Sara Carter: Fusion GPS testimony backfired on the Democrats

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Sara Carter: Fusion GPS testimony backfired on the Democrats

Fox News contributor Sara Carter, 'Trumped Up' author Alan Dershowitz and Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton weigh in on 'Hannity.'

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," January 12, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Welcome to the special edition of "Hannity."

President Trump Versus The Swamp. Now, the title is fitting because yes, we are broadcasting tonight from our nation's capital, Washington, D.C., swamp, sewer, same thing.

Now, we are following three major breaking stories tonight. Massive new developments in the Clinton bought and paid for phony fake news Russian propaganda dossier used by the Obama administration to spy on members of the Trump campaign.

Ed Henry reporting at this hour that House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, he told his Republican colleagues this week in two closed door meetings that he has seen evidence of abuse of government surveillance programs by the FBI and by the Department of Justice and their officials.

Plus, the president is accusing FBI agent Peter Strzok of treason over anti-Trump text messages that he sent to his FBI lawyer mistress Lisa Page. And you will not believe what a long time Hillary Clinton ally is saying about this explosive scandal.

And tonight, Judicial Watch is scoring yet another major victory. The State Department is being told to speed up the release of Hillary Clinton's emails. How about some urgency? That's good for once.

Also, Barack Obama he cannot quit his habit. He's lashing out and attacking again the Fox News Channel. Newt Gingrich is here tonight to discuss and respond.

But, first, there is a lot to cover in tonight's breaking news opening monologue. We're glad you are with us.

(MUSIC)

HANNITY: All right. Massive breaking news at this hour about the Clinton bought and paid for fake news Russian propaganda dossier, that, of course, was used by the Obama administration to obtain FISA warrants to surveil members of the Trump campaign and then the president-elect. Our own Ed Henry is reporting that in two closed door meetings this week, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes that he told Republican lawmakers that he has seen evidence showing clear abuse of government surveillance programs by the FBI and Department of Justice officials.

Ed Henry is also reporting that Nunes told his colleagues that he plans to share evidence of this abuse with the entire House later this month.

Now, this is a major development but, as we have been saying, there is so much more information that needs to come out and it will because I'm telling you this is the beginning of a massive historic scandal. It's unfolding unlike anything this country has ever seen before.

This is going to reach the very highest levels of your government, including the DOJ, the FBI, the intel community. Sara Carter tonight reporting and we have confirmed with our sources that as soon as next week, examples of systemic FISA abuses will in fact be revealed. And the unbiased so-called journalists, well, they should be able to see this as the major story it is worthy of further investigation.

But as the media in this country so abusively biased and so anti-Trump that they can no longer care about simple, basic fundamental truth, our Constitution, our freedoms, our liberties? Does the media not care about any of this?

The media as we have been pointing out nightly is so bad at this point in time in history and so radically left in their ideology that in fact, sadly true facts, they don't get through to them. The only thing that seems to matter is destroying and delegitimizing President Trump. That has been their only objective for over a year. You see it happening day after day, hour after hour. It's pretty disgusting, it's pathetic, it's a disservice, it's disgraceful to you the American people.

But it's why we are going to keep asking the tough questions here on this program and we'll keep getting information that the American people, all of you deserve to know.

Now, also tonight, the president is eviscerating FBI agent Peter Strzok and his FBI lawyer mistress Lisa Page over anti-Trump text messages. The president is telling the Wall Street Journal, quote, a man is tweeting to his lover that if she loses, we'll essentially go back to the insurance policy, which is, they lose, we'll go to phase 2? And we will get this guy out of office?

I mean, this is the FBI we are talking about. I think that is, you know that is treason. See, that's treason right there.

And then the president added: that's a treasonous act, what he tweeted to his lover is treasonous.

Now, here is the insurance policy text message President Trump is referring to. Peter Strzok writing his mistress: I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy's office that there is no way he gets elected. But I'm afraid we can't take that risk. It's like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you're 40.

Now, we here at Fox News and on this show, we believe, we haven't confirmed yet, the Andy mentioned in that text is the Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. Now that message is only the beginning of this massive scandal. Stay with us here. It gets complicated.

Now, Strzok and Page also called Trump an idiot. A loathsome human and said F Trump and congressional investigators, they are working to determine if these Trump-hating FBI lovers were leaking information about the Russia investigation to the press after a new round of their text messages were released. By the way, there is about 9,000 more to go.

And Strzok also sat in on Hillary Clinton's FBI interview for the email investigation after he and James Comey exonerated her or begun writing the exoneration letter before the investigation and it was Strzok that signed the original documents kicking off the Russia investigation.

This guy's corrupt tentacles touch seemingly everything and also General Flynn. Now, what Strzok has done here, it is crooked, it is scandalous and even former Clinton strategist Mark Penn is saying he should be fired.

Here's what Penn said on the Fox Business Network. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK PENN, FOFRMER CLINTON STRATEGIST: I think that tweet is one of the most damaging things I've ever seen from someone in the government at every level. I don't understand how he is still employed by the FBI. I don't understand how criminal investigation hasn't been opened to all of this.

To me, that is hugely damaging to confidence in the FBI. These two folks were having an affair, using official government channels for their personal communications. That alone would have made them a security threat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Kind of refreshing. That was a Democrat being honest for once.

Now, there are reportedly 10,000 total messages between Strzok and Page. We have only gotten a fraction of them. Now, that scandal is only going to get bigger.

Now, in addition to his comments about Peter Strzok to the Wall Street Journal, President Trump is also taking aim at Congressman Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intel Committee by saying, quote: he left meetings where people are being interviewed and, all of the sudden, they say a story about what's going on inside the meetings, it's probably illegal what he is doing but the Democrats -- well, they know it's a hoax, an excuse for them having lost the election.

Now, while it's unclear if Schiff has been leaking, we know for a fact that another top ranking Democrat has been leaking. President Trump is continuing to slam who he is now calling sneaky Senator Dianne Feinstein because she unilaterally released the Fusion GPS testimony before Congress and Trump tweeted: Democrat Dianne Feinstein should never have released secret committee testimony to the public without authorization. Very disrespectful to committee members and possibly illegal.

Now, she blamed her poor decision by the way on the fact that she had a cold, I bet in school the dog ate her homework.

And while Feinstein's actions are threatening to disrupt the Senate's investigation releasing the transcript provided some very revealing information about Fusion GPS and their founder Glenn Simpson. Simpson actually testified he never even bothered to verify with the former British spy Christopher Steele had actually put in the Russian sourced phony dossier. He also admitted that he was against Trump during the election.

So, clearly, Simpson was more than happy to take over $10 million from Hillary Clinton and the DNC that she is running and put this dossier together that they then tried to use to influence the American people. Oh, Russian propaganda to influence an election. Bought and paid for by Hillary. And then a FISA warrant.

And finally tonight, Judicial Watch is scoring another major legal victory. Federal judge is ordering the State Department to ramp up the release of Hillary Clinton's email from her time as secretary of state and according to Judicial Watch, the FBI discovered 72,000 pages of documents last year that Clinton either tried to delete or did not disclose.

You cannot make this stuff up. If I wrote the most obscene spy novel, you couldn't make this up. The author of "Trumped Up: How Criminalization of Political Differences Endangers Democracy", Harvard constitutional law professor Alan Dershowitz, Fox News contributor Sara Carter, Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton,

Sara, because you have been on the forefront this week, we now know that the dossier bought and paid for by Hillary with salacious lies was used to get a FISA warrant against --

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, yes. We now it was either in part used or a significant part of the FBI being able to get the warrant to spy on Trump and people within his campaign.

But, Sean, when you are looking at the dossier and I think actually leaking Glenn Simpson' testimony actually back fired on the Democrats. I mean, it really did. You look at that testimony, you see to yourself first, Glenn Simpson said there was a source inside the Trump campaign. That's proven to be false now, what people have corrected that version of it and said, well, no, he was just talking about George Papadopoulos in London.

Then you find out that Glenn Simpson wouldn't answer any questions as to whether he was pushing this dossier to the media. He kept stepping back. He wouldn't answer it. Then, we find out he didn't even verify the information in the dossier.

And when you look at all of, this knowing that the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC actually paid for this, paid for this dossier, and that the dossier itself could have been part of a ginormous, a huge, a huge disinformation campaign by the Russians clearly there is a problem.

HANNITY: Professor, let me go to you. You make some really good point as it relates to the partisan aspect of all this. I'm a conservative. I'm a proud conservative, I don't hide any of that.

But we learned a lot that the fix was in. I want to use this analogy, that the fix was in, poor Bernie Sanders and his supporters, they had no shot at all whatsoever and even Donna Brazile admits that. Then have you Comey and Strzok , I don't believe I have ever heard of a case where you write exoneration letters months before you interviewed the people involved in an investigation. They didn't do the investigation, but they are writing an exoneration.

Then it seems with the Russian dossier that they are trying to put the fix in there by using bought and paid for Russian propaganda we now learn and then you take it a step further, and that information was put before a FISA court and a warrant issued. As a constitutional scholar, I hope you are as afraid as I am about these issues, about the corrupt nature of all of this and the -- and our constitutional rights in jeopardy here.

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, HARVARD CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR: I am very much worried about that. That's why I called for right from the beginning an impartial, nonpartisan commission of inquiry to look into every aspect of the last election. Every aspect.

HANNITY: Agree.

DERSHOWITZ: What the Russians tried to do in terms of the Democrats. What the Russians tried to do in terms of the Republicans. This is a bipartisan issue. Every American suffers when the Russians in any way try to influence the election. Look, I don't think the Russians tried to influence the election necessarily in favor of one candidate or the other. I think they tried influence the election in terms of destabilizing the American political system.

And that's why having partisan inquiries by congressional committees doesn't work. That's why having a special counsel who operates behind closed doors doesn't work. We need an open investigation commission. This is too important to all Americans to leave any kind of partisan advantage.

HANNITY: Let me follow up with the dossier, it was partisan, bought and paid for. Remember, Christopher Steele didn't come on board with fusion until Hillary and the DNC were paying for it, but that dossier used to obtain at least in part, maybe significantly as Sara is reporting, to get a FISA warrant on a opposition candidate and a president-elect. Seems like Fourth Amendment crisis here in many ways.

DERSHOWITZ: Well, I think it would be a Fourth Amendment violation if the material in the FISA warrant were known to be false. Now, under case called Franks versus Maryland, it's not enough under the Fourth Amendment for it to be wrong. It has to be known to be wrong.

And so, again, this should be looked into. Every fact should be investigated. Nobody should be afraid of the truth. Let the truth come out. Let the American public decide.

Can I say one more thing?

HANNITY: Yes, sir.

DERSHOWITZ: I have to tell you just one more thing. I know it's not on topic. But, you know, as the grandchild of American immigrants who came from a very, very poor country in Europe, I hope the president will apologize for whatever he said that demeans immigrants.

The Statue of Liberty says give us your poor, your hungry, people yearning to be free. We are a country of immigrants. And I just hope we can elevate the discussion about immigration and try not to insult people from any part of the world and the president can do a great service if he just comes forward and says --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: He did he admit today he used tough language but he denied -- we will get into this later in the show, but he denied what Durbin said, Sonny Perdue and another senator in the room said they didn't hear it. But we're going to get to that.

DERSHOWITZ: It doesn't much matter what words he used. I think it was a thrust was a thrust against certain countries. We just can't have that kind of attitude, it makes us look very bad in the world, and really undercuts what our Statue of Liberty has long stood for.

HANNITY: Sara, before I get to Tom, I want to follow up on something that Professor Dershowitz was saying, I have one source, I don't have two, that actually told me that there was one confirmation as it relates to the dossier. And I was given a name.

And it happens to be somebody that is a corrupt individual inside the Clinton circles and you know -- I can tell by your face, you know exactly what I'm talking.

CARTER: I know exactly how are talking about. If that does come to fruition, if we find out --

HANNITY: Then the court may have been lied.

CARTER: Then the court may have been lied to. What Alan Dershowitz said would definitely take significance.

HANNITY: I agree.

Tom, tell us what Judicial Watch is doing.

TOM FITTON, JUDICIAL WATCH PRESIDENT: I think it's going to be, as Sara is indicating a tsunami of information coming out on the scandals. We have the court ruling that the Clinton emails need to be released more quickly. All these Clinton emails she tried to hide or delete.

HANNITY: These are the ones deleted and we haven't seen any of them yet.

FITTON: Yes --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: All about yoga, a wedding, a funeral, emailing Bill who doesn't email.

FITTON: Or we found on the Wiener laptop classified information and pay- to-play, which I guarantee you is going to be coming out. And then we had the court just yesterday talk about how he wants the Comey memos because he wants to review the Comey memos which are the genesis of the Mueller operation. There would be no Mueller special prosecutor but for the leaking of Comey to the New York Times on one specific memo.

So that material may be coming out. It's all building. And there are text messages that are coming out. As Ed is talking about, now we are going to find out more details about the FISA -- the intelligence surveillance abuses.

Now, you know my concern is why with are we waiting to find out about them after the reauthorization occurs? I would suggest we find out about the abuses before they reauthorize this for another six years.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: This is important because Devin Nunes. I will let you report on this but --

CARTER: No, no, I mean, of course, Devin Nunes is going to, after they rule on the FISA Act which is probably going to pass is going to disclose what actually these extensive abuses.

HANNITY: Extensive abuse.

CARTER: Yes, in the Department of Justice and with the FBI.

And I've got to tell you this. This is coming from people within the intelligence community. This system has been abused. It has been abused viciously.

And we know from what we have seen, right? We know from what we have seen that there needs to be an investigation. But let's do it before.

HANNITY: Let me go to the professor.

Professor Dershowitz --

DERSHOWITZ: Yes.

HANNITY: -- what Devin Nunes is saying that there is clear evidence of massive abuse of government surveillance by the FBI and Department of Justice officials. I don't -- I'm a civil libertarian first and foremost, sir.

DERSHOWITZ: Yes, yes. We, civil libertarians, liberals and conservatives alike, have long worried about the FBI, its surveillance methods and the potential for abuse. Remember Comey not only leaked, he laundered the information through a Columbia law professor. He didn't have the courage to stand up in front of a TV camera and say this is information that I'm going to give you because I want a special counsel to be appointed. He laundered it through a Columbia professor.

These are issues that should be investigated. We have to know what surveillance is being used against Americans and whether you are a conservative or a liberal or a Republican or a Democrat --

HANNITY: It doesn't matter.

DERSHOWITZ: -- you should care deeply about any abuse of this process.

HANNITY: If you believe in the Constitution and our constitutional rights, noble should disagree with that.

Last word, Tom.

FITTON: Hillary Clinton and her top campaign aides need to be brought in at least by Congress to testify about what they knew and when about this dossier.

Glenn Simpson refused to talk about whether the Clinton campaign, his pay master, what their involvement was in directing Chris Steele's use of Russian intelligence to gather information.

HANNITY: A lot of news coming next week?

CARTER: Oh, a lot of news coming next week, Sean.

HANNITY: A lot.

All right. Stay with this program. You won't get it in the rest of the media.

When we come back, Ed Henry is here and latest reaction to remarks. Also comments made by Nancy Pelosi, disparaging male colleagues.

A lot of news tonight. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: So there is a lot of drama right here in Washington, D.C. The sewer, the swamp over comments that President Trump made on immigration reform and also there is controversy surrounding remarks made by Nancy Pelosi that the media -- well, they won't talk about that.

Here with insight into all of this, FOX News chief national correspondent -
- good to see you, Ed Henry.

ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you, Sean.

Republican Senator Tim Scott is saying that his South Carolina colleague who was in the room with the president, Lindsey Graham, told him that President Trump said some version of what has been reported about that blank-hole comment related to immigration last night when this broke and I came on your show. White House aides were not denying it was said.

But two other Republicans today who were in that meeting Senators Perdue and Cotton said they do not recall the conversation playing out that way. And the president himself who knows what he said or didn't say tweeted, quote, the language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made, a big setback for DACA.

He added: never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti a very poor and troubled country. Never said, quote, take them out. Made up by Dems.

I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians, probably should record future meetings. Unfortunately, no trust.

Now as the president held an event at the White House today to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, various pundits and anchors at CNN flat-out called him racist, while various officials inside foreign governments ranging from Haiti to South Africa also attacked the president. But they may play into what White House officials told us last night that the president is more concerned about border security here at home and protecting Americans than what foreign governments have to say about his policies.

The bigger question for the president's agenda is whether this episode makes it even harder for him to accomplish the already tough battle of getting the wall along the southern border included as part of a deal on DACA as Republican Speaker Paul Ryan said these comments weren't helpful and Senator Dick Durbin, a key leader in terms of rounding up Democratic votes, flatly claimed the president said it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN, R-WIS., SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Whether you are coming from Haiti, we've got great friends from Africa in Janesville who are doctors who are just incredible citizens. And I just think it's important that we celebrate that.

SEN. DICK DURBIN, D-ILLINOIS: And then he went on and started to describe the immigration from Africa that was being protected in this bipartisan measure. That's when he used these vile and vulgar comments.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Durbin and other Democrats not expressing much outrage, though, about controversial comments about immigration from House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. She said the immigration talks are led by, quote, five white guys which sounds like the five guys fast food chain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIFORNAI: The five white guys I call them, you know. I said, are you going to open a hamburger stand next or what?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Well, one of those white guys is Pelosi's number two in the Democratic leadership, Congressman Steny Hoyer. He rebuked her. He said it was offensive. A sign this volatile debate is getting inflamed, Sean.

HANNITY: All right. Ed Henry, thanks so much. You are going to stay with us.

We are also bring in former White House press secretary and FOX News contributor Ari Fleischer.

Ari, you were commenting on this last night. Now, I'm asking as irredeemable deplorable human being that clings to God, my bible and I believe in the Second Amendment and my religion.

A lot of things are said in politics but what do you make of the conflicting views? How do you -- where do you come down on it?

ARI FLEISCHER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, here's where I come down, Sean. I believe in addition, I believe in being inclusive. I believe in welcoming people in this country and we should get the votes of Hispanics, African-Americans, it doesn't matter who you are, because their ideas are the best and we can help lift you up.

But if you are Hispanic, if you're African-American, you hear the president talk like that, you wonder if he cares about you. And that's the problem words like that from the president.

He might be speaking, you know, from the gut, the kinds of things people say privately. He let's it rip on occasion and sometimes it's helpful to be politically incorrect.

Other times it pushes people away and I can understanding that. That's why I said what the president did I thought was hurtful. I wish he hadn't said it, Sean. I said that yesterday. I still think that tonight.

HANNITY: You were saying in his report that he admits he used tough language.

Let me move on, because this really all comes down to the immigration debate. It seems like chain migration will end as part of this. It seems inarticulate, not, whoever said what. We'll let the Washington people figure it all out. But he is talking about a merit based system from the way I understand it.

HENRY: At least the debate is shifting that way.

HANNITY: The wall seems nonnegotiable for the president. And DACA seems to be part of the deal if the wall is included.

HENRY: Yes, but I mean -- one of the problems with the negotiation that the president referred to in his tweet is that this started out, how do you define DACA? It started out as the children of illegal immigrants bought here through no fault of their own should stay here.

The current state of negotiations has changed. It's those children plus their parents who came over here illegally and knowingly so, not the infants, not the kids, they will get some sort of legal status as well.

To be clear, they're not going to become citizens overnight. This is not amnesty per se. However, they will get some legal status.

That's not where this started, San, that's going to upset the president and others who support him.

HANNITY: Ari, I make this point often. You always get the spending increases. You never get the tax cut. You can go back to 1986 and the Reagan deal. You always get the consideration the amnesty, you never get the wall built.

Interestingly, and I have played it the last couple of nights, all the Democrats sounded like Donald Trump only five years ago.

FLEISCHER: Yes. What's different now is that you have Donald Trump running the government for at least the next three years. So, if Congress does appropriate funds for the wall, the wall will be built. You'd have to believe that Donald Trump won't build the wall if he is given the funds. So that's the key.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: This is important.

FLEISCHER: The money is there. The rest suspect to Donald Trump and his administration.

HANNITY: He's got to be given the money as part of any deal or he is making a mistake. And I would think, show me the money to quote a famous film.

FLEISCHER: And, look, and you know I'm an immigration reform Republican.
I 100 percent agree with what you just said. You've got to get the money for the wall. I would not vote for a deal DACA without funding for the wall. The two should be tied, because the Republicans are 100 percent right. We'll be doing DACA 2.0 in two years if we don't have better border security and that includes wall. It could include sensors and drones and more Border Patrol agents. But a wall works and the wall should be part of it.

HANNITY: The wall should be built first.

Ed?

HENRY: No doubt that's what the president is demanding. But Democrats like Dick Durbin have simply not given an inch on that. And they -- I talked to a White House official in the last 24 hours who was saying that their frustration with the president's comments, they don't believe is he a racist they said, look, we were getting momentum here in these immigration talks and this may stall it. This may take it into, you know, the back and forth about the president's personal views.

HANNITY: Don't you think the Democrats want DACA so bad?

HENRY: They do, but they think they can get DACA without the wall. They might be wrong.

HANNITY: Five years ago, they wanted 700 miles of border fence.

HENRY: They did. You had Dianne Feinstein on camera in California.

HANNITY: Chuck Schumer.

HENRY: Saying they are taking away our Medicaid benefits. Democrats said many of the same things the president is saying now. Now they call him racist. Back then somehow they were right.

HANNITY: Ari?

ARI FLEISCHER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I agree with that take. This is one the reasons Washington doesn't work. People take one stand and they don't keep it when the stand matters. If ever there is a time for the Democrats to compromise, it's now. Because Donald Trump means it when he says he will start deporting people. Look, President Obama broke the law when he allowed DACA to take place. He did not have the presidential authority to do it. So what Donald Trump is going to do is enforce the law. The law is on the books. The Democrats want to change the law, they need to compromise.

HANNITY: All right. Guys, good to see you both. Appreciate it. A lot more coming up on this busy breaking news night. President Obama taking more swipes at the Fox News channel. Newt Gingrich will react as we continue from our nation's capital with a special edition of "Hannity."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right, well, yes, she is at it again. President Obama he has been out of office almost a year, but in an interview on David Letterman's new Netflix show the former president can't get over it. Again, taking swipes at Fox News. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What the Russians exploited, but it was already here is we are operating in completely different information universes. If you watch Fox News, you are living on a different planet.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

Than you are if you, you know, listen to NPR.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: He still kind of stuck there let's take a walk down memory lane. This is not the first time Obama has taken shots at Fox News or yours truly. You may remember some of this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I will put Mr. Burgess up against Sean Hannity.

(CHEERS)

He will tear him up.

I mean, look, is Sean Hannity suddenly going to get on the airways and say you know I was wrong about this Obama guy he is my man. No, that is not going to happen.

There is a certain segment of hard core Sean Hannity fans.

(LAUGHTER)

That probably wouldn't want to go have a beer with me. There is no doubt about that.

With respect to Sean Hannity I didn't know he had invited me for a beer. His opinion of me does not seem to be very high, but I'm always good for a beer.

The history channel is not here. I guess they were embarrassed about the whole Obama is a devil thing.

(LAUGHTER)

Of course that never kept Fox News from showing up.

Good affordable healthcare might seem like a fanged threat to the freedom of the American people on Fox News. It turns out it's working pretty well in the real world.

If you watch Fox News on a regular basis, it is a constant menu they will find like folks who make me mad. I don't know where they find them.

I wasn't viewed through this prism of Fox News and conservative media and making me scary.

And I haven't, you know, turned on Fox News or listened to conservative talk radio yet today, but I have turned them on enough over these past seven and a half years to know I'm not exaggerating in terms of their story.

Look, if I watched Fox News I wouldn't vote for me either, right? Because have you got this screen, fun house mirror through which people are receiving information.

Those who watch Fox News and those who read the New York Times occupy completely different realities. I mean, if I watch Fox News, I wouldn't vote for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: I didn't vote for you either. Anyway, here with reaction the author of the bestselling book "Vengeance" former speaker of the House, Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich. You are laughing. I'm laughing, too. I forgot the good old days. There is some truth in what he is saying in this regard. I think we have a series of scandals and looking at Devon Nunes today that the abuse of government surveillance by the FBI is so bad and all that we are uncovering here is so bad, he is right, the mainstream media, you know, they want to destroy Trump and they loved him. It's that simple.

NEWT GINGRICH, R-FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Look, you and I have known each other a long time. So I'm going to spend some of your money. Why don't you offer $100,000 to create the Barack Obama, Fox News, Sean Hannity scholarship, if he will come on the show with you?

HANNITY: Done.

GINGRICH: That is such a funny. That is such a funny segment.

HANNITY: Done.

GINGRICH: I'm just telling you. I listened to it and I thought to myself, this guy is so whacked and today I mean, he still doesn't get it. He will never get it. Many, many years from now, in a nursing home or a nice retirement community, Barack Obama will be still living in a fantasy life. He will think that Iran should really wanted to have a deal. He will think that high taxes really work. He will think that welfare is a good deal. I mean, what you just put together is as, I think, funny a statement of who Barack Obama is as I have ever seen. It captures this sense of being out of touch with reality.

HANNITY: Let's talk about the media in this sense. They spent a year, Mr. Speaker. There's no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. We played the montage of Democrats saying there is no evidence of collusion. Yet, we do have evidence of unbelievable instance of abusing the weapons of intelligence and surveilling, unmasking, and leaking raw intelligence. We know that the fix was in with Hillary and Bernie. We know that the fix was in Comey and Strzok, rigged -- they had an exoneration before even an investigation.

We know that Hillary paid for a dossier full of Russian propaganda. We know that dossier now was used to get FISA warrants to spy on opposition candidate and a president-elect and his team. And I'm not even talking about uranium one or Debbie Wassermann Schultz. There seems to be -- there are two realities here. And the media has chosen a reality of partisanship and conspiracy theories. Either that or I'm wrong, but they didn't think Trump could win and people like you and me were right.

GINGRICH: Look, what you have to understand and I'm actually working on a book called Trump's America, trying to explain this. Because it's so -- it is so unbelievably hard to understand if you're a normal person. Over here is a left wing corrupt establishment, which sincerely sees this entire fight as a function of identity politics in which if they lose, they will disappear. Over here are the rest of us who are thinking, you know, a lot of these ideas are really weird, I mean, Obama thought if you gave $100 billion to Iran, they would be nice people.

Obama thought it was terrific that we had more people on food stamps than ever before. You have a whole list of these things. And this is really a definition of life and death. And so what you and are living through is a period where the old order, the establishment that inherited and this is important to understand. They inherited Walter Cronkite. They inherited Edward R. Murrow. They inherited the old Harvard. They inherited all these great centers of authority and responsibility and they have gradually turned them into left wing nut cake positions.

And so, the truth is we're in an identity fight which if we win they disappear. If they win, we disappear. That is why what you and I experience, because we are great friends, we're great warriors in the same cause, and we both understand if we lose, we will literally disappear. On the other hand, if we win, America will continue to move forward as the freest country in the world and I think that is why both of us fight.

HANNITY: You are describing it perfectly to be honest. Nobody really want to know what truly motivates us, but that is a separate issue. As a practical matter, can I shoot off a litany of Obama's statistics and what his true record is on the economy? You mentioned Iran. You think he can bribe murdering thug dictators and not mention radical Islamic terrorism and in a year of Trump, you can compare policy significant changes with tangible results. But the media won't talk about any of it.

GINGRICH: Look, you would think if Barack Obama was a sincere person who genuinely cared about African-Americans, when you got a report this week that we have the lowest black unemployment in years, because the economy is starting to work. Trump's tax cuts, regulatory cuts, pro-business attitude is starting to work. You would think that having the lowest black -- lower than any time under Barack Obama that Obama would say, this is, great, he can't afford to believe it. Nancy Pelosi can't afford to believe it. Chuck Schumer can't afford to believe it because if it was true, they would disappear.

HANNITY: Mr. Speaker we always appreciate you being with us. Have a great weekend. We will see you next week. When we come back on this special edition of Hannity, Nancy Pelosi believes giving thousands of dollars to you the American people is only crumbs. Really? We'll explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right in December under President Trump's leadership a sweeping new tax reform bill was passed and the American economy is now booming. The stock market again at all-time high and just yesterday Walmart announced that many of its employees are going to receive $1,000 bonus making Wal-Mart the latest American company to give bonuses to its employees in the wake of the tax reform bill. But Democratic house minority leader Nancy Pelosi wants you to know that these bonuses amount to little more than crumbs. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALI., MINORITY LEADER: In terms of the bonus that corporate America received versus the crumbs that they are giving to workers to kind of put the schmooze on is so pathetic. It's so pathetic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Really? A thousand dollars? I will take a thousand bucks. This arrogant dismissal of the surging economy is nothing new for Democrats and liberal lawmakers have been spreading the doom and gloom message about Trump's economic strategy for months. But they have been wrong. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Under this plan, the wealthiest Americans and wealthiest corporations make out like bandits while middle class Americans are left holding the bag.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is Armageddon. This is a very big deal. Because, you know why? There is really a very hard way to come back from this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're going to explode the debt. They're going to raise taxes on hard-working families.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because the federal treasury is being looted tonight in order to give tax breaks to billionaires and to large profitable corporations. They're going to cut programs for the elderly, the children, the working families of this country and the poor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Yes. They want to poison the air, water, and kill children. Here with reaction White House senior advisor for strategic communication Mercedes Schlapp. Obama is the only president in history that never reached 3 percent GDP. We had 13 million more Americans on food stamps. 8 Million more on poverty. Lowest labor participation in the 70's. Worst recovery since the 1940s, lowest home ownership rate in 50 years and he doubled the debt. Really?

MERCEDES SCHLAPP, WASHINGTON TIMES: Lowest unemployment rate for African- Americans, for Hispanics. The numbers go on and on. There is a renewed.

HANNITY: What happened?

SCHLAPP: It's a renewed optimism in America. That is because of the leadership of President Trump. I mean, it was very clear that he made that commitment to the American people. That he was going to focus on the economy. Focus on the American worker. Make sure that they had an opportunity to succeed and that is now happening.

HANNITY: We have two million fewer people on food stamps. When you -- everything is broken down by demographics.

SCHLAPP: Right.

HANNITY: African-Americans are doing better in the last year than they did under how many years under Obama?

SCHLAPP: Right.

HANNITY: The same with the economy. Same with consumer confidence. Same with home ownership rates.

SCHLAPP: I mean, and let's just look at Nancy Pelosi. I call her negative Nancy and the demoralizing Democrats.

HANNITY: White House how many weeks and have a nickname for everybody?

SCHLAPP: I have a great mentor, the president. Clearly negative Nancy here, I mean she is calling this like these are crumbs. A thousand dollars.

HANNITY: How rich is negative Nancy?

SCHLAPP: Let's show how out of touch negative Nancy is for the American people.

HANNITY: Did we pay for her gulf stream to go to San Francisco and back when she was speaker.

SCHLAPP: Yes. Just to say that for her and for the Democrats to basically say we want to take away these tax cuts from the American people that these American hard working families don't deserve these tax cuts because guess what? They think government is a better answer? That is not what President Trump -- he stood away from that and basically said no. I'm standing with the American --

HANNITY: Even CBS, I don't know if you saw when they got three American families.

SCHLAPP: Yes.

HANNITY: All getting a significant tax cut. We played that so starting in the first week of February, people will see more money in their paychecks.

SCHLAPP: That is right. The department of treasury just announced the withholding tables and it clearly shows the benefits that you will see 90 percent of Americans who are going to benefit from this tax cut.

HANNITY: By the way, I'm not one of them. I lived in New York a high tax state.

SCHLAPP: The average family making $75,000. They will get a tax cut about $4,000.

HANNITY: That is real money.

SCHLAPP: It's about the child tax credit. This is about a tax cut law that helps American families. And this is what American greatness is, in terms of the economy and that is what the president promised. And the president has delivered on his -- on the economy. And it's very clear that he is focused on making sure that American hard working families.

HANNITY: Do you like your new job?

SCHLAPP: I do. I am very honored to be working with the president.

HANNITY: We miss you here, but you will come back I hope.

SCHLAPP: Yes.

HANNITY: We have a lot more "Hannity," including, more great calls from the "Hannity hotline." Earlier this week one said every time I open my mouth I kill a kitten, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: As we continue on "Hannity," the "Hannity hotline" overflowing with messages. Let us get right to it. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think you should be in jail.

I wish I would lay off of my morning Joe. I need a good laugh in the morning. Keep on criticizing him. It's going to be hard to get up and face the day if I don't have a good laugh.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you shut up and let your guests finish their point?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good evening. You were horrible. Ok? You are just the worst person on television. All right? You got to stop lying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Were some people drinking when they made those calls? Really? Do I deserve that much hate? Somebody said earlier this week, every time I open my mouth I kill a kitten. Anyway we still want to hear from you, call that that number 8772258587. We're out of time. That is all the time we have this evening. Let not your heart be troubled. The news continues, Laura Ingraham is next. Have a great weekend, a lot of news breaking as we hope you joins us, see you back.

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