Why are Twitter, Facebook doing bidding of the Biden campaign?

close

Video

Why are Twitter, Facebook doing bidding of the Biden campaign?

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., joins 'Hannity' to discuss Hunter Biden's Ukraine dealings and social media censorship.

This is a rush transcript from “Hannity" October 15, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Welcome to "Hannity." 

Breaking moments ago, NBC fake news did their best to just ambush President Trump at tonight's town hall. He pretty much debated Savannah Guthrie. 

And what we all witnessed was not journalism. It was a political debate with the morning host of "The Today Show" serving as -- well, Joe Biden's surrogate and it didn't really work out well for her. 

Questions, topics, tactics all reeking of nothing but pure political bias, of course. In the first few minutes, the president was once again asked for the 400 millionth time to repeat what he has said over and over again, to condemn white supremacy. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: You were asked point blank to denounce white supremacy. In the moment, you didn't. You're asking follow-up questions, who specifically? 

A couple of days later, on a different show, you denounced white supremacy. 
My question to you is -- 

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, you always do this. 
You've done this to me and everybody -- 

GUTHRIE: -- why doesn't seem like -- 

TRUMP: I denounced white supremacy, OK? 

GUTHRIE: You did two days later.

TRUMP: I denounce white supremacy for years, but you always do it. You always start off with the question.

GUTHRIE: Well -- 

TRUMP: You didn't ask Joe Biden whether or not he denounces Antifa. I watched him in the same basic show with Lester Holt and he was asking questions like Biden was a child.

GUTHRIE: Well, so, this is a little bit of a dodge -- 

TRUMP: Are you listening? I denounce white supremacy.

GUTHRIE: OK.

TRUMP: What's your next question?

GUTHRIE: Do you feel -- it feels sometimes you're hesitant to do so like you wait -- 

TRUMP: Here we go again. Every time, in fact, my people came, I'm sure they'll ask you the white supremacy question. I denounce white supremacy.

GUTHRIE: OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Savannah, you need to get out of the New York, liberal elitist, out of touch bubble that you're living in and maybe you read some other news or take a step outside the far left enclave that is conspiracy TV MSNBC, DNC, President Trump has condemned, Savannah, white supremacy over and over and over and over again. 

And if you didn't know, you should have known. 

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Have you ever heard this president say one negative thing about white supremacists? Have you ever heard it? 

TRUMP: I totally disavow the Ku Klux Klan. I totally disavow David Duke.

BIDEN: I got back in this race because what happened in Charlottesville, people coming out of the woods carrying torches, their veins bulging, close your eyes and remember what you saw. 

And a young woman gets killed resisting the hate and violence and the president gets asked to comment in and what's he say? He says they're very fine people on both sides.

TRUMP: And you had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. And I'm not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists because they should be condemned totally.

BIDEN: He wouldn't even condemn David Duke for god's sake.

TRUMP: I reject David Duke, rejected David Duke. I've rejected the KKK, the Ku Klux Klan from the time I'm five years old, I rejected them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: At this point, the abusively biased NBC just using white supremacy lie is their way again, once again, always again to smear the president. 
They don't care about facts. They don't care about research. They don't care about truth. 

They don't care about fundamental fairness, especially not MSDNC news which is completely corrupt as we saw tonight. It is a conspiratorial wing of the DNC, and basically nothing but state-run television they're actively working to elect Sleepy Joe Biden and Guthrie's own husband was Al Gore's traveling chief of staff, what a shock.

And needless to say, this event which was billed as a town hall was nothing more than a contentious political debate with Guthrie interrupting the president again and again and again, all in the name of fairness. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I felt really good -- 

GUTHRIE: Did the doctors ever tell you that they saw pneumonia on your lungs scans?

TRUMP: No, but they said the lungs are, you know, a little bit different, a little bit perhaps infected and -- 

GUTHRIE: Infected with?

TRUMP: I don't know. I tested positive and -- 

GUTHRIE: Let's talk about testing because there's a little bit of a -- I guess confusion about this.

TRUMP: I had no problem before.

GUTHRIE: Did you test the day off the debate?

TRUMP: You can't let this continue to go on with the lockdowns and I believe that cities that are run by Democrats who don't know what they're doing -- 

GUTHRIE: All right. While we're denouncing, let me ask you about QAnon.

TRUMP: I know nothing about QAnon.

GUTHRIE: I just told you. 

TRUMP: I know very little. You told me, but what you tell me doesn't necessarily make it fact, I hate to say that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: I know nothing about QAnon. 

By the way I've had people try to explain it to me I have no clue what this thing is.

Do you think that Biden's receiving the same treatment over at ABC? Of course not, and I'm sure former Clinton hack George Stephanopoulos is giving him the white glove treatment, although reports tonight, Joe Biden completely melting down.

Joining us now with more is FOX News contributor and, of course, former -- well, White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer.

I mean, I know you've done this job. I know you've dealt with the media, as corrupt and liberal as they are, and I'm sitting there and I'm watching this, I'm like, oh, why don't we just have Joe Biden's campaign write the questions and argue the debate for Savannah Guthrie? It was that obvious. 

ARI FLEISCHER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: You know, Sean, I spent 21 years in Washington as a press secretary and I've always known Republicans of an uphill fight. We have to be smarter. We have to work twice as hard as Democrats. Democrats get softball questions. Republicans get hardball questions.

But then Donald Trump came along, and anything I thought was hard it's almost impossible for Trump. I mean, the bias of the media and the way they come at him, I watched the ABC town hall because I wanted to see how biased it might be I wanted to see the type of questions the audience was asking. 
I can tell you this, because I watched a little bit of Savannah during commercials, she interrupted Donald Trump more in seconds than George Stephanopoulos did to Joe Biden in 60 minutes.

I mean, one was an interrogation, the NBC interview of Donald Trump, and the other was a picnic in the park the ABC interview with George Stephanopoulos, totally different, want to challenge a president, the other to elect the president. That's the difference.

HANNITY: Okay. So, but I thought, with all of that said, the president said, okay, I'll answer it again. I condemn it again. So then -- I thought one of the funny -- oh, well you know all about the QAnon, and he said, not really, I really don't -- yes, you do. I'm like, what does she know about? 
Do you know anything about it because they write all the time that I know all about and I don't know all about it?

I just don't.

(LAUGHTER)

FLEISCHER: I -- I'm in the same category. I've heard of them, mostly just because of Twitter, but I pay no attention to them. I know they're conspiracy theorists, and I don't like conspiracy theorists.

But this drive to get Trump to say things that he's already said why doesn't anybody -- Trump's right, ask Joe Biden about Antifa? George Stephanopoulos did not ask him to denounce Antifa by name tonight. I could go through with you with the list of things that George Stephanopoulos did not ask Joe Biden about, starting with "The New York Post" story, a very simple question could have been -- did you, yes or no, ever meet with anybody from Burisma? Their email saying that you did. Are those emails false or did you have such a meeting? What do you think of big tech censoring anybody who wants to talk about "The New York Post" story?

None of that brought up tonight by George Stephanopoulos.

HANNITY: You know, I watch all of this, but at the end of the day, I -- as I watched the president when they finally got to the point where he was interacting with the was supposed to be a town hall with people -- even people that maybe were leaning towards Biden, you could just see that the president has this uncanny ability to warmly connect with people. You know, now, does he fight? Yeah. Does he battle? Yeah.

But didn't that fighting battle lead to him keeping his promises on tax cuts and building the wall and ending bureaucracy and getting us energy independence and better trade deal, and beating the caliphate and Soleimani and Baghdadi and the al Qaeda leader in Yemen? So, on the one hand, he's got both sides of this. 

Even the answer on COVID-19, he goes, yeah, I guess I could be hiding in the basement or in a room somewhere, but I've got to be the president, I've committed to serve this country and that takes leadership. What do you think?

FLEISCHER: Yeah, and I think this is going to be one of the great issues after election day, he has to fight, he has to battle. But, Sean, I've always made the case he has to dial it down a notch or two. He has to fight more than anybody because the deck is so stacked against him, but I also think he can fight so hard sometimes that he turns people off, and he's done sometimes on Twitter, he's done sometimes in the direct things he said, and that's a tonal question. I don't think he wants to turn it down. 

And I worry about that because I do think that's hurt him particularly with a lot of suburban women, a lot of people who used to be Republicans who aren't Republican they're not comfortable with him. Is he too hot to handle? 

So, he has to find that line between being himself, being the tough guy, the fighter but not go too far. 

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: See, I felt he hit that back -- it was funny because I've listened to you say that and I felt he hit that balance tonight. I felt it was, okay
-- 

FLEISCHER: Okay.

HANNITY: Okay, Savannah, I'll answer the question for the 400th time, answers it, she's arguing, she's interruptive, answers it again. But then when the audience questions came in, that's where the connection took place and I thought he was sharpening his case. 

FLEISCHER: In fairness, I watched Biden tonight, I wasn't able to watch very much of Trump. I did that on purpose.

HANNITY: The weak, the frail, the ever confused Joe Biden. But okay, thanks, Ari Fleischer. We appreciate it.

Also tonight, serious claims of public corruption continue to now emerge surrounding Joe Biden and, of course, zero experience Hunter, his son. 

As we speak, Twitter, Facebook are actively shielding and protecting the Biden campaign. The social media giants even froze the accounts of prominent Republicans who dared to mention Hunter's alleged corruption, including White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany. She was on this program last night.

There are going calls now for major platforms to lose what are special legal protections not afforded to traditional media outlets once they editorialize or once they decide to edit and decide what the content is going to be or what their approval is based on political opinion.

Now, Twitter and Facebook, if they want to act like MSDNC, they should be treated like MSDNC because let's be clear, there are serious questions tonight surrounding zero experience Hunter, his father, whether Twitter thinks so or not, whether Facebook thinks so or not, these questions must be answered. 

Joe, did you ever talk to your son about his overseas businesses because you said you didn't but in fact we now know you did? Did you participate in any way in any of those business endeavors? 

Because remember on multiple occasions, Biden promised he never once spoke to his son about his unusual international business deals. There are now emails that say just the opposite. Twitter apparently doesn't want any of those questions asked or answered because instead of allowing further discussion, Twitter tried to banish the topic from its platform. Oh, sounds like another campaign contribution to Joe Biden.

Facebook actively limiting its distribution.

Well, today, Senator Ted Cruz summed it up pretty effectively. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): And let me be very clear, Twitter is interfering in this election. They are censoring the press. When it comes to Joe Biden, Twitter has decided that they are using their multi-billion dollar monopoly power to try to silence all discussion and keep the voters ignorant. It is
-- big tech censorship has always been bad but they really crossed the line in the last 24 hours.

I'm not aware of their previously actively censoring major press outlets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Senator Cruz is right. For these tech giants, it is not about right versus wrong, or facts versus lies. It's not about the quality or journalistic integrity of a report. Instead, it's for them basically a campaign contribution and they too are an extension of the DNC and Biden camp in terms of their press office and, of course, going after Donald Trump and protecting all things Biden.

Make no mistake, Twitter, Facebook, they are not arbiters of truth, cold, calculated political actors. As a matter of fact, the biggest campaign donors in this election cycle will be the media mob and yes, social media outlets. 

The Federalists pointed out, 11 major separate hacks, leaks, hoaxes that Twitter and Facebook didn't throttle because they were after Donald Trump. 
For example, Twitter totally fine with users publishing illegal, unsourced leaks of Trump's phone call with the president of Ukraine. Also fine with the illegally leaked, unsourced, purported Trump tax returns. 

They were fined with the legal leak of a Flynn phone call that resulted in his unmasking. That would be a serious felony. They were fine with the tweets that were spreading Steele's dirty, unverified, now we know Russian misinformation dossier. 

They were perfectly fine with untrue and baseless smears against Justice Kavanaugh. They were fine with the slander of Nicholas Sandmann. 

And a day after blocking the Hunter Biden story, Twitter allowed the hashtag Eric Trump's Ukraine scandal to trend, even though there is no Eric Trump Ukraine scandal.

And get this, Twitter is even allowing propaganda from Iran and China and state-run media accounts from them and the list goes on and on. 

And this, by the way, brings us to something known as Section 230. You need to be familiar with it. It is a legal liability shield that many major social media companies like Twitter, like Facebook currently enjoy. And by the way, that essentially protects them from being held liable from the content that is posted by their users. 

Now, by -- there are now calls for that protection to be stripped away. 
They should be stripped away. If Twitter and Facebook, they're going to editorialize and censor one political party over another and advocate one political candidate over another, then perhaps they should be treated the same as every other media outlet. 

For example, you got Humpty Dumpty over at fake news CNN -- I know he's listening and watching. He's obsessed -- he was forced to settle at his network with the Covington high school student Nicholas Sandmann after getting sued for slandering him on the air, the entire network CNN. Not Humpty.

Twitter and Facebook faced no such suit because of Section 230. That protection could soon come to an end if the two companies continue to censor content based on their obvious liberal and Joe Biden bias. 

Meanwhile most media mob outlets have been doing their very best to ignore any and all stories about zero experience Hunter. In fact, multiple outlets were actually cheering the big tech censorship, including "The New York Times".

And tonight, regardless of what Twitter and Facebook want you to see, the facts are clear. Hunter Biden -- look at Ron Johnson who was on this program last night -- he made millions of dollars while his father was vice president. Much of that money, for example, someone supplied by a Ukrainian oligarch. In another case, a Russian oligarch, former -- oh first lady of Moscow. In another case, to buy a new car with a Kazakh oligarch, as well as connected members of China's communist party. They even got to go on a hundred thousand dollar family spending spree.

You have Chinese nationals, Russian nationals, Kazakh nationals, Ukrainian nationals -- why would all of these uber wealthy, well-connected foreign nationals be given zero experience Hunter billions of dollars? Don't forget, $1.5 billion deal with the Bank of China with no experience? 

"GMA", Hunter said, well, you have any experience in oil? No. Gas? No. 
Energy? No. Ukraine? No.

Why do you think that they paid you millions of dollars? I don't know. 
Maybe because your father is vice president in charge of Ukraine? Probably.

In that case, Hunter was actually truthful and correct. 

Now, it's time for Joe to answer, what did you really know, when did you know it, and did you even financially benefit from it?

And joining us now is the senator was long called for big tech companies to be held accountable and he's pushing for leaders of Twitter and Facebook to be brought before Congress next week, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley.

Senator, okay, they have this Section 230 protection against liability, but they're editorializing, they're deciding what content is good and bad, and there is a massive political bias.

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): Yeah, so here's the thing, Sean. What needs to happen is Americans need to be able to sue these companies. 

You know, if you've been locked out of Twitter or if you can't to distribute this "New York Post" article on Facebook, you ought to be able to sue `em. You could do that with another company, but you can't do it with Facebook and Twitter and Google because of the special sweetheart deal they get from the federal government. 

And, by the way, that's how they've gotten so big and powerful. They haven't done this on their own. They've gotten to be these monopolies because the government 20 years ago gave them this sweetheart deal, and it's time for it to end.

HANNITY: OK. So you watch what happened here. All right, we have Joe Biden on tape. 

Joe Biden bragging, you're not getting a billion dollars, I'm -- I'm leaving here in in six hours, you're not getting the billion dollars -- he's telling this to Ukraine -- unless you fire the prosecutor. 

His name was Viktor Shokin. He has a name. He's given interviews, who's investigating his son who's making millions with no experience.

Now, I don't know, Senator. That sounds like a quid and a pro and a quo with Joe, and millions of dollars going to somebody with zero experience.

Now, I'd like that deal. I bet you'd probably like that deal. I bet most of America would like that deal. But yet nobody in the media even discusses it or touches it. 

What if Hunter's last name was Trump? You think it would be different?

HAWLEY: Yeah. Oh, it'd be a heck of a lot different.

By the way, I love the media howling now about the fact that the emails that "The New York Post" published, they said, oh, we don't know exactly where those are from. 

I didn't hear any such howling when "The New York Times" published Trump's tax returns, which they almost certainly got illegally. Here's the point, if those emails are fake, if "The New York Post" emails are fake, why isn't the Biden campaign out there denying it? 

And the biggest point of all is, why is Facebook and Twitter, why are they doing the bidding of the Biden campaign? Why is it that Joe Biden can snap his fingers and these monopolies, the biggest monopolies in America just do his bidding and refuse to allow this story to be reported?

Now, you've got these tech companies trying to control journalism, trying to control news, trying to control what Americans can talk about in a presidential election? And we've only got 19 days to go.

It's unbelievable. It's a racket. It's collusion between Biden and the big tech companies, and it's got to stop.

HANNITY: All right. We're going to watch it closely.

All right. As you watch the race unfold even with all of the bias, how do you assess? There are a lot of tough Senate races. For example, Martha McSally, Corey Gardner, Joni Ernst, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Senator Perdue, Tillis.

A lot is hanging in the balance here. How do you see the election with 19 days to go?

HAWLEY: I think we're going to hold the Senate. Well, it's going to be tight election, there's no doubt about it.

HANNITY: Susan Collins, yeah.

HAWLEY: The big tech putting their finger on the -- on the scale. Yeah, that's right, there's a lot of tough races out there, but we are going to hold the Senate.

Of course, I firmly believe the president is going to be re-elected. My home state of Missouri, he's going to win big. So I think the president's going to get reelected. I believe we will hold the Senate.

And, Sean, we've got to take action right now to hold these big tech companies accountable. They are going to continue to do this. If we don't stop them now, if Republicans don't stand up and do something about this, these companies are going to run this country. 

That's their desire. These woke capitalists, they want to run America. Big government, big tech, they want to run America. 

We've got to stop them. We've got to do something right now.

HANNITY: All right. Senator, thank you. 

We got a lot of ground to cover tonight. Apparently, Joe Biden open to packing the United States Supreme Court. We have all the details.

And coming up, Hollywood liberals, members of the mob and the media have an absolute meltdown over NBC actually doing a town hall with President Trump, even though it's abusively biased. We got the tape.

And C-Span suspending Steve Scully indefinitely after it was revealed that he lied about being hacked on Twitter. The great one Mark Levin weighs in on that and more.

The fascinating thing, what about the Commission on Presidential Debates that said that they are so fair? No, they're not. We'll explain, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MADDOW: All right. Now, the mob, the media, they're actually turning on each other after NBC agreed to do a town hall with President Trump. Oh my gosh, they let him talk. Not really though. At the same time as the ever weak, frail, forgetful Joe Biden on ABC prompting outrage among the Biden adoring fans and the media mob. 

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC HOST: Are you as mad as everybody else's that NBC is doing a town hall with President Trump tomorrow instead of the debate at the same time that Vice President Biden's going to be on ABC?

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm not touching that.

(LAUGHTER)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: The dueling town halls.

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Yes, why on earth would NBC agree to do that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So that sells it. Now, I know what I'm going to do, I'm going to vote for both of them, right? 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I guess.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks, NBC. First, "The Apprentice", now this. Why not a new Bill Cosby special while we're at it?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And, by the way, as the Hollywood hate machine also smeared the event claiming that it was a threat to democracy and, of course, only in far left Hollywood would this be considered a scandal. 

Also breaking tonight, just when you thought the media mob's behavior couldn't get any more bizarre, Steve Scully -- you know the guy from C- Span, one, you're supposed to be fair and down the middle that was scheduled to moderate the second debate, Commission on Presidential Debates, he's been suspended indefinitely by C-Span because he had to admit that he lied about being hacked. I guess he was communicating with our old friend Anthony Scaramucci following that, well, tweet to Anthony last week.

Let me be clear, this isn't a scandal for Scully. It's an embarrassment for the Debate Commission, they're supposed to be a non-partisan organization. 
It's also a scandal for the mob and the media which largely defended Scully. 

I've met the guy. He's actually a nice guy, but now being forced to backtrack.

For example, fake news CNN's Humpty the Dumpty Brian Stelter called a, quote, true WTF, despite Stelter, Humpty himself, ignoring the scandal on his own show. 

Well, now, in reaction, President Trump tweeted, quote: I was right again. 
Steve Scully just admitted he was lying about his Twitter account being hacked. The debate was rigged.

Here now, FOX News contributor Mike Huckabee, along with media reporter for "The Hill", Joe Concha, author of "Don't Lie to Me", the host of "Justice", Judge Jeanine Pirro.

Governor Huckabee, you've been in these debates. You know, it's always a liberal media mob. Savannah Guthrie was so bad tonight, the fact that she doesn't know that the president has condemned again and again and again white supremacy, David Duke, white nationalism, asking you do know about QAnon. Governor, maybe you could tell me if you know, because people have tried to explain it to me and I still have no earthly idea what this thing is.

MIKE HUCKABEE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I don't know who follows it. I don't. 
You don't. The president doesn't.

What happened tonight was just shameful and it was one more reminder that she was not a moderator, she was a participator. And if she wants to debate Donald Trump, let her get her name on the ballot, she can go out there like the rest of us have done, find out how unpleasant experience that can be and let her debate Donald Trump.

But that's what I'm so sick of. These debates are a joke. They're a TV show. They're designed to pick a winner. The winner has already been picked before it starts.

And no less than Bob Dole who is one of the great statesmen of our time -- I love Senator Dole, and he's such a true American hero and statesman. And he said that he knows all the Republicans on this debate commission and not one of them would vote for Trump.

So I -- they've been outed. It's just shameful.

One final thing I want to mention is that the little gentleman over at CNN that you mentioned, he said, this is terrible Steve Scully being outed for lying because it means that the media reputation will be lower. And I tweeted out this afternoon, it can't get any lower.

HANNITY: Yeah, it can't.

HUCKABEE: It's as low as it can get.

HANNITY: It's about as low as it can be, which is a really good point.

Judge, I see you laughing.

(LAUGHTER)

JEANINE PIRRO, FOX NEWS HOST, "JUSTICE": Well, it's true. I mean, they lie to us all the time and I'm just tired of their lying. You know, think about it, Sean, the fact that you've got the -- people on television and the Hollywood types who are saying, you know, by allowing the president of the United States to actually have a forum to talk to the American people is dividing the country, it's making people choose. This is a horrible thing to do. They want to decide what we should hear if we should hear it and when we should hear it. 

This is a classic example of fascism. We're seeing it in social media. 
We're seeing it on the left. We're seeing the lunacy of the left where people on the view the women are saying this is the president trying desperately to avoid talking about people dying of the coronavirus.

You know, these people have lost it. They've absolutely lost it. And in the end, they shouldn't be upset because according to their own polls, there are double digits ahead of Donald Trump.

But they're so worried that Donald Trump will sound smarter, look smarter, be able to complete a sentence that Joe Biden's still stuttering on his first sentence when Donald Trump has answered five questions.

HANNITY: Well, I'll actually I actually happen to be in favor. Let's eliminate the format, you have one guy that does one thing or person -- well, guy or girl, I don't care. One per -- and that is moderate the time and make sure that each candidate in an hour and a half gets equal time. 
Short of that, everybody shut up and let them have at it.

Joe Concha, what do you think? Good idea, bad idea?

JOE CONCHA, MEDIA REPORTER FOR "THE HILL": I agree with that completely. 
Let them have at it. Take the moderator out all together because we can't trust the process at this point.

Let's look at this story, by the way, all right? Particularly a lesson on bias of omission. CNN, MSNBC, all the major news outlets did not cover the Scully allegation when it first happened in terms of him claiming that he was hacked. Okay, they didn't cover the story, they covered for Steve Smollett -- I'm sorry Scully, I don't know how that word got in my head.

And now, look, what we have here, all right?

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Just blame Twitter, say Twitter did it, you say your brain was hacked, you'll be fine.

CONCHA: Yeah, good point. 

Look, the bottom line is there, there was a tell here. We talked about it last week, Sean, right? Steve Scully never put out a statement denying it. 
Boy, that's a big tell, right?

And if I'm a hacker and I get into a presidential debate moderators account, the first thing I'm going to do and the only thing I'm going to do is send out the Scaramucci tweet, so that didn't make any mistake. That didn't make any sense whatsoever.

But the Debate Commission here, they canceled so quickly on the second debate, didn't they? They didn't even consult with the campaigns as far as, okay, can we find another date here? Remember, 75 million people watched these debates and they pulled out so fast after this Scully controversy emerged because they realized that this could be a problem because he's probably lying based on all the things that I said here.

So, the bottom line is in retrospect, the vetting process -- 

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I don't even want the guy fired.

CONCHA: Let me finish, when the moderators -- when the moderator puts out a tweet in 2016 of an op-ed from "The New York Times" saying -- 

HANNITY: Exactly.

CONCHA: -- no, not Trump, not ever, that should be it. He should not moderate the debate. 

PIRRO: Right.

CONCHA: When he interned for Joe Biden, when he worked for Ted Kennedy, all those things, that's it. He doesn't get to moderate the debate. 

The bottom line is Steve Scully is now suspended indefinitely. His career may be over for all we know with C-Span.

Meanwhile, MSNBC's Joy Reid, she gets a promotion after lying about being hacked on her Twitter account. And that tells me -- 

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I might be the most liberal person on this panel tonight.

CONCHA: -- media today.

HANNITY: I think Scully should come out and apologize, and if he means it is sincere, why do you want to see the guy's career get blown up, I'm not in favor of -- yeah, I just don't know get.

CONCHA: But he victimizes himself, Sean.

HANNITY: But you're right, he never should have been picked which is your point and I agree with.

And, Governor Huckabee, I don't know maybe I'm feeling very generous tonight my liberalness -- 

PIRRO: Yeah, more.

HANNITY: -- I actually think Savannah Guthrie being abusively biased and interruptive as she was tonight gave the president a great opportunity to show, okay, look at the media for who they are, because they are the biggest contributors to Joe Biden and all things Democratic Party today.

HUCKABEE: Well, you can't hit a home run off a slow pitch. You know, you want the fastball, that's where you hit the home runs into the third deck.

The president denied racism and white supremacy over 20 times on video, and if she didn't know that, she is terribly ill-prepared for the debate.

You are 100 percent right about getting rid of the debate moderator. You don't need one, turn a clock on. Every candidate gets the same amount of time if they interrupt another candidate. That goes against their time.

Lincoln Douglas didn't have a moderator. You know, we've not gotten better with presidential debates, we've gotten worse.

HANNITY: I'd like to see the president challenge Joe. No moderator, two hours and see if Joe can take the heat. Under those circumstances, just get equal amount of time.

At the end of the day, Mr. President, goodbye, he's got 15 more minutes. 
That's how you do it, or, Joe, you're done, your time is up.

All right. Thank you all.

Boy, by the way, also tonight, Joe Biden is getting a softball town hall interview over at ABC, apparently a complete disaster. Again, Biden tonight looking weak and frail and stumbling over many of the answers. He's flipped and flopped on fracking yet again. 

He even said tonight he's -- I'm against packing the court but I'm open to it. I'll consider it.

He said voters deserve to know the position and they'll find out after he sees what happens with Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation. Oh, now, we got an earlier date.

And, of course, not one question about zero experience Hunter and all these shady overseas business deals.

Here to react to all of it, he's wound up tonight. He authored the number one bestseller "Unfreedom of the Press", host of "Life, Liberty, & Levin" 
right here on FOX. It's number one show at 8:00 p.m. Sunday night, the great one.

Well, I guess there's nothing much to talk about, Mark. I guess, good to see you.

MARK LEVIN, FOX NEWS HOST, "LIFE, LIBERTY & LEVIN": Good to see you, Sean.

You know, I think the question for Joe Biden shouldn't be -- not do you denounce white supremacy, but are you still a white supremacist? I think that would be a very good question for Joe Biden. Maybe Ms. Guthrie would ask that of him.

And Steve Scully -- Steve Scully, don't feel sorry for him. He's got jobs lined up I'm sure at CNN and MSNBC. That Wolf Blitzer looks a little long in the tooth, maybe he could replace his slot.

I want to get into this -- this corrupt, the family -- the Biden mob family and the patriarch Joe Biden who doesn't know anything that's going on, everything's going on around him, all kinds of countries involved, all kinds of businesses, millions and millions of dollars coming into his family, but Joe doesn't know anything. Anybody, believe it? 

Let me read this. This almost sounds like a Valentine, Sean. 

Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to D.C. and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spend some time together. 

It sounds like a girlfriend, doesn't it? 

Spend some time together. It's really an honor and a pleasure. 

But it wasn't a girlfriend. It was the number two executive at Burisma.

Now, why is this important? I want to keep it simple. Not a lot of complicated names and everything else. Joe Biden said he didn't have the foggiest idea, repeatedly, what his son was doing with Ukraine or Burisma. 
You know, he's busy, he's vice president, busy screwing up the swine flu and screwing up the economy, he doesn't have time for his son.

He doesn't ask his son, where'd you get all this money? What'd you do today? How's your career? Not a word apparently, very strange group.

Okay, Joe Biden has said he didn't know anything. But then a few months later, he makes a call to the prosecutor in the Ukraine and basically says hey layoff -- basically says, you are to quit or you're to be fired, otherwise we're going to hold -- withhold a billion dollars from you. And he says one has nothing to do with the other, the media jump in and they say, well, the European Union didn't want him anyway, the prosecutor.

You know, there can be two truths at the same time. Maybe the European Union didn't want the prosecutor, but clearly the Biden family didn't want the prosecutor either.

And so, here's the problem, Joe Biden is a liar. Joe Biden did know. He knew. He met with the guy.

And let me tell you what the campaign said, Biden's campaign wouldn't rule out the possibilities -- this is "Politico", left-wing "Politico", that the former vice president had some kind of informal interaction with this Ukrainian executive of Burisma, which wouldn't appear on Biden's official schedule, because the first lie that they came out with was he wasn't on the official schedule. Well, of course, he's not on the official schedule.

But if you look at that schedule, there's more than an 80-minute gap, remember the Nixon tapes? There's like a two-hour gap in the morning and a two-hour gap in the afternoon. So, that's not determinative.

So did Biden talk to this guy or not? Well, I think that's a perfectly good question.

Now, we have these emails. "The New York Post" puts them out. We know that the Silicon Valley's in the back pocket of Biden. We know that Facebook is corrupt. We know that Twitter's corrupt. They'd be happier in Red China because that's the kind of attitude that they have, we got all that.

But here, the media in America, you now have emails, you have texts, you have names, you have dates, you have times, why the hell won't you follow up on it? I'll tell you why they won't follow up on it, because they'll get answers they don't like.

Now, we're told well this must be Russian disinformation. Was it Russian disinformation about China too, or is that China disinformation? And why is it that Hunter keeps showing up?

And think about this, for it to be Russian disinformation, they would have to have a Hunter Biden's laptop given to this guy in Delaware. This guy in Delaware would have to sit on that laptop for three months, Hunter Biden doesn't pick it up. It's got pictures of Hunter apparently having sex and doing drugs and 40,000 emails that the Russians are very good apparently.

And then this guy, they must know that this guy's going to turn it over to the FBI, they must know that this guy is going to call Rudy Giuliani's lawyer and they must know that's how it's going to work. How stupid is all this?

The fact is Joe Biden is a liar and that family is corrupt, and when it comes to China, it's even worse. You want to look at those emails. Can we verify those emails? Well, media, go look at them.

I spoke to Rudy Giuliani today, said nobody's asked to look at them. You want to look at `em go ahead and look at `em. 

They talk about $10 million annually, quote, for introductions alone. This is Hunter Biden's -- even introductions alone. The chairman changed that deal -- this is a communist Chinese company -- after we met in Miami to a much more lasting and lucrative agreement, to create a holding company, 50 percent owned by me, 50 percent owned by him. That would be the communist Chinese.

We're talking about 2017 now. Biden's no longer vice president. What do they talk about there?

Well, Biden's going to get a piece of the action. Which Biden? Joe, they talk about Joe getting a piece of the action. Is that true? I don't know. 
Will they ask him? Will they ask Joe Biden about it?

And what do we get today? We get the typical "Washington Post" hit piece on who? Rudy Giuliani.

You see, the issue isn't Hunter Biden and Joe Biden and all the corruption and the millions of dollars. The issue is none of that. No, the issue is not Rudy Giuliani. It's like the Russia hoax, it's like all that stuff. 

Four former officials familiar with the matter say that the Russians were trying to get their claws into Rudy. No names, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information and conversations. The warnings to the White House -- so it's Rudy Giuliani that we have to watch out for.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, here's the deal -- Rudy Giuliani is a good man, and they can attack them all they want. It doesn't answer the emails. It doesn't answer the texts. One has nothing to do with the other.

And you know what? Our president was impeached for a hell of a lot less than this, a perfectly fine phone call. We've got text. We've got emails. 
We got DNA, we got times, we got dates.

And the New York slimes and the Washington compost -- well, they're protecting their boy, Joe Biden. They're not interested. That's it.

HANNITY: One other thing, we did have Russian interference. Hillary Clinton's bought and paid for dirty Russian misinformation dossier. She paid for it.

LEVIN: Yeah.

HANNITY: They warned about it. Steele had an agenda. They knew that the source for the dossier was a known Russian contact for 10 years and they used it, anyway.

Thank you, Great One.

Coming up, police car set a fire in Seattle with officers inside the car. 
Rick Leventhal has a report. Dan Bongino, Matt Gaetz, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: A suspect has been arrested for carrying out a vicious attack against America's police officers. Again in Seattle, it allegedly involves burning a police vehicle while an officer was inside the vehicle. 

Our own Rick Leventhal standing by from FOX News, our West Coast bureau, with the very latest. 

Rick, wow. 

RICK LEVENTHAL, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Hey, Sean.

In the first two because after the death of George Floyd, more than 725 police officers were injured in antipolice protests, and many more have been hurt since then, including nearly 500 in New York City. But this most recent attack happened in an alley in Seattle this afternoon. An officer responding to a call of a man brandishing a flaming piece of lumber.

And when the cop rolled up, the suspect, through the blazing two-by-two into the patrol vehicle, which caught fire with the officers still inside. 
An eyewitness says the officers opened fire on the assailant. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The officers is sitting on the other side of the vehicle and he's actually firing shots as the vehicle was rolling, the cop falls to the ground. Luckily, it didn't roll over. 

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVENTHAL: The suspect tried to flee but other police arriving on scene chased him into a nearby parking garage, tased him and took him into custody. The injured officer was hospitalized with what were described as nonlife-threatening burns. His vehicle, as you can see, destroyed. 

Another example of the random dangers our police face every day and night in America, with 32 officers fatally shot in the line of duty this year alone, Sean. 

HANNITY: All right, Rick. Prayers for the police officers everywhere under assault of an attack around the country. Thank you. 

Dueling town halls tonight over at, well, ABC. Biden is flip-flopping on fracking went unquestioned yet again -- once again asked that he was never for fracking. Biden can't seem to make up his mind on that issue.

But during the primary, he and Kamala Harris wanted to ban fracking. Now he is saying the opposite again. Take a look. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I am not, not, not banning fracking, period. 

But, kiddo, I want you to just take a look, okay? You don't have to agree, but I want you to look in my eyes. 

I guarantee you, I guarantee you we are going to end fossil fuel and I am not going to cooperate with them, okay? 

No more, no new fracking. 

DEBATE MODERATOR: Will there be any place for fossil fuels including coal and fracking in a Biden administration? 

BIDEN: Now, we would work it out. We would make sure it's eliminated and no more subsidies for either one of those. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you commit to implementing a federal ban on fracking your first day in office? Adding the United States to the list of countries who have banned this devastating practice? 

HARRIS: There's no question I'm in favor of banning fracking, so yes. 

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Yeah, they'll want to ban fracking. Now we don't want to ban fracking because we want to win Pennsylvania and Ohio, so we'll say whatever we need to say. 

Although Joe did admit tonight, well, I don't like the idea of court packing but I'm open to it. 

Joining us, author of "Follow the Money," Dan Bongino, author of "Firebrand" and that would describe him, that's Matt Gaetz, Florida congressman. 

All right. Joe doesn't have to answer questions about Hunter, business dealing. He flips and flops and flails on fracking, taxes, the Supreme Court, packing the Supreme Court.

Matt, your take? 

REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): The Joe Biden town hall I saw wasn't very much fun. 

You know, Biden can't be the commander-in-chief. He can barely be the commander of a sentence. And time and again, I think he was confronted with flip-flops and circumstances that confused his voters.

And you compare that to the Trump town hall, the president was not only in command and engaging, he was incredibly charming, whether it was with the mother and daughter where he talked about teaming up to win the daughter's vote, or whether he was responding to frontline health care workers or people concerned about the economy. 

And I think one reason he was so charming is the Trump town hall was packed full of women. I mean, there were more women in the Trump town hall than in a Bill Clinton hot tub, and I think NBC News would've thought that was going to backfire on the president, but in fact it gave him a platform to be able to show, I think, a real charming side of himself. 

HANNITY: Of course, your book is called "Firebrand." 

Dan Bongino? 

DAN BONGINO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, listen, we know Biden is a con man, and if these devastating emails are in fact confirmed and authenticated, Sean, Biden should really step out of the race. Oh, my gosh, you can't say that. I just did. 

Because it opens up a ton of questions that implicate us in national security questions we really don't want to think about, like what else does China have on Joe Biden? 

HANNITY: Yeah -- 

BONGINO: What is, you know, 10 for Hunter -- what?

HANNITY: I've got a break but you are 100 percent right. He's compromised -
- straight ahead. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Unfortunately, that's all the time we have left, 19 days, you are the ultimate jury. Hope you set your DVR. Never miss an episode.

Let not your heart be troubled. The butterball turkey fryer is in the mail, on its way to Laura Ingraham's House. 

You were brutal last night. You are just brutal. 

Content and Programming Copyright 2020 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2020 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.