This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," December 1, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And welcome to "Hannity." And we are in Cincinnati, Ohio, where President-elect Donald Trump, Vice President-elect Mike Pence are here on what they're calling their thank you tour, the second stop of the day. They were at Carrier air-conditioner in Indianapolis earlier today.
And the president-elect -- his first cable interview is here with us. Mr. President-elect, it's the first time you've been on since.
PRESIDENTIAL-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: It's true. It's appropriate it's with you.
HANNITY: Has it hit you, the magnitude of all this?
TRUMP: Well, it does hit me, but there's so much work to be done. And as you said, we worked out a deal with Carrier where they're going to keep over 1,100 people in this United States, in this case, in Indiana. And it's been a great day and they're a great company. They were moving to Mexico lock, stock and barrel, and now they've changed their mind and they're staying in this country, where they should be. And we're very happy about it.
HANNITY: You seem to have not taken a day off. I've been watching Monday through Friday, then Saturday and Sunday, and a lot of people coming in and out visiting you. And you actually said in the "60 Minutes" interview you want to roll up your sleeves and get to work. And you don't want a vacation.
TRUMP: Well, that's true. I mean, You take a little bit of a vacation every once in a while, but this has been just a great experience for me. And I love it. I love what I do. I want to help people. And we do help people, like with the Carrier folks. They're going to have a good Christmas instead of a miserable Christmas. And so I enjoy doing it.
It's really not work. You know, if it's work, you can't do it. If it's not work, it's fun. I mean, you hear the crowd outside. We're in Ohio, and we're doing a thank you Ohio and then thank you Iowa. We're going to do a tour throughout some of these great states that were so good to us, the swing states. We won almost all of them. And so we're going around. I guess we're going to make about 10 stops and just do thank you tours.
HANNITY: How's the process? You've already made a lot of selections, couple more to go.
TRUMP: Yes. We have few more to go, but we've made some great selections. Actually, more than a few. But it's been a well oiled machine. We're doing well. We're getting fantastic people and actually getting very good reviews. People are respecting the process and what we've done.
HANNITY: You know, I think you've been more gracious and maybe more magnanimous than I would be, especially -- you've now met with Governor Mitt Romney twice. How was that?
TRUMP: It was good. We got along very well. He was very, very nice, very nice in terms of his remarks afterwards. And I think it was very good. We have some terrific people and terrific people to come.
HANNITY: Yes. And I assume those decisions are going to be made. You had told me throughout the campaign -- I would go through a list of issues -- Supreme Court justice, vetting refugees, building the wall. If anything that you say -- like on "60 Minutes," you said, Well, part of it might be a fence. People said, Oh, he's changed his mind. You haven't changed your mind because you told me that during the election.
TRUMP: No, we're going to build a wall. I mean, I heard that. Every once in a while ,they'll say, Well, maybe it's not going to be totally full. Now, there are a certain places you don't need a wall because you have -- you know, you have mountains, you have other things, you have large and rather vicious rivers.
But no, we're building a wall. It's going to be a real wall because we're going to stop the drugs from coming in. We're going to have people come in, but they're going to come in legally. And we're going to have a great wall. We're going to have a real wall, and we're going to stop what's happening because what's happening in our country is very sad in so many different ways. But we are going to stop those drugs from coming in.
HANNITY: Yes. One of the things that you have an opportunity, is you have a Republican House and a Republican Senate.
TRUMP: Right. First time in a long time.
HANNITY: First time in a long time. And even people like Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell -- you've been talking to these people regularly. How has that been going?
TRUMP: It's been going great. Both of them have been great. Paul and I have become, you know, very close, I think. We agree on a lot of the things. We're going to put in a health care bill, a real strong health care bill. I think it's going to be terrific because the "Obama care" is just -- I tell you, look at what's happening. You (INAUDIBLE) you report on it all the time. When you see 116 percent increases in Arizona and you see the kind of numbers you're talking about and the tremendously high deductibles, where you don't even get to use it.
So we're going to do something that's going to be great for the people and a lot less expensive, much better and less expensive.
HANNITY: I look at four things that I think would lead to great economic success, reminds me a little bit of Reagan -- 15 percent corporate tax rate, repatriation of trillions--
TRUMP: Right.
HANNITY: -- I think ObamaCare will be like a tax cut for some people--
TRUMP: Right, big tax cut.
HANNITY: -- and energy independence is huge.
TRUMP: Yes.
HANNITY: How much of this do you think you'll be able to do through rescinding executive orders?
TRUMP: Well, I think we're going to do a lot of it, and I don't think we have to rescind -- and we're going to be rescinding executive orders, but I don't think we're going to have to use very many executive orders because we have a Congress that's going to go along with things. And I think a lot of Democrats are going to join the train, if you want to know the truth.
HANNITY: Have you talked to many?
TRUMP: Yes, I have. And people are -- you know, I know so many people in politics over the years. A lot of people said, Oh, he's never been in politics. I've really been very active, mostly from the other side.
But we're going to have a lot of Democrats joining us on a lot of these things, maybe even health care. But so many of the things that we're going to be pushing, they're common sense. And we will get a lot of support, and I think that's going to start happening very soon.
HANNITY: One of the things that I went through -- you're still solid on Supreme Court justices, originalists--
TRUMP: Yes. Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: -- have one to appoint very soon. We're going to have to come up with a name. I'm looking. I'm down to probably three or four.
HANNITY: Are they from your list?
TRUMP: From the list. They are terrific people, highly respected, brilliant people. And we'll be announcing that pretty soon, too.
HANNITY: And you'll have extreme vetting.
TRUMP: Right, very extreme.
HANNITY: Corporate tax rate.
TRUMP: Right.
HANNITY: And you're going to have--
TRUMP: And remember, we're also cutting taxes for the middle class. We're cutting taxes for virtually everybody, not just corporate. Corporate's almost the most important because it's going to create jobs like you've never seen. But we're cutting taxes for everything. We're simplifying the system. It's going to be a tremendous tax cut for the middle class especially.
HANNITY: Energy independence -- how long after you've studied and looked at it -- because I see millions of potential good-paying career jobs for people.
TRUMP: Right.
HANNITY: How big is that--
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: -- a big thing. I mean, we have so much energy we never knew about. You know, modern technology starting six about years ago, the technology has been so incredible. We're sitting on vast wealth. We never knew we had it. And we have more than Saudi Arabia. We have more than countries that you would never even believe it's possible. And now we're going to start using it.
We're going to put the miners back to work. We're going to put the steelworkers back to work. We're going to make steel for ourselves when we build buildings instead of bringing it from other countries. And we're going to have a great time doing it.
HANNITY: My last question. Since you've been elected, some people have had a hard time dealing with it, and poor kids on college campuses have their professors giving them cocoa and aromatherapy and pet therapy, coloring books and Play-Doh. They're apparently very upset. They couldn't deal with it.
Anything you'd like to say to them to reassure their sensitive feelings that it'll be OK?
TRUMP: I think they're going to be very happy. I think we're going to have a very safe country, a very prosperous country. We're going to do things that are going to create jobs for their parents in many cases, where their parents are going to be able to do a lot better, although most of their parents voted for me. So I think they don't have they problem. But we're going to have a very prosperous and a very safe country, and I hope they realize that very soon.
HANNITY: Well, 1,100 families don't have to sell their house, their car, worry about sending their kids to college and they'll have a good Christmas.
Mr. President-elect, thanks for spending time with us. Appreciate it. And congratulations on your win.
TRUMP: Appreciate it very much. Thank you, Sean.
HANNITY: Thank you very much.
All right, we'll continue from Cincinnati. And when we come back, we'll check in with Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Also Reince Priebus who is now Donald Trump's chief of staff, and much more as we continue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm here for today one main reason, to say thank you to Ohio.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Thank you. We won the state by almost 10 points, which they say is totally unheard of. In fact, I don't know if you know, but it's the beginning. They say you have to win Ohio. You must win Ohio, right? You heard it, over and over and over. And we started off sort of even and then we were 1 up and 2 up. We didn't have much help at the top levels. You know that, right?
We seek peace and harmony with the nations of the world, but that means recognizing the right of every country, including our own, to look after its citizens. We would put other countries first. We had people running our country that truly didn't know what the hell they were doing, OK?
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Didn't know what they were doing. We're going to defend the American worker. Look what's happened right here. They forgot about the American worker. They forgot that it was the American worker who truly built our country. We are not going to forget, believe me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I know that if we set aside our differences, and we do have differences, we're a very divided nation, but we're not going to be divided for long. I've always people together. I know you find that hard to believe, although this group probably doesn't find it hard to believe. But we are going to bring our country together, all of our country. We're going to find common ground, and we will get the job done properly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: And welcome back to "Hannity" as we continue. We're in Cincinnati, Ohio, tonight, where President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence are on their thank you tour. And the vice president-elect joins us now.
Governor -- should I call you governor, vice president, vice president- elect?
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: You have a lot of titles still, right? How are you?
VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT MIKE PENCE: Just call me Mike. Good to see you, Sean.
HANNITY: Good to see you.
PENCE: Great to be in Cincinnati and a lot of excitement here and -- but the president-elect and I are really just here to say thanks, thanks to the people of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and really all across America for giving us the opportunity to serve.
HANNITY: You know, you told me a big part of your speech is thank you for giving us the chance.
PENCE: That's right.
HANNITY: Explain that.
PENCE: Well, I'm going to say to the people tonight, thanks to you, we're going to have a president who will unleash the boundless potential of the American economy by cutting taxes, rolling back regulations. Thanks to you, we actually have a president-elect who's already saving jobs in America.
We just had a rally earlier today in Indianapolis, where because of President-elect Donald Trump, 1,100 Hoosiers are going to have jobs at a factory that was going to close and move all those jobs to Mexico.
So message tonight is just to make sure that people know that the president-elect and I are working every single day to build a team, to lay out an agenda to make America great again and to keep the promises that he made, and it'll all be thanks to them.
HANNITY: You know, that's not insignificant because otherwise, it would have been 1,100 families going into Christmas--
PENCE: That's right.
HANNITY: -- not knowing their future, worried about their mortgages, their cars, their kids going to college. That's a big deal. And on top of it, I was interested that the CEO actually said they're investing $16 million more in the plant there?
PENCE: Right.
HANNITY: And maybe $35 million total in the state?
PENCE: Yes. I have to tell you, it really was remarkable to watch the president-elect exercise leadership in this case. You know, Indiana is a prosperous state. We have job announcements all the time, really. In spite of what's coming out of Washington, D.C., we've been holding our own.
But this last February, we learned that here's a company that had been around in Indiana since the 1950 that was going to close its factories and move all those jobs to Mexico. When I knocked on their door and said, Is there something we can do, they say it's a made decision.
But just about a week after the election, President-elect Donald Trump picked up the phone, called the chairman of the parent company, United Technologies, and said, Look, we're going to cut taxes. We're going to roll back regulation. We're going to have trade deals that put the American worker and American jobs first, and we'd like you to rethink this. And they said, We will. And we started those conversations.
But I think what people see in that effort, in President-elect Donald Trump, is a man who keeps his word, a man of action and a man who is not going to rest until we get this economy moving again for every American.
HANNITY: You know what President Obama said about this? I was playing it on my radio show today. What's Donald Trump going to do, wave his magic wand?
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: And I thought about it, and I said, No, what he's going to do is what you didn't do. He's going to pick up the phone and call.
PENCE: Right!
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: And -- were you there for that call? I'm interested. Did you--
PENCE: I was there. I was there.
HANNITY: When he did it.
PENCE: Yes, he picked up the phone and he spoke really one American to another. And he just said, I'm just calling to tell you that we're going to do exactly what we said we were going to do. We're going to cut taxes on job creators, businesses large and small. We're going to roll back the avalanche of regulation.
Back in March, the leadership of Carrier told me what was driving them out of the country more than anything else was an avalanche of red tape coming out of Washington, D.C. And what the president-elect told the leader of that company was we're going to do exactly what the American people elected us to do.
And he asked them very -- you know, very graciously in his own way to -- if they'd reconsider that. And I got to tell you how inspiring it was for me.
HANNITY: In your home state.
PENCE: As -- as--
HANNITY: Which by the way, has been doing well, as you pointed out.
PENCE: That's right, but--
HANNITY: 1950s is a long time.
PENCE: It was inspiring for me to see the way that our president-elect just leaned into that effort, kept his word--
HANNITY: His son calls--
PENCE: -- made a difference in the lives of 1,100 Hoosiers.
HANNITY: Son calls him a blue collar billionaire, probably a great example, right? You know it's -- I went out earlier, before you guys got here in the crowd, and I talked to a lot of people, and this issue of Carrier came up. And what was the most important thing? What was the most important thing? And I kept asking.
He's going to keep his promises. And they said this was one of them. And when you think about it, the agenda, if you break it down -- and I talked a lot about it in my closing arguments you said you saw the night before the election.
PENCE: I did.
HANNITY: Supreme Court justices, originalists--
PENCE: Right.
HANNITY: -- vetting refugees, repatriation, 15 percent corporate tax, ObamaCare replaced, health caring savings accounts. Then you got building the wall, education back to the states, energy independence. What am I missing?
PENCE: Not a whole lot, although there is a little bit more--
HANNITY: (INAUDIBLE) military--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: -- getting rid of the Iranian deal.
PENCE: -- rebuild the military. We're going to support law enforcement at every level with the resources and the tools they need to restore law and order to our communities. And the list goes on.
But you're absolutely right. I have to tell you, in addition to being vice president-elect, I've been asked to chair the transition. And to see the caliber of men and women around this country who he is drawing to this effort, the cabinet appointments he's made so far -- there will be more appointments next week. Stay tuned. But--
HANNITY: You're not going to give us a sneak preview. OK. All right.
PENCE: But I just have to tell you it's been exciting to see the energy, the vision and the leadership that Donald Trump talked about on the campaign now being implemented by President-elect Donald Trump.
HANNITY: I don't see him take a lot of days off. And I know you're in a lot of these meetings, and he's included you a lot. You told me the other night.
This is what I think people want to know, that those promises that he made are going to be kept. And I think this is where Republicans -- and I speak as a conservative -- where they lost me a little bit. They promised to repeal and replace "Obama care." You know what a phony show vote is. They never put their teeth into it, or--
PENCE: Right.
HANNITY: -- stopped executive unconstitutional amnesty. Give us the Senate. You got the Senate, they didn't do it. They funded it. Things like that I think really annoyed at lot of people. It's important to keep your word.
PENCE: It is, and -- and President-elect Donald Trump is a man of his word. I will tell you he's dispatched me to Capitol Hill. We both went there together a couple of weeks back already, sitting down with the leadership of the House and Senate and laying out a plan not just for the first 100 days, the first 200 days to implement that agenda. And you know, you've known him a lot longer than I have. This man is the very embodiment of optimism and energy and creativity.
HANNITY: Oh, he controls the room.
PENCE: And he's going to bring all of that to Capitol Hill, and we're going to drive the Trump agenda forward, and we're going to make America great again.
HANNITY: How did it go when you there yesterday? Because I know you were there yesterday speaking with a lot of these leaders. How was -- how were those meetings?
PENCE: Great discussions. We really brought our legislative teams together. I met with the speaker, met with Leader McConnell in the Senate. And you know, our effort is to be ready literally on day one to be able to walk our new president into the Oval Office to take action on day one on a number of executive orders that the Obama administration has put into effect, but literally in that very moment to initiate moment to repeal and replace "Obama care," to end illegal immigration once and for all and to get this economy moving again, so less taxes, less regulation.
And it's exactly -- it's exactly the agenda that he ran on. And I keep telling members of Congress, Buckle up. It's going to be a busy year.
HANNITY: Listen, that's a big agenda. If you got all those things done, I would say it's a prescription, the conservative solutions that I've wanted for a long time.
How has your life changed? I understand you guys don't fly on the same plane anymore, true for the most part?
PENCE: Well, that's right. That's part of the new changes but--
HANNITY: How else has your life changed, to the extent you can share it.
PENCE: Well, in many ways, it really hasn't. You know, this was just about a 24/7 campaign for us before. My family and I poured our hearts and souls into this, greatest privilege of my life.
But as you said, there wasn't any vacation after election day. We were -- first thing the morning after the election,, we were all rolling our sleeves up, standing by our president-elect and helping to build a government that can begin to implement that Trump agenda on day one.
And frankly, the energy, the enthusiasm, the optimism that just emanates out of our president-elect is contagious, and it's going to carry us all the way to January 20th, and I think carry us to a great, great term (INAUDIBLE)
HANNITY: I don't -- I didn't have enough time to ask him--
PENCE: -- in the Congress.
HANNITY: -- a little bit about foreign policy. Is the Iranian deal done? Will that be eliminated? Do you think, as he does, that that was a horrible deal? I think it was a horrible deal, but a lot of the money has already been transferred.
PENCE: Right.
HANNITY: And I don't believe that any place, any time inspections will ever take place. And I don't trust the Iranians. And while that deal was being negotiated, believe it or not, they were chanting "Death to America," burning the American flag and burning the Israeli flag.
PENCE: Well, the idea of transferring $150 billion back to the Iranians--
HANNITY: Ransom payments.
PENCE: Well, nearly $2 billion in what was unquestionably ransom payment is deeply offensive. It was a bad deal. And we've already begun internal discussions. I know the president-elect is going to give very careful consideration to the right way forward. But it all begins by recognizing how deeply flawed the Iran deal is and laying before him all the best options that'll put the interests of the United States and the interests of our most cherished ally first.
HANNITY: Do you know if any countries, like Iran, China, Russia -- have they reached out? Or you can't say.
PENCE: Well--
HANNITY: It's fine if you can't (INAUDIBLE)
PENCE: Well, I can tell you the leadership in China and Russia have reached out. For my part, I've spoken to foreign ministers and some heads of state around the country. (sic)
But frankly, from the day after the election, leaders from around the world were reaching out to our president-elect. I mean, I really do believe that people across the globe, leaders across the globe recognize the kind of leadership that President-elect Donald Trump is going to bring to the White House.
And they've been reaching out with graciousness, engaging directly with him, and he's been engaging with them with the kind of -- the kind of considerate straight talk that I know will always characterize the way he deals with the world.
HANNITY: Will we repair our what I would say is somewhat broken relationship With Israel? I've known Prime Minister Netanyahu for many years. He actually put a blurb on my first book. Will that relationship be repaired quickly?
PENCE: I can assure you that if the world knows nothing else, it'll know this, that America under a President Donald Trump stands with Israel. He's had great discussions, as I've had the privilege of having, with Prime Minister Netanyahu since the election, and we're going to continue to build that relationship.
HANNITY: Last question. Can we glean anything from all the time you've spent both at Trump Tower, New Jersey, on Capitol Hill, that the role in the vice president in this administration is going to be a pretty active and busy one? It looks like it.
PENCE: Well, I would -- you know, I'd leave that to the one person who will define it.
HANNITY: You mean the guy who's been sending you around all this time because--
PENCE: My family and I are here to serve. I mean, you have to understand, I'm a small town guy from southern Indiana, not too far from where we're standing--
HANNITY: Right.
PENCE: -- right now. The very idea of having a chance to stand next of our president-elect at such a momentous time in the life of our nation is very humbling for me. And I'm just prepared to serve in any way that I can help him move that agenda that we both know will make America great again.
HANNITY: Mr. Vice President-elect, good to see you, as always. Thank you so much for being with us.
PENCE: Thank you, Sean.
HANNITY: All right, we got to take a quick break. We'll come back. And Reince Priebus, former RNC chair, now of course the chief of staff to President-elect Donald Trump as we continue from Cincinnati tonight straight ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You hear a lot of talk about how we're becoming a globalized world. But the relationships people value in this country are local, family, city, state, country. They're local. We'll compete in the world, we want to compete in the world, but we're going to compete in the world where it's a two-way road, not a one-way road.
The advantages are going to come back to our country, and they haven't for many, many years. There is no global anthem, no global currency, no certificate of global citizenship. We pledge allegiance to one flag, and that flag is the American flag!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TRUMP: And I don't want to tell you -- I don't want to tell you this because I want to save the suspense for next week. So I will not tell you -- I refuse to tell -- and don't let it outside of this room. Do you promise? Raise your hands. Promise.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: So I will not tell you that one of our great, great generals -- don't let it outside, right? And of course, the press is very honest. They'll never let this go, even though it's all live, they got about seven stations live. We are going to appoint Mad Dog Mattis as our secretary of defense!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: And welcome back to "Hannity." We're in Cincinnati where President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence are on what they're calling their thank you tour.
And by the way, we're heading out to the crowd. We're going to talk to a lot of people, why they in Ohio in such overwhelming numbers voted for Donald Trump and Mike Pence.
But first, he's the former chair of the RNC. Now he's the chief of staff. I don't know if you went to the frying pan into the fire.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Reince Priebus is with us. Good to see you.
REINCE PRIEBUS, DONALD TRUMP CHIEF OF STAFF: Thank you, Sean.
HANNITY: These are two of the hardest jobs you have because if Donald Trump doesn't win, people are going to come down you.
PRIEBUS: Yes, that's right.
HANNITY: If thing don't go well in the White House now, they're going to come down on you. And you had also, you know, balance -- you had a balancing act all year with--
PRIEBUS: Right.
HANNITY: -- you know, the never Trumpers and all these other people that had agendas.
PRIEBUS: Yes.
HANNITY: Not an easy year in your life, right?
PRIEBUS: No. You know, I started to figure out how to be a decent RNC chairman. I mean, I figured it out. But now it's a different challenge, but it's a great one, it's an honor, it's an honor that President-elect Trump asked me to do this. And I think he's going to be a great president.
I mean, you look at the choices he's making right now, and I can just tell, you know, his view of enormity of the job and the way he's viewing it and the way wants to build this country for the American people, no matter who you are, what party, what's you background, ethnicity, anything. I mean, his attitude right now is just something, I think, to behold, and I'm just so grateful for it.
HANNITY: Help our audience be a little bit of a fly on the wall --
PRIEBUS: Sure.
HANNITY: -- because you're there for all of these meetings. You were at the dinner, for example -- I would have loved to have been there because I'm still -- look, I thought Mitt Romney would have been a great president, but I was so disappointed at the things that he said about Donald Trump.
PRIEBUS: Right.
HANNITY: You were at the dinner.
PRIEBUS: Yes.
HANNITY: You were the only one at the dinner with the two of them. What was it like? What happened?
PRIEBUS: Well, you know, they talked a lot about sports. They both love Tom Brady--
(CROSSTALK)
PRIEBUS: -- being a Packer fan, you know --
HANNITY: Did they address the --
PRIEBUS: No, of course. They talked about global affairs, talked about Syria, talked about--
HANNITY: No, no, no. I meant did they address --
PRIEBUS: Oh--
HANNITY: -- the things Romney had said?
PRIEBUS: Yes, we talked a little bit about that.
HANNITY: You did. How'd that go over?
PRIEBUS: We talked about it. And you know, look, they didn't know each other. I mean, they did hit each other pretty hard, and I think maybe Mitt--
HANNITY: A huckster, a fraud, a racist.
PRIEBUS: They talked about--
HANNITY: Those are hard words.
PRIEBUS: I think sometimes, like all of us -- and I try not to be this way, but sometimes I think, you know, you can judge people without knowing them, without really kind of getting how they tick or what they're thinking.
HANNITY: Yes.
PRIEBUS: I think there was some of that. But I would tell you that the -- it was genuine. It was heartfelt. They really got along. And at some point -- and I would just say this. President-elect Trump is -- is extremely funny. When he can get on a role --
HANNITY: He was on a role that night?
PRIEBUS: He is an incredible story teller and he's very, very funny. And he had Mitt Romney in tears through one of the runs that he had on a couple stories. But they got along. They talked about serious things. They talked about not serious things. It was a good night. Nevertheless, it's good to have and build relationships.
HANNITY: Whether he gets selected.
PRIEBUS: Right.
HANNITY: I was out for the first time in a long time, I had a few extra days off over Thanksgiving. I was out and about a lot and I met a lot of people. And people say two things to me right out of the box. Please tell him don't pick Mitt Romney, please, please, please. And the second thing they say is tell him don't let her off the hook. In other words, because all those people were chanting, and they even were earlier today out here in Cincinnati "Lock her up" and "drain the swamp." It really won't be his decision on that though. That's up to the Justice Department. That's up to law enforcement and the attorney general.
PRIEBUS: I think what the president-elect was trying to say is he's not going into this office with the mindset of I'm going to find a way to persecute Secretary Clinton. That's not where his head is at. That's definitely not where his heart is at.
But I would say if indeed there's evidence that's presented that goes to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and gets presented, it's certainly going to be his call. But I would suspect that if it something that's serious that needs to be dealt with, the president is going to support it.
As far as the whole where are you at on Mitt Romney, and all this stuff -- my job is to clear out all of the junk from everyone coming at the president-elect and give him an opportunity to make the decision as far as what's best for this country. It's not to overexert my opinion on anything. I think he's got great choices. I think the mayor is a wonderful man. I think David Petraeus, Senator Corker, Governor Romney. But that's his decision. But providing, you know, the opportunity for him to make a clear decision is part of being the chief of staff.
HANNITY: General Petraeus, how did that go?
PRIEBUS: It went well. He is a very, very smart person that really understands every -- I mean he'll tell you what river in Syria and then this mountain over here. It's an unbelievable mind that he has. And, you know, someone like that you need to listen to and talk to.
HANNITY: Are you prepared to like never sleep? From the times I most often got to talk to Donald Trump the candidate was at midnight.
PRIEBUS: Well, I'm the same way. He and I are the same way. As long as I get a few hours of sleep I'm good to go. I do like to feel that I slept, even if it's for a few hours. I can keep going. This is important stuff. I've got a great family, good kids.
HANNITY: You're all in Washington.
PRIEBUS: Yes. It's a little tougher now because most of the transition is in New York. Eventually things are going to move back down.
HANNITY: Pretty quickly.
PRIEBUS: It will be normalized.
HANNITY: Walk us through. I think the most important thing, and I think where the biggest disappointment with the Republicans come from, you and I had discussions when you were the chairman. People are telling me the promises aren't being kept. Donald Trump has laid out a very firm agenda to get that passed. He doesn't have 60 votes in the Senate. But Harry Reid set a precedent in terms of the nuclear option. Is that something Republicans in your opinion should consider following up on?
PRIEBUS: They're going to use the -- except for the Supreme Court we can get the cabinet through in federal court in 51 votes. And I would suspect that's going to happen smoothly.
Look, I think that we've got a president with a mandate. There's an electoral landslide across the country. It's one of the most significant historical political wins of maybe the entirety of the United States history of politics, but certainly for the last 100 years we've never seen a Donald Trump phenomenon sweep the country.
The people in Congress understand it. The members of our own party should understand it. Our meetings yesterday vice president-elect Pence and I had with Speaker Ryan were incredibly smooth. And things are much, and no offense to our senators, but things are just naturally easier to get through the House. But we also have a speaker in leadership that they want to work with us, and what do you guys want, how do we get it down? The Senate is little tougher because of their rules. But I would suspect that we've got a president-elect that's going to call people out if they don't want to get on board.
HANNITY: Or go directly to the American people.
PRIEBUS: Right. And people may wake up to a couple of tweets in the morning and not like it too much.
HANNITY: He's going to keep tweeting.
PRIEBUS: He's not going to sit around and play business as usual.
HANNITY: I've got to give you credit. I think being the RNC chair in a year where there was a lot of division and 17 people wanted the job and threading the needle of those people that wouldn't keep their promises and then running --
PRIEBUS: Quite a fiasco at times?
HANNITY: I talked to you throughout the process.
PRIEBUS: Yes, you remember those days.
HANNITY: I tried to cheer you up a little.
PRIEBUS: I was good. I love the job.
HANNITY: This is a pretty tough one too.
PRIEBUS: This is tough too, but when I first started at the RNC, it was 24/7, and after a few months you started getting the hang of it and figure it out. But I think people see we're moving at lightning pace. We're doing well.
HANNITY: Thank you.
PRIEBUS: Thank you, sir.
HANNITY: He is now the official chief of staff for the president-elect Donald Trump. Thank you so much, Reince Priebus, for being with us.
All right, when we come back. We're in Cincinnati. It is what they're calling a thank you tour with President-elect Donald Trump, Vice President-elect Mike Pence. We're going to go out and talk to the crowd. What motivated them to go out and vote this year? And we'll check in with the most popular radio figure in the whole city of Cincinnati, Bill Cunningham, great American, and more as we continue HANNITY on the road in Cincinnati.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: In the true sense, history called, and the people of this great state answered, and you're going to be very happy. We're going the say right now, what are we going to do? We're going to make America great again. You watch.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: You went out and you pounded the pavement, organized your fellow citizens, and propelled to victory a grassroots movement the likes of which the world has never seen before. This is what they say.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Today on one of the networks they said maybe Andrew Jackson. I said when was that? It was like in the 1838. And then somebody else said, well, that was great but nothing like what happened here, OK. So it really has been fun.
And more importantly I heard Mike saying about what happened today in Indiana, we're going to do that all over the country.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We can reverse the stagnation and usher in a period of true opportunity and growth. Endless gridlock is not a way of life any longer. We don't have to accept that. Government can be responsive. And we can become proud again of how Washington works. And I've spoken to Democrats, and I've said to them, look, we can't go on with this gridlock. It's gone on for so many years. It's gone on for so many years. They can't get together. We're going to get together, and I believe they want to get together. You know why? Because it's time. And the people are angry. They're angry. And they're going to get together. We're going to make joint decisions. We are. And the nice part, our victory was so great we have the House, we have the Senate, and we have the president.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right, here we are, we have a few Donald Trump fans here. The whole place. All right, so this election, how important -- no Republican has won the White House without Ohio. Pretty excited. You look excited. You got a Trump "Make America Great" finger.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely. It's a thumb. It's a good finger.
HANNITY: It's a good finger. What was the main issue for you this year?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Safety for our country, foreign affairs and internal affairs.
HANNITY: Vetting refugees, building the wall.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely, Ohio State earlier this week.
HANNITY: Scary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I have to say, I was not happy with Kasich this whole term. I did not vote for him.
HANNITY: I got a question. Now he's going to build a --
CROWD: Wall!
HANNITY: And who's going to pay for the wall?
CROWD: Mexico!
HANNITY: Hi. How are you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm great.
HANNITY: What's your name?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pam.
HANNITY: So what was the most important issue for you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The most important issue for me -- I'm very nervous.
HANNITY: Come on. She looks great on TV, America, right? You do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was working for Mr. Trump.
HANNITY: What did you do?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I took junket trips over to Trump arena.
HANNITY: Did you like it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I loved it.
HANNITY: You had a good time working for him?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did.
HANNITY: And he was a good boss?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Excellent boss. And he had 90 percent of his employees were women.
HANNITY: Wow. Did you hear about the Carrier deal? What did you think about that? That to me was big.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump just proved that he's going to do what he's been talking about for a year and a half. This country has turned the corner with this man, and I'm so proud to be a Trump supporter.
HANNITY: Eight points in Ohio, which was a big thing.
All right, this young man may be running for president one day with his bow tie right there. What's your name? How old are you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm 15.
HANNITY: You didn't get to vote.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I did not.
HANNITY: You would have voted for?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump.
HANNITY: Who did you come with, your mom or dad?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dad.
HANNITY: What was the biggest issue for your dad?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The biggest issue for me was immigration actually.
HANNITY: Really?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got to protect your home first before you can help anybody else. And I think that president Trump is a man of his word.
HANNITY: Does the Carrier deal today prove that to you? Is that a good first step?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes.
HANNITY: Thakns. You're on Fox tonight. Thank you. Thank you, guys. How many Fox viewers do we have? Hey, sweetheart, how are you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did a PowerPoint on Donald Trump and my teacher wanted me to say that he was selfish and rude and arrogant.
HANNITY: Whoa.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So I wouldn't, and she said she would take points off my grade, and I didn't care. I told her, that's my freedom of speech.
HANNITY: Give this girl a big hand.
(APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: You know why I'm giving you a hand, because you stood up for what your beliefs are, and you didn't let the teacher tell you what to do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. Can I get a selfie with you?
HANNITY: Sure, let's do a selfie together. You know how to do it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
HANNITY: You tell me when to smile. Now you job in this is to make me look good. Ready? What was your big issue here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Big issue was a nonpolitician in office.
HANNITY: And that's going to help? I got a question. How important was the Carrier promise that he got done today?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very important.
HANNITY: As you can see we have a very fantastic crowd. We're going to come back. We'll continue more from HANNITY live on the road in Cincinnati.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Now is not the time to downsize our dreams but to set our sights higher than ever before for our country. Now is the time to push for real, profound change that restores the full promise of America for all of its people, and those people are great people. I got to know them, believe me, over the last 18 months.
And what we've created is a movement, and it's a beautiful thing. If you take a look here, the roads are all gridlocked. All gridlocked, all locked down, all secured up, and people pour in. It's an amazing thing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The era of economic surrender is over. We're going to fight for every last American job. It's time to remove the rust from the rustbelt and usher in a new industrial revolution. We're going to do it.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: We're back in Cincinnati at the U.S. Bank Arena. This guy has spent 35 years on the radio, the most popular, the number one radio personality his entire 35 years, Bill Cunningham. Do you all like Bill?
(APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: Bill Cunningham, I'm in your city. I want a full report.
BILL CUNNINGHAM, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Sean Hannity, in 1984, the Gipper, Ronald Reagan, saved America from the clutches of Mondale and Bob Beckel, your good friend, your previous good friend. And I'll say this. It's taken us now almost 32 years to have this kind of passion among Ohioans, Kentuckians, and Hoosiers. You saw it today up in Carrier what happened with the Trump-ster. That kind of spirit, that kind of drive is going to be shown right here at U.S. Bank Arena. These are normal, God-fearing Americans.
HANNITY: You know what's amazing. Think about this. Here is a state where the Republican sitting governor opposed Donald -- did it bother you that Kasich didn't support Trump? The sitting Republican governor didn't support him and he won by over eight points.
CUNNINGHAM: It didn't make any difference. This wasn't about Kasich. This wasn't about personality. This was about a movement. Donald J. Trump walks in the shoes of Ronald Reagan.
(APPLAUSE)
CUNNINGHAM: Donald J. Trump is a guy that fires us up. You and I, and God bless John McCain's patriotism. John McCain is a patriot. But in 2008 we couldn't gather a few hundred people to come listen to John McCain, 200. Now, there are going to be 20,000 Americans here tonight, 20,000, 20,000.
HANNITY: All right, Bill Cunningham, how did he do it with such a large margin in a state you've got to win to become the president? No Republican ever became president without your great state of Ohio, the buckeye state.
CUNNINGHAM: There are three large stories here, as you know, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, that comprise 30 percent of the whole thing. And 70 percent, Lancaster, 70 percent Marietta, working class, not white-collar but blue-color Americans said I don't want to be on welfare. I want a job. A good friend of mine John Compton who is very sick today, he is from small town in Indiana. You go there now and it's shut down. And it's down. Small town America stood up like a mighty tsunami from the bowels of the Pacific Ocean and washed across this great country and said we can't take it anymore.
HANNITY: Bill Cunningham, he is the most-popular radio host in all of Cincinnati. We've got to take a break. We're saying goodbye. We're out of time. Do you want to say goodbye?
(APPLAUSE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love Trump! We love Trump!
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