Kellyanne Conway talks progress made by President Trump
Senior counselor to Trump discusses the president's agenda on 'Hannity'
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," March 31, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: And welcome to this busy Friday news night here on "Hannity." Now, in just a few minutes, we'll have Newt Gingrich, Kellyanne Conway, Jay Sekulow, Monica Crowley. They'll all join us.
But first -- for the good of the country, it is time to end this GOP circular firing squad, and that is tonight's "Opening Monologue."
All right, so sometimes in life, when things don't go exactly the way we want, people get frustrated, they get annoyed, and there's no more frustrating place on earth than Washington, D.C.
So I get why the president is upset that Republicans couldn't hammer out this deal on health care last week. Now, the president, to his credit -- he has a big, bold, aggressive agenda. See that list there? He's checking off his promises one after another. I say he's moving at the speed of Trump.
Now, we have promised on this program to hold Washington accountable, and that means everybody. Now, while it's understandable the president is frustrated over the GOP health care bill and it being pulled -- I'm, too, but I see it a little bit differently than he does. From my perspective, after seven years, almost eight years of Republicans promising to repeal and replace ObamaCare, to me, it is inexcusable they didn't build a consensus bill that was ready for the president.
Now, the other big mistake is the Republican leadership -- they kept everybody in the dark! Everyone was left guessing what's in the bill, what's in the bill? All these rumors were coming out. Oh, this is in it, that's trouble. That's in it, there's trouble. There was no consensus that was built behind the scenes!
Now, the Republican leadership -- they dumped this bill. They literally rolled it out and then left it to the president to close the deal. Well, guess what? That's not his job. Now, the president does deserve credit. He did his best to get it done, got very close, but they didn't get there.
The legislative branch, though, from my perspective -- they failed the president because they clearly were not prepared for this moment. Now, in the end, I do believe it is important to get the bill right, rather than get it done fast. Now, some in Washington -- they're trying to put all the blame on the conservative Freedom Caucus. And as I said last night, I think this anger is misplaced. Now, if the Freedom Caucus had been consulted from the beginning and they didn't roll out the bill and they had a chance to see it beforehand and leadership reached out to them from the get-go, I don't think we'd be in this situation.
Now, sometimes, we need to stand back and remember who our real friends are. Let me give you an example. Let's talk about Illinois Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger. Now, today, writes an op-ed for The New York Times titled, quote, "How the Freedom Caucus is undermining the GOP" where he literally mocks the Freedom Caucus, literally, and their name by writing, quote, "Interesting name for a group of about three dozen members that refuses to let the will of the people advance on the House floor."
Now, keep in mind, this is the same Adam Kinzinger who during the election and prior to the inauguration was mentioned in headlines, like the one you see on your screen, the same Adam who in August said he wouldn't vote for Donald Trump. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ADAM KINZINGER, R-ILLINOIS: Donald Trump for me is beginning to cross a lot of red lines of the unforgivable in politics. And so, you know, I'm not going to support Hillary, but you know, in America, we have the right to write somebody in or skip the vote and vote for Mark Kirk in Illinois, for instance, and that's what it's looking like for me today. I just don't see how I get to Donald Trump anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: And even following the election, Kinzinger played coy about who he actually voted for on November the 8th. Now, is Congressman Kinzinger -- is he really the guy to be lecturing the Freedom Caucus, who did support candidate Trump? I'm not buying that.
Now, during the campaign, the Freedom Caucus chairman, Mark Meadows -- he was a staunch ally of candidate Trump, now President Trump. In July, in Greenville on line, they ran an article on Meadows that said in part, quote, "Meadows initially endorsed Texas senator Ted Cruz in the Republican presidential primary, but he is now embracing Trump with more gusto than others in the GOP. And according to Nate Silver's Fivethirtyeight, at least 29 of the 34 members of the House Freedom Caucus endorsed or at least voted for Trump in the election.
And by the way, with all due respect to Speaker Ryan, Laura Ingraham last night on this program pointed out Ryan made it clear he wanted little to do with then candidate Donald Trump.
So let's be clear. A lot of blame to throw around about the Republican health care bill being pulled, and infighting is not a solution to the problem. I also don't think President Trump reaching out to Democrats is ever going to work. The one thing I do know for sure, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Steny Hoyer -- they're not the president's friends and they do not want him to succeed in any way.
Don't believe me? Listen to what they said about the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, D-NY, MINORITY LEADER: My view is he is far too tolerant in accepting the support of racists.
REP. STENY HOYER, D-MD., MINORITY WHIP: I think experience would tell us over the last 10 days, and frankly, the last 15 months, who knows. Who knows what President Trump is going to do at any given moment and give offense to people that we need to be -- have confidence in us and we need to have confidence in our relationship with them.
REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALI., MINORITY LEADER: Ineffective. They've accomplished nothing. His deceptor -- the deflector-in-chief -- he's deflected from the fact that he hasn't produced a jobs bill, hasn't produced an infrastructure bill, has accomplished nothing. And he just has to deflect by coming up with bans on certain religions--
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right, now the question is, where do we go from here? How do we solve the problem for the American people because this is a promise they made. Now, Republicans, in many ways -- need to go back to the drawing board and do what they should have done in the first place.
They need to create a bill that will pass in the House, and that means the Study Group, the Tuesday Group, the Freedom Caucus, moderates. They all need to be brought in a room, as well as senators, Secretary Price, the vice president, everybody included, and hammer out a deal. Get away from the cameras, and certainly don't go on television and negotiate in the public eye.
Now, if they do these things instead of pointing fingers at each other, then they'll have an opportunity to give the American people a bill that they really want, need and desire, one that's going to lower premiums and offer better health care. There's the answer. Solve the problem. Remember the movie "Disclosure"? You talk about solve the problem. Find the solution.
Here with reaction, the author of the best-seller "Treason," former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Mr. Speaker, really, does the Freedom Caucus need to get lectured? We got a speaker that barely wanted to be seen--
NEWT GINGRICH, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: No, no. I--
(LAUGHTER)
GINGRICH: Look, first of all, you hit it right on the head. The Freedom Caucus had probably the highest percentage of Trump supporters of any group in the House. They disagree about this one thing, and I think, from their perspective, they probably think Trump was misinformed.
But this -- let me give you an example of something today that Nancy Pelosi doesn't get. The National Association of Manufacturers met with the president to share with him that their CEOs have the highest level of confidence in making new investments in the United States that they can remember in well over a decade.
This follows other things that are going on. Despite all the noise in Congress, President Trump is making real progress and he's getting things done. And every time you turn around, you see new signs of investment, new commitments to build things in the United States.
I think that he's got to solve this legislative problem. My personal advice would be to start with infrastructure. And frankly, after the extraordinary fire in Atlanta last night, which is going to cause enormous traffic problems--
HANNITY: That's I-85.
GINGRICH: -- for the city for months--
HANNITY: That's -- that's disastrous.
GINGRICH: It's a good reminder -- an area you know well from the years you were down there. I mean, this is a good reminder we got to rebuild our infrastructure. I think you start there, then you move to a nice tax cut bill, not just tax reform. And then you get to health care third.
But right now, I think they're all gridlocked and too busy being mad at each other. They've got to get over it, relax. This is the beginning of a long game. This is not the end of it. And we got lots of time to get lots of good things done for America.
HANNITY: Well, and by the way, they've got to keep the promise. This is not optional. They can't let ObamaCare implode. So to me, it's very simple. You have to, if you're in leadership, show your members the bill before you unveil the bill publicly.
Then you got to build consensus. I appreciate that there are moderates and different groups, Study Group, Tuesday Group, Freedom Caucus. You got to -- everyone's got to work together. They got to hammer out a consensus. It would be wise for them to work with the Senate from the get-go so they don't end up in conference and the Senate bill and the House bill are two very different bills, and that then becomes another opportunity for it to fall apart.
So bring everybody together. And while they're doing the things you mention, this can get done, right?
GINGRICH: Yes, I think it can get done. I also think, if they do it right, they're going to shock all of us because if you look at the collapse of ObamaCare in rural America, I think Senator Heitkamp, who's a Democrat from North Dakota, might have a really hard time voting against a good Republican bill that was well designed. I think the same thing goes for the senator from Indiana, the senator from Missouri, the senator from Montana.
I wouldn't automatically assume that they're going to going to hunker down and decide to destroy themselves. They're up for reelection next year. And in parts of rural America, ObamaCare is a total disaster, and we can do something dramatically better. And if the public understands it -- which is the other half of this -- the country has to believe in the bill if it's going to pass. Health is too big an issue to pass if the American people aren't with you.
HANNITY: But there is something to learn from this experience. I think, number one, you can't unveil a bill that nobody's seen. You have to bring the different groups in the Congress together. You should include the Senate so you don't have a problem in conference.
And why would they have done it this way anyway? That makes no sense to me. They had--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Here's the frustrating thing.
GINGRICH: No, no, no!
HANNITY: Eight years!
GINGRICH: Look, I have no idea how they ended up like this. We used to follow a model of Listen, learn, help, and lead. Or as somebody once said to me, you know, you got one mouth and two ears and there's a pretty good hint there.
And I think the fact is that people -- when you're doing something this big, one fifth of the economy, life and death for every American, you need to do it carefully out in the open. People have to have a real sense of participation. You can't ram it through, and you can't assume that a small group of people know enough by themselves.
That's what Obama did wrong. That's what Hillary did wrong back in the `90s. This is a really big, complicated issue. I think it's fixable, but-- and it may take three or four bills, all of which ought to be understood from day one.
And I think that -- frankly, that's part of why I would shift and look at infrastructure and at tax cuts because you can do those while you're working through what needs to be done in health care. All three could be done this year if they're willing to work with the American people and have an open legislative process.
HANNITY: All right, sir. Great idea. Thank you.
And up next on this busy Friday news night, liberals and members of the biased press are out to get the House Intelligence Committee chairman, Devin Nunes. They're focusing their anger in the wrong place. We'll explain in a mini-monologue coming up next. And we'll get reaction from Mercedes Schlapp, Jay Sekulow.
Also later tonight, former national security adviser Michael Flynn is offering to testify in front of the House and Senate Intel Committees if he's granted immunity. Monica Crowley has reaction. All of that, plus counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway will join us in studio on this busy Friday news night.
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HANNITY: And welcome back to "Hannity." The House Intelligence Committee chairman, Congressman Devin Nunes -- he's standing firm against attacks from the Democrats and members of the alt left propaganda destroy Trump media. Now, true to form, they are focusing their anger on Congressman Nunes instead of reporting extensively on what is the big story here! They're missing it all. That's tonight's mini-monologue.
All right, from the very moment that Chairman Nunes made the bombshell announcement last week that he saw reports that prove surveillance was collected on President Trump and his transition team, well, liberals and members of the biased press -- they've been out to get him! Now, just listen to what they have said about Nunes in just the past 48 hours. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sometimes, it's just easier to explain it away by pure, good old-fashioned 100 percent grade A incompetence and stupidity.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That just may be what we have here with Congressman Nunes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Never seen anything like this amateur hour at work now.
Here we go with the latest buffoonery from the Trump operation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do think that Devin Nunes is such a uniquely clueless individual and so out of his depth in this whole investigation that ascribing too much planning and motive to him might be wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Nunes piece is going to get even more interesting and baffling than it is now if you consider a couple of things. First of all, his crazy behavior. Everybody has read about that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: You get this? The mainstream alt left propaganda destroy Trump media -- they're trying to distract the country by going after Nunes and questioning his credibility. Now, by doing that, they are ignoring the real story and what we should all be talking about because what Nunes has revealed about the leaks, the unmasking of American names, and of course, the surveillance of the Trump team -- this could end up being the biggest scandal in decades, if not ever, to hit Washington!
Now, the big question is this. Did the Obama administration knowingly supreme court the Trump team and incoming opposition party? Now, as Nunes said on this program last week, additional American names were unmasked, and he saw the reports and he said they had nothing to do with Russia and collusion!
And this should concern every single lawmaker, every single journalist and every American. And today, Fox's own Adam Housley is reporting that the two individuals who showed Nunes the information at the White House -- they had nothing to do with the outing of this information! In fact, here's what Adam reported earlier today. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ADAM HOUSLEY, FOX CORRESPONDENT: The person who did the unmasking, I'm told, is very well-known, very high up, very senior in the intelligence world and is not in the FBI.
We're also told the people who helped Devin Nunes navigate were the two individuals that the stories were reported yesterday about, but they were not his sources. It was a navigation situation. And the reason why they had to navigate, I'm told, is that Nunes learned about this unmasking and who this was taking place back in January, before Trump's tweet, before he met with the president. And it took, obviously, a number of weeks to try to figure out a way for him to see this intelligence because the agencies were stonewalling, we're told, to allow him and others to see it.
Now, this all coming from folks that are in these agencies and frustrated with the politics that's taking place in these agencies.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: You hear that? The Trump White House had nothing to do with this! His reporting, Adam's reporting is huge. Now, Democrats and the destroy Trump media -- well, they are doing a disservice once again to you, the American people, by attacking Congressman Devin Nunes instead of reporting on what the scandal is!
Here with reaction, the chairman for the American Center for Law and Justice Jay Sekulow, Fox News contributor Mercedes Schlapp.
All right, is there anything wrong -- because Pete Hoekstra said this was standard operating procedure. If you're going to see raw intelligence like this, Jay, that it would be normal procedures to see it in an area that we know is safe and secure and that that's what he did all the time. What about that as a distraction in this case?
JAY SEKULOW, AMERICAN CENTER FOR LAW AND JUSTICE: Well, I mean, here's the-- the fact is, there is a statute, two statutes, actually, that deal particularly with this. There's a procedure in place that allows the chairman and others in the intelligence community and the Intelligence Committee to view this data, and it specifically says it shall not be an offense to transmit information described in this section, which is the section involving this kind of material, to either congressional Intelligence Committee. And then that's section 31-22. 31-25 says nothing in this title may be construed as authority to withhold information from the Congress or from a committee of either house of Congress.
So there's actually legislation that positively affirms the ability of these committee chairmen and others within the committee to actually get this material (INAUDIBLE) procedures, and of course, the procedures are to protect the intelligence.
So there is -- this is rather unremarkable, what took place here. And I think the media -- as you said, this is a distraction, but the law is crystal clear here. There's no violation of law!
HANNITY: So what is the big story here? Isn't the big story that, OK, maybe they used real surveillance as a ruse to surveil on a president or a candidate, an opposing party candidate, or the president-elect and his staff? Isn't that the real story here, Mercedes?
MERCEDES SCHLAPP, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. I think that the real story is going to be if we see these tables turn where they're investigating the Trump administration, but yet you're going to start seeing an investigation of the Obama administration, whether they're using this intelligence resources and information for political purposes.
And that's why Congressman Nunes reacted in a way that he did, which is he was shocked, he was alarmed when he started reading through these classified information, seeing that there was no link to Russia, yet you're seeing this unmasking of these American citizens--
HANNITY: Unbelievable.
SCHLAPP: -- particularly those who are part of the Trump transition team.
HANNITY: All right, so they're surveilling. They're unmasking. And then, of course, we know in the case of General Flynn, they leaked the intelligence, which is a felony.
SEKULOW: Right.
HANNITY: What do you make of Evelyn Farkas, Jay, and her comments that we've been playing in total, in context. Now she says the Russians may have leaked it. And she's saying that she's a victim of fake news. But she said she was urging her former colleagues, Get as much intelligence as you can.
SEKULOW: Right.
HANNITY: And if they found out, the Trump people, how we knew what we knew about the Trump staff dealing with Russian -- isn't that an unveil/unmasking there? Isn't that confirmation of surveillance, and then talking about releasing it to colleagues? Wouldn't that potentially be an intel leak?
SEKULOW: Well, she needs to get a lawyer. I mean, I don't know who's letting her these statements.
HANNITY: I have no idea!
SEKULOW: But she is -- she has -- she has implicated herself--
HANNITY: Big-time.
SEKULOW: -- in multiple felonies! First of all, she keeps saying "we." She wasn't even part of the agency at that particular time! She talked about, you know, going to the Hill to make sure that her colleagues and this information's protected from the Trump -- incoming Trump administration to preserve this.
Who is she -- who is she to get this information at that point? And then leaking it is a crime. And she's basically -- you know what she did? She'd be my first witness, if I was going to impanel the grand jury. Dr. Farkas--
(CROSSTALK)
SEKULOW: -- the grand jury, and you better because protected!
HANNITY: She's probably going to have to see a grand jury. She's going to see the House Intelligence Committee.
SEKULOW: Yes.
HANNITY: And--
SCHLAPP: Oh, yes.
HANNITY: Mercedes--
SEKULOW: It's inconceivable!
HANNITY: I actually -- I'm, like--
SCHLAPP: She said--
HANNITY: Who's advising this woman?
SCHLAPP: Evelyn Farkas -- she- obviously--
SEKULOW: Not a good lawyer.
SCHLAPP: -- she was not advised. And it really put her in an incredibly bad situation because she -- she -- she basically almost makes it sounds like she has some sort of -- active (ph) some sort of way to understand what's in these intelligence reports! So there's a lot of questions that need to be asked.
Obviously, we saw that the White House counsel, Don McGahn, sent over a letter basically asking those questions. How was this information handled? Did she have access to any of these intelligence documents? These are serious questions that need to be asked.
But I -- I have to say, Sean--
HANNITY: Yes.
SCHLAPP: -- going back to Congressman Nunes, we have to remember there's a lot of false information out there. It was a source who contacted the chairman, who said, if you guarantee this confidentiality, I want to -- I need to share this classified information with you. You need to see this.
This is what sources do in the right way, instead of leaking information of classified information to the press, which, as we know, is a felony. So we have to make sure that that gets out there in terms of that message (ph).
HANNITY: Well said. Well said. All right, Mercedes, we're going to lose you. Thank you, as always, for being with us. Jay stays with us.
Coming up after the break -- former national security adviser Michael Flynn-- General Flynn is offering to speak to the House and Senate Intel Committees, but he's asking for immunity. President Trump said it was a smart idea because of the political witch hunt that is happening right now. Jay Sekulow stays with us. Monica Crowley joins us.
And then later tonight--
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: My administration is working every day to make it easier for manufacturers to build, hire and grow in America.
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HANNITY: The president is not slowing down. Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway will join us tonight, right here in studio. Stay with us.
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HANNITY: And welcome back to "Hannity." So this morning, the president took to Twitter to defend former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and the president tweeted, quote, "Mike Flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt, excuse the big election loss by the media and Dems of historic proportion."
Now, this comes after reports say that Flynn is willing to testify in front of the House and Senate Intel Committees in exchange for immunity.
Joining is now with reaction, conservative commentator Monica Crowley, and we continue with Jay Sekulow from a legal perspective. Monica, you were there with General Flynn. What happened to him I don't think there's any doubt was leaking this intelligence was a violation of the Espionage Act and a felony, many other laws were broken, we will ask Jay in a second. But I agree. I think General Flynn wants to say what he has to say because he has a victim of a crime here.
MONICA CROWLEY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: General Flynn, Sean, is now a private citizen. So he is perfectly entitled to seek whatever protections he can going forward. And look, I think the reality is none of us know the backstory here. If General Flynn has already been solicited by investigators, then this request for immunity makes perfect sense. If he hasn't yet been approached by investigators, then perhaps he is trying to accelerate the timeline somehow.
And look, since we know none of the backstory and none of the details here, perhaps none of this has to do with Russia at all. Maybe there are some other things at play here. But the bottom line is that General Flynn is entitled to these protections.
And I also think he has the Watergate story in mind here. Remember that Richard Nixon during the Watergate process was alleged to have been captured on tape merely suggesting the possibility of asking the CIA to interview with the FBI to stop the Watergate investigation. That served as one of the bases for article one of the Watergate impeachment. That's essentially a thought crime. General Flynn does not want to be prosecuted or persecuted for anything, least of all something he may or may not have said or done.
HANNITY: Jay, from my standpoint, they leaked this intelligence they never should have leaked. They are surveilling. The NSA does its job. They are surveilling his counterpart in Russia. They're having a conversation. It's a normal procedure. He's getting in touch with people he will have contact with and will be working with. So they're supposed to minimize and they're not supposed to reveal their identity. His identity is unmasked. The contents of their conversation are made public, and then he tells a story to the vice president, maybe left detail or to go, perhaps by accident, maybe on purpose, I don't know. And his career is over because they leaked this intelligence. A felony, right?
JAY SEKULOW, AMERICAN CENTER FOR LAW AND JUSTICE: Right. So in that scenario you just laid out, this is exactly why General Flynn's lawyers are asking them to seek immunity because, as Monica just said, this is a bit of a witch hunt here in this sense -- who is the victim of really what happened here. General Flynn, the president saying this is right. He is the victim. He was unmasked, so no minimization. It was leaked, so you're talking about felonies and civil actions now. And it was leaked to the press and published, and now he is the one made to look to be the evildoer, so to speak, yet we don't even know the backstory of any of this. But we do know two things. He was unmasked and it was a leak. And that leaking is a felony, period.
HANNITY: Doesn't every American need to understand that if your government is going to surveil your texts, your emails, your phone conversations, and they don't have any warrant, and then they disclose that, they could ruin anybody's life, especially yours or Monica's.
SEKULOW: I will tell you this. Look, here is the reality. Republican, Democrat, independent, libertarian, I don't care what party you are, the idea that this information was gathered, and it was unmasked and then leaked, this is leaking of intelligence about an individual American, an American citizen. Why are we saying that is OK? We should not be. That should be investigated as a crime because that is what it is.
HANNITY: Agreed. That's a one crime we know Monica that happened here. Go ahead.
CROWLEY: Yes. And I invoked the Watergate example for a reason earlier, Sean, and that's because I spent four years working with former President Nixon during the last four years of his life. And I know a bit about presidential wiretapping. Devin Nunes, all of these peripheral conversations have nothing to do with the actual possible scandal here, which is that the Obama team, the folks who were still in the White House under President Obama may have in fact unmasked people, surveilled political opponents, and then weaponized classified material against their political opponents. If that is true, that makes Watergate look like child's play.
HANNITY: That's what I was going to say. Doesn't this have the potential to be way bigger than Watergate, Jay?
SEKULOW: This is national security information that is being leaked here. So the seriousness of this is at the highest level. When you look at what is the potential damage to the United States or intelligence gathering capabilities into those that are working within the government, this is the worst-case scenario of what can happen, and it happened.
And here is the fact. If you're looking at where the grand jury should be empaneled, it's fine to get testimony from General Flynn and have him appear before the committee and he should seek immunity and he should get it and he should tell it and lay laid out for the community, and that's great, but the crime here is the leakers.
HANNITY: Would you recommend he testify without immunity or no?
SEKULOW: No, no. No way.
HANNITY: Why?
SEKULOW: Because, Sean, they will find a form that was filled out with an inadvertent statement and make that into a felony. I do a lot of criminal defense. Here's the answer on that -- no.
HANNITY: All right, guys, thank you both, and have a good weekend.
Coming up, President Trump keeping his promises and getting things done. The counsel to the president Kellyanne Conway will join us in studio tonight with reaction. And then later tonight --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they are going to drink and they're of age, please drink responsibly. Stay with somebody that's sober. Don't wander away from your crowd of people that you know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: And also coming up, the final part of our series that exposes what is happening to your kids on spring break. This year, we sent a producer down to South Padre Island, Texas. We asked the local police about the partying and what they are trying to do to keep your kids safe as they are going insane. "Fox & Friends" co-host Ainsley Earhardt joins us for the full report. Tonight, you need to see it.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My administration is working every day to make it easier for manufacturers to build higher and grow in America. We are removing job killing regulations and lifting the burdens on American industry, like I would say they have never been lifted before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: That was the president earlier today meeting with the National Association of Manufacturers. That was at the White House. Joining us now, a rare New York in studio appearance. She is the counsel to the president, Kellyanne Conway. How are you? Good to see you. You doing OK? I got to see your husband. I haven't seen him for a while. He's going to be doing some work in D.C. too.
You know what's amazing to me, in the opening monologue tonight I pointed out the speed of Trump, checking off promises, and I know we get caught up in the media is obsessed that the health care bill didn't get finished. It will. And nobody ever talks about all the good things he's done. For example, I was so happy this week over the EPA regulations.
KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP SENIOR ADVISER: That was huge, and he kept a promise to the coal miners. And he's allowing the EPA to focus on what it's supposed to do, air and water, and really unleash that energy production in a way that makes us less reliant on foreign sources, generates all types of jobs.
People complain in this country, Sean, that nothing is made in the USA anymore. Energy is made here. It's under our feet. It's off our shores.
HANNITY: We've got more than we'd ever need.
CONWAY: It's time we invest in it. The president has promised and is now making good on his promises through a number of executive actions to unleash clean coal and oil and natural gas of course, and any number of different energy sources.
But also this week he started the commission on opioids, working with this new White House office of American Innovation that Jared Kushner has put together.
HANNITY: You're going to be on this, right?
CONWAY: So Governor Christie is the head of the commission and I had the privilege of sitting in on a couple of the listening sessions, and for the first time since I got to the White House I cried, which is saying a lot, because I listened to this story of Vanessa and A.J. and of Pam, and it was incredibly moving to hear their stories. In the case of Vanessa and A.J., both of whom are New Jersey residents, they're success stories. They found treatment. We need to focus on interdiction and prevention.
HANNITY: That's also a promise that he made to the people of New Hampshire in particular where they have been devastated as much as other parts of the country.
CONWAY: Opioid is a crisis, though, in this country that does not discriminate. It is touching every economic stratum, both genders obviously, all ages, people who have graduated from college, who haven't, who have jobs, who don't. And it really is scary. And this is a president who is very committed to it along with Governor Christie who will be heading up the commission in this Office of American Innovation.
HANNITY: So I put this up earlier in the program. Just take a look. I know it would have been nice if the Republicans after eight years had a consensus bill, you know I am very critical of how this was rolled out. But there's all these successes. We'll put it up on the screen. That is President Trump's agenda. He checks it off the list. I don't think I've ever seen a president get a lot done as much as he could do by himself. I wish Congress would get their act together and keep up with him.
CONWAY: It's just be good if people got the message. I think actually thing when you look at some of these confidence numbers, it does show that people and job creators, the jobseekers and the job holders, Sean, all our seeing very good in his presidency so far. So if you look at that National Association of Manufacturers survey today, it's the highest it's been in 20 years. The man has been on the job for less than three months. It is a 93.3 percent confidence measure. One year ago it was 56.6 percent. That's not a margin of error. That's not tinkering. That is a huge uptick in confidence. You saw recently the homebuilders' confidence survey, highest in 12 years. The small business confidence survey in Gallop, highest in almost 10 years. And it just goes on and on. People feel good about spending their money.
HANNITY: Would you, like me, and I'm not trying to drag you into this fight, like to see Congress better prepared in terms of the legislation, have their caucus, their individual components, the moderates, the Freedom Caucus, the study group, the Tuesday group, the Saturday night go drinking group, get on the same page?
(LAUGHTER)
CONWAY: I am not aware of that one.
HANNITY: I just made it up. These are not small items that he is tackling here on the economy, changing the tax code and infrastructure, even the energy thing. There's only so much she can do on his own. They've got to be ready to game up here.
CONWAY: Any one of these achievements would be historic. So if you think about just getting two or three even in the first year, that's huge.
And we know that health care reform will happen. We know that the president and every single Republican House and Senate who are there campaigned successfully on repealing and replacing Obamacare. So the question is what are the next steps? You're absolutely right. The conference needs to come together.
But you know what I learned through this entire process? Sean, I'm old enough to have worked against HillaryCare and ObamaCare. So I've been in health care for long time. What I learned from this particular process is that this is the price of success. This is a very diverse Republican conference. You have 23 Republican members who sit in districts that Hillary Clinton won. That's a pretty big thing. And so you have everybody from like a plus Republican 25 or 30 district if you will to a plus D single digit district. So bringing together those diverse ideological and geographic viewpoints, it's very important. People have to be brought to the table earlier, but I have to say on this one the president showed a great deal of leadership. He worked the phones.
HANNITY: But they dumped a bill that had no consensus on his lap. Why did he have to do the heavy lifting when, in all fairness, the legislative branch had eight years to campaign, run on this, they got to the House in 2010, 2014 the Senate, 2016. Really, they didn't have a bill ready to go? That kind of makes me mad.
CONWAY: I'm confident that the conference will come together and that the deficit in votes was in the dozens. We started out in a deficit of dozens and dozens. And it got shrunk down to about 12 to 18 votes perhaps. So that's very heartening. But look, there were moderates not supporting it. There were conservatives not supporting it. But that's the price of success for having a very diverse party. Look at the Democratic Party. Where are the prolife Democrats, the blue dog Democrats, the pro-Second Amendment Democrats? They don't exist anymore. That party is much more myopic now. They've been pulled to the left by some of their factions.
But in the case of the president, some people would prefer him to be the closer on this and not the leadoff batter. Some people appreciated the fact that he and the vice president, Secretary Price, Director Mulvaney and others leaned in from the beginning and were very involved.
HANNITY: They should have brought everybody in.
CONWAY: But it has to really represent, legislation has to represent all of the disparate opinions, and most importantly what the president has promised to do in repealing and replacing Obamacare. It is not sustainable, it's not affordable, so it will get done.
HANNITY: All right, good to see you. Thank you for being with us.
Coming up, part three of our series exposing what happens to your kids when you pay and send them on down to spring break. Ainsley Earhardt has that report straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." As we continue our series exposing what happens when your kids jet on off to spring break with your money. This year, we sent down a producer to South Padre Island, Texas, to see what spring breakers were really up to. We spoke to the police chief in South Padre Island, his name is Randy Smith, about some of the dangers that spring breakers are encountering this year. It's always dangerous. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was in jail because I got in a beach brawl, and I got too damn drunk. That's why.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many people have crossed into this island?
POLICE CHIEF RANDY SMITH, SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, TEXAS: Some days it's been around 9,000, some days 8,000. Yesterday alone for a 24-hour period was 14,482.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This week how many arrests have you totaled?
SMITH: We've had at a five day Texas week period, we have had up to 198, mostly simple, Class A municipal issues like public intoxication or simple assault.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One girl got carried away in a stretcher.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did you get arrested for?
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: P.I., let's say P.I.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Love you, mom.
SMITH: If they are combative or give us some issues, or we can't figure out a safe place for them to go, then unfortunately they leave us no option. They come over to our facility here at the jail.
They see a judge on the following date, they get released.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said there probably a couple hundred of those?
SMITH: Yes, which is kind of typical.
Public works for trash cleaning on the beach, so all around all services so we can better serve businesses and visitors. The only few tips I give all spring breakers is if they are going to drink and they're of age, please drink responsibly. Stay with somebody who is sober. Don't wander away from your crowd of people that you know. And don't drink from items that are being passed around. You don't know the original origins. You don't know what has been spiked in that drink that you're drinking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Here with reaction, "Fox & Friends" co-host, our friend Ainsley Earhardt has done this many years for us. Thanks for coming aback.
AINSLEY EARHARDT, FOX NEWS HOST: You're welcome.
HANNITY: Why am I put in the position of being like the old fuddy-duddy. I don't care that they go on spring break. But when you see they are all wasted. And then you read the people that are preying on the spring breakers. And then you hear about sexual assault that happens here and drunken driving and some people get alcohol poisoning, the fun seems to go away.
EARHARDT: Kids are always going to go on spring break. First remember it used to be Daytona Beach, then everyone went to Panama City Beach. You cleaned up Panama City Beach.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: You did it.
EARHARDT: So now they are going to Texas to South Padre Island. They have always gone to South Padre but now we are seeing more people at South Padre, more than 100,000 people estimated for a weekend. Now that is a lot of kids to put in one area. And our producers that went there said basically anything goes. The only rule there is no glass on the beach. But as long as you are not stumbling around wasted and getting in fights, you're fine.
The problem is, when you start to drink, they are all saying they're drinking the moment they wake up and they start drinking, so by the end of the day, they are black out. They don't know where they are. So if they are all doing it in a group, then they are separating themselves and they're getting themselves in trouble.
HANNITY: Quick programming note. Thank you, Ainsley. Be sure to set your alarm and wake up early and catch Steve, Brian, Ainsley every morning 6:00 to 9:00, "Fox & Friends" right here on the Fox News Channel.
Up next, we need your help with an important "Question of the Day." And we'll play some of the messages you left for me that were really mean on the "Hannity" hotline straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right, time for our "Question of the Day." Earlier today the president tweeted out that the mainstream media and Democrats are on a political witch hunt. That is why I call them the alt left propaganda, destroy-Trump media. Do you agree with me, do you agree with the president? We want to hear from you. Go to Facebook.com/SeanHannity, @SeanHannity on Twitter, let us know what you think.
All right, hit me with your best shot. Time for the "Hannity" hotline. Let's see what you left today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINA: I agree with everything you say about spring break. It is disastrous. My teenage daughter back in the nineties, I believe it was 96 when she wanted to go. Absolutely not. She disowned me for about a year- and-a-half, but that's what you do as a parent.
CHRIS: Hey, Hannity. We don't need waterboarding. All we've got to do is have people listen to your show for about two minutes and I'm sure they'll give anything up. Listening to you is pure torture. But I'm sure you won't play this. Keep up the bad work, Hannity. We love you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Love me? That's hardly showing it. Doesn't matter what you have to say, nice, mean, we don't care. Call the number on your screen, 877- 225-8587.
That's all the time we have left this evening. Have a great weekend. Thanks for being with, and we'll see you back here on Monday.
END
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