Trey Gowdy on Trump's expected impeachment trial in the Senate

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Hannity: Ratings and polls tank for impeachment

Impeachment hearings fail to pull public support.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," December 13, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

Sean Hannity, host: Hi, welcome to Hannity as we cap off a busy news night and week. What a disaster this entire week has been for the Democrats, the deep state and the mob and the media. And tonight, we have a lot of breaking news. Nutty Nadler's. well, his own Schiff show impeachment circus is chugging right along after a long week of pointless, idiotic BS hearings.

Most Americans wanted to stop. They see this for what it is. Poll numbers for this witch trial are tanking. Now, here's something that I think is the biggest barometer. Ratings for fake news CNN, Area 51, Roswell Rachel Maddow's MSDNC, the conspiracy channel, it has bottomed. Even their nutty audiences know it's a disaster. It is so bad, you got nutty Nadler and his Schiff show. He can't even stay awake, Sweet Dreams Jerry. And, by the way, yesterday one Democratic congressman was caught watching golf on his laptop in the middle of their impeachment coup hearings. This is a very serious historic, solemn process that demands our attention, according to Pelosi, and the Schiff show, and nutty Nadler, and of course the state-run TV media mob? Wow, late last night, after nutty Nadler abruptly ended the hearing without a vote, a very angry and ticked off congressman should-be senator Doug Collins was rightfully fed up with his Democratic colleagues. Let's take a look.

[BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS]

Rep. Jerry Nadler: The committee will now stand in recess until tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m., at which point I will move to divide the question so that each of us may have the opportunity to cast up or down votes on each of the articles of impeachment until it's history, be our judge [spelled phonetically]. The committee is in recess.

Rep. Doug Collins: Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, there was no consulting for the minority ranking member on your schedule for tomorrow, in which you've just blown up schedules for everyone? You chose not to consult the ranking member on a schedule issue of this magnitude?

Doug Collins: So typical. This is the -- this is the kangaroo court that we're talking about.

[END VIDEO CLIPS]

Sean Hannity: Congressman Collins, with all due respect, I'm going to take nutty Nadler's side. It was way past his beddy-bye time, and he needed his teddy bear, or else he'd nod off at the table again. Now, if you're also disgusted by this incredibly baseless charade, this Ukrainian impeachment coup attempt, where you bifurcate your brain, and you forget Joe and Hunter, the real quid pro quo bribery, real scandal, zero-experience Hunter, I do have good news.

Now, it could all come to an end right now if these 31, right there, self-described moderates, they were in as moderates, warrant standing in the way. Now, you see, those are all districts Donald Trump won in 2016. They all vote against impeachment. It wouldn't pass the House. Those lawmakers on your screen right there. They represent the districts that President Trump won, and, in some cases, by big margins. Almost none of them willing to stick up for their own constituents. We hear maybe eight might break away. Sadly, these cowards are ready and willing. They're willing to walk the plank for Nancy Pelosi, AOC, the squad. They care more about what, radical socialists, far-left leadership, divisiveness, do-nothing Democratic Party than they do about Americans? And what they have now done to this country for three years -- now, in order to get elected, that means they had to lie to the voters and pretend to be independent-minded rational leaders.

But now you, we, the people -- we'll keep rolling it. We know the truth. These lawmakers -- none of them are moderates. They're all frauds, almost all of them supporting the most vague, the weakest, you know, politically motivated two articles of impeachment, because first it was the quid pro quo, but that ended up only being for Joe and zero-experience Hunter. And then of course, "We'll call it bribery. No, no, no, we'll call it extortion." Well, now we're down to this, "Oh, abuse of power," and, "Oh, well, the President sought remedy in the judicial branch of government, because there was a conflict with the legislative branch, which every other president has done, so we'll call that obstruction, by the way, devoid of any impeachable offense. In doing so, they -- those 31, they're telling their constituents that their votes don't matter.

These Democrats should know better, because just a few years ago, the same Nancy Pelosi that decimated the so-called moderate wing of a party, they lost the majority, because she jammed through Obamacare, keep your doctor care and save money, on average $2,500 a year. If you think that's bad and you think Medicare for all with no private insurance is going to work out, $52 trillion price tag in 10 years and 94 trillion for the New Green Deal with no gas, no oil, everything's free and no combustion engine, and eventually no planes or cows -- but you might remember this.

[BEGIN VIDEO CLIP]

Rep. Nancy Pelosi: It's going to be very, very exciting, but we have to pass the bill, so that you can find out what is in it.

[END VIDEO CLIP]

Sean Hannity: You need to pass it. Yeah. The average family, by the way, yeah 174 percent on average increase. And, oh, almost 40 percent of the country only has one Obamacare exchange choice, only one. Millions lost to doctors and plans. So, Pelosi is once again sending the sheep out to pasture, and for what?

If and when these BS articles of impeachment pass the house, it's dead on arrival in the U.S. Senate. We had Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, telling us that very thing last night. He plans to obliterate what is the weakest articles of impeachment, witch hunt, Ukrainian impeachment coup attempt if it reaches his chamber. Here's what he announced on our show right here last night.

[BEGIN VIDEO CLIP]

Sen. Mitch McConnell: Everything I do during this, I'm coordinating with White House counsel. There will be no difference between the President's position and our position as to how to handle this to the extent that we can. The case is so darn weak, coming over from the House, we all know how it's going to end. There is no chance the President's going to be removed from office. My hope is that there won't be a single Republican who votes for either of these articles of impeachment.

[END VIDEO CLIP]

Sean Hannity: Now, needless to say, the professional impeachment cheerleaders, and the mob, and the media, we now know nothing but an extension of every lie. They got it all wrong on Mueller, four investigations, and they missed the biggest corruption abuse of power scandal as we learned this week in their lifetime. They didn't care about Hillary's bought-and-paid-for, dirty, Russian unverifiable dossier, which we now know was used as the bulk of information in the FISA report. And, without it, they never would have got the FISA report to take away the constitutional rights of Carter Page and then backdoor everything into [unintelligible] Trump, campaign transition, and presidency. Mob, they're not happy that Senator McConnell is crushing their dreams. For the past 24 hours, they have been throwing a massive temper tantrum, as usual. And what do you expect for them? They're pouting, temper tantrum, anger because they're losing. Take a look:

[BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS]

Female Speaker: McConnell is willfully sort of violating norms that we have about his conduct or what it's supposed to be in this setting.

Female Speaker: It's distinctly disturbing to hear the head of the jury say that he is coordinating with the defendant. That's essentially what is happening here.

Male Speaker: As the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell stated explicitly that he does not care about this constitutional process. He thumbed his nose at the way this is supposed to be proceed.

[END VIDEO CLIPS]

Sean Hannity: Oh, okay. Same people who held the compromised, corrupt, congenital liar Schiff's hand, carried his water throughout every lie, every con, every abuse of power, every secret handing. For over three years now, they have done nothing for the American people, buy conspired with Democrats, state-run TV, and the media to take down a duly-elected president, breathlessly pushing one lie, one hoax, one conspiracy after another, reporting Democratic talking points as gospel truth, and, all the while, pretending to be unbiased news, "This is NBC news."

No, they're not. In the end, they were wrong about everything. Thankfully, to this great ensemble team that we've put together in this program, my radio show, Rush, Mark, few others, few people here, too -- not everybody -- they -- we were right. We made sure we were right. They were wrong about the 2016 election. We were right about that. We were right about Obama being a radical president with a horrible record. That proved to be true. They were wrong four times on their Russia collusion hoax that they push, wrong about Brett Kavanaugh -- they pushed that lie -- wrong about, oh, Nicholas Sandmann, the Covington High School kids -- he's going to be rich, and he deserves every penny -- wrong about deep-state spying -- and they did spy on a president, and a candidate, and a transition team -- wrong about FISA abuse -- Comey straight up lied, Schiff straight up lied -- wrong about the current Ukraine hoax.

So why have they been so wrong so often? Because they are driven by hate, rage, psychosis, and an agenda, a left-winged radical extreme socialist agenda. And -- whereas we are guided in our investigations by actual facts, knowledgeable sources that we check, and double check. And, of course, our ensemble team of journalists, investigative reporters that we brought to you night after night for almost three years on this show.

Now, I will say I was a little overwhelmed today in the American spectator. Jeffrey Lord remember he got pushed out of fake news CNN. He published an op-ed titled -- by the way, he works for the spectator and also on his own website, titled, "The Vindication of Sean Hannity, a Relentless Pursuit of the Truth." Now, not about me. The article details how this program, with our great ensemble cast -- and I want all of them that work so hard to take a bow -- we were pretty much the only outlet on TV, and some friends in talk radio, a couple of people here, not everybody here by any stretch, that investigated, that used real sources, real materials, real reporting, and what is -- what we've been calling the biggest abuse of power corruption scandal in history. I want to thank everybody who's been on this show the last three years, the hard work that they have done. We were right about FISA and the FISA fraud, right about deep state spying, right about weaponization of intelligence, right about the bulk of information, the unverifiable dossier we even learn that there's only one sub source we didn't even know that part and that guy laughed when he said well, that was bar talk and we were right about the current Ukrainian witch hunt as well. Yeah we believe Putin is a bad guy hostile act or hostile regime. Yeah, they interfere. Devin Nunez warned in 2014 but the Ukrainian court in Politico, January 11, 2017 they chronicle Ukrainian election interference to help Hillary and her Trump. We follow the facts as Congressman Jim Jordan has stated, the facts are on the president's side. They always have been. Take a look.

[BEGIN VIDEO CLIP]

Rep. Jim Jordan: They're never going to stop Congressman Green said yesterday if the Senate doesn't convict, it will not end. This is not about Ukraine. Facts are on the president's side Zelensky said he wasn't pressured Ukrainians didn't even know aid was held at the time of the call and most importantly, they did nothing to get the aid released. This is about one basic fact. The Democrats have never accepted the will of the American people.

[END VIDEO CLIP]

Sean Hannity: Thank goodness for the freedom caucus guys Jordan, Meadows, Gaetz, Devin Nunes I can't mention them Ratcliffe. All right here with reaction, former House Oversight Committee chairman, former state and federal prosecutor never lost a case as a prosecutor Fox News contributor Trey Gowdy is with us. All right. You watch this. Now I think I know the federal rules of evidence. Correct me, counselor, if I'm wrong here but they don't allow hearsay witnesses and short of an expert witness or two, I assume opinion witnesses will not be warranted in a Senate trial presided over by the chief judge of the Supreme Court, justice of the Supreme Court.

Trey Gowdy: Yeah, I don't think the senators care what three con law professors to the extent they can stay awake while three con law professors testify. I don't think they care about whether or not those three con law professors think this president should be removed from office. Hearsay ordinarily is not admissible there are certain exceptions. Senator Graves, now were talking about it just the other night on the fall, you can get certain hearsay in. But look, Sean, the record is already complete they've already called all their witnesses. Ironically enough, the House Judiciary didn't call a single solitary fact witness. They called more fact witnesses for the Watergate impeachment with John Dean than they did for the Trump impeachment. So, the record is already in its full. Let's vote, send it to the jury and let's vote.

Sean Hannity: I will tell you now, I can actually could be persuaded either way and that I actually think these people are so nuts that it once let the House of Representatives, whoever they appoint to present this to the Senate, let them do whatever they want to do and once they have the votes, the 51 votes. I would assume. Call a roll. Get it out of there. But then investigate the whistleblower. Then the congenital liar, Schiff, then Hunter and Joe. If we really care about quids and pros and quos then Joe is right there.

Trey Gowdy: Yeah what I tell clients is you could say whatever you want when the trial is over. You want to say something about the judge you want to say so about the police you want to say something about the anyone but wait until the verdict is in and the president is not going to be removed from office. He's not going to be convicted on these articles. So my advice to him would let get acquitted and then you can go say whatever you want to the Democrats and the media. To the extent those are two different things.

Sean Hannity: Hunter and Joe, quid pro quo, Joe and the congenital liar Schiff and contact that his office may have had likely had with the whistleblower or non-whistleblower hearsay whistleblower and the whistleblower non whistleblower. They should all be investigated and there are other means to do that short of doing it within the impeachment trial confines.

Trey Gowdy: Yea I can't think of a worse way to investigate something than to have Congress do it. So the House has an ethics committee if they want to bring Adam up for that ridiculous parody.

Sean Hannity: What about the Senate?

Trey Gowdy: Or I don't have ...

Sean Hannity: He might have immunity, but his staff wouldn't.

Trey Gowdy: Yeah, I don't see I mean, quite candidly, I don't see Lindsay doing that.

Sean Hannity: Oh, I do.

Trey Gowdy: I mean, if there are misrepresentations made. Well, you've talked to him more recently than I have, but I don't. I think once the president is found not guilty, acquitted, then the attention turns to 2020 and November and the president has the biggest bully pulpit in the world. If he wants to make a point, make it but make it as someone who's been acquitted on two articles of impeachment, don't make it during the trial.

Sean Hannity: Let me ask you one last legal question.

Trey Gowdy: We're going to win right now don't mess it up.

Sean Hannity: I agree with that. Last question you hear Joe Biden saying you're not getting the billion dollars unless you fire the prosecutor. He knew that the prosecutor you wanted fired was investigating his zero-experience son that's being paid millions. That sounds like a potential crime to you, sir.

Trey Gowdy: I would need to know more about it, but I would also tell you this. I have a ton of confidence in Bill Barr, and if there is a factual predicate and what we learn from Horowitz is that factual predicate doesn't have to be too high to investigate something. If there is a factual predicate let the professionals do it. I just don't think Congress has acquitted itself well since I've been following it when it comes to seriously investigating matters. Let the professionals do it. If there's a predicate for doing so.

Sean Hannity: All right now, by the way, I know for a short time you weren't a Fox News contributor. I am advocating the full complete reinstatement at a raise for you, Trey Gowdy. Thank you.

Trey Gowdy: Thank you. How long have you been my agent? Thank you.

Sean Hannity: You'd make a good choice if you chose me. I'm kidding. Earlier today, President Trump weighed in on the Democrats ongoing witch hunt and as per usual, he's fighting back as he should take a look.

[BEGIN VIDEO CLIP]

President Donald Trump: It's a witch hunt. It's a sham. It's a hoax. Nothing was done wrong. Zero was done wrong. I think it's a horrible thing to be using the tool of impeachment, which is supposed to be used in an emergency. It's a scam. It's something that shouldn't be allowed. And it's a very bad thing for our country and you're trivializing impeachment the people are absolutely disgusted. Nobody's ever seen anything like this, and I watched yesterday I got to see quite a bit of it yesterday and I watched these Democrats on the committee make fools out of themselves.

[END VIDEO CLIP]

Sean Hannity: President's right, if Democrats are able to jam this thing through the House, the ball will be squarely in the president's court, Republicans will have the upper hand. So how will they use it? Joining us now, former independent counsel Ken Starr, the author of the book best seller Guilt by Accusation, Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz. Good to see both. You know, professor by the way I read the book I don't want to go up against you in court. Either one of you, to be very blunt. Great read. Here's what I want to ask you and call professor Dershowitz to Ken Starr up there to be ivory tower Trump haters, one of which actually wanted to impeach Trump because he tweeted out the words fake and news. Want to impeach him for that? So there was only one fact witness, professor, that I saw and his testimony was exculpatory. I want nothing no quid pro quo.

Alan Dershowitz: Look, the most important development happened today the Supreme Court of the United States absolutely pulled the rug out of Part 2 of the impeachment referral by granting search quarry, by granting review in a case where Trump challenged a congressional subpoena and the Supreme Court said, we're going to hear this case.

Sean Hannity: All three cases, by the way.

Alan Dershowitz: Yeah yeah but one of them was a state case but think of what that message is. It's Trump was right. You don't have to comply with a subpoena of Congress unless the court tells you have to comply. Now, we don't know how the court's going to come out, but they made it clear that's a viable issue. So that charge, that ground of impeachment should be immediately removed by the House and not sent to the Senate. There's nothing to it anymore after the Supreme Court today said they were entitled to review on an issue when the president challenges the subpoena power of Congress. Well done it's over.

Sean Hannity: Well, I agree. But, you know, Ken Starr, I'll ask you because well, every other president has used the issue of executive privilege. I thought they'd lose that hands down and I think Professor Dershowitz is right, but when there is a conflict between the executive branch and the legislative branch and one seeks remedy in the judicial branch, that would be our system of coequal branches of government actually, there they are there to resolve such conflicts, are they not?

Ken Starr: Exactly right that is precisely what happened Sean, as you know, in the Clinton impeachment, there were a number of instances when President Clinton, through his very able lawyers, invoked executive privilege. That's a fair it's a constitutionally based privilege recognized by unanimous Supreme Court during the Nixon impeachment process or investigative process. So, it's very important for in our separation of power system for the judicial branch the Article 3 branch to be able to do its work. So, when the Article 1 branch Congress is exercising its authority and so is the Article 2 branch, that's precisely when the courthouse door needs to be opened. And as Alan just said, that's why the Supreme Court sits, too among other things, to resolve these inter branch conflicts.

Sean Hannity: Do you think this is your party, Professor Dershowitz. I know you're not proud of your party tonight. Do you think the damage they have done here hating Trump for three years, nonstop investigation, no evidence in anything, and they've done nothing for the American people. What does that do to them politically?

Alan Dershowitz: Well, it should hurt them. The American people should hold them accountable. They have damaged the Constitution. They have inflicted a wound on our system of checks and balances and separation of powers. They have abused the power of Congress by impeaching for grounds that are not in the Constitution. It's Hamilton and Madison's nightmare. Hamilton said the most dangerous thing that could happen is if you have an impeachment by the House just based on the numbers of votes you can get not guilty or innocence, and Madison said if you start using phrases like power or maladministration --

Sean Hannity: Everybody's guilty.

Yeah.

Alan Dershowitz: ---- everybody's guilty and it becomes --

Sean Hannity: There's no such thing.

Alan Dershowitz: --- a weapon that can be used against anybody.

Sean Hannity: Last word, Ken. Ken Starr, last word.

Ken Starr: Well, it is a terrible thing, especially this -- the abuse of power, compare and contrast this abuse of power article with the abuse of power article in the Nixon impeachment. The abuse of power article in the Nixon impeachment was filled with crimes, terrible crimes, including the misuse of the FBI which we've just seen.

Sean Hannity: Oh, the misuse of the FBI. Oh. You mean like what we learned this week how the FBI used a dirty Clinton bought and paid for dossier that was unverifiable as the base of the FISA warrant? By the way, not rank and file. This was not a good week at all for the deep state Democrats and the mob in the media. Thank you both. You've been incredible in your commentary. When we come back, congenital liar, yes, the compromised Adam Schiff went on a comedy show to talk impeachment. You can't make this up. We've got the video straight ahead.

[COMMERCIAL BREAK]

Anna Kooiman: We are live from America's News Headquarters. I'm Anna Kooiman. Well, the stage is set after the judiciary committee advanced two articles of impeachment to the House floor for just the third time in American history, one for abuse of powers and the second for obstruction of justice. In a committee vote, they did go down party lines and it's all but certain to pass on to the House floor. For their part both President Trump and Senate leader McConnell say they welcome a trial in the Senate with McConnell saying there is "zero chance the president is removed from office." And the Supreme Court has agreed to hear cases involving President Trump's tax returns. The president is attempting to block the information from reaching House Democrats who are seeking the information as it relates to ongoing investigations. The court will hold oral arguments in March with rulings due by the end of June. I'm Anna Kooiman. Now back to Hannity.

Sean Hannity: All right. So now the compromised, corrupt, congenital liar Adam Schiff, he can't help himself. Literally every time this guy opens his mouth lies, smears, slander, disinformation. When you compare it as we did earlier this week what Nunes said versus what he said, he lied for three years about Russia. Now he's been lying about this, making up the quotes as we went along. Last night he went on the Late Show with left-winger not funny Steve Colbert to promote more mass impeachment hysteria, delusion, and more lies. Take a look.

[BEGIN VIDEO CLIP]

Adam Schiff: There are two articles, the first is the president's misconduct regarding Ukraine. The president essentially tried to shake down the leader of another country by withholding hundreds of millions of dollars or military assistance to a nation at war with Russia.

Stephen Colbert: Do you think it would be a smart thing to call Adam Schiff to testify in front of the Senate? Do you have any evidence at your fingertips that the president has perhaps abused his office?

Adam Schiff: Ah, well, yes, I do. But I'm no more a fact witness than you are. The practical effect of the argument why don't you just wait until you get Mick Mulvaney in before you impeach is to say why don't you want until after the president cheats again in the next election and then try to do something about it.

[END VIDEO CLIP]

Sean Hannity: Did I just hear this right? Did he just say fact witness? Because he only even in his audition, you know, interviews to get the right people that he thought would help him, everybody he brought into his Schiff show, every one of them, was either a hearsay or opinion witness except one, Ambassador Sondland. What did he say? The only one that talked to the president of all the people they talked to. He said, well, Mr. President what do you want to release the aid? Nothing. No quid pro quo like Joe. There was no shakedown and by the way, that is a lie. Just like he lied three years. I got all the evidence on Trump, Russia, it's overwhelming. Lie. Zelensky has now said multiple times two weekends ago said it again, no pressure whatsoever. The aid was delivered. Five meetings after the call high level, including the vice president. No one ever talked about aid. In the call they never talked about aid. Oh, by the way, and the Democrats, well one non-hearsay witness, Sondland, gave us everything we needed in the whole thing here and guess what? Schiff also lied when he said he's not a fact witness in the case. Here with reaction we have the House minority whip Steve Scalise, Freedom Caucus chair, Andy Biggs. Steve, we'll start with you as you're the higher-ranking person here. This guy's lied for three years. Democrats have lied for three years. The mob in the media takes their lies and nothing but state-run TV an extension of all things radical, extreme, socialist Democrat.

Rep. Steve Scalise: Yeah, there's really no credibility left, Sean. And when you look -- I mean, even in his statements on the comedy show, he expresses his disdain for the people of Ukraine and their fight against Russia. Where was that disdain when Barack Obama was saying, "No," to Ukraine, when they said, "Hey, help us stand up to Russia"? Do you know, Sean, President Trump has sold 360 javelin missiles to Ukraine. Zelensky actually thanked President Trump on that infamous phone call. Do you know how many of those javelins Obama sold? Not one. Zero. Obama would not help Ukraine. Obama, and Biden, by the way. Why haven't they answered for that? So, President Trump gave them the things they need. There was no quid pro quo. You even look at the responses. There were agencies, they say, "obstruction of Congress," whatever they mean by that. Agencies like the Department of Defense, they subpoenaed information. I got a letter -- you had October 7th. They subpoenaed the Department of Defense for information. On October 15th, the secretary of defense, himself, responded, and not once did they come back to the Defense Department. Not once did they go to the courts. These agencies complied. They may not have given them the answers they wanted. In some cases, they might have gone to the courts like President Obama and every other president in history's done. Fast and furious took us six years to get information. We didn't get everything, but --

Sean Hannity: Yeah, I never –

[CROSSTALK]

Sean Hannity: Yeah. All right.

Steve Scalise: Absolutely, and you look at -- look at what we've done to comply, what President Trump is doing, by the way, to get the facts out there, releasing the transcripts to show there was no quid pro quo, and yet they still go on with this. It's a political vendetta. It's not an impeachment. That's what the people of this country are seeing right before their very eyes.

Sean Hannity: And, as the whip, you can tell us that you're not losing a single Republican in this Schiff show and --

Steve Scalise: I object, Sean. Not only will there be no Republicans. There will be Democrats voting against impeachment.

Sean Hannity: Oh.

Steve Scalise: Never before in the history of our country have they rammed through a partisan impeachment. Never before. It was always bipartisan until now.

Sean Hannity: Well, I've got to get you --

Steve Scalise: There will be Democrats voting, though, as well.

Sean Hannity: And Kevin McCarthy and I've been, as you know, very critical of Republicans for a lot of years for being weak, and spineless, and visionless, and feckless. Sorry, you deserved it all. I'm a registered conservative. But I will say it's been very impressive to see Republicans fight for once. Don't stop. Now fight for everything else.

Steve Scalise: Well, we're fighting for the right things. President Trump is --

Sean Hannity: All right, let me get to Andy Biggs.

Steve Scalise: -- fighting for the American people. We're standing with him.

Sean Hannity: All right, Andy Biggs, I will say this, too. Without the Freedom Caucus, the Jim Jordans, the Mark Meadows, the every-so young -- but he had a great time. I mean, he's been great. Matt Gaetz, Elise Stefanik has been a rising star, Ratcliffe, Devin Nunes. This has been -- Freedom Caucus -- I don't know. Really, it seems to be the foundation of the backbone of the Republican Party.

Rep. Andy Biggs: Well, Sean, the Freedom Caucus is a group of men and women who really are principled. And, you know, you get a great constitutional debate any time you come to the freedom caucus. But one thing we know is that this is an assault on our constitution. It's an assault on the United States of America. It's an assault on the American voter. And that's the way we viewed this, and that's why we've stepped up, and we fought tooth and nail, and we're a group of fighters. And, with the help of Steve, and Kevin, and so many others in the conference, we've been able to stand up and really push back on the Democrats and expose them. I mean, you've talked about Adam Schiff tonight. That guy's credibility is nothing. And, you know what, they -- the Democrats relied on his report that he put out. So, last night, they're all quoting from Adam Schiff's report as if it's gospel, but we know that he's lied over, and over, and over again. So, the freedom caucus guys know that the conference knows that we've been fighting together. And it's been wonderful to be united as the Republican Party in Congress, at this time.

Sean Hannity: Thank you, both, for what you're doing. When we come back, oh, Hillary Clinton really, really needs to get over losing the 2016 election. Remember the long list of excuses? Oh, plus another hint that she might throw her hat in the ring for 2020. Okay. Go for it, Hillary. Stay tuned.

[COMMERCIAL BREAK]

Sean Hannity: All right, so it's two-time failed presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton now poised to jump into the 2020 race, an upcoming series fueling speculation. Take a look.

[BEGIN VIDEO CLIP]

Male Speaker: Marker.

Bill Clinton: I said, "I really want to marry you, but you shouldn't marry me."

Hillary Clinton: Chelsea put herself between us and held both our hands, trying to keep us together. You know, you do me better than I do me. I want to push them, well, as far as we can push it. If I said, "Back up, you creep," would I sound angry?

Male Speaker: One of the most admired and one of the most vilified women in American history.

Hillary Clinton: Somebody asked me, "What do you want on your gravestone?" I said, "She's neither as good or as bad as some people say about her."

[END VIDEO CLIP]

Sean Hannity: And even recently Hillary could not stop herself from chiming in on Trump's impeachment, saying, quote, "America deserves free and fair elections." Yeah, that's the one that we had last time that you lost. Meanwhile, it seems like every day there is more bad news for sleepy, creepy, crazy Uncle Joe 30330 that had bleached hair on his legs in the summer. It is being reported Hunter Biden's controlled substance charge in 1988 was kept under wraps while his father was advocating for harsher drug laws from the U.S. Senate. Here with reaction to that, the author of the New York Times best-seller, "Witch Hunt," Fox News legal analyst, Gregg Jarrett, also the author of, "The Resistance (At All Costs)," Fox News contributor, Kimberley Strassel. Gregg Jarrett, we start with you tonight. Gregg, uh-oh, that's a problem.

Gregg Jarrett, Fox News: For Hunter Biden Joe Biden Yeah.

Sean Hannity: Correct.

Gregg Jarrett: Both Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton have more baggage than an airport terminal. Hillary Clinton's docuseries is promoting herself, which is what her books are about she doesn't promote books she promotes herself and the reason is because, you know, she has this persistent MLK like dream. I have a dream I'll walk out on the stage at the Democratic convention next summer and by acclamation I will be the nominee because they're deadlocked. The problem is she's just haunted by too many scandals. The uranium one pay to play scandal the email scandal and, of course, the most recent, she paid for the Russia hoax. And so, you know, good luck with your MLK like dream Hillary.

Sean Hannity: You had a great catch this week Kimberley Strassel and it had to do with GPS as Glenn Simpson, because what they're officially telling us is Operation Crossfire Hurricane counter Intel, which Andy McCarthy says he can't have unless the president signs off on it. That would be Obama. But your catch was that Fusion G.P.S. actually is talking about Russia and collusion in May. And meanwhile, they say it didn't start to, what, July 30 the 31.

Kimberley Strassel, Wall Street Journal: Yeah exactly this is very fishy. Sean, if you go all the relevant players here, the FBI says we weren't thinking about Trump Russia collusion until the end of July. You go back and you look at Glenn Simpson's Senate testimony and he says he only hired Christopher Steele in May because he wanted to look into Trump's business dealings. Then you go and you read the idea report. And here's what Steele told the IG he said Simpson approached him in May specifically to look into any ties between the Trump campaign and Russia and whether or not Russia was trying to get a specific election outcome. Now, where did Glenn Simpson get this narrative this early in the game?

Sean Hannity: Well, I think that's such a great question. I mean, Gregg what do you take on that?

Gregg Jarrett: Cause he got it from American intelligence agencies and likely the instigator of the hoax, which is John Brennan and the amazing part is if you look at the timeline and I put this in my book within two weeks of Christopher Steele comes up with the dossier, at least the first and second memos. If you read those memos, that is an impossibility unless he's just fed a bunch of garbage and of course, that's what we learned from the IG report, that it all largely came from a sub source who was finally confronted by the FBI and he said, are you kidding me these are all miss statements. We had exaggerations.

Sean Hannity: I got a good kick I'll give the last word to Kimberley. I got a kick out of the sub source says, oh that was bar talk one sub source and, you know, we knew that Steele didn't stay stand behind it but the other guys like saying you mean you actually you really believe that hooker story and the Ritz in Moscow.

Kimberley Strassel: Yeah and here's the amazing thing, Sean, is you go through this report and you realize that the FBI had about a million red flags presented the second this report came in and yet they didn't even bother to go find this source and talk to them until January of 2017. They could have saved the country so much grief that they had done basic due diligence on this guy and his reporting and spared us all.

Sean Hannity: All right, guys, thank you both. Great work, both of you. The last couple of years, hard work, investigative reporting. When we come back. All right. Oh, we have a big announcement to make. That's at the end of the show. But a big warning sign from 2020 Democrats from across the pond. Straight ahead.

[COMMERCIAL BREAK]

Sean Hannity: All right, so now the new extreme Democratic Socialist Party, they find more and more ways to alienate themselves from, oh, hardworking, law abiding, taxpaying, common sense Americans, especially far left radical congresswoman Tlaib who falsely claimed the recent tragic shooting that took place in Jersey City, targeted the Jewish community, was an act of white supremacy.

And that is a complete lie. In fact, these shooters have reported ties to the Black Hebrew Israelites. Where did we hear that name before? Oh, Nicholas Sandmann, the kid with the Make America Great Again hat. Who's probably going to be a multi-millionaire. So it Tlaib ever going to issue an apology? Anyway.

Meanwhile, Congresswoman, the head of the squad, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is hitting new levels of embarrassment after her socialist comrade from Great Britain, Jeremy Corbyn, was smashed in a landslide defeat in the UK elections. Now, Ocasio-Cortez actually endorsed the radical left leader who has a deep, disturbing history of anti-Semitism. But the good news is Boris Johnson, the Conservatives, won by historic proportions in what was a stinging rebuke of the economy killing socialist agenda.

Sounds like Joe Biden is worried, calling Johnson a, quote, "physical and emotional clone of President Trump." Well, the fact is, Democratic Party is more destructive than ever, more extreme than ever. They're not helping the country ever at any point. All they do is hate Trump and they're more disconnected from reality than ever before. And their policies are even more radical and extreme every day. Here's reaction. Fox News contributor Charlie Hurt, Sarah Carter. Good to see you both. You know, Sarah, I mean, not watching this whole thing unfold and I read a lot of the headlines today and fear literally struck at the heart of the Democratic Party because, you know, there have been comparison. Look, I think Trump's an original. I don't think you can duplicate him but he got a majority that nobody anticipated. The biggest since Margaret Thatcher.

Kimberley Strassel: Mm-hmm. That's absolutely right and if Biden thought he was insulting Boris Johnson he's completely wrong. It's an absolute compliment. It's a political compliment because what we're seeing in Great Britain is what's happened here, Sean. The people are sick and tired of having someone tell them what they should do, who they should vote for. They care about Britain first. They want to see action. They want to see change. That's why we saw such a shift in parliament in Great Britain. You know, over 362 seats for the conservative party. You know, --

Sean Hannity: Massive.

Kimberley Strassel: --- Jeremy Corbyn lost everything. He lost everything and now here in the United States it's the same situation. You know, Biden should take a good hard look at his party and what's happened to his party and he's the problem with it. he is actually the problem with his own party and how it swung so far to the left. The American people are not going to buy into socialism. They don't want socialism. And I think it's an example of what we saw happen in Great Britain.

Sean Hannity: And he's offering now today –

Kimberley Strassel: Right.

Sean Hannity: --- just we'll legalize however many illegal immigrants are in the country and are looking for ways -- do you see this, Charlie, as a preview of coming attractions and do you see the similarities that many make? Because I don't think the Democrat -- they jumped out of the airplane.

Charlie Hurt: Yeah.

Sean Hannity: You can't just -- the airplane's 5,000 feet, 10,000 feet above them. They're locked in to the new green deal. They're locked in to Medicare for all. They're locked in to radical I hate Trumpism.

Charlie Hurt: And what of course we're learning right now and what I think Joe Biden is frantically signaling a little late in the game I would say, is the fact that all of these crazy ideas that we've been sort of shocked and appalled over that we've been hearing from these people over the past couple of years, it's not just a dead loser in a general election, it's a loser among Democrat voters, the mainstream Democrat voters don't want any of this stuff either. It's just this screaming crazy left-wing Twitter mob group of far-left crazies who want this stuff. And if Joe Biden had been an adult and had an ounce of statesmanship in him and actually ran as a centrist Democrat candidate over the past year and a half, he would be in a great position right now. But instead he went and ran off with the circus and he's completely discredited himself.

Sean Hannity: All right. So, let me ask you both –

Kimberley Strassel: Agree.

Sean Hannity: And on top of him saying to voters calling them fat, damn liars, and talking about the hair on his legs that get bleached.

Kimberley Strassel: The shiny hair on his legs, the shiny blonde hair.

Sean Hannity: Okay. All right. When we come back, moderate Democrats fearful of voting for Trump's impeachment. You need to hear Rush Limbaugh's advice. I think Rush is right. That's a hint. Straight ahead.

[COMMERCIAL BREAK]

Sean Hannity: All right. To this. Ukrainian impeachment coup attempt by the House Democrats. Their last-ditch effort. Even they admitted it was their only shot of beating President Trump in 2020 and we need to impeach him again and again and again and we don't care about the American people. Impeachment won't take him down and the House Democrats should be shaking in their boots if, you know, it's not going to bode well for them in the coming election. Rush Limbaugh, America's anchorman, had some advice for moderate Democrats. Take a listen.

Rush Limbaugh: Come out and fully support Trump. If you want to get re-elected. All 31 of your Democrats in Trump districts, he's going to run again. He's going to get re-elected. Come out and support him. You don't have to go on campaign visits with him. You don't have to go on to rallies but come out and support it. And you'll be re-elected. Now, you're going to get re-elected and I understand the leadership in the House not going to be happy with you, but you will be re-elected if you come out and support Trump. Do not doubt me on this.

Sean Hannity: Not doubting you on it. All right. Big announcement: This weekend I want you to tune into the great one, Mark Levin, show, "Life, Liberty, and Levin," okay. We're changing roles. I will be the guest for the full hour and well, here's a preview.

[BEGIN VIDEO CLIP]

Sean Hannity: Are you going to let me tell my story about you? This is a -- folks, you want to hear this story. Are you going to leave time for that?

Mark Levin: First of all, the audience wants to see what's going on during the breaks. You can tell.

Sean Hannity: I want to tell -- leave me one minute at the end of the show.

Mark Levin: Do you want to do it now?

Sean Hannity: You want me to do it now?

Mark Levin: Go ahead.

Sean Hannity: I think it was during actually the Clinton impeachment, somewhere around there.

Mark Levin: Yes.

Sean Hannity: You and I just start talking.

[END VIDEO CLIP]

Sean Hannity: By the way, that's a Fox News Channel official hoodie. It was cold in his studio. What do you want me to do? Anyway, Mark's show on there for the full hour I'll be his guest, 8 p.m. this Sunday night. Number one show on cable on Sunday nights right here on the Fox News channel. All right. That is all the time we have left this evening. This was a bad week for the Democrats, for the media mob, and let's say the deep state. We'll stay on the truth. We will never be the [unintelligible] Trump media mob. We hope you'll set your DVR so you never miss an episode. And we will be back on Monday and let not your heart be troubled. "The Ingraham Angle" is next and we hope you have a great weekend.

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