Hannity: Another stinging setback for the special counsel

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Hannity: Another stinging setback for the special counsel

It's obvious why Robert Mueller won't try to indict President Trump: He doesn't have a legal leg to stand on.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," May 16, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: All right. Tucker, great show as always.

It's so insane, with so much news, it is hard to get it in and the full hour but we will try.

Welcome to 'Hannity.'

Mueller's witch hunt, if it was yet another massive blow, one of Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani is now saying tonight, the special counsel will not try to indict the president. We've been saying that because guess what, Mueller never have the legal standing to ever do it in the first place. We'll explain.

Also tonight, President Trump responding to Kim Jong Un's threat to pull out of the June 12th summit and he is refusing to back away from the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

And the media, the left promised a smoking gun. Remember, the Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and the Russian lawyer, okay, the Senate released the documents and in spite of what the media is telling you, a total dud. It's going nowhere. We'll explain.

Also, a stunning report, new from the FBI, launched the secret investigation. It has a name, enter the Trump campaign, only days after they rigged and put the fixation and the Clinton email investigation. "The New York Times" is inadvertently confirming everything we have been telling you about all of us regarding the massive abuse of power and corruption.

Also tonight, Congressman Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan, Ron DeSantis, they are fighting back hard against the DOJ and their obstruction. They are urging the president to get involved. We need the documents released. They are demanding to see it.

All right. A lot to cover and tonight's breaking news opening monologue.

(MUSIC)
HANNITY: We start with another stinging step back for the special counsel Robert Mueller. President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani is saying tonight Robert Mueller will not seek a presidential indictment.

It's obvious why Mueller want to try because as we have been telling you, he never had a legal leg to stand on. Now, DOJ guidelines clearly state that a sitting president cannot be indicted. Not to mention Mueller doesn't have a reason to do so in the first place. Mueller has zero evidence of collusion, has only been focused on the so-called thought crimes of the president, and it's not a crime to have thoughts.

Rudy Giuliani also reacting to tomorrow being the one-year anniversary of Mueller's corrupt investigation.

Here's part of his interview that will air tonight with Laura Ingraham. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: What is your optimal timeline for this to wrap up?

RUDY GIULIANI, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S ATTORNEY: They should do it today. I mean, as soon as possible. I think that they have the facts in which they can write their report. If you're going to write a fair report, fine, write it. If you're going to write an unfair report, write it, and we will combat it. We are ready to rip it apart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: The former New York City mayor, he's right about this. He also told our own Laura Ingraham about the damage that this investigation is doing to this country. And here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: When you look at all the main flash points, the Trump Tower meeting, the Stormy Daniels payment, the raid on Manafort, the raid on Cohen, is there any one part of that that concerns you more than other parts of that?

GIULIANI: Yes, their inability to reach a conclusion that is obvious. And their unwillingness to recognize the damage this does to our country all over the world. This was engineered by Comey.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: We're going to have much more on this in just a minute with Joe diGenova, our own Gregg Jarrett, and Laura's full interview with Rudy Giuliani airs tonight right after this program.

But, first, on the foreign policy front tonight, President Trump, he's not blinking in the standoff with Kim Jong Un and North Korea. Remember, Kim Jong Un is now trying to act up, his ego has been bruised. He's threatening to withdraw from a summit in Singapore.

North Korea is also saying that denuclearization will not be on the table. Yes? Well, President Trump responded by stating directly, that his peace through strength policy continues. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Can the Korean meeting be salvaged?

TRUMP: We'll have to see.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: We haven't seen anything. We haven't heard anything. We will see what happens. Whatever it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Obviously, the liberal media in a frenzy over this development because think about it, for them to succeed is for the president to fail. For the Democrats to succeed is for the country to fail.

But the president is standing firm on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. And national security advisor John Bolton is also saying this is just part of the game that North Korea always plays, except unlike Clinton, we're not trying to bribe the guy.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

JOHN BOLTON, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: The question is whether this really is a sign that they're not taking our objective of denuclearization seriously.

You know, Kim Jong Un told South Korean President Moon Jae-in at their April 27th inter-Korean summit that he agreed to denuclearization. And so, if they are walking back from it, we'll find out. I think Sarah Sanders said this morning pretty much what the president's thinking, is that if they are ready to meet, we're ready to meet. If they're not ready to meet, then we won't meet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And we have the three hostages back, he's not firing missiles, he crossed the DMZ, OK, so far, a win.

What's happening here is the policy of trust but verify. President Trump, he's not giving up anything with North Korea, which is why he keeps saying, well, we'll see what happens.

Kim Jong Un, well, he's the one that has made every concession, he gave up the hostages, we did not have to appease them with a plane load of cash and other currencies, $150 billion like Obama did with Iran. So, the ball is in Kim Jong Un's court, and he wants to talk, he wants a deal, he wants a better life for his people? President Trump is ready to listen.

North Korea will not be allowed to threaten the world and build nuclear weapons, that's a fact, and the president, he's made it crystal clear.

We're also getting clarity on another major story tonight. Remember how for the past year, the left-wing media, the Democrats promising that Trump Tower meeting was somehow the big smoking gun of Russia collusion? OK, tonight, in spite of media reports, we now have the evidence it was a total dud.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, they released thousands of pages of the testimony, several key players at the meeting, the main takeaway is this: they all thought it was a waste of their time. They were talking about adoption, the Magnitsky Act. No dirt on Hillary Clinton came through and by the way, if he did, it wouldn't be illegal and we'll explain that tonight.

From all accounts, this meeting quickly went off the rails, eventually focused in on topics like Russian adoption and Russian adoption. It's a nothingburger.

And the media, they have been hyping this as a cruise missile that was going to take down the Trump administration. Donald Trump Jr., he testified, he was skeptical going into the meeting, and that had his suspicions were quickly justified. Donald Trump Jr. also said that his father, President Trump, had nothing at all to do with it in any way, shape, matter, or form.

And despite all this wild and false speculation, it's nothing. The Trump Tower meeting isn't the only breaking news story that is actually embarrassing to the destroy Trump media. "New York Times," now, this is an amazing story, they hate President Trump. They are now basically tonight confirming everything we have been telling you regarding the biggest abuse scandal in the history of the country.

It's not a mea culpa from a liberal "New York Times." Frankly, it was inadvertent, which is probably why the so-called paper of record, they kind of playing cleanup. This was their original headline today. This is pretty amazing. A secret mission, a code name, and anxiety inside of the early days of the FBI's drop investigation.

Well, they changed the headline. 'Code name crossfire hurricane: the secret origins of the Trump administration.' Great to know somebody in the FBI likes the Rolling Stones.

Why would they change it? Let me explain what happened in this article. It's a long article.

"The Times" explains how the FBI open a top secret completely unconventional operation into the Trump campaign, by the way, only days after they rigged the investigation into Hillary, and the same exact players. The details were closely guarded by FBI officials. This all happened days, just days after the same people put the fix in with the exoneration before investigation of Hillary Clinton, rigging it, knowing she committed felonies and obstruction of justice.

In other words, everything we have been exposing. So, to break it down this way -- in the summer of 2016, the FBI sent agents to London. They interviewed an Australian diplomat, Alexander Downer. "The Times" described this interview as, quote, "diplomatic protocol". Highly unusual.

Remember, Downer is the guy that got drunk one night with some guy, and I know -- I thought I knew everybody in the Trump campaign, George Papadopoulos. Never heard of him. The Trump adviser nobody heard up.

And during that night out, they're drinking, they apparently gossiped like I guess "Mean Girls" about so-called dirt on Hillary Clinton. Downer then alerted the Australian intelligence agency who then told their U.S. counterparts. One, two, three, four-way hearsay.

This is massive. "The Times" is confirming that FBI used four-way hearsay to launch an investigation just like we've been telling you on the program. By the way, their timeline doesn't match up, and hearsay is never admissible, never mind the four way hearsay in a court of law.

So, what "The New York Times" is proving is we have been right the entire time, and in the process of trying to cover up for their deep state friends and making excuses, they are actually exposing them. "The Times" and the rest of the media have been trying to get ahead of what is a massive scandal, and protect the likes of Comey and McCabe and Strzok and Lynch and Page and everyone else. But they can't because the facts, the evidence, the truth is finally coming out.

And we have been promising you this and so far, what we have been uncovering is only the beginning. This is going to get a lot worse for all of these deep state actors before it ever gets better.

Take a look at the side of your screen. James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Loretta Lynch, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, all at the center of this massive scandal.

Comey's a liar and a leaker and probably broke the law multiple ways.

McCabe lied under oath multiple times. He could be facing criminal charges.

Loretta Lynch -- oh, she tried to the compromise the Clinton email investigation and get Comey to say it's not an investigation. It's only a matter.

Then you have the FBI anti-Trump lovebirds Strzok and Page. They routinely abused the president verbally, attacking him in their text messages. And Strzok's fingerprints are all over everything. We'll have more on that in just a second.

We have another big story to tell you about. The DOJ's attempt to slow-walk, stonewall, obstruct Congress from ever seeing over 1.2 million documents about the Clinton email server investigation and the Russian witch hunt, which should be coming to an end. Congressman Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan, Ron DeSantis, they're now asking the president to use his executive authority, instruct the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who should be doing it on his own, to immediately turn over all documents that Congress has subpoenaed and as a constitutional right, coequal branches of government, and a right to oversight, and separation of powers.

It is insane. It is unfair to you, the American people, that it has come to this, as Congress has the constitutional authority, as part of their checks and balances.

Rod Rosenstein, he has been concealing information and then needlessly redacting key parts of these things in the name of national security that gets proven later not to have anything to do with national security. Rosenstein claims that, but it's not true. We have seen this lie play out. It's about protecting all his friends.

Meanwhile, he is conflicted from the very beginning of all of us, and, by the way, was a no-show for a closed-door hearing with the Senate intelligence committee today. I wonder why.

Several Obama administration officials were quoted, but Comey dodged the entire thing. That's telling. Think about this. Congressman Jordan and DeSantis will join us in a few minutes.

One more thing tonight: a major follow-up on the former Obama official who at one point voted for the communist for president. This is how this man ever became the CIA director is breathtaking to me, John Brennan. Paul Sperry reporting that John Brennan, who has repeatedly threatened President Trump, you know: stay tuned, Mr. President, is now being exposed yet again as a liar, this time by his former colleagues.

Last May, the former CIA director testified under oath the dossier didn't factor into the intelligence community's assessment of Russia election meddling. We've got the tape to prove it. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TREY GOWDY, R-S.C.: Do you know if the bureau ever relied on the Steele dossier as any -- as part of any court filings? Applications, petitions, pleadings?

JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: I have no awareness.

GOWDY: Did the CIA relay on it?

BRENNAN: No.

GOWDY: Why not?

BRENNAN: Because we didn't. It wasn't part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had. It was not any way use as a basis for the intelligence community assessment that was done. It was -- it was not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Mike Rogers and James Clapper are contradicting Brennan and saying that, yes, the dossier did play a role into what American intelligence agencies concluded, just like the Nunes memo and just like the Grassley-Graham memo.

And on top of all of that, Sperry is reporting that Brennan handpicked Trump hater Peter Strzok to help work on this report. The same guy who put the fix in for Hillary, and the same guy who trashed President Trump in text message after a text message and then a few days after, exonerating and rigging the Hillary investigation, launches an investigation into Donald Trump.

This deep state is one huge, giant incestuous, corrupt swamp. And the more we learn that Peter Strzok is involved, his dirty fingerprints are over everything. Why does this guy even still have a job?
Here with reaction, former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Joe diGenova, author of the soon to be number one best-selling book, "The Russian Hoax," what's the rest of it?

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: The illicit scheme to clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump. This is what they did.

HANNITY: Isn't that the amazing thing that "The New York Times" in what is, what, all of its printed pages, revealed today?

JARRETT: Right. "The New York Times" basically debunked their own reporting, their bombshell report last December that said it was the Papadopoulos bar talk. And today, they admitted that they -- the FBI had already opened the investigation by the time they learned about Papadopoulos.

HANNITY: Because their timing is off.

JARRETT: Right. June 20th, Steele writes the phony dossier, claiming Trump-Russia collusion for five years. He had -- and helping Hillary -- hurting Hillary Clinton and helping Trump. He hadn't been running but for what year. I mean, you'd have to be clairvoyant in the Kremlin to know that Trump was going to run.

Two weeks after he writes that dossier, he meets with the FBI. After that, they open the investigation, and only after that do they talk to Downer about Papadopoulos. So the truth is --

HANNITY: The guy that got drunk?

JARRETT: It was the dossier, the fictitious dossier that triggered the hoax.

HANNITY: And this is -- I can't say this enough, Joe diGenova, this is the Clinton bought and paid for dossier created by a foreign national, foreign nationals are not supposed to impact the elections, unless it's Obama trying to defeat Bibi, and it uses Russian lies, never verified, never told -- then used to obtain a FISA warrant, they don't tell the FISA court they didn't verify it, they didn't corroborate it, nor did they tell the FISA court judges four times that in fact this was paid for by Hillary.

JOE DIGENOVA, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Yes. Well, Sean, obviously, it's been on for some time -- we've been talking about it for more than a year -- that part of the brazen plot, which included exonerating Hillary Clinton illegally, and then if Donald Trump won, to figure out a way to frame him. The FBI and the senior DOJ officials and John Brennan and James Clapper and James Comey set up out on a plot to frame Donald Trump and the people in his campaign.

They used all sorts of means and methods to do that, including the use of an agent provocateur who is unleashed on the campaign, on the soil of a foreign country, and as a result of interviews with a number of people in the campaign, asking them, who approached you, a person that you never knew before, and started asking questions about foreign policy and seeing if they could, quote, help the campaign. It is now known who that agent provocateur was that the FBI used and John Brennan used and James Clapper.

And tonight, there is a flurry of concern in Washington, and the law enforcement and intelligence community, that his name will come out.

HANNITY: I think we already know. But I'll put that aside for a minute.

Rudy Giuliani saying what we already know was policy and truth and fact. Oh, the special counsel is not going to indict Trump, and saying, come out with your stupid report, and Donald Trump Jr. meeting -- what's so amazing is all of the exchanges talk about what a waste of time, this is ridiculous, this is about adoption, we've got a convention that might be brokered.

And what's amazing is it wouldn't be illegal in the first place if they sought information. That is your point.

JARRETT: The media and Democrats were hysterical for months that the Trump Tower meeting with the Russian lawyer was a crime. And I wrote columns, you and I talked about it, I kept saying, what crime? What crime?

One Harvard law professor treated tweeted out, it's treason. I'm sorry, Professor, we're not at war with Russia and the treason law requires us to be at war.

Second of all, Nancy Pelosi said, oh, it's a violation of federal campaign law. No, it's not, Nancy. Maybe you should have gone to law school or just read the Federal Campaign Election Act, which specifically says, you can read it on their Website, foreign nationals may volunteer on American political campaigns. They are allowed to attend meetings, give information, and talk, and know -- it goes on to say, volunteering services is not a campaign contribution.

So, it was never a crime. That was a hoax, too.

HANNITY: Unbelievable.

Joe, this is your business. Do you agree with Gregg's analysis?

DIGENOVA: Of course.

HANNITY: And also, the timing of Crossfire Hurricane -- I'm glad to hear that somebody likes the Rolling Stones like me, but --

DIGENOVA: Part of the juvenile attitude of the FBI.

HANNITY: You know, when you say bad cops, it kind of stings, because I love the FBI.

DIGENOVA: Now, dirty cops.

HANNITY: Dirty cops.

DIGENOVA: James Comey was the dirty cop in charge of a bunch of other dirty cops. And what you had here is, this was a criminal plot by senior people, John Brennan, James Comey, James Clapper, senior department of justice officials to suborn the presidency of the United States through the use of false evidence. The false FISA warrants were obtained through lying to the FISA court.

When all is said and done, Mr. Huber, who is conducting the grand jury, to investigate the unmasking, the lying on the FISA court, and the leaking of information to the press, it will be shown without a shadow of a doubt, that the reason Mr. Brennan has been lying in congressional testimony was from the beginning is because he knew that if he told the truth, he would reveal the plot that involved all the people. And that story in "The New York Times" today is a magnificent piece of evidence that there was in fact a plot. After all the denials, they say now that this operation hurricane was in fact --

HANNITY: Crossfire Hurricane.

DIGENOVA: -- exactly -- Crossfire Hurricane -- was exactly what we have been saying for a year. There was an effort to undermine the candidacy of the opposition party. This is the most unbelievable scandal in the history of this country, and "The New York Times" just blew the lid off of it inadvertently.

HANNITY: Last word.

JARRETT: Well, he is absolutely right.

HANNITY: Can I just say one thing?

JARRETT: Yes.

HANNITY: So, this really is about Hillary committed felonies, Hillary obstructing justice, deleting, acid wash, then she had the investigation rigged, exoneration before investigation, then they immediately begin this deep state attack on Donald Trump.

JARRETT: They needed a hook. And the hook was the phony, fictitious, fabricated dossier.

HANNITY: That is the FISA court lies, yes.

JARRETT: I dug deep into the interrogatories and the libel lawsuits against the author of the dossier, and he basically admits that his own dossier is a dubious credibility. The --

HANNITY: That was in England, in another case.

JARRETT: Right, 50/50 proposition. It was raw intelligence. Come on, it may not have been true.

HANNITY: Wow. And it was used -- presented to a court to get a warrant to spy on an opposition party candidate.

We got to break. Thank you all. Thank you, Joe.

When we come back, Jim Jordan, Ron DeSantis, Sara Carter, we have more news we're going to be breaking about the president and this debunked Mueller probe. And Newt Gingrich tonight, a lot of stories coming, I'll promise, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Welcome back to 'Hannity.'

Breaking news now according to a report, the DOJ inspector general, the one we have been waiting for, has completed a draft of a report as it relates to the handling of the Clinton email investigation.

Here with reaction to all of this, Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, Florida Congressman Ron DeSantis. Also with us, Fox News contributor Sara Carter.

Sara, let's talk to you first. We know it was supposed to come in May, it was first supposed to come in April. But they found new information as it relates to this, a new evidence, and a new trail they are following. Where are we with this?

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, it looks like it's wrapped up. And we were expecting it to wrap up in May. They extended that because they did find new information and it's going to be imperative I guess for the Inspector General Horowitz to get all of that information into this report which I believe he did. And now, he will be releasing.

So, this is going to be very important. I mean, this is -- this is part of what Congress has been asking for all along. Remember, it's the inspector general that has all of the documentation, the 1.2 million pieces of documentation that Congress has been practically begging for, and pushing and threatening with subpoenas, the DOJ and the FBI. So, this report is going to be very important.

HANNITY: Let me go to Congressman Jim Jordan. This is a big breakthrough, on top of the letter that both you, Ron DeSantis, and Mark Meadows, who is not with us tonight, have put out saying the president, you've got to get involved. You've got to tell the attorney general, and you have the power constitutionally to do so.

There is over 1.2 million documents we're talking about here. And we know with a little but we have gotten, as Andy McCarthy wrote, we only have a few of the Strzok-Page memos just to begin with.

REP. JIM JORDAN, R—OHIO: Right. Couple of things, first to the inspector general's report. Remember, it was Michael Horowitz who uncovered the Page-Strzok text messages, where we've learned so much information. It was also Michael Horowitz and his team who determined that Andy McCabe had misled people, lied four different times, three times under oath.

So, we are all anxiously awaiting this report. I'm sure there'll have -- if it's a draft, there will be some reviews that have to take place. But that's good news that we're going to be getting that soon. And more importantly, I think is the letter we sent.

We are just tired of the runaround we have been getting from the Department of Justice. It's time for them to turn over the information. And the one way that we know that can happen is for the head of the executive branch, the president of the United States, elected by the American people, to tell the attorney general the deputy attorney general, and the FBI director, give Congress a separate and equal branch of government entitled to see.

HANNITY: And they would have to do that?

JORDAN: Yes. And that's what we're asking the president to do.

HANNITY: Ron DeSantis, let me go to you, because this is a very key point.

We're talking about -- again, we've only got a small sampling of the Strzok-Page memos and it's so revealing -- insurance policies, how much they hate Trump, how Strzok as we've been reporting today is involved in everything, literally interviews Hillary, she's exonerated, he's writing it months before the exoneration before he interviews Hillary, 17 other witnesses, and a few days later. And then after they exonerate, rig an investigation into her, now they're investigating Donald Trump, and that the timing, as George Papadopoulos story is blowing up in their face?

REP. RON DESANTIS, R—FLA.: That's why, Sean, I think the combination of the I.G. report hitting hopefully very soon, and then if the president pulls the trigger on all this other information, we could have a gusher of information that provides all the clarity that we've been asking about, all these different questions.

And yes, you talked about the beginning, how did this Russia probe even start? Very important question. But even things going up into the special counsel, I mean, Rosenstein writes in appointing order appointing Mueller, the thing is defective on its face. So, what does he do in August?

He writes a secret addendum, a new appointing order and then they've redacted most of it. They won't even show to the federal judge that.

HANNITY: And by the way, that was about Manafort after they raided Manafort's home.

DESANTIS: Yes.

HANNITY: I think the timing is backwards that shows corruption. Rosenstein also signing off on the ridiculous FISA application renewal. As it's Sally Yates as we saw the New York Times piece today.

All right. Sara, here's a big question. I know the inspector general did release some of the Strzok-Page memo -- text messages. So revealing. I don't know Michael Horowitz. I know he's appointed by Obama. Why should we believe he's going to do their job?

Because the evidence about Hillary and committing felonies and obstructing is overwhelming and incontrovertible. Anybody -- any American would get convicted. The fact that they exonerated her, it's overwhelming and incontrovertible. What makes you think that we're going to get the truth from him?

SARA CARTER, CONTRIBUTOR, FOX NEWS: Look, I think there's two things here that are very revealing. And one, let me start with your question, everyone that I've spoken with, every source said I know who knows Michael Horowitz says this man is honorable, he'll stick to his guns. He will be straightforward with the American people and reveal the truth.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: A lot of people said that about Mueller.

CARTER: We saw that- we -- no. But we saw that with the McCabe report. I mean, he went after McCabe. I think in this one he's going to go after Comey, he's going to go after Loretta Lynch in that meeting, that tarmac meeting. He's going to look at the scope--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Strzok and Page.

CARTER: Yes. Strzok and Page and the scope of the Clinton--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: And Bruce Ohr.

CARTER: Absolutely, absolutely, Sean. And I want you to think about the timing of the New York Times story. Cross fire hurricane. They knew, the DOJ as well as the FBI, that this report was going to come out. And look, it came out tonight. Right? So they needed to CYA and they went straight to the New York Times and tried to tell their side of the story, a very limited side.

HANNITY: That's why, isn't it amazing, did you get the same feeling the New York Times will try to justify and make excuses. All they really did is confirm everything you've reported and--

(CROSSTALK)

CARTER: That's right. They've confirmed it.

HANNITY: -- the show has reported.

CARTER: That's right. They've confirmed everything that's been reported, that we have reported and they've also, they also gave away some information. They talked about at least one mole, at least one source, right?

HANNITY: Right.

CARTER: So, that means there may been multiple sources.

HANNITY: You're going to have a big story tomorrow on the FBI informant that was in the Trump campaign, right? Am I jumping the gun here? I'm jumping the gun.

CARTER: I hope so, yes. No, you might not be jumping the gun.

HANNITY: OK. Let me go to Jim Jordan. Why should we have faith -- great work, by the way, why should we have faith, congressman, and Congressman DeSantis, same question, in Michael Horowitz.

JORDAN: Well, I mean, again, I think because he's the one that actually did tell us what Andy McCabe was up to and uncovered the Page-Strzok text messages. That's all good.

Never forget, Sean, Comey has been fired. I think we'll get information about that in this report.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: And Rosenstein suggested--

JORDAN: Andrew McCabe get in his record fired. Jim Baker, chief counsel demoted, reassigned. I want to know why that happened. We don't know the answer to that. We don't know why Peter Strzok is still there and what he's doing. So I think a lot of those things that we're going to get answers to.

HANNITY: Last word, Congressman DeSantis.

DESANTIS: Sean, we need to trust, but verify. That's why the president releases these documents, we can view his report--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: We'll get to see.

DESANTIS: -- and decide for ourselves with everything else.

HANNITY: The foundation of the Horowitz report, correct?

DESANTIS: That's right.

HANNITY: Yes. All right, We're getting close. Great job all of you. All right. When we come back, a report from the White House on North Korea. Will Kim Jong Un back out of the meeting with President Trump? Newt Gingrich will react to that this deep state development tonight, get ready, buckle up. This I.G. report is going to be very interesting.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Tonight, President Trump reacting to North Korea's latest threat for Kim Jong Un's bruised ego that he may pull out of the high stakes June 12 summit in Singapore.

We have a live report from the White House where thing stand tonight is Fox News correspondent, Kristin Fisher. Kristin, what's going on tonight?

KRISTIN FISHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sean, the White House is really downplaying this threat from North Korea. President Trump said today that the North Koreans haven't said anything to the White House about cancelling next month's summit. They only know about it from that statement in the press. And the White House press secretary said that their threats did not come as a surprise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH HUCKABEE-SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This is something that we fully expected. The president is very used to and ready for tough negotiations. And if they want to meet, we'll be ready. If they don't, that's OK, too. We'll continue with the campaign of maximum pressure if that's the case. But like I just said, if they want to meet, the president will certainly be ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER: Now North Korean officials cited ongoing joint military drills between the U.S. and South Korea is part of the reason why they're considering. Another reason, they now say that they have no interest in a, quote, unquote, "one-sided affair meant to pressure Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons."

But President Trump standing firm saying today that if the summit happens he will still insists on complete and total denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. To use one of the president's favorite phrases, Sean, one that he again used today, we'll see what happens. Sean?

HANNITY: All right. Kristin at the White House tonight, thank you.

Here with reaction the author of the upcoming book, don't miss this June 5th available pre-order on Barnesandnoble.com, Hannity.com, "Truth, Trump's America, the Truth About Our Nation's Great Comeback," former Speaker of the House Fox News contributor, Newt Gingrich.

Let's see. No more missiles fired. The media is invited to watch the weapons site, launch site at literally torn down. He crosses the DMZ, Kim Jong Un. Hostages are released. His ego is bruised and he might pull out. What have we lost? I don't see a thing.

NEWT GINGRICH, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I thought Sarah Sanders was perfect tone in the clip you just said. You know, if he would like to meet, we'd love to meet. If he doesn't want to meet, we won't meet.

The president himself said earlier, you know, we may not get a deal. Now if we don't get a deal, guess what? All the sanctions are still there, all the pressure is still there. All the isolation is still there. I think that's exactly the right tone.

Let Kim Jong Un dance around this huge country called America and all of our allies and he can posture, he can play games. The end is really simple. Does he want to stay under this level of pressure and watch his regime gradually crushed or does he want to give up his nuclear weapons and find a very, very different future as Secretary Pompeo described to him.

Imagine 20 years from now that North Korea had as much electric lights at night as South Korea. That would be an amazing future. He's got to choose it. We don't have to choose it. Kim Jong Un has to choose it.

HANNITY: Add Iran to that. You add Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. You add 14 states record low unemployment, record low unemployment for African- Americans, Hispanic-Americans, women in the workplace. Record revenues for the government, even a surplus. We haven't seen since you were a speaker. Amazing times.

Here's the question I have. You see what they did for Hillary. It was obvious crimes committed. Obvious obstruction. Incontrovertible. You see the fix was in months before they interviewed her. You see the FISA courts lied to, given false information. Again and again, for a year.

And I'm looking at all this and I'm saying, how is this happening in our country? I am very concerned about the abuse of power. I think it's much bigger than Watergate. Thoughts?

GINGRICH: Well, I mean, you should be. Every American should be very concerned. When you learn that the top two people at the Federal Bureau of Investigation were clearly dishonest and clearly broke the law, when you learn that you've had -- I think going all the way up to the president, to President Obama.

We saw this visibly after the Benghazi raid when the administration, the Obama administration went out and for a full week deliberately and knowingly lied on national television to the American people.

And I think what you're seeing happen now, which is very different qualitative, is you begin to see with the inspector general's reports with other information coming out that the system of corruption that Obama and Clinton were in charge of is gradually beginning to unravel. And as it unravels, we're going to learn more and more.

For example, what is the identity of the so-called FBI spy who was in the Trump campaign? And that was something--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I would say I'm going to be very familiar with his initials. I would say I'll probably be very familiar with his initials. We all know.

GINGRICH: I suspect you will.

HANNITY: Mr. Speaker --

(CROSSTALK)

GINGRICH: But.

HANNITY: Go ahead, yes, sir.

GINGRICH: No, I was going to say, but imagine you and I are talking about the Federal Bureau of Investigation working inside a presidential campaign in a way designed to entrap and potentially destroy the legitimate nominee of a major party. We have nothing like this in American history.

And all I can say is I'm so grateful that the American people defeated Hillary because if she had become president, we would have learned none of this, the corruption would have gotten worse, it would have gotten deeper--

HANNITY: Mr. Speaker--

GINGRICH: -- the sickness would have been continued. We would have been in tremendous trouble.

HANNITY: I -- you're right about the FBI spy. We're right about the crimes she committed. We're right about the fix being in. And to add to all of that, a FISA court to spy on an opposition party candidate associate in an election year using bought and paid for foreign national put together Russian lies.

Never corroborating, never verifying and never telling the judges in the original application in three subsequent renewals, she paid for it. I can't think of Watergate break-in? I'm sorry, this is -- that is minor in comparison to what we're talking about here.

GINGRICH: You go back and you look at what started Watergate. That was a couple of guys who were stupid. You look at this. You're talking about people at the very center of the American system, people who were responsible that swore an oath to enforce the law. Think about what it does to the moral of all those FBI agents who are honest and decent and hardworking.

HANNITY: I feel bad for them.

GINGRICH: They really do want to have pride in the bureau.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: They're mad.

GINGRICH: This is a devastating example of corruption.

HANNITY: Mr. Speaker, good to see you.

GINGRICH: They should be mad. They've been betrayed.

HANNITY: Most of -- the people that are most angry that I've talked to are FBI guys and intelligence guys. Mr. Speaker, good to see you.

All right. When we come back, the media apparently, they actually want the country to end up failing. They hate Trump that much. Sean Spicer, Ari Fleischer as we continue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: So members of the mainstream media they have been almost giddy, gloating news. North Korea is threatening to pull out of the summit in Singapore. Here's some examples.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREA MITCHELL, HOST, MSNBC: This was utterly predictable. It was the president was so eager to accept the terms before the terms were even spelled out.

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN: Did President Trump, do you believe made a mistake with his optimism about his upcoming summit with Kim Jong Un?

MIKA BRZEZINSKI, ANCHOR, MSNBC: In this case, it's Kim Jong Un holding back that football.

JOE SCARBOROUGH, HOST, MSNBC: It keeps holding the--

BRZEZINSKI: And President Trump, not Charlie Brown, left swinging in the air.

SCARBOROUGH: Many times before.

BRZEZINSKI: As it has happened so many times before. North Korea has done a 180.

SCARBOROUGH: Donald Trump, as Gordon said, has had his nose rubbed in it by the Chinese, by the North Koreans.

JAKE TAPPER, HOST, CNN: After North Korea threatened to withdraw from talks, President Trump is trying to manage expectations saying of the potential summit, may it will happen, maybe it won't. But North Korea experts say base on prior actions the White House should have seen this coming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Big surprise. What they don't report is that President Trump, he gave up nothing for the release of the three hostages. Thankfully they're home from North Korea. Kim Jong Un, well, he needs the summit to happen more than the U.S.

Here with reaction, author of the upcoming book "The Briefing," former White House press secretary Sean Spicer is with us, and former White House press secretary and Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer.

It's a sad position for democrats to be in. All these 14 record states on low unemployment, all the different demographics on low unemployment records, you know, the president, North Korea is a great thing. For them to be happy, he has to fail.

ARI FLEISCHER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: That's all true. But Sean, I have a surprising conclusion how bad it is with the press. It's actually good for Republicans. Because the press is so separating itself from the American people, particularly in the battleground states, that the Democrats read their good favorable press clips. They read the vehement anti-vitriolic Trump clips and they believe them.

And the more they believe the good press they're getting, the more they separate themselves from the voters. The press has separated themselves from the American people. So you have a slice left that believes the press.

HANNITY: You might be the last press secretary that ever had a chance at that job. I mean, I watch our friend Sean Spicer who did -- Sean, I don't know how you did that job. They can't pay number enough. And Sarah Huckabee is amazing. She has the patience of Job. I could not do the job that you two have done.

SEAN SPICER, FORMER UNITED STATES WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The wounds are finally starting to heal. I would agree with --- can I just say something on North Korea though?

HANNITY: Sure.

SPICER: The funny part is, all those clips forget what the president said at the beginning which is, if we get a deal, great. I might walk out. He laid the predicate for this a long time ago. And everybody is forgetting how he approached this to begin with. That's the important thing.

The president has made very clear that he's willing to meet with him but he's willing to walk away from the table. That's what all of these people in their reports have forgotten. And you're absolutely right.

He's gotten Kim Jong Un to give three American hostages back, he's gotten him to start talking about denuclearizing the Korea peninsula. Unemployment are at record low. So many millions of Americans are benefitting and they are doing whatever they can to figure out what negative news to cover.

Because at the end of the day what's so fascinating is, most Americans are saying you know what, this president is keeping his promise as he's getting things done and America is better country before it.

So I know for a lot of folks in the press corps, they're trying to figure where else can I find, what can I go after him on? But at the end of the day, Ari is right. They continue to show how wildly out of touch they are with the American people. Because the president is getting results both domestically and foreign policy-wise he's keeping the country safe, he's developing jobs--

(CROSSTALK)

FLEISCHER: But you know what?

SPICER: -- he's creating a robust economy--

FLEISCHER: Bring it back to North Korea for a second, Sean. Bring it back to North Korea for a second. If Trump decides he's not going to go, the press is going to blame President Trump.

SPIECER: Right.

FLEISCHER: If Kim Jong Un decides he's not going to go, the press is going to blame Donald Trump. They will not blame the communist totalitarian dictator. They'll blame Donald Trump. And this is how it works.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: What about the three -- but at the end of the day, Ari, crossing the DMZ, what about no rockets fired over Japan?

FLEISCHER: They covered the hostages but it was a one-day story. But this is again, Sean, my point about how the press is separating itself from the people that they rely on and depend to buy their papers and news.

Jill Abramson, the former executive of the New York Times said that every time Trump calls them the fake news, she hear the ching of the cash register as more people subscribe online. That's the curse of the New York Times. Because the people are subscribing online are so oppositional to President Trump--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: They explain to--

FLEISCHER: The New York Times say they deliver the opposition. It's becoming the voice of the opposition. Newspapers, the media cannot be oppositional. They have to be factual. And that's what's gotten lost.

HANNITY: How do you explain how horrible CNN -- by the way, I want residuals from CNN and MSNBC because they run me all the time. It's so unfair. They need to pay me. Zucker needs to pay me.

But in all seriousness, they're not doing well with this. When did they -- if I was watching a president give a speech and they were chanting Fox News sucks, I'd be, I might take it seriously after a while.

SPICER: You know, the funny thing on my end is, during the campaign season, I was very public. I gave a lot of credit to CNN in terms of how they covered the campaign, how they ran their debate.

And the suddenly on January 11 when Jim Acosta decided to become a carnival barker, they decided to change their entire model and realized that their model is not to try to follow MSNBC and become the other resistance.

FLEISCHER: Yes.

SPICER: And I think it's sad because they've made it personal and their ratings are suffering because of it. And I think that they've gotten now every one of these hosts goes on air and tries to outdo themselves as if Chris Matthews is become the model for them.

(CROSSTALK)

FLEISCHER: Yes, and the problem is the press' job is not to be resistance. But they enjoy that role, they relish it and they always do it to republicans and they particularly do it to Trump. And it's going to get worse even when Trump is gone.

HANNITY: Thank you both. Hard job you both have done. When we come back, the Daily Caller ask D.C. resident for the day write, rather they convict a felon or Trump supporter, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. So we are going to run a video today, and there was going to be questions to ask, which rather they convict a felon or a Trump supporter. And it's funny but I went long as I used to. I don't have time to run it full. And it's not good if I don't run it in full. So we will run that tomorrow. And I will find a way to shut up a little bit.

All right. We will always be fair and balanced. We are not the destroy-Trump media. Thank you as always for being with us. We do appreciate it. Let not your heart be troubled. Big interview tonight.

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