This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," January 22, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: This is the biggest show we have had so far this year, tons of breaking news tonight.
Breaking right now, the Attorney General Jeff Sessions now revealing that there are over 50,000 -- we thought they were ten -- text messages between Trump-hating FBI agent Peter Strzok and his FBI lawyer mistress Lisa Page. Now, nearly 400 of them are released this weekend.
Also tonight, stunning evidence that the fix is, in fact, in. We have been right all along. The FBI now saying they lost five key months of text messages between the two lovers, Strzok and Page. Now, this is a conspiracy to obstruct justice, I'm not buying it.
And part of the problem, it's a troubling pattern. What have we seen it over and over again? Hillary and Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the list goes on and on. The IRS case, remember that?
Now, not only is this worse than Watergate, it looks like a cover up worse than Watergate. Our 18 minutes of missing tape has shown up in this case. This all comes as one of the new messages tonight suggests that Strzok, Page, and the former Attorney General Loretta Lynch knew Hillary Clinton would go free in the email scandal investigation before they ever investigated it or interviewed her.
Plus, tonight, pressure is built into released a classified memo showing systemic FISA abuse against the Trump campaign. This scandal is one of the biggest abuses of power in American history. It is time that you, the American people, get the truth. We are once again tonight, we are calling on you to contact Congress, let them know. You want the memo released.
We also want you to send out, we want the text messages. And now that the government shutdown is almost over, my advice to Republicans going forward on immigration -- we'll give that on so much more in tonight's breaking news opening monologue.
(MUSIC)
HANNITY: All right. Remember the vindication I've been telling you it was coming? Tonight, it is in full motion. Everything that we have been reporting for over the past year and the media has ignored for the past year, is now being uncovered. We have so much information, I literally need three hours tonight. We'll go through a slowly so everybody gets it. Now, please stay with us. It will take your breath away.
The Attorney General Jeff Sessions is revealing that there are in fact more than 50,000 text messages between Trump-hating FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. This is significant because previous reporting put. The number of text messages that only 10,000. Sessions is also vowing tonight to get to the bottom of the missing text messages, which, beginning to look more and more like an FBI cover-up.
This is a massive developing scandal and it ties into everything we have been telling you. Now, we are learning that five -- five months of text messages between the Trump-hating lovers Strzok and Page, they have conveniently disappeared. I don't make this up.
The messages that the FBI is claiming to have lost, well, they are from a critical, crucial time in the Russia investigation. Here is what happened. Now, during that five months -- this is from December 14 to May 17, 2017 -- March 4, President Trump claimed that he was wiretapped at Trump Tower. We don't have the exchanges from them. I would love to know what Strzok and Page were gossiping about at that point.
January 11, remember, BuzzFeed, they published the Clinton bought and paid for phony Russian propaganda dossier that the FBI used to get a FISA warrant against the Trump campaign, they say against Carter Page, that was a pretext.
January 24, now former National Security Adviser Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, he's interviewed by the FBI, and I hope Flynn's attorneys are watching tonight, because it was one person in the room named Peter Strzok who has made it clear that he despises all things Donald Trump. He oversaw that interview.
Now, given what we now know, you have to wonder, how fair could Strzok possibly be?
Now, Strzok had no business being involved in that investigation or any of the others he's involved in. The guy still shouldn't have a job. As I said last Friday, he should be fired, he should in fact be investigated.
Then we go to May 9, FBI Director James Comey is fired. May 17, Robert Mueller is named special counsel.
So, the messages are missing from that entire time period, the most critical time. But they are available from May 18. That's the exact day after Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel. You don't think that's highly suspicious?
Now, Strzok and Page, they are the key players in everything that we have been uncovering. They got their hands and everything. Are we really supposed to believe that the FBI simply lost text messages from that important time frame?
This is like Watergate and far worse. Remember the 18 1/2 minute gap in the White House tapes? This reeks of lawbreaking, it reeks of conspiracy, and it reeks of obstruction of justice. And, by the way, the cover-up is always worse than the crime.
Now, that's what it looks like to me tonight. Now, the DOJ, they're trying to explain it away. They are saying tonight that many of the FBI's issued Samsung 5 phones didn't capture text messages during that period. Hold on a second, we're going to blame Samsung? The DOJ is, you know, talking this up to a, quote, "misconfiguration" on issues related to rollouts, provisioning and software upgrades that conflicted with the FBI's collection capabilities? We're going to blame Samsung? They are blaming Samsung?
Where are the phones tonight? And instead of making excuses, the FBI, have you brought in your best forensic experts to analyze the phones? And, by the way, if you can't get the messages, you need to call Samsung. Maybe they will help you.
And if the FBI doesn't want to do that, then we can only draw the conclusion that the FBI clearly is hiding something in this very crucial time period and timeline that we are talking about. Remember Lois Lerner? She's another example.
Now, this is part of a much larger pattern here. Let's look at Hillary Clinton's email server scandal. Remember, 33,000 deleted emails that had been subpoenaed by Congress. Now, to make doubly sure that those were erased, never to be retrieved again, well then Clinton acid washed the hard drives with an item known as bleach bit to get rid of all of them, no trace of them, while those emails again under congressional subpoena.
And on top of that, a Clinton aide then took the BlackBerrys and mobile devices and smashed them with a hammer, and the few remaining cell phones -- well, they turned over to the FBI, and they had no SIM cards.
And look at these headlines. Fox News, October 2016, quote: FBI agreed to destroy laptops of Clinton aides with immunity deal, lawmaker says. Well, why would the FBI ever agreed to destroy evidence? That doesn't make sense.
And according to the same reporting, as part of the plea deal, the FBI wasn't allowed to search emails after the existence of Clinton's server was made public, which means that the FBI wouldn't be able to look at possible obstruction of justice by Clinton and her aides when it so obvious that is what happened.
Then, there's this, October 5 report from The Washington Examiner: Immunity deal stopped FBI from investigating Bleach Bit use in Clinton email case.
Any of you at home ever use Bleach Bit? You ever smash your mobile device? Clinton destroyed evidence and the FBI didn't even want to investigate. And we can't forget, instead of coming clean and admitting what she was doing, Hillary Clinton gave excuse after excuse for using an unsecured email server at a mom and pop shop bathroom closet. Remember, five foreign intelligence agencies got access to all of that.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
HILLARY CLINTON, MARCH 10, 2015: The laws and regulations in effect when I was secretary of state allowed me to use my email for work. That is undisputed.
CLINTON, AUG. 26, 2015: It clearly wasn't the best choice. And I take responsibility for that decision.
CLINTON, MARCH 10, 2015: I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work and for my personal emails instead of two.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, FEB. 24, 2015: IPhone or Android?
(LAUGHTER)
CLINTON: iPhone. OK, and full disclosure --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: BlackBerry.
CLINTON: And a BlackBerry.
I have and iPad, a mini iPad, an iPhone, and a BlackBerry.
ED HENRY, FOX NEWS, AUG. 18, 2015: You were the official in charge. Did you wipe the server?
CLINTON: What, like with a cloth or something? No.
CLINTON, AUG. 14, 2015: By the way, you may have seen that they recently launched a Snapchat account.
I love it. Those messages disappear all by themselves.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HANNITY: Really? You're going to joke about it?
Clinton broke the law. We know she certainly didn't take care of classified, top-secret special access information. She destroyed such and, by the way, and it's pretty simple, the FBI letter off the hook. We'll have more on that in just a second. We have new information.
This destruction of evidence as part of a pattern from the Obama administration. Remember Lois Lerner, IRS targeting conservative scandal? The agency lost the emails of Lois Lerner and the official that was leading the charge, unfairly going after conservatives, the IRS of the emails were lost because of a system crash?
Every time the walls are closing in on the Obama administration officials, key evidence just disappears. And they found it two years later in that case.When it keeps happening, it's not a coincidence. It's actually called obstruction of justice.
And there were also several other wrinkles in the story. Remember Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the IT aide scandal? Well, he had smashed hard drives in his garage. But, of course, the aide's lawyer denied it ever happened.
Also breaking tonight, a newly released text message from Peter Strzok and Lisa Page -- this is where it gets interesting -- appears to show that both of them -- and now tonight, add the attorney general, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch -- knew that Hillary Clinton would not be prosecuted in her email server investigation. Well, what's important is they are saying this before they even interviewed Hillary.
Now, before we show you the message, let's give you a little back story. Remember in May, Comey and Strzok and other top FBI officials, remember, they were drafting the Clinton exoneration of the email server scandal before ever interviewing Hillary and 17 other key witnesses? So, exoneration before investigation, yes, that's called being rigged and the fix was in.
And then you also have former Attorney General Loretta Lynch meeting who? Bill Clinton on the tarmac, talking about grandchildren for 40 minutes at the end of June. Again, they still have not interrogated or asked questions of Hillary Clinton and the key people in this investigation.
Lynch also called Comey, remember, had the meeting with Comey and said to Comey, call it a matter not an investigation, and Comey followed her orders to the letter. And then just days later, when Lynch said that she would step away from the email investigation, she said she would accept the FBI's conclusion.
Well, Strzok texted page on July 1st. Look at this: "Timing looks like hell." Page response: "Yes, that is awful timing" -- talking about the tarmac meeting. "It's a real profile in courage since she," Loretta Lynch, "knows no charges will be brought."
How did she know?
Four days after that, Comey held this press conference, letting Hillary Clinton off the hook. Now, we also have the text message between Strzok and Page, remember talking about the insurance policy, in case, God forbid, Donald Trump became president?
The fix was in. This was rigged. This was an exoneration without an investigation. There is no equal justice under the law here. You've got to Strzok, Page, Lynch all knew that charges would not be recommended against Clinton. That's why they wrote the exoneration early on. And if Lisa Page knew, then that means that her boss, the Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe knew, who we think Strzok and Page were talking to any insurance, quote, text message. Now that would probably mean that Clinton would go free.
Now, we also need to know, you know, what now deputy attorney general, what did Rod Rosenstein know? And when did he know it? He has a lot of questions to start answering.
And if Comey and Lynch, the top two law enforcement officials in the country knew, I gather there's a pretty good chance that someone in the Obama White House also knew the fix was in for Hillary.
The timing is key. If you put the fix in, she gets to stay in the presidential race. If she gets indicted, the Democratic Party is thrown into shambles before an important presidential election. They thought they knew better and they saved Hillary because they thought she would win and they wanted to appoint her the president of the United States.
You think Watergate was a big scandal? This is Watergate on steroids and human growth hormones at levels that would kill the average person.
And to top it all off, there is even more information tonight. Another newly released text message between Strzok and Page, it talks about a change to Comey's Clinton exoneration letter.
Now, the statement originally referenced Clinton emailing President Obama when she was, quote, on the territory of a hostile country. Now, the part mentioning Obama was then altered to say, quote, senior government official, before being removed entirely. So, Obama had to know that Clinton was using a private email server and we have the evidence tonight.
We also have new breaking developments in terms of Republicans' effort to release the classified four-page memo that details these massive FISA abuses against the Trump campaign.
This is becoming the biggest scandal in American history, modern American history. You have members of Congress who have seen it, are saying the contents are shocking, jaw-dropping, alarming, people will go to jail. And Fox News is reporting tonight that releasing the memo to you, the American people, could take up to 19 congressional business days if all the procedures are, quote, followed. That means we don't get to see them, you don't get to see the memo, until at least the middle of March.
Tonight, we are asking that you keep applying pressure. Demand that the public see the memo. Release the memo. You need to see the truth, you need to about this massive abuse of power. They are trampling on our Constitution, they are shredding it. Our Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure, the weaponization of our intelligence community, and how the Clinton bought and paid for phony Russian dossier -- she fixed, remember, she fixed the primary, she had Comey, Strzok, and apparently Loretta Lynch trying to fix her case when she broke the law and then she tried to use the phony dossier to fix the general election, why not after it worked on the primary. And then they use it in an effort to spy on an opposition candidate in an election year and a president-elect and his team.
Call the number at the bottom of the screen. We need to see this memo, 202-224-3121. We'll put it up throughout the evening. Tell your member of Congress, release the memo.
There's a ton of information tonight. Let me sum up what this all means. Clinton fixed the primary against Bernie. Strzok, Comey, and apparently Loretta Lynch exonerated Hillary without ever interviewing her or the key people in that whole email server scandal. The fix was in, it was rigged. Clinton and the DNC tried to influence the general. They bought and paid for Russian lies before an election and the fix was in there. And the Obama administration weaponized the powerful tools of intelligence to target members of the Trump campaign. The fix was in.
Strzok and his mistress, Lisa Page, talked about an insurance policy, and now, key messages are missing. The fix is in.
This is far worse than Watergate. It's a massive abuse of power and you are witnessing one of the biggest scandals in American history with a cover up to boot. Key players, Strzok, Page, Bruce Ohr, Rod Rosenstein need to be fired and investigated. Comey, Loretta Lynch, investigated. And I'm not talking about rank-and-file members of the FBI and Justice Department that do great work on in the intelligence community. I'm talking specifically about abuses committed by their very top officials in the deep state, in the FBI and the Department of Justice.
And if, Robert Mueller, you are watching tonight -- and I'm sure you are and I'm sure your corrupt team of Obama-Hillary Clinton deep state which hunters are watching -- this witch hunt needs to be shut down, since you've clearly stacked the deck against, and started out with a biased investigation against President Trump.
And finally tonight, the government shutdown, it's over. The president just signed a temporary bill and I told you it was no big deal. All the panic by the rest of the media was a waste of your time.
All right. Now, we've got a lot to get to you. Joining us now is investigative reporter and Fox News contributor, we have Sara Carter. Also, Gregg Jarrett, Fox News legal analyst, and Congressman Matt Gaetz.
All right. Let's talk about your -- well, you got a quote today in your article. Tell everybody. It's amazing.
SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Oh, yes. First of all, members of the FBI, like we've said before, Sean, these are good people. These are people who want the truth out. Former senior FBI officials as well as current FBI officials do not believe that this was just a technical glitch.
I can't even use the language that they shared with me when they heard the news come out. Something that they did bring up that I think it's really important to get out to the audience is they said that a lot of these text messages were done on these unsecure Samsung 5, you know, the phone --
HANNITY: The glitch.
CARTER: Yes, the glitch. So, it wasn't just about capturing it in U.S. servers, but they said foreign actors such as Israel even, Germany, Russia, China, and others, tried to capture FBI cell phones all the time. So it may be that a foreign actor actually has the text messages between --
HANNITY: Oh, you mean Vladimir might have it after all?
CARTER: That somebody else may have it after all, and they talked about Flynn being the subject of blackmail. What about them being the subject of blackmail?
HANNITY: I have people -- I don't want to mention their names, they didn't me permission. But they are telling me Samsung phones don't have point-to- point encryption or iMessage.
GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: Right.
HANNITY: And that those text messages are retrievable through the carrier. Now, they may have been gone at some point, but certainly, they would have a time and date stamp, wouldn't they?
JARRETT: If they -- they would do. If the evidence was actually destroyed, it may have been obtained first before it was destroyed by the inspector general, Michael Horowitz. And there is some indication, Ed Henry is reporting, that that is the case. If so, we will invariably get to the bottom of destruction of evidence and obstruction of justice.
HANNITY: Matt Gaetz, congressman, we've got our 18-1/2 minutes of missing tape here, if you will. But this is far worse than Watergate. Explain why you believe so because he went over to see the memo that we deserve to see.
REP. MATT GAETZ, R-FLA., HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Well, absolutely, Sean, thank you so much for the leadership you have provided and encouraging the American people to demand the release of this memo. It is no longer disputable that a pro-Hillary Clinton anti-Donald Trump bias has interactively infected the FBI, and the United States of America is in jeopardy as it a consequence.
And, Sean, you laid out a great timeline but there are even more damaging facts to come. I know that's hard to believe but trust me, around the corner, where you're going to be learning even more about how infected this investigation is, particularly the Mueller probe.
Just look at this -- in August, you had Strzok and page saying they were going to be the insurance policy, they were going to save America from a Trump --
HANNITY: How much worse and how -- you got to bring us into your world here. How --
GAETZ: Well, Sean, I can say this. Wait until you overlay this five months of dark period with the memo that we want to release. These are not isolated incidents that are separated from another. You have to evaluate these things together.
HANNITY: Do you believe they are missing? Because I don't buy it. After Lois Lerner, after Hillary Clinton, bleach bit, acid washed, hammering devices.
GAETZ: Well, this is the coincidence --
HANNITY: I don't buy it. I don't -- Debbie Wasserman Schultz smashed hard drives, this is bull. This is now --
GAETZ: The American people are never going to believe that two days after Barack Obama sick the intelligence community on President Trump, that all of a sudden, these text messages went dark, and they just happened to reappear and come alive the day after Robert Mueller is elected to be the special counsel, it would the coincidence of all coincidences.
HANNITY: It's a lie.
All right. Sara, you tie this together with what Congressman Gaetz was just saying, you see a connection?
CARTER: Oh, absolutely. Congressman Gaetz brings up several really important points. And according to the people that I have spoken with, you know, this went back to 2015. These text messages were supposed to be stored, and they should be stored. The fact that those five months, the most important five months of the investigation, are missing is highly concerning.
And FBI agents, law enforcement, U.S. intelligence officials, say they believe that these text messages will be retrieved.
And, Gregg, you made a very good point. If Horowitz did get those text messages without them knowing, and they withdrew, they went in and somehow tried to clean it up, look, they would have to go to their records management system at the FBI, they would have to have somebody in there help them clean this up.
HANNITY: All right. Let's talk about the legal aspects and what we are looking at here and what does the Loretta Lynch components component say to you?
GARRETT: It says to me the fix was in, as you described it on your monologue, which is obstruction of justice. And if a false document was used to not only launch the Trump-Russian investigation, but to spy on Trump associates, that's a violation of the law, its abuse of power, it's called deprivation of rights under color of law, 22 USC 242, 18 USC.
And people should go to jail, penalty is ten years behind bars and it increasingly looks like this was a widespread, nefarious, and illegal plot to frame Donald Trump and clear Hillary Clinton.
HANNITY: All right. Thank you all for your hard work. You two to deserve Pulitzers and John -- Congressman, we need you guys to fight and release this.
GAETZ: Absolutely.
HANNITY: Release the memo and find the texts. That is our, you know, hashtag tonight.
All right. So much to combat. When we come back, exclusive interview with the president's attorney Jay Sekulow weighs in on this important new information, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. Busy breaking news night. Joining us now with reaction to all the news, from the American Center for Law and Justice chief counsel and the president's attorney, Jay Sekulow.
All right. So, we have the insurance policy memo, with the text messages between Strzok and Page.
JAY SEKULOW, PRESIDENT'S ATTORNEY: Right.
HANNITY: Now we bring in Loretta Lynch. So, we have Strzok, Lynch, Page, Comey, McCabe, all knowing before they ever interviewed Hillary Clinton in the email server investigation, and, of course, we have the exoneration written before the investigation, all-knowing to fix was in and it was rigged for Hillary. Wow.
SEKULOW: Yes, well, let me give you this, though. James Comey's testimony under oath, Congressman Radcliffe asked this question, did you make the decision not to recommend criminal charges relating to classified information before or after Hillary Clinton was interviewed by the FBI on July 2nd? Director Comey after, it's a false statement. That's a felony.
Let's talk about obstruction of justice, a lot of interest and obstruction of justice. Explain to me -- I am listening to these explanations coming out regarding the missing emails. Now, Sean, I was at the lawyer, the American Center for Law and Justice brought the case against the Internal Revenue Service for targeting. And you may remember during that litigation --
HANNITY: Lois Lerner, yes, sir.
SEKULOW: Right. What was gone? Missing emails. We kept pressing and pressing and finally they recover them and then the case was resolved and settled on our client's favor. Companion case damages were also paid, injunction and damages.
So, here's what you have got. The five most important months of this Russia probe, what is missing? Start with this. "BuzzFeed" published the fake Steele dossier on January 11, 2017. Are there any text messages between the two parties here, Page and Strzok? Answer, those are missing.
Strzok interviews Michael Flynn on January 24, 2017, that's when he interviewed General Flynn. Are there text messages between Lisa Page and Strzok then? No, they are missing.
James Comey is fired for his incompetence by the president of the United States on May 9th, 2017. Are there text messages between the parties during that transaction? No.
Special counsel Robert Mueller is appointed on May 17, 2017, at any text messages there? No. But the next day, they start up again.
So, the five months while this case is and it's interesting serious probe, this is the Russia collusion nonsense I'll call it, the missing text messages are just gone. So, what you got is a pattern or practice within these agencies, look, out of law school, I was a government lawyer. I worked for the chief counsel's office of the Internal Revenue Service as a government lawyer.
The idea -- can you imagine going into the IRS and saying, I'm sorry, I lost my receipts and see how that works out in your audit? Not too well. So, here's what you got --
HANNITY: Lois Lerner, missing for two years.
SEKULOW: Yes.
HANNITY: Then you got Hillary Rodham Clinton deleted, bleach bit, acid wash, and then destroying BlackBerrys. Then you've got Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her I.T aid and busted up hard drives in the garage we read. Now the five key months and it just started up again the day after Robert Mueller was appointed.
JAY SEKULOW, PRESIDENT TRUMP' LAWYER: Sean --
HANNITY: All of these people knew she would never get in trouble. They're very clear. There is no ambiguity.
SEKULOW: You know this are two things I need to point out. Number one I said from the beginning it was a phony investigation on the Clinton email thing. Remember also when the department of justice started that investigation, internal investigation of the IRS targeting, I said that was a full investigation also. I stopped my clients from participating, because it was nonsense and the questions are ridiculous. Here is what you got. The five months, critical five months in the Russia probe. All of the sudden the two agents who by the way were on the special council staff after he was appointed, not before. They were all working on this Russian investigation, remember Strzok was the counter intelligence to chief FBI agent. His emails are just gone, his text messages are just gone, vanish and don't exist. Here is the question you have to ask yourself.
If this is this significant what does this mean about the underlying matter that this is involve in? I heard on the Department of Justice today that is going to investigate this, you know Sean here is what I think, they need to bring in a lawyer that is dedicated to one thing only. This is not the first time this has happened by the way. They brought in lawyers, within the agency or brought in lawyers outside of the agency into the agency to find out what is going on here. This is inexplicable. There is no excuse for this. The FBI can't just write this off saying, must of been a technical glitch with Samsung, by the way every time there is a technical glitch we ended up recovering the document. Remember the technical glitch on the Iran negotiation with President Obama and the video was edited and they said it was a technical glitch. We found out in the litigation that we brought against the state department it was intentional edit by the state department to change the dating of when this is going this. It is illegal. Obstruction of evidence. You know, maybe the inspector. I hope what the previous panel said the inspector general has all this information. If not the FBI, Department of Justice better get it. If they can't get it from their existing systems they need to go to Samsung and get it from them. Here is the problem Sean, this is not just individuals they're individuals charged with investigating the Russia probe this. Isn't just random political talk. Explain the five months missing. That is more than 18 minutes. Gone and starts up the next day. The day after the special council point it, it starts back up.
HANNITY: I know for a fact, forensically they can recover just about everything. Where are the phones tonight? Where are the two physical phones tonight?
SEKULOW: Why the agents still --
HANNITY: And Samsung why not get them to help us.
SEKULOW: But why are the agents still employed by the FBI and Department of Justice?
HANNITY: I'm asking that question.
SEKULOW: Right. Why is that? Right. And you know about McCabe --
HANNITY: Listen crimes were committed. Let me go back to the Watergate comparison for a second. 18.5 you know missing gap on the tape. Compare this to Watergate, breaking into for research and a political cover up. What's the difference here in how this big this is?
SEKULOW: Well in Watergate situation, you had inside and outside actors involved in this. Here you have the investigation is by inside actors. This are all Department of Justice, FBI employees that were engaged in this.
HANNITY: Isn't this worst? The abuse of powerful tools of intelligence to impact a Presidential election and keeping a woman in the race that otherwise would had been indicted.
SEKULOW: Sean, don't forget this. The FBI, the Department of Justice number four, Bruce Orr, wife worked for fusion GPS on the fake dossier. So he is still employed as well. You have the whole scenario, the whole situation. I want to see. I challenge my friends on the other networks to give this air time. Cover this.
HANNITY: They will have to.
SEKULOW: Cover this.
HANNITY: They have been so wrong and so corrupt. They can't admit how wrong it is. It's coming.
I have run out of time. Jay Sekulow, you will be back tomorrow night. We will see you then. When we come back President Trump is out with a blistering new ad foiling up at Democrats on illegal immigration. We will play that and Tomi Lahren hits the streets, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. President's Trump reelection campaign released a blistering new ad over the weekend attacking Democrats for being week on border security and illegal immigration. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (BEEP).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is illegal immigrant Louise charged with murdering two police officers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) (BEEP).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's pure evil. President Trump is right. Build the wall, deport criminals. Stop illegal immigration now. Democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants, President Trump will fix our border and keep our families safe.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I am Donald Trump and I approve this message.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: The left is outrage as predicted but Socialist center Bernie Sanders called it unbelievable and outrageous. Here with reactions, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, the author of "The New American Revolution" the New York Times bestseller, RNC spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany is with us. Pam, let's look at this from the legal side. I sat through a border security meeting with Rick Perry. 640,000 some thousand crimes including murder and rape, not all, most not, but crimes against Texans. Do we not care about American citizens? That guy said he wish he killed more. Why does the truth hurt?
PAM BONDI, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF FLORIDA: Sean, it's the truth. I know firsthand as a prosecutor, first hand, I have been to Mexico twice. I have met with a good Attorney General in Mexico. They are trafficking human beings across that border. Young women being raped 40 to 50 times a day across the border. That is security needed and that is why we need a wall. I have seen firsthand the drugs flowing across the Mexican border into our country killing our citizens. That is why we need border security. Our security is in adequate. You have been to the wall many times on where the wall should be. You have been to the border many times. We need a wall to protect our country.
HANNITY: It works. I have been there 12 times. I have been in the drug warehouses, floor to ceiling drugs being brought into our kids.
Kayleigh, I know they're talking about a deal. I'm not for Washington deals. Any deal that does not completely fund the wall nobody should touch. Any deal that doesn't end chain migration should never be touched. Any deal not allowing merit based immigration should never be touch in my view.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE SPOKESPERSON: Absolutely. President Trump has been unmistakable that those pillars must be in this. The wall must be fully funded. Chuck Schumer has the audacity to say that he offered full funding of the wall. Not true. He didn't offer him that at all. That he offered him a small portion this. We need the wall, Sean. I have seen firsthand. I have sat with a mother who cried her eyes out at the loss of her son Dominic. That illegal immigrant crossed the border twice. Kate Steinle would be here today if that wall is here. Illegal immigrant that killed her.
HANNITY: I interviewed these moms. They lost their kids.
MCENANY: Yes.
HANNITY: And Kate Steinle is just one case and point. That is the point, Pam.
BONDI: Sean, this isn't, this isn't a partisan issue. This is a safety and security of our country and our children? The drug crisis in the country. The human trafficking crisis that we are facing. The President and I have talked about this many times this. Is a security issue protecting Americans?
HANNITY: Kayleigh, I guess this gets to the heart of this, I think a lot of week Republicans and rhinos like Lindsey Graham. Take on Stephen Miller. He is advocating the President's promises on the campaign trail. One of the hallmarks of this presidency, he keeps his word. He was very clear about a wall, chain migration, recent events ought to make everybody aware of the dangers here. Lindsey Graham attacking really the President through Stephen Miller is another cheap shot. He made a backdoor deal and private conversations with Schumer and Durbin.
MCENANY: Right. When you are leveling those attacks against people like Stephen Miller and Tom Cotton, you are attacking the people's agenda. This is what the American people voted on. They voted on a wall. Not a lawless Democratic policy that aid and a vetted illegal immigrants crossing our border. Some of whom were perpetrators of the killing of Kate Steinle and (inaudible). Judicial thought that enabled guys like Kate Steinle killers to get acquitted. Liberal Democratic policies is what our Party needs to target and nothing outside of that.
HANNITY: Pam let me go to our top story tonight and now we have the five missing months of text messages between Strzok and Lisa Page. We also have now implicated in this. We know that Comey, Strzok, and Page, believe in McCabe, all knew the fix was in, now Loretta Lynch is implicated. Let's use Watergate comparison. How big is this?
BONDI: This is much, much bigger than Watergate. This is our country. We say this, these people are currently still employed with the justice system. Three of the worst players. What did they do with one? Moved him to H.R., really. The other they're letting retire early so our tax dollars can pay his retirement.
HANNITY: Investigate him.
BONDI: Exactly. This is when the Justice Department needs to come in, they need to investigate them. These people don't deserve retirement. They must be investigated. They can't not, the security clearance should of been revoked months ago, Sean, when this came out.
HANNITY: All right. Thank you for being with us tonight. I have said many times back in 2007 and 2008 journalism is dead. This is the biggest story in all of -- every single journalist and every publication and every channel's career. They missed it. They went with a lying narrative that they couldn't prove. Tomi Lahren hits the streets of West Hollywood next. Straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Alright. This weekend. Boy how time flies. To mark President Trump first year in office or to commemorate the occasion, we sent Tomi Lahren to one of the most liberal places in America, West Hollywood, California. To pass out red, "make America great again" hats and figure out, what the good people of California really think about our commander in chief. I told you we would do this. Here we go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOMI LAHREN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: All right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is what I'm talking about.
LAHREN: Yes.
We're coming upon the one year of anniversary of President Trump's inauguration. I am here to try and figure out what Californians think about his first year.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think everybody is pretty convinced that it's a failure.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He has done an amazing job. He did more than Obama did in eight years.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't like his vibe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What does the hat say?
LAHREN: Make American great again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How about this (BEEP) his wall. I will take it down if I can.
LAHREN: We are out here, asking folks in West Hollywood how they feel about President Trump's first year. How would you describe it in one word or one sentence?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it is really great. I kind of back him up. Some of what he says. Not on twitter. I don't necessarily agree with that all the time.
LAHREN: You read his tweets.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes I do.
LAHREN: You feel it's funny.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's funny, because he is saying whatever on his mind, but he is doing too much. As a President he needs to relax a little bit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump is unpredictable. You don't know what he will say the next day. He could say something tomorrow that blows everything up.
LAHREN: What do you think of his first year in office?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will pass on speaking on that.
LAHREN: What do you think about his first year?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stellar. Stellar.
LAHREN: I am bringing gifts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want that.
LAHREN: Why not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want it.
LAHREN: You don't want a hat. Ok. Are you sure? It's official. A collector's item.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (BEEP) Trump and his policies.
LAHREN: If you described President Trump's first year in one word or one sentence what would it be?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Defective.
LAHREN: I love it.
We're asking people in West Hollywood how they feel about President Trump's first year. How do you feel about it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It has been rough for everybody. I think that we should come together as a country and support who we have in office no matter what.
LAHREN: What do you think of the first year?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the first year is absolutely phenomenal. I think three more will be over the top.
LAHREN: What about the tax cut for 80 percent of Americans?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What.
LAHREN: Tax cuts for 80 percent of Americans.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't pay taxes (BEEP) you all.
(BEEP).
LAHREN: Thank you for your opinion. Great speech.
Did you want a hat, sir?
(END VIDEO)
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: The voice of the generation. What is that guy? Antifa? Tomi Lahren joins us, was he.
LAHREN: I don't know, but he wasn't stable.
HANNITY: What? He wasn't stable.
LAHREN: He wasn't stable. I don't know if he was an official Antifa member, but he is not stable. He had strong opinions he shared with me. He didn't want a hat sadly. Maybe next time we go back we can find him again. I think he regrets the decision. Great hats.
HANNITY: I give you a lot of credit. Go out, right in the middle --
Here is the interesting part to me this. This is West Hollywood. Pretty liberal California we're talking about. A lot of people like the President. They were like, yes. I like this guy. I like the honesty. He did more in one year than Obama did in eight years. I didn't expect that.
LAHREN: I was shocked, shocked. I have been there a few times as you know. Actually asking folks how they felt about it. They weren't just typical people that the left would say are Trump supporters. The diversity was astounding. That is the best kept secret in Los Angeles, California. The conservatives there are and diverse Trump supporters are, Republicans are. That is what the left don't want you to know how diverse we are. I love it.
HANNITY: I keep saying, I don't know if you agree with me. Trump polls. There are a certain group of people who won't admit. They like Trump. They like his outspokenness and his iconic class. They like the economy and results. All of the noise isn't going to matter at the end of the day if people get jobs and they're back at work and off of food stamps and back in the labor force and not in poverty.
LAHREN: Even the ones that said he did a horrible job when I stood there a little bit longer and discussed it with them they couldn't give me an example of his horrible job. They again point to his tweets and his tweets hurting their feelings. When I brought out some of the examples like last week about the incredible improvements the President is making to this country for all Americans. They seem to agree with me. They had to bring back the feelings they didn't like him. He tweets.
HANNITY: This guy with the -- are we sending enough security out with you. You're ok?
LAHREN: The security is excellent. They actually doing a very good job. The nice thing about it, we were able to calm him down enough to have him explain himself. You can see his language was colorful. At the end of the day, I think maybe we reformed him a little bit. I think he walked away pretty excited about Fox News.
HANNITY: Alright. Really excited. Great work. Tomi Lahren, we will see you later in a week. Thank you as always for doing that for us. We appreciate it. When we come back, this is a painful video of the day. Painful in the "Hannity" hotline straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Time for video of the day. The super bowl, what a comeback with New England down. Ten with 9 minutes to go. I know you got to admit, Tom Brady's got it. Here are some of the celebrations after Philly won against Minnesota. One Eagles fan took it really hard, aching his own 100-yard dash on a train platform ouch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SCREAMING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Painful. Ouch. Time for our "Hannity" hotline. Thank so much for calling in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hannity, quit playing those (BEEP) bad stuff about you. Start saying things that good people say about you and the good things that we are talking about. They need to get someone in the 9:00 slot.
HANNITY: Wow, I got one good one and for once. I feel pretty good about myself. If you have anything to say, mean or nice, doesn't matter. 877-225-8587 unfortunately, that is all the time we have left this evening. We are staying on this. We are not the destroyed Trump media. We have been right, they had been wrong, set your DVR. Let not your heart be troubled the news continues.
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