'Hannity' on Trump suing over Russian probe

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Trump sues Clinton, Steele for ‘false narrative’ about Russian collusion

Trump attorney Alina Habba and Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett discussed the former president’s lawsuit alleging Hillary Clinton and others falsely accused him of conspiracy with Russia.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," March 25, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
 

PETE HEGSETH, FOX NEWS HOST: Welcome to this special edition of HANNITY on a Friday night. I'm Pete Hegseth, in for Sean.

And tonight, as the war in Ukraine rages on, Joe Biden, he's in Poland, where he paid a visit to U.S. soldiers and had a battle of his own with a piece of jalapeno and pepperoni pizza. Unfortunately, it continued to go downhill from there.

A short time later, Biden forgot the name of his secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin. He forgot the name of the late secretary of state, the name everyone knows, Madeleine Albright. And he called the Declaration of Independence "corny".

Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Based on an idea -- we are the only country in the world best on an idea, that we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal, endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights. It sounds corny, but it's the truth of who we are. We've never lived up to it.

And you know, the woman who just died, the secretary of state, used to have an expression. She said, we are the essential nation. The reason why one of the general -- one of the -- secretary of state asked if I sent another 12,000 troops along -- the United States, I said, yeah, from the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEGSETH: All men are created equal. So corny. Believe it or not, it gets even worse.

Today, the White House was forced to issue two major corrections. One, after Biden vowed to respond in kind to a potential Russian chemical attack, and the second, after Biden told U.S. soldiers, paratroopers at the 82nd Airborne, that they would soon be traveling across the border into Ukraine. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Also the average citizen -- look at how they are stepping up, look at how they are stepping up. And you're to see when you're there -- you've been there -- you're going to see women, you're going to see women, young people standing in the middle of a damn tank just saying, I'm not leaving. I'm holding my ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEGSETH: Of course, we're not sending troops into Ukraine to fight Russia. If you listen to Russian propaganda tonight, Russian TV, they're saying that's exactly what we're going to do.

However, we are sending lethal aid and ramping up sanctions against Vladimir Putin. But according to Joe those sanctions were never intended to deter Vladimir from anything. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Sir, deterrence didn't work. What makes you think Vladimir Putin will alter course based on the action you've taken today?

BIDEN: Let's get something straight. You remember if you covered me from the very beginning, I did not say that in fact the sanctions would deter him. Sanctions never deter. You keep talking about that. Sanctions never deter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEGSETH: What do you -- what are you talking about? Don't listen to anyone in my administration like Vice President Harris and Secretary of State Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, all of which said that sanctions were specifically put in place to deter Russian aggression.

But I guess Joe just never got the memo. Here with now for more on Biden's big trip abroad is White House correspondent Peter Doocy -- Peter.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Pete.

White House officials are telling us that president Biden does not intend to send U.S. troops into Ukraine, even though a few hours ago he was talking to U.S. troops about what they're going to see when they go to Ukraine. The national security adviser is also now cleaning up a comment the president made that the U.S. will respond to chemical weapons use by Russia in kind. Jake Sullivan is saying that does not mean the U.S. would use chemical weapons as well. He says that's never going to happen.

The president is also now claiming that he would have liked to drop into Ukraine to see things for himself but that handlers determined. It was a security risk.

The president also now talking about the conflict in Ukraine is bigger than just a war there. He says the world is being reorganized right now and he wants to guarantee Democratic countries come out on top over dictators. We do expect the president to have a full schedule in Poland tomorrow in this city where trains full of innocent civilians fleeing the war next door keep arriving -- Pete.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEGSETH: Peter Doocy from Warsaw, Poland, tonight, Peter, thank you so much.

Joining us now with reaction is the author of "The Desecrators: Defeating the Cancel Culture Mob and Reclaiming One Nation Under God", you know that corny stuff, chairman of the American Conservative Union, Matt Schlapp, along with FOX News contributor Charlie Hurt.

Matt, Charlie, great to see you both tonight.

You know, Matt, a slip of a tongue a slip of a tongue you know from the White House podium on a domestic issue maybe not that big of a deal you forget a name here or there or you incorrectly state a policy position. But when you're in Poland and Vladimir Putin's been in Ukraine for a month, you can't afford to be making two, three, four, five mistakes like this.

MATT SCHLAPP, CHAIRMAN, AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE UNION: Yeah, and here's the thing I I'm worried about, Pete, is I have no earthly idea what our policy is. I don't know what the Biden administration wants to do. They want to talk tough. Are we really going to use chemical weapons?

I think that's absurd. They had to clean that up. Are we going into Ukraine? Are we not going into Ukraine? Do we know what cabinet secretary is doing what?

I mean, this is alarming. Look, they've got a bad situation. They've got a president who has to read cue cards and a vice president who has no clue cards. They got no -- they got nobody really to speak for them.

I think they've got to get away from the president making these public comments slippery as it is, and they have to have intermediaries make the policy statements because right now this is very dangerous. And remember, our enemies are watching every word this man says.

HEGSETH: Yeah, absolutely, they are, Matt. It's not -- you can't bring the right-hander in from the bullpen. I mean, we tried the vice president first and we saw how that went in South America and also in Eastern Europe. You mentioned -- you mentioned it though, Matt. Our enemies are listening to this.

Charlie, Russian TV today is putting out as fact that American troops will be going into Ukraine. I mean, a statement like that gets played on repeat which if the whole calculation is how does Vladimir Putin view this, not that we should be giving in to his sentiments, but if how he calculates matters, you can't make a statement like that if you don't want the war to escalate.

CHARLIE HURT, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah. Absolutely, I mean the whole reason that we have the a massive espionage apparatus is so that we actually know what our enemies are thinking, and I don't think that this administration knows or cares. And I could I agree completely with Matt, you know?

But if we're confused about what the policy is, imagine what our enemies think of it and imagine what those troops think of it when they're told that they are going in and they're going to go in and be expected to die for something that is corny. It -- all of it is so baffling, so confusing and actually what I kind of worry about all of this right now is that this entire thing is I think that the White House views it almost as a photo op because he has so much political trouble here at home, he has decided that he's going to go over.

These images of him with the troops, every president wants these images. They're wonderful, it's not because the president makes the troops look good, it's because the troops make the president look good and here we are a month into this thing and he's not gotten any sort of bounce out of any of it. And I think that the White House is literally getting desperate and it's -- and we're talking about the smallest of small ball, they're getting desperate about poll numbers at home and that's why they're doing this right now.

And the danger is that he's going to bumble us into something far more dangerous than we're already in.

HEGSETH: That's exactly right. One miscalculation and we're a step away from that chemical attack that he said we would respond in kind in. There's also rumors that a change in language we may change the way we view usage of nuclear weapons. But, Matt, I want to go to you on the idea of deterrence because we heard for months and months the word deterrence tied to sanctions that that's how we're going to prevent Vladimir Putin, we're going to hold off until it looks like he's going to do it and then we think he's going to do it.

And now -- but this is also the administration that brought us, you know, the debacle in Afghanistan. That's bringing us the -- what will soon be a debacle in the Iranian deal. So what's a patriotic American watching this program who's rooting for the Ukrainians to kick the Russians out but is worried about the incompetence in the White House, what are what are those people to think about what American action should look like right now?

SCHLAPP: Well, they're going to hope the next three years really passes quickly because I'm just old enough to remember 1976, and we had a president who was unleashing inflation, unleashing gas prices, where people had to like go even and odd days to fill their tanks and they couldn't even afford to fill their tanks, ethical problems in his family and a Russian aggressor going into Afghanistan. This is a replay.

And the American people -- look, they're smart, Pete, despite what the socialists think of us. They're smart. They know that this job is a big job and they make a decision on the person in that job pretty quickly.

I think when I look at these poll numbers and look, I'm a partisan but I can look at poll numbers and say that this is almost a spent bullet in his presidency. The American people think he is not up to the job.

Now, his handlers have to make sure that we don't bungle ourselves into a war and this is a very, very, very serious time for our country.

HEGSETH: It really is. Matt, you make a great point.

Charlie, I want to hone in a little bit on that word corny, this idea that the president of the United States would go talk about our founding documents dismissively on the border of a shooting war when this is not to praise Vladimir Putin, but there's no way when he was on stage there was one equivocation about the justification of his stance on Russia. If there's one place to say this is the most beautiful document, we have the best system, we will defeat you, it's there. Yet he makes statements like that.

Is that -- is that just Joe Bidenism? Is that the modern left that says, well, you know, America was never that great -- to quote, you know, the late or not the late but the former governor of New York, Cuomo, I mean, what's the mindset there?

HURT: Yeah. Well, and Pete, nobody knows this better than you. He says it in a roomful of men and women probably, who have sworn, have signed up and sworn to give their lives not only for their fellow man beside them, but for that corny document. They have literally and they would walk into any fire to give up their life for that document.

And to have this horse's ass up there, their commander in chief, and I hate talking like this because he's still the commander-in-chief and out of respect to those men in that room. I -- you know, you hate to drag the guy, but he shouldn't be there.

He needs to be taken away. If he has family that cares for him, they need to take him away. He is not fit for this, and he's standing in a roomful of people who have sworn to die to for our liberty and just to die for that document and he's going to go in there and it's beyond just not inspiring. It's not inspiring, but it's beyond that.

It -- everybody's just scratching their heads and wondering what in the hell is this guy talking about. He needs -- he needs to go away. This is -- this is getting very serious and that's exactly right. We've got to survive three years of this I don't know how we're going to survive it. And there he is defeating --

HEGSETH: North Korea firing off missiles --

HURT: -- a slice of jalapeno pizza.

HEGSETH: Excuse me, I had something spicy in my pizza and I don't know what I can do to make sure this meeting goes well.

You're right, it's mortifying for people who love this country want us to be successful on the world stage, yet see it flailing in front of us. Matt and Charlie, thank you both, very much. Three and a half years is too long to wait. Let's hold on. My goodness.

All right. Tonight, the fighting remains fierce across Ukraine and now, we're learning more about war crimes committed at the direction of Vladimir Putin, his generals and his colonels acting on the ground, including the bombing of a Ukrainian theater that killed hundreds of innocent civilians. Plus, new Russian claim -- new claims that Russia is forcibly relocating thousands of Ukrainians many of which would rather go to Poland or somewhere in Europe, instead they're being forced to go into Russia and many believe it's to gain leverage through a potential mass hostage situation.

Joining us now with the latest on the ground in Lviv, Greg Palkot is with us -- Greg.

GREG PALKOT, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Pete.

Yeah, there was more fighting all across the country on Friday. In fact, not far from where we are, Ukrainian air force base was hit by Russian cruise missiles. We heard the air raid sirens. In Kyiv, Russian missiles hitting a key fuel depot there as Ukrainians continue their counter- offensive in various suburbs around the capital. Other cities like Kharkiv, Kherson remain battlefields. And you're right, local officials now say 300 men, women and children were killed when Russians struck that theater turned refugee shelter in Mariupol.

Now, all this comes, Pete, as the Russians seem to be redefining what they call a victory in this war, having been met by a really strong resistance around Kyiv and elsewhere, they now claim they were just trying to distract the Ukrainian military and are simply aiming at gaining back more Russia- leaning territory in the east. Whatever the twisted justifications are for Russia's brutality, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has this terrible war on his hands in every video appearance. He calls for more weaponry for his brave soldiers.

In fact, it was just reported that they say they could use 500 Stingers, 500 Javelin, anti-tank weapons every single day. Experts say the U.S., the West has to keep the ammo coming in. Back to you.

HEGSETH: Greg Palkot, based on the casualty numbers and the vehicles they've lost, those Stingers and Javelins have been put to good use so far. Thank you so much for the report. Stay safe.

Joining us now is the former commander of the USS Cole, Kirk Lippold, along with FOX News contributor and former CIA station chief, Dan Hoffman.

Kirk, Dan, thanks so much for being here.

Kirk, if you would first, give me a sense what's your reaction to this idea that Vladimir Putin's saying we're going into phase two. We have a different mission now. There's been acknowledgement of casualties. People know that the morale, the troops there are low.

What does it tell you about where Vladimir Putin's calculation is right now, Kirk?

CDR. KIRK LIPPOLD (RET), FORMER COMMANDER OF THE USS COLE: Well, what you're seeing, Pete, is the absolute spin in the information warfare machine. He is taking and trying to get a reset so that he can justify first and foremost to his own people why the war has gone as badly as it did, why they have suffered as many casualties as they have and why they are unable to sustain logistically or otherwise the territory that they gained that they are now losing thanks to the Ukrainians and the way they're fighting.

HEGSETH: Dan, what -- to what extent would reports about the morale of Russian troops affect the calculation of Putin? We've heard about now seven generals potentially shot near the front. There are reports of a colonel being run -- a Russian colonel being run over by his own men. There's open source because they don't have encrypted communication of Russian troops saying, we don't have water, we don't have food, we don't have gas.

Would any of that actually make its way to the Kremlin and change? Is that part of why he's saying maybe our ambitions are a little bit -- a little bit less and should we even believe him, Dan?

DAN HOFFMAN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah, those are -- those are really important (AUDIO CLIP) and even up to a week ago, a few days ago, Vladimir Putin was talking about this still being a special military operation and everything was going according to plan. Well, we know that's not true.

And he's shifted. He's got a tactical pause now. You can't trust anything Vladimir Putin says, and it's over to our intelligence community to collect on his real plans and intentions. But what I can tell you is that if this really is what Russia wants, we are going to be in a very difficult position. The Biden administration needs to ensure that we don't reward Russia for their aggression.

Think about this, that you know, there's million displaced Ukrainians at least, thousand civilians who have been killed and those -- including those 300 killed in the Mariupol drama theater bombing. Russia has rained down hell on Ukraine's civilian population and we have to manage that and deal with it and not allow Russia to be rewarded. I cannot imagine how Ukraine can go on as a country without -- with Vladimir Putin continuing to rule from the Kremlin.

I just -- I think we've passed that point frankly for the Ukrainians and that's going to be the challenge for the Biden administration is how we manage that going forward.

Kirk, it feels like Biden's backed into a corner. I don't know if these people going to Russia are Russian speaking, or if they could be used as hostages. But now, you know, we hear -- we hear talk of chemical weapons. We hear talk of nuclear weapons.

If he feels like he's losing, what are the possibilities of what he may attempt to unleash and maybe it is to entice a wider war. We -- can we know at this point?

LIPPOLD: I don't think we really know, Pete. I think what we really have to do is try and discern what his objectives are. We don't know what those are. He hasn't made it clear. Clearly, they didn't achieve the objective of toppling the Ukraine government within three to five days after the invasion started.

At this point, I think what we're going to have to do is continue to get as much lethal weaponry to the Ukrainians as possible to create the standoff distances that are going to allow them to hit the Russians harder, faster, more often and begin to start pushing them first toward the east, so that they can get back to the borders.

Putin should not be rewarded. Exactly like he said, he cannot be rewarded for what he's done. The temptation that we're going to run into is the world has a short attention span and you're now going to find the pressure starting to build where people are going to look for an excuse to pressure Zelenskyy to say, well, just negotiate. Let's just end this.

Look at the horror that's going on. That in fact is going to reward Putin by giving him the territory, by letting him keep the Crimea, by letting him destroy Mariupol and head toward Odessa. Those things have to stop and it's going to stop because eventually the U.S. and NATO are going to be in a position like we were in the late `90s in Kosovo, where we're going to have to take positive action to stop the slaughter.

It may be an escalation but so far, nothing the Biden administration has done has deterred Putin in setting the tempo on the battlefield. And until we take positive steps to do that, we will be in the -- Biden will be in a losing position and we cannot afford that.

HEGSETH: Dan, what's Kirk -- what Kirk is suggesting would indeed be quite an escalation. I mean, the counterargument would be, keep sending weapons, keep -- in mass, allow them to fight into the stalemate that we've seen so far, inflict massive Russian casualties. And then the trick becomes that negotiation , it's true.

I mean, is there an actual off-ramp that that is acceptable to the West, that ends this conflict that isn't either Russia pushed all the way out or Ukraine completely taken over?

HOFFMAN: You know, I think that's the question I would be asking President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians who have been fighting for freedom, liberty and democracy. They're the ones who should decide when and if they want to negotiate with the Russians. We shouldn't be doing that on their behalf.

The Russians have tried to force the Ukrainians to choose one foreign policy or another, not to join NATO, for example, not to join the European Union. I think that's over to President Zelenskyy, and I will tell you that based on the time I've spent in Ukraine, and my study of the situation, I frankly doubt that that Zelenskyy and his Ukrainian countrymen and women are going to want to give up anymore territory. They want back the Donbas, they want Crimea back.

And so -- and, look, we need to stand up for them. We haven't done enough. I think that the Biden administration should be held accountable. I think it should weigh on their conscience that we haven't done enough to stop the slaughter.

But we need to think about the future as well and I would like to hear, as we've discussed intimates program, what is the Biden administration policy? We haven't really heard that. I love to hear President Biden get up on the bully pulpit which Teddy Roosevelt made so famous until American citizens and the Russians that this is what we see going forward.

HEGSETH: Man, you're so right, and now would have been the opportunity in Poland on the border of Ukraine to articulate what a strong American position, without boots on the ground, without overwhelming NATO intervention could be. Instead, we got more confusion and more and more off-the-cuff remarks that are now using being used for Russian propaganda. We'll try to find that policy.

Dan, Kirk, thank you very much. Appreciate your insight tonight.

All right. Coming up, despite an ongoing energy crisis, of course, Biden continues to double down on his Green New Deal socialist agenda. We'll explain.

Stay with us, as this special edition of HANNITY continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Welcome back to the special edition of HANNITY.

Earlier today in Brussels, Biden took advantage of the war in Ukraine and the ongoing gas crisis to push his socialist Green New Deal Energy agenda, of course. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: This crisis also presents an opportunity. It's a catalyst, a catalyst that will drive the investments we need to double down on our clean energy goals and accelerate progress toward our net zero emissions future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEGSETH: Yes, now it feels like exact -- now it feels like exactly the time to double down. That comment came as he announced a new joint task force with the European Union set to focus on decreasing Europe's dependence on Russia oil. It's -- always smart to build the plan in the middle of the war when your allies are already dependent on the enemy's energy sources.

Meanwhile here at home, many are feeling the effects of this energy crisis as millions of Americans brace for surging gas and electric bills. And yesterday, Biden issued another word of caution warning of an impending food shortage following more sanctions on Russia. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: With regard to food shortage, yes, we did we still talk about food shortages and it's going to be real.

The comments on food shortages come amid Biden's free falling approval ratings. A new "Associated Press" poll this week found that nearly two- thirds disapprove of his handling of the economy. I'm surprised the number isn't higher.

While a new FOX News poll found that over half the country believes inflation not at all under control. But squad member Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, the comrade, now says his dismal poll numbers could get even worse if he refuses to cave to the radical left on -- get this -- cancelling student debt. Got to do that.

Here with reaction is professor of business and economics at the King's College in Manhattan, FOX News contributor and former neighbor of mine when we were in fifth grade, Brian Brenberg, and FOX Business contributor Phil Flynn.

Brian, great to see you.

Adding this all up, it almost makes it makes me feel like we're here we are back to never let a crisis go to waste, you're going to feel the pain. We don't have the answer but the answer is more pain to this perfect green future you're just going to have to wait a while for it and suffer in the process.

BRIAN BRENBERG, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: This is a problem, Pete. It doesn't add up. The president is doubling down on the wrong hand. We have seen this play out before. That's what we've watched in Europe, for the better part of two decades, they have tried to double down on green energy and it left them dependent on a dictator.

We're going to end up in the exact same kind of spot if we keep going down the green religion path that he's going down, a religion that demands sacrifice isn't interested in growth, isn't interested in getting wealthier so we can innovate cleaner technologies, it wants Americans to pay up.

This is the wrong approach. Phil can give you all the numbers, Pete. But at this point, the president completely lacks any strategic direction on helping Americans, one gets the impression and you can see this in the polls, Americans think this, one gets the impression the president likes these higher prices because he doesn't want to let this crisis go to waste and he's willing to put it on the backs of American families.

HEGSETH: It's amazing. Phil, give me those numbers because there are alternatives in ways we could find the energy resources required to both support ourselves and get back to energy independence and energy dominance, but also support Europe as it seeks to cut itself off from Russia as well. Are we going to do any of those things?

PHIL FLYNN, FOX BUSINESS CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah, we should absolutely. I mean, we have enough natural gas in the ground to supply the U.S. and Europe maybe for a hundred to 200 years, and with new technologies and innovation even more than that. But what I find amazing about this, Pete, here -- here is President Biden, you know, saying, you know, he's going to double down on his green energy policy but then when they get into trouble they call on the U.S. energy industry to save their best sides, right? What's that all about?

It's like, hey, we're going to send you good old-fashioned American-made LNG from America to Europe to save the day. Well, who made that? It was the U.S. energy industry, mostly done on private lands because you can't get a federal lease these days, you know?

And you know, I wonder if they call the energy companies, are they going to buy this energy and then give it to Europe? Or, you know, are they going to dictate who we sell this to?

Listen the U.S. energy industry is more than ready and willing to grow their business so they can do this in the future. But not with Joe Biden in office when every step of the way they get in their way of doing what they want to do.

HEGSETH: Yeah, Brian, I don't know if you heard the previous segment but I was talking to Matt Schlapp and he said, I said, what do we do? He said, wait three years and he was sort of joking but that's the feeling a lot of Americans have right now, is it doesn't feel like the cavalry is coming. So if you -- if we know oil and gas and nuclear if we would ever explore that, but if we knew actual oil and gas independence is something we could do and we're not going to do it, then what happens for the next three years for Americans?

BRENBERG: Well, we keep paying up, Pete. I mean, that's the problem that's why people are so pessimistic about their economic situation right now. They're not pessimistic because they think the American economy can't be great. They're pessimistic because they've got a president who has no plan for getting out of this. He has a plan for digging deeper into this.

We need some hope. We need a president to go out on American soil and speak to American oil and gas producers and say we are doubling down on your production. We are doubling down on your pipelines. We are going to become independent not just for our sake but for the sake of the world.

Europe depends on this. Frankly, they need a rescue right now and the only country on planet earth that can do that is the United States of America. But we've got to have a president because nobody believes that he wants to see this industry thrive. The banks don't believe it. The producers don't believe it. The pipeline infrastructure guys don't believe it.

He has got to go out there and say, I'm going to stand up to everybody in this country, who's been telling me to double down on green energy and instead I'm going to double down on American production of oil and gas. That's it, Pete. Otherwise, it's three years of the same thing you've seen for the last three months.

HEGSETH: Phil, on the campaign trail, Joe Biden said repeatedly that he wanted to end fossil fuels. He was going after the oil and gas industry. He was going after fracking. He's going after energy.

Let's just say if in a terrible Green New Deal world, he and his leftist friends got what they wanted in the Green New Deal and their climate agenda. What would that do to what we're what we're actually facing right now as a country. What would that actually mean?

FLYNN: Pete, we would look at these as a good old days of cheap energy prices. You know, their plans, you know, if you do the math on what they're trying to accomplish, it's similar to what's happening in Europe, and Europe is only a preview of what's going to happen. I mean, natural gas at the peak got to the equivalent of $600 a barrel crude oil this year.

You know, now, you can imagine, you know, gasoline prices in California are already close to seven dollars a gallon with oil yet at $10, could you imagine what they would be if oil prices were up to $600?

So, this is -- this is just craziness. Listen at the end of the day, when we're talking about the green energy deal, we need to pull back from this because what it is, it is a deal that will undermine the U.S. economy. It will take money from the poor and give it to the green energy rich.

This isn't even about you know cleaning the environment because if you really go through these green energy things, you know, the United States has actually reduced greenhouse gas emissions better than anybody in the Paris climate accord.

HEGSETH: And as it pertains to energy dominance, it was Ronald Reagan in the `80s who warned Germany, if you depend on Soviet energy, if you approve a Nord Stream 1, you're going to be beholden to them someday in the future. Here we are, Trump warned of the same thing, Biden didn't, and here we are.

That's why many people including my co-hosts on "FOX and Friends Weekend," Rachel Campos Duffy calls this the green new deal war, and I think it's -- it's pretty tough to refute that at this point.

Brian and Phil, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it.

All right. Coming up more evidence that the left imposed draconian COVID mandates on the American people on all of us, on our kids, without the science to back it up.

Plus, New York City Mayor Eric Adams -- we have a lot of hopes for him, right? Well, he issues bizarre new guidelines. We'll explain those as well as Joe Concha and Dr. Marty Makary join us with reaction.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEGSETH: Welcome back to the special edition of HANNITY.

Tonight, the Democrats' COVID hypocrisy is yet again on full display. FOX News has just obtained emails revealing that the CDC actually never had any federal data about the learning loss caused by COVID school closures. Not going to look into, really not interested?

So much for following the science, which we know is a sham. Meanwhile in New York City -- get this one -- Mayor Eric Adams has lifted the employer vaccine mandate, great news. But only for athletes and performers. He won't even hire back any of the municipal the city workers that were fired for refusing the shot.

So, Brooklyn Net star Kyrie Irving can play basketball again for the for the Brooklyn nets and you can earn millions of dollars while doing so, while unvaccinated cops and firefighters can't get rehired and are collecting unemployment.

It is such a senseless and hypocritical move that even the ladies of "The View" are calling him out. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Follow the money.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This feels so creepy to me. It feels unfair.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think what gets stuck in people's craws here is the unequal treatment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Something for the folks who are here, and something for folks who really need this paycheck.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, the science hasn't changed and suddenly overnight --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The very --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're full, fine. I don't buy it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEGSETH: Here now with reaction is FOX News medical contributor, Dr. Marty Makary, who's also a professor at Johns Hopkins University, along with FOX News contributor Joe Concha who is neither a doctor nor a professor, but he did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. So we'll see what he can bring to the segment.

Joe, Doctor, thank you so much for being here.

Doctor, first of all, on the CDC, why are we not collecting data about how school closures are affecting kids? We've seen gaps in data all over the place. What is this about?

DR. MARTY MAKARY, FOX NEWS MEDICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, it's pretty clear now from these emails that have been uncovered that the CDC director and even other people in the government had significant concerns, didn't see the data, thought it was strange not to have the data. And rather than summon a study or to insist on getting good data, they went ahead with this policy of closing schools by setting criteria that the schools couldn't meet.

The public health officials have made many mistakes but closing schools has been the most catastrophic and now we are learning that reading scores from national tests from over four million kids are nine points lower than they were pre-pandemic that's an entire letter grade.

HEGSETH: Doctor, just to stay with you real quick. Did they ever believe in, you know, six feet, three feet, plexiglass? Oh, I mean, was that ever based on science at all or were they trying to effectively signal how much they cared about COVID and we'll hope the kids do okay in the end?

MAKARY: Well, the CDC director herself, Dr. Walensky said at a school board meeting before she was CDC director, immediately before that, that three foot was safe. It was a safe distancing standard and that it was much more practical. She had called for that. But when she took the office as a political appointee, as you know, the unions edited the school guidance document before it went out.

HEGSETH: Amazing.

Joe, I bust your chops because I love you. But you've got expertise on the media and on politics across the board.

So, Eric Adams, why is he making this call? Why is he choosing one the athletes and the performers but not I don't know the people that work day and night to keep us safe in the middle of the pandemic without PPE and without vaccines? Why in the world would a politician who's savvy enough to -- I don't know, win the mayoral race in New York City, make a call like this and even "The View" is calling it out?

JOE CONCHA, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Pete, let me correct you first on your introduction of me. I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. My wife and I had a rare date night out, so-called lime shots, you know, how that goes, before you know, ends up at a holiday inn. So go figure.

But anyway, what a joke this whole situation is we saw this movie, by the way. If you remember early on the pandemic, Saturday live was actually able to have a studio audience. This is pre-vaccine because Bill de Blasio said that that was okay, as long as everybody was masked and that made it okay. But Broadway was closed, right?

And you think about the first responders and you think about the police officers and the firemen and obviously people that work in hospitals and the fact that maybe they didn't want to get unvaccinated for whatever reasons, personal reasons that they want. You know, their body their choice.

And now, you have Kyrie Irving, for example. He's with the Brooklyn nets in his situation. Here you had a player who couldn't play games at home, but he could attend games as a fan without a mask.

HEGSETH: Yes.

CONCHA: He could just pump and chest bump his teammates without a mask as long as he wasn't playing. But if you had an imposing player outside of New York, a visiting player could play on the court even if they were unvaccinated while 20,000 people in the stands could yell and scream regardless of their vaccinated status. It's just crazy.

And now, you should make this a universal across-the-board blanket rule that if you are unvaccinated, given where transmission is and given where this virus is right now, which is almost non-existent, that everybody should be able to go back to work. Instead, he just picks the celebrities here because maybe that gets a good seats for a Brooklyn Nets playoff game, I have no idea, Pete.

HEGSETH: Yeah, maybe it will.

But -- I mean, but ultimately, Doctor, I mean for the profession that you're in and for all of us, all of it undermines faith in public health, which means when good information does come out, we shrug our shoulders and say, is it really science anyway? And it's all unfortunate.

Joe, Doctor, thank you so much for being here.

All right. Straight ahead, Sean recently sat down with Shannon Bream to discuss her new book. We'll show you the interview as this special edition of HANNITY continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEGSETH: Welcome back to the special edition of HANNITY on a Friday night.

Our colleague, Shannon Bream, has been pretty busy lately. But somehow in between her live coverage of Ukraine invasion on FOX News @Night, and her daytime analysis of the Supreme Court hearings, she might have found some time to make a fantastic new book that's available right now.

Sean caught up with her to talk all about it. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Now, FOX News at night host Shannon Bream has a fascinating new book taking readers on a journey through the lives of biblical women detailing their heroism, their sacrifices, and the connection between faith and family.

And here to explain more, author of "The Mothers and Daughters of the Bible Speak." It hits the shelves on March 29. It's on amazon.com. We'll put a link on Hannity.com. Our colleague, our friend, Shannon Bream, is with us.

Shannon, good to see you. How are you?

SHANNON BREAM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Great to see you, Sean. I'm good.

HANNITY: You know, I look at what's going on in Ukraine and you see the vital role that women are playing. For example, they are taking the children to border countries. They are taking the brunt of taking care of the family. And the men are going back and fighting.

In World War II, it was very similar story. As my dad fought in the Pacific for four years, but if it weren't for everyone else, including every able- bodied man and woman working in factories and building ammunitions needed in the field of battle, they wouldn't have -- they wouldn't have been able to win.

It's the same -- those lessons are reinforced in this book.

BREAM: Yeah, they are, because we see over time that women have been called to step in, many times to be brave, to be bold. Men, of course, throughout the Bible, too. But we see the strength of mothers and our commitment to their children.

The book starts with the story of Jochebed, who's the mother of Moses, and her daughter, Miriam, they are the mother-daughter pair that kick us off. And they were so braid, because you think about it, Jochebed was a slave woman. She was oppressed.

There was an order that went out that every mother who had a baby, if it was a boy, it immediately had to be killed. And she said no. I mean, she had no choice and control in her life, but she made that very brave choice.

And she and her daughter together saved and hid Moses until he was able to go on to a destiny that changed the world.

HANNITY: Well, explain the rest of that story and what they did with the baby Moses, and how he was literally put in like a mini boat and send down the rivers.

BREAM: Yes, exactly. And the crazy thing is he was supposed to be thrown into the river to be killed, the River Nile. That's where all the baby boys were supposed to go. But after she hid him for some months, Jochebed said all right, I've got to have faith and send this little boy out. She created a mini arc for him, a little waterproof bin that she put him in.

And Miriam was the one who stood there on the banks and watch to see what would happen to Moses. And the pharaoh's daughter happened to be there bathing and happened upon him for this baby crying -- and we are told that in the bible she had great compassion for him. So little Miriam risks her life as a little slave girls, steps up, and says, by the way come if you need a Hebrew woman to nurse him until you're ready to take him into the palace, because she wanted to adopt him, I know just the woman.

So, Miriam was able to run home and tell Jochebed Moses is going to come home to us. She was able to race him and for two and three years before he went off to the palace. And, of course, his ultimate destiny was to save the entire nation of Israel.

HANNITY: The book goes into great depth and detail about the women in the bible. Are there a top three that come to mind that really inspired you the most?

BREAM: Yeah. I think, of course, the story of about Jochebed and Miriam is a big one.

But Esther, too. We think about her being in the perfect place at a perfect time. God obviously put her there. And you know the verse that for such a time as this, she was told when she was struggling to be courageous in that moment when she had to step up and be the one to save the Jewish people.

You know, if you don't do this, somebody else will be called into action. But maybe for such a time as this, you are put there, and she was. And again, she was a great savior.

And, of course, Mary the mother of Jesus. In the New Testament, we see -- and like these mothers in Ukraine, Mary was on the run with baby Jesus at one point, when God came to her and to Joseph actually in a dream and said, you've got to go, right now. King Herod is trying to kill your baby.

So, I think about her in this dusty -- you know, trip -- with no planning, grabbing everything in the middle of the night with a toddler and setting up trying to find safety and ending up in a strange land with no family and no friends. And that's what these brave mothers of Ukraine are modeling for us to do.

And so, you know, God was in those stories centuries ago and he sees the plight and the suffering today.

HANNITY: The book is called "The Mothers and Daughters of the Bible Speak: Lessons on Faith from Nine Biblical Families." It's in bookstores as of March 29th. It's on amazon.com. You can get your copy now.

Shannon, I know you had a great bestseller. The last time this will be a big seller as well. Thank you for sharing it with us.

BREAM: Thank you, Sean.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEGSETH: Thank you, Sean. And congrats, Shannon, on the book.

And next week, there will be a FOX Nation special on Shannon's book. It's called "The Mothers and Daughters of the Bible Speak: Listens on Faith from Nine Biblical Families." Make sure to check that out.

More of the special additional HANNITY right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEGSETH: Welcome back to the special edition of HANNITY. Unfortunately, that's all the time we have for tonight. Thank you so much for joining us. Sean is back on Monday night.

Remember, you can catch me alongside my co-host, Rachel Campos-Duffy and Will Cain Saturday and Sunday mornings on "FOX and Friends Weekend".

I hope you have a great night and a great weekend. And I will see you after a quick nap at 6:00 a.m. in the morning. Have a good one.

END

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