Hannity: Biden administration hates being held accountable
'Hannity' host calls out Jen Psaki for lying to distract from Biden's failures.
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," April 18, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Welcome to HANNITY this Monday night.
We begin with a FOX News alert. My monologue in just a moment. First, major breaking news out of Eastern Europe.
The second phase of Russia's bloody invasion is now officially underway in Ukraine tonight. Here now with the very latest on the ground, our very own Jeff Paul is with us.
Jeff, what's going on?
JEFF PAUL, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Now, Sean, a grim warning from Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy. He says the battle of Donbas is currently underway, signaling a new phase of this war.
Now, the focus will be in the east. That's where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting with Ukrainian forces for the past eight years. Moscow has even recognized portions of the Donbas as two separate independent republics. However, President Zelenskyy has long vowed to not give up an inch of Ukrainian territory a point he emphasized tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight. We will defend ourselves and we will do it every day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: Now here in Western Ukraine, the sounds of air raid sirens have been ringing out all night tonight. And in fact, that's the way the day started as Russian forces hit four different targets here in Lviv, with missile strikes killing at least seven -- Sean.
HANNITY: When you look at the devastation, the wreckage, the damage, the rubble -- how much of the country's going to be left? It's so sad what's going on.
Jeff, stay safe. Thank you.
Now, let's turn to the Washington swamp where Joe Biden had a very big day after another long weekend away from the White House. He returned to conduct a very important meeting with the Easter bunny, and it went well about as well as you can imagine. In just a moment, we're going to show you all of today's very sad low lights, yet predictable.
But first we begin with a message to the White House press secretary and soon-to-be MSDNC employee Jen Psaki. Now, last week during a public event with her far left friends, well, Jen Psaki smeared our very own Peter Doocy and this network. Listen to this.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
HOST: We have to talk about Peter Doocy for one second.
JEN PSAKI, WHTIE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Sure.
HOST: Is he a stupid son of a son of a bitch, or does he play a stupid son of a bitch on TV?
PSAKI: He works for a network --
HOST: Okay.
PSAKI: -- that provides people with questions that nothing personal to any individual including Peter Doocy but might make anyone sound like a stupid son of a bitch.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
HANNITY: I wonder if that means it's open season now, though the woke crowd is put their seal of approval on calling people stupid son of a bitches. Well, I mean, hmm, I can start with a pretty big list myself.
But not only what Jen Psaki is doing by trashing Peter Doocy, she's also lying as per usual. Peter's questions are his own. He is respectful in how he asks the questions. He asks very good timely questions surrounding important topics like the crisis at our southern border, the crisis in Afghanistan, the inflation crisis, the oil and gas crisis, the COVID crisis, the COVID hypocrisy, and every other crisis this administration pretty much mangles every single day.
So let's face it, the Biden White House is a train wreck and they hate being held accountable by FOX News. Well, too bad, we're here, get used to it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Will you take questions on inflation, then? Do you think inflation is a political liability?
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That's a great asset, more inflation. What a stupid son of a bitch.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: What a stupid son of a bitch. I guess that in woke land, it means it's okay to call the -- say that to about anybody you care to say it about. Wasn't that long ago when Biden vowed to bring kindness, respect, unity back to the White House.
And he said that if he acted this way, he'd be fired on the spot, no ifs, no ands, no buts. He said it. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: I'm not joking when I say this. If you're ever working with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I promise you I will fire you on the spot, on the spot, no if, ands, or buts. Everybody, everybody is entitled to be treated with decency and dignity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Joe has to fire himself right on the spot, no ifs ands or buts and he has to fire Jen Psaki. What happened, Joey?
Now, of course, Psaki will not be fired and to borrow a phrase, at this point, well, what difference does it make? Psaki already has one foot out the door and keep in mind instead of getting critical information to you, the American people, we, the American people, Psaki spent the last 14 months auditioning for her new gig at MSDNC, full of so-called clap backs as they call them, and other made for TV moments.
So congratulations to Jen Psaki. According to reports, she got the job. She's going to fit right in there because for the most part, maybe a few exceptions, her new colleagues are holier than now conspiracy theorists and totally completely dishonest partisan hacks that pretend to be journalists. So, Jen, I guess you'll feel right at home and you can keep on lying and you'll probably get paid a hell of a lot more than you're getting paid now.
After all, she was a big supporter of the Russia collusion hoax, we know that. She even strongly suggested Hunter Biden's laptop scandal was Russian disinformation. We now know that's not true. Psaki was lying but she still refuses to correct the record.
We know Jen Psaki also lied about Afghanistan. She said, quote, it's irresponsible to say that Americans are stranded, they are not. Well, they were.
And, of course, it's now day 247 of Americans abandoned in Afghanistan. But again, don't expect circle back Jen Psaki to ever correct the record. Last year, Psaki also repeatedly lied about the administration's so-called progress on our southern border. 2021 ends up like the worst single worst year of illegal immigration in history with more apprehensions than ever before, including a record number of unaccompanied children. Can you really call that progress, Jen?
And, of course, Jen's -- don't forget about Biden's overcrowded cages for kids. Remember those cages, you put the kids in overcrowded in the middle of a pandemic.
And don't forget the preferential treatment that Joe Biden is giving illegal immigrants, no COVID tests, no vaccine mandates. Jen Psaki said, because they're not going to be here very long here means in that exact same spot, because they usually would fly them all around the country, 2:00 a.m., 3:00 a.m., 4:00 a.m. flights of illegal immigrants flown into obscure airports. But according to Jen, that's not the middle of the night, 2:00 a.m., 4:00 a.m. is not the middle of the night. They are called early morning flights in MSDNC Jen Psaki land.
And remember, Psaki also lied when she blamed Putin for the rise in gas prices. We proved that to be a lie last week again. She lied when she said inflation was transitory and temporary. We proved that to be a lie last week.
She even lied about the price of hot dogs and, get this, Jen Psaki once actually accused Republicans of supporting to defund the police movement. Not true.
Now, sadly, these lies are just the tip of the iceberg but as always, we'll let you decide.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PSAKI: You may have noticed this week that your gas prices have gone up. I want to talk to you a little bit about why. A lot of it has to do with Vladimir Putin..
It's broadly known and widely known, Peter, that there was a broad range of Russian disinformation back in 2020.
DOOCY: Why is the administration flying thousands of migrants from the border to Florida and New York in the middle of the night?
PSAKI: Well, I'm not sure that's in the middle of the night.
As individuals come across the border and they are both assessed for whether they have any symptoms, if they have symptoms, they are -- the intention is for them to be quarantined. That is our process. They're not intending to stay here for a lengthy period of time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, ultimately, Jen Psaki is the perfect representation of this White House -- dishonest, classless, mean-spirited, with their religious cult-like belief and far-left policies that hurt the country.
Now, the biggest lie from this White House is hiding right in plain sight. Joe Biden, your president is not up to the job of being president. He is so obviously struggling cognitively, but the administration -- they're pretending like all is well. Well, all is not well, and today, a White House staffer dressed up -- I wonder who got this job as a as the Easter Bunny, blocking the president from answering questions about foreign policy, things that actually matter.
Take a look.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
HANNITY: Joe, talk off the top of his head, he can't handle it.
Why is the Easter Bunny interrupting the president of the United States and blocking him from answering questions? And at one point during the very same event, well, First Lady Jill Biden, she was forced to remind Joey to wave. Wave, Joe, wave. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Welcome to the South Lawn. Thank you and happy, happy Easter.
All right.
JILL BIDEN, FIRST LADY: Wave. Wave.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Wave, wave, Joe.
She also had to remind her husband where to sit. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JILL BIDEN: Okay, just stay.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: She tells me, just sit, don't work. She's a teacher.
JILL BIDEN: I'm the teacher, you know?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: The first lady also helped the president read a children's book he needed help. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JILL BIDEN: Okay, so I'm going to quickly read Brown Bear, Brown Bear so you're all not soaking wet.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: And they're not going to let me read at all.
JILL BIDEN: I'll let you, here, you can start us off. Can you oh, here --
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Can I read backwards?
JILL BIDEN: Go ahead.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see? I see a bird looking at me. Now, you got it.
JILL BIDEN: Okay, yellow duck, yellow duck, what do you see? I see a blue horse looking at me.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Blue horse.
JILL BIDEN: Hold on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right. In fairness, it's nice they're reading to children, okay, I can deal with all that.
But does anyone really believe that Joe Biden is capable of handling the rigors of what is definitely the hardest job on earth? Remember last week, very confused looking Biden attempted to shake hands after his speech shaking hands with nobody. Oh, and he leaves his hand there for several seconds. Looks around with his hand, out.
You know, where is everybody? Take a look for yourself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: God bless you all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: I don't know what to say. Does anyone around Joe Biden -- this is a serious question -- did they love him enough to do the right thing and tell him, Joe, for your own personal good and the good of the country, you need to consider retiring immediately? Anybody care about him? Because apparently even the president's hometown paper, that would be "The Washington Post," they seemingly want him gone, a little embarrassing today.
Kind of a huge insult to the White House, as "The Washington Post" published this article. The top 10 Democratic presidential candidates for 2024, ranked.
Now, they do have Joey at number one. He's intent on -- if he's intent on running for reelection.
At number two, it's not Kamala Harris, nope, there it is -- transportation secretary, small town mayor of South Bend, Pete Buttigieg, with that wealth of experience that he has and his advice that everyone buy a an electric car and get used to high gas prices because unless we have energy independence from clean new energy, we're never going to stop paying the high prices for gasoline.
Number three, Vice President Kamala Harris, god help us. The administration is in a free fall and now even the media mob is looking to jump ship.
Here with more is the author of the appropriately titled upcoming book, it's called "Suppression, Deception, Snobbery and Bias: Why the Press Gets So Much Wrong and Just Doesn't Care" -- by the way, you can get it on hannity.com or amazon.com, a first edition copy, Ari Fleischer is with us, along with FOX News contributor Joe Concha.
All right. I love the book title and I love the book cover, Ari, and I -- how appropriate is it when you compare how they treated Donald Trump and his entire family and how they treat Joe Biden and his entire family?
ARI FLEISCHER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah and, you know, that's what motivated me to write this book. It's coming out in July. But when I watch the coverage of President Trump who sometimes I agree with, sometimes I disagree with -- I was so convinced that the press was so unfair to him. That everything they did, everything they reported was done to reverse the results of the 2016 election.
And it is not the press's job to engage in that type behavior, it's the public's job. It's the people's job. They get to decide who the president is.
But the press basically decided that both in terms of his personality and policy that he was such a threat to the country that they needed to step in and distort the news, to deceive their readers, deceive their viewers and suppress news.
And my book is replete with example after example of the press doing just that, Sean, and the biases off the charts.
HANNITY: You know, let me -- Joe, you follow the media mob for a living. It's not a job I'd want. You're really good at it. You should have your own show on it.
But in all seriousness here, I'm looking at somebody -- somebody needs to step in here, because everybody in that White House knows that he's in far worse shape than we even know. They knew it during the campaign. They know it now, and the weakness abroad is hurting the country because our adversaries, our enemies, also see what we see. They see a president in a massive precipitous cognitive decline.
Now, I don't think that Vladimir Putin would have acted the way he's been acting if there was a strong president in office, say, oh, like Donald Trump. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's my best guess.
JOE CONCHA, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, there's a reason probably why Vladimir Putin didn't move on Ukraine from 2017 to 2021, right? And the American people see this, it's very clear now, Sean, and this is a scary, scary poll result.
ABC News/"Washington Post", they found that a majority of this country, 54 percent of voters believe that Joe Biden doesn't have the mental sharpness to lead the country effectively. That is scary stuff.
And what we saw today with the Easter Bunny waving his hands in front of him saying, please, sir, do not answer this question from a voter, that's like out of an old Leslie Nielsen movie at this point, except it's actually real. And that's more out of the horror genre.
I mean, a member of the White House communications team is dressed as the Easter Bunny, he's preventing the commander-in-chief from talking to the American people. Imagine -- to Ari's point -- something like this happening under the previous president. The Internet would literally melt.
But let me get to Jen Psaki for a second because I think he made some very good points there. She showed zero class as you said right and she did so in the patently condescending manner that she has down but she did also lie, because know this and anyone who has ever worked here at this network with no skin in the game now can back us up on this, Sean -- never once has anyone ever told me or you what to say on this network, never once has anyone told what to ask.
So when Peter Doocy asks a perfectly relevant and fair question about inflation, which poll after poll says is a top issue for Americans going into the midterms, that's not a question supplied to him by the fictitious -- you know, the question supply department here at FOX News. It comes from a White House correspondent who has covered Washington, D.C. politics across three presidencies, in Obama, Trump and Biden.
And yet, Jen Psaki, here she is attacking. She should resign as press secretary today. Not tomorrow, next -- not next week, today, because she is officially acting like an MSNBC employee. But that's not going to happen because that would actually require Jen to have some integrity which is obviously already at a premium, Sean.
HANNITY: Well, she fit in perfectly at MSDNC.
Ari, I mean you did this job. You did a great job. Kayleigh McEnany did a great job. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, she did a great job.
And you know, I'm looking at this and I pointed out just the small list of things that she's lied about and gotten wrong, flagrant lies at times. And yet nobody seems to want to call her out, why?
FLEISCHER: Yeah, let me let me again I want to go back to Joe Biden because, Sean, this is not a religious statement, but we all need to hope that every day is Easter, because Joe Biden needs that Easter Bunny at his side every day for the rest of his presidency. I think he'd be lost without the bunny.
Beyond that --
HANNITY: Maybe we could have both alternating days, one day, Santa Claus, one day, the Easter Bunny, I don't know. Mix it up a little. That might confuse --
FLEISCHER: An escort.
HANNITY: Yeah.
FLEISCHER: On Jen and Pete Doocy -- Peter Doocy, Peter Doocy is to Jen Psaki what the entire White House press corps was to me and Dana Perino, and that's the difference. You really have one powerful voice playing the devil's advocate, holding government to account, asking the questions from the other point of view, another side, and that's Peter Doocy's role, he plays it very effectively.
And the White House ought to listen to him more because he's a canary in the coal mine. When the White House said that there was no problem on the southern border that was transitional, he was their first warning signal. You need to pay attention to this and they, of course, ignored him. Same thing on inflation.
But everyone in the White House press corps who sat in those seats was just like that, just as adversarial to me. So they're complaining that they have a ratio of 48 to one. When I had a 49 to nothing. That's the difference.
HANNITY: You know, and he's very respectful. He does his own work. It's insulting to suggest that he's being fed questions.
Joe, you're dead right. I've been at this network since day one, and never one time have I been told what to say by anybody and I'm entrusted to do my job every night, and that's what we do. We give news and information that you won't get elsewhere, which I think is a big part of the success of the network in this show.
And thank you both. We're looking forward to seeing that book out soon. Ari Fleischer, Joe Concha.
Here with more, Leo 2.0 Terrell, founder of Outkick, Clay Travis.
Leo, I get angry on the Doocy part because he has worked so hard. He formulates his own questions. I talk to him occasionally. I don't -- you're not going to take Sean Hannity questions. But he's so well informed on his own, he doesn't need any help from anybody. He's there all day. He works, you know, his 12, 14, 16 hours every day, like everybody else.
And you know what? He's done a great job and he's been respectful in asking these questions.
LEO TERRELL, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: He's been perfect. He's been solid. He's been on point.
And let me sit here and say this, I haven't been on FOX as a contributor as long as you've been a host, but no one has ever told Leo Terrell, me, to say anything on this station. This station -- this network provides you with the ability to express a viewpoint. The viewpoints that I've shared on this network have been my own without any coaching or any direction.
And I'll tell you right now, there's a conflict with Jen Psaki up there and be taking questions from her future employer, MSNBC. She should be out of that job immediately. If the whole world knows that she's going to be an employee of MSNBC, how can she have the credibility? How can that network have the credibility of asking her a question?
It's just outright embarrassing. And so I echo the same points that Joe made and already made. This network, the reason why it's the most popular network, FOX, is because we have independent thinkers expressing our own independent opinions.
HANNITY: What if I Clay -- Clay, started saying, you know, that person at the White House what a stupid son of a bitch. That person, a stupid son of a bitch. What have I just started saying what occasionally I might think and letting it all out like Joe did and Jen Paki does? Seriously, what if I started calling people in the White House that name? What would the reaction be publicly? I'm not going to do it but --
CLAY TRAVIS, OUTKICK FOUNDER: First of all, no, it's a fantastic question. If somebody in the Peter Doocy-Joe Biden relationship is a stupid son of a bitch, let me tell you something, it ain't Peter Doocy, all right? I think everybody watching this right now, if they had to vote in a poll would not pick him among those tandem.
But you're right, it would be a lead story everywhere, and I echo what Leo's saying and by the way, Sean, today should be a celebratory day for all of us who have been sane. There are a lot of people watching us right now on airplanes, many of them Democrats, let me say hi to you, guys, you're not having to wear a mask basically all over America for the first time on an airplane in two years.
And I know every single person sitting there with the monitor in front of them who's watching FOX News right now has been praying for this day for a long time. One federal judge -- I think we need to give her credit, that Donald Trump appointed, that the Democrats opposed -- it took one federal judge, Sean, to issue a 59-page opinion and for the equivalent of the Berlin wall to come falling down, every airline, every airport, the TSA, they have all ended this mask madness.
FOX has been 100 percent right about it, and, Sean, do you know who asked the question of Jen Psaki just a few hours ago, how did the Biden White House still defending the mask mandate? Peter Doocy.
Nobody else would do it. Jen Psaki defended it. She's got egg on her face all over again. He pointed out, hey, we're sitting here in the White House, nobody has to wear a mask, why do people have to wear them on airlines? Well, those airline CEOs finally got their way, thanks to one brave federal judge. One person in the judiciary finally got two years of madness to end and I bet wouldn't surprise me at all, Sean, if she's watching us right now and if she is God bless you for finally bringing some sanity to our friendly skies.
HANNITY: Wow. Well said. Leo, we give you the last word tonight.
TERRELL: Oh, what else can I tell you? I mean, you go from the Joe Biden situation, the cognitive decline, but I tell you right now, the alternative of Kamala Harris, uh-uh, have the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus right next to Joe Biden until he finishes his term of office, because I don't want the alternative. It's disastrous.
HANNITY: Can I ask -- is there one is there nobody in his life, they all see what we see, that cares enough about this guy to say Joe this it's time? You know, we're going to pack it in is there anybody in his life that cares enough about the guy.
TRAVIS: I think if Kamala was actually competent, that would be happening, Sean. I really feel like that was the initial plan, but she's so much worse, Sean. She has a 35 percent approval rating in California. Do you know how hard it is to have a 35 percent approval rating if you're a Democrat in California? They even like Newsom.
HANNITY: That's a good point.
All right. Thank you both.
TERRELL: That's true.
HANNITY: All right. Coming up, Texas Governor Greg Abbott is continuing to bus illegal immigrants to Washington, D.C. He will join us with the very latest as we continue. Thanks for being with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: And now, Texas Governor Greg Abbott continues to follow through on his promises to drop illegal immigrants dumped in his state by Joe Biden who's aiding and abetting and law breaking. Well, they've bringing those buses right to the heart of Washington, D.C. So far, six full buses of illegal immigrants have been dropped right on Biden's doorstep.
And that's not all, because Abbott is now forcing Mexican authorities to step up their border enforcement and using truck inspections at the Texas border as leverage over Mexico. But the circle back Jen Psaki at first, all these actions, this was just a mere publicity stunt. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOOCY: Now that the Texas governor is saying that he's going to start busing border crossers to Washington, D.C., when they get here, are you guys going to help them find a place to stay and something for them to do?
PSAKI: Well, I'm not aware of what authority the governor would be doing that under. I think it's pretty clear this is a publicity stunt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right. Now, Jen circle back and guess what, well, they're all free to travel completely unvetted anywhere in the country. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PSAKI: These are all migrants who have been processed by CBP and are free to travel. So it's nice the state of Texas is helping them get to their final destination as they await in their outcome of their immigration proceedings, and they're all in immigration proceedings.
JACQUI HEINRICH, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: And on your statement this morning, you had mentioned in in that statement that the truck inspections have led -- that Governor Abbott has been conducting -- have led to disruptions for the food and automobile supply chains and rising prices for families. So, is the White House blaming Greg Abbott for inflation?
PASKI: Well, I think we're trying to state the facts of what his another political stunt that we're seeing happen and the impact of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: It's nice for the state of Texas to help these people get to their final destination. Meaning, we don't think we can win in court.
And tonight, Biden is presiding over the worst open borders catastrophe, all preventable, in modern history. Apprehensions of illegal immigrants soared to over 220,000 in March alone. That's right, the highest levels since 2000. And by the way, officials are now saying that authorities stop 23 people on terrorist database watch lists at the southern border in 2021, and get this, according to justthenews.com, before Biden even officially lifts Title 42 protections, we expect that next month, the administration now is using exceptions such as pregnancy or mental illness to let illegal immigrants stay in the country.
Now, this is the united sanctuary states of America under Joe Biden. But again, circle back Jen, well, she's refusing to apologize to the border officials who are recently cleared remember all those allegations that they were whipping migrants -- yeah, they've all been cleared. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOOCY: We've been told that the mounted border patrol officers president accused of whipping migrants have been notified they will not face criminal charges. So when is the president going to apologize to them?
PSAKI: There is a process and an investigation that's gone through the Department of Homeland Security. I don't have any update on that.
DOOCY The president said that they were whipping people, which would be a criminal offense, and they've been told they're not going to be criminally charged.
PSAKI: And there was an investigation into that and I'll let the Department of Homeland Security announce any conclusion of that investigation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: So much for being innocent until proven guilty in Joe Biden's United States of America.
Here with reaction, Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Governor, I think I know you well enough and I kept asking you over and over again many times, is there anything that you can legally do to stop Joe Biden from aiding and abetting the law breaking? And you really have handcuffs on. There's not a lot you can do. You can't just send people back.
But I love your idea and it's very effective and now you're getting even accolades from Jen Psaki for helping people get to their final destination, and that's Joe Biden's house in Washington, temporary house.
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R), TEXAS: And so we keep coming up with new ideas to do the federal government's job. You know, Sean, it's an atrocity that we have a president of the United States that is not securing the border and he's violating the laws passed by Congress to secure the border. Then on top of that, we have a president who is turning a blind eye to a security-based issue by allowing people on the terrorist watch list to come into the United States of America and those were the ones who were apprehended.
Think about all the gotaways that were not apprehended because the border patrol that they were attending, to the people that they were doing paper processing for. So, what the president is doing is outrageous and as a resul, Texas is taking unprecedented action.
As we're speaking right now, Sean, the seventh bus is in route from Texas to Washington, D.C. This busing process is going to continue, I want you and the audience to know exactly why we're doing what we're doing.
The Biden administration, they were dropping off illegal immigrants just on small towns on the border and I said, we're not going to allow that to happen. The people in local communities were overrun by the people that had dumped off in these local communities, and they were grappling with how to deal with it. I said, well, we're just going to bus them to Washington, D.C.
Some good news about that Jen Psaki did not tell you and that is we those local communities have received word after I've begun began the busting process to Washington. D.C., that the Border Patrol is now no longer going to be dropping people off at those local communities from which we have been busing people.
With regard to what we were doing on the bridge that Jen Psaki was talking about, I want you and the audience to know -- listen, these -- what we were doing by these inspections which we are allowed to do it did still traffic coming across the border and as a result, the truckers in Mexico got extremely upset. Candidly, the cartels got so upset about it, the cartels set several trucks on fire in Mexico and shootouts begin which cause on the Mexican side for to clear out a whole lot faster.
But what Lopez Obrador needs to understand and that is if Mexico and the states and Mexico if they continue to allow illegal immigration to continue to flow into the state of Texas, I have the capability at any time to turn those inspections back on that will backlog those trucks that are trying to come across the border that will that will cause havoc in Mexico and it will be those local governors, as well as Lopez Obrador, they will be the ones paying the political price for it.
HANNITY: Will you send every illegal immigrant that you find in the state of Texas to Washington, D.C.?
ABBOTT: We're going to load them up and send them into Washington, D.C. If we run out of room there, Delaware looks like a great location..
HANNITY: All right. We appreciate it. Thank you very much, Governor Abbott. Thanks.
All right. When we come back, straight ahead, Putin's bloody invasion of Ukraine continues. It is getting worse tonight. Now, over the last week, Senator Daines of Montana witnessed firsthand Putin's brutality. He will join us with images he took and details that you won't see likely in a lot of the media mobs, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Now, tonight, Vladimir Putin continues to wage a bloody crackdown on the sovereign country of Ukraine and -- get this -- 900 civilian bodies were recently found dead in and around Kyiv, the capital, including in mass graves and in the rubble as the innocent Ukrainian people continue to be slaughtered on a massive scale.
It's just like I've been saying. There needs to be a simple rule in life, if you invade a sovereign nation, you forfeit your right to lead any country and you should forfeit your right to live, period. It's why we need to provide Ukraine with all the weapons and support that they need so they can win this war.
By the way, President Zelenskyy has been clear. He'd like Biden to do more. I've been very clear, no U.S. troops on the ground and no more endless politicized wars. You know, the politicians, they get all gung-ho, charged up, they start these wars, they don't fight to win the war. They politicize the war and then it ends up well being a disastrous pullout like the Islamic emirates of Afghanistan.
According to Democrat Chris Coons of Delaware, he is now pushing to put U.S. forces on the ground in Ukraine. This is an awful idea. This cannot happen. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARGARET BRENNAN, CBS HOST: In some public remarks this week, you said the country needs to talk about when it might be willing to send troops to Ukraine. You said if the answer is never, then we are inviting another level of escalation and brutality by Putin.
Are you arguing that President Biden was wrong when he said he would not send troops to Ukraine? Are you asking him to set a red line?
SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Margaret, I think those of us in Congress who have a critical role in setting foreign policy and in advising the president in terms of his decisions as commander-in-chief need to look clearly at the level of brutality. This is a moment of enormous challenge for all of us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, we need to learn the lessons from successes in the past like the Reagan doctrine, the Trump doctrine, peace through strength, targeted strikes on our worst enemies. That's how Trump obliterated the ISIS caliphate, took out Baghdadi and Soleimani and the al Qaeda leader in Yemen. Also tonight, Montana Senator Steve Daines is the first U.S. senator to visit Ukraine. He saw firsthand the mass graves in Bucha and he joins us now to explain.
Senator, I did see some of the footage you took and I think you shared it with my team. We'll put it up on the screen but -- I just want you in your own words to tell people what you saw on the ground while there.
SEN. STEVE DAINES (R-MT): Sean, these are images that nobody should ever have to see in their lifetime I was taken from keeve up to Bucha, about 20 miles outside of Kyiv. As we were getting close to Bucha, you could see the brutality of the Russians leveling these residential complexes, small homes, apartment complexes.
This is where women, children, moms and dads grandmas and grandpas were just living their lives and then they were brutally murdered by the Russians. We stepped onto some rubble. I reached down and picked up a little child's toy.
Sean, I'm a father of four. We have three grandchildren. There's probably some child that was playing with that toy at the moment when that tank blasted their house and killed the family.
But then we were taken to the shallow graves. These graves contain hundreds of innocent civilians. This is graves full of women of children. These were not soldiers, these were civilians, these were innocents, grandmas and grandpas.
And we took were taken right to the edge of the graves. You could watch the investigators exhuming the body shovel by shovel, taking the dirt out, pulling these black plastic bags out, taking them over to attempt where then they were opening up the plastic bags and examining the bodies, looking for a cause of death.
You -- they opened a bag up, they asked me just to take a glimpse a brief look at it. I could see a bullet wound in, you know, the back of the head of a man I saw the body of a woman in one of the bags. Sean, it is brutal these are war crimes. And it was very important I believe to have a U.S. official on the ground.
You realize, Sean, there have been officials, prime ministers and presidents from 10 different countries have gone to Ukraine. There was noticeable absence nobody from the United States in terms of the United States elected official or appointed official cabinet has been there. I thought it was important to make that journey.
It was a harrowing journey, Sean. I was escorted by actually Ukrainian pastors who got me across the border. I walked across the border, got in a car and took a train from Lviv, to Kiev, took about nine hours by train during the night, that was last Wednesday night. I arrived in Kyiv Thursday morning.
But the gentleman that was escorting me is a former member of parliament of Ukraine, also a leader in the faith movement Ukraine. He said, Senator, this train may take seven hours, it might take nine hours to get to Kyiv because there'll be missile activity tonight as we travel across Ukraine, and the conductor of the train will be slowing down, sometimes stopping, sometimes making moves rerouting because the missiles.
But I was so grateful to be on that train to get to Kyiv and to stand with the Ukrainians and see firsthand what's going on with the brutality of the Russians.
HANNITY: So, President Zelenskyy accused world leaders of empty rhetoric in saying never again to genocide. And it's been said many times. Is he right? Because it sounds right to me.
DAINES: Listen, these are -- these are atrocities. They've been committed. They're unimaginable.
We were talking about this with some of the police officers who were standing there with us in Bucha and the side of that shallow grave. And they told me, Ukrainians will never bury somebody with their hands tied behind their backs. But these members of the Bucha community were killed with their hands tied behind their backs. They were executed.
And that police officer, by the way, I want to show you something, Sean, he has a seven-year-old daughter. He showed me a picture of his daughter. He's very proud of her.
And with tears in his eyes, he said, my daughter wanted to have this wristband. She made it for you. It's a Ukrainian color. She wants to thank you for coming to Ukraine and she made these for the police officers there who are faced with a terrible task of accounting for these members of their community that were brutally butchered by the Russians.
HANNITY: All the West, NATO, Western Europe needs to do two things. One, provide Zelenskyy and Ukraine the weaponry to win the war. They're willing to fight but they don't need our boots on the ground. Give them the weapons and stop putting a billion dollars into Putin's pocket every day by Western Europe importing Russian oil and gas.
Senator, I know it's hard to describe what you've seen, the world needs to hear it. I'm glad you went. Thank you for sharing it with us. Thank you for being with us.
All right. When we come back, another blow to the left's lockdown strategy and draconian mandates agenda as a judge has now blocked mask mandate for public transportation. We've got the latest. Adam Carolla weighs in, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: We have breaking news tonight. A federal judge in Florida has struck down the Biden mask mandate for transportation, including planes. If you're watching tonight, hello.
Anyway, the judge ruled that the administration lacked authority under the Administrative Procedures Act and lacked the appropriate statutory authority and the Biden administration said tonight that the mask mandate is not in effect and they are assessing potential next steps.
Also, all major airlines along with Amtrak have announced there is no longer a mask requirement.
Here now, the author of "Everything Reminds Me of Something," comedian Adam Carolla.
You know, as I look at this and I'm dying to get your thoughts on this, I don't trust the NIH. I don't trust Fauci. I don't trust the CDC. I don't trust Biden, Psaki, Walensky, Fauci, I don't trust any of them and I don't want to live my life in fear, and I don't live my life in fear. And I don't think you do either.
ADAM CAROLLA, COMEDIAN: Absolutely not. Well, first off, it's good news for Joe Biden that he doesn't have to wear the mask on Amtrak, because he's covered over 200 million miles on Amtrak, Sean.
HANNITY: That's what he says. I don't know -- he might have the numbers off, he's having trouble with numbers these days.
CAROLLA: Well, ask -- the ask the porter who died in 1979, he'll tell you.
Al right. It is -- it is scary though right that they're fighting for this so hard? Like Jen Psaki was disappointed. You're disappointed that Americans clawed back a little bit of their freedom, that disappoints you. Think about that.
And there was never any science behind it. The second they said mask up between bites, you had to know there was no science to masking on a plane. No other masking application works that way. It's not like you're in a booth spraying lacquer and at some point someone says you got to keep the mask up.
Unless someone hands you fiesta mix, in which case you take it down until you're done. But as soon as you're done with the fiesta mix, right back up.
HANNITY: All right. So if you get -- so if you're fully vaccinated and a booster and a previous infection, guess what? You can still transmit the virus. Why are we still talking about vaccines when they should be talking about therapeutics? Meaning, okay, breakthrough cases now, here, there and everywhere, and now people are getting COVID for the second time. They never talk about that. Why?
CAROLLA: I really believe that it's about control and they talk about stuff that don't make sense or doesn't make sense because that is more control. So wearing a mask doesn't make sense. So if they can get you to do it, then they have more dominion over you.
The stuff that makes sense everyone goes along with. I don't think the vaccines are nearly as effective as they're saying they are, they got on it. They have no reverse gear.
They can't pump the brakes. They can't step back. They can't admit that maybe just maybe they were wrong about any of this stuff, and so they just keep barreling down the same road they've been on.
Remember, close the parks, close the beaches, close the schools, wipe down all the bags that you brought in from McDonald's. They've been wrong about almost everything.
HANNITY: By the way, and in schools in particular, Ron DeSantis had schools open without mass mandate since August of 2020, and everything worked out fine. Why didn't they follow the science there? Why only follow science when convenient?
CAROLLA: Well, of course, they villainize Ron DeSantis. I live in California. Gavin Newsom is our governor and we're still under emergency decree, and it's not going to end until July. If it doesn't get extended, that's two and a half years of an emergency order and they call DeSantis the dictator.
HANNITY: I don't know what the hell I'm doing in New York and I have no clue why you're in California. We're both really dumb. We need to go to a state that pay a lot less in taxes. Maybe Florida for everybody.
Adam, great to see you. Thanks for being with us.
All right. Straight ahead, more HANNITY right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Unfortunately, that is all the time we have left for tonight. We always thank you for being with us. You make the show possible. We do hope that you remember, set your DVR so you never miss an episode of HANNITY, and tomorrow night, we'll always promise to give you news that you never get from the media mob.
In the meantime, let not your heart be troubled, "THE INGRAHAM ANGLE" is next. Have a great night. See you back here tomorrow.
Content and Programming Copyright 2022 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2022 VIQ Media Transcription, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of VIQ Media Transcription, Inc. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox