DeSantis and Gaetz on GOP calls for criminal investigations

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DeSantis and Gaetz on GOP calls for criminal investigations

House Republicans send letter requesting investigations into Obama-era officials; Reps. Ron DeSantis and Matt Gaetz explain on 'Hannity.'

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," April 18, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: I am not sure about that last mystery, but we can get back to that later appeared later. All right, Mark. Thank you.

MARK STEYN, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I am coming into your studio with a goat. You will love the little fellow.

HANNITY: Can't wait to meet him. All right. Thanks, Mark.

And, welcome to 'Hannity.'

We have massive breaking news stories. Wait until you hear my opening monologue in just a minute. But first, President Trump is saying tonight that he will in fact meet with North Korean dictator in the coming weeks, Kim Jong Un, to actually discuss the denuclearization of that rogue nation.

Our own Ed Henry in Washington tonight with what can be historic details -- Ed.

ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Getting back to all of the critics who charged President Trump's rhetoric on North Korea last year was bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Yet now, even some top Democrats are suggesting that these talks are starting to bear fruit. The president declared during separate talks today with the Japanese prime minister that if the meeting with the Kim Jong-un, which may happen as early as May, goes nowhere, he's willing to walk out to force progress. He is also pushing the dictator to release three American hostages there.

The president also confirming he secretly disparaged his CIA director and Secretary of State designate Mike Pompeo to Pyongyang over Easter weekend to sit down directly with Kim, saying this may have set the stage for a breakthrough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will be meeting with Kim Jong Un in the coming weeks to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. Hopefully, that meeting will be a great success, and we are looking for forward to it. It will be a tremendous thing for North Korea and a tremendous for the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Now, even Democrat Adam Schiff who has been sharply critical and negative about almost anything the president has done said this is on a positive track. He is encouraged by the possibility for peace, even though it's very high stakes. Now, some Trump aides told Bloomberg, they are so bullish that if the president and the North Korean dictator can come to an agreement, they could end up sharing the Nobel Peace Prize. That would be something, Sean.

HANNITY: Well, that would be amazing. Great job, Mike Pompeo, and, of course, the president, peace through strength works.

Ed, thank you. We'll have more coming up on this throughout the evening tonight.

Also, President Trump is shooting down liberal rumors that he is going to fire the special counsel Robert Mueller. And there's a major development in a critical fight to hold the deep state accountable. Today, 11 House GOP lawmakers, they have now sent a criminal referral to the DOJ and the FBI, demanding investigations into possible crimes committed by Comey, Hillary Clinton, Andrew McCabe, Loretta Lynch, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and other deep state anchors, a massive development. We'll have all of that breaking news tonight.

Also, the House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, he wants answers over new evidence of possible DOJ/FBI collusion in the corrupt Clinton email case. That's huge news.

Also, the very pompous, arrogant, fame-seeking James Comey, he can't get enough of himself. His media blitz is in full swing, and it's not going well for him.

We'll explain in tonight's breaking news opening monologue.

(MUSIC)
HANNITY: We start tonight with President Trump shooting down wild liberal media speculation as always that he is going to fire the special counsel Robert Mueller and Rod Rosenstein during the press conference. This is what the president had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We are hopefully coming to the end. It is a bad thing for our country. Very, very bad thing for our country. But there has been no collusion, they won't find any collision, it doesn't exist.

As far as the two gentlemen who told me about it, they have been saying I'm going to get rid of them for the last three months, four months, five months. And they are still here.

So, we want to get the investigation over with, done with, put it behind us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Maybe that will finally put liberal rumors to rest.

Also tonight, we have a direct message to all of you the destroy Trump media. We know you're watching. While you have been pushing your crackpot conspiracy theories around the clock, 24/7, over a year, without any proof, on the show, we have been uncovering truth, facts, and actual evidence of what is now the biggest abuse of power scandal in American history.

The media has been lying to you and misleading you, the American people, but their time is up. If you remember back in January, when I came back from vacation, I said 2018 would be the year of the boomerang. And that all of these scandals were going to swing back and blow up right in the Democrats and the media's faces, and that is exactly what is happening because there are stunning new developments just a tonight.

Congressman Ron DeSantis and 10 other members of Congress, they have sent a criminal referral letter to the Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the FBI director, Christopher Wray, in the U.S. attorney, John Hoover. And these members are now -- of Congress, they are calling for criminal investigations into the potentially illegal actions of James Comey, of Hillary Clinton, of Loretta Lynch, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and other officials that have ties to the unverified Steele dossier.

We've been talking about this. Let's start with James Comey. A quick sidebar before we lay out the case against him. We have been a warning that the self-serving holier-than-thou former FBI director that he has the right to remain silent, but Jim Comey just can't seem to keep his mouth shut. And it's been amazing to me that Comey doesn't have an army of lawyers that have been telling him to keep quiet and not release this book because he is now tonight facing serious legal exposure.

Here is what we mean. In his brand-new letter, these 11 members of Congress, they highlight how Comey spent 14 minutes back on July 5th, 2016, laying out the case for criminal prosecution against Hillary Clinton, but then at the very end, he said basically, never mind, and didn't recommend the criminal charges. We talked about equal justice under the law. We cannot have a dual justice system.

We have since found out that Comey and Strzok, and their cohorts, they put the fix in to save Hillary Clinton and her campaign by reaching a decision not to prosecute before interviewing Hillary Clinton and 17 other key witnesses. They're all writing that months before they interviewed her.

Reaction to this inexcusable absurdity, the letter today writes for this criminal referral: 'Comey's decision to not seek charges against Clinton's misconduct suggest improper investigative conduct, potentially motivated by a political agenda.'

And because of that, these 11 congressmen are now referring the following criminal charges to the Department of Justice, 18 USC 1505, obstruction of proceedings before departments, agencies, and committees. And 18 U.S. Code 1515, definitions for certain provisions, general provision, which appears to be referring to making misleading statements.

And there is the issue of Comey's memos. This letter explains that in order for members of Congress to view them, well, they had to go to a secured facility because four of the seven memos were marked classified and at the secret and confidential levels. Well, we also have the issue of Comey and what he did with those memos.

Here's what Comey said under oath back in June. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: I asked -- the president tweeted on Friday, after I got fired, that I better hope there's not to tapes. I woke up in the middle of the night on Monday night because it didn't dawn on me originally that there might be corroboration for our conversation. There might be a tape. And my judgment was I need to get that end into the public square. And so, I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter, didn't do it myself for a variety of reasons, but I asked him to because I thought that might prompt the appointment of the special counsel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Here's the thing, what James Comey just admitted to is leaking classified government information, laws and crimes that apply. Look at this: 18 USC 641, public money, property, or records, this deals with removing those government memos from the FBI. Then there is 18 U.S. Code 793. We have talked about this a lot, gathering, transmitting, or losing defense information. 18 USC 1924, unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents, or material.

All of this spells a massive legal trouble tonight for James Comey, but it's just the beginning of Comey's potential criminal misconduct. Comey wrote the Clinton exoneration statement before the investigation. That means before interviewing Hillary and 17 other key witnesses. Well, that's not what Comey testified to under oath.

We have the videotape. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN RATCLIFFE, R—TEXAS: Director, did you make the decision not to recommend that charges before or after Hillary Clinton was interviewed by the FBI on July the second?

COMEY: After. But if colleagues of ours believe I am lying about when I made this decision, please urge them to contact me privately so that we can have a conversation about this. All I can do is tell you again, the decision was made after that because I didn't know what was going to happen in that interview. She maybe lied during the interview in a way we can prove.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: But he wrote the exoneration in May. They interviewed her in July.

On top of Comey lying, these members of Congress also point out that there appears to be, quote, material inconsistencies between Comey's congressional briefing on the FBI's relationship with the dossier author, Christopher Steele, and the DOJ documents that were provided to Congress afterwards.

Here are the criminal charges that would apply in that case: 18 USC Code 1621, perjury generally, 18 USC 1001.

Instead of sitting down with the liberal media, you know, the dream team of liberals, George Stephanopoulos, Steve Colbert, the ladies of 'The View' and others, Comey probably should be lawyering up. This criminal referral letter is also recommending criminal charges against Hillary Clinton and an investigation.

We know she broke the law by using that unsecured private email server and a mom and pop shop bathroom closet, then deleting 33,000 subpoenaed emails, acid washing them and beating up her devices with the hard drive.

These lawmakers today are now demanding an investigation into Clinton for hiding payments to Fusion GPS from the Federal Elections Commission.

Remember, the Clinton campaign and the DNC that Hillary controlled, they funneled over $10 million, $12 million through a law firm, Perkins Coie. And then they paid Fusion GPS, which then hired a foreign national. Remember, foreign nationals are not supposed to influence our elections. Well, that's Christopher Steele.

Christopher Steele then puts together a dossier, full of Russian lies and propaganda that was never verified. Now, third in the congressional criminal referral letter is the former Attorney General Loretta Lynch. She has issues tonight. These members of Congress, they want the Department of Justice now to investigate allegations that Loretta Lynch threatened the Uranium One FBI informant with reprisal. Remember, he was on the show.

This is the informant went undercover for years and exposed Putin's money laundering, bribery, kickback, extortion, racketeering scheme that was used to get a foothold on America's uranium market.

Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, he is also mentioned in this criminal referral letter. The recent DOJ I.G. report found that McCabe lied under oath three times about leaking to the news media. Those are serious violations that involve at least three criminal statutes. And, of course, in the letter today, these lawmakers want McCabe investigated.

And on top of that, we have the Trump-hating FBI lovebirds, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. They are also being referred for possible criminal charges tonight.

The letter lays out how text messages show that Strzok removed a reference -- remember the Clinton exoneration statement, explaining how she was emailing with President Barack Obama. They withdrew it. They took it out. They wiped it out, which means that Obama knew about the server all along. They changed it to a government official. Sure, that's what we'll call President Obama, a government official.

These lawmakers are also calling for members of the deep state to be investigated to lying to federal judges. We have been talking about this, and one of the biggest revelations in the Stephanopoulos/Comey interview. In other words, the unverified, uncorroborated, Clinton bought and paid for, phony Russian propaganda dossier, they use that in order to get a warrant to spy on an American, a Trump campaign associate in the lead-up to an election. That's lying to a judge. And they never told the judge that they paid for it, either.

These are all major developments tonight. And all these bad actors that we have now been exposing for over a year, unpeeling that onion day by day -- well, now today, criminal referrals have been made to the Department of Justice.

Finally, the big question tonight is what will the Attorney General Jeff Sessions do tonight? Will he defend the rule of law, the Constitution? Equal application of the law, equal justice under the law?

That big story, by the way, is only one of our breaking news stories tonight. The House Oversight Committee chairman, Trey Gowdy, he is asking the DOJ and the FBI, and the inspector general to look into issues that were raised by Congressman Mark Meadows in North Carolina about possible DOJ-FBI collusion over James Comey's June 2016 statement, and the larger Clinton email investigation.

Congressman Meadows is rightly saying that he has uncovered new emails and text messages that prove this coordination. Unbelievable. We need to get to the bottom of all of this.

Finally tonight, the self-righteous James Comey, who never should have written this book, he should have listen to me, his lawyers should have never allowed him to go out on this media blitz tour, which apparently knows no bounds.

So, Comey sat down with late-night Trump hater, Stephen Colbert. He had so many hard questions, it was unbelievable. I almost felt bad for him. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, LATE NIGHT T.V. HOST: I know that when you were fired, you say in the book when it was over, you flew back on a plane to the East Coast drinking pinot noir out of a paper cup. So, I thought, maybe we could recreate that happy moment for you right now.

If it felt like you were working for a mob boss, were you surprised that you got whacked? Because that's what they do.

Are there things that you know about the Russia investigation before you were fired that we haven't learned yet as a public?

COMEY: Yes.

COLBERT: Can you tell me what those are?

(LAUGHTER)

COMEY: No.

COLBERT: No?

COMEY: He's tweeted at me probably 50 times. I've been gone for a year, I'm like a breakup he can't get over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Those are the types of questions that Comey has received so far from so-called journalists in the news media. Well, not Colbert, obviously.

And finally today -- well, somebody in the media, Meghan McCain, decided to actually challenge the former FBI director. Good for her. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, NBC NEWS HOST: It feels like you may have some scores to settle. You might have a little bit of anger left over and a little bit of bitterness. Do you plead guilty to all of that?

COMEY: No, I wouldn't, actually. I wouldn't take that on a trial, because I think it is raw in the sense that I find it really painful to relive, reading that book, doing the audio book left me physically drained. But I really don't feel a sense of anger.

GUTHRIE: The most widely cited parts have to do with your description and words about President Trump, I mean, including calling his skin orange and saying that it looked like he had a tanning goggles. And, you know, some people have said that was kind of look -- for lack of a better word, that was a little catty. Did you enjoy taking those shots at the president?

COMEY: No, I didn't think of them as shots. And I still don't.

GUTHRIE: Really? Really?

You don't think you've diminished yourself?

COMEY: I hope not.

MEGHAN MCCAIN, CO-HOST, THE VIEW: And a lot of the things you're saying and doing are highly political. And I just don't understand what you gain trying to sort of clear the deck here by bringing things like this up.

COMEY: That's a good question. I don't think of it as my politics. I think of it as my values. And what I missed --

MCCAIN: And you talked about in George Stephanopoulos, how she was out the women's march, and she was very sad on election night.

COMEY: Sure.

MCCAIN: You know? But why bring up politics now? No disrespect but, what your take on the current Republican Party is, I'm more interested on what you know about national security.

Your interview this morning, ego driven, in service to Trump's ego, it doesn't reflect the values at all. I just want to say and what your -- you sound like a political commentator to me.

COMEY: I don't mean to be. I --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Great job, Savannah. Great job, Meghan McCain.

It's about time members of the media took the kid gloves off and asked some real tough questions. Like we've been saying, Mr. Comey, do you want to sit down for a real interview? I'll give you three hours on my radio show, 575 stations, and a full hour here on the Fox News Channel.

And, finally tonight, James Comey, his BFF Andrew McCabe, they appear to be headed for a really ugly breakup. This comes after Comey confirmed today that he kicked off the investigation that led to McCabe being fired. McCabe is now firing back at Comey, and saying that he disclosed to his former boss that he was leaking to the media.

The question is that since McCabe could face criminal charges, is he going to flip? Will he cooperate against Comey?
Joining us now with a reaction, two of the lawmakers that signed the criminal referral later today, Congressman Ron DeSantis of Florida, and Matt Gaetz, thank you both for being with us.

Congressman DeSantis, to me, this has been a long time building. This has been a long time coming. So often, we hear the attorney general say there's a process, if I get a referral, I will look into it. They have now not only the referral but the specific laws that you believe and I believe were violated in each case.

REP. RON DESANTIS, R—FLORIDA: Well, that's right, Sean. And he has this guy, Huber, who we now know, he's appointed. And I want to make sure that people like Huber know that these are -- this is information that Congress has developed. It's been in the public square, and then to focus on this stuff, because you have situations where Comey, he is out on this book tour acting like his values trump all, but yet he testified in front of the Congress that he didn't exonerate Hillary until after the interview, when we know evidence has come out that he exonerated her two months before with the memo.

Then you look at somebody like Andrew McCabe. He rushed into prosecute Michael Flynn. They went in, they interviewed him, and prosecuted him for false statements. McCabe lied to the FBI. It is documented now multiple times.

Is there a different set of rules for McCabe? This is all about equal application of the law.

HANNITY: Well, think about this, I mean, when Meghan McCain actually asked Comey today about, oh, well, I lie, I told some of my lies in the book and you could still lie and be a good person like Andrew McCabe, I'm saying, wait a minute. Does that apply to General Michael Flynn, who was charged with lying to the FBI?

Congressman Gaetz?

REP. MATT GAETZ, R—FLORIDA: Sean, if lies were music it, Jim Comey would be Beethoven. But when you lie to Congress, it's a crime. When you leak information that's classified, it's a crime.

And when you allow your personal politics to dictate the outcome of an investigation before you're even conducting the investigation in earnest that could be obstruction of justice. And so, in Congress, we did not just want to sit around and hope that Jeff Sessions and others would seriously look into these matters. We wanted to specifically detail the violations of law and then demand action from our attorney general because we cannot allow this to stand. The director of the FBI, James Comey, fired, the deputy director, Andrew McCabe, fired.

HANNITY: Well, here's the problem --

GAETZ: Strzok, fired and reassigned. It's all over the place.

HANNITY: And, Congressman DeSantis, this is a big problem. I know it has been over a year. We're waiting for the inspector general to finish his report on the Clinton email investigation, but here's what we do know -- he doesn't have prosecutorial powers.

Now, I understand that the attorney general put this other person in place and supposedly, they can work in conjunction with each other. Is that going to get the job done?

Let me -- here are the facts as we know them. Clinton violated 18 USC 793, mishandling classified information, top secret, special access programming information. She deleted 33,000 emails. She acid washed her hard drive with bleach bit, she beat the crap out of her devices or had an aide do it so that there's no record of it.

Is that not obstruction of justice? Is that not a violation of law? I mean, it's a simple yes or no here.

DESANTIS: That's why -- so, that's why it's so frustrating. Comey says that because Trump supposedly said that Comey, man, I hope you can find it to let Flynn go, that that is a potential obstruction of justice. But yet, when he was FBI director, he didn't pursue any obstruction of justice for the bleach bitting emails that were under congressional subpoena. Those were the critical emails in the Hillary Clinton investigation. And yet, Jim Comey didn't pursue that.

So, how could you be so zealous with everyone associated with Trump's campaign, but then bend over backwards, time and time again, to not go after obstruction, or to not go after Hillary?

HANNITY: All right. Great job today. This is a big day. Finally, now, it's moving. Thank you both.

We're going to have more on this criminal referral, involving all of these actors, including Comey and Hillary and Loretta Lynch, and Strzok, and Page and others. Joe diGenova, Gregg Jarrett, Sara Carter, are next.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COMEY: Good people lie. I lay out in the book, I think I'm a good person, where I lied. I still believe Andrew McCabe is a good person. But the inspector general found that he lied, and they are severe consequences in the Justice Department for lying, as there should be throughout the government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: I lied -- he said people lie all the time. Well, why is -- why is General Flynn now facing a penalty and had to admit to lying? This is unbelievable.

Here with reaction, former U.S. attorney for District of Columbia, Joe diGenova. Wait a minute, full disclosure for all of you in the liberal media -- Joe has done legal work for me in the past. He is one of the best lawyers out there.

Also with us, Fox News contributor, Sara Carter, she has done no legal work for me ever.

And Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett, I have not had any legal work done with him either. But I have had dinner with Gregg and Sara. I've had dinner. And I think -- I think I paid.

All right.

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: You did.

HANNITY: Now that all of the caveats are out of the way.

All right. But, Joe, this is serious. You know, Michael Flynn's life has been on hold for a year now, and yet Comey now daring to admit he lied. Good people lie all the time.

Really? Well, can we say that General Flynn is a good person because I think that I guy who served his country for 35 years is a good person?

JOE DIGENOVA, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Well, the bottom line is so simple. There is a double standard of justice in the United States. There was one standard of justice for Hillary Clinton, and that was propounded by the Obama Justice Department and FBI headed by James Comey. And then there was another standard of justice for the Trump campaign and Flynn and everybody else.

And the bottom line was this: the president is being framed, General Flynn was framed, and that no matter what Mr. Comey says, the lying that he started has not ended, and it continues to this day. He is destroying himself and the institution of the FBI. And believe me, everybody in that FBI building right now is embarrassed from head to toe.

HANNITY: Everyone I know in the FBI, and I keep saying, guys, America knows it's not you. They know it's not the rank-and-file, which is very important.

Gregg Jarrett, I want to go back to this criminal referral. This is serious business now, especially when Congress goes to the attorney general. They're now -- this has to step up.

Here's my question to you. We went over every one of those laws that they cited here. You are the master at this. You have a book coming out specifically about this, but as it relates to this criminal referral, how bad is it for all of these people?

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: I'd say that they are in serious legal jeopardy, and most of the identified criminal statues in the referral today go against her James Comey. And they continue to mount. Now, you have two different letters today, identifying different potential crimes he committed.

And it's amazing to me that he continues to get on away in his glorious look at me book tour, because he is a potentially incriminating himself. Just look at the first interview. He admitted that politics intruded into his decision-making in the Clinton case. That's potentially obstruction of justice. He can't be much of a lawyer if he keeps yapping away.

HANNITY: You know, I want to ask all three of you, the thing that stunned me the most, and I got into this a lot last night. Absolutely took my breath away. Comey is now admitting, Sara, that it could be true, the dossier. Slow down.

The Grassley- Graham memo, the Nunes memo, it was the bulk of information to get a warrant to spy on an American who happen to be associated with the Trump campaign in the lead up to an election. They presented that to a judge to get a warrant, and they don't know if it's true, they never verified it, and they never told the judge that Hillary bought and paid for Russian lies for a foreign national. That is an outrageous admission.

CARTER: It's an outrageous admission, Sean, because Comey himself told congress -- told congress this is a salacious and unverified dossier. This is a dossier, basically, that was information gathered from Russian intelligence by a foreign British ex-spy.

(CROSSTALK)

CARTER: It's outrageous. And the fact that he continues to propagate those lies. And that, former CIA director, John Brennan, does the same, and James Clapper. It's like they're creating their own disinformation campaign. Look, it's not -- they're so concerned about the Russians and the Russian disinformation, they're the ones that are propagating Russian disinformation, because if they have -- if they have evidence, they should let it out now. But the thing is they don't have any evidence.

HANNITY: They none. They never do. You know, Joe -- let me ask Joe the same question. Joe, this is what you do. Would you ever present unverified uncorroborated foreign national Russian lies, paid for by a political opponent, information to a FISA judge to spy on an American?

DIGENOVA: No, no. I actually have reviewed FISA warrant and done that work when I was a U.S. attorney and long before that. Here's the problem for the Democrats, and Brennan, and Comey, and Lynch, and everybody else. They provided false information to a FISA court as part of a conspiracy to frame the incoming President of the United States. And there is simply no way around that any longer. Because what happened.

HANNITY: Are they caught?

DIGENOVA: Oh, this is over, because Mr. Huber is going to have to drag a bunch of people before the grand jury. And when all is said and done, it will be shown that from President Obama on down, there was knowledge of the unmasking of American citizens for the purpose of leaking it to the media to embarrass those people, get a political advantage, and to take down the incoming President of the United States. There is now no doubt that Brennan, and Clapper, and Comey, and McCabe, and others worked to undermine the incoming president in a criminal conspiracy. And, Mr. Huber, if he does his job, will be able to prove that quite easily.

HANNITY: Gregg, do you agree with that?

JARRETT: I absolutely agree with that. But, I worry when you have the Department of Justice investigating the Department of Justice, that's a recipe for corruption.

DIGENOVA: You've got it.

HANNITY: I want to give a shout out to all of you. And, Sara Carter, it was March 8th of last year, you and John Sullivan broke the story about the FISA warrant. It has taken year to get to where we are today. Tip of the hat to your investigative reporting. You've been right the entire time. Gregg, you've been right the entire time. Joe, same with you, and a lot of us. Thank you, all. Unbelievable. And all the media has been telling you about is a conspiracy theory with no evidence, and Stormy Daniels. Now, when we come back, speaking of the corrupt media, CNN, they have a serious credibility crisis. And we've got the tape to show you. We'll get reaction. Michele Malkin, Larry Elder joins us, next, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right, so fake news CNN has really hit rock bottom. Now, we've showed you last night how the network has now been obsessing over the ridiculous, quote, two hookers urinating in a bed story. That, by the way, never been proven and it's not true, contained in the anti-Trump Hillary bought and paid for Dossier. They never seem to mention that part. In case you missed it, take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN, the most trusted name in news.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: Good evening, where to begin?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN: I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in the situation room.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN: And good evening, OUT front tonight.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN: Welcome to the lead, I'm Jake Tapper. We've begin with breaking news

UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pee tape of prostitutes that Trump have paid to urinate on each other and his bed in a Russian hotel suite.

UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: Talked about the prostitutes.

UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pee tape, golden showers.

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: The golden showers.

BLITZER: Mr. Trump and Russian prostitutes.

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: Screen him and prostitutes in a luxury hotel.

UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: Golden shower. There is no no way I would let people pee on each other around me. Golden shower hookers.

BURNETT: We're talking about prostitutes peeing at a hotel room in Moscow.

TAPPER: There's the FBI director talking about prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: All right. I'm sure you'll recall the memorable coverage where they couldn't stop saying -- well, they actually said it 195 times in a day show.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: (BLEEP) built this country 110 years ago.

DON LEMON, CNN: In addition, the president (BLEEP) comments yesterday. A few more.

(BLEEP)

COOPER: Do you have an example of any (BLEEP) country that the president referred to that is predominantly Caucasian?

(BLEEP)

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: I'm proud to be a (BLEEP).

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: (BLEEP) on television.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Yeah, the Jeff Zucker -- hole network. They're obsessed with me now, which is hilarious. And that's not even the worst. You might recall their infamous porn star obsession. The porn network.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: Stormy speaks.

BLITZER: We're hearing quite a bit from Stormy Daniels.

LEMON: Stormy, in her own words, isn't going anywhere.

UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stormy Daniels has a good lawyer.

UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: The porn star, Stormy Daniels, is telling the truth.

LEMON: Story Daniels is on a tear.

TAPPER: Quick preview, Stormy Daniels interview this Sunday.

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: Breaking news, Stormy Daniels.

UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stormy Daniels.

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: Stormy Daniels.

UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stormy Daniels.

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: Stormy Daniels.

UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stormy Daniels.

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: Stormy Daniels.

UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stormy Daniels.

ANA NAVARRO, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The reason he can engage was Stormy Daniels, because she's got his number.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: CNN breaking news, Stormy Daniels had breakfast this morning. Maybe the dramatic collapse of CNN makes more sense when you consider their chief anchor, Anderson Cooper, acts more like Jerry Springer than a newscaster. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: You told Donald Trump to turn around and take off his pants.

STORMY DANIELS, ADULT FILM ACTRESS: Yes.

COOPER: And, did he?

UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

JERRY SPRINGER: You're young, you like to have fun, you're a party girl, et cetera. So, what's the story here?

UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, lord.

COOPER: And you had sex with him?

DANIELS: Yes.

SPRINGER: Do you want to be with her boyfriend?

UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, it was just a one-time thing.

COOPER: Did you want to have sex with him?

DANIELS: No. But I didn't say no.

SPRINGER: You're not interested in being with him? He's just a customer, right? Or are you interested in being with him?

UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: He ended up taking me home.

COOPER: You work in an industry where condom use is an issue. Did he use a condom?

DANIELS: No.

COOPER: Did you ask him to?

DANIELS: No.

SPRINGER: So, you had sex with him?

UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Yes, no. Joining us now, CRTV host, Michelle Malkin Investigates, Michele Malkin, nationally syndicated radio talk show host, Larry Elder. What's your favorite tape, Michelle? I can't stop laughing. My entire team is dying.

(LAUGHTER)

MICHELLE MALKIN, CRTV MICHELLE MALKIN INVESTIGATE HOST: I am too. I am too. Is this CNN or PNN? I mean it's disgusting. And you know what, it's kind of sad. I think it's always good to have more and diverse competition in the media marketplace. I've always said that the answer to speech with which we disagree, and news coverage with which we disagree is more and better news coverage, but this is really literally sunk into the toilet. And it's a rather unhealthy obsession that this one's o-gust news network has now succumbed to. I mean, Anderson Cooper, think about it. This is a guy who was a war correspondent. And I will say something nice about him. I remember and admire when he was exposing Hezbollah's manipulation of the news. And now, he's every bit as a propaganda -- the propaganda he used to expose.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: juxtapose his questions with Jerry Springer. I mean, what has happened there, Larry?

LARRY ELDER, SALEM RADIO NATIONAL HOST: Well, there wasn't a whole lot of difference. And, Sean, let me start by having full disclosure. You have never sought legal advice from me, although, you and I shared a car one time in New York.

HANNITY: Oh, my gosh. Oh, I forgot to tell them.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Oh, no. Full disclosure.

ELDER: Let me tell you why the media are so hysterical, Sean. They, Of course, despise Trump. They dislike Republicans in general. But the reason this is a whole level of hostilities because they know that they were part of why Trump won. They've gave him all the free publicity, having no blooming idea he was going to win. They treated him as a joke, and helped him pick off his rivals, one after the other. They feel guilty. They feel responsible. So, now, they're going after him with a vengeance. That's why the coverage has been so nasty.

HANNITY: Yeah. Michelle, where does this end for them? Because look at the criminal referral tonight. This is serious stuff now. Look --they've been wrong on Russia, and now it becomes Stormy Daniels. It's so ridiculous. You can't even make it up. But they have egg on their face because they've lied to the American people. They've hyped and hyperventilated for over a year with nothing.

MALKIN: Yeah, where does it go? Well, it's sewage. And there's a reason why they are in last place when it comes to the TV ratings, because they are no longer a credible journalism organization. Why do you think they've ratcheted it up with the attacks on you? I love the tape, the montage that you show the other night. Hannity, Hannity, Hannity, Hannity, Hannity. I mean, it sounds like opera, almost, right? And it is Wagnerian if you think about it, what's happening to them.

Look, the existence of bias has never been a problem with me. And you, and I, and Larry, have always been very upfront about what our ideological principles and views are, where we stand during election cycle, it is the pretense of objectivity. And that is the problem with CNN. There they are on their high horses, pretending to tell everybody else what qualifies as news and what qualifies as journalism. Journalism is an act. My friend, James O'Keefe, always says it. Our friend, James O'Keefe, always say journalism is an act. It is not an identity. And what threatens the mainstream media the most is that anybody can do it. Citizens can do it, talk show host can do it, ordinary bloggers can do it, and they can do it better than them.

HANNITY: And, Larry, you get to do it, I get to do it, Michelle gets to do it, and it's changed the whole landscape.

ELDER: It has. And, Sean, talk about full disclosure, did Jake Tapper tell people that he's used to be a press secretary for Democrat during her campaign? And then when she won, he'll work for her as a press secretary. Did Chuck Todd tell people that he worked for the presidential campaign of Tom Harkin, probably one of the most left-wing guys to ever run for president? Did.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Investigative reporting.

ELDER: A top aide to Bill Clinton, and he went on television and maligned Jennifer Flowers. Was that disclosed before the Comey interview? Of course not. These guys have conflict of interest of the union, but we never hear about that.

HANNITY: And, by the way, I would hire Larry and Michelle any day. And yin-yang, OK. I think you've just made a media eye headline. Great job, both of you. We appreciate it. All right, huge news tonight, upcoming developments on the meeting between the president and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, about denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula. Wait until you hear this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We've never been in a position like this with that regime, whether it's father, grandfather or son. And, I hope to have a very successful meeting. If we don't think it's going to be successful mark, we won't have it. We won't have it. If I think that it's a meeting that is not going to be fruitful, we're not going to go. If the meeting, when I'm there, is not fruitful, I will respectfully leave the meeting. And will continue what we're doing or whatever it is that we'll continue. But something will happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: That was the president earlier tonight, talking about talks with Kim Jong-un about the denuclearization of the whole Korean Peninsula. Here with reaction, retired CIA senior intelligence officer, Sonoram Policy Group vice president, Daniel Hoffman. You know, it's pretty amazing that China backed down on intellectual property, on trade tariffs. Everybody said, oh, there's going to be a trade war. The same thing happened in this particular case. Rocket man is now afraid to deal with Donald Trump, even Vladimir Putin. Moscow was -- if the president hit Syria, nothing happens. Peace through strength works. You don't have to bring in cargo planes with $150 billion in cash and beg people to like you.

DANIEL HOFFMAN, RETIRED CIA SENIOR INTELLIGENCE OFFICER: Yeah, you know, one of the great stories about this is, if anyone in congress was sitting on the fence, wondering whether they should confirm Director of CIA, Mike Pompeo, as our next secretary of state, they should look at this evidence of diplomatic initiative, and, as you've said, peace through strength. I fondly remember President Reagan's evil empire speech, which is not inconsistent with summit meetings with Soviet leaders to conduct arms control talks. And I think that's what we're doing hear with North Korea. Mike Pompeo, the president consigliere on intelligence, he's deeply respected in the region among our allies. It was an excellent decision to send him to meet with the North Koreans, with Kim Jong-un, and determine the seriousness of the North Koreans in terms of their interest in coming to the negotiation table. As the president said.

HANNITY: I've got to tell you. Mike Pompeo is one of the smartest people I have ever known. And, a really -- he's a great American and a great servant. And I wish him luck. I mean, imagine this. We have that opportunity, the president has put out an olive branch to Putin -- you know, why are you hanging out with this dictator, President Assad? And, also, look at the alliance with the Saudis, the Egyptians, the Jordanians, the Israelis, the Emirates now. There's a huge shift going on where, perhaps, a historic world peace can take place.

HOFFMAN: Yeah. And, I will tell you, I'm going to reflect my own background here, but every one of those relationships has a significant intelligence angle to them. And, in order to manage those relationships and the challenges we face, I think it really helps to have someone like Mike Pompeo with his experience leading our diplomatic efforts. I think that shows a great deal of judgment on the part of the president.

HANNITY: Amazing that they set this up just like the coalition. Nobody knew that Britain and France were going to join us in Syria. He did it behind the scenes. Any advice you'd give the president in the last 15 seconds?

HOFFMAN: No, I just think the president is on the right approach. We're going to determine whether North Koreans are serious. If they're not, we're going to continue to hit them with the sanctions and more.

HANNITY: All right, sir, thank you for being with us. We appreciate it. A lot of hope tonight, that'll be good. Be so great for the world. When we come back, we'll tell you what Hollywood actor is increasing his unhinged attack on the president. That's straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Long time ago, Robert De Niro, give credit where due, he's considered a pretty good actor in Hollywood. His roles in Godfather Part Two, Raging Bull, are some of the more memorable roles he's had in Hollywood. But, unfortunately, in the last few years, well, he started in great movies such as Dirty Grandpa, or Santa, whatever it was, and in comedienne thing. It just seems these days De Niro is very angry and continues to be unhinged, trashing the president every chance he gets. Here's the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: You made some headlines. SNL, Robert Mueller. I think we have a clip here to remind folks what you looked like here. How did this SNL cameo at Saturday night come to be?

ROBERT DE NIRO, ACTOR: Well, I was talking to Lorne and he said if there's anything you want -- you know, you can think about that you play. (INAUDIBLE) I spoke to my wife, and she said, why don't you play Mueller? I told, Mueller. How about Mueller? And that's how it came down.

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: Is this going to become a recurring thing or this is one and done?

DE NIRO: I don't know. I hope there's a couple where I interrogate him, then I arrest him, and then I escort him to jail.

UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: You mean Trump.

DE NIRO: Who did you think I mean?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, De Niro's anti-Trump rant today didn't stop there. According to reports, at the opening of the Tribeca Film Festival this afternoon, he slammed President Trump as a lowlife in chief. I'm sure that so hurts anybody. Anyway, Di Nero needs to focus on acting, maybe not. Maybe -- whatever. All right. Listen, we've got a big show tomorrow night. Hope you'll join us. The great one, Mark Levin, Judge Jeanine Pirro, Kellyanne Conway, Alan Dershowitz, will all be joining us. We will always be fair and balance. We're not the destroy Trump media. Let not your heart be troubled. Laura Ingraham in Washington, tonight.

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