Rep. Louie Gohmert blasts Nancy Pelosi's handling of impeachment: I don't think she thought this through

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Rep. Louie Gohmert blasts Nancy Pelosi's handling of impeachment: I don't think she thought this through

Despite Democrats' calls to impeach President Trump as quickly as possible, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is withholding articles of impeachment from the Senate; reaction from Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett and Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," December 26, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

TAMMY BRUCE, GUEST HOST: Welcome to Sean Hannity's program. This is "Hannity." I'm Tammy Bruce, in tonight for Sean.

Well, House Democrats have just been caught -- and you'll be shocked -- have just been caught in one gigantic lie. For weeks, Pelosi, Schiff, and Nadler told that President Trump must be impeached as quickly as possible.

They called him an imminent danger to our democratic republic and they forced him a vote in record time.

But now, Speaker Pelosi is still stalling. At this hour, she is still refusing to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate.

And President Trump is calling her out today. He tweeted, quote: The radical left, do nothing Democrat said they wanted to rush everything through to the Senate because, quote, President Trump is a threat to national security, end quote.

They are vicious, will say anything. But now, they don't want to go fast anymore, they want to go very slowly. Liars.

And, of course, the president is correct.

Over Christmas, President Trump had even more to say about Pelosi's impeachment charade. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: She hates the Republican Party. She hates all the people that voted for me and the Republican Party. And she is desperate to do -- look, she got thrown out as speaker once before. She lost like 63 seats -- 61 or 63, tremendous, record- setting number of seats. I think it's going to happen again.

She's doing a tremendous disservice to the country and she's not doing a good job and some people think that she does not know what she's doing. A lot of people think that and a lot of people said it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUCE: Well, I think Nancy Pelosi knows exactly what she's doing, right?

She clearly wants to prevent the exoneration of President Trump.

The interesting thing, of course, is that the left doesn't care what they do. They have -- they have no shame. They don't care about the impact.

Well, now, in the Senate, many now believe that President Trump will, in fact, be acquitted on a bipartisan vote.

Joining us now with more is the author of "Witch Hunt", FOX News legal analyst, Gregg Jarrett, along with Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert, and senior legal advisor to the Trump campaign, one of your favorites, Jenna Ellis.

Jenna, gentlemen, thank you for being here with me tonight.

REP. LOUIE GOHMERT (R-TX): Good to be with you.

BRUCE: Gregg, let me ask you about this, because it's fascinating what Nancy Pelosi is doing. That some of the arguments are that there is chaos, I don't think there is, I think in fact, it's possible it was a point a lot of long that they knew what they lose control of this going into the Senate. They had no intention of caring about the nature of what the Constitution required. Otherwise, this wouldn't happen in the first place.

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, I mean, to claim that we have to rush through this with almost no evidence, no direct witnesses of anything, because the president is a risk to national security, a threat to the republic is now belied by her stopping the process and hanging onto the articles.

I do think she had a couple things in mind. First of all, she wanted the articles before the first of the year to damage the president in election year. I think that will backfire.

And second of all, I think she wants to influence the Senate trial, even though under Article I Section III of the Constitution, she has no power or authority over it whatsoever. She's actually trying to engage in a quid pro quo. I'll send the articles to you only if I approve of the process that you designed. She's doing exactly what she is falsely accusing the president of in the quid pro quo.

BRUCE: Yes.

Obviously, as I noted, Congressman, no shame. They know -- I think what they've underestimated here is the American people's reaction to this.

It's a sham, but it's more than a fraud. They are doing things that deliberately damage the republic.

To say this about the president of the United States when monumental things are happening around the world, and his foreign policies affected because of the way that he might be viewed. And yet, you're in the position where this need to rush because of the urgency affected the ability of some of the things you're able to accomplish in the House.

GOHMERT: Well, like not having real fact witnesses. And we -- I made a request and Doug Collins said a long list that we talked about of fact witnesses, and we were told, we don't have time for that.

Well, the rules -- they're in the majority, they can change the rules, they didn't. The rules would allow for a minority witness day, but we couldn't have the minority witness day because time was of the essence. We had to move on. We had to get this to the Senate.

I don't think she thought this through as well as some people think. She really didn't want to get to this point nine months ago and now she'd been pushed into it.

BRUCE: You know, Gregg, some are saying that, in fact, she will fold. I think in -- of course, she might -- she would have to because what she's doing is effectively unconstitutional. But is it perhaps, also, because they've been looking at the focus groups and polling through this, like which word to use to accuse him of.

Wouldn't it -- are they perhaps just waiting to see if any of this is still affecting people? I think it is likely. I think we're seeing the numbers opposing impeachment going up.

JARRETT: I think she's hoping that it will affect people even though I think the longer she holds onto the articles, the less likely that it is and will be a bigger boomerang effect.

The other thing is, frankly, I just think she kind of hopes that some magical evidence will drop out of the sky.

BRUCE: Yes.

JARRET: Like witches in a witch hunt which really don't exist.

BRUCE: Or in fact, what we saw, what we started this, may be another phone call from another anonymous whistle-blower which would require more investigation. It is -- it's a waste of money certainly. But the overall dynamic, Congressman, is one that tells the people of the country that we've got a Congress that is, you know, not doing its own job. It is trying to still undo -- or stop at a duly elected president.

And, ironically, of course, that's why Trump is president, because we knew something was wrong with Congress and the swamp, so we were putting him in there to clean this up. In a way, it's inevitable that this is occurring because we were correct in 2016.

GOHMERT: Exactly. And the Trump derangement syndrome has caused so many that were part of the deep state that we really didn't have identified to pop their heads up, and go, here we go.

BRUCE: Yes, exactly.

GOHMERT: And I think in the days ahead, we'll be able to eliminate those so that President Trump will have more cooperation within his own administration.

BRUCE: Now, Pelosi, Gregg, is arguing that Mitch McConnell has made it clear he's not going to be fair. Suddenly, they want all those things -- well, they know, they know they weren't being fair, and now they're afraid like most -- you know, leftists and those who project, they were afraid of the same thing that's happening. They want fairness, they want witnesses, they want all those same things.

At the same time, this is clearly a political action. That that's what impeachment is.

JARRETT: Sure.

BRUCE: McConnell has absolutely no obligation to even look at this sham that's been provided to them as even serious. That's one of my concerns, is this argument that -- and I think they're relying on the process that the process would make them seem legitimate whereas, in fact, McConnell has every right to be serious about how he looks at this.

JARRETT: Of course.

BRUCE: And if this -- for crying out loud, he's a member of the same party.

JARRETT: Yes, isn't it ironic if not hypocritical of Nancy Pelosi to demand due process in the Senate that she approves while she denied due process and fundamental fairness in the House procedures over which she was in charge?

BRUCE: And, forgive me-- again, this is one of the issues with two people on set here. We've got Jenna Ellis who is obviously knows directly what the president has been going through, what -- the impact on the presidency itself as a function of Donald Trump and try to get his job done.

Your sense here now, of what this delay means and if it's -- how it's impacting him and if you think it's going to be a larger problem in the long term?

JENNA ELLIS, SENIOR LEGAL ADVISOR TO THE TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN: Yes, you know, the reality is politically that President Trump approval ratings and his polling numbers are the highest they've ever been and the Republican fund-raising is the highest it's ever been. I mean, if you look at the American people who understand that this is a sham, and they understand that he was -- he's absolutely right that Nancy Pelosi is doing a disservice to this country. And she's doing a poor job.

And what that means is that she's not taking seriously her oath of office to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution. And this is a sham impeachment, not just from a political, partisan talking point. I mean, certainly, there are those of us who support President Trump but we support him because we understand that the Constitution does not allow the House to impeach for any reason whatsoever.

That is a limited power that's given to Congress and they have to abide by only putting forth impeachment when there is evidence of a crime that fits within Article Two, Section Four.

BRUCE: Right.

ELLIS: There is no evidence whatsoever that came out in the House, and I think that's really important for the American people to understand that this isn't about partisan politics.

BRUCE: Right.

ELLIS: The vote in the Senate should be 100-0 to acquit President Trump because that is what the evidence shows, clearly.

BRUCE: Well, I think -- I would not expect that, we do expect it to be somewhat bipartisan. We're thinking of a few. But maybe this is going to be the call that we really look at the nature of how partisan this can be and, if, in fact, there needs to be some rules applied that can stop that to some point. This is what the founders feared. And now, that we've seen it be applied to, I think we know that we've got work to do.

Jenna, Congressman, Gregg, thank you for joining me. I appreciate it.

GOHMERT: Good to be here.

BRUCE: All right. Now, let's turn to the developing story out of Washington, D.C. swamp, the damning Horowitz report on FISA abuse is causing some anxiety among deep state bureaucrats and for good reason. The FISA court has just ordered a review of all previous warrant applications involving the FBI attorney who falsified critical evidence against Carter Page.

However, that's just one person. Fox News is now reporting that the court is not ordering FBI to revisit other warrants from top officials who made 17 critical errors and omissions on the Page warranty. Still, President Trump is confident that justice will be served.

Let's take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Now, we found out, there are a bunch of dirty cops and -- paid for by the DNC, paid for by Hillary Clinton in many cases. And as much, they did a phony dossier, they used the dossier for FISA.

And now, as you know, the FISA court, the top judge is very much involved and hopefully, they're going to do something about it. But these were dirty people, these were bad people, these were evil people and I hope that someday, I'm going to consider it my greatest, or one of my greatest achievements getting rid of them. We have no place in our country for people like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUCE: Well, there's one thing we love about President Trump, amongst many, is that he is direct, he's blunt, and he's clear. And that's appreciated.

Now, while President Trump tackles the serious abuse of power scandal, many in the mainstream media continue to embarrass themselves with lies, conspiracy theories, and fake news. Today, even "The Washington Post" called out MSNBC's Rachel Maddow for promoting the discredited Steele dossier, you know? I mean, I guess earlier today, if you thought a pig was flying past your window, you are correct.

Joining us now with more, our FOX News contributor Sara Carter and John Sullivan, along with former U.S. attorney Brett Tolman.

Thank you all for joining me here on this day after Christmas. I really do appreciate it.

But, look, the left never stops so were not going to stop either. And when I say we, it really is a matter of the point that is reliant on the facts of the matter. And the nature of what is genuinely occurring.

And let's start with, you know, what the president alluded to there, Sara, and Kim Strassel has a good piece because there's so many details, sometimes it can get confusing. We know that the main FISA judge is now bemoaning, oh, all this stuff, it's awful, from the Horowitz report, we've got to get all the new information, and, you know, how can we trust you?

She knew two years ago from a letter from Devin Nunes that mirrors that -- his committee in the House found exactly for the most part, what the Horowitz report found, and she -- and the court is behaving as though all of this is brand-new and is shocking.

Is this FISA judge, and is the FISA judge, possibly part of the swamp and part of the problem here?

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I believe it absolutely is, Tammy.

This is a huge problem.

By the way, Kimberley Strassel's column on it was excellent. You know, we have known this for some time, those of us that have been investigating this obviously who have been knee-deep in all of this mess here in Washington, D.C., that according to Devin Nunes report and the original report that he wrote, that the FISA court must have known this. I mean, if there was something that went wrong here, it went wrong in the FISA court.

Think about this -- it totally does not give anyone who's been monitored throughout the FISA court has no representation whatsoever, the one thing that the president said that so important here about getting rid of these bad players in the swamp is the fact that he needs to clean house, because if there's nobody to represent, think about this, that's the Fourth Amendment right to unreasonable searches and seizures.

And what the FBI did, Kevin Clinesmith, being the FBI attorney in the case of Carter Page, was stomped all over -- all over Carter Page's rights, which were the rights of all American citizens. So --

BRUCE: This becomes the question. We know Carter Page's name, we know this could affect all of us. But the scary questionable thing here, with the government, the best government on God's green earth, the best country in human civilization, that you've got these individuals who now begin to think that it's their own private company and they can do what they please.

And it's -- and John brought out this willingness to say, well, the ends justify the means and John, because we do know Carter is affected by this.

JOHN SOLOMON, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Right.

BRUCE: And what I think is shocking is that she limited the request or review to this one FBI person as though it's just about procedures. And having known about it for two years, having done nothing in the process, John, is this part of a larger problem, and how you expect this to unfold at the FISA court at this point?

SOLOMON: I've been covering this for two decades. Let's look at the history of the FISA court's behavior. In 2002, there are more than 70 violations and they called Mueller in and they said, create some new procedures. In 2007, there are problems with national security letters, create some new procedures.

In 2016, as Obama was exiting the presidency, his Justice Department dropped hundreds of violations belatedly on the court. No one got a consequence then. That's why the greatest dirty political trick in American history was allowed to be carried out, no one fears the FISA court.

BRUCE: Great point.

SOLOMON: Three years into this, right, we have 51 known false statements, misleading statements or uncorroborated statements that were submitted before the court. And we are talking about procedural issues and maybe one lawyer, the temptation to do this again will be greater if the court, if Attorney General Barr doesn't do something far more drastic.

BRUCE: And it will be worse. And it will be worse.

SOLOMON: It will be.

BRUCE: Because it got to this point because clearly it had. As you know, you've been working on this for a generation.

SOLOMON: Yes.

BRUCE: It's been going on. There have been no repercussions. If it is now out in the open and they have not been able to hide. And even when it's out in the open, the system is trying to save itself.

SOLMON: That's right.

BRUCE: Brett, with their former position as the attorney here, what are the repercussions? I mean, are -- some are saying, we got the rid of the FISA court, but it's not that infrastructure. It's the mentality of the people in the system itself. Is that something we can solve?

BRETT TOLMAN, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Well, remember, never understatement a bureaucracy and the ability of those who lead the bureaucracy to point the finger at somebody else. And that's what you've seen.

And, you know, just to add what we've heard it, the FISA court is a court that has extraordinary power that is able to actually get around the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments and delay their application to the targets that they are investigating. That's enormous power. So, now, we don't have accountability but we have the increased power that's been given, you know, for the last two decades.

I was there in Congress when Jim Comey appeared and said, we will not surveil on U.S. citizens. Well, guess what? They did, they have been, and now, we need to find out how many other instances has there been a failure on the part of those who present evidence to our most powerful court.

BRUCE: Yes. And then you have, I think it was James Clapper who told us during the metadata scandals and the NSA cut -- taking our metadata, that he said, we weren't doing that, and then later on he said he lied the least amount that was appropriate, or something to that effect. I'm paraphrasing.

But, Sara, we talk about getting rid of agencies or getting rid of particular courts, it really is President Trump interestingly who is standing there are now saying, enough is enough. Is that perhaps the break that we needed for people to realize that this charade, this game was over?

CARTER: It absolutely. Look, how many times have people come forward in Congress and others, not many, but had the bravery to stand up and say, there's something wrong with the FISA court. Now, Rosemary Collier, she is the presiding judge, she stepping down, somebody else is going to be stepping her place. She's going to stay until May and saying, OK, well, let's review this.

Everybody is scared, and particularly --

BRUCE: Yes.

CARTER: -- the FISA court, because they know come March, come March, Congress has to reauthorize the FISA court again. Whether or not this will move forward a period.

BRUCE: That will be interesting. Yes.

CARTER: Tammy, let me tell you, I'm not too sure that this is going to happen. I know people are afraid. They don't want to dismantle the court.

(CROSSTALK)

BRUCE: Well, this fight is going to go, Sara. This fight is going to go up until November --

CARTER: That's right.

BRUCE: -- of 2020 when we make a statement as Americans, regardless of your party, that we want this government back.

CARTER: Right.

BRUCE: All right. John, Sara, Brett, thank you so much for your perspectives.

TOLMAN: Thank you.

BRUCE: Up next, the 2020 Democratic primary field continues to move radically left and now, insiders are saying socialist Bernie Sanders could be the eventual nominee. Our panel breaks it down. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUCE: Welcome back to "Hannity", everyone. I'm Tammy Bruce.

Now, the new extreme Democratic Party continues to drift further and further left, embracing open borders, higher taxes, and, of course, far less socialism. None of that does any good for humanity as we've seen historically. And get this, even Democratic insiders are now admitting that Bernie Sanders has a path to the nomination.

From "Politico", quote: Suddenly, Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign is being taken seriously. Democratic officials, political operatives and pundits are reconsidering Sanders' chances.

And if that isn't disturbing enough, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez said she'd be quite honored to be his vice president while admitting she's too young to even hold the office.

So, tonight, it could not be more clear the new extreme Democrats are running the party and driving the narrative and putting so-called moderates like Joe Biden, if you want to call him a moderate, I guess in this world he appears to be, putting him on the defensive, because while Biden clings to his front runner stand us, the campaign continues to be plagued by awkward gaffes, a weak record and his son Hunter's shady dealings overseas.

But, of course, the media continues playing defense for him.

Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Listen, I don't think Trump is playing chess or checkers. I think he's playing hungry, hungry hippos. I get why the president wants a circus, right? A circus is a circus, it's good for him, everybody gets confused, we ended talking about Hunter Biden. That's not good for the Democrats. And once we start going after Hunter Biden, what's next? The CrowdStrike guys, Diamond and Silk, you know, it's going to be crazy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUCE: Yes, so, that's in the future, crazy.

So, remember, Joe Biden is literally on tape admitting to a quid pro quo with Ukraine, leveraging taxpayer aid to get the prosecutor fired that was investigating Burisma Holdings and his zero experience son Hunter. And not only that, but a private investigation from a private investigation firm is alleging a new court filing that Hunter Biden is actually the subject of multiple criminal investigations.

But the media would rather just ignore it, and ignore just how disconnected and how dangerous and how destructive this new Democratic Party has become.

Joining me now for reaction is Trump 2020 campaign secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, along with "The Washington Times" columnist and FOX News contributor, Charlie Hurt, and "Washington Examiner" senior campaign reporter, Kerry Picket.

Kerry, let me start with you because this entire environment here, when you're looking at the media covering the Democrats, the nature of what it is they're covering for, accusing Donald Trump of wanting the circus. He is not in charge of the Democratic Party. He didn't choose these candidates.

They are dealing with the mess of what Barack Obama left them in the wake of Obamacare and his eight years. So, Donald Trump is sitting back and trying to run the country at the same time. Are they looking -- obviously, I think any of the individuals can become a nominee, but it is going to require the Democratic machine effectively to then anoint one. Clearly, they're still nervous about Biden.

Are they serious about Bernie Sanders do you think?

KERRY PICKET, WASHINGTON EXAMINER SENIOR CAMPAIGN REPORTER: Look, right now, what we're seeing is Bernie Sanders go back into the spotlight, because remember, Tammy, there was a period of time when Bernie Sanders was number one.

BRUCE: Right.

PICKET: And the Democratic establishment, all of a sudden, was kind of freaking a bit. So, they're kind of saying, you know, Joe, you better jump in at one point in save us.

But then Joe Biden, all of a sudden, he's having these gaffes, having the entanglements with his son. And now, you know, we begin to see Elizabeth Warren have her pop. Buttigieg has pop. And then, all of sudden, they're going back down again.

Now, we're seeing Bernie Sanders pop up again and they're beginning to wonder what's going on.

BRUCE: It comes around, Charlie, it almost comes around to who the media is paying attention to, right? Bernie Sanders, after his heart attack, it was kind of kid gloves there. He's not really taking to task by the media at all.

Elizabeth Warren was because of the absurd Medicare-for-All $52 trillion circus. So, she took some hits. So, she -- but the moment that any attention is paid to them, they sink.

Charlie, do you think that this is going to be one of the cases where either they are hoping he will, but now, with Elizabeth Warren going away and going down, somebody's who's not mentioned, Charlie, is Bloomberg.

Where do you sell all of this coming out in the next month or two as we head into the caucus?

CHARLIE HURT, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I've got to tell you, Tammy, you know, all along I have believed that somebody like Joe Biden, although he is completely marched away from his disinterest appearing legacy of Obama, sort of, platforms that -- you know, I do think that he most likely represents the broad cross-section of the Democratic Party. But, of course, as you point out, he's been running a disastrous campaign.

It would not surprise me one bit to see out of all this wreckage, to see a Bernie Sanders wind up without nomination. After all, he won the nomination and 2016. It just so happens that the DNC and the Hillary Clinton got together and conspired to take it away from him but it wouldn't surprise me. But I also think that if Bernie Sanders winds up as the nominee for the party, I think he clearly loses and not only because he's just -- all his -- he's crazy, all his policies are totally infallible to the general election voters. I think they're even unpalatable probably to the cross-section of Democratic voters.

BRUCE: You know, when I was on the left, one of the arguments of it was, is that even bring up the subject moves -- being accepted as a legitimate thing to discuss, moves it forward. That is like five steps forward, three steps back. So we can't dismiss the effort that has to change the mentality of Americans on the scene. We have seen what they did not anticipate with Donald Trump reminding them of the greatness of the American ideal, and the importance of the republic and certainly capitalism.

Kayleigh, at the same time, you've got to the other thing and I've seen the Hunter Biden dynamic, a little bit of a distraction, but it really in a way sits at a quarter of the problem with the swamp. It's the nepotism, the money, and you wonder how do you become a multimillionaire in public service?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN: Right.

BRUCE: And now, this is the scene that seems to explain that to a release trip to bear.

Do you think this is -- obviously Hunter Biden's problem seemed to increase by the day. Is this something that will affect Joe Biden if, in fact, he continues to stay at the top of the heap?

MCENANY: It certainly will, because, Look, Tammy, when I travel the nation, go all the president's rallies, one thing I hear repeatedly is about the Washington swamp. And this notion that politicians go in, they are enriched, they profit off their time in public service and there's no better example of that than Hunter Biden who had no experience in oil and gas that gets this lucrative his contract in Ukraine, get this lucrative deal in China, both coincidentally after his father either leaves the foreign relations with the country or visits there in the case of China.

This sits at the center.

And when Hillary Clinton had her email problem and the Bleach Bitting and all of this came out, CNN, MSNBC, they did their best to cover it, to hide it. I was a contributor at the time, I saw it happen. Their attempt to hide these scandals from the American people. But I can tell you this, the American people are smart, they see through it, and they will see the scandals for what it is, just likely they did with the Hillary Clinton one.

BRUCE: You know, Kerry, I think one of the things that's different and all of that and were discussing here, is social media, and it's cable television, is the fact that real-time now, you can receive the news on a smartphone, that you can get information as it's occurring. Maybe the Hunter Biden thing, if he only had three networks to rely on that were covering up, you would not have all the information to be able to make those determinations.

And then you've got Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez who seems to be your the representation of the problem when it comes to the voting, and to literacy, economically, historical literacy of who we are. And she attached yourself to Bernie Sanders, clearly it's not the Kennedy-Shriver Democratic Party anymore.

But do you see the social media as part of the change in how the American people are responding in what they are willing to put up with because we're learning more every day?

PICKET: Well, certainly. I mean, social media has a lot to do with this, Tammy. But remember, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also provides a lot of energy to this -- the primary for the Democrats, that the Democrats themselves in this primary really can't provide. But remember, she's not old enough. And unfortunately, they're going to have to wait maybe until 2024.

BRUCE: If they imagine this is the future, they've got some bigger problems than we even could imagine because the Americans have rejected that in 2016 and the rejecting it now. And with everything else we've seen, I think they're going to reject it in 2020.

So, it's heartbreak. It's an important legacy of the American republic.

So somebody there is going to have to get there act together.

Kayleigh, Kerry, Charlie, thank you very much for joining me tonight. I appreciate it.

Now, straight ahead, Dan Bongino and Ari Fleischer react to the most outrageous examples of the radical far left rage in this holiday season that you will have to see to believe. We'll bring to you, and we'll probably kick it in the pants. So, do not go away.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUCE: Welcome back to "Hannity," everyone. By the way, merry Christmas and merry day after Christmas.

Well, even on Christmas, a time of giving, cheer and holiday spirits, the liberal media can't control themselves and they cannot set aside their rabid hatred for all things President Trump and anything and everything that offends them -- which is really, everything.

Salon.com is now branding -- this is extraordinary but it's true, branding Hallmark Christmas movies, quote, as fascist propaganda.

Meanwhile, Reverend Al Sharpton said evangelical Christians who support Trump would, quote, sell Jesus out. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. AL SHARPTON, MSNBC HOST: They would take this shameless con man over -- the principles that they're preaching in the holy season as we celebrate, Jesus, they would sell out if they felt they could get something from him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUCE: Well, Al Sharpton wasn't the only person evoking Jesus to score cheap political point. Check this out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMANTHA BEE, COMEDIAN: If you're not doing your best to show compassion for the poor, the week, the sick, and yes the immigrants, and you are doing Christmas wrong. I don't care what the hell on your Starbucks cup.

Anyway, Jesus loves me and he hates it Fox News. Bye.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUCE: Yes. Well, the left's rage is extending to liberals statehouses also across America, including New York where Governor Chris Cuomo is trying to prevent Trump appointed judges from officiating weddings. As a matter of fact, I think it's like all federal judges are not allowed to officiate at weddings because some are appointed by Trump.

And in Virginia, where Governor Ralph Northam is reportedly increasing the corrections budget in anticipation of jailing gun owners.

Joining me now with more, FOX News contributors Dan Bongino, and, you know him well, and Ari Fleischer.

Thank you for being here tonight. I appreciate it. Merry Christmas. And happy holidays.

DAN BONGINO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you, too.

ARI FLEISCHER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Merry Christmas.

BRUCE: Let me just say, if you've got to, and they do this in "Salon," say that the Hallmark movies are worse than Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will", you know that, in fact, things are very good because that's not just over the clip, it really is. You think maybe somebody got to a typewriter for the 30 minutes they have separate, you know, from wherever it is they are incarcerated.

I mean, it makes no sense. I can understand they can't relate to the Hallmark movies. I grew up poor and with the single mom, never is really going to school and that's not how I grew up. But it is how people live their lives.

You now, Dan, when you're looking at that kind of an accusation during Christmas time. Obviously, the mocking of Jesus, and taking a shot at FOX News -- what is the reflection of what's unfolding here?

BONGINO: It's the reflection of a larger ethos on the left and I want to the listeners to never forget this because once you get this and tattooed it on your brain, everything makes sense, right?

Conservatives think liberals are people with generally bad ideas.

Generally, I mean, there are some liberals who are bad people, too. But people with bad ideas.

That's not how liberals feel about you. Liberals largely think you are bad people with ideas.

BRUCE: Yes, absolutely.

BONGINO: That's a big distinction. They think you're just an awful person. They're not arguing on principle. I mean, look now.

What are the principles? All of sudden, they're constitutionalist now with the impeachment and then you give them the Second Amendment, and oh, not that Constitution. I mean, the other Constitution we just made up five minutes ago.

They just think you are bad people and that's the problem with the left.

It's all emotions. It's not based on anything else.

BRUCE: And here -- obviously, the core of this, Ari, is that when you're in the identity politics, the premise there is that your identity or certain identity is better or needs to be helped or supported because the moment that you move into dividing people up with -- slivers of identity or elements of our selves that immutable, then inevitable, another identity has to be bad. There has to be -- if you're going to be better than, then white people have to be the enemy.

It's inevitable that it becomes that shallow. By the way, I do want to say that in the intro and thank goodness this is in the case, I said Chris Cuomo as governor. It's obviously Andrew Cuomo.

FLEISCHER: Right.

BRUCE: Thank goodness, right?

So, Ari, in the midst of this kind of thing, you know, the left -- when I was on the left, that was always the argument was that these are bad people and their coming to get you. Nothing has really changed so much, but it really -- the tension has heightened, hasn't it?

FLIESCHER: Well, it's heightened in the Trump era especially where people really do their best to take down Donald Trump and anybody who supports him. But, look, Tammy, I don't care if it's Christmas or any time of year, one of the common threads that we all should have as Americans is respect for one another. Respecting for people who have different type of lifestyles, or respecting people who have different opinions about different matters.

And it has to go in both directions. When I hear people say that Hallmark is fascist because they represent a certain sense of traditional values, this is offensive to all. Now, Homer got in trouble because they took back a campaign about two women kissing on the Hallmark movie. Now, I don't -- that's perfectly fine with me, I don't think they should have gotten it back, they should've put it on and kept it on the air. There's nothing wrong with that.

But to call them fascist over this? This is a part of the canceled culture, this is part of the college movement that they want to spread throughout life, that if you do anything wrong, you have to stop what you're doing and be canceled if you did anything controversial.

If you stand for traditional values, you may not be speak, you may not be on the town square anymore. This is what's happening on college campuses and people want to spread it as a society.

BRUCE: Exactly.

FLEISCHER: Respect each other. If you don't like something, ignore it.

BRUCE: And, look, we got cable television, Dan, where like you can have the Hallmark Channel which is like narrow casting in a way, right?

BONGINO: Yes.

BRUCE: You've got various different channels that appealed to golfers, and fish -- DIY people, redo your house, in the Hallmark Channel, which I have to love. Again, I wish they had a policy less embarrassing for them regarding the commercial regarding a gay wedding, because Americans, right, we shouldn't underestimate Americans. Americans are good, tolerant people.

But, Dan, in the meantime, they promoted, Dan, through media, is that even though it's like maybe a small group of people that like one writer on "Salon", but then this kind of mood, the idea that moved forward for everyone. Is there any way to stop that? What do we do about it?

BONGINO: Well, it's tough, because, really, this is a generational battle with the left against any objective standards. You know, they don't want the 12-inch ruler. They want subjective values.

I mean, I don't want to get overly complicated on this, but the whole essence of socialism is replacing our God-given rights, family values, objective items with a subjective rules interpreted by the government.

That's the whole reason. I mean, Tammy, none of this by mistake, as you know having been on the left.

BRUCE: Right.

BONGINO: It's not a mistake that they go after the family and religion because these are immutable, immovable, God-given big rights, and they don't like that. They want little or rights given to by government.

BRUCE: And also, you know, we can agree to disagree on a variety of issues, but now, that is also forbidden because usually, you know, the arguments about tolerance do win out. It is the most intolerance, though, that are now that are on the left. That is where the sexism, racism, the homophobia live. It is a framework that perpetuates the idea that people should be isolated and punished ironically for being different.

And that's what all civil rights movements in America were actually about was about demanding do not be treated differently because of who we are.

Now look at who is demanding for the opposite now, it's the American left.

We can reject it, it's also being aware that this is occurring and being able to have a conversation.

Dan and Ari, thank you very much for joining me. I appreciate it.

All right. Now, liberal-run cities are as we know, and not surprisingly, spiraling out of control, from coast-to-coast. Charlie Kirk and Deneen Barela's weigh in on that with us coming up next.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: My administration is strongly committed to helping Americans suffering from mental illness. Of the 11 million Americans living with severe mental illness, 4 million receive no mental health service of any kind. If you look at it, over 100,000 homeless individuals and I think that number has to be much, much higher than, Alex, wouldn't you think?

They say over 100,000. If you look at some states, they have over 100,000, on in particular.

Homeless individuals with serious mental illness. The same time, we need to keep very dangerous people off our streets, we want to take care of the mental illness where we have a lot of very dangerous on our streets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUCE: All right. Well, that was President Trump, of course. They're speaking out about his plan to take action against the growing crisis in America's major cities.

And when I say major cities, they're liberal cities with a major crisis here. Particularly, of course, in California, Los Angeles, San Francisco.

In particular, President Trump is, in fact, warning California and Governor Gavin Newsom, fix your state's homeless crisis or the feds are stepping in.

And today, Trump continued to call out Newsom and Nancy Pelosi, tweeting, quote: California leads the nation by far in both the number of homeless people and the percentage increase in the homeless population, two terrible stats. Crazy Nancy should focus on -- sorry, should focus on that and her very down district and helping her incompetent governor with the big homeless problem.

But that, unfortunately, California cities are not the only ones in crisis.

Violent crime continues to get worse in Baltimore because with 338 murders so far in 2019, the city is on track to set per capita record.

Joining us now for reaction, FOX News contributor Deneen Borelli, and Turning Point USA founder and president, Charlie Kirk.

You know, Charlie, I actually want to start with you. I'm a native of Los Angelino. It's my home state. It's a beautiful state.

This is not natural. It's not because the weather is good. It's not because people who live in California are crazy and don't want to live inside. This is new.

And every time I go back, every few months, it's worse, over and over again. And it's about liberal policies. What is your take of the sense of, you know, we know this, we discussed this. Newsom seems to be refusing to admit it.

What's your take on this as a whole and whether or not California is going to get the act together with President Trump's ultimatum?

CHARLIE KIRK, TURNING POINT USA FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT: Not anytime soon, and California is a test cage of how a beautiful functioning, vibrancy could be ruined it simply because of politics. Only because they voted for Democrats at every single level -- they're run by the public sector teacher unions and radical left-wing groups that have kept the borders open and the streets have now become totally unsafe.

In San Francisco, in particular, drug users outnumber high school students, people currently enrolled in school. This is according to not exactly the right wing public station "The San Francisco Chronicle." It's amazing what you're seeing, Tammy, because this is a state that should be leading in every single category, and, fortunately, the homelessness, the drug usage, it has become a public health crisis and the Democrats are simply to blame and yet they keep -- you actually mentioned it in preempting some of the arguments they use. They say, oh, where different it's because of the weather, it's nonsense. If it's because of Democrats, it's because of liberal control and the ruining America's once great city.

BRUCE: Yes. And this is does I think, Deneen, similar issue when we're dealing with with Baltimore, is that it shows you that policy matters. The leadership matters. We've seen that with President Trump, changing this horrible trajectory we were on after eight years with Barack Obama, with a horrible economy in fact, the economy brings people.

But at the state level, Deneen, when we talk about drug users, I think something like 70 percent of crime, and the shootings, this entire maelstrom of Baltimore is related in some way to the drug trade. Where in policy in this regard, you know, the attempt to make things nicer or easier to people or to not be so harsh on quality of life crimes, isn't that what we are seeing in Baltimore at this stage? What's your take on that?

DENEEN BORELLI, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, what we are seeing in Baltimore is just absolutely horrible, Tammy. Look, the crime and the violence that we are seeing. Here's the recipe for disaster and you have corrupt politicians and you have some corrupt police officers.

So, you have that going on and then you have the fact that there's so many disadvantages that are taking place because of the high taxes, because of failing public schools and onerous regulation.

BRUCE: Right.

BORELLI: So, where are the opportunities? Where are the jobs for these individuals in Baltimore? It's a recipe for disaster all around.

BRUCE: And, you know, normally, it's horrible and we have the same dynamic in Chicago. You've got gun-control dynamics. But, really, and we've done it here in New York, of this notion of, you know, certain crimes that we see the broken crimes, like if you're urinating outside or drinking in public, that those are -- they are not good to act on those anymore. And those also send signals and have an impact on -- are like drug abuse, that they see it's a victimless crime.

But then all of that increases, you know, the drug activity, and then, of course, police issues are not being able to arrest and you got corruption, Deneen, as you noted in the police department is awful.

Charlie, I'll give you the last word on if President Trump -- do you prefer him to intervene or do you think he won't?

KIRK: Yes, the Fed should absolutely get involved. They should get involved in Chicago, Baltimore, and California. This is our country. It's a human rights crisis. It's a public health crisis.

And what is happening needs to be addressed. I applaud the president's declaration for possible involvement.

BRUCE: Yes, and every American deserves to live a decent life.

Thank you -- thank you both of you. Appreciate it.

More "Hannity" right after the break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUCE: Welcome back to "Hannity."

I just want to say thank you to Sean for letting me fill in this evening and to his entire team. That's a great crew of people who bring this program to you.

But, unfortunately, right now, that is all the time that we have left this evening. Thank you so much for joining us. If you like tonight's show, sign up for "Fox Nation." Don't miss any episode because there's a bunch of them, of my new show, "Get Tammy Bruce."

I'm also the president of the Independent Women's Voice. You can learn more about that organization at IWV.org.

I will be back in this chair filling in for Sean tomorrow night as well. I do hope you will join me again.

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