Hannity: The fake news media have a new target

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Hannity: The fake news media have a new target

I'm not surprised the media decided to go after me: it's predictable and pathetic.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," April 17, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: All right. Tucker, you can't make this stuff up.

All right. My opening monologue in just a few minutes. But first, we have sad news to report tonight. Former First Lady Barbara Bush, she died earlier this evening at the age of 92.

For the very latest, we go to Casey Stegall standing by -- Casey.

CASEY STEGALL, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Sean. Good evening to you.

We are outside of the front gates of the Bush family neighborhood. We have not seen any activity since this announcement came down. It's right here in a very elite part of West Houston, only about 20 or 30 homes or so back in the neighborhood or so.

As you know, this is extremely private and these affairs are choreographed to a tee, months of advanced planning has been going on behind the scenes for this very moment. And privacy of course is of the utmost concern and priority.

We have seen a couple of people, we assume Houston residents or Houstonians, as they refer to themselves, showing up here with some signs and flowers outside the gates. Then, of course, nearly every single politician on the planet has been sending out statements and well wishes, taking to social media.

President Trump tweeting not long ago: Melania and I join the nation in celebrating the life of Barbara Bush. In an attached statement, he lauded her for being an advocate of the American family, calling one of her greatest achievements her work with literacy.

Mrs. Bush had struggled with health problems like COPD, which is a pulmonary disease. Also, congestive heart failure and a thyroid condition known as Graves' disease.

But most people seem to be infatuated with the love story. She and George Herbert Walker Bush, the longest married couple in the United States presidential history, they met at a Christmas dance. They married in 1945 and just celebrated 73 years of marriage.

And, Sean, a little note to end on tonight. Family members say, since they have been together, all this time, every night, George Bush said, I love you, Barbie. Tonight, he is going to bed alone.

Back to you.

HANNITY: All right. Thank you, Casey.

She was an amazing woman and we'll talk more about the legacy, the life of Barbara Bush coming up later in the show. Our prayers go out to the family tonight.

Meanwhile, also, there is a bombshell report from 'The Washington Post' alleging that Mike Pompeo met with North Korean North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over the Easter weekend.

Here with more information on that from Mar-a-Lago is Fox News chief White House correspondent John Roberts.

John, that is a big development.

JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Sean, good evening to you.

First of all, kudos to 'The Washington Post' because everybody that we have contacted from the White House to the CIA to people who are at the NSC and peripherally attached to intelligence have all said, this is something that we cannot comment on. No comment, which would seem to give a little more credence to the idea that 'The Washington Post' article is in fact accurate and as they reported tonight, Mike Pompeo, the CIA director, went to Pyongyang over the Easter weekend and sat down to have face-to-face talks with Kim Jong Un.

The premise of those talks would have been to lay the groundwork for a possible meeting between Kim Jong-un and President Trump. Now, President Trump has been speaking, since Easter, very positive terms, as far as a potential for a meeting with Kim Jong Un, saying it could happen sometime in late May or maybe even early June.

And today at Mar-a-Lago, as he was meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, President Trump indicating that talks had been taking place at the highest levels, lead us to believe for a short period of time earlier today that it might have been the president himself who had telephone conversations with Kim Jong Un. But now we learn from 'The Washington Post' that it was his CIA director.

Listen to how the president was putting it tonight at Mar-a-Lago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Who in the administration had talked with North Korea directly, sir?

REPORTER: Have you been speaking directly with them?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes.

We've had talks at highest level. Well, let's leave it a little bit short of that. But we've had talks at the highest level. Yes. And it's going very well, but we'll see what happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: The White House actually issued a clarification tonight, Sean, when it was believed in might have been the president who spoke to Kim Jong Un. They said, no, talks at the highest levels, which again would lend credence to this report that it was the CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

The president also went further than he has gone before when meeting with Shinzo Abe and talking to the press pool to say that a possible location for a meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong Un, this would absolutely be historic, Sean, has been narrowed down to five possible locations. The president wouldn't say what those locations were, but I'm told a couple of potentials might be Hanoi, Vietnam, because Vietnam, up until recently, had pretty good relations with North Korea. Also Singapore, I am told, was a possibility.

But it looks like those talks would not be held on the Korean peninsula nor were they be held in Beijing or Moscow because anything that was said during those meetings would instantaneously go to the ears of the Chinese and Russians. So, they have to find some sort of semi-neutral third ground to meet on. But it looks like they are close -- Sean.

HANNITY: All right. John Roberts, amazing, possible denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. We'll follow that very closely.

Also tonight, the liberal mainstream media is ignoring massive scandals and all kinds of positive news about the Trump administration. And instead, they want to attack yours truly. So, tonight, we are going to call out the liberal media's tangled, incestuous webs. It's nothing full of corruption, conflict, and the partisan press has been screaming about transparency for the past 24 hours?

They don't practice what they preach. It's a massive double standard. It reaches just about every single so-called news organization in the country.

Now, also tonight, new evidence that the head of fake news CNN, Jeff Zucker, and his network have their sick, twisted porn obsession continuing. They cannot stop talking about the unverified so-called pee tape, and James Comey is claiming that he has never watched 'Hannity,' and talking about me. Really?

We're going to cover all of that and so much more in tonight's breaking news opening monologue.

(MUSIC)
HANNITY: If you bothered watching the fake news media in the past 24 hours, which I do not recommend, you may have noticed they have a new obsession, and a new target to feign their moral outrage at, and they have decided to hyperventilate and go wall-to-wall with hysterical coverage about me. The media in this country has zero credibility.

We have known this for over a decade. We have been exposing the media for what they really are. They are frauds. They are partisan hacks. And frankly, nothing more than extension of the Democratic Party, all things liberal, and pretty much all they do is parrot liberal talking points and of course, attack President Trump 24/7, all in an attempt to damage, delegitimize his presidency.

So, naturally, when people dare to tell the truth about the president and his accomplishments, and report on what is the biggest abuse of power scandal in American history, yes, I'm not surprised I have become a 24/7 target.

The media wants to tear this president down. That is what they want. They hate conservatism. They hate anybody that dares to challenge their rigid, radical, left-wing ideology.

All of this perfectly explains why they have been going so hard after me and just simply refuse to believe the truth that I told them. By the way, it is not the first time they have done it to me and others and it won't be the last. Thankfully, people are seeing what is happening. Other conservatives are calling out this massive double standard, this hypocrisy, from the liberal media, and God knows these so-called journalists won't do it themselves.

Earlier today, the king of talk radio, Rush Limbaugh, the great one Mark Levin, both exposing what the liberal media is doing. Let's start with Rush, what he said on his radio show earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Let me tell you what this so-called attack on Sean Hannity is, what it really, really is. It is another, in a long line, in a many years effort to destroy the credibility of advocates for conservative/Republican or anti-Democrat issues and personalities.

The purpose of this is not to put Hannity in legal jeopardy, although they would love to if they could. But the real purpose here is to simply discredit Hannity as a known effective public advocate for Donald Trump.

Donald Trump is the enemy. Donald Trump must be sent packing. Donald Trump must not politically survive. And the people who make effective cases for Trump are going to be hit and are going to be targeted.

But there is so much glaring hypocrisy. It really frosts me. Hypocrisy never sticks to these people on the left.

They define collusion. They define conflict of interest. They are architects of deceit. They are never forthcoming about who they really are.

And if you try to find out, if you try to do an investigative report on some of these people, they start squealing like stuck pigs, that you can't because they are protected by the First Amendment. They are journalists, and as such, they are never the story, you can't talk about them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: An amazing takedown by Rush. And he's right. The media cannot stand the fact that there are people like us that challenge the liberal, partisan worldview.

They hate that we want the country under President Trump to actually succeed and help the forgotten men and women that need jobs that are in poverty, out of the labor force, or on food stamps. That we believe in the Constitution, that we believe in equal justice under the law, equal application under the law. We support Reagan-style free-market principles and a strong national defense.

The media also can't stomach that we expose the deep state, and one of the biggest abuses of power in American history, which they have been ignoring, despite mountains of evidence for months, as they go with their unproven conspiracy theories. So, I'm not surprised that the media's going after me. It's predictable, it's pathetic.

Here's the truth: the media is guilty of every single solitary thing they have been accusing me of over the last 24 hours. The media is the sewer. They are the swamp. And as part of this incestuous corruption and conflict, and they sure as heck don't want to talk about or care about transparency.

Here's just a few examples why. Take a look at ABC News, George Stephanopoulos, the so-called journalist that secured the first interview with disgraced former FBI director James Comey, the guy who was literally carrying out a personal vendetta against President Trump. Did George Stephanopoulos ever disclosed the fact that during the interview that he worked on Bill Clinton's '92 campaign and was a communications director and then served in the Clinton White House as a senior advisor?

And since the liberal media appears to be suffering from amnesia, s here's a clip from a documentary, it is called 'The War Room.' Yes, George Stephanopoulos advocating for the Clintons. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: What is the names and addresses? I can send you a fax with you names, addresses, phone numbers of who you had an affair with. It wouldn't make it true.

It is completely (EXPLETIVE DELETED). If you went on the radio and said that Bill Clinton is the father of an illegitimate black child, you would be laughed at. People would think you are crazy.

I guarantee you that if you do this, you will never work in Democratic politics again. Maybe you don't want to, I'm not saying it matters. You will be embarrassed by the national press corps. People will think -- nobody will believe you and people will think you are scum.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: You'll be embarrassed. Never work in national politics again.

Sounds like a threat. Did George Stephanopoulos reveal any of that, before, during, after the sit-down with Comey, remind his audience?

How about the fact that George donated 7,500 to the Clinton Foundation, which, of course, he didn't reveal to his viewers during an interview with Peter Schweizer back in 2015?

Stephanopoulos, he had to apologize after being exposed. But there wasn't wall-to-wall coverage of that. And all that explains why Stephanopoulos put on the kid gloves and didn't ask James Comey the tough questions.

One thing is just the fact: I am honest about who I am and what my political beliefs are. I am an unapologetic conservative. I am a Trump supporter. I support Reagan economic policies and peace through strength.

For example, where is the follow-up question when Comey admitted he didn't tell Donald Trump that Hillary Clinton paid for the unverified dossier, which by the way was used to get a FISA warrant to spy on an American?

Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: Did you tell him that the Steele dossier had been financed by his political opponents?

JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: No. I didn't -- I didn't think I use the term Steele dossier. I just talked about additional material.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But did he have a right to know that?

COMEY: That it had been financed by his political opponents? I don't know the answer to that. It wasn't necessary for my goal, which was to alert him that we had this information.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Wait, George Stephanopoulos, he's a journalist, right? Why didn't he ask Comey to respond to the information in the Grassley-Graham memo that the bulk of the FISA application to spy on a Trump campaign associate consisted of the dossier that he didn't vet. He had a legal obligation and FBI protocol obligation to do.

And why didn't Stephanopoulos ask if Comey lied to a FISA court and federal judges on four separate occasions by not revealing that the dossier was funded by Hillary Clinton and the DNC whose finances she controlled? Why didn't Stephanopoulos ask Comey to respond to what his former deputy director Andrew McCabe said about the dossier, without it, there never would have been a FISA application? And the list goes on.

Stephanopoulos, he lobbed softball question after softball question, never challenged or pressed Comey. Why should he? He got the first interview. Why should he? He's friends with the Clintons.

And over there at fake news CNN, you have Jake Tapper, I will let the great one, Mark Levin, handle this part.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK LEVIN, RADIO HOST: Jake Tapper -- Jake Tapper was a spokesman for Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, who is a congresswoman, or was, from the 13th congressional district of Pennsylvania. Her son married Chelsea Clinton. I mentioned that, too.

Does Jake Tapper ever mention that? No. Did Jake Tapper mention that he was a spokesman for Handgun Control Inc.? No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Also, fake news CNN, did they ever disclose all of this any of that when he hosted CNN's gun-control town hall a few months ago?

And I wonder if Jake is going to disclose all of this on his show tomorrow. I doubt it.

None of this should be surprising. According to the Center for Public Integrity, back during the campaign, 96 percent of presidential campaign donations from journalists, they went to Hillary Clinton. You heard me right, 96 percent.

Will all of those people now come clean about their political contributions and their support for Hillary Clinton? What about, as WikiLeaks exposed, that top journalists from ABC, Bloomberg, CNN, MSNBC, 'The New York Times,' many of these outlets, remember they dined at a key Clinton staffer's house right before Hillary launched her campaign, ate their food, drank their wine? If all of those journalists did in fact attend, why didn't they tell you about it?

Or how about these relationships? Does the media find these problematic? You got reports, Virginia Moseley, a senior vice president at CNN, married to a man Thomas Nides who served as the under secretary of state for Hillary Clinton. We know Claire Shipman, reporter, ABC, married to a former Obama White House press secretary Jay Carney. Former Obama national security advisor Susan Rice, her husband used to work at ABC News.

Does the media find any of this troubling? This is only a small sampling of stuff I can bring up. Did they raise red flags about any of this?

Then there is the epitome of the Washington, D.C., sewer and swamp. The dozens of journalist that went to work for the Obama administration. Media Research pointed out the total number reached as high as 30.

It got so bad that back in 2013, even the liberal 'Washington Post' was forced to cover it and ask this question: So what to make of all of the family ties between the news media and the Obama administration?

Great question. The answer is nothing. No one in the media cared because their savior, the chosen one, Barack Obama, was president.

But if a Fox News Channel contributor goes to work for the White House, God help us all.

It was the highlight of these journalists' careers to suck up and defend Obama's disastrous record. They never vetted him and they never told you how bad his achievements or lack thereof were eight years later.

The media does not care about truth anymore. They don't care about facts. They don't care about ethics. They don't care about holding themselves accountable. They have what is a clear, obvious liberal agenda and they share a common goal with liberals in this country, the Democratic Party, they want to destroy the president.

We have showed you the reaction on election night, it was like a funeral. Their attacks against the president, it is getting more unhinged every day. And for the media to pretend they have any sort of moral authority is just laughable. It's a joke and you, the American people, know it. That's why poll after poll shows you don't believe them and you don't trust them and you see the bias for what it is.

We are going to end with this key point. Members of the media, they have put their blinders on and are purposefully ignoring a massive scandal, which would be the biggest story in their lifetimes. And if they care so much about conflicts of interest, like they claim, I dare them to report on this corrupt Mueller investigation and his team that is stacked full of Democratic donors, and Mueller's buddy with James Comey and Comey had a friend leak potentially classified information to the media so that Mueller, in fact, would be appointed.

And Mueller has assembled a team that has donated over 50 grand to Obama, Democrats, Hillary, and the DNC, gave no money to Donald Trump. And Mueller handpicks Andrew Weissmann, who has the most atrocious track record, including withholding exculpatory evidence, and convictions in the Enron accounting scandal overturned by the Supreme Court, 9-0. People went to jail. That was overturned by Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Or Mueller's own involvement when he was in Boston. Four people went to jail. Two of them died in jail. They were all innocent. And over $100 million judgment was paid out after the fact.

Congressman Mark Meadows is also revealing tonight that newly uncovered documents suggest a, quote, concerning level of coordination between the DOJ and the FBI during key moments of the Clinton email investigation, which we have talked about at length on this program. Or how about James Comey and Trump-hating FBI agent Peter Strzok and all these other people putting the fix in on the Clinton email investigation? The media, they don't even mention it. It's unbelievable how corrupt they are.

If they cared about truth and journalism and about being fair and balanced and all of these things, they would be reporting these things to you every night, but in their sanctimony, they think they are holier-than-thou. All right. Cry me a river.
Joining us now with reaction, former Secret Service agent and NRA TV contributor Dan Bongino.

You know, overall, when you have a -- with all of the talk about Russia, and all the talk about foreign outlets, foreign agents having an influence on our election, and it ends up that there was a foreign agent, outsider, Christopher Steele, that he had money funneled through a law firm, through Fusion GPS, he uses Russian sources and Russian lies, and then it gets used for a FISA warrant and they don't tell the FISA judge that Hillary, one, paid for it, and two, they never verified it.

And just to spy on, not only an American citizen, but an opposition party candidate in an election year, is Sean Hannity more important news than that? I don't think so.

DAN BONGINO, NRATV CONTRIBUTOR: You know, Sean, these other media outlets, this is comical, these frauds over there at these other media networks. You know why they will never report honestly?

Let me -- let me let you in on a nugget here. One of the national security analysts at CNN, Lisa Monaco, Sean, she worked in the Obama White House as a counterterrorism and homeland security advisor. You know where she also worked, Lisa Monaco? On the Enron task force with our buddy, who? Andy Weissmann, the Mueller special counsel bulldog.

HANNITY: Robert Mueller's pit bull.

(CROSSTALK)

BONGINO: -- I just told you. But Robert Mueller's pit bull on the special counsel. Now, you expect to CNN -- keep in mind, because there is no conflict over there, you expect them to report honestly about it?

One more thing on this. CNN reported in April of 2017 about the British passing intelligence to U.S. intelligence entities about Donald Trump. A major scandal. We haven't heard much about that since the collusion narrative fell apart, have we?

They are not interested in the facts, Sean. They are frauds over there. They're only interested in attacking conservatives and covering up for the misdeeds of this massive Obamagate scandal.

HANNITY: I played one of our best montages ever. Remember, CNN, how many times in a day they said shh-hole and I called them the shh-hole network. Wait until you see the montage I'm going to play in the next segment. It beats that.

And the thing is, they all -- with all of these conflicts, they feel that they have a right to lecture everybody on morality when in truth, they have fed the American people a story with no evidence for over a year and ignored the biggest abuse of power scandal. How do they juxtapose that in their corrupt minds?

BONGINO: You know, I don't know. But CNN today, we have a story that breaks that the Korean War may finally be coming to a formal ending. And what's the big story? Pee tapes, porn stars, I mean, this is a network really -- they should forfeit their news label altogether and just take on a fiction label.

HANNITY: Yes.

BONGINO: This is just -- they are all about anti-Trump all the time.

HANNITY: All right. Dan Bongino, got to thank you. Great job as always.

All right. I think the best tape we've ever put out, ever on the show, and let's just say, the fake news network CNN outdoes themselves. You may want to record this, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Fake news CNN continues to prove how low they will go in their coverage of President Trump and frankly, how weirdly obsessed they are with the allegation of hookers urinating in a bed as it relates to the Steele dossier. Yes, check out this headline from our friends at Newsbusters: CNN spouts off, quote, pee tapes 77 times in five days.

OK, let's watch the montage that captures CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN. The most trusted name in news.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. Where to begin?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Wolf Blitzer. You are in "The Situation Room."

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: And good evening. Out front tonight.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to "The Lead". I'm Jake Tapper. We begin with breaking news.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Golden showers thing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About pee tape.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The golden showers thing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pee tape of prostitutes that Trump had paid to urinate on each other and his bed in a Russian hotel suite. The golden showers thing. Pee on each other.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Urinate in a hotel suite.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd see it differently. Look, I thought we're going to talk about the Trans Pacific Partnership, TPP. Instead we are talking about pee pee. I mean, I can't believe this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, you didn't.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had to say that, Alisyn.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Talk about the prostitutes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pee tape. Golden showers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The golden showers.

BLITZER: Mr. Trump and Russian prostitutes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Between him and prostitutes in a luxury hotel.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Golden showers, there is no way I would let people pee on each other around me. Golden shower hookers.

BURNETT: We're talking about prostitutes peeing in a hotel room in Moscow. I don't know whether the current president of the United States was with prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow in 2013.

TAPPER: There's the FBI director talking about prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HANNITY: All right. Joining us now from "The Hill" is Joe Concha.

I don't know what's -- hello? Hello?

JOE CONCHA, THE HILL: Yes, that was mesmerizing.

HANNITY: Well, I don't know what's worse because I could run a longer montage of them using the word shh-hole. I don't know which one I should run. Or maybe we can put them altogether and run big long montage.

CONCHA: Oh, well, a couple of months ago, actually, the word that rhymes with spit hole was said on the network and this is astounding. One hundred ninety five times in one day. Now I'm not very good at math, Sean, but I believe that comes to at times an hour.

And you said 77 times in five days for the tinkle tape, which tinkle tape makes so much more sense if you are looking for alliteration. So we're going to call it that moving forward.

Forty eight times it said in one day, last week alone. That's more than twice an hour. It wasn't just one rogue pundit saying it. This was something that was calculated either through conformity or just somebody who said, you know what, let's push this as much as possible, somebody in a position of influence.

And look, the goal is to be shocking, right? The goal is to create headlines after the fact and I think some folks think as long as you are talking about it on social media and it creates a buzz, that's a good thing.

But here's the thing, though. There are people that go to CNN, still to try to get information, news, important stuff that are relevant to their lives, just like they did for 38 years, and now I think they are more being turned off by it, and maybe, just maybe, that's why they only have one show in the top 25 in cable news among total viewers out of CNN-- excuse me, of MSNBC and Fox.

I think that it has a negative effect, even though it's creating the social buzz on social media because, I don't know, it's cheap and it becomes that cheesy news network as it as a result. I can't -- I can't justify quite frankly.

HANNITY: You know, I decide that we're now going to do a deep dive into all of them and all of their conflicts. I mean, a deep investigative dive. It is very clear -- this is the sad part for the American people in many ways -- as I said, I don't hide the fact, I am a big Trump supporter. I support the president, I want him to do well, I am a conservative. And everybody knows who I am.

They present themselves differently. They present themselves as fair and balanced and objective, when if you watch any of this cable coverage or you read the New York Times or Washington Post, it is all destroy Trump all the time. They don't let up even for a second. And they have not gotten onto what I think it is the biggest abuse of power scandal in the history of the country. What are your thoughts on that?

CONCHA: Well, I think transparency does go a long way, Sean. And you've always had, I'm not a journalist, I'm an opinion host. And I am a staunch supporter of the president.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I'm a talk show host.

CONCHA: I think MSNBC doesn't -- you are a talk show host, right. MSNBC rarely gets hit, you notice by the president, and by a lot of critics out there, or supporters of Donald Trump. I think the reason why is they are transparent about who they are. You know, they are a liberal network. They don't support the president's agenda and that's fine.

I think as long as you say who you are, no problem with that. I think what Trump supporters have a problem with CNN and why you hear their name chanted at rallies is because they continue to insist that they are objective and every study and analysis that I've ever read, particularly under the Trump administration over the last 15 months, has been they have overwhelmingly negative.

But yet, they still are considered to be objective. One more point, by the way. During your montage, Erin Burnett, and I used to go on her show a lot, I have a lot of respect for her, she said in that little clip I just saw there, we don't know if the president participated in that act with the tinkle tape. And that should be the end of it.

If we don't know, and it hasn't been verified, that should not make it to air to even be a part of a discussion, just because Jim Comey speculated about it, it doesn't give you the right do you start talking about a 48 times in one day. So I think that's a standard that should be done moving forward but it doesn't appear to be happening at this point.

HANNITY: All right. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. So James Comey, out on his book tour talks about me, too. All right. Jesse and Jessica, coming up next. And we'll check in with Devin Nunes of the House intel committee. Some important new information he will reveal straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Earlier today, James Comey out on his book tour was asked about little old me and if he had any reaction to yesterday's news. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COMEY: I don't know enough to have a reaction. I saw those headlines, I was running around yesterday.

BILL RITTER, ABC: This guy eviscerates you every night, you had no reaction?

COMEY: I've actually never watched his show. I know he eviscerates me because I hear it secondhand. But I really didn't. Because I know enough to know that I often can't know what's going on and an investigation or case from what I see in the media. As good as the media can be. That's why I really don't have a reaction.

RITTER: You've never seen Sean Hannity on television?

COMEY: No, never.

RITTER: He's going to be very disappointed with you.

COMEY: Yes, I don't hurt his feelings. But he's got plenty of other viewers, he doesn't need me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Actually I want as many viewers as I can get and I think I've given you good advice and I have some really good questions and I've offered you four hours of airtime, and nobody told you about that?

Here with reaction, he's the co-host of 'The Five,' and in his world and we live in it, Watters' world, Jesse Watters, and Fox News contributor Jessie -- Jessica Tarlov. I know, we'll see whose world it is.

JESSICA TARLOV, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, we will.

HANNITY: Look, I don't expect everybody knows who I am or watch the show, I get it. But I kind of got to believe that if he hears that I have challenged him directly on specific conduct, Jesse Watters, I'm not so sure if this is not another Comey lie.

JESSE WATTERS, CO-HOST, FOX NEWS: Well, I don't know. I mean, he says he's never watched Hannity. My sources are saying he loves Watters' World. So we don't know the truth. you know, I kind of believe he is telling the truth, though. I mean, if I were James Comey, I would not watch you, Sean. I'd probably get so angry I'd call the hotline and curse you out at the end. But it makes perfect -- you know what?

HANNITY: You wouldn't know about the hotline if you don't watch the show.

WATTERS: That's true.

TARLOV: Someone may have mentioned.

WATTERS: Yes, McCabe tipped them off to it.

HANNITY: Yes.

WATTERS: But listen, you know, it proves that he is not a Republican. Comey is with her. He is a Democrat. This is why his whole nationwide book tour is going with Maddow and Joy and Colbert. Those are his people. But you know what? The Democrats don't even like him either.

Hillary probably would have fired Comey faster than Trump did if she were elected.

HANNITY: You know, Jessica, Jesse makes a great point.

TARLOV: Does he?

HANNITY: Lanny Davis--

TARLOV: Yes.

HANNITY: -- and Clinton people supporters, they hate him. Now I just have a problem with the fact that how could he admit he doesn't even know what is in a dossier but that was used to get a FISA warrant to spy on a Trump campaign associate and they never told the FISA judge, Hillary paid for it. That should bother you as a liberal.

TARLOV: We have talked about this before. And certainly, I'm not as vehement about it as it Lanny Davis. But I'm not fond of Jim Comey. I don't think he did a service to Hillary Clinton, I don't think he did a service to Donald Trump. I don't think he did a service to America actually on this, overall. And I think the book tour is extremely problematic, when you think with the Mueller investigation is still going.

WATTERS: Well, if I were Mueller I'd be pretty angry because the central witness in an obstruction case against the president is prancing around daytime--

(CROSSTALK)

TARLOV: I think prancing is--

WATTERS: -- and telling also sorts of stories. I mean, and he actually gets houses in order. All of his former colleagues have been fired, demoted, reassigned. It doesn't look good but he doesn't have a big audience. The left hates him, the right hates him. I don't think the book is going to sell as well as 'Fire and Fury.'

TARLOV: I don't know about that. I'm sure Michael Wolff is waiting with baited breath to see if that pans out for him. But I think he is going to sell a lot of copies. I think it's an important story to tell.

HANNITY: But Jessica--

TARLOV: I think the timing of it is not helpful.

HANNITY: Let me jump in. I think you are glossing over an important point. He admitted to Stephanopoulos he has no idea, well, maybe it's possible, meaning the Steele foreign national Russian lie dossier that Hillary paid for.

TARLOV: I don't think that's one of his faults.

HANNITY: But if he didn't know, and they presented it to a FISA court in a FISA application to spy on an American, not only they, is that, in my opinion, a violation of law and FBI protocol, what a colossal admission, that we're going to will spy on Americans, it may be possible, with Russian lies that were paid for. It may be possible to get a warrant to spy on an American. You should be outraged, spitting mad over that.

TARLOV: I'm not really.

HANNITY: Yes, I can tell.

TARLOV: I mean, the dossier was -- sorry. The dossier was a part of a number of sources that were used to get this FISA application--

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: No. In the case it was the bulk of it.

HANNITY: No.

TARLOV: Well, the bulk of -- is that all of it or is that a majority?

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: The bulk--

WATTERS: But it doesn't matter because if it's substantiated that's gross misconduct on the court.

TARLOV: You're not a lawyer.

WATTERS: You can't prop that--

TARLOV: You can. There are a number of people who will go to that for Christopher Steele that they have used his intelligence throughout the years and it has panned out.

WATTERS: It's not only that -- it's not only that, Jessica. He also lied under oath about leaking. He definitely leaks.

TARLOV: It was unclassified material--

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: That's what he says. He doesn't determine what's classified or not.

TARLOV: I think he--

WATTERS: Also, it's his FBI memo. That's the FBI property. So it's theft of government property, that's a misdemeanor. Or leaking classified, that's a felony.

TARLOV: So are you guys just going to pull him away.

WATTERS: He is not watching Hannity in prison.

TARLOV: I think you get TVs there anyway. I don't know what to say, there are no lawyers on this panel, including me, so, I think the way--

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: We play lawyers on TV.

TARLOV: Well, you guys do.

HANNITY: All right.

TARLOV: I just play me.

HANNITY: Guys, I hate to say it, Jessica that was a big win tonight. It's Jesse's world still. You're going to -- he's poking.

Anyway, all right. Coming up, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is asking for more time to hand over Comey's memos. We got important information. The House until committee chairman Devin Nunes joins us.

And later, former first lady Barbara Bush died at the age of 92 and we'll talk about her legacy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. So this morning, Clinton lackey, ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos helped disgraced former FBI director James Comey sell more copies of his self-righteous book and of course, attacked President Trump. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: I want to focus in on two of the president's tweets because they are the most serious. The president says, not only should you have been fired but you leaked classified information, lied to Congress under oath, for both of those infractions, he says, you should go to jail.

COMEY: That is not normal. That is not OK. First of all, he is just making stuff up. But most importantly, the president of the United States is calling for the imprisonment of a private citizen, as he's done for a whole lot of people who criticize him. That is not acceptable in this country. I hope people read the book and see why the rule of law is such an important value in this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Really? We're getting lectures from Comey on the rule of law? You should have applied it to Hillary. And Comey's remarks come as the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in the letter obtained by Fox News is now asking three separate committees, including the House until committee, for more time to turn off or unredacted copies of James Comey's memos, that detail is private conversation with the president.

Now this after the DOJ missed yesterday's deadline to turn over the memos.

Here with reaction, House intelligence committee chairman Congressman Devin Nunes. You know, my first point is this, congressman. You know, I watched the interview, and I was stunned. It took my breath away.

As James Comey talked about the dossier, while it could have happened, the bulk of information to obtain that warrant to spy on American, an associate of the Trump campaign, in an election year, was the dossier, and if it wasn't for you and your committee, we never would have learned that, or the Grassley-Graham memo that came out.

Do you think -- what does that mean about what they said about to a FISA court?

REP. DEVIN NUNES, R—CALIF.: The irony here is quite frankly hard to believe. You know, some of the language that Mr. Comey uses, like he says, well, it's currently or I think he said it is certainly possible that the Russians had information on Trump.

Well, it is certainly possible -- it's certainly possible that the Russians could have information on Comey. It's certainly possible that the Russians could have information on Hillary Clinton.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: But did they--

NUNES: It's certainly possible that they have information on all kinds of people.

HANNITY: When that dossier was made up, the bulk of the FISA application and subsequent three renewal applications, if it's possible, and it wasn't verified and it wasn't corroborated, and you still presented it to a judge, and you never told the judge that Hillary paid for it, bought and paid for it, and it was a foreign national that printed salacious, unproven lies from Russian sources, did they lie to a FISA court judge, in your opinion?

NUNES: Well, by not telling the FISA court, it's totally inappropriate. Because they knew the information and they have a duty and obligation to tell the court everything that they know.

But Sean, let's go back also to when we were first briefed about the dossier. We, Congress. So we heard in Mr. Comey's interview what he said, what President Trump's reaction was to learning about the dossier. And he talked about why he didn't tell President Trump that it was paid for by his political opponents.

Well, there's other people that are important in this, like the United States Congress. I was in the meeting with Senator McConnell, with Leader McConnell, with the Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, and many others where he had ample opportunity in early 2017 to tell us who paid for the dossier.

We were briefed on the dossier. And I can tell you, if they would have brought up, if the FBI would have presented to us on that day that this information was paid for by the Democratic Party and then used -- or forget the fact that it was even used in the FISA--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: And it wasn't verified.

NUNES: But it wasn't verified. And we knew it wasn't verified at the time because they told us that it wasn't verified, OK. But can you imagine the reaction? First of all, I think I would have spill up with my coffee and started laughing.

But secondly, we would have walked out of there, we would have said, what in the hell are you guys doing? You are bringing us dirt that the Hillary Clinton campaign paid for? You guys has been using this and you are now presenting it to us as to why you have concerns about the Trump campaign? I mean, this would have been -- this would have been laughable at the time.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: How was that not illegal, though? I feel this is probably one of the, if not, the biggest abuse of power that I have ever seen in my entire life and when you then go back to you, and you see that these same players keep coming up, and it was Comey with Trump hating Peter Strzok, we still haven't gotten all the text messages, and then Peter Strzok is the one that interviews Hillary, and Peter Strzok and James Comey are writing an exoneration in May and they don't interview her till July, it seems to me that that investigation was rigged, sir.

NUNES: Or let's, to throw another one in there. You have Mr. Comey volunteered this up on the interview the other day. He said that the FISA - - the FISA on Carter Page, Carter Page wasn't the initial way that reason that they started the investigation. It was Papadopoulos. OK. So you wanted to investigate Papadopoulos. You had concerns about Papadopoulos.

Just for your viewers, that was in July of 2016. Why is it that you never bothered to talk to Mr. Papadopoulos, but you did bother to go and get a FISA warrant on Mr. Page in October of '16? You don't talk to Mr. Papadopoulos until 2017?

Well, wait a second. I thought Papadopoulos was the reason you started the investigation in the first place. So these are all unanswered question that keeps own raveling on them but we have to keep fighting bit by bit by bit.

HANNITY: We need the information. This all needs to go to court and people need to be held in contempt of Congress and I agree with you on the second special counsel. All right, congressman, we appreciate your hard work.

NUNES: Always a pleasure.

HANNITY: All right. Coming up, more on the legacy of former first lady Barbara Bush who passed away earlier this evening.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Unfortunately, we have to end with sad news for the country tonight.

Matriarch of the Bush family, former first lady Barbara Bush passed away tonight at the age of 92. Now flags of the George W. Bush Presidential Library in college station, Texas, are flying at half-staff tonight. Mrs. Bush was, I met her, a strong, lovely, funny, great, patriotic woman.

Her family gave her the nickname the enforcer. She had an incredible sense of humor. She served this country with honor, grace, dignity, and integrity, and of course, tonight she is survived by her husband, President George H.W. Bush. They were married 73 years.

We are also told, obviously everybody is heartbroken, but he is being supported by this family and appreciates all of your well wishes in all of this.

One of her sons come President George W. Bush put out a statement tonight. That reads, quote, "My dear mother has passed on at the age of 92. Laura, Barbara, Jenna, and I are sad but our souls are settled because we know hers was.

Barbara Bush was a fabulous first lady and a woman unlike any other who brought levity, love, and literacy to millions. To us, she was so much more. Mom kept us on her toes, kept us laughing until the end. I am a lucky man that Barbara Bush was my mother. And our family will miss her dearly and we thank you all for your prayers and your good wishes."

And tonight, the White House says that President Donald Trump and the first lady Melania join the nation in celebrating this incredible life of an incredible first lady. And our thoughts, our prayers, our condolences are with the entire Bush family and many thanks for her many years of service to this country. Former first lady Barbara Bush died today at the age of 92.

All right. That's all the time we have left. We'll always be fair and balanced.

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