Updated

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity" August 23, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. 

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

And breaking tonight, America is on an eight-day Taliban deadline to get
every remaining American out of Afghanistan and Joe Biden's government
still has no clue how many Americans are now trapped behind enemy lines. He
has eight days, the Taliban saying, to get every American out or they will
be marked for certain death.

Listen to this Taliban spokesperson on Sky News.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SKY NEWS REPORTER: If the U.S. or the U.K. wanted to extend the 31st of
August deadline in order to continue evacuations out of the country, would
you agree to that?

TALIBAN SPOKESPERSON: No, no.

SKY NEWS REPORTER: Why not?

TALIBAN SPOKESPERSON: This is something -- you can say it's a red line.
President Biden announced this agreement that until 31st of August they
would withdraw all their military forces. So if they extend it, that means
they are extending occupation. If they are intent on continuing the
occupation, so it will provoke reaction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Joe Biden, they're a terrorist organization, you better assume
they meet it mean it, and you better get as many U.S. troops into the
country immediately to escort and evacuate every American and every ally at
risk, because tonight, there are so many of our own people now trapped in
Afghanistan right now that a full evacuation by August the 31st seems
almost impossible.

Even Adam Schiff just warned Biden that the urgent task at hand seems
actually unlikely. Look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): I think it's possible but I think it's very
unlikely, given the number of Americans who still need to be evacuated, the
number of SIVs, the number of others who are members of the Afghan press,
civil society leaders, women leaders -- it's hard for me to imagine all of
that can be accomplished between now and the end of the month.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Joe Biden, you now have been warned. You've been warned by the
Taliban, by the intel community, by people on the ground. You've ignored
previous warnings, even Adam Schiff clearly begging you to take urgent
action.

Any Americans that die will be because of you. It is your responsibility to
rescue every single American before it's too late. Every single second that
ticks by, the situation on the ground becomes more dire and more dire. And
as we speak, more chaos, more bloodshed and thousands of American citizens,
tens of thousands of our Afghan partners that have death sentences still
remain hopelessly trapped in Kabul.

And even your own secretary of state is admitting, yes, that in fact, the
Taliban controls Kabul all across the country.

Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: There's a whole panoply of security
concerns that we have. We're fighting against both time and space. That's
the race that we're in right now.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's no way to evacuate this
many people without pain and loss of heartbreaking images you see in
television. It's just a fact.

KIRBY: We are well aware of the stated desire to buy the Taliban to have
this mission completed by the 31st of August.

BIDEN: Look, let's put this thing in perspective here. What interest do we
have in Afghanistan at this point with al Qaeda gone?

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: Are there al Qaeda members and
remnants in Afghanistan? Yes.

KIRBY: We are aware of sporadic cases that where they aren't being
allowed, where there is some harassment going on, and yes, some physical
violence has occurred.

BIDEN: My job is to make judgments. My job is to make judgments no one
else can or will make. I made them. I'm convinced I'm absolutely correct,
but we have a long way to go and a lot could still go wrong.

REPORTER: Why do you continue to truth the Taliban, Mr. President?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER: Americans Held Hostage Behind Enemy Lines, Day 9.

HANNITY: Americans held hostage behind enemy lines, day nine, and now, an
eight-day firm deadline with Taliban fighters still surrounding that
airport and in the perimeter with multiple checkpoints. Anyone that wants
to get inside must pass through several of those Taliban checkpoints.

Some Taliban fighters are collecting bribes. Others are targeting
individuals that are on their hit list and yes, they have a hit list.

Men, women, children, including American citizens, are beaten. They've been
tear-gassed, trampled. Far worse, there was a shootout at the Karzai
International Airport on -- over the weekend and today.

And Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin referred to these brutal attacks as
quote tough encounters. A little worse than that, sir.

And so far, at least 20 people have died during these tough encounters
around the airport including early this morning during a gun battle near
the walls that left one person dead. Look at your screen, across the
country, Taliban fighters are now marching in the streets wearing American
gear, carrying American weapons that Joe left behind.

As a matter of fact, the estimates are now $85 billion worth of guns,
munitions, 40 aircraft, including Blackhawk helicopters. That includes
night vision goggles, thousands of armored vehicles, all ours in the hands
of terrorists.

And now, according to reports, the terrorists from ISIS and al Qaeda -- in
spite of what Joe said -- are also on the rise throughout what is now the
Islamic regime of Afghanistan.

And with many just hanging out a few hundred feet away from where American
planes are taking off and landing, that's now forcing planes to use decoy
flares and conduct combat landings. This is a nightmare scenario by any
measure. The lives of all these innocent Americans and all our allies are
now dependent on what the goodwill and mercy of radical terrorists.

Even Secretary of State Anthony Blinken admitted over the weekend that the
U.S. was asking the Taliban for permission to evacuate Americans saying,
quote, they are in control of Kabul, that is the reality, unquote.

In May, when the Taliban launched their major offensive, we all got to
witness it. Why didn't Joe Biden, Secretary Blinken, the secretary of
defense, national security adviser, why didn't Biden and company act then?
At the beginning of July, when the Taliban took control of a majority of
the country, it didn't dawn on Biden to pull out every American and all of
our friends and allies that we had promised if this day ever came, we would
be there for them?

How did they leave all of that military equipment without any contingency
without bringing it home or at least destroying it, billions of dollars
worth? And now, is the Biden administration really vetting all of the
Afghan nationals that are flying into the U.S.? If they're not, they need
to be.

This is the worst foreign policy crisis in my lifetime, certainly one of
the worst in American history. But Biden, to put America in such a position
of weakness, put Americans in such a vulnerable position, it's an
unforgivable dereliction of duty -- all of this completely preventable. He
won't even commit to keeping American forces on the ground past this
original August 31st deadline.

The Taliban, they're clear -- they are not willing to go beyond that
deadline. They want the U.S. gone. And apparently, they are calling all the
shots.

The Biden administration, they don't know how many Americans are behind
enemy lines. They don't even know how many Americans have already been
evacuated, and what will happen to all the Afghans, the allies that helped
us over the last 20 years. Apparently, the Taliban has a list of names of
all of them. Will Biden let them be slaughtered?

The only thing we do know right now is that thousands of innocent souls,
our fellow Americans have been left stranded, trapped, held hostage behind
enemy lines, unable to even get inside the airport in Kabul, with mixed
messaging, well, make your way to the airport but we can't guarantee your
safety. On Saturday, they're told you may -- don't make your way to the
airport. It's not safe today.

But according to Jen Psaki's alternate reality, no one is stranded. Really?
How would she feel if she was stuck there? Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Does the person have a sense that
most of the criticism is not of leaving Afghanistan, it's the way that he
has ordered it to happen, by pulling the troops before getting these
Americans who are now stranded? Does he have a sense of that?

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: First of all, I think it's
irresponsible to say Americans are stranded. They're not. We are committed
to bringing Americans who want to come home home. We are in touch with them
via phone, via text, via email, via any way that we can possibly reach
Americans to get them home if they want to return home.

DOOCY: There are no Americans stranded is the White House's official
position on what's happening in Afghanistan?

PSAKI: I'm just calling you out for saying that we are stranding Americans
in Afghanistan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Every American who wants to get home, can get home. But then Joe
Biden said last week, you know, I can't guarantee the outcome. I can't.

You know what's irresponsible? For example, abandoning Bagram Air Force
Base in the dead of night, leaving thousands of our fellow citizens
helpless to the whims of the radical terrorist group and the Taliban.

Now, the only way any American can even make it to the airport is if and
only if the Taliban allows them, and they're not allowing everybody.

You know what else is irresponsible? Abandoning the interpreters and
translators and drivers, each one that put their necks on the line to help
U.S. troops over the 20-year period of time.

Now, the French President Macron is now lecturing Biden and pretty much
accusing him of moral cowardice. During a call, Macron, quote, reminded Mr.
Biden of the collective moral responsibility towards the Afghan men and
women. We cannot abandon them.

And the White House, how did they respond? They altered the conversation so
Americans couldn't see that part.

Make no mistake, Taliban terrorists are evil killers. A few days ago, one
woman was beaten to death for refusing to cook for Taliban fighters. One
local Afghan police chief, he was executed after surrendering to the
Taliban. Religious and ethnic minorities are frequently killed and
tortured. Don't forget ISIS and al Qaeda now re-emerged in now I guess the
Islamic emirates of Afghanistan.

And last week, the Taliban even killed a family member of an Afghan
journalist who fled to Germany. There are now reports that the Taliban are
going door to door to search for their political enemies.

And according to the "AP", that, quote, they say the Taliban has rounded up
Afghans on a black list of people that they believe worked in key roles
with the previous Afghan administration or with U.S.-led forces.

And meanwhile, many young women and girls as young as 12 will be forced
into marriage and treated like sex slaves by the Afghan fighters.

These are vile barbarians that Joe Biden is now putting all his faith and
trust in, and counting on and says they've guaranteed safe passage for
Americans to the airport and it's not happening.

These are the monsters that now control the fate of our fellow Americans
and thousands of our friends. This is a hostage situation by any definition
on a massive scale our fellow Americans are behind enemy lines and a hard
Taliban deadline is approaching in eight days. A horrific crisis, no end in
sight.

Here with more to just put some reality to what's happening on the ground,
an American rescued from Afghanistan, Haroon, is with us.

Haroon, I saw your first interview on "FOX and Friends", and your family
was stuck there. And I understand you've been able to get them out.

HAROON, AMERICAN RESCUED FROM AFGHANISTAN: Hello, everyone. Yes, I was one
of those ones lucky one that I could take my family out I mean my wife and
my two children. But still, I have a fear and concern as you see. I'm not
that happy because I left behind my families, my brothers that they're
living among those monsters and they have seen them every day going behind
the wall trying to get in, you couldn't get a chance to get in.

So I got help to get in but they are still outside. They're trying to get
in, but Taliban is there and as everyone knows, they're controlling all --
the whole city. So -- and they've been known now for all these reasons
especially my family, they were their picture were on the news as well. So
they've been asked, already, why you guys were on news? We saw you guys,
your guys are going for sure to United States, and stuff like that.

It's not just my family. Everyone in Afghanistan, they have documents.
They've been working with American for the whole time, like nine years,
seven years. Everyone at least worked that many years. So they're all in
danger.

So when they leave in eight days, there's no guarantee Joe Biden or America
can evacuate all the people in that many days. So I know a lot of U.S.
citizens, they have green cards and passports, they are still in
Afghanistan and fighting to get inside. So it's been five or six days
they're going, they're my cousins and I -- they're living in Colorado with
me. They cannot make it in.

So, my family can't get in.

HANNITY: And they're --

(CROSSTALK)

HAROON: So, who is going in?

HANNITY: They can't get to the airport, correct? People you know are not
getting to the airport, they are being stopped. Is that true, sir?

HAROON: They're being stopped. They can't because there's thousands people
behind the door and every single day since -- when America start evacuating
people, they let everyone to get in. So that news goes to everyone, one by
one they pass it to each other. Now, people are coming from the provinces,
so like outside of Kabul, they're trying to get in to Kabul and come and
even they're sleeping behind the walls, and they're blocking everyone who
really have their documents in their hand to show for American.

So they can reach them, they cannot get closer to show it because there's a
thousands of people -- 

HANNITY: Last question -- 

HAROON: -- from outside Kabul.

HANNITY: Haroon, are they being stranded?

HAROON: Yeah.

HANNITY: Are they? Are they being stranded?

HAROON: Are they being stranded? Yes, yes. They've been.

HANNITY: Thank you, sir.

HAROON: My dad -- my dad and my family -- yes, the other day, they were
going to shopping. So, my little brother someone was stopping her -- and
stopping him and asked him a lot of questions about when we are going and
how we are going, like how many years my dad works and stuff like that.

It was a stranger, completely stranger. We never know that guy and my
brother, he never know him. So like this kind of questions are scary.

HANNITY: All right. I got to roll.

HAROON: And it really brings me and since yesterday, I heard that I'm
really scared and everyone else is in Afghanistan. They're in danger.

HANNITY: Haroon, thank you. I hope all -- everyone gets out safely. I'm
losing hope. We have a strong deadline here. We better pay attention to.
Anyway, thank you for being with us.

Here with more someone who has experience actually negotiating with the
Taliban, Adam Boehler is with us, along with Medal of Valor recipient who
is trying to get his former colleagues out of Afghanistan, Brandon Ray
Seabolt.

Let me first -- you've negotiated with the Taliban. So let me ask you one
question that has not been asked Joe Biden and I know the conversation
because I've confirmed it, with Donald Trump, many people are on the call,
Mike Pompeo confirmed it, he was on the call. Mark Meadows confirmed that
this call took place.

Before any negotiations with Donald Trump began, he told the Taliban leader
that if they ever hurt a single American or didn't follow every comma and
every period, he would obliterate them like he did the caliphate. They've
been on the march for some time, why didn't Joe Biden stop them as they
were taking over large geographic areas of the country? And do you -- and
the big question is, would -- should Joe Biden trust these people?

ADAM BOEHLER, NEGOTIATED WITH THE TALIBAN: I don't think you can trust a
terrorist group, Sean. I mean, at the end of the day, the reason we were
effective in our negotiations and the reason why they stopped attacking
U.S. military -- our military is because we had strength behind us, we, the
U.S. military standing.

And you brought up the conversation that President Trump had, that Pompeo
had. It was very clear that we would hold the Taliban accountable the
moment they stepped out of line and that's what we need to show here. The
situation right now is unacceptable and it's not acceptable because right
now, the Taliban's waiting us out. They know we're going to leave, we set a
deadline and quite frankly, I don't care about the deadline.

At the end of the day, is our mission -- are we going to accomplish our
mission? And our mission has to be to get our us citizens out and get our
Afghan allies out because we don't leave people behind, as the U.S. does -- 

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: You've negotiated with them, Adam.

BOEHLER: Yeah.

HANNITY: So my question to you is -- now, they're on Sky News saying that
if they don't meet the deadline, that's unacceptable and they'll be
consequences.

BOEHLER: Who gives a damn? Who gives a damn, where -- 

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I give a damn because -- I give a damn because I don't want them
using as leverage our fellow Americans. I care a lot.

BOEHLER: Yeah, but the strength of the United States is our military. I
don't care who's in power, who's president, Democrat, Republican. At the
end of the day -- 

HANNITY: But Joe's giving them a lot of leverage, Adam. Those are called
human shields, our fellow Americans are their shields unfortunately because
he allowed this to deteriorate.

BOEHLER: He needs to take it back.

HANNITY: What's that?

BOEHLER: I agree with you 100 percent. He needs to take the leverage back.
One thing won't change is the our strength of the U.S. Army and our
military, and he needs to unleash them and we need to show our strength. We
don't leave with our tail between our legs.

And so, the goal here is empower our military and take the leverage back.
We don't listen to the Taliban. We're the United States of America.

HANNITY: Well, I don't listen to the Taliban, but I wouldn't allow this
situation to happen at this point.

Brandon, I understand that you're working hard towards -- you know, first
of all, you got the Medal of Valor in 2018, in August. You know, let's talk
about the work that you're involved in. You're trying to get former
colleagues out of Afghanistan. How's that effort going?

BRANDON RAY SEABOLT, TRYING TO GET FORMER COLLEAGUES OUT OF AFGHANISTAN: 
Well, Sean, it's not going real well. And they are abandoning Afghanistan
and it's a horrible situation. These are guys that risk their life, you
know, working with U.S. troops and, you know, side by side and hundreds of
combat missions and they're just being abandoned. They're scattered
throughout the provinces and can't get into Kabul, the only place where
they have a chance of getting out, due to all the Taliban checkpoints.

And, oh by the way, these are -- these are Afghans who went through the
rigorous process of 18 months to two years to get a an actual visa to come
into the United States. So, the fact that the deadline of the 31st looks
bleak for them -- you know, the president's deadline needs to be, when the
last American or the last Afghan with, you know, partner force is out of
that country.

HANNITY: But I agree, Brandon, wholeheartedly, the problem is what I was
saying to Adam. When they got 10 percent of the country, the Taliban and 20
percent and 40 percent and 50 percent, when the -- my sources are telling
me the CIA pulled out of there seven weeks ago. So there were people in the
intel community warning them, and they didn't listen to them.

And now this is the situation we have where our fellow Americans are caught
behind enemy lines and under the control of the Taliban. I don't see very
many great options here even with the might of the United States military
because they got an awful lot of Americans they can bring harm to.

Adam, we'll give you the last word.

BOEHLER: I mean, look, at the end of the day, if you talk to American
military members here, what do they say? They say they're livid. Why are
they livid? They're livid because they didn't fight for decades for us, you
know, exiting with our tail between our legs.

So the administration now needs to change the dynamic and they need to
change it quick. I couldn't agree more with Brandon -- we need to up our
military game here and we need to show that we're the United States of
America and we don't listen to anybody.

HANNITY: I hope Joe's listening to you because there ought to be tens of
thousands of troops in the air right now escorting -- going there to escort
Americans to that airport and getting them the hell home where they belong,
with us.

Thank you both.

When we come back, we'll ask Colonel North about how challenging that
effort will be. He'll join us after the break.

Also, we'll check in with Ron DeSantis. Oh, you won't believe what Kamala
Harris is laughing about, hardly anything to laugh about my mind. Governor
DeSantis is firing back also at the "AP".

We got a lot of ground to cover this busy breaking Monday news night. Thank
you for being with FOX.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: And our breaking news tonight, the Taliban warning President Joe
Biden get everyone out by August 31st or else. So what should Biden be
doing right now to rescue Americans held behind enemy lines?

Here with more, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North.

Colonel, I have to assume they mean that deadline. The secretary of state
says that the Taliban has control of Kabul. They're acknowledging they
don't even know how many Americans are there. The only option I see is to
take that deadline seriously, get Americans out in the field, find every
single -- identify every American there and get them to that airport and
get them the hell out of there alive.

LT. COL. OLIVER NORTH (RET), CEO OF FIDELIS PUBLISHING AND FIDELIS MEDIA: 
Well, we're not going to have time to cover all I sent your producer.

But here's some -- we'll commit some news. This is from those I've been in
touch with for over a month and their advice on how to proceed to salvage
this situation. Number one, the most important objective is the safe
evacuation of American citizens and our allies from Afghanistan. It can't
be done by a limited number of troops, with an artificial deadline of
August 31st.

The Taliban have to be told, quote, we will bring in additional U.S. troops
to carry out the mission and stay as long as necessary. If the Taliban, al
Qaeda, ISIS or terrorists of any stripe harm anyone we're evacuating, our
military will decapitate your leadership.

Number two, U.S. military personnel have to be authorized immediately to
carry out rescue and recovery operations anywhere in Afghanistan. There's
nearly a dozen U.S. built airfields in Afghanistan. One or more of these
must be opened and put on U.S. military control. This will allow us to
evacuate those that we've designated for safe conduct.

Further, the additional airfields will provide the U.S. Air Force with a
search and rescue facility for which downed U.S. airmen require and we're
not we don't have anything like that now.

Number three, the internal Afghan resistance is formed in the Panjshir
Valley. It's led by the former Afghan vice president, Amrullah Saleh, and
Ahmad Massoud, the son of the lion of the Panjshir.

Popular discontent is growing in Kabul and other cities. There are right
now make the -- this is news, over 3,000 Afghan soldiers and airmen, plus
at least six helicopters and air crews have joined the resistance in the
Panjshir Valley. The U.S. government must immediately begin supporting this
movement, most of it is humanitarian support -- food, fuel, medical
supplies and, I was asked this morning, please get us some COVID vaccine.

We've done this before, Sean. Operation Provide Comfort, 1990s, for the
Kurds. There's other things that can be done to enhance resistance
effectiveness. I've done a few of those things myself. Let them call me if
anybody in the government would like to know how to do it. We'll cover the
rest of it tomorrow.

HANNITY: I feel a lot better with you as chairman of the Joint Chiefs and
-- because we never would have gotten in this position and Donald Trump as
president, we'd never be here.

Colonel, your expertise is always welcome. Thank you, sir. We appreciate
you.

Also tonight, more and more voters are noticing what we have been showing
you night after night and that is that Joe Biden is weak. He is frail. He's
a cognitive mess. He's obviously lacking the mental acuity and completely,
seemingly, unable to lead or even see -- oh, the Taliban's taking over the
country. Maybe we need to get Americans home.

And it's getting worse by the hour. A new CBS News poll finds a whopping 74
percent of Americans believe this Afghanistan withdrawal, if you even want
to call that, has gone awfully badly. I'm not shocked -- I'm shocked it's
only -- not a hundred percent.

And Biden's overall approval is down a whopping eight points just from July
and according to an NBC News poll, Biden's approval has now dipped below 50
percent for the first time in his presidency. I would argue that's just the
beginning.

How's Vice President Kamala Harris handling all the administration's
failures? Well, just the typical laugh. That's what we get. That question
about Afghanistan, I don't quite find it funny, but take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Madam Vice President, what's your response your report of
Americans -- 

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hold on -- just slow
down, everybody. I want to talk about two things. First, Afghanistan -- we
couldn't have a higher priority right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Not exactly sure what's so funny. Americans now are at the mercy
of the Taliban. Biden and Harris letting the Taliban completely dictate the
terms of evacuation. Never mind, why would they ever trust them? This was
all so easily avoided.

All they had to do was see the Taliban was on the march and expedite the
extraction of Americans when they had the chance to do it and do it
expeditiously and quickly and safely. One of the biggest U.S. foreign
policy debacles in history and, yes, it was all caused by Joe Biden and
Kamala Harris.

Here with reaction, FOX News contributors Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee.

Thank you both for being with us.

Mr. Speaker, we've both seen a lot of foreign policy issues over the years
I've never seen one botched quietly as badly as this. I take the Taliban
for their word, that they're trying to stick to this firm deadline. I don't
see the urgency and have not seen the urgency that I would like to see from
an American president with Americans now caught behind enemy lines, and how
they ever got in that situation is in and of itself a dereliction of duty.
How do you handle it from here?

NEWT GINGRICH, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, look, I think you have to
assume that Joe Biden is Joe Biden. He ran as an anti-war candidate in
1973. He has always opposed American interventionism. He's for a weak
America, withdrawing from its enemies.

He -- we need to be clear, he has surrendered to the Taliban and that's
really what the secretary of state is explaining. They've surrendered, and
the Taliban now not only controls Afghanistan, instead, the Taliban
controls the Biden administration's ability to do anything in Afghanistan,
and I suspect they're not going to break their word, because they're going
to say, any real effort to do more than the Taliban will tolerate will lead
to a sudden explosion and a requirement for a large number of Americans.
And that's not where Joe Biden's going.

I mean, I think if he has to sacrifice 5,000 Americans and 40,000 Afghans
to get out of Afghanistan, he's going to sacrifice them.

HANNITY: Right.

GINGRICH: He's going to say, gosh, life's hard, sorry that happened, but
we're gone. I just think that's who he is.

HANNITY: Mr. Speaker, these are our fellow Americans. You're telling me
you think if it means leaving 5,000 Americans behind, you believe he would
do that?

GINGRICH: In a heartbeat.

HANNITY: God help them.

GINGRICH: I think that his view -- I think his view of life is that --
well, his view of life is that he's a historic figure getting us out of
Afghanistan and just look at the harshness of their attitudes, look at
their whole tone, look at how stupid this whole process is.

You can't assume that this happened by accident. They gave up Bagram, which
was the key to military power in the region voluntarily. I mean, the Afghan
-- you know, the Taliban was not going to capture Bagram. It wasn't
possible. We surrendered.

And I think if you say -- if you just say the words, Biden surrendered to
the Taliban and now we're working out the surrender process, you understand
exactly what's going on.

HANNITY: Clearly, we have no control. The Taliban has control the
perimeter. You -- we've been telling the stories of people now trapped
behind enemy lines, Governor Huckabee. I'd like to think that Joe had the
urgency to send in enough troops to get them out even in a Taliban-
controlled Kabul and escort every American to that airport and get them the
hell out of there alive. And it would be nice if we kept our promise to our
allies that are facing certain death the minute we leave.

MIKE HUCKABEE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Sean, two observations as to why they
are blatantly lying to us. This is not just bungling, they are
intentionally lying. Here's why -- they say we don't know how many people
we have there.

Well, Jen Psaki and all the others are saying they're calling, they're
texting, and they're emailing. Well, if you have their email address, their
phone number to text them, and if you're able to give them a phone call,
you know who they are. And if you can count, you can count how many people
you're calling for god's sake.

We know how many are there. They don't want to tell us.

And then Biden makes ridiculous comments, things like all the Americans who
want to leave, we'll help them get out. There's no such thing as an
American who doesn't want to get out of there right now. Think about that.
That's like being in the exit row of the plane and the flight attendant
saying, are you able and willing to open the door?

Well, if the plane crashes and is on fire, by gosh, you're willing to get
out of there. Nobody is saying, no, right now, I'd like to finish this
magazine article.

So we're being played as chumps and we're not as stupid as the American
people. That Joe Biden takes us to be and those people around him. It's
disgusting. And I'm tired of being lied to.

HANNITY: I'm tired of being lied to and I'm tired that -- whatever
happened to leave no man behind or woman behind? Whatever happened to that?
When you pull the military out before you've rescued every American? None
of this makes any sense.

We saw the Taliban taking over large geographical areas of the country and
they didn't lift a finger. All of this preventable. God help all of our
fellow Americans.

Both of you scaring the living hell out of me, Mike Huckabee, Newt
Gingrich, thank you.

In Florida, Ron DeSantis, by the way, standing by and standing strong
tonight -- not only on this issue, also holding the media mob accountable.
They gave a totally false bizarre story about his press secretary who the
"AP" claim tried to harass a reporter, which it turns out didn't actually
happen.

Here's the deal -- last week, in response to a fake news story suggesting
there was a political motivation behind the governor's push for the
monoclonal antibody centers in Florida that, for example, give the infusion
of Regeneron, especially in light of the high number of breakthrough COVID
cases in people fully vaccinated, that the CDC now acknowledges is
happening, report that 30 percent of cases in L.A. are these breakthrough
cases, DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw called out the hit piece
and used the phrase "drag them" in an effort to shine light on incorrect
reporting, but was hit with a Twitter suspension despite no clear violation
of the rules, and by the way, while the Taliban's key spokesman remains
active on Twitter. You can't make it up.

Now, the "AP" had a full-blown meltdown, tried to claim that the criticism
was a form of harassment, which led to a widespread mockery of the news
outlet. Today, the governor followed up, sent a letter to the "AP", reading
in part, quote, the ploy will not work to divert attention from the fact
that the "AP" published a false narrative that will lead some to decline
effective treatment for COVID infections.

That's people that haven't been vaccinated and people that have been
vaccinated that are one of these breakthrough cases. What? Four senators,
Governor Abbott, it's why more widespread now every day.

And added quote: While the public's trust in corporate outlets like the
"AP" is at historic lows, there's some doubt that some will decline to seek
life-saving treatment as a result of the inflammatory headline.

Here to react to this and much more, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Let's first start with Afghanistan and you have a military background, we
talked about it last week, and what's going on there and what options you
might see that are available that we can rescue every American and every
person that allied with us that will die if we leave them behind.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), FLORIDA: Well, Sean, I'm really concerned that
they've already left a lot of these Americans behind. I mean, a lot of
these folks are in very perilous circumstances, and I would not put it past
the Taliban to try to capitalize on this. Biden wanted to do this so that
he could have a 9/11 moment where he could kind of do a victory lap. Well,
I worry what the Taliban may want to do with some of our citizens.

And so, they should do whatever they can to get all them out but they
should have gotten out first, and I just worry that they've been so asleep
at the switch, I really fear that a lot of people are going to get hurt.

HANNITY: Don't you think as many troops would be needed to extract every
American before the deadline that the Taliban is saying is firm, might be
appropriate about now, considering they're having all these difficulties
getting to the airport? They're being told that, on the one hand, you might
want to make your way to the airport but we can't guarantee your safety.
Then, they're told on Saturday, now is not a good time to go to the
airport.

Nobody can get their story straight. They don't know how many Americans are
caught behind enemy lines, and they don't have any options that they're
providing them except that we can't guarantee your safety. Not exactly
comforting, Governor.

DESANTIS: Not only that. They'll charge you -- if you get to the airport,
they charge you $2,000. Meanwhile, you come across our southern border
illegally, they'll pay for you to fly almost anywhere in the country, and
they dump people everywhere. So they're treating -- 

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Well, they have denied that they're charging Americans now. But -
- but is there any military option you see? You have military training,
your military service.

DESANTIS: Well, so here's -- I mean, obviously, we had the military
ability to help get these folks out prior to all this going to pieces. And
so, that's the fundamental error that they made.

And so, yeah, obviously, we have the wherewithal to be able to protect
those folks at the outset, but they've chosen not to do it. I think they
should do whatever they can to help our fellow citizens, but this has been
a choice that they made, Sean, and that's why I think we're likely not to
see a perfect outcome here.

HANNITY: Now that the CDC acknowledges the vaccine does not prevent one
from contracting the COVID-19 virus. Okay, they're saying that. We see
large numbers of people now -- larger numbers, it seems, every day. Thirty
percent in L.A., I read. We've seen it with a number of U.S. senators. Our
friend Governor Abbott, thank God, he's okay.

And you set up -- okay, if you have a breakthrough case, you set up these
monoclonal antibody centers. And you're setting them up all throughout
Florida. You were the first governor to mobilize every state agency to
protect the elderly when we first got hit with COVID. You didn't send them
into nursing homes to infect other people.

And as a result, the "AP" attacked you and then they made all these
charges. And I know you want to respond.

DESANTIS: Well, it was clearly a partisan hit piece. They're trying to act
like this is not effective treatment, that we're doing it to boo -- it was
a bizarre theory to boost Regeneron stock price.

But as you know, Sean, President Trump bought out all the Regeneron last
year. So it's already been paid for by the federal government.

What we take down from Florida and give to patients, there's no charge for
it. It has no financial incentive at all. All we're trying to do is help
people and this was underutilized for the last nine months, and what we
found is as hospital admissions were going up in Florida, most of these
people didn't know about this treatment who got hospitalized and we believe
had they gotten it, many of them would not have needed to go into the
hospital.

So, we've raised awareness of it. Now, we have 17 centers that can do --
each center can do 320 treatments a day. We'll probably have 21 set up by
the middle of this week, and this is -- this is having an impact on keeping
people out of the hospital.

Now, what the "AP" did by trying to create a false narrative is some people
may believe the narrative and then think that this is not a viable
treatment for them, so that if they're infected, they will not go seek a
monoclonal antibody, and that will ultimately increase their risk of
hospitalization.

So, the "AP" knew what they were doing. They wanted to do a political hit
on me and the fallout from that is that there will likely be people who
decline life-saving treatment, and then they had the temerity to act like
they were the victim when they got called out on their hit piece.

Sean, the days of corporate media being able to smear people with impunity
and conservatives do nothing, those days are over. I can tell you, in
Florida, we're fighting back with the truth and we are going to hold you
accountable when you're peddling false partisan narratives.

HANNITY: All right. Governor, thank you. We always appreciate you being on
the program. I think it's very innovative. I thought Florida was way ahead
of the curve to protect the most vulnerable early. Lot that other states
could have learned from and they didn't.

Thank you for being with us.

When we come back another example liberal hypocrisy. Wait until you see
this video. Nancy Pelosi fundraiser in California. Take a close look --
what's missing in that video? What is -- there's two things missing that
you should immediately think of. This happened this weekend. What's
missing? Straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Now, more COVID hypocrisy from the Washington swamp, sewer
aristocrats tonight, because look at your screen, new video from a ritzy
fund-raiser, and beautiful Napa Valley showing Nancy Pelosi and dozens of
other guests all maskless, all packed together, even while they are
lecturing the rest of us, vaccinated or not, keep wearing your mask, keep
social distancing. Once again, it's rules for thee, but not for me.

But t gets even more bizarre. After this video of Chuckie Schumer and
Stephen Colbert emerged over the weekend, yeah, them having a dance off in
New York City. Viewer discretion is actually advised, you decide.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

HANNITY: I'm so glad Greg Gutfeld is kicking Colbert's ass in ratings. I
really -- sorry, just a personal thing.

Here for reaction, FOX News medical contributor, Dr. Nicole Saphier, along
with Leo 2.0 Terrell. I can't help myself.

Well, I mean, Leo, you saw the video. I mean, but, you know, you look out
there, Leo, I let you go to the political side and then we'll got to the
medical side with Dr. Saphier. I mean, how do you get away with this
hypocrisy, the lectures, the mandates, now Joe Biden -- and I'll get to
this with Dr. Nicole -- mandating that they've approved the vaccine, FDA
approved, now they're going to mandate employers, you know, have mandate --
a vaccine mandate, what does that mean? If you have a pre-existing
condition, your doctor says don't get it, no medical exemption or COVID,
you know, you had COVID, natural antibodies, no exceptions.

I don't know about this one-size-fits-all medicine, do you?

LEO TERRELL, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: No, I don't. And first of all, that's
not dancing. I don't know what that is by Chuck Schumer. That is not
dancing at all.

The problem here is this, Afghanistan is the focal point. That's what you
see with Chuck Schumer right there, entertaining and enjoying himself.

The Nancy Pelosi situation is the classic double standard. That is exactly
why her golden boy Gavin Newsom is facing a recall. It is a classic elitist
mind-set that the Democrats have. The rules do not apply to them. There's
one size politically does not fit all, the focus should be on Afghanistan
and the soon to be recalled Gavin Newsom because in this state, believe it
or not, the county health director made baseball games have to wear a mask,
and I'm glad we have Dr. Nicole on as well because it is totally
ridiculous.

HANNITY: Dr. Nicole, we've been over my -- take it seriously, do your
research, talk to your doctor, doctor, I believe in science, I believe in
vaccine science, I do.

But I'm not a doctor, you are. And the question is what about people that
have those rare conditions, what about people that have natural community
in the Cleveland Clinic study? What questions should people be asking their
doctors?

DR. NICOLE SAPHIER, FOX NEWS MEDICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, so, Sean and Leo,
first of all, I'm okay with people gathering together outdoors without
masks on, the CDC says it's okay in most cases. It should be okay in the
far majority of cases. And I think people should start getting back
together.

But, Sean, to your point, the FDA approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine
at this point is another step forward to encourage people to get vaccinated
because they have poured through over 200,000 pages of data and over the
20,000 trial participants, over 150 million Americans have gotten the
Pfizer vaccine, I mean, there's a lot of safety and efficacy data and they
have done their due diligence on that.

But the remarks about the mandate, about still not recognizing the power of
natural immunity, all this does is continue to ignite the personal
accountability war, and I haven't seen this since the Affordable Care Act
when that law took away individual responsibility. Help insurers said, if
you want to make decisions that put yourself at risk for more medical
outcomes, like smoke cigarettes, overweight, excessive alcohol -- 

HANNITY: I got to run, but -- 

SAPHIER: -- you're not going to be punished for it. But all of a sudden,
they're changing their tune. Look, bottom line, grown immunity through
infection, natural infections, natural immunity -- 

HANNITY: I'm on the hard break, Doctor. But we'll have you back.

We'll continue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Please set your DVR so you never miss an episode. That's all the
time we have left for tonight.

Let not your heart not be troubled. Laura Ingraham is next.

Little birdie told me you're in San Francisco.

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