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Published January 23, 2017
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," December 19, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
ERIC BOLLING, GUEST HOST: Welcome to "Hannity." Members of the Electoral College formally cast their votes to make Donald Trump the next president of the United States.
I'm Eric Bolling, in for Sean Hannity tonight.
Earlier today, the Electoral College put Donald Trump over the 270 threshold needed to become the next commander-in-chief. Despite all this, Democrats are continuing to try to undermine the president-elect and are still refusing to accept the election results.
According to Politico, in an interview with his hometown newspaper, former president Bill Clinton took several shots at President-elect Trump, saying, quote, "One thing he does know is how to get angry white men to vote for him." Clinton also blamed the FBI for his wife's loss, saying, quote, "James Comey cost her the election."
But that's not all. Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, is making headlines for refusing to say that the election was free and fair. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you believe this was a free and fair election?
JOHN PODESTA, CLINTON CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN: Well, look, thing the Russians clearly intervened in the election and I think that the -- now we know that both CIA, the director of national intelligence, the FBI all agree that the Russians intervened to help Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You didn't answer the question. Do you believe this was a free and fair election?
PODESTA: Well, I think it was distorted by the Russian intervention. Let's put it that way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: Now, can you imagine if the tables were turned and Donald Trump's campaign said the same thing? Then you disgraced interim DNC chair Donna Brazile, who WikiLeaks exposed as having given debate and town hall questions to the Clinton campaign. She's now taking the Democrats' Russian hacking talking points to a new low level. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONNA BRAZILE, INTERIM DNC CHAIR: This was a very intrusive process. The president's party was hacked. Not the Democratic Party, the president -- he is a Democrat. His party was hacked. The e-mails were weaponized. The release of stolen, hacked e-mails caused a lot of confusion, and of course, it disrupted our daily campaign lives.
Donald Trump used this information in ways to also sow division. I was very disappointed in his repeated usage of some of the stolen information. He used it as if he received daily talking points.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: As for President Obama, he's still making excuses but appears to be finally admitting that the main reason President-elect Trump won is because he outworked Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Oftentimes, younger voters, minority voters, Democratic voters are clustered in urban areas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And on the coasts.
OBAMA: And on the coasts. And so as a consequence, you've got a situation where there are not only entire states but also big chunks of states where if we're not showing up, if we're not in there making an argument, then we're going to lose. And we can lose badly and that's what happened in this election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: Joining us now with reaction is the author of the best-selling book, "Treason," former speaker of the House and Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich.
Mr. Speaker, I want to get to all the election results and the Electoral College vote in a second, but first I want to talk to you a little bit about what's been going on in Europe. First we saw the -- earlier today, we saw the Russian ambassador in Turkey being assassinated on television, actually videotaped. And then later on, we hear that the White House is now calling the Berlin, Germany, truck that plowed into the Christmas market a, quote, "terror attack," likely to be a terror attack. Your thoughts. Tell us what you see going on.
NEWT GINGRICH, R-FMR. HOUSE SPEAKER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, clearly, the man -- as I understand it, the man who killed the Russian ambassador yelled Allah-u akbar and was an Islamic supremacist. So that has to be an act of terrorism.
Almost certainly, the truck in Germany was another act of terrorism. It'll be interesting to see if it's from somebody who's a refugee, which will put Chancellor Merkel's government in even deeper trouble as the German people are increasingly tired of criminal behavior from various refugees who she's allowed into the country.
So this is just part of the dangers of the world we now live in. You may have noticed that tourists were attacked in Jordan, something that's very unusual. But yesterday, a group of tourists were at a castle in Jordan and they were attacked and I think about 12 of them were killed. Very unusual happening. We're up against a worldwide effort, and we have no current strategy capable of dealing with that problem.
BOLLING: Mr. Speaker, talk to us about the relevance of that Russian ambassador being shot. We know what's going on. This -- you know, this at least temporary truce or peace agreement that's supposed to be going on in Syria -- will it hold? (INAUDIBLE) what is the risk to the Russian side of this?
GINGRICH: You know, look, well, I mean, one of the things that Western liberals have refused to recognize is if the Russians and the Iranians are prepared to back Assad, the dictatorship is going to survive. There's not enough force on the other side. And so what you're seeing happen is slowly, they're grinding down the opposition. The opposition, by the way, is not particularly nice people.
I mean, we're now learning in Aleppo, for example, that a lot of people were terrorized. They were told if they tried to leave, they'd be killed. This is by the so-called moderates. I think the Turks are very upset and they don't quite know what to do because they have ISIS and al Qaeda directly south of them and they have the Kurds to their east. And they're under tremendous internal pressure now.
BOLLING: But our Syria policy is in shambles right now, Mr. Speaker. When you -- you have the Russians hardening now -- I assume they're going to harden after their ambassador was killed -- we're on the other side of this. We were the ones who were saying, Hey, we need -- Assad must go. Russians are saying Assad must stay.
What does a President-elect Donald Trump do? What's he stepping into?
GINGRICH: Well, I think this is why General Flynn is going to matter as head of the National Security Council, and I think it's why General Mattis is going to matter and secretary of state is going to matter because they're going to have to sit down and really think through a new strategy.
Now, with Jim Mattis and with General Flynn, you have people who were there, General Kelly, who will be at Homeland Security -- they've all been there in combat. They have a very good sense of the region, and I suspect they'll be giving the president-elect some very professional advice about what to do. But I think part of it has to come from a realization that we have -- unless we're prepared to really deeply invest, which I don't think we are, we have very limited options right now in dealing with Syria.
BOLLING: OK. We'll leave it right there because I want to pivot back to some of the other news of the day. Donald Trump -- President-elect Donald Trump has now gone over the 270 threshold. He will be the next president of the United States.
Now, we heard the Democrats out in force over the weekend whining, anyone but Clinton, ABC, anyone but Clinton's fault that she lost. Specifically, I'm -- Donna Brazile -- you heard her right there. Now, this is someone who leaked some questions about debates and about town halls to Hillary Clinton. Does she even -- should she even have a voice going guard forward in the political debate?
GINGRICH: Well, I think -- I think, clearly, she -- and CNN believed this and they fired her. I like Donna personally. I've known her for many years. We have ties going back to Tulane and to New Orleans. She's a wonderful human being.
But she got caught up in something that really was to her disadvantage. I suspect she will not, you know, be there much longer as national committee chair.
But the one that I think is far more interesting is the campaign chairman, who remember, was in charge of $1 billion, $1 billion, had the incumbent president as his ally, had, you know, the national news media as his ally, and they lost. And so he's looking for anybody he can blame in order to get out from under this.
And it's almost comical to watch them look -- you know, I think the next phase will be it was Martians, this was all done by Martians and Hillary would have won except for the Martians.
BOLLING: Except for the Martians. John Podesta -- I guess you're talking about Podesta and Robby Mook also (INAUDIBLE)
GINGRICH: Right.
BOLLING: Those two took a lot of the blame the night of the election. She went -- apparently, the reports were that she got very angry with both of them.
Bill Clinton -- former president Bill Clinton said Donald Trump, what he knows how to do is get angry white men to vote for him. Your thoughts on that.
GINGRICH: Well, first of all, he also got a lot of white women to vote for him. He got a lot of other people to vote for him. I think he ran ahead of Romney with Latinos. He ran ahead of Romney with African-Americans. He ran ahead of Romney with Asians. The fact is that he did -- you know, he won the election, which is a pretty big starting point.
But imagine the problem you've got if you're Bill Clinton. It's Christmas week. Your wife just lost. It was her second loss. She's going to spend the rest of her life being non-president Clinton while you're going to be President Clinton.
You'll say almost anything to try to make her feel good. And I think that's what you're seeing. What's Bill going to do? He's not going to get up and say, You know, I don't know why, but my wife just failed. He can't do that. Think of what Christmas would be like.
So I give him a certain slack. I figure it's Christmas week, Bill. You know, do what you can. I understand it. But none of the rest of us should take it seriously.
BOLLING: You're being generous!
(LAUGHTER)
BOLLING: You're being generous (INAUDIBLE) that angry white male comment...
GINGRICH: It's Christmas, Eric. Come on. Come on.
BOLLING: But as you point out, Donald Trump exceeded Mitt Romney in the Hispanic vote. He exceeded Mitt Romney in the African-American vote, as well. So (INAUDIBLE) you can push back on Bill Clinton a little bit. Hillary Clinton -- what was the turning point? Last (INAUDIBLE) have about 30 seconds or so. What was the turning point? Why did she lose this election.
GINGRICH: Well, she only lost because she didn't have the energy and the drive to go to Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. In the end, Donald Trump outworked her. You look -- he was doing five and six big rallies a day. She's doing one small rally. Well, that exchange rate in the age of social media -- he's getting 20,000, 30,000 people, all of them with their smartphones, all of them sending stuff out on Facebook. He was creating his own network. A typical Trump rally had about the same number of contacts as MSNBC.
BOLLING: All right. We're going to leave it there, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. By the way, Hillary Clinton will have a lot of time to go walk through the forest now. She can spend a lot of time doing what she does in the forest.
Got to leave it right there, Mr. Speaker. Thank you very much.
Coming up -- a truck plows into people at a Christmas market at Berlin. The White House is calling it an apparent terrorist attack. Dr. Sebastian Gorka reacts next.
And then later...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Her current scandals and controversies will continue throughout her presidency and will make it virtually impossible for her to govern or lead our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: That was President-elect Donald Trump slamming Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail. Democrats seem to forget just how corrupt Clinton is when coming up with new excuses for why she lost. "Clinton Cash" author Peter Schweizer will join us.
And later...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Michelle Obama said yesterday that there's no hope.
(BOOS)
TRUMP: But I assume she was talking about the past, not the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: President-elect Donald Trump is responding to the first lady, Michelle Obama's, comments about Americans losing hope after his victory. Charlie Hurt and Judge Jeanine Pirro will weigh in. That and a whole lot more as "Hannity" continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
BOLLING: This is a Fox News Alert. The White House is calling the chilling scene at a German Christmas market earlier today an apparent act of terror. And president-elect Donald Trump released a statement expressing his condolences for the victims while adding that radical Islam must be eradicated.
Joining us now with reaction is the author "Defeating Jihad," Dr. Sebastian Gorka. Thank you for joining us, Doctor.
So a couple attacks today. We see -- what -- what's happening? Is this -- is this because of the season? Is this specifically because it's a Christian holiday?
SEBASTIAN GORKA, "DEFEATING JIHAD" AUTHOR: Well, remember, Eric, that the San Bernardino attack also happened around the Christmas season, and in fact, Malik and Farook killed 13, 14 of their fellow colleagues at the Christmas party in the offices where they were employed.
So Christmas is the ultimate infidel target, if you will. And if it does turn out, as very likely seems to be the case, that this was a jihadi attack, then we can expect more threats of this kind.
So this is the reality of the world we live in. There is no front line like there was in World War I or World War II, Eric. The front line is when you leave your house in the morning or when you go to a Christmas market in downtown Berlin.
BOLLING: Dr. Gorka, the State Department issued warnings to Americans overseas saying, Hey, beware of these markets, these Christian markets, because they may be targets of terror.
GORKA: Yes. I mean, this is the sad reality. I often get requests from friends and even people on Facebook saying, you know, I want to go on holiday to Paris or to Germany. What do you advise?
And it's very simple. The jihadis have made it clear, al Qaeda and their magazine Inspire, ISIS in their publication Dabiq, go to places where there are large amounts of infidels who cannot protect themselves. So anywhere that there's lots of people, tourist attractions, Christmas markets. We saw this before in Nice. This is the reality where there are a lot of people who are unarmed who are civilians who cannot look after themselves, that will be a seductive target for jihadis that want to attack infidels.
BOLLING: Seductive target meaning it's a soft target. There's not a lot of defense. There aren't a lot of barriers, not a lot of armed guards at some of these. Are we -- is this a whole new world for us?
GORKA: Well, the fact is -- the dangerous reality, Eric, is that ISIS has learned from the mistakes of al Qaeda. Al Qaeda was ironically too successful on September the 11th. They killed 3,000 people in 102 minutes. So afterwards, they were obsessed with weapons of mass destruction. They experimented with chemical weapons in Afghanistan. You remember the video of the puppy being killed. They wanted to go bigger and bigger and bigger.
ISIS understands this is just about guerrilla warfare. You don't -- they've said you don't need to build a bomb. You don't even need to get a gun. Get in a truck and literally, they wrote, mow the infidel down like grass, and that's what they did in Nice and that's what it looked like they did today in Berlin.
BOLLING: Yes, they're almost the same looking type of truck. I think they call them lorry, where literally two people got into this truck and just started mowing down. But Dr. Gorka, there's no defense of this. I mean, what do you -- What do you do? Do you just stay away from public squares?
GORKA: Well, the first thing you do -- and this is what I write in my book "Defeating Jihad" -- is you have to be tactically aware, every human being that walks the planet now, every U.S. citizen -- you know, the way we walked around -- look at downtown, you know, centers of any suburb and people are walking around staring at their iPhone or their Android. Well, you know what? Then you are a target.
You've got to be aware of your surroundings because the important thing is jihadis surveil. They don't decide one morning, I'm going to attack the Christmas market in Berlin. They check it out. They videotape it. They collect intelligence like any operation. And we should be aware.
If the neighbors in San Bernardino has reported what they saw happening in that house, we potentially could have saved those people. So people need to -- as the police say, your head should be on a swivel and you should be tactically aware every time you leave the house in the morning.
BOLLING: President-elect Donald Trump issued a statement today. He said, "Our hearts and prayers are with the loved ones of the victims of today's horrifying terror attack in Berlin." And he goes on to point the ginger. He said, ISIS and other Islamic terrorists continually slaughter Christians in their communities and places of worship, and it almost -- almost is giving a warning to Americans overseas.
GORKA: Absolutely. I mean, this is the big thing that's going to change on January the 20th. There'll be a new sheriff in town, and the first thing that I can predict, if you listen to his Youngstown speech, if you read the book by his national security adviser, Lieutenant General Flynn -- the first thing that's going to happen after the inauguration, political correctness is out of the window.
We're going to throw away this idea that you can't call a jihadi a jihadi, and we're going to be honest. They are religiously motivated, and one of the things they want to eradicate Christians. They're trying their darnedest in Iraq. Just look at Karkosh (ph). Look at other areas that have been expunged of Christian culture and they're trying to come back now to burnt houses and destroyed churches.
That's the enemy, and we're finally going to take them seriously come January 21st.
BOLLING: Dr. Gorka, the other horrific event that took place today was an assassination of a Russian diplomat in Turkey, 22-year-old gunman shoots and kills the Russian -- the ambassador in Turkey. Talk to us about the significance of that.
GORKA: Yes, this is a very, very lethal threat. So the reports that we have already that this young -- as you look at the video, which is a shocking video, which I'm sure we're going to have to live with now for years going around the Internet -- this young, fit-looking man in a dark suit and a tie -- allegedly, he was a police officer.
So this is what we call the insider threat. This is somebody who's inside the security services. He's authorized to use force. He carries a weapon. He gets inside the perimeter, into the so-called sterile zone, and in the middle of an art gallery, guns down an ambassador. That's one of the most pernicious threats we have to deal with, the people who are inside the wire, as we say.
BOLLING: And then you -- immediately after firing those shots, he yells out, Allah-u akbar, several times and says (INAUDIBLE) and then he makes some reference to Syria. You'll die in Syria -- I'm sorry, We'll die in Syria, you'll die here.
GORKA: Yes. Absolutely. So this is connected to the ongoing what I like to call global jihadi movement. This is a young man who's decided to go against the regime itself, the allies, if you will, the people that are working in the theater, and send a very clear message. He shouted, Allah-u akbar, God is greater (ph) or Allah is greater (ph) multiple times.
And then the other thing that needs to be noted -- he shot other people in the art gallery. So he killed the ambassador, but other people were wounded as well today.
BOLLING: All right, Gorka. Thank you very much. It is a very, very dangerous world. Thank you very much.
GORKA: Thank you.
BOLLING: All right, coming up next here on "Hannity"...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Her current scandals and controversy will continue throughout her presidency and will make it virtually impossible for her to govern or lead our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: Remember when President-elect Donald Trump was saying that on the campaign trail? Democrats are ignoring those facts about Hillary Clinton as they complain about her election loss. "Clinton Cash" author Peter Schweizer joins us next.
And later...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Michelle Obama said yesterday that there's no hope.
(BOOS)
TRUMP: But I assume she was talking about the past, not the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: President-elect Donald Trump is reacting to first lady Michelle Obama's comments about Americans lacking hope after his election win. Charlie Hurt and Judge Jeanine Pirro are here later with reaction.
That and more as "Hannity" continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BOLLING: Welcome back to "Hannity." Hillary Clinton lost in November, but many on the left just can't quite get over it. Now, while liberals continue to whine and make up excuses, one reason for Clinton's devastating loss is her blatant corruption. You might remember then candidate Donald Trump called her out on the campaign trail over and over again. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The FBI has reopened its criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: She shouldn't be allowed to run. They're also conducting a second criminal investigation into Hillary's illegal pay-for-play corruption at the State Department.
We could very well have a sitting president under felony indictment and ultimately a criminal trial. Her current scandals and controversies will continue throughout her presidency and will make it virtually impossible for her to govern or lead our country. Now, I don't think it's going to matter because she's not going to win, but...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: Joining me now to remind liberals just why Hillary Clinton lost the election is the author of "Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich," Mr. Peter Schweizer. Peter thanks for joining us.
Let me start with this. How rich are Bill and Hillary Clinton?
PETER SCHWEIZER, "CLINTON CASH" AUTHOR: Well, they've made about $250 million since they left the White House, which if you compare that to other ex-presidents, that's maybe eight times what any other previous ex- president has made. So they're very wealthy, and they've taken in a whole lot more than anybody else has in their position.
BOLLING: OK, Peter, that's amazing. First of all, that's -- that's almost blows my mind, eight times any other former president. But is it corruption? Is it cronyism? And by the way, are either and all or both of these illegal?
SCHWEIZER: Yes. I think there was a lot of illegal activity. Look, I think if you were to give a subtitle to this election, it's that corruption has consequences. People don't like corruption. If you look at the surveys, the exit surveys, three out of four Americans believe there was wide spread corruption in D.C.
So when Hillary Clinton, whether it's the Clinton Foundation, whether it's Bill's speaking fees, whether it's the e-mail scandal, when people hear about that repeatedly, it bothers them. And the Democrats don't seem to think it did bother people.
But look, far before the hacking took place, going back into 2015, some 70 percent of the American people did not trust Hillary Clinton to be honest and trustworthy. And that has major consequences, particularly when independents vote.
BOLLING: OK, let's talk a little bit about the money coming in and the money going out. Start with the money coming in. A lot of pay-to-play accusations -- tell us about whether it's legal or illegal, some of the activities that may be questionable.
SCHWEIZER: Well, if you perform a favor for somebody in exchange for money, whether it's explicit or not, that is a crime. And whether that goes to a charity you control, like the Clinton Foundation, or ends up in your pocket, it's a crime. If you look at something like...
BOLLING: A crime punishable by what?
SCHWEIZER: By going to jail. It's -- it's -- it's a violation. If you are a federal government employee, whether you're the president of the United States or someone else, to do a favor, an official government favor, in exchange for somebody (sic) else, the notion of pay-to-play. Now, proving that is not always easy, but you can prove it sometimes, of course, if you have a videotaped confession or if you catch something on audio, the FBI is listening in. You can also, though, be charged, as happened to Senator Menendez...
BOLLING: But they use these shell corporations and these kind of...
SCHWEIZER: Sure.
BOLLING: ... brokers for the money to go into these areas, and then it comes back to them. Is that enough I guess -- well, plausible deniability for them?
SCHWEIZER: Oh, absolutely, it's plausible deniability. But if you look at the recent prosecutions, whether it's former governor of Virginia, you look at the former governor of Alabama, who's in jail right now, you look at Senator Menendez -- in none of those cases was there an explicit quid pro quo or was there a videotape or an audiotape. It was all based on money flowed and favors were given in return.
So the notion that the Clintons didn't do anything illegal is incorrect. And that's why you have five offices, field offices of the FBI investigating the Clinton Foundation, and they've been doing it since last year.
BOLLING: Right. I have only about a minute left, so that's the money coming in, still questionable, and I guess these FBI offices will continue to investigate. The money going out -- are they abusing the way they're spending the money of the Clinton Foundation?
SCHWEIZER: Oh, absolutely. And you don't have to go any further than the internal evaluation that was done for them by Simpson Thacher, the law firm that Chelsea requested. And in that review they asked Clinton Foundation employees to rate the effectiveness of the charity and the way it spent money on a scale of one to 10. Clinton Foundation employees gave it a four for effectiveness. Some employees gave it a one. That internal review, by the way, Eric, also said that they found evidence of quid pro quo expectations between donors and the Clintons. So it is a settled case that the Clinton Foundation was ineffective and that there was pay-to-play. You don't need to go anywhere else than that internal review.
BOLLING: I want to stay on these outflow of funds for the foundation. Someone has got to pay for the travel. Someone has got to pay for the restaurant. Someone has to pay for the security. Should the Clinton Foundation be paying for all the Clintons and their whole family structure to be living this lifestyle?
SCHWEIZER: No. What they do is sort of double bill. So Bill Clinton takes a trip to India, and it may be business related. He may be giving a speech. But because he has a conversation with somebody there about the Clinton Foundation, the Clinton Foundation picks up the travel tab. No, it's not appropriate. And the IRS needs to look at the tax status and how they've spent money and the activities of the Clinton Foundation as well. That's a huge problem. They spent $50 million in travel over the course of five years, much of it paying for the luxurious travel of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
BOLLING: Wow. We're going to leave it right here. Peter Schweizer, thank you very much.
Coming up next right here on --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Michelle Obama said yesterday that there's no hope.
(BOOS)
TRUMP: But I assume she was talking about the past, not the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: President-elect Donald Trump reacts to first lady Michelle Obama saying his election win is causing Americans to lose hope. Charlie Hurt and Judge Jeanine Pirro will weigh in later.
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We will build a great wall and we will stop illegal immigration for good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHWEIZER: And President-elect Donald Trump vows to build a border wall with Mexico, and it couldn't come at a more dire time. According to the border patrol in November, more than 47,000 people were caught trying to cross the southern border. Kris Kobach joins us later as "Hannity" continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY WRIGHT, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Live from America's news headquarter I'm Kelly Wright. Good evening.
The very latest now on that horrific terrorist attack in Berlin. Tonight we're learning from German police that the death toll has risen to 12. Nearly 50 others are hospitalized, some in critical condition. The killers used a hijacked truck too plow through a crowd of shoppers at a Christmas market. Many of the victims were crushed to death. The driver of the truck has been arrested and alleged accomplice identified as a Polish citizen died at the scene.
The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. is urging member nations to quickly put monitors on the ground in eastern Aleppo where a mass exodus of civilians and rebel fighters is under way. The need for urgency is prompted by reports that many of the people waiting tore evacuated are dying of exposure in bitter cold weather.
That's a look at news. I'm Kelly Wright in Washington. Back now to "Hannity."
BOLLING: Welcome back to "Hannity." First lady Michelle Obama recently sat down with an interview with Oprah Winfrey and said Americans have lost hope. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OPRAH WINFREY: Your husband's administration, everything, the election, was all about hope. Do you think that this administration achieved that?
FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA.: Yes. I do, because we feel the difference now. See, now we're feeling what not having hope feels like, you know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: Oh now, now. Anyway, during his final stop on his thank you tour this weekend, president-elect Donald Trump responded this way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Michelle Obama said yesterday that there's no hope.
(BOOS)
TRUMP: But I assume she was talking about the past, not the future.
I actually think she made that statement not meaning it the way it came out. I really do. Because I met with President Obama and Michelle Obama in the White House, my wife was there, she could not have been nicer. I honestly believe she meant that statement in a different way than it came out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: Joining us now with reaction is Fox News contributor Charlie Hurt and the host of "Justice," Judge Jeanine Pirro. Judge, you're fired up on this one. This one is getting to you.
JUDGE JEANINE PIRRO, HOST, "JUSTICE": Go ahead.
BOLLING: Now there's no hope. All of the sudden Barack is leaving the office and hope is gone.
PIRRO: Hope rises and falls with Michelle and Barack Obama. There no longer is any hope. I thought that when they hit low, the Obamas go high. Here's the bottom line. When you've got people who are saying when we leave office you guys don't have any hope, that is an outrage.
And the lack of hope is why Donald Trump won this election. The lack of hope is why outsider won an election, why 30,000 people on a cold night got together with their kids, wait in line to see Donald Trump. Hope is when people at Carrier get their jobs back because on outsider, not the Obamas, not the Democratic Party, make a decision that they are going to elect someone who is going to do something for them.
BOLLING: Do you know what, Charlie, small businesses are suddenly showing signs of hope. Consumer confidence is going up. There's hope. There's hope in the economy. There's hope in the average American now.
CHARLES HURT, POLITICAL COLUMNIST, WASHINGTON TIMES: There's hope in all of the places outside of the White House gates obviously. This is I think what happens when you spend eight years campaigning on some sort of empty promise, a slogan about hope. It loses all meaning. And what I find really sad about this at the juncture in history is you had the Obamas, they had a story that they told people, and it really was a very hopeful story, and people believed in them. And they had this extraordinary moment, this extraordinary opportunity, had eight years to do it, two years of Democrats in control of the Congress, and they completely failed by any measure. And for them to sit back with this rearguard action, well, now everything is hopeless, it's a sad day.
BOLLING: Judge, didn't the first lady at one point say I'm finally proud to be an American.
PIRRO: Yes.
BOLLING: What is she insinuating with that?
PIRRO: When her husband was about to be nominated a candidate for president, she was 44 years of age. And for a woman who was a lawyer, someone who was educated in this country to say for the first time I'm proud to be an American, and then when they leave the White House, hope is gone for all of you because we're leaving, you know when hope was gone? Hope was gone for men on a rooftop in Benghazi. Hope was gone for those people at Carrier when Obama said to them, there's no way you're getting your jobs back.
If people look at what happen during the Obama's reign in the White House, that the racial divide, the hatred of law enforcement, the hatred of the military, all of that was destroyed during their eight years. Shame on them trying to convince America who now is so strong behind Trump that they are the reason -- their going is the reason we're going to lose and we're a failure.
BOLLING: What's the endgame, Charlie? What's the play here, to say literally with 32 days left before they leave the White House hope is leaving us again. What is this all about?
HURT: I think the Obamas are pretty much going through what all Democrats are going through right now, which is the seven stages of grief or 12 stages of grief or denial or whatever where they're having to realize that the Obama presidency was a complete failure for Democrats. This wasn't just a one-night loss last month. This was eight years of losses for the Democratic Party. The only Democrat to win the election was Obama himself and therefore he was able to say, look, I've been a success. My presidency has been a victory. No, it wasn't. He destroyed his party in the process. And so instead of looking at the root causes of it all, they're just trying to spin and trying to cast blame, get out of people, everybody blaming them for it.
BOLLING: Judge, I think Charlie is right. I believe it's five stages of grief.
(LAUGHTER)
BOLLING: One of them is sadness, then there's also denial, and then there's anger. What stage are they in right now?
PIRRO: I just remember Barack Obama saying, you know, he's going to take it as a personal insult if they don't elect Hillary Clinton. I think they've been mad for a long time. But you know, Eric, when you think about it, to say that hope is gone to the American people is really a low blow.
BOLLING: It's the worst thing you can say.
PIRRO: It's the worst thing you can say.
BOLLING: I don't know. Could it be the worst thing you could say? You're deplorable. Irredeemable. That could be the worst thing, but hope leaving could be second.
PIRRO: And make no mistake, Donald Trump ran to win the Electoral College, and that's what he did. He didn't run to win the popular vote because that would have been a different race. And he ran to win and he won. Now they're saying, all of you losers, you know, you deserve to have no hope.
BOLLING: You know how many stages of grief there are? It's however many excuses they come up with for why she lost, whether it's voting booths, Russians, alt-right.
HURT: At the end of the day, when you count up those, that's how many.
BOLLING: We'll leave it there. Thank you guys very much. Be sure to check out Judge Jeanine's Facebook page, and check out the opening statement about Michelle Obama's comments.
And coming up next right here on "Hannity."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We will build a great wall and we will stop illegal immigration for good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: President-elect Donald Trump is promising to build a wall as a new report from the border patrol reveals over 47,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended just last month alone trying to enter the country. Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach joins us next. That and more as "Hannity" continues.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I have a message for the drug dealers, the gang members, and the criminal cartels that are terrorizing all of our citizens in cities and different places throughout the United States, and the message is that your days are numbered. We're getting you out.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We will build a great wall and we will stop illegal immigration for good. And we will have doors in that wall, and people will come into that wall and they'll come through that wall by the tens of thousands. But they're coming in legally.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: That was president-elect Donald Trump over the weekend at his final thank you tour promising to build a border wall and to stop illegal immigration. The president-elect's promises are needed now more than ever because according to a new report from U.S. Customs and Border Protection illegal immigration along the southwest border continues to increase. In November a total of 47,214 individuals were apprehended on the southwest border. That was November alone, which is higher than previous months.
Joining me now is Kansas secretary of state who has been meeting with the president-elect Donald Trump Mr. Kris Kobach. Kris, thanks for joining us. Look at these numbers, 47,214 in November, 46,000 in October, 39,000 in September, so 39, 46, 47,200, what's going on at the border?
KRIS KOBACH, SECRETARY OF STATE FOR KANSAS: You know, this is a really interesting phenomenon, and it's something new because we've never in our history had a president-elect coming into office promising to increase enforcement levels and to build a wall. So it's interesting what happens is the align smuggling networks and the illegal aliens themselves will often react to what's happening in the American political scene, and it appears, we don't know for certain, but it appears that many are saying, look, I'm going to try to get in now before the wall is built and I'm going to try to get in and get embedded in a community now before they start ramping up enforcement under a Trump administration. But it shows that they are taking seriously President Trump's promise to restore the rule of law. And he is going to do that.
BOLLING: Kris, some of the things that strike me with an open border as we have, a Swiss cheese border, as they call it -- terrorism is a concern. Our sovereignty is a concern, drug trafficking is a concern, human trafficking is a concern. Can we stop most of these, all of these, any of these?
KOBACH: You know, we can dramatically reduce them and in some cases and some parts of the border, we can bring them to a complete halt. And I say that because in the San Ysidro sector, for example, that's down by San Diego, there is a 30 mile section there that has a double wall. It is the creme de la creme of border enforcement. It's down to virtually zero crossings there. So, yes, in some places we can stop it completely. And one thing you mentioned is that when you have alien smuggling usually the coyotes will have vehicles that the illegal aliens are in stuffed with drugs as well or they'll force the aliens to carry the drugs in backpacks along with them over the border.
So if we stop the alien smuggling we're going to drastically reduce the drug smuggling, and that is good for America.
BOLLING: Kris, General John Kelly is Donald Trump's choice to lead the department of Homeland Security. What are the plans? What does he want to do?
KOBACH: You know, I think he's shown that very keen interest in the terrorism that exists south of our border and in some parts of Central and South America. And so that awareness of a very real terrorism threat on our southern border is going to be very important. I think having spoken with him and having spoken with the president-elect I think that you're going to see a real focus on securing Americans not only from illegal aliens who may be criminals and illegal aliens who may be taking jobs from Americans, but also those terrorists who are using our southern border, and we've been aware of this more than 15 years, many cases of terrorists coming across our southern border, and it's so easy for them to do that right now. But under a Trump administration that's definitely going to change.
HANNITY: Have we been lucky that we've caught a lot of these people that come across the border as you point out? ISIS has said use the U.S.'s southern border as a method of getting in. Have we just been lucky it hasn't been worse?
KOBACH: I guess so. You can say that, but it has been quite bad. There have been a number of terrorists that we have caught. And I think anyone who is familiar with the southern border knows that for every individual we catch there is probably at least three or four that we don't catch. And so I can only imagine the number of terrorists who have already successfully entered over the southern border.
And another area where terrorists have been abusing the system is the refugee program. Just since early 90s there have been 18 major terrorists who have fraudulently used our refugee program to get into this country, including some very big names and masterminds of the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, for example, the blind sheikh, another example. So we have been, I guess you can say lucky, but bear in mind, I don't want to say we're that lucky but there are almost certainly a significant number of terrorists who have already abused our immigration system and are here.
BOLLING: According to the Customs and Border Protection, CBP, in 2016, I'm talking just this year, 408,870 individuals along the southwest border alone have been apprehended, and that's up from 331,000 full year 15. Are people trying to get in, get across the border before president-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office?
KOBACH: I think they're taking very seriously the promise of Mr. Trump to build a wall. And once that wall is built it's going to be a lot harder to get across that border. So I think there is undoubtedly an uptick from that. There may be other things involved as well. It's interesting. When you look at the flow of people across our southern border, whenever President Obama or some people in the Senate would make a promise of an amnesty, that would cause a surge because aliens would be trying to come in illegally to claim the amnesty once they got here. So there is definitely a very quick response south of the border whenever we change anything in our policies or we indicate that there may be a change coming soon.
BOLLING: I've got about 20 seconds or so, Kris, so we can outline this. There will be a wall, not a fence, but a wall?
KOBACH: Absolutely. There will be a physical barrier, let's put it this way, and the nature of the barrier will depend on the terrain. So if you've got very steep, hilly country, it might be different than what you have in the flatter areas like around San Diego. But there will be a barrier on the southern border, no question about it.
BOLLING: Kris Kobach, thank you very much. Good stuff.
Coming up, tonight's "Question of the Day" is next. Don't go anywhere. Stick around.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BOLLING: Welcome back to "Hannity." Time for tonight's "Question of the Day." Are you sick of the Democrats being sore losers? Head over to Facebook.com/SeanHannity and let us know what you think.
Unfortunately that's all we have time for this evening. I'll be filling in for Sean all week. And also don't forget to tune in to "The Five" every day at 5:00 p.m. eastern. We'll see you back here tomorrow night.
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