This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," May 26, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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

And tonight, we are broadcasting. We are in Music City, Nashville, Tennessee, and the site of the Republican Governors Association and their spring conference.

Now, for the entire hour, we're going to have an open discussion with six of the nation's top governors about the state of our country. We will take on immigration. We will talk about the Southern border, taxes, law and order.

We will also be talking about what works in the states and what I have been telling everybody and been listing, as, well, what does it mean to be a conservative? What are the policies that work for you, the American people, the conservative movement?

Me, it's simple. It's liberty. It is freedom. It is capitalism, our Constitution, including our First and Second Amendment, low taxes, limited government regulation, choice for our kids in school. Oh, we do need integrity in elections. That would be voter I.D. laws to begin with, signature verification, partisan observers that can observe, and, of course, secure borders.

We believe in free market solutions for health care, while protecting people with preexisting conditions. We believe in law and order. Without law and order, guess what? You can't pursue happiness. Free and fair trade, election integrity, constitutionalists on the bench, and peace through strength.

For me, that about sums it up. And, hopefully, the governors will talk about what matters and what's been working in their states.

Now, we will tell you what we're against as well -- cancel culture, defunding, dismantling the police, the so-called bail reform, where you get arrested, they let you out the same day without paying a dime, high regulations, draconian COVID-19 shutdowns that are still affecting so many people in the country, the Democratic Party's unholy alliance with the teachers union.

And allow me to spell out a few of the basic, undeniable facts that even, well, if sippy cup is awake, which he is likely not, might he even be able to understand? The late -- the fastest growing state in America, by percentage, is the state of Utah. The fastest growing state by sheer numbers is the state of Texas.

The fastest growing region in the U.S. is the South. When the pandemic hit millions of Americans, they flocked to Florida. And, meanwhile, New York, California, Illinois, they all lost seats in the 2020 census, while states like Texas and Florida, North Carolina, they all gained seats.

Freedom, individualism, safety, security, key issues related to your prosperity.

If, Republicans, you want to take back power in Washington, you want to stop this power grab that we all talk about, the America First, Make America Great Agenda, I think, needs to be articulated by anybody and everybody running for office.

So, without further ado, joining us now for the hour, we have New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, soon-to-be-called senator, if he would take my recommendation, but, apparently, he's resistant.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: Iowa Governor, RGA Vice Chair Kim Reynolds is with us.

Arizona Governor, RGA Chairman Doug Ducey is here. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is with us, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. And the Governor of the great state of Tennessee that is hosting all of us is Governor Bill Lee.

And we're joined also by a live audience.

You are free to yell anything you want at any time.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

HANNITY: OK. All right.

(APPLAUSE)

HANNITY: Now, with all of that said, if I'm going to be really blunt, forthright and honest with you, I want to get the hell out of New York, and I want to see which of you is going to offer me the best deal.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: Because I'm sure you can -- oh, you -- you're jumping in right away.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): Well, Sean, you and I have talked about this.

I have my DMV on standby.

(LAUGHTER)

DESANTIS: You will get a driver's license in a minute, and we will register you to vote. This will happen very quickly.

(LAUGHTER)

DESANTIS: You just need to pull the trigger.

HANNITY: All right, now...

DESANTIS: Because we have been talking about this for years.

HANNITY: I have owned property for 15 years.

DESANTIS: And it's only getting worse.

HANNITY: But I also like Mount Rushmore.

GOV. KRISTI NOEM (R-SD): Yes.

HANNITY: And I also like country music.

GOV. BILL LEE (R-TN): You are here, you know.

HANNITY: And I want to be an Iowa farmer.

The only one who might lose out here is Arizona, Governor, because that dry heat thing is pretty awful in the summer.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: And, Governor Sununu, live free or die, I...

GOV. CHRIS SUNUNU (R-NH): I have already have a live free or die -- live free or die license plate already with your name on it.

(LAUGHTER)

SUNUNU: You just bring the car.

HANNITY: Well, thank you all.

Well, Governor Lee, you -- you're our hosting governor. Let's start with you.

So, we have this mass migration from big blue states...

LEE: Right.

HANNITY: ... with high taxes, burdensome regulation, draconian shutdowns.

And then we have the Republican governors that have very different models. Let's talk about it generally.

LEE: Yes. Well, our model you can see out on Broadway. It's open. Our businesses are open. People are -- are going to restaurants. They're going to bars. There aren't any masks. This pandemic has been quite a distraction to all of America for sure, to say the least.

But the health crisis is over. The emergency is over. We have fully opened up and our moving our state forward and the reason that we're doing that is because we follow the science. And, you know, the left likes to say follow the science until they don't. You -- you -- you can't follow the --

HANNITY: The vaccinated Joe with the vaccinated Jill.

LEE: I mean, you can't say follow the science. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

HANNITY: Outdoors, socially distanced. Walking into Jimmy Carter's house with a mask on then taking if off in front of the old people. That was brilliant.

LEE: You can't say follow the science and keep kids out of school. You can't say follow the science and wear a mask after you're vaccinated or you certainly can't put COVID patients back into nursing homes if you follow the science.

HANNITY: Thank you. None of you did that. Thank you for having --

(APPLAUSE)

HANNITY: -- having enough sense. Amazing.

Governor Noem, you're on the show regularly throughout this pandemic. South Dakota never shut down.

NOEM: Never. We didn't close a single business ever. We -- in fact, in South Dakota, we didn't even define what an essential business was because according to the oath I took to the South Dakota Constitution, the U.S. Constitution, I didn't believe I had the authority to tell anybody that their business wasn't essential.

I told my people I would trust them and that I was going to let them use personal responsibility to take care of their families but keep their doors open, provide for their employees and their customers. And the people of South Dakota, you know, appreciated it. We never issued shelter in place, didn't mandate any masks or anything. And today. we have the fastest growing GDP in the fourth quarter at 9.9 percent.

In the country, our unemployment's 2.8 percent. We have the least amount of jobs lost, businesses closed, hours lost, wages lost from any employee in the country. And so what we did is we used conservative principles that we all talk about all the time. We've talked about them for years.

We did them. And we're proving that it worked. And so that's really the story that I think we need to tell about 2020, is that leadership has consequences. And you just look at Democrat states and what happened to families and businesses there. You look at Republican states and how they're growing and they're thriving, and what all these leaders up here did, how it works for the American people.

So we talk about statistics and facts all the time, but those stories are going to be powerful when we change the majority in Washington, D.C. and we change who's in the White House.

HANNITY: One interview very early on you said to me, I trust the people of my state and I believe in them and -- and it paid off well for you.

(CROSSTALK)

NOEM: Yeah, yeah. It did.

HANNITY: You know, Governor DeSantis, so funny because you had a row of two with your buddy Andrew Cuomo in New York. And, you know, I'm looking at these other states that kids still aren't in school. Florida schools have been opened since August. How is it possible they're watching you do this successfully and they still don't learn from it?

DESANTIS: Well, I think it's been probably the biggest mistake, tragedy is locking these kids out of school. They're not following science. This is politics and ideology and quite frankly it's a disgrace.

I was in Baker County, Florida. They celebrated the 180th day of being open -- the full school year. They did the full school year, finished it today from the very beginning and every single parent from the beginning had the right to send their kids to school in person. I think there's obviously a lot of other policies that really mattered.

Obviously, we didn't. We prevented COVID patients from being sent to nursing homes. We created COVID only nursing facilities to protect the most vulnerable. I think that that mattered. But I can tell you locking kids out of school for over a year, that's going to have ramifications for our country and those states.

It's not going to be days, weeks, months. It's going to be years. And some of these kids are not going to have a future as a result of those bad policies.

HANNITY: You may not remember but the very first interview we did since we -- once we began to understand how severe this was, you told me and I never forgot it that you mobilized every single state agency in Florida to protect the elderly, to protect the older population in your state which is significant.

DESANTIS: Yes. And so the results are 40 states have higher per capita mortality for age 65 and up compared to Florida. So we're one of the top 10 safest states for seniors. We prioritize our seniors for vaccination. CDC was saying do equity and political considerations.

I said, no way. If your 65 and up, we're getting you the vaccine. And I think we've done 4 million seniors who've been vaccinated.

HANNITY: And how great in places like Publix free of charge because they wanted to take care of their community, at CVS and all these other --

(CROSSTALK)

DESANTIS: And you know what Sean, that would not have happened had President Trump not put the pedal to the metal, got those bureaucrats in line and said, we've got to come up with this vaccine. If Biden had been president, this would have taken three or four years to be able to develop these vaccines.

So you think about we started vaccinating seniors in December. We hit a million seniors in January, two million in February. I mean, those were lives that were saved as a result of that presidential leadership.

HANNITY: Well, I think saying President Biden and Warp Speed, they're direct opposites --

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: I don't think anything was done. I'm just saying. By the way, the governors are not going to be responsible for any of the things I say as a talk show host; I give this disclaimer. Senator Sununu --

SUNUNU: (LAUGHS) That's my brother.

(CROSSTALK)

SUNUNU: Got to talk to him.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: Unrelenting. You know you have a state motto. Live Free or Die.

SUNUNU: Live Free or Die. Yeah.

HANNITY: It's the title of a great book that came out before the election; I don't know if you heard about it

SUNUNU: I've read it cover-to-cover twice.

HANNITY: OK, thank you, Senator.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: But in all seriousness, you made a lot of the same choices that these governors made. The mistakes were made in New York, in New Jersey, in Pennsylvania and Michigan and California. How is it they got everything so wrong and you, nobody got it perfect because it was imperfect --

(CROSSTALK)

SUNUNU: Yeah, we were writing the playbook, right?

HANNITY: Right.

SUNUNU: Every governor had to write their own playbook based on their dynamics, based on what we're seeing. New Hampshire's a little different because in New England, we have all these states that are really tight together. We're almost like counties in Florida almost. So we had to work together as governors for the most part.

And we did have to contend with New York and even Boston was in tough shape. I think Charlie Baker did a very good job, frankly, trying to deal the best he could with what was going on with the death rate in Boston. And we're kind of a tax-free suburb of that.

And we're kind of in the middle. So obviously, the Live Free or Die State, we without a doubt led the charge on the flexibility, the opportunity and now the economy, right, as Governor Noem points out --

NOEM: Yeah.

SUNUNU: -- 2.8 percent; I think we have 2.77 percent unemployment, I don't know.

(LAUGHTER)

NOEM: Oh, come on, come on.

(CROSSTALK)

SUNUNU: The math is changing back and forth by the minute --

NOEM: We may be a little competitive (ph) --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: This is great. We have a show about (ph) (INAUDIBLE) --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I like that.

SUNUNU: But every governor had to write the playbook and find -- and it was about balance. I think one of the key issues that governors did very well is you had to earn public trust in the crisis early on and you do that with transparency and with communication. And when you do that and you have earned that public trust as we're coming out of it, they trust you to make the right decisions coming out of it.

HANNITY: Well, I didn't notice any of you writing any books in the middle of all this talking about how great leaders you were, we're making five million bucks just saying. By the way, they want me out of New York so just so you know.

But you know, but this matters though. How, if you're going to be a leader, the decisions you make for the people in your state under these circumstances are hard. Governor, I remember in Iowa, there was a moment, one of your meatpacking facilities, the same thing happened in South Dakota. And I watched how you handled that and it was spectacular, to be very honest, because you guys went right in. It was like --

(CROSSTALK)

GOV. KIM REYNOLDS (R-IA): Yes, yes.

HANNITY: -- a full corps press and surrounded the area and tell us about it.

REYNOLDS: Well, first of all, my farmers and producers produce over 10 percent of the nation's food supplies. So it was imperative that we kept our food processing plants open and we kept our grocery stores full and meat on table for families all across this country. And so we were able to go in and do surveillance testing.

We were able to access a certain amount, a large number of tests so that we could not only keep the processing plants open but we could ensure the employees that they were working in a safe environment.

Not only did we provide the PPE, but we were able to test. Those that were positive were quarantined. And we were able to keep our processing plants up and going and I mean, and not back up hog production for our producers. And we were looking at some horrific numbers because the processing plants were being impacted from COVID.

And so we hit it head-on. We made testing available. We were able to implement a really robust data program that really allowed us to right down to a zip code, identify where the positive cases were at and act accordingly.

HANNITY: When New York was at its worst, I remember saying both on radio and TV, if the manufacturers, the medical manufacturers, the food suppliers, if they didn't manufacture --

REYNOLDS: Right.

HANNITY: -- if the packers didn't pack and the drivers didn't -- the truckers didn't truck --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: -- New York would have died.

REYNOLDS: Yes, right.

HANNITY: I mean, literally you were a lifeline for people in really significant trouble at that time.

REYNOLDS: And we were able to do it in a safe and responsible manner. We were able to keep our economy open. We were able to balance the lives and livelihoods of Iowans and to do it in a responsible manner. And all of us were able to do that. And I think we're reaping the benefits of that today because we're coming back stronger than ever from the pandemic.

And we have a lot of opportunities in the state. The number one state for opportunity I think is where Iowa ranks --

(LAUGHTER)

REYNOLDS: -- second fastest recovery from COVID --

HANNITY: (LAUGHS) Boy this is going to be --

(CROSSTALK)

REYNOLDS: Isn't it wonderful? This is -- everybody's going to be benefit --

HANNITY: We should have done this in the octagon.

(LAUGHTER)

REYNOLDS: We can all tell our -- we all have our statistics, right?

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: And by the way in fairness, if you compare them to any Democrats it's much better.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Governor Ducey, Arizona, similarly, a large population of older people, right? You had certain challenges throughout this pandemic. But you were able to overcome it. How?

GOV. DOUG DUCEY (R-AZ): Well, we focused on the vulnerable right from the beginning. And we knew that was the older folks. I mean, when Governor Lee says follow the science, we knew it was 65 years and older, people with underlying health conditions.

And this conference call that we would hold as governors, we came to some conclusions that we were going to prioritize lives and livelihoods. And all of us were going to err on the side of liberty and limited government. It was going to be a light touch. We were going to listen, inform our citizens, trust our citizens. I believe Arizonans have common sense.

And, Sean, it was a tough year. I mean, there's no winner in a COVID year. But you want to do the right thing so that your state can navigate through it and come out of it healthier and stronger on the other side.

That's where Arizona is. We're leading the country in personal income growth. And if you don't like the dry heat, you've got to check out Flagstaff, Arizona, or the White Mountains.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: That's actually a good point. I remember being out there one summer and I walked outside of a radio station with J.D. Hayworth and I'm like, I can't breathe. It was -- it was really rough.

All right. So, all of you have this problem. And the problem is people from New York, and New Jersey, and California, and Michigan, they're leaving their states and they're going to your states.

You're -- Florida seeing a huge impact of migration out of the -- out of these blue states. Now, my only fear for all of you -- and I'll let you start first, Governor DeSantis -- is that they may bring their liberal policies with them.

DESANTIS: So, it's interesting with Florida. Like the media at the beginning of this said Florida's bad. And I think it's because they want to damage Trump in Florida. They want to damage me. So, they just kept saying it was bad.

And even though the facts didn't say it, like literally last April, they're saying Florida is doing worse than New York. New York was like 10 times worse.

And so, I think what it did is the people that buy those phony narratives for these media, they probably aren't coming to Florida. But most people see through it. But the people that see through it, they think like us. And so, I think a lot of these people are coming. I think they are registering as Republicans overwhelming.

And I also have come across a lot of people who, quite frankly, were Democrats. The lockdowns turned them into Republicans, because they say, I cannot fathom. I was -- people say, I was a Democrat because of education and I'm in California and they're locking my kids out of school.

I come to Florida, they're in school. People are free. People are happy.

So, I think this whole process has caused some people to reevaluate some of their prior commitments. And if you have a political party that puts the interest of teachers unions over the interest of kids being able to just access an education at all, that tells you all you need to know about the modern Democrat Party.

(APPLAUSE)

HANNITY: Well said.

Governor Noem, I actually have noticed -- I've taken great note of the ads that you were running saying, come on to South Dakota. We openly welcome you -- and specifically, you did the same thing, many of you have, with law enforcement.

NOEM: Yes.

HANNITY: We'll get to that in a little bit.

NOEM: Yeah.

HANNITY: But you're saying this is an opportunity for the state of South Dakota to grow, and you are enticing people to come.

NOEM: Yes. We -- you know, I ran for governor on the fact that I was going to bring the next big industry to the state and I was going to grow the state. That we wanted it to be a place where our kids got out of school and wanted to raise their families. They're surrounded by the people that they love.

What was interesting is I also ran on South Dakota being an example to the nation. And what's happened during this pandemic, the pandemic has allowed us to tell our story.

The thousands of people are moving to our state. And when you ask them, they say that they're moving there because they want to live somewhere that the government respects them. They want to live somewhere they can be free.

South Dakota wasn't on their radar a year ago to move to, but it is now. And they wanted to live where they can have a quality of life and they'd be respected.

We did one week of a national advertising campaign to law enforcement officers and told them, if you want to live somewhere where you're supported, where people respect you and will help you take care of your families and be successful, come to South Dakota.

And in that one week, we had hundreds and hundreds of applications from 41 different states of law enforcement officers that say, I want to live there --

HANNITY: Yeah.

NOEM: -- and because I know they truly respect law enforcement and they'll appreciate my service.

HANNITY: And I know you, Governor, gave an incentive. You actually gave a bonus to everybody.

Tennessee -- now, I love Nashville because I lived 90 miles south of I-65 when I was in Huntsville, Alabama. And I see the growth. The property prices are soaring, opportunity is soaring. Business -- Music City, right? USA.

LEE: Tower cranes everywhere out there.

HANNITY: Yes, exactly.

LEE: A lot happening.

HANNITY: But it's -- but it's Florida. It's Texas. It's South -- it's all the states. I don't want to single all of them out here.

But these states are all growing and benefiting. What is the key component? Is it liberty? Is it freedom? Is it low taxes? A combination?

LEE: I think that people from all over this country are looking around unsatisfied in many states, the ones that we all know about, with life, in particular, life in the last year.

And they have been -- they have been looking for a long time. But, suddenly, this -- the differences between our states and those blue states are stark. You know, their kids have been out of school for a year.

In Tennessee, all of the kids are in school. In fact, we have a strong school choice program.

HANNITY: Are they wearing masks?

LEE: They're not wearing masks.

That's the -- in a couple districts, they are. We have a law in this state that allows districts to make that decision. But I have said I don't think any kid ought to wear a mask. Why -- if you want to follow the science, you wouldn't have kids in a school wearing masks, when kids do not get sick from COVID.

That's science. And that's what we ought to be doing.

But school choice is in states like ours. Parents get to choose. Tennessee's the third lowest-tax-per-capita state in the country. We just announced two major ECD moves, enormous companies that have decided to move, one from California, one from Michigan, to put their locations here in this state, where our regulation in this state is really different than it is in these states that have actually increased regulation.

Our taxes have been reduced. We cut taxes this year. Those states have increased taxes.

HANNITY: Wait a minute. I love Joe saying, if you take any money, he says, oh, you can't take money and cut taxes in your state.

LEE: Yes. Yes.

HANNITY: They had to pull back on that.

LEE: Pull back.

HANNITY: But I'm like, really?

LEE: Because we offer tax cuts to our citizens.

So, there's a combination.

(LAUGHTER)

LEE: There's a combination.

HANNITY: By the way, this is like the Chamber of Commerce for...

(CROSSTALK)

LEE: Yes, it is.

REYNOLDS: Yes.

LEE: But I'm actually describing a lot of Republicans.

HANNITY: I agree with you.

NOEM: Yes.

REYNOLDS: Yes.

LEE: There's a lot of Republicans right here...

REYNOLDS: Yes. How many cut taxes?

LEE: ... who cut taxes, who have lower regulation, who have choices for parents, who have a business environment that's attractive to business.

That's why every single one of these states, including mine, U-Haul says they measure trucks going in that don't come out. And Tennessee is number one for that.

We all have our statistic. There's a stark difference in this country that has surfaced that we all in America see now. And that's why the migration...

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: We have got to take a break, but that's -- that is the phenomenon.

I know that, for California, if you rented a U-Haul to go to Texas, you pay like 2,500 bucks. If you had taken a U-Haul from Texas to California, you can basically get it for free.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: It's unbelievable.

All right, more with our governors. We're just getting started.

We're going to talk about law and order, violent crime, the out-of-control lack of safety in city, defunding, dismantling the police, and a closer look at the crisis on our Southern border that is impacting every state.

We're in Music City USA, Nashville, Tennessee, as we continue.

Thank you for being with us.

(APPLAUSE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Welcome back to our exclusive town hall with the Republican Governors Association. We're in Music City, USA. Nashville, Tennessee. Now what is the future of the Republican agenda?

How can red states fight back against the -- well, Biden power grab, far left new green deal socialist agenda, and stand up against the dangerous effort of defunding and dismantling police? In answer to these questions and much more, we turned to our Republican governors right here in Nashville.

I won't bother you anymore, Governor Sununu, that's an inside joke, but in all seriousness here, all of can say to the people in your states that you have lowered taxes. That you have ended burdens from regulation. That you created business-friendly environments for everybody. And we are seeing the benefits of your policies in place.

Now all of a sudden, you're fiscally responsible, you balance your budgets, you fund your pensions, and then in comes Joe Biden with his blue state bailout and he has given California and Gavin Newsom, that has a $75 billion surplus, $40 billion taxpayer dollars from your states. If I was a governor I might be a little ticked off about that.

Governor Sununu?

SUNUNU: A lot ticked off. Absolutely. I mean, they came in and really changed the rules to really fit their agenda. And what you're seeing is, again, governors, especially Republican governors are the last line of defense against not a socialist agenda but true socialism. That's actually what's happening with all the executive orders. And we've seen it.

When you talk about the economy, I think one of the biggest things that is hitting America is inflation. Secretary Yellen said we would have a bump in inflation. We are on the verge of hyperinflation, supply chain issues across this country.

And there is no greater tax on the American people and worse tax than inflation because every low-income family has to pay for that, 30 percent more for that gallon of gas or a piece of wood to do a repair on their or a gallon of milk, whatever it is.

So it's their policies to help low income and all that are just reversed. It's all political. And what happens is they end up hurting those they claim to be helping the most.

HANNITY: Yes, Governor?

REYNOLDS: Exactly. Well, that's exactly the case. And we're paying the price for the blue state bad decisions that they made. In Iowa, we're cutting taxes, we're reducing regulations. We've had our kids in school. We are encouraging growth and development.

And we're open for business and it's just completely the contrast. I think he has forgotten that, you know, I think he thinks we're just starting COVID, that we're not on the end of it.

The emergency is over and the amount of money that's coming into our states is just unconscionable. And in fact, I sent back $95 million. They sent $95 to the state of Iowa to help us get our kids back in the classroom. And I said our kids have been in the classroom since August.

This is ridiculous. They're sitting on $700 million right now to address testing and vaccines and to help address COVID issues. And so I said, here, you can take the $95 million back. We don't need it. And we need to do more of that. It's just unconscionable the amount of money that's flowing into the states.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: This was the money -- a lot --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: -- talk about the --

REYNOLDS: This is the third tranche, yeah. No, we rejected the threat (ph) to supplement unemployment (ph), we sent that back.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: And you rejected the unemployment numbers, too.

REYNOLDS: We did that on top of the $95 million (ph).

HANNITY: Joe Biden tried to have strings attached to dictate policy to all of you --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: -- that if you take the money, you cannot cut taxes.

REYNOLDS: You can't cut taxes. And we're cutting taxes.

HANNITY: Like really?

REYNOLDS: Yeah, yeah.

HANNITY: Wow.

REYNOLDS: So.

DUCEY: Joe Biden needs to stop trying to rescue us. We don't need to be rescued.

(LAUGHTER)

DUCEY: We've said that this money is really a blue state bailout for the failures that they've had in the past. What reward do you get to be a governor that actually tightens your belt, cut your budget and lived within your means? I said in my second State of the State, I'd be remiss if I didn't thank my partner in growing Arizona's economy.

And that was then California Governor Jerry Brown. Gavin Newsome's even been more helpful and think about, Sean, Ronald Reagan said if the pilgrims would have landed in California, they would have never discovered the rest of the country.

(LAUGHTER)

DUCEY: I mean, nobody leaves California because they want to. It's becoming too painful --

(CROSSTALK)

DUCEY: -- the lack of opportunity pushing them out.

HANNITY: The first time in 171 years they lost population.

DUCEY: And it's a result of leadership, policy and lack of quality of life and economic opportunity.

HANNITY: And you know what's even more ironic? Gavin's going to take your money. Checks are going to go out to two-thirds of the people in California just prior to the recall. I don't know, where I grew up in New York we have different words for that.

But it's from your taxpayers. You think about it. And you look at the tax policies and you look at Washington. When Donald Trump became president and he put his tax plan in place, he got rid of reductions or deductions for state and local income taxes. Now personally, that hurt me.

Was it the right thing to do? Yes. Because red states that elect fiscally- responsible politicians, they're being punished. They didn't get the same benefit that I was getting. Now it looks like Joe's going to go back and reward his blue state friends and reinstate that deduction, that's going to hurt every one of you governors.

DESANTIS: So, it takes from our states. And it not only subsidizes bad blue state policy, it subsidizes very wealthy taxpayers in their states and so it's terrible policy. You know when New York, you know you and I have talked about it, you guys have millions of people, fewer than Florida and your budget's over twice the size of the budget in the state of Florida. But yet --

HANNITY: And the infrastructure is a disaster.

DESANTIS: Our infrastructure's much better. We do better in K through 12. My university system is ranked number one by U.S. News & World Report four years in a row. So you know it just shows you, a lot of that money's being frittered away, but they never make tough choices.

When COVID hit, the legislature had done our budget and they kind of crafted the budget before everything really hit the fan. So I vetoed a record billion dollars right off the top and I said look, we don't know what's going to happen. We've got to make tough decisions.

Well, now I look back and like I didn't have to do that because they're shoveling so much money at us. And so they're rewarding states that have made bad decisions or not been willing to make tough decisions.

NOEM: You know Sean, the only reason I ever ran for office was because of bad tax policy. We had a tragedy in our family, lost my dad, ended up paying death taxes that took me 10 years to pay off. That's why I started showing up at meetings, why I ended up running for office.

When I was in Congress, I had the chance to be on Ways and Means, was on the final conference committee that got to work with President Trump to fix a lot of bad parts of our tax policy in the country. To watch President O'Biden (sic) destroy that and to damage our country and our long-term economic success --

HANNITY: President O'Biden? I'm just saying --

(LAUGHTER)

NOEM: I know.

HANNITY: Now you sound like a talk show host.

NOEM: I know it does, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Oh I would, don't apologize.

NOEM: It's tragic. President Biden --

HANNITY: Yeah.

NOEM: -- to watch him undo this is tragic and for all of us; we're not making decisions for ourselves. We're not making decisions for the next six months or a year. We're making it for our kids. We're not the ones who are going to pay off this debt.

HANNITY: Well, I mean we're robbing the blind.

NOEM: Yeah.

HANNITY: Governor?

LEE: You said, you mentioned it being the people's money, our money, it's their money.

It's really easy -- the federal government is shoveling out money. It's very easy to spend somebody else's money. And they forget that this is actually the people's money.

And then they like to tell states what to do. They don't much like it when we talk back. But we have talked back and said we do want to have -- we do want to offer tax cuts.

We have had a billion dollars surplus in our state in spite of this economic downturn. We don't want to be told what to do either with federal dollars on immigration, and what our kids should learn in school. We don't want to be told by the federal government what to do.

And that's really why states and what you're seeing here are beginning to come together and work together to push back.

HANNITY: We'll take a break. We've got a lot more to talk about. We will discuss the issue of law and order. We'll discuss election integrity. What the Republican Party needs to do if they want to win in 2022 and 2024.

As we continue, we're talking to the Republican Governors Association, more with them as we continue on this HANNITY town hall in Nashville, Tennessee. Thank you for being with us.

(APPLAUSE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right, we're in beautiful Nashville, Tennessee, where they have actual low taxes and everything and a lot of growth, a lot of movement to the state.

Anyway, Republican governors laying out the future for the American first movement, how to fight back against this destructive Democratic agenda and power grab, and, more importantly, how to deliver prosperity to you, the American people, that work hard every single day.

We continue with our governors.

Governor Sununu, we now have -- I always felt that, if I broke the law, that I would probably be arrested, probably have frogmen in my backyard, and predawn raids with CNN cameras.

But, in all seriousness, we have laws about immigration. Those laws are not being obeyed. And, actually, I would argue that Joe Biden's administration is aiding and abetting lawbreaking and incentivizing it.

Now, after they get -- the kids get out of the cages that Joe built, then all of these illegal immigrants are then dispersed to all of your states.

I assume you have to pay the price of housing and education and health care. Is that true?

SUNUNU: Without -- look, this is not a Southern border crisis. It is an American crisis. There's no doubt about it.

And it's a humanitarian -- humanitarian crisis, at that. And Governor Ducey, Governor Abbott deserve an immense amount of credit. They are holding the line as best they can. But when -- those videos are real, where you see what's happening to those kids. You're seeing what's happening to those families.

And there's no doubt it has an impact all across this country. And everyone has to acknowledge that and be part of that solution.

HANNITY: Governor?

REYNOLDS: Well, I think what's really frustrating about the whole thing is, they have created this crisis, and they could stop it tomorrow.

NOEM: Mm-hmm. That's right.

REYNOLDS: And it is impacting every single state across this country.

And he was so determined to remove all of the Trump policies that were actually working and protecting United States citizens. And for them not to even go to the border, we would just be laid out if we were that irresponsible and didn't show up.

And so it's theirs to fix.

HANNITY: Arizona, you're right there in the middle of this. And...

DUCEY: Yes, it hits us first, Sean.

And the Biden administration is not only anti-wall. They are AWOL, absent without leave. The president has not been to the border in Arizona. The border czar, Kamala Harris, has not been to the border. And it's tough to get a visit or a phone call with Secretary Mayorkas.

HANNITY: Do you have to bear the burden?

I know Tennessee is taking this issue on. Marsha Blackburn was very outspoken about it. Do you pay the burden of housing, health care, education, even though people didn't respect our laws, our borders, our sovereignty?

LEE: Well, we certainly will.

And the interesting thing about it is, this is happening in the middle of the night. So, in Tennessee, as you know, private planes flew in, only discovered because news reporters saw that.

Human traffickers are being paid to move children into this -- into this country across the border. And our government is facilitating the last leg of that journey. If a private company did that, it'd be a federal crime. And they're doing it in secret. They certainly were in our state.

We declined.

HANNITY: Is there any recourse?

Any of you want to jump in here?

Is there any recourse you have when they transport illegal immigrants into your state, so you -- you have to pay for everything?

LEE: Well, we have certainly -- we certainly demand transparency.

So, we have said, if you're going to bring them here, we want to know about it. That's -- if you do something in secret, you're doing it because you know the people won't want it. And when we have a government that's disregarding the will of the people, I have a real problem with that.

HANNITY: Well, it's a little bit of a different question, though.

And I will ask Governor Noem.

Is there any recourse for all of you to not facilitate lawbreaking and then have to bear the burden of the financial costs of their policies?

NOEM: Well, we were very bold about telling them, do not send us unaccompanied children, and very bold in telling the federal government that we did not want to participate in what they're doing to threaten our national security.

They don't have to notify us. They don't have to get our approval as governors to put these children or put unvetted refugees into our states.

I can communicate, however, with the people who run those programs in my state. And they do receive state dollars. And so they need to know that those are threatened, if they're threatening the people of South Dakota.

It is my job as governor to protect them and to put the people of South Dakota first. And I will do it and use every tool that I have.

DESANTIS: One of the thing they're also doing, doesn't get as much play, they decided no more ICE detainers for criminal aliens. So when I have somebody that was illegally in the country, they get convicted of a crime in Florida, sit in our prison system, serve their sentence, Trump's administration would take them and send them back. Biden's administration releases them back into the community. These are convicted criminal aliens.

So we are suing the Biden administration on that policy because that's a total dereliction of duty and responsibility to take care that the laws are faithfully executed.

HANNITY: Let me, very quickly, because we're -- for the benefit of time, we see defunding and dismantling the police and no bail laws. I think it's a form of madness myself. I see what's happening in places like Portland, New York, Los Angeles. Murder rates going through the roof. How do you counter that? Why would anybody do these things?

SUNUNU: Well, again, you don't do them in the first place, right? You set an example. You set a tone. And hopefully you're an example for others. So it's hard. There's no doubt about it. When you see what's happening to the rest of the country, but as a governor, I say all the time, the beauty of being governor is our job is to be very selfish, right? I care about the 603 and anyone, you know, in the Granite State. And as they should all be selfish too, by setting that example hopefully more will follow.

HANNITY: Governor? I mean.

REYNOLDS: We support the men and women who serve in law enforcement. We put additional funding into our department of public safety. We passed back the blue to let them know that we have their backs. We are grateful for what they do, and for keeping our communities safe.

(APPLAUSE)

DUCEY: This is a covert way for the Biden administration to actually abolish ICE because they're so neglected. And what we have done in Arizona is deploy the National Guard to the border. We are doing it with state funds. It really only works if you have New Mexico, California...

HANNITY: Are you allowed to...

DUCEY: ... and Texas.

HANNITY: Are you allowed to prevent people from entering illegally?

DUCEY: We are back there with a surge of badges to the border so that the Border Patrol can actually be on the border and do their job rather than making formula and changing diapers.

HANNITY: But they're still being allowed in?

DUCEY: Well, they are still being allowed in, but we are slowing the migration. It's really the cartels that is shaping the border policy right now and the Biden administration is the marketing arm.

DESANTIS: Well, we passed the strongest anti-rioting, pro-police law in the country. We will not let local governments defund the police. And if you lie it -- riot, you're rude, you do -- you're going to jail. Not a slap on the wrist, you're going to jail in Florida. We're funding the police, $1,000 bonuses for every sworn law enforcement officer in the state of Florida.

(APPLAUSE)

HANNITY: Do you have any bonuses for talk show hosts?

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: You're actively...

NOEM: Recruiting them, hundreds and hundreds. One-week campaign, hundreds of law enforcement officers picked up their families, moved to South Dakota because they wanted to be somewhere they were respected.

HANNITY: Moving forward, the conservative agenda that will work for every American. And what about election integrity? That's straight ahead as we continue.

(APPLAUSE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right, continue from Nashville, our exclusive Governors Town Hall. Alright, let me get two topics in really quick here: election integrity and is the future of the Republican Party, the Make America Great Again agenda?

I say we need five things: voter I.D., signature verification, chain of custody control, partisan observers observing and clean up the voter roles. Am I missing anything?

DESANTIS: Well, we, as you remember, we counted 11 million votes on Election Night in Florida, very transparent, we did great. We didn't do great in the past with it, but we did even better --

HANNITY: Much better.

DUCEY: The bill I signed there banned ballot harvesting, all the stuff you talked about. But we also banned the Zucker Bucks where Zuckerberg was spending all that money to run the elections in these areas. That is now banned in the state of Florida.

HANNITY: Is the future of the Republican Party America First, Make America Great Again? Or would you add or subtract from any of that?

DUCEY: Oh, I think that's the core of it. I mean, I think President Trump got the basics right. As times change, you have to look to see what new issues comes along. You know, Reagan's agenda was right for that time. People will talk about it but you've got to look to see what's coming down the pike.

HANNITY: Governor?

NOEM: On election integrity, those five things you mentioned, we do them all in South Dakota and we have honest, fair, transparent elections, of course.

HANNITY: You don't have any problems in South Dakota.

NOEM: No problems in South Dakota. Except, you know, here's the thing. People in South Dakota understand America First. They believe in it and if anything, what 2020 has taught them and so far 2021 is how much more important it is.

HANNITY: Clearly establishment Republicans don't like Donald Trump. I would argue Donald Trump has the base of the Republican Party.

(CROSSTALK)

NOEM: I don't -- absolutely.

HANNITY: So do they have a chance of unseating him?

NOEM: Of unseating?

HANNITY: You know, to take the Trump Agenda or if the president chooses to run in 2024.

NOEM: The Trump Agenda lifted everybody up. The most disadvantaged people, the minorities in this country, it lifted them up and gave them opportunities they never had before.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Record low unemployment.

NOEM: Anybody who says that was the wrong agenda for this country, they're wrong themselves and they're not truly Conservatives.

HANNITY: Real quick, Governor.

LEE: So your words about election integrity, we, I think she left it listed out. They will make it easier to vote and harder to cheat. And that's how we're going to have election integrity across this country. You know, the Republican Party, its agenda, what we're seeing and we saw it in the last election when we got more votes and Hispanic votes and African-American votes than we have gotten in 60 years, the Left has scared regular people.

And we're now the party that's attracting those people. And we're attracting them because we're the party of people who work for a living.

NOEM: Right.

HANNITY: What will -- what will we find in this Maricopa? Anything?

DUCEY: Well, this is our fourth audit. There's already been three audits. This is the fourth one. The first three came out clean.

Let's see what this fourth one says. But I think if you look at Arizona and what's happening in other Republican states, we really have a compendium of best practices.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Real quick, yes or no, is Donald Trump still the leader of the Republican Party?

DUCEY: Well, he's the former president, he's the largest voice.

HANNITY: Is he the leader?

DUCEY: It's (ph) 75-million-plus party, which is a party of addition.

HANNITY: Is he the leader?

DUCEY: Yes.

REYNOLDS: Yep.

HANNITY: Is he the leader?

SUNUNU: I don't think anyone defines the leadership of the party. It's defined by principles, by core values, by good government.

HANNITY: Is it the America First, Make America Great Again?

SUNUNU: Absolutely. That's all -- it's all part of it.

HANNITY: All right. We'll come back as we continue from Nashville with our governors, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right, as we wrap things up, Music City, USA -- want to give our governors a big hand, right?

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

HANNITY: Great job. Thank you.

Unfortunately, that's all the time we have left this evening, from Nashville, Tennessee. Please set your DVR so you never miss an episode.

Let not your heart be troubled. Laura --

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