‘The Ingraham Angle’ on US energy policies amid soaring gas prices

This is a rush transcript from “The Ingraham Angle,” March 7, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: I’m Laura Ingraham, and this is THE INGRAHAM ANGLE from Washington tonight. As the war in Ukraine intensifies, so too does the suffering here in America. So, energy prices skyrocketing, experts warning that prices at the grocery store. Have you seen this are only going to keep going up and up? Wheat has hit an all-time high. You see the wheat Futures this morning, that was shocking. And with Russia’s role as a major supplier of fertilizer mean everything that grows is going to get more expensive.

The administration’s reaction to all of this isn’t to stop and have at least an honest conversation about the repercussions of all this, but rather to draw us perilously close to conflict. Now yesterday on Face The Nation, our Secretary of State Anthony Blinken revealed the dangerous path we’re now on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If for instance, the Polish government, a NATO member wants to send fighter jets, does that get a green light from the U.S.? Are you afraid that that will escalate tension?

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: No, that gets a green light. In fact, we’re talking with our Polish friends right now about what we might be able to backfill their needs if in fact they choose to provide these fighter jets to the Ukrainians.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Now this comment came as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the deployment of another 500 American troops to support NATO allies bringing the total number of U.S. military personnel in Europe to 100,000. Now throughout this hour, we’re going to explore what moves like that would mean and also look at how certain media outlets are priming the proverbial pump when it comes to greater U.S. involvement.

But as we’ve been doing, we want to get an unvarnished look at how things look on the ground in Ukraine. And our reporter there, Trey Yingst has been documenting the carnage happening on the outskirts of Kyiv, as the sounds of artillery are drawing closer and closer to the capital city. That’s where we begin tonight. Trey, what can you tell us tonight?

TREY YINGST, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Laura, that’s exactly right. The Ukrainians tonight say they shot down to Russian airplanes in the distance. Throughout this night, we have heard significant artillery fire and shells landing closer with inside the city limits. This is important because we’ve seen the destruction across the rest of this country.

In Chernihiv, in Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, apartment buildings and residential areas just totally destroyed by these Russian shells and the air campaign that is moving forward as this invasion continues. These are not military targets. These are civilian areas, and they continue to be hit today. You talk about Irpin, just outside of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. This is a location we were out on Saturday, and we watched as thousands of people fled this area as Russian forces tried to work their way closer to the capital.

While on Sunday, a Russian shell slammed into the pavement, instantly killing four civilians who were just trying to get out of the line of fire. We went back to the city today and the mood was quite tense. There was mortar rounds, mortar rounds coming in around the soldiers, sniper fire in the distance as people tried to get away. And there were far fewer people because there’s a real fear after seeing those images. The civilians worry it could be their family next.

And still today we heard Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy doubling down saying the people have to come together and he is willing to stay here and fight back against the Russians take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: I stay here in Kyiv, at Bankova Street. I don’t hide and I’m not afraid of anyone. I will stay here as long as it’s necessary to win in our patriotic war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YINGST: Not sure if we have the track there over top, but he’s talking about Monday. And how Monday is often a difficult day for people during the week. And he’s saying that for the Ukrainian people every day is Monday now, it will be a difficult week ahead. And he is preparing for the worst here in the city. There was a third round of peace talks taking place today between the Russians and the Ukrainians. But the reality is the Russians keep saying they aren’t going to hit civilians. They say they will respect these humanitarian corridors, and then they hit them. So that’s the situation for the civilians on the ground here in Ukraine. No place is safe. And there could be very bloody urban battle in the days ahead, Laura.

INGRAHAM: Trey, thank you tonight. And so, what’s Putin’s endgame with Ukraine? My next guest has an idea. Joining me now from Turkey is Peter Rough. He’s a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. Peter, so there is a lot of psychoanalyzing of Vladimir Putin going on in the United States, some of it seems quite ill informed, you have a view on this what’s the ultimate goal?

PETER ROUGH, HUDSON INSTITUTE SENIOR FELLOW: Well, I think Vladimir Putin is interested in restoring Empire essentially, it’s easy to read, a pointer goes to the Kremlin website. Last June, he published an essay called the historical unity of the Ukrainian and Russian peoples. He began with Belarus, and now he’s moved on to Ukraine, and I suspect this is where his big battle is to try to unite the Slavic peoples as he sees it, underneath the Russian rule.

INGRAHAM: Was this inevitable as things played out, we keep hearing this was inevitable, was it truly inevitable? Wasn’t there an off ramp before we arrived at this hideous series of events that are killing innocent women and children?

ROUGH: Well, I will say that the Biden administration bent over backwards as they wanted to do to try to offer Vladimir Putin an off ramp, there was a negotiating document leaked to Alpes, a Spanish newspaper that included an American offered to the Russians that we would not put offensive weapon systems into Ukraine. We also offered inspection of our ballistic missile defenses, Aegis Ashore in Romania, to verify for the Russians that those are not offensive, but just defensive system. So, I think the United States has done what it can to meet the Russians halfway, but they’re just basic red lines that we were unprepared to cross.

And in the end, I think looking back in retrospect, at least over the past several months, the coup de gras probably came in December, when the president in front of rolling cameras on the South Lawn announced that American ground troops would not be heading to Ukraine, that may be a sensible policy, we can debate it, but why on earth we would let Vladimir Putin inside of our calculations is beyond me, he hasn’t telegraphed his next moves to us. So, for us doing that to him, I think was a major mistake. And that was the last in a series of mistakes over the past year that like Putin to take this gamble and move into Ukraine.

INGRAHAM: Well, here’s what the Pentagon thinks the end game for Vladimir Putin is, watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: We certainly don’t have insight into his military plans. I mean, we’re seeing it kind of unfold just like you are. He doesn’t believe that Ukraine should exist as a sovereign nation state. In fact, he doesn’t believe it ever existed as a sovereign nation state, and he wants to make them a vassal of Russia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Peter, is that something you agree with, something else deeper going on here?

ROUGH: Well, I would say this, Putin constructed his military operation under a faulty political assumptions. He thought that Zelenskyy would prove feckless and weak, and that the Ukrainian people would essentially content themselves with new Russian overlords. And so, he launched an unprotected, quick dash to Kyiv. It proved not to work, Zelenskyy fought back, the Ukrainian people stood up to the Russian attack. And so now I think he’s switching gears to a broader, more deadly combined arms military operation. And he’s surrounding Kyiv, he’s surrounding other cities as your correspondent just noted.

He may attempt to break up through encirclement, the Ukrainian army, but how to rule over rubble after that, I think is a big conundrum. Because the Ukrainian people have shown they’re likely to move into an insurgency phase at that point, Putin could attempt to negotiate away his military gains once he has achieved them. But even there, it’s hard for me to imagine the Ukrainian government in exile, agreeing to core Russian demands like recognition of those independent republics in the Donbass or the annexation of Crimea.

So, we’re likely to move to one of two scenarios either Putin bleeds into this insurgency. Ukraine is essentially leveled and Russia suffers for years as the West supports a fledgling insurgency, or he loudly proclaims victory but silently concedes defeat and moves off of his maximalist gains. But for that to take place, I think we have some time to go because the Ukrainians are feeling rather bullish right now. And the Russians, of course still have a quantitatively, qualitatively superior military and they want to make their military news before they move to any political negotiations.

INGRAHAM: Peter, good to see you tonight. Thank you. And Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has oil now nearing $130 a barrel. Markets are even betting prices could hit $200 a barrel this month, but the Biden administration solution is more oil production, wait, it’s just not here in the U.S., so we previously learned they were looking at boosting oil output in Saudi Arabia and Iran, the world’s largest sponsored terrorism, that’s all. And today, the AP revealed that the Biden administration has been considering for some time, easing tough oil sanctions on Venezuela.

Joining me now is Ryan Zinke, former Trump Interior Secretary, former SEAL Team Six Commander and Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan, who sits on the Congress Armed Services Committee. Secretary Zinke, good to see you tonight. I guess it’s fitting the Democrats could turn to socialist totalitarians, Venezuela for oil.

RYAN ZINKE, FORMER TRUMP INTERIOR SECRETARY: It is quite something. The first two years of the Trump administration. We went from 8.3 million barrels a day in declining in just two years to 12.5 million barrels a day, the world’s largest exporter of energy, and it just wasn’t fossil fuels. It was across the board. So, fast forward, now we have Russia and we should immediately ban Russian oil, we should immediately approve the Keystone, we should immediately approve drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.

This is not the end war. It’s a National Petroleum Reserve, and accelerate permitting so we can capture our flaring gas. So, we can build LNG terminals and supply our allies with energy. It is that simple. Yet this administration–

INGRAHAM: They’re fanatics.

ZINKE: Well, at every juncture, they’re making the wrong decision. It’s a series of mistakes. Now that has real consequences, because we couldn’t put in a deterrent that prevented this from happening. And now real people are suffering the consequence.

INGRAHAM: But do you think it’s purposeful? Or do you think it’s a mistake. To me, they’re going to be happiest when gas is at $10 a gallon? I actually think there’s a lot of people in this administration are absolutely fine with gas going that high.

ZINKE: Well, look what happens when you raise the price of energy.

INGRAHAM: But they don’t care. You’re presuming they care about the suffering of the American people. We know they care about the Ukrainian suffering. That’s – we’re seeing it every day. It’s horrible. We’re looking at this every minute of every day. But do they care about the suffering of the American people and hold that thought? Because Senator Sullivan, you’re from obviously representing Alaska, and all the oil, all the energy that’s there, but Jen Psaki was very dismissive of Europe’s reliance on Putin for energy. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The reliance on importing the import of Russian oil is so much more significant in Russia than – excuse me in Europe, that well over the course of time, it’s clear they recognize the need to diversify, their means of getting oil.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Senator Sullivan, now she’s lecturing Europe, when we got more oil from Russia last year than we did from Alaska. What?

SEN. DAN SULLIVAN (R-AK): Yes, Laura, what’s happening here? It’s remarkable. But yet it’s simple. The administration needs to stop looking for the next brutal dictator to buy oil from, and the answer is simple. It’s what Ryan Zinke just mentioned, we need to produce more American energy by American energy workers. Here’s the one thing that I think people are really missing. I was home in Alaska this week and met with some great energy workers, met with our patriotic Ukrainian American community.

There’s a feeling that people are being insulted, insulted, they asked me – all these groups asked me why on earth would our own federal government try to shut down the production of energy in Alaska and now are going around the world hat in hand to dictators to buy more oil from them, whether the Iranians, whether the Saudis, whether Venezuela, who by the way, are going to use that money to take action, negative action against Americans, it is an insult in its national security suicide to boot and the American people certainly in my state are recognizing it.

INGRAHAM: Well, I mean, insults is – I wouldn’t call it a mistake. I wouldn’t call an insult. I love you both. But I think there’s much more going on. I think that the idea of lowering American’s expectations, lowering America’s standard of living, that’s what they liked the lockdowns because everyone was staying home ordering on Netflix, doing DoorDash, whatever they’re doing, tending to their herb gardens, that was fine, they didn’t travel, the air was clean. It’s all those satellite images, that is nirvana for them.

When people aren’t working, and things just – you’re just slowing down. They love that. They were never happier than during the lockdowns. But I digress because the Biden administration does have a solution to high gas prices courtesy of our friend, Mayor Pete.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE BUTTIGIEG, SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION: Clean transportation can bring significant cost savings for the American people as well. Last month, we announced a $5 billion investment to build out a nationwide electric vehicle charging network so that people from rural to suburban to urban communities can all benefit from the gas savings of driving an EV.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Secretary Zinke, maybe we should just send the EV charging stations over to Ukraine and see if that helps them out. OK, because apparently that’s the answer to everything.

ZINKE: It’s amazing what comes out of this administration. But even this crisis, look at the supply chain, because Russia also produces palladium, it produces nickel. So, what’s our answer to our critical minerals? What’s our answer to the critical components that run this economy? It is manufacturing in here. It’s our energy, but it’s also the critical minerals and everything else that runs this economy. What about chips? What happens if China does move on Taiwan? Because they see weakness–

INGRAHAM: But what’s the answer here? The answer is we’ve got to pull back our manufacturing to the United States and stop being – going hat in hand to despotic regimes either for oil, for palladium, for uranium, all the things that we need on a daily basis. We can’t be beholden to these regime, we can’t even beholden to Ukraine because they get invaded.

ZINKE: A good point is, America is not weak. This administration is weak, but America has the energy, it has innovation and if we let America run like America can with innovation, with thinking out of the box, we can solve these problems quick, but this administration at every decision point is making the bad one that lead us into dependency on energy and dependency on chips and technology.

INGRAHAM: That’s all going to come back. We’ve got to bring it all home. Gentlemen, thank you both. Gracing you both tonight as always. And tonight, we have graphic new video of a mortar attack in a small suburb of Irpin, outside of Kyiv. In moments, you are going to see Ukrainian fighter in the forefront of all of it and in the top left, families running away, trying to find somewhere safe to hide. This is despite Russian assurances that they don’t target civilians. Now I have to warn you this is going to be hard to watch.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, medic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: That attack left four dead including a mother, her teenage son and her daughter. The New York Times said it appeared to be about eight years old. The man you see on the right is a family friend and the New York Times reports that he still had a pulse after the attack but was unconscious, severely wounded. He died later on.

Now, many Ukrainians were able to get away from the carnage travel west to the city of Lviv, where Fox’s Lucas Tomlinson is standing by. Lucas is this city given everything we’re seeing still largely safe for refugees. Russia insists it is not targeting civilians. It is clearing a pathway, safe passage for civilians. But the videotape shows otherwise.

LUCAS TOMLINSON, FOX NEWS HOST: That’s right, Laura. Tens of thousands of refugees fleeing those violence cities that you just showed continue to come here in Lviv, the mayor welcome them over open arms. We spoke to one woman, one young mother who described some of that violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was very hard to sleep all these days. If we go to sleep and then we hear some noise outside, we get up, take baby and go to the underground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TOMLINSON: The mayor here says 50,000 people have passed through the city’s train station in one day alone late last week, a majority continue on to Poland over a million to-date. He says the mayor here that over 200,000 now stay here since the war began. And more than 200 orphans also arrived here over the weekend by train. They were fleeing the violence in Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant that came under attack a few days ago, such as refugees coming here to Western Ukraine, but weapons too as you mentioned, Laura, the State Department’s number two official Wendy Sherman warning, it may become harder in the coming days though a hint perhaps that the Russians are trying to cut off those armed shipments, including some 17,000 anti-tank missiles in recent days, and thousands of anti-aircraft Stinger missiles.

These weapons seem to be preventing Russian forces from taking over the capital in the past 12 days since this invasion began. A new intelligence report says over 4500 Russian soldiers being killed since the war began. It’s becoming increasingly clear also, Laura, but Russia’s strategy that seem to be targeting airfields to stop NATO from sending this old MiGs. They also continue shelling civilian areas, no doubt to get more civilians to leave the country. The UN says over 1.7 million to-date. And it also appears the sanctions against Vladimir Putin are not deterring him. Laura.

INGRAHAM: Lucas, thank you. And we’re going to bring you the latest details out of Kyiv in moments. But first, self-inflicted pain, Biden style. That’s the focus of tonight’s angle.

You might have not noticed, but the Dow Jones fell over 797 points today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is now infecting the markets worldwide. All the major averages plummeting today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Food prices skyrocketing, fuel costs are surging to the highest level since 2008.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oil prices have skyrocketed to their highest price since 2008. What they’re over seven bucks a gallon over the weekend. Oh, there it is. $6.99 for regular.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Inflation at its highest point since the 1970s. All of this is creating what even the Washington Post admits is a deeply pessimistic nation. But rather than confronting the decline of America under Biden and then trying to fix it, the media and even some of the GOP are desperately selling another war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In terms of the no-fly zone, we’ve done it before. We did it in Iraq. We did it in Bosnia. We did it in Libya.

GARRY KASPAROV, CHAIRMAN OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION: If they think is not ready to confront Russia militarily in disguise, how many is going to defend eastern flank of its organization.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): By rearming and sustaining the Ukrainian Air Force, they can continue to protect their own skies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Now, all of these problems could have been prevented if we had a competent government, but we do not. Biden should have insisted on a realistic assessment of the situation in Ukraine. Instead, his team kept open the prospect of NATO membership for Ukraine, which Putin said he was never going to accept.

In retrospect, that was likely a huge, huge, huge mistake. Now, of course, Putin didn’t attack Ukraine under Trump, because he knew that America was stronger and more practical under his leadership. Trump was a pro-energy nationalist who wasn’t about to get rolled into supporting Russia’s natural gas pipeline into Europe. And from day one though, the White House Pelosi, Schumer, they’ve worked overtime to turn back every policy of Trump’s predecessor, Biden’s predecessor that worked actually to make America stronger and more powerful here and in Europe.

Now, Americans are made to pay a price for Biden’s madness. A year ago, who could have imagined $7 a gallon gasoline prices, not even I. As for the media who seemed relieved to be able to change the subject. They don’t like the devastation in Ukraine. Of course, they don’t. But they also don’t seem bothered at all that Americans are hurting in profound ways. Think about how miserable, miserable the White House press corps was, let’s say and I don’t know kind of the end of 2019. What was happening then? Well, that’s when we had energy independence. That’s when we had low inflation, rising wages, even for blue collar workers.

We also had record low unemployment. We had good trade deals, and we had no new wars. It didn’t matter that investor and consumer confidence was at an all-time high, or that optimism was robust all the way around. In fact, that annoyed our media so much. In some of the other characters I just mentioned, they had to set upon to destroy Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump is a Russian operatives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 101 contacts between Trump’s team and Russia linked operatives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Russia hacked our election. That was a 9/11 scale event.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: And of course, when Biden got in, he and his band of saboteurs set a course to radically change America, from the way our children view our founding, to the way we recruit and train our military to the way we power our cars and to the way we look at citizenship even. They spent trillions of dollars, which just drove inflation through the roof. And then they refused to admit that inflation was actually a real thing. And now they’re telling you, now they’re telling you, it’s time for more sacrifice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PSAKI: So true, that the world needs to be prepared for a very long, difficult road ahead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: What Biden did to America in just over a year, is what he’s doing to himself politically. He and his party are poised for a historical route in November. And if he thinks his 10 minutes of discussing the tragedy in Ukraine is going to help them. He’s just wrong again. People will continue to be killed in Ukraine, and it is horrific. But our elites keep pushing the lie that people in Ukraine and here are somehow protected by the rules based international order that’s somehow going to fix things. We’d have to go back to that. That is wrong.

Under Trump, they were protected by the USA. But once we became too weak under Biden to protect anyone. Well, things started to collapse abroad. When China berated Blinken remember that and Alaska and trashed America that showed us what they were trying to do, it was ugly. And my prediction is Biden will continue to be humiliated by China.

As for those who say, talking about China is a dodge, saw that today? Well, it’s the only way to realistically assess though, isn’t it what’s happening in Ukraine because China is a major check on our ability to affect the situation. every bad thing that is happening is only happening now because our elites at some point in time thought it was OK to make China the most powerful country in the world.

So now, here we are, it’s back to the 1970s. The U.S. is weakened under Biden, we’re humiliated by a smaller power, like Russia, we’re divided at home, we’re burdened with horrific inflation and economic problems. It’s all self-inflicted by a White House and a political establishment that has failed the people who pay the bills. They’ve done it far too many times. But what the Left will not admit yet is that Ukraine shows us in graphic, gory, tragic detail how globalization ultimately fails.

Because the elites thought that somehow we could curtail evil with all in again, the international norms, the new global order, the global reset, whatever you want to call it. That wasn’t just idealistic. It was dangerous, and it was stupid. The only thing that has kept bad actors in check was an America that was economically strong and culturally cohesive. When we lose, not just one but both of those things, we’re not going to just see suffering abroad, we’re going to endure plenty of our own here.

The only good news is that elections are now less than eight months away. And that’s the angle.

Joining me now is Mollie Hemingway, Fox News Contributor, Editor-in-Chief of the Federalist and Dinesh D’Souza, conservative commentator, host of The Dinesh D’Souza podcast. Mollie, let’s start with you. What do you make of the media that was so willing to believe the Soviet Union during the Cold War, that the media now seems to be edging us closer to war with Russia?

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, THE FEDERALIST EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: It has been something to watch what they’ve done in the last few weeks where they’re clearly trying to push an escalation of the conflict that involves our country, as well. It’s kind of what they do with all sorts of situations, they amp up a story, they hype, something, they flood the zone with one sided media coverage, it’s what they did with COVID. It’s what they did with the impeachments, what they did with the Russia hoax, and now what they’re doing here with this situation as well.

And it is something to behold. But there, it’s clear that they are not thinking seriously or soberly about the ramifications. Because we’re not just talking about a conflict of any other kind. We’re talking about a conflict with a nuclear superpower, the time for people to be adults and sober and thinking through the second and third order effects of everything we do is now.

INGRAHAM: But now Dinesh to Mollie’s point, Tom Nichols of The Atlantic is, I mean, as they say, they’re for democracy. Their answer to promoting democracy is, oh, let’s smear fellow Americans who disagree with them on Ukraine. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM NICHOLS, THE ATLANTIC CONTRIBUTING WRITER: There are group of Right- wing Republicans who really think of Putin as this kind of white Christian savior of civilization with whom we could make some sort of, we could link arms and make some sort of common defense against the Islamic world and against the encroachment of Left-wing civilization.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Dinesh, what a vile person, first of all, I have no idea what he’s talking about. But again, they will tolerate no questioning, just write the billions and billions of dollars of taxpayer money to go wherever, to do whatever. And we’re supposed to say, oh, great. What is this?

DINESH D’SOUZA, THE DINESH D’SOUZA PODCAST HOST: I think the real problem that these people are all ducking is the fact that the old rhetoric inherited from the old cold war era no longer works anymore. You and I are a product of the 1980s, in which we spoke very confidently of the free world on the one side, and the totalitarian world on the other.

But now, if you look at a lot of the features of authoritarian societies, censorship, mass surveillance, going after political opponents, the idea of a one party state, the kind of corrupt gangster regime in-charge, you realize that all those elements are present in our own country. And so suddenly, it’s a very different way of thinking about these conflicts. It’s not about the fact that anybody’s championing Putin. No, it’s simply that we’re asking what is the America we’re supposed to be defending when many of the things that are deployed abroad are deployed by the Biden administration right here at home?

INGRAHAM: I want you both to hear this. But I have to play a big focus of CNN earlier tonight first.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: War coverage remains blacked out in Russia, after Putin signed a law that criminalizes news reporting on his invasion, not even allowed to call it a war. TV networks going to black and basically a blackout in terms of information from Russia in so many ways. Ukrainians with family in Russia say their families have no idea what is going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Mollie, they don’t see the irony. This is just after they said they were like basically blacklisting all these doctors who engaged in COVID misinformation, a lot of stuff they were saying, actually has been borne out by research and actually the practice of medicine that’s just to name a few things that they’ve censored.

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, EDITOR IN CHIEF, “THE FEDERALIST”: The founders talked eloquently about the need for a free press to hold people accountable. It’s one of the dangers that we have in our country right now is we have such a propaganda press, and that they link arms with powerful party officials to censor viewpoints that they don’t like about a whole range of topics has done a lot to — obviously people don’t trust much of the corporate media because of their behavior in recent years and it makes it very fraught when you’re dealing with looming potentials for World War III.

INGRAHAM: Dinesh, we have the president — former president of the United States, Donald Trump, is still not on Twitter. But isn’t Putin still on Twitter? I think he is, right? So we have these tech companies here in —

DINESH D’SOUZA, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR: Absolutely —

INGRAHAM: Right?

D’SOUZA: Yes, absolutely. It’s one thing, governments do tend to put out propaganda during wartime, and that’s not entirely surprising. In fact, it’s coming not just out of the Russian side. It’s also coming out of the Ukrainian side. “The New York Times” recently ran an article basically almost admiringly noting that fact and mythmaking are kind of joining hands in the Ukraine narrative. And it’s all most like “The Times” was admiring the way in which all kinds of lives are being put out by the Ukrainian government and being transmitted by intelligence officials in this country, and then promulgated by the media. Well, if that’s the case, how are we any different on this side of the aisle from with the Russians are doing on the other side?

INGRAHAM: Well, and the issue of censorship, I think — we have got a lot of work to do, meaning roll it back, people. Let there be a free exchange of ideas. Mollie and Dinesh, good to see you. Mollie, good to see you in the studio.

A live report from the front lines in Ukraine when we return. Plus, is Mitch McConnell worried? Worried about what? The man is about to join me, might have an answer to that. We’re going to talk to a GOP senator who is facing down the D.C. establishment. Don’t go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Russian forces continuing their assault on Ukraine’s capital city, and FOX’s Trey Yingst is live in Kyiv with the latest. Trey?

TREY YINGST, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Laura, good evening. Today the Russians announced new evacuation routes for civilians, but the Ukrainians say those corridors lead to Russia and Belarus. Today we were on the front lines of this conflict as we saw civilians caught in the crossfire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YINGST: There’s a large group of civilians now fleeing the city of Irpin. They’re holding a white flag to let the Russians know they are not a threat, and they are simply trying to get out of the city.

EVGENIA ANTONENKO, RESIDENT OF IRPIN: It’s like your life is broken forever and you have no hope.

YINGST: Evgenia Antonenko has been walking for miles. She tells us she tried to shield the eyes of her young daughter as they passed bodies in the war-torn streets of Irpin.

ANTONENKO: I will tell the world it’s a disaster, and there are many there in our town, many died, people just like on the street.

YINGST: In the distance, Ukrainian soldiers crouched down worried about Russian snipers and shelling. They tell fleeing civilians to hurry and stay low.

The evacuation for these people has become much more difficult as the Russians fire mortar shells at this position.

CONSTANTINE LAPINSKI, RESIDENT OF IRPIN: Any conflicts over there, and now the end of the city of Irpin. They destroyed everything.

YINGST: Yesterday four people were killed as they left this suburb of Kyiv. Residents say Russian troops pushed forward overnight and drove tanks through the streets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They told us to go because there is a war, and when we start to go, our houses was with tanks.

YINGST: Russia says they aren’t targeting civilian areas, though today the sounds of war pierce the air of this town.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

YINGST (on camera): The Russians are engaging in a massive disinformation campaign. They say they aren’t targeting civilians. You just saw their evidence that they are. Laura?

INGRAHAM: Trey, this is absolute heartbreaking. Thank you.

Is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell worried about his top spot on the GOP totem pole? We move now to domestic politics. That would expand his visceral reaction to an 11-point governing plan put forward by Florida Senator Rick Scott. Should the GOP retake Congress this fall, Scott’s plan is unabashedly populist, which is why McConnell is using one point in the plan discredit the rest of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R-KY) SENATE MINORITY LEADER: Let me tell you what would not be a part of our agenda — we will not have as part of our agenda a bill that raises taxes on half the American people and sunsets Social Security and Medicare within five years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Joining me now is Florida Senator Rick Scott, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Senator, the Morning Consult polled your 11-point plan and found that the other 10 points polled really well among the Republicans. Your reaction?

SEN. RICK SCOTT, (R-FL): First off, Laura, here’s a copy of it.

INGRAHAM: Thank you. You brought a prop. I love when people bring props to the set. Thank you.

SCOTT: So it’s 11 steps, it’s 128 policy point.

INGRAHAM: Only going to a few. We don’t have time for 128.

(LAUGHTER)

SCOTT: But it’s real simple. We ought to have a plan. When we win, we ought to have a plan. Let’s talk about the taxes for a second. I think I will take my record against anybody’s. I cut taxes and fees 100 times when I was governor. I’m not raising anybody’s taxes. But here’s what’s not fair. We have hardworking Americans, they’re paying all these taxes, our retirees paid them. Who is not? We’ve got some billionaires not paying it, and we’ve got people that want free government stuff and they don’t want to have any skin in the game. That’s not fair.

INGRAHAM: If people pay like even $100 dollars in taxes —

SCOTT: Yes, $10.

INGRAHAM: At least you know that’s what it is, playing taxes and you don’t want people to get bankrupt, obviously.

But what is going on here with Mitch McConnell? He’s obvious we been in power for — I don’t even know how long, decades and decades. Since I was in college he’s been around. And he’s been incredibly successful in many ways. Obviously, a lot of great judicial appointments, kept Merrick Garland, a radical, off the Supreme Court. He’s wily, he’s very, very smart. But he’s not a populist. He’s an old-style Bush Republican on issues from globalization, trade with China. He’s not pushing to keep those terrorists on China most likely. Is that the case?

SCOTT: I just think there’s a difference of opinion. Some people don’t want to have a plan. I’m a business guy. What do you do in business? You write a plan —

INGRAHAM: Why does he not want a plan? Because then people are going to ask about, what about point three, four, and five. Isn’t that the case?

SCOTT: Who knows why?

INGRAHAM: Oh, come on. This is why people hate Washington.

(LAUGHTER)

INGRAHAM: You know why. Because just like —

SCOTT: I want to be held accountable. I’m fine with it.

INGRAHAM: Yes, you’re fine of holding this up to the voters.

SCOTT: Oh, yes. I tell people when I ran as governor, I had a seven-step plan for 700,000 jobs. We got 1.7 million. Why? We followed the plan. When we win the majority, we are going to win the majority, I’m going to say, these other things we’re going to get done.

INGRAHAM: All right, but we’re going to sit there —

SCOTT: I’m not.

INGRAHAM: — and do pattycake? That’s the problem is Nancy Pelosi had all of her bills ready to go.

SCOTT: We’re going to have a plan.

INGRAHAM: When she took power, she knew what she wanted to do is roll back Trump, go for clean energy. They didn’t get everything, but they did some things. But she knew what she wanted to do.

SCOTT: Right, and I think that’s what we have to do. We have to have a plan, we have to work a plan. That’s how you get things done. That’s what I’ve done all my life. I’m a business guy. When I was governor, I had the same thing. Every year I had a plan for my session. We got it done.

INGRAHAM: It’s pragmatic. It’s pragmatic.

I have to ask you, though, about this new omnibus budgeting that we are doing for the rest of this year. This is insane, but the White House — there are a lot of Republicans, a lot of your colleagues, are likely to sign onto a bill that is not each department Defense and Interior —

SCOTT: We don’t know. Laura, we have no idea —

INGRAHAM: You don’t know it’s going to be in it?

SCOTT: No. This is Monday. It has to pass by Friday. It’s going to be a lot of pages, OK. It’s going to spend a lot of money. It’s an entire year’s budget. And we have not — I have not seen any of it.

INGRAHAM: How much money are we talk about?

SCOTT: Oh, gosh, it’s got to be, in total —

INGRAHAM: You’re the business guy.

SCOTT: — the budget is going to be over $4 trillion, probably $5 trillion. We’ve already done a continue resolution for, what, six or seven months.

INGRAHAM: This is just the most ridiculous —

SCOTT: But we have not idea. We’re going to have money for Ukraine. Everybody wants to help Ukraine. What is it?

INGRAHAM: What is the money going to Ukraine? Who’s getting it, what is it going to buy?

SCOTT: They have more COVID money. They have supposedly $500 billion still sitting in Treasury in COVID. We are going to have another something like $20 billion.

INGRAHAM: Does that make us stronger or weaker vis-a-vis China and Russia?

SCOTT: Weaker, weaker, weaker. Think about it. You want to be independent, right? You don’t want to say — so you don’t get independent by having $30 trillion worth of debt by having a deficit every year. You get stronger by watching your money, holding people accountable.

INGRAHAM: This is cromnibus (ph) part — I have lost track of — this is why people hate Washington. This is why people hate businesspeople coming to Washington.

SCOTT: Balance the budget. Balance the budget, watch your money. Know why you are spending money, and have a purpose for it.

INGRAHAM: Are you going to run for Senate majority leader?

SCOTT: I’ve got to win the majority of the Senate this year.

INGRAHAM: OK, the answer is yes. Senator Scott, I’m just teasing you. Thank you, great to see you tonight. I’ve gotten so much trouble. And we do respect Mitch McConnell. He’s a very smart man. There’s a difference of opinion.

Hollywood exposes its own hypocrisy on authoritarian dictators, “Seen and Unseen” in studio, Raymond Arroyo, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Now for the “Seen and Unseen” side of the Ukraine story and the crucial element that our government and media are missing. We are joined by FOX News contributor Raymond Arroyo. All right, Raymond, let’s start with the protests of businesses and celebs.

RAYMOND ARROYO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Laura, first of all, it is so great being back on set.

INGRAHAM: It’s good to see you.

ARROYO: But they are kicking into high gear, Laura, the celebrities. These are the hosts of the Independent Film Spirit Award ceremony last night in L.A. watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we speak for everyone here when we say we are hoping for a quick and peaceful resolution. Specifically — off and go home, Putin.

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That’s right. Yes, that is the quick and peaceful resolution we are talking about, that Vladimir Putin — off and goes home. And to that end, let’s all join together and sent him off with a spirit award salute, to Putin.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARROYO: As cathartic as that might be to curse out this murderous thug and flip him off, why only this one, Laura? Look, I’m glad they’re calling out Putin, but if they were appalled at the human toll in Ukraine, look a little further to the east to China, where the situation has been moving fast and furiously downhill, and they haven’t said a word.

Then there’s the feverish reporting that Netflix is suspending service in Russia as a protest — ooh. The truth is they had to, Laura. The credit card companies that collect their subscription base, they’d already pulled out of the country. And they have probably 100,000 to 1 million customers, so I doubt if the Russians care. They are not like the kids in Omaha sitting in their basements watching this.

INGRAHAM: This kind of is like the international judo federation, which removed Putin’s honorary titles.

ARROYO: That accomplishes a lot, Laura. The U.S. has yet to sanction Russian oil, but he’s lost judo, Netflix, and “Will and Grace.” Way to put the pain on Putin.

These independent filmmakers at Netflix would do well, though, to draw the world’s attention to the fact that the U.S. president apparently believes Russia is invading Russia itself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: How do we get to the place where Putin decides he’s going to just invade Russia? Nothing like this has happened since World War II.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

ARROYO: You can’t make this up.

INGRAHAM: Biden is missing much more than this, though. There is an important part of the story that has been totally lost.

ARROYO: Yes, there is.

INGRAHAM: It’s partially religiously motivated?

ARROYO: Laura, we always miss the religious currents before these big stories. We missed it in Iraq, we missed it in Afghanistan, we are missing it here.

I’m going to take it back to the vision of Putin on the Patriarch Kirill of Moscow. They share one mind that anyone who is ordained — not ordained — baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church is de facto a Russian citizen. And the land they stand on is sacred Russian soil.

Now, all of Ukraine was under the Moscow Patriarch until 2019, when an ecumenical patriarch said you can be free of him. They created Ukrainian churches, 700 parishes. Guess what our State Department a permitted? They thanked and congratulated the Ukrainian church from splitting off, for basically engaging in schism in the mind of the Russians. Putin and Kirill now have a religious imperative because they feel they have to save the Russian Orthodoxy from the encroachment of the west. And that’s what they see happening in Ukraine, a decadent west moving in on what they consider the center of Christianity.

INGRAHAM: Wait a second, you’re trying to get in the minds of these —

ARROYO: No, I’m not in their minds. Putin said this.

INGRAHAM: He said this repeatedly, but nobody likes to talk about this, because it’s — it’s not even that complex.

ARROYO: You know why they don’t want to talk about it? Because they dismiss religion as superstition here in the west. And that’s what Putin and Kirill are capitalizing on.

But I want to take you back to something. Remember before he launched this invasion into Ukraine, Putin said we are doing this as a defense of orthodoxy, to protect orthodoxy in Ukraine.

INGRAHAM: Culture stuff happening.

ARROYO: So, look, it’s a fake justification, using religion to go in, but it’s the mindset. John Paul II, the man who brought down communism with nothing but faith, prayer, and the truth, he said something that I’ve been thinking about in recent days. He said I would — in a world without truth, freedom loses its foundation, and man is exposed to the violence of passion and manipulation. That’s what we are seeing here. And if the west — if America and Europe doesn’t recapture that truth and its own faith, it will be powerless to fight this evil distortion of faith coming from Putin on the Russian patriarch. The world’s religions have to get involved here.

INGRAHAM: Where’s Pope Francis?

ARROYO: He’s being very delicate. He wants to maintain relations with Kirill. We will see how that pans out.

INGRAHAM: Bring the churches together. That’s an aspiration. Raymond, it is so good to have you in the studio, and nice work on Mardi Gras.

Joe Biden flashback on NATO you need to hear to believe. That’s what they tell me. The Last Bite explains.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: Senator Joe Biden had a much better grasp of the Russia situation than President Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think the one place where the greatest consternation would be caused would be to admit the Baltic states now in terms of NATO-Russian, U.S.-Russian relations. And if there was ever anything that was going to tip the balance, were it to be tipped, in terms of a vigorous and hostile reaction, I don’t mean military, in Russia, it would be that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Impressive logic, and he can talk.

Shannon Bream takes it all from here.

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