Paul Ryan: Plan for implementing Trump's agenda is on track
House speaker talks canceling Obama regulations, replacing ObamaCare and more on 'Hannity'
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," February 16, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And welcome to "Hannity." And we are coming to you tonight from our nation's capital, Washington, D.C. Tonight, speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will both join us.
But first, in a must-see epic beat down, President Donald Trump -- he calls out the extremely dishonest alt left propaganda media, and that is tonight's "Opening Monologue."
So last night, we explained in great, great detail how the abusively biased left-wing press is doing you, the American people, such a great disservice by not telling you the truth, by having an agenda. And in turn, they have created what I called last night a massive informational crisis.
Now, today, after endless attacks from the alt-left propaganda media, President Trump is now fighting back, and in a big way, by calling out the press directly and also setting the record straight. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And I'm making this presentation directly to the American people with the media present, which is an honor to have you this morning, because many of our nation's reporters and folks will not tell you the truth and will not treat the wonderful people of our country with the respect that they deserve.
TRUMP: The press has become so dishonest that if we don't talk about, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people. Tremendous disservice. We have to talk about it to find out what's going on because the press honestly is out of control. The level of dishonesty is out of control.
TRUMP: I'll tell you something, I'll be honest, because I sort of enjoy this back and forth, and I guess I have all my life, but I've never seen more dishonest media than, frankly, the political media. I thought the financial media was much better, much more honest.
TRUMP: There's nobody I have more respect for -- well, maybe a little bit, but -- than reporters, good reporters. It's very important to me and especially in this position. It's very important. I don't mind bad stories. I can handle a bad story better than anybody as long as it's true. And you know, over a course of time, I'll make mistakes and you'll write badly, and I'm OK with that. But I'm not OK when it is fake.
TRUMP: I think it should be straight. I think it should be -- I think it would be, frankly, more interesting. I know how good everybody's ratings are right now, but I think that actually -- I think that'd actually be better. People -- I mean, you have a lower approval rate than Congress. I think that's right. I don't know, Peter, is that one right because, you know, I think they have lower -- I heard lower than Congress.
TRUMP: The public isn't -- you know, they read newspapers, they see television, they watch. They don't know if it's true or false because they're not involved. I'm involved. I've been involved with this stuff all my life. But I'm involved. So I know when you're telling the truth or when you're not. I just see many, many untruthful things. And I'll tell you what else I see. I see tone. You know the word "tone." The tone is such hatred. I'm really not a bad person, by the way. No, but the tone is such -- I do get good ratings, you have to admit that -- the tone is such hatred.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HANNITY: Now, President Trump -- he did not stop there. He also talked about the massive mess that he has inherited and what he's doing to fix it. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
TRUMP: I inherited a mess. It's a mess. At home and abroad, a mess. Jobs are pouring out of the country. You see what's going on with all of the companies leaving our country, going to Mexico and other places, low pay, low wages, mass instability overseas, no matter where you look. The Middle East, a disaster. North Korea -- we'll take care of it, folks. We're going to take care of it all. I just want to let you know I inherited a mess.
TRUMP: We've begun preparing to repeal and replace ObamaCare. ObamaCare is a disaster, folks. It's a disaster.
TRUMP: Jobs have already started to surge. Since my election, Ford announced it will abandon its plans to build a new factory in Mexico and will instead invest $700 million in Michigan, creating many, many jobs.
TRUMP: And one more thing. I have kept my promise to the American people by nominating a justice of the United States Supreme Court, Judge Neil Gorsuch.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HANNITY: Now, President Trump continued by speaking about Michael Flynn's resignation and the massive amount of leaks coming from the government bureaucracy about his administration. Big problem. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
TRUMP: Mike Flynn is a fine person, and I asked for his resignation. He respectfully gave it. He is a man who -- there was a certain amount of information given to Vice President Pence, who is with us today. And I was not happy with the way that information was given.
He didn't have to do that because what he did wasn't wrong, what he did in terms of the information he saw. What was wrong was the way that other people, including yourselves in this room, were given that information because that was classified information that was given illegally. That's the real problem.
And you know, you can talk all you want about Russia, which was all a, you know, fake news, fabricated deal to try and make up for the loss of the Democrats, and the press plays right into it.
TRUMP: How does the press get this information that's classified? How do they do it? You know why? Because it's an illegal process. And the press should be ashamed of themselves. But more importantly, the people that gave out the information to the press should be ashamed of themselves.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HANNITY: Now, President Trump also addressed Russia after fake news, hit pieces insinuated that he may have direct ties to the country. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
TRUMP: The failing New York Times wrote a big, long front-page story yesterday. And it was very much discredited, as you know. It was -- it's a joke. And the people mentioned in the story, I notice they were on television today, saying they never even spoke to Russia.
TRUMP: So the three people that they talked about all totally deny it. And I can tell you, speaking for myself, I own nothing in Russia. I have no loans in Russia. I don't have any deals in Russia. President Putin called me up very nicely to congratulate me on the win of the election. He then called me up extremely nicely to congratulate me on the inauguration, which was terrific. But so did many other leaders, almost all other leaders from almost all other countries. So that's the extent.
Russia is fake news. Russia -- this is fake news put out by the media.
TRUMP: The whole Russian thing, that's a ruse. It's a ruse. And by the way, it would be great if we could get along with Russia, just so you understand that.
TRUMP: Hillary Clinton did a reset, remember, with the stupid plastic button that made us all look like a bunch of jerks? Here, take a look. He looked at her like, "What the hell is she doing with that cheap plastic button?"
TRUMP: I would love to be able to get along with Russia. Now, you've had a lot of presidents that haven't taken that tack. Look where we are now. Look where we are now.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HANNITY: And finally, while his temporary travel ban executive order is being held up by the most liberal court in the country, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the president made very big news about issuing a new executive order to keep you, the American people, safe. Let's look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
TRUMP: We will be issuing a new and very comprehensive order to protect our people. And that will be done some time next week, toward the beginning or middle at the latest part.
TRUMP: As far as the new order, the new order is going to be very much tailored to the -- what I consider to be a very bad decision. But we can tailor the order to that decision and get just about everything, in some ways, more. But we're tailoring it now to the decision. We have some of the best lawyers in the country working on it. And the new executive order is being tailored to the decision we got down from the court.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HANNITY: All I can say is, wow! Now, what we saw today was a historic beat down of the alt-left propaganda media, and they had it coming. Now, we've been showing you example after example of the press purposefully distorting the president's plans and his agenda. It's very refreshing to see a commander-in-chief who will fight back against all the dishonesty, all the smears, set the record straight with you, the American people.
And coming up next tonight right here on "Hannity"...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We've begun preparing to repeal and replace ObamaCare. ObamaCare is a disaster, folks. It's a disaster.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, the president spoke about ObamaCare at today's press conference. So when will it be repealed and replaced? Well, earlier today, right here in D.C., I sat down with the speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, and asked him that very question.
Also today, I spoke one on one with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Now, we're going to play you both interviews.
Stay with us on this busy news night to night on "Hannity."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We've begun preparing to repeal and replace ObamaCare. ObamaCare is a disaster, folks. It's a disaster. You know, you can say, Oh, ObamaCare -- I mean, they -- they fill up our rallies with people that you wonder how they get there, but they're not the Republican people that our representatives are representing. So we've begun preparing to repeal and replace ObamaCare.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right, that was President Trump earlier today announcing the preparations to repeal and replace ObamaCare have now begun.
Earlier today, I went to our nation's capital, where I am now, to talk with the speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, about the Republican plan to repeal and replace "Obama care" and much more. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Mr. Speaker, great to see you.
REP. PAUL RYAN R-WIS., SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Hey, welcome to the Capitol.
HANNITY: It's great to be -- this is your, what, ceremonial office?
RYAN: It is. It is.
HANNITY: All right, you weren't the biggest Donald Trump supporter in the campaign. But the relationship seems to have gotten better. As a matter of fact, you went from, let's see, "weak and ineffective" all the way to fine wine and a good partner.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: So what did you miss -- do you regret not going in deep (ph) before, and what do you think of him now?
RYAN: Well, we tried to at the end, but schedules -- we were going to do this big event in Wisconsin at the end, but they ended up deciding to go to Michigan at the last minute because they thought they had a shot at Michigan and it was a good decision because they won Michigan.
So what I did not see -- and I said this at my press conference the day after the election -- is Donald Trump heard something that no one else heard. He connected with people in this country unlike anybody I'd ever seen before running for president.
Remember, I ran for vice president in the last election. And I basically added -- thought about an election the way we thought about it in 2012. And what he did was mix up the constituency, the vote coalition. He spoke to people who felt like they hadn't been spoken to in years and he gave voice to people who felt like they were voiceless. He tapped into that, and that is something that most people didn't see. And that's something that I said the next day, Bravo. Very impressed.
HANNITY: And how do you feel about -- how's the relationship now?
RYAN: It's great. It's really good, actually. You know, I didn't know the guy. He didn't know me, I didn't know him. We met basically once. And so what we've been doing -- we speak constantly. We talk all the time. We're working on the same plan. What -- what I did during the transition with my counterpart in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, is we put together a 200-day plan for the president to get this agenda that we all have agreed on through the system. And we're exactly on track and on our timeline with that agenda.
HANNITY: That's really the biggest part of what I want to discuss today because -- let's go through what Donald Trump has done. He started executive orders, eased the burden of "Obama care," impending actions to freeze, get rid of 75 percent of all regulations. He withdrew from TPP. He had a federal hiring freeze. He banned money going from (sic) foreign countries for abortion. He signed executive action for Keystone, for the Dakota pipeline. He issued executive orders on the construction of the border wall. He stripped money from sanctuary cities.
He's taken action, as we all know, on extreme vetting, and we'll get to that in a minute. He used executive action to rebuild the military. A plan will be on his desk in seven days to defeat ISIS. And he nominated Neil Gorsuch. We saw him meet with the prime ministers of Canada, Great Britain, and yesterday, of course, Bibi Netanyahu.
So what I see -- this is the biggest question I'm getting from radio and form television. He's moving at the speed of light, and people have been asking me -- it's the top story on the Drudge Report today. Where's Congress because for eight years, you guys had a plan. You kept saying and promising you'll repeal, replace ObamaCare. And I guess what people want to know is, when are these things going to get done?
RYAN: We are exactly on the timeline that we designed for ourselves. ObamaCare is coming next. The reason...
HANNITY: Starting today, really.
RYAN: Well, no, our bill is coming in March.
HANNITY: Right.
RYAN: So the reason we're doing regulatory reform right now is we have a certain window of time where we can go back into the Obama administration and cancel their regulations. It's a law called the Congressional Review Act, and it has a shelf life for just a couple of months. And so we've been consuming February and March as regulatory reform going back into the Obama administration and canceling their regulations.
And so first, it's regulatory reform because we have this window of time to cancel bad Obama regulations. Then we're doing ObamaCare. After we're done with ObamaCare, then we're doing our budget. And our budget is what -- the second budget, which will be tax reform. So we're doing two budgets in one year, which has never been done before. This is faster than it's ever been done before.
HANNITY: So...
RYAN: You have to understand there's a legislative process, and we have all of these things we ran on that we said we would do. We're now in the middle of doing those things, and January and February is the regulatory stuff because the clock on the ability to go after Obama regulations ends soon.
HANNITY: All right, here's the big question. The president ran on an agenda. You said he touched or tapped into something that other people missed. We have 13 million more Americans on food stamps, 8 million more on poverty, lowest labor participation rate, lowest home ownership rate in 51 years.
So here's my question. Donald Trump runs and he says, I'm going to build a wall, repeal and replace "Obama care." He says, I'm going to vet refugees. I'm going to make America energy-independent. We're going to go from seven brackets to three, corporate tax rate 15 percent, allowed repatriation at 10 percent from multi-national corporations. He runs on education back to the states, fixing the VA, building up our military to have a stronger military.
This is the question that I think conservatives and Americans -- and I would call this the forgotten man election. They want to know -- and this -- hopefully, you'll answer today because I heard everything from ObamaCare will be done day one, to the spring, to the summer, to the -- by the end of the year. And so it's been all over the map, not just from you, but from other people. I also heard people say...
RYAN: It actually hasn't been all over the map from us, from me.
HANNITY: OK. Well...
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: ... for the press. It's been all over the map from rumor mills, but from us here in Congress, we're exactly on the timeline that we laid out for yourselves.
HANNITY: When I heard "repair," my head nearly exploded.
RYAN: That's not the plan. The plan...
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: ... repeal and replace this law, like we said. We ran on a plan to repeal and replace it. Tom Price helped write that plan. He is now Donald Trump's secretary of HHS.
HANNITY: So there is a consensus plan...
RYAN: Yes.
HANNITY: ... that's now being scored by the CBO.
RYAN: Correct.
HANNITY: OK, so here's my question. I just listed his agenda, what he ran on for the forgotten men and women...
RYAN: Correct.
HANNITY: ... that voted for him. Do you...
RYAN: Just let me get -- again, that's the agenda we're working on right now. That's the...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Is there any item that I mentioned that you disagree with?
RYAN: No, not at all.
HANNITY: In the 200 -- you're saying to the American people and conservatives that are impatient, including myself -- and you heard my monologue...
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: I would love to do this stuff yesterday, but getting Congress to act on all those things you just said in just in one year's time -- unprecedented! This -- we do these things, this will be the most productive presidency and Congress in our lifetimes.
HANNITY: That's my question. You agree with every item I mentioned, even extreme vetting?
RYAN: Yes. We passed that bill a year ago in the House.
HANNITY: (INAUDIBLE) now agree with building the wall.
RYAN: Yes.
HANNITY: You have...
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: By the way, I did back then, too.
HANNITY: OK.
RYAN: That was in the plan that the House Republicans ran on. That was in Donald Trump's plan.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: It was supposed to be done in '06.
RYAN: It's actually a bill I voted for in 2006. But the problem we had since 2006 was Barack Obama was our president. Now we have a president who's actually serious about securing the border.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANNITY: And coming up, more of my sit-down interview with Speaker Paul Ryan.
And also tonight...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: There has been a tremendous surge of optimism in the business world, which is -- to me, means something much different than it used to. It used to mean, Oh, that's good. Now it means that's good for jobs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: The president shaking things up here in Washington, D.C., and getting the American people back to work. We'll play more highlights from his press conference.
And also tonight, while in Washington, I sat down for an interview with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. And that's coming up in this edition of "Hannity" straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The stock market has hit record numbers, as you know. And there has been a tremendous surge of optimism in the business world, which is -- to me means something much different than it used to. It used to mean, Oh, that's good. Now it means, That's good for jobs. Very different. Plants and factories are already starting to move back into the United States, and big league -- Ford, General Motors, so many of them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right, that was the president earlier today talking about jobs returning to our country.
And here's more of my interview with the speaker of the House, Paul Ryan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANNITY: Are you telling the American people that that agenda that litany -- I'll go -- vetting refugees, building the wall, repeal, replace, education back to the states, tax reform -- all of this is going to be done in 200 days.
RYAN: The education part may be a little later because we're waiting for Betsy DeVos to put together her plan. So on the education thing and the Welfare reform, that's going to be outside of the 200-day window. Inside the 200-day window is the regulatory reforms we talked about, it's the repeal and replace ObamaCare, it's the budget, it's the rebuilding of our military, it's tax reform. Those are the things that we're working -- and infrastructure. Those are the things we're working on in this...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: ... in the equation because...
RYAN: That's in there, as well. I should have said that.
HANNITY: OK.
RYAN: We see that as part of regulatory reform. By the way, we've already done a lot of energy independence. The coal regulation that we repealed from the Obama era, that is a huge energy-independence move because it's going to bring back thousands of jobs in coal country. We can unlock Western Europe. We can -- we can -- we can compete with OPEC. And we couldn't get this with Barack Obama. Now with Donald Trump, we can permit (ph) those things.
HANNITY: Back to the main list. So in 200 days, you're fairly confident that a budget is going to be passed. I'm going to get to the specifics...
RYAN: Two budgets. Two budgets.
HANNITY: Which is never been -- (INAUDIBLE) never happened -- that the wall is in the process of being constructed.
RYAN: Yes.
HANNITY: We're going to working on fixing the VA, that Congress will support extreme vetting and that they'll move forward with energy independence...
RYAN: Yes, and...
HANNITY: ... ObamaCare repeal and replace.
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: ... do extreme vetting on his own. So this is a good -- the good thing is you have a president that agrees with Congress on doing...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: But is 200 days -- that's -- you think that's doable.
RYAN: This is our plan, yes. And if there's any slippage, we'll finish it in the fall and get it done before the end of the year.
HANNITY: So if I come back in 200 days, I -- you're going to -- you're going to go, Well, I made a promise...
RYAN: Yes, well...
HANNITY: Because I think this is important.
RYAN: So here's what I'm saying. We've mapped this out for 200 days. We have a plan to do that. We're on schedule. But if anything slips because of...
HANNITY: It'll be...
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: ... another Supreme Court justice, yes, or -- or a filibuster on a cabinet nominee, that might slip us. But we're -- we're making sure that we do all of this in 2017.
HANNITY: OK, let's go to the budget, which is such a big issue. The president, seven brackets to three, 15 percent corporate rate -- I know you prefer 20 because that scores with...
RYAN: Well, no, I prefer 15.
Its math. It's a math thing.
HANNITY: You support repatriation, multinational corporations. That will be huge but -- that's a lot of money that can come back into the economy.
RYAN: Probably about $3 trillion.
HANNITY: Yes.
RYAN: Of stranded capital (INAUDIBLE)
HANNITY: Ten percent rate, or lower?
HANNITY: That's -- that's -- that's something -- we have lower in our bill. Donald had 10 percent in his. We were -- we're really close.
HANNITY: Did I make a mistake in my monologue in this sense? And you called me after...
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: I heard about your monologue.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: So you called me. By the way, it was pretty gracious of you to call me, and you said you wanted to explain what we're doing because, look, I follow the news every day. I talk to people on my radio show. I'm a maniac on Twitter. I have a TV show. And everybody's saying the same thing. What the hell is going on with the Republicans in Congress?
RYAN: OK, let me just get you there...
HANNITY: But here's my -- but here's my this. Is there a communication problem because you're making me feel better today because I feel for this long term -- to stop the bleeding, to stop America's precipitous decline, these policies need to be put in place.
RYAN: That's exactly right. That's why we're here.
HANNITY: Exactly.
RYAN: That's why Donald Trump ran for president. So here's what we did after this election. We said, Mr. President-elect, before he was president, we agree on all these things. We all agree on what we need to do to save this country. We're conservatives.
HANNITY, HOST: Then why were we guys so harsh against him?
RYAN: We get beyond that. And then we said, OK, let's map out our strategy for how to get this done, when to get it done. We all sat for three months and worked out that plan for 2017. And that is exactly what we are executing.
HANNITY: OK, what have you learned about President Trump that you didn't know before that surprised you? What you like most about him and where do you disagree with?
RYAN: He's warm. He's personable, he's compassionate, and he likes getting stuff done. I love that about him. We have been waiting for this for a long time. Those of us who have been conservatives pent up here fighting the Obama administration, the progressive left, he is a conservative and he is ready to take on these challenges. And so that is what I'm excited about. He's moves so fast that people are scrambling to catch up, especially the media. And so I love the fact that he is not in any way shy about getting big, bold things done. He is aggressive about getting --
HANNITY: What you think about the left of reacting? What did you think the Russian issue that keeps coming up again and again?
RYAN: Well, I think it's just like you say, there is nothing new here. You have to remember the Obama intelligence community under President Obama's direction did a huge investigation community-wide about Russia's involvement. There was no evidence presented to the Congress that any American, let along President Trump, had any involvement in that. It was all about Russia trying to meddle with our election, meddle with our country. We knew this. We know this.
HANNITY: Here's my headline out of this interview, that you're pretty much in full agreement with what Donald Trump ran on, and number two, in 200 days from the legislative side you are going to be implementing every aspect of that agenda that we talked about. That's a big headline.
RYAN: Yes. And we have cushion in our schedule, if anything slips because of Senate issues, we still have time to accommodate all of that stuff in 2017. So I have cushions built in the schedule to make sure this all gets done in 2017 in case something happens and goes sideways on the Senate.
HANNITY: I'm pretty sure that will stimulate the economy, get people back to work, and get the economy moving again, which I think we need.
RYAN: That's what we're hired to do.
HANNITY: All right, Mr. Speaker, I will see you in 200 days.
(LAUGHTER)
RYAN: Maybe before then.
HANNITY: OK, thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANNITY: And up next, tonight, right here on "Hannity."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Israel has no better ally than the United States. And I want to assure you, the United States has no better ally than Israel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Yesterday at the White House, the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke about Israel's relationship with United States, and earlier today I sat down for a one-on-one interview with the Israeli prime minister right here in Washington, and I asked him about President Trump, the administration, Iran, and so much more, straight ahead.
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JACKIE IBANEZ, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good evening. Live from America's news headquarters, I'm Jackie Ibanez in New York. Hispanic groups praising President Trump's pick for labor secretary. If confirmed by the Senate Alexander Acosta would be the first Hispanic member of Trump's cabinet. Acosta served as an assistant attorney general for civil rights under George W. Bush. He's also served on the National Labor Relations Board. Acosta's nomination comes one day after fast food executive Andrew Puzder withdrew from consideration.
With more rain in the forecast, crews are working to lower the water level in the Oroville Dam. Earlier this week officials ordered mandatory evacuations over worries an emergency spillway at the northern California dam could fail. People have since been allowed back home but are urged to be vigilant. Storms are expected to move in over the weekend and a flash flood watch is in effect until Sunday.
I'm Jackie Ibanez. Now back to "Hannity." For all of your headlines, logon to FoxNews.com.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NETANYAHU: Israel has no better ally than the United States. And I want to assure you, the United States has no better ally than Israel. Our alliance has been remarkably strong. But under your leadership, I am confident it will get even stronger.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: That was the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu speaking yesterday at the White House. Earlier today I sat down with the prime minister for an interview right here in D.C., and I asked him about his relationship with the new president, President Trump, and more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANNITY: Mr. Prime Minister, great to see you.
NETANYAHU: Good to see you, Sean. Thank you.
HANNITY: I watched yesterday, and what I said on television last night is this is history in the making. I thought it was very profound.
NETANYAHU: I think it was a historical meeting. It was a meeting of the minds and a meeting of the hearts.
HANNITY: Interesting. It was interesting to watch the president say what a cherished ally Israel is, and for you to say there is no better supporter of the Jewish people and the state of Israel than Donald Trump. And you have known him for how long? How do you know that?
NETANYAHU: I knew him from the time that I was serving as Israel's ambassador to the U.N., and we would sort of bump into each other here and there in New York city. But we've got to know each other and most recently, obviously. And look, we have always had a great alliance between Israel and America through successive presidencies. I feel we have now, as the president says, an even stronger alliance, a new day, he called it, maybe a new age.
HANNITY: I felt there was a cryptic message being sent, and I want to just actually read what you said here. For the first time in your life, for the first time in the history of your country, you said that the Arab countries, your neighbors in the region, do not see Israel as an enemy but as an ally. And then President Trump talked about newfound -- or you talked about newfound Arab partners. And he talked about maybe one state, maybe two states, but may be a bigger deal, a more important deal.
So I'm listening, and this is my take, is that you had once said that one of the benefits of the Iran deal if there's only one benefit is it brought you and your Arab neighbors together. So my read on this is that Israel now has a stronger relationship with United States, maybe a strong relationship with Great Britain, but also Jordan, Egypt, maybe the Emirates, maybe Saudi Arabia, that has never existed before. Is that true?
NETANYAHU: I think there is a change. The change is coming because of the rise of radical Islam. Radical Islam has two fountainheads. Once is the radical Sunnis led by ISIS, and before that by Al Qaeda, and the radical Shiites led by Iran. The Arab countries are threatened by both. And when we look around and say, who is going to help us against these twin threats? They say, well, there's one country in the region that is powerful, that's determined, that's resolved to fight this common enemy, that's Israel. So they don't view us anymore as their enemy, but increasingly they us as their ally against the common threat. And I have to say in my conversation yesterday with President Trump, he sees the things in the same way. That opens up opportunities. No question about it.
HANNITY: Can I get into a little more deeply, what has happened in the interim? You have forged closer alliances. I know you can't divulge everything, but what can you tell us about these particular countries, the Saudi's, the Egyptians, the Jordanians, because I've got to believe none of those countries want Iranian hegemony in the region?
NETANYAHU: That's an understatement. They think Iran will cut their throats, and they are right.
HANNITY: They're right.
NETANYAHU: And they're right. And look, I had -- in the great alliance between Israel and the United States, we have had our differences. We also had, and I have to give credit to President Obama, we had this memorandum of understanding, 10 years support for Israel. I appreciate that. But we also had our differences, and the most important difference was on Iran.
The Arab countries sort of whispered things in the dark. They wouldn't say it outright. I had to sort of speak out for everyone in the region. But right now I think it's not really in the region. People understand that Iran is a malevolent force. And the nuclear deal with Iran, if it is kept, the Iranians just walk in. The deal essentially said this, it said no bomb today, 100 bombs tomorrow, in 10 years. That's what it says. Because Iran can go the enrichment of uranium, which is the key --
HANNITY: Only two years ago, you said that, in March of 2015.
NETANYAHU: Yes. Now, the assumption was, OK, we are kicking the can down the road, but this nuclear can, a single bomb becomes the capacity to make dozens and dozens of bombs. And Iran doesn't change its attitude. Since the signing of the deal, Sean, this is what has happened. Iran has become more aggressive, more deadly, sponsoring more terrorism. And in fact also --
HANNITY: With more money.
NETANYAHU: With more money, a lot more money. And people are saying, wait a minute, this roaring tiger, if it's not stopped it will devour all of us. We are all prey to this militant Islamic regime that will arm itself with nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles that can reach you. They've killed Americans all over the place. They've sponsored terrorism against Americans all over the place. Now they're going to build ICBMs, intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach the United States and have the multiple warheads to do that? That's horrible. It's dangerous for America, dangerous for Israel, dangerous for the Arabs. Everybody now understands it, and there's an American president who understands it, and we are talking about what to do about this common threat.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANNITY: And coming up, part two of my interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. I'll ask him about the rogue regime in Tehran and radical Islam. And also tonight --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: On foreign affairs we have already begun enormously productive talks with many foreign leaders to move forward toward stability, security, and peace.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: More highlights from President Trump's explosive press conference from earlier today. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." And here is more of my interview with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. This is from earlier today at the Blair House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANNITY: You agree with me radical Islam is the evil in our time, and Iran represents the biggest threat.
NETANYAHU: Because it would couple a radical Islamic with nuclear weapons. There could be evil that is not threatening because it doesn't have the powers of mass murder. But when you couple a radical Islamic regimes that says death to America with the weapons of mass death, then you have a much, much bigger problem.
HANNITY: A squared, B squared, C squared, radical Islamic terrorists, weapons of mass destruction, equals a modern-day holocaust?
NETANYAHU: It's up to us to prevent it.
HANNITY: That's the important issue. The one thing the president said yesterday is that will not happen. And I am just assuming with a new coalition that would be very possible.
I don't think a lot of people fully understand -- I've watched all these years since the Iranian revolution in '79, death to America, death to America, death to Israel, burning the American flag, burning the Israeli flag. I think now after all these incidents of terror -- we have this whole immigration problem where so many refugees have gone to Europe and parts of Europe have culturally shifted dramatically.
And if you look at countries under Sharia that the oppress women and they kill gays and lesbians. And there are 16 countries that don't accept Jewish passports, 16. And America is supposed to take in the world's refugee population. Explain, how does America and Europe based on your experience in the region, how do they ascertain that they're taking in immigrants and they're taking in refugees, whether or not ISIS will infiltrate the refugee population? How can you possibly vet what is in somebody's heart?
NETANYAHU: It's very hard to vet, but every country tries to in one degree or another tries to do that. Every country has to have the freedom to do so, and I won't get into your considerations in doing so. But I will say -- I will say this. I'm a great believer in human exchanges and markets and so on. But I think it's very important to be able to prevent the infiltration of terrorists, because terrorism is so disruptive. It doesn't necessarily kill that many people, although you suffered a terror attack that killed thousands of people.
HANNITY: I interviewed you, and you were one of our strongest allies at the time.
NETANYAHU: I remember that very, very well. That was a moment of great tragedy. So as the weapons become more sophisticated and more deadly, then the threat of terrorism becomes more deadly. And therefore the need to prevent terrorism becomes greater. And this is something I think applies to all countries today.
HANNITY: There's 1,000-pound bomb on a missile that Iran currently has could reach your country in less than seven minutes. Pretty scary.
NETANYAHU: Yes.
HANNITY: And I went to Israel.
NETANYAHU: They want to have ICBMs that could reach your country, and that's what they're working on.
HANNITY: That's what they're working on.
NETANYAHU: Remember, you're the great Satan. We're just the small Satan, they say. And we're just on the way. On their way to what? Henry Kissinger said I think very intelligently, he said Iran is not merely a country. It is much more of a cause. It's a cause more than a country. What is that cause? It's global domination by their brand of radical Islam.
HANNITY: It's a caliphate.
NETANYAHU: It is more than that. They believe that they are destined to govern the world. Anybody who doesn't agree with them, they will be able to subjugate or kill. They are working on the means to achieve that.
Their greatest enemy they think is the United States. They think everyone else is a derivative. And they are developing the capacity to deliver on their slogans, death to America, death to Americans in between. So we have a grand mission. And it's not a mission that we invent. We didn't invent these ICBMs. We didn't invent their nuclear programming in which they seek to create nuclear weapons. We don't invent the terrorists that they send throughout the Middle East and the world. Iran has a terror network of dozens and dozens of countries that they operate with their own operatives and their henchmen.
HANNITY: They have been fighting proxy wars for decades.
NETANYAHU: But I'm taking about terror cells that they are building, planning them, preparing throughout the world, in Asia, in Africa, in Europe, India.
HANNITY: In the United States.
NETANYAHU: In this hemisphere as well.
HANNITY: It's a pretty scary thought.
You know, let me go to a Palestinian issue on this one point. You said -- the president said one state, two state, maybe a whole new paradigm, and then talked about settlements briefly. It might be helpful not to for now. I do not want to harp on that point so much as I want to ask this. If this coalition can be built, does that solve that problem too?
NETANYAHU: It could help.
HANNITY: Maybe absorb the population.
NETANYAHU: It could begin to affect this persistent refusal to recognize Israel and any boundary, which is what is a source of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. The reason goes on is because the Palestinians continue to agitate for Israel's destruction. They do not care about this territory or that boundary or that settlement. They say everything is settlement. Tel-Aviv is a settlement. Jerusalem is a settlement. Haifa is a settlement. We have to get rid of everything. And I think that some normalization in the Arab world could help us begin to change attitudes there.
But even if we did, and I think they have to come and recognize the Jewish state. I've said always, you want peace? The first thing is you have to get rid of the thing that prevents peace. The thing that prevents peace is the persistent refusal to recognize the right of the Jewish people for a state of their own.
HANNITY: It's a precondition. They don't recognize your --
NETANYAHU: I don't say it's a precondition for talks, but if you want to end the conflict, that is a prerequisite for peace.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANNITY: Now, it's interesting, the prime minister and I spoke off-camera, and he was telling me how his wife Sara, the first lady, Melania Trump, he said they had a great time and a great relationship. Things have changed a lot.
And coming up next tonight here on "Hannity."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: On foreign affair we have already begun enormously productive talks with many foreign leaders, much of it you've covered, to move forward towards stability, security, and peace.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: More highlights from President Trump's press conference from earlier today. And also our important "Question of the Day" straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." President Trump during his press conference today spoke about his communication with foreign leaders. Let's take a look. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: On foreign affairs we have already begun enormously productive talks with many foreign leader, much of it you've covered, to move forward towards stability, security, and peace in the most troubled regions of the world, of which there are many. We have had great conversations with the United Kingdom and meetings, Israel, Mexico, Japan, China, and Canada, really, really productive conversations. I would say far more productive than you would understand.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right, that leads us to tonight's "Question of the Day." So what did you think of the president's press conference from earlier? Just to go Facebook.com/SeanHannity, @SeanHannity on Twitter, let us know what you think. That's all the time we have left this evening. From Washington D.C., don't forget, set your DVR so you never miss an episode. And we'll see you back in New York tomorrow night.
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