This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," April 12, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Lying pomposity, smugness, groupthink, I got it.

All right, Tucker. Hang on, my pin is crooked. I got to see it.

All right. Have a -- you had a great show. Thank you, Tucker.

Welcome to 'Hannity' tonight.

All right. The media's anti-Trump echo chamber, they are literally spiraling completely out of control. It's become so bad. You've got some of these abusively biased, so-called, wannabe journalists.

They are absolutely losing it from last night's opening monologue, all because I dared to use, oh, Jim Comey's standard in order to criticize some of the left's favorite champions, including the Clintons, Robert Mueller, and Jim Comey himself.

Since the media is having a really hard time understanding some very simple, basic, fundamental concepts and principles, we will help them tonight follow the bouncing ball in just a few minutes.

Also tonight, we will correct the record on some of the fake news that 'The Washington Post' and others are spreading about yours truly and we will reveal now which mobster, murderer Jim Comey was actually comparing your president to. Be prepared to be outraged. Every fair-minded American is going to see through this.

And also tonight, new developments on Mueller's never ending witch hunt. One former FEC chairman is now coming to the defense of Michael Cohen, the president's personal attorney.

And we'll bring you something the mainstream media is all too happy to ignore -- the president's accomplishments. When do they ever talk about that in the media?

All right. Sit tight. We have a lot to get to in tonight's breaking news opening monologue.

(MUSIC)
HANNITY: So, here we are. We're on day 330 of Mueller's witch hunt into so-called Trump-Russia collusion. Still nothing. No evidence, zero.

Show us the evidence, Mr. Mueller, or you can disband your team of merry Trump-hating, big Democratic donating sycophants that, of course, have questionable ethics, especially Andrew Weissmann. By the way, there's no evidence of collusion so far. The mainstream media is now beginning to go off the rails for that one reason.

Remember, why would we be talking about Stormy and Karen McDougal and all this other garbage if they had evidence of collusion? You may remember last night, after Jim Comey -- remember, he compared the president of the United States to a mob boss. Well, I used this ridiculous, sensational, political, I called what it was, the Comey standard, to highlight some of the crimes and misdeeds that were committed by the Clintons, the way the investigation is being handled by Mueller and even Comey himself has issues.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Mr. Comey, you're really going to compare the sitting president of the United States to a mob boss so you can make money? People that are tied to murder, drugs, money laundering, extortion, prostitution, loan- sharking, and all sorts of other racketeering crimes.

Now, I guess since Comey, if he is going to use the sweeping analogy, I've decided tonight we're going to use the Comey standard, I call it, and make some comparisons of our own.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: We are doing what Comey did. And I also issued a tweet last night during the show to try to help some of these idiots in the abusively biased news media actually understand my monologue which they weren't understanding.

So fake news, please, I'm trying to help you follow the bouncing ball. I said this is the Comey standard, and I'm sure that you are upset that the former FBI director literally, he was commenting and comparing a sitting president to the mob -- you know, murders, drug dealers, involved in extortion, loan-sharking, prostitution.

And, by the way, breaking tonight, now we have more details. ABC News is reporting that the actual mobster that Comey was comparing the president who was none other than Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano, an infamous hit man, if you don't know, responsible for 19 murders. That's the FBI director comparing the president of the United States to and other felonies of course.

Despite my very clear analogy, you have to really try hard not to get it, about Comey's ridiculous comparison. This still caused many in the mainstream media to become completely and totally unglued, even emotional.

These people are frankly, they are so dumb. They really are. It's actually kind of laughable, but they are. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE BRZEZINSKI, MSNBC: Who needs TV guide when they have POTUS? We'll show you exactly what President Trump was promoting through his Twitter page last night. It was one of his stooges doing a show that really helps the president. It's incredible. Staggering.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bob Mueller, whatever you want to say about him, this is not taking a position on his investigation. He's a man who served this country for his entire life. So, to call him the head of a crime family, that's new territory.

JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC: It is beneath contempt. Sean Hannity is a desperate, desperate man, desperately defending a desperate, desperate president.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN: If I can, I want to get your reaction to Sean Hannity calling Robert Mueller a crime boss.

PHIL MUDD, CNN: I spent four and a half years by Robert Mueller. This is a storied prosecutor, one of the most legendary FBI directors. So, you've got that dirt bag telling me that one of the most storied FBI directors ever is a crime boss? You put them side-by-side and tell me what we've got here, John. Facts are facts.

Robert Mueller is an American legend. The president is a dirt bag. I mean, I don't know what to tell you. I'm so pissed off.

DON LEMON, CNN: One of President Trump's tweet tonight, he said, big show on Sean Hannity at 9:00 on Fox. Well, if you watched 'Hannity,' you would see this. The show hitting James Comey and highlighting what Hannity calls the Mueller crime family. This is a message the president wants?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Phil Mudd, I would suggest you might want to talk to the four families involved in the case with Whitey Bulger that were innocent and put in jail and got over $100 million payout. Or maybe you can ask your good friend, Mr. Mueller, why would he hire someone like Andrew Weissmann?

Liberal Joe, you're just dumb. Nothing to really say to you.

Not to be outdone, the print media also chiming in. This includes 'The Washington Post.' They called me quote 'conspiratorial.' I guess they haven't been watching MSNBC and CNN fake news for a year and a half. These so-called journalists, did they even watch last night's monologue or were they just too dumb to follow a simple analogy?

Either way, as I said on Twitter during the show last night, let's help them follow the bouncing ball, so even they can get it. I'll talk slowly so the mainstream media understands.

Comey was the director of the FBI. He compared the president to a mob boss. We know it's Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano. I called Comey out on what he did and I talked about what real mob bosses are like, and we reminded them about Al Capone and Lucky Luciano and John Gotti.

Then I used the former director's criminalization of political differences, now known as the Comey standard, to call out the misdeeds and frankly the crimes of a few champions of the left wing in this country.

Let's start with Hillary Clinton. We know she committed felonies with her email server, and we know she obstructed justice. Robert Mueller, this great reputation, what, he's locked up innocent people in cases he's been involved in. He staffed his Russia investigation with Trump-hating Democratic donors, including his so-called 'New York Times,' as they call him and describe them, legal pit bull Andrew Weissmann. This man's track record is atrocious, as we have explained.

And Jim Comey, of course, grossly mishandled the Clinton email investigation. We will learn more when the I.G. report finally comes out and Comey also linked potentially classified documents that resulted in the appointment of his BFF Robert Mueller as the special counsel. OK, well, that's privileged information, government documents we are talking about.

One of the reason the media's coverage of last night's monologue was so completely unhinged is because President Trump issued a tweet prompting people to watch last night's show. He has done this occasionally, and I'm very thankful, by the way. I had no idea that the president was planning to tweet. I'm glad he did.

There was no coordinated effort. I start my monologue at like 8:00 or 9:00 in the morning and we keep building it all day. I have the text timelines to show when I brought up this idea from the time I read what Comey had said.

But it didn't stop 'The Washington Post' accusing me of being a shadow White House press secretary, which is funny, and colluding with the president.

OK, they have lost their minds. This is complete and total fake news B.S. And the best part is, if they actually wanted to know the truth, maybe they could have picked up a telephone to call me or call Fox. You know, do some actual journalism.

I spend my free hours when I am not on air calling people all the time, so I can be the most informed person that I can possibly be. As I said many times, journalism in this country is dead. It is buried and has been since, what, 2007.

So, instead of reporting facts, these so-called news outlets, they just literally push their own political narrative, all while hiding behind this, you know, feigned moral outrage, this moral facade, and calling themselves journalism -- journalists. So, while the media and the mainstream media gets mad at an -- I'm an opinion journalist host. By the way, frankly, we broke more news on this program that they have broken in a year and a half. They just echo the same talking points every night.

And they are totally happy to forget about all the former FBI Director Comey's misdeeds, including leaking potentially classified privileged notes to the press to set up a special counsel, his potential weaponization of the FISA court system, the special treatment he gave Hillary Clinton, who we know committed felonies during that email investigation. You know, he wrote the letter exonerating Clinton in May before he interviewed her in July and 17 other key witnesses.

And remember, when Comey lied about this very subject in front of Congress while under oath, he lied about it. We have him in his own words, and we have the videotape.

As Warner Wolf says, let's go to the videotape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN RATCLIFFE, R—TEXAS: Director, did you make the decision not to recommend criminal charges relating to classified information before or after Hillary Clinton was interviewed by the FBI on July the 2nd?

JIM COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: After. If colleagues of ours believe I am lying about when I made this decision, please urge them to contact me privately so we can have a conversation about this. All I can do is tell you, again, the decision was made after that because I didn't know what was going to happen in that interview. She maybe lied during the interview in a way we could prove.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: But just in case, we wrote the exoneration months earlier. And then, oh, and interview by Peter Strzok. Oh, that's right, the Trump- hating guy.

Despite all of this, the mainstream media, their friends in the Democratic Party, they're currently treating Comey like the anti-Trump golden goose. I guess they forgot how much they actually hated him during the investigation of Hillary Clinton.

Here is Comey's best friend's today. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID GREGORY, JOURNALIST: -- is the extent to which the FBI director of the United States is allowing himself to be interjected into this political campaign, unprecedented.

MARK HALPERIN, JOURNALIST: James Comey is getting horrible advice. He is interfering in this election. I don't understand what the guy's doing.

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER, D-NEW YORK: He's got a big burden of proof, so to speak, on him for what he did, for what seems to be such an appalling act that goes against the tradition of prosecutors at every level of government. It was -- when I heard about it, I found it hard to believe that Comey, who I thought I had some degree of integrity, would do this.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN: It is conceivable this was just a coincidence but coming on top of the Director Comey's very unusual and controversial release last week, it makes the FBI look like a wing of the Republican Party.

REP. NANCY PELOSI, D—CALIFORNIA: I think he made a mistake on this. And he clearly has a double standard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whether or not Comey's intervention has affected the presidential race, it's clear that his disclosure and the spate of now competing, what might even say warring FBI leaks that are followed, have raised serious questions about the FBI's integrity and impartiality.

APRIL RYAN, REPORTER: I just tell you, the integrity of Comey as well as the FBI is in question, it makes you wonder.

JOHN PODESTA, CLINTON CAMPAIGN: We are disturbed, first of all, by the letter, which really broke precedent, was over the advice of the leaders in the Justice Department. You know, I'm not challenging Mr. Comey's motivation but I do think it was unwarranted, it was a mistake.

SEN. HARRY REID, D—NEVADA: I am so disappointed in Comey. He has let the country down for partisan purposes. And that's why I'm calling him the new J. Edgar Hoover because I believe it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you believe that Jim Comey should resign, Senator Reid?

REID: Of course. Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: They hated him. The media is back in love with James Comey and the montage that you just saw is just another piece of evidence proving facts do not matter to these people on the left, only ideology. And speaking of James Comey, and his impending salacious media blitz that the media is hysterical about, 'The New York Post' reporting one of the so-called major nuggets in his new book is that Donald Trump allegedly asked the former FBI director to investigate this infamous, completely untrue, unverified Ritz-Carlton Moscow hookers urinating in a bed story by Michael Steele, the foreign national guy that was paid to get Russian propaganda to manipulate the American voters.

So, why would a sitting president want to go to an FBI director? I hope you can dispel this. If, in fact, he thought it was true? Because the president is saying that's just so not true. Can you find out that it's not true? And can you report that it's not true? Wouldn't you want to do the same? We'll have much more on that later tonight.

We turn to some other developments, including those surrounding Robert Mueller's overreaching witch hunt. Former Federal Election Commission chairman, his name is Bradley Smith, he's a Republican appointed by President Clinton, is throwing cold water on the notion that Michael Cohen could or should be charged with a crime in connection to this whole Stormy Daniels payment.

He wrote the following: When you stretch the law to, quote, get a political opponent, it's rarely possible to return the law to its original shape.

As someone who was never part of the Trump campaign but instead a longtime employee of the Trump Organization, Smith is arguing that Cohen's payment is a perfectly legitimate business move, and that any attempt to connect it to an in-kind contribution is an extreme stretch. It doesn't fit.

But, of course, we have discussed many times in this program, Mueller and his pitbull Andrew Weissmann, they are no strangers to stretching the law in order to squeeze a suspect.

Earlier today, President Trump held a routine meeting with Mueller's boss, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. This comes after Rosenstein finally, after being threatened with contempt of Congress, again, he doesn't want to give anything up that's been subpoenaed and requested by Congress, and an impeachment, well, finally, he allowed Chairman Devin Nunes and Chairman Gowdy to see the document that started the FBI so-called Trump-Russia collusion investigation. We're going to have more on that later in the show.

But, first, we do have some good news to bring you about the president. I guarantee you nobody else in the media will talk about it. And earlier today, the president actually in a speech in the Rose Garden was highlighting something the media will never talk about -- it's not Russia and it's not Stormy -- his accomplishments that are improving the lives of the American people, the forgotten men and women that voted in November of 2016.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have created 3 million new jobs since the election, unemployment claims are at their lowest level in nearly 50 years. Think of that.

Something I'm very proud about, unemployment rates for Hispanics and African-Americans have reached the lowest level ever recorded. Ever recorded. Think of that.

For women, the lowest levels in 19 years. So we have really good numbers. Something a lot of people didn't think was going to happen, wages are rising at the fastest pace in over a decade.

We're cutting record numbers of regulations. We've cut more regulations in a year and a quarter than any administration, whether it's four years, eight years, or in one case, 16 years.

We are also unleashing American energy and American energy independence. We're now an exporter of energy. We're doing 10 -- think of this -- 10 million barrels a day. Nobody thought they'd see this.

We are cracking down on unfair trade deals. We're taking strong action to secure our border, stop illegal immigration and restore the rule of law. And we passed the biggest tax cut and reform in American history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Make no mistake, in just over a year, the amount of accomplishments from this administration, this is historic. I've never seen the media talk about this. Major tax cuts, the negotiated trade deals, the rolling back of job-killing Obama era regulations, concessions from China just in the last week on tariffs and intellectual property rights, progress towards actually denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, and so much more.

And while the media is all too happy to completely ignore all of these achievements that actually matter in people's lives, well, we're going to continue to show you what's really happening. As we say, many times on this program, we'll never be the destroy Trump media. Fair and balanced, that's our commitment. We are the only balance it seems.
Joining is now Fox News contributor, former Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee, NRATV contributor Dan Bongino.

Governor, I want to just get the big picture from you. On the one hand, I'll even scroll the accomplishments of the president because he mentioned them today. But as you see them, it is never reported. Not sometimes, not only once in a while, never.

Denuclearization, Putin pulled his ships out of Syria. It looks like he's capitulating. China, intellectual property -- all of these accomplishments, not a single word, Governor, and it's always Russia and Stormy and whatever other bizarre thing this investigation is involved into.

MIKE HUCKABEE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: When I was listening to your monologue, the one thing that really struck me was that there is a consistency. James Comey has been incredibly inconsistent. The media has been inconsistent, as have politicians, about Comey but there's one consistency.

They all universally cannot stand President Donald Trump. And that's the one thing that holds true. They thought James Comey was the worst person imaginable. Now that he's written this incredible fiction where he's basically breaking his arm patting himself on the back, you would think he was the next Mother Teresa.

What changed? Changed was that James Comey, now he has turned on Donald Trump and that has the media all in just a complete froth because they are excited about that. But, no, they're never going to tell the things that you just outlined in terms of the accomplishment because it defies their narrative that he's not a capable and competent president. But the record shows that he is.

HANNITY: You know, Dan Bongino, you look at what this evolved into. They didn't find anything. We are here because they didn't find any evidence of collusion. I'm pretty sure we would have known about it by now because they kind of leak everything. Not a little bit. Pretty much everything gets leaked out.

So, now, it's actually moved into Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal and the 'Access Hollywood' tape and worse. And raiding the home of the president's personal attorney to find those issues, not about Russia -- at some point, I am wondering where is the left in this country? Where are the civil libertarians in this country?

DAN BONGINO, NRATV CONTRIBUTOR: They are gone, Sean. Sean, the media is terrified because they realized Bob Mueller is in deep trouble. Public approval of his investigation is collapsing. People are starting to realize that this is a witch hunt. There was no Russia collusion. There never will be Russian collusion. Trump is not afraid of Russian collusion because there was none.

But, Sean, Mueller is deeply conflicted. What those CNN hacks won't tell you, as they attack you, they don't do investigative journalism. They do propaganda.

HANNITY: By the way, I want residuals. They ran my tape so much today, I want them to pay me. Jeff Zucker needs to pay me.

BONGINO: Yes, well, I'm appearing on tonight's show. Do I get some of those residuals?

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: It's like a rerun of "Hannity." I'm like, if you want my show, you should have bid for it. But, you know?

BONGINO: They are investigating. Here's the crime -- the crime is that Trump was spied on without the evidence to do it. You know who vetted the t information at the Department of Justice? Bob Mueller's own chief of staff, John Carlin.

By the way, do you know who is representing Susan Rice as her attorney right now, Sean, in this --

HANNITY: Who?

BONGINO: --when they reached out to her to explain? Kathryn Ruemmler. You know who Kathryn Ruemmler was? Barack Obama's general counsel --

HANNITY: Unbelievable.

BONGINO: -- who also worked wait, wait, wait -- who worked for Andrew Weissmann in the Enron case and is friendly with Bob Mueller. Tell me there's no conflict, CNN. Do your homework.

HANNITY: Great point.

Let me ask Governor Huckabee, what would you advise the president? There is two schools of thought, that he fights back or that the president lets his attorney handle it.

HUCKABEE: I think let the attorneys handle it. When he is at the podium and when he's at the microphone, he needs to focus on the accomplishments of his administration and there are many. He's got a great story to tell, and he's the best one to tell it.

HANNITY: Do you agree, Dan? Real quick.

BONGINO: Yes, he's got a story to tell. You are darn right. Those tax cuts alone and the economy will be the bread and butter issues. They're going to ride him into reelection.

HANNITY: It's unbelievable. Abuse -- the biggest abuse of power scandal in the country's history.

Now, when we come back, fake news CNN embarrassingly giddy over the new report that Trump asked Comey to investigate in the fake news dossier. Dr. Gorka, Jason Chaffetz next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. The media, they're foaming at the mouth awaiting details to a leak of James Comey's upcoming tell-all book.

Just take a look at how CNN covered one of the, quote, 'bombshells' earlier today. You cannot make this stuff up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN: Some explosive new excerpts from the former FBI Director James Comey's new book. Chris Cillizza, you know, you've just read the story in 'The New York Post.' It's got some truly salacious details of conversation that the president supposedly had with Comey.

CHRIS CILLIZZA: Right, so we knew there was going to be some bombshells in here. This certainly is a big one. I want to read just a few of the quotes from 'The New York Post' as obtained -- the Comey memoir as obtained by 'The New York Post.' This is regarding Comey and Trump.

'He brought up what he called the golden shower thing, adding that it bothered him if there was, quote, even a 1 percent chance, end quote, his wife, Melania, thought it was true.'

Then it goes on. 'He just rolled on unprompted, explaining why it couldn't possibly be true, ending by saying he was thinking of asking me to investigate the allegations to prove it was a lie. I said it was up to him.'

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: That's CNN's bombshell? That's Comey's bombshell? This is ridiculous.

Joining us now with reaction, former deputy assistant to President Trump, FOX News national security strategist, Dr. Sebastian Gorka. Former Utah congressman, FOX News contributor Jason Chaffetz.

Dr. Gorka, I'll start with, OK, if lies were paid for, we didn't know probably at the time, if lies were told about you, wouldn't you, you are talking to the FBI director and it's a fake, phony dossier to manipulate the minds of the American people, and it's full of lies that you know aren't true.

What do you want to say? Can you find out that's not true? Isn't that the natural reaction?

DR. SEBASTIAN GORKA, FOX NEWS NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGIST: Sean, all that we know for sure is that James Comey is a liar, and CNN are a bunch of perverts. That's all you need -- that's the bombshell.

The president want -- he knew it wasn't true because we know it's true because it was a Russian information operation paid for by Hillary, and he wants to have his director of the FBI proved to the world, not just his wife, as you would want, that it isn't true.

These guys are so disconnected from reality and so disconnected from the American people. It's not surprising that nobody watches them and they have to pay for airports to put their shows on.

HANNITY: All right. Good point. Touche.

But there is a bigger issue, Congressman, and the bigger issue in all of this is liberals hated James Comey. They were -- Harry Reid wanted him out, said he shouldn't be the director of the FBI.

Now you see this guy, I think he has legal issues -- tell me if I'm wrong - - leaking privileged information, leaking it to somebody for the purpose of getting a special counsel appointed. Did he lie to Trump in January 2017 when he said that the dossier was salacious and unverified or when they were presenting it to a FISA court judge in a FISA application to spy on an American, as the Grassley-Graham memo says, as the bulk of information as Andrew Weissmann said, no dossier, no FISA warrant request or application?

So, when did he lie in October 2016 or January of 2017?

JASON CHAFFETZ, R, FORMER UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE: No, I think Director Comey has a series of serious legal challenges. He testified under oath and that question by John Ratcliffe about when did he make the decision whether or not she was guilty or not guilty or was she going to be charged? I should say.

And it clearly was writing this out multiple times before. You had Senator Grassley ask him directly was he party to releasing information surreptitiously? He was definitive in saying no, only to learn later that that wasn't true. So there are series of things--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Isn't it illegal? If I went to Congress and lie before Congress--

CHAFFETZ: Yes, you would think.

HANNITY: -- would I be in trouble?

CHAFFETZ: You should. But so, you remember, we asked the FBI, we asked Director Comey directly, myself, and Bob Goodlatte, the chairman of the judiciary committee, did Hillary Clinton lie under oath? He, well, they said they never had a referral. So we sent them a referral. Guess what? They never got back to us. Never considered any of that material when they lied under oath.

HANNITY: Did Hillary Clinton violate the law, congressman 18USC-1793--

(CROSSTALK)

CHAFFETZ: Absolutely.

HANNITY: -- mishandling of classified, top-secret.

CHAFFETZ: Absolutely.

HANNITY: Did Hillary Clinton, do you think she obstructed justice when she deleted subpoenaed emails--

CHAFFETZ: Yes.

HANNITY: -- acid washed her hard drive, beat up her devices? Is that a crime?

SEBASTIAN GORKA, NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGIST, FOX NEWS: Sure.

HANNITY: Is an obstruction of justice, sir?

CHAFFETZ: Yes, absolutely. I mean, that's what the FBI director told us that her she did.

HANNITY: And Dr. Gorka, did he rig the investigation by exonerating her and writing out the exoneration before the investigation?

GORKA: Not only did he rigged the investigation in her favor because he thought she would be the next president. Not only did she obstruct justice by the bleached bit and destroying the evidence, guess what. The FBI agents did the same thing when they didn't put her under oath and destroyed the hard drives, and that goes back to Comey.

HANNITY: Unbelievable. This is where we are. And are we going to get, to congressman, the inspector general report investigating all of this that should prove all of this?

CHAFFETZ: About two weeks out as best I can tell, and I think that will be the true bombshell. That's the thing we actually should be paying attention to as a country.

HANNITY: I agree. Interesting timing, it's going to be after Comey's book tour, after Comey's release of the book and interviews. It will be interesting.

All right. When we come back, President Trump gives an update on whether there will in fact be U.S. military action in Syria. We have a live report from the region. Piers Morgan joins us tonight. Wait until you hear his comments about what's going on with the president.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We are having a meeting today on Syria and we're having a number of meanings today. We'll see what happens. We're obviously looking at that very closely. I will be leaving here. I was there and now I'll be going back as soon as this meeting is over.

But we are looking very, very seriously, very closely at the whole situation and we will see what happens, folks. We'll see what happens. It's too bad that the world puts us in a position like that. But as I said this morning, we've done a great job with ISIS. We have just absolutely decimated ISIS. But now we have to make some further decisions. So they'll be made fairly soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: That was the president earlier today. The White House giving an update on the potential for U.S. military action on Syria. But the president's remarks weren't the only comments coming out of the administration concerning Syria today.

Joining us live from Jerusalem tonight with much more, Fox News correspondent Mike Tobin is there. Mike, what's the latest.

MIKE TOBIN, CORRESPONDENT, FOX NEWS: Well, Sean, I can tell you the tension is very thick in Syria, frankly all around the region as the potential for military strikes looms overhead.

The guided missile destroyer USS Donald Cook is already in the Mediterranean Sea, carrying roughly 75 tomahawk missiles onboard and 20 surface-to-air missiles.

A French frigate with 60 cruise missiles on board has been deployed. British submarines are moving into position. The carrier USS Harry Truman departed Norfolk yesterday accompanied by U.S. warships.

This, as Defense Secretary James Mattis said today he believes chemical weapons were used in Syria and he called that inexcusable.

Secretary of State nominee, Mike Pompeo today said the president will not need to seek any additional authorization for the use of military force if the decision is made to strike.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE POMPEO, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE NOMINEE: I believe that he has the authority he needs to do that. I don't believe we need a new AUMF for the president to engage in that activity you describe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TOBIN: Russian forces were seeing moving into the town of Douma today, Bashar al-Assad's army is said to be in control. Douma and the eastern Ghouta province had been the holdout for opposition militias during this bloody and drawn out Civil War.

Following the incident widely believed to be a chemical attack, the only remaining militia, Jaysh al-Islam, or the army of Islam, surrendered its weapons. The Russians there said to be military police but they are there ahead of the fact-finding team from the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons. That gives rise to the suspicion that they could manipulate the evidence ahead of the inspectors. Sean?

HANNITY: All right. Mike Tobin in Israel tonight. Thank you, sir. And joining us now with more reaction, the host of War Stories, Colonel Oliver North is with us. Colonel, when you see that Russia pulled out their ships, they're obviously anticipation strike. Moscow's threats of shooting American missiles out of the sky. Do you believe that's a possibility and will we be prepared for that?

OLIVER NORTH, HOST, FOX NEWS: Sean, 32 years ago tonight, we were doing the final target for the strike on Libya. And so what I did as I went through the targets that were publicly known. Not just ours and everybody knows. What we would have to do in the sequence that we have to do and it's on that map that I sent you.

The first hit is got to be at the Syrian SA, 300 SA, 400 air defense sites. That air base south of Latakia's seaport in Syria's Altheas air base near Palmyra because you have to take out those air defenses to make multiple strikes possible.

Second, you hit the Bassel al-Assad civil military airport and the Aleppo airport because those are the primary air links to the outside world. You take out the fuel farms, the towers, the resettlements, the helium fixed wing aircraft assets that Assad has been using to deliver those chemical weapons and that will stop it.

So if you take out and if you have to mind the Latakian, Baniyas Mediterranean seaports, take out the piers between handling equipments and road links. Because you are punishing him for using these weapons. He can get replacements in if that's gone. The Russian ships, as you point out, did sortie from their base of Tartus but the pipelines and tanker trucks lined up outside those -- that base are fair game.

HANNITY: Do you have any doubt, colonel--

(CROSSTALK)

NORTH: So military command and control in Damascus and Assad's presidential palace. In other words, just like what we did with Gaddafi. Target Assad. And the Syrians and Russians by the way are billeted separately at those military bases around Damascus. So we know which is which. Russians stay home, Syrians go away. So for good measure, create a runway to out track military airfield which is hit last April just to make sure he can't use it again. We didn't crater it, all we do was take out the stuff on the top. That's it.

HANNITY: Is Moscow lying, colonel, trying to blame the rebels? We are going to talk to Mr. Hoffman in just a second here. And he says they don't have the means, meaning the rebels, to deliver those weapons.

NORTH: Here's how you know that the Russians are lying. Their lips are moving. The bottom line of it is, they lied about using chemical weapons against one of their former spies inside Great Britain, they are liars. It hasn't change.

HANNITY: All right. Safe home, colonel. By the way, one of those planes behind Colonel North actually once, me, Colonel North and the great one Mark Levin were in that plane in the worst plane ride we've ever had ever. Ever.

NORTH: Still around, buddy.

HANNITY: All right. Safe home. And War Stories, don't forget, Saturday night at 8 p.m. Fox Business Network. You don't want to miss it.

Joining us now with more, retired CIA senior intelligence officer, Sonoram Policy Group vice president, Daniel Hoffman. Let me go to the same question here. Obviously, OK, Colonel North, you want to know if Russia is lying, they are moving their lips.

The bigger question here is there is no -- there is no confirmation. They are not letting outsiders in to determine what's happened here. And they are trying to say it actually didn't happen and if it did happen it's the rebels that did it. You're saying there is no possible way the rebels could have delivered those chemical weapons, killing or targeting men, women, and children and killing them.

DANIEL HOFFMAN, RETIRED SENIOR INTELLIGENCE OFFICER: Right, that's even just a sideshow. I think what really matters and what I would highlight for the viewers to just add a couple points to Colonel North's outstanding military assessment is this. Our administration is being very deliberate over the past couple days. They are carefully choosing some of the sites.

I'm sure the ones Colonel North mentioned. We're doing aerial reconnaissance and other intelligence collection so that we can determine with some degree of certainty who is there are and what sort of equipment is there. And then we are delivering a strong message.

The president did it, you know, in his way by Twitter, including that way and other means as well. That we are serious about striking. And so the Russians know were coming.

Look, it's international law. We have a duty to protect, something that the Clinton administration didn't do in Rwanda. We have a duty to protect the Syrian civilians who were being targeted so ruthlessly by the Assad regime.

HANNITY: Somebody that your job for all of those years that you worked with the CIA, you know Russia. I know that Devin Nunes warned President Obama in 2014 that they wanted to impact the 2016 elections and create chaos in the country just like they did in previous elections. You are saying this is typical M.O. Although we haven't heard from Putin, we are hearing from, quote 'Moscow.'

HOFFMAN: You are, you are hearing a little bit from their army chief of staff Gerasimov who is promising to target us if we hit them. But, you know, I'll tell you, from my experience, one of the great things about being a CIA officer who served in Moscow a bund of years, is we really, our administrations rely on intelligence collection.

Colonel North is right. When the Russians are talking to you publicly, there's a lot of lies coming out of their mouths. And that's why we rely on our human intelligence and signals intelligence to really understand what their plans and intelligence are.

HANNITY: People are skeptical after Iraq about intelligence.

HOFFMAN: And that OK to be skeptical and to hold us to a high standard. That's why we have oversight committees. And I think I'm sure that the National Security Council and the president are asking for the best intelligence we've got, and I know from having served with those professionals that they deliver.

HANNITY: All right. Thank you, sir, for being with us. We appreciate your insight.

HOFFMAN: Thank you.

HANNITY: When we come back, insanity from the left wing on television in this country, actually saying, they favor Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin over President Trump, and by the way, if there's riots, that's going to be fun to watch. Really? Piers Morgan next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Mainstream media has a hard time hiding their contempt for President Trump. Just listen to what The View's Joy Behar had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEGHAN MCCAIN, CO-HOST, ABC: My issue is moral relativism between someone like Kim Jong Un and Putin an President Trump. I think it's easy to seat of say that but--

(CROSSTALK)

JOY BEHAR, HOST, ABC: Why, why, why, do you think -- do you think Kim Jong Un is less moral than Trump? Do you?

MCCAIN: Yes. My God. Aiding and abetting Assad.

BEHAR: On what topic? On what topic?

MCCAIN: Chemical gassing of children, last time I checked America isn't doing that to anyone.

(APPLAUSE)

MCCAIN: But I think the moral -- wait a second -- it's hard for me to sit here with moral relativism about many things with Trump. If you think that Kim Jong-un, Vladimir Putin, Bashar al-Assad and President Trump are the exact same thing, it's when you lose all--

(CROSSTALK)

BEHAR: OK. Let me clarify. What I'm saying is that I see that the two of them are backing off of war and I don't -- I see Trump provoking war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: All right. Joining us now with reaction, editor-at-large at the DailyMail.com, Piers Morgan. Didn't we once competing against each other? Weren't we like enemies? No, we were always fine. Good to see you, sir. I guess--

(CROSSTALK)

PIERS MORGAN, EDITOR AT LARGE, DAILYMAIL.COM: Great to be back on the show, Sean. You are always charming in victory, I have to say.

HANNITY: Charming nothing. I was -- it was never personal. There's a 100,000 other channels. I'm trying to compete against all of them.

You say Mueller's team is panicking and fishing. I agree with you. I don't think they have ever found anything related to collusion, and they just keeps bringing off into this other -- well, he fired Comey. He has an absolute right to fire James Comey. And it's actually scary in terms of what I believe is a fishing expedition, and I think you agree with that.

MORGAN: I do, and actually I find it extraordinary that James Comey, a former boss at the FBI, is able to write a sort of tell-all book right in the middle of the Mueller investigation. I mean, this wouldn't -- this wouldn't happen in many other countries. You wouldn't be allowed to do this. Peddling all sorts of lurid and ridiculous details to the world.

It makes me think this. Donald Trump fired him because he didn't trust him. He was right, wasn't he? When you read this stuff pouring out of his books, Donald Trump was absolutely right not to trust James Comey.

And in relation to the wider Mueller probe, I just think what's happening here is that they tried to get the proof on Russian collusion. They wanted to prove the world that Donald Trump collaborated with the Russians to fix the election. That's why he won. No other reason. Has to be that.

And so far, they have singularly failed to establish that. So now they are moving the goal posts. Now they are moving to staff about his private life with alleged allegations involving women going back more than 10, 15 years.

Two things about this, Sean, I don't think people care about Donald Trump's sex life. I don't think it's on the same scale of misdemeanor even if it happens to what we saw happen with Democratic President Bill Clinton, who let's just remind ourselves had sex relations with a young intern in the Oval Office while he was president.

But certainly, I don't think the voters care. I don't think people are out they are going, wow, can you believe Donald Trump may have had a few flings 10 or 15 years ago?

So, to me, they are now going after him purely to embarrass him, purely to try and diminish him, to degrade him as president. And I think that this is because they are unable to get the Russia collusion line to stick.

HANNITY: So, NBC News is supposed to be, you know, a trusted news organization. They are actually saying tonight that Robert Mueller is going to report on at least four findings, the Trump and obstruction of justice.

Here's what it is. One, the intent to fire Mueller, not that he fired him. That he had a thought. It's like OK, we are going to punish his thought. The second one is, did he craft a statement about the meeting in Trump tower or have anything to say? Did he talk of pardoning witnesses?

The power of pardon, as you know, Piers, is absolute for U.S. president. Now, fourth, pressuring Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself. He didn't have time because Jeff Sessions didn't tell him he was recusing himself, and he recused himself the day after he was confirmed.

So, I'm listening. This is what represents news. You live in Great Britain. I love tabloid news. I really, you guys are great at it. We have pretty good tabloid news at New York. This is such garbage, and yet I think--

(CROSSTALK)

MORGAN: Well, it is. It is, Sean.

HANNITY: yes.

MORGAN: Yes, it is. And what you just played there from Joy Behar, let's just remind ourselves what she had just said. On a mainstream show to America, she has actually said that Donald Trump is somehow worse than Kim Jong-un or Vladimir Putin. All right. Kim Jong-un is one of the world's worst, if now the worst dictator. A man who has repressed his people beyond any scale that we have seen in modern times.

He starves them, he beats them, he tortures them, he poisons them, he kills them. The reason we had an American student who was tortured and later died after being held in terrible captivity for nearly two years because he took a poster off the wall. That's the kind of person you are talking about with Kim Jong-un. A man, well, along with his father, for three decades has threatened to destroy America--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Unbelievable.

MORGAN: -- at every chance he can.

HANNITY: And Comey is comparing--

(CROSSTALK)

MORGAN: And we are supposed to believe that the president of the United States is worse? I think it's ridiculous.

HANNITY: And Comey comparing the president to one of the most infamous murderers of all time. Sammy the bull. All right. Piers, great to see you. Thank you for being with us. The most crazy bench clearing brawl in baseball, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: We all know the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, one of the most famous in all of sports. Last night's matchup at Fenway Park, it was evident there is still no love lost between the two teams. This is old school, kind of like when I was growing up. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that's why he gets grilled here, and he slams the bat. Now he's making a move. Here comes -- here he comes on the run. And now fisticuffs. As Kelly is being tackled. Punches being thrown. The dugouts emptying. Here come the bullpens again. And this time, it's for real. Unlike the last time. Punches and tackles. We are going to see some ejections after this one. And the Red Sox and Yankees are at it again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: The Yankees won by the way, 10-7. Good job. I played hockey my whole life. That was kind of every day. I know it's not allowed in this day and age, you know, illegal.

All right. That's all the time we have left. We'll be fair and balance. Thank you for being with us. Let not your heart be troubled.

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