Papadopoulos on what he wants the American people to know
On 'Hannity,' former Trump campaign aide and his wife share their experience with the Mueller probe.
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," September 11, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Welcome to "Hannity."
Today did mark the 70th anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 attacks on this country. This morning, President Trump, he visited Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where a new monument has been erected for those brave passengers, the crew of Flight 93. Remember, let's roll?
They fought back, ultimately crashing that plane into a remote field. And coming up tonight, we will show you the president's powerful remarks earlier in Pennsylvania.
And it is the sixth anniversary of what was the horrific Benghazi terror attack and Obama is trying to say, oh, that was a conspiracy. It didn't go down the way we know.
He's trying to rewrite history. We have the evidence. In a few minutes, we'll respond to the former president, a Hannity mini-monologue.
Also, a new low if it's possible for liberal "Morning Joe" Scarborough. He used today's somber anniversary to call Trump's presidency worse than the 9/11 attacks. We will respond to MSNBC's pathetic morning show host.
Also tonight, major breaking news surrounding the deep state. We now have tonight just uncovered literally about an hour ago, brand-new text between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. We were right, and I look like yes, high- ranking officials in the DOJ and FBI worked together to leak false Russian information to you, the American people to destroy then-President Trump, like they did before the election with the phony FISA. You're going to see these damning new texts.
And only 56 days to go until the most important midterm in your life, and I do have an urgent warning to you. Come November, everything is at stake.
All of that, plus Eric Trump joins us in a few minutes and I have an exclusive interview with George Papadopoulos and his wife Simona. But that's coming up later.
First, tonight's breaking news opening monologue.
(MUSIC)
HANNITY: Hard to believe, but 17 years ago today we were attacked like never before right here on American soil. All told, 2,977 innocent men and women and children lost their lives at the hands of pure evil in our lifetime, fulfilling what they think is there evil ideology designed by evil man by the name of Osama bin Laden.
Now, some of the finest people on earth were senselessly killed. Good, hardworking people in the World Trade Center, first responders, police, over 300 firemen. While everybody was washing down, they rushed into those burning towers.
Many others in the Pentagon, the passengers, the crew of the planes that were brutally hijacked and used as weapons of war, including the brave men and women on Flight 93, they fought back against their attackers -- let's roll -- causing that plane to crash in a remote field in Pennsylvania, miles away from what we believe was their intended target in Washington, D.C.
Today, President Trump visited a brand-new monument honoring those brave American souls and he delivered these powerful remarks. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: All of America wraps up and joins together. We close our arms to help you shoulder your pain and to carry your great, great sorrow. Your tears are not shed alone, for they are shared grief with an entire nation. We grief together for every mother and father, sister and brother, son and daughter who was stolen from us at the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and here in this Pennsylvania field. We honor their sacrifice by pledging to never flinch in the face of evil and to do whatever it takes to keep America safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, tonight, as we honor all of those who lost their lives 17 years ago today, we must never forget the danger of radical Islamic terrorism is real, it is always lurking, they are, they were at war with us. We were not at war with them. We better be prepared and we better accept that sad but true reality.
Meanwhile, one particularly unhinged -- while MSNBC conspiracy TV morning host seems to have really forgotten just how devastating 9/11/2001 was. Yes, good old liberal Joe put out a new op-ed. He put it in "The Washington Post." It's entitled: Trump is harming the dream of America more than any foreign adversary ever could.
Yesterday, the day before 9/11, literally, he's promoting this absurd article and he sends out a tweet that reads, quote: My latest, Trump is damaging the dream of America more than any terrorist attack ever could.
And according to the tweet and that op-ed, Joe Scarborough thinks Trump is worse than 9/11 where we lost nearly 3,000 people.
Yes, the economy has turned around, Joe. People have jobs. Four million fewer people on food stamps, 4 million new jobs are created. Really? That's how low you're going to sink?
You know, sometimes, I literally hang -- there is no net underneath me right now. This is a live show. I do three hours of live radio every day.
Sometimes you can say things and they come out wrong. As Congress would say, revise, extend our remarks. Some things can be unintentional, slip of the tongue.
This was thought-out written piece. He spent time thinking of this antennae on his dumpster fire of a morning show, he doubled down on stupid. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC HOST: If you strip America of its ideas, forget about knocking down buildings in the financial district, forget about running planes into the Pentagon, those are tragedies, but those tragedies bring us closer together. America is an idea. You've got America of that idea, that's when you do the most harm.
The retweeting of neo-Nazi videos, Charlottesville, I mean, I could go on and on. What he said about majority black countries. That is tearing more at the fabric of America than attacks on the Twin Towers did. We rebuilt from that. We became stronger because of that.
But this seems to me a far graver threat to the idea of America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Hey, Joe, kids grow up without their fathers and mothers.
And after facing much backlash for his absurd comparison, liberal Joe, he partially tried to backtrack as well thought out, quote, column and said he should have shown more care and wording his tweet. And then his blushing bride-to-be, fellow host Mika Brzezinski, vigorously defends him on Twitter.
Of course, America's, you know, cutest couple. Joe and Mika perfect example of what happens when Trump derangement syndrome gets way out of control. At this point, I don't even think these two can ever recover. It's that sick.
We'll deal more with this later but we now have some very important breaking news tonight. Literally minutes ago, Sara Carter handed us brand- new never before seen, unearthed text once again between FBI love birds Strzok and Page. Why don't they just hand them all over?
In September 2016, months before the election, it appears Strzok and Page were working, or contributing to an op-ed about Russian election interference. Look at your screen right there, September 2nd. Lisa Page asked Strzok, quote, we are still writing the op-ed, yes? Strzok then responds: yes-ish.
And on September 5th, 2016, "The Washington Post," they published a story about Russian interference on the very same day. Sara Carter reporting tonight the former FBI lovebirds share a link to an article. And Strzok writes: just read the article. We say a lot of the same things. I guess that's OK.
And then Page writes back, quote: Yes, but that's why ours is going to need to be more folksy, so it's not like a news article. Maybe like more smelly Walmart people-ish. Strzok had said that.
And these new text released yesterday from Congressman Mark Meadows of North Carolina, you have a pretty clear picture of what's going on, including this text from Strzok to Page, it took place on April 10th, 2017, reading, quote: I had literally just gone to find this phone to tell you what I want to talk to you about. Media leak strategy with the DOJ before you go. Oh, FBI and DOJ colluding.
And then two days later on April 12th, Strzok warned Lisa Page that the two damning articles were coming out about her namesake, Carter Page and then on April 22nd, we originally believed this was on April 12th, Meadow's office corrected that earlier today, same point though. Peter Strzok told Lisa Page, quote, article is out, well done, Page.
This is what we have now been telling you, what is a coordinated effort, the highest levels of the FBI and the DOJ leaking anti-Trump information before the election, after the election, to the press first to stop them from becoming president and then to destroy his presidency.
But sneaky Peter Strzok, he's now trying to actually put out his own conniving spin on this fresh new scandal. His attorney says: The term media leak strategy in Mr. Trump's text refers to a department-wide initiative to detect and stop leaks to the media. The president and his enablers are once again peddling unfounded conspiracy theories to mislead the American people.
Oh, but our words sound exactly alike. We are going to have to make it more folksy.
Don't insult our intelligence. This is the same Peter Strzok who claimed under oath that political bias didn't impact his work as an FBI agent. But Hillary should win 100 million to nothing.
Now, the same super patriot who played a critical role in exonerating Hillary Clinton -- we know she committed felonies and fomenting this witch hunt from the get-go against go against Donald Trump while trashing him on his work phone, openly wishing Hillary would win the election.
How could anyone vote for Trump? I just was in a Walmart. Smelly Walmart people were there, I could smell the Trump supporters.
And earlier today, the president responded on Twitter, quote: So terrible, nothing being done at the DOJ or FBI, but the world is watching. And they get it completely.
We did reach out to Strzok, Page and the DOJ, we have yet to get a response. We'll have more on these breaking news developments. Sarah and Greg will join us in a few minutes.
But we shift our focus to what is the most in important midterm election of your life. Now, I'm going to say this for the next 56 days. Last night, I called on you to wake up, pay attention.
Republicans, to be very blunt because I only tell you the truth, they are in real danger of losing the House of Representatives. And the Senate? I'm not that comfortable about that either.
Look at your screen. If that is your district, you will likely decide the fate of this country in 56 days. Democrats win these races, the Trump agenda will be stopped. It will halt right in its tracks.
All the progress we've been telling you about, the Democrats, their insane quest for impeachment will begin in earnest. Just listen to Chuck and Maxine Waters.
The Senate? Frankly also up for grabs. Republicans lose the Senate, you can forget about constitutionalist judges getting confirmed. It won't happen.
And meanwhile, right here on this program, we have long warned that it's only a matter of time before the aggressive threatening rhetoric and tactics coming from the left is going to result, somebody is going to get hurt or killed. Here's kind of what I'm talking about. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MAXINE WATERS, D-CALIF.: I will go and take Trump out tonight.
MADONNA, SINGER: I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course I want to punch him in the face.
WATERS: If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in the department stores, at a gasoline station. And you push back on them. And you tell them they're not welcome!
SEN. CORY BOOKER, D-N.J.: Please, get up in the face of some Congress people!
REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF.: I just don't even know why there aren't uprisings all over the country, and maybe there will be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Get in their face, chase Sarah Sanders, Pam Bondi, Secretary Nielsen out of restaurants, just say anything horrible about the first lady, the first daughter, even a 12-year-old kid.
Over the weekend, well, someone did in fact get in the face of a Republican congressional candidate. The guy's name is Rudy Peters. It never heard of him before but he is running as a Republican in California's 25th district.
And guess what? He was approached at a campaign booth by a man who is making disparaging remarks about the Republican Party. Well, that deranged individual then pulls out a switchblade and attempted to stab Peters but the knife thankfully malfunctioned and then they had a confrontation.
I've said it a million times before and I'll say it again, the tactics of the anti-Trump resistance have gone way too far and while Peters was able to escape unharmed, and I always blame people for what they do, you can't blame people's rhetoric for what people's actions are, but you've got to admit this is not helping.
The next victim might not be so lucky. But if it was a conservative, oh, they go nuts blaming, oh, talk radio and the FOX News Channel. I'm now holding individuals responsible. But the rhetoric is reckless, it is dangerous and it's out of control. We have more on the upcoming election throughout the show.
But, first, joining us now with reaction to our big breaking news, he is the author of the number one "New York Times" bestseller, "The Russia Hoax". It is "The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump", FOX News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett. And FOX News investigative reporter and contributor, Sara Carter.
Sara, let's go to the news. This just broke within the last hour or so. You've now got new text messages on top of the old text messages. We've got a response from the attorney from Peter Strzok. It is ridiculous, considering we can read and we have fundamental simple basic understanding of what they were texting back and forth.
Let's talk about the new text messages.
SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think these new text messages, Sean, really expose what was going on inside the FBI and DOJ. Once again, we are seeing more evidence of basically collusion within the FBI and DOJ to change and shift the narrative during the 2016 investigation into President Trump and then candidate Trump -- collusion with Russia, I mean.
There has never been any proof of this. We know now based on these text messages, not only did they use a dossier that was unverified, a dossier that was salacious, one that even Christopher Steele, he wrote himself that it was not verified and now, we are seeing in these text messages that they were shifting the narrative.
What's most important here, Sean, is that Congress get to the bottom of this. That is why they are asking Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to investigate this. We need to re-question all of these players, Strzok, Page, Sally Yates, the boss of Bruce Ohr, everyone.
Everybody needs to be re-questioned on this and they need to find the answers to these questions because, honestly, it's not looking good for them.
HANNITY: Gregg?
GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: A statement today by Strzok and his attorney is ludicrous, it's laughable and it's actually shameful and dishonest.
HANNITY: Do you ever have any kids in your life and they are little and they try to lie to you?
JARRETT: Right.
HANNITY: And you're like, don't insult my intelligence. Stop.
JARRETT: They must think Americans are stupid. They issue a statement saying, oh, Peter Strzok was trying to detect and stop leaks. Look at the plain language of the text.
Here's one of them. The article is out! Well done, Page.
That is not stopping a leak, that's creating a story.
HANNITY: We've got to sound more folksy. We've got to sound more folksy.
JARRETT: Yes. So, all of this just underscores that there was one purpose in mind and that was to damage Donald Trump and undo the election. And they were all leaking. It wasn't just Strzok and Page. Andrew McCabe now under investigation for leaking to the media and lying about it four times.
The biggest leaker of all, of course, is James Comey, who stole government documents, gave them to an unauthorized person for the sole purpose of leaking them to trigger the special counsel.
HANNITY: So, we have Strzok, Page, we have McCabe, we have Comey, Sara. We have Yates, Ohr. We have Steele. But we also have Rod Rosenstein.
CARTER: We have Rod Rosenstein.
HANNITY: (INAUDIBLE) because he appointed Mueller. I really want to get into this. He kind of holds the keys to the kingdom in a way, doesn't he? Because doesn't he get to decide, A -- let's say Mueller writes a report. He will make the decision, if I'm not mistaken if the report is released to the American people.
Number two, doesn't he get to decide, Rob Mueller has to go to him and say, I want to subpoena Donald Trump and I went to get him under oath and I want to have a year-long court fight to make him testify before a grand jury? So, if Rod Rosenstein is conflicted in this whole thing, which we now know he is because he signed forth by the FISA warrant, the third renewal, how does that work? And he is a witness in the Comey firing because he wrote the recommendation.
CARTER: Exactly. Exactly, and that's what I was going to say. He's -- you know, as far as obstruction is concerned and if Mueller is going down that road. I mean, Rod Rosenstein himself was the one that wrote the letter to recommend the firing of Comey. He wrote the letter to President Trump, so he's either a witness or a co-conspirator. He can't be in charge of this investigation.
And another point in fact, Sean, he signed that fourth FISA, and this is why it is imperative that President Trump declassify those documents, declassify the FISA documents that need to be declassified, the "Gang of Eight" dossier that they showed it to particular members of Congress, that's very important because that also contains exculpatory information in the Bruce Ohr interviews with the FBI. Once all that information is out, the American people are going to know the truth, and that's why it is so important to hold these people in the DOJ accountable and get those documents declassified.
HANNITY: I don't think the president should do it all in one dump. I think they are also important, he should do one one day, let the American people absorb the magnitude of it, then another one, then another one.
But here's the thing, what is the culpability here of Rod Rosenstein, Gregg Jarrett?
JARRETT: Oh, it could be tremendous. It depends on what Rosenstein renewal.
HANNITY: Will he be the one that decides whether or not they pursue a subpoena against Trump? Does he make that decision or does Mueller make it?
JARRETT: Well, it would be Mueller initially but with permission and consent of Rod Rosenstein.
HANNITY: And if Rod says, no, it doesn't happen?
JARRETT: Rod Rosenstein is so conflicted, he shouldn't just be not in the Department of Justice.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Wait a minute, but here's the conflict, wouldn't he get mad if Donald Trump releases the FISA warrant that he signed?
JARRETT: Of course, he could.
HANNITY: And does that, because he then seek revenge by saying we are going to go after and subpoena the president?
JARRETT: He might well do that. Look, he has every interest to continue to obstruct the release of these documents.
HANNITY: So, he holds the key to the kingdom, doesn't he?
JARRETT: He absolutely does. This is a man --
HANNITY: So, if you released anything about me that makes me look bad, I'm going to unleash Mueller even further on you.
JARRETT: He absolutely could.
HANNITY: Is that justice in America?
CARTER: He could --
JARRETT: This is the abuse of power and there is no justice at the Department of Justice currently under Rod Rosenstein and Jeff Sessions.
HANNITY: Last word, Sara?
CARTER: You know, he could, Sean. But that doesn't take away from the fact that the American people deserve to know the truth. We deserve to understand what happened here and we deserve to move on. So, we need those declassified.
HANNITY: All right. Unbelievable information, that close, cards are going to come tumbling down.
Thank you both. You guys have been amazing throughout the process.
Eric Trump is here in studio.
Also, first time together, George Papadopoulos. He's got to spend 14 days in jail. His wife Simona who fought so hard for him, they will join us on set.
I have an important dialogue and I will address Barack Obama calling the Benghazi attack story the truth by the heroes of Benghazi a conspiracy theory, as this busy news night continues. We are glad you are with us. Thanks for being with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. Earlier today, conspiracy TV MSNBC's liberal Joe doubled down on stupid and his comments about President Trump and 9/11. We've got the evidence. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCARBOROUGH: The retweeting of neo-Nazi videos, Charlottesville. I mean, I could go on and on. What he said about majority black countries. That is tearing more at the fabric of America than attacks on the Twin Towers did.
We rebuilt from that. We became stronger because of that. But this seems to me a far graver threat to the idea of America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Joining us now with reaction from the Trump Organization, the president, Trump's son, Eric Trump.
Good to see you. One year -- tomorrow is your son's birthday.
ERIC TRUMP, SON OF PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes.
HANNITY: Congratulations. One year old.
TRUMP: It's been an amazing year.
HANNITY: All right. I don't even know if I have a lot more to say about Joe except it's so cruel and so mean and so vicious even for him that -- and he took the time to write it. I've said dumb things and had to take it back, but we are not on a delay, we are live.
TRUMP: Look how uncomfortable Willy Geist looked. Did you see him?
HANNITY: Oh, yes.
TRUMP: He just wanted to get out of there. I mean, he was so uncomfortable.
But what a stupid comment. I mean, what an unbelievably stupid comment. Sometimes I watch a show and literally you almost can't watch. It's almost unwatchable. You end up turning it off because it's crazy.
9/11 was the greatest tragedy and probably the history of this country. You had 3,000 innocent people perished that day to absolute savages.
HANNITY: It's horrible.
TRUMP: He compares to a man who gave up his life to run for commander in chief to better this country, and by every economic measure, by every quantifiable measure, this country is doing better. I don't care if you look at unemployment, if you look at GDP growth, if you look at stock markets, if you look at 401(k)s, if you look at the amount of people who have come off food stamps.
I mean, I could go on and on and on. How about the largest tax cuts it in the history of this nation. Jobs coming back to this nation. Consumer confidence being at an all-time high. I mean, I could go on and on.
What kind of stupid comment is this? And it's quite frankly the reason that Joe and Mika have no watchers in the morning? How many watchers do they have, 500,000?
HANNITY: I don't know --
TRUMP: And how many are watching --
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: I watch "Fox & Friends", that's what I watch. I don't know, yes.
TRUMP: I mean, it's silly. People are tired of this, you know --
HANNITY: There's a certain insensitivity, but this is like, this is Trump derangement.
Let's say that some people don't like your dad's style. That he fights on Twitter, he takes on all comers. That he's combative, he doesn't apologize for things the political class demands he apologizes for, so what?
For me, we got 4 million more Americans working, we got 4 million fewer Americans on food stamps, all the things you talked about. More importantly, he keeps his word.
TRUMP: Yes.
HANNITY: Conservative justices, Supreme Court, fighting for the borders. You know what? I would say not having a missile fired over Japan since December is pretty successful. Hostages home, remains of soldiers home.
That to me -- and everyone thought he would start World War III. Kind of worked out differently and better for the whole world.
TRUMP: You know, those savages that took down the World Trade Center, that flew a plane into a field in Pennsylvania, that flew a plane into the Pentagon --
HANNITY: Horrible, evil.
TRUMP: -- they are largely gone because of the actions of my father over the last 24 months. If you go back 24 months, all you heard about ISIS, ISIS, ISIS, every day. I mean, he put a war on them like they've never seen before. He un-handcuffed the military, he let the guys who do the best job in the world, the brave men and women go after these people and go after these savages.
And you don't hear about them anymore. They went from 45,000 soldiers on the battlefield --
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Everyone seems to forget the beheadings. Do you remember the beheadings?
TRUMP: How about throwing people off a building? How about -- yes, people to forget about that. And it's very sad and it was a stupid comment by Joe, one that obviously he instantly regretted.
HANNITY: He actually doubled down on stupid and then he got a lot of pressure. Then he kind of fullback halfway.
Look, I don't call for boycotts. I don't want anybody to be silenced. In the end, it's always conservatives that they want to silence. He can say whatever he wants and people have the power to watch or not watch.
Let me talk about these elections in 56 days. I keep saying it's the most important midterm in our life but the track record over 100 years, it's only happened three times. The last time was George W. Bush after 9/11 that the party comes to power in the White House and they don't lose seats in the House or lose control of one of the chambers. It's an uphill task.
TRUMP: Yes, it might be. But are the Democrats' message right now? Let's raise taxes, right? That's one of their messages.
HANNITY: They want to crumbs back.
TRUMP: Let's raise taxes, let's go after our amazing law enforcement, let's abolish ICE and let's eliminate plastic straws. I mean, that's literally the message of the Democrats right now.
And then they have no leadership.
HANNITY: Yes.
TRUMP: You saw the disaster that was the Brett Kavanaugh hearings where you have Cory Booker and Kamala Harris --
HANNITY: Unhinged.
TRUMP: -- they are up their grandstanding. I mean, the poor guy didn't even get to speak for the first seven hours of the hearing because they are sitting there going back and forth running for president of the United States on the stage. I mean, it's crazy.
I don't think America is into that, right? You look at how well the economy is doing. If you look at how good we've done on the war on terror.
HANNITY: You raised a good point. But, you know, your dad is a charismatic guy. A lot of people voted for him in 2016.
It's hard to transfer charisma to some of these candidates. They suck.
TRUMP: Yes.
HANNITY: I mean, the Republic -- they are weak, they don't have a backbone. But they're not going to impeach your dad.
I believe Maxine Waters and Chuck Schumer reveal what their strategy is. They want their crumbs back. They want to rescind the tax cuts. They don't want conservative justices. If they want to abolish ICE, as you said. They want to keep Obamacare. Name one thing that they are offering the working men and women in this country? The forgotten men and women it's going to make their life better?
TRUMP: And then Obama comes out and takes credit for it this week, which is truly shocking, right? I mean, they all fought against this tax cut, the greatest tax cut in the history of the country that put so much fuel into our economy and is causing all these unbelievable numbers that we are seeing every single day. They all voted against it.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: They all projected -- they projected 4 percent GDP for the third quarter.
TRUMP: It's amazing. And by the way, they had to revise GDP upward--
HANNITY: To 4.2.
TRUMP: -- this quarter. And do you remember the New York Times and the L.A. Times they all made fun of my father during the election? If he says he can get above 3 percent GDP there's no way he can get above 3 percent GDP, he is dreaming. Then he gets 4.2 percent GDP and they are crickets, right. They are talking about Omarosa, they're talking about some crazy book that comes out this week.
I mean, no matter what he does they won't give him credit and it's horrible, but you know what, the people--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: You were pretty calm about it. I'm not as calm as you.
TRUMP: The people in this country are really smart. They see through nonsense. They see through B.S.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: But in 56 days if they want this to continue--
TRUMP: Yes, better go out and vote. By voting for Republicans you are helping him succeed at the mission--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: That you elected in 2016.
TRUMP: That's right. And if you don't you are effectively voting against him. But he is going to do incredibly well, he keep winning for this country. He's going to win again in 2020.
HANNITY: Is there a reason for the new look or what?
TRUMP: Do you like it?
HANNITY: Who cares what I want?
TRUMP: Do you -- my life won't let me shave.
HANNITY: Thanks for sharing. Good to see you.
TRUMP: Thank you, Sean.
HANNITY: George Papadopoulos, his wife Simona, in studio when we come back. Also I have a little monologue addressed to President Obama saying the Benghazi attack is a conspiracy theory. I actually interviewed those heroes, he's lying. Straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. Last week, former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos was sentenced to 14 days in jail for lying to the FBI. He joins us in studio along with his wife, who has been very outspoken and supportive, Simona is with us. You guys just got married.
GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN AIDE: Yes, we did, Sean.
HANNITY: You married him in the middle of all of that?
(CROSSTALK)
SIMONA MANGIANTE, GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS' WIFE: In the middle of that. That's true love.
HANNITY: Yes, that's true love. And you were fighting for him on TV, which I like a lot. Congratulations.
PAPADOPOULOS: She is a real killer. She's from Naples, she's not Russian like everybody thinks.
HANNITY: I know.
PAPADOPOULOS: She's coming from mafia land.
(CROSSTALK)
MANGIANTE: This is mafia land.
HANNITY: Look, I don't want to go over these old interviews. What you want the American people to know especially about this professor? And what you want - what do you want the American people to think about your experience with Robert Mueller, how you got tied up in this.
I was all over the campaign, I never met you that I know of. And I'm like, who? George who? You were in one meeting with the president, then the candidate. Did you ever meet a Russian?
PAPADOPOULOS: No. I never meet a Russian official in my knowingly, no.
HANNITY: No. Tell us what you -- tell the American people what you want to tell them about your story and your experience.
PAPADOPOULOS: Yes. So, you know, initially when candidate Trump was very vocal about wanting to work with Russia at some level I basically thought it would be a good idea for him to meet Putin just for a photo op. That was the basic understanding.
I meet this professor randomly in Italy. He presents himself as some sort of high-level connected figure to both the European governments and to the Russian government. All of a sudden he introduces me to a girl who he calls Putin's niece. She is not Putin's niece. I don't know who this person was.
He then can't introduce me to even the Russian ambassador, which I wanted to meet at the time in London. He then introduce me--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: You thought you were doing with the campaign said they wanted?
PAPADOPOULOS: Yes.
HANNITY: Which is better relations with Russia.
PAPADOPOULOS: Absolutely, absolutely.
HANNITY: OK. So?
PAPADOPOULOS: So then, yes, exactly. So then all of a sudden one day out of the blue he dropped this bomb on me about e-mails. I have no idea what he was, you know, where he got this information from. He said he was coming back from Russia. I never saw e-mails.
He never told me where the e-mails were, he just drop this bomb on me and then he just went his own way. So I don't know what his purpose was. It was incredibly shady. And to this day--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: The professor though, before your sentencing came out and said you had never talked about these things.
PAPADOPOULOS: You know what his lawyer just a couple days ago went on CNN and said he might have been working on behalf of somebody else. I don't--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Why did you apologize for lying? Did you consciously lie?
PAPADOPOULOS: You know, during that meeting, that January 27, 2017 interview, I did consciously lie. You know, it was--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Why, why would you like? Because it doesn't seem like there's anything wrong with what you knew. Did you know anything that was illegal?
PAPADOPOULOS: I mean, all I could say about this -- I didn't plead guilty to collusion, I've pled guilty to lying. And you know, everybody makes mistakes but certainly I wasn't pleading guilty to any sort of--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: But when you lie people think you are lying to protect somebody. We are lying to protect anybody? The campaign? Why did you feel the need or desire to lie?
PAPADOPOULOS: You know, looking back it was a chaotic moment, you know. And sometimes you make mistakes, that's all I can say about it.
HANNITY: All right. Now you have an interesting story, Simona, in terms of this professor. How did you meet him, you found things that I didn't know about him.
MANGIANTE: Well, actually I share this information with the FBI and the Congress but none of them quoted me apart from my interviews on TV. And that's the professor meant at least five years ago through the head of a socialist group of European parliament. He's a professor at Link Campus in Rome, which is a partner of the company that's in London.
In this company, this university trains secret services agent of western- type intelligence. He's also a member of the Clinton Foundation. He claims to be a member of the Clinton Foundation.
HANNITY: The Clinton Foundation?
MANGIANTE: Yes.
HANNITY: Donated to the Clinton Foundation?
MANGIANTE: Yes, twice. That's been proved.
HANNITY: The professor?
MANGIANTE: Yes, exactly. My point has always been how did the profile of this professor and his background fits with the narrative of the Russian agent? There is nothing that leads to believe that he is a Russian agent. Nothing to believe that I'm a Russian spy.
HANNITY: Right.
MANGIANTE: You know, everything it seems to me so fabricated, so fictitious. It's just insane and as I said, I was a witness in the case and I share this information as first, witness of this person with both the FBI and the Congress.
HANNITY: You face five years in jail over this. Do you think you were set up?
PAPADOPOULOS: All I can--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: How does this professor get into your life? How did this guy from Australia all of a sudden -- did you know anything about the Clinton e- mails that were going to be released other than what was in the public domain?
PAPADOPOULOS: Of course not. I mean, the only thing I know was probably what everybody else is speculating at that time, was that, Clinton's, you know, secretary of state server might've been compromised. That's what was going through my head.
And you know, I met all these random people in London. I have, you know, London was a very strange city for me during those months. That's where I met the professor. I met Downer there, I met Halper there.
HANNITY: You are like gin and tonic and you were a little drunk and talking to Downer.
PAPADOPOULOS: You know what's interesting about that, Sean, I've never admitted to remembering anything talk about that. I remember there's a lot about that meeting, I remember the context about that meeting. And you know, it was done under extremely suspicious circumstances.
HANNITY: You were suspicious you thought you were being recorded?
PAPADOPOULOS: I was so suspicious that actually notify the FBI when I was talking to them that I thought that Downer he was recording me with his phone illegally. As we as we all know, the 5-i's country member, meaning, Australia, the U.K. spying on an American citizen, that's illegal.
HANNITY: Something a lot of people don't know and that information gets shared, doesn't it? And that's the way to spy on people keeping your hands clean, isn't it?
PAPADOPOULOS: I don't know. All I know is, you know, one of our 5-i allies are spying on Americans, it's illegal. So whatever he was doing I felt the need to notify the FBI about it and I did.
HANNITY: How was Mueller and his team to you, both of you?
MANGIANTE: I, to me, intimidating. Mostly -- this is something I never said that after my interview they came to see me at the airport while I was boarding to my flight room. And for an Italian tourist visiting the United States is extremely intimidating.
HANNITY: I've got to run. You could spent five years in jail, 14 days, can you handle that?
PAPADOPOULOS: I can handle that. I've a very, very strong life here and we're looking forward to moving on with our lives.
HANNITY: Well, you maybe, you know, who knows? You might just stay 14 days, that's way too long. No. I'm actually happy that it's not longer for you. I think you have caught up in something way beyond you. Thank you for coming in.
(CROSSTALK)
PAPADOPOULOS: Thank you so much.
MANGIANTE: Thank you so much. Very nice.
HANNITY: Simona, thanks. Good to see you. We appreciate you coming.
MANGIANTE: Thank you.
HANNITY: When we come back, president, former President Obama calling the Benghazi terror attack that left for Americans, a wild conspiracy theory. I interviewed those brave men. It was not a conspiracy. We'll set the record straight in a mini monologue, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: On 9/11, our world changed forever. We'll never forget what happened 17 years ago, but tonight it's also important to remember another date, at 9/11 2012.
Four brave Americans lost their lives during what was a horrific assault against a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya. For 13 hours no American jets were scrambled near the attack. No helicopters made it to Benghazi, no marines were sent to the rescue. Everybody knew they were under fire.
And on Friday, last week, President Obama called his administration's deadly failure to act, subsequent apparent cover-up nothing more a crazy GOP-led to conspiracy theory. That is the subject of tonight's mini monologue to Obama.
It is too a day we can't forget, that is September 11th 2012, the U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, foreign service officer Sean Smith, I've met his family, CIA contractors Ty Woods, another great family, Glen Doherty, they were all murdered. Some of them big heroes in all of this.
This was a well-coordinated assault. Dozens of heavily armed radical Islamic militants against U.S. diplomatic position in Benghazi. They used automatic rifles, they used grenades, they used RPGs and other military style weapons.
Within an hour the Obama administration officials, they were briefed about this attack. U.S. surveillance drone was even sending back live footage. The State Department notified the administration that a radical Islamic terrorist group named Al-Sharia, Ansar al-Sharia was responsible.
The militants, they quickly overran the lightly guarded main U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi and set fire to the ambassador's quarters. Under heavy fire.
By the way, that Ambassador -- Ambassador Stevens had requested many times of Secretary of State Clinton in her office that they get reinforcements. They were denied. Many Americans managed to thankfully evacuate because there was a nearby CIA outpost which was subsequently attacked multiple waves of Jihadists.
This all occurred over the course of 13 long hours.
Right here on this program I had the privilege of interviewing the brave men and women who were told to stand down, not help, put their careers on the line and saved literally dozens and dozens of lives and two of them you saw lost their life and they told the truth about what happened that night. Let's listen to those people that were there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was there when the consulate got attacked and the wall got blown open. You know, at the time there was only two security guys there when that happened that night.
HANNITY: Right. But Great Britain had left.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
HANNITY: The United Nations have left. Others had left.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, just listen to those guys aggravation about, you know, we've been requesting more security, you know, even they just don't know why it keeps getting denied.
HANNITY: And you know it was a hotbed for terrorist training.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
HANNITY: Everybody knew.
KRIS PARONTO, BENGHAZI SURVIVOR: We were told to wait five minutes and told to stand down. The words stand down were used. So there's no confusion. They were used 15 minutes in, and in 10 more minutes, like 25 minutes we were told to wait again. And we're finally back orders.
It's hard to maintain your composure, but you do. The full truths weren't being told. That's why we did, and why we are telling the truth right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANNITY: Just the opposite of what Obama said. I guess Obama missed those interviews because on Friday he is trying to rewrite history claiming that his administration's shameful actions are surrounding the Benghazi attacks were nothing more than a Republican-led conspiracy theory. Watch him lie.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT: The politics of division and resentment and paranoia has unfortunately found a home in the Republican Party.
This Congress has championed the unwinding of campaign finance laws to give billionaires outside influence over our politics, embraced wild conspiracy theories like those surrounding Benghazi or my birth certificate. Rejected science, rejected facts on things like climate change.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: So let's help Obama remember the actual crazy conspiracy and what it looks like.
Twenty twelve, Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., five days after the Benghazi attacks, the Obama administration book tour on five different Sunday morning shows to lie to you, the American people, saying over and over that the attacks were just an out-of-control protest, a spontaneous protest over a YouTube video. They just happen to have RPGs in their back pocket.
Now, of course Obama knew that this was just the opposite. This blatant cover-up just one small part of the Benghazi scandal and more importantly, why was there a lightly armed diplomatic post in a failed state overrun with terrorists where the U.N. had left, Great Britain had left?
Why were reinforcements not immediately sent from across the Mediterranean? Why was this assault allowed to continue for 13 long excruciating hours? Then Secretary of State Clinton saying at a congressional hearing at the time if you continue -- you know, she's actually lying also. It's unbelievable.
Joining us now, the author of the upcoming book, "The Deep State," Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz, author of "Why We Fight," Fox News national security strategist, Dr. Sebastian Gorka. I know who I believe. I believe that the guys that were there, congressman.
JASON CHAFFETZ, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. I was the first member of Congress to go there less than three weeks after the attack. The book that I'm writing is a new information about what happened in Benghazi and I would love to talk to President Obama saying that's a conspiracy theory. Shame on him and God bless Tig and Tonto and Charles Woods.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Well, not Tonto, they were never friend of mine. Maybe not him.
CHAFFETZ: I mean, God bless them.
HANNITY: No, listen, I'm kidding, I love these guys. Who do you believe, Dr. Gorka?
CHAFFETZ: Yes.
SEBASTIAN GORKA, FOX NEWS NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGIST: Well, I dedicated my first book, "Defeating Jihad," to those three brave men who ran towards the sound of gunfire. And let's remember one thing that isn't a conspiracy theory.
Ambassador Stevens on dozens of occasions asked for more protection from Hillary Clinton, secretary of state and the Obama administration, which he was denied. Jason is absolutely right. It is utterly disgraceful that the former president should lie to our faces and dishonor the memory of those brave Americans, Sean.
HANNITY: To think of the courage to be told twice to stand down, congressman, and go anyway. When you disobey an order to protect your fellow Americans you've given up your career, it's over after that.
CHAFFETZ: You know what happened when they actually got home? Those people saved dozens of Americans lives. When they got home, you know what the State Department Hillary Clinton did?
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Nondisclosure.
CHAFFETZ: They took away their security clearance so they couldn't get a job. It's unbelievable.
HANNITY: Didn't they make them sign--
(CROSSTALK)
CHAFFETZ: I mean, that's how they treated these guys. Sign nondisclosure--
(CROSSTALK)
GORKA: Sean, they--
CHAFFETZ: -- when they got when they were there in Germany, when they were there in Germany they didn't send them home. They didn't offer them plane tickets. They were just told you are released. They have to pay for their own tickets to get home.
HANNITY: Dr. Gorka, last word.
GORKA: All the people--
(CROSSTALK)
CHAFFETZ: That's how they treat them.
GORKA: -- all the people who knew the truth about Benghazi were polygraph every month by Obama's administration, by Hillary's State Department. Why? To intimidate them. It was un-American. This is not what we do. This is not Venezuela.
HANNITY: We want to take a time to remember these families. They too have suffered like the families of 9/11 '01, and also those brave heroes. Thank them, they are American patriots. I appreciate it.
We have hurricane Florence that's barreling towards, yes, the Carolinas and more. Rick Reichmuth has a report straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Fox News alert, hurricane Florence barreling towards the East Coast, the Carolinas and the United States. And Rick Reichmuth is in the Fox News weather center. This is the real deal, Rick.
RICK REICHMUTH, FOX NEWS CHIEF METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it is.
HANNITY: It doesn't look good.
REICHMUTH: Yes. You know, some storms are bad but not all that bad. This one is going to be bad for a number of reasons. I'll show you.
Take a look at this, yesterday was the statistical peak of hurricane season and we have four systems we are watching. This one, real quick, I'll tell you if you are in Texas, you're watching this over the next couple of days. We might see something form here while we are talking about Florence.
That's obviously the big storm that is getting very close here now towards the Carolinas. We know it is going to make landfall across the Carolinas. We don't know exactly at what point that happens or exactly where that happens but they are tracking the storm, takes it somewhere here Thursday evening into Friday morning.
Somewhere along the North Carolina to South Carolina coastline and a lot of indications that it is stall somewhere around here, possibly just offshore, possibly just on shore. We'll have big impacts. We'll certainly going to see the surge in the wind but some spots we'll probably going to see after 30 inches of rain. Because of that, we're going to be talking about a major flooding event as well, Sean.
HANNITY: All right. We'll be watching closely. Rick Reichmuth, thank you for being with us. For all of you in harm's way, please -- I don't -- listen, I don't tell people to listen to government very often. Authorities tell you to go, get your important papers, get your pictures, get your valuables, and just go. We need to safe and secure. You and your families.
You are in our prayers, everybody that's in harm's way. We'll be following more of this on the Fox News Channel.
Let not your heart be troubled. We're always fair and balanced. We're not to destroy-Trump media. A lot more news comes your way because there she is. Laura Ingraham is standing by in our nation's capital tonight. Laura?
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