Sen. Lindsey Graham compares Trump's address on Iran to Reagan's 'tear down this wall' speech

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Sen. Lindsey Graham compares Trump's address on Iran to Reagan's 'tear down this wall' speech

The president's address to the nation will be talked about long after Trump's second term, says South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," January 8, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Welcome to "Hannity."

We begin, a Fox News alert tonight, we start with some important breaking news tonight.

We as a country will need to still be on high alert. Despite early reports, we have sources tonight that strongly believe Iran was, in fact, attempting to kill Americans in last night's missile attack, not some kind of an intentional face-saving maneuvers. We've got to be on-guard that they might have intended to kill our brave men and women in Iraq.

But they failed. All 16 rockets missed their objective. Thank God no Americans or Iraqis were killed.

So, now, President Trump is giving them an out. In order to deescalate the situation, keep the campaign promise of his, and not get involved with foreign entanglements. If possible, he can give them an out now to prevent massive carnage that will happen to the country of Iran.

Now, today, President Trump is resolute as he addressed the nation. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: As long as I'm president of the United States, Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.

Good morning.

I'm pleased to inform you, the American people should be extremely grateful and happy. No Americans were harmed in last night's attack by the Iranian regime. Our great American forces are prepared for anything.

Iran appears to be standing down, which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world. As we continue to evaluate options in response to Iranian aggression, the United States will immediately impose additional punishing economic sanctions on the Iranian regime.

We must all work together toward making a deal with Iran that makes the world a safer and more peaceful place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, make no mistake: Iran must never have nuclear weapons.

Without getting now too far ahead of ourselves, there will be at some point if they continue a day of reckoning. And the world at that point must understand if radical mullahs ever combined their sick, evil, twisted ideology to nuclear weapons -- well, that would put the world in the a position of a possible modern-day holocaust. We need to have all eyes wide open, reality looked at.

But that's not where we are tonight. Instead tonight, the president's actions have just protected Americans abroad and our interests abroad. He held Iran in check. He prevented a massive war. And for now, that is a good thing and also campaign promise kept.

A few days ago, the president took out Iran's top terrorists. Now, we're talking about the Iranian regime's number two guy. His death was followed by days of, quote, official mourning where 50 people actually died at a stampede at his funeral.

Last night, even though the mullahs tried to retaliate, their response was feeble, it was weak. And now, because of the president's restraint once again, de-escalation is a possibility. But, ultimately, it will be Iran. They will determine their own fate, their own destiny here.

Clearly, the president has showed he'll act swiftly with the might of the greatest fighting force in the history of the world behind him.

The events of the past 72 hours encapsulated two basic facts. One, all too predictable a truth, and that is, it doesn't matter what the president does. Democrats and their allies, state TV, the media mob, will never, ever give him any credit. Trump derangement syndrome seems incurable. And we will have some really insane example. Wait until you see some of these coming up.

But the second more crucial fact centers around what has now emerged, the Trump doctrine. Pretty much what he told us in the election and the campaign is now clear for everybody to see. This president is not a cowboy. He doesn't want war.

Frankly, the president is a businessman. It's bad business. We're not going to get involved in foreign entanglements that are protracted. And more importantly, he values human life.

Time and time again with dealing with Iran, the president showed tremendous restraint. Nobody in the media seems to have noticed. It's really confusing the mob and appeasement Democrats. This doesn't fit their caricature, the cartoon, the false narrative of the president that maybe they've even convinced themselves it's true and it's not.

Let's look at facts.

The president did not strike Iran after it shot down two U.S. drones out of the sky. The president didn't strike Iran after it attempted to disrupt the free flow of oil which is the life blood of the world's economy.

He didn't strike Iran when they pirated international oil tankers in the narrow Straits of Hormuz.

He didn't strike Iran after it provoked attack against the Saudi oil facility, that again to disrupt the free flow of oil and market prices.

And he's not launching a war after its failed missile attacks.

Well, that sounds like the president is keeping his campaign promise.

Now, he did take off the handcuffs in the rules of engagement. That allowed him, oh, to beat the caliphate in Syria, which Obama never did. 
But unlike Obama and Biden and their administration, President Trump -- he drew a very real line in the sand. Unlike Obama, he kept it with Syria and he kept it here.

Instead of shipping radical Islamic mullahs of Iran $150 billion in bribes to try to get them to like us and appease the world's number one state sponsor of terrorism, just like Obama and Biden, President Trump warned Iran -- any attack on American sovereignty or loss of American life will not be tolerated.

So, after an American contractor was murdered in late December by an Iranian-backed terror attack and members of our military injured, after our U.S. embassy -- we saw it with our own eyes -- was attacked, of course, by Hezbollah, funded by Iran, a clear and present danger to our fellow American citizens like we had a clear and present danger in Benghazi. And we had guys a mile away dying to help, and they were told to stand down three times and then said, the hell with it, we're helping our Americans and saved dozens of lives. He didn't allow that to happen.

And according to intelligence, more attacks were imminent within days. So, the president, he kept his world again. He eliminated Iran's top terrorist, the evil whatever you want to call him, directing all of the carnage against us, innocent people, fellow Americans, the same monster that we described to you last night responsible for killing, targeting, severely injuring hundreds of our brave American soldiers serving in Iraq.

Remember, his version IEDs ripping through their bodies. One Iraqi war veteran describing the carnage after an attack, writing that after survivors were medevaced out, quote, there was still one foot left in the Humvee.

My sources are telling me, following that, American intelligence had been tracking Soleimani for days. That's how good -- you noticed how I always delineated the 99 percent of greatest law enforcement agency, the FBI, the
99 percent, the greatest intelligence agencies in the world? Yes, that's what tracked Soleimani for days. Not the 1 percent of the -- well, corrupt, abuse of power, deep state actors.

He apparently, Soleimani, we now know, we are hearing reports, he actually flew commercial into Baghdad. Commercial airlines. Why would he do that? 
To use his fellow passengers as human shields.

Now, he knows that we as Americans, we value human life. That's why you watched the Israelis, they're attacked from schools and hospitals. They are using them as shields.

That's why the president didn't shoot down the airliner. Innocent people would have been hurt. And he waited until Soleimani landed, and then he took him out.

And Soleimani likely now rotting in hell. But before his death, he was a prime beneficiary of the failed Obama/Biden nuclear deal. Go down in history as the worst deal ever. The billions of dollars in Obama/Biden sanctioned bribes helped build the coffers of Soleimani's terrorist network.

And President Trump was right today. One way or another, the Obama/Biden administration -- they helped fund the very missiles that were used in last night's attack. That is irrefutable and incontrovertible.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Iran's hostility is substantially increased after the foolish Iran nuclear deal was signed in 2013. And they were given $150 billion not to mention $1.8 billion in cash.

Instead of saying "thank you" to the United States, they chanted "death to America". In fact, they chanted "death to America" the day the agreement was signed.

Then Iran went on a terror spree, funded by the money from the deal and created hell in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

The missiles fired last night at us and our allies were paid for with the funds made available by the last administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: We'll have more on this as the show develops tonight. But that's why you don't give $150 billion to America's sworn enemy. That's why you can never appease the mullahs of Iran.

They didn't use the money for humanitarian purposes. They funded Soleimani's terrorism against us in Iraq and elsewhere, and being the number one state sponsor in terror. They bought weapons. They built missiles.

They continued their development of nuclear weapons. There was never any check. And they still want to wipe us and Israel off of the face of the planet.

Can you imagine if last night's missiles were equipped with nuclear war heads?

Now, tonight, while the president shows tremendous restraint, he has made one thing clear. And the president seems to keep his word, doesn't he? Iran will not be able to acquire nuclear weapons under his watch.

Now, there won't be boots on the ground. I don't want boots on the ground. There won't be a no long-protracted war. It always gets politicized in the swamp.

We can no longer allow D.C. politician to ever mistreat our military this way again. Go fight. Oh, never mind. Now, we'll politicize it.

If Iran's hostility continues, they continue to develop nuclear technology, this hostile Iranian regime will be devastated from a control room from Tampa within the continental United States. Few buttons, Iran's nuclear sites gone. The same would go for their oil refineries and their economy, and the launch sites of their missiles.

Let me be clear, I hope it doesn't come to this. But at this hour, the ball is in the Iranian mullahs' court. They will decide their fate.

They can rejoin the world community. They can sit down at the table. They need to seek peace. They need to stop funding terrorism. They need to get the heck out of Iraq, and they must stop building nuclear weapons.

Here now, author of a terrific new book, it's called "The Rifleman", our friend, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North is with.

You talked about three special sites -- launch sites, refineries and nuclear facilities. Now, the president gave them an out today. You know the Iranians. You've known about Soleimani for decades.

OLIVER NORTH, RETIRED U.S. MARINE CORPS LIEUTENANT COLONEL: Yes.

HANNITY: Will they take this out?

NORTH: This is an opportunity. You know, he was Reaganesque last night -- this morning.

I watched that thinking back to 1986 when Ronald Reagan said we launched assaults against Moammar Gadhafi's terror bases in Benghazi and outside of Tripoli. And the presentation today was very much like that. It was speaking softly, but knowing we've got a big stick.

It was the kind of thing that set up objectives, very clear objectives. No nukes, no ballistic missiles, and make sure that you understand, you better not kill an American.

And that's very, very clear. Those are clear objectives, the kinds of things that Ronald Reagan did regularly.

I was very pleased to see him explained to the world why we did what we did. I don't think he backed down at all. I think basically what he did is he laid the parameters, if you kill an American, someone in Iraq is going to be paying the price for that. The bottom line of all that he did started months ago.

Let me give you three things, Sean, that he will never get credit for because the rest of the so-called mainstream media doesn't want the American people to know it. Way back in May last year, he convinced the Russians not to sell the S-400 system, one of the finest and effective anti-aircraft systems in the world. He convinced them not to sell them to Iran. Now, people didn't hear boo. They didn't look at it.

Number two, last week, he started delivering Patriot PAC-3 missiles, anti- aircraft, anti-missile missiles out there to the region. Now, I understand that none of them were fired last night because, unfortunately, they weren't follow set up yet.

Then this week, he started sending six B-52s. A B-52 is a standoff weapon. You don't have to fly over the targets like they did for me in Vietnam, the so-called rolling thunder strikes and the like.

Those are stand-off weapons now. They carry 20 air-launched cruise missiles, 20 times six. That's a bunch of cruise missiles coming down in your oil refinery, and quite frankly ballistic missiles manufacturing sites and certainly the nuclear sites.

We can launch a cyber-attack that will shut the country down completely.

Those are the kinds of things that he started in motion months ago. He's never going to get the credit for it because they can't stand this president with the great success. They will wait up for the American people.

HANNITY: Colonel, we can't do this anymore.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: We can't send the brave men and women with handcuffs on them with Obama rules of engagement.

NORTH: We don't have to. We don't have to.

HANNITY: We start wars and then we say, oh, you know, no. Get out. We politicize them.

NORTH: Yes.

HANNITY: You've experienced that yourself in Vietnam.

NORTH: Absolutely.

Sean, we don't have to put an airman in danger over the sky, in the skies over Iran.

HANNITY: Amazing.

NORTH: We've got enough TLAM-Cs and LAM-C (ph), those missiles will take out all kinds of things. Of course, that you pointed out last night, we now have a development process that's going on with a new secretary of defense that is unparalleled.

Yes, that's very expensive effort to rebuild American's defenses. But we're going to have more of the best kinds of weapons than any other country in the world. And as he said clearly today, it's about deterring war, not fighting one, not starting one.

HANNITY: Real quick, in 30 seconds, to the extent you can comment. It was announced today the Israelis have developed new laser technology that would take anything coming into Israel out of the air. I think we can some images we can put up.

NORTH: Yes.

HANNITY: Is that the future.

NORTH: Look, as you probably now, I'm on my way to Israel at the end of this month. So, I'm not going to say something that's classified and make them angry about me. I want to go see, you know, Bibi get re-elected here in the next few years.

HANNITY: I agree. All right. We're on the same page. He's been a 25- year friend also.

The world needs him. Israel, please do the right thing. You need -- this is the time for Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Colonel North, appreciate you. Safe home, semper fi, sir.

All right. Tonight, it's a very important -- now, this is really important. Any idiot -- and there are a lot of dumb people, frankly, on TV, tell you that President Trump, they keep repeating, doesn't make it true.

They want to take this country to war. They are not telling you the truth. It is now the exact opposite as we have learned.

Sadly, it's one of the many lies that the Democrats, the mob and the media state-run TV for the Democrats have been spouting surrounding a very serious situation in the Middle East. Just last night, you had a reporter working on Roswell Rachel Maddow Area 51 conspiracy theory channel known as MSDNC, the official arm of the Democratic Party, parroting Iranian propaganda, putting on the air that 30 Americans were killed in Iran's missile attack.

Oh, and then over there at fake news CNN, more Democratic state-run TV, by the way, that's the home of the Fox News Channel, Hannity, obsessive, compulsive stalkers. These guys are stalkers. You got humpty dumpty and his assistant Oliver somebody gave a platform to a spokeswoman for the 1979 U.S. embassy attack -- wow.

And back on MSDNC -- well, you got Maddow's partner-in-crime, the seemingly unstable Lawrence O'Donnell literally celebrated a missile attack, even tweeting, quote, Trump wag the dog, now the dog is wagging Trump.

He was saying this thinking Iranians killed Americans and succeeded. That's pretty sick.

And as I said at the top of the show, Trump derangement syndrome was never been worse. The mob and the media has never been more disgraceful. And just to drive the point home, here are a few examples.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Flanked by stern white military men, the president addressed the world this morning following Iran's attack on military bases.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It would be hard to believe that Donald Trump would launch attacks into Iran without speaking first of Vladimir Putin, considering that he's deferred to the Russian president.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are in a really precarious situation, because it's our president then that -- who is being the provocative person. And Iran is the one that's showing the restraint.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're only here at this moment, this very dangerous moment because of Donald Trump's impulses.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This could have been a massive catastrophe proportions that we just can't fully appreciate. And so, this was -- this was a dangerous night at the casino for President Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Sad, even times of international distress, the mob, the Democrats treat our own president as the enemy and give real enemies of pass. That's sick.

Here with reaction, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton.

Senator, let's get your reaction to, A, the president's handling of it. 
Now, the ball is in the Iranians' court. What we need to be prepared for?

SEN. TOM COTTON, R-ARK.: Good evening, Sean.

As I've said for years, if Iran wanted to start a fight, the United States would finish a fight. That's exactly what President Trump has done over these last couple weeks. His red line was the same, going back to last summer, do not harm an American.

And when Iranian proxies wounded our soldiers and killed one of their interpreters, he struck back in a measured way against that proxy force.

And then Qassem Soleimani and their proxies tried to attack our embassy in Baghdad, and Qassem Soleimani learned the hard way that President Trump means what he says.

HANNITY: Do you agree, Senator, that this is not -- the day and place of boots on the ground going -- sending our national treasure door-to-door is over, and that when you take off the handcuffs rules of engagement and you unleash our military forces, as powerful as they are, that that is the way to stop any country like Iran?

COTTON: Sean, the president has said repeatedly in the last two weeks, as I've said for years, no one seeks a war with Iran. But if Iran wants to start a fight and we would end the fight. And that extends to every single American who might be in harm's way in the Middle East or around the world. It also extends to the president's promise earlier today that Iran will never be allowed to get a nuclear weapon.

As you said earlier, just imagine if those 16 missiles that Iran had fired last night had been tipped not with thousand-pound bombs but with nuclear warheads.

HANNITY: Scary. Senator, thank you.

Here now with more, Iowa Senator Joni Ernst is with us.

Now, you were a company commander in Iraq, Senator. You bring a whole other life experience to all of this.

SEN. JONI ERNST, R-IOWA: Yes.

HANNITY: And we know what Soleimani did to our fellow troops in Iraq, our national treasure. Why is there no support from basically any Democrat on this except Joe Lieberman?

ERNST: Sean, that is a great question, and one that I would love our Democrats to answer.

I was a transportation company commander and God bless the men and women that cruised up and down those roads, whether from Kuwait into Iraq delivering supplies to our warriors up north or otherwise. They were always at risk from IEDs that were manufactured by Soleimani and his proxy forces.

So, there are hundreds and thousands of American men and women that had been maimed and killed by this terrorist, and I am thanking God that President Trump made the right decision and wiped that man off the face of this planet.

HANNITY: So, now, the president has given them an out -- president's line in the sand, if you will. The Trump doctrine is clear: no protracted wars, no long-term conflict, but no appeasement and no bribing either. And if you kill Americans, you're going to be hit powerfully hard and fast.

ERNST: Hard red line, hard red line. And the president has kept his promise to the American people. He's kept his promise to our American servicemen and women.

And again, I'm praising the president. I think his response was very measured. He has shown great restraint in the past number of years and months.

We have seen previous administrations that allowed Iran to walk all over this nation and, finally, we have a president that is willing to stand up and say enough is enough, no more American blood will be shed by Iran. You cross that red line, we're coming after you.

HANNITY: All right. Well said. Thank you for serving your country. Thank you, Senator. Appreciate you being with us.

You know, you think of Neville Chamberlain, peace in our time, he didn't give $150 billion. He just believed Hitler's lies. You got these crazy people wanting to wipe Israel off the map, I believe them. Take them seriously.

We have breaking news when we come back. Sara Carter reporting tonight, U.S. officials now saying terrorists in Iraq, they are fleeing the region. They are in shock over the intelligence that provided us the shot at Soleimani.

Also, Senator Lindsey Graham and more breaking news, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: We can report a good news tonight. The Middle East is still feeling the aftershock of President Trump's decisive strike on the Iranian terrorist, General Soleimani.

Fox News contributor Sara Carter reporting tonight, terrorists in Iraq are fearing the U.S. targeting and fleeing and hiding after the Soleimani killing. She joins us now with more.

The essence of this is wow, they were able to track this guy and we apparently went on a commercial flight, we waited until he landed.

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: That's absolutely true, Sean.

Think about this, White House and intelligence officials are saying that that actionable intelligence, Sean, that allowed us to target Qassem Soleimani and basically take him off the playing field was so important because once they were able to target Soleimani, the rest of Iraq particularly terrorists operating in the region all the sudden had to take a step back and say, wow, if Iran can't protect us, they couldn't protect Soleimani, they certainly aren't going to protect us.

What happened was they intercepted communications, telephone communications, chatter, as well as email communications, Internet communications that showed that some of these terrorist leaders and some of these terrorist organizations are sending their leadership either into hiding or sending them out of the region all together, in order to protect them. They're actually fearing U.S. capabilities in the region and that's good news for all of us.

And they say this was based on President Trump's decisive action to take out Soleimani when he actually had the information available to him.

HANNITY: So, they now fear as we have really gone into great depth in detail to point out the 99 percent of brave good people with the most powerful tools of intelligence to protect us, not the 1 percent that abused power.

CARTER: That's right.

HANNITY: They did an amazing job. We owe them a debt of gratitude. We owe our military and the president for making the call. Amazing stuff.

CARTER: Yes. It was incredible. It really was, and you're going to see a lot more of that in the future if any of these terrorists decide to act or retaliate after Soleimani's death.

HANNITY: Yes, don't mess with our intelligence agencies.

But for the 1 percent, stop pointing those weapons at us. Don't put it on the American people.

CARTER: That's right.

HANNITY: We've got three years of that.

All right, Sara. Thank you for that report.

CARTER: Yes.

HANNITY: Here now with more reaction is the senator of great state of South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, is with us.

Senator --

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.: Thank you.

HANNITY: -- I did have an opportunity to speak with you earlier today. You believe beyond any doubt they were trying to kill Americans. There was some ambiguity on that.

Tell us why you believe that.

GRAHAM: Well, I mean, a third grader could figure this out.

They were overrunning the embassy. They killed a contractor a couple of days before. Soleimani has been killing Americans for 20 years. He's on the ground in Baghdad talking to the leader --

HANNITY: But they missed their target last night.

GRAHAM: Yes, OK, OK, I'm sorry. I thought you were talking about whether or not we had good intel on killing Soleimani.

Soleimani was up to no good. He was planning another attack. A third grader could figure that out.

Last night, I always believed that they were trying to kill Americans. If you lob missiles inside an airbase, what's the intended consequence? To kill people inside the airbase.

We're lucky, we moved our people out. We had four hours notice. But I said last night, I think it's more good fortune than it was lack of intent.

But here's the good news -- the president made a very bold decision today to allow things to calm down. This speech will be talked about long after his second term. This is on par with "tear down this wall, Mr. Gorbachev". 
This is resetting the relationship between the world and Iran just not the United States.

The president said there's an evil empire in Iran that's bent on destroying the world, killing the people in Israel and coming after us, and now, we'll no longer tolerate it. So, this is on par with Reagan's "tear down this wall" speech.

HANNITY: Senator, I -- there is a day of reckoning, as we know radicalism and we discussed this in some detail last night.

GRAHAM: Yes.

HANNITY: A squared, B squared, Cc squared -- radicalism with nuclear weapons equals the potential for a modern-day holocaust, that it -- we cannot ever as a world let that happen.

Now, let's assume the Iranian mullahs cling to their rigid, sick, twisted, ugly, evil ideology. That would mean the world has a day of reckoning ahead with the intelligence if we ever get to the point, they're getting close. That has to go.

GRAHAM: If there's a conflict with Iran, it will because they chose the conflict. The president gave them an out.

I want you to do three things. I want you to change your behavior, stop being the largest state sponsor of terrorism -- that's not too much to ask. Stand down your missile program because you're destabilizing the entire Mideast. And you can have a nuclear power program but you can't have a pathway to a bomb.

Those are the three conditions that the president has laid down. Iran can meet those conditions if they want to. If they choose to defy President Trump, if they choose to try to get a nuclear weapon, have a nuclear breakout, if they choose to continue to try to kill Americans in the future, they're basically writing their own death warrant.

Donald Trump will destroy their economy. He will not invade with land forces, but the ayatollahs regime will come to a fiery end if they do not meet the conditions set out by President Trump.

HANNITY: I happen to like Rand Paul. I happen to like Senator Mike Lee.

GRAHAM: I do, too.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: But I don't agree with them on the War Powers Act interpretation.

GRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: Let me be very clear, a president as commander-in-chief has the right to defend the country and not -- not immediately go to Congress.

You actually went as far as to say, they're empowering the enemy with those arguments. Why would they want to tie the hands of our commander-in-chief? Do they expect, oh, we've got an opportunity here to take out Soleimani, let me ask Nancy Pelosi first?

GRAHAM: Well, number one, they're great patriots.

HANNITY: They are.

GRAHAM: But you can't have five -- you can't have 535 commander-in-chiefs. The War Powers Act is unconstitutional. There's only one commander-in- chief.

If you don't like the action the commander-in-chief is taking as Congress, you can defund those actions. We have control over the power of the purse.

But they're great Americans, but when we get on the floor of the United States Senate in the next couple of weeks and talking about restricting the ability to deal with the religious Nazis in Iran, it will be seen by the Iranians as division at home. I hope we won't do it. I can't imagine doing this in World War II.

And I'll end with this -- to the folks listening, the ayatollah has a plan and you're not in it. When he says, I want to kill -- destroy Israel, he's not kidding. He's trying to purify the faith and your eyes, he's an infidel. And after 40 years of terror, you hadn't figured this out, you're just not looking very hard.

HANNITY: You and I are in full agreement. And, by the way, this will not be a ground war. It can't be.

Last question, you are now pushing forward your resolution in the Senate as it deals with Nancy Pelosi's -- well --

GRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: -- belief that she can influence and dictate to the U.S. Senate their constitutional duty.

GRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: That's not going to happen.

GRAHAM: The Pelosi impeachment dam has broken. You've had five Democrats come out today and say, send over the articles. You said it was urgent. 
If you believe it to be urgent, send it to the Senate for disposition.

She's losing Democrats in the Senate. The impeachment dam of Nancy Pelosi is about to crack.

Hats off to Mitch McConnell for playing this very well. We'll take the trial up next week.

HANNITY: OK. Senator, thank you. We appreciate your time. You've been working overtime and helping us inform this audience. Thank you.

When we come back, a "Hannity" history lesson. We're going to explain how quid pro quo Joe has been on the wrong side of history on almost every major foreign policy decision for 40 years. I'm not saying it. Obama's former defense secretary saying it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Quid pro quo Joe Biden continues to find more ways to destroy his credibility, if at all possible. It is because no one in modern American politics has had more foreign policy blunders than Biden. That's not stopping him from trying to pretend otherwise. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The issue of dealing with international relations and our standing in the world, I think that up -- I'm happy to put my overall record against anyone running for president, particularly this president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: All right. Time for "Hannity" history lesson exposing Biden's failures and he, like all the other 2020 Democrats, has a frightening foreign policy record.

We start with Iran, because it was Obama/Biden that sent the pallets of cash to the Iranian mullahs in the tarmac in Iran, the same people that chant "death to Israel" and "death to America". It was the Obama/Biden policy of appeasement that led to a nuclear deal that provided little checks on Tehran, still gave them a path to a nuclear weapon.

And Obama, by the way, and Biden, thanks to them, Iran had even more money to burn to export terror and proxy wars around the world as they continue to do that. But Biden's trying to rewrite history on the campaign trail. 
Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: The seeds of danger we're planted by Donald Trump himself on May the 8th 2018, the day the president tore up the nuclear deal against the advice of his own top national security advisors. The Iran parliament, the Iran parliament voted to eject all Americans and coalition forces in the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: First off, quid pro quo, it was the Iraqi parliament, not the Iranian parliament.

As the president explained today, Iran paid for the missiles used to target U.S. soldiers with funds released by him and Obama. And yet somehow, the Benghazi Democrats, the mullah bribing Democrats have the audacity to criticize our commander-in-chief for taking out a ruthless war criminal, killed Americans and planning a new imminent attack on our U.S. personnel responsible for the death of so many, our national treasure.

It is sick, it is ugly, it is twisted, but Biden's failures don't stop there. He was actually against the raid to take out bin Laden, and he keeps lying about that. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: To follow your remarks earlier, as commander-in-chief, if you were ever handed a piece of intelligence that said you can stop an imminent attack on Americans but you have to use an airstrike to take out a terror leader, would you -- would you pull the trigger?

BIDEN: Well, we did. The guy's name is Usama bin Laden.

REPORTER: And we're you -- didn't you tell President Obama not to go after bin Laden?

BIDEN: No, I didn't. I didn't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Well, that's another lie. Great job, Peter Doocy.

Lie after lie, distortion after distortion. Get this, Biden continues to claim he opposed the Iraq war. That's a lie. He said the exact opposite in 2003, and Biden was also part of the failed intervention in Libya that led to complete chaos and destruction. And even Obama called it his worst mistake.

And, of course, there were lies about the video, the ignored calls for help, the stand-down orders that resulted in four dead Americans and a lot of lying part of the failed Biden foreign policy record as well.

But it's just like -- I've been telling you -- Biden's biggest opponent is himself. He's been at the forefront of bad ideas for four decades. Even Obama's Defense Secretary Bob Gates writing in his 2014 memoir: I think he's been on the wrong side of nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.

Here with reaction, Fox News contributor, former Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee, "Fox and Friends Weekend" co-host and basically rules FoxNation.com, Pete Hegseth. And I forced myself to go to his wedding. It was amazing, I just invited myself.

PETE HEGSETH, "FOX & FRIENDS WEEKEND" CO-HOST: You were most welcome, Sean.

HANNITY: Thank -- we did, I had a great time.

Governor, you've been following Biden for years. The guy --

MIKE HUCKABEE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes.

HANNITY: -- I don't even know how to explain it away, except that he just lies.

HUCKABEE: Well, I think you've got it all wrong, Sean, and I hate to correct you on your own show.

HANNITY: Oh, boy, there we go.

HUCKABEE: This isn't a problem with Joe. I mean, he doesn't really know the difference between Iran and Iraq. He might even confuse Israel and Iceland. It's just that they're all countries that begin with the letter "I", he can't just quite distinguish them.

So you're being a little tough on the Joe. Back off a little bit, Sean. Give him some air.

HANNITY: This is why Governor Huckabee did so great in every presidential debate he was ever in. You're good, Governor.

Pete, your take?

HEGSETH: Yes, I mean, he also doesn't know what day it is and what state he's in in the current campaign he's involved in.

This is why it's so bad. Not only was he party to everything the Obama- Biden White House did, he was considered -- he was picked as vice president because of his so-called foreign policy expertise, and then he was handed the portfolio of most important policy because everyone recognized Barack Obama didn't know anything about it and he doubled down on all the conventional thinking on Washington, D.C. and that's why he's got a two- front problem right now.

He's got a problem from all the lefties in the primary race who are totally anti-American and totally anti-war, and they call out Joe Biden's interventionism and the things he's been involved in.

And he's got the problem of Donald Trump who's been completely consistent over decades about American entanglement and engagement abroad, and we saw that come to fruition in his Reaganesque speech where he said, if you cross any of these lines, we'll smack you, and our enemies believe him. That's why he and Reagan were different than Carter and Obama. You can give them deference to wait a little bit because you know they're strong and our enemies truly do fear them.

Joe Biden has none of those attributes. Our enemies laugh and took advantage of him. Appeasement was the -- was the buzzword. So he's got problems on all sides --

HANNITY: Exit quest.

HEGSETH: And he also doesn't know where he is.

HANNITY: That's true, and he's creepy.

Does he get the nomination, Governor?

HUCKABEE: Well, I'll tell you this. You got to remember, Joe Biden is Barney Fife and President Trump is like John Wayne. That's the contrast. 
Americans are going to have a great choice this year. I hope they make the right one.

HANNITY: You're so on your game tonight.

Pete?

HEGSETH: Yes, I can't compete. I think it's Bernie's. I really do. I believe that beginning is the only authentic one, even if he's all bad and all wrong.

HANNITY: Yes. Interesting a couple of months coming up. Thank you both.

When we come back, Pelosi's grip on our party is now weakening. Senate Democrats calling for the speaker, if it's so urgent, send them. That's Dianne Feinstein among them. We'll have that coming up, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Speaker-in-name-only Pelosi's impeachment standoff is now coming to a head. A growing number of Senate Democrats now want Pelosi to send over the impeachment articles. One Democrat said, senator said, that impeachment trial could even start next week.

Here now, Republican lawmakers Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz, and Elise Stefanik is with us.

Jim Jordan, there's four things that will never change, four.

REP. JIM JORDAN, R-OHIO: Four key facts. They got the transcript. There was no quid pro quo. The two guys on the call said there was no pressure. The Ukrainians didn't even know the call was --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I thought I was good at this. You're better at this. You're better at them.

JORDAN: Yes, they didn't even know aid was held at the time of the call, and, of course, they did nothing to get to aid released or to get a meeting with the president.

Those facts have never changed, won't change, and that's why you got seven Democrats saying, come on, Nancy, send us the articles for goodness' sake.

HANNITY: What do you think they're pulling here, Matt Gaetz? She's trying to pull?

REP. MATT GAETZ, R-FLA.: I just -- I just hope to find a woman that will hold me as tight as Nancy Pelosi is holding on to those who impeachment articles, Sean. I mean, this week, we had --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Ay yai yai. You got to get in trouble on my show. Can you save that for fake news CNN or something? Why on my show?

(CROSSTALK)

GAETZ: When you lose the support of Dianne Feinstein and you're Nancy Pelosi, it's not a good look. You know, the same week, the United States has lost the full support of the Iraqi parliament to stay in Iraq, and Hollywood shows are losing the support of their own hosts, and it's only Wednesday. I think that, by next week, we could end a forever war, dismiss impeachment, and Trump might win 40 states.

HANNITY: I give you a check for humor, which nobody in the mainstream media has.

Congresswoman Stefanik, your take?

REP. ELISE STEFANIK, R-N.Y.: My take is that Pelosi has been exposed and the impeachment dam is breaking. We need to continue to keep the pressure up because she has no authority over the Senate. So, it is absolutely audacious and outrageous that she has been willing to withhold this after urging the American people and Democrats, forcing them to take this vote on an arbitrary schedule.

The real reason why I think she's holding back is, she does not want to expose the coordination that we know happened between Adam Schiff and the whistleblower. And people can learn more and keep up the pressure by going to PressurePelosi.com, sign up, donate and join the fight, and get this to the Senate, and make sure that we can clear President Trump.

HANNITY: You know, when you look at these weak articles, Jim Jordan on the serious side of this, this is the presidency.

JORDAN: Yes.

HANNITY: And there was -- if I recall, you were there every day, such urgency. You were at the Schiff show every day, in such urgency, and this had to get done immediately.

JORDAN: Yes.

HANNITY: But never mind.

JORDAN: Right. No, and the American people see how ridiculous this whole effort was.

To emphasize what Elise just said, think about this, on September 24th when Speaker Pelosi announces she's going to head down this ridiculous impeachment road, she never expected every single Republican to vote no in the House. She never expected one Democrat to vote with us. There's another Democrat to vote president and a third Democrat to vote no, and then switch parties.

And she certainly didn't expect seven Democrat senators to say what they said today. That shows you how ridiculous this whole thing is, and the sooner we get it done with, the more that President Trump can be focused on doing the great things he's been doing and helping the country.

HANNITY: And in many ways, Matt Gaetz, it's all backfired on them, because the American people like rolling their eyes, they could care less. I don't like the weakening of the executive branch though.

GAETZ: Undoubtedly, and who it really has running scared are the 31 Democrats who were in districts that Donald Trump won. Remember, Nancy Pelosi had to use political money as a weapon to threaten a lot of these folks to vote for impeachment. They were told if they did not vote for impeachment, they could not expect funding from the DCCC in their races.

And so, this wasn't a sincere effort to abide by the rule of law. It was a political hit job by Democrats because they have no substantive argument against the Trump presidency.

HANNITY: Congresswoman, we have seconds. You get the last word.

STEFANIK: Well, I would just ask the American people to go to PressurePelosi.com, sign up and donate and get this done.

We know the president is -- there are no impeachable offenses, the facts have been clear from the very beginning -- no corruption, no quid pro quo, the aid was given to Ukraine.

HANNITY: All right. All three, you have done a phenomenal job exposing them for how corrupt they are.

When we come back, new details on the mysterious plane crash in Iran that killed 176 people last night. Live report next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: A Ukraine airline plains crashed in Iran last night leaving no survivors.

Benjamin Hall live in Jordan tonight. He has the very latest.

Benjamin, what do we have on this?

BENJAMIN HALL, FOX NEWS FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sean, Canadian intelligence say they now have intel that sows one of the plane's engine caught fire and that's what brought it down. But coming just three hours after Iran fired those ballistic missiles into Iraq, there are some unanswered questions.

On top of that, Iran has refused access to both Boeing in the U.S. to investigate the black boxes or even gets in. The plane disappeared from radar at 8,000 feet. It plummeted, which is not unusual for engine failure. Usually, you would see that plane come down far slower. At this point, we just don't know because no one can get access to the crash site.

A hundred seventy-six people have died. We are waiting for answers -- Sean.

HANNITY: All right. Thank you, Benjamin.

Unfortunately, that's all the time we have left. Please set your DVR. We'd always be fair and balanced. We're not the hate-Trump media.

Let not your heart be troubled.

Laura Ingraham?

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