Roger Stone: My House testimony was entirely truthful

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Roger Stone: My House testimony was entirely truthful

Rep. Adam Schiff questions the credibility of Roger Stone's testimony before the House Intelligence Committee; Stone responds to the congressman on 'The Ingraham Angle.'

This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," June 8, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

LAURA INGRAHAM, HOST: Good evening from Washington, I'm Laura Ingraham and this is "The Ingraham Angle." We have we a fantastic Friday show to wrap up the week, match. Ranking House member of the Intel Committee Adam Schiff claimed last night that Roger Stone lied to the Congress. Tonight Stone will respond exclusively here. Plus President Trump's America First talk is driving the media and allies absolutely bonkers as he heads into these trade talks, very important day. And Friday Follies with Raymond Arroyo features a new art exhibit that is literally full of it. And a rampage video that you must see to believe, it's hysterical, we were screaming in the car about it.

Also my exclusive interview with football legend Lou Holtz on the disappearing border between sports and politics. But we begin with the shocking allegation that a New York Times reporter has been in bed, literally, with a source accused of leaking sensitive information. The New York Times says the department of justice has seized the phone and emails records of its reportee Ali Watkins. And according to the paper, she had been in a three year relationship with the former director of security for Senate Intel Committee James Wolfe.

He was arrested yesterday and the DOJ charged him with lying for denying that he even knew the reporter, and for denying he gave her information on former campaign advisor to Trump, Carter Page. Now the Times said it appeared the FBI was investigating how Watkins learned that Russian spies were trying to recruit Page back in 2013. She reported that in an article for Buzz Feed on April 3rd of 2017. There is reporting tonight that there was an effort by this Senate Intel staffer to purposely target Carter Page. That's a move that could have been instrumental in starting this entire probe into the Trump Presidency. Here's how President Trump reacted to the news.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I know I believe strongly in freedom of the press. I'm a big, big believer in the freedom of the press, but I'm also a believer in classified information has to remain classified. And that includes Comey and his band of thieves who leaked classified information all over the place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Band of thieves, now that's what they are. Now let's ask our guest how this differs from Obama's administration's crack down on the AP and former Fox News reporter James Rosen. Fox News contributor, Washington Examiner Chief Political Correspondent Byron York's with us, and former US Attorney for DC Joe DiGenova. All right Joe, the White House announces freedom of press but now the DOJ is going after this poor reporter.

JOE DIGENOVA, FORMER WASHINGTON DC ATTORNEY: Well I'm all for it. I think they should go after the reporters and I hope that they are doing the same thing with the leaks of the private conversations that President Trump had with foreign leaders that were leaked by somebody at the NSA or the CIA. This is perfectly legitimate tactics. At least this administration didn't label the reporter a criminal co-conspirator like they did with James Rosen, that was outrageous. This is perfectly legitimate stuff and if a guy wants leak information through a reporter, he should be held accountable for it. By the way, Carter Page has got a new defendant for his civil suit and it's the guy who was the head of security for the intelligence committee--

INGRAHAM: I mean think about it, how ironic ii is, Byron for the senate committee of intelligence? He's the guy who ensures that the rules are followed on the secrecy and walking people in and out of these special meeting rooms where no one else can go in. He locks it down and he's the guy trading secrets for a little on the side. I don't know what was going on with the gal pal but that's wild.

BYRON YORK, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: What we should point out here is that the reporter isn't suspected of any wrong doing. She's not being charged with any wrong doing, nothing like that. This guy was in charge of all that and there had been terrible, terrible leaks in this administration. The leak of Michael Flynn's phone calls with the Russian ambassador that led to all this. As Joe said the leak of the President's actual conversations with foreign leaders and this Carter Page leak was a big deal. There was a court case in which some Russians had been suspected of trying to recruit Page as an agent.

INGRAHAM: Back in 2013.

YORK: Exactly. And Page was referred to as male number one in the court papers. He could be viewed as a confidential FBI informant who was outed and in the press. And Page eventually confirmed that yes he was male number one. But this was something where his identity was kept a secret to protect him and this Senate staffer is being accused of wanting to reveal that.

INGRAHAM: Is there any sense that the Senate staffer was doing it for political purposes? Didn't he work for Republicans and Democrats, I mean we don't know, is there any political animus here or?

YORK: Well he'd been there for I think 29 years so had worked through Republican and Democratic control of it. But clearly a lot of his leaks seem to concern Carter Page for whatever reason.

INGARHAM: The reporter seems to have lied to FBI when first questioned innitially about it because she was asked if she had received information from him. I think even if she knew him and I believe she wasn't quite candid, but I don't think they are going to go after the reporter on this. Four reporters total Joe, received apparently some type of contact from this James Wolfe so it's not just this one Ali Watkins, Buzz Feed Political and New York Times reporter. And there were other reporters as well. We don't know more do we about what they received, if anything?

DIGENOVA: No, not yet but I can tell you this, whether he served for 29 years for Republicans and Democrats, this is part of the Trump derangement syndrome. This guy did this because he doesn't like Donald Trump, that'll come out eventually but the bottom line is, he also obviously was having an affair, with the reporter from Buzz Feed so there was that. But the bottom line is this is all part of a pattern, if it involves Trump you can do anything you want, there are no rules, good, bad, indifferent. This guy went over the line in every, he's going to do time by the way, he's going to prison.

YORK: Let me say one other thing, according to the indictment, he was in his 50s, she was an undergraduate in college when they began having an affair. This is a bad idea on his part, shows terrible judgement on his part and she breaks a big story which is a really a big story, it was about the CIA spying on the Senate Intelligence Committee when she's an intern and because she's beginning to have this relationship with this guy--

INGRAHAM: Well apparently Buzz Feed and the New York Times both knew about this relationship. Apparently they knew about?

DIGENOVA: Yes she revealed it to them.

INGRAHAM: Well that's one way to get sources.

DIGENOVA: So they were happy as clams if they had somebody who was feeding her information, they didn't care about the genesis of it.

YORK: And if you look at the court papers they quote a note that he wrote her saying he was very happy that they broke up in December of 2017 right when the FBI was beginning to bear down on him, that he was happy that she'd been able to get all of these scoops.

INGRAHAM: Now here's something that I'd also like to get to and get your take on. Alan Dershowitz recently told Fox News why he believes key details in the upcoming IG Report were leaked.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL PROFESSOR EMERITUS: Somebody leaked them because they were afraid it's going to get changed and they want people like us to see the original and I hope that Horowitz holds onto the original so he can be questioned about it. Second, it proves that we never need a special counsel, all of this could have been done through the justice department, regular lawyers. You don't need to bring in a multi- million dollar group of people with a target on the back of specific individuals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Joe

DIGENOVA: Well this proves conclusively that you don't always know what going on and so when somebody leaks something like this, it helps you get a perspective on just how significant this report is going to be. This is also a cautionary tale for the Speaker of the House Mr Ryan and Trey Gowdy. They never received the underlying documents for the beginning of the investigation yet they made idiotic public statements that everything is just kosher with the way the FBI sued Stefan Halper. You know why? They got duped and outwitted by Rod Rosenstein. They had never been shown the papers, they were supposed to be shown the papers yesterday, now it's been put off till when? The Singapore Summit, well ladida, ladida.

INGRAHAM: It's like the timing of the Eagles visit, this is all-

DIGENOVA: These guys are idiots, Ryan and Gowdy are idiots.

INGRAHAM: Why did they do this? Why did the come out, it's like everyone is out the door, it's Flake, it's Ryan, it's Gowdy, everyone is out the door and unloads on Trump-

DIGENOVA: It's a new singing group, they're called 'The Leavers'.

INGRAHAM: The Leavers and The Subpoenas.

YORK: You know, on the IG Report I don't think there's a worry, it's going to be changed at the last minute. This is manipulative leaking, the major figures covered in this report have been given a draft of it to look at and to offer their input. And what has happened is you've has some leaks so that when the news actually comes--

INGRAHAM: Has Comey seen it?

DIGENOVA: Oh yeah

YORK: Oh absolutely.

INGRAHAM: So what about, sorry to interrupt you, what about Comey leaking it because then it's out there?

YORK: The deal is to get the word, for example insubordinate, out there so when the report comes out and it uses that word, everybody will say we knew that, no big deal.

DIGENOVA: Oh it's just insubordinate, no big deal. Yeah.

INRAGAHAM: It's not a big deal. But what about the fact that Horowitz interviewed Peter Strzok in this IG Investigation and apparently he asked about the Pfizer warrant, that report came out today. He asked about the Pfizer warrant on Carter Page so this is expanding beyond the Hillary email investigation.

DIGENOVA: It better, it better, because if it wasn't being investigated, my question would be to Mr Rosenstein, if you're not investigating the Pfizer warrants, why the hell aren't you?

YORK: The two investigations morph into each other in the fall of 2016 during the election and the same people are involved in all of them. Peter Strzok is the guy who interviewed Michael Flynn, I mean he's involved in all of these things and we do know that Horowitz has already started his next investigation which is the Trump-Russia investigation.

INGRAHAM: So he's done with the other one and onto the new one. It's like you're onto the next term paper, right.

YORK: It's already underway.

INGRAHAM: When he interviewed Strzok, it is one time Joe or is he in multiple times?

DIGENOVE: Oh no, no, no. See Strzok's been cooperating, that's why he didn't get fired right away. The bottom line is this, he will be interviewed, three, four, five, six times because they interview him, then they interview somebody else, they get some information. They go back to him because he didn't answer a question a certain way. He will be interviewed multiple times. He may even be given immunity at a certain point in order to testify in criminal proceedings against Comey and others.

INGRAHAM: I want to play something with James Clapper who was on with Hugh Hewitt, your favorite Joe. He was on with Hugh Hewitt and they were talking about whether information was leaked by Clapper to CNN in anticipation for his new job there perhaps. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES CLAPPER, FORMER DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: I tell you I had no idea I would end up working for CNN in January. I hadn't thought about it and the only reason I was appearing on television immediately after I left the government was, the main motivation was to defend the intelligence community.

HUGH HEWITT, RADIO HOST: So you did not tip Jake?

CLAPPER: No, I did not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: That seems to conflict a little bit with what he said in the House--

YORK: They are talking about the wrong thing. They are talking about being tipped on the contents of the Dossier which all these news organisations already had. The news wasn't until January 6th, the Intels had briefed the President elect about it because that gave the news organisations the hook to then report it. They had this Dossier, they couldn't report it, it was unverified, but wait a minute, if the head of the FBI briefs the President elect about it, then that's news.

DIGENOVA: So here's James Clapper, now you're watching him, this is what the American people need to realise. This man was the single most senior intelligence official of the United States Government. He is a liar and an incompetent, what a combination. You feel safe, with that clown in charge?

INGRAHAM: No I don't and I didn't. Now the FBI surveillance power it's scary. I wonder how much CNN pays him, it better be a lot of money. Gentlemen thank you so much. And tonight Congressman Adam Schiff is accusing former presidential advisor Roger Stone of lying. Schiff is the ranking Dem of the House Intel Committee and a constant presence, you always see him cable news, not this show, however. He claims that Stone's testimony to the committee last September conflicted with the established facts. Here to respond is Roger Stone, author of the new book 'I have it in my Living Room Stone's Rules' and it's hilarious, I love it. Roger, you're apparently a liar says Adam Schiff, I know you're in your crying towel all day and night, very upset about it but react to what he said.

ROGER STONE, POLITICAL ANALYST: I hate to say this Laura, but it's just more bullshit from the Congressman of California. It's even hard to know what he's talking about. If he's referring to the Twitter direct messages which were leaked to the Atlantic that prove that I had no collaboration with Wiki Leaks, I turned those over to the House Intelligence Committee last September. If he's referring to the emails that were cited by the Wall Street Journal, that proved that I had no direct contact or source and was using back channel, why those fell outside the precisely worded scope of the Intelligence Committee's request. A scope co-signed by Mr Schiff himself. The real issue here Laura is very clear, Mr Schiff has said that he has seen "significant evidence of Russian collusion in the 2016 election". He's produced none, zero. Of course he'd like to change the subject. My testimony before the House Intelligence Committee was entirely truthful.

INGRAHAM: This is what he said, he said, "Certainly the testimony of Don Jr, Erik Prince, Roger Stone and others is inconsistent with the public reports of meetings, conversations, and other facts that have now been established and if so, those public reports are accurate ten clearly they were not telling the truth". Don't you love how he worded it? That's like Clintonian wording, if the public reports are accurate. Yeah well, again, I think they now, Roger, know that there is no there, there. They tried to tap it into Papadopoulos, that poor hapless figure, that old Carter Page, now he's seen his fortunes go down the tubes because of all this. He's fighting in court, they have these convictions of tertiary figures, except for the deal with Manafort, we'll see where that goes and his associate. But I think they are coming up empty and so they have to keep it in the press somehow, they have to keep going somehow will these little sparks of supposed interest. I don't really think it works.

STONE: Well you may remember Laura, I wanted to testify in public, in a public hearing so everybody could see it. Now I've been asked to testify for the Intelligence Committee on the Senate side. I respectfully requested that be in public. Let the TV cameras roll.

INGRAHAM: You just want to sell your book Roger, come on, I'm kidding, I'm just teasing you. Well I agree, what is possibly going to be involved? I think they know, they know that they've come up with goose eggs and they don't want to be humiliated. These people, you can't get between them and camera, so if they don't want it to be on camera, it's not because it's classified information. By the way, Oleg Deripaska apparently also wanted to testify. He said he'd testify, he didn't claim he wanted immunity, he wanted to do it in public. The billionaire who they tried to get roped into this collusion thing. He said, it's ridiculous and they wouldn't have him come testify. They haven't brought that Russian lawyer in the Trump Tower meeting, Veselnitskaya. She said I'm happy to come, they won't talk to her so if these are key figures like tis lawyer, why wouldn't they bring the Russian lawyer in? It's curious.

STONE: Well having come up empty handed with any evidence of Russian collusion, having come up empty handed with any hijinks regarding allegedly hacked emails with Wiki Leaks, now they want to concoct some new crime or I should say new offence in an attempt to get me to testify against the President. This is not only ridiculous, but it's very expensive Laura. This threatens to bankrupt my family. I've had to set up the stonedefence.com because I can no longer bear these legal expenses.

INGRAHAM: Well that's what they do though isn't it? They turn the screws on people, they say the will ultimately destroy your family, in not so many words. And then they get these low level figures to say, "Stop, stop, I'll tell you whatever you want and if I have to say I lied, I'll say I lied". And then they get 1,001 convictions and then a pleas and then it's over. That's how it works, that's the game that's always played and in this case there's a political analyst involved. Roger, thank you so much.

STONE: Thank you dear.

INGRAHAM: And by the way President Trump is driving the media totally nuts with his approach to big trade at the Summit. And up next we're going to reveal the message behind the Trump talk, that's very tough, don't go away. The headlines in the talking Heads scream today that President Trump had angered and alienated our trading partners.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Is the Trump administration ruining or at least damaging relationships with our allies in the process of trying to put America first?

OPERATOR: The diplomatic pleasantries could hardly mask the widening rift between the US and its closest allies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Increasingly there is a gap between the United States and the rest of our allies in the G7. Those distinctions are widening not closing, and that is greatly, greatly to be feared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

IMGRAHAM: I just went into rems cycle again. But the President didn't seem too concerned heading into today's G7 Summit in Canada.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We have massive trade deficits with almost every country, we will straighten that out. And I'll tell you what, it's what I do, it won't even be hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: That might be a little bit of an exaggeration otherwise we would've already done the NAFTA thing. Trump has proven neigh sayers wrong on foreign policy on every turn so might his tough trade strategy bare similar results? Let's ask Mike Pillsbury, Director of the Chinese Center on Strategy at the Hudson Institute, and Michael Malice, the author of 'Dear Reader', the unauthorised biography of Kim Jong Un. Great to have both of you on. Mike Pillsbury where are we with this wild hysteria? We finally have a President whose standing up for American workers and American companies and he's getting nothing but grief from our allies. They want everything to be the way it was. Why do they want everything to be the way that it was?

PAUL PILLSBURY: Well I think there's great fear that President Trump is going to succeed. He's actually made some elaborate preparations for both the Singapore Summit and the China Trade and the other Trade Deals. So if he succeeds, you realise what this means for the last three presidents. Their shown up has been failures. All the experts who are now criticizing President Trump will equally be embarrassed, reputations will be shredded. There's a lot at stake here for these talking heads. So I do think President Trump's going to succeed and when it happens we ought to do more than just drink champagne. We should be talking about who was wrong.

INGRAHAM: Yeah who was wrong and the policies that didn't work, and the policies that did. Now that's a big if, but we've seen for years, Canada dumping lumbers, heavily subsidised lumber industry in Canada, into the United States. We've seen France prop up Air Bus to the detriment of Boeing. We've lost hundreds of millions of dollars of business for Boeing over the last years. This happens with automobiles in Germany, it happens across the board with so many products. Donald Trump said we want to trade with you, we just want to do it differently. Michael I want to play a sound bite for you from President Trump today before he boarded that helicopter for the G7, on Russia and the G7, let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Russia should be in this meeting. Why are we having a meeting without Russia being in the meeting? And I would recommend, and it's up to them, but Russia should be in the meeting, it should be a part of it. You know, whether you like it or not, and it may not be politically correct, but we have a world to run.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Michael

MICHEAL MALICE, AUTHOR: I thinks it's absolutely wonderful. President Trump's going to be attacked over Russian ties regardless so he might as well drive is opponents into apoplexy. What I think is going on is that, I mean to own amusement, but I think what's going on is the Italian elections are what's causing the problems here. You had the Five Star Movement and Leagues signing to the new Italian government and that's forced Macron and Merkel to run into each other's hands and try to get their wagons together, regarding the EU. So for President Trump on the other side to be going towards more of a unilateral position, and less of this globalist, you got NATO, you got the EU, you've got the United Nations, you've got the G7, this is scaring them because they're losing control of the plan.

INGRAHAM: Yeah the free ride is over. Remember the winter script, Come and take a free ride, well it's like the free ride is, we can't keep it going, we can't keep it going. There's no constituency for these big trade deals that are essentially unenforceable, Mike Pillsbury. They're not popular, it's why Trump won Pennsylvania, it's why he'll win again if he sticks to his guns here. What about the Russia deal? That's provocative in some circles, G7 historically hasn't included Russia. China is really, in many measures, a bigger economy, almost a bigger economy by some measure than ours at this point, but Russia is still a significant power.

PILLSBURY: Well as you know I'm a fan of President Trump's books, and he's previewed his approach to trade and to summits, that he wants to get all the players together, so if you leave Russia out, it's hard to do a global deal. And he's talking about righting wrongs that have gone on since about since about 1950 in terms of our being taken advantage of in the trade field. So adding this additional basically brilliant ploy, the Russians aren't here and they should be, it's another effort for him to recast the international stage and as I say if he wins, if he succeeds at this, even partially, it embarrasses 30 years of policy makers, talking heads and heads of state in our own country as well as overseas. A lot's at stake here which is-

INGRAHAM: Yeah I mean Alan Greenspan, Larry Summers and all these guys who predicted recession the first 18 months, it's going to be a disaster and we seem to-

PILLSBURY: We seem to be afraid of friction. There's a little bit if friction now with the Europeans and the Canadians.

INGRAHAM: He hasn't called Macron French fry yet, which I think it's positive. Gentlemen let's now talk about what we were referring to which implicitly which is the upcoming summit with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un. Now Trump is saying he doesn't need to prepare very much. He's been preparing for this for a long time as has the other side. Now Michael does this inspire confidence or give you pause, this kind of approach the President took to the debates and he made that point this morning at Marine One, "Look Hillary was prepping for months, I basically winged it" He really didn't prepare much, he kind of winged it and went by his gut and I got to say his political gut has been really good on most issues. You can't really question it.

MALICE: We still get a last laugh from saying, "Yeah, you'd be in jail". He's actually been preparing for this for quite a while. There's footage of him in the '90s I think, talking about how he would deal with North Korea. And the point of this negotiation is, it doesn't really matter in a sense what is agreed to. What matters is how can we trust them and how can we verify what they are going to promise.

It's very easy to say we are going to give nukes, we're going to liberalise our country but North Korea does not negotiate in good faith, both with the southern citizens and with the international community. So on paper they can do some things that are very simple like ending the Korean War and promising further talks and this and that, and that would look great but you can't trust this man again. Again, he kills members of his own family, and his sister who the press was doting over, was in charge of brain washing children in that country. So this is nation or the beast that we're dealing with.

INGRAHAM: I can't believe the President's bringing In-N-Out burgers to him, did you see that, he's bringing a whole bag? I'm joking, but he could be a person bribed with food, let's just, I think we have to think creatively here Mike. The guys seems to, right-he wants popular culture, he likes Dennis Rodman, he has to work for the CIA right?

MALICE: He's the one person in North Korea who doesn't have to worry about food and fortune.

INGRAHAM: Well he doesn't have In-N-Out burgers.

PILLSBURY: Liquorice and sticks, that's my line.

INGRAHAM: But this is true, they promised Madeleine Albright. They promised her, remember the champagne glasses with Kim Jong Il and it was going to be a new way, Jim Kerry did his best and Hillary tries and it's been going on and on and on and yet nothing. But I sense that something might have broken here. China is involved clearly in this. China is probably calling a lot of the shots, you know, you're the China expert. Am I right about that?

PILLSBURY: Yes. They're helping but what I think is really going on is President Trump is understating his preparation of the last 18 months. He's written about how to deal with North Korea, 18 years ago, he wrote a chapter of a book about it. The preparation for 18 months has involved carrots and sticks, both much stronger than previous Presidents, even yesterday President Trump said he's got 300 more sanctions he's considering putting on if something doesn't work. INGRAHAM: We're looking forward to having him at the White House, Rocket Man and then it's a very nice letter, it's like boom, boom, boom, right?

PILLSBURY: Imagine you're Chairman Kim and you're 34 years old, you know you're a little nervous going into this summit in Singapore, you better deliver something to this man or you could be punished. President Trump has focussed a lot, especially yesterday on the opportunity, you Chairman Kim have to turn your country into an economic beacon around the world. This is a very poor country, he's had some limited economic reforms in the last two or three years. So if this works, and I think it will, he's got a combination of fear and incentives both at work for the Singapore Summit. No other president has done this.

INGRAHAM: No one's ever tries to do this. Mike Malice, before we let you go, China, the report from NBC today, that China was trying to figure out what to spy on the summit and we're bringing in special machines that sweep for all sorts of surveillance devices, I mean is that just like James Bond stuff, is that really happening? The Chinese are very entrepreneurial.

MALICE: Well I think James Bond is British and we have plenty of American know how, that's not really going to be a concern. I'm concerned to see what those photo ops looks like, I mean that if you had said five years ago, that Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un will be shaking hands in Singapore and these would be the leaders of their countries, everyone would have said you are bonkers and yet here we are.

INGRAHAM: And Joe Scarborough said, didn't he, that they're going to blow up the world. He's like that was the most dangerous man on the planet?

I mean, all of these people have egg on their face if you ask me. Fantastic segment, guys. By the way, you've got see the video that poses the question, is this totally unacceptable behavior? That is the question, or something we all secretly wish we could do. Coming up with Raymond Arroyo, we will hear that and a new Oprah exhibit in D.C. The Friday Follies is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JACKIE IBANEZ, FOX NEWS REPORTER: Good evening, live from the America News Headquarters. I'm Jackie Ibanez in New York. President Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort facing new charges. A grand jury indicting Manafort along with a long time associate on conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice charges. They're accused of trying to get two witnesses in the special counsel's case against them to change their testimony. In addition to the case in Washington, Manafort also facing bank fraud and tax evasion charges in Virginia.

First Lady Melania Trump has been staying out of the limelight and now we know why. President Trump revealing earlier today that his wife's kidney surgery "was a big operation" lasting four hours. Mr. Trump who spoke before leaving for the G7 summit in Canada stress Melania is doing great, but that doctors say that she cannot fly for a month. I am Jackie Ibanez. Now back to the Ingraham Angle for all of your headlines. We log onto foxnews.com. Have a great night.

INGRAHAM: Time for the Friday Follies, and the absurd headlines of the week.

We begin with a video that many of us may relate to, and a woman in the gym who has just had enough of her treadmill, here's Fox News contributor New York Times, best selling author of the "Will Wilder" series, Raymond Arroyo with that and so much more. I'm sick of the gym, OK, I'm tired of the machine. They are boring. I go outside, I can't stand it.

RAYMOND ARROYO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: This is the good life liberty village gym. This woman apparently life is not so good. She picks up a dumbbell and smashes the treadmill. Look at the guy on the right. I loved him. He grabs the towel and runs for the showers. She had a full meltdown. She attacked every piece of equipment in this place. They arrested her. They sent her away. But I have to say at least she got her heart rate up and the heart rate of everyone around her. This is a workout, maybe you smash works.

INGRAHAM: No way.

ARROYO: You could all take the dumbbell and just smash all of that equipment.

INGRAHAM: Where did she get the sledgehammer?

ARROYO: Not it wasn't. It was a dumbbell. She picked up a dumbbell and slammed the dumbbell, look.

INGRAHAM: Can I see it again?

ARROYO: It's a dumbbell she's hitting. She looks like a wrestler.

INGRAHAM: Good for her. And maybe she got that error message, maybe he hate the error message on the treadmill and you don't know it's like a error message three. What are you supposed to do with the number three?

ARROYO: I never get error message. We have to move on. The art exhibit in the Netherlands, "The New York Times" reported this and here's what they said. Modern, well I'm saying, modern art is what it represents in this case. You are looking at enormous terd sculptures.

INGRAHAM: Excrement.

ARROYO: OK?

INGRAHAM: Those are the words.

ARROYO: "The New York Times" described them as terd sculptures. It's says in the "New York Times" this is an exhibition where you can walk through the excrement. You know, when body functions become, when bodily functions become the focus of art, we're in trouble. How did we get from the pieta to fecal matter? How did we get there? These are enormous --

INGRAHAM: What is it supposed to tell us? That life is big terd?

ARROYO: A big pile of (INAUDIBLE). And it looks like your dog Jimmy walked in. They're on Persian rugs. Look.

INGRAHAM: It's a rug.

ARROYO: It's like an enormous dog just dropped this. Now what this means and why it's here, I do not know. This group Gelatin is their name. They've done sculptures in the past in 2005. They did a sculpture of frozen urine. The only thing I like about the exhibit, it is -- everybody will come to the same determination. It is crap. Let's move on.

INGRAHAM: All right. Now a new exhibit --

ARROYO: Yes.

INGRAHAM: Speaking of exhibits, well, isn't not crap.

ARROYO: No. This is a nicer exhibit.

INGRAHAM: This is at the African-American museum. It's a Smithsonian museum in Washington, Oprah Winfrey has a big exhibit.

ARROYO: A big exhibit. A tax payer shrine to Oprah. 240 artifacts. She walked through it with Gayle King. She was very moved (ph) because people wrote desk book entries and (INAUDIBLE) red one. Watch.

INGRAHAM: OK.

ARROYO: It's called Watching Oprah.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: Watching Oprah. The "Oprah Winfrey Show," and American culture. I love it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALEL: Look at that. Oh my gosh.

WINFREY: Oprah Winfrey is the reason that I love myself so fiercely and know that my voice matters. Oh, that makes me want to cry.

LOONIE BUNCH, FOUNDING DIRECTOR OF THE SMITHSONIAN'S NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE: The bottom line is this was your gift and our gift to America. And so we want to thank you for that.

GAYLE KING, CBS THIS MORNING" CO-HOST: The guy who was driving me this morning, his name is Saed (ph). He was started watching the "Oprah Winfrey Show" and he would see her walk in the aisle with the audience and some of the issues that she would cover and he said I just knew that she was a good human. And I want to feel the things that are in this room and it is getting to me. At the bottom line, she really is a great human who just wants to do good in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: I love it!

ARROYO: I love it!

INGRAHAM: Why do I talk like this?

ARROYO: Why do they talk like that? I don't know.

INGRAHAM: Why do they talk like this?

ARROYO: But I do hope when the seen and unseen exhibit opens at the very small Italian American museum somewhere around the mall that you will give an emotive report like that here on Fox when you stand there looking at my --

INGRAHAM: I love it when Raymond did a segment about the pile of poo.

ARROYO: Here's my question. Oprah gets 4,000 square feet --

INGRAHAM: Justin Thomas gets like a millimeter.

ARROYO: Louis Armstrong, the seminal artistic figure in the African- American experience, he gets a horn and a case, no exhibit hall for him. Why can't we see Louis Armstrong's movies like performances? Sammy Davis Junior, W.E.B. Du Bois; great African-Americans, where are there full-size exhibits here? I think this is a bit of a overkill.

INGRAHAM: Posted a headline, the new Oprah exhibit looks like a reward for her $20 million donation.

ARROYO: Right.

INGRAHAM: But honestly she deserves it.

ARROYO: Well, she is the largest single donor to this museum. They already have a theater named after her. Here's what I want, the Phil Donahue exhibit. He was the first big talk hit talk show before Oprah. (INAUDIBLE) he should get his own little.

INGRAHAM: And the saddest news was Charles Krauthammer announcing that he only has a few weeks to live. He tweeted out a comment about this saying due to cancer.

ARROYO: Yes.

INGRAHAM: It's a heartbreaker.

ARROYO: Our prayers and thoughts are with him. A great mind, a great elegant writer.

INGRAHAM: He'll be met by the Fox News audience for sure. Everyone stay right there. We have a big treat for you in just a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Lou Holtz to the gridiron legend and a member of the college football hall of fame. He has coached in the NFL, the SEC and guided Notre Dame to a national championship in 1988. Holtz has also written or contributed to 10 books. But tonight he joins us to discuss issues at the intersection of sports and politics and has become so prevalent today. Coach, it is great to see you. Thank you so much for being here.

LOU HOLTZ, COLLEGE FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME: I'm delighted to be with you, Laurie, congratulations on the success of your show.

INGRAHAM: Thank you so much, coach. This has been so wild for me to watch what has happened in football. I mean, I've always been a football fan my whole life, my mother was an Alabama fan, sorry, coach. She was s Wild Alabama fan which i inherited, no particular reason, she just like Baird Bryant and it was always viewed with the sense of patriotism and love of country, and we're now at a place where an invitation to the White House turns the super bowl champion coach into, you know, a puddle of goo. They're like debating for weeks how to handle it. What has happened in our country?

HOLTZ: Well, first of all, I fortunate enough to take a football team to the White House and it was one of the greatest experiences for all of our players. Once again they were not going to earn millions of dollars a year by playing professional football, but I think that we get fouled up and what our priorities are.

The one thing I always I told our team and I believe they so strong, would not use our football team to promote anything except the university of the Philadelphia Eagles or the New York Jets, whatever the case may be. If you want to promote a cause and use your time and your money, that's fine. The locker room belongs to the players of the NFL. They can say anything they want in there.

However the football team on the field belongs to me. We have to be focused on one thing. We're here to win the Super Bowl. Nothing else is matter. I don't want any other distraction unless football team except one focus, I congratulate Coach Peterson (INAUDIBLE) a tremendous job, he lost a great quarterback and yet he still manage to win the Super Bowl. And I'm very proud that he was looking forward to getting to the White House and it's unfortunate the players don't get that experience.

INGRAHAM: And his quarterback was actually one of the few people who wanted to come to the White House along with Coach Peterson who wanted to come as well. But they didn't make the trip. Another coach from the NBA, Coach Kerr from the Golden State Warriors made this point, coach, about patriotism and Trump. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE KERR, GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS HEAD COACH: The president is turning this into a political game and rating game. And it's a blatant display of nationalism. We just have these military sing-alongs at the White House to show how patriotic we are even though we don't know the words. It's just incredible. It is incredible. But I am really proud of people in this country who are recognizing what's happening and instead of turning this into a political game.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: he said he went on to say that they are following their conscience, basically that's Steve Kerr, of course, the coach for the Warriors.

HOLTZ: Look, first of all, where is he living. I think Golden State is out around San Francisco, that's probably the view of most people. Laura, I'm an individual, I remember when my father went to the pacific for almost five years and I never saw my father for five years, but fortunately he came back. Many children's fathers didn't come back because they paid the ultimate sacrifice. I've been to Afghanistan, last June I was in Korea at the DMZ zone, go into a hospital in Afghanistan to see people who lost their legs et cetera and yet they still have the love of this country.

When you talk about politics, then that is what's coming into this game. If you don't believe in something, and I think that it comes back to saying that President Trump is a racist, I get tired of hearing racist, homophobia, et cetera, for 77 years he did business. He was in the public line. There was never a claim one time about him being a racist.

I was in Detroit yesterday, Ben Carson, we're trying to do some things for the disadvantage youth under President Trump's leadership, they had a sign that I thought was great, he said talent equally distributed around the world. Opportunity is on. Let's work to give people an opportunity particularly the young people.

But either there been for (INAUDIBLE) this year in the previous year, it's just keep looking at it, is absolutely insane, because we don't focus, we have a problem, because we have a different objective. We might have a difference of opinion of how to make America great, how to give people an opportunity, how to win a championship. Coach Kerr done a tremendous job. He has some great athlete. He also won several championships with his players. Congratulations on that, but when you talk about a political statement, read Steve Kerr's comments, that says it all.

INGRAHAM: Well, I think that they're saying is the players are following their conscience about police brutality. It's not about the country, it's not about the flag, they're very patriotic people, but they are in their own way protesting against police brutality and they think that Trump doesn't understand that so they don't want to spend time with Trump.

HOLTZ: I think what President Trump said this morning is great, he said all the players, you talk about police brutality, you talk about police being unfair, bring it to me. Bring me the case. Bring me the people. I will look into it. He can't do any more than that. But let's not use sports in order to promote a cause. We're there to win a championship, that's our only purpose.

INGRAHAM: I can tell you, coach, I was at the White House when the Crimson Tide came, of course, national champions this year and they all came. Coach, you know, I think made it clear, everybody is coming, I'm sure the players didn't like Trump there, but they came and had a great time. It was a beautiful event. It was packed out and to me that's what it's all about. We put aside politics, it's about the country, and that's the people's house, celebrating the national championship. Lou, it's so great to see you, a huge fan, and come back soon, would you?

HOLTZ: I will, but we can go to another Dame to a game like you requested.

INGRAHAM: OK. We're doing that this fall, OK. You and I are going to a game this fall. I've embarrassed. I've never been to Notre Dame. I am completely embarrassed. I am coming this fall with you. That is a date, coach. Thank you so much.

HOLTZ: Thank you.

INGRAHAM: All right. And should a teacher's refusal to follow school policy on transgender students have cost him a job? We're going to speak to the teacher and his attorney next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Time now for another installment of our series defending the first where we expose the enemies of the first amendment, free expression and free thought. High school teacher in Brownsburg, Indiana, it saying he was forced to resign after he challenge the district's policy on transgender students.

That policy requires teachers to address these students by their preferred name instead of their birth name. Teacher John Kluge says that that violates both his religious beliefs and his constitutional rights.

I recently spoke to both Mr. Kluge and his attorney, Ross Stovall, and I began by challenging Mr. Stovall on whether the school district really violated the client's rights.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: You can't use the classroom for anything you want to do speech wise, I mean you are under contract with the school. So, if somebody is a teacher of anthropology suddenly wants to get up and talk about his or her view on, you know, Nazism or creationism, and so that is my free speech, oh yes, OK, but you're under contract with the school to teach, you know, Spanish. So you can be fired for that, correct?

ROSCOE STOVALL, ATTORNEY FOR JOHN KLUGE: Right, right, right. Well, yes, to your point, we believe there is a constructive discharge here. That they unreasonably threw out an accommodation that was in place. They actually had a written agreement John to allow John to actually express his convictions by using only last names of all of the students. That reasonable accommodation was tossed out by the administration after the school year. He was told either resigns, he follows the line of the school, using these transgender names that were not as he said the birth names or he will be suspended and then terminated. Those were the choices. That's an (INAUDIBLE) choice.

So from the standpoint of our legal position, we believe we have an illegal discharge. That's number one. But number two, the issue, the constitutional issue is can the government compel him to violate his religious beliefs? There is sufficient federal law that says that they must make a reasonable accommodation if he has religious beliefs. In those cases they're really well established around the country. We believe this is a new one, though, because it deals with an insidious effort by a governmental entity, if you will, a school paid by taxpayer funds. So we see this as a different wrinkle and we've seen before in the cases coming up.

INGRAHAM: Well, I think the studies on transgenderism are very difficult. First of all, there is no real long, you know, peer-reviewed study that we can look at whether hormone blockers, we don't need to get into that, it's not relevant here. But all I say is that there's a really explosive growth in kids calling themselves transgender.

And just in the British study, they went from I think it's 94 referrals as gender dysphoria, the technical term from 2009-2010. 94 at this clinic to now between 2016-2107, 1,986 referrals including some of those where children younger than six years of age.

Now, well, a lot of people are believing, thinking that this could be gender affirming treatments are actually encouraging kids who call themselves transgender, most grow out of it. That's just the way it is. Most o them grow out of it. But also other studies, adolescent health journal saying that they are two to three more times likely to suffer from depression, suicide, other mental disorders, very difficult.

So John, are you acting in part out of concern for these kids thinking that they're getting bad advice from their parents or others?

JOHN KLUGE, FORMER TEACHER: I do really care about these students and that is why I wanted to kind of sidestep the whole issue. I wanted to focus on teaching the kids orchestra and being able to reach out to them. And I have been able to over the course of the year cultivate friendly relationships with my students including these transgender students of mine. And I really want to continue teaching there, I love these kids and I want to continue that work.

INGRAHAM: John, what was the reaction from the other students? They must have heard about this. What grade are we talking about here?

KLUGE: 9 through 12.

INGRAHAM: OK. So what was the reaction of the other students when the students suddenly change names at the middle of the term?

KLUGE: Well in my class, because I'd been referring to students by their last name only, it hasn't really been a topic that's been discussed. We focused on working together as a team to create beautiful music.

INGRAHAM: Perfect.

KLUGE: And so I think that I've been successful in being able to create a culture and my classroom that they are respecting each other and I expect them to. And I cared for them and do respect them all.

INGRAHAM: All right. And Ross suit being filed in federal court?

STOVALL: Well, we hope not, we hope that the school board at 6:30 on Monday, recants, Alliance Defending Freedom brought me into this as now why attorney to try to avoid -- we always try to litigation if we can get accommodations handled, we do that, that's what John wants and what we want.

INGRAHAM: You want to go back and teach. John wants to go back and teach.

KLUGE: Absolutely. Absolutely.

INGRAHAM: And have his job back. All right, gentlemen, thank you so much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: We'll be right back.

(COMMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: That's all the time we have tonight, sadly, but guess what, be sure to tune in Monday when President Trump's big summit with the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, is expected to be underway during our hour. You're not going to want to miss the inside story that will give you analysis you're not going to get anywhere else so make sure you tune in that. Until then, have a great weekend, remember to fly your flags, spent time with the fam. And time now for Shannon Bream and the "Fox News @ Night" team.

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