Ingraham slams the left for not condemning violent rhetoric
Fox News contributor speaks out on 'Hannity'
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," June 15, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: This is a Fox News Alert. Welcome to "Hannity." We are broadcasting tonight from Washington, D.C., where members of Congress held their annual charity baseball game, remember, just one day after a left-wing assassination attempt on Republican lawmakers. Now, we were in the stadium earlier tonight talking to some of those eyewitnesses, Republican members of Congress. And by the way, we'll play those interviews later in the show for you.
But with all due respect, I am not buying this national kumbaya moment. It's not true. It's not real. And it's an outright illusion. Yesterday was a left-wing assassination attempt on Republican lawmakers. Now, watch this dramatic video from the scene during yesterday's shooting rampage. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do we know where he's at?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do we know where he's at?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's behind home plate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) guy been shot, is he OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay down! Stay down! Stay down! Stay down!
(VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: That video from just yesterday, so hard to watch. Now, the House majority whip, Steve Scalise, was badly injured, remains in the hospital. He's still fighting for his life tonight.
Now, while tonight's game may be a nice attempt to show unity here, let's not be deceived. Let's not pretend the vicious, divisive rhetoric, the vile hatred of the left -- it's not going to end. In fact, I predict it's only going to get worse because Democrats, liberals, the media -- they will not stop until they absolutely destroy this president's agenda. That's tonight's very important D.C. "Opening Monologue."
So as I said, we're here in our nation's capital tonight because yesterday, across the Potomac River in Alexandria, Virginia, a radical left-wing ideologue tried to carry out a political assassination against Republican lawmakers at a baseball field. Now, investigators, they're still trying to determine the motive of this sinister attack, but we do know a lot, don't we?
James Hodgkinson was a Bernie Sanders supporter, apparently volunteered on Sanders's presidential campaign. He regularly expressed his extremist views on social media, referring to President Trump as a traitor on social media, writing that, quote, "It's time to destroy Trump and company." He also belonged to a Facebook group called Terminate the Republican Party.
Now, while this monster's actions are horrific and disturbing it's part of a much larger pattern that we've been seeing from the left-wing Democrats, the destroy Trump media in this country. Now, they have created this vortex of hatred aimed at the president.
For example, just this week, an opening night performance of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" in New York City's Central Park featured a Donald Trump look-alike, again, getting brutally stabbed and murdered! By the way, some taxpayer dollars.
Then there's an example, of course, so graphic, we've got to warn you every time before we put it up on the screen. This is part of a vile ISIS-style photo shoot, so-called comedian Kathy Griffin posed with a fake bloodied severed head of -- you see it right there -- President Trump.
And there's also this hate-filled and threatening rant from Madonna. Remember back at the women's march back in January? Here's her, her dreams of blowing up the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, JAN. 21)
MADONNA, SINGER: And to our detractors that insist that this march will never add up to anything, (EXPLETIVE DELETED) you!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
MADONNA: Yes, I'm angry. Yes, I am outraged. Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: You think a lot about blowing up the White House? Maybe you should be investigated and maybe looked at by the Secret Service. And remember, before Madonna's vicious attack against the president, there was rapper Snoop Dogg in a music video. Oh, he was pretending to shoot President Trump with a gun. Take a look.
(VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Really? Imagine if that was President Obama. How would the media react? And by the way, it's not just Hollywood liberals and leftists who are spreading this vicious, vile hatred towards the commander-in-chief. Of course, we've got the destroy Trump media and Democrats, they have been doing the same thing ever since he won on November the 8th.
Take a look at some of this disturbing -- many examples from the media themselves. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
MIKA BRZEZINSKI, MARCH 10, "MORNING JOE"/MSNBC: 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, 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.
CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC, JAN. 20: When he said today "America first," it was not just the racial -- I mean, the -- I shouldn't say "racial," the Hitlerian background to it.
JONES, OCT. 19, 2016: This is a very sad night for the country. You can't polish this turd.
DON LEMON, CNN, JAN. 11: He called you fake news. What if you had called him a fake president?
MATTHEWS, MAY 19: He's there with his wife. Here's there with his whole family, as I say, like the Romanovs. He's got -- he's got Jared, who might be a part of this story (INAUDIBLE) And he's got his daughter, Ivanka. It's like a traveling royal Romanov family!
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN, MAY 19: You can't defend what the president of the United States just said.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: If he took a dump on his desk, you would defend it.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HANNITY: And Democrats -- well, they have made it a priority to target, attack, delegitimize, dehumanize the president pretty much on a daily basis. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, D-N.Y., JAN 29: This executive order was mean-spirited and un-American.
TOM PEREZ, DNC CHAIR, APRIL 17: Republican leaders and President Trump don't give a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) about the people they were trying to hurt!
REP. MAXINE WATERS, D-CALIF., APRIL 15: I will fight every day until he is impeached. Impeach 45! Impeach 45!
WATERS, FEB. 21, MSNBC: This is a bunch of scumbags. That's what they are...
CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC: Those are very strong words, Congresswoman.
WATERS: ... who are all organized around making money.
REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF., MINORITY LEADER, FEB. 6: We see nothing that we can work -- I can work with President Bush on.
PELOSI, APRIL 27: I'm trying really hard to find something positive. This morning, he had three tweets. I was thinking he was more of a creature that stalked the night, that these just came out at night like a vampire, that he tweet us these things. But now it's spread to the morning.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HANNITY: This is beyond psychotic, unhinged, and we've been telling you night after night right here on this program Democrats, the left, the destroy Trump media -- you know what? They hate this president! They will do now, say anything to delegitimize and destroy him! Now, for months, they have been trying to outdo one another, you know, one black helicopter tinfoil hat conspiracy theory after another for months and months and months, night after night, launching new and venomous attacks.
And after yesterday's shooting, the liberal HuffingtonPost -- they had to take down a disgusting article that actually called for President Trump's execution. Take a look at the headline, "Impeachment is no longer enough; Donald Trump must face justice." And there's the sub-headline, "Impeachment, removal from office are only the first steps; for America to be redeemed, Donald Trump must be prosecuted for treason and if convicted in a court of law, executed."
Really? Pretty disturbing. And by the way, if there wasn't a left-wing assassination attempt yesterday, probably that story would still be up tonight.
Then of course, The New York Times smearing former governor Sarah Palin in an op-ed, blaming her for the 2011 shooting of former congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Palin had nothing whatsoever to do with what happened, which is why The New York Times had to issue a correction. And earlier today, Palin tweeted that she is talking to an attorney and exploring legal options, which, by the way, she should be doing. Do it, Governor Palin. That's my advice.
And by the way, here's the thing about all of this. Everything we have showed you is a -- it's less than one-tenth of 11 thousand million percent of the divisive, hateful rhetoric that is now the left in America! We can spend an entire week just playing tapes, just showing example after example.
The problem we're now facing is that no one on the left has the courage, or very few, or the fortitude to speak out and stop the hatred. And that's because Democrats use this kind of vile rhetoric every single election. Every election, what? Republicans are racist, they're sexist, they're misogynist. Let's see, they want dirty air and water. They want to throw Granny off the cliff. And that's just part of their political playbook -- Islamophobic, xenophobic, you know, homophobic. It never ends!
The left objectifies Republicans, especially conservatives, into something we are not. And they know the truth, but yet they contribute to this atmosphere where Republicans -- we're not even human. If you're a conservative like me, Godawful. How do you even speak on television or radio?
Now, tonight, I know there's a kumbaya moment for the country. I'm not buying it. How do you feel about it?
Joining us with reaction, editor-in-chief, Lifezette, FOX News contributor, nationally syndicated radio talk show star...
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX CONTRIBUTOR: Bravo! Excellent, excellent, excellent monologue!
HANNITY: I want to -- I want to say let's go get together, but I (INAUDIBLE) forget all the crap.
INGRAHAM: Right.
HANNITY: And the truth.
INGRAHAM: Right.
HANNITY: And I'm not doing that.
INGRAHAM: No, Sean, you laid it out. And tonight -- you know, you're right. Nice show. It's a nice -- nice spirit. That's all great. But you know and I know, and I think most people watching FOX and most people who are sentiment human beings know what game they've being playing for a long, long time. This has been going on long before Donald Trump.
I mean, remember Condoleezza Rice, what they said about her? She was a house slave. Remember what they said about Colin Powell? He's in the house of the master? They were doing assassination plays about Ronald Reagan years ago.
This is -- this has been going on now amplified by a deranged left-wing media that is completely off the rails and enjoying somewhat of a renaissance during this period. They're making money off of it. They're - - they're certainly not condemning the type of speech that Maxine Waters and the DNC chair and respected celebrities are engaging in.
I mean, how many people today criticized some of the things Maxine Waters has said about poisoning the water? She will not even go to the White House to meet with the president, she said, because she does not recognize him as a legitimate president of the United States.
Now, say what you want, but if President Obama invited us to the White House, which he didn't do, but if he did, we would have gone. Of course you go! (INAUDIBLE) disagree, but you'll go!
HANNITY: Hey, listen, I would have been there in a heartbeat.
INGRAHAM: Right.
HANNITY: I would've loved it.
INGRAHAM: Right, but the idea that you are not going to go and...
HANNITY: You know the first thing I would have said?
INGRAHAM: Right.
HANNITY: I've been right about you from the beginning.
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: Exactly. Exactly. But the idea that you -- you don't engage except in this cowardly, vicious, vile, politically terroristic approach.
HANNITY: OK. This is what people are going to say about us tonight. Oh, really? You can't stop for a night?
INGRAHAM: Yes.
HANNITY: OK, now...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: If it really were...
INGRAHAM: (INAUDIBLE) day? If this would have been done to...
HANNITY: (INAUDIBLE) for a night.
INGRAHAM: If this had been done to Barack Obama or this had been done to Nancy Pelosi, the -- I'm talking about the mock beheadings, the Shakespeare in the park, you would have Democrat congressmen on television 24/7 putting pressure on all of these entertainment companies and all of these celebrities and everyone who's propping them up. But today, I mean, we don't even hear many Republicans tonight speaking about this. I mean...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Everyone got sucked in. And I can't tell you...
INGRAHAM: I'm sorry, but it kind of...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: ... 72 hours...
INGRAHAM: They kind of -- no.
HANNITY: ... it's going to start happening.
INGRAHAM: No. It -- but it's -- it's -- I don't think it's actually helpful for them to do what they did because it lulls people into the sense that, Oh, it's OK. We're putting our arms around each other. See? We're wearing the LSU shirt tonight. Isn't that great?
You know (INAUDIBLE) you know what would be great is to actually stand up and call out the people in your own caucus who are spewing this vile rhetoric that deranged individuals are marinating themselves in 24/7 on social media!
HANNITY: You know something? There was no prominent Democrat with the Kathy Griffin -- do you know of any?
INGRAHAM: No.
HANNITY: Was it Obama? Was Hillary?
INGRAHAM: No, none of them.
HANNITY: Was any prominent Democrat that said...
INGRAHAM: No.
HANNITY: ... that is over the line?
INGRAHAM: No! Not one, and...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: ... more than this baseball game, which, by the way, I'm glad they're raising money for charity...
INGRAHAM: No, that's great. That's great. But I'm talking about -- this is a systemic viciousness. And those who claim that there -- Oh, there are those on the right who do this and those on the left -- no, no, no, no. The stuff that's happening now, where -- at town hall meetings, congressmen go, are called every disgusting word, and then go home and find out later on there's a chalk drawing on their driveways. Their children are threatened. That's -- and they used to -- remember they used to complain the Tea Party was violent? There was never any violence in the Tea Party!
(CROSSTALK)
INGRAHAM: Right. Exactly. They didn't clean their trash up!
HANNITY: You know what's really important? I feel -- you -- we're just too reality-based. I cannot -- I cannot sit here and be a phony and a fake and a fraud and act like this is real.
INGRAHAM: No.
HANNITY: It's not!
INGRAHAM: Nancy Pelosi was on attack again today!
HANNITY: I know.
INGRAHAM: I mean, she was on attack again! This is what they do. This is part and parcel...
HANNITY: All right...
INGRAHAM: ... of what they do.
HANNITY: I'm in D.C. It's your home turf.
INGRAHAM: Yes.
HANNITY: Laura Ingraham stays with us. Right after the...
INGRAHAM: (INAUDIBLE)
HANNITY: All right. Right after the break, and she's going to sing kumbaya when we get back.
INGRAHAM: Oh, yes, lock arms.
HANNITY: President Trump fires back against the attacks -- another late- breaking deep state attack tonight, this well-orchestrated effort to destroy the presidency of Donald Trump. We'll get reaction. Jay Sekulow, Sara Carter, Gregg Jarrett are back.
And also tonight, later, prior to the first pitch at tonight's congressional baseball game, I did stop by the game. You can see me right there. I did speak to several lawmakers, several eyewitnesses to what happened. I asked them about yesterday's left-wing assassination attempt. And that's a part of the story you need to hear. And that you'll hear tonight on "Hannity."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: And welcome back to "Hannity" as we continue with nationally syndicated radio host, Lifezette, Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham.
So I go down to the park. I'm going to show -- and I have interviewed a lot of the Republicans that were there. And I also met this -- this kid, Zack Barth. He works for Congressman Roger Williams, Roger Williams, the coach of the team. He's going to fly back to Texas. His foot gets operated on. This kid was shot in the calf. Mo Brooks, who I've known from my Alabama radio days...
INGRAHAM: Wow.
HANNITY: ... 27 years ago, all right -- we were both supporting (sic) for Senate. He was the one that put the tourniquet on this kid. I've known Mo for 27 years! He broke down on my radio show.
INGRAHAM: Yes.
HANNITY: It's so traumatic. And I'm watching this kid. He got shot in the calf. I'm all right. I'm all right. He was texting his mother!
INGRAHAM: Right.
HANNITY: I mean, it's such a testament to who he is. Is this directly connected to the rhetoric?
INGRAHAM: I think about it this way. With social media, with the amplification of every word and every image, especially the images, which are so disturbing of the type that we've just been discussing, it creates a desensitization, it creates a numbness to just how hateful and vicious and vile they are.
And so when someone like Hodgkinson goes to these rallies, he hears terminate the Republicans -- not -- not -- not disagree or protest, but terminate the Republicans...
(CROSSTALK)
INGRAHAM: ... treason...
HANNITY: ... terminate.
INGRAHAM: Right. Treason, the line you played about execute the president -- it almost becomes for a certain deranged segment -- it becomes almost in their twisted thinking a moral duty to act for their own survival against Trump supporters, against media people who have supported the president, obviously, Steve Scalise in the crossfire, this young man, the Capitol police.
So it's not -- it's not just directed at Trump. It's directed at every voter, every conservative, everyone in a school who wears a Trump T-shirt in his graduation picture. Just tonight in Indianapolis, a "Make America great again" flag flying from a truck was shot at! This is now not just like fun kind of goofing around, disagreeing with each other, you know, calling...
HANNITY: It's so funny you say this. And the reason I brought up -- and we've been at this game a lot.
INGRAHAM: Yes.
HANNITY: Every election cycle, right, it's...
INGRAHAM: In the trenches (ph).
HANNITY: ... racist, sexist, homophobic...
INGRAHAM: Right.
HANNITY: ... Granny over the cliff...
INGRAHAM: Yes, the menu.
HANNITY: ... dirty air and water...
INGRAHAM: They have the menu. It's a tired menu.
HANNITY: I saw a metric today. On Twitter alone, if you put in the words "assassinate Trump" -- over 12,000. Then you got the Madonnas! Then you got the...
INGRAHAM: People have to start going to jail! They've got to start being prosecuted! There has to be repercussions for this type of behavior. And people, like, cloak themselves in the 1st Amendment. You have a right to say a lot of things. But when this becomes an incitement to violence, the court has found that is not protected speech. Now, you have to have an intent to incite, et cetera, so it's difficult to prove. But there at least should be widespread condemnation and specific condemnation, not the type where, Well, everyone does this and everyone has to stop. No, no, no! No one is severing the head of Barack Obama!
HANNITY: All right, if you think about blowing up the White House -- now, here's an interesting thought. I'm -- we're not going to fall into the trap of, like -- for example (INAUDIBLE) I blame talk radio and Rush Limbaugh, blah-ah-ah -- (INAUDIBLE)
INGRAHAM: Right.
HANNITY: I'm not blaming Bernie Sanders.
INGRAHAM: No! Of course! He...
HANNITY: Bernie Sanders supporters...
INGRAHAM: No, no, no, no, no.
HANNITY: No. This was one nut.
INGRAHAM: No, this was -- but these are -- this is a deranged subset of radicals who believe that they should stop speakers on college campuses. If it requires burning cars, they should barn cars. If it requires shooting at police, they'll shoot at police, from Berkeley to Ferguson to Baltimore to what we saw in Middlebury, Vermont -- Middlebury, Vermont! The violence. There's a lack of respect across the board.
And I -- I love spirited debate. That's fine. But the lack of respect -- and I think you tagged it, the dehumanization of people. Once someone becomes less than human, then you can do a lot of things to them.
HANNITY: So -- by the way, we're going to get hammered. Oh, those two, not joining the kumbaya! By the way...
INGRAHAM: Send me a memo when I care!
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: All right, great to see you.
INGRAHAM: Great to see you, Sean.
HANNITY: We'll talk a little bit about the heroism, by the way, of these two D.C. Capitol Police. Unbelievable. They walked right into an open field against a highly powered rifle with a pistol. It's almost like you put your life on the line right there, knowing you're going to die. Amazing courage.
And also, the deep state strikes again. Late tonight, anonymous sources once again, late at night, leaking information about President Trump. Tonight, they go after, oh, let's see, collateral damage, his son-in-law, Jared, of course, to destroy the president, hurt him, prevent him from fulfilling his promises to you, the American people. Jay Sekulow, Sara Carter, Gregg Jarrett -- they'll break it all down.
And highlights from my visit to the Nationals Park, where I spoke to members of Congress about the horror of yesterday's left-wing assassination attempt on GOP lawmakers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
HANNITY: And welcome back to "Hannity." So the deep state -- they are for revenge yet once again, and of course, using one of their favorite liberal outlets, The Washington Post, to try and destroy President Trump and everyone else around him, get as much collateral damage as they can.
And now they are out for blood. Their goal is very clear. Overturn the election results, forcing the president out of office and stopping him from fulfilling his agenda. And that is tonight's mini monologue.
All right, earlier tonight, once again, geez, another late-night drop by The Washington Post, which has now a long track record of being absolutely positively dead wrong in the things they report, citing, quote, again, "officials familiar with the matter." Oh, they can't mention names, like, ever. That sounds so trustworthy, doesn't it?
Of course, this night is about special counsel Robert Mueller is now investigating Jared Kushner's finances and business dealings. Now, this comes out after another late night drop last night by The Washington Post, no sources, anonymous sources, reporting that the special counsel was investigating President Trump for obstruction of justice.
"The Post" was wrong when they reported that the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, threatened to quit because of James Comey's firing. Rosenstein actually said in an interview to a D.C. local station the exact opposite. And he said it on camera, and they never apologized.
And by the way, "The Post" also was flat out wrong about James Comey. Just before he got fired, he was asking for more resources for the phony Russia investigation. Well, then it was debunked by the FBI director, acting FBI director, Andrew McCabe, who testified under oath, sorry, that never happened.
And "The Washington Post" is not the only member of this destroy-Trump media that has gotten these things wrong. ABC, CNN, oh, yes, one of the tops of the list there, "The New York Times," they've all done the same thing.
Next, and I think this is the most important part. It is now very clear what is happening. There is a fourth branch of government. It is called the deep state. They are working day in and day out to destroy, literally, President Trump. They have targeted him and, frankly, anyone who dares to be associated with him, anyone that works around him. They can't get the president, which so far they haven't been able to do, then that means they will go after his family, his wife, his daughter, his 11-year-old son, and anyone that works for him.
By the way, and it's playing out in this case, this is now after his son- in-law Jared Kushner, and if the deep state, by the way, and the media, they can't take down Kushner, they will just move on to the next target and go right on down the line one by one until they find somebody that did something wrong or they'll just create some type of perjury trap.
Now, this deep state is purposely leaking information to destroy the presidency of Donald Trump. This is the biggest act of retribution we have seen from the deep state in the history of this country. It is a clear and present danger.
Thankfully tonight President Trump is fighting back on Twitter writing, quote, "They made up a phone collusion with the Russia story, found zero proof, so now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. Nice." He also tweeted "You're witnessing the single greatest witch hunt in American political history led by some very bad and conflicted people. Make America great again."
And then later, he tweeted about Hillary Clinton and her obvious questionable activities, writing, quote, "Why is it that Hillary Clinton's family and Democrats and their dealings with Russia are not looked at but my non-dealings are." And of course, quote, "Crooked Hillary destroyed phones with her hammer." By the way, it's so true, right? She used BleachBit. Remember she bleached the emails. She had her husband meet with the attorney general days before she was cleared. And they talk about obstruction?
What we're seeing now is the deep state, they want retribution. They are not going to stop until the president is gone out of office or worst case scenario for him, nothing he wants to accomplish, nothing he promised gets done.
Whoever leaked this information tonight, last night, to The Washington Post, everyone else who is leaking important classified information, every single one of them now need to be arrested, prosecuted. Those are the people that must be in jail. They are trampling on our constitutional rights. It's time to get rid of every Obama deep state holdover. It needs to happen fast. These people now have become, as I've been telling you, a threat to this country, a threat to the promises that were given to you back in November.
Joining us now with reaction, Fox News anchor and attorney Gregg Jarrett, CircaNews.com Sara Carter, from the American Center for Law and Justice, their chief counsel, also works with the president, Jay Sekulow is with us.
All right, Jay, big, broad question. What is going on here, in as best way you can explain it to the American people? And if you think I'm wrong on anything, please tell them.
JAY SEKULOW, AMERICAN CENTER FOR LAW AND JUSTICE: This is a constitutional situation. People ignore the fact that what we are talking about is a special counsel investigating the president of the United States. By the way, these are leaks coming from who to who? So I don't know if the leaks are valid and I certainly don't trust "The Washington Post" on any of this. But if what they are saying is true, if that is in fact true that they're leaking this information and they're investigating the president of the United States for what he had authority to do under the constitution, what the constitution rests in the president, that is a serious issue.
So I think that, and I kind of alluded to this last night, that there is a constitutional issue here. I've spent my career doing constitutional law. Some have criticized the legal team that is representing the president here. But they don't know the scope and nature of the cases that our firm and what I have done, what Marc Kasowitz's first has done. But this is a constitutional issue, too. Don't forget that.
HANNITY: By the way, we have Jamie Gorelick was the attorney, and I think you know Jamie well, worked for the Clintons a lot of years. But anyway, they don't know what the report refers to. It would be standard practice for the special counsel to examine financial records to look for anything related to Russia. Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about Russia related matters. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with this.
SEKULOW: But they are leaking something that doesn't exist. There is no controversy, and they're saying sources are telling us that this is -- which has been out for three weeks. That's what sources are telling us.
HANNITY: By the way, unnamed sources, Jay.
SEKULOW: Five yesterday, unnamed, and we couldn't even tell what department they were from.
HANNITY: Let me go to Sara and then we'll get to Gregg. So the president makes a great point. I would rather stay on Hillary because I think her crimes are so beyond the pale and it's so overwhelming and incontrovertible. You have done a great job. The meeting on the tarmac, as the president talks about, with Loretta Lynch. Of course, would you mind not referring to this as an investigation but a matter? And then your breaking story, did she put the kibosh on anything regardless of the evidence?
SARA CARTER, CIRCA NEWS: I think that's what sources and lawmakers want to find out. People want, I mean, there's enough evidence here to say that Loretta Lynch, you know, needs to be questions. There needs to be a moment where she has put in front of everybody to answer these questions.
This communication that apparently Comey, and he did, brief lawmakers on was between two political figures. And it basically stipulated don't worry about anything. Loretta Lynch will basically put the kibosh on any kind of indictment if it comes to it against Hillary Clinton. So my question is this -- everybody is going after this obstruction of justice story against the president. What about the evidence that's pointing right in the direction of Loretta Lynch? And even further, Sean --
SEKULOW: This is the bureaucrats.
CARTER: Listen to his. These leaks are coming from people that are supposed to be impartial and running an investigation, right, if that's where they are coming from.
HANNITY: They're not. They have an agenda.
CARTER: They have an agenda, and that should concern everyone.
HANNITY: Gregg, you wrote a great column today about Mueller. He needs to recuse himself. Talk about the conflicts.
GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS ANCHOR AND ATTORNEY: Well, in all the president's tweets, he's never tweeted that Mueller is hopelessly conflicted and violating the law and should resign. And the president should actually demand that he resign. The American people should demand he resign. He is violating the special counsel law which says you can't serve if you have a close relationship with a central witness, which is James Comey. And we all know of their longstanding, close, personal relationship.
The president can't fire Mueller, but Rod Rosenstein can and should. And the moment he fires Mueller, he should himself recuse from the case because, apparently now, he is a key witness in the firing of James Comey. Do we really expect Mueller to sit in judgment of the conduct of his own boss, Rosenstein? And to judge the credibility of his close friend and protege James Comey versus the man who fired Comey? It's theater of the absurd.
HANNITY: It really is. All right, stay right there. More with Gregg, more with Jay, more with Sara right after the break.
Also, prior to tonight's congressional game, I did go to Nationals' Park. I spoke with Republican lawmakers, many of them eyewitnesses to what happened during yesterday's assassination attempt. We're going to play you some of those interviews straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to HANNITY. We continue with Gregg Jarrett, Sara Carter, Jay Sekulow. All right, so, I will go to Gregg first. This is important, Gregg. Bring in the whole issue why, if we start comparing and contrasting with Loretta Lynch and Hillary Clinton, how is it possible when we do have overwhelming, incontrovertible evidence of obstruction and laws broken that that never gets talked about? We're the only ones who bring that up.
JARRETT: It is bewildering and confounding. If you look at the statute on obstruction of justice it doesn't apply to the president because there's no lie or bribe or threat, but if you juxtapose it to Loretta Lynch, yes, there's a pretty good case that she not only engaged in obstruction of justice because there was a lie attached to what she was insisting Comey say publicly, but there's also misconduct of office, using a federal agency for political purpose. That should be investigated.
HANNITY: Let me go to Jay. She used BleachBit. She destroyed BlackBerries that she said she never had. Wait a minute -- she signed off on 20 percent of uranium going to Putin and her foundation got millions.
SEKULOW: And the FBI didn't do anything about it. They cleared her, which, by the way --
HANNITY: Statute of limitations, my friend.
SEKULOW: Forget statute of limitations. James Comey became judge and jury in that case. People shouldn't forget this. He took over and said, you know what, the attorney general in his view is not capable of making a decision here, so I am. Number one, it should have then gone to the deputy attorney general, like a procedure. It shouldn't have been the FBI director, of course.
And what did James Comey do? James Comey decided he was going to take it upon himself to determine the outcome of whether there should be litigation or not. No reasonable prosecutor, he said, would have brought that case. You know what the problem is? I would have filed a motion for it to be dismissed. You know why? Because you, the attorney general of United States, makes that decision, not the FBI director.
HANNITY: Sara?
CARTER: But former director Comey made that decision while the Russia investigation, those who were handling that investigation, were irate, angry. They couldn't talk about this openly because they were bound by the investigation and the classified nature of the investigation. But it eventually came out. It came out so much so that acting deputy director McCabe had to admit it in his testimony. So he made that decision acting as if the entire investigatory part of the FBI that was handling the Hillary Clinton investigation business said, oh, we looked at it. There was nothing here. Move on. That's not true.
SEKULOW: Gregg raises a really important point here, and that is people are getting all caught up in the what if and the leak from this. Listen, I think these are significant. But you have to look at this case in totality. I build a case for the Supreme Court of the United States. I've got to look at the totality of where this is going.
HANNITY: All right, just because you argued before the Supreme Court and I didn't, it's just so cheap to bring it up.
SEKULOW: Here's why, because every case has a theme.
HANNITY: I'm kidding.
SEKULOW: I know. Every case has a theme. Gregg just pointed out something. What if Supreme Court justices were doing this? What if Supreme Court justices were deciding, you know what, these are interesting things, but I'm going to decide it before the briefs and without the cases?
HANNITY: I've got to roll. We will have you back tomorrow, all of you. Thank you. We're going to stay all over this, I promise you. No one else is doing it.
But coming up, I took a trip to National Park earlier today. I did speak with some of the eyewitnesses, Republican lawmakers, about yesterday's horrific leftwing assassination attempt. We will have much more as HANNITY continues.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: This game is always an important moment for both parties to come together, to support charity, build friendships, and celebrate our national pastime. But as you all know, tonight's game has taken on a much deeper level of meaning beyond anything that we would have thought. By playing tonight, you are showing the world that we will not be intimidated by threats, acts of violence, or assaults on our democracy. The game will go on.
I leave you with three great American words that for generations have torn down barriers, build bridges of unity, and it defied those who have sought to pull us apart. Ladies and gentlemen, let's play ball.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: That was a message from President Trump earlier tonight played at the annual Congressional baseball game for charity, which went forward tonight just one day after GOP congressmen and their staffs were brutally attacked in what is a leftwing gunman during a practice for this very game. Earlier today I went down to the stadium to speak to some of the Republican lawmakers, some of the people that were eyewitnesses to all of this. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANNITY: Congressman Johnson, he was nice enough yesterday. You gave me an entire tour of the field and really, you showed how absolutely devastatingly dangerous it was.
REP. BILL JOHNSON, R-OHIO: It could have been a massacre. Had it not been for the capitol police, we would be talking about a lot of funerals today instead of playing baseball.
HANNITY: That's so scary. But to you actually, with Congressman DeSantis, you met him.
REP. JEFF DUNCAN, R-S.C.: We did.
HANNITY: And he was the one who ask you. Go ahead, tell the story.
DUNCAN: So we left early, had a meeting to get back to on the Hill. And I encountered this gentleman in the parking lot. And he asked me, excuse me, sir, whose practicing today, Republicans or Democrats? And I said that is the Republicans. He said OK, thanks. And he turned around and headed back towards home plate over to the YMCA side of the field to get the weapons to go out behind the third base dugout and attack my colleagues.
HANNITY: I knew when the Secret Service and the FBI came to you later, both you and Congressman DeSantis identified this guy immediately. When you thought about it later and you thought about the question he asked you, did he want to know it was Republicans before he shot, in your opinion? I know that's an opinion.
DUNCAN: There's no doubt he wanted to know. I think he was targeting Republican members of Congress. And what makes me just have cold chills is that he could have started with me, Sean. Point blank, had he chose to start his act of violence right then. I'm glad he didn't. God put a hedge protection around me and Ron, and my staffer, Thomas, who was driving us who could have been caught up in it. No doubt in my mind he was targeting Republican members. That's why he asked the question.
HANNITY: So you were all really close. When this comes down yesterday, it's got to devastate all you guys.
REP. JOHN SHIMKUS, R-ILL.: It's like a brother. When you have the stress that we have, we are away from our family, and we go home and we can talk and share stuff, it's like having someone in your immediate family harmed.
HANNITY: But everything that everyone said about him and all my interactions over the years, he's a strong guy. He's a fighter.
REP. KEVIN BRADY, R-TEXAS: He is a fighter from day one. He is insisting we play this ballgame tonight.
HANNITY: And you know him because you've known him from his heart. What about the rhetoric that we have heard since Donald Trump has been elected?
BRADY: Look, this has been building way too long and it's way too high. And when you set the wrong environment, bad things are going to happen. And so maybe this is a wake-up call.
SHIMKUS: We need to learn to disagree without being disagreeable. Come on. This hurts the republic. This hurts discourse. This hurts debate. And this is the result of that getting out of control.
REP. MO BROOKS, R-ALA.: After you digest it awhile and you go through it time and time again, quite frankly we were very, very fortunate to have more injuries than we did. So many things could have gone wrong. Capitol police, the courage that they showed, the perseverance, protection for us, duty. One of the things I will never forget is one of the Capitol police officers after having been shot, after the shooter was taken down, coming out to Steve Scalise limping as he's coming out.
HANNITY: Injured.
BROOKS: Injured, he has been shot, refusing to leave.
REP. GARY PALMER, R-ALA.: We offered aid to him. We were all out there with Brad Wenstrup and tried to get him to let us give aid to him. He would not do it.
BROOKS: Dedication. That's the kind of law enforcement we have here.
REP. JACK BERGMAN, R-MICH.: I have one thing to say to Rep Scalise, let the good times roll in New Orleans.
HANNITY: Is this an opportunity for maybe the country examine the absolute hate and vitriol, the conspiracy theories, the meanness, the desire to not let this president do anything without attacking him?
BERGMAN: We are overdue.
HANNITY: Overdue.
BROOKS: I've never seen anything like the angry vitriol under these circumstances based on rumor and surmise rather than hard evidence.
PALMER: It's all our responsibility to change.
HANNITY: You hear this news yesterday, you see all the partisan rancor, you're hearing the guy attacked us, an assassination attempt, what do you think?
REP. ERIK PAULSEN, R-MINN.: It's just hard to fathom, hard to believe. And my heart just sank when I heard the news. And there is a lot of vitriol that's out there, and this is I hope one of those experiences now that says, hey, check the rhetoric. This president, all of us want to get this country back on track. And we need a shot to do that.
HANNITY: We really do. Has it ever been this bad from your perspective?
PAULSEN: Certainly not from this perspective, although our colleague, Gabby Giffords was shot back in 2011. That brought back memories of that, by the way.
HANNITY: The rhetoric, the intensity, the conspiracy theories, a desire not to even let this guy attempt to govern, in my opinion.
PAULSEN: And part of it is, too, is that a lot of the folks I interact with, even if they object with your views, they sometimes just want to talk over you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANNITY: When we come back, that and more as "Hannity" continues from our nation's capital tonight. Please stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back from our nation's capital. Unfortunately that's all the time we have left this evening. As always, thank you for being with us. Always fair, always balanced. And we'll see you back in New York tomorrow night.
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