Senator Mitch McConnell: Mob was not able to intimidate the Senate

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McConnell: Mob was not able to intimidate the Senate

Senator Mitch McConnell reacts on 'The Ingraham Angle' to Senator Collins' speech in support of Kavanaugh.<br>

This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," October 5, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

LAURA INGRAHAM, HOST:  Hello, from Washington, I'm Laura Ingraham and this is "The Ingraham Angle." Tonight, Senator Susan Collins driving what could be the final nail in the coffin for the Democrat's resistance against Brett Kavanaugh.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will join me exclusively in moments revealing what he said to Collins in today's lunch meeting just moments before she said yes to Kavanaugh. And amidst the Kavanaugh fight, the MeToo Movement is now hitting the board room. But not in the way that you might think.

Raymond Arroyo is here with me from Friday Follies and you would want to stick around for diamond and silk. It's not Friday without diamond and silk. But first, the Democrats' phony victim play, that's the focus of tonight's angle.

The Democrats and many on the left worked around the clock to kill Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. But I think they made a fatal miscalculation. They thought it was okay along the way to jettison the principle of due process, and to use victims to pursue a radical political agenda.

And on the first year anniversary of the MeToo Movement, I think it's important to remember that this all started with liberal Democrat Harvey Weinstein, friend of Bill and Hillary, and of course Barack Obama. And remember he, the Hollywood mogul, big mega donor. I mean this guy is where it all happened.

And remember, the abuse there started the cultural moment of MeToo. This notion of objectifying women and using them for the pleasure of the powerful has been long nurtured by the left. At the same time, it was also pro-women as we abuse women on the casting couch, et cetera.

And entertainment industry had the target on its back. But now we see the same mentality at play in the Kavanaugh struggle. (Inaudible) claims to be defenders of women, the Democrats cynically and I think cruelly used Christine Ford in a desperate attempt to derail a Supreme Court nominee.

Remember, she didn't initially want to come forward to tell her story. She was dragged into the open by political leaks to the Washington Post and other media outlets. And remember, reporters surrounded her home, and then she was forced to tell her story.

And today, we learned of more dirty tricks from these activist lawyers behind the scenes. Remember Leland Keyser? She was the person who Ford claimed was at the party where Kavanaugh allegedly assaulted her, one of her close friends. Well, Keyser previously told the senate committee that she didn't know of such party, didn't even know Kavanaugh to begin with.

Today, though, she told the "Wall Street Journal" that in -- and the FBI that a former agent, another friend of Christine Ford, Monica McLean, pressured her to change her account to corroborate Ford's account. Unbelievable. Well, in a speech announcing her decision to vote for Kavanaugh's confirmation today, Senator Susan Collins perfectly summed up the callousness of the Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS, R-MAINE:  Some people who wanted to engineer the defeat of this nomination cared little, if at all, for her wellbeing. Professor Ford testified that a limited number of people had access to her letter. Yet that letter found its way into the public domain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM:  And today, Dianne Feinstein left no doubt as to what this nasty senseless battle was really all about all along, the left's desire to use the Supreme Court to impose liberal social values on society.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, R-CALIFORNIA:  Another issue that gives me great pause is Judge Kavanaugh's extreme view on guns, the challenging realities women face, Row v. Wade, what kind of medical care you can receive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM:  Well, this has been a problem for decades. The American left believes the court should be kind of a super legislature, a body that makes law rather than interprets law. Since Trump announced his candidacy to the presidency the left has been in perpetual rage mode. And of course this continued into the night. And it's going on go on for some time. And this is how they attempted to influence Susan Collins before she announced her vote. Check it out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Don't put a liar on the court! Don't put a liar on the court!

(INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM:  Ah, nice. And this is how they work their charms on Democrat Joe Manchin after he announced he was supporting Kavanaugh.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALES:  Shame! Shame! Shame!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM:  At least it's a one-word chant, easy to follow. You know what is really shameful? Democrats who use victimhood as their defining principle. They'd rather have people dependent on government, helpless without it, especially certain groups, minorities, immigrants, and even women.

We're supposed to believe that we can't survive and thrive without an activist court making up new rights, finding them in the constitution. And they demand that we believe anyone who claims victim status. We have to take them at their word regardless of where the facts lie. But for all of their screaming and their tiresome chanting, the left basically come up empty this time.

Most Americans don't see themselves as victims. We're not powerless or weak. We're strong and independent. This was the Democrats' miscalculation. They thought emotional extortion and protester histrionics would be enough to block a well-qualified Supreme Court nominee.

But once again, they let their rabid political ideology blind them to the fact that Americans are fair-minded, have a basic goodness about them, and they're optimistic about the future. They don't need an activist Supreme Court to see the light, to know where we are as a people, to see our future. And that's the angle.

Joining me now is Code Pink's co-founder Medea Benjamin and former Kavanaugh colleague, Helgi Walker. She also served as associate counsel to President George W. Bush and clerked for Justice Thomas in the Supreme Court. Great to have you both on. Medea, do you deny that the left ended up sadly using Christine Ford as a political cudgel in this battle?

MEDEA BENJAMIN, CODE PINK CO-FOUNDER:  No, not at all. I think her story was important one to be heard. I think so many of these women who came in from around the country -- I was in Lisa Murkowski's office. I was in Senator Collins' office.

They wanted to tell their stories. They wanted -- it's a flooding of emotion. And I think people need to hear these stories. I think it's unfortunate that it doesn't look like we're going to be able to --

INGRAHAM:  So emotions trump fact?

BENJAMIN:  Emotions part of fact. Emotions --

INGRAHAM:  Not necessarily.

BENJAMIN:  Yes, but I think in his case the opening of the possibility for women to tell their stories has been --

INGRAHAM:  What's preventing -- I keep -- I'm sorry, but I keep hearing this, women can't tell their stories. Women are strong, more than half the population, I think mostly more than half of law school classes today. More than half of the university enrollment are women. This idea that women are these damsels in distress and we don't have a voice and we can't -- we can speak any time we want.

BENJAMIN:  Then you obviously have had the fortune, good fortune of not being molested at a young age.

INGRAHAM:  Medea, don't pull that card on me. What I'm saying is that the idea that women are damsels in distress and they need an activist Supreme Court to rescue them.

BENJAMIN:  Then you want to end the trauma of sexual assault --

INGRAHAM:  Why did Christine Ford's name get outed?

BENJAMIN:  I don't know.

INGRAHAM:  Why did her name get outed?

BENJAMIN:  I don't know but it was outed and she had to stand --

INGRAHAM:  She didn't want it to be outed. She was used.

BENJAMIN:  She wouldn't have come to Washington --

INGRAHAM:  They used her. Did she look happy to be there, Medea?

BENJAMIN:  Obviously not --

INGRAHAM:  She didn't want to be there.

BENJAMIN:  It's terrifying.

INGRAHAM:  They dragged her in there. They used her.

BENJAMIN:  -- let's say, Laura, can we agree on one thing.

INGRAHAM:  They used her.

BENJAMIN:  It is good that women are now coming out and telling their stories. Is that a positive thing?

INGRAHAM:  They used Christine Ford.

BENJAMIN:  I think it's a wonderful thing.

INGRAHAM:  They used her, and that was a sad thing to use her to try to kill this nomination. They abused her.

HELGI WLKER, FORMER ASSOCIATE COUNSEL TO PRESIDENT BUSH 43:  She did not want to be there and she made that clear in the first few minutes of her testimony. She never wanted a public hearing. And for some reason, I don't know why, she never even knew that Senator Grassley had offered that the judiciary committee staff could come to her in California or offered a private hearing. Did her lawyers not tell her that that was an option?

INGRAHAM:  What did they want Helgi?

WALKER:  They wanted a public spectacle and that's exactly what they got, Laura.

INGRAHAM:  They wanted a circus. They wanted to flood the Capitol with the victim's stories. They wanted to besiege senators in elevators and yell shame and spit in their faces and get a centimeter from people's faces like they're horrible people because they don't think you should jettison due process because you have an agenda to kill off a Supreme Court nominee.

WALKER:  Senator Collins said it best.

INGRAHAM:  I think it's insulting to --

WALKER:  They did not care about Dr. Ford's feelings or well-being in the slightest bit.

BENJAMIN:  Of course they did. And they gave her an opportunity that she wanted and they've given women in general an opportunity. This is going to change history. It might not change who's on the Supreme Court but it's going to change the way parents bring up their sons, it's going to change the way young people relate to each other. It's going to change the way men act towards women. And that's a positive.

INGRAHAM:  This is a Woman's March tweet that went out today, Medea. I think we have it up on the screen. "Senator Susan Collins rape apologist." Do you agree with that tweet?

BENJAMIN:  I wouldn't say she's a rape apologist. I would say she didn't listen to the women who -- so, in such a heart-felt fashion came to tell her please, listen to survivors, believe women, believe Dr. Ford.

INGRAHAM:  Do you think all women, regardless of facts, years past, no contemporaneous corroboration, in fact, people that she claimed were in the room signed sworn statements saying I wasn't there, I don't even know Kavanaugh including her best friend. So despite that --

BENJAMIN:  And she said she's 100 percent certain.

INGRAHAM:  OK, so all four people in the room are lying?

BENJAMIN:  Another thing that has really gotten to us a lot is the way that Brett Kavanaugh acted at that hearing.

INGRAHAM:  Oh, please.

BENJAMIN:  I think that's important. I don't want --

INGRAHAM:  Oh, really? You ever been in a courtroom with a judge? I've been in a lot of courtroom. You don't know what judges are like.

BENJAMIN:  -- arrogant, petulant, sarcastic, mean, aggressive. I mean, even Judge John Paul Stevens, the retired justice, a life-long Republican after watching that said --

INGRAHAM:  A lifelong liberal activist judge on bench.

WALKER:  If somebody flat-out lied about you on a national stage would you be upset?

BENJAMIN:  And I was going to be one of the nine people out of how many, 350 million people in the country that's going to sit on the Supreme Court? I would sit there and have a much more deferential attitude towards the senators.

INGRAHAM:  OK, first it was he was a rapist, and he was a gang rapist, and then he was, oh, he drank too much, and then that didn't work and then he's like, well, he was aggressive, like Corey Booker. Oh, please.

BENJAMIN:  Nasty, mean, sarcastic.

INGRAHAM:  Well guess what, 300 (inaudible)

WALKER:  Three hundred.

INGRAHAM:  Three hundred court opinions, overwhelming reaction by people on the left and right who appeared before him in 12 years on the federal bench, Medea. Twelve years. Not a day on the Senate Judiciary Committee but 12 years, have the utmost respect for his judicial temperament, reasoning and authority. And so the idea --

BENJAMIN:  And they went up to the next level, which is to get on the Supreme Court and he failed the test.

INGRAHAM:  Oh really? It's called two words, Medea, life tenure. He's going to get confirmed tomorrow. OK, I want to play something for you. This is Susan Hennessey, and I just happened to catch this leaving my house today because I like to turn on other networks just to get some comedic relief. This is someone I've never heard of but her name is Susan Hennessey, and it was so unhinged on a Friday night, I thought I'd play it for you, Helgi. Let's watch.

WALKER:  OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN HENNESSEY, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY & LEGAL ANALYST:  The extent to which Senator Grassley relies on women to do his dirty work to actually get the job done whenever he needs votes over the line, just speaks to how unbelievably tone deaf these individuals are. I do think that it touches into the same sort of incandescent rage that we are seeing in response to the Kavanaugh confirmation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM:  It's a big rephrase (ph), incandescent rage. OK, you got that and Grassley's relying on women to do his dirty work?

WALKER:  So, what does that mean?

INGRAHAM:  -- exclude women from the votes.

WALKER:  Susan Collins is controlled by Chuck Grassley. Susan Collins stood up and gave an incredible speech in the tradition of Senator Margaret Chase Smith. She spoke to reason, she spoke to facts, she gave a very principled explanation.

INGRAHAM:  Almost an hour.

WALKER:  And thank goodness, Laura, somebody broke through this morass and brought some common sense and some decency and maybe reset this process to something near --

INGRAHAM:  Real quick.

BENJAMIN:  Well, here we see the difference because I thought Murkowski's speech was very heartfelt --

WALKER:  Collins.

BENJAMIN:  -- deep, and very good.

INGRAHAM:  Oh my God. Are you kidding me? Murkowski said -- she lost me when she said, our role of advice and consent. It is advise and consent. I'm sorry, for you a senator, you don't know its advise and consent, sorry, you already lost me.

BANJAMIN:  She spoke from her heart.

INGRAHAM:  But Medea, you are like emotion and heart. I'm not saying it's not important. We all love good emotions. We love a good cry, we love a good laugh, but at some point, facts and a reason to have win out. I mean, in life they ultimately win out, do they not?

BENJAMIN:  And there was a doubt about whether he did this and so he should not be on the Supreme Court, period.

INGRAHAM:  I hope not you never are subjected to an accusation --

BENJAMIN:  This is a job interview and he failed it.

INGRAHAM:  He actually didn't fail it because he's going to be confirmed on the Supreme Court.

BENJAMIN:  Well, he should've failed.

INGRAHAM:  OK. Well, that's a different way of scoring it. All right ladies, thank you very much for being here tonight, both of you. Madea and I go way back from the early 2000s on radio. It's great to see you.

And it's no secret at this point that the grassroots protesters at the Capitol are often funded either directly or indirectly by some George Soros affiliated groups. Now, we've shown you the evidence of that, but for daring to raise this possibility, Senator Chuck Grassley was called an anti-Semite.

A "New York Times" op-ed writer, David Leonhardt writes, "Let's be clear here, Charles Grassley is a United States Senator. He is responsible for his words. And his words here amount to an anti-Semitic smear." Michelle Malkin joins us now with reaction to the craziness and how it's crazy, kind of sometimes mob mentality seems to be taking over politics and certainly Capitol Hill.

Michelle, did George Soros have any involvement in the funding of like this-- what is it, the Center for Popular Democracy, where the ladies cornered poor old Jeff Flake in the elevator (inaudible) and he looked very scared.

MICHELLE MALKIN, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR:  Yes.

INGRAHAM:  Were they involved in this?

MALKIN:  Yes, the Center for Popular Democracy is aligned with George Soros' entire network and he is the sun in the center of a galaxy of these left wing resistance groups that have morphed over time, whether it was move-on or your previous guest, Madea Benjamin's Code Pink.

Now, there's a new generation of these groups and CPD is one of them, along with Code Pink 2.0, ultraviolet (ph). And it is the protest orchestration I think that really needs to be investigated. Not only among the funders and the philanthropists that back these professional mobsters, but also the people that they were coordinating with within the Senate Judiciary Committee.

It's still not has answered who gave the Senate gallery passes to people like Linda Sarsour and Piper Perabo and these others who from day one, second one, minute one of the hearings were enacting the plan that they have announced ever since Donald Trump won office.

And I think that the Senate Democrat wrecking machine is not going to give up after Judge Kavanaugh is nominated and approved tomorrow. They're going to go on all the way through the midterms and 2020. And I think it behooves the right and the conservative movement, Laura, to make sure that we don't leave a vacuum in these spaces.

INGRAHAM:  Michelle, you took the words out of my mouth because you really have to hand it to the left's power to organize. I really give it to them because they bus people here, they put them up at, you know, local churches, they all, like print out the same glossy posters Kavanaugh -- that was actually kind of clever, I have to admit.

But they get their word out. I mean, and they really did, I think, ultimately delay this vote for a week. They were ultimately not successful. But they dragged this thing out for another week. And, look, until the last vote is cast I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed. Anything can always happen.

MALKIN:  Same.

INGRAHAM:  They really need a taste tester tonight, don't you think Michelle, like everybody should have their food tasted.

MALKIN:  Yes.

INGRAHAM:  But they did have an effect and they are cowing some of these more moderate senators, although they ultimately voted for or they will vote for Kavanaugh.

MALKIN:  Yes. You know, we do need boots on the ground. There are millions of us women, for example, Laura, who feel the same way we do. And you voiced it well in that previous segment, who rely on facts and logic and who believe as I do that we need to believe evidence not gender as the default.

And, you know, it is hard for these elected officials when they've got screaming, baying mobs of these feminist hounds and nobody on the other side to counter them. And I always hear, of course, from a lot of small business owners and parents and family members on the right, well, we have full time jobs so we can't be there.

Obviously on Election Day they will have a voice, and a vote. But, you know, maybe it's time we pay full-time people to answer that and make sure that we are represented on the ground in the beltway because it's not going to stop.

INGRAHAM:  There are a lot of conservative businessmen making a ton of money in this economy, this Trump economy. They got to pony up money. I mean, the Democrats are doing it, (inaudible) doing it, registering hundreds of thousands of people to vote including young people, Puerto Rican voters moving to Florida. It's a big deal. It can't be all on you, Michelle, to pull us over the finish line, right.

MALKIN:  And I want to say one more part of the plan, which is I heard that you're going to move to Alaska and run for Senate against Murkowski. I'm going to move to Hawaii and run against that crazy Mazie Hirono, right.

INGRAHAM:  That would be fun.

MALKIN:  Although I'd rather be in Alaska than Hawaii. You want to trade?

INGRAHAM:  No, I'll do the fly fishing, you can do the surfing down there. All right, Michelle, thank you so much for joining us tonight. A historic night here in Washington, D.C. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell is here next, exclusively with us, his reaction to today's events. And a look ahead to tomorrow's historic Kavanaugh vote. Stay right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS:  As those who have known him best have attested. He has been an exemplary public servant, judge, teacher, coach, husband, and father. Mr. President, I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM:  That was Senator Susan Collins delivering a crushing blow to Democrats hoping for a last-minute defection. During her nearly one hour long speech earlier today, she echoed many of the sentiments offered on the Senate floor day after day by our next guest. We're happy to be joined exclusively tonight by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Senator McConnell, when did you know you had the votes?

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, SENATE MAJORITY LEADER:  When the roll was called.

INGRAHAM:  No, really?

MCCONNELL:  Yes. They were all very guarded about making an announcement. So this is one of those rare situations when you go into a vote, not really knowing for sure that you had them.

INGRAHAM:  Because you usually call cloture, you don't usually call cloture unless you know you have the ultimate votes, correct.

MCCONNELL:  We had to move on this. And this was not going to get any better if we didn't vote. I decided a week ago we were going to vote on Friday because we watched what was happening. Tthey were trying to destroy this good man with all these rumors and all the rest of the stuff so we need to have a vote in order to bring to it a conclusion.

INGRAHAM:  Why didn't Senator Murkowski ultimately go along? We got Flake and you got Collins with that long speech today. I mean she will impress a lot of people with her passion and her dedication, the advise and consent. What happened to Murkowski?

MCCONNELL:  Well, you know, I'd rather celebrate the victory. And I think there's plenty of credit to go around. President Trump for making great choices. Chairman Grassley for doing a heck of a good job in committee dealing with all of these outbursts, my members dealing with -- I mean we've been under assault, Laura. Our homes have been -- they've come to our homes.

INGRAHAM:  Yours was today, this morning.

MCCONNELL:  Yes, but not just me, everybody. I mean, they've been after all of us. We've sort of been under assault. And everybody decided to stand up to the mob. You know, they're not being intimidated by these people. I just couldn't be prouder of my members for refusing to roll over under all of this intense pressure, all of the lies. This is a great day for America.

INGRAHAM:  The senate is under siege, protesters don't seem to be letting up, even late in the afternoon into the evening tonight. Is this the new normal? And I want to play something. This is Senator Manchin. This was after the Collins speech today and after he said he would vote for Brett Kavanaugh. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALES:  Look at us! Look at us! Look at us!

Shame! Shame! Shame!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM:  A lot of my radio callers today said is this the way it's going to be? Is there going to be any changes to building access? You don't want to become cocoon but any changes to how you let people into the building?

MCCONNELL:  Well, I think security will take care of that. Look, I think the main point is the mob was not able to intimidate the Senate. We stood up to the mob, we did the right thing for a good man, fill a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court. There were a lot to celebrate today. I couldn't be prouder of all of my members. Senator Collins, outstanding. You had part of her speech in the entry.

INGRAHAM:  But the Democrats now have raised just during her speech, they raised almost $2 million on a GoFundMe page for an undetermined candidate and Susan Collins is apparently seriously entertaining -- Susan Rice, excuse me -- entertaining a challenge against Senator Collins in 2020. Your thoughts.

MCCONNELL:  Senator Collins will be well-funded, I can assure you. Look, there's a lot of enthusiasm on our side, too. You may or may not have noticed the rising enthusiasm among Republican voters. I think our people are going to be just as fired-up as theirs a month from now and everybody is going to remember what they did to Brett Kavanaugh.

INGRAHAM:  Is this the shot in the arm that the Republicans needed?

MCCONNELL:  Absolutely. Absolutely. It is a wakeup call to why it's important to hold the Senate. You know, the Senate is in the personnel business. I love the House but the Senate is in the personnel business. You want to get judges confirmed, cabinet members confirmed, boards and commissions confirmed, we have to control the Senate so the president's nominations can actually be confirmed and take the jobs.

INGRAHAM:  Do you intend to use this issue on the campaign trail for the last four weeks and what are you going to say about it?

MCCONNELL:  Absolutely. I'm going to remind everybody of the importance of the Senate, two Supreme Court appointments, 26 circuit judges, a record for the first two years. These are lifetime appointments with conservative men and women who believe that the job of a judge is to interpret the law as it's written.

INGRAHAM:  Well, what about repercussions for what happened during this process? I was here for Judge Bourque. I was a young speech writer in the Reagan administration. I was here for Justice Thomas obviously, but I think this actually rivaled both of those.

MCCONNELL:  I do, too.

INGRAHAM:  It was brutal. And Lindsay Graham was on with us last night and he talked about the need for repercussions against the wrong doers in this case. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-SOUTH CAROLINA :  I believe Dianne Feinstein didn't leak it but I don't know about her staff. I do know this, her staff recommended to Dr. Ford Ms. Katz who hates Trump, is a politically active leftist lawyer.

INGRAHAM:  So why not get the -- secure their e-mails and texts. Leaking confidential information. You're going to do that tonight.

MCCONNE:: We're going after them. Here's what I'm going to do. Anybody who did this is going to pay a price.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM:  Will they pay a price?

MCCONNELL:  I think it will be investigated. But, you know, it didn't work. I think the most important thing to note here is these tactics did not work.

INGRAHAM:  You want to go through this again. You want to pay -- people need to pay --

MCCONNELL:  What I want these people to know, Laura, is we are prepared to go through it again. They are not going to intimidate us. They're not going to tell us how to vote. And they've actually, you know, they actually helped us win this vote. Their tactics actually helped us unify our people and win this vote. They're going to help us win a month from now on November 6, too.

INGRAHAM:  Do you think you'll pick up senate seats?

MCCONNELL:  I hope so. This underscores how important it is. We have a close margin. Very close margin. I'd like to have a few extra Republican senators.

INGRAHAM:  Let's talk about the media's role in all of this, amplifying charges. We had -- another point I want to play from Susan Collins when she talked about the rape rooms and these words that were being thrown around against this esteemed judge. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS:  The allegations that when he was a teenager judge Kavanaugh drugged multiple girls and used their weakened state to facilitate gang rape. This outlandish allegation was put forth without any credible supporting evidence and simply parroted public statements of others.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM:  including the media, a celebrity porn lawyer.

MCCONNELL:  I can remember when that sort of thing was not put on the air. People didn't just peddle nonsense with no corroboration.  That really exacerbated the problem.  And a lot of Senate Democrats would mainstream that stuff right into their discussions and try to convince everybody that it somehow happened.  No corroboration at all.  Just rumors.  All over the place.

INGRAHAM:  Senator Merkley from Oregon was quite upset today.  He said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY, D-OREGON:  Chuck Grassley, the chair of the committee, and Mitch McConnell, the majority leader.

(BOOS)

MERKLEY:  They said there's no contemporaneous evidence to support the women who came forward.  That is not true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM:  What are we missing here, senator?

MCCONNELL:  I don't know what he's talking about.  There was no evidence to corroborate any of the allegations against Judge Kavanaugh.  Maybe he's on a different planet.  I'm not sure.

INGRAHAM:  Right now when you look back on this last couple of weeks, and you have had an incredible run of confirming circuit court judges and district court judges, but just this experience, lessons learned for the Republican Party, the Senate, maybe the president going forward?

MCCONNELL:  Well, I think we have reaffirmed that in this country you're presumed innocent, the presumption is in favor of innocence.  We also relearned that you can't -- you should not allow mobs to intimidate you. And I think it's a good lesson for us.  I think it unified our conference, made us excited about the November election, was good for the American people to see that these people were stood up to and they didn't get away with it.  They did not win.  That's the most important thing.

INGRAHAM:  How radical has the Democratic Party of today become?

MCCONNELL:  It's a pretty wild bunch.  It's pretty clear they were willing to do anything, say anything, to try to win.  There's no boundaries.

INGRAHAM:  Do you still have close friends in the Democratic caucus after all this, or are emotions pretty raw?

MCCONNELL:  I think we'll get past it in terms of relationships.  But it was a tough period, a tough period.  I hope they learned a lesson.  You can do this kind of thing, but it doesn't necessarily get you to victory.

INGRAHAM:  Mitch McConnell, congratulations.

MCCONNELL:  Thank you, Laura.

INGRAHAM:  Thanks so much for being here.

Ahead, Friday Follies with Raymond Arroyo, and the first story is connected to you, Senator McConnell.  Anti-Kavanaugh protesters hold an impromptu kegger in front of your house this morning.  That and a whole lot more on that important, very important night tonight in the history of our country. Stay there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM:  It's Friday, which means it's time for -- 

(MUSIC)

INGRAHAM:  It's Friday Follies where protesters get creative outside Mitch McConnell's house, and sexual politics are taking over boardrooms and classrooms.  For all the details, we're joined by Raymond Arroyo, Fox News contributor, comedian during breaks, and "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Will Wilder Series." Raymond, tell me about the early morning protests outside of McConnell's townhouse.

RAYMOND ARROYO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR:  Imagine, it's 7:30 in the morning and you are awakened by a protest coming up the block.  You can imagine Mitch McConnell, Elaine, what is that out there?  And then he saw this. Watch?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD:  Chug, chug, chug, chug.  I like beer!  I like beer!  I like beer! I like beer!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARROYO:  They were walking up the block saying chug, chug, chug, I like beer.  This is like walking into the Pirates of the Caribbean in Oldtown. The poor man is surrounded by these drunken protestors.  This is 7:30 in the morning, and they have Pabst Red Ribbon beer --

INGRAHAM:  Red?  Blue ribbon.  A big beer drinker.

ARROYO:  I don't touch the stuff.

INGRAHAM:  If it's not Sazerac, Arroyo doesn't drink it.

ARROYO:  That's right.  And they have the red solo cups.  And they're saying I like beer, I like beer.  Remember, Brett Kavanaugh at his hearing did mention this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE BRETT KAVANAUGH, SUPREME COURT NOMINEE:  We drank beer, my friends and I, boys and girls, yes, we drank beer.  I liked beer.  Still like beer. We drank beer.  We like beer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARROYO:  My question is, I don't know what this protest is about, because if you don't like the guy why are you mimicking his words.  Do you support him or not?

INGRAHAM:  It seems like any random morning on frat row at Dartmouth, this is what we were doing.

ARROYO:  It didn't look like much of a protest.  It looked more like a collection of disgruntled neighbors just wanting to --

INGRAHAM:  They had a zoning grievance with Mitch McConnell.

ARROYO:  This was a creative protest compared to what was going on in the bowels of the capital.  This is an organizer giving his marchers orders. But are they in kindergarten?  You be the judge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Let's go watch the vote.

CROWD:  Let's go watch the vote.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  In the offices in which they communicate with.

CROWD:  In the offices in which they communicate with.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  I am going to go Heidi Heitkamp's office.

CROWD:  I am going to go Heidi Heitkamp's office.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:  Why?  She's on our side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM:  She on our side.

ARROYO:  And you can go to the offices you go to.

INGRAHAM:  Wait, wait, wait, they were going to the wrong office.  Weren't they going to Heidi Heitkamp?  Wait, zombie, co-zombie, she's on our side. Oh.  Totally my bad.

ARROYO:  But why do you have to have a chant and echo for basic orders like we're going to go to the offices.

INGRAHAM:  We're going, we're going, to, to, the offices.

ARROYO:  We're going to the offices, to the offices.

The Me Too movement is getting a pretty big birthday present.  In California the governor signed a bill requiring public corporations to, in his state, to have at least one female director on their board.  By 2021, every board will have to have three female directors.  Do you think this is even constitutional, Laura?

INGRAHAM:  I think Pacific Islanders, Latino Americans, and every other group should say, what about me?  Me too.

ARROYO:  How about men?  I just want men to be on the all-female boards. Then they might be parity.

INGRAHAM:  There are no all-female boards.

ARROYO:  Well, let me tell you about the selfie suicide movement that's happening.  The Indian health services did a study, 259 people in seven years lost their lives taking these risky selfie shots.  Mostly men. People between 10 and 29.  But that number is really low.  They're saying it's almost 250.  It's much higher than that.  All they did was look at publicly declared cases.  There are a lot that went undeclared.  But it's people on rooftops, on monuments, they're in traffic, and they're dying taking these shots.  Real vanity.

Before I go.  I thought just to bring it all together, Laura, the whole segment.  We'll take selfie.  You take that one.

INGRAHAM:  This hurts my hand.

ARROYO:  I'll take a quick selfie.  Are you ready?  Smile.  Do we have it?

INGRAHAM:  Go to the edge.

The ACLU used to care about the rights of accused.  But with Kavanaugh they spent a million bucks comparing him to Bill Cosby.  Check on him please, medic.  Former VP of the group is here to take his former group to task. Help him. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM:  In all this Kavanaugh madness, has the American Civil Liberties Union undermined their core position?  Among the most outrageous ads to come out of this Kavanaugh fight was the one in which the judge was compared to Bill Cosby and Bill Clinton.  Our next guest says the group's no long area bunch of civil libertarians, that they're, quote, serving a different master now.  Here to explain what he meant by that is former ACLU vice president Michael Meyers, along with civil rights attorney Will Jawando.  Michael, I'm going to start with you.  It seems like the ACLU has kind of forfeited their founding mission in favor of what, I guess just a leftist smear?

MICHAEL MEYERS FORMER ACLU VICE PRESIDENT:  Yes, in terms of lunatic politics of the left.  The ACLU, and I was proud.  I served on the board of the ACLU close to a quarter of a century.  I was proud of it when it resisted fashion, when it stood up against, to the mob, when it insisted on the cornerstone of liberty which is the presumption of innocence.  Nobody is guilty of anything on the basis of an accusation.  You have got to have more than just an accusation.  A person is not guilty of murder because a cop says you murdered somebody.  A person is not guilty of murder because he's black, or because they're a women, no.  You have got to have evidence. So the ACLU has abandoned all principles in terms of due process, fairness, fundamental fairness in favor of the smear.

INGRAHAM:  Let's play the ad, and then, Will, you can react.  So this is the ad, about 23 seconds.  Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:  We've seen this before.  Denials from powerful men.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT:  I did not have sexual relations with that woman.

BILL COSBY, COMEDIAN:  I've never seen anything like this.

JUDGE BRETT KAVANAUGH, SUPREME COURT NOMINEE:  I categorically and unequivocally deny the allegation against me by Dr. Ford.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:  America is watching.  And as we choose a lifetime seat on our highest court, we cannot have any doubt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM:  Will, the ACLU, is about basic principles, due process, individual liberty, and last time I checked, innocent until proven guilty. And comparing Brett Kavanaugh to president Clinton, obviously, DNA evidence in that case, Bill Cosby, multiple accusations of corroborated sexual harassment and worse, how does it comport with the mission of the ACLU?

WILL JAWANDO, CIVIL RIGHT ATTORNEY:  Well, look, the thing here is that we didn't have an investigation.  Weed a Don McGahn minutes after the Senate was forced to say we're going to do an FBI investigation say we can't have them talking to everybody.  There were dozens of witnesses that were put forward by Dr. Ford and others that just were not talked to.  They didn't even speak to Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh, the people who were involved.

INGRAHAM:  Because it was supplemental investigation and both testified for hours and hours and hours.

JAWANDO:  You brought up the DNA evidence and all that stuff.  We could have had some of that if we had had an actual investigation.

INGRAHAM:  Wait a second, wait a second.  Will, I adore Will, Michael, hold on, but I adore will, but he said we might have had something like DNA evidence had we had more interviews?

JAWANDO:  We would have had more evidence, not DNA.

INGRAHAM:  I don't think so.

JAWANDO:  They weren't even doing DNA.

INGRAHAM:  Will -- I mean, Michael, again, the ACLU, I have to say when I was at Dartmouth and we got into hot water with college newspaper that was working for "The Dartmouth Review," I remember when Ira Glasser, who was, I think, executive director of the ACLU stood up for us, because we were student journalists.  But I'm sure he didn't like a lot of the stuff we were doing.  we were acting sophomoric.  We were sophomores at college. But they stood up for us.  And that gave me a sense of what the ACLU is all about.  It wasn't partisan.

MEYERS:  The ACLU used to stand for nonpartisanship.  It never took a position either for or against candidates for office or nominees for the court.  Now, it's different.  They have a pretense of nonpartisanship, and they always say in all of their literature, we are nonpartisan, we don't endorse oppose, but, however, and then they go on and give and give and give credence to that they oppose people they disagree with.

JAWANDO:  They were calling for an investigation.

MEYERS:  That's not the ACLU.  I don't know what you know about the mission of the ACLU.  Obviously you haven't read the policies of the NAA -- ACLU.

JAWANDO:  I worked at the NAACP.

MEYERS:  I said ACLU.

JAWANDO:  You said NAACP first.

MEYERS:  I know.  I used to work at the NAACP national office.

JAWANDO:  What happened to you, man?

MEYERS:  I was assistant national director of the NAACP under Roy Wilkins and Ben Hooks.

JAWANDO:  They're rolling in their graves.

MEYERS:  That's when the organize was principled.  That's when the organization knew that people had rights, individual rights, and freedom of speech.

JAWANDO:  One in three women has been sexually assaulted in this country.

INGRAHAM:  Guys, do we have time for this?  I just want to play this one thing.  This is from Susan Herman, this at liberty podcast.  Listen very, very closely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:  I think we did want to make that statement and to disagree with those who say you shouldn't pay attention to her because you don't have objective corroboration.  So, I think this is our statement, that we do believe that women should be believed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM:  Really quick, you have 10 seconds, all women should be believed, yes?

JAWANDO:  One in three women are victims of sexual assault.  I have three daughters.  I want their allegations to be taken seriously and investigated.  It didn't happen here.  You guys can celebrate all you want. It wasn't investigated.

INGRAHAM:  All women should be believed whether there's corroboration or not.

JAWANDO:  It should be investigated.

INGRAHAM:  Real quick, Mike, real quick.

MEYERS:  That's just absurd.  Because somebody is a woman you have to believe them?  Because somebody says they're a victim of a crime you have to believe them?  No, that's not how we live in America.  That's not due process.  That's not right.  That's not the presumption of innocence.

INGRAHAM:  Guys, we'll have you both back.  We've got a lot more on this to cover. And by the way, a Women's March cofounder saying support for Kavanaugh equals support for bigotry and racism.  Seems like a pretty big jump to me. Diamond and Silk here to respond, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAMIKA MALLORY, WOMAN'S MARCH CO-CHAIR:  When he was mocking her, there were people laughing.  There were people laughing.  And you know, I'm the resident check white women person in the women's march.

(APPLAUSE)

MALLORY:  So let me tell you who was laughing.  White women were standing there laughing with their white husbands.  Do not allow people to be comfortable around you supporting racists and bigots.  And it is not OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM:  That was women's march co-chair Tamika Mallory with a message to white women following the president's fact check of Christine Ford the other night.  Here with their reaction are Diamond and Silk.  Ladies, great to see you.  Thanks for being here.  Diamond, what's your reaction to Ms. Mallory here?

DIAMOND, POLITICAL ACTIVIST:  You have to understand that, first of all, the president wasn't mocking anybody.  What he was doing was calling out inconsistencies in Dr. Ford's story, and we all was agreeing with him, the people in his audience and the people at home.  That's the first thing.

The second thing, this is what the Democrats do, the liberals do.  When they can't beat with you the race card they use the sex card, they say you're a mark and they call you a bigot.  That's why we have to march to the polls and vote right, vote for red, vote Republican.

INGRAHAM:  Silk, there's this actress, singer, Bette Midler, I know, remember, "Beaches." She said this in a tweet on Thursday, yesterday, "Women are the n-word of the world."  She has since deleted the world. "Raped, beaten, enslaved, married off, worked like dumb animals, denied education, inheritance, enduring the pain of childbirth and life in silence for thousands of years.  They are the most disrespected creatures on earth." Silk?

SILK, POLITICAL ACTIVIST:  I really believe that is really a shame how you tie, want to tie beautiful women and women to the n-word.  When I look at, Bette, I look at the fact she's a Democrat.  This is exactly what they do. If you look at the liberals, and the Democrats, they are the party of slavery.  And look at the slave masters, what did they call their slaves? So she understands the n-word, she knows what it means to be the n-word. However, I think that she should not tie women to the n-word.  And she shouldn't even be saying the n-word.  I thought we laid that word to rest.

INGRAHAM:  Diamond, did you have any thoughts when you see the very angry, rage-filled protesters, filling the capitol, filling the Senate, Hart Office Building, celebrities, Amy Schumer standing up in her prison garb with her fist raised in the air.  Thoughts on that?

DIAMOND:  My only thoughts on that is that we have to look at that, and what we have to do as a Republican Party is galvanize the Republicans and go to the polls and we have to vote.  When I look at the left and how they use the Me Too movement, and how they took that movement and politicized it, and then used it as a weapon to weaponize it against somebody to try to character assassinate them, we don't need that happening to us.  Today it was Kavanaugh, tomorrow it could be your brother, your husband, your son, or your father.  So you're going to have to vote red and vote Republican.

INGRAHAM:  All right, ladies, thank you so much, great to see you tonight.

And up next, a big announcement, and maybe even some breaking news.  Stay there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM:  This is a Fox News alert.  We have a brand new addition to "The Ingraham Angle" family tonight.  Our producer, and her husband, Jimmy, they have a big announcement, the birth of their beautiful pint-sized Maria Clare O'Toole (ph).  She is absolutely beautiful, six pounds, 14 ounces. She's a little Ingraham angel.  There she is.  They actually let, the O'Tooles (ph) let me actually hold the baby.

ARROYO:  Wait, wait, wait, Elisa (ph) had a baby?

INGRAHAM:  Oh, my God.  You are --

ARROYO:  Did Diamond and Silk come out?

INGRAHAM:  Congratulations, Elisa (ph) and Jimmy.  Clare (ph), you're going to be a superstar.

END

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