Hannity: 'Mr. "I will shut down the virus" has some explaining to do'
The 'Hannity' host takes stock of the Biden administration's latest shortcomings and Psaki's insouciance in his opening monologue.
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," January 14, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: It's really simple. If you don't pay your taxes, you shouldn't be in charge of anything. None of these people pay their taxes. It's unbelievable.
We'll see you Monday. Have the best weekend.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Welcome to HANNITY this busy Friday news night.
Tonight, it is no secret that from the very beginning, we had really low expectations of the Biden White House. Now, somehow, some way, yeah, things are even far worse than we predicted. This is not hyperbole. This is not Sean Hannity talking points. No.
As we speak, even Democrats and Republicans and the media mob are openly questioning if Joe and Kamala will even or be in a position to run for re election with some wondering if they can even finish out their current term. It is a legitimate concern.
Every day this week was a horror show, one worse than the other. On Monday, the CDC recorded a record high 1.35 million new COVID cases in the United States. Oh, he was going to shut down the virus.
On Tuesday, make believe Georgia Governor Stacey Abrams stood up the leader of the free world during his bizarre rant in Atlanta about the so-called voting rights bill and pretty much calling a lot of people racist.
On Wednesday, we learned that inflation is now at a 40-year high, 40-year high, and all while Biden's approval rating this week hit a new low 33 percent in Quinnipiac's latest poll.
And on Thursday, and the U.S. Supreme Court shot down Biden's vaccine mandate for large employers. At the same time, two Democratic senators, that would be Senator Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema killed Biden's dreams of abolishing the filibuster. And now, the fake voting rights bill and the rest of the Biden agenda is dead in the water.
And today, the HHS reported a record high, 157,000 COVID hospitalizations. Mr. I will shut down the virus has some explaining to do. But if you want answers -- well, you're going to have to track him down somewhere in Delaware, because he's spending yet another long weekend, not working, away from the White House.
And today, before he left, Joe Biden could not be bothered to address any of the major issues affecting our country. Instead he gave an ironic speech about unity once again and building bridges.
Biden also praised his infrastructure czar Mitch Landrieu or as Biden called him Mitch McConnell. Whoopsy-daisy, shocker. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is all about fixing the problem. I ran for president to unite the country. This bipartisan infrastructure law I signed two months ago unites us around things we all depend on.
My bipartisan infrastructure law includes the largest investment in our nation's bridges since the creation of the interstate highway system, bridges to connect us, bridges to make America work. You matter, we're building back and building back better with you.
I want to thank you all for listening and we got a lot of work to do and the reason I asked Mitch Mc -- to do this is because he knows how to get things done. I want every penny watched how this is spent, just like when I did the Recovery Act in our -- the last administration.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Mitch Landrieu and bumper stickers and slogans and Build Back Better, yeah, that's not going to cut it. It's getting bad. It's getting worse every day. It's obvious.
Is everyone in the White House just going to continue to prop them up like nothing is wrong?
Now, of course, Press Secretary John Psaki has her own unique way of responding to the growing chaos inside the Biden White House, as the dumpster fire now gets worse and worse. She gets more mean and sarcastic, even mean-spirited at time, and frankly, a little arrogant on top of it. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: So, the sense is things are going well, there's no need for change right now?
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think that, having worked in a White House before, you do hard things in White Houses. You have every challenge at your -- at your feet -- laid at your feet, whether it's global or domestically, and we could certainly propose legislation to see if people support bunny rabbits and ice cream, but that wouldn't be very rewarding to the American people.
So the president's view is we're going to keep pushing for hard things and we're going to keep pushing the boulders up the hill to get it done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Bunny rabbits and ice cream, great answer.
Now, Psaki, of course, would prefer questions about those two items, maybe then she could give a capable or give us a real answer.
Now, today our own Peter Doocy asked Psaki about the president's vindictive tone when he called out more than half of America as domestic enemies. Jen was more interested in talking about the Cincinnati Bengals. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: If you talked about a year ago and working with Republicans, now, he is talking about Republicans that don't agree with voting rights, and he's describing them as George Wallace, Bull Connor and Jefferson Davis. What happened to the guy who when he was elected said to make progress, we must stop treating our opponents as our enemy?
PSAKI: I think everybody listening to that speech who's speaking on the level, as my mother would say, would note that he was not comparing them as humans. He was comparing the choice uh to those figures in history and where they're going to position themselves if they -- as a -- as they determine whether they're going to support the fundamental right to vote or not.
One last thing, the Bengals are playing tomorrow, I'm just giving it a shout-out, so that my husband will be excited at home. They haven't won a playoff game in 31 years. Okay, we got to wrap it up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Here with more, FOX News White House correspondent Peter Doocy.
I didn't really particularly like the answer, very sarcastic. But then again, I don't think Jen Psaki has a particularly easy job after not only this week, but this first year of Joe in office. Is there one item that they point to that they say they're successful at?
DOOCY: Yeah, passing the American Rescue Plan, which was, for all intents and purposes, a year ago. And she mentioned the Cincinnati Bengals, it's kind of a good metaphor because they're in the playoffs, they won enough.
Right now, this White House is dealing with quite a collection of recent losses. They -- the Build Back Better social spending plan doesn't look like that's going to pass. Voting rights, doesn't look like that is going to pass. These vaccine mandates that they have been pushing businesses to institute on employees, it turns out the Supreme Court thinks that they are mostly illegal and this is a president who you go back two years, he tried to stand out in this giant Democratic field -- in the primaries by saying, I'm the one with all the experience, send me to D.C. because I know how to get things done.
And that was a big, big part of his pitch the entire time and almost a year in, it just -- is not playing out like that, Sean.
You know, especially when you look at his comments about Bull Connor and, you know, here's a guy that praised Strom Thurmond. Here's a guy that praised George Wallace. Here's a guy that partnered with Robert Byrd, a former Klansman, to stop the integration of public schools. Nobody's ever asked him about it, because he didn't want public schools integrated because he said they would become racial jungles.
And you made a good point about, didn't he say you would unite the country? What happened to that part?
DOOCY: That's a great question and they gambled this week basically that there's all this other stuff that's going wrong let's just try to focus on voting rights legislation. But they lost that gamble.
And something else that's remarkable. You know, they constantly pivot back to the pandemic and look at us. We know how to handle COVID-19.
Well, we found out today that next week, you can go to COVIDtests.gov to finally start ordering those 500 million free at-home tests. The problem is they're saying that once you ordered it, you're not going to get it for 7 to 12 days. That means that if you think you have COVID symptoms and the CDC says basically go about your life after five days, you can have a symptom isolate, go about your life and then your test comes from the Biden administration and their latest plan.
HANNITY: That's the same -- correct me if I'm wrong, isn't it the same Joe Biden that said it was a travesty Donald Trump didn't have enough tests? Because we not only ran out of tests, although Kamala Harris and Joe Biden now both suggested Google -- you tried to Google yourself. By the way, we're glad you're feeling better.
But we have inflation also at a 40-year high. We have the highest number incidences of COVID positivity since the beginning of the pandemic. He didn't shut it down. We don't have the antivirals. We don't have the monoclonals.
That -- that's a big problem, Peter, because those items you would think two -- now we're entering our third year into the pandemic would be readily available everywhere.
DOOCY: Yes and, Sean, based on everything that we've talked about for the last couple of minutes, a lot of problems here at home. There are also huge problems bubbling up overseas. And so, if you think that the president has been tested over the course of the last year, just wait until they might have to confront Vladimir Putin who they are talking tough about publicly as he gets aggressive in eastern Europe.
HANNITY: You've got Russia, you got China, you got Iran. I agree with you. I'll be paying very close attention to all three.
By the way, we sincerely are so glad you're feeling better. Sorry, you had to go through all that like so many others. Thank you.
DOOCY: Good to be back. Thanks, Sean.
HANNITY: All right. So, today, Joe delivered a speech about building bridges after the speech he gave earlier in the week, Tuesday, comparing all of his political opponents to Bull Connor, George Wallace, Jefferson Davis while also referring to tens of millions of Americans as domestic enemies. Wow. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: I know where I stand. I will not yield. I will not flinch. I will defend the right to vote, our democracy against all enemies, foreign and, yes, domestic.
So I ask every elected official in America, how do you want to be remembered? At consequential moments in history, they present a choice. Do you want to be the side of Dr. King or George Wallace? Do you want to be in the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis? This is the moment to decide.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Those remarks were so unhinged that even Joe's fellow Democrats, they were put off. Even Dick Durbin said that Biden went too far. Nancy Pelosi criticized Joe for evoking Bull Connor and Strom Thurmond.
And former congresswoman and Democratic presidential candidate, Tulsi Gabbard, tweeted, quote, Hillary calling tens of millions of Americans deplorables was divisive and disgusting. Biden has gone further, calling those that disagree with his actions and policies domestic enemies traitors racists. And Biden did promise to unite us, but he is doing all he can to divide us.
Now, tonight, it appears that the only way Joe Biden is uniting Americans is against Joe Biden.
And former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard joins us with more.
Just give your overall perception of not only the speech but this week and this year. We're just a few days away from the one-year anniversary since he was inaugurated.
TULSI GABBARD (D), FORMER HAWAII CONGRESSWOMAN: Yeah, Sean, you know, I think there were so many people across the country, those who voted for Joe Biden, those who did not vote for Joe Biden, who had high hopes that he would carry out his promise that he would be the president for all Americans, showing respect for those who agreed with him or disagreed with him. And unfortunately, the opposite is true.
Not only has he not carried out on that promise, he is literally doing the exact opposite rapidly carrying our country in the wrong direction, tearing us apart, pouring fuel on the flames of divisiveness and it just -- I mean it really makes me wonder how we can go through three more years of this and still come out the other end with the possibility of being able to come together again as Americans, as the United States of America.
HANNITY: Look -- when you look at -- for example, we ran out of tests, we ran out of monoclonal antibodies, we ran out of antivirals, inflation of 40-year high, energy $85 a barrel. He's begging OPEC and Russia to produce more. He inherited energy independence. His vaccine mandate fell apart.
The average American now, the inflation of every American family is about five thousand dollars per family. It is impacting everybody, but almost a buck more a gallon for gas, a thousand dollars more to heat your home this year -- you know, everything we buy in every store is costing more. Although bare shelves Biden is trending because it's everywhere.
Do you see as a Democrat or any of these policies working? Am I missing something that's successful?
GABBARD: Well, what I see is people are struggling and you can understand how people are frustrated and even angry at the fact that our government is failing us.
And one of the most disturbing things that I see coming out of this administration is how president Joe Biden has his attorney general targeting Americans as domestic terrorists for being, quote/unquote, anti- authority.
And what is so extremely dangerous about this, Sean, is that the president United States is the authority here in America. And so, if our president is targeting Americans for being, quote-unquote, anti-authority, what they're really saying is you are an enemy of the state if you are against the president or his policies. This is the foundation of authoritarianism.
And it's -- the message that is received by people at home is if you're going to target me for being against your policies as the president, there will be consequences and therefore what are people to do? Shut up, step back, and fall in line. And this -- this is unacceptable in our democracy and must not go unchecked.
HANNITY: The one thing -- he's never allowed Republicans even in the room. Republicans were never included in Build Back Better. Republicans were never included in voter integrity measures.
My measures I'd like to see so we can have confidence in results and integrity in the process are simple: voter ID, signature verification, I think chain of custody controls so we make sure nobody can tamper with mail-in ballots. I think we need updated voter rolls and I think we need partisan observers all sides get to watch the vote count up close start to finish, and I think we'll have more confidence in results. I don't think illegal immigrants should be allowed to vote either.
Is there anything wrong with any of those measures in your view that I mentioned or would you include some or take some away?
GABBARD: I think the point there, Sean, is that the fact that there were not leaders, members of both parties in the room crafting this legislation is exactly the problem. So there should be no surprise why there is partisan opposition to it.
Whether or not everybody would agree on all of those things or even, hey, I think there's opportunity to come to agreement on 80 percent of those things and still be able to move us forward as a country. But that's the problem and there are many different examples, unfortunately, under this administration where they've chosen to take a very partisan approach.
And then even though they're leaving out Republicans from the crafting table, the negotiating table, then they say, well, how dare you not support our bill that we wrote without any of your input, any discussion, any respect or consideration? And I mean, this is -- this is transparent. This is transparent.
The American people see what's happening I think and again are so dissatisfied by it.
HANNITY: All right. We always love having you on. Thank you, Tulsi Gabbard. We appreciate it.
GABBARD: Thank you.
HANNITY: It's refreshing to hear at times somebody independent-minded.
Now, between the COVID, the economy, 40-year high inflation, supply chain crisis, border crisis, America sadly is facing a multitude of really serious crises and Democrats, the media mob only seem to care about one thing and one thing only, the January 6 Capitol riot.
Unfortunately, they're not concerned with finding out why there was a security breakdown at the Capitol, how to prevent this from ever happening again. In fact, according to the chairman of the January 6 committee, Speaker Pelosi who is ultimately in charge of security in the House is totally off limits. But, of course, they are now desperately trying to haul in Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
This committee is a blatant political sham. They have one goal, and that is to purge Donald Trump away from the White House forever.
Joining us now with more, former Trump chief of staff, Mark Meadows, Indiana Congressman Jim Banks.
You know, Congressman Meadows, we now have confirmed, the joint chiefs, secretary of defense, you, the chief of staff for the Defense Department, all in the room, Donald Trump multiple times requests that the -- up to 20,000 troops get called in. If that happened, January 6 never would have happened. But he didn't -- he only had the legal authority to call -- to authorize it. He did his part.
Why didn't Pelosi and why didn't the mayor of D.C. understand after the summer of 2020 riots, knowing hundreds of thousands of people were there, knowing tensions were high, knowing you always have bad actors in crowds, what would -- what reasons did they give you if any why they wouldn't call up the troops the president authorized?
MARK MEADOWS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIE OF STAFF: Well, certainly, the president did authorize those and I know there's been a lot of back and forth suggesting that he didn't authorize ten thousand National Guard troops before January 6, but that's just factually inaccurate.
I can -- I can tell you, the questions need to be asked of Speaker Pelosi and Mayor Bowser, both of them, because ultimately, it's the two of them that had the responsibility of authorizing those National Guard troops to be on the ready, in place on January 6.
And so, to see what we have, everything focused on this, the reason why that's happening, Sean, is this -- it's the events that have led up to this first year of the Biden administration where you have just listed the fact that energy prices are going up, not a secure border the Afghanistan withdrawal was a debacle they have nothing to run on.
But I think more importantly, the four days that just happened will be a turning point because what you see now are Democrats are starting to say, listen, we've got to have a candidate for 2024, we've got to have a plan, and it's not a January 6th plan and that's not going to be the success in the midterms in 2022 that they think it will be.
HANNITY: And, by the way, Mark Meadow's new book "The Chief's Chief" is a phenomenal read. It's on amazon.com, bookstores everywhere.
Jim Banks, you were on the committee with Jim Jordan. Nancy Pelosi kicked you off the committee. Then, Kevin McCarthy said what's the point, replaced you with two Never Trumpers.
The entire committee all voted to impeach Donald Trump. They won't call in Nancy Pelosi. They won't subpoena her records, or the sergeant-at-arms or the mayor of D.C.
So, are those things that you and Jim Jordan would have done, is that the reason they kicked you off the committee and replaced you with two Never Trumpers?
REP. JIM BANKS (R-IN): Without a doubt. Sean, this is the -- this January sham committee is the Russian collusion hoax on steroids. And first of all, Kevin McCarthy, anyone else at this committee has tried to drag before them should not be forced to participate when Nancy Pelosi herself refused to participate in the bipartisan homeland security investigation of January 6 over the last year.
And she may -- still today, she keeps documents in her office that she refuses to turn over that that point to this big point that we're making about the breakdown of security and the lack of the National Guard coming to the Capitol. Secondly, it's not -- the coincidence isn't lost on any of us, that the same week that inflation hits a 40-year high and Joe Biden's approval rating at 33 percent is the worst approval rating of any sitting president at the end of his first year happens in the same week that they want to go after -- that they want to go after the Republican leader Kevin McCarthy.
And then third, Sean, it's obvious to me. It's long past time for the Republican Party to kick Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger out of the House GOP conference.
HANNITY: It's a joke.
BANKS: It's way past time for us to do that. The fact that they're participating in an effort to derail Republicans winning back the House majority to save this country tells you that they're batting for the other team they don't belong in the House GOP conference.
HANNITY: You know, Congressman Meadows, you handed over 9,000 documents. You tried to cooperate but also strike the balance because the president is invoking what he rightly should invoke in my view executive privilege.
If the president doesn't have executive privilege, there's nobody in a White House that will give him straightforward, honest advice on very tough, hard controversial issues. But you tried, and look what happens as a result. Why would anyone even try?
MEADOWS: Well, we see the true colors of this committee. And you're right, as a good citizen, I was going the extra mile to try to help in those areas that were non-privileged. But exactly, if we do away with executive privilege, even after the fact, what you'll find is a chilling effect on any chief of staff to give the tough calls and the advice that you would give in the privacy of the room.
Bravo to Jim Banks and Jim Jordan for fighting this fight.
HANNITY: And bravo to you as well.
Congressman Banks, Mark Meadows, thank you both. As a reminder, Mark's new book "The Chief's Chief", amazon.com, hannity.com, bookstores everywhere.
And straight ahead tonight, the RNC is standing up to the blatantly, abusively corrupt and biased commission on presidential debates. I'm so glad. And of course, the media mob is having a meltdown over it. Ronna McDaniel will explain why she made that decision with Joe Concha, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
HANNITY: Now, big breaking news from the RNC this week, as the RNC now says they plan to require candidates to avoid debates hosted by the commission on presidential debates over deep concerns about the flaws with the commission structure, their institutional bias, along with the desire to have candidates compete on a level playing field.
Now this move is expected to be voted on by committee members when the RNC holds their winner meeting. That's early next month in Salt Lake City. But, of course, the mob, the media are melting down, totally distraught over the push for balance and presidential debates.
Joyless Behar over at that hard-hitting news show the view tweeted, quote: Are they afraid that their candidates can't keep up?
Bloomberg writer Tom O'Brien added: Another example of Republicans antipathy toward public institutions and civil processes leading them to just walk away.
Of course, the mob has said little about Joe Biden's constant refusal to talk to the press less than oh the last six presidents. But we're learning that Joey finally will hold a press conference next week.
Here with reaction, FOX News contributor Joe Concha, along with RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
Ronna, you're not saying you're against debate you're against the debate commission and I agree with you. I think it was the right call.
I don't think any debate should take place after a single vote is cast. That's number one. Number two, you have -- you have the RNC or the DNC, you guys should be able to hammer out what the rules are, who the moderators are, I volunteer. And that'll never happen I know.
But who the people should be? Are you say -- are they saying they can't enter into negotiations and come to an agreement?
RONNA MCDANIEL, RNC CHAIRWOMAN: Exactly, I think you're exactly right, Sean, listen the last debates in 2020 started -- the first debate started after 26 states had started absentee voting. They picked a moderator that worked for Joe Biden. They switched to a virtual debate without talking to the candidates, and the RNC went to the commission on presidential debates and said, can you guarantee that these three egregious actions from 2020 will not happen again in 2024?
And they said no pound sand, we don't want to work with the party. We don't care about 74 million Republicans. We're going to negotiate with the candidate.
The problem is you don't get a nominee until July or August of 2024 and by then it's too late. So, the RNC has said, enough is enough. We are going to put our candidate in the best forum that is fair and not biased and we're taking this long needed action by the Republican National Committee.
HANNITY: And, you know, Joe, I see the mob's reaction, the media mob. By the way, Joe is the best media commentator in the country, you should have your own show on FOX, I'd love to see that.
But honestly, I think they feign outrage, I don't believe they believe it, number one. Number two, nobody's saying there won't be debates but the rules are going to change. I would say no debates if a -- if a single vote has been cast and I think you got to put a list together.
Here are people that you would approve moderating, here are people we agree would moderate and pick from that.
JOE CONCHA, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Precisely and what Ronna was talking about before was Steve Scully of C-Span, right? And at the time, we got to remember what happened here, he was soliciting Anthony Scaramucci who had become vehemently anti-Trump for questions to ask Trump during the debate.
And that debate was ultimately cancelled. The Commission for Presidential Debates blamed COVID, but it appeared they were embarrassed about their debate moderator, didn't want him to be become a story, and he was clearly biased obviously.
And they figured the less Joe Biden on stage in front of 70 million people, the better. And, of course, we all remember what happened in 2012. CNN, Candy Crowley jumps in to save Barack Obama against Mitt Romney. There are other examples.
But what the RNC is saying here is that they have every right to question the commission's integrity and ask for changes to be made, to your point, hold these debates more earlier in September before votes are cast, because their track record speaks for itself and they deserve scrutiny, Sean.
HANNITY: Listen, I would like to see debates between the candidates. But to me, when you have a second debate and 100 million Americans or some number there close to that have already voted, the debate then becomes meaningless, Ronna.
CONCHA: Right.
MCDANIEL: Exactly, exactly. And the thing that you're saying, Sean, is so true. Listen, senator candidates -- senatorial candidates and gubernatorial candidates all across the country debate without a commission. This commission has had a monopoly. The RNC is saying enough is enough. We are opening the field to a different way to do debates with a -- with a moderate or with a commission that's not biased. It's not fair to our candidate and it's not fair to the voters.
And the fact that they wouldn't hold a debate before 26 states had started voting, it's egregious and it's wrong for the American people.
HANNITY: All right. Thank you both. Ronna, thank you. Joe Concha, thank you.
When we come back, it's going to be a Hannity one on one versus former Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee. We go head to head, a HANNITY showdown. Also, can Austan defend Biden's race-baiting speech this week? We'll find out. Don't miss it, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. We close out the week with a HANNITY showdown segment because Joe Biden is having mo one of the worst weeks of his presidency. Inflation, a 40-year high, supply chain, a mess. His workplace vaccine mandate blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court.
His approval rating crashing to a low 33 percent, 25 percent among independents. His COVID strategy, we don't have enough tests, we don't have enough therapeutics, monoclonal antibodies or antivirals. His agenda now appears dead in the Senate.
Ask yourself, has Joe Biden gotten anything right? Has he done anything to make the life of the average American better? And rather than just be honest about the obvious failures, the media mob, they doubled down on the bizarre smearing of the GOP, or just do another night of January 6 coverage.
Listen to MSDNC extremist Jason Johnson comparing Republicans to the terrorist group Hamas. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON JOHNSON, MSNBC COMMENTATOR: The bigger more dangerous thing and I've been saying this for a while, I'm working hard to never say Republican Party again because they're not a party, right? They're Sinn Fein to the IRA, they're the PLO to Hamas. They're a dime store front for a terrorist movement.
They didn't have -- they didn't have a policy in 2020 except loyalty to Trump. They just announced -- in "The New York Times" today, I think I saw the article where they're asking their 2020 four nominees to not engage in presidential debates. They're no longer a party. And so, nothing surprises me anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: The Biden agenda is failing on every front. Costs are up, wage gains are being wiped out by inflation. More and more people are leaving the labor force. Biden has revealed himself to be an empty suit, empty promises, overseeing empty shelves. And despite campaigning as a uniter Biden is doing nothing but divide the country.
Now, this week, he even compared Americans against his federal election takeover scheme to George Wallace and Jefferson Davis. You're starting to feel the unity?
All right. He's brave enough to show up. I have no idea why -- former Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee.
Okay, I'm just waiting for the spin. Forty-year high with inflation, gas up about a buck a gallon, average family paying -- because of inflation, on average, $5,000 more per household. That's how much it's costing.
Your dollar today, if you take a dollar out of your pocket, I only carry 20s and 50s, but if you take -- I'm joking by the way. If you take a dollar out of your pocket, it's worth seven cents less today than it was a year ago.
You explain Mr. Economic Advisor to Obama, you tell me how great Joe's economy is going.
AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, FORMER ECONOMIC ADVISOR TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, you chose only the bad things.
HANNITY: Tell me the good things.
GOOLSBEE: You failed to mention -- well, you failed to mention that we had a record year of job growth. That we had -- it's not quite five thousand dollars, it's about forty-five hundred dollars higher prices.
HANNITY: It's five thousand according to Penn Wharton.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: It's Penn Wharton I trust.
GOOLSBEE: Well, about 2,500, and we got a $3,500 tax cut. So for the year on income, we're still breaking even.
And economic growth is high. The job market is tighter than in many years, and we passed a trillion dollar infrastructure bill.
So, there's upsides and there's downsides. I'm not saying that everything is perfect, but it's not all bad news.
HANNITY: I don't see any -- now I fill up my own gas tank. I do my own shopping. I don't know if you do the shopping in your family. I do the shopping.
GOOLSBEE: I do.
HANNITY: Okay. Every single thing that you buy in every single store is costing more because of Joe Biden's policies. He reduced America's -- he reduced America's energy output by 40 percent, demand has remained constant. Now, it's $85 a barrel, with predictions it might go as high as $125 a barrel.
Begging OPEC and Russia to produce more, does that not embarrassing to you? And who's getting hurt the most? The poor in the middle class. Go ahead. What?
(CROSSTALK)
GOOLSBEE: Look, that's not an accurate description. The price of oil went up for everybody in the world. For sure, that's true. It's now been going down -- oil prices have been going down for a month and a half.
HANNITY: Whoa, whoa, whoa. He inherited energy independence and we were a net exporter of energy and now he's begging OPEC.
GOOLSBEE: He inherited an economic downturn bordering on catastrophe.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: He inherited --
GOOLSBEE: Times like that, the price of oil tends to go way down. That's for sure true.
HANNITY: You need to focus. Did he or did he not -- did he or did he not inherit, well, three vaccines and monoclonal antibodies? Did he also inherit energy independence and did he inherit that we were a net exporter of energy? And did he not -- and did he cut energy production by 40 percent? The answer is yes.
GOOLSBEE: No, he did not cut energy production by 40 percent.
HANNITY: Yes, he did.
GOOLSBEE: Energy production fell because we were in an economic catastrophic downturn.
HANNITY: No, he fired Keystone XL pipeline workers. He rescinded ANWR and exploration in other places.
(CROSSTALK)
GOOLSBEE: Keystone pipeline wasn't built yet, Sean. That had no effect on energy production. Keystone pipeline was not built.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Then why is he begging OPEC? Donald Trump didn't beg OPEC.
GOOLSBEE: We had seen energy production in the United States returned --
HANNITY: Why is he begging OPEC?
GOOLSBEE: He's not begging OPEC.
HANNITY: Yes, he is.
GOOLSBEE: He convinced OPEC and OPEC is increasing their production in this month of January. Why do you call begging?
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: They keep rejecting him. But there's the problem --
GOOLSBEE: They didn't reject him. They said they're increasing production.
HANNITY: Here's the problem, he shut down -- he dramatically shut down energy production --
(CROSSTALK)
GOOLSBEE: What are you complaining about that?
Sean, I thought you were -- you're all over the map here.
HANNITY: I'll tell you why.
(CROSSTALK)
GOOLSBEE: You were saying you didn't like to pay high gas prices, I told you gas prices going on.
HANNITY: I'll tell you why.
GOOLSBEE: And Biden convinced OPEC to increase production.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: If you want to end inflation --
GOOLSBEE: And then you said, why has he asked them to increase production?
HANNITY: -- professor of economics --
GOOLSBEE: Yeah.
HANNITY: -- at the prestigious Booth Institute in Chicago, okay , if you - - if you want to cut inflation, one of the things you can do is increase the supply of energy, which he artificially reduced by 40 percent because of his energy policies.
And by the way, he cut them even further, exploration in Alaska, again this very week. So, he's giving in to the green --
(CROSSTALK)
GOOLSBEE: How do you -- how do you respond or how do you react to the fact that energy production is now up dramatically in the United States? It is higher than in any year other than under Donald Trump, higher than any previous year.
There are two years under Donald Trump where it was higher than what it -- what it will be. But it's very high by historical standards in the United States. Do you like that?
HANNITY: We were energy independent. His policies eliminated energy independence and our Western European allies are begging --
(CROSSTALK)
GOOLSBEE: When you say that, we went from 100 percent to 98 percent.
HANNITY: Joe Biden gave a waiver to Putin. He's making Russia and Putin, hostile regime, hostile actors rich again.
By the way, I wish there was Tito's in this instead of water, because you're driving me to drink.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: I'm just saying.
GOOLSBEE: Sean, in our many -- in our many years of improbable friendship, no matter what you've said to me, I've always tried to carry myself with a certain quiet dignity, and I appreciate that you let me keep that.
HANNITY: All right. Well, we appreciate you coming on.
Anyway, straight ahead, Alec Baldwin today turned over his cell phone to authorities, only took a month.
Plus, Baltimore state attorney inspired by Kamala Harris has been indicted. Emily Compagno, Pam Bondi, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: More developments tonight in the Alec Baldwin fatal film set shooting, as the actor finally a month later has handed over his cell phone to the authorities amid the continuing investigation. That's not stopping the Baldwins from engaging in strange and bizarre behavior, as his wife posted a photo of Alec holding up a drawing of him saying to her, quote, "Oh, God, please help me, I'm dying." Full coverage just ahead.
But now shifting gears to the city of Baltimore, Baltimore City, their city state's attorney, Marilyn Mosby, has been federally indicted on charges of perjury, filing false mortgage applications related to the purchase of two vacation homes in Florida. And get this, we are learning that Vice President Harris was a strong inspiration for Mosby. Harris said of Mosby back in 2017, she cannot fail and I know she will not fail.
Mosby told the local paper in 2020, there would be no Marilyn Mosby without Kamala Harris. When I won states attorney, Kamala was my inspiration.
Here with reaction, former Florida attorney general, Pam Bondi, along with co-host of "Outnumbered", Emily Compagno is with us.
Pam, start with you. Why did it take a month?
PAM BONDI (R), FORMER FLORIDA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, it's very interesting because this happened three months ago. If you had a coworker, a young woman who you knew died, he would be handing her anything you had to help. They had to negotiate a search warrant which meant Alec Baldwin, you have to give us your phone, you don't have a choice not matter.
It should not have taken a month to get it. He should have done it right away, right after the shooting. The only victim here is Ms. Hutchins, that young cinematographer who lost her life.
You know, his drawing, his drawing -- nothing is funny about him drawing a dead body and his wife posting it. She is a victim in this, this young woman and there is nothing comical. I think Alec Baldwin is a lunatic and disturbed.
HANNITY: Emily, as I understand it, correct me if I'm wrong. But your legal background will clarify this, that you can turn over the phone and there are artificial intelligence machines that can specifically look for keywords if maybe he was concerned about text messages getting out of that were private that had nothing to do with the incident, is that true?
EMILY COMPAGNO, CO-HOST, "OUTNUMBERED": That's true. There is software for that.
Part of the reason is so important to comply and execute search warrants so fast within the usual ten-day period is because evidence can become ephemeral, Sean. So, here we have someone that has claimed publicly the reason he didn't want his phone to be made public is because there were love letters to his wife, he said things of a private nature, but that doesn't matter in a criminal investigation. The subject of a search warrant was his cell phone and that is why he should have turned it over.
To Pam's point to go from a ten day time period to four weeks is unacceptable, now this created extra work for the sheriff's office because they will have to determine whether or not any type of evidence or any type of important communications was, in fact, deleted. That means they have to issue additional search warrants or subpoenas to ensure through other communications they are that they were getting the whole picture from it. And someone better let him know it doesn't matter if he is embarrassed because someone lost their life and that is what is most important.
HANNITY: Well, I mean, I think, Pam, I'm all in favor if there are text messages not relevant to the case, he certainly has a right to privacy. And he will get that because he's a Democrat.
People like me will never get that. They just released anything -- my personal text messages. But on that note, that could've been done very quickly, it wasn't.
Let me ask you about Mosby and the connection to Kamala Harris. Why would somebody lie on the mortgage application? I'm trying to figure it out and do it twice and yet you are a prosecutor, you've got to know the law, I would assume that you can't lie on an application, correct?
BONDI: Absolutely, not only that she is a prosecutor and she thought she was above the law. She lies twice and uses COVID of all things saying she had a hardship when she was making, Sean, almost $250,000 a year. Her full salary during COVID when the people of her city were suffering -- so she gets money out of her retirement early to buy two homes in my beautiful state in Florida, two vacation homes.
She's been so critical of states like Florida. So, just the hypocrisy is beyond me.
HANNITY: Yeah. What's your take, Emily?
COMPAGNO: I think it's ironic herself stated idol of Kamala Harris has the same knee-jerk reaction to any type of criticism and here Mosby has to be federally indicted and all of these charges. She claims it is, quote, racial animus. She is facing 30 years in prison and a million dollars and I don't think it's because of racial animus.
Kamala Harris said in 2017 when supporting her, she wanted to do so, so that she would get convictions and have convictions, I think it's now clear that she will be the one that will be convicted.
HANNITY: All right. Emily, thank you. Pam Bondi, as always, thank you.
More HANNITY after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Unfortunately, that's all the time we have left. Thank you for being with us. In the meantime, let your heart not be troubled. Ray Arroyo filling in for Laura tonight. Have a great weekend. We'll see you back here Monday.
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