Hannity on press coverage of President Biden

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," May 24, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: I know what I'm going to get for Christmas -- a chicken you can pet and kiss. Perfect. Whatever -- whatever you need, Tucker --

CARLSON: Thank you, Sean.

HANNITY: -- that makes you happy. I will buy you a chicken, a pet chicken.

Anyway, Tucker, thank you.

CARLSON: I'm glad --

HANNITY: Anyway, welcome to HANNITY. Busy night tonight.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is here. Texas Senator Ted Cruz will join us. Rick Santorum with his very first interview since getting canned by fake news CNN.

And later, we bring you a bombshell investigation exclusively from James O'Keefe. He will release it tonight from Project Veritas that involves Facebook's rampant political bias, and Facebook is responding to O'Keefe. We'll get to all of this.

But, first, we turn once again to the ever weak, frail, cognitive mess that is all things Joey Biden and sippy cup. Anyway, as cases of COVID-19 have sharply declined, thankfully, Americans -- they're trying to make up for lost time becoming more active than ever.

By the way, don't hold your breath. They'll never give President Trump credit for Operation Warp Speed. No, power-hungry Democrats, the corrupt media mob -- they're not capable of it, don't hold your breath.

And meanwhile, well, sippy cup Joe is not very active, very few public events and extremely early bed time. Constant weekend trips to Delaware, we assume sleeping and Joe seems unwilling and unable and incapable of rising to the occasion. This is getting to be a real, clear, obvious danger.

And now, we have with the pandemic waning, Joe is running out of excuses. The media mob trying to put a spin on Joe Biden's obvious struggles, Americans, we can see with our own eyes what's happening. Remember, fake news CNN, they first described sippy cup as an early to bed type who enjoys a warm fire in the Oval Office fireplace and last week, the New York toilet paper "Times" reporting that Biden is prone to outbursts. He's very moody, gets very confused by acronyms and needs extensive preparations for any public event.

And then today, "The Washington Post," even they admitted, quote, Joe Biden's public schedule can seem notably light compared to his predecessors. And then, quote, a lid, meaning no public activities, that's often called very early in the day, has a very light workload, we should all be so lucky.

And "The Post" revealing that Joe Biden heads to his private residence around 6:00 or 7:00 to begin his bedtime routine, which I assume involves warm cookies, warm milky and a sippy cup and may be if he is good a night- night story. And, of course, "The Washington Post" attempted to whitewash all of this by highlighting Biden's alleged weight lifting routine.

All right. Let's take a look at this. Joe pumping iron. All right. You go Joe. Good, Joe, very good job, Joey.

Anyway, the only problem is that video, that's from six years ago, in 2015. And tonight, it is extremely doubtful that Joe is capable of such a routine. Remember, we were the ones that told you we were told by everybody that the wind blew him over three times. It was a very windy day as he was climbing the stairs to Air Force One, not once, not twice, but three times the wind blew him over, very windy day.

According to Press Secretary Jen "circle back" Psaki, Biden, well, has so much energy and vigor she claimed she can barely keep up with Joe. Wow, take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: What more can you tell us about the president's health regime? We hear he's lifting weights. What sort of weights is he lifting? Does he have a personal trainer? And what happened to his Peloton bike? Did he bring it to the White House?

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I didn't know where this is going, but I'm intrigued by it. I will say I have nothing to read out on the president's private exercise regime, but I can tell you having traveled with him a fair amount, sometimes he's hard to keep up with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Really, Jen? That might be the biggest lie from the White House ever. You must be in serious decline because, Jen, no American would have a tough time keeping up with Joe's schedule.

Clearly, what we see today is not the same Joe Biden of 2008, 2012, even 2016, but you know what? Don't take my word for it. As her old friend, the great sportscaster, Warner Wolf, would always say, let's go to the video type. You decide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In our bilateral relationships with nations with whom we deal and have serious trade deficits, we have to be willing to put more cards on the table.

Now they've got a new plan, trust me, it's not going to cost you any more. Folks, follow your instincts on this one.

They put one foot in front of the other. They keep going, that's the unbreakable spirit of the people of America.

We hold these truths to be self evident. All and women created by -- you know -- you know the thing.

I want to thank you, the former general, I keep on calling him general, my -- the guy who runs that outfit over there.

Visit to vaccines.com, dot-gov, vaccines.com, or text to -- text your zip code to 438829.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

HANNITY: Yeah, Putin, President Xi, Kim Jong Un, the mullahs in Iran, they see what you see, not good.

Joe now has trouble remembering names and dates, he struggles with complex details. He often loses his train of thought midsentence.

Quickly now becoming irritable and at times it appears that sippy cup is having trouble even walking. And listen to this from "The Washington Post". Quote: Senator Chris Coons, a long time Biden confidant, said that Biden in meetings just crosses his arms puts his chin in his hand and then just listens."

I don't know exactly who is steering the ship, but it's not that guy and it's obviously not going well and they are trying to hide it from the rest of the world, but we can see through it.

Look at the country in just a few short months. Inflation, 4.2 percent, the highest in 13 years. Steel, that's up a whopping 30 percent. Copper, 32 percent. Lumber, great, you want to buy a two by four, you're paying now 130 percent more than anywhere last year.

Poultry, beef, consumption of any food that you buy at any grocery store, any drug store, you are paying more for everything. Oil and gas on the way up. That means that everything that's trucked to every location where you shop, guess what, passing that on to you. Corporations, they don't pay the taxes. You will pay the new taxes there too, everything we know that you buy more expensive. Look at Forbes, 83 percent of Americans now tightening their belts because of the inflation.

Also, a crisis in America's major cities, after handing out get out of jail free cards with the so-called bail reform, defunding and talking about dismantling police -- well, there's now there is a major crime wave all across the country. Now, this weekend typical weekend in Chicago, 54 people were shot, 12 killed, shootings of 36 percent from the record last year in the windy city. That didn't stop Chicago from releasing 94 people charged with murder. They let them back out on the streets.

Now since Joe Biden took office, America has become more dangerous, a lot more expensive and a lot less secure as our enemies and countries that hate our guts are taking full advantage. And some Never Trumper Republicans, apparently, they still prefer Sippy Cup Joe. Peggy Noonan, nice lady, she's giving a speech at the Reagan library an event called "A Time for Choosing."

What I'm assuming here is she is going to try to move the Republican Party away from President Trump, the MAGA agenda, the America First agenda.

Peggy, respectfully, the America First, the Make America Great Again agenda, will be the Republican Party agenda or old establishment political candidates will be defeated. That's my prediction. I know that you are Never Trumper, but it's really not that complicated and I'm a registered conservative. But if the GOP wants to win, they want to win elections, they need to be the party of liberty, freedom, capitalism and our Constitution, that simple. That includes the First Amendment and the Second Amendment.

The party of -- GOP needs to be the party of low taxes, limited government, why? So businesses can thrive and prosper and hire people. Not government bureaucrats.

We need to be the party of school choice so our children can compete in the global economy, all children, not just the ones fortunate enough to be born into privilege or be born in a red state where they will do much better. Now, of course, the Republican Party if they want to win, they've got to offer a free market solutions for health care that includes and protects pre-existing conditions.

Republican Party if they are to win, they've got to be putting constitutionalists on the bench, not judicial activists. They've got to be the party that restores law and order, so that every American can pursue happiness and safety and security, secure the border, the party of energy independents, free and fair trade, peace through strength.

That's the agenda, Peggy. Are you are conservative or not? You really don't need to write a long speech here. Anyway, maybe you want to help out Joe Biden and the New Green Deal socialist, well, or maybe you can stick with Joe or stick with the 75 million people that believe in America First.

Now, you're right it is a time for choosing and that agenda I laid out is the conservative agenda that works for the American people. The Republican Party if they want to be relevant, that's the agenda. That's the agenda I choose, and I believe that's the agenda most Americans will choose.

Now you are always free to vote for the socialists like Joe Biden and the Squad, or you can join other never-Trump Republicans and pick up your toys and throw a tantrum, stay home or run an establishment figure that just helps people like Joe get elected. That's your choice.

Here now with his choice and reaction, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.

Senator, am I wrong? Is that -- that's the agenda to me that works for the country.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Yeah, but the question of the conference is a time for choosing. What I would tell the people putting on the conference, the Republicans have already chosen. They've chosen an American First agenda to rally the party around, and if the primary were held tomorrow, President Trump would win if you chose to run going away.

So the question really is, does anybody in the Republican Party doubted that to the American First agenda is the way to move forward? And here's a question I have: If President Trump decides to run in 2024 and he wins the party's nomination, will you support him? It's a time for choosing in that regard.

Would you support President Trump if he's our nominee? Every Republican needs to be asked that question.

HANNITY: You know, for the House to have in the Biden-Obama years 65 show votes to repeal and replace Obamacare and not be ready with their plan in 2017 speaks volumes about to that old Republican Party. For seven Republican senators --

GRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: -- your colleagues, to vote in 2015 for a clean repeal bill of Obamacare, and then when it mattered, when it would've been signed into law, seven of them backed away from their vote two years earlier, that's the old, weak establishment Republican Party. I don't see that as a viable alternative anymore.

GRAHAM: So this whole conference is how would you define being a Republican? I would look at what President Trump did and I would choose that as my way forward. That we believe in strong borders, we believe in a strong military, that we're expecting people to do more to help themselves, America can't be everything to everybody all the time. We believe in lower taxes. We believe in free and fair trade and not being a chump when it comes to trade.

So the bottom line is, if you're running for president or thinking about running for president, are you smart enough to embrace the American First agenda? And the question for the Republican Party right now is that Donald Trump ran in the primary, he would win a going away. And the question is why?

Why would -- why are so many Republicans willing to give him another shot at this? Because they believe in what he did and they believe that his policies worked. And if you don't see that, if you don't get that, then you really don't understand the Republican Party in 2021.

HANNITY: So what's the point? I see the establishment figures are trying - -

GRAHAM: That's the question.

HANNITY: OK. What I see that they are fighting a Cold War against those that support the Make America First -- Great Again agenda and American First agenda. I don't think that they have a prayer. They can try as hard as they want.

But if you have candidates that don't support to those simple principles that I believed in my whole career, I'm not going to -- I would no longer support a RINO. I'm not doing it.

GRAHAM: Well, I think what they're trying to do is convince people who may be running in 2024 that the Trump agenda is not the right formula for success. And I respectfully disagree. If you want to make the Republican Party strong all over the country and you want to win in 2024, we need to embrace the policies of President Trump that worked.

So, this idea of having a conference trying to figure out what the Republican Party should do and be to me is sort of nonsensical.

We know what it should be. It should be an American First agenda and if President Trump runs, he's going to have some damage to repair, but I think that he's in great shape to win the primary and could get reelected. And my question is, if he's the nominee, would you support him? I'd like to hear a lot of people answer that question.

HANNITY: Well, let's see if they get asked the question at this little soiree they're having at the Reagan Library.

All right. Senator, thank you.

Now, let's turn to a brand-new investigative report from Project Veritas just uncovering an algorithm that reportedly could be used to target Facebook's political enemies.

Now, FOX News, we're just seeing this for the first time, but as always, we let you decide. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Facebook uses classifiers in algorithms to determine certain content to be what they call vaccine hesitant, or they call it "vaccine hesitancy". And without the user's knowledge, they assign a score to these comments that's called the VH score, the "vaccine hesitancy" score.

And then based on that score will demote or leave the comment alone depending on the content within the comment. And the narrative being, get the vaccine, the vaccine is good for you, everyone should get it. If you don't, you will be singled out.

JAMES O'KEEFE, PROJECT VERITAS FOUNDER: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As an enemy of society. They want to build a community where everybody complies, not what people can have discourse and dialogue about the most personal and private and intimate decisions that anybody could ever face in their life. The policy is going to keep expanding until anything can violate it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Here now is the founder and CEO of Project Veritas, James O'Keefe.

OK, there's a lot of significance to this. And Facebook has responded. I'll let you tell the story.

O'KEEFE: Thanks, Sean.

We've had two whistle-blowers within Facebook that come to us and leak us these documents regarding vaccine hesitancy. What does that mean? Essentially, Facebook has beta-tested these algorithms, 1.5 percent of their almost 3 billion users are getting a tiered ranking system, something called vaccine hesitancy. Tier one and tier two.

Tier one is alarmist critical remarks about the COVID and the vaccine, and tier two is something called indirect vaccine discouragement. Now, what's remarkable about these private documents that Facebook has not wanted you to see until tonight is that tier two, says even if the facts are true that you will be targeted and demoted. Your comments will be targeted and demoted, Sean. Vaccine hesitancy score tiering system at Facebook, these whistle-blowers have given Project Veritas these documents and spoken to us in the shadows. It's a 20-minute-long video online.

The documents are on the website. And, Sean, after we publish this report, we reach out to Facebook. They've actually given us a comment. I'm going to read it to you.

It says, quote, Facebook has responded to Project Veritas for the first time. Quote: We proactively announce this policy on our company blog and also updated our help center with this information.

So, in response to us publishing this, they're claiming to now make this public, but we just checked and they haven't yet made most of these documents public, Sean.

HANNITY: OK. Do I -- knowing your M.O., is there more to come in the days to come?

O'KEEFE: Yes, there is more to come. What's remarkable about is that this has been private. They don't want you to know that they are doing this.

And this is the town square as you all know. We're trying to retake our town square. Governor DeSantis just signed the bill in Florida. I'm in Florida today. I was with him when he did that, but they're tiering users without them knowing that they're doing it. They're demoting your comments, and de-boosting you on Facebook without you knowing that they're doing that.

And they are obviously terrified of this report because they are actually responding to Project Veritas before they would attack us or ignore us. And they have the system, you can see the documents online, they clearly have a ranking system, a tiered system, Sean. The author of this report, we've named him Meatball, is an employee at Facebook and we have the document showing that he offered the report and the chain of command from him to Mark Zuckerberg.

So, there's more to come. Another one tomorrow, two whistle-blowers on the record with Project Veritas. Current Facebook insiders leaking us these documents we consider them brave heroes. And we hope that there's a legion of more insiders that follow their lead coming public to projectveritastips@protonmail.com with this information.

HANNITY: James O'Keefe, thank you for sharing with us. We appreciate it. We're going to follow closely.

We turn now to the state of Florida. Governor DeSantis is now taking on tech tyranny in another way, signing a bill that would allow Florida to penalize tech companies who banned political candidates.

Here with more, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Can you even calculate the financial contribution, in-kind contribution when big tech decided unilaterally not to cover "The New York Post" story about Hunter Biden's laptop? Because that to me would be an in-kind donation, wouldn't it?

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), FLORIDA: Not only that, Sean, I doubt you can find an example in the history of presidential elections where you would have a more significant in-kind contribution. And so, this is something where big tech has amassed a massive amount of power, they are monopolies -- they are monopolies that are much more powerful than the monopolies of the early 20th century, and they are using their power to enforce orthodoxy and suppress speech and candidates that they disagree with.

The bill we did today, Sean, goes beyond just a political candidate and people can find -- we have the whole rundown at RonDesantis.com. But any Floridian who is deplatformed or censored would potentially have the right to sue big tech. We're making tech be transparent on their algorithms and on their terms of service and the criteria they use because they don't apply it fairly. Twitter will ban Donald Trump as president in the United States, but yet they will let the Ayatollah Khamenei talk about killing Jews, are you kidding me?

So, we think that this is the strongest thing that any state has done. And it needs to be done, Sean. We've got to protect people against big tech censorship.

HANNITY: Yeah. Listen, it seems right now, there's never been as bigger divide in terms of states. You see a mass exodus from New York. You see mass exodus from states like New Jersey and California. And -- but a lot of people headed to your state of Florida, I maybe one of them very soon. And people are headed to Texas and the Carolinas, and they went out.

Now, I fear that some people that are leaving states because of burdensome taxation and regulation, are they going to bring their politics that destroyed the states they're coming from with them?

DESANTIS: Well, Sean, I mean, some will, but I think the majority won't. I think what we've seen over the last year are people fleeing these lockdown states. And I think the fact that Florida, I said today that we were basically like the nation's West Berlin. People coming in to be able to get a respite. People uprooting their lives and coming to Florida for more opportunity.

So I think you've got a lot of people who really are seeking freedom. They're seeking a better life, and I think once they get here, they're very impressed with the quality of life that we offer.

Sean, your state of New York, you guys are taxed to smithereens. Your budget --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Don't blame. It's not my state. I have no say in the state. They don't even like me here.

DESANTIS: So, you guys have millions of people, less than Florida. Your budget is over twice the size of ours. Yet our infrastructure is better, our K-12 schools perform better. Our state university system performs better.

So, you're not getting anything for your money. It's all going to special interest.

So, people do appreciate having no state tax and also having an environment where they can thrive.

HANNITY: But it's a dramatic change and you're right, you're talking about similar populations and half the budget, and I can tell you because I've been in Florida a lot, I own property in Florida now for 15 years, and the -- in terms of infrastructure, it's night and day, the taxation. It's night and day. It's not even close anymore where even Wall Street firms are moving to your state.

DESANTIS: Well, not only this, the infrastructure also, Sean, law and order. You saw these cities, New York, other states, all the problems they had last year with riots in the crime rates going up in Florida, we signed the toughest anti-rioting law in our country and we're standing by our law enforcement officers 100 percent.

HANNITY: All right. We have an announcement at the end of the show. I will be seeing you in person this week. That's the only hint I'm willing to tell people. We'll be seeing you later this week.

DESANTIS: Looking forward to it.

HANNITY: All right. When we come back, a lot more to come, Senator Ted Cruz fires back at lying Brian Williams on MSDNC.

Also, Rick Santorum about being fired from fake news CNN, his first interview straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: This is a FOX News alert just breaking. We're now learning tonight that the FBI and Capitol Hill police, they are probing a death threat and suspicious package that was sent to the Kentucky home of Senator Rand Paul.

Now, FOX News has now exclusively obtained an image of the threat. You can see it right there on your screen, and we're going to continue to follow the story, as new details emerge. We have said this many times. We've got to protect our institutions and our politicians, not about politics, because they represent us.

All right. First now, an explosive story from "The Wall Street Journal" citing a U.S. intelligence report that three researchers at the Wuhan lab, you know, the one we talked about year ago were in fact hospitalized in November of 2019, adding to what is now a growing body of evidence supporting the lab leak theory of the coronavirus origins.

Well, just like clockwork, Dr. Doom and Gloom, Dr. Flip and Flop, Dr. Fauci changed his tune yet again and now he is saying he is not convinced that the virus had natural origins.

Let's compare that to what he was saying last year to what he is saying now. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: It is very, very strongly leaning towards that this could not have been on officially or deliberately manipulated.

REPORTER: So, I wanted to ask -- are you still confident that it developed naturally?

FAUCI: No, I'm not convinced about that. I think that we should continue to investigate what went on in China.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, speaking of people who lie and mislead constantly, see that guy? That's lying Brian Williams over at MSNBC. And he's at it again.

Now, Lying Brian, he is smearing Senator Ted Cruz calling him Kremlin Cruz. Yeah, okay, Ted Cruz -- nice try.

And this after the senator tweeted out a video comparing a Russian and a U.S. Army ad.

Let's take a quick trip down memory lane, shall we, and remember lying Brian, you know, his reporting was called out in Iraq and what makes him the original purveyor of fake news, just a slight remembrance here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN WILLIAMS, MSNBC HOST: Two of the four helicopters were hit by ground fire including the one that I was in.

DAVID LETTERMAN, TV HOST: No kidding.

WILLIAMS: RPG and AK-47.

I want to apologize. I said that I was traveling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire. I was instead in a following aircraft.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Here with reaction, Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

But my favorite, though, was when he talked about all the dead bodies from Katrina floating in front of his hotel that wasn't flooded. So I guess we could take his words for what they're worth, right, Senator?

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Well, look, the corporate media, they're liars. That's what they do for a difference. Remember, Hillary Clinton had a similar story where she talked about going from the helicopter under machine gun fire except to the fact that there wasn't machine fire when she was going from the helicopter. And they get away with it.

I will say, you know, you talked about Brian Williams as the original purveyor of fake news. I got to stand up and defend the lack of integrity of Dan Rather. I mean, Dan Rather was fired for lying on air long before Brian Williams was lying on air. And they worked together at CBS, so maybe they have learned how to peddle falsehoods together.

HANNITY: You know, it is interesting, I thought that you had a great line this weekend when he called the Squad as the press secretaries for Hamas. That is not hyperbole, Senator. That is -- we now have virulent anti- Semitism and open support for a terrorist organization firing rockets in the thousands at our closest ally in the Middle East and they're taking the side of the terrorists whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel. That's a fact.

And not a word from Joe, not a word from Chuck, not a word from Nancy -- why?

CRUZ: Sean, you're exactly right. One of the consequences of the age of Trump is that Donald Trump went directly at the media, directly at the Democrats and it broke them. They are husks of themselves.

So the corporate media, they've always been lying, but they now just are partisan, fuming piles of garbage.

You look at the Democrats. Listen, there been wars in the Middle East before in the past, you would have disagreements between Republicans and Democrats, but Democrats would generally condemn the terrorism, generally give statements in favor of Israel. Now you have these radical anti-Semites in the Democratic Party, the angry anti-Israel left that are standing up.

Representative Omar is accusing Israel of committing acts of terrorism. AOC and Bernie Sanders are introducing resolutions to ban -- to cancel arms sales to Israel so that it can't defend itself from terrorists.

And I will tell you this week, Sean, I am introducing a resolution to approve the arms sale to Israel so that we can fund Israel defending itself against Hamas terrorists and a whole lot of Senate Democrats, they don't want to vote on my resolution because they don't want to have it apparent to the crazy left activists who they're terrified of, where they stand. Do they stand with Israel? Or do they stand with Hamas and terrorists?

And, you know, just 20 minutes ago, I retweeted some guy who's described as a national surrogate for Bernie Sanders who puts out this video saying let's stop condemning anti-Semitism. All of us on the left don't contend him anti-Semitism anymore.

Well, no kidding, because you traffic and it, that's who you are and Bernie Sanders, do you agree with your national surrogate? Joe Biden, do you agree that we should stop condemning anti-Semitism? Kamala Harris, do you agree with Representative Omar that Israel is conducting act of terrorism?

We need to call people out and get them on the record for where they stand.

HANNITY: Will the Senate stop SR-1? Will the Senate Republican stand as a unit? Every one of them, will they stop court packing and ending the judicial filibuster and D.C. statehood and higher taxes? Will they stand united on energy issues to protect this country? The lifeblood of the country?

Will they -- for example, I don't think Democrats are capable of running a fair investigation in the January 6th. I would like one, but they are not capable of it.

CRUZ: So, on the first three, you asked about -- on S-1, the corrupt politicians act, on D.C. statehood and court packing, absolutely. I'm confident that we'll keep -- all 50 Republicans will stand together, which means those will not pass if, if, if -- and this if is a big one, if the Democrats don't end the filibuster.

And so, for those of you who are people of faith, there are only two Democrats that are holding the line right now -- Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. If you're a person of faith, lift them up in prayer, because if they give in, the permanent system changing rigged the game reforms will go through. I'm fighting them tooth and nail.

The other things you listed, things like tax increases, unfortunately, the filibuster can't stop them. They'll do it through budget reconciliation. They are going to raise taxes by the trillions and I'm going to do everything I can to fight them, to highlight the harms that come from it every step of the way.

HANNITY: Senator, we need that fight. Please, you know, stiffen the finds of some of your weaker colleagues, I'd appreciate it. Thanks for being with us.

CRUZ: (INAUDIBLE)

HANNITY: All right. When we come back, a HANNITY exclusive, Rick Santorum fired from CNN, his first interview on the other side, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Now, former Republican Senator Rick Santorum, well, just recently departed fake news CNN after remarks he made at a Young America's Foundation event about Native Americans, the founding of the country where he said, quote, we birthed a nation from nothing, yes, there were Native Americans, but there isn't much Native American culture in American culture.

Now despite Santorum admitting multiple times that he misspoke and trying to clarify his remarks on fake news CNN, and what he was specifically talking about, that's not enough for the left-wing outrage machine and the woke cancel culture social warriors that pressured fake news CNN to cave to the mob and cut ties with like the one guy that had a different point of view, Rick Santorum.

But here's a question that I have for fake news CNN: Have you made a decision yet about Jeffrey Toobin's future? You know, the guy caught on the Zoom call, let's say, enjoying himself a little too much. I could mention a few other people that are still working there, too.

Here to respond, Senator Rick Santorum.

Senator, how are you? It's great to have you back. I mean --

(CROSSTALK)

RICK SANTORUM, FORMER CNN COMMENTATOR: Good to be with you.

HANNITY: All right. You made these comments.

SANTORUM: It's good to be with you.

HANNITY: You say in interview numerous times that you misspoke, and you explain what you meant, why the firing?

SANTORUM: Well, I think, you know, you pointed to some of it, that there has been a lot of pressure from outside, there's been an effort. You know, I was at CNN for four and a half years and, you know, literally from the time that I started, there were groups out there calling for me to be fired. And so, in some respects, I -- you know, give CNN credit for holding on for and a half years in spite of some of the things I have said defending President Trump and saying other things about, you know, what conservatives believe and they gave me the opportunity to say it.

And in this case, you know, it's a little disappointing because as you mention, you know, what I said was not at all disparaging towards Native Americans, what I was talking about is the founding of the United States of America and that Native Americans did not have a role in the founding of our country.

Now, the real -- you can say that's a bad thing or a good thing or the way we treated Native Americans are bad, but I was giving a talk to a group of young people talking about the founding principles of religious liberty and how important it was to the immigrants who came here to found this country. And that was an important value that was imbued into our Constitution.

So, you know, one of the things that I'm concerned about is that you get savaged by telling the truth and, you know, I told the truth here, and you have other people who believe, you know, Don Lemon came on right after my interview and said that Native Americans founded the United States of America.

And again, you're entitled to your opinion, not entitled to the facts, and that's where I think we've gotten off-kilter here a little bit in America.

HANNITY: Well, let me -- let me read exactly what you said, when you -- when you said you misspoke and you said it repeatedly again and again, I know this, I read the transcript and then he went on to say --

SANTORUM: Yeah, I said Amer -- I said -- I said Native Americans -- I said Native Americans didn't -- you know, Native Americans didn't affect American culture. What I meant the American founding, that's what we were talking about. The whole speech was on the founding.

HANNITY: No, no, what you said is -- no, you're right, you said they have had a huge impact -- these are your words --

SANTORUM: Right, later, I did say that.

HANNITY: -- particularly in the West and many of the areas of our country where they have had a huge impact on American culture, the opposite of what they were claiming you've said and you said you misspoke.

SANTORUM: Yeah.

HANNITY: And I misspoke in this respect, you apologize for it, and now it raises the question in my mind about this is now -- this is now the society we live in. I don't believe in boycotts, Senator. I've never supported one. I never will.

I don't want Bill Maher fired. I don't want -- as a matter fact, I defended him, didn't want him fired from ABC at the time.

And when Joy Reid was in trouble, I was called by an NBC executive and said, your public comments played a big role in us being able to keep her, meaning her job. She wrote me a nice note.

I said people can make mistakes and move on, but not anymore. Now, it's oh, if you say something, you can even revise and extend your remarks, apologize, explain in more detail what you meant, nobody wants to hear it. And I'm sick of it, to be honest.

SANTORUM: No, this is -- I couldn't agree with you more, Sean. In many, many cases throughout my entire career, people have been called to be fired for saying this and fired for saying this and I've always defended their right and say, you know, look, people have a right to their opinion.

And, by the way, CNN has a right to fire me if they don't like what I'm saying or what I'm doing, they were right to fire me. I have no animus at all toward CNN. Like I said, I appreciate the opportunity they gave me, but I think it does show that the left is intolerant. They're worried, I'm sure, that their viewership, which is obviously very left, was going -- they were going to pay a price.

And the intolerance of the left is really the issue in the cancel culture that is flowing from it. And I hear from a lot of liberals, in fact, many CNN contributors who talked to me afterwards who are very, very concerned about, you know, the cancel culture that's now hitting them at CNN.

HANNITY: Well, it's like Kayleigh McEnany, then Jeff Lord's fired, then you're fired. You know, they really don't want conservative views there.

Now I can say, and I can name names here, there are plenty of people on this channel that I disagree with completely. And they don't even particularly like my opinion. We really have a diversity of views, which is I think the right way to do it.

And my question is, were you given any reason for the firing? Did Jeff Zucker, you know, did he talk to you about it?

SANTORUM: You know, what I do know is that as I've said before, there were several groups --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Now, you're ducking that question. Did Jeff Zucker -- did you talk to Jeff Zucker?

SANTORUM: I didn't -- no, I have not -- I have not talked to Jeff. And --

HANNITY: So nice of him to call.

(CROSSTALK)

SANTORUM: -- several groups, paid groups that have been trying to get me fired for four years. And that has been a pretty persistent effort on social media.

HANNITY: You know, there is an option for people. If you don't like what you're watching, if you don't like what you're listening to on the radio, if you don't like what you're reading, you can turn it off. You don't have to watch. You don't have to listen.

How about we really live up to the idea of the free and open exchange of ideas, ideals, and opinions, even once we hate and vehemently disagree with? That's the America that I would refer. Even -- everyone acts like they are offended at everything and I'm not sure I believe this feigned outrage all the time.

Well, I assume the application is in at FOX or no?

(LAUGHTER)

SANTORUM: Well, I'm just taking a little time off to regroup here a little bit and see what -- see what opportunities come my way. But to let me just thank you for the opportunity to come on and talk, and you're -- you've always been a good friend. I appreciate that.

HANNITY: All right. We wish you the best.

And when we come back, the dangerous consequences of defunding, dismantling the police, and a big announcement, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Now continue to see the devastating consequences of defunding the police and how far left social governance is destroying many cities in the country. For example, New York City this weekend, at least 30 people shot. Chicago, 50 plus people shot. That leaves 12 killed between Friday and Sunday. Yeah, great job, Conrad de Blasio and Mayor Lightweight.

Now, I want to make a point, take a look at your screen. You see these names that are beginning to crawl up there? Yeah, those are the names of the victims. We will keep rolling them. Some only teenagers shot in the city of Chicago, New York this weekend.

Now, do you know any of these names? Don't you think we should know these names? Many of the people shot and shot and killed, they happen to be in minorities, many are African-American. We heard all last summer Black Lives Matter, and yes, they do.

As a matter of fact all lives matter and sadly this happens every single weekend. So why do Democrats, the media mob, groups like BLM, why do they only seem to care about shootings if it furthers their political or anti- police narrative?

Speaking of brave men and women in law enforcement, yeah, we've lost almost 120 this year, killed in the line of duty, trying to protect and save their cities. Do you know any of these names? Have you heard of the names of these police officers? Do their lives matter?

Here to join us, Leo 2.0 Terrell and Larry Elder.

Larry, I'm going to scroll while you talk, the names of people shot, and when Leo talks, I'll scroll the names of the police officers murdered so far this year in the line of duty.

But why don't we know those names?

LARRY ELDER, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Well, Sean, you know why we don't know those names, because they don't drive the narrative. The narrative is that America is the devil by systemic racism that the police are mowing down unarmed black men paid when in fact all of the homicides in the last year, roughly 7,000 black homicides, one-third of 1 percent were unarmed black men killed by the cops.

I've got a question -- Chicago has all of these left-wing intellectual people. You've got Rahm Emanuel. You've got Father Pfleger. You have Jesse Jackson, Barack Obama adopted Chicago as his hometown. Minister Farrakhan lives there.

Why isn't Chicago a shining city on a hill?

HANNITY: And then on the other side, Leo, all of these cops -- last year was a record year. Nearly 400, now we are on track to even break that record. These are police officers.

Look at those law-enforcement names, and everybody at home, I urge you to ask yourself, have you heard of their names and don't their lives matter, Leo?

LEO TERRELL, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I will tell you right now, and let me just tell President Biden, you're going to invite the family of George Floyd to the White House, invite these families of these officers who have lost their lives, or the black on black crime, by invite these families. Again, what Larry said, it doesn't drive the narrative.

It is in an embarrassing, Sean, last week, Mayor Lightweight tried to talk about the skin color of reporters. But every week, she lets black voters die in her city and she does nothing. Every week, black kids die in Chicago, but she is concerned about the skin color of a reporter.

That is to change the narrative because she's a disaster. Lori Lightfoot is a disaster for black people who live in Chicago.

HANNITY: You know, we all are on the same page on this. We pray for every one of these victims in every city. We do know how to do it. You may not like Rudy Giuliani's policies, but he showed everybody the way. It's sad that we don't know the names and that we don't have more urgency.

Leo, Larry, thank you both.

Up next, a major announcement you're going to want to hear, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Programming note, this Wednesday live 9:00 p.m. Eastern, we're holding on town hall at the Republican Governors Association is in beautiful Nashville.

The event will include Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, and Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds. And which of the agenda be?

Let not your heart be troubled.

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