Fox News "The Ingraham Angle" - Interview with Steve Scalise

Interview

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INGRAHAM: Joining me now from Baltimore is House Minority Whip Steve Scalise. All right, Congressman, this big GOP retreat had an obvious focus in 2020, what's ahead. Something specific that was presented to go against a very radical agenda of Democrats?

REP. STEVE SCALISE, R-LA, HOUSE MINORITY WHIP: Well, Laura, the president I thought just had a great presentation tonight. If you're watching the Democrat debate, then you switch the TV and watch the president, you really saw what's going to be the framework for the debate next year, and that is what this president has done to get this economy moving again. The president talked a lot about how every income level is doing better, African-American unemployment and Hispanic unemployment, the lowest levels in the history of our country because of what President Trump did working with the Republican Congress.

And then you contrast that with what the Democrats are talking about. The Green New Deal, just think about how laughable, cows are banned, planes are banned. All this stuff is lunacy, and yet all their presidential candidates are talking about it because they are scared of AOC and the squad, this high school squad. So the president has a great message in terms of what he's done to get the economy moving, to get this country back on track. And then you contrast that with the Democrats.

INGRAHAM: We did a whole segment on the economy to start this hour, and it's obvious the Democrats are just going to ignore the numbers right in front of them. They're not going to -- we know that. They're going to do that. But what they're also going to do, and the president addressed this today, they are making a run for the guns. They think the gun issue will bring more suburban women into the fold, will cement suburban woman's views of Trump negatively, and the president addressed this issue today. Watch.

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TRUMP: On the background checks and various things having to do with guns, we are dealing with the Democrats, and I think we're dealing very well. There's a possibility that this is just a ploy to take your guns away. But whether or not it's meaningful, if it's meaningful, we'll make a deal. If this is a movement by the Democrats to take your guns away, then it's never going to happen because we're never going to let that happen. We will always be there for four Second Amendment.

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INGRAHAM: Congressman, red flag law, expanded background checks, we're told day in and day out by the Democrats that if you don't support this, you essentially support mass shootings in the United States. How do the Republicans respond? What are you going to do on those issues?

SCALISE: Right. First, let's go ask the Democrats what have they actually done to stop gun violence? Every time that there's a mass shooting, and I'll tell you from personal experience, Laura, the first thing we should all be doing is praying for the victims. Instead they're running for TV cameras to promote some bill that's going to take away the rights away of law-abiding citizens.

And admittedly, even by most Democrats, they will tell you that their bills wouldn't have stopped some of these mass shootings. And so President Trump has been actually focused on solving the problem. If you look at what he did with the Fix NICS bill that he signed in the law, that was focused on putting more data into the NICS system, the background check system, of criminals. There are a lot of criminals, people who committed actual crimes that should have stopped them from buying a gun and committing a mass shootings, but the data wasn't put in the system, even including mental illnesses. And that was the case, by the way, in Charleston, in Sutherland Springs, even in Parkland. And so the president has been focused on solving the problem.

INGRAHAM: But what about the background checks, Congressman? What about background check --

SCALISE: That is the background check system.

INGRAHAM: But for all gun sales even among families, friend, or you can't give a gun to someone without a background check or a gun show, would you be in favor of any of those areas having expended or universal checks?

SCALISE: Their ideas, and, look, Beto O'Rourke probably summed it up the best when he said he wants to take away your guns. That is their agenda. And if you look at their background check bill, they used the term background check, and people think, hey, what's wrong with that? We have a background check system, by the way, that has problems that we have been working to fix.

Their idea is to say, if you're law-abiding citizen, you want to loan your gun to a friend, you can't do that or you'll go to jail for up to a year. That's lunacy. The idea that your friend, maybe your neighbor who's been beaten by her ex-husband and she wants to defend herself, under Pelosi's bill she'd have to wait up to 20 days to get that gun.

INGRAHAM: So you think something is going to happen?

SCALISE: -- trying to tell the perpetrator to wait 20 days.

INGRAHAM: Do you think something is going to happen on this?

SCALISE: The president is not going to support -- the president said he's willing to work with Republicans and Democrats to solve the problem of gun violence. Pelosi hasn't shown she's interested in solving that problem. Her agenda is focused on taking away the guns of law-abiding citizens. Just read the bill she filed. Even on background checks, it wouldn't have stopped any of those mass shootings.

INGRAHAM: And I'll say, every time I hear mandatory gun buyback, that's why people are going to buy guns now, because mandatory gun buyback, people are like, we don't want that. That's essentially going to be a gun ban, everyone knows that. I think everybody knows that.

SCALISE: Barack Obama might have been the greatest gun salesman in the history of America because of his threats to take away our guns. Luckily we stopped him from doing it.

INGRAHAM: Pelosi is now.

SCALISE: But Pelosi is not going to be able to do it either. Let's respect that Second Amendment rights. It's amazing how they want to take away Constitutional rights while providing amnesty to people who come here illegally, voting rights to people, free health care to people who come here illegally. That's what their agenda is all about.

INGRAHAM: Congressman, we've got a wrap. We've got to wrap. We've got to wrap, Congressman, but by the way, tonight we had people like Biden saying nonviolent people committing crimes should not go to jail. They have real problems on the way they're dealing with law and order in the Democrat Party. That's going to be a big problem.

SCALISE: President Trump talked about that tonight. It will be a great debate, President Trump against whatever socialist they nominate. And the country is not socialist. It's a conservative nation, Laura.

INGRAHAM: I can't wait. Congressman, thanks so much.

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