This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," May 25, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, GUEST HOST: This is a Fox News Alert.Polls are now closed in the Montana special election.
Welcome to "Hannity." I'm Kimberly Guilfoyle, in for Sean tonight, who is on vacation for the Memorial Day weekend holiday, and he will be back on Tuesday.
We'll have updates on the Montana special election throughout the hour. The race is now in the national spotlight after the Republican candidate, Greg Gianforte, allegedly body slammed a reporter last night.
But first, our top story. President Trump on the world stage meeting with European leaders at the new NATO headquarters in Brussels. Earlier today, the commander-in-chief called on allies in the military alliance to start paying their fair share. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But I have been very, very direct with Secretary Stoltenberg and members of the alliance in saying that NATO members must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations. But 23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they are supposed to be paying for their defense. This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States. And many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years and not paying in those past years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: And also tonight, British authorities resumed sharing intelligence about the Manchester terror attack with their American counterparts. This comes after President Trump responded to British complaints about intelligence leaks in the United States by saying the federal government will launch a complete review. President Trump promised to, quote, "get to the bottom of this." Plus, there are new questions about selective intelligence leaks aimed at damaging the Trump administration.
There are new reports tonight that Jared Kushner, the president's son-in- law and senior adviser, is now under FBI scrutiny in the Russia investigation. According to The Wall Street Journal, Kushner's lawyers said he will fully cooperate.
Here now with reaction to tonight's breaking news is former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer and American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp. Gentlemen, thank you for joining us tonight on this busy breaking news evening.
Matt, I'll begin with you. What is your reaction to President Trump calling out NATO members for not paying their fair share?
MATT SCHLAPP, AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE UNION: Well, you know, Kimberly, it was never about making Europe great again. And I actually think it's kind of refreshing in diplomatic circles to have an American leader just be very direct and very honest.
There was a period of time in our recent history where America was so dominant and so big and we were so optimistic about our economic leadership that we could cavalierly just pay for things all over the globe and shed our jobs.
And I think Trump has connected with the American people who say, you know, we have lost so much about America that it's time for us to stand up for what's in our interests. It is in our interests to have a strong NATO, but it's the right thing to do for everybody to fulfill their commitments.
GUILFOYLE: All right, Ari, how do you see it?
ARI FLEISCHER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, that's exactly right. You know, it's just not right. When you sign up to belong to an alliance and one of the terms for signing up is that you are supposed to spend 2 percent of your budget on defense, that way we are all strung together, and you don't do it, you're mooching. You're freeloading. You're freeloading off of the only five nations of 28 who do pay.
So I was very supportive of Donald Trump doing it. It's a message they need to hear. He needs to break some glass. I would have added one other element. All 28 were standing in front of me, I'd have singled out the four others in addition to the United States who are paying. I would say thank you to the United Kingdom, thank you to Greece, thank you, Estonia, thank you, Poland. And send that signal. I'm not thanking the other 23.
GUILFOYLE: You know, Ari, I want to stick with you on this for a moment. After the Manchester terror attack, you know, isn't President Trump right to continue this push for NATO to do more to fight terrorists? It's not just about your financial obligation, but put some skin in the game here!
FLEISCHER: Absolutely right. Think about how all of a sudden, the military flooded the streets throughout the United Kingdom after this happened. And the U.K. does spend 2 percent or more on defense. But in the other nations, Germany, a wealthy nation, Italy, a wealthy nation, France, a wealthy nation -- why aren't they doing it?
They certainly could, but they choose not to because they'd rather spend their money on welfare programs and welfare payments. It's part of the Western European tradition of being quasi-socialist and very expensive and lavish. Well, that means you're not paying what they're supposed to for defense, and it hurts all of us.
GUILFOYLE: Yes. Absolutely. Now, Matt, what do you think that President Trump's message should be tomorrow for the G7 summit?
SCHLAPP: Well, once again, I think what President Trump ran on is this idea that we're no longer just going to shed our jobs and our economic opportunity for strategic relationships and purposes. It's going to be about America standing up for what's right for America.
So he's got to level-set with these other first world nations about the fact that we want to do business together. We want to have free trade.
We want to do commerce together. But he's going to aggressively be a cheerleader for the American point of view. Don't expect America to pick up all the bills, like Ari was talking about, to be the world's patsy.
We're going to do what's in our interests, and it's about time we did that. And I think that's going to be part of his message.
GUILFOYLE: Certainly. You know, Ari, a lot has been discussed now in terms of the travel ban, extreme vetting. And when we think about this, what has happened here, this very horrifying example in terms of Manchester and what happened and the bombing there, people are looking at this, saying, Wait a second, maybe President Trump I think is onto something in terms of looking at the countries that have been impacted, the travel that allegedly this individual had back and forth from Libya, et cetera.
FLEISCHER: Well, I'm in a different place on this one, Kimberly. I just have to say it. When Donald Trump was candidate and he did call it a Muslim ban then, I publicly opposed it. I thought it was the wrong thing to do. And now that it's revised and it's changed around, I'm still not supportive of it with the exception of Syria, where there is no government. We can't possibly vet who's coming...
GUILFOYLE: Sure.
GUILFOYLE: ...because there's no infrastructure to check some of these names.
But for most of those other nations, I don't like that approach. I would much rather keep America being the nation that other nations, other people want to come to. And we can vet them. We should vet them. But I want America to be the nation that's the light of the world, the best nation on earth. People would want to come here, and that would include Muslims. So I'm in a different spot on that. I think you can vet and you can do it in a way that protects our country.
GUILFOYLE: OK, but what about the commitment here to national security, Matt...
SCHLAPP: Right.
GUILFOYLE: ... in terms of making sure that this is a place -- yes, this is a nation of immigrants. We've all come from different countries, our parents working, trying to come here, come to the country legally, law- abiding, and Ari's making the point, essentially...
SCHLAPP: Right.
GUILFOYLE: ... for the other side, which is how can you trust countries when they know they can't even determine the true identity of a person...
SCHLAPP: That's right.
GUILFOYLE: ... trying to come over with falsified documents? We want to be compassionate and we want to make sure that this is a land of opportunity, but it also must be a nation of laws!
SCHLAPP: Right. Amen, Kimberly. Here's the thing, which is America is the greatest country on the globe and I want us to be a welcoming country.
It doesn't do us any good when we destabilize our security because in the interests -- some positive notion we allow people in who could be jihadists. And I think that's what's the bottom line here, which is you have an out-of-control liberal court system which too often puts its values instead of the constitutional values on these decisions.
And the fact is, is this. They're using President Trump's rhetoric on the campaign, which Ari alluded to -- got pretty fiery on this topic, but they're using his rhetoric on the campaign...
GUILFOYLE: Sure.
SCHLAPP: ...to make this unconstitutional when they are not looking at the words in the law! The words in the executive order are clearly constitutional. And it's wrong for them to try to stop this, to make politics out of it. It's why people are so frustrated with government.
GUILFOYLE: Frustrated also with legislating from the bench, politicizing and putting ideology ahead of the rule of law like we've seen with the 9th circuit. I've very familiar with them, having come from San Francisco.
But All right, let me, like, switch tacks here in terms of talking about leaks, tremendous frustration in this country about the leaks. We got in big trouble here with one of our strongest and most important allies, with the U.K. here in terms of leaks there, back and forth with the intelligence community. Why is this happening with this administration in a way that we have not seen before?
FLEISCHER: Well, there's two types of leaks going on here. There are the positional leaks among White House aides to bolster their own identity or position which are debilitating. I can't understand how and why people would do that. Matt and I never would do that in the Bush administration.
GUILFOYLE: Sure.
FLEISCHER: And then there are the national security...
SCHLAPP: We would have been fired, Ari.
FLEISCHER: ... leaks...
GUILFOYLE: Right.
FLEISCHER: Absolutely, we would have been. And then the national security leaks that are coming from agencies, the State Department, the president's phone calls, the president's meetings with people. These are designed to hurt the president. But these national security leaks are particularly pernicious. What's come out now that's hurting our ally the United Kingdom should never, ever happen. And you'd think people would be smart enough and know better. And I hope we do find who they are.
GUILFOYLE: No, you're absolutely right. But you know, Matt, You bring up a great point. There has to be repercussions. The people that are doing this -- you have to launch an investigation, bring in somebody from the outside if you want to determine who is doing this because they are acting against the national security interests of the United States, and it shouldn't be tolerated. I think this president deserves better, and it seems to me that he should have people, Matt, that he can trust...
SCHLAPP: That's right.
GUILFOYLE: ...that are loyal not only to this president but to the flag and aren't going to compromise...
SCHLAPP: That's right.
GUILFOYLE: ...this country or our allies!
SCHLAPP: You know, two things here. I agree with Ari that these leaks coming from the president's closest advisers out of the White House -- they think they're helping their own reputations, but they're actually doing a disservice to the president.
And the second thing is, is that when you see the fact that we have not filled as many of these jobs in these agencies...
GUILFOYLE: Certainly.
SCHLAPP: ...these political jobs -- we don't have control on the system like previous presidents have. And it's imperative upon them and the president himself to make these choices. And we only need 50 votes in the Senate now. Let's push through. Let's get control of the bureaucracy let's fight back!
GUILFOYLE: Absolutely. Real quick, Ari, get your thoughts just in terms of the late-breaking news about Jared Kushner.
FLEISCHER: Well, you know, I think Bob Mueller is going to pull his hair out and he's going to start firing people on this investigative team if that's their style. Bob Mueller will never put up with this, the new head, the former head of the FBI and the person leading the investigation. So I think these are holdovers who've been doing the work. And if they continue to unfairly name who they're talking to...
GUILFOYLE: Right.
FLEISCHER: ...or who...
GUILFOYLE: Awful.
FLEISCHER: ...even just looking at, Mueller will put an end to it.
GUILFOYLE: All right.
SCHLAPP: I agree.
GUILFOYLE: Yes, put an end to the witch hunt that's going on, that's for sure. Let justice prevail. Gentlemen, always a pleasure to talk to you tonight. Thanks for being on "Hannity."
And coming up, we're awaiting results in the Montana special election. Alicia Acuna is here next with a live update.
Plus, Montana GOP candidate Greg Gianforte allegedly body slammed a reporter last night. You won't believe who the mainstream media is now trying to blame for it. Charlie Hurt and Jessica Tarlov will be here with reaction.
And later, Sara Carter and John Solomon from Circa are out with another explosive report tonight about the government violating your privacy rights. They'll both be here to share the details. All that and much more as "Hannity" continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUILFOYLE: This is a "Fox News Alert." Welcome back to "Hannity." I'm Kimberly Guilfoyle filling in for Sean.
We are awaiting the results from Montana's special election, and the polls closed just a few minutes ago. Last night, the GOP candidate, Greg Gianforte, reportedly body slammed a Guardian reporter. Our very own Alicia Acuna and her crew witnessed this incident. She joins us now from Bozeman, Montana, Alicia, with the very latest.
ALICIA ACUNA, FOX CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kimberly. Yes, and I can tell you just from looking at some of the election results coming in, at 8 percent of the precincts reporting, Greg Gianforte, the Republican, is leading right now by 9 points. However, it is very early in the night. As you mentioned, the polls just closed.
But it has been an incredibly tense 24 hours for everyone here in this state, especially for Greg Gianforte because as you mentioned, we were standing in the room and preparing for an interview with the GOP candidate when the Guardian reporter came in, Ben Jacobs, and started asking him questions.
And when Gianforte pushed back and said he'll do it later, Jacobs persisted. And that's when Gianforte grabbed him, threw him to the ground, started punching him, telling him he was sick and tired of it. And at that point, that's when Jacobs tried to kind of get his composure, said his glasses were broken and that he was calling the police.
Kimberly, I can tell you I was standing there 2 to 3 feet from these two men when this happened. I was also in the room with our photographer from Fox News, Keith Railey, as well as Faith Mangan. She's a Fox News Channel producer. We were shocked. None of us had ever seen anything like that in response to a reporter coming in and asking questions -- Kimberly.
GUILFOYLE: Unbelievable. Quite an incredible experience, and you were right there for it. So I'm glad that you told the truth and you came forward about it. Thank you so much, Alicia.
Now, it didn't take long for the mainstream media to start pointing fingers, of course, for Gianforte's altercation. So who do you think they blamed? Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC HOST: You can draw a straight line from Republican candidates thinking that sort of behavior is OK when you have Donald Trump berating reporters throughout the entire campaign, saying -- suggesting terrible things, calling them -- using the Stalinist term "enemy of the people."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump is the role-model-in-chief. And clearly, you have a lot of people who have been modeling their behavior on Donald Trump, who has declared the media to be the enemy of the people.
DON LEMON, CNN HOST: You don't think it's because a guy who's in office now has said very horrible things about reporters and...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
LEMON: ... has sad that the reporters are the enemy of the American people?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
LEMON: I think that -- that has nothing to do with anything, that people feel that they can get away with it because I don't believe that you actually believe that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: And joining us now with reaction, Fox News contributors Charlie Hurt and Jessica Tarlov. Thanks for being with me tonight.
So now there's two thirds of the vote in from early voting, and you know the polls just closed minutes ago. How much do you think last night's incident is going to sway the results? I'll begin with you, Charlie?
CHARLIE HURT, FOX CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, it looks like it -- because there was so much early voting that it'll have very little effect, if any. But the really sad thing about all of it is that if it had -- had it happened earlier, it might have helped the candidate because people -- their opinion of the press these days is so incredibly low.
But just look at that montage you just showed. You know, when you look at that stuff and you realize these are people who are supposed to be the first defenders of our free speech rights and they don't know the difference between Donald Trump complaining about the press, ridiculing the press and then some wacko who attacks a reporter and tries to beat him up during an interview -- the fact that they don't realize the difference between those two things I think reveals exactly why so many Americans despise the press.
GUILFOYLE: Yes, it's a big problem, Jessica, because right away, the narrative turned from personal responsibility about an individual choosing to take actions or acting out out of temper or aggression, to, Let's blame this and pin this on the POTUS.
JESSICA TARLOV, FOX CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, it was a hard sell, I think, for a lot of people and for me, as well, there. This is no one but Gianforte's fault himself. He clearly lost his cool. There were people in the room. They thought they reported accurately. As you said, it should have never happened.
We should have heard from President Trump about this, not just "no comment." But he should have said something, especially since he made robocalls about it. And they should be saying exactly what Charlie said, which is this guy is a wacko, and he's probably not fit for office. But with 65 percent of the vote in already and high Republican numbers, chances are that he is going to get elected. And we'll find out in a few hours about that.
What I would say, though, to the liberals who are out there talking about this, even Joe Scarborough, who now I guess is on the cusp more...
(LAUGHTER)
TARLOV: ... is that -- I give him the cusp -- is that the arguments to be made about what has happened in terms of demonizing the press is that there are more people defending Gianforte than there would have been maybe four years ago, eight years ago...
GUILFOYLE: Right.
TARLOV: ... because of the attitude, the hostile attitude towards the press. It's given people an excuse for the inexcusable. And that's something that I think can be tied back to Donald Trump, but certainly not the actions of a wacko.
GUILFOYLE: So basically, he's getting the whole thing of liberal bias and mainstream media run amok, witch hunts against President Trump, improper attribution, Charlie, so people are saying, Wait a second. We can see how this guy might have, like, snapped, like, media derangement syndrome or something.
HURT: Sure. And if you look at some of the interviews that we've seen today of voters out there asked about this event, the two things that they say is, one is, Well, you know, the guy probably had it coming, or something like that. Or the other thing they say is, We don't believe what anybody is reporting and so we don't think we have the full story. And so I'm going to keep an open mind and I'm still supporting this guy.
And both of those I think are pretty revealing. One, it reveals just how much disdain people have for the press. But the other is just how much nobody believes anything the press is reporting.
TARLOV: But Charlie, how much of that has to do with what Donald Trump did during the campaign and since he went into office with the demonization of the press?
HURT: Well, but...
TARLOV: They should believe that reporter. They should believe the audio.
They should believe our reporters who were in the room. And that's the damage I believe POTUS has created.
GUILFOYLE: I think it's too tenuous of a link. I mean, it's too stretched out for that. I mean, this guy's got to bear responsibility, Charlie.
HURT: Agreed.
TARLOV: Everybody say they're sorry!
GUILFOYLE: Let's concur on -- we're so sorry. We're sorry we have to go to break.
But coming up -- Sara Carter and John Solomon with Circa News have breaking news tonight just for you. According to their explosive report, the FBI allegedly shared intelligence about Americans with third parties and violated their constitutional rights! Sara and John join us next to explain.
And then later...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: All people who cherish life must unite in finding, exposing and removing these killers and extremists.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: President Trump earlier today in Brussels called for extremists to be driven out. How was his message received? Ric Grenell and Mercedes Schlapp weigh in.
All that, plus Anthony Scaramucci is here. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUILFOYLE: This is a "Fox News Alert." I'm Kimberly Guilfoyle in for Sean, who is on vacation and will be back on Tuesday.
Polls in the Montana special election closed at the top of the hour, and we are now awaiting results in that race.
Also tonight, another new and explosive report from Circa about your privacy rights. Sara Carter and John Solomon just filed a new story with the headline, quote, "Declassified memos show FBI illegally shared spy data on Americans with private parties." Sara Carter and John Solomon join us now with all the details.
Sara, good evening. I'll begin with you. If you can explain to the viewers how this process actually works with the FBI illegally sharing the information about Americans with third parties.
SARA CARTER, CIRCANEWS.COM: Yes. Well, Kimberly, what we discovered through these documents which were recently declassified by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court was stunning.
What they said was that the FBI was illegally sharing warrantless spy data. That means they did not have a warrant, and they were sharing it with third parties.
And in one case, they shared it with a party. They didn't explain who the party was, but it was a forbidden party, a party that was not allowed to have this type of raw intelligence. Another thing that they stated was that not only did they do that, but they were intercepting communications -- attorney-client privilege communications without oversight.
GUILFOYLE: Wow.
CARTER: So very little oversight. This didn't happen once or twice. This was hundreds of times. And another thing that they mentioned was that there was very little oversight overall in what the FBI was accessing through the NSA database.
And I think this is very concerning because this was the first time that we've actually heard that the FBI -- not just the NSA -- which John and I broke just several days ago...
GUILFOYLE: Right.
CARTER: ... you know, that the FBI itself was also dabbing into the database and moving raw intelligence around that actually affected our 4th Amendment rights and our privacy rights as Americans.
GUILFOYLE: It's really unbelievable. This is an explosive story. It's really a bombshell in terms of the flagrant violation of people's privacy rights. I mean, were you shocked really at just sort of the extent of this and the far reach?
JOHN SOLOMON, CIRCANEWS.COM: I'd like to say I was, but I'm not. And the more that dig into the spying that went on in the Obama administration and these expansion of powers, the more we see that the 4th Amendment has been abused or certainly put at risk. And I think one of the things that -- you ask -- a lot of times, you hear a lot of talk in Washington about all these leaks. Where do they come from? But the more you pass this stuff down -- it goes from the NSA to the FBI, then the FBI to private citizens -- that's how you're going to get a trail of leaks. And I think that if they want to stop this, they've got to tighten it up.
GUILFOYLE: What do they do Sara though to tighten it up? Because John brings up a great point because everybody at home is frustrated, like, Really? Like, Get this in check. What is going on that people literally don't feel that there's going to be any repercussion, any kind of criminal or civil repercussions. for they're doing, violating the laws here and violating the privacy rights of American citizens?
CARTER: Well, there's a couple of things that they can do, Kimberly. We know right now that they're going to launch a massive investigation into the leaks. It's going to be very interesting to see where these leaks came from. I believe that some of these leaks came from very high up because some of the information, for example, when you are dealing with Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, that would have been a very small number of people that would have had access to those tax cuts.
Now, if they talk about it and put it in emails, then that leak expansion could be a little bit wider, a little bit bigger but still according to my sources, it's very narrow. Another thing that I believe can be done is that congress right now is planning on investigating this. Remember, Section 702 is coming up for review. This FISA section 702 which allows the NSA to basically collect information on non-U.S. citizens overseas and those incidental intercepts are happening where they are collecting Americans information as well.
It's coming for review at the end of the year. Darrell Issa, Trent Franks, others who've spoken to I say that they are going to look at this law, they're going to end -- some of them aren't even going to vote for it unless it's revised.
GUILFOYLE: Well, it has to be. I mean, this is a real big problem especially when you look back at the time frame and the chronology, John, in terms of how far how back this goes and the pervasiveness of it.
JOHN SOLOMON, CIRCA NEWS: It does. 2011. Barack Obama changed the rules and ever since that time we saw a tripling of the sort of spying on Americans going on and now we see these leaks and violation. And I think an unusual coalition is going to together. You're going to see the ACLU and conservatives agreeing on something for the first time and trying to fix this one as a bill comes up for a renewal this fall.
GUILFOYLE: OK. How quick do you think the turnaround on this in terms of being able to do something to stop the leaks?
SOLOMON: Well, they have to put some and have to arrest someone or they have to find someone and make an example. That's the fastest way to stop a leaking problem. But just look, everyday there are 10-20, look, even the British are mad at us.
GUILFOYLE: Well, the president certainly vowing to do something about this and I think he's going to get to the bottom of it. Sarah and John, thank you so much. Keep up the great work at Circa. Coming up. We are waiting the results of the Montana special election. Polls closed in the state just about 30 minutes ago. But first -
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: All people who cherish life must unite in finding, exposing, and removing these killers and extremists.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: And that was President Trump earlier today speaking in front of NATO members about the need to eradicate extremists. Rick Grenell and Mercedes Schlapp weigh in next. And it later, Anthony Scaramucci is here. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUILFOYLE: Welcome back to Hannity and this is a Fox News alert. We are awaiting the results from the Montana special election where the polls closed just over 30 minutes ago. But first, President Trump was at the new NATO headquarters today in Brussels where he once again called for terrorists to be wiped out. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: All people who cherish life must unite in finding, exposing, and removing these killers and extremists. And yes, losers. They are losers.
Wherever they exist in our societies, we must drive them out and never, ever let them back in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: Joining me now with reaction is former spokesman for the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Rick Grenell and Fox News Contributor Mercedes Schlapp. Thank you for being here with me tonight. Very busy news tonight.
MERCEDES SCHLAPP, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Thank you.
GUILFOYLE: So today, President Trump spoke about the need to drive out the extremists. Do you think, Rick, that members of NATO are doing enough to combat radical Islamic terror?
RICK GRENELL, FORMER SPOKESMAN FOR THE U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: Well, clearly what NATO needs to do is have a new mission and that new mission needs to include dealing with international terrorism. We have a capabilities gap at NATO right now where some countries are coming under the NATO umbrella and they're not really able to give militarily. So, they're coming under umbrella take get the protection.
And what we need to do is work on the capabilities gap so that every country is pulling their weight. Not just paying the bills which is extremely important and should be a priority as well but the capabilities gap is a real problem at NATO. And that's got to be solved as well.
GUILFOYLE: How do you fix that, though? Because you're dead on about this. There's really a capabilities problem but what are the steps to even try to rectify that, Rick?
GRENELL: Well, look, I'm going to throw something out here that's a little bit crazy about NATO. But if we're going to talk about terrorism and we're going to talk about teaching other countries how to deal with terrorists and we have a capabilities gap at NATO, why not make Israel a part of NATO?
They are one of the countries that every country could learn from in terms of how do you deal with terrorists? And I think NATO is got to be thinking differently about these issues.
If you're going to make NATO of course blocking Russia, that's a standard, that's a 100 percent number one priority. But we also have to update its mission. And we have to think differently about NATO. One of the other things too, Kimberly, is that we should not have countries calculating their pensions towards defense spending. That's a social program. They are important but it shouldn't calculate towards your two percent of defense spending when you talk about military pensions.
GUILFOYLE: Such a great point. Now, Mercedes, what do you think? Because that's an interesting, you know, outside the box in terms of the thinking there to say, OK, let's bring in Israel.
SCHLAPP: But we don't even need to think outside the box. There's a bigger issue here which Chancellor Merkel spoke about today with her little friend, President Obama talked where they talk about open borders. This is an issue that obviously in many of these countries in Europe that they're not willing to accept the reality that if they hone in on an agenda where it is about open borders and not controlling the migrants who are coming in and the refugees who were coming in, not knowing who is coming to their country, that is a fundamental problem.
NATO can't solve the problem, the United States can't solve that problem.
And this is why if they can't track these individuals, for example, in the case of the Manchester bomber who was traveling to Libya, who was going to Syria, where there are these red flags everywhere but they viewed him as sort of a minor figure and not an immediate threat. I think that there's a very clear reality right now that if the European leaders do not under - do not take this seriously in terms of understanding who is coming in and out of their country, that I think is a bigger issue, Kimberly.
GUILFOYLE: Yes. What about that? You know, Rick, in terms of their own individual and personal responsibility as countries that need to be part of the solution here and have some skin in the game to say, we're going to do everything we can. We take this problem seriously, we're going to pay our dues and we're actually going to do something about this.
GRENELL: Look, every single country enforces its own immigration laws.
That's just a fact. Sometimes the United States is the only country that gets criticized for trying to enforce its immigration law. But if you look at the real details here, we're the most generous when it comes to allowing people to come here as permanent residents. More than a million people every single year become permanent residents in the United States.
GUILFOYLE: Lawfully.
GRENELL: We also allow more than four million people to come here as students for a longer term stay and 42 million people have visitor's visas.
And so, when you look at the numbers, the United States is by far the most generous when it comes to allowing people into our country. We just need to enforce our immigration laws and have extreme vetting so that we know who's coming in. It's not a crazy idea.
GUILFOYLE: No, it's not. Mercedes, when you look at this and just the, you know, kind of the juxtaposition especially with this timing, you know, right now, what's going on, President Trump calling for that extreme vetting that Rick has just mentioned right here. America wants to secure its borders, America wants to have legal immigration, people actually complying with the laws that are on the books, respecting the constitution, what's wrong with this? When all of a sudden the United States become the bad guy and all of this?
SCHLAPP: Well, it's been fascinating to watch. It's obviously how the courts have ruled on the travel for the president. You know, clearly what they're doing is rather than focusing on what the words are within the law, they decided to go back to Trump -- President Trump's campaign statements and use that as part of their argument to uphold the injunction on the travel ban. But here's the reality that we have which is the fact that you saw former FBI Director James Comey, former Obama administration officials basically very concerned about the fact that you can't vet individuals coming into the United States from Syria.
GUILFOYLE: No. You can't. Not properly.
SCHLAPP: There's not - U.S. soldiers on the ground that basically are collecting the information of the - of the local population. It makes it incredibly difficult to ensure that people who are as we know ISIS had said that they want to infiltrate through the refugee program. It makes it very difficult I think for the United States to handle these situations when you're talking about countries of concern which is what President Obama pushed through in terms of these seven or six countries that President Obama used in his executive - in his travel ban.
GUILFOYLE: Yes. Absolutely. I want to shift gears a little bit here because we are actually going to extend into the next hour because we're waiting results in the Montana special election and The Associated Press is reporting it is a tight race indeed. And after reports of last night's altercation between Gianforte and a reporter, how do we think that might impact the results? So, I want to just get your take on this, Rick and Mercedes. I mean, Rick, obviously this is being closely watched with the breaking news of that physical altercation. This is a seat that matters to Republicans. What are you expecting?
GRENELL: Well, look, I think that if everybody was voting after they heard this news, we'd have a different result.
SCHLAPP: Right.
GRENELL: I hear two-thirds of the voters had already voted in early voting. It's one of the issues why - you know, I have been a part of a lot of campaigns and it's one of the issues why early voting obviously has its advantages but in certain situations, it has its disadvantages. When new information comes out, when some sort of scandal erupts, if you voted too early then don't have the benefit of this knowledge. So, I think this race would be very different if we had everybody voting at the same time. After the fact on Election Day.
I mean, clearly Alicia Acuna's first-hand account to me made the difference. She was there. She saw what happened. And I just think that it's unacceptable to ever put your hands around anyone for any reason.
GUILFOYLE: Right. And there's been a lot of equivocation and explaining back and forth and finger pointing about this issue. Mercedes, obviously this is an important seat to the Republicans but you can't discount what happened here and as Rick, you know, points out, there was eyewitness - percipient witnesses right there to say exactly what happened. And you heard the report from our very own Alicia Acuna, one of our camera people and also producer that was there and saw what transpired.
There was also some issue as to whether or not there was an inconsistent statement, you know, put out by Gianforte's press team, you know, on this, Mercedes.
SCHLAPP: I do believe that if Gianforte would have come out with an apology early on, I think it could have definitely been to his benefit. I think in him wait -- for him to wait and not state an apology but kind of push back on the argument was weak. It didn't help him. Now, at the end, I do believe this is, you know, what - this is a safe Republican seat, although I believe it's a - very -- right now it's a very tight race based on the shock value on the last 24 hours of what we've seen.
I do believe Gianforte will win. I - but I do believe that it's been unfortunate circumstances and really, I think it's a lesson to candidates all out there. Even when, you know, the temperature is high in a political campaign and there's tension, the last thing you need to do his body slam a reporter. There's enough body slamming that's going on in congress. Use your energy for fighting the Democrats in Congress. Not going after reporters.
GUILFOYLE: Yes. I mean, Rick, this is really unbelievable. Talk about like a fumble at the, you know, first and goal here. I mean, really a big problem. And by the way, here's what bothers me the most about I, is that people are actually trying to tie this to President Trump and say that this is his fault.
GRENELL: Yes. That's crazy.
GUILFOYLE: That he created this narrative. That he has encouraged this kind of language, behavior, assaultive conduct against members of the press. That to me is just like, wow, astonishing.
GRENELL: I think at it's astonishing too. And, you know, this seat is going to be a problem for rRpublicans if Gianforte wins. It's going to be a problem for Speaker Paul Ryan. I think that it would be best if the NRCC sea and others came out and just simply said this is unacceptable, violence is never OK. Distance themselves from this before he - you know, before people started voting. One of the best things could -- that could happen for the Republicans would be for him to lose and then they not have this --
(CROSSTALK)
SCHLAPP: No, I disagree, Rick. I disagree with you. You know how it is with these members of Congress. They bundle up. No one will remember who Gianforte is in two years. You know, if he's going to be - he'll try to do his work as being a congressman of Montana but we'll forget his name soon enough. But - no, I disagree. I think it's important --
(CROSSTALK)
GRENELL: I would agree with you --
(CROSSTALK)
GUILFOYLE: And I think, you know, it was unfortunate incident. It should have never happened. You know, I wish he would've apologized early on but we need the Republican in Congress in order to stop the Democrats. That's clearly the casing point here.
GRENELL: Sure. I think we need -- I certainly want the Republicans to win. That's not - that's not my point. But I think it would be different if he had some sort of financial scandal or if he was, you know, caught doing something where he had to come out --
(CROSSTALK)
GRENELL: -- and admit an error.
GUILFOYLE: He got a criminal case now pending. That's the problem. And --
(CROSSTALK)
GRENELL: Physical violence.
GUILFOYLE: Yes. Physical violence.
GRENELL: It's physical violence.
GUILFOYLE: And by the way, what's the back story on this? He says, you guys are always doing this, what, asking questions about the budget?
SCHLAPP: No. They - yes.
GUILFOYLE: This is a little bit like -- especially because you can hear the tape. Maybe the one thing that's not - that's going to save him is there isn't an actual video of him going honey badger. I don't know. I mean, because if there is a video we've been seeing --
GRENELL: I know. What we got.
SCHLAPP: If would be like the United Airlines.
GRENELL: Alicia is a pretty credible reporter.
GUILFOYLE: Yes. Well, there you go. Yes.
GRENELL: Alicia is a pretty credible reporter and she said, you know, hands around the neck.
GUILFOYLE: Exactly. And the glasses are broken.
GRENELL: Yes.
GUILFOYLE: All right. Unacceptable conduct no doubt. Results coming in. We'll ask you guys to stand by because we are going all the way. Coming up. We are awaiting results of the Montana special election. We will be live until midnight covering the race. Anthony Scaramucci will join us later tonight. Plus, a gold star mom who supported President Trump during the election is out with a brand-new book, just in time for Memorial Day.
That and much more as 'Hannity' continues. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUILFOYLE: This is a Fox News alert. And we are awaiting results from the Montana special election. We will be live tonight until midnight covering the results. But first, my next guest is a Gold Star mom who supported President Trump during the election. She now has a brand-new book out, just in time for Memorial Day called World Changer. A mother story, the unbreakable spirit of U.S. Navy SEAL Aaron Carson Vaughn.
Karen Vaughn, my friend joins me now tonight to tell us more about this important book and her son, his legacy, Aaron.
KAREN VAUGHN, MOTHER OF FALLEN NAVY SEAL, AARON CARSON VAUGHN: Yes.
GUILFOYLE: Wonderful for you to be here tonight with us. I really appreciate it.
VAUGHN: Thank you.
GUILFOYLE: And we've known each other now for over -
VAUGHN: Five and a half years now.
GUILFOYLE: Yes. Absolutely.
VAUGHN: Yes.
GUILFOYLE: And you've been working on this book and tell us first a little bit about - and I know about him but to share with viewers about your son.
VAUGHN: Aaron was just a remarkable human being. Eight - by the time he was eight years old, he knew exactly what he was created to be. He wanted to be a Navy SEAL and he overcame unimaginable odds to achieve that dream, Kimberly and unfortunately lost his life in the midst of that dream at the pinnacle of his career, at the pinnacle of his life. 30 years old. A beautiful wife at home and two small babies. A two-year old son and daughter that was only nine weeks old.
GUILFOYLE: And the tragedy that happened where he lost his life in August 6, 2011. Helicopter carrying 30 Americans who perished on a mission. This really changed your life. It put you on a new path that I witnessed you going.
VAUGHN: It did. It did. You know, what it did, it just -- it forced me out of my comfort zone and into a world where - what I like to say as Aaron fought for this country kinetically and I decided after his death that it was obligation to fight for this country culturally. So that's what I started doing. I started fighting for the A reform, I primarily started firing for reform and rules of engagement for our war fighters. But then the love of my life finally came to culmination when I got to start writing this book because I captured so many stories about Aaron and so many memories.
And when I put it all together, I realize I had written something that could actually help parents across this country learn how to raise kids who were formidable, strong, gritty, confidence children who can overcome obstacles like Aaron did.
GUILFOYLE: Well, this is the best part too that I -- when I read about this is that, you said he wanted to give parents advice on how to raise children who would leave a mark on the world.
VAUGHN: Right. Not just exist but exist for a purpose. You know, really live. Kids who - kids who just - who have the courage to go out and do everything they were created to be, you know, and there's a - there's a pattern in those children. You know, you see it throughout their life. You - and there are steps that we can take as parents to make that happen.
And that's what I want to do with world changer. 18 chapters of study guide in the back of this book.
GUILFOYLE: And very worthwhile. We encourage people to get it especially for Memorial Day weekend. So happy to have you here, my friend.
VAUGHN: Thank you.
GUILFOYLE: God bless you and your commitment to the veterans and your beautiful son.
VAUGHN: Thank you. Thank you, Kimberly.
GUILFOYLE: And coming up. Don't go anywhere please. We are in live for the next hour covering the Montana special election. Alicia Acuna standing by at Gianforte headquarters. Stay with us. It's going to be a fun night.
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