'Hannity' on Biden and Putin, Canada truckers

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Hannity: Putin not afraid of Biden, sanctions

Putin makes forceful speech 2 years to the day Biden claimed he feared his 2020 election

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," February 21, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: And welcome to HANNITY.

Now, we begin with this FOX News alert. The U.S. embassy in Ukraine has officially fled across the border into Poland as Vladimir Putin's initial intrusion or minor incursion as Joe might call it into Ukraine is now underway. We'll bring you the very latest developments all throughout the hour.

Plus, we'll show you how Vice President Harris absolutely humiliated herself yet again and this country yet again during her big trip to Europe.

And later, shocking new video from New York City, look at this four-year- old boy getting punched in the face at random by a repeat violent criminal. How are these no bail laws working out.

And also, tonight, we're keeping an eye on Canada where Putin want to be little dictator himself, little Justin is now violently squashing all dissent.

But, first, our top story is the Russian military personnel now are rolling into the eastern part of the country after Russia's hostile dictator issued a decree ordering troops to the region. Now, Putin is calling the incursion a peacekeeping mission. Really? Okay, in support of the so-called Russian separatists.

In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. According to analysts and officials, we could be witnessing what is the beginning of a prolonged and bloody war, the largest invasion in Europe. Since Hitler's reign of terror.

Now, remember just two years ago to the day, then candidate Joe Biden, he made a bold declaration. This did not age well on Twitter. Vladimir Putin doesn't want me to be president. He doesn't want me to be our nominee. If you're wondering why, it's because I'm the only person in the field who's ever gone toe-to-toe with them. Didn't do pretty well.

Anyway, it turns out Joe was everything Putin in fact did want and more. Putin watched as Biden abandoned how many Americans, how many green card holders, how many of our Afghan allies in the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan in the most shameful and chaotic way possible.

ANNOUNCER: Americans held hostage, abandoned behind enemy lines, day 191.

And 204 days since Joe promised he wouldn't stab Americans in the back and abandon them. They're still trapped behind enemy lines.

Joe, of course, and the media of course have turned the page. We haven't. Now, also Putin watched as Biden refused to hold China accountable in any way for the spread of COVID-19, military aggression in Taiwan's airspace, all the crackdowns in Hong Kong. The Uyghur minority community, forced labor camps, and Putin watched as Biden immediately lifted all sanctions on Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline while crippling America's own oil and gas production right here in the U.S. by ending the Keystone XL pipeline and more. We'll have a lot on that in a second.

Make no mistake, there's no mystery behind Putin's hostile behavior and Russia's behavior. In fact, he announced his intentions months ago back in July, I think it was July 12th if my memory serves me well. Putin declared his lust for Ukraine during a long deranged rambling paper of his, all the while Russian troops and equipment, they were amassing at Ukraine's border for the better part of a year and yet Biden failed to turn the screws he failed to deter Vladimir in any way. He failed to reimpose sanctions until today and they're pathetic at that with two measly economic limits on just the separate separatists regions now in eastern Ukraine, far too little, far too late.

And as Russia's ambassador to Sweden put it, Moscow doesn't give a Adam Schiff about uh sanctions. Now, there's virtually nothing Biden can do to prevent conflict and of course, the United States will not get into a shooting war with Ukraine nor should we.

But Americans will pay a steep financial cost and Putin has a very good shot of breaking up NATO as a result of this in ways that we can't imagine today, and our Western European allies that because of Joe's energy policies are reliant on that guy that house hostile actor for the lifeblood of their economy. There's not much they can do.

The price of a barrel of oil is now very high at $94 per barrel. But a war between two massive oil producing countries in Europe -- well, that price could shoot right through the roof with some people economic experts expecting it could go to higher than $150 a barrel. You'll pay for that.

Too bad President Biden spent the first year of his presidency basically taking a wrecking ball to the U.S. oil and gas production in this country. He did inherit energy independence and Donald Trump left this country as a net exporter of energy.

Remember, it was Biden to block the new Keystone XL pipeline. He put new drilling efforts in Alaska on a permanent hold. He disrupted new exploration and development auctions in the rest of the country. He suspended new exploration on federal lands and ANWR.

He hurt American liquefied natural gas production by lifting sanctions on Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline. As Forbes put it back in August, it is not a revelation to discover that the Biden administration intends to phase out the U.S. oil and gas industry but it is astonishing to see how quickly it is moving to accomplish this while sending production abroad to producers in Russia in the Middle East.

And by the way, he's been begging OPEC and importing from Russia. It's unbelievable.

Under Donald Trump, we were a net exporter of oil and gas. Now, we are at the mercy of Russia, OPEC, the Middle East and, what, Venezuela next?

Look at your screen. Since the year -- since January 2021, the U.S. has imported over $232 million barrels of oil from Russia. Wow. Joe's making Russia and the hostile regime of Russia and the hostile actor Putin rich again. In Europe, the situation is even worse.

Look at this, a whopping 32 percent of Germany's gas, that comes from Russia. How tough you think Germany can be with Vladimir Putin and Russia with that percentage of the lifeblood of their economy reliant on him?

As I've said many, many times, America, we have no business fighting the corrupt country of Ukraine in their wars. But if the U.S. decided to do, let's say we wanted to do the same thing to Mexico or Canada or Cuba, the way that you know to fight Putin, there is a way to fight him. There is a way to defeat him. There is a way to bring Russia to its knees, and that would be the mass production in this country of our vast natural resources of oil, gas, would be critical.

Now you want to deter Vladimir Putin, flood the market with American energy, cut his profits, wreck Russia's economy, supply our western European allies with all of their energy needs so they're not reliant on him anymore. But Joe Biden cares more about AOC, our Green New Deal climate change alarmism cult and now he is totally checked out.

A few hours ago as Russia's minor incursion as Joe would probably call it into eastern Ukraine began, Joe Biden, he called the lid for the day. Lid meaning he's out, he's done, he's not going to say any more for the day. Presumably he retired to his private quarters, had his ice cream and went night night.

Now, here with the very latest out of a very fast developing situation, her coverage has been superb all day, in Ukraine, our own Jennifer Griffin.

Jennifer, this is serious.

JENNIFER GRIFFIN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Sean, how we got to this point is a long story and it predates the Biden administration. It goes back and includes mistakes made by every U.S. president since the Soviet Union fell apart, which Putin has said was the worst geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.

Putin has been laying the groundwork for this attempt to retake Ukraine for years. We are where we are tonight with Europe on the edge of war, a sovereign country Ukraine being invaded by an expansionist power with a megalomaniacal leader who rose to power 20- years ago and never let go.

The president of Finland who knows Putin well says something has changed in Putin, who appears to be growing increasingly paranoid. His own words indicate he has his sights set on all of Ukraine not just the Donbas Putin's televised speech to the nation, a chilling distorted history lesson in which he essentially outlined why he did not believe Ukraine has the right to exist as a separate nation. It was almost verbatim what Putin said as you mentioned in a seminal -page speech back on July 12th, 2021, which he sent to his armed forces entitled on the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians.

This was a cold and calculated speech today, the kind of speech reminiscent of those delivered on the eve of World War II before Hitler invaded Poland. We are now on an escalation ladder. Putin has made his opening gambit and he will want to see the response from the U.S. and its allies. He has factored in the sanctions that are coming.

The president has said U.S. troops will not be sent to fight in Ukraine. That was reiterated to us tonight. But the kind of blitzkrieg invasion that most senior U.S. officials believe is coming will have many unintended consequences and should be of concern to every American -- Sean.

HANNITY: Jennifer, this is really your wheelhouse. I want to just get your brief overview comments as it relates to NATO and our western European allies that are so heavily reliant on Russian oil, gas, energy -- Germany for one -- that puts him in a very weakened position to stay united against Putin, does it not?

GRIFFIN: Well, Putin can wait them out. He has $638 billion of reserves because the price of oil has been so high. It's one of the reasons he's moved right now. Angela Merkel made a huge mistake by getting rid of nuclear power plants in Germany and making them more dependent on Russian oil and gas.

So, yes, Europe has a problem. It's dependent on Russian energy supplies. That's going to have to change in the future now that people see what Putin is capable of.

HANNITY: All right. Jennifer Griffin, great job all day. Thank you for updating us.

Now, joining us live on the ground in Ukraine tonight, our own Lucas Tomlinson.

And, Lucas, what's going on there?

LUCAS TOMLINSON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Sean, we've just learned the remaining American diplomats here in this western Ukrainian city have fled the country, making the U.S. withdrawal of Ukraine complete. Earlier tonight, Ukraine's president addressed this nation saying, quote, we are not afraid of anything and anyone, we don't owe anything to anyone. We won't give away anything to anyone, but I can tell you on the ground here tonight, Sean, many Ukrainians have spoken to are afraid and very nervous about a potential large-scale Russian invasion of this country.

As Jennifer Griffin mentioned earlier, this is a crisis over 30 years in the making. Vladimir Putin has never accepted that Ukraine and Russia are different nations he thinks they are one people. That's why experts say he's starting in eastern Ukraine tonight with those two separatist regions in Donbas.

Ukrainians disagree with Putin, a majority want to be part of the European Union and NATO. Ever since NATO expanded to the Warsaw pact nations of Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic in 1999, Putin has felt threatened. When NATO began bombing Serbia three weeks later, Putin thought Moscow could be next.

Now, this year marks the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Soviet Union, many Ukrainians here tonight think Putin wants to put it back together -- Sean.

HANNITY: Yeah, and amazing that he went after Lenin and Khrushchev and previous leaders of Russia in the process.

Lucas, we'll be watching very closely as the days ahead unfold. Thank you for being with us.

Here with more from the White House, our very own Peter Doocy is with us.

Peter, they called the lid pretty early today. I found it somewhat weak and embarrassing the minor sanctions on the two particular provinces that were discussing -- I didn't quite understand also the White House saying oh we're sending troops over to Europe and we're putting 8,500 troops on a heightened state of preparedness.

What exactly would that do and what would that mean? Absolutely nothing. Was that for show?

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Not sure if it was for show but it was interesting today to see President Biden who canceled the trip to Delaware for Presidents' Day to be here to stay off camera all day long. We know that he had these high-level meetings with the secretary of state and with the defense secretary and with the intel chiefs. But the only time that we actually saw him was a tweet that they put out from his account where he was signing those very limited sanctions that don't really go as far as they promised.

But this president who said that there were going to be swift and severe consequences for Russian aggression apparently is going to announce some new sanctions tomorrow on Moscow and the reason that we have not seen him yet is because they're trying to get everybody on board and he's been working the phone trying to get a bunch of allies to sign on to a statement with him.

Something that is very interesting though, as we've been hearing generally from the president for months that Russian aggression like we saw today would be unacceptable. Now we're hearing from senior administration officials that what they did today, recognized these breakaway regions as independent of Ukraine and then start moving Russian military equipment in there, they don't consider at this White House that to be a new invasion because there were some Russians in there anyway since 2014.

HANNITY: Oh really?

DOOCY: And so -- yeah, so that's what we're hearing tonight. But we're told tomorrow, more is coming.

HANNITY: That -- that's sort of like the 2:00 a.m. flights with the illegal immigrants is called an early morning flight and uh illegal immigrants don't need to get tested for COVID because they're not going to be here very long, those kind of answers, Peter.

DOOCY: And something else, Sean, that is extraordinary just kind of from a practical point I guess we're here at a federal workplace on a federal holiday, and for most of the day, it felt like it. We know that they had high level meetings here but this is not a situation where they mobilized all the staff to get everybody in. It's not something I can see.

You know, there's a marine century outside the West Wing when the president is in the oval office, there's not one there right now.

So, it's not like the things that have happened late at night in Eastern Europe into the overnight hours has the president working much later than usual. So he's taken the rest of the day's calls and meetings from the residence we believe.

HANNITY: I know. I'm betting he's asleep, but what do I know? You know more than I do, you're there.

Peter Doocy, as always, thank you for being with us.

Here with reaction, author of "War By Other Means: A General in the Trump White House," FOX News contributor, Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, and former CIA station chief, FOX News contributor Dan Hoffman.

Dan, start with you. You know Vladimir Putin. You know Russia. You know his intentions.

Now some Americans are asking tonight -- well, why should we care? Ukraine from what I can see in many ways has been over a long period of time, a very corrupt country in their own way, Russia is what it is. It's a hostile regime led by a hostile actor. Here's my fear.

When you're looking at America artificially reducing the world's supply of energy and oil and our western European allies depended on that hostile regime and hostile actor, now, we've got a situation where they are literally being pushed into the arms of Putin and are unable to stand together with us to do anything that would be effective to push Putin back or even create a disincentive for him.

Yeah, that's certainly one concern, Sean. In addition to that, if Russia controls Ukraine and let's be clear, we are witnessing Russia's effort to destroy what's left of Ukraine's independence and alarm bells ought to be ringing at the White House and those sanctions that they're talking about on the breakaway region obviously just aren't enough. But if Russia takes Ukraine, you've got their control over the Black Sea which has an impact on our NATO ally Turkey. There's a huge impact on the European Union and that $15 trillion GDP there.

And the Russians aren't going to stop at Ukraine. There's -- they want to push back at our NATO members who are in the Baltic States, for example. This is Russia's war on democracy and if there's one thing we know about the United States, we should remember the words of Ronald Reagan, that you know, we are a bright shining city on a hill, and if we don't stand up for democracy and that's what Ukraine has been striving for. That's why they're an existential threat to Russia and we really don't stand for much of anything at all.

HANNITY: Lieutenant General Kellogg, thank you for being with us. So good to have you, sir.

Let me -- let me ask you this. Why is it that this happened in the Obama- Biden administration? It didn't happen in the Trump administration and now it's happening again. Do you have any a strong belief as to why that is?

LT. GEN. KEITH KELLOG, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah, Sean, I do have two words: weakness and opportunity. When you look at this administration and when you look at the chief executive and you look at the national security staff that is he has around him.

And you look at the vice president, it's a constant pattern of weakness and Putin's a former KGB officer and he sees this. He saw the decision-making that was done in Afghanistan. But he's also a student of history and he looks back on what Biden did also as a vice president. Remember when Biden was vice president, he was the guy in the situation room that did not want to go after Osama bin Laden and voted no not to conduct a raid.

He's the same guy that Secretary Gates, the former secretary of defense and director of the CIA, said has been wrong on nearly every national security decision in the last 40 years. So he sees a pattern of weakness.

When he sees opportunity, he says, look, this is an opportunity I'm not going to have maybe in three years when a stronger chief executive comes in in 2024. So I might as well take my shot now.

Look, when President Trump was in office, you know, he was resolute and he was also predictably unpredictable. He kept adversaries on their back foot all of the time and he would do things that would surprise people but adversaries will look at and say, well, look, this may happen to me.

Right after we came into office -- when he came into office, we went into Syria with our tomahawk land attack missiles after Assad used sarin nerve gas on civilians, something that President Obama said was a red line. We went after it hit the airfield, who was on the airfield? Russians.

Later, when we went after Soleimani, killed him, people said, well, you're going to start World War III, to include Joe Biden and we went after because we knew we were going to protect Americans and we're going to keep the adversaries on their heels.

And look, one final thing that was said it was kind of a nurse at the top when you said it that we've moved our embassy now to Poland out of Lviv, that came out of Kyiv and then Lviv, and into Poland, I remember when our embassy was under attack in Baghdad. In the Situation Room, it was President Trump who's very clearly told all of us to include the vice president and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he said simply we will not lose that embassy. We should have said the same thing in Kyiv. Our people are staying, period.

HANNITY: Let me go back Dan to you. I want to go into the situation. It is amazing how Joe Biden's economic and energy policies -- number one, it's hurt our economy, inflation. We see, what, nearly a dollar fifty gallon more for gasoline, everything we buy in every store costs more to deliver it there, so it costs us a lot more. The cost of heating our homes, cooling in the summer will be dramatically higher. And now, we see it on the foreign policy front.

And this to me is where I think strategically, Putin -- gave him credit for being clever -- but sees an opportunity to break down the NATO alliance and put a wedge in a divide with us and our allies. Is that not a strong possibility? Is he not thinking it seems like he's playing chess and Joe's playing checkers and listening to the New Green Deal socialists?

HOFFMAN: So I think Putin has a number of strategic goals. One of them is to go toe-to-toe with his main enemy, the United States, and subdue us, and that's what he's doing in Ukraine.

Secondly, it's to ensure that Ukraine never becomes a Western-oriented democracy that would threaten Putin's own regime. And third, as you correctly point out, it's to drive a wedge between the United States and our NATO allies and that's particularly Germany.

Now, where this administration has failed -- utterly failed is that this is really a question of hard power. This no surprise here, Vladimir Putin put those troops on the border way back in April of last year and we did nothing about it, even though President Zelinsky was begging the Biden administration to do more, and to mount some of those pre-emptive sanctions to get Russia to withdraw their troops which was a violation of the U.N. charter, a threat to Ukraine's territorial integrity and their independence.

We never did that and now we're seeing the results of Vladimir Putin having had the time to gauge our responses, to gauge how damaging our economic measures could be against him and what -- what leverage --

HANNITY: Do you believe his --

HOFFMAN: -- his hard power leverage that he could have brought to bear.

HANNITY: You believe his territorial ambitions go way beyond this, you're clear on that, right?

HOFFMAN: Well, he's certainly launched all sorts of attacks against the Baltic States, a massive cyber attack against Estonia in 2007, incursions into Baltic States air space, much like what China does to Taiwan.

And let's be clear here, that China and Taiwan, they're watching this very, very closely. You know, the United States we wouldn't even leave behind a few thousand troops in Afghanistan to prevent that country from becoming a terrorist state.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I'll make a prediction.

HOFFMAN: Not doing enough to protect Ukraine is --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: President Xi will reunify with Taiwan and probably can do so confidently that knowing that Joe Biden won't lift a finger. I don't think we should be involved in a shooting war here, but I do believe economically we can do great damage to Putin and should. It's in our best interest to be energy independent again.

Thank you both.

Straight ahead, Kamala Harris just absolutely embarrassed herself on the world stage yet again. We'll show you the tape. Tulsi Gabbard has some strong words. She'll weigh in.

Later, little Justin Trudeau -- well, he continues to act like a while Putin dictator wannabe in Canada. The Ottawa police chief is even threatening to go after every trucker that was peacefully protesting. That and much more as we continue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Now, another day, another embarrassment for Vice President Harris on the world stage because during her remarks in Munich yesterday on the situation in Ukraine, the vice president appeared to be totally, completely, utterly unprepared, and she gave yet another rambling, incoherent answer, falsely claiming Europe has been at peace for 70 years. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We still sincerely hope that there is a diplomatic path out of this moment and within the context then of the fact that that window is still opening all the open although it is absolutely narrowing but within the context of a diplomatic path still being open the deterrence effect we believe has merit.

I mean, listen guys, we're talking about the potential for war in Europe. I mean, let's really take a moment to understand the significance of what we're talking about, It's been over 70 years and through those 70 years, as I mentioned yesterday, there has been peace and security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And, of course, it only got worse from there as Harris said sanctions would absolutely deter Putin despite also saying that Putin already made up his mind to invade Ukraine -- and just another baffling contradiction. So which is it ask yourself? What is all of this turmoil going to do to energy costs around the world, rising gas prices, a 40-year high of inflation we have now, a barrel of oil almost 100 bucks. Some economists thinking might go to 150.

Does the Biden team have any solutions, any answers?

Here with reaction, former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is with us..

Tulsi, thank you.

How does she say on Sunday that she believes sanctions on Russian Russia would deter Putin and then on the other hand talk about when America stands for principles that we hold dear, we put ourselves out there in a way that we may incur some costs? We're already paying a buck more gallon for gasoline. Now, we're going to pay three dollars more for a gallon of gasoline?

TULSI GABBARD (D), FORMER HAWAII CONGRESSWOMAN: Yeah, Sean, I want to -- I want to focus on those two points. But first of all, my gosh, this is embarrassing. It's hard to keep track of all of those jumbles of words and it's clear that she was sent there to be the voice of the United States as a purely political calculation.

You and I both know she has no foreign policy background, no foreign policy understanding. She has no concept of the cost of war nor does she have the temper -- temperament necessary to be the voice of the United States on the global stage. So it's embarrassing to see this play out.

I want to talk about the two examples that you raised there where she talked about deterrence and sanctions. How do you -- how do you deter someone by punishing them before they do it? It's very simple -- this is kind of like grade school understanding where if you say I'm going to punish you before you do something, wouldn't a kid say, okay, fine well I might as well go ahead and do it anyway. This is not rocket science here.

And secondly, talking about incurring costs and this one hits very close to home because Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have both said, you know what, we are going to incur a cost. They're not going to pay the price. They're multi-multi-millionaires, both of them, the power elite are not going to be negatively impacted by this continued escalation. You know who will pay the price? It is hard-working Americans all across our country and frankly people around the world who are already paying the price and will continue to see things worsen.

This energy and gas crisis raising prices, as you mentioned. We'll see those continue to go up. We'll see that squeeze happening across the country and around the world.

Russia is a major exporter of wheat. We'll see those costs increased around food. Russia is also a major exporter of nickel, which is a major element of the electric vehicle industry. The list goes on and on about the direct impacts that the American people ourselves will have to pay as well as the impact on the global economy.

So really what they should be saying is not we are going to incur costs, they should be looking directly at the American people and saying, you know what, you are going to pay the price for this and yet they have not once justified to the American people how their policies and their actions actually serve our best interests, how they serve our national security interests, how they serve our economic interest. They have failed to do that and the American people will be left holding the bag.

HANNITY: Tulsi, I want to be very clear I absolutely positively do not believe in any way that the United States should be involved in this conflict. But I do believe that we -- Joe Biden's energy and economic policies created all of this, a 40-year high in inflation, on average about a buck more a gallon. Everything we pay for costs more.

Add to that, this situation where because we artificially reduce the world's supply of energy, that then forced our allies right into Putin's hands and he now controls their destiny, the lifeblood of the world's economy.

You had an interesting theory that if only Biden would have said no, Ukraine will never be a part of NATO, you think it might have been able to -- we might have been able to prevent things that way. Explain that part.

GABBARD: It's really just looking at the world through a very realistic lens, Sean. It's understanding the world that we live in and not the world that maybe some people wished existed. And that reality is Putin has made very clear all along that their security and his mind is what's at stake here, and they do not want to see U.S. and NATO --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I don't want to interrupt you, but Putin also said Ukraine is not a country and he has been saying this going back many, many years. So this has been -- these territorial ambitions have existed for a long time.

GABBARD: I want to stay focused on security component. They have. They go way back, and they pre-exist this moment that we're facing.

But with regards to U.S. and NATO, just like we would not want Russia to come in and start putting their tanks and missiles on our borders, either with Mexico or elsewhere, Russia says hey, I don't want U.S. and NATO coming and making their military outpost on our borders within Ukraine.

Guess what? The United States doesn't want that either. NATO countries don't want that either. So why not recognize say hey this is something that actually is common ground, it is highly unlikely Ukraine will ever become a member of NATO, let's take it off the table and immediately that would de- escalate these tensions and take that reasoning away from Putin for him to build up this presence on Ukraine's border.

HANNITY: I might be a little more suspicious than you in believing that I think this is very personal for Putin and he's taking this as this is Russian land and we will take it and how far he goes with that, I don't know.

By the way, speaking at CPAC, I was going to be there. I had a conflict. I'm not able to go, but congratulations and I look forward to watching your speech.

GABBARD: Thanks.

HANNITY: All right. Thank you for being with us.

Coming up, little Justin Trudeau's tyranny in Canada continues. The Biden of the north claiming emergency powers are still needed. This as the Ottawa police chief now threatening to go after every single trucker involved peacefully in this protest. Reince Priebus, Lara Trump, they're up next.

Plus, a sad attack, a four-year-old was attacked in New York City's Times Square in broad daylight. Now, what's it going to take for the left's soft on crime, defund, dismantle, no bail policies to stop? Straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Now, wannabe Putin-like dictator little Justin Trudeau continues to unleash his authoritarian crackdown in Ottawa. Dozens of protesters now been arrested -- look at your screen. Police are seen trampling on demonstrators in Ottawa and Trudeau is even using his so- called emergency powers to freeze bank accounts on convoy protesters -- basically hold up their money.

And the Ottawa police department tweeted out this threat, quote: If you are involved in this protest, we will actively look to identify you, follow up with financial sanctions and criminal charges.

Here's the Ottawa police chief issuing more threats. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE BELL, OTTAWA POLICE CHIEF: So I will stand here today again and say this demonstration is over. Go home. If you don't go home, we will remove you from the streets.

If you are involved in this protest, we will actively look to identify you and follow up with financial sanctions and criminal charges. Absolutely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Go after all those peaceful truckers. You go at it. And it gets worse as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, they're investigating text messages purportedly showing authorities boasting about brute force on protesters and bragging about using violence on peaceful demonstrators.

Now, this is an all-out assault on freedom of expression and peaceful demonstrations, all being leveled against these essential workers, you know, the people that were heroes of the pandemic. But the failed far left excuse of a leader, little Justin -- well, he sees no end in sight for his reckless power grab, claiming the emergency powers are still needed, citing vague threats and coming in the days ahead but offering little to no details.

And here at home, we're also learning about plans for a trucker convoy to travel to Washington, D.C. to stand up against draconian vaccine mandates which in fact could lead to the shutdown of a busy capital beltway.

Here with reaction, former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, along with FOX News contributor Lara Trump is with us.

Reince, we'll begin with you.

So I'm trying to get -- trying to really understand what's going on here as now they threaten these truckers and he needs, what, these emergency powers in perpetuity?

REINCE PRIEBUS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Well, Sean, this is more than just the truckers, right, this is about people feeling completely ignored. These are -- this is this trucker convoy is about keep them saying the things that other people want to say. Just like parents in northern Virginia were saying things that other people wanted to say. 2016 is about voters looking for the biggest middle finger to say things that other people wanted to say.

And so when people like Justin Trudeau and Joe Biden ignore people and tell people to sit down and shut up, it becomes more about a trucker convoy. And if it happens in Washington, D.C, it will be interesting, Sean, is whether or not the D.C. leadership welcomes these truckers, just like they welcomed the defund-the-police crowd.

But they'll probably ignore them and they'll probably treat them the same way as they did in Canada, the same way that as you mentioned today many times, the same way that Joe Biden ignored the issue in regard to Keystone pipeline, ignored the issue regarding defunding the police. We've got a crime crisis now, ignored the border crisis, signed six executive orders on day one and now we've got a border crisis in this country.

That is what this is about. It's about ignoring people, treating people like dirt, and then when they express their opinions, the government says sit down and shut up. Well, the Democrats at least on our side of the border are going to have a steep price to pay this year and I think -- I think in a couple years in 2024 again.

HANNITY: And, Lara, we pointed out many times, 574 riots killing dozens of Americans in the summer of 2020, injured thousands of police officers, bricks, rocks, bottles, Molotov cocktails, billions in property damage, arson, looting. If this convoy that goes to D.C. is peaceful, it will be interesting to see if the Democrats treat them the same way they treated the summer of 2020 rioters.

LARA TRUMP, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think Reince is right. They're not going to be treated like the summer of 2020 rioters or peaceful protests as we heard.

You know, the interesting thing to me in all of this is to see the way that liberals no matter if it's on our side of the border or in Canada have used the police as pawns. Look at the summer of 2020, that was all about defund the police, right? The police and law enforcement were the enemies and we had to defund them. Now, you fast forward to February of 2022 in Canada and Justin Trudeau who is all -- everything basically a tyrant would encompass -- is using them. It's almost Gestapo like to silence his political adversaries, right? These are people that he won't even sit down with.

And you kind of you have to feel a little bit for the officers there in Canada because if they follow orders from the top, and they're coming from the top, it's coming from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to take the truckers out, to get rid of the peaceful protesters. If they do that, then they're not allowing them to the freedom to protest. If they don't do it, then they're probably going to get fired from their job.

So you kind of feel bad for these folks, but it is tyranny. What you see happening in Canada -- and let me tell you something, when you think of a tyrannical government, you often think of places like North Korea. Sean, this is how it starts. They start chipping away one by one at your freedoms until you don't even realize they're gone. It is a really dangerous game they're playing up there in Canada.

So, yes, we are all looking forward to see the welcome mat rolled out for the trucker convoy in D.C. I'm sure Nancy Pelosi is waiting and ready to go.

HANNITY: Oh, I'm sure I'm sure I'll have a committee investigating any day. Thank you both.

You will not believe the next story, a trans child molester pled guilty to assaulting a ten-year-old on tape now gloating about her very light sentence. We'll explain.

Plus, a shocking assault of a child in broad daylight a four-year-old in New York City's Times Square. How are those no bail laws working in these blue states?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Now more disturbing violent crime caught on tape in Democratic- run cities. Just look at your screen, a four-year-old little boy from the Bronx randomly just punched in the square of Times Square on Tuesday in New York City. Cops say the suspect is a repeat offender, long rap sheet who authorities say was arrested for another assault only two weeks ago.

This is what no bail laws are getting you. This is what defund, dismantle the police get you.

What? Now, four-year-olds being punched, his mother tackled, the suspect detained him until police arrived. God bless that woman.

And here's the family recounting this attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I grabbed him and I fell on my back with him on top of me and he was kicking.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You think that he must do it normally like it's what he does all the time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Unbelievable. And out on the west coast, we're continuing to see the devastating consequences of L.A. District Attorney George Gascon's far left lawlessness agenda because a child molester who Gascon decided to charge as a juvenile, instead of an adult is on tape boasting about the light two-year sentence at a juvenile facility and how they won't even have to register as a sex offender.

Listen to the remarks obtained exclusively by Fox's Bill Melugin.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

HANNAH TUBBS: Don't worry about it. It's a strike, but they're going to plead, I'm going to plead out to them and plead guilty. They're going to stick me on probation, and it's going to be dropped. It's going to be done, done. I won't have to register once or nothing.

FATHER: For an offender, you don't have to register?

TUBBS: I won't have to do none of that.

FATHER: So what are they going to do to you then?

TUBBS: Nothing.

If there's a next time I ever get in trouble, I'm leaving the state. I'm leaving the country. I ain't staying.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, the 26-year-old Tubbs who now identifies as transgender molested a ten-year-old girl back in 2014, only two weeks before turning. And that means he would be tried as an adult, just got a slap on the wrist, directly due to Gascon's policies which he now admits, oh, we're too lenient. You think?

Here with reaction, FOX News contributor Leo 2.0 Terrell, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.

Governor, we'll start with you. I -- this makes me beyond angry, especially when it's now impacting kids.

MIKE HUCKABEE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, the ridiculous thing is that this guy James Tubbs only decided he was transgender after he got arrested eight years after he committed the crime, molesting a young girl in the restroom at a Denny's Restaurant. Then he decides that he's going to identify as a female.

This is nonsense. We got to stop this craziness. This is a guy.

And I'll tell you why he wanted to identify as a female because if he goes into the general male population at a prison as a child molester, doesn't go well for him. Just doesn't work out real well.

HANNITY: No.

HUCKABEE: So this whole thing of him laughing through it, Sean, it is an outrage and what's happening in this country is that we've lost our collective minds to let people pretend to be somebody they're not to get away from having the consequences of doing an irreparable damage to a little girl. God help this country when this keeps happening.

HANNITY: Yeah, you know, 2.0 Terrell, I look at this tape. I look at this other story out where -- you look at this. I mean, just whacking a little kid like that.

LEO TERRELL, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah, and the bottom line is, Sean, is that the criminals are laughing at the Democrats. It's no coincidence. Look at Democrat New York and California. Democratic governors, Democratic senators, Democratic mayors, this is -- this is a pattern and practice of softness on crime.

Jen Psaki claims she doesn't know what soft on crime means. Look at California, look at New York, look who's running both states, not just cities. Criminals are laughing at Democrats because the criminals know Democrats are soft on crime.

HANNITY: Yeah. It's unbelievable.

So the question is there's nothing -- once this guy gets this very light sentence, two weeks away from being an adult, doesn't the prosecutor in that case have the discretion to charge as an adult based on the circumstances and I would say, 20, 25 years of a sentence probably would be about right in my mind, Governor.

HUCKABEE: At least that. And in fact, you're exactly right. The prosecutor does have the discretion. This guy was only two weeks from being 18.

You can be much younger than that and be tried as an adult for an egregious crime. This was an egregious crime. A guy goes into a restroom and assaults and molest a little 10-year-old girl, that is not a juvenile crime. That is an adult level crime.

And, Sean, I'm just angry. I'm angry but for all the kids in this country who are being attacked by crazy people like this and then you have even crazier people running the prosecutor's office and the governor's office, and I hope people wake up and realize you've got to vote these people out, got to get rid of them or we lose the country.

HANNITY: And we have an election coming up.

Leo, you're going to fix the West Coast, we're going to try and fix the East Coast the rest of the country in the middle is usually doing pretty well. But sad, sad stories.

We come back, more HANNITY right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: In the show tonight with some sad personal news. A very dear friend of this channel and a dear friend personally, that man right there, Bob Beckel, I got a call from his son Alex, great, great kid, earlier today that his dad had passed away.

What people might not know is he and I got along great. He had a key to my house. He was always full of joy, happiness, light, sunshine. He loved God and Jesus and we miss him already.

God bless you. Godspeed, Bob Beckel. My heart's troubled, Laura Ingraham.

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