This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," December 1, 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 behind enemy lines, day 109.

HANNITY: While everybody else seems to have turned the page, we refused to on this program. 109 days counting.

And tonight, the Taliban, along with the rest of America's enemies, they are now taking advantage of your President Joe Biden's obvious weakness on the world stage.

Coming up, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will join us with the very latest out of Russia, China, the Middle East, Afghanistan.

And later, Stacey Abrams thinks that she's running for re-election as the rightful governor of Georgia. We'll have full coverage of the midterm elections, that is straight ahead.

Alec Baldwin now speaking out after allegedly killing a person on the set of a movie. Now the far left actor is now claiming he never pulled the trigger before accidentally shooting two people on a movie set. Well, if he didn't pull the trigger, who did?

But, first, we begin with an important Christmas message -- yes -- from President Joe Biden. Today, he proudly announced that he takes no responsibility at all whatsoever for the supply chain crisis and according to Joe, if your kid's presents do not arrive in time for Christmas, you better take it up with Santa Claus. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now I can't promise that every person will get every gift they want on time. Only Santa Claus can keep that promise, but they're items every year that sell out that are hard to find. Some of you moms and dads may remember cabbage packed kids back in the s or beanie babies in the s or other toys that have run out at Christmas time in past years when there was no supply chain problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: All right. Joe wants you to think the supply chain crisis is a myth, that it's Santa Claus's fault. According to him, the empty shelves that you see right here are not empty. Now, if your presidents don't arrive in time, you're to blame -- well, of course, Santa. And if you can't blame him, why not blame Donald Trump? I guess everybody's to blame but him.

Jen Psaki calling it the tragedy of the delayed treadmill. According to Mayor Pete, you should have done your Christmas shopping before Halloween. If not, oh, well, so sad, too bad, your kids will be crying for Christmas, not liking Santa Claus and they won't be happy. You might remember some of these moments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Can this administration guarantee that holiday packages will arrive on time?

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We are not the postal service or UPS or FedEx. We cannot guarantee.

PETE BUTTIGIEG, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: I think there's always been two kinds of Christmas shoppers there's the ones who have all their list completed by Halloween and then there's people like me who show up at the mall on Christmas Eve. If you're in that ladder bucket, obviously, there's going to be more challenges.

REPORTER: People couldn't get dishwashers and furniture and treadmills delivered on time, not to mention all sorts of other things. So why is --

PSAKI: The tragedy of the short the treadmill that's delayed.

GINA RAIMONDO, COMMERCE SECRETARY: Fundamentally, supply chains and logistics are run by the private sector. You know, people say to me, will Christmas gifts be delivered, to which I say, call FedEx. You know, that that isn't what the government does.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Blame the Postal Service, UPS, FedEx, as you can see the buck does not stop with Joe or anybody in the White House. In fact, Chief of Staff Ron Klain, he actually thinks this economy is doing great.

Now, today in a tweet that should be deeply concerning to every American, Klain is writing, quote, stronger COVID measures produce stronger economic outcomes. Oh, we need more draconian COVID measures. That's the answer to a -- to a healthy economy.

Of course, the opposite is true, and as you can see, the Biden administration takes responsibility for nothing including the ongoing pandemic that Biden promised he would shut down. Now, this new Omicron variant, sadly, it is now officially here confirmed in the U.S.

Thankfully, this new strain of COVID, according to early reports, causes mild symptoms although it may be more contagious. And while I always encourage everyone to take the pandemic seriously, there is as of today no reason to panic, check with your doctor.

But that didn't stop Joe Biden from banning travel from a variety of African countries but when Donald Trump banned travel from China where the virus originated from, Biden called him hysterical, xenophobic and a fear- monger. And, of course, suggested he's racist.

Apparently now it's okay because President Joe and Dr. Fauci approved. But today, even Fauci could not explain the African ban. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: What justify -- what justify imposing a travel ban on countries that have zero case of the Omicron variant?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: You know, that's a very good question an important question and we did struggle with that. But we wanted to see if we could bide time temporarily. So I do hope that this gets sorted out and lifted before it has any significant impact on your country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: I still want to know why the NIH gave money to the Eco Alliance that according to the NIH was involved in gain of function research at the Wuhan virology lab on bat coronaviruses.

Anyway, to recap, according to Biden, Trump was a racist for banning travel from China where the outbreak started. Perfectly okay for him to ban travel from certain African countries where the Omicron variant isn't even really present, really, Joe?

Now, of course, throughout this entire pandemic, there's one thing we can always count on and that is the great flip-flop Dr. Fauci who's in love with his newfound celebrity status, his 15 minutes have been over a long, long time ago. He should be fired.

And like all good celebrities, Fauci recently spent some quality time with Barack Obama during an event that was open to the press. And, of course, today, Fauci was more than happy to spend a long time at the White House press briefing speculating about anything and everything including new COVID-19 testing requirements.

But let not your hearts be troubled because if you're an illegal immigrant and you unlawfully -- you know, break the laws, don't respect our borders, our sovereignty, these new rules won't apply to you. That doesn't make sense, does it? But nothing he says makes sense.

This is the guy that said in March of on "60 Minutes", oh, that mask isn't going to work, that mask, you're not going to work. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: As you advise the president about the possibility of new testing requirements for people coming into this country, does that include everybody?

FAUCI: The answer is yes because you know that the new -- the new regulation if you want to call it that is that anybody and everybody who's coming into the country needs to get a test within 24 hours of getting on the plane to come here.

DOOCY: Well, what about people who don't take a plane and just these border crossers coming in in huge numbers?

FAUCI: Yeah, but that's a different issue. For example, when you're talking -- we still have Title 42 with regard to protection at the border. So there are protections at the border. If you don't have the capability as you know of somebody getting on a plane getting checked looking at a passport, we don't have that there. But we can get some degree of mitigation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: There you go. That's right. Fauci and Biden more than happy to ban travel from Africa, but if you enter this country illegally -- well, he just waltz right through, and you get preferential treatment. You get no testing because Jen Psaki says you're not going to be here very long.

And then you don't need a COVID vaccine mandate because -- oh you're not going to be here very long. Anyway, as we continue, it's no wonder that more Americans have died under Biden's watch from 2021 and from COVID-19 in 2021 than under Trump's watch in 2020.

Peter Doocy asked Jen Psaki about this and Psaki got very, very angry. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOOCY: In 2020, when roughly 220,000 Americans had already died of COVID, Joe Biden said about Trump, anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America. Is that still the standard now that more Americans have died under President Biden than President Trump?

PSAKI: Well, I think the fundamental question here is what are you doing to save lives and protect people? And the former president was suggesting people inject bleach. He apparently reportedly didn't even share with people he was going to interact with that he had tested positive for COVID himself. He continued to provide a forum for misinformation which probably led to people not getting -- not taking steps forward to get to protect themselves to wear a mask to eventually get vaccinated.

This president has made the vaccine widely available. He's relied on the health -- the advice of his health and medical experts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: We all know Jen Psaki, Biden and Fauci are all liars and, of course, they love to smear President Trump. But really, what else can she do? Joe Biden is a disaster. His policies are terrible, his brain is barely functioning. America is now facing several major crises. He has caused everyone and all of them have been preventable.

Now, Republicans, independents, Democrats are desperately looking for a better way forward.

Here with more, White House FOX News correspondent -- I don't know, it's must-see TV again, Jen Psaki.

So, he said 220,000, you shouldn't be president. We're now at 355,000. You seem to have gotten her a little bit angry there.

DOOCY: Well, I don't know if she was angry, Sean. But I would note that today is her birthday and when I uh wished her a happy birthday, she said you better ask me a really hard question. So if that was a hard question, obviously, they can answer it however they want.

But to go back to the clip with Dr. Fauci, he said that these people walking into the country is a different issue when it comes to international travelers potentially with COVID -- at least getting COVID tested, and he said that there are ways to test them at the border these border crossers.

That's true. There are ways to do it. However, U.S. Customs and Border Protection doesn't do it except in very few circumstances.

They usually kick it over to non-governmental agencies but we know that they don't always do it because remember it was only a couple months ago that some of these larger border towns were -- they had mid-sized hotels that were filling up with people who either had just tested positive for COVID, or somebody in their family had just tested positive for COVID. And the people in town had no idea.

So there are two sets of rules based on what this these very strict regulations coming down tomorrow, how they are going to be applied. One set of rules if you do things the right way and you go to the airport and say, I've just been -- I'm coming from overseas this is where I was. And then another set of rules if you just walk on it.

HANNITY: All right. Let me see if I understand this. So, we're having a travel man. I understand, okay, it's xenophobic, it's hysterical, it's fear-mongering and racist, which they did say and you asked that important question and didn't get a real response.

So I'm trying to understand, what is the difference if you're traveling from another country, where you can't travel in to this country from another country? What's the difference if you come into the country illegally and we don't even know where the hell you came from, and we're not COVID testing because Jen Psaki said -- and correct me if I'm wrong -- that the reason they don't test them the illegal immigrants is because they're not going to be here very long, but then they disperse people that are here illegally in the dark of night -- oh I stand corrected on those 4:00 a.m. early morning flights into small airports around the country, and we're supposed to believe all that?

DOOCY: She has said that they don't calculate that a lot of these people walking into the country are going to stay for long. But remember, a lot of these people walking into the country, if you look at the monthly reports, they are coming from all over the world.

And so it is just a little confusing to understand how this administration and a President who once said that diseases do not stop at borders, how it is that they think that testing people at the airport is going to keep COVID out.

But while at the same time, people are just walking in untested. It is confusing and we do expect by sometime tomorrow morning to have very new -- new very detailed instructions about what everybody is going to have to deal with, even people who have been doing it doing what they've been asked by the government since March of 2020.

HANNITY: And we're being told that these are going to be even more draconian in terms of restrictions than ever before?

DOOCY: It sounds like it's going to be a more strict testing. So, basically, if you go overseas, they want you to prove -- before you get here, that you're negative covered and then after you get here if you're negative of COVID.

And something that we talked about last night, Sean, there was a report in "The Washington Post" that it has been discussed among Biden administration officials that they might ask Americans vaccinated or not, negative COVID tests or not, to quarantine in their house for up to seven days. Somebody asked Dr. Fauci about that, and he said he didn't know.

HANNITY: All right, Peter Doocy. I'm telling you there's a show here, and I'll announce it on Jen Psaki circle back's birthday. I think Peter Doocy on one side versus Jen Psaki. Why don't we just -- why don't you get a one- hour special and fill in for me one night? I think that would be great. Would you do that? It's you and Jen.

DOOCY: It takes whole morning to come up with five minutes worth of questions, I don't know if I could do an hour, Sean.

HANNITY: Your dad does three, you can't say that.

Anyway, Peter, thank you.

All right, joining us now, Donald Trump Jr. Don't forget, by the way, now this new photo book by President Trump, "Our Journey Together," is available at 45books.com. I did not know until tonight that yours truly is actually in it, and I was like, oh, no, because I know he wrote the captions. I'm like, oh, no, I'm going to get hit hard, and it was actually really nice.

DONALD TRUMP, JR., EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, THE TRUMP ORGANIZATION: Sean, your caption was great. I think you look great in the photo. We had to include our you know some of our favorite FOX personalities. So you look great in the book, Sean. It was a really fun project actually. It was sort of interesting and you're well aware of so many of these stories that the mainstream media wouldn't report.

But -- a picture says a thousand words and I remember going through over the last few months with my father some of the great pictures of his presidency, the accomplishments.

And honestly, we said, we got to put together something with this. He started scribbling notes on some of them thinking about it for other purposes and we said, no, no, just leave that.

And so, we put together this incredible book "Our Journey Together," details the entire presidency. It's just a beautiful coffee table book. And I think people can really see all of the stories and capture all of the emotion and difference that he made in the lives of Americans. All of those policies that helped lift our entire country that has been decimated in the last 10 months by the incompetence of the Biden administration.

So it was a really fun project to work on. You know, unfortunately, you know, juxtaposed against what's going on in the world right now. I just said, man, we had it so good for so long and I think America feels that now. I think they recognize how badly they've been lied to by the mainstream media.

So it was really awesome. I mean, even some of the stories that I wasn't aware of, and I'm aware of a lot as it related to what he was doing. It was really cool to see it and to go through it with him and to put this together so that America could experience this in their own living rooms themselves.

HANNITY: So, you -- so Joe Biden, you know, in the -- in the candidate protection program in the 2020 campaign, and his basement bunker, any president, 220,0900 Americans had died at that point, the worst pandemic since 1917 and '18. Since he's been president a whopping 355,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 more than in 2020.

But your father handed Joe Biden not one not two but three vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, and then you tie it to the whole border where now we give preferential treatment -- no testing, no vaccine mandates to illegal immigrants, and Joe Biden supporting if people tried to enter this country illegally and they separated somehow from their family, they want to give them a check for grand.

Now, tell me where any of that makes sense.

TRUMP JR.: Sean, it doesn't, but it doesn't matter because the Democrats have the advantage of having mainstream media trillion dollar industry, social media, trillion dollar industry, big tech trillion dollar industry, all functioning as their marketing department. But what's really nice is I think they've blown it so badly, they took so many things, whether it's energy independence and lying to the face of the American people.

I remember very clearly, we're not going to end fracking, we're not going to do that, day one, okay? You have the Afghanistan withdrawal. I don't -- I don't know that we've seen a worse incident in our country in the last century, where we're abandoning Americans behind enemy lines, giving said enemy lists of people and biometric data that they can track them down.

You have killing American pipelines while giving Russia that we, as my father's administration did a great job blocking it, so then we can give NATO more money to protect them from the Russians that they're enriching with the pipelines. You know, Hunter must be on a payroll somewhere, Sean.

It never ends. The incompetence doesn't end. The Democrats are going out and making heroes of pedophiles. You saw this during the Rittenhouse trial, Joseph Rosenbaum, a five-time convicted child rapist, boys as young as nine that he raped. He can go around with a gun rioting and Kenosha, no problem whatsoever. But Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old kid protecting a minority owned business, cleaning up graffiti, functioning as an EMT, that's the terrorist.

That's how far the Democrat Party has fallen, Sean. It's an absolute disgrace and people are getting it. Mothers are being told that they should have no part whatsoever in what their children learn in school. The Democrat party has fallen so far, Sean, that people are waking up and the trillion dollar industries that have been boosting them forever, it won't matter because you can't fix this level of incompetence without cleaning house, without getting rid of all of these Democrats and replacing them with some common sense, replacing them with Republicans will fight for our country, for our freedoms, for our values, for our children, and for our families. Because that's what we need to do to right this ship and to correct these wrongs.

HANNITY: You're definitely one day running for office, I don't know what office but you're running, because you know what? That was a powerful -- no, that was a powerful monologue and I mean that.

Let me -- let me ask you this, you know, they don't -- they're denying inflation. If you look pre-COVID, your dad, he got us to energy independence, we didn't import a single barrel of oil from Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, the Streets of Hormuz in terms of strategies -- geostrategic, political safety and security meant nothing. We were a net exporter of energy.

Now, Biden claims he's not responsible for inflation over forth the supply chain issue. Meanwhile, with your dad's energy independence policies the first time we achieved in 75 years, well, we're paying a buck less a gallon than we are now. Some families will pay a thousand dollars more to heat their homes this winter. Everything we buy and every store we go to we pay more for.

It seems to me and I've been saying it for days, the only way to get out of this mess is for Joe to adopt your dad's policies. But we both know that's not going to happen.

TRUMP JR.: Yeah. Well, they're talking about it. They're talking about the stay in Mexico policy. You're talking about the travel ban.

Guess what? It makes sense when it's done right. The difference is if Trump does it, it's racist. If Joe Biden does it, it's sound policy.

As it relates to inflation, Sean, that is a huge tax on the middle class of our country. It's a huge tax on working class Americans who are trying to get by and struggling.

Then they want to implement more ridiculous lockdowns, not based on science because if you look at -- you know, let's call it elf with a Napoleonic complex bureaucrat Fauci, everything that he said in his emails contradicts what he said on TV. He doesn't know what he's talking about. He's a bureaucrat. He's not a good doctor. He's better at being a bureaucrat.

They're going to implement their draconian measures to shut down our economy once and for all because they don't care. There's no consequence. And as long as we keep giving that clown his minutes of fame, the TV that he so desperately craves, we're going to be in these lockdown situations forever until we say enough is enough.

There's going to be a new variant, it's going to be infinite. It's never going to stop until we say enough is enough and we push back. And that's what we need to do, Sean. We need to push back and we need to fight for the hard-working men and women of this incredible country.

HANNITY: Will your father run for office? Will he run for president again in 2024?

TRUMP JR.: I really hope so, Sean. I mean, we need a fighter. And until we have a bench that's deep enough, we need someone who's willing to put himself out there to take the slings and arrows. You know, and I think Americans are getting it.

You know, one guy out there by himself, it's hard to beat all of that energy channel on. But if we all bend together, if we fight together for our children, for their future, for our country and for our freedoms, we can do it and we can take back our country.

HANNITY: All right. Donald Trump Jr., always great to have you. Thank you.

When we come back, straight ahead, the Biden's weakness now on the world stage. It is now getting extraordinarily dangerous, with hostile regimes all over the world, our adversaries are taking note of his cognitive weakness. Mike Pompeo, he reacts to these real mounting concerns, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:26:29]

HANNITY: Now, Secretary of State Tony Blinken jetted off to Europe this week amid new renewed fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine as Putin continues to sense Joe Biden's weakness and continues to double down on efforts to build up a strong military presence on the country's western border. And what's Blinken's weak response? He says Russia should be prepared for a, quote, high impact response like sanctions, if Russia invades Ukraine.

I'm sure Vladimir scared to death. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: Now, we don't know whether President Putin has made the decision to invade. We do know that he is putting in place the capacity to do so on short order should he so decide. We've made it clear to the Kremlin that we will respond resolutely, including with a range of high impact economic measures that we've refrained from using in the past.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, you just give him a waiver and let him build his own pipeline and fire Keystone XL pipeline workers, brilliant.

Now, of course, if the Biden administration really cared about Russian aggression, Biden wouldn't have cleared the way with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, you know, something to give Putin even more leverage over our allies in Western Europe.

But it's just like we have been telling you, Putin, the mullahs in Iran, President Xi, China and American adversaries all over the globe, these are all hostile regimes, they all see what we see, and that is a weak, frail, cognitive mess of a President Joe Biden and one has to believe that the Biden family syndicate that made millions and millions from these countries are likely compromised by all of them. They see what we see what we show you night after night. Joe Biden, the cognitive mess and his America last policies.

Now, that is why the American public is losing confidence in Joe Biden. His approval rating, the latest Robert Cahaly, Trafalgar poll cratering now to 36 percent. This comes as Americans are increasingly seeing China as a top threat, especially as Beijing keeps signaling that they're set on their so- called reunification, or more likely hostile takeover of Taiwan.

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

Let's jump around the globe. Let's start with the Russia-Ukrainian border. We know what happened with Crimea. We know what happened in eastern Ukraine.

I can't think of any other reason that Vladimir Putin would put a lot of troops there except for their territorial ambitions, Mr. Secretary. And I don't think Tony Blinken saying they're going to have a high impact economic tactics used against them is too intimidating to Vladimir.

MIKE POMPEO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Sean, I think that's right it's good to be with you tonight. I -- those words aren't going to make a hilly beans difference to Vladimir Putin decision-making. They won't engender the deterrents that we need.

I mean, look at look at the facts. Vladimir Putin shuts down a pipeline, the Russians shut down a pipeline in the southeastern United States, closing off gasoline as President Biden goes to meet with him at a summit and just warns him and says don't do it again. They watched the debacle in Afghanistan, the weakness that we showed there. You mentioned the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

We should be clear too what we've done with American energy has creased the wealth for Vladimir Putin. When oil prices are high, Vladimir Putin is a big winner.

I think he believes that he can make decisions he needs to make. He has always believed that the dissolution of the Soviet Union was the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century. He wants those satellite states back for his country, and now he sees that we have a president who's not prepared to do the hard work of deterrence, I think that engenders real risk the -- the risk of conflict increases, the weaker the United States is. We have no -- shown no resolve in these first 10 months of this administration.

HANNITY: All right. We're watching China. We're watching President Xi. They watched Joe Biden abandon Americans in Afghanistan 13 days after he said he wouldn't do that. There's still hundreds of them there. Thousands of people with American green cards that are welcome to this country.

So China talks about reunification, we both know it's really a takeover of Taiwan. They're flying over Taiwan airspace every day with their fighter jets, and then you know I've got to look at this why would Joe Biden not lift a finger on Russia and a finger on China.

Now, we know that hunter Biden made money from both countries. He got three and a half million dollars from a Russian oligarch, the first lady of Moscow, he had the $1.5 billion deal with the Bank of China, hundred thousand dollar shopping spree with the Chinese national. And then Miranda Devine's book off of Hunter's laptop, Joe himself sat in on meetings directly related to deals with China energy companies.

So I would argue that if Libya has a dossier on Hunter Biden and the Biden family, I got to imagine the dossier that China and Russia have is probably a lot more detailed and that this family is compromised. Is that a logical conclusion? You were once a CIA director.

POMPEO: Sean, I have no doubt that the Chinese and Russians know a heck of a lot more than the Libyans do, about nearly everything that happens in the world I think that's certainly true. We saw Miranda Divine's work. We saw what was happening with China.

But I frankly think the problems go deeper than this. You know this, Sean. The whole world watches everything that we do. When we strike at Qasem Soleimani not only do the Iranians notice, but the Chinese, the North Koreans and the Russians. Just the converse is true as well, when we're weak and when we demonstrate we're not prepared to bring Americans home from Afghanistan, those leaders know that they can rule the United States.

This is -- this is something that Xi Jinping, the leader in China, certainly must be observing. He must know that he has a window to do the things that he wants to do, including trying to bring Taiwan back into his orbit. These are -- these are perilous moments. This is a high risk time for the United States of America and it can only be fixed by a president who's prepared to defend them things that matter most to the American people defend our interests around the world and keep us secure.

Today, President Biden has shown very little intent of actually delivering on the things he promised the Americans he would do.

HANNITY: So if the Libyans dossier on Hunter had in it that he was a drug addict who frequented prostitutes, you would assume as I do that the Russians and the Chinese knew as much. But they also did deals with millions and in the case of the Bank of China, a billion five.

Why would somebody with no experience -- I would think that that the communist Chinese would be smart enough to know about Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, you know, really, let's say professionals in the -- in the field. Why would they go with somebody with no experience that we can find?

POMPEO: You know, Sean, I'm pretty creative, but I can't think of a single reason that that would be the case. Look, we saw this too with the dealings in Ukraine. We saw that he sat on the board of Burisma, as an advisor to Burisma, with no known experience there. There's something going on there different, fundamentally different than looking for someone who can help your business create wealth through normal business practices.

There's -- there's a real taint there and I can assure you if something like this happened in the previous administration, the media would be all over it. They'd be making all kinds of accusations. We now know that the media got sucked into the Russia hoax narrative with the Steele dossier, right, they continued to report things that they had to know sources were making up or lying about. And yet they furthered that story.

They don't want to touch the hunter Biden story. It's an important component of what happened prior to President Biden taking office and I think the American people need to think about what that means for American national security.

HANNITY: I didn't come in tops of my class at West Point like you did, and I was never the CIA director, but every instinct in my body tells me that the Biden family is compromised by all of these countries and that is a threat to our national security and that does need to be investigated, unlike the Russia hoax.

But, Mr. Secretary, always love having you on. Thank you, sir.

All right. Coming up, after refusing to concede her loss four years ago, Stacey Abrams, she just announced that she's running for another term as Georgia governor. We have the very latest. Mike Huckabee, Kellyanne Conway react to that.

And Alec Baldwin says he never pulled the trigger ever. What's going on there? Straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Far left Democratic activist Stacey Abrams announced today she will run again for the Georgia governorship, setting up a possible rematch with current Republican governor. That's Brian Kemp.

Now, Kemp has been very ineffective as a governor and frankly for the sake of the state of Georgia, I think he should probably bow out of the race. I think the candidate to watch and I hope he gets in, would be former Senator David Perdue. He would be a much better candidate versus Stacey Abrams. If Kemp does stay in -- well, that would also hurt Herschel Walker in his Senate race against Raphael Warnock.

Now, Abrams refused to concede after being defeated in 2018, while she repeatedly pushed debunked conspiracy theories about why she lost. Gee, the media never talks about it.

Here with reaction, former counselor to President Trump, Kellyanne Conway, along with FOX News contributor Mike Huckabee.

Kellyanne, your take? I feel -- look, I know the state of Georgia. I lived there a number of years. I know it really well. I know a lot of people there, many friends.

And Kemp is not particularly well-liked. I don't think he'd be a good top of the ticket person for the Republicans.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, FORMER SENIOR COUNSELOR TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, Senator Perdue and, obviously, the Purdue name is very popular across the state of Georgia. He's been talking to President Trump and others about possibly getting in that race for governor.

And Stacey Abrams, obviously, she's a formidable candidate because she's already gotten the celebrity treatment that candidates like that do. She's been on the cover of fashion magazines. Her campaign and her Fair Fight PAC, Sean, have raised millions and millions and millions of dollars from the likes of George Soros and the Soros family members, Tom Steyer, Michael Bloomberg gave her about five million dollars. I hope people also give her debate prep pointers because he was destroyed by Elizabeth Warren in about two seconds on the debate stage.

But this is a woman who I think everybody should pay attention. Stacey Abrams group has -- they basically -- they've registered about 800,000 new voters in the last several years. That's a big deal. She lost the governor's race by 55,000 votes. Donald Trump as president in 2018 put Brian Kemp on his back and carried him across the finish line. Kemp would not have won without Donald Trump's help. Ron DeSantis won by four tenths of a percentage point in Florida against Gillum and Kemp v. Stacey Abrams up in Georgia.

And as President Trump likes to say, he went in to campaign for Brian Kemp so many times, he was up against both Obamas, Oprah Winfrey, the whole crew, who was running -- you know, voting -- supporting Stacey Abrams.

So I think President Trump would get involved again if he was supporting a candidate there. But Abrams was asked by Senator Ted Cruz this past April, Sean and Mike, this past April. So, yes or no, was the election in stolen from you? And she said it was stolen from the voters of Georgia. She still will not concede but she's still on social media. She still can run for office. She's -- you know, she's still on TV.

HANNITY: Let me ask Governor Huckabee.

Governor, I've been pushing for election integrity measures so that we can have confidence in the results. Simple things, voter ID, signature verification, chain of custody controls. I think we need updated voter rolls and I think the laws that allow partisan observers to observe the votes start to finish up close, not 100 feet away, need to be enforced.

I think every state needs to do it. I don't think illegal immigrants should vote either.

I think Republicans also have got to embrace early voting and mail-in voting considering that's happening anyway.

Do you agree with all of that? And if you do, the one thing that's missing from the new Georgia law is signature verification. The legislature I would argue needs to fix that.

MIKE HUCKABEE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I agree with everything you've said, but I got to tell you I'm so glad I watched tonight because I learned something I didn't know. I thought Stacey Abrams was the governor of Georgia. It just shocks me to find out that she wasn't after all these years, because she has been telling everybody and the Democrats have been telling everybody that she really won the election, I thought she had an office at the capitol and everything.

Silly me. I guess I shouldn't believe what CNN says after all.

Here's what I find interesting. Stacey Abrams can say the election was stolen from her. Hillary Clinton can say the election was stolen from her back in 2016 and it was all the Russians fault, and that's fine. They can say that and they can keep saying it because Hillary still does and Abram still does.

Donald Trump can question the election because somehow we're supposed to believe Joe Biden got 16 million more votes than Barack Obama ever did and 16 million more than anyone ever has in the history of the country when all he did was pop up out of his basement a few times, go out to a parking lot and scream into a teleprompter at about a dozen cars. And we're supposed to believe that that all worked.

So, okay, if I'm supposed to believe that and I can't question it, then how come Stacey Abrams and Hillary, they get to question an election that now is almost six years ago?

HANNITY: I could tell you one thing. One person that will be the next governor of another state and that would be Arkansas and I just happen to believe she'll be the best governor in history. Her name happens to be -- oh it escapes -- oh Sarah Sanders you might know her.

Listen, all I think every American deserves election integrity. When you -- when you have laws that say partisan observers get to watch the vote count from start to finish, you need to have that. Voter ID, you need a vaccine card to get into a restaurant now.

I think you need voter id to get into the White House, the DNC. That's what every state has to have election integrity measures, period, so we could have confidence in the results. Those that don't want it, I think are up to no good.

All right. Kellyanne, thank you. And Governor Huckabee, thank you.

When we come back, all right, a very strange, very bizarre turn. Alec Baldwin breaking his silence following the fatal shooting on the film set of the movie "Rust". He says he never pulled the trigger. Okay, up to now, that's all we heard. If he didn't pull it, who did? Straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Now, actor Alec Baldwin is speaking out tonight following the fatal film set shooting in New Mexico that killed the movie's cinematographer. Her name was Halyna Hutchins.

But Baldwin is now claiming he never pulled the trigger. Here's what he told ABC News's Georgie Stephanopoulos. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEC BALDWIN, ACTOR: Well, the trigger wasn't pulled. I didn't pull the trigger.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: So you never pulled the trigger?

BALDWIN: No, no, no, no. I would never point a gun at anybody and pull a trigger at them. Never. Someone put a live bullet in a gun, a bullet that wasn't even supposed to be on the property.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You said you're not a victim, but is this the worst thing that's ever happened to you?

BALDWIN: Yes, yeah.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Obviously, this raises now more questions. If Baldwin is telling the truth, then how did that gun discharge? Guns don't fire themselves.

And meanwhile authorities have released the fourth search warrant in the investigation revealing new theories about how the live ammo made it onto the set, including the possibility that reloaded ammunition was provided to the production which featured the same logo as the dummy rounds normally used on set.

Here with reaction, FOX News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett, weapons expert Bryan Carpenter.

Bryan, let me start with you. He said, the trigger wasn't pulled, I didn't pull the trigger. I'd never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger. Never.

However, the Santa Fe County sheriff's department said in a warrant that Baldwin fired the gun and Baldwin was holding the gun, rehearsing a scene in the movie when the live round rang out.

Okay, those two contra -- those two reports contradict each other. So if he had the gun and he says he didn't pull the trigger, guns don't fire themselves. I've been a handgun marksman since I'm 11.

BRYAN W. CARPENTER, ARMORER: Right. Yes, correct. And it's interesting -- it's important to differentiate a modern revolver from the type of revolver that they were using. So a modern revolver as you know is a double action revolver generally, meaning that the mechanism by which it fires allows one to pull the trigger which cocks the hammer, rotates the cylinder and allows the gun to fire.

Those weapons are single action revolvers, period pieces, which means there's a two part mechanism to fire the weapon. The first part is actually physically cocking the hammer back with your thumb and then pulling the trigger. Once you start cocking that hammer back, you are involved in the action of firing that weapon.

And at that point, either you let go of the hammer in such a way that you allow it to detonate or you pull the trigger and it is all manual. So it has to be done by the operator of the firearm.

HANNITY: If the gun is in his hand as the county sheriff reports, Greg Jarrett, guns don't fire themselves, and if he said he didn't aim it at anybody -- well, certainly it had to be aimed at somebody or else it wouldn't have hit somebody. So -- is -- he's either lying or was there another gun involved perhaps? I mean, where do we go with this?

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS ANALYST: Well, it's hard to believe and if Alec Baldwin thinks this somehow absolves him for potential criminal culpability, he's sorely mistaken. The issue is not whether he pulled the trigger or the gun went off accidentally, which is hard to believe, because this isn't an intent crime that's been investigated. It's a gross negligence crime.

So prosecutors are focusing not on the trigger pull, but on the handling of the gun by Baldwin prior to the shooting incident. Was he grossly negligent and reckless? Did he fail to exercise due caution as the law requires to ensure the safety of others?

So what's the standard in the industry for actors using guns on set? Well, it's set forth very clearly in their own union rules that actors are required to follow actors' equity. It states treat all guns as if they're loaded and deadly. Check the firearm every time you take possession of it. Did Baldwin do that? Apparently not because he said he had no idea there was ammunition in the gun. If he'd checked it, he would have seen it.

He's also supposed to stand there and watch the armor and the prop master before they hand him the gun, inspect the barrel and the cylinders that didn't happen either.

In addition, he's also the on location producer. He was put on notice that there was a grave dangerous problem with guns on the sets prior to the fatal shooting. There were three episodes of gun mishaps, a responsible prudent producer would have shut down production, conducted an investigation and instituted safety protocols and corrective measures. That didn't happen. He could also be charged on that basis.

HANNITY: And, lastly, if you have a gun in your hand, Bryan, I don't -- loaded or unloaded, you never pointed at anybody. It would be hard to believe that --

CARPENTER: That's correct.

HANNITY: -- that what Alec Baldwin is saying here contradicts everything else. We have about 20 seconds.

CARPENTER: Well, obviously, that is one of the primary safety rules. Never point a weapon at anyone, loaded or unloaded. You consider it loaded at all times and simple physics is, if the round left the barrel and struck Ms. Hutchins, it was pointed at her.

HANNITY: This -- this is now, I -- in my opinion he might have gotten himself in a lot more legal jeopardy tonight, but we'll see.

Thank you both.

When we come back, we'll have more HANNITY straight ahead. Thanks for being with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Time flies when you're having fun. Unfortunately, that is all the time we have left this evening. But as always you make this show possible. Thank you so much for being with us tonight and every night.

We hope you'll set your DVR so you never miss an episode of HANNITY. If you miss it, you can watch it on DVR. It's simple to set up. We hope you'll do it. Anyway.

In the meantime, I have some good news -- let not your hearts be troubled because the news continues. Laura Ingraham is standing by. She has a huge show. I don't know what it is yet, but it's huge.

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