Laura Ingraham Calls Bush Speech a ‘Slap in the Face’ to Populist Movement

Laura Ingraham was credited on Thursday night by both presidential aide Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s former White House strategist, for helping to guide the national populist movement that rallied around Trump.

Bannon and Miller made their remarks at the “Breitbart embassy,” the old Washington townhouse on Capitol Hill where many Breitbart staffers work. Ingraham was there to promote her new book, “Billionaire at the Barricades: The Populist Revolution from Reagan to Trump,” which details the rise of the populist conservative movement from President Ronald Reagan to Trump.

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Speaking to about 150 people in the slim townhouse suite, Bannon wore a big smile, three shirts, and a blazer when he introduced Ingraham, a longtime friend he said helped him plot Brexit and an economic nationalist agenda that includes better trade deals and a crackdown on illegal immigration.

Bannon credited Ingraham with bringing together people who could articulate a case on the conservative side and make an impact during the Republican primary. Ingraham had attended some of the dinners where Bannon met with then-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and an even younger Miller to discuss illegal immigration and bad trade policy.

Sessions and Miller would go on with Ingraham to advise Trump on his insurgent 2016 presidential campaign. Bannon said that’s why he invited Ingraham to talk about her book at the Breitbart townhouse.

“We just thought it was appropriate given everything that has happened in this house for the launch of this movement, that the definitive real history of the populist movement since President Reagan — it’s amazing,” said Bannon, gesturing to Ingraham. “There really hasn’t been a history of populism and nationalism until [Ingraham] conceived of the idea with Adam Bellow … This book is the definitive book.”

Bannon said Ingraham’s talent was key to the 2016 win and the Trump agenda. He noted that Ingraham, the editor-in-chief of LifeZette, is soon starting her own show on Fox News, “The Ingraham Angle,” on October 30, for which she’ll take over the 10 p.m. slot. Ingraham also hosts “The Laura Ingraham Show” on radio.

“I don’t know how you do it all,” said Bannon, crediting Ingraham with keeping the populist effort alive. “You’re an extraordinary talent. The country, President Trump, and our movement would not be here today if you were not the queen of it.”

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Ingraham criticized former President George W. Bush, who said on Thursday that bigotry had become emboldened of late. Bush was suggesting Trump was responsible, she said.

“Sadly, George W. Bush launched a speech which was an attack on populism, this movement, and Donald Trump,” said Ingraham. “I think it’s sad that a man who left office with a 29 percent approval rating would be so willingly used by the current media to attack a sitting president. When we see a run-up in the stock market, consumer confidence up, unemployment at a low we haven’t seen since 1974 — this is the day that George W. Bush decided to slap this movement in the face.”

Ingraham quoted Bannon, saying Bush’s remark shows the Establishment “will not give up without a fight.”

Ingraham said she is familiar with nervous Establishment types like Bush. The first time she came to Washington, in April 1982, driving with fellow student Dinesh D’Souza from Dartmouth College, was to visit Reagan adviser Pat Buchanan, who served on the board of her college newspaper. Buchanan told her he would stay on the board despite the fact some Republicans were dropping off as advisers because the paper, the Dartmouth Review, was deemed too controversial.

Buchanan stayed with the Dartmouth Review along with R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. of The American Spectator, also a scrappy conservative.

“That was literally my first experience” with nervous Establishment types, she joked. The newspaper succeeded in getting the ROTC brought back to campus.

Ingraham went on to work for Bill Bennett in the Reagan administration, get her law degree, start her radio show, and become a frequent guest on Fox News.

Miller thanked Ingraham for giving hope to millions of Americans hurt by bad economic policy.

Ingraham, in addition to being the founder and editor-in-chief of LifeZette, has written several New York Times best-sellers, including “Of Thee I Zing” and “Power to the People.” She has hosted “The Laura Ingraham Show” since 2001, becoming the most listened-to female radio talk-show host in the nation.

Ingraham will begin hosting “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox News on October 30. The show will air every weekday night at 10 p.m. EST.

“Billionaire at the Barricades” is published by All Point Books, a division of St. Martin’s Press.

(photo credit, homepage image: Steve Bannon, CC BY-SA 2.0, by Gage Skidmore; photo credit, article image: Steve Bannon, CC BY-SA 2.0, by Gage Skidmore)