Scaramucci talks how communications team is addressing leakers on 'Hannity'
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This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," July 26, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: This is a "Fox News Alert." Welcome to "Hannity." We are in the swamp, the sewer, Washington, D.C., again tonight.
A symbolic failure from Senate Republicans in their effort to repeal ObamaCare. Newt Gingrich is here with full reaction tonight. Plus, new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci will respond and also explain the Trump administration's brand-new effort to crack down on deep state leaks.
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ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, INCOMING WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: One of things we're going to do next week, is I'm bringing all the communications people to the White House to sit down with them, to have a uniform message and strategy so that we can curtail leaks on their side. Now, you and I both know that there are political holdovers from the Obama administration that want to put a hurt (ph) on the Trump administration. So we have to sort of move quickly there, as well.
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HANNITY: But first, after seven years of promises, the GOP in the Senate has failed to deliver for you, the American people, and blame now falls at the feet of a handful of Republican senators. Tonight, we will be naming names in our very important "Opening Monologue."
Senate Republicans -- they suffered a major setback earlier today as they tried to rid you, the American people, of the burden that is ObamaCare. Now, there's still time for Republicans to get something done. We will have an update here from Washington later in the program.
But first, Republican lawmakers -- they failed to move forward on a clean repeal of ObamaCare. Now, keep in mind, back in 2015 -- this is the same bill. Barack Obama was the president. The Senate voted and passed a similar bill. They sent it to Obama's desk, where he eventually vetoed that. So apparently, all of that was for just show, and all the talk, all the rhetoric we have heard over and over again for seven years was just that, empty talk, rhetoric. It meant absolutely nothing.
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Now, these senators -- Susan Collins of Maine, West Virginia's Shelley Moore Capito, John McCain of Arizona, Rob Portman of Ohio, Lamar Alexander, Tennessee, Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, Dean Heller, Nevada. Now, these senators have put Republican advantages in Congress now in jeopardy. And that means the president may not be able to enact the agenda that you voted for in November.
Now, if Democrats in 2018 -- if they end up taking control of Congress, it's these Republicans we're naming that will be to blame. They inexcusably -- they broke a vow that they made to you, a very important vow. And these Republicans, they -- to me, they have no credibility left. They had their chance. They blew it. And frankly, they are the epitome of the Washington, D.C., sewer and swamp from which I'm broadcasting tonight.
Now, also, our other top story, very important. We have very serious questions being raised following the arrest of Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz's IT staffer. Imran Awan is his name. Now, this staffer has been charged with bank fraud, was apprehended while trying to board a flight on his way to Pakistan after supposedly he has sent money over there.
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Now, authorities have also been investigating Awan for allegedly double billing House Democrats for computer equipment, and there's are fears about possible email hacking and exposing House Democrats' information on line.
Now, here's where it gets extremely troubling. Awan and several of his relatives -- they have worked for congressional Democrats for years, and he's reportedly -- well, they've earned between $2 million and $4 million - - by the way, more than some, you know, chiefs of staff in Washington. And earlier this year, when news of the overbilling scandal broke, well, several Democratic lawmakers rightly fired Awan and his relatives and he was denied access to House servers. But as Fox News has been reporting, Debbie Wasserman Schultz -- she kept him on her payroll until he was arrested just two days ago.
So tonight, we have to ask why would Wasserman Schultz do that? Why keep paying someone who's being investigated for very potentially very serious crimes? Why keep someone around who's suspected of putting government information at risk? Now, at this point, it's not adding up.
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And then there's this important point. Earlier this week, the DailyCaller reported the FBI has seized two smashed -- sound familiar? -- hard drives from the staffer's home. Now, the staffer's lawyer now disputes this report, but it raises very serious questions if, in fact, the drives were smashed.
And finally, there has been months of Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz stonewalling, even threatening a law enforcement official. Fox News is reporting that Wasserman Schultz is now starting to finally cooperate and will finally give investigators access to that laptop. And according to the DailyCaller, it was used by Imran Awan himself. Now -- and it was found hidden in a congressional office building.
This is all suspicious. This is very different from what Wasserman Schultz did back in May. Remember? She threatened the chief of the U.S. Capitol for holding evidence in this investigation. Watch this.
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REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, D-FLA.: If a member loses equipment and it's found by the Capitol police or your staff and it is identified at the member -- member's equipment and the member is not associated with any case and with that is their equipment, it is supposed to returned. Yes or no?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Depends on the circumstances. And if the circumstances...
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SCHULTZ: I don't understand how that's possible. A member's equipment is a member's equipment. It is not -- it is not -- under my understanding, the Capitol police are not able to confiscate a member's equipment when the member is not under investigation. It is their equipment, and it's supposed to be returned.
I think you're violating the rules when you -- when you conduct your business that way and should expect that there will be consequences.
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HANNITY: Such anger! Such intensity. Pretty shocking.
So what was Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz attempting to do there? Did she really just want her equipment back, or was she trying to interfere with an investigation? Did she have something to hide? Now, it certainly sounds a lot like the latter.
Now, just like all the other scandals we have been reporting and, of course, the establishment fake news destroy Trump media has been ignoring, we are demanding Congress, the Department of Justice, tonight look into this IT staffer scandal and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her role in all of this. It needs to be investigated. It's beyond troubling.
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And when it comes to this investigation, why are Democrats always given a pass for obstruction? You know, even destroying evidence again and again. For example, with all the talk about Russia and Trump and the campaign and collusion and the Trump campaign and Russia, Russia, Russia -- all right, Hillary Clinton -- I don't know anybody in the Trump campaign or the Trump administration that deleted 33,000 emails, used acid wash or BleachBit to delete these things. Remember also, Hillary had her aide, remember, smashing a hammer BlackBerrys and iPhones and her lawyers turning over mobile devices to the FBI. Oh, but they didn't have the SIM card. So they were rendered meaningless to the FBI.
There is a massive double standard that's playing out here because there's no evidence the Trump campaign did anything like this! They didn't delete 33,000 emails. They didn't destroy phones with hammers. And they didn't turn over devices without SIM cards. Remember, all of these things were under subpoena.
It's exactly why we have now for weeks been calling out this stunning hypocrisy and demanding the proper investigations. Remember, Republicans have control over the committees. They can demand people be put under oath.
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Also tonight, we have an update on possible Ukrainian election interference. Congress is now finally starting asking questions we've been talking about in terms of what happened with what Politico described as a former DNC operative meeting with Ukrainian officials at the Ukrainian embassy in Washington and also possibly sharing that information with the DNC and the Clinton campaign, and they were trying to influence the election! Sounds like collusion.
In a statement to Fox News, the lawyers for this alleged DNC operative, Alexandra Chalupa, denied wrongdoing. OK, let's see.
Joining us now, author of the number one New York Times best-selling book, now eight weeks on the list, "Understanding Trump," former speaker of the House, FOX News contributor Newt Gingrich.
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All right, let's start -- and A lot of news tonight. Before I get to the corruption issue, look, they -- especially the people that had voted for full repeal in 2015 -- are they holding -- do they get to hold the entire Republican Party hostage for their promises.
NEWT GINGRICH, FMR. HOUSE SPEAKER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: You know, look, I -- look, I understand what their rationale is. But I think it was a mistake. I mean, if you spend years campaigning and staying, I'm for repeal, and you finally get a chance to vote for repeal, I think you have some moral obligation to vote for repeal.
As I've said over and over on this show, I think Susan Collins, who voted against repeal back in 2015, is the one Republican senator who gets a pass because she has at least consistency. But I think any other Republican senator who had campaigned on repeal, who had voted for repeal now that it's going to be real -- boy, I think that's really a bad vote. I think it's a vote that undermines confidence not just in the Republican Party but in the whole process of free elections. I mean, it reminds people that you can't always trust the folks who are running for office, and I think that's unfortunate.
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They have -- you know, this was not going to be the final vote. They could have voted to repeal, and then they had other pieces they can go back with. This is an open process. They can fix it as they go through it. They should fix it as they go through it. But I think it has to be seen as a disappointing vote when somebody has been campaigning on and promising repeal and now that it -- and voting for it as long as Obama's president so it won't become law, and now they're finally where -- where -- have, you know, a real opportunity to make a real law, suddenly, they didn't quite mean what they campaigned on. I do think it's a mistake.
HANNITY: All right, so that we do have the attorney and -- and this came in earlier today from our own James Rosen, the former IT aide to Wasserman Schultz and other Democratic lawmakers who was arrested, you know, going on to say in a telephone interview that he had purchased his flight ticket weeks ago, and after securing assurances from the assistant U.S. attorney that the government had no objections to placing restrictions on traveling abroad and -- when you hear that -- once again, we're talking about potentially smashed hard drives, and then you got deleted e-mails, BleachBit e-mails...
GINGRICH: Now, let me -- first of all, let's be clear. We're talking here about the woman who was the chair of the Democratic national party. She's both a congresswoman, and she was the chair of the Democratic national party. I mean, so this is a fairly important person in a fairly central position.
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I've written three novels about terrorism involving the Congress and the presidency. The third, "Vengeance," will come out this fall.
My fourth novel may be built all around Wasserman Schultz. I mean, this is an amazing case. And you have to say to yourself, What's going on here? First of all, as you point out, and I think it's a legitimate point and it's one of the reasons I'm sure that President Trump gets so frustrated -- how come the Congress doesn't mind, you know, breaking up hard drives, smashing them, doing all these things to them? Why isn't there an open congressional investigation?
As I understand it, this involves theft from the U.S. House. It involves House equipment. It involves the behavior of a House member, and where is the congressional hearing? So where's the congressional hearing Where's the congressional investigation into what clearly has to be a violation of House rules? And there's a Republican passivity that I just don't understand when you come to these kinds of issues.
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HANNITY: All right, you know, I think the Republicans right now are a visionless party. I really do. I think they're a party without an identity because if they really had an identity, wouldn't they have been pushing a health savings accounts and health care cooperatives and what the rule solutions are to health care?
I got a guy on this program and on my radio show since 2012 that $50 a month, every adult gets concierge care. What did they (sic) think in seven years what the answer is?
GINGRICH: Well, I that part of it is it got wrapped around Senate rules on reconciliation that are very arcane, make no sense to the average American, but are decisive in defining what they think they can get through with 50 votes. And I think they were trying to find a way to solve this with 50 votes.
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For example, I think they should come back with health savings accounts in a regular bill on regular order, challenge the Democrats and be prepared to make this a campaign issue in '18. I think there are number of things they can do that don't fit the Senate rules but that would fit a bipartisan effort.
I am, candidly, for whatever they can get through, and then let's go to the next health bill in regular order, where you've got to get 60 votes. Quit messing around with all these fancy Senate rules. And put the Democrats -- put some heat on the Democrats. Are they for people having health savings accounts, or is the only thing they want...
HANNITY: Should every Republican...
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GINGRICH: ... socialized medicine run by the government?
HANNITY: Should every Republican around the country tonight feel disappointed, let down, betrayed? Are those fair descriptions, accurate adjectives for them?
GINGRICH: Sure. Look, I -- sure. I mean, and I think that the Republicans who had voted in the past for repeal, when they knew that Obama would stop it, ought to be getting phone calls and e-mails and a pretty good bit of heat from back home. I think that's perfectly legitimate.
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But I'm also sympathetic to Mitch McConnell's challenge, which is in the real world right now, what can he get 50 votes for so that Mike Pence can break the tie, Vice President Pence, and we can get something passed? I am for the biggest thing they can pass right now and then I'm for immediately having them come back under regular order and begin to do the kind of things you and I believe in, which is practical common sense market- oriented reforms that allow people to take charge of their own lives and allow people to work directly with their own doctors. And I think that that's just going to be a longer process.
I wish it wasn't. I wish we had -- I wish we had 51 or 52 Republicans willing to be a little more courageous. We've got -- in all fairness, we've got 45 or 46 who are being pretty stable, but the last five or six we've just not been able to get across the goal line.
HANNITY: All right, we'll take a break. We'll have more with Newt Gingrich. I won't -- I have a lot more questions about Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
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And later tonight, we'll continue with new White House comms director Anthony Scaramucci. He's already started combating the deep state. We'll get his take straight ahead.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: ... to institute buy American and hire American and all of those policies and to pursue the steps necessary to revitalize American industry, including repealing and replacing "Obama care." We better get that done, fellows, please! Mike?
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TRUMP: Tonight, I'm back in the center of the American heartland, far away from the Washington swamp to spend time with thousands of true American patriots!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I'm here this evening to cut through the fake news filter and to speak straight to the American people!
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HANNITY: That was the president on offense last night, bypassing the fake news media, taking his message directly to the American people.
We continue with former speaker of the House, FOX News contributor, author of the now eight weeks in a row best-seller, "Understanding Trump." Congratulations, Mr. Speaker.
All right, let me -- I have a hard time understanding something. And maybe I'm just a simple guy. I think if I was under subpoena to hand over e- mails that end up having classified, top secret, special access program information on a secret server, if I deleted 33,000 of them and some of them were in that category, I think I'd be in trouble. If they subpoenaed my BlackBerry and iPhones and I smashed them with a hammer, a lot of them, I think I'd be in trouble. If I acid washed my computer with BleachBit, I think I'd be in trouble. If I made a deal and gave 20 percent of America's uranium and ends up people involved in the deal were (ph) -- kicked back $145 million to me, I think I'd be in trouble. How come nothing ever happens to these case and then -- you know, compare that to what you see with Wasserman Schultz.
GINGRICH: Yes, but let me say, first of all, the Wasserman Schultz case is so crazy that -- and again, if you want to understand why President Trump sometimes gets really frustrated, you look at Donald Trump, Jr., who releases all of his e-mails, puts them out there and says, Here, everybody can read the e-mails, no subpoena, no legal requirement, he puts them out.
Then you look at Wasserman Schultz's behavior and Hillary Clinton's behavior, and you have to say to yourself, Well, how come the news media is going after Don, Junior, who's open and sharing all this and is somehow, you know, trying not to do these other things? And I think the -- and I'm told that some of the networks have still not covered Wasserman Schultz and this whole issue of this guy who was trying to go to Pakistan, who had apparently stolen lots of money from the Congress, the fact that they had destroyed some of the IT equipment -- this is exactly what the deep state and the swamp are all about.
There's a double standard. Now, I'll tell you about a conversation I had this morning because I asked a group of very sophisticated conservative leaders that former congressmen Bob Mcuen (ph) had gotten together. And I said to them at one point, I don't understand why the House and Senate Republicans are not investigating the real corruption of the Clinton Foundation and the money from Russia, et cetera.
And their answer was there are a lot of Republicans who are afraid of the Clintons, that the Clintons still have so much latent power and have so many connections in Washington establishment that they're just afraid to take them head on. And I thought, Boy, I mean, what a pathetic situation when you have control of the Judiciary Committee in the House, control of the Judiciary Committee in the Senate, and you can't figure out how to say, These are -- these are real crimes. I'm for getting to the bottom of Russian influence, but by the way, 95 percent of that's going to turn out to be the Clintons or the Democrats, not going to be President Trump -- and yet there's no evidence anywhere of anyone taking it seriously.
HANNITY: Listen, I believe the Republicans have an obligation to call in all -- Loretta Lynch, James Comey, even Robert Mueller at this point because of all the conflicts of interest and the people that he's hiring. And then I bring in Hillary Clinton and John Podesta and Chalupa and Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Robby Mook if we're going to bring in Jared and Don, Junior.
But there's also the attorney general. I know the president was frustrated by recusal. Is it possible we don't know what the attorney general is doing because he's keeping it private?
GINGRICH: Well (INAUDIBLE) I think the attorney general is doing a lot. And I think that in areas that don't involve Russia, he is moving the Justice Department towards exactly the kind of things that President Trump wants. They have been very aggressive in rounding up criminals from MS-13. He's in the early stages of a real fight over sanctuary cities. And I think he is rocking (ph) some of those cities pretty decisively. He has taken some very strong positions on protecting Americans both from overseas and at home.
So in a lot of ways, it's unfortunate that the president decided to go after the attorney general so aggressively in public because I actually think that Jeff Sessions was doing a very good job. And I think if you talk to somebody who you'd respect a great deal, like former attorney general Ed Meese or former attorney general Michael Mukasey, they will tell you they are very impressed with the degree to which outside of the Russian piece that Jeff Sessions is taking control.
HANNITY: Do you believe that the things that I'm looking for -- if we're going to -- if we've going to have equal justice under the law, Mr. Speaker, and they're going to call in Jared and they're going to call in Don, Junior, over a non-issue as far as I'm concerned and they're not going to do it on Ukraine, they're not going to do it on Uranium One, they're not going to do it about all the other issues and lies and obstruction issues that we're talking about -- that's unfair. So the House Republicans have a responsibility, and you're confident the attorney general will get to all of that.
GINGRICH: I'm confident the attorney general is going to force continued efforts in the right direction. The pieces that relate to Russia, he's not going to be able to do it, which is why I want to call on the House and a Senate Judiciary Committees to do their job.
HANNITY: I'm -- I think we're moving the ball forward. Mr. Speaker, thanks for being with us. We really appreciate it.
Up next, new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci -- he's here to talk about how he's putting an end to White House leaks, the health care situation, and much more.
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SCARAMUCCI: If there are senior people inside the administration are trying to get them to leak information on each other, we're getting that to stop right now because that does not serve the president. It doesn't serve his agenda.
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TRUMP: I see the next generation of American leaders. I see the promise of our future. I see the strength and love of the American spirit. And because of young people like you, I am more confident than ever in the future of the United States. Together we will make America greater than ever before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: That was the president earlier today speaking to the American Legion Boys and Auxiliary Girls. Unfortunately, the president's efforts to make this country greater than ever before is under siege from a wave of leaks selectively started the very moment he took office. According to a report from the Senate Homeland Security Committee, during the first 126 days of the Trump administration, there were confirmed 125 leaks. Also, Fox News has confirmed that the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, is now planning to step up the investigation on these leaks. And earlier tonight, I spoke with the White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.
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HANNITY: Anthony, welcome to "Hannity." Good to see you, sir.
SCARAMUCCI: Hey, Sean, thanks for having me on. How's everything?
HANNITY: Everything is good. We've known each other a long time. We had talked privately about these selective leaks and where they're coming from. I know there's a little tension with the president with the attorney general. Tell us the status of that, and what you make of the attorney general now going after these leaks? It's one of a few issues I am hopeful that he will get on if we're going to have equal justice under the law.
SCARAMUCCI: I applaud the attorney general for going after the leaks. It's super important for the entire administration. Even if we have got the leaks, Sean, into the bell curve of other administrations, it would be way better for our administration. So we've got to get that done no matter what.
Some people think that we are naive in what I've said, I'm going to get rid of the leaks. I know I am in a cesspool called Washington, or a swamp called Washington, so it will be virtually impossible to get rid of every leak. But I think we can take dramatic steps to get rid of leaks.
One of the big problems here that I am discovering in the comms team is that senior people are really the guys doing the leaking, and they ask junior people to leak for them. And so I am very proud to be reporting directly to the president so that I can hermetically seal off the comms team from this sort of nonsense. And so I think that will be a very big step forward in reducing some of the leaks that are coming from the White House.
As it relates to the interagency things, I think that will be a little bit harder, but one of the things we're going to do next week is I'm bringing all the communications people to the White House to sit down with them to have a uniform message and strategy so that we can curtail leaks on their side. You and I both know that there are political holdovers from the Obama administration that want to put a hurt on the Trump administration, so we have to sort of move quickly there as well. So those are the steps that we're taking. I think Attorney General Sessions is more focused on what I would call the interagency stuff, which is actually illegal. So there are things coming out of law enforcement agencies or intelligence agencies that are illegal. Got to stop that, too.
HANNITY: A lot of people that have been working very closely on all of these issues, especially the leaks from what we call the deep state, they are telling me there's going to be a lot of people associated with the last administration. And we know for a fact that a lot of the leaks we believe are coming from the Obama administration, some of the holdovers, and that some of the top position people in the last administration are the ones directly involved in all of this. Is it your goal to get to the bottom of that as you have told your staff, if they leak, they are out?
SCARAMUCCI: Unfortunately that situation is out of my purview. That's more in the Attorney General Sessions category. And I do think he's got a good process he's going to put in place that will eventually unveil to get rid of those.
What I've got a focus on is the 40 or so people in my staff. Listen, we're going to let the people go if we have to. Unfortunately we let somebody go yesterday. But I told people if there is a civil war and people are fighting internally, we have to dial that down. I don't think you can let people go per se just for the sake of letting them go. I think we have to give them a chance, Sean, or give them some level of amnesty to see if they will stop and work together. But I will move very quickly if they cannot do that because I have the president's authority to do so.
HANNITY: You have been very confident and outspoken that the attorney general, in spite of some of the president's tweets, I know he's upset about the recusal issue. I actually agree with the president fully on that. But you are confident that that will all work out between the attorney general and the president?
SCARAMUCCI: I sort of think so because I know both of them so well. And I know the president is upset right now, but my guess is that it will. But if it doesn't, Sean, it's up to the president. What I don't want to do is I don't want to get in between a cabinet secretary and the president. But what I do want to do is I like healing divides. I like putting people together and forming a bridge between people. And so hopefully we will be able to do that.
But if we can't do that for whatever reason, then we will let the chips fall. We all serve at the discretion of this great president, and we will have to see where it goes. But what I was saying earlier today, and I want to emphasize on your show, is that the president's style, whatever you think of his communication style, his management style, let me just immediately display the results. There's $10 billion of net worth, there's a worldwide recognized brand in the business that he left, and he became the American president after 15, 16 months, and he's now six months into the presidency after just over two years of announcing his candidacy.
And so we can look at all of that and that massive achievement that he's had in his life and say maybe he's doing things in a way that's unorthodox, but there's certainly unbelievable success. And so I said from the podium last Friday, I will say it here on your show, let's not change the president. We have to let the president be the president. But we need to have to have a tough skin around him because he's a tough guy, and we have to adapt to his nature to help execute his agenda.
HANNITY: All right, Anthony, when we come back, there was a very funny "Daily Show" piece on you. We're going to play it next and get your reaction to that. We'll talk about health care. Also later, a group of Republican lawmakers are now pushing into the probes we have been asking for, including James Comey and how he handled the Clinton email investigation. One of those lawmakers, the head of the Freedom Caucus, the chairman, Mark Meadows will join us straight ahead.
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JAMES ROSEN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: This is a Fox News alert. I am James Rosen in Washington.
The White House is refusing to say whether President Trump intends to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions, an early supporter of the Trump campaign towards whom the chief executive has recently directed a series of blistering tweets and public comments. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders explains why that displeasure hasn't yet led Mr. Trump to tell the A.G. "You're fired."
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SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: You can be disappointed in someone and still want them to continue to do their job. He wants him to focus on things like immigration, leaks, and a number of other issues.
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ROSEN: And Fox News has learned the Justice Department will soon announce several criminal leak investigations. Officials briefed on the matter said the investigations are focused on news reports that disclosed sensitive intelligence.
More news overnight here on the Fox News Channel. I am James Rosen in Washington. Now back to the Sean Hannity on "Hannity."
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity," as we continue with White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci. Did you see "The Daily Show" piece that shows you and the president, same gestures, back and forth from the podium?
SCARAMUCCI: Yes.
HANNITY: All right, let's play it for our audience.
SCARAMUCCI: Yes, I am one of the four million people that have seen it, Sean. Yes, I saw it.
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HANNITY: Let me play it for the audience.
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HANNITY: That was one of their best pieces ever, except when Jon Stewart had the Jersey Boys do a segment on me, please Hannity stay, when I said I was going to leave New York.
SCARAMUCCI: I think one of the main things that tells you is that either I have a little bit of German-Scottish in me or the president has way more Italian in him than people know about, Sean. That's what it tells me. I'm going to Ancestry.com and I'm going to figure this out for you.
HANNITY: All right, a lot of conservatives, myself included, I know the Senate is moving onto slowly piecemeal repealing parts of Obamacare. It's not what they promised. It's not what we wanted. I will take anything at this point because Obamacare is a disaster. Where is the president now after what happened today and when we have so many votes coming up?
SCARAMUCCI: I think he's a practical person above everything. I think he realizes that he has to take a process of entrepreneurial incrementalism through this. And we may not get everything that we want right now, but let's go for some wins and then over time Sean, we can really develop the right strategy, program, and policy for the American people. This organization or this city known as Washington, D.C., is a pretty tough place. It has a very thick immunological system. The president is literally like a donor or organ transplant into the system to make the city actually much healthier, but the first move for an immunological system is to attack the organ transplant.
But in the meantime, if they would just relax and suppress these instincts of hurting the president, they would find that the policies that he is about to put forth are great for the American people, would likely get the people elected or reelected that are voting for them. But I just think there's a lot about habits to break in this town, and we are going to work on it one step, one day at a time to make that happen.
HANNITY: How confident, because I think one of the most important parts of the president plan beyond ending Obama era regulations, certainly the Supreme Court was huge, and he's been working on the regulations. I do believe energy, jobs, middle class tax cuts, the corporate tax cuts, repatriation money, and of course then later tax reform, do you anticipate difficulty with the Republican Party that has been so slow and frankly lacking vision and identity?
SCARAMUCCI: In some ways, yes, but in a lot of ways not because I do think the mantle of leadership that the president is providing out of the Republican Party, most of these guys are smart enough to take the baton from him and to start running with it.
And so all of those things you referenced are really good common sense things, Sean. And so my guess is that over time we are going to gravitate into those areas. We announced here at 5:00 a new jobs initiative, new plants moving into the United States from overseas that are going to create new jobs. There is a tremendous amount of positive things that we are seeing reflected in the stock market and consumer confidence and CEO confidence just from the president's leadership now.
If we can just move in concert with the Republican legislature, at least some members of the Republican, that would be phenomenal. But I do predict we will get some blue state voters, some blue state Democratic Senators that will at least vote on tax reform. And I very optimistic about this --
HANNITY: We need the tax plan.
SCARAMUCCI: That's true, but one of the things we're going to do is we're going to hit this everything all day, and I think we're going to be disruptive in the way we communicate as well, Sean.
HANNITY: Anthony Scaramucci, congratulations on your new job, and all the best.
All right, when we come back, a group of Republican lawmakers, they are calling for a new probe into James Comey's handling of the Clinton server scandal. Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows will join us next to explain why. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: And welcome back to "Hannity" as we continue from the sewer and the swamp of Washington, D.C.
Now, for weeks right here on this program I have been calling for lawmakers and the DOJ to do their jobs and look at the scandals that are going unnoticed by the mainstream, destroy-Trump, establishment media. Now a group of GOP lawmakers, finally they are pushing for a probe into James Comey's handling of the Clinton server scandal.
Joining us now from Washington, someone who has been briefed on the legislation, Freedom Caucus Chairman, frankly, the only guys I trust in D.C. right now, the Freedom Caucus, Mark Meadows. All right, this is great. Tell us about Comey. Will you also include Loretta Lynch and Hillary Clinton and Ukraine and a Uranium One? I have a pretty long list right now.
REP. MARK MEADOWS, R-N.C.: We do have a long list, Sean, and as you know, the American people, indeed your viewers are looking at this and saying, why did you allow Loretta Lynch to mislead the American public and allow Director Comey to actually collude with her in doing that to say that it was a matter and not an investigation?
And so not only will it go into all of those details, but we are asking for documents. And so I would love to take credit for this, but actually this is Jim Jordan, Matt Gates, and Andy Biggs, Mike Johnson. A group of them have gotten together to put forth a resolution that says that we want the documents. And, indeed, they are filing another document that calls for a special prosecutor to say let's get to the bottom of it. If we are a nation of laws and we've got a special counsel now for the whole Russia event, let's go ahead and get to the bottom of it. I can tell you my constituents want us to look at that.
HANNITY: So all of these things that I have been talking about, during the election every day I've decided to talk about people in poverty, on food stamps, out of the labor force that can't buy homes. Now I think every day until Congress does its job and they have control of the committees and they do the investigations, especially in light of how Democrats are treating the Trump administration, that we've got to have equal justice under the law. I'm calling on them to do their job on all of those cases. Will all of that happen? And Republicans should. They are in charge, right?
MEADOWS: Right. We were given the White House, the Senate, and the House, and so we need to do that. Lady Justice is blindfolded, and yet sometimes what we've done is we've ignored what happened in the previous administrations saying, well, the past is the past. But as we look at that, we now have had things that have come to light and all of this as the Russian atmosphere has taken over the media headlines. We have also started to see that there's a whole lot that has happened, and indeed there was a government trying to interfere with the election. It was the United States government trying to make sure that Hillary Clinton was the next president.
So we need to get to the bottom of that. And that's why my good friends and colleagues in the House Freedom Caucus put forth a resolution in the Judiciary Committee, and we're going to force a vote. And I believe that Republicans need to come to the defense of the president.
HANNITY: I remember the day when health care failed in the House, we had a long conversation that Friday and we talked at length that weekend. And you told me that it will work out, and it did work out in the House. A lot of work, I know you were up to your eyeballs in making that happen. We saw what happened in the Senate today. You have all these members who voted for repeal in 2015, didn't vote for it today. I know they are talking about the skinny repeal and then going to conference. What are your thoughts on where this ultimately ends up?
MEADOWS: Well, I am disappointed that seven senators who voted for it before chose not to vote for it today. I don't understand it. How do you explain that to your constituencies that it was OK when President Obama was in place to vote for it but now that someone would actually sign it into law I'm going to vote against it? So I don't understand that.
But I can tell you that what happened is a few hours ago I met with senators as we were trying to get to some kind of agreement on the repeal and replace. I haven't given up on actually having more than a skinny version come out of the Senate, but I can tell you that even if it's just a skinny version -- what we are going to do, and by that, for your viewers, it really becomes a vehicle, not that it gets signed into law, just that we bring the House and Senate together, we go to conference. We stay engaged. Stay here in August. Get it done for the American people to lower those premiums and make sure that we cover those preexisting conditions. So I'm still optimistic, Sean, that we can do that.
HANNITY: I've got to run. Thank you, sir, for being with us.
When we come back, my friend, Diamond and Silk, they get the final word tonight. That's straight ahead. You don't want to miss this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." So our friends, the Republican duo Diamond and Silk, once again they have the final word tonight. Take a look at their message to the destroy-Trump media. You're going to love this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LYNETTE "DIAMOND" HARDAWAY: Hey, Sean.
ROCHELLE "SILK" RICHARDSON: Hey.
HARDAWAY: Here is tonight's final word. Diamond and Silk is going to give it to you straight from that gate.
Now, it looks like the media has been spinning their narrative all day.
RICHARDSON: All day.
HARDAWAY: We can both see it with all eight of our eyes.
RICHARDSON: That's right.
HARDAWAY: Any time they spread accusations, allegations, speculations without accurate information, it's the equivalent of fake news.
RICHARDSON: That's right.
HARDAWAY: How can the very fake news expect for us to believe them when they get their information from a source that gets their information from a criminal, better known as a leaker. Because when you leak out classified information from the White House, it is a crime, which makes you a criminal, which makes the source an accessory, and which makes the very fake news an accessory after the fact.
RICHARDSON: That's right.
HARDAWAY: See, they can't control the narrative anymore, so that's why they try to character assassinate in order to dominate. And we are not buying it, even if they sold us the fake news for a buck-o-five, minus 50 cents. See, Sean, we didn't believe them in the primary, we didn't we believe them in the general election, and we are livid.
We don't believe them now.
RICHARDSON: We don't believe them now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: You got to love them.
That's all the time we have left. This is it. I am headed back to New York. I'm leaving the swamp and the sewer. Thank you for being with us. We'll see you back here tomorrow night. This show will always be fair and balanced.
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