Gorka: CIA director no longer spreading Obama's narrative
'Defeating Jihad' author Dr. Sebastian Gorka weighs in on the White House's response to terror threats
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," June 16, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And welcome to "Hannity." And tonight, a top intelligence official contradicts President Obama's narrative that ISIS, the JV team, is being defeated. Now, earlier today on Capitol Hill, the CIA director, John Brennan, issued a very stern warning about the Islamic State.
Here tonight with a full report is our own Catherine Herridge -- Catherine.
CATHERINE HERRIDGE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Sean, the ISIS-inspired massacres in San Bernardino and Orlando show the terror group has brought the fight to America's shores.
On Capitol Hill, the CIA director said to expect more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BRENNAN, CIA DIRECTOR: Our efforts have not reduced the group's terrorism capability and global reach. The resources needed for terrorism are very modest, and the group would have to suffer even heavier losses on territory, manpower and money for its terrorist capacity to decline significantly.
HERRIDGE: Despite gains by the U.S.-led coalition, including the reduction of ISIS-held territory and cutting into the group's finances, the CIA director said ISIS is lashing out and seeks to exploit the refugee stream, smuggling routes and legitimate travel to get trained operatives into Western countries.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRENNAN: To compensate for territorial losses, ISIS will probably rely more on guerrilla tactics, including high-profile attacks outside the territory in Syria and Iraq that it currently holds.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HERRIDGE: The ISIS affiliate in Libya has expanded now between 5,000 and 8,000 members, and in West Africa, as many as 8,000, despite a drop in the number of foreign fighters from 25,000 to 22,000 in Iraq and Syria. The CIA director said going after their territory is the most effective strategy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRENNAN: We need to take away their safe haven because it gives them the opportunity to use these lands to train and to fight. It generates revenue not just to keep their fighters on the battlefield but also to try to support some of these terrorist operations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HERRIDGE: The committee chairman, Richard Burr, seems to speak for all Americans when he said San Bernardino and Orlando cannot be the new normal -- Sean.
HANNITY: All right, Catherine Herridge Washington tonight, thank you.
Now, instead of listening to what John Brennan and other top officials have been warning about ISIS for months -- well, the president -- he's remaining defiant. Earlier this week, he decided to lecture the Republicans about using the term "radical Islam." Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: For a while now, the main contribution some of my friends on the other side of the aisle have made in the fight against ISIL is to criticize this administration and me for not using the phrase "radical Islam." This is a political distraction.
So there's no magic to the phrase "radical Islam." It's a political talking point, it's not a strategy. If we fall into the trap of painting all Muslims with a broad brush and imply that we are at war with an entire religion, then we are doing the terrorists' work for them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Well, Mr. President, they're certainly not the JV team and they're certainly not contained, either.
Now, in stark contrast to President Obama, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is not afraid to identify the Islamic threat in the wake of the Orlando attack. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Radical Islamist terror makes no distinction between shades of infidel. This week, it was gays in Orlando. A few days before that, it was Jews in Tel Aviv. Before that, it was music fans in Paris, travelers in Brussels, Yazidis in Iraq, community workers in San Bernardino, Christians and journalists in Syria. All of us are targets. We will not be terrified into submission. We will fight back, and we will triumph.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Joining us now, the author of "Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War," the distinguished chair of military theory at Marine Corps University, Dr. Sebastian Gorka.
You know, this president was wrong almost from the get-go. It wasn't that long ago, a year-and-a-half ago, what, the JV team, before the Paris attacks, he just said days before that they were contained. But meanwhile, the attacks continue.
My question, Dr. Gorka, is this. When the American national director of intelligence, James Clapper, the FBI director, assistant FBI director, the House Homeland Security Committee chairman, the special envoy of Obama to defeat ISIS, and now the CIA director, all say that ISIS will infiltrate the refugee population like they did in Paris and Belgium, why would he allow them here?
I've been asking this question, and now his own CIA director recognizes the threat. Why will he gamble with the lives of the American people? Why does Hillary support that?
SEBASTIAN GORKA, "DEFEATING JIHAD" AUTHOR: Sean, I don't think there's a logical answer possible for your question. I think you can only understand what's going on if we reiterate that the president and his coterie at the top level live in a bubble. They manufactured this narrative that there is no such thing as jihadism. Terrorism is a product of poverty and lack of education. And they've locked themselves into that narrative.
But it's stunning. John Brennan, the CIA director, used to carry the water for the president. He used to perpetuate this narrative. Something has changed, Sean. He said not only is ISIS still globally capable, later on in his testimony, he said in his 30-plus career as -- 30-year-plus career, he has never seen the world as unstable. So what does that mean about the last seven-and-a-half years of President Obama and Hillary Clinton's foreign policy?
HANNITY: Let's talk about the linguistic gymnastics that they've been involved with since they took over. I mean, man-caused disasters, workplace violence, overseas contingency operation -- our own Department of Homeland Security -- they absolutely forbid the use of the terms jihad and sharia.
94 people have been killed by terrorists since 9/11. They're not dealing with the illegal immigration problem, and we know that more Middle Eastern men are now crossing the border, and yet we've taken in nearly three quarters of a million migrants from countries that execute gays and lesbians!
Is there a conflict of cultures that people are afraid to talk about? In other words, if you grow up under sharia, you know, and you want to come here, do you want to indoctrinate? Do you want to proselytize? Do you want a theocracy? Or do you want freedom? And how do you determine that?
GORKA: It's a great question. Remember, Sean, we've got Muslims in our armed forces. We've got patriots. We've got people on the front line in the FBI and the intelligence community. But we've also got people like Faisal Shazad, the Times Square bomber, a man who came here and became naturalized, worked himself into the middle class level of American society. And then what does he do? He drives an SUV full of IED materials into Times Square.
The question is, what is their value system? Do they agree with the principles of the founding of the republic? Do they...
HANNITY: But how do you actually...
GORKA: ... share those...
HANNITY: Dr. Gorka, if I grow up and I feel I can tell women how to dress, tell them they can't drive, tell them whether they can go to school or work, they can't leave the house without my permission, you grow up in a system where gays and lesbians are executed just for being who they are -- if you grow up under that system and you want to come here, how do we determine you want a change or you want to bring those values with you? I don't know if that's possible.
GORKA: I think the only way you know that is the individual through their behavior, not through what they say, because that doesn't matter. You can only judge a man or a woman on their behavior. If they reject those values, if they grew up in a society that says women are worth less than 50 percent of a man, do they believe that today? Because if they do, that's a problem.
HANNITY: But an ISIS terrorist is going to lie. They're going to be trained to lie.
GORKA: Sure. Right.
HANNITY: For example, you know, since Orlando happened this past weekend, 441 Syrian refugees have come to the United States since that attack this week. Are we playing Russian roulette? Are we risking American lives? Are people likely to die because the president -- he says they can vet them, but they didn't do a good job knowing this guy was in the system.
GORKA: It is Russian roulette, Sean, if we consistently allow the government to shut down those systems that keep us alive and safe. The NYPD knows how to do this. This is what I said in my book. It's human intelligence. It's undercover work. It's surveillance. You've got to find out what that person really believes, and you're not going to do that unless you have people inside the society.
HANNITY: OK. Tell -- you say we can defeat ISIS. Go back to the...
GORKA: Yes.
HANNITY: ... the -- you know, the semantical gymnastics. I think you have to recognize and identify the enemy for who they are, but what is the best way to defeat them? I'd hate to see a situation where we send young men and women to go fight, and they don't even have up-armored Humvees and they're getting their legs blown off and they're knocking on door to door and trying to, you know, weed out where these terrorists are.
What is the best way to do it with the least amount of casualties for American servicemen and women?
GORKA: Three things. Number one, get politics out of the threat assessment. No more censorship, none of this gobbledy-gook narrative that it's not about jihad and it's not about religion. Jettison that.
Number two, you've got to empower the Muslims that are at risk in the region. They are the front line in the war, the Egyptians, the Jordanians, the Sunnis in Iraq that reject ISIS. They must be the face of this war.
But that's never going to happen unless we provide the spine, the backbone, the trainers, the ISR, the intelligence. So we have to rebuild all the troughs (ph) for those nations that Obama has destroyed in the last seven- and-a-half years.
And then lastly, the long-term victory comes the same way it came in the cold war. We've got to delegitimize their narrative, their ideology. We've got to have a giant counter-propaganda campaign with our Muslim allies to destroy the brand of jihad because jihad is just way too sexy now, Sean, from Brussels to San Bernardino to Orlando to Paris. We've got to destroy it because we are in a war for survival.
HANNITY: Yes. It's a war of civilizations, a culture conflict. Thank you, sir, for being with us.
And up next on this busy news night tonight right here on "Hannity"...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BRENNAN, CIA DIRECTOR: The group is probably exploring a variety of means for infiltrating operatives into the West, including in refugee flows...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, the CIA director -- he issues a chilling warning that ISIS, in fact, will and could infiltrate the refugee population. Now, this comes as the administration accelerates plans to welcome thousands of Syrian refugees right here into America. We'll check in with Herman Cain and Monica Crowley. They'll react.
And later tonight...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEH JOHNSON, DHS SECRETARY: We have to face the fact that meaningful, responsible gun control has to be part of homeland security.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson politicizes the tragedy in Orlando. Congressman Louie Gohmert -- he'll be here with reaction and more tonight on "Hannity."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRENNAN: We judge that ISIL is training and attempting to deploy operatives for further attacks. ISIL has a large cadre of Western fighters who could potentially serve as operatives for attacks in the West, and the group is exploring a variety of means for infiltrating operatives into the West, including refugee flows, smuggling routes and legitimate methods of travel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: That was the CIA director, John Brennan, earlier today on Capitol Hill warning that ISIS, in fact, could infiltrate the refugee population and launch new attacks against America and the West. Now, he is the latest in a long line of top intelligence and national security officials to do so. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would that bringing in Syrian refugees pose a greater risk to Americans?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, it's clear a population of concern.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The concern is 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 is a lack of information.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that obviously raises a grave concern as to be able to do proper background checks of 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 what 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: There is some fear, some fear that some of these refugees may actually be posing as refugees, but they might actually be al Qaeda or ISIS terrorists trying to sneak in to Europe or the United States. What do you make of that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, certainly, that's a possibility. I mean, you can't -- you can't dismiss that out of hand.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We should be conscious of the potential that Daesh may attempt to embed agents within that population.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Here with reaction, Fox News contributor Herman Cain, and from The Washington Times, Fox News contributor Monica Crowley.
You know, it really angers me here, Monica, because every single, solitary top intelligence official in this country is warning that ISIS will infiltrate the population! We have over 450 since Orlando Syrian refugees here! Now, am I going to be playing this tape after somebody's killed, after ISIS infiltrates that community and is responsible for a terror attack here?
Why is this president and Hillary Clinton gambling with the lives of the American people? What's the point?
MONICA CROWLEY, FOX CONTRIBUTOR: Sean, I hope you don't have to go back to this tape and play it and say, We tried to tell you, we tried to warn you. It is common sense what every major head of every major national security agency who you just played has been warning about, that this has been going on for quite a long time first in Central and Western Europe and now here in the United States.
It is common sense to understand that in the so-called refugee influx into the Western world, that, of course, is going to be shot through with individuals who want to wreak havoc, cause terror, kill and destroy!
HANNITY: All right...
CROWLEY: Of course that's the case, and we've seen it throughout Western Europe, and now we're seeing it here in the United States!
HANNITY: Herman, it happened in Brussels! It happened in Paris! We're talking about the CIA director, the national director of intelligence, the FBI director, the assistant FBI director, the House Homeland Security chairman, Obama's own special envoy to defeat ISIS, General John Allen. They're all saying it's going to happen! But he insists on taking them in.
HERMAN CAIN, FMR. GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Stop the inflow now. Stop the inflow now. And President Obama has the executive authority to do that. It makes no sense. If he does not stop the inflow now, with all of these warnings...
HANNITY: And people die!
CAIN: ... and people die, it indicates one of two things or both. Number one, he is not listening to his intelligence professionals. They are consistent that we run...
HANNITY: Listen, I take it a step further. I think it's worse than that. If he doesn't listen to all of those people I just mentioned and ISIS infiltrates and they commit a terror attack on our soil, one of the refugees, he will have blood on his hands!
CAIN: I would agree with that.
HANNITY: Why would he be willing to gamble with our lives like that?
CAIN: Because of the second reason that I was going to say is a possibility, he is more concerned about political optics than he is the security of the United States of America. Here's why he might be afraid to stop the inflow now. It would make it look as if Donald Trump was right and his suggestion, stop the inflow until we know more about what's going on...
HANNITY: We already know...
CAIN: I know we already know! This is the whole point.
HANNITY: We already know Donald Trump is right!
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: ... saw in Paris!
CAIN: Exactly.
HANNITY: Monica.
CAIN: Exactly. But this president is more concerned about optics.
HANNITY: Monica?
CROWLEY: Sean, I've got another reason. I totally agree with Herman. Everything he's saying is true. But there is another reason, another motivation for this president in going ahead like this, even in light of all these terrorist attacks and the real threat, and that is that back in 2008, he talked about the fundamental transformation of the nation.
We've seen it across the board domestically with "Obama care," and so on, but when it comes to foreign policy, this was about retreat, retrenchment, reducing the American footprint globally, but it was also about bringing in illegal immigrants across the southern border, and bringing...
HANNITY: All right...
CROWLEY: ... these kinds of so-called refugees...
HANNITY: Monica...
CROWLEY: ... from the Middle East! It's about transforming the country, Sean!
HANNITY: You know, for a guy that's so upset about the right of the American people to keep and bear arms -- we'll get into this later -- these are the same people that put guns without GPS in the arms of gang members and drug cartels in the Fast and Furious case, and people died like Brian Terry on both sides of the border.
These are the people that gave $150 billion to the number one state sponsor of terror, Iran. These are the people that gave Mohammed Morsi, former Muslim Brotherhood head, when he was president of Egypt, tanks, F-16s and a billion-and-a-half dollars. These are the people that keep releasing terrorists from Gitmo! We know at least 40 percent of them are going back to the battlefield!
So Herman Cain...
CROWLEY: That's right.
HANNITY: ... I really don't want lectures on guns or on the American people and their right to keep and bear arms when you are arming our enemies!
CAIN: I have often said that the three tactics used by the Democrats and the liberals, and including President Obama -- S-I-N. They shift the subject. They want to shift the subject to guns instead of talking about radical Islamic terrorism.
Secondly, they want to "I," ignore the facts. All of the intelligence professionals have laid out the threat and the facts. And then they want to name call. Jeh Johnson is now saying in an article that radical Islamic terrorism -- he didn't use that word, by the way -- is analogous to a right-wing extremist.
Give me a break! They are trying to shift the subject to totally get away from what the real issue is. And I agree with you, Sean. If another incident happens and a radical Islamic terrorist comes in as a refugee and kills somebody, it's going to be on the hands of President Obama and his administration!
HANNITY: And Hillary Clinton, who supports it. Thank you both for being with us.
CAIN: Exactly.
HANNITY: And up next tonight right here on "Hannity"...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEH JOHNSON, DHS SECRETARY: But we have to face the fact that meaningful, responsible gun control has to be part of homeland security.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson -- he is pushing to politicize the tragedy in Orlando. We'll check in with Louie Gohmert. He has reaction.
Also, later tonight...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JAMES CLYBURN, D-S.C.: This is not about ISIS. This is not about any kind of foreign terror. This is about guns in America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: The president, Hillary, Democrats, liberals, the media -- they can't do anything but blame guns, never mention radical Islamists or a terror attack in the case of Orlando. We'll get reaction from the NRA's Chris Cox.
That and more tonight right here on "Hannity."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: And welcome back to "Hannity." So earlier this week, Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson politicized the Orlando terror attack and said that stricter gun control is needed for all Americans. Really? Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEH JOHNSON, DHS SECRETARY: Meaningful, responsible gun control is now part and parcel of homeland security. It's critical to public safety. But we have to face the fact that meaningful, responsible gun control has to be part of homeland security, as well, given the prospect of home-grown, home- born violent extremism in this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Wow! Use any crisis to advance an agenda. Joining us now, Texas congressman Louie Gohmert, as well as former NYPD detective Pat Brosnan.
Louie, this is the same DHS secretary that said that right-wingers pose the same threat as radical Islamists. This is the same Department of Homeland Security that forbids the use of the term jihad and sharia. I don't know why we're banning words. This is the same Department of Homeland Security that doesn't enforce immigration laws. This is the same Department of Homeland Security that said nothing when the United States has now resettled three quarters of a million migrants from countries that execute gays and lesbians.
What is going on there? What's happening in Washington with this?
REP. LOUIE GOHMERT, R-TEXAS: Well, we are all affected by the advice we get, the people we get advice from. And we know that in homeland security, a guy that -- a Muslim Brotherhood-approved publication in Egypt back when Morsi was in charge, were bragging that six of their right (ph) Muslim Brothers were top advisers in the Obama administration, and one of them was an adviser on the Homeland Security advisory board.
I kept warning about, you know, the guy has been a featured speaker proclaiming the Ayatollah Khamenei is a man of peace, the man for the 20th century. But anyway, there were all kinds of indications, and they would not listen and...
HANNITY: Well, here's my question.
GOHMERT: But they finally let him go when he tweeted out that the international caliphate is inevitable, we might as well get used to it. And now they got a guy on here who -- actually, they got a girl that hates white men. She hates America. If you're patriotic, she makes clear America is nowhere near the best country in the world.
And these are people -- another guy that people warned the administration about...
HANNITY: All right, hang on, Louie...
GOHMERT: ... he's a Muslim Brother, and they don't listen.
HANNITY: Pat...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: This is a guy that admitted he wanted to be a martyr, claimed to be affiliated with al Qaeda and Hezbollah. This is a guy that we're told, according to other students, that he cheered on 9/11.
PAT BROSNAN, FMR. NYPD DETECTIVE: Yes.
HANNITY: If somebody says all of that, and the FBI and Department of Homeland Security do an investigation, how did he slip through the cracks? Rather than blaming guns, why don't they look at the system that allowed such a person to get off the watch list?
(CROSSTALK)
BROSNAN: Well, what happens is, there's a few difficulties. Surveillances shouldn't end just because funds or other priorities come along. If he was identified as a likely jihadi, the surveillance has to be sustained. Find the funds. Get the money to keep the surveillance going.
Same thing happened with Karachi (ph) brothers in Paris and Tsarnaev brothers in Boston. The other thing is, background checks don't happen in a vacuum. It's all about connecting the dots.
HANNITY: Right.
BROSNAN: And the dots weren't connected here. His whole life, the dots weren't connected. Here you have a guy -- how in God's name does someone on the terror watch list, someone on the no-fly list, three separate federal investigations, one that tied him to a bomber, get a full carry? It took me 17 months as a former detective to get a carry in Jersey...
HANNITY: It took me three years. Good luck. It's ridiculous, yes.
BROSNAN: It's out of hand. But again, no common sense.
HANNITY: All right, let me -- let me go, Louie, back to you because I want to know what Washington is doing about this because I had on this program one of the founding members of the Department of Homeland Security. His name is Phil Haney. He's a whistleblower. He wrote a book. In his book, he talked about how when Obama became president, he was ordered to scrub the names of Muslims that had terror ties to terror organizations. So he was forced to do that, which prevents, as Pat is saying here, law enforcement from doing their job and connecting the dots to protect the American people. Was that ever investigated? Why would anybody scrub the names that law enforcement comes up with something like that?
GOHMERT: Not only, and I've been helping him for years. He's an American hero, a patriot, and dedicated his life to trying to keep America safe. But not only would they investigate that, once he came forward with the thousands of pages that actually a bunch of his leaders, his superiors had deleted, then they turned on him. They impanelled a grand jury to go after him and just destroyed his career, his life. But it put his wife in the hospital. She was a Ph.D., a brilliant woman. But they made his life -- they take his gun away in front of his peers so the message is clear.
You asked how these guys fall through the cracks. It's because they are not cracks. They are massive holes that are created by this administration. And like, for example, we got this document that unclassified secretary joint staff action directive October 25th of 2011, this is where the military orders the purging of anybody basically that CAIR and other co-conspirators named in the Holy Land Foundation trial were approving -- you couldn't use somebody that the Muslim Brotherhood didn't like, but you could use only the Muslim Brotherhood approved people is what it came down to. And the military cleaned this up, too. They won't let them learn what they are supposed to look for. That's why they don't know when they would see it.
HANNITY: Unbelievable. Last word, Pat.
PAT BROSNAN, FORMER NYPD DETECTIVE: Sean, you know what will move the ball down the right way for us, move the ball down the court is if we could just replace the words political correctness with commonsense. Absolutely.
HANNITY: Truth.
BROSNAN: How about just erasing Islamaphobia which is paralyzing. It's informing these decisions. And at the --
HANNITY: We can't say "jihad" and "sharia" because we don't want to offend people? That's so over the top. Thank you.
BROSNAN: You're welcome.
HANNITY: Up next tonight right here on "Hannity" --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLYBURN: This is not about ISIS. This is not any kind of foreign terror. This is about guns in America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: No, this is about radical Islam, the left continuing to politicize the Orlando terrorist attack to push through their anti-gun agenda. When we come back the NRA's Chris Cox will join us with reaction as we continue.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." So after Sunday's terror attack in Orlando the left wasted no time in politicizing the massacre. On Monday, The New York Daily News, they didn't blame the terrorist. They blamed the NRA with a cover that read, "Oh, thanks NRA." And today The New York Times editorial board, they put out a piece with the title "The NRA's Complicity in Terrorism." Even in Congress the left is ignoring the terror threat and they're trying to push their anti-gun agenda. Take a look at what Representative, Congressman Jim Clyburn had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLYBURN: This is not about ISIS. This is not about any kind of foreign terror. This is about guns in America and whether or not we are going to have some kind of moderation to the Second Amendment just as we have to the First Amendment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: No, it's about radical Islamic terrorism. And by the way, I have a second cousin. His name is Ed Henson. He happens to own the gun store in question down in Florida. Ed, by way of background, he's a highly decorated retired NYPD detective first grade. By the way, 9/11 responder, flight 587 responder. He spent months at ground zero in the aftermath of 9/11, and all indications are that he followed the Florida state law as a licensed dealer. And by the way, the ATF has also acknowledged that no laws were broken.
As I've been saying for days now, my prayers, my thoughts, my condolences go out to the families of loved ones of all of the victims.
Joining us now with reaction, the executive director of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action Chris Cox. Chris, it's almost -- it's like a compulsion. They can't say "radical Islamic terrorism." They can't acknowledge that law enforcement and the department of Homeland Security failed. This is a guy that cheered after 9/11, said he was connected to Al Qaeda, said he was connected to Hezbollah, said he wanted to be a martyr. He was only on the watch list for a short period of time. They took him off. And then they want to blame the weapon as though the weapon was responsible. What's your reaction to that and those that politicize this?
CHRIS COX, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NRA-ILA: Sean, what happened in Orlando was both heartbreaking and it makes you furious. It was infuriating because the truth is we are facing a massive problem in this country. We are facing a crisis, and the crisis is not over the Second Amendment or over guns. The crisis is over the fact that we have radical Islamic terrorists in this country trying to kill as many Americans as they can. So the question become what are we going to do about it? We can go down the path of gun control. They have every gun control law imaginable in California, but it didn't stop the terrorists in San Bernardino.
HANNITY: And Chris, I have had, most of my adult life I've had a license to carry in Rhode Island, California, Alabama, Georgia, New York. I have carried it since my 20s I have been carrying a weapon. If an incident like San Bernardino, Chattanooga, or in the case of Orlando ever happens, I would want somebody like me, somebody who has been well-trained, I'm a marksman, I've learned gun safety since I'm 11 years old. I would want an opportunity to maybe help save lives. When this guy dropped a clip, if there was a responsible armed American there, maybe some people's lives could have been saved. What part of that does the left not understand?
COX: Well, Sean, this is absolutely ridiculous. All of us want to make sure that people are safe. All of us want to live in safe communities. But as you mentioned, bad things happen. And to think that one more gun control law is going to stop a jihadist from carrying out his quest for martyrdom is not just absurd, it's dangerous. We have these laws in other parts of the world, we have them in California, and they've done nothing.
So at the end of the day, it's a distraction. It's a distraction by this president and by Hillary Clinton away from their abject failure and the failure of their policies to keep us safe.
HANNITY: Does it anger you these are the same people that gave guns to drug cartels, kidnappers, gangsters in Fast and Furious? Does it anger you that the same people gave $150 billion to the number one state sponsor of terror, Iran? Does it bother you they gave Mohamed Morsi, a guy that referred to the Israelis as descendants of apes of pigs, tanks and F-16s, and money? Does it bother you that these are the people that released Gitmo detainees? Because it really bothers me the level of hypocrisy, because those things that they did are far more dangerous than the average law-abiding citizen having a gun.
COX: Sean, what bothers me is the fact that we all know that something bad is going to happen again in this country, and we also know that this president and Hillary Clinton are doing nothing to keep us safe. Their policies and their philosophy, this political correctness and their philosophy, and then their policies are getting people killed.
The fact that we're not trusted to defend ourselves just defies logic and defies commonsense. The American people are smarter than this. They are sick and tired of this BS coming from Congress and coming from the political elites who surround themselves with armed security but want us to be defenseless.
HANNITY: I mentioned my cousin down in Florida. One of the biggest things he's involved in is gun safety. And I think the NRA gets a bad rap. Are you guys the number one advocates teaching organization for safety? For example, I have a liberty safe next to my bed. I have a fingerprint safe for my handgun. People seem to reject what the role of the NRA is. Isn't safety one of the biggest missions of what you do?
COX: Sean, we've put 29 million kids through a gun avoidance program, little kids that are too young to be around guns. We train more people with safe and responsible gun ownership than the federal government. We train the military. We put on the police competitions. We take a back seat to no one not only when it involves safety but also when it comes to national security. We've had NRA member who have fought and died in this war on terror. So to suggest that somehow we want to cause a problem or want to have terrorists to have access to firearms is not just wrong but it really offensive, no question about it.
HANNITY: And by the way, one irresponsible person gives a bad name to the millions of responsible people. And I do appreciate your work with safety and thank you for being with us. Every once in a while I get a call from somebody in my radio show, oh, what kind of gun do you think I should get? I know you're into guns, "Hannity." I say, which one do you want to get trained in the use of? That's the one you can get. All right, thanks, Chris, appreciate it.
COX: Thanks, Sean.
HANNITY: Coming up, are politicians who are too politically correct about the threat of radical Islam, are they putting your life in danger? Peter Johnson Jr., Kellyanne Conway are next straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: What exactly would using this label accomplish? What exactly would it change? Would it make ISIL less committed to try to kill Americans? Would it bring in more allies? Is there a military strategy that is served by this? The answer is none of the above.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right, the president earlier this week defending his position never to use the term "radical Islam." So is political correct putting your lives in danger? Joining us now from the Polling Company, Kellyanne Conway, and FOX News legal analyst Peter Johnson Jr. Could you imagine not saying "Nazism," or -- if we lived in the era and Reagan is president and he said "Evil Empire" talking about the former Soviet Union, or imperial Japan? When did we get to a point you can't identify --
PETER JOHNSON JR., FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: Now we have a president that wants to engage in word soup.
(LAUGHTER)
JOHNSON: So it's rhetoric, it's style. He doesn't want to debate the notion that they've done nothing in term of fighting Islamic extremism, Islamic terrorism. So he's going to say I want to argue with Trump about these words and I want to get involved with Hillary and Trump with what these words really mean. What it really means is action, not words. But if you can't define it, then you can't take it on. And he's done neither.
HANNITY: He did call and refer to them as a jayvee team. And it wasn't that long ago, Kellyanne, he did say before Paris days before that ISIS is contained. But I think a bigger issue is what I mentioned earlier, and that is this guy let go Gitmo detainees, gave the former Muslim Brotherhood head of Egypt at the time Mohammed Morsi tanks, F-16s, and $1 billion. This a guy that gave the Iranians $150 billion and gave gangsters and drug cartels weapons with Fast and Furious. And he can't say "radical Islamic terrorism"?
KELLYANNE CONWAY, THE POLLING COMPANY: It's worse than that. He's also lecturing the rest of us, Sean, though these administration materials, through DHS and elsewise of what not to say, always lecturing us, please be sensitive about the language that you use. Go read the materials. Do not use words like "jihad" or "Islam" because those are religious terms, not plain old American English terms.
There has been a five-year systematic purging from the lexicon in these official training materials. I would like to point out to your audience, last August Hillary Clinton referred to prolife Republicans as terrorists. But somehow she has a hard time, she and the guy she would succeed, Barack Obama, calling terrorists "terrorists."
HANNITY: That's a good point. That's a really good point.
CONWAY: Last August, last August, after the first debate she referred to prolife Republicans as terrorists. Look it up, August 28th. and I just want to mention one more thing. When this murderer, when this terrorist in Orlando called 911, what did he say? Did he pledge allegiance to Smith & Wesson? Or did he pledge allegiance to ISIS? This nonsense about making it all about gun control is so disrespectful to what has just happened and so scary to the rest of us this last days.
JOHNSON: There has been a condemnation but in other words by the head of the CIA with regard to American stewardship on taking on ISIS. We heard John McCain talk about it today that not in a personal way but in a policy way there is a direct relationship between homegrown terrorism and the spread of ISIS and America's inability, or failure, or lack of will to contain it through this president.
HANNITY: Let me ask a political question on this, Kellyanne, because when you look at the internals of polls, Donald Trump has way above Hillary as it relates to the economy. Does her doubling down with Obama on not saying "radical Islam," does that hurt her?
CONWAY: It will hurt her if that is the way the electorate tends to view this issue, Sean. That's the real key here. Up until this event Donald Trump was beating Hillary Clinton among men and women in swing states on who is the strong leader. She was winning on temperament now, which is why you hear the left constantly talk about temperament now. We're going to hear more of that.
But you see in that same Bloomberg poll yesterday, everybody is talking about is she beating him by double digits. The less reported number was Trump is beating Clinton by four points on the question of if the Orlando shooting happened a year from now, who would you prefer to be president? Trump was beating Clinton 45-41.
JOHNSON: And one last point on the Orlando shooting, with regard to tolerance, America is beaten by no one in the world. But within a day of the Orlando massacre, Hillary Clinton was fundraising and lecturing her supporters they should be concerned about Islamophobia.
HANNITY: Wow.
JOHNSON: That was in a fundraising email.
HANNITY: It's amazing how wrong they have been so often on so many big issues.
JOHNSON: Tragically wrong.
HANNITY: Tragically wrong. People are dying. And if you bring in refugees and these intelligence official turn out to be right that is going to be a bigger problem. Thank you both.
And coming up, we have a very important "Question of the Day" and we need your help. Let not your heart be troubled. That is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: It's time for our "Question of the Day." Is political correctness preventing government agencies from protecting you, the American people? We can't say "jihad," "sharia," and there are man-caused disasters and overseas contingencies and workplace violence. And you can't say "radical Islam," I'd say probably yes, but what do you think? Go to Facebook.com/SeanHannity, @SeanHannity on Twitter, let us know what you think.
Unfortunately that is all the time we have left for this evening. As always, thank you for being with us. We'll see you back here tomorrow night.
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