Hannity: Biden’s State of the Union ‘defined America last, not America first’
The ‘Hannity’ host has a hard-hitting reaction to President Biden’s State of the Union address in his opening monologue.
This is a rush transcript of "Hannity" on March 1, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: Welcome to HANNITY. All right. Joe Biden's big speech is officially over. And despite his claims, the state of our great union is not strong, not even close. In fact, well, in two minutes, we can fact check all of Joe Biden's lies and the things he omitted and well, let's just call them miss truths that he spoke. But first we turn again first to Ukraine where Putin is bloody invasion continues.
And we have now learned he is targeting civilian areas tonight. Joining us now with the very latest on the ground. He's in Kiev tonight. Our own Trey Yingst is with us. Tray, what's the latest tonight?
TREY YINGST, FOX NEWS CHANNEL FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: Sean, good evening. We are learning that Russian paratroopers have reportedly landed on the outskirts of Ukraine's second largest city Kharkiv. This is significant because the city has been under siege for the past few days. Here in the capital of Kiev, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is bracing for some heavy days of fighting that could be in the days to come.
And we know he was in a bunker today speaking with the media, talking about what he needs from the United States and how he would like to request a no- fly zone over this country. He also talked about President Biden, here's what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I talked to President Biden many times. I am very grateful to him for all the opportunities and the support. But they did not hear me. I told them that Ukraine will fight. We fight more than anyone else. But we must just by ourselves left alone against Russia. We simply cannot manage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YINGST: The Ukrainian capital of Kiev was hit multiple times today with Russian missiles. One T.V. tower was taken out by a Russian strike killing five people. The streets behind me, Sean, are quite eerie. A curfew remains in place and often the distance I can see soldiers, they've set up checkpoints at a number of locations across the city. They are checking cars to make sure that no Russian advanced troops get inside the city limits before the expected offensive. Sean?
HANNITY: All right, Trey. Thank you. We'll continue to monitor all that's on the ground tonight in Ukraine all night long. But first, Biden's first official State of the Union is now in the books and as expected. It was an unmitigated predictable disaster platitude, bumper sticker, slogans, you name it, you know, filled with smoke and mirrors, detached from reality, seemingly written to be honest by a kid in kindergarten, maybe first grade if we're being generous.
Delivered by someone in a steep mental decline. He failed to acknowledge his Afghan failure, he failed to acknowledge his border failures. He failed to mention his failures on COVID. By the way, how did we run out of tests around Christmas? How can we run out of monoclonal antibodies over Christmas? He failed to acknowledge that he caused us inflation because of his economic and energy policies.
He failed to say the main sanction that would have worked on Putin, which is yes, energy, no imports, no exports of Russian energy, but he refuses to do so. Instead, as I said, bumper sticker slogans, platitudes cliches. And to be honest, I would prefer to watch the president of Ukraine who is now bravely fighting and leading a war against this Russian invasion. And tonight, if the world was looking for any American leadership, they didn't get it from Joe Biden.
This speech to find America last not America first. And by the way, Joe lied over and over and over again, we can start with jobs. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That's one of the first things I did as president was fight to pass the American Rescue Plan. Because people were hurting. We needed to act and we did, it work. We created jobs, lots of jobs. In fact, our economy created over 6.5 million new jobs just last year. More jobs in one year than ever before in the history of the United States of America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: That is a flat out lie under Biden. The U.S. is down three million jobs. We're not up. And here's another lie from Biden. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Under my plan, nobody, let me say this again. Nobody earning less than $400,000 a year will pay an additional penny in new taxes. Not a single penny.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: He's been telling that lie since he became president. But according to the analysts, Biden's spending and tax plans will definitely impact those making under $400,000 a year and we're not even factoring Biden inflation, which is, well, impacting the poor and the middle class the most in this country. That's right. You pay more to fill up your car, pay more to heat and cool your home.
And you pay more for every product you buy at every store you go to. And get this. We're now at a 40-year high for inflation. Joe didn't mention that tonight. And according to studies from the Wharton School of Business, and the Congressional Budget Office, inflation is costing the typical American family upwards of $5,000 a year and that number continues to rise. That would be a tax on the poor in the middle class.
But tonight, Joe's genius solution to inflation, just spend more money and encourage businesses to lower their costs. Oh, OK, Joe. Thanks for the help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Too many families are struggling to keep up with their bills. Inflation is robbing them, gains they thought otherwise, they would be able to feel. I get it. That's why my top priority is getting prices under control. Look, our economy roared back faster than almost anyone predicted. But that pandemic meant that businesses had a hard time hiring up people because of the pandemic to keep up production in their factories.
So, you didn't have people making those beams that went into buildings because they were out, the factories were closed. I think have a better idea to fight inflation, lower cost, not your wages.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Pure fantasy from the mind of a career politician who clearly does not understand simple basic economics, one on one or business. And to that end, Joe Biden just basically all night, Bret Baier nailed it. He repackaged bill back broke better socialism tonight, and he hoped that nobody would notice. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Let's cut energy costs for families. An average of $500 a year by combating climate change. Let's provide an investment tax credits to weatherize your home and your business to be energy efficient, and get a tax credit for it. Double Americans clean energy production in solar, wind and so much more. Lower the price of electric vehicle saving another $80.00 a month that you're not going to have to pay at the pump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: What Joe didn't tell you, he has put more restrictions on exploration and energy extraction than any president in the modern error. You see it because gas prices are shooting through the roof. They have nearly doubled in the last year. But guess what, new tax credits for electric cars. Great. Biden just bragged about releasing oil from the strategic reserve. And as Joe Manchin said it is a gimmick at best will do nothing to curb the prices in any significant way.
So, make no mistake, Biden's socialist Green New Deal energies plans, they're fraudulent at best, Biden is not making America greener or safer. Instead, he's restricting domestic production of oil and gas, that lowers the world's supply of energy. And as the demand remains constant or increases, that just increases the price. And you know what, every American knows it.
And meanwhile, he's outsourcing our energy industry to countries that, by the way, have no EPA, countries that hate America. He's begging OPEC, even Russia and trying to make a deal with Iran. And importing, let's see, 232 million barrels of oil from Russia last year. A million barrels of oil from Iran last year, over 600 million barrels of oil from OPEC last year, when we have more natural resources than all those countries combined.
And under Biden, America's crude oil imports from Russia actually doubled. And tonight, despite Putin's ongoing invasion, in spite of his war crimes, the US continues to import 500,000 barrels of oil every single day from Russia. Now we could produce this oil and gas right here at home. And by the way, he inherited America energy independent and a net exporter of energy. We could be helping our NATO and Western European allies.
But Biden put a new pause on oil and geese -- gas leases on America the same day that Russia invaded Ukraine. The same exact day as why Biden's comments on Ukraine tonight were totally impotent and meaningless. And frankly, I would have heard from Presidents Zelensky who has shown nothing but courage and bravery in Ukraine. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: We spent months building coalitions of other freedom-loving nations in Europe and the Americas to the Asian and African continents to confront Putin. Like many of you, I spent countless hours unifying your European allies. Together along with our allies we are right now enforcing powerful economic sanctions. We're cutting off Russia's largest banks in the international financial system.
Preventing Russia's central bank from defending the Russian ruble. Putin may circle Kiev with tanks but we'll never gain the hearts and souls of the Iranian people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Joe, they're Ukrainians and not Iranians. America, the world needs a leader not a grandpa who is up way past his bedtime. And get this, only moments ago, Biden actually was scolding the American people for using COVID-19 as a political wedge. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: You know, we've lost so much in COVID-19. Time with one another. The worst of all, much loss of life. Let's use this moment to reset. So, stop looking at COVID as a partisan dividing line. See it for what it is. A god- awful disease. Let's stop seeing each other as enemies, let's start seeing each other for who we are, fellow Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Remember 2020 Biden ran on promising shutdown the virus. And in 2021, we had more people dead from COVID than 2020. Remember, Joe demanded President Trump resign after 400,000 Americans died from COVID 19. Since he's been President, over 540,000 Americans have died from COVID under his watch. That's a lot more than Donald Trump. And by the way, after Biden ran out of tests, monoclonal antibodies, antivirals when we needed them the most around Christmas time.
And all of a sudden, Joe no longer wants to play, you know, politics with COVID-19. OK, Joe. A contributing factor to Biden's COVID crisis is America's wide-open borders. On that issue He failed miserably also, and he failed to mention that tonight. Border patrol made a record 1.9 million arrests at the border under Biden. Of course, we had process of release. No more stay in Mexico, no more building the wall.
We have no idea how many millions were not apprehended. But we do know that around a half a million illegal immigrants were released into the U.S. and they were given free transportation all over the country and preferential treatment. They didn't need COVID test because Jen Psaki told us they weren't going to be here very long, really. Then we had the overcrowded cages of Joe Biden in the middle of a pandemic.
There was no vaccine mandate for illegal immigrants, no tests, whatsoever. But now a midterm, you know, conversion or election year conversion, as we call them. And all of a sudden Biden wants to secure the border. He also suddenly wants to fund, not defund the police. After two years of defund dismantled, no bail laws. Joe's decided to turn around, do a complete 180. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: We should all agree, the answer is not to defund the police is to fund the police.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Why didn't you say that when it would have mattered in the summer of 2020 when dozens of Americans died, thousands of American police were hurt. You know, with bricks, rocks, bottles, Molotov cocktails, billions of dollars in property damage, arson and looting. You know, a truly amazing election year conversion if ever there was one. And it's no surprise after Democrats attempted to defund, dismantle, you know, no bell laws.
That police departments are reporting violent crime is spiking, especially in every major American city. 12 major cities just set an all-time high for murder. Great job, Joe. And tonight, you might have noticed something interesting. Biden did not mention any accomplishments, none whatsoever. Because there are none. A barrel of oil tonight is at $107 per barrel. Inflation is at a 40-year high. Crime is spiking.
We still have open borders, we still have record setting COVID deaths, no real mention at all of Afghanistan where he abandons Americans, people with American green cards are Afghan allies. And guess what, it's day 199. Americans hell behind enemy lines. And Joe just turned the page, the media mob has turned the pages well. And as for that unity that Joe promised last year, according to a recent poll, more Americans say Biden is dividing the country and he's rather than unifying the country.
And according to a Georgetown survey, voters say politics is less civil one year into this Biden term. So instead of listing accomplishments, that usually kind of happens during a State of the Union. Biden just read off a wish list of far-left socialist proposals that they made before, everything from entitlements to solar panels. And even David Axelrod, top Democrat under Obama, he had to tweet out "It's hard to avoid making a State of the Union sound like a laundry list. The tide did not turn tonight."
But once I agree with David Axelrod, hey, with reaction. We have Texas Senator Ted Cruz is with us. Ted, I saw you. You're kind Looking around a little bit. You looked a little bored to me. But it seems like if I were to sum this up, ignore all the failure, give out a lot of bumper stickers, slogans platitudes and not address what's actually happening in the world, more specifically, the one sanction that would work as it relates to Russia and Ukraine.
And that, of course, would be stopping the importation and exportation of any energy by Vladimir Putin.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Sean, I think that's exactly right. You know, tonight was the 10th State of the Union that I've been on the floor of the House of Representatives to hear from the third different president. And this was the most out of the touch State of the Union speech that I have ever heard. Biden went through a litany of acknowledging some of the problems we face in this country.
But utterly denying any responsibility, any culpability for it. So, he acknowledged galloping inflation, but didn't say a word about the trillions and spending and trillions of debt he rammed through that caused that inflation. He acknowledged, gas prices are skyrocketing, but didn't say a word about the war on domestic energy production that his administration led. He acknowledged the need to secure our southern border.
But didn't say a word about the failure of is administration to enforce the laws, leading to the highest rate of illegal immigration and 61 years. On Ukraine he acknowledged Russia's invasion, but didn't say a word about the disastrous weakness from his administration, the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan, or his decision to waive sanctions on Russia, on Putin's Nord Stream 2 pipeline which is what directly led to this invasion.
On every issue he was like Sergeant Schultz from Hogan's Heroes. I see nothing. I hear nothing, with him that may be right. But he denied any and all culpability. And I'll tell you four words that I didn't hear at all tonight. I didn't hear crime. He didn't acknowledge the crime rate that is soaring across this country, the murder rate that is soaring across this country because of the Democrats push to abolish the police.
He didn't say the word China, even once. It was stunning, that China is the greatest geopolitical threat facing United States. And somehow it didn't make it into the speech. He didn't say Afghanistan. He didn't even acknowledge the disgraceful surrender and retreat that he led. And he didn't say Israel. That was really striking in a State of the Union. I think it was really a disappointing speech.
HANNITY: Let me ask you, why do you think he didn't mention Afghanistan and China, for example? I agree with your assessment completely. And frankly, we're watching the territorial ambitions of Putin unfold worldwide. I would expect that China, probably in pretty short order, is going to reunify their words with Taiwan and basically take over that country. And I don't think Joe Biden or any country in the world is going to lift the finger to stop China.
CRUZ: No, that's exactly right. The Russian invasion of Ukraine was caused by two things. Number one last year, Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, his surrender to the Taliban, his leaving Americans behind, his abandoning Bagram Airfield, releasing terrorists, which led to the murder of 13 servicemen and women. And what happened, Sean is enemies of America across the world, enemies like Russia, like China, like North Korea and Iran.
They all looked to Washington. And they took the measure of the man in the Oval Office. And unfortunately, they concluded that he was weak and feckless and ineffective. And I said at the time, the chances of a Russian invasion of Ukraine have just increased tenfold. And as you just referenced, the chances of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan have increased tenfold that when the American president is weak, and when he's perceived as weak, our enemies are involved in the world is more dangerous.
Now, there's a lot we could be doing on Ukraine right now. And you made reference in your opening monologue to the most important step we could do right now, which is boycotting Russian energy, boycotting Russian oil and gas. You know, Biden put sanctions in but remarkably, he put exceptions for energy. Putin gets the bulk of his funds from selling oil and gas. And Biden accepted that.
Just like he did on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. We need to make the Nord Stream 2 sanction --
HANNITY: But Senator --
(CROSSTALK)
CRUZ: -- permanent and we need to boycott Russian oil and gas.
HANNITY: We got to emphasize that Joe Biden artificially reduced the world's supply. And as a result, he pushed our allies, NATO allies, European allies right into the arms of Putin. Now, if you look at what's going on, and what's been happening all day, you've got a 40-mile convoy of Russian military vehicles that are sneaking towards Kiev. Then, of course, from Belarus, so had South right to Kiev.
And it seems like a massive military undertaking is about to take place. And I would imagine that there's going to be a lot of dead people as a result of, you know, this next stage of this invasion. Your thoughts.
CRUZ: So, we're seeing extraordinary heroism from the Ukrainian people and they are standing in defending their homes. We need to be providing them with lethal military equipment, more stingers, more javelins, they are fighting the Russian army. Putin is shocked at how ferociously they're defending their homeland. The Biden administration last year in both April and December halted the transfer of military equipment to Ukraine because they wanted to appease Putin.
That was a mistake. But I'll tell you, this afternoon I sat down with the former CEO of Ukraine's largest natural gas company, and he was talking about how Putin is counting on the fact that Europe is addicted to his gas and to his oil and Putin believes no matter what he does, Europe needs that natural gas and oil. We need to impose a boycott on Russian oil and gas and replace it -- replace it with American production.
After the speech. I pulled the U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken aside and I said, listen, we have an opportunity, Texas can stand up and produce the natural gas. We can produce the oil, but the Biden administration has got to clear the export of liquid natural gas. And if we fill European demand, nothing will weaken Putin more than taking away his revenue. And one of the things that's really striking, if the European refineries are looking for another source of oil and gas, they're not going to be able to purchase that just on the spot market.
The producers are going to ask for long-term contracts. And if the European refineries are signing long-term contracts with American producers, or other producers around the world, that will both terrify Putin. And we can -- weaken him fundamentally with the oligarchs, and with the security infrastructure there. That is actually fighting to win, but I'll tell you, Sean. My concern is I hear from Biden's national security team.
They don't believe in winning this war, they almost resigned to Putin conquering Ukraine. And I think if we stand and use the economic might of America, if we envision victory, you know, Reagan said very powerfully during the Cold War, what's your objective? We win, they lose. That should be our objective here. And we can do it with economic might, with a boycott of Russian oil and gas.
And with providing military equipment to Ukraine, so they can defend their nation, not U.S. soldiers, but Ukrainians defending their own homelands.
HANNITY: Senator, I had the same exact reaction, and that is that they basically are conceding the entire country of Ukraine and Ukraine will fall without the javelins, without the stinger missiles. Hopefully they'll get enough and then the question is going to be OK, will NATO be a paper tiger or will they stand up and fight if it's Estonia or Lithuania or Latvia? That's a question I can't answer tonight.
And the one sanction that would have worked is to put an end to dependence on all things. Energy from Russia. And that's the one thing they didn't do. That would have been the most effective sanction. Well said. Senator Ted Cruz, Texas, thank you.
Also tonight, Vladimir Putin continues his bloody assault against the Ukrainian people. Here now live with the very latest on Putin's 40-mile convoy, on the way to Kiev is our own Bill Hemmer. He's at the big board again tonight. As I look at this, and I look at Belarus and I look with where this convoy is headed. It looks like Kiev is going to be surrounded probably within a number of hours, Bill Emmer.
BILL HEMMER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Yes, it could. Sean, good evening to you. Three different stories I want to share with you right now. This you mentioned the pain against the Ukrainian people. 660,000 people have already fled their home. It's extraordinary number, Sean, in a country of 44 million. Just imagine how much higher that number could go. Poland's taking the numbers 300,000, Hungary has taken almost 100,000 down here. That's one story.
Here's another story right now. What has the Russian army been able to successfully take in Kiev? Everything in red north of the Capitol, we think they've been able to do that. So north of the capital, northeast, Kharkiv is just getting hammered for the past few days. I'll show you that if we got time here toward the end, Sean. And then down here in the south as well. There's some reports of battles midnight, Kiev time, which would have been about just doing quick now to my head, Sean, six hours ago our time.
That's Story number two. Story number three is the convoy you just mentioned. We've been showing you pictures of this for two days, what they're up to what they're doing. Really can't say. But let me just bounce over to this map here and show you a little bit so our viewers at home get a better sense of this. OK? Here's the capital city of Kiev down here. The main airport is located right below this black square here.
This is a roughly 20 miles a little less. See this yellow road here, Sean? This thing runs for 40 miles up to the town of Pribersk. And that entire highway is jam with armored personnel carriers, supply trucks, tanks in some cases, one after the other stacked upon, well, row after row after row for 40 miles now, they've been there for two days, at least based on the satellite images. Why is that? Are they resupplying? Are they refueling? Are they regrouping?
Have they begun in order to stand down? Or are they getting ready to do what a lot of people think including General Jack Keane, just 20 minutes ago on our air talked about trying to find a loop out here, west and east of Kiev that takes you about maybe 20 or 30 miles at the most and you circle the town, and you begin to strangle it. Is that through intense? Could very well be. But right now, they have not moved.
We'll see what happens perhaps at daybreak, and a few hours there on that front. So, I'm going to show you this. I mentioned Kharkiv, I see a little ugly here, Sean. I just want to go ahead on these maps and the time that we have and explain to this at home. We woke up here in Washington, D.C. about 430 this morning, and the images online were just heartbreaking. And this is the town that really took -- really took most of that.
OK? This is Kharkiv here. City of 1.5 million about the size of Phoenix, Arizona, big town. Here is the border with Russia on the other side. Belgorod is one of these areas where they set up these giant military bases with the Russians, for the Russian army. They're still there as well on the other side of the border. But there's some reports tonight that paratroopers have gone into that city as well.
And this is one thing I wanted to share with you, Sean. This is Freedom Square, OK? I wasn't aware of it until this battle began. But Freedom Square is one of the largest squares you will find in all of Europe. And it's been a staging ground for somebody cultural events for the people of Ukraine. There have been concerts there. And they've had military parades there. They've had Russian and Ukrainian events there just some dozen years ago here in Freedom Square.
That was hit by a cruise missile earlier today. And you can see the explosion. I mean, it's just thunderous with its impact there. And you think about this, Sean. Some of the major national moments in Ukrainian history have been targeted by Putin. One of them is Freedom Square. And the other is that T.V. tower, you're just showing there when you're talking to Senator Cruz a moment ago.
That was a national icon, national landmark, that's been destroyed. And the third item there you see the cruise missile going into Freedom Square is the Ukrainians built this -- it's the largest cargo plane in the world. And it was at the airport, northwest of Kiev. That's been destroyed as well. It's almost as if Putin knows what level of pride Ukrainian people have in certain things that they've built and developed.
And he specifically went after them, to destroy them, take them out and break their spirit. It seems like a clear strategy at this point. Moving into day seven of this war, Sean.
HANNITY: All right. Great job. Bill Hemmer at the big board tonight. Thank you.
Also tonight, one Ukrainian Parliament member Kira Rudik is now vowing to take up arms against the Russians. She bravely joins us. Kira, welcome back to the program.
KIRA RUDIK, UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: Hello, good morning.
HANNITY: It's great to see you. Thank you for being with us. You know that you're staying there. And there are -- there's a 40-mile Russian convoy with soldiers and military might and weaponry and tanks and fuel, ammunitions headed right towards where you are. And you're staying there anyway, knowing the risk. Tell us why.
RUDIK: Because this is my home. Where I'm right now with my family at my city in my country. There is no Russian army that can throw me out of here and I will be protecting it until the end and I will be protecting it right until all Russian soldiers are out of Ukrainian soil. Look in seven days of war. And I'm proud today's seventh day when they didn't get anything and they will not get anything from us.
They came here with war that we didn't want and we'll be protecting ourselves and what we love.
HANNITY: You know, you're a target, you know that the Russian military, they have you outmanned, outgunned, and that Vladimir Putin is a ruthless killer. I would suspect that you would be on their target list. We've heard and we read that some 400 mercenaries have been tasked with going after your President Zelensky, but yet he refuses to leave as well. Do you feel that the insurgency is strong enough? Do you have enough javelins? Do you have enough, you know, weaponry? Do you, do you have enough Stinger missiles to fight back against this massive army?
KIRA RUDYK, PEOPLE'S DEPUTY OF UKRAINE: We have enough supplies right now, and we have enough resistance to be able to fight them back. Look, for the last seven days, it's been every single day. The questions if they're going to take us over. And every single day, we were able to say no, and we were able to find them back. As for the personal things, and that I'm on Putin's list. Yes, well, I do understand this. But as Ukrainian woman as a member of parliament, as a political leader, I need to be where I am. I need to show an example of how to protect our country. And the funny part is, well, I'm on the Putin's kill list but I'm also on a Ukrainian top 10 bachelorette lists. So, this is like, even without --
HANNITY: I want to paint the portrait here over 600,000 Ukrainians who left the Capitol, there are many people part of this insurgency like you are. The odds are highly against you. Kira, I don't want to read that or hear that you're not available for an interview, because of this upcoming assault, which seems very real to me. Do you understand the magnitude of a 40-mile convoy coming in your direction?
RUDYK: Yes, however, I also understand an ability of forces that we have right now in Kyiv. Yesterday, I was patrolling all the entrances and exits to Kyiv. And I feel very confident about that. At least, we will give them a very, very good fight.
HANNITY: Oh, you're in our prayers. May God bless you and all the Ukrainian people that are very courageously, very bravely standing with you against all odds and what is only a David versus Goliath moment. Kira, you're in our prayers. Thank you for being with us.
RUDYK: Thank you so much.
HANNITY: Here with more reaction to tonight's big breaking news. He is the host of the number one show on weekends on Fox News Channel "LIFE LIBERTY & LEVIN," he had the number one best-selling book of all of next year, "American Marxism," I call them the Great One, Mark Levin. You know, Mark I, I listened to this poor woman, 600,000 of her fellow countrymen have left the Capitol, you got a 40-mile convoy, you got Putin's thugs with all the weaponry you can imagine, now taking over the entire country, surrounding Kyiv, with the intention of bringing down the entire government and destroying the entire country. And he's doing it without mercy. The odds are totally in his favor, especially because the west won't even put the one sanction in place that would matter, and that's the sanction on Putin's oil and gas, the lifeline to his entire economy.
MARK LEVIN, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: You know, Shawn, the Ukrainian people are very, very courageous. That woman is very, very courageous. They have a president who will be remembered for a thousand years, Zelensky. I'm hearing a lot of happy talk on our network and a lot of places about how the Ukrainians are holding out and so forth and so on. Folks, don't be fooled. The Ukrainians need more weapons. The President of Ukraine has said it over and over again, Zelensky, what he needs. They need to take out their helicopters. They need to take out these tanks.
They're not getting the weapons they need, and they need more. That doesn't mean the Ukrainians won't fight and fight hard. Obviously, they are. It doesn't mean the Russians have been the most competent army on the face of the earth, they're not. But this government, our government has been shameful. You talk about oil. I've said last week and I'll say it again. Joe Biden has put more sanctions on our oil companies and he has on the Russian oil companies. What kind of fool does that?
He said nothing about it tonight, and he wasn't going to. The fact of the matter is they were going to be MIG-29s, old Russian jets that, that Ukrainian pilots are going to get in there used to flying those jets. They don't have to be trained because that's the same kind of jets they had. Poland was going to give them to him some of the other countries all of a sudden it stopped. Well, what happened? I worry about our, our feckless buffoons at the State Department pulling that back.
These people want to fight but they can't fight with their bare hands and rifles and pistols. I mean, they can, but that's not going to win. If we would give them what they need. If we would have given them what they need. This would be a real serious setback for the Russians. I hear people saying they had hoped to take Kyiv sooner and this and that and the rest. Let me tell you something, when you're there in Kyiv and you're being fired upon, you're not you don't care if it's Saturday, Wednesday or Thursday, these people need our support.
So yes, prayer, yes, support them. Now, give them the damn arms that they need to defend themselves before it's too late. That's number one. Number two, this guy Biden gets up there and he says buy American, buy American, buy American and the best line of the night came from my wife when she said, "Buy American? You're not even letting us buy American oil. We're buying Russian oil, we're buying Saudi oil, we're buying everybody -- go union, union, you're killing union jobs in the oil patch." This speech tonight was a rambling speech in one word, it was monotonous. Or maybe another word, supercilious. It's as if they added the Ukraine piece at the front, and then we had the Build Back -- whatever that damn thing is at the back end, where it goes on and on and on with the Bernie Sanders agenda.
The man has created inflation, the borders wide open, he didn't say a damn thing about supporting our military tonight. The police, he be basic, basically said, you know, we're going to fund them nothing really with the murder rate going through the roof. Everything this guy touches turns to crap, whether it's domestic or foreign policy. He's destroying what Israel and the Abraham Accords have achieved. Nobody's talking about that. He's going to violate federal law. He's not going to bring Congress in on that. So, now, Iran on his watch is going to have intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads. What do you think China's thinking right now?
Now, China's probably think of well, Ukraine's pretty tough, maybe the Taiwanese will be tough, too. But I don't have to worry because Taiwan is not part of NATO. So, they're not going to come to Taiwan's defense anyway. This is what happens, by the way, when you have the isolationists, what I call the neo-con artists out there talking about how we're the instigators. This is what happens when you undermine the United States military. This is what happens when you elect Democrats. Let's be honest about it. We've had a lot of false pied pipers here that what does Ukraine have to do with America?
I don't know. What is South Korea have to do with America, or Taiwan have to do with America, or Israel, or Venezuela, or Cuba, or any of the rest of them? They have everything to do with America. Because once these genocidal maniacs get head wind, they don't stop. But I just want to be clear thinking and sober about this, Russia has not been defeated. Period. The Ukrainians need our help now. And a lot of it, we don't have to send in troops. We don't have to do a no-fly zone, just armed them with what they need. So, they can kill these bastards. That's it.
HANNITY: Stingers and javelins. That's the answer. And throughout this entire long build up mark, they had the opportunity to arm them so they could fight back themselves. The world just turned a blind eye, just like they did in, oh, wait, with Georgia, just like they did with the annexation of Crimea in 2014. And now, they're doing it with the entire country, because Putin will take the entire country and the world will do nothing. And my prediction and I pray to God I'm wrong, is that Taiwan is next.
And China, they will fulfill their territorial ambitions. That's why we call you the great one. Mark Levin, thank you. Now, the Ukrainian people. They are continuing to fight back and continuing to stand up for their sovereignty against this dictator thug, Vladimir Putin. And as one Ukrainian mom said from a bomb shelter, this is a total collapse of the civilized diplomatic order that mother, Elena Ganes is with us. Elena, you're in a bunker. You have children. I got to imagine this is a very scary time for you. You see this 40-mile convoy headed in your direction?
ELENA GANES, UKRAINIAN MOTHER: Yes, that is unbelievable that's happening. No, I'm still -- I do not still fully realize what's going on. It's so hard to believe that it's really happening to us.
HANNITY: I see you have a child and you're on what's your child's name and how old?
GANES: This is the Garena. Hello, she's 4-months-old. And I have cats and they are five and seven years old, they are sleeping right now.
HANNITY: Some 600,000 of your fellow countrymen have fled, why have you stayed?
GANES: I stayed because this is my home, and I have a cat at home. And I don't want to run away from my home. If I run away, the Russians will just take this place. This is what they want to do. They want to kick us out or kill us all and take our home. So, the only thing that I can do is stay and protect it with how I can do this. My husband, he joined the territorial defense. So, he's somewhere above, protecting the city with the army. And I'm here in the shelter, attracting the attention of international community, by the fact that the mother of three children stays, stays in Kyiv, but I'm not the only one. There are many women like me and man that stayed.
HANNITY: I admire your courage, I admire your bravery, bravery, you've seen what Vladimir Putin is capable of. And you also see what is coming your way, you are aware that there's going to be a massive onslaught in your city in the hours to come.
GANES: You see, for me, I do not see that there is any place to be safer than Kyiv. You know, Kyiv is taken, the other place will be taken too. These AR missile shelling, it's happening all over Ukraine, and they obviously see that, he just wants to just to destroy the country, he doesn't even want to use it again. Yes, he chose this for the first time. Now, we thought that the Soviet Union was evil, but what Putin is doing right now is even worse. And when he is the Soviet Union, at least they were pretending now that they're doing something for goodness, they were hiding some information because they were ashamed to commit the crime like this great famine, genocide -- all the more when people were starving to death in 30s.
And this time, Putin is not even ashamed. He's not even hiding the fact that he just wants to commit a genocide here. He destroys all the infrastructure, everything that we're proud about, and he's just killing our people. And, as far as I understand from the reaction of the world, from what I've heard from you guys, on your TV channel, just now, nobody's going to protect us, only, only us. So, there's only Putin and us. I have more hope now for Russian people than Americans, to be honest. I understand you have your own country, your own problems, your own economy and money to take care of, now, I really hope that Russian people will wake up and protest and fight against Putin --
HANNITY: Elena, I want to say this. You're very brave. God be with you and your family. And our prayers are with you. This is a perilous time for you and your fellow countrymen, and it shouldn't be happening. And we wish you all the best. We're praying for all of you.
Here now with more Donald Trump, Jr. I had an opportunity to touch base with your dad and a poll came out that showed over, well over 60 percent of the American people said they don't think any of this would have happened if Donald J. Trump were president, Don, Jr.
DONALD TRUMP, JR., SON OF FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, they're 100 percent right. And you know that because Trump is the only president that Putin didn't attack in this century, he went into Georgia under Bush. He took other parts of Ukraine under Obama, four-year pause because he understood that Trump was a leader of strength, Sean. Watching that idiocy tonight, that State of the Union was a disaster. Does anyone in America truly believe that we are better off now than we were one year ago? The state of Joe Biden's union, Sean, is denial.
The real state of the union is this, we have record high inflation, attacks on the American middle class. We have a supply chain crisis where our shelves are empty, and we are told to lower our expectations. We have skyrocketing gas prices while ceding energy supremacy to countries like Russia, allowing them the financial capabilities to do this. We have skyrocketing crime and murder rates. We abandoned Americans to the Taliban, a terrorist regime and Afghanistan. We have concerned mothers and parents going to school board meetings and being labeled by our DOJ as terrorists. When is this going to end? We have never-ending COVID.
Joe Biden had no problem not wearing a mask in there tonight. But he wears a mask on the lawn of the White House getting out of a helicopter out in the fresh air. We have emboldened and enriched our enemies and Russia and China, and it's never going to go, go away. It's going so well showing for the Biden administration right now that two weeks ago, they had a great plan to give out free crack pipes to America. Now, the party that spent two years attacking the police wanting to defund the police, wanting to replace them with social workers and social justice warriors.
Now, we should fund the police. Oh, that's wonderful. Just like when Joe Biden gets out there and talks about insulin pricing even though on day one, he eliminated my father's plan that locked those numbers in to make them affordable for America. Tonight was a disgrace. It was a joke. And the American people see it. That's why when Nancy Pelosi says things like, well, the American people don't just understand, they're misinformed. No, they're perfectly well-informed. Because they see it with their own eyes.
They see it each and every day. And they understand that this wasn't just Joe Biden, this was Democrat policies, Democrat ideas, Democrat ideology that put America into this place, emboldened our enemies again. And that's what you're seeing take place across the seas, and it's a disgrace, and it should have never happened.
HANNITY: And you know something, it wouldn't have been hard. It was your dad that provided the javelins, the anti-tank missiles that are really at this moment, the only lifeline that the Ukrainians have. I know that there are Stinger missiles on the way. It may be too little too late watching this 40-mile convoy make its way to the capital of Ukraine. I would imagine there's no way that that Ukraine is going to be able to fight back with that type of military force. Do you see any scenario under which they can?
TRUMP: Not unless we do the smart thing and start allowing America to produce energy. Energy independence wasn't just about lower gas prices, or good, hard working jobs, it was about national security for the very reasons we're seeing play out over there, right. So, Joe Biden can speak about wanting to do XYZ for the military. You know, he didn't have a problem kicking out people from the military a few short weeks ago, because they didn't want to take a vaccine, right? Those things don't get mentioned.
It's ridiculous soundbite after ridiculous soundbite, because Joe Biden and the Democrats are used to having the media do all of their spin for them. But as we watch the world verge onto World War III, as we see what's going on in our own country, at the pump, in our supermarkets, all over the place. People get it, they're not going for the propaganda anymore, and it's all been a whole lot of propaganda.
HANNITY: Well said, Don Jr., thank you for joining us, as always, we appreciate it. Here now, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Kevin, you know, to, to dovetail off of what, what Don Jr. said, I can't think, think of a single thing that Joe Biden has done that it's successful. We ran out of tests, we ran out of monoclonal antibodies, there were no antivirals available for COVID over Christmas. We see the disaster that is our border. We see the economy of 40-year high of inflation, we see that he has artificially reduced our, the world's supply of energy.
And now, we have record energy prices. And now it's making Russia and Putin rich again. He's pushing our allies into Putin's hands because they need his energy. Afghanistan has been a disaster. Ukraine is a disaster. Tell me the one area, Kevin, where we have, we can say you know what, Joe Biden did something really good here? Because I can't think of --
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): The only way, the only thing he's done well is make Jimmy Carter's presidency look better.
HANNITY: OK. That's one thing.
MCCARTHY: And I tell you this. That's one thing you didn't mention in his short time as a president, America and this is now had to evacuate from two countries.
You know, his whole speech fell flat because this administration is this flailing. You know, what we didn't hear tonight, he never brought up to find where the origin of COVID was created, that killed all those millions of people. He didn't talk about the 13 Gold Star families. He didn't tell us how we are going to become energy independent.
And it's not just President Biden, today on the floor, Sean, 220 Democrats voted against the American Energy Independence from Russia Bill, which would have brought us back the pipeline would, would have gave us -- given us the permits for those LNG plants, would have opened up the federal lands that Biden has shut down to make America energy independent, but also supply it to Europe.
You know, our natural gas is 42 percent cleaner than Russian natural gas. Since he's been President, he's increased our dependency on actually Russian of crude. He's increased it by 34 percent. That is supplying millions of dollars to Putin to pay for those bombs that he's killing innocent people in Ukraine.
HANNITY: Yes, well, obviously, I'm watching -- I've got a really sick feeling, Kevin, Congressman, about what's coming. I really do. When you have a 40-mile convoyed, then you have a satellite state to the north called, Belarus, and they're offering their military assistance to Vladimir Putin. And you got a 40-mile-long convoy headed to surround the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv.
I don't think this is going to end well, and I don't see the world determined enough to stop Putin and provide the arms necessary if the world would have paid attention to the troop buildup and military buildup on the border of eastern Ukraine in the lead up to this, perhaps they would be able to fight back. But I don't think they have the ability to do so, which is why so many people are rightly leaving,
MCCARTHY: Sean, history repeats itself. This could be 1939 all over again. First, Crimea was the equivalency of Hitler getting Czechoslovakia. And now, what he's going into Ukraine is what he did with Poland. When we need a Winston Churchill, what we have right now is a Neville Chamberlain. We don't need appeasement.
And then the most interesting part here, you've got Winston Churchill sitting as the president of Ukraine, he's not asking for American men and women to come fight for him, he's just asking to help him have just half of what was left of that military equipment in Afghanistan, we could have sent that earlier and got determined that Putin could not have entered.
We should learn from what happened today and speed up military sales to Taiwan. So, China doesn't get the wrong impression to move into Taiwan. We can change the course of history here. But what President Biden has been continuing to do is after the fact. He's letting Europe lead instead of America leading.
HANNITY: Kevin McCarthy, thank you for being with us. We appreciate it. And his reaction, Former Speaker of the House, Fox News Contributor, Newt Gingrich. I know you've watched many a State of the Union address. A number of years ago, you launched an effort you launched it on this TV show, you launched it on my radio show, drill here, drill now payless. The one president that got us to energy independence was Donald J. Trump, the one president that made America a net exporter of energy was Donald J. Trump. Giving into the radical new Green Deal socialist in his own party, Joe Biden gave that up. We see the consequences of this. I didn't hear at all tonight that he would increase energy production. And to me, the one sanction that would work would be on oil and gas and energy from Russia, and stopping all imports and exports. Thoughts?
NEWT GINGRICH, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, first of all, this is the last time we'll see Nancy Pelosi at a State of the Union. And I look forward to seeing Kevin McCarthy sitting up there next year. So that to me was the one optimistic moment. This was a very dangerous speech, because either Joe Biden believed in the speech, in which case he's out of touch with reality, or it was a deliberate lie to the American people, lie after lie, after lie. Your point is exactly right. Trump had the price of oil per barrel down at about $46. The difference between that and $100 a barrel is $54 going to Putin every single hour.
HANNITY: By the way, I need to correct you, I rarely correct you, but it's now up to $107 a barrel. But you know --
GINGRICH: Well, 100? I take, I take today's jump. The point is, at that price, Putin is making over a billion dollars a day to finance his military activities, thanks to the Biden policy. Biden had a chance to do a lot of things tonight. And I would simply say, I'm more optimistic than you are. Not that I don't think this will be brutal and difficult. But big cities absorb armies. It's one of the great lessons of World War Two in places like Stalingrad, and Leningrad, and Putin ought to understand that. If the, if the Ukrainians are prepared to fight, we have an absolute moral obligation. And Congress should ask us to start moving money --
HANNITY: Mr. Speaker --
GINGRICH: -- passing legislation, insisting on --
HANNITY: 600,000 people already fled. And, and we see a 40-mile convoy. They are out manned; they are outmatched in terms of military might. It's - - listen, I believe in David and Goliath in the Bible, I really do. But this is a, David and Goliath struggle, and I don't think they have enough military equipment to fight back. I hope you're right.
GINGRICH: Well, what I started to say is, well, first of all, we should be getting all the equipment we can. Congress should be screaming about any effort by our State Department to slow down the flow of military equipment. Remember, a 40-mile convoy is a 40-mile target. It is an opportunity to chew up the Russians while they're sitting there in many cases running out of gasoline apparently, and literally sitting by the side of the road. But in addition, I think the courage of Ukrainians has to be matched by the equipment of all the rest of the world.
And minor example, if they had predators that were armed with hell fires, they could be Killing Russian tanks and that convoy every single hour and they would just grind the convoy up this is not, this is not a lost cause. And frankly, I think that it's important to say to remember Washington got down to 2500 men, when he finally won on Christmas night and the next day, I bet, Trenton, he's 2500 men. If Zelensky have the guts to fight, then we ought to have the courage to get him the equipment to fight with. And I agree with you, I'd not heard until your show tonight, that they had blocked the polls from giving them a MIG-29s. We had to find out who is screwing this stuff up and fire them.
And when the Congress ought to be ruthless in saying not just fancy words, but insisting that they get a daily report on how much equipment is going from where to Ukraine, and sit on top of these bureaucrats, and on top of these left wingers who secretly, I think, have already written off Ukraine, have already decided to Putin is one. Putin has not won. There's no reason to believe he will ever win. Ukraine is the second biggest country in Europe after Russia. It's a very hard country to occupy. They fought for independence for two years after World War II, and I just think we ought to take the attitude. If they've got the guts to fight. We've got the guts to get them the equipment.
HANNITY: I hope you're right, Mr. Speaker. You often are. And I will, I will graciously and very happily concede. You are correct. And I pray you are but the world has to move yesterday and they haven't been moving.
GINGRICH: Yes, right.
HANNITY: Newt Gingrich, thank you. All right, here with reaction former Counsel to the President, President Trump, that is Kellyanne Conway, along with Former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. Reince, we'll start with you. I like Newt's comments. I felt a kindergartener could have given the slogans, bumper stickers and platitudes of Biden tonight, but that's a separate issue. And I don't see that Biden is barely lifting a finger to put in real sanctions that would matter and getting the real military equipment that Ukraine needs, your thoughts?
REINCE PRIEBUS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Well, I thought that the beginning of the speech, I agree with Mark Levin, it was like two different speeches, they slapped the first part on a delivered the Build Back Better speech afterwards. But I think the president should have spent more time talking about why what's happening in Ukraine is wrong, why violating Ukraine sovereignty is wrong, where NATO fits in, why freedom and justice and the issues that, that surround the concept of western democracies is right.
And so, he didn't do that he papered over it. He went way too quick. And he missed the elephant in the room. And the elephant in the room was the fact that you President Biden signed the executive order that killed the Keystone Pipeline. You put this idiot Environmental Czar John Kerry in place.
HANNITY: It's insane.
PRIEBUS: So, while Putin was attacking Ukraine that was in Europe talking about the fact that he should be more concerned about the environment than the Ukrainian people. He ended the oil leases. One last comment, because I know we're short on time. But you notice in the speech that he looked at Kamala Harris, and he said, we've had our differences in the past. But you know, on the campaign trail, I've never heard a president relive the old campaign stories, then you talked about funding the police.
HANNITY: We --
PRIEBUS: He talked about made in America, and he talked about secure borders.
HANNITY: That's all election year conversion. Garbage -- like, you know, we got to fund the police. I'm like, really, Joe, where you've been for the last, however, many years right? Kellyanne, we got a minute and a half and it's all yours.
KELLYANNE CONWAY, FORMER COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT: Well, Sean, Reince, the guy who is plagiarizing Neil Kinnock speeches in the 1980s is now plagiarizing Donald Trump's entire agenda. And I think the theme from tonight is No Country for Old Man. Because Biden left no one happy. You have a very reluctant Vice President Kamala Harris kind of doing the fake clap when he was talking about funding the police.
And you have Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush attacking him immediately for saying he's going to fund the police. It was just a sort of a list of things that would try to bump up his poll numbers. Opioids, which he's done nothing about. Buy America, which he's been against. Energy, which of course he has killed -- you can draw a straight line from what he did on day one, to the crisis we're in now. And I, I have never seen the U.S. president, gentlemen, in 13 months in the first year in office, really abandoned three countries and their people in so many different ways, in Afghanistan, in Ukraine, and certainly so many of Americans who are hurting.
People are hurting out there. And Kamala Harris today, I think that the comments she made were so unfortunate, giving a 4-year-olds tutorial on Russian Ukraine. And let me say this, about that, two words, Kim Reynolds, she did a remarkable job. Her accomplishments are comportment, her philosophy, that strong female leadership and she's a conservative governor from the Midwest
HANNITY: Kellyanne, thank you. Reince, thank you. That's all the time we have left this evening. Stay with the Fox News Channel continuing coverage. We're back at our regular time tomorrow night. In the meantime, let not your heart be troubled. Laura Ingraham is up late tonight. She's been out of the bar all night, you know, watching the speech.
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