This is a rush transcript of "Hannity" on February 17, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: All right. And, Tucker, and thank you. Great show.
Welcome to HANNITY.
Tonight as Canada's freedom convoy rolls on, the media mob, they're now doxxing, harassing, threatening Americans who donated money to the peaceful protesters in the convoy standing up for freedom. So much for the cause of freedom, right? Imagine if conservatives did this to the donors of, oh, say, Antifa or the group BLM?
Now, meanwhile, an activist in the United States -- get this -- tried to shoot and kill a Kentucky mayoral candidate, walked right into the office, started firing, he was just bailed out of jail after his hundred thousand dollar bond was posted by the group Black Lives Matter, and yet the media mob can't even be bothered to cover that story at all. That's really keeping us all safe and secure.
Remember the summer of 2020. If it taught us anything, violence is totally okay with the left so long as your politics align with theirs. That right there they were calling mostly peaceful, right behind them is a big fire. We'll have a lot more coming up.
Also, the great one Mark Levin tonight.
First, Hillary Clinton smells blood in the water, while Joe Biden is clearly ailing. Hillary is now dreaming perhaps of another run, foisting herself back into the public spotlight. Only one problem: Hillary is one of the most corrupt, one of the most dishonest people on Earth, and now, she finds herself embroiled in yet another scandal.
According to a recent filing by the special prosecutor John Durham, a lawyer, a smart lawyer, a well-respected lawyer, he said, quote, serving as counsel to the Clinton campaign exploited internet data mined in conjunction with the tech executive at, quote, a particular health care provider, Trump Tower, Donald Trump's Central Park West Apartment building, and the executive office of the president of the United States.
Okay. It didn't say infiltrate. That's true, they didn't say spy. They're data mining. What does that mean?
Now, the apparent goal, connect Trump to Russia by data mining on his campaign and even the executive office of the president, clearly, in an effort to smear him in perpetuity. But according to Hillary, it never happened. Forget the very real Durham filing.
This is just another vast right-wing conspiracy, that, of course, didn't stop New Yorkers from getting greeting Hillary today with -- well, a lot of chanting and a lot of hellos in their own way. This is New York City. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CHANTING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Welcome back, Hillary. Welcome to this world stage once again. That was New York City, not exactly conservative territory. She was there delivering the keynote address at New York's Democratic state convention, and it's interesting because that's where Hillary had a few choice words for this news channel.
And by the way, her old pal who beat her, Donald Trump. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: And we can't get distracted, whether it's by the latest culture war nonsense or some new right-wing lie on FOX or Facebook. By the way, they've been coming after me again lately, in case you might have noticed.
It's funny, the more trouble Trump gets into, the wilder the charges and conspiracy theories about me seem to get. FOX leads the charge with accusations against me, counting on their audience to fall for it again. And as an aside, they're getting awfully close to actual malice in their attacks. But as I said, don't get distracted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: It's called discovery and it's called depositions. Bring it on. Malice, really? It's called news. Hillary, we invite you to bring it on.
It's from a legal filing. We quoted exactly from the filing that was put in federal court.
And, of course, following those remarks, Hillary could not be bothered to answer any of FOX News's questions before bolting off the stage.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Why did you call -- why did you call the Durham filing a fake scandal, Secretary Clinton? Why was it a fake scandal?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: While Hillary arrogantly gloats, dodges questions, her former campaign attorney who is charged with lying to the FBI and was the subject of the latest Durham filing is fighting for his life in court. In a six- page response we told you about last night filed by Michael Sussman's attorneys, his legal team is claiming these allegations are irrelevant to the charge defense and are plainly intended to politicize this case and playing media coverage and taint the jury pool.
Today, Sussman's attorneys, they ask for the entire case to be thrown out. That's not likely to happen.
But in a new rebuttal from John Durham, the special counsel, he writes that Sussman's claims are, quote, simply not true, that the government included two paragraphs of limited additional factual detail in its motion for valid and straightforward reasons.
Now, of course, Hillary Clinton is more than happy to let Sussman wither on the vine. After all, Hillary is only ever concerned about Hillary. And according to Hillary, if anything bad happens, it's never, ever, ever her fault, can't be her fault ever or Bill's fault.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: I believe he knows he's an illegitimate president. He knows. He knows that there were a bunch of different reasons why the election turned out the way it did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When it comes to the self-inflicted wounds, when you look at the list of them and you go through them in the book, did you make enough mistakes yourself to lose the election without any of the other things you talk about?
CLINTON: Well, I will say no, Matt. I don't think that will surprise you.
But for that Comey letter, she would have won. The Russians weaponizing information, negative stories about me. This whole WikiLeaks beginning to leak in early October of John Podesta's emails Facebook was taking money from Russian companies to run negative stories about me. And then let's not forget sexism and misogyny.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Here with reaction, former Democratic presidential candidate and congresswoman, Tulsi Gabbard.
She didn't mention this thing that we call and refer to as the dirty disinformation dossier. That is the one that was used four times to get a FISA warrant that has completely been debunked, that subsource said was just bar talk, and yet she's claiming a vast right wing conspiracy again. What is your reaction?
TULSI GABBARD (D), FORMER HAWAII CONGRESSWOMAN: I think you'll note, Sean, that in her remarks she also didn't reference the Durham investigation itself which very clearly shows that the real threat to our democracy, Sean, is the power elite and that power elite is led by Hillary Clinton and her co-conspirators in the mainstream media and in the security state who have been and are working to undermine our democracy.
The threat does not come from some foreign country. The threat comes from within right here at home.
HANNITY: Scary.
GABBARD: You will also not be surprised to note that the mainstream media has been intentionally burying this story. And this should be distressing to all Americans. It's something that I have a -- I have a little bit of first-hand experience with. But just seeing how this has all been playing out recently and over the last year has only further reinforced that.
And so, the real question that we're going to be left with now is, will she and her co-conspirators actually be held accountable for their actions in undermining our democracy? These are very serious concerns that we need to -- we need to continue to push to the forefront to do our best to make sure that that accountability actually happens.
HANNITY: You know, "The New York Times," I'll give them credit. They will write in pointing out some people -- the words infiltrate were used and spy was used. That was not in the Durham filing. But they did talk about data mining.
Do you see much distinction?
GABBARD: I don't. You know, I mean, you can talk about word play here. I think as Durham pointed out.
What was included in that court filing was just a snippet of what I have to believe is a plethora of evidence that he's used to back up that filing. Look, the reality is that there was a deal that was made to gather information not only from the Trump campaign and the Trump Tower but from a sitting president of the United States, data mining information, violating all kinds of security codes and laws from the White House for political purposes, to try to undermine this sitting president.
HANNITY: You know, it's fascinating. That's -- it's so ironic that the allegation about Trump and Russia and collusion, and it consumed the media that three years of conspiracy theories and lies and misinformation.
And it turns out that Hillary and the DNC, which I think she was pretty much controlling at the time, that they took this money, they funnel it through a law firm Perkins Coie, the name sound familiar, and they hire Fusion GPS, hires Christopher Steele, they use a dossier and it was Andrew McCabe that said without the dossier, there's no FISA application.
They spy on Carter Page, which also gives them a back door into candidate Trump because he was associated with them and then later, President Trump, then this on top of it.
Let me ask you an unrelated question though. You know, we're looking at a 40-year high of inflation. You see this case unfolding. You see chaos at the border. We ran out of monoclonal antibodies and tests over Christmas, which is impossible at this stage of a pandemic. You see what's happening around the world.
Is there any two -- one, two, three things that you can see that your party -- you still are a Democrat I think -- is doing that you could say is successful? Because I think a lot of this is to distract the American people.
GABBARD: It's disheartening to say that the answer to that is no, Sean. It's been one disaster after another, and the real -- the real concern here is that who suffers as a result of this. This is bigger than politics. This is bigger than giving ammunition to the other team or Republicans against Democrats. It's the American people who were standing in line for hours and hours and hours trying to get a COVID test.
It's the American people, people who got sick and were seeking that early treatment to prevent serious illness from COVID who were told, no, you don't get to use these monoclonal antibodies because the federal government and the Biden administration says no. The list goes on and on.
Inflation is continuing to increase. It is the American people, working families, people are struggling every day who are the ones paying the price and dealing with the consequence of this. So this is something much bigger than partisan politics, or the midterm elections or anything else.
This is something that requires leadership to say, hey, we hear you, we care about you and we and the United States government will fight for you. And that is what is so frustrating and heartbreaking to me because we're not seeing that.
HANNITY: Tulsi Gabbard, always great to have you. Thank you.
Now, tonight, the House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy vowing to investigate the allegations of, in fact, data mining now swirling around the Clinton campaign. If the GOP is able to take back the House, of course, we take nothing for granted. But as of now, Republicans are expected to make huge gains in the midterm elections. I hope that's the case.
Here with more is the Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy who, by the way, just endorsed Liz Cheney's primary opponent in Wyoming. I interviewed her. She's very impressive woman.
So, I want you to go specifically. I think people want specific answers that if the Republicans win this election, and I think it's a tipping point election for the country, I think they're going to want to know, what will the Republican Party do?
Because I'm not that happy with Mitch McConnell and his leadership in the Senate to be very frank.
What will you do in the House?
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): Well, let me be very clear what we will do. First of all, we'll make sure we secure the border. We'll make America energy-independent, which will lower the price of gasoline. We'll make sure from the standpoint that our streets are safe and secure as well.
We'll hold this administration accountable. We'll find the origins of where COVID started. We'll get to the bottom of what's happening in the Durham investigation as well and hold people accountable.
Sean, what you're talking about is further than Watergate. In Watergate, they broke into a campaign, and what Durham is laying out is possibly, not only they break in a campaign, but they broke into the White House, to a sitting president. We want to get to the bottom of that.
We want to know why an attorney general -- to hold him accountable going after parents who want to have a say in their kids' education.
This is one of the main reasons why I endorsed Harriet Hageman today, who's running in Wyoming. Wyoming deserves to have a representative who will deliver the accountability against this Biden administration, not a representative that they have today that works closely with Nancy Pelosi going after Republicans, instead of stopping these radical Democrats for what they're doing to this country.
So, if you want to join with us, go to FirePelosi.com and let's make this happen.
HANNITY: The one thing that I always go back to -- and it's not fair maybe to you to bring this up. But I remember interviewing Paul Ryan, and I said, if I come back in a year or all these things that you say going to be done -- I would like to see the Republican Party unify around these America First, Make America Great Again conservative principles for one reason, not ideological at all.
Because lower taxes, less bureaucracy, energy independence, secure borders, constitutionalists on the bench, free and fair trade, peace through strength, law and order, school choice -- all of those are good ideas and we're not -- we're not implementing any of them. And I think what the when I talk to people three hours a day on the radio, they want you guys to fight so hard the way Donald Trump did.
Now maybe Donald Trump fought too much in some people's minds, but he did fight for what he believed in and he was -- for three years, he had this phony Russia hoax hanging over his head and phony impeachment on top of it. So I don't know how I'd respond to that pressure.
But that's what I think people are looking for. Is that what you're hearing when you're out on the campaign trail?
MCCARTHY: I'm in Fresno today. I hear it everywhere I go. It doesn't matter what part of the country. They want somebody to be a voice for them.
And, Sean, we're not going to wait until the election to tell the American people what we're going to do. We're going to come out with a commitment to America. We'll spell out directly what legislation we will provide and pass, and what accountability will hold on the hearings of this administration.
And we'll tell the American public to hold our feet to the fire. Join us at FirePelosi.com because we have a real challenge on our hands, but we have a real opportunity. We only need five seats to win the majority, but what we're watching is we've got now 30 Democrats who are retiring. In 2010, when we beat 63, only 17 retired.
This is an opportunity we might not have again to turn this country around, because we're watching a president that looks to OPEC to solve our energy crisis and then to America. We watch what he did in Afghanistan which we'll have a hearing to get to the very bottom of why we have 13 new Gold Star families based upon his decision.
It is our only recourse to be able to make the next century the American century.
HANNITY: All right. Minority Leader McCarthy, thank you. Look forward to the platform that you're putting forward..
Now, we turn to some breaking news out of Ukraine. Russia now on the brink of a full-scale invasion. Joe Biden says he has a bold new plan to bring peace to Europe. By the way, this just broke apparently, I'm hearing from sources, that the U.S. might be meeting and talking with Russia next week.
But today, he sent a very competent Vice President Kamala Harris to Germany apparently to get to the bottom of the root cause of this Russian aggression on Ukraine's border. She has zero foreign policy experience. And after her wildly successful stint as our borders czar, I'm sure this is -- this is going to go great.
Now, one quick question, why not the president himself? Perhaps another trip abroad is more than he can handle at this stage of his life?
Either way, this comes on the heels of a lot of pointless posturing from the Biden administration. Okay, great, they took 8,500 troops and put them on a heightened state of preparedness. They sent an additional 3,000 troops to Poland.
Okay, you know, Joe already said he's not getting into a shooting war -- and let me be clear -- nor should he. But he said that publicly.
If he really wants to squeeze Putin, there is a plan that we should be implementing and this would work. Prevent -- if you want to prevent the invasion of Ukraine, Joe needs to communicate to Vladimir immediately, should have done it on day one, that we will out-pump him, we will produce more energy than him, and we will get it to our allies in Western Europe quickly and more cheaply.
And by the way, that means oil, that means coal, that means natural gas.
Now, of course, unfortunately, Joe is beholden to the climate change cultists in his own party. So I can only say that you know that would be the way to cripple Russia's economy because oil and gas is like their only industry. That's not going to happen. He takes orders from the climate change called caucus.
Anyway, joining us now, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is with us.
Now, maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I believe in peace through strength. And why do I think it's a bad idea to be begging and pleading with Joe -- with Vladimir Putin while he has 150 to 200 troops and all his military gear on the border of Ukraine, why do I see that as a position of weakness on our part? Am I wrong?
MIKE POMPEO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: No, Sean, you're absolutely right and thanks for having me on tonight. We've demonstrated weakness with respect to the Russians for the entire, what now, 14 months of this administration.
It began by giving them a free pass on a nuclear treaty where we extracted nothing. We let them close down gasoline pipelines in the southeast of the United States. We did nothing. We let them finish Nord Stream 2, we lifted the Trump sanctions on Nord Stream 2.
And then we did the worst thing -- we shut down American natural gas and crude oil production, giving Vladimir Putin 100 bucks a barrel or 93 bucks a barrel for the crude oil that's produced in Russia. We put his economy on super warp and we harmed ours and lost jobs here at home.
These are all things I think Vladimir Putin saw very quickly. Your point about climate change, the first senior American to visit with Vladimir Putin in the Biden administration was Secretary Kerry, not the secretary of state but the climate czar. I think that sent a real message to Putin and I think we're seeing the results of that today.
HANNITY: I thought it was humiliating and embarrassing with Joe basically begging Putin to let's meet, there's still time. We can have discussions. Diplomacy can still work, et cetera, et cetera.
Why are you begging a guy that's lined up 150,000-plus troops to invade a sovereign country? By the way, I'm no fan of Ukraine. When I look at Ukraine, I see pretty much corruption everywhere and I see the same thing with the hostile regime in Russia under Putin.
But -- so I don't think it's America's role, but I do think that he has made a strategic mistake by not supplying our allies in Western Europe considering we have more natural resources when it comes to gas, oil and coal than Vladimir Putin.
And by abandoning energy independence, he has now pushed our allies right into Putin's arms, hasn't he?
POMPEO: Yeah, Sean, this is an easy one. We have cheap affordable energy here at home, and we have the capacity to ship it at a really good cost to our European friends and allies. We should -- we should be crushing the Russians with this.
But, you know, the same time we're having this conversation with the Russians in Europe, we're sitting on the same side of the table, Sean, the same side of the table with the Russians in Vienna, talking about giving the Iranians, the very same capacity to ship their product, their crude oil, their natural gas around the world.
This is an enormous sign of weakness. This is a failure of American foreign policy in the fundamental deterrence sense that Reagan had and that we had for our four years. I saw this up close and personal.
Sergey Lavrov will eat our secretary of state's lunch if we don't demonstrate American resolving the capacity and willingness to do the right things for our friends.
HANNITY: What are the odds on these three issues? What are the odds in the next year Putin invades Ukraine? What are the odds that the Iranians get a nuclear weapon? What are the odds that after the Olympics, China will, quote, reunify -- meaning take over -- Taiwan in your view?
POMPEO: You know, it's a great question. I think in some sense, all three of them are well along in happening. The Russians have already connected in Ukraine. They took Crimea under the previous Democrat administration. They're making a lot of noise in the Donbas today, firing rockets as well.
In Iran, we've already essentially lifted sanctions not by actually lifting them but failing to enforce them and we've allowed Iran to get very close to having a not only a nuclear weapon but a missile program so that they can deliver it.
And make no mistake about it, Xi Jinping can see this weakness too. He saw the debacle in Afghanistan. He's going to move closer and closer and continue to try and put a stranglehold on Taiwan. That does not bode well for freedom and democracy on that island.
HANNITY: You're saying things on all three fronts are not looking good. Am I hearing you right?
POMPEO: American weakness always creates risk for our friends and ultimately for American interests as well, Sean.
HANNITY: Yeah, Mike Pompeo, I wish you were still -- I wish the adults were back in charge. I wish you were there. Thank you for being with us. We appreciate it.
All right. Straight ahead, the lunacy on the left spiraling out of control. Get this: BLM the group just bailed out a guy that allegedly tried to assassinate a mayoral candidate, walked right into the headquarters and started shooting. How is this happening in almost every big city? How's that defund, dismantle and no bail law program working out?
Newt Gingrich weighs in next.
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HANNITY: Now, the far left's lawlessness agenda is on full display yet again tonight, after a local BLM chapter bailed out a left-wing activist who's accused of trying to murder a Louisville mayoral candidate.
According to authorities, on Monday, 21-year-old Quintes Brown showed up at the Louisville campaign headquarters of Democratic mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg opened fire. Thankfully, even miraculously no one was injured.
Yesterday, BLM Louisville, along with another far left group anti-bail group posted a hundred thousand dollars in bond. So, tonight, this lunatic is back out on the street, bailed out by his far left friends. And, of course, the left-wing lunacy doesn't stop there because you have Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez bragging about how she helped illegal immigrants get your money in the form of stimulant check. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): We fought tooth and nail for the inclusion of undocumented people in relief packages, stimulus checks, FEMA assistance and we've actually helped huge amounts of undocumented families in our district get federal relief that many others were trying to lock them out of.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, this comes as common sense Americans all across the country continue to stand up to this far left insanity, including draconian COVID mask mandates for kids in school.
But Dr. Doom and gloom, Dr. Flip flop Fauci, he can't let go of the spotlight. He's still out there pushing more COVID theaters, saying it's just too risky to unmask children. Okay, but citing no data, no science, where's the science to back it up?
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We could get lucky because the trajectory right now is going way down and it very well may be that if you take masks off the kids in the next week or so, it's going to keep going down. But you've really got to be careful. You know, you don't want to say it's an absolutely wrong decision.
It's understandable why people want to take masks off the kids, but right now, given the level of activity that we have, it is risky.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Where's the science?
Here with reaction, former speaker of the House, FOX News contributor Newt Gingrich.
So I see a pattern emerging and you're a great analyst and you're a strategist in every way, and this is what I see -- Democrats are racing away from their position to defund, dismantle, no bail laws, acting as though they never supported it. Now, they're moving away from their draconian COVID shutdown measures because it's not polling well we have a midterm election.
And even Beto Bozo O'Rourke, the guy that said, hell, yeah, we're coming for your guns is now saying no, no, no, that's not true. I'm a pro-Second Amendment guy, I'm going to protect the Second Amendment.
Now, I call that an election year conversion. But what do I know. What do you think?
NEWT GINGRICH, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: It's not a conversion. It's a lie. I mean, come on, let's be honest here.
Karl Rove did a great column in "The Wall Street Journal" and he went through all the different things where Beto O'Rourke is now repudiating Beto O'Rourke. And it's hysterical to read it.
These -- look, these people are assuming that we are so stupid that they can tell us anything they want to and will nod yes. I don't know if you've seen what Kamala Harris just tweeted into Iran on -- in Farsi, basically said --
HANNITY: What did she say?
GINGRICH: -- America is an evil country, a terrible country, a bad -- oh it's unbelievable. We are homophobic, misogynist, racist.
I mean, for a vice president of the United States to have sent this internationally is -- you have to wonder, does she hate America? And if she hates America, why she -- why is she vice president? I mean, it's astonishing.
The people on the left are rapidly degenerating into this kind of totally impossible position. And so, for those who are reasonably rational, they're just going to lie about it. They're going to come back to you and say what inflation? What immigration? What murder rate? Why are you mad at me, I didn't have anything to do with that, I wasn't even here.
It's the most -- I've never -- and as you know, Sean, because we've got such good friends, I'm a historian. I don't remember any period in American history where a major party has been this out of touch with reality and is now out of touch with itself. I mean it's astonishing to watch.
HANNITY: I just think it's spectacular arrogance that after supporting defund, dismantle, no bail laws, that they can -- with a straight face -- just lie to us. Maybe some people will be convinced by the lie. I won't be particularly impressed by it.
You know, Beto Bozo is one of -- the greatest example. And I asked Tulsi Gabbard, and I find her to be really refreshing as much as she's a Democrat, but she sees her party really off track. And I said, is there any one, two or three things that you see as a Democrat that you can point to that Biden has done that has made our lives better or we can call successful? She couldn't name one.
GINGRICH: Look, I actually like Tulsi Gabbard a lot. I worked with her on a couple of projects. She's very common sense. She makes sense.
HANNITY: She's smart.
GINGRICH: She's a veteran.
The problem is if she were the leader of the Democratic Party in the House, it'd be a party that could actually function. She can't even be there now because she's too rational, too normal. She doesn't fit the model that's evolving.
And what strikes me -- this is like watching a religious movement. These are people who are now chanting and doing what they do with no regard to reality, and they have a level of contempt for the rest of us.
I mean, you watch Hillary Clinton after 31,000 eliminated emails, after having somebody take a hammer to destroy her hard drive, after all the things she's done, she's prepared with a straight face to look at you and me and say, gosh.
HANNITY: I'm waiting for the lawsuit.
GINGRICH: I did that.
HANNITY: By the way, I'm going to get you -- drink your water. We'll give you a Marco Rubio moment.
GINGRICH: That's okay.
HANNITY: I'll give you, you know, Poland Springs a great company, by the way. They should be advertising on the show.
Anyway, Mr. Speaker, we love having you back. Good to see you. Time for a drink. You can have a real drink even.
Anyway, coming up, the great one Mark Levin is back. He joins us. He'll react to the media mob doxxing people that donated to the Canadian freedom convoy. We'll also ask him about his statement that we are living in a post-constitutional America because I think he's right, straight ahead.
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HANNITY: Now, the freedom convoy is still holding the line and tonight, amid far left failure, Biden of the north -- the cowardly, wimpy, the dictator wannabe Justin Trudeau, his crackdown continues to launch his authoritarian assault on what is a peaceful demonstration because breaking news developed just moments ago, truckers are now being arrested as promised, including key organizers, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber and this disgusting crackdown appears to be intensifying as Trudeau is unleashing thug tactics across Ottawa. So much for free speech that he once praised.
And just like clockwork, the mob and the media, they're ramping up their efforts to harass the truckers and their supporters because using hack data, "The Washington Post", "Reuters", others, they're now targeting freedom convoy donors who are supporting this peaceful protest.
Even Congresswoman Omar agrees with me, in that slamming the media's behavior, tweeting: I failed to see why any journalist felt the need to report on a shop owner making such an insignificant donation rather to get them harassed. It's unconscionable. Journalists need to do better. That's the least of it.
And get this, the State Department's viral Iran embassy now using Kamala Harris's quote on Twitter yesterday, quoting the VP's January remarks when she said: Here's the truth, racism exists in America, xenophobia exists in America, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, Transphobia, it all exists. The work to address injustice wherever it exists remains the work ahead. That's what Newt was referring to.
Well, America also has mostly good people that work hard, play by the rules or pay their taxes, obey the laws and, you know what? They deserve better leadership.
Here with reaction to all the big news tonight is the host of the number one show Sunday night, "Life, Liberty and Levin," nationally syndicated radio host, the number one books -- best bookseller of last year, "American Marxism," I call him the great one Mark Levin.
I'll let you start anywhere, but I -- at the end of the show is going to remember our dear friend Rush. It's one year ago today, Mark, that we lost --
MARK LEVIN, FOX NEWS HOST, "LIFE, LIBERTY AND LEVIN": Yeah.
HANNITY: -- you know, the greatest of all time, the guy that paved the way for both of us.
LEVIN: Irreplaceable in so many respects and we need him more now than ever. He was our George Washington quite frankly.
Sean, you've asked your guests a lot of questions about what's going on in this country, I'll tell you what's going on in this country. The largest political party in this country hates America. They hate our security. They hate our Constitution. They hate our Founders. They hate our Framers.
They hate our monuments. They hate our history. They hate our family structure.
And there's so much that they hate about America that we have a vice president who's probably among the dumbest vice presidents in American history and there have been many stupid ones who makes comments about this country that are just so vile and so repugnant.
And I would say this to Kamala Harris: you need to go over to these military cemeteries and take a look and take a look at all those crosses and those Stars of David and think about all the men and all the women who died for this country that you trash, that made who you are and what you are possible because God knows you haven't invested into this country what those people did and what those families did.
The Democrat Party hates our military, hates our cops. The Democrat Party is selling us out to the communist Chinese, the fascistic Russians, the fascistic Iranians, and the inbred over there in North Korea.
The Democrat Party is a force for bad in this country. They never promote liberty. They never promote individualism.
There was a piece in "The New York Times" the other day trashing individualism. That's what the whole country is about.
We now have an individual in Canada who reflects the same ideology. We actually now have a totalitarian regime on our northern border.
Let's not fool ourselves, what that prime minister -- whatever the hell he is -- is doing to the people of Canada is a disgusting disgrace. He is the Vladimir Putin of Canada and as soon as they have an opportunity, they need to kick his ass out of that office and make sure they don't kick it down here.
It wasn't that long ago when we honored our nurses and our doctors, when we honored our police, we honored our truckers and all the men and women who aren't millionaires who get dirt under their fingernails, who put their lives on the line to protect us through that pandemic, before there were vaccines, before there were therapeutics.
They would get sick and they would go to their jobs anyway, and they made this country and Canada and all other countries they worked in function. They put food on our tables, they put gasoline in our automobiles. They did what we needed to do to survive as a country, as a country, when the Chinese unleash this virus against us by not telling us about it ahead of time.
Now, because they resist these mandates, because so many of them have natural immunity which the Israelis have said is multiple times more effective than any of these vaccines, now, they're the enemy.
Sean Hannity and America, have you noticed the Democrat Party base and the left-wing base is never the enemy. The trial lawyers are never the enemy. The teachers unions are never an enemy. The front groups that want open borders, they're never the enemy. The hard left in this country, they're never the enemy.
No, no, no, today, it's the truckers. Yesterday, it was the parents. The day before that, it was the nurses. In other words, middle America, the people who make this country work.
The Democrat Party in this country needs to be crushed, and I want the American people to understand something -- you have it within your power to take this country back. They will not be crushed unless you crush them.
And I'm talking to people, I don't care what your race is, I don't care what you come from. The American people do not hate this country the way that AOC does. They do not hate this country the way Kamala Harris does. We love this country.
You know how I know it? Or we'd all pack up and we go somewhere else. Our borders are overrun with people who want to escape their lousy cultures and their lousy countries to come here.
We have a Democrat Party that hates this country that wants to centralize power, that wants to destroy our voting system, that wants to eliminate the importance of citizenship, eliminate the importance of state sovereignty. We know exactly what we're dealing with now. They've exposed themselves and they have this fossilized leadership in Nancy Pelosi.
Now footnote: we Republicans and I confess, I'm a Republican, we have fossilized leadership too. You had Kevin McCarthy on this program who superbly laid out what the agenda is for the House, when and if they take over the house. Has Mitch McConnell laid out the agenda for the United States Senate if the Republicans take over the Senate?
He was asked about it directly by a reporter and he said -- well, we won't be pushing the Biden progressive agenda. Well, that's -- that's very heartwarming. And then he says, we want to have bipartisanship, we want to meet somewhere in the center with our Democrat friends so we can get things done.
Mitch McConnell, if he's not thrown out, Republicans, we'll never advance. He is fossilized. He's a disaster. We need smart, new, revolutionary leadership. That's it!
HANNITY: You've got to say, I'm done. You used to say, I'm done, that's it.
All right. The great one, that's why we call them the great one. "Life, Liberty and Levin," Sunday night, number one show, don't miss it.
All right. Coming up, according to a new poll, 66 percent of you the American people want Joe Biden to take a cognitive test and that's not the only bad poll number for the president. We'll tell you about it, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Remember it was Biden who said he had a plan to shut down the virus and said we're only going to be wearing masks for the first hundred days of his presidency and said that if we get these vaccines, you're not going to get COVID. Yeah, all a total lie. We'll never mandate a vaccine -- lie, lie, lie.
Anyway, Americans are taking notice as a new "Politico" morning console poll finds only 39 percent of Americans approve of Biden's handling of the pandemic. A new poll by Rasmussen -- look at this -- a whopping percent of voters, including 43 percent of Democrats believe Biden needs to take and publicly release the results of a cognitive test just like Donald Trump took.
Here with reaction, FOX News contributor Ari Fleischer, along with Trafalgar chief pollster Robert Cahaly.
Ari, listen, I've shown the video, Joe in 2008, '12, '16, and today, even a year ago. It seems like he is in the middle of a massive, precipitous decline. What are we going to do about this? Because I'm not the only one seeing it. So two-thirds of Americans are seeing it.
ARI FLEISCHER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: And you remember, Sean, during the campaign, one of the few instances where a reporter from the mainstream media actually said to Joe Biden, will you take a cognitive test? It was a reporter from CBS News and Joe Biden's reaction was, what are you, a junkie? Are you a junkie? Huh, man, are you a junkie? Proving he might need a cognitive test.
HANNITY: Wait a minute, my favorite. Turn on the record player. That was a favorite and then we hold these truths to be self-evident all men and women are created equal and doubted by the thing, oh, you know, the thing -- God the creator of everything.
I digress. Go ahead.
FLEISCHER: Well, since we're doing golden oldies, which is basically what your question was about, the golden oldie in the White House, don't forget when he was asked a question by an AFL-CIO supporter at a town hall event where he had the questions ahead of time the answer was loaded in his teleprompter, but his prompter wasn't working. So when he gets asked a question, but what will you do for labor, he said to go -- move it up, move it up, and then he had to wait for the teleprompter to tell him the answer.
You know, we're witnessing this, Sean. We're witnessing a president whose judgment is flawed, whose knowledge is bad, whose decisions are wrong. And when it comes to COVID, he's a president who said he shut it down but he didn't. He said he wouldn't impose mandates but he did.
He forgot that he ordered masks for the American people, then he quartered the markets on masks for the American people, so we all got them two months after we needed, I'm sorry masks -- the COVID tests.
HANNITY: Yeah.
FLEISCHER: And we all got them after we needed them. He's been a disaster from start to finish.
HANNITY: We ran out of tests, monoclonals, and they never produced the antivirals that every doctor says is great.
Robert, let me get a broader picture from you. How is -- how are Republicans looking for the House in the polling? How are they looking in all these key Senate races, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Missouri, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona? How we looking and how for example is the governor's race in Georgia looking, the primary?
ROBERT CAHALY, CHIEF POLLSTER AT THE TRAFALGAR GROUP: Well, most of the numbers right now look very good for Republicans for a wide massive win in the -- in the House seat and the Senate contest, especially the key ones in Georgia and Arizona look very favorable.
And even, you know, kind of second tier, New Hampshire and Nevada look like they're real possibilities.
The governor -- we just put out a poll in the governor's race in Georgia and it's -- there's a ten point margin. You've got Kemp leading Purdue, but you've got 42 percent of the people don't know that Trump -- we've got 40 percent of people don't know that Trump endorsed Purdue yet, and you also have this emerging issue of Buckhead cityhood that Purdue is on the side of 75 percent of Republicans, and the governor's on the wrong side of it. So there's a wedge issue there and there's potential but it's going to be a real strong effort if Purdue's going to make up that ground.
HANNITY: We're going to bring you back because we need more polling data. But I hope the president heard that about Georgia and about Purdue.
Robert, thank you. Ari, thank you.
When we come back, it was one year ago today we lost the conservative radio titan, the Babe Ruth of talk radio, Rush Limbaugh. Next, Rush in his own words talking about what makes us great.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Today marks one year since we lost the Babe Ruth of talk radio, the legend Rush Limbaugh. He was the king of conservative talk radio, paved the way for FOX News, loved by millions and millions of people. Here's a clip from one of his last appearances on this show talking about what makes this country great. I hope Kamala is watching.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: We conservatives and I'm going to take the opportunity of this stellar appearance tonight to remind people who conservatives are. We love everybody. We love people. We see a sea of potential as we look out over the country.
We want people to be the best they can be. We want people to be happy. We realize what a blessed opportunity it is to be born in the United States of America.
And we want everybody to maximize their potential because that's how you get a great country, that's how you get great innovation, that's how you get great modernization, it's how you get a great military, it's how you get a great anything is great people. It's the people of this country who make it work.
Now the Democrat party, that's just a foreign language to them. Those kind of people -- stop and think, this is really true -- those kind of people are of no use to the Democrats.
The Democrats are threatened by people who can rely on themselves. They're threatened by people who can take care of themselves. They're threatened by people who -- because those people are not dependent.
Those people are not going to be in need. Those people are not running around trying to figure out who it is that's responsible for their unhappiness and their misery. They're too busy taking advantage of the blessed opportunity to live in this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: It says it all. He's missed.
Let not your heart be troubled, Laura Ingraham is standing by.
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