Ingraham on rising crime in US cities, critical race theory
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," June 22, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
INGRAHAM: And I'll see you tomorrow. All right. I'm Laura Ingraham. This is THE INGRAHAM ANGLE from Washington.
Now, as I just mentioned, this dramatic scene playing out Loudoun County, Virginia, tonight, hundreds of parents stood up against the divisive teachings in this critical race theory craziness we live in. And after the school board abruptly just ended the meeting, many who came to speak, they just said we're not leaving. They continued sharing their comments, some through a megaphone without the board present.
Well, this situation got heated after a man resisted arrest after several armed police officers dragged him out of the room. It was all declared an unlawful assembly. China style. And everyone was ordered to leave. In the end, at least two people were arrested. And so why was this declared unlawful in the first place? Huh?
We're going to speak to two parents from Loudon County, one of whom was almost arrested herself. She'll be here in just a few moments. But first, the pro crime party. That's the focus of tonight's ANGLE.
Now, by all accounts, Brisson Christian was an amazing kid. He loved Oreo cookies and SpongeBob SquarePants. His dad said that the two-year-old was the kind of person who could just light up a room. Well, tragically that light went out just days ago when Bryson and his nine-year-old brother BJ were shot on a Detroit interstate. And it happened as their family was driving home from baseball practice. Now BJ survived. Brisson was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Less than 12 hours after that, on Detroit's West Side, another burst of violence. An 11-year-old boy and his father were seriously wounded after their car was sprayed with bullets. Then roughly, I don't know, about 530 miles or so away in Baltimore, just yesterday, a man was shot multiple times in the head in broad daylight. Now, that was charm city's second murder that day. Hours earlier, a man was stabbed to death.
In St. Louis, it was a deadly Father's Day weekend and things didn't let up last night with seven shot and three dead in just one neighborhood incident. But that's ok, because I'm sure residents there are comforted by Mayor Tishaura Jones who tweeted, "After decades of neglect, I'm committed to reinvesting in North City to address root causes of crime. More resources make our communities safer." She did thoughts and prayers as well.
Root causes, more resources? Doesn't that sound like Kamala Harris's the answer on the border crisis. Of course, the truth is, these progressive mayors, these socialist mayors are themselves drivers of crime. From defund the police, to eliminating cash bail, to emptying our prisons, the policies they've advocated have made urban areas unlivable, violent cesspools.
And of course, now that crime is skyrocketing because of their policies, they're blaming the very group they once attacked for being too hard on criminals.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: This rising crime is not the fault of the movement. It's actually the fault of the police. And this has been our point all along. Why should we keep funding systems and institutions that keep rendering themselves ineffective?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: After over a year of attacks by Black Lives Matter and Democrats like her and Ilhan Omar, police departments across the country, they're in crisis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Morale I think is at an all time now.
DARYL TURNER, PORTLAND POLICE ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: We're dealing with rioting at a level and sustained violence that we've never seen before. We're looking at the most catastrophic staffing levels we've ever seen before.
GABE GUTIERREZ, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Several cities have faced calls to defund the police. Others have slashed budgets due to COVID. More and more officers say, they feel villainized like never before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've reached a breaking point.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It all boils down to these three main concepts of being underfunded, understaffed and under supported.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: That was on MSNBC. But remember, this is exactly what liberals have always wanted. To me, it was obvious since my first criminal procedure class in law school that most Democrats simply don't really see violent crime as a law and order problem at all. They think crime is committed by people who are misunderstood and oppressed, not by people who are threat. But if you're an evangelical Christian who owns a firearm and flies the American flag, you're definitely a threat.
The fact is, crime is rampant because today's Democrats refuse to do what we know works. Remember, back in the 90s, when crime was ravaging inner cities, there was a bipartisan agreement that the safer streets that we wanted required strong policing and tough sentencing. Today's Democrats are ashamed of that crime bill that Bill Clinton signed, and Joe Biden helped draft.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEXANDRA ROJAS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, JUSTICE DEMOCRATS: It's not just Mayor Pete, but Kamala Harris also came out in strong opposition of Joe Biden's architecture of the 1994 crime bill.
JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Crime is a giant issue as Joe Biden tries to navigate the then and now of democratic politics.
AL SHARPTON, MSNBC HOST: How does he structure his justice department if he's president that will give comfort to many people of communities that were disproportionately impacted by the crime bill?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Where was reverend Al in Baltimore today with all this hell breaking loose? Well, today's Democrat mayors are so dishonest, they're actually pretending that there are no solutions to the crime problem.
This is the Washington Post, "Mayors see few options for regaining control. Increased killings may be here to stay." OK. First of all, that's just a blatant lie. And it's a total setup for Biden's anti-gun push and the Democrats' general push to try to nationalize policing standards in the United States.
And of course, we don't have a crime problem because of bad cops or because of COVID, or because of too many guns. We have a crime problem because Democrats only care about black lives lost to violence when the trigger is pulled by a police officer. Then they exploit those tragedies to gain political power. But what happened in Baltimore and Detroit, St. Louis over the weekend, that doesn't fit their narrative. In fact, Democrats know their policies are going to lead to more black and brown lives lost. And newsflash, they just don't care.
Closing the border, stopping drug cartels would stop crime. Democrats don't care. Supporting [ph] DA's who get tough on thugs and gangbangers, that would stop crime. But Democrats don't care. Prosecuting violence and looting, like we saw in Portland and Seattle over the past year, that would stop crime. Democrats don't care.
Devoting federal resources to stop deadly fentanyl in the same way that they chased down powerless, ridiculous, ostracized white supremacists, that would stop crime. But Democrats don't care. And neither do the media by the way, because if they did, they would spend more time with the victims of inner city crime, and they'd highlight what works to stop the violence. Instead, they aim to inflame.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The more you kind of dive into that, the more I'm really realizing how deeply rooted racism is until like my everyday thought process.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A living embody anti-racist culture does not exist among white people. White people have got to start getting together, specifically around race.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: White accountability groups are really helpful.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a period of deep shame for being white.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Their shame directed all right at the Washington Post. It was just disgusting. But every once in a while a local reporter speaks to a real person who is just trying to survive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel trapped. And eventually, I got arthritis in the spine, I'm supposed to be out every 15 minutes four times a day to walk. And I can't do it because I'm scared. Some day I'm tired of it. I'm going to tell you like this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your message to the mayor and the commission?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to get this (bleep) together. I mean, you just got to do something. It's not fair.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: The left knows it's not fair to the people of Baltimore, St. Louis, all across this country who are suffering in the inner cities. In fact, getting to think that's all part of the plan, though, for the Democrats, because they're willing to accept that old woman's suffering, even the deaths of toddlers like Brisson Christian. If it means keeping minority communities dependent and scared, there are many, many good people in these crime infested cities. And they see full well that rich white liberals don't give a you-know-what about them.
Rich lefties care about things like legalizing pot and transgenderism and abortion on demand. They don't care about black lives in the inner city. Americans don't have to live like this. No one in America should have to live like, should have to fear walking the streets of their own neighborhood. No one in America should worry about whether the kids are going to come home at night. And no one in America should be stuck inside because they don't feel safe on their own streets.
Voters across the country trapped in these unfair cities, abandoned by their elected officials. They have to rise up and join our movement. We know how to make the streets safe again, we know how to build good schools, we know how to create more jobs. We're doing it all over the country. These policies work. They work in Florida, and Texas, and Tennessee, and South Dakota and beyond. And they'll work in Detroit. They'll work in Baltimore, they'll work in St. Louis, they'll work in New York City and Hartford. All over the country. Anywhere else they're tried.
So let's send the left and the criminals packing. And let's make sure we have safe, great American cities again. And that's THE ANGLE.
Joining me now, John Turnipseed, former gang member, author of "Bloodline", and Executive Vice President of Urban Ventures that supports youth and families and one of Minneapolis' most under resourced neighborhoods.
John, how much is police racism sprung the crime wave across the country, if at all?
JOHN TURNIPSEED, URBAN VENTURES EXECUTIVE VP: Police racism? I don't quite understand that.
INGRAHAM: That's the narrative, that's the narrative, John. Obviously, that the left is selling, that if we just didn't have racist police officers, if we didn't have this proclivity to put people in jail and mass incarceration, we wouldn't have so many angry people on the streets.
TURNIPSEED: Well, you know, first off, I tell people that white people don't own racism. There's blackneck, rednecks, brown necks, yellow necks and stuff. We all act the same, only one of them is - has a little bit more power than the other. Don't defund the police in my community. Don't do that. If you want to do it in yours, go ahead and do that, because we need them. And so we just need to do better. The Police officers just need to do better.
Right now, mental health is at an all-time high. Domestic violence - in my heyday, I used to be a gangster. I would have had a field day right now, because the public has backed the police elf into a corner. I can do whatever I want and stuff and I'm going to get 100 people coming to my rescue even if I get caught. So right now, it's just an unhealthy situation for our community and an unhealthy situation for the police, because they can't do their job.
Now I - there's some police that shouldn't be on the police force, just like all black men are not gangsters. Oh, people with long hair are not hippies. There's a problem and only communities can solve it with the help of the police. If the police ever get the help from the community, we'd almost have zero crime, because we know who's doing the problems.
INGRAHAM: I had a chance to speak to a lot of police officers in Minneapolis a couple months ago when I was there. And gosh, it was both really inspiring, John, and really sad. Because there were so many who didn't want to retire. They love their job up until the last year or so. Then they said like, we can't even go into certain areas and know that we're definitely going to come out in one piece, because there's so much animosity toward the police there.
TURNIPSEED: Yes.
INGRAHAM: So much animosity. And they said, we really can't do our job the way we want to do our job, which is fairly and carefully, and to instill a sense of purpose, in the communities that are really hard hit. I felt terrible for them.
TURNIPSEED: Well, absolutely, like I said, they're backed off into a corner, and the public is keeping them there. But if you talk to black people, or minority people in those troubled areas that are getting shot, we want the police. OK. The police have saved my life a couple of times. We want the police and stuff. We just want them to maybe - the bad police officers, which is probably only two or 3 percent. We just want the good police officers to correct them, so that we can have safety in my community and stuff. I want the police here.
INGRAHAM: So what do you think about these politicians and they're mostly Democrats, obviously, who are pushing for defunding the police, reimagining the police, turning it into like a community response kind of team with just mostly de escalation and very little in the way of, sort of, aggressive response to crime. How is that going to affect the area around East Lake Street and south?
TURNIPSEED: Well, I'm going to tell you. If you don't have the police there, de escalation does not really work that well. In my day, de escalation didn't work at all, unless there were police there. When I've seen a police come, I calm down actually. A regular citizen, we might hurt them. So, the police serve an important role in our community.
And, yes, we need to do community policing, to help the police. That's what that community policing should be about, to help the police do their job and to help to keep the community safe. If crime doesn't happen in communities, it won't allow it. OK. If we said we're not going to allow crime in our community, it wouldn't happen. And then the things that are happening now wouldn't be happening.
So whoever came up with defund the police, they must feel safe. And what I say the people that say defund the police, I say, you defund your own police, just don't call them. I'm going to call mine.
INGRAHAM: John, thank you. Great to see you.
And here now is Dinesh D'Souza, conservative author, filmmaker, host the Dinesh D'Souza podcast. Dinesh, so Biden is going to hold this big crime summit tomorrow. But he is going to be mostly doing the whole gun control dance. The leftist always goes back to that, it never works. Why does the left not seem to care about the loss of so many lives in the inner city today?
DINESH D'SOUZA, CONSERVATIVE AUTHOR & FILMMAKER: Well, on the face of it, the left is pursuing behavior that is in policies that are just manifestly irrational because the two biggest deterrents to crime are, number one, a kind of vigorous police force, which is a deterrent because they're going to get you. And the second deterrent is a law abiding citizen with a gun. Though if I was a criminal, I would and I wanted to enter a home to, let's say, do a home invasion or a robbery, the one thing that would give me pause is if I thought that the owner might have a firearm because that's what's me, not just him and his family at risk.
So the Democrats weirdly enough, go after the two main deterrents to crime, defund the police, restrict the police, limit them in all kinds of ways, and then take away the guns of law abiding citizens. And then they're like, wow, we can't believe it, crime rates are going up. So they're attacking the very remedies of crime, and then feigning astonishment when they get the predictable results of their own policies.
INGRAHAM: Well, the Miami Police chief didn't hold back when describing the biggest problems with the surge in crime we're seeing today. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ART ACEVEDO, MIAMI CHIEF OF POLICE: I'm concerned about our criminal justice system, our courts that have been shut down across the country. We have activist judges across the country, we have DAs not charging people. And so it's like a perfect storm.
It really has, I think, an impact on the psyche, the morale, and quite frankly, a lot of officers around the country saying why am I putting myself at risk if the criminal justice system is going to do their jobs, and if the communities are going to speak out on behalf of the good cops and on behalf of the victims in this nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Yes. I mean, these are civil servants, they actually - they want to do their jobs. I mean, I know there is - as John said, there's always going to be the bad cop then like it is in any profession. It's going to be someone who shouldn't have that job. But these are dedicated people. We were just down in Volusia County, Florida, last week and these are amazing individuals from all walks of life, all ethnicities, all races. And they just want to do their job, and it's very frustrating right now. How much of these far left wing DAs, Dinesh, removing them? How much of a signal would that send to the criminals?
D'SOUZA: See, I think, Laura, the problem is that you have a situation as far as I know, is unprecedented in this country. It's unprecedented in the world, because you've got criminals all over the world. But you're much safer in a favela in Brazil, you're much safer in a slum in Bombay, than you are in a lot of these inner cities. Now, how is that possible?
The criminals can't pose the threat on their own. There has to be a very powerful criminals lobby. And so these left wing DAs were supposed to be the good guys. They're supposed to be guys going after the criminals. They are sort of in league with the criminals, they're the enablers of the criminals. Then you have the media, which is pursuing its own ideological agenda, so that you have a criminal's lobby. It's called the Democratic Party.
And by making it easy for criminals in America in a way that, as I say, is unprecedented, I think in the country's history and if perhaps in the world today, that's why we're seeing this kind of festering epidemic of crime. It is not caused just by the criminals, it's caused by the society making it easier for the criminals.
INGRAHAM: Yes. The alliance among the media, the Democrat Party, far left activists. Dinesh, thank you.
And an explosive town hall meeting in Loudoun County, Virginia. This was just unreal about critical race theory. Now, this one into chaos tonight, and it led to at least two arrests, two parents on the front lines in this fight and the video that you will not see anywhere else. Next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're teaching children to hate others because of their skin color and you're forcing them to lie about other kids' gender. I am disgusted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Tonight's school board meeting in Loudoun County, Virginia, was unlike any in recent memory, because parents were there railing against critical race theory that, of course, is poisoning their kids' education.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today, instead of focusing on the hate that seems to be dripping off the followers of Jesus in their room - in this room, and from their kids in our schools, I wanted to take the time.
(CROWD SHOUTING)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let them reveal who they are. Let them be damaged by their own words.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We ask again that you respect each other and everyone is allowed to speak.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Western culture and values that brought forth Christianity in the founding documents are being called evil and racist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not the captain, or you're bosses, and God willing will return most of you to the private sector very soon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm reminded the tyranny of communist China, where your money is legally stolen and then used in government schools, not public schools, these are not public schools, these are government schools, like here, to indoctrinate children against their parents.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My child is an oppressed and [ph] don't assume that. As long as you Marxist push your unconstitutional agenda to on my child, she will not be returning back to Loudoun County schools.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now, the school board's response was, I don't know, straight out of the leftist tyrants' handbook. They shut it down. They shut this down. Then they called the cops.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are a fascist, and the county taxpayers paid you salary.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys are actually supporting the suppression of people's rights.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you refusing to leave at this time?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I'm refusing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Deputies, please arrest us individual for trespassing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Joining me now are two parents who were at that school board meeting. Ian Prior, executive director of fight for our schools; and Amy Jahr, a Loudoun County parent, who she says she herself was almost arrested tonight.
Well, Ian, explain how police and declaring a school board meeting where it looks like people are finally getting their say and people agreed, disagreed, it was quite feisty at times. But how is that an unlawful assembly?
IAN PRIOR, LOUDOUN COUNTY PARENT: Well, actually, it was the superintendent of Loudoun County Public Schools that declared an unlawful assembly. So we got to put the sheriff's office in a very tough spot. But this is what we've seen from this school board time and time again. They had about 10 or 15 speakers that we think they gave the jump to to sign up. And then it was like 30 speakers that were coming out, talking about their issues, exercising their first amendment right. And God forbid somebody applauded.
Now, applauding is a first amendment right. There was no - there were no issues with clapping here, and they shut it down. And we knew that they were going to do this. They tried to do it in the last school board meeting.
Look, their motto is, silence the opposition. When they hear voices that they don't agree with that don't align with their activist friends or the special interest supporting the school board members, they shut them down.
INGRAHAM: Amy, now explain what happened with you, because - I'm glad you're on the show tonight, because that means you weren't arrested, but you almost were?
AMY JAHR, LOUDOUN COUNTY PARENT: Well, I didn't tell them that I was going to be on this show tonight, and it would be a great opportunity to be interviewed from prison. But they said I thought that probably wouldn't happen. They - honestly, tonight was our school board meeting on (inaudible) but it has been typical like this all year, silencing us, every time we try to speak, every time we try to write emails, they don't answer us.
It erupted, emotions were high tonight, for sure. In the last school board meeting there were 250 people signed up to speak, and they shut us down right after Dick Black stood up and spoke and he is a retired senator here in Virginia, Republican senator. And as soon as we all erupted in cheering and applauding, she shut down. She shut it down. And they said it would be done for the night, which is not true. Actually I just checked in before I came on. They are still continuing the board meeting.
And as a matter of fact, right before I came in here, they were actually applauding the superintendent and nine board members that are there were applauding four new hires that were being discussed at the meeting.
INGRAHAM: Now, there were people, of course, who tried to smear, malign the parents who are really concerned. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In seeing some of the people that were bused in today, can't disagree with any of the slogans or images that I'm seeing. None of the purported solutions help any of the people they say they are fighting for, making those arguments disingenuous. These are superficial constructs that in the past have been used by political powers to divide this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: And their attempts to discredit you guys shows how effective, I think, your movement is. Bused, people were bused in, is that what he was saying?
IAN PRIOR, FIGHT FOR OUR SCHOOLS: That's amusing. Look, we got word last week that the political party out here was going to be busing people in, that the AFL-CEO, Planned Parenthood were all going to be showing up to this rally. Parents had been showing up to these school board meetings for a year-and-a-half, exercising their First Amendment rights, talking about opening schools, opposing Critical Race Theory, standing up for teachers who had their First Amendment rights infringed upon. We didn't need to bus people in.
And in fact, they made all this effort to have this rally. And at the end of the day, it was still three-to-one parents in Loudoun County that are going out there and standing up for their children. And they can keep trying, they can keep busing people in or holding rallies outside, but we are not going to stop. This is the wokest school board in America. It's also the worst school board in America, and we are not going to stop until we get a seat at the table.
INGRAHAM: Now, one of the parents called out the school board officials for some of their rather shady online activities. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was called to action when I learned that best friends of mine were put on an enemies list created in an attempt to silence and intimidate parents by members of a private Facebook group that six of you are members of. And now we know that there's a second Facebook group in which seven of you are current members. It looks like we need to print some more petitions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Amy, why are they part of these secret Facebook group? What are they hiding?
JAHR: I don't know. It's been their tactic this whole year. We know they've been in those Facebook groups. We've taken screenshots. It's really just coming to light now. We've pointed a lot of information as well, too. As a matter of fact, we just found out that the one of the school board members, the one who is censured in March, two days after her -- the night of her censure, she was doing Facebook -- she was doing searches on her Loudoun County public school issued device for rubber guns, how do load them, how to clean them, how to shoot them. And we just found this out. And that was on the heels of listing seven parent who she thought was responsible for the censure.
INGRAHAM: Ian and Amy, these school boards have to be taken back, seat by seat by seat. Until that happens, you're just going to have to keep fighting day in and day out against this indoctrination. But that scene looked like something out of Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, people being dragged out of there. But we appreciate your perspective, thank you.
And a U.S. district judge just handed a big loss to the heavy-handed CDC and a big win to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The governor is here next on why this ruling may have huge national ramifications. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Now, in their desperation to sell the vaccine to all Americans regardless of age, the medical elites have resorted to the typical lies and scare tactics. So what's the latest one? Get vaccinated or get a case of COVID that lasts forever.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: While not everyone with COVID-19 may require hospitalization at the time of their infection, one of the unfortunate outcomes from COVID-19 is something known as post COVID conditions, or long COVID.
DR. VIVEK MURTHY, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: There are reports of people who after getting vaccinated said that their long haul symptoms seemed to improve.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: There are also reports that people suffering from long-haul COVID see their symptoms go away without getting vaccinated at all. Now, whether so called long-haul COVID is a serious problem, that's not we are arguing here. The point is, the Biden administration is peddling bogus fearmongering to scare you into getting vaccinated regardless of whether you need it, regardless of the risks. It's just not wrong, it's insanely reckless, and a renowned epidemiologist told us last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. PETER MCCULLOUGH, MD, MPH, INTERNIST AND CARDIOLOGIST: What we're seeing is a really disturbing pattern in those individuals under age 30, and that's myocarditis. Twenty percent of these kids are developing abnormal echocardiograms with reduced left ventricular function, and in terrible cases like this, they actually die. So I think vaccination ought to be completely prohibited in anybody under age 30.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Of course, Rochelle Walensky and crew, they don't want you hearing from actual experts like Dr. McCullough. COVID deaths, thank goodness, are down nearly 91 percent from their January peak. That didn't happen, though, because young people rushed out to get the vaccine. It's because of the herd immunity, acquired immunity, natural immunity that so many people already have because they were exposed to the virus, and also the vulnerable population did get vaccinated. To the fact is, science and data are giving people less of a reason to get vaccinated. The desperate used car salesman trope from the medical elites, it's just turning people off.
Speaking of the CDC and Dr. Walensky, my next guest won a massive court victory against that rogue agency, while on Friday, a federal judge granted Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's request for a preliminary injunction against the CDC's unilateral shutdown of the cruise industry. And Governor DeSantis himself summed up nicely why the court's decision is important, not just for Florida, but for the entire nation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. RON DESANTIS, (R) FLORIDA: You can't have an agency relying on flimsy legal authority to just keep an entire industry closed with really no path forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Governor DeSantis joins me now. Governor, the ruling was on Friday. Explain how this could affect other businesses beyond the cruise industry?
GOV. RON DESANTIS, (R) FLORIDA: Laura, as you remember, the CDC closed the cruise lines for two weeks in March of 2020. It was supposed to be two- week, figure out what's going on, and then get going. And that turned into an indefinite shutdown. And we were in a situation where this is an important part of our economy. We have a lot of people whose livelihoods depended on it.
So we brought a lawsuit, and the experts said, you have no chance. And not only did we win, if you read the judge's opinion, it was resounding victory. And it said you can't just assert legal authority without a firm basis in law to close an entire industry. And also the judge correctly criticized the CDC for not having really any evidence to support what they were doing, or data. They rely on, quote, models. They don't even produce the evidence that underlies their models. So that is just not the way a constitutional system is supposed to operate.
And so I think it was a very important decision for Florida in allowing our cruises to get going this summer. But I do think the next time one of these things comes down the pipe, I think that a decision like this will be a roadblock to the federal -- some federal agency trying to do similar things in the future.
INGRAHAM: One of the most notorious COVID doomers, government, is making more dire predictions, and includes Florida. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR AND DEAN OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Travel, and especially over the July 4th holiday, that could be a big issue. We saw that summer surge, and that was pretty awful in a belt that went all the way from Arizona through New Mexico, Texas, across the Gulf Coast into Florida. We just have to assume that mother nature is telling us, this is going to happen again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: That's the infamous Dr. Peter Hotez, Governor. They just can't let the pandemic old. At some point, they're going to have to break the addiction.
DESANTIS: And it's like some of these people get put out there all the time when they have been dead wrong over the last year. For example, a lot of these experts criticized Florida for getting our kids back into school in August. They said, this will be two or three weeks, everyone is going to get sick, all the schools are going to have to shut down again. That just never happened. I think schools were probably one of the places that had the fewest amount of infections of anywhere else in our society. So you are wrong on these really, really big issues that impacted millions of people, and you are still out there parroting stuff.
So look, I think at the end of the day we are happy we had the kids in school, we are happy that people have been able to work in Florida, and we are happy that our businesses have been open.
INGRAHAM: Governor, I was so excited to read this today, and it dovetails from the previously segment we just did on this Critical Race Theory in the schools in Virginia and the fight against that. You signed legislation that requires kids in your public schools to be taught the evils of communism and totalitarianism. This is just one of the three bills, I think, you signed about education. Briefly explain why you did this, and why now?
DESANTIS: I put in a civics requirement in 2019 for high schools. We're expanding not to include discussions of the evils of communism and totalitarianism. And then also we're creating a patriot museum, patriot library, where we have stories of Floridians who fled from communist regimes, from Cuba, from Nicaragua, from Venezuela, and beyond. And so this will show the effect that these bad policies had on people's freedoms and livelihoods, and their families. Many of them in south Florida, for example, lost family members to communism. I think it's important that we get this in the classroom and provide an honest assessment of what this totalitarian ideology has done for the last hundred plus years.
INGRAHAM: I think it's good, Governor. It's not just saying you're against something. You're actually advocating for something, and it's a solution. Thank you.
And Senator Ron Johnson took the D.C. mayor to task over the uneven justice sought for last summer's rioters versus those involved in the January 6th right. He's here, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Democrats may be very reluctant to lock up the violent murderers terrorizing our streets, but they are more than happy to hunt down and punish the January 6th rioters. That stunning disparity highlighted by Senator Ron Johnson during a D.C. statehood hearing today. He point-blank asked D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser why BLM and Antifa rioters were set free while no expense was spared targeting the January 6th culprits.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER, (D) WASHINGTON D.C.: We had one night of rioting in the district.
SEN. RON JOHNSON, (R-WI): How many are still being detained?
BOWSER: I don't know. I don't know the answer to that.
JOHNSON: Do you know whether by using geolocation, did we go and arrest people who participated in the summer riots in their individual states like we did with the January 6 breachers?
BOWSER: We have made arrests in both cases.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson joins us now. Senator, first of all, there was only one night of rioting? I was in D.C., OK. That's not true, and she's the mayor. So why is she so obviously committed to this unequal enforcement of the law?
SEN. RON JOHNSON, (R-WI): It's hard to say. She really didn't provide any answers. I was actually pretty shocked that she couldn't tell me some level of damage assessment to her own city.
But again, they want this narrative that there were thousands of armed insurrectionists intent on overthrowing the government, and they want to completely sweep under the rug the riots that took place in something like 140 different cities in America. In Kenosha, Wisconsin, we had about 40 businesses, different establishments burnt to the ground. A couple of people died in those. But a couple dozen people died during those riots, 2,000 law enforcement officers injured, $2 billion worth of property damage, but they want to sweep that all under the rug and concentrate all their time and effort and resources on bringing to justice the people who breached the Capitol.
INGRAHAM: Apparently today, some grandmother was forced to plead guilty to parading. I guess the charge was parading inside the capital. Really? We've got the photos going around by the FBI, this granny. All summer long we were saying, wait, where's all the facial recognition software being used in Seattle and Portland? Where is it? We never saw it. But old granny has to plead guilty to parading. I don't know, does she have a baton like in a nice parade, or was it a mean parade? I don't know what she was doing.
JOHNSON: Of course. And Portland, we know they offered them deferred resolution agreements. In other words, they are not going to prosecute them as long as they, I guess, stay clean. But so many people, so many of the rioters in the summer were let go, no bail. Vice President Harris, of course, encouraged one group to provide funds to provide a bail so people could get right back on the streets and riot again. So again, there's huge disparity.
We're still not getting information out of the attorney general. We certainly didn't get any information out of Mayor Bowser today. But we're going to keep pressing because I want to make sure that the authorities who are administering this unequal justice realize that people are looking over their shoulders, and we're going to hold them accountable.
INGRAHAM: We're almost out of time, but apparently Nancy Pelosi's deputy chief of staff tonight said that she's going to announce whether she's going to create a select committee this week on January 6th. She wants to have a bipartisan commission, but Republicans are blocking. Senator, yes or no, do we know how many people are being held in solitary confinement still? Because that was an issue before. Yes or no? We don't know, do we.
JOHNSON: It sounds like everyone in the D.C. jails. But I think 39. But one thing --
INGRAHAM: When we come, the Last Bite. It's 39? OK. Last Bite.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: What's the voting bill the Democrats are trying to jam through really about? Here is freshman Congressman Jamaal Bowman.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JAMAAL BOWMAN, (D-NY): HR-1 is the North Star. If we deliver, we maintain power in 2022. If we don't and we show the inability to deliver, then we risk losing power and risk this moment in American history to really push a progressive, Democratic agenda.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: John King is like, let's move on to the next guest.
Content and Programming Copyright 2021 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2021 VIQ Media Transcription, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of VIQ Media Transcription, Inc. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.