'Hannity' on inflation, Build Back Better

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Hannity to Manchin on Build Back Better: 'Kill the Bill'

Sean Hannity sounds off on socialist spending package in his Opening Monologue

This is a rush transcript of "Hannity" on December 10, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER: Americans held hostage behind enemy lines, day 118.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: All right. Welcome to HANNITY on this busy Friday night.

That's right, 118 days Americans trapped, abandoned by Joe Biden in the Islamic emirates of Afghanistan. And, yes, your spineless feckless cognitively weak president has forgotten the people that he promised to protect.

We will not forget them on the show until they're all home safely. He might have turned the page. The mob and the media -- well, they've turned the page too. Same with big tech, we won't.

Now, sadly tonight, another crisis is spiraling out of control right here. Now, breaking earlier today, shocking new economic numbers that prove that Biden and Kamala Harris and Schumer and every Democrat and Pelosi have all been lying to you.

First, we start with this -- inflation is now at a 39-year high, the worst number in four decades since 1982.

Look at this headline from CNBC, quote: Inflation surged 6.8 percent in November, even more than is expected, the fastest rate since 1982.

Price of gas up 58 percent, but you already know that. The price of food is up dramatically, the price of everything we buy in every store we go to is up dramatically. Now, make no mistake, this is a tax and this is disproportionately negatively impacting low and middle income Americans, so people that can least afford this.

Now, no doubt, they're feeling a lot of pain right now. Now, it is a tax on retired Americans living on a fixed income. It is a tax on, quote, working men and women, in other words, the people that make this country great that Joe claims to relate to so much and has so much compassion for -- a monopoly of compassion for.

Now, there's no mystery why this is happening. All of this was preventable and all of it is reversible, but you'd have to go back to the Trump policies that were working.

Joe and the radical climate cult Democrats in Congress have been printing money at a record pace. They've been on a $2 trillion dollar spending bill they had in March. Another trillion dollar infrastructure bill in November. Now, they started out. They wanted $3.5 trillion.

Now, they're attempting to spend what will ultimately be when you use real accounting numbers up to $5.1 trillion on Biden's socialist Build Back Better bill.

Look at this: now, Democrats always say that the Congressional Budget Office is a gold standard, the gold standard in terms of numbers that you get. Well, the Congressional Budget Office, they did an analysis of Build Back Better/New Green Deal socialism. This one bill alone could add $3 trillion plus to the deficit. They're saying it costs $1.75 trillion, it's not. It's costing $5.1 trillion when you include by the way that something called interest.

Senator Lindsey Graham rightly pointed out this would now send inflation even further through the roof. It will wreck our economy even more. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): If you believe these programs go away after one, two or three years, you shouldn't have a driver's license.

I am urging the Democratic Party to stop the madness, stop Build Back Better because Build Back Better is going to be a death blow to our economy. Six-point-eight percent, inflation is the enemy of working people in America. Build Back Better aids and abets the enemy of inflation, will drive that number up higher.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, thankfully, Lindsey Graham, who is the ranking member on the on the Senate Budget Committee, thankfully, he demanded real numbers because the Democrats have been lying the whole time. They've been using these accounting tricks to say, oh, it's not going to cost a penny. We'll get to that in a minute.

But in the last few weeks, Biden and many other Democrats, they said that over and over and over and over again, it's going to cost you nothing. Let me remind you. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Does the president still believe that Build Back Better will not add a dime to the national debt?

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Correct, it won't.

REPORTER: Why would he -- why should Americans believe that?

PSAKI: Because it won't.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: All this is paid for by raising taxes on big corporations and very wealthy. I'm not trying to punish anybody, but I'm insisting that they pay their fair share. It's fiscally responsible and it's paid for.

These plans are fiscally responsible. They are fully paid for. They don't add a single penny to the deficit.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And Build Back Better is not going to cost anything. We're paying for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, $3 trillion in new debt. So you were lying.

The Democrats were lying. Kamala was lying. Joe was lying. Jen Psaki was lying. Schumer was lying. Pelosi was lying. All the Democrats were lying because they were using accounting gimmicks to sell this lie to you, the American people.

Now, of course, by the way, recently, we had Jen Psaki had a very different explanation. She circled back with and said the CBO isn't very experienced at scoring these kinds of socialist spending sprees. But let's go to Joe Biden in 2010. He actually called the Congressional Budget Office that scored it at $4.9 trillion, not $1.75 trillion -- if you include interest, it's $5.1 trillion -- he called the CBO the gold standard of scoring legislation.

He wasn't the only Democrat that praised the CBO as the gold standard. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: And the estimates for the CBO which is really a -- you know, as you know, the gold standard, no Republican or Democrat questions.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Some of them are trying to pin a rose on this report make it sound like it's a good thing, and the others of them are trying to discredit the CBO. But it's completely wrong.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Before we enact major legislation, we should know the truth. CBO speaks the truth. They've been speaking the truth for decades, and to try to attack CBO is simply attacking the messenger.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): The CBO nonpartisan, fact-based score shows what a horror show this Republican plan is.

SEN. RON WYDEN (D-OR): We're going to be stopping it cold and certainly the CBO information gives us a big, big boost.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Don't take my word for it, take their word for it. The gold standard.

Now, tonight, there is one Democrat who trusts the CBO citing inflation concerns. West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin demanded the complete CBO scoring of Build Back Better with no accounting gimmicks, no so-called sunset clauses, all the budgetary tricks the Democrats were using to sell it.

Well, Joe Manchin, you got the score, $3 trillion added to the deficit and debt and with inflation already spiraling out of control, it's not $1.75 trillion, it's $5.1 trillion.

So, Joe, there's your off ramp, time to walk away from this socialist spending spree and stand up for the people of West Virginia that are getting killed by the climate cult, New Green Deal socialist in the House and in your party.

Rising prices are deeply impacting the people of West Virginia. This is, by the way, this goes right to the core of West Virginia's economy, energy. This bill will make everything much worse.

Joe Manchin -- well, what more do you need to see. It's time to kill the bill.

Here now with a full report from Washington, he has the hitchhiker's guide to all things spending spree, accounting gimmicks, you need it -- name it, our own Chad Pergram is with us.

Chad, well, that's a pretty different number than Joe -- what Joe was telling us, Joe Biden.

CHAD PERGRAM, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Sean.

Well, you're right, you know, Republicans are concerned about these CBO gimmicks and these scoring gimmicks. So is Joe Manchin and this is where Joe Manchin has talked about let's get funding for the entire period. Let's evaluate it for the entire period.

Now, Joe Manchin has talked about the possibility of a pause here. He is very concerned about inflation. So he says maybe we should put the brakes on here for just a little bit.

He might in fact get that pause. Here's the reason. They still have not completed the legislative text. They are still running this past the Senate parliamentarian trying to get all the clearances there to make sure it comports with the special Senate budget rules, and this delay may give Joe Manchin exactly what he wants.

Now, there was a push by the Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to move this bill through the Senate before Christmas and then it would have to go back to the House of Representatives.

And Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, indicated that she thought this could also get done in the House before Christmas time. That seems a little bit dubious. I pressed her about that earlier this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PERGRAM: You think that you could move so expeditiously, that they could turn -- that once you get it back from -- you could move this through the holidays, before the holidays? Or do you think that this needs some time to massage in the New Year because that's going to be a different product and some of your members are going to have to evaluate?

PELOSI: All your questions are always about what you're going to do for the holidays. We will -- we are on our path to get the job done for the American people, and we feel very confident about what is in Build Back Better. We know what some possibilities are and it would be my hope that we will have this bill done before the Christmas vacation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERGRAM: Now, Sean, time is undefeated. Time is really the enemy here for Democrats. This is more dangerous for them the longer that this bill sits out there.

Here's the history: they passed the first version of Obamacare early November of 2009 in the Senate Christmas Eve day of that year. It took them until the middle of March the next year for the House and Senate to line up. That took almost three months.

Lots can go wrong on this bill if it takes that much time -- Sean.

HANNITY: And add to that the lie that inflation is transitory. Well, today's numbers prove it's not transitory.

Chad, thank you as always.

Tonight, Joe Biden's poll numbers, they are falling again dramatically. New survey, this time CNBC, showing the president taking hits on his handling of COVID, the economy, pretty much everything. A year from now, Joe will be a massive liability in the midterm elections on the national state and local level.

But the city of New York has a solution and that is a new measure that will allow non-citizens -- in other words illegal immigrants -- to vote in citywide elections. So you can add that to my list of election reform. For example, we need signature verification, we need voter ID, that should be mandatory. Even Joe's state of Delaware has that. We need chain of custody controls, updated voter rolls, and yes, partisan observers need to watch up close the vote counting start to finish and now, no illegal immigrants should vote.

Now, the Washington Post once called it a conspiracy theory that illegal immigrants will vote. Now, it's called the reality.

Under New York City's one party Democratic rule, power in perpetuity is all that matters. That's why the city is now devolving into a nasty, high crime, hell hole. I say that from experience.

And meanwhile, south of New York, in the Washington D.C. swamp, not much better. Even some Democrats are concerned about Biden's cognitive decline.

Look at this poll. Majority of Americans do not believe Joe is mentally fit to serve. By the way, we were way ahead of the curve. In an interview that will air this weekend, well, First Lady Jill Biden said that concerns around Joe's mental fitness are ridiculous. But everyone on earth including our allies and enemies and hostile regimes can all see what we see every day and that is every day is now a struggle for Joe -- walking, talking, reading, remembering. Some days are a little better than others but he seems to be getting worse.

But it makes you wonder who then is in charge over at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. You know, just like when he said, oh, we're not going to pay illegal immigrants. Peter Doocy, you need to stop reporting that garbage. Two days later, he's advocating it.

So the question is, I don't know what's worse, advocating the dumb policy or not knowing his administration put forth the dumb policy?

FOX News contributor Jason Chaffetz, former Trump White House aide Kellyanne Conway join us with this.

So you get these numbers in today, Kellyanne, is 39-year high for inflation. Then we get a real CBO score, the gold standard, I don't think this is working out well for the Democrats right now.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, FROMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE AIDE: It's not and, Sean, these polls are coming from the mainstream media, the same media that helped Joe Biden get elected, voted for him, cover for him. They're the ones producing the worst polls for Joe Biden.

Let's unpack the CNBC poll. Fifty-six percent of those surveyed said that they disapprove of Joe Biden's handling of the economy, 41 percent say the economy will get worse for them over the next year, and a separate CNBC survey say 62 percent Joe Biden is just bad for small business. It's not just that people see it at the gas pump, in their grocery cart, in the supply chain shortage, the everyday cost of necessities.

Folks, these are not luxuries. This is what people need to eat and where, where they need to live, how they fuel their cars, home heating bills are going to go through the roof, and they blame Joe Biden. "But Trump, but Trump" has hit a buzzsaw. They can't do that anymore. They know we had a roaring economy.

And now, inflation has totally eclipsed coronavirus, COVID as the number one issue and Biden is underwater on all the issues. Inflation, followed by COVID, followed by crime -- immigration and then crime, all of a sudden, is raising to the top.

You want to talk about chaos? Chaos at the border, chaos in our cities, smash and grab, public safety, cops not resourced or respected properly, chaos in Afghanistan, chaos at the gas pump.

And everywhere you look inflation is a problem. Inflation is not transitory. They lied about that. They said the surge at the border was seasonal lie. Everything is going well in Afghanistan, lie. And then, of course, we're going to shut down and kill the virus, lies.

These are not gaffes. These are lies. And people see the president for himself they know what's going on there.

But I think he should be made to eat and own all of his decisions. Who's the president? Joe Biden. Who's the face of the Democratic Party? Joe Biden. Who's in charge? I would say Joe Biden.

Let the Democrats defend against that, Sean. This guy is not up to the job, up to the fight, and up to the task. But people are blaming him now in his party.

Lastly in that CNBC -- CNBC poll in the 20 years they've been asking the generic ballot question, this is the first time Republicans have had a double-digit advantage over Democrats as to whom do you want to control Congress, the highest watermark for the Republicans in the past CNBC poll was four points. It's plus 10.

Forty-four percent want Republicans to control Congress, only 34 percent of the country, Sean, a third of the country want Democrats to control Congress, and that's who does control Congress.

HANNITY: You know the thing is a Congressman Chaffetz, or I shouldn't insult you because you're not a congressman anymore, but in all in all fairness here, there is an off-ramp here. But it's not one that Joe has as an option.

He can't go against the climate change cult that is his Democratic Party and go back to energy independence. He can't abandon New Green Deal radical socialism which is the base of his party. He's not going to all of a sudden decide to secure the border.

He's not going to go rescue Americans in Afghanistan. He's going to continue to beg OPEC and Russia to produce more energy because he won't do it here at home. I don't see a way out for this guy.

JASON CHAFFETZ, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah, in order to get the nomination, he sold his soul to the left. He lurched to the left. I mean he had to bow down to the Bernie Sanders of the world.

I mean Bernie Sanders is literally the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee for goodness sake. What do you think was going to happen with that type of leadership in the Senate, in the House?

And he's just -- he's just physically not strong. He's a poor leader. He's not a strong leader. He's a poor communicator. He can't answer impromptu questions.

The Russians, the Chinese, and all of the American people see this. He can't secure the American border. Do you think he's going to be able to protect Taiwan? Do you think he's going to be able to fight back against the Russians going into Ukraine? Do you think he's going to be able to fight back against the Iranians?

That's why in the world -- the foreign policy is also just as abysmal as what is happening here domestically. But I don't see him changing course because who's his wingman? Kamala Harris, she's even worse in every one of those categories.

HANNITY: And -- well, and then you can add Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, and I don't see them changing either, Kellyanne. So -- I mean, you see a train wreck coming politically for the Democratic Party.

I mean, ultimately, what does Joe Manchin do in all of this, Kellyanne? You've been around politics, Washington a long time. That CBO scoring is -- should be you know the final nail on the coffin for Build Back Better/New Green Deal socialism.

Will Joe Manchin stand for fiscal sanity, stand up against the climate, you know, cult alarmist? What -- will he stand up for the working men and women of West Virginia? I actually think he probably will.

CONWAY: So far, he has. Yes. And so far, he has. He has not toed the line in a Democratic Party that seems to have one view now, just one view on the Second Amendment, on abortion, on taxes, on Build Back Better. There's only one view.

And I'll tell you, the $3 trillion is really a death knell for the Democratic Party because we -- they're doing what politicians always do in Washington. They're spending money we don't have, on things we don't need. He's mentally unfit, but he's presidentially unfit.

And people can see that and they know that. And, Sean, one last thing, remember, they said, Terry McAuliffe would have run. He would have won against Glenn Youngkin, yes, he would have, had we only passed Build Back Better sooner, that we dragged our feet, we didn't tell people what's in it. That would have been worse for them, but they believe this is the way forward, that this is how you get out of inflation.

When people can't afford everyday necessities, you don't take their money and spend it on things we don't need and things we didn't ask for.

HANNITY: Last word, Jason Chaffetz?

CHAFFETZ: I think there are other Democrats that are going to stand with Joe Manchin. They're just too chicken to stand out front. I think people like Jon Tester, they don't have a backbone to show that where they are today. But they're all rooting for Joe Manchin to take the lead on this one.

HANNITY: Oh, so they're going to -- they won't do it themselves. They have to hope that Joe Manchin does the hard work for them.

Joe -- if Joe Manchin does, he's saving the party from itself. It's going to be an interesting couple of weeks.

All right. Thank you both.

Now, straight ahead tonight on this Friday night, new poll shows Texas Governor Abbott with a massive lead in his re-election campaign against Beto Bozo O'Rourke. Governor Abbott, he'll join us live, next, for an exclusive interview about what he's doing to block vaccine mandates. That's next as we continue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

HANNITY: Now, amid endless COVID rules, vaccine mandates, border chaos, the far left lunacy, red state governors all across the country, they're standing up to do everything they can do to limit the damage of the destructive Democratic Biden-Harris agenda.

Tonight, Texas Governor Greg Abbott is standing up for the freedom of the people of Texas and also standing up against one-size-fits-all so-called science of medicine, signing an order banning vaccine mandates and writing, quote: Since day one, the state of Texas has taken a stand against the federal government's unconstitutional COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the workplace, three of which have since been deemed illegal by federal courts. My executive order clearly states that no employer can mandate the COVID-19 vaccine for an employee with a religious personal or medical exemption.

Now, Abbott's success stands in direct contrast to the failures of the Biden administration and it is why so many Americans are flocking to states like Texas and Florida from these failed blue states with draconian measures. It's also why Abbott is up by a whopping 15 points over Robert Francis Beto Bozo O'Rourke, who apparently is eager to lose yet another election.

Here from react -- for reaction, Texas Governor Abbott.

All right. You're up 15 points, I don't see this as a race. And I'll tell you, one of the reasons though I would give, Governor, is you've done a great job.

And reason number two is when Beto ran the first time, he was kind of an unknown. Now we know how radical he is, the people of Texas know.

You agree with that assessment?

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R), TEXAS: Well, listen, Sean, one of the things driving the polls is that the most important issue in the state of Texas is the border and border security. And as your audience will remember, Beto was far to the left of Joe Biden on open border policies, and he is falling way -- he being Beto O'Rourke -- is falling way behind on the border. He wants to do nothing to secure the border. He wants to people to be coming across illegally just like Joe Biden has been in favor of people coming across illegally.

Texas wants a governor who's going to step up and secure our border. That's one of the reasons why they support me.

But, Sean, I got to tell you something else. If you dig into that poll, some very interesting findings, such as I'm supported by women overwhelmingly over Beto, by Hispanics more than Beto. But there was another very interesting finding in there and that is more people thought that Beto was dishonest than they thought he was honest.

The poll also showed that Joe Biden has something like a 32 percent favorability rating and a 64 percent unfavorability rating. People do not like the Biden administration in the state of Texas and they view Beto O'Rourke through that very same lens.

HANNITY: Yeah. You know, it's important. I'm glad you're standing up against vaccine mandates. The people of Texas can decide for themselves. Supposedly, we were told repeatedly that if you -- if you want to protect yourself, you do that by getting the vaccine. That's what they said.

Now, the bar keeps moving and changing every other day, and it's killing economies in the Northeast as you are very well aware of. So you've taken a strong stand here. You've also taken a strong stand on illegal immigrants.

Do you have the right to sue the federal government for mandates like this?

ABBOTT: So, you're talking about the vaccine mandate? A hundred percent. We have the right to sue, that's exactly why we're winning because -- now, listen, the federal government doesn't have the authority to issue mandates like this.

Look at the Constitution and what the Constitution says with regard to giving the executive branch to regulate things like this, and it says absolutely nothing. And what that means is the 10th Amendment applies, and that's exactly why we've been winning all of these cases against the Biden administration with regard to the vaccine mandates. And that's why the only order or law or mandate in effect in the state of Texas is one that I issued that protects Texans' freedom.

There's something important about this, Sean, and that is this is more than whether or not somebody's going to abide by a national order, whatever the case may be. This is whether or not somebody is going to have something put into their body that they do not want put into their body. That's more than freedom, that's their right to control and secure your own body. And that's exactly why we are winning on this issue.

HANNITY: You know, the federal government hasn't mentioned -- Joe Biden only mentioned once during his vaccine mandate speech about monoclonal antibodies and then he started, even though we don't have a shortage of them, rationing them to red states. Have you had that problem?

ABBOTT: Oh, Sean, we have. So the same week when Joe Biden came out and said, listen, we're going to have more monoclonal antibody therapeutic drugs available, he also announced that he was cutting back on the allocation given to Texas.

And so, Texas being our usual resourceful self, we went out and got our own antibody therapeutic drugs for Texans. Joe Biden is not going to stop me from providing medicine to our fellow Texans who need it, who get COVID. We will take care of our fellow Texans.

HANNITY: And by the way, this is a true story. I hope you don't mind me mentioning it. I -- when I heard you had a breakthrough case, you had been fully vaccinated. I called you and I said, I hope you feel better. And I asked you, I said, Governor, are you going to get monoclonal antibodies? And I think your answer was, yeah, in about five minutes, I'm in the hospital right now. I'm -- you're in one of the centers.

So I find they work. They work for you, right?

ABBOTT: Absolutely, and that's why we work to get them out to everybody. But also we have these new drugs, over-the-counter, that will be coming such as the one by Merck, such as the one by Pfizer the people we'll be able to take. There's so many people who have recovered from COVID, those are all reasons that add together why the Biden administration should not impose these vaccine mandates.

HANNITY: All right. Governor, great job. I think Beto was in for a shocking election night. Anyway, I hope so.

All right. Straight ahead, you're not going to believe what Fauci is saying about Christmas and your family. Rand Paul responds, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Right now, Doctor Doom and Gloom flip-flop Fauci is at it again, telling you the American people you should consider checking your family's vaccine status for holiday gatherings. May I see your vaccine passport before entry please? Is that what's going to happen?

And that's not all. Fauci also wants to shift the goal post once again, what a shocker, on what the definition of fully vaccinated means. You might render your vaccine card, your passport that you currently have to get into a restaurant in New York City for example -- well, not valid. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: When you get vaccinated and you have a vaccinated group and you are in an indoor setting, you can enjoy as we have traditionally over the years dinners and gatherings within the home with people who are vaccinated and that's the reason why people should if they invite people over their home essentially ask and maybe require that people show evidence that they are vaccinated or give their honest and good faith word that they've been vaccinated.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: I'm kind of stuck with is it a matter now of when not if the definition of fully vaccinated changes.

FAUCI: You know, my own personal opinion, Kate, is what you said is correct. It's going to be a matter of when, not if.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: That same guy told us in March of 2020, masks, they don't work. They wouldn't -- nobody should wear a mask. Now, the COVID theater doesn't stop there. Fauci now proclaiming that Santa Claus received his booster shot so he's all ready to go for Christmas. But maybe he hasn't read about the supply chain crisis those gifts might not be available.

Anyway, the power grabs, pandemic theater, never-ending panic, it's now all part of the Democratic playbook. In New York City, you've got failing governor, failing mayor, soon to be gone, but the Governor Kathy Hochul now saying everyone across the state must wear a mask indoors, unless the venue has a vaccine mandate.

Meanwhile, down in Florida, where there are no mandates, the COVID positivity rate -- well, continues to be far lower than New York and other blue states -- as a matter of fact, some of the lowest in the country. What happened to follow the science?

And remember, no one has been more wrong than Dr. Fauci. Masks don't work. Then, one mask, then two masks, then vax or mask. Then, it's vax, mask, booster. And now, it's vaccine mandates from grandma and grandpa if they want to come visit over the holidays.

Anyway, now you better get your booster or else you're not fully vaccinated. He's the same guy who said we wouldn't need -- we wouldn't have vaccine mandates. We would never have vaccine passports. He also appeared to lie to Congress when he said the NIH never funded gain of function research in the Wuhan virology lab, that is until his own NIH said that they did.

He downplayed the evidence, it was overwhelming, of the lab league theory and he even by the way after he was warned otherwise.

Here with reaction, Senator Rand Paul, who has had his number from the get- go from the beginning.

You know, I want to go to this follow the science. You're --you're a medical doctor, Rand Paul.

Kids now, they're mandating in New York to get into a restaurant have to be vaccinated between the ages of 5 and 11. But the rate of kids during this whole pandemic 5 to 11 dying is equal to that of kids that die from the flu on any given year, pretty close.

He doesn't want to delve into the science of natural immunity. I never hear him talk about monoclonal antibodies that have been shown enormously effective in everything that I read and see.

So, explain to me why is this only one-size-fits-all medicine all the time?

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): You know, these people won't be happy until they get your newborn. I mean, they really want to get your newborn inoculated before they leave the hospital. They're going to restrict certain things. You know, they're not going to dispense schooling. But they're also going to try to get them before they leave the hospital.

I think it's outrageous and ignores the science. It's all based on this misreading of the science that says we haven't been vaccinating enough and that we're under vaccinated. The truth from the CDC is quite the opposite. Over age 75, 97 percent of people have voluntarily chosen to be vaccinated. Between ages 64 and 75, 99 percent of people have been vaccinated.

So we are voluntarily accepting this. Most people at high risk have been vaccinated. This is a disease of the elderly, not of children.

And the thing is, is that, he's not obeying science. He's sort of granting his impulse to authoritarianism. His default position is always, how can I control people? How can I regulate people?

But I can tell you, he's not going to be too happy with the Paul family Christmas. We have 57 for Christmas, no vaccine passport, the only requirement is that you have read and understand the Constitution.

HANNITY: Yeah, that would be nice.

You know, I'm -- I might be one of the few Rand Paul that actually still believe in medical privacy, doctor-patient confidentiality and believe in a concept called freedom. In my view, the debate over vax and not vax is over in this sense, most people have made up their mind. I don't think anything Fauci, Biden, Kamala Harris, Walensky, the CDC, NIH, I don't think anything they say is going to change people -- people's minds.

My question is, why do they steadfastly refuse to tell people about monoclonal antibodies because anecdotally, I can tell you that anybody that I know, vaxed or unvaxed, old and older even, even with pre-existing conditions, positive for COVID, that immediately get monoclonal antibodies in every case that I know of, they've done very well.

Has that been your experience? You're a medical doctor and I urge people to talk to their doctors about it.

PAUL: There's some knowledge about monoclonal antibodies that's incredibly important that Dr. Fauci never mentions and I've never seen him say it once. There's a window of time when you can get it. If you don't get it within that window of time, they won't give it to you.

So if you're an inpatient, Dr. Fauci forbids anybody in the country from having monoclonal antibodies if they're an inpatient. He's the one that directs the policy, you can't get it.

So if your parents are sick and you're going to the emergency room, they may have to be admitted, you have to know enough to ask the doctors, hey, wait a minute, could we give them the monoclonal antibodies before they're admitted, because the algorithm, the rigidity of the state algorithm is that you can't get it once you've been admitted.

You also supposedly can't get it after 10 days of symptoms. So you may or may not want to forget about the first couple of days when you're giving them your history because the thing is, is you still could get some benefit from the monoclonal antibodies. They're probably better used in the earlier stages of the disease, and that's what people should get as a message here get it before it's too late. But we should still being allowed to use in the hospital and at a later period of time.

The company has been advocating for this, but you don't see the government being very eager to approve this in-hospital use. They've been advocating for this for a couple of months now and to this day, you still can't get monoclonal antibodies in the hospital. It's probably your best chance not to get on the ventilator.

HANNITY: I've never witnessed one person on the world stage being this wrong, this often, telling this many lies especially about the origins of the of COVID-19.

Rand Paul, thank you.

Up next, Don Lemon finally speaking out about his pal Jussie Smollett after he was found guilty of lying to the police. We've got the tape. We'll get reaction.

Leo 2.0 Terrell, Lara Trump, next when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Now, the Jussie Smollett hate crime hoax, scandal, that's also a media scandal as the mob amplified the actor's lies. They ignored key facts. They got caught fueling yet another hoax. You know, like the four- year Trump Russia collusion hoax, just to name a few, like they always do.

And while most of the left-wing sycophants in the media mob, big tech mob downplayed or ignored the story from yesterday -- well, fake news CNN host Don Lemon -- well, he was forced to face reality last night and admit that his friend is a big liar. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: They're here to make up too many lies to why he didn't want to do certain things or to cover like another lie, and that, you know -- yeah, I guess he got caught up in that because he took the stand himself. He got angry with the prosecutor as prosecutor poked holes in his story, calling -- you know, only -- the only other witnesses liars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: That's not all because fake news CNN was my widely mocked for their headline on their home page. Quote: Jussie Smollett, guilty on some charges.

Well, I think guilty of five out of six charges and six counts and being exposed as a total complete liar and fraud is more than just some.

Now, as resident HANNITY stalker, intern over fake news CNN, some guy named Oliver, anyway he writes quote how Sean Hannity and right wing media personalities are using the Smollett verdict to attack the media, because you get it wrong all the time.

You lied about Trump-Russia collusion for years. Most media was wrong on pretty much everything, starting with Richard Jewell, Nicholas Sandman, Cambridge police, wrong on Ferguson, wrong on the case in Baltimore with Freddie Gray, UVA, Duke Lacrosse, and I can keep going.

So why is it that we always get it right and they always get it wrong? And why is the mob so obsessed with fueling hoaxes? When do they apologize for getting things wrong? Why do they refuse to admit they're ever wrong? Why don't they just correct the record? It's not that hard.

Anyway, get this, over at MSDNC, their prime time hosts, they never covered the verdict at all. One piece on msdnc.com used the case to attack conservatives. They're the ones who, quote, have strategically made the Smollett case their go-to example for how the left operates and how it wrongly makes villains out of Donald Trump supporters.

Oh, if the dog bites, if the bee stings, if you're feeling sad, I guess you'll find some -- some way over there to blame Donald Trump.

Here with reaction, FOX News contributors Leo 2.0 Terrell and Lara Trump is with us.

You know, Joe Biden tweeted, what happened to Jussie Smollett must never be tolerated in this country. Kamala Harris, it's a modern day lynching. Cory Booker, a modern day lynching. Al Sharpton, Andrew Cuomo, Congresswoman Tlaib, human rights campaign, Bernie Sanders, Eric Swalwell, Maxine Waters, Dick Durbin, Cher, Katy Perry, Jemele Hill, Joy Reid -- I mean, all of them without any evidence, Lara Trump, all of them predictably wrong. Most of the same people wrong about your father-in-law conspiring with Russia.

LARA TRUMP, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah, it's funny how that all works out, isn't it, Sean? The good news is that the dozen or so people who watch MSNBC and actually tune in over there at that channel, they unfortunately did not get the verdict that Jussie Smollett was found guilty on most charges. Let me correct the headline for CNN, it was most, five out of six is most not some.

But this shouldn't really surprise any of us because we know that the mainstream media has basically carried the water for the Democrat Party forever. For as long as so many of us can remember. And this is their -- basically their only job is to do the bidding of the Democrat Party. And if you look at what the Democrats want, they have told us they want to transform America. They want to change our country.

We know that so many of them over there on the Democrat side want to socialize America. So how do you do that? You have to stoke hate, you have to continue to divide us and this story was perfect for them whenever they first got a whiff of it.

The idea that a bunch of -- that a couple of Trump supporters were out there at 2:00 a.m. waiting in the freezing frigid winter of Chicago to attack Jussie Smollett while he went out per guidance apparently of his nutritionist. I don't know what nutritionist by the way would ever tell you to go eat at 2:00 in the morning. So that one got me from the jump.

But the whole thing, we all said -- well, this is crazy. Let's wait until all the facts come out, not the folks on the left side of the mainstream media, not all those people. They jumped at this opportunity. Now, it is crickets from them because they can't spin this in any way positive for them.

And sadly, it would actually go to help them and further trust in the media, although it is at a historic low right now. If they did, Sean, what you just said if they went back and corrected the record and said you know what? We were wrong about this, we shouldn't have spoken so soon but we want to correct this or at least tell us the verdict, my goodness.

So this doesn't surprise anybody, but it is sad because what they are ultimately doing is hurting America and dividing people further. And it shouldn't happen. We should be able to turn to our mainstream media and have journalists out there and not people that are just pushing a political narrative.

HANNITY: Yeah. Where, by the way, is Mr. Uniter Joe Biden?

The evidence was overwhelming, Leo. The dry run -- the other people involved in the hoax, buying the rope, buying the red hat, their testimony was clear.

All of this, anybody that followed the case. Now, when you have the president of the United States and the vice president calling it in her case modern-day lynching, the damage, the wreckage can be real here.

You know, I would -- it's probably one of the reasons why that one of the ten commandments is don't bear force false witness, right, Leo?

LEO TERRELL, FOX NEWS HOST: Absolutely. And I'll tell you right now, let's add another charge. He perjured himself on the witness stand.

You know, everything Lara said was absolutely correct. But you guys stop wasting your time. MSDC and CNN, those are not news organizations. Those are political organizations, social media outlet for the Democratic Party.

Jussie Smollett is a convicted felon. He used his race to divide this country and it failed because, you know what? Our American legal system works. You know, Sean, you talk about the race card is played every election cycle. No, the Democrats played every single day, 24/7.

They owe America an apology. They owe President Trump an apology, because they were trying to divide this country for people to hate each other.

This jury came back and said, no, Smollett is a liar. He did not have a hate crime against him.

Ad last point, Sean, he tried to diminish all those people who made sacrifices, gave up their lives, to establish civil rights laws, to make this country a colorblind society. He used it for his personal gain and he lost.

HANNITY: Leo 2.0 Terrell, thank you. Lara Trump, thank you.

More HANNITY after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Unfortunately, that is all the time we have left this evening. As always, you make this show possible. We can never thank you enough. We hope you'll set your DVR so you never miss an episode.

In the meantime, let not your hearts be troubled, THE INGRAHAM ANGLE, Laura Ingraham, coming up next. Have a great weekend. We'll see you back here on Monday.

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