'Hannity' on Milley's alleged phone call, Americans in Afghanistan

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Hannity: Nonpartisan commission needs to immediately investigate Milley allegations

‘Hannity’ host warns there is no middle ground in accusations, if true America faces ‘a constitutional crisis of the highest order.’

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity" September 15, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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

And welcome to HANNITY.

ANNOUNCER: Americans Held Hostage Abandoned Behind Enemy Lines, Day 32.

HANNITY: Sad as it is, day 32, Americans abandoned by Joe Biden, trapped behind enemy lines of the Taliban. Taliban now holding up to 500 of our fellow citizens hostage, along with thousands of other U.S. visa and green card holders. They are all in serious danger, all hostages of the Taliban terrorists.

Back here at home, the Biden administration is facing another crisis. Accusations of treason, they are now swirling around the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley.

Now, these are very serious, serious allegations. As always on this program, we do believe in the presumption of innocence. It has served us well over these many years. We believe in due process, nope. We don't follow the mob. We won't rush to judgment.

But the revelations in an upcoming book from Bob Woodward and Robert Costa are extremely damning. If they are true, downright dangerous to this great republic.

And tonight, Woodward and Costa, they have now put out a statement. They are fully standing behind their story in total.

As "The Washington Post" reports, Chairman Milley made two secret phone calls to a Chinese official during Trump's final months in office to assure communist China that the United States was not planning an attack. Here's the key line, quote, in the book's account, Milley went so far as to pledge that he would on his own alert his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack. In other words, give them a heads up?

Milley allegedly telling his Chinese counterpart, quote, General Li, you and I have known each other now for five years, if we're going to attack, I'm going to call you ahead of time. It's not going to be a surprise.
Let me read that again. If we're going to attack, I'm going to call you ahead of time.

Either that line is false and Woodward and Costa's reporting is nothing but a total BS lie, or that would mean the only option I see is that Milley would be a traitor. I don't see any middle ground here. It's one way or the other.

There's -- you know, there's more in this whole thing and it's equally damning. The upcoming book also alleging that General Milley sought to undermine President Trump's nuclear powers.

And shortly after receiving a phone call a very -- well, hyperventilating Nancy Pelosi, demanding that the nuclear football be taken away from President Trump, General Milley, according to this book summoned his senior officers and informed them that he must be involved in any decision to launch nuclear weapons quote looking each in the eye, Milley asked the officers to affirm that they had understood, the author write, in what is considered an oath.

The question is now simple: was General Milley colluding with Nancy Pelosi, third in line to be president, second in line after Vice President Pence what was he colluding with Pelosi to usurp the constitutional power and authority of the president of the United States or as he now states was he just performing routine procedural training regarding a nuclear strike if Milley was colluding with Pelosi to undermine the constitutional authority of the commander-in-chief, the president, and take away the president's ability to do his job as commander-in-chief. One of those jobs would be perhaps to launch a nuclear weapon. He would then be guilty of the very definition of insurrection. That's the Democrats favorite word.

And again, the president is the commander-in-chief. Our Constitution is clear. It authorizes the president and the president alone with that power and authority over our military. There is no constitutional authority granted to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Milley, and certainly not the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Not anyone else but the president.

Our republic is designed to prevent a military and political coup. That's why civilian leadership, the duly elected president of the United States, is the commander-in-chief in charge of the military. So what we're describing here is a constitutional crisis of the highest order. Quote: An act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government. Now an investigation, a commission, it must be formed immediately. We don't have time to wait here.

There are three critical steps that must be taken as part of any probe. One, we need to talk to all the people that were in that room that made that, quote, oath to General Milley when he made those comments and when he called his Chinese counterpart.

Two, we need to see the transcripts of the calls and that's the calls with Milley and China's counterpart and the calls with Nancy Pelosi.

We need to know everything that Pelosi and Milley said and everything that they did. Were Milley and Pelosi colluding? Were they essentially staging a military political coup because they thought they knew better than Donald Trump, anointing themselves commander-in-chief? An obvious -- by the way, as obvious as Joe Biden's cognitive decline is -- imagine what would happen if this were done to him. Imagine the outrage.

And, three, Congress, by the way, they need to subpoena all of the documents, every single last one of them and every single transcript. Now, according to Woodward and Costa, there are meeting notes, there are emails. There are letters, there are other documents and maybe the most important of all, there are transcripts surrounding Milley's call with Pelosi and likely his counterpart in China. Plus, the U.S. monitors every single official phone call to China. There is definitely a record out there. Woodward and Costa say they have all this information.

But while the serious matter is being investigated, due to the severity of the allegation and our belief in due process, and the presumption of innocence, this is so serious, the only way I see to handle this is to immediately appoint a commission, it must be nonpartisan.

General Milley, in the meantime, must be put on administrative leave. And that, of course, pending this full investigation. He is the highest ranking military official in the U.S. And now, one of two things is true, Milley is a dangerous traitor who could put our country in serious danger, or Woodward and Costa are liars. And if Woodward and Costa and "The Washington Post" are lying and slandering General Milley because that would be slander he will own the Washington Post and potentially probably a good chunk of if not all of Amazon considering Jeff Bezos owns both, after a massive defamation suit.

I don't know the answer tonight. I know it's serious enough that it needs immediate attention, immediate appointment of a commission, and we need immediate answers and the American people have a right to see all of those transcripts sooner than later. Had no problem releasing transcripts of Donald Trump's calls with foreign leaders, so that should not be a problem, right?

Now, tonight, Woodward and Acosta, they are refuting allegations that their reporting is greatly exaggerating, which brings us to an important ethical question raised by the great one Mark Levin last night right here on this show. If Woodward and Costa, if they're so competent in their reporting and a known traitor is at the helm of our military, then how could they possibly justify holding back such critical information of such great national importance for months?

"The Washington Post", are they okay with their reporters saving vital national security information of great importance to the entire country, to the American people, hold it off as long as possible? After you finish your manuscript and they got to produce the book after the editing, that process usually takes months. I've written four books. And then sell that information in the form of a book instead of alerting the American people right up front?

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK LEVIN, FOX NEWS HOST: Woodward and Costa are reporters for "The Washington Post". Takes two and a half to three months to print a book. That means Woodward and Costa and "The Washington Post", if this is true, sat on this story for months and months.

Why would two reporters sit on a story like this for months and months and allow this man -- who I believe if this is true is utterly unhinged -- to serve as the head of the joint chiefs of staff? You have two so-called journalists who sat on this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now at the very least. Woodward and Costa and "The Washington Post", they have a duty to provide proof. They should release their transcripts to the public. They should prove it right now because it's such importance to the American people and our national security, because of -- now, dozens of top officials are calling on Milley to resign. That includes President Trump's acting secretary of defense, Christopher Miller, who says he did not authorize Milley's calls to China. That's a big deal in and of itself.

And then you have General Keith Kellogg also calling on Milley to step down, along with more than a dozen top lawmakers. Even Alexander Vindman, remember, the Democratic Party star witness in the Ukraine impeachment hoax, he's calling on Milley to resign.

Tonight, as always, we will grant the same presumption of innocence to Milley that we would for anyone else. It has served this program well over the many years we have done it, 25 years here at Fox, 33 years on radio.

But the left and the media mob, they love to throw around the word "insurrection". On the other channels, they talk about it almost every night. But now, with one of our highest officials accused of plotting his very own insurrection, perhaps in conjunction with some on some level with the speaker of the House, to usurp and null and void the crystal clear constitutional role that the president has and the role defined in that Constitution for the president as commander-in-chief, many on the left, they're silent, tonight. Including Joe Biden, today had nothing but praise for General Milley.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: In your opinion, did General Milley do the right thing?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have great confidence in General Milley.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, tonight, we have come to expect this kind of selective moral outrage on the left. But for the good of the country here, the safety and security of our fellow citizens, there's got to be a full-scale investigation, a commission formed immediately.

Here with more is FOX News legal analyst, Gregg Jarrett.

A lot for you to chew on there, Gregg Jarrett. Let's start with the legal side of this.

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: Well, if the reporting in the book is accurate, Milley should be relieved of military duties immediately pending a thorough investigation. I think you're right there, Sean, of a commission is an excellent idea. But under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the military would also conduct their own investigation by interviewing Milley and others who may have been involved. If there is credible evidence, he should face a general court martial for a variety of crimes under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. They include usurping the power of the president, otherwise known in the code as sedition, aiding the enemy which is providing advanced intelligence to a foreign adversary, and finally arguably, espionage for providing top secret classified information about military planning to a foreign adversary.

What Milley didn't seem to understand is that he had no authority whatsoever to do anything. As chairman of the joint chiefs, he is nothing more than an adviser to the president and the Security Council. Nothing else, zero.

In fact, the law specifically prohibits him from having any operational command authority. He is not in the chain of command. Yet he inserted himself in the chain of command and he started barking out operational orders, including holding a covert meeting at the Pentagon with top officials and instructing them that any military strike order even by the president United States was to be ignored unless he merely personally approved it. He has no authority for that.

And then it gets worse, telling your Chinese counterpart that I will give you advance warning of any surprise attack. What if the Chinese had responded to that by saying, hey, this is great news the U.S. isn't going to attack us, so let's launch a devastating preemptive attack against the United States. I mean, Good Lord, can you imagine what would have happened next.

No amount of rationalization if this book is accurate can justify Milley's lawlessness and indeed treachery. We don't let one man decide, oh, gee, I think the president's unstable and therefore I'm going to commandeer his powers and wield them as I, Milley, see fit.

You know, I think you're right in your bottom line that Milley represents something that is not just contrary to our democracy but contrary to our Constitution and a danger to our national security. I think there needs to be a thorough investigation and charges brought if there's evidence.

HANNITY: There needs to be a commission formed immediately. We need to know Nancy Pelosi's role. We need to get the transcripts. They had no problem releasing transcripts with Donald Trump and foreign leaders. This should not be hard to come by.

We need to know what was said to his counterpart in China and did he -- did he promised to tip off a hostile regime, an enemy country, if the United States was going to engage in military activity that would be top secret? We need to get to the bottom of that.

Did they also plot, plan and scheme the potential usurping of the president's constitutional authority? Because that's what it reads like. This is going to get interesting.

Gregg Jarrett, thank you.

On this program and on radio, we talk a lot about knowing your enemy. For example, the terrorists, the Taliban, they are terrorists and they are our enemy. Al Qaeda and ISIS, they're terrorists. They're our enemies.

The malignant governments of Iran, North Korea, China -- yup, they're our enemies Russia same thing. In 2015 though, General Milley didn't seem to realize this. Take a watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. MARK MILLEY, CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: China is not an enemy and I think that's important for people to clearly understand. China is a rising power. We're seeing a significant increase in Chinese military capabilities over the last 10 or 20 years, and they are going to develop themselves, they are developing themselves into a great power. That is not to say however that they are an enemy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: So what role did that line of thinking play in Milley's phone calls with top Chinese official?

Here with reaction, former secretary of state, FOX News contributor, Mike Pompeo.

Mr. Secretary, you're actually mentioning this and I want to give you an opportunity to respond in this -- in this excerpt that was put out by "The Washington Post". It says even some of Trump's most loyal advisers privately expressed concern after the election. Then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Milley that Trump was in a dark place right now. Milley had just one goal and ensuring the peaceful transfer of power January 20th, and he told you, Milley telling Pompeo, we got a plane with four engines and three of them are out we have got no landing gear but we're going to land this plane and we're going to land it safely.

I've known you a long time, Mr. Secretary. I've known you to be an honest and truthful man. Is that true?

MIKE POMPEO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I have no recollection of a conversation like that. Look, we are all pretty down. We are about to hand over the reins of foreign policy to what this administration we've seen these last eight months what that means for the United States of America. So, if someone asked, was I excited about January 20th and the fact that we were no longer going to have the capacity to secure American freedom, count me for being a pretty dark place too.

But what's important to know, Sean, is, you know, all this has as a predicate, this idea that somehow there was this fear, there was -- there was a cabinet members running around concerned that Donald Trump was going to engage in some kind of rogue activity or some kind of act of war to sort of lash out. This never happened. It just -- it's just patently absurd.

And so, the entire predicate for all of this assessment that Woodward has now laid out in his book, we'll see what turns out. But make no mistake about it, during that entire time, the entire time I served all four years, we conducted orderly foreign policy. We had a national security team that was working hard to make sure we made the best decisions we possibly could, and I think the data set would show that we did a pretty damn effective job in doing that.

HANNITY: You know what? We can see the difference in Afghanistan today, sir, and just the threat of obliteration kept the Taliban in line and not a single American died in 18 months, the last year of the Trump presidency. Not one American citizen died and no American would have left been left behind on your watch and Donald Trump's watch. I can say that also.

Let's talk about the hypotheticals here, the allegations that are being made. They're serious.

Number one, the role that Milley might have had with other high-ranking military officials to gain their loyalty that any decision must go through me -- I don't see constitutionally he's in that chain of command. It would go from the president to the secretary of defense and then it would make its way down. But the call would be the president's, not General Milley's.

Number two, what is Nancy Pelosi's role in all of this. And number three, we both know Russia China Iran North Korea hostile regimes nobody doubts that my question is, is -- wouldn't that transcript exist if he in fact called China without permission of his own defense secretary and made a deal that he would tip off China, if, in fact, America felt the need to defend itself in some way militarily? And would you -- how -- what is the word you would use to describe that?

POMPEO: Unconstitutional, incomprehensible and completely out of line for any military leader, certainly someone who's in the role that the chief of staff is and you've described it, Gregg Jarrett described it too. He's just simply an advisor. He's not in the chain of command for operational activity.

So, this would -- this would be dangerous and a usurpation of authority that is historically anomalous. And we should make sure that we as quickly as we can figure out if General Milley spoke to Woodward himself. We should find out if General Miller is prepared to testify. We can do it tomorrow or the next day to get clarity about what General Milley said.

I don't know the DOD's policy, Sean, exactly on whether there would be a transcript of this phone call. But I promise you, there were note-takers in the room. I am very confident that that conversation could be reconstructed if you had a senior military leader who was simply an advisor tell the Chinese communist party that they would get notice of an attack. That this rivals anything we've seen in our nation's history.

Only the president of the United States has the capacity to make those decisions and I'd be shocked if the then acting secretary defense gave him any authority to even contemplate that very conversation. It would only be those two people that could have told General Milley to have that conversation if in fact it took place.

HANNITY: If it took place and he -- and he told his counterpart that he would tip them off if we were to engage in -- going to engage in any military activity. But, first of all, the consequences of which we really can't determine. Would President Xi try to act first even if we hadn't acted? Would that then be a threat to the homeland? Who knows?

But would it be treasonous?

POMPEO: You know, I imagine it would be. It would certainly be acting in a way that you were knowingly acting in a way that was inconsistent with the best interests of the United States government, certainly the authority that you had as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I can say that with absolute certainty.

We know this too -- if that conversation took place, you've been speculating about what the Chinese communist party would think. I can tell you, they would have used that to their advantage, they would have found a way to inflict a cost on the United States of America.

I hope -- I hope this didn't happen the way it's described in Woodward's book. I can -- I can only say that we need to get to the bottom of this just as quickly as possible.

HANNITY: They cite their many sources to confirm this. Transcripts leap out at me because that would be something people would have or as you rightly point out, there would be notes available. We would -- we should be able to ascertain that by morning unless somebody took -- bleach-bit to everything, and they disappeared magically. Apparently, that's happened in the past.

Do you agree in -- I know you agree with due process, presumption of innocence. Do you like my idea of a commission set up immediately, administrative leave in the meantime considering the seriousness of this until we get to the bottom of it?

POMPEO: I think we need to get there quickly and I think General Milley needs to come forward and testify under oath just as quickly as possible. That will get us to a significant clarity about what Woodrow has asserted.

HANNITY: One thing I can say, it wouldn't have happened with you and Donald Trump, nor would we abandon Americans behind enemy lines. Mr. Secretary, thank you.

When we come back, we're going to check in with the former director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, and ask him what he knows about General Milley's talks with the Chinese and General Milley probably isn't going to like what he will reveal. That's next in an exclusive interview right here tonight on "Hannity".

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Now, the allegations surrounding General Mark Milley's secret calls with China are so explosive, so dangerous, so disturbing, so downright destructive that even some in the far left media mob shockingly are even suggesting that the behavior might be in fact treasonous.

Listen to the debate today on that hard-hitting news show that we love so much, "The View". Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that you break command in that way. You are committing treason. You're going outside of the chain of command. I mean, I worked for the government for many years, and it is sacrosanct to go within the chain of command.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, the whole time that Trump was president, I was home saying please God make there be an adult who controls this lunatic. I know -- you know, I was praying. Let there be somebody in the room who holds his arm back when he hits that but goes to that button and God bless General Milley for straightening things out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And I pray that somebody reminds Joe Biden what day of the week it is.

Anyway, like I've been saying, if this is true, then General Milley, he would be a traitor. We need an immediate commission, an immediate investigation form. Milley needs to be put on immediate administrative leave pending a full investigation.

And also tonight, Milley is now trying to claim that his calls with China were shared with the intelligence community. Well, former director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, he joins us. He says that's not true.

Here to explain more the man himself, former director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe.

The defense secretary has now come out publicly and said that he did not give permission, did not give an order for Milley to make such a phone call to his counterpart in China. Did he, in fact -- you were the director of national intelligence at the time, sir, did you, in fact, give -- any go- ahead, have any knowledge of any of this with General Milley?

JOHN RATCLIFFE, FORMER DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Sean, very clearly, what has been reported is that on October 30th 2020, which would have been five days before the presidential election, that this call took place between general Milley and one of the Chinese generals that he considered his counterpart. Now, remember, Sean, five days before the election, I can tell you the intelligence community was focused on making sure that China and other countries were not interfering with that upcoming election, and we had good basis to be concerned about China's actions.

So I can tell you that if at that point in time, I had been advised that our chairman of the joint chiefs of staff at the time that we were defending against China was reaching out to provide reassurance about our conduct here in the United States, I can promise you that I would have remembered that and it would have prompted a very specific action by me that involved Chairman Milley and President Trump.

So, unequivocally, that didn't take place.

To the second issue and that I think is important here with respect to General Milley to make sure that you're characterizing it accurately, Sean, with regard to this issue of his actions on the president's nuclear strike capability, essentially, what he has acknowledged through a spokesman today is that a meeting did take place along those lines, that there was some sort of a stand down order.

And to that point, as you correctly pointed out, Sean, in your -- in your monologue, you know, we have a unitary form of government and the president is the commander-in-chief by law and it can't be the chairman of the joint chief of staff under any circumstances. So, if, in fact, this is true, what General Milley did was insert himself in a chain of command which the Constitution prohibits and then circumvented that chain of command to get pledges from people to stand down from a duly authorized authority of the one commander-in-chief, the president of the United States -- and as you have pointed out, if in fact that is true -- then those would be individual counts of insubordination and the appropriate, you know, action would be you know court martial proceeding.

HANNITY: Mr. Ratcliffe, let me ask you this. If that chain of custody and command were circumvented, and everybody in that meeting according to this book gave an affirmative answer that they understood what Milley was saying, which is to break the chain of command, of which he's not a part of, wouldn't they all then temporarily need to be on administrative leave pending the results of a commission report?

RATCLIFFE: Well, again, very clearly, that's why I agree with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about the need to really look specifically at this issue. This goes to the core of, you know, we have a unitary executive under our Constitution, and, you know, what we have here in the case of the chairman of the joint chiefs is apparently -- you know, as you pointed out, Sean, acting kind of like Jim Comey did a few months ago, which is to say, you know, I'm better than the Constitution, I'm smarter than the Constitution. I know more and I'm going to save the republic, you know?

And so, you know, unfortunately, that's what needs to be looked at here because what has been outlined by this reporting and again it needs to be verified, but he put a spokesperson out today to at least verify some of it, very clearly runs a foul of the Constitution and a unitary executive. And if that is the case, then you know, I didn't think things could get worse for General Milley, than when he ignored the intelligence on the ground that resulted in the tragic deaths of Americans in Afghanistan and the most humiliating degrading surrender and defeat that our military has suffered in our lifetime. But it is getting worse for him, based on the reporting.

HANNITY: Director, Milley is claiming that his calls with China to his counterpart, he is claiming that they were shared with the intelligence community. Do you have any recollection in any way whatsoever that that information was shared with the intelligence community?

Again, to be clear, the idea that we would have been we would have been giving reassurance to China about our conduct at a point where we were concerned about China's interference in our election and again this first phone call was reported to have taken place on October 30th, 2020, five days before a presidential election, that simply didn't happen. I mean, the phone call may have happened but the idea that that was coordinated and shared and again I was the head of the intelligence community, Sean, it would have prompted a very specific course of action involving both General Milley and President Trump, because I frankly would have found it to be shocking and inappropriate and frankly unconstitutional. And you've now heard the acting secretary of defense, you know, weigh in on this as well and say that, you know, simply there was no order or authority for this as well.

HANNITY: Woodward and Costa claim among the evidence that they have to put this story in their upcoming book that they have transcripts. Would there be transcripts available and should they be made immediately?

RATCLIFFE: There would be transcripts. I mean, I -- you know, I -- you know, obviously, there's a standard out there that the Democrats put in place with respect to Donald Trump and transcripts that relate to national security and I think we should see those.

HANNITY: Well, they care then. Yeah, let me ask you last question about Nancy Pelosi's role. If Nancy Pelosi in any way conspired with General Milley to somehow prevent the president from upholding his constitutional duty and authority that is clearly stated. There's no ambiguity about being commander in chief. What would that mean for her?

RATCLIFFE: Well, I think Nancy Pelosi should be held to the same standards uh under the law and Constitution that she applied to President Trump. And, you know, it would have been -- it would have been appropriate for to have a phone call and take a phone call with the chairman of the joint chiefs, but if there was planning and plotting along the way that was reported by "The Washington Post", they would both have culpability and liability under the law.

HANNITY: All right. Director Ratcliffe, thank you for being with us.

When we come back from Afghanistan to the economy to the border to this crisis, Biden continues to rack up failure after failure. Ask yourself, is there one thing you can think of Joe Biden has done that has been successful and how could things go so wrong so quickly?

Newt Gingrich weighs in, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Now, tonight, the Biden agenda's failing on every front from abandoning Americans in Afghanistan -- I never thought -- I'd see that my lifetime, surging inflation, reckless spending, rising crime, COVID -- well, just in a mitigated disaster, 300 percent increase in cases from where we were last year. And, of course, the growing crisis at the southern border. Begging OPEC for oil -- do you ever think that would happen?

Things worsening by the day in a mere eight months, it has gone so wrong so fast. Migrant encounters over two hundred thousand yet again in August, showing no signs of slowing down, on track to have a 25 or 30-year record high of illegal immigrants, that they're processing across the border, right in the middle of a pandemic, with high COVID positivity rates, no testing or vaccine mandates for illegal immigrants, and then people dispersed all over the country.

Meanwhile, the price of groceries is up dramatically. New cars, used cars, the price of lumber, aluminum through the roof, price of gasoline up on average, a buck fifty a gallon nationwide, begging OPEC to increase production, heating, cooling home prices through the roof -- they said no to Joe, by the way, OPEC -- and Joe Biden makes us less energy independent than ever.

And get this: prices on goods online now have risen a whopping 15th consecutive month, sparking even more inflation fears. Now, Americans are taking notice. Another poll, this time from Quinnipiac, finds Joe Biden's approval rating in the bottom 40s, a drop, well, from the same survey taken in early August.

Here with reaction, the author of the upcoming book "Beyond Biden: Rebuilding the America We Love" -- oh, I long for the days -- FOX News contributor Newt Gingrich.

I'm just going to hand it to you those are all the topics. I can't name a single thing he's done that I like that's successful. I can't think of one. What does this mean?

NEWT GINGRICH, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Look, you know, well, Ronald Reagan used to say, he wasn't frightened by what liberals didn't know, he was frightened by what liberals knew that wasn't true and that's what you're seeing. You're seeing the cumulative come together of every single liberal idea, radical idea, socialist idea that they don't work.

So, for example, in Bernie Sanders' new $3.5 trillion big government socialist bill, there's $105 billion set aside for illegal immigration. Now, if you're setting $105 billion aside to help illegal immigrants, what's your signal to the world? It's why don't you come to America. Our border is open. We're not even going to test you for COVID, unlike American citizens who, of course, face a presidential mandate -- unless they belong to a union, in which case the unions are simply blackmailing Biden into saying it's okay. You know, the postal workers don't need to get it, the NBA players don't need to get it, as long as you're in a union you're okay.

And I think what you're seeing happen is, in the end, as Margaret Thatcher tried to teach us, socialism doesn't work because you run out of the other people's money and have nothing left to spend.

So you have a whole system out there. Why don't we release murderers? Oh, the murder rate goes up. That's a big shock.

I just talked to somebody today who talked about people moving out of their state because of the level of violence. Well, that's a direct result of left-wing policies that favor criminals over the innocent. Oh, why don't we tell the Russians you get to build a pipeline and then we tell the Americans, you don't get to build a pipeline.

And we don't have any idea what that means. I mean, I think what you -- it's not that Biden is stupid. It's that Biden and the team around him are so living in a left-wing world that it doesn't have any relationship to reality.

You know, the Taliban's really going to be our friend. I mean, you know how nuts you have to be to believe that. And yet that was sort of the message from the commander of the Central Command and we wonder why we didn't win? If we have people at the military level, with three and four-star general who are that screwed up.

Milley -- we'll have to wait and see if it's true because Woodward's not always accurate. But, if, in fact, the chairman of the joint chiefs was calling the Chinese, that's very close to treason if not absolute treason. And it's certainly an unconstitutional violation. Yet today, Biden says oh I have complete faith in Milley.

Now, how you could have faith in Milley after the way Afghanistan fell apart is amazing to me. But I think what you have is Biden is dedicated to doing what he believes in. He doesn't care about the facts and he is intending to go straight forward no matter what it costs the average American.

One last point, 76 percent of the American people, according to Scott Rasmussen this morning, three out of four believe their taxes are already too high. Now, how do the Democrats pass a $3 trillion tax increase when three out of the four people they represent think taxes are already too high? How do they pass a socialist bill when only 16 percent of the country favors big government socialism?

I mean, you have the Democrats over here in some fantasy land, and you have the whole rest of the country over here frustrated because they can't beat them until November of next year.

HANNITY: I think I'm looking forward to this book more than any other book you've written because it sounds like a road map back to sanity. I never thought we'd ever abandon Americans and I never thought that we'd be discussing the possibility of the chairman of a joint chiefs tipping off the communist Chinese of a pending attack ahead of time giving them a heads up if that's true. Scary times.

Last word?

GINGRICH: You know, my dad went -- well, my dad served 27 years in the infantry. He would be so ashamed that an American general would preside over abandoning Americans while talking secretly with our enemy outside the Constitution. This is not the America that he thought he was defending and we need to take it back so we can get beyond Biden. That's what this is all about.

HANNITY: Mr. Speaker, always great to have you. Thank you.

When we come back Congressman Ronny Jackson, I told you these stories of heroism would start coming out. He helped residents in his district escape from Afghanistan. He joins us along with one of the residents that escaped the tyranny of being a hostage, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Now a HANNITY exclusive, tonight, as we're learning how Congressman Ronny Jackson helped residence from his district escaped from Afghanistan, after Biden all these American overseas, including one woman named Miriam, who recently arrived right here in the U.S. We told you there would be great stories of heroism coming. This is the first of what would be many.

She has new information on the chaos, the dangers at Kabul Karzai International Airport, how the State Department faltered and how the Taliban took complete control and even attacked her and her family.

Here to explain her remarkable story, Congressman Ronny Jackson, along with constituent Miriam.

I must say, Cory Mills and a private team of military veterans risked their lives to do this. You tried, Miriam, to get on the left flight out. They turned you away. The Taliban did. They pointed a pistol at you and warned you not to come back.

They went on a search mission for you. Plan B, they got you to Mazar-i- Sharif airport in northern Afghanistan. No planes were cleared for takeoff. And you have planned C.

Tell us your experience. How did you get out?

REP. RONNY JACKSON (R-TX): Go ahead, Miriam.

MIRIAM, ESCAPED AFGHANISTAN: Hello, yes. Cory Mills helped me. Also, Ronny Jackson helped me with that.

So, my story was that I was -- go to Afghanistan to visit my family. My father was sick. I visited him. I also have my brothers waiting, gone to Afghanistan to visit him. And, of course, for me to go that time and we stayed for 20 days. After 20 days, I wanted to come back home.

You know, I asked my husband if he can book tickets. We could come back home early. But there was no ticket. All the tickets were sold out.

So we tried to stay longer and 16, we had the corona (ph) case. You know, that time, Taliban attacked Kabul. You know, they were in Kabul, and we tried to reach the State Department. The State Department don't help us.

You know, my question was for the president, you know, why they left me behind and with my family?

HANNITY: And, you know, other Americans left behind --

(CROSSTALK)

REP. RONNY JACKSON (R-TX): Sean, because she was there --

HANNITY: Yeah, Ronny?

JACKSON: Absolutely, Sean. We still have brothers -- and Miriam has talked to me about numerous people who are still left behind. She was there with her family, with her three small children, Sean, ages 15 to 2, that had to watch their mother be threatened every day at the Taliban checkpoint. She had, as she said, a gun placed into her head. She was beaten. She has bruises all over her body.

Her son was struck put her uncle was beaten relentlessly, and they were almost killed every day. And the Taliban and ISIS work hunting them in Kabul.

Thank God for patriots like Cory Mills and these groups that got the people out of here that went over there and put their lives at risk to get these brave Americans. Miriam is one of the brave Americans that -- yeah.

HANNITY: I want to point this out, Cory Mills and other retired American heroes, Navy SEALs, special ops, they went behind enemy lines on their, to get people like Miriam out. Turned down at the airport, guns in her face, then you make the long trek up north to Mazar-i-Sharif airport. No planes are taking off.

Then you guys came up with plan C and you got Miriam and her three children out. How many people still are behind? She is that lucky one.

JACKSON: We don't know, Sean. But she's absolutely the lucky one. Her and her family -- her and her three children were the first Americans to get out of Afghanistan after the 31st of August when the U.S. irresponsibly left Kabul and abandoned everybody behind enemy lines to fend for themselves with ISIS.

And I'm going to tell you, you're absolutely right. There were great patriots like Cory Mills and the out there that put their lives on the line. And Cory told they went over there, we reached out to him because we got no help, Sean, no help from the State Department.

HANNITY: They tried to take credit.

JACKSON: Even Secretary Blinken and his team tried to take credit for it. They tried to take credit for it. It was disgusting. It was a disgusting display.

Sean, let me tell you this. They got back on Friday. The State Department has called Miriam three times since Friday. They want to know where she's at in Afghanistan and how they can help her get out.

They don't even know she's not there anymore. They think she's still there. That's how this happened. It was unbelievable but these people stayed in there and they got Miriam home to us in Texas.

HANNITY: Ronny, thanks for what you're doing for her and others.

Thank you, Cory Mills, and company and all your friends.

And, Miriam, welcome to the United States. We're glad you're home with your children. Thank you for being with us.

More HANNITY next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Unfortunately, that's all the time we have left this evening. But as always, we want to thank you for being with us. You make the show possible. Please remember our fellow Americans, those green card holders, our Afghan allies trapped behind enemy lines, hostage to the terrorists, the Taliban, abandoned by Joe Biden. Abandoned. I never thought I'd say that.

In the meantime, let not your heart be troubled. Because the news is great with Laura Ingraham -- Laura.

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