Sekulow: FBI inquiry into President Trump should bother everyone concerned with constitutional order

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Sekulow: FBI inquiry into President Trump should bother everyone concerned with constitutional order

President Trump's attorney Jay Sekulow reacts to the New York Times report about the FBI's investigation into the president.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," January 14, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Welcome to "Hannity."

All right. Time for a bombshell "Hannity" watch from the deep state tonight. This takes a lot of explaining. We're going to make it very understandable, break it down for f you.

It's the abuse of power corruption, we've been telling you t all about this. It is tonight far worse than we have ever known until this point.  We know people -- top people in the FBI filled with hatred and frankly, anti-Trump rage who have put aside all values and their blatant political bias, were seeking redemption for the firing of James Comey. They actually plotted to destroy your duly elected president and this is way beyond what we already knew up until this point.

Now, according to this report Friday, "New York Times" as usual, anonymous sources. Two days after he was unceremoniously terminated, several top FBI officials actually question whether or not President Trump was working directly for Russia.

Now, they did this without a single shred of evidence, zero probable cause, zero proof of any collusion. It was a witch hunt. The president has been right from day one.

They opened an investigation into whether or not Russia directed the president to fire their beloved Trump hater, James Comey. Now, this despite Comey's testimony that there was no evidence of collusion, for nine months they have looked into this and Trump was not the target of the investigation.

Remember, even Comey, the Trump hater that he is, admitted that the president could fire him for any reason. Nobody in the media seems to want to tell you that.

Now, Congressman John Ratcliffe told our own Catherine Herridge, quote, in May of 2017, political bias infected senior FBI leadership and emotion, not evidence, drove their decision-making.

Now, his closed-door interview with the former FBI council James Baker revealed this. This is important. Quote: FBI senior leadership could not accept that Comey was fired for cause, and the president had the constitutional authority to terminate Comey. So, they begin the witch hunt, which had already started nine months earlier.

Now, President Trump's former attorney John Dowd has called the FBI's anti- Trump operations a political coup.

Watch this.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

JOHN DOWN, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S FORMER ATTORNEY: Little did I know that it appears that they were all in it together. I mean, Rosenstein, Comey, Mueller, McCabe, the whole crowd, and that they were out to get this president no matter what. I don't think they sincerely believed anything about Russia.

This is our worst nightmare, that someone with that kind of power would then decide to go after the president. I mean, it's a coup. That's what - - it's an attempted coup by Comey and his crowd. And that the evidence is all there. I take "The New York Times" article as an admission of their bad behavior.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

HANNITY: Admission of corruption and abuse of power by people that are unchecked, a bureaucracy unto itself, unlimited powers, no accountability.  Is any of this good for America? Did these deep state officials that we have been uncovering now for nearly two years, did they do anything other, they stop officials, and hate the president? And are you really surprised?

Remember, these are the same bureaucrats, they openly rooted for Hillary Clinton to win the election. Peter Strzok texting that Hillary Clinton should win 100 million to zero. And, of course, and all those horrible things about the president.

The same officials who wrote an exoneration in May of 2016, months before actually interviewing Hillary and 16 other witnesses in July before they exonerated her. It was already written the exoneration before the investigation.

The same people that yawned, we know, it is incontrovertible. Hillary Clinton obstructed justice. She destroyed, subpoenaed emails, 33,000 of them. Washed hurt hard drive with Bleach Bit, smashing smartphones and iPhones with a hammer and taking away SIM cards. The same people who look the other way when Hillary and the DNC funneled money through Perkins Coie, a law firm, a campaign finance violation to hire an op research firm, to hire, oh, Christopher Steele, a foreign national, to give us Russian lies.

The same bureaucrats who all but applauded when Clinton's funneled cash used to hire Christopher Steele, why? To produce a dossier that we now know were full of lies, misinformation and propaganda about President Trump, which we now know today are debunked. The same people who help disseminate those Russian lies that she paid for, to you, the American people, and throughout the highest levels of our government doing that before an election. So-called trusted officials who used the dossier to defraud a FISA court multiple times to spy on a Trump campaign associate -- by the way, fraud before the court.

The same people who used that dossier to open up an investigation into Trump. This all has happened. And, yes, a baseless investigation into a president being controlled by Russia is now just par for the course. And the hysteria of the media is even worse.

Remember, this was nine months after they already had been investigating a so-called collusion, and by nine months period of time, Lisa Page, Peter Strzok, James Comey, Andrew McCabe all hate Trump, all said they had nothing.

Former Clinton pollster Mark Penn who recently wrote an op-ed, he points out the blatant, unequal justice under the law. Quote, somehow every clear security breach in the Clinton camp was no big deal while every fourth hand contact with someone who could possibly be linked to Russia was evidence that Donald Trump was secretly serving as a Russian agent. Now, a former assistant director of intelligence at the FBI is rightly calling out his colleagues for this massive abuse of power.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EX-FBI OFFICIAL: Are we criminalizing or are we exercising the authority, the legitimate authorities of the FBI to investigate policy differences?  To investigate foreign policy stances by an administration? That's not the role of the FBI.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: No, it's not.

And despite what we showed you, the special counsel investigation rolls on.  They are not looking at Hillary Clinton or the phony Russian dossier that she paid for. Their focus is singularly on President Trump and everyone around him.

However, tonight, at least one so-called journalist from the hate Trump media is trying to play down expectations while people are hyping up every second, every minute, every hour of every day about Trump and Russia and about the Mueller report. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN KARL, ABC NEWS REPORTER: What I am getting, this is all building up to the Mueller report and raising expectations of a bombshell report.  There have been expectations have been building, of course, for over a year. But people who are closest to what Mueller has been doing, interacted with the special counsel, cautioned me that this report is almost certain to be anticlimactic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Anticlimactic.

Honestly, I don't trust what you just heard. Given the overwhelming partisan makeup of Mueller's team and their behavior throughout this process, consisting of high-power Democratic donors and attorneys, mark my words. They have and will continue to destroy the presidency of Donald Trump. They've been doing it now for two years, and they did it before the election.

Here's the problem. This is what should concern every American tonight.  If these deep state actors succeed, forget about free, and a fair justice system. It's done. Equal justice under the law and applications of our laws are dead in America. Might as well keep the Constitution as we know it and shred it because that's over forever.

Never forget the hate Trump Democrats and hate Trump media -- they have been tied at the hip the whole time, reporting innuendo, lies, conspiracies daily. Just like last week, remember, we saw the talking points of the Democratic Party regurgitated by their friends in the media, a manufactured crisis at the border. No, people getting killed and drugs crossing our border, that's real.

And speaking of which, we continue our "Hannity" watch tonight on the government shutdown and the real crisis at our southern border that the media refuses to acknowledge.

So, with budget negotiations still deadlock and after nearly ten whole days on the job, many congressional Democrats, they treated themselves after ten days to some well-deserved rest and relaxation at an oceanfront luxury resort. And on Friday, Senator Bob Menendez and at least 29 other Democratic lawmakers -- they boarded a private jet. Wait a minute, what about carbon emissions? And went to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where they spent the next few days soaking up sun right there. That such a nice picture, they are working so hard for we the people.

And then they attended a special viewing of the Broadway hit play "Hamilton" and hanging out with, oh, over a hundred lobbyists and corporate executives. That's what you do on the tenth day of the job. Who paid for the plane? Who paid for the tickets? Just a question we don't have answers yet.

But while these Democrats having fun in the sun, lavish vacations, a 10-day -- can you imagine having ten days, then you go on vacation? I think I want that job, I will run for office.

Meanwhile, we have a crisis at our southern border and it's gotten worse.  While they're on vacation, a brand-new migrant caravan is forming in Honduras. This major group of migrants scheduled to depart tomorrow morning, planning to cross our borders at an unknown time and location.  This coming as we learn about a dangerous federal loophole leaving all Americans vulnerable to violent gangs.

Now, we told you this story last week. Two high school students brutally assaulted and stabbed by three illegal immigrants with MS-13 ties. Two of the three illegal immigrants were previously released after committing other crimes in the United States, when they were detained, because they were, quote, "unaccompanied minors" at the time of their unauthorized entry into the United States across the border. Americans, what, were going to die because of open borders? Democrats, they don't seem to care.

Last Friday on this program, you met mothers and fathers on the show that lost their children because of illegal immigrants that were in the justice system, and we never sent them or deported them back to their home country.  The president is working close on this to close loopholes, actually secure the border to help save American lives. Democrats are on vacation just like they were over Christmas, nowhere to be found. Maybe the president should offer them a tropical vacation if they could get the job done.

Now, sadly, it's become abundantly clear. We now have a far left to take over of the Democratic Party and that brings us tonight to our "Hannity" watch on socialism.

So, the Democrats' new star, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, she's been on the media tear, moving her partner party further and further to the left, with calls for a 70 percent tax rate. She wants to abolish ICE. Oh, that's not like -- they'll lose their jobs. I thought Democrats cared about paychecks.

Also, government mandated climate shaming policies. In other words, they are coming for every last penny. Now, these are the same socialist ideas that are gaining momentum.

Look at New York and California. Two examples, New York City, comrade Mayor Bill de Blasio appears to be eyeing a new far left scheme to redistribute wealth, saying this in his recent state of the city address in New York. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, D-N.Y.: Millions of people in this city, tens of millions across the country are boxed into lives that just aren't working for them. You haven't been paid what you deserve, for all the hard work. You haven't been given the time you deserve. You are not living the life you deserve.

And here is the cold hard truth. It's no accident. It's an agenda -- an agenda that has dominated our politics from Reaganomics to the Trump tax giveaway, to the wealthy and corporations.

There's the truth. Brothers and sisters, there is plenty of money in the world, there's plenty of money in the city. It's just in the wrong hands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: As comrade de Blasio he wants to confiscate money, it's on the wrong hands.

Now, don't be fooled, it isn't about compassion. It's always about power, bigger government, finding new reasons to tax and control hardworking Americans, in this case, New Yorkers.

You're seeing the same thing in California. Radical leftist Governor Gavin Newsom, well, he may be out doing a wall. He now is going to tax drinking water. This will require Californians to pay an extra tax to ensure that the water they drink is clean.

Remember, this is a state with 13.5 percent state income tax. This is a party devoid of moderates and their solution to every problem is make more and take more of your hard-earned money and pretend it's for your benefit.  In other words, you surrender freedom for false security, when really it's about government control over your life, all the while, of course, covering up their own incompetence.

All right. A lot to get to tonight. Here with reaction, the author of the number one New York Times bestseller, "The Russian Hoax", Fox News legal analyst, Gregg Jarrett, along with former Clinton pollster, Mark Penn, who wrote a great column, and the House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows.

Congressman Meadows, let's start with you. You've been all over this whole issue.

Is it really true that the FBI after nine months of investigating, then they got in a little circle and they said, well, may be the president is guilty of treason, but they never had a shred of evidence to bring them to that point?

REP. MARK MEADOWS, R-N.C., HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS CHAIRMAN: Well, not a shred of evidence, really, when we look at this, Sean. It's even worse than that. They weaponized the FBI to go after this president. They got together after James Comey was fired and they figured out what they can do to make his life miserable and to continue it on.

And it's even worse than that. They tried to embed their bias within the Mueller investigation going forward. And, you know, I've been in these interviews. You continue to see it. I can tell you, there is no collusion.

And to suggest that the president is a Russian spy, there was plenty of spying going on and it was going on in his campaign, not by him.

HANNITY: So, this is the whole premise of your book. The illicit scheme to clear Hillary Clinton of crimes we know she committed and frame Donald Trump. Your headline, an FBI that is corrupt and dishonest, latest reports only offer more proof.

It's worse than we thought, as Mark Penn says.

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: This is an all-powerful, out-of- control agency, rogue agency. And, frankly, it's time that it be halted in its tracks, reorganized and replaced with a new organization that has legal restraints imposed upon it and accountable to somebody when the boss of the FBI, Rod Rosenstein, is in bed with his subordinates, inventing a counterintelligence case against the president with no probable cause, no reasonable suspicion, no credible evidence. It's time that the FBI be halted.

HANNITY: These are all crimes. Let's talk about the legal side. This is abuse of power. There's a federal statute.

JARRETT: Oh, it is, abuse of power is what we call it, but it's formally called deprivation of rights under color of law. You are not allowed to use your position in law enforcement to launch an investigation without a legal basis. You're abusing that individual, the president's rights.

Not only that, it's obstruction of justice. Misuse of the legal process.  So, I'm hopeful that William Barr once confirmed as attorney general will turn over all of this information to federal prosecutors, if appropriate, a federal grand jury, to hold these people accountable like James Comey --

HANNITY: If you hold them accountable --

JARRETT: -- Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, the whole gang.

HANNITY: Accountable means crimes?

JARRETT: Oh, absolutely. If appropriate, present it to a grand jury. Let a grand jury decide if these people abuse their position of power and broke the law in the process.

HANNITY: You know, Mark, I thought you said it so well in your column today. And your headline was, FBI Trump-Russia investigation chose the deep state was worse than we thought. And it's interesting, because you were the Clinton's pollster.

And all the evidence about a phony Russian dossier that was paid for, espionage act, I don't think, Mark, if you had subpoenaed emails, would you erase them? Would you acid wash your hard drive? Would you break up your devices? I don't think you would, would you?

MARK PENN, FORMER CLINTON POLLSTER: Well, look, I thought Ken Starr who was on earlier tonight for a year.

HANNITY: You are ducking my question.

If your emails were subpoenaed, would you delete them, clean your hard drive and bust up your devices, or is not called obstruction of justice?

PENN: Look, I'm not going to say a legal case, but obviously, I wouldn't destroy my emails if they were subpoenaed. But the issue here isn't that.  The issue is that a politically inspired hysteria took place among the FBI and DOJ, that now had them believing that Donald Trump was an agent of Russia, the guy who ran on an America first platform and this was a ludicrous event and clear abuse of power, the Democrats and Republicans should really agree on, because we have to contain these agencies from becoming too powerful.

HANNITY: But, Mark, you are one of five Democrats in the country that honestly see that abuse of power and the danger of it. Where's the rest of your party's -- you probably yelled at parties now because you come on the show and you say something different than what the talking point is.

PENN: Look, I explained that my personal experience is that you don't want the president's and the presidency held hostage to these investigations unless you have a clear basis. I believe that then, I believe it now.  I've been unafraid to say it.

And the more we learn is that there was no basis for the appointment of independent counsel other than the firing of the FBI director who had given testimony before Congress recently before the firing that Rod Rosenstein wrote a clear memo that he was g unprofessional and deserve to be fired.  How crazy is this?

HANNITY: And he was thinking about wearing a wire. And John Solomon has a report out tonight that says, oh, he was looking at how he could investigate the press. Assume that means Gregg, Sara, John, but not me.

JARRETT: Especially you, Sean.

HANNITY: Thanks a lot, especially me. You're really a good pal.

Let me go to Mark -- Congressman Meadows, this is the question I get most often.

MEADOWS: Right.

HANNITY: I see what Hillary did, I see they did nothing. I see what they did with FISA, I see nothing happens. I see surveillance and I see abuse of our intelligence weapons, nothing happens. Now, we've got and even going further than ever imagined.

When are these people going to be held accountable?

MEADOWS: Yes.

HANNITY: When does the shoe fit on the other foot, if you will?

MEADOWS: Well, it should be because there are two different standards.  One for Hillary Clinton and her campaign, and one for Donald Trump and his campaign. The accountability must happen, or it's going to continue. Like Mark was saying, we've got to put an end to that right now, and if we do not do that, then we jeopardize the independence of the FBI and DOJ.

HANNITY: How will we get there?

MEADOWS: Well, how we get there is we make sure that there is not a double standard but we also asked the Democrats who are willing to look at this president and open up an investigation to look at the FBI like we have been doing and hold them accountable. Quite frankly, I'm not optimistic that that will happen.

HANNITY: All right. Let me go back to Gregg, because you said something - - I know at different times, we've had the CIA, the FBI under fire.  Hoover, obviously, and the FBI. You are saying the FBI should be disbanded?

JARRETT: It should be replaced with the new organization in which we impose legitimate legal restraints. They are not above the law.

HANNITY: But let me -- we're talking about maybe five or 10 people. You know, I love FBI agents.

JARRETT: I do too.

HANNITY: I have the greatest respect. This is not the average FBI guy.

JARRETT: They are honorable, hardworking people who enforce the law and arrest bad guys and are to be coming commended for it. But the senior leadership has infected them with a cancer. It has metastasized.

HANNITY: If they get punished for their crimes, wouldn't that solve the problem? Held accountable.

JARRETT: You can still employ the agents, but replace it with a new organization, top leadership, answerable to the attorney general. Not the deputy attorney general.

HANNITY: All right. A lot more to come. Thanks for being with us. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Mark. Two Marks.

All right. When we come back, we have a lot to get to. President Trump's attorney Jay Sekulow, Newt Gingrich, all weigh in on dozens of congressional Democrats, the big party in Puerto Rico, nd the latest on the deep state discovery, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. As we continue our "Hannity" watch on the deep state, the new revelations. More reaction to our opening monologue, the president's attorney and chief counsel of American Center for Law and Justice, Jay Sekulow.

Full disclosure, Jay has done legal work for me in the past. I'm his lowered tier client, not the big client.

Good to see you.

JAY SEKULOW, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S ATTORNEY: A very important client.

HANNITY: What's that?

SEKULOW: I said you're an important client.

HANNITY: I have known you longer, so maybe that makes me a better client.  I probably may more -- I'm just guessing, just teasing.

A serious note here. So, for nine months, they investigated this after they exonerated Hillary Clinton without investigating her. They ignored all the FISA abuse. And after nine months, Page, Strzok, McCabe and Comey, all said they had nothing, leading into Mueller which Comey got started through another leak.

My question is: I have never seen a bigger abuse of power ever. How do we ever get to the bottom of that?

SEKULOW: Well, let's take a look at what has happened. You've got a headline in the "New York Times", right, that says FBI opened an inquiry into whether the president was secretly working in behalf of Russia.  That's the headline in "The New York Times". Now, they go down later in the article, of course, and say there's no evidence of this. But that's what they put in, in their article.

And let's look at the sequence of events. So, we know there's this investigation called Crossfire Hurricane that starts in 2016, supposedly not targeting the president. In fact, James Comey on three separate occasions tells the president of the United States that he is not under investigation. OK. So, that's number one.

Number two, we have a text message from Peter Strzok to Lisa Page. What does that text message say? Let me read it verbatim.

You and I both know the odds are nothing, talking about what would happen in the inquiry, this is whether he was going to go work with the special counsel. If I thought it was likely, I would be there no question. We thought what was likely, by the way, if there was an issue.

Then he says, I hesitate in part because of my gut sense and concern there is no big there, there.

Now, this is May 19th of 2017. So, then what you have is now, James Comey has already told the president he is not under investigation. The president exercises his constitutional authority and fires James Comey.

HANNITY: Which Comey acknowledges he had a right to do?

SEKULOW: Yes. And the FBI opens up a counter-intelligence investigation against the sitting president of the United States. Now, ask yourself, if three days before there was nothing there, and James Comey said there was nothing investigation -- you know, nothing to go over there for, and James said the president wasn't under investigation, why in the world would they open up a counter-intelligence investigation?

So, if they did this, if they did this, it's not only abuse of process, but it shows you it's a pattern of action. I want to focus on that pattern for a moment, Sean, because it sounds like ancient history. But remember how all of this started. The Steele dossier.

Who put the Steele dossier together? Fusion GPS. Who worked for Fusion GPS? Nellie Ohr. Who is Nellie Ohr? The wife of then the number four- ranked Department of Justice official, Bruce Ohr, who was talking with Christopher Steele and Glen Simpson, and his wife was working on the salacious dossier.

HANNITY: One other detail.

SEKULOW: So, you put all of this together -- well, no, but here's what happened. Then you have the irregularities in these investigations which are legendary. We have filed at the American Center for Law and Justice, Freedom of Information Act request against various agency, including the FBI and Department of Justice.

You know, in one of them we got -- one agency said we do not have any information relevant to what you asked. The other agency produced the information, which included what the FBI had in their file which they said they didn't have. And now, we are in federal court because the Freedom of Information Act has become the freedom from information act. And then you get the documents, and of course, what are they redacted.

But it points to a larger problem, and here's the problem. You have to look at the context of this investigation from the outset. I've been saying for 19 months. The irregularities here are legendary. Sean, the fact of the matter is, it's more than legendary. I think these are violations of the law.

And as others are now saying, this is - one of these situations where you need to find out who leaked this information, how did it get out. And was there a counterintelligence investigation against the President of the United States after he was told he was not under investigation, for firing James Comey, which he has a constitutional right to do? That should send chills down everyone who's concerned about constitutional order.

HANNITY: And remember, Comey, who signed off on the first FISA, bulk of information is the unverified, uncorroborated dossier, a fraud committed on the court, then a President-elect, in January Trump Tower. It's salacious, unverified. But he just said to a court and signed off in a court application that it was true to get the FISA warrant.

SEKULOW: So let's look at what's happened at the FBI. Andrew McCabe, gone; Peter Strzok, gone; Lisa Page, gone; James Comey, gone; James Baker, the General Counsel, gone. So this is not - again, this is nothing against the FBI agents, they are doing incredible job. But the leadership of that agency, at that time, was engaged in activity and conduct that was illegal and outrageous, and every American should be concerned about it. We've been saying that for 19 months.

HANNITY: So we have--

SEKULOW: Every time one of these articles - it underscores it more.

HANNITY: Unelectable, unaccountable bureaucrats abusing the power and the powerful tools of intelligence to go after somebody they hate. The top levels of the FBI and DoJ, they're gone. Where is their accountability for this and how does that, well, dovetail into Mueller, who, by the way hired a team of people, to be fair, that are all Trump haters too.

SEKULOW: Well, that's not fair. But I - an analogy - I know what you're saying. But what's not fair is the way in which this entire matter has gone down. Let's take another step further. Why is there not a special counsel investigating all of these irregularities, Sean. Missing - we're not even talking about missing e-mails from Peter Strzok and Lisa Page from what period of time. The time they worked at the Special Counsel's office--

HANNITY: And why are they missing - their phones--

(CROSS TALK)

SEKULOW: - they didn't check them. Right. Well, here's the thing. They just wiped them, which seems to be a pattern. They wipe what they don't want to wipe and they make up what they want to make up, that's the problem. That's why you got to go to court on this, and get this information.

But this needs to be - a Special Counsel needs to be investigating this. I know the Inspector General is, but its needs to be deeper. This is - how do you explain this to anybody rationale that this is the way it's supposed to work in the constitutional republic, it's not. It's not way it's supposed to work. It is not.

HANNITY: Not only that, I think - whole lot of risk here. If we don't get this right, there is a lot of risk. All right. When do you think the Mueller report is out?

SEKULOW: I don't - I'm never one to give dates. I do think as a lot of people are saying that it's - I think they're on the wrap-up phase. Look, Sean, whatever the report is, here's what we know. There was no collusion. There was no obstruction.

And all of these ancillary reports and leaks, you know what the reality of all that is? It makes for a good copy in newspapers that are trying to sell papers. But the reality is, I think, the American people are seeing right through this for exactly what it is. You know what this is? The President calls it a hoax, that's what it is.

HANNITY: And a witch hunt. All right. Jay Sekulow, thank you. When we come back, "Fox & Friends First", Co-Host, Rob Schmitt, he's going to give us a report from Puerto Rico. Democrats soaking up the sun as the government shutdown, they have a vacation after 10 days and Newt Gingrich next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Joining us now live from Puerto Rico with the very latest on the sun-soaked Democratic vacation with lobbyists, about over a hundred of them, as the government remains shut down, the co-anchor of "Fox & Friends First." This is really unfair. You're in Puerto Rico, I know reporting and working, Rob Schmitt, I'm kidding. How are you?

ROB SCHMITT, CO-HOST, "FOX & FRIENDS FIRST": Sean, I'm good. Yes, this is this is a great gig. Puerto Rico is a place to be in January. It's freezing up North, as we know. This, as you said, more than 30 Democrats and their families and more than a 100 lobbyists all came down here. They had a private charter jet.

Came to San Juan for kind of a long weekend here. They're calling it a winter retreat. The meals are paid for, fancy hotel. A lot of business being taken care of, so they say, and they did have meetings during the day, but a lot of free time as well.

The main driver here is the situation in this island territory. They've had terrible debt in this country for a lot of years and then when the hurricane hit in 2017 - when Maria hit, it just exacerbated a problem that they already had, which was living outside of their means and then you get a hurricane, $90 billion in damage something like that.

A number of meetings, as I said, but plenty of time for guys like Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey to hit the beach. Here's that picture that's been going around the internet today.

HANNITY: Oh, so nice with sun tan lotion.

SCHMITT: And the senator - yes, he's got the nice January tan.

HANNITY: By the way who pays for the jet with all those carbon emissions, do we know?

SCHMITT: Well that's - that would be the lobbyist. So that's the - it's a democratic lobbyist--

HANNITY: So lobbyist takes these guys 10 days into the work year to go on vacation on a private jet and they pay for the hotel and the luxury resort.

SCHMITT: They pay for all of it, that's the deal, that's how it goes down.

HANNITY: - caught in the wrong business.

SCHMITT: And it is - I mean, there is there's meetings --

HANNITY: Caught in the wrong business.

SCHMITT: I feel you, and this is what a lot of people feel right now. There's a lot of frustration with this. The optics of it, Sean, are what really looked bad. Today, we caught up with Senator Menendez and he did not want to talk to. Check it out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ROBERT MENENDEZ, D-N.J.: You could had hours and hours and hours of meeting if you choose one to show --

SCHMITT: No, I want to be fair. I just want to ask you--

MENENDEZ: You don't need to defend your--

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Meetings, putting on the sun tan lotions --

SCHMITT: When we got there, Sean, they did have - they had about 6.5 hours of meeting on Sunday, we know that. They had a full day today. They did have a full docket. They were doing meetings all day long. Meeting here in The Capitol behind me, and then they took off at 4:45 back to D.C.

HANNITY: All right, Rob, we'll see you this morning on Fox & Friends First. Thanks for being with us.

SCHMITT: Yes.

HANNITY: Joining us now author of best-selling book "Trump's America: The Truth about Our Nation's Great Comeback", Former Speaker of the House, Fox News Contributor, Newt Gingrich. Isn't that nice 10 days in? You get a nice free vacation. They pay for a private jet. I didn't know they pay for the private jet and the meals and the hotel and they get to put suntan lotion on each other, it's really nice bonding.

NEWT GINGRICH, FOX NEW CONTRIBUTOR, "TRUMP'S AMERICA, AUTHOR: They've developed very intricate rules that allow them to do pretty much what they want to while still claiming they're following the rules. But, I think, the picture you just saw really also shows you the roadmap for the President.

I mean, the President's position ought to be, that we're not going to kick the can any further down the road. We're going to get it solved now. And that he ought to call the Congress in and keep their feet to the fire and say, "Look, you guys have an obligation to stay here and to focus on this".

Somebody suggested the radical idea that maybe the Congress should not be paid during the shutdown, so that they went through the same process as the federal civil servants who are not going to get paid, and maybe that would focus their attention.

But, I think, the President ought to come back again and again and say, "Look, this is your job. You the Congress are supposed to be solving it, and you should stay here till you get it solved". I think that's his strongest position.

HANNITY: Let me let me ask you this, because I understand the concern - there were times in my life - long period of my life, my early adult life I lived paycheck to paycheck. I have great sympathy for the furloughed employees.

I'm told - the source is telling me that there are - there is a group of Democrats and there is a group of Republicans that might appeal to the President to give them a certain period of time to solve the problem, and if they don't get it done, he would declare a National Emergency, would you support that?

GINGRICH: No. I really think they should focus on the Congress doing its job. I mean, the President declaring a National Emergency is sidestepping the central problem, which we're going to have for the next two years with Speaker Pelosi.

You have a hardline leftwing Democratic Party, who's radical wing now is well to the left of Bernie Sanders. They have no interest in governing. They have no interest in working with the President of United States. And frankly what he ought to do is go back and look at the Reagan playbook.

When I was a junior Congressman we never got Tip O'Neill support, what we got was a large bloc - about a third of the Democrats who decided they'd vote with us. And between the Republicans and that one third, we passed things like the three-year tax cut now.

Now, if you thought of Kevin McCarthy as a potential leader of a coalition, 46 Democratic freshmen wrote a note and said to Speaker Pelosi they want to legislate. Well, let's give them a chance to legislate. But, I think, that the Reagan model which is to go to the country to find individual Democrats - the leadership's never going to cut a deal. They can't--

HANNITY: So what about the shutdown aspect of it? Indefinite?

GINGRICH: Well, it's indefinite, but I would urge, frankly, the leader McCarthy to put together a discharge petition in the House and get every single Republican to sign it. That says, "Look, we're going to fund the Southern border and we're going to fund the government, and we're ready to vote to do both".

And then start looking at - the number Democrats in the last four days who have come out individually and said you know I could vote for the Southern border, I could vote for the wall. There's a growing number under the pressure of this whole thing who's trying to say, "Well, look, I don't want to be unreasonable".

But that's going to come at the bottom. It's not going to come at the top. And they ought to start looking at what's the procedure to find 40 or 50 Democrats, combine them with the Republicans, and get things passed on a bipartisan basis, in effect, beating Pelosi and the leftwing of the Democratic Party.

HANNITY: All right. It raises a lot of questions. I don't disagree with your strategy. I don't care which way the President gets the money personally. If he does the National Emergency, stays at the shutdown, forces the Democrats at some point to step up and do their job. We do need to control the border, the drugs, the human trafficking et cetera.

Mr. Speaker, good to see you. Happy New Year and we appreciate you being with us. All right. They Hate trump media they are in a frenzy beyond even what they usually are. We'll tell you what they're saying. Sean Spicer, Ari Fleischer, next, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Time for our "Hannity Watch" on the hate Trump media. News busters reporting tonight CBS' "Face the Nation" was the only show to report that nearly 30 democrats were out partying 10 days into their job this Congressional season.

With reaction former White House Press Secretary, Ari Fleischer and Sean Spicer. You guys have both been able to do jobs that I admire both of you, I could never do. I would lose it on the podium. It wouldn't be pretty and be me and Acosta one-on-one or something.

But in fairness between the FBI report, Ari, in the New York Times, the lack of coverage of a junket with lobbyists, a lot of them, it just seems so typical now, so predictable, if you will?

ARI FLEISCHER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: And it's so predated Donald Trump or George W. Bush. I remember when I started in Washington D.C. as a Press Secretary on Capitol Hill in the 80s. I learned then, as I know it now, Republicans have to work twice as hard as Democrats do, just to get the same type of press coverage.

For the Democrats, they're always pushing against the open door, because the press generally agrees with their ideology. Republicans have to force their way through a closed door to get fair press coverage, because reporters mostly disagree with the Republican ideology and it keeps getting worse. It's particularly worse now in the age of Trump.

HANNITY: And, Sean, I don't think there's any doubt. Look at the New York Times report on Friday, they almost accused with an anonymous source, the President of treason. And at the highest levels of the FBI, very little coverage of that abuse of power, which really is dangerous to every American shouldn't be left, right, red, blue, Democrat, Republican. It really should be about justice and constitution.

SEAN SPICER, AMERICA FIRST ACTION, SENIOR ADVISOR: Right. I mean, there's two issues at stake. It's both how they cover what they do and then what they don't cover, and I think those are both important topics to discuss.

Because how they cover it, you look at that New York Times story the other day. If you get fourth or fifth graph down the story, it talks about the President and there being no evidence. But if you read the headline, the first couple of graphs, you'd think he had done something nefarious.

But it's also what they are not covering. You pointed out earlier the lack of coverage of what the Dems are doing down in Puerto Rico. But there's so many things that the President has actually done, where he's worked effectively with Congress to get so many bills passed in so much pieces of legislation or regulatory reform that has moved the economy in the right direction, and so little credit and acknowledgement has gone along with it.

The study show anywhere from 80 to 90 percent of the coverage is negative. That just doesn't jive with reality. And Ari's right, it's gotten worse under Trump. I mean, consistently worse that there is this attempt, not just to cover the truth and the facts and the stories, but to find the negative narrative wherever it can find - whatever they can.

HANNITY: Any doubt, Ari Fleischer, that the media is hoping, working towards doing everything they can to destroy the President, because that's every second, minute, hour of every day, print, broadcast, cable?

FLEISCHER: No, I think, if you watch a lot of those other shows what you're going to generally see is what did Donald Trump do wrong today. That defines and drives all their coverage. And then, Sean, makes a valid point about what did they omit. Not only with the President, but where is the coverage of all the Democrats who met with Louis Farrakhan?

As we're taking a look at racial issues in the America today and--

HANNITY: This is such a great point.

FLEISCHER: - visions, why isn't the press raising a stink about Democrats who have now been elevated into the leadership of the House Democratic organization who met with a virulent racist and anti-Semite, Louis Farrakhan. And you don't - you just don't see that.

You don't see the follow-up questions from reporters, why did you meet with Louis Farrakhan? Do you agree what Louis Farrakhan said? Why won't you distance yourself? How could you have that meet - you don't see the countermanding pressure that the press intuitively and naturally puts on Republicans that they do on Democrats.

HANNITY: "God teaches me the Whiteman is the skunk of the planet earth". "Judaism, a gutter religion", those are just a small, minor sampling of that we played. How does the President deal with this onslaught and the FBI onslaught at the top echelon, Sean Spicer?

SPICER: Well, I think, this is nothing new to him. And he generally understands that this is what he faces every day. I think considering the amount of incoming that he takes, he reacts rather proportionally. I don't know that I would be able to take it the way that he does. But I think he recognizes that the accomplishments will speak for themselves.

HANNITY: All right. Thank you both for being with us Ari and Sean Spicer. When we come back Trace Gallagher, terrible live report, Jayme Closs' case, kidnapper in court today. You will not believe the photos inside that kidnappers' layer (ph), straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Now with the very latest on the heart-wrenching Jayme Closs story, our own Trace Gallagher. Trace, I saw these pictures today. I mean, unbelievable.

TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: It really is Sean. 21-year-old, Jake Thomas Patterson told investigators he spotted the 13-year-old Jayme Closs getting on a school bus and made up his mind she was the girl he would take. Patterson says he called off two previous trips to the Closs home before carrying out the attack that killed Jayme's parents had abducted her.

Jayme told police on the night she was abducted she heard a dog bark and a car come into the driveway, so she woke her parents. Her dad went downstairs. She and her mom hid in a bathtub. They heard a gunshot, tried to call 911. But Patterson down the bathroom door.

Jayme Closs says she was held in a remote cabin, and newly released pictures inside show a shabby living area with a couch, refrigerator and an old TV. When Jake Patterson had friends or family over, Jayme says, he told her to hide under the bed which he sealed off with weights, telling her to be quiet or "Bad things could happen to her".

Last Thursday Jayme Closs escaped the cabin and was spotted by a woman walking her dog. Patterson was arrested within minutes. Authorities have not said whether Jayme Closs was sexually assaulted, but the complaint does not list any sex crimes.

HANNITY: Those people that there's evil in this world. This is just evil. Anyway, thanks for that report, and that update - poor kid. Unfortunately, that's all the time we have left this evening. Let not your heart be troubled, because the news always continues. We're always fair and balanced. We are not the hate Trump media. She's in New York. She not in the sewer or in the swamps so she can't whine tonight. 
 
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