're not sure. And we will have to have a hearing, and hopefully it will be a public hearing because I think it should be public. And he still remains subject to this gag order, which I would submit is illegal, and that's what put him in the brig in the first place.
So I think it's important to remember why he went to the brig in the first place. He spoke out, as we saw, and he said that many service members, both former like myself and current service members believe, which was the withdrawal from Afghanistan was completely botched, and no one took accountability. You have the general staff, the high brass, basically trying to pass the buck.
And so he spoke out. He offered to resign, as you know. They refused to let him resign honorably, even though he spent 17 years of his life in the marine corps as a marine corps infantry officer. Here's a guy now that has lost his command, his job, his health care, and his pension. We are talking about more than $2.5 million dollars of retirement that he is essentially going to have to walk away from him.
INGRAHAM: Tony, Tony, just so people understand this, he still has not been told what he was charged with, is that possibly correct?
BUZBEE: There's been, of course, some accusations bandied about, but as far as formal charges, I guess we will see for sure whenever we have a hearing. But I think it's important --
INGRAHAM: So the answer is no, he has not been formally charged, correct?
BUZBEE: Formally charged, that's correct. And so that's where it is right now.
INGRAHAM: What's his state of mind tonight?
BUZBEE: He is very happy, of course, to be back with his family. One thing when I spoke to him this afternoon he noted was that he was in the brig, of course, in a safe place, of course not with his family, but he is reminded that there are many military families who have it a lot worse than him, including the 13 families who suffered on that fateful day there in Afghanistan. So that's the reason he spoke out. His message still rings true, and he has done what a real marine does. And he hopes that somebody, somewhere within the military constabulary will take accountability. So far, he's the one who's been held accountable, and it's just not right.
INGRAHAM: Now, was he, as it was reported, was he in solitary confinement, and was that done for, supposedly, his own safety?
BUZBEE: It's really funny when they talk about the uniform code of military justice. It's not very uniform. There's not a lot of justice involved. He was alone of course. I will say this -- a lot of the brig staff treated him very well, the other marines who were supposedly guarding him. He was considered to be a, quote, flight risk, which is ridiculous on its face.
INGRAHAM: What?
BUZBEE: Yes, and so this is the state of affairs as they are now. Once you hurt the general's feelings, of course, they are punitive, and that's where it is. Hopefully we can get this all behind us next Friday if there is a hearing next Friday. And I would also say this. He has been released awaiting this court-martial. The secretary of the Navy right now could release him from the Marine Corps without going through a court-martial and let him be honorably discharged and go about his business. He still loses his command. He still loses his job. He still loses his retirement. But at least he is returned to his family and goes about his business. And that's what should happen.
INGRAHAM: But Tony, do you believe they want to make an example out of him, given all the suppression of speech? And the military is different, you are subjected to different types of restrictions of what you can say, and even the parents acknowledged that last week with me. So he is under other restrictions. However, you get the sense that they are using him to tell the other troops don't even think about saying anything like this.
BUZBEE: That's certainly what it seems like, make an example. You speak, this is what happens to you. And look, this man is an honorable marine. He took responsibility for what he said. He offered to resign. But they wouldn't allow him to do that, and that's where we are now.
INGRAHAM: Tony, I hope you will come back next week. Please give our best regards to Lieutenant Colonel Scheller. We wish him the very best and we hope that he comes back, he will come on the show as well. But Tony, thank you.
And a student at UCLA had his enrollment threatened after he refused to disclose his vac status. What makes this more absurd? Well, his classes are all online. He joins us next.
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INGRAHAM: They want you to think that blind submission to COVID rules no matter how insane is the new normal, including on and off college campuses. Just ask my next guest, UCLA student Christian Walker, who says his enrollment was threatened for not disclosing his vac status.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTIAN WALKER, UCLA SENIOR: You are calling to tell me you will drop my classes after we've already paid $70,000 for the year if I don't upload something about my vaccine status when all of my classes are online.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct.
WALKER: Got it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: I love the "got it." That's right, all of his classes are online. In order to stay enrolled, he says that UCLA forced him to sign kind of an Orwellian confession stating "I certify that I have been informed of the risks of COVID-19 infection including long-term disability and death both for myself and others who I may expose the disease." I think it's "whom" I may expose to the disease, but it's just UCLA. I guess grammar, you can't say that anymore.
Joining me now, Christian Walker, UCLA student, son of football legend Herschel Walker. Christian, good to see you tonight. First of all, you crack me up. Your video cracked me up. I just laughed out loud because it was just so dramatic. I loved it. They made you sign this confessional statement, it's kind of a waiver of liability. But what's going on out there?
WALKER: Laura, it's absolutely ridiculous. Yesterday, I received a call, as you heard, from the university. All of my classes are online, I don't step foot onto the campus, and they told me all of my already paid for classes would be dropped if I didn't disclose my vaccination status. I do all of my classes from my living room. I then received a message from the health center telling me that I would be subject to financial and other consequences if I didn't tell them, such is being reported to the student conduct office for disciplinary action. This makes no sense, and it's none of the university's business what my health decisions are since I'm not even going onto the campus.
INGRAHAM: So are you not able to actually go into classrooms because you haven't given them your vac status, or is everybody online out there?
WALKER: Actually, it just so happens all of my classes, one of my majors is Chinese, are online. Some people are on campus, but all of mine are online, so it shouldn't matter whether I got the vaccine or not.
INGRAHAM: What is the reaction? I know you have a lot of pals at UCLA, obviously. What is their reaction? I know it's a liberal place, but I've spent some time at UCLA. Obviously, it's a great school. At some point, does the student body say enough is enough? We all have to just move on at this point?
WALKER: No, They're actually cheering this on. They scream at me online, cuss me out that I should just disclose my vaccination status even though I'm not even going onto the campus. They love the mandates, and even though most of them are vaccinated, they are also forced and encouraging everyone to wear a mask in class and while walking outside to different classes. It's complete derangement.
INGRAHAM: Christian, I see them on their electric bikes sometimes when I'm out there on campus, and their scooters. Are they double masking on the scooters and the RipStiks and all the other very adult modes of transportation they use?
WALKER: I wouldn't be surprised if they were triple masking. It seems the more masks, the safer they feel even with their good old vaccination.
INGRAHAM: So what's next for you on campus? Will you not be able to go to in-person classes and less submit further?
WALKER: I believe the rule is that you have to tell them your status, and if you have the vaccine you have to wear a mask. If you don't have it, you have to wear a mask and you also have to get COVID tested once per week. So I'm just praying I don't have to go deal with the on-campus drama since most of the students have very ill feelings towards me because I'm a conservative.
INGRAHAM: Christian, that's the way to be the real rebel on campus these days, be a conservative on a college campus, have guts to speak your mind. Christian, we'll be following it, thanks so much.
And up next, the Last Bite, Biden bumbles in Michigan, it can't be true.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Do we get extra credit for understanding Biden-ology?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When you build majority stations like back in the day when my grandpop worked for an American oil company back in the turn of the -- in 1920, in that area. They went from state to state convincing people that they put -- a lot of them put 20,000 gallons of gasoline under the ground. They didn't want them around.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: We are going to need scholars to translate that. Gutfeld next.
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