President Trump on decision to cancel Jacksonville part of GOP convention, lawlessness in liberal cities

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President Trump on decision to cancel Jacksonville part of GOP convention, lawlessness in liberal cities

Part 1 of President Trump's exclusive interview with Sean Hannity on 'Hannity.'

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," July 23, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And welcome to "Hannity" tonight.

We begin with a Fox News alert, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, will be joining us for an exclusive interview. That is in just a moment.

We will discuss the brand-new RNC news in terms of the convention in Florida has been canceled and the president's reasons why. What is the backup plan? We'll ask him that.

We'll also talk about the violence, the -- literally, what he calls the war zone in America's cities. We'll talk about the upcoming election, COVID-19, left-wing conspiracy theories, Joe Biden, a lot to get to tonight.

First, we do have major breaking news surrounding what we have identified on this show correctly as the biggest abuse of power, corruption scandal in American history, and that is Obama, Biden, Comey working together to destroy President Trump, first candidate Trump and transition team Trump.

Now we have more definitive proof tonight because a bombshell document has now tonight been declassified by the DNI Director Radcliffe. It shows the most extreme measures that Jim Comey, Mr. Higher Honor himself, his FBI took in 2016 to spy on then-candidate Donald Trump.

These newly unearthed materials include typewritten notes from an FBI agent named Joe Pientka detailing August 2016 briefing with Donald Trump, Lieutenant General Flynn and former Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey.

The meeting was supposed to be just a routine defensive briefing that presidential candidates received from the FBI, but in truth, in reality, it was all a ruse. According to a source, the briefing was, quote, a cover to listen for any remarks from President Trump or anyone else about Russia.

So, let's be clear, we now have indisputable evidence that the FBI literally early on planted a Crossfire Hurricane agent to spy on Team Trump. It also means that Jim Comey, Mr. Higher Honor, is caught in another massive lie.

Jim, I reminded you a long time ago -- well, you have the rewrite to remain silent, I advised you to use. You should have listened. By the way, he testified that Trump was not under investigation, proving another lie. Take a look.

All right, apparently, we didn't have that. We'll have it hopefully soon.

Like he lied when he said the dirty dossier. Remember he went to Trump Tower, took notes as soon as he left, and he said that the dossier presented it alone to then -- well, President-elect Trump, said it's salacious but unverified.

But we know that he used that dossier as the bulk of information to secure the FISA warrant to spy on candidate Trump just a month earlier.

The official notes from the security briefing were filed under Crossfire Hurricane, which of course, was the official code name for Comey's Russia collusion witch hunt. It was a witch hunt.

By the way, that bought and paid for dirty Russian dossier of Russian disinformation, Hillary paid for that. Guess who helped Hillary? It looks like Vladimir Putin's Russia.

It was also filed under Crossfire Razor. Remember, that was the code name for the FBI's probe into and we now know the innocent Lieutenant General Michael Flynn. It is now time for investigative prosecutor Durham to now wrap this up, bring this to a grand jury, and we need indictments of every single solitary person involved in this corruption, this abuse of power, their premeditated lies to the FISA court, their denial of one American of civil liberties and constitutional rights, and them trying to influence the outcome of an election, and then undo a duly elected president.

Mr. Durham, no more time for investigating. It's time for action. The evidence is overwhelming. It is incontrovertible. That and the public domain that we know could -- should result in indictments up all of these people we talk about.

Now, get this. The agent that did conduct this, quote, briefing, Joe Pientka, was apparently running the Flynn probe. And his, quote, briefing notes were approved by none other than the infamous Peter Strzok and the FBI lawyer -- we talked a lot about him too -- Kevin Clinesmith.

Remember, Clinesmith, he was the corrupt FBI bureaucrat, he literally texted colleagues that Trump supporters were crazies, and that Vice President Pence was stupid, and after Trump won, he texted, viva la resistance.

And according to Inspector General Horowitz, it was Clinesmith literally forging FISA evidence against Carter Page all to spy on, backdoor spy on candidate Trump, transition team Trump and deep into the presidency of Donald Trump. And, of course, Clinesmith, Strzok, and Pientka, well, they were just a tip of the spear in this Russia collusion hoax.

Now, this was an effort that started at the very top. This was the insurance policy in the unlikely event that he wins. That was Page and Peter Strzok texting each other. Now, that's what Obama's infamous, remember this date, January 5th, 2017, that was the Oval Office meeting.

You know, that was the meeting that Obama directed, we need the right people on this doing the work. And maybe we shouldn't tell all of this to the incoming administration.

This is the January 5th meeting in the Oval Office where Joe Biden who lied to George Stephanopoulos, I didn't know anything about this, where we know from Peter Strzok's handwritten notes that Biden suggested that the FBI used the 1799 Logan Act, which has never been used ever to prosecute anyone.

Now, remember this was the meeting that Sally Yates was at, and she was shocked according to her testimony before the House Intelligence Committee that President Obama knew all of the intimate details about the unmasking and leaking of raw intelligence as it relates to General Flynn, and, of course, soon to be Russian counterpart Kislyak.

That's why Susan Rice went back on the day that Donald Trump was inaugurated 15 days after this Oval Office meeting to write what is now known as the biggest CYA email to self on Obama's last day, Trump being sworn in day, claiming that Barack said, do everything by the book. Why would she write that four times, 15 days later?

Now, this was clearly an effort to, first, monitor and take down the new president, to undo an election, and take down everyone around him. But as we all know, although the mob and the media, they've gotten all of this wrong. They pushed lies, smears, besmirchment, conspiracy theories, the entire hoax, they were dragging and pushing impeachment, ignoring quid pro quo Joe and zero experience Hunter.

There was no Russia collusion. It was always a hoax. The dossier that was used for all of these FISA applications has been debunked. It was never verifiable. We know the sub source said it was just bar talk and we know that Steele had an agenda and that everybody was warned way ahead of time that Hillary paid for the Russian disinformation.

Now, the real scandal, the real abuse of power is that President Obama, what did you know, Barack, when did you know it? Joe, the ever confused one, what did you know, Joe, and when did you know it?

We know they turn tremendous tools of your government against their political adversary. It's a national disgrace, all must be held accountable, prosecutor Durham, we are waiting. What we know already should be indictments for many. It's time!

If we don't get this right, we will not have a constitutional republic. We won't have equal justice and equal application of our laws.

Here with mark, Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, FOX News contributor Sara Carter, FOX News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett.

Congressman Jordan, we start with you.

There is enough that we know, all of us --

REP. JIM JORDAN, R-OHIO: Yes.

HANNITY: -- there was not many of us, between Congress and our ensemble cast, that we're digging deep into this. I count maybe 25 people total taking on the entire media mob. They were all wrong.

My question to you is, what does this say to you and what does it say to Durham?

The FBI went to then-candidate Trump, told him Russia might try to target you and your campaign. What they didn't tell him is, we're targeting you. They told him Russian might try to spy on you. What they didn't tell him is, we're spying on you, and they did it just 17 days into this investigation.

It opens on July 31st. August 17th, they do this. Thirteen minutes for the defensive briefing as part of the briefing you're supposed to get and in an hour and 42 minutes, where they are trying to get information and set the president up.

All of this comes after, as you said, Sean, the August 8th text message where Peter Strzok says, we'll stop Trump. And the August 15th text message where he says, we've got an insurance policy. And they start implementing that insurance policy two days later.

HANNITY: Sara Carter, you were there with John Solomon. It was March 2017 when the whole unmasking thing began. I had a conversation with both you, soon thereafter, Gregg Jarrett joined in. Got to keep unpeeling the layers of onion. I think it's now an infamous discussion we've had.

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Absolutely, Sean. And look at these documents, they are explosive because if you think about it, there was August 2016, here is Joe Pientka, right, debriefing basically Trump and Governor Christie and Michael Flynn.

And then in January, he goes back to the White House with Peter Strzok. He goes back to the White House -- remember, he is the one that's interviewing Michael Flynn and collecting the information, all the while, just as Congressman Jordan says, they're spying on the president of the United States.

You know, this is something that is so explosive and so big. And if John Durham doesn't do his job, it doesn't mean that just these three were involved, Sean. What you have to think about is the scope of this. Both Pientka, Peter Strzok, as well as Kevin Clinesmith and all the others were directed by people above them. That is Andrew McCabe, that's James Comey, and that's those folks that were at the White House, including the president, then -- Barack Obama who knew everything that was going on in January 5th.

HANNITY: And they need to be asked. Barack needs to answer --

CARTER: Yes.

HANNITY: -- what did he know and when did he know it? Same with Joe.

My question to you, Gregg Jarrett. You wrote two number one best-selling books on this, amazing work that you did.

On the legal side of this, what we now have in the public domain is enough to get indictments for all of these people as far as I'm concerned.

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: Yes.

HANNITY: You tell me as a lawyer if I'm wrong and why is it taking so long?

At this point, I think the Prosecutor Durham has an obligation to get this over with and let the American people know, we need to know before November 3rd of this year.

JARRETT: Well, I think Durham has been slow footed, I agree. COVID may have been slow down a bit.

But if there was ever any doubt about how devious and corrupt James Comey and his cabal were, they should remove doubt. This meeting was not about debriefing Trump. It was about gathering incriminating evidence of a non- existing collusion conspiracy that the FBI well knew was a hoax. They knew it was a lie, paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign. They didn't care.

At the heart of it, you're right, Joe Pientka, I write about him in my book. But interestingly, the government has scrubbed him from all reports, including the FBI report, and the Department of Justice report, even the FISA court report, and the FBI has removed him from their website and sequestered him in San Francisco's field office refusing to make him available, notwithstanding repeated demands to Congress. That's the cover- up by the existing FBI Director Christopher Wray.

And the other part of this equation is that the documents today, they're exculpatory. They tend to prove Trump innocence. And yet, the FBI and Christopher Wray have concealed these documents, along with the intel community, for the better part of four years.

It's unconscionable. It's corrupt. And it's a cover-up (ph).

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: We had a little problem earlier. Let me hear it, because this is Comey now denying that which we now know is true. This guy said -- the holier-than-thou Mr. Higher honor is so full of beep, beep, beep, I can't even say it. I wish I could. I can say it, but I'm going to have to deal with, you know, the fallout after.

Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICHARD BURR, R-NC: Was the FBI able to confirm any criminal allegations contained in the Steele document?

JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: Mr. Chairman, I don't think that's a question I can answer in an open setting, because it goes into the details of the investigation.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS, R-MAINE: I want first to ask you about your conversations with the president, the three conversations in which you told him that he was not under investigation. The first was during your January 6th meeting, according to your testimony, in which it appears that you actually volunteered that insurance. Is that correct?

COMEY: That's correct.

COLLINS: Did you limit that statement to counterintelligence investigations, or were you talking about any kind of FBI investigation?

COMEY: I didn't -- I didn't use the term counterintelligence. I was speaking to him and briefing him about some salacious and unverified material.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: That proves, Jim Jordan, he lied.

JORDAN: Yes.

HANNITY: And when he signed the first FISA warrant in October of 2016, and then went to Trump Tower and I believe it was December of 2017 and said it's salacious and unverified, well, in the FISA application, bulk of information of the dirty dossier, he said it was verified. He's a liar.

JORDAN: Yes, he told Gowdy during the deposition that President Trump wasn't under investigation when we know based on his document that but just 17 days into the investigation, they were investigating the president for no reason, no predicate whatsoever.

He also told us during that deposition that after ten months, when he gets fired May 9th, 2017, they didn't have a thing. We knew they didn't have anything. He knew they didn't have anything.

Clapper, Brennan, Comey, they've all said the same thing, there wasn't anything there, and yet they put the country through this.

I also think it's important, Sean, look at the names on the front page Sara was talking about. Clinesmith, the guy who lied to the FISA court. Pientka, who handles the Flynn investigation who did this -- this interview as well, or this briefing, whatever you call it. And then, of course, Peter Strzok who ran the whole darn thing.

Those are the three names on the front page, as well as Crossfire Hurricane, and imagine this come, Crossfire Razor. They were after Mike Flynn from the get-go as well. That's what the front page of this document that was declassified today. That's what it shows us.

HANNITY: All right, thank you all. We're going to be watching.

Mr. Durham, we're ready. It's time. You've got enough time now.

Thank you all.

Now, President Trump is coming up in mere moments, literally within the next 10 minutes I'm told. It was just announced -- he just announced today a bold, new expansion what is known as Operation LeGend. Why? To help combat the war zones, the crime, the anarchy that is literally wreaking havoc and killing innocent Americans and people are not safe and secure in their own towns, their own cities.

But over there at fake news MSNBC, the conspiracy channel, Joy Reid, congratulations on your new time slot, saying rising crime numbers are fairy tale is not exactly accurate. Well, then, she invited Congresswoman Maxine Waters in to discuss insane conspiracy theories that Trump is invading cities with a parliamentary and secret police as the trial run for the coming election coup.

Watch for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MAXINE WATERS, D-CALIF.: As a matter of fact, it has been suggested that this is a trial run of the president of the United States, who may be organizing to not accept what happened when we have the election if he's not elected.

JOY REID, MSNBC HOST: And he helpfully said the quiet part out loud by pointing out that the cities that will be in a sense invaded by Trump's secret police led by Democratic mayors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: It's not just Maxine in Joy Reid show spouting these insane ideas. By the way, this is their next hoax. If they hear the words and have to choke on the words over there, we can now come project Donald J. Trump has been reelected the 45th president of the United States. You, the American people, you will decide that in 103 days. I hope you choose wisely.

There is a lot at stake. Take a look.

(BERGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People are looking at potentially a trial run for a kind of genuine attempt to true intimidation and potentially through force to try to, to try to steal this election.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The problem here is, apparently, the president has this imaginary world in his head where he thinks the U.S. cities are under siege.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The idea that federal agents are in a city with Americans, that is not really the point here. This is like secret police snatching up Americans, taking them into cars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: You know, I take a look at this psychotic story from the insane Washington compost. It says Trump's assault on election integrity forces question. What will happen if we refuse to accept the election loss?

What will Joe do? How about that?

The left is now willing to do, say anything to beat President Trump. They are in a full panic, I can tell you that tonight. And, buckle up, it is going to be an insane 103 days.

Remember, Nancy Pelosi referring to federal agents in Portland, calling them stormtroopers. Jim Clyburn also in leadership in the Democratic House, comparing federal agents to Nazi Gestapo.

Of the Democratic representatives claiming Trump is trying to start a race war. No, he's trying to save lives.

In Seattle, that ever incompetent far left Mayor Jenny Durkan, remember the summer of love zone? Remember, it's an autonomous zone, the CHAZ, CHOP zone, the spaghetti pot luck dinner zone, telling fake news CNN that she was very unsettled. People died because of the stupidity of her not maintaining law and order.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JENNY DURKAN, D-SEATTLE: I have to tell you, it's so unsettling the president continues down this path. And I think it's unfortunate again the president is using federal law enforcement as a political tool. That is so dangerous for America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: What's dangerous is, is that you allowed a mob, an anarchist to take over city blocks, including a police precinct four weeks. You called at the summer of love, spaghetti pot luck dinner zone.

Well, I had to call come -- apparently, you didn't -- you take the time to call Horace Lorenzo Anderson Sr., who lost his 19-year-old son, killed in your summer of love zone. You wouldn't allow the police to restore order until -- well, let's see, that's right, what to young African-Americans were murdered in that zone. Many others injured.

And according to a report, President Trump plans to send a tactical seem to Seattle as standby if the violent riots continue because she's allowing it.

We got the same problem in Portland. We've got the dopey mayor there, the guy's name is Ted Wheeler. Loud riots now to fester there for 55 straight days. Apparently, Wheeler thinks this is mostly peaceful protesting.

I saw a lot of rocks, bottles, graffiti, literally businesses shut down, total mess. Take a look.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

HANNITY: Ted Wheeler, does your city look safe and secure to you? Or I might just not believing what I'm saying?

In fact, apparently, this dope once federal agents in Portland actually to go home, stop protecting the federal buildings that under law they're supposed to protect that were lit on fire last night. Ted Wheeler is totally detached like so many other liberals. You have all these liberal mayors. They have one thing in command. They have led their cities, no safety, no security and rotten educational systems for decades.

He seems to think that there's absolutely nothing wrong with the anarchy playing out in his city. Last night, he was actually there in support of the anarchists, where ironically he ended up being harassed and stalked and assaulted.

Democrats are now living in an upside down world. They vilify the police while the appeasing of violent rioters. They let violent criminals out of jail. There's no bail in New York, with those stupid policies. They trashed the president for trying to protect innocent life and send in help to stop the violence and restore law and order. And time and time again, they put politics and hatred of Donald Trump over the lives and safety of their own citizens.

By the way, come November, well, you will let them take the reins of the entire country because only you have the power to stop it at the ballot box because Joe Biden is a guy that said, yes, the police have now become the enemy, and, of course, I support reallocating funds. Now, he's denying it, but he said it. We have the tape.

Here with reaction, Fox News contributor Dan Bongino, Fox News correspondent at large, Geraldo Rivera, civil rights attorney, Leo Terrell.

Geraldo, we begin with you.

You know what, Geraldo, what I love about you, is you love your fellow human beings. You have been a street reporter as we say, all these years, trying to help people with better, safer lives.

These cities aren't safe. Against all logic and reason, they won't allow any help to prevent violence and death. Why?

GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT-AT-LARGE: Why? Because they are politicians and bad politicians. Ted Wheeler, the mayor there in Portland, booed off of the stage, ridiculed, they were yelling for his resignation by the time his attempt at street theater was over.

Meantime, in Chicago, another 3-year-old child, another 3-year-old girl was shot yesterday. Ten people a shot total, three of them died. Three more murders in Chicago yesterday. And that is with all the heat on the gangsters.

HANNITY: Yes.

RIVERA: And the police superintendent there, David Brown, proud black man, got up there and announced to the world that there are ten times as many gangbangers as they were Chicago cops.

HANNITY: Unbelievable.

RIVERA: There are 12,000 Chicago cops, 117,000 gangsters. I mean, at what point do the people, the average citizens in that city just revolt? At what point do they say, screw you, mayor, we need all the help we can get? And even then it might not be enough.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Joe Biden is misleading them, Geraldo.

All right. I'd just gotten the two-minute warning in my ear. That means the president will be taking over for you three, not that you are not great guests and good friends.

Dan Bongino, you get the last 2 minutes.

DAN BONGINO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, just a quick piece of misinformation we have to correct here. These are not federal troops. They are federal agents. They are not unmarked. They do have markings.

There are also federal agents -- to correct again, more liberal misinformation I've heard on cable news. There are federal agents, listening up, folks, in every major city in America right now. They don't need permission from anyone to enforce federal law. Whoever told you that is absolutely lying.

So there you go. More liberal misinformation.

HANNITY: Don't we want safety and security? Leo Terrell, one day, I'm going to pull out the old tapes, just for old times' sake of you being on the show and you and I disagreeing on pretty much everything.

LEO TERRELL, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: No.

HANNITY: I'm going to pull out the tape of you ripping out your earpiece, throw it on your microphone.

TERRELL: No, no, no, listen, let me get my minute. Let me get my minute end. Let me get my minute in.

President Trump, this is Leo Trump 2.0. I'm telling you keep providing safety of these cities.

CNN, MSNBC, you are lying to your Democrats. Look at the film footage that Sean just showed about these cities. You're lying. And if you -- stop having these commentators lie about the lack of violence. There's total violence.

President Trump, continue to do your job. Law and order in these Democratic cities. It's ridiculous. Totally ridiculous.

HANNITY: But apparently, we have an extra minute and a half.

All right. Geraldo --

TERRELL: Good.

HANNITY: I -- well, I hate -- you know, you are all favorite people. So, I mean, you're my -- we're all best friends.

But I really -- I want the president to act. He can't act, Geraldo, unless there's 15 mayors in all these liberal cities are saying, we don't want your help! What is -- what is wrong with these people?

RIVERA: Chicago though, Sean -- if Chicago is the model, and the mayor is squawking about federal troops and the front door and accepting federal help in the back door. I'm OK with that. I'm OK with politics as long as they get the job done.

How do you get the job done? You have to go after these organized criminal gangs and put them out of business, Sean.

HANNITY: All right. The president is on the line, just for kicks and giggles.

I want Leo Terrell, lifelong Democrat, I want you to tell the president in 30 seconds why you're voting for him and for the first time ever, right, for a Republican ever.

TERRELL: Yes, President Trump, I want you to listen to me. Give me call me later on. The first time ever in my entire life as a Republican, I'm voting for you. Now, maintain what you're doing in these Democratic cities, and I will go to those networks and battle those guys for you. You're going to win in November, I guarantee it. I'm out there with you 24/7.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP (via telephone): -- very much. And you have come a long way, Leo. I have to tell you.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: I've been watching you, and I've always respected even on the other side.

(CROSSTALK)

TERRELL: I'm here, I'm here. I'm here, I'm here now. I'm here right now! I'm here.

TRUMP: I appreciate it, I do. I will do that.

TERRELL: Thank you. Thank you.

TRUMP: Thanks, Leo. Really great.

HANNITY: All right. Leo, Geraldo, thank you, Dan Bongino.

All right. I think that might have been the funniest we've had.

Mr. President, sir, thank you so much for joining us. I know it's been a busy number of days here for you.

A lot of news to get to. I want to spend a lot of time on the violence, the safety, security of our cities.

TRUMP: Yes.

HANNITY: I want to talk about COVID a lot.

Let's start with some breaking news, and that is that you earlier today decided to pull back on the convention in Jacksonville. You gave a reason. Can you give us the reasons again in more detail?

TRUMP: Well, it's really the China virus. Call it COVID. Call it any one of a lot of different names.

But we're setting an example. We don't want to have people so close together. We have had such enthusiasm. Everybody wanted to go there. We went to North Carolina. We wanted to do it there. It was all set. We were going to build a beautiful facility. And it got hit hard. And the governor then, really, he could have treated us better, Democrat governor.

But we are actually opening up there. And then we will make -- we will make our ways. It won't be your typical convention. I can say that, but it's going to be very safe.

And I thought I had an obligation not to have large numbers, massive numbers of people crowded into a room.

HANNITY: I have been told, Mr. President, from sources of mine -- you can confirm if you like -- I guess maybe I'm not surprised, that you're entertaining ideas that I have heard tonight that would be pretty spectacular.

Would you give us any insight into what they are?

TRUMP: Well, we have some ideas, but it'll have to be different than your typical convention.

We have just great enthusiasm in the party. I don't think we have ever had it, even more so than 2016. And you see what's going on with the polls.

Since -- it's funny. Since I did a -- I made a speech at Mount Rushmore. And since that time, it's been really something. There's been -- I mean, before that, really. You have all of these fake, these suppression polls, and just like 2016, when they put out these phony polls, the media.

But I will tell you what. It's -- that the enthusiasm this party has and that they have for their president, because we're keeping our cities safe. We want to go in. We can't understand.

I heard you talking with the group. Really, that's a group of -- a great group of three people. But I heard you talking about the cities and the safeties of the cities.

I have offered them all, every one of them -- and there's 10 of them. We're offering all of them, let us go in. We will clean it up. We will clean it up.

Now, in Portland, we had to do it because that was -- that's -- they're anarchists. That's even -- that's a level that people haven't seen, but they're anarchists.

And they were going wild for 51 days. And we went in. And they have done a great job. They were going to rip down the courthouse, a big federal courthouse, gorgeous federal courthouse.

So, we went in. And we have been very, very strong. And we have this Mayor Whalen (sic), who I think is also -- he's also the police commissioner, as I understand it, in Portland.

HANNITY: Wheeler, yes.

TRUMP: Mayor Wheeler.

And he's -- he made a fool out of himself last -- he wanted to be among the people. So, he went into the crowd. And they knocked the hell out of him. That was the end of him. So, it was pretty, pretty pathetic.

But we want to go in and help the cities. We want to help Chicago. We want to help all of them. Detroit's having problems. A very good police chief in Detroit, but they have problems.

We will go into all of the cities, any of the cities. We're ready. We will put in 50,000, 60,000 people that really know what they're doing. And they're strong. They're tough. And we could solve these problems so fast.

But, as you know, we have to be invited in.

HANNITY: Mr. President, I want to ask you about that.

TRUMP: At some point, we're going to have to do something that's much stronger than being invited in. But we have to be invited in.

Go ahead, Sean.

HANNITY: The acting DHS chief, Chad Wolf, there are statutory reasons and justification to protect federal buildings. That is what has been happening, when you talk about 100 agents.

We now have 15 mayors. We see this rise in homicides and shootings. One day right here on this program a couple of nights ago, 15 people shot in Chicago, last weekend, 70 people shot, 12 dead, a 10-year-old, 11-year-old shot.

You spoke to Horace Lorenzo Anderson Sr. I know you invited him to the White House. He lost his 19-year-old son. We lost an 8-year-old little girl in the CHAZ Autonomous Zone in Atlanta, a 1-year-old in Brooklyn, a 7-year- old little beautiful young girl in Chicago.

And they -- the one thing that all of these cities have in common, they have been run by liberal Democratic mayors, liberal Democratic governors for decades.

TRUMP: Right.

HANNITY: What do you say to the people? Most people would argue, you don't have a chance of winning New York, or Illinois, or California, or Washington state.

TRUMP: Well, you're right.

They're run by very liberal people, you could say radical left in some cases, in some cases, just liberal Democrats. And they're not taking care of their police. They're not respecting the police. The police do an incredible job. It's a very tough job. It's a very dangerous job.

And these mayors and, by the way, governors and senators and congressmen, Democrat congressmen, they want to pass stuff to make the police -- they want to take all of their power away. And you will have a bad situation, where you will have a bad cop, a very bad cop. And they have no idea the problem they cause.

But you have 99 percent great people that work hard and get paid not nearly enough. And the job they do is incredible. And these people are just taking all of their respect. They're taking their guts out. And it's a shame. It's a shame.

And the police, they could do the job. In Seattle, they could. They knew that we were coming in. And they went in just before we got there. So, we were all set to move. But if we weren't going to go in, if they thought that we weren't coming in, it would still be bad.

But those police can do the job. But the mayor and everybody tells them not to do it. The governor, they say not to do it. And it's a philosophy.

And let me tell you, if Joe Biden ever got in, the whole country would be like that. We have a lot of great cities. We have a lot of very safe cities, great places, great states that don't have any problems. And they look at the things that they see in Chicago, and they look at what they're witnessing in Portland and all of these different places, and they can't believe what's going on.

But we have -- we have great places. But we have some instances that nobody's ever seen.

I spoke with the mayor of Chicago, Mayor Lightfoot, and had a great talk. But within minutes after that talk -- you just reported it tonight -- a couple of more people were shot. Young, very young children were shot.

HANNITY: Sad. So sad.

TRUMP: And it's a shame. It's a shame.

And we could solve it. If they invited us in, we'd go in with 50,000, 75,000 people. We would be able to solve it, like you wouldn't believe, and quick. But they just don't want to ask, maybe for political reasons. But they don't want to ask. It's a disgrace.

HANNITY: Let me ask you, Mr. President.

I know a lot has been made over Joe Biden and his comments that he made. I know he's now backed off it. And he says, well, I said it before the other way. I don't know if he's just not remembering what maybe somebody else wrote in "USA Today," for example, but he did say police have now become the enemy, when they're supposed to help people.

And then a follow-up was, would you support re-appropriating the money? And he said yes, now, not using the term. Democrats seem to be walking back the term defund. But reallocation is the word he used. Well, that would be the same thing.

Let me play it, so to remind our audience what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Surplus military equipment for law enforcement, they don't need that.

The last thing you need is an up-armored Humvee coming into a neighborhood. It's like the military invading. They don't know anybody. They become the enemy. They're supposed to be protecting these people.

So, my generic point is that...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But can we agree that we can redirect some of the funding?

BIDEN: Yes, absolutely.

One of the things that we also need to be doing is fundamentally changing the way -- and I have been pushing it for years -- changing the way we deal with our prison system.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Mr. President, I can remind people, you're the one that did criminal justice reform. Biden, as vice president, Barack, they did not. You did police reform. They did not.

You also set record after record low unemployment. They added 13 million more Americans to food stamps, eight million more in poverty, and the lowest labor participation rates since the '70s. You set record low after record low for every demographic group.

And we got Opportunity Zones, your biggest commitment in terms of money and length of time to historically black colleges. They didn't do any of those things.

Your answer to what Joe Biden -- now he's now -- he's adopting the position of the, yes, police are the enemies, he's never said a good word, Bolshevik Bernie's economic agenda, AOC's New Green Deal agenda. He's pledging trillions of taxpayer dollars.

And add to that, let's see, Beto O'Rourke and Pelosi, Schumer and Biden, 125 years in the swamp. Your reaction to his team?

TRUMP: Well, it's all true.

But one of the things you mentioned and he mentioned was the surplus military equipment. And when I came in, as soon as I came in, I distributed to all of the police departments all over the nation. We had hundreds of millions of dollars of -- sometimes new, but it was never going to be used.

It was sitting in warehouses all over the U.S. And I delivered it all to police, free of charge, all to police. It was just growing dust. It was just -- just sitting there, just, I guess, paying rent or whatever they were doing in all these massive warehouses.

And I got it all out to the police. And they were so thankful. And, you know, a lot of it was protective equipment. And they didn't want to do it, because they thought the police looked too strong, that it was sending a wrong signal to the police.

But it was really protecting the police. And there was offensive capability, but there was a lot of protective capability. And it was really amazing to me, what -- that they wouldn't deliver it, they wouldn't -- they wouldn't do it.

And I -- and I have gotten notes. I have gotten so many notes from the heads of the police departments, and even from the cops, just the guys on the beat, thanking me for all of the equipment that we send out. And we were never going to use it. It was growing old and growing dusty.

So, that's a whole different way of thinking, but -- and when he -- when you talk about the Bernie Sanders thing, I think what Joe Biden -- and I don't think it was him. I think it was radical left people that are totally controlling him, like a puppet. I don't think it's him. I don't think he knows even what we're talking about.

But when we talk about Biden, he's got a manifesto that he agreed to -- I call it a manifesto -- with Bernie Sanders for open borders and things that you wouldn't even believe. I mean, these are left-wing at a level that I don't think Bernie ever talked about to the same extent.

You would think there's a negotiation, that Bernie would be brought to the right a little bit. I think Bernie went further left, and Biden agreed to all of this stuff.

HANNITY: Let me ask you.

Sir, I have been in talk radio for 33 years, believe it or not, since I began that journey. I have been blessed to work here at Fox. I'm now in my 25th year here. Politics is a passion of mine.

Usually, you have candidates -- you're probably an exception -- what you say -- what you said in 2016 is what you did. You...

TRUMP: Yes.

HANNITY: In many ways, people haven't figured out you're very predictable, in the sense that, if you say it, you mean it, in my view.

But, usually, people run to the base for the primary, and then they run to the center. Joe Biden has adopted Bolshevik Bernie's radical socialism, AOC's New Green Deal. We're talking about trillions of dollars he's now committing to both those things, redistribution, higher taxes.

Then I mentioned Beto O'Rourke, and then Schumer, Pelosi and Biden have had 20 -- 125 years.

Why, in this case, do you believe he's going harder left than any candidate I have ever seen in my lifetime, for sure?

TRUMP: Because I think he's afraid of the people on his left.

I think that, when -- these are very radicalized people. I mean, he's gone so far. He's given Bernie everything. Bernie can't even believe it. I heard Bernie's going around saying, I can't believe what we got.

And this was a negotiation that was done very quickly.

And, today, I saw President Obama with him. And remember this. I wouldn't be there if it weren't for those two. If they did a good job, I wouldn't -- you know, I ran. I ran against what they did. And I won.

And nobody campaigned harder than President Obama. Somebody said, oh, Obama's coming, and I said, that's OK, we beat him the last time. I think he campaigned harder than Hillary Clinton did, if you want to know the truth. Remember I would always talk about here comes Air Force One? Obama was all over the place.

But the fact is, Biden and Obama, I'm here, I'm in the White House because of them. If they did a good job -- people forget, but if they did a good job, and except for the China virus that came in, we were setting every record you could set for unemployment, for the stock market, every single record you could imagine.

And then what we did, we rebuilt the military. We got rid of regulations at a level that no administration even in eight years or in one case, more than that, no administration has come close. And we've appointed -- you know, we will have almost, it could even be more, but almost 300 federal judges appointed by the end of my first term. That's a record. Nobody's ever done anything like that. And two Supreme Court judges, great ones.

HANNITY: All right. Let me go to Joe Biden. I argue, and I've watched this and witnessed this my whole professional life, I think that the job you have, I believe, regardless of who is president, is the hardest job in the world. You have a lot of burdens on your shoulder, anybody that is president. And I think when they asked Reagan in 1984 in that question whether or not he had the mental alertness, the strength, the stamina to do the job, it was a fair question.

He answered it in one line in the second debate against Mondale. Let me play some of the greatest hits of Biden and then Biden from yesterday. And I want your take on what is going on with Joe Biden. Let's play it first.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(PHONE RINGING)

BIDEN: The scale, the scale of the loss is staggering. I don't know whose phone that is. But the scale of the loss is staggering.

It has been two months since Congress gave them that money.

Introduce me?

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Am I on?

BIDEN: Good evening.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

Look, tomorrow is Super Thursday -- Tuesday, and I want to thank you all.

I'll tell you all, I'm rushing ahead, aren't I?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, all men and women created by -- you know the thing.

My name is Joe Biden and I'm a Democratic candidate for the United States Senate. Look me over, you like what you see, help out.

Do you agree with me? Go to Joe 30330.

We choose truth over facts.

Play the radio, make sure the television -- excuse me, make sure you have the record player on at night, the phone -- make sure that kids hear words.

Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.

Donald Trump does pose an extra threat (ph) to this -- it's not hypothetical.

Why in God's name should someone who is clipping coupons in the stock market make -- in fact, pay a lower tax rate than someone who, in fact, is, like I said, a schoolteacher and a firefighter?

I'm sorry, I'm confused who I am talking to here. But anyway, whoever it is...

And I had a nurse that -- nurses at Walter Reed Hospital who would bend down and whisper in my ear, go home and get me pillows. They would make sure they would actually -- probably nothing ever taught in -- you can't do it in the COVID time, but they would actually breathe in my nostrils to make me move.

Wearing a mask is now a political statement? This is more patriotic. Why do you wear the mask? So you don't make somebody else sick. Sick. What is with this guy?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Steve (ph), that's our time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Mr. President, I'm not a doctor, I won't play one. I don't see -- I think Joe Biden has aged dramatically since he has left office. He doesn't seem very alert. They seem to be protecting him and hiding him. We now have interviews that are being shut off by handlers. What is your reaction, sir?

TRUMP: Well, in all fairness, I know people that are 90, 91, 92 that are sharp as a tack. Bernie Marcus, as an example, Home Depot, and others I know, numerous. But you know, I just -- it's hard to comment on somebody. He is an opponent. You have to be very sharp. I'm dealing with the heads of these countries. And every one of them is a world-class chess player. And if you are not 100 percent on your game, if you are not 100 percent sharp- plus, you've got a problem.

I looked -- I looked at what we have in this country. I came in and I guessed it from before, but after I saw what was going on with horrible trade deals, horrible military deals, money being spent, it was being sent out like water. You see what I have done with NATO, $140 billion, but really much more than that. It increases every year where countries are now paying for what we are doing. It was so unfair.

So many different things, I could go -- and you don't have enough time. I could go all night with it. But you have to be on your game. You have to be sharp. And you have to be tough. And if you are not, these guys are going to take you to the cleaner.

And they will take you to the cleaners like you have never seen before. It is so easy. And he wasn't -- he wasn't the best in his heyday.

Let's not kid ourselves. Everybody knows that. Everybody knows that. Senators will tell you that in his best he wasn't. But I see the statements he is making now. And I don't think he has much of a clue.

HANNITY: Mr. President, when you spoke about canceling the convention in Jacksonville, you were very passionate about it today. And you said the timing is not right. And we knew there would be flare-ups. This virus is the worst since 1918. And you said today, I have to protect the American people. That is what I have always done. That is what I always will be -- will do, that's what I'm about. We can make this work easily.

And you also reminded people the importance of masks. People say you haven't been as outspoken as maybe you should have been on masks. But there were people telling us, well-known experts, not to wear masks in March for crying out loud, and socially distancing.

And the CDC just released last week that if people wear the masks, this thing could be gone in four to six weeks. And what can you add about therapeutics and what can you add about a potential vaccine? You mentioned Pfizer today.

TRUMP: Well, you know, at the beginning, many people, many very respected people, I won't mention names, but many respected people were saying don't wear a mask, that they're bad. You touch your face too much, and you get your hands near your eyes and your nose and they are bad.

And then all of a sudden, it was a big thing to get masks because I'm all for it. Look, whatever is going to help, if it was a five percent chance, a two percent chance, wear it. And I will wear it. I wore it at Walter Reed Hospital the other day.

I went to the hospital. I visited soldiers that have been so badly injured in Iraq. And it is terrible, in Afghanistan -- I saw one that was so badly injured in Afghanistan.

And, you know, we are largely -- we're down to a very small force in both places. We were serving as policemen over there. And we can police our own country, especially when you look at Chicago and you look at what is happening around our country. And, you know, we have done a lot. We have done a lot.

But you have to -- we have to do -- we have to get our country back. We have to get rid of this horrible plague that hit us and it hit us hard. But it didn't just hit us. It hit the whole world, Sean.

The whole world was hit. China allowed it to escape to Europe and to the whole world, including us. And they are suffering. There's tremendous -- you know, you don't see that too much in the news, but you have countries that are going through relatively what we are doing plus-plus-plus. It is horrible.

And we make ventilators because we have become -- we have become the best in the world for the ventilators. We're making thousands a month. We are sending supplies all over. And we are in -- we are in great shape from the standpoint. But we have this thing that is very, very contagious. Nobody has ever seen anything like it. Very, very highly contagious.

But if you take a look at a map, we have large sections of the country that are in great shape. And we are going to win. And we are going to win sooner rather than later. I will say this on the vaccines, we are doing well. We have the greatest companies in the world, including we are dealing with other nations. We are working very closely.

And therapeutically, therapeutics are, I think, going to be fantastic. Frankly, I would like to have that first because you could go into the hospitals, give somebody a shot or do whatever you have to do, and they would get better right away. But we are doing very well therapeutically. And we are doing very, very well with vaccines.

HANNITY: Well, we know new studies have come out, and I had Dr. Oz on my radio show this week, that hydroxychloroquine, used early with azithromycin and zinc, and you took a lot of heat over it, mortality rate cut in half according to the Ford study. He mentioned a local hospital, retrospective study in New York.

Let me add, you tweeted out tonight: baseball is back. By the way, poor Dr. Fauci -- and I really do believe and people I think try to divide both of you, that he has tried his best. Dr. Birx has tried her best. All of the models and experts in many, many ways were so wrong. The one thing that remained consistent is the most vulnerable, the elderly, those with compromised conditions or immune systems and pre-existing conditions.

So I ask you, you know, where are we with the vaccine, the therapeutics? How soon? And do you want every American, if they can't socially distance, to wear the mask? I selfishly want baseball and football to open so we can go. And I also want to protect grandmas and grandpas.

TRUMP: I would like to see everybody, if they can't spread, if they can't have -- be socially distant, then I think they should probably put it on. And even if it's -- let's say it's a 50 percent chance or 25, because, again, people -- these same experts were saying, don't wear it, at one point. Now they're saying wear it. So let's go with them. What difference does it make?

So let's say they're right and let's say there's a 50 percent chance or 25 percent chance, you're not going to lose with it. You're not going to lose with it. So do it.

But, again, as I said, I really think you're going to have some answers very, very soon on therapeutics and also on vaccines. These companies, I'm dealing with them directly, I'm getting reports directly. They are very far advanced. They've already started testing. And what I have done is through the FDA, Dr. Hahn, and some great people, we have ramped it up to a level that nobody has ever seen speed like this.

We could be two or three years out before we are doing what we are doing. We are already testing. We are actually doing the testing for vaccines and for therapeutics. That would have happened in a normal administration, I will say that that would have happened in two and three years from now.

So we are way, way advanced. And I think you are going to have some very good answers very soon. They're going to come up with the answer.

HANNITY: Mr. President, you are asking the American people in 103 days -- well, some will be voting early. By the way, I have information on my website hannity.com, early voting, how do you do absentee voting, who your congressperson is that's up for election. In 103 days, I say the American people, the ultimate jury. You are asking the American people for four more years. If you are given the four more years, what will this country look like, in your view, four years from now?

TRUMP: So it's all going to be about America first. We always put other countries before us, which is so foolish and so horrible. And it has been so destructive for us. It's about America first. We will help other countries, but we want to take care of ourselves. We are going to be building factories. We are going to be bringing in shops like you've never seen. We were all set to do it until we got hit with the virus.

Our troops will be home. The endless wars are already ending. Down to very few soldiers in -- as you know, in Afghanistan. Very few in Iraq. Syria is largely out except we kept the oil. We have oil there that we kept. I didn't want to leave the oil, we kept it. We took it over.

We are going to be about jobs like you haven't seen. We are going to be respected. And we are now by other countries. They're respecting us more than they have in many, many decades. I will tell you that. We are going to have a wall that is complete. We're up to 257 miles on the new wall. And by the way, if we didn't have that wall in right now, you would have numbers in Texas and in California, in New Mexico like you wouldn't believe.

But we built 257 miles of -- it's 450 but we are going to do about 537 miles altogether. And it will give a complete, beautiful wall on our southern border that has really helped.

And the other thing is, we are going to start making our product. And I have been pushing this from before this happened. We are going to make things here. We will make them here. Right now China and many other countries are doing what we are supposed to be doing. They went, they became globalists, these great geniuses became globalists. And they really hurt our country.

We are going to start making it here. As with Elon Musk, I said, Elon, build a factory in Texas. He just announced today they're building one of the biggest plants in the world, auto plant for Tesla, and it's going to be in Texas. And, you know, it's great. He called me up just a little while ago to say, I got it done. So that meeting, he got it done. But I was pushing that job very hard from Elon, because we work with him and we do a lot for him. And I said, it's time. And he was great. He's doing a good job.

But the other thing we have done is Space Force. You know, we put it in, it's the first time in 76 years we have a new force. We have -- so important, the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, and now we have the Air Force. It's so great. And it's so important. It's going to end up being one of -- at first, I didn't even talk about that on the campaign. This was after I got in office.

I realized we need it. Because China and Russia were going to dominate space. And we can't let that -- and now we're going to be dominating space. They're not too happy about what we did with Air Force. But we have it. And -- with Space Force.

So we have now Space Force, so important, and so many other things, Sean, regulation cuts, tax cuts, the biggest tax cuts in history, biggest regulation cuts in history. And we are going to continue that foreword. There are still many things we can do. But the bottom line is we are putting America first and we are making America better than it has ever been.

You will see that. We are going to have a great year next year. We're going to have a great third quarter. And the nice thing about the third quarter is the results are going to come out before the election.

HANNITY: You know, I've been saying to my audience on radio and TV that the biggest choice election in our lifetime. It's literally, you know, taxes higher or lower, deregulation, more regulation, law and order, lawlessness, amnesty or border security, judges, energy, trade, foreign policy, it seems like you are running against the team. And the team is Joe, Bernie, "Bolshevik Bernie" I call him, Bernie Sanders the socialist, AOC, Green New Deal, Beto, Schumer, Pelosi, so I think it is.

I want to go back to baseball. You announced today you are going to throw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium on August 15th. Dr. Fauci did not do too well tonight with the Nationals. Have you ever thrown out a first pitch before? Are you nervous about throwing out the first pitch? Derek Jeter once famously said I guess to George Bush after 9/11, if you bounce it, you are going to get booed.

TRUMP: Yes, no, I have thrown out first pitches. I have agreed to do it for the Yankees on I think they are playing the Boston Red Sox. That is a great rivalry. And I will do it. It's great that baseball is back, and other sports are back. I hope everyone is standing. I hope they are not going to be kneeling when the flag is raised. I don't like to see that. That would hurt a lot of people in our country. They don't want to see that with the NFL or baseball or basketball or anything else. We want to -- there are plenty of places you can protest. You don't have to protest on the raising of our flag.

So a lot of great things happening for our country. One other thing I want to say is, we have made incredible trade deals. And we are going to continue that along. Because we got taken to the cleaners by every country. Ally or non-ally, we were taken to the cleaners. And we will keep that going.

HANNITY: Mr. President, Mark Meadows, your chief of staff, recently indicated that indictments could be imminent in the Durham probe. We have big breaking news tonight. I don't know if you saw the opening of the show, a document declassified by your director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, revealing the FBI agent who gave you that defensive briefing in August of 2016 used it as a cover to monitor you and Michael Flynn as it relates to Russia.

Do you remember it? It also, I believe, puts Jim Comey in a position of being proven to have lied just like when he said to you at Trump Tower the dossier is salacious but unverified. But he swore that it was accurate and true when he signed the FISA application to spy on you and your campaign and take away Carter Page's rights. What is your reaction to this news? And your thoughts on where this probe with John Durham is going?

TRUMP: Well, it's just more and more things that you see. And that's only what you see. It is really bad. It is a terrible thing that happened. It should never happen to another president. The fact is that President Obama and Vice President Biden, and the whole group of them with Brennan and Comey and McCabe and Lisa Page and Strzok, her lover, and beyond them, long beyond them, they spied on the campaign, using the intelligence agencies of our country, they illegally -- this is illegal as can be, this is treason, this is many things you can call it, they spied on the campaign of another party or presidential campaign.

HANNITY: And the attorney general.

TRUMP: Both before and after victory. Both before and after. Never been done before. It is so bad. If it were the other side, they would have been in jail for two years, and it would have been a 50-year term. But Obama and Biden knew everything, and they spied on the campaign of the opposing party, using intelligence.

HANNITY: Do you -- well, this raises a question. Now we know what happened in the Oval Office on January 5th. Do you think that Barack Obama, the former president, Joe Biden, should have to answer for what we now know happened 15 days before your inauguration in the Oval Office? We have one minute, sir.

TRUMP: That was just one meeting. There were many meetings. There was no way -- I understand the system very well, I understand being president very well, there was no way this could have gone out without -- gone down without President Obama knowing every single thing.

And even Biden brought up the Logan Act with respect to General Flynn, a great gentleman who has been treated so horribly and still is. A lot of -- a lot of things have been learned. And what happened is a disgrace. Again, should never, ever happen to another president.

HANNITY: Would you consider pardons for the people involved? In the last 15 seconds.

TRUMP: I've looked at a lot of different people, they have been treated extremely unfairly, and I think I probably would, yes.

HANNITY: Mr. President, thank you for your time. In 103 days, the American people will make the ultimate decision. Sir, we appreciate you always taking time for this audience. Thank you.

TRUMP: Thank you very much, Sean. Thank you.

HANNITY: All right. That's all the time we have left. My book coming out in 12 days.

Let not your heart be troubled.

Laura, I hit the post.

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