Hannity: Truth and facts matter, just not to Democrats

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Hannity: Truth and facts matter, just not to Democrats

Trump says impeachment should be expunged because it was a 'political hoax.'

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," February 7, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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

Tonight, we are at the end of what has been a decisive week of wins for President Donald Trump. In a span of just a few short days, the president delivered the most powerful State of the Union Address I have witnessed in my adult lifetime. And oh, yes, the impeachment witch-hunt totally implodes.

The president exonerated forever, petty Pelosi.

While her months of -- this long charade culminating what was a pathetic, nationally televised, petulant, temper tantrum. Look at your screen. This is what the modern radical Democratic Party has achieved in three-plus years with their nonstop rage, resistance, their witch hunts, conspiracy theories and lies. A few ripped up pieces of paper and that's it.

Now, petty Pelosi, well, she's not exactly a master strategist. You can see and we witnessed this week -- she is an angry, bitter, mumbling, bumbling sore loser and likely will, in fact, go down in history as the worse speaker of House that we have ever seen.

One thing is a certainty tonight -- we can say this -- her days as speaker are now numbered. And once again, we were right all along, and the media mob, or as usual, wrong again, raising the hopes, the expectations of their dwindling audiences, yet, again, only to disappoint them yet again with more fake news.

Now, of course, this impeachment charade, the Schumer-Schiff sham show would end in utter failure. But they were raising the expectations of their -- well, small audience viewers.

Another huge loser in all of this -- well, that would be quid and pro and quo Joe, and his zero experience son Hunter was being paid millions.

Now, despite the attempted, hypocritical, double standard cover-up by the Democrats and their allies in the media mob, we, in this program, were correct. We told you the truth.

Joe, Hunter, guess what? They engaged in nothing short of what was a shady, sleazy, and, yes, we believe criminal potentially, illegal behavior in the country of Ukraine.

We were also correct that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 elections to help Hillary Clinton. Don't believe me? Let's look at the January 11, 2017 investigative report in "Politico".

And by the way, that conclusion also came about election interference by Ukraine separate and apart from Russia from a Ukrainian court.

Just like when we were correct in reporting that high ranking government officials abused their power and committed FISA abuse. We were right that the Trump campaign was illegally spied on by members of an opposing party at the height of the election with deep state operatives behind almost all of it.

We were correct that Hillary Clinton -- yes, Russian interference -- she bought and paid for the dirty, unverifiable Russian dossier, we now know full of a pack of lies. In other words, there was Russian propaganda used by the Democrats. Even "The New York Times" finally got the picture and they pointed out. we now have reason to believe, as they said, it was likely Russian disinformation all along.

Make no mistake: we were right about the deep state, which was chockfull of Trump-hating Obama holdovers. Two of these anti-Trump bureaucrats were removed from the White House, thankfully, earlier today. Both Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman and his twin brother, they were escorted out of the White House complex. Good for the president.

And you might remember Lieutenant Colonel Vindman was trashing the president during his testimony in the House and rebuked the administration's policy in Ukraine.

Mr. Vindman, you want to be in charge of foreign policy, why don't you try and run for president?

Then, we find out his twin brother was assigned to the office that was vetting publications from government employees, like John Bolton's book. Although at this time, we don't have the evidence that he handled the Bolton book, but I have my suspicions.

It is clear, President Trump is draining the swamp and this is what it looks like, and for good reason. We have been right every step of the way. The media mob has been wrong.

Nothing we have reported has even remotely been disproven. We now have the inspector general, that's Horowitz's report, vindicating the reporting we've done for almost three straight years on this program. It doesn't seem to matter to the radical Democratic Party and their co-conspirators, state run media mob.

But that doesn't matter to the radical Democratic Party either in any way. They don't care about the truth. They all live in this bubble.

They never question their own narratives. They never listen to opposing viewpoints. Most of them don't even probably have conservative friends. They hate this show.

But thank you for making us number one. We want to live up to your expectations every day. And telling you the truth matters to us. Getting the facts matters to us.

But to our -- well, colleagues in the media, they don't seem to care. And we know that they frequently mistake their own far left opinions as undisputed facts. They actually say in their own heads they're journalists.

They're -- no, they're not journalists in any way, shape, matter or form. They're blindsided by all their failures and their prejudices and political points of view.

This impeachment sham is but the latest example, and, by the way, it was never going to be successful. And today, the president pointed out the charade is now completely and totally and utterly dead and meaningless.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Should they expunge your impeachment?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They should because it was a hoax. That's a very good question. Should they expunge the impeachment in the House? They should because it was a hoax. It was a total political hoax.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Yes, this latest impeachment hoax might now be in the rearview mirror but the lying, the smears, the besmirchment, the conspiracy theories, they never end.

Just today, the president scored a massive victory in the courts. We have a three-judge panel unanimously throwing out a frivolous lawsuit bought by more than 200 Democratic members of Congress. They lost again. The president is not sick of winning.

The suit alleged the president was improperly profiting from his time in the White House. He actually loses money by working in the White House.

But the court ruled lawmakers didn't have any legal standing to proceed with their claims.

And meanwhile rage filled, delusional Democratic lawmakers are now pressing forward with a have a variety of frivolous investigations, more investigations, endless investigations, more conspiracy theories, more talk already of impeachment against the president.

A brand new effort to subpoena John Bolton. Here we go again. This is not over.

Now, there is one way I have figured out that you can end all of this. The nonstop lying, the smearing, the slander, the besmirchment, conspiracy theories, witch hunts, the hoax, there's one way you can do it.

In 270 days, you will be the ultimate jury. And, by the way, you don't ever have to waste your time watching any fake news in the future. You can just turn that -- tune them out, like most people are.

The way to stop this from ever happening again and continuing in 270 days, you will be the ultimate jury. You get to take back control of your country.

Now, if you like President Trump, and you'd like to see him be able to work with a little bit of peace and not having these constant, you know, threats hanging over his head, 24 hours a day, every day of the week -- well, when you vote for him, you might want to vote for Republican congressmen, and Republican senators.

To the do-nothing Democrats, do you really think they deserve your trust?

And, by the way, it's now more clear than ever that the Trump agenda, as we saw on Tuesday night, a massive success. Despite the never ending nonstop radical resistance, our economy is breaking record after record and booming.

January jobs numbers. Get that. They beat all expectations yet again. A whopping 225,000 new jobs added.

Even "The New York Times," they were forced to admit wages for African- Americans is on the rise after a decade of stagnation. That would be under Biden-Obama.

Today, President Trump celebrated America's undeniable economic success. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This morning, the brand new jobs numbers came in. We smashed expectations and created 225,000 new jobs last month -- 225,000. They were thinking maybe 100, maybe 105. I was watching all the geniuses this morning on television.

What do you think it's going to be? It's going to be 110 -- 225. Pretty good, right? Two hundred and twenty-five thousand for last month, that's only last month.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: That's 225,000 new jobs for our American family. How great is that?

A booming economy, only one part of the successful Trump agenda. We'll scroll it for you. Take a look. We've been the only show on TV apparently that ever does it.

But also under this commander-in-chief, the ISIS caliphate has been destroyed, utterly decimated. Oh, ISIS leader al-Baghdadi and his top lieutenant, they're all dead. Iran's top terrorist, the number one state sponsor of terror led by this guy Soleimani, he's dead, too. And now the White House has confirmed that al Qaeda's top leader in Yemen was killed in a U.S. airstrike ordered by President Trump.

Over the past three years, this president has been an effective leader by every measure. The State of the Union, well, is remarkably strong.

And the same cannot be said for the Democratic Party. Well, look at their very first caucus, an utter, complete disaster. You want to entrust the government to them, they couldn't even run a caucus in Iowa. It has taken them the entire week to count a few thousand votes and the results are still riddled with errors and inconsistencies and nobody believes them anyway.

And meanwhile, a multi-front civil war is erupting inside the Democratic Party. This is getting entertaining.

According to a "Politico" report, Elizabeth Warren supporters, they are now accusing Mayor Pete Buttigieg of white male privilege for declaring victory in Iowa.

And both Warren and Mayor Pete, they're losing to socialist Bernie Sanders in a new Morning Consult poll.

And, of course, the DNC is now looking for new ways -- well, to rig the primary election against Bernie yet again. Remember Donna Brazile -- she made the phone call, she was upset. She didn't want to make it. Yes, they rigged it against Bernie the first time. Now, it looks like they're trying to do it again.

His campaign is accusing the Democratic Party of changing the rules, which they did, to allow Mike Bloomberg into future debates without meeting fundraising requirements -- you know, like 250,000 unique donors. Bloomberg worth, what, an estimated $55 billion -- well, he's planning on spending more than a billion to buy the Democratic nomination.

Now, his campaign is facing, today -- you can't make this up -- plagiarism charges. As a matter of fact, eight separate instances. "The Intercept" first reported that passages in at least eight of Bloomberg's policy proposals were directly copied from various media outlets, including fake news, CNN, "Time" magazine, CBS. Of course, he'd be in alignment with the most liberal news organizations in the country.

I guess there's one thing money doesn't buy, and that's honesty. And I guess he just figures -- well, let's take what they have. I don't know what I really believe. I'll say whatever I need to say.

If I were a Democratic voter, I think I'd feel very discouraged about now the party is in complete disarray. The candidates are weak. They are radical, they are uninspiring.

The president's agenda is a massive success. And in 270 days, it will be the American people that will decide whether we continue peace and prosperity -- and that means economic success and that means safety and security of our country.

Or do we want to turn it over to the Democrats?

Well, we did have the Obama years and we did drop $150 billion in cash and other currency on the tarmacs of mullahs in Iran that chant "death to America". We did, after eight years of Biden-Obama, have 13 million more Americans on food stamps, 8 million more on poverty, and lowest labor participation rate since the 1970s. And, yes, Obama-Biden accumulated more debt than all 43 presidents before them combined.

By the way, now, they want to take it into a deeper socialist hell hole. You are the ultimate jury, you can shock the world, 270 days.

Joining us now, White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham.

All right. A lot of things happened this week. A lot of losers of the week. Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, losers, big time. Democratic Party, disaster.

President, big winner, State of the Union Address, great economic numbers, that continues to go on.

And the media, I would argue, again, caught building false expectations for their audiences. And I don't think people realize -- they are losing viewers by the millions. Nobody watches these stupid Sunday shows, for example.

STEPHANIE GRISHAM, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I couldn't agree with you more.

You know, listening to you, it just occurred to me that I think the week could be summed up pretty simply that the president does continue to smash expectations, and meanwhile, the Dems, led by Nancy Pelosi, are literally ripping up pieces of paper. That's what they have to show for this week.

Speaking of the media, we are coming off a very, very successful week. Obviously, the State of the Union was one of the strongest any president has ever given, and then the complete vindication -- vindication of our president, and then our amazing jobs numbers.

I've got to tell you -- there is not going to be one White House official on any of the Sunday shows this weekend. Only FOX Business is taking a White House official to talk about what an amazing week this president's had. And I do find that timing very, very suspect.

HANNITY: Well, hang on. You're saying they're not even inviting, they don't want to invite anybody from the White House? Why?

Because they would point out that the president was completely vindicated. They would point out the economic success. They would point to his State of the Union Address.

They would point out petty Pelosi ripping up her papers that she apparently pre-planned because she was doing little rips to make sure that the pre- planned rip would go well.

GRISHAM: Uh-huh.

HANNITY: So, they don't want to talk to anybody?

GRISHAM: It's actually worse than that, it's not that they didn't invite us. It's that they turned us down.

We offered up senior White House officials to every Sunday show and they turned us down, and even cancelled -- your own network cancelled me.

So, not one Sunday show is going to have us on aside from FOX Business.

HANNITY: Well, if I had a Sunday show, I would invite you.

GRISHAM: Thank you.

HANNITY: But here's the dirty little -- I hate to tell -- dirty little secret, when Tim Russert, Brinkley, they had real audiences, and real respect.

Tim Russert, there's no better -- no better Sunday show host than him. And he was fair. And he asked hard questions of both sides.

Those days are long gone but, by the way, Stephanie, so are the audiences. Here's a dirt little secret, nobody watches those shows. We on this show get four times what a lot of these shows get, the viewership, every night.

GRISHAM: I agree and, you know, our comms team has been working accordingly and focusing on the shows that do get ratings and certainly giving a lot of attention to regional and local TV, which is where the real Americans are, and I think the real Americans who are coming from home from work and picking up their kids from day care, and going home and cooking dinner and doing homework. They're watching their local news. So, that's something the White House has been very focused on.

HANNITY: Well, it's been a pretty impressive week for the White House.

Stephanie Grisham, thank you for being with us. And you -- if you -- if I need to, I guess I'll have to host a Sunday show. I don't know. Thank you.

After a pathetic fourth place finish in Iowa, quid pro quo Joe and his presidential campaign, they are finally beginning to see the handwriting on the wall. They are reeling, but that might be the least of his worries. As we reported last night, the U.S. Treasury Department is now fully cooperating with a U.S. Senate investigation into the zero experience Hunter and his sketchy activity in Ukraine.

Here now with reaction is the former acting attorney general, Matt Whitaker.

Matt, I've identified a number of statutes on this program that I think very well would have been violated prima facie case. Certainly, a president who has a worn oath and duty to faithfully execute the laws, asking that question seems to me like he was fulfilling that part of his oath.

MATT WHITAKER, FORMER ACTING UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, it's very concerning. One of the things the Senate asked for the suspicious activity reports that the Treasury Department collects from big banks when bank employees see transactions that don't quite add up. And it sounds like there are some of these SARs, they are called, that were turned over to the Senate committee and the chairman.

And so, I'm going to be very interested in what those show. If transactions that Hunter Biden was involved in between the Ukraine and the United States banks raised flag at those banks, that could tip off some really concerning activity on behalf of Hunter.

HANNITY: I've read and I put up on the screen here, the Bribery Act, Foreign Corruptions Act, basically says if you entice any government official or any American that's using anything of value to entice an official action, I know for a fact that that would be a violation. When I look at the Bribery Act, if a thing of value, if you cause an official action, do you see those statutes? You were former acting attorney general.

WHITAKER: I do.

HANNITY: Do those statutes apply in your mind?

WHITAKER: The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is a very strong act that is used to really end corruption in other countries because the United States values clean and fair transactions and make sure that bribes aren't paid to foreign officials for official action. And those acts are very much in play here.

And, again, if Hunter Biden, if these SARs show that he was involved in these types of transactions, I would fully expect not only the Senate to be interested in this but also the Department of Justice.

HANNITY: Well, I would think -- now, how is it though that when Adam Schiff talked about, we have new evidence. That's Parvas (ph), whatever his name is, whoever he is, Parnas, he actually said, but Joe and Hunter are -- you know, they're off the hook.

If you're saying, I'm going to leverage, I'm going to shake down Ukraine, you're not getting a billion dollars, unless you fire this guy, an official act, the prosecutor, that's investigating his zero experience -- his own words tell us -- zero experience with Ukraine, oil, gas, energy son who is paid millions and millions of dollars.

A couple questions here. Why would a vice president of the United States, you know, blackmail, is that the right word, encourage them to commit certain acts? I'd like to know -- do you see anything wrong with that?

And why would any company ever pay anybody with no experience millions of dollars? That doesn't make any sense, Matt. I'm just a simple guy.

WHITAKER: It does -- Sean, it doesn't. And one of the things that even Adam Schiff has to admit is that the gas company in Ukraine was corrupt. And they hired Hunter Biden for what reason? Because he was the son of the vice president.

Everyone agrees with those facts. Even Hunter admitted that on national TV.

And so, you know, if you have a corrupt company that is hiring the vice president's son to help and then that investigation into that corrupt company and this vice president's son's relationship with that company is ended by that same vice president -- I mean, that smells -- not only does it smell, but you point out that might be even a prima facie case for criminal violation.

HANNITY: All right. Matt Whitaker, thank you for being with us.

We will stay on that issue. Because, if we don't stay on the issue, that would be -- well, a dual justice system. We need equal justice and application of our laws. It's that's simple.

Very thing they accuse President Trump of -- quid pro quo Joe, zero experience Hunter were up to their eyeballs in and wasn't only Ukraine as we pointed out.

And while the 2020 race is heating up, one failed former Republican nominee is reportedly facing scorn and isolation from his own party.

Senator Mitt Romney is now reportedly ostracized from his own party after casting the sole Republican vote to convict. And I'm told by my sources that he promised the entire Senate Republican caucus that he was not going to do this just the week before.

Here with more, New York Congressman Lee Zeldin, former California Congressman Darrell Issa.

Darrell Issa, I hear a rumor you might be going back to Congress? Is that true? Because I didn't want to you leave.

DARRELL ISSA, FORMER CALIFORNIA CONGRESSMAN: Well, I'm heading back after hung jury Bob Menendez blocked my nomination for Trade Development Agency.

I've got the best job in the world to go back to. I'll be back in Congress, and, quite frankly, back at the top of the Judiciary fighting Jerry Nadler. Hopefully he can be my ranking member.

HANNITY: I think that would be a great -- a great position for him.

Let's look at, though, the only way I see this stopping, Congressman Issa, the only way I see this stopping is to get a Republican majority in the House and Senate. I don't -- otherwise, I think they are so unhinged because I can't name a single thing that they have done to make us more safe, secure, create one job, make us more prosperous. I can't think of a thing that they've done except hate Trump for three years.

ISSA: Well, exactly. They hate it from the minority, but we held him in check.

For the majority, they've done no legislation, moved almost nothing, and as a result, it's not just that they are endlessly thwarting the president's efforts, it's that, in fact, they're not doing their job.

As Lee would tell you, we've done nothing in this Congress to further the American people's agenda. Everything's had to have been done administratively by this president. He's done a great job. But he needs to have legislation that empowers the next generation economy. He's not going to get it from Nancy Pelosi.

HANNITY: Lee Zeldin, you're in a pretty liberal part of the -- the United States, happens to be where I am, because I'm so stupid. If I move to Texas and Florida, I'd save a lot of money. I need to start thinking out of the box here.

But, as you go around the state of New York, I wonder if you're getting the same reaction I am, and that is -- even people that are Democrats are sick of how the Democrats are acting.

REP. LEE ZELDIN (R-NY): Yes, that's right. We're seeing up in Albany where they just passed a cashless bail reform where now dozens of gang members -- the president has been focused on defeating MS-13. Well, dozen of gang members end up getting released with a cashless bail.

We had someone with a fatal DUI near my house. They got released that day. A bank robber leaving the courtroom smiling and then that day robbing another bank. We have to see with (ph) the sanctuary city policies.

We had someone who should have been turned over to ICE on a detainer and went out and sexually assaulted and killed a woman in her 90s in Queens because of these sanctuary city policies.

And now, DHS has it to take the policy position of having to turn off New Yorkers' ability to apply for the Global Entry because New York state has blocked access to the DMV records which are important for the vetting and also important when you want to crack down on the drug traffickers, the sex traffickers, the violent criminals who are out there that ICE can't do their job because of that access being blocked.

So, people are fed up with the way of eroding public safety is impacting their lives, the higher taxes. And many are fleeing out of the state. They're fed up.

And, by the way, this is a warning shot in Albany. This is what one party rule would look like in Washington, D.C. if the people who were able to do all these bad things were -- you know, AOC can roll Nancy Pelosi, imagine what would happen if they can roll the president of the United States and the Senate majority leader as well. It's a warning shot.

HANNITY: All right. Congressman Lee Zeldin, and soon to be congressman again, Darrell Issa -- good to see both.

All right. We have some good news, by the way. Rush was back on the air today. We'll show you clips as the show goes on tonight.

Also, this show, we always continue to hold the deep state accountable. Today, the president was asked about FISA abuse. We have a lot of updates and that is about to blow wide open with something that will be called the Durham report. We'll explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

HANNITY: So the fallout over the deep state and abuse of power is by no means over. President Trump, he weighed in on this matter earlier today. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Well, we were abused by the FISA process. There's no question about it. We were seriously abused by FISA by what they did and by what they signed and who signed. It's a terrible thing that happened, and we were absolutely abused.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And Attorney General Barr is determined to put an end to political spying. On Thursday, the attorney general issued a new policy. And the attorney general's -- must personally sign off on any FBI investigation into a presidential candidate or a campaign.

Joining us now with more and reaction, author of the bestseller "Guilt By Accusation", by the way, "The Challenge of Proving Innocence in the Age of #MeToo", that's Harvard professor, Alan Dershowitz.

By the way, I read the whole book. It's an amazing read and you learn a lot.

Also, FOX News investigative reporter Sara Carter.

Sara, let's start with you. We already know certain things. We now have facts, now vindication by the inspector general.

We know that Hillary Clinton's dirty bottom bought and paid for Russian dossier, even now "The New York Times" refers to as likely Russian disinformation from the beginning was used as the basis for these FISA applications. It was premeditated fraud. We knew it was unverifiable when it was finally looked into. It was actually debunked.

But they were warned not to use it. It was the bulk of the FISA application. It took away the civil liberties and constitutional rights of Carter Page to spy on then a presidential candidate, his transition team and then deep into a presidency.

Now, we need powerful tools of intelligence. But if we turn them on the American people or use them for political purposes, such as this, we will use -- we will lose that weapon that we need in a dangerous world.

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: You're absolutely right, Sean. But, the important thing to remember here is that even though Attorney General William Barr are going to have all of these new rules in place in an effort to avoid this happening in the future, I talked to sources today. Former senior FBI officials that say if there isn't indictments, if people don't actually pay the price for what happened here, which was an attempted coup, basically, on the president of the United States, and also just destroying the civil liberties of an American citizen, Carter Page, then what's going to stop the next person?

Because the important point here is that we have to entrust that the next attorney general will be somebody upstanding, somebody like we see in Attorney General William Barr. What if that next attorney general is somebody like we've seen in the past, somebody who will sign off on, you know, this type of application and allow this type of spying to happen? So that's the question.

HANNITY: And let's look at it from a legal standpoint.

Again, Professor Dershowitz, I would imagine you and I agree on this. And that is, look at what they did here. At the top of a FISA application, Professor, it says verified. We now know it was unverifiable. We know the author of the dirty dossier himself didn't stand by the dossier.

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, HARVARD LAW PROFESSIONAL EMERITUS: Right, right.

HANNITY: And now we have debunked over 90 percent of it as lies and I assume the other 10 percent, too.

DERSHOWITZ: Look, I agree that putting Attorney General Barr as a signatory when it involves political figures protects that process. But this could happen to you or me or anybody. Today, the way the FISA court operates, some low ranking FBI agent with a grudge against somebody could walk in and say, Dershowitz, Hannity were talking to the Russians, let's intrude on his privacy, his wife's privacy, his children's privacy.

We need to reshuffle the entire FISA court. We need to have a defense attorney in there with security clearance who plays the devil's advocate like when the Catholic Church gives somebody sainthood, you need to have somebody arguing the other side.

Here you have to have somebody who has security clearance saying, no, no, no. Hold up. This is not verified. This is not good.

I've been arguing for this since FISA got established. And, finally, I think we have the joint, hopefully, bipartisan support for changing FISA to protect all American citizens, not just politicians. All American citizens.

HANNITY: Thank you.

When we come back -- all right, Democratic Party in total, complete, utter disarray. Even the Raging Cajun James Carville is tearing again into his own party. What does this mean for November 2020, 270 days?

Reince Priebus and Tammy Bruce, they are next, as we continue our report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. The Democratic party is in such shambles leading into the 2020 election and some within their leadership, they are beginning to sound the alarm. In an interview given to "Vox", veteran Democratic strategist James Carville is now saying of the party, quote: We are losing our minds.

Now, the left is clearly on track to getting destroyed in the general election as they adopt radical policies. They can't produce a single competent candidate.

And during a town hall last night, this is a whopper. Bernie Sanders was actually forced to that he will -- with his climate change alarmism -- yes, Americans are going to lose jobs if you elect me. Great platform to run on, Bernie. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In terms of climate change, Anderson, the debate is really over. Nobody can say with a straight face -- well, it's about jobs when we are talking about the future of the planet. Yes, there will be some job loss. I acknowledge that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And, by the way, that guy lecturing us about his climate change agenda, he happens to be the one Democratic candidate that is the winner. He has logged more hours in private jet travel for his campaign than any other Democratic candidate I think most of them are using private planes, jets. Oh, but we can't dry a caravan or an SUV. And he's going to get rid of oil and gas and lifeblood of our economy. Wow, breathtaking hypocrisy.

Now, all of this as the party's supposed frontrunner, highly electable candidate Joe Biden, yes, he's sliding into fourth place now even in New Hampshire, and has apparently gone into hiding amid his weak poll numbers. Meanwhile, the left's fall back moderate candidate, billionaire Mike Bloomberg, is in a lot of hot water as "The Intercept" is reporting, quote, Bloomberg plagiarized parts of at least eight of his plans. That's the thought he put into it.

His lack of authenticity is also being revealed in reports that he's paying social media gurus, they are paying money. If you have a lot of followers to like him, say something nice about him, to make him seem cool, which he's not.

Then, of course, you got Mayor Pete in a big backlash tonight as well. He was caught editing applause into clips and he posted on social media. You can't make this up.

Here with reaction, Michael Best Law president and former chief of staff, Reince Priebus, of the president, and FOX News contributor Tammy Bruce.

All right. Let me see if I understand this. If you elect me, I'm going to raise your taxes. Americans are going to lose jobs. We're going to have open borders and sanctuary country and Americans, you will pay the healthcare for people here illegally. We won't even put illegal alien criminals in jail, so we'll have open borders.

And I'm going to steal about as much of your money as I possibly can. I'll legalize stealing. Maybe we'll take 90 cents of every dollar. That's a great platform to run on. Then, we'll have no oil and gas and everything else is free. Amazing.

TAMMY BRUCE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Sounds amazing, isn't it? You know, what's funny here.

REINCE PRIEBUS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: It sounds great.

BRUCE: I mean, it's funny in a dark, humor kind of sense because it really isn't believable. You opened with the James Carville comments, is that they have lost their minds.

And one thing you didn't mention is the promise to forgive student loans. Generations of Americans have worked their entire lives to pay off their own children loans, to get their own children through college. The insult of that is extraordinary.

It's a level of pandering that at least exposes for what they are. But this notion of editing applause in and paying social influencers who like you -- it is like Jeb Bush's please clap on steroids, that literally making people clap falsely by editing the video. I mean, you can't -- you can't make this up.

What they don't have and this is what is fascinating. They are trying to artificially create what President Trump has had naturally. They also want that kind of broad-based support that moves through the populist, moves through the John Does of the nation, the regular normal individuals who were forgotten and once again the Democrats are trying artificially create a framework that gaslights people in to thinking that everyone else likes them when they don't.

That's the core of their problem in addition to policies that had been proven historically to destroy people's lives and to destroy nations but they think what will fix it is if they edit applause into a video. Boy, have they under estimated and continue to under estimate and really, I think, have contempt for the intelligence of the American people.

HANNITY: Reince, your take?

PRIEBUS: Well, they're debating plastic straw, and the Trump economy is crushing them. But the Democrats have real structural problems. A different issue, but, number one, you mentioned the ineptitude in Iowa. You have the Bloomberg money waiting to blow up Super Tuesday. You have the great money advantage between Trump victory and the RNC, their plus $200 million.

But here is the 800-pound gorilla, the elephant in the room, which is the fact that the DNC never addressed their rules problems in their delegate award system. In other words, delegates choose the nominee. The Democrats have chosen to award all of their delegates proportionately, meaning this can go on and on and on and they didn't address the problem.

At the RNC, we addressed the problem in 2016. If you won a state with 28, 25 percent, you got all the delegates. Remember when everyone said, we're going to have a contested convention, but we never did, because we addressed the problem. The DNC is facing a massive delegate cliff and that's the proportional award of delegates. This thing may never end.

HANNITY: Exactly.

All right, guys. Thank you both.

And coming up, well, this next tape is just pure gold. Over there at "The View" that hard-hitting news program on ABC, Joy Behar loses it today. She says Trump keeps winning and it's getting to her.

She might need an intervention that, and Rush Limbaugh, his return to the airways, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. President Trump's ability to make his enemies go nuts and insane and crazy on full display this week after he was rightfully acquitted of these ridiculous impeachment charges and the latest ploy against him bombed out -- well, in spectacular fashion. While over there at that hard-hitting news show ABC, "The View's" Joy Behar literally admitted the president's nonstop win something making her lose her mind.

This makes you not sick of winning. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOY BEHAR, THE VIEW: I'm crazy today. He's made me crazy this week. I mean, I'm really. He is winning because I'm getting nuttier and nuttier.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: By the way, she is not the only one in the media mob having a meltdown. Take a look at how the rest of the mob contract reacted to the president's speech which is actually at times very serious because of what it did to the country and his family and at other times just hilarious. But look at their reaction to all of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The president of the United States with an unscripted, vindictive, at times profane, angry, rambling response to his impeachment acquittal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What a poor excuse for a president: what a poor excuse for a man. What a poor excuse for a human being.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was full of revenge. It was mean-spirited. It was poisonous. It was spiteful.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was dark because he has made clear that his mind is dark. This is somebody in deep psychological distress right now, self- pitying, insecure, angry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But this is a -- to me, a declare -- a cri du guerre, this is a fight to war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: You know the irony in this? That's the media mob describing who they are, actually.

You have fake news CNN, they couldn't even let the president speak live without inserting some form of their sick commentary. Take a look at the banner they ran during his remarks. Quote, Trump vindictive at impeachment acquittal celebration. You just -- you can't make this stuff up.

Here with reaction, conservative columnist Jeffrey Lord and "The Hill's" media columnist Joe Concha.

Imagine in 270 days I keep saying to this audience, they are -- the American people are the ultimate jury here. Imagine in 270 days that they do shock the world and all of these people at some point in the night or early on November 4th, the next day, have to utter these words: we can now project that Donald J. Trump has been reelected the 45th president of the United States.

Jeff Lord -- look at Jeff Lord, their heads will be like popping a zit, pa- pa-pa-boom!

JEFFREY LORD, "SWAMP WARS" AUTHOR: The thing to do was make sure we got the white coat brigade out there standing by the other day after the election or the night of the elections. You know, what Joy seems to miss is that she and her party have long ago crossed the Rubicon into shear nuttiness.

There was the slogan that Democrats tried to use in the 1960s against Barry Goldwater whose slogan was "in your heart, you know he's right". I would say here that in your gut, you know these people are nuts. I mean, whether it's the absolute petulance, petulance of Nancy Pelosi stomping her feet -- stomping her feet like a 5-year-old and tearing up that piece of paper, the text of the speech, or whether it's more serious stuff like the anti- Semitism from the squad and all this, this is bad stuff. This is a party falling apart at the seams and Iowa has demonstrated that perfectly.

HANNITY: The American people don't react the wave they do. And they are faking it anyway because they ignore, as Jeffrey said, every time they do something wrong. Oh, it's OK. Quid and pro and quo Joe and zero experience Hunter, that's fine. But, you know, Donald Trump saying ,can you do us a favor and fix the corruption? That's awful.

JOE CONCHA, THE HILL: So, Sean, despite all that negativity that you just showed, that vitriol that we're seeing, how is it since impeachment in October, that according to Gallup, the president's poll numbers are up 10 points to an all-time high? Forty-nine percent.

Let me tell what you 49 percent means? President Barack Obama at this stage in his presidency was only at 45 percent. And he won re-election quite easily.

This was the president you can argue on a week where he was acquitted from impeachment in a trial his best week. That State of the Union Address on Tuesday, 82 percent, not of Republicans, of independents, according to a CBS poll approved of that speech.

Meanwhile, you see that chaos that's happening in Iowa and what's missed in that story as well. Only 170,000 people came out to vote in that caucus in a state of 3.2 million. That is way down. There is not enthusiasm on the Democratic side and now even the Democratic National Committee chair is being called to step down as a result.

Chaos on the Democratic side and meanwhile the president, the wind is at his back at this point despite overwhelming negative media attention because I said it once, I'll say it again, no one trusts the messengers anymore because the messengers, to your point, are mostly play acting and serving up comfort food to their audiences anyway.

HANNITY: The numbers speak volumes. Nobody -- they have set their audiences up for lies and failures and letdowns again.

Anyway, great commentary. Thank you both, Joe Concha and Jeffrey Lord.

When we come back, Rush back on the radio today, told his viewers why he believes he is the luckiest man alive. This tape, we will play for you, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Legendary radio host, America's anchorman, Rush Limbaugh, he was back on the air today in good spirits and he acknowledged the overwhelming amount of support that he's gotten since Monday.

Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: I cannot -- I cannot thank all of the people that I have heard from since Monday, and they are still getting a hold -- there are people, I had no idea they knew how to get a hold of me. And the sentiments, the thoughts they're expressing are just incredibly nice and supportive. And to have this kind of support and to know it, to be fully aware of it -- yes, it does make me one of the luckiest people alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: It's great to have you back, Rush.

And, everyone, we're all praying for you. We're all pulling for you. And you have led this movement for a long time and we hope and pray along time into the future. Excellence in broadcasting.

All right. That is all the time we have left this evening. Before we go, big programming announcement. We'll be hosting this show live in New Hampshire both Monday and Tuesday. We'll have the best political analysis of the primaries. We hope you'll set your DVR. You'll never miss an episode.

We'll never be the hate-Trump media mob. We always seek the truth.

And let not your heart be troubled. Why? "The Ingraham Angle" starts right now.

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