Lindsey Graham: World must push China to 'come clean' on COVID
Senate Judiciary Committee member on the American public holding China accountable.
This is a rush transcript of "Hannity" on June 15, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: The show that is the sworn and sincere enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink.
Guess who's next? We have a surprise for you this evening. Sean Hannity is going to take over the hour from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. Eastern, the whole thing.
Here he is, ladies and gentlemen.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: I'm trying to get the surprise out of this, because it's not really a surprise.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: All right, Tucker, thank you.
And welcome to HANNITY.
All right. Tonight, coming up, Jon Stewart separates himself from the left wing mob yet again, first bravely standing up for our brave soldiers and now just nailing it on the origins of COVID-19, causing his friend Stephen Colbert's head to kind of explode. Interesting TV.
Also tonight, far left Clinton hack Terry McAuliffe wants you to believe critical race theory is just the vast right-wing conspiracy. He's still stuck in the `90s.
But first, we are less than one day away from sippy cup meeting with Vladimir Putin. And tonight, ahead of the summit, well, Putin is trashing the U.S., openly laughing at Joe Biden.
Vladimir Putin -- he is a hostile actor and Joe is right, he's a murderer.
He runs his country like a massive crime syndicate -- kind of like Joe, and Hunter, and Joe's brother, the Biden family syndicate, except a little bit more ruthless.
Anyway, like most organized criminals, Vladimir only responds to strength.
He doesn't respond to weakness. And so, obviously, he doesn't respect or fear president sippy cup. Why should he?
Now, under Biden, the era of peace through strength is over. American first policies have now been replaced with American dead last policies.
Just last month, Russian hackers, they wrecked literally -- wrecked America's oil and gas supply. Joe inexplicably rewards Putin, lifting sanctions and giving a waiver to Putin for Russia to build a pipeline so they can supply the lifeblood of our Western European allies' energy.
Biden's appeasement strategies not the only thing at play here. During Joe's trip abroad, the entire world seeing firsthand how weak, how frail, how confused, what a cognitive struggling mess Joe really is. One Sky News Australia host actually raising concerns about, quote, Joe Biden's mental capacity, after this video emerged showing Joe aimlessly wandering around a cafe in England -- well, to be rescued by Jill Biden.
One "New York Post" headline read, quote, bumbling Biden's G7 NATO summit performance only boosts U.S. Euro foes. Another headline reads more evidence Joe Biden is just not well.
True to form, today, Joe got completely confused mid-sentence during a meeting. I don't know what to even tell you that he's trying to say here I'll let you decipher. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Europe is our natural partner and the reason is we're committed to the same democratic norms and institutions that are -- and they are increasingly under attack and -- and we I've said before and I apologize to repeat -- oh, I didn't -- like Jake Sullivan, you know, Jake is my national security advisor. I'm leaving out a lot of people here, I apologize. I'm going to get in trouble. But anyway we'll get back to that.
But -- we -- you know, there's a lot that that is happening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Okay, why does the president of the United States constantly live in a state of fear, he's going to get in trouble?
Joey, sippy cup, you're the president. If I need to remind you every hour of every day, I'll be glad to.
This trip has been an utter train wreck. Frankly, I find it embarrassing and it's all that Doctor First Lady Jill Biden can do to try and keep Joey in line. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JILL BIDEN, FIRST LADY: You can sit down. I don't want you to stand through --
(LAUGHTER)
Joe, pay attention.
(LAUGHTER)
REPORTER: How are your meetings going in Cornwall, Mr. President?
JOE BIDEN: I beg your pardon?
REPORTER: How are your meetings going here in Cornwall?
JOE BIDEN: Very well.
JILL BIDEN: Come on.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Joey, pay attention?
Okay, Joe, you're the president, you don't need permission and you got to focus as president. If you try really hard, you might do better.
But don't worry, I'm sure tomorrow's meeting with the hostile regime thug of Russia known as Vladimir Putin -- oh, I'm sure this is just going to go great.
And in case you need more evidence to decide whether or not Joe is up to the task, we report, we let you decipher for yourself. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Vladimir Putin laughed at the suggestion that you had called him a killer. Is that still your belief, sir, that he is a killer?
(LAUGHTER)
JOE BIDEN: To answer the first question -- I'm laughing too. They actually
-- I --
REPORTER: Do you still think he's a killer?
JOE BIDEN: Well, look, I mean he has made clear that -- the answer is I believe he is in the past essentially acknowledged that he was uh there are certain things that he would do or did do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand, four one
-- what's with the ten second pause? The world is watching this mess.
And by the way Joe Biden was -- oh three hours late to that presser where he answered questions from just five pre-approved reporters. We have no idea Joe was three hours late. They won't give us an answer. I don't know, maybe he drank his warm milky early and took a nap. I don't know, nappy time.
Was he loading up on his caffeine so his brain could function at a halfway decent level? We have no idea. Whatever the case may be, I think it's obvious now to the entire world why there's not going to be a joint press conference following tomorrow's summit with Putin. The administration is scared to death Joe will deeply embarrass himself and the country even further and Vladimir will take advantage of Joe's clear cognitive weakness and constant state of confusion.
And, of course, there are also concerns surrounding zero experience Hunter Biden. Yeah, he's the guy that collected millions of dollars from the first lady of Moscow. That's right, the mayor of Moscow's wife and Kazakhstan oligarchs and Ukrainian oligarchs, you know? And the pro-Russian oligarch who owns Burisma Holdings in Ukraine.
Again, listen closely, zero experience Hunter made millions of dollars in Ukraine. No relevant experience whatsoever. Today, Joe announced Ukraine is too corrupt to join NATO, but not corrupt enough for Hunter to get paid millions? Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Ukraine wants a clear yes or no on getting into the NATO membership action plan. So what's your answer?
BIDEN: Depends on whether they meet the criteria. The fact is, they still have to clean up corruption. The fact is they have to meet other criteria to get into the action plan. And so, it's, you know, schools out on that question. It remains to be seen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Let us get this straight, Joey, sippy cup.
Okay. So, Ukraine's too corrupt for NATO but perfect for the Biden family syndicate, zero experience Hunter gets paid millions. Any experience in oil, gas, energy or Ukraine? No.
Imagine if a Trump was doing this?
And speaking of which Hunter Biden has a new money-making scheme. He just launched a career as an artist, apparently. And despite zero professional experience, no art degree, Hunter is now selling his paintings at a top gallery in New York City, expects to collect up to a half a million dollars for each masterpiece. Maybe we'll call it portraits from a crack addict or something.
And, of course, according to the gallery, the buyers will all remain anonymous. Oh, who's trying to buy favor now? It should make your skin crawl.
This might be the Biden family's most blatant pay-to-play scheme yet. Time will tell.
It is seedy. It's disgusting and it's happening right in front of our eyes.
But apparently, when you're a Biden, the rules don't apply to you.
You can lie in a gun application. You can sell access to the highest levels of our federal government. You can smoke crack. You can abandon your own child, take away the child's mother's health care. If you're Hunter, you can even say the N-word.
And in the case of Joe, you could outright lie on three occasions. I've never talked to Hunter about his foreign business dealings -- but we have pictures of him dining as vice president with his foreign business partners.
So, that's right. If you're a Biden, you can pretty much get away with anything. Your doors are not going to be kicked in, pre-morning, pre -- early morning raid, guns drawn. You won't have CNN cameras capturing it all. You're not going to get interrogated for hours on end. You won't be threatened with decades behind bars.
The media mob, big tech, they'll always keep you in their Biden protection program. They'll have your back. There'll be no investigations. No negative coverage, nothing.
The so-called journalists and the press is more than happy to stick their heads in the sand, while our country goes straight to hell and shows nothing but weakness to the world, just because they like Joe's Democratic radical New Green Deal socialism.
So, tomorrow, expect glowing praise from the media mob. Joe was tough with Vladimir. If he's so tough of Vladimir, why does he stand next to Vladimir in front of the world and say it right to his face and let us watch it?
But know this -- no good is coming out of this.
Here with more FOX News contributor, media columnist at "The Hill", Joe Concha, along with FOX News contributor, former CIA station chief, Dan Hoffman.
Good to see you both.
Joe, we'll start with you on the media side.
Now, if you're watching this show, okay, you're an informed viewer. You are now fully aware of how bad Kamala Harris's trip is. You know how bad Joe's trip is.
But if you watch any other media, would you see what we've been showing our viewers?
JOE CONCHA, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Oh, it's a different galaxy, Sean, at this point. And you don't see clips like the one you just played or the analyzed very much. Again, this bears repeating what the president said when he was asked if he thinks that Vladimir Putin is a killer. Quote: I don't think it matters -- it being, of course, the whole Putin is a killer thing -- a whole lot in terms of this next meeting we're going to have.
I'm pretty sure if you accuse the sitting president of being a murderer, that's pretty relevant and answers like this show, the real reason why he's not doing a press conference with Putin to your point earlier, because anything resembling remotely a challenging question is met with either awkward or defensive or relatively incoherent responses.
As you said, he was hours late for his press conference yesterday. He only calls on reporters chosen by his staff and then he needs to read from notes oftentimes when answering questions.
So I've always said, when you're covering Joe Biden, don't base that coverage on his words but his actions. Because words are pretty cheap particularly when you're dealing with career politicians of 50 years.
But deeds, they're tangible, right? They're like runs in a baseball game.
It's easy to keep score.
And with Joe Biden, here's what that scoreboard looks like as it pertains to Vladimir Putin: he allowed Putin to invade and take over Crimea -- remember that -- without firing a shot. That was during the Obama Biden administration.
He allowed Russia to interfere in the 2016 election. That was during the Obama-Biden administration.
He just allowed Russia to complete the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. What that does by not -- obviously, he waved major sanctions on that. That makes Russia a major player in Europe in terms of energy, and that's all while attacking American energy by killing new construction of the Keystone pipeline.
So with Joe Biden, always, don't listen to the words, even when the words are somewhat incoherent. Watch the actions, and see what happens and that's what I'll be watching tomorrow during the summit with Vladimir Putin.
HANNITY: Pretty amazing. I'm sure it has nothing to do with Hunter getting money from the Russian oligarch, the first lady of Moscow, three and a half million dollars. Why Vladimir got the waiver from Joe to build his pipeline to supply energy to our allies in Western Europe. Meanwhile, simultaneously, shutting down our pipeline building and construction in America -- putting literally thousands and thousands of energy sector jobs off the market and career jobs and -- with a lot of pay taken away from hardworking Americans.
Dan Hoffman, you and I have a great experience. We were in Singapore together. We were in Helsinki together.
And you would explain to me based on your years in the intelligence community, that it was a hundred percent certain in your mind, not 99, a hundred percent, that I was being spied on by the Chinese in Singapore and by the Russians in Helsinki. And you said, absolutely. And I said, why are you so certain? Because they study everything about American presidents.
And they know that I had a relationship with Donald Trump. Therefore, I was being targeted. .
Now, explain through this -- in this context. What do they know about Joe Biden? Because I don't think they're going to be influenced by the coverage of the media in America of Joe Biden. They study Joe Biden and make their own conclusions. What do you think it's likely that that Vladimir Putin has concluded about Joe?
DAN HOFFMAN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think that Vladimir Putin's intelligence services, the SVR, that's their foreign intelligence service, and the FSB, their internal service, which Putin led for a couple of years before becoming prime minister, they mounted a full-court press with massive espionage just to determine everything they can about President Joe Biden, including his health and his policies, and how he -- how he will proceed on some of the key issues of the day.
We haven't talked about Havana syndrome that pulse microwave targeting our officials from Cuba to China, and including inside Moscow, as well as reportedly near the White House. It's another issue to raise.
I share your concern about the press conference. That's the ideal opportunity to hold Vladimir Putin accountable for his multifarious attacks on our democracy -- from election interference to cyber hacking groups, which homestead on Russian territory.
Draw those red lines. If you don't do that, then you don't have any hope for peace and stability. There's no peace without strength when it comes to Russia, and I think that's a real missed opportunity frankly.
HANNITY: You think they see him as frail, weak and a cognitive mess as I do?
HOFFMAN: I think we'll get a good glimpse of that tomorrow when Vladimir Putin speaks to his own press conference. Again, we're not going to see the two of them together where we could have seen them go toe to toe. But how Vladimir Putin behaves is probably a reflection of exactly what Vladimir Putin assesses --
HANNITY: Well, let me ask you this --
HOFFMAN: -- to be President Joe Biden's capabilities.
HANNITY: And you still stand by? You think in Singapore, I was spied on, you think in Helsinki, I was being spied on?
HOFFMAN: Oh, I think that uh that uh Chinese intelligence was mounting a very full court press and, yeah, probably, you were falling under that radar. And I'm -- I wouldn't be at all surprised about that.
HANNITY: Yeah. On both trips, you scared the hell out of me, just saying.
And I don't get scared easily.
All right. Dan Hoffman, Joe Concha, thank you.
Joining us now with more on tomorrow's summit, someone who knows an awful lot about Vladimir Putin, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Mr. Secretary, we've been friends a long time. I don't think you would have allowed the Chinese in Anchorage to lecture you on the issue of human rights the way they did Joe Biden's team, would you?
MIKE POMPEO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: No, we handled things very differently, Sean. We were serious. We were determined. We drew red lines. We made clear what American interests were.
And they tried to lecture us about human rights or all the things that got screwed up inside of China, we would have made very clear that was unacceptable. We wouldn't listen to it.
HANNITY: What insight can you give the American people into Putin? What would you expect? If Joe Biden called you tonight and asked, what do you -- what do you what would you expect from me tomorrow, what would you tell him?
POMPEO: He's going to show up loaded for bear because the evidence of the Biden administration's actions today suggests that'll be successful -- whether it was the fact that they re-entered the new START treaty at the very, beginning, right? A nuclear treaty they re-entered, we didn't ask for anything. They wanted it desperately and we gave it up.
We then -- you talked about Vladimir Putin destroying our energy industry.
You should know that vice president or President Biden went first. He destroyed our energy industry by joining the Paris Climate Accords, an enormous gift to Vladimir Putin.
So I expect, tomorrow, President Putin will press. He will see how far he can push President Biden and I hope not just in words but in deeds, this administration is prepared to show up to do what we did to hold Russia accountable for its malign activity and to make clear there were red lines.
HANNITY: Nobody was tougher on China than Donald Trump. And in spite, it was Hillary Clinton that bought the dirty Russian dossier, how ironic. It was the Biden family that made money from Russia, not the Trump family.
You know, Donald Trump just -- he loved the opportunity to do a joint presser with somebody like Putin or Kim Jong-un or whoever -- whatever world leader it happened to be.
Does it show weakness that Joe won't do a joint presser with Vladimir?
Because I think that's a sign of great weakness.
POMPEO: Of course, it does. The fact that you're not prepared to stand six or eight feet from your adversary and tell the world what it is you talked about, the things you care about, why you care about them shows enormous weakness.
And, Sean, we shouldn't forget -- whether it's Chairman Kim or the ayatollah or Xi Jinping, they're watching this too. When they smell weakness, when they can sniff it, the deterrence model that American successful defense depends upon will walk away and these folks will drive a truck through it.
So if you're not prepared to simply stand on a podium and respond to questions from the press that might be asked of you, that might be hard or might be tricky, while your adversary is standing a few feet away from you, that's an enormous sign of weakness.
HANNITY: And you would relish the fact, standing up to him, you would challenge him on these hacks that took place, Colonial Pipeline, our beef industry, our meat industry in America. If there was ever an opportunity for you to debate Vladimir Putin, I don't think you'd hesitate, am I wrong?
POMPEO: No, I'm in, Sean. You come along. You can be one of the moderators. They can pick one. We'll get after it.
HANNITY: Wait, whoa, whoa, slow down here. This is a good idea. So, wait a minute, you're willing to debate Vladimir Putin. I can be one of the moderators and we'll let him choose the Russian moderator. We'll do a two- hour live commercial free debate and you'd be glad to do it?
POMPEO: Sounds good. Anytime, anywhere, Sean.
You have to know who you are and you have to know who America is, and if you're prepared to do that, that kind of debate is something one should not shy away from.
HANNITY: Vladimir, Comrade, it's an open invitation. Mike Pompeo versus you --
POMPEO: I'm not holding my breath, Sean.
HANNITY: -- you get -- you get to pick your guy. I'll be on the America side.
I'd love that debate. He's welcome anytime. He likes to call Joe out for debate. Joe didn't take him up on his offer.
Mr. Secretary, thanks for being with us. Appreciate it.
All right. Up next, more shocking information about the Wuhan lab leak theory is coming to light tonight. Lindsey Graham will be here. He'll have reaction.
Later, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, he's going to tell us what he's doing about critical race and a lot more. You don't want to miss it, as we continue.
Thanks for being with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Now, the lab leak theory the media mob lied about during the Trump presidency, that's gaining more and more credibility. Even liberal comic Jon Stewart delivered Stephen Colbert a reality check last night on CBS, actually a funny moment for once. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JON STEWART, COMEDIAN: The disease is the same name as the lab. That's just -- that's just a little too weird, don't you think? And then I asked those scientists, they're like how did this -- so wait a minute, you work at the Wuhan respiratory coronavirus lab, how did this happen? And they're like a pangolin kissed a turtle.
There's been an outbreak of chocolaty goodness near Hershey, Pennsylvania.
What do you think happened like? Oh, I don't know maybe a steam shovel mated with a cocoa bean, or it's the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) chocolate factory.
Maybe that's it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: And he's been standing up for our troops. When Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, they're making a lot of sense these days. Wow, standing apart from the mob on the left. Good for them.
Anyway, that's not all, because former CDC Director Robert Redfield, he's now revealing more information about why evidence supports the lab league theory. We could see it in Fauci's emails also. He's also calling out the WHO for their deep ties to China, something we also knew. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, FORMER CDC DIRECTOR: When I said before that I didn't think it was biologically plausible that COVID-19 went from a bat to some unknown animal into man and now have become one of the most infectious viruses to man immediately, that's not consistent with how other coronaviruses have come into the human species. And it does suggest that there's an alternative hypothesis, that it went from a bat virus got into a laboratory where in the laboratory, it was taught, educated, it evolved so that it became a virus that could efficiently transmit human to human.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: And look over here, we have newly released video that appears to show bats were in fact being used for research purposes at the Wuhan virology lab.
Despite assertions of the contrary from so-called experts -- well, this is, by the way, something we always knew. We always knew they studied at that lab coronaviruses.
We also knew that they were involved in gain of function research at the lab. It made sense from day one.
The media mob in one deranged, you know, voice claiming this is a -- not only a conspiracy theory, a debunked conspiracy theory. The fact checkers, who's going to fact check them?
Here with reaction on all of this, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.
You know, I didn't see anybody at the G7, you know, willing to take on China and hold them accountable.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Yeah.
HANNITY: The only person that I know that said China should pay $10 trillion was Donald Trump who I agree with on this.
GRAHAM: Yeah, I smell a rat when it comes to the bat.
So here's the deal, how do you find the truth when China won't cooperate with you? It's the world has to make China come clean on this, and how do you do that? Impose sanctions until they cooperate with the world as to how the virus was -- where it originated, how it was spread.
But Tom Cotton, who's been right about this more than anybody had legislation that we introduced and passed through the Judiciary Committee last year, allowing an American citizen to take the Chinese Communist Party to court in the United States and sue for damages caused by COVID-19.
If you want to get to the truth, haul their ass in the American courtroom and unleash our lawyers on them. That's what I think we should do.
HANNITY: Ten days after the first identified case of coronavirus in this country, January 31st, by the way the same --
GRAHAM: Right.
HANNITY: -- day that Donald Trump put in Joe Biden's xenophobic hysterical travel ban that saved countless lives.
We know that Anthony Fauci got an email and that email said, yeah, it looks like this virus was manipulated by man, that a certain genome indicator showed him that. We also know panicked emails with Fauci and others show he was scared to death because he knew his NIH was funding that lab in part and that gain of function research was going on and coronavirus research was going on. And that we may have ended up paying for all of this.
Now, how does Fauci get hold -- held accountable in this?
GRAHAM: Well, so everybody involved on the American side working with the Chinese scientists circled the wagons and dramatically came out against the idea that it was a lab leak. In the February 19th letter by 27 scientists, they said that anybody who suggested it was a lab leak was a right-wing conspiracy nut, particularly Trump.
Now, why did they circle the wagons because if it had been a lab leak, they're implicated because they have a relationship with the lab and I think it throws -- I think it puts everything they did very much at risk, so that February 19th letter by 27 scientists in 2020 saying that if you believe it's a lab leak, you're a nut tells me everything I need to know. I think they knew it was a lab leak and they tried to bury it.
It's just like the Russian dossier. Every time they found evidence that the dossier was unreliable, they ignored it. They doubled down because they wanted the outcome.
And here's the outcome the scientists wanted. They wanted to shut down the suggestion that came from the lab that they were tied to. I really believe that.
But let's take the Chinese Communist Party to American court and allow our citizens to get justice in a courtroom.
HANNITY: Senator, you've watched me play in these tapes -- first, we covered Vice President Harris's trip abroad, unmitigated disaster. Now, we're covering Joe's trip abroad. You've seen the flubs, you've seen the mistakes, you've seen the weird, awkward silence --
GRAHAM: Yeah.
HANNITY: -- in the distance, totally seemingly out of it. How do you think the world's seeing this?
GRAHAM: I think Pompeo got it right that weakness in one place creates problems in every place.
The day that Joe Biden changed the border policies regarding Mexico, doing away the "Remain in Mexico" and Mexico refused to help, everybody in the world saw that as a sign of weakness.
Donald Trump took money away from Central American countries until they changed their behavior regarding caravans. What has Biden done? He wants to give them $4 billion without any change at all.
So the reason Mexico and Central America gave in to Trump is because Trump took on China by imposing tariffs against the Chinese Communist Party for cheating in the world marketplace.
Everything you see by Biden is unraveling the world. He's losing control of our border. He's lost control of the Mideast. Iran is coming back and Hamas sent 4,500 rockets into Israel because they believe Joe Biden wouldn't do a damn thing and they turned out to be right.
HANNITY: The question is, all right, so you know Vladimir Putin, he's a hostile actor. Vladimir Putin can't be trusted. Russia is a hostile regime.
Why would Joe Biden give a waiver to Vladimir Putin to build his pipeline to supply energy to our allies, drawing them closer? And meanwhile we're paying the larger part of defense for NATO in part to protect our allies from Russia and our allies are making Putin and Russia rich again.
GRAHAM: No, he's trying to do the appeasement strategy. The liberals believe that we're the problem, not Russia. That if we were just more reasonable, if we worked with them, and we gave them the ability to build the pipeline, and we got back in the new START treaty and we put $4 billion on the table in Central America, everything would be just fine.
Donald Trump saw it differently. He saw these people to be tough, and they're going to get away with everything and get away with until somebody stops them.
So I hope President Biden will tell Putin that there's another cyber attack on American business interest, we're going to come after your infrastructure. We need to go on the offense.
We've lost deterrence when it comes to the Biden administration and we've lost respect. Our allies no longer respect us, and our enemies are not deterred by the president and his administration. He needs to tell Putin, if there's another cyberattack in America, coming from Russian soil, you're going to pay a price.
HANNITY: Don't you think Joe Biden is making a mistake not doing a joint press agreement with Putin, or is it obvious he's afraid?
GRAHAM: Yeah.
HANNITY: Isn't that what this is really all about?
GRAHAM: Yeah, I think so.
HANNITY: And the people around him are afraid because they know he'll get clobbered.
GRAHAM: Yeah. Yeah, I didn't think Trump did a particularly good job in Finland, but at least he did it, right?
HANNITY: Yeah.
GRAHAM: Nobody doubted that Trump was tough, yeah.
But here's the problem, Biden's feeding the narrative that he's not able to stand toe-to-toe with Putin. If you don't --
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Do you think he is? Because I don't.
GRAHAM: -- another cyber attack -- well, I'm pulling for America. Let's just put it this way.
HANNITY: I didn't say I'm not pulling for America, I'm saying he's not capable.
(CROSSTALK)
GRAHAM: Yeah.
HANNITY: That's what I'm saying. I don't see a guy strong enough.
GRAHAM: And his policies indicate to me that he doesn't understand the dangers we face and he screwed up the border by changing Trump policy. He's trying to be just different than Trump without a purpose.
HANNITY: All right. Senator --
GRAHAM: This would not have happened if Donald Trump were president. We would not be attacked twice from Russia by cyber terrorist if Donald Trump were president.
HANNITY: Agreed.
GRAHAM: Joe Biden needs to fix this.
HANNITY: Agreed. It was a healthy respect and fear.
All right. Senator, thank you.
GRAHAM: Fear.
HANNITY: Straight ahead, Democrats continue to push critical race theory in schools. Parents, they've decided it's time to fight back. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, he's not allowing it in Florida.
Also, a shocking email from Chicago Mayor Lori Lightweight. Trace Gallagher
-- wait until you hear about this email. Pretty amazing.
Later, Senator Marsha Blackburn. She had dinner tonight with Kamala Harris.
You want to be a fly on the wall? Well, we get to be because she'll tell us what happened, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. This just in. New email of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has come to light and it's getting a bit of attention online.
Trace Gallagher has got the latest.
Well, she seemed very angry just to say the least -- Trace.
TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Sean, the email written by Lori Lightfoot obtained by the "Chicago Tribune" kind of gives us new insight into why the Chicago mayor is having trouble holding onto staff. In January, Lightfoot sent an email to her then-scheduler demanding uninterrupted time alone to work. She wrote, quoting, I need office time every day.
But she didn't just write it once. She wrote it 16 times in a row.
In the next paragraph, she wrote ten times in a row, quote, not just once a week or some days, every day.
She went to write more sentences several times before ending with, quote, have I made myself clear, finally? What did you see, she wrote 13 times in a row.
Apparently she's made herself so clear that in the past six months, Lightfoot has lost more than a dozen staffers. Last month, her less than diplomatic management style was on full display when she sent her aides a picture of a ripped up document, you know, as a way of telling them she'd like to get things in a timely manner. That, of course, was before she decided to only grant interviews to black or brown journalists -- Sean.
HANNITY: All right. Trace Gallagher, thank you.
She only works so hard to stop being the 40 to 50 shootings in her city each and every weekend.
Now common sense America all across the country, they are standing up against far left destructive critical race theory ideologies. For example, parents are now sounding the alarm. They are pushing back after being subjected to this far left diatribe by school board member. This one in Fairfax County in Virginia.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER: Our world is overwhelmed with need. We struggle with human greed, racism, extreme versions of individualism and capitalism, white supremacy, growing wealth gaps, disease, climate crisis, extreme poverty amid luxury and waste right next door. And the list goes on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: And Democrats like, oh, goof ball Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, they're claiming this racial division is all just one big right wing conspiracy theory. Take a look.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To speak all the Republicans are talking about critical race theory and they're making this huge deal about it, and it's all the conversation in the news of Virginia. Like what are you going to say to all these people who are making education about that?
TERRY MCAULIFFE, FORMER VIRGINIA GOVERNOR: That's another right-wing conspiracy. This is totally made up by Donald Trump and Glenn Youngkin.
This is who they are. It's a conspiracy theory.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right, Terry. Use that line for the Clinton's in the 90s.
Time for new material. Update your act.
Well, that's just one of the many ways that Clinton crony McAuliffe is embarrassing himself after he became a social media mockery last week, after posting these dancing videos on Twitter. By the way, if you were discretion is advised.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
HANNITY: Okay. Now, that man cannot be governor of Virginia again. It will turn Virginia into even more of a far left nightmare.
And if you want a preview of coming up attractions. Take a look at New York, and California.
One governor, by the way, who has become a beacon of hope for Americans in Florida and beyond, Governor Ron DeSantis. He is standing up against critical race theory, against rioting, lawlessness, and against lockdowns.
He's joining us tonight with reaction.
Governor, good to see you. Thank you for being with us.
Let me read what you said about critical race theory. You said the woke class wants to teach kids to hate each other rather than teaching them how to read. We're not going to let them bring nonsense ideology into Florida schools.
You love the state. You look the country, and it's unthinkable there are people in positions of leadership in the federal government who believe that we should teach kids to hate our country. We're not going to stand for it in Florida.
Tell us why.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), FLORIDA: Well, first of all, Sean, we are happy to abandon in Florida. It's not going to be allowed in Florida classrooms.
Spending tax dollars to teach kids that America is a rotten place is absolutely unacceptable.
If you look at how some of this stuff manifests itself in classrooms, that we have seen examples of, it's not a conspiracy theory -- dividing kids based on race, trying to say some are oppressors and some are oppressed based on race. Attacking law enforcement and saying law enforcement attacks people based on race.
Those things are poison. That is not what we should be doing. What we should be doing is solid curriculum based on the actual facts of American history and teaching kids what it means to be an American. And part of what it means to be an American is we judge people not on the color of their skin, but on the content of their character.
HANNITY: I look at Florida where I'm leaning heavily to moving very soon, and I look at your state against critical race theory. You have no state income tax. You have no inheritance tax. You are for law and order, and you reward policing to keep people safe and secure.
You go down the list. You didn't have to draconian shutdowns. This is -- it's such a dramatic difference now emerging between red states like yours and blue states like New York, California, New Jersey, and Illinois.
I don't -- how do you reconcile these differences? They're so dramatic.
DESANTIS: Well, I think part of it is we have a conservative approach.
They have a left wing approach.
But I think some of this, Sean, is just common sense. I mean, for example, we have the lowest per capita tax burden in the country, but the reason we are doing well is because people respond to that. They want to live in a place that's well-govern with low taxes.
So, we actually now are collecting more revenue then we can forecast or even keep up with with those lower rates, and it's all about understanding that you're trying to expand your economic base. Obviously, things like law and order -- those are just common sense things that you have to do. If you don't have public safety, you really don't have anything.
And then, of course, making sure we have good curriculum and schools, protecting things like women's athletics, which we were able to do. I signed a bill a couple weeks ago. We really believe that on the key issues that matter for Floridians, we're leading and we're getting things done.
HANNITY: You know, when you look at the differences, especially like with California, today is the first official day that they're reopening the state, but they're not really fully reopening the state. And then they thought that these COVID passports -- I notice there's a bit of a controversy emerging with the cruise line industry which is big in Florida.
And to your credit, by the way, you've been fighting for them to get back online as quickly as possible. A lot of jobs are at stake, a lot of money for Florida's economy is at stake. Yet some of the cruise lines want these passports or vaccination proof, and you've held the line, you said no passports.
DESANTIS: Yeah, no, exactly.
Just understand, Sean, CDC has shut down the cruise lines down for over a year. We sued the CDC to be able to get them off of this, so that the cruise lines could function in Florida. Of course, they're going to have to do about it consistent Florida law. We are not allowing discrimination based on vaccination status. What the CDC wants to do is effectively ban young kids from cruises, because they're not even eligible to get vaccinated and yet they would count that against the cruise ship.
So, our view is, you know, nondiscrimination, understanding kids should be able to go on, and also understanding people have recovered from COVID and also are immune and they may not have taken the vaccine at that point. So we think that that's better than forcing people to divulge private health information and discriminate against people who may have had reason not to get the vaccine.
HANNITY: Governor, I would say this to people in New York, New Jersey, Michigan, California, that are moving to Florida -- I know you welcome them with open arms. I would just like to request on your behalf that they leave their radical leftist liberal socialist policies in the state they come from and don't bring that voting record with you and to ruin the new state that you are going to.
I think that's a fair request. I hope you agree with that.
DESANTIS: Well, the good thing is, a lot of them are leaving because of those radical policies and they've actually been repelled and they are coming because we are an oasis of freedom. So, I think that that's really a good sign.
HANNITY: And, by the way, you spent half as much as New York with no income tax and better infrastructure. I think that speaks volume.
Governor, good to see you. Thank you.
All right. Governor DeSantis, by the way, speaking at Ralph Reed's Faith and Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority Police Conference on Fox Nation.
Up next, Marsha Blackburn had dinner with Kamala Harris. She will tell us what happened, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. Now, as Vice President Harris is still reeling from her disastrous foreign trip to Central America, earlier this evening, she invited all 24 female senators to her home in Washington.
To tell us how it went, Republican senator of great state of Tennessee, Marsha Blackburn.
OK. I'm dying to know it all. What happened?
(LAUGHTER)
SEN. MARSHA BLACKBURN (R-TN): Well, Sean, this is the annual Bipartisan Women of the Senate Dinner. And since Vice President Harris was Senator Harris, she invited the women to the vice president's residence.
It was a lovely event. She was gracious to house. She invited us all, even though she knows when she was in the Senate, I was the most conservative member of the Senate and she was rated the most liberal.
So it wasn't a policy discussion at all. But if she had brought up policies, I would've had loved to say madam vice president, you need to get to the border. You need to talk to the border patrol. The child trafficking that is happening at that border.
It's just of such concern. And the Biden policy, this Biden border policy is inept. It is an embarrassment, 180,000 people that crossed -- this is got to be addressed.
HANNITY: It's going to be over two and half million this year by estimates.
BLACKBURN: Yes.
HANNITY: But wait a minute, not one substantive discussion on anything? It was just all, I don't know gossip talk? Or --
BLACKBURN: No, it's the evening of relationship building. And this is an annual dinner that takes place for the women of the Senate every year. Last year, we were not able to do it because of COVID, but this is a tradition of the Senate that the women of the Senate in a bipartisan manner gather for a dinner, and this happens once a year.
HANNITY: Let me ask you this.
BLACKBURN: Yeah, sure.
HANNITY: On the New Green Deal socialism, on taxes, on borders, on energy, on foreign policy -- how do you reconcile the differences?
Because you're right, you're a conservative. She is a radical New Green Deal socialist. I don't see where there's any room to reconcile there.
BLACKBURN: You know, one of the things I like to say is I never pass up an opportunity to talk about why I am a conservative on issues. And whether it is dealing with HR-1 or the Green New Deal, I am going to stand where I am against all of those. And I think Vice President Harris knows I was a very fierce campaigner for President Trump, for Vice President Pence, and for the Republican ticket.
But you know, I'm going to stay in their fighting for our conservative values every chance I get.
HANNITY: I know that's a fact, Senator. Good to see you again as always.
All right. When we come back, more HANNITY right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. Before we go tonight, just a reminder, tune in tomorrow night, 9:00 Eastern, 6:00 Pacific. My exclusive interview with former President Trump live right here on HANNITY. He will react to Joe sippy cup and his big summit with Vladimir.
This is not going to go well. Just a gut feeling I have. And wish it did, I don't want America to look bad on the world stage but I'm not confident.
All right, but in the meantime unfortunately that is all the time we have left. We hope you'll set your DVR, never miss an episode.
In the meantime, let not your hearts be troubled. Laura Ingraham is next.
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