'Hannity' on radical left siding with Jussie Smollett

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Hannity: The radical left sided with Jussie Smollett

‘Hannity’ discusses how left-wing media and Democrats uncritically bolstered the Smollett hoax.

This is a rush transcript of "Hannity" on December 9, 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.

We begin tonight with this FOX News alert. Evidence was overwhelming actor Jussie Smollett has been found guilty on five of six charges two years after staging a fake hate crime against himself.

Now, tonight, he's guilty of lying to a police officer about a purported hate crime. He's guilty of lying to the same police officer about getting assaulted. Guilty of making the same fake claims to a second officer, guilty of repeating these lies yet again to police several hours later.

Smollett is now a convicted felon. I wonder if they'll bring up the issue of lying to a jury under -- and a judge under oath. We'll talk to our legal team in a minute.

Now, remember, it all started around 2:00 a.m. on a freezing cold January night, deep blue Chicago, when the former "Empire" actor calls 911, tells police he was viciously attacked on his way back from grabbing a Subway sandwich. Jussie then alleged that two white males, Trump supporters wearing red MAGA hats targeted him with racial and homophobic slurs.

They doused him with an unknown liquid. They beat him up. They placed a noose around his neck.

When police arrived to the scene, a white rope was still around his neck. But in a matter of days, Jussie's story started to fall apart.

ABC News, they still invited Jussie on for a very sympathetic -- sympathetic interview with host Robin Roberts.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSSIE SMOLLETT, ACTOR: I'm an advocate. I respect too much the people who I am now one of those people who have been attacked in any way. You do such a disservice when you lie about things like this.

ROBIN ROBERTS, ABC NEWS HOST: If the attackers are never found, how will you be able to heal?

SMOLLETT: I don't know. Let's just hope that they are. You know what I'm saying? Like let's -- let's not go there yet. Let's -- I was talking to a friend and I said I just want them to find them and she said, sweetie, they're not going to find them. That just made me so angry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Such a disservice when you lie like this. As Jussie Smollett tweeted in 2010, quote, what liars don't realize is that they're the most obvious people. BS isn't that hard to smell. Just open your nose and your breath.

And by the way, hey, Jussie, we found your attackers. According to a massive trove of evidence, Jussie Smollett paid two Nigerian immigrant brothers, his workout buddies, to help stage this attack. Both individuals testified against Smollett after police determined that the brothers purchased the rope that was used in this fake attack along with a red hat and gloves and a check from Jussie Smollett made out to one of the brothers was also recovered.

We had surveillance footage showing the trio practicing the attack the day before Jussie called 911. We have text messages, phone records also show the trio plotting the fake hate crime. What Jussie Smollett did was vile.

But even worse, the incredible but predictable rush to judgment from the media mob, from the Hollywood celebrity mob, and from the Democratic Party mob. Jussie Smollett claims that in the middle of Chicago on a freezing cold, winter night, while out for a Subway sandwich at 2:00 a.m., two white Trump supporters wearing MAGA hats recognized, really is a D-list actor, hunted him down and attacked him while yelling this is MAGA country.

Now, it's a pretty strange, far-fetched story. But almost everyone on the left, they bought it hook, they bought it line, they bought it sinker. Joe Biden tweeting, quote, what happened today to Jussie Smollett must never be tolerated in this country. We must stand up and demand that we no longer give this hate safe harbor that homophobia and racism have no place on our streets in our hearts and we are with you Jussie.

Kamala Harris tweeting: Jussie Smollett is one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I know. I'm praying for his quick recovery. This was an attempted modern day lynching.

Cory Booker also called it a modern day lynching.

The Reverend Al Sharpton said, quote, the reported hate attack on my friend and brother actor Jussie Smollett is despicable and outrageous. The guilt must face the maximum.

I guess they didn't learn from prior incidents in New York.

Disgraced Governor Andrew Cuomo, quote, New York state calls the attack on Jussie Smollett what it is, a hate crime.

Congresswoman Tlaib, quote, when one of the most famous black and gay men in America is not safe, the message is clearer than it has ever been. The dangerous lie spewing from the right wing is killing and hurting our people.

And here's an official tweet from the Human Rights Campaign: Our thoughts are with Jussie Smollett after this horrifying attack. It's a tragic reminder that racism and homophobia are still rampant in the U.S.

Bernie Sanders jumped in, called it racist and a homophobic attack.

Eric Swalwell jumped in, said it was vile and tragic.

Maxine Waters announced that she was dedicated to finding the culprits.

Dick Durbin decried America's racist and homophobic ways.

Cher, she joined in. She went on an unhinged rant. She blamed President Trump.

Katy Perry said she was standing with Jussie.

Jemele Hill was disgusted and appalled.

Ariana Grande tweeted that she was sick to her stomach. Joy Reid calling it a chilling attack.

And on TV, the hot takes were just as bad. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DERRICK JOHNSON, NAACP PRESIDENT & CEO: You think about what just happened to Jussie Smollett in Chicago. Unfortunately, we have racism germinating from the White House.

TARAJI P. HENSON, ACTRESS: Jussie Smollett is love, that's who he is. And that's all he knows. So in this situation, hate won't win. It will not.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have a media that's saying it's a debate whether or not what just happened to Jussie Smollett is a hate crime. It's absurd. This isn't a debate.

STEPHEN COLBERT, TV HOST: I agree.

REPORTER: A U.S. congressman from Illinois Bobby Rush is calling for an immediate and sweeping civil rights investigation into the racist and homophobic attack on Jussie Smollett.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't like that it's being put out there in the media that this is a possible hate crime.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the media has really cast so much doubt on his story which I find so personally offensive.

REPORTER: And Senator Cory Booker said the vicious attack on actor Jussie was an attempted modern day lynching.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And this is America in 2019.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, why would the media, why would Democrats, why would people on TV, why would they rush so quickly to judgment?

Well, it -- Jussie's far-fetched story fit their anti-Trump narrative, didn't it? So they didn't bother to investigate. They didn't take their time. They didn't make phone calls. They didn't interview potential witnesses. They didn't wait for police to reveal any evidence. They didn't care if it was true or not.

That's why the same cast of characters, same people in many cases smeared and slandered Kyle Rittenhouse. Kyle's was -- Kyle was labeled the white supremacist by then presidential candidate Joe Biden. Where's the apology, Joe? Kamala Harris called him a vigilante and an extremist.

They were wrong then. They are wrong now, but don't ever expect a retraction or an apology. Three and a half years, Donald Trump colluded with Russia. The only one that colluded with Russia and bought a dirty Russian dirty dossier was Hillary Clinton and they used that unverified to spy on a presidential candidate and a president.

The left in this country, they don't give a damn about truth or justice. They get it wrong every single time. They don't care if they ruin somebody's life. They will lie.

They will smear. They will slander. They will besmirch anyone for political gain. We have enough instances Kyle Rittenhouse recently. Remember, the Cambridge police acting stupidly.

A high school student, you might remember his name, Nicholas Sandmann.

They were wrong in Ferguson, Missouri. You know why we were right? Because I actually had people that were involved in the case my source is telling me multiple eyewitnesses will confirm that Officer Darren Wilson's story that in fact it was Michael Brown reaching into his car trying to grab his gun and then later Michael Brown charging at the officer. The same thing in Baltimore, Maryland, with Freddie Gray.

The same thing with UVA. Remember the Duke Lacrosse case? We got that right too. Why? because I actually took the time to go and drive and meet some of the families and kids and I knew that they were building exculpatory evidence that would ultimately clear them, and it did.

Richard Jewell, I was on the radio -- oh, he fits the profile of the lone bomber. Why? Because he lives with his mother. I'm on the air and I'm like, just because he lives with his mother doesn't make him a domestic terrorist.

Lie, smear, slander, besmirch, repeat. Rush to judgment, repeat. No due process, repeat. No presumption of innocence, repeat. Believe any lie any allegation against somebody that you politically oppose or will advance your political agenda.

Jussie Smollett carried out this disgusting hoax, likely knowing that the left would have his back. He knew -- he knew what would happen. He would become an actual celebrity with instant fame fortune praise me maybe even a speaking spot at the DNC. But it fell apart, didn't it?

Ultimately, when the facts came in the real tragedy in all of this investigators had to spend months and months untangling Jussie's despicable web of lies, instead of solving murders rape and other violent crime all over the city.

Take a look right there, Chicago homicide victims. I've been doing this scroll since 2009, names of thousands of men, women and children murdered, shot in Chicago names you'll never hear from about. We'll never know how many of these people would still be alive today if police weren't forced to waste precious time and resources on lies like Jussie Smollett's lies.

And tonight like every night, our thoughts and prayers do stand with these families, the families of real victims names you'll never hear about the media ignores because they can't politicize it. Jussie presumably cares little about as well.

Here with more, author of "The Case for Vaccine Mandates," Alan Dershowitz, FOX News legal analyst, Gregg Jarrett.

I'll get to you first, Professor. Your thoughts, the evidence to me was overwhelming.

Well, every civil libertarian should be applauding the prosecution successfully of a false accuser. False accusations can destroy our system of justice, whether they be racially motivated, sexually motivated or politically motivated. We cannot assume any particular race tells, the truth any particular gender tells the truth. Any particular religion tells the truth. We have to focus on the evidence and the evidence in this case has been overwhelming from the beginning that this was a false accusation.

And now, we have to start going after women who are trying to make money or false accusations. As you know I was falsely accused by a woman named Virginia Giuffre. Nobody has looked into her case. Nobody has looked into the fact that she's made between $5 million and $10 million making false accusations. She's a woman. She must be telling the truth.

The media will not look into false charges by women, by African Americans, by gays and it's absolutely critical that we have a single standard of justice and anybody who makes a false charge deliberately should be prosecuted, if guilty, convicted, and sentenced to a long prison term.

HANNITY: You know something, Gregg Jarrett? The reason we don't hear about the everyday week weekend victims in Chicago and every other major city that are shot and shot and killed is because it doesn't advance the political agenda, does it?

So, those names get ignored. Those lives, do they really matter to people that say lives matter? I'm beginning to doubt it because it seems the only lives that matter are lives that then can be used as a political weapon. Otherwise, we would stop the violence in cities like New York and Chicago, but we don't, do we?

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: No, we don't, and this was a classic case of rush to judgment by people like Kamala Harris who called it a modern day lynching and Joe Biden who tweeted out we're with you Jussie. It says something about our leadership in the White House that they don't have the common decency to apologize for perpetuating a racist hoax.

But this is their reliable political strategy to gin up racial division in America. They think it works and it should have been obvious at the outset. I mean, there was never any doubt about Jussie Smollett's guilt. His testimony only made it more obvious because the problem with lies is it's difficult to keep track of your story.

He took the witness stand which was foolhardy and then was confronted with incriminating, conflicting, inconsistent statements, and his explanations defied common sense and seemed utterly contrived. Maybe he thought he was such a skilled thespian, he could snooker the jury, or maybe he thought they're just like me. I hate police I distrust the justice system so you should engage in jury nullification and ignore all of the evidence and equipment.

Well, they didn't buy the con. They faithfully followed the law. They did their duty and they found him guilty.

HANNITY: Professor, Rittenhouse, you've got Richard Jewell -- you'll run through the list here. You got Nicholas Sandmann. You've got Cambridge police. You've got Ferguson, Missouri. You got Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. You've got Freddie Gray in Baltimore.

You got UVA. You got Duke Lacrosse. It's -- then you got the three and a half year Russia lie against Donald Trump. It never ends and they never are held accountable very seldomly held accountable.

DERSHOWITZ: And CNN has been wrong on every one of these issues. In this case, Don Lemon was complicit. He was the one who told Smollett not to give the telephone. As soon as I heard that, why don't you give the telephone if you're innocent? Why is Don Lemon, a TV broadcaster, giving legal advice? They fired Cuomo for that, but they still applaud Don Lemon.

So we have a lot of people who are complicit with this. This is not just Smollett, and we have to start newly investigating and prosecuting these false charges -- racial, sexual, political.

The system cannot endure the tolerance of false charges and you can't have affirmative action. You can't say, if you're black, oh, it's understandable. If you're a woman, oh, maybe you're a victim, it's understandable. If you're gay, no, no, no, a single stance --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: How about we don't rush to judgment?

DERSHOWITZ: -- deliberate full charged. You get charged, you get convicted. It's in the Ten Commandments. It's what about the Big Ten. Thou shalt not bear false witness.

HANNITY: It's one of the big 10, because it's so damaging.

You know, what do you think happens here? That also means that this jury believes they'll -- that he lied to them on the stand, Gregg. So you get charged for that?

JARRETT: Right, yeah. Right, well, arguably, you could get charged for perjury but I think more immediately, the judge will take notice of this. This is why it was so foolhardy for him to take the witness stand because if the judge determines that he was lying in his testimony, lying to the court, lying to the judge, lying to those jurors, he could use that as a basis to elevate punishment under the guidelines.

So in other words, instead of concurrent sentences of three years or maybe 15 months, he might decide to run them consecutively. So, you know, it was a risky maneuver to take the witness stand, it was an act of desperation because the defense knew they were losing badly.

DERSHOWITZ: Well, I don't think this was an act of desperation. I think he realized that in America, jurors are very likely to believe a false story, told by certain people. And I think he took a calculated risk that he'd get a hung jury, at least one juror --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I think he played towards jury nullification and I think Jonathan turkey had great analysis earlier.

I got to let you both go though. Professor, thank you. Gregg Jarrett, thank you.

Earlier today, the special prosecutor in the Smollett case had this reaction. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPECIAL PROSECUTOR: This jury worked so hard and for Mr. Smollett to get up in front of them and lie for hours and hours and hours. That really compounded his misconduct. Defendants have a right to go to trial. Defendants have a right to argue that their case has not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. But defendants do not have the right to go in front of a jury and lie under oath.

Mr. Smollett would not have lost this case as he did today unless the jury found that he lied to them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Here with more reaction, FOX News contributors, Joe Concha, Leo 2.0 Terrell.

Leo, let's start on the legal side, your analysis. What about lying to the jury on top of everything else? And we'll get to Joe on the rush to judgment.

LEO TERRELL, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I said it to you -- I said it yesterday on your show, I said on your radio show. This guy is facing perjury because he lied to the witness stand.

I also tell you this, that his attorney should be held for ethical violations because I think she knew when she put him on the witness stand. I mean this is nothing more than an attempt by an individual, an egomaniac to divide this country by race. And the jury rejected it. He was found guilty.

You know else is guilty? Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Black Lives Matter, Robin Roberts, Good Morning America. They have played the race card to a point where it's sickening and it's ultimately to divide this country. We got to stop it.

This jury system worked. You listed all those cases. The American legal system works to perfection and what you saw here was this jury, which included a black person saying we reject your lies.

One final point, I am sick and tired of this race card analogy that the police department is racist. Maybe one department in a Democratic city that's all white, it does not exist. You have a diverse community of police officers, black, white, brown, yellow, and that race car does not play with police departments.

HANNITY: Let me go to you Joe Concha on the obvious, the media mob rushing to judgment, as they always do and also the Democratic politicians that rush to judgment and they never get held accountable ever. Not one time.

JOE CONCHA, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: And no apologies coming I'm sure, Sean.

Leo bought up Robin Roberts before. She is the highest paid person in broadcast news. She served as PR chief of the Smollett campaign, ending her interview with Smollett with these words, quote: So beautiful Jussie, unquote.

Robert's also allergic to the term "alleged" because she like so many immediate sold Smollett's tail hook, line and sinker. You were attacked, the attackers. Not alleged attackers, not alleged incidents, it was bought hook, line and sinker as I said from the start, without even a hint of curiosity, without a hint of scrutiny.

And give local Chicago media credit. They didn't buy into this. No rush to judgment, they followed the facts. They didn't insert their opinions, their feelings into the story. They deserve credit for just following the story and holding judgment until a verdict came in.

Now, let's talk about all the resources used to investigate this case at the onset. 2021 is shaping up to be one of the worst years for deadly violence in Chicago history, and that's a bad history. More than 1,000 homicides have already been recorded in Cook County in 2020 alone, and we still have a month ago by the way.

And now, a question per Alan Dershowitz as he said before for CNN. Your 11:00 anchor, your 10:00 p.m. anchor in Don Lemon, and that's your title, not mine. They call them an anchor. Tipped off Smollett based on Lemon sources in the Chicago police department that they didn't believe the story. So Smollett withheld crucial evidence in the form of his cell phone from police.

Yet, CNN, the craptastic news network, has yet to comment, because journalism there has become activism in broad daylight, Sean.

HANNITY: Joe, give me some credit. In 2007, I declared journalism in America dead, gone and buried. I was more right than I even knew.

Thank you both, Joe Concha, Leo 2.0 Terrell.

Straight ahead, earlier this week, Black Lives Matter said they're standing in solidarity with Smollett. Clay Travis, Congressman Byron Daniels, he'll join us to react to the verdict.

Also, another disastrous day for the failing Biden White House. It's getting worse, the cognitive decline is more obvious by the hour, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Now, as we reported this week, Black Lives Matter has been standing in solidarity with convicted liar now, Jussie Smollett, claiming that the police cannot be trusted. So will BLM revise their position? I doubt it. Will they be honest about the facts, a verdict in this case? Because staging hate crime hoaxes only undermines the victims of real crimes, especially by the way in the city of Chicago?

And why is BLM so silent on the violence day in and day out, weekend after weekend, plaguing the city of Chicago day after day?

We routinely scroll as we did earlier the names of murder victims right here on this program, names I doubt you've ever heard of before, rather than focus on real attacks to save real lives, the far left extremists, they'd rather waste time fueling more hate, rage even a hoax, and misinformation.

Here with reaction, Outkick founder and co-host of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show, Clay Travis, along with Republican Congressman from Florida Byron Donalds is with us.

Byron, you know, I started scrolling this back in the Obama years, the names of innocent people, names we will never hear about because they can't be politicized. Nobody ever lifts a finger.

We know how to stop shootings. We know how to keep cities safe. We know -- Rudy Giuliani did it New York. Why don't they -- why aren't groups like BLM concerned about these lives, these names that nobody ever hears about?

REP. BYRON DONALDS (R-FL): Well, listen, Sean, the unfortunate reality is BLM doesn't worry about those names because they don't move forward the political agenda of Black Lives Matter, and frankly, the money raising agenda of Black Lives Matter.

Listen, you're talking to somebody who grew up in the inner city of Brooklyn, New York, when Rudy Giuliani became mayor. I saw firsthand that his strategy towards policing in the inner city kept communities safe.

And so, what we need to do right now is support police, support law enforcement and support a judicial system that gets to the crux of the matter about guilt, about whether you're guilty or whether you're innocent, regardless of the color of your skin, regardless of how much money you make. It needs to be justice for all, justice must be blind.

And if you do wrong like Jussie Smollett did, you need to be found guilty, you need to be held accountable.

HANNITY: This "Wall Street Journal" poll yesterday that showed Republicans and Democrats, Clay, dead even with Hispanic Americans in terms of their vote was interesting to me. I do believe the Republican Party rather than following Mitch McConnell's broken promises off the cliff and acting weak and timid and with no backbone and no willingness to fight, maybe instead of backing him, they ought to lead the fight to keep every single American safe and secure, with law and order in every city, Democrat, blue state, red state doesn't matter. And they ought to offer every parent school choice because a lot of these inner city schools are literally hurting our kids and depriving them of the education which is the ladder to success in this country.

CLAY TRAVIS, OUTKICK FOUDNDER: Amen in so many respects, Sean. I was on my radio show recently saying I wish we spent a lot of time teaching people to do three things: graduate from high school, don't have a kid until you're 25, and get married.

If you do those three things, white, black Asian or Hispanic, you're not going to be poor in America, because you can be responsible for yourself and your family. Let me just point this out, Sean, because I think it's a big deal. Our justice system gets absolutely attacked on a daily basis.

We are not perfect in America, but we have the greatest justice system that has ever existed in the history of the world. It's imperfect with you --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I would argue we did have that, but I believe now in America, we have a dual justice system. If you're a Democrat like Hillary Clinton, you're off scot-free. If you're a member of the deep state, and you lie to a FISA court and say that information you provide is verified and it's not, if I did it, you did it, Byron did it, we'd all be held accountable, wouldn't we? How come they're not held accountable?

TRAVIS: Maybe I should specify this about it, Sean. Yeah, that's a good point. Maybe I should specify this.

Our juries are the best in the world and our jury system, 12 people's intelligence is better than any one person's intelligence. That's what we believe.

With Ryle Rittenhouse, with Ahmaud Arbery, and now with Jussie Smollett, three different, massive, hugely covered intensely and interested stories - - I think the juries in all three cases based on everything that I saw, putting my lawyer hat on here, they got it right.

Let me say this, too, Sean, because I think this is important. You know that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden are still allowed right now to have lies up about Jussie Smollett. They called it, Kamala did, a modern day lynching. Joe Biden sets an example of homophobia and racism, nothing being done by Twitter to point out those lies, that information, that inaccuracy.

This is yet another failing of big tech. I bet the congressmen would agree, they're trying to divide us when white, black, Asian and Hispanic. The truth of matter is this, we have a lot more in common than we do that divides us.

HANNITY: Yeah, I think every American regardless of your background wants a safe neighborhood, safety and security, good schools. They want to they want a good job, with good benefits. They want to be able to live free and unfortunately that doesn't always happen.

Congressman, we'll give you the last word.

DONALDS: Sean, I agree with everything you just said. That's what people want. That's what every mother in America wants for their child, like my mother wanted for me.

If we're going to move forward as a country and I believe we can move forward as one America, we have to get away from these politically motivated cases, these politically motivated media, motivated I will add progressions through our criminal justice system, and get back to justice under the law, which is blind and doesn't respect any individual, but make sure that justice is done. That's what we need as one country, as one America.

HANNITY: Can't have one justice system for Hillary and the Democrats and one for conservatives. Conservative spits on the sidewalk, 10 years in jail.

Anyway, thank you.

Clay Travis, Congressman Donalds, thank you.

Now, more signs tonight of internal tensions inside the Biden White House. This got very bizarre today. Biden appeared to not even acknowledge his Vice President Kamala Harris at the Capitol during today's ceremony, remembering the great Senator Bob Dole and keep looking at your screen. Biden then switch his seats with his wife Jill Biden or Dr. Jill Biden -- you can't say Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania -- but you have to say Dr. Joe Biden because they canceled Dr. Oz because he's running for Senate, anyway making him even the president move further away from the vice president. That actually happened.

Now, with the pair barely making eye contact, this is a sign of all these reports of a lot of turmoil out there. Nobody wanted to be associated with Kamala Harris and her 28 percent approval rating, or is there some other innocent explanation.

We did reach out to the White House to see if there was and we haven't heard back. I don't know they don't seem to like to answer me.

Anyway, during his remarks today, Biden appeared to lose his train of thought. What a shock. And then read, the instructions end of message. He actually read it. There were directions on the teleprompter.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I quote Bob Dole. I cannot pretend that I have not been a loyal champion of my party, but have always served my country best when I did it so first and foremost as an American. But at the end of the day, we've always found ways to come together. We can find that unity again. Then the message said end of message.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: End -- it said end of message. Meaning stop, Joe. He reads it.

Meanwhile, Biden's day-to-day blunders are signaling weakness as we've been talking about all week to the rest of the world, especially now as tensions are mounting in Ukraine, China, Iran and beyond. And by the way, I'm saying Republicans need to go in.

But there are major things that we could do to get them to back off, not the least of which is stop importing products from China, not the least of which is giving our allies in Western Europe enough energy and going back to energy independence. Those are things that Joe won't ever do because he's too weak and pathetic.

And as a new report from the "AP" says, the Biden administration is planning to press Ukraine to formally cede part of the country. Okay, that is a pretty big signal they're headed in.

Joe won't do a thing financially. I'm not saying boots on the ground. No, we don't need that. Currently controlled by Russia-backed separatists who took control during the invasion of Crimea in 2014.

So, you know, why is Joe Biden eager to appease Putin and Xi? You know, why? Well, we do have the Biden family syndicate that made a fortune from both of those countries and deals with both Russia and China and Ukraine if you want to add them all together.

Ask yourself, is it possible that zero experience Hunter Biden his nefarious foreign dealings his influence peddling. You know, did it have any influence on these decisions of Joe Biden in today's White House? What kind of dossier do you think hostile regimes have all over the world on Hunter? What do you think they have on Hunter in China, in Russia?

We know the Libyans compiled compromising information on Hunter. They knew he was a drug addict. They knew he liked hookers. And more broadly, what exactly is the Biden doctrine anyway? And who's making the decisions? Because day to day, it doesn't look like it's Joe.

Here with reaction, "FOX and Friends Weekend" co-host Pete Hegseth, along with Republican congressman from Texas, Ronny Jackson.

Congressman Jackson, I don't know. Donald Trump, you told me, got 30 out 30 of on his cognitive test. You told me it was a difficult test. When I looked it up online, I don't think I can get a 20. Hegseth would probably get, you know, 22. And we're good friends.

I'm giving you a higher grade, but Trump nailed it with a 30. There's no way Biden is going to get a good score on that test. It's impossible.

REP. RONNY JACKSON (R-TX): No way, Sean. I mean, this is -- he's an absolute embarrassment to our country right now. The funny thing today is that Kamala Harris is an embarrassment too, at least he has enough cognitive ability to actually be embarrassed by her. So he's got something going on.

But, you know, you talked about it the way he read the instructions at the end --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Well, hang on, hang on, Ronny --

JACKSON: -- he's done that.

HANNITY: He might not have remembered who she was. I was just guessing.

JACKSON: It is. It's totally possible that he walked out past her and didn't even recognize her. That is absolutely possible. But, you know, it really is embarrassing. He's -- and like I've said before, he's inspiring confidence in our adversaries and any -- he's scaring the crap out of our allies. They don't -- they don't trust us at all anymore.

This debacle in Afghanistan has set the stage uh for, you know, horrible things that are about to come in Ukraine and Taiwan and just to Iran and across the world. We need a leader right now, and we have someone who is cognitively incapable of being our head of state and our commander in chief. And I guess they're just going to let him continue to fumble along until he actually gets us into a war.

I don't know what the plan is here, but it's getting really bad.

HANNITY: You know, if I were to say what the U.S. should do, Pete Hegseth, I think it's simple. Economically, we start producing energy for our Western European allies so they no longer need Vladimir Putin. I think that would be a sign. You know, Joe Biden is literally helping Putin get and Russia get rich again.

On the China front, I think it's very simple there too. They -- their entire economy is predicated on exporting things abroad. I would stop importing anything from China until they stopped the open hostility with Taiwan, and I would still go forward with the Olympics because I don't want to punish athletes.

PETE HEGSETH, FOX AND FRIENDS WEEKEND CO-HOST: You have to stare them down. Everything you said includes that. Instead, what Joe Biden is doing if he knows what he's doing is preemptively surrendering to Vladimir Putin, signaling that we'll do nothing or at least not support Taiwan significantly.

You give boatloads of weapons to the Ukrainians and the Taiwanese, whatever they think they need to defend themselves. You stand rhetorically behind them completely, in every single way.

But what you've got is the most unqualified president and vice president, incompetent, we've ever seen. I mean -- I'm not a presidential historian. I don't know you know James Polk and Martin Van Buren, maybe they were worse, I don't know. But ultimately, both of them were box check picks. Obama to Biden, Biden to Harris, and you have two unqualified incompetent asleep at the wheel leaders and foreign capitals are licking their chops.

Now is the moment. Putin moves because Biden is weak. Xi Jinping will move because Biden is weak. Same with the Iranians and what they as their chase toward a bomb. They know they've got an empty suit. It's one of the most dangerous moments I've ever been a part of in this country.

HANNITY: All right. And the cognitive decline to me, Joe Biden seems like he's deteriorating almost daily at this point. So it's getting worse on that front.

Ronny Jackson, if you had to make maneuvers to encourage Russia not to invade Ukraine, I think you could do all of that economically and you can do almost all of it dealing with energy alone. If you have a better idea, tell me what it is. As it relates to China, I think you hurt them the most by stop importing anything from China, and we should be producing and manufacturing after COVID-19, everything here anyway because we know what they did to the world at this point.

JACKSON: Absolutely, Sean. We can do all of those things. But you know, the key, Sean, is we need our allies to do this and our allies have given up on us. They don't trust us at all anymore.

And you know, you made the point. I think that there are other things behind the scene here. I think that the Hunter Biden stuff has a lot to do with this. Some of Biden's -- his actions just don't make any sense. They're not in this country's best interest in any shape, form or fashion. They're completely indefensible and you've got to ask yourself why.

And I think you're right. I think that Hunter Biden has something to do with this. But beyond that, even if we wanted to do something right now, we really need our allies and our allies do not trust us anymore. After the debacle in Afghanistan, they don't want to step out and cross the line with us because they know what's going to happen. They know that Joe Biden and this administration will abandon them.

And so, I don't -- I don't know what options we have right now with the leadership that we currently have.

HANNITY: Last word, Pete Hegseth.

HEGSETH: You can't underscore the impact of the debacle, the retreat in Afghanistan, Sean. Nobody -- no one's covered it more intensely than you have. But you better believe our allies look right at that and they say that is Joe Biden. That is America under his leadership.

We don't believe a word he says, he won't stare down adversaries. He has zoom calls where he reads off of a script as they laugh at us.

Now, I don't like saying that but it is the reality right now. And they know it, the left knows it, and the White House knows it. They kept him in the basement during the campaign because they knew it. They put us in this position. It's embarrassing. You're right.

HANNITY: Well said. By the way, your commentary is so good, I'm raising the cognitive test score to a 25 for you, I went down to a 19. I'm losing ground.

Anyway, good to see you both.

All right. Coming up, former chief of staff Mark Meadows filed the lawsuit against the Liz Cheney January 6th purge the Republican Party Trump commission with a predetermined outcome following their politically motivated subpoenas. He will respond and join us live next, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Now turn to breaking news in D.C. tonight as a federal appeals court ruled against former President Trump's efforts to protect documents from the House committee's January sixth probe. That would be executive privilege.

Now, of course, this is a committee, an investigation with a predetermined outcome, we know that, because they kicked Jim Jordan and Jim Banks off the committee and replaced them with the biggest Trump haters in the Republican Party, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. They have no interest in protecting the Capitol from future attacks. I've yet to see any information about the whistleblowers that are out there that would testify that in fact the National Guard was told to stand down.

And by the way, this seems to be about, you know, cheap political points trying to be scored and purging the Republican Party from all things Trump.

Former chief of staff Mark Meadows has filed the lawsuit against Pelosi and the committee in response to their plan to hold him in criminal contempt over documents that he says are protected by executive privilege.

Here with reaction, the author of a brand new book, get it on amazon.com, hannity.com bookstores everywhere, it's a great book. I've read it cover to cover, "The Chief's Chief", Mr. Meadows.

All right. Before we get to that, I don't want to spend a lot of time on this. Now, you write in the book that the president and this was fairly frequent for one period of time, I think this was the time -- where there were a lot of false positive tests out there. So, President Trump had a positive COVID test. Am I wrong to assume immediately you retested them and they came back negative?

MARK MEADOWS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Well, not only immediately did we test him and it came back negative, but we had follow-up tests. You know, both before and after the debate, I know there's been a lot of written about that, but all of those tests were negative. And so, you know, the story is more about a false positive than it is anything else. And I appreciate you clarifying that.

HANNITY: Well, Chris Christie is basically saying you knew, but obviously you knew about the multiple negative tests that followed what was a false positive.

Let me go to the January 6 Committee.

MEADOWS: That's correct.

HANNITY: They've responded to your lawsuit. They're going to refer this to the DOJ. Now, the question is, how -- you know, on the legal front I think this now is dangerous precedent for this reason: every president, I don't care if you're a Democrat or Republican, needs to get honest, forthright advice.

If people believe around the president that that information will be made public, nobody can ever be honest with the president moving forward. That is dangerous to national security in my opinion.

MEADOWS: Well, obviously, there are a few advisers to the president of the United States that you want to have that candid advice and if -- you know, if a current president can waive the executive privilege of a previous president, it does have a chilling effect on what communications may transpire between the president and his top senior advisors.

But listen, I'm between a rock and a hard place. I've got the President Trump of the United States of who I honorably and gladly served, claiming executive privilege and we have Congress saying that they're not going to honor that executive privilege. So that's why we filed the lawsuit.

Hopefully, this is what courts are all about. That's why they should weigh in and, you know, I've read the articles and I've read the releases about Congress holding me in contempt of Congress, criminal contempt. I can assure you there's nothing criminal about my actions. It's all about wanting clarity under the law and in preserving that executive privilege that Donald Trump has rightfully claimed.

HANNITY: Especially as the chief of staff, what you say to the president has got to be secret and you've got to have privacy and you got to have this ability to be honest with the president.

What are your thoughts on Liz Cheney? Here now, she has partnered with people that call their father a war criminal, a murderer, a crook, and is now aligned herself with people that support the weakest foreign policy positions I've ever seen.

She -- this seems to me to -- she's not looking at the summer riots of 2020 that killed people, billions of dollars of property damage, injured thousands of cops. So I can only conclude her motive is to purge the party of Trump. That's what I believe.

MEADOWS: Yeah. Well, I don't know what her motive is. I can tell you what I'm hearing from a lot of people across the country is, is that the members of this select committee have already voted to impeach Donald Trump. They've seen that as a guilty verdict and yet they continue to serve here. That's what part of the lawsuit's about, the scope of the committee, the people of the committee, and basically, you know, trying to define that.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: But they're not going to -- they're going to get it -- you told me Donald Trump requested that guard be called up two days before. We only have 15 seconds.

MEADOWS: Yeah, he requested 10,000 troops to be available two days before. That's correct.

HANNITY: Yeah and so did the chief of the Capitol police.

Anyway, the book is phenomenal and it tells the real story of a really successful president. "The Chief's Chief," amazon.com, hannity.com, bookstores everywhere. More HANNITY right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Unfortunately, that's all the time we have left this evening. As always you make this show possible, thank you for being with us. We hope you'll set your DVR so you never miss an episode.

But in the meantime, let not your hearts be troubled there she is, Laura Ingraham takes you to bed tonight. I don't know.

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