Laura Ingraham
Laura Anne Ingraham (born June 19, 1963) is an American conservative television host. She has been the host of "The Ingraham Angle" on Fox News Channel since October 2017, and is the editor-in-chief of LifeZette. She formerly hosted the nationally syndicated radio show "The Laura Ingraham Show". Ingraham worked as a speechwriter in the Reagan administration in the late 1980s. Afterwards, she earned a J.D. degree and then went on to work as a judicial clerk in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York and then for United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas . She also worked for the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in New York City. Ingraham began her media career in the mid-1990s. Early life and education. Ingraham grew up in Glastonbury, Connecticut, where she was born to Anne Caroline (née Kozak) and James Frederick Ingraham III. Her maternal grandparents were Polish immigrants and her father was of Irish and English ancestry. She graduated from Glastonbury High School in 1981. In 1985, Ingraham earned a B.A. from Dartmouth College. She then attended the University of Virginia School of Law, where she was a notes editor for the "Virginia Law  Review". She graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1991. In April 2022 one of her tweets meant to criticize student loan forgiveness instead inadvertently gained widespread attention and ridicule when she revealed that she'd allowed her mother, at the age of 73 and still working as a waitress, to continue paying her student loans for her into 1993-94, despite that at this point she'd already been out of school a few years and was presumably earning more than a waitress' salary working at New York law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Career. In the late 1980s , Ingraham worked as a speechwriter in the Reagan administration for the Domestic Policy Advisor. She also briefly served as editor of "The Prospect", the magazine issued by Concerned Alumni of Princeton. After law school, in 1991, she served as a law clerk for Judge Ralph K. Winter Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York and subsequently clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. She then worked as an attorney at the New York-based law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. In 1995, she appeared on the cover of "The New York  Times Magazine" in connection with a story about young conservatives. In 1996, she and Jay P. Lefkowitz organized the first Dark Ages Weekend in response to Renaissance Weekend. Television show host. Ingraham has had three stints as a cable television host. She first became a host on MSNBC in 1996. In the late 1990s, she became a CBS commentator and hosted the MSNBC program "Watch It!". Several years later, on her radio program, Ingraham began campaigning for another cable television show. In 2008, Fox News Channel gave her a three-week trial run for a new show entitled "Just In . In October 2017, she became the host of a new Fox News Channel program, The Ingraham Angle". Radio show host. Ingraham launched "The Laura Ingraham Show" in April 2001. The show was heard on 306 stations and on XM Satellite Radio. It was originally syndicated by Westwood One, but moved to Talk Radio Network in 2004. In 2012, Ingraham was rated as the No. 5 radio show in America by "Talkers Magazine". In November 2012, she announced her departure from Talk Radio Network, declining to renew her contract with TRN after nearly a decade of being associated with the network . She was the second major host from TRN's lineup to leave the network that year: TRN's other major program, "The Savage Nation", left TRN two months earlier. Her new program, syndicated by Courtside Entertainment Group, began airing on January 2, 2013, and went off the air in December 2018. Ingraham continues to produce podcast material for Courtside's PodcastOne division. LifeZette. LifeZette is a conservative American website founded in 2015 by Ingraham and businessman Peter Anthony. In January 2018, Ingraham confirmed that she had sold the majority stake in LifeZette to The Katz Group, owned by Canadian billionaire  Daryl Katz. Views and controversies. In 2017, Ingraham was described by "The New York Times" as an "ardent nationalist". She is known for her strong support for Donald Trump. During his presidency, she acted as an informal advisor to the administration, flouting journalistic ethical norms. In 2014, she was a fierce critic of the immigration reform then proposed, saying that allowing more immigrant workers to come to the United States would be "obscene to the American experience". She opposed the proposed bipartisan 2013 US Senate comprehensive immigration reform plan. Ingraham has said that her influences include Ronald Reagan, Robert Bork  and Pat Buchanan. Ingraham has been described as "no stranger to generating controversy" by "Variety" and as a "name-brand provocateur" by "Politico". "Business Insider" has referred to Ingraham's on-air style as "wad[ing] into debates on racism and gun violence". In June 2019, Ingraham mocked reports that Trump had delayed his participation in D-Day commemoration activities to sit for an interview with her, strongly dismissing them as "patently false—fake news", despite video of the interview showing Trump saying, "These people are so amazing, and what they don't realize is that I'm holding them up  because of this interview, but that's because it's you." Ingraham has promoted conspiracy theories about topics such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack. Homosexuality. In her senior year at Dartmouth College, during her tenure as editor-in-chief of independent campus newspaper "The Dartmouth Review", Ingraham wrote several controversial articles. She sent a reporter undercover in 1984 to a campus Gay Students Association meeting, and later received criticism when, despite an oath of confidentiality being read to participants, Ingraham published a transcript of the meeting and included the names of the attendees, describing them  as "cheerleaders for latent campus sodomites". Ingraham claimed confidentiality did not apply, because the meeting had been advertised, and defended the outing of the gay students as a "freedom of the press issue". Jeffrey Hart, the faculty adviser for "The Dartmouth Review" described Ingraham as having "the most extreme anti-homosexual views imaginable", claiming "she went so far as to avoid a local eatery where she feared the waiters were homosexual". In 1997, Ingraham wrote an essay in "The Washington Post" in which she stated that she had changed her views on homosexuality after witnessing "the dignity, fidelity, and courage  with which her gay brother, Curtis, and his partner coped with the latter being diagnosed with AIDS; Curtis's partner ultimately died of the disease. Curtis, on the other hand, has called his sister a monster" and said she was influenced by their father, whom he described as a Nazi sympathizer as well as an abusive alcoholic. Ingraham has stated that she supports civil unions between same-sex partners, but believes marriage "is between a man and a woman". Immigration and diversity. Ingraham holds anti-immigration views. In 2014, she denounced House Majority Leader Eric Cantor after he expressed support  for the DREAM Act and a GOP bill to grant a pathway to citizenship for young immigrants. At the time, Cantor faced a primary challenge from Dave Brat, which he would go on to lose. According to "The New York Times", "Few people did more than Ms. Ingraham to propel Mr. Brat ... from obscurity to national conservative hero." Ingraham said the race would go "down as one of the most significant repudiations of establishment immigration reform that I've seen in my 20 years of doing politics", and that due to the outcome of the race, "immigration reform is DOA . That same year, Ingraham harshly criticized Republican congresswoman Renee Elmers for expressing support for a comprehensive immigration bill which included a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants who were in the country at the time. In an interview with Elmers, Ingraham accused Elmers of supporting amnesty and using liberal talking points, and said her arguments were infuriating to my listeners". In September 2014, Ingraham claimed that President Obama sent assistance to Africa during the 2014 Ebola outbreak and exposed Americans to the virus because of his guilt over "colonialism". In September 2017, amid reports that Trump was  considering an agreement with Democrats on amnesty for approximately 800,000 DREAMers, Ingraham criticized Trump, tweeting "When does American working class w/out real wage increase in 15yrs & who send their kids to overcrowded public schools get amnesty?" In July 2018, Ingraham harshly criticized Republican congressman Kevin Yoder after he expressed support for a Democratic bill that rolled back Attorney General Jeff Sessions' order that immigration judges not be allowed to grant asylum to asylum seekers fleeing domestic abuse or gang violence in their home country. She called on the congressman "to stop selling out the Trump agenda". On June 18 , 2018, broadcast of "The Ingraham Angle", Ingraham likened detention facilities where children separated from their illegal immigrant parents by the Trump administration are kept to "summer camps" that "resemble boarding schools". She further described criticism of the family separation policy as "faux liberal outrage". Ingraham had referred to the border crossings as "slow-rolling invasion of the United States". Ingraham's comments followed an MSNBC report by Jacob Soboroff which was broadcast on June 14, 2018. The report described a Texas detainment facility setup to be like a "dormitory structure" with a cafeteria and rooms that contained four beds in  each. The day after Ingraham's comments aired, school shooting survivor and activist David Hogg tried to renew boycotts of businesses that advertise on "The Ingraham Angle", but the show lost no more advertisers. Ingraham objects to the changing racial demographics of The United States. In August 2018, in what "The Washington Post" labelled an expression of "white anxiety", she stated "some parts of the country it does seem like the America we know and love doesn't exist anymore. Massive demographic changes have been foisted upon the American people. And they're changes that none of us ever voted  for, and most of us don't like... much of this is related to both illegal and, in some cases, legal immigration that, of course, progressives love." Various commentators criticized Ingraham's comments, with "The Atlantic" claiming she was alluding to the U.S. becoming "less and less white with every passing year". Many outlets argued that it echoed white nationalist rhetoric or that itself constituted a "white nationalist rant". Ingraham's comments were endorsed by David Duke. In response, Ingraham called Duke a "racist freak whose name I won't even mention". Some mainstream media described Ingraham's views as  advocating the white genocide conspiracy theory. In her August 9, 2018 "Ingraham Angle" monologue, Ingraham stated she was not talking about "race or ethnicity" and went on to say, "There is something slipping away in this country and it's not about race or ethnicity. It's what was once a common understanding by both parties that American citizenship is a privilege, and one that at a minimum requires respect for the rule of law and loyalty to our constitution." In October 2018, Ingraham urged her audience to vote Republican in the upcoming midterm elections, saying that Democrats "want to  replace you, the American voters, with newly amnestied citizens and an ever-increasing number of chain migrants." In May 2019, Ingraham showed a graphic on her show of "prominent voices censored on social media", which included "people who believe in border enforcement, people who believe in national sovereignty." Among those listed was Paul Nehlen, known for making numerous anti-Semitic remarks, who was banned from Twitter after making racist remarks about Meghan Markle, the wife of Prince Harry. In June 2019, she spread unsubstantiated claims that asylum seekers to the United States may carry the Ebola virus. Section::::"Shut up and  dribble". In February 2018, Ingraham was criticized for making dismissive comments that NBA players LeBron James and Kevin Durant should not opine on politics. Ingraham stated, "It's always unwise to seek political advice from someone who gets paid $100 million a year to bounce a ball" and that the basketball stars should "shut up and dribble". Her comments came the week following James' interview with Cari Champion of ESPN where James spoke about his personal life as well as politics, stating that he felt statements made by the president are "laughable and scary". Ingraham characterized James' comments as  barely intelligible and "ungrammatical". Ingraham issued the following statement on the matter, obtained by TheWrap: "In 2003, I wrote a "New York Times" bestseller called 'Shut Up & Sing,' in which I criticized celebrities like the Dixie Chicks & Barbra Streisand who were trashing then-President George W. Bush. I have used a variation of that title for more than 15 years to respond to performers who sound off on politics. I've told Robert De Niro to 'Shut Up & Act,' Jimmy Kimmel to 'Shut Up & Make Us Laugh,' and just this week told the San Antonio Spurs' Gregg Popovich to 'Shut  up & Coach.' If pro athletes and entertainers want to freelance as political pundits, then they should not be surprised when they're called out for insulting politicians. There was no racial intent in my remarks – false, defamatory charges of racism are a transparent attempt to immunize entertainment and sports elites from scrutiny and criticism. Additionally, we stated on my show that these comments came from an ESPN podcast, which was not the case – the content was unaffiliated with ESPN." In 2020, when Drew Brees (a white athlete) made his own political commentary, Ingraham was criticized for reversing course and supporting  his right to free speech, something she had not supported in the earlier case with African-American athletes. Stoneman Douglas shooting comments. In March 2018, Ingraham's show was boycotted by 27 sponsors after she ridiculed David Hogg, a 17-year-old student survivor of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, for supposedly complaining about being rejected by four colleges. In response, Hogg posted a list of Ingraham's advertisers and called for a boycott, accusing her of cyberbullying. After several advertisers left the show Ingraham apologized, which Hogg dismissed as insincere. Advertising time during the show dropped by as  much as 52 percent. After Ingraham returned from a vacation following the boycott, her program earned its best ratings ever, spiking 25% in total viewers and saw an increase of 36% in the key 25–54 age group demographic. As of October 2018, companies were continuing to shun Ingraham's show despite the increased ratings. China. In August 2019, Ingraham condemned China's "brutal violation of basic human rights" and China's Xinjiang re-education camps for Muslim ethnic minority groups. Israel. Ingraham is a supporter of Israel, which she called "one of our closest allies". She criticized Ilhan Omar's  description of Israel as an apartheid regime. COVID-19 pandemic. During the coronavirus pandemic, Ingraham repeatedly pushed for the unproven drug hydroxychloroquine as treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). She characterized it as a miracle drug and booked guests on her show to promote the drug. She mocked Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Robert R. Redfield after he cautioned against the drug. After a study was released which tested the drug on 368 Veterans Affairs patients and showed that the drug was associated with an increased risk of death, she attacked the study as "shoddy", "shockingly irresponsible" and "agenda -driven". She questioned whether attempts to "disprove effectiveness" of the drug was "triggered by pure hatred of Trump? Of Fox? Of me?" On June 15, 2020, the Food and Drug Administration revoked the Emergency Approval of hydroxychloroquine (and chloroquine). FDA said that a review of some studies showed that the drugs' potential benefits in treating COVID-19 did not outweigh the risks. In May 2020, Ingraham criticized requirements that people wear face masks in public as a way to halt the spread of the coronavirus. She gave airtime to Harmeet Dhillon, a Republican operative who filed lawsuits against California to stop  the implementation of stay-at-home orders intended to halt the spread of the coronavirus. She praised her as "leading the charge to keep Gavin Newsom's power grabs in check." In October 2020, Ingraham and her guest Victor Davis Hanson spread misinformation about New Zealand's response to the pandemic on her show. Referring to a "terrifying new response" which was months old, she called New Zealand's managed isolation facilities "camps" when they are in fact lavish hotels. Ingraham was an early media proponent of the anti-parasite drug ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19 (a use not  recommended by the FDA), and promoted a conspiracy theory that doctors and officials "vilify and dismiss and demean, and, frankly, lie about it, the effectiveness of these drugs". 2021 U.S. Capitol attack. Following the storming of the United States Capitol by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021, Ingraham was among those who advanced the conspiracy theory that people associated with antifa were responsible for the attack. She later ridiculed four members of the Capitol Police and D.C. Police, who had directly responded to the insurrection, on her show after they testified to House lawmakers on July 27, 2021. During the  storming of the Capitol Ingraham texted Trump's Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, "Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy." That same evening, during her FOX show, "Ingraham Angle", she downplayed Trump supporter involvement, stating, "They were likely not all Trump supporters. I have never seen Trump rally attendees wearing helmets, black helmets, brown helmets, black backpacks — the uniforms you saw in some of these crowd shots." Her prior text to Meadows contradicts this statement. Personal life. Ingraham attended a Baptist church until  the age of twelve, later converting to Roman Catholicism. She has studied Spanish and Russian. Ingraham has dated George Conway and Dinesh D'Souza, fellow conservatives. In April 2005, Ingraham announced that she had undergone treatment for breast cancer. She is a single parent of three children: a girl from Guatemala adopted in 2008, a boy from Russia adopted in 2009, and a second boy adopted from Russia in 2011.