Hannity asks New York Times: Where are the retractions?
'Hannity' host reacts to the paper's report detailing the relationship between spies and journalists
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," May 17, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Welcome to "Hannity".
Tonight, we are tracking multiple major stories, a lot of ground to cover tonight, including a bombshell new report about this unholy alliance between the media mob, DNC-funded, oh, let's say, operatives, groups like Fusion GPS that are fed lies and they push them out without a trace of evidence. Now, we have an investigation. We'll demand retractions and will name names, coming up.
And later, we'll also highlight some of the mobs' insane coverage of the conflict in Israel including praise -- oh, let's see, over fake news CNN for Adolf Hitler, from a journalist working with fake news CNN.
Also tonight, a U.S. Space Force commander has just been relieved of duty for trashing Marxism on a conservative podcast, and the now fired lieutenant colonel will join a straight.
Plus, I have a special message tonight for England's royal pain in the ass, Prince Harry, who thinks that America's First Amendment is, quote, bonkers. He needs an education. We will give it to him.
I will also explain natural rights and freedom to the duke of social justice. That's coming up.
But, first tonight, crisis on our southern border, rising unemployment, inflation through the roof, gas shortage is still on the East Coast. And now, our enemies are more emboldened than ever and the Middle East frankly is on fire tonight.
Joe Biden is just four months into office. It has been a complete and total train wreck. "The New York Post" calling him the master of disaster worse than Jimmy Carter.
And even "The New York Times" politely criticizing their dear fearless leader that they protect every day as a man with a short fuse, that's indecisive, asking obscure questions, often berating his advisors when he becomes confused -- which we know is often -- on policy issues. Quote: Mr. Biden takes days or weeks to make up his mind as he examines and second- guesses himself and everyone else. "The Times" continues, advisors, they've got to steer clear of responses laced with acronyms or too much policy minutia which will prompt an outburst of utter frustration often laced with profanity and that, quote, it takes a lot of behind-the-scenes work to prepare Joe to publicly speak about any complicated topic.
Oh, they're finally watching the show. Does this sound like a guy that is fit to serve as the leader of the free world? Doesn't sound like it to me.
We're talking about the single most demanding, most difficult job in the entire world, compared Joe or Joey, depending on what time of day it is, to Donald Trump who worked around the clock from early morning to way past midnight every night. According to the same "New York Times" report, Joe Biden strolls into the office, oh, 9:30 a.m., averaging less than a single scheduled public event any given day.
And as fake news CNN even previously reported, Joe is in early to bed type who starts preparing his bedtime routine at around 7:00 p.m. in the evening. You know, warm milky, sippy cup, night, night, may if he's good he gets a book or two read to him.
So, while Joey naps and gets up -- gets to bed early, wakes up late and spends hours trying to comprehend policy, his radical base, they are running the show. It is clearly not him.
And that's why Biden's so-called infrastructure plan is a massive multitrillion dollar Green New Deal socialist wish list. That's why his administration is now plotting now to retroactively -- now, we make decisions, what the law is. He's going to retroactively raise taxes to pay for all of this.
And that's why Joe Biden declared his war on the fossil fuel industry on day one. And do you think that the climate-obsessed socialists in the Biden administration, do you think they care about the gas shortages and the hacking that took place on the East Coast? Or the fact that we'll no longer be energy independent after finally achieving it after 75 years?
Where are the repercussions for the Russians who did this hacking? Joey, what have you said to Vladimir? How are you going to hold Vladimir accountable? You know, what are you going to do if anything?
Look at this map, the Colonial Pipeline has been back online for several days. There's still major shortages up and down the East Coast. Meanwhile, gas prices -- they continue to rise and we'll have a lot more coming up.
But, first, joining is the head of the petroleum analysis, GasBuddy Patrick De Haan is with us.
Sir, welcome back.
Okay, where we are -- and by the way, I like your app because it tells people where gas stations actually have gas. It's still being used heavily. We still have gas stations without gas and we're now being told that things won't be back to normal maybe at the earliest Memorial Day?
PATRICK DE HAAN, HEAD OF PETROLEUM ANALYSIS, GASBUDDY: Well, Sean, you highlight a struggle that we've seen time and time again when pipeline issues develop or hurricane issues develop. Anytime motorists run to the pump, this is kind of the cut and dry situation is that back in 2017, it took 19 days for floor to get back to normal. Back in 2016 during the Colonial outage, it took a couple of weeks.
There's just so much intense demand with the rebound economy that you tend to see these things take quite a bit of time.
HANNITY: Okay, it's a simple equation. You don't have to be in MIT or Harvard grad to figure out simple economics 101, supply demand crisscross that dictates the price. When you reduce the supply artificially by taking the U.S. out of the supply chain as rapidly as he has, it's not complicated to know reduced supply means an increase in price for everybody, more dependency on countries that don't like us. True or false?
DE HAAN: Absolutely. When you see supply dwindle, it does impact price. Of course, I would have to mention COVID-19 shutting down and leading to a drop in oil prices. Americans that parked their cars last year for several months decimated the industry and unfortunately caused the oil industry to move two steps backward.
Now, we're starting to move a half step forward that oil prices have recovered. We're starting to see those old producers return to the game.
HANNITY: Yeah, and a lot of countries were buying -- we're now helping Vladimir in Russia. Hostile regime, hostile actor, countries that hate us in the Middle East.
All right. Great app. Thank you, Patrick. We appreciate it.
Now, let's turn to the corrupt media mob. They continue to hit new lows. This week, fake news CNN forced to cut all ties with an international producer after tweeting, quote: The world today needs a Hitler. You can't make it up.
As it turns out, this wasn't the first time the so-called journalist at fake news CNN expressed his love for all things Hitler and hatred of the Jewish people. 2014, his freelancer at CNN proudly tweeting: Hitler was a German and he did good with those Jews, his words.
By the way, this guy is still on Twitter.
@jack, doesn't this qualify as somebody that might get a permanent life ban? I'm just wondering.
Meanwhile, a keyboard warrior from NBC tweeting, quote: Hamas is no more of a terrorist organization than the Israeli or U.S. governments. Wow, way to go, NBC. Keep it right up there with CNN.
She deleted the tweet, refused to apologize. Apparently still has a job.
And as you can see, there are no standards in the media and the mob. No journalistic integrity whatsoever. True to form, brand new report "New York Times" detailing -- and this is interesting -- one little article showing how Fusion GPS and how all of these private, well, investigative groups, the ones that do intel.
Former intel people, you know, they work with so-called journalists in the media mob. They work hand in hand intentionally. They did it to smear Donald Trump. They used Hillary's dirty Russian disinformation dossier. Now, that was unsourced, unverifiable, a pack of lies.
But the media mob treated it as gospel. And in doing so, what, they hawked a conspiracy theory that hurt this country for three long years. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This idea propagated by the president and others that it is a fake dossier, that's just not true.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A sort of dossier of alleged dirt that the Russians allegedly say they allegedly have on Donald Trump, alleged dirt that they allegedly used to allegedly cultivate him as basically a Russian asset.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lot of distraction about this dossier. If you go back and read the 35 pages, what's going on in the world of Trump right now is a massive attempt to distract and deflect from it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is reported in that dossier is in line with what we know. That's what Congressman Schiff was saying.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president has called it a hoax and we've heard other names for it. But late last year, top officials at the FBI and the CIA and the director of national intelligence actually discussed including parts of the Steele dossier in the official intelligence document on Russian meddling.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: It wasn't just fake news CNN, MSDNC that relied on the Fusion GPS and the dirty Russian disinformation, Hillary paid-for ford dossier, so did pretty much all of America's top newspapers, the three major networks. By the way, ironically, that would include "The New York Times".
They're now suddenly reporting the illicit connection between journalists and these groups like Fusion GPS, but it was the very same "New York Times" that actually gave the founder of Fusion GPS, Glenn Simpson, a platform to spew this disinformation. Listen to this, according to Simpson, quote: The dossier was taken so seriously because it corroborated reports the bureau had received from other sources.
It turned out that's not true. Remember, the sub-source they knew in January of 2017 said none of this is true and even, yep, Steele himself admitted it wasn't true and they kept using the dirty dossier Russian disinformation dossier to get more FISA warrants from what was premeditated fraud on the FISA court.
And in Simpson's book review, "The Washington Post" reported, quote, Steele, they say, remains confident that at least 70 percent of the assertions in the dossier are accurate.
It was all unverifiable garbage. It was all paid for by Hillary and the DNC, and it was all filled with Russian lies and disinformation. But your media sourced it for years.
So we're asking tonight, where are the retractions? Where are the apologies?
Spoiler alert, they haven't been forthcoming and they probably never will be. Journalism, I said it in '07, it is dead, it is buried in America. With a few notable exceptions, the mob and the media, they just serve at the pleasure of the Democratic socialist New Green Deal Party.
Here with more, author of the bestseller, "Liberal Privilege", Donald Trump Jr.
You know, I got to imagine that this should be personal for you not just because it's your father, but they put you through hell for three years. And I don't know, but I would imagine that the legal fees for you and your family and your loved ones has to be in the millions. Does anyone care to repay you for that now?
DONALD TRUMP JR., AUTHOR, "LIBERAL PRIVILEGE": No, that's not how it works, Sean, and they don't care, and that's the reality. So even when all of the stuff is shown to be lies, even when they all went on the record saying this was the gospel and now it's not, there's no accountability. There's no ramifications.
I did 30 hours in front of various Senate and House committees where -- again, I wasn't there for a real reason. They all knew it was nonsense but they're hoping that if I go in there, that maybe I say, you know what, at 12:02 -- no, it was 12:01. We got you, that's a perjury trap, you get to go to jail.
You know, I wouldn't get the Hunter Biden treatment where he can be dealing with all sorts of shady regimes, pulling in millions and if not billions from the Chinese, and shady Russian oligarchs tied to the Russian government and getting board seats for jobs he knows nothing about. I wouldn't get that treatment. If I was off by one second on a comment, you know, based on a general idea of the time that something happened, that's when they get you and they'd go after you.
So, you are right, Sean. The media is dead. They've been broken. You see what they did. I mean, CNN could have someone on the payroll for eight years with tweets praising Hitler, no problem, no big deal. We'll finally get rid of them not because it wasn't out there, they just didn't do the diligence and they didn't care.
You have other mainstream media out there literally saying, you know what, the Iron Dome in Israel, you know, it saves some people's lives but it's also kind of part of the problem, Sean. You know, not that a designated terror organization is sending literally thousands of missiles into Israel and they're defending himself and that's not the take because the leftist media, they've been on the Palestinian side of this for a long period of time, and the anti-Semitism, the anti -- you know, Jewish tropes that have been out there are absolutely disgusting, and it's not going to stop until more people step up and start calling them out.
The hypocrisy, it knows no bounds, Sean.
HANNITY: You know, you look at the situation now. We were energy independent four months ago when your dad was president, for the first time in 75 years. Joe wants to raise every tax and then tell us that it's not going to contribute to spending to the deficit, okay? I'm not really looking at his math. You see what's happening at the border, you see what's happening in Israel. You see an unholy alliance.
The Russians, the Chinese, they are now providing Iran with weaponry that they're shipping to Yemen for the proxy war and the rest of the Middle East that is fighting. I can't think of a single front where things are going good for Joe -- or Joey depending on how you call him.
TRUMP JR.: Now, they're only going good in the pages of the media who will, you know, be the cheerleaders for anyone on the left despite an obvious disaster in literally every aspect of our foreign policy and our domestic policy.
You're canceling pipelines, destroying blue-collar jobs that Joe said he wouldn't destroy. Guess what? I wrote about that in "Liberal Privilege" last summer. I said this was going to happen. It did.
The media pretended it wouldn't happen so that they could help him get elected because they realize that would not be popular with people in Middle America, good hard-working Americans that need those jobs that really love the cheap gas prices that they were able to.
Now, we have gas shortages in America. I put out the tweet last week and Twitter went after me hard because I said, you know, Joe Biden's not the next FDR. He's the next Jimmy Carter.
And Twitter, it started trending -- Donald Trump Jr. doesn't understand that Jimmy Carter's a nice guy. I go, no, no, I understand. What you don't understand is basic history that you're totally missing stagflation, you're missing the hostage crisis, you're missing a disastrous presidency.
And I was wrong about Joe Biden. I grossly underestimated him. I thought it would take him years to destroy America and he's managed to do it in a few short months. I don't know whether to be upset or impressed but as the father of five young kids, someone who's an employer of lots of people all over this country, it's really sad to see what's going on.
And the media still is giving him every benefit of the doubt, trying to make excuses for what is utter incompetence, okay? We understand he's not there. We get it, but the people that are making decisions and putting whatever it is that they have to sign of him --
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Whoa, whoa, slow down. Don?
TRUMP JR.: Yes?
HANNITY: I see him as weak, frail and a cognitive mess. Sippy cup Joe -- I like to call him sippy cup now because he goes to bed, doesn't work very much.
But I have no doubt that Vladimir Putin sees him the way we do. I have no doubt that President Xi sees him the same way, and Kim Jong-un sees him the same way and that the Iranian mullahs see him the same way.
Now, the only reason I don't think I get attacked anymore is because every time they attack me, I will play all the greatest hits of sippy cup. And when I play them together, it is a pretty powerful message. Now, sippy cup can barely form sentences half the time.
TRUMP JR.: Yeah, Sean, our enemies are laughing their butts off for it. There's a better word for it, but let's leave it at that.
Our CIA is more worried about putting out woke videos, recruitment videos that they really welcome people with severe anxiety disorders because that's wonderful. It's exactly who you want on the front lines of terror and against some really dictatorial regimes. That's exact -- that makes me feel good and sleep better at night as an American. This is the stuff that they're focused on.
Coming out of a pandemic, that's the stuff that Joe Biden wants to raise your taxes significantly, whether it's your place of work, whether it's you individually, whether it's everything across the board so that they can fund more, really well-choreographed woke nonsense while our enemies laugh their butts off at us.
The only people enjoying what's going on in America right now are President Xi, President Putin, the Iranian mullahs. They love it because they're watching the destruction of America from within based on ridiculous incompetence.
And, you know, the Democrat Party is going along with it because they actually believe these things. And that's a shame. And when the American people finally realize it, I just hope it's not too late.
HANNITY: Yeah. Well said. Don Jr., great to see you as always. Thank you for being with us.
Now, joining me more with reaction, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, along with FOX News contributor Ari Fleischer.
Ari, let me -- let me let me start with you and I want you to stand back. This is what you do so well and through the prism of 2022 and 2024, and the politics involved here.
Your take how the American people are going to perceive and take this and what the what the net outcome would be? I see a huge upside politically -- downside for the country but an upside for Republicans to lay out an affirmative agenda what they will do to keep this country strong, protected, great and for opportunity for all.
ARI FLEISCHER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: And to draw a line about the woke movement that is increasingly growing and problematic for Americans who have any type of traditional values which I think is an awful large part of America.
But the biggest issue, Sean, going forward is going to be the economy. How is the economy doing? Is it growing? Are people getting jobs or are we returning to what we had during the Obama-Biden years which was low growth and low wages?
And what I find so distressing about Joe Biden is he has reversed so many of the policies that led to a blue-collar working-class boom in America. You know, Donald Trump, prior to the pandemic, had led an economy where the poverty rate was the lowest since 1959. Child poverty was dropping, poverty for women was dropping, unemployment for Hispanics and blacks dropped. Wages up for low-income and middle-income people, even more than for upper- income people.
This is what we wanted in America, and Joe Biden is doing everything in his power to reverse economic growth, reverse security at the border and reverse security abroad. Look what's happening in Israel.
These are the worrisome things I see but it still is going to come back to the economy fundamentally.
HANNITY: Yeah, and by the way, there are virulent anti-Semites in the Democratic Caucus and not a peep out of Joe, Nancy or Chuck, Ari. Not one word to condemn virulent anti-Semitism.
Congressman, Republicans are running for office, if they can't communicate this -- and I'll let Ari grade me after this if he wants -- if they can't communicate that the Republican Party is the party of liberty, freedom and capitalism and our Constitution, that including the First and Second Amendment, that they believe in lower taxes, less interference from the government, bureaucratic regulations, that they want energy independent, secure borders, constitutionalists on the bench, law and order, safety and security, choice in schools, health care, free market solutions, protecting pre-existing conditions, free and fair trade, and they want peace through strength and a kick-ass military.
If they can't communicate that in a minute, how can they run for office?
REP. STEVE SCALISE (R-LA): Well, clearly, Sean, those are all the things that we're going to be running on next year. But also, it's the contrast because right now, if you look at all the crises that Joe Biden is facing and most of them are self-created, by the way. What we're seeing is President Biden's crisis of weakness because he's shown weakness, because he's turned over assets.
Turning down the Keystone Pipeline, it wasn't just the thousands of good jobs, it was energy security. And as Donald Trump Jr. talked about earlier -- I mean, these lines at the pump are real. The higher prices are real. Families are seeing that.
You look at what's happening in the Middle East -- and again, it's not just the thousands of missiles that are being fired through Gaza. By the way, Hamas is behind this. Iran is behind this. Joe Biden spent more time trying to help Iran get a nuclear weapon in his first 120 days then he has standing behind Israel and standing up to the anti-Semites in the House who have been criticizing Israel these last seven days.
Just look at some of the Democrat leaders in the House who have been criticizing Israel during this turmoil and it's on every front. The crisis at the border is very real and it was self-created because President Biden is literally got rid of those policies that were working just because he didn't like Donald Trump.
Trump had negotiated that deal with Mexico to finally have Mexico not only controlling our southern border but Mexico's southern border. You can go down the list. Inflation is through the roof right now.
Families are realizing right now that that Biden, a cost to them in their pocket books when they're paying more for lumber, when they're paying more for food at the grocery store. It's all across the board. People are fed up.
That's one of the reasons we're going to win the House back next year.
HANNITY: Ari, am I missing anything with the list I had? You can grade me. I don't care even, if it's an "F", whatever you think?
FLEISCHER: I would just sum it up simply, Sean, and say what we had was a middle class boom and it's turning into middle class doom. And that's the choice that people face going forward and you know you put things in terms that people can relate to understand but, boy, this Republican Party is becoming a party that focuses on working class, middle-income people while the Democrats are turning into the party representing the rich.
(CROSSTALK)
SCALISE: Sean, Biden's grade is W for weakness.
HANNITY: What, Steve?
SCALISE: Biden's grade is W for weakness.
HANNITY: All right. Thank you. Appreciate it.
FLEISCHER: Well, let's not throw the word W around too easily here. I kind of like that.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: You're a little -- you're a little biased on that area.
SCALISE: Got you.
HANNITY: All right, I got it. All right. Thank you both.
When we come back, despite Biden calling Texas decision to reopen two months ago Neanderthal thinking, yesterday, the state reported zero deaths from COVID for the first time in over a year. Kayleigh McEnany, Nicole Saphier will react. And also, why are people fully vaccinated like Bill Maher and eight New York Yankees then testing positive for COVID, and how many have died? We have the numbers, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Remember back in March, Joe Biden claimed that Texas lifting COVID restrictions was, quote, Neanderthal thinking? Well, the verdict is now in, Joe. You owe Texas an apology since Texas fully reopened, cases way down, hospitalizations way down, and yesterday, Texas, the Lone Star State, reported zero deaths from COVID.
Governor Abbott tweeting yesterday, quote: Texas reported zero COVID- related deaths. The only time that has happened since data was tracked back in March of 2020. The fewest COVID cases in over 13 months, the lowest seven-day COVID positivity rate ever and the lowest COVID hospitalizations in 11 months. So when can we expect an apology from Joe Biden?
And failed blue state governors, you know, like the usual -- out there in California, you've got Gavin Newsom, and Whitmer who -- from Michigan, and Murphy, New Jersey, Wolf and Cuomo, you know, the four of them with the executive orders putting older people with covet in nursing homes, which was a disaster. Cuomo, by the way, finally catching up to reality and says New York will lift social distancing and mask mandates on Wednesday for those that are vaccinated.
And out in Michigan, Governor Whitmer is under fire amid new revelations -- remember that March trip to Florida that she lied about intentionally, all while telling residents in her inner state not to travel, wow.
And it gets worse because we're learning tonight that a Wisconsin teacher is on administrative leave after being caught on camera berating verbally abusing a student who wasn't wearing a mask but said he was vaccinated. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WISCONSIN TEACHER: I don't care if you're vaccinated you little dick.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: Okay.
WISCONSIN TEACHER: I don't want to get sick and die.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: Okay.
WISCONSIN TEACHER: There's other people you can infect just because you're vaccinated. You know what? You're not a special person around here. You should hear about how everybody talks about you.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: I don't care --
WISCONSIN TEACHER: You're a jerk. You're a jerk.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: Okay
WISCONSIN TEACHER: And you need to have respect for other people in your life.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: I do.
WISCONSIN TEACHER: You're not a big man on campus, quit walking around here like you have to stick up your butt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Pretty mean and nasty to me.
That teacher unfairly abusive to that child. I have a message for the Biden administration and flip-flop doom and gloom Dr. Fauci -- you guys, you know make up your mind. Donald Trump, he handed you therapeutics like Regeneron, not one, not two, but three vaccines and we still get the never ending mixed messages. It wasn't that long ago in March that the CDC director was warning of more impending doom and gloom.
And just weeks ago, the guidance was still wear a mask, even if you're vaccinated and all of a sudden, you all change your mind. Of course, the teachers unions were feeding you and pretty much writing for you policy. Lack of confidence, we keep hearing about what's called vaccine hesitancy. It's not conservatives' fault. That would be your fault for your insane mixed messages.
The science hasn't changed in just the last few weeks or months, that I can tell you. By the way, yes, I'm pro-science and I'm very pro-vaccine. I believe in the science of vaccination.
But I'm not a doctor and I refuse to play one on radio or TV no matter how many times people demand that I tell people whose medical conditions I know nothing about who, of course, have the right to make up their own mind what to do. That's not my job. My job is to give them information hopefully that's useful to them.
I've been urging everyone to take it seriously, protect grandma, grandpa, mom and dad, especially if they are not vaccinated. Do your research, ask your doctor or doctors who know your special unique medical condition and I believe in medical privacy. And then in conjunction with your doctors and medical professionals you know, love and trust, make the right decision to protect yourself protect your loved ones and protect innocent people you may be in contact with.
And we're learning tonight that nearly percent of American adults had at least one dose of their vaccine. We also know as reported by the CDC, there has been, what, around 93 so -- what they're calling so-called breakthrough cases, fully vaccinated people, 132 deaths, people fully vaccinating then testing positive, including eight members of the New York Yankees and commentator on HBO, Bill Maher.
Here with reaction, FOX News analyst Kayleigh McEnany, along with Dr. Nicole Saphier.
You know, I got this picture I saw somebody sent me this weekend, Joe Biden apparently spends church he's in what looks like, I don't know a graveyard to me, I don't know if it was somebody who knew or not, anyway, wearing a mask alone outdoors. Why is he not listening to his own CDC and following the science, Doctor?
DR. NICOLE SAPHIER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, you know, Sean, it's frustrating the back and forth that has gone on because if you're watching that video of that teacher berating that child, you know, unfortunately, that child -- it's too bad that his teacher actually hasn't educated herself on the benefits of vaccination. That child is being responsible. He got vaccinated, to not only protect himself but those around him.
And the fact that she told him that he's not special and that he can harm other people, he's the educator in that room. She's not. She needs to be educated.
And I blame the CDC for this because they were far too delayed in coming forth and telling the American people that, yes, not only does the vaccine prevent severe death -- or severe disease and death in you but also the risk of transmission after being fully vaccinated is negligible.
People are confused. And you see this, what's going on right now. You're having a lot of people who are going this back and forth. There is anger. There is fear and unfortunately this is what happens. Politics can continue to insert themselves in times of crises and they leverage fear and then people continue to follow them because they're fearful.
HANNITY: Let me ask you one more medical question and we'll get to the politics with Kayleigh in a second. So, okay, 9,300 confirmed cases on -- according to the CDC, a little more at this point I think, where you have fully vaccinated people contracting COVID, 132 recorded deaths by the CDC. What are we to make of that?
Well, Sean, great question. And first of all, the CDC has actually changed the way that they are reporting, what we call these breakthrough cases, and this was an extremely smart move.
First of all, Bill Maher, a lot of those Yankee players, there is no reason for people to be doing seroprevalence studies or just surveillance studies on vaccinated individuals. It is just a waste of resources at this point because we know real world data tells us, if they are fully vaccinated, the likelihood of them transmitting the virus to someone else is exceedingly low. So we don't need to be testing these people who are asymptomatic. It doesn't matter. There is no clinical significance here when you look at the big picture.
What they're now doing is they're only reporting severe cases that result in hospitalization and death. And out of 150 million Americans who are now fully vaccinated, they've only had about 1,300 breakthrough cases which they consider those who have been hospitalized and death, and 30 percent of those they're reporting as actually did not have to do with COVID. They were hospitalized for something else, and they subsequently had COVID-19.
A little over 20 deaths are being listed but again, about 20 percent of those deaths also they are saying was not related to COVID-19.
HANNITY: Let's talk about politics --
SAPHIER: So again these breakthrough cases are very rare.
HANNITY: Kayleigh, the politics of it and Joe this weekend again outdoors alone, completely just fully vaccinated, socially distant, still with the mask on. Why?
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, FOX NEWS ANALYST: Yeah, it's virtue signaling. That's what it is. In the wake of this announcement from the CDC where they said you no longer have to wear a mask inside if you're vaccinated. In the wake of that, Joe Biden and his CDC said, hey, some people may still want to wear the mask.
It's totally fine if you want to if businesses want to require it. That is anti-science. There is no medical reason you should be wearing a mask outside if you're sitting in a field alone or in a graveyard wherever it was that Joe Biden was outside alone.
There's likewise no reason to be wearing one inside. But this comes down to what David Hogg, you know, the liberal activist came out and said, well, I'm going to wear a mask because if I don't people might mistake me for a conservative. It's virtue signaling at this point.
But I can tell you this, the vast majority of people are not on the side of saint Dr. Anthony Fauci and Joe Biden wearing a mask. They just want freedom. They just want to be able to breathe if they are vaccinated.
HANNITY: All right. Kayleigh, great analysis. Doctor, we appreciate the medical information.
And, by the way, am I right to say I'm not going to practice medicine without a license? Because everyone seems to be obsessed with wanting me to tell people what to do. I don't feel qualified, Doctor. I didn't go to medical school. I didn't do an internship or a residency. I haven't studied medicine.
I don't know why people want me to play doctor. Am I -- am I making the right decision by not telling people what to do?
SAPHIER: Yeah. You know what? That malpractice insurance, trust me that can be quite the burden. So play it safe. You don't want to have to have that.
HANNITY: Yeah, somebody's going to -- you know, I could see the lawsuit. He was following Hannity's advice. It didn't work out. Great.
All right. Thank you both.
When we come back, one Space Force commander, well, he spoke out against the inclusion of critical race theory in the military. He was removed from his post as a result. That story, UFOs and more, straight ahead.
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HANNITY: Big developing story tonight surrounding Air Force commander, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Lohmeier, who was removed from his post on Friday after he made explosive revelations about the increasing presence of Marxist and critical race theory ideologies inside the U.S. military, comments he made on a recent podcast. And in reference to his self- published book, Lohmeier says he did consult with his superiors about how this critical race theory push was causing unnecessary divisions inside our Armed Forces, and says he also obtained counsel from a public affairs officer and base legal.
So why fired? Why did this happen?
Here to explain author of the new book "Irresistible Revolution", Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Lohmeier, who is now by the way speaking in his personal capacity, not his views -- they don't necessarily reflect the official policy of the Department of Defense.
Okay. Tell us exactly what happened.
MATTHEW LOHMEIER, SPACE FORCE COMMANDER RELIEVED OF DUTY: Sean, I appreciate you having me on the show.
And in fact that statement that you just read that came from Air Force public affairs, I included in the front of my book three times, once on the copyright page, once in the front matter, and again in the introduction to the book.
What happened is I began noticing some time ago -- and not just in the past few months but over the past several years -- an increasing relevance of what I saw was Marxist ideology parading around by other names. The defense secretary in February -- I think it was February 5th of this year, called for an extremism down day and issued a guidance memorandum to all service members.
And in the guidance memorandum, he basically gave an injunction to every service member to combat extremist ideologies within the force where they saw them, and to take it upon ourselves to protect one another and to speak up and educate one another about extremist ideologies when we discovered them causing divisions within the force. And that's me paraphrasing the guidance memorandum, and so I include that in the introduction to the book as well.
HANNITY: Okay. So you would recognize the narratives as being Marxist in nature your words not mine.
And also, you said it teaches intensive teaching that I heard at the base at a time the Constitution ratified the U.S. codified white supremacy as the law of the land, are they not aware that we fought a Civil War, that the '64, `65 Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act that Joe Biden's friend by the way filibustered -- side note -- while not perfect, we have made incredible strides, have incredible more to go, towards a more perfect union.
Is that not recognized at all?
LOHMEIER: I think it is recognized and I think you know one of the things the Defense Department does very well is make it very clear that we've got zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind, based on race, sex, politics, religions --
HANNITY: That's standard.
LOHMEIER: And so, that's the standard, right? And so, to that end, I've made that very clear to my own people that in the light of a hyper- politicized environment that I've seen since taking command and I'm no longer in command, I will not tolerate any discrimination of any kind based on politics, for example.
And so, let me give you one example of what I saw in the past 10 months when I was in command of a unit. There were videos being sent out to every base service member that we were asked to watch in preparation for our extremism down days and discussions on race in which we were taught that the country was evil, that it was founded in 1619 and not 1776, and that whites are inherently evil. And so, I speak up against those things in my book.
HANNITY: I think in the military, that you talk about a brotherhood and a bond that really is kind of unimaginable in real life because you all have each other's back on the battlefield. Thank you for updating us. Appreciate it.
When we come back -- okay, you might think this is a little nuts, it's not. "60 Minutes" devoted an entire segment last night to it about UFOs sightings are becoming more prevalent around the world. Well, we'll have our own investigative report when we return, straight ahead.
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HANNITY: More developments surrounding inexplicable occurrences of UFOs dating back years with advanced technology that Pentagon officials cannot explain or even fathom.
Take a look at some of last night's report on "60 Minutes."
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Imagine the technology that can do 600 to 700g forces, that can fly at 13,000 miles an hour, that it can evade radar and that can fly through air and water and possibly space and, oh, by the way, has no obvious signs of propulsion's, no wings, no control surfaces and yet still can defy the natural effects of earth's gravity. That's precisely what we're seeing.
REPORTER: Recently released images may not convince UFO skeptics, but the pentagon admits it doesn't know what in the world this is. Or this. Or this.
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HANNITY: All right. Now, next month, the Pentagon will release its highly anticipated report documenting all of this and it's expected to reveal everything the U.S. government knows about an unidentified flying object.
Here with reaction, investigative reporter Sara Carter, along with former UFO investigator for the U.K. Ministry of Defence, Nick Pope.
Nick, I'll start with you. Now, I look at this report and of God created the heavens and the Earth and solar systems within solar systems, that may be God had life on other planets, I don't know the mind of God. I'm a little more humble than that. I look at the majesty of his creation and I find it amazing.
Thoughts?
NICK POPE, U.K. MINISTRY OF DEFENCE (RETIRED): Well, sure. I think we are beginning to realize just -- that we may not be alone and when we get this report to congress, hopefully, the Department of Defense and the intelligence community will come clean, level with the American people about what's going on. And this is a global phenomenon, too, by the way. We had cases of the U.K. and I hope we can hear about that.
But make no mistake about it, this is probably the single biggest defense and national security issue we are facing today and we need some answers.
HANNITY: I agree. We do need answers.
Investigative reporter Sara Carter, now, it was interesting to watch this. I'm looking at this, I'm listening to professional pilots that we spent millions training, and people that dug -- did a deep dive into this, and they are convinced that this is real. You've been studying it.
SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Oh, Sean. Oh, yeah, Sean, these are highly credible -- high credible witnesses. These are pilots.
Alex Dietrich (ph), she's a pilot that was in 2004 on the USS Nimitz who actually saw this among other pilots, and witnessed it herself. The shape of an object was like a Tic Tac shape. It was the size of a 747.
She -- I mean, the way she describes it is extraordinary. She said I -- you can't fathom it in less you see it. And the way it moves is beyond any comprehension of what we have now as far as technology.
You know, we live in extraordinary times, Sean. Right now, I've been told by sources that the Department of Defense inspector general is actually conducting a review of how the Pentagon has handled this issue. Now, the Pentagon has come forward and basically confirmed a lot of these sightings and it's taken decades.
Think about this, people like Nick Pope, people like Luis Elizondo, assistant secretary of defense of intelligence, Christopher Mellon with the Department of Defense coming forward and really pushing these issues forward and stressing the importance of what we are seeing here because it is a national security issue and something that the world, not just our own nation, needs to know.
HANNITY: I've asked a few people that would be in positions to know, they never want to answer me. I never got an affirmative yes or an affirmative no. I'd like an answer to this question.
Anyway, fascinating topic. Thank you both.
When we come back, all right. So, after leaving England, settling here, beautiful Montecito, California, and Santa Barbara, Harry actually attacked our First Amendment. Yeah, I have a message for the former prince when we get back.
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HANNITY: Before we go, I have a message for Harry who is now attacking one of America's most sacred rights, the freedom of speech under our First Amendment.
Harry, we really don't need you coming from England to give us lectures on the First Amendment. And if you can't understand the importance of free expression and the importance of constitutional principles that allow for a free exchange of ideas and ideals and opinions, that have made the America the greatest country on Earth, then maybe it is time for you to move to a place more compatible with your restricted ideas.
And, Harry, by the way, welcome to my world. This is what public figures in America go through. I expect it, you need to expect it. I've been canceled. I've been rejected, often by people that were bothered to get to know me.
In a way, I kind of feel sorry for you because you seem torn between your new bride and your family back in England. Understand this is the same First Amendment that allowed you and your wife to trash your own family in the Oprah Winfrey interview. You and Meghan were allowed to accuse your family of racism. We don't really need lectures about customs or sacred freedoms.
And by the way, you are free to go home, make amends at the palace with the people that you and your wife hurt deeply. And, by the way, you're enjoying the freedoms protected under the First Amendment as you're living in America, in an expensive place.
Let your heart be troubled.
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