The media meltdown over President Trump's wrestling video
Chattering class overreact to Trump's tweets
This is a rush transcript from "The Five," July 3, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, GUEST HOST: And welcome to this special edition of "Hannity," "President Trump Versus the Resistance."
I'm Kimberly Guilfoyle, in for Sean tonight.
President Trump continues to respond to attacks in the liberal mainstream media. During an event this weekend, the president blasted the biased press. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The fake media is trying to silence us. But we will not let them...
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: ... Because the people know the truth. The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House, but I'm president and they're not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: And after that, the president sent CNN into a frenzy by tweeting out this video mocking the network. Well, predictably, CNN issued a strongly worded statement slamming the president. Quote, "It is a sad day when the president of the United States encourages violence against reporters. Clearly, Sarah Huckabee Sanders lied when she said the president had never done so. Instead of preparing for his overseas trip, his first meeting with Vladimir Putin, dealing with North Korea and working on his health care bill, he is instead involved in juvenile behavior far below the dignity of his office. We will keep doing our jobs. He should start doing his."
And of course, CNN hosts, commentators and guests -- well, they had a collective freak-out! Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have to stand up to this. This kind of rhetoric, this kind of behavior is going to lead to a journalist being hurt.
ANA NAVARRO, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: It is an incitement to violence. He is going to get somebody killed in the media. Maybe that will stop him.
CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It's not just anti-CNN. It's anti-freedom of the press. It's anti-freedom of speech.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: On one level, it might be clever. Then there's the other level, where it's scary, and it's scary for CNN colleagues who have already faced threats.
REP. JIM HIMES, D-CONN.: Every other president has understood that the First Amendment and the freedom of the press is the First Amendment for a reason, which is that a media is an important thing. Dictators attack the media.
STELTER: Is this president trying to impersonate Hugo Chavez, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Vladimir Putin? Because this is exactly the kind of language that leaders use when they are trying to undermine the press.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
GUILFOYLE: Here with common sense and reaction is Fox News contributor, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. Great to have you on the program. Very much looking forward to talking to you about this.
When this happened this weekend, wow, CNN, the rest of the liberal media started, in my opinion, overreacting to this tweet. What do you think?
MIKE HUCKABEE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Kimberly, the amazing thing is this is a news media that told us that the Shakespeare in the Park where Donald Trump was murdered on stage -- that that's just theater. But somehow, pro- wrestling is so real that they're afraid of it.
This is amazing. Most of the wounds that the press think they're experiencing -- they're self-inflicted. And I don't know of anyone who's calling for anybody in the press to be hurt. Quite frankly, I don't know of anyone who wants to hurt the press. They just want to laugh at them because they hold them in contempt.
And what's happened on the press is a sense of which they no longer practice journalism. They practice a very targeted, hateful attempt to destroy the legitimacy of Donald Trump's presidency. And people in America, at least beyond the coasts, they're not stupid. They figured this out. And they just are laughing at the press and saying, you know, It's not journalism that we're afraid of. It's not journalism that we don't like. We would appreciate some journalism.
GUILFOYLE: Sure.
HUCKABEE: That's not what we're getting in America right now.
GUILFOYLE: Some fact-checking, some appropriate sourcing, not these hit pieces that they try to do. And you bring up a great point, Governor, which is, you know, the polling really backs up what you're here to say tonight, which is, in fact, the public, the American people, they do not trust journalists and the American media, the mainstream media in terms of their reporting or their accuracy.
And it seems like CNN and some of the others in the liberal media really jumped at this opportunity, which most normal people thought it was pretty funny. I mean, it wasn't something that was trying to be, you know, taken seriously.
But the part that disturbed me most -- and I'm going to ask you about this. You know, as a father, as well, what do you make of CNN calling your daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, you know, a liar since they went out of their way to try to make a personal attack against her?
HUCKABEE: As a dad, I'm not that fond of it.
GUILFOYLE: Right.
GUILFOYLE: But as the father of somebody who I know to be a tough professional, she's more than capable of handling it. And when the Playboy reporter attacked her at the White House the other day, I thought what an incredible irony. Here you've got someone who works for a publication that has made its entire brand on exploiting women...
GUILFOYLE: Yes.
GUILFOYLE: ... on airbrushing them so that they look differently than they really are, and he's attacking the White House and saying that they're not being honest enough. I mean, how much more irony could there be?
But I think my daughter is handling that quite well. She's strong enough to deal with it. She's a strong woman. And unlike some women in the media, who melt any time someone comes after them, my daughter is handling it I think quite remarkably.
GUILFOYLE: Yes, she was articulate. She had great answers. She came right back. She was able to hold her own, I mean, really, I think being a great representative, you know, for women and for women in journalism to say this is the standard of how you conduct yourself. She was unflappable. There wasn't anything that they said or came after with that she couldn't handle, and she just answered the questions professionally, directly, politely.
And you know, that's what we need to do, have that level of discourse. She's showing that even though they're not being respectful on the other side. She is rising up to the occasion, I thought really handling herself unbelievably well.
So let's talk about the members of the media. Do you think they're being a little bit hypocritical for being outraged over this? You bring up the point about Shakespeare in the play and -- Shakespeare in the Park, the play, and also Kathy Griffin, things like that. They don't seem to be, you know, up in arms over that, looking to defend that, to say, Oh, this is outrageous. We shouldn't have this kind of behavior that is disrespectful or dangerous to the president. Yet they're upset about this parody tweet that he did.
HUCKABEE: Well, Kimberly, you and I have both been in the public eye enough to know that when we read a story that's written about us, we know whether it's true journalism for a simple reason. If we read it and we don't know whether the reporter likes us or not, that's real journalism. If, when reading the story about yourself, you say, Gosh, that guy hates me, or that person who wrote that really likes me...
GUILFOYLE: Right.
HUCKABEE: ... that's not journalism...
GUILFOYLE: Right.
HUCKABEE: ... because you should not have any idea whether or not that person likes you or not.
Can I mention one thing? I think my daughter is handling some of this real well because she's got three pre-schoolers at home. And so she's used to dealing with petulant children who ask the same question over and over...
GUILFOYLE: Right.
HUCKABEE: ... hoping to get a different answer, the one that they want. And so maybe that's part of the reason that she's able to stay flat-footed, look those folks in the eye, and handle it.
GUILFOYLE: Well, and of course, you know, having a father who has been in politics, I think she's got that kind of experience and background to know the type of things that the press will sling at you, the smear pieces, the hit pieces, trying to go after you, the personal attacks. And I think it's one of the reasons why, you know, she's used to dealing with them and she understands, you know, how they behave.
But let's talk a little bit more about CNN, you know, again, their outrage this weekend over the president's, you know, wrestling tweet. But they themselves deserve to be criticized after getting stories wrong and really unrelenting, constant negative coverage of the Trump administration and trying to push a false narrative with the Russian collusion story where there is not one fact to support it.
HUCKABEE: They've pushed that story. Jake Tapper had to admit that he held up a copy of The National Enquirer on air that didn't exist. It was fake news. They had to fire or ask for the resignations of three of their people because of improper and unethical behavior.
I mean, this is a network that really is in a meltdown. It has nothing to do with Donald Trump. It has to do with their inability to be objective.
The one thing we expect out of our press is that you just report the news. Let us make up our minds how we feel about it.
GUILFOYLE: Right.
HUCKABEE: You don't have to lead us. We don't need that help. We're not that incapable of coming to our own conclusions. And because the press is trying to spoon-feed us -- remember Mika Brzezinski...
GUILFOYLE: Yes.
HUCKABEE: ... that she's going to tell us what we ought to feel and how we ought to believe about something -- well, no, that's not the press' job.
The freedom of the press only works when there is a responsibility of the press to be objective. And when they start acting that way, they might get a little respect, but right now, they're about as popular as the Zika virus from a mosquito.
GUILFOYLE: Absolutely! Absolutely. You know, and it's sad because, really, it seems CNN is to blame. The blame lies with them wholeheartedly, singularly for this credibility crisis, you know, that they are in for the reasons that you just spoke of.
Governor Huckabee, always a pleasure. Thank you so much.
HUCKABEE: Thank you, Kimberly. Happy 4th of July.
GUILFOYLE: Happy 4th. God bless.
Coming up next on this special edition of "Hannity"...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: CNN...
(BOOS)
TRUMP: Whoops! Hey, the camera just went off! I can't imagine...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: He can't imagine. President Trump isn't afraid to call out CNN for its biased coverage. Dinesh D'Souza and Dr. Gina Loudon are here next with reaction.
And later...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MAXINE WATERS, D-CALIF.: His motives and his actions are contemptible! And I will fight every day until he is impeached! Impeach 45!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
WATERS: Impeach 45! Impeach 45!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: Wow. Democrats have a new plan to try to impeach President Trump. We're going to tell you what they're up to and get reaction from Dr. Marc Siegel and Gregg Jarrett.
That and much more as "Hannity" continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: CNN...
(BOOS)
TRUMP: Whoops! Hey, the camera just went off! I can't imagine...
I'm not against the media. I am against the fake media. If you look at CNN, the way they cover me, no matter what you do, it's negative, hits, hits.
Media outlets like CNN and MSNBC are fake news, fake news!
(BOOS)
TRUMP: Take a look at CNN. It's a complete hit job. No matter what you do, no matter how good, no matter how great it is, they don't report it in a positive fashion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: And that was President Trump calling out CNN for its constantly one-sided coverage of the White House. And a recent Harvard study is bolstering the president's complaints, showing that 93 percent of CNN's coverage of President Trump was negative from January until the end of April. Of course, what that study doesn't show us is just how downright nasty and vicious the network has been towards President Trump. Take a look at some of the worst examples.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STELTER: Is this president trying to impersonate Hugo Chavez, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Vladimir Putin? Because this is exactly the kind of language that leaders use when they are trying to undermine the press.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It's like we're just covering bad reality television, is what it feels like now.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: It's a grotesque abuse of power by the president of the United States. This is the kind of thing that goes on in non-democracies.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Apparently, the president gets two scoops. You know, everyone else around the table gets one. And no word if there were sprinkles.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the dessert course, he gets two scoops of vanilla ice cream with his chocolate cream pie instead of the single scoop for everyone else.
ANDERSON COOPER: He gains weight, according to these sources. He doesn't trust people around him. He's withdrawing, not a good picture.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He now lives within himself, which is a dangerous place for him to be.
JEFFREY LORD: If he wants to say that, Barack Obama wants to say whatever, if George Bush says, I looked in his eyes...
COOPER: If he took a dump in his desk, you would defend it.
VAN JONES: The only winner, the only people who've got to be happy tonight are sitting in the Kremlin.
JONES: Now he's president snowflake, OK? Everything he -- "Oh, they're mean to me and they don't like me and I just don't understand it and it's not fair!"
JONES: This was a whitelash. This was a whitelash against a changing country. It was a whitelash against a black president in part.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: Joining us now with reaction is psychology expert and radio talk show host Gina Loudon, as well as filmmaker Dinesh D'Sousa. Thank you so much for being on "Hannity" tonight.
Dinesh, I'm going to begin with you.
GINA LOUDON, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Thank you.
GUILFOYLE: So what do you make of this, the recent jab that the president took at CNN on Twitter, the memes that he put out? And this, you know, comes on the heels of them having to fire three of their reporters, apologize, a retraction. And then now the Harvard study showing just how biased that their stories have been over the course time that they did that analysis.
DINESH D'SOUZA, FILMMAKER: I think that CNN and much of the national media is very dismayed because Trump is the first Republican president to strike directly back at the media. Previous Republicans have either ducked or tried to ignore the media. Even Reagan, in his avuncular fashion, tried to go over the heads of the media. But he never confronted the media with the same gladiatorial directness as Trump.
So I think with Trump, he's a culture warrior. He's fighting not just on the political but on the cultural front. He knows how to get to these guys. He's very good at it. And the reason that they're upset is not because he's ineffective, it's because he's so effective.
GUILFOYLE: Yes, I think that's very true. Dr. Loudon, what do you make of this? Because you saw there at CNN, they were calling -- oh, and Van Jones called him president, you know, snowflake -- saying that he's just being too sensitive. Then they were doing some bizarre psychoanalysis, saying that perhaps he's lonely and an angry and that's why he's doing that. I mean, they're trying to deflect away from their network that is failing and is in the middle of a credibility crisis?
GINA LOUDON, RADIO HOST: I think what they don't realize, Kimberly -- and I wrote about this today on FOXNews.com. I think they don't realize that every time they focus on a tweet or a meme or something that definitely got the American people's attention, they are completely vindicating this president when he says that they are fake news, when he says that this is a witch hunt.
And I think while they think that they are sort of covering so that the Democrats can just continue to obstruct, obstruct, obstruct and be the party of no, what I think is, in fact, happening is that they are self- destructing, and the president is going to see to it that he carries this through to fruition.
GUILFOYLE: It really is almost self-destructive behavior, Dinesh, that they're imploding, that no matter how many times they try and go with a false narrative that has absolutely no facts or evidence behind it of Russian collusion, now they're trying to go with this, the president is, you know, mentally unfit, he should be impeached. You have 20 lawmakers even trying to get behind this.
What is going on here, and what is really behind the CNN and MSNBC biased coverage of President Trump?
D'SOUZA: What's really behind this is that a lot of these leftists in the media have realized that the Democratic Party by itself cannot pose effective resistance to Trump. They can't. And so the leftists in the culture, in academia, in Hollywood, in the media -- they go, We're going to take over. You step aside, Democratic Party. We'll deal with Trump.
These are people who have not gotten over the result of the last election.
GUILFOYLE: Yes.
D'SOUZA: In fact, not since 1860, not since the election of Lincoln have Democrats so obstinately refused to accept the result of a lawful election. They're trying to somehow overturn that result, and I think that this kind of bitter battle comes down to that.
GUILFOYLE: Yes, really, I -- you know, I think, Dinesh, it's almost like a media coup against a sitting American president.
D'SOUZA: Yes. And Trump actually knows how to deal with it very effectively. Twitter is actually his masterful medium. He's almost a kind of a poet on Twitter. When you think about Twitter, Twitter is to journalism kind of the way haiku is to poetry. It's a very condensed form of expression accompanied by pictures. Trump has become a master of the genre. So all the Republicans who say to Trump, Get off Twitter, get off Twitter -- they couldn't be more wrong. Stay on Twitter is Trump's mantra.
GUILFOYLE: All right. Well, Dr. Loudon, do you see anything mentally ill or unfit about wanting to defend yourself and the president being transparent and consistent, just like he was with communicating to the American people on Twitter?
LOUDON: Crazy like a fox, maybe, Kimberly.
(LAUGHTER)
LOUDON: I think that this is one of the smartest things that this president or any president has ever done. He is -- literally has them distracted while he's getting things done!
Look at last week, the great court decision upholding his temporary travel ban...
GUILFOYLE: Yes!
LOUDON: ... the things he did on illegal immigration and the temporary travel ban and Kate's law. This is one of the most productive presidents in history...
GUILFOYLE: Right.
LOUDON: ... and the media is distracted with memes and words instead of action. He's winning.
GUILFOYLE: It looks like it, and he think so, too. All right, thank you, Dr. Loudon, Dinesh D'Souza. Always a pleasure.
And coming up next on this special edition of "Hannity"...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WATERS: His motives and his actions are contemptible! And I will fight every day until he is impeached! Impeach 45! Impeach 45!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: Democrats have been calling for President Trump's impeachment for months and are now working on a new plan to try to throw him out of office. Dr. Marc Siegel and Gregg Jarrett will have reaction.
And later -- Donald Trump, Junior, rips the liberal mainstream media's stunning hypocrisy when it comes to condemning violence. Our panel will have reaction. That and much more as "Hannity" continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MARIANNE RAFFERTY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Live from America's news headquarters, I'm Marianne Rafferty.
President Trump returns to Europe this week. He's fcaing his first meeting with Russian President Putin along the sidelines of an international summit in Germany. Mr. Trump will be traveling to Poland for a speech, then to Hamburg for the annual Group of 20 gathering. You might recall Mr. Trump raised some eyebrows in Europe earlier this year by refusing to explicitly endorse NATO's common defense treaty. He also scolded fellow world leaders for not spending more on their military operation.
And reports tonight that North Korea has launched another ballistic missile. This comes just days after President Trump delivered a stern warning to Pyongyang over its repeated test firings of short and long range weapons. Washington is concerned that North Korea is working to build a nuclear-tipped missile that could reach the U.S.
I'm Marianne Rafferty. Now back to "Hannity."
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
WATERS: His motives and his actions are contemptible and I will fight every day until he is impeached. Impeach 45. Impeach 45.
CROWD: Impeach 45!
REP. AL GREEN, D-TEXAS: I rise today Mr. Speaker, tough call for the impeachment of the president of the United States of America for obstruction of justice.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Are we getting closer and closer to the possibility of yet another impeachment process?
DAVID GERGEN, FORMER PRESIDENIAL ADVISER: After watching the Clinton impeachment, I thought I would never see another one.
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are well on our way to impeachment because I think there's a clear set of facts that show obstruction of justice.
RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC HOST: This is heading toward the end, right? It has to be, right? It feels that way.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
GUILFOYLE: Welcome back to this special edition of "Hannity," "President Trump Versus The Resistance".
Well, Democratic obstructionists are working on a new plan to try to impeach President Trump after the Russian collusion narrative has completely fallen apart. Well, the bill appears to be getting support from Democrats in the House. Over 20 liberal lawmakers are now backing plan that would create an oversight commission to deem if the president is mentally or physically unfit to serve, which could then lead to his removal under the 25th Amendment.
Joining me now with reaction, Fox News medical correspondent Dr. Marc Siegel and Fox News anchor and attorney Gregg Jarrett. Good evening to you, gentlemen.
Yes, this is a real story that we are reporting on, and I will go to you, Gregg, about the legal aspects of it. Has anything like this ever been done before?
GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS ANCHOR AND ATTORNEY: No. There's no legal precedents for it. Section 4, which would be the involuntary invoking of the 25th Amendment.
Look, the people who are advocating this, I wonder if they can even read. Have they read the 25th Amendment?
GUILFOYLE: Probably not.
JARRETT: You know, Sheila Jackson Lee, Congresswoman, says, well, the president is ill-suited and incompetent, therefore invoking the 25th Amendment is demanded. Well, even if he were incompetent, that's not the legal basis. It has to be any functional incapacity. It envisions somebody who has a stroke, somebody who has an accident, or in the case of JFK, what if he had survived but was brain-damaged? That's how it all came about.
So she either misunderstands or misinterprets it, one of the other. You know, I think it's really she just doesn't like this particular president. She doesn't like his politics. The only mechanism for removal there is called the ballot box. It's an election.
GUILFOYLE: Well, so it seems, Dr. Siegel, so he's laid it out very carefully here, Gregg has, but are they doing this for political reasons? Because correct me if I'm wrong, it doesn't seem that there's any evidence that anyone has proffered thus far to suggest that he is unable to complete and fulfill the office of the presidency, medically or mentally unfit?
DR. MARC SIEGEL, FOX NEWS MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Kimberly, you are absolutely right. And Gregg is correct about this. It's a good thing that we physicians aren't allowed to speculate, and I'll get to that in a minute. But I would speculate about Representative Jamie Raskin who is bringing this action. A freshman Congressman, I wonder why. There is absolutely no evidence of any mental instability here.
And let's go back to the Goldwater rule from 1964, when mean partisans tried to bring down Barry Goldwater by calling him crazy. The American Psychiatric Association said in 1973 after a lawsuit was brought by Goldwater, no way. Physicians, especially psychiatrists, cannot speculate on something they see over a camera, a patient they haven't examined, someone that they have no clue about, someone that they're guessing about. It's unethical. It's immoral. It's stigmatizing.
And as a matter fact, the reason I'm bringing this up is because this so- called committee, Kimberly, is supposed to be composed of psychiatrists, physicians. What are they going to do, exactly? Are they going to haul President Trump in for an examination? I want to say again, you don't know the person. You are watching him over the television screen. And he's also reacting to being blasted. "Washington Post," "New York Times," CNN always saying negative things about him. So if he's a little defensive, what do you expect? No sign of mental instability and we cannot speculate about such things. It's unethical.
GUILFOYLE: Isn't it, Gregg, a natural reaction that if someone is making false accusations and attacking you constantly that you might want to defend yourself and call them out to call them fake news, especially when CNN had to fire three people and retract a story. The New York Times has had to retract about the intelligence agencies, 17 intelligence agencies, that wasn't true, Associated Press, Washington Post, it goes on and on.
JARRETT: Sure. And what is lost in the conversation is what prompted the president's angry tweet at Mika and Joe last week on MSNBC. It was because they were calling him things like dope, mentally ill, demented, a thug. Where is the equivalency here? Why aren't they being condemned, instead just the president for being human and reacting to it and calling them out for what they are, biased.
There was a Harvard study. Ninety percent of the coverage of the president since he took office has been negative compared to Barack Obama, which was only 41 percent. This president realizes that he is the victim of unabashed scorn and hatred by the media and he is, to his credit, fighting back.
GUILFOYLE: Yes. Maybe the media is the one that needs the prescription for the Trump derangement syndrome, Dr. Siegel. I don't know if there's a cure, though.
SIEGEL: Absolutely. And the president has shown a sense of humor here, which we're not seeing on the other side. He showed compassion when Representative Scalise, when Whip Scalise got shot. He talked about him being a fighter on his birthday. They talk about he's always about himself. On his birthday he never mentioned that it was his birthday, only talked about the man being a fighter. Guess how predictive that ended up being. He pulled himself out with great courage.
Right now, President Trump is trying to look after a young baby. I think that there's signs -- now, again, I'm not going to speculate about President Trump, who I have not met. I don't know about his health, physical or mental health. But I'll say this, it's really unethical and irresponsible for physicians to try to do it on television or anywhere.
JARRETT: And even if somebody suffers from mental illness, that doesn't invoke the 25th Amendment. Duke University did a study of all American presidents and concluded that roughly half of them suffered some form of mental illness, including Lincoln, who had terrible depression. He used to go to the vault of his dead son, have them open the coffin, and sit for hours at a time. That seems a little crazy, and yet Lincoln was perhaps our greatest president.
GUILFOYLE: Such a good point. It's why we love you guys. Fantastic job. Gregg, thanks again, and Dr. Siegel.
Coming up next on this special edition of HANNITY, Donald Trump, Jr. is calling out the media for ignoring many leftwing threats of violence against the president. And later, will Republican senators be able to come together and keep a key promise that they made to the American people and repeal and replace Obamacare? Kristin Tate, Deroy Murdock, and legal analyst Lionel will react to those stories and much more. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUILFOYLE: Welcome back to the special edition of "Hannity," "President Trump Versus the Resistance." The media is freaking out over the president's recent jabs at CNN, but should they be throwing stones from their incredibly fragile glass house? Earlier today Donald Trump, Jr., called out CNN on Twitter, writing, quote, "CNN and Dems calling Trump assassination play artistic expression but WWF joke meme is a call for violence? Hilarious reinforcement of FNN."
Joining me now with more on the media's glaring double standard is Fox News contributor Deroy Murdock, legal analyst and former prosecutor Lionel, and columnist for The Hill Kristin Tate. Thank you all for being here with me tonight.
A lot of new developments. We have the tweet from Don, Jr., and you have the meme that was out this weekend. And Deroy, I'll begin with you. It seems to me, and I think the polling and the analysis of this will back it up, that this president has received more unfair, negative coverage than any other president.
DEROY MURDOCK, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I think it's something like 93 percent of the coverage at CNN is negative. That's nowhere near fair and balanced at all. And it's been relentless. It's been from when he was elected, even before he was elected. It goes on and on, well beyond CNN. You've had Madonna saying that she dreams about blowing of the White House. Snoop Dogg did a video where he pulled the trigger on a revolver at this clown that was dressed up to look like Donald Trump. Obviously Kathy Griffin holding that chopped off head of Donald Trump, I call this assassination chic. And it's not just done by odd people out there in the hinterland. This is done by people who are artists, people who sell platinum records. These are people who have been in some of the biggest movies and entertainment vehicles in our country. And that sort of thing is appalling, and I think unfortunately it leads to people pulling the trigger like we saw in Arlington, Virginia, a few weeks ago.
GUILFOYLE: Lionel, can we distinguish between, for example, the president doing this meme based on wrestling, et cetera, making a joke about it over the weekend, and then something like the actor Johnny Depp saying it's time for another actor to kill a president. Some of these other things that Deroy mentioned, like Kathy Griffin and holding the severed head, pretending she is jihadi John ISIS guy.
LIONEL, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: To answer your question, yes. Donald Trump is a genius. He's plays the media like a little cat with a flashlight. No matter what he does, they run. In other words, what's here name with the bleeding, go over here. Every week he plays them. And the American public realizes that these people are imploding, and he has mocked them. And he told it from the very first. He said I don't need you. I'm going to tweet to the American people. They are going nuts. I want more of this. The American people, Main Street, the heartland love this. This is a new era. Bring it on. He is laughing himself silly. He's a genius.
GUILFOYLE: He thinks it's funny. He's also not sorry, Kristin, he really isn't. When these tweets went out, even the one about Mika, there wasn't anybody talking about health care, no. Anybody talking about North Korea right now? No. Because they were focused on that, and then he doubled down, I guess, with the video. Do you have a problem with the video at all? What did you think? Did you think it was a joke or that it was really tantamount to calling out violence against members of the media?
KRISTIN TATE, COLUMNIST, THE HILL: It was obviously a joke. This is just more selective outrage from the left. The liberal media loves to call for civility and unity but they only do that when they can use the sound bites to silence conservatives. Then they turn around and they use divisive rhetoric and violence inciting rhetoric all the time. Where was the outrage, again, when Kathy Griffin held up Donald Trump's severed head? The hypocrisy is flagrant.
And the left love saying Donald Trump's tweets aren't presidential. They are right, it's not presidential. But that's why people voted for Trump. This is no ordinary president. People wanted a fighter, someone who wouldn't be afraid to go to Washington, D.C., flip over the table, and stick it in the media that middle America has come to despise them.
GUILFOYLE: It's unbelievable. Deroy, he did this following CNN having to fire three reporters for a story that was completely false, and so they really got called out on that. But nevertheless they are upset about the meme. Is the media in general and the liberal mainstream media being too sensitive, too snow-flaky? They just seem so squishy these days. I don't know what happened. They're very amoeba-like no backbone.
MURDOCK: It's very funny. They will say when Trump does this sort of thing he distracts from his message. The way that they all that to happen is they focus on that rather than policy. For example, the Media Research Center took a look at the signature ceremony for this policy for the V.A. that should have more accountability, firing incompetent and corrupt people at the Veterans Administration. NBC and ABC didn't bother to cover that. So they say that this is a discretion, but then why don't they when this isn't happening actually focus on public policy?
GUILFOYLE: No, that's the probably. They don't want to cover any of the important legislative efforts, policy positions. They don't want to cover any of the job members that are good, the 401(k) numbers that are good because they don't want to seem to give him any credit. I feel that they are very jealous, Lionel. They are very jealous of him, it seems.
LIONEL: Tolstoy said history would be a wonderful thing if only it were true. In 1950, in 1950 Harry Truman, when he heard about the bad review that Margaret got from a fellow named Hume in "The Washington Post," he wrote him a letter on White House stationery that said "When I meet you, I'm going to break your nose. You're going to need two beefsteaks for eyes, and a supporter." This was violence, signed HST. We loved it. Give him hell, Harry.
Trump, with a little tweet, this is nothing. What is the matter with us? He's a genius. I don't know how to make it any clearer. He is laughing. Why are we even talking about it?
GUILFOYLE: Lionel is going to do the wave here in a minute.
LIONEL: By myself.
GUILFOYLE: So Kristin, what do you think? Have people have had a little bit of time to get some perspective about this? I tend to agree with Don, Jr., who is saying this is unbelievable. These people can't take a joke. This was like a wrestling meme, yet they want to feel like it's some kind of equivalent of ISIS recruitment video craziness.
TATE: Yes, I totally agree, Kimberly. Everyone knows the media is humorless, but all this outrage from the media is going to do little to actually influence what the American people think. These outlets, like "The New York Times," CNN, and "The Washington Post" have become so flagrant in their bias that they have lost all credibility. The only people who read and watch these outlets are the very far left. These journalists have made themselves completely irrelevant.
GUILFOYLE: And Deroy, have you noticed the number of retractions that have had to be issued? How about the National Security Agency, 17 intelligence agencies, oh, I'm so sorry. I'm really bad at math. Let me use my fingers again to count. The Associated Press, New York Times, Washington Post, all of them.
MURDOCK: Yes, oops, it's not 17, 16, or 15. It's four, grand total of four. And by the way also referring to our former paper of record over on Eighth Avenue, they actually sponsored that Shakespeare in the Park where a Donald Trump like Julius Caesar was stabbed to death at the end. So they actually sponsored that thing.
GUILFOYLE: So how about that? How about them apples? All right, you guys are fantastic, so don't move, because coming up we have more with the panel. Nine Republican senators oppose the current bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. Will the GOP be able to keep a major promise they made to the American people? That and much more as this special edition of "Hannity" continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUILFOYLE: Welcome back to this special edition of "Hannity," President Trump Versus the Resistance.
Nine Republican senators currently oppose the bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, and according to a new Associated press headline, quote, "GOP voters blame Congress, not Trump, for lack of progress." Back with us, Fox News contributor Deroy Murdock, legal analyst and former prosecutor Lionel, and "The Hill" columnist Kristin Tate. All right, Deroy, so how likely is it that this health care bill is actually going to pass the Senate this time?
MURDOCK: I think it has to happen. Look, the Republicans have been promising this for seven years. I don't know what they've been doing all these seven years. And even if you --
GUILFOYLE: No one knows.
MURDOCK: Nobody knows. And even if you excuse that, they certainly had since November 9 when they knew they would have a Republican House, Republican Senate, Republican White House to get their acts together. And here we are in July, and they still don't know what they are doing. And every Republican and conservative and even moderate and some Democrats voters who voted for these people expect and demand these guys do their jobs, stop monkeying around and get it together. And I think the simply way to do it is basically the moderates want more money, the conservatives want more freedom, so whatever spending we have, put the spending into health savings accounts and other vehicles like that so you make people who are basically beneficiaries of government services become consumers. They can go out and pick and choose the care they want. Let people buy across state lines, ditch the state lines and let a company like Geico or Allstate sell coast-to-coast, and I think if you combine all that, I think you'll be able to get 50 votes.
GUILFOYLE: Everybody seems to like that free-market aspect of it. Kristin, so what do you think? Why has this taking so long? You've got President Trump in the White House, you've got Congress all lined up, teed up with Republicans. Why don't they get it together? And who do you blame for this not working? You saw the poll, it seems the American people aren't blaming President Trump. They are fed up with Congress.
TATE: Yes, I blame Congress. But look, the Senate health care bill really isn't that great. It's not a full repeal of Obamacare, and at the end of the day it is still a big government subsidy, but it's a little less horrible than Obamacare. So they've got to pass something.
The problem is that the conservative wing of the GOP knows that this Senate health care bill stinks and they don't want their names attached to it. I totally understand that. But if the GOP can't come together and do this, they are going to get blamed for Obamacare's failure. Obamacare is falling apart, and something's got to be done. Premiums have doubled since 2013. Deductible continue to go through the roof. Insurers are fleeing the market. And if Republicans continue to be purists and they don't work together, nothing is going to get done. We are going to be stuck with Obamacare, and 2018 is going to be an ugly election year. So they've got to compromise. They have got to get something done.
GUILFOYLE: Honestly, don't they want to get their jobs? Maybe not, but it seems like they are the ones letting the American people down, Lionel. What is their problem? What is it going to take to please these people?
LIONEL: One of the greatest myths in the world next to the artistic quality of the neck tattoo is how -- they is something called it Obamacare, that they are repealing Obamacare. There is no Obamacare. It's a mess. But the good news for the president is that he can now turn to the American people and say, what you expect? I can't get any kind of a limitation on immigration, which is what you voted me in for, without them calling me the racist. I can't budge no matter what I try to do.
GUILFOYLE: Frustrating.
LIONEL: Exactly. So he's looking good right now. But it is an existential mess. And no matter how he plays this, wait a minute. I've got an idea. Maybe he could do a meme. This time with GLOW or something to drive these people completely over the edge, because it takes one more, I'm telling you, it takes one more meme or tweet for the entire mainstream media to lose it completely. We can only pray.
MURDOCK: It would be a total meltdown.
GUILFOYLE: Do you think this doesn't get done, Deroy, to get prediction here?
MURDOCK: Again, it has to get done. If these guys don't do this, what are they going to do? Go back in November of next year and say to the voters, look, you voted us in, and we had the House and Senate and the White House and we didn't do a thing so vote us back in? I don't think so.
Also they seemed scared. What are the Republicans afraid of? They all look terrified on these shows. What are they afraid of, the American people will say, oh, thank you for keeping your promises? They have nothing to fear other than that awful paper on Eight Avenue here in New York writing nasty editorials. There's no reason they should be afraid of that. Those are all badges of honor.
GUILFOYLE: You're right. And Kristin, they were given a job, and they complained about Obamacare. Now they've had the chance, and have they squandered it? That's what really irritates me.
TATE: I actually think they will get this done. Look, the American people look around and they see the Republicans controlling the House, the Senate, and the White House. If nothing gets done, the Republicans know it's going to be really ugly next year. The Democrats have proven that they are the party of no, they are going to obstruct. So it's got to be the Republicans that get this done, and I think they know that. So if they are smart, they will compromise and push this through.
GUILFOYLE: Lionel, last comments?
LIONEL: The bottom line is simply this. It may just be the ultimate in legislative Gordian knots. This may be something that is so complicated, so awful, that no matter what the final product is, it's going to be horrible, no matter what. It may be something, and I am the bearer of good news.
GUILFOYLE: Yes, I can tell.
MURDOCK: It may be a disaster.
GUILFOYLE: I'm going to keep taking my Flintstone vitamins, my vitamin C, because that doesn't sound good.
The panel was fantastic. Coming up, more of this special edition of "Hannity," "President Trump Versus the Resistance." Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUILFOYLE: Welcome back to "Hannity." That's unfortunately all the time we have left this evening. You can catch me out "The Five" weeknights at 9:00 p.m. eastern. And be sure please to follow me on Twitter @KimGuilfoyle. And don't forget as we celebrate the Fourth of July, join us on social media to tell us why you are a proud American using the #ProudAmerican.
Thank you for joining us. Happy Fourth of July. Have a great night, everyone, and God bless.
Content and Programming Copyright 2017 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2017 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox