Class-action lawsuit filed against 8 colleges in admissions bribery scandal

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Hannity: The system was rigged

Class-action lawsuit filed against 8 colleges in admissions bribery scandal.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," March 14, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: All right. Welcome to “Hannity.”

We have two huge, massive breaking news stories on the deep state.

One, how incontrovertible, exculpatory evidence was purposefully withheld from the FISA court. The evidence is in. That blockbuster news and Peter Strzok's hidden testimony released tonight. We've got all the details.

We begin with other news. The system was rigged. Now, countless students who apply to Georgetown, USC, Stanford, Yale, all these other top universities were likely cheated out of their spot because in this case, it is a zero sum game all because dozens, perhaps now as many as 800 I'm reading wealthy families selfishly made massive payments to this man right here, named Rick Singer, in order to fix a SAT score, bribe official college boards people, and steal spots reserved for student athletes.

They never played the sport. They even went as far as to photoshop the pictures of the faces of these kids and put them on the bodies of real athletes. That's how far this went.

Now, a $5 million class action lawsuit has been filed against eight of these universities on the basis that certain students were cheated out of a spot because of the university's failure to prevent the scam. Others are claiming well damages asserting that their Stanford University degrees have been irreparably damaged and devalued.

Either way this is not a good look for some of America's quote prestigious universities which allowed massive corruption to fester at some of the highest levels.

Now one of the most notable people charged in this ongoing scandal was "Full House" actress Lori Loughlin, as you can see there paying $500,000 bribes to fraudulently secure spots at USC for her two daughters. And when Loughlin was arrested, one of her daughters apparently was spending spring break on board a yacht owned by USC's board of trustees' chairman Rich Caruso.

The system in this case appears to be rigged. We give every person the presumption of innocence.

But think about the people that work hard, the students that study, they get the A's, play by the rules, earn them. Then, you have a bunch of people only care about status and bragging rights and those spots are taken. We'll have more on this later tonight.

But, first, we have other breaking news out of Chicago before we get to our top story. Jussie Smollett was back in court today. He pled not guilty to those 16 felony charges, stemming from an elaborate hate crime hoax scheme and found guilty. Smollett could face up to 48 years in prison, forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

Now, this comes as we are now learning that a former top aide to former First Lady Michelle Obama urged the Chicago Police Department to turn over the case to the FBI. Of course that never happened and now all eyes are directly on Smollett who was allegedly defrauding the city of Chicago from the very beginning, all while dragging Trump supporters through the mud.

Now, before we get to our top story, I want to focus on “Hannity” watch. The radical 2020 Democratic candidates, yet another Democrat has jumped into the race. This case being former Congressman Robert Francis "Bozo" O'Rourke. That's what I call him.

He's flailing his way into the race this week, literally telling "Vanity Fair" that he was born to run for president. How regal. Needless to say, Bozo got off to a hot start in Iowa. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT FRANCIS O'ROURKE, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think there has ever been a greater moment in our lifetimes and for this country. The challenges have never been greater, more severe, more critical or more defining for the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: On the more humorous side, Speaker Pelosi was actually asked today to name Bozo's greatest accomplishments during his time there in the House. Well, let's say it was a struggle for the speaker. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: What, in your view, was Beto O'Rourke's signature accomplishment as a member of the House?

REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF., SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Beto brought a great deal of vitality to Congress. One of the issues in his -- I haven't been asked this question but I just know of his record here, when he came, he came as a real champion for the environment. He got a great deal of support from the environmental community in his district. Also, a member of the Armed Services Committee, a strong member of the Armed Services Committee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, too bad all that vitality didn't help Bozo achieve anything during his time in Washington. But get ready, if Bozo is elected, he plans to flush the Constitution down the toilet like so many other 2020 radical extreme Democratic socialists and he wants to pack the Supreme Court. In other words, they want to increase the number of court justices, illegally reshape the court.

We're going to have more in a mini monologue featuring everything you know -- need to know about Robert Francis O'Rourke that the left wing, destroy, hate Trump media mob will never tell you, including the time he almost killed somebody during a DUI hit and run incident. And we'll show you what President Trump has to say about, well, Bozo's decision to run.

Now, without a doubt, Democrats are willing to do anything and everything to beat President Trump, even apparently giving young kids 16 the right to vote. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PELOSI: I myself have always been for lowering the age to 16. I think it's really important to capture kids when they are in high school, when they are interested in all of this, when they are learning about government to be able to vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Maybe we should make it the legal drinking age.

All right. We'll have more on this the radical ways the Democrats are trying to reshape America. Very dangerous times.

First, let's get to our top story, major huge breaking news. We begin our “Hannity” watch tonight on the deep state. Trump, Russia collusion is, has always been and remains a myth. And the highest ranking member of the FBI knew it.

Breaking just moments ago, according to "The Hill's John Solomon who will join news a minute, there is now evidence that the Trump campaign associates George Papadopoulos and Carter Page both made exculpatory statements at the very beginning, the very start of the FBI's Russia probe back in 2016.

Now, according to Solomon, both men made comments to the FBI informant Stephan Halper, making it clear they were never involved. They had no knowledge of any collusion whatsoever. Zero. Nothing.

The FBI pressed forward anyway. Possibly hiding that exculpatory evidence from the all important FISA court where we know a fraud was committed. In fact, Halper's account was never presented to the court.

That's FISA abuse. That's fraud before a FISA court. That's prosecutorial misconduct.

That is an effort by a few high ranking bureaucrats to undermine Donald Trump and his allies and, frankly, help steal an election. It's the biggest abuse of power, corruption scandal in modern history and it is now the house of cards is beginning to fall.

Tonight, we have other major breaking news. Last week, it was Bruce Ohr. Last night, it was Lisa Page. Now, we have the full transcript from Peter Strzok's testimony on the Hill, again, courtesy Georgia Congressman Collins, thank you.

This is a huge development. For context, let's remember Peter Strzok virulently, anti-Trump, pro-Hillary Clinton, FBI investigator. He is involved in every single role here, every integral role in both the FBI's Clinton investigation, wait a minute, matter and the subsequent probe into the Trump campaign.

And Strzok helped author Hillary's exoneration letter, and he was among the agents who later interviewed Hillary. He says he knew he was in the room when they took out the words from the DOJ -- oh, gross negligence, the legal standard oh, reckless disregard.

And, remember, they added the new stature of intent, Lisa Page told us last night this went right in to Loretta Lynch's office, all of it. What did she know? When did she know it?

What did she tell Obama? What did know? When did he know it?

At the same time he was texting his FBI girlfriend Lisa Page that Hillary would win and should win 100 million to zero. Trump supporters were smelly Walmart people. That Trump was deplorable, even vowed to stop Trump and so much more.

We are talking about hundreds of graphic anti-Trump pro-Hillary texts. And now according to Strzok's foreign testimony, we now know that Obama's DOJ led by Loretta Lynch corroborating the testimony of Lisa Page entered into an agreement with the FBI, actually restricting the FBI access to Hillary Clinton's emails during their so-called investigation, including emails related to the Clinton Foundation and according to Strzok, I'll quote him, my recollection is that access to those emails were based on consent that was negotiated between the Department of Justice attorneys and the counsels for Clinton. Puts a lot of light on that tarmac meeting with Bill and Loretta Lynch, doesn't it?

And Strzok even commented that there was an even an extensive filter in place to work through the various consent agreements with Team Clinton. In other words, let me break it down. The FBI's investigation was controlled from the very top of Obama's Department of Justice. Let me say it again -- the top.

In other words, this was never a real investigation. The people involved in it are now telling us. In other words, it's now gone from oh, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Comey, McCabe and others to oh, Loretta Lynch herself, to the head of the DOJ. The outcome, they made sure was never in doubt.

Now, I wonder if Roger Stone got a consent agreement when the FBI raided his house predawn raid with, you know, navy frogs and amphibious vehicles and 16 vehicles and 27 men armed, you know, in the dark of night, predawn raid, with CNN cameras.

Meanwhile, Strzok also confirmed that the language in Clinton's exoneration letter was in fact changed, as I said, from gross negligence which is the legal definition, in the law. They changed it to extreme carelessness at the behest, again, of the DOJ and their attorneys who were working for Loretta Lynch on behalf, clearly, of Hillary Clinton.

Strzok testified: My recollection is attorneys brought it up and that these, of course, were DOJ attorneys.

This is yet more damning evidence that Obama's DOJ literally rigged the investigation from the beginning so that Hillary Clinton could continue as a presidential candidate when even the number one general counsel at the FBI argued she should be charged with a felony of the Espionage Act. They guaranteed that she can continue without facing any criminal charges.

Or as Lindsey Graham put it earlier today on the Senate floor, anyone else -- you, me, everybody else -- we don't have equal (ph) justice under the law in this country anymore. We'd be in jail. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.: How do you interview Clinton the way she was interviewed, any American out there who did what Secretary Clinton did, you'd be in jail now. We let Mueller look at all things Trump related to collusion and otherwise, somebody needs to look at what happened on the other side and find out if the FBI and the DOJ had two systems. One supporting the person they wanted to win and one out to get the person they wanted to lose.

Some of these people have been fired for lying and it's now time to have is a special counsel look at all things 2016, not just Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Well said, Senator Graham. Good for you.

If America has an equal justice under the law system, equal application under our laws, a special counsel into the Clinton's crimes that were rigged will be appointed by the new attorney general immediately. And, of course, while the FBI gave Hillary a free pass, Mueller special counsel investigation into the Trump campaign, that was tainted. We now know from the get-go, from day one, from the beginning.

Remember, when Strzok texted that his work on the Russia collusion investigation, remember it was an insurance policy? Well, he couldn't really explain any of that away. The excuses were beyond weak and pathetic.

Obviously, he had incentive to take down Trump at all costs. Remember, Hillary should win 100 million to zero.

When Robert Mueller appointed him as a lead investigator as a special counsel probe, was he ever asked about his obvious political bias? No, according to Strzok's testimony never. Mueller didn't care, didn't inquire about the known political bias, an investigation into a political campaign.

That's probably why I have been warning everybody about Mueller. And he hired, of course, Hillary Clinton's former Clinton Foundation attorney, Jeannie Rhee, or the fact that Andrew Weissmann actually attended Hillary Clinton's election night party, it never happened.

But breaking tonight, in a sign that we are nearing the end of the witch- hunt, Andrew Weissmann is now stepping away from team Mueller. Maybe time to investigate him. I guess he is not happy that the witch-hunt is going to come up short of their goal.

And here with more is "The Hill's" John Solomon, Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, and author of the number one bestseller, "The Russian Hoax: The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump", now in paperback.

Let's start, John Solomon, with you and your breaking news.

This is amazing. Papadopoulos and Page, exculpatory information was withheld from the FISA court on top of what we know?

JOHN SOLOMON, THE HILL: Yes. Listen, today is the day more than any other that you can see the dual justice system. You can see in Pete Strzok how the FBI took evidence of criminality, the negligent handling of email turned it into exoneration, and then took the innocence of innocence and turned it into a criminal investigation against Donald Trump. It's extraordinary.

What we learned is that these two men, the two focuses, George Papadopoulos and Carter Page, the people on whom they opened up the entire Russia collusion investigation were captured talking to an FBI informant in making exculpatory statements, spontaneous admissions of innocence. They did not meet with Russia. They did not hack emails with the Russians and, in fact, they said they would consider that treasonous, wouldn't be involved in it.

Multiple statements of innocence, no evidence that was told to the FISA court. It's important to note these statements of innocence occurred in August and September of 2016, one month before the first FISA warrant was issued.

HANNITY: All right. Let me go on the legal side to Gregg Jarrett and we'll get to the investigative side.

Gregg, on top of Bruce Ohr last week, on top of Lisa Page this week, now we know this. Everybody was warned. That Steele hated --

GREGG JARRETT, LEGAL ANALYST: Right.

HANNITY: -- Donald Trump. We know Hillary paid for this. She used DNC money she was controlling to pay for this. The FBI paid for this sadly. And we also know Russian oligarchs paid for this phony dossier that Steele doesn't stand by. Now, John's story.

Legally, let's talk about the ramifications.

JARRETT: And hats off to John for that incredible reporting.

But we knew it all along, right? We knew that Carter Page had not colluded with anybody. We knew the dossier was phony. We know that George Papadopoulos hadn't done anything wrong.

But now we know the FBI truly knew all of this through their confidential informant. The law requires them to provide the FISA court with any exculpatory evidence, failing to do so can be a crime. Not only that, but they didn't verify as the law requires the information they were submitting so, you know, in my judgment, and I identify it in the book. Six different felonies may have occurred there.

HANNITY: You know, Congressman, you have been so great on this. I also applaud a new member. I didn't know Congressman Collins, I think very courageous rightly giving information. There is so much more to come.

Once the flood gates open, it's going to come cascading down. But here's my question. Everything seems to be focused around the dossier. Everything.

REP. JIM JORDAN, R-OH: Yes.

HANNITY: The dossier could never be verified because Steele under oath in an interrogatory as I have told my audience, he said, I have no idea if it's true. But what's worse, then it was used to bludgeon.

JORDAN: Yes.

HANNITY: Well, first, propagandize the American people. And then to bludgeon Donald Trump and the FISA courts were lied to.

Comey signed the first one in October of '16. In January of '17, he tells President-elect Trump it's salacious and unverified. The opposite of what he said in October.

JORDAN: Right.

HANNITY: Is that a crime?

JORDAN: Well, we'll find out. But I think you are exactly right.

Remember, they didn't tell the court the dossier was unverified. They didn't tell the court who paid for it, namely the Clinton campaign.

They didn't tell the court that Christopher Steele, the guy who wrote it, was desperate that Trump not win. They didn't tell the court that Christopher steel fired by the FBI because he's out leaking information.

And now, because of John's reporting, we know they didn't tell the court other exculpatory information about Carter Page and George Papadopoulos.

That's a lot not to share with a secret court especially, Sean, when you are getting a warrant to go spy on the other party's campaign. But that is exactly what happened.

And that's why you are so right. This has been wrong from the get-go. That's why these investigations are important.

And that we do what you said earlier. We have a real single standard in this country. It shouldn't be two standards. It shouldn't be just one set of rules for us regular folk and a different set if your name is Clinton, Comey, Lynch, Learner (ph), Page, Strzok. It's got to be one set of rules in this country and that's equal treatment under the law.

HANNITY: You know, nine months, Lisa Page said they investigated and Strzok confirmed. They found no Trump-Russia collusion before the appointment of Mueller, John Solomon -- or go ahead, Congressman, go ahead.

JORDAN: Well, I was going to say way up until May 17th, 2017 when they named Bob Mueller special counsel, they had zero. Zero evidence.

HANNITY: That's from July of 2016. Yes.

JORDAN: Yes. All that time, still no evidence. And, yet, they moved ahead with this whole thing.

HANNITY: John Solomon, what are your sources telling you? Because, you know, I'm getting mixed reviews. Some are saying just like Nunes' committee, just like the Burr committee. Just like everybody else, there's no evidence of any collusion.

But then I'm also hearing -- well, what's the I.G. going to come out about FISA abuse? What is John Huber doing? Does anybody even know?

SOLOMON: You know, I think there is a new sheriff in town with the new attorney general, Bill Barr, and I think a lot of things are changing internally in the Justice Department. We can't see them, but Andrew Weissmann's departure today is an example of the overturn and change we're going to see in the next few months.

I think the single most important thing that will happen as soon as Bob Mueller's report comes in and as soon as the president is no longer in legal jeopardy, it's incumbent upon the president to declassify those documents.

JORDAN: Yes.

SOLOMON: Let us see the FBI's true activity for what it is, not for what it was made to look like for a two-year mirage.

HANNITY: Well, we've all been calling for it. The president has the ability to do it.

But it is -- you know, we have talked about the need for a special counsel. But this now, if we're going to have equal justice knowing that the Hillary investigation was rigid, it's overwhelming evidence now. Incontrovertible, Gregg. Will the new attorney general do his job?

JARRETT: Sure. I hope he reads the same transcripts of Lisa Page and Peter Strzok that we have now read and that are available for the public to read, because it's clear from both of them that the fix was in. You know, Comey always said oh, it was my decision to clear Hillary Clinton and Peter Strzok said it was Comey's decision to change the language. That was his public testimony.

Now we see today in his private testimony saying, no, it was the DOJ, and Lisa Page said, yes, they told us to stand down on Hillary Clinton.

HANNITY: Will Congress -- I have got to believe that the attorney general now, Lynch, we have got to see her emails. We have got to see her correspondence. We have got to -- now that it's pointing in that direction.

And I also think we have a legitimate question what did President Obama know and when did he know it? Jim?

JORDAN: No, I agree, Sean, never forget the code names they gave him. The Clinton investigation was called the "Midyear Exam". The Trump-Russia investigation was called "Crossfire Hurricane". That shows you the bias that existed right from the get-go.

HANNITY: All right. Do you agree with this statement? You can shake your head. This is about to break wide open and many of these players are about to see a day of reckoning? Yes or no, shake your head.

JARRETT: Yes.

SOLOMON: Yes.

JORDAN: I hope so, too.

HANNITY: My sources are telling me the same.

All right. Stay tuned. We were right from the get-go.

When we come back, Beto Bozo O'Rourke predicting the end of the world if we don't do something about global warming.

Later, Israel is retaliating at this hour after two rockets fired at Tel Aviv. We're going to have a live report from the Israeli-Gaza border. Just moments ago, a crew caught a rocket being intercepted on camera. That and more, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: And we turn our “Hannity” watch on the 2020 radical, extreme, socialist Democrats. Failed Senate candidate Robert Francis Beto O'Rourke announced he is joining the race. And while fawning destroy Trump media, they have been out there all loving him, trying to paint him as a real unifier.

He is pushing the same radical, far left agenda that would destroy our economy and roll back all of the progress the president has made in two years -- record low unemployment, historically, for the first time in 70 years, we are energy independent. We are now a net -- we now sell our energy for profit for crying out loud and an exporter.

Just listen to him parroting Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal, which will be a disaster. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'ROURKE: There will be people who can no longer live in the cities that they call home today. There's food in this country that will no longer prosper in these soils. There is going to be massive migration of tens or hundreds of millions of people from countries that are literally uninhabitable or under water that are above the sea right now.

This is our final chance. The scientists are absolutely unanimous on this, that we have no more than 12 years to take incredibly bold action on this crisis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: All right. So, the Democrats have morphed into a total doomsday climate cult. O'Rourke is helping out with, you know, let's serve up the doomsday Kool-Aid wanting to destroy the lifeblood of our economy, get rid of oil and gas and if you listen to Ocasio-Cortez, we are going to get rid of oil, gas, planes, cars, and even cows.

And get this -- even the experts are telling them to cool it on the world ending in 12 years, doomsday.

Miles Allen, one of the authors of the famous IPCC report on global warming recently explained the 12 years line is being misused in, quote, potentially dangerous ways.

And it gets even worse for Bozo O'Rourke following his appearance at an Iowa coffee shop. People including the president are wondering, what is he like doing with his hands? Like -- I don't get it. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'ROURKE: That also recognizes that some communities have born the brunt of pollution more than others right now. The asthma deaths that we have in the United States of America, concentrated in some neighborhoods, assure that there are jobs available for those who are looking for work for purpose -- for function in their lives who do not have it right now.

In so doing, make sure that the world's greatest superpower, its greatest democracy, its greatest economy brings everything that we have to this unique challenge. Literally. Not to be melodramatic but literally the future of the world depends on us right now.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT: I think he's got a lot of hand movement. I've never seen so much hand movement. I said, is he crazy or is that just the way he acts?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: What a choice, crazy or the way he acts?

And don't forget, he is a radical champion. Of course, he wants to tear down border walls, saying they -- literally thinks they all should go, which, by the way, those keep our country safe and secure.

Take a look at this idiocy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you could, would you take the wall down here?

O'ROURKE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you have a wall.

O'ROURKE: Absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You knock it down.

O'ROURKE: I'll take the wall down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Take them down, also called police and the criminal justice system, quote, the new Jim Crow while running for Senate.

Of course, the media, Hollywood, they are showering him with praise. And in a new puff piece in "Vanity Fair", O'Rourke says, quote: I want to be in it. Man, I'm just born to be in it.

Just months ago, he literally said the opposite. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are your thoughts on running for President?

REP. BETO O'ROURKE, D-TX: I don't want to do it. I will not do it. I'm saying that if elected to the Senate, I'll serve every day of that six-year term that I'm not looking at 2020, and in fact, I'm completely ruling that out.

HANNITY: Win or lose, you're not going to run in 2020.

O'ROURKE: Win or lose, I'm not running in 2020.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Just like in 2007 and 2008, we will do the media's job and vet all of the candidates. Beyond this radical agenda, well, there's no legislative accomplishments than bizarre hand gestures. O'Rourke's past suggest that he is far from the moral compass he's pretending to be.

Look at this. According to a 1998 police report, O'Rourke tried to flee the scene of a serious car accident before later being arrested for DWI. And for reasons that still aren't entirely clear, the charges were dismissed. We'll get answers to this eventually. And don't fall for the media's narrative.

We saw the same thing with Barack Obama. No vetting, no examination, just a flattering love affair and thrills up people's legs. He'll get a total pass because that's the political privilege you get when you are a liberal radical socialist. But you know better because his destructive climate shaming open borders agenda now on full display.

Here with reaction to this, Fox News contributors Ari Fleischer, Dan Bongino.

All right. Dan, I'll will start with you tonight because Ari's - Ari calls balls and strikes. And I think Ari and I agree 85 percent of the time. Is that - would that be a good number?

ARI FLEISCHER, CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. Yes.

HANNITY: All right. 85. OK.

FLEISCHER: That's probably right.

HANNITY: I think Dan and I are pretty much 100. So we'll start with 100. Dan.

(LAUGHTER)

DAN BONGINO, CONTRIBUTOR, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT: We both love Ari. Ari is such a great guy. But on Beto, Sean, I was trying - I'm thinking coming on the air tonight, I'm like, how do you define Beto? And the answer is, you don't. He is like that character from Ghostbusters, Gozer. Remember, whatever you think of Gozer becomes and he became, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. That's Beto.

You ask the media about Beto when he was running in Texas, ah, Beto is a moderate. You ask about Beto's vehicular incident that was very serious. He was younger when the police showed up. Ah, these are just youthful indiscretions. It's like every character data point they paint positively for Beto so you project on to him and he becomes whatever you want.

But notice how they cover Trump. They cover these stories that are innocuous. Like, he chooses two scoops of ice cream, and it's meant to be fatalistic. Like, look how awful Donald Trump is. So this Beto - how they cover Beto versus how they cover Trump is really a microcosm of where we are right now with the media.

HANNITY: All right. What's your take? Because this is now almost the entire Democratic Party.

FLEISCHER: Yes. So the entire Democratic Party running off the platform to the far, far left. And what you see with Beto is that hyperbole and hysteria are his platform. This is how he communicates. This is the drama that he brings. And Sean, you nailed it. I remember working on a presidential campaign where my candidate got scrutiny. But isn't it easy to be a Democrat?

HANNITY: Oh. You're--

FLEISCHER: Because you get a scrutiny-free pass.

HANNITY: Scrutiny?

FLEISCHER: You can look--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: --brutalized.

FLEISCHER: --this was basis of hyperbole. That's exactly right. So when I see Beto, somebody like this run and the press swoons? Why do you think the American people have abandoned the media into such a great degree? Why do you think they don't trust the media to hold Democrats or people accountable anymore? It's because they swoon like this for a candidate like him.

HANNITY: Yes. And we're supposed to, like, look at the bums and the - what is it? Like, throwing baseballs all over when he gets - that's fine with that. But - look, it's the ideas that matter. And these ideas will fail, Dan. We have the greatest system, wealth-creating system ever created by man. They want to destroy it.

BONGINO: Yes. Sean, Ari used the key word there. Scrutiny, right? Why doesn't anybody Beto, OK, you support the Green New Deal, you realize if we implement that, all of Texas and California's land mass, that many square miles would be needed in solar panels to generate the electricity. What are you going to tell the farmers in Texas? See you later, we're going to cover your farms with solar panels? Good luck on that one, Beto.

HANNITY: People (inaudible) street. Yes.

BONGINO: Exactly.

HANNITY: Ari, last word.

BONGINO: Good luck with that.

FLEISCHER: Well, also on the Green New Deal, that resolution, not the frequently asked real questions that were withdrawn, the resolution calls for paid vacation, guaranteed jobs, family leave, retirement security for all people of the United States. Some needs to ask Beto, does that include illegal immigrants? People of the United States is odd legislative language. That's open to including illegals. If I were a reporter, I'd ask Beto.

HANNITY: You know, great question. Just like Gavin Newsom is saying and Comrade de Blasio is saying, oh, healthcare free in New York and all of California. By the way, if you ever get sick, once Gavin sets up the sys (ph), just go to California, it's free. Anybody can go there. That's what they're saying.

All right. Ari, thank you. And Dan, thank you.

All right. When we come back, fake news CNN stooping, believe or not, to an even lower low. You won't believe what they compared Ivanka and Jared too. But first, rockets launched in Israel today. They are firing back at this moment. We're going to get a live report from the Israeli-Gaza border where our crews, just moments ago, caught a, on-camera, a rocket being intercepted, and the latest on the college entrance scandal and much more. Straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. A Fox News alert. Rockets were fired at Tel Aviv today. Joining us now live from the Israeli-Gaza border is - Trey Yingst is with us.

Trey, Israel is now fighting back.

TREY YINGST, GENERAL ASSIGNMENT REPORTER: Sean, that's right. The situation here is escalating by the hour after two rockets were fired towards the Israeli City of Tel Aviv earlier tonight. Right now, the Israeli military is responding with airstrikes inside the Gaza strip.

Our crew along the border has witnessed numerous targets hit inside Gaza, and now militants are launching more rockets towards Israel. A number of the recent launches from Gaza were intercepted by Israel's missile defense system, the Iron Dome.

The two largest factions inside Gaza, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, say they are not responsible for tonight's rocket fire, although Israel says Hamas did launch the original attack. There is ongoing Egyptian-led negotiation and mediation to try and deescalate the situation. Hamas and Islamic Jihad leadership told Fox News in the past few weeks that they are prepared for a war but would like to try to avoid one.

Now, Sean, earlier today, I did speak with a senior Hamas official inside the Gaza strip behind me. He described the situation as tense but had no further comment on tonight's rocket fire.

Sean.

HANNITY: All right. Thank you, Trey. We appreciate it. We're going to follow the story. But first, the media is making fools of themselves yet again. Latest offender, fake news CNN's Paul Begala. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Of course, they survived. I mean, cockroaches are going to survive nuclear war. When they took this job--

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not calling Ivanka and Jared--

BEGALA: Family is--

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: --cockroaches?

BEGALA: No, no. No, I'm talking about a separate class of species.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

BEGALA: But when -- when he took this job, I thought it was an enormous mistake. I don't believe in criticizing politicians' families. They're no longer family. They're government officials. They work for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Cockroaches, really?

Also, tonight, after launching massive lawsuits against The Washington Post, CNN, an attorney for Covington High School student Nicholas Sandmann telling Fox News, lawsuits are on deck for the Associated Press, for HBO, I would assume, Bill Maher and NBC.

Joining me now with reaction, Relatable podcast host, Allie Beth Stuckey; Fox News contributor, Mike Huckabee.

Governor, you and I both share a passion and love of Israel. And this Prime Minister has been as good with moral clarity than any I've seen in my lifetime. And I hope he gets reelected. You've been to Sderot, you've been to Gaza, you've seen the tunnels, you've made the tours. Such a small area that they must defend. They do not have defensible borders.

MIKE HUCKABEE, R-ARK, FORMER GOVERNOR: Sean, I'll actually be there this coming Monday and Tuesday. And one of the things that I find ridiculous is when Hamas and Israel - Islamic Jihad say they didn't do it. Well, who did? A Boy Scout troop? I mean, who has the capacity to launch rockets towards Tel Aviv? This is a bunch of terrorists.

I'm so frustrated that a lot of people in the American media and in the U.N. don't understand that Israel is under attack constantly by a group that by anybody's definition is not a country, it's not a government, it's a terrorist organization. Israel has to fight back. It's their only way.

HANNITY: And look at those tunnels--

(CROSSTALK)

HUCKABEE: And that's why the Prime Minister is so important there right now.

HANNITY: It is essential that BB (ph) stay in office, essential at this moment in history. And using Israeli cement and electricity, built tunnels to kill Israelis. And I've been in those tunnels - extensive tunnels.

HUCKABEE: Yes.

HANNITY: Allie Beth, let me go to - obviously, the first family can never get a break.

ALLIE BETH STUCKEY, RELATABLE PODCAST HOST: Yes.

HANNITY: It's amazing to watch a network that claims to be balanced. They're all unbalanced. It's every second, minute, hour of every day. Now we're going to attack a - we're going to call people that don't agree with cockroaches?

STUCKEY: Right. And whether or not he intended to dehumanize part of the first family, the disdain that he revealed is really represented by so many people on the anti-Trump left. Yes.

HANNITY: Yes.

STUCKEY: On the anti-Trump left - sorry about that. On the anti-Trump left. And so, yes, the same condemnation that we saw revealed from him is really something that is systemic from a lot of people, not just at that network but on the anti-Trump left in general.

HANNITY: Governor, I watch your own daughter, who I come to love and admire, she's wonderful, have the strength of Job and patience of Job, dealing with this hostile media. There's nothing in the world of the news now, print or cable or broadcast, that will ever say a nice thing about Trump. It's 98-to-2.

HUCKABEE: Well, look, I think it's very evident that the media is never going to be fair. But the American people aren't as stupid as some of these media people think we are. We can see through it. And it's why Donald Trump is going to be reelected next year.

The frustration with the media, the fact they don't want to be told who to vote for, they're not going to believe the hype about a Beto or Kamala Harris, it's just not going to work. And as they continue to go to the left, as they continue to insult as they did with Paul Begala, he might as well have been Louis Farrakhan talking because it's the kind of language Farrakhan uses.

HANNITY: Yes.

HUCKABEE: And people are going to just get to a point they're sick of it and it's going to result in the re-election of the President.

HANNITY: Allie, I kind of agree, but there's a part of me that sees all these leading candidates and sees what's happening to Congress and sees 100 people support this radical New Green Deal, and I'm thinking, wow, that's a shocking high number.

STUCKEY: Right. Right. Well, it's worrisome that some people seem to have lost their minds. And I believe in the radical left, but I agree with Governor Huckabee. I think at the end of the day, people have their heads screwed on right and that hopefully this will lead to Trump's re-election that they are a little bit better than the left takes them to be.

HANNITY: All right. Allie Beth, thank you. And Governor, great to see you. Thank you for being with us.

When we come back, Trace Gallagher is here next to give us all the new developments in two cases, Jussie Smollett and the college admission scam. Geraldo Rivera, Rachel Campos-Duffy will join us. And our Villain of the Day was involved in a really shocking crime. You will see that. Straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: We are following multiple stories unfolding tonight. Fox News Correspondent Trace Gallagher joins us live from our LA newsroom tonight with the very latest on the ongoing college admissions scamming scandal as well as news on the Jussie Smollett hate crime hoax and, of course, saga.

Trace, what's going on?

TRACE GALLAGHER, CORRESPONDENT: Sean, because rich parents allegedly paid top dollar to cheat their kids into elite colleges, Yale and the University of Southern California among other schools are now being sued by multiple students who claim they were denied admission because of the scam. Meantime, actress Lori Loughlin, who is accused of cheating her kids into USC, has been dropped by the Hallmark Channel. Her 19-year-old daughter, Olivia Jade, has been dropped by Sephora makeup, and it appears neither of Loughlin's daughters will return to USC for fear of being bullied.

And speaking of top access, when Jussie Smollett was still considered a victim, (inaudible), and a former senior aide to Michelle Obama, reportedly reached out to Chicago's top prosecutor Kim Foxx, requesting the investigation be turned over to the FBI. Foxx responded, "Spoke to Superintendent Johnson, that's Chicago's top cop. I convinced him to reach out to the FBI to ask that they take over the investigation."

Smollett family member got the same message and responded, "Oh, my God, this would be a huge victory." Foxx recused herself before Smollett was charged. Today, Jussie Smollett pleaded guilty - or not guilty to 16 felony counts and the feds confirmed they are also investigating him for mail fraud.

Sean.

HANNITY: All right. Trace Gallagher, thank you from our LA bureau tonight.

Joining us now with reaction, Fox News contributor, Rachel Campos-Duffy, and Fox News Correspondent-at-large, Geraldo Rivera.

Geraldo, you're looking at this. It's pretty extensive. I mean, you have a very sophisticated scheme. Tests are taken. Photoshopping pictures of your kid and putting them on athlete's bodies and posting it. The schools have a way of determining - all right. Did the kid play the sport or not play the sport? Because most have rankings and stuff like that.

GERALDO RIVERA, CORRESPONDENT-AT-LARGE: It's awful that college admissions is just another scam open to the highest bidder. It's really - it's pathetic. It's nauseating. My dad was one of 17 children. He was the first one in that huge crew to go to high school. He always preached. My mother, one of eight, first one to go to high school in her family, always preached education to us kids.

I was the first in my family of five to go to college, in my case, community college, because college was the great equalizer. College was the way even if you started off in the modest place, you could be anybody with a college education. And to see how people are buying these admissions to the elite schools, it's so disheartening.

I feel sorry in a way for the kids whose lives have been ruined by their parents' eagerness to cheat, but it's just been a very unsavory chapter.

HANNITY: Rachel, I didn't have the college experience that most of my friends had. I worked full time, paid every penny myself. I had no help at all. And that meant that I - I went to school a year, dropped out because I ran out of money to work. Went to school a year, dropped out until I had more money to work. And I eventually did it little over three years.

And everyone that goes to college loves their colleges, loves them. It's competitive. You've got to have the goods or else you're not going to survive. And this is a zero-sum game. There's only X number of slots. That's why this is difficult for most people to comprehend. They didn't care about the person that lost the slot.

RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY, CONTRIBUTOR: Well, that's absolutely right. And listen, the idea, as Geraldo said, of getting an education is the American dream. And the American dream is based on the idea of equal opportunity. And that means that you can't game the system. And I think that what's interesting is, the school - the backlash has been intense. It's been harsh.

I think the schools' reputations have suffered from it. And hopefully they will police for this corruption. But I think the bigger story here, Sean, is that there are other legal ways to game the system. If your daddy is rich and buys the library, you can get in. And also, there's a diversity racket that gives people an advantage as well.

HANNITY: Well, wait a minute. What about legacy? What about mom and dad and grandma and grandpa?

CAMPOS-DUFFY: And legacy.

HANNITY: Right.

CAMPOS-DUFFY: But also there's a diversity racket as well that gives people unfair advantage.

HANNITY: Yes.

CAMPOS-DUFFY: And the American dream is based, as I said, on equal opportunity, hard work, and not on race and wealth. And those things have to be removed from the system if it's going to be fair.

HANNITY: All right. Last -- 15 seconds.

RIVERA: Why not open the admissions process -- make it an open system where you can see whether or not--

CAMPOS-DUFFY: Yes.

RIVERA: --like the Asian kids are suing Harvard, it should be open. Let's see what the criteria the admission officers use to select the students.

HANNITY: Harvard has a $30 billion endowment. $37 billion, just crazy.

All right. Thank you both.

All right. We have the latest on the alleged mob boss killed today in New York. Villain of the Day will shock you. Straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Our Villain of the Day. Earlier in the program, unbeknownst to me, I had a bug crawling on my collar during the show. Look, right there, the bug, right by my neck. I didn't feel it. One person tweeting, "You're being bugged." Goodness (ph), I didn't know it was there.

Let not your heart be troubled. The news continues.

Laura, take it away. Did you see that?

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