Sean Hannity on media bias, Horowitz report findings and importance of 2020 election
Sean Hannity joins Mark Levin to analyze the DOJ inspector general's report on FISA abuse and the state of journalism today.
This is a rush transcript from "Life, Liberty & Levin," December 15, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
Mark Levin, host: Hello, America. I'm Mark Levin. This is "Life, Liberty and Levin." Tucker Carlson, it's a pleasure.
Sean Hannity, Fox News: Oh, yeah. Great. The great one right here. This studio --
Mark Levin: By the way, thanks for dressing up.
Sean Hannity: That's my Fox News hoodie.
Mark Levin: I like it.
Sean Hannity: I mean, they didn't give you one when you got your show?
Mark Levin: I never got one.
Sean Hannity: First of all, congratulations.
Mark Levin: Thank you.
Sean Hannity: The number one show in your timeslot by a mile.
Mark Levin: Thank you.
Sean Hannity: I see almost double your ratings coming into your show. You're doing phenomenal. Your radio show's killing it. Your book -- I was very proud of you.
Mark Levin: I want to thank you for interviewing me. Go ahead.
Sean Hannity: Here's the best part about your book. So --
Mark Levin: You mean this one here?
Sean Hannity: You had fake news Acosta releases that one right there. And it was like week four -- you're four weeks, five weeks in a row number one on The New York Times list. And you have fake news Jimmy Acosta, who writes a book and he only sold 14,000. You sold a half a million, he sold for 14,000.
Mark Levin: I'll tell you why.
Sean Hannity: Because it's not worth reading.
Mark Levin: Maybe he wrote a book. The guy's problem is he doesn't read a book.
Sean Hannity: [laughs].
Mark Levin: Whatever happened to him? We never hear from him anymore.
Sean Hannity: He writes his book, he's trying to get me to interview him. I'm like go sell it on your own low-rated network.
Mark Levin: Right. Go on Don Lemon's show.
Sean Hannity: Exactly, that'll sell books.
Mark Levin: It's great to see you. You were here about a year and a half ago. My audience loves you. The Fox audience loves you. My radio audience loves you. Why do you think that is? Why do you think you're different than so many other hosts?
Sean Hannity: Well, look, I said this in '07 and '08, I said journalism is dead. I meant it. It's worse now than it's ever been. You go back to '07 and '08, Mark, what do I do that's different, things that you do that are different or Rush or anybody else? Well, we give news and information in an entertaining way that you can't get elsewhere. Nobody wanted to vet Barack Obama in '07 and '08, they didn't want to do it. And so, okay, we started digging, we learned about Frank Marshall Davis and Black Liberation Theology and Alinsky and [unintelligible] --
Mark Levin: And I was told, you better advise, Sean, that he's going way out on a limb here.
Sean Hannity: Newt Gingrich called me -- we laugh about it. Newt Gingrich told me I was blowing up my career. He said, you're going to kill your career. And I said, well, I have to pursue truth. And it wasn't even a question for me, because what I was discovering was a level of radicalism that scared me. You know, anybody if --imagine if Donald Trump had ever started his house, ever started his career, his political career in the home of unrepentant domestic terrorists from the Weather Underground. And you have Bill Ayres on 9/11/01, of all days, that morning -- in that morning's paper, The New York Times, wishing he had done more. They bombed the capital, New York City police headquarters, and a number of other incidents. How do you associate with people like that? Because if Donald Trump did it or any conservative did it, Mark, you and I both know they'd be treated very differently. So to answer, I guess, your question, I don't think about what I do. I just keep focused on every day, grinding out four hours of news and information that I believe is important. These are very different, troubling times. I've spent now -- people don't know what we do. I'm a talk show host on radio and TV, that's what I describe. I am a member of the press, I can produce hours and hours, thousands of them, of straight news reporting on TV and radio. I can produce thousands of hours of investigative reporting. Obviously, I offer opinion and I'm honest that I am a conservative. We talk about sports and culture, sometimes. I like to liken it to what I do is -- we're the whole newspaper. You got the news, local, national, international, etc. But then we also have the opinion page. So I do it all in one thing. That's what a talk show host does. And I know people like to diminish it. Now, if you look at any other cable news channel, Mark, they've got an agenda. And I don't know what it is about this president in particular, but it has gotten to the point what they're doing is dangerous to the country. They're misinforming people. They're lying to people.
Mark Levin: And before -- I want to ask you this -- on the press thing, because I definitely want to get to the president. Isn't it fair to say -- because we do similar things --I don't mean the way we do it, but we give our opinion. We're honest about our opinion, people know where we stand. We also use the news. We use the facts like every other citizen does out there. Isn't the difference really between the modern newsroom and what you and I do transparency and integrity? We're honest about what we do. You have people who run around and say they're journalists. No, they're not. They are Democrats, they are liberals, they're anti-Trump, they have an agenda. They call themselves analysts -- they're giving -- okay, I don't know what that means, but they give opinions.
Sean Hannity: They say they're journalists. And I think in their minds actually believe that. Look, I have zero respect for people in the news industry these days, the ones that call themselves journalists, because most of them are corrupt. Honestly, it's funny because sometimes we get accused -- oh, state TV. I've been a conservative my whole life. Everything Donald Trump is doing: lowering taxes, ending burdensome regulation, originalists on the Supreme Court, securing the border, I'm a free trader, but I believe in fair trade. The way he annihilated the caliphate in Syria by getting rid of the rules of engagement from the Obama era, taking down Baghdadi. We see such incredible success because conservatism works. This is something you and I have championed our entire careers for the years that you worked as Ed Meese's chief of staff in the Reagan years. And it's not an accident when you do these things economically, you see the prosperity follow. Like, we now have the best employment situation since 1969. Mark, the Mets won the World Series and I can tell you their entire lineup. When you see -- and I'm particularly happy because I was one of these forgotten men and women. You know my background and my life, but the audience knows that; I won't repeat it. But when you see record low unemployment for African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian-Americans, women in the workplace, youth unemployment. It happened for a reason. You end burdensome regulation, the jobs that Obama said were never going to come back are back. You have prosperity that we haven't had before. And you see a country now thriving once again.
Mark Levin: But let's circle back on this media issue, because it's a very, very important. You say you're a conservative. I'm a conservative. You've talked about and written about it. I've talked about it, written about it. To sum it up, a thumbnail sketch, conservatism is a belief in our founding principles.
Sean Hannity: Correct.
Mark Levin: But you're now called right-wing. How can a belief in our Constitution, our founding principles, individual liberty, the Bill of Rights, private property rights, natural law, God-given rights. How can that be right-wing? And yet the media today call us right-wing. Why? Because they are radical progressives. They're pushing a social activism agenda.
Sean Hannity: Statists, radical progressives, extremists, all the things that -- they're very much statists in a lot of ways because of the way they propagandize against us and try to diminish what it is that we do. There's almost -- I've been talking a lot about recently: to be in the mob in the media today -- and I call them a mob because they have a mob mentality, and they all think alike -- it actually is a little scary. But you have to -- for example, when you had the whole Mueller probe and all the outrage over Russian interference, I believe Russia interfered in the 2016 election. I believe they're a hostile regime led by a hostile actor by the name of Vladimir --
Mark Levin: So, what did Obama do about it?
Sean Hannity: Nothing.
Mark Levin: Okay.
Sean Hannity: Devin Nunes warned everybody they would do it in 2014. They did. And that's separate and apart, by the way, from whatever potential election interference Ukraine was involved, because a Ukrainian court said so, and January 11, 2017, Politico wrote about it. But I want to stay focused. You have to bifurcate your brain and compartmentalize away that you care about Russia collusion, but not when Hillary has a bought-and-paid-for Russian dossier full of lies that was leaked before the election to the American people to influence the election, and then we know how it was used after. This was a huge news week, because things that I have been discussing, and you've been discussing, and a few of us have been -- we've been unpeeling these layers of the onion, and what we've been telling our audiences is that this dirty, unverifiable Russian dossier was not only the bulk of information; it was the information --
Mark Levin: Let me --
Sean Hannity: -- that secured the FISA warrant. One more point here. And more importantly, when Andrew McCabe, we had thought, said, “If you don't have the dossier, you don't get the FISA warrant,” it turns out he probably did say it because that is true, and that's what the Inspector General found out. This level of corruption -- how -- to your original point, how did the media run with a lie? How did they get it wrong? How did they not investigate? How did they not look? And even on day one, they tried to take one phrase in the Inspector General's -- “Oh, it wasn't politically motivated.” And Jim Comey claims he's exonerated and vindicated. And then when Lindsey Graham questioned him about that very question, “Nobody involved in this has been vindicated.” But to finish the thought, to be a liberal, you only care about Trump-Russia collusion. You'll ignore the dirty dossier. Then, when the Mueller report, the fourth investigation into Trump-Russian activities -- we know the FBI investigation found nothing, the bipartisan Senate investigation found nothing, the House Intel investigation found nothing, the Mueller report found nothing. There is a destructive quality to their statism. You once had a very profound line in one of your great books. “We are living in a post-constitutional America.” Now, at the time, some of us paid attention. We'd better start paying attention to those principles now, and we're 324 days today away from the next presidential election, and thank God we still have -- the American people will make the final decision. And I think -- because we always talk about tipping-point elections, choice elections. There's never been a bigger choice. There's never been a more important moment, I think, for this country's history. This will determine the future for your grandkids, my future grandkids maybe, but we want to leave this country better off than we're seeing it.
Mark Levin: Okay, I've got one minute left in this segment. Yes or no: the FISA report by the Inspector General. It found surveillance, did it not?
Sean Hannity: [laughs] Yeah, they spied. Of course they did.
Mark Levin: They spied. It found that evidence was doctored -- an email -- did it not?
Sean Hannity: They absolutely did.
Mark Levin: It found that the dossier was a fraud, did it not?
Sean Hannity: Correct.
Mark Levin: It found that the dossier was the critical factor in getting the warrant --
Sean Hannity: Correct.
Mark Levin: -- repeatedly, did they not?
Sean Hannity: All facts.
Mark Levin: They found over 50 examples under Appendix I of violations, of rule violations, of procedure violations.
Sean Hannity: Seventeen.
Mark Levin: But 51 in Appendix I, 17 highlighted in the executive summary. Correct?
Sean Hannity: Correct.
Mark Levin: Okay. Now, what do the media report?
Sean Hannity: Nothing.
Mark Levin: And it's not political?
Sean Hannity: They actually -- there was a report -- how many times -- I know we talk about these things personally, and I know --
Mark Levin: Offline, privately.
Sean Hannity: Offline. But you've heard me say premeditated fraud perpetrated on a FISA court denying one American citizen, Carter Page, his constitutional rights and civil liberties, but more importantly, it's the one-step, two-step. It backdoored this corrupt deep state, which people said didn't exist, and it gave them a backdoor into everything Trump World, Trump campaign, Trump transition, and then the deep -- as the Attorney General said, deep into the Trump presidency. Mark, you love our Constitution. That's your wheelhouse. These types of violations of civil liberties, this abuse of power, this abuse -- this level of corruption is unprecedented. I've been saying for two and a half years this defines your prediction and your admonition and your warning that we're in a post-constitutional America.
Mark Levin: When we come back, I want to pursue this, because the problem here is, from my perspective, we talk about the deep state, and the media says there's no deep state. The media is part of the deep state. That's the problem.
Sean Hannity: Oh, [unintelligible] --
Mark Levin: But I want to pursue this impeachment issue. I want to go through the Constitution, what they've tried to do to this president and how we are looking straight in the eyes of tyranny right now. Folks, don't forget, most weeknights you can join me on Levin TV -- Levin TV. Join us by calling 844-LEVINTV, 844-LEVINTV, or go online, BlazeTV.com/Mark, BlazeTV.com/Mark. We'd love to have you. We'll be right back.
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Mark Levin: Now, you know, and you've documented this over and over again. The attempt to destroy this president started before he was president. You not only had the interference of the Obama administration in the election, along with the Russians, the North Koreans, the Chinese and Ukrainians, but the Obama administration. But they tried to get this president on campaign finance violations. Southern District in New York didn't pan out. We had legal analysts saying there're secret indictments in place. Of course, that was a lie; that was fabrication. We have this talk about the emoluments clause, most people never heard of the emoluments clause. It has nothing to do with the emoluments clause and the Trump Hotel. It's irrelevant, so that didn't pan out. This mass of Russia collusion thing for two and a half years, this FISA report actually tells us that there was a complete scam. The appointment of a special counsel to investigate something that was started by all this corruption at the top levels of the FBI. And by the way, Mr. Horowitz -- Mr. Horowitz can't explain motivation if he doesn't admit that it's political. Then we have the Mueller report -- 500 pages of really vindication. There's nothing in there that says you committed a crime. It's not like the Clinton report where we had 11 felonies that were laid out by Ken Starr or the Nixon case. Now we have Ukraine -- we have a phone call that was perfectly fine. I have looked at every [unintelligible] -- I've done it on your program. Perfectly fine, no problem. And now they're going to impeach the president on two joke of accounts that you could drive a bus through, they're so broad. You've been one of the folks that says from the beginning, this is corrupt, the media's corrupt, this whole thing's corrupt. You've come under attack by newsrooms. You've come under attack --
Sean Hannity: Daily.
Mark Levin: Daily?
Sean Hannity: Yeah.
Mark Levin: And so do other people who support the President of the United States. You've never seen anything like this before, have you?
Sean Hannity: Never been this bad, because they speak in one voice now. See this, you know, it's interesting because there is a swamp. When you drain the swamp, you get to a certain level of water that you pull out and then the swamp creatures start coming out. And the swamp wants to protect the swamp and they want to stay alive, because this is what they do. And they like -- at the end of the day they're not about serving people. You know, we got to remember something here. And this is where Republicans and Democrats get off course all the time. They're supposed to serve we, the people. We elect them to serve; that's why when they don't fight for their promises, it frustrates us. Both of us have been fierce critics of Republicans for a long time now for being weak, timid, spineless, feckless, visionless. They didn't even know -- 65 show votes on repeal and replace; then when it mattered, nowhere to be found. But I don't want to digress here because this is really critical. Not only is this an information crisis, this is they are an extension of all things radical, extreme socialist Democrat today. They have -- it is inexplicable the amount of rage, psychosis and hatred that they have for this president. They never got over his win in 2016. It really -- we the people shocked the world; they didn't see it coming. Another time I went out on a limb and I spent the last two and a half years. You're right, I put together a great ensemble cast -- I can't name everybody to give them all credit. And we pursued this story with a vengeance. Day and night, we double, triple, quadruple-sourced it, everything. And we dug deep. Everything that I've been telling people happened, happened. Everything the mob in the media told people about Trump-Russia collusion was a lie. The holy grail was supposed to be after three previous investigations, the Mueller report. You're right. It vindicated Donald J. Trump. Then they tried to manufacture some phony obstruction, then that died on the vine. In this Ukrainian issue, first it was a quid and a pro and a quo. Then they said, no, we'll call it bribery. Then no, we'll call it extortion, whatever they wanted to call it. None of which was in the phone call. Here's the most amazing thing; Jim Jordan talks about the four points that'll never change. I won't repeat them. But the reality is aid was not mentioned in that phone call, not one time. And the people that told us we needed to care a lot about any interference in our elections, they ignore Ukrainian court decision, they ignore Politico's extensive report in January 2017: how they were trying to assist Hillary Clinton. You'd think they'd want to dig down and maybe find the truth to that story. And here's the president saying -- and these were key words in that phone call -- when the president said, do us a favor because my country is, you know, we've been going through this for three years. I would think the people that claim that they cared so much would support the president in that. I'd also argue constitutionally, the president has a sworn oath to faithfully execute the laws of the land. And that would mean -- and he's also the commander-in-chief. That would mean not allowing foreign countries to interfere in our elections. And the great irony, I mean, you couldn't write a novel where everything that they accused Donald Trump of, they themselves are guilty of. The only Russian interference we found in 2016 was Hillary's dirty, bought and paid for Russian unverifiable dossier that was then used to take away one individual's constitutional rights and spy on a candidate transition team and a president. But you look at the Ukraine issue, it's like it's almost inexplicable, there's no logic behind this or when the bifurcation that I mentioned in the last segment. How do you ignore Joe Biden? I love playing Joe Biden tapes because he's the dumbest guy running for president and he can't help himself. This guy has lost it. If he ever had it -- I don't think he did -- he's lost it. But he's on tape. You're not getting the billion dollars. You're not getting it unless you fire a prosecutor. Now on the surface, you would think --
Mark Levin: -- a quid pro quo.
Sean Hannity: Joe.
Mark Levin: Right.
Sean Hannity: But you would think why would a vice president of the United States of America, Mark, demand the firing of a prosecutor? We now know. New York Times and others told him they were investigating his zero experience son. The son goes on Good Morning America. It's -- for a 49 year old man, this isn't a kid -- it was probably the dumbest interview I've ever seen anybody give. Do you have any experience in Ukraine? No. Any experience in gas, oil, energy? No. What qualified you to make millions? I sat on the board of Amtrak. Oh, okay. That really gives you experience.
Mark Levin: Doing a fine job there, I might add.
Sean Hannity: But then why do you think they chose you? Why would they pay you millions of dollars? I don't know. Do you think maybe because your father's the vice president in charge of Ukraine? Yeah, probably. So you got a quid pro quo Joe. That is what they're accusing Donald Trump of. Here is my point, they themselves are guilty of. Now, Mark, this is not just a mild omission on the mob's part. This is outright lying, corruption, propaganda, and I use that statism. This is state-run television. Then they go after anybody that does like the president. And more importantly, you have to shut off your brain, be that intellectually dishonest, that hypocritical. You have to defy reason, rationale and common sense.
Mark Levin: I agree. We'll be right back.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
Aishah Hasnie: Live from America's News Headquarters, I'm Aishah Hasnie. Capitol Hill gearing up for what might become a historic event, the impeachment of President Trump. He stands accused by the House Judiciary Committee of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The full House is expected to vote to impeach on Wednesday, making Mr. Trump just the third president in U.S. history to be impeached. That will be followed by a Senate trial next month, but there's little doubt the Republican-controlled Senate will actually acquit the president. Tensions between the U.S. and China are expected to ease now that the two nations have approved a partial trade deal. That agreement stops billions of dollars in tariffs which would have gone into effect today. It also helps out American farmers. Under the terms of the deal, China will buy an additional $32 billion in U.S. farm goods over the next two years. I'm Aishah Hasnie. Now back to Life, Liberty, & Levin.
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Mark Levin: Sean Hannity, I want to talk about briefly --
Sean Hannity: Well, just a second. Are you going to let me tell my story about you? This is a -- folks, you want to hear this story. Are you going to leave time for that?
Mark Levin: First of all --
Sean Hannity: It's a great [unintelligible].
Mark Levin: -- the audience ought to see what goes on during the breaks.
Sean Hannity: [laughs]
Mark Levin: You can tell.
Sean Hannity: I want to tell -- leave me one minute at the end of the show.
Mark Levin: You want to do it now?
Sean Hannity: You want to do it now?
Mark Levin: Go ahead.
Sean Hannity: I think it was during actually the Clinton impeachment, somewhere around there. You and I just start talking, and I realize, “This guy is brilliant.”
Mark Levin: Oh, the first time we met?
Sean Hannity: When we -- yeah. All I know is one time we were doing a show, and we had you in the middle box, and you had two liberals on each side. “Now, stereo liberalism” --
Mark Levin: Because they wouldn't shut up.
Sean Hannity: They wouldn't shut up [laughs]. That's right.
Mark Levin: They kept yelling in my ears, and I saw on the monitor I was in the middle, and they were both in my ears.
Sean Hannity: So, I kept begging, “Mark, fill in on my radio show. Fill in. Please fill in.” “I don't know what to do.” I said, “All you do is be you. Talk.” “Well, I don't know how you do that intro/outro thing.” So, I said, “Fine.” I wrote out a blue card. “I'm Mark Levin” -- and it didn't do it --
Mark Levin: We did --
Sean Hannity: “I'm Mark Levin filling in for Sean Hannity. Call me at this number.” And then I said, “After you say that, go.”
Mark Levin: Fifty-two cards.
Sean Hannity: Hmm?
Mark Levin: It was 48 or 52.
Sean Hannity: We did. I wrote one for each segment.
Mark Levin: Each segment.
Sean Hannity: “All right, somebody in the mirror will go, 'Break,' and you go” --
Mark Levin: I grab a card.
Sean Hannity: -- “We'll take a break. We'll come back. I'm Mark Levin for Sean Hannity. Here's our number.” And I knew -- and he didn't -- he resisted. And then I wanted him -- I begged him to do a Saturday show for free for, what, a year?
Mark Levin: Sunday.
Sean Hannity: A Sunday show for free, and you took it out on me, but then you got on after me on our station in New York, and then you got syndicated. Then you got on TV. But the point is this. I love this guy. He's such a national treasure. It was pulling teeth every step of the way to talk you into everything.
Mark Levin: That's true.
Sean Hannity: But look at what -- thank God, because you are -- your brain is a national treasure.
Mark Levin: Lost all my hair. Thank you.
Sean Hannity: And that's the story.
Mark Levin: Well, let me say this. You're a great friend and a great patriot, and that --
Sean Hannity: So are you.
Mark Levin: And you're very supportive of young people, of other people. You know, there can be people in this business who don't want any competition, so they try to destroy you.
Sean Hannity: Yeah.
Mark Levin: You're not that way. Let me ask you this. That's our gestalt session. Now, let's take a look at this transcript really fast of the president, which is why --
Sean Hannity: Zelensky with Trump.
Mark Levin: Zelensky -- the call with the -- which is why the Democrats don't really want to tell the truth about -- the president says, “Do us a favor.”
Sean Hannity: “Us.”
Mark Levin: Now, he's talking about the country, working with the attorney general -- he says it -- to get to the bottom of the Ukraine interference in our election. So, what do the media say? There was none. The same media that pushed the phony Russian collusion Trump campaign. Now we're expected to believe them. They ignore Politico; they ignore the New York Times; they ignore Foreign Policy Magazine. They ignore the evidence. They will not pursue it.
Sean Hannity: They ignored a Ukrainian court.
Mark Levin: A Ukrainian court that ruled in 2018 that, in fact, they did interfere in our election. And you listen to Chuck Todd, who berates Ted Cruz and others. But this is the mantra; this is the propaganda. Then you go later in the phone call, where the president raises Hunter Biden and Joe Biden. The president didn't have any secret, classified information on this. It was in the newspapers. The only person who didn't know about it apparently in the whole country was Joe Biden. But the fact is the rest of the nation knew about it; it had been written about extensively, and Joe Biden bragged about his quid pro quo, interfering in an investigation in Ukraine that did or could have involved his son. And so, what do the Democrats and the media do? They turn it on its head. “Oh, the president dared to mention this, and this grand conspiracy the president is involved in would include the attorney general, because he tells him to work with the attorney general.” People say to me, “Interfering with a” -- he's not interfering with the election. You know what's interfering with the election, Sean Hannity? This impeachment sham. This is all about interfering with the 2020 election, using our tax dollars, hijacking the House of Representatives, the DNC basically running the entire show. Why? For 2020. We have an election in less than 11 months. No president has ever faced this. No president has ever been treated like this. No president has ever had secret testimony, can't call witnesses; his counsel can't be present at the front end of the matter. This whole thing is a sham. It's about 2020. Just like Obama interfered in the 2016 election, now they're interfering in the 2020 election. Go ahead.
Sean Hannity: I want to know what Obama -- what did you know, and when did you know it?
Mark Levin: He never comes up.
Sean Hannity: Because it's -- your friend Andy McCarthy will say you can't have a counterintelligence investigation without it starting with the president in the Oval Office. This is -- we get really to the deep part of the root of all of this, I will guarantee you it goes into that Oval Office, because there was a line, remember, in the Strzok-Page texts, “The White House wants to be informed every step of the way.” Very telling, just like the insurance policy, just like “Hillary should win a hundred million to zero.” There's a lot to dissect from all of that. You're right about Joe, and you're right about Hunter. It's a quid pro quo with Joe, but here's the really twisted, ugly, sick psych-ops part of it, if you will. I once read a whole paper, document, a synthesis of Russian mind control techniques. By the way, when you talk about Ukraine election interference, you're not denying Russia interference. We agree it happened, and I wouldn't be surprised, because of Hillary's secret server, if other countries tried to interfere. That's what they do to hurt us. But I will tell you, when you get to the bottom of all of this, you see corruption and a level of lying and smears, slander, besmirchment, character assassination, and outright state TV. Now, the danger in this is black is white, white is black, up is down, down is up, and it's sort of like a “1984” scenario here where people that do tell the truth -- they are excoriated. And my fear is that there's so many in the mob there, and they're one voice; they're in unity. You know, remember, we were debating, “Oh, this is a manufactured crisis on the border,” when meanwhile in the second term of Obama, they sounded like Donald Trump. But they so hate Donald Trump that it's okay. They'll forget everything they said a year and a half ago. Where we are right now, Mark, is we -- the great news is the American people have the final say. And we're going to go through this charade. They are dragging this country, they are hurting this country. This is not good. What they've done to this president, his capacity to absorb it is unbelievable. But what they have done to the office of the presidency to weaken it, how they are now minimizing something is deep and profound as impeachment is beyond troubling. But at the end of the day, they have spent now three long years doing nothing.
Mark Levin: All right. We'll be right back.
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Mark Levin: Sean Hannity, Donald Trump is quite a remarkable president, isn't he?
Sean Hannity: You know, I've been a conservative my entire life and career, the 31 years of radio, now my 24th year at Fox, everything I've ever wanted for this country -- originalists on the court. Cut the biggest tax cut in history. The massive deregulation to help business and industry grow, prosper and thrive. Everything -- taking off the rules of engage --
Mark Levin: You've been a big supporter of Israel.
Sean Hannity: There has never been -- you got an interesting line, I saw this week.
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Mark Levin: It's an honor to be here with the first Jewish president of the United States.
[END VIDEO CLIP]
Sean Hannity: Look what he's done for Israel, recognize the sovereignty of Golan, the embassy to Jerusalem and the rights to the territories, which they had. That is important. His trade deals, the wall is important. There's never been a president this conservative, and you know what a big fan I was of Reagan, that has got -- I've never witnessed one guy fight so hard. That's why when people say, well, he's got to stop tweeting -- okay, the guy that's fighting all day long to fulfill his promises and fighting a mob and fighting endless investigations, is not going to turn the switch off and start being, oh, I'd like to say my prayers to everybody tonight before I go to bed. But I will say this; the way this is going to play out, they'll play their games and the people that are waiting in the freezing cold rain in Hershey, Pennsylvania, as we saw this past week. And the people, the 30,000 inside arenas and the 30,000 outside arenas, they have had it with what Democrats -- do-nothing Democrats and this media mob are doing. And I'm going to tell you what's going to happen in 324 days. The people that see the success, we always judge elections, peace and prosperity, people that see what he did to beat the caliphate, to take down Baghdadi, to keep his promises on taxes, judges, immigration, deregulation, better, fairer, freer trade deals and every other promise that he has kept, they will they will stand in the freezing cold rain, snow for as long as it takes to stop this from happening to this country, what they're doing. It is shameful, it is a disgrace, it is hurting the country. It is putting this constitutional republic that we love at risk. This is now what is at stake here. The people understand it. There is a great schism between the mob and the swamp and we the people. And, you know, I look at these polls, for example, take the seven recent polls, support for the president in the African-American community, the lowest had him at 16 percent. One had him at 34.5. One had him at 34. One had him at 33. Even Gallup had him 22, I believe. What that's telling me -- because he only got 8 percent of the African-American vote -- but what he has done for record after record after record low unemployment in the black community and how he has helped every demographic group in this country, there is there is a shift, an earthquake that is going on underneath the surface and it is going to explode November 3rd of 2020. And I predict and I hope, you never know you always play like you're behind, that this president will be rewarded for keeping his promises, for fighting for the American people, for being able to deal with more stress, more pressure, more fundamental unfairness, more psychosis than any other president we watched in our lifetime. And Reagan was hated, too.
Mark Levin: When we come back, I want to ask you, has the Democrat Party gone full socialist? Has the Democrat Party gone, full socialist and doesn't this give the American people, in addition to everything else --
Sean Hannity: Biggest choice.
Mark Levin: -- a very clear-cut choice?
Mark Levin: Folks, don't forget most weeknights, you can join me on Levin TV. Give us a call 844-LevinTV to sign up, 844-LevinTV. live in TV or go to BlazeTV.com/Mark. We'll be right back.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
Mark Levin: President Trump will be running against a socialist, won't he?
Sean Hannity: [laughs] Socialist? This is so bad, you couldn't even write it this bad. You're a student of history. Socialism, statism ever work, Mark? No. Answer: It leads to poverty. When you look at these proposals, a $94 trillion New Green Deal -- we only take in $4 trillion a year as a country. That's for 10 years, $94 trillion. Do the math at home; it's not hard. Elizabeth Warren, $52 trillion Medicare for All. Excuse me, that's in 10 years. It is mathematically impossible, and if you don't believe me, for the -- don't ever trust the government. Reagan warned us freedom is but “one generation away from extinction.” He was right. If they ever get power -- and they want to get rid of the lifeblood of the economy, oil and gas, combustion engine, eventually cows -- bad -- and airplanes, and everything is free -- everything -- just remember, how did it work out? Keep your doctor, keep your plan, and save money, on average $2,500 a year. We have nearly 40 percent of Americans -- they only have one health care exchange option choice, and the average increase in the plan that they promised would save us money is up 174 percent. You know what? These are false promises that every socialist makes. It's [unintelligible] --
Mark Levin: They're lies, aren't they?
Sean Hannity: Well, yeah, of course, they're lying, and it's also predicated in the idea that “We're going to empower you to take their money, their money, and their money, and then we're going to give it to you,” as if we don't pay enough in taxes as it is.
Mark Levin: Well, let me ask you a question. People know these politicians, most of them, can't be trusted. Most of them manage to get elected, but they're not particularly smart.
Sean Hannity: [laughs] No.
Mark Levin: They're not particularly experienced in anything. They show us every time they have a debate. So, why confer so much of our liberty and our wealth and our well-being on people who don't have the foggiest idea what the hell they're doing?
Sean Hannity: False security, but you pay this price. For every, quote, thing that they're offering you, you give up your liberty and your freedom, your favorite topics. These are false promises that can never be fulfilled, and if America were to choose this path, I don't think we would recover.
Mark Levin: I agree with you because we never seem to gain our liberty back.
Sean Hannity: Never.
Mark Levin: The center keeps moving left. We'll be right back.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
Mark Levin: I often tell my radio audience, “When Donald Trump leaves, we're going to miss this man.”
Sean Hannity: You know who's going to miss him the most? The media mob. Who are they going to focus on? You know, it's very interesting if you really think about it. Donald Trump was a creation of the corrupt swamp that is D.C., also the Republican Party, because they didn't do their job. And what makes him so unique is that he checks off the list, Mark, it's refreshing. And he doesn't take any crap, and he fights back and occasionally says a bad word and they feign, oh, they're so offended.
Mark Levin: Like any other human being.
Sean Hannity: Right.
Mark Levin: Right?
Sean Hannity: Listen, I will say this. We see this in this impeachment coup attempt with Ukraine. For the first time, I'd say in a decade, I see a revitalized Republican Party that's fighting. I've not seen that a long time. I'm not a registered Republican. I was -- you know how angry I've been with Republicans. I say it all the time, but for the first time, I see them standing up. Don't stop. Now fight for the tax cuts, now fight for more deregulation, help him get the wall built. Help him with originalists on the court. Help him fight for we the people so that more Americans are pulled out of poverty. And more Americans get the ladder to success so that it's not one generation from extinction, as Reagan said. No, we once again become the freest, best, greatest country on earth, the shining city on the hill, because without America, there's never been a country that's accumulated more power, abused less, and used their power to advance the human condition. America did that for the world.
Mark Levin: I've got to use my power --
Sean Hannity: To say goodbye.
Mark Levin: To tell you what a great pleasure it is --
Sean Hannity: Why don't I get two hours?
Mark Levin: -- to see you. Ten hours. And you do as a matter of fact.
Sean Hannity: I do, actually.
Mark Levin: But what an honor it is, what a pleasure it is --
Sean Hannity: This is the nicest guy in real life. I'm proud of all your success, and I'm glad to be on your show. Thank you for having me.
Mark Levin: God bless you, brother.
Sean Hannity: God bless you, bro.
Mark Levin: See you next time on "Life, Liberty and Levin."
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