Ted Cruz: 'We need to prosecute Planned Parenthood'
Republican presidential candidate on ending funding on 'Hannity'
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," July 22, 2015. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And welcome to "Hannity." Planned Parenthood is in deep, deep trouble tonight. For the second time now in two weeks, a damning undercover video has been released, this time a high-ranking doctor within the organization caught on tape allegedly negotiating the sale of aborted fetuses, a potential felony offense under federal law.
We must warn you the video is extremely graphic. It is not suitable for children. But watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What would you expect for intact tissue? What sort of compensation? What sort of...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, why don't you start by telling me what you're used to paying.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What I want to know is, what would work for you? Don't lowball it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tell me what you...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) It's been years since I've talked about compensation, so just let me figure out (INAUDIBLE) and that's fine. If it's still low (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) Lamborghini!
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) Lamborghini!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Grotesque, gruesome, unbelievable! Now, while that high- ranking Planned Parenthood doctor, quote, dreams" of turning aborted fetuses and profits into a new Lamborghini -- well, officials from both sides of the aisle in states all across the country are now opening up investigations into the nation's leading provider of abortions. So given these new incriminating developments, should Planned Parenthood lose its federal funding, some half a billion dollars a year?
Joining us now to react, author of "A Time for Truth" -- he's a 2016 GOP candidate -- Texas senator Ted Cruz. Senator, it is against the law. There are three separate laws that I see that are in question here. You're a former attorney general. Your thoughts.
SEN. TED CRUZ, R-TEXAS, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Sean, you're exactly right. This video and the one from last week are both gruesome. They show senior officials at Planned Parenthood callously, heartlessly bargaining and bartering to sell the body parts of unborn children.
They're sipping wine. They're laughing about it. This one official you just showed said she wants to sell so many body parts of unborn children, she buy her own Lamborghini!
Now, I think every American should watch these videos and just ask the question, Are these my values? Now, what should we be doing? Number one, in the course of these videos, it appears both of these officials are admitting to multiple felonies, both federal felonies and state and local felonies. If the Department of Justice wasn't a partisan arm of the DNC, it should open an investigation, prosecute these individuals and Planned Parenthood as an entity.
Thankfully, there are state and local attorneys general and DAs that are opening investigations. We need to prosecute Planned Parenthood, and also we need to cut off every penny of taxpayer funding. I'm leading the fight in the Senate to do exactly that and insure that we are not funding people who are buying and selling body parts of unborn children in violation of federal criminal law!
HANNITY: Couldn't say it any better, Senator. I agree wholeheartedly. The president now is going to -- plans to release thousands of violent felons on an unsuspecting public. Now, there was testimony yesterday about these sanctuary cities. The Steinle case was only the tip of the iceberg, family members talking about how their loved ones, one after the other, killed by illegal immigrants.
You took on the director of ICE about the number of illegal immigrants released without charges. I want to roll that tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You asked me, I thought, about 2014. That is 30,558. And the good news is at least that went down from 2013, when it was 36,700.
CRUZ: But you're omitting the 68,000 criminal illegal aliens that ICE did not begin deportation proceedings against at all. And you got to add both of those together. It's over 100,000.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And yes, sir, that's absolutely right, all done pursuant to this statute that the Congress has outlined.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Senator, murders are being committed! These are known criminals! Felonies! And if they do leave, they can cross right over the border as in the case of Steinle, Kate Steinle. What can be done, and how quickly could it be done?
CRUZ: You are absolutely right. The hearing we had yesterday in the Senate Judiciary Committee, we heard from the families, from mothers and fathers and brothers and wives of those murdered by criminal illegal aliens that the Obama administration has released into the public.
As that exchange just showed, in 2013 alone, the Obama administration released 104,000 criminal illegal alien! That included 193 murderers, illegal aliens with homicide convictions. It included over 400 illegal aliens with sexual assault convictions. It included over 16,000 with drunk driving convictions.
The Obama administration is refusing to enforce the law! And it is unjustifiable. And as I said at that hearing, if President Obama had the courage of his convictions, he would have come to that hearing, he would have looked in the eyes of Kate Steinle's mother and father and he would have apologized for refusing to enforce the law and releasing murderers who kill their children!
Now, asked what can we do. Number one, I have joined with other senators in introducing legislation to strip all federal funds from any sanctuary city. San Francisco's a sanctuary city. It invites illegal aliens, including criminal illegal aliens, to come to San Francisco. We need leadership in Congress to stop that.
Secondly, I've introduced Kate's Law, which would put in place a mandatory five-year minimum for anyone convicted of illegal reentry.
You know, Sean, it's interesting. This week, the Senate is taking up the highway bill. And in the highway bill, you are seeing Republican leadership that's pressing to reauthorize the Export Import Bank, which is just corporate welfare and cronyism.
How about instead of listening to the big business and the corporate giveaways in Washington, we take up this week stopping sanctuary cities, passing Kate's Law, defunding Planned Parenthood? How about if we pass my legislation to end the congressional exemption from "Obama care"? We ought to be leading on issues that matter to he American people...
HANNITY: You know...
CRUZ: ... not giving in to the Washington cartel!
HANNITY: I love that term, "Washington cartel." You know, senator, I think I speak for a lot of conservatives in that we are frustrated. You look at the rise of Donald Trump. I would attribute a good part of it to the fact that he's straight-talking. He's iconoclastic. He's bringing in energy to the campaign, no holds barred.
You -- of all the Republicans that promised to repeal and replace "Obama care," you were the only one that stood up, and you were excoriated by the Republican Party! The same thing with executive amnesty. Every Republican said, Oh, no, elect us. Don't worry about it. We're going to - - we'll pass the cromnibus, but we're going to defund the Department of Homeland Security. The funded executive amnesty!
My question to you is, what has happened to this party? Why are they timid and weak and afraid? And why go after you when you're doing the very thing that they also promised to do?
CRUZ: Well, Sean, the fundamental problem is far too many of them are listening to the lobbyists and special interests in Washington. As you mentioned, I have a new book, "A Time for Truth," that has become a New York Times best-seller. And it talks about...
HANNITY: By the way, that was nice for them to finally acknowledge it.
(LAUGHTER)
CRUZ: Well, they tried to keep it off the list the first week. It was the third best-selling book in America. It outsold 18 of the 20 books on the list, and yet The New York Times, for pretty obvious partisan reasons, didn't want it there. There was such a hue and outcry that they were forced to list it the next week.
HANNITY: Yes. What...
CRUZ: But the book, "A Time for Truth," it reveals the corruption in Washington behind closed doors, where you've got career politicians in both parties, Republicans and Democrats, that get in bed with lobbyists.
You know, what so many Americans are frustrated with is we have campaign conservatives, people who talk good on the campaign trail, but they don't follow through on what they're doing.
And I think in the 2016 Republican primary, it's all going to come down to one issue, trust. Who has been a consistent conservative, walking the walk and over and over again standing and fighting against "Obama care," against executive amnesty, against lawlessness, against the debt, defending religious liberty, defending the Constitution?
Who is leading the fight against this catastrophic Iran nuclear deal? I think that's what people are looking for is someone who will tell them the truth and do what he said he would do.
HANNITY: I want to ask you what you -- what do you make of the phenomenon or the rise of Trump in the polls? I know you recently met with him. I actually thought it was one of the funniest things I've ever saw in a presidential campaign when he did this to Lindsey Graham, who called him a jackass and started a fight, when he did this yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Didn't this guy call me, like, four years ago? Yes. He called me four years ago, three, four years ago, Lindsey Graham. I didn't even know who he was. He's, like, begging me to help him with "FOX and Friends." So I say, OK, and I'll mention your name. He said, Could you mention my name? I said, Yes, I'll -- and he gave me his number.
And I found the card! I wrote the number down. I don't know if it's the right number. Let's try it -- 202...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Tell us about the meeting. Your thoughts on his rise in the polls, as now being number one in many polls now across the country. And I'll be honest, I look at Lindsey Graham as part of the problem. He's one of the guys that won't stand up on immigration. He's one of the guys that I would say is a RINO Republican!
CRUZ: Well, look, I like Donald Trump. He's a friend of mine. He and I have sat down and visited many, many times. I think the reason why he's getting the attention he is and the support he is, is that he's bold and brash and he's willing to speak the truth. And he's taking on the Washington cartel.
And in particular, he's focusing on illegal immigration and sanctuary cities. And a great many of the candidates in 2016 for the Republican nomination have been vocal, aggressive advocates of amnesty. When we come to the first debate in a couple of weeks, I'm going to be one of the very few major candidates on that stage who has never embraced amnesty.
And I appreciate Donald's focusing on illegal immigration. It's an issue I've been fighting a long time. When Chuck Schumer had the Democrats' "gang of eight" bill, I helped lead the fight, along with Jeff Sessions, to stop amnesty.
And you know, I think it was really sad to see so many Republican 2016 candidates taking out sticks and trying to smack Donald Trump because they don't want him talking about illegal immigration and sanctuary cities.
I've refused to do so. I've been proud to defend him for focusing on illegal immigration. And I intend to follow Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment. Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican. Don't engage in character attacks. But keep the focus on policy and substance and the issues that matter to the American people.
HANNITY: I think that's a good strategy (INAUDIBLE) Oh, what do you think about what So-and-So said? I said, Go ask them. I saw your answer. I thought that was a good answer.
Senator, good to see you. We'll see you on the campaign. Looking forward to that debate. Appreciate you being with us.
CRUZ: Thank you, Sean. God bless you.
HANNITY: All right, God bless.
And coming up, we'll have more on Planned Parenthood and that controversy and more tape. Also, an exclusive interview, the person that went undercover for that video coming up next.
And then later, newly released audio of Baltimore police scanners proves, in fact, that the officers were told to stand down as we reported back in April while the -- while literally being attacked by rioters. We'll check in with Geraldo Rivera, also Senator Rand Paul straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." So the sale of aborted fetuses by Planned Parenthood may not only be the only (sic) wrongdoing uncovered by the Center for Medical Progress. In fact, a high-ranking Planned Parenthood doctor was also caught on tape discussing her potential compliance with some pretty unethical practices involving patients receiving abortions.
Now, please be advised that the video we're showing is extremely graphic. It's disturbing. You don't want your children watching. Ready? Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) our usual technique is suction at 10, 12 weeks and we switch to using (INAUDIBLE) something (INAUDIBLE) increase the odds that we'll come out with an intact specimen, then we'll (INAUDIBLE) weighing the protocol that says to the patient, We're not doing anything different in our care.
To me, that's a kind of (INAUDIBLE) I wouldn't object to asking (INAUDIBLE) to use an ipas (ph) (INAUDIBLE) increase the odds that he was going to get an intact specimen. But I do need to throw it out there and the concern because the patient is signing something, and we're singing something saying we're not changing anything in the way we're managing you just because you agree to give tissue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Pretty grotesque.
Joining me now, the man behind the new campaign that's exposing Planned Parenthood's unethical behavior. From the Center for Medical Progress, David Daleiden is with us. How are you, sir?
DAVID DALEIDEN, CENTER FOR MEDICAL PROGRESS: I'm doing pretty good, Sean. How are you?
HANNITY: All right, I mean, I watch this -- not only in both tapes are they basically saying, Well, the law is up to interpretation, and they pretty much are acknowledging that they know it's against the law. Then they're quibbling over prices. Then they're talking about wanting to buy Lamborghinis. Then they're talking about how they do it so that they don't ruin the specimens and crushing this part of the baby and not that part of the baby.
Walk us through the history of how you got into this and what your take is.
DALEIDEN: Sure. So for the past two-and-a-half years, the Center for Medical Progress conducted a long-term in-depth comprehensive investigative journalism study of how exactly Planned Parenthood harvests and sells the body parts from the babies that they abort. And this is something that Planned Parenthood has been doing for decades at this point.
It's something that by their own admission in their press statements for the past week that their top-level leadership supports and knows is going on. They've admitted that they harvest the specimens. And they've admitted that they receive payment for it in exchange for those specimens.
Really, the only bone of contention that's left is whether or not they receive a financial benefit from those payments and exactly how much the profit is. But as you can start to see in the video that we released yesterday, Dr. Gatter, the president of Planned Parenthood's medical directors counsel, admits that they really don't have any costs and don't have to do anything when they harvest the specimens. So the money that they're getting is straight-up profit to their bottom line.
HANNITY: All right, now, their claim at Planned Parenthood is that, Oh, this is all heavily edited. Explain the context of each tape that you released and how long you had taped them. And are there more tapes coming out?
DALEIDEN: Sure. So for the two summary videos that we've released so far, the full, unedited footage of those conversations has been available on our YouTube channel from the very beginning. So the public can judge for themselves the accuracy of the -- of the summaries that we put up of just the highlights.
Ultimately, these are, you know, one to three-and-a-half-hour-long conversations. So again, you know, it's all very interesting. And frankly, there's information in there that we have to leave out for time reasons that I think just continues to confirm our case.
So the full conversations are up there, and everybody can look at those and get more information.
HANNITY: Well, I didn't see anything from what I've read and what I saw that it was taken out of context. This was in the proper context that you released it. It wasn't -- you know, if you're releasing the full tape, as you said, everyone can watch it if they want to spend the time. How many hours total did you tape?
DALEIDEN: We probably have -- we probably have hundreds to even thousands of hours total of videotape over the past two-and-a-half years., Of the really, really shocking, compelling stuff, we've probably got dozens upon dozens of hours. And that will continue to be released in the days and months to come.
HANNITY: Now, so we're going to see tape after tape after tape as bad as the two that we've already seen or worse?
DALEIDEN: Exactly. Even worse.
HANNITY: All right, so let's talk about the funding. You know, half a billion dollars a year, taxpayer dollars, it's now -- we've got what, three separate investigations, seven separate states looking into Planned Parenthood. Ultimately, what would you like to have happen?
DALEIDEN: You know, ultimately, I think that the public is seeing this information and the public is pretty outraged. There's already over 2.5 million YouTube views on the first video that we posted last week, and the second one is starting to climb up there.
People are responding with a lot of shock and a lot of disgust at the fact that Planned Parenthood is harvesting and selling the body parts from aborted babies and doing so all the way with half a billion taxpayer dollars every single year.
So there needs to be an immediate moratorium on all of Planned Parenthood's public funding. And then there needs -- and that needs to be pending the results of the three congressional investigations and the multiple -- I think there might be eight now state investigations that are going on.
HANNITY: It's against the law to harvest organs this way. It's against the law to perform abortion specifically designed to protect the lungs, the heart or the liver. Do you expect by the time all is said and done that there's going to be indictments of some of these people?
DALEIDEN: I certainly hope that Planned Parenthood is held accountable to every single law that they're breaking in the course of this kind of -- this kind of activity, these real atrocities against humanity of selling the body parts and using partial-birth abortions to do so.
And I think that their top-level people, their medical directors, their executives both at the national level and all across the country are going to have a lot of explaining to do once everything is said and done.
HANNITY: Explain your motivation. Why did you decide to undertake this investigative report on Planned Parenthood?
DALEIDEN: You know, we did this because Planned Parenthood has been harvesting and selling the body parts from the abortions that they commit for decades now, and no one has held them accountable. They've held themselves above the law. And this is something that is offensive to the American public. It's offensive to us as human beings. It violates human dignity and it needs to stop.
HANNITY: All right. It's grotesque. It's gruesome. And I'm glad that you were able to expose this. We'll be waiting for the next tapes to be revealed. Thank you, sir, for being with us.
DALEIDEN: Thank you, Sean.
HANNITY: And coming up, you'll hear from a former Planned Parenthood clinic director who actually carried out the organization's controversial fetal tissue practices. She's now helping others leave that industry.
And later tonight...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need a medic! (INAUDIBLE) officer down! Need a medic!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need the air. Liberty Heights, hold the line. Do not go forward and do not chase them!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Newly released audio of Baltimore police scanners now prove the officers were, in fact, told to stand down back in April while being attacked by rioters. Geraldo Rivera was on the ground during the riots. He is with us later tonight, and much more.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." Now, while the undercover Planned Parenthood videos allegedly showing officials trying to sell the parts of aborted fetuses are causing shock and outrage, well, they don't come as a surprise to a former Planned Parenthood clinic director whose duties included sorting and then shipping out fetal tissue and organs.
Joining me now, Abby Johnson. She worked at a Planned Parenthood clinic for eight years, but she quit after seeing an ultrasound-guided abortion. She now runs and organization that helps abortion clinic employees leave that industry.
Abby, thank you for being with us.
ABBY JOHNSON, FMR. PLANNED PARENTHOOD DIRECTOR: Thank you, Sean.
HANNITY: So these videos are 100 percent accurate. They -- Planned Parenthood has been purposefully using ultrasound, et cetera, to preserve livers, hearts, lungs so that they can sell them, correct? You saw this?
JOHNSON: Absolutely.
HANNITY: Tell us what you saw.
JOHNSON: Absolutely and it's a big business. Planned Parenthood is harvesting these organs, this tissue, as early as seven and eight weeks gestation at a lot of their abortion facilities across the country. They are packaging them. They are shipping them off to sometimes companies that act as middlemen, sometimes directly to the research labs. And they're getting paid a pretty good price for each specimen that they send out.
HANNITY: Do they tell the women who are having these abortions what they're doing with this material?
JOHNSON: You know, they do, by and large. And I can only speak at my affiliate and what I experienced. But we did consent our patients.
But the interesting thing is that I think it almost soothed the conscience of the woman. So you know, we would talk to them and say, You know, this is an opportunity for you to give back by donating the fetal tissue to research. It could potentially save the lives of other people. And so...
HANNITY: So in other words...
JOHNSON: ... this was an opportunity for them to say, Oh, well, this is sort of a false sense of altruism. They're giving back through their abortions.
HANNITY: Would you say -- and I don't want to put words in your mouth. Are they manipulating these women? In other words, are they couching it in such a way that it's very different from the reality of what's happening?
JOHNSON: Well, they're certainly not telling women that, you know, we're going to pick through the body parts that are removed from your uterus and we're going to pick out the best organs, the ones that we can get the most money for, and ship them off.
They are, you know, talking to these women about the life-saving efforts that these research studies could have, when that may not be true at all.
HANNITY: All right, can -- it's so grotesque and so unbelievable to me. What are they doing with them? Where are they shipping them to? And how late in a woman's pregnancy -- these are second-term abortions, as well? In other words, are they being used for transplant in some cases?
JOHNSON: You know, we don't ever know what they're being used for, as the abortion provider. We are just told that the tissue is being used for different research studies. Sometimes we ship them to a middleman. Sometimes we ship them directly...
HANNITY: Wow.
JOHNSON: ... to the research department.
HANNITY: All right, Abby. Thank you for telling us the truth in your story. It's going to be very interesting to watch what happens.
Here with reaction, the president of Live Action, Lila Rose, and FOX News contributor Tamara Holder.
This isn't an abortion debate that I want to get into with you. There is a legal side of this. Harvesting organs, fetal tissue like this, is illegal! So there's laws that have been broken. They're caught on tape breaking the laws and admitting they're breaking...
TAMARA HOLDER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: No. Sean...
HANNITY: Here's my question.
HOLDER: That's not true.
HANNITY: Do you not -- do you not find what they're saying on those tapes as they eat their salad and drink their wine -- do you not find that grotesque and gruesome?
HOLDER: I think that the conversation is definitely gross, especially over a meal. But this isn't about good and bad conversation. This is about the law. And as far as I can tell, the law is not being broken.
And sure, there should be a criminal investigation if there's any sign that Planned Parenthood is violating the law. But the law specifically says that they can donate fetal matter...
HANNITY: They're selling it for Lamborghinis!
HOLDER: No, no. They...
HANNITY: No, no, no! The girl on the tape said she wants to buy a Lamborghini!
HOLDER: And she apologized for that. And again...
HANNITY: Apologize?
HOLDER: ... I am not defending...
HANNITY: I apologize for selling cocaine or heroin. It's not going to work! It's a law that's broken! Lila?
LILA ROSE, PRESIDENT OF LIVE ACTION: There are three federal statutes that are being broken here, three. First of all, selling the body parts of babies and getting profit for them. Even Stem Express, the company that's selling in California, advertises to Planned Parenthood and is marked off by Planned Parenthood (INAUDIBLE) saying that this is financially profitable for your clinics.
Number two, they're using partial-birth abortions to do this. Dr. Deborah Nucatola, their senior medical director, says this herself! She admits it herself! The late-term...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Let her finish!
ROSE: Number three, Tamara, as a lawyer, this is something you need to study because...
HOLDER: Right. Right.
(CROSSTALK)
ROSE: She's manipulating the abortion procedure. They're manipulating they abortion procedure without the woman's consent or knowledge in order to better harvest the organs of the baby that they're going to be...
HANNITY: When they crush this part but not that part.
HOLDER: Sean, your words "crushing" --
HANNITY: That was on the tape.
HOLDER: We can get --
ROSE: Those are the words of the abortionist.
HOLDER: OK, we can get everybody worked up about the tape. The law is, because you are not a lawyer, unfortunately, the law --
ROSE: Have you read the federal statute, the three federal statutes that these videos prove that Planned Parenthood is violating?
HOLDER: The partial video, the bits and pieces of the video, or the entire video.
HANNITY: The entire video. They are admitting on tape the law is up for interpretation. They're admitting it.
HOLDER: Sean, it is not illegal to donate body parts.
HANNITY: It's illegal what they are doing.
(CROSSTALK)
HOLDER: That is her -- she's not a prosecutor.
HANNITY: She's explaining it accurately.
HOLDER: She's a pro-lifer who believes abortion is illegal, period.
(CROSSTALK)
ROSE: Have you read the federal statutes that prohibits abortionists from manipulating the abortion procedure as both of the videos have two different abortionists admitting to doing this, manipulating the abortion procedure to deliver a, quote-unquote, "intact specimen" in the words of the abortionist Dr. Mary Gatter in the last video, in order to better harvest those part. In the video you have Dr. Deborah Nucatola admitting to practicing partial birth abortions, which are illegal at a federal level. This is even beyond the selling and the buying of body parts. This is abuse upon abuse.
HANNITY: Here's my question to you. You admit it's grotesque. You admit it's disgusting. Now my question to you is why should we give them a half a billion dollars of taxpayer money every year? Why? Why should we give them a cent when they are clearly talking about crushing this part of the body, not crushing that part of the body, preserving it, selling it so you can buy Lamborghinis.
HOLDER: Why should you take away their money, Sean? Because --
HANNITY: Because we're broke as a country --
HOLDER: Because you have an opinion that they are committing a crime, which there is no proof whatsoever.
ROSE: Give the money to someone better. Give them to --
HANNITY: I have an idea.
ROSE: Give them to people who actually care.
HANNITY: You and your liberal friends --
HOLDER: You care because you believe that abortion is illegal. I am a lawyer who believes that the law of the land --
HANNITY: I got to break. But here's my last point to you. You and your liberal friends, you guys --
HOLDER: It's not about being liberal.
HANNITY: You can raise all the money you want, and stop taking it from hard working Americans who find the crushing of body parts --
(CROSSTALK)
ROSE: Even Democrats are speaking out. Bernie Sanders is calling this extremely wrong.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: I pay more than my fair share, Tamara. Every single solitary cent I owe.
HOLDER: There are laws that allow you to use them for tax exempt organizations.
HANNITY: I don't use them. I don't use them. But we got to leave. Thank you both.
Coming up next, tonight, here on "Hannity."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need a medic at Liberty High School now. Officer down. I need a medic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need the air. Liberty Heights. Hold the line. Do not go forward and do not chase them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Newly released police audio during the Baltimore riots back in April proves that cops were told to stand down and not confront the rioters. Coming up next, Geraldo Rivera will weigh in.
And then later, 2016 Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul is here. He wants to know whether you want to burn the tax code or put it in a wood chipper. You get to vote, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." On April the 27th the city of Baltimore erupted into violent protests over the death of Freddie Gray. And despite the best efforts of local police to bring order, many of the officers suggested that their hands were tied because they were told not to engage with the rioters, in other words, to stand down. Yesterday audio was released of police radio transmissions from that day that seems to corroborate all of this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Listen, helmets on now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're in that alley to the south of the unit. They're busting up cinder blocks over there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got no shields.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Objects are being thrown at the barricade. They are starting to deteriorate the glass.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need shields down here. We're getting creamed. We need help down here. We're getting destroyed with these rocks and stuff.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was a brick. I got glass in my eye.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Officers are down. Can we have the -- mace?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have one female officer injured. She's sustained a head injury, and is in and out of consciousness.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Joining us now Fox News senior correspondent Geraldo Rivera. Everything we were told and reported corroborated by that tape. They let those guys hang out to dry.
GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: It was amateur hour to begin with. You had an incompetent mayor. And the police chief didn't know which way to go. He was torn between his officers, his loyalty to the rank and file, and the orders he was getting from city hall.
Then you had a power structure that was being politically correct. They sided, it seemed to me, with those who were protesting and rioting and destroying rather than the shopkeepers, rather than the people whose lives, whose very lives were being burned up right in front of them. Now the tapes corroborate all of FOX News' reporting. Now the people, the citizen of the Westside of Baltimore and in the state of Maryland can see how utterly they were let down by their public officials.
HANNITY: It's pretty unbelievable. And you were dead on. Your reporting was accurate. These cops were left to hang out to dry. People's businesses were ruined. They're never going to get their money back. It's unbelievable.
I want to go to your friend, Donald Trump. I think what he did with Lindsey Graham was brilliant. Let me show you what -- he gave out Lindsey Graham's cell phone number. This is great. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Didn't this guy call me like four years ago? Yes. He called me four years ago, three, four years ago. Lindsey Graham, I didn't know who he was. He's begging me to help him with "FOX and Friends." So I say, OK, and I'll mention your name. He said could you mention my name. And he gave me his number. And I found the card. I wrote the number down. I don't know if it's the right number. Let's try it -- 202.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: I think that is the funniest thing I've ever seen in a presidential campaign.
RIVERA: I totally relate to Donald Trump in the sense that both of us are like junkyard dogs. You can kick us, but you push you're going to get pushed back. And people understand that. And I think it has in a sense muted some of the criticism against Trump, until there becomes critical mass.
In the scandal about the POW's, there was critical mass. In other words, one guy can't take on the big bully, but if everybody feels the same, everybody comes together and they come on our pack, we can snarl at this guy.
HANNITY: Here's the reality, he withstood all of that. And here's the bottom line -- he's right on immigration. Our borders are not secure and people are dying. Look at all the families that testified this week about sanctuary cities and their loved ones killed by illegal immigrants. Secondly --
RIVERA: Let me -- I'm going agree. Before I get to vets let me deal with the border. I think you're absolutely right. It's the potency of the immigration issue that ultimately saved Donald Trump from the POW controversy. That on an ordinary mortal would have finished their political ascendancy. I think that you would agree with that. It was such a huge error in judgment. But the --
HANNITY: But the Lindsey Graham thing was funny.
RIVERA: Rather than responding to the POW's, what Donald Trump did, and it's brilliant -- immigration, immigration, immigration, so the people who for whom that is the prime issue then start saying, well, the POW's he'll explain that eventually. He's our guy on this issue, on the immigration issue. Therefore we will cut him some slack. What I don't know, Sean, and nor does anyone, is how in the big picture, how much of his generalized or potential support was eroded by the POW flack as opposed to the 25 percent of the GOP electorate for whom immigration is the --
HANNITY: How many unforced errors -- in other words, I just think what he did with Graham was funny. It was clever. It made me laugh.
RIVERA: As long as you laugh, as long as he's not too snarly.
HANNITY: Before we leave, I want to show everybody your glasses. Put your glasses on.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: We have the over here.
RIVERA: I forgot my glasses over here. I asked if I could wear these.
HANNITY: You're Geraldo. You can do whatever you want.
RIVERA: Thank you.
HANNITY: And coming up next right here tonight on "Hannity."
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HANNITY: Chainsaw, wood chipper, burn it, I think I'm leaning wood chipper. Anyway, that was 2016 Republican presidential candidate Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. He's taking on the tax code. He'll explain next.
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HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." In the wake of the incredibly disturbing videos allegedly exposing Planned Parenthood for selling parts of aborted fetuses, earlier today my next guest introduced an amendment to end taxpayer funding of this organization.
Joining us now, author of "Taking a Stand, Moving Beyond Partisan Politics to Unite America," 2016 Republican presidential candidate, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. Senator, we have given them over half a billion dollars a year for the last four years. One has to wonder, with all the debt we have can we not better spend our money?
SEN. RAND PAUL, R-KY., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, above and beyond the gruesomeness of selling body parts, there's another reason to oppose giving money to Planned Parenthood. Everything they do is done by community health centers. We've given billions and billions of dollars to community health centers which do everything that Planned Parenthood does, except they don't do abortions. So really the taxpayer money is for abortions. There's absolutely no reason to give money to Planned Parenthood unless you want taxpayer funding of abortions.
And now apparently they're also involved in the sale of body parts. And so this is gruesome, and I hope will wake up a lot of people, because I know people who say, oh, I'm kind of pro-choice, but they're not for selling body parts. They're not for trying to extract a fetus in a way that we can keep part of the baby and not crush part of the organs. So this is very upsetting to a lot of people, and I think even a lot of pro- choice people are going to wonder, really, why are we giving money to Planned Parenthood?
HANNITY: Let me talk about the state of the 2015 GOP race. Obviously the surge of Donald Trump, his messages is resonating on immigration, the treatment of veterans. What do you make of his rise? What do you make of him in the Republican Party, in the debates, et cetera? Some people are very critical of him like Governor Rick Perry. What are your thoughts?
PAUL: I think what you're going to find with so many candidates that little bitty tweaks up and down seem to be bigger than they actually are. And I think you'll find that as the other candidates, myself included, get our message out there, that there is going to be a lot of shifting of the vote.
One of the things that we're excited about is when you poll my candidacy against Hillary Clinton, we actually lead Hillary Clinton in five states won by President Obama. So there is some good news to spread around if you know where to look for it.
HANNITY: You put out an ad that actually cracked me up, you using a shredder. "I'm Rand Paul. I'm trying to kill the tax code, all 70,000 pages of it." Let's show the tape.
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PAUL: Hey, I'm Rand Paul, and I'm trying to kill the tax code, all 70,000 pages of it.
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HANNITY: I think I choose all three. Great way to get the message out. I'd love to see the tax code changed. What would you like to do with it?
PAUL: You know, we looked at the code, and it's so complicated. It's 70,000 pages, and really we think the tax code is chasing American jobs overseas, chasing American companies overseas. Just last year Burger King reincorporated in Canada. Several dozen companies have reincorporated in Europe.
Wouldn't it be great if we had a low flat rate, 14.5 percent, fill out your tax return on one page, maybe we would see the opposite. Maybe companies would want to come to America and people would want to relocate and bring their money here because America would be the best place to do business. And right now, it's not because we've been chasing people away. We say eliminate the whole tax code. I like the chain saw best myself. But eliminate the whole tax code and replace it with a one page tax return, 14.5 percent for individuals and 14.5 percent for businesses.
HANNITY: I'm pretty sure that Obama is going to get this horrible Iranian nuclear deal. Where do you think it stands now?
PAUL: I voted for sanctions because I wanted to drive them to the table. I've always wanted negotiations as being preferable to war. But I've always wanted a good deal. And I think given Iran's duplicity and their lack of trustworthiness with regard international agreements, I think we need proof of compliance, proof of consistent compliance, before we would release the sanctions.
So had I been in charge I would have negotiated I think from a position of strength and I would have said, look, we'll negotiate, but the only way we'll take off sanctions is very gradually over a several year period as we see proof of compliance. And I think taking them off simultaneous at the beginning is a mistake.
HANNITY: All right, Senator, thank you for being with us, appreciate your help.
And coming up, we need your help, very important "Question of the Day" is next, straight ahead.
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HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." Time for tonight "Question of the Day." According to federal law, it is illegal to buy and sell fetal tissue in the United States. That leads us to tonight's question -- should Planned Parenthood or those that work for Planned Parenthood face charges for allegedly selling the body parts of aborted fetuses as you saw in these videotapes? Go to Facebook.com/SeanHannity, @SeanHannity on Twitter and let us know what you think.
That's all the time we have let this evening. We hope you'll set your DVR so you never miss an episode because we miss you if you're not here. Thanks for being with us. We'll see you back here tomorrow night.
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