Monday during her show’s opening monologue, Fox News Channel host Laura Ingraham charged the “deep state” with being a driving force behind the effort to derail Donald Trump’s presidency.
Ingraham focused on the State Department, especially as career bureaucrats from the Cabinet department are starting to appear as witnesses before the House Intelligence Committee so-called “impeachment inquiry” led by chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA).
Partial transcript as follows:
INGRAHAM: Since the day Trump got elected, members of the faceless and unelected bureaucracy began conspiring to nullify the will of the voters. While some are truly civil servants doing their jobs by advancing the President’s policy agenda, others are doing everything in their power to derail this presidency. This makes them uncivil servants.
They were enraged not only that Trump was from outside their elite globalist circles but that he had the nerve to promise to drain their swamp. Politically motivated, they threw up policy roadblocks, blew up bridges, and operated like undercover saboteurs. They’ve been leaking, obstructing, and resisting all the way home. And for that, of course, they earn unending respect and plaudits from Trump’s political and media adversaries.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This whistleblower, who, I want to say, is a patriot–
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The whistleblower – and particularly this whistleblower is a hero.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The stonewalling in administration is being overcome by brave people like Fiona Hill coming forward or Ambassador Yovanovitch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is setting an example of courage and integrity under great pressure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now, the crowning glory came this weekend from the editorial writers of The New York Times. Check this out.
“President Trump is right. The deep state is alive and well, but it is not the sinister, anti-democratic cabal of his fever dreams. Their aim was not to bring down Mr. Trump out of personal or political animus but to rescue the republic from his excesses.” Oh, please.
Of course, “The New York Times” fundamentally misapprehends the role, the relationship between the President and the republic. Right? It’s up to the electorate, not a band of disgruntled career government employees, to determine if they wish to be rescued.
Now, if these supposed excesses constitute high crimes and misdemeanors, OK, well, the House should publicly put on its case to the nation and then demonstrate that convincingly.
Now, remember the bureaucracy didn’t campaign for your vote. They didn’t travel the country to make its case. No one voted for the bureaucracy. Yet the unelected paper-pushers in D.C., they know better than the 63 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump and his agenda. I don’t think so.
Now the constitution may give the sole veto power to the President, but the permanent resistance at the deep state department and the intel agencies believe that they have veto over you. The latest travesty involves veteran diplomats and national security officials who are defying State Department’s lawful orders not to testify. And what the executive branch believes is an illegitimate impeachment inquiry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE POMPEO, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: This has been unfair in the nth degree. We’ve got officers going up there to testify about important security-related matters without a State Department lawyer in the room. And then we’re not being prepared to – being allowed to know what it says.
Adam Schiff ought to be embarrassed by the kangaroo court that he’s running.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now, define the President’s top diplomat in this arena is both against protocol and a direct violation of their sworn duty. Yet it was the plan of these deep state State Department folks all along.
According to “Politico,” “Hill staffers have indicated that they’ve subpoenaed the diplomats to give them some cover so they could cooperate.” Well, it’s not that simple. We’ll get to that later with our legal panel. But, should the White House immediately go to federal court to defend against these subpoenas? Yes, the legal panel will get into that too.
And just who are these deep state State Department types heading into the Hill to testify? First, we have veteran career diplomat, Michael McKinley, who resigned as top advisor to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after 37 years at the State Department. He’s now hired the renowned never-Trumper, John Bellinger, to represent him.
Then there is State Department official, George Kent, former National Security Council aide, Fiona Hill, both of whom were concerned about Giuliani’s investigation into the Bidens, although apparently, their testimony was also in part favorable to the President.
Again, when you have to rely on leaks, everything is behind closed doors. This whole thing is corrosive. And the big Kahuna, though, was the former Ukraine Ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch. She was an Obama holdover and removed from her post a few months ago after concerns that she was not supportive of Trump’s agenda. Heaven forbid, you can remove someone in the Executive Department who is not supporting the President’s agenda.
And according to Giuliani, Yovanovitch is the one who fired Ukrainian prosecutor-general Viktor Shokin, says kept him actually coming from the U.S., getting a visa to come here and give his side of the story. Remember, Shokin is the prosecutor Biden bragged about getting fired. He did it on camera last year. Who was allegedly investigating the Ukrainian energy giant, Burisma. Remember, that made energy neophyte Hunter Biden a small fortune. But that’s all conspiracy stuff, right?
Well, Lindsey Graham doesn’t think so.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I’d like to call the prosecutor into the United States and have him testify. Is it kind of odd that the only person that Biden wanted fired was the one investigating his son?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Yes. And just that Marie didn’t want him to come. I wonder why. Well, that’s odd, as Lindsey Graham said, and the oddities don’t end there.
Bill Taylor, the man who replaced Yovanovitch in Ukraine, will testify before impeachment-hungry House Democrats tomorrow. Taylor is also being represented by the anti-Trump lawyer John Bellinger. You see the pattern here. His testimony is already being hyped by the media.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, Bill Taylor, Katy, is the star witness of the week, as you mentioned. He is the guy in that now-infamous text chain, who said that you have to be crazy to hold up military aid for Ukraine for a political request.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He’s widely trusted in the State Department in foreign policy circles. It’s going to be a pivotal, pivotal moment to hear from him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now, the media’s lionization of these individuals who are more cooperative with this Democratic star chamber than they were – ever were with the President, of course, and his policy agenda, it’s just hilarious. They want you, the American public, to believe that the President now, he is in real trouble this time, they’re all turning on him, though the media is creating another false narrative in order to move public opinion.
But the credibility of these State Department witnesses is unimpeachable.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can’t vote to keep this guy in office. That’s their strategy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And there are no deep state strawmen to rail against. These are all members of the executive branch.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. And I’ve said this before. I think with the Mueller report. It was – Mueller wasn’t leaking. It was just Donald Trump and his henchmen. Right? Out there, they were leading kind of the messaging on the Mueller report. And here, it’s different. Right? The Democrats have been really good with the messaging on this, following the facts. Nancy Pelosi has done a credible job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: No, Nancy. Well, this is media cover for what most certainly are deep state actors who mean and always meant to stop Trump’s policies and derail the presidency. Now, these national security and foreign policy bureaucrats are incensed that this President dared to upset the failed agendas that they’ve been spending their entire career advancing.
Remember, a lot of the same types of experts at the foreign policy establishment, who brought us the Iran deal, the failed Russia reset, Benghazi, the Iraq war, and other foreign policy and intel screw-ups over the past decade. Oh. And how can I forget the gross negligence regarding the rise of China? No big deal there.
The fact that these people are opposing the President should give us all confidence that he is doing the right thing. When you drain the swamp, you’re going to have to beat back a lot of swamp monsters along the way.
And that’s the ANGLE.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor