This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," January 10, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And welcome to "Hannity." The Obama nightmare is finally coming to an end! President Obama just finished giving his farewell address in his hometown of Chicago, and he is already attempting to rewrite the history books to try and hide the truth about his failed presidency. And tonight, we will explain what President Obama does not want you to know about the last eight years and how President-elect Trump now has the opportunity to fix the mess he is inheriting. And that is tonight's "Opening Monologue."
As we were just watching, President Obama spend time earlier tonight boasting about the economy. Well, facts, they paint a much different picture. Now, what is exactly true is this: He oversaw the precipitous decline of the American economy. That is a fact. Now, here's why.
Under President Obama, we have seen the lowest labor participation rates since he the '70s. Ninety-five million of your fellow Americans are out of the labor force. He didn't mention that tonight. It's been the worst recovery since the 1940s, the lowest home ownership rate in 51 years. Over 11 million more Americans are on food stamps since he became president, over 43 million Americans now living in poverty, one in five American families without somebody in the labor force -- not one person. One in six adult men ages 18 to 34, they're either incarcerated or they're out of the labor force.
And by the time he leaves office, President Barack Hussein Obama will have accumulated more debt than all the other presidents before him combined.
And speaking of debt, when President Obama finally leaves office, it will be almost $20 trillion, which means during the past eight years, he has amassed $9.3 trillion in debt -- a guy that once said $9 trillion in debt, that's irresponsible. That's unpatriotic.
Then, of course, there's President Obama's assault on the business community through his burdensome regulations. Now, get this: The estimated cost of regulations under Obama -- look at that number -- a staggering $873 billion! That includes a shocking $344 billion cost in EPA regulations alone. All told, the number of new regulations that been finalized under President Obama, that checks in at almost 3,000.
Then, of course, there's jobs. Now, President Obama is always bragging about how many he's created, but facts are facts. And in the past eight years, America has lost over 300,000 manufacturing jobs and the president won't tell you that last year, America had a global trade deficit of over $732 billion.
Then, of course, there's health care, his signature legislation. Now, remember when Obama repeatedly told you you keep your doctor, you keep your plan, on average, you save $2,500 a year? Remember this?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, JUNE 15, 2009: No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people. If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan, period.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Millions of people lost their doctors, they lost their plans, and that is the start of the ObamaCare disaster. This year, ObamaCare premiums are exploding by 25 percent on average. In Arizona, they're jumping by a stunning 116 percent.
But the misery doesn't end there. Now, remember when Obama said that the average American family would save $2,500 a year on health care? The exact opposite has happened. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the increase in health care costs for employer-sponsored benefits since 2008 is now $5,462. That is a 43 percent increase. Now, deductibles are so high, that many of you, you can't even afford to use your plan. They're essentially useless to you!
Now, choice in health care providers is also evaporating. In states like Alabama, Alaska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Wyoming, people buying on the exchanges, they just have a single insurer to choose from. So much for choice. And many insurers are now pulling out of the ObamaCare exchanges because they're losing massive amounts of money.
Now, then there's president's failed foreign policy. Where do I start? The guy that gave Iran, the number one state sponsor of terror, $150 billion and allows them to continue to spin their centrifuges? And of course, he paid a ransom there.
He drew a red line in the sand of Syria and Assad. Assad crossed that red line, Obama did nothing, the country is now in a vicious civil war, which has created a massive worldwide humanitarian crisis.
President Obama, remember, in Egypt, he gave Mohammed Morsi, former Muslim Brotherhood head, he gave him F-16s, tanks, 1.5 billion of your tax dollars.
In Libya, the president helped overthrew Qaddafi, and that country has since fallen into chaos, creating a hotbed for what is ISIS.
And speaking of ISIS, remember back 2014, President Obama called them the JV team. And then in 2015, just hours before the horrific ISIS attack in Paris that killed over 100 people, the president said ISIS is contained! ISIS was never contained. They were never the JV, and we know that because the terror group took over large parts of Iraq because he left too early. And the reason ISIS was able to do that, because President Obama created a vacuum. He pulled out these American troops for purely political reasons.
Now, there's no doubt the president, Obama's legacy has now damaged the country. But the good news tonight, we have a new president in 10 days, President-elect Donald Trump.
He has promised to clean up this mess and he has a very clear plan to do it, including creating millions of new jobs, lowering taxes, reforming the tax code, going from seven brackets to three tax brackets, negotiating better and fairer trade deals, cutting regulations that are so burdensome, allowing multi-national corporations to bring back trillions of dollars, repatriate that money with a one-time 10 percent tax, energy independence as a promise of President-elect Trump, repealing, replacing ObamaCare, building a border wall, vetting refugees, appointing originalist justices who actually will follow the intended meaning of the Constitution, believe in separation of powers, coequal branches of government.
And this is a president-elect that will say "radical Islam" and talk about destroying ISIS and all of the above. He talked about draining the swamp, reducing the size of government, eliminating bureaucratic waste, fraud, abuse, sending education back to the states.
And finally, President-elect Trump has promised to remember the forgotten man, the people in Michigan, the people in Ohio, the people in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania.
Now, the president-elect has already signaled that he's very seriously doing all that he can up to now to get congressional Republicans to show some backbone, that they will stand on their principles of limited government, balanced budgets, that they will pass his agenda.
Real, lasting change, hopefully, is coming our way. It will be up to you to hold these people accountable. And we'll be doing it here.
Joining us now with reaction, editor-in-chief of Lifezette, Fox News contributor, nationally syndicated radio host -- Ingraham!
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: You were laughing during the whole speech. I can't take this! You're throwing (INAUDIBLE) I can't take this! I can't take this.
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: No, no, no! Sean, look, the Democrats have no one like Obama now. I mean, when you watched him (INAUDIBLE) remember his book "Audacity of Hope" -- that was the audacity of hope. I mean, you have just demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt how he has laid waste to our productivity, to this idea of a vibrant economy, to a foreign policy that has some semblance of pragmatism. He's laid waste to all of that. We have more racial division in the country...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: ... spent a lot of time on race tonight.
INGRAHAM: Yes, a huge lot of racial division in the country, the military -- every poll shows that the military has a deep amount of distrust for him. Personally, he's very popular. That doesn't surprise me at all. But he comes out there and he struts like he just won a hit (ph) lotto! He walks out there, he's, like, yes, this has been great! And he basically said, I'm going to be on the scene. When you contrast that to what Reagan said in his farewell -- and obviously, Reagan...
HANNITY: I remember the words, "not bad."
INGRAHAM: Yes, "not bad." We weren't just marking time, remember, he said.
HANNITY: That's right, really good stuff.
INGRAHAM: We weren't just marking time and -- and we left the city freer and stronger. And President Obama...
HANNITY: Wait a minute. He can't say that.
INGRAHAM: No, he can't say that, freer and stronger. And Reagan came at a desperately bad time for the economy. Obviously, we had 18 percent interest rates. We came off the -- the Iranian hostage crisis. And for all of Barack Obama's strutting -- and again, he's a masterful politician. I will never take that away from him. The facts just do not...
HANNITY: You thought there were crocodile tears! Don't lie!
INGRAHAM: I've never seen a man...
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: And I'm not a young person. I've never seen a man grab a tissue and...
HANNITY: Hang on.
INGRAHAM: Do you have a tissue here?
HANNITY: I got a tissue. Show me.
INGRAHAM: OK.
HANNITY: There you go.
INGRAHAM: And like this -- wait for it...
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: I've just never seen that! A man will be, like, whatever, you know? Or just like fake through it. But I mean, it's -- there's some good acting involved. I'm sure he's wistful. I mean, he's leaving, eight years. It's been a long eight years for...
HANNITY: Look, he got to be the president of the United States!
(CROSSTALK)
INGRAHAM: ... got to be president of the United States. He's a smart -- he's a not dumb person. People say he's -- he's not dumb. The man is a very canny and he's very savvy and he knows...
HANNITY: Can I disagree with you? In this...
INGRAHAM: I don't think he's a dumb person. I'm sorry.
HANNITY: I don't think he's dumb. I'm not saying that. I think he is a man of his indoctrination.
INGRAHAM: Although we don't know what he got in his...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: I'd like to see his grades. All right...
(CROSSTALK)
INGRAHAM: I'm just teasing. I'm teasing.
HANNITY: All right, now, you're going to ask for his birth certificate, and the whole world will go crazy!
INGRAHAM: No, no. I'm teasing. I'm teasing.
HANNITY: But here's what I've never found from him, an ability to be pragmatic. I mean, he talked about partisanship, and I'm, like, You're the most partisan person I know!
INGRAHAM: Right.
HANNITY: But he never had an era of big government is older, the end of welfare as we know it, what we call a Sister Souljah moment. He never breaks from that indoctrination, that Alinsky...
INGRAHAM: Right.
HANNITY: ... disciple Frank Marshall Davis, Reverend Wright, Bill Ayers mentality! Never breaks!
INGRAHAM: (INAUDIBLE) organizer, though, today. He used the word organizer. He's still back in Chicago. He goes back to Chicago. Was Oprah there? Remember last time, it was Brangelina. They were crying. Well, they're no more. I mean, lot of things have changed in eight years.
(CROSSTALK)
INGRAHAM: A lot of things have changed. But look, he is the best that they have. They think Cory Booker is going to be the next Obama? That's why he came out attacking Jeff Sessions today. But he is a once-in-a- lifetime politician for the Democrats.
So I'm trying to put myself in the position of a Democrat today. To watch him, the first African-American president, you know, articulate in his own way and very bold -- I mean, he came out there and gave it all he had for Hillary Clinton.
HANNITY: But did you...
INGRAHAM: He didn't leave anything on the field for Hillary.
HANNITY: I think he always liked campaigning. I never thought he got into the...
INGRAHAM: He loved campaigning. He didn't care about the policy (INAUDIBLE)
HANNITY: All right, if I'm a Democrat, this is what I'm thinking tonight.
INGRAHAM: Right.
HANNITY: All right, so they...
INGRAHAM: He destroyed the party, yes.
HANNITY: All right, so they lost the presidency...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: ... 13 Senate seats, 64 House seats, 13 governorships and 33 statehouses, about a thousand seats all told!
INGRAHAM: But it's -- so much of what the Democrats push today is about emotion, though, Sean. And I think this -- there's a lot of theatrics here. Republicans have to be a little bit better. Trump is actually good at the theatrics. You have to produce events to produce emotion. This was a well-produced event tonight.
Now, am I saying I agree with his assessment? No, I'm not. I'm not agreeing with that. But you produce events -- from the very beginning at the Invesco field in Denver, when they brought in the columns, and it was - - the seas are going to calm. The clouds were going to part. There was an emotion to it. And people were led to believe. And he had -- you know, had an enormous turnout, among white working-class voters. Many of them have now turned against the democrat Party. But they were able to conjure up a motion about this idea of hope that was untethered to the reality of the day. I will give that to them.
HANNITY: That's really well said.
INGRAHAM: But it was a fantasy because we can't afford it. We're not a country of 19, you know, 87, with the economy that we had back then. It's a different landscape. And Barack Obama had a great opportunity to change the country for the better. I think, sadly, for someone of his background, he squandered a lot of those opportunities as a partisan, as an ideologue. I think Trump will, oddly for a lot of people, turn out to be much more pragmatic and I think a lot more successful when it comes to the economic and -- and issues...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: You're not buying the narrative of Donald Trump and he might have been blackmailable? Now we believe the Russians? We didn't believe the Russians...
INGRAHAM: Yes, yes, well, let me just tell you this -- Soviets -- I lived in the Soviet Union, OK? I, too, had my own encounter with the FSB...
HANNITY: Whoa, whoa! When did you live there?
INGRAHAM: In 1983...
HANNITY: Wow.
INGRAHAM: ... when Andropov was president. That was real dark day.
HANNITY: Androp -- Andropov...
INGRAHAM: A former -- another former KGB head. They're always looking for ways to undermine the American system. Of course! None of this surprises me. So they have a -- they have a -- when I got back to the United States, I heard that they had a file of everyone who I had dinner with in Leningrad back then. And they brought people in for questioning.
This is what they do. This is what they're all about. I'm sure we'll hear more about this as the days go on. But the bottom line is, is this country stronger, freer? Is the United States more influential. Are we better off economically than we were in 2008? I think...
HANNITY: OK, maybe...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Maybe you think I'm mean-spirited. I went through all the economic statistics.
INGRAHAM: Yes. Devastating.
HANNITY: I'll have a big fight with Austan Goolsbee.
INGRAHAM: Devastating.
HANNITY: OK, I didn't mention the Russia reset did work. I didn't mention...
INGRAHAM: Right.
HANNITY: ... that we never fixed cybersecurity in 10 years. WikiLeaks has been around...
INGRAHAM: Devastating.
HANNITY: Devastating. 23 million you mentioned to me the other day, it was either here or on radio...
INGRAHAM: Yes.
HANNITY: ... you mentioned that you are one of the 23 million people...
INGRAHAM: Yes, OPM files, Office of Personnel Management.
HANNITY: Office of Personnel Management...
INGRAHAM: Yes.
HANNITY: Your files were hacked by the Chinese.
INGRAHAM: Yes, they have the files.
HANNITY: They have the files. Andropov has the files.
INGRAHAM: Yes, everybody.
HANNITY: That probably means Putin has them.
INGRAHAM: Right.
HANNITY: I want these secret Laura Ingraham files!
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: They were very exciting in the old days. But Sean, I think -- and again, when you just look at -- look at where the country is today. Are they more believing in the progressive agenda than they were when Barack Obama came into office? I would submit no. Yes, he won the popular vote.
HANNITY: Well, the lost seats say that!
INGRAHAM: The Democrats said -- you know, Democrats won the popular vote for sure, so they have -- still they have the coasts, for the most part. They have the coastal elites. But the middle of the country is disaffected. It's not even -- it's not even an ideological thing. Their policies don't work! Their production of events can be beautiful...
HANNITY: Well said.
INGRAHAM: ... but their policies do not work no matter what he said tonight...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: ... mean-spirited of me?
INGRAHAM: Yes.
HANNITY: Thank you.
INGRAHAM: Terribly mean-spirited.
HANNITY: I don't see any economic hope out of his agenda. I don't see any statistic...
INGRAHAM: No.
HANNITY: if you look at -- break it down demographically, African- Americans, Hispanic Americans...
INGRAHAM: Home ownership, terrible.
HANNITY: ... home ownership, all these things -- I don't see one statistic that makes me feel, Oh, that was a great eight years. And we doubled the debt. On foreign policy, and I can't name a better place that's better off. Even -- and he tried to influence the elections in Israel.
And then the only thing I can think of and really give him credit for is was gutsy -- he gave the OK to get bin Laden. I give him credit for that.
INGRAHAM: Yes.
HANNITY: But is it -- I can't think of anything else, and I'm trying to be fair, intellectually honest.
INGRAHAM: Bin Laden, I think he -- again, he had that brief, shining moment where he, as a -- as a -- I think a strong, successful African- American president, with a, you know, beautiful family, intact family, was an example for a lot Of African-American families thinking, We can do anything. We can make it in this country.
But sadly, they kind of slid back into the identity politics.
HANNITY: He had a great opportunity...
INGRAHAM: I think an amazing opportunity!
HANNITY: Yes.
INGRAHAM: Cory Booker is another person has a great opportunity. But it's almost a -- it's a reflexive impulse on the part of Democrats to slide back into the same political correctness, identity politics that has ripped this nation apart at the seams. It's noxious! It's toxic. And it's -- absolutely not to be redundant, but please look at the national rhetoric.
HANNITY: Let me look polls (ph) -- Donald Trump, the only thing that I hear that is worrying conservatives at this time -- well, a few things. One, will Republicans in Congress go weak in the knees? Do they have a stiff enough backbone?
INGRAHAM: Yes.
HANNITY: Number two, trillion dollar stimulus. How do we pay for it? People are concerned about that. And why did the Republicans in the House and Senate approve $10 trillion in new debt over 10 years? I thought we were the people that balances budgets and lives within our means.
INGRAHAM: Republicans are always going to get rid of the Department of Education, the department of, you know, Health and Human -- they're going to reduce government, except when they have both houses of Congress. And then government sadly grows.
HANNITY: So they're basically saying, We're going to take on as much debt as Obama just took on in eight years.
INGRAHAM: This is a red flag going up for all the activists and all the folks watching the show right now. Hold everyone in power accountable, Republicans, Democrats. You held Obama accountable, hold this administration accountable and all the Republicans who claim that they're going to be fiscal conservatives.
You're going to have to do a lot of things carefully in order to do it right. I understand that. "Obama care" repeals...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: If we grow the economy, we solve a lot of our problems. That repatriated money, the trillions overseas...
INGRAHAM: Right, but so much of it...
HANNITY: ... energy independence...
INGRAHAM: So much of it is Medicare and Social Security, which the Republicans and Trump's folks said, We're not getting into that.
HANNITY: The ways to save money...
INGRAHAM: We're not getting into that.
HANNITY: ... you send it back to the states
INGRAHAM: We've got to do a lot of that, but this is going to take a deft hand. I think they have some really good people on their team. I think you're going to see a lot of surprises coming out of Trump. People -- people are going to be really surprised. They're a little unpredictable, but I think that's not a bad thing.
HANNITY: Laura Ingraham, good to see you.
INGRAHAM: Great to see you, Sean.
HANNITY: Great to see you in New York.
All right, now, earlier tonight, President Obama -- he gave his farewell speech in Chicago, and he focused on race relations. Let's take a look at that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: After my election, there was talk of a post-racial America. And such a vision, however well intended, was never realistic.
I've lived long enough to know that race relations are better than they were 10 or 20 or 30 years ago, no matter what some folks say.
But we're not where we need to be. And all of us have more work to do.
If every economic issue is framed as a struggle between a hard-working white middle class and an undeserving minority, then workers of all shades are going to be left fighting for scraps while the wealthy withdraw further into their private enclaves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Divide the rich versus poor, black versus white, old versus young -- the policies of division of the Democratic Party. Now, the president tonight focusing on race -- he refused to address the tragic epidemic of violence that has devastated mostly African-Americans in his hometown, an issue that has only gotten worse since he took office in 2009.
President Obama -- let's look at the facts. Let's look at the numbers. In just the first 10 days of 2017, 12 homicides have been reporter, 81 people have been shot so far. And last year along, a startling 762 homicides perpetrated in the Windy City, in Chicago. Now, sadly, since January 2009, the month President Obama took office, Chicago has been ravaged -- 3,929 murders.
So why for almost eight years has President Obama failed so miserably to curb violence in his own hometown? He barely mentioned it during the course of his presidency.
Joining us now, radio talk show host James T. Harris and New York City mayoral candidate for the Democrats -- he may end up being the first Democrat I support -- vote for Bo for mayor. I have a Bo pin.
How are you?
BO DIETL, FMR. NYPD DETECTIVE: Very good, Sean.
HANNITY: Now, we brought murders down -- and New York is a bigger city, far less violence because you had a mayor that took a lot of heat from a very liberal news media, but said, We're sending all the cops into those areas that have the most crime and we're going to save lives. Stop and frisk saved lives, many minority lives.
DIETL: Absolutely. When you had Giuliani, you had Bloomberg, they were the mayors that got it. Now, this other guy, De Blasio's...
(CROSSTALK)
DIETL: Big bird.
HANNITY: Why do you call him big bird?
DIETL: He's trying to take the credit. And he's the one that put the environment in New York City, when they were demonstrating outside, close the Brooklyn Bridge, what you want? Dead cops. When do you want them? Now. Fry 'em like bacon and (INAUDIBLE) whatever they were saying. And he let this thing go on and on.
He put the environment where that creep from Baltimore came into New York and assassinated those two cops when they were sitting in the car! It's -- he has the blood! that's why every cop turned their back when they went into the hospital. And now he's trying to take the credit for the reduction in come! The credit has to go to the men and women of the New York City Police department!
As far as Chicago goes, I saw Rahm Emanuel standing there. He should have been back out on the street there, directing the (INAUDIBLE) of the homicides that are going on! You got a little girl sitting on the stoop, shot in the head, a 5-year-old little girl going to school! This doesn't stop there! This is the dirty little secret! This is like with our vets, with our 20 vets dying every day! These things have to be dealt with! And the murders in New York -- in New York City are down, thank God! But Chicago is up tremendously!
HANNITY: You know, James T. Harris, you know, the president talked about race a lot tonight. And he talked about the incendiary divisions in the country, and I would argue he was one of the most responsible, but -- he would insert himself from the beginning of his presidency -- the Cambridge Police acted stupidly, Michael Brown, Ferguson, Missouri, Freddie Gray, Baltimore, Maryland, Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman -- he's a four-time loser! And as an attorney, he rushed to judgment, no evidence, no facts, no due process for anybody. And he was wrong every time!
Why didn't did he focus on those numbers, nearly 4,000 killed in his own home city? Why did he focus rather on cases he ended up being wrong about that had a big racial component?
JAMES T. HARRIS, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Because he couldn't, because his progressive policies would fail. Instead of inserting himself, I wish President Obama would have inserted, you know, his family. In the last eight years, have marriages increased in Chicago? In the last eight years, have abortions decreased in the black community? In the last eight years, have we seen more Americans of African descent graduate from high school? Have we seen less of them be incarcerated?
The real problem in Chicago and across America, Sean, really is the breakdown of the family. If you have strong, intact families, I truly believe we would not see anywhere near the violence that we are experiencing in cities like Chicago...
HANNITY: James T. Harris, this is just a fact. In the eight years of the Obama presidency, African-Americans -- we have more African-Americans out of the labor force, in poverty, on food stamps. I've given these statistic regularly. Why? Why was he unable to fulfill that promise?
HARRIS: Because in order to do that, he would have to talk about the black community's slavish devotion to progressive policies that have destroyed them since great government, since the 1960s, the Civil Rights movement and the War on Poverty. These policies have done more to destroy not just the black community but the culture as a whole, since they been implemented.
DIETL: You know -- you know, Sean, this president -- he's a very articulate man. He had the opportunity for the last eight years to bring us all together, to break down this -- I think race relationships now are at the worst that I've seen in the last 10 years!
HANNITY: Polls show that.
DIETL: With this Black Lives Matter phony nonsense -- all they want to do is divide and all they want to do is bring violence! He brings Black Lives Matter into the White House! I mean, Let's not divide! He was the first black president. He could have brought us all together. What he did was divide, starting with Trayvon, and on and on and on with every issue!
But then we have cops that were killed. That poor woman that was shot in Orlando, African-American cop that was gunned down!
HANNITY: Just the other day.
DIETL: And I mean, these...
HANNITY: Monday.
DIETL: ... are cops out there putting their lives -- those five heroic cops in Dallas -- we all had tears in our eyes, real tears, about their families! They were just trying to...
HANNITY: They were targeted for assassination.
DIETL: And they were trying to let these people demonstrate peacefully, and they were gunned down! And I mean, the outrage in this country is -- is -- is...
HANNITY: Well, that raises, James, another question. And Bo brought it up earlier, and that is the Black Lives Matter group. I mentioned the four high-profile race cases that he inserted himself into as an attorney and as the president. I think it was unwise, especially without due process or evidence being produced.
But then he invites a group that is on tape chanting, Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon, and What do we want? Dead cops. . When do we want 'em? Now.
How do you possibly justify the association as somebody that says he wants to be a racial healer, and associating yourself with that?
HARRIS: Well, yes, he's supposed to be a racial healer with -- the argument was that he's going to be the great uniter, not the great divider. But you know, with the progressive movement, we've already talked about it ad nauseam -- it's to divide. It is to divide and conquer.
And the race card has always been an easy card to play. Instead of talking about the issues that are at the heart of the problem, which I just mentioned, the family, what we do is we start to look at other -- we look at other areas like gun control. We'll look at other excuses. And the fact of the matter is, when you have Al Sharpton as your race dar (ph) you can pretty much understand what the design is. It is to create turmoil. It is to create chaos. And that's what we have seen on blast (ph) for the last four or five years of the Obama administration!
HANNITY: You know, one of the things -- if we really care about the African-American community -- we have two things to do. We need to go to cities like Chicago and -- but we need to clean up the violence. Second thing is, the federal government -- we spend more per capita, nearly $11,900 per student on average around the country per year, and we have the worst education rates, reading, writing, science, math. We are, you know, 19, 24, 25th, respectively in all these different topics.
How can we spend more money and have a big failure and no urgency to fix the problem and let local communities have that money and they make those decisions!
DIETL: With education -- they knock the charter schools. Lookit, I'm for education, whether it be charter schools or public schools. I want the child to be able to read...
HANNITY: But he didn't do it!
DIETL: ... and to read and write when they get out. Also, the jobs. What has he done with jobs in eight years? You know (INAUDIBLE) when you give a young man a vocational job, he's a mechanic, he's a plumber, he's a carpenter, at least he's got a job in the morning! We did nothing with that! For eight years, he didn't do anything for job! The black community should be outraged of this last eight years! He's done nothing! And it's just -- to me, to listen to him tonight, he speaks so fine! He speaks so well! But what did he do?
HANNITY: All right, Bo, James, think you both for being with us. Appreciate it.
And joining us now with much more, nationally syndicated radio talk show host with the Salem Radio Network, our friend, syndicated host Larry Elder is with us. You know, one of the things that I was thinking about as I'm watching this tonight is because he didn't respect separation of powers, coequal branches of government -- you're an attorney, Larry, is -- and he did everything by executive fiat, and you know, rule of, you know, the pen there, I's thinking, Donald Trump in three hours will wipe out 75 percent of Obama's agenda.
(LAUGHTER)
LARRY ELDER, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Right!
HANNITY: They're already now working on repealing and replacing "Obama care." That's 85. The only thing that I see remaining is the debt, the deficit, the judges that he's appointed, and of course, internationally, the damage that he's created. What is his legacy?
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: What can he point to?
ELDER: His legacy, Sean, is Donald J. Trump. That's what his legacy is.
HANNITY: Wow.
ELDER: And the fact that the majority of the American people feel that we're on the wrong track economically, on the wrong track in terms of foreign policy. And to follow up on what Bo just now said, he's echoing the thoughts by people like Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, who said that under Obama, the black economy has suffered. Black net worth is down, black home ownership down, black home equity down. The so-called wealth gap between the average black family and the average white family hasn't been this wide in 25 years.
Sean, you and I have talked about the very small labor force participation rate for black men. It has never been this low since they've been tracking the number because of Obama's policies, taxing, spending, regulating...
HANNITY: You know...
ELDER: ... putting pressure on the backs of the American people, the backs of job creators! It does not work!
HANNITY: I grew up in a town called Franklin Square. It's in Long Island in New York. And if I ever became president -- I know people would laugh at that, I'm just saying. If I was the president...
ELDER: Stranger things have happened, Sean!
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: All right, it's not that funny, Larry, OK? But if I was president and I read in my hometown where I grew up, the town I come from, you know, when it's all said and done, that's where I'm going to be, I think I would have gone back and paid a lot of attention if 4,000 people in my town were killed in an eight-year. I think I would have been there often to try and solve the problem. Why was he missing in action in Chicago?
ELDER: That's a good question. And you look at Chicago and all that left- wing brain -- left-wing brain -- left-wing brain power -- you've got Bill Ayers three. You've got Rahm Emanuel there . You've got Jesse Jackson there. You got Farrakhan. You got Father Pfleger. And of course, Obama has adopted Chicago as his adopted hometown.
That ought to be a shining city on a hill. Instead, its finances are in the toilet. We talked about the violence. They've done about 750 homicides in 2016. That's substantially higher than 2015. 70 percent, by the way, of these homicides, Sean, are unsolved. And in a city that's a third white, a third black and a third Hispanic, 70 percent of the homicides are black on black.
Where is Obama? What's his policy? I have no idea.
HANNITY: Yes. I don't know, either. By the way, are you following this hysteria on some of the other networks about the Russian spies and what might have been told Donald Trump when he met with some our national intelligence folks and what Barack Obama might have heard and there might have been blackmailable material?
Donald Trump's been tweeting tonight that, of course, it is fake news. And he pointed out that Michael Cohen, a special counsel to Donald Trump at the Trump Organization was never in Prague and that a lot of what has reported tonight on other news networks has not been verified, but the hysteria, to run with a story before any verification -- what you make of that?
ELDER: Well, I think Donald Trump is bothered by the notion that but for Vladimir Putin, he would not have won the presidency, and that's what's bothering him. But there is a conflict. We have a bunch of people who were yelling and screaming that George W. Bush was lying when he relied on all 16 of our intelligence agencies, the very same people who are yelling on Donald Trump for saying that I don't believe them. So I'm not quite sure who to believe.
I do want to say this real fast, Sean. Your becoming president is far more plausible than Donald Trump becoming president a year ago. So don't laugh. A lot of very smart people, Sean, would love to see you at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and I'm one of them.
HANNITY: Thanks, Larry. If I'm going there, I'm dragging you with me. You and Bo and everybody else.
ELDER: I will be the press secretary. That's the job I want.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: That would be the most entertainment job for you and your like.
I guess the thing that is so amazing to me is we have a president right now that gave a speech tonight of saying his farewell. And everyone is so worked up in the news media about, well, the Russians may have tried. I assume the Russians are hacking. They've hacked the White House, the State Department, the Department of Defense, the Postal Service, the IRS, Office of Personal Management. China did in 2014 and we haven't done anything. WikiLeaks has been on the scene for 10 years. And we have a president that literally tried to unseat an ally of ours using taxpayer money and his own political operatives in Israel. What you make of that hypocrisy?
ELDER: They also hacked John Brennan, the CIA director's personal email. Even Adam Schiff, the Democrat from California, said that Barack Obama should have done a lot more to stop cyber-attacks. What Barack Obama said is he told Putin to knock it off. And Putin suddenly knocked it off, except he didn't knock it off. The fact of the matter is they have not taken cyber security seriously enough and that is why this country has been expose the way it has been exposed.
HANNITY: We need to fix it, Larry. I've been saying it for a long time. Good to see you, my friend.
ELDER: Sean Hannity in 2020.
HANNITY: No, Trump in 2020.
When I come back, we go one-on-one with Obama's former economic advisor Austan Goolsbee.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." Joining us now with reaction to the president's farewell address, his old buddy, the guy that got us in this economic mess, oh, look at that. Look at that. You had to be there. Former economic advisor, my buddy, Austan Goolsbee. He attended the speech. I'm not even going to say anything. I'm going to give you a chance out of friendship. The era of Obama, thank God, is over. But while you speak about all the great economic statistics --
AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, FORMER OBAMA ECONOMIC ADVISER: We've still got 10 days.
HANNITY: I will put up on the side of the screen the facts and the truth about the last eight years. So you go ahead and our audience can decide. We will play a little experiment. Go.
GOOLSBEE: OK, if the Dallas cowboys are 13-3, they won the NFC. If you're going to concentrate on the three losses, that is OK. But I'm going to concentrate on the 13 wins.
HANNITY: Wait until you see this at home. You're going to be shocked. Go ahead.
GOOLSBEE: Number one, there was no depression and they are very well could have been in 2009 given the conditions. HANNITY: Eight years ago. Keep going.
GOOLSBEE: Number two, longest string of private sector job creation in the history United States. We've added more than 15 million jobs.
HANNITY: Focus on one demographic. OK, go ahead.
GOOLSBEE: Not one demographic, the demographic is private sector jobs, 15 million. We'll see if Donald Trump can do better. If you look at all of this post-recession period, poverty has gotten better, food stamps went down, the home ownership rate has finally stabilized after the housing crisis.
HANNITY: Can we put those numbers up? Go ahead.
GOOLSBEE: We were losing 800,000 jobs a month and now we are adding more than 2 million a year. That's pretty strong.
HANNITY: It's 120,000. But what about the labor participation rate? What about the doubling of the debt? What about the worst recovery since the '40s, the lowest home ownership rate in 51 years?
GOOLSBEE: Well, here you go again. All you want to do is go dwell on this first year. You know perfectly well -- no, when the recession ended, all of those statistics matter.
HANNITY: Can you give me a date that you want to go forward from. All right, we will count year number one, year number five, and year number seven. We won't count the other years.
GOOLSBEE: Did you see the line in the president's speech, Sean, and the president if you are tired of arguing -- he said if you are tired of arguing with a stranger on the Internet, why don't you go meet with someone in person and have a discussion? And I thought of you, Sean. I thought, I love our talks. We do. We did, we had dinner.
HANNITY: Didn't I say nice things about you in that article.
GOOLSBEE: You did. You did. You're viewers are going to go crazy. They're going to go crazy. But --
HANNITY: And we went to dinner, who paid for dinner?
GOOLSBEE: Tonight was Obama's day.
HANNITY: He's a great speaker. He's very charming.
GOOLSBEE: Now I have to take you to dinner. I have to take you to dinner, but I just want to know, Sean, do you want fries with your dinner, or do you just want the happy meal?
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: I am staying away from carbs. I'm on a diet. Stay right there. More with Austan Goolsbee right after the break.
And later, Mercedes Schlapp, Doug Schoen, there here with reaction. Obama's farewell, it has been a long, brutal eight years. Thank God it is coming to an end.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity" as we continue with former economic advisor Austan Goolsbee.
All right, I'm going to give you a chance, because we have been friends a long time. I am sure this was an emotional night for you. You were there at Grant Park eight years ago, right?
GOOLSBEE: Indeed, I was.
HANNITY: OK, I will give you the chance to ask any question you want about Obama, and I will answer it.
GOOLSBEE: OK. Sean, does it bother you that Barack Obama is massively more popular with the American people than Donald Trump is?
HANNITY: Massively? Donald Trump's approval rating -- hang on, hello, do you want me to answer? You host the Austan Goolsbee show and you don't let the guy talk. You are like me.
GOOLSBEE: I learned from you, Sean.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: That's probably true, fair point. The latest poll on Trump was about 47 percent approval. Latest I've seen on Obama is around 49 to 51, so they seem about equal.
GOOLSBEE: No, 58, 58. Even higher than Ronald Reagan was. Does that bother you?
HANNITY: I never met the guy but I think a lot of people seem to like him. He comes across sincere and I think a lot of people don't follow him as closely as I do. I feel like he has never broken from his rigid, radical ideological indoctrination and I think it has hurt him. Had he been more pragmatic, had he had a "Sista Souljah," "era of big government, end of welfare as we know it" moment, he could have been more successful. Besides ObamaCare --
GOOLSBEE: A, he helped us avoid the depression. B, ObamaCare, we will see if it's gone.
HANNITY: It's gone.
GOOLSBEE: It got 20 million people insurance. He put in consumer financial protections and reregulated the financial sector.
HANNITY: They'll be gone, too.
GOOLSBEE: He killed Usama bin Laden.
HANNITY: I give him credit.
GOOLSBEE: He saved the auto industry. I know you don't like it, but he reopened relations with Cuba.
HANNITY: Making friends with murdering dictators is a plus for you?
GOOLSBEE: Like I said, I know you don't like it. But I think, Sean, you still have to explain why is his popularity as he is leaving office higher than Ronald Reagan's was when he left office.
HANNITY: OK, but Reagan created 21 million new jobs in the longest period of peace time economic growth in American history to that point. And he took over a far worse economy than Obama, 21 percent interest rates, double digit unemployment.
GOOLSBEE: No, no.
HANNITY: Yes, facts. Everything I just said is a fact.
GOOLSBEE: He took over a bad economy. He took over a bad economy. It was not as bad as the one in 2008 going into 2009.
HANNITY: I honestly --
GOOLSBEE: I'm not belittling Ronald Reagan's recovery. It was a very strong recovery.
HANNITY: I give you an A, because you are a professor. I'm going to grade your support of Barack Hussein Obama. You are the most loyal soldier, I love loyalty. I admire loyalty. You are probably his greatest defender. You are the best at it and I give you an A plus. You defended the impossible but I give you an A plus.
GOOLSBEE: I am only loyal only to the facts, Sean. That's all I'm loyal to.
HANNITY: God bless Austan Goolsbee, and I meant what I said in that article.
GOOLSBEE: Great to see you, Sean.
HANNITY: And up next tonight right here on "Hannity."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PAUL RYAN, R-WIS., SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We are going to use every tool at our disposal, through legislation, through regulation to bring replace concurrent along with repeal so that we can save people from this mess.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Speaker Paul Ryan saying Republicans play to repeal and replacing ObamaCare concurrently. Finally, yes, that's' the way to do it. So how will they do it? Mercedes Schlapp, Doug Schoen, they're next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." President-elect Donald Trump promised to repeal, replace ObamaCare on day one, and the pressure is now on for the GOP in Congress to come up with a replacement plan. Today Speaker Paul Ryan said this. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYAN: It is our goal to bring it all together concurrently. We already showed people what we believe in, what ObamaCare should be replaced with. So we are going to use every tool at our disposal through legislation, through regulation, to bring replace concurrent along with repeal so that we can save people from this mess.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Joining us now with reaction are Fox News contributors Doug Schoen, Mercedes Schlapp. A week ago Paul Ryan was saying, oh, I think we will repeal it sometime this year.
DOUG SCHOEN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Right. And here's the problem. They have to make sure 20 million Americans are covered, that the taxes that get repealed, which is a good thing, that the revenue somehow is replaced. And they've got to make sure that the whole essence of our health care system doesn't collapse, because there is a bottom line here, Sean. If it gets on the Republican's shoulders that health care gets out of control cost-wise, coverage-wise, it will be the Republicans inheriting the mess from Barack Obama.
HANNITY: Mercedes, I talked to Rand Paul today. He's got a bill that he's putting out. Did you know it is illegal to buy a catastrophic plan which is inexpensive for young people? It's ideal, high deductible, takes care of accidents, cancer, God forbid, heart attack, God forbid, it's cheaper. If you have that and you have health care savings accounts that allow these co-ops to develop like in Wichita, Kansas, as Dr. Umbehr has a great system going there, that would solve the problem to me.
MERCEDES SCHLAPP, WASHINGTON TIMES: It would definitely help as well as increase of competition by selling insurance across state lines. What a concept. This is about increasing competition, having more choices for consumers. And guess what, ObamaCare, President Obama wanted to make that it would be quality and affordable health care. Guess what. We've seen time and time again these premiums rise not only in individual markets but in family markets. And I think, Sean, that it's really an opportunity for the Republicans to show that they can not only repeal, which would be the easier side of it, they've got to have a positive vision. And I know the Democrats want the Republicans to fail, but that's Republicans --
SCHOEN: Not this democrat. I want the country to succeed.
SCHLAPP: Good. You're a patriot, though. You're a patriot, Doug.
HANNITY: Are you worried, Mercedes, about $1 trillion in infrastructure spending without paying for it? Do you worry about Republicans just raised the debt ceiling $10 trillion over 10 years?
SCHLAPP: You know, of course I worry. I always -- we think about our own children who have to bear --
HANNITY: Why aren't Republicans doing that? Why don't they go with the penny plan or freeze our spending and get rid of baseline budgets?
SCHOEN: What about bipartisan to get infrastructure done, tax reform done --
HANNITY: Don't we have pay for it, first? Repatriated money can pay for it.
SCHOEN: Yes, that's right. And Trump wants to use bonds for private individuals to help get private money.
HANNITY: Energy independence. But we've got to have the money first.
SCHOEN: We've got to have the money, but we've got to get a plan and bring both sides in.
SCHLAPP: You all know the reality of this is the fact of entitlement, you know that the bulk of our budget has to deal with the fact of the entitlement spending.
HANNITY: I've got to let you go. They are counting me down, 10, nine, eight.
Unfortunately that is all the time we have left this evening. Thank you for being with us. And we will see you. Ten days left of Obama, the world changes. Thank God.
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