'The Ingraham Angle' on China, Biden's COVID policies

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The Collaborators: We are allowing the CCP to grow richer and more powerful year after year

Host Laura Ingraham sounds off in her 'Ingraham Angle' commentary

This is a rush transcript of "The Ingraham Angle" on December 7, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: I'm Laura Ingraham. This is THE INGRAHAM ANGLE from a very busy Washington tonight. We have a lot to unpack.

So we're going to jump right in. The collaborators, that's the focus of tonight's 'Angle'.

Now, the biggest long-term threat to America, it's not Russia or Iran or North Korea, although all of them present unique challenges. And it's certainly not what the Democrats on the Hill on the Biden administration are focused on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D-VT): Do you agree with your predecessors that white supremacist extremists remain the most persistent and lethal threat in the homeland?

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: I do believe they do at this time.

MERRICK GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL: The top domestic violent extremist threat we face comes from racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists, specifically those who advocate for the superiority of the white race.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: The biggest threat facing our democracy and our way of life is the Chinese Communist Party.

Now, under Biden we find ourselves trying to play catch up with, or blocking the CCP in their efforts to expand their power base across the globe. According to 'The Wall Street Journal', "Classified American intelligence reports suggest China intends to establish its first permanent military presence on the Atlantic Ocean in the tiny Central African country of Equatorial Guinea, a threat that is setting off alarm bells at the White House and the Pentagon".

Well, the alarm bells should have gone off, I don't know, 20 years ago. Since trade opened between Red China and the West, the communist regime has grown richer and more powerful year after year. It now has the largest number of active military personnel in the world with a 2.1 million troop size compared to our 1.4 million. By 2024, it's poised to have the biggest economy in the world, which has our elites, frankly, just licking their chops.

The CCP basically owns big business in America. Today, shocking new documents obtained by the information detail a secret $275 billion deal struck five years ago between China and the Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Well, now we know why Cook became such a CCP apologist and how Apple recently became the top selling smartphone in China. "The company owes much of that success to CEO Tim Cook, who laid the foundation years ago by secretly signing an agreement with Chinese officials promising Apple would do its part to develop China's economy and technological prowess through investments, business deals, and worker training."

Anything else? Well. Well, and that's not all the CCP got from Cook, who has a huge influence operation in Washington. Apple lobby to water down key provisions of an anti-Chinese slave labor bill, which would hold U.S. companies accountable for using Uighur forced labor.

Now, most American billionaires dismiss criticisms of China using words like, how it's counterproductive and destabilizing to do so. And sometimes it's hard to tell the American elite from Chinese top propagandists. Enter investor Ray Dalio.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAY DALIO, FOUNDER, CO-CHAIRMAN, CO-CIO, BRIDGEWATER ASSOCIATES: I look at the United States. And I say, Well, what's going on in the United States? And should I not invest in the United States because other things are not our own human rights issues. What they have is an autocratic system.

And one of the leaders described it. He said, that the United States is a country of individuals and individualism. And China, it's an extension of the family. As a top down country, what they're doing is they behave like a strict parent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Yes, just like the strict parent. That's what they say they are.

Now, he tried later to walk it back, but you can't walk back those marks. We know exactly what he said and why he said it. His hedge fund just raised one and a quarter billion dollars for its China Fund. Can't let a few hundred thousand people being tortured in camps get in the way of that windfall.

But it's one thing to buy off Wall Street. They aren't policymakers after all. Their allegiance is to their investors and stockholders. What's truly disturbing is the spell the CCP has cast on our political class.

Just months ago, we learned that a Chinese front group called the China- United States Exchange Foundation handed $5 million to a foundation that was founded by George H.W. Bush's son Neil Bush.

Axios reported back in June that the funding was meant to bolster the Bush China Foundation's efforts to promote a bilateral relationship that is functional, constructive, commercially robust, mutually beneficial, and politically sustainable.

Now, this isn't surprising given the Bush's overly optimistic and warm relationship with China. George W. Bush is the one, remember, who granted permanent normal trading relations with China back in 2001. And how's that worked out for us? Well, of course, it hasn't worked out for us, about as well as the war in Afghanistan.

But to be fair, every president except Trump misunderstood China's ambitions, or at least chose to look past their brutal crackdown on human rights. Given this sordid history, no one should be surprised that so few are willing to deny President Xi and his global propaganda victory in hosting the Winter Olympics. For the most part, elites and both parties just don't care.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is a diplomatic boycott enough given the human rights abuses?

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, let me first say, you - everybody can call it whatever they want to call it. I would just remind you that often when you use diplomatic boycott, that phrase, that brings people back to 1980 and we are not. The athletes will be participating. We will be rooting for the athletes from home. I am an Olympics-obsessed person. So I'm looking forward to doing that. We felt that we could send a clear message by not sending an official U.S. delegation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: It's definitely not like 1980, because in 1980 Russia's economy is nowhere proportionally to where China's economy is, which is giant. It's ridiculous. Well, Xi, of course, is watching all these Biden bozos and he's just laughing, as if he cares if Kamala Harris or some Assistant Secretary of State shows up to watch, what, the curling.

What the CCP wants is a world where almost everyone is afraid to criticize President Xi for his murderous, genocidal policies. Now, here on Fox News, you can still hear commentators who are willing to tell the truth about China.

But how many Fortune 500 companies are going to let their officers tell the truth? How many universities flush with Chinese cash would allow their professors, or administrators to really expose the CCP's ruthless past, present and future plans? What about the NBA or other major American sports leagues? Where's Hollywood's epic takedown of Mao? Will we ever see, I don't know, a James Bond light character go up against the CCP?

Well, I think we all know the answer, right? Even our own Secretary of Defense is afraid to tell the truth about China.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LLOYD AUSTIN, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: China presents a challenge. It's our pacing challenge. But they're not 10-feet tall.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Oh, my God. What a stupid comment. Now, every day the message spreads. If you criticize China, it can hurt your career. You can criticize the Catholic Church, evangelical Christians, the United States, can tear down statues, melt them down, spread anti-American propaganda all you want, but do not criticize China.

As more Americans are silenced or just self censor, we'll soon realize that the whole notion of free speech here becomes meaningless, just like President Xi wants. This is the real crisis of American democracy.

The Constitution prevents Americans from accepting titles of nobility from foreign governments, because the founders wanted Americans including our elites, to be loyal to this country. But the CCP doesn't need to use titles. It has enough money to bribe almost anyone it wants. The American collaborators are the cheapest dates around. And that's the 'Angle'.

Joining me now is Florida Senator Rick Scott, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Senator Scott, money apparently, kind of trumps the problems with human rights abuses, trade cheating, genocide, every single time.

SEN. RICK SCOTT (R-FL): Absolutely. Whether it's the NBA, or whether it's Nike, or whether it's Delta, they're all focused on how they make more money. Heck with human rights. Now, they would like to get their rights and they want to criticize everything that happens in this country. But God forbid, they do anything that would impact their ability to make a profit.

So we, and by the way, the Biden administration, what a joke. I mean, this is the bare minimum to say they're not going to send diplomats. They need they need to be clear. These Olympics should never be held in China. They should be moved. They should have been doing this the entire time they've been in office.

INGRAHAM: How is this any more defensible to send our athletes over there to compete? I mean, and nothing is ever equally comparable. But we didn't want to give Hitler his propaganda victory.

All right. We didn't want to do that. And you can't give Xi his propaganda victory. We didn't want to at least.

SCOTT: Now, look, we're just - we're giving Communist China, Communist China, let's remember that, we're giving the Communist Party of China a platform, where - and the NBA, all these people, they say, oh, yes, you can have a platform. They're going to change - they're never going to change. That Xi has made a decision. He wants to do everything you can to take away your, every American's human rights.

They want to take all of our rights away, all of our jobs away. They want to build a military to defeat us. We - either we start standing up, or we're going to start learning Mandarin. And I'm going to stand up and I'm sick and tired of American companies, American politicians that are worried about making more money, or about offending somebody.

I want to fight for the freedom of this country, I want to thank in his freedom, the bolting self display for standing up. He's probably not going to get - have a job next year, because he understands the importance of freedom. Why didn't all of these people that grew up in our country care about the freedom of this country?

INGRAHAM: Goldman Sachs' CEO, he was pressed on China's human rights record today. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can a business leader speak out on a human rights issue, for example, in China?

DAVID SOLOMON, GOLDMAN SACHS CEO: I generally try to stick to business. And I leave policymakers to set policy. If we got into a debate of everything that goes wrong somewhere in the world every day, and how business is responsible for that, we got ourselves to a very complex place. I don't think any of you are advocating that's where we want to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Well, I know what they're going to say, Senator. They say, look, Jesse Owens went to the 36 games. And that kind of set a great example for minority rights. And that was a great moment for America. But it still gives a propaganda victory at the time to a brutal dictator.

And business executives say today, Well, look, we can put our products and our businesses out there, make contacts in China. And who knows, you know, we don't do policy, but in the end, it's good for everybody to engage economically and so forth. Your reaction?

SCOTT: Well, first off, these same business leaders want to attack how we run our country and the things that happen in our country. But the only reason they don't want to do about China is they make money off of China. They've put profits over human rights.

I mean, think about it. I mean, what's going on in China. One, Tibetans, Uyghurs, they're put in prison just for their religion. We have prisoners, that their organs are taken from them involuntarily. They took away the basic rights of Hong Kong citizens. And every time Xi opened his mouth, he probably violates another agreement that he made.

So the - I mean, Xi is a thug, a murderer. Let's call him what he is. And what American companies want to do is they don't want to have any accountability, don't take any responsibility. They want to attack us for everything that happens in this country. But God forbid, they might make little less money. I'm going to fight for my family and your family and every family. I want the same rights for Chinese citizens as we have in this country.

INGRAHAM: Yes. Well, if you take down Robert E. Lee, melt that down, and everyone's supposed to feel really great about that here. But I mean, Mao seems to be doing just fine in the business world. Seems to be doing just fine.

SCOTT: These are a bunch of cowards. They're cowards, they're cowards, they're cowards. The NBA is owned by the Communist Party. Xi tells them exactly when to jump and how high.

I mean, this is - the NBA. I mean, all these sports teams, all these companies doing business over there, all these people trying to make a little extra money, Xi controls them completely about - it's all about money. You can't take it with you. You have to stand up for something you believe in.

INGRAHAM: Same with Hollywood, of course. We'll never see the epic takedown of Mao, as I said. Senator Scott, thank you. Great to see you.

And speaking of China, one of the greatest atrocities was unleashing COVID upon the world, we even talked about that during the 'Angle'. The latest variant of that virus appears to be weak begging the question, should we just let the strain overtake the Delta variant at this point? But since none of the control freaks in charge actually want this pandemic to end, they're refusing to even consider it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NIAID: You're talking about something really dangerous. You're talking about let a lot of people get infected to see if, in fact, you could protect them. That's something that I think almost all infectious disease people with any knowledge about infectious disease would not say that's a good idea.

ALBERT BOURLA, PFIZER CEO: I don't think it's good news to have something that spreads fast. Spreads fast means that will be in billions of people, another mutation may come.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Shocking that the Pfizer CEO doesn't want to put an end. Now, joining me now is Dr. Harvey Risch, Yale School of Medicine, professor and epidemiologist. Dr. Risch, what do you make of this? Yes, it's a weak variant, but no we don't want it to spread?

HARVEY RISCH, PROFESSOR, YALE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Well, it's a weak variant. And Bourla is wrong about it being more transmissible. It's less transmissible.

The fact is that the transmissibility index has been studied by a very smart professor in France, Jacques Fantini, who calculated that its transmissibility is comparable to the alpha and beta variants. And it's about a third of what Delta is. So it's less transmissible than delta.

And in fact, we have a lot of herd immunity in the United States now. Perhaps two-thirds of Americans have had COVID, mostly asymptomatically. It's not going to be fertile ground here to spread against Delta. So as much as we might want it, because it's so mild to use as virtually and infectious vaccine, it's not going to do that. It very likely will not take over Delta, but it will just be on its own.

INGRAHAM: Now, Professor Risch, CNN's favorite fearmongering doctor was doing what he does best today. And this time, it was about the kids.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER HOTEZ, TEXAS CHILDREN'S PEDIATRICIAN: As this Delta wave ripped through the South, we saw thousands of pediatric hospitalizations. That's what's going to happen again with this new Delta wave as it goes through the rest of the country into the winter. So the most important takeaway, vaccinate our kids.

The other thing, Jake, that we're not even close to addressing, as are the neuropsychiatric consequences of long COVID in kids.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Oh, my gosh. Has he ever talked about the consequences for kids in all these shutdowns? This guy has been wrong about so many aspects of this pandemic. No one ever calls him on. And Dr. Risch, I'm sorry, but I've about had it with this.

RISCH: Well, I feel the same way that we know that what he said is hospitals filling up are children's hospitals, that are filling up with children who couldn't get care for other chronic conditions that they had on - for during parts of the COVID, year or year and a half.

And so now they're getting their care, they have conditions, that's why they're in the hospital. And they're tested and they're found to have COVID. So they're not there because of the COVID. Half or fewer or less are there because of the COVID as opposed to just having COVID as in testing. It is not an epidemic in children.

INGRAHAM: And Dr. Risch, one of my doctor friends from across the country who I have gotten to know very well over the last couple years. They've told me that a lot of the vaccine mandates and healthcare systems have also shrunk the staff. And so, you simply can't staff the hospitals as they'd like to in often times as well. So that's adding to the problem.

So they have created these problems by stopping elective surgeries. And of course, the mandates of vaccines. So the hospitals, are they going to be crunched on occasion? Maybe.

RISCH: They can be. But they run on a very thin margin. They don't want to have any excess function that is just not cost-effective. So when they lose that margin, they have problems.

INGRAHAM: Every bed has to be filled. Dr. Risch, it's great to see you. Thank you.

And Biden's vaccine mandates, they keep getting blocked by the court. So why are they still doubling down on them. Professor Jonathan Turley has reaction to that.

Plus, over the past few days, we've seen explicit collusion between the White House and the media. Jim Banks has the shocking details in moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Biden's now zero for four when it comes to vaccine mandates. The latest feed coming earlier today when a federal judge in Georgia issued a nationwide injunction against Biden's vaccine mandate for federal contractors. Now, this comes after two different judges blocked Biden's mandate for health care workers nationally and government contractors in three states.

And before that a federal appeals court stayed Biden's order, that private companies force their employees to get vaxxed. Yet the White House still does not see the writing on the wall.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PSAKI: The reason that we proposed these requirements is that we know they work. And we are confident in our ability legally to make these happen across the country. The Department of Justice will vigorously defend this in court. But we know it works. That's why the President and the administration will continue pressing forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: OK. She doesn't sound like she believes that at all. Joining me now is Jonathan Turley, George Washington University law professor, Fox News contributor. All right, Professor, your response to what you just heard.

JONATHAN TURLEY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, that confidence seems to be based more on hope than experience. I mean, you have four rulings now across the country. These mandates are now frozen in amber until they can break them free on some type of appeal. But they all have one similarity. They're all coming in - and not all of them different areas. These are about three different areas.

But all of these judges are saying that President Biden's exceeding his authority. That he's using these powers to achieve indirectly what he couldn't do directly, and that is to impose a national mandate on the country.

Now, if you recall, President Biden is going back and forth. He suggested that he did have that authority, then eventually he admitted that he didn't have the authority. And then his chief of staff retweeted a statement that they found a "workaround". And he announced this to the country and said, we have a workaround where we'll be able to achieve a national mandate without the authority effectively.

Well, among the people that read that retweet are these judges, including the Fifth Circuit that actually quoted Ron Klain in a footnote, and said, yes, this might be a workaround to you, but we don't see the original authority that you need to do this.

INGRAHAM: Now, at the same time, he had this lame duck, Jonathan, this Mayor de Blasio in New York. He's announcing that businesses, all businesses have to vaccinate their workers. Though, there's a problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: But literally who enforces it? Like who's the person you check with each company and make sure all their employees are vaccinated? You're going to find the companies if they don't?

BILL DE BLASIO, NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: So we have experienced already with private sector with, as I said, restaurants and others, indoor entertainment. We had almost no fines. There was a lot of cooperation. Our Department of Health is going to work with the business sector.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: How is this workable on any level? And the only reason they got compliance is because a lot of people, I'm sure, a lot of the kids and stuff just you know - they get whatever they get off the internet and they flash it on their phone. They're like, OK, go right in. I mean, they're not getting compliance.

TURLEY: No, it's really an almost delusional statement by de Blasio. You have this city with a huge number of people that don't have vaccinations, so they don't have proof of vaccination. And yet he joyously celebrates the fact that we've had no violations at all.

What does that mean? What it means is likely that restaurants are not taking well to this task. They're letting people come in, if they show anything that could conceivably look like a vaccination card or proof.

But it really doesn't address the underlying problem, which is, you have a very significant number of people who don't have vaccinations, a very high percentage in minority populations. And you're tightening and tightening the circle making it more and more difficult. You're going to have greater evasion.

We've already seen this black market of vaccination cards. We've seen a lot of them across the country. Question is, what is the end game here? New York can rely on the Jacobson decision of the Supreme Court. Unlike President Biden, the states did win that one in terms of vaccination mandate. But there's still a lot of questions out there.

INGRAHAM: Yes. That's smallpox. Quite a different situation.

TURLEY: That's right. There's a lot of questions.

INGRAHAM: Death rate and transmissibility of smallpox over 100-year ago decision with what we're dealing with today. Professor Turley, it's great to have you on tonight. Thank you.

And Biden's not just losing in court, he's now begging the media to shift the narrative on the economy. Now, the White House has been reportedly holding secret meetings with major media outlets. It was CNN noting that the conversations have been productive. It's so pathetic.

Now, joining me now is Indiana Congressman Jim banks, Republican Study Committee Chair.

Congressman Banks, they love calling Fox state-run media when Trump was in power. But it's exactly what they've engaged in for years and right up to this day.

REP. JIM BANKS (R-IN): Yes, Laura. Instead of actually doing something to improve the economy or addressing inflation, they're trying to spin us and lie to the American people, trying to make it sound like somehow inflation is good for American families when it's going to take a whole - it's going to take more than that kind of spin to convince anybody in America that they're better off today than what they were a year ago.

But should we be surprised that their friends - that the White House, Joe Biden's friends in the media are going to bat and lying to the American people when they put a five-year payroll tax cut in the Build Back Better bill for so-called journalists. So they've already bought them off, now they're holding secret meetings with them to spend Americans who lied to them. Nobody's surprised by this.

INGRAHAM: Now, at the same time that they're out trying to spend the economy, they were also spinning that Washington Post writer hack Dana Milbank. He claimed in a big ballyhooed column, that the media is treating Biden worse than they treated Trump. So right on cue the media then gives them a platform to promote that inanity. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here's Biden CEO of staff Ron Klain, suggesting that we all should read this Washington Post story. It is by Dana Milbank.

DANA MILBANK, COLUMNIST FOR THE WASHINGTON POST: There's a real problem when we're being just as adversarial because the guy didn't pass a bill as we are when a guy is trying to overthrow democracy.

We are in a whole different game here. It's not Democrats against Republicans. It's small "d" democrats against authoritarians.

I think we need to take a stand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Authoritarian -- what are they even talking about Congressman Banks? Authoritarians? Who is that? It apparently talking. He's not talking about President Xi of China, that is who he's not talking about.

REP. JIM BANKS, (R-IN): That's not who he is talking about at all. This is one of the most laughable things I've heard in a year so far of the Biden presidency. Their friends in the media are always going to go to bed for them, and this is another example of why. This is the kind of stuff that happens in Russia and China where the media is controlled by the state, controlled by the powers and the influence that run the government.

So they bought them off again, a five payroll tax cut in the Build Back Better bill for the media. This is absurd. Nobody's buying it. Everyone is laughing at claims like this. Everyone knows that it's not true.

INGRAHAM: And Congressman Banks, we really appreciate seeing you tonight. Thank you.

And a transgender swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania has just smashed another record. How long will we continue to allow this joke to continue? The founder of Save Women's Sports, she reacts.

And right on cue, Matt Walsh's new book exposes the transgender indoctrination of our kids in what is now the number four children's book on Amazon. He's here next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Leah Thomas of the University of Pennsylvania has dominated the women's swimming circuit this season, breaking record after record. Just one problem. Thomas competed for two seasons as a man, most recently in 2019, before this transition. Now the NCAA says it's totally fair for Thomas to compete against women because he underwent hormone suppression for at least a year. But what about the biological women who have to compete against them?

Joining me now is Beth Stelzer, founder of Save Women's Sports. Beth, this is total insanity. Why not have a separate transgender category of swimming, and then that maybe would be more fair? But how does this make any sense?

BETH STELZER, FOUNDER, SAVE WOMEN'S SPORTS: It is absolutely absurd, if you ask me. Maybe another category would be the right answer, but what I do know is the right answer for sure is that these males do not belong in women's sports. It's not right for our privacy, safety, or fairness.

And I want to thank you so much for having me on tonight and for continuing to shine a light on this issue. If not for me watching you, I would not have the courage to start speaking out because this is such a toxic environment, and I'm so grateful that you are highlighting women's voices here.

INGRAHAM: A lot of female athletes are afraid to speak out.

STELZER: That's right. It's so true.

INGRAHAM: They're afraid. I was an athlete in high school and played some sports in college, and I really, really respect what goes into competing at that level. It's really hard, and it's great, it's just great for women.

STELZER: We have athletes that are told we won't sponsor you if you don't stay quiet about this. We have women losing their jobs, even, over the simple language that a man can't be a woman. And I think that's where we're coming up with these problems is the conflation of gender identity and sex. When Biden's administration inserted that in there, he basically erased what a woman was. And when you were erase the definition, how do you protect us?

INGRAHAM: Well, hormones and so forth may make some difference, but the size of your internal organs, the size of your shoulders, your hips, none of that changes. That is all biological fact.

STELZER: You're so right, Laura. Women are not a hormone level. We are not a costume. We can't be worn. We are born.

INGRAHAM: What Leah Thomas told a local player last summer was being trans has not affected his ability to do the sport, being able to continue is very rewarding. Beth, of course, it's rewarding for the athlete, but not for the women who themselves used to be breaking records.

STELZER: Yes. And this male we are talking about now has not only set meet records, but pool records. And there is no asterisk on the record board to show that for future generations of females that was set by a male, and that's why it's not obtainable, not that they are not pushing themselves hard enough. But that was set by a man. Let's be honest with our language here. The emperor is not wearing clothes. And it's time for everyone to step up. And I hope that me being on here, an average woman could help other people to get the courage to speak up too. I took a free website to getting laws made in our name in two years. What can you all do?

INGRAHAM: And I think that we need female athletes and former competitors and former Olympians who might not have gotten their Olympic Gold, Bronze, or Silver if the situation had been different when they competed. They need to speak out.

STELZER: That's absolutely right.

INGRAHAM: So this is all for girls, this is all for girls and women, and that's what we are talking about. We want them to succeed and be happy and compete. Beth, thank you.

And right on cue, there is something remarkable happening in the world of publishing. "The Daily Wire's" Matt Walsh has written a book called "Johnny the Walrus" which humorously captures the cartoonish nature of this entire transgender debate. And right now it's ranked I guess number 10 now on the Amazon bestsellers list, number four in children's books.

Here now is Matt Walsh, host of "The Matt Walsh Show." Matt, first we have to note that walrus awareness week is happening now, apparently, so the book's meteoric rise is really well-timed. Why is this being gobbled up?

MATT WALSH, HOST, "THE MATT WALSH SHOW": Yes, we didn't even try and coincide it with walrus awareness week, so I think just everything, it was fated to be in a lot of ways. I think people are buying the book because we need a little sanity and our culture and especially in children's books. Any parent, I'm a parent, myself, and we know that you go to the children's section at Barnes & Noble and you look at all the titles, it's like being at an Antifa rally or something with all just the leftwing propaganda. And to have something that's a response to that I think is resonating with people.

And, by the way, I should mention that Amazon, they did this on their own. They listed it as an LGBT book. And right now, currently for the last few days, I've had the top-selling, not just one of the top-selling books on Amazon, but one of the top-selling, or the top-selling LGBT book. So I am an LGBT author, and I'm, I think, one of the leading LGBT voices in the country right now according to Amazon, and I embrace that.

INGRAHAM: What is an LGBT book? Is that an author who is LGBT, or is it a book that touches on LGBT subjects, or is it a combo?

WALSH: I don't know. My book is about a walrus, so who knows how they decide these things.

INGRAHAM: The children's book publishing, most parents, they don't give a lot of thought to it, but from the books that are assigned, and I can say this from junior high, to high school, elementary school, what kids have available in their school curricula and at reading at your public library, so much of it is just never going to withstand the test of time, and that is putting it charitably.

WALSH: Yes, and a lot of it, we look at the indoctrination, a lot of it, there's a lot of the racial indoctrination, anti-racist baby, Critical Race Theory, that kind of thing. But so much of it is gender ideology being foist on kids of very young ages. And gender ideology is so absurd that they realize that if they want to convince people of it, they have to get to them when they're very, very young and they are not able to distinguish between fantasy and reality and make these kinds of commonsense judgments. And that is why it is so important for them to brainwash the kids, and it's why it's important for us to protect our kids from that brainwashing.

INGRAHAM: Now, here to your point, one teacher described his disturbing classroom habit. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I teach high school, and most days of the week I come to school in stilettos. And the reason why is so I can create an explicitly queer space for all of my students. That way they know that this place is a place for them, by them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: What is this teacher talking about? Like, what?

WALSH: This is a narcissist who thinks that kids go to school to learn about him. When I went to school, I didn't know anything about my teachers at all, much less their sex life or anything like that. But that's what teachers do now. They think that the kids are there to learn about me, not so much about any subject. And that is yet another reason why parents should consider other options like maybe teaching your kids yourself through homeschool.

INGRAHAM: I think more parents are doing that precisely because of these developments. Matt, congrats on the book, and thanks for coming on.

Now the diversity, equity, and inclusion scam is taking over public universities, and it's costing you millions. Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan reacts to the shocking revelations out of his state. Stay there.

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INGRAHAM: Now, public universities, they are not just forcing these woke lesson plans on students, they are amassing armies of diversocrats. Iowa state alone has hired more than 100 of them according to data compiled by economists Mark J. Perry. These woke bureaucrats have an average salary of $77,000 a year and a total payroll consuming an estimated $13.4 million. In case you're wondering, that's enough to pay in-state tuition for more than about 1,100 students.

Joining me now is Ohio Congressmen Jim Jordan, House Judiciary Committee ranking member. Congressman, why should any American taxpayer be on the hook for this garbage?

REP. JIM JORDAN, (R-OH): And you wonder why college education costs so much. You think about it, Laura, Americans, they want safe cities, they want affordable gas, they want freedom. Instead, we get increased crime, increased record inflation, and we get diversity counselors, for goodness' sake. So maybe we wouldn't have to cancel student if we weren't paying for things like this.

INGRAHAM: In my hometown, right near my hometown in Connecticut, it just so happens a friend of mine tonight from high school sends me an advertisement for a new diversity or equity director. I think it is West Hartford, Connecticut. And I click on it, and it says you have to have a diversity, equity, and inclusion certificate to apply. I don't know what that is. And the salary is $112,000 a year, in one Connecticut town. Think about the racket this is.

JORDAN: It's ridiculous. And the other thing is this is why it is so scary. It's part of this whole cancel culture mentality. It's a part of the attack on First Amendment and free speech rights. And that's the part that troubles me the most because in the end, this is where the left wants to go, and they control the Democrat Party. They want to limit people's speech, their First Amendment liberties. We see it across, we see it with Fauci, we see it at colleges and universities, we see it with the entire left and the entire cancel culture mob out there who are hiring folks like this whose sole purpose, it seems, is to go after conservatives who want to speak out and speak the truth. And that is the part that, I think, scares me, as much is the cost and the waste of money. But it's all part of this attack on free speech.

INGRAHAM: It's a permanent bureaucracy to enforce the new speech codes that if you transgress the speech code, then you'll be canceled from public life, basically.

And by the way, Columbia University is encouraging students to snitch on classmates for misgendering. Watch.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Asking for and using correct pronouns is a way to respect those around you and create an inclusive environment. Intentionally misgendering someone by refusing to use the correct pronouns or name is a violation of the Columbia University nondiscrimination policy.

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INGRAHAM: So again, they tell you what correct is, whether you believe it biologically, religiously. They tell you what's correct, or else.

JORDAN: You've got to use some preferred pronouns, guys and girls sports, all the craziness going on. And again, it's all an attack on the First Amendment. And if you disagree. If you actually want to exercise your First Amendment liberties today on college campuses and speak out and speak the truth, you are not allowed to. You have to agree with the left. And if you don't, they will try to cancel you.

And if you try to talk at all and have a debate, they will call you a racist in the mob will attack you. It is scary. It is what Bari Weiss called the "Digital Thunderdome." You will face it if you speak the truth, if you speak common sense, and this is why we have to stop it. We've got a caucus we have formed, the free speech caucus, Greg Murphy, Kat Cammack, some colleagues of mine are doing great work, working with college students to stand up for people's ability to exercise their First Amendment liberties.

INGRAHAM: When you guys get back into power, you've got to take all this funding away from these schools. And by the way, the same thing going back to what I said in The Angle about the collaborators with China. That is another danger. Earlier this year an ex-Ohio State professor was sentenced to 37 months, Congressman Jordan, in prison for sharing work with China. He admitted he lied on applications, used NIH grants to develop China's expertise in rheumatology, immunology, et cetera. We've got to crack down on this. They're infiltrating, it seems like, every university and college across this country.

JORDAN: And Laura, the Biden Center at University of Pennsylvania, that's where we have to focus as well because we know they're getting all kinds of China -- there's been stories on this. There needs to be oversight and investigation done on that as well if the American people do what I think they are about ready to do, which is put us back in power.

INGRAHAM: Congressman, thank you for sharing your thoughts on this tonight.

And leave it to Democratic leaders to shame the victim. The Last Bite will explain, next.

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INGRAHAM: With crimewaves hitting liberal enclaves across the country, you'd expect leaders to lend kind of a sympathetic ear. But Lori Lightfoot doesn't see it that way.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are your concerns about the ability to protect the retail environment?

MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT, (D) CHICAGO: I'm disappointed that they're not doing more to take safety and make it a priority. We still have retailers that won't institute plans like having security officers in their stores, locking up their merchandise at night, chaining high end bags. We need some of these retailers to also step up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

INGRAHAM: The businesses have got to look elsewhere for political representation. Chicago, you've got to wake up.

That's it for us tonight. Gutfeld is up next.

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