Florida opens investigation into election irregularities

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Florida opens investigation into election irregularities

Attorney General Pam Bondi explains why she directed the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to open a criminal investigation.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," November 13, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST:  All right. Thank you. Great show as always.

And welcome to "Hannity".

All right. Tonight, the chaos continues in south Florida. The Broward County supervisor of elections may soon be out or worse. Tonight, a criminal investigation is now underway as Republicans Ron DeSantis, Rick Scott now look poised for victory. We will bring you the very latest updates from Florida.

Plus, get this. Jim Acosta, fake news CNN, they are now suing the president in a complaint that is chock-full of abject lies and distortions.  Acosta and his employer CNN, they're actually claiming that the White House is stripping his constitutional rights by not allowing him inside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Jim must really be crying himself to sleep at night.

All right. So, coming up, we will break down the bogus lawsuit. We'll show you just how Jim's hyper-partisan unprofessional behavior is unbefitting to the industry that he claims to be serving.

And also tonight, we will preview a looming feud inside the Democratic Party between the far left and the far, far, far extreme radical left. And speaking of which, believe it or not, Hillary Clinton clearly may be gearing up for yet another presidential run.

Also tonight, Monica Lewinsky speaking out about her infamous affair in the Oval Office. She wants an apology and I think she deserves one. We'll show you the tape.

Also stay tuned, we got a lot to get to. Time for our breaking news opening monologue.

(MUSIC)

HANNITY: All right. Just a lot of ground to cover tonight. We will get it all in.

And we begin in Florida where the recount is moving forward and barring any kind of disaster, Ron DeSantis and Rick Scott will rightfully be Florida's next governor and senator.

Now, with that said, what we have seen out of liberal Broward and Palm Beach Counties has been an absolute national disgrace. Over at Broward County, election supervisor Brenda Snipes magically dislocated over 75,000 new ballots days and days after the election.

Now, earlier this week, a box containing provisional ballots was actually found by an employee at a rental car company left behind an airport in Fort Lauderdale. Multiple state election laws, we now know they were broken, disregarded altogether. A court has ruled that Snipes acted inappropriately and now, the Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement are investigating claims of criminal voter fraud.

Now, we have embattled election supervisor Brenda Snipes who might be out of a job soon. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRENDA SNIPES, BROWARD COUNTY SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS: It is time to move on, and let someone else, maybe one of you guys out there, handle the election business. But I think I have served the purpose that I came here for, which was to provide a credible product for our voters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Tonight, losing her high-paying job may be the least of her worries. The Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and Florida Senator Marco Rubio will be with us tonight.

But, first, Jim Acosta desperately trying to get back into the White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Last week, his White House pass was revoked after what was clearly unprofessional conduct, an incident where he just refused to give up a shared microphone. Shared, keyword. Made contact with a White House intern who tried to take the microphone back. And, literally, he wanted to debate the president of the United States after accusing him pretty much of being a racist. Well, that's sort of like par for the course at fake news CNN.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN REPORTER: If I may ask you a question --

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: That's enough, that's enough.

ACOSTA: I just wanted to ask another question --

TRUMP: That's enough.

ACOSTA: Pardon me, ma'am --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: That's enough. Put down the microphone.

ACOSTA: Mr. President, are you worried about indictments coming down in this investigation?

REPORTER: Mr. President --

TRUMP: I tell you what? CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You should not be working for CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, while Acosta's pass was revoked for his unprofessional conduct, no one else at CNN, by the way, is affected. Nobody. And, by the way, the president answered his question.

How many times does the president of the United States need to tell someone, a fame-seeking reporter, that's enough, that's enough?

Now, CNN still has access to the White House. Acosta is still free to spew his anti-Trump hatred anywhere he wants, just not inside the walls of the White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

But now, Acosta and CNN are suing President Trump and other officials in the administration.

Now, the lawsuit laughably claims that Acosta's constitutional rights have been violated. The complaint also goes on to list the following lies as facts: they say that Acosta merely asked a question during the press conference.

Well, you just saw it. That's a lie. He tried to grandstand, he gave his commentary, and he wanted to debate the president.

Next, the suit suggests that Acosta didn't put his hand on the White House intern. Well, you can see right there on your screen, well, the intern tried to get the microphone back, and there was contact. I'm not saying anything bad happened with that.

But the complaint also claims that Acosta has been a journalist -- this is my favorite -- for more than two decades and is widely respected for his diligence and independence. That's the biggest lie.

Jim Acosta is a lot of things. He is not a fair, balanced, independent journalist.

Now, he is a far left, grandstanding, sycophant, left-winger, capitalizing on his blatant anti-Trump bias. And his conduct inside the White House has been frankly, a lot of times anything but professional. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: I'm not sure this press conference was ever on the rails, as you heard numerous times during this news conference, the president was not in touch with reality.

The people who work at this White House all the way up to the president evidently believe that journalists are the enemy of the people, literally, the enemy of the people. I'll say that the press is not the enemy of the people, and, you know, I think maybe we should make some bumper stickers, make some buttons.

A wall can be different than border security, sir.

SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: No, actually --

ACOSTA: It could mean agents, more fencing, it doesn't necessarily mean a physical wall --

SANDERS: That is part of the negotiation we expect Congress to have --

ACOSTA: Democrats are saying they may not be in favor of this kind of deal. They say thanks, but no thanks for the wall.

SANDERS: Jim, I'm not negotiating with you. I'm going to let Congress take care of that.

ACOSTA: What we are witnessing is erosion of our freedoms in terms of covering the president of the United States. I think there are moments where this president is sensitive to criticism and he lashes out.

The last three news conferences, Wolf, all of the questions from the American news media have been handled by conservative press and I think, Wolf, there is no other way to describe it but the fix is in.

The Statue of Liberty has always been a bastion of hope for people of the world --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jim, do you believe -- Jim, I appreciate your speech --

ACOSTA: I think we saw the president's true colors today and I'm not sure they were red, white, and blue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Not sure if they are red, white, and blue? True colors. That would be opinion. I thought he was supposed to be a journalist.

Now, Jim Acosta's coverage of President Obama was actually a little different. Take for example this glowing coverage of Obama at his 2012 inauguration. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Obviously this is the moment that everybody is waiting for. On inauguration day, the president on the first lady stepped out of their limo and walked down Pennsylvania Avenue, you know? I feel like I should pinch myself right now, Wolf. I can't believe I have this vantage point of history in the making.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: You are literally what, about 15, 20 feet away from the president?

ACOSTA: I'm probably a good, I would say, 50 feet away from the president right now, Wolf. We're very, very close.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: It sounds like he had a thrill of his life, like Chris Matthews.

Anyway, Acosta's overwhelming bias, it's not shocking. In fact, he's pretty much toeing the company line at fake news CNN. For eight long years, they just worshiped Barack Obama, they love the Clintons. Remember, Clinton news network?

Now, CNN claims to be facts first but in reality, they put their hatred for Donald Trump before anything else. Every second, every minute, every hour, every day, pretty much

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is this president trying to impersonate Hugo Chavez?  Recep Tayyip Erdogan? Vladimir Putin?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What a great case officer Vladimir Putin is. He knows how to handle an asset and that's what he's doing with the president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When do we see almost a shadow government come out and say we cannot side with the government?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why is President Trump showing sympathy for white nationalists and other hate groups?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What does that tell you in an America that one -- that in one generation called you (EXPLETIVE DELETED)? What does that tell you, Don?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can truly say that his words have absolutely emboldened white supremacists.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has given oxygen to racists. He is clearly trying to ignite a civil war in this country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a sign out there that's been hung out in the White House or outside the White House saying, if you're not white, you're not especially welcome.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The president gets two scoops and everyone else around the table gets one, and no word if there were sprinkles.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you think you have had an ear full of Donald Trump, check out what is in the air of the beagle in Britain named chief.  Brace yourself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If I took a dump on his desk, you would defend that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sixteen tweets today to start the New Year, some of them deeply disturbing. These are the messages from a person who is not well, from a leader who is not fit for office.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's president snowflake, OK? Everything -- oh, they are mean to me, that they don't like me, I just don't understand it, it's not fair.

This was a whitelash. This was a whitelash against a changing country. It was a whitelash against a black president, in part.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: That's a lot of opinion by people that claim that they're journalists, left-wing opinion.

Now, is anyone really surprised that the network that you just saw had their chief White House correspondent kicked out for unprofessional conduct?

Now, the White House is classifying the Acosta suit as, quote, "more grandstanding" from CNN.

Now, a Law and Crime website, it's a great website, op-ed, trashed the complaint, and renowned journalist Bob Woodward rebuked the lawsuit and called out the media becoming emotionally unhinged over Trump.

The great one, Mark Levin, he just ripped and slammed the suit over the so- called constitutional issue, which is a farce. Take a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

MARK LEVIN, "THE MARK LEVIN SHOW": You understand that there is nothing in the Constitution that compels the president to hold a presidential press conference, period? What, the court is going to order him to hold one?  There's nothing in the Constitution that compels the president to call on anyone from CNN, let alone Jim Acosta. Period! And Acosta does not have a constitutional right to disrupt the press conference and CNN doesn't either.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

HANNITY: And as per usual, CNN is all bark, no facts. We'll keep you updated on this ridiculous lawsuit.

Now, you might have noticed that fake news CNN, conspiracy TV MSNBC, other far left outlets, well, they now seem to be avoiding any post-midterm election coverage. It's not an accident. Democrats had a historically very poor performance in last Tuesday's election and that's why they don't want to talk about it.

Now, Republicans, yes, they lost the House, but they made gains in the Senate, something that has only happened three times in 100 years of midterm elections.

1994, let's look at the tape. Bill Clinton's first midterm election, they got shellacked. They lost 52 House seats and eight Senate seats.

It was even worse under Obama. He set a record. 2010, his first midterm, Democrats lost a whopping 63 House seats and six Senate seats.

Now, the Democrats are in disarray. Serious battle brewing tonight on Capitol Hill between far left Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and even further left-wing Democrats like the socialist, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Now, the 29-year-old incoming congresswoman from New York actually joined a climate change protest -- get this --dash outside of Pelosi's office. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ, D-N.Y., U.S. REPRESENTATIVE-ELECT: It's not about a person, this is not about a personality, but it's to show whoever is speaker, and ideally, what we see, is that should Leader Pelosi become next speaker of the House, we need to tell her that we've got her back in showing and pursuing the most progressive energy agenda that this country has ever seen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: No moderates exist in today's modern Democratic Party.

Now, this is the same incoming congresswoman who recently filmed her presidential aspirations on Instagram live while making macaroni and cheese, the same incoming congresswoman who campaigned on a message of massive tax increases and a government nanny state.

And meanwhile, other incoming members of Congress have publicly -- they come out against Nancy Pelosi taking the gavel as speaker of the House.  So, Pelosi is probably likely to become the next speaker. Many powerful Democrats are lining up behind her, including longtime Congressman Elijah Cummings.

And now, Pelosi and her allies are pulling out one of the Democrats' favorite political tactics in order to ensure her speakership. This was an "Politico" today. But watch this, the gender card.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF., MINORITY LEADER: It's very important that you cannot have the four leaders of the president, these five people, and not have the voice of women, especially since women were the majority of the voters, the workers on the campaign, and now part of the glorious victory.  When I came to Congress, there were 12 Democratic women. I said, we have to change this. Now, we'll have close to 90.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, whether or not Nancy Pelosi becomes the speaker, let me be very clear and warn you once again that the Democratic agenda does not include making the lives of the American people better. Instead, what we now know, what they hid during the election is their plan to use their power in the House for revenge. And, by the way, they will do anything and everything in their power to bog down the administration with absurd investigations.

And while House Democrats are plotting just revenge, they don't have any answer to President Trump in 2020. According to one former Hillary Clinton advisor, Hillary Clinton -- get this -- apparently, she seriously thinking about running again. We're going to have more on that, Jesse and Jessica will join us.

But, you know, it's interesting to just watch all of this unfold in action here, because you know what? It's a good thing that the president campaigned hard and broke the trend that neither Obama nor Clinton could.  Three new Senate seats, Republicans keep control of the Senate.

And now, we have more Clinton news out there as well and their old baggage, 20 years after Monica Lewinsky became a household name, after then- President Bill Clinton engaged in sexual misconduct with the White House intern, Lewinsky speaking out about the Clinton affair and the horrible damage that it did do to her life. In a new documentary series for A&E, in an opinion piece in "Vanity Fair" about why she participated in the documentary, well, Lewinsky says that if she saw Hillary Clinton, she finds the strength -- she said, if I were to see Hillary Clinton in person, I know I would summon up whatever force I needed to again acknowledge to her sincerely how very sorry I am.

By the way, good for her. By the way, I think that's extraordinarily brave, gracious, and frankly, honorable.

Here's a clip from the documentary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MONICA LEWINSKY: I just -- I felt terrible. I was scared and I just -- I was mortified and afraid of what this was going to do to my family, and, you know, I was in love with Bill at the time. So I just felt really responsible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: In the op-ed, Lewinsky also said she was disappointed that Bill Clinton said he didn't owe her an apology when he spoke with NBC News back in June. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

INTERVIEWER: But you didn't apologize to her, at least according to folks we talked to? There was never an apology?

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT: I have not talked to her.

INTERVIEWER: Do you feel like you owe her an apology?

CLINTON: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: A lot of other people to apologize to. Apparently, He's not up to the challenge. There is one standard of conduct for the Clintons and another for everyone else.

Now, for years, the biggest Clinton apologists, they were members of Hollywood. Today, they are continuing to ramp up their vile, daily hatred against President Trump and his supporters.

Last night, deranged anti-Trump actor Robert de Niro, well, he continued to spew violent rhetoric while speaking at a Friars Club event in New York City using profanity and to urge the overthrow of the government. Now, of course this type of sick behavior is nothing new. Advocating violence, using vulgar language is all part of a pattern from the Hollywood left.

I think an awful lot about blowing up the White House. They have been melting down since the day Donald Trump was elected before our very eyes.

Common sense Americans know better than to buy into the hate that they are spreading because that is exactly what it is.

All right. We'll have a lot more on all of this throughout the hour. But first joining us, we go back to our top story, and that is the shenanigans, what's going on in Florida.

Joining us now, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Pam, good to see you. Thank you for joining us. Let's talk a little bit now.

PAM BONDI, R-FLA., ATTORNEY GENERAL: Sure. You too, Sean.

HANNITY: There is an investigation. What can you tell us about it?

BONDI: Well, I, of course, will not go into any details about the criminal investigation but I felt very strongly in my independent authority as chief legal officer and law enforcement officer for the state of Florida that we had to get the Florida Department of Law Enforcement involved in this, do interviews. There have been so many allegations -- and right now, that's all they are. They are allegations.

But I've had my prosecutors on the ground in Lauderdale. We have the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. And the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has also opened a tip hotline for folks to call. You can go on their website and get it, I can give it out.

But if folks feel that they have seen evidence of fraud, call that in. We are clearly doing an investigation. We have made no conclusions. But this is about the integrity of our election process and wherever it leads, we want to be sure that voters know that our process is going to be fair and legal, Sean.

HANNITY: We had a judge Friday say the Florida constitution was violated.

Look, the canvassing board -- this is Florida law -- shall report all early voting and all tabulated vote by mail results to the Department of State within 30 minutes after the polls closed. That didn't happen.

BONDI: Right.

HANNITY: The canvassing board shall report with the exception of the provisional ballot results and update in the office every 45 minutes. It was supposed to have observers in there. That didn't happen as well.

Sixty-five of the 67 Florida counties included the Panhandle, 37 of those counties, or 35 of them, they were ravaged after the hurricane. They all got the job done.

BONDI: That's right.

HANNITY: How is it that this keeps happening in Broward County?

BONDI: Well, and that's what we're looking into, and that's what I can't go to in detail. But what you said was clearly laid out in a letter that I sent to the Florida department of law enforcement saying why we need to open a criminal investigation and that has now been done.

There is an active criminal investigation. At the same time, Sean, you know there are countless, at least seven civil lawsuits filed by the DNC, by the ACLU, I believe, by the League of Women Voters, all these civil lawsuits. They are basically trying to as you know throw out deadlines so it would be the Wild, Wild West. I mean, without deadlines, how do you manage elections?

And they also don't want to require signatures for provisional and vote by mail ballots. And let me make this very clear. Florida law --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Yes, go ahead.

BONDI: Florida law expressly and unambiguously states that you must have signature verification. So, what they want to do, they want to change the law after the ballots have all been cast and go back retroactively and change our law, which is -- it's ridiculous.

And Bill Nelson needs to take a deep breath and concede gracefully and walk away from this.

HANNITY: Let me run down the list, if I may.

BONDI: Sure.

HANNITY: We know that Snipes just, you know, in the course of the selection, rejected mixed the rejected provisional ballots with several hundred valid votes. Well, that means it's corrupted. In August, the judge ruled that Snipes actually mishandled mail in absentee ballots. In 2017, a judge ruled that she illegally destroyed ballots. Some Broward County officials in 2016, poll results were reported before the polls were closed.

It goes back to 2012. It's every year, Pam.

BONDI: And, Sean, that's why I directed the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to open an investigation, not wait until this is over. They have opened an investigation at my direction and that is ongoing and active criminally.

HANNITY: Right.

BONDI: We have intervened in all the civil lawsuits that deal with the constitution. And I feel we are on firm constitutional ground as well.

HANNITY: All right. Pam Bondi, the attorney general of Florida, thank you for updating us. We'll follow this criminal investigation closely.

When we come back, Senator Marco Rubio, he was the first person to realize what was going on. We'll talk more about that.

Later, reports tonight that Trump's legal team is finalizing their written answers to Mueller's questions. So, will this so-called witch hunt finally be coming to an end? Catherine Herridge, Gregg Jarrett, Monica Crowley, so much more, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. So, as a Florida recount is underway, Broward County has come into focus for its history of incompetence and controversy, especially under the leadership of election supervisor, there she is, Brenda Snipes.

According to former DOJ official J. Christian Adams, Snipes' misdeeds include prematurely destroying ballots after the 2016 primary race, reporting more registered voters than citizens, doctoring reports about cleaning voter rolls and losing the manual on removing dead voters.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio has been very vocal with his concerns about the election and all these era galaxies. He joins us right now.

Senator, honestly, you were the first that really brought this to my attention, thank you. Fifty-seven thousand-vote lead, now dwindling down to 12,000. Now, they are going to have even more time.

I'm concerned. You actually said -- you used the word "steal". Do you believe there's been an effort here, corruption here to steal an election?

SEN. MARCO RUBIO, R-FLA.: Well, here's what I believe. I believe the law hasn't been followed from the beginning. You know, those early votes, the last time they were cast was the Sunday before election. By law, those were supposed to be downloaded and sent to the state by 7:30 p.m. on the night of the election.

And then you have to process the absentee ballots, the mail ballots that have come in before that time. And then there's always some that come in Monday and Tuesday before the election. Those should be shortly thereafter. They didn't follow any of that.

It is also additional votes added to every county, because people are voting for overseas, or because you haven't fully processed all the ones that you had by 7:30. But you're supposed to update that every 45 minutes.  They didn't do that.

We know for example that is part of the Broward County's vote count, it includes at least 19 people who were disqualified from voting by their own canvassing board, who they only took the ballots to after being forced, after being cut, and we don't know how many others that may have happened in. And now we know they didn't start the recount, the machinery count until this morning, after -- everybody else started Saturday or Sunday, Miami-Dade is almost done. So, it's irregularity after irregularity.

And as far as stealing is concerned, let me just make this one point on that, that's what election lawyers -- the election lawyers are not coming to Florida to make sure every vote is counted. The reason why election lawyers get involved is to make sure as many votes as possible for their client is counted, and as many votes as possible for their opponent is disqualified.

And when you have in office -- this in office, an election office this incompetent, and in this lawbreaking, it creates enormous opportunity for those sorts of arguments to be made. And suddenly the elections are decided by a judge or by lawyers, not by voters the way they are supposed to be.

HANNITY: Well, we know, for example, that Snipes accidentally, she mixed in rejected provisional ballots with a number of valid votes. So, what that ultimately means, senator, is that the entire count is irreversibly corrupted, and you know we have all of these violations, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, now it's happening again.

I, for the life of me, especially after all we went through, dimpled, pebbled, scattered, smothered, covered, and everything else in 2000, this keeps happening. This keeps happening. There are 57 counties, 65 of them got it right. And more importantly, 35 of those counties had been victimized by the hurricane, especially the Panhandle. They got it right.

RUBIO: Yes. And so, you talked about a case, these provisional ballots are they were in an envelope. And what supposed to happen is you present those to the canvassing board to decide whether or not they are allowed to vote. She didn't do that. She opened it up. She basically decided they were going to count and she counted the votes.

Then she got caught. She said, I submitted to the canvassing board and they found that 21 of them should not count. So, they said, all right let's find the 21. It's too late. Once you pull the ballot out of the envelope there's no way to match one with the other.

So, that's just one example of the kinds of things that have been going on top of some of the history that you've outlined already over this sort of thing. And so, yes, it's deeply concerning that they are not following the law. They are not following the law and that's why we have election laws.

I want every legal vote that was cast in a timely fashion to count.

HANNITY: exactly.

RUBIO: No one here is asking that now to happen. One more point and here's where we really got to keep an eye. What will happen after the machine recount is any race in the state that's within less than a quarter of one point which will be the Senate race and the agriculture race, there will have to a hand recount of the over votes and under votes, basically that somebody skip the ballot and not vote for this race.

Now the canvassing board, if the accounting teams don't do it, have to sit down and determine did the voter intend to vote or not. And that's where lawyers get involved and start arguing that a mark here and cross here and circle over here was voter intent.

Now the statute is pretty clear, but what that should be that doesn't mean anyone is going to follow it or that they are going to follow it. So, there's a lot to be concerned about and that's why it's so important that they had scrutiny and transparency and that we watch it every step of the way.

HANNITY: Are you now confident that we have this -- we know the Attorney General Pam Bondi we just spoke with, are you confident with that this will be done right. We know, for example, the attorneys for Mayor Gillum and soon-to-be ex-Senator Nelson that they even wanted an illegal immigrant's vote, they objected. They wanted that counted.

Then of course we're are finding ballots in the back of rental cars in Tampa from that county. So, are you confident when they do over/under votes, if there is a mark like 400, you know, so far away that they are going to try and argue that those are real votes and that they intended to vote when you miss the entire oval or whatever way you do it?

RUBIO: Well, there is no doubt that the lawyers are going to argue that any kind of mark that favors their client they are going to argue with intent. The statute is pretty clear. The law says if you are going to, for example, circle names as opposed to filling in the bubble then you have to do that consistently throughout the ballot.

I'm confident that lawyers are going to try to get everything counted. I don't know what the canvassing board is going to decide.

HANNITY: yes.

RUBIO: I don't know what's some federal judge is going to step in and decide. But that's the point. This level of incompetence gives you no confidence about anything with regards to that office and that's why we got to keep paying attention to what's happening there.

HANNITY: Senator, you called everyone's attention to this, you are ahead of the curve. Thank you for standing up for legitimate, a legitimate, fair, legal process.

The fact that so many laws were broken has to disturb every American. Thank you, sir, for being with us.

All right. When we come back, multiple reports tonight that the president's legal team is almost finished with the written answers to Mueller's question.

Catherine Herridge has a full report on that. And we get analysis, Gregg Jarrett and Monica Crowley. And then later tonight, Jesse and Jessica they're back. Who's world is it going to be as Hannity continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. In other news tonight, there were reports that Trump's legal team has preparing -- has been preparing to hand over written answers to Mueller's team.

Joining us now live from Washington on this and much more, Fox News chief intelligence correspondent, our own Catherine Herridge. That sounds like we might be getting to the end, Catherine.

CATHERINE HERRIDGE, FOX NEWS CHIEF INTELLIGENCE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Sean. And good evening.

Two sources familiar with the discussions told Fox tonight that the written answers are being finalized and could be submitted to the special counsel Robert Mueller and his team as early as the end of this week. Contacted by Fox the president's lawyers had no immediate comment.

We recently reported the president's legal team was preparing written responses about alleged coordination with Russia during the 2016 campaign and not obstruction of justice over the president's May 2017 firing of FBI director James Comey.

The president's legal team consider those questions infringe on the president's constitutional power to hire and fire. Returning to Capitol Hill, earlier today Democrats also ramped up attacks on Matthew Whitaker, the acting attorney general. With the Senate judiciary committee's ranking Democrat Dianne Feinstein calling for emergency hearings with Whitaker and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The committee's Republican chairman who controls the Senate committee calendar and knows Whitaker from Iowa politics pointed to the ongoing Justice Department ethics reviews.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY, R-IOWA: So, I think that answers it. It doesn't matter what the Democrat think if he's going to that process that's going to answer that question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator, do you have any concerns -- do you have concerns about the comments that Whitaker has made about the Mueller probe, and also--

(CROSSTALK)

GRASSLEY: As long as he made -- as long as he made them as a private citizen, no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HERRIDGE: Sources familiar with the process tell Fox the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel plans to issue an opinion defending the Whitaker appointment and pushing back strongly against legal analysis that the appointment is unconstitutional.

Sources said the opinion is expected in the coming days possibly as early as tomorrow, Sean.

HANNITY: All right. Catherine Herridge with an important report tonight. Thank you.

Joining us now with reaction, author of the number one New York Times bestseller "The Russia Hoax: The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Framed Donald Trump" Fox News legal analyst, Gregg Jarrett, along with Washington Times columnist, Monica Crowley is with us.

You know, if it's now what written answers, that would suggest that the whole issue that we had discussed in the past about a potential subpoena of the president, would not be happening.

The fact that it seems exclusively to focus on the original mandate, if you will, which is Russia collusion we have no evidence of collusion up to this point, none whatsoever, except for Hillary Clinton. And they didn't seem to go into that too deeply paying for the phony Russian dossier that was used to commit a fraud in a FISA court, and influence the American people before the 2016 election and then undermine the president post his victory.

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: So, the lawyers for Donald Trump were very smart in refusing an in-person interview, because even if the president tells the truth, Mueller is so unscrupulous and on principled he would charge the president or accuse him of lying. So, the way to go is written answers.

They're also limited the scope and no obstruction of justice. So, these answers to questions will only be about collusion and the answer is, quite frankly, which will be prepared by the lawyers to ensure the president isn't in legal jeopardy will be very brief.

I don't know anything about collusion, I didn't talk to Russians about the election. And the next question, the answer will be the same answer as before. So, it's going to be very brief, it will not put the president in legal jeopardy. It is a win for the president and his team, and a loss as it should have been for the guy on your screen, Robert Mueller.

HANNITY: Well, we know the team, the Andrew Weissmanns, the Jennie Rhee's, all the Democratic donors, Monica. It has never been to me just the appearance of the people he selected to me has been so over the top.

I want specifically -- the only thing we're hearing now that Jerome Corsi is suggesting that he is been told that he might face charges of lying which would be in the vein, if I guess Michael Flynn, although the two FBI agents claimed he never lied. And maybe Papadopoulos.

But if that's it, and Roger Stone is who they want to go after, I'm not sure what that would all be about but it doesn't seem connected to Donald Trump in any way.

MONICA CROWLEY, COLUMNIST, WASHINGTON TIMES: Yes. So far what we now and what we've seen from the Mueller team are essentially process crimes, right. Nothing that goes to the core of the original assignment for Robert Mueller which was to investigate so-called Russia collusion which our friend Gregg Jarrett has called aptly the Russian hoax.

They did their best during the campaign, Sean, to block Donald Trump from becoming president. Once he became president it moved to a different phase, which was trying to undermine and ultimately destroy his presidency with this investigation, which is essentially tantamount to the cover up.

Now I'm gratified to see that the president has an excellent legal team including a new White House counsel, presumably they are doing everything they can to protect the president and to defend against any kind of legal exposure here by making sure that answers are properly done and in writing.

HANNITY: You know, Gregg, we have spoken a lot on this program about the conflicts of interest with Rod Rosenstein.

JARRETT: Right.

HANNITY: Number one he recommended the firing of Comey, number two, that would make him a witness, witness a. Number two, he signed the fourth and final FISA warrant, the third renewal application, and everybody is now selected moral outrage again from the media at the appointment of Matthew Whitaker to replace Jeff Sessions in the interim because he had said that he thought that the mandate was exceed by Robert Mueller, and a few other things.

And people, actually on other networks -- lawyers are actually making the case that it's not a valid legal appointment. I called you, and you cited the Federal Vacancies Act. It is 5 USC 3345, I can read it or you can tell everybody, whatever you prefer.

JARRETT: The president is authorized by Congress under the act you just cited to name somebody temporarily to head up an agency, somebody who is an official or an employee that has been there for 90 days, and so Whitaker satisfies that legal standard. It is perfectly valid. It is not unconstitutional.

HANNITY: It says, the president is going to appoint -- according to that statute -- a person holding a Senate confirmed office or an officer, or employee of such an executive agency who served in a position in such agency for not less than 90 days, who meets the criteria, and these fake news attorneys, the fake attorneys almost, are wrong again. But the double standard is obvious.

All right. Thank you both. We appreciate it. When we come back, here we go again. This is getting more insane. Hillary Clinton's former advisor says she is going to run again in 2020. Jesse versus Jessica, whose world? We will find out next, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. So, I'm hearing today that Hillary Clinton may be gearing up for a 2020 run. Former Clinton pollster Mark Penn and Andrew Stein writing in the Wall Street Journal said "Hillary will run again." And by the way, Michelle Obama said she thinks it's a good idea.

Joining us now the co-host of “The Five,” this guy got two shows, not one shows, he's got two shows. And of course, “Watters’ World,” Jesse Watters. And Fox News contributor, she's back, she's out for blood tonight. She wants to win, Mr. Watters.

JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: I'm nervous.

HANNITY: I actually think if I'm Donald Trump, I'm saying run, Hillary, run, please. Because I don't think she's going to win. They ran a terrible campaign the last time, and now they are also saying, she's going to reinvent herself. She is going to be a radical Hillary Clinton again. It didn't work out for Bill Clinton in 1994, did it?

WATTERS: I mean, if she runs, even Democrats, Sean, are going to chant lock her up, lock her up. They don't want her to do it again. What's her slogan going to be, still crooked? I mean, listen, she's got high negatives.

HANNITY: Is still crooked Hillary.

WATTERS: Yes, right. She's got high negative, her husband lost her fastball, his fastball. The donors are getting alligator arms, they don't want to throw money into a losing effort. She's got that losing standstill. She can't clear the field. The media is in love with Beto. I don't see where she's going here at all.

HANNITY: You know, look, Jessica, if that's who you want -- tell me who you think. Your top three or four people that would be able to challenge Trump and do well. Who do you think?

JESSICA TARLOV, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Interesting. My top three people were my dream ticket is Kamala Harris and Sherrod Brown as her V.P. candidate.

WATTERS: That sounds like a nightmare.

TARLOV: To you, because you will lose.

HANNITY: Nightmare, I'm with Jesse.

TARLOV: I think Sherrod Brown should definitely be in the next there, Al Franken probably would have been if he hadn't been pushed out of the Senate.

Some of these new faces are exciting and I think there is an argument to be made for someone with executive experience, so looking at a big mayor like Eric Garcetti, Mitch Landrieu, for instance, some gubernatorial experience, may be John Hickenlooper. I know you guys are getting excited just hearing about all this.

HANNITY: All right.

TARLOV: And can I say something though about that op-ed?

HANNITY: I'm hearing for Spartacus to run.

WATTERS: Yes. What about Pocahontas and Spartacus? I like that ticket.

TARLOV: I don't really need that this evening. Can I just say about the op-ed though. This coming from Mark Penn who lost the 2008 election for Hillary Clinton and a persona non grata in Clinton world. And Andy Stein who is the head of Democrats for trump.

HANNITY: All right. Let me ask you this.

TARLOV: It's unbelievable.

HANNITY: I watch, I played this tape in my opening monologue of Monica Lewinsky she's doing this documentary. She gave this interview and she said, if I saw Hillary Clinton, I would find the strength to go up and apologize again to her.

I was -- that is stunning grace. That was amazing. She was the intern here. And her life has been turned upside down. We saw her crying in this documentary.

And Bill Clinton said when I asked, I don't need to apologize for her. How does between that and all the other Clinton women, Juanita, Kathleen, Paula, Democrats let him get away with it? Why? Why can't he just say, if you want an apology, you deserve one and I will give you one?

TARLOV: I don't know, I think he absolutely should have apologized to her. I think that Hillary Clinton should have also said that it was a mistake and it was an abuse of power. That's fundamental to the Me Too movement.

HANNITY: No. She said she never got it, Jesse. Never.

WATTERS: No. She never got the apology.

TARLOV: I'm saying that they should have apologized.

WATTERS: No. She never got the apology. And let's remember, Hillary ran that war room where they fought those bimbo eruptions. And that's a so- called her bimbo eruptions--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: And George Stephanopoulos--

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: That's not even my language.

HANNITY: -- of ABC News.

WATTERS: They called her a floozy, psycho, a griefer, and a clinger.

HANNITY: Yes.

WATTERS: And so, the Me Too movement certainly boomerang on the Clinton's and they should own up to it.

HANNITY: Jesse -- Jessica, last word? You can win it right here. Go ahead.

(CROSSTALK)

TARLOV: My last word is maybe Donald Trump could also apologize to all of the women that he has taken advantage of.

TARLOV: What do you mean Miss USA? He gave those women a lot of opportunities, Jessica, come on.

TARLOV: I think you are now record.

WATTERS: Come on. He cherishes women.

TARLOV: Stop. Stop. Stop. He does not cherish women.

HANNITY: Al right. I'm going to tell you what. It's been a while since we had you on. For the first time ever, a tie.

(CROSSTALK)

TARLOV: And on the Me Too evening?

WATTERS: A tie.

HANNITY: It's a tie?

TARLOV: A tie.

HANNITY: A tie.

TARLOV: OK. You -- nobody's world tonight.

WATTERS: I want a recount. I want a recount.

HANNITY: I want a recount. All right. When we come back, Rush Limbaugh, amazing take. This is amazing. What is really the motivating factor behind the recount in Florida? That's straight ahead as we continue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. So earlier today, Rush proposed an interesting theory today about the Florida recount. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSH LIMBAUGH, TALK SHOW HOST: So, which party is it that will not accept the results of elections? Which party is it trying to undermine our faith in elections. And by the way, do you think what's going on in Florida is really all about these two races here, the governor race and the Senate? I mean, it is, but there's something much bigger at stake as well, and that's 2020.

I think there is, I think if we stick at this long enough and we dig deep enough to find out what they are actually doing here, I think they are trying, the Democrats, are trying to set the stage for some kind of election law change or adjustment. That they think they're going to need in 2020.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Great points as usual. All right. That is all the time we have left this evening. We gave Rush the last word. We'll always be fair and balanced. We're not the destroy-Trump media. Yes, we're different.  And thank you for always being with us. And let not your heart be troubled because standing by in the swamp, Laura Ingraham. 
 
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