Hannity: Trump is right about Mueller's witch hunt
There are obvious examples of bias at some of the highest levels in our system of justice.
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," April 26, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: All right. Tucker, thanks, as always.
Welcome to "Hannity".
All right. Breaking right this second, a few hundred newly uncovered text messages, we literally have them right here and we are going through them as we speak, between FBI lovebirds Peter Strzok, Lisa Page. They have literally just been released. We're going to explain what those messages reveal in just a moment.
Also tonight, James Comey was just grilled by our own Bret Baier. Get this, the disgraced former FBI director just revealed a shocking new contradiction surrounding the department's FISA abuses.
Plus, earlier today, the president rightly blasting James Comey, Robert Mueller, even the DOJ and, of course, we will play you his remarks and reveal just how abusively biased and corrupt our two tier justice system has become.
And we have more pro Trump tweets from Kanye West. Hollywood elites, liberal America are unhinged over this.
Plus, Bill Cosby, guilty, facing up to 30 years in prison after being found guilty of sexual assault. We have full reports coming up tonight.
And breaking just moments ago, we are monitoring the history in the making, the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un, became the first leader of North Korea to cross the border and step into South Korea. We're going to show you this historic tape.
But, first, it's time for tonight's very important breaking news opening monologue.
(MUSIC)
HANNITY: So, as we speak, the House of Representatives now pouring through 49 brand-new additional pages of newly uncovered text messages between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. You might remember, these messages were a part of the six months of missing texts that somehow -- well, were lost because of an alleged technical issue with the FBI-issued Samsung phones.
Fox News can right now confirm that many of these unearthed texts contain incomplete information and some are totally incomprehensible. Sara Carter joins us in a few minutes with the brand-new information.
And, of course, we know in previous texts Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, constantly trashing President Trump, calling him an idiot, a menace, a loathsome human being, even said F Trump. And prior to election day, in 2016, Peter Strzok also mentioned some kind of insurance policy that was proposed to Andrew McCabe if Trump should assume office.
Quote, 'I want to believe the path that you throughout 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 are 40.' What did that mean?
Also remember, the letter from then Senator Harry Reid urging Jim Comey to open up a Trump-Russia collusion investigation into President Trump. After that letter became public, Peter Strzok, well, he texted Lisa Page a link to a "New York Times" article referencing the letter, writing, quote, here we go.
We are literally just actively -- they were actively rooting for the president's demise or what is the insurance policy? What is the insurance plan? Was it to drag the president through the mud? Either way, it's not a good look for two people that were tapped by Robert Mueller for key roles in the special counsel investigation witch hunt. And even worse, this does critical damage to the reputation of our system of justice. Every one of us, every American needs to be concerned.
Also breaking tonight, James Comey was grilled by Bret Baier right here on the Fox News Channel. He is now claiming that the Clinton bought and paid for, unverified, uncorroborated dossier that made up the bulk of the FISA application, he said did not make up the bulk of the FISA application against the Trump campaign associate, even though we have two congressional memos that contradict what James Comey said just a few minutes ago. Well, a few hours ago.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS HOST: You called the dossier unverified, salacious. Why did you use that to the FISA court to ask for surveillance for Carter Page? Not only use it but you lead with it, a bulk of that FISA application deals with that dossier. Why?
JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: That's not my recollection, Bret. I don't know the FISA application has been released. My recollection was, it was part of a broader mosaic of facts that were laid before the FISA judge to obtain a FISA warrant.
BAIER: There was a lot more than a dossier in the FISA application?
COMEY: My recollection was, there was a significant amount of additional material about Page and why there was probable cause to believe he was an agent of a foreign power. And the dossier was part of that but was not all of it or a critical part of it, to my recollection.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: I'm having a really hard time believing that. This is almost unbelievable. James Comey still claiming not to know who paid for Hillary's dirty dossier with Russian lies and propaganda that was put together by foreign national, including Russian government lies.
Look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: When did you learn that the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign had funded Christopher Steele's work?
COMEY: Yes, I still don't know that for a fact.
BAIER: What do you mean?
COMEY: I've only seen it in the media. I never knew exactly which Democrats had funded -- I knew it was funded first by Republicans --
BAIER: But that's not true.
COMEY: I'm sorry?
BAIER: That's not true. That the dossier that Christopher Steele worked on was funded by Republicans?
COMEY: My understanding was, his work started funded by as oppo research, funded by Republicans --
BAIER: So, "The Free Beacon" said that they had Glenn Simpson and Fusion GPS on a kind of retainer, but they did not fund the Christopher Steele memo or the dossier. That was initiated by Democrats.
COMEY: OK, my understanding was the activity was begun, that Steele was hired to look into it, first funded by Republicans, then picked up -- important thing was, picked up by Democrats opposed to Donald Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: This is mind-blowing. They never verify it. He didn't know who funded it, really? And Christopher Steele was not brought in until Hillary took over the Fusion GPS deep dive into Donald Trump.
Earlier today, the president called into "Fox & Friends" and sounded off rightly so on James Comey. Listen to the president.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Comey is a leaker and he's a liar. And not only on this stuff, he's been leaking for years. He's probably been using his friend, the so-called professor who now turns out to have FBI clearance, which he never said, he even lied about that because he never said that in Congress, he said he gave it to a friend. And he gave it to a friend to leak classified information. It's all classified. It was totally classified.
So, he illegally -- he did an illegal act. He said it himself in order to get a special counsel against me. So, the special counsel -- by the way, and intelligence committee and everybody else has found no collusion.
Nobody unclassified them. And those memos were about me and they are phony memos asked. He didn't write those memos accurately. He put a lot of phony stuff.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
HANNITY: The president is correct and the president is also slamming the Department of Justice and Mueller's partisan witch hunt.
Let's take a look at this.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
TRUMP: I answer this all the time. Because of the fact that they have this witch hunt going on with people in the Justice Department that shouldn't be there, they have a witch hunt against the president of the United States going on, I have taken the position -- and I don't have to take this position and maybe I'll change -- that I will not be involved with the Justice Department. I will wait till this is over. It's a total -- it's all lies and it's a horrible thing that's going on.
So, I'm very disappointed in my Justice Department, but because of the fact that it's going on and I think you'll understand this, I have decided that I won't be involved. I may change my mind at some point because what is going on is a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace.
And, by the way, the only collusion is the collusion with the Democrats and the Russians. You take a look at what is going on there. They wouldn't even gave their server, the DNC, Democratic National Committee, wouldn't even give it server to the FBI. So what kind of an FBI -- they break own doors for Paul Manafort, early in the morning, his wife is in bed, like at 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning, and they undo the lock for Michael Cohen early in the morning and yet, they walk into the DNC, and they won't give them the stuff, they said, we are not giving it a server, oh, OK, we'll leave. That's not the FBI, that's a fix!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Why didn't they demand those DNC servers? A phenomenal point. Double standard. President Trump is right.
Earlier today, the "National Review's" Victor Davis Hanson, an incredible column, breaking down the shocking double standard in very clear terms. Mueller was all too happy to target former national security adviser Michael Flynn, 35 years of service to his country, for lying to the FBI. The FBI agents interviewing him didn't think so.
Andrew McCabe, he remains uncharged, even after the inspector general reported multiple lies to federal investigators under oath. And James Comey also remains free and clear when he lied to Congress about not writing Hillary Clinton's exoneration letter before investigating and interviewing Clinton, and Peter Strzok interviewed Clinton. What about James Clapper? We know he lied under oath about data collection on Americans and John Brennan, who lied under oath about the dirty dossier.
And then, of course, no charges as the president was just saying, for Cheryl Mills, who misled investigators about Hillary Clinton's private server, or Huma Abedin, who also tried to conceal Hillary's illicit server. Then there is the obstruction of justice charges that Mueller is all too happy to investigate as long as it's Donald Trump or somebody related to Trump, but not James Comey, who clearly misled a FISA judge about the Clinton bought-and-paid-for foreign dossier put together by Christopher Steele in order to obtain a warrant against the Trump campaign associate, an opposition party, before the election. Seriously? Is this United States or are we Venezuela?
The Clinton campaign, they paid to this former spy, a foreign national, to write the dossier, using Russia propaganda and lies, nobody verified it or corroborated it, and they have still presented it to a FISA judge and they omitted who paid for it. Not Clinton associate Cheryl Mills, she claimed attorney-client privilege in order to get out of testifying during the server investigation. And now the newest addition to President Trump's legal team, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, he is weighing in on the ongoing Mueller witch hunt, telling a local news station, quote, I can guarantee you this: when Mueller is finished, no matter whatever he does, he's not going to have a stitch of evidence that meaning he, President Trump collude with the Russians.
That's a disgrace. The case should be over. The mayor's right. Even the attorney general, finally Jeff Sessions, is calling for the Mueller probe to come to an end for the sake of this country. This needs to come to an end. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFF SESSIONS, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think the American people are concerned. The president is concerned. He is dealing with France and North Korea and Syria and taxes and regulations and border and crime every day. And I was just -- this thing needs to conclude.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: It needs to conclude. Yes, sir, Mr. Attorney General. He also claimed he would not be appointing a second special counsel to investigate deep state crimes because special counsel investigations take on the life of their own. Well, you don't say. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SESSIONS: We determined to be disciplined, stay within our classical procedures and rules. I do not think we need to willy-nilly appoint special counsels. And as we can see, it can -- it can really take on a life of its own.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Let me be clear. These are obvious examples of bias, at some of the highest levels of our system of justice in this country. Every American, you should be troubled. I always say, let not your heart be troubled, but this is an obvious two-tiered system of justice. We all deserve and must demand better. And by the way, we'll have more analysis on the steep state corruption later in the show.
But, first, now despite pressure from some of his liberal Hollywood friends, Kanye West, good for him, not backing down from his, quote, love for President Trump. And Kanye was pictured leaving his studio proudly wearing his "Make America Great Again" hat. And earlier today, he tweeted, 'if you feel something, don't let peer pressure manipulate you.'
I love people that stand for what they believe in.
Anyway, this week, Kanye West, he's been taking a stand for individual thought after supporting black conservative Candace Owens, who came under fire from the left for comments about victim mentality culture. By the way, we'll have more on Kanye's developing friendship with the president later in the program. Candace is going to be on the show tonight.
Now, here with reaction to all of these developments, out of Washington tonight, we are joined by Florida congressman, also gubernatorial candidate who I have said I want to win to be the next governor, Ron DeSantis is with us.
Sir, OK, I know these are just released. We are poring through the 49 pages. We know the hatred Strzok and Page have for President Trump. What do you got so far?
REP. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Sean, this is in complete production. We know their texting habits, of how often they were texting in other periods. And so, this is the period, December of 2016 during the Trump transition, all the way up until the firing of James Comey and then the appointment of Robert Mueller is a special counsel. If there is only 40 some pages they are, there is gaps, some of the stuff is incomplete.
So I don't think this is a full production. I think there is more questions that this raises and we are going to have to go back to the Justice Department and ask them why they weren't able to recover the full Strzok-Page text messages.
HANNITY: Congressman, I have multiple sources telling me tonight that they suspect that there were other devices used as well. Did you get that? Is that your interpretation looking at this?
DESANTIS: Yes. We also have something to believe that they were using the clean Gmail, which is everyone has access to the account and you just do messages in the drafts and then respond to drafts so you're not actually sending emails. So, yes, there's a lot of things that they do, using iMessage. So, we've got to get all of that that we can get for sure. But this is not it.
I mean, Sean, you've documented, these are lovebirds, they had this hatred for the president, they were very quick to put their opinions about everything that was going on and yet here, you know, you'll just see gap after gap. So, I'm not satisfied.
HANNITY: OK. I want to -- I want to go to the issue, how is it possible Peter Strzok is in the middle of all this? He interviewed General Flynn, apparently didn't think he was lying, how to take a charge? Also interviewed Hillary Clinton. But that was in July of 2016.
It was early May of 2016 where it was Strzok and Comey himself writing in exoneration that actually used the standard, the legal standard that means Hillary would have broken the law. They changed the wording to take that part out, and the original drafting also had in that multiple foreign intelligence agencies had hacked into Hillary Clinton's email server and that means top-secret, classified special access programming information was in fact obtained by America's enemies and none of it would have been redacted, sir.
DESANTIS: So, if you were somebody who was on Hillary's campaign team at the time and you could suggest changes to be made to that statement, you would have suggested exactly the changes that Peter Strzok insisted on, to try to reduce Hillary's level of recklessness and her culpability. And so, he was involved in the thick of that case.
And here's I think why it's so troubling with Strzok's conduct, what does he do after Comey exonerates Hillary? A couple weeks later, he opens up a collusion case against the Trump campaign based off what we now know was a two-page document with no actual intelligence and then, eventually, they supplemented with a fake dossier paid for by the Democrats. But Strzok was the prime driver, not only behind exonerating Hillary, but then pursuing this collusion fairy tale and that ultimately led to the appointment of Mueller.
HANNITY: Unbelievable. Congressman, we are not going to let up. This is -- there are apparently 50,000 of them, and apparently, 1.2 million pages of the inspector general has that Congress needs to get and I am just urging Congress, if they don't hand them over soon, you must hold these people in contempt and worse.
DESANTIS: Without question.
HANNITY: All right. Congressman, thank you.
And joining us now with more, Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett, Fox News contributor, investigative reporter, Sara Carter, and attorney David Limbaugh.
By the way, David has negotiated every single one of my radio and TV contracts throughout the entire -- my entire career. We've have dinner together on multiple occasions. I have paid most of those occasions. And he is also a friend of mine.
That I get them all out?
All right. Sara, let's start with the new memos and more importantly, what people are telling me that they see gaps all over this.
SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: That's what I've been hearing, Sean, as well. I mean, as you can see right here, we have the memos, there is only 47, 49 pages. I have not had time to go through all of them, but a lot of the important parts appear to be redacted. And there appears to be big gaps in between the text messages.
Now, they did talk about clean Gmail. That is important because that means that they would have dropped them into a draft box in a Gmail account that only both Strzok and Page had access to and those would have never been transmitted. So, that would be interesting to see if the I.G. could get a hold of that. And I don't think that is going to be possible unless they gave up their Gmail account.
Also, if there is more text messages, if there are more text messages, the I.G. should be able to answer that, maybe they weren't able to retrieve them but there should be an answer.
HANNITY: Do we think there are 50,000 at point?
CARTER: Yes, yes, they are supposed to be 50,000 altogether. And according to what we have seen in the past, this is nothing. This is nothing compared to what we have seen text messaged in the past. This is an almost reduced version. Somebody said it's a nothingburger if you don't have all of the gaps filled in.
HANNITY: That such an important point. What the Justice Department doing here is they are playing games and they're also violating subpoenas of Congress.
A couple of things I want to ask you. Number one, let's go to Comey's interview with Bret Baier tonight.
GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: Right.
HANNITY: The contradiction on FISA. Seriously? He didn't know that Hillary paid for this? Do you buy that?
JARRETT: The first thing you do as FBI director on a big investigation like this is to find out the source of it, who paid for it. To hear him tonight, he says, I still don't know, and he thought Republicans were the ones who first initiated the dossier.
HANNITY: Well, they did but not with -- Christopher Steele was the Democrats.
JARRETT: The dossier had nothing to do what the Republicans paid for, opposition research.
HANNITY: Research, right, very different.
JARRETT: The dossier wasn't so much. It's now official.
HANNITY: How did he not know that? Gregg, how does he not know this?
JARRETT: Because he is probably the most clueless FBI director ever or he is a prodigious liar. I'll just give you a couple of examples. First, he insisted these were his personal documents, the presidential memos. The law says they are not.
He said there wasn't classified information. That's untrue. The FBI says there is. They had to seize it to contain it.
HANNITY: Now, a third person apparently --
JARRETT: Yes, David Kelly. And is it interesting, he leaked these classified documents to three people who he's hired as his counsel --
HANNITY: All three of them?
JARRETT: -- so he can hide behind the attorney-client privilege on these communications.
HANNITY: And maybe we've learned a thing or two about attorney-client privilege that may be not be so applicable we once though. What are the crimes we thought about?
JARRETT: Listen, for James Comey, you are looking at everything from misleading Congress to obstruction of justice to abuse of power in the FISA warrant, the list really goes on and on.
HANNITY: David Limbaugh, let's get your reaction to both the breaking news, we now have going, and also the president's comment this morning, I thought he gave a really good interview, no holds barred on "Fox & Friends." And I don't you know, Trey Gowdy said, act -- if you are innocent, act like you were innocent. That's how I'd act when I'm innocent. I would be, hey, that's not true, I think most people would react that way.
DAVID LIMBAUGH, AUTHOR AND ATTORNEY: This is what Middle America likes about Trump, that when he is falsely accused of something, he fights back, does it publicly, from the heart. This is a sincere thing, there is a double standard and people are tired of this. They're tired of the overwhelming evidence against the Democrats and Hillary Clinton, and the underwhelming evidence against Trump and the disproportionate enforcement against both.
Comey, I have to say, showed such a casual indifference to the funding, the DNC funding of the dossier, and of whether it constituted a major part of the FISA application, the fact that it constituted maybe the whole thing, and he acted like he still doesn't know that, has he been just pushing his book only? How can he be that in different to the biggest thing going on during his tenure there at the end?
I agree with Gregg. Either he is terribly naive or he's is almost criminally negligent. I use that loosely, not in a formal sense. Not to know what's going on, because they percent of that evidence to the FISA court, and they represented to the FISA court, but they had independent evidence to warrant an investigation of this court that ought to be treated with hallowed respect and it was totally abused under Comey's watch and he doesn't even --
HANNITY: Who told him about the dossier? When? You know, who paid for it? This is not adding up.
Oh, I did forget to disclose Gregg Jarrett's offices two doors down from mine.
JARRETT: Right.
HANNITY: Thank you all for being with us.
LIMBAUGH: Oh my god.
HANNITY: When we come back, we have so much more coming. Trace Gallagher, live report, explosive report, Bill Cosby, Geraldo Rivera versus Dan Bongino, so much more. Don't touch that dial.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Earlier today, a jury in Pennsylvania found Bill Cosby guilty of drugging and molesting a woman. The conviction capped off what is an unbelievable fall from grace. The 80-year-old comedian, television star now facing up to 30 years in jail.
He joins us from our west coast newsroom to break down today's verdict, Fox's own Trace Gallagher.
And, Trace, 62 women over time, but the statute of w limitations have passed for them.
TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Right. And when the verdict was read, Sean, Cosby accusers hugged and cried inside the courtroom. Cosby himself just sat and stared, showing little, if any, emotion, until District Attorney Kevin Steele demanded that Cosby go straight to jail, saying the former TV star has an airplane and could easily flee.
That is when Cosby called to steal a-hole, shouting "I'm sick of you." In the end, because of Bill Cosby's age and health, the judge placed him under house arrest. During the two-week trial, accuser Andrea Constand testified that Cosby knocked her out with blue pills and then sexually violated her. Five other women told similar stories.
But the star defense witness said Andrea once talked about framing a high- profile person. But after 14 hours of deliberation over two days, the jury of seven men and five women voted guilty on all three counts. The D.A. said, Cosby had used his celebrity, wealth, and network of supporters to conceal his crimes. The defense said the fight is not yet over.
You'll recall during a deposition given a decade ago, Bill Cosby acknowledged he gave Quaaludes to women he wanted to have sex with, saying, quote, the same as the person would say, have a drink. Under Pennsylvania law, sentencing must happen within 90 days. And as you said, Bill Cosby could be facing up to 30 years in prison -- Sean.
HANNITY: It's unbelievable.
And now back to our breaking news story tonight. We are learning more information on these newly released text messages between anti-Trump FBI officials, Strzok and Lisa Page. Joining us now, former Secret Service agent, NRATV contributor, Dan Bongino, and FOX News correspondent at large Geraldo Rivera.
First, reaction to Cosby.
GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT AT LARGE: You know, the Me Too movement is for real. It didn't start, you know, for nothing. Cosby was the poster child for it. I am heartbroken --
HANNITY: We are comparing a Quaalude to a drink?
RIVERA: You said it yourself, 62 women have come forward to accuse the man who was America's dad of this horrible conduct. I think it is a fragile verdict, though, just as an attorney. I do not give full disclosure that I sometimes give you advice.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: I never paid you, you never done a -- no third party ever.
RIVERA: You bought me a drink the other day. I think that because the judge allowed these five other witnesses to come forward essentially who were not the accusers in this criminal case, prior bad acts, is acceptable, but in a limited fashion. This was really extravagant to allow five women who were not the accusers to testify against him. I think that he has a reasonable chance on appeal. If he goes to prison, and he can very likely go to prison after the 90 days sentence, he could easily die in jail.
HANNITY: You know, this is a level of predatory evil when you think of drugging another human being like this and assaulting them like this. It's -- the women all have the same stories. And he admitted about the drug issue. It's incomprehensible with the public image we know.
RIVERA: Yes, this is sick, Sean. I mean, these are people's daughters, these are people's mothers. These are good friends. These are people's soccer coaches. I mean, 62 women, you have to drug them? It's such a disturbing story, so not commensurate with the image he played on TV. I think that is why it's so shocking.
HANNITY: Dark and evil. This is evil.
RIVERA: Oh, unquestionable.
HANNITY: What these women are describing.
RIVERA: He earned every second of the 30-year sentence.
HAYES: Let me go back to our top story. We have new Strzok-Page e-mails. We have haters, we have Page and Strzok despise the President. You watch James Comey tonight. James Comey didn't know any of these issues that we've been talking about? He said he couldn't remember who told him about the dossier. He couldn't you know, -- and when he was told. And that he didn't know that Christopher Steele was only brought in when Clinton was paying for it and the FISA court judge, they never verified it, they never corroborated it. They omitted who paid for it to the judge. How could they possibly ever get a warrant under those circumstances?
RIVERA: We know that James Comey is a self-confess leaker. The President calls him a leaker and a liar. I don't know yet whether he is a liar. We know Andrew McCabe has accused of lying, his former associates. He is accused of lying. We will see --
HANNITY: Was it a lie by omission when he was under oath and he said he only revealed it to one person and now it's three?
RIVERA: Well, it is to me the most startling thing is that here is James Comey pretending, I think. I think, that he did not know that the dossier was the basis for the FISA warrant.
HANNITY: Pretend you were lying, Geraldo.
RIVERA: Well, we'll see. I think, he is a much diminished figure, I mean this vaunted Jack Friday --
HANNITY: He is in legal jeopardy.
RIVERA: he become a slumber -- a promoter.
HANNITY: He is now a criminal investigation.
RIVERA: Well, we'll see where that goes. I think the bottom line though and the most important thing is there is no collusion. There's no Russian collusion.
HANNITY: Amazing.
RIVERA: Why are we even here? Why are we talking about it? Because the allegation was a stunning allegation of a foreign power colluding with a candidate to bring down or sabotage a national election.
HANNITY: Dan Bongino, last word.
DAN BONGINO, FORMER SECRET AGENT SERVICE: Listen, he is got to be lying, Sean. Does he now understand how probable cause works? If you need ten points of information to establish probable cause and the FISA was even a half a point, you don't have probable cause if it's missing. Does he not understand --
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Dan, he said it is irrelevant who funded it. It was a small part of the FISA warrant application. That is not what Grassley, Graham and Nunes said and he said it was the bulk of the application.
BONGINO: It was certainly believed.
HANNITY: Geraldo is correct.
BONGINO: If they didn't need it, they shouldn't have included it. He is fool of it. He is making that up.
HANNITY: Andrew McCabe. Remember the report? Without any dossier, there wouldn't have been -- even been an application. So there is contradict -- again there is collision course between McCabe and Comey. We welcome you back you were gone for a little bit.
RIVERA: Thank you. Thank you. Can I just say that general Sessions, I finally agree with him when he said no second special counsel?
HANNITY: Not yet.
RIVERA: Let the inspector general do his job --
HANNITY: This law has to go away.
RIVERA: I think it is a terrible law.
HANNITY: All right. Thank you both. When we come back, Kanye West still sticking up for President Trump. The left is viciously attacking him. We are going to speak with the conservative woman who's started Kanye's tweet storm. Candice Owens, right here in the studio with Darrell Parks. That is straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. This morning President Trump during his interview on "Fox and Friends" said this about Kanye West. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Kanye looks and he sees black unemployment at the lowest it's been in the history of our country, OK? He sees Hispanic unemployment at the lowest it's been in the history of our country. He sees, by the way, female unemployment, women unemployment the lowest it's been in now almost 19 years. He sees that stuff and he is smart and he says, you know what, Trump is doing a much better job than the Democrats did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Meanwhile, last night leftist liberal late night hosts, they go after Kanye West. Why? Because he supports Donald Trump. Why? Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN COLBERT, LATE NIGHT HOST: We have the rights to independent thoughts. Yes. We have the right to independent thoughts. And I independently think that Kanye has lost his mind. Donald Trump is your brother, it is true I am your brother too, And brother to brother, I just want to say, put the phone down!
SETH MEYERS, LATE NIGHT HOST: Kanye West tweeted pictures this afternoon of a make America great again hat that he got from President Trump. In response, Trump tweeted pictures with some clothes that Kanye got him.
TERVOR NOHA, THE DAILY SHOW: Look, I don't know what happened here. I think Kanye West just realized he is too rich to not be Republican. I don't know even what it is.
JIMMY KIMMEL, LATE NIGHT HOST: So now Donald Trump has two black friends. He has -- I hope Ben Carson doesn't get jealous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right. Joining us now with reaction, Civil Rights Attorney, Darrell Parks and Turning Point USA, Communications Director, Candice Owens is in the studio. So great to have you. You actually are part of this story. Kanye first offended you.
CANDACE OWENS, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR: That is absolutely right. Apparently it was my brain that launched this ideological civil war in the black community. I'm so excited about it. This is a tremendous time to be alive as a black American. We've been existing under this façade, these lies the Democrats have orchestrated, because they consider us a low information voter market. You know, and so they think we're not going to research the stats and we will never find out.
HANNITY: I hate the race card is played every election year.
OWENS: Absolutely.
HANNITY: Every single election, it drives me nuts. You know, 14 states, Darrell, now have record low unemployment, regard low. Black Americans record low. Hispanic Americans, record low. Women in America, record low. Unemployment records, that is since Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. Is that good for America? Obama had eight years, 13 million more Americans on food stamps. Eight more million more Americans in poverty. That was his legacy. Who is doing a better job? Who is doing a better job?
DARYL PARKS, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Well Sean, first of all, I don't know how President Trump can take responsibility for that progress. That still doesn't deal with the real issue. The real issue is that black Americans are still having great difficulty in the unemployment --
HANNITY: I won't stop until every forgotten man and woman has a job and a trajectory to the life they want in this great free country. You are not answering my questions.
Look at these numbers and job. Did Obama fail with 13 million more Americans on food stamps? Did he fell? Did he fail with 8 million in poverty, eight years later?
PARKS: He didn't fail at all. He did not fail, I think what he did was he made black America a focus. What I want to see though, is President Trump show us that black America is a priority for him and to have specifics as to how he plans to do it.
HANNITY: Comments.
PARKS: There are issues
(CROSSTALK)
OWENS: It's OK. I actually like when they do this. Have this delusional responses. Just admit that blacks are doing better under the Trump presidency. That is going to be fine, but this refusal to admit it and black are going to start doing a research and they are going to start to see what's going on.
PARKS: Is this --
HANNITY: I have been frustrated. Al Gore, Republicans don't even want to count you in the census or you know, the change in tone and cadence before predominantly black American audiences. I always felt it was insulting. But the policies, you know -- look at what Kanye said. 4,000 American souls slaughtered in Chicago. We once scrolled the names. We heard about Trayvon Martin, we heard about Freddie Gregg Baltimore, he heard about Ferguson. I scrolled the names. We never heard of these 4,000 people shot and killed.
OWENS: Oh listen, that is because Chicago is run by Democrats. They never want to hold their mayor up to what they are doing. That is why we never heard those names. 4,000 that is the exactly right, that is the exact same number -- about the same number of American that were slaughtered in the Iraq war, right? It's a war zone. And Trump offered to send the National Guard and the Democrats majorly opposed him. So what it comes down to is, Trump is trying to be effective there and we are seeing that we have so many great results in black America --
HANNITY: What do you say to Daryl?
PARKS: But Sean, let me say this though. I think, I want to hear from my President to tell us that something about black America is a priority for him tomorrow. I would love to hear him focus on mental health, education, and healthcare. Those are issues that he can help us with tomorrow. I want to hear form our president those issues.
HANNITY: The ObamaCare worked out great for everybody.
PARKS: It did.
OWENS: Well, look it sounds like they are signing up for agents of Trump. That is what really comes down to, because he is doing a great job, the numbers are better and he needs more time in office to continue to do an amazing job. So it sounds like you're almost aboard the Trump train which makes me feel happy. We are agreeing on something here.
PARKS: Let me say something. I want to see Trump be successful, because this is our country. But I don't think he is focusing on the issues that really affect black America. I hope he would though.
OWENS: So then you must agree that Obama was not focusing on whatsoever on the issues that were affecting black America if you don't think that Trump is right now. The numbers are in and blacks are doing better under his administration.
PARKS: I love President Obama. I don't think we shouldn't spend any more time trying to put him down.
OWENS: I think it is important to show that things are a lot different. And it is important because for so long they have told us, because there was a black president, this meant progress. Progress is not a skin tone. Progress is a number. OK? And for so long we've been convinced, look, he is taking a photo-op with Beyonce and Jay Z. That means absolutely nothing. Chicago got worse while Obama was in office and he came from there. I mean, you can't dispute the facts here.
HANNITY: Is this cultural shift?
OWENS: We're on the brink of a cultural shift and I can tell you right now it is going to be amazing to watch. I'm so happy that it starts with a single tweet.
HANNITY: You predict it.
OWENS: I did predict it. Kanye West will be the first --
HANNITY: When I interviewed you earlier in the week. It's going to be fun to watch your trajectory. You're rise, you are a superstar.
OWENS: Thank you Sean.
HANNITY: And it is an honor to know you and have you. And I still like Daryl, even though he disagree on everything. Daryl, good to see you. When we come back, incredible news and pictures out of North Korea for the first time ever. A North Korean dictator has gone to South Korea. We got it for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. Earlier today, Mike Pompeo was sworn in as Secretary of State just as the White House released photos of him meeting with North Korean dictator -- look at it right there -- Kim Jong Un over Easter weekend.
This is the meeting that President Trump today said was not originally planned. Secretary Pompeo, look, I've known him. He is brilliant man. First in his class at West Point. And I think, look at this. This will go down, He will go down in history as one of the great Secretary of States, and this is just the beginning. Very, very encouraging.
Also today, during his interview on "Fox and Friends," the President spoke about the negotiations with North Korea. He didn't call him Little Rocket Man. I don't think. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm not like Obama where you go in and you have Kerry, who is the worst negotiator I've ever seen. He goes in for the Iran deal. He never leaves -- he should have left. He should have just left. He could have made a better deal. Look, it was very, very nasty, you know, with Little Rocket Man and with the buttons and you know, my button is bigger than everybody said this guy is going to get us into nuclear war. Let me tell you, the nuclear war would have happened if you had weak people. We had weak people. This should have been settled long before I came into office. This is a much different ball game than if they did it five or 10 or 20 years ago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: And -- remember Bill Clinton? This is a good deal for the American people. Was it a good deal? Appeasement, bribing dictators doesn't work. Peace through strength us as Churchill, look at Reagan, look at Churchill. Anyway, historic moment tonight. The North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un, right there, crossing the DMZ. He became the first North Korean leader to ever set foot in South Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953. Amazing day of, well, that is history.
Joining us now with reaction, retired CIA senior intelligence officer and Sonoran, policy group Vice President, Daniel Hoffman. Look, we're not there yet, but those images should give everybody hope. And the President was right. He said oh, he is going to -- World War III. World War III. No. Churchill proved it, Reagan proved it. Peace through strength works not bribing dictators like Clinton and Obama with $150 billion.
DANIEL HOFFMAN, RETIRED CIA SENIOR INTELLIGENCE OFFICER: Right. We're taking some really productive steps. And I would highlight a couple things about these negotiations. First of all, we're building some muscle memory in North Korea hermit kingdom for diplomatic negotiation, which is really important. Mike Pompeo's trip out to North Korea and the current negotiations between the two leaders, North Korea and South Korea, are steps in the right direction. In addition, I can tell you from the optic of a retired intelligence officer, one of the things that President Trump will rely on is an intelligence briefing, a leadership profile of Kim Jong Un. And the best guy to do it, is Mike Pompeo, because he has met with Kim Jong Un. And he is going to help to prepare the President as well as he could be prepared for that summit, if it takes place.
HANNITY: I've known Mike Pompeo, I have known him for a long time. He is a man of principle and character. He is so right for that job in my opinion. I'm glad he is in that position. Yes.
HOFFMAN: I agree with you. And I also think he will be the one to advice the President for some realistic expectations. Remember, as you pointed out, we have, you know, over 20 years of misguided, ineffective policy to clean up. And that doesn't happen in my view at least in one summit.
HANNITY: Agreed.
HOFFMAN: And some realistic expectations are really important. I don't expect to see denuclearized Korean Peninsula after the summit. It is going to take a little bit of time, but again, I think, we have the right team in place to make something happen.
HANNITY: We didn't think we would see these images tonight, did we? You know it is funny, you think of Winston Churchill. You know, once are called, victory, blood, toil, tears and sweat. And Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. Clinton said, this are the deal for the American people. Obama sent $150 billion to Mullah's in Iran that chant death to Israel, death to America. We have seemed not to learn that lesson.
HOFFMAN: Well, I think we have learned something. Because we stung the North Korean regime with some really tough sanctions. And we've isolated them. Kim Jong Un, I think realizes right now that he needs to pursue some negotiations. He is also practically wiped out a mountain where he is conducting all those the tests. And he really can't conduct any more tests. I mean, the seismologists have confirmed that it's not an option. He is putting China and the rest of the region at risk in doing so. I think we are using that to our advantage as well, just the risk of the Department of catastrophe.
HANNITY: Look at the relationship with the Chinese President. That contributed to the success and capitulating on tariffs and intellectual property rights, so much for the media. They only want to talk about Stormy or Russia. All right, sir. Thanks you for being with us. Always appreciate your insight. Megan McCain totally shuts down Joy Behar. Wait till you see this next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. Joy Joyless Behar over at "The View," rarely misses an opportunity to takes cheap shots at the President Trump and his family. And things got heated today a little over heated at the View, when co-host Megan McCain shutdown Behar, when she made a so called joke about being a Melania's birthday. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUNNY HOSTIN: The fact that now, he is admitting that they have this relationship in reference to Stormy Daniels. I mean --
JOY BEHAR: And today is Melania's birthday. Happy birthday, Melania.
MEGHAN MCCAINl That was necessary. Come on. That was so mean.
BEHAR: What was mean about it, Megan?
MCCAIN: You think that was appropriate? Yesterday we all talked about how we collectively like Melania.
BEHAR: I do like her.
MCCAIN: And you're making fun of her.
BEHAR: I'm not making fun of her.
MCCAIN: You are. That is what you just did.
BEHAR: You have no sense of humor.
MCCAIN: It's not because I don't have a sense of humor. It is because, I feel bad for our first lady.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Megan McCain is killing it every day under hostile conditions. I mean as the only conservative, good for her.
All right. That is all the time we have left. We are always fair and balance. We are not the destroy Trump media.
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