'Hannity' on Biden's Putin messaging

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Hannity: Joe is finding new ways to stoke confusion and chaos

Sean Hannity discusses Biden's contrasting comments about Putin and conflicting messaging from the White House.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," March 28, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: And welcome to HANNITY.

And tonight, we start with this FOX News alert. Just breaking tonight: Will Smith is now apologizing following this outburst against Chris Rock at last night's, well, second lowest rated Oscars. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS ROCK, COMEDIAN: I'm out here. Uh-oh, Richard.

(LAUGHTER)

ROCK: Oh, wow. Wow.

Will Smith just smacked the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) out of me.

WILL SMITH, ACTOR: Keep my wife's name out your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) mouth!

ROCK: Wow, dude.

SMITH: Yes.

ROCK: It was a "G.I. Jane" joke.

SMITH: Keep my wife's name out your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) mouth!

ROCK: I'm going to, okay?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, we'll have full coverage coming up tonight, and I may actually have an opinion that will surprise you and I guess by the end of the show I might even be accused of toxic masculinity, whatever that means in the woke world.

But as we always, we'll let you decide. Adam Carolla, he'll be here to react and that much more straight ahead.

Also developing tonight, Ukraine has reportedly now recaptured two key towns we have the latest on the ground. But, first, the ever struggling Joe Biden is doubling down on regime change in Russia, putting the White House in as much disarray as ever, spinning in circles on every single front, after yet another batch of very bizarre blunders that are sparking outrage from American allies all across the globe. We are now at a point where it is pretty much anyone's guess what the U.S. president actually means or is actually saying at any given time.

Now, because just when you thought Biden couldn't get any worse -- well, he did, and any off any more of message, he did, and any more divorce from reality, he is.

Now, Joey is finding new ways to stow confusion and chaos after his own administration had to clean up three huge separate remarks over just a matter of days about Putin's bloody invasion against Ukraine.

Now, first up, last Thursday, Biden was asked about a possible chemical weapons attack by Russia, telling reporters it would trigger a response in kind. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: And to clarify on chemical weapons, could -- if chemical weapons were used in Ukraine, would that trigger a military spot response from NATO?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It would be -- it would trigger a response in kind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: A response in kind. Meaning we'll do the same thing.

Now, shortly after, failed National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, he was forced to clarify Biden's remarks, saying it meant that the U.S. would, quote, respond accordingly. Well, why didn't Joe just say that?

It only got worse from there. On Friday, Biden appeared to suggest the U.S. troops that they were headed to Ukraine. Listen in his own words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Also the average citizen, look at how they're stepping up, look at how they're stepping up. And you're going to see when you're there and sometimes you've been there, you're going to see -- you're going to see women, young people standing in the middle of the front damn tank, just saying, I'm not leaving, I'm holding my ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: You will see when you're there, again, in comes the White House comms team to clean up those remarks. Quote: The president has been clear. We are not sending U.S. troops to Ukraine and there is no change in that position. You'll see it when you're there.

Anyway, that's not all because on Saturday, Biden went off script during a speech, this time in Poland and called for again regime change that they had already cleaned up against Putin. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, for free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness. We will have a different future, a brighter future, rooted in democracy and principle, hope and light, of decency and dignity, of freedom and possibilities. For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Make up your mind, Joey.

Now, the media got giddy at that moment, even at that time attempting to compare him to Ronald Reagan and his comments, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. Anyway, saying that it was similar -- Biden's suggesting now, wow, he's finally a strong leader.

But it was almost immediately in damage control mode again. Even Biden's own secretary of state, the weak, winking Tony Blinken, directly contradicted Biden saying, regime change is not on the table, yet again. And the White House said in a statement the president's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region.

That's not what he said. He was not discussing Putin's power in Russia or regime change. Well, then, again, today, he seemed to message regime change. It never stops. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Do you believe what you said that Putin can't remain in power or do you now regret saying that because your government has been trying to walk that back? Did your words complicate matters?

BIDEN: Well, you asked three different questions. I'll answer them all. Number one, I'm not walking anything back. The fact of the matter is I was expressing the moral outrage I felt toward the way Putin is dealing and the actions of this man just -- just brutality of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Not walking anything back. So we're back now to regime change? You can decipher that if you can. You get a gold star.

But, of course, we've all heard what Biden himself said at this point. It's such a complete utter embarrassment. It's humiliating to me. We have a president where even his own staff has no idea what he will say or what he will mean or if anyone will even understand it.

And it gets even worse as Joey doesn't even think anyone walk back anything. And by the way this was right after Biden doubled down on regime change.

Take a look at this bizarre exchange with our own Peter Doocy earlier today. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Are you worried that other leaders in the world are going to start to doubt that America is back if some of these big things that you say on the world stage keep getting walked back?

BIDEN: What's getting walked back?

DOOCY: It made it sound like, just in the last couple days, it sounded like you told us troops they were going to Ukraine, it sounded like you said it was possible the U.S. would use a chemical weapon, and it sounded like you were calling for regime change in Russia. And we know --

BIDEN: None of the three occurred.

DOOCY: None of the three occurred?

BIDEN: None of the three.

DOOCY: Mr. President --

BIDEN: You interpret the language that way. I was talking to the troops. We're talking about helping train the troops in that are -- the Ukrainian troops that are in Poland. That's with the context. I sat there with those guys for a couple hours. That's what we talked about.

DOOCY: So when you said you're going to see when you're there, you were not intending --

BIDEN: I was referring to with meeting with and talking with the Ukrainian troops that were in Poland.

DOOCY: And when you said a chemical weapon used by Russia would trigger a response in kind.

BIDEN: It will trigger a significant response.

DOOCY: What's that mean?

BIDEN: I'm not going to tell you. Why would I tell you? You got to be silly.

DOOCY: The world wants to know.

BIDEN: The world wants to know a lot of things. I'm not telling them what the response would be, then Russia knows the response.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: As we just played, Peter Doocy was completely right. He said all three.

So, we have a president that clearly is not cognitively up to this job. This is not an opinion. This is a fact. The president's cognitive decline is dangerous.

"The Wall Street Journal" today lays out in a brand new editorial, listen to this, quote: At what point does Joe Biden's verbal incontinence start to become a mortal threat to Americans? It's one thing to misidentify your vice president as the first lady, quite another to call for the ouster of an autocratic leader of a nation with nuclear weapons.

And leaders around the world, they're noticing too. Allies and adversaries, all are taking notice.

President Zelenskyy is reportedly less than impressed with Biden's recent remarks. The French president, we're getting lectured by the French now? Macron is telling French media he did not approve of Biden's word choice. And officials in Great Britain made similar comments.

And, of course, Biden's blunders are just another gift to brutal, thug dictator, murderer with blood on his hands, Vladimir Putin, and the Russians as they continue to kill innocent men, women and children all across Ukraine with indiscriminate bombing.

I've been consistent since day one. No U.S. troops on the ground, none. But if you invade a sovereign nation like Putin did and you are killing men, women and children, the blood is on the hands of the invader. In this case, Vladimir Putin.

That would mean, according to the HANNITY doctrine, you forfeit your right to lead any country, and frankly, you would forfeit your right to even live. Joe actually had it right for a second, but only a few minutes and they walked it away.

Anyway, sadly, we now have a president whose words can no longer be trusted and whose agenda is no longer clear, coherent and comprehensible. So what is the Biden doctrine? Does anybody know? Does anyone in the White House know? Does Joe even know today's Monday?

And if this wasn't bad enough, it's only going to get weirder and frankly much creepier. Look at this moment between Biden a refugee in Poland. Joey talking about the woman's beautiful eyes. Her entire life has been upended, and this is -- back comes creepy Joe. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLP)

BIDEN: God love you. God love you How do you say, in Ukrainian, who do you owe those beautiful eyes to? Your father or your mother? Who had the eyes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her mother. Her mother's eyes.

BIDEN: You owe mama very big. You owe mama.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Joe, why didn't you stop it? God love you. That would have been perfect.

This young woman, a refugee her entire life has been upended, and up pops old creepy Joe.

I'll ask again tonight, could Biden's presidency be going any worse than it is now? Inflation, 40-year high, through the roof gas prices, record high after record high, a nationwide food shortage looming, the border a catastrophe, the Afghanistan withdrawal a deadly debacle, and now, we have war in Europe and Biden and his own White House can't even keep the story straight.

And meanwhile, China -- they're threatening to invade Taiwan. I would expect that's going to happen. Iran now has never been closer to getting nuclear weapons and you got Joe Biden sucking up to the mullahs of Iran and a deal that would make them rich as hell and allow even Vladimir Putin to broker the deal and help them build a nuclear facility? You got the dictator of Venezuela literally kissing the ass of a brutal murdering thug dictator, begging OPEC nations over and over again, even though he gets turned down to produce more oil, all while Biden continues to attack the oil and gas industry right here at home.

We have more natural resources than we could ever use in 200 years. Look at your screen, since Joey entered office, Biden has taken at least 81 anti- energy actions, 81 of them.

He killed the Keystone pipeline. By the way, the premier in Alberta said if we finished it, right now, we'd be getting 900,000 barrels of oil a day from Canada. He's implementing burdensome emissions regulations, cutting off drilling and auctioning on federal lands and a whole host of other far left climate alarmist religious cult policies. New Green Deal socialism.

So, Biden is failing on policy. He's failing on messaging. He's failing internationally and everywhere in between.

Here with reaction, former speaker of the House, FOX News contributor, Newt Gingrich.

This isn't funny anymore. The world, our allies, our enemies see what's going on here and I don't think he knows that today's Monday. Your thoughts?

NEWT GINGRICH, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think, first of all, you have a real problem because you have a cognitively challenged president and a cognitively hopeless vice president. And to have both of those in those positions means that there's no place to turn to for leadership.

I think the performance over the last few days by President Biden was virtually equal to some of Kamala Harris's performances and I think the country should be really worried. This -- you know, this is not a game. This isn't a clever political campaign. This is real history involving two nations that between them have around 11,000 nuclear weapons and involving a dictator who has to right now feel deeply paranoid.

He's always assumed that the United States wanted to destroy the Russian system. Now, he's had Biden sort of blurted out at least as seen by Putin, and I think that this is extraordinarily dangerous.

Meanwhile, you know, Biden doesn't deliver. I mean if you watch Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine is begging in every speech to every country. Now, why haven't the democracies flooded him with weapons so he's so busy managing and getting the weapons out that he doesn't have to go beg for him.

I mean, there's something pathetic about all the western nations talking and not doing anything and every hour, Ukrainians are being killed while western politicians talk. I mean, it's one of the most disheartening performances I think in my lifetime, the most disheartening performance by the United States and its allies.

HANNITY: All right. So, NATO countries get together. They all talk and their answer is to form a task force to figure out how to stop importing energy from Russia. How long is the task force going to take, Mr. Speaker, when they need to be acting immediately?

There's two things they need to do. They need to find alternative sources of energy so they don't feed Vladimir Putin and Russia billions of dollars every day, and the next thing is obvious. You got to give Zelenskyy the drones and the Stingers and the Javelins and the anti-missiles and anti- aircraft defense systems. And yes, let Poland give them the MiGs. It's not that hard.

GINGRICH: You know, Churchill, in order to get the British bureaucracy moving, had a little sticker that said action this day and he was trying to get across that they were in a real war. Well, the Ukrainians know the real war we you know people say well you can't give them fighter aircraft.

Well, that's just nonsense. I mean if you're giving them anti-aircraft systems, if you're giving them anti-tank systems. It is hardly an escalation to also give them one anti-ship missiles to keep the Russian Baltic Black Sea fleet away from the coast and two to give them aircraft.

And just for morale purposes, if the Ukrainians who are risking death every day are telling us that's what they need, we ought to give it to them. And I think that it I literally mean this is the most cowardly performance by the Western democracies in our lifetime. You'd have to go back to the 1930s to see anything comparable to this.

And it's really tragic, from 1945 on, we were -- we were a system that believed in itself. We were a system that contained the Soviet Union. We were a system that people respected.

And now, frankly, you have Putin every day ordering more and more attacks, 98 percent of Mariupol has been destroyed, 98 percent of the buildings have been hit, and we talk about, you know, we don't want to provoke him? Well, I think we ought to say, we're going to arm the Ukrainians.

We're going to finance the Ukrainians. We're going to get food and other things to Ukrainians. We're going to do everything it takes to defeat Putin in Ukraine. And I think anything short of that is a disaster for civilization.

I can't say it any better, Mr. Speaker, thank you for being with us.

Here now with more reaction, former council to the president, Kellyanne Trump, along with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, FOX News contributor, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer.

Governor, we'll start with you. The two things that I point out we've got to arm them, Europe should be leading the way our NATO allies should be leading the way, and I don't think we need some type of summit or some type of committee to determine how they're going to get new energy, just get it.

MIKE HUCKABEE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, it's a humanitarian effort and for us to be able to help protect those women and children and the unarmed civilians that are being slaughtered by Putin's war crimes, that's not so much the escalation of war as it is the protection of the innocent.

And that's something that I would like to think we should have learned years ago when the world didn't stand up against Hitler when he was murdering Jews. And it was not until million Jews and million complete civilians were murdered by the Nazis before the world was humiliated to realize that it stood by and it did not intervene and it thought appeasement would work.

The thing that's frightening about what Joe Biden has been doing is that this walk back that he's having to give and he says he's not walking back anything. Sean, we've never seen a walk back like this since Michael Jackson moonwalked to the tune of "Billie Jean" back in the mid-`80s.

But the fact is he doesn't even know that he's walking it back because he's not aware obviously of what he's saying the first time.

By the way I have to walk back Kellyanne Conway, not Kellyanne Trump. Having my own -- having my own Joe Biden moment.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, FORMER SENIOR COUNSELOR TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: They're going to have fun with that, Sean.

HANNITY: I actually can ad lib for three hours a day, on radio every day. So I'm doing okay, I promise.

Kellyanne, get your thoughts.

CONWAY: Well, Sean, it's actually that is a gaffe and a blooper. That is not what Joe Biden's doing. Joe Biden's just not up to the job.

And look at all the polls, if you're in the NBC News polling meeting, what in God's name were you thinking today when you saw in your own NBC News poll, 16 percent of Americans strongly approve of the job Joe Biden is doing as president. His approval ratings at an all-time low.

There's been a 29-point swing in the NBC poll from just a year ago. It's gone down 14 points in approval and 15 up points in disapproval. It's a 29- point swing. He's only at 32 percent approval among independents, 39 percent among Latinos, 44 percent among women. Why? Because people have eyes and ears.

And what we all say is very funny. I've been saying on the show for a while now. It's not funny anymore. These are very serious times. People are suffering, they're losing their lives, and you have a president who -- it's one thing if you say, oh, he's not all there and the White House has to walk back. It's more fundamental than that.

It seems to me in his exchange of Peter Doocy, it's apparent to me nobody tells him what's going on, nobody tells him that they walked it back. They're like let him be the last to know. That's dangerous.

I worked for a president who literally said if Sarah Huckabee Sanders walked in or I walked in, he'd say, so what's going on? How's it going? What do you see?

And you have to be ready with a smart answer that was not what he had seen a thousand times a day already. I'd say, you know, we just saw a poll in Michigan I think would catch your eye about infrastructure, the gas tax there. You know, I read this thing in the Omaha paper that you might want to see.

Always something a little bit different, but at least he was a curious president. What we see here, people are comparing him to Ronald Reagan. They're so desperate to meet Joe Biden something he's not. Comparing Joe Biden to Ronald Reagan for the 1980s, we can't even compare Joe Biden to Joe Biden from the 1980s, let alone compare him to Reagan.

So, people know what they see. The fear, Sean, is that there's no way out. The fear is that we're just at the beginning of his term, nobody wants him to have a second term certainly. But now, there's real consequences. People feel less safe.

And I have I have advice for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. I never thought I'd say this, please stay here. You don't need to go all the way to Europe to insult Americans, to embarrass us.

HANNITY: Great advice.

CONWAY: To harass our troops. To make them think that you know if you're a 21-year-old service member, and you heard your commander-in-chief say the following to you, you're going to Ukraine. And while you're there, you might have regime change and we may use a nuclear weapon.

Literally, they heard their commander-in-chief say this. Kids who were born around or just before that are hearing their commander-in-chief say that, dangerous, perilous times.

HANNITY: I agree completely. Well said.

Ari, you're the communications expert. This is a disaster.

ARI FLEISCHER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: It's been a very low moment. Usually, presidential trips abroad help define the issues, they show the world America's leadership. And frankly, that's the strength that won the Cold War for us. We won the Cold War because we stood on principle, we were strong and presidents of both parties acted in America's interest.

I don't know what Joe Biden is doing anymore. Is our objective now to stop Putin in Ukraine or to topple Putin? If it's to topple Putin, we're not capable of doing that. The United States can't do that.

I was part of an administration that practiced regime change. It is messy. We don't want to go down that road again.

Now, he's threatened to do that to Vladimir Putin? You know, the mission should be to stop Russia, stop Putin in Ukraine, and that's why, Sean, what you said and what Newt Gingrich said was so right, we need to arm them, we need to give them everything that they need. They shouldn't have to cry to us to get them.

We, America should be leading the world to get Ukraine everything it needs. We should be providing it to Ukraine. But all these extracurricular issues that Joe Biden's involved in now, it's a sign of a failing president whose judgment has always been wrong. But who now can't even get his policies straight.

These gaffes are bigger than gaffes. You know, some people have called it a cleanup in aisle three, aisle six, aisle nine, the whole supermarket needs to be shut down so he can clean it up. That's the problem with all these mistakes he's making.

HANNITY: Great comments by all three of you. Thank you. Governor, thank you. Kellyanne Conway, thank you, and, of course, Ari Fleischer.

We'll have a live report from the ground, on the ground in Ukraine.

Also, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, he'll join us to discuss the latest developments following Biden's disasters trip to Europe.

And later, breaking tonight, Will Smith has just apologized to Chris Rock from slapping him. We'll get Adam Carolla's take on that. There might be a little toxic masculinity and is there any chance Will Smith gets arrested? That question is being asked tonight, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. This is a FOX News alert for the very latest on the ground in Ukraine tonight where Russia is continuing their brutal attacks, we go to our very own Jeff Paul. He's live in Ukraine.

Jeff, what's going on?

JEFF PAUL, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Sean, not too long ago, we heard the sound of air raid sirens ring out here in the city of Lviv. At the same time, we're also tracking any possible developments between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators who right now are on the ground in turkey for yet another round of in-person talks.

All of this happening at the same time while President Vladimir Zelenskyy says he's sort of considering and open to the idea of a possible compromise. Now, Zelenskyy says he is open to the idea of declaring neutrality, essentially renouncing any ambitions to join NATO. But where he won't bend is when it comes to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

And that continues to be tested on the front lines, especially in some of the hardest hit cities like Mariupol.

While senior U.S. defense officials tell us Russian forces aren't gaining any ground, they continue to bombard and shell targeted cities in the east of the country and along the coast. However, while President Biden was in Poland this weekend, Russian forces attacked Lviv. And this is notable because the city is about 50 miles away from the Polish border.

Missile strikes we're told were aimed at a nearby oil depot less than two miles from the city center. And one other quick update Sean while we have you is we're learning tonight that a suburb just outside of Kyiv has been retaken by Ukrainian forces. The mayor of the city of Irpin says that his city right now is totally liberated but he's warning people about coming back because they could still find themselves under attack -- Sean.

HANNITY: All right, Jeff. Thank you for that report. Please stay safe.

And meanwhile, back in Washington today, President Biden unveiled his 2023 budget and while it was predictably packed with liberal wish list giveaways and enormous tax hikes, including a revival of Biden and Elizabeth Warren's pet project, the wealth tax and the Bernie-Biden manifesto, which would actually tax unrealized capital gains, in other words money that is like ghost money. You don't even have it, also known as profits that haven't been made in reality.

One thing Biden apparently didn't budget for was enough military aid to Ukraine. Now, the Pentagon says it will have to request additional money in the future.

Here with reaction, Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

Senator, let's first get your take on Ukraine. I think you and I are old Reagan doctrine guys. No American boots on the ground, provide the weaponry, like Reagan provided the mujahidin, the Contra rebels, let them fight their own -- their own fight, and the Trump doctrine. Give them the force that is needed to win the war.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Yeah, that's exactly right. We ought to be providing the weapons for the Ukrainians to defend themselves. We ought to be providing the Polish MiGs. We ought to be providing S-300s and Javelins and Stingers -- and the Biden administration is slow-walking all of that.

And then number two, we ought to be going after Putin's revenue, and that means oil and gas, that means American energy production. And Biden is so much in hock to the Green New Deal radicals that he's unwilling to step up American energy production.

You know, I got to say, Sean, watching the cascade of blunders from Biden, that's five gaffes in 48 hours. I don't recall ever seeing an American president messed things up so badly, from calling for regime change, then calling that back. From suggesting America would launch chemical weapons to walking that back. From suggesting the 82nd Airborne would be sent to Ukraine to calling that back.

He also said sanctions never work, despite their talking points having been for months that that the threat of sanctions is precisely why he waived sanctions on Nord Stream 2.

And I got to say, there's a fifth gaffe in the segment you played right at the beginning of the show. When Biden was trying to explain all of this, he said -- well, the explanation is that Americans are training Ukrainian troops in Poland. What? Okay, if that's the case, I don't know about it, but if that's the case, that is surely classified and it may be that he's explaining classified secrets on national television.

Sean, this is like Mr. Magoo as president, where every time he explains one thing, it gets worse and worse and worse, and we've got nuclear weapons pointed at each other. It is incredibly dangerous, this kind of presidential weakness.

HANNITY: And our enemies see it and our allies see it, and it is extraordinarily dangerous.

And now we know there's not enough money budgeted for our military and for Ukraine military equipment. Now, they want to tax unrealized or mythical or capital gains, which may never materialize.

And then they want the corporate tax increase dramatically, Senator, and there's one problem with the raising the corporate tax. Corporations don't pay taxes. What they do is they pass that tax right on to the consumer and we already have a 40-year high of inflation. Not a good idea in my mind.

CRUZ: No, that's exactly right. Joe Biden's budget and the socialists and the Democratic Party, they want to jack up taxes on Americans across this country. You know, this budget proposes taking the national debt all the way up to $45 trillion.

That is a staggering amount. And one of the amazing things about Biden's budget is it's based on old outdated numbers. So it assumes inflation is still down at 2 percent. We're seeing record high inflation of 8 percent and the Biden budget numbers laughably assume that the trillions they've spent already hasn't caused inflation.

And by the way, another way of understanding Biden's proposal to tax unrealized gains is that Biden is proposing taxing you on inflation because unrealized gains, one of the major things that causes that is inflation and Biden's out of control spending and debt is producing crushing inflation on the American people.

HANNITY: Well said. Senator, scary times, I will say that.

CRUZ: Yeah.

HANNITY: We need the adults back in office sooner than later.

Thank you for being with us.

All right. Straight ahead, the slap heard around the world. Last night's Oscars, Will Smith slapping comedian Chris Rock. Will Smith just put out a statement apologizing. We'll update you what he said.

Also, Adam Carolla will probably lean in with a little bit of -- let's see -- what do they say, woke masculine toxicity, whatever that means. Maybe he'll tell us, straight ahead.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: All right. Fireworks erupting at the Oscars last night. By the way, the second lowest rated Oscars in history, by the way. And when Will - - when Will Smith slap Chris Rock, the comedian, following a joke about Will Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, who suffers from a condition called alopecia. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROCK: Jada, I love you. "G.I. Jane 2", can't wait to see it, all right?

(LAUGHTER)

It's -- that was a nice one. Okay.

I'm out here. Uh-oh, Richard.

(LAUGHTER)

ROCK: Oh, wow. Wow.

Will Smith just smacked the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) out of me.

SMITH: Keep my wife's name out your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) mouth!

ROCK: Wow, dude.

SMITH: Yes.

ROCK: It was a "G.I. Jane" joke.

SMITH: Keep my wife's name out your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) mouth!

ROCK: I'm going to, okay?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: In fairness, a friend of Chris Rock told TMZ that he was unaware of her condition and just breaking a short while ago, Will Smith apologized to Chris Rock, and today, the film academy did release a statement condemning Will Smith's actions. They announced that launching a formal review into the incident.

While another industry source told "People Magazine" that having him removed from last night's Oscars was a serious consideration I guess they mean take the Oscar back. And although the LAPD, they actually by law can arrest Will Smith, even without Chris Rock filing a police report. He declined last night. When they asked him if he wanted to file one, he said no. Good for him.

They released a statement confirming he didn't want to press charges. But by the way, that would be available to complete and -- needed to complete an investigative report should he ever change his mind. A number of actors, comedians have all joined in, criticizing Will Smith over the altercation. Others praising Chris Rock for keeping us cool and not responding in kind.

Now, look, let me be clear, it's obvious Will Smith was wrong. I don't know what the heck's wrong with him. There are many other ways he could have, should have handled this. I happen to be a big fan of Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle. I think these guys are great, and I think Will Smith is an extremely talented actor, although seems kind of nutty to me. But that's most of Hollywood. So, I say that about pretty much everyone out there.

That said, when I grew up when you make a joke of this nature about somebody's wife, girlfriend, kids, mom, dad, in this case making fun of a woman who suffers from a condition as sensitive as baldness, which she made public years ago, it's easy to see how -- well, you might have gotten angry caught up in the moment because where I grew up, we kind of fought almost every day whatever sport we were playing. And if you started talking Schiff about someone's family, usually, that would start a fight.

And I'm sure the woke crowd would call this toxic masculinity, but that's the truth of how I grew up.

Now, last night following the incident, a number of celebrities in attendance, well, comforted of visibly emotional Will Smith, but perhaps the wisest advice of the night came from Denzel Washington.

Now, during his acceptance speech, Smith revealed during a commercial break that Washington approached him and said, at your highest moment, be careful. That's when the devil comes for you.

Or like the good book, the Bible says, the devil comes to kill, steal and destroy. More you're given, the more that is expected.

I happen to be a huge fan of Denzel Washington. He gets the -- he deserves the Academy Award for that night, and he's one of my favorite actors. By the way, if you ever get time, Google his commencement speech, maybe the best I've ever heard.

Here with reaction, author of "Everything Reminds Me of Something", Adam Carolla. This book, by the way, available pre-order amazon.com, soon to be in bookstores anywhere. I'm dying for your take. I mean, I don't know what your life was like growing up. But having a fight, if you took on somebody's family member, that wouldn't be an unusual event where I lived.

ADAM CAROLLA, HOST OF "THE ADAM CAROLLA SHOW": No, it was commonplace in this country when everyone had the toxic masculinity. I was just thinking it would have been awesome if they removed Smith -- if they removed Will Smith from the event and then he won the Academy Award and then Chris Rock accepted it on his behalf.

HANNITY: So, your whole you want the whole thing to double down and bubble over even more.

And I will say this, I know there are some people that don't think it's real, I thought it was real. Did you?

CAROLLA: Oh, yeah, I absolutely believed it was real. And by the way, I don't want to correct you, but I don't think the LAPD is arresting anybody anymore. So even if you filed a report, they would let it go.

HJANNITY: By the way, I do have the article right here. It says: K News analysis, the LAPD doesn't need Chris Rock if it wants to arrest Will Smith. So that's where I got the article from.

But at the end of the day, I mean, he's been joked about -- they've been joked about as a couple for a long time. It's been out there. I guess they have this open marriage thing. If that's true, wouldn't that mean he's fine with some other guy sleeping with his wife but not a comedian telling a joke about his wife, am I understanding that correctly?

I guess, I think if you polled most American husbands, they would rather have Chris Rock make a joke about their wife's hair versus a stranger bed them. I think they'd mostly go with the hair joke.

But I also figured out a way to solve this next year. Next year, Jada Pinkett Smith should borrow one of Maxine Waters hundred wigs and just throw that one on.

HANNITY: Oh geez. Okay, I'm not responsible for Carolla's getting in trouble on this show every time he's there.

You know, I did see the exchange with you and Bill Maher. I want to ask you about that. Bill Maher -- he and I would never really liked each other, and -- but I think he's talented and you're talking about California and how Democrats are destroying it, and he's right but his party doesn't listen to him. He's like an island unto himself trying to you know and verbally slap the Democratic Party out of wokeness and into reality, because they're pushing everybody away from them. Your thoughts?

Yeah, he has been on the vanguard of the Democratic Party for, you know, decades and he's woken up to the wokeness, which is going to screw up the party and he's just ringing the bell. He's just saying there's an iceberg dead ahead.

And now, they're calling him one of the bad guys. That's how they work. They don't have a reverse gear they can't pump the brakes. It's always full steam ahead.

He's more logical than they are and he's explaining that we're going to hit this iceberg and we're going to sink because he's a Democrat. He's attempting to warn them before they self-destruct and then they turn on him. And that's just who they are.

HANMNITY: But you know what, it actually -- has garnered him some support. I'll tell you, the people that defended him when "Politically Incorrect" was canceled on ABC, there were conservatives like me and Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives like Mark Levin. We were the people defending him. It wasn't the left and he was a very early victim of this canceled culture.

CAROLLA: Yeah. Well, speaking of that. You know, I've been in radio my whole adult life and if anyone complained it was always the right, it was religious groups. It was a small number of religious people who didn't like your words.

Now, they're focusing on your ideas. They want you off the air because your ideas, not your words, your words you can clean up, but your ideas, that's much more insidious and it's all coming from the left.

HANNITY: All right. Adam, thanks for being on. We appreciate it.

Coming up, some on the left, they're actually -- you can't make this up, if the dog bites, the bee stings, you're feeling sad, they're blaming Donald Trump for Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars. I'm not kidding. You can't make it up. Leo 2.0 Terrell and Kayleigh McEnany weigh in, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Someone shockingly, former President Donald Trump was not really mentioned at last night's Academy Awards, the low-rated one. But that did not stop people on the left and the media mob from blaming him that Will Smith slap Chris Rock.

One fake news CNN analyst asked if the incident was a case study on how Trump got normalized. Huh? Howard Stern even weighed in saying, Will Smith and Donald Trump are the same guy. What's happened to Howard?

Anyway, it's always the same script. If the dog bites, the bee stings, you're feeling sad, blame Trump.

Here with reaction, "Outnumbered" co-hosts Kayleigh McEnany, FOX News contributor Leo 2.0 Terrell. Kayleigh, we start with you. Really? We're going to blame Trump for this? Seriously?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, "OUTNUMBERED" CO-HOST: Yeah, this is a case study of the sick in the head obsession of the CNN leftist media types, the celebrities -- you know, a maniacal celebrity goes a bit insane punches someone and they've got to blame President Trump. It reminds me of that moment at NATO at one of the summits this past week, Sean, where you had a reporter who says basically that "Der Spiegel" reporter. what is NATO doing to stop President Trump?

And I'm paraphrasing here, but we're on the brink of world war three and they can't get President Trump's name out of their mouth? Why? Because he led the most successful economy in modern history, Russia didn't invade on his watch, and our country was succeeding. They can't keep his name out of their mouth because they know he's a threat and they know he could be back.

HANNITY: Leo, if these reports about the open marriage thing are true and it's -- it's talked about a lot. So I guess where there's smoke, there's fire, or they admitted it. I don't -- I don't really know. I don't follow this crap that deeply..

But assuming it's true, he cares more about a comedian but not a guy sleeping with his wife? Explain that one to me. I need Leo 10.0 to get to that one.

LEO TERRELL, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: You need Leo -- you need Leo 2.5 million, I don't even understand it. It defies logic. It totally defies logic.

And Kaylee is spot on. Look, American public does not believe the Trump stories generated by Hollywood. Trump has nothing in common with the Hollywood elite.

You want to know what Trump America is, look at those rallies in Georgia and Texas. That's why people resonate with Donald Trump. He resonates with the working class. He has nothing in common with Will Smith, Hollywood or Howard Stern at this point. These people are the progressive left who wants to blame Trump and the American public is not buying the lie.

And Donald Trump was busy I guess hitting a hole in one over the weekend, Kayleigh, which apparently was not his first one.

MCENANY: Yeah.

HANNITY: Playing with the great Ernie Ells.

I'll ask you both the same question. I kind of grew up in a neighborhood, we played hockey, we fought. We played basketball, we fought. We played football, we fought. And then after the fight, you start playing again. It doesn't really bother me. I'm not going to feign phony outrage that I really care about this thing.

Kayleigh, I doubt you're a fighter but maybe it happened when you grow up. It certainly happened every day in my life.

MCENANY: Sean, look, I said on "Outnumbered" earlier today. I -- this joke never should have happened. I didn't like this. This is about his wife, very personal about a disease she had.

Look, it doesn't excuse violence, but the man stood up for his wife. He apologized afterward. He had a lot of remorse for it.

And look, he defended his wife's honor. So, again, not -- no excuse for violence, but I don't think that joke ever should have happened. I think it provoked the situation.

HANNITY: Leo, how about you? It was kind of uh a normal thing, I'm not saying it's the right thing. I'm just saying it what it was.

TERRELL: Well, I'll tell you right now. When we play football or baseball and we get into an argument, all I said was, I'm a lawyer. I'm going to sue you in the future. So stopped it. No fights.

HANNITY: By the way, will the -- will the LAPD charge him? Real quick, Leo?

TERRELL: Oh, no, no. Absolutely not, not even close. No.

HANNITY: I agree. All right. Thank you both.

All right. When we come back, more HANNITY straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: One thing you got to say, I always like Chris Rock. I think he's one of the funniest comedians. Him, Dave Chappelle, we love Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy, we love all those guys, all comedians.

You know, he actually handled it really well, kind of was like taken by shock, but he seemed to handle it. Good for him. The shot -- the slap heard around the world.

That's all the time we have for tonight. Thank you for being with us. Please set your DVR, never miss an episode. In the meantime, let not your heart be troubled, Laura's next. We'll see you back here tomorrow night.

END

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