Fox News "The Ingraham Angle" - Transcript: Trump pushes to secure the border, reform US immigration

Interview

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CHAFFETZ: Here's a puzzle. By the media, the left, treating former FBI Director Andrew McCabe as both a hero and a victim? After all, it was McCabe who was fired on the recommendation of the bureau's Office of Professional Responsibility, an unprecedented move, particularly at that level. Lawmakers Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows told THE ANGLE last week that McCabe was fired because he lied to investigators four times.

Let's discuss what's really going on here with Republican Congressman John Ratcliffe of Texas and Democratic Congressman John Garamendi of California. I served with both in the Congress. I think highly of both of them and I appreciate you gentlemen for coming here and wearing your duly noted blue ties. Thank you, very appropriate. Thank you very much.

REP. JOHN RATCLIFFE, R--T.X.: Good to be with you both.

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI, D--C.A.: You've got yourself a good gig, Jason.

CHAFFETZ: If I don't screw up this interview, yes, it would be great. Listen, I want to play up a video, this is from Director Comey in his own words, and I want you to react to it.

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CHAFFETZ: Let's go with John Ratcliffe first. Was this done exactly the way it should have been done?

RATCLIFFE: Well, I think that is why so many of us are asking for Jim Comey eventually to come back and clarify some of the testimony that he gave under oath to you and me, Jason, where he talked about these things.

Very clearly when he made those statements, we need to know whether or not he was aware that Andrew McCabe allegedly lied multiple times under oath to FBI investigators. We need to know whether he knew that Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were not acting independently but were exercising extraordinary bias towards President Trump in connection with their official activities.

So, these are the reasons that we have congressional investigations and elicit testimony from folks like James Comey. I look forward to the day that he comes back, and we have an opportunity to clarify with him under oath those types of statements.

CHAFFETZ: Congressman Garamendi, you are a Democrat from California. Do you think John Ratcliffe and that Republicans have a point here? I mean, this investigation really gone exactly the way it was supposed to be done by the books?

GARAMENDI: Well, first of all, the investigation about McCabe isn't over. We don't have all of the information from the inspector general. That is forthcoming. When that comes out, we will see more about exactly what happened.

McCabe has a clearly different version than does the -- in this case, the attorney general, who did the firing. In any case, what we need to do is to very carefully study what is going on here.

One point gets lost in all of this and that is that the FBI actually in its investigations of the Clinton emails and in the last ten days of the campaign, did extraordinary damage to the Clinton campaign.

And it's really, I think, impossible to say that the FBI somehow was helping Trump when in fact the FBI's investigations into the emails, into the Clinton Foundation, and the statement ten days before the election, was extraordinarily harmful, however, you want to look at it --

CHAFFETZ: So, Congressman Garamendi, I think you make a good point. Both sides, and that is why it's mystifying to a lot of us, that the Democrats re trying to create Mr. McCabe as a victim here. Do you support the Republicans call to give all of the files? They are under subpoena by Bob Goodlatte.

I issued a subpoena. They've never given this and it's a closed case. Why not give all the paperwork to the Congressional investigators on both sides of the aisle? So, they can look at all this information?

GARAMENDI: That would be appropriate. Certainly, Congress has an oversight role and certainly you did a lot of that during your tenure as oversight chairman. But with regard to McCabe and his defense fund, defense funds are common. Many members of Congress --

CHAFFETZ: I don't blame him for going out on raising money. What is interesting here is Republicans are calling for a full investigation and all the paperwork and Democrats are resisting. I want to play another clip of Congressman Ratcliffe actually questioning Director Comey.

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CHAFFETZ: Congressman Garamendi, I will go back to you. Again, what are your thoughts? I mean, John Ratcliffe was making a pretty good point, wasn't he?

GARAMENDI: Well, he also has a lot more information than I do. I was not in that hearing and I certainly don't know how the FBI would conduct its investigations or make a decision to either charge or not to charge.

That is subject of investigation going forward. Certainly, the subject of the inspector general's report, which as I said earlier, has not been fully released. It is supposed to be coming out very soon.

And the hearings were conducted, if there is additional information that needs to our should be made available, fine, continue the hearings. As I said a moment ago, oversight is very important.

I do want to make one comment about oversight, and that as it should be a partisan operation. It should be a bipartisan operation. Go to the facts and try at every point to avoid partisanship. Unfortunately, that has not been the case.

CHAFFETZ: Well, let me go to John Ratcliffe here and get your take on it. It's been a long time since you have questioned Director Comey. You've learned, you've looked at, been able to read the underlying documents, but in your mind has changed since then?

GARAMENDI: Well, at the time he gave that testimony, and you were in the room, Jason, you and I were not aware that he had actually rented an exoneration statement for Hillary Clinton two months before her interview. We need to get answers to that.

We need to get answers to questions that he gave for other testimony under oath, where, as you know, he testified to Congress that the Steele dossier was unverified, but he verified it and attested that to the FISA court.

We need answers to that. We need to know whether or not Jim Comey knew what Andrew McCabe was allegedly doing and lying under oath, as has been alleged, or what Lisa Page and Peter Strzok were
doing. All of these are specific questions that we need clarification from that we did not have at the time that he gave that original testimony.

CHAFFETZ: Congressman Ratcliffe, do you agree with the appointment of Mr. Huber, U.S. attorney for the state of Utah? Did he do that right or was this the wrong move as well?

GARAMENDI: Well, I've heard people give a lot of opinions on this. That is not the decisions that I would have made. I would have frankly done at the other way around. I think the U.S. attorney would have been appropriate to investigate whether or not there was coordination or collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.

But I think with respect to an investigation into the actions of the FBI and the Department of Justice, that is essentially an internal investigation. So, I don't think the U.S. attorney is the appropriate
person to be investigating that. This is the extraordinary circumstance that would justify a special counsel. I think that eventually there needs to be one.

CHAFFETZ: I need to quickly get both of your reaction to president's tweets tonight and about his actions on DACA. Congressman Garamendi, what are your thoughts?

GARAMENDI: I'm not sure about tweets tonight. I do know about the tweets that occurred Sunday morning coming out of church on Easter morning and basically trashing maybe 1,500,000 young men and women that came here as children coming out of their own volition, but their parents brought them
here, and in serious jeopardy if the president has his way.

CHAFFETZ: The president is blaming Democrats. You are a Democrat. It is that fault on you?

GARAMENDI: Well, let's take a look at the facts. The Democrats, Senator Schumer offered $25 billion for a border security including fences and walls where appropriate and also in exchange for the full DACA program going into effect --

CHAFFETZ: Let me get John Ratcliffe. We got to go.

GARAMENDI: -- unfortunately, the Republicans added to that some programs that were simply not acceptable and it didn't pass.

CHAFFETZ: John Ratcliffe?

GARAMENDI: Jason, as you know, the politics of the DACA program have been dishonest from day one. Democrats took the position that it was appropriate and constitutional for President Obama to take that executive action because a set of Congress failed to act, the president was authorized to do so.

When President Trump took the exact same executive action to undo the DACA program, many Democrats have cried foul. So, whether the Democrats killed it or whether President Trump kills it, the DACA program needs to end. That is a distinction from DACA recipients. Republicans, Donald Trump, has offered a solution for DACA recipients.

Senator Grassley offered an amendment to provide status for DACA recipients in exchange for reasonable border security measures back in February, and 46 of 49 Democrats voted against that so --

CHAFFETZ: I just don't know that the Democrats know how to say yes to this. Listen, Gentlemen, it was an honor and privilege to serve with you in the Congress. I think you both for taking time on this beautiful Monday night to join us. Thank you.

GARAMENDI: Jason, I wish you well in your new work.

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