Ingraham: Soft on China, tough on America
Laura Ingraham says woke CEOs blast US while doing business with the CCP.
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," March 11, 2022. 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 live from Washington tonight. We were hoping for some progress in the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. But sadly the scenes from Kyiv tonight are grim.
Now remember that convoy outside the city, it dispersed. And now we know the plan was to set up multiple positions going into the Ukrainian capital. Our team on the ground there is reporting the heaviest and most consistent shelling of this conflict. And there are fears that the Russian military is beginning its final push to overwhelm Ukraine.
Let's go live to Kyiv. Our Fox's own Trey Yingst has the latest developments there. Trey?
TREY YINGST, FOX NEWS FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: Laura, good evening. We have heard the heaviest shelling in the capital of Kyiv since this conflict began. Most of it is taking place on the outskirts of the city to the North and to the East. Now this is significant, because we know that 40 mile long convoy was situated to the Northwest of Kyiv. It since broken up and redeployed to many of the neighboring towns, according to these satellite images.
We were in one of those towns called Irpin, just outside the city limits earlier today. Looking at the destruction and the devastation there, it is widespread and it is significant. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YINGST (voice over): 63 year old Vitaly is one of the many vulnerable residents stuck in the besieged Ukrainian town of Irpin. While he hears Russian shells exploding nearby, he can't see the destruction they cause.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via translator): I'm blind. I cannot see anything. I'm absolutely blind.
YINGST (voice over): With no shops or markets open. It's hard enough to get supplies. For Vitaly it's nearly impossible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via translator): I hear some explosions. I'm scared as everyone else. But what can I do?
YINGST (on camera): Right now we're deep inside the Ukrainian town of Irpin. It's partially controlled by Russian forces at this moment and they are shelling different Ukrainian positions in the distance, trying to increase their territorial gains.
Irpin looks like a ghost town. Splintered building line the streets, the aftermath of Russian attacks on residential areas, further evidence of indiscriminate shelling and airstrikes.
YINGST (on camera): On the front lines between Bucha and Irpin, Russian forces are flattening neighborhoods. This is part of a scorched earth campaign used by the Russians to kill civilians and push people out of the way, so they can move their troops forward and ultimately advance on the capital of Kyiv.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YINGST: Tonight, Kyiv is bracing for more violence on the outskirts of the city. There's a real understanding those Russian troops in the coming days could move in and fight many of the Ukrainian forces who have hard defensive lines set up around the city, Laura.
INGRAHAM: Trey, stay safe. Thank you.
And the Ukrainian defense of Kyiv thus far has been nothing short of heroic. But it's also important to put Russia's slow advance in context. Now back in 2003, it took U.S. and coalition forces three weeks to take Baghdad during the Iraq War. Now we're just entering the third week of this conflict. So what can we expect in the days ahead?
Joining me now is Peter Rough, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, and Dr. Robert Spalding, retired Air Force Brigadier General. Peter, now Russia is encircling Kyiv. We knew this would happen from both the North and the East. So is there some type of rough timeline for how long the Ukrainian capital can actually stave them off?
PETER ROUGH, HUDSON INSTITUTE SENIOR FELLOW: Well, that's very difficult to say. Clearly, based on how he has arrayed his forces, Vladimir Putin sees Kyiv as a center of gravity in this campaign. And by besieging Kyiv, he is telegraphing that the same type of warfare he has leveled in recent days and weeks against Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, surrounding that city, with horrific images coming out of there, may very well be coming to Kyiv as well.
But entering the third week of the war, I would just draw your viewers' attention to one additional scene in this war and that is the Southern City of Odessa, which has yet really to be faced with heavy warfare. Odessa really is Ukraine's artery to the broader world. 60 or 70 percent of Ukraine's trade travels through the Black Sea and Odessa constitutes the overwhelming majority of that.
And so as Vladimir Putin makes major gains in the South, if he's able to cut that artery, then no matter what develops and the battle for Kyiv in the North, President Zelenskyy will be presiding over what amounts to a landlocked Kazakhstan or Mongolia wholly dependent on Western aid.
So specific timelines, Laura, it's very difficult to say. But there are multiple theaters that the Ukrainians have to defend. And even if there has been low morale amongst the Russian troops, even if they're having logistical problems, Ukraine is still defending on all fronts.
INGRAHAM: Now General Spalding, Russian missiles hit Western Ukraine today, but the Pentagon isn't sure what to make of it. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KIRBY, DOD PRESS SECRETARY: Our assessment is that they struck a couple of airfields in the West. What it means, what it portends, where the Russians are going with this, we don't really know.
REPORTER: So is that marginal change or is that a reflective widening of their effort?
KIRBY: Again, it's too soon to know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: General, there was this thought that it was only Kyiv they cared about, well, that doesn't look like that's the case.
BRIG GEN ROBERT SPALDING (RET), U.S. AIR FORCE: Well, I think what they're trying to do is make sure that we don't have any resupplies going into different areas to enable Kyiv to stop being under siege. So they're - and what and this is exactly what we would be doing to try and prevent any resupply of Kyiv, so their siege will be successful.
INGRAHAM: Well, at this point when you think about the sheer military might of Russia, even with everything that they did not expect with the heroism and bravery of the Ukrainian people holding out, and it looks Zelenskyy has captured the world's attention. And this is going to get a lot worse, before it gets better. A lot worse, correct?
SPALDING: Absolutely. This is we're talking about devastation of Kyiv, and a lot of major cities in Ukraine, and that's Putin's goal is to essentially crush the resolve of the Ukrainian people, just like he did in Chechnya, and just like he did in Syria.
INGRAHAM: Now, Peter, I want to bring up something that hasn't been discussed much today, which is a potential role we see for China to come to the rescue as a mediator here. So it looks like in an interview with Spanish newspaper El Mundo last week, the European Union's Foreign Policy Chief, Joseph Borrell said, he was in favor of China mediating the peace talks. There is no alternative, he said. We can't be the mediators, that's clear. And it can't be the U.S. either. Who else? It has to be China. Peter, I find this extremely concerning.
ROUGH: I think that betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of China's position in the world stage and role in this conflict. It's true that the Europeans and United States stand on one side of this conflict. But Russia is a stalking horse for China as well. Russia and China are increasingly moving in alignment, if not all together in Alliance. They issued a major statement when President Putin visited President Xi before the Olympics and had a long, multi hour tete-a-tete with the Chinese president, in which they talked about endless possibilities in their alliances.
The two have spoken of each other as the closest of friends on the world stage. So to consider China neutral mediator is absolutely silly. It misses the point, and I think it shows that, that Joseph Borrell, the Head of European Union Foreign Service has little understanding of how the Chinese actually behave in the international stage.
INGRAHAM: All right, gentlemen, thank you tonight. And while most Americans stand behind Ukraine's struggle to protect its democracy, it was just a few years ago that top Ukrainian officials were working to undermine our own on behalf of Democrats.
Now, as journalist Paul Sperry reminds us in an incredible new article. "The improper, if not illegal operation, was run chiefly out of the Ukrainian embassy in Washington, where officials worked hand in glove with the Ukrainian American activist and Clinton campaign operative to attack the Trump campaign."
But it turns out the Democrat Ukrainian collusion predated the 2016 election, Sperry reports. "The coordination between Ukrainian and Democratic officials can be traced back to at least January 2014 when top Obama diplomats began engineering regime change in Kyiv, eventually installing a Ukrainian leader they could control."
Now, you might recognize some of the individuals involved in this scheme, chiefly Jake Sullivan and Victoria Nuland, both of whom now serve in the Biden Administration. Now Nuland just made headlines this week by testifying, she was worried about Ukrainian bio labs falling into Russian hands.
But on January 27, 2014, Nuland was on the phone with the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, plotting regime change in the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VICTORIA NULAND (via telephone): I think, to help glue this thing and have the UN help glue it and, you know, (bleep) the EU.
GEOFFREY PYATT (via telephone): No, exactly. And I think we've got to do something to make it stick together, because you can be pretty sure that if it does start to gain altitude, the Russians will be working behind the scenes to try to torpedo it.
NULAND (via telephone): When I wrote the note, Sullivan's come back to me VFR, saying you need Biden and I said probably tomorrow for an attaboy and to get the deets to stick. So Biden's willing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: As Paul Sperry notes, Nuland's involvement wasn't limited, though, to phone calls. She was on the ground in Kyiv organizing protests against the pro-Russian government. It paid off. That regime was overthrown and a pro-Western government took its place.
Now, two years later, the Ukrainians repaid the favor by working hand in glove with Democrats, to then dig up dirt on Donald Trump and help swing the 2016 election to Hillary Clinton. That's what they wanted.
Joining me now is Paul Sperry investigative reporter for RealClearInvestigations. Paul, what do all these connections tell us about Ukraine as it truly is, and our stance as it is today?
PAUL SPERRY, REALCLEARINVESTIGATIONS REPORTER: By the way - that well, even - Laura, that by the way, was a great summation. Yes, so there's a lot of politics behind this crisis and it's important to put it into historical context. Starting in 2014, when Obama appointed Biden as his point man in Ukraine. And his team of advisors and diplomats engineered a regime change in Kyiv. And they installed essentially a client state for Democrats there.
And as you said, they, they were caught on tape, trying to push out the president at the time, because they felt that he was too friendly with Russia. And Victoria Nuland, who you mentioned as well, she was actually over there handing out sandwiches to the rioters in that revolution. And then, of course, Putin took that U.S. meddling as a threat. And within months, he was invading Crimea. So that's the back-story up until 2016.
And so then, in 2016, Biden's people helped Hillary weaponize Ukraine to try to derail Trump's campaign. And Ukraine went along with it, because they were getting billions of dollars in aid from Biden. And they honestly thought that Democrats would do a better job of protecting them from Russia. But that was a bad--
INGRAHAM: Yes. That was wrong.
SPERRY: Yes, that was a bad pet. I mean, that is tragically backfired with this.
INGRAHAM: Yes. I want to get to another part of what you wrote. And it was about Christopher Steele. That Christopher Steele, of the dossier fame, provided Nuland with written reports on the Ukrainian crisis in Russia. And between the spring of 2014 and 2016, she received some 120 reports on Ukraine and Russia, from Steele.
Now, why was Steele providing these reports for a State Department official about Ukraine and Russia? Paul, explain that.
SPERRY: Yes, Steele's involvement goes way back. He was also informing on the Ukrainian president to the FBI at the same time and then providing these documents, these memos and reports, similar type of dossier, which we now know that his dossier has been completely discredited on Trump and so called Russia collusion.
But he was very influential to what was going on with the regime change in Ukraine at the time and was whispering in the ear of Nuland and others at the State Department.
INGRAHAM: Yes, back in 2014, it - people think this is a 2016 phenomenon. This predated all that. So she actually defended Jen Psaki, Nuland's regime change plotting in Ukraine. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It's no secret that Ambassador Pyatt and Assistant Secretary Nuland have been working with the Government of Ukraine, with the opposition, with business and civil society leaders to support their efforts. And it shouldn't be a surprise that, at any point, there have been discussions about recent events and offers and what is happening on the ground. Remains the case that it is up to the Ukrainian people themselves to decide their future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now, Paul, that was eight years ago, and it's astounding how many key Biden officials were connected to this effort.
SPERRY: Yes, they are all back.
INGRAHAM: It's like old home team here.
SPERRY: They're all back. The whole cast and characters. You've got Biden, of course, Blinken, Nuland, Michael Carpenter is back, Jake Sullivan, of course. And, you know, these are the people that the Ukraine - led the Ukrainians into this crisis, and now they're having to rely on them to get them out of this crisis.
INGRAHAM: Paul, is there one super talented individual in the list that you just rattled off of individuals? Any?
SPERRY: Well, Jake Sullivan has the most influence and he's the master of disaster in Afghanistan.
INGRAHAM: I mean, this is not JV. This is not Peewee league. I don't even think they make it to the field in most teams, so - in most sports scenarios. Paul--
SPERRY: It seems like an amateur. Yes.
INGRAHAM: Ridiculous. Paul it's great to see you tonight and it's a very important piece that explains how we got here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENNIFER GRANHOLM, U.S. ENERGY SECRETARY: Americans agree that they are willing to even sacrifice themselves by paying more at the pump.
PSAKI: I think it's also true that the world needs to be prepared for a very long, difficult road ahead.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There will be cost as well here in the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: As Biden and his team demand that we sacrifice it's worth asking, to what end? How much suffering or middle class Americans expected to endure now, knowing we have untapped resources here to address the problems with energy.
Joining me now is J.D. Vance, Republican, Ohio Senate Candidate. J.D., as you've noted, it's one thing to support sanctions as a punitive response to an invasion, it's quite another to then ask Americans to support them without knowing what the end goal in Europe really is here, given the support that Russia has gotten, just through the Nord Stream involvement alone?
J.D. VANCE, "HILLBILLY ELEGY" AUTHOR: Yes, that's exactly right, Laura. You know, Republicans, we've talked a lot about the fact that Biden is weak and that's why we have Ukraine crisis that we have. But it also turns out that he's an idiot, because the one thing you don't want to do in a global commodity market that is controlled by Russia is drive the cost higher and higher.
And so Biden acts tough by not buying Russian oil, but in reality, if we're not producing our own oil, that's just driving the cost of oil on the worldwide market higher and higher, which means who benefits, right? Who gets richer from that? Vladimir Putin gets richer from that. Meanwhile, American consumers suffer.
And I'm kind of sick, if I'm being honest with you, of the regime - of the Biden regime, asking Americans to sacrifice when we have our own oil at home, we have our own resources at home, they just refuse to exploit them. It's one thing to ask Americans to take it on the chin. It's another thing to do it when it's not necessary, right.
INGRAHAM: But J.D.--
VANCE: We don't benefit at all from this. And frankly, I don't think the Ukrainians do either.
INGRAHAM: Well, it becomes like they are sanctioning Russia, but with their incompetence, or their purposeful radicalism, combination of the two, they're really punishing Americans. And they have been punishing Americans for 14 straight months, nonstop. This is just one more type of plan (ph) . They don't really want Americans to travel anywhere they want, anytime they want. They never liked that.
They always like Europeans gas prices more than ours. And they want to bring it all back to global equity and even at all out. I really believe it's just like with the lockdowns, they kind of preferred people staying in and ordering Uber Eats. I mean, it saves the planet and no one has that pesky freedom stuff to deal with.
VANCE: Yes, Americans, of course, have been asked to sacrifice a lot over the last couple of years. Like you said, we were asked to sacrifice for COVID, we were asked to sacrifice our freedoms, asked to sacrifice our children's psychological health. And now for this war, we're being asked to sacrifice, when it's not necessary for us to accomplish any American objective.
You start to ask yourself, at what point does the Biden administration stop asking Americans to sacrifice unnecessarily and actually enable us to live prosperous and good lives in our own country?
You've talked about this Laura, but I have too. At the end of the day, we need to be focusing on our own problems. Biden talks about sacrificing for a country 6,000 miles away. What about our own Southern border? What about the leading cause of death in this country being fentanyl overdoses among 18 to 45 year olds? There are a lot of problems that if he wants to sacrifice, he should be focusing on problems at home.
INGRAHAM: And J.D., I'm so glad you brought that up. Because while he does, you know, urged us to spend billions and billions, as do Republicans, defending Ukraine's borders, we find out that 59,011 deportations that ICE reported last year with the lowest total since 1995. OK, so we got that. We got the fentanyl pouring in.
We have West Point cadets in the hospital tonight because of fentanyl laced some type of drug that they - were taken partying and horrific. I mean, couple in critical condition. With 10s of 1000s of Americans have died because of fentanyl, and all from China. And we're still playing this game on globalization and not decoupling from China. It's obscene.
VANCE: Yes, often China ships to the Mexican border, you're exactly right. We're still dependent on the Chinese to manufacture things. We've done incredible sanctions on the Russians, but we don't even touch the Chinese reliance, the fact that we were relying on them for so many of the things that we made. Why don't we sanction the Chinese if we're going to go up to the Russians. The Chinese of course, are a much bigger threat.
But you know what's so sick about this, Laura? Republicans refused to give Donald Trump $4 billion for a border wall for four years. They gave Joe Biden $14 billion for you Ukrainian aid in a week? What does that say about the priorities even of congressional Republicans when they refused to fund their own border wall, but their fund was sending tons of money to a country 6,000 miles away?
INGRAHAM: Well, the military industrial complex, isn't that what Eisenhower called it?
VANCE: Yes, he did.
INGRAHAM: They don't make as much money on the border. J.D. great to see it tonight.
Now, we now head back to war-torn Ukraine, where we're getting reports of the first Russian missile strikes in the Western part of the country. Fox's Greg Palkot is standing by in the City of Lviv, near the Polish border with the latest developments. Greg, what's the situation tonight?
GREG PALKOT, FOX NEWS SENIOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That that's absolutely right, Laura. The war got a little bit wider, a little bit more brutal on Friday. Two air bases hits in Western Ukraine, that's exactly where we are right now. It's thought that these sites are playing a role in getting crucial military aid to the Ukraine military. They are not far from the Poland border.
We figure those Russian missile strikes were aimed at disrupting all that, maybe even trying to cut it all off. Also, there was a first ever attack on the City of Dnipro, that's in the center of the country. The thinking is that that city, if it was taken by the Russians, the Ukraine military overall could be split in two and that would further lessen, obviously, their effectiveness.
This as the siege of the capital City of Kyiv, well, that's tightening. Latest where we have there, Laura is that the column of Russian troops and armor we've been talking about literally for weeks now is beginning to disperse and set into shooting positions. The population of the city is getting ready.
And the flow of refugees from Ukrainian, the horror of war here builds, it's now up to 2.5 million people who have left the country. Now we saw hundreds coming out today, as we came back in. As the talk of ceasefires and humanitarian corridors continues, really to no effect back to, Laura.
INGRAHAM: Greg, thank you. And we're going to continue to bring you the breaking developments out of Ukraine as they come in.
But now, soft on China, tough on America. That's the focus of "Tonight's Angle." So as we were just talking about with J.D., China's blanketing our country with fentanyl, killing 10s of 1000s of Americans every day, as it imprisons hundreds of 1000s of Muslims in reeducation camps. Then of course it jails dissidents and forces Christians to go underground.
American CEOs keep quiet, so they can keep getting rich there. J.P. Morgan's Jamie Dimon, Apple's Tim Cook, Delta Airlines' Ed Bastian, well they all come to mind. But these same individuals and many more like them have had no problem condemning perceived inequities in our own country, especially in Republican states.
Indeed, it's kind of an annual rite of spring that elites express their outrage and their moral indignation about something happening in a red state. Last April, it was the manufactured controversy about Georgia's then new election integrity law. CEOs expressed their disapproval on social media. And the virtue signaling buffoons at Major League Baseball actually moved the All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver over the issue. A total swing and a miss.
Of course, a year before that was the death of George Floyd, and the new mantra of the liberal power players that American law enforcement was all systemically racist.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT): We have to rethink the nature of policing in America and reform our broken and racist criminal justice system.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): The actions of the American people to speak out against that specifically manifested in police brutality.
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Finally declaring in one voice, that yes, Black Lives Matter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: And now the fancy people are upset again, this time about Florida's legislation barring the teacher teaching of gender identity and sexual propaganda to kindergarteners through third grade.
They're also fuming over a Texas law declaring a number of sex change procedures for children as abusive. 60 companies, including Google, Facebook and Disney have taken a bold public stand against Texas and Florida measures, claiming their inhumane and discriminatory.
Now, Disney is one of the largest employers in Florida. It first was silent on that Parental Rights in Education bill, but they eventually caved to the demands of the liberal mob. Disney halted all political donations in Florida over the bill. And CEO Bob Chapek had to prostrate himself at the woke altar.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB CHAPEK, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF DISNEY (via telephone): I called Governor DeSantis this morning to express our disappointment and concern that if legislation becomes law it could be used to unfairly target gay, lesbian, non-binary and transgender kids and families.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: False and what hypocrites. Disney does not care about minority rights or human rights, because if it did, they wouldn't be cozying up to one of the most repressive regimes on the planet, China.
Projects there for Disney include the $5.5 billion spend developing Shanghai Disney, also their expansion of their smaller Park in Hong Kong, and the launching of the mega TV channel the Disney Channel in China. Very important to them.
Now somehow, Disney's deep pain and concern disappears when money is on the line. Or does they have an exception to its compassion meter when actual physical torture is involved?
An activist shareholder named Paul Chesser called out Disney this week at its annual meeting, saying, "So while the rest of the corporate world is running away from the stigma of slavery, Disney is praising the local communists. Meanwhile, Disney executives say they will not produce any new films in Russia due to Vladimir Putin's aggression against Ukraine. Since when do E.S.G. principles mean you get to support genocidal regimes in Asia, but you must oppose colonial warmongering in Europe? Seems like cognitive dissonance to me."
Well, Disney is also in bed - was so in bed with China that it even rejected a proposal to conduct an annual evaluation of how human rights are impacted by its business dealings within foreign countries. Now, we all know what's going on here.
They mild these liberal platitudes to placate the wokesters, and activists left here and those at home, they feel good for a while. And then they fall over themselves to appease China in order to expand their market share. It's not just Disney, though, many other Fortune 500 companies are guilty of this as well. They're bought and paid for. They're complicit, just like the Biden family.
The White House, of course, came out vociferously against Florida's parental rights bill, lying about what it really is. Yet a few decades ago, Senator Biden actually agreed with that idea. So reporters circled back to Jen Psaki today on the Biden 180 degree evolution.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Why did he do that? And can you describe how his thinking has evolved over the years?
PSAKI: Well, I think that you have seen the President speak passionately about his view, that a bill like this, a bill that would discriminate against families, against kids, put these kids in a position of not getting the support they need at a time where that's exactly what they need, is discriminatory, it's a form of bullying. It is horrific. I mean, the President has spoken to that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: She never describe China like that. Objection, witness refuses to answer the question.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Was there a reason he supported the same policy, though, in the '90s when we were all in school?
PSAKI: I think what's important to note here is how outspoken the President has been against discrimination against kids, against members of the LGBTQI+ community. And what we're looking at here is a bill that would propagate misinformed hateful policies and impact children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: She will not answer the question. You know, why? Because she can't. The Florida bill is eminently reasonable. In fact, I think it doesn't go far enough. Why should public schools be teaching children controversial sexual subjects at all? Why is it controversial at all to believe this? Well, the answer, it's not.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): Companies that have made a fortune off being family friendly and catering to families and young kids, you know, they should understand that parents of young kids do not want this injected into their kid's kindergarten classroom. They're going to criticize the fact that we don't want transgenderism and kindergarten in first grade classrooms, if that's the hill that they're going to die on, then how did they possibly explain lining their pockets with their relationship from the Communist Party of China?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Boom! It's politically very smart for Governor DeSantis to stand firm and to call out this moral posturing for what it is. These flaccid CEOs make cower at the radical slightest complaints. But conservatives never should. If Democrats think these are such winning issues for them, I encourage them to run on them in November. Then they'll see just what American parents think about that moral duplicity. And that's "The Angle."
Joining me now is Florida Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nunez. Lieutenant Governor Nunez, this is the most ridiculous distortion of what a piece of legislation is and what it would do that I've seen in quite some time. But the left is really brilliant at branding things in a way that makes those who disagree with them seem totally mean and biased. Your reaction to this controversy?
JEANETTE NUNEZ, (R) FLORIDA LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR: Laura, I think the radical left and people like Jen Psaki are too busy regurgitating the same old tired talking points. They should read the bill. As you pointed out, this bill is about parental rights. It's about making sure that children are not indoctrinated.
My parents came from Cuba in 1961, fleeing communism, the very things that we're trying to avoid. Kids were being indoctrinated. They were being made wards of the state. And so we're very firm here in Florida under Governor DeSantis' leadership that we want to protect our children, we want to give parents the ultimate decision making in everything from their education to their healthcare.
And so I think that that is something that we pride ourselves on. And if people would just simply read the bill, they would see that this is something all parents, myself included, agree with strenuously.
INGRAHAM: It's not even a left-right issue. This is a commonsense issue. These are little children. We're supposed to protect their innocence, not try to push a worldview or indoctrinate them into some viewpoint, whatever the viewpoint may be, political or otherwise. That's the problem I have with this. This is not up to the teachers to do. I can't imagine your legislation stops at third grade. I don't think this is the role of the schools at all. And I think most moms and dads across the country, I imagine they would agree with that.
I mentioned something else earl earlier. It's this "New York Post" reporting tonight that six West Point football players on spring break in Florida overdosed on fentanyl-laced cocaine leaving two in critical condition, according to authorities. Lieutenant Governor Nunez, these woke CEOs are worried about a parental rights bill. Meanwhile, they will never criticize China for all that it is doing on human rights and making sure this fentanyl works its way into the United States that comes out of China. That's something to be morally outraged by.
NUNEZ: Indeed, and these feckless CEOs of these woke corporations, they're too busy bowing down to the altar of the CCP. They will not fight. And they will simply come back. They will criticize our legislation. They will try to bully us like the NCAA did, like Disney is doing. How dare they? They have no right to criticize the legislation by duly elected legislators that are passing common sense legislation to criticize and to threaten. Governor DeSantis and I won't stand for it, and we're proud in the free state of Florida, we put parents and their rights first.
INGRAHAM: Lieutenant Governor Nunez, it was great to you have you on the show. I hope you come back soon.
We're watching the capital of Ukraine tonight as Kyiv has suffered the worst shelling of this conflict. We'll bring you the news as it comes.
But next, the Biden administration recruits TikTokers to produce their propaganda, I'm not kidding, while Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are focused on the country, well, another country. The remarkable video is in "Seen and Unseen" with Raymond Arroyo, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: It's Friday, and that means it's time for Friday Follies. And for that we turn to FOX News contributor Raymond Arroyo. All right, Ray, the Democrats, they did hold their big retreat this week, and they are retreating -- well, sort of. But I want to note where Nancy Pelosi's mind is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY PELOSI, (D-CA) HOUSE SPEAKER: This was a remarkable few days because it was -- it was for the people. But it was it was flava (ph) Ukraine (ph), it was about Ukrainia (ph). It just -- Mike McCaul, others here have talked about Ukraine and how, what our responsibility is there to those people. They are fighting for their country. They are fighting for democracy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAYMOND ARROYO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Slava (ph) crayona (ph).
(LAUGHTER)
ARROYO: I don't know what she's saying, Laura. She has affection for fighting for a country until Americans do it, at which point she insists they're all insurrectionists. Many of these speeches were exercises in blame-shifting, replacing Trump with Putin. Putin caused gas prices, inflation. I'm waiting for Jussie Smollett to say Putin made him hire the two Nigerians to beat him up.
INGRAHAM: Raymond, Nancy Pelosi always loses me when she talks and the hands go in directions that don't correspond.
(LAUGHTER)
ARROYO: Don't comport with anything being said. I know.
INGRAHAM: It's very interesting.
ARROYO: Look, Ukraine is the major focus for the Biden administration now, Laura. We are sending them $13 billion, who knows where that money is going and if it will ever reach the people. And now the administration is holding briefings for TikTok influencers. First of all, why are they encouraging the use of a Chinese media platform from a regime supporting Putin? I don't understand this. But no matter. Yesterday Jen Psaki and national security officials held a Ukraine Zoom call with 30 TikTok influencers who quickly followed orders and parroted the Biden line.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- a Zoom call with the White House about the situation in Ukraine. And they acknowledge that this coverage and balance exists for crises throughout the world, and encouraged us as content creators to use our platforms to highlight different issues as they arise.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are seeing the United States sanctions on Russia work. The United States didn't cause this war. Russia did.
I am very grateful for what America has done thus far.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: Those sanctions are working like a charm, Laura. Putin has backed off to Siberia. This whole TikTok thing is a joke. First of all, one of TikTokers is a girl who just dances. That's all she does, she just dances. So I guess she's going to do some kind of dramatic dance for Ukraine. I don't know.
But they claim this is to beat back misinformation, though Psaki was recorded telling the assembled that Russia hacked our elections in 2016 despite no evidence of that at all. This is shameless partisan propagandizing of the young. One of the participants described it as a press briefing for kindergarteners. It's more like toddler talking points for Trotskyites.
INGRAHAM: Raymond, when Mike Pompeo said on this show three years ago, I think it was, or four years ago, don't download the TikTok app on your phone --
ARROYO: Right.
INGRAHAM: -- did people not understand what that meant? Was that confusing to people? Yes. This is -- this is kind of in line with the Kamala Harris level of discourse, the TikTok influencers. But it's very Soviet how they bring them in and then they tell them basically what to say. And then they have the script in front of them when they're speaking. And it's like, that's their dear leader moment. But Jen Psaki, I guess, is their leader.
It's not the first time that Psaki has invited, though, the influencers into the White House. Who can forget this moment?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One sec. Democracy is calling. See you, bye.
Hi, my name is Cooper, and this is the day in my life as a White House intern.
Hey, Jenny. I booked you a nail appointment, love.
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Yes, I didn't tell you to do that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's call initiative.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: Just the image of strength and confidence we want to project to the world during a war, Laura.
And speaking of strength and confidence, Joe Biden spoke at the Democratic retreat today. After previewing World War III, he wandered into domestic affairs, and it proved a couple of things. Not only does Biden contradict himself, listen closely, but the Democrats have a high tolerance of pain and incoherence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're stronger today than we were a year ago. And we will be stronger next year than we are today.
America is flat on its back. It was the Democrats, if was you that brought us back. We got some Republican friends to help on the recovery -- excuse me, on the infrastructure act.
Where are you? They're in Pittsburgh.
(LAUGHTER)
BIDEN: Anyway -- I just reached out to them, Pittsburgh.
Headline, fact checker in "The New York Times," Republicans wrongly blame Biden for rising gas prices.
Don't let anybody tell you anything you did supporting the idea that we'd block Russian oil coming into the country, which is -- and I said at the time, prices are going to go up for gasoline. It wasn't anything we did.
And the idea of can we pump more oil? There are now -- now five -- we have to do this. We have to do this. We have to ask -- easy, ask the biggest -- those are the biggest corporations to pay very little to raise their hand. If you can make $1 billion, make it. But for God's sake, pay your fair share for damn it. Right now.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: For damn it?
ARROYO: Pay your fair share for damn it, Laura.
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: Oh, my God.
ARROYO: Incoherence, weakness, that's what the world sees. It's a tragedy, and it goes on and on.
INGRAHAM: No wonder they're asking Xi to do the negotiations between the two, Ukraine and Russia. Imagine that -- you'd have both sides saying what did he just say? What did he just say? Raymond --
ARROYO: I don't know what he's saying half the time.
INGRAHAM: Have a good weekend.
ARROYO: As they clammer for more aid to defend democracy abroad, who's left in Washington to defend our democracy? Dinesh D'Souza is here in moments with an alarming story out of the January 6th committee. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: This day has been used to target Trump supporters, surveil them, criminalize speech.
What we're witnessing at all levels of society run by liberals is a new red scare. But instead of targeting Marxists or communists, they're fighting Americans in red states.
If you attended a Trump rally or maybe posted on Facebook against mail-in ballots, then you could be seen as a potential domestic terrorist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: And just as we predicted, the January 6th investigation is being used to criminalize GOP fundraising and rallies. As "The Washington Post" is gleefully reporting, "Officials with the committee argue that the fundraising and political appeals that happened in the months leading up to January 6th are a reason the pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol."
Joining me now is Dinesh D'Souza, conservative commentator, host of "The Dinesh D'Souza Podcast." Dinesh, this was obvious from the start. They really wanted to intimidate conservatives, traditional Americans from gathering together, banding together, and continuing this populist movement.
DINESH D'SOUZA, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR: Absolutely. They're acting as if there's something inherently unpatriotic if not subversive in questioning the results of an election. Now, the remarkable thing is this is coming from Democrats who questioned vehemently the results of the 2016 election. They contested the electoral counts, they called on the electors not to cast votes for Trump. They didn't show up at Trump's inauguration. They unleashed riots during Trump's inauguration. Come to think of it, it's the same Democrats who questioned both the Bush elections of 2000 and 2004. You would have to go back to 1988 to find Democrats fully accepting the results of a presidential election that they lost.
INGRAHAM: Well, Dinesh, they use the worder "insurrectionist" quite freely, even against people who never even went into the capitol, even people who maybe went to hear President Trump speak, didn't even make it to the Capitol. They're also branded as insurrectionists. And you hear interviews with some of these people, a lot of them more elderly people. They're like, this has ruined my life. There is a vindictiveness about this against anyone who happened to be in the vicinity and supported President Trump.
D'SOUZA: I think this is the key point, that they started out by doing a kind of focus on the people who went in the Capitol. Then they began to harass the people who just went to Washington. And now it's open season on anybody in the country who aligns themselves with Trump.
Look, they know that there's widespread suspicion on the Republican side, and widespread kind of anxiety about what really happened in the 2020 election. They are hanging on to the premise of this was the most secure election in history. Now, that is actually not true. I have concrete evidence it's not true. I'm about to present that evidence. And So I would love to be called by the January 6th committee. My only condition is that they have a big screen available so I can play some videos when they call me some testify.
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: It's important to remind people of what "The New York Times" reported last month, Dinesh. "The committee has issued more than 100 subpoenas, including broad ones, to banks, as well as telecom and social media companies. Armed with reams of telephone records and metadata, the committee has used link analysis, a data mapping technique that former FBI agents say was key to identifying terrorist networks in the years after September 11." Dinesh, they truly are more frightened of Trump supporters than they are of actual terrorists today.
D'SOUZA: I would go even further than that. They're actually frightened of the truth. If you think about it, if someone wins a race fair and square, they're going to be perfectly happy to have all kinds of post facto examinations and audits. But the very fact that the Democrats not only hate those things, try to stop them, but have encouraged a wall of digital censorship to shut down any discussion of the topic, shows that they're terrified not of misinformation, not of lies, but of the truth actually coming out.
INGRAHAM: Yes, and they're trying to frighten people away from donating to campaigns. That's what this is all about, shaming them away from donations. Do not let them do that to you, no matter what political party you support. Dinesh, thank you.
Unbelievable dashcam video shows how a police officer saved countless lives. You will not want to miss this. The Last Bite, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Florida highway patrol trooper Toni Schuck put herself between countless bystanders and an out-of-control drunk driver. The dashcam footage, stunning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: We are happy to report that Officer Schuck is OK, saying, "I was sworn to protect, and that's what I felt I did." God bless her.
Finally, remember, get your USA made Freedom Matters gear at LauraIngraham.com. All of the proceeds, see these wonderful hats, go to charity. This month, it's Samaritan's Purse, doing great work in Ukraine.
Shannon Bream, next.
END
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