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Karl Rove: We should not get overconfident about 2020
Published May 28, 2019
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," May 28, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Welcome to “Hannity.” We're going to break a lot of news tonight.
We have the classification issue we have not addressed yet. Now, we tell you every night on the program, we are so blessed we live in the greatest, single best country God ever gave man. Never in the history of mankind, good friend of mine, Barry Farber, always has said has a country acquired more power and abused it less then our country, the United States. And also, never has a country used its awesome powers and resources for the advancement of the human condition, not only our citizens, but around the globe.
We will be the first to say that we are not perfect, human beings are not perfect. But what makes the country so special, so great, so unique, it starts with our founding documents, our declaration, our Constitution, our Bill of Rights. The explicit understanding human rights, they are not government given, but endowed by our Creator, and inalienable rights for every American, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness.
Ronald Reagan often reminded us and pointed out many decades ago that freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. Now, from World War II where my father served four years in the Pacific, to the rise of communism, to the fight against radical Islamic terrorism right here on American soil and abroad, the American people, we are a good people. We have always fought to protect these freedoms against those that would destroy our way of life.
And many in and out of uniform have fought bravely, given the ultimate sacrifice, defending against these threats abroad, it is so critically important that we now in this tipping point of history that we hold our government accountable, that we prevent the erosion of these hard-fought, all the blood, and toil, and sacrifice and expense for our freedoms within this country. If we don't get this right, and protect these principles, America as we know it will cease to exist.
And that is why, frankly, we have been spending so much time and sounding the alarm about the corrupt, high-ranking, not rank-and-file, bureaucrats in the deep state -- in the intel community, in the FBI, Department of Justice and elsewhere. Those that try to subvert the will of we, the people, using the awesome powers that we give them to protect us to literally in some instances, oh, clear Hillary Clinton of blatant (AUDIO GAP) to impact the presidential election. And then try to impact the election using Russian lies. And then at the end of it, using Russian paid for lies by Hillary to take down a duly elected president, Donald Trump. A pack of lies.
Now, tonight, all roads are leading to the dossier. You know the names, Comey, Strzok, Page, Clapper, Brennan, all these other deep state actors, they've hated Donald Trump and many others. They have latched on to Hillary's dirty Russian dossier and used the phony document in a variety of nefarious ways. Even "The New York Times" suggesting, oh, and might have been Russian disinformation the whole time that she paid for.
Now, Comey, we know, obtained a FISA warrant. He signed warrant number 1. That was October 2016, claiming at the top of the FISA application verified and true. He claimed that it was true and accurate.
Brennan, Clapper were proliferating the dossier lies throughout the government. Leaks to the media, leaks to Harry Reid, Strzok and Page plotting to use the dossier as an insurance policy just in case the (AUDIO GAP) Donald Trump who should lose 100-0 would ever become president.
Over the weekend, a very serious Congresswoman Liz Cheney really said something that could be treason on their part. Let's listen to what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. LIZ CHENEY, R-WY: Strzok and Page who were in charge of launching this investigation and they were saying things like, we must stop this president. We need an insurance policy against this president. That in my view, when you have the people there in the highest echelon of the nation saying things like that, that sounds an awful light like a coup, and it could be treason.
And I think that we need to know more. We need to know what Jim Comey's role in all of this. These people reported to him. Andy McCabe reported to him. What was Comey's role in that?
(END VIDEOI CLIP)
HANNITY: It is now inevitable, it is not a matter of "if", it is "when." We will know about the extreme, the power of abuse, the high-ranking bureaucrats, what they did to malign candidates, then president-elect, then President Donald Trump.
Now, late last week, the president rightly granted Attorney General Barr the power to declassify material related to this ongoing investigation into the origins of this Russia witch hunt. Four separate occasions: the FBI nine months investigation, the House Intel Committee investigation, the bipartisan Senate committee, and now the Mueller report. No collusion.
The American people, now -- you will see the truth with your own eyes, and it's not looking good for these few at the top that have abused their power. Now, by the way, it is not "if", it's "when." We're going to see it.
And then the question will be: who needs to be held accountable? And you don't have to take my word for it. The swamp is in full panic mode. Today, America's most holier than thou super patriot Jim Comey knows better than everybody, issued yet another op-ed, calling Donald Trump a dumb liar and any talk of government corruption is, quote, "worst deep state conspiracy ever."
Now, for some reason, super patriot Jim Comey forgot to mention the dirty Hillary Clinton bought and paid for Russian lie dossier even though it was him. He was a guiding light for nearly a year, and the very basis for the corruption accusations. And now, remember, he faces the fact that he swore to fight to FISA court judges that it was a verified -- the bulk of information of that FISA application was true.
Of course, Comey's rampant FISA abuse, that's not a conspiracy theory. And, Jim Comey, I warned you before, you do have the right to remain silent. You should have taken my advice from the get-go. Sadly, I think your rage for President Trump and intense love of the spotlight is really overcoming every bit of common sense you might have.
Comey desperately now trying to shape the narrative, so to Clapper and Brennan, absolutely here and terror in the hearts and minds of all of these people, because the attorney general will show the American people what they were up to, the anxiety is palpable.
Tonight, the deep state is in full panic mode. They are even thinking bigger holes every single time they open their mouths. Frankly, sad to watch, but important that we get right.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: I see it as a very, very serious and outrageous move on the part of Mr. Trump, once again trampling upon the statutory authorities of the director of national intelligence and the heads of the independent intelligence agencies. And I know that my former colleagues in the intelligence agencies are looking upon this with great concern and worry.
JAMES CLAPPER, FORMER DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: I wonder what else is going to be classified that risks jeopardizing source or methods.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Nobody would risk sources and methods. For them, by the way, self preservation at this moment is now the key of the day, always more important than preservation of civil liberties and our Constitution, rule of law.
The same goes for the intel chairman, well-known liar, the cowardly Adam Schiff. He called Barr's investigation a quest for transparency, called it un-American.
The same Schiff who tweeted this in December of 2016: President Obama can and must declassify as much as possible about Russian hacking our elections, rest assured Trump won't.
And cowardly Schiff, I have offered him four hours of airtime, three hours on my radio show, one hour here. Why won't he come on?
Now, we have every single lie that he has told you, we, the American people. He is a liar. He's a conspiracy theorist. In the worst part is, we now know he is lying.
A partisan hack through and through, and we have a lying partisan hack in charge of the House Intelligence Committee. That's scary.
But rest assured, Barr is not going to release sources and methods were highly classified intelligence, and let's not forget those that are now saying oh, we can't release lists are the same people that were asking the attorney general of the United States, Barr, to break the law and release the Mueller report with grand jury testimony included. That's called selective moral outrage.
Now, we are about to see important evidence surrounding the biggest abuse of power, corruption scandal. It's set. The president declassified, it will come out. We will learn the extent of the government's spying efforts into the Trump campaign.
Also breaking tonight, former Trump campaign associates Carter Page just revealed that his contacts with the FBI informant Stefan Halper were extensive, and continue for more than a year, spanning a time period before and after the 2016 election. That's right, spying occurred. James Comey says I did not spy, but he assigned the first FISA warrant.
We're going to find how and why Hillary Clinton's phony Russian dossier that she paid for and never told the FISA court judges that she paid for it was used against the president and his allies. We also learned about media leaks, rampant bias, and just who's inalienable rights were trampled on.
And as President Trump pointed out, we could well uncover the role of some of the closest allies, but argues probably Great Britain, probably Australia, probably Italy. But I'm just guessing. What do I know?
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT: The attorney general is one of the most respected people in this country, and he has been for a long period of time. He is going to look at a lot of documents. Some he might find interesting, maybe he will find none interesting, but for over a year, people have asked me to declassify.
So what I've done is I declassified everything. He can look. And I hope he looks at the U.K., and I hope that he looks at Australia, and I hope that he looks at the Ukraine, I hope that he looks at everything, because there was a hoax that was perpetrated on our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Perpetrated on the country.
As per usual, getting to the truth is not going to happen without a fight. This is now an important mission for all of us, as Americans to preserve, protect our constitutional rights and liberties.
Look at the dossier author, Christopher Steele, oh, he's refusing to cooperate with Barr's investigation? Well, why don't we extradite him? Why don't we tell Britain to send him over? It's pretty telling that given three years ago, Steele was desperate to talk to anybody and everybody in our government about his Russian lies.
And according to a big new report, Sara Carter, investigative reporter and journalist, A.G. Barr is also facing resistance from this country's intel agencies. According to Carter, quote: This isn't just about Trump. It's about nearly a decade of abuse inside the intel community and bureau regarding foreign-intelligence-collection authority.
By the way, here's my FBI flag, my CIA pen. That is for rank-and-file that love their country and protect us every day, not the upper echelon 0.2 percent.
More on this breaking news, FOX News investigative reporter, Sara Carter.
Sara, what do you got to?
SARA CARTER, CONTRIBUTOR: So, Sean, it's not just what you're talking about now, but for at least a month, Attorney General William Barr has been back-and-forth battling the bureaucracy that you were talking about that doesn't want to give up the information, the information that Congress says is essential to understand what actually happened during the 2016 election in the investigation into Trump.
One of the issues regarding this is a memorandum that I have here. It was written in 2017 by Rosemary Collyer. She is the judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. And intelligence sources tell me and other attorneys and analysts that within this memorandum is a number of pieces of information that actually list out to those abuses. Those exact abuses that you were talking about within the intelligence community and the story that I published today.
One of the issues that they are saying is that the fact that these expansive laws under the Obama administration allowed for monitoring of people, much more than what is authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Now, what the Congress is asking for is nothing to do with sources and methods. If you listen to what former Chairman Devin Nunes, who's now the raging member on the Intelligence Committee is asking for, he's asking for the FISA documents to be unclassified on Carter Page. He's also asking for emails between the DOJ and the FBI that they have seen, that they say will reveal that they knew that they were withholding information, and that being the DOJ and FBI were withholding information from the FISC court.
And this is essential because that's part of the exculpatory evidence that they are also asking for a period evidence that Carter Page and George Papadopoulos and others have told the FBI spies, that being Stefan Halper, that they had nothing to do with Russia, that there was no connection between them and Russia and the Trump campaign, and they said this as they were being recorded.
And another piece of information that the Congress is asking for is for Bruce Ohr's 302. That's the interviews that the FBI conducted with Bruce Ohr at the time, and the information that he would have.
So, compiled us all together, and what you can see is that Clapper, Brennan, John Brennan, Clapper, and James Comey are fighting back tooth and nail. And those in the bureaucracy that support them are doing the same. And they are trying to stop A.G. Barr from getting the information.
But now, President Trump has authorized the declassification, and he has given Barr full authority to examine that information and make it public.
And that's what the intelligence sources that I have just spoken to says needs to happen, and the American people deserve the truth.
HANNITY: Those are the good people in the intel community. It's not a matter of if, it's all coming.
Sara, thank you, the five buckets as we always talk about.
All right. While we actively search for truth every night on this program, then you have the media mob, the 99 percent. By the way, every newsroom in America failed the American people. Isn't it interesting that the talk show host, the ones that -- yes, we do investigative reporting, street reporting, we give opinion, we are honest about opinion paid leave and do sports and culture -- isn't it funny that it took the talk show hosts to break open the story, because they have such an agenda driven shows every day that they call news? It's fake. And they continue to spread baseless rumors, outright lies.
Oh, but they love to pop up people like the pillar of society, Michael Avenatti, and the con artist Michael Wolff, remember, Wolff, he was the media mob's favorite darling because he hated Trump, last year given hours and hours of airtime spreading anti-Trump lies featured in his book, lied about me in that book.
And I confronted him in a story, he never bothered to call me. And confirmed, I said that is a lie. What you said was a lie. I don't know.
Anyway, Wolff's inaccuracies are so enormous and blatant, even Wolff himself was forced to admit, oh, he was not a journalist. His job was, quote, has nothing to do with the truth. But that's not how the media presented.
Wolff is out with another brand-new book, full of lies apparently again claiming that Mueller's team actually drafted an indictment against President Trump. Only the second time in the special counsel office existence that they felt compelled to come out about Michael Wolff's lying book and say what he is claiming is false. The second book in a row, Wolff peddling lies that the media absorbs and loves, and, by the way, this from a person that fake new CNN, conspiracy TV MSNBC, they worship.
You know, we do need the liable laws in the country changed, especially slander against public figures. I would be really wealthy if they can do that. Nicholas Sandmann, that 16-year-old kid, MAGA had, he's going to be a billionaire because of what the corrupt media did when they slandered, smeared, besmirched him for days on end we knew the truth. At least let's start with loser-pays, a system to get rid of the slip and fall attorneys and losers like Wolff and Avenatti, should no longer be able to profit from slandering other people on the so-called news networks.
It turns out, facts first CNN, MSNBC and other, they don't -- they don't give a rip about truth. Liars, conspiracy theorists, spreading a hoax. That's what they have done for two plus years to the American people.
All right. Joining us now, author of the number one "New York Times" bestseller book, FOX News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett, and FOX News contributor Ari Fleischer.
I really want to go over if I can with both of you. So, the FIA and FBI are resisting to declass, and the same people that were asking the attorney general to break the law and release grand jury information.
GREGG JARRETT, LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, the irony is lost on no one. There is a tendency to overclassify everything. I would say about 95 percent of the classified material is not classified at all. I joke that the FBI orders Chinese takeout, it is classified, because it deals with the Chinese.
They said of the Nunes report --
HANNITY: You just got Ari Fleischer.
ARI FLEISCHER, CONTRIBUTOR: I like that one, it was a good line.
HANNITY: OK.
JARRETT: You know, let me step back for just a moment if I may, in 1970, rampant abuse resulted of the FBI, the CIA and the NSA result in a Church Commission. They found that these agencies were spying on Americans. So, Congress passed new restrictive laws. People like John Brennan and James Clapper have over the years been able to work their way around these laws.
And I think you're going to find at the end of the day, you have said this before that the CIA and others were outsourcing their spying on Americans, including the Trump campaign --
HANNITY: Not just spying, what they cannot do legally here, they outsourced to our allies, Great Britain, Australia, maybe Italy.
JARRETT: Could be.
HANNITY: And they had them do -- they had them break the law for them.
JARRETT: That's right. I mean, why are all of these confidential informants overseas? Why were people lured overseas? Because the CIA can't spy on American soil, its own citizens, but if they are lured overseas, they could get the MI6, MI5, GCHQ to do their dirty for them against the Trump campaign.
HANNITY: How does James Comey with a straight face say, oh, we don't spy in the FBI? By the way, I believe that about the 99 percent of FBI special agents, thank God that the premier law enforcement agency in the world, by far, remains out today. But he signed the first FISA warned, was that not spying on Carter Page and the Trump campaign?
FLEISCHER: When you are in the government, it feels like surveillance, when it happens to you coming it feels like you got spied on.
HANNITY: That's right.
FLEISCHER: The truth is both. If you are in the government, you call it legitimate surveillance. If you happen to be a victim of it, you got spied on. The plain English is that the spied on is correct.
But here's the higher principle, why this is so much worth fighting over to figure out how it all started. And Gregg is on to it. I was there after September 11, I'm aware of the tremendous powers this government has and should have to be able to read our emails, follow us on the street corner, go into a bar.
HANNITY: I'm cool with that.
(CROSSTALK)
FLEISCHER: -- informant, if it's all connected to terrorism, if it's something to prevent the next attack on the United States.
HANNITY: Right.
FLEISCHER: Government has this awesome power.
When it's misused, when it's misused against American citizens, particularly about the opponent's political campaign, this is where we have to investigate how it happened, because no government should do this lightly to an opponent's political campaign.
HANNITY: Think of what they did. You had -- literally, the deputy FBI director bragging, oh, I told General Flynn, a 33-year vet, he doesn't need a lawyer, and then they were setting him up.
FLEISCHER: Picked up on Flynn --
HANNITY: Comey bragged, I'd never do this in the Bush or Obama administration.
FLEISCHER: So, think about Flynn, they use the Logan Act against him, which is a joke to begin with, and then they monitor his phone calls, and release the results of unmasked phone call to the press, and no one has been held accountable for that?
HANNITY: Hey, Ari, last year in the Obama administration, 350 percent increase in surveillance, unmasking of Americans. So, why would Samantha Power request 300 unmaskings?
FLEISCHER: And top-secret documents, all of a sudden, are labeled secret in an effort to get them to leak out to more people.
JARRETT: This began to unfold actually before the inaugurations. Spying was taking place all the way back, I think, to 2015 and throughout 2016. And it was principally John Brennan, he was the instigator of the Russia hoax.
HANNITY: Will -- you know, I had friends in the studio tonight, (INAUDIBLE) transferred, just crazy enough to buy a timeshare, they are the guys. But they are friends of mine and they are in studio.
But they asked, are they going to be held accountable? I see it -- Trump declassified, it's huge, it's if, it's not if, it's coming out.
JARRETT: When the inspector general report comes, I suspect it's going to be devastating for several individuals, and that will then give William Barr the opportunity to present this to a grand jury for potential indictment.
HANNITY: And you think they're going to try to Ken Starr Barr which --
FLEISCHER: Which -- yes, I think the only thing they can do to Barr's tournament to Ken Starr, which is what they did in the Whitewater prosecution.
HANNITY: Thank you both.
All right. Coming up, troubling stories continue, trickle out about sleepy, creepy, crazy Uncle Joe Biden. Karl Rove next, and the great one, Mark Levin, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Tonight, Democrats are losing on all fronts, the Russian hoax, their prayer about Mueller is now boomeranged back against them, and it's creeping even closer and closer right inside the Obama White House, the Oval Office. And that means, yes, Democratic so-called front runner, crazy, creepy, sleepy Uncle Joe Biden.
Because buried in a 2017 "Washington Post" piece exposed by "Breitbart News" is more evidence Joe Biden himself was exposed in the early stages of the Russia probe. Yes, that's not coming from me, from "The Washington Post," even participating in secret meetings about the original counterintelligence investigation, the same probe that resulted in the dirty dossier being used as the bulk of information in the FISA court applications resulting in the single biggest abuse of power, corruption scandal in history.
Sparking even more questions about what did Biden and Obama know, and when did they know it?
And, of course, that showed one of many problems now facing sleepy, creepy crazy, Uncle Joe, allegations, shady dealings overseas. That would mean Ukraine, that would mean China. An all out enthusiasm gap, nobody wants to go see him.
As "Politico" points out, Biden's title little crowd sizes, lack of major campaign events who has been on the beach for 10 days has many people worried and wondering, where is the enthusiasm for creepy Uncle Joe? Where's the excitement?
Well, it could be that Biden's past is catching up with him, like his last pass support for the o '94 crime bill, the same bill that dogged Hillary Clinton in 2016, you may remember this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, C-SPAN, NOVEMBER 18, 1993)
JOE BIDEN, D-DEL, THEN-U.S. SENATOR: And that is unless we do something about that cadre of young people, tens of thousands of them, born out of wedlock without parents, without supervision, we should focus on them now. Not out of a liberal instinct for love, brother, and humanity. Although I think that is a good instinct, but for simple pragmatic reasons. If we don't, they will, or a portion of them will become of the predators 15 years from now. And, Madam President, we have predators on our streets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: President Trump is taking notice, tweeting, quote: Anyone associated with the 1994 Crime Bill will not have a chance of being elected," before adding, "Super Predator was the term associated with that Crime Bill that sleepy, crazy, creepy Uncle Joe was heavily involved in passing." And it doesn't stop there. And it resurfaced, 1974 interview with the Washingtonian, Biden told the magazine, "I don't think that a woman has the sole right to say what should happen to her body."
And does that sound like someone who represents today's New Green Deal, Democratic after- birth abortion Party? Does that sound like somebody who is going to get Democrats to the polls in 2020? Combine all of these blunders with a roaring economy and a President has an even clearer path to victory in 2020 against, oh, any of these radical, crazy, socialist Democrats. By the way, don't take my word for it.
Let's go to 12 separate models for the 2020 upcoming campaign. Analytics from Moody's, President Trump wins a reelection in all 12. And of course, with the radical Democrats, the hate-Trump media mob doing smearing every minute, second of every day, now is not the time to let up.
Joining us now to break it all down, Fox News Contributor, Karl Rove. I'm not somebody, Karl, that ever gets ahead of an election. We both know the weekend before an election who knows what's going to come out. But--
KARL ROVE, CONTRIBUTOR: Right.
HANNITY: --it's certainly the economy, how hard left the Democrats have gone, their slate of candidates. How do you see it at least - what is it building into?
ROVE: Yes. Look, I thought that was interesting, Steve Rattner, who is no friend of Donald Trump's, he was Barack Obama's auto czar, wrote a piece in "The New York Times" pointing out all of these econometric models of the election are today forecasting a Trump victory.
But I'd say we've got to be cautious about this. Cannot get overconfident, cannot believe that because the models predict that today that that's what's going to happen, because if you look at it over time, the economy and who you vote for for President is a non-linear relationship. That's what we call it in pulling terms. What that means is, is that an incumbent absolutely gets punished for a bad economy. If you're Herbert Hoover, you are in deep trouble in 1932.
On the other hand, a good economy is not necessarily rewarded as much or consistently, particularly if you don't do two critical things - or it should be three critical things, an election is incumbent. Talk about your success, talk about the next step, and disqualify your opponent as representing a threat to your - to that economic birth. Can I give you one real-life example that you and I have been through?
HANNITY: Yes. I love - the whiteboard is back. Thank goodness. Where is the whiteboard then?
ROVE: Back - it's back. Unemployment rate in October of 2000 was 3.9 percent. Today it's 3.6. The real GDP growth in 2000 was 2.97. Growth last year in 2019, 2.97.
Now, this was the Clinton-Gore third election. This was Al Gore running to be the term of Bill Clinton. And they had a good economy that was slowing down. We were in a recession by the next March, but it was a good economy as we approached the election and the econometric models were forecasting a victory for Al Gore. But he didn't talk about it. He sure as heck never talked about what the next steps were for Clinton-Gore, and he never succeeded in disqualifying George W. Bush, who proactively talked about what was necessary to spread prosperity more broadly, which was to cut the taxes and lower the regulation--
HANNITY: It works.
ROVE: --and focus on teaching every child to learn to read.
So we've got to be - the election is about whatever the candidates want to say it's about, as long as the people accepted. And if the President is going to use the economy to his advantage, he has to do those three things. Talk about it, explain the next steps, and disqualify the Democrat opponent.
HANNITY: I'd also like to see the Republican Party unite and I want it to nationalize this election as a bid choice election. Green Deal, Mullahs in Iran get $150 billion, or the Trump success? Deregulation, lower taxes, safety, security brought. Simple.
ROVE: Sometimes an incumbent wants it to be about little things. President Trump ought to - has to make it about big things in order to overcome what he is facing.
HANNITY: Are we better off than we were two-and-a-half years ago? Yes, we are.
ROVE: Yes.
HANNITY: Karl Rove, good to see you.
When we come back, the Great One will talk about this declassification, sleepy, creepy, crazy Uncle Joe, and much more. Later, airports discriminating against Chick-fil-A. Why? Because the owner is a Christian, and he talks about his passion and his beliefs. FAA investigating. Trace Gallagher, big report, tonight. Straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. The Democrats once screamed from rooftops about transparency. Now the President Trump, by the way, is giving it to them. He's now declassified Russian investigative documents. They are running for the hills.
Here with reaction about that - by the way, 11 days - 12 days now in a row, number one amazon.com, bookstores everywhere, hannity.com, Unfreedom of the Press. I call him the Great One, host of Life, Liberty & Levin, the number one show Sunday nights on cable.
The Great One, how are you, my friend? Thank me.
MARK LEVIN, UNFREEDOM OF THE PRESS AUTHOR, AND LIFE, LIBERTY & LEVIN HOST: Doing great, Sean. It is kind of hilarious to watch this. I mean, even Chris Comeau and Joe Scarborough may understand what I'm about to say, which is--
HANNITY: Be nice. You get me in trouble. Go ahead.
LEVIN: I thought the media wanted this information. The Pentagon papers were all proud of themselves, leaks to "The New York Times," all about the FISA court and so forth. Democrats wanted to see (ph) information, classified information. They're trying to hold the Attorney General in contempt for it.
President says, "I'll tell you what? I'm going to give you guys a boatload of information. I and the Attorney General will look at it. We want to find out about Russia collusion, Russia interference in election, what the Obama administration did or didn't do about it."
All of a sudden, the American media says we don't want to look. All of a sudden, they're Helen Keller. They don't want to see, they don't want to hear, they don't want to know (inaudible). It's more demonstration of what a joke the mass media is in this country today. They don't represent a free press. They represent the Democrat Party.
HANNITY: All true. 99 percent. And they all - every newsroom in America got it wrong, with a few exceptions here, like Catherine Herridge, Ed Henry. I mean, people that did some really great work. I do want to ask you though - so I hear the President - he's really right about Biden. Nobody will say it, but it's really true.
LEVIN: Look--
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: Oh, boy. Here we go.
LEVIN: Look, I have to--
HANNITY: By the way, for those of you at home--
LEVIN: No, I have to laugh.
HANNITY: --that means buckle up for what Mark is about to say.
(LAUGHTER)
LEVIN: Joe Biden has been in the public square for 50 years, and he is a dumb guy. He just is. He says dumb things. They even - they're treating him - his own staff tonight are treating him like a veal. They don't let him go out in public, they don't want him to say anything, they're scared of what might come out of his mouth. His own President he ran with, Obama is nervous. He doesn't know what he's going to say.
But it amazes me now how tender the media are. Don't say that about Joe Biden. They call Trump Hitler. They call him a racist, they call him a white supremacist, Stalin, Mussolini, anti-semite, you name it. They call Trump. That's OK. When he's overseas, when he's here, they call him all these names. They - that's OK. Oh, Joe Biden is low IQ. All of a sudden, "what are you? In bed with North Korea?"
Now, I'll tell you what's funny about that that we've had to hear about all day, that the President likes dictators. On and on, the media, again, groupthink, pack mentality, Democrat Party progressive social activist media. What are they doing all day? The President of the United States likes dictators. Well, if the President of the United States, this one, likes dictators, Barack Obama adored them and love them.
Cuba, Obama opens an embassy. Who's tougher on Cuba? Trump or Obama? Iran, $150 billion for their ICBM, their terrorism, their nuclear warheads. Tell me, who's been tougher on Iran? Obama or Trump? China, they're building these islands, they're militarizing the islands, the United States says nothing. Tell me who has been the toughest president in my lifetime on China? And by the way, was Obama tough on China?
Russia, collusion. Somebody better tell Vladimir Putin we've got the toughest sanctions on Russia we've had in recent history. North Korea, we have a naval armada off the Korean peninsula like we haven't seen since 1960s. That wasn't there when Obama was there. That is Trump. They also intercepted a frigate. You remember that? And the toughest economic sanctions in modern history on North Korea too. Wow, he must love Un.
Look at Egypt. Obama was in love with the Muslim Brotherhood. The Egyptian people overthrew it. Obama was still in love with the Muslim Brotherhood, and he withheld arms temporarily from sea support--
HANNITY: Oh. He gave billions to Morsi, former head of the Muslim Brotherhood, that once said--
LEVIN: That's right.
HANNITY: --Jews are descendants of apes and pigs. Obama gave that guy money, for people that don't know what you're saying.
LEVIN: I'm not done. Look at Syria. Oh, we're going to have a redline. So this thug is gassing his own people. Obama did nothing. Trump does something about it. Look at ISIS. Look all over the world. Who is it that was coddling dictators and communists and all of the rest, and who is it who is standing up to them? Trump stands up to them.
So, to listen to these quislings and the media and so forth go on and on about Trump likes dictators. And one jerk from "The New York Times" says, oh, he would've loved Pol Pot. The things they say about Trump and the names they call him. So Trump says that Joe Biden is low IQ. He is low IQ. That's not Trump's fault.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: I asked Karl Rove this question. I'm going to throw it at you. Many people may not know you were the Chief of Staff to one of America's greatest attorney generals, Ed Meese, somebody I admire so much.
And are we better off than we were two-and-a-half years ago on every foreign policy issue you mentioned and the best relationship with Israel ever? And are we better off on every discernible measurable statistic economically? Are we better off, Mark?
LEVIN: We're better off in every respect except where he needs help from the Democrats, like on the border. We are worse off on the border because Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats want open borders. They want people pouring in here by the millions. They care about their party before they care about their country. That's absolutely the case. They want to turn the entire country into their failed cities.
So where the President on the United States can't stand up, where he can act on his own constitutionally he is, he tries to make deals with these people. They don't want to make deals because they are hard-core radical ideologues coming out of the most radical left-wing parts of the country.
So when they have control over an issue where the President needs their help, we're worse off because they're sabotaging the President and ready for this medii (ph), they're sabotaging the country.
HANNITY: Great One, for over two weeks now, your book is number one on amazon.com, bookstores everywhere. The amount of research is exhaustive. You learn about the past, the present, and what media is today. 99 percent, every news division in this country failed the American people. They lied. They conspired. And literally, they're an extension of all things Democrat. Congrats on the book, sir.
LEVIN: Thank you, buddy. God bless you.
HANNITY: God bless us. Thank me. Don't forget Mark's show, Life, Liberty & Levin, number one, Sunday nights, 10:00 p.m., right here on Fox.
When we come back, is Chick-fil-A being banned from airports because its owners expressed pro-Christian beliefs? The FAA now investigating. We've got a full investigative report on that. And I - for the record, I love Chick-fil-A. It's the best. I'm going to buy more Chick-fil-A just because I want to. Straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. The FAA is investigating decisions to exclude Chick- fil-A from airport concession contracts. Trace Gallagher, live report from our West Coast newsroom.
And for the record, Trace, I don't know how you feel, I like In-N-Out Burger out there, but I love Chick-fil-A.
(LAUGHTER)
TRACE GALLAGHER, CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I'm a fan as well, Sean. San Antonio International Airport and Buffalo Niagara International, both excluded Chick-fil-A from the premises, saying the company's opposition to same-sex marriage is part of its "legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior," though neither airport or city council provided evidence to back up their claim.
And the Department of Transportation has gotten complaints alleging the airport operators discriminated against Chick-fil-A because of the owner's religious beliefs. Then First Liberty, a law firm that fights for religious freedom, sent Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao a letter complaining about the discrimination.
And the FAA is now investigating, quoting here, "Federal requirements prohibit airport operators from excluding persons on the basis of religious creed for participating in airport activities that receive or benefit FAA grant funding."
First Liberty applauded the FAA's investigation into the airports, "blatant illegal religious discrimination." Chick-fil-A says it's not involved in the investigations and does not hold a particular social or political stance. Sean.
HANNITY: In an interview, by the way, Kanye West - thank you, Trace Gallagher - saying, "Liberals bully people who are Trump supporters," and actor Jon Voight put out a video on Twitter calling the President, "Greatest President since Abe Lincoln. That's making, well, actors like Alyssa Milano responding, calling him a F-ing lister - "F-lister trying to stay relevant." That would be her.
Anyway, Fox News Correspondent-At-Large, Geraldo Rivera, listen, I understand--
GERALDO RIVERA, CORRESPONDENT-AT-LARGE: What about Dan Bongino?
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: Dan Bongino - hi, Dan. Love you too.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: Thanks a lot, Geraldo.
RIVERA: That's why we're here.
(LAUGHTER) BONGINO: Thanks buddy.
HANNITY: I used to like--
RIVERA: We're like the A-listers. Right (ph)?
HANNITY: OK. If you don't agree with the owners of Chick-fil-A, don't eat. But you can't do that institutionally.
RIVERA: I detest people putting a political litmus test on a business, any business. But certainly a fast food chain, what you judge Chick-fil-A by is the quality of its chicken. Period. I don't know. We're going to go to McDonald's now, we're going to go to every other Burger King and Five Guys and all of the rest of it and say what's the political affiliation or religious belief of the owner? You can't do that. You can't go down that road. And liberals are so intolerant. They are - political correctness does not begin to describe how they--
HANNITY: If they want - if they don't want to go there, fine. But one thing, Dan Cathy - Chick-fil-A, they do put their money where their religion is, Dan Bongino, and as much as they don't open on Sunday for that reason.
DAN BONGINO, CONTRIBUTOR: Yes.
HANNITY: That is one day in seven they've decided no money. That speaks volumes about, OK, their commitment to their faith.
BONGINO: Yes. Sean, I love Chick-fil-A too, by the way. Their breakfast is pretty awesome too. There's one right across the street from Fox in New York. I mean, that place is all the time--
HANNITY: Oh, I know. The line is a mile long, out the door, around the block.
BONGINO: I know. You can - you can barely get in--
HANNITY: I know.
BONGINO: --in a liberal city, no less. I thought liberals didn't like Chick-fil-A.
Sean, here's the deal. When conservatives lose elections, they change their strategy. When liberals lose elections, they want to change the rules. We saw this with the Electoral College. They want to stack the Supreme Court. When they can't do that, they use the culture to bully people.
See, their only weapon - because they rely strictly on emotion and not facts and data, they've been immunized to that stuff a long time ago. Their only weapon is to use the culture to try and suppress opposing voices. That's why this ridiculous attack on Chick-fil-A. And good for the Trump administration for fighting back. New rules, libs, see how you like it now that the government investigates you guys for discrimination.
RIVERA: And for Alyssa Milano, the star of Wet Hot American Summer, to put down Jon Voight, the Oscar--
BONGINO: Yes, yes.
RIVERA: --and multiple Golden Globe winning actor--
BONGINO: Yes.
RIVERA: --is really beyond the pale. Let's stop calling names--
BONGINO: Yes.
RIVERA: --stick to the facts, stick to your lane.
BONGINO: Yes.
RIVERA: Alyssa, Jon watched you on Charmed and - what was the other one from--
HANNITY: Nobody knows. That's the problem.
(LAUGHTER)
RIVERA: Yes.
HANNITY: You know what? Jon Voight is--
RIVERA: --a great guy.
HANNITY: --is such a patriotic. He loves this country. He's such a good man.
Last word, Dan.
BONGINO: Geraldo, you and I rarely agree, but you nailed it. Jon Voight was in Midnight Cowboy and Deliverance.
(LAUGHTER)
RIVERA: And Coming Home.
BONGINO: Alyssa Milano was in--
HANNITY: Yes.
BONGINO: Alyssa Milano was in Dinotopia and Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star.
(LAUGHTER)
BONGINO: That's real, by the way. I'm not - that's not - I know it's funny, but--
RIVERA: And Jon just was made the Trustee of a Kennedy--
BONGINO: --the funniest part is that's not a joke.
HANNITY: We'll continue.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. Unfortunately, that's all the time we have left. We have now a moment where it's not, if any, longer. It's when all this information becomes available. Everybody then must be held accountable. This is about the rule of law, equal application of laws, equal justice under the law, and our constitution and our way of life that so many fought to preserve. We'll never be the media mob. Let not your heart be troubled.
Laura Ingraham, how are you? How was your weekend?
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