Strassel, Chaffetz on claims of Trump campaign surveillance
The Wall Street Journal's Kimberly Strassel and Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz weigh in on 'Hannity.'
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," May 21, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Yes. Can we pan and a little? They have us back so far. I can't even see --
TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST, TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT: Where are you?
HANNITY: If we could just pan in, James, and help us out here. It's too far away. Come on, come on in. That's all right. Don't worry, people at home understand is a live television. Thank you, Tucker.
CARLSON: Good luck, man.
HANNITY: Great show as always.
All right. Welcome to "Hannity."
Tonight, this is unbelievable. The deep state should be totally terrified as all of their nefarious deeds that we have been telling you have been exposed.
This is the worst abuse of power corruption scandal in American history. It is all coming out. Everything we have been telling you. The president rightly demanding to know just how pervasive this playing was on his campaign, and who in the Obama administration was involved.
Rod Rosenstein, he is responding. He's telling the DOJ inspector general, he can investigate. This is only providing cover for his deep state friends and trying to delay what will be inevitable bad idea, I will tell you why.
Also, the media and even Hillary Clinton's former top campaign aide for decades, Mark Penn, are now starting to admit what a huge abuse of power scandal this is.
And also tonight, we have all of these deep state actors, John Brennan, James Clapper, Sally Yates, all melting down over these spy revelations. So, in desperation, they are predictably looking lashing out at President Trump. It's not going to work.
And also tonight, a bombshell report from our own Sara Carter. The FISA memos that the DOJ is refusing to hand over could very well hold the key to the Obama FBI Trump surveillance.
Now, we've got a lot to go. Stay with us for the hour. This is an important breaking news opening monologue.
(MUSIC)
HANNITY: After a meeting between Trump, the FBI Director Chris Wray, Rod Rosenstein, other top intel officials, the White House is saying President Trump and the Department of Justice are now asking the inspector general to investigate the Obama administration and the spying they did on the Trump campaign.
And the White House is also revealing tonight that Chief of Staff John Kelly, General Kelly, is setting up a meeting for Congress so they will see the documents that constitutionally they have been asking for and the DOJ has been obstructing and stonewalling. Really? I'll believe it when I see those documents.
This is the same material that Rod Rosenstein has refused to turn over for months. His name, by the way, you want to keep an eye on. I'll have more on Rosenstein in a minute.
First, what's unfolding about the deep state is so dramatic, so I shocking, but of the same time, so very predictable, given everything we have now been uncovering for over 18 months. We are now seeing the cracks in the deep state in this dam, it's about to burst. And all of this information is now beginning to cascade out.
Even "The New York Times," "The Washington Post," are now confirming just in the last week, everything we have been uncovering again for 18 months. It is the biggest abuse of power corruption scandal that makes Watergate look like a parking ticket.
The House Intel Committee chair, Devin Nunes, he is reacting by saying, this is crossing a serious redline, very important.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. DEVIN NUNES, R—CALIF., CHAIRMAN, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: If they ran a spy ring or an informant ring, and they were paying people within the Trump campaign, if any of that is true, that is an absolute redline. There is not an honest person in this country that thinks it's OK if sources, informants, whatever you want to call them, go around and start passing out money all over the globe to do what? To secretly put yourself into a presidential campaign? That's not acceptable in this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: That's not acceptable in the United States of America. Chairman Nunes is also saying there might be more than one FBI informant? You have got to be kidding me.
Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NUNES: Nobody was ever interested in an informant. We ask for specific documents that we still have not received from the Department of Justice. So they continue to leak out things about this informant and we don't know if there is one informant or more informants because there is so much out there now, it's really getting tough to follow. All we are asking for is, give us the documentation that you used just for this investigation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Hand it over. These type of tactics, spying in an opposition party in an election year, are you kidding me? This is what you would see the former Soviet Union, Venezuela, not the United States of America.
Just look at this quote from "The Wall Street Journal" editorial board. Listen to this. 'We cannot recall a similar case, even in the J. Edgar Hoover days, when the FBI decided it needed to snoop on a presidential campaign.' This is the same J. Edgar Hoover who was notorious for having files on just about everyone and Washington. That is how serious all of this is.
Even Clinton aide and adviser Mark Penn, who's worked with the Clintons for 20 years, is calling out the scandal for what it is. This is a game-changing moment and Penn has worked for the Clinton's forever and served as Hillary's chief strategist for her campaign in 2008.
He is now calling this witch hunt for what it is. And literally writing an op-ed in "The Hill," 'Stopping Robert Mueller to protect us all.' Stunning headline.
Penn goes on to explain how the facts are now undeniable. Mueller is on a crusade to get the president of the United States, to overturn a duly elected president, he uses the term deep state, that it's real, that the FBI rigged the Clinton investigation and been targeted Donald Trump and his campaign, when he was president-elect, and now president.
And Penn explained more on this on "The Story" with Martha MacCallum earlier tonight. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK PENN, FORMER CLINTON AIDE AND ADVISER: I think the inspector general's report is coming out. I think Nunes is finding out what were the origins of the investigation, and there doesn't seem to be a real concrete intelligence origin for this investigation. And without a foundation, one wonders, what did we spend an entire year on? What did we disrupt everyone who was of a campaign, everyone who in the administration?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: And also, former solicitor general for the U.S., Ted Olson, he's out with a new piece where he explains how Robert Mueller's witch hunt could be setting up a massive constitutional crisis.
And, of course, investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson, she has a defining piece and all of this, literally called "The Collusion Against Trump: An Entire Timeline." She breaks down every single key moment in this entire massive abuse of power scandal. We will refer to this throughout history because it's been going on for 18 months.
The mainstream media, even they finally are starting to catch on and admit that what we have been reporting and what others on the show have been reporting and other people, what we have been covering, we are now being proven right. They have to admit it. Look at this headline from "The Washington Post" over the weekend. "Secret FBI source for Russia investigation met with three Trump advisors during the campaign."
Here's a "USA Today" report. Look at this cover. It says, and even, by the way, even fake news liberal CNN, they can't ignore all of the facts, all the evidence. OK, it's taking them well over a year, but finally, the media starting to realize that they have missed the single biggest story in their lifetime as they pursued Russia, Russia, Stormy.
It's a massive abuse of power. We first reported on this March 7th, 2017, about FISA surveillance of the Trump campaign. President Trump, he has every single right tonight to be outraged about what has happened. He has every right to want to know the truth.
You, the American people, need to know the truth. We need to expose all of this criminal behavior, all of these deep state actors need to be exposed, and all of them held accountable. The deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, OK, he's quick to respond to president Trump, demanding the Department of Justice get to the bottom of it all.
So, Rosenstein is trying to make himself hard to be a hero but it's a total farce. Here's why. Rosenstein is doing what he always does, and that is protecting all of his deep state friends.
The deputy attorney general, he knows that by referring this to be inspector general, it will buy them a year to 18 months and protect all of these deep state actors. It's going to take Michael Horowitz well over a year.
We don't have over a year to uncover this. We need a full FBI, DOJ, rank and file, field office investigation into all of this, because what they are trying to do is slowly leak out this information, a slow bleed, to cover themselves. It's all a CYA.
And remember, they know what's out there. They know they are about to get caught. This is all about controlling the narrative, spinning the narrative, trying to protect themselves and they probably learned a thing or two from Hillary about acid washing hard drives. We've got to be careful.
There is another major component to all of this. Rosenstein knows that the inspector general, he doesn't have any real prosecutorial power. Horowitz can't convene a grand jury. He cannot indict people. He can only give criminal referrals like in the case of Andrew McCabe. And on top of all of that, as we are seeing with this I.G. report on the Clinton email investigation, the FBI, the DOJ, both get to review and try and refute facts and redact information, again, probably falsely, and the name of national security.
We have been saying Congress needs to see these documents. We have checks and balances, separation of powers, coequal branches of government, and you know what? They are purposely obstructed. And it looks like some of this might start to happen.
Sara Carter, she'll join us in a few minutes, breaking another exclusive story tonight. Here's the headline: 'Concealed FISA documents may hold the key to Trump's surveillance.' What Sara is reporting, a number of very key details, that Rod Rosenstein, he signed the final FISA warrant, you know, using the fake, phony dossier as the bulk of information. Why? To spy on Trump campaign associate Carter Page, using the unverified, never corroborated, Clinton bought and paid for foreign national put together dossier of Russian lies.
Sara is also reporting that back in April, the FBI refused to turn over documents that Chairman Nunes and others have been asking for, you know, phony claims of national security risks. And as we have seen, it is one excuse to stonewall after another, all to prevent Congress from knowing the truth and fulfilling their constitutional role.
And Chairman Nunes, well, he is now putting his foot down. In this standoff with Rosenstein and the DOJ, good for Devin Nunes. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NUNES: We had a productive -- what I thought was a productive meeting. And then after that meeting, they've done nothing n but leak and leak and leak. Now, we don't know exactly who it is over at the Department of Justice or FBI. I'm not pinning any blame on people, but we're not going to go to another meeting where we don't get documents, and then the meeting leaks out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: The chairman is getting close. The entire truth is now starting to come out, thankfully. By the way, despite Rosenstein stonewalling, and because of all of these developments, you have deep state actors, former communist-voting John Brennan, how we ever became CIA director is beyond any comprehension I have. We know no liar James Clapper. Sally Yates, we know her political agenda, they are losing their minds because all of them are about to be exposed.
Brennan lashing out at President Trump, tweeting: Senator McConnell, Speaker Ryan, if Mr. Trump continues along this disastrous path, you will bear major responsibility for the harm to our democracy. By the way, we are a republic. You do a great disservice to the nation and the Republican Party if you continue to enable Mr. Trump's self-serving actions.
Brennan is off to his eyeballs in all this. I'm certain that will be exposed. As we've been saying on this program, he has been lying about his involvement with this Clinton bought and paid for dossier four months. And he lied in front of Congress.
And as for James Clapper, he is ensnared in the dossier scandal also. Clapper, oh, what is his response? Just like Yates, just like Brennan, let's go after the president and attack him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES CLAPPER, FORMER DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: That's actually a very disturbing assault on the independence of the Department of Justice, and I think when the president, this president or any president, tries to use the Department of Justice as kind of the private investigatory body, that's not good for the country.
The big thing here, this is not about spying on his campaign. It's about what the Russians are doing. Were they attempting to infiltrate the campaign? That was a concern, and that was, in my belief, is what focus of this whole activity was about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: The same Clapper who bragged about the FBI spying on the Trump campaign and said it was a good thing? This is problematic.
And then there's good old Sally Yates, who signed off on, yes, one of the FISA warrants like Rosenstein and was emailing with Andrew Weissmann, the most corrupt member of Mueller's team, after she refused to enforce the travel ban. Yates was also trashing the president. Why? To save and protect yourself.
Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC ANCHOR: Donald Trump himself accusing the Obama administration of improperly targeting his campaign for an investigation. What is your response to everything you've heard over the weekend?
SALLY YATES, FORMER DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, obviously, I'm not going to comment on the specific facts, that's really up to the Department of Justice to decide on what information should b percent be made public with respect to that. But I think what we are seeing here is the president has just taken his all-out assault on the rule of law to a new level. And this time, he is ordering an investigation of the investigators who are examining his own campaign. You know, that's really shocking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: What a hard-hitting interview by liberal Joe.
All three of these deep state players are scared out of their minds. They are directly implicated in all this. It is time to ask, what do they all know? When they all know it?
And just like I've been saying about their deep state friend, James Comey, who, by the way, James, I warned you, you have the right to remain silent, you didn't listen. Anyway, instead of running their mouths, well, they might want to lawyer up and many of them are. Yes, James Comey hired three lawyers, three people he leaked documents too. Great attorney-client privilege for everyone but me.
Another big development to tell you about tonight. The soon-to-be released DOJ I.G. report on the Clinton email server investigation is expected to slam FBI leaders just like Comey, Andrew McCabe, for taking weeks to review emails that were found on Huma Abedin's shared computer with Anthony Weiner.
And the I.G. report is supposed to come out very soon and if the inspector general, Horowitz, does his job, and his 500 employees, Comey and McCabe should be very worried tonight.
All right. A lot of ground to cover. Joining us now, Fox News contributor Sara Carter, former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Joe diGenova.
I said to you last time, Joe, when you were on this program, I cringe. My mom was a prison guard. My dad worked in family court probation. I have so many extended family members in the NYPD and the FBI.
And you say bad cops. I know the 99 percent are not. They are good people for this country. But we know tonight, you have been right, and what we have been reporting, Sara included, she has been right.
JOE DIGENOVA, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Well, I think the sad thing about this is he watched someone like Sally Yates who was the deputy attorney general under Obama and acting attorney general for a while, complain about the rule of law and the violation of it when she and Brennan and Comey and others destroyed the rule of law in the Obama administration.
They introduced it, they besmirched it to. They were so politically motivated that they have now destroyed the department of justice and the FBI. It is going to take a decade to rebuild the public trust in the FBI and the Department of Justice because Sally Yates, who just joined a fancy law firm in Atlanta, is going to need to lawyer up.
The disgraceful performance of her and, of course, even more disgraceful, John Brennan, who led a conspiracy against a campaign of the opposing party's presidential nominee and then when he won them I did everything could to frame him and his compatriots with false crimes. It is the greatest political scandal in American history and shame on Sally Yates and shame on John Brennan.
HANNITY: Wow. It's such a powerful commentary and sadly it's all true.
Sara Carter, March 7th, 2017. You and John Solomon, right here on this show, broke the news about the Trump campaign being surveilled. You are now saying that concealed the FISA documents, the warrants, the original applications, the bulk of information as the Nunes and Grassley-Graham memo said, came from that phony dossier that Hillary paid for and they lied to FISA judges. How are those documents, and I hear there are other documents, if they are ever released, will expose all of it, which is why the I.G. report to me is a bad idea, or going the I.G. route is a bad idea.
SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I think going with I.G. is fine, as long as the documents are turned over. And that's what's important here. Now, these documents are associated with the FISA applications.
Remember, they were focused FISA and applications starting in October 21st, 2016, and then it rolled all the way to September 2017, that seven-months into President Trump's administration. And these were all on Carter Page, but they also brought in a dragnet of everybody that Carter Page spoke to and possibly people that those people spoke to.
Now, there was evidence attached to these FISA applications. Remember, it's not just the dossier. There was other extenuating evidence that was attached. These are probably part of the documents that they are requesting.
Remember, this was a classified letter that Nunes sent. No one has seen it. What is important now, Sean, is that they get those documents because the House Intelligence Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee are far ahead --
HANNITY: Well, there is something called Bleach Bit that nobody in America knew about except for Hillary Clinton.
CARTER: That's right. These are held on servers that are highly guarded and protected at the FBI. And I don't believe -- I'm not 100 percent positive that this could be destroyed. What I know they need to do is show those documents without reductions.
And they need to have people in there that understand what's going on. They need to have people inside that can actually read the document, not just congressional leaders. I know that John Kelly is going to be setting up the meeting, but I hope that the president got confirmation from both Rod Rosenstein and Christopher Wray that they will be delivering those documents and I hope that the appropriate investigators with the right clearance are able to get into this meeting and examine those documents.
HANNITY: I hope the president is demanding because he has the power to demand it and the power to see it unredacted and the power also to declassify it if need be.
Joe, so much -- by the way, I told Sara last week -- Sara, am I going to recognize the initials of the informant? Yes, we all recognize them. I thought I was being clever.
Bu now, we are discovering, two separate reports that he got paid in a two- year period of time, between $400,000 and maybe a million, maybe as a high as a million. We also learned from Devin Nunes, we might have a second spy on a presidential candidate? I read "The Wall Street Journal", but now you got people like Ted Olson who everyone respects, former solicitor general, Mark Penn, Sharyl Attkisson's timeline is devastating to the entire story, the entire narrative.
Your reaction to all of this?
DIGENOVA: Well, here's the thing. I -- you know, inspector generals are good in certain circumstances.
Here's the problem with Mr. Horowitz. He cannot interview any of the people who have led the Department of Justice or FBI. He has no subpoena authority.
So, all of the people who were part of the plot and were in DOJ and the FBI are gone. He can't talk to them. All he can do is review documents and talk to whoever is left to do that.
What we need is a federal grand jury with a prosecutor, doesn't have to be a special counsel. And, by the way, let's remember why we are here. We are here because Rod Rosenstein, a political coward, someone who was inadvertently made deputy attorney general, appointed Robert Mueller illegally with no evidence that any crime had been committed.
And here we are, more than a year later, with nothing having been determined except that there was no Russian collusion. All of these people having been put through hell because Rod Rosenstein couldn't do what he should have done --
HANNITY: And he's conflicted.
DIGENOVA: -- which is having conducted -- not only is he conflicted because he was a witness, and he signed some of the warrants, guess what, suppose there was activity, which I believe there was, that went beyond the law. Rod Rosenstein is not only a witness, he would be a co-conspirator. I mean, this is ludicrous, when you -- when you think that the president of the United States has to demand an investigation into something that is so obviously criminal, and now, the chief of staff, General Kelly, is telling rod Rosenstein, show them the documents.
HANNITY: Is Joe right about Rod Rosenstein? We have about 35 seconds, Sara.
CARTER: I believe Joe is right about Rod Rosenstein. I mean, he has been stonewalling Congress. He has been stonewalling everyone on the release of documents over and over again. And this time, I believe that Nunes and the rest of them mean it. If they take this next meeting, he better bring those documents, he better bring so they can see them that's about the right people can have access.
HANNITY: I hear if he brings them, he signing his own demise.
CARTER: Well, he signed that last FISA warrant.
HANNITY: That's right. I want to see it. You're right.
DIGENOVA: Let's hope so. Let's hope.
HANNITY: You guys have been amazing. Thank you for your hard work.
When we come back, Ed Henry, more details of the president's meeting with Rosenstein, and Wray, and Newt Gingrich, and much more straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Joining us live from the White House, more details of the president's high stakes meeting with the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the FBI director, Fox News chief national correspondent Ed Henry.
Ed, I won't believe the documents are coming until they are sent.
ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sean, there's a lot of skepticism about that tonight, especially when you have people like Sally Yates, remember, ousted from the Justice Department last year, saying today that she believes the president is launching an all-out assault on democracy, by pressuring the Justice Department to put these documents out there, but also investigate what happened with this confidential informant.
But I can tell you, Republicans like Devin Nunes are pushing back tonight, saying that Sally Yates and other Obama officials are just trying to divert attention from the real story, that in the words of Nunes, a bright red line was crossed when the FBI allegedly infiltrated the Trump campaign and allegedly spied on it. That meeting you mentioned, the president with Rod Rosenstein, Christopher Wray, the FBI director, they basically -- the president was demanding a new investigation to find out just how this pressure probe started. The president it appears got some concrete action.
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders telling us, quote: Based on the meeting with president, the Department of Justice has asked the department addresses to expand its current investigation to include any irregularities with the FBI's or the Department of Justice's tactics concerning the Trump campaign. It also agreed that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly will immediately set up a meeting with the FBI, DOJ, and director of national intelligence with congressional leaders to review highly classified and other information they have requested.
Now, that means John Kelly will be working with Nunes and others to get the documents that Nunes has demanding for weeks now about this confidential informant, Nunes saying there needs to be transparency as Democrats like Adam Schiff object.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ADAM SCHIFF, D—CALIF., RANKING MEMBER, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: This is a dramatic end to new and destructive low I think for the Congress of the United States, basically to ignore the warnings of the FBI and Justice Department and potentially risk people's lives. What they would like this information for is clearly to be of service to the Trump defense team, and further any narrative they have.
NUNES: We don't know if there is one informant or more informants because there is so much out there now, it's really getting tough to follow. All we are asking for is give us the documentation that you used to start this investigation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: Now, Fox News also learning tonight that this long-awaited Justice Department inspector general report looking at the FBI and the Justice Department's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, has found among other things that James Comey and Andy McCabe, his former number two at the FBI of course who was also ousted, acted improperly but not moving quickly enough on those emails that appeared in September of 2016. They didn't look into them, look into the, the new Clinton emails found on Anthony Wiener's laptop of course until October 2016.
That and the whole bunch of other things now under scrutiny which showed, Sean, that it's not just the handling of the Trump investigation but the handling of the Clinton investigation by the DOJ and the FBI. Still very much under investigation right now, Sean.
HANNITY: Deep state is being exposed. Mueller's witch hunt is crashing in. This a fascinating times. Great report, Ed Henry at the White House.
Joining us now, Wall Street Journal's Kimberley Strassel. She was the first journalist to expose this huge scandal nearly two weeks ago that in fact the FBI use an informant to spy in the Trump campaign. She joins us as well as Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz.
You know, I love the Wall Street Journal and their comments, in their editorial, Kimberley. I thought it was devastating and also the calls on the Obama administration. The call on Obama, what did he know and when did he knew it. And now Nunes saying, Kimberley, there might be a second spy?
KIMBERLEY STRASSEL, COLUMNIST, WALL STREET JOURNAL: Yes. This is really important, first of all, for people to remember that the Department of Justice, which is now out there hinting and various partisans like Adam Schiff that somehow Congressman Nunes and others are responsible for blowing this source?
The Department of Justice leaked all of these details to friendly news media sources. Everything short of this guy's name and his social security number.
HANNITY: Bingo.
STRASSEL: And just so that they could get ahead of this and spin it the way they wanted to because they knew the news was tightening and they probably be forced to put out these documents. And this is the other important part, too. None of us have had enough information on yet is we know a lot about what the FBI did, although still not enough, what we don't know though, is what the political side of this operation knew.
We know Clinton's campaign had this dossier, too. Who else had it in the Obama administration? And what other agencies were involved in efforts to go after the Trump campaign prior to the FBI's claim of its official start of its investigation.
HANNITY: I won't -- I'll say it. So I don't want to bring former Congressman Chaffetz, Schiff is the biggest liar and propagandist on television to almost as bad as fake news CNN and conspiracy TV MSNBC. Bigger points here. The FBI paid this guy. We've all known his name for a long time, this is not -- they've leaked it. They're the ones that did it.
But paying this guy money and maybe a second spy? And I don't believe they're going to hand over the documents if they can get away with it. Congressman Chaffetz, you requested some of the very same information well over a year ago and it's never been forthcoming.
JASON CHAFFETZ, R, FORMER UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE: Yes, there's a subpoena issued in 2016 for all the documents that we wanted to see. The inspector general can get these documents if he hasn't already. I hope he's already gathered them up. I think the deep state is understanding that the truth is going to surface and that's why they're leaking this information to friendly news sources to put their own spin on it.
I think Kim Strassel has done the best reporting on that. I have to tell you, you have an attorney general in Jeff Sessions who is there in name only. He's worthless. And you have Rod Rosenstein who is there with an oxygen mask. He's totally conflicted.
And I'm excited with some members in the House are going to do tomorrow. I think there's a group of five members that will actually put forward a resolution to say we need a second special counsel.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: I hear that Rod Rosenstein has a vicious temper and right now is on edge everyday screaming at people. Have you heard that, congressman?
CHAFFETZ: It isn't pretty over there. I mean, it's amazing. If you look at what Rod Rosenstein is arguing and then you look at the Democrats like Adam Schiff, this political hack that is just so desperate not to have the truth to come out.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Shiftless Schiff.
CHAFFETZ: Yes. I mean, he doesn't want to have truth come out. He doesn't want to expose what's going on there.
HANNITY: No, it's the propaganda.
CHAFFETZ: Devin Nunes is part of the gang of eight. He can look at all that information.
HANNITY: Last word, and I agree with Congressman Chaffetz. You've done a great job, Kimberly. Last word.
STRASSEL: Look, the other thing, this has to be declassified. Congress needs to see it first but then every one of us need to see it too.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: The president can do that, correct?
CHAFFETZ: Yes.
STRASSEL: Yes. And I think that needs to be accepted.
HANNITY: And the president can demand they turn them over now, correct?
CHAFFETZ: Yes.
STRASSEL: Yes.
CHAFFETZ: The president, he's the president of the United States.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: That's correct.
CHAFFETZ: The only constitutionally elected person and he can declassify it.
HANNITY: Now. So -- I would say to the president, do it now.
CHAFFETZ: Yes.
HANNITY: Do not waste 18 months for the I.G. to investigate with 500 people and then we'll find out later they'll do everything they can to spin it, lie, delete. Thank you all.
CHAFFETZ: Thank you.
HANNITY: When we come back, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich weighs in on tonight's big breaking news. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: To give us reaction to tonight's big breaking news. Author of the upcoming book, it's going to be out June 5 and available for pre-order now on Barnes and Noble.com, Hannity.com it's called "Trump's America: The Truth About Our Nation's Big Comeback," former speaker of the house and Fox News contributor. I want to talk about your book but not now. This -- sorry. I love you. You're my -- you're family to me.
But when you look at this and Ted Olson and Mark Penn and Sharyl Attkisson, and now even the New York Times and Washington Post, well, trying to get ahead of what they fell to do for a year and a half and the deep state is real, and the effort to undermine the president is real, FISA abuses real, spies in the Trump campaign are real. You're the great historian. Tell me where this -- where in history this will stack up to.
NEWT GINGRICH, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think it's rapidly becoming the biggest and the most sobering political scandal in American history. Somebody pointed out earlier, you know, back when J. Edgar Hoover was spying on Lyndon Johnson's behest on Richard Nixon, we thought it was terrible. Back when they had a break in at the Watergate, we thought it was terrible.
This is a multiyear effort that has two different fronts. People need to always remember that. One front was protecting, propping up, covering up for Bill and Hillary Clinton. The other front, as Trump became more and more serious, the other front was to stop Trump at any cost.
Now I believe that the reason you see people like Sally Yates go berserk, you see John Brennan go berserk, you see General Clapper go berserk, they're all guilty. When you see someone in the Obama team who gets that rattled and as that angry which you know is they're scared to death that they're going to get drawn into all this.
And their role is going to come out and it will involve I think felonies. And frankly, I suspect it reaches to President Obama. It's inconceivable that President Obama could have had this many things going on and not known it because his administration was very controlling, and very tight and I think we're going to discover all of the stuff in the end ends up with the Obama White House and has the president and his senior staff's fingerprints all over it.
HANNITY: The question remains what did he know? What did Kerry, what did Susan Rice and Ben Rhodes know?
GINGRICH: Sure.
HANNITY: What did Clapper and Brennan know? We only haven't talked about unmasking. But you're right. Hillary gets a rigged investigation and then comes the effort to undermine a president or candidate then a president- elect and then the president of the United States. You put spies and you lie to court, you lie to FISA judges?
GINGRICH: I think the number one thing the average everyday American can take from all this, is that the corruption was so deep at the top. And again, remember, we're not talking about the everyday FBI agent doing their job. We're talking about people at the very top. And those people were so corrupt and so arrogant that they thought they could get away with anything.
And so they just proceeded down the road, protecting Hillary, covering up Hillary, giving immunity to people who are breaking the law and then going after Trump and going after Trump supporters. When all of this comes out as one in a way that's easy to understand, which may take frankly, another year or a year and a half because there's so much of it.
And every time we turn around as you know, another piece unravels. And you had more big stories in the last year and a half than I would have thought possible. And again and again, you've been right and inch by inch even the New York Times is starting to concede.
And I think by the way, Mark Penn's column today is a real breakthrough. Because here you have a genuine unqualified member of the left saying this is a threat to all of us and we have got to get rid of Mueller because he literally threatens every American's freedom.
HANNITY: Mr. Speaker, you understand the Constitution. You understand checks and balances, separation of powers, constitutional authority, oversight of Congress. How dare Rod Rosenstein, who already is conflicted in this by recommending the firing of Comey and signing one of the FISA warrants, how dare they not turn this over to Congress? But that's what they have done what should Congress do. You're a former speaker.
GINGRICH: Well, for me, first of all, I think it's beginning to move in the right direction. I think the president is beginning to weigh in to reinforce the Republicans in Congress. I think you -- General Kelly being given this assignment is a very tough, very serious man. And I think he's going to impose on the Justice Department doing their job of turning over legitimate appropriate information to the legislative branch.
But everybody ought to remember, now you mentioned the Constitution. Remember that when they were done writing it, Benjamin Franklin was asked by a woman, you know, what have we got? And he said we have a republic if we can keep it. This is one of those great tests in American history. Corruption came close to destroying the liberties you and I believe in.
HANNITY: And if Hillary got elected, none of this would have come out. Scary. Mr. Speaker. We appreciate your perspective as always. I promise will be promoting your book. I know it's going to be great. I haven't seen it yet.
All right. When we -- what? When we come back, all right, former Obama CIA director communist supporter, John Brennan's recent comments about President Trump have been completely unhinged. Michelle Malkin, Daniel Hoffman, they weigh-in next on this big news night. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: The president is taking aim at former CIA director, John Brennan on Twitter. Now this after Brennan has attacked the president with outrageous accusations totally political. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER UNITED STATES CIA DIRECTOR: I think he's afraid of the president of Russia.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why?
BRENNAN: Well, I think one can speculate as to why. That the Russians may have something on him personally. But the fact that he has had this fawning attitude toward Mr. Putin, he's not said anything negative about him. I think continues tom you know, say to me that he does have something to fear.
I think Mr. Putin is very clever in terms of playing to Mr. Trump's interest in being flattered. And also I think Mr. Trump is for whatever reason, either intimidated by Mr. Putin, afraid of what he could do or what might come out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Here with reaction, she's the host of CRTV, her own show, of course, Michelle Malkin, and by the way, it's award-winning, and retired CIA senior intelligence officer Fox News contributor, Daniel Hoffman.
Because this is about Brennan I know more people, more people that worked in your line of work that think that he is the absolute worst director we've ever had. And this display of politics and whatever involvement people we now see coming, his lying under oath like Clapper, people have had it that I know, FBI intelligence and of course law enforcement.
DANIEL HOFFMAN, CONTRIBUTOR, FOX NEWS: His tweets today read like a partisan politician, not a nonpartisan retired former director of CIA. I would highlight the contrast between Brennan's tweets and his unfounded allegations about the president, speculation that Vladimir Putin could blackmail President Trump. Contrast that with President Trump today at CIA headquarters presiding over the swearing-in ceremony of Gina Haspel. He called CIA officers the most elite intelligence professionals on the planet.
HANNITY: She's a hero. To me, I thank God, just like Mike Pompeo. Thank God they did what they did. We would have never gotten bin Laden.
Let me turn to you, Michelle Malkin. From your perspective, you see this abuse of power. You see this deep state corruption and you're wondering as sure as I am, how could this happen in this country? But it did, and it's now unraveling.
MICHELLE MALKIN, HOST, CRTV: Yes. It did. And that is why people like John Brennan are behaving the way they're behaving completely unhinged as you say. I think that John Brennan is a bilious blabber mouth, bilious full of vial contempt in spite not just for our president but for our country and for the American people who duly elected this president. So I think--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: I want to know what he knew and when.
MALKIN: Exactly.
HANNITY: I want to know what his involvement is.
MALKIN: And I think it's going to come out. And I think that's why he panicked over the weekend. And I think that there is a small difference between being a spook, a partisan spook for Obama and being a crook. And he is definitely I think cringing in the spotlight.
I think that Daniel Hoffman was right, too, when he observed that the kind of comments that he has made publicly about President Trump aren't just something that harm the White House, but harm all of the good people within the CIA who are trying to do their jobs as this man is self-aggrandizing.
HANNITY: So true.
MALKIN: And you can see the psychological projection here of John Brennan using words like self-adoring and self-serving to describe our president when he is describing himself. I mean, if this guy had done his job during the Obama administration, we wouldn't have all of the bungles that John Brennan was been tangled everything from helping design the lies about the Benghazi video, bungling the investigation of the Chris--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: The Fast and Furious.
MALKIN: Right. The Fast and Furious, IRS, the Christmas, the underwear bomber. And then going so far as to downplaying recidivism of the Gitmo terrorists and being soft on Jihad. The fact is that these guys have been so invested in their ideological agenda and their partisanship that they were not doing their job and protecting Americans around the world and at home.
HANNITY: You know, I mean this with all my heart, I've been -- and Michelle, has, too, the biggest defender of law enforcements my entire career. I want to remind people, this is not rank and file intelligence CIA, FBI, this is not. In any way, shape, manner or form. It's the upper echelon and DOJ.
HOFFMAN: And John Brennan is doing Vladimir Putin's bidding. And for someone who has criticized the Trump administration for the way they've handled Russia even though the Trump administration has closed down Russian consulate in Seattle and San Francisco and kicked out 60 Russian officials, I think John Brennan is doing what Vladimir Putin wants by speculating about the president being subjected to blackmail, even though it's not true. And Brennan walked it back with the New York Times the days after he said but the damage is done.
HANNITY: The damage is done. Last 15 seconds, Michelle.
MALKIN: Yes. The biggest threat we face right now is the three-headed hydra of the police state, the deep state and the fourth state. All the insatia (Ph) was relationships the leaks and the self-profiteering by people like John Brennan and his ilk.
HANNITY: All right. Thank you both. Thank you so much. When we come back, Hillary Clinton unbelievably embarrassed herself. We'll show you next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. Hillary, she can't seem to move on from her election loss in 2016. This past weekend, commencement speech at Yale University the poor kids have already been indoctrinated. Clinton just really embarrassed herself yet again. It's cringe worthy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, (D) FORMER UNITED STATES PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I see looking out at you that you are following the tradition of over-the-top hats so I brought I had too. A Russian hat.
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: Right! Look, I mean, if you can't beat them, join them!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Hillary, you're still the loser. And number two, Hillary, you paid for Russian government lies. Christopher Steele funneled money, Fusion GPS and they turned out to be false, even the interrogatory Steele said only 50/50. It's wrong.
All right. Let not your night be troubled. There she -- why did you get off Friday night? What was that all about, why?
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