This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," February 12, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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

All right. Tonight, we have breaking news on numerous big stories.

New York Governor Cuomo in big trouble after a bombshell new report revealed that Cuomo attempted a cover-up the nursing home death toll related to his disastrous COVID-19 policy. Some are now calling for Cuomo to be prosecuted for obstruction. Even have fake news CNN's fake Jake Tapper, he's actually covering the scandal, tweeting today: The story keeps getting worse for Andrew Cuomo.

We're going to update you with more on this developing story tonight.

And we'll have the very latest from the multiple scandals now rocking the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, now in complete meltdown mode. Meghan McCain, wow, unleashed brutal tweets tonight. One of their co-founders, Steve Schmidt, just resigned in disgrace.

But, first, the Democrats' snap impeachment charade sham, it just faced its day of reckoning. Finally, the president's legal defense team, they completely eviscerated all of the Democrats paper-thin arguments, all of which were, as we told you, unconstitutional. None of which meet any real legal standard that would ever hold up in any court. No rules of evidence mattered in any way, shape, matter, or form.

And to add to that, they are editing, they're slicing, they're dicing, and then purposely ignoring all damaging, exculpatory evidence, and presided over by a judge who already declared Trump guilty.

Wow. This is the United States of America. That's a kangaroo court.

The House managers, they were eviscerated on their argument over incitement -- their favorite word, "insurrection". They were eviscerated on their argument of the Constitution. The president's defense team exposed to managers' manufactured evidence, their selective editing. They also exposed the Democrats' rampant hypocrisy. It was a humiliating, total, complete beat-down.

Now the defense team started today by showing how the impeachment managers actually had to manipulate and did manipulate the president's January 6th remarks.

Watch for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to walk down, and I'll be there with you. We're going to walk down -- we're going to walk down to the capitol. We're going to walk down to the capitol.

And we are going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them. Because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.

We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the capitol building, to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, as you could see, not only did the Democrats selectively edit the president's speech, they also manipulated key evidence, pieces of evidence, and they frequently relied on, guess what, well, their best friend, sketchy news reports and rumor to make their case. I would never fly in every court of law.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): According to those around him, at the time, reportedly responded -- Trump reportedly reports.

REP. JOE NEGUSE (D-CO): Across all major news outlets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Major news networks, including FOX News, reported --

NEGUSE: Reported.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reportedly summoned.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Reportedly --

REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-TX): Reportedly not accidental.

According to reports --

President Trump was reportedly --

Who reportedly spoke to the guard?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was widely reported.

RASKIN: Media reports.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: According to reports.

NEGUSE: Reported.

REP. TED LIEU (D-CA): Reportedly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, this is why, as Jonathan Turley warned the country, you do not do snap impeachments. This is why you actually need real time that you've got to take so you can gather real evidence, so you can conduct thorough investigations, you can allow due process, and even, oh, the thought of it, allow for a defense.

Now, the Democrats case rests on two incredibly flawed and extremely weak arguments. Now the first, that the president said, "fight like hell", and those words are unacceptable, and they incited an insurrection on January 6 from the president's rally.

But as the president's lawyers rightly pointed out today, in what became a ten-minute straight montage showing Democrats themselves frequently using this phrase, "fight like hell" or "fight, fight, fight" in front of their own supporters. Hypocrisy on display.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): We complain, or we can fight back. I am here to fight back. I am here to fight back!

SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): But we are going to make sure that this fight does not end tonight.

SEN. BOB MENENDEZ (D-NJ): This is a fight for our lives.

SEN. JACKY ROSEN (D-NV): I will fight like hell to fight back against anyone.

SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-NH): We need to say loud and clear that we are ready to fight.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): A bare knuckles fight.

SEN. RON WYDEN (D-OR): Now they are going to have to actually fight back.

SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D-HI): We will fight back. We're not just going to take this lying down.

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): I'm just going to keep the fight up.

SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D-NY): What we have to do right now as fight as hard as we can.

SEN. DEBBIE STABENOW (D-MI): We have to rise up and fight back.

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): Continue to fight.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Fight, this is going to be a fight.

CASTRO: We'll also fight him and challenge him in every way that we can.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF TEH UNITED STATES: This is what is our fight right now.

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): There's a fight -- there's the fight -- then there's the fight to defend.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: And we just have to fight, and this is a fight for our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: So, based on the Democrats definition, all of them were inciting insurrection. If that's what you believe, every Democrat would be guilty by their own standard. What is their standard?

And what about their violent rhetoric? Doesn't count as incitement to insurrection? As always on this show, we'll let you decide. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PELOSI: And uprising all over the country, maybe there will be.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there is unrest in our lives.

PELOSI: We've got to be ready to throw a punch.

We have to be ready to throw a punch.

SEN. JON TESTER (D-MT): Donald Trump, I think you need to go back and punch him in the face.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought they should've punched him in the face.

BOOKER: Feel like punching him.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would like to take him behind the gym if I were in high school.

If I were in high school, I would take the gym and beat the hell out of him.

No, I wish we're in high school and I could take him behind the gym.

REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-CA): I will go and take Trump out tonight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When was the last time an actor assassinated a president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's still going to have go out and a put a bullet on Donald (ph).

WATERS: As you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.

BOOKER: Please, get up in the face of some congresspeople.

PELOSI: People would do what they do.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released a whirlwind, and you will pay the price.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: You will pay the price was price.

OK, as you all know now, it wasn't just Democrats spewing violent rhetoric, but their pals and allies, their press offices in the media mob. 2019, "The Washington Post," Jennifer Rubin calling the Republican Party, calling for it to be burned to the ground. Quote: We have to level them because if there are survivors, if there are people who weathered the storm, they will do it again.

After years of this type of rhetoric, there was a wave of far-left political violence. We all watched it with sadness and horror all summer.

Most Democrats, the media, completely silent, in complete denial. The silence was deafening. The lack of just counting reality before their very eyes. One year of riots, the Democrats, the media mob, oh, now finally, they are telling you they care about rioting.

Well, we should all condemn, this shouldn't be political, all these riots, any violence, whatever it takes place, and yes, every conservative condemned what happened at the capital. In fact, in many cases, you had Democrats actually encouraging this summer's riots. Watch for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: They are not going to stop, and everyone be aware.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just a snapshot of some of the damage people will be waking up to.

SCHUMER: I'm proud of New York, and I'm proud of the protests.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is damage everywhere you look. Honestly, it looks like a war zone.

PELOSI: Heartwarming to see so many people turn out peacefully.

SCHUMER: They keep doing it day after day after day. A nation of protests. The patriots were protesters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: St. John's Church is on fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Violence from Antifa?

REP. JERROLD NADLER (D-NY): That's a myth.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hope someone burns down your whole precinct with all of you all inside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is not generally speaking unruly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And this summer, the vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris, even promoted the bail fund for rioters arrested, saying get back out and join their friends, I guess.

Can you imagine if President Trump ever did this? Senator Lindsey Graham, he raised this very question. It's a powerful one earlier today. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATE CLERK: Does a politician raising bail for rioters encourage more rioting?

SEN. PAT LEAHY (D-VT): Counsel has 5 minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: If Donald Trump incited violence and insurrection, then so did pretty much every Democrat in this country, especially Vice President Harris, and if the Democratic managers, if they applied their same standards to Kamala Harris and other Democrats, they should all be impeached and they should all be tried, including Joe Biden, the guy that wants to take Trump to the back of the gym, then president, and beat the hell out on the president of the United States. Is that not incitement to insurrection?

Now, so are their claims about the president's rhetoric, the same thing. Now, they want you to believe that his statements about election irregularities and voter fraud, that it caused violence on January 6th. You know, when he said many of you will march to the capitol peacefully and patriotically so your voices can be heard?

But if that is the case, well, are we going to -- these Democrats, are they going to be impeached? Are we going to put them, John Thune, Senator Thune, are we going to put them on trial, should they be censored too? Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D-OH): If Stacey Abrams doesn't win in Georgia, they stole it, it's clear. It's clear. I would say that publicly, it's clear.

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: You can run the best campaign, you can even become the nominee. And you can have the election stolen from you.

He knows he's an illegitimate president.

He knows, he knows that there were a bunch of different reasons why the election turned out the way it did.

STACEY ABRAMS (D), FORMER GEORGIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: Votes remain to be counted. There are voices that are waiting to be heard.

And I will not concede.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: And I respect where you are coming from and I respect the issues you are raising. You are not answering the question. Do you think --

ABRAMS: I am --

TAPPER: You are not using the word legitimate.

PELOSI: There are still legitimate concerns over the integrity of our elections and of ensuring the principle of one person, one vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Today's presentation was so compelling, so damning, the Democrats were forced to return to their favorite smear, they accuse the president's legal team of racism and sexism. Yep, take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PLASKETT: The defense counsel put a lot of videos out in there -- in their defense, playing clip after clip of black women talking about fighting for a cause or an issue or a policy. It was not lost on me, so many of them were people of color, and women, black women. Black women like myself, who are sick and tired of being sick and tired for our children.

This summer, things happened that were violent. But there were also things that gave some of us black women great comfort.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Often, when Democrats turned to identity politics, kind of means they lost the argument.

Earlier today, here is what Senator Ron Johnson had to say. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): I think the president's lawyers blew the House manager's case of the water. They legally eviscerated them. I think their arguments, when they show the distortion of the tweets, the selective editing, show the reason why due process is important. And it certainly proved that the First Amendment applies to political speech, probably more than anything. So, yeah, I think the president's lawyers just blew the House managers' case out of the water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And as you can imagine, the media, the mob, was not taking today's evisceration very well. In fact, they were so upset by the facts of the case amid a multitude of complaints, they decided even to attack yours truly. How did my name get brought up in this little event?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: While titillating and surely satisfying to viewers of right-wing media, none of it defended the tragic consequence of Donald Trump speech.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope and trust you have never used the word fight in a live report, as you will be part of the afternoon montage.

TAPPER: This presentation was very partisan. It was a Sean Hannity mix tape at times.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Almost literally.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we saw to me was a preview of "Hannity" tonight, and it really did seem to be trying to make this as much of a partisan process as possible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because long video clips, so many of them that we have seen, you know, "Hannity" and other shows on Fox.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the video presentation, gratuitous, over-the-top, repetitive about Democrats using the word "fight," was that meant to do? Number one make the client happy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: The truth that they won't tell, their audiences today, probably many of them, seeing their own words in the media, and the Democrats, oh, incitement to insurrection.

That is why this program is independent. This is why we don't rush to judgment. It's why we conduct our own investigations and we provide important context. That is why we got it right and they got it wrong on the Russia hoax, the Duke lacrosse case, UVA, Kavanaugh, Ferguson, Cambridge Police, Baltimore, the Covington high school kids.

The media mob got it wrong again and again. They rush to judgment. They get it wrong. They do it every day.

Every time, we were right, they were wrong, every single time. And that's the same going to this snap impeachment.

Ultimately, this comes down to three facts. One, the Senate has no jurisdiction over a private U.S. citizen and cannot remove President Trump from an office he does not hold. Two, according to the FBI, the DOJ, court documents, AOC, and even the fake news media outlets, the attack on January 6th was preplanned.

The president's remarks, therefore, did not incite an insurrection. That was planned ahead of time.

Now, did a small percentage, maybe 1 percent, of rally attendees sadly participate? Yep, and they will all be held accountable.

And three, if the words like "fight like hell" and "election challenges" are now grounds for impeachment, then the Democratic Party is in a lot of trouble. Soon, the snap impeachment Schiff show charade will be over, the president will be acquitted as he should be. And in the coming months, Democrats will be forced to answer for their own conduct.

In the height of a pandemic, millions out of work, millions more suffering, Democrats chose a political show trial as their number one priority. In the midterms, I hope you remember that. You now need to know this, as well. To quote Raskin and Swalwell and Warren and pretty much every other Democrat, Schumer and Joe and Kamala and Pelosi, fight like hell.

And as for the Republican senators like Senator John Tune, reportedly open to continuing this charade with a censure of the former president, any Republican that votes to keep validating and legitimizing this madness while never, ever, John Thune, having the courage to ever apply these exact same standards to your colleagues on the Democratic side, he would need to be primaried, and when did John Thune ever lift a finger to help expose the Russia collusion hoax? I don't remember.

Anyway, any Republican, you are going to apply these standards, any more of this, to Donald Trump, apply it to Joe, Kamala, Chuck, Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi, and every other insurrectionist in violence-inciting Democrat.

Joining us now with reaction, the host of the "Dersghow" podcast, Harvard Law professor, Alan Dershowitz.

You had terrible marks for day one, for the president's team. Today, how would you grade it, sir?

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, HARVARD LAW PROFESSOR: A+. A+ today. They understood what most lawyers don't know what to do, when you're ahead, sit down and shut up. They kept it short, to the point, they made the most important point in response to a question.

They told senators that even though the Senate voted that they had jurisdiction, you who voted that there was no jurisdiction can still vote to acquit based on a lack of jurisdiction. That is what happened in the Belknap case. You should do it now.

It doesn't matter how you get to the acquittal. You can do it on jurisdictional grounds, you can do it on First Amendment grounds, you can do it on due process grounds, the goal of these lawyers today was not to lose, not to lose more than the six Republicans they may already have lost, and they did a masterful job in narrowing the issues, making the senators' focus on it, and I think it was a winning argument. I think they redeem themselves.

HANNITY: You know, professor, you do not give it A-plusses easily. I know that for a fact.

DERSHOWITZ: No.

HANNITY: Because I know both Secretary of State Pompeo and Ted Cruz were your students. You do not give out many As. I never heard you give an A+.

All right, let me ask this last question, because this is important. You are a Democrat, intellectual honesty test here.

DERSHOWITZ: Yeah.

HANNITY: Okay, if they are going to define the president's language as inciting insurrection, doesn't it apply to all the tapes we saw and heard, that we have been playing, that they played today?

DERSHOWITZ: Yeah. It applies certainly to some of them, where they say we will have to fight on the streets, where they say punch in the mouth, it doesn't apply where they say we're going to fight, we're going to fight.

Look, all of that is protected. We have a very vigorous First Amendment. You can advocate. You can assert. You can provoke. You just can't incite, and it can't be incitement if you said peacefully and patriotically to have your voices heard.

I think those are the most important words in this whole mess. So I do think that we're going to see an acquittal. This is going to go down in history as a terrible, terrible abuse of the Constitution. The Democrats put themselves above the law by putting a private citizen on trial and putting him on trial for making speech is protected by the First Amendment.

HANNITY: Well said.

DERSHOWITZ: There is an acquittal, at least it will minimize the damage done, but already, there has been a lot of damage done to our Constitution and to the divisions in our country.

HANNITY: All right. Well said, Professor. Thank you.

Joining us with more, former White House chief of staff.

I don't know when Jordan and Nunes got the medal, I'm like, what about my buddy, Mark Meadows? What about Jay? Jay, you know.

Anyway, let's get --

MARK MEADOWS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Yeah, they deserved it.

HANNITY: So did you. But go ahead, I have -- get your general thoughts on today. I thought it was a beat-down.

MEADOWS: Well, listen, obviously, President Trump's team did a great job today, but more importantly than that, what we got to see on display was the double standard. It was a standard by the Democrats trying to put forth, twist the evidence, twist the facts, and really put forth a narrative that was not accurate, and in doing so, they were -- they came face-to-face with hypocrisy and a double standard they had to face.

Let's look at it this way, Sean. This was the Democrat House managers saying that they didn't like Donald Trump, they didn't vote for Donald Trump, but more importantly, they don't like the 74, almost 75 million people that voted for Donald Trump. And it was that disdain that we saw over the last couple of days.

Hopefully tomorrow, we go to a vote and to an acquittal for President Donald Trump.

HANNITY: I watched you, and I've known you for many years, and you're one of the most honest men I've ever meant. You are a man of honesty, integrity, a man of faith, and I watched you called on another network a liar today. And my blood begins to boil. I kind of get a little mad sometimes.

And I'm watching that, and it was related to the fact about whether or not the president delayed in sending -- or requesting National Guard troops. Did he ask for troops before the 6th, that day, and what time?

MEADOWS: Yeah, two days before that. So, you know, everybody can do that. I think Secretary of Defense Miller will be glad to back me up on this.

But more importantly, Democrat governors and Democrat mayors, throughout the summer, they can back me up on it because I made personal phone calls to them. Every time that there was not only violence there, the president was swift to call and say we want to offer help. But he offered help on this particular day, more than 48 hours before.

I can tell you, when I got the phone call -- I didn't ever get a phone call from Speaker Pelosi, but from Mayor Bowser, the answer was immediate and yes, and that's what we focused on.

And so, again, another false narrative by some of the Democrat House managers to suggest anything other than a very deliberate and quick action on the part of President Trump.

HANNITY: If there's any Republicans now that are not going to apply the same standards to people that we played tape of, using insurrectionist language -- their definition of it, anyway -- I have no, I have no use for them. I'm not even a registered Republican.

John Thune, oh, we'll consider -- are you going to consider censure of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer threatening Supreme Court justices?

We got 30 seconds.

MEADOWS: Well, I think the real key here is we need to get back to the main thing, which are the people across America, and support them. But more importantly than that, is this is not a time to try to look at free speech and suggest that it needs to be punitive and be met with vengeance. It's time to move on, and hopefully, we'll do that tomorrow.

HANNITY: Yeah, let's see if Joe Biden really meant it when he said, I'm for unity. I don't -- you know, it would be nice if he said, it's time now to govern the country. We still -- he still has the Trump vaccine to distribute. And it's not -- they're not doing too good a job in a lot of states.

Congressman, Chief, thanks for being with us.

All right, now despite his promise to fire members of his staff who disrespected others, Biden is giving his deputy press secretary a pass after he threatened a reporter.

And the media mob absolutely melting down over impeachment today -- oh, they tried to come in for the save, and it didn't work, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Now, after team Trump completely devastated the Democrats' impeachment case today, the mob, the media, they went into complete damage control. We have the tape.

But first, we are also learning some troubling revelations about abusive behavior from a White House deputy press secretary. His name is TJ Ducklo, who apparently launched into a vicious tirade against a "Politico" journalist who was working on a story about his relationship with some reporter.

Ducklo reportedly screamed at a political reporter, Tara Palmeri, saying, quote, I will destroy you. I think I was on the war room tape with George Stephanopoulos, if I recall, something similar, you will never work here again, or something like that -- anyway, before accusing her of being jealous of his relationship while using other abusive language.

It's about hypocrisy, double standards, outright lies. That's undeniable, and, of course, no one knows more about double standards than fake news CNN on defense tonight after another Democratic lead show trial crumbled on Capitol Hill.

CNN trying to claim otherwise. Of course. Can't admit the truth, got to perpetuate the Russia hoax still. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: I have never seen a set of lawyers so outmatched than the Trump defense attorneys.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The lawyers that he deserved, and probably the only lawyers, at this point, that he could find.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They didn't answer the question, they deflected, they mistook belligerence for actual substance. It was unpersuasive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But if you watch the president's defense today, the president got the defense that he wanted. It was full of lies, it was full of anger, it was taking things out of context, it was attacking Democrats and it was not answering any specific question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Oh, and as usual, they live in their alternative universe.

Joining us with reaction right now, FOX News contributor and media columnist from "The Hill", Joe Concha, along with FOX News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett.

Joe, we'll give it to you first, Gregg is chomping at the bit on the legal side.

JOE CONCHA, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Sure, he is.

On the media front, I guess we could tackle TJ Ducklo first as far as what happened in terms of him threatening that reporter, Tara Palmeri, a good reporter, by the way, ABC, now "Politico", in the most sexist terms you could come of that I can't even repeat on the air, as you mentioned before, saying he would destroy her as well.

Let me give you the quote, and this is why it is controversial right now, from Joe Biden, January 20th -- I am not joking when I say this, he said. If you're ever working with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I will fire you on the spot. On spot, no ifs, ands or buts.

So, you break my rules, and you were gone, right? But as we're seeing during the Biden administration and during his presidency, Mr. Biden's words and his deeds are two very different things.

For instance, okay, they're going to reopen schools and 100 days. Actually, that means we are going to reopen schools one day a week. Or you show disrespect to a female reporter, I know I said I'd fire you on the spot, but what he really means is you get a one-week vacation and we call it a suspension.

TJ Ducklo should be uploading and updating his LinkedIn account right now, but instead, he's going to be gone for a week, nothing happens to him, and Joe Biden again is not backing up his words with deeds, and not using the type of action that we would like to see in these situations because this was disrespectful. He has his rules, Mr. Biden does, and he does not apply them. In this case, he failed his first test, Sean.

HANNITY: The promise of unity is not exactly -- we'll see if Joe comes out on Monday and says the trial is behind us, let's move on. I will tell America tonight, do not hold your breath. I do not think he has the courage to stand up to the radical base of the Democratic Party.

Gregg, you've been doing phenomenal analysis day after day here. This is now over tomorrow. Your thoughts about today?

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: Well, and, of course, Sean, an extraordinary, one hour, the defense team for Donald Trump utterly and thoroughly destroyed and demolished the House managers' case. I mean, this thing was over in less than an hour. They could have just rested their case.

But what was so brilliant about the defense is they beat the prosecutors at their own game. They effectively used lots of videotape to exonerate Donald Trump, and they exposed the duplicity and dishonesty of the House managers. They accuse the managers of manipulating evidence, and then they proved it. They accused the managers of doctoring a Trump tweet, and then they proved it.

And they proved also that managers had cleverly manipulated and engineered evidence via videotape and turned it from exculpatory evidence into incriminating evidence. You know, if this were a real court of law in front of a real judge, those house managers would have been held in criminal contempt, thrown under (INAUDIBLE) the case immediately dismissed.

But the rank hypocrisy of Democrats was on full display today. You played some of the clips. As every single house manager used the exact same language that the accused Trump of using and inciting violence. They showed Democratic senators doing that. Kamala Harris, up to 70 times, using the exact same language.

So you know, to use boxing terminology, this was a KO, 30 seconds into the first round.

HANNITY: Wow. All right, great analysis, both of you.

Joe, thank you. Gregg, thank you.

Just ahead, a growing scandal and growing calls tonight for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to be criminally prosecuted over his COVID nursing home death scandal, as Gavin Newsom now facing a recall effort.

Our own Lawrence Jones in New York, speaking directly with families affected, plus Congresswoman Elise Stefanik is here with reaction. She wants the governor out, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Tonight, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and his team are in full on damage control after it was revealed that they intentionally misled officials about the extent of COVID nursing home death to avoid the scrutiny of federal investigators.

And even fellow Democrats are now coming to terms with this reality, you have now in New York, a group of Democratic state senators demanding Friday that Governor Cuomo be stripped of his emergency authority to deal with the virus.

Now we sent our own Lawrence Jones to talk to a family, one of many, as a matter of fact, maybe as many as 15,000, lost a loved one in a New York nursing home, and get their reaction to this new development.

Lawrence, L.J., how are you?

LAWRENCE JONES, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Sean.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo received a lot of praise during the pandemic for his press conferences. He even received an Emmy. Now, he's under fire after new evidenced emerged of his office concealing COVID-19 nursing home numbers.

I talked with Robin Hepworth who lost her mother in law. Here is what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Is your mother-in-law concerned when they were bringing that patience into the nursing home? Did she want to be moved, or what took place when she started to see that happen?

ROBIN HEPWORTH, MOTHER-IN-LAW DIED OF COVID-19 IN NY NURSING HOME: She was absolutely in tears, crying on the phone to me and my husband every night saying, "I'm going to die, I'm going to die."

JONES: How does it make you feel that when your mother-in-law expressed that there were COVID patients in the nursing home, and no one did anything about it?

HEPWORTH: Very sad, very angry, really didn't even get to say goodbye to her, we weren't able to have a proper funeral.

JONES: Who do you hold responsible for your mother-in-law's death?

HEPWORTH: I blame the nursing homes. I blame Cuomo for letting the infested patients come into the nursing home. People dying in the nursing home that my mother-in-law told me, she called me and my husband saying she was scared.

JONES: Should Cuomo and resigned?

HEPWORTH: Yes, he should resign.

JONES: Should he be impeached?

HEPWORTH: Yes, he should be impeached.

JONES: If the governor was standing right in front of you, what would you tell him?

HEPWORTH: It's a disgrace and he needs to resign. I mean, to lie to all of these families, you know, it just kind makes you wonder what his agenda is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Sean, a tragic story. Legislation was put in place to protect the nursing homes from being sued. There was an investigation by the attorney general.

Many are asking, will there be a federal investigation? So, the governor in his office on and nursing homes can be held accountable.

Back to you, Sean.

HANNITY: All right, L.J., Lawrence, good to see you. Thank you.

Now, earlier today, Joe Biden met with Governor Cuomo to discuss vaccines and the virus response. New York in particular having a -- well, particularly hard time getting the virus out.

I know down in Florida, guess what, you can go to your local Publix and sign up when it is your turn. Pretty easy.

Apparently, not in New York, and it's not about the governor's massive nursing home cover-up.

So, ask yourself, why is the Biden White House refusing to condemn this lack of action? Hasn't Biden said over and over again that he is committed to following science?

Well, science was right about one thing -- they were wrong about a lot, they were right about one thing, that older people, underlying conditions, comorbidities, compromised immune systems, pre-existing conditions, in nursing homes, were the most vulnerable population. That was the case in the beginning. That never changed.

And the mob and the media, they are pretending like this isn't a full-blown cover-up, barely covering the story.

Now, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik is demanding answers on all of this and demanding a prosecution.

Congresswoman, thank you for being with us.

It's sad. I mean, maybe as many as 15,000 families impacted here. I watched the governor. At one point, he had an 87 percent approval, lashing out at Donald Trump, who built the hospitals, manned the hospitals, converted the hospitals, provided all the masks, shields, gloves, and everything else, and sent the Navy ship.

Those beds remained empty, and they went into nursing homes, blaming the nursing homes from wanting money. A lot of excuse-making here.

REP. ELISE STEFANIK (R-NY): Absolutely. All excuse-making.

And we heard from that New Yorker, we know over 15,000 families in New York have lost loved ones. And I said from the beginning, Sean, this is not just a nursing home scandal. This is a corruption scandal at the highest levels of government of New York state.

And the bombshell reports this week is that the senior aide to the governor, the secretary to the governor knowingly withheld and obstructed justice and was going to not provide information, not only to the public, but to the Department of Justice. That is a federal crime.

I called for a federal independent investigation from the Department of Justice, and I'm calling on President Joe Biden to ensure that the Department of Justice is independent and not swayed by political pressure from Governor Cuomo.

It's a disgrace. The governor should resign. I don't have an expectation that he will, but I think he needs to be prosecuted immediately.

HANNITY: OK, now what happens from here? Because look, we know Albany, New York, we watched a lot of corruption over the years. Why do I have little to no faith in anything gets done?

STEFANIK: Well, I think what's changed, Sean, is the fact you have Democrats in the state senate, Democrats in New York saying that they need to rescind the executive authority that the governor has been given over the course of this pandemic. They have been on record saying there needs to be an investigation, calling for an investigation, both at the state and federal level, and we need to continue to demand transparency, accountability, and prosecution.

When you have a senior-most aide to the governor admitting and releasing a transcript admitting to obstruction of justice, there is literally no excuse that the DOJ should not pursue this. Every American deserves these answers so that we can make sure this never happens again, and the governor is held accountable.

If you want to join this effort to prosecute the governor, sign up at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__cuomocorruption.com&d=DwICAg&c=cnx1hdOQtepEQkpermZGwQ&r=tgDLkJy54PfJyWJwul3dKe54qGxqO7b7d5vjo7RcZds&m=lfTbf9ukpEI7orRJ66saHNwVgYEe9SN6I6nVBkTneAM&s=naM5NPGEvJVMDXyZa6svZA03HMKGelAYsEaR0hrxd7w&e= . We are going to stand strong, and there's bipartisan outcry to stand up for these families.

HANNITY: All right, Congresswoman, we -- we need answers. We do. Thank you.

Coming out, anti-Trump Lincoln Project spiraling out of control, and it's even worse than anyone imagined. The journalist who uncovered it all will join us with more explosive revelations, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Now breaking tonight, the Lincoln Project, the never Trump group, continues to spiral out of control. Its cofounder Steve Schmidt, you can see there, resigning from the group amid more and more troubling developments surrounding John Weaver's alleged exploitation of young men, alleged efforts by the corrupt cofounders to try and hide it from the public, according to reports.

And as we have explained, there is now evidence building members of the project were very well aware that these disturbing allegations against Weaver, dating all the way back to the summer, maybe before, involving his attempts to groom and sexually exploit young men.

Meghan McCain tweeting tonight: Wow, John Weaver, Steve Schmidt were so despised by my dad, he made it a point to ban them from his funeral. Since 2008, no McCain would have spit on them if they were on fire. Oh, ouch.

Adding that: I hope anyone who covered up for this never works in politics again.

Last night, we read you the Lincoln Project statement and contacted them again today to see if they had anything to add. They have not gotten back to us.

Here with more to explain, the journalist that first broke the story, author of no, "They're Not Listening," Ryan Girdusky, is with us, along with former acting director of national intelligence, Ric Grenell.

Ryan, thank you for being with us.

You know, I never talk to never-Trumpers. I just look at a bunch of liberal Republicans that hated Trump style. That's what I thought, and they weren't as conservative as they say someone like me. Never took it personally.

For them, this was always personal, I felt.

RYAN GIRDUSKY, INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST: Right, they ran an organization based on accountability. They were going to dox members of the Trump administration and hold them accountable for the actions of President Trump, whether they were responsible or not, and now, when these accusations against John Weaver have emerged, when there are now three credible stories and two other journalists who sat there and said they knew, they want no accountability whatsoever.

I want to speak about Steve Schmidt for just one second. Steve Schmidt wrote in his six-page apology today, four pages of which were how he was preyed upon as a 13-year-old by a guy named Gay Ray (ph), I feel very sorry for him, I feel sorry that happened to anybody.

But he is being held -- he's not holding himself accountable. He said he had absolutely no idea. That is simply not true. I have victims who have come to me saying that he knew. You have Amanda Becker's (ph) article on "The 19th". You have "The New York Magazine." You have "Associated Press". They called a Trump hit piece.

You have Bishar Ali (ph), you have Maggie Astor of "The New York Times", all have reported the same thing. They knew, and they didn't care.

And if Steve Schmidt cared so much about these victims, and if it made him feel like he was in that 13-year-old again, being molested, why didn't he say anything when my story broke at January 11th? Why did he not say when Scott Stedman's article broke on January 11th?

Why on January 15th when "Axios" broke the story and it was a puff piece where John Weaver said every conversation he had was consensual, why doesn't he speak -- the official statement from the Lincoln Project was at his comment spoke for itself. No, it was until "The New York Times" broke this story where a 14-year-old was involved, that they cared.

HANNITY: Wow, that's a lot to digest.

Let me go to Ric Grenell.

Ric, Ryan brought up the issue of doxxing. Okay, the Lincoln Project when you have a database of Trump officials and staff and they are going to be held accountable? What -- are you, have you ever been a Donald Trump supporter? Really?

Stuart Stevens, I believe.

RIC GRENELL, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Yeah, look, they have been vindictive.

HANNITY: Yeah.

GRENELL: They've been vindictive. They've been nasty.

But look, I want to answer Ryan's question of why Steve Schmidt didn't respond. It's the age-old question in Washington, D.C., because it's about money. This is an organization that collected $87 million to unseat Donald Trump, and other Republicans.

They are claiming to be former Republicans. They are disgruntled because they didn't get in on all the consulting fees from the beginning. Make no mistake, if Donald Trump would have hired any of them, they wouldn't have done the Lincoln Project.

This is the old story of Washington: money, money, money. They all got millions of dollars, and I think the big story right now is why aren't the donors to the Lincoln Project abandoning them?

There was a story today saying that some of them are thinking of possibly not funding them anymore. Are you kidding me? This is an organization that hid pedophilia, it's outrageous, and every single donor should run immediately and apologize for being associated with them.

HANNITY: Real quick, Ryan, because I only have ten seconds, you -- was this underage kids?

GIRDUSKY: Yes. Yes, underage kids, absolutely. Not many of them, but yes, there were.

HANNITY: All right. We'll continue to watch your reporting. Thank you for sharing with our audience.

And, Ric, good to see you.

More "Hannity" after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Unfortunately, this is all the time we have left this evening. As always, thank you for being with us. We hope you'll set your DVR, so you never miss an episode of "Hannity".

If you're in Texas or Oklahoma, that area, you got a massive store coming. Please keep yourself and your family safe. We'll be praying for all of you.

We have a lot to digest from over the weekend on Monday. Have a great weekend. We'll see you back here on Monday. Thank you for being with us.

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