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Published July 18, 2018
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," July 17, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Welcome to "Hannity."
All right. What we're going to cover this hour is so, so vitally important because you have just witnessed the single worst 24 hours in the history of your mainstream media. And according to the abusively biased press, well, the sky is literally falling. The world as you know it is now over, and the president that you the American people duly elected is a traitor, in the pocket of Vladimir Putin and Russia.
If all this hysteria seems patently absurd to you -- well, that's because it is. Journalism, as I declared on this program, has been dead and buried since 2007. And in moments, we are going to show you one of the absolute worst examples you can't even begin to imagine.
Plus, we'll point out the left's blatant double standard as we compare and contrast and show you how Obama's weak and feckless foreign policy seriously hurt this country's diplomatic efforts abroad. The president is cleaning up his mess.
And we'll discuss how Robert Mueller's political witch hunt is playing a huge role in all of this. And later, we also have brand-new developments surrounding the Trump-hating FBI lovebirds, Strzok and Page. Now, tonight, despite massive amount of predictable hysteria coming from those who want this president to fail -- rest assured, let not your heart be troubled, America's policy is sound, our republic is strong, the sun will continue to rise day after day on the greatest country god gave man.
Sit tight, buckle up. We are back in New York for tonight's -- well, really important breaking news opening monologue.
(MUSIC)
HANNITY: All right. As we go through tonight's opening monologue, I want you to keep some very important questions in your mind.
First, think about this, what is worse? A hostile regime that we know was hostile run by a bad actor trying to create chaos in our elections as it has many times in the past, or top officials in the Federal Bureau of Investigation rigging an investigation to advance their favorite candidate that they should have indicted? What about the Democratic Party rigging their own party's primary to favor Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders? What's worse?
Or is it worse that the Democratic Party bought and paid for Russian lies, of all things, to propagandize you, the American electorate, the American people, to lie outright to you, the American people, about an opposing candidate rather than win on the important issues that will impact the lives of the American people? Or is it worse that the Democrats, the DNC, Hillary Clinton, that they actually bought and paid for what turned out to be Russian lies presented as a bulk of information to secure a FISA warrant on an American citizen associated with an opposition party in a presidential election year, so they could spy on that party? And a warrant based on Russian paid for lies?
Or is it worse the Democratic party bought and paid for the Russian lies that were never verified, and yet, were regurgitated by the self-righteous, sanctimonious, delusional media in this country that absolves itself as something they are not, as they claim to be unbiased and fair when they are nothing but the cheerleaders and crusaders for all things that only matter to the Democratic Party and liberal causes?
And ask yourself, what's the worst thing that happened in Helsinki yesterday? That the president began a conversation with the second largest nuclear power in the world about, let's see, nuclear about proliferation, radical Islamic terrorism, innocent people slaughtered daily in Syria, the ongoing civil war, Iranian aggression.
Oh, and by the way, where is the DNC server? Where is that server that the FBI didn't look at? Where are those 33,000 deleted emails on yoga, wedding, a funeral?
Now, the media, you know, they wanted what? They wanted Obama-like promises to show more flexibility from Trump to Putin?
And, of course, President Trump has long stated that good international relationships with our friends and geopolitical foes is a very good thing for everybody. Simple truth. And this is especially true when nuclear weapons are in play.
And, unfortunately, prior to yesterday's summit, U.S.-Russian relations -- they were incredibly strained. And while President Trump trying to ease these tensions and carve out some kind of working diplomatic channel with Vladimir Putin -- well, your mainstream media, they were out for blood even before the president arrived.
And if you thought the rhetoric and the vitriol coming from America's abusively biased press was bad, well, tonight it has become so much worse. We have Holocaust comparisons, Pearl Harbor references, calls for revolution in this country and much more.
You don't believe me? We have the tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC HOST: If the president did it today because he hasn't some reason to serve that other country, rather than our own, then -- well, a lot that has previously been inexplicable is now explicable. And that's the worst-case scenario.
UNIDENTIFEID FEMALE: It's just as serious to me as the Cuban missile crisis in terms of an attack or the 9/11 attack. His performance today will live in infamy as much as the Pearl Harbor attack or Kristallnacht.
UNIDENTIFEID MALE: When do we see a shadow government come out and say we cannot side with the government, whether it's the cabinet or the Senate? I think that's the big question.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": You stood next to that man and you said it and gave the middle finger to America.
CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: We now have to figure out how to deal with the president of the United States who wittingly or unwittingly has been compromised. What we saw yesterday was collusion witting or unwitting, and the presidents words and attitudes towards Putin.
JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC HOST: The president looked like a weak, dumpy stooge to a KGB spy. He had a chance to show loyalty to men and women in uniform of America's military and intel community and instead he betrayed them.
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE, ON MSNBC: Somebody needs to make it clear to President Trump that his behavior and that press conference was un-American, outrageous, ridiculous, stupid.
UNIDENTIFEID MALE: You had a one-word reaction to what you saw yesterday, treason.
UNIDENTIFEID MALE: Treason, yes.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HANNITY: All right, 9/11, Pearl Harbor. You know, I'm normally kind of immune to the media's daily dose of feigned moral outrage but this is sick and it's now pathological. Really sick.
Now, this is not news. These people are not journalists. These are not news channels. What you just saw is nothing but left wing propaganda misinformation, it's just that plain, obvious and simple.
And naturally, you have former communist turned CIA director, turned MSNBC conspiracy theorist John Brennan also chiming in with more propaganda of his own. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BRENNAN, EX-CIA CHIEF: I think there's a big question, first of all, in terms of those who are on Mr. Trump's national security team, whether they can continue to serve in good conscience an individual who basically betrayed his nation. What Mr. Trump did yesterday was to betray the women and men of the FBI, the CIA, NSA, and others and to betray the American public.
And that's why I use the term of this is nothing short of treasonous, because it is the betrayal of the nation. He is giving aid and comfort to the enemy, and it needs to stop and Mr. Trump needs to understand that there are going to be consequences for him, too
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: I can't wait to get to all of Brennan's nefarious activities, because it's all going to come out.
And, meanwhile, Brennan's former deep state partner in crime James Comey tweeted out, quote, this was a day an American president stood on foreign soil next to a murderous lying thug and refused to back his own country, patriots need to stand up and reject the behavior of this president.
Jim, we reject your behavior. Your behavior, your abuse of power that rightly got you fired.
So, there you have it. You have two indignant anti-Trump former bureaucrats chastising the president, all while they knew about Russia's attempts to meddle in our elections. By the way, it happened on their watch. They did nothing to sound the alarm, all because they thought their chosen candidate -- that's right, Jim helped Hillary, remember? They thought she was going to win. We'll have more on that in a moment.
But, first, let's break down one key issue and that is Comey, Brennan, the media, they're losing it, absolutely lost their minds. The topic of Russian-sponsored election hacking, well, today, President Trump clarified his remarks from the summit. He made it perfectly clear that he trusts our intel agencies, not the ones that worked before, and their reports on Russian meddling.
And, by the way, I have the proof. I will show you in a second. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I have full faith and support for America's great intelligence agencies. Always have. And I have felt very strongly that, while Russia's actions had no impact at all on the outcome of the election, let me be totally clear in saying that -- and I've said this many times, I accept our intelligence communities' conclusion that Russia's meddling in the 2016 election took place. Could be other people also.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, in case the left forgot, what you just saw from President Trump is a position that he is clearly articulated over and over and over and over and over again. And if your media had any honesty in them, they would remind you, they would do their job but as usual, we will do their job for them.
So, here is the president having said it this many times and more, take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: As far as hacking, I think it was Russia, but I think we also get hacked by other countries and other people. And I can say when we lost 22 million names and everything else that was hacked recently, they didn't make a big deal out of that, that was something that was extraordinary, that was probably China. We have much hacking going on.
Well, I think it was Russia and I think it could have been other people in other countries. It could have been a lot of people interfered.
I think it was Russia but I think it was probably other people and/or countries. It was Russia and I think it was probably others also.
The Russians had no impact on our votes whatsoever. But, certainly, there was meddling and probably there was meddling from other countries and maybe other individuals.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: So, the media didn't believe him but he said it over and over again. We all know the Russians have been meddling in our elections. We know that Russia is a hostile regime. We all know that the Putin is a bad actor.
And, today, now that Trump is president, all of a sudden, the left seems to care. Let's slow down for a moment and let's discuss this blatant hypocrisy, because in 2008, there was Russian hacking into the McCain campaign and the Obama campaign but at the time, it garnered very little attention.
And in 2012, as President Obama is gearing up for his big reelection bid, he was overheard on a hot mic telling then-Russian President Medvedev that he'd have more, more flexibility, don't tell the American people. We'll have more flexibility after the election. It sounds like collusion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT: This is my last election. And after my election, I have more flexibility.
DMITRY MEDVEDEV, RUSSIAN PRIME MINISTER: I understand.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, of course, following that incident, there was no outrage from the left in this country, no hysteria, virtually no one in the mainstream media accused Obama of being Vladimir Putin's puppet.
Anyway, months later during a presidential debate, Obama ridiculed Mitt Romney's warning about the Russia threat. Romney was right. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Governor Romney, I'm glad that you recognize that Al Qaeda is a threat because a few months ago, when you are asked what's the biggest geopolitical threat facing America you said Russia. Not Al Qaeda. You said Russia. And the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War has been over for 20 years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: No. Of course, he thought global warming was the big geopolitical threat.
And again, the mainstream media, they barely yawn. Remember in 2014, House Intel Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, he sounded the alarm about Russia's malicious intentions to cause chaos around the world and in the elections here in America? Obama warned by our own intel services about Russian meddling. He did not think I'm a 16, there is Obama came eight years of weakness, telling Donald Trump to quit whining, that the U.S. election, no serious person thought it could be possibly rigged in any way. Stop whining.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: There is no serious person out there that would suggest somehow that you could even -- you could even rig America's elections in part because they are so decentralized and the numbers of the votes involved. There is no evidence that has happened in the past or that there are instances in which that will happen this time. And so, I'd advise Mr. Trump to stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: OK. It did happen in the past and it did happen in spite of him saying it couldn't happen. Now, by the way, Obama knew there was Russian meddling and he did nothing and he told us it couldn't happen, and then he dropped the ball.
And the media, they didn't hold him accountable. And following the election in 2016, President Obama even stated publicly that shaming Putin publicly would not be an effective tactic, which now the media thinks is necessary or you're not a patriot. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I should point out, part of why the Russians have been effective on this is because they don't go around announcing what they're doing. It's not like Putin is going around the world publicly saying, look what we did, wasn't that clever? He denies it.
So, the idea that somehow public shaming is going to be effective I think doesn't read the thought process in Russia very well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Of course, he was the anointed one and they media for eight years kissed his -- well, you know.
Where was the media hysteria over that? Why now? Why President Trump?
Of course, the Obama administration's policy was much worse than its rhetoric. Obama did nothing to counter Vladimir Putin's aggression and his actions in Crimea, Ukraine. Obama did nothing when Russia dropped -- literally, showed up on Assad and started helping that dictator butcher, what, hundreds of thousands of Syrian men, women, and children.
That happened on Obama's watch. He did nothing as Russia worked with Iran to destabilize the entire Middle East. Instead, Obama signed off on the insane, horrific, Iranian nuclear deal, sending cargo planes with $150 billion in cash and other currencies to the mullahs in Iran. By the way, while they were chanting "death to America, death to Israel," burning our flag, the Israeli flag, funding terrorism around the world and all of this meddling, all of this interference was on Obama, Clapper, Brennan, and Comey's watch. Not Donald Trump's. He's cleaning up their mess.
And according to reports, in order to secure the Iranian deal, Obama even look the other way as the terrorist group Hezbollah funded their terrorist activities through drug trafficking deals in the U.S. And despite all of this, no outrage from the media in this country. In fact, they were cheering for Obama every single step of the way.
But now, the media is desperate. They didn't think Trump would win the primary, they didn't think he would win the general election. They thought collusion would get him and Robert Mueller would nail him but that's not working. So, now, their conspiracy theories have gone on steroids and human growth hormone.
Meanwhile, in this very important time, we all know there was Russia conclusion in the 2016 presidential election. We know about Putin, we know about Russia. Now, by the way, it surrounds Hillary Clinton in the 2016 campaign, not Donald Trump. Hillary paid a foreign spy funneled money through a law firm, a foreign spy to put together unverified, what turned out to be Russian lies, Russian propaganda about Donald Trump, disseminated that material now known as the dossier, throughout the federal government, throughout Obama's Justice Department, into the FBI, the U.S. senate, and used by the Obama administration to garner FISA warrants on a Trump campaign associate so they could spy on that campaign in the middle of a presidential election.
By the way, there's the real story of Russia collusion. That's what the media will not report, the biggest abuse of power corruption scandal in our history. And the press is also refusing to cover the ongoing deep state scandal surrounding -- look at this -- Lisa Page and Peter Strzok.
Now, the bias of high ranking FBI employees, they are the very center of the 2016 effort to literally clear their chosen candidate, Hillary Clinton, of all charges, all felonies she committed, all obstructions she is guilty of, while investigating a Russia witch hunt to take down Donald Trump.
During our interview last night, here's what President Trump had to say about the corrupt lovebirds Strzok and Page. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You have to find out who did Peter Strzok report to, because it was Comey, it was McCabe, but it was also probably Obama. If you think Obama didn't know what was going on -- when you watched, and I said it today with President Putin. When you watch Peter Strzok's performance, the lover of Lisa Page, when you watch that performance, the FBI -- I'll tell you, I know so many people in the FBI, these are incredible people.
What they are going through watching this guy, a total phony, how about, "we'll stop it," or something to that effect?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right. Joining us now, author of the brand new book, it's just out and it's called "Liars, Leakers, and Liberals: The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy", Judge Jeanine Pirro.
You know, this is the thing. When you take your time and you actually lay out real information and facts, for example, how many times did Donald Trump say, yes, Russia was guilty of meddling in our elections? And they said today liar, he's a liar.
But he said it so many times, they don't care about the truth. This is now hurting the country with this one-sided agenda that the media obviously has that is anti-Trump.
JEANINE PIRRO, AUTHOR, "LIARS, LEAKERS AND LIBERALS": You know, Sean, I must tell you, that's one of the reasons I wrote the book "Liars, Leakers, and Liberals." These are people these are people who lie, they leak, and they are focused on taking down Donald Trump as a president of the United States.
But the American people instinctively understood that we needed this man at just this time. And everything you laid out tonight in your monologue is accurate. All of it is in my book, it's almost as though I knew what was going to happen.
But can you imagine, Sean, if Donald Trump offered a reset button to Putin what they would do, or if he was caught in an off-mic moment with Medvedev, the Russian prime minister? But instead what Donald Trump has done is he's given $90 billion of sales of arms into Ukraine, mass sanctions against the annexation of Crimea and yet the left is focused totally on taking him down.
They are the criminals. They are the ones who decided that justice would not be blind, that justice would go against Donald Trump and the pond scum in the swamp from Brennan to Clapper to Comey to Strzok, all came together to use our justice system to go after a politician duly elected by the people.
Normally, it's the politicians who go after people in justice. No, this is just the opposite, where people who are standing up for the Department of Justice and the FBI are working to take down the president.
HANNITY: You know, at this point, I just think the media is so hostile and the problem for them now is they dug themselves such a big hole and none of it's come true. The apocalypse isn't happening, the economy is turning around. I think you can't look at any of this if you don't see it through the prism of 2018. They see their power slipping away.
And you're right. I mean, the president did arm Ukraine. The president, you know, did have NATO exercises right off the border. The president, you know, literally did put multiple sanctions against Vladimir Putin. The president's cleaning up Brennan, Clapper, Obama, Comey, and Clinton's mess here.
This happened under their watch. Not his.
PIRRO: We've also killed hundreds of Russians in Syria.
This president is doing exactly what he promised he would do and I talk about it in the book. All of the good things he's doing is being ignored by the media.
HANNITY: They don't care, they don't care, they're liars. They are all agenda-driven.
PIRRO: They are liars, they are leakers, and they're liberals, Sean. And that's why people have to focus on 2018. They have to make sure that we will in 2018 prove to the American people that they believe in justice, they believe in this man who takes income every day, the president of the United States, still gets up and fights for us every day.
You know what? Let them have their dance, their crazy dance -- dance and get dressed up in their Antifa getups. They can do whatever they want, America gets it. They are talking to each other.
HANNITY: All right. Congrats on the book, Judge Jeanine.
PIRRO: Thank you, Sean.
HANNITY: As you know, you can watch her Saturday night, right here on the FOX News Channel.
When we come back, we have more breaking news. Gregg Jarrett, Sara Carter, wait until you hear what Lisa Page and how she is contradicting her former lover Peter Strzok.
The great one Mark Levin makes a visit. And much more as we continue on this breaking news night.
(COMMERCIOAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Can we still call President Trump the leader of the free world? Can we still call him the leader of the United States?
NICOLE WALLACE, MSNBC ANALYST: All he had to do was not, you know, put on jammies and crawl under the covers with Vladimir Putin, and he couldn't do that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have never seen an American president simply surrender to the leader of Russia, you should call this the surrender summit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The definition is the first word is treason, bribery, and high crimes and misdemeanors.
SCARBOROUGH: We all know that Vladimir Putin is holding something over Donald Trump. We do not know what that is. But we know it must be something extraordinary.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HANNITY: Just more of the corrupt anti-Trump fairly predictable dishonest mainstream media spreading their liberal narratives about the Helsinki summit.
Joining us now with reaction, author of the book out next week, finally it's here, "The Russia Hoax" , which, by the way, explains lot of this, if not all of it. "The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump", one week from today, Amazon.com and Hannity.com, FOX News legal Gregg Jarrett.
Also with us, Fox News investigative reporter and contributor Sara Carter.
Gregg, let's start with you and let's start with the media reaction to all of this.
I just laid out all of the times that Donald Trump had said Russia was involved in meddling. So, the media -- you know, the premise of their argument is provably wrong but that didn't stop the hysteria. Nor did they explain to the American people that deserve the truth that this all happened on their watch, on Obama's watch, Clinton's watch, Comey's watch, Brennan's watch, Clapper's watch, and the rest of them.
GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: Three months ago, on April 6th, the president signed an order imposing new sanctions on Putin and Russia, and he issued a statement at the time saying he's doing this because Russia interfered in our 2016 election, trying to sow discord. So, he has said this repeatedly but the media has amnesia.
This president has been tougher on Putin and Russia in 18 months in office than Barack Obama in eight years. Last summer, he issued new tough sanctions on Russia and their energy industry and their defense industry, he has expelled dozens of Russians from this country, he has shut down diplomatic properties in Washington, New York, and San Francisco.
So, for the media to suggest that this president is siding with Putin, he's in his pocket, he doesn't believe that the Russians meddled, is ludicrous.
HANNITY: Let's get your take, Sara Carter, especially from your perspective knowing Brennan and Clapper, there's information on Brennan that will be coming out that I think is fairly devastating to him.
SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, when you have members of the intelligence community, Sean, particularly the former director of the CIA, John Brennan literally going out against the president of the United States, going out against his own nation, you have a very serious problem.
And the information that's going to be coming out on Brennan I believe is damaging. You know, one of the biggest questions that we have is what was the role of the CIA in this Russia investigation? What role did Brennan play? Was he coordinating with the FBI? Were other agencies involved?
And I think when you have someone like John Brennan and you have an agency, a powerful agency like the CIA whose edict is to go after foreign threats, but instead looks into political discord and our political state here within the country and exists in that with the FBI, then we have something very frightening. This is something shouldn't be happening.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: You know, I raised all these questions.
CARTER: You did.
HANNITY: Everything that we've been discussing here, they rig an investigation, and they help a favorite candidate, then they set out to destroy a second candidate, then, you know, all of that information, then they literally it's a bought and paid for dossier to lie to the American people kind of like Pravda, kind of like propaganda.
And it's Russian lies of all things, the media ignores all of that. It's even used as the bulk of information obtained the FISA warrant.
All right. We have new information today, that apparently Lisa Page is now contradicting Peter Strzok. I will start with you, Sara.
CARTER: Yes. That was the information that I received today as well, Sean. That her testimony appeared to be very credible, it appeared to contradict Peter Strzok's testimony, they will be reviewing that again. They are going to be taking a very close look at that.
This is really interesting because remember, this is the -- this was the interview that Congress wanted all along.
Now another very important point, I think this is something that investigators particularly on Capitol Hill are looking at. It's the onslaught of documentation that shows how far the FBI went, not only the FBI but other agencies within the U.S. government and coordinating either with the dossier as well as other information. Anti-Trump information and this is something they want to take a look at.
They also have 19 pages of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants that was taken out on Carter Page. This was the very last one. They have the 19 pages they want to make it public, they want the rest of the country to know what they are looking at--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: And the president can ask, demand that this be released as we've all three of us now have said.
CARTER: The president -- the president should demand the release of these documents. He should. And the American people have a right to see it.
HANNITY: Yes. Let me get -- Gregg, we'll give you the last word tonight.
GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: Lisa Page reportedly under oath, said that the text messages from Strzok meant what they said. He of course claimed they didn't mean that.
HANNITY: By the way, wasn't he under oath?
JARRETT: Yes, he was. And so, that would mean that if she's telling the truth and he is not, and they've perjured himself, plus, driven by animus and bias he may have used his office to clear Hillary Clinton for political reasons and launched the investigation to frame Donald Trump which would be obstruction of justice and abuse of power.
HANNITY: By the way, that's the title of a new book that's coming out new week.
JARRETT: It is.
HANNITY: A week. Finally it's here and you can get your copy in bookstores everywhere starting Monday. All right. Thank you both.
When we come back, you want to hear the great one Mark Levin, he's fired up about the media and the most insane 24 hours we've ever seen. Yes, the great one Mark Levin is straight ahead, don't go anywhere.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. He is back with us. He is the host of CRTV's Levin TV, the host of Life, Liberty, and Levin, the number one show Sunday night at 10 Eastern right here on Fox. I call him the great one Mark Levin.
So I said at the beginning of the show we have now witnessed the single worst 24 hours in the history of the mainstream media which is saying a lot because we know how corrupt they are. Reaction?
MARK LEVIN, FOX NEWS HOST: Well, you know, Sean, what we've learned about the media several of the hosts and guests as we have a lot of psychopaths out there. That's for sure.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: OK. How do you really feel?
LEVIN: Well, comparing the president's conference with Putin to Pearl Harbor an 9/11, Kristallnacht, the beginning in the Holocaust, calling him a traitor and treasonous. You know, two weeks ago they said he was running Japanese internment camps and Nazi concentration camps. This is the pseudo- media.
And now comes to Russia. Now the liberals, the media, the Democrats, some Republicans very upset about Russia. You know, they've had more positions on Russia than Stormy Daniels as far as I'm concerned. And let me point out some history. This is very, very important.
John McCain, God bless him and others have said that what Trump did at that press conference is the worst interaction we've ever had with Russia, the worst diplomatic disaster ever.
I want the American people - forget about that, I want you to know something. In 1945 at the Yalta Conference, Franklin Roosevelt sold out half of Europe to Stalin. He repeatedly praised Stalin. Franklin Roosevelt is the hero of the Democratic Party, he of Japanese internment camps too.
In Yalta he gave up half of Europe to the Soviet Union. In 1961, JFK met with Khrushchev. JFK told a friend of his that he was rolled over that he came across weak that it was pretty disastrous his meeting with Khrushchev.
And a few weeks later, what did they do? The Soviets are shipping missiles to Cuba and they are building a wall in Berlin. In 1975, Gerald Ford in Helsinki with Breshnev with 35 other countries, recognized -- recognized the territorial sovereignty of the Soviet Union which included the captive nations of Eastern Europe.
In 1979, Jimmy Carter placed a big wet kiss on Breshnev's cheek in Vienna. All of this hysteria about this press conference, the president said, look, I could have said it better, I should have said this and they act like it's the apocalypse. It's not.
The left in this country has defended the Rosenberg's, they defended Alger Hiss, they defended Ted Kennedy in 1983 and '84 when he was colluding with the Kremlin to defeat Reagan. The left, the Democrats, the media in this country oppose the STI, the Strategic Defense Initiative which had as its purpose to defend us against Russian nuclear missiles, they called it "Star Wars" to this day, the left won't fund it.
To this day, the Democrat Party opposes it. They opposed dispersing two missiles, the modernized medium-range nuclear missiles which you eventually put in York, again to defeat the Soviet Union.
So the left goes back and forth, the Democrats -- if, in fact, Donald Trump had turned to Putin after a two-hour private meeting after setting up this summit and all of a sudden in public turns to Putin and says look, you little bastard, we know you interfered in our election. They would be attacking Trump today the way that Trump turned to the Germans and NATO and said, hey, you're buying 70 percent of your natural gas from the Roskis, you're funding their war machine and then you ask us to subsidize you?
The media, the Democrats and the same people went nuts. But some more facts. Obama as president. Obama did nothing effective at all to stop the Russians interference in our election. He's the one who ought to be under investigation.
No pushback for the invasion of Georgia. No pushback for the annexation of Crimea. No pushback for the invasion of Eastern Ukraine. No pushback from Russia's criminal shootdown of flight MH117.
He capitulated to Russia in Syria, the unmet red lines, his betrayal of Poland and the Czech Republic by seeding to Russia's demand to remove U.S. missiles defense systems there. He betrayed the Ukraine by refusing to provide them with defensive weapons.
Now, contrast that disaster that utter appeasement to what Trump has done in the 18 months. He's expanded sanctions on Russian companies in apparatchik. He's expanded and beefed up NATO. He's had a massive increase in U.S. defense spending no thanks to the liberals, restoring missile defenses to Poland and the Czech Republic.
Returning heavy armored divisions to Germany. Repositioning armed brigade to the Baltics. Ending arms embargoes on the Ukraine and Georgia that Obama imposed on victims of Russian aggression.
Ending the ban of oil exports to try and compete with the Russians when it comes to their oil. I could go on and on on this, these are notes I have typed out on this.
So, all of this hysteria, the fact of the matter is Trump hasn't a thing to harm America with respect to Russia and Obama did nothing to protect America when it came to Russia.
The same attitude Obama had when he came to the Chinese in the South China Sea building their phony islands. The North Koreans as they are building their nukes, the Iranians -- he gave them $150 billion and a wet kiss on the lips.
So the attacks on Trump this overwrought hysterical, insane attack by the media, the Democrats some on the Republican Party and some phony conservatives--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Let me ask you this.
LEVIN: -- you're allowed to question the president, just don't go nuts.
HANNITY: No, they can't help themselves. Because their narrative, you can't see this without seeing it through the prism of 2018. It's now because they can't run on the economy anymore, they're telling Maxine and others to be quiet about impeaching. They want open borders, they want Obamacare; they want their crumbs back.
And now they're kind of desperate because the Mueller investigation hasn't brought them what they wanted in 18 months. But we have had Russia collusion in as much as Russian lies were paid for and disseminated to the American people about Donald Trump in a presidential election and they will use to get a warrant in a presidential election against the Trump campaign. That seems to me like a pretty important factor that they don't report on, Mark.
LEVIN: Bottom line is two entities interfered in our election. The Russians and the Obama administration. The Democrats defend the Obama administration and all of a sudden they don't like the Russians so they've been kowtowing too since 1917.
HANNITY: Bingo. Yes. You know what, that's why we call you the great one. Don't -- we will see Mark on Sunday night, Life, Liberty, and Levin, 10 p.m., the number one show on cable at 10 p.m. right here on the Fox News Channel.
All right. When we come back, Dr. Sebastian Gorka, Dan Bongino, and the other news of the day. Don't touch that television dial, we need you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. Joining us now with much more on the left's freak out over the Trump=Putin summit is the author of the book "Why We Fight," Fox News national security strategist, Dr. Sebastian Gorka, and former Secret Service agent and NRA TV contributor, Dan Bongino is with us.
You know, Dr. Gorka, I should tell everybody you just texted me and you just go, well, after you and Levin there is not much left to say on how insane these people are but there really is.
Because you know, a friend of mine texted me, he said, you know, one of the observations he has is the left lives in this bubble. And they all regurgitate, they only talk to themselves. But they're one voice, they use the same phrases, the same sentences, the same arguments -- it's like they can't get out of their liberal bubble. They just lived there and talk to each other. But they are really hurting the American people and they claim they're journalists.
SEBASTIAN GORKA, FOX NEWS NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGIST: Yes. Look, seriously there's a reason he's called the great one. That was a tour de force from FDR betraying Central Europe--
HANNITY: Right.
GORKA: -- right up through Khrushchev and Kennedy.
Let me share with you an anecdote from just a few hours ago. I was coming out of a hotel in Washington and somebody comes up to me and shouts you're a fascist. And I said come over here and let's talk. And I said so, why am I fascist? Because you work for Donald Trump.
That's about as deep as the analysis gets. They are in an utter bubble. I want to make one comment on the Helsinki hysteria. For the last 70 years, 70 years, Moscow has been trying to undermine our democracy including our elections.
But it only became an issue for the left and the media now, why, Sean? Because Donald Trump won the election. They didn't care for the last 70 years from what their ante right up until John Brennan who voted for the Communist Party before he joined the CIA.
They didn't care. They only care now because they want to undermine the integrity of that election and because they wanted Hillary to win. It's the only reason.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: But they wanted to do this from the beginning right after the president was inaugurated, Dan. Remember they had the women's march. Then it became all hopes went for Robert Mueller and his witch hunt, that has been debunked.
But more importantly, the deep state has been exposed. Guys like Brennan and Clapper, they have a lot of explaining to do, surveillance unmasking that's coming up. Obvious lying to FISA court judges, rigging an investigation.
All of things -- you know, all of this now we have been reporting on coming true. And this is like their last hope heading into 2018, because they don't particularly have an agenda that I know short of the five items I keep pointing out.
DAN BONGINO, CONTRIBUTOR, NRATV: No. Sean, their agenda is outreach campaigns. Remember the outreach campaigns we swapped, right? Don't forget these folks. We have the travel ban, we swapped that outrage campaign for Russia gate, we swap that outrage campaign for the immigration crisis at the border.
Then we swapped that outrage campaign for Kavanaugh, we stay swap breaking. There is a new outreach campaign, the new outreach campaign is Russia. Listen, folks, you can count me out of the outrage campaigns against Trump. For eight years -- and by the way, is this whataboutism? You're damn right, it's whataboutism.
I had to deal with Barack Obama at critical levels of deception, on taxes, on Obamacare, on immigration, on sending pallets of cash to country that chants death to America. Media folks, count me out. I'm done with your outrage campaigns I'm not interested in joining at all.
And, by the way, the spineless rhinos who love to pylon on every opportunity. The guy made a mistake, the president. He came out he acknowledge it, he corrected it today but the spineless rhino--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: But Dan, it's actually even -- it's more important than that. The president has said it over and over and over again. I played the tape.
BONGINO: It doesn't matter, Sean. It doesn't matter. Why are we acting like it matters? Sean, we're not talking to reasonable people here. Why are we continuing to pretend these are reasonable people? These are Democratic Party propagandists, period. Full stop. End of story.
HANNITY: Yes. Dr. Gorka.
GORKA: I think Dan is right. We need to ignore them as much as possible because they're just making themselves irrelevant. When you are having companies repatriate hundred -- hundreds of billions of dollars because of the president's tax reform, when you got oil companies giving $25,000 signing bonuses because there's not enough people to work in the oil sector now, that's the reality.
People will go to the ballot box knowing that Donald Trump loves this country and it's about America first. And everybody else you're just whining rhinos or crazy lefties.
BONGINO: Yes.
HANNITY: Yes. Go ahead, Dan Bongino. Dan, we'll give you the last word.
BONGINO: Yes, you're darn right, Sebastian! And Sean, who's been harder on Russia? You know, they forget just a couple of months ago Trump ordered a strike on 200 Russian mercenaries and wipe them off the battlefield in Syria. Well what do you think they were doing playing bocce ball over there? I'm tired of this. Let's judge him by what he does not a few verbal gas in--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: They deserve the low rating they get. And they deserve the distrust level they have. They've earned it. All right. Thank you both. Great commentary.
When we come back, Rush Limbaugh sounding off on all of these vicious attacks against the president. That is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. So we have been talking all night about, well, the crazy media. One, President Trump made it clear that he is not going to allow Russian meddling narratives to cloud his election. And of course, it also caught the eye of our friend, Rush Limbaugh. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUSH LIMBAUGH, TALK SHOW HOST: James Comey, Andrew McCabe, John Brennan, James Clapper, all from the Obama administration have made it plain they believe it was true that Trump somehow had colluded with Russia or his friends with Putin. For two years, Trump has dealt with this.
The point of it all has been to delegitimize President Trump's victory. The point of it all was to get rid of Trump inside the first six months. And Trump knows all of this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Checkmate, Rush. Right on the money. Strange times we're living in. Sadly, they are more corrupt than even I ever thought. And they're dead.
All right. That's all the time we have left this evening. We'll always be fair and balance. We're not the destroy-Trump media. Let not your heart be troubled.
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