An exclusive look at the White House kitchen

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An exclusive look at the White House kitchen

Judge Jeanine Pirro gets an inside look at the White House kitchen with executive chef Cristeta Comerford.

This is a rush transcript from " Justice With Judge Jeanine," December 28, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

Jason Chaffetz: Hello, and welcome to Justice, and happy early New Year. I'm Jason Chaffetz in our nation's capital on this holiday weekend for Judge Jeanine Pirro. Thanks for joining us. We have a big show on deck. I'll be speaking with Dan Bongino and Charlie Kirk in just a few moments. We'll also talk a little campaign 2020 with Corey Lewandowski and Trump reelection campaign national press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. And you'll get a dose of Judge Jeanine a little later when she takes you into the White House kitchen to see how some of the finest meals for the president and other heads of state are prepared. But first, while the Democrats stay laser focused on the impeachment stalemate, the economy keeps on roaring with the Dow and S&P 500 rallying to all-time highs just yesterday. So how can the president keep the spotlight on the positive amid all the drama in the Beltway? Joining me first out of the gate tonight to talk about that and much more is Fox News contributor, former Arkansas governor, and all-around good guy Mike Huckabee. Governor, thanks so much for joining us here tonight. I really do appreciate it. I want to ask you first about the economy, because it really is about the economy, stupid, isn't it?

Mike Huckabee: [laughs] Well, it really is. And I'll tell you, the people that denied that this economy is on fire are being pretty stupid. Because it's not just that the stock market is doing great, which means everybody with a pension plan, every retired teacher, every retired truck driver in America is in better shape because of the Trump economy and because the stock market has hit record highs about a hundred times. I mean, it's not just that it hit it one time and moved back; it has had a sustained growth. But there's something else about it, and that is that wages for the lowest level of income workers in America are up and up substantially. In fact, the latest reports this week, wages are actually up more for workers than they are for CEOs. That has never happened before. This president has delivered on the promise to make the economy a real focal point. I hope he just sticks with it. Just don't even talk about the impeachment and all the nonsense, focus on what an incredible record he has. I kind of feel sorry for the Democrats’ congressmen because what are they going to run on? What can they say that is even close to the truth about the economy? That makes it like, "Yeah, let's get these guys and put them in power."

Jason Chaffetz: Yeah. I mean, the last debate, the Democrats didn't even really talk about the economy, and I don't think they really have a message. It's all about taxing and spending. But the one area that I do think they're going to go to is they're going to try to disparage the president and go after him as a racist as it relates to immigration. Where do you see the immigration debate going in 2020?

Mike Huckabee: He was the one who tried to fix DACA. I hope he reminds the American people of that again and again. He's the one who recognizes immigration is not something that conservatives and Republicans or the president is against. He's for legal immigration. We all are. Immigration makes this country great. If it hadn't been for immigration, we wouldn't be the terrific country we are. But what's always been true is that immigration has been a process that people came legally, they got processed, we knew who they were, where they were going, what they were going to do, where they had come from, and if they had any communicable disease. This idea that people just walk through Ellis Island and looked at the Statue of Liberty and were hustled right through, that's not the history. The history is people were quarantined because they had smallpox. They weren't always let in because they had criminal records. We were pretty picky about the immigration process. But what we did do was to recognize that these folks who came with hope and opportunity in their hearts, they really did make America a better place. The president can focus on that. But there are a lot of Americans who say, "Why should we punish the people who did it right and allow people to do it wrong?" -- and especially when that creates lower wages for people of color. This is an issue. If anyone wants to talk racism, it's racism to me that people of color who are citizens of this country have their wages cut out from under them because of illegal immigrants. So, the president has a great message and story to tell there.

Jason Chaffetz: No. And to see Jill Biden, actually -- I believe she was in Mexico. You know, encouraging and handing out people that were seeking asylum is amazing to me. And I've never seen a National Party disparage ICE and Border Patrol and law enforcement in general and be successful nationally. And I think that's a good segue way for another topic. I -- Donald Trump has talked a lot about the homelessness problem, particularly in California and New York. I want to show you this tweet and I'll read it for you here that the president put out this morning. "California and New York must do something about their tremendous homelessness problem -- homeless problem. They are setting records. If their governors can’t handle the situation, which they should be able to do very easily, they must call and politely ask for help. Would be so easy with competence.” I see Gavin Newsom, the governor; I see Governor Cuomo. It just happens to be that the states that are controlled by the Democrats have the biggest problems.

Mike Huckabee: They have enormous problems. I mean, when you have apps on your phone that tell you where not to step in human excrement, I think that’s a pretty serious situation for people in this country. To be in major cities, some of the most once-beautiful cities in the whole country, and now they’re places where people are getting out as fast as they can because they don’t want to step on used hypodermic needles used by drug addicts, step across people who are sleeping on the streets. It’s a horrible problem. And nobody is saying we don't have a homeless issue, but the solution is not to just create blight in the major cities of America like L.A., San Francisco, New York City, and others. It’s to actually find out, why are these people homeless? Is it drug addiction? Is it something that can be dealt with? But you don’t deal with it by ignoring it and somehow even celebrating that it’s a wonderful thing to have homeless people living in the doorways of people trying to conduct business.

Jason Chaffetz: No, it’s sad, because it’s so avoidable. And there are people facing all kinds of problems with, you know, mental illness and financial troubles, but these policies of “hey, let’s not do anything; we don’t want to make anybody uncomfortable” is leading to more and more homelessness. But I do appreciate it; Governor, thank you so much for joining us on this holiday weekend. I really do appreciate it. All right.

Mike Huckabee: Thank you, and happy New Year.

Jason Chaffetz: Happy New Year. Okay, 2020 is just a few days away, the Iowa caucus just about a month after that -- it’s hard to believe how close it is -- in what’s shaping up to be one of the most historic elections in a generation. Joining me now, a man who knows a thing or two about running a successful campaign and who may be thinking about launching one of his own, former Trump campaign manager and senior adviser to the Trump 2020 campaign -- he’s also the author of a book, Trump’s Enemies -- Corey Lewandowski. Corey, thanks so much for being here. I really do appreciate you joining us. I want to go to Iowa first, because so much is going to be told in the Iowa story, and Bernie Sanders has quite an operation there. Are you feeling the Bern?

Corey Lewandowski: Jason, what we know is that Iowa has a history when it comes to grassroots support of turning out. The caucus is a very, very different type of an election than a primary vote, and so, look, Bernie has had not only the last year to organize, but really, he hasn’t stopped organizing for the last four years. And what we saw four years ago when Bernie ran against crooked Hillary was it was a rigged system. The super-delegates were all in the bag for Hillary right away. Bernie Sanders had the huge crowd, second only to Donald Trump four years ago. He probably should have been the Democratic nominee four years ago. I think you’re going to see the self-avowed socialist be the nominee this time against Donald Trump.

Jason Chaffetz: Yeah, that’s what’s amazing. The guy is not even a registered Democrat. I mean, he’s -- and he’s leading. And I’ve got to tell you, what place do you think -- if you don't fall within the first, what, first place, second place, third place, at what point do the rest of them just get cut off?

Corey Lewandowski: Look, Iowa is a state where if you’re competing there, and you’re not in the top three, then, really, you haven’t won. And go back and look at the 2016 campaign. When Donald Trump came down that escalator, he was in first place within 30 days and never looked back. We finished second place in Iowa, first place in New Hampshire, first place in South Carolina, first place in Nevada. He won 38 primaries and caucuses and was the clear frontrunner right from the very beginning. If Bernie Sanders wins in Iowa, then comes to my home state of New Hampshire and has a chance to win there as well, because Elizabeth Warren’s campaign is starting to implode -- we see she’s not raising as much money -- we know that Joe Biden is not going to make it successfully either in Iowa or New Hampshire. I don't think he can hold onto South Carolina. This race could be Bernie’s to lose here right after the New Hampshire primary in early February.

Jason Chaffetz: I mean, the chance of a brokered convention -- it continues to rise, the way Democrats are doing it, and then on the second ballot they have these so-called super-delegates who get to make the decision. I’m sure that’s going to go over well with the Bernie Sanders crowd, right?

Corey Lewandowski: Well, they stole it from him once four years ago. Looks like they may be poised to steal it from him again. But what we call a brokered convention on the Republican side is operation chaos. We want that to happen. Look, there is no Democrat in this field that is going to win against Donald Trump. He is a man playing with boys right now. You look at what he’s done on the economy, on trade, on our military, on everything, criminal justice reform, on the amount of African-American support that he’s receiving in the public polls. He’s getting 35 percent of that. If that’s the case, Jason, it doesn’t matter who the Democrats nominate, because no one is going to beat Donald Trump, and I don’t see one state in the country right now that Hillary Clinton lost in 2016 that Bernie Sanders or Pete Buttigieg or Elizabeth Warren has a chance of picking up.

Jason Chaffetz: Now, you know, you don’t get a fair shake in the national mainstream media, so how do you deal with it from a campaign strategy? I may even ask Kayleigh about this later, too, but how do you deal with that? Because the media bias is so prevalent, it’s so omnipresent. What do you do about it?

Corey Lewandowski: Well, it really is, and, you know, it was interesting, because I was watching Fox and Friends this morning. I don’t know if you saw it. They ran a compilation. In August of 2018, how they were saying -- all the professional pundits, all the mainstream media experts were saying how 2019, we were coming into a recession, how Donald Trump’s economy was faltering, how the stock market was going to crash. Well, here we are at the end of 2019. You know, we’ve created $17 trillion in stock market value in this year alone. Everybody, as Governor Huckabee talked about, is better off today from an economic sense because of the policies of Donald Trump. You have to keep reiterating what you’ve achieved because the mainstream media won’t do that for you. The president has to remind the people we’ve got the lowest unemployment numbers in a generation, we’ve got the best economy in the world, and we continue to grow by holding others accountable. That’s what success is about, and that’s why Donald Trump deserves another four years as the president.

Jason Chaffetz: All right, I’ve got to ask you really quickly, because I’ve only got a few seconds left, but you’ve been considering, and it’s certainly been rumored, that you’re going to run for the United States Senate in New Hampshire. So, I appreciate you making that announcement here tonight. Where are we at on this, Corey? Are you running or not running?

Corey Lewandowski: You know, Jason, I’ve got a couple days left. I told my family I’d make the decision by the end of this year. My anniversary is on Monday. We’re going to get through that, and then we’re going to make our final decision. You know, it’s been a tough thing. You know what elected life is about. It’s a hard thing on the family, so it’s truly a family decision, and in a couple days we’ll have that answer for the American people.

Jason Chaffetz: Well, happy anniversary. It is brutal in politics, as you know. You’ve been through it; you know what it takes. And New Hampshire is a wonderful state, and I think you’d be very well-received there. So, good luck in that decision. We anxiously await and see what happens. So, thank you for joining us tonight, Corey.

Corey Lewandowski: Thank you. Happy New Year.

Jason Chaffetz: Happy New Year. Meantime, the election may be 10 months away, but despite impeachment and so many in the mainstream media writing President Trump’s political obituary, at least one prominent liberal says “not so fast.”

[begin video clip]

Michael Moore: If the vote were today, I believe he would win the electoral states that he would need, because living out there, I will tell you, his level of support has not gone down one inch. In fact, I’d say it’s even more rabid than it was before.

[end video clip]

Jason Chaffetz: Wow. So, is Michael Moore right? Here to break down that and more, FOX News contributor and host of The Dan Bongino Show, it’s Dan Bongino. Dan, I love the way you named your show. That’s very, very appropriate. So, thanks so much for joining us here.

Dan Bongino: Crazy, right?

Jason Chaffetz: [laughs] I know.

Dan Bongino: Amazing how they found a guy named Dan Bongino for The Dan Bongino Show [laughs].

Jason Chaffetz: There you go, there you go. All right. So, going back to the election here in 2020, I don’t agree with Michael Moore on much, but he is also credited with saying that Joe Biden is this year’s Hillary Clinton.

Dan Bongino: Yeah. Well, I think he may be right. You know, I use this analogy a lot. There are three lanes in every election. You’ve run for office; I’ve run. You won; I lost. I wish I could have won one there. But you have generally the establishment pick, you have, like, the kind of -- in this case, the liberal pick, or in our case, it’d be the more conservative pick, and then you have the outsider pick. And the problem the Democrats are having is each one of those lanes is occupied by people who don’t fit that label. Right? Biden was not the safe pick, just like Hillary wasn’t the safe pick either. They’re both terrible candidates. The other lanes are occupied by basically people are frauds. Buttigieg is not an outsider, contrary to what he wants you to believe, and the liberal radical pick, Bernie Sanders, is a millionaire himself, so he’s kind of a phony and doesn’t fit the brand. But, Jason, I think the Democrats are probably going to have in 2020 -- is they made a series of strategic miscalculations that are going to come back and bite them in the butt. They were on the wrong side of the tax cuts, which Trump was right on. It led to a booming economy; the numbers don’t lie. They buried themselves in identity politics, thinking somehow if they called 50 percent of America racist that the 50 percent were going to turn around and vote for them because of it. They buried themselves in the impeachment disaster, which the polls have shown has been an abomination for them. And finally, they married themselves to the collusion hoax, which turned out to be one of the biggest political hoaxes in American history. This doesn’t bode well for them in 2020.

Jason Chaffetz: No. You combine all that and with the booming economy and everything else that's going on, I think an honest assessment is that Donald Trump is stronger politically today than he has ever been. I want to get your take on Elizabeth Warren, because she has gotten a lot of credit for being specific on plans. She just hasn't quite been so specific on her personal life. I mean, it was her own brother who called her out for saying, you know, she called her dad a former janitor, and her brother is saying he wasn't a janitor. Where did that come from?

Dan Bongino: Yeah, it's quite an endorsement. When your brother anti-endorses you when you're running for office. And, you know, I hear that a lot. You're right. She gets his credit -- I mean, I don't think from guys like me or you, but from other people, for having a plan. What they don't tell you is the second part of that sentence, that the plan always sucks. Like, it's always awful and terrible.

Jason Chaffetz: That's right.

Dan Bongino: Great. You know, I've got a plan, too. I want to knock down this brick wall, and I'm going to bash my head into it. That's a plan. It doesn't mean it's a good plan. You know? She can't -- I don't understand that. But on the Elizabeth Warren -- listen, there's this thing in politics, it's a very scientific expression. It's called the "big mo." I'm kidding, of course. "Big mo" means momentum. You know, you probably heard it before. A lot of focus groups and political types will talk about that. She just has lost the big mo. She doesn't have that momentum anymore. And the problem, Jason, is I haven't seen anybody on the Democrat side pick up that baton. I mean, candidly, I was not a fan of Barack Obama's politics, but everybody knew the momentum was behind him.

Jason Chaffetz: Yeah, it's true.

Dan Bongino: We all felt the momentum behind Donald Trump. Do you feel any of that for any of these Democrat candidates? The short answer is no. Probably not.

Jason Chaffetz: No. You saw this surge this -- got behind him. And it was just this intangible thing with Barack Obama that he was going to be the person that broke out there.

Dan Bongino: Yeah.

Jason Chaffetz: But I really do believe that voters, one of the things they seek out, they smell it, they sniff it, they understand it, is authenticity. And you may not like everything that Donald Trump says, but he is --

Dan Bongino: Yes.

Jason Chaffetz: -- he is just a stream of consciousness.

Dan Bongino: Yes.

Jason Chaffetz: He doesn't pretend to be somebody he isn't.

Dan Bongino: Yes. Yes. You just nailed that. I'm like making hand gestures on the screen here. That is absolutely right. They always tell you these days -- political, you know, consultants and things like that -- they'll say the most damaging political narratives that'll hurt a candidate are ones that change some preexisting version you had of who that person was. Right? And that's the thing, like, there was no guesswork as to who Donald Trump was. You may not like -- like you said, you may not like him, but at least he was honest about who he was. Elizabeth Warren, who is Elizabeth Wa -- nobody knows. Was she the daughter of a janitor? Or is it a maintenance man like her brother says? Is she an American Indian or not an American Indian? Was she fired for her job because she was pregnant, or did she leave her job, as the school said in this letter? Nothing she tells you comports with the preexisting narrative she told you she was. And those are the most damaging parts of her. You're right. She is completely, 100 percent inauthentic. And that is the most damaging political narrative of all. You nailed it.

Jason Chaffetz: No, and I think that's the problem. I think that's a death knell for her and some of these others. They just can't win on authenticity. And that's, I think, why Donald Trump was one of the breakaway candidates. Dan, thank you so much for joining us. Happy New Year. We really do appreciate it.

Dan Bongino: Thanks.

Jason Chaffetz: Last week, it was the pastry shop. Tonight, Judge Jeanine gives you an exclusive look inside the White House kitchen. That's still ahead. But next, she is the darling of the Democrats, but are some in the party really looking at AOC as a possible presidential candidate? Charlie Kirk joins me next to discuss that and more. You're watching Justice. Keep it right here.

[commercial break]

[start video clip]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: What we're living in right now is not an advanced society. A society that allows people --

Female Speaker: Why aren't we calling it fascism? It's what it is.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: It is fascism, what we have, what we're evolving into, as well.

[end video clip]

Jason Chaffetz: Wow. Welcome back. That's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez riling up the Sanders supporters with cries of fascism at a recent Bernie rally. Pretty scary stuff. And what could be even scarier is some on the left are trumpeting the fairly newly-minted congresswoman as not only the face of the Democratic Party, but even a possible candidate for the White House. Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA and author of the new book, The MAGA Doctrine: The Only Ideas That Will Win the Future, is with me now. Charlie, thanks so much for joining us. I really do appreciate it.

Charlie Kirk: Thank you. Of course.

Jason Chaffetz: When you see AOC making those kind of comments, what comes to mind?

Charlie Kirk: Well, she represents what I call the Colin Kaepernick wing of the Democrat Party quite well. She's constantly wrong, but never in doubt. Always enraged about the beauty and the blessing of America. And look, she should be mocked and laughed at quite often for not knowing how many branches of government there are, saying that we don't live in an advanced society, and her constant, let's just say, stumbling over the facts. But take a pause and understand there's something quite serious here. She embodies exactly why I do what I do on university and college campuses across the country. Because there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of young people that are being taught her exact philosophy and ideology, that America was a mistake, that Western civilization should never have been advanced the way it did, that free markets are not the answer, that socialism must come to America. Whatever happens on college campuses will soon happen in the halls of Congress. So, I don't know about her presidential ambitions, but everyone watching this must understand that there is a growing threat of Marxism happening in America. And she is the canary in the coal mine, the harbinger of that to come. There will be more young socialists coming if we do not continue to push back.

Jason Chaffetz: No, it is amazing how she pushes so far over there. And you know, Bernie Sanders is a self-avowed socialist. And the policies they're pushing forward, they're not compatible with who we are as a nation, where we’ve been or where we're going, and certainly in this successful economy that we've had here today. But you're out there talking to college students every single day. What are they saying? What are they feeling? Are they as liberal as they get the beat for being or are they actually more conservative in their nature?

Charlie Kirk: Well, I'll tell you, I visit dozens and dozens of college campuses personally every single year, from Brown University to Stanford to UCLA. You name it. And I'll tell you that students are, more times than not, curious instead of combative about conservative ideas. Instead of being opposed to conservative ideas, they just haven't been exposed to them at all in the first place. And look, people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez -- she is a prototype of the radical university. She truly and fundamentally believes at her core, because she was instructed to believe this by the elitist professors, that America is a horrible, racist, misogynistic country that should never have been founded in the first place, and if so, it should be totally deconstructed from within. This is so dangerous, Jason, because if we do not understand that we should be thankful that we live in America, not angry that we live in America, I’m afraid that our country will go soon in the wrong direction. But I’m optimistic at my core, because young people -- they’re going to be rejecting these ideas and these values if we continue to reach out to them. I remain optimistic.

Jason Chaffetz: So, when you do reach out to them, and you do want to encourage them to get involved, are they repelled by the idea that they’re going to be mocked by the mainstream media, that it’s not cool to be conservative or something like that? How does that go down at the place like Arizona State or in Florida or wherever you might be?

Charlie Kirk: Well, I'll tell you, we’re making it cool to be conservative again. We had over 5,000 students in Florida last week. A week ago today, we had the president of the United States address the largest-ever young conservative student gathering in Florida. It was unbelievable, something that the traditional media did not cover at all, when you had 5,000 students coming to Florida on their Christmas break. But I'll tell you, the fight for freedom has to intensify going into 2020, because there are so many young people that are being indoctrinated to believe the same things that AOC parrots every single day, and the future of America rests on those of us on the frontlines of America’s cultural war fighting for these ideas on college and high school campuses. And again, I'll say it again. She should be mocked, she should be laughed at, but there’s a very serious undertone to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, because she is a harbinger for things to come. That sort of radical ideology is only going to multiply unless we do something about it.

Jason Chaffetz: No, and I think she’s helping to rule the Democratic Party. I think she’s pulling Nancy Pelosi -- I didn’t think it was possible -- even further to the left. Charlie Kirk, thank you.

Charlie Kirk: Thanks, Jason.

Jason Chaffetz: Merry Christmas; Happy New Year. Thank you so much for joining us.

Charlie Kirk: Thank you.

Jason Chaffetz: A lot more ahead. We’ll talk 2020 with Kayleigh McEnany in just a few minutes, and next, Judge Jeanine goes one-on-one with Fox News military analyst Colonel David Hunt. Keep it right here.

[commercial break]

Jackie Ibanez: Good evening, and live from America's News Headquarters, I’m Jackie Ibanez in New York. Hong Kong’s democratic party convincingly won the local election last month, but tensions still remain high. In a fresh weekend of violence, protesters marched through a mall demanding Chinese traders return back to China. The protesters chanted, quote, “Liberate Hong Kong and return to the mainland.” Police quickly attempted to suppress the protesters, but violence still persists there in the city. Meanwhile, Iran, Russia, and China are conducting their second day of naval drills in the Sea of Oman. The drills are part of a four-day set of planned displays and a sign of cooperation between the three allies. All the efforts are meant as a show of force to the United States, who has imposed crushing economic sanctions on Iran. I’m Jackie Ibanez. Now back to Justice with Judge Jeanine. For all of your headlines, log on to FoxNews.com. Have a great night. 

[music playing]

Jason Chaffetz: Welcome back to Justice. I’m Jason Chaffetz, in tonight for Judge Jeanine. The judge recently sat down with Fox News military analyst Colonel David Hunt for a wide-ranging interview about the state of the military, now three years into the Trump administration. They also took a closer look at some of the recent pardons granted to members of the United States military by the president. Take a look.

[begin video clip]

Jeanine Pirro: Fox News military analyst Colonel David Hunt joins me now. All right, good evening, Colonel.

David Hunt: Hi.

Jeanine Pirro: It’s good to have you back on Justice. I want to talk a little bit about the president and how the military is seen or being treated differently since he’s been president. And of course, since he’s been in office, he handed $700 billion to build up our military, which, of course, is, as he says, I believe, the strongest in the world. But in addition to that, we just had funding for the military and the USMCA, so they got their raises. I mean, it’s all good on the financial front, or so it appears, but I want to talk more specifically about some of the cases that the president has involved himself in. And specifically, I think there’s one that you had wanted to talk about. Which one was that?

David Hunt: Matt Goldstein.

Jeanine Pirro: Right.

David Hunt: Yeah, you and I had talked about this. Thank you for the help, by the way. Matt Goldstein was a captain, Special Forces. They were chasing a bomber who had killed some Marines a week before, captured the bomber, returned him to the Afghanistans. The Afghanistans let him go. Matt Goldstein’s team hunted him down and killed him. It was a high-value target authorized to kill. He’s been very honest about all this. The Army went after him, took -- never heard of this -- took his Distinguished Service Cross away, all of his medals and all of his qualifications. It’s a classic case where a presidential pardon has to overcome a system that went wild.

Jeanine Pirro: But that’s the question. Why would a system go wild? If, as I seem to kind of gather from what you said, a high-value target is someone that --

David Hunt: That’s on a list to kill.

Jeanine Pirro: -- [unintelligible] killed. He’s on a kill list.

David Hunt: Absolutely.

Jeanine Pirro: All right. So, is there a deep state in the military?

David Hunt: [laughs] There’s a big -- yeah. If the “deep state” means, is there a bureaucracy that -- yes, there’s -- of course there is, and it’s huge. The Pentagon is 36,000 people. So --

Jeanine Pirro: All right.

David Hunt: But -- and this is a senior officer, Secretary of the Army, four-star generals, who saw this as a bad thing.

Jeanine Pirro: Why would they see that as a bad thing?

David Hunt: Yeah, because it --

Jeanine Pirro: We’re all on the same side.

David Hunt: No, we’re not, as we’ll talk later. We’re -- many of these people are on one side: their own. It’s about promotions, not about the country, certainly not about the Matt Goldsteyns. Goldsteyn, by the way, never lied about this. He applied to the Central Intelligence Agency and told about it. He actually talked about it on Fox. This was 10 years ago. He had his promotions held up for 11 years. This was a good thing -- this was really a bad justice thing that the president overturned. The other -- the couple other ones are somewhat problematic, but Goldsteyn is straight down the middle.

Jeanine Pirro: All right, so you’re saying Goldsteyn is straight down the middle, and the thing that people like me have a lot of trouble understanding is, you know, we have an enemy; we’re at war. We’re not there to make friends; it’s not a kumbaya. And if someone does what he’s ordered to do, and then you come back, and someone in the Pentagon or someone above you decides you should be tried for murder, you know, whether it’s Gallagher or Goldsteyn or Lawrence -- and we’re just talking about Goldsteyn now -- I mean, it’s kind of -- it’s -- you said yourself -- what am I missing?

David Hunt: What we’re missing is that the United States conducts its wars differently. We do it with laws. It’s not a banana republic. We have ethics; we have rules of engagement, we have Uniform Code of military justice. We -- it's much more difficult, in many cases, to fight in the U.S. military than it is for other countries. And that's because we're the greatest country in the world and its greatest military. Mistakes are made, and there's accountability to be had. What happens sometimes, like with Golsteyn, the system breaks down. Then somebody takes it personal. Somebody does not do their homework. They've got an axe to grind. Whatever the reason, it was wrong. But the butt is, we -- you cannot, for example, murder a civilian.

Jeanine Pirro: Right.

David Hunt: You cannot --

Jeanine Pirro: Yeah, but we're talking about a high-value target.

David Hunt: No, no. This is -- that was a straight up good --

Jeanine Pirro: It went astray. It went awry.

David Hunt: It did.

Jeanine Pirro: Because somebody, you know, decided that they were --

David Hunt: A lot of somebodies.

Jeanine Pirro: A lot of somebodies.

David Hunt: The president did --

Jeanine Pirro: Well, those lot of somebodies who made a decision to charge Golsteyn with murder years later, are those somebodies going to be made accountable or do they just go along their merry way?

David Hunt: This is where I think the president didn't go far enough. There's this case and a few others in which the people who did this, caused this trouble for Golsteyn need to go down the road. They need to be fired as a minimum. They need to be called out. And --

Jeanine Pirro: But they're still there.

David Hunt: Yeah or retired. And there's no -- that's this part of -- this doesn't work. And that this president, which he might enjoy doing some of that, there's some accountability that has to happen at a very senior rank. This report that came out of The Washington Post is classic.

Jeanine Pirro: Yeah. And I do want to talk about that.

David Hunt: Sure.

Jeanine Pirro: Maybe it's the time to do it. You know, the -- there's an article in The Washington Post from a couple of weeks ago that talks about -- "a confidential trove of government documents obtained by The Post reveals senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiring and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable."

David Hunt: We -- during Vietnam, at the end of Vietnam, there was a thing called the Pentagon Papers, which was a study, an after-action study, of the war in Vietnam. That was very critical. It was done by the government. It was stolen, given to The New York Times -- it was in New York. It was a Supreme Court case. It got released.

Jeanine Pirro: Right.

David Hunt: It was devastating for any of us who lost people there or fought there that the government had lied about -- they knew we weren't winning, couldn't win the war. We just repeated history. Three administrations, the Bush administration, the Obama administration, and the Trump administration have lied -- the military insiders lied. And the military and the Department of Defense have lied to the president, the Congress, and in turn, we've been lied to as citizens.

Jeanine Pirro: Right. So, you see this as legitimate, and you're not at all surprised?

David Hunt: This is 600 people. And if this is -- a government study --

Jeanine Pirro: Right.

David Hunt: -- that the Post went after for three years. Another one coming out on Iraq. This is devastating. We need -- there needs to be a cleansing of the military.

Jeanine Pirro: How do you do that?

David Hunt: A lot of people do it -- it's over -- it's -- first of all, it's a top-heavy organization. You've got -- people have to get on the road. They have to get fired or leave or worse. It's -- this -- what's happened here is now we're undercutting what we stand for. There's 600 people testified on this. We've lost thousands of guys in this war.

Jeanine Pirro: So how --

David Hunt: Tens of thousands --

Jeanine Pirro: How do you decide who to fire?

David Hunt: I'll start with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Who's -- David -- Milley -- he's in the report. I'll get the guy named McRaven who just retired. Just people ought to know these names. Who is in the SEAL -- the SEAL commander when we got bin Laden?

Jeanine Pirro: [affirmative]

David Hunt: All of these guys are part of this, and it's a large number, and it would take a big axe, and that -- the president could swing.

Jeanine Pirro: All right. All right. Colonel David Hunt, thanks so much for being with us.

David Hunt: You're welcome.

[end video clip]

Jason Chaffetz: Great interview. All eyes on Iowa as the Democrats kick it into high gear now that 2020 is upon us. We'll talk about the race and see how the Trump campaign may be gearing up for some very different scenarios. I'm joined live by national press secretary for the Trump reelection team, Kayleigh McEnany up next.

[commercial break]

Jason Chaffetz: You heard earlier that even Michael Moore thinks beating President Trump is going to be an uphill battle, and the Democrats can't seem to get out of their own way with the Iowa caucuses just over a month away. It's that close. Let's take a close look at the race. I'm joined now by Trump 2020 campaign national press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. Kayleigh, thanks so much for being here with us on this beautiful Saturday night. The Democrats, the impeachment ain't going quite so well. Every indicator I've seen says it's not exactly helping the Democrats when they're just like 35 days or so away from the Iowa caucuses.

Kayleigh McEnany: Yeah, it's certainly not. And you know, Jason, when you look at public polling, every single public poll that is polled independent shows that impeachment has gone south with this very key voting bloc, the voting bloc that will determine the election. And our own internal polling at the Trump campaign surveyed the 30 congressional districts that had Democrats win in 2018 after President Trump won in 2016, and in all of these, on average, what we found is that by 10 percent, they're against impeachment, by 11 percent they want to remove their sitting Democrat congressman who just won in 2018, but they want to remove them after their impeachment vote. So, this is going south for the Democrats. They know it. It's why they don't want to send this to the Senate for an acquittal.

Jason Chaffetz: Well, and look at Iowa -- and it really is hard to believe it's this close -- but there doesn't seem to be an apparent person who's going to be there. I mean, you got Pete Buttigieg, who just in the last day or two was quoted as saying something like that, you know -- drug possession. He wouldn't have any -- doesn't matter if you have any jail time, if you have anything like meth or coke or whatever it is, whatever your drug of choice, no jail time.

Kayleigh McEnany: Right.

Jason Chaffetz: How is that a winning formula in Iowa?

Kayleigh McEnany: Not a winning formula. Much of what the Democrats say, all of what the Democrats say is not a winning formula. Health care for illegal immigrants. Medicare for all. Government takeover of health care. None of this is a winning formula. But one thing that's interesting, Jason, you mentioned Iowa and you see these different Democrats kind of percolate to the top of the polls, whether it's Buttigieg or Warren or Biden or, now, Bernie, the flavor of the hour. The difference was, in 2016, President Trump was the foregone nominee from the beginning.

Jason Chaffetz: Yeah.

Kayleigh McEnany: Never did anyone go up against President Trump. We loved our nominee. We chose President Trump. We stood behind President Trump. But Democrats are not confident in their nominee. Thus, they have a flavor of the hour and no foregone winner in Iowa or New Hampshire or the states that come after.

Jason Chaffetz: No, and that's -- but you felt it with Barack Obama. You could feel the surge that was happening there.

Kayleigh McEnany: Absolutely.

Jason Chaffetz: People were rallying behind him. And you don't feel that with any of them there. The campaign --Trump campaign put out an interesting website. It's called "SnowflakeVictory.com." I went and looked at it. This is how to talk to your liberal friends or relatives over the holidays, right? How’s that going?

Kayleigh McEnany: Yeah. Oh, it’s going great. You know, we came up with this idea because you always see, whether it’s in Newsweek or these liberal publications like Slate, you know, “how to talk to your MAGA uncle” or “how to talk to your, you know, Trump-loving aunt.” You know, we decided, let’s put out something proactive to say to all of those Trump supporters out there, “don’t be fearful of talking to your leftist neighbor, your leftist friend, your leftist family member sitting at your dinner table.” We have the facts that are on our side, which is the hottest economy in modern history, the USMCA, the China Phase I trade deal, prescription drug costs coming down. We have the facts on our side, so be armed with the facts, because you can win that dinner table conversation. We’ve seen voters say, “this is great. This is just what we needed.” People are winning those conversations day after day.

Jason Chaffetz: Now, how are you going to deal with -- I asked Corey Lewandowski about this earlier, but you’re the national press secretary. Is there anybody in the mainstream media that gives you a fair shake? And other than coming on Fox News, how do you deal with that?

Kayleigh McEnany: Yeah, it’s tough. You know, I’m a former CNN contributor. I sat there on those segments all throughout the 2016 election where, you know, not one segment was devoted to covering Hillary Clinton’s emails that were bleach-bit, a sledgehammer put to her devices, not one segment devoted to that. We have to overcome things by penetrating through social media, through Twitter, through Facebook, through everyday conversations. We’re doing that at the campaign, but it’s tough. You know, we don’t have the media on our side. We certainly don’t have a fair shake. We certainly don’t have the facts out here, but here’s what we do have: people coming off the sidelines of the job market; people’s paychecks going up; people’s health care costs coming down. And --

Jason Chaffetz: Kayleigh --

Kayleigh McEnany: -- people see that in their everyday lives, and that wins.

Jason Chaffetz: Well, Kayleigh, I really do appreciate it. I could keep talking to you for hours, but we appreciate you joining us here tonight. Merry Christmas; Happy New Year. All right, so, from the bench to the kitchen, next, Judge Jeanine takes you on an exclusive trip to the White House kitchen. Don’t miss it. We’re back in a moment.

[commercial break]

Jason Chaffetz: Tonight, another treat you haven’t seen: an exclusive peek inside the White House kitchen where dinners for heads of state and other dignitaries are routinely prepared. The judge got to meet a chef who is a true trailblazer.

[begin video clip]

Jeanine Pirro: So, here we are in the White House kitchen, and I am here with the chief chef, Cris Comerford, and as you can see, there are people working here in the kitchen. It is spectacular. I mean, when you look at everything you have in here, you can tell that you are cooking for a lot of people today.

Cristeta Comerford: Yes, we are.

Jeanine Pirro: So, thank you for being on Justice. I appreciate it.

Cristeta Comerford: Yes, it’s a great honor to be here.

Jeanine Pirro: It’s an honor to be with you, trust me. Now, you have been the chief chef for how long?

Cristeta Comerford: I’ve been the executive chef since 2005. I was appointed by First Lady Laura Bush back then, and it was such a big thing, because I am the first woman executive chef in the White House.

Jeanine Pirro: We’re very proud they have a woman as the first executive chef of the White House. So, you have been since 2005, so I imagine, having served different presidents from Bush to Obama, now to President Trump, they have different menus, different wants, different tastes.

Cristeta Comerford: Yes, definitely.

Jeanine Pirro: Who decides the menu?

Cristeta Comerford: We give, like, different proposals to the First Lady and the Social Office, and we want to emulate, like, kind of their style of entertaining. So, we kind of know what they like and what they want to offer to the American public, so, as chefs, this is really our duty, and we do a lot of effort and work when we make our menus.

Jeanine Pirro: Okay. So, did you find there was a big difference between the presidents in terms of their dietary requests?

Cristeta Comerford: There’s all differences between each of the presidents, but there’s a lot of commonalities as well. And this is what --

Jeanine Pirro: All right, let’s talk about the commonalities. I want to hear that.

Cristeta Comerford: Yes, we’re celebrating all of what’s good in America. So, each of the administrations pretty much -- we want to represent the whole United States. You know, we might be incorporating some cheeses from Vermont, some smoked fish from the North Atlantic, or it could be the Pacific, West Coast. So, it’s really putting all of these different bounties of the seas and the land, and putting it together in one table for the American people.

Jeanine Pirro: Now, as we’re talking here, I mean, there are people who are cooking and chopping -- I know that’s chicken -- and, I mean, I’m looking at this. It kind of looks like a fall menu. What are you cooking today? What’s everybody cooking?

Cristeta Comerford: One thing when we get to our Christmas season, it gets pretty, pretty hectic, just like in any other home. So, what we try to do is do things ahead of time. Like, for example, all of these herbs and all of these shallots and garlic will be chopped real finely, and we’re going to make, like, a compound butter that we’re going to use for our pan-roasted Brussel sprouts, a really, really wonderful dish.

Jeanine Pirro: Got that. I’m going to do that tonight. I’m going to go home [laughs] and chop the garlic for the butter and the Brussel sprouts.

Cristeta Comerford: Yes. So, anything that we can do ahead, that will really help the chefs, and even, like, average cooks at home. You know, just plan your meal, plan it well, so that way you can spend more time with people rather than spending time in the kitchen.

Jeanine Pirro: Well, let’s talk about the chicken here that you’re cooking today. Now, how are you going to cook this? I mean, because I make chicken; everybody makes chicken. So, what will you do with this?

Cristeta Comerford: Yes, for this chicken, I mean, one of the highlights of our dishes for the reception is the chicken Milanese, and it’s really such a wonderful, wonderful dish. So, what Adam is doing right now is just cleaning out the --

Jeanine Pirro: Hi, Adam.

Male Speaker: How are you?

Jeanine Pirro: I’m good. How are you?

Male Speaker: Very good.

Jeanine Pirro: Good.

Cristeta Comerford: So, this is going to be cleaned, and we’re going to pound it super-thin later on, you know, do the natural breading, you know, with flour and egg wash. And we’re just going to pan-fry it very last-minute and then kind of, like, drizzle it with a wonderful lemon sauce. So, it’s really going to be a wonderful. And Toren [spelled phonetically] over here is going to do all the reduction for that particular lemon sauce. So, she’s chopping all the shallots. It will be reduced with wine, and then we’re going to, like, incorporate some wonderful whole butter in it, finish it with lemon, and that will be the finishing sauce for it.

Jeanine Pirro: You have a long day, I suspect, in the kitchen.

Cristeta Comerford: Oh, yeah, and that’s only one dish that we’re talking about.

Jeanine Pirro: Have you ever had any unusual guests or people you might not expect to come through, like a president coming in and moseying on in with a little hunger pang?

Cristeta Comerford: I think, you know, for the most part, the chefs are called to be ready with just about everything, so anybody that can walk into the kitchen and would need something, we will be prepared to accommodate those requests.

Jeanine Pirro: Okay, so if I wanted a milkshake -- not that you would do this for me -- but if, you know, if I wanted a milkshake, you'd have ice cream on hand, right?

Cristeta Comerford: We will have everything that anybody would ask for.

Jeanine Pirro: Okay. All right. I -- and -- I may have to tell you something, that when we walked in, I could smell the kitchen right away. I knew you were cooking. I mean, how do you cook all day and not eat six meals?

Cristeta Comerford: I know.

Jeanine Pirro: [laughs]

Cristeta Comerford: So long as we make our guests happy and the First Family happy, that's all we care for.

Jeanine Pirro: I want to thank you for letting us into your kitchen, and I'm very proud of the fact that you're the first woman executive chef in the history of the United States in the White House.

Cristeta Comerford: Thank you, Judge Pirro. We're so honored to be here.

Jeanine Pirro: Thank you.

[end video clip]

Jason Chaffetz: That was great. We'll be right back.

[commercial break]

Jason Chaffetz: Finally, tonight, I took advantage of my trip to Washington, D.C. earlier today when I stopped by to visit Arlington National Cemetery. I took some pictures. It was truly a sobering and awe-inspiring experience and one I recommend for anyone who visits our nation's capital. I want to thank all the men and women who sacrificed their lives for this country and for all of us so we can celebrate this holiday season. That's all for tonight. I'm Jason Chaffetz. I hope you'll follow me on Twitter and Instagram @jasoninthehouse. Judge Jeanine will be back here next Saturday night. The Greg Gutfeld show is next. Have a wonderful and happy New Year.

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