Sen. Rubio: Bernie Sanders isn't a socialist, he's a Marxist

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Sen. Rubio: Bernie Sanders isn't a socialist, he's a Marxist

Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio reacts to Sanders' comments on Fidel Castro on 'Hannity.'

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," February 25, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Welcome to "Hannity."

Tonight, big breaking news in what is pivotal, crucial to our Constitution and that is a quest for equal justice under the law, equal application of our laws.

It involves numerous issues. Julian Assange versus Hillary Clinton, and the great injustice in the Roger Stone case. There in the Stone case, a travesty of justice. We have all of the details tonight, and an insane judge in that particular case.

Plus, we will have reaction and analysis to the very latest news from the Democrats' latest nasty, bare-knuckle brawl political my fight. It was another Schiff show. Oh, and yes, farmer Bloomberg admitting, oh, yes, I try -- I bought the House of Representatives for Pelosi. Great move.

But, first, breaking only moments ago, big news for Republicans -- eight elected officials in Mississippi have announced they are switching from Democrats and independents to the Republican Party. Now, the Mississippi GOP expects that more announcements will follow soon.

Also breaking tonight, more good news, look at this, in the state of Kentucky, special election, Republican just won a statehouse district that has been in Democratic control since the 1980s. This is a preview of coming attractions, major news, potential barometer for things to come. Full election analysis is only moments away tonight.

But we do start with Bolshevik Bernie Sanders, who just can't seem to help himself. Now, the Democratic front-runner is doubling down on his effusive praise of communism.

Sure, Castro murdered tens of thousands of his own citizens. He locked up political dissidents, confiscated private property, outlawed all freedoms and induced widespread starvation and poverty.

But according to Bolshevik Bernie, Fidel Castro's literacy program made it all worth it, which is why literally hundreds of thousands of Cubans, let's see, risked their lives in broken down, rickety, dilapidated boats and shark infested waters in inner tubes in the hopes of getting here, and thankfully, many did.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, I-VT., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: A lot of folks in Cuba at that point who were illiterate, and he formed a literacy brigade -- you may read that. They went out and they helped people learn to read and write.

You know what? I think teaching people to read and write is a good thing. I have been extremely consistent and critical of all authoritarian regimes all over the world, including Cuba, including Nicaragua, including Saudi Arabia, including China, including Russia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, this is now the second straight day Bolshevik Bernie has gone out of his way praising Castro's communist dictatorship.

Well, hang on, my ties off. There we go. Perfect.

Anyway, and for what? A propaganda field reeducation program masquerading as a literacy platform?

Now, either Bolshevik Bernie is incredibly stupid or he thinks we, the people, are incredibly stupid. His radical brand of Soviet-style socialism is about one thing and one thing only: that is government control and takeover of every aspect of our lives.

Now, and every socialist hellhole, from Venezuela to Cuba to the USSR, his honeymoon place, the process is always the same. It all starts with the nationalism of major industry and promises -- oh, the government is going to give everyone everything for free. We're going to take care of everything for you.

Well, that's what the New Green Deal is all about. That's what Medicare- for-All is all about. And Bolshevik Bernie is literally plotting a government takeover of two of America's largest industries. And make no mistake, this could easily cost over $100 trillion in the next ten years.

But don't worry, Bernie has a plan to cover the cost and you are all going to pay for it.

Today, he actually rolled out nine, that's right, nine, brand-new tax hikes for all of you to enjoy. And by the way, here's what the fake news media will ignore -- to start, anybody that makes $29,000 a year is going to get slapped with a 4 percent tax increase. Up next, employers will get hit with an additional 7.5 percent payroll tax. By the way, they will pass that on to we, the consumers.

High income earners, they're going now to get taxed a top federal rate of 52 percent. That's a 15 percent hike there. Capital gains, that will go through the roof.

By the way, the death tax, if you paid taxes, after they steal more money with his wealth tax, and when you die, he's going to take 77 percent, that's the top rate. Wow, they tax you again. You have to pay to die in America.

The corporate income tax rate will go up to 35 percent, a 14-point increase. A new cap on itemized tax deductions will be imposed. The oil and gas industry will be hit with $3 trillion tax increase. Wonder what they're going to do with the price of oil and gas? I guess we're going to pay that, too.

And last but not least, large corporations of Bernie's choosing will get hit with a brand-new $2 trillion tax.

Now, that will be a recipe for economic disaster, because corporations are not stupid. They are going to leave this country and take their business elsewhere, as will billionaires and millionaires. They are not going to give their wealth over to Bernie Sanders and his Bolshevik revolution.

By the way, it still doesn't quite account for the trillions in new spending. And laughably, now, Bolshevik Bernie's campaign is claiming that his insane programs will magically create 20 million new jobs. He was saying the other night that we're going to lose jobs under his plan.

And, by the way, he is also claiming it will magically save the government trillions of dollars and that will make the funding gap.

I know he's old, so he may not have a calculator yet. Maybe somebody can update his abacus and give poor Bernie a new calculator. Maybe buy him an iPhone or something, because his math won't ever add up.

But tonight, I do have to hand it to Bernie, from his unyielding praise of communism, bragging about oppressive new taxes, well, he is at least slightly more honest than his opponents -- Medicare for All, Green New Deal, late-term abortions, elimination of the Second Amendment, open borders, free health care for illegal immigrants. Oh, we not only have sanctuary cities but a sanctuary country.

They all pretty much want the same thing. All of these Democrats, they are all radical, extreme socialists. But Bolshevik Bernie's raw candor about the radical Democratic Party's platform is making them a little nervous. 
Just don't tell everybody this is what we think.

They know the American people won't buy it, so now, figuratively -- well, they are speaking out against Bernie.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've had six national elections with Democrats since1992 that have won back the majority. Why would you take that playbook that has succeeded not once, six times, throw it out, and try something not center left, but just left. It makes no sense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These positions will be caricatured by Trump, and I think a lot of Democrats are saying is that a Bernie Sanders nomination puts the House at risk.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It sounds pretty crazy. What I listen to on "60 Minutes", he was right off --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has there been a communist regime that Bernie Sanders visited that he didn't find something appealing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is nothing groovy about a dictatorship! There's just nothing good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, these radical, unapologetic, socialist views are not the only concern inside the Democratic Party. Now we are seeing a tax about his gross, disturbing articles in the case of Bolshevik Bernie from the '70s. 
Now, this includes what we showed you last night where Bernie openly fantasizing about a gang rape in a piece he wrote for an alternative newspaper.

Tonight, we have uncovered another article to show you. By the way, viewer warning, it is just as sick and creepy is what we told you about last night. This piece, 1969, Sanders writing, quote: Now, if children go around naked -- well, they are liable to see each other's sexual organs and maybe even touch them. A terrible thing. If we raise children up like this, it will probably ruin the whole pornography business.

His words, not mine.

By the way, he's a grown adult man, and he wrote that? Something wrong with this guy. Like creepy Joe, or Mike Bloomberg.

And today, by the way, the surprise of fake news CNN is that a Bloomberg adviser actually highlighted Bernie's bizarre writings. Let's take a look at that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIMOTHY O'BRIEN, BLOOMBERG ADVISER: Bernie has all of this loopy stuff in his background, saying things like, you know, women get cancer from having too many orgasms, or toddlers should run around naked and touch each other's genitals, to insulate themselves from porn.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For what? What?

O'BRIEN: Why has this stuff not been more surfaced?

He's written about women's rape fantasies. That hasn't been surfaced. 
That's the loony side of Bernie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: All right. Does Bloomberg care about any of this? Probably not, but his campaign is happy to deflect from what was the worst debate performance in American political history. By the way, he came in with prepared lines and they fell flat tonight.

And he also talked about -- oh, I bought Congress. I paid and bought Congress. Wow, OK.

And what about ethics, and what about, let's see, oh, that's not the right to do? That's OK? Just buy your seats?

He also wants to deflect from some newly uncovered audio involving him from
2016 where the former mayor was more than happy to trash Barack Obama. How is this going to go over in the Democratic primary? Especially when you add it to, well, we only throw minority kids up against the wall, you know, you Xerox a copy, the same M.O., minorities 16 to 25, that is ready for all the cops because that's where the crime is, and only minority neighborhoods.

Listen to this latest one.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The second Obama election, I wrote a very backhanded endorsement of Obama saying I thought he hadn't done the right thing, hadn't done, hadn't been good at things that I think are important and Romney would be a better person doing that, but Romney did not stick with the values that he had when he was governor of Massachusetts.

(END AUDIO CLIP

HANNITY: All right. Buckle up. Why? Because the chaos in the Democratic Party is now descending into what is a nasty, political civil war, the likes of which we may have never seen before.

Joining us now, Florida Senator Marco Rubio.

You know, Senator, I look at for example -- I know there are a lot of Cuban-Americans. I've gotten to know many of them.

I will tell you, it is an amazing story, I have a very good friend of mine that passed away, his land -- his family land was stolen. His neighbor's land was stolen when Castro came to power. Many of his friends and neighbors were murdered by Castro and his thugs. He barely made it out alive.

Hundreds of thousands of people get in (ph) broken down, dilapidated, rickety boats, shark-infested waters or get in an inner tube with a paddle to get away from Cuba. And this guy is telling us how great Castro is? And how great the USSR was?

SEN. MARCO RUBIO, R-FLA.: Well, because I think he's gotten away with for years saying that he's a socialist.

He's actually not a socialist. He's a Marxist. This is Marxism, and Marxism is based on the belief that no person has any value as an individual, that your value is that you're a member of a class.

Second, Marxism is based on the belief that an employer and an employee, a worker and an owner, can't both help each other and both be better off. The worker gets good pay. The employer makes a profit on the capital they've invested.

But his ideas are Marxist ideas, and Marxism always leads to authoritarianism and dictatorship, eventually. It does everywhere in the world it's been tried. And as you point out, in my home state of Florida, we have hundreds of thousands of people who have come to this country fleeing some of the very same policies that we're now seeing advocated on a debate stage in one of our two major political parties.

Bernie Sanders is the likely Democratic nominee, and, frank -- and he's a Marxist, and these are Marxist ideas and needed to be called for what they are.

HANNITY: OK, with 252 days outside of what I think is a defining moment in American politics. I've never seen a more radical group of people than these Democrats and these ideas and pretty much nationalizing everything.

Or you could take the Bloomberg health care, which is, if you're 95, go home. See your family. We're not going to pay for your health care. Go home and die. He actually is on tape saying that.

Here's my question. So, you got this radical group of Democrats. Something is happening where President Trump, especially in the last 10 or 12 polls, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, there is a transformation -- doubling, tripling, quadrupling even the amount of support that he got in 2016.

Do you see that happening? And what does that mean if it's real?

RUBIO: I do.

Well, I think part of it, frankly, is just how off the rails the Democratic Party has become. Look, they all will say -- and Bernie Sanders in particular say, oh, we still believe in private industry and they like to compare themselves to Nordic countries.

Number one, Nordic countries are actually not socialist. You know, I used to actually buy into that. And you look at it carefully, it's not true. 
They have free enterprise.

The average corporate tax rate in Nordic countries is around 21 percent. They don't have a minimum wage. In Sweden, they have universal school choice for everybody. So, they have a big welfare state, but they do -- and they have high taxes -- but they are not socialist countries.

Now, what they're talking what is nationalizing health care. That's 20 percent -- over 20 percent of our economy.

Nationalizing energy through the Green New Deal, that's another significant percentage.

They talk about the FEC controlling the Internet --

HANNITY: Unbelievable.

RUBIO: -- which you think about how much of our economy is run through there.

You've now nationalized 60, 70 percent of your economy and who knows what other areas they want to go after.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: The U.S. as we know it, which has created a standard of living and advance the human condition more than any single country under capitalism in the entire world and the creation of man, would be -- would be -- we would literally default under these plans.

But thank you for being with us, Senator.

RUBIO: Yes.

HANNITY: Good to see you.

All right. Tonight, I want you to listen closely. If you do care about constitutional governments, if you care about the rule of law, equal justice under the law, equal application of our laws, you've got to pay attention.

Now, we have a case, extradition case, going on in London as we speak. 
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is facing extradition to the U.S., indicted on 18 violations of the Espionage Act for publishing classified material.

Let's see, has anyone ever read the Pentagon Papers, by the way? Might want to read that. By the way, you know that is the case with the Supreme Court ruled journalists have the right to publish leaked, classified material from the Vietnam War? That's a landmark case.

Put aside whatever the legal issues are here for a second, and discuss the irony of these charges. Julian Assange, what they are now saying they want to bring him to this country for would be facing the Espionage Act publishing otherwise, quote, secret materials, from they say, Russia. He denied it when I interviewed him.

But Hillary Clinton's secret server, let's see, had top secret, classified information on it, a clear violation of the Espionage Act. Where are those charges?

Now, also, what else are they talking about? Clinton faced a zero charges for, let's see, funneling money, through a law firm, to hire an op research firm to hire a foreign spy and paying for Russian dirt on Donald Trump. She paid for Russian disinformation, or as "The New York Times" now recognizes, a little late, it was Russian disinformation right from the start.

And Hillary Clinton literally colluded with a foreign government. OK. Why isn't she being held accountable? She paid for Russian lies.

By the way, in my interview with Assange in January, put it up on my Twitter account if you want to watch the whole interview. January 2017, I asked him six separate times, and he denied ever getting anything from Russia. OK, maybe you agree or disagree, which, even if he did, at least, he didn't have to pay for it like Hillary Clinton. That would be on equal justice under the law.

If you are going to say, oh, with to bring this guy here, why isn't she arrested for the Espionage Act? Why isn't she arrested for paying for Russian lies?

Now, it's undisputed, it is clear, there is a paper trail. We know the dossier author Christopher Steele on record testifying about that dirty dossier, even saying he has no idea any of it is true. Clear evidence that two far left hacks pretending to be journalist, David Corn, Michael Isikoff, conspiracy theorists, leaked the dossier information. Why? To help the Democrats rigged the election with her Russian bought and paid-for lies.

When I interviewed Julian Assange, I asked him over and over again about his sources. He consistently denied working with Russia or any other state actor. But we know Hillary paid for it.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Did Russia give you this information or anybody associated with Russia?

JULIAN ASSANGE, WIKILEAKS FOUNDER: Our source is not a state party. So the answer for our interactions is no.

HANNITY: WikiLeaks was working with the Russian government to influence the election. Is that true in any way, shape, manner, or form?

ASSANGE: No, that's absolutely false.

HANNITY: Can you tell the American people 1,000 percent you do not get it from Russia or anybody associated with Russia?

ASSANGE: We can say, we have said repeatedly, over the last two months, that our source is not the Russian government, and it is not state party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: OK. There are some agencies in this country that disagree with Julian Assange. That's separate and apart, by the way, from the fact that Hillary Clinton paid for Russian lies to influence the election. How come she's not being arrested? How come she's not having charges brought up on her?

This is a lack of equal justice under the law. The question remains, OK, Julian Assange is aggressively targeting for publishing material, where are the charges for Hillary Clinton, who paid for Russian lies and colluded with Russia and paid for the Russian lies and used it in the 2016 campaign? 
This is just one part of our dual system of justice in this country.

You want to talk about more unequal justice? All right, let's look at the Sixth Amendment. That was the one that guarantees, quote, in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a trial by an impartial jury.

Now, does that mean anything to you? Because it apparently means nothing to federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who presided over the case against Roger Stone in the Manafort case. In a recent decision, the judge went on an anti-Trump rant.

The Obama pointed judge even pushed an unrelated conspiracy theory, Roger Stone was covering up for President Trump. He wasn't part of the Trump campaign.

And that's not all. She also claimed that Stone's jurors served with integrity. OK. We got a big problem with that lie because the jury foreperson outed herself on social media as a compromised anti-Trump and anti-Roger Stone activist, referring to President Trump as a member of the Ku Klux Klan, calling all Trump supporter's, that will be Roger Stone, racist, and she even tweeted about Stone directly. In January 2019, applauding the late night raid of Stone's Florida home.

So, let me get this straight. You got, let's see, Mueller prosecutors wanted to rock up Roger Stone for nine years because he allegedly lied to Congress. Then a jury led by a Trump-hating foreperson, a Stone-hating foreperson, will convict him on all counts, that is a Schiff sham show.

And Trump-hating media, Obama appointee, you know, gives them 40 months in prison? We're supposed to be OK with this?

Now, keep in mind, most of Stone's charges, process charges. Lying to Congress allegations.

We'll scroll all of the other lies, but first, we got to introduce our guest. We'll scroll them on the side of our screen.

David Schoen was in the courtroom today, criminal defense attorney. Geraldo Rivera is with us, and Dan Bongino.

Let's go on to the courtroom first with David Schoen.

David, what did you see today? Because what I saw it as a travesty of justice. This was a tainted jury. That woman should not -- should have first told the judge, she had been thrown off the jury panel from the get- go. Never should have been on that jury.

She never n disclosed that. New trial, end of sentence. And as it relates to Assange, Hillary bought and paid for Russian lies.

DAVID SCHOEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: First of all, let me clear up one thing. The courtroom was closed to spectators by the judge. She had a compromise. She allowed people to listen to it.

But, listen, the juror and judge appeared to be kindred spirits. You talk about a lack of fairness, the judge professed to care about the integrity of the system. The Article 3 courts, the courts I work in every day of my life, she denigrated them with her speech at sentencing. She accused Stone of covering up for President Trump, had nothing to do with it, and she said because of Stone, Nunes' House committee got things wrong.

Devin Nunes spokesman said he had a 200-page report, there was maybe one line about Roger Stone. The Mueller-Weissmann team had the information they claimed Stone denied, they didn't find Russia collusion. This wasn't about covering up for Trump.

The judge talking could have been Mr. Schiff or Mr. Nadler. It denigrates our process and the integrity of our courts.

HANNITY: Yes.

Let me go to Dan Bongino, and, by the way, we'll scroll -- look at these. Look at all these other people that lied. Why aren't they being brought up on charges Dan Bongino? You know, Clapper, Brennan, Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page.

DAN BONGINO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, yes, you know the old adage, justice is blind, and that's accurate, it is blind to Democrats, just not blind to anybody that supports President Trump.

Remember, Sean, a couple of notes here. You have all -- I can see this scrolling on the screen right here. Hillary Clinton had them wipe the sea off documents for classified and told in emails to literally pass it over on a prized (ph) server.

She was then (ph) some of the people involved in this in the wiping of the server, Sean, they were allowed to go back and revise their statements because their statements were categorically false, they were never charged.

I mean, it's insane with they were allowed to get away with. They there are clearly two systems of justice right now in the United States, and it's an embarrassment.

HANNITY: Let me go to Geraldo, he is an attorney.

Geraldo, OK, so they want to bring Julian Assange -- Hillary Clinton bought Russian lies, number one. Number two, this is a tainted jury. This judge seems corrupt to me. I think every case ought to be examined with this judge.

GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT-AT-LARGE: I totally agree. Roger Stone is getting screwed. The fact that liberals applauded the 7 to 9 year original sentence shows how really sick they are about people who support Donald Trump.

This was to stick it to the president. It was not about Roger Stone, 29 FBI agents from helicopters, a marine unit --

HANNITY: CNN cameras, frogs.

RIVERA: -- CNN team following close behind. It was absolutely bogus. It's B.S. And the jurors' bias should be cause enough to reverse this conviction.

Let me go back to Assange, though, Sean, because I think I'm the only person here who actually interviewed Fidel Castro. Back in the '70s, I was a young reporter --

HANNITY: Geraldo, you are aging yourself.

RIVERA: And I have -- I have a kinder view of Castro than most people do.

HANNITY: Oh, stop!

(CROSSTALK)

RIVERA: Let me make my point.

HANNITY: He murdered people.

RIVERA: My point is this, my point is this. My point is this. I think Julian Assange is a secret stealing punk, an anti-American --

HANNITY: OK, well, say that --

(CROSSTALK)

RIVERA: You have a kinder view about him because you met the guy.

HANNITY: Let me ask a question. There are agencies in the intel community that agree with you, but that's not the point. The point is, OK, let's say he did get it from Russia.

Hillary paid for her Russian lies, Dan Bongino.

RIVERA: Yes.

BONGINO: Yes, well, she did, and the odd part, Sean, is there is a document of record, a State Department representative from the Obama administration took notes on the meeting with Christopher Steele, where Christopher Steele said, said, one of his sources was a high level Russian intelligence official by the name of (INAUDIBLE) --

HANNITY: We better get this fixed. The Stone case needs to be overturned. Hillary needs to be held accountable before you start going after Julian Assange, you know, for getting --

(CROSSTALK)

BONGINO: Cut the crap with that Castro --

(CROSSTALK)

RIVERA: You should read the "Communist Manifesto".

HANNITY: Joe Biden, two huge bad blunders again.

And Lawrence Jones live in South Carolina asking people what they think about socialist Bernie Sanders, Bolshevik Bernie. That's straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right, Democratic candidates were in South Carolina earlier tonight. We sent our own Lawrence Jones down to the Palmetto State to ask people what they think about the rise of Bolshevik Bernie Sanders.

He is our 2020 correspondent. He's hitting the streets. He's on the ground, everywhere. Tonight live in Charleston.

You got to go the Halls steakhouse in Charleston, best steakhouse in America, one of the best steakhouses in America.

LAWRENCE JONES, FOX NATION HOST: I'll be sure to do that, Sean. Good evening.

Right behind me, the Democratic candidates are duking it out, and I can only describe as a food fight, a circular firing squad, an identity crisis, and it's clear that the voters there in the crowd, they don't like it. 
Another thing they don't like is candidates praising dictators.

Earlier today in South Carolina, I got to talk to residents about what they thought about Bernie Sanders praising the dictator Fidel Castro. Here's what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: What do you think about Bernie Sanders praising Fidel Castro and the Soviet Union?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's absolutely inconceivable that any American as old as him, knowing everything we know about Fidel Castro and the people he murdered over the years, that anybody could support him in anyway.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I like Bernie.

JONES: What do -- how do you feel about him praising the Soviet Union and Fidel Castro?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I don't like that part. Castro was a dictator. Nobody really flourished under that regime.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bernie Sanders honeymooned in the former Soviet Union. So, this shouldn't be a real surprise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: As you can see, Sean, they didn't like that.

Another question I had an opportunity to ask them is, Bernie Sanders has all of these plans, but how is he going to pay for all this nonsense?

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Is there any chance that Bernie can pay for all of these programs?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, absolutely not, absolutely not. I try to make payroll every single week. I can't make payroll half the time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have no idea. That's telling the truth, I have no idea.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But if you look at Europe and what they pay, like 60 percent of their taxes go towards that. That's how he's going to pay for it, by taxation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: As you can see, Sean, many of those voters weren't fool. They know their taxes are going to go up, and although they are Democrats, they are going to put their pocketbooks first.

Back to you, Sean.

All right. Our 2020 correspondent on the ground, Halls steakhouse, trust me on this, good choice. You like it.

All right. Thanks, Lawrence, 2020 correspondent for us.

Joe Biden tonight said he is confident he will win South Carolina, but the primary seems to be -- well, the latest of his problems. This is getting embarrassing, because Biden continues to make blunder after blunder. We showed a long real last night, we don't have time to show that. This is just the two new ones from the last 24 hours.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My name is Joe Biden. I'm a Democratic candidate for the United States Senate. Look me over. If you like to see, help out. If not, vote for the other guy. Give me a look, though, OK?

One of the things I'm proudest of is getting passed, getting move, getting control the Paris climate accord. I'm the guy that came back after meeting with Deng Xiaoping and making the case that I believe China was going if we put pressure on them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: He just said he's running for the senate, and to clarify, the Chinese leader, quid pro quo Joe just said he was negotiating with in the Paris Accord, yes, he'd been dead for 23 years.

Here now with reaction, Fox News contributor Charlie Hurt. White House senior advisor Tony Sayegh is with us. And Congressman Andy Biggs, he leads the Freedom Caucus.

Tony, we'll start with you. I mean, the hits keep coming. Joe quid pro quo -- I mean, you can't make it up.

There's something seriously wrong here. I don't think a lot of people want to say it, but have you ever had a fastball, it's gone. If he ever had a softball, that's gone, too.

TONY SAYEGH, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISOR FOR STRATEGY: So, Sean, pundits love Joe Biden's candidacy, but unfortunately, voters, as we've seen, don't share that affection. I mean, when the best showing you could discuss is a distant second in the Nevada caucus, you know something is systemically wrong with the Biden candidacy.

And, you know, these types of lapse (ph) are usually are laugh off, they're harmless, they don't usually impact the bottom line for a candidate, unless they reinforce a negative preconceived notion of that candidate.

And with Joe Biden, as you've alluded to, Joe -- Sean, you have this idea that his candidacy is missing something, is missing a step, is missing some sort of passion. And they became four years too late, eight years too late, whatever the number may be, because he's not clearly as engaged as you would imagine a proverbial front-runner should be.

And the timing of this is really bad because when you think about the fact that he has to have an overwhelming first-place finish in South Carolina to salvage his failing candidacy, you really don't want to have these types of unforced errors dogging you.

HANNITY: Let me go to Charlie. You know, so I watch this debate tonight. You got Bloomberg.

First of all, first thing, clearly, he did a lot of practice and rehearsing, he came right out of a box with a line that fell flat, even, which is hilarious. And then he's admitting that he -- oh, I kind of bought those congressional seats. That's what I do, I pay for things and --then restrictive gun laws start coming up, and then he lied about stop-and- frisk.

And I counted in the first 15 minutes, three apologies for positions he's taken, which are insincere and election-year conversions, like stop-and- frisk. And nobody got him to, you know, say, well, what about the comments you made about African-Americans? That might have come up. Or what about the fact you are telling old person with cancer that you're not going to give them any treatment at all? Go home and die. That's his plan.

CHARLIE HURT, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, no, it's incredible. And especially in places like places like South Carolina, all of those things are very bad for Michael Bloomberg.

But that's what's so sort of amazing about it right now, that you have Joe Biden, according to the polls anyway, clearly still holding some advantage in South Carolina. We don't know what's going to happen there. Bernie could squeak it out. And that would be devastating for the Biden campaign.

But the way I look at it, is if Joe Biden wins in South Carolina despite his disastrous performance so far in the campaign, that only helps Bernie Sanders.

HANNITY: Yes.

HURT: It just continues to defuse the opposition to Bernie Sanders, and it gives -- and it bars anyone from coalescing to stand up to Bernie Sanders, and he's going to run away with it.

HANNITY: And, Andy, look, I know there are minor differences, but they all support open borders, sanctuary country. They all want free health care. 
They all want late term abortion. They all want a limitation of our Second Amendment. They want to spend like crazy.

And the only -- well, there's one difference. Michael Bloomberg would -- says, well, you've outlived your usefulness, go home and die, we won't give you healthcare. We don't have the money.

REP. ANDY BIGGS, R-ARIZ.: Right. Well, in reality, I'm not sure that that position is all the different from some of the others. They just haven't iterated it as clearly as Michael Bloomberg erroneously stated.

But the -- but the reality is, while they continue to move to the left and just try to be -- you know, let's face it -- Bernie Sanders is the authoritarian he hates, but President Trump is winning friends all over the world. India, 100,000 people, last week in the West, great rallies. He is doing great things. These guys aren't.

HANNITY: All right. Guys, thank you all. Great observations from all of you.

When we come back, President Trump, Senator Ted Cruz, they are calling out big time the liberals on the U.S. Supreme Court. Shannon Bream has that full report.

Also, Republican senators saying the attorney general is making changes to the FISA process -- let's just say I have a funny feeling the truth was all going to come out with Barr and Durham, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right, now, the president is calling for Supreme Court Justices Sotomayor and Ginsburg to recuse themselves from cases involving the administration, citing past public rebukes, and the tension is even -- well, spilling over to the U.S. Senate. Senator Ted Cruz had very sharp words for Justice Sotomayor.

"FOX News @ Night" host, our own Shannon Bream, now joins us to explain.

Shannon, this is now very unprecedented, and in many ways, they're identifying a political point of view, which then might put them in a position where people would rightly justify calling for recusal.

SHANNON BREAM, HOST, "FOX NEWS @ NIGHT": Yes, and that's the question the president has tonight. You mentioned Senator Cruz pulling no punches, saying about that Sotomayor dissent, quote, I read it a little bit like an arsonist complaining about the noise from the fire trucks.

Now, he adds to President Trump, continuing to point to statements from both Justices Sotomayor and Ginsburg from asking how it is possible they don't have to recuse themselves from cases involving the president.

Well, the Supreme Court is the one federal court in which judges, in this case, justices, can't be forced to recuse themselves. So, to remind our viewers what the president is referring to, here's a review of what Justice Ginsburg said back during the 2016 presidential campaign. She told the AP When asked about a possible Trump presidency, I don't want to think about that possibility.

To "The New York Times", quote: I can't imagine what the country would be with Donald Trump as our president. Adding, for the courts, it could be, I don't even want to contemplate that.

To CNN, she asked, how has he gotten away with not turning over his tax returns? Now, to a lot of people, that seems particularly significant in retrospect since these justices will consider a trio of cases aimed at getting access to the president's tax and financial records in March.

Well, the lawyers committee for civil rights under law says the president's call for the justices to recuse themselves is deeply disturbing. They call it unprecedented, saying the president is actively trying to undermine the independence of the judiciary. I reached out tonight, both justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor are declining comment, as is the chief justice, for now, John Roberts -- Sean.

HANNITY: All right. Shannon Bream, we'll see you at 11:00 Eastern tonight.

BREAM: Yes.

HANNITY: Eight, Pacific Time. Thank you.

With -- now, with key provisions of FISA set to expire next month, Senate Republicans, they are optimistic the Attorney General Bill Barr will make the needed internal changes to the process.

Here with reaction, author of the number one bestseller "Witch Hunt", Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett, along with FOX News investigative reporter Sara Carter.

Sara, let's start with the news on this. This is big and this is important, on top of what we have learned this week, and on top of, now, Lindsey Graham is bringing in 21 people.

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Right, and there's three provisions in particular, Sean. There is the roving wiretaps, Section 215, and the lone wolf provision. Those are the three main provisions they are going to be reviewing.

And the biggest battle is going to be over section 215, which would actually and does allow the NSA to collect metadata. That's all of our phone records, text messages, who we talk to, not the contents of those messages.

But I want you to think about this. What happened to Carter Page is only what we know of. We don't know how many other FISA warrants have either been altered or changed or if there was anything added to them. So this is the reason why the FISA court itself, under Rosemary Collier, was demanding that they review all of the FISAs, and it's the reason why Michael Horowitz is actually asking to review all of those come as well. The big fight here in the next two weeks, that's on -- right around March 14th, there's the sunset clause, is whether or not Congress will stick to their guns and not allow FISA to renew, or will they allow a renewal based on what Mitch McConnell wants, and based on what Attorney General Bill Barr will do to change the system from within.

HANNITY: Well, it comes down to, you know, look at the case of Roger Stone. 
Gregg Jarrett, look at unequal justice under the law. I was talking about Hillary Clinton and the Espionage Act. Hillary Clinton paying for a dirty Russian dossier, and no, we're going after Julian Assange, why don't we go after her? Because we know she paid for Russian lies.

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I do commend Bill Barr for attempting reforms of FISA and no fan of FISA, frankly ought to be abolished. It's been used routinely by the FBI and the DOJ to abuse people's Fourth Amendment rights.

And, you know, Barr wants to reform it. Hey, I've seen that film before. I know how it turns out.

CARTER: Right.

JARRETT: There have been attempts at reforms before. They don't work because the FBI simply circumvents them and violates them with impunity. They cannot be trusted. Frankly, we are to just get rid of FISA.

HANNITY: We need that tool. We need the tools of intelligence.

JARRETT: I know we do.

HANNITY: We just need people p not to turn them on the American people.

CARTER: Right, right, Sean. And we need to protect the Fourth Amendment. So, the Constitution.

HANNITY: I know. You know, we entrust these people, that is why this is so-- they are not held accountable. And I believe Barr will do the job.

JARRETT: You can thank Comey and McCabe and Peter Strzok and the whole gang for ruining what was supposed to be a vital intelligence tool.

HANNITY: Exit question, are you confident Barr and Durham get the job done? 
Sara, yes or no?

CARTER: Yes, I am confident they will get it done.

HANNITY: Gregg?

JARRETT: No, 50/50 on that.

HANNITY: I'm with Sara. All right. I'm optimistic. Not totally, but I think a lot of these people will be held accountable.

When we come back, all right, the Center for Disease Control issued a dire warning about the coronavirus and how it could impact the U.S. Trace Gallagher has that full report.

Karl Rove has his whiteboard, and well, guess what? South Carolina is on Saturday. Super Tuesday one week from tonight, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. The CDC issued a dire warning about the deadly coronavirus earlier today.

Here with the full report, all of the details, our own Trace Gallagher -- Trace.

TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Sean, the World Health Organization now says coronavirus fits the criteria Disease X, meaning it has the potential to reach international epidemic levels like Ebola, SARS or the Zika virus.

The designation is not meant to frighten the world but rather to get the world to think about how to prepare.

In this country, the CDC and National Institutes of Health expect coronavirus to spread, but because it is a brand-new virus, they don't know how much, how fast, or how severe the disease will be. But they also warn Americans that preventing the spread could lead to big time life disruptions, like closing schools, canceling flights, and other big crowd events.

Worldwide, there are more than 80,000 cases and 37 countries, and more than 2,700 people have died. The CDC says the disease is primarily spread through person-to-person contact from people who are within about six feet of each other. And it is most contagious when people are the sickest.

It is interesting that in Wuhan province in China, the disease spread very fast, but in this country, so far, not so fast. In fact, all 53 of those infected in the U.S. either came off of cruise ship quarantined in Japan, or came back from China.

Finally, the fear is certainly battering markets. The Dow is down 1,911 points in two days. One of the worries for the U.S. is the rapid outbreak in Italy might soon affect European economic hubs like Germany, Switzerland, and Austria -- Sean.

HANNITY: When I interviewed the president for the Super Bowl, he did point out he has offered China and other countries all of America's brilliant scientists, resources, anything. He now has an initial offer with the DHS of $2.5 billion for -- to fight the coronavirus. Democrats are saying it's not enough. Well, let's spent the $2.5 billion first and get moving, and not politicize illness the way they're doing it.

Thank you, Trace.

Sadly, the left is already, yes, fully politicizing tragedy. The Trump administration is seeking $2.5 billion in funds to fight this deadly disease.

Here to react to that and, of course, well, a crazy group of Democratic radical socialists that want to be president, the architect Karl Rove with a whiteboard.

$2.5 billion seems like a lot of money, Karl, and we're not going to support this it is not a enough. How about we start with $2.5 billion?

KARL ROVE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, and, look, let's remember, this is shameful on Schumer's part.

The Center for Disease Control headed up by Robert Redfield, completely apolitical, a professional, and the National Institute of Health intimately involved in this effort. Francis Collins, the director, an extraordinary human being.

Tony Fauci, one of the heroes --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Anthony Fauci, absolutely.

ROVE: Tony Fauci, terrific. And these are people who are helping the Acting Homeland Secretary Chad Wolf and the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, two terrific individuals.

These five people are helping plan this. Three of them are completely apolitical.

Schumer is trying to politicize something that should be left alone. If these top professionals, Redfield, Collins, Fauci thought the $2.5 billion was insufficient, they would be saying so.

The president is paying close attention to them, this ought to be done outside of politics. Stop it, Schumer. This is not good for our country.

HANNITY: All right. Very quickly, we got only like 40 seconds for your whiteboard. Let's -- what you got tonight with delegates?

ROVE: Well, I just -- I want to remind everybody, 3,979 delegates at the Democratic national convention. Not including superdelegates. These are the pledged delegates.

It's going to take 1,991 of them to win, 101 of them have been elected, 2.5 percent of the total number of delegates have been elected, 2.5 percent. 
And it's all over. We know how it is going to play out.

The New York Times, 45 delegates for Sanders, 25 for Buttigieg. He only has to get 43 times that amount in order to get the number he needs in order to win. He only got to get 45 times that. This is fit (ph) right at the beginning.

HANNITY: I'm getting you a new whiteboard. Thanks, Karl Rove.

When we come back, a big announcement, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. We have a big announcement to make. Tomorrow night, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio will join us. He is supporting Bernie Sanders now in a Democratic primary. We'll talk about that and much more.

We'll always be fair and balanced. We're not the rage, hate Trump, psychotic media. We seek the truth. And let not your heart be troubled.

Laura Ingraham, do I have to rip my tie off again?

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