This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," June 25, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: I'm Laura Ingraham and this is a special edition of the "Ingraham Angle" from Washington. A week in an hour.
Now, four months after the FBI raided his apartment and took all of his devices, a 69-year-old resident who wasn't even at the Capitol on January 6, is still suffering. He's still not gotten his devices back. He's been shunned by his community and has even suffered two strokes. You're going to hear his harrowing story tonight.
But first, Kamala can't and won't. That's the focus of tonight's "Angle".
Today, Vice President Harris traveled to Texas to check the border box and play a game of make believe.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is important to be clear, it is working to build a fair and a functional and a humane immigration system. We feel very strongly about that. And as you know, we inherited a tough situation. And in five months, we've made progress. But there's still much more work to be done, but we've made progress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Progress? Lies and more lies. Number one, she and Biden were not handed a tough situation on the border. They created a disaster on the border. They did. Thanks to Trump's remain in Mexico policy, and, of course, aggressive interior enforcement. Illegal border crossings were driven way down under Trump.
And number two, by progress she means a total abdication, because most Americans define progress at the border as a reduction in the number of illegal crossers. But for Biden and Harris, I guess it's kind of right. Progress means an increase in crossings, regardless of the harm and cost to the American people.
Now, this is - I like to call these open borders collusion at the highest levels of our government. The Biden administration is committing an ongoing crime against our basic sovereignty, a conspiracy to undermine the rule of law, and their refusal to do what works to stem the flow of humanity into America.
Now, this fiscal year alone, Border Patrol has intercepted nearly 1 million migrant crossers at our southern border. We don't even know how many of them have been released either into the interior part of the country. But you know that number has to be staggering.
If Harris were a serious person who actually put America's interest first, she would have traveled to where the action is in the Rio Grande Valley. But of course, that would have been too embarrassing and revealing, because there the border arrests stand at a whopping 271,000 and counting this fiscal year. So of course, Kamala Harris decided to skip that region, and instead visit El Paso, which has 2.5 times fewer border arrests, and just for good measure, a Democrat mayor.
Now, everything I saw today was border theater, from beginning to end. There's nothing serious about enforcement, and she was always in search of mythic "root causes".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: The work that we have to do is the work of addressing the cause, the root causes. I'm very excited about the potential as we have talked with these congressional leaders and the Secretary, the focus that we have placed on the root causes. You can't just react to a problem without solving it at its roots.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now, everyone knows that root causes is just Washington's way of saying, we have no intention of solving the problem. And despite the gravity of all of this, Harris was only on site for about six hours in Texas. And much of that time was spent glad handing at the illegal crossing hotspot known as the El Paso International Airport.
Now, of course, the veep spun a totally fictional version of events today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did you decide that right now was the right time to make your first trip to the border?
HARRIS: Well, it's not my first trip. I've been to the border many times.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As the person in charge of the response.
HARRIS: I said back in March, I was going to come to the border. So this is not a new plan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: If her dissembling weren't so infuriating, it would be absolutely hilarious, because with so much time having passed, the Vice President's border (inaudible) is kind of just a sideshow at this point. It's a distraction from the real story. Because while she embarrassed herself in El Paso, the Biden DHS is moving full steam ahead on dismantling our border protections and immigration system.
Just days ago, they notified Congress that they were going to release tens of thousands of illegals into the interior of the country, who were previously denied entry under the remain in Mexico program. So we're going to pluck them out of Mexico, bring them back and release them. Isn't that nice?
That's not all. Just today Biden's team is furiously trying to figure out how to rescind the Trump era policy that allows for the immediate rejection of illegal border crossers due to COVID, because they care so much about COVID. This outrage aligns perfectly with something Harris said today about what our obligations are as a country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: We have a responsibility and if we ignore that responsibility, it will visit itself upon us in a very domestic way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: She was talking there about the region, Central America and Mexico. So apparently, our responsibility is to other countries. Thus, not only will the middle class and all Americans, frankly, be hit with a higher cost of living because of inflation now, but you can also expect wages to stagnate as well. All because Biden bowed to the business lobby in the far left, of course, and they are fine with having a glut of workers because a glut of workers in the United States keeps wages flat. Certainly, keeps them from rising.
So once again, we see the ugly truth about today's Democrats. Although Kamala Harris was put in charge of the border issue, she not only can't do it, because she's in way over her head, she won't do it. Because shutting down illegal border crossers means putting America first. And why should they ever want to put a systematically racist country first? That doesn't make any sense.
They don't think it's their responsibility to try to lift your standard of living, or ensure your schools are functional, or to make sure your streets are safe. Because if they did, they would do whatever it took to secure that southern border. And instead, their goal is to fundamentally transform our nation and its culture. So those borders, you bet, keep them wide open.
They're only going to care about the border, about enforcement, when they see that their actions, or in this case, inaction, has really cost them votes. And very soon, it will be time to make them pay. And that's the "Angle".
All right. Here now, Texas lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick; and Richard Guerra, a rancher from Del Rio, Texas, where we were a few years back.
Dan, let me start with you. Now, Harris spent the majority of her time at the airport, didn't even travel to the border. Your response to today's border theater.
DAN PATRICK, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF TEXAS: And it was border theater, Laura. I realized that the Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas has changed his title and didn't tell us the secretary of root causes, because that's all they talked about today. And the true root cause of the nearly 1 million people that we've apprehended so far and the millions more than have crossed over that we haven't caught, the root cause of the border problem is Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Because Trump had the border really under control in the last year of his presidency.
The policies he put in place, like returning people to Mexico really worked. And they talked about a broken system to date, and they broke it. They broke it. And it's purposefully that they broke it. To hear her talk about, we have to be concerned about the children and the families and their suffering. How about American children and American families and the suffering here of anyone killed by someone here illegally? This was disgraceful. It was almost a joke, except it's so serious.
INGRAHAM: It was an insult, it was an insult.
PATRICK: And what's with the mask by the way? What's with the mask? We're not New York, we're not Washington D.C. You know, we're not wearing masks down here. The whole - it was a whole show, Laura. It was just ridiculous and absurd and nothing. The biggest pile of political BS I've ever seen. And it was just a joke and it's sad that they don't understand.
INGRAHAM: Richard, what about a sense of humanity for Americans who own property along the border like you?
RICHARD GUERRA, TEXAS RANCH OWNER: I'm a rancher. I'm a cattleman. But when they come across, they do a lot of damages. They tear up our fences, they commingle the cattle, and they bring fever ticks, and they contaminate our property. Well, in fact, what they do, they trespass. Trespassing is illegal in the state of Texas and, in fact, in the United States of America.
So it is a problem. And I don't care whether they want to sugarcoat it or not, it is a problem. And I agree that the root cause of all of this is at the White House. Not here. They need to come to the Rio Grande Valley. In fact, I invite them to come to my ranch.
INGRAHAM: Well, Dan, I don't think actually after watching this spectacle today, Biden could live at the border for six months and set up an entire border White House, ok. That wouldn't matter one bit. They know - you don't think they know what's going on in your ranch, Richard? You don't think they know what's going on with all these kids dying in the desert and prostitution, trafficking, drugs? They know exactly what they're doing. And they're doing it anyway. Dan, the question is why? Why, Dan? Why are they doing it?
PATRICK: Well, they're doing it, Laura, because they want to turn these young people who are coming across the border and the older people are coming across the border into citizens, into voters. That's what this is all about over the next several years or the next decade. They want to take over this country on the backs of these people that are crossing the border to turn them into Democrat voters.
That's what it's about. It's all about power. They don't care about children of America, families of America, Police officers in America, victims of crime in America, those who are taking fentanyl and dying from it, or hooked on drugs. They don't care about Americans, and they don't care about these people crossing the border who end up in cantinas, in prostitution, or massage parlors, or sex trafficking, or if they're working for a job, they're taking cash under the table, sending a third of it back to the cartels.
The cartels are sitting there thinking the Biden-Harris administration are good for business, because the cartels are in the business of smuggling people into America. This is disgraceful. And this is why we have to build a wall in Texas, Laura. I mean, we're serious about this, because today proved they have no intention whatsoever to do anything about security for this country and for our state. And we're not going to put up with it.
GUERRA: I commend Governor Abbott and lieutenant governor for taking the initiative to do something about this.
INGRAHAM: Well, they care about this country, unlike the people running the country who think it's a systemically racist and rotten and evil country.
Gentlemen, thank you, both of you tonight.
PATRICK: Thank you, Laura.
INGRAHAM: And there was a jarring comment from Congresswoman Veronica Escobar upon greeting Kamala Harris at the El Paso airport today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. VERONICA ESCOBAR (D-TX): Welcome to El Paso. Welcome to my community, to the new Ellis Island, to the Capitol of the border. I have a heart full of gratitude because we finally have an administration willing to tackle the big challenges. Willing to tackle challenges in a meaningful, thoughtful, strategic, compassionate way, and understanding what's driving people from their home, what's making them arrive at our nation's front door.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Joining me now, Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover Institution, Senior Fellow. Victor, the Ellis Island of 2021. Tee off on that for a moment.
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, SENIOR FELLOW, HOOVER INSTITUTE: Yes. Every element of that comparison is pathetic, Laura. Ellis Island, everybody came legally from 1890 to 1924. It was legal, legal. And they came with - they were audited. They were authenticated. They were people who gave them health checks.
People come in across the Rio Grande, especially at El Paso in the state of Texas. They're coming for the most part illegally. We don't have any idea in the middle of a pandemic, whether they've been vaccinated, probably not, or whether they're active carriers. 5,000 border and customs patrol officers have been infected. They were diverse at LSI. And they came from all over the world.
This is just one group of Spanish speaking people. It's not diverse like Ellis Island. And they came with the expectation, Laura, to assimilate rapidly, to integrate, to intermarry. That's not the message we're giving these immigrants that are coming illegally. We're telling them that they were part of a tribal identity. It's what's happening in America.
And they came in - and people forget about Ellis Island, it was measured. I know that some years, days, they might have 5000 or 6000. But over that 36- year-period, there was about 12 million people who arrived here. We're getting up to 2 million, so we're getting six to seven times more per year across the southern border than we did through Ellis Island. Every element of that comparison is just factually wrong. And it's kind of insulting to the people who follow the rules, our grandparents, our great grandparents, our parents, they did that. It's really sickening.
INGRAHAM: Yes. My grandparents on my mom's side came through Ellis Island, and I remember hearing some of those distant stories and it took my breath away, that comparison. Now I want to play something else that Harris said today at the border.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: I strongly believe that most people don't want to leave home. And when they do, it is because either they are fleeing some harm, or because to stay means that they cannot provide for the basic necessities of their family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Victor, well, first of all, that doesn't qualify them for asylee status in the United States. She doesn't even know the law and she's supposedly this great lawyer. That's not persecution that's under one of the causes listed under the asylum statute.
HANSON: Yes. And that's also a lie. We have pupils, Laura, that are taken frequently and usually Mexico alone, people pull about. 50 percent of the Mexican population says, if given the opportunity or chance they would move to the United States immediately. Half the country, 55 million, 60 million people would come. If you open the borders, all of Central America and Mexico would come, because for all the criticism of America, we're a constitutional state with individual liberty and we kind of allow people to be prosperous, secure and happy in a way that's impossible in their homeland.
So they would all come. And yet that's the big disconnect, isn't it? The left says this is a terrible country, and then they can't explain why everybody wants to come to a racist country. And that's because they don't even believe their own rhetoric. They're so cynical.
INGRAHAM: Victor, thank you. Great to see you.
And coming up the shocking story of how the FBI sweeping January 6 investigation is wrongfully turning up a number of people, including a man who spent his life serving others in his community.
Joseph Bolanos joins us in moments to tell us how the FBI ruined his life and his health. Next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Two decades ago, after terrorists brought down the Twin Towers, Joseph Bolanos rose to the occasion. He served as a Red Cross volunteer after 9/11. But his incredible public service doesn't end there. Joseph spent decades heading his Upper West Side block association. He looked out for neighbors during the pandemic, supplied them with PPE. He raised morale with weekly street dances for essential workers.
On top of that, he was awarded a Police commendation for saving a woman from being mugged. You get the point? He was a pillar and a beloved leader of his own community. But all of that changed after he attended Trump's January 6 rally in DC. Though Joseph never attended the Capitol that day, never entered the Capitol, he was in his hotel when the breach occurred. The FBI raided his home any way in February.
Now, agents handcuffed him, detained him for four hours as they ransacked his apartment and confiscated his belongings, which he still has not gotten back. Now, that's not all. Joseph's neighbors now see him as a domestic terrorist to be shunned. It's not only ruined his life, but his health as well.
Joseph Bolanos joins me now. Joseph. I mean--
JOSEPH BOLANOS, ATTENDED PRESIDENT TRUMP'S JAN 6 SPEECH: Hi, Laura.
INGRAHAM: You say you've experienced not one but two strokes since the FBI raided your home?
BOLANOS: Yes, I did.
INGRAHAM: What?
BOLANOS: Yes, February the first one, and they call them mild. But I don't think it was that mild because I had a second one on May 25.
INGRAHAM: Joseph, the facts of this story are something out of the Soviet Union. OK.
BOLANOS: I came back to New York the next day. And I received a voice message that weekend, actually on the 10th from an FBI agent with a 202 area code. And I called him on Monday, got his voicemail and never heard back from him.
About Feb - excuse me, January - February 4, I was staying at my mother's as my mother is presently in a rehab. She's got dementia, she's 94 years old. And at 6 o'clock the door was - someone was banging on the door and I answered and it was 4 - 3 males, 1 female, claiming to be detectives or JTTF. I let them in. And basically they asked me if I was part of BLM, Proud Boys, Antifa. I said, no. Not at all. I said, I was there, but I wasn't there when the breach happened, and I don't condone any criminality or violence.
So I showed them a video, which was a composite of three videos. They said, can you make us a copy? I said, sure. When you're innocent, you really cooperate, which is I think was my biggest mistake. Yes. And so I made them the thumb drive. And they said, thank you very much. I hope your mother feels better and they left.
That week, Thursday, I was sleeping on the couch. And 6 o'clock in the morning, I hear, Boom, boom, boom, "FBI, open the door. Open the door, or we'll knock it down." Something to that effect. And one was pointing an assault rifle at my head about four feet away. And I was sitting there confused and they said, please step outside. I stepped outside. They handcuffed me. I said, what is this about? And they said, search warrant. They never produced one, they never showed it. Nothing.
So I had only my (inaudible). They said get him a coat, get him his jeans and boots, and they took me downstairs.
INGRAHAM: OK. Yes, and then what happened?
BOLANOS: In the car they had me for almost four hours. And they were asking me questions, and it seems like such a short
(CROSSTALK)
INGRAHAM: Did you ask to speak to a lawyer?
BOLANOS: No. No, because I was cooperating.
INGRAHAM: Have you gotten any of your materials? Did they take your phone, or the laptop? Did you get any of that back?
BOLANOS: They took three phones about four, I'm a tech, so I have a lot of technology. They took about three or four computers. They took - I'm a ham radio operator, they took two amateur radios. I mean, they took probably over $10,000 worth of equipment.
And I was asking lawyers and saying "Listen, how can I get my equipment? Because of my medical records, my mother's records." They said don't go near it. Don't ask them for anything. And I said to myself, I'm innocent. What do I have to be - what do I have to worry about? It looked like--
INGRAHAM: So no charges filed, no, you haven't heard from them since?
BOLANOS: Nothing. And you have to wonder, Laura, why they wouldn't check--
INGRAHAM: Yes. Why they - I got it. But what does this make you feel about this FBI and what this was all about?
BOLANOS: I've always been a law and order person. I've always supported FBI. I've worked with them in the past in my early years in security. I'm crushed right now.
INGRAHAM: I hope you get your materials back. I hope you get your phone back, hope you get your computers back. Your lawyer should make an effort to get your all - everything back and file a motion in federal court to get that back.
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