Rep. Ron DeSantis on Obama's free pass for Hezbollah

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Rep. Ron DeSantis on Obama's free pass for Hezbollah

On 'Hannity,' the congressman is demanding answers.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," December 21, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, GUEST HOST: And welcome to "Hannity." I'm Kimberly Guilfoyle in for Sean tonight. Several major breaking news stories. NBC News is reporting that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ordered review of the highly controversial Uranium One deal.

According to NBC, Department of Justice prosecutors are interviewing FBI agents about a Russian bribery case that took place while Uranium One was being approved. This is said to be part of an effort to determine if a special counsel is needed.

Plus, key officials face questioning on Capitol Hill. Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe goes before lawmakers for nearly nine hours while controversy builds over anti-Trump text messages sent by FBI agent Peter Strzok. And demoted DOJ official Bruce Ohr appears before Senate investigators after revelations that he met with members of Fusion GPS.

Reaction to those stories in just a second. But, first, Congress avoids a government shut down by passing a spending bill. But it is setting up major legislative battles in January. Ed Henry is in Washington tonight with all the details -- Ed.

ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kimberly, great to see. The key here is that passing this temporary budget doesn't just keep the government open. It paves the way for President Trump to sign the tax cut into law with a senior official telling us tonight, there is a very good chance that will happen tomorrow. The way the tax package was written signing it this year would initially have meant that it triggered some automatic spending cuts next year.

But this continuing resolution, the stop gap budget just passed through the House and Senate, includes waivers that enable the President to defer those cuts to entitlements until 2019. The President also made clear he did not want a messy shut down to overshadow the winning on taxes yesterday saying in tweets, House Democrats want a shut down for the holidays in order to distract from the very popular just passed tax cuts.

House Republicans don't let this happen. Pass the CR today and keep our government open. Indeed Democrats seem to still be smarting from the President's victory on taxes. After Obama Dan Pfeifer tweeted that this triumphant photo of Mr. Trump and the Republican leaders in the Oval Office should be used on front pages when the President is quote-unquote, "indicted."

Another Obama official Ben Rhodes actually re-tweeted that with this snarky comment that the photo should also be used quote, "Along sides the obituaries for Ryan, McConnell and Pence." House Majority Whip Steve Scalise who remember was shot and nearly killed by Bernie Sanders supporter who was targeting Republicans this year slammed Rhodes with this simple but savage come back, quote, "You may want to reconsider your rhetoric."

Meanwhile, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi went back to resisting the President's agenda by telling her colleagues to vote no on the stop gap budget because it did not include a provision allowing the children of illegal immigrants to stay in America. Well, the President made clear he is not going to get backed down on side issues and wants to talk about jobs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF.: I don't think in his heart that the President intended to hurt these people in the very cruel way that they are being hurt by the actions that are being taken.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We're bringing the entrepreneur back into this country. We're getting rid of all the knots and all the ties. And you're going to see what happens. And ultimately, what does it mean? It means jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: The bottom line is the last thing Republicans want now is a shutdown to be the focus when several big companies have handed out bonuses, raised their workers' wages in the wake of a tax cut after Democrats predicted the tax cut would not trickle down to employees. Interesting. Democrats have now maneuvered themselves into being on record in favor of higher taxes and perhaps lower wages not where they want to be heading into next year's midterms -- Kimberly.

GUILFOYLE: All right. Kimberly, thank you.

HENRY: Thank you.

GUILFOYLE: And joining us now with reaction to the latest in the developing Uranium One scandal is the author of "Clinton Cash," Peter Schweizer. Thanks so much for joining us this evening.

This is a fascinating story, Peter. And no one better to have on it than you. How does this new information fit into the larger Uranium One scandal?

PETER SCHWEIZER, AUTHOR, "CLINTON CASH": Well, that's a great question, Kimberly. Yes. It's very interesting. The Department of Justice is now asking for all the material the FBI has on Uranium One. It's important to point out Kimberly that this is incomplete file. The Uranium One investigation was launched by the FBI in the summer of 2015. They asked in late 2016 for the Obama Department of Justice to grant them subpoena powers.

That was turned down. That was reported on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. So, what they're getting is essentially what the FBI was able to do without these very powerful tools. I think it's a great sign that the DOJ has requested this information. But we have to keep in mind that it's not a complete file and hopefully they are not going to, you know, base a decision on an Independent Counsel based on just an incomplete file because I think a lot more investigation needs to be done.

GUILFOYLE: All right. So, what do you think in particular about a special counsel when they get more information in? What's the likelihood there?

SCHWEIZER: I hope that there is going to be more information. Look, there are some basic facts in the reporting. The NBC News story which I think was quite good got some fundamental facts wrong that keep being repeated by Democrats and by some media outlets. Number one, the statement that no uranium from Uranium One has been exported out of the United States. That's a falsehood. That's a lie.

The New York Times in 2015 confirmed that yellow cake was being exported by Uranium One out of the country. John Solomon of The Hill reported the same thing citing Nuclear Regulatory Commission documents. So, this information needs to be sifted and you need to have subpoena power to look at Clinton Foundation financial records, look at travel records. And to start piecing together exactly what happened. And I think once you get to that point, you can say, we need an independent counsel or we need to have some other means of investigating this.

GUILFOYLE: Uh-hm. Okay. And then why do you think that A.G. Sessions, you know, decided to reopen an investigation now. I'm just curious as to the exact timing.

SCHWEIZER: Well, I think that's -- yes, that's a very good point. I think part of it is, there has been a lot of activity on Capitol Hill about Uranium One. And the Department of Justice, which is supposed to be investigating corruption is a little bit behind the eight ball on this. You've got the Senate Judiciary Committee. You've got the House Oversight Committee. You've got the House Intelligence Committee who are all investigating Uranium One. And the Department of Justice is behind. So I think part of this is they are feeling pressure from Capitol Hill.

GUILFOYLE: Okay. And let's talk a little bit about the testimony that's been behind closed doors. And we have been covering it closely, Hannity has on this show. But Andrew McCabe, Bruce Ohr, they testify. What do you think is going on behind those closed doors and in terms of the content, the nature and the focus, you know, the breath of that information?

SCHWEIZER: Yes. I mean, wouldn't we love to know what that testimony was all about? I mean, look, I think this is very concerning to people. People get that the people in the FBI are human beings, they have opinions, they have attitudes, but, clearly, the opinions in this case of a lot of people at DOJ seem to skew in one political direction. And when you are talking about something as sensitive as an investigation of a presidential candidate in 2016, people have to know and feel that there is going to be equal waiting.

And there doesn't seem to have been equal waiting. So, I think we are going to hear a lot from members of Congress from that committee going forward about what the testimony was. And I think we're not done. I think we are going to expect to see more documents and more information on what precisely the FBI was doing.

GUILFOYLE: How long? And talk to me about the duration of this like in terms of, you know, obviously trying to build a case, perhaps, and acquire documents, perhaps get some people, whistleblowers to come forward with information to be able to further the investigation in the interest of justice?

SCHWEIZER: Yes. That's right. I mean, look, with Uranium One, you have to consider that this is a story that starts in 2005. We already have the video testimony of a Kazakh uranium minister Mukhtar Dzhakishev saying that he was shaken down by Bill Clinton and then Senator Hillary Clinton to give this uranium to this Canadian company which then sold it to the Russians. You have that.

You have the flow of money. All this money going to the Clinton Foundation and to Bill Clinton's pocket where people connected to Uranium One. So you have this expansive time period but, really, you are talking about a few actors and I think from the standpoint of investigating that, if you have the right tools, which the FBI asked the DOJ for, it would not be that hard to figure out precisely what went on. And I think that's the next step.

GUILFOYLE: It's so interesting because you look at that long time frame and how about coordination and collusion there in terms of these people working together and I mean this is really fascinating to me that why wasn't this looked at? You know, during the Obama administration or prior and then nothing while Hillary Clinton is, you know, running for president of the United States? But yet they want to accuse President Trump of collusion and his transition team and do a gigantic document and wire grab of them without really any evidence to support it and they come up with nothing there.

SCHWEIZER: Well, you know, Kimberly, I said at the beginning of this process they should look into the Russia question. And I think they have really come up with no substantial evidence.

GUILFOYLE: Right.

SCHWEIZER: But, consider this, that Trump dossier, that, you know, had all these allegations that didn't bear out, one of the things that dossier said was, the Russian sources said, they had a dossier that had damning information on Hillary Clinton.

SCHWEIZER: Uh-hm.

SCHWEIZER: One of the questions I would ask senior FBI officials is, did you ever pursue that?

GUILFOYLE: Right.

SCHWEIZER: I mean, you pursued this information related to Trump. Did you pursue it as it related to Hillary Clinton?

GUILFOYLE: That is the point. Yes.

SCHWEIZER: And I think most people would say, if you are going to investigate one, you should investigate both. That seems to be the best standard, I think.

GUILFOYLE: Well, that is supposed to be. It's supposed to be fair and impartial and do a thorough investigation regardless of political persuasion or ideology unless you have an invested interest in a determinative of outcome.

All right. Thank you so much, Peter. I appreciate it.

SCHWEIZER: Thanks, Kimberly.

GUILFOYLE: And here with more reaction tonight, our Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton and Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett. Good evening to you.

So, first to you to comment on some of this in terms of what the information that we just heard from Peter and where the investigation stands and where you think it could go.

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: You have talk to people at the FBI were capable of protecting and absolving Hillary Clinton in the email case notwithstanding overwhelming evidence of crimes. Aren't they also, Kimberly, capable of protecting her in the Uranium One case? It's a crime to use your office to confer benefit to a foreign government in exchange for money. It's wire fraud, it's mail fraud, it's bribery. It could even be money laundering if you are using a foundation as a receptacle of that money.

It's all kinds of anticorruption crimes. And, you know, it's not the first time that she has been suspected of this. She has also been accused of helping UBS avoid the IRS and simultaneously her husband receives $1.5 million from UBS and a 10 fold increase to their foundation. A.P. did a study and they found that half of the non-governmental people who gained access to Hillary Clinton donated lavishly to her foundation. If she was peddling access, isn't she also capable of peddling influence?

GUILFOYLE: Influence. Hmm. That is such a good question. I mean, when you learn about this, you know, Tom, and you just see the tentacles that really suggest, you know, corruption and collusion and, again, this is an ongoing investigation so we have to see where it goes. But we do believe in our system of justice and that an investigation should not, like I said, determine an outcome because they wanted to be on the side of the Clintons.

TOM FITTON, PRESIDENT, JUDICIAL WATCH: Well, the Justice Department and FBI were ruined under President Obama and Attorney General Lynch and James Comey. There is no doubt about that. Compare and contrast how they handled the dossier last year with Uranium One and the pay-to-play allegations with the Clinton Foundation.

Reportedly, according to Fox News, Andrew McCabe talked about how the FBI worked so hard to verify that dossier and run it all down. Of course they really couldn't verify it, but they worked hard on pursuing it. Now, what's going on with the Uranium One allegations? FBI agents at the line are seeking permission to get subpoenas out so they can pursue leads and they are being told, no. So, you have got suppression of a Clinton investigation on yet another matter.

GUILFOYLE: Unbelievable.

FITTON: With this over-the-top attack. Because this is what the dossier was. It was a Clinton attack. A Clinton campaign funded attack on President Trump that the FBI took like a baton from the Clinton camp and ran with. It's really extraordinary. I hope these line agents that the Justice Department are talking to have whistle blower protection.

GUILFOYLE: Exactly.

FITTON: Because you know, given the leadership there at the FBI now, frankly they will have targets on their back politically speaking in terms of their careers for speaking out. It's a serious situation. The idea that you are going to let, you know, again, the bureaucracy figure out whether the bureaucracy should reopen this investigation, I'm not confident the right decision is going to be made in the long run. But who knows?

GUILFOYLE: Yes, it is very interesting. And Greg, you know, talked a little bit also about the juxtaposition of, you know, these two investigations. It's just unbelievable. It's unprecedented.

JARRETT: Well, one is beginning to wonder given the paucity of evidence of collusion with Trump and Russia. There seems to be plethora of evidence of collusion between Hillary Clinton and her campaign and the DNC and Russia.

GUILFOYLE: Certainly.

JARRETT: You know, it's a crime to pay a foreign national including the Russian money for information on a political opponent during a campaign. And if you are not honest about it in your financial filings, into the federal campaign finance act, that is also a form of money laundering and so, you know, all of this is very suspicious activity. But you know, I agree with Tom that it's all going to come down, I think, in the end to the dossier.

That may be the biggest smoking gun of all. Because it looks like the FBI and the Department of Justice are engaged in nefarious activities to fool a FISA judge, to falsely get a warrant to spy on a political opponent Donald Trump and his associates and it was all being funded by Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Did the FBI know that? I suspect so.

GUILFOYLE: Well, that sets a pivotal question, isn't it? What did they know and when? If they took that and acted in bad faith like you said to achieve some nefarious offense. Because they didn't want President Trump to become president of the United States and candidate Trump, they were spying on his family. You're Don Jr. testifying and of course, leaks coming out from Schiff right away about that testimony.

But no one seems to want to complain about that. I mean, it's unbelievable how unfair and imbalanced this is in terms of what went on and just the absolute missile lock focus to try to create the air and idea of collusion and corruption and coordination with the Russians. And not one scintilla Tom has come out forward from that.

FITTON: Well, that's true. We have uncovered documents showing that Hillary Clinton through Bill Clinton received $500,000 from a Uranium One firm connected to the Russian government. Moscow. He went there to speak. Got a half a million dollars. It wasn't to the foundation it went into their bank account. And then the Clinton campaign paid someone to go to Russia, to talk to Russian intelligence to dig up dirt on Donald Trump.

You know, by the standards that Mueller has presented in terms of reasons to investigate someone, certainly there ought to be a special counsel looking at what Hillary Clinton was doing, in terms of getting money with the Russians.

GUILFOYLE: Absolutely.

FITTON: And then working with intelligence services to figure out if there was dirt to be gotten on her political opponent.

GUILFOYLE: Greg?

JARRETT: You know, increasingly, almost day by day, the shape of a plot is beginning to emerge.

GUILFOYLE: So true.

JARRETT: That people were determined for political reasons to absolve and exonerate Hillary Clinton to clear a path for her to become president. And, at the same time, launching a fictitious investigation, without evidence, of Trump/Russian collusion in a political campaign which, by the way, there is no statute that prohibits that sort of thing as long as money is not exchanged.

GUILFOYLE: Correct.

JARRETT: So, where they try to frame Donald Trump while exonerating Hillary Clinton and was all of this for political reasons? And evidence be damned? It sure is beginning to look like that.

GUILFOYLE: Yes. And just an improper, you know, acquisition of FISA warrant, the misuse of the judicial process. To be able to achieve a desired political end. I mean, this is what the height of corruption, all prosecutable. So this investigation we're going to be talking about it for a while.

JARRETT: The FBI is unaccountable, really. It has been for decades. And they can get away with doing things and then when they are asked by Congress, they say, oh, we can't talk about it. It's classified or it's pending an investigation. Both of which are canards in these circumstances.

GUILFOYLE: We have to be find out. To be fair, you know, Tom, just real quick, we have to find out specifically who are the bad apples there. Because, you know, for the majority, the rank and file of the FBI agents, the men and women who serve are outstanding. I don't like what I'm seeing there on the top levels at all and I don't like sort of the, you know, the relationship between Mueller and Comey and McCabe and I mean it's just -- there is a huge problem there. And hopefully they are getting to the bottom of it in this investigation. I will give you the final word.

FITTON: Yes. I agree. And let's -- we need to clean house at both agencies in terms of folks who were responsible for what went on during the prime administration and well into this administration.

GUILFOYLE: Right.

FITTON: But we have got to get the information out. There is no excuse that we still don't know these key answers about who paid for the dossier. How was it used? What was in the FISA application? Information about the FBI tacks and other issues like that. We are still fighting about the tarmac meeting that went on between Clinton and Lynch.

GUILFOYLE: I remember that.

FITTON: What's the hold up?

GUILFOYLE: Grand kids and all.

FITTON: The agency has got to be transparent and hold people accountable.

GUILFOYLE: Yes. All right. What's going to happen? We will just going to keep after it until it does. What a pleasure to have you both here tonight Tom and Gregg.

JARRETT: Thank you.

FITTON: Thank you, Kimberly.

GUILFOYLE: Coming up. Congressman Ron DeSantis is demanding answers over a new report about the Obama administration ignoring Hezbollah's criminal activity in order to secure the Iran nuclear deal.

That Congressman, he is here, next.

Plus, reaction from Herman Cain and Matt Schlapp, stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUILFOYLE: Welcome back to "Hannity." Congress is demanding answers tonight after Politico reported, quote, "In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah. Even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States." Republican Congressman Jim Jordan and Ron DeSantis are following up on that story by sending a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The congressman are asking the Department of Justice to turn over all documents and communications related to this matter to find out whether the Obama administration did this to help secure the nuclear deal with Iran.

Joining us now with more on this request is Congressman DeSantis. A fascinating story and so disturbing at the same time. Congressman, how do you anticipate the DOJ is going to respond to your request for documents and information?

REP. RON DESANTIS, R-FLA.: Well, I actually expect them to respond favorably because this is an important issue. And if you go back to the second term of Obama. Remember what Ben Rhodes said, the Iran deal is the ObamaCare of the second term. Everything was subservient to that. They did all kinds of things to get that deal through. Obviously they told a lot of falsehoods to the American people in the process.

This thing with Hezbollah, who by the way has American blood on its hands. They are one of the most lethal terrorist groups in the Middle East. You go all the way back to the Beirut bombing of the Marine Corps barracks in 1983, Hezbollah was the perpetrator of that. So, they have been raising, wreaking havoc in the Middle East against our allies, against the United States for decades.

And to make a conscious decision to ward off a very sophisticated task force that was pursuing them knowing that that would allow their drug running and money laundering operations to continue unabated and therefore empower Hezbollah, that is a very monumental and I think disastrous decision. We need to know what happened. We need to know who told them to stand down. And then we also need to get some of the architects of the Iran deal like Ben Rhodes and see where they involved with having DOJ shut this down?

GUILFOYLE: You are so right. I'm glad you followed up on that. Because Ben Rhodes, you know, all roads lead back to him. Because he has got the answers. He is the architect of that. It sounds like from his own words, his own admission he is making himself an ideal subject of an investigation to comply and come forward and proffer some testimony to explain exactly what transpired.

DESANTIS: And, remember, he bragged about creating a fake echo chamber where he had client --

GUILFOYLE: Remember?

DESANTIS: -- journalists that would put out disinformation about how this is really capitalizing in on opening of the uranium regime. They are going to change and come part of the comedian nations. They knew that wasn't true. They knew the mullahs weren't changing. They just thought that giving them $150 billion of sanctions relief air lifting over a billion dollars to them in cash, they thought that that was good and that was the policy that they pursued. I think they pursued it recklessly but by this investigation we are going to find out just how reckless they were in doing that.

GUILFOYLE: Yes. I just question that policy. I question its merits. I question its authenticity. The whole nexus of it. How it came together and what exactly did they think that they were accomplishing? Was this just some kind of like ego trophy to say they could do this nuclear deal because it was a bad deal for the United States and now we know just how bad?

DESANTIS: I think it was exactly. They wanted to hold up the New York Times the next day and say oh, we have this great deal, peace in our time. Consequences be damned, essentially if you think about the deal. They never did anything to prevent Iran from developing ballistic missiles. That is not in the deal. Nothing about Iranian support for terrorism. And of course we don't even have access to Iran's military site in this deal.

GUILFOYLE: That's correct.

DESANTIS: So, it's really a deal that empowered Iran immediately and then paved the way for Iran to develop nuclear weapons in the near future. It was a disastrous deal. But then you also see now some of the consequences of that in the collateral damage by empowering Hezbollah. And I think if you ask somebody like Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel.

GUILFOYLE: Absolutely.

DESANTIS: Yes. He is worried about groups like ISIS. But I think he would probably point to Hezbollah as the most significant terrorist group in his neck of the woods.

GUILFOYLE: Absolutely. And he also tried to point that out at the time when he was stating his objections to the United States, making this move because he knows full well who better than he to determine and decide exactly what's going on in that region. Especially based on their excellent intelligence gathering. We already know it. We knew that was a bad deal at the time.

But nevertheless it was pushed forward and now we are finding out the ramifications of it. It reminds me of the fast and furious and covers up there, I mean, it's unbelievable. Because it just seems that they had a specific political goal in mind and acted against the best interest of the United States and supported essentially terrorism with Iran and Hezbollah and funded it.

DESANTIS: And probably on both ends by having the DEA stand down that empowered Hezbollah on the front end.

GUILFOYLE: Great point. Yes.

DESANTIS: But then when they're getting the palate of cash on the back end of the deal, why do you think they want the cash? Because they want to give that to the revolutionary guard corps, they want to give it to groups like Hezbollah so that they can continue to wreak havoc in the Middle East. So, it was a disaster from the beginning to end.

GUILFOYLE: You are absolutely right. Well, I thank you for your service and what have you done here. And I look forward to finding out the rest of this information. So, obviously we needed to come back a lot. Congressman DeSantis, thank you so much.

DESANTIS: Okay. Merry Christmas.

GUILFOYLE: Merry Christmas.

And joining us with more reaction, Fox News contributor Herman Cain and chairman of the American Conservative Union Matt Schlapp. How much do I love these two guys? I have to tell you I'm very excited. You could tell by the way I said your names.

All right. So, Herman Cain 999. Right?

HERMAN CAIN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes.

GUILFOYLE: Maybe the public would understand that benefit, it's unbelievable, taxes. All right. So, let's talk about this. The Obama administration, okay, they gave a free pass to Hezbollah. But should there be a very thorough investigation because of this? Ben Rhodes and all the rest of them?

CAIN: There absolutely should be a thorough investigation and this isn't the first time that the previous administration deceived the American people. But it is the first time that we have this kind of evidence that Congressman DeSantis and others are uncovering that tells us there are some rats in this. We just don't know exactly how many and we just don't know how deep it goes.

I'm glad that they are doing this so that they can continue to try to unfold what the truth is but certainly we know that this is leading to a bad place for the previous administration. And Iran has never been our friend. They acted like Iran was our friend. But they were never and never will be our friend.

GUILFOYLE: I mean, state sponsors of, you know, terrorism here in terms of Hezbollah. Very deadly --

CAIN: Yes.

GUILFOYLE: -- very dangerous, very much still alive and active, okay. Because, you know, thank goodness President Trump followed through on all the campaign promises to crush ISIS. Okay. But now look at what we did. We gave money that ended up going directly to Hezbollah. I mean this is insanity, Matt.

MATT SCHLAPP, CHAIRMAN OF CPAC: Yes, it is insanity. The money part of this is a really big part of, this Kimberly. Obviously the money went to all of the things that is not in the interest of the United States. I think the important thing here is the Democrats will say oh, this is all political. And Donald Trump and the Republicans want to relitigate the scandals of the past. But what this is very, let's keep it in focus. The Iran deal has been decertified by President Trump. Another campaign promise kept as you said.

GUILFOYLE: You are right.

SCHLAPP: It is still operational in many ways. It's very important that the American people understand how putrid and polluted the whole process was by which Obama bent down and took a knee to the terrorists across the globe, to the mullahs, to the Castro's in Cuba. He gave away to the store to all these American haters, people who undermine our national security. You know who he was tough on, Kimberly, catholic nuns. People who wanted to live their faith in America. He had it all wrong, I think on this Iran nuclear deal, we have to go to every length we need to make the American people realize just how terrible and corrupt it was.

GUILFOYLE: You are absolutely right. Thank you for acknowledging the nuns. I'm the product of education of a catholic school and sisters of mercy.

SCHLAPP: Me too, me too.

GUILFOYLE: There you go. Herman, where do we go from here in terms of this? It seems like we are shedding a lot of light on it. People are going to have to come forward and testify like Ben Rhodes, the architect of the echo chamber, because the media at the time he was making fun of them. Saying that they weren't going to investigate or write about anything. We would just give them what we want them to say. Wow.

CAIN: Yes, here is where we go from here. Congressman DeSantis and his committee need to continue to push the issue. That is number one. Number two, when they continue to push the issue, more and more will be uncovered. Now, the reason that this waited this long before it was uncovered is because the liberal media was complicit in exposing this. The American people are not stupid.

GUILFOYLE: No.

CAIN: They smell the rat from the beginning. But the media did not want to uncover this so they just sort of ignored the story. And Matt is exactly right. In terms of what's coming out. So where we go from here, keep digging, keep investigating, and keep trying to tell the American people the truth. We don't know all of the facts, but we do know that there are some rats in this whole deal.

GUILFOYLE: That is for sure. I love respect American people smart voters out there said they had enough of this corruption and inside dealing and not acting in the best interest of the United States with these deals for funding terrorism. It's unbelievable, Matt.

SCHLAPP: Yes, Kimberly, I think the one critical thing here is that Congressman Jim Jordan and Congressman Ron DeSantis are bulldogs and they are heroes. They will pursue this aggressively. What happens to a lot of these courageous Congressman is sometimes people who are more senior in the Republican conference, they get nervous about too many investigations. They get nervous about looking like they are being political, going after people like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. And I say to all of those Republicans, you owe it to your constituents, you owe it to the American people for them to understand how seriously corrupt these deals were, I want to know the truth. You want to know the truth. We want to know what happened here. All these conversations about Hillary Clinton, about uranium one, about the emails, about the corruption of the FBI and Loretta Lynch's DOJ. Obama's DOJ. We need the answers. When we get the answers, we can close the book and the American people will deal with the politics. But if you don't get the answers, it makes people hate their government even more.

GUILFOYLE: President Trump looked right away acting with speed and clarity to undo some of this mess with the nuclear deal, with the Paris climate change. Of course, one bad deal after the next, it's against American interest. Against American jobs and against our economy. I have had it. All right, Herman Cain and Matt Schlapp. Thank you so much.

SCHLAPP: Merry Christmas.

CAIN: Merry Christmas, Kimberly.

GUILFOYLE: Coming up with the new Democratic scandal, the left is now lashing out at Republicans for exposing them. Tammy Bruce, Larry Elder and Dan Bongino join us next. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUILFOYLE: Welcome back to "Hannity." As the left Russian collusion there collapses and scandal involving members of Democratic Party continue to mount. Liberal lawmakers and their allies in the media are lashing out at Republican and others who are exposing them. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, D-N.Y.: Their tax are not based on fact or logic. This is a hatchet job. Plain and simple. The concerted campaign to discredit him in his investigation into the right wing media is nothing more than propaganda and disinformation. To try and turn the public's attention away from the real investigation.

JOHN HEILEMANN, BLOOMBERG POLITICS: We are witnessing a concerted coordinated effort to try to undermine the investigation -- this entire investigation from Mueller to the FBI, to the department of justice, to make this all seem as though it's a corrupt enterprise.

JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC HOST: Help me out here. It seems to me they are just throwing whatever they can like monkeys, throwing tough against the wall.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF, D-CALIF.: These are actions that the White House wants them to take, that Steve Bannon wants them to take but are enormously destructive of our administration of justice. And, a major distraction from the Russian investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This hearing is part of an ongoing Republican attempt to divert attention from the real investigation into the collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

GUILFOYLE: All right. Joining us now with reaction Salem radio nationally syndicated host Larry Elder and conservative review contributing editor and former secret service agent Dan Bongino and Fox News contributor Tammy Bruce. First question, Tammy, why do they always have to bring the monkey cage into it.

TAMMY BRUCE, RADIO SHOW HOST: It's like that is the most they can think of. This is hysterical, isn't 3it? Look there are awful things they are saying. What it really highlights is literally a meltdown. They don't know what else to say. It was a great day for not just the President but the country yesterday it highlights what the Democrats have not been able to accomplish for at least 8 years. So there is a real meltdown. This is the equivalent of like complaining about poor Bob Mueller is the equivalent of saying that this tax and jobs bill was going to be Armageddon. As ridiculous, as in effective. This is on the heels of all of these remarkably, like the remarkable Politico story. Have you been hitting all the marks tonight? Obama and Hezbollah. Ben Rhodes wishing that saying that he wished to see the obits of Pence and McConnell and Ryan in public on twitter saying effectively he wants them to die. This is an admission by the left that they have failed completely and all they have now is hysteria.

GUILFOYLE: Real hysteria get some serious counseling. That Obamacare is not going to help you. Larry, do you agree that the left's attack on the GOP is seriously just a distraction to avoid all these numerous Democrat scandals that we have seen in the news?

LARRY ELDER, SALEM RADIO NATIONAL SYSNDICATE HOST: Of course it is. I guess I have two reactions. Let's remember how they treated Ken Starr. I remember James Carville said I hate Ken Starr, I hate him, and I hate him. This is America. You don't have to love somebody if you don't want to. I hate Ken Starr they called him everything but a child of god. Not as if critics of the Mueller investigation don't have merit for crying out loud. What about all these appearances of impropriety. You got staffers on investigation that said horrible things about Donald Trump apparently involved in the GPS matter without telling other people. There are legitimate reasons to question of this probe. When you have lefties like Alan Dershowitz and Jonathan Turley two prominent left wing law professors also questioning the integrity of the investigation maybe just maybe there is something about the integrity of the investigation that deserves questioning.

GUILFOYLE: Absolutely. Dan, I have seen you talk about this. Field day, right? Unbelievable.

DAN BONGINO, FORMER SECRET AGENT SERVICE: You know Kim. I'm tired of this.

GUILFOYLE: Me too.

BONGINO: And America should be too. The Democrats get away with everything. What do they do? They turn around and go to their media sycophant acolytes and they say, hey please run cover for us on this fake Trump-Russia fairy tale. Remember the Democrats saw the party of IRS targeting, fast and furious, sale of uranium to supposedly the most dangerous enemy of America history, the Russians. Now we find out from a Politico story by Josh Meyer potential international gun running and drug dealing by Hezbollah while the Obama administration is alleged to have looked the other way. And we are supposed to get all hot and bothered about a Trump-Russia ex-files, Jillian Anderson conspiracy theory that not a human being has produced a scintilla evidence about? I'm sick of these jokers and everyone else should be too.

GUILFOYLE: That is absolutely right, you know Tammy the sort of corruption of the judicial process, misuse of FISA warrants, going to Judges to try to achieve political and ideological ends to try to specify who would be in the oval? That is what they try to do. They try to predetermine it and people like Peter Strzok saying oh insurance policy that they were all in to do this.

BRUCE: This was, of course, their presumption, their sloppiness was born out of overconfidence. They presumed she would win. They got a little nervous so they wanted that insurance policy. But they felt comfortable, Kimberly, to be as sloppy as they were, because they felt the system would, in fact, make this happen. This is what is so shocking about what the American people did last year and why they can't adapt.

This is their issue. And, also, I would say that for when it comes to the Republicans, I appreciate congressional investigations there is a place for those. Clearly, if there was ever a special counsel required, it's regarding the Obama and Hezbollah connection as well as uranium one. I know again Sessions is looking into the FBI dynamic with uranium one. These are crimes that are actually so shocking we are still trying to get our mind around them. These are the things they knew they would need to cover for.

This is what Ben Rhodes is so shocked about. Did things during the eight years and this is why by the way, do you remember after the election Hillary strangely apologized to Barack Obama and I wondered at the time they hated each other. Why is she apologizing to him? Because they knew what would come out as a result of her failure and that is what we are dealing with right now.

GUILFOYLE: There is the corruption in collusion, Larry, feast your eyes on that. It's all over with them.

ELDER: My column that came out today, Kimberly was about what would happen if Obama had spent the first ten months of his presidency fighting battling charges of collusion, because apparently somebody in his campaign took a meeting with somebody that had opposition dirt on his opponent. And for 10 months Obama has been fending off accusations that he didn't really win the election, no. It was collusion between him and Putin. That is what got him the election. Can you imagine what the black lives matter people would be doing?

What the NFL players would be saying. What the congressional black caucus would be saying and NAACP would be saying. How racist this probe is and how lame it is. Initially it was about collusion and then they couldn't find collusion and then it was about lying to investigators. And now it's about obstruction of justice. This country would be on fire. I ask my friends on the left to just imagine what things would be like if the same situation were done, except take out the word Trump and put in the word Obama and tell me honestly how would feel about this probe.

BRUCE: Can I just add very quickly?

GUILFOYLE: Real quick.

BRUCE: The Republicans have got to be aggressive on this. They have got to be extremely aggressive.

GUILFOYLE: Of course.

BRUCE: They can't put it into the hole of congressional investigation. This is outrageous. If Americans see this being passed off. We have a crisis of trust again in the government.

GUILFOYLE: All right. Got like a couple seconds left Dan to be fair to you. They savaged American family, great business people and tried to undermine a newly, duly elected President of the United States with this false corruption collusion hoax against them.

BONGINO: Kim, I think you are going to find out in the coming days and weeks that this special counsel has been a cover, because they lost their insurance policy which was Hillary Clinton in office to cover their misdeeds. This is their misdirection now at Special Counsel.

GUILFOYLE: It is all coming out folks. Right? All right Larry, Dan, and Tammy, what a pleasure, fantastic panel tonight indeed. Coming up, Ambassador Nikki Haley unloads on the U.N. right before a vote to contempt President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Lieutenant colonel Oliver North is here with reaction. Stay with us.

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GUILFOYLE: Welcome back to Hannity. The U.N. voted overwhelmingly today to condemn President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley issued a very strong warning to the general assembly ahead of the vote. Take a look.

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NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: The United States will remember this day in which it was single out in attack general assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation. We will remember it when we are called upon to once again make the world's largest contribution to the United Nations, and we will remember it when so many countries come calling on us as they so often do to pay even more and to use our influence for their benefit. America will put our embassy in Jerusalem that is what the American people want us to do and it is the right thing to do. No vote in the United Nations will make any difference on that?

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GUILFOYLE: And joining us now is the host of war stories Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North. Thank you for being with us tonight. Very important day, I believe, you know in history and the response and strength of this administration. How do you think that President Trump and the U.S. should respond to the U.N.'s anti-Israel vote today? Should funding be pulled as a President and Nikki Haley has suggested?

OLIVER NORTH, LIEUTENANT COLONEL MILITARY HISTORIAN: Kimberly, this vote today at the United Nations is I guess a utopian globalist idea of a crowning victory against the United States which, by the way, the United Nations has been that way since the early 1950s when it started turning against us over the Korean War. The United Nations invited us to the Korean War and turned against us. The decision to open the American embassy at the invitation of a country that wants us there as Nikki Haley pointed out is a sovereign right of ours. And the President did exactly what she said. He acted on behalf of the American people who overwhelmingly support it of the 193 member nations of the U.N., nine voted against it, 35 abstained and 21 were absent. A total of 65. The President and both Nikki and the ambassador have both said that they are taking names and cutting our foreign aid budget seems to me to be a good idea. Probably not going to play well in Afghanistan or Egypt or Jordan or Pakistan. Maybe it's time to invite the U.N. to take up residence in one the 128 nations that voted against our sovereign right. I think it was a good idea when Gene Kirk Patrick suggested back in the 1980's maybe they should move the U.N. to Moscow. How about this time how about Kenya. They are fifth largest in receiving American aid in Africa.

GUILFOYLE: It's unbelievable. You bring up some very interesting points here. The problem is sometimes people when they push back on criticism in this and say, listen, we also have to make sure that we don't cut funding, because we need to make sure that regions in that area that is high volatile in that theater are stabilized. You mentioned some of our more problematic areas that we need to address that countries have been receiving aid like Afghanistan which has been ongoing and arduous process to try to control and contain terrorism there in addition.

Pakistan, who we rely on in a pivotal way although they haven't necessarily been very forth right on many occasions, including with Osama bin Laden. So, you know, it gets complex as a war hero tell us as someone in the theater and you are down there with the men and women serving, do you think it will have a deleterious impact on military readiness, information and intel in the area being able to combat against terrorism, a reduction like that?

NORTH: No. Because there is no one else who can do it. The British voted against this in this thing. The French voted against us. And, of course, Russia. Combined the three of them couldn't handle what we do in our commitment for national security to protect us, protect the American people. For example, military aid and stabilization aid in a place like Afghanistan or northern Iraq makes a lot of sense for us. But giving aid to dozens of other countries when the United Nations votes against us, does anybody remember? I do, besides you and me, what used to happen with the so-called oil for food program run by the United Nations with our money and the corruption and greed at the United Nations headquarters? Of course, carried out all over the Middle East at the same time. Look, if the United Nations has nothing that they can stand up and say we are proud of the way we act.

GUILFOYLE: Lieutenant colonel, thank you. More "Hannity" next.

NORTH: I appreciate you.

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GUILFOYLE: Welcome back to "Hannity." Unfortunately that is all the time we have left this evening. As always, we thank you for being with us. Please don't forget to set your DVR so you never miss an episode of "Hannity" or "The Five." Tune in to us every day at 5:00 p.m. or follow me on Twitter at Kimberly Guilfoyle. The Laura Ingraham is live in Washington D.C. Laura?

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