Eric Trump: The president has put jet fuel on the economy

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Eric Trump: The president has put jet fuel on the economy

Eric Trump weighs in on his father's success with boosting the U.S. economy and the left's and media's assault on the Trump administration

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," May 2, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: All right. Buckle up, welcome to “Hannity,” thank you for being with us.

We have multiple major developments to bring you, including proof that Comey's deep state cabal spied on the Trump campaign. We have tonight breaking news, an admission from Ukrainian embassy -- in fact, the DNC did try to collude with their government during the 2016 election. We actually have evidence.

We are going to show you how the Democratic Party is unraveling right before your eyes, lawmakers, presidential candidates alike literally melting down because they are Russia, Russia, Russia, collusion fantasy -- it's over. Anything from here on is just noise, nothing more, noise.

The witch hunt is done. Mueller has gone home. No collusion, no obstruction.

They lost, they lied, they conspired, they send out conspiracy theories and hoaxes. And now, the boomerang of justice is in full motion.

We start tonight, a breaking report from "The New York Times" which might have actually gotten something straight for a change, amazing, they even said wow, the dossier might actually be Russian disinformation to influence the 2016 election, the one Hillary played for. But according to the paper, their news tonight, deep state spying against the Trump campaign did occur, a little late, but in a big way.

The headline reads, quote: FBI sent investigator posing as assistant to meet with Trump aide in 2016. The article details a London meeting between a female FBI investigator working undercover, a Cambridge professor, and a foreign policy expert named Stefan Halper. Here, we've talked a lot about this. And Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos, he spent two weeks in jail.

The meet-up was supposed to be a foreign policy strategy session. The undercover investigator, well, set up the meeting. Halper was working as a secret FBI informant, and the pair both worked in unison to spy on Papadopoulos to set the Trump campaign up.

Quote: the conversation at a London bar in September 2016 took a strange turn when the woman sitting across from George Papadopoulos asked a direct question: was the Trump campaign working with Russia?

Keep in mind, Halper was also set up, multiple meetings with Trump campaign aide Carter Page, and Sam Clovis, and who is being wiretapped. Another way they spied on the Trump campaign by the FBI after the FBI director, Comey, and others obtained that FISA warrant using Hillary Clinton's opposition research, what "The New York Times" now suggesting could be Russian disinformation, the phony, unverified dossier, the dirty, Russian dossier.

Wow, it is all beginning to come into focus, as I have been predicting.

None of these spying sessions yielded any evidence of Trump-Russia collusion, because there was no collusion. But without a doubt, spying, the attorney general's right, did occur, in the height of a presidential election under the Biden-Obama administration watch, against an opposition party candidate, who knew, what, when? We will get those answers eventually.

Tonight, Democrats -- they are pretty detached from reality. Anything from here on in, it is noise. They can't handle -- they couldn't handle the election loss, they can handle no collusion, no obstruction. But it's over. But watch them anyway.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, D-R.I.: In the entirety of your previous career in the Department of Justice, including us attorney general, have you ever referred to authorize department investigative activities, officially or publicly, as "spying?" I'm not asking for a private conversation.

WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I'm not going to abjure the use of the word "spying". I think -- you know, my first job was in the CIA, I don't think the word spying has any pejorative connotation at all appear.

WHITEHOUSE: But you recognize --

BARR: The question is always whether or not it is authorized and adequately predicated spying. I think spying is a good English word that, in fact, doesn't have synonyms because it is the broadest word incorporating really all forms of covert intelligence collection. So I'm not going to back off the word spying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: By the way, thank god for the great intelligence officers that serve we the people. They are protecting us every day, the 99 percent, thank God for the premiere law enforcement agency in the entire world, the FBI, the 99 percent.

Tonight, though, we know the deep state aggressively spied on the Trump campaign during and after the election. That is the biggest abuse of power. That's what we've got to solve, and if we don't get to the bottom of it, we lose the country.

No sign that the Clinton campaign faced any similar scrutiny, even though, as it turns out, well, there was a massive amount of evidence that Clinton and the DNC more than once -- pay close attention -- trying to collude with foreign governments. Don't take it from me, just look at what the Ukrainian embassy confirmed to "The Hill's" John Solomon, who will join us with a minute.

Bombshell new report from him details the government of Ukraine is accusing a DNC contractor named Alexandra Chalupa of attempting to collude with their government, saying that she, quote, sought information from the Ukrainian government on Paul Manafort's dealings inside the country in the hopes of forcing the issue before Congress.

According to the ambassador's office, Chalupa also, quote, tried to arrange for the Ukrainian president to comment on Manafort's Russian ties on a U.S. visit during the 2016 campaign. Evidence, this comes after Ukrainian court found that high ranking officials inside its government sought to help Hillary Clinton win the election, an admission from Bruce Ohr that a Ukrainian lawmaker was feeding phony, anti-Trump dirt to Fusion GPS, the firm that, well, yes, Bruce Ohr's wife Nellie worked for, the firm responsible for the bought and paid for, Russian lies to influence the 2016 election.

It might have been Russian disinformation according to "The New York Times," and we're gong to have more in my monologue in a moment.

Joining us first now to break down the shocking new developments, "The Hill's" John Solomon.

John, let me just remind people, there is another aspect of this. We played the tape. We have then Vice President Biden, who basically is holding $1 billion of American aid money hostage, saying --

JOHN SOLOMON, THE HILL EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT: That's right.

HANNITY: -- I'm leaving in six hours. You fire this prosecutor, well, you are not getting the billion dollars. You don't believe me, call Obama.

Prosecutor apparently was investigating his son, and his tactic worked. The prosecutor investigating Biden's son gave into Biden's, well, let's just say pressure, just as backdrop. Tell us what you've got.

SOLOMON: Yes, listen, Ukraine is the Democrats' Russia in 2016. And the truth of the matter is where -- the evidence did not pan out, the story that the Democrats built on Russia to accuse President Trump of colluding with them did not pan out. It turned out there was no collusion. In Ukraine, you see clear evidence now that Democratic figures starting with the Obama White House and now a Democratic National Committee contractor were asking for Ukraine's help in building the story about Paul Manafort and trying to tar Donald Trump with it.

And the ambassador is very clear about what happened. She came in, she had this plan to get this information and she would break it in Congress and then try to get Donald Trump disqualified in the election in the fall, so they have an October surprise plan, so to speak, or maybe September surprise.

But the ambassador says it's clearly happened in one of his deputies told me Ukraine actually went and gathered all of the evidence to see what they had on Donald Trump. The ambassador said ultimately they chose not to give it to this woman because they knew what she was asking was unlawful intervention in the U.S. election. But pretty extraordinary that the party that gave us the Russia collusion narrative, the full story, was colluding itself with the Ukrainian -- or trying to collude with the Ukrainian government.

HANNITY: You know, John, all of the people that are -- obstruction, obstruction, obstruction, notice that they never talk about -- and this is the same time period, this is what makes it so interesting. They don't care about Hillary's obvious obstruction with intent, the intent was to delete, destroy the evidence, a multitude of ways from the underlying crimes that was top secret classified emails, violation of felonies on the Espionage Act. They don't care about that.

Just like they don't care about, oh, the lieutenant governor of the commonwealth of Virginia, serious, serious charges of rape and violence and sexual assault. No "I believers", but if they can bludgeon Kavanaugh, it matters. Now, we've got real evidence of real collusion from a DNC staffer asking for it with a real email, and the Ukrainians admitting it, where are all of the other people? Where are all the colluder people?

SOLOMON: Yes. That's right, and she sent an email to the DNC later bragging about her efforts in Ukraine. So there is no way the DNC couldn't say they didn't know what she was up to. She sent an email posting about it and predicting there was a big development that was about to come. That email was sent two weeks before the Ukrainians illegally leaked the Manafort documents in Ukraine, which sent the beginnings -- really the origins of a lot of this false Russian narrative.

So, the documents are there. I heard a lot of people in the intelligence community, in the last hour since my story broke, they said they've heard this rumor for a long time. They were amazed the ambassador finally confirmed it was true.

HANNITY: And we'll have -- there is more common, by the way. Investigative reporter with "The Hill," John Solomon who's staying with us, he will be back in a few minutes.

But, first, we have more breaking news, Catherine Herridge, she wrapped up an important interview with the president.

And, Catherine, a lot of breaking news there, especially as it relates to James Comey. Tell us what you learned.

CATHERINE HERRIDGE, CHIEF INTELLIGENCE CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Sean, and good evening.

The president told Fox the declassification of the Russia surveillance records will be coming, quote, soon, suggesting midsummer at the outside.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HERRIDGE: Is there a timeline on when the public will see these Russia records declassified?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT: Yes, I'm going to allow declassification pretty soon. I didn't want to do it originally because I wanted to wait, because I know what they -- I have seen the way they play, they play very dirty. So, I decided to do it, and I'm going to be doing it very soon, far more than you would have even thought.

HERRIDGE: May, June, July?

TRUMP: No, soon. I mean, whenever they needed, I will be doing it, but I will be declassifying, yes, everything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HERRIDGE: Speaking in "The New York Times," the former FBI Director James Comey accuse the president of being, quote, amoral and rubbing off on the attorney general, William Barr, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

The president shot back in this exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HERRIDGE: If you take Director Comey out of the equation and his actions in 2016 and 2017, would the country be where it is today?

TRUMP: I think he did a terrible job. I would say he probably led some kind of an effort. The word "spying" has been used, he probably was one of the people leading the effort on spying. So --

HERRIDGE: That's a very serious charge to make.

TRUMP: I know, I know. We will find out whether or not it was true, and I think it could very well be true. But we're going to find out very soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HERRIDGE: The congressional request for the former White House counsel, Don McGahn, the president said, quote, it's done, effectively over -- Sean.

HANNITY: All right. Catherine Herridge, in Washington, as usual, great work there. Big news on declassification, big news on the president's thoughts on James Comey. Thank you, Catherine, for that report. We appreciate it.

That should now echo out in the news world. We'll see if that happens. But we have some good news tonight. The president will no longer be plagued by an unfair hoax. In spite of everything that the fake news media mob says, in spite of the Democrats, in spite of subpoenas, in spite of this, it's over. They lost, it's done, it's finished.

They officially lied to the American people for over two years, they peddled conspiracy theories. It was all a hoax from the get-go. As the Attorney General Barr yesterday put all of the fake, phony collusion narrative to rest once and for all, and whether they like it or not, he has the final say, and the evidence didn't bear out everything they said.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.: Do you share my concerns about the FISA warrant process?

BARR: Yes.

GRAHAM: Do you share my concerns about the counterintelligence investigation, how it was opened and why?

BARR: Yes.

GRAHAM: Do you share my concerns that the professional -- lack of professionalism in the Clinton email investigation is something we should all look at?

BARR: Yes.

GRAHAM: Do you expect to change your mind about the bottom line conclusions of the Mueller report?

BARR: No.

GRAHAM: Do you think the president's campaign in 2016 was thoroughly looked at in terms of whether or not they colluded with the Russians?

BARR: Yes.

GRAHAM: And the answer is no, according to Bob Mueller.

BARR: That's right.

GRAHAM: He couldn't decide about obstruction, you did. Is that correct?

BARR: That's right.

GRAHAM: Do you feel good about your decision?

BARR: Absolutely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Let me summarize: Mueller is finished, the investigation, the charges, the lies are all over. But the FISA abuse will be looked into. Yes, abuse of power within the upper ranks of the FBI and DOJ will be looked into. This counterintelligence, quote, "narrative," how did it all happen? We will get to the bottom of it. Hillary's, yes, how did she get a rigged investigation? That too is now being looked at.

Nadler apparently doesn't believe his fellow Democrats have the intellectual capacity, though, to question the attorney general of the United States. House Oversight, it belongs to House members, not their staff, not unelected, not unaccountable attorneys.

Congressman Doug Collins of Georgia said it best, saying, quote, over the 206-year history of this committee, staff have never questioned witnesses in an oversight hearing. Never, not once. So to say that Chairman Nadler's demands are unprecedented would be an understatement.

Well said, Congressman.

Now, Democrats -- they are becoming noticeably unhinged even more, and it is not a pretty picture. This is sort of like election night 2016 on super steroids and human growth hormone.

Today, Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen tried to sent a political message to Barr by chomping down on some fried chicken in the middle of a committee hearing. I'm not making -- that happens to be my favorite, by the way.

Other Democrats took a more predictable approach, demanded Barr be impeached for misrepresenting the Mueller report and his initial letter, even though Mueller admitted that Barr summary was not in any way -- nothing was inaccurate, nothing was illegal. I'm sorry, misleading. Nothing.

And Barr was under no legal obligation to release any portion of the Mueller report, and still the hysteria ensued. As a matter of fact, it was the Democrats after the independent counsel law -- people like Nadler didn't even want the Starr report released, which was mandated. There were 11 separate felonies in the Starr report that they said Clinton committed. Yes, very different story.

Editorial board of "The Wall Street Journal," they don't agree. They wrote this: This trashing of Bill Barr shows how frustrated and angry Democrats continue to be that the special counsel came up empty in his Russia collusion probe.

"The Journal' called Barr a real attorney general that is getting smeared for refusing to duck and cover like Loretta Lynch, writing, Lynch, quote, failed as Obama's last attorney general to make a prosecutorial judgment about Hillary Clinton's misuse of classified information. Ms. Lynch cowered before the bullying of then FBI Director Comey, who absolved Mrs. Clinton of all wrongdoing.

And this brings us full circle right back to Hillary Clinton, from Ukrainian collusion with evidence to the dirty dossier, collusion might as well be Clinton's middle name at this point. All people must be held accountable, including Hillary Clinton, Loretta Lynch, even Strzok and Page say she made every decision. It was rigged from the get-go.

What did crazy Uncle Joe know? Nellie Ohr, Chris Steele, so many other, but not the rank-and-file FBI, not the rank-and-file intelligence people.

Investigations we now know investigations are underway and we know criminal investigations are underway, and we know indictments will be coming. Senator Graham will reportedly now ask the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Roberts, to officially investigate FISA abuse, fraud, before the judges he appoints.

Inspector General Horowitz is conducting and finishing his FISA investigation. John Huber is finishing his investigation into leaks and other matters. Bill Barr is officially investigating all of the deep states buying at all related matters. And in the days, weeks, and months ahead, we must get this right, it's not a matter of, OK, we were ahead of the curve, we got it right, our ensemble team, we dug down and dug for the truth.

Government must never be allowed, the few, to use the powerful tools of intelligence we give them to protect us against their own law-abiding citizens, and undo an election because they didn't like the results. We live in a constitutional republic that upholds the rights of its citizens, or we have no country. We better get it right. We better hold those guilty accountable. We got to stop the rampant abuse of power and make sure it never happens again.

Here now, author of the number one bestseller "The Russian Hoax," Gregg Jarrett, Fox News contributor Sara Carter, John Solomon remains.

Let's go to you -- I look at, Sara Carter, the statement of Bill Barr, the definitive moment, the big headline, and interestingly, I read a lot every day. I didn't see the understanding of what actually happened yesterday anywhere, except "The Wall Street Journal."

SARA CARTER, CONTRIBUTOR: No. Yes, I mean -- well, this is exactly what they do. It is a complete fight back. It was, you know, this is part of this disinformation campaign, and they are targeting Barr now because they didn't get what they wanted, which was actually, they didn't get anything from Robert Mueller that show there was collusion. In fact, it was just the opposite.

And, Sean, I want to talk about what happened today. You know, Attorney General Barr did the right thing. He doesn't need to sit in front of, you know, the Judiciary Committee and be questioned by people that are not part of that committee, that are just the attorneys for the committee. I think he sent a direct message when he said, look, I even gave -- he gave the report with even less redactions, and they refused, they refused to look at it.

So what the public saw, he turned over the report to them. Even with less redaction, and they refused to look at it. That should tell you something about how the Democrats are operating here. This is a game, this is gaslighting, and Barr is not going to stand for it.

What is important is what you said, this should never happen again in the United States of America. We need to understand how much of our intelligence apparatus, as well as our federal law enforcement, was weaponized to go after a political opponent, and we need to know that they didn't abuse this beyond what we saw. So, this will take an extensive investigation, Sean.

HANNITY: Gregg, so many different aspects of this. I want to put your legal mind to work here. So, again, listening to the attorney general, listening to what he is investigating, knowing an avalanche of information -- Catherine Herridge's report is very key. We are going to get declassified information that we all -- we four know is going to blow things wide open.

JARRETT: Now that the Russia hoax has been exposed, the witch hunt has ended, I call it now, the step is, the reckoning. People who abused their positions of power to frame Donald Trump need to be held accountable, as you have said. And they will no doubt be looking at the actions of Hillary Clinton, paying for Russian disinformation and feeding it to an all too willing FBI that is not only launching without credible evidence and investigation of Trump, but they are spying on the Trump campaign. Not just electronic surveillance of Carter Page, and probably others, but also mobilizing, deploying confidential informants to insinuate themselves into the Trump campaign -- you named three Trump officials -- in order to gather incriminating evidence of a conspiracy that was nonexistent, and they knew it was nonexistent.

HANNITY: You agree with my little theory I have in my head swelling around tonight, that I don't think Mueller is going to want to testify because I don't think he is going to want to answer when did he know there was no collusion? I'm just guessing. What do I know? I'm only a talk show host.

JARRETT: Yes. Well, according to John Dowd, the attorney -- former attorney for the president, he knew it a year ago and said so in a conversation to Dowd. So, why is it when he knew there was no underlying crime, no evidence of it, that he put this nation through a nightmare for another year end?

HANNITY: Let me give the last word tonight to John Solomon, who broke a lot of news for us tonight. John?

SOLOMON: You know, when I was watching the hearing yesterday, I was reminded of the old outdoor theater shows, and when they had to change that on stage, they would send out a mime and minstrel and they would distract the audience while they change the set.

That is what is going on. We have a drama called Russia collusion. It got run out of Broadway, and now, the FISA abuse is going on and all those Democrats are playing the minstrel's role.

HANNITY: It's fascinating, act one is over, and act two that has real evidence, real evidence -- let me repeat, real evidence, is just starting.

Thank you all for your hard work. All of you have done an amazing job, thank you so much.

When we come back, Eric Trump reacts to the explosive "New York Times" report about the FBI sending an undercover informant to infiltrate the Trump campaign.

And later, you won't believe whose photo Joe and Mika hung on their wall, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Here with the reaction on all of the breaking news tonight, Trump Organization executive vice president, Eric Trump. Can I redo something? Great to see you, by the way, congratulations on the big announcement, number two's on the way, and what do we know?

ERIC TRUMP, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S SON: We are excited, Sean. We haven't announced it, but we're excited.

HANNITY: I don't reveal sources like other people.

TRUMP: I know. That's right.

HANNITY: Do you know we have financial optimism, 18 year high? Fifty-six percent of Americans, their current financial situation the highest since 2001, 69 percent said they expect to be better off financially in a year, the highest in 16 years.

Europe is at 0.3 percent growth the last two quarters. And even during a government shutdown, your dad got us 3.2 percent, Obama couldn't get that in a year in his entire presidency.

TRUMP: And highest stock market of all time, and the best consumer confidence of all time, and lowest unemployment of all time, and, you know, lowest joblessness claims of all time. I mean, I can go on and on and on.

But we have the hottest economy in the world, there's no question about it. My father is doing everything he said he would do, which is really put jet fuel on this economy, and he has done it. And we are the envy of the entire world.

And, you know, it's amazing, when you look at the charade he has seen over the days, it is sad because we are doing so well, and all the Democrats want to do is distract from that point, all his successes, everything he said he was going to achieve for this country, all they want to do is distract everybody else from that. It is actually hugely detrimental to our country.

HANNITY: You know, Eric, when you have time, you have a young son who is a great kid, when your time, I know you watch the show. I know you know the issues we have been covering that have been separate, apart, and unique from the rest of the media. There are a few of us, you know, Laura, Tucker, they have been great. "Fox & Friends" have been great, not many others, though. Rush and Mark on the radio, fantastic.

And it's over.

TRUMP: Yes.

HANNITY: It's finished. Anything from here on in is noise.

TRUMP: But they won't let it go.

HANNITY: But everything else is -- now, it's just really beginning. It really is. You know, it's intermission, and now, the second half begins.

TRUMP: Well, you know, Sean, they won't let it go. They were so wrong at the election, right? So, then, it was -- well, he colluded with Russia, and then all of a sudden, that got debunked. Well, there is obstruction, and then that got debunked. Well, let's subpoena everybody in the Trump orbit, let's subpoena his family and then let's subpoena his lawyers, and let's subpoena his banks, and let's subpoena his accountants.

Let's just throw a net out into the middle of the river and hope we catch something, because the narrative once again totally failed, and Trump was right, he was wiretapped at the very beginning, and he was spied on and the Deep State does exist.

Everything that you say every single night was absolutely true. And so now they are grasping at straws, they are trying again, and this is what you get out of these people. They don't want to work for the American people, they don't want to do their jobs in Congress, and I say this as a civilian. People are sick and tired of this nonsense. They want their legislators to actually work and do their jobs, and that's why you see the approval rating of Congress is terrible, because these people are incompetent.

HANNITY: I think we saw it on election night, I remember, I called your dad and I said somebody is drawing straws right now, and we're going to bring you really bad news, because I saw the exit polls pretty early.

And you know, it's interesting, but now they want, okay, let's do a fishing expedition. Let's get inside his tax records, let's empower the IRS to bludgeon a political opponent, let's go fishing and get his bank records. If your father cured cancer and gave every American $5 million and adopted their agenda, I'm still convinced they would be obsessed with raging this psychotic hatred towards him.

TRUMP: You know what, but Sean it tells you that they're failing as a party, if you think about it, right. This is what they're focused on. They don't have any leaders out there. I mean, these candidates all look very weak to me. I welcome running against quite frankly any of them and helping my father in every way we can. But they are failing, Sean. They don't have a message, they don't have proper leadership, and I'm telling you, he's going to win this thing again. He is going to win this thing in 2020, because they're just - they're incredibly deranged.

HANNITY: And by the way, we're energy independent for the first time in 75 years.

(CROSSTALK)

By the way, you want to beat the hostile regime of Russia? You want to bring Putin to his knees? Keep producing energy, it's over for them.

TRUMP: He is doing that better than any person in the world.

HANNITY: There you go.

(CROSSTALK)

Congrats on the great news.

TRUMP: Thank you very much.

HANNITY: And I'm not giving away the state secret.

TRUMP: Do not.

HANNITY: Deal.

TRUMP: All right, great to see you, Sean.

HANNITY: The Hate Trump Media Mob went absolutely apoplectic, insane, because they were proven to be liars, conspiracy theorists, and wrong. Congressman Matt Gaetz, Joe Concha are here. We have the tape -- oh, you won't believe what Alec Baldwin said this time about smelly Walmart Trump supporters, irredeemable deplorable stores that cling to their God, gun, bibles, and religion, people like us. Straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Right now, despite the collusion narrative, Russia, Russia, Russia narrative, obstruction, obstruction narrative is dead and buried. All the Hate Trump Media Mob is resorting to more hysteria, breathless reporting, baseless smear attacks. Now, they are just targeting the Attorney General. Impeach him. OK, don't serve the people, never go in that direction. New Green Deal is not good, anyway. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I understand that it doesn't make political sense to impeach Donald Trump. And for the life of me, I don't know why Democrats would not start gathering evidence to impeach this man. Barr is not an Attorney General of the United States. He is Donald Trump's defense attorney.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lackey.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is his lackey. He is his stooge.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG, AMERICAN ACTRESS: When they top law man in the country can't give you a straight answer, it makes me uncomfortable. It feels coup - like it's a coup of some sort, because you don't want to lose the law. You don't want to lose the law.

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT: Incredibly frustrating to watch, filled with legalistic hairsplitting and political ass covering.

(LAUGHTER)

I'd say it made me want to wring his neck, but I need like five more hands.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And it's predictable and it gets even creepier. Alright, Joe and Mika, you know what, you seem like nice people, you really do. But you're kind of taking your collusion delusion to a really creepy level. Just look at their new home decor that they had to post on social media. (VIDEO PLAYING)

HANNITY: Only thing missing there were Uggs. I'm going to send Joe sweatpants, a T-shirt, and an FBI or NYPD hat, because that's what I wear. I think it's better than whatever the other thing that is.

Any way it's easier to laugh, but remember fake news has real, significant consequences. These lies, these conspiracies went on for two plus years, and hours ago The Washington Post, they were forced to issue a correction after calling the Nation of Islam leader racist and anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan a Far Right leader in an article about Facebook banning personalities.

Well, guess what, Farrakhan is not. Post eventually removed the Far Right from the headline, but it's just the latest in a long line of errors, including two years of Russian lies. Media reporter from The Hill WOR radio host in New York, Joe Concha, and Congressman Matt Gaetz, Florida, Pensacola, member of the Freedom Caucus, thank God for the Freedom Caucus, you guys have been amazing.

It's so damaging, what they have done here, in the media. And I know you go on these stupid liberal shows that nobody watches; I don't know why. And I know you're trying to educate people. It's kind of fruitless. But the damage is real. Media will never -

REP. MATT GAETZ, R-FLA.: Yes.

HANNITY: They will never eliminate Trump's branding of fake news. All they do is reinforce it every day.

GAETZ: Well, Sean, if you will have me on every night, I will never go on another show again, but I'll tell you that you're right about the real harm caused by the media. And I think it manifests in three ways. First, the deceptive stories put out to distract the President and undermine the public's confidence in the good work that he has been doing for the country.

Second, the bribes. You will remember Inspector General Michael Horowitz alluded to the fact that a report is coming about the media giving illegal gifts and sporting and concert tickets to people in the FBI to get information to try to frame the narrative about this terrible series of acts that were going on. And then finally, the feedback loop that existed between Robert Mueller's team and the media, I mean, my goodness, Mueller sites the media 138 times, twice as many times in his "Obstruction of Justice" law school essay than in the facts detailing the lack of collusion or criminal conspiracy with Russia.

And so time and again, the media is not just reporting on these things, they are integrally involved in some of the worst acts that lead us to this moment. But as my friend, Chuck Grassley, said earlier "The gig is up. We now know no collusion, no obstruction, the Attorney General has laid out the conclusions, and now we get to the bottom of who put us on this very dark path."

HANNITY: Okay. As I said, from now on, anything on this is now noise, nothing else. I think the Congressmen Joe and you, to your credit, you stand apart. I don't think you are part of the club. There is a reason I've never been to a Washington correspondent's dinner. Fox tried to force me to go, thank God I have been here 22 years and I just get to say, "no chance."

But in the beginning, it was kind of hard to say, "I'm sick, I can't make it." I never wanted to go. But the congressman is right. There is this bubble, this sewer swamp, this incestuous relationship that we know exist. They hang out together, they drink together, they date, sometimes get married which is fine, but it is a club. And there is no honest separation between the media and the democratic agenda. It is now worse than ever.

JOE CONCHA, MEDIA REPORTER, THE HILL: It does seem there are a lot of journalists that try to impress each other and re-tweet each other and try to stay in that club you talk about, more than informing readers. Look, I like to play a game of compare and contrast in these situations. Because everybody is so upset about Bill Barr, who was only doing his job, who has only done everything he said he would do in terms of releasing the report, very few redactions, and now it is out there for everybody to read.

So I'm not sure what the cover-up is when we know there was no collusion. But here's the thing, do you ever see even one-tenth the outrage when Loretta Lynch, who was an Attorney General, met with Bill Clinton while Hillary Clinton was being investigated. Do you remember even one-tenth of the outrage when-

HANNITY: How about Hillary's obstruction?

CONCHA: I'm sorry?

HANNITY: How about Hillary's obstruction?

CONCHA: Sure. But I'm just talking about in terms of Attorney Generals right now. Eric Holder, he withheld documents from the Oversight Committee and he was held in contempt. Did you hear any media members at all calling for his resignation, for him to be impeached? Of course, not. And that's why when you play clips like that, half the country says, "Yeah. Nah, I'm not buying it," because you didn't express the same outrage when far, far worse was done by Attorney Generals and in this case, Bill Barr, by many accounts, did not do anything wrong in the situation because Mueller could have reviewed that letter or his summary before it went out. He declined to do so.

So Mueller could have prevented this whole thing around context from ever happening if he reviewed that summary in the first place. He declined to do so. That's on Bob Mueller; that's not Bill Barr.

HANNITY: It's true. And to Barr's credit, he gave him that opportunity. And also, he calls him -- Mueller didn't disagree with anything, nothing. Congressmen, 15 seconds, you get it. GAETZ: Hey, I'm glad you pointed out that Louis Farrakhan is not a member of the Far Right; he is far wrong. And if he is part of the right movement in the left, then I am a black panther. I'm glad you called out the media for that terrible, terrible smear.

HANNITY: Okay, thank you both for being with us. When we come back, crazy Alec Baldwin, shocking statements about Trump supporters, the American people. Dan Bongino, Geraldo with reactions, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Quite unfortunately tonight, deranged far left actor, Alec Baldwin ramping up his attacks on Trump supporters and again belittling hardworking Americans all across the country. Wow, condescending Hollywood jackass, take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEC BALDWIN, AMERICAN ACTOR: After he won, which was horrifying to me, because if you are a New Yorker, you are on to Trump. He is not the host of "The Apprentice," who has fooled all these flyover Americans that he is this crack businessman. We kind of know that he is something else. This is the real tragedy. He is exactly the same today as he was back in November of 2016.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: He fooled all of those flyover Americans. Let's see, they elected somebody who gave us record wage growth, over 3% GDP. Europe is at 23% the last two quarters. Energy independence, first time in 75 years. Lowest jobless claims since 1969, Alec, and the list goes on, genius. In fact, ones getting fooled are those in the radical Hollywood hate machine that fell for the two-year Russia hoax. Now, Baldwin has doubled down, smearing the Attorney General Barr and Senator Lindsey Graham asking, "Why God- fearing Americans think he is worthy of a Senate seat?" He's going to win in 2020, just in case you are interested.

And of course, Baldwin's beef with the working class is well documented. He mocked me once for being a construction worker hack. These B-list actors, D-list ideas are so consumed with anti-Trump rage, it is a psychosis. They have lost all ability to think rationally, completely disconnected. Here with reaction Fox News Correspondent-At-Large, Geraldo Rivera; Fox News Contributor Dan Bongino. Irredeemable, deplorable, Geraldo. Cling to God, guns, bibles, religion, smelly Walmart people -- guilty.

GERALDO RIVERA, CONTRIBUTOR-AT-LARGE: Well, for the last two years, I've been a--

HANNITY: And a construction worker, ten years; and in restaurant business, about 10 years. RIVERA: You are. As a proud resident of flyover country, Sean, I can only say that, "I'm at least as urban gritty as Alec Baldwin." We come from about 10 miles from each other. He's got some personal style that is attractive, but he is also a fete (ph), he's an elitist. He is tiresome with these cliches. He is -- obviously, he has a superiority complex. And he things that only dumb people voted for the President.

It's very frustrating for people like Alec Baldwin because they lost. And I only -- just thinking about this, watching your great show, watching John Solomon's report, you know what occurred to me? What occurred to me was, if Mueller knew a year ago that there was no collusion, did he tell the President, or did he set a trap?

Did he set a trap to get attempted obstruction by the President because he didn't share--

HANNITY: Yes.

RIVERA: --with the President that there was no collusion. I think that if these people -- look, if the Alec Baldwins of the world looked at the evidence as it exists, listen to what Attorney General Barr said, they are absolutely - they are blanking themselves out. They're putting their fingers in their ears. They don't want to hear the truth and it has caused the schism that allows a person like Alec Baldwin to be so scornful of hardworking people.

HANNITY: You know, I actually think what makes America great, Dan, are the people that get up, take care of their kids, shovel coffee down their throat, put their 14 hours in, pay their taxes, obey the laws, follow the rules, help their kids study, put them into bed, go to bed exhausted, wake up and do it all again every day. Every day, those people, every day people, the flyover people, the smelly Walmart people, they are the great Americans.

DAN BONGINO, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT: Yes. And you know what else makes America great, Sean? Liberty, like tangible liberty and freedom, I mean the freedom to do with your economic resources, the fruits of your labor, to make choices for your kid's education, to pick where you go to the doctor -- actual, touchable, feel-able freedom and liberty makes America great.

And the irony is the Donald Trump presidency has done more to enhance that than any presidency we have seen since Ronald Reagan. You have more of your money through tax cuts, more of your freedom back through judicial restraint and good judge appointments, regulatory red tape reform, he is a supporter of school choice based on who he has appointed to these positions.

Is Alec Baldwin insane? And by the way, one of the great clips of all time is him trying to do your job on talk radio and having to read like a cookbook because he couldn't put together four or five sentences on the radio and callers wouldn't call in. So, Alec, they want to put down a little bit.

HANNITY: It's the greatest tape in the history of radio, any callers?

BONGINO: Yes.

HANNITY: No callers.

BONGINO: It's awesome.

HANNITY: What is the number? It is right in front of you. Oh, interesting.

BONGINO: And he makes fun of you! He couldn't do your job for five minutes.

HANNITY: Geraldo, how - why does somebody needs to touch with - lose touch with -- how do you make fun of the people that work so hard every freaking day and do everything right for the country?

RIVERA: It was obvious when in the Clinton campaign, when she could slander half the country by calling them a basket of deplorables. In other words, you had to be deplorable to want to vote for Donald Trump. It's so arrogant. It is really so condescending. It's intolerable.

HANNITY: It's obnoxious. Good to see you both, Dan, Geraldo. Another outrageous development, Smollett case. Villain Of The Day, we didn't have time last night, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Tonight's Villain is Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx yet again. Trace Gallagher in our West Coast Newsroom tonight with all of those details. Wow! Again?

TRACE GALLAGHER, CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a judge was all set to rule today on whether a special prosecutor, Sean, should investigate the Jussie Smollett case, but then the women who petitioned for a special counsel, former appellate court judge Sheila O'Brien abruptly asked the judge to recuse himself because his son works for the Cook County State's Attorney and the judge unhappily agreed to consider it.

Sheila O'Brien thinks Smollett got special treatment, but State's Attorney Kim Foxx argues that a special prosecutor might interfere with the investigation now underway by the Cook County Inspector General. So Foxx is now against a special prosecutor. But back in March, she wrote an op-ed saying she was in favor of it. Foxx is also trying to prevent the release of original files from her office. She was not in court today, Sean.

HANNITY: All right. Trace Gallagher in our West Coast Newsroom, great reporting as always. Unfortunately, that's all the time we do have left for today. Don't forget, you can follow me on Facebook, Twitter @seanhannity. And we'll never be the fake news media mob. Let not your heart be troubled. She is ramped up, ready to go.

Laura?

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