Jerry Falwell Jr. joins Hannity to discuss Liberty University's lawsuit against the New York Times

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Jerry Falwell Jr. joins Hannity to discuss Liberty University's lawsuit against the New York Times

Liberty University files defamation suit against the New York Times over COVID coverage, accuses paper of falsely reporting coronavirus outbreak on campus.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," July 15, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Fox News alert: Major developments on multiple fronts. After an extremely successful trial period, Moderna's coronavirus vaccine is now ready to enter the final phase of testing. We have other vaccines also on the horizon.

We'll have full coverage. This is remarkable, maybe by the fall, a record- breaking progress. Our medical A-Team, Dr. Oz, is here tonight.

Also breaking tonight, the 2020 election has now officially changed in a dramatic and a big way. The president is now bowing to take actions in American cities with warzone-like conditions.

But the bumbling barely there, corrupt Joe Biden is now embracing, well, the most radical socialist wing of his party. We're going to explain in detail how this is a sign between Bernie and AOC and Schumer and Pelosi, he is embracing this out of weakness. I'll explain.

He's also now, by the way, willing to redirect funds away from the police. That, of course, has become the enemy. Defund law enforcement, or to use his words, we'll reallocate the moneys. We're going to explain that coming up tonight in a report.

Plus, we'll show you what is the latest cringe-worthy blunders from the Biden basement campaign. Spoiler alert, he now thinks if you're in the great state of Arizona, apparently you don't live in a state, you live in a city -- according to Joe, the forgetful one.

But, first, we do start with a developing story surrounding a garbage so- called newspaper. We have an information crisis like we've never had in this country before. In this case, the New York, I call it "toilet paper Times", because that's basically all it's good for. They have been exposed yet again. Now, they are facing a brand new lawsuit from Liberty University.

By the way, Liberty has told me, and they will join us in just a moment, Jerry Falwell Jr., in what is a powerful defamation suit filed earlier today. The university is blasting "The New York Times" for intentionally false reporting.

This stems from their hysteria-filled coronavirus coverage alleging that Liberty suffered a coronavirus outbreak when the school reopened its campus after spring break. According to this lawsuit, prepared by attorney Michael Bowie, in two separate headlines, The Times all but accused Liberty of willfully spreading the deadly virus.

Quote: Liberty brings back students and the coronavirus, too, and a university reopened and students got sick. The paper even reported that nearly 12 students became sick with COVID-19 symptoms.

In a separate article, The Times accused Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. of creating his own personal viral hot spot. In reality, the truth at the time, zero on-campus students were diagnosed with COVID- 19. Not a single one. Not 12, not 11, not ten, not one, zero.

Remember, the same paper, remember, they are the ones who infamously accused yours truly of killing grandma and grandpa because of our coronavirus coverage when we are way ahead of them, especially, and the rest of the mob in warning people about the virus and asymptomatic people that would spread the virus and supporting the travel ban ten days after the first known case of corona.

It was the leftist New York Times -- let's look at their track record. They're the ones that ran the headline: Who says it's not safe to travel to China? The coronavirus travel ban is unjust and doesn't work anyway.

I wonder how many people took their advice and what might've happened to them if they did. Don't forget, the same paper, who's criticized by its former top editor, Jill Abramson, for, quote, making horrible mistakes left and right.

And, of course, this lawsuit comes at a troubling time for that paper. The New York Times now reeling after getting clobbered in a scathing editorial out this week by another former top editor, her name, Bari Weiss. And she recently resigned after months of workplace harassment, hostility over -- she's not a conservative, at best I'd say centrist views, willing to listen to the other side views. Far left "Times" employees calling her a Nazi and a racist and a liar, and a bigot. Others demanding she'd be rooted out of this organization while posting ax emojis next to her name in public forums. Wow.

Weiss wrote: The far left Twitter have become the ultimate editor of The New York Times whose concerns have profoundly removed from the lives of most people. A perfect example of what I call, and why you define modern media as a mob.

The fake news media mob is now 99 percent of news outlets, media outlets, smears, lies, slander, libel, besmirchment, conspiracy theories, hoaxes, here, there, and everywhere, truth telling nonexistent. They're all about advancing the far left radical socialist views of this new, extreme Democratic Party, and they have outright contempt and hatred for all things President Trump -- and by the way, all of his irredeemable, deplorable, smelly Walmart-shopping supporters like me.

And for them, truth, facts, reality, none of it matters. But in the real world, actions have consequences.

Tonight, Liberty University is holding them accountable.

Joining us now with the report is Liberty president himself, Jerry Falwell Jr.

So, they wrote all these headlines. Not one kid got COVID-19. They apparently -- you have no trespassing signs -- they came from an actual hot spot to a place that wasn't a hot spot.

JERRY FALWELL, JR., LIBERTY UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT: Yes, yes.

HANNITY: And they didn't give you an opportunity to respond?

FALWELL: Not only they -- no, they didn't. But not only are they a bigoted bunch of liars, but also BuzzFeed type clickbait publication now. But they're also stupid, because they came on campus, we had 25 at least "no trespassing" signs everywhere and they were dumb enough to take pictures of the signs and publish them.

So, we got warrants out for their arrest. They had to cut a deal with local prosecutor to keep from going to jail. That's how dumb they are.

And they got their information -- they are here for a few days, I think. But they got their information from a doctor who has a practice 10 miles away from Liberty, who had seen a few Liberty kids who had a cold and upper respiratory problem. And none of it was anything like COVID symptoms, he told them that, and he told their reporters to go talk to our on-campus doctor, at a clinic on campus, and they wouldn't do it. They didn't talk to us.

We tried to get them correct all of the false headlines that you just recited, they wouldn't do it. They actually doubled down, lied some more.

And so, we had no choice, they left us no choice but to defend our reputation because it scared parents. We had 1,200 kids here, you know, some of them had elderly -- elderly relatives living in their home, didn't have high-speed Internet. So, they couldn't do online education at home.

They were international students. They had no choice. But out of 8,000 normally here, we had about 1,200 here this spring, we abided by all of the governor's rules, and not one case. And not one case -- not one case --

HANNITY: I read --

FALWELL: -- came out of it. Zero. Zero.

HANNITY: Jerry, I read the -- I read the -- it was a powerfully written case. This has -- this has the potential perhaps to be a landmark case. We have Times v. Sullivan, which I think is poorly worded, needs to be revamped.

Nicholas Sandmann is going to be a very rich kid. When I think of cases and lawyers, I think of Lin Wood, one of the best, Charles Harder, one of the best. I know Michael Bowie. Michael Bowie happens to be a friend of mine, one of the best as well.

You're going all the way, because these lawsuits take years and can be very expensive.

FALWELL: Yes, but that's OK, because it's expensive for them, too. And "New York Times" versus Sullivan is one of the first cases I learned about in law school, and it's a license to lie.

It's not like that in every country. In the United Kingdom, it's much easier to beat the tabloids when they lie about you if you're a public figure. But in the United States, you have to prove malicious intent. I think we got that here.

And you're right about Michael Bowie. He is one of the best in the country. And I'm glad he's on my side --

HANNITY: Well, the last thing --

FALWELL: -- and not coming after me.

HANNITY: If that's the case, there's something called discovery. And that might bring us into the inner workings of what is said in "The New York Times," and I'm sure by now, they've received a preservation letter from Michael Bowie saying, don't erase it, don't delete it, don't pull a Hillary. We might get to see the inside --

FALWELL: No question.

HANNITY: -- of all of that.

Jerry, we're going to follow this case.

FALWELL: No question.

HANNITY: Yes, we're going to follow your case closely.

FALWELL: No question about it, any of that. But they lied and said the doctor they --

HANNITY: I may follow your lead.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Yes.

FALWELL: I hope you do, I hope you do, because you need -- you need to be tough like me, Sean. Listen --

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: I don't have any spare time, discovery, years, money -- I have the money, I can pay for it. But then it's like, oh, a deposition.

(CROSSTALK)

FALWELL: You can make it the time.

HANNITY: They deserve it, I'll tell you that.

FALWELL: Yes, but they lied and said the doctor was in charge of all of the public health -- student health on campus. He wasn't. He told them that the doctor on campus was and --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: And you gave them a chance, didn't you? You gave them a chance to correct the record, they didn't take it, correct?

(CROSSTALK)

FALWELL: Yes, if it's a fact that they came (ph) to the hot spot to --

HANNITY: All right. I've got to roll --

FALWELL: All right. There you go.

HANNITY: All right. We're going to follow the case.

FALWELL: Thank you, Sean.

HANNITY: Jerry Falwell, Jr., thank you.

Also tonight, we have a lot of other breaking news. Lawlessness in America's major cities continues. Look at this insane video from New York this morning. The NYPD's -- look at this -- the police chief injured after getting brutally attacked by a group of people on a bridge. We have still shots. We'll show you.

Other officers beaten over the head with sticks. Meanwhile, police just released the surveillance footage showing the moment when gunmen shot and killed that one year old boy in Brooklyn, Duvall Gardner Jr. Remember Lawrence Jones interviewed his father and grandmother. He's in a stroller, in a public playground.

NYPD police union have now teamed up to offer $23,000 reward for any information that helps lead police the evil perpetrators who carried out this heinous act.

More monologue in a minute, but joining us now, quick, with reaction is Dan Bongino, Fox News contributor, Fox News correspondent at large, Geraldo Rivera.

It's every day, it's every night, the defund effort, Joe Biden calling the police, what, they've now become the enemy. And sure, I will reallocate resources.

So, that is now a new race. Law and order, safety and security, you can't pursue happiness, Geraldo, if you don't have safety in your city or your community.

GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT-AT-LARGE: The cities are going to hell in a hand basket, Sean. It's incredible, the bloodletting that's going on.

Cops feel disillusioned. They feel disrespected. They feel handicapped. They feel handcuffed. They are no longer able to count on the city administration to have their backs.

You know, it's -- it's awful to watch. Shootings up by a disproportional amount. New York is becoming Chicago, Chicago where 13 more were killed this weekend, 13 more were killed in Chicago this weekend, 64 shots. This is ghetto civil war. It's an urban circular firing squad, Sean.

The blood is running red in the streets, where is Black Lives Matter? Where are Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson? Where --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: -- most of your career, Geraldo, you care about it.

RIVERA: It's a Brooklyn Bridge. I went to Brooklyn Law School right under that bridge. I mean, this is disgusting to watch this.

They must go after this person that hit the chief in the head. This is a felonious assault. If it's not with intent to kill, it is at least the felonious assault. That person should be arrested and charged. And that case should be seen all the way through.

We can't let the -- you know, the passions cool, and then you let someone who did that who actually assaulted the leader of your police department in the world's capital city and smashed head. He's got blood running down his face. It's awful, Sean. It's pathetic.

HANNITY: You know, the president has vowed to straighten out the war zones in these Democratic-run cities, Dan Bongino.

DAN BONGINO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes.

HANNITY: These cities, all of them have one thing in common, run by liberal Democrats for 20 years -- for decades. Joe Biden --

BONGINO: Yes.

HANNITY: -- now has embraced this effort. He's trying to back off it today, but he said what he said. They've now become the enemy. And yes, of course, you're going to reallocate money.

He's not talking about more police. He has now adopted Bolshevik Bernie's agenda. He has now adopted this madness of attacking the police -- the first line of defense.

BONGINO: Yes.

HANNITY: He's now taking on AOC's radical Green New Deal. He's now partnered with Schumer, Pelosi, 125 years failure, the three of those. I don't think he can get anybody more left wing.

BONGINO: Yes. Yes, please, let's stop talking about Joe Biden as a fake moderate. Stop embarrassing yourselves, liberal media folks. It's humiliating. You're making yourselves look silly. Everybody who knows you is embarrassed when you say that.

Second point, De Blasio must resign. He is disgraced to the cosmos, not just the city. Any known universe may be embarrassed to have this humiliating human being in charge right now. Watching the world's greatest city, I grew up there, just decay at such a rapid pace.

Now, Sean, you know, the secret of crime-fighting, there's not really a secret, but anyone who studied criminology, been a cop, knows a sliver of the population commits an overwhelming number of the crimes. Why does that matter? Well, it matters because when you arrested that very small portion of people and incarcerate them, crime goes down dramatically, which we saw over two decades in New York.

You're not seeing that anymore. Now, I know for a fact this is at the top of president Trump's mind.

Here's what he needs to do. He needs to get the FBI, the DEA, the Secret Service, the ATF, the IRS, get this task force together, plant them in these big cities.

And let me be crystal clear, he is not asking. There is no asking. We're done asking.

He doesn't need Lightfoot's permission in Chicago, and he doesn't need de Blasio's permission in New York. We are not asking.

He's going to go in there --

HANNITY: Well, I'm going to tell you something --

BONGINO: -- he should go in there, and start perp walking people out of there with these task forces, and all of a sudden, you'll see crime drop almost overnight.

HANNITY: All right. Dan, Geraldo, we all grew up and say, I have a special message tonight for you Andrew Cuomo, you're the governor of New York, and to you, Comrade de Blasio.

Let's go back to this video. Watch this guy with the stick. Watch the cop. One of the top ranking police officers in New York City.

Watch that stick. His face is turned, and the guy blasts him on the top of the head with the stick. A look at this, right here. Watch the stick, boom. Rerack that and we'll play it again.

The man is that, the man in the white shirt. Do you watch him, watch the stick, kaboom!

OK. Andrew, do your job. De Blasio, do your job If you do not, as somebody that grew up in New York, my advice to everybody in New York City is get out of town while you can. Leave your liberal policies, leave the state, its bureaucracy, its high taxes, its lack of law and order and security and safety. Take your money with you. Leave your politics in New York.

Also, breaking tonight. President Trump was just endorsed by the National Association of Police Organizations. This comes as the president is bowing to restore law and order in America's major cities. Finally, somebody is caring about this problem.

Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We have other cities that are out of control. They are like warzones. And if the city isn't going to straighten it out, if local politicians -- or in this case, I don't say this for political reasons, they are all Democrats. It's almost like they think it's going to be this way forever, where in Chicago, 68 people were shot, and 18 died last week. We're not going to put up with that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Compare that to Joe Biden -- the corrupt, the weak, confused, and even the creepy Joe, calling -- oh, the police are now the enemy? He wants to reallocate funds away from police? Embracing the defund movement. As the president tweeted, rightly so, quote, Joe Biden, the radical left, they want to abolish police, abolish ICE, abolish bail, abolish suburbs, abolish the Second Amendment, abolish the American way of life. No one will be safe in Joe Biden's America.

Well, I think the president is right. No one.

Joe Biden -- look at who he has now embraced. This is the greatest sign that Joe Biden, he -- most candidates when you get the nomination, you go to your base. Then for the general election, you move to the center.

He needed to shore up Bernie Sanders' base and AOC's base. And he's looking to Schumer and Pelosi, and he's gone along with radical -- the most radical socialism of Bolshevik Bernie, the most radical New Green Deal. This is most radical candidate in the history of this country.

Clearly, he will say and do anything to shore up their support. Defund the police, reallocate, sure. Let crimes spiral out of control. Why not?

He didn't do anything, along with Barack, when they had eight years as president and vice president. Oh, get rid of all bail altogether. That's worked out great in New York. Turn America into a lawless, socialist hellhole.

Well, their wish apparently is Biden's command. Look at this team of radicals, it starts with Bolshevik Bernie, now Biden's de facto economy czar.

AOC is leading his extreme, and radical, and unaffordable climate efforts, that also gets rid of, oh, about 10 million jobs or, let's see, fracking and oil. We are now energy independent, the world's largest producers, say goodbye to all of that. And also, coal.

Beto, oh, he says -- yes, of course, we're coming for your guns. He is going to be the guns czar.

Schumer, Pelosi, standing by to show all of these radical agendas through Congress.

What did I say last night? If these policies are enacted, America, liberty, freedom, capitalism, you can say goodbye to it. That dream team of radical socialists, those 325 years of failure at this point.

The only thing they can't control is Biden's cognitive abilities which appear to still be declining rapidly. He actually said today that he thought Arizona, the state, was a city. He can't make it up. He doesn't know what day it is, doesn't know what office he is running for.

We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal, endowed by their -- oh, you know -- the thing. God, the creator of everything. Not hard, Joe.

Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

INTERVIEW: Look, Arizona is very much in play in 2020. So, we appreciate you taking some time to talk to the people of our state.

JOE BIDEN, D-PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Oh, you're -- it's an important city. You guys are going through hell right now, aren't you?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: See why Biden rarely leaves the basement bunker? You see why he almost always refuses to go off script, take questions from the press.

Today, Biden's handlers actually cut off questioning during a virtual interview. Oh, that's pretty severe. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

INTERVIEWER: You've said that you regret not running in 2016.

BIDEN'S HANDLER: Mark, this will be our last question, OK? Mark, that's our time. Thank you so much.

INTERVIEWER: Most would agree that Russia is not our friend, never has been, and never will be. What about China, friend or foe?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Fade to black. Imagine if this is Donald Trump, how do you think the media would react?

With "the toilet paper New York Times" -- what would they right? Fake news CNN, conspiracy TV MSDNC, oh, they'd be covering it wall-to-wall. Why? Because they don't cover, because they want Joe to win. It's more obvious, many times.

This is the greatest, most -- this is the biggest choice election you will ever face in your live and it's live free or die, the name of my book in 20 days. Anyway, you're the ultimate jury.

Joining us now, the architect Karl Rove, with reaction of all this and analysis.

Karl, between the enemy comment, between the reallocate comment, between Bolshevik Bernie, they actually plagiarized that, AOC, the New Green Deal czar, Beto O'Rourke, Pelosi, and Schumer -- I've never seen a candidate go harder left because he needed to shore up his base.

KARL ROVE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, it's Robert Francis O'Rourke. Now, that other name.

You know, what's interesting to me is this thing about the surplus military equipment. He's in an interview, he's being asked about cops receiving surplus military equipment, and he said something that I think it's really far out there. He says, surplus military equipment for law enforcement, they don't need that. They show up with an armed Humvee and it makes them look like in military, and they become the enemy.

Well, look, we've seen situations, and you had some of them on your camera on your screen recently in which it was clear that you're walking (AUDIO GAP). You needed it in places like Portland and Seattle to have armored Humvees to get in there.

But what's interesting is they're then -- he's being interviewed. The interviewer is a Bernie guy. He says, what -- but do we agree that we could redirect some of that funding.

To me, the key word there is but. He's sort of saying, OK, I get you, but that's the side issue. What about getting rid of funding? But we do agree that we can rid some of the funding?

Biden says yes, absolutely. And, by the way, not just redirect, condition them or then. I listen to the tape, and it sounds like then, and but it could have been them.

But here's the deal -- this guy is saying don't you want to get rid of the money? And he is either answering that question, or he's answering the point that he made earlier about the military equipment. I think this guy was saying, don't you think we ought to defund them? And he says yes, absolutely.

But he is now acting as if that had to do with the surplus military equipment. So, he's now flipped.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Yes, he's trying to flip.

(CROSSTALK)

ROVE: The people around him are smart enough to understand this is a really radical position and they can't even leave him there.

HANNITY: They literally plagiarized Bolshevik Bernie. They've literally taken AOC.

All right. Here's my question, they didn't do anything for Chicago in eight years, law and order, safety and security. They didn't do anything after Ferguson, or Baltimore, or any other incident.

Now they are acting like they have all the answers. We have 125 years of promises between Schumer, Biden, and Pelosi.

ROVE: Yes. Look, many of our major U.S. cities are dysfunctional. And it's not accident. Most of -- many of our major cities have been governed by liberal Democrats.

And you're right, Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, now Mayor Lightfoot -- I mean, to take a look at New York. It was much better under -- under Giuliani than it is under de Blasio.

HANNITY: Is it a new race based on who he is now openly embraced? And we have 20 seconds.

ROVE: You know, I -- look, he's going to -- the kind of campaign we're going to be in is the kind of campaign where he's going to be able to hide from tough question from the press. The press is not inclined to ask him tough questions, but they're going to have even fewer opportunities to ask him.

That's why the Trump campaign needs to be very focused on making these points deliberately each day about how -- he's -- how he is saying one thing, and then when e gets into trouble saying something else, and holding him to account each and every day, in a targeted, focused, disciplined way.

HANNITY: All right. Karl Rove, the architect, thank you.

Great news, Dr. Oz, our A-Team, coming up.

When we come back, major Twitter hack ongoing as we speak. We have a live report.

Lindsey Graham, one of them hacked. He's pushing to declassify a key FBI memo that would expose the deep state.

That and much more breaking news. Glad you're with us tonight.

(COMMERCIAL BERAK)

HANNITY: All right. Breaking news tonight, a major widespread Twitter hack just targeted some of the most high profile accounts on the platform, including Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Barack Obama.

Here with the latest, our very own Rick Leventhal.

Rick, this is very widespread.

(CROSSTALK)

RICK LEVANTHAL, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Sean, a couple hundred million followers may have been surprised to see what Kanye West, former President Obama, Bill Gates and others were posting on their feeds. Presidential hopeful Joe Biden's account posted, quote, I am getting back to the community, all bitcoins sent to the address below will be sent back doubled. If you sent $1,000, I'll send back $2,000, only doing this for 30 minutes, enjoy.

Billionaire Elon Musk had a similar message posted on his account, claiming he was feeling grateful. Corporations including Apple were victimized, too. Part of a widespread hack attack across the social media platform, with preset limits apparently. Kanye said he could only spare 10 million bucks, and Amazon's Jeff Bezos said he'd shell out $50 million.

Some messages were quickly reposted when deleted and a lot of folks actually fell for the bitcoin bit, with Biden's account receiving over $100,000 in cryptocurrency.

Now, a short time ago, the Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted, of course: Tough day for us. You see that's an earlier statement from Twitter about that security incident. Just a short time ago, Jack Dorsey tweeted tough day for us to Twitter, we all feel terrible this happened. We're diagnosing and will share everything we can when we have a complete understanding of exactly what happened, Sean.

But of course, I don't have to tell you, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is -- Sean.

HANNITY: All of my social media accounts by my staff here, I don't even know how to get into them. I have no idea. I'd have to hire a hacker to get into it.

You know, I said this about Julian Assange -- all that talk. I said, the guy hacked into the DOD and NASA like when he was 16. Why don't we build our defenses? It never made sense. We should learn from that.

All right. More developments tonight, our quest to hold those who abuse power accountable, Senator Graham now seeking declassification. Key FBI document surrounding the bureau's interview with one of Christopher Steele's dirty dossier sources -- sub source in other words. Remember the FBI -- they knew in January 2017 -- January 21st, they interviewed the sub source, the full dossier, full of lies. It was bar talk. They kept using him to spy on Team Trump anyway.

That raises questions for Mueller. Well, now, Senator Graham said, in fact, he will pull in.

Speaking of Senator Graham's upcoming race, a lot of money is pouring into South Carolina. Hollywood liberals Alyssa Milano, Kathy Griffin have publicly, well, supported Graham's opponent. Big contributions, Rosie O'Donnell, Barbra Streisand, Hillary Clinton, MoveOn.org. Wow.

Now, Lindsey Graham, senator from the great state of South Carolina -- so I'm wondering if Hillary, Rosie, and Kathy Griffin, and Barbra Streisand -- I'm wondering if their money is going to be impactful to the people of South Carolina which I imagine really don't want Hollywood liberals or liberal politicians telling them what to think and how to vote.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.: It's the most expensive money you will ever receive.

What we are going to do is let people in South Carolina know where the $13.9 million is coming from, and what it is about Jamie Harrison that all these people like? I think we'll put a proposal together here soon.

But let me tell you what's coming up from the Judiciary Committee. You have followed this more than anybody probably in the country. Remember the Horowitz report indicated that an intel analyst and a case agent interviewed the Russian sub-source in January for three days, and again in March. And they actually produced a memo of about 40 pages detailing how unreliable the dossier was.

You also have to remember that they renewed the warrant in April and June of 2017. Here's what I'm here to tell you. I want that memo out to the public so they can read it for themselves. I think we're days away from having it declassified it, not weeks.

And here's my point, anybody that read that memo or was briefed about the memo and continue to use the dossier to get a warrant against Carter Page in April and June of 2017, they're in big time trouble.

HANNITY: That's -- well, they also went before the first one. They were told still has an agenda, they were told Hillary pays for it. They were told it was unverified. Comey signed off on three of them, even after -- the third one being after this happened.

GRAHAM: This is -- this is -- this is different. Let me tell you why it's different.

Yes, you had the State Department saying, beware. You had Bruce Ohr in November of 2016 telling McCabe you can't trust Steele's information. You need to verify it. That's all true, but this is different.

They actually found the guy who put the dossier together. He wasn't a sub- source for Christopher Steele. He was an employee of Christopher Steele. The Russian was on Christopher Steele's payroll, he wasn't a contractor.

But after you talked to the guy who put the memo together, and you got a 40-page document explaining why it's not reliable, and you use it after that, you're really in trouble with --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: But, Lindsey, let me argue a little bit with you, here. Remember, top of a FISA warrant -- I haven't seen one in my life, but people have told me the word "verified" is on top of it. Rod Rosenstein, he has to be verified is on top of it. Rod Rosenstein, he has to be verified by career officials. We now know it was completely unverifiable.

And they're only looking into its veracity after two of the warrants were already signed off on? That means they use unverifiable information, and they were also warned about it. So, there's no excuse any way you look at this.

GRAHAM: Right. Well, one is, if I'm told, be careful, don't use this, you need to check it out. If somebody fails to do it, yes, they're in trouble. But if you know, if you've actually been told by the person who prepared it, you shouldn't use it, that's a crime.

HANNITY: I would argue both are, but I'm not the lawyer. We'll leave that up to Durham and Barr -- hopefully soon, hopefully soon.

GRAHAM: Right, yes.

HANNITY: And Robert Wray, clean up the premier law enforcement agency in the world. Do your job. And it will be interesting to bring Bob Mueller.

GRAHAM: Amen --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Will you bring back Mueller, Comey, McCabe, Yates, for example, Strzok and Page?

GRAHAM: Yeah. So, in September, we're going to bring Comey and McCabe in. Yes, absolutely.

I've got three weeks between now and the August break. We've done about six interviews, and there's another document coming out that you've never seen or heard about before that's incredibly damning. The FBI knew that the document was unreliable in January and February and they continued to use it in April and June.

Somebody can go to jail over this. Stay tuned.

HANNITY: Mr. Higher Honor, it appears, signed off on an unverifiable dossier. Mr. Higher Honor, can't wait to hear from him.

Lindsey Graham, thank you.

Can't wait to hear from Mueller. He didn't know what Fusion GPS was, didn't know who Jeannie Rhee was. We've got a lot of -- we've got a lot -- if there's going to be equal justice and application of our laws, I'd say there's indictments coming. We can hope the truth comes out.

When we come back, the left continues to promote their cancel culture going after Goya Foods. We'll have more details when we return. And the boycott is amazing. Credit to the American people.

And good news on the vaccine front for corona, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: The left tonight continuing to actively promote what we call cancel culture. Last week, they tried to cancel Goya Foods simply because the CEO praised President Trump, oh, to think of it.

Last night, Ivanka Trump showed her support for Goya Foods and the work that they have done fighting and delivering for the Hispanic community on Twitter. That led to a backlash. The mob and the media, the cancel culture.

Yesterday, they found out, well, a new victim. L.A. Times contributor declared Judy Rosen declared it's time to replace "The Star-Spangled Banner." Really?

Joining us now with reaction, the host of the "Rubin Report", Dave Rubin, Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz.

You know, Congressman, I'll start with you. Years ago -- they do this to all conservatives. I don't call for anyone's firings, I don't support boycotts, I never will. Because it's really an effort to silence speech you don't agree with.

I think people are smart enough, they make decisions which shows they watch, radio stations they listen to, and out of nowhere, this incredible audience on this channel and my radio show, they started busting (AUDIO GAP) buying 500 of them (AUDIO GAP) nice people who were defending me, and by the way, it worked.

This boycott is viral. I'm going to buy a Goya Foods and give it to my local food pantry.

REP. MATT GAETZ, R-FLA.: The radical left is trying to create a country too woke for Ivanka, Goya Foods, and even the national anthem, for goodness sakes. And I am not here for it.

The reason our National Anthem matters, our statutes matter, our history matters, our businesses like Goya Foods matter because they create a sense of national identity. We want that national identity to be strong so that people are patriotic and love our country, and fight for our country to be the very best version of itself. But the left is attacking all of this because they want us to love our people and our history and our "Star- Spangled Banner" less because they want to replace our country with something else.

I guess the "Los Angeles times" wrote that they should replace the "Star- Spangled Banner" with "lean on me", Sean. But if that's the case, it would most certainly violate the social distancing rules because I don't know how you can lean on someone from 6 feet apart.

So, maybe there would be no song, no company, no art that we could ever celebrate again if we elect these radical leftists to control our country.

HANNITY: You know, Dave, you have a book behind you, I believe it's "Don't Burn This Book", is that right?

OK, my question is -- why is it the intolerant left?

DAVE RUBIN, "THE RUBIN REPORT" HOST: Yes.

HANNITY: I don't like Jimmy Kimmel, I don't like Bill Maher. I've defended them and fought against firings. Now, they want to go after everybody. What you said 25 years ago, 30 years ago.

And, you know, I supported Joy Reid when they wanted to fire her. I said, give her another chance.

I don't support boycotts. I don't support firings. I support giving people other chances. Maybe I'm just living in an old-fashioned world where I understand people are flawed, and make mistakes, and, you know, right to redemption, nor do I support censorship or trying to silence political views.

RUBIN: Yes. Well, I'm going to guess, Sean, that none of the people you just mentioned have ever afforded you the same accommodation --

HANNITY: Never --

RUBIN: -- when the mob is coming after you, or try to take your responses or anything out.

But I think there's a reason for that, a fundamental reason, which is that people on the right fundamentally understand that if you believe in individual rights, and you believe in the Constitution, you understand that we've got 300 million people in this country. They come from all walks of life, all different backgrounds. They're going to believe different things. Their purchasing habits are going to be different. They're going to live in all sorts of different ways.

This new woke leftist, Marxist thing, it is a mind virus. A virus is very easy to catch, and a very hard to get rid of. And this set of ideas that says you're morally right all the time, and everyone who opposes you is evil, and thus worth boycotting or destroying, or eliminating from society, it sounds good. It's attractive to young people, and we just have to keep beating it with better ideas.

HANNITY: You know, I look at this by Bari Weiss in The New York Times and the horrific names that she was called at The New York Times, and I'm thinking, wow. They are that intolerant, Matt.

And, you know, I'm like, this is supposed to be the land of liberalism and free speech, and free exchange of ideas and opinions. Apparently, the left is groupthink one way or goodbye.

GAETZ: Dave is right, this is a mind virus. And the only vaccine is unapologetic patriotism, and belief that in America, everyone should be treated equally, and we should have the courage to be able to confront ideas that we don't like or make us uncomfortable with more speech.

You cite The New York Times, their opinion page editor had to resign because he believed that stories two or three years ago would've been deemed acceptable now could get an editor or reporter fired. He accused The New York Times of essentially being beholden to the Twitter mob specifically. He said Twitter has no official masthead at The Times, but that it is, in fact, the ultimate editor.

HANNITY: All right.

GAETZ: So, I want to live in a world where we have --

HANNITY: Let me ask Dave --

GAETZ: -- the confidence to confront ideas with better ideas.

HANNITY: Roger Stone, Dave, announced his support for Matt Gaetz running for president. I want to know if you think Matt Gaetz is going to run for president. Prediction, Dave?

RUBIN: If he'll run (ph), well, I like the platform that he was just running on right there, so let's see. Maybe.

HANNITY: I know, and I am predicting --

GAETZ: I'm only worried about one presidential election, and that's for President Trump in 2020.

HANNITY: I am predicting, one day, Matt Gaetz will run and has a pretty good shot at winning. Here's my prediction --

GAETZ: Wow, Sean Hannity will be my chief of staff.

RUBIN: If Matt runs, I'll be press secretary. There you go.

HANNITY: Sean Hannity is going to be long retired. Good luck with that. You're on your own.

All right, thank you both.

When we come back, good news. Major huge update and developments, COVID-19 vaccine. Our medical A-team, Dr. Oz, with all that news, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Promising news developing in the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. Multiple reports, Moderna's coronavirus vaccine is now ready for its final phase of testing of 30,000 people.

And that's not all. Another vaccine has already entered phase 3 human trials. This potential remedy is being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.

Great Dr. Oz is with us, our medical A-Team.

Dr. Oz, I talk to you today and you made me feel very hopeful and happy.

MEHMET OZ, MD, "THE DR. OZ SHOW" HOST: Well, it's a big day for vaccines. There are 150 possible vaccines, by the way. There are 17 in human trials. The two you mentioned have made the most progress.

Moderna reported its phase one results last night. Oxford is going to release it over the next few days. But it's pretty good news. One is old school, one is new school, we had different approaches. There -- we'll see who wins the race.

But 45 patients reported by Moderna, they got two doses in over a month period. There is a little bit of side effects like mild fatigue, or headaches, chill like symptoms, about half of the people had that, but nothing major.

But here's the big news, 100 percent of the 45 patients all of them, had antibodies against COVID-19 and they had it at levels higher than if they had been naturally infected by the virus. Now that doesn't prove effectiveness and doesn't prove it will be around for a long time because I don't know about duration, but the fact that you have a lot of antibodies at a high level is a good sign.

And as you point out, now, they're going to be moving into phase three, which is 30,000 people tracked over two years. We're going to compare people who get a placebo to folks who should get the vaccine, and we're going to figure out when they're exposed in real-world conditions to COVID- 19, are they protected and do they have side effects?

And, ideally, we'll get success which the U.S. government defines will reduce senior (ph) symptoms by 50 percent.

HANNITY: They will have tens of millions of doses this year. AstraZeneca - -

OZ: Yes.

HANNITY: -- I don't know, you know, do you -- is there a chance we get this by the fall?

OZ: No, I don't think we'll have a vaccine by the fall. In fact, by the time we actually get the vaccine shown to be safe and effective and I have enough doses to start taking care of a lot of Americans, it's going to be 2021. But the fact that we actually have something that works and now we can begin to scale up and produce it is huge.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Moderna saying tens of millions of doses by the end of this year, tens of millions -- their words.

OZ: I know they're going to half a billion doses by next year.

HANNITY: Crazy.

OZ: And they might start by the beginning of 2021, but I got on my show had all the major vaccine experts. Peter Hotez was on this week and he said, it's actually going to be a little later in his opinion.

HANNITY: All right. Quick last question --

OZ: Remember mRNA vaccine which is what -- yes?

HANNITY: If the 30,000 have the same results as the 45, would you take it? Real quick, I have five seconds.

OZ: I would take it, yes.

HANNITY: So would I. Thank you, Dr. Oz.

More "Hannity", next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Twenty days, Hannity.com, Amazon.com, my new book, "Live Free or Die: America and the World on the Brink" is out.

Let me put it this way, if Biden, the Bolshevik Bernie, AOC, Bozo O'Rourke, Schumer, Pelosi agenda are ever implemented, it will destroy the greatest governmental system we have ever had designed by men -- Hannity.com, Amazon.com.

Let not your heart be troubled. Laura Ingraham, she's going to interview me for the book if I give her a free one.

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