Sheriff Clarke 'proud' of Trump's Charlottesville response
Reaction on 'Hannity' to the media's attacks on the president following violence in Virginia
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," August 14, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Welcome to "Hannity." This is a "Fox News Alert." The president condemning yet again in the strongest possible terms the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, the violence and the mayhem.
Also tonight, we will analyze the horrific politicizing of these events. That's tonight's very important breaking news "Opening Monologue."
All right, what we saw take place in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend -- it is disgusting, it is despicable. And it's really hard to imagine in this day and age that there are actually people out there that could do this to their fellow human beings. It's hard to imagine that there are people in this country that have these types of hateful, inexcusable, racist, white supremacist views.
And it's also hard to imagine that there are still some people that have that high level of ignorance that, yes, live amongst us. Now, there's no place in this country for these neo-Nazi, fascist, white supremacists. And they -- what they stand for should be condemned in the widest terms possible by all good people in this country. What they believe in -- it's the complete opposite of what the United States of America stands for, and sadly, we have seen way too much of these kinds of acts over the years.
Now, as far as the groups that were involved, the white supremacists, do they have a constitutional right to free speech, regardless of how disgusting and offensive what they say is? Unfortunately, that's how our First Amendment works. Even the American Civil Liberties Union, one of Trump's biggest outspoken critics, they defended the organization this weekend and their right to rally in court. So it's allowed to happen. And then the other groups down there also have the same right to speak out against these evil people.
Now, make no mistake, this was all provoked by radical, racist extremists. But the violent clashes should never have happened. Where were the police?
Over the last number of years also we have watched extremists on both sides battling it out. We have seen this act too often. It doesn't solve a thing, and it only gives these radicals on both sides more ammo so they can continue to spread their hatred. And what's so repulsive in all of this -- we have a woman that died, dozens of fellow human beings injured this week, and over what? A bunch of idiots fighting over stupid, ignorant anti-American views and ideas?
Now, instead of covering this horrible situation fairly, openly, honestly, like we're going to do tonight, over the weekend, we saw the destroy Trump establishment media go into a feeding frenzy, trying to assign blame as quickly as possible, and of course to paint the president, all conservatives, all Republicans as racist and bigots. That's not true.
These are the exact same tactics we see by the left every two and four years during the election cycles. And we'll have more on that in just a minute.
President Trump is not a racist. Conservatives, the conservatives I know, like and love, Republicans I know and like -- they're not racist. The country is filled with people that are good, honorable and decent, and that's most conservatives, if not all that I know.
Now, I'm not saying -- nobody's saying racism doesn't exist. It does exist in this country. It's sad. But if we're going to be fair and honest, this is not exclusive to one particular party. Now, there are racists on both sides in America, but most Americans, what are they? Good, great people. They condemn racism. They get up every morning, they work hard, play by the rules, pay their taxes, create goods and services that others want, need and desire. And you know what? They raise their kids to be good people.
You know, for all the white supremacists out there, you know what? There are others on the left, the Nation of Islam leader, for example, Louis Farrakhan, that are insane. It's a simple truth. But all we heard all weekend long from the left, the mainstream media, is that these extremists in Charlottesville this weekend somehow represent all conservatives, that the president supports them. He doesn't. All Republicans. And they attacked the president again and again and again. Don't believe it? Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
JAMELLE BOUIE, SLATE MAGAZINE, ON "FACE THE NATION"/CBS: And if you're looking for the roots of why white supremacists and neo-Nazis felt emboldened to march in a college town, you don't have to look very far from the White House.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, MSNBC: We have a racist as a president because a man that cannot stand up and condemn the Ku Klux Klan and Nazism is a racist.
ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He was a coward. He didn't have the spine to behave like the leader of the United States, and I feel that to be shameful. He's not only unfit to be president. In my book, his lack of empathy, his lack of leadership, his lack of courage, he's unfit to be human!
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HANNITY: Unbelievable, unfit to be human.
All right, let's go back, let's take a look at the president's original comments on all of this. This all happened before a madman plowed into a group of people with his car. Here's what President Trump tweeted. Quote, "We all must be united and condemn all that hate stands for. There's no place for this kind of violence in America. Let's come together as one."
The president also said, "We must remember this truth. No matter our color, creed, religion or political party, we are all Americans first."
And once the protesters -- once it turned deadly, President Trump immediately came out and gave a statement. Here's what the president said. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, AUG. 12)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides -- on many sides.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, all weekend long, I, like many of you, watched the media going insane, acting like they didn't know what the president was talking about. They ran with a false narrative all weekend. Oh, big story, he didn't mention the groups by name.
Well, it couldn't be more obvious, more transparent who the president was talking about. He was standing for equal justice under the law, against racism. And the press, what did they do? They used a high-profile act of violence to bludgeon the president and conservatives politically. So predictable.
Now, it was crystal clear what the president was talking about. But the press, they went after him anyway. And the destroy Trump establishment media -- they didn't care about the violence, seemingly, or the racial tensions they're creating or the civil unrest as much as they cared about using this tragedy as an opportunity to attack people they disagree with, and in particular, the president, to try and inflict as much damage politically as possible. You know what? Just like they have done since November 8! That's a simple truth.
So President Trump once again, he came out today. He condemned again what happened, and yes, he called out the groups by name. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: But you know what? We all know that's not going to be good enough. The media is never going to be satisfied with anything the president says or does because it's not part of their ideology and narrative. They want to paint the president, conservatives, Republicans as racist and bigoted by ignoring what he said this weekend, ignoring him over the years again and again and again condemning white supremacists, people like David Duke.
For example -- let me give you an example. This is Donald Trump over the years, something the destroy Trump media will never show you, condemning Duke, white supremacists. Look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
CHRIS WALLACE, DEBATE MODERATOR, MARCH 3, 2016: What are your views on the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists?
TRUMP: I totally disavow the Ku Klux Klan. I totally disavow David Duke. I've been doing it now for two weeks. This is -- you're probably about the 18th person that's asked me the question.
TRUMP, FEB. 26, 2016: I didn't even know he endorsed me, David Duke endorsed me. OK. All right. I disavow.
CHUCK TODD, MODERATOR, "MEET THE PRESS"/NBC, JULY 23, 2016: David Duke announced his Senate candidacy, claiming your agenda for his own, or essentially saying glad that you spoke out...
TRUMP: Are you ready before you ask the question?
TODD: Newt Gingrich said every Republican should repudiate this guy, not matter what it takes.
TRUMP: I did. And I do. Rebuked. Is that OK? Rebuked.
TODD: Rebuked?
TRUMP: Done.
MATT LAUER, NBC NEWS, FEB. 2000: What do you see as the biggest problem with the Reform Party right now?
TRUMP: Well, you've got David Duke just joined, a bigot, a racist, a problem. I mean, this is not exactly the people you want in your party.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HANNITY: Bigot, racist, rebuke, repudiate, want nothing to do with. Now, President Trump and the people that voted for him and that support his agenda -- they don't like racists. They don't like bigots. They do not like what went down in Charlottesville. Conservatives that I have known my whole life, Republicans I have known my whole life, people like me -- what was this election about? The forgotten men and women, the people that are out of work, in poverty, on food stamps, the doubling of our national debt.
What was this election about? It was about getting jobs, getting our economy back in shape. It was also about keeping our country safe and secure. That's what this election was about. But yet every two to four years, the left, the Democrats, the media -- they divide Americans by playing the race card every single election!
Remember 1998, radio ad, Missouri, oh, elect a Republican and black churches are going to burn? Or the James Byrd at in 2000, when George Bush supported the death penalty for the guy that brutally murdered an innocent man by the name of James Burr (ph). For example, take a look throughout history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
HILLARY CLINTON, THEN-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, FEB. 16, 2016: Many Republicans talk in coded racial language about takers and losers. They demonize President Obama and encourage the ugliest impulses of the paranoid fringe.
BARACK OBAMA, THEN-PRESIDENT, NOV. 3, 2016: If you accept the support of Klan sympathizers before you are president, you will accept their support after you're president.
JOE BIDEN, THEN-VICE PRESIDENT, AUG. 14, 2012: They're going to put you all back in chains.
AL GORE, THEN-VICE PRESIDENT, JULY 12, 2000: It's wrong what the leader of the Republican Party and this Congress are doing in blocking an accurate census because they don't want to count everyone that they don't think they can count on.
GORE, JULY 16, 1998: Don't tell me we've got a color-blind society!
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HANNITY: Notice Al Gore changes his voice, his cadence, his tone. Now, in 1998, before a predominantly black audience -- he even went as far as to say Republicans know that theirs is the wrong agenda for African-Americans. They don't even want to count you in the Census. What a lie!
And then there's President Obama's book, remember? "Audacity of Hope." Where was the media? Remember, he recounted a sermon from Reverend Jeremiah Wright from the church of G-d America, white folks' greed runs a world in need. Was the media outraged over this?
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP FROM "THE AUDACITY OF HOPE")
OBAMA: It is this world, a world where cruise ships throw away more food in a day than most residents of Port-au-Prince see in a year, where white folks' greed runs a world in need, apartheid in one hemisphere, apathy in another hemisphere.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
HANNITY: Oh, you're so inspired by Reverend Wright, black liberation ideology -- he sat in the pews of Wright's church for 20 years! Remember Reverend Wright? Remember him attacking U.S. KKK of A, and the Sunday after 9/11, "America's chickens coming home to roost." Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT, SEPT. 16, 2001: The stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yard! America's chickens are coming home to roost!
WRIGHT, APRIL 13, 2003: No, no, no! Not God bless America, God damn America that's in the Bible for killing innocent people! God damn America for treating here citizens as less than human!
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HANNITY: Twenty-plus years in the church. How many in the media covered Ayers and Dohrn? Well, that's what President Obama started his political career. What about the Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan, called white people the devil, the skunk of the planet Earth, and has said many racist, anti-semitic things, too many to count.
Recent report, Daily Caller -- well, they're saying that Farrakhan is claiming -- and there's audio of it -- that he met privately with then-Senator Barack Obama in 2008 before he announced his presidential run. And he said that the Nation of Islam supported Barack Obama quietly for president, and when he was a community organizer. Now, of course, as the DailyCaller pointed out, neither Obama or Farrakhan want to talk about that friendship. Has there been any investigation by the media? Pretty shocking.
Well, the media didn't think it was important for you to know these things. They didn't cover a lot of those things. Then there's President Obama's handling -- remember? All the high-profile racial cases when he was president where he jumped to conclusions, rushed to judgment without facts or information? He's supposed to be a lawyer, too. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
OBAMA, JULY 22, 2009: The Cambridge police acted stupidly. There's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. Now, that's just a fact.
OBAMA, JULY 19, 2013: The African- American community is also knowledgeable that there's a history of racial disparities in the application of our criminal laws.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HANNITY: And President Obama also had members from the group -- remember? Black Lives Matter, people chanting things like, "Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon," talking about cops. Or when they talked about, "What do we want? Dead cops. When do we want them? Now." Oh, they were invited to the White House, where the president praised that group. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA, FEB. 18, 2016: We've also got some young people here who are making history as we speak, people like Britney (ph), who served on our police task force in the wake of Ferguson and has led many of the protests that took place there and shined a light on the injustice that was happening. People like Deray McKesson (ph), who's done some outstanding work mobilizing in Baltimore around these issues.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Remember Hillary Clinton running for president? She praised Black Lives Matter, the same people. "What do we want? Dead cops. When do we want them? Now." Watch her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
CLINTON, AUG. 27, 2015: And we do have to stand up and say loudly and clearly black lives matter.
CLINTON, OCT. 13, 2015: There's a long list. We need a new New Deal for communities of color and the poor.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HANNITY: You ever see the media talk about these things? This is why shows like this, in my opinion, are different from the liberal mainstream media. They've ignored these examples for decades.
They also -- they don't seem to care about the threats of violence that have been made repeatedly against our current president, President Trump. Remember? This photo was so graphic, we always have to issue the warning. It shows Kathy Griffin posing, ISIS fighter, bloody severed head of President Trump. Johnny Depp talking about killing a president. Madonna talking about blowing up the Trump White House. Really? Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
JOHNNY DEPP, ACTOR, JUNE 22: When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?
I want to clarify. I'm not an actor.
(LAUGHTER)
I lie for a living. However, it's been a while, and maybe it's time.
MADONNA, JAN. 21: Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HANNITY: Imagine, God forbid, somebody said that in the Obama years? Then there's Shakespeare in the park, that performance showing a Trump-like person being brutally stabbed to death.
Also other celebrities, Snoop Dogg, Mickey Rourke advocating for violence against the president. What about -- remember the Bernie Sanders supporter, the one that targeted Republicans at baseball practice, leaving Congressman Steve Scalise fighting for his life? Well, was the media blaming Democrats for that? No, and by the way, they shouldn't have. And I don't blame Bernie, either.
Now, by the way, the left is totally unhinged at this point. This is, sadly, who they are, the double standard they adopt. And by the way, after all these examples where Democrats line up to condemn those people, where are they condemning all the things we're playing tonight? You see, they've got this separate set of rules for Republicans and Democrats.
Every two to four years, Democrats divide the country. They play identity politics. It's been a part of this playbook the Democrats used for generations.
So it's time for the destroy Trump establishment media to start recognizing how they have a massive double standard, that they have an agenda and ideology, because just like, sadly, white supremacists in Charlottesville, hatred of any kind should not be tolerated or ever given a free pass, period, whoever is involved in the hatred, like the hate we saw this weekend.
Joining us with reaction, Salem Radio nationally syndicated host Larry Elder, Milwaukee County sheriff David Clark, Fox News contributor Deroy Murdock.
Sheriff Clark, we'll start with you. Anything I'm saying here that's wrong?
DAVID CLARK, MILWAUKEE COUNTY SHERIFF: No, it's spot on, Sean. You know, and the liberal media couldn't control themselves. They couldn't resist the opportunity to somehow turn this on President Trump.
I was proud of the original statement. He knows, the president, you have to be measured. You have to be calm. You want to calm the waters. You want to be thoughtful in your initial statement because it's early on and you don't have all the facts and you don't want to speak out of hand.
Then over the weekend, as he learned more facts, he came out today and reiterated what he said in even some more forceful terms. I was proud of the way he handled that. But again, really took this ugly situation -- there's no winners in Charlottesville. It was hate versus hate. You had the neo-Nazis. You have Antifa. You had Black Lives Matter clashing. There's just no winners there.
But every time one of these situations happens, you know, you see the worst of people sometimes. I think we saw it out of the left.
HANNITY: Larry Elder, I've known -- we've known each other for, you know, going back a couple of decades now.
LARRY ELDER, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Right.
HANNITY: You have taken a lot of heat over a very long, successful career for pointing out a lot of the things I tried to mention in this monologue.
ELDER: Right.
HANNITY: Why the double standard? Have you figured it out?
ELDER: I haven't been able to figure it out. But I'll tell you, 1963, I'm 12 years old, Governor George Wallace, a Democrat, stands in front of a school door and defends segregation. Fast forward, Sean, 28 years later, David Duke runs as a Republican, gets zero support from the Congress for his candidacy. The RNC puts out a statement blasting his candidacy. George Herbert Walker Bush called him a racist. And the only time we ever see David Duke again is when cable news digs him up. The man hasn't been relevant in decades!
And the reason for all of this attention, the reason the media is covering this thing like it's a Super Bowl is because of this narrative that Donald Trump blatantly reached out to white racists to get elected. If that's the case, how is it that he got fewer percentage -- less percentage of white voters than Mitt Romney did, a greater percentage of minority voters, blacks, Hispanics and Asians than Romney did?
The blacks, Hispanics and Asians were too stupid to realize they were joining a movement with a bunch of white racists and the white racists were too stupid to realize they were joining a movement with a bunch of people of color that they don't like? Come on!
HANNITY: You know, Deroy, am my right as I watched this weekend -- and I just decided -- I made a decision (INAUDIBLE) watch this. I'm going to absorb this. I took notes all weekend.
I saw a media hit a new low, and it's like it happens, and they just wanted politically to bludgeon -- politically I'm speaking -- this president and tie him to this in spite of what he said historically, which they've never played and in spite of what he said earlier this weekend.
DEROY MURDOCK, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I think you're absolutely right. Here's a name you may not have heard very much throughout this controversy, James Alex Fields, Jr. He is the neo-Nazi who allegedly, because he's innocent until proven guilty in court -- allegedly drove that car, ran into those people, killed a woman named Heather Heyer, a young woman of age 32, and I believe hit another 19 people who were injured, some of them very seriously.
He's the one responsible for this mayhem, and yet the whole weekend, it sounded as if Donald Trump were the person driving that car, smacking into those people. I think you probably could have avoided a lot of this controversy if he'd come out harder earlier on this. But nonetheless, you've seen, exactly as you say, Sean, the media and a lot of enemies of President Trump trying to blame him for all of this, rather than putting the blame where it belongs, which is on the neo-Nazi driving a car into a pile of protesters.
HANNITY: All right, stay right there. More with Sheriff Clark, more Larry Elder, more with Deroy Murdock right after the break.
Also tonight, we'll check in with former governor Mike Huckabee. He weighs in on this weekend's horrific events and politicizing of it from Charlottesville straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence. It has no place in America. And as I have said many times before, no matter the color of our skin, we all live under the same laws. We all salute the same great flag.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: As we continue on "Hannity," that was more of the president's speech, again speaking out more today, condemning all the hatred in all forms in terms of Charlottesville.
We continue with Larry Elder, Sheriff David Clark and Deroy Murdock.
Sheriff, you know, you got one guy -- Maxine Waters, I'm sorry -- tweeting out yesterday, It's the white supremacist White House. You've got a guy in The New York Daily News, Roland (ph) whoever his name is, saying the president has blood on his hands. You got Rob Reiner saying pretty much that the president has been -- you know, literally almost the same exact thing as he goes out and attacks the president and saying that the president has been stoking racism for years.
We just played a montage over the years of him not doing it. And then you look at the media! They just say it and they say it again and again. And I don't know what this means for the country if the public can't get information that is factual anymore.
CLARK: Well, those were political cheap shots that you expect out of somebody like Maxine Waters and other people on the left, like I said, to score some cheap political points. I know Donald Trump, President Trump now -- I know him personally. Look, he does not have a racist bone in his body.
As a matter of fact, back in the '90s, he was awarded in New York, along with Rosa Parks and Muhammad Ali -- they were given awards for their contribution to the black community in New York City. So you know, this is just a made-up narrative.
But like I said, you know, I thought it was pretty embarrassing, too, that politicians on both sides of the board couldn't get to a microphone or a camera fast enough to flaunt their racial sensitivity and their moral superiority out of this thing when, like I said, it was an ugly situation.
And instead of waiting for this thing to settle down and hold the people accountable who should be held accountable -- like I said, you've got hate versus hate there. No, they all said, Hey, there's a political opportunity here. But especially on the left, every time they get, every chance they get, no matter what President Trump would have said, it wouldn't have drawn any applause from the left.
That's just the way that they are right now. But again, I thought what he said was measured, it was thoughtful, it was very presidential and it calmed the waters, unlike his predecessor...
HANNITY: Larry...
CLARK: ... Barack Obama, who after every one of these situations, poured hot sauce on a simmering situation.
HANNITY: The president jumped the gun on all those cases and ended up, you know, a four-time loser on Cambridge, on Trayvon Martin, on Ferguson, on Freddie Gray, Baltimore, Larry Elder. What about CNN commentator, Trump is unfit to be human, human!
ELDER: Right.
HANNITY: And Donny Deutsch on NBC, Trump's a sniveling coward and a racist.
ELDER: Right.
HANNITY: Wow.
ELDER: And Anderson Cooper...
HANNITY: Imagine if a conservative said that about Obama.
ELDER: Right. Let's condemn all bigots, whether it's David Duke or whether it's Maxine Waters. Maxine Waters has never seen a Republican president she hasn't called a racist. The other day, she even called Alan Dershowitz a racist.
And what about the 50-plus visits that one of the nation's biggest anti- Semites, Al Sharpton, made to Obama's White House? Why wasn't the concern about bigoted media calling out Obama for inviting this man that a local Jewish leader accused of fomenting the greatest pogrom in the history of America, the Crown Heights riots. Why weren't the media condemning these kinds of things? This is the kind of double standard that drives people like Donald Trump crazy, and I don't blame him!
HANNITY: What do you think? I'll give you the final word tonight -- to Deroy.
MURDOCK: Yes. If Donald Trump really is this white supremacist, why did he go campaign in black neighborhoods? Last fall, he spoke at a black church, he went to a school choice setting in Cleveland. He won 8 percent of the black vote. That's not a huge number, but that's one third more than Mitt Romney did, who got 6.
And he's really dedicated his presidency to school choice, to expanding options for black families to send their parents -- or send their kids, rather, somewhere they actually might learn something. So despite all these claims by the left that he's a white supremacist, here's a Republican who actually has reached out for black support and gotten it.
HANNITY: All right, guys, thank you very much. And certainly, the country needs strength and truth now.
Coming up, we'll have more on the abusively biased mainstream establishment media politicizing the events in Charlottesville over the weekend and trying to paint every conservative as a racist in this country. Former governor Mike Huckabee is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." So as we explained earlier in my opening monologue tonight, when news broke about the horrific events in Charlottesville this weekend, the media, they wasted zero time trying to portray every conservative, every Republican, and the president as racist. Here is more of that disturbing, corrupt, and biased coverage. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Colin Kaepernick can be out of a job for exercising a peaceful First Amendment job, why are the three Nazis in the White House, Bannon, Gorka, and Miller, whose jobs are funded by we, the taxpayers, why are they still working today?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is a fair point.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's been white supremacists in our country from the beginning. They've been in the shadows for years, but thanks to Donald Trump, they are out of the light.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Joining us now with reaction, former presidential candidate, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. Governor, I know you've been very outspoken, but this broad brush, this was almost instantaneous to advance the narrative. Also we see it every two years, every four years, every election. Democrats play this identity politics, Republicans are racist, sexist, misogynistic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, et cetera.
MIKE HUCKABEE, FORMER ARKANSAS GOVERNOR: And Sean, to call people who work inside the White House, who passed a very extensive background check from the FBI, to call them neo-Nazis, that's absurd. This is beyond irrational. This borders on the insane. I wonder will some of these people need to be institutionalized because they have never been able to accept that Donald Trump was elected by the American people to be president of the United States. This is bizarre. And, again, it defies all rational thought.
HANNITY: Governor, haven't we ignored this game, elect Republicans, black churches burned, George W. Bush supports the death penalty for the people involved in the evil killing of James Byrd, Al Gore, Republicans don't want to count you in the census. They have the wrong agenda for African- Americans. It happens every four years, and I played a history of Donald Trump condemning white supremacism, the KKK, David Duke, it goes back years. They don't care.
HUCKABEE: A lot of it has to do with the fact that they believe that the American public is as stupid as they are mean and hateful on the left. How else can you look at this?
But one of the most bizarre things that I'm watching through all of this is that this is no longer an attempt to evaluate what they think is wrong with Donald Trump's presidency. Sean, I've said before, let me say it with you tonight. This is an attempted coup d'etat to get rid of the duly elected president of the United States. They did not beat him at the ballot box, so they are going to try and find a way to literally take him out of office no matter what it takes to do it. And that ought to really be an affront to every voter.
But let me tell you, this one way we can know Donald Trump is not a racist, and it's a simple way. This is a 70-year-old man who lived most all of his adult life in the hot spotlight of public scrutiny. Not one time when his very successful show on NBC was on the air, not one time during all of the scrutiny that he's said, and he's had plenty of it in the celebrity world of being a real estate tycoon, not once did anyone ever say about Donald Trump that he was a racist. You don't just suddenly change your entire philosophy of life after you are elected president at the age of 70. That's utter nonsense.
HANNITY: All right, governor, thanks for your calm reason, and seeing this for what it is. And I just wonder if the media ever cares about truth anymore. We have the biggest information crisis.
HUCKABEE: No, they don't.
HANNITY: They really don't. And that I've ever seen.
HUCKABEE: They really don't.
HANNITY: And coming up on this busy breaking Monday news night here, President Trump condemning hatred, bigotry, violence earlier today again. Will that be enough for the left, for the media? David Webb, Monica Crowley straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY WRIGHT, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Live from America's news headquarters, I'm Kelly Wright in New York. Good evening. Here's what going on.
President Trump encounters protests as he returns home to New York City. This was the scene earlier tonight outside Trump Tower where the president arrived to chance of "shame, shame, shame!" Thousands of demonstrators angry about his response Saturday to the racially charged violence in Virginia. And just a short time ago Donald Trump Jr. tweeted this in response to the media's criticism of his father's handling of events in Charlottesville, "There is no right answer, response only a moving goal line that can never be reached."
And word out of North Korea that Kim Jong-un has been briefed on his military's plan to fire ballistic missiles near the U.S. territory of Guam, but after examining the plan, the North's leader has reportedly opted to watch Washington's behavior, quote, "a little more."
I'm Kelly Wright. HANNITY is back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We are equal in the eyes of our creator. We are equal under the law. And we are equal under our constitution. Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: The president earlier today again condemning the violence that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend. Joining us now with reaction, FOX News contributor David Webb, conservative columnist Monica Crowley. Monica, I'll go to you. The president said what he said, he expanded on it today. It wasn't enough for the media. It was almost the instantaneous politicizing of these events. And we played the history of a president that has condemned white supremacy, condemned David Duke, condemned the KKK, and you would think he never said those tonight things all at those times over the years.
MONICA CROWLEY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: That's right. And today's statement was really strong and much more assertive. And I think he understood that that was required given how the events over the last three days have unfolded.
Look, you asked the question, Sean, whether this is going to be good enough for the left and the media, and the answer is clearly no. We know that no matter what Donald Trump says or does at any given moment, it's never going to be enough. They are always in search of a club with which to pound this president. And now they feel that they have a very direct and strong lever with race relations in the country. And again it doesn't matter what his history is or what he said today about it. They are going to use that lever against him.
And I said to you on the show, what, two weeks ago, that if and when the Russia investigation falls apart, as it very well may, that they will be in search of something else. Now maybe over the last couple of days they think that they have found that something else because race relations are so incredibly sensitive in this country. What Donald Trump I think now understands, as we saw in the stronger, more direct statement from him today, is that he needs to make sure that he doesn't give any of his enemies, whether they are in the media or elsewhere, any kind of ammunition whatsoever. And I think the statement today went very far in making sure that he, to the extent that he can, can close down this line of attack.
HANNITY: What do you think, David Webb, about the examples I used my opening monologue? The church of Reverend Wright, hanging out with Ayers and Dohrn, inviting Black Lives Matter, it's a story you've covered for us extensively on the show, then invited to the White House. Hillary seeks, after a group saying "What do we want? Dead cops. When do we want them? Now?" How did they get an invitation to the White House, and where was the media then?
DAVID WEBB, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: The media it was just there, then. They just chose not to cover it, Sean. Monica's points are all, frankly, dead on and well-taken that they are never going give this president a break, as I've said many times before. If President Trump cured cancer they would say he caused it so he could cure it.
They are going to attack, but the people, you and I, the American people are the ones that have rejected them. They are cornered political animals. They are not going to report on it fairly. And I like what the president did. He came out -- first of all, he came out strong in the beginning. He said many faces. That meant anyone who brought hate there, because what you had were various hate groups, leftist, socialist, Anti-fa, Black Lives Matter. There were people there, but they were not the story. Had there been a peaceful counter-protest there wouldn't have been an issue, spurred on by the actions of others who came there to literally cause a fight. So he was never going to win that, so don't engage in an argument.
HANNITY: All right, guys, thank you for being with us. Sorry we went long tonight.
When we come back, the Department of Justice has now opened up a civil rights investigation into Saturday's deadly car attack in Charlottesville. The Reverend Darrell Scott, Geraldo Rivera weigh in.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I just met with FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the deadly car attack that killed one innocent American and wounded 20 others.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: That was the president earlier today discussing the federal response to the violence that occurred over the weekend in Charlottesville. Joining us now with reaction, FOX News correspondent at large Geraldo Rivera, the senior pastor of the New Spirit Revival Center, the Reverend Darrell Scott. Reverend Scott, you now work on the president's National Diversity Council. You were with him earlier in the campaign. You know him, you've been with him a lot. You heard his statement this weekend, he expanded on it today. I played tapes of him condemning these racist groups over the many, many years. Your reaction to the handling of the media this weekend of this case?
REV. DARRELL SCOTT, NEW SPIRIT REVIVAL CENTER: The media is always looking for a reason to bash, undermine the president and his presidency. He made a statement over the weekend I was satisfied with. He denounced everyone that was involved in this activity. The media thought he wasn't being specific enough. He came back today and he went and specifically denounced certain neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan, whatever. They are launching a federal investigation, a civil rights investigation. They want to determine motive and intent, and then they will prosecute the perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law. What more could he have done? No matter what he did they were going to find a reason to criticize him.
GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: With all due respect to the reverend, who is a very honorable person with a good heart, I think that this was an unforced error by our friend, the president of United States. The statement he made today should have been the statement he made on Saturday.
Just give me a few seconds to explain where I think you went wrong. There are superficial similarities between the various sides that went to the violent confrontation in Charlottesville. They had shields, both sides, they had bats, they had mace, they had combat helmets. But only one side was representing the most hateful ideology in the history of modern man, the Nazis. Who are the Nazis? The Nazis are an ideology that made it its cost to wipe out a race of people. They wanted to wipe out all the Jews of Europe. They were responsible for 50 million deaths. That's who one side in Charlottesville was representing.
So despite the superficial similarities and despite the fact that you swing a bat, you swing a bat, that's a crime when you swing a bat. But when one side is representing somebody that wants to annihilate you and deny equality and forge a racist identity, then there's no similarities and the president should have been unequivocal in his condemnation.
HANNITY: How long have you known me and how long have you known conservatives like me? You know we despise those people. They are not any conservative I know and hang out with our Pastor Scott or you, Geraldo. Every Republican I know hates those people. I don't even know who these alt-right people are.
RIVERA: And one of the reasons I am so proud to call you my brother and hang out with you and believe with my deepest feeling and most sincere of brotherly love for you is that you are sincere, you are straightforward, you have a different take on politics than I do, but you love this country. That's why we want this president to succeed. But he must be very careful. I think he was trying to walk on eggshells, trying not to alienate his base, trying not to offend anybody.
HANNITY: I don't think so at all.
(CROSSTALK)
SCOTT: You know full well no matter how he would have responded, the media would have criticized him.
RIVERA: You might be right, reverend. That may be exactly right, but why give them an opening? Why with so much else going on, why given the opening?
SCOTT: Every time something happens in America, I don't hit my stopwatch to determine the president's response time. Whether he responded Saturday, he did respond today. Whatever mess people think he made Saturday I think he cleaned it up today.
RIVERA: It's going to be kind and understanding to the president. It is another to suffer fools. Whoever advised him to go easy on the Nazis was a fool. But what did not have the president's --
SCOTT: Let me ask you this, Geraldo. You know the president.
HANNITY: Pastor, last word. We got to roll.
SCOTT: You know the president, I know the president. You know he's not sympathetic to Nazis.
RIVERA: I do, but there are those who look at him and say, oh, it's a dog whistle. Oh, it's the southern strategy and so forth. He has to be firmer than anyone else in the condemnation of this kind of overt racism.
HANNITY: All right, guys, thank you all.
When we come back, more "Hannity" after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." Unfortunately that's all the time we have left this evening. Our thoughts and prayers for all the people in Charlottesville, the family of this young woman, the victim in this case, and those injured. We hope you will set your DVR so you never miss an episode. This show will always be fair and balanced. We are not and will never be the establishment media. A lot more to cover tomorrow night. Thanks for being with us.
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