Tom Fitton and Sebastian Gorka on the real Russian collusion

On 'Hannity,' Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, and Fox News national security strategist Sebastian Gorka discuss the Mueller indictments and the potential legal ramifications for Hillary Clinton.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," February 20, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Welcome to HANNITY. This is a Fox News alert.

Breaking new developments tonight into the real Russian intrusion into the
2016 election, the House Intelligence Committee chair Devin Nunes, he is demanding answers tonight to find out what President Obama and his cohorts knew and when they found out about the Clinton bought and paid for dossier filled with Russian and Russian government lies.

Now, Sara Carter reporting tonight that the chairman, Chairman Nunes, has sent a list of questions to senior Obama administration officials about Hillary's dirty Russian dossier and also new at this hour, the special counsel Robert Mueller, he has unsealed yet another criminal charge, albeit small against a lawyer for lying to the FBI. And the document also mentions that the lawyer deleted emails. Wow, does this now set a legal standard?

Maybe Hillary Clinton will be investigated the right way with no fix. Anyway, we also have more damning information about special counsel Mueller's corrupt top investigator Andrew Weissmann, his so-called pit bull. That more in our breaking news opening monologue.

HANNITY: All right. Brand new information this hour from Sara Carter who will join us in a minute. She's reporting that the House Intel Committee Chair Devin Nunes is now asking former top Obama administration officials for answers about how much the former president knew about the Clinton bought and paid for dossier and when he found out about it.

This is the dossier that was filled with Russian government lies. Of course, Clinton used it to try and influence and manipulate the minds of the American people. This is the one the FBI relied heavily on to get that FISA warrant to spy on the Trump campaign associate Carter Page during an election year. Sara Carter's reporting that Congressman Nunes, he sent letters to many unnamed former senior Obama officials in an attempt to find out the extent of their knowledge about the phony dossier.

We have been saying on this program for months now that we want to know what former Obama officials like John Brennan, James Clapper, Susan Rice, the new queen of unmasking, Samantha Power, and Ben Rhodes and President Obama, what they knew, when they knew it.

And Sara Carter has also obtained a list of questions that the chairman, Chairman Nunes, wants answers to. Here are the most pertinent ones. We'll put them on the screen.

When and how did you first become aware of any of the information contained in the Steele dossier? Congressional investigations have uncovered that the Obama FBI, DOJ and even the State Department of Obama all either were given the dossier or were told about what was in the dossier so the number of people potentially involved is vast and it is widespread.

The next question, who did you share this information with when and in what form? Please describe each and every instance.

And remember, before President Obama left office, remember he amended that executive order 12333, that made it easier to share information across 17 government intelligence agencies by the way he never worked under this executive order.

The next question, when did you first learn or come to believe that the steel dossier was funded by the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign. Hillary and the DNC, of course, Donna Brazile told us she was controlling the money at the DNC, they paid over, what, $12 million for these Russian lies, government lies, propaganda, to propagandize the American people influence the election another question asking when did you first become aware that the Steele dossier was used to obtain a FISA order on Carter Page.

We now know from two Republican memos that the dossier to spy on Carter Page, Trump associate was first granted in October of 2016, before the election. It was renewed three times afterwards and yet people like James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Sally Yates, Rod Rosenstein, oh and we can't forget Lisa Page and her mistress -- and her boyfriend. And then, of course, Dana Boente.

We also know that that McCabe testified without the dossier that application for that FISA warrant never would have been approved. And speaking of the application, remember, in the Grassley-Graham memo, the bulk of that FISA warrant application relied on the garbage this dossier had in it that Fusion GPS and the FBI never verified.

That's even more troubling because under oath, remember James Comey, he said it was salacious. He said it was on verified and he also briefed then President-elect Trump about the fake news dossier and that was in January 2017, and he said the same thing to Donald Trump. He said it was unverified and salacious. But months earlier, in October, Comey had no problem using it to get the FISA warrant to surveil Carter Page.

On to the next question, this is a very important. Was President Obama briefed on any information contained in the dossier prior to January 5th, 2017?

We know about January 5th and that meeting because the former national security adviser, remember, Susan Rice, she's the one that sent her email to herself on President Trump's inauguration day, and on the way out of the White House, Rice is describing a meeting from January 5th, 15 days prior when she and then Vice President Joe Biden, James Comey, the Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, herself and the president were all in this meeting.

She stressed, oh, Barack Obama wanted everything with the Russian investigation to be done by the book. He wanted it by the book. He did not instigate this investigation. He wanted it by the book. It sounds like a CYA.

Why would Rice send an email on her way out of the White House? Sounds like she's trying to cover herself and President Obama. Her attorney, of course, is saying that the email was not unusual at all.
Really? You believe that

Nunes is also asking those Obama officials if they had any contact with members of the media about this dossier and we learned that the former British spy Christopher Steele, he was briefing outlets like 'The New York Times,' 'The Washington Post', Yahoo News, fake news CNN, all about the dossier, all before the election. And Nunes is now giving these officials until March the 2nd to reply.

By the way, we did reach out to former President Obama for comment. Shockingly, they never got back to us. So, in addition to finding out what Obama knew when he knew it, when it comes to the dossier, we're now asking the same questions about the Russian election interference.

The Mueller indictment clearly lays out that this Russian interference campaign started in 2014. Donald Trump wasn't running, and we now know despite warnings back in 2014 from people like Congressman Devin Nunes, President Obama did nothing. We're calling it a dereliction of duty especially when you consider what Obama said just a couple of weeks before the election lecturing Donald Trump to stop whining. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT: I have never seen in my lifetime or in modern political history any presidential candidate trying to discredit the elections and the election process before votes have even taken place.
It's unprecedented. It happens to be based on no facts. There is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even -- you could even rig America's elections. There's no evidence that that has happened in the past or that there are instances in which that will happen this time. And so, I'd advise Mr. Trump to stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: How about you stop whining! No serious president would have ignored the warnings in they would have known that Russia was a hostile nation with a hostile actor named Vladimir Putin. Remember, remember tell Vladimir that I'll have more flexibility after the election.

It's time for President Obama -- you got to start telling the American people what you knew when you knew it on the dossier and especially we want to find out what the former president knew. When did he know that Hillary Clinton and the DNC paid for these Russian lies, and did he know that the dossier was used to spy on a member of the Trump campaign in an election year?

And, by the way, on the issue of election interference, why didn't Obama act? Was it because he thought Hillary Clinton was going to win and he didn't care, why be bothered?

Anyway, the president has been slamming Obama on Twitter -- President Trump that is -- for his response to not responding to the Russian election interference. Here's the president, President Trump's recent tweet on this topic. 'I have been much tougher on Russia than Obama just looked at all the facts, total fake news.'

And White House press secretary Sarah Sanders schools the media today on how President Trump has been much tougher on Russia than Obama.

Liberal media, I know you don't do any work. You may want to play pay close attention, maybe learn something. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If Russia or anybody else is trying to interfere with our elections, I think it's a horrible thing and I want to get to the bottom of it and I want to make sure it will never ever happen.

Now, the thing I have to mention is that Barack Obama when he was president found out about this. He was told in early August by presumably the CIA that Russia was trying to get involved or meddling pretty strongly with the election. He did nothing about it. The reason is he thought Hillary was going to win.

And also, we can't let anybody play around with our voters and our voter system. But I have to tell you this, it's so important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: We're going to have more examples of how Obama failed over and over again when it comes to Russia. We'll have that later in the show.

This includes, of course, Uranium One. That includes allowing Vladimir Putin to wrestle control of 20 percent of our uranium when it's in short supply. Why would any administration let a hostile foreign actor ever do that to this country?

And we've also been telling you about how it all started in 2009. You have Putin-led Russian operatives right here in American soil. They begin operating themselves. They wanted a foothold in America's uranium market, remember, we've been telling you about this FBI informant Douglas Campbell.
Well, he was there the entire time, documenting, uncovering everything, bribery, extortion, kickbacks, money laundering and they did nothing. How is that possible?

Also tonight, the special counsel Robert Mueller announces a new plea deal with a lawyer tied to Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. The lawyer accepted this plea deal for lying, quote, to the FBI again. Oh no collusion and included the legal documents and it's some very interesting information, by the way, and Mueller outlines how the lawyer deleted oh that sounds familiar and didn't hand over emails that have been requested by the special counsel. Wow.

Is Robert Mueller now setting a legal standard? Is he setting a precedent can we now go back and get Hillary Clinton? She deleted, she acid-washed, she bleached bit and she beat the crap out of devices with a hammer.

Mueller thinks that what this lawyer did was wrong and illegal, then maybe he should take a cold hard look at the 33,000 emails that were subpoenaed that she erased, then acid washed, then BleachBit and that had her aides beat up with a hammer. I think that's a good start.

And, by the way, her team gave the FBI cell phones, we've got to give them credit. Oh, the only problem is they any SIM cards in them which basically rendered them useless. So, if Mueller does care even a little bit about the equal application under the law, equal justice under the law, well, he'd be investigating Hillary Clinton for destroying evidence at an FBI investigation, and that could be just the start of Clinton's legal troubles.

We told you last night about an article written by a lawyer Robert Barnes for the Website 'Law & Crime'. Here's the headline: does Mueller's indictment when you read it mean Clinton's campaign can be indicted herself for Christopher Steele. This is a fascinating article because Barnes is pointing out that since Robert Mueller indicted Russian trolls in part for failing to register as foreign agents and for not reporting their activities to the FEC, well, not in the indictment, it is in the overall text if you actually read the indictment.

Well, does that create a legal standard from Mueller to go after Christopher Steele, Fusion GPS, the law firm Perkins Coie, the DNC, and Hillary Clinton herself?

Here's the legal reason why: Steele, he's also a foreign citizen. He was paid by Fusion GPS. We haven't seen that Steele ever registered as a foreign agent or that Steele reported to the Federal Election Commission what he was being paid. So, if we're going to go off this precedent set by the Russia indictment, all the conditions are there in this case, Robert Mueller should be investigating Steele, Clinton, Fusion GPS, Perkins Coie, the DNC, and Hillary Clinton. Isn't about fairness and equal application of the law?

If Mueller's going after Russian trolls, then maybe he'd be OK with prosecuting Steele and the people paying him to create a phony dossier full of Russian lies that they tried to use to lie to the American people.

Rush Limbaugh had an amazing point on his radio show yesterday about why Mueller only indicted the Russians for certain crimes. He nails it.
This is brilliant. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: The things these Russians were charged with in the Mueller indictment are wire fraud, defrauding the United States, mail fraud. These charges that the Russians were hit with in this indictment have nothing to do with the avowed purpose of the special counsel investigation, literally nothing to do with it. And if these Russians were charged the way everybody thought charges were going to happen, then they could charge Hillary and they could charge Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS. But they can't be charged just because the Russians have been, because the charges are different.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: That's why they didn't go after the FEC issues. That's why they didn't go after the FERC issue. What Rush is saying here is brilliant it's that Mueller may have been shielding Hillary Clinton by limiting the charges announced against the Russian trolls because all of that could have been applied to Fusion GPS, Hillary Clinton, the campaign, Perkins Coie and the rest of them. Brilliant point.

So, Mueller again, Hillary Clinton how does she get everybody to protect her? She's -- it's always rigged in her case.

Finally, tonight, we have more damning information about Mueller's top partisan attack dog Andrew Weissmann. Take a look at the headline, 'LA Times' is getting on board, finally doing some reporting in the media. 'Mueller deputy Andrew Weissmann has a reputation for hard charging tactics and sometimes going too far. ' Then, 'LA Times' details how Weissmann has very close ties to the special counsel Robert Mueller which includes serving as his FBI general counsel for two years, maybe this will explain why Mueller decided to tap Weissmann as his lead prosecutor even though Weissmann has the most atrocious record of any lawyer that I've ever seen in my life. We've told you how he's biased, a political partisan hack how he's donated thousand to the Democrats, including Obama.

And aside from Weissmann's clear and obvious political bias, what about his track record as a prosecutor? Sara Carter last Friday broke the story about how in a 1997 case Weissmann was officially reprimanded by a judge for withholding exculpatory evidence, not the first time. In the end, Weissmann got bailed out by his powerful friend and his name was retroactively removed from the complaint. That's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Weissmann.

And as part of the Enron scandal, remember Weismann's aggressive tactics. It caused the accounting firm Andersen Accounting to go out of business. It costs tens of thousands of jobs, people lost their jobs. Weissmann secured a very controversial obstruction of justice conviction against Andersen that was overturned by the Supreme Court unanimous 9-0.

He put four Merrill executives in jail for a year those convictions also overturned by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. And the 'LA Times' is reporting as part of the Enron prosecution, Weissmann named people as unindicted co-conspirators. Why is that important? Because defense lawyers argued that by threatening these 114 people with prosecution, Weismann was able to block testimony that could have helped their clients.

So, in other words, Weissmann was once again basically withholding exculpatory evidence. It's hard to even fathom how anybody is corrupt and crooked as Weissmann could ever be considered to be part of Mueller's special counsel team. He has so many red flags, yet Mueller took him on. He is his pit bull and that alone ought to basically raised questions about Mueller's judgment. But and then again, most of Mueller's team is filled with Democratic donors, so maybe that's what Mueller was going for all along.

Here with reaction tonight, FOX News contributor Sara Carter, civil rights criminal defense attorney David Schoen, FOX News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett.

Mr. Schoen, let's start with you. You know Robert Mueller well. Did he pick Andrew Weissmann by accident? Did he not know about this atrocious record and background?

DAVID SCHOEN, CIVIL RIGHTS AND CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Absolutely, he knew everything about Mr. Weissmann. In fact, if you would read 2011 "The Boston Globe" article, you'd see a remarkable similarity between Mr.
Mueller's conduct as assistant U.S. attorney and acting us attorney in Boston with respect to a corrupt relationship between an FBI agent now in prison and Whitey Bulger, remarkable similarity to Weissmann's conduct in the eastern district of New York with a corrupt relationship between FBI agent DeVecchio later charged with several murders and Gregory Scarpa, the underboss of the Colombo family.

Look, Mr. Hannity you know you're the first person who takes the side of law and order in most cases. So, I hope the viewers recognize that for you to be speaking out and demanding an examination of tactics of a prosecutor is remarkable and extraordinary and very important, and that it can -- what you've done is exposed the problems with the tactics being used here.
Everyone how ought to have a great interest in full transparency in this process.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Mr. Schoen, I want to tell you something. My mother was a prison guard, my dad worked in family court probation. I had more relatives cops and in the FBI. No greater respect.

Those that accused me, I also believe in our Constitution. I believe in the rule of law. I believe that everyone's innocent until proven guilty.

I appreciate your kind words.

Gregg, let's talk about crimes. You look at three particular people here.

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: There are three villains --

HANNITY: Three villains.

JARRETT: -- in the great Russian hoax. Hillary Clinton, Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele.

Clinton wanted opposition research. Instead of going to an opposition research firm, she went to a smear firm Fusion GPS. She hired Glenn Simpson.

People testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee this last summer that it happened to them, that Fusion GPS phonied up a dossier to smear them and that's what they did through Christopher Steele, an ex-British spy, who conjured out of thin air what is on its face a preposterous dossier.

HANNITY: So, Simpson Steele and Hillary potential legal jeopardy.

JARRETT: Absolutely.

HANNITY: More than potentially.

JARRETT: All three of them for violating campaign laws, a Foreign Registration Act and a myriad of other potential crimes as well.

HANNITY: All right. Sara, let's go to your breaking news tonight.

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Sean, just right -- going right from what Gregg said, it's not just those three. Remember, it expanded to the State Department and this is what Devin Nunes is probably looking at as well, which is the reason why he sent these letters to senior Obama administration officials, which he did not name but it's expansive.

They're looking at people within the State Department, that second dossier.
Remember Sidney Blumenthal, a very close friend of Hillary Clinton is now implicated in this. Cody Shearer who worked with her husband Bill Clinton.

So, this is not just Fusion GPS. GPS is bad enough that we're looking at Christopher Steele, a foreign ex-agent, British spy, working with the Russians. But we're also looking at information being fed through the State Department, through allies of Clinton back to Christopher Steele, which was then placed in the dossier. That's very important.

HANNITY: All right. Let me -- Mr. Schoen, let me go to you. What do we do now that we have a special prosecutor that seemingly has exceeded his authority that has put a team of abusively politically and biased people on this team? What do you do? He seems to have unlimited power in this case to do whatever the hell he feels.

SCHOEN: Right now. It may be that the most effective thing we do is exactly what you're doing, the media may be the most important element in all of this because again, transparency.

HANNITY: Good luck, we're not the media. We're different.

SCHOEN: But listen, Mr. Hannity, the model that people like Weissmann and specifically Weissmann used in the cases in the eastern district against Mr. Sesa (ph), Mr. Urena (ph), organized crime cases was using people as informants who are most unsavory people who would sell their souls for freedom and who were then coached, we now know recently got a letter from one of the informants at Weissmann used they were coached in their testimony told what to say.

HANNITY: Unbelievable.

SCHOEN: These are the kinds of tactics that were going to see in this thing. They pick on the most vulnerable. They threaten a family member with prosecution.

HANNITY: Yes, Gregg, you've said this about Weissmann.

JARRETT: Oh, absolutely. He should be nowhere near a courtroom much less the special counsel team.

Let me make one other point. Andrew McCabe behind closed doors but it's now been leaked to the media admitted that there wasn't a single thing in that dossier that the FBI could prove except the Carter Page had flown to Moscow to give a speech which is not a crime.

HANNITY: That's it.

JARRETT: That's it, and yet they used it.

HANNITY: It was the bulk of information according to the Grassley-Graham memo.

JARRETT: They used it to spy on the Trump campaign and to launch the investigation.

HANNITY: To all of you, thank you for your good work. We're not giving up on this. We're going to stay all over it. Tom Fitton, Sebastian Gorka and more. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Here with reaction to tonight's news opening monologue, Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton and former deputy assistant to the president, FOX News national security strategist, Sebastian Gorka.

Dr. Gorka, there's so much to unravel here on so many different levels and what we're really beginning to see is that more and more there's evidence that this goes back to the Obama administration. And even the president knew. The Susan Rice memo to self is very revealing to me.

DR. SEBASTIAN GORKA, FOX NEWS NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGIST: Yes, absolutely. I mean, it's so transparent. It simply talks to, you know, the ability or the inability to be subtle about a cover-up when you're no longer than national security advisor.

Let me just make one comment. I was listening to your monologue and something occurred to me listening to the last segment. Robert Mueller was empowered to do what? To investigate whether there was collusion, whatever that is, between the Trump campaign and Russia. The Rod Rosenstein press conference last week started with what statements, Sean. There is no evidence that despite what Russia did, there was any effect on the election. That's how he started.

So, what are we talking about? Why are we spending millions of dollars? The Kremlin are bad guys. Vladimir Putin, the former KGB officer, I get it.

But if you start with the assertion nothing happened that changed the election, then why don't you dissolve the whole office of the special counsel?

HANNITY: That should have happened a long time ago and he should never have been allowed to put this abusively by his team together.

Tom, let me read you something. This is from the DOJ's announcement from last Friday when they actually went out and said -- when they said the indictment includes eight criminal counts and criminal conspiracy, defraud the U.S. The defendants allegedly conspired to defraud the U.S. by impairing the lawful functions of the FEC, the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of State in administrating federal requirements of disclosure for foreign involvement certain domestic activities.

I want to ask this in relation to Russia's point, which I thought was brilliant, which was wait a minute, if they would have done it in this particular case, that means Hillary, that means Fusion, that means Christopher Steele, that means everyone else would have the same standards would have applied. So, while they talk broadly about it in the indictment and they mention it in their press release, that's not what they were charged with.

Do you see that that was done purposely?

TOM FITTON, JUDICIAL WATCH PRESIDENT: Yes, I think it was a fundamentally dishonest document designed to distract from the fact that the Russia collusion allegations against Donald Trump are collapsing and the reason for being of the Mueller investigation is disappearing. And you have in many ways the Obama administration reacted appropriately to what the Russians were doing as alleged in this indictment, because they were having an in material impact on our public policy process. They should've been told to stop messing around, which apparently they were. But they were not spending a lot of money and having zero impact. But on the other hand they were also messing around significantly by trying to destroy Donald Trump through this dossier leaking through Russian intelligence services to the Clinton campaign that wandered into the Obama, DOJ, and FBI. And rather than respond appropriately and protect Mr. Trump from the smear effort by the Russians they use it as a pretext to target and spy on him and his team. That is the scandal in the fundamentals of the scandal how to change with the press release/indictment on Friday that is going to go nowhere.

HANNITY: That was a political document, that indictment, because they know that they are not going to arrest any of the people, but your point is well taken, that there is Russian interference, there was and Hillary Clinton's campaign and the DNC brought to the Russians in, Dr. Gorka, they paid the Russians to be involved in this, short of the trolls, apart from the trolls and why wanted the Russians think that they could get away with it? After all, Vladimir Putin put his operatives in America and got our 20 percent of our uranium, why would they think anything else?

SEBASTIAN GORKA, FOX NEWS NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGIST: There are categories from the cold war, the useful idiot category, Michael Moore was a useful idiots when he shows up at that demonstration against Donald Trump that is organized by the Russians, but we are not talking about useful idiots when it comes to the FISA courts surveillance and the Steele dossier. Let's use a phrase from the military, Hillary Clinton, her lawyers and the DNC were forced multipliers for Russian propaganda that attacked a Presidential candidate during an election. They were not unwitting, they actually paid for it. More than $12 million of Russian propaganda paid for and funneled into an illegal surveillance warrant against the U.S. Citizen.

HANNITY: I have to roll, you guys have been doing amazing work. Keep up the good work. We need your voice every night, I wish that there was the one big moment that you cross the finish line, this is going to unfold day by day, night after night and we will have all of the latest information, and we had made a lot of progress in the year. When we come back, we will hold President Obama accountable for all of its failures as it relates to Russia, something that the mainstream media says they care about Russia, full of crap, we will explain straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is no serious person out there that would suggest that somehow that you could even rig America's elections. If there is no evidence that that has happened in the past or that there are instances where that will happen this time. I would advise Mr. Trump to stop whining and go and try to make his case to get votes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: No serious President would've allowed Vladimir Putin and Russia to get 20 percent of our uranium. Great job, President Obama. Lecturing President Trump to stop whining about election meddling. Why did not do you do something? By the way President Trump now slamming Obama for his tepid response to Russia's bizarre behavior, tweeting 'I've been much tougher on Russia than Obama, just look at the facts, total fake news.' The President is right, the Obama administration constantly sucked up to the Vladimir Putin regime giving them a pass including this cringe worthy moment featuring the now infamous Russian reset that never worked. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I wanted to present you with a little gift which represents what President Obama and Vice President Biden and I have been saying, that we want to reset our relationship. So we will do it together.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much.

CLINTON: You are very welcome. We worked hard to get to the right Russian word, did we get it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got it wrong. This says that we share.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: We will just give you 20 percent of our uranium and hope that you like us. Remember that President Obama promised to be flexible with the kremlin following the reelection, he said Vladimir, tell Vladimir more flexibility. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Transmit to Vladimir, great job, joining us with reaction National Syndicated Radio host Larry Elder, Fox News correspondent at large, somebody apparently that is hanging Larry with the President at Mar- a-Lago and we did not get an invitation, what is up with that Geraldo?

GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS ROAMING CORRESPONDENT: I never sold the president at stake. I'm sorry.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: All right. You get the point that I am making here.

RIVERA: Yes, I think that if anything that shock, Sean is that it has taken this long to get to the incontrovertible fact that President Obama has consistently poo pooed the impact of Russia in American internal affairs election and so forth. In 2012 the pivotal moment in his debate with Governor Mitt Romney was after Mitt Romney said Russia is the biggest geopolitical prophase, President Obama said you can never forget this, the cold war is going and once its foreign policy back. President Trump has been tough on Russia through the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and through the United States, United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley. It is true that the President Trump would like a more civilized relationship with Vladimir Putin. But to suggest that the President is somehow colluding with the Russians, I mean, give it a rest. There is a year and a half of the most intensive investigation probably in history. Certainly in the last half-century. It has turned up absolutely nothing. The President thought that the indictment of the 13 Russians which stated very specifically the indictment that any American involvement was unwitting would be President Trump's victory lap. And yet the media consistently and constantly hangs on like a bulldog with an empty bone.

HANNITY: Never happening. The Russians were brought in and paid for by Hillary. Just like -- who is going to give away uranium? We do not have enough uranium, Larry.

LARRY ELDER, SALEM RADIO NATIONAL SYSNDICATE HOST: Sean, the reason that President Obama did not take more action even though he was aware of the Russian interfering is because he assumed it would not have any effect. He did not believe that the Russians could materially affect to the outcome of the election, and he was right. He further believed that to the degree that Donald Trump was being held by the Russians they would not help Donald Trump win the election and he is right about that too. Trump won the election but it had nothing to do with the Russian interference. That was said by the Russian 13 indictment. What President Obama assumed is that it did not matter what happened, Trump was going to lose, and most of the country felt that way, and he told Trump to stop whining and win the election, how is it any different than Laura Ingraham saying to basketball players shut up and dribble?

HANNITY: Geraldo? Why are you causing a problem on the program, Larry? Are you going to drag me now into this whole thing?

RIVERA: I'm not going to refer to anything. All I say to that, Larry is go Cavs!

HANNITY: I cannot have either one of you on the show anymore. You guys are done, you are both troublemakers. The whole bunch of you. Go ahead.

RIVERA: Tom Friedman is a columnist and a legendary columnist whose politics frequently reflect my own. A middle-of-the-road person, but he went off the rails in the last couple of days with a column of his that went viral, because of the anti-Trump rapid audience that suggested that maybe Trump is not attacking Vladimir Putin personally or imposing the sanctions right now, because he has so much to hide or he fear so much that he is so deeply into this collusion conspiracy that he is shaking in his boots. It is the most preposterous notion based on no fact and so Tom Friedman becomes a collusionista it is very sad and I think systematic, symbolic of what the left is trying to do.

HANNITY: Last word, Larry.

ELDER: Sean, in addition to everything that we talked about the Russian reset, the Czech Republic under the bus and about to the hot Mike saying, I will have more flexibility down the election. We need to talk about the fact that Obama took absolutely no action whatsoever one more time, because he just knew that it would not have any effect on the election and to the extent that the Russians are trying to help term, they could not get over the finish line because he knew that he was never going to be the president and he was wrong about that, but he is right about the lack of effect of the Russian interference on Trump's election.

HANNITY: All right guys. Love you both. Thank you for being with us. You are responsible for your own trouble, Jesse Watters, Jessica Tarlov next. Straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. In the Mueller indictment of the 13 Russian nationals, it says that honor about the November 12 2016 the Russian trolls organized pro-Trump and anti-Trump rallies in the same day in New York City, deciding to take a look how fake news, the poll network CNN and MSNBC, the conspiracy network covered up the anti-Trump protest in New York City that day coming here is how they covered this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN RADFORD, MSNBC: People have said what is the point, do you have all of these different groups coming together. But the point is that they know they cannot change the results of the election, but what they say is that they want to come together and show America that love is love.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN: There are just a number of messages being spread here. This group, I can tell you collectively what everyone has been agreeing on is how big of a protest this is.

RADFORD, MSNBC: The crowds have not slowed down, following since12:30 this afternoon from Union Square. People out here are chanting and banging the drum, they do not want Donald Trump to be their next President.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: We have not been able to independently confirm that to that rally was literally set up by the Russian trolls, but it's kind of it's funny that the mainstream media was playing right into Vladimir Putin's hands apparently, according to the Media Research Center. The President tweeted tonight 'bad ratings CNN, MSNBC got scammed when they covered the anti- Trump Russian rally, wall-to-wall, they probably knew that it was fake news but because it was a rally against me they posted hard anyway, two really dishonest newscasters, but the public is watching.' Here with reaction co- host of 'The Five' and the host of 'Watter's World,' there you go, Jesse Watters is here, Jessica Tarlov Fox News contributor.

Wait a minute this is his method, my world. We are all in it.

JESSE WATTERS, FOX THE FIVE SHOW HOST: I'm Watters, and this is my world.

JESSICA TARLOV, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: And I am Jessica Tarlov.

WATTERS: No.

(LAUGHTER)

That is not how it works.

TARLOV: All right, whatever.

HANNITY: You know look, I will do something that may surprise you, it is possible that nobody knew, I don't think that they did it wittingly, I think that for whatever influence, social media, firing your points that it was minimal, nobody would have known that this was a Russian rally, but the fact that they covered it with such enthusiasm is kind of funny.

TARLOV: Listen, on November 12th, I remember how bad of a day I was having. It was terrible. It was not as bad as November 8th --

HANNITY: Were you watching Jesse's world?

TARLOV: I was just alone in my bed crying.

HANNITY: You are in your bed crying?

TARLOV: no, actually I did not shed a tear over night, I was here, and I could not show any weakness. I guess that is funny, but the real story is talking about the rallies that happen on November 12th that were pro-Trump, and this is the argument that he is making what happened on November 12, what happened, what matters is what happened before November 8th.

HANNITY: Trump won, and you do not think it was going to happen.

WATTERS: The Russians got more people to protest then Hillary could. This is a huge rally.

TARLOV: I was not going to use that line, Jesse. That is not true.

WATTERS: The media colluded more than the Russians than Trump did. They pushed the phony dossier propaganda. They broadcast their rallies, they played right into Vladimir Putin's hand, could you imagine if "Hannity" had broadcast a Russian sponsored rally? Mueller would have indicted him. He would've been subpoenaed.

TARLOV: I love how much you are smiling at that.

HANNITY: It is not over yet, Jesse. Who knows?

WATTERS: I don't know you anymore.

TARLOV: Everyone just walk away. There are lots of times that we have covered Trump rallies that I absolutely had the influence of Russians behind it. You look at the 13 indictments that came down, you are rolling your eyes.

WATTERS: Look at the 13 indictments, Hillary is guilty of what Mueller charge these 13 Russians with. She hired a foreign agent that was unregistered to push Russian lives into the American bloodstream.

TARLOV: I will take it one step further in the entire FISA warrant was based on the phony dossier.

HANNITY: Hold on. The Graham-Grassley memo says that the bulk of it was rejected. The bulk of it, and McCabe said, no dossier, no FISA a warrant.

TARLOV: There are people that refuse that McCabe said that, we were on that night when the Grassley memo came out and we were emphasizing it, and you said, the bulk of it, which means that there was other evidence that was use.

HANNITY: The bulk means 80 or 90 percent.

WATTERS: The bulk of it was a lie, fraudulent act on the court to begin with. My question is what did Obama know, when did he know it? The election interference have been his watch, the collusion with Hillary and Christopher Steele that happened on his watch. To the spying on his watch, the lying on his watch, how is he out of the water on this?

TARLOV: He is not, you heard in Adam Schiff this weekend talking about on the Sunday show that they thought Obama should have done more.

HANNITY: Do you want Obama to answer Jesse's questions?

TARLOV: I would love him to come to Fox and hang out. He has already answered those questions.

HANNITY: I will give Obama five hours, an entire week with me and Obama on the show.

WATTERS: I think that he would love that, Sean. He would love nothing more.

Has nothing better to do.

TARLOV: That is absolutely not true. He is still saving the world.

WATTERS: Oh, good god.

TARLOV: Go and if you look at fact-check Donald Trump tweets about the fact that he is on (inaudible) for Russians and Obama they gave him the false that it could be when you look at what Obama did. And I see the tape of him in Mitt Romney over and over this week, I got it, though '80s called -- really, what did he do?

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: Bringing missiles to their doorstep? Obama gave the Ukrainians food! Obama gave the Ukrainians food when Putin invaded, Trump gave them weapons. We are building up the military and overtaken them on energy production. The Iran deal is in the cross hair, at least he is not whispering --

HANNITY: I'm ready to give my score.

TARLOV: A big shocker. I don't even need -- oh, you won.

HANNITY: Jesse wins.

TARLOV: You won.

WATTERS: TKO.

HANNITY: All right. Ready, one, two, --

WATTERS: I am Watters and this is my world.

HANNITY: When we come back, a big announcement in the Hannity hotline, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. A time for the Hannity hotline. Hit me with your best shot. What do you got?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would appreciate if you stop that stupid monologue. That is boring. You are a lot better when you didn't have that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want your show, I listen to it on TV because when I see that part in your hair, I don't know if it was made by a hand towel or a pizza cutter. Keep up the good work, thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: I work hard on that monologue every day. What is it with my hair? Picking on me. All right. Anyway have anything to say call us now, 8772258587. All right. Programming note. Tomorrow night and Thursday night, usual time live, 9:00 eastern, we will be coming to you from national harbor Maryland as CPAC 2018 gets underway. You do not want to miss it and also the President will be speaking there. Again tomorrow night at 9:00 Thursday night at 9:00. That is all the time we have left.
Let not your heart be troubled, we will never be the destroy Trump media.
Laura is next, we will see you tomorrow night from CPAC.

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