Hannity: President Trump takes bold action on the border
The president says the U.S. military will guard the Mexican border until the wall is built.
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," April 3, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: All right. Tucker, great show.
And welcome to 'Hannity.'
Ton of breaking news tonight, you won't get it in the liberal mainstream media.
'Washington Post' reporting at this hour the special counsel Robert Mueller told President Trump's attorney the president is not a criminal target, but, of course, that witch hunt continues.
Also, President Trump is taking bold action and seeing U.S. military will guard the southern border until that wall is built. Now, this comes, of course, as a caravan of more than 1,000 asylum-seekers and migrants are traveling through Mexico to America and tonight, there are reports that has now been stalled.
Also breaking news from Sara Carter. Now, text messages from the corrupt Trump-hating FBI lovebirds, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, show that the FBI appears to have improperly coordinated with the DOJ to expedite the FISA warrant to spy on Trump campaign associate Carter Page.
And also breaking, a new memo is now showing the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in fact allowed Robert Mueller to go way beyond his mandate to investigate Paul Manafort. Now, this includes using the phony Clinton bought and paid for dossier to go after the former Trump campaign chairman.
And also breaking, a brand-new poll showing 67 percent of you, the American people, want a special counsel to be appointed to investigate the severe FISA abuses against the Trump campaign and 77 percent of Americans see fake news for what it is. Now, this, of course, after the Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed a Utah prosecutor to do essentially a lot of the same things. We'll explain.
All that plus I have a special message for the destroyed Trump media once again trying to twist and distort my words in their latest attempt to smear, slander, besmirched.
And that's all happening in tonight's breaking news opening monologue.
(MUSIC)
HANNITY: All right. Breaking tonight, just moments ago, 'The Washington Post' reported Robert Mueller has informed President Trump's lawyers that the president -- well, still the witch hunt continues however, he is not currently a criminal target. It's important news.
'The Post' is also reporting Mueller is, quote, 'preparing to report about the president's actions while in office and potential obstruction of justice.'
We're going to analyze this new development in a minute, but first, we also have the president refusing to back away from his promise to secure America's borders. Here's the current situation.
Congress has repeatedly failed to pass tough immigration laws and people are flooding into our country. Democrats, they have been obstructing every single step of the way. They are not interested in solving problems. They are not even interested in helping DACA recipients because they want to make this a big campaign issue in 2018 this year.
And according to reports, that caravan of more than 1,000 asylum-seekers and immigrants heading for the United States has now reportedly stalled out in Mexico. This comes after the president said he pressured Mexico to do so.
Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have just heard that the caravan coming up from Honduras has broken up and Mexico did that. They did it because frankly, I said, you really have to do it. We are going to have a relationship on NAFTA, we're going to have to include security in NAFTA. So, Mexico, very strong laws, and that's the way it is. So, it looks like it's been broken up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: The president also tonight signaling that he is done playing games when it comes to our border security. He is now saying he will use the U.S. military to help secure the border.
Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: So I told Mexico, and I respect what they did. I said, look, your laws are very powerful, your laws are very strong. We have very bad laws for our border. We are going to be doing some things.
I've been speaking with General Mattis. We're going to be doing things militarily. Until we can have a wall and proper security, we're going to be guarding our border with the military. That's a big step. We really haven't done that before, certainly not very much before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Think about this. All the drug trafficking, human trafficking, and, of course, the possibility that terrorists, too, can cross that border. This is a major national security issue and there's a reason why Mexico, all of a sudden, now appears at the last minute willing to cooperate with the Trump administration to stop the Caribbean. That's because President Trump is applying a tremendous amount of pressure, just like he did with little rocket man, Kim Jong Un.
President Trump is telling Mexico, if they don't act, NAFTA negotiations will be in jeopardy. He also threatened to pull foreign aid from Honduras, where many of these migrants are coming from. It's about time an American president stood up for our country's sovereignty.
And because the media and the left love to distort conservative positions on this, let me be clear -- there is nothing wrong with people coming to the United States of America. We're just asking it be done legally. We are a constitutional republic. We have laws. Those laws need to be obeyed.
You can't have a country when illegal immigrants, noncitizens, can enter as they please. And guess what, that's what the president is now trying to do here.
And, by the way, enough is enough when it comes to Mexico and people like their former president, Vicente Fox, he's lecturing us about how we deal with illegal immigration. Yet under Vicente Fox, Mexico sharply increased their police, their military presence at their own southern border and they spent millions of dollars upgrading security checkpoints. As a result, from 2002 to 2006, detentions, deportations increased by 74 percent in Mexico.
This is ridiculous. Beyond hypocritical, for Mexico to constantly be lecturing the United States regarding immigration laws when they are far tougher than we've ever been. And for spending -- sending military personnel to secure the borders, well, liberals and the media are so outraged that President Trump would dare to do that.
Here's the thing, they are completely silent, of course, when President Obama did that exact same thing back in 2010. Back then, Obama sent 1,200 National Guard troops to the border to help Border Patrol agents. Remember in 2014, former Texas Governor Rick Perry, he called up the National Guard to protect the border because the Obama administration wasn't doing enough. Well, it's not like this is unprecedented.
Here's another point the liberal media will never tell you. They were so quick to criticize President Trump for saying that he wants to use part of the military's budget to build a border wall. It's a national security issue. According to a 2009 Congressional Research Service Report, the military has already been used to help construct the border wall by past presidents, including George W. Bush and even Barack Obama. Those are facts the media will never tell you any of this, because it doesn't fit their anti-Trump agenda.
According to a new survey, 89 percent of Border Patrol agents say a wall system in strategic vocations is necessary to secure the border. That is coming directly from the people on the ground there every day risking their lives. Why not give them what they're asking for it?
And what President Trump is calling for is security and accountability. It is that simple. And for the record, this position is similar to the one that Barack Hussein Obama once held. You may remember him saying this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT: Those who enter our country legally and those who employ them disrespect the rule of law. And because we live in an age where terrorists are challenging our borders, we cannot allow people to pour into the U.S. undetected, undocumented, and unchecked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Wow, he sounds like Donald Trump.
Obama only changed his stance when it became politically expedient. And as for President Trump, according to 'The Wall Street Journal,' the Trump administration will put quotas in place and start evaluating immigration judges on the number of cases that they hear in order to speed up and expedite potential deportations of illegal immigrants.
Remember, someone gets caught entering America illegally, they are actually allowed to stay here until they get to their court date, and about 98 percent of them never show up. So, it's the height of ignorance and stupidity and that's why President Trump wants to change it.
Other countries, for example, let's look at Australia. They don't roll out the red carpet for illegal immigrants like we do.
When Australia catches asylum-seekers trying to enter their country -- well, they are very compassionate. They give them food, they give them water, they gave them medical attention if they needed to. And then they send the migrants back from where they came. That's beyond past time that America used the same common sense measures to secure our borders.
Also brand-new tonight, another major report, Sara Carter who will join us in a few minutes. Here's the headline: Bombshell sacred texts show FBI, DOJ may have rushed anti-Trump FISA warrants. And according to Sara Carter, congressional investigators have discovered new text messages between anti-Trump FBI agents, lovebirds, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page that show possible coordination between the FBI and the DOJ to get a FISA warrant to spy on the Trump campaign associate, Carter Page.
In one of the text messages Sara has obtained, Strzok is whining and complaining to Page that a warrant in the Russia investigation is being held up. And one of the congressional investigators is telling Sara tonight, quote: 'Everything here from the texts, complaining about FISA delays to the exchanges indicating coordination, to the White House visitors log, well, it seems a bit match to a disturbing degree. At best, it's a strange coincidence worth investigating. Now, but, of course, it's much likely more.'
So, you have the FBI using an unverified Clinton bought and paid for dossier as part of a FISA application, then they rush to get a FISA warrant approved, and new evidence points to coordination between the Obama White House, the FBI, the DOJ, and the CIA. Sara will explain all of us in a few minutes.
Also tonight, Robert Mueller secures his first conviction, got to give him a lot of credit in this witch hunt. A Dutch lawyer was just sentenced to 30 days in jail, 30 whole days. And he's being ordered to pay $20,000 fine for lying to the FBI. That's it? And it had nothing to do with Russia collusion.
The media played this up. They thought this guy was getting 20 years. In reality, it looks like a giant waste of your money.
While the media was hyper-focused on this apparent Dutch lawyer and this travesty, they missed a massive story that proves Robert Mueller is carrying out a witch hunt that is being aided and abetted by his buddy, the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. And according to an August memo written by Rosenstein, he actually authorized Mueller to go after Paul Manafort's work with the Ukrainian government which happened way, way before Paul Manafort anything had anything to do with Donald Trump on the Trump campaign.
In addition to that, none of the charges Paul Manafort is facing have anything to do with any of that. And, of course, that's only half the story. 'Washington Times' reporting that Mueller investigated Paul Manafort on an allegation from the never corroborated, now known to be lies that Clinton bought and paid for dossier, that came from an unnamed Russian source and sources. It's pretty shocking but it shouldn't come as a surprise.
The special counsel Mueller as corrupt as they come, he doesn't seem to care about truth, doesn't care about facts, doesn't care about evidence. He doesn't care about being fair. He doesn't care that he's biased.
Look at the team he's assembled, a team of Democratic donors that donated to Hillary, Obama, the DNC. And we can't ignore that Rod Rosenstein, he's a guy that appointed Mueller, Rosenstein is giving Mueller free reign to do whatever he wants. Whatever happened, by the way, to this so-called collusion? Turn out to be a witch hunt.
And Rod Rosenstein, he should be ashamed of himself and, frankly, he's the same guy that signed the FISA extension against Trump associate Carter Page and then appointed Mueller. Does anyone see that as a conflict of interest? And like we have been saying, Rosenstein needs to go.
And also tonight, a brand-new poll, 67 percent of you, the American people, think a second special counsel should in fact we named to investigate all the disturbing FISA abuses that we've been reporting on and the media's been ignoring it because you, the American people, understand the severity of this because it's a massive abuse of power and that the DOJ and the FBI, they cannot investigate themselves, because that is a massive conflict of interest. It's called abuse of power.
While the Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he won't be naming a second special counsel, he has appointed Utah prosecutor John Huber since November, we didn't know about it -- good for Jeff Sessions -- to serve in a similar capacity.
While it's not a special counsel, it's a massive development. And as a federal prosecutor, Huber will be able to convene a grand jury, gather evidence, issue subpoenas, have witnesses testify, and that means he'll be able to properly investigate these FISA abuses. The FBI putting the fix it on the Clinton email investigation, kickbacks to the Clinton Foundation, the corrupt Uranium One deal, and, of course, lying to a FISA judge and the phony dossier that she paid for. A major development and it's just getting started.
Another quick point tonight. Jill McCabe, she is the wife of the fired FBI Director Andrew McCabe -- well, she has an op-ed in 'The Washington Post,' where she is claiming to be setting the record straight. Predictably, Jill McCabe excuses the fact that her husband was fired for lying under oath multiple times about a number of issues. And instead, she's blaming President Trump.
If he dog bites, if the bee stings, if you're feeling sad, and if you have a headache, and hangover, it's Donald Trump's fault.
Jill McCabe seems to be downplaying the fact she got over $700,000 in campaign money from key Clinton ally, BFF Terry McAuliffe, and the Virginia Democratic Party , when she had a failed state Senate run. Now, state senate candidates in Virginia, they never get that kind of money.
So, the McCabes, they can whine all they want in public about what happened, but facts are facts. You can't change that.
All right. Finally tonight, I have a special message for the abusively biased media that once again is trying to smear me.
So, yesterday on my radio show, I was making a point about Robert Mueller dividing this country at a level we have never seen in forever, which he undoubtedly is doing and has been doing. And I made reference, it's like a civil war in this country because of his abusively biased team, corrupt Democrats, people that see truth, we're sick and tired of it. And it's dividing those that hate Trump, those that like Donald Trump. Look at the person like Andrew Weissmann he appointed.
What the media didn't report to you -- well, I was talking about a really deep divide that the arrogant Mueller's creating and that Americans are more divided than ever and I was actually talking about family members, a civil war, and they're going to sit at dinner and they're going to have a food fights and they're going to throw mashed potatoes and broccoli at each other at the dinner table. I wasn't talking about a real civil war and I was very clear.
This sent the media into a frenzy, but they quickly ignored everything I said. And they raced to take me out of context, like they always do, claiming, oh, Hannity wants a civil war in America.
No, I'm saying we're more divided than ever. And as you know from watching the show, this is what the media does all the time, but I'm not going to sit back and take their crap. We're going to call out the corrupt media in this country.
For example, the media lost it over me saying the word 'civil war'. OK, we went to the archives. They have said it many more times than I have. And we've got the proof.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DON LEMON, CNN: He is clearly trying to ignite a civil war in this country.
CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: We are in the midst of a cold civil war in this country, a political and cultural civil war.
CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC: Tonight, we're watching a civil war between mostly Southern senators loyal to the man from Alabama.
DAVID FRENCH, NATIONAL REVIEW SENIOR WRITER: And the only civil war I see is on Twitter and that doesn't even really matter.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN: Governor, you've called this an economic civil war, and I know that's what you're touching on.
ROB REINER, ACTOR: In a way I understand it because we're fighting the last battle of civil war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Oh, nobody cared about them saying it.
So, the media can't stand the fact -- this is the truth -- night after night on this program, well, we are proving them to be complete, total liars and frauds, abusively biased, on everything involving Donald Trump.
And sadly, they have missed the biggest story of their lifetimes while they have been obsessing over a Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy theory where there is no evidence. And now, that the liberal media has been exposed, they are lashing out at people like me. We've been right.
It's no wonder there is a new poll from Monmouth University showing that 77 percent of you the American people believe the traditional media in this country reports fake news because they do. And at this point, it's pretty much to be expected, but we can promise you, we're always going to fight back against their extreme bias and their lying.
All right. Joining us now is Fox News investigative reporter Sara Carter, Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett.
All right, Sara, let's go into your piece today. I left out some of the details. I'll let you fill in the gaps.
SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, congressional investigators have discovered, you know, once again, another trove of text messages between Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, the two FBI agents. And what these text messages in particular reveal that the FBI may have been improperly coordinated with Department of Justice officials to try to expedite FISA applications on Carter Page.
And what was interesting about this, Sean, is that if you look at it, they talk about David Laufman. Now, he hasn't come up quite frequently at all in the media. David Laufman was a DOJ prosecutor. Strzok is talking to Lisa Page about David Laufman. He was in charge of the Hillary Clinton investigation on the DOJ side. He was a very senior official, in charge of national security, as well as Russia.
And Peter Strzok tells Lisa Page basically, look, you know, I'm upset with Laufman, Laufman is trying to explain why things aren't moving past enough in the eastern district of Virginia, probably referencing that, you know, the area where all the subpoenas had been issued by Mueller and the FISA application isn't moving fast enough. So, it kind of shows this buildup.
They also noticed that White House logs actually correlated with some of these text messages. So, as they were discussing this back and forth, they bring up another guy from the DOJ. Matthew Axelrod, he's a DOJ prosecutor who is involved in the case. They talk about him.
They talk about the frustration, they talk about Andy McCabe may be coming under fire or by some of these folks at the DOJ for the supposed information that was in the application.
And then they say, two days later after these text messages are exchanged, Matthew Axelrod actually goes to the White House and signs the visitors log and actually visits President Trump.
I think what we're looking at here is little pieces of the puzzle. How much did people in the White House know? Did the president know about this investigation himself?
What we do know now is based on information that came out last week, is that very senior members in the FBI, the CIA, and in the White House, were well aware of this investigation early on and may have coordinated.
HANNITY: Gregg?
GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I think the big news really comes out of the court documents. Thanks to Manafort's attorneys, we now know that Rosenstein admits that he wrote intentionally a vague order in his appointment of Mueller trying to mislead the American public.
HANNITY: Intentionally vague to mislead.
JARRETT: Right. To mislead and disguise what it is they were doing. He didn't realize or anticipate that Manafort's lawyer is going to say, wait a minute, this violates the special counsel law. And they go to a judge and make a motion to dismiss.
So, now, we find out that in addition to writing this vague memo, they secretly -- Rosenstein -- secretly writes a specific memo and hides it from the American public, authorizing the Manafort investigation.
HANNITY: Is he conflicted because he reauthorized the FISA warrant against a Trump campaign associate and appointed Mueller?
JARRETT: Both, yes. And the other interesting thing is, look at the date on his secret memo authorizing the Manafort investigation. It's a full week after Mueller ordered the raid on Manafort's home in the predawn hours.
HANNITY: It sounds like a CYA to me, counselor.
JARRETT: Exactly. It's exactly what they did. They realized after the fact that, wait a minute, we may have violated a special counsel law.
HANNITY: Did they violate it?
JARRETT: Oh, absolutely. The law says you have to specifically identify facts and because it's a criminal investigation, identify a crime.
HANNITY: And also, and the Attorney General Sessions didn't recuse himself from this part.
JARRETT: No.
HANNITY: Wouldn't that be something that he has to involve himself in?
JARRETT: Well, he recused himself from anything related to a Russian meddling in the campaign.
HANNITY: All right. Unbelievable.
Real quick, Sara, I can hear you --
CARTER: Well, I just want to say, but who holds them accountable? Who will hold Rosenstein accountable? Mueller accountable? Those are the questions we really need to ask now.
JARRETT: That's why you need a second special counsel to investigate the investigators.
HANNITY: You don't like -- Jonathan Turley said this may end up working faster for Trump by appointing this Utah prosecutor.
JARRETT: It could because he is, as Turley points out, armed with the ability to issue warrants and subpoenas and interview witnesses.
HANNITY: Go faster than a special counsel's long investigation.
JARRETT: Exactly, exactly.
HANNITY: All right. Thank you, both. I appreciate it.
When we come back, Dan Bongino, Sebastian Gorka, Geraldo Rivera, on the president's plan. He's sending the military to guard your border. You don't want to mess that fiery debate.
And Alan Dershowitz in the studio straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The Mexican border is very unprotected by our laws. We have horrible, horrible and very unsafe laws of the United States and we are going to be able to do something about that hopefully soon. Hopefully, Congress will get their act together and get in and create some very powerful laws, like Mexico has, and like Canada has, and like almost all countries have.
We don't have laws. We have catch and release. You catch and then you immediately release and people come back years later for a court case, except they virtually never come back. So, what we are preparing for the military to secure our border between Mexico and the United States. We have a meeting on it in a little while with General Mattis and everybody, and I think that it's something we have to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: President Trump earlier today responding to a question about his plan to send National Guard troops in the military to protect our southern borders.
Here with reaction, NRA TV contributor, former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino, FOX News national security strategy Sebastian Gorka, author of the brand-new, soon-to-be 'New York Times' best seller, 'The Geraldo Show: A Memoir', and I had the honor of hosting a party for Geraldo last night, even though we disagree with this issue, correspondent at large Geraldo Rivera.
All right. Geraldo, if you are going to have a caravan of people planning to confront basically every border agent, this is now a national security threats. Every agent will be at risk. Mexico is allowing this to happen when they usually just throw people in Central America out or in jail.
And if Mexico does this, they are -- or allows this, they are responsible for anything that happens at the border if people become violent in my opinion. Your reaction?
GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT AT LARGE: First of all, you are not promoting a civil war. Otherwise, you wouldn't be friends with me.
(LAUGHTER)
RIVERA: I embrace your gracious generosity and your hospitality and thank you so much for the party.
HANNITY: We had the best time, thank you.
RIVERA: Fantastic for the book.
I just think that this whole story of the caravan is tremendously hyped. For the last 10 years, this group, Pueblo Sin Fronteras, People Without Borders, has been organizing this Easter time marches to demonstrate the needs of people to leave their homelands, in this case, Honduras, to flee and they want a regulated approach. They want more immigrant rights and all the rest of it.
This caravan was larger than most of them. But it's 1,000 miles from the U.S. border. It's already come as you said, breaking up, the caravan is disbanding.
HANNITY: Only because the president threatened Mexico, though.
RIVERA: Well, it could be, that that's what put pressure on it to stop it right there. But the women and children that comprise most of this group, they had no way of getting to the U.S. border. They have no money.
They have nothing. They are fleeing some severe economic repression.
HANNITY: Dr. Gorka, if they don't stop this and that group of people gets to the border, it's going to be Mexico's fault if anything happens, because you don't know when you have crowds like that. And people saying publicly they think they have a right to come in here illegally.
SEBASTIAN GORKA, FOX NEWS NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGIST: Legally, it's Mexico's responsibility. And any nation that they traversed on their way to America, because if you are seeking asylum, if you're not just coming here for our economy, for our benefits, then you have to seek asylum in the first country that provides it after you leave your country. This is either a political stunt or these people are simply being used. And, look, Geraldo mentioned it. What's the name of the organization? People without borders. This is an ideological movement. Remember what Hillary said in that speech to the bankers, the transcript of which was leaked during the campaign. She said her dream was to have a borderless hemisphere. No boarders from Canada right down to South America. That's the left globalist idea. In that case, America ceases to exist.
HANNITY: Yeah. Dan, I've got to be honest. We need to send the military down there. There's precedence to send the military down and this is a national security issue.
DAN BONGINO, NRATV CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah. Sean, we didn't militarize the border. The Narco traffickers and the terrorists looking to kill us did. Trump is just responding to that. You know, I disagree with Geraldo here, too. This isn't hyped, Geraldo. You know, listen, you know this, as well as I do. Let's not run from this. Terrorists in international groups coming from the tri-border region in South America that have used the corridor from Central America into the United States to funnel drugs, to launder money, and to sneak terrorists, potentially, into the United States. They know about our porous borders, Geraldo.
RIVERA: That's not true. That's not true.
BONGINO: No, no.
RIVERA: There's not been one verified terrorist penetration of the southern border, that's number one. These are women and children.
BONGINO: Geraldo, did you read the project.
(CROSSTALK)
BONGINO: Geraldo, did you read the project.
(CROSSTALK)
RIVERA: I've spent more time on that border.
(CROSSTALK)
BONGINO: Geraldo, you should read.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: One at a time. One at a time.
RIVERA: This is about the border wall. This is a negotiation. I think people are being hoodwinked. This is a negotiation. President Trump wants the border wall. We want the dreamers to have a path to citizenship.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: One at a time. Dan?
BONGINO: What about us? Do we get a say? You know, I find it interesting. You always talk about illegal immigration in terms of the effect on the illegal. What about the American population? The tax payer financing this nonsense. What about the legal immigrants, Geraldo, who patiently waited in line?
RIVERA: As I have proven, these people.
(CROSSTALK)
BONGINO: You only talk about in terms of the illegals.
HANNITY: All right. Let's give Dr. Gorka the last word. I'm not trying - - we're just constraints of time.
GORKA: Look, Dan's point is a very important one. And the people who are hurt the most are Americans. And the person at the bottom of the ladder is the recently arrived immigrant. And they are harm the most by illegal aliens. And that's just.
RIVERA: We have zero unemployment. How are they hurting? How are they hurting? We have zero unemployment in this country.
GORKA: Because they come in, they work.
(CROSSTALK)
GORKA: Can I answer? They will work for a fraction of what somebody who is here legally, like myself is. They will undercut because they'll be paid cash under the table, and that hurts real Americans who are here legally.
RIVERA: Compromise, build the border wall, give the Dreamers a chance for citizenship.
GORKA: Build the wall.
HANNITY: All right, we've got to leave it there. Thank you, all.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Congrats on the book, Geraldo. All right. When we come back, Ed Henry on how the rest of Washington is reacting to the president's military plan. Also, Jesse Watters, Jessica Tarlov, whose world will it be? Alan Dershowitz, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: So, the president's bold plan to use the U.S. military to guard our southern border until the much needed wall is complete is causing a stir in both Washington and in Mexico tonight. Joining us live from the White House with more, Fox News chief national correspondent, never a dull moment, Ed Henry.
ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Nonstop, Sean. Good to see you tonight. The bottom line is, we've heard the president in recent days ramping up the rhetoric on illegal immigration as a caravan moves through Central America toward the U.S. border. What's new tonight is that the president is now promising dramatic action to back up those words by using the American military to help secure the southern border until the wall is built. What he did today is he convened a meeting with Defense Secretary James Mattis, other top cabinet military officials to say that in the absence of action by congress, he wants executive action. The cracked down on illegal immigration, drugs, violent gangs coming from Mexico and elsewhere in Central America.
Tonight, White House officials are making very clear the president is talking about mobilizing the National Guard to secure the southern border, not active duty military. That's prohibited by law because active duty military cannot get involved in domestic law enforcement actions like apprehensions at the border. Yet, there was a bit of a freak out from some Democrats like Congressman Ruben Gallego of Arizona who tweeted today, quote, real Donald Trump wants to use our troops to advance his extreme anti-immigrant agenda, while wasting time, resources and money, and depleting our military's strength in areas of real danger. Congress must stop this misguided scheme. --... What he and other Democrats seem to have missed is that then President Barack Obama in 2010, George W. Bush in 2006, they did similar things. The Obama administration sent 1200 National Guard troops to the southern border to assist border patrol and immigration officials amid concerns about drug trafficking. They've provided intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance. The Bush administration launched operation jump-start, 6,000 members of the guard for engineering, road and fence building. What the president today seemed to be saying that's different. He says he may be looking at a more aggressive approach where the National Guard, perhaps, takes on a more direct law enforcement role.
Plus, a senior official here, tonight, saying the number of National Guard troops will be, quote, unquote, substantial, suggesting, at least, a larger number than we've ever seen before. We're going to have to, obviously, fact-check that and see how it plays out. Now, as you noted, the reaction from Mexico, swift and negative. Vicente Fox, the former president saying, real Donald Trump, to militarized the southern border as you provoked more hate and distance even further between our nations, somebody has to talk some sense into him. He's elevating his hate towards Mexico causing a greater conflict. The current Mexican government, by the way, sent an official request to the White House late today saying they want clarification on what the president's remarks really mean for this relationship. And we're told that the homeland security secretary for the president has been in touch on.
HANNITY: All right. Ed Henry at the White House, tonight. Joining us now with reaction, the cohost of The Five, Watters' World, it's his world we're living in. Fox News -- how that thing go again? OK. Fox News contributor.
JESSICA TARLOV, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: You didn't even say my name, by the way.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: Jessica, everybody knows you. Vicente Fox is full of crap, because he used to send people from Central America back to the country they came from after he put them in jail, and there was no deportation, no rights, right back to where they came from, so how does he get to lecture us?
TARLOV: I don't know. I enjoy his twitter feed, but I think that is a valid point. He's not in office anymore.
HANNITY: You must really love President Trump's twitter feed.
TARLOV: No, I don't even follow him. But, obviously, I see it around.
HANNITY: You're missing a lot.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
TARLOV: No, I understand that argument from Vicente Fox. But, also, if you look at who is in this, quote, caravan, you have the elderly, you have infants, you have people.
HANNITY: Here we go.
JESSE WATTERS, THE FIVE CO-HOST: Listen, you want to be compassionate but you want to be smart, too? This caravan is a stunt. They've been doing it for six years. This is the first time they've derailed the caravan because President Trump said knock it off to the Mexican government. And what happens is the caravan goes to one sector and it draws all our border patrol agents there, and then they coyotes to sneak around the other side. It's set up. You want to be smart, but you have to be tough.
TARLOV: I think that that's totally fine. But we have the lowest level of illegal border -- apprehensions at the border since 1971.
WATTERS: Three hundred thousand they caught at the border. That's not a small number.
TARLOV: Out of the country, which we haven't had before. President Obama was the deporter-in-chief. I don't know why you guys don't love him for that.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: Deporter-in-chief?
TARLOV: That was his nickname.
HANNITY: OK.
TARLOV: What?
HANNITY: How many people a year are coming across the border?
WATTERS: That's 300,000 people they're catching at the border. And think about the ones they're not catching.
TARLOV: Lowest level since 1971.
WATTERS: I think 300,000 is not a low-level.
HANNITY: I've been to the drug warehouses. I've been there when gang members were arrested. We have the videotapes.
TARLOV: That sounds scary.
HANNITY: And, you know what, if somebody can come to across because they want a job and our border is open, so too can a terrorist that wants to destroy an American city.
TARLOV: Right. But how often is that what's actually happening.
HANNITY: Why are you willing to risk?
(CROSSTALK)
TARLOV: I'm not. But you're also acting as if our borders are just completely open.
WATTERS: Pretty much.
TARLOV: It's a complete fallacy.
WATTERS: The border patrol themselves, they wants a wall. I thought the Democrats supported workers. If the workers are saying let's have a wall, let's give them a wall.
TARLOV: It's a massive infrastructure project. Listen, I believe.
WATTERS: I thought you guys liked infrastructure?
TARLOV: Don't put it in quote. It's real.
WATTERS: Don't you want infrastructure?
(CROSSTALK)
TARLOV: And there are a lot of Democrats who have been on record and are currently on record saying we will certainly work with the president on a wall system. But this idea.
HANNITY: Wall system, not a wall.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: You know, we were alone, but I never thought we were alone. Same thing.
TARLOV: That's hilarious.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
TARLOV: You two love talking to each other.
WATTERS: I mean, listen, Jessica, let me make this point. In your apartment, do you have a wall system? No, you have a wall. It's to keep people from coming in. You don't let people come in to your place at night.
TARLOV: Got to give the boyfriend out on the living room, right?
WATTERS: Right. But the boyfriend knocks, you open it up, oh, it's my boyfriend, you let him in. You don't just lead in a stranger have to sleep in your apartment and not pay rent.
TARLOV: Yeah. I get this on twitter all the time. Like, how many illegals do you have coming to stay in your apartment? Blah, blah, blah.
WATTERS: Maybe we should send the caravan to your house.
TARLOV: That's really nice, yeah. I'm not giving my address. But, when you look at the statistics.
HANNITY: Why not?
TARLOV: Is that true? I'm afraid of weirdos.
(CROSSTALK)
TARLOV: Not illegal weirdos, American citizen weirdos.
HANNITY: Would you invite illegals to live with you?
TARLOV: I really don't think that saying that the 11 million who are here already and who work hard.
HANNITY: I've said if you live in San Diego would you let illegals live with you?
TARLOV: I wouldn't let anyone live with me.
WATTERS: Oh, so why should the country let them come in?
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: It's his world, we're living in it. Alan Dershowitz on the Mueller's witch hunt in studio, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. As we continue, famed Harvard law professor, Alan Dershowitz, has long called for Mueller's witch hunt to come to an end. And now, he's even comparing the special counsel investigation to the tactics of the former Soviet Union. Joining us now to explain, author of the new book, Trumped Up, how criminalization of political differences endangered democracy. You know, I notice you get attacked, but you've been very consistent on the special counsel on the criminalization of political differences.
ALAN DERSHOWITZ, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL PROFESSOR: Oh, yeah. Today, we see that Mueller announces that one of the things that he's going to go after Trump for, and Rosenstein says he can do it, is collusion. Now, he's inventing a crime. There's no such crime as collusion in the federal statute. You can't just make up crimes. Nobody likes collusion. If collusion had occurred, and there's no evidence it did, if collusion had occurred it would've been a political sin. But neither Rosenstein nor Mueller can simply magically make up a crime and say now collusion is a crime. You want to make collusion a crime in the future? Pass a statute. It's not on the books.
HANNITY: What about the violation of the special counsel law that Greg Jarrett was talking about? And I think it's interesting, one week after Paul Manafort's home is raided, and his poor wife is thrown into handcuffs, which wasn't necessary, that's typical Andrew Weissmann tactics, but a week after, Rosenstein then authorizes Mueller to do it.
DERSHOWITZ: There is something very wrong with that. You know, the special counsel should have very narrow jurisdiction. And it should be set out in advance so everybody can see it and know it. You know the constitution jokes about ex-post-facto criminal laws. The policies behind that are fair warning and constraining the government. And the government, when you have a special prosecutor, should know and everybody should know. What he's entitled to and what he's not entitled to look at. This special prosecutor is going to look at everything. He's beginning to look at President Trump's personal financial matters before he was president. Will he start looking at the women who were alleging actions against him? Where does it stop? We know that the Clinton special counsel started with Whitewater and ended up with the blue dress, and that's wrong.
HANNITY: Where does -- Jonathan Turley, a smart law professor, also on the other side, politically, than where I am, he made a good point. He thought the appointment by the attorney general of the prosecutor, Huber, that actually helps Trump because it moves so much faster.
DERSHOWITZ: I agree with that. And first of all, that's what should have happened when special counsel was appointed. They shouldn't have appointed a special counsel in the beginning. They should've had somebody within the justice department, look at it initially, look at the whole issue of Russian involvement in the election, and then, if it looked like there was evidence of crimes that couldn't be investigated by the justice department, then maybe.
HANNITY: You think the attorney general has a right?
DERSHOWITZ: As what?
HANNITY: Has a right by doing it this way?
DERSHOWITZ: Oh, I think this time he has a right. Now, the other problem, of course, is Rosenstein. I don't know how he remains on this case. He is the major witness that any decent Trump lawyer calls. He's the guy who wrote the memo. The first question you want to ask him if there's an obstruction of justice investigation is, how can there be obstruction of justice? Yeah. You wrote the memo authorizing the firing. How is he in the case?
HANNITY: Also, he renewed the FISA application.
DERSHOWITZ: Yeah.
HANNITY: And then, he appointed Mueller. So, he's conflicted on a thousand different ways. All right. Here's what we disagree. I argue that Hillary Clinton violated 18 USC 793. She didn't want congressional oversight, mishandling of classified information. Then she subpoenaed emails or deleted 33,000, then acid washing the hard drive, and then beating up your devices.
DERSHOWITZ: As a result of that, she lost the election. Because Comey investigated it and said there was no crime, but what she did was careless. Don't you think that's the appropriate way to deal with this.
HANNITY: If you're my defense attorney, I love you, but is it careless when you acid wash your hard drive, delete subpoenaed emails, and beat the crap out of your blackberry?
DERSHOWITZ: Well, she didn't do that, of course. Other people did it. And the question is was she appropriately investigated? And was the decision a correct one not to proceed.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Lisa Page, and Peter Strzok, and James Comey, and Andrew McCabe, and Loretta Lynch meeting Bill on the tarmac. Look, I don't like to fix.
DERSHOWITZ: I don't like any of that. I think Bill Clinton made a terrible mistake having that meeting because that's what led to the attorney general recusing herself leading to Comey taking over the investigation, leading to the statement he made, leading to her losing the election.
HANNITY: Strzok and Comey writing the exoneration months before they interviewed her or 17 other key witnesses?
DERSHOWITZ: It's worth looking into.
HANNITY: It sounds like a fixes.
DERSHOWITZ: It's not a special counsel, but it's worth looking into again. Maybe a political sin, but not a federal crime.
HANNITY: OK. But if you write an exoneration before the investigation.
DERSHOWITZ: Not a crime.
HANNITY: It sounds like a fixes in. That would be an obstruction, wouldn't it?
DERSHOWITZ: No. First of all, I don't think the attorney general can obstruct justice by.
HANNITY: I'm not talking about the attorney general. I'm talking about the FBI director.
DERSHOWITZ: It's a stretch. And I don't want to stretch the criminal law. You've exposed it, let the people judge. Let the public judge. I don't think appointing another special counsel makes up for the mistake of appointing the first special counsel.
HANNITY: Thank you, professor. When we come back, President Trump embarrassed the fake news media at the White House. We'll show you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right, time for the video of the day. President Trump called out fake news networks during today's joint presser with Baltic leaders. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Pick a reporter, please. You can pick a reporter. A Baltic reporter, ideally. Real news, not fake news. Go ahead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Very entertaining. Time for the Hannity hotline.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love you, Hannity. But please do me a big favor put your hands in your lap and hold them tight. Almost every word you say you've got to use your hand. I've even watched some of your guests, Sarah Carter right now. I don't see her hands flying every word. Please do me that favor. Bye-bye.
UNINDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Hannity, great show. Run for president in 2024. You will be elected.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: OK. I'm going to run. My hands are not moving. Have anything to say to me? Hannity hotline, good or bad, 877-225-8587. That is all the time we have left this evening. We'll always be fair and balanced. We're not the destroy Trumped media in any way, shape, matter, or form. We have a couple of big reports coming up this week. We hope you'll stay tuned for that. Let not your heart be troubled, Jason Chaffetz is in for Laura.
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