'Hannity' interviews former President Donald Trump

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Trump reacts to Biden's first year in office in exclusive interview

Former President Trump tells 'Hannity' he wants President Biden to do well, but details concerns about agenda.

This is a rush transcript of "Hannity" on January 20, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: All right. Tucker, thank you.

And welcome to HANNITY.

We begin tonight with a FOX News alert. The 45th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, is only moments away. We have a lot of ground to cover.

Serious crisis at home, serious crisis abroad, Biden's first year at the White House has been an abject failure.

And yesterday's train wreck marathon press conference only made everything worse. Just look at the cover of "The New York Post". Headline reads: He said what?

Biden's confused, disastrous Q&A -- well, now we know why they've been hiding him away at pretty much every occasion. This press conference was so bad, White House press secretary and propagandist Jen Psaki had to circle back and was forced to issue not one but two very lengthy statements clarifying Biden's remarks. Oh, he really meant to say this, including the president's truly inept comments surrounding Ukraine that shocked the world. That's because in between the lying and the rage and the bizarre whispering, just get vaccinated, you know and the bouts of confusion Joe Biden all but invited Vladimir Putin, gave a green light to him -- for him to attack Ukraine, so long it was a, quote, minor incursion.

The Russians are testing us. Joe Biden failed that test. Needless to say, the people of Ukraine are now very, very concerned, rightly so.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLPI)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They watch those remarks I think, I think with horror. One Ukrainian official who I've been in close contact with while this marathon press conference is underway said that he was, you know, I'm quoting here, shocked that President Biden would give a green light to Vladimir Putin in this way.

The big concern, of course, which is what he was alluding to, is that it gives Putin -- and this is another quote from him -- it gives the green light to Putin to enter Ukraine at his pleasure. And that's not just one Ukrainian official, other Ukraine officials have responded in a similar way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Today's Ukraine president also issued a response tweeting, quote: We want to remind the great powers, there are no minor incursions and small nations. Just as there are no minor casualties and little grief from the loss of loved ones.

No matter what you think about Russia's looming invasion, keep this in mind, President Trump was impeached by Democrats, accused of being a Russian plant, that was totally a lie for three years planted by, oh, Hillary Clinton's dirty misinformation Russian dossier. Then, of course, we had the issue of the routine phone call with the president of Ukraine.

Joe Biden has now essentially invited Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine. Democrats, they could care less. The mob, the media can care less. Joe Biden literally giving Putin a waiver to build a pipeline. Simultaneously, he's firing thousands of American workers on the Keystone XL pipeline, high-paying career jobs.

Zero experience Hunter makes millions from Russia, from an oligarch, a pro- Putin Ukrainian oligarch, as Vice President Joe leveraged a billion of your tax dollars, had a prosecutor fired in Ukraine for investigating his crack addicted son being paid millions with no experience. Think about that. Does none of this seem strange to you?

Let's ask the question, what if his last name was Trump? And still, Biden's presser was so terrible in many ways that some in the media mob, they couldn't even hide their shock and horror. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC HOST: It was a terrible moment in the press conference when he talked about a minor incursion. There is no minor incursion.

JOHN HEILEMANN, MSNBC NATIONAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: At the end of the press conference, if you have to put a statement out to try to clean up what happened in the press conference, that's not -- never a good thing.

VAN JONES, CNN COMMENTATOR: I think you have to be honest that you can be a foggy, meandering president, say like Reagan near the end if you're winning. But if you're foggy and meandering on key questions, and you're also not winning, then you've got a real problem.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

HANNITY: Yeah, let there be no mistake, he's no Ronald Reagan.

Now in fairness to Joe, there was at least one person that apparently loved his performance. The number one chief conspiracy theorist in all America, Rachel Maddow, claiming Biden held a lengthy press conference to show off his tremendous stamina in front of Vladimir Putin. Oh, okay.

Now, of course, that stamina completely evaporated today as he tried to avoid and ignore any and all tough questions surrounding his blunder with Putin and Ukraine. Take a look

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACKIE HENRICH, FOX NEWS REPORTER: Why are you waiting for Putin to make the first move, sir?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What a stupid question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: That was a question from our very own fox news correspondent Jackie Heinrich.

And according to Obama's director of global engagement, quote: It isn't a stupid question. It's a really important one. We continue to allow Putin to set the terms, timeline and trajectory of the -- of this crisis. It's time we stop being so reactive and start creating some of our own conditions.

Now, if Joe Biden actually wants to see something really stupid, he might want to look in the mirror because according to his own colleagues, Joe was allegedly considered one of the dumbest U.S. senators in Congress. And now, his steep cognitive decline is only making that matter really worse.

In fact, today, for the second time, he could not even remember the name of his own infrastructure czar. Take a look at this embarrassing typical moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: So thank you very much and I'm going to turn it over to the -- the guy who I asked to come out of retirement -- not my retirement but come and take over his gigantic job for me.

MITCH LANDRIEU, INFRASTRUCTURE CZAR: Mr. President, thank you so much. I'm honored this guy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: This guy -- that guy has a name. It's Mitch Landrieu, Joey.

And remember, the last time you called him Mitch McConnell by mistake.

At this point, is anyone in this country surprised that Joe's poll numbers are in the gutter, 33 percent Quinnipiac?

Just today, a new low in the AP survey. A vast majority disapprove of his job as president. Only 2 percent of the American people want this guy to run for reelection, it's that bad.

According to Trafalgar, that's Robert Cahaly, Republicans now have a 13- point advantage on the generic ballot. They started 2021 at a nine-point deficit.

Now in an effort to boost his poll numbers, the Biden administration is trotting out someone even more unpopular than Joe, his Vice President Kamala Harris. This morning, she participated in a handful of televised interviews, not one of them went well.

And during a tense interview on NBC, not exactly the hardest hitting news in the world, Harris forcefully had to remind Savannah Guthrie that she is the vice president of the United States and deserves respect. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: Ukrainian officials reportedly heard these words from President Biden with alarm. I know the White House tried to clarify it and clean it up afterwards. But with the damage done, you can't unring the bell. Is Vladimir Putin likely to listen to a later statement from the White House press secretary or the words of President Biden?

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will repeat myself and I'm vice president of the United States and the president and I work closely together and I know his position because he has been consistent in that regard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Almost sounds like Al Franken on "Saturday Night Live".

Tonight, it's clear we have a president and a vice president, they are not up to this job. But I know this and you know this, America's enemies, they're also seeing everything we're seeing. And sadly, tonight, as a result, the world and our country is less safe and it is less secure.

President Trump will have a lot to say about it. He will join us in a few moments.

But, first, joining us now with reaction, former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and former Massachusetts senator with a brand new knee and everything, we call him the by bionic senator, Scott Brown, is with us. Are you doing all right, Senator?

SCOTT BROWN (R), FORMER U.S. SENATOR: Yeah, I feel good. I've been walking in three days. It's amazing technology. So I want to thank the doctors --

HANNITY: It really is. I know I never want it, but if you have to have it, it's certainly better than when my father had it years ago.

All right. Let's -- let's start with your overall view of last night, how damaging it was long-term to Biden and Harris and the Democratic Party?

BROWN: Well, first of all, President Trump actually put draconian sanctions on Russia and thanks to him a lot of what you're seeing now is in place and it only can be removed by Congress. And what you see with Biden approving their pipeline and as you referenced earlier, destroying our American jobs and our energy independence that President Trump actually for the first time in a long time we're exporting natural gas and natural resources and our gas is at a buck 80.

Yeah, listen, that -- I wasn't surprised that Joe Biden had the presentation he had. I mean it's been going on for years. And then I wasn't surprised either that Kamala Harris was battling because quite frankly she's in way over her head, and we are in deep trouble, our enemies -- our enemies do not fear us and that's very, very scary.

And the beauty of what you're seeing here as you referenced also is that in the midterms, we should have obviously a very strong turnout be that check and balance against the out of control policies here, because we do have some very, very real and dangerous issues, and I think Ukraine is going to give Russia a run for their money, thanks to the javelin, obviously, to anti-tank missiles and other things.

There's a strong sense of nationalism in the Ukraine right now and I think it's not going to be as easy as people think. So thank you, Sean.

HANNITY: Reince, let's get your take.

REINCE PRIEBUS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Well, we're at an amazing time for this president. I mean, Joe Biden's team and I'd say, Mr. President, your team is walking out on you. Two more Democrats retired today. That makes Democrats that are not seeking office again.

It's like the quarterback goes out at halftime and his team doesn't come back for the second half. They've walked out on this president. They walked out on `em for a lot of -- for a lot of reasons.

Number one, Joe Biden lost his brand. He was supposed to be the unifier. He said that in November, he said it in December after the Electoral College was counted, he said it on Inauguration Day. He tied George Washington in the most uses of words of togetherness and unity.

And what has he done? He's polarized the country, you mentioned it. More people are polarized in America today than ever. His re-elect numbers are worse.

The Democrats are worse off today than they were in 1994, 14 percent more people believe that Republicans are better for them than Democrats. And now, he's trying to tell the American people that Martin Luther King is going to roll over in his grave if Republicans don't support universal online voting. And this is what he thinks America wants to talk about.

It's a joke, but it's also very sad for the country.

HANNITY: Let me -- let me play the question of James Rosen last night about Joe Biden's cognitive state, and then I want to play some of Joe Biden's cognitive lapses, let's call them, and ask you -- both of you what you think of this one question. Let's play the question then we'll play a montage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

JAMES ROSEN, REPORTER: I'd like to -- I'd like to raise a delicate subject but with utmost respect for your life accomplishments and the high office you hold. A poll released this morning by "Politico"/Morning Consult found 49 percent of registered voters disagreeing with the statement Joe Biden is mentally fit. Not even a majority of Democrats who responded strongly affirmed that statement.

BIDEN: Well, I'll let you all make the judgment whether they're correct. Thank you.

ROSEN: Well, so the question I have for you, sir, if you'd let me finish is: why do you suppose such large segments of the American electorate have come to harbor such profound concerns about your cognitive fitness? Thank you.

BIDEN: I have no idea.

The -- Allison Harris, please?

We're emerging from this pandemic. We want to expand peak pre-K for three and four-year-olds, millions of pre-care students.

Forty percent of all products coming into the United States of America, on the West Coast go through Los Angeles and -- and -- what am I doing here?

I commuted every single day for 36 years as president -- vice president of the United States.

I'll tell you what, I would like to (INAUDIBLE)

This job, this jobs, the jobs that are going to be created here.

I want to thank the former general -- I keep calling in general -- my, my, the guy who runs that outfit over there.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

HANNITY: Senator Brown, I've been making the case since he was a candidate that he is not the same guy that left office in 2016 or early 2017, and it seems to be getting worse to me. I think I see it. The polls show that the American people see it, and I believe our enemies see it.

Thoughts?

BROWN: Well, remember when President Trump had a little limp and, you know, they thought, oh, my God, he had a stroke and you know, we need to know immediately about his mental and physical health. Yet, with President Biden, you don't see any -- any questions until today. Respectfully, that's one of the first times I've actually heard somebody actually ask the president that.

Listen, I know Joe Biden. I served with him. I used to go to his house. I had beers with him. I went to the Oval Office, you know, the White House, his office there.

What I'm seeing is sad and it's just sad. I think we all know people who are going through those difficulties, and I'm just hopeful that -- you know, there's somebody there to give them some love and support because our allies don't fear us for sure. I'm sorry, our allies don't trust us and our enemies certainly aren't fearing us.

The economy's -- inflation's up, gas prices are up, home heating oil and you name, it's all -- it's all gone upside down since President Trump's administration. And it's just -- it's sad and scary.

HANNITY: Specifically though on his cognitive state, Reince Priebus?

PRIEBUS: Well, here's the issue. It's one thing to forget who your -- who your cabinet is. It's another thing when you go out on a press conference and you start slipping up with your mouth and start claiming that a minor incursion from Russia isn't going to be the problem, then you have your press secretary and your VP cleaning up your mess. You're getting tweeted at by the Ukrainian president who you're now reacting to and doing more cleanup.

That's the real issue for America. That's true. Fitness and having a sound state of mind is very important as a president. He's giving us rise to questioning that fitness.

But what's more important is when because of slip ups and goof ups, he's creating a potential world disaster. That's where the problem is, Sean.

HANNITY: Let me ask you final exit question, one word answers. Do you both believe that he's really making the calls in the White House? Reince, I'll go to you first. Is he -- is he calling the shots?

REINCE: No, he's not. He has been talked into this road that he's taken. It is a disastrous road, starting with executive orders on day one.

I'm not sure if he regrets it or not, but he's put himself in a position where he's become something that he claimed he never was. He's somebody that most Republicans say I don't recognize this guy.

HANNITY: That's a long -- that's a long yes.

REINCE: I guess that is.

HANNITY: But it's an uncomfortable question and if it was Donald Trump, I don't think anybody in the media or anybody in the political world would have any problem talking about it, Scott Brown. Do you believe he's calling the shots? Do you believe he is --

BROWN: Yeah, I'm already on record, Sean. Yeah, no, I don't -- I don't think so. I think that there's quite a few people there who are probably a triumvirate of people who -- from my understanding based on speaking to former colleagues and doing my own due diligence, yeah, I think it's very sad and it's -- as Reince said, it's dangerous.

We need a leader who can make strong immediate decisions and not be basically influenced by people who may not have our best interests at heart.

HANNITY: Well said.

All right. Reince Priebus, Scott Brown, thank you.

Before we get to President Trump who will be joining us, our count from Afghanistan, we will never forget on this show continues.

ANNOUNCER: Americans held hostage, abandoned behind enemy lines, day 159.

HANNITY: One hundred and fifty-nine days, Joe Biden stabbed our fellow Americans in the back. He did something 13 days earlier he said he would never do. He abandoned them. He abandoned thousands of people that had green cards, eligible to live in this country, even some military family members, and literally tens of thousands of our Afghan allies.

But his answer last night, no apologies for this botched withdrawal. In fact, Biden is making no apologies for any of the crisis that he himself caused.

Here with more, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

Let's get a broad overview. Your thoughts last night?

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): It's more than just danger what he did last night. Remember, he learned nothing from Afghanistan. He gave us new 13 Gold Star families. He left hundreds behind in Afghanistan.

And now with his comments with Ukraine, there is going to be more blood on his hands if Putin enters Ukraine. This is not just a slip up. This is not a sleight of tongue.

This is damaging beyond damaging. This is putting a threat in.

And remember what's happening, this is the 100th year of the creation of the Soviet Union. Putin wants to put all the countries back together again. Why would he think he couldn't enter now when he's already been given a pipeline, but America was denied a pipeline? Why would he think that he couldn't enter now when he watched the president of the United States actually say he could enter?

HANNITY: Let me -- let me ask you specifically what the possible ramifications to this is. I mean, when I heard minor incursion, I nearly -- I nearly fell off the chair. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

More importantly, he's outperformed expectations. He's had the most successful first year as president. I'll go through that record with when President Trump joins us.

But can you name a single thing? Cite, all right, he really did a good job --

MCCARTHY: I could name one.

HANNITY: Okay.

MCCARTHY: I could name one.

HANNITY: Go ahead.

MCCARTHY: The only thing he's accomplished is to change my opinion of the Jimmy Carter administration. That is the only thing that he's accomplished.

HANNITY: All right. Clever answer, I like it, with a little bit of humor.

Now, the question is this and I get asked this on my radio show all the time, we got these midterms coming up. And --

MCCARTHY: Yes.

HANNITY: -- what I hear over and over again is that the base of the conservative movement and Republicans, they want leaders that will make promises, that will fight like hell to keep them, and really go to bat for what they say they're going to do.

Will the Republican Party now that they have an opening, we see the numbers, they're very clear from a 5-point -- 9-point deficit now. Trafalgar has generic ballot, a 13-point Republican lead.

My question is, you want to be the next speaker of the House, what do you say to Republicans that want to be -- want assurance that Republicans if they get control of the House and the Senate what they're going to do?

MCCARTHY: We're not just going to say it. We're going to put it out to the public. We're going to make our commitment to America.

We will lay out what we'll do about securing our border, ending inflation, keeping our streets safe, ending these mandates, keeping this administration and holding them accountable. Ending an attorney general that's going after parents because he thinks they're terrorists.

This is things that we will lay out, we will nationalize this campaign and we will promise you -- not just promise you, but tell you to hold us accountable because every single member will behind it. We will be sitting this -- starting on Monday, all the ranking members, all those who are working on the task force working this out, because we have one thing in goal, to make the next century American century, and we could only do that by changing this course of history.

So we need to fire Pelosi. So if you want to join us, go to FirePelosi.com and let's hold this to be true.

HANNITY: Kevin McCarthy, we thank you. Thanks for being with us.

Joining us now live on the phone, author of this, by the way, brand-new book, "Together". I'm in two pages of it, which really make -- should make it the biggest best-seller of all time. Anyway, it's called "Our Journey Together" -- the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

Mr. President, thank you for being with us.

Let's start with the obvious question. Let's get your general thoughts about the nearly two-hour press conference of Joe Biden yesterday.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT (via telephone): Well, it was a very sad time for our country. I want him -- forget politics. I want him to do well. He's got to do well. Our country is in trouble.

What's happened in the last year, I don't think we've ever had anything like it in this country. When you look at that horrible situation in Afghanistan, the way they got out.

Getting out was good, but the way they got out -- we could have got that with strength and with dignity and kept Bagram, which is right next to China, one hour away from where they make their nuclear weapons. We should have kept it. Billions and billions of dollars it cost many years ago to build.

And the way we got out, soldiers killed, most importantly. And then on top of it, $85 billion worth of equipment, the best equipment anywhere in the world. They have one of the biggest and most well-equipped armies.

Now, they're selling it to Russia, to China, to anybody that wants it. Leaving $85 billion worth of airplanes and tanks, and 700,000 machine guns and rifles and everything else.

It's -- I think I heard 70,000 trucks, 70,000. There's no car company in the country that would have 70,000 cars or trucks. And it's just a very -- it's a very, very sad time for our country.

HANNITY: You say -- when you say you want him to do well, that's a rare statement from anybody in politics. Secretly, deep down inside, you know what? They don't want the other side to do well, because they don't believe their philosophy will work.

I want America to do well. I really do, with all my heart.

And I -- the only way that I see that he could change course is, as "The Wall Street Journal" pointed out today, rightly so -- there's no course correction with him. He seems locked into every one of these failed policies. So, you know, you know, you keep banging your head against the wall.

Why would you expect a different result?

TRUMP: So, we would have had the wall completed in three weeks. It was largely completed. We did a most 500 miles of wall in the southern border. It was really working. It really had an impact.

And we were working along with Mexico, and Guatemala, Honduras. We were -- El Salvador, all of these countries we were working.

I stopped paying them because of the fact they were treating us so badly, with the caravans, they were putting criminals -- emptying their jails into our country. We stopped and they stopped 100 percent.

So we had the most secure border we've ever had. And that includes not only people, and the wrong people coming in, it also includes drugs. We had the lowest number in 40 years in terms of drugs coming in. People couldn't believe what was going on.

And then it's all gone in one instant. And at first, I thought it was gross incompetence, but now, it's incompetent policy. They really want to have an open border. And I still look at it with amazement.

And this week, as you probably read, 121 different countries poured into our country. And we have no idea who these people are. So, you look at that and you look at the other things that are happening, what's going on.

We're disrespected all over the world. And don't forget, President Xi of China, Putin, Kim Jong Un, Iran, all of these people -- these leaders are watching.

And when they watch -- when they watch our border, when they watch -- maybe worse, I'll tell you -- I think it was the most embarrassing day ever, but as I say, what happened in Afghanistan, the way we got out, it looked like a surrender. They look at that, and all of a sudden, they have great bravery.

So, now, you have a problem in Ukraine, which you would have never had under my administration. You have a big problem. You watch after the Olympics. You have a big problem with Taiwan.

You have Kim Jong Un -- who I got along with very well -- but you have Kim Jong Un now, doesn't like Biden, and he's doing his missile thing again.

And you have Iran at a level that we haven't seen in a long time. We would've had a deal within with Iran. We would've had it in one week.

China now is buying massive amounts of oil, of energy from Iran. And that's giving them a lot of money. So, they are fueling up and they're -- they're getting rich. And it's a whole different deal.

So, it's just very sad what happened. They're all watching, and they can't believe what they're seeing.

HANNITY: You know, you started with international foreign affairs. Let's stay on that.

You're right about Afghanistan, in my view. I doubt you would have abandoned Americans behind enemy lines the way Joe did when he promised not to, but he did. And I don't see any hope right now of getting them out anyway.

Then, you got President Xi, and they're flying their fighter jets over Taiwan airspace. And they keep talking about reunification. I agree with your prediction that will happen after the Olympics.

You're right about North Korea. They're trying to bring back the horrific Iran deal, and they're lifting sanctions on Iran.

But I want to play for you the -- I think the most disastrous moment of last night, or yesterday afternoon's press conference. It was too late for him to stay up, I assume. And that is the minor incursion comment that he made about Russia, Putin, and Ukraine.

Let me play it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Russia will be held accountable if it invades, and it depends on what it does. It's one thing if it's a minor incursion, and we end up having to fight about what to do and not do, et cetera.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Mr. President, if I wanted to stop Putin, 48 percent of his economy is energy. He got a waiver to build the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to give energy to our Western European allies. I would out-produce him and I get our energy to Western Europe.

If I wanted to stop China, I'd stop all imports from China, and I get our allies to join with us. And that would probably put them in line, because it would impact them so negatively economically.

What is your response to his answer? And what would you do if you were president?

TRUMP: So, we took in hundreds of billions of dollars from China with taxes and tariffs, and companies started moving back because it was no longer so good to be there. And we had a huge impact.

Then, you look at what happened with -- if you take a look at what happened with everything having to do with Russia, really, what he said last night, when he said, they may go in, they will go in, and he talked about a minor incursion, and I sort of said, I don't believe he said that, because that's like giving him -- you know, they use the term "green light". He was green- lighted.

And, you know, it's very interesting, because the president of the Ukraine, last night, he was -- he was seen in some very unusual pictures. He couldn't believe what he heard. He couldn't believe what he heard.

And I couldn't believe what -- whether you're for strong stoppage or not, you're really telling him, "you might as well go in". And you also can't just talk in terms of sanctions because sanctions don't mean too much to Russia. If you want to stop somebody, you're not going to be talking just about sanctions. But he really told him "go" and I think it's a whole different ball game right now.

If you look at what's going on with Russia and Ukraine, what they've done at the border, they are loaded up with soldiers. That never happened with me. That would have never happened -- I had a very good relationship with Putin, but remember, I stopped their pipeline.

If we would go back to producing energy -- you know, we were energy independent, first time in probably 72 years, maybe ever, but the first time in at least 72 years. We had so much energy, we didn't know what to do with it.

A dollar eighty-seven at the pumps when I left. Now, it's over $5. In California, it's over $7, the gasoline.

If we would get -- inflation is killing us. We haven't talked about inflation. It's killing us. A lot of inflation has to do with the cost of energy because it's sort of this -- this big topic. It has -- it has to do with just about the making of everything.

And if we were energy-independent, if we got the prices down, your inflation would absolutely start to drop. But I don't think they're going to do it. I don't think they're going to finish the wall, which could have been done in three weeks, three weeks.

In fact, Texas wanted to finish it, and they wouldn't let them have the fencing that was already bought, and very expensive fencing, by the way, wouldn't let them use it. They wouldn't let them use it. Very bad, very bad spirit.

HANNITY: Let me...

TRUMP: But if we would be energy-independent, if the cost of energy came down, you would see a tremendous hit on inflation, because, right now, it's the worst in probably 62 years.

HANNITY: It's also good for our national security, because then we don't have to really worry about what's happening in the Straits of Hormuz, where a lot of the world's energy passes through, and Iran.

We wouldn't have to worry about Middle Eastern politics as much, and certainly wouldn't be good for Vladimir Putin, as their economy is so reliant on energy. I want to get back to the economy in a minute.

More broadly, he claimed, Biden claimed last night that he has probably outperformed expectations. Let me play it for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Inflation is up. Your signature domestic legislation is stalled in Congress.

In a few hours from now, the Senate -- an effort in the Senate to deal with voting rights and voting -- voting reform legislation is going to fail. COVID-19 is still taking the lives of 1,500 Americans every day.

And the nation's divisions are just as raw as they were a year ago. Did you overpromise to the American public what you could achieve in your first year in office? And how do you plan to course-correct going forward?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Why are you such an optimist?

(LAUGHTER)

BIDEN: Look, I didn't overpromise, but I have probably outperformed what anybody thought would happen.

Can you think of any other president that has done as much in one year? Name one for me.

QUESTION: I'm asking you. I mean...

BIDEN: I'm serious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Mr. President, inflation is now at a 40-year high.

Build Back Better, New Green Deal, socialism is dead. Their voting rights power play, thankfully, died. We talked about the Afghanistan disaster. We will get to COVID in a minute. We will go back to the economy in a minute.

Apparently, he thinks he's doing a great job. Your reaction to that comment?

TRUMP: Well, I think that our country has never been so disrespected as it is right now by the rest of the world, by the leaders of the rest of the world.

And I don't think we have ever been in this position. Even I -- I look at it and I feel ashamed at what's happened in the last year with our country. I'm ashamed of what's going on. And so are Americans. They're ashamed and embarrassed. They haven't seen this.

I don't think we have ever seen this, like this. We have lost -- they talk about allies. Our allies were ripping us off for a long time. And I got it stopped. But they're still our allies, and they respected us. Now our allies are not even -- I don't think they're allies. They don't trust us anymore.

The way they do things, even getting out. I was the one that got us down to 2,000 soldiers in Afghanistan. I was getting out. But we were going to get out with strength, with dignity. We were going to do it the right way. We didn't lose one soldier, Sean, in 18 months. We didn't lose -- I spoke to the leader of the Taliban, Abdul.

And I said, don't do it. I won't have to go into it on this call, but it was a rough call. And we -- and they didn't -- in 18 months, we didn't lose one soldier in Afghanistan. And then we lose 13 and many, many wounded, horribly wounded, with legs and arms, horribly wounded, the way they got out.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I already know the secret, because you have said it publicly, that you told him on that phone call that you would wipe them off the face of the earth.

Is that true?

TRUMP: We had a strong phone call. Let's put it that way, not one soldier killed in 18 months.

HANNITY: That would be pretty strong, yes.

TRUMP: And then you see this horrible -- yes, well, it was strong. It was strong. And he understood it.

And, honestly, it was going to be a very smooth -- there was no reason for this to happen. And I said, I want to take out every nut, every bolt, every plane, every tank, every truck. We're going to take everything out. And to leave it behind and to leave the hostages -- you mentioned the hostages before.

Nobody knows how many Americans are there. Nobody even knows. But they're having a hard time. Now they're having a really hard time getting out. We had some great people in there trying to get them out, and they were successful initially. Now they're not being successful, as you know better than anybody, because you have been incredible on this subject.

But they're having a really hard time getting them out. It's dangerous business. But to leave them there, it would have been so easy. You don't take the military out first. He took the military out first. It's not even believable. Military comes out last. So, it's a very tough situation.

But we had it so beautifully under control. We had the economy under control. We had no inflation. We had low energy. We had energy independence. We rebuilt our military. We got the biggest tax cuts in history. We got the biggest regulation cuts in history by far, maybe even more important than the tax cuts.

We got ANWR approved, the biggest -- perhaps the biggest site in the world, perhaps as big as Saudi Arabia. And it was done, and now it's gone. They terminated it in Alaska. They terminated it. No help from Lisa Murkowski, by the way.

So it's very sad to see what's what's happening now and very -- it's very joyous when you look back. That's, I think, why you mentioned the book. The book has done well because people look back at that period, even with all the witch-hunts and all the fake Russia, Russia, Russia hoaxes that was started by Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, and all of the different hoaxes, the impeachment hoax number one, impeachment hoax number two, the Mueller situation, where no collusion.

After all that time, there was no collusion at all. You go through that. But it was a joyous time because our country did so well. Our economy was so good. We did so well.

And then we got hit with the China virus. And we came up with everything that you can come up with, and, by the way, no mandates. The mandates are killing this country. No mandates. Got a good decision from the Supreme Court. I put on three justices of the Supreme Court, almost 300 judges. We had almost 300, changed the whole court system.

But they just gave a good ruling on that. They're coming up with some other rulings. Hopefully, they will be good, very important rulings coming up. So we will see what happens.

But it was a beautiful time. And I think people wanted to celebrate it. And I think that's why the book has been so successful.

HANNITY: Let me go back to the economy.

You mentioned energy. We were energy-independent for the first time and decades and decades. We were a net exporter of energy. We're now paying a buck, buck 50 more a gallon. It's going to cost people, what, $500 to $1,000 more to heat their homes this summer, the same amount to cool their homes...

TRUMP: That's right.

HANNITY: Heat their homes this winter, cool their homes over the summer.

And inflation is at a 40-year high. Penn Wharton, their analysis says it's costing the average American household up to $5,000 in Biden's inflation tax. That disproportionately impacts, negatively impacts the poor and the middle class in this country.

I have always been a strong believer that maybe one of your biggest accomplishments had to do with energy, because it does impact the economy. But it also protects us on foreign policy. Again, we're not involved in the Middle East. The Straits of Hormuz don't matter. We're not begging OPEC. We're not begging Putin. And we're creating high-paying career energy jobs.

And we also have the benefit of low-price energy, the lifeblood of our economy. That is the one thing I would argue that he could do immediately that would help, dramatically, the inflation crisis we have, the 40-year high we have there.

Do you see that happening? Would you advise him? Would you tell him...

TRUMP: So...

HANNITY: ... Joe, this is the single best thing you could do?

TRUMP: I would tell him that, but he will never do it, because the progressives, the radical left, as I call them, in the party will never allow it to happen.

They're never going to allow that to happen. They are never going to allow the border to be sealed up. I would tell him, seal up the border immediately. You can do it in four weeks, and go back to stay in Mexico, and all of the things that we did. We did so much.

We had the border so secure. Never been like that. Never been like that. And within a period of months, they just allowed millions of people to pour in, far more than you see. You show the pictures.

And, on the news, they don't show. If you go to CNN and MSDNC and these various networks, they don't show it. They never show it on NBC or fake news ABC. They don't show it, CBS. They never show the border. They never show what's really happening.

It's not even news, because, news, you're supposed to see what's going on. They don't show the real news. And it's very sad, very sad. They don't ever show the border. They don't ever. They don't ever talk about the horror of the Afghan withdrawal.

Getting out, again, is good. But the way they got out was so bad, the most incompetent withdrawal from a battle site, I would say, ever, ever...

HANNITY: Well, let me ask you this.

TRUMP: ... in the history of any country.

There's never been any country that withdrew like that, grossly incompetent.

HANNITY: You referenced COVID earlier.

You left office with three vaccines and monoclonal antibodies that you had created, which, to this day, I think is the best therapeutic. I advise people to talk to their doctors.

The RNC put together an ad of Joe Biden during the campaign saying he will shut down the virus. We had more deaths in 2021 than 2020 from coronavirus.

And then I will play you his remarks during one of the presidential debates and get you to respond on the other side.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I'm not going to shut down the economy. I'm not going to shut down the country. But I'm going to shut down the virus.

I'm going to shut down the virus.

I'm going to shut down the virus.

I will take care of this. I will end this. I will make sure we have a plan.

I'm going to shut down the virus.

I'll shut down the virus.

We are going to shut down the virus.

What I would say is I'm going to shut down the virus.

I'm going to shut down the virus.

Two hundred and twenty thousand Americans dead. If you hearing nothing else, I say tonight, hear this: Anyone who is responsible for not taking control, in fact, not saying -- "I take no responsibility" initially, anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: You gave him those vaccines, those monoclonal antibodies, and we had more deaths from COVID in 2021 than in 2020. You heard his comments about 220,000, but then he said he wasn't -- we had no idea, we didn't see Omicron coming, and we ran out of tests, we ran out of monoclonal antibodies, these antiviral medicines that doctors have been praising for months that are unavailable and are still unavailable. How is that possible when he said it was a travesty that you didn't have enough tests in the beginning of the pandemic?

TRUMP: Sean, we did such a great job. We got hit with something that nobody knew what it was. Nobody had any idea what it was. It came in and I closed the country to China early, way early, way beyond what anybody ever thought even possible. I did something that even nobody in the White House -- and we had 21 people in the Oval Office. Everybody except me said, keep it open to China. We saved hundreds of thousands of people.

I then closed it to Europe. And we stocked up our country with ventilators. We became the kings of ventilators. We were making them for not only our country, we had so many, we were making all -- for all over the world, helping other countries. We stocked up our shelves. They were all -- I said the cupboards were all dry. All the states, everybody, dry. The federal government had nothing. We stocked it up. We did a great job. We haven't been given the credit we deserve. Our people did an incredible job.

When he took it over, we were stocked up, we were ready to go. He had the vaccines. He had the therapeutics. And he didn't know how to use them. And he didn't know how. And they lost more people under him. They lost more people in that year then they did when really people didn't know what this horrible thing that floated in from China was. And it's a -- it's a terrible thing. That's right. He used it to talk about how he's going to close it up, but he didn't do well with H1N1.

He had the H1N1 and he did very poorly with that. I said, why will he do -- but, you know, it sounded good at the time. And when he got in, I said, oh, I hope he does it, but he didn't do it. And they were totally unprepared for the new variant, totally unprepared. No tests, no anything. And it has been a real mess. And as you say, a lot of people have died, a lot more. It's going to be a lot more than under an administration where nobody even knew what it was for a period of time. But we figured it out pretty fast.

And you are right, we got the vaccines in nine months instead of five years. It was supposed to take five years to 12 years. And guys like Fauci said, it's not going to -- we're not going to be able to do it in time. And we did it nine months, less than nine months. Nobody could believe it. And the therapeutics, likewise. But they haven't known how to use them. And I think that people don't trust them. I think they don't trust Biden. They don't trust the administration. And that's why they are not taking them to the extent that they should be.

HANNITY: I played earlier in the program, for Reince Priebus and Scott Brown, the question from James Rosen about a poll that Americans don't think that Joe Biden is mentally fit for the office. In other words, they are talking about his cognitive decline. I followed it up with a montage of these long pauses and -- and drifting answers and seemingly mumbling, bumbling, incoherence even at times. Do you believe he is struggling cognitively? Because that question was raised about you. And I've been around you long enough to know that that's not a problem for you at all.

TRUMP: Well, I went and took a test. And as Dr. Ronny Jackson, who is a great, great guy, now he's a congressman, and they love him in Texas, but he said, he aced it. And I don't think he ever saw anyone ace it. And I immediately said, because they started passing the false narrative, I think I'll know when the time is coming. I hope so. And maybe you will too when your time is coming. But, no, I aced it.

And I thought it was very important, because they started to put out, well, gee, did he say this? And by the way, what I turned out to say was all right. We've made a lot of right decisions. But, look, when you watch the press conference, I don't want to be the one to say, but that's not a normal situation going on up there.

And they were mostly very soft questions. I mean, Peter asked a good one. A couple of people asked a little tougher than they anticipated, but that was a very, very soft press conference. Most of it was not even really questions. They were just giving -- you know, just giving statements, and sort of saying how wonderful things are.

But things aren't wonderful. They're not wonderful for our country. Our country is in a terrible way. Our country is in a position I don't think we've ever been in. Nobody is respecting our country anymore. It's like -- it's like day and night from what we had. We were respected. I don't want to say we were feared, but we can say it, but we were respected, at a minimum. And I'll tell you what, they knew that we weren't playing games.

And none of these things would've happened. You wouldn't have had inflation. You wouldn't have had Ukraine problems with Russia. It was all working out. Everything was fine. I got along well with them. And they understood me, I understood them. You were going to have big problems Taiwan. You were going to have problems with many things. This is all self- inflicted stuff.

And if you really look at energy, I think the biggest component of what has happened with respect to inflation is energy. And we were energy independent. We didn't need anybody. In fact, we were exporting energy, making a fortune. We were going to be double the size of Russia and China. We were going to be double their size. We weren't number one. We were number one when I left. And we were heading in a year, we were going to be bigger than both of them combined. And that's something nobody ever thought would have been possible.

HANNITY: You know...

TRUMP: And instead, we gave up the mantle. And we looked like a bunch of very sad fools.

HANNITY: You know, Joe Biden said he had one of the most successful presidencies, first year ever, and his administration has exceeded all expectations. He asked rhetorically a number of times, what do they stand for? So we actually went back and we pulled up your record in your first year. And we pulled up his record now that he has been in office for a full year.

You signed, your first year, 117 bills into law, including dozens of major legislative achievements. You repealed the individual mandate, Obamacare. You did sign the biggest tax cut in U.S. history. You eliminated more regulations than at least five, 10 presidents combined. You did open up oil expiration in ANWR in Alaska. We saw massive economic growth.

You nominated Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. You set a record for first-year judicial appointments for the federal appellate court. You saw a historic reduction in illegal immigration. And you destroyed the caliphate. You bombed the living Adam Schiff out of them. And you forced NATO members to step up and pay their fair share.

Joe brought us a 40-year high with inflation. A workers shortage actually now exists in the country. People are not even going back in the workplace. The average family is now spending up to $5,000 more a year because of his inflation tax. He shut down the Keystone XL Pipeline. He gave the green light to Vladimir Putin, however. He is making Russia rich again.

He blocked oil exploration on federal lands, including ANWR, that you just mentioned. And, you know, now he is pleading and begging with OPEC and Russia to produce more energy when we could produce it here. What is your response? Because he was saying that he had a more productive first year than yours.

TRUMP: It wasn't close, everybody knows that. And what he has done in terms of building up our enemies is just incredible. You look at what has happened now with China, where there is no retribution whatsoever. You look at Russia. Russia now is making a fortune. You know, you're going to have energy, you talk about energy, you will have oil at $100 a barrel very soon.

We're heading there. We're going to be very close to $100 a barrel. I had it down to 26, 29. I had it lower than that during the pandemic, during certain periods. And we made it affordable. We made it good. And yet, we had more energy jobs than we've ever had. Now all of those -- not all, but a lot of those jobs are gone.

And if you could start that up again and stop with all of the windmills all over the place that are ruining the atmosphere -- you look at what's happening to these beautiful prairies and plains, and these gorgeous areas of our country where they have these rusting hulks put up all over the place where -- that are noisy. They're killing the birds.

I mean, don't get the environmentalists. And it's a very expensive form -- probably the most expensive form of energy. But you look at what we had -- you know, natural gas is very clean. They've destroyed the coal miners, and you have clean coal. And they use coal now for much more than just energy. They use it for other things also.

But they destroyed the coal miners in West Virginia, and Wyoming, and other places. They're just destroying these people and for no reason whatsoever. And remember this, China is opening up a coal plant every week, a big one every single week, and other countries.

And we are supposed to be going -- I got out of this Paris Climate Accord. It was a disaster for our country. It was going to cost trillions of dollars for our country. It's going to really hurt our country badly.

And China didn't have to abide by it. Russia didn't have to abide by it. India didn't have to abide by it.

So, we're going to be clean and they're going to be dirty. You know, it blows right over and right past the United States. And unless they're going to do it, it's not fair, because it's very expensive to do.

And unless they do it -- and they had no intention. All they do is talk. They talk, talk, talk.

HANNITY: Let me ask you this --

TRUMP: And we want to do it. It's a very, very serious problem for our country.

HANNITY: I talked to Mark Meadows. I talked to Kash Patel. I've asked you this question before, and that is: did you authorize, as required by law, the calling up of up to 20,000 National Guard troops on January the 4th, and maybe even other occasions, in the lead up to what everybody knew would be a big rally?

In every big rally, I guess you always have bad actors. But on the heels of the rioting, 574 riots in the summer of 2020 that killed dozens, injured thousands of cops, and caused billions in property damage -- did you authorize calling up the Guard, and then it became -- the chain of command went to Nancy Pelosi and to the mayor of D.C., Mariel Bowser? Did you, as required by law, authorize that?

TRUMP: One hundred percent and attested to by many people, and they turned it down. Nancy Pelosi turned it down. I guess they both did, but Nancy Pelosi turned it down.

And she's in charge of the Capitol. So they run the Capitol, the security of the Capitol. If you had 10,000 or 20,000, but if you had 10,000 -- if you have 5,000 soldiers wrapped around the Capitol, you would've had no January 6th as we know it. There would have been no problem whatsoever.

But they turned it down, which tells you everything. It was three days before. I think they have them down (ph) very accurately --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: How many times did you request this?

TRUMP: -- three days before.

HANNITY: How many times specifically do you remember or recall requesting it?

And now, the chairman of the committee has said, Nancy Pelosi is off limits. That means the sergeant-of-arms is off limits, who would report to her. Muriel Bowser is not being subpoenaed.

For my understanding, their -- none of their communications are being subpoenaed.

If the purpose of the committee is to prevent this from ever happening again, wouldn't those be the people that you need to ask? Because if you add 20,000 troops, I agree with you, I don't think this -- that day would have happened.

TRUMP: And, with a lot less than 20,000 troops also.

The fact is, I knew it was going to be a massive rally because this was a protest rally against the election which they considered to be totally rigged. They were right. And this was a protest against the election.

And I was told by so many people, oh, we're going down on the 6th. We're going down.

And I -- that's why I met with the top people, the top people in military and other places. And I said, I think this is going to be a lot of people coming down. I can tell you, I spoke -- I believe it was the biggest crowd I've ever spoken to. It was massive.

I'm not talking about the people that walked down to the Capitol. I'm talking about the people that we were watching.

HANNITY: At the rally.

TRUMP: So, I felt that was going to happen -- at the rally, or whatever you want to call it. The people listening to the speeches, a lot of different people, and they were also making speeches the night before.

And there was a lot of love there. Believe me, there was a lot of love, and a lot of friendship, and people that love our country. These are great people.

And I felt there was going to be a very big crowd. And I said, you know, I think we should have 10,000. And Kash Patel, who's a terrific guy, he said, maybe it should be 20. I said, maybe it should be 20. He remembers me saying 10 to 20.

But I wanted to have soldiers or -- and I wanted (ph) soldiers and/or National Guard, and Nancy Pelosi turned it down. And if she didn't turn it down, you would not have had any problem. It would have just been absolutely a lovely day.

HANNITY: Let me ask you -- a friend of mine was with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis the other day, and had a private conversation. But he didn't -- he said -- he's -- did not -- it wasn't confidential.

And he asked if any of this -- if there's -- if there is any conflict or bickering between you and him. And he said, absolutely not. He said it's total B.S.

Is he right?

TRUMP: Well, he is right.

I get along great with Ron. Ron was very good on the Mueller hoax. He was - - he was right up front, along with Jim Jordan and all of the rest of them. They were fantastic. The Republicans really stuck together. And it was a great thing. And Ron was one of them.

And Ron wanted to run, and I endorsed him. And that helped him greatly. And he went on, and he's done a really terrific job in Florida. And I think Ron has been very good. He's been a friend of mine for a long time.

It's totally fake news. I think Ron said last week -- he said it very publicly. He says, the press is never going to get in the middle of my friendship with Donald Trump. We're not going to do that stuff.

And he said it very strongly. I thought it was very interesting, actually, and very nice. But he said that. And I agree with him on that 100 percent.

No, I have a very good relationship with Ron, and intend to have it for a long time.

HANNITY: What do you advise Republicans for these midterm elections? Do you plan on getting active and involved in it?

And who do you think the Democrats will run in 2024? And are you considering a run?

TRUMP: So, I'm very active. I'm doing a lot of endorsements.

I'm 158 and two. That's a lot of wins, 158 wins. And we're endorsing a whole big flock of very good people. And the whole make America great again. It's all about make America great again. It's about America first. That's why, with energy and so many things that we're giving away to the enemy, we're giving them away to other people, other countries.

We're giving all of that tremendous wealth away, all of that money, which can buy so many things for our country and help so many people. But it's about MAGA. It's about make America great again. And we're endorsing a lot of people, and they're really good people.

And I think you're going to have a very strong Republican Party. We have done incredibly well with Hispanics. You saw that, record numbers. In fact, the governor of Texas, good guy also, told me that we did more -- he said, we did better with the Hispanic community than anybody since the Civil War. Think of it, the Civil War.

And if you look at the Republican Party, we're doing tremendously with Hispanics. And we're way up with African-Americans, way up. Look, it's a very different party. It's a bigger party. It's a stronger party.

I heard the numbers as you were talking to Kevin. Those are great poll numbers that -- we have never had numbers like that. The Republican Party is, I think, really doing well. And it's becoming a very different party.

But the inroads that we have made with Hispanics is just a beautiful thing. They're very entrepreneurial people. They're very strong, smart, entrepreneurial people. And they like the Republican Party a lot. And I'm very proud of it, because I head up the Republican Party at a time when we have done numbers.

Look at my numbers with Cuba. Look at my -- the Cubans, Cuban Americans. Look at my numbers with the Venezuelans that live in our country. They're unbelievable numbers, and how well I have done in Miami during the election.

HANNITY: Let me...

TRUMP: We won -- we won the state of Florida big, but I did tremendously with Hispanics.

HANNITY: Let me ask you one last question.

TRUMP: So, it's been -- it's a very different party.

HANNITY: I was with friends the other night, and your rally was going on.

And one of my friends, pretty smart political guy, actually said -- he knows -- we have known each other for all these years. And he said, just tell him, don't do any interviews with the media mob because they hate him, and just to do rallies, and, when he gets back in office, never talk to the media, and just redo every policy he did, and to stop fighting with people that he knows hates him.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: He wanted me to ask you that question. And I'm curious as to your answer myself.

You have less than a minute.

TRUMP: Well, he sounds like a very smart person.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: I mean, the rally the other night in Arizona was unbelievable. It was unbelievable, tens of thousands of people.

I would give you a number, the real number, but nobody would even believe it. I know the real number, many times tens of thousands. And it was incredible, as far as the eye could see, people, and 41 miles of cars lined up, for 41 miles to be there. It was an unbelievable rally.

And, look, I think we're going to do really well. I think we're going to have a tremendous '22. And, hopefully, we're going to have a tremendous '24.

HANNITY: Mr. President, we appreciate it.

Are you running in 2024? We have 15 seconds.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: Well, I think you will be happy, but we will let you know at a little bit later date.

But I think you will be very happy. I hope so.

HANNITY: I saved that for the last 15 seconds, because I knew you were not going to answer that question.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: And I knew I'd waste time asking you that question.

We appreciate you taking the time, and very articulately going over the issues of the day. We appreciate it, the 45th president of the United States.

TRUMP: Thank you very much, Sean.

HANNITY: Thank you.

Please set your DVR and never miss an episode. In the meantime, let not your hearts be troubled, why?

She's up. She's next. She's great.

Laura Ingraham, how are you?

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