This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," March 15, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: This is a Fox News Alert. President Trump is back on the road. Earlier tonight, he held a rally in Music City, Nashville, Tennessee, where the president reacted to an Obama-appointed federal judge, this time in Hawaii, putting another hold on his temporary travel ban, and much more. Let's look at some of the highlights from tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Moments ago, I learned that a district judge in Hawaii...
(BOOS)
TRUMP: ... part of the much overturned 9th circuit court...
(BOOS)
TRUMP: And I have to be nice, otherwise I'll get criticized. A judge has just blocked our executive order on travel and refugees coming into our country from certain countries!
Some of the fake news said, I don't think Donald Trump wants to build a wall. Can you imagine if I said we're not going to build a wall?
(BOOS)
TRUMP: Fake news. Fake, fake news.
We'll get rid of ObamaCare and make health care better for you and for your family!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right, we'll have reaction to the president's rally. That's coming up later in the show.
But first, NBC's corporate jihad against President Donald Trump continues. Plus, a new report from Circa News shows the investigation into a server connected to Donald Trump was, in fact, a politically motivated hit job pushed by a big-time Hillary Clinton donor. By the way, that's tonight's "Opening Monologue."
All right, NBC has now hit a new low by releasing the president's tax returns, or a small portion of them, last night. But what we're seeing from the alt-left propaganda destroy Donald Trump media, it's not new.
Now that Donald Trump occupies the Oval Office, the opposition party press is going to new extremes and lows to try and take down his presidency, and they won't stop until he's out of office.
Now, I've been saying since 2008 right here on this program, journalism is dead. Now it's in the ground, buried, flowers on top. And last night's political hit job by NBC is just the latest example in the media's long list of attacks against the president. Here's just a small sampling.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL, MSNBC, MARCH 7: Here you have a deranged president, or a pathologically lying president, lying about the operations of the American government and lying about the previous president of the United States. That's enough to invoke the 25th Amendment, but Mike Pence and the Cabinet are not there yet.
CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC, JAN. 20: When he said today "America first," it was not just a racial -- I mean, I shouldn't say racial, the Hitlerian background to it...
MIKA BRZEZINSKI, MSNBC, MARCH 10: I understand why so many people voted for him. I understand where you were coming from. I understand why you liked him. But this man is lying to you.
BRIAN WILLIAMS, MSNBC, FEB. 16: Trump's critics, those who are worried about this president and this White House, saw a live special television event brought to you by narcissism, thin skin, chaos and deeply personal grievances.
VAN JONES, CNN, NOV. 9, 2016: This was a whitelash. This was a whitelash against a changing country. It was a whitelash against a black president in part. And that's the part where the pain comes.
JONES, OCT. 19, 2016: This is a really sad night. I'm just going to say it. This is a very sad night for the country. You can't polish this turd.
NICHOLAS KRISTOF, NEW YORK TIMES COLUMNIST, CNN, JAN. 24: I don't know -- are you using the word lie or falsehood? What are you -- what are you...
DON LEMON, CNN: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: I mean, I think you have use -- the word -- the word -- you have to call it what it is.
LEMON, JAN. 11: It was interesting because I saw Sean Spicer on Fox News, and he said that you were rude. And I thought...
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The First Amendment does not require us --
LEMON: When he calls you fake news, what if you had called him a fake president?
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HANNITY: Beyond awful. And when the alt-left propaganda media isn't doing what you just saw and attacking the integrity and mental health of the president, well, they're running wild with all kinds of bizarre conspiracy theories about the Trump campaign colluding with the Russians. Now, what the biased press refuses to tell you, there is zero -- no evidence whatsoever that shows any kind of collusion.
Well, that didn't stop the leader of the alt-left propaganda media, Rachel Maddow herself, from going off the deep end last night, claiming that in 2005, a Russian oligarch knew that Donald Trump was going to be president, so he bought a property from him in Florida and Trump made a huge profit, more than two times what he paid for it!
And as I said last night, Maddow thinks that somehow, maybe Russia knew in 2005 that Donald Trump would be elected president in 2016. Unfortunately, NBC News didn't think that was possible even on election night. Now, that's pretty pathetic, and the media should know better, but they'd rather put their radical left-wing agenda than telling the truth to the American people. That's why they never vetted Obama. That's why they colluded with Hillary.
Now, two journalists at Circa News, Sara Carter, John Solomon, who will be here in just a minute, have already debunked this Russia story and conspiracy and the talking points. Now, last week, they reported that the FBI has found no evidence of collusion between Trump and the Russians, just like James Clapper had said. And that's officials that are inside the agency. They are frustrated how it's now being represented by this media that is corrupt.
Tonight, they have another bombshell story. Here's the headline. Quote, "Hillary Clinton supporter pushed Trump-Russia computer narrative investigated by FBI."
Now, according to the report, computer scientist and Indiana University professor L. Jean Camp pushed the theory into the left-wing media that a computer server connected to Donald Trump was communicating with a Russian bank. Now, the FBI did, in fact, look into it. They found nothing to indicate collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.
Now, it's very important to note that L. Jean Camp has donated, shockingly, thousands of dollars to Hillary Clinton, including $2,200 to her 2016 presidential campaign. She's also donated over $10,000 to Democratic groups and candidates since 2004, including the radical group Moveon.org.
But it doesn't end there. Camp also has a series of social media posts where she advocated for Hillary Clinton. She pushed the Trump-Russia conspiracy connection and talked about joining the quote, "resistance."
Circa News reached out to Camp for a comment on the story. She confirmed the donations and said her actions regarding the server were not politically motivated. Oh, that's shocking. But once again, the alt left media -- they didn't even bother to look into this!
Here now with more, the journalists who broke the story, from Circa News, Sara Carter and John Solomon. Let me ask, John -- I'll start with you. I anybody -- this is pretty blockbuster information. You both have over two decades in the media. And by the way, you're not a member of my right-wing conspiracy. You worked for the AP for 20 years. I doubt I could get a job there, right?
(LAUGHTER)
JOHN SOLOMON, CIRCA NEWS: Probably not. Right.
HANNITY: All right, has anybody else in the -- probably not? All right. Thanks a lot.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: ... there, John. All right, so has anyone else in the media looked into your story, called you about it, asked for background, considering you're well known in this industry.
SOLOMON: Yes, they haven't, and of course, at the end of the day, when you do these things, you're more concerned about the facts and what sort of attention or media attention you get. Listen, there are so many things being thrown around Washington right now. And going back to the basics of journalism, I learned a long time ago. Follow the money, follow the politics.
And I think when you look at some of these allegations, you start to see a partisan political line and you see a money line. And I think both of those things are very important to keep looking at.
HANNITY: Sara, has anyone reached out to you? And why don't you bring us up to speed on this new development while John gets his earpiece fixed.
(LAUGHTER)
SARA CARTER, CIRCA NEWS: Absolutely! No, no one's reached out to me, either. And just like John, I mean, the most important thing is getting the facts out to the American public and ensuring that we're doing our job and doing our job well by stating those facts.
What we discovered here is that Professor L. Jean Camp, who is very partisan and a supporter of Hillary Clinton, who's made donations not just to Hillary Clinton but to groups supporting the Democratic Party, posted on her Web site actually in October these connections, supposedly, between the Trump server and the Russian bank. We know that they were first posted on Reddit. And we did not know by who yet, but we know that it was one of her colleagues, and that they pushed the FBI to investigate this.
And the FBI did investigate this and found no collusion whatsoever. In fact, the data that was bouncing back and forth between the Trump server and the Russian bank -- I mean, well, it contained no data. It was pings, and it contained no data. So they didn't find any collusion whatsoever and dropped the case.
And like I said before, I mean, the investigation was less than two weeks. So they didn't spend a lot of time on it and kind of pushed it away. Although Camp stated to us in her e-mail responses that she wished they had continued the investigation.
HANNITY: Well, it raises questions, Sara. And before we get John back into this here, why did the FBI listen to a political partisan? And we talked about the FISA warrant and another warrant which I'm suspecting it came from the FBI in some way, shape, manner or form, a criminal investigation, and any ancillary information they got from a Trump server. There was surveillance on a Trump server from the Trump Tower. Although it's off-site, it's the Trump Tower server. And they found nothing.
Why don't they tell the American people this is nonsense and move on?
CARTER: I don't know. All I know is that Senator Lindsey Graham has been asking the FBI to make that statement. And he even said today that there's no evidence proving that there's any investigation between Trump and Russia. And he hopes that the FBI director Comey will answer that question. What we know is that Director Comey spoke with Senator Grassley today, as well as Senator Feinstein, and that meeting lasted more than a hour.
What they spoke about was classified, and they did not reveal what was spoken about. But one thing that we do know is that coming from our sources, coming from the sources that John and I both spoke with, there is no evidence of any criminality between Trump and the Trump team and Russia to date. And that is a fact.
HANNITY: Was she acting as a lone agent on her own volition, John, or is there a potential here that this runs deeper, maybe a collusion maybe at the direction of somebody in the Hillary campaign or Hillary supporters?
SOLOMON: Listen, Jean Camp is a well-respected computer researcher. She hung out, as she said, with a bunch of nerds -- that was her term -- and that they discovered these pings. They became fascinated by it and they tried to gain attention from it.
I think the most interesting part of her social media is when you look in the last few weeks, she seems to lament that this didn't get more attention and that it might have knocked Donald Trump out of the presidency.
And it does go towards her motive. Giving donations to Hillary Clinton, lamenting that the allegations she made didn't knock Trump out of office -- I think those are things that the American public has to take a look at and weigh when they see these...
HANNITY: All right, last question.
SOLOMON: Sure.
HANNITY: Sara, I'll throw it to you. Last question. So where is -- where -- what's the next level of this story from your vantage point? What are the questions you want most answered?
CARTER: Well, I think we've just reached the tip of the iceberg. But one of the questions that I think really needs to be answered -- it's a question that House Intelligence chairman Nunes posed today. Who unmasked the names of Flynn? Where -- who was looking at this raw data? How many more people in the White House could possibly be exposed by leaks in the future?
And what are the regulations regarding those? I mean, these are questions that really need to be answered, and they're very damaging to the national security of this country, as well as to the rights of citizens for privacy. And I think there's going to be a lot more to this story, Sean.
HANNITY: I think there's going to be a lot more to it. I think you're right. The deep state, the Obama holdovers, career bureaucrats, saboteurs -- they're -- they're trying to prevent the president from being able to do his job. They're spending so much time on these things. That's why I say that purge needs to happen. And I think the U.S. attorneys was only the first step, in my humble opinion. Anyway, thank you both for being with us. We'll follow this investigation.
And up next tonight right here on "Hannity"...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't know. I have no idea where they got it, but it's illegal. And you're not supposed to have it. And it's not supposed to be leaked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: President Trump reacts to his 2005 tax returns being leaked. Somebody committed a felony. Up next, former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich weighs in on that.
And later tonight...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And we are going to repeal and replace horrible, disastrous ObamaCare!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: President Trump during his rally in Music City, Nashville USA, said ObamaCare must be repealed and replaced. All of that, Jay Sekulow, Sharyl Attkisson, Michelle Malkin and much more tonight. Newt's next straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: And welcome back to "Hannity." So President Trump during his sitdown interview with our friend and colleague Tucker Carlson earlier today, spoke about the release of his 2005 tax returns. Watch his answer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't know. I have no idea where they got it. But it's illegal. And you're not supposed to have it. And it's not supposed to be leaked. And it's certainly not an embarrassing tax return at all, but it's an illegal thing. They've been doing it. They've done it before, and I think it's a disgrace.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: It was a disgrace and likely a felony. And earlier today, MSNBC's liberal Joe Scarborough suggested President Trump leaked the tax returns himself.
Yes, liberal Joe tweeted, quote, "This one tax return is not bad for him because he cherry-picked one return from over a decade ago and had it leaked to the press." I guess the Russians went out in the dark of night and put it in some guy's mailbox. Anyway, "The Trump camp released one positive tax return to distract from Russia hearings and "TrumpCare's" meltdown. That's painfully obvious."
NBC is now the network of bizarre conspiracy theories
Anyway, joining us with reaction, author of the New York Times best-seller "Treason," also a new op-ed on FoxNews.com about the president's budget, that's former speaker of the House, Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich.
You worked with liberal Joe. I mean, I guess, you know, he's kind of jumped the shark a bit, and now he's into mad conspiracy theories. But...
NEWT GINGRICH, R-FMR. HOUSE SPEAKER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Look...
HANNITY: Yes. When you get that look, I know something's coming. Go ahead.
GINGRICH: Look, if you go to the movies and you look at "X-Men" or you look at "Transformers" or you look at a whole range of these hero movies and these various wild action movies, you understand the mindset of a large number of Americans who can't think anymore.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: Yes!
GINGRICH: And all they want is noise and sound and action. And that's the modern left. I mean, what -- Joe Scarborough used to be a much smarter guy, but the longer he stays at MSNBC, the more he seems to drink the left- wing Kool-Aid, and it gets to be kind of goofy. It's not ideological, it's just out of touch with reality.
So let's start with what the president said, which I agree with 100 percent, but it's up to the president and his administration to follow through. It is a felony to release an Internal Revenue Service tax record. It's punishable by five years’ imprisonment. And they're going to have to start empaneling grand juries and tracking down people who are breaking the law.
Let's be clear about this. This isn't about civil disobedience. This isn't about, you know, the public's right to know. There are a set of laws for good, powerful reasons which prevent people from routinely taking government information and giving it out. And we have to enforce those laws if we're going to have any kind of semblance of government in Washington, D.C.
HANNITY: I've been putting up every night, Mr. Speaker, on this program -- - I've been putting up every example of every leak from the intelligence community. Now we've got his tax returns leaking. Somebody -- in every case, you're right. This is a felony that is being committed. And I talk a lot about the deep state. I talk a lot about the lies and conspiracies that keep getting, you know, repeated by the -- the destroy Trump media.
And now it's gotten to the point where I've got to believe that 60, 5 percent of the time that the Trump team is now spending on defending things that people like John Solomon are reporting are not true. There's been no proof, no evidence of any Russian collusion.
Where's James Comey? Why is he not telling the country, yes, we investigated it, it's over. There's nothing there.
GINGRICH: Look, what the Trump team should do, what the president should do is appoint one or two people to deal with nonsense. And they can be called sort of the nonsense squad. And they can...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Who wants that job? I work in the White House and I'm the nonsense director.
GINGRICH: You could -- no, no, you could...
HANNITY: I deal with the conspiracy theories.
GINGRICH: ... find some adventurous souls. All I'm saying is they would go in and they would start Spicer's press briefing with a five or ten- minute list of that week's nonsense. Then they'd leave. Everybody else ought to focus on infrastructure, creating jobs, solving the health problem, the kind of things that matter to the average American.
They should not allow the elite media to suck them into wasting their senior management time chasing a bunch of stories that are garbage. I mean (INAUDIBLE) OK, here's the garbage patrol. Maybe they give it to the person they're mad at. You're now going to be punished. You're in charge of the garbage patrol. I don't care how they do it. You know, maybe they can go out and recruit Mitt Romney. I mean, there are a lot of different opportunities for service here. But what they should do is have a very small...
HANNITY: So basically, hire a garbage man.
GINGRICH: ... number of people whose job is to...
HANNITY: A propaganda conspiracy...
GINGRICH: Their job is to deal with...
HANNITY: ... debunking garbage man.
GINGRICH: ... nonsense, and everybody else should focus on the real job.
HANNITY: Look, I -- part of it's funny, but when you have the president of the United States -- when you have deep state bureaucrats, Obama holdovers, and you've got these lifelong, you know, career bureaucrats that want to destroy the president and are breaking laws doing it, it's got to end. These people have to go. They have to be fired. It's hurting the country.
GINGRICH: The only way...
HANNITY: And it's -- yes.
GINGRICH: The only way it's going to end is either, A, for Trump to cave in and surrender, or B, for them to root out, fire the people who are doing this, including career civil servants who are breaking the law. And I -- there's no -- nothing in the civil service rules that allow you to break the law. And I think they have to enforce it very aggressively.
HANNITY: I think the odds of Donald Trump, the president, retreating and surrendering are about negative 1,000. So I don't see that scenario unfolding. But you're right, a lot of people would say, Well, it's a lot easier to just act like we're being president. I don't think -- I didn't see that tonight when he was speaking in Nashville, Tennessee.
But we got to take a break. We'll have more with Newt Gingrich. We'll talk about agenda items beyond conspiracies.
And also coming up next...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And we are going to repeal and replace horrible, disastrous ObamaCare!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: President Trump promising again ObamaCare must be repealed and replaced. Can he get it done with Republican lawmakers that are at each other's throat? We'll ask Newt Gingrich how to solve that.
And also later tonight...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Some of the fake news said, I don't think Donald Trump wants to build the wall. Can you imagine if I said we're not going to build a wall? Fake news. Fake, fake news!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Yes, NBC, CNN, fake news, President Trump calling out the alt left propaganda destroy Trump media at tonight's rally. Jay Sekulow, Sharyl Attkisson will weigh in on that.
Also Michelle Malkin is here on this busy news night. Please stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We are going to repeal and replace horrible, disastrous ObamaCare!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: If we leave ObamaCare in place, millions and millions of people will be forced off their plans. The bill that I will ultimately sign, and that will be a bill where everybody's going to get into the room and we're going to get it done, will get rid of ObamaCare and make health care better for you and for your family!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right, that was President Trump earlier tonight, Nashville, Tennessee, saying he is optimistic he will hammer out a deal with Republicans to repeal, replace ObamaCare.
Now, during his interview with Tucker Carlson, the president said there are five or six Republican senators who oppose the GOP health care plan. I've said it on the show before. Republican leadership, in my opinion -- they were ill prepared for this moment. Now it's time to get it right.
And there is reports from The Washington Post that say, quote, "Ryan-backed group target Freedom Caucus members with TV ads on the health care bill."
Back with us, former speaker of the House, Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich. I think that was before today, the speaker said it's not going to be the binary choice, take it or leave it, that they were once selling.
I've said from the beginning, Mr. Speaker, I think they ought to get the Freedom Caucus. They ought to get Reince and Bannon and the White House in there. I even suggested you be a part of the group. The Study Group should get in there, the Freedom Caucus. I think they ought to get Senators Cotton and Lee and Rand Paul and -- and Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio in there. Get the groups that are opposing it, Heritage, Americans for Prosperity, Club for growth -- get themselves in a room, take away everybody's phone, build (ph) the box that you talk about in creating legislation and get it done!
It seems like this is -- all this infighting shows that they're ill prepared after eight years of running on this!
GINGRICH: Well, look, I mean, I think you are partially right. But I think you also...
HANNITY: I think I'm always right.
GINGRICH: ... could expand the room. I know.
(LAUGHTER)
GINGRICH: But you invited me to be your guest, so I want to give you...
HANNITY: I'm kidding!
GINGRICH: ... a slightly different opinion.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: I know. Sorry. Go ahead.
GINGRICH: Look, here's my -- here's my point, and this is what folks on the right sometimes forget. Yes, you ought to get all those people in the room. You also have to get Senator Collins from Maine. You have to get Senator Murkowski from Alaska. When you look at the Senate margins, since zero Democrats are going to help because they can't possibly be for repealing ObamaCare or they get killed in the primaries, you have 52 votes in the Senate, period. That's the universe. So you can't say, oh, let's make sure we take care of Ted Cruz, but, oh, by the way, now we have lost five senators over here. That's a net loss. That's not a win.
HANNITY: OK, but there has got to be a sweet spot. There's got to be a win-win. There's about 23, 24 members that were in districts where Hillary Clinton won the district but they won the Republican seat. I'm not saying abandon those people, but I am using your analogy here. This isn't mine, that you create a box and within that box is the answer. And no one is going to get everything they want.
GINGRICH: Look, you are right, and I believe in that box. My first point to the Freedom Caucus and others is the box has to include everyone, which makes it harder, not easier. Second, I would say to you, the number one key that I learned from the Army's training in doctrine command way back in 1979 is a very simple set of words -- listen, learn, help, and lead. And the leadership is going to learn in the next few days that they better spend more of their time listening and less of their time lecturing, because it is a free society. You have to get all these folks talking and they have got to sort it out. And they've got to say, well, maybe plan one doesn't work, what about a plan two, a plan three, a plan five, a plan 11?
We didn't get the things we got done by locking people in a room and just getting one way or no way. We kept churning and looking and developing. And we had to learn a lot. Health care is the most complicated thing we will try to do. Ten times more complicated than national security.
HANNITY: For eight years, and you can even argue since November 8th, they knew what the president's mandate was on this. Of course they are not going to be able to arm twist their way to a successful bill and there's going to build a lot of resentment. I am frustrated and I know many other people are frustrated that they will were not prepared. All of the infighting we see going on on TV and on radio every day and in the papers, shouldn't that have been handled way before they rolled out this bill and most of this taken care of and the consensus built?
GINGRICH: In theory, yes. I agree. I once read a fascinating book by a golf teacher who had been Arnie Palmer's roommate at Wake Forest. And he said he and Palmer would go out and they both had bad shots. And all the way to his next shot, he beat himself up for being stupid. All the way up to the next shot. Palmer would look up and go, "bad shot," and that's it. All the way up he's figuring out how to recover. Guess which guy did better?
So my only point is, we are where we are. You can go back and apportion lots of things. There wasn't a big enough transition team. They weren't prepared to deal with the complexity. Tom Price, who is brilliant and a great doctor and a good congressman, by himself can't be the whole department. The Democrats successfully slowed everything down by at least two months.
So there are lots of places you can look at and say whether it is it Ryan or it's Trump or it's McConnell, it's just where we are in life. The question is, where do we go from here now? I think that we've seen Trump who tonight was very good.
HANNITY: I agree. Do you like my idea -- put everybody in a room, and all sides, all factions, everybody speaks, and lock the door, throw away your phones, and get the job done?
GINGRICH: I wouldn't do that because it takes days to solve this and I don't want people to go crazy. But your basic premise is correct. I am very pleased with how Trump is doing this. What did he talk about tonight? He doesn't say it is this bill or nothing. He says you're going to love the ultimate bill. That is exactly the right attitude. Now let's figure out how we roll up our sleeves --
HANNITY: In many ways, the president -- didn't the president in a tough spot that he's got to go in and clean up their mess. It's frustrating.
GINGRICH: Sean. He ran for the job. He's a volunteer. He's a big boy. It's OK.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: He's got the executive branch. They've got the legislative branch.
GINGRICH: I know. But if one of those guys could have done it, they would be president. They got a brand-new guy learning a brand new game. He's never done it before. He gets better every week.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: -- he's been great at negotiations. So all right, Mr. Speaker.
GINGRICH: And he will be. Part of negotiating is patience. Part of negotiating is a sense of humor. He will get there. I'm very confident that President Trump will bring to bear all the things he has learned in his career.
HANNITY: And so far, I think he is. I am more critical of the legislative branch, but hopefully they get their act together and hopefully we learn something as we move forward to the budgets. They're going to pass two budgets this year, tax reform. A lot of big issues on the table. So we've got to get moving. Thank you, sir.
And up next, tonight, right here on "Hannity."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Some of the fake news said I don't think Donald Trump wants to build a wall. Can you imagine if I said we will not build a wall? Fake news. Fake, fake news.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: President Trump calling out the alt left propaganda media at tonight's Tennessee rally. We're going to get reaction. Jay Sekulow, Sharyl Attkisson will joins us. And the later, Michelle Malkin joins us live to weigh in on NBC's corporate jihad against the president and much more straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Some of the fake news said I don't think Donald Trump wants to build a wall. Can you imagine if I said we will not build a wall? Fake news. Fake, fake news.
And by the way, watch what happens. You just booed ObamaCare. They will say Trump got booed when he mentioned it. They are bad people, folks. They're bad people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: That was the president earlier tonight talking about all the fake news that we have to get bombarded with pretty much every day. Air Force One, by the way, just landed at Joint Base Andrews. And he has a right to be upset. Why? Because journalism is dead, it died in '08. The alt-left propaganda destroy-Trump media was salivating at the mouth last night, announcing NBC got a hold of Trump's 2005 tax returns.
Let's compare and contrast, shall we? Between 2000 and 2015, take a look. The Obamas paid a whopping $6.1 million in federal taxes, 15 years. Keep in mind, President Trump and the first lady Melania Trump, they paid in one year alone, in 2005, $38 million. By the way, at a higher rate than the Obama's. So President Trump paid more taxes to the government in one year than the Obama stated in 15 years, probably their entire life and then some.
Joining us now with reaction from the American Center for Law and Justice Jay Sekulow, and she is the host of "Full Measure" and the author of the upcoming book "The Smear, How Shady Political Operatives and Fake News Control What You See, What You Think, and How you Vote," Sharyl Attkisson is with us, former of CBS.
Sharyl, it's daily. You have NBC now as the national bizarre conspiracy network. CNN, all these networks on this Russia conspiracy thing. How many years have you known John Solomon? Do you believe John Solomon? Do you trust his reporting?
SHARYL ATTKISSON, "FULL MEASURE" HOST: John Solomon has excellent sources and Sara Carter as well. So I don't know the details of their story but I tend to think their reporting is solid.
I also think that we are seeing the result of something that has been going on for quite some time. I argue that we have allowed the mainstream news, we've allowed political operatives and corporate operatives to infiltrate our newsrooms by inviting them in not just as pundits and analysts but in some cases by hiring ideologues as reporters who actually serve a narrative's interest rather than necessarily seeking to find the facts.
HANNITY: Does Clinton Foundation donor, Jay Sekulow, George Stephanopoulos, is he really objective? Just watch him in the war room back in the day when he was working for Bill Clinton. He is not objective. He is not fair. He's not balanced. But he thinks and acts like he is a reporter. That's how ABC presents it.
JAY SEKULOW, AMERICAN CENTER FOR LAW AND JUSTICE: Yes. It's results- driven. What you have got right now is basically results-driven news. It's not news based on facts. I'm a lawyer. I deal with facts and I deal with evidence. What you have got right now basically is results oriented. They have a goal, they want to get to that goal, they will skew the evidence to get there. And I think the perfect example of that was the ridiculous reporting last night on MSNBC. That was absurd. It showed, what, that Donald Trump made a lot of money and paid a lot of taxes? I made the joke, I'm a tax lawyer by training. I could've done a little bit better I think for him.
But the fact is at the end of the day, what was it? It was trying to create a story out of nothing. When you don't have a really good set of facts, you argue the law. When you don't have good law, you argue the facts. And I think what a lot of the media is doing right now is making it up as they go and trying to create something out of whole cloth.
HANNITY: And Sharyl, what was your reaction to last night's massive, big dud of a bombshell?
ATTKISSON: I thought if they were really seeking facts, although Rachel Maddow is an opinion person. But if they were really seeking facts --
HANNITY: She calls herself a journalist. I beg to differ. In an interview she calls herself a journalist.
ATTKISSON: There are all kinds of journalists. There are advocacy journalists and so on. I don't think she would say she is a neutral player. But I think in fairness, once the results were what they were, there should be an obligation to say it for what it is rather than try to portray as the thing that you hoped that it would have been.
And I think an even more egregious example is the example of TIME magazine, the reporter that went into the Oval Office the day President Trump was inaugurated and falsely reported as a pool member to the international press that the bust of Martin Luther King had been removed.
HANNITY: There are so many examples.
ATTKISSON: But I would point to the fact, one of the biggest problems, there was no disciplinary action. And I'm not advocating for pool reporters to get fired, but five years ago that would have drummed somebody out of the business of legitimate journalism. But today it shows that they want that sort of thing or at least they do not punish it.
SEKULOW: They tweet and say they're sorry.
HANNITY: Let me ask Jay this question. By the way, that is the president obviously getting off Air Force One. Jay, we had another instance of judge shopping. This is the second executive order on extreme vetting by the president. Also not only was Hawaii chosen for that reason but also to go back to the ninth circuit. You believe, though, that this time they got it right, and if it goes to the Supreme Court you're predicting an 8-0, if Neil Gorsuch is confirmed by them, 9-0 decision.
SEKULOW: Yes. The basis of the district court judge's opinion in Hawaii is that the extreme vetting on six countries constitutes a violation of the establishment clause of the United States constitution. Now, if that is, if that is fact, if that judge was correct as a matter of law -- I think it is fundamentally flawed, and I think actually this judge has created a constitutional crisis when there was none. And I would take it a step further and quote a justice of the Supreme Court who reminding his colleagues that the constitution is not a suicide pact. And the idea that if you target six particular countries and that now constitutes a violation of, what, the establishment of religion? That would mean that if the United States in the 1940s would have accepted a disproportionate, some would say, number of Jewish people from the Nazi era and gave them access into the United States and showed favoritism that way, and I had relatives that were lost in the holocaust, would that be showing favoritism to Judaism and therefore violating the establishment clause? Well, under this judge's order it would. So this is nonsense, Sean. I think it's unanimous at the Supreme Court. That's where it needs to go. The ninth circuit is going to be a disaster. It's the Supreme Court of the United States, and it needs to get there sooner rather than later.
HANNITY: Jay Sekulow, thank you. And Sharyl, we look forward to your book when it comes out. We'll have you on when it is published. Thank you for being here.
Up next, tonight on "Hannity" --
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TRUMP: I think that maybe I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Twitter because I get such a fake press, such a dishonest press.
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HANNITY: President Trump continues to call out the fake news media. We'll check in with Michelle Malkin. She'll weigh in on NBC's corporate jihad. And, of course, your calls to me. I hear they are pretty bad tonight, straight ahead.
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TRUMP: I think that maybe I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Twitter because I get such a fake press, such a dishonest press. I was very good to NBC. And they are despicable. They're despicable in their coverage. CBS, ABC, you take a look at what is going on. I call it the fake press, the fake media. It is a disgrace what is happening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: That was the president during a sit-down interview with Tucker Carlson, that was earlier today, calling out at the alt left media, the destroy-Trump media, for their dishonest coverage. Last night MSNBC's Rachel Maddow hit an all new low by focusing her show on Trump's 2005 leaked tax return. She actually views herself as a journalist. She recently told the AP, quote, "People want to draft me as an activist all the time. Describe that role to me. I'm not. The reason I know I am not is that I stopped doing that in order to be the person who explained the news and delivered the news instead. That's a very clear line for me." She does think she is a journalist, which is hilarious, but Michelle Malkin of "Michelle Malkin Investigates" on CRTV is with us. She's not a journalist. It's not really worthy of a discussion in any way. But this is serious in a lot of ways. What's your reaction to it.
MICHELLE MALKIN, "MICHELLE MALKIN INVESTIGATES" HOST: Well, the "MS" in MSNBC stands for "Maddow Sinks and Sabotages NBC." I think that this was a long time in coming, and I'm glad to see that she clowned herself as big as she did. Even many of her allies among the progressive movement on the left were smacking themselves in the forehead after salivating over her hype over the story.
But I think it is worth discussing this very fundamental question about who is a journalist, because if you are some elite liberal from an elite college who gets her pedigree from Oxford and brags about her title as a Rhodes scholar, it doesn't matter that your sole experience as a so- called journalist was as a radio host for bankrupt Air America. I actually committed journalism when I and a good friend of mine, Brian Maloney, did what nobody else would do, certainly not the fish-wrapped record and digging into the finances of that decrepit institution. And yet here is a Rachel Maddow who has been able to fail upward for years and years and call herself a journalist. Anybody can commit journalism. What these people commit every day is political propaganda.
HANNITY: I agree with that. People ask me, the first thing I will tell you, and Sharyl Attkisson I think had a good word. I would say I am an advocacy journalist. There is nobody that is watching this show I don't think that thinks that I am a newsperson like a traditional newsman. I am a conservative talk show host. And in part, that includes some straight interview sometimes. But when it's day in and day out conspiracy theories without any evidence and any facts, we've got a big problem in the country, I would argue an informational crisis. Your reaction?
MALKIN: Absolutely. And look, if you have a network that pretends that they are arbiters of what real journalism are, and they include clowns like Rachel Maddow and clowns like lying Brian Williams who shamed himself and yet still sits in that anchor chair with his august personality, this is a joke. And there are many citizen journalists across the country who can do a heck of a better job from their desks with a smartphone and a camera than these people with their billion-dollar budget. And that is the revolution that's happening.
HANNITY: And Trump was right in the interview. Everyone said, well, you told him to purge the U.S. attorneys. I never mentioned the U.S. attorneys. And Trump listens to what he wants. At one point I said to him maybe you should stop tweeting. I think he was right and I was wrong. That is his own newspaper. He reaches nearly 100 million, 80 million, whatever the number is. Michelle Malkin, congrats on your new series, too. Thank you for being with us.
MALKIN: You bet. Take care, Sean.
HANNITY: When we come back, we need your help. A very important "Question of the Day" and apparently some very mean messages you're leaving for me on the "Hannity" hotline. We can take the heat. That's next.
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HANNITY: Time for our "Question of the Day." Are you getting tired of so- called news organizations like NBC, CNN pushing fake news? Just go to Facebook.com/SeanHannity, @SeanHannity on Twitter, let us know what you think. Now it's time to play, your turn, some of the messages you are leaving for us on the "Hannity" hotline. Hit me with your best shot.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm 60 years old and I challenge you to a football toss, yes a football toss. My paycheck against your paycheck for a week, and any way you want to do it, I guarantee you I can out throw you, Sean. Thanks, kid.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got a pet peeve with you. Every time you shake hands with somebody, take that ink pen out of your hand and lay it down someplace so you don't forget where you put it, and shake hands with your guest without that ink pen in your hand.
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HANNITY: Why are you noticing these little things? Who cares? Have something nice to say, mean to say, call the number on your screen. We'll see you back here tomorrow night.
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