sure. thank you, my friend, the great one. unfortunately though that is all the time we have left this evening. stay with the fox news channel, continuing coverage of the fbi raid on president trump's home, mar-a-lago, in palm beach, and always check out foxnews.com, hannity.com. let not your heart be troubled, laura ingraham takes it from here, we will see you tomorrow night. ♪ ♪ >> laura: i'm laura ingraham, this is "the ingraham angle." from what feels like a banana republic tonight. the deep state's revenge, that is the focus of tonight angle. >> can i just stop and take a breath real quick? a former president's home has been searched now by a number of fbi agents. when you look at this in the view of sort of 30,000 feet in history, peggy, i will start with you, how big of a moment is this? is this a moment we are all going to remember? >> yes, we're all going to remember being together on this night because this is a night

where you are going to remember where you were. >> laura: yes, wile e. coyote thinks he finally caught the roadrunner. the search warrant served on mar-a-lago this morning had donald trump's name on it, but the real target of this investigation isn't trump, the real target of this investigation is you. or anyone who dares to call out and take on the rank corruption of the d.c. establishment. this is the deep states revenge. they are trying to show all of us that we will be destroyed if we fight them, if we question the repeated failures of the pentagon leadership, if we make serious -- i'm talk about serious moves to disrupt the status quo here in washington. you know, the status quo that protects the powerful as long as they play the game. for decades they got away with selling us out by letting in

20 million illegals flooding across our border. they sold us out by sending our manufacturing jobs to china. they sold us up sample wasting trillions of stupid in the middle east, and now they're selling us out by wasting billions more in ukraine. a year after 13 of our service members were murdered in afghanistan do to our own general's incompetence, and think about this tonight, still no one has been fired. to think trump whatever have put up with any of this? and if he got back into power, they know he would hold all the right people accountable for what they've done. if the doj had a real serious case against trump that was threatening the republic, they would have charged him months ago. but the word had obviously gone out from the white house that he needed to be punished and he needed to be tormented in any way possible before the midterms. and of course you can always count on the press, right, to never question the powers that

be when the powers that be are democrat. >> the biden white house, outside the actual white house, not in the justice department, they didn't know, they were blindsided given how buttoned up and cautious merrick garland is, especially with something as sticky as this, it's hard to imagine to give the white house a heads up. >> i do agree. i would be stunned if anybody in the white house, including the president, new. >> laura: that's the critical thinking that they do. but the best tonight i think it's andrew mccabe, the disgraced former deputy director of the fbi. he was chiming in. and the standard now -- this is wild -- it's apparently that if a search warrant is issued, the subject must be guilty. >> the fbi would not have taken a step as drastic and serious is this unless they had good information to indicate that this was the result of some knowing, willful, intentional act of removing classified documents or sensitive

documents, in violation of some federal laws. >> laura: from the man who is a proven liar about his having talked to "the wall street journal," an obvious vendetta against trump going back to 2015, yeah, he's credible. they are obsessed. they are obsessed with knocking trump out of the political arena and look, it's obviously hurt him personally and politically, but this also hurts our trust in our system of government. if because we all see the justice department's leadership now for what it is. it's not the image of lady justice operating with a blindfold, but this is a praetorian guard that shields all of those who hold the real power in this town. surveillance, subpoenas, search warrants, they are the weapons of choice. which is what they deployed against you when they are threatened by you. harass your friends, they make you spend money, and look, most people are knuckling to tolerate this, they are going to go through it, which is why the

deep state usually has its way. but trump is not most people. and trump isn't the only target. liz cheney has already said that ron desantis is too close to trump, she can't support him. i think we can all assume that we are going to get similar treatment if desantis gets anywhere near the white house. so they want to scare all of us into being silent. they don't believe that the g.o.p. is legitimate unless it's controlled by the establishment types. they are going to oppose anyone who tries to make real policy changes. they are going to use every weapon they have. but we know all this now. we don't believe in the deep state anymore. we don't trust their titles, we are not impressed by the badges. the principal civil servants inside our government, the ones who still like to call balls and strikes, they are smothered by all those who choose corruption and cronyism over professionalism. so i saw them all tonight, they

were celebrating tonight. but merrick garland may have just done more to rally the conservative base then inflation and high gas prices ever could. imagine what these people would have said if the trump doj had executed a search warrant on hillary clinton's home. or her home office. anyone remember the clinton foundation state department scandal? no search warrant there. hunter biden, he's being investigated by the u.s. attorney's office in delaware. no search warrant there. no merrick garland-authorized raid. eric holder, he was held in contempt of congress. no accountability there. these people though, i think they all know their time is almost up. so they are strafing the landscape in one last pathetic first. we don't know where the so-called is going to end up, but given the recent anti-trump history of this doj and fbi,

there is no reason that trump supporters should trust motivations or the outcome here. conservatives are coming back to power probably in 2024, and when we come back, it will be sorry that they abused the power of our intel agencies, or federal law enforcement, and even our military. and ps, watch what happens to liz cheney next week in wyoming. and then you'll know what's coming for the establishment that is so gleeful about this morning's search warrant. and that's "the angle." joining me now is ohio congressman jim jordan, ranking member of the house judiciary committee. harmeet dhillon, chairwoman of the republican national lawyers association as well as victor davis hansen, hoover institution senior fellow. congressman jordan, let's start with you. house minority leader kevin mccarthy released this statement just moments ago. he said i've seen enough, the department justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization. when republicans take back the

house we will conduct immediate oversight of this department, follow the facts and leave no stone unturned. attorney general garland, preserve your documents and clear calendar. congressman, republicans promise a lot of accountability, but a lot of times we are disappointed. it is not going change now? >> it is going to change and i appreciate the leader's statement and that's exactly what needs to happen. this friday we're going back to vote in this stupid bill that the democrats passed out of the senate yesterday, so we will be there all day -- i will be in thursday night. come to the house judiciary committee this friday and answer our questions about this action today, which has never happened in american history. what was on the warrant, what were you really doing, what were you looking for? why not talk to president trump and have -- this is unbelievable and understanding history here. one year ago it was merrick garland using the patriot act against parents. one day ago it was 87,000 agents

in a bill the democrats passed to go harass americans from the irs, and today we have the rate of a former president's home in america. we deserve answers now in this friday would be a good time -- jerry nadler, call up christopher wray, collette merrick garland, bring them in front of the house judiciary committee so we can ask them the questions that the american people deserve answers to. >> laura: harmeet, i want to play another moment from the sterling character known as andrew mccabe on cnn tonight. >> has this ever happened in the history of our republic that a former president -- that a federal judge apparently made a decision that there might be evidence of a crime in the residence of a former president? it's just astounding. on the other hand, as with so many things with the former administration, it's also not that surprising. >> laura: the fact that the sky was director -- deputy director of the fbi, with everything that he did, with his

fisa court, with everything that happened, the russia investigation and the surveillance of this campaign, and that guy is paid to go on television to spew more b.s. i'm sorry, this is a travesty and it feels like venezuela here in washington tonight. >> it absolutely does, laura, but if you're a lawyer who's been paying attention to what's going on, first of all, you're not surprised that a federal judge in the district of columbia district would sign that search warrant, and you're not surprised that a first would be had in this regard. i represent project veritas as well. what i ever thought as a young stocked on my costume at the university of virginia that you would see federal judges repeatedly signing off on warrants not once, but many times come on american journalists, whose crime was to bring truthful attention about the regime and the president's children to the public. that's exactly what happened. and when you have search warrants like this executed, they are meant to be in circumstances where there is a fear of that the famous person in question is going to destroy the question don't make evidence but the famous person in question with several states away, he supposedly had these

documents if he had them, if that's really what they were looking for here for two years, and there were no circumstances. you are absolutely right what you said in your intro. this is about we the american people and the contempt that are leaders have for us and it's time for us to take back washington and put a stop to this type of banana republic nonsense. >> laura: victor, we talk a lot when you come on this program about the narrative setting that goes on. it's not like things happen in isolation. there's a choreography happening here and rachel maddow over at msnbc i think may be inadvertently laid it out for us. let's watch. >> it's just a remarkable flurry of productivity and action on long-held priorities, and all is hitting alongside this just jaw-dropping unprecedented news tonight that the home of the immediate former president, former republican

president donald trump, his home has just been rated by the fbi. everything happens all at once. >> laura: victor, everything happens all at once, a flurry of legislative achievements and then this just happens. all a coincidence. >> yeah, well all you have to do is look at the prior four fbi directors, laura, and they are the narrative. i mean, christopher wray evaded every question to the senate and then he took off on a private fbi luxury jet to his favorite vacation spot in the dash and said he had to go home. he replaced andrew mccabe, who lied for times to a federal investigator and concocted -- or helped concoct that crazy idea of wearing a wire to entrap the president of the united states. ahead of hillary clinton's email investigation while his wife was running for office and the recipient of a pac related to clinton money, who replaced james comey, who lied or misled or said he couldn't remember 245

times under oath to house intelligence committee who went out of a private meeting with the president of the united states, took notes on fbi devices and then leaked it for his own personal benefit to the media, who took over from robert mueller, whose special investigation reached a real the deer when he testified that the two catalysts for his investigation, the steele dossier and fusion gps, he said this under oath, he had no idea what either was. so those directors and that washington hierarchy are the narrative, and i think they should break up the fbi, dispersed its bureaus throughout the federal government, it got too much power, it's a threat, and it's a danger to democracy. it really is, it's asymmetrical, and it's a caricature -- as we're speaking there's a $30,000 a month fbi house with agents guarding hunter and a $20,000 a month malibu house who on his

own laptop has admitted to felonious use of drugs, shakedowns with the big guy and mr. 10%, hiring for him, there's an array of felonies there and they are guarding him $50,000 a month at our expense. with his apartment, hunter's and there is, there's a narrative, but that directors are the narrative and it can't go on like this. it's really an existential threat. this is something like the east german cold war. it's an ideological investigative group that is hired out by the left for particular retrieval services, whether it's a diary or a laptop or investigative services. >> laura: they protect their friends. >> i will started laughing when he said that about a warrant. they don't have any reputation for a warrant out. kevin was convicted of a felony for doctoring a warrant. why would we believe mccabe when he oversaw that doctoring? >> laura: congressman jordan,

tonight the former white house press secretary stephanie grisham alluded to a possible leak. watch this. >> how are they knowing about this stuff -- i know the circle around the president. i know the circles around the president and the white house and now. it's got to be psalmody very close giving maggie and getting the doj and the fbi and anyone else this kind of information of where to look. >> laura: congressman, there could have been surveillance of the former president, correct? mean, forget the leak, they could have been surveilling him over the last several months. >> i mean, i don't know -- what i do know is i find hard to believe, i thought your monologue was right on, that the white house didn't know about this. when it came to the school board targeting parents, using domestic parents -- counterterrorism measures against parents, we know the white house was inking medications with the school board association and the doj before the left-wing political organization the national school board association ever wrote the letter, so the idea that they

didn't know about this i find very hard to believe and victor made a great point. think of the difference between jim comey and this. jim comey leaked the memos with the purpose of getting a special counsel to investigate president trump. that's what he did and now they are rated president trump's home, so the double standard, we are all sick and tired of seeing it, frankly i'm sick and tired of talking about it, but it is real and it is wrong. >> laura: i want to remind people of this passage from a "new york times" piece last spring. as recently as late last year, mr. biden confided to his inner circle that he believed former president trump was a threat to democracy, should be prosecuted on while the president has never communicated his frustrations directly to mr. garland, he has said privately that he wanted garland to act a lot less like a ponderous judge and more like a prosecutor. so "the new york times" publishes that. but we are all supposed to believe that there is an impenetrable wall between the

doj acting as an independent force for good law enforcement and ron klain and, you know, every other senior figure, samantha powers and the white house? really? >> laura, one point i want to make about this, you're absolutely correct, is that this deep state is a bipartisan deep state and a lot of these characters here have good republican credentials, if you want to call it that. i mean, christopher wray clerked for judge mike alluded on the fourth circuit, one of the most deranged of the tds critics out there today letting his so-called veracity to criticism of president trump. and comey and so many of these other guys, robert mueller, you know, register republicans or so-called conservatives at least at some point in their careers in ten years. i think we all have to aware, if you still have respect for the doj and the fbi at this point, particularly fbi, you are not paying attention. certainly has a long time lawyer, the scales have fallen from my eyes and the abuses that

i've seen in my career, it is very hard for me to take anything with these people are taking seriously and citizens who are about to be unleashed at the opposite end of 87,000 agents and in prosecutions from irs, we should all be aware that this is abuse, it is systematic, and it is coming for the average american citizen. if they can do this to the former president, they will do it to supporters of the president, which is half of the united states. >> laura: right, and people who don't have money to pay for lawyers and go bankrupt, and so they will plead to anything just to get the government off their back. that is what they do to the average person. panel, fantastic conversation, but stay with me, where going to come back to just a little bit later on in the show. oh to quickly turn to fox 'floor angle, who is life outside trump tower in new york city were donald trump has just been seen leaving on his way to the club in bedminster. what can you tell us? >> as he mentioned, fbi agents doing that raid in mar-a-lago. this is where the former

president was today inside of trump tower and fifth avenue in new york city. we want to show you a couple of pictures the cameras were able to catch a few images of the 45th president leaving the high-rise and getting into an awaiting vehicle earlier today, a source familiar with the raid telling fox news that fbi agents went to mar-a-lago, looked in every single office, safe, and grab those documents and boxes without going through them on the property, so the source saying that agents then took several boxes and documents with them to come through them once they left mar-a-lago. comparing the search to the break-in at the watergate hotel, led to the resignation of president nixon, trump tweeted a fiery response in part saying this. "it is prosecutorial misconduct, weaponization of the justice system and an attack by the radical left democrats who desperately don't want me to run for president in 2024." and fbi source confirmed that fbi agents from washington, d.c., who are on the viewers evidence response team conducted the raid notified the

miami field office just before. a white house official telling fox news "we did not have notice of the reported actions and will refer you to the justice department for any additional information." we are out here on fifth avenue, trump tower, we are waiting for more word on any activities going on in new york or new jersey, we will bring it to you when we get it. laura. >> laura: thanks so much, laura. all of this went down, as laura just said, in florida. so was the top law-enforcement officer of the state notified? florida attorney general ashley moody joins me now. madame attorney general, when did you learn of this? >> i learned of it when the rest of the public learned about it, laura. it's just an unprecedented move. i think so many of us have watched as the credibility of our fbi has been chipped away at over the years for this

institution to be rebuilt into that institution of respect and independence and safe and today is a very shocking day, not just for me, but for many floridians and americans. >> laura: well, people are gathering outside of mar-a-lago in support of president trump. this never happened in the history of the republic. we have never arrived at this point where a succeeding in administration has sought to criminally investigate the previous administration for president was probably going to run for president again. so they were upset one -- they were upset when trump was saying lock her up, remember, at all the relics, the media said you can't say that, it's horrible. what are they doing? there's no concern about any of this today is there? >> you didn't see people rushing into hillary clinton's home when there were allegations that she had classified information in her emails. you know, i think people are just expecting that the fbi and

the department of justice -- i mean, i was a former federal prosecutor. i now in the attorney general barr used to be a federal prosecutor. you expect that the fbi will treat everyone the same, every case the same so that the american public and have faith in this institution. and you know, one i have done anything that has any significance where folks may doubt because i am one party and there may be an investigation related to something, you know, you have to be transparent. while the search warrant -- in many cases they are sealed, i would urge this to be unsealed, the affidavit that supports it to be unsealed, that the fbi issued a statement immediately about what supported this, what types of charges or crimes they expected the evidence to show that they found. this is really astonishing, laura, and i think for the integrity of this institution there needs to be immediate transparency. >> laura: considering they are supposedly so worried about

threats to democracy, they want to short-circuit democracy by taking someone off the field. that's -- to people watching this tonight, that's what it looks like. so while they grandstand about democracy and preserving democracy, what's this? is not what we expect from the united states of america. but your boss, governor desantis, sent out this tweet writing the rate of mar-a-lago is another escalation of the weaponization of federal agencies against the regime post of his political opponents while people at hunter biden get treated with kid gloves. now the regime is getting another 87,000 irs agents to wield against adversaries. banana republic. i think you captured that right. the next move is auditing of americans who disagree. final thoughts here? >> governor desantis used to be a federal prosecutor as well. we share that in common. you would expect there to be subpoenas if there was any suspect of classified information requesting documents. as has been done in these

similar cases. not 30 fbi agents rushing in on a search warrant. it is certainly unusual and i tell you what, the charges, if there are any, the allegations -- this better be a rock-solid case to wreck whatever respect there is right now for the fbi. >> laura: i think people across this country are wanting full transparency, but i wouldn't hold your breath. thank you. the raid on mar-a-lago is the culmination of a year's long effort to target donald trump before he was president, was running for president, and now. of all those in his orbit as well. carter page and george papadopoulos, the two young aides were basically set up by the fbi. papadopoulos served 12 days in jail for all his trouble. former advisor michael cavuto, who was bankrupted while trying to fend off legal fights. paul manafort, roger stone, they were subjected to showy early morning raids with shields and

all that. so over-the-top that agents swept into the house from the road and the water. steve bannon course arrested on contempt charges, john eastman, his cell phone taken by federal agents. and most recently former justice official jeffrey clark was rated by the feds in his underwear. here now to discuss all of this, author of the plot against the president, president for the center of renewing america. your entire book about this -- does the shock even you at this point? >> yeah, i have to say it does. i predict a little while ago that this is the way they had to go, they were unhappy, they were never able to -- this was the point of the robert mueller prosecution, and so they feel that they have outstanding debt with president donald trump, and so they were going to have to go after him. by the way, i think what they were probably looking for, what they probably are looking for,

is january 6th related material. i know how it's being described but i believe the real place to go after him on january 6th, they want to bring an obstruction charge against him, which is what robert mueller wanted to bring against him, and that's the charter that's being leveled against most january 6 defendants. but in a way i am surprised because as you said at the top of the show, this is pretty clear that we are living now in a banana republic. this is clearly third world regime security services. it's a very -- it's a historic day for america, let's say. >> laura: i think this is one of the lowest points for our republic, certainly in my lifetime. i mean, maybe during the nixon era when things were all coming apart then, but this is about as low as it can get, certainly since then. some commentators actually think is good for democracy. >> the biden witch hunt but i think it's really important that

independent democrats and hopefully summer republicans will look and see that this has been a slow road but it's a road that will hopefully strengthen our american democracy, because it's been very fragile these last few weirs to years after the term presidency buried >> laura: for what they call a fragile democracy, rating one of the homes of the former president and likely future opponent of this it administration or this president, that's going to make things all hunky-dory? >> yeah, it's sad laura, the democracy is not in jeopardy, their oligarchy is in jeopardy and the reality is they are tearing the band-aid off in a very distinct and clear way and showing not just the american people that is known is quite some time as they've been called domestic terrorists were showing up at a school board meeting to protest with going on in schools, but they are now telling clear and convincing evidence to a republican political class that has been unwilling to fight back against this with the leverage that they have, and i think this is a

wake-up call for those in congress to be able to use the tools at their disposal to defund the fbi, to ask the right questions, and to prepare for a church style commission next year if given a republican majority to dismantle the fbi into a thousand bits. >> laura: over on msnbc tonight, they were bemoaning this idea of republicans after this raid, saying they're going to really hold the fbi accountable. like can you believe they are saying they're going to defund these agencies and they are going to hold hearings. they are actually shocked that republicans would wield the gavel in an effective way if they get power back in november. they are terrified about. >> i mean the important thing is there are republicans who are active and hopefully they are gathering evidence now and hopefully they woken up to different issues because we saw -- laura, you covered this so well but when congressman devin nunes started on this, he didn't have a lot of support. what we would like to see right now it's republicans all on board, realize what the issue

is. it's a historic day insofar as americans now understand what we are up against. our children, our children's children will be looking to how we respond. how we are tested. they see it as a campaign of desecration and demoralization that started with russia-gates, went through kavanaugh, through impeachment, went through the covid lockdowns, it went through george floyd, it's a campaign of demoralization and desecration, trying to disparate the american people, the important thing again is how we respond to this. that's what will be looked at in the future, because as you said it's not just about donald j. trump, it's about the american public too. it's about the oligarchy, the regime saying you don't have a choice, you can't do anything about it, we govern their lives, we fill every part of you. that's why we really are a totalitarian regime. we can shape your children's gender, we can do whatever we want. so it's time for all of us, not

just republicans on the hill, as ross is always talking about, it's up to the american people to lead. let in some ways the republican officials follow our lead. >> laura: this is an intimidation campaign, a vendetta among but it is -- it's wrong to look at this just as focus on trauma. trump was the vessel -- the individual who finally pulled back the curtain on the corrupt bipartisan establishment that had driven our middle class into the ground, and they want to take our children from us as well. they want -- is exactly right, what lee said. the propagandizing against our country that's happening in government schools is part of this whole thing and trump was taking it all on. if he had a second term he would have really done some damage to what they had done. they are afraid of him coming back. i think this is a clear sign, they know he will probably be successful running for president

again. i think if they weren't threatened by him, why would they do this? there clearly threatened by him as a political force. >> they would, and i love talk to people who think donald trump running for president is not going to be a successful political campaign. the left doesn't think that, the left is pulling out every stop because they know that they have no more options when it comes to winning policy debates. all they can do is prove morris and they can only do that if they can spook the republican party into somehow being fearful and now is the time to stand forward and be courageous and say look, we are not backing down, the american people showing up didn't back down when they were trying to protest critical race theory. we are not backing down the way president trump is not backed down. the only question is whether republican party leaders are going to step up in congress. >> laura: the old guard, the old dinosaurs, lee, who voted for the stupid infrastructure bill, you know, cassidy and

mcconnell and all these guys, they came out and they voted for that stupid infrastructure bill saying that that was meant to stop climate change change bill. remember that? we will do that tomorrow. we were going to do it tonight. this of the brainiacs that allowed this to happen to the american people. another done some good things on the courts and stuff, they are not all bad, but on the fight for the people of this country, they've been woefully inadequate. and it's time for them to move on aside and let the real warriors for the democracy of our country and our people step into the breach, because they're obviously not up to it or they don't want to do it. i don't know which but they are not interested in taking up a populist fight for this country. they are just not interested. >> you're absolutely right. i think it's possible to bracket some of the political stuff that gets us frustrated and angry, but just realize that we live in a meaningful time, we are getting to fight for our country now. the american people, we've woken up, we understand what's

happening, and god willing our political officials will follow our lead. as he has spoken about so well, i love hearing him talk about it, how courage is contagious. >> laura: and when we say fight, we obviously say use every legal means and constitutional means at our disposal and that means we got to win and with got to win big. the irs now is going to be part of the new democratic party, you know, militia of economic, financial militia against regular people. and the seminars are -- senators are coming out today saying this is all going to be -- you know, to help the people. watch. >> millions of americans aren't going to be impacted by that other than getting better service from the irs, having a telephone answer, getting the questions they need in order to comply with our tax laws. the auditing is going to be focused on those of high income, the large corporations, et cetera. there's no reason to be fearful,

and if you paid your taxes and if you comply with our laws, you should want to make sure everyone else does that. >> laura: don't worry, be happy that we have a new -- you know, that we have a new squadron of irs agents. >> they've never faced an audit, have they? the reality is that there's analysis out there that say 90% of this type of funding to the irs is going to be directed at audits of people less than 200,000. this is meant to be directed at the middle class, people who are s corp.'s and businesses, they are now going to have to justify to the regime, the same regime that is rating on a former president representing 75 million americans, they are going to have to justify and prove their innocence to irs agents that have all the resources in the world, and that's the reality of what these members are voting on when they come back in town thursday and friday to vote on the senate's package. >> laura: they are aligning

against the people who pay their salaries, the people they are supposed to be working for, they're working against. thank you. the angle believes that president biden wants to provoke republicans here in response to all this to breaking the law. that way they can crackdown on everyone who disagrees with them. remember, they think that all pro-trump republicans are the new fascists as that warmonger max boot roast in the watch -- wrote in "the washington post" over the weekend. all of us can be righteously indignant, we can be angry and furious even, but we get to demand our legal rights, stay calm and enforce icon ability across the board when we get power again. that's going to require beating them as badly as possible by the widest margins possible. that means a new england, that means out in the west, that means in the rocky mountains states and every level of government. in the meantime, as we just discussed, i think we all have to assume that these 87,000 new

irs agents will be aimed almost solely at republicans. so this is an opportunity for the g.o.p. we have to expose their malfeasance, reveal how they are truly turning on the people, and when we can, defund them. this is the most corrupt federal government we have seen in the history of the united states. my panel is back with me. victor, do you think they have clearly thought out where this is headed now? >> no, i think they are in a panic because i think they're going to lose big in the midterms and they are grasping for straws, it's very ironic, because remember james comey said that he didn't want to interfere in elections so even though hillary had broken the law, he didn't want to have that power, and then we were told that donald trump was impeached in february of 2020 and the subtext was that biden was going to be a candidate, and that was an interference in the process, and here they raid, here they

incumbent president rates the house of somebody who is leading in the polls for the nomination of the republican party and in a head-to-head poll in just two years leading joe biden. and as far as this attorney general president relationship, donald trump fought constantly with jeff sessions and he fought constantly with bill barr over the independents of the attorney general and they were pretty independent to trump's chagrin. but look at what loretta lynch did. it right the middle of an investigation of hillary clinton, she met on the tarmac with bill clinton and then we had earlier eric holder bragged that he was "barack obama swingman," so the left sees the doj and the fbi as fused with the presidency as part of a revolutionary, really to be quite frank, movement, and any means are necessary because they have these things. they kind of project the things that they do routinely, the project as crimes or faults on

the republicans, but they are not doing it. that's what's so frustrating about it. these people are doing very great damage to democracy, they are destroying it, and yet they always talk about democracy dies in darkness. >> laura: congressman, i want to play a moment of chuck schumer's appearance on rachel maddow tonight. >> i think they're going to pay a price for this in the election and i think democrats should use it as an issue that the rule of law, the protection of democracy, is a key issue here and we better watch out if we give republicans power. >> senate majority leader chuck schumer, fresh off a remarkable string of wins. >> laura: congressman, look, they are laying the predicate here, but schumer was basically saying look, if they get back into power, they are going to do something we don't like, the establishment of light, and they're going to hold us accountable. yeah, that's how it works when we get power back. >> exactly, and this is the same chuck schumer who said back in 2016 when it was president-elect

trump, that if you mess with the intelligence community, they have six ways from sunday to get back it up, so that's how he views using the intelligence community, using the justice department to go after the political enemies, and we have seen it. first it was the robert mueller investigation, then it was impeachment, now it's january 6th committee and none of that's working, so they go to the step where they raid a presidents home, and remember this, we had 14 fbi agents come to our office over the last several months as whistle-blowers, so there are still some good people there who are so fed up with the political nature of the justice department, they're coming to us while we are in the minority, we can't do anything, we can't subpoena any documents, all we can do is tell their story, which we've been trying to do, that's how bad this has gotten and why again i will emphasize why don't christopher wray and merrick garland, in front of us this friday and answer our questions? if this is so important to go after president trump in this unprecedented way, come answer our questions and the judiciary committee in the house of representatives.

>> laura: i mentioned this briefly earlier, but it's worth reminding everyone how the democrats reacted when trump merely heard the chant or encouraged the chant "lock her up" his rallies. watch. >> things dictators do and autocrats do is they go after their enemy not through the mechanisms of the democracy, but threatening to arrest them. >> the lock her up about hillary clinton repeatedly has become the centerpiece, and that's what dictators do. >> it's just a banana republic writ large when the criminal justice system is being used to hurt the president's enemies, and so this is the fulfillment of his campaign promise, lock her up. >> laura: now it's drop a search warrant. they don't seem to have a problem with that. >> not at all. i think this is very poorly thought out and bungled and rushed and i think what's happening here is they are seeing loss after loss after

loss in these primaries and they are panicking. and i think they needed to change the narrative. normally you would have seen this type of despicable stunt old in october, and october surprise but i guess they decided they had to drop this card right now. i think that like you said earlier, we need to show an overwhelming show of force. not in the streets, but at the polls, and i think that's the only way we are going to be able to take back this country. that includes primaries, and that includes in those critical races. i have to say i would love to see some turnover in the republican ranks as well, some of the statements i've seen out of republicans today are simply on the one hand this on the other hand that. you know, pearl clutching. the time for pearl clutching, laura, is over. it is absolutely time to know that this is an existential threat to the future of our country if we allow one president, no matter what party, to simply pay politics like this and go after their predecessor. that is an acceleration of the demise of a great country if we

allow the country to go down that path. >> laura: the old dinosaurs have to lumber right out of the landscape. it's time to go, you've had your time, some successes but a lot of failures and you're just not in sync with the voters anymore, the voters have said to you move on in no uncertain terms really since 2006. victor, people think this is all just a coincidence, all this is happening at one time. but some of the old figures, your favorites, one of you just mentioned, eric holder, popped out onto the scene recently. watch. >> my guess is that by the end of this process are going to see indictments involving high-level people in the white house, you're going to see indictments against people outside the white house. ultimately are probably going to see the president, former president of the united states indicted as well. >> laura: former attorney general pronouncing on the indictment of a former president. thoughts? >> so spoke the only attorney general to be held in

contempt of congress. i don't think anybody knows what the rules are after the democrats leave power. do you -- does the speaker -- is the speaker of the house going to tear up democratic state of the union? we have this precedent now that if you are a two-term -- going to be a tomb term president, you're going to get impeached as soon as you lose the house and your first term. is that going to be boomeranged on the democrats? does the speaker of the house have the right to remove anybody off a committee he wishes despite the minority leaders selections? and when biden leaves office, will a republican president, you know, send the fbi into his private home in delaware? they are setting precedent that we have never seen before under the assumption don't never be applied to them and they lose power. but that always happens in history. and so what they're doing is they are destroying the system, the rules that both sides have to play by, and they are doing it for short-term political gain, but it's going to haunt the country and it's going to haunt them especially.

>> laura: panel, thank you, great to see authentic. joining me now is chris, former assistant director of the fbi. chris, the raid, the primary residence of a former president, who just happens to be the likely g.o.p. candidate in 2024 against the current president. how much more reputational damage can the fbi withstand the fourth they are basically just written off by a vast majority of the country and maybe in large part defunded and reformed into something more credible? >> yeah, laura, i served 25 -- almost funny five years in the fbi, my last position was head of both criminal and cyber investigations. i can tell you, never what we have ever approved a search warrant of a former president's residence. i mean, let alone a congressman or anybody in public office without some extreme, extreme justification. so i don't know where this came from, if it's classified documents or retention of classified documents. it's absolutely wrong.

unfortunately to your point i've heard from judges, i heard from police chiefs, i've heard from former colleagues and community leaders that i respect and who have always respected the fbi, always, and they are questioning now what's going on over there. they are losing the community out there that i know, and these are the people that you need to support the fbi for it to fulfill its mission. >> laura: meanwhile, chris, we have supreme court justices under siege in their own homes. you have a leaked draft opinion of supreme court decisions. apparently you could just do that now. you can lie about, you know, brett kavanaugh, as they didn't investigation, there's no repercussions for leaking anything anywhere but when they want to make a statement about someone who is challenging the status quo, they certainly have the opportunity to the very least make it look like it's political at the very least.

>> yeah, my fairness meter is flashing red. when you look at the genteel way that hillary clinton was handled and all the concessions that the fbi made during the course of that investigation, you look at the way hunter biden has been treated, and again, the genteel way they've gone after or not gone after him. i think -- you know, most citizens out there look at this and say wait a minute, we are venturing into dangerous waters here with the premier law enforcement agency in the world, and it saddens me. i love the organization. i think a lot of my colleagues share this feeling, and i hope we can right the ship sometime buried >> laura: i forgot about the bleach bit or whatever the heck it was called of the blackberries, i forgot about that, you just brought me back to all that. when cnn reported that the hunter biden investigation was ramping up, they also reported that potentially in play are justice department guidelines

governing politically sensitive investigations during an election year. current and former doj officials say there is an unwritten rule that prosecutors avoid bringing politically sensitive cases within 60 days of an election. so, chris, the 60-day period, you know, close to that, so they're willing to break this unwritten rule or basically break it as it relates to trump, but they couldn't do it with hillary or remember the anthony weiner thing. hunter biden, can't look at hunter biden now. it stinks -- it just doesn't pass the straight face test as someone who used to do white-collar criminal defense. >> i had my wings clipped without unwritten rule, if you will. and you know, i don't know where that rule came from, but there's a violation, there's a violation. but it seems to be what we call situational ethics where it depends on who you are these days. >> laura: chris, we really appreciate it and i want you to hear what a former u.s. attorney said. i need you to chime in on this.

this was earlier tonight on msnbc. >> there's a really good to big point that not others have focused on to date. this is by far not one of the biggest crimes he's been charged with, but it carries the penalty that someone was convicted of it is disqualified from running for future federal office. so if he destroyed record -- may have decided to go after this, disqualify him from future office, secure a conviction, and have that be the broad resolution of the whole problem trump. >> laura: chris, he just kind of revealed what a lot of us think is the doj's entire strategy, take trump off the political playing field. he's like salivating when he says it. this is an open secret at this point. i can't believe that sound bite. >> now come out of the mouth of babes the truth comes out. that's what just happened i

think. >> laura: i mean, chris, again, as someone who's at the doj for 25 years and you are a consummate professional, i know i'm infuriated, you're obviously incredibly upset about this, but all the people who did great work of the fbi, i feel bad for them tonight as well. but thank you for coming on site. joining me now is fox news chief washington correspondent mike emanuel. mike, what can you tell us? with the latest? >> sources familiar tell the raid a former president trumps palm beach home is related to potential mishandling of classified documents from the white house upon leaving office. the national archives retrieved 15 boxes for mar-a-lago earlier this year that contained what it believes to be presidential records with the archives demanding they must be properly preserved. a source familiar to fox tells fox fbi agents went to mar-a-lago looking in every office and grabbed documents in boxes without reviewing them there. sources the fbi agents brought a

safe cracker to get into what is described as a relatively new safe and according to that source it was empty. the source telling fox the fed took boxes and documents to review once the left mar-a-lago. they were told they were not being careful or cautious about what they were removed his home. fox has learned that trump was actually at trump tower in new york city, the former president announced the raid this evening, his home was being rated and "occupied," fox news told by a source familiar that the former president went to his bedminster property tonight. >> laura: thank you so much. for a look at the media's role and sort of setting up this framing of the trump raid, we turn to fox news contributor raymond arroyo. we've been watching this play out this evening, and you notice kind of a choreography surrounding the story. what is it? >> it happened over the weekend.

on cnn both sunday and this morning "new york times" reporter maggie haberman was out flogging a story that she's covered before, the allegation that president trump flushed documents down the toilet. she came armed with pictures this time supposedly from a source just in time to promote book. she may well be that john the baptist on this story. watch this. >> i think the other two important words here because people are going to make all sorts of jokes about toilets and so forth, it would still be a story if it was a fireplace in the point is about the destruction of records which are supposed to be preserved under the presidential records act, which is a watergate era creation. >> how curious, two days she went out flogging the story. the timing of this and the leaked pictures making the rounds. it all does seem rather coordinated, predictable, and as she said, gross and important

indeed. >> laura: she sat on another network no one knows where this is going to go and they've tried to get trump before they impeached him twice and -- i'm paraphrasing but essentially he emerges stronger. >> left not the point. as we've seen in the recent past, journalists are often used to drop information into the public domain and then that becomes the predicate for federal action. we saw this with yahoo news, the guy who carried the steele dossier into the public domain. that became the justification for federal investigation, subpoenas, and on it went until they admitted there was nothing there. earlier tonight dana bash said that president trump was trying to own the narrative, but i don't know why she didn't say the media is also trying to on the narrative in between

celebrating. >> the idea that they would raid the home of a former president and search the home of a former president is obviously as big of stakes as you can have. >> the fbi to actually be knocking down doors in his home, is this a time that americans can believe that perhaps the orange jumpsuit is forthcoming? >> i think the national democratic reaction is hallelujah. whether that bears out and continues on, we will see. >> it will hopefully strengthen our to american democracy, which is been very fragile these last few years post-trump residency. >> the narrative is so plain, laura. as you listen to it all as i have been all evening, here's the upshot, the democratic party finds itself in a difficult spot with gas prices, international worries, and inflation eating away at a bare majority, going into these midterms, they've

decided there's only one strategy that will work, we have to draft donald trump to run against. so this whole moment is now choreographed. at this time, before the midterms, to drag trump front and center, and to use him as the within boy while they cast themselves. you heard it there. the agents and protectors of democracy. >> laura: it's a screwed up strategy. i'm going to say this again. if they wanted to unite the republican party, if that was their goal, they are doing a great job of it. i think they thought that liz cheney was somehow aligning themselves with her on the january 6th committee was going to somehow separate the party. if the old establishment but most republicans just want trump's policies back, even if they don't like trump that much, love his policy, and they want that type of republican in the white house, whether it's trump or whether it's someone else. they don't want the old establishment. that is over. those people are part of the

problem here because every time, raymond, they get into power, they play games. with got to preserve the filibuster so we are going to give the democrats the infrastructure bill. that playing the sweet little old rules, that's got to go. harmeet was right about that. >> you have start policy differences that are at play here. the american first trumpism and now you see joe biden's agenda. americans will have to decide that ultimately and get past all the rest of these theatrics. but remember haberman called this moment gross and important. tonight's historian michael -- love used to other descriptors, listen. >> let's pause for a second to look at how weird and horrible this is. >> i take your description of what happened today, weird and horrible, and imagine that one day my two daughters will read a history book for today goes down as we are horrible. >> to mars they were you're going to want to buy the physical copy of the newspaper. you're going to want to buy it and folded carefully, maybe put it in a little archival paper or

parchment if you don't have that. >> laura, that is an amazing moment. to hear rachel maddow -- the pied piper of the entire russian conspiracy narrative, this conspiracy theory that fell apart, she never apologized for it, by the way. i think she called -- was trying to apologize for it, she called him weird or something on her aaron kind of called him out. this is an amazing moment when you have artisan ship masquerading not only as journalism, but as history. people have to see through this and i know it's hard to do so with these voices screaming at you. >> laura: what everyone has to understand is that everything we've heard about the republicans, they are now -- if they don't dump trump and they are clearly want to destroy democracy and they are going to be the wrecking balls to our entire constitutional system. this is from the same people who want to pack the court, get rid of the electoral college, who

want to now use government to weaponize it against the american people, whether the irs, praetorian guard, or now search warrants and surveillance and subpoenas, these are the people who are constantly ripping at the fabric of our founders, tearing down statues, celebrating police precincts being burned in minnesota and the republicans and the conservatives are the trouble? this is ridiculous. >> not only is it ridiculous, laura, to use their phraseology -- i guess we have to put two adjectives together, it's ridiculous and distressing. while we are covering this raid and trying to figure out what's at play here, it provides a convenient distraction from what you probably didn't see by design, the current president of the united states visiting kentucky flood victims after his covid hibernation. he was totally in charge today, laura. >> president biden: can you all hear? is this argument we don't

know -- everybody else should be doing this. says you are kidding me, seriously. it's not like it's beyond our control. the weather may beyond our control for now, but it's not our beyond control -- beyond our control. what we are doing yesterday and yesterday helping care of everything from health care to god knows what else. >> the head of emergency management, and he and his team have been doing an incredible job. >> i bet the governor there was hoping he would do an incredible job masking with all the coughing -- i mean, the man just got out of covid quarantine, now he's coughing all over everybody. but laura, you want to know why this is timed out for this moment? it's because of that moment. in any think everybody needs to take a hard look at it. >> laura: raymond, it only took about, i don't know, 45 seconds for him to get his jacket on as he came off the plane. >> i thought it was perfecting a comedy routine for a minute there. >> laura: jill did have a

candy stripe or dress on, that was the potential must look like she was a candy striper, and they are very helpful to the infirm -- >> it was quite -- this isn't the moment though. it was after the tarmac. >> laura: he's got the jacket on there. >> he was struggling to get the jacket on and he went in a circle. it was really quite comic -- we will show to you later, it's worth seeing. >> laura: raymond -- >> should not be overlooked. >> laura: i think that again this is a time for people who love our country, love our representative democracy, respect our constitution, take a breath, realize we've been through worse than this before, and we will get this through again. but when we get power back it's time to hold everyone accountable. the military leadership, the civilian leadership, the civil surface, those in congress who have abused their power. all of them have to be held accountable, all of them. it can't be this nice guy routine, let's be friends.

>> justice must be blind and those who are reporting have to do so with as much truth as possible as well and not from an ideological perspective. >> laura: all right, rims, thank you very much and we will have a lot more on this ♪ >> yes what a great group. happy monday, my monday monsters . what a weekend. i still haven't gotten all of the sand out of my butterfly ne very they passed it is far from solid and it stink