Newt Gingrich calls for US Muslims to identify radicals
Former speaker of the House goes on 'Hannity' to discuss worldwide problem of Islamic supremacists
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," December 10, 2015. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And welcome to "Hannity." And tonight, Donald Trump is soaring in the polls. Now, according to the latest national CBS News/New York Times poll, Donald Trump is leading the Republican field with 35 percent of the vote, 19 points ahead of his closest opponent. And that's Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
And in the all-important primary state of South Carolina, a brand-new Fox News poll is also showing Trump garnering 35 percent of the vote, with a similar commanding 20-point lead over his rivals.
Now, despite the showing of Trump, while the RNC loyalty pledge and all that and leading in every poll, Donald Trump once again hinting that he might think about running third party if he is not treated with respect. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DON LEMON, CNN: Are you going to break this pledge?
DONALD TRUMP, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it's highly unlikely unless they break the pledge to me because it's a two-way street.
LEMON: What does that mean?
TRUMP: They said they would be honorable. So far, I can't tell you if they are. But the establishment is not exactly being very good to me. If they don't treat me with a certain amount of decorum and respect, if they don't treat me as the front-runner, by far the front-runner, if the playing field is not level, then certainly, all options are open. But that's nothing that I want to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Joining us now, author of the brand-new book -- it's a novel, it's called "Duplicity" -- former Speaker of the House, Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich.
You know, it's interesting how this loyalty pledge seems to work one way. Everybody wanted Donald Trump to sign onto it. He did. And then you have people like Lindsey Graham, who is, like, at zero percent nationally, 2 percent in his home state of South Carolina, telling -- we should tell Donald Trump to go straight to hell. I kind of understand a little bit how he's feeling. Your reaction to that.
(LAUGHTER)
NEWT GINGRICH, FMR. HOUSE SPEAKER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think you see a lot of frustration and you see a lot of fear. I think that for people who are based in the Washington establishment, the idea of Trump as a potential nominee's almost unthinkable.
And I think that's what you're seeing reflected. I think what Trump is saying is, Look -- if this thing falls apart, they could turn him into Goldwater. He could end up being a nominee who doesn't do very well because the party fragments and shatters.
And I think his view is that that's not why he's running. I think Trump has actually come to believe that he could actually be president, and I think that's not where he started back in January. He started, I think, sort to see whether or not this would all work. But now it's changing.
And I think one of his points is valid, that is, if you are the front- runner for six or seven months and you're the front-runner in national surveys by 20 points, and you have the scale of resources he has, you at least deserve some level of respect, even if people disagree with specific ideas and you can have an argument about the specific ideas. And I think this is going to be a very complicated period for the Republican Party.
HANNITY: You know, every Republican was so quick to condemn him. We have some poll numbers in. In Fox's own South Carolina poll -- well, it's a four-day average -- two of the days were after he made the remarks, and his poll numbers went up 8 points.
Rasmussen, a plurality of likely voters favor Trump's position on a temporary moratorium. Survey USA of Central Valley in California and San Diego, a majority there also agree with Trump's proposal, and they voted for Obama in the last election over Mitt Romney.
So obviously, Washington views this one way and the American people are viewing it another way. What's your reaction?
GINGRICH: Well, look -- well, part of this whole story is that the country increasingly believes that Washington is an island of incompetence and corruption that is weakening the entire country.
And so you look, for example, at the continuing to unfold story of these two terrorists in southern California. You start learning that they were apparently looking at shooting up the local high school as part of what they were doing.
You learn that the -- it was not at all what we were told last week. She was not the initial radical. The husband was the initial radical, and he was planning to kill people as early as 2012.
Now, there's a story that I think is breaking tonight that, in fact, at one point, the counterterrorism people were looking at him...
HANNITY: That's correct.
GINGRICH: ... and they were told specifically not to look at him because of political interference on behalf of Muslim groups that, you know, scream -- and then when you approach things -- somebody's got to at some point, you know, raise the flag here and say, Wait a second, you cannot interfere with law enforcement on behalf of some kind of phony protection.
HANNITY: This was an intelligence failure once again. There's no doubt about that at this point. We have enough information. They've been radicalized for years.
Let me go to the Winthrop University poll, and this is of South Carolinians. And it shows that some 67 percent support the idea that the government should conduct surveillance on Muslim mosques. That same poll, Should the government create a database of all Muslims in the U.S., 48 percent say yes. Now, I'm not saying whether I agree or disagree. I'm just giving you opinions.
Look what Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, a Democrat, said about the percentage of Muslims that would use terrorism to advance the caliphate. Let's roll this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. LORETTA SANCHEZ, D-CALIF.: We know that there is a small group -- and we don't know how big that is. That can be anywhere between 5 percent and 20 percent, from the people that I speak to -- that Islam is their religion and who have a desire for a caliphate and to institute that in any way possible, and in particular, go after what they consider Western norms, our way of life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: 1.6 billion Muslims, 5 percent, the low number -- this is a Democratic congresswoman saying this, between 5 percent and 20 percent. Doesn't that raise legitimate questions if we can't vet people coming in to this country that may have that mentality, that we've got to secure the homeland first?
GINGRICH: Look -- well, look, it's deeper than that. First of all, there are people already in the United States and people who are American citizens. Remember, the husband was an American citizen, born in Indiana. He's not an immigrant. Yet somehow, he became isolated from American civilization and became a mortal enemy of American civilization.
I'm trying to get Congress to hold hearings to go into the very heart of this. We don't need an authorization for ISIS. We need an authorization for a worldwide war with Islamic supremacists, including in the United States. And we need to be very tough-minded.
And my message to those Muslims who are concerned about hysteria is simple. You have an obligation to help clear out the mosques that are radical. You have an obligation to help turn in people who are planning terrorism. We need the help of every Muslim who would like to be accepted as an American to isolate and identify the terrorists.
And I think that what we've gotten instead is the opposite. We've had these organized groups that are trying to tell us to shut up, not talk about it, don't have the FBI look at it. And I think that's exactly wrong.
HANNITY: Well, five percent would be 60 million. That's the low side of what Loretta Sanchez is talking about.
GINGRICH: Right.
HANNITY: (INAUDIBLE) talking about 240 million. That's a lot of radicalized people.
GINGRICH: The percentage -- the percentage I was given of the recruiting pool in December of 2001 by the CIA was 3 percent to 5 percent, which at that time was 39 million to 65 million. We have never under Bush and never under Obama had a serious strategy for dealing with this scale of insurgency and this scale of religiously inspired worldwide Internet-based activity.
HANNITY: I have argued on this program that if Donald Trump would have cited James Clapper, our director of national intelligence, our assistant FBI director Steinbeck (ph), James Comey, for example, any of these -- General John Allen, who's the special envoy in charge of defeating ISIS -- if he would have quoted their warnings, their admonitions about ISIS infiltrating the refugee population, I don't think it would be as controversial.
I want to play these comments for you and ask you if you think that this is a good idea in light of what our intelligence officials are saying. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In Syria, the lack of our footprint on the ground in Syria that the databases won't have the information we need. So it's not that we have a lack of process, it's there's a lack of information.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that obviously raises a grave concern as to being able to do proper background checks with the individuals coming into the country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't, obviously, put it past the likes of ISIL to infiltrate operatives among these refugees.
JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: We can only query against that which we have collected. And so if someone has never made a ripple in the pond in Syria in a way that would get their identity or their interests reflected in our database, we can query our database until the cows come home, but we're not going to -- there'll be nothing show up because we have no record on that person.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We should be conscious of the potential that Daesh may attempt to embed agents within that population.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee has said ISIS does have a plan to infiltrate the refugee population. And it happened in Paris. In light of that, if Donald Trump just said it differently and cited these officials, do you think this would even be an issue?
GINGRICH: Oh, of course it would be an issue because you have people on the left who refuse to believe any of this. And you have The New York Times and you have all sorts of elites who are saying, Oh, that's terrible, how can you say it?
But I think you're pointing your finger on the key turning point for the Trump campaign. He's now big enough and he's been around long enough as a candidate that he has to move up his game to being a presidential- level game.
What you just cited, had he put all that together and made that the forerunner to what he was going to say, you'd have had a totally different impact and a totally different effect. And he's going to have to learn, I think, to operate at that level if he's going to actually mature into being a nominee and a potentially serious candidate for president.
HANNITY: Do you think he can go all the way?
GINGRICH: Look, I think we're in a wide-open country, where who knows what's going to happen? I mean, you've got -- you've got have Rahm Emanuel now down to 18 percent approval, with people demanding that he resign. You have Hillary Clinton burdened down by all of these ethics problems and e- mail problems and you name it.
We're in a different world. And I think it's very possible that you could end up with Trump going all way.
HANNITY: All right...
GINGRICH: I think it's also possible that he won't get the nomination.
HANNITY: All right, so all the establishment Republicans -- Lindsey Graham saying to Donald Trump he can go straight to hell, and he can't even get 1 percent of the vote nationally, and they all make the prediction, Oh, Donald Trump can't win in a general election -- well, if he was so easy to beat, why aren't they doing better against him?
GINGRICH: Well, I think what you have is a situation where the country is dramatically alienated from the establishment. The country really wants somebody who's very tough. They want somebody who's going to kick in the door.
Now, that may only be 40 or 45 percent of the Republican Party, but that may be a big enough base to win the nomination. And then the question gets to be, you know, do you want to pull together as a team and try to win this thing, or do you want to turn Trump into Goldwater and have everybody pile on and try to beat him, in which case I suspect that he has a lot of options that people haven't thought through.
HANNITY: All right. And between Trump and Cruz, that's 51 percent. And you have a lot of people in this race that aren't showing up.
GINGRICH: Well, and then you've got to add in how Carson is doing, and now you're up into the 60s. I mean, the number of people...
HANNITY: It's amazing!
GINGRICH: ... voting for folks who are outside the establishment is the highest I've seen in my lifetime.
HANNITY: All right, Mr. Speaker, always good to see you. Thank you.
GINGRICH: Good to see you.
HANNITY: And coming up, believe it or not, a former Gitmo detainee released by Obama and the administration back in 2012 is now a leader of al Qaeda in Yemen. When is this administration -- or will they ever learn? Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani is here with reaction.
Then later tonight, Frank Luntz did an entire focus group with Donald Trump supporters. They overwhelmingly support not only his Muslim ban proposal, but everything. Frank is here tonight with the dials and more straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." Yet another released Gitmo detainee has returned to the life of terror. According to a new report, Ibraham al Kosi (ph), who worked for Usama bin Laden, is now an al Qaeda leader operating in Yemen and even appears in a new video for the terror group.
Now, the former detainee was set free in 2012 by the Obama administration. Now, while shocking, this should not come as a surprise. According to the federal government's own numbers, 30 percent of Gitmo detainees have or are suspected of returning to the battlefield after being released.
Joining us now with reaction, former New York City mayor, former U.S. attorney Rudy Giuliani. We knew everything about this guy. He admitted to being a terrorist. Why would we ever let somebody like that go?
RUDY GIULIANI, R-NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Good question, Sean. I cannot possibly answer that question. There is no reason why anyone at Gitmo should have been let go. We complained about it at the time. We predicted it at the time. We said it's a terrible mistake to do it.
The first couple that were released, a good percentage of them returned to combat, so there was a history of people returning to combat. That one third number is the best we can do. I bet it's a heck of a lot higher than that.
HANNITY: Yes.
GIULIANI: And this guy, there was an actual recommendation not to release him. There was a prediction by the prosecutor that he would return to hostilities. So that was standing right in front of the administration when they let him go.
HANNITY: This guy pled guilty to charges of conspiracy and material support for terrorism! He admitted to those things! So I would think -- you're a U.S. attorney. How long would somebody like that spend in jail?
GIULIANI: He would spend the rest of his life in jail.
HANNITY: Right.
GIULIANI: I mean, and I see nothing here where he renounced -- where he renounced his previous allegiance, where he said he wouldn't -- none of that was -- none of that was done. And there was a recommendation not to release him, and they released him anyway. This is the reason we shouldn't close down Guantanamo. In fact, we should be putting more people there.
HANNITY: Yes. Let me -- let me ask -- what do you think of Trump's proposal? I just played for Newt Gingrich, which -- just explain -- in other words...
GIULIANI: Which one? Which one?
HANNITY: The temporary ban on Muslim immigration until we can fix the vetting system, especially in light of the woman with the Pakistani passport that got by us.
GIULIANI: I think we have to be very careful about who we let in. I don't think we should let any of the refugees in. I think they should be put in a safe zone in Syria.
HANNITY: I agree with you. And we'd take care of them.
GIULIANI: But if you do a ban on all Muslims, I have no question that you violate the 1st Amendment. The reality is, if you let no one in, you could say, Well, they have no constitutional rights. But once the government sets up a system, the government cannot discriminate in a way in which it applies that system.
So the minute the government sets up an immigration system, it can't use religion as a test, or race or gender, as a basis for why someone can't come in.
HANNITY: All right, here's -- here's a tough question. If you grow up in Saudi Arabia -- and you've been to Saudi Arabia...
GIULIANI: Yes.
HANNITY: OK, but if you grow up there and you think you have the right to tell women how to dress, you have a right to tell them whether they can go to school, you as a male have the right to tell them whether they can go to work, you -- if they want to go out in public, you have to go with them, a male relative has to be with them. There's no such thing as marital rape in Saudi Arabia. If you're gay in Saudi Arabia...
GIULIANI: But we have to tell people things that are realistic. Thousands and thousands of Egyptians, people from Doha, people from Dubai, people from the Emirates -- we do business with them. They own businesses in the United States. We own businesses there. We trade oil. We trade natural gas.
People -- one of the -- one of the first -- the first -- I -- I did the security -- helped with the security for the airport in Doha. Their first direct flight was to Houston, Texas. I mean thousands and thousands of people go back and forth every month doing business between us and the Muslim world.
HANNITY: But here's my question. I'm not saying not to let Muslims in. I'm not saying that at all. I am saying that if Loretta Sanchez is right, Democratic congresswoman, and those radicalized, the percentages are between 5 and 20...
GIULIANI: Right.
HANNITY: Well, that's between 60 million and 240 million people.
GIULIANI: Right.
HANNITY: So do we have the right to set up a vetting system so that if you come...
GIULIANI: Yes. Absolutely. No question about it.
HANNITY: OK.
GIULIANI: We have a right to set up a vetting system...
HANNITY: And (INAUDIBLE)
GIULIANI: We have a right to set up a vetting system that is a lot more -- obviously, lot more accurate, a lot more intense and a lot more complete than this one. The woman involved in this attack in San Bernardino, she was vetted, and she gave a phony address and nobody went back and checked on that.
We have an absolute right to do all of that. What we don't have a right to do is to ban all Muslims. It would be...
HANNITY: But we have a right to get the vetting system right. And we could stop all immigration until we feel we are competent we can protect the American people.
GIULIANI: How can you stop a businessman that's been coming back and forth from Abu Dhabi, you know, once every month to conduct his business?
GIULIANI: So we send men to the moon and back. I think we could fix the immigration system.
GIULIANI: But you cannot -- you cannot establish a ban on all Muslims. And also, I do believe if you did that, you really would start taking that tremendous 1.7 billion population and you'd start radicalizing it a lot more if you did it. That is not -- to me, that's not a sensible proposal.
HANNITY: Let me play the president last month saying that closing Gitmo would not be a security concern because he was wrong about Paris. Before Paris, he suggested, Oh, no problem. They're contained. And of course, he said they're the JV team. And he said they're not an existential threat to America before San Bernardino.
Here's him saying closing Gitmo is not a security risk. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We can keep the American people safe while shutting down that operation. We've already reduced drastically the populations. Keep in mind that the bulk of people who were released from Guantanamo were done so under the previous administration, before I even came in. We have reduced that population further, and I expect that early by next year, we may have fewer than a hundred people at Guantanamo. We are spending millions of dollars per detainee, and it's not necessary for us to keep our people safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: No one person has been so wrong so often!
GIULIANI: That's as accurate as when he said ISIS is contained.
HANNITY: Exactly!
GIULIANI: It's as accurate as when he said ISIS is a JV team.
HANNITY: Yes. By the way, John Kerry saying that global warming is partly to blame for the Syrian refugee...
GIULIANI: Now you're drinking the Kool-aid with that one.
(LAUGHTER)
GIULIANI: But I mean, the realty is, this is the reason that people don't trust this president. I mean, he's been wrong so often. Look, the country was handed over to him safer than the country is today.
HANNITY: So everything (ph).
GIULIANI: And if you go back to the old Ronald Reagan against Jimmy Carter -- are you better off now than you were four years ago? Right now, this country is in a lot more danger than it was four years ago.
HANNITY: What do you make of the establishment being so freaked out by Ted Cruz and Donald Trump? They're the number one and two guys now in the polls.
GIULIANI: I think they don't realize how frustrated, how angry the American people are at the government...
HANNITY: How did they not figure this out by this point?
GIULIANI: ... Democrat, Republican -- well, because they won elections and they got elected, and they heard it, but it didn't really register. For the first time, it's really coming -- it's really coming to the -- to the -- to the surface.
HANNITY: You know what people should do? When you were mayor, you used to do a weekly radio show.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: And people called in.
GIULIANI: ... monthly town hall meeting. I did 96 town hall meetings.
(CROSSTALK)
GIULIANI: Only one I missed was...
HANNITY: 9/11?
GIULIANI: ... 9/11, and then I did two in December to make up for it.
HANNITY: All right, Mr. Mayor, good to see you, as always.
GIULIANI: Good to see you.
HANNITY: And Coming up -- in the wake of the deadly Paris terrorist attacks last month, French officials have now shut down three mosques with ties to extremist groups. Now, you won't believe what they uncovered in one of them. That's later.
But first -- Frank Luntz spoke with a focus group of Donald Trump supporters. They overwhelmingly support the GOP front-runner's ban in terms of Muslim ban proposal. Frank is here to explain.
And 2016 Republican presidential candidate Senator Rand Paul is here on this busy news night tonight on "Hannity."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: And welcome back to "Hannity." So as the criticism for Donald Trump's Muslim ban proposal continues to pour in, the important question is, what do the voters think? Now, pollster Frank Luntz did a focus group with Donald Trump supporters last night. He joins us along with FOX News contributor Eboni Williams.
Let me quote you, Mr. Trump (sic). "I've never seen anything like this. There is no sign of them," meaning the people in your focus group, "leaving him. He has created or found the magic formula."
So he's not going away.
FRANK LUNTZ, GOP POLLSTER: Not only is he not going away, but -- and this is going to air on "Face the Nation" on Sunday on CBS.
HANNITY: Gee, thanks. You're on another network, Frank. Thanks a lot!
(LAUGHTER)
LUNTZ: And Sean, you guys have been sharing stuff back and forth for several years now, whether you know it or not.
What we saw was remarkable, and it is time for the Republican establishment to accept the fact that Trump is not only a viable candidate, but this lead is real, his candidacy is real, this support is real.
We showed them both positive and negative, and the responses when it was over, even after showing them negative information on Trump, his support went up from when they walked in three hours earlier.
HANNITY: Do you see the same thing, Eboni?
LUNTZ: I've never seen anything like it.
EBONI WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I see it in my own family, Sean. My mother, a life-time Democrat, is absolutely in the pocket for Donald Trump.
She tells me this -- I said, Well, mother, what about some of these statements that seem a little -- I don't know? Eboni, look, this is the man that's going to save us economically, and there is nothing he could say to make me feel differently. She's exactly who Frank is talking about.
HANNITY: Let's go to when, Frank, you dialed the whole issue of his comment about a temporary Muslim ban. Let's go that dial.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We have no choice! We have no choice!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: That's a pretty strong, solid rating, Frank.
LUNTZ: Yes. And the polling is just as solid. By 3 to 1, Republicans agree with Trump's position. And I want to point out that he's been using language that's been very spicy, and the more that he does it, the more that his supporters stand up and applaud.
HANNITY: And you also found that Trump's opponents, establishment Republicans, have no sway. They can't move -- basically, their words are falling on deaf ears.
LUNTZ: And the reason why is that they don't have credibility. And this is something that those at the RNC, those in the business community -- frankly, they waited too long to make the challenge, and now they are seen by Trump voters as part of the problem, not part of the solution.
WILLIAMS: That's right.
LUNTZ: So when they attack it actually builds Trump's support.
HANNITY: Eboni?
WILLIAMS: I was going to say the same. When Paul Ryan comes out there and says what he says, which, you know, I think he thinks he's doing the far right justice, it helps Trump.
Here's the other thing. That trend we saw with Frank's polling is not unprecedented. Remember back in September when Ben Carson -- a name we're not talking about too much these days -- said that he won't support a Muslim for president? Not only did people support him, more, Sean, they poured money into his campaign in unprecedented numbers. So this is...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: ... Americans understand. Radical Islamists are at war with us. That's what the 9/11 commission report said.
All right, if you think those numbers were good, take a look at Trump going after Obama for having the -- not having the ability to identify the enemy, radical Islamists. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Look, we are having a tremendous problem with radical Islamic terrorism. (INAUDIBLE) you can say it or you don't have to say it. And we have a president that won't issue (ph) the term. He won't talk about it. So we're having this tremendous radical Islamic terrorism, OK? A lot of people don't want to even say it. Not a lot of people. We have one person that I really know of, and it's called President Obama.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Ninety, eighty-seven, Frank, huge, off the charts!
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TRUMP: -- not a lot of people. We have one person that I really know of, he's called president Obama.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: And 90, 87, Frank. Huge, off the charts.
FRANK LUNTZ, POLLSTER: Yes, and this is something Trump has done quite effectively is that he gets a line or phrase and he repeats it again and again. In this case you've got those radical Islamic terrorists and he links it to Barack Obama. Make no mistake, part of the support for Trump is that he is the most anti-Obama of any of the candidates. It's one of the reason his people embrace him.
EBONI WILLIAMS, POLITICAL STRATEGIST: Another point, Sean. When he does that it is his golden moment, because the thing that people want to hear the most -- now, Mayor Giuliani I think very acutely talked about some constitutional and real challenges to the plausibility of Trump's suggestions, but people feel like he understands the problem. And that's step number one to resonating with many of these voters.
HANNITY: Frank, one of the more interesting things, we're not going to air it here tonight, but you actually ran the negative ads and they were laughing at them. And his most incendiary tweets, they were laughing at those, too, and nothing bothered anybody in that room. Let me go to -- go ahead.
LUNTZ: I've never seen that. Sean, I've been doing this now for 20 years, and I've never seen a candidate attack someone and have people applauding his attack of his opponents.
HANNITY: I keep saying he defies conventional political gravity.
LUNTZ: Guys, he is also a celebrity. We must not forget that. He had a brand coming in to this unlike anything we've ever seen, so we can't expect people to respond to him the way that they would.
HANNITY: I think the anger and the betrayal factor is so deep that people are fed up.
Let's run this last one, Trump talking about his temperament, which if you listen to establishment Republicans they say, they say it will kill him. So far it hasn't. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think I have a great temperament. I've built a tremendous company. I built a company that's worth many, many, many billions of dollars. I did it in a relatively short period of time. I have some of the greatest real estate assets in the world, some of the greatest assets in the world. You don't do that unless you have the right temperament. I have a great temperament. I get along with Democrats, I get along with Republicans. In fact, I'll go the other side. Many of the critics said he gets along with the Democrats and he gets along with liberals. That's true. And I get along with conservatives. I get along with Republicans. I get along with everybody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: That's 90, 91, 82. Those are huge numbers.
LUNTZ: But I want to make this balanced. And I do believe that there is an instability, I do believe that there is a negativity, and that Trump in some ways provokes that by what he says and how he says it. Sean, we can disagree without being disagreeable and we don't need any more division in this country --
HANNITY: You mean like Lindsey Graham shouldn't tell Donald Trump to go to hell?
LUNTZ: Candidates should not be talking to each other that way. It is possible to sit people down at a table and have a civil conversation and disagree, fundamentally, on principle without tearing each other apart.
WILLIAMS: Frank, I agree with you. One more comment. I think the thing that people find so attractiveness about Donald is the un-afraid-ness that they see when he says that stuff, like it or not.
HANNITY: I think people can handle the truth and people like outspokenness and people like it that he is not scripted and phony and they sense a genuine guy and not a politician. All right, good to see you, Eboni. Thank you, Frank.
LUNTZ: Sean, Sean, you don't have to yell. That's the only point I would make.
HANNITY: OK. I'm not yelling! Sorry.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: And coming up, in response to the deadly Paris terrorist attacks, French authorities have now shut down three mosques with terror ties. We'll tell you what they found inside one of them. That's coming up next.
Then later, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is proposing to put a stop to immigrants coming in from over 30 countries for a period of time. He'll join us.
And then later tonight --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: That rap video has to do with tonight's "Question of the Day." That's straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ADAM HOUSLEY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Fox News alert. I'm Adam Housley. In San Bernardino, California, where FBI divers searched a lake here in town in a city park for about five hours today, they tell us they'll be back out there for at least one more day, maybe multiple days, as they look for evidence directly involved in this terror investigation. They say there is nothing in there that would threaten the public, leading us to believe it is not a weapon of any type. But there are reports it could be something digital in nature, like a hard drive or possibly a flash drive or even a cell phone.
Whatever it is, it is essential to this case, we are told, and it is important because they do believe that Syed Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik may have visited that lake directly around the time of the attack last Wednesday which killed 14 and injured now 22. It comes as we are hearing more about Enrique Marquez, the acquaintance, friends, and also married into the family of Syed Farook. We're told that he and Farook may have planned an attack in the past. His mother spoke to the media today, saying her world is upside down. Her son would never do such a thing.
For all the latest, stay with Fox. Now "Hannity."
HANNITY: And welcome back to "Hannity." Donald Trump received a lot of backlash for suggesting that he would be open to shutting down some mosques in America that have ties to terrorism. Tonight new reports out of France may silence his critics. Last week French officials closed three mosques suspected of being connected to extremist groups. In one of the mosques, according to a report, authorities seized ammunition for rifles and ISIS propaganda videos.
Here with reaction from the American-Islamic Forum for Democracy, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, America Together Foundation President Mike Ghouse, and the author of "Standing Alone," Asra Nomani is with us. Mike Ghouse, let's start with you. If we suspect that there's radicalism at a particular mosque, don't we have a right, don't we have an obligation for the safety of Americans to look into it?
MIKE GHOUSE, AMERICA TOGETHER FOUNDATION PRESIDENT: Absolutely. Safety of America is the most important thing we can do, and we can surround the mosque and hold for three days. But we cannot attack the mosque, we cannot go in without permission.
HANNITY: What do you mean we can't go in without permission? In other words, for example, the mosque is open to everybody if somebody wants to go in and take a look around, why can't they go? You can go into my church.
GHOUSE: Well, a normal church anybody can go any time. But if you have got the terrorists hiding inside it, we have to put a hold on it, block the mosque by everyone, and give them two or three days.
HANNITY: And Asra, what are your thoughts?
ASRA NOMANI, AUTHOR, "STANDING ALONE": I think we absolutely need to hold Muslim communities and mosques accountable. I brought with me here today a copy of this noble Koran that I picked up in my mosque in West Virginia. And what they have done is put forward the Saudi version of theocracy this interpretation of Islam that's really troubling and disturbing. I know, Sean, that you have been trying for many years to wake people up to this real problem that we have, and I agree that we need to wake up and we need to challenge this extremist ideology in our mosques and in our communities.
HANNITY: Dr. Jasser, I keep talking about people that grow up under sharia. It is the antithesis of American constitutional values. People should be able to come to America. We're an open place. But if you have that mindset that says you can tell women how to dress and whether they can go to school or whether they can go to work or whether they can even leave the house without a male relative, if you grow up in that mindset, it directly conflicts with the values of this country. How big a problem is that?
DR. ZUHDI JASSER, AMERICAN ISLAMIC FORUM FOR DEMOCRACY: It is very big. That's why Asra and I and so many other Muslims have started this Muslim reform movement because we see Islam in that time and history in which we need a global movement starting in America against the theocracy in which sharia is institutionalized, against apostasy laws, blasphemy laws that have so long been denied by so many leaders in our community as being a problem because we're just dealing with the terrorism.
But be care Sean in that we need to have a bigger strategy that then defines policy. If our strategy is to defeat political Islam, you defeat it by exposing it, just like you have been doing every day. But shutting down mosques moves it underground. In a country in which the KKK operates, the Nazi party operates, communist party operates, we are as successful as we are in the world globally as a free nation because we shed the light of day. Countries that push hate speech underground allow it to flourish. So we need to defeat it by empowering warriors for freedom.
HANNITY: You are three people that can go a long way in helping with that. So I thank you all for being with us, appreciate it.
NOMANI: Thank you.
HANNITY: And coming up, Senator Rand Paul introduced legislation to ban immigrants from coming in America for a period of time from over 30 countries. He joins us next to explain why he feels it is important for America's security.
And then later --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: So with all the problems the country faces, is this what you want to hear from your first lady, making rap videos? And does this prove the White House is way out of touch? Straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." In response to the rise of Islamic terrorism around the world, Senator Rand Paul recently introduced a Bill to temporarily halt immigration from over 30 countries that are known to house high numbers of radical jihadists. Earlier today the Senate Judiciary Committee approved an amendment that says individuals must not be prevented from entering America based on their religion.
Joining us now, 2016 Republican presidential candidate, Senator Rand Paul. It was a non-binding resolution, it was basically a show resolution, but a lot of Republicans supported it. I really don't see that much difference between your resolution and Trump's resolution, or proposal, except that you just name countries. So really trying to do the same thing, because I assume you're listening to James Comey and James Clapper and all the other intelligence officials that are warning we don't have a good vetting system right now.
SEN. RAND PAUL, R-KY., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes, absolutely. So I think it is a mistake to have a religious test, but I think it is also a mistake to take Hillary Clinton's position which is radical Islam is not a problem, or she is not going to name the problem. We have to know hot problem is and we have to know what their name if we are going to come at them.
My idea is that we do put a pause on immigration from about 34 countries primarily in the Middle East, and we say to ourselves, do we know who is coming into our country now. Do we know that they haven't overstayed their welcome or their visa?
Look, we were attacked by 9/11 by 19 hijackers who used legal immigration to come here. And I'm still not confident that we've fixed the problem that let those 19 hijackers in our country. HANNITY: Where is the support level? In other words I sense there is a political correctness that is dominating Washington politics these days. I think the American people showing that they think based on what the intelligence officials in this country are saying and based on what we learned about San Bernardino and based upon the House Homeland Security Chair in this program saying ISIS has a plan to infiltrate this country through the refugee population, the people in this country see things very differently than you guys in Washington. And I'm not really putting you in that group, so please don't take it personally.
PAUL: This would not be the first time the voters and people outside of Washington are smarter than the people inside of Washington. In fact I tell my compatriots travel outside of the beltway and meet people in America, because the thing is people in America would like to see more strict leads on who comes into the country.
We aren't doing anything. We have 11 million people in the country, and 40 percent of them who have come illegally, 40 percent of them came and overstayed their visa. We have no idea who they are, where they are, and we don't seem to care. But over a million people came from the Middle East in the last five years on a visa. Do we know where they are? Do we know if they were visitors or student, that they went home? We haven't got a clue.
HANNITY: I sat through a security briefing with I was with Rick Perry down at the border. Over 611,000 Texans were victims of crimes by illegal immigrants from 2008 to 14. That is a lot of crimes, including rape and murder. Those are people, citizens of our country, and citizens of the great state of Texas, victimized because we don't secure the border. I guess if it doesn't happen to me, I guess I don't have to worry about it is the mentality out there. But these are real people, real suffering, real crimes, and we're not doing anything about it.
PAUL: To put it in perspective, we spend hundreds of billions of dollars defending ourselves on the war on terrorism but we are not willing to do anything to defend our border.
And this is a real beef I have had with Marco Rubio and why I think he is weak on national defense is that he won't defend the border. I put forward I think a very common sense resolution to say we to have better vetting before we continue immigrating people from the Middle East, and I don't get any support from those who profess to be for national security.
HANNITY: Before you got support from Ted Cruz. Didn't he support you on that?
PAUL: Ted did, but the other side, the neoconservatives, Lindsey Graham, the Marco Rubios, they're all on the other side. And they want to say they're national security conservatives but they're not really willing to defend your border. And I think you've got to be able to defend your border. That's your first line of defense, you've got to be able to defend your border. And I don't think you're seriously wanting to defend your country if you don't want to defend the border.
HANNITY: I think these issues are getting bigger every day as it relates to this 2016 race. Senator, good to see you. Thank you for being with us.
PAUL: Thank you.
HANNITY: And coming up next tonight right here on "Hannity."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: We need your help. Our question of the day has to do with that video straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right, ISIS is on the rise, the Middle East is in turmoil. The western world is under constant threat from Islamic jihadists, but your first lady Michelle Obama is busy making a rap music video about going to college. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: I don't know. Maybe it's just me, but when older people try to look like they're hip and cool and young, it just doesn't work for me. Anyway, does this approve to you that the Obamas are completely out of touch? That brings us to our "Question of the Day." What do you think of the video? Just go to Twitter @SeanHannity, let us know what you think.
That is all the time we have left this evening. As always, thank you for being with us. We will see you back here tomorrow night.
Content and Programming Copyright 2015 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2015 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox