Rep. Collins: Democrats don't like an attorney general that actually does his job

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Rep. Collins: Democrats don't like an attorney general that actually does his job

House Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Doug Collins reacts to the contempt vote against Attorney General Barr.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," May 8, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY,  HOST: All right. You can keep the volume up. Twelve thousand five hundred strong. The president speaking in Panama City, Florida, 12,500 people.

You know, the president is right. We do not see the crowd a lot. Frank is our great director here.

Seeing more shots of the crowd, and overflowed crowd outside. We are told 12,500 strong estimated inside. Pretty big arena. Crazy Uncle Joe couldn't get a thousand people in, let's see, Iowa. Pretty amazing.

All right. There you have it. The president wrapping up.

And we start tonight with breaking news about the president fighting back after two-plus years of nothing but complete and utter cooperation, 1.5 million documents handed over. Every single person in the White House encouraged to cooperate and speak with Mueller and Congress. Not one time did the Trump White House invoke executive privilege, not once. Even White House counsel, which to me unfathomable, Don McGahn spent 30 hours with Mueller's pals and Hillary's attorney.

Now, the president saying enough is enough, and today, the president did finally say enough is enough by exerting executive privilege over all aspects of the Mueller report. And the White House ordered former counsel Don McGahn from testifying before Congress. They already had 30 hours.

The Attorney General Barr is refusing to be interrogated not by the House Judiciary Committee, by their staff. For the 206 years of that committee, not one time has that ever happened. And the attorney general is saying, and it's not going to happen now.

And the endless stream of documents, subpoenas, they're being now rejected now by the administration. In other words, the witch hunt is over, the Democrats lost, and what the Democrats are now doing is nothing more than radical revenge which is borne out of a mass psychotic rage against the President.

And by the way, four separate independent -- four! They have an irrational inability to accept four separate independent results. The nine-month FBI counterintelligence investigation -- Oh, Peter Strzok, no (ph) there. Oh, we had nothing.

In -- just before the employment of Mueller, Lisa Page said, "We have the House Intel Committee Investigation." No collusion. No conspiracy. No cooperation with Russia.

The bipartisan Senate investigation. And now, the 20-month Mueller witch hunt, all determining the same thing. No collusion, no obstruction.

Does Congress care one iota how much this is costing in legal fees? And for what? What about every single person that had been called before the committees, or called before Mueller? They all have to pay for lawyers. Lawyers in Washington, D.C., can be as much as $1,000 an hour! Now, they are going to be called in to be asked the same questions, now a fourth, fifth and sixth time?

This is nothing but harassment and abuse of power. And frankly, a brand-new taxpayer-funded witch hunt designed to smear the duly elected President of the United States and anybody that has dared - that dares to enter his orbit in support. That's why tonight, we turn to the Washington Swamp, 19- term Congressman Jerry Nadler wasting valuable time, resources to continue to prolong and continue to push a debunked hoax of conspiracy. The desperation reeks in an effort to be totally transparent, the Attorney General gave Nadler 11 other senior lawmakers access to a totally un- redacted version of the Mueller report.

That included everything except grand jury material. Everything but 0.1% was handed over because that's illegal. You've got to keep in mind this is because of a law that Nadler supported in the 1990s. Barr was under no obligation because people like Nadler wanted the law this way. He didn't even want the Starr report sent to the American people, to be seen by the American people, fighting against we the people seeing that.

Then they change the law. Now, the Attorney General has no obligation to release one word of the Mueller report. But still, the Attorney General Barr, well, un-redacted classified information, ongoing case materials, other publicly withheld content that might reveal sources and methods, the whole entire country was able to see.

The Judiciary Chairman Nadler and his fellow Democrats all refused to actually take the time and see the un-redacted version. Go see the whole thing!

Instead today, Chairman Nadler's circus voted to hold the Attorney General in contempt of Congress. And according to Nadler, this is all about Barr's decision to defy his subpoena which demanded that the un-retracted Mueller report be released to the full committee.

Well, Ranking Committee Member Doug Collins will join us in a moment, pointed out that Nadler once claim that is a subpoena was "a powerful and course of tool only to be used when attempts to reach an accommodation with the witness have reached an impasse." But during the hearing, Chairman Nadler on his high horse in his circus committee, well, he said the subpoena was merely intended to start a dialog with Barr's office.

Oh, that's new. Let's start a dialog. Here, we are going to subpoena you and we'll have other members threaten the sergeant of arms to put you in cuffs and drag you to the committee. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JERRY NADLER, D-N.Y.: The subpoena is written as the beginning of a dialog process. This is a beginning of a process to talk to the Attorney General and to the Department of Justice and ultimately, to go to court. But it's designed to be the foundation of a dialog and it's not designed to force our hand in what we insist on in court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: This is not the first time that Nadler and his circus have been caught totally, completely, utterly contradicting himself. As it turns out, Nadler has one set of standards for his good friend Bill Clinton, remember him? Bill Clinton, the Starr report listed 11 separate felonies committed by Clinton.

He lost his practice -- license to practice law. He did pay Paula Jones almost $1 million. And yes, he was impeached. Yet Nadler has a whole other standard for President Trump. Just like Democrats care about collusion, but not if it's Ukraine and Hillary. They care about obstruction but not Hillary and her deleting subpoenaed emails -- 33,000, BleachBit and hammers and SIM cards removed. They don't care about that.

They care about - I believe but only for a high school student Kavanaugh, not for Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, selective modern outrage. Anyway watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

NADLER: It's the culmination of nearly three months of requests, discussions and negotiations with the Department of Justice for the complete un-redacted report by Special Counsel Mueller.

NADLER: Somebody, the staff of the Judiciary Committee, perhaps the Chairman and Ranking Minority Members of the Judiciary Committee is going to have to go over this material, at least the 400 pages, 500 pages in the report to determine what is fit for release and what is, as a matter of decency and protecting people's privacy rights, people who may be totally innocent, third parties, what must not be released at all.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS HOST: Do you think the President obstructed justice?

NADLER: Yes, I do. It's very clear that the President obstructed justice.

NADLER: We must not overturn an election and remove a President from office except to defend our system of government or our constitutional liberties against a dire threat.

NADLER: We have to protect the rule of law, and that means we have to investigate and hold hearings and layout to the American people if this Administration is involved of abuses of power or obstruction of justice.

NADLER: The American people have heard the allegations against the President and they overwhelmingly oppose impeaching him. They elected President Clinton; they still support him. We have no right to overturn the considered judgment of the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

HANNITY: Just a phony hypocrite. And by the way, his shift in opinion is not just an exercise in anti-Trump vitriol and hypocrisy, Nadler's current fishing expedition is about so much more than a simple case of Trump hate rage Derangement Syndrome.

Democrats now fear the Attorney General, caught red-handed, concocting, perpetuating a massive fraud. This is what's underlying the fear and the hatred in the attacks against the Attorney General. The Attorney General will expose their hoax, their conspiracy theories, what really happened. It scares the living daylights out of them because he's going to investigate the biggest abuse of power and that's only just beginning.

So, they've got to smear him before he does his job. We'll have more of that in a moment, but joining us with more the Ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, Doug Collins. We'll get back to my monologue in a second.

Congressman, you actually picked up, I saw on Twitter - you are the guy, a lot of credit, I stole it, so I got to give credit and attribution. The hypocrisy of what he said then, what he's saying now.

REP. DOUG COLLINS, R-GA.: It's just amazing, Sean. I mean what we saw today is just insist for Barr (ph). They want to destroy Bill Barr because they don't like an Attorney General who actually does his job and follows the law - and follows the rules.

Think about what happened today. Bill Barr did what the regulations said they were to do. He actually offered more than he should have, and what are they rewarding with, a contempt in record time, ten times faster than Eric Holder was held in contempt. This is over 400 days for Eric Holder. We are less than 40. This is nothing but a political crusade to do -- mock Bill Barr, because they don't want what he is doing.

HANNITY: But Congressman, you said -- the reason they are doing it is because they fear what Barr said to Senator Lindsey Graham, which we played numerous times. The Mueller report is over. He's not changing his mind. He has the final definitive answer there. But now, he has been very clear -- Hillary's rigged investigation, FISA abuse, we of course also have the Horowitz report, an attempt to undo duly elected President, the abuse of the Intelligence Committee -- the intelligence tools that we have by a few high-ranking people, all of this now will come to the forefront. Will it not, sir?

COLLINS: It will. And I think that's what we're seeing in the Attorney General. And what we have today is -- and again, you brought this up earlier. When you have a Chairman of the Judiciary Committee say that a subpoena is something to start a dialog with, that's crazy. That's not what a subpoena is for. It's not to prop up your position in court; it is actually to get documents and he asked for everything, including what the Attorney General can't give him. He's asking the Attorney General to break the law.

You want to know what this was about today? All you got to do is listen to what Hank Johnson from Georgia said. He said we've got to get the documents. So, how can we impeach if we don't get the documents? And then when asked about the time frame, he said we don't have 400 days. Sean, this is -- the people need to know what's happening here. There is a rush to judgment because they don't like -- what you just saw just a few minutes ago in Florida where the American public are seeing a President who is leading, who has an economy that's booming and growing.

HANNITY: Congressman, last exit question in few short seconds we have. You courageously have released the closed-door testimony of Bruce and Nellie Ohr, and the General Counsel Baker and Strzok and Page. There are 53 other closed-door testimonies that I'm aware of, will you continue that release?

COLLINS: Yes. Get ready for that. I would fill you by (ph). Just stay close Twitter, stay close the next few weeks. We will be releasing the rest of those.

HANNITY: Any this week, sir?

COLLINS: Probably not this week. But, we're getting ready for next week. We want to let the Democrats, their hypocrisy, shine this week. And we're going to get back in Fox what Bill Barr is doing and we're going to get back exposing this to the American people.

HANNITY: All right. Congressman Collins, Georgia, thank you. Over the next weeks and months, two distinct sides are going to emerge. On the one hand, the Attorney General Barr will do his job. The Inspector General Horowitz is expecting - we're expecting his report on FISA abuse. "Wall Street Journal" today pointed out it will focus seriously on the Dirty Dossier.

By the way, why didn't Mueller focus on that? On the other hand, Democrats, the media mob, bad actors in the Deep State will desperately try to extend, even though we've had four separate investigations that say no Russia collusion. They will try to pass it on as long as humanly possible.

And this includes the king of the Deep State himself, James Comey, is noticeably flustered at the thought of the Attorney General that is now investigating the Deep State spying. And by the way, the FISA application, the first one that he signed in October, that verified the bulk of information that he claimed was true and verified to the best of his ability, that was in October of 2016 and in January 2017, told the President it is salacious and unverified.

He lied either in October of 2016, January of 2017 or both. I know he thinks he's a super patriot. I have said it before. Jimbo, you have the right to remain silent. You talking like this is a bad idea. I suggest you take my advice. Take a look.

(VIDEO CLIP BEGINS)

JOHN DICKERSON, CO-HOST, "CBS THIS MORNING": The Attorney General says he believes spying occurred in looking after the President's van campaign. What do you think about that?

JAMES COMEY, FORMER DIRECTOR, THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION: I have no idea what he's talking about. The FBI doesn't spy. The FBI investigates. We investigated a very serious allegation that Americans might be hooked up with the Russian effort to attack our democracy. The Republicans need to breathe into a paper bag.

DICKERSON: So the debate is a semantic one. The FBI was investigating into Trump Campaign, but you are sending they had cause to. And you just wouldn't use the word spy.

COMEY: Of course.

(VIDEO CLIP ENDS)

HANNITY: He signed the FISA warrant that allowed -- well, based on -- we know perhaps even Russian disinformation according to The New York Times -- that allowed the spying of Carter Page. He just lied in what he said.

Now Democrats, they are running cover for Comey and everyone else who helped them perpetuate their hoax, their lies, their conspiracy theories for years. And now, in the coming weeks, they will try to subpoena everyone, anyone associated with the Special Counsel's 20-month investigation, including Mueller himself.

And while the White House moves to block Mueller from appearing and put this divisive witch hunt to rest after two-plus years, Mueller does have serious questions I'd like answered. Let not your heart be troubled because, in the coming weeks, truth will prevail, justice will be served. Our constitutional republic will survive.

Joining us now, Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, Ohio Congressman Jim Jordon and I got to give credit to both of them and the entire Freedom Caucus, including Doug Collins.

It was you're questioning that nobody knew behind closed-doors that got us a lot more information and I can't wait to see the other 53 closed-door interviews that are coming. Good to see you both. Mark Meadows.

REP. JIM JORDAN, R-OHIO: Good to be with you.

HANNITY: It's now beginning to unravel, the Attorney General, it's over. Mueller is dead. It's finished. They can cling as tightly as they want to their sinking ship and their conspiracy theory. But what is coming is FISA abuse, the FISA applications, the rigged investigation into Hillary, the attempt to bludgeon and undo an election, the attempts to steal an election, all now under the purview of the Attorney General and others. Where are we going with this?

REP. MARK MEADOWS, R-N.C.: Well, I think in the coming days and by days, I mean just a few days, you will start to see a lot of this unravel. But as it unravels, part of why you are seeing Jerry Nadler and others go crazy is because they know that the truth is coming out.

And for as passionate as they were today and my good friend Jim Jordan did a great job in that committee hearing, but as passionate as they were today, they haven't been passionate when we've been in the privacy of those rooms, asking those questions, like Jim and I and others have. They won't even look at the documents because they don't want to know the truth.

And Director Comey, he has his day of reckoning too. He says they investigate -- we also know that they criminally leaked as well. So, it's time for accountability.

HANNITY: If the law is applied equally, do we have to go back to Hillary and the rigged investigation? By the way, you two got the information; you didn't share with me, which by the way, I deeply resent.

(LAUGHTER)

You could have shared this information and given me exclusive. But I know, because of the closed-door testimony, number one, Lisa Page said, yes after nine months, the FBI had nothing.

But we also, Strozk and Page put all the--

JORDAN: Comey said that.

HANNITY: --FBI decisions on Hillary right inside Loretta Lynch's office. Then we've got a lot more - well we'll see what Inspector General Horowitz says, but where do you see it going? Jim Jordon?

JORDAN: Well, I mean Comey said the same thing. All the way up to the day he was fired, he said he still had no evidence, any type of collusion, and obviously the Mueller Report demonstrated that as well.

To Jim Comey though, I mean, to not use the word spying, remember what we got last week from The New York Times. We got the - the story last Thursday where it said the FBI put a person posing as someone else to talk to George Papadopoulos in the Trump campaign. That's called spying.

HANNITY: Hold on Jim, you got to give the details.

JORDAN: That's called spying.

HANNITY: We had a 30-year-old flirtatious suggestive blonde bombshell spy trying to seduce information out of George Papadopoulos.

JORDAN: Yes.

HANNITY: You can put this in a bond movie.

JORDAN: Yes. If that's not spying, tell me what is. And frankly, I did not know that anyone who actually puts much weight into what Jim Comey says now other than CNN is doing a--

HANNITY: Wait a minute, when he signed the first FISA warrant, okay wasn't that a warrant based on a dirty Russian dossier that might have been Russian disinformation according to The New York Times?

JORDAN: Yes.

HANNITY: To spy on Carter Page and the Trump Campaign? Did he not sign that, was not that on spying or am I just out of my mind?

JORDAN: We're not--

(CROSSTALK)

MEADOWS: It's worse than that. Yes, it's worse than that. He actually knew that there were credibility problems before he ever entered into it. That's the problem.

HANNITY: Well, Mark--

JORDAN: They didn't tell the court who paid - they didn't tell the court who paid for it. They didn't tell the court that Christopher Steele was desperate to stop Trump, and they didn't tell the court that Christopher Steele had been fired by the FBI because he was out talking to the press, and yet they used the document.

HANNITY: Okay that's - by the way that would be I believe footnote eight in the dossier, in the application. Doesn't the application - you guys correct me if I'm wrong and thanks for not sharing all of the secret information, both of you got the information from Bruce Ohr that he warned everybody that Steele hated Trump, it wasn't verified, and Hillary paid for it. But now we have Steele at the State Department and all that information was withheld.

JORDAN: Yes, exactly right, Sean.

MEADOWS: Yes, all of it's been held. But I think there will be some good reporting that brings all of that to light in the very coming near future.

HANNITY: By the way, both of you are in deep trouble because you kept it all from me and I hounded you to death for that information and you wouldn't give it to me.

When we come back, a lot more to get to tonight. Sara Carter, Gregg Jarrett on all this new breaking information and the attempts to character assassinate Barr, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Alright, here with tonight's breaking news more on and author of the number one New York Times best seller, the Russia hoax Fox News Legal analyst Gregg Jarrett, along with Fox News Contributor, Sara Carter.

Sara, let's start with the reporting side of this. President cooperates fully for over two years. Everybody gets to talk to Mueller, everyone is encouraged to go talk to Mueller and Congressional committees, no executive privilege. President answers questions. It goes on and on.

The fourth time now, no conspiracy, collusion, nothing, okay. 1.5 million documents. Now, this is now about harassment. This isn't about trying to get information. And the people -- the working men and women, they don't make a whole lot of money in D.C. And every time they are stuck testifying, they're paying up to $1,000 an hour for their attorney because nobody would be stupid enough not to hire one to go for a perjury trap every time they are called in for this crap.

SARA CARTER, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER AND FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: That's right, Sean. I mean, we have seen what's happened to General Flynn, we've seen what's happened to other people who have testified like Sam Clovis. I mean, they are continually dragging it out.

And I think the American people realize what is going on here. This has been so highly politicized. The President did the right thing, he did the right thing by evoking executive privilege over the Mueller Report.

They have given -- Attorney General Barr has given every chance for Representative Nadler to view this. The only thing that's redacted is, like you said, a very small amount of grand jury material and that's by law.

I think a second very important point is that we have to bring up here is that the FBI, if we're looking at the whole issue of spying and this debate and how the Democrats are politicizing this, the whole issue of spying is this - is the fact that--

HANNITY: Well, Comey just said he didn't spy. What planet is this idiot living on when he signed the FISA warrant to spy on Carter Page and the Trump campaign? All right, we are running out of time. In the 206 year history of the House Judiciary Committee, Nadler doesn't want to interview or question Barr, or the Democrats. They want their lawyers to do it. It's never happened, Gregg Jarrett. I wouldn't do that, nor - and they had access to the un-redacted Mueller report. They're just lying, it's a circus sideshow.

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: Well, the ever hysterical Jerry Nadler is saying this is a constitutional crisis. He would think a dirty diaper is a crisis. Everything that Donald Trump and his administration does is somehow a crisis.

(LAUGHTER)

The fact is that Barr could be prosecuted for turning over grand jury material that Nadler is demanding. So Barr is simply following the law and Jerry Nadler wouldn't know the law if it slapped him in the face, took him forever to get through a law school.

HANNITY: Apparently, you would both agree, that's spying Jim. Stop lying, you have the right to remain silent, I warn you again. Guys, sorry to cut it short, don't blame me, blame the President. He took my time. Alright, more Hannity after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Alright unfortunately that's all the time we have for you this evening. Don't forget we will never be the rage, psychotic media mob. We are fair and balanced. Thank you so much for watching. You make this show possible.

Big show tomorrow The Great One, Mark Levin, is going to weigh in on the Attorney General. Oh, they want to stop him from getting to the truth, of course. But let not your heart be troubled. Why? Because the news continues.

I think she is back in the swamp tonight. Laura Ingraham. 
 
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