'The Ingraham Angle' on democracy doomers, university COVID vaccine mandates

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Ingraham: Ignore the democracy doomers

Glenn Greenwald: J6 is a distraction for the things Democrats have no answers for

This is a rush transcript of "The Ingraham Angle" on January 4, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Not that complicated. That's all the time we have left this evening. Please set your DVR. Never miss an episode. Let not your heart be troubled. Laura Ingraham, hi.

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: To answer your question, if any of this happened under Donald Trump, he would be crucified.

HANNITY: Oh, yes.

INGRAHAM: Minute by minute on the other cables. But, of course, I was just really proud of Joe Biden getting through that presentation today with the snowy backdrop. It looked like it was a Hallmark special on COVID. It looked ridiculous.

HANNITY: Did you see my snow background that we put up tonight? Did you miss that?

INGRAHAM: Yes. Well, I did miss it. I was preparing for my show.

HANNITY: I'm too busy prepping my own show.

INGRAHAM: As much as I like to hang on your every word, there is a 10:00 o'clock show that follows your show.

HANNITY: I know.

INGRAHAM: You may be aware of it.

HANNITY: And it's a great show, and you have another great show tonight.

INGRAHAM: All right, Hannity, awesome to see you. And I am Laura Ingraham. This is THE INGRAHAM ANGLE from Washington tonight. And let's dive right in. "The Real War on Democracy," that's the focus of tonight's ANGLE.

Now, Joe Biden is finally seeing one of his poll numbers hit a record high. Unfortunately, for him, it's his disapproval rating. A new CNBC Change Research poll, finds it Biden's overall disapproval rating stands at 56 percent, which is the worst of his presidency so far.

Now, Democrats see the same Biden poll numbers that we do, they're all abysmal, and they know that he's going to drag them all down, come November. And having no intention of changing course and returning to the Trump policies that actually worked, they've decided to run on only one thing, January 6th.

Now, unless Trump and others are put in handcuffs, democracy as we know it will end.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): Dealing with a Republican party that has done everything they can to destroy our democracy.

REP. TED LIEU (D-CA): Democracy itself is on the ballot this November.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): Our opponents are trying to restrict democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Now, to really make sure this big lie sticks, Democrats and their Leftist allies are following a three step plan. Let's explain it to you. Step one. Release the media hounds. Now, first use the regime media to propagandize about a phony crisis, complete with insurrection anniversary specials.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST: Is American democracy really in danger? I didn't want to believe it. But the threat seems real. We can't just look away. So join me for the fight to save American democracy.

ANNOUNCER: A Fareed Zakaria special.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: I remember when he was a really, kind of, well respected guy. What happened there? And of course, NBC is falling right in line. "The Riot and the Republic, one year after a pro Trump mob attacked the Capitol, experts, historians and politicians warn of a democracy still at risk."

Now, if there was an award for transparent fraud and shocking hyperbole, "The New York Times" would surely win. "Every day is January 6, democracy in grave danger." Then Vox's top line revealed their real game plan to effectively outlaw the Republican Party. "With one of America's two major parties this far gone, it's clear that preserving democracy will not be a bipartisan effort."

You see, only Democrats can solve our democracy crisis, created, of course by non-Liz Cheney Republicans. Now, when you understand this step two makes a lot more sense, which is, frame any future GOP election wins as proof that democracy is in peril.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WAJAHAT ALI, DAILY BEAST, COLUMNIST: If they take over 2022 that is the end of democracy and we're going to have authoritarianism.

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): I'm worried that if Republicans win in the midterm elections, then voting as we know in this country it will be gone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you have a significant win for a Trump led Republican Party means that 2024 is going to be seen as illegitimate.

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: If he were or someone of his ilk were once again to be elected president. And if especially he had a Congress, that would do his bidding, you will not recognize our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Right. The party opposed to lockdowns, COVID mandates and our continued dependence on the brutal Chinese regime, that's the tyrannical party. Nice try.

And get with the program, any Republican effort to shore up our election integrity, verify voter eligibility, is to be trashed as racist and totally undemocratic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are laws, measures crafted to shape the electorate such that those - the party that holds power in these states, and most of them our Republican Party, folks, hold on to that power even if they don't win the majority of the public vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: And this brings us to step three, change the rules. So in case steps one and two fail, just change it all. Democrat election fixture, Marc Elias is actually floating the possibility of already using an obscure Civil War era law to disqualify any Republican candidate who question the 2020 election results.

But this would require establishing that such individuals supported an actual insurrection. Good luck with that. So ballot harvesting, vote-by- mail, early voting, no voter ID requirements, Pelosi and the hard Left are pushing all of it, touting it as of course, democracy enhancing measures.

Now in the Senate, Chuck Schumer has decided the filibuster, which we've already shown you he repeatedly defended in the past, is just an ancient and probably racist obstruction to democracy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): If Senate Republicans continue to abuse the filibuster to prevent this body from acting, then the Senate must adapt, as it has before. Changing the rules, there's nothing new.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Nothing new. OK, and if all else fails, Democrats can always call on Big Tech to ramp up the censorship machine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): Functioning democracy depends upon an informed and educated citizenry, that was Thomas Jefferson. And social media, I think, is one of the culprits. I represent Silicon Valley. We need to do much better in terms of regulations on misinformation and disinformation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Yes, he wants more suppression of your free speech rights. So the party of democracy, ladies and gentlemen, you just heard it, they're going to let you say whatever you want, so long as it doesn't contradict them in any way.

The end result of this drumbeat is predictable. The new NPR Ipsos Poll finds that 64 percent of Americans believe our democracy is in crisis, and at risk of failing.

Now, the Left has spent the last four years promoting the narrative that America is a rotten racist country. They've torn down our history and defamed all that is good about this nation. And now they want us to believe that they're the defenders of American democracy? I can't believe Ro Khanna was even quoting Thomas Jefferson. Don't they all believe he's a racist?

And are any of these people, by the way, predicting - who are out there predicting the end of democracy, are they liquidating their portfolios? Are they staying away from horrible, awful rotten places like Florida or South Dakota? Are they stockpiling weapons to protect themselves? Are they getting passports so they can quickly move to Canada, Europe with the whole thing collapses?

Did any of them flee the country after Trump won in 2016? Of course not. They're not afraid of losing democracy. They're afraid of losing power. They're afraid of maybe going to fundraisers without masks. OK. It's all a big lie and it's designed to scare you, and that's THE ANGLE.

All right. Joining us now, I'm delighted he's with us, Pulitzer Prize winning independent journalist Glenn Greenwald. Glenn, it's a reasonable question, I think. If these people really believe democracy is hanging by a thread, I don't see them making any radical changes to their own lives to prepare for the coming doom.

GLENN GREENWALD, INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST: Yes, of course, they don't believe it. Remember, the four years of the Trump presidency was dominated by a completely different catastrophizing theme, which is that everything - life as we knew it, had ended, because the Kremlin had taken over American institutions through clandestine blackmail of Trump.

What happened to all of that? They don't even talk about Russia anymore. Now ever since 1/6 there's a completely different existential threat to American democracy, which is that Trump has visions of putting his descendants in camps. Even though over four years as president he never did any of that. That he's going to overthrow U.S. democracy and institute totalitarianism.

The - really what this is about Laura is they know that they have no governing program that's popular, and that can help them win elections. In all of what they're talking about where's there any discussion of the conditions of American workers or inflation or COVID, or anything like that?

This is all designed, just like the whole Russia stuff was, to distract attention away from the things that they have no answers for, that people actually care about, in order to kind of create a melodrama that makes people forget just how poor they are at actually doing anything for the American people.

INGRAHAM: So this is the art of distraction, a demonization and then the theater of it all, Glenn. And I want you to watch a CNN promo for this big anniversary special Thursday night. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZAKARIA: Is American democracy really in danger? I didn't want to believe it. But the threat seems real. We can't just look away. So join me for the fight to save American democracy.

ANNOUNCER: A Fareed Zakaria special.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Glenn, these people - I mean, he used to be a kind of credible guy. What happened? You know, when you go in and work in an institution that goes - kind of has this collective mania, you get swept up in it. He goes to work at CNN every single day, that's the prism through which he evaluates the world.

But remember also, Laura, that nobody watches CNN. One of the only times people did is on January 6th, they had their record viewership. They're so desperate for Trump to come back for January 6 to be talked about, again, it's just this crass effort to try and make themselves relevant.

But, you know, I don't think - I mean, I always said I didn't think Americans woke up in the morning and worried about Vladimir Putin, that they were going to vote based on Russia gate. I don't think they wake up in the morning scared of what happened on January 6, I think they have a lot of other things on their mind. And it's a loser.

But, the thing is this whole attempt to call January 6 at Insurrection, the Democrats have been in charge of the Justice Department for an entire year now, they've been investigating very aggressively everything in connection with January 6. Do you know how many people have been charged with inciting Insurrection or sedition or treason at or domestic terrorism as a result of anything?

Zero? Exactly. Just like Robert Mueller never indicted anybody for criminally conspiring with Russia. They live in this fantasy world, that never corresponds to the reality. And they just think if they keep feeding on it, one day it might come true.

INGRAHAM: And one other thing I was thinking about that poll, Glenn, that I cited that a disturbing number of people say that democracy is in peril after all the propagandizing they've been doing. I think a lot of those people might be people in the middle or even on the Right, who think for years they've urged politicians to shut the border down or to end these wars, and none of it was ever done, and I think they're very frustrated by that. That the school shouldn't be political.

Most people don't want any of that. Yet the politicians never do what the people seem to want on those big issues. I think that disturbs a lot of people about democracy.

GREENWALD: Well, there's so much hypocrisy in terms of the Democratic narrative about how people in 2020, some Republicans, including Donald Trump, said the result was fraudulent. In 2016, they said the same thing about Donald Trump's victory. They said he was an illegitimate President. Hillary Clinton called him mad. A poll in 2017 said that at least two- thirds of Democrats believe that there was fraud in the 2016 election, he had actually won, that Russia had intervened.

So when you have Democrats - and they - after the 2016 election, they planned what they called an Electoral College coup. They were trying to convince faithless Electoral College voters to vote for Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump, even though Trump won that state.

So when you have Democrats simultaneously attacking democracy, because they always need to win, and at the same time claiming democracy has been overturned whenever they lose, of course, there's going to be a lot of people who start believing that democracy is in very (inaudible)

And I think you're right, it's happening on both sides, because people look at that process and see that it's just not functioning the way it should.

INGRAHAM: Glenn, great to see you Happy New Year.

And Biden's response to the recent Omicron surge isn't to apologize for having no plan, but rather, of course, just blame his fellow Americans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Those who are fully vaccinated, especially those with the booster shots, you can still get COVID, but it's highly unlikely - very unlikely that you'll become seriously ill. So there's no excuse - no excuse for anyone being unvaccinated. This continues to be a pandemic of the unvaccinated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Now, that ended that sound bites is the gold here. Joining me now is Dr. Harvey Risch, Epidemiology Professor at the Yale School of Public Health, and Dr. Houman Hemmati, Board Certified M.D., PhD Research Scientist.

Dr. Risch, is this still a pandemic of the unvaxxed - was it ever a pandemic of the unvaxxed or has Omicron finally blown up that fraudulent narrative?

HARVEY RISCH, YALE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Well, I think the last point is exactly right. We're ending the pandemic now, and I'm very optimistic that we're seeing the thrashing end of very mild disease through Omicron.

And that's what's going to make this blizzard of cases occurring across the United States now, only some of which are actually being counted, because people are doing so many at home tests and finding that whole families are positive. And so what? You know they have mild symptoms by and large. And that's the way this is going to go.

Delta, as the CDC said today, Delta is now down below 5 percent of cases. And that's the way it's going out.

INGRAHAM: Dr. Hemmati, Biden gave American some parenting advice today. Look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: And for parents with kids too young to be vaccinated, surround your kids with people who are vaccinated. We know that our kids can be safe when in school, by the way. Social distancing in classrooms, even larger classrooms, on buses and - everything from bus drivers to buses - the actual bus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: What is he talking about here? Is any of this really held up with the case numbers that have come in from schools over the last couple of years?

DR. HOUMAN HEMMATI, PHD RESEARCH SCIENTIST: Look, I'm glad you asked, Laura. First of all the case numbers in children, how relevant are they. Right? You could have every kid in the country infected, and even then that's going to only be a blip in terms of the severe illness and death rates that we see. Right?

We know by and large, that children don't get sick very much. And when they do, they don't die. The CDC actually on December 31st, just a few days ago, released its own study that showed that in children who are infected and hospitalized, almost half of them have another viral infection. Many of them are in the hospital for another reason other than COVID, and Dr. Fauci recently admitted that. And showed that you can pretty much predict which kids are going to get extremely ill, and that's based on their prior medical history as well as being obese.

And so if you have kids who are already very sick, or obese or have other risk factors, they're the ones to focus on. But young, healthy kids, otherwise who don't have other comorbidities, why focus on them so much?

Again, if they focus those - their efforts on the people in our population, and I don't mean children who are at risk, we would be in a different place right now. But they're not they're putting too much effort on children.

INGRAHAM: Yes, I think that the message that should be loud and clear, and I think Harvey and I talked about this, Steve Smith talked about it early on back in March of 2020, that this was a really bad virus for people who had high BMI, compromised in other ways, metabolic syndrome, hypertensive, prehypertensive, diabetic. It was a real - it is - remains a real problem. But for some reason that that part of it never gets discussed, it suddenly is now.

By the way, the CDC just released new guidance for testing that I think is only going to confuse a lot of people more. "As noted in the labeling for authorized over-the-counter antigen test, negative results should be treated as presumptive negative results. They do not rule out a COVID-19 infection." Dr. Risch so negative doesn't mean negative anymore.

RISCH: Well, I'm not exactly strong on the whole testing regime anyway. The whole point of this is that, cases only count to know what population immunity you have. They do not count to tell you how well you're managing the pandemic.

You manage a pandemic by reducing hospitalization and reducing deaths, and that's all that matters. And so people have to be treated if they're high risk, and otherwise, they do well, there's a lot of over the counter stuff that we know that helps today. So the cases really don't count anymore. And that's what Omicron is telling us.

INGRAHAM: And the POLITICO is reporting that the White House embraces, "A manage, not contain Omicron game plan. Health officials inside, outside the administration privately acknowledge that there's little new left for the federal government to do, but hold on and hope the worst is over."

Well, isn't that kind of, Dr. Hemmati, a lot of us have been saying this for I don't know - Harvey how long we've been saying this, like couple of years almost?

RISCH: Like year and a half.

INGRAHAM: Yes, like year and a half. So but now they're kind of realizing this is really hurting them, I think in the polls, and they can't keep this up much longer. I think people are now finally on to this. Thoughts, Dr. Hemmati.

HEMMATI: So, look, they I think really, you can tell right now that a lot of people in the administration are finally beginning to try to find an out. Now, especially with Omicron Variant coming out, and people realizing that this is going to become milder and milder and milder, they're looking for a way to basically talk their way out of all these policies that they've had over the last couple of years that have largely failed. Right?

They're trying to reduce the length of quarantine, they're trying to talk about forcing schools to stay open under all costs--

INGRAHAM: Masks.

HEMMATI: --all sorts of other parameters, all of which are - Masks as well. Right. So they're basically acknowledging, yes, all these things have failed without saying everything we've done has failed.

Especially now with these therapeutics coming online, which they haven't yet even supplied to pharmacies, whatsoever, though they had years to do, we should really be looking at the end of a very long and dark funnel. There's a there's a bright light there. We're looking right at that bright light. And I think the administration needs to just come out and say it.

INGRAHAM: Yes, we're done. Yes, we're done. This will be endemic and we've done everything we can and that's it. Doctors, thank you.

And teachers unions are seizing on Omicron to once again lock kids out of classrooms. We're going to expose these frauds in moments.

And you won't believe what colleges and universities are requiring a fully vaxxed students, one of them tells us. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have the tools. We have the resources, Jim. And we have to have the will to make sure we do everything in our power to keep our children in the classroom learning.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We are trying as best as we possibly can to keep the schools open.

BIDEN: We know that our kids can be safe when in school, by the way. That's why I believe schools should remain open.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: And, yes, the "New York Times" reporting that the spread of Omicron along with labor and testing shortages has led to a growing number of educational disruptions. OK? Educational disruptions, that's a snow day. Intentionally keeping kids out of the class, that's child abuse.

Now, what happened to that - what was it? $170 billion we gave to schools to safely reopen? Wasn't that the amount? Why were the teachers also first in line for the vaccine if that didn't change anything?

The Milwaukee Public School System announced on Sunday, it would go remote until next week, Cleveland, fully remote this week and Newark schools will be remote for at least two weeks. Detroit canceled school through Wednesday, promising to update parents later this week.

One official even went on CNN to repeat a familiar refrain. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERRY GAY-DAGNOGO, DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS BOARD MEMBER: We know that it's highly contagious, and we just want to flatten the curve. And I think that is certainly the best way to go to keep everyone safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: She didn't say flatten the curve. And right now the Chicago Teachers Union is deciding whether they're going to even show up to work tomorrow at all. And that's where we find foxes Garrett Tenney who has the full story for us tonight, Garrett.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARRETT TENNEY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Laura, we are still waiting on the results of that vote and to find out whether or not teachers are going to show up for class tomorrow. The teachers union has a long list of safety demands, including increased testing, better masks and clear metrics for when schools will transition to remote learning if there are any outbreaks.

Today, CTU's President said, city leaders aren't doing enough to keep teachers safe.

JESSE SHARKEY, PRESIDENT, CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION: We're in the highest part of the Omicron surge. That's the issue. And when there's 20 percent positivity or higher, people are very concerned.

TENNEY (voice over): Today school and health officials acknowledged those concerns, but said the data and the science doesn't support them, given that 91 percent of Chicago Public School staff is vaccinated and nearly a third of students have received at least one dose.

DR. ALLISON ARWADY, CHICAGO PUBLIC HEALTH COMMISSIONER: The hospitalization risk among working age adults who have received a booster vaccine, it is literally near zero.

PEDRO MARTINEZ, CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS CEO: There is no evidence in our schools throughout the whole semester - the whole entire semester, with all the complaints that existed about what we didn't have, the misinformation, that we saw any significant level of any transmission. It just we just didn't see it.

TENNEY (voice over): Health experts maintain that schools are among the safest places for kids to be and some Chicago parents are feeling frustrated that the teachers union isn't following the science and putting the wellbeing of students first.

RYAN GRIFFIN, CHICAGO PARENTS COLLECTIVE: They will never pass up an opportunity to exert their leverage, and look at powerplays. And unfortunately, our kids here in Chicago, are the ones paying the consequences.

TENNEY: If a union does ultimately vote not to show up tomorrow, the city has said it will be an illegal strike and they'll have no choice but to cancel classes. Laura?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

INGRAHAM: Garrett, thank you. And when it comes to higher education, colleges and universities pride themselves as bastions of learning and critical thought. So why are their COVID policies completely insane?

Now, take Georgetown University where fully vaxxed students are randomly tested for COVID every week. Positive students are forced to quarantine in a room on campus for 10 days where food is dropped off once a day.

Princeton University doesn't allow fully vaxxed students to leave the county unless they're on a sports team. And all students are tested there twice a week. And then there's George Mason University where my next guest is a law student.

Joining me now is Robert Fellner. Now, Robert, your school is not only mandating masks, it's requiring that all students now get boosted in order to be considered fully vaxxed. Now how long did they give you all to comply?

ROBERT FELLNER, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY LAW STUDENT: That's correct. We already have a vaccine mandate, a masks mandate. Everyone's fully vaccinated, everyone must wear masks on campus. And then on New Year's Eve, at 7:00 pm, we were told that everyone needs to receive a third shot of the vaccine - the booster within 45 days.

And this goes against everything that I learned at George Mason about the importance of free consent, free voluntary choice and informed consent because what they're doing here is they're preventing students from being able to make a free choice. Because if someone wants to say, no, I don't need the third shot, I've recovered from COVID, I've had two shots, I'm already protected.

There's a very high risk for adverse side effects of heart inflammation for young healthy males under the age of 40. That once you're vaccinated outweighs the risk COVID poses to you at that point. They say no, they have to sacrifice 10s of 1000s of dollars in lost scholarship, getting kicked out of school or dropping out and trying to start over again somewhere else next year. It's, to me it's just incredibly unethical.

INGRAHAM: Where are the other students on this? Everyone's - from what I gather from the college kids I talked to they're all afraid to say anything. Everyone needs a recommendation, they want to get in the job market, join a law firm or work for the government as a prosecutor, a defender. And they don't want to be the guy or gal who gets up and says no, not doing this. Is there a lot of fear in George Mason about that point?

FELLNER: You are exactly right. And to me, that's what makes this third vaccine mandate so indefensible, because, again, a bunch of classmates are very, very healthy, young males in their 20s who both recovered from COVID and got two shots within the past 10 months. And it's clear that it's a net harm to force them to get a third.

And you're right, they understandably don't want to get the negative attention. They just want to put their heads down and go along. So to see the administration exploit that power imbalance and leverage that against these students who were denied free choice, to me, is just indefensible. So two days ago I started a petition on Change.org for George Mason to repeal this mandate. We've already had over 100 signatures from students, alumni, and professors. So that made me see right away that there is a lot of people out there who feel the same way. But, like you said --

INGRAHAM: Robert, where are all the law professors at G.W.? You have a lot of good law professors there, and Federalist Society members. Are they giving you any help?

FELLNER: We do have a lot of good faculty, and again, it's very ironic. It was in my torts class where I learned the importance of having free and voluntary choice and informed consent.

INGRAHAM: Not anymore.

FELLNER: So we got this letter from the president, I thought it was a pop quiz. Can we apply what we learned in the classroom to the real world? And I'm like, this can't be valid because it violates the ethics of informed consent. But it is real, and there has been Professor Todd Zywicki, economics Professor Don Boudreaux has already came out against this. So it has got some pushback, but it's --

INGRAHAM: All right, well, Robert, Robert, you need to keep going and keep pushing. And we appreciate you being here tonight. But if this continues, there is just no end to this nonsense.

Part of the left's propaganda efforts now requires that they prop up one of America's most poisonous and political and cynical figures. Dinesh D'Souza, Victor Davis Hanson reveal who this is in moments. Stay there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Now, Democrats just announced that the body of former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would lie in state at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. The question is, regardless of where your politics are, is that appropriate? In terms of destructive political figures in modern American history, it's hard to argue Reid wasn't near the top.

I want to read for you an interview he gave during the 2012 campaign about Mitt Romney and Romney's taxes. "His poor father must be so embarrassed about his son," Reid said in in reference to George Romney's decision to turn over 12 years of tax returns when he ran for president. He went on to claim a person who had infested with Bain Capital called his office. "Harry, Mitt, did not pay any taxes for 10 years." OK, well it was proven. And Reid then revealed his real character.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No regrets about Mitt Romney, about the Koch brothers, because some people have even called it McCarthyite?

HARRY REID, (D) FORMER SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: Well, they can call it whatever they want. Romney didn't win, did he?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Joining me now is Dinesh D'Souza, host of "The Dinesh D'Souza Podcast" and Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover Institution senior fellow. Dinesh, again, we are sorry to hear that Reid passed, but this effort to prop him up in this way, is that warranted in any way?

DINESH D'SOUZA, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR: I think it is a little obscene, to be honest. I realize as a tradition when someone dies, one maintains a dignified silence. I guess if Al Capone died, we would be confined to talking about the fact he made really good spaghetti and meatballs, could say nothing about what this man's life was defined by.

The same with Harry Reid. He has been a divisive and poisonous force in American politics. American politics is designed to be an argument, well, if not between friends, then at least among people who are not sworn enemies. And I think if we look back to American politics, we see Reagan didn't treat his opponents as enemies, neither did Carter, neither, did, by the way, Bill Clinton.

So what changed, and who changed it? Well, there are certain key figures and Harry Reid is one of them, where they begin to treat the political adversaries as enemies, as people to be destroyed. And they look for ways to game the system, bringing an almost like a Las Vegas gangster style to politics. And we are living with the ugly fruits of that today. In fact, it's hardening our hearts, those of us that want to actually have arguments can't have them because we are in the mode of constant demonization and recriminations.

INGRAHAM: And Victor, people will say, Bob Dole, of course, he lay in state at the Capitol Rotunda, so this is just Republicans playing some political game here. How would you distinguish Dole and Reid in that regard?

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, HOOVER INSTITUTE SENIOR FELLOW: I think Dole was considered tough, but he wasn't mean-spirited, and he was mellowed. But what's ironic is how closely Harry Reid's life and career mirror-imaged Joe Biden's. They were roughly the same age, 79 and 82. They spent decades in the Senate. They represented the supposed old centrist Democrats that were tough on crime, for the Iraq war, against abortion. They cultivated an image of good old Joe from Scranton and Harry was from Searchlight, Nevada, common made people. But they were actually very mean-spirited is the way you pointed out with Mitt Romney, and Joe Biden saying, dogface pony soldier, fat, junky.

They both had a problem with race. I will be candid about that. It is just surrealistic when you look what they both said about the candidacy of Barack Obama. Harry Reid said he was light-skinned and he could turn off and on his negro dialect. It was almost exactly what Joe Biden said when he disparaged Obama as clean and articulate, the first person who was an African American serious candidate.

And finally, they viewed their senatorial careers as family franchises. If you wanted to have a federal or state contract, or you wanted to get in on one in Nevada, you had to do business with the Reid family, the three boys and the son-in-law, and the same was true of Hunter Biden and Joe Biden's brother. And they viewed their senatorial careers as ways of making the family rich.

In the end, you can see why thy squad and the hard lift took over the Democratic Party, because that old guard that Biden and Reid represented were opportunistic. They didn't have firm principles.

INGRAHAM: They were transactional.

HANSON: Yes, they viewed their career about getting rich rather than working for the American people.

INGRAHAM: I have got to switch gears and go to this hyperbolic, faux dramatic CNN special they are doing on Thursday, and other media outlets, regime media outlets, Dinesh, about January 6th. Why are they doing this, and what does this really mean, given all the problems the country is now facing with supply chains, still COVID, and the rest?

D'SOUZA: I wouldn't say that January 6th is a distraction, but what I would say is this, that if you follow January 6th at the granular level with the facts that are coming out slowly, they're coming out because the government has been very reluctant to release footage, particularly footage of what happened in the tunnel on January 6th where you now begin to see these cops using massive amounts of force against unarmed Trump supporters, including women. The death of Rosanne Boyland is now being called into question. Was she the second Trump supporter that was killed by the authorities?

Now, I think as all this empirical, irrefutable, on video evidence is coming out, there is a kind of necessity on the part of the left to conduct a big public dance which distracts attention from the facts and tries to sort of reinforce the original narrative. It was an insurrection. Yes, no one has been charged with insurrection, but somehow it was an insurrection without insurrectionists.

INGRAHAM: Gentlemen, great to see you. Thank you.

And the new mayor of New York City promised to meet with anti-vax mandate activists once he assumed office. So why is he now shutting them out? We are going to show you the exclusive text messages in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: It is time for tonight's edition of "Positively Boosted."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: We introduced this club to you last night, but it's worth repeating the ground rules for entry. It requires utter disdain toward the unvaccinated, receiving, though, the three jabs yourself, and the final requirement, still got COVID.

Tonight's first positively boosted is a big one -- American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. You might remember her from hits like keeping your kids out of schools for months on end, or holding the taxpayer ransom without releasing the hostages. So let's take a look at what she said just last August.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RANDI WEINGARTEN, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: Let me just be personal for a moment, which is that vaccines are the single most important way of dealing with COVID.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Ouch. I guess not, Randi, but congrats on the new honor.

And tonight, we have another positively boosted to announce, Jimmy Fallon, who you may remember from this Christmas hit last month.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

It was a masked Christmas, we stayed in the house. We covered our nose and covered our mouth. But it's Christmastime. We'll be in line for a booster.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Well, of course, we wish all the positively boosted quick recoveries and mild cases. Perhaps this honor can be its own elixir. In the meantime, be sure to look out for the next edition of "Positively Boosted."

Speaking of boosters, before he took office, New York City Mayor-Elect Eric Adams promised to hear out anti-vax mandate protesters, but now that he is safely in office, he is so far refusing to meet in person with any of them, including my next guest. Jo Rose was arrested after she tried to get served at an Appleby's without a vax card. She joins us now.

Jo, I want to show the audience part of the text that you say you received from Adams on Sunday after you asked to meet in person. "Nope, COVID numbers are spiking and I'm not sharing a room with unvaccinated people. I have a family. I'm not exposing my family to COVID. Zoom."

We reached out to the mayor's office today to confirm that he sent this text. They never responded to us. Jo, is a Zoom meeting could enough for you?

JO ROSE, ARRESTED FOR PROTESTING VAX MANDATE: This is the funny part. I actually have gone inside his office unvaccinated, myself and a group of other people. And he was fine with it. He was not even wearing a mask. So he's just completely hypocritical. And not everyone that is in the medical freedom movement unvaccinated. There are people that agree with what we are doing but they, the two doses, there are some people that took one dose, do not want to take the second, or took two and do not want to take a booster. I'm not understanding. If the masks work, then why can't we meet in person?

INGRAHAM: Also, it is just so exclusionary. It is anti-American to say the unwashed -- it's like a vax caste system as I called it so many months ago. What about just that overall attitude that I won't be in the same room with you? It's like the new leper colony, even though vaxxed people cannot obviously get it and transmit it.

ROSE: Absolutely. It is so antiscientific. And I was actually disgusted when he sent me that. I was just so shocked, I didn't even know what to respond to it because it's like, OK, you are insinuating that I'm sick, but can you actually prove that I'm sick? And If you took the vaccine then you should be safe and protected, or does the vaccine not actually work? I don't understand at all.

And then I did message him again, and I texted him that he is not only the mayor of the vaccinated, he has the right to respond to myself and to other people. We have lost our jobs. We cannot eat wherever we want to go, or we cannot even go to the movie theaters unless you show a vaccination card. And again, there are people that are vaccinated that do not want to show their vaccination card in order to be a part of society.

INGRAHAM: Show me your papers. Now, he said something about potential booster mandates yesterday. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell us about mandates for boosters for city employees.

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS, (D) NEW YORK CITY: We are going to do an analysis around April based on the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and see if we want to mandate them. But that does not take away from my clear message to New Yorkers. Get your booster shots. Get vaccinated.

We're going to look at if we have to mandate. If we do, we will do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Joe, what is your prediction here? What is going to happen?

ROSE: I think that Eric Adams is most likely going to continue moving forward with the vaccine mandates. He does not care that New York City is falling down. He does not care that businesses have gotten destroyed. He does not care that people like myself, law-abiding citizens, are now getting arrested because I want to do what was my God-given right, which is something that I used to do before the new normal. And yesterday, I just had to go to court.

Never in my life did I think I was going to get arrested because I wanted to go patronize a business. It is absolutely insane. And he has to do what is right for the people. You are supposed to take care of New York City. You're supposed to make sure that we are working, that New York City is thriving. Unless you have another agenda and you're being bought by big pharma, there is no reason as to why he should be moving forward with this unconstitutional mandate.

INGRAHAM: Jo, we really appreciate it. We're going to continue to track this in New York City and other blue cities across America.

And we're going to have a breaking update on the fate of the Chicago public schools. Stay there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Now, this just in from a local CBS station -- 88 percent of Chicago teachers have voted in favor of closing schools down again. Though the vote deadline was extended to end at 10:00 p.m. central, in just a few moments. This of course, means parents still don't know if their kids are going to be attending school tomorrow morning. That's a nice way to go to sleep, not knowing. It is disgraceful, but day by day, week by week, month by month, I think people from diverse backgrounds are now beginning to see what the real truth is, maybe about the party that they had enduring allegiance to. Maybe they are looking to make a change. We'll see.

That's it for us tonight. Don't forget, set your DVR so you never miss an episode of THE INGRAHAM ANGLE. And remember, Freedom Matters.

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