Trump impeachment attorney talks defending the former president

close

Video

Trump impeachment attorney talks defending the former president

David Schoen joins 'Hannity' to discuss day one of proceedings in the Senate impeachment trial

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity" February 9, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST:  To catch a star, that's all there is to it.

CARLSON:  That's good.

HANNITY:  A hundred percent.

All right. Tucker, thank you.

Welcome to HANNITY.

Here we go again for the second time in as many years, actually, two
Februarys in a row, Democrats are conducting a show trial in the U.S.
Senate to impeach and convict Donald J. Trump who is president in exile
according to Jim Acosta.

And while the first unsuccessful charade was pretty terrible, the sequel is
even worse.

Now, coming up tonight, we have a lot of analysis. We'll get reaction.

Donald Trump Jr. is here. Senator Ted Cruz is here. The president's
attorney, David Schoen -- had a great day today in my opinion -- he will
join us for an exclusive interview.

First, I would like to start and lay out the arguments that I think I would
make if I was there.

Now, today, the U.S. Senate kicked off what could be a lengthy, dramatic
Senate trial against the former president. It all means absolutely nothing.
We can start there as the outcome is already predetermined because we know
President Trump will be acquitted. You need two-thirds of the U.S. Senate
to convict, 44 senators now have already voted twice to stop the proceeding
because it is unconstitutional for the Senate to convict a private citizen.

And, by the way, they don't even have jurisdiction on a private citizen.
You cannot remove somebody from an office they no longer hold.

Now, what we are witnessing on Capitol Hill is a complete and total waste
of taxpayer time, your time, your money, your resources. This will solve
nothing. It will improve nothing. It will not make your life better it any
way.

It will not unite the country like Joe says he wants to do. It will not
ease tensions in the country. It will not create a single job. It will not
provide necessary COVID relief and a more organized distribution of the
Donald Trump vaccine, other words, Operation Warp Speed. Democratic
governors are messing it up in state after state.

Now, this charade only serves the Democratic Party, their own obsessive,
compulsive need to impeach Donald Trump and avenged the results of 2016.

They never got over it. They never will get over it.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  That could be seen as an impeachable defense.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:  Impeach.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Impeachable offense.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:  Impeach 45!

CROWD:  Impeach 45!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Impeachable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Impeachable offense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Impeachment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:  Impeachment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Impeachable.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:  That's an impeachable offense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Impeachable offense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Impeachment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Impeachment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Impeachable offense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Grounds for impeachment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:  Impeachable.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:  Grounds for impeachment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Impeachment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  An impeachable offense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Impeachment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:  Impeachment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Impeachable.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:  We're going to impeach the mother (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Impeachable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  If that's not impeachable, I don't know what is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Impeachment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Is it impeachable?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Grounds for impeachment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:  Talk of impeachment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  None of us came to Congress to impeach a president and
now, we have to do our duty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY:  Now, make no mistake. By the way, that's the short version.
What's happening in the Senate is, well, we'll call it, sewer, swamp
theater. Now, it's complete with hysteria, hyperbole, and, of course, well,
rank hypocrisy.

Now, of course, the Democrats conducted the snap impeachment in the House
without taking the time to gather evidence, build a case, allow for due
process, or a defense or even a rudimentary investigation. They are now
short on something called facts.

This is why you don't rush to judgment. That's why we have due process.
That's why a snap impeachment is so dangerous to this country.

They claim the president incited an insurrection, their new favorite word,
because of his insightful remarks on January 6. But now, according to every
major media outlet and the FBI and court documents and even AOC, yeah, the
capital breach was, we now know, predetermined, preplanned. It was
plotting, planning, scheming by violent agitators while way before the
president ever spoke at the rally, days and weeks before.

How do I know? The mob and the media even have to admit it. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  The investigation into the deadly insurrection at the
U.S. Capitol a week ago, new evidence that it was planned.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:  Also shocking, new reporting that the FBI received a
very specific reporting before the riot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  That FBI notice warned of war at the capitol, but for
some reason, security wasn't stepped out there to meet the challenge that
that attack would oppose.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  The FBI admitting it had intelligence before the
insurrection that people were planning to travel to D.C. with the intent to
cause violence.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:  One week before, the week prior to the insurrection,
I started to get text messages that I needed to be careful and that in
particular, I needed to be careful about the sixth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY:  Now, according to Forbes, quote, the Capitol attack was planned
openly online for weeks and police, law enforcement, they still weren't
ready.

"The Washington Post," the FBI report warned of, quote, war at the capitol,
contradicting claims that there was no indication of any looming violence.
And even "The New York Times," FBI warned of violence before the siege.

This is why the capitol police chief actually requested the National Guard
before, during, and after. As a matter of fact, he made six separate
appeals for help, but his pleas for help were rejected every single time.
In fact, according to Trump chief of staff, Mark Meadows, he was on with
our own Maria Bartiromo over the weekend, the president was very vocal
about offering security assistance prior to the 6th and even ordered 10,000
National Guard troops to stand ready. But they were never called on, even
when the chief of police in the capitol was calling them, until, of course,
it was too late.

The federal government has a duty to figure out exactly what went wrong
here, why those capital police were left out to dry, why didn't Pelosi have
the sergeant of arms prepared, what are we going to discuss her dereliction
of duty and failure to protect the capitol?

By the way, that's your capitol, we the people. That's our capitol. Those
are our elected officials.

This transcends any politics in my mind. It doesn't matter, whoever is
elected needs to be protected, period, end of sentence.

That's why I've been saying we need a 9/11 style commission to investigate
and give us a full report and put in changes so this never happens again.
Well, not the snap impeachment of a former president. That directly impacts
the argument, by the way, that President Trump's rallies speech was
responsible for inciting the insurrection.

If it was planned in advanced, no argument can be made that the president
in any way through his words was responsible for what they had preplanned
unless he was part of the planning and, of course, nobody is making that
allegation because that never happened.

So, now, the entire impeachment Schiff show charade and charges is dead in
the water. Democrats now are left arguing that President Trump told his
supporters he's going to fight like.

But don't forget, President Trump also told his supporters that many of you
will now peacefully and patriotically march to the capitol so your voices
can be heard. But I guess that doesn't matter to Democrats because they
conveniently left all of that out in their presentation today by again
selectively cutting, slicing, dicing, cherry-picking only the parts of his
speech that they want the public to hear. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT:  I know that everyone here will soon be
marching over to the capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make
your voices heard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY:  Oh, whether the Democrats going to show that part of the speech
or rally?

Democrats don't want you to hear that part because according to them,
context doesn't matter. Yeah, the president absolutely said "fight like
hell" and we're to believe that that phrase, those words, fight is somehow
a call for insurrection? If so, well, Democrats, the media mob, well, they
use the exact same language. That would mean if we use their standard,
they're guilty of insurrection themselves.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  What does Congress do about this?

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA):  We fight. We keep fighting.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY):  We're going to keep fighting, and fighting and
fighting for this.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA):  We should dream big, fight hard, and take
back our country.

PETE BUTTIGIEG, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY:  This is a fight of our lives.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:  Stand up and fight for
the best of who we are, and I'm prepared to fight and I know how to fight.

ERIC HOLDER, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL:  But I'm ready for that fight.
Increasing numbers of people are ready for that fight.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT):  Stand up and fight for democracy.

WATERS:  I will fight every day until he is impeached.

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ):  This is time for every single one of us to get up
and fight for our country.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDNET:  We can't just imagine a better future. We
got to fight for it.

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY):  We continue to fight for a
progressive agenda in our future.

REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D-TX): That's what we are fighting against when we
fight Republicans in Congress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY:  Well, by their own standard, is that not incitement towards
insurrection?

What about this violent rhetoric from Joe Biden himself? Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:  They asked me, would I like to
debate this gentleman, and I said no. I said, if I were in high school, I
take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY:  I wonder what would happen to any conservative that said they
wanted to take any Democratic president in the back of the gym and beat the
hell out of him.

So, do we impeach Joe Biden? He said it about a sitting president.

What about this incitement insurrection language from Senator Cory Booker?
You decide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOOKER:  Before I end, that's my call to action here. Please don't just
come here today and then go home, go to the Hill today. Get up and please
get up in the face of some congresspeople.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY:  Get in the face of your congresspeople.

When are we going to impeach insurrectionist Cory Booker? Or is it okay for
a Democratic senator to call for getting in the face, violence against
members of Congress? And what about Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on
the steps of the United States Supreme Court?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHUMER:  I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you
have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price.

(CHEERS)

You won't know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY:  You've released the whirlwind. You will pay the price.

Oh, when do we impeach Chuck Schumer or is it just okay for the Democratic
leader in the Senate to threaten members of the U.S. Supreme Court outside
their own building?

And, of course, what about Maxine Waters? She vowed to take Trump out
tonight and called on supporters to also attack cabinet officials. Follow
them to store -- they are not wanted anywhere anymore, get a crowd and
everything, take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WATERS:  If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a
department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a
crowd, and you push back on them, and you tell them they're not welcome.

And with this kind of inspiration, I will go and take Trump out tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY:  When does Congresswoman Waters get impeached for that violent,
inciting rhetoric, a call to insurrection if they love that turn so much?

What about Vice President Kamala Harris during the height of this summer's
riots? Remember, right after the police precinct in Minneapolis was burned
to the ground, oh, this is what then Senator Harris had to say. Take a
look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS:  This is a movement, I'm telling you. They're not going to stop and
everyone beware because they're not going to stop and they're not going to
stop before election day in November and they're not going to stop after
election day. And that should be -- everyone should take note of that on
both levels that this -- they're not going to let up and they should not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY:  They're not going to stop. They shouldn't stop. We shouldn't
stop.

Before, during, after those remarks, American cities -- they were facing a
wave of violent riots, so does it not count as an incitement, again, their
charge, to insurrection when far left rioters attack a federal courthouse
in Portland for weeks on end or occupy an entire city blocks in the middle
of Seattle or burn a police station to the ground in Minneapolis, let's
see, just take over police stations, lay siege on the White House? When the
president and his family were inside?

Riots all summer and the left either praised them, ignored them, or
downplayed them. After all, the riots this past year and this is the only
one they get outraged about. Well, over the summer, nearly 30 people died,
over 2,000 police officers -- they were hit with rocks and bottles and
bricks and Molotov cocktails and frozen water bottles and worse.

And what about the unionists? Remember, the people that stormed the
Wisconsin state capitol? Oh, Nancy Pelosi praised them, said it was an
impressive show of democracy in action and went on to say she stands in
solidarity with those that invaded and occupied, yeah, the state capitol
building. Wow, how times have changed.

So will Pelosi and her fellow Democrats hold themselves accountable or is
this impeachment charade Schiff show a total sham?

The answer is obvious, not only is the impeachment premise
unconstitutional, hypocritical, totally insane, but is now officially
constitutes a kangaroo court.

Look at this -- the judge presiding over the trial, it's not Chief Justice
Roberts as the Constitution calls for. Why? Because he wanted nothing to do
with this Schiff show charade and a show trial.

Instead the presiding judge is Democratic Senator Pat Leahy, that guy right
there. He's also -- well, he is a member of the jury and to make matters
worse, he already voiced -- he's presiding over the whole thing and he's
already voiced his support for Donald Trump's conviction, writing, quote:
For the good of the country, he must leave his party and voting to convict
President Trump and prevent him from holding future office.

Now, if you ever go to court, do you want to get a judge that has already
decided you're guilty before the whole thing started?

And meanwhile, the Democratic impeachment managers are also deeply flawed.
You have Eric Swalwell and his long-time BFF, you know, the person named
Fang Fang, the Chinese spy. You got Jamie Raskin, that guy actually
challenged the 2016 election results which he seems to now think is an
impeachable offense.

And ultimately, the show trial would drag on, I don't know, days, they call
witnesses weeks, and in a way I kind of hope they do call witnesses. I've
got a great list for the Republican senators.

Well, we are going to see hysteria. You're going to witness feigned,
selective moral outrage. We will all witness rank hypocrisy and what is
nothing but a detestable double standard.

But the outcome, it's pretty certain and predetermined. President Trump
will be acquitted and this will all be for nothing. Watch your great
elected officials in action.

Here with reaction, Donald Trump Jr.

All right. A lot to digest.

Four major arguments in my mind, one, it's unconstitutional. Two, the snap
impeachment was made before we found out that the whole thing had been
preplanned in advance. Three, the insurrectionist language of the left
which I kind of think is a big deal and we can get to more. Your thoughts?

DONALD TRUMP, JR., AUTHOR OF "LIBERAL PRIVILEGE":  Well, Sean, if it wasn't
for double standards, the Democrats would have no standards at all. I mean,
I think, in your monologue, you sort of highlighted all of the hypocrisy
that we saw during ten months of rioting, looting, arson, in-your-face type
of politics.

Candidly, whatever my father said on January 6th was mild in comparison.
But if you were to take his speech and compare it to literally any stump
speech ever given in the history of politics, you would see absolutely no
deviation, but again, because the Democrats have the media in their pocket,
carrying whatever message, they can go on with impeachment part two, what
they started back in 2016 before the original inauguration. They're just
going to continue it.

They are all excited to be able to grandstand, to be able to selectively
edit, to do their faux outrage on a global scale with TV and free air time.
That's what this is all about.

And I think that's the way we have to counter that. We have to do the same
things. We have to fight back the way the Democrats fight.

And I don't mean physically because in today's world, if you say the word
"fight", all of a sudden, magically, that means an insurrection. Give me a
break, Sean. This stuff is asinine.

Forty-four Republicans have already voted to say that the sham impeachment
part two was unconstitutional.

Aren't we in the middle of a pandemic, Sean? I thought that these senators
would maybe have something better to do. Maybe they would actually fight
for the American people for a change. Maybe they would actually get to the
business of helping us through this pandemic.

I don't see that happening and I certainly don't see it happening from the
Biden administration who's killing American jobs, defending China,
eliminating the ban of the Confucius Institute, which is China taking over
our universities and ultimately bribing our professors to get, you know,
all the data that you have out of the research projects at American
universities. I mean, you're opening the border, you have to test people
coming in legally to the country for COVID-19, but illegal immigrants
streaming across the border, there's no test. They just get released to the
society.

The double standards are insane and may be the United States Senate should
be focused on that rather than their nonsense.

HANNITY:  You know, I know that there are eight -- there are going to be
two eight-hour days available for both the case they want to put on -- I
don't know what they could possibly say except slice, dice, selectively
edit. Oh, look at this, but let's take out what Donald Trump said to march
peacefully and patriotically, we'll take that part out.

To me -- 

TRUMP JR.:  Yeah. Minor detail, Sean.

HANNITY:  Minor detail. Yeah, it's called a fact. Yeah, it's actually
called real words that they didn't want. That's inconvenient for their
argument.

But it's not inconvenient, their insurrectionist language, Don Jr., is it?
It's not -- if we apply the standards to them, then all of the ones I've
played and many more I could go on all night -- they would be guilty based
on their own standard, and yet the media is only on one side. That's sad.

TRUMP JR.:  Correct. And more importantly, the Republicans are also -- and
rightfully so. I don't think we should be impeaching every one of the
Democratic caucus who said ridiculous things that are frankly much more
inflammatory than anything Donald Trump said.

HANNITY:  I agree.

TRUMP JR.:  I'm not about that, although if they are going to pursue these
things, Republicans have to stop trying to play the game differently. We've
got to play hardball if they're playing hardball. We've been playing T-ball
for generations while the Democrats have played hardball.

We've turned the other cheek as they slapped us in the face and laugh as
they've won every major fight along the way, while we claim some sort of
moral high ground and losing everything.

That's what Donald Trump showed the Republican Party. That you can push
back, that you don't have to go with their norms, that you don't have to
listen to the media when they're just flagrantly putting out nonsense. You
can actually push back, and I hope that the Republican Party does that.

If they go back to the old ways of just rolling over and dying each and
every time someone in the media wants to write a mean piece about them
because they can't stand them or their constituents or Donald Trump's 75
million people that voted for him in this country, the highest of any
conservative in the history of America, there's no future for the party.
So, they'd better learn from that.

And as much as I despise the notion of it, we have to be playing the same
game. So we got to come out aggressively. We got to pursue those kind of
ideas if they're going to do it.

It's the same with cancel culture. Notice, that only goes one way. I'm not
for cancel culture but if they're going to go against us, against half of
the country on a daily basis and use it to get rid of people, to suppress
them, to bully them -- and it's bullying in so many cases.

You know, if they come after me, it's one thing. I got a platform, I'm a
big boy. When they go after some of these people that don't have any
platform, they tried to attack them, as CNN has done with random people who
posted something on Facebook, that kind of bullying has to stop and we have
to push back accordingly.

HANNITY:  Hey, Don, look what's -- it's cancel culture. Oh, have you -- are
you and have you ever been a supporter of Donald Trump? Reeducation camps.
They won't hire people that serve country in the White House.

Oh, Don Jr. might buy a house in the neighborhood, oh, I get the vapors,
oh, the feigned outrage. It is literally -- it is the sickest it's ever
been, ever.

TRUMP JR.:  It is really. I mean, it's McCarthyism on steroids. I mean,
think about this way, Sean -- I mean, they're doing it across the board but
even within the military, if you have conservative leanings, we're going to
purge.

Well, I don't know, I called a couple of friends of mine, you know, in the
SEAL teams. You know, how many guys do you think would left in the teams?
And they go about, maybe 1 percent and they'd be really, really moderate on
just everything.

So, this notion of purging conservatives from the military for -- I mean,
what are they protecting? I mean, these people have to represent Americans.
This is half of the country that they're talking about -- 

HANNITY:  Yeah.

TRUMP JR.:  -- trying to cancel, trying to suppress and guess what, this is
the kind of treatment and behavior that created the rise of Donald Trump
and I think we are going to see that goes back in midterms, because as
always, the Democrats are overplaying their hand.

They don't get it because they live in their little echo chambers, and I
understand the irony of a son of a billionaire from Manhattan having a
better pulse of the American people than the people chosen by those people
to represent them in Congress. But Congress is clueless. The Democrats in
Congress have no idea what's going on because they have their lackeys in
the media telling them they are right about all of their nonsensical
attacks.

HANNITY:  All right. Why don't you go to Congress and argue with David
Schoen? You'd be the perfect guy.

All right. Don, Jr., thank you.

All right. Up next, will AOC apologize to Ted Cruz for saying he almost had
her murdered? Apparently, she was in the other building. Not that we're
downplaying the threat.

We'll tell you the answer and get Senator Cruz's reaction, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY:  Now, at the exact same time Democrats are lying about President
Trump's remarks on the 6th and then slicing, dicing, cutting and editing,
far left radicals, they still refuse to take any responsibility for their
reckless, violent rhetoric.

Joining us now to discuss this and more, Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

Senator, good to see you.

How would you argue this -- I thought David Schoen, who was going to join
us next, was particularly effective. I thought it was a little bit of a
weak start, I'm not being critical, just a little lackluster, meandering to
me, needs a little more focus, and I thought David brought that.

Your thoughts?

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX):  Well, there's no doubt that lawyers could tighten it
up some but at the end of the day, I think today typified what we're going
to see this week, which it reminds me of Shakespeare. It's full of sound
and fury signifying nothing.

We're going to see this week a whole lot of Democrats pounding the table.
We're going to see a lot of moralizing and a lot of really venting their
hatred for Donald Trump. In case you haven't been paying attention the last
four years, the Democrats really, really hate Donald Trump and they're
going to attack President Trump over and over again, every way they can.

They're going to bring in -- you know, the idea that they've got -- you
know, Swalwell coming in. I do hope he gives -- gives some remarks on
improving our relations with China. He has a novel approach to that.

But this is going to be just venting the id of the Democrats -- 

HANNITY:  Senator -- 

CRUZ:  -- and it's going to end with failure. It is going to end with the
president being acquitted.

In order for the president to be convicted, it takes 67 votes in the U.S.
Senate. That's not going to happen. It's not going to get 67 votes, it's
not going to get close to 67 votes. Every one of the 100 senators knows
that. Every one of the House managers knows that.

But this is political theater because rather than address the real
problems, the real challenges we have in this country, rather than focused
on getting kids back in school and getting tens of millions of Americans
back to work, the Democrats want a week of just political theater raging at
Donald Trump.

HANNITY:  If the issues that you mentioned and others, COVID relief,
vaccine distribution, helping people that are still in need of help because
of draconian shutdowns, et cetera, et cetera, if that wasn't so important
right now, I would almost want to argue, I'd like to bring in witnesses
because I'd like America to see the double standard of how we define
insightful language and insurrection.

But now that we know it's preplanned and they knew it ahead of time and
didn't do anything, that now transcends all issues because we can't allow
that to be happening in a post-9/11 America, Senator Cruz.

CRUZ:  Well, Sean, you're exactly right, and let me commend your monologue
tonight. I always enjoy the monologues. But I think you did a really nice
job of clipping together some of the more egregious examples.

You know, the Democrats right now, what they're trying to say is that
President Trump's rhetoric what caused the terrorist attack on the capitol.
And listen, the president's language at times I think is overheated. But if
you look at the language he used, saying things like "fight", saying things
like "go retake our country", if that is now incitement, then we better
prepare a long line to indict every candidate for office who's ever run in,
anyone who was ever given a stump speech and said, let's go fight, let's go
win, let's go retake our country.

And when it comes to encouraging violence, you noted quite rightly that the
president was careful to say that the protesters should be peaceful. We
have had Democrats for a year cheering on, we've seen violence all over the
country, we've seen riots all over the country, we've seen stores being
looted, stores being firebombed, police cars being firebombed, police
officers being assaulted, police officers being murdered, individual
citizens being assaulted, and what did the Democrats do? They cheered it
on. They celebrated.

In fact, Kamala Harris, our new vice president, Kamala Harris not only
encouraged they keep at it and keep doing more, she raised money to pay for
the bail to bail out the violent criminals.

Now, let me be clear, anyone who attacked the capital, anyone who attacked
a police officer, they need to be prosecuted and they need to be put in
jail a long, long time.

HANNITY:  Let me -- 

CRUZ:  Nobody has a right to engage in violence.

The difference is, you and I have been consistent in that. We said if
you're engaged in violence, whether you're left-wing or right wing, that's
unacceptable. The Democrats have been complete hypocrites on this, cheering
on BLM and Antifa and apologizing for their violence, and the hypocrisy is
really thick right now.

HANNITY:  Senator, you're a constitutional scholar. You're a champion
debater from Harvard. Tell me what my arguments are missing or maybe what
you would like to see and hear from the defense in this case?

CRUZ:  I think the arguments that the defense needs to focus on are
precisely what you say, which is that the impeachment article fails on the
merits. They have charged the president with incitement of violence and
insurrection, nothing in he said -- nothing he said meets the legal
standard for incitement.

Incitement is very clear. Incitement is very deliberately saying go attack
and, by the way, if you are actually measuring the standard for incitement,
those Democrats you played, Maxine Waters, what she said, Chuck Schumer,
what he said, they would come much closer to meeting the standard for
incitement then did President Trump.

But the honest answer is, none of them meet incitement. You know, we have
the First Amendment, we have robust political speech. People are entitled
to be idiots. And, you know what? In the United States Congress, we get a
lot of people doing that.

We shouldn't be prosecuting people for speaking and we shouldn't be
impeaching them. This is political theater.

And the reason they are doing this, we need to understand this, it's not
just that they hate Donald Trump, they hate the 75 million Americans who
voted for him and they're trying to silence you, they're trying to cancel
you, they're trying to erase you and it's not going to work.

And already, just a couple of weeks into the Biden administration, they are
overreaching, they're going too far left.

And politics is like a pendulum and we're going to come back towards
sanity. And mark my words, 2022 is going to be a fantastic election and
2024 is going to be a fantastic election.

HANNITY:  All right. Senator Ted Cruz, thank you.

After the break, the president's attorney David Schoen, he joins us for an
exclusive interview following day one of the impeachment Schiff show
charade sham. Say that five times fast -- straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY:  All right. Joining us now is the attorney for President Trump,
David Schoen, for this impeachment -- I call it the Schiff show charade.

David -- we've been friends a long time, David. I loved your arguments. I
loved your passion.

I thought it started a little meandering, sort of like -- a lot of free
associating in the beginning and I'm not -- I'm not attacking your partner.
I don't -- I don't know him at all, but I liked -- I liked focused
arguments and I particularly liked -- you actually ran tape of the
Democrats pointing out the obvious that, oh, the news has changed quite a
bit since this snap impeachment.

DAVID SCHOEN, TRUMP ATTORNEY:  Yeah.  It's -- I think this is a very, very,
very painful and wrong process for the country. It's said -- as you said
earlier in your show, it's very easy to stand up and show spliced and
manufactured films. Literally, you know, the Democrats, the House managers
apparently hired a large movie company and a large law firm to put together
this thing.

It's just -- it's a matter of tricking the American people to play as if
the writing was going on in real time with the speech, what's the purpose
of that? Why do we want to trick the American people?

And, listen, they have great entertainment value. People are glued to, you
know, a movie that's made professionally like that. But that's not going to
advance the cause -- any cause of good in the country.

HANNITY:  The constitutional issue of jurisdiction, let's go over that, and
why this is not constitutional.

SCHOEN:  Yeah.

So many reasons why it's not constitutional. It's funny, though, that Dem -
- the House managers got up and said, it's such a clear question, even
their people say it's a close call at best. But it's -- it's common sense,
nobody thinks of using the impeachment process for anything other than
removing a civil official from office.

We have courts. If you want to have an investigation, if you want to
prosecute someone, or something like that, we have the courts for that.
That's not what impeachment is for.

But, you know, we talked about the language in the Constitution today, that
sort of thing. It's just -- to me, it's absolutely nonsense. The president
is no longer the president right now and he's a person who can't be removed
from office. He's a private citizen.

This is what our Founding Fathers are very much against, having a
legislative body try a private citizen. Think about it, he doesn't get any
of the benefits or safeguards that our Constitution provides for someone
who has an actual trial. They put that -- that videotape would never go
into evidence anywhere in the world today. It's a spliced tape showing what
they want to show.

HANNITY:  It's pretty profound to me that the media is now acknowledging,
we have a law enforcement, the FBI acknowledging, we have court documents
acknowledging, we have Ocasio-Cortez, the congresswoman, acknowledging --
all these people now discussing how in fact this is all preplanned.

Well, how do you make the argument that at a rally, the words of the
president to peacefully and patriotically march to the capitol so your
voices are heard -- how do you make the argument that that incited an
insurrection when in fact it was all planned out apparently ahead of time,
according to all of these varying sources now?

SCHOEN:  Yeah, even taking the position that that speech incited an
insurrection is as dangerous as I can imagine in the free speech area. It
should (ph) -- it would absolutely chill passionate political speech.

I think one of the your earlier guests, Mr. Trump Jr., said it best, that,
you know, compared to other rhetoric you hear, this is mild. If you really
read the speech and watch it, he calls for -- when he uses the word
"fight", it's in the context of a legislator fighting or something like
that. It's -- it's really setting a horrible message to people.

I understand they don't like Donald Trump on that side of the aisle. Well,
he has -- you know, half the country loves him. I would say to you probably
that if he had 74 million, 75 million voters, they voted for him because
they love Donald Trump.

I don't know that many other candidates can say that. People may have voted
because they didn't want Donald Trump, the other candidate, but he has a
real following.

He's a passionate person. And it's setting a very dangerous and a wrong
message, and it's a -- it's a hoax, I'm sorry to say.

HANNITY:  If we apply the Democratic standards for how they define
incitement and insurrection, well, what if we applied it as we started our
monologue tonight to the words of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer,
Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, and a whole host of others. If that same
standard is applied, do they not all deserve impeachment to it?

By the way, I don't agree with them, but if you use their standard, it
seems if you're somewhat intellectually honest, you'd have to say they
deserve impeachment.

SCHOEN:  Yeah, I would say -- you know, listen, if they tried to impeach
them, I would say was an abuse -- was an abuse of the impeachment process.
But your point is, they're using rhetoric that's just as inflammatory or
more so. The problem is, they don't really have followers, you know, the
dedicated followers. And so -- you know, when they give their speeches.

But this speech, I think right now, you really are finding out about the
preplanning and I'm afraid they're going to back off that investigation
because maybe, you know, so many people want to tie it to Donald Trump.
There's nothing they showed today that in any way ties it to Donald Trump.
It's just a silly argument. It's not tied to Donald Trump or his speech
whatsoever.

So what they're doing now a bit (ph) is, going -- well, you see, it's not
just that speech, he's been, you know, inciting people and inflaming
people. You know, he's been arousing the American public to drain the
swamp, whatever they call it on his side, to make a difference in this
country. That's what political speech is about.

HANNITY:  There's a lot of criticism of the opening, not your part in
particular. But it seemed to be free associating, extemporaneous, somewhat
meandering.

Will the rest of this process -- because you're going to be out, as I
understand it, Friday and Saturday -- will this be more focused and will it
be more prepared? And are there other people that are planning to make
those arguments? Because some conservatives called me and said, well, we
need somebody harder hitting here.

SCHOEN:  Well, the fellow who you said did the opening today has his law
firm there. They're very capable people. I'm sure -- today, he hadn't
planned on going. And so I'm sure they will be very well-prepared in the
future and do a great job in the case.

HANNITY:  All right.

SCHOEN:  There's a lot to say and I know you feel very strongly about
fighting against what they're seeing.

HANNITY:  All right. David, good job today. Thank you so much for sharing
it with us. We appreciate it.

You won't believe -- all right, creepy Joe is back. Yeah, creepy,
uncomfortable comment Joe directed at a nurse yesterday. We've got the tape
and we've got some highlights, and we'll get reaction from Pete Hegseth and
Tammy Bruce coming up, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY:  All right. So, now, the week, the frail, the cognitively
struggling Joe had another baffling and frankly what we were calling before
the election, creepy moments in -- this happened Monday in a virtual
discussion with a nurse running a vaccine center in Arizona.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NURSE:  They know that I'm trying to do everything to make this safe and
efficient. So, support. Yeah.

BIDEN:  Well, are you a freshman at the university?

NURSE:  No, no.

BIDEN:  I'm teasing.

(LAUGHTER)

BIDEN:  You look like a freshman.

(LAUGHTER)

NURSE:  Why, thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY:  Okay. Now, it wouldn't be that bad, but, of course, Biden has a
long history of this sort of unprofessional, these uncomfortable moments.

Here with reaction, "FOX & Friends" weekend co-host Pete Hegseth, along
with FOX News contributor Tammy Bruce.

I mean, when you run the video and we actually edit out and pixel the
phases of a lot of young kids in this with Joe, you know, a lot of hair
sniffing, a lot of kind of kissing of the neck, just kind of creeped me
out. I'm being nice or else I'd show a lot of stuff that I think some
parents may not like -- Pete.

PETE HEGSETH, FOX & FRIENDS WEEKEND CO-HOST:  Sean, she was not just not a
freshman at Arizona, she was the lead nurse on a COVID-19 vaccination site
meant to demonstrate the efficacy of their efforts which, of course, the
Biden administration should be thanking the miracle of these vaccines to
the Trump administration.

I mean, there's a reason Dr. Biden did all the talking in the Super Bowl
video because we know who Joe is. This is very, very typical, not
surprising at all. And, you know, instead of focusing on COVID the way he
should, Sean, we are spending all this time talking about an impeachment
hearing that we know the outcome is going to be when the Senate, the House,
and the White House can be totally focused on actual vaccine sites like
this.

Instead, we get a virtual hair sniffing which is what we can expect from
Uncle Joe.

HANNITY:  You know, Tammy, I don't know. Maybe I just have a different
philosophy, I'm not a big touchy-feely type and you've seen the video which
I'm discussing here. This was not the worst comment in the world, let's be
-- let's be honest here. Trying to -- I assume just trying to be nice.

TAMMY BRUCE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR:  There was more.

HANNITY:  There is a lot more.

BRUCE:  Yeah. And look, and this is where we have to remember what has led
up to this, the impeachment hearing is a distraction from the disaster that
is in the White House. Joe Biden had to issue, remember, during the
campaign, a video statement after scores of women came forward,
professional women, women who are Democrats saying that their space had
been not just intruded upon but his inappropriate behavior made them
extremely uncomfortable, credibly accused by at least, I think, 18 women, a
dozen to 18 women if not more and a credible accusation of sexual assault.

You notice that that is gone. This is what we can expect. This isn't just
from today where he was tired or he was, you know, trying to be funny. This
is what he does and what it shows you, Sean, is how deep-seated this
attitude is.

His comment to her and I think being a freshman is great, being in a
college is great, but it was a diminishment of that woman before his
comment.

She had described her role, what her position is after that comment, she
described it again. That woman worked hard to be in that position and he
turned her into a thing.

This is what Joe Biden does. It's what he's been doing, and the Democrats,
Hollywood, you notice their silence. It highlights their hypocrisy and this
-- he has been in office, what, Sean, a couple of weeks and it's already
beginning -- Kamala Harris said she believes his accusers. If you notice
her face when this begins, it -- there's a sweeping kind of panic. And she
erases it right away.

But she is there all the time now almost like a minder which is shameful.
This is an issue of character across the board for everyone in the White
House.

HANNITY:  Yeah, he may be weak and frail but I guess old habits are hard to
break.

Twenty seconds, Pete Hegseth.

HEGSETH:  That's exactly right and you want the most thoughtful, serious
person possible in that position to get us out of this nightmare we're in
instead. I mean, again, what Tammy said is right, we knew who this nurse
was. Afterward, she had to have the knowledge it, yet you make a crack that
she's a freshman at Arizona? Like it was the juvenile, the base thing you
can think of in the most important moment you can possibly imagine.

It's who Joe Biden is. It's the empty vessel we have in the White House.
It's really sad.

HANNITY:  All right. Pete, thank you. Tammy, thank you.

We'll have more HANNITY right after this. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY:  All right. Unfortunately, that is all the time we have left this
evening. We hope you'll see your DVR so you never miss an episode of
Hannity. This show is always independent. We always do our own research.
We'll never be the media mob. We'll give you news, information and opinion.

We're like the whole newspaper in the press. They say that they're news.
They're not. They're abusively biased.

But let not your hearts be troubled. Why? Because Laura Ingraham takes you
the rest of the way.

Laura, how are you?

END

Content and Programming Copyright 2021 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2021 ASC Services II Media, LLC.  All materials
herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be
reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast
without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may
not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of
the content.