determine right from wrong. and so we must pay for this excess or pay for that. trump has had it. he's not doing it anymore. >> sean: drop off 150 billion in cash and other currencies and cargo planes to mullahs in iran. we will be back tomorrow night. let not your heart be troubled. we'll be back here in helsinki next monday. the news continues. laura ingraham takes over holding down the fort as she always does at 10:00. and owns cable news at 10:00. >> laura: i am sweeping the floor for you. so you get back, everything is really clean. it's all good. hannity, i can't believe you're doing your show tomorrow night from the double-decker bus. am i giving something away? i can't believe you're doing that. it's going to be great. quarter barry driving. it's going to be great. >> sean: nobody knows who you are talking about although it's

our great executive producer. but i'm not on the white house lawn. they wouldn't give me access. >> laura: no, you have the phone call. [laughs] hannity, we could do this all night. you had a great show. i loved you and bannon. i loved the conversations. go out and have a pint of guinness for me. go enjoy london. >> sean: it is 3:00 a.m. i'm going to bed. >> laura: hannity, great show. good evening. i'm laura ingraham. welcome to "the ingraham angle." you are going to want to stay with us for the whole hour tonight because we have major breaking news from all of the world. president trump has promised to drain the swamp but now he's also shaking up the globe. we will have full analysis of trump's tough talk at the nato summit with victor david hanson. and more in just a moment. meanwhile former fbi attorney, apparent trump hater lisa page, refusing to testify before congress. mark meadows and alan dershowitz will be here to tell us how much trouble page is in.

raymond arroyo joins us with the story of a comedian who bamboozled sarah palin and former vice president dick cheney into doing an interview by assuming an unbelievable identity. it's really classy. you're not going to want to miss it. new york city sanctuary mayor is accused of -- i love this -- illegally crossing the border. ben shapiro will react, but first, trump calls out the real russian collusion. that is the focus of tonight's angle. i don't know about you but i thoroughly enjoyed seeing the grim faces on some of those other cable networks today after president trump's meetings with his nato counter parts in brusselss. it was obvious that pundits and writers wrote their scripts long before air force one even touched down in belgium. of course, trump was going to be an american wrecking ball, a bull in a china shop, further damaging the north atlantic

alliance that had helped keep the peace for 69 years, putin's poodle, yada, yada, yada. germany, the richest country in nato is enriching russia, the very country that the aluliance wants protection from. >> we are supposed to protect you against russia. germany got rid of their coal plants. they got rid of their nuclear. they're getting so much of the oil and gas from russia. i think it is something nato has to look at. >> laura: if you listen to my radio show with any regularity, which you should have, you would've heard me speak of the nordstream one and two energy pipeline projects which are

funded by russian business interests and make russia and maybe even putin himself billions of dollars in emergency profits. presumably that's enough money to mean that germany can finally pay all the money into nato dues that it actually owes. >> two world wars and the cold war. >> how can you be together when a country is getting its energy from a person you want protection against or a group you want protection against? >> we stand together in dealing with russia we are stronger. i think what we have seen is -- >> you are making russia richer. >> laura: remember, both russia makes a lot of money off this and german interests make a lot of money off these pipeline projects there. as you can see, the nato chief responded to trump's very specific concerns with a flurry of generalities punctuated by banalities. not very convincing. trump is right.

if another country, russia, controlled a big chunk of your energy supply, well, you're giving up a huge amount of your personal autonomy while at the same time, you are giving russia the rope to hang you with or maybe the light switch to electrocute you with. keep the right analogy going. as "the washington post" rightly noted today, germany's energy relationship with russia has long frustrated washington and eastern europe. who fear that the nordstream 2 pipeline which will bypass the baltic nations and poland, could be used to cut them off from crucial energy supplies. former german chancellor gerhard schroeder is a top executive at the russia government controlled company that runs the pipeline. that's a cozy relationship. wouldn't you like to see schroeder's swiss bank accounts? wouldn't you like to know how much he agreed to be paid?

what's clear after day today is that donald trump is not only not sucking up to putin, he is trying to disrupt germany's cozy relationship with russia. he is doing what friends often do with friends who have gotten off track. he is having a frank and brutally honest conversation with them in hopes of righting their course and repairing the relationship. german chancellor angela merkel reacted to trump's suggestion that germany is captive to russia this way. [ speaking foreign language ]. >> laura: you're not going to be independent for long when putin decides to shut down that gas line. did you hear an answer to

trump's charges or questions? i didn't. as the american president, donald trump is in europe looking out for our interests. and of course for the independence of our allies which he thinks is really important and rightly so. the free rider days have come to an end. americans elected trump in part because they wanted to make sure that the billions that we spend overseas are billions very well spent. what a novel concept. but you would have thought trump had worn a russian flag t-shirt to his nato talks, given the hyperbole wafting from 30 rock today. >> donald trump is the most vivid manifestation of the least attractive characteristics. in the national character. we haven't been captured by donald trump. we have had our worst instincts affirmed, exacerbated, and put in front of the world. >> he could not be doing putin's

bidding more effectively if he were an active agent of vladimir putin and the kgb. >> it's all coming to fruition, and there is a basic reason why putin wants to do it. in president donald trump president trump he has an american president who goes at nato with hammer and tongs and does putin's work for him. >> laura: what a ridiculous comment. asking our allies to pay their fair share is going to nato with a hammer and tongs? he is trying to strengthen nato by saying we need to keep this alliance together by keeping our military expenditures what we pledged to do and keep those at a level that is fair for everyone, 2%. i've got to tell you. this is perhaps my favorite of all the criticisms of trump's nato meetings today. >> what is the role of misogyny here? does angela merkel remind him of hillary? does that explain the theresa may issue?

he does not have a particularly healthy relationship, it seems, with a lot of strong women. >> laura: oh, my gosh. jon meacham. i really like jon meacham. he's a respected biographer and historian, but that was just stunning. yeah, jon, that's what it's all about. it's not the energy deal that imperiled eastern europe or a country undermining its future safety while asking us to pay for their protection. it is all about strong women. oh, my god. here's an observation from one. mueller has come up empty in his quixotic quest to find trump collusion with russia but perhaps he should turn his investigation to germany, where politicians current and former are all too happy to sell out their own people for cheap russian gas. i won't hold my breath waiting for that probe to start. in the meantime, i'm glad we have a president who is not

afraid to upset the apple cart over in europe and call out truly dangerous international collusion where it exists. and he's actually willing to do something about it, and that is "the angle." joining me now for reaction, michael szanto, a researcher in international studies at the university of miami. in london, raheem kassam, the former chief of staff to brexit leader nigel farage. in studio, walid phares. fox news national security and foreign affairs analyst. walid, there's a lot to unpack here. the criticism of trump today was so overwrought, so over-the-top, so unhinged, it's like it is seamlessly dovetailing from the unhinged criticism of brett kavanaugh two days ago. we have moved from topic to topic with more overheated rhetoric. how is donald trump cozying up to russia by saying let's strengthen the military alliance of nato? >> absolutely. by also ordering a deployment in the baltic states, increasing

sanctions on russia, making sure iran is not going to get our dollars to buy weapons from russia. is that cozying up? i don't think so. >> laura: this is what president obama and president bush both said about the need for each member nation to pay his fair share. let's listen. >> the majority of allies are still not hitting that 2% mark. everybody has got to step up and everybody's got to do better. >> building a strong nato alliance requires strong european defense capability. so at the summit, i will encourage our european partners to increase their defense investments to support both nato and eu operations. >> laura: they said these things and then nothing ever happened. donald trump noticed and said no more mr. nice guy. this has got to get done. now he's up against 4% which sent everyone into paroxysms of outrage. rahim, how are we seeing it from

britain tonight? >> how do you get to 2%? you go to 4% first. that's a basic negotiating tactic. anybody who knows how to haggle will tell you to do that. isn't it interesting that you have pleading obama there and encouraging words from president bush and now you actually have a president who recognizes a significant discrepancy, not just a physical discrepancy but a moral discrepancy going on within nato that fundamentally needs addressing. the american taxpayer, the american deplorables, have been expected for decades to act as a protector for these protectorates in europe. all the while, european leaders insulting the united states, insulting president trump most recently and of course, as president trump has pointed out, turning to russia for gas when it's convenient for them and then asking america to look after them militaristically. i mean, you know, the jig is up.

here in london, i can tell you people are taking what president trump is saying very, very seriously because the united kingdom is one of those few nato member countries that does meet its 2% gdp and we want everyone else to do the same in terms of defense spending. >> laura: which is in part why theresa may was so muted in her reaction to this, not only her problems at home but these numbers don't look great for european contributions to the military budget of nato. let's check it out. here are the countries that actually meet the 2%. we have the united kingdom, united states, estonia, greece, and my half polish side says poland. go, poland. everybody else can't make it. you don't even have germany with all its money, including the money it's making off this russian pipeline deal. we have to wait until 2024 get 2%? most americans watching this

tonight are going 2024, what are you talking about? pony up the cash now or maybe people don't get so much vacation in the summer. subsidized by the state. >> well, yes, i think that's a valid concern that our allies need to step up but we all need to step up right now. the russian threat is more serious than it has been for many decades now. the russians are probably moving nuclear weapons into kaliningrad which violates the inf treaty. that's the most important treaty ronald reagan was able to achieve and putin is violating it. they outgun us in the baltics. it's concerning that our allies are not doing as much as they can, but we also have to recognize that president reagan and president george h.w. bush heralded the end of the cold war. we don't want it all fall apart on us, so we need to push our allies, yes, but nato is the most powerful alliance in history and we need to show putin -- >> laura: i agree with you. it is the most powerful

alliance, but it's not 1975. it's not 1985. this is the year 2018. soviet union collapsed 20-plus years ago. we are now dealing with the new dynamic. we are $20 trillion in debt. europe is making beaucoup cash, especially germany because of this sweetheart energy deal. this has been a source of consternation for the eastern european allies for many years. they went ahead with it anyway in the spring which i think was a slap in the face to america and to our allies, poland, estonia, the list goes on. they are not in favor of his pipeline. notice that. they're right on the front lines. they don't want this pipeline. >> that isn't entirely true. but we also need to remember we have been dealing with insurgents. the u.s. and our european allies have been largely focused on insurgents and terrorists. people need to understand the russian military has been focused in defeating nato. and the studies show if they attack estonia, we do not have

the forces in place and the world's largest nuclear arsenal is russia, not the united states. we have to be careful with the finger pointing. germany needs to spend more but it doesn't change that there is a real russian threat. >> laura: then they better start acting like it. europe better start acting like it. you met today with legislators from the european parliament. a lot of people think europe hates trump. europe hates trump. europe hates trump. you found something different in your conversations today. what did you find? >> absolutely. after three days with meetings with the european parliament, members of the u.s. congress, the myth that the so-called opposition media, mainstream media here, is presenting that everyone is against president trump is simply inaccurate. number one, you have countries inside europe who align with president trump on many issues. some on migration. some on defense. you will have also italy and even germany. south of germany basically is

aligning with president trump on some issues. >> laura: the rise of populism which people like richard stengel, who was on msnbc this morning, part of a parade of grim faces, it was like election night all over again. every time i see the faces, their faces are grim, i am all almost always in a great mood. i was in a great mood this morning watching their reaction. this is what richard stengel said today after donald trump took on europe for failing to step up. many of these countries for their military obligations to nato. watch. >> let's go back to why the european union itself was formed. it was formed in the aftermath of world war ii where there was a poisonous nationalism that caused two world wars and killed more than a hundred million people. the e.u. was meant to get around and away from that toxic nationalism. but who is bringing it back? donald trump. america first is toxic nationalism. >> laura: my god. there is banality after cliche after bromide. put it on a bumper sticker and try to sell it because americans aren't buying it.

globalism gone awry is what gave birth to nationalism where people are, like, wait a second. why have my wages not gone up in 20 years and all these guys keep getting richer in the elite class? your reaction to that toxic nationalism charge, given your association with nigel farage and the rise of the movement in europe. >> absolutely. we have been doing this for years now, whether you want to call it nationalism, some people call it populism. you can put the word toxic in front of any word or phrase and suddenly it's an incredibly bad thing. actually what nationalism is to the peoples across europe, in hungary, austria, italy, united kingdom with our brexit vote. what it represents was actually, we don't want our jobs sent abroad anymore. we quite like to manufacture things ourselves. we quite like to control our own borders. what it is is a return to the status quo, a return to normality, not this globalism on acid that we've become accustomed to. i'm so glad that you have a president that sort of reflects

a lot of those things. you've got the lowest levels of black unemployment ever. the lowest levels of hispanic unemployment in decades. does that chap want to call that toxic? maybe he should call that toxic and explain that to the minority communities across america. >> laura: i would also say wages are going up. italy is waking up. austria's waking up. poland, you're going to go down the list and see more european countries saying it's worked out for germany okay, but a lot of these policies haven't worked out for our working class. fascinating conversation, all of you. great different insights and we really appreciate it. the former fbi attorney who trashed candidate trump in those text messages refused to testify today. republican mark meadows and attorney alan dershowitz will be here to explain what's going to happen next. meadows and attorney alan dershowitz will be here to explain what's going to happen sorry, i can't make it. it's just my eczema again, but it's fine. yeah, it's fine. you okay? eczema. it's fine.

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are you ready to take your then you need xfinity xfi.? a more powerful way to stay connected. it gives you super fast speeds for all your devices, provides the most wifi coverage for your home, and lets you control your network with the xfi app. it's the ultimate wifi experience. xfinity xfi, simple, easy, awesome. >> laura: you remember lisa page, right? she was half of the anti-trump texting duo along with her lover peter strzok. are they still together, do we know? ask the "national enquirer." we have to find that out. it's really important. it's not. i'm just joking. today she decided to defy a subpoena, refusing to show up for a closed-door meeting. with two different house committees. that is important. fox was told exclusively that page's lawyer was served an

electronic subpoena and chose to ignore it. in response, judiciary committee chairman bob goodlatte and member trey gowdy just sent a letter to page's attorney warning that their committee will initiate contempt proceedings against page friday morning at 10:30 a.m. joining us now to discuss how much trouble ms. page might be in and why the hesitation to testify today, north carolina congressman, freedom caucus chair mark meadows. noted attorney alan dershowitz, author of the new book "the case against impeaching trump." congressman meadows, reading her lawyer's comments that the only reason she didn't testify today was because apparently they were not provided the requisite documents to have adequate preparation for the scope and breadth of the questions she will be asked. your response. >> i was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt this morning until i called doj. there's three problems with that.

one, she's had seven months to prepare. because we started initially asking her to come in in december of 2017. secondly, she wasn't even going to be prepared. fbi reached out to her council to say by the way, you may want to come in and review some of these documents. the third thing is actually she reviewed documents yesterday at 3:45, reviewed most of the documents. the only thing she didn't review was top-secret documents but we didn't anticipate any questions arising from that anyway. the attorney is doing a disservice to her to suggest that she was going to come in a voluntary way. >> laura: they said she will testify this month or later this month. >> i am hopeful we will see her tomorrow or friday. >> laura: if it's not tomorrow or friday. >> she will be held in contempt. >> laura: what does that mean? for people who aren't familiar? >> she gets referred to the department of justice for prosecution. >> laura: rosenstein is in charge of that. >> it creates another issue

because then all of a sudden, it is incumbent upon the doj to actually act and press charges. we actually have other constitutional ways to do it, as our guest will opine on, i'm sure. >> laura: alan dershowitz, ever heard of an attorney, maybe you have, who refused to open an email, like not click on it, just pretend it doesn't exist. refuse to click on an email which you know is a subpoena for your client. that seems, i mean, it seems kind of weird to me. your reaction. >> even if all of the reasons she gave were good ones, you don't just don't show up. you write a letter to the committee asking the committee to give you more time to review. but the idea of just not showing up makes no sense at all. of course, the congressman is correct. the justice department is supposed to take the case over, but if the justice department doesn't do it, congress is an independent branch of government. it can hold somebody in contempt. it can literally order the

person to go into the basement jail cell and then that person would have to go to court to seek a writ of habeas corpus. it's almost never done. it was done in the 19th century but it's rarely done today. it is rare that the justice department doesn't go after somebody and enforce a subpoena. we may see a conflict between the justice department and the legislative branch, but in the end, the legislative branch must enforce its own subpoenas and the justice department must comply otherwise the separation of powers and checks and balances -- it's really in trouble. >> laura: it has been thwarted all along, this problem on the congressional side. a lot of people watching right now are thinking the name lisa page, why is she important? they forget what happened with the text messages. that sent off so many alarm bells. i want to review this. march 3, 2016. the heat of the presidential election cycle. she texts to her friend peter strzok "this man cannot be president." march 16. page says i cannot believe donald trump is likely to be an actual serious candidate for president.

having a meltdown. strzok says they fully deserve to go and demonstrate the absolute bigoted nonsense of trump. july 18, page says donald trump is an enormous d word. july 21st. strzok says trump is a disaster. august 8, trump is not ever going to become president? right? that's my favorite one. right, right, right. just to emphasize. peter strzok says no. no, he's not. we will stop it, baby. he didn't say baby. i added that. that is modern-day courting at the justice department. come on. get a room. that's what sticks in the craw of people. you had these people burrowed into the justice department who had an enormous amount of influence. obviously peter strzok being a lead investigator in two of the seminal investigations and he was, like, don't worry about it. i've got it. was it just boasting?

i guess it could have been. but just testify. >> you just explain why strzok doesn't want to testify in public and why she doesn't want to testify at all. there is no way they can explain those messages. he's going to try to say it was pillow talk. when you have a man who is in charge of fbi investigations saying he's going to stop a man from being elected president, a man who i voted against. i didn't want to see him be president. i voted for hillary clinton. the idea that the fbi would put a thumb or a pinky on the scale of american elections is akin to what is alleged with russia. the fbi putting a thumb in some ways is even worse than enemies or other countries trying to influence elections. we know that happened. to have our own law enforcement agencies that are suppose to be neutral and objective, saying that we are going to stop it and we need insurance policies, the american public has to hear everything. >> laura: they are sworn to uphold the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. not everyone is convinced about the need to hear from lisa page.

critics out there, lots of comments from jerry nadler. said this investigation is a political charade and undermine the special counsel's criminal investigation. and there were others today like this response. let's watch. >> this is a line of argument that's worked for republicans and the president to latch onto these text messages and therefore declare the entire russia investigation is somehow biased against the president. >> the intel community, the justice department and people who work there don't live in a vacuum. they have their own personal views and they are entitled to them. >> laura: congressman meadows, your reaction. this is all political theater? >> listen. this makes for a great book but it would be sad if we are making up the facts. the facts are we have their own words. it's not my words. it's not alan's words. it is lisa page, peter strzok. i would suggest a number of

other people where we are seeing a growing body of evidence that says there was actual coordination not only just with the fbi and doj as it relates to this investigation but perhaps with other agencies that really create a troubling message. here is the thing. it's important. alan hit it. if we are putting even a pinky on the scale of justice, that's wrong and we can't have that. transparency, i'm for make it all transparent. let jerry nadler come in and read the same documents i've read. >> laura: chuck grassley said there's more evidence of political bias, congressman. do you know what he's talking about? >> there is more evidence. we've got some additional e-mails and text messages in the last four or five days. >> it's so interesting -- go ahead. >> laura: i was going to say i was in new hampshire over the

weekend. some old friends and went up there with our families. i pick up "the boston globe" i see that everybody was mean to you in martha's vineyard. no one invites you for any afternoon lunches. >> he can come to north carolina. >> what we're doing is -- this is my book. this is the actual cover. we produced a special cover for martha's vineyard. a plain brown wrapper. >> laura: [laughs] >> so people can read the book on the beach. nobody will know they are reading it. it is like the plain brown wrappers we would use as kids when we were reading dirty books. that's the way it's going to be sold on the vineyard. and a lot of people are going to be reading it in the plain brown wrapper. >> laura: we need to do the show from martha's vineyard with all the snowflakes that can't take the fact that there is a civil libbertarian out there who is principled on these matters. >> my friends love you. they love you, your children. you're welcome back anytime.

>> laura: i love the paper bag idea. congressman meadows, we want those emails when we can get them from you. that's fascinating. up next, one comedian attempts to humiliate political figures by assuming an unbelievable identity. we will tell you about it when we come back. unbelievable identity. we will tell you about it when

>> laura: it's time for our "seen and unseen" segment. we expose what is behind the big cultural stories of the day. apparently for many comedians the cruder the better. the latest example, borat creator sacha baron cohen is tricking politicos into doing interviews, interviews with him by assuming a new identity. how clever. for more on that and why so many are outraged we are joined by fox news contributor raymond arroyo. raymond, why is sarah palin upset? >> maybe she has grounds to be upset. she got a communication for a request to sit down with a veteran, a disabled veteran, to take part in a showtime historical documentary.

it turns out that disabled veteran was sacha baron cohen. he did the ali g series where he dressed up as a rapper and he basically punked well-known political figures. palin wasn't the only one who fell for this. dick cheney did too. >> is it possible to sign my water board? >> sure. that's a first. that's the first time i've ever signed a water board. >> as you can imagine, he's assuming multiple identities in this new showtime special. none of these people knew about it. alberto gonzalez. here's the problem. >> as jiminy glick. they were outrageous characters who interviewed people but the

celebrities were all in on the routine. you have to have real talent as a comedian to fill that gap when people know who you are. cohen is a hit-and-run artist. there is a mean, bizarre edge to this that is largely politically motivated. it's really nasty. one guy, ali g, sacha baron cohen came in, tried to interview him. watch. >> i have some business ideas i want to tell you about. >> good luck, folks. take care of yourself. >> p diddy is going to be in it. >> good. >> laura: trump has a radar on people. he saw that for what it was. >> sacha baron cohen's last movie, $3.2 million. >> laura: no one even knows who he is. our audience doesn't care. >> michelle wolf, who some remember from that nasty act at the white house correspondents' dinner, she has a new netflix show where she offered a salute to abortion. >> some people say abortion is killing a baby.

it's not. it is stopping a baby from happening. it is like back to the future. everyone loves a delorean. pro-life is a propaganda term that isn't real, like healthy ice cream. abortion, i salute you. women, if you need an abortion, get one. god bless abortions and god bless america. >> laura: can i say something? they just need to play that voice in gitmo. they will get everything they want from -- khalid sheikh mohammed, you didn't need to water board him with that jug. play michelle wolf's voice. horrible. >> her timing is off and cruel. there is something breathtakingly vicious about that kind of humor. you are talking about abortion, two victims come out of abortion. a mother and a child whose life is snuffed out. to celebrate that and let's say have a party about this, i frankly couldn't believe it.

it shows i think something deeper in michelle wolf. >> laura: you just took the words. >> prayer service at 11:00. >> laura: power twins activate. finally we have the next -- the supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh is being hazed this week, my old friend brett. not for his judicial rulings so much but for his name. okay. stephen colbert. >> i don't know much about kavanaugh, but i am skeptical because his name is brett. it sounds less like a supreme court justice and more like a waiter at ruby tuesday's. hey, everybody, i am brett. i will be your supreme court justice tonight. before you sit down, let me clear away these rights for you. >> laura: stephen had to pretend he went to dartmouth as part of his m.o. brett actually went to yale college, went to yale law school, succeeded at every level.

he doesn't try to -- >> i guess name discrimination. name-ism. name slander. naral had a tweet where they said damned if we are going to let five men, including a frat boy named brett. now he's a frat boy or a waiter at ruby tuesday's. and i was thinking -- >> laura: what is wrong with ruby tuesdays? >> i know an anchor named bret. brett favre, the famous hall of famer. and of course, "match game" star -- brett somers. >> laura: is she still with us? >> she died in 2007. it is getting so desperate, the campaign against kavanaugh. they are now complaining that he ran up credit card debt on buying baseball tickets to nats games. who cares if he paid it off, who

cares what he ran up? >> laura: they are looking at you, the videotapes you are renting. now you can't buy baseball tickets. who cares? >> i'm glad trump didn't tap raymond kethledge and then we would have problems. >> laura: with a name like raymond, anything is bound to happen. >> do you know what raymond means? wise protector. it's all making sense now. >> laura: it is. i'm feeling very protective now. >> brett somers is spinning in her grave. >> laura: they are scraping the bottom of the barrel. it's nats tickets and his first name. that's the best they have. >> confirmation is assured. welcome to supreme court justice for life. eat that, left. for life. victor davis hanson will be here to opine on the left's meltdown over trump's comments at nato and of course the putin summit. stay there. that nato and of course the putin summit. stay

>> laura: as we mentioned, the left is going absolutely berserk over trump's challenge nato countries to contribute their fair share to their own defense. another novel concept. it's undeniable that nato is important, but why should it be off-limits from criticism from a u.s. president? what about germany? doesn't europe's largest economy have a responsibility to lead rather than just complain? joining me now is one of the true sages of history and international relations, victor davis hanson from the hoover institution. i've been dying to talk to you all day about this. i am always in a good mood when the globalists on the other cable networks with fewer viewers are all upset. they are grim faced, they can't stand the fact that the old order is being shaken up. is this a dangerous moment for nato and the alliance of nato with a u.s. president reading them the riot act? >> no, i think nato goes through a lot of iterations. 73 years after world war ii, 69

years after its creation. there is no more warsaw pact, no more soviet union. germany is out. russia is in. we are sort of out. i see this different. it's a german problem if you think about it. germany is the largest economy in europe. it adjudicates financial terms for the debtor southern mediterranean. it adjudicates immigration to eastern europe. it ajoout jude kate -- adjudicates brexit. even under obama, who was a godhead in berlin, 52% of germans have a negative appraisal. now it's down to about 35. 35% are positive. 70% of germany doesn't have a positive appraisal of the united states and yet it has the world's largest trade surplus. about 240 billion. runs a $65 billion trade surplus with us. it has about -- not just 1.2% on defense but that number does not reflect its forces. it has five or six jets.

you sum it up and here's the conditions they are presenting to the united states. our population, for historical reasons or whatever, doesn't really like you anymore. but we want you to protect us from russia which we just cut a 30-year, 400 billion-dollar deal with. and by the way, in a recent german poll, germans have a more favorable perception of vladimir putin than they do of donald trump. that's not a sustainable matrix. it just won't work. >> laura: you need to bring dr. phil in. you need real marriage counseling for that relationship. i want to play some of the republicans' criticism. they had a resolution in the senate. 97-2 supporting the nato alliance today, seen by many as a rebuke to this president. specifically republican criticism of where trump is on things like trade and nato. let's watch. >> i subscribed to the view that we should not be criticizing our president while he's overseas, but let me say couple things.

nato is indispensable. nato is as important today as it ever has been. >> my concern is that we have a bad nato meeting and then some kind of consolation is given to putin and it continues to destabilize something that's already fraught with concerns by our partners. >> laura: we should reiterate to outgoing members of congress, senator and speaker of the house, both on their way out of town. >> that's not a solution to be ahistorical. nato is important and it's iconic. we want to have good relationships with europe, the fellow western civilization countries. but germany used to have 500,000 people, and its army is down to 180,000. there is no more 500 soviet divisions, no more warsaw pact. come on. it's metamore far sizing and has

been since the fall of the berlin wall. because of deep historical traditions in germany, vis-a-vis the united states and world war i, world war ii, the division of east and west germany, germany has some deep-seated ambiguities about nato and about russia and about the united states. the problem is not donald trump. it predated him. it was with george bush. it was with barack obama. germany has to get its act together and decide what it wants to do, and if it wants to cut a deal putin and feel that russia is a more favorable country than the united states and if it doesn't want to spend money on its own defense, then it should tell us. we can adjust accordingly. >> laura: the free ride is over. >> it's a german, not an american problem. >> laura: the free ride is over. americans made that clear in this last election. carrying everybody on our backs. we want to have a good relationship but it's got to be honest and give-and-take. i want to play something from adam schiff who sees that what happened today is actually helping vladimir putin. let's watch. >> why is president trump so admiring of vladimir putin?

have you figured this out? you see the intelligence. >> it's either his general fondness for dictatorial figures or it may be that the russians have something over his head. that the russians have been laundering money through his businesses or there is some other leverage the russians have. >> laura: i have heard of rank speculation before but that really does take the cake, victor. close it out. >> that's absolutely unhinged because germany just cut a deal with russia for $400 billion. we have barack obama remember in south korea saying in a hot mic conversation that he would be flexible after the election and basically dismantled u.s.-eastern european missile-defense so that putin wouldn't do something that would impinge on his re-election bid. that is unhinged. it doesn't make any sense. part of this pathological mueller investigation that they

can't let go of. it is more and more tenuous. >> laura: victor, we will have you on on monday when the big meeting takes place between the president and vladimir putin. we appreciate it. up next, irony alert. a sanctuary city mayor is accused of illegally crossing into the united states. ben shapiro will be here to explain why bill de blasio may have violated the law. law. are you ready to take your wifi to the next level?

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>> laura: new york mayor bill de blasio tried to get in touch with his inner illegal alien earlier this month. according to a letter from the customs and border protection obtained by fox news, de blasio illegally crossed into the united states. he went over the u.s.-mexican border while protesting family separations, so he allegedly violated both u.s. and mexican law. nice going, bill. joining me now to react, ben shapiro, editor in chief of the daily wire. it seems like everyday there is a panoply of fun issues that shows the left is totally out of ideas and all they are is about stunts. what about this? did he actually violate u.s. and mexican law? >> apparently he walked over the border with a bunch of aides and it was asked by the border patrol where did you come from because you are not at a port of entry.

he pointed toward mexico and he proceeded with his friends to walk back across the border into mexico again. to be fair, the guy probably doesn't know where he is half the time. last week, he spent time with the socialist bernie sanders at bernie sanders' lake house. it wouldn't make sense to convict him for illegal immigration. considering he probably thinks he was in a playpen at chuck e. cheese or something. >> laura: [laughs] he had an excuse. okay, we've got to listen carefully to what the mayor said. >> why suddenly, weeks later, is this letter showing up from the federal government? it is another attempt to distract from an inhumane policy. threats by the trump administration will not stop me from speaking out, they won't stop my fellow mayors from speaking out. >> laura: is that a profile in courage indeed?

>> i hope he continues to speak. it stopped him from throwing groundhogs. >> laura: [laughs] you know what i would say, we can trade ten illegal immigrants who are good people and want to work here and have family here and deport bill de blasio. bill de blasio goes to mexico. that's a good deal, don't you think? >> 100%. >> laura: i have to talk about this anti-antifa bill that republicans in new york have offered. daily beast has a piece on this. this is from mark bray, the dartmouth college lecturer, whenever i see politicians talking about antifa, the level of information they have is minimal. mark bray told "the daily beast." in a certain sense, they are talking about what they perceive as leftist because republicans believe you shouldn't be able to threaten people with a mask and call yourself a legitimate protester. what's been going on? you have been the target of these radical groups. >> i think one of the problems

is the bill itself is probably too broadly drawn for first amendment concerns. it talks about intimidation or obstruction. these terms are probably a problem in terms of just first amendment jurisprudence but the attempt to distinguish antifa from other violent groups that have worn masks before is really stupid. we have laws on the books all over the united states for example, you are not allowed to go around freaking people out if you're wearing a kkk hood, for example. this is similar. if you are attempting to do violence with your face covered, it's an attempt to obstruct who you are so the police can't catch you. it seems more like that than anything resembling a crackdown on law-abiding citizens. >> laura: speaking of the law and constitutional matters, here is esteemed would-be jurist katy tur at msnbc today. let's watch. >> based on where american stand on the issue and americans have really moved in a much more progressive direction over the years, do you think it's appropriate to continue to take such a strict originalist view

of the constitution, given it is 2018 and not 1776? >> laura: kids, don't try this legal analysis at home. your reaction. >> oh, the levels of stupid. 1776, the constitution was not yet written. if you believe that americans have evolved beyond the constitution, it has an amendment process and we have legislatures that you can eelect. and finally the idea that any it justifies the supreme court moving away from the text of a law so they can interpret the constitution as poetry is more evidence that the left wants the supreme court to be a super legislature as opposed to an actual judiciary using judgment instead of will. as per alexander hamilton. >> laura: isn't it scary when you watch the analysis of the supreme court pick brett kavanaugh? you see people criticizing his name. i mean, comedians are going after his name. brett is apparently a frat boy name. i've never heard that before.

>> my favorite thing about the name thing is the same people who think brett is an inappropriate name for supreme court justices are celebrating that cardi b just had a kid that she named kulture with a k. >> laura: i think it shows how desperate the left is, and i am thoroughly enjoying the meltdowns about nato and kavanaugh and antifa. i love all of it. all the balls have to be juggled at one time because it provides unending humor for you and me. ben shapiro, great to have you on as always. we will be right back. . we will be right

>> laura: what a big night. we might have a bigger night tomorrow. president trump, day two in brussels. what will happen? will there be more grim faces on >> tomorrow president trump d number two will there be more grim thesis on the other networks? speaking of pyrotechnics in

high trump fbi agent peter strauch testifies tomorrow open session. we will see you here tomorrow with all of those issues. shannon bream@ is next. >> thank you starting tonightsi where president trump takes the america's first message to the country struggling with the identity crisis and then to boost defense spending we have a phenomenal lineup and journalist glenn greenwald with his take on the upcoming summit. judge kavanaugh begins his charm on capitol hill with a confirmation battle we have the latest developments. and we have breaking details on