Trump on Kamala Harris: I'm not sure Americans want someone so liberal

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Trump on Kamala Harris: I'm not sure Americans want someone so liberal

President Donald Trump joins Sean Hannity to react to Biden's vice presidential pick of Kamala Harris.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," August 11, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And welcome to "Hannity."

We begin tonight with a Fox News alert. In just moments, the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, will join us live with reaction to today's major breaking news.

It is now official. California liberal Senator Kamala Harris has been selected as Joe Biden's running mate.

Now, this pick now solidifies what is the most extreme radical far left out of the mainstream ticket of any major political party in American history. Her radical extremist record is atrocious, her support for socialism frankly scary and full details coming up throughout this hour on this terrible record.

But, first, let's -- let's first hear what Senator Harris really thought about Joe Biden. You might remember this just a few months ago. Now, she wants all but accused her running mate of outright bigotry and racism. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, D-CALIF.: But I also believe and it's personal. I was actually very -- it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputation of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country. And it was not only that but you also worked with them to oppose busing. And, you know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public school, and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, of course, Senator Harris was right. Biden did in fact work hand-in-hand with segregationists to stop school integration. Let's, quote, NBC News at the time. He led the charge on an issue they kept black students away from the classrooms of white students.

Now, former Ku Klux Klan leader, I call him Robert "KKK" Byrd, well, Biden says he was his mentor. Remember, it was Robert Byrd that filibuster the historic Civil Rights Act, oppose the Voting Rights Act, and Joe Biden absolutely did work hand-in-hand with the former Klansman to stop school integration.

Let's quote The Washington Post. Biden spoke out repeatedly and forcefully against sending white children to majority black schools and black children to majority white schools. Remember Biden worried his own children would grow up in a, quote, racial jungle.

A few years later, Biden fact lied about merging the civil rights movement. He also lied about endorsements he claimed he had from the NAACP. In 1993, he referred to inner-city youth as, quote, predators in our streets. In 2006, he told a crowd, you have to have a slight Indian accent to work at a 7-Eleven or Dunkin' Donuts. He says I'm not joking.

In 2006, he bragged that his state was a slave state. In 2007, remember what he said about Barack Obama? The first mainstream African-American who's articulate, bright, and clean. That's storybook, man. He likes to say "come on, man" a lot.

Last year, he said, quote, poor kids can be just as bright as white kids. And recently, Biden said, you ain't black if you support President Trump.

So, clearly, Senator Harris was onto something and this was not the first time that Harris launched accusations against Biden. She also accused Joe Biden of disgusting sexual misconduct.

Remember in 2019, she said she believes all the women who accused Biden of touching them and verbally. Let's see her in her own words. You decide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: I believe them and I respect them being able to tell their story and have the courage to do it.

REPORTER: Do you believe that the vice president should enter this race?

HARRIS: And he's going to have to make that decision for himself. I wouldn't tell him what to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: One of the first questions you should ask, does Senator Harris feel the same way today?

Now, will anyone in the media mob ask her this question? I tend to doubt it. Or if they do ask, she will give a lame excuse and the mob will accept it instantly, like always.

It will be up to this program to vet the Democratic ticket as we always do and we always promised. Buckle up because Kamala Harris and her record, it is extreme, it is radical hard left.

Senator Harris was an official cosponsor of the radical Green New Deal. Remember the plan that would ultimately eliminate oil and gas in 10 years? That would be the lifeblood of America's and the world's economy. Remember, she wants to immediately ban all fracking. By the way, how are our friends in Pennsylvania and Ohio feeling about that tonight?

She even supports a federal ban on plastic straws, and she also wants to ban guns via a presidential executive order. And, by the way, as for your public health insurance, versus private health insurance, well, under Kamala's Medicare-for-All program, you can kiss all private insurance goodbye. She is so extreme she would get rid of all private health plans, so much for freedom of choice, right?

Like it or not, she wants to outlaw your private insurance, replace it with government-run Medicare-for-All. She also wants to raise your taxes, billions and billions of dollars. She voted against the president's tax cuts. She's a huge proponent of raising income taxes. Not minimally, by billions and billions of dollars.

Well, that would be confiscation and redistribution of wealth. But of course she doesn't want any of that money going to law enforcement. 2019, remember, she tweeted: Michael Brown was murdered by Officer Darren Wilson. Wow.

Former prosecutor, rush to judgment. Where's the presumption of innocence? Innocent until proven guilty. She was a prosecutor in San Francisco.

By the way, that was beyond a despicable lie. Has she ever apologized to Officer Darren Wilson? A clear smear? Now and exonerated police officer for peer political gain. And, by the way, it was Biden and Obama's own Justice Department that cleared Officer Wilson and said that shooting was justified.

But yet today, her smear stands. Recently she praised Mayor Garcetti of Los Angeles. Why? He slashed the LAPD's budget by $150 million, which is pretty dumb and as we've been telling you on this program, that's not going to end well. New York City, Chicago, Portland, Seattle or anywhere.

She also once compared immigration and customs enforcement to the Ku Klux Klan. And she now wants to start from scratch in order to totally transform ICE. In addition to smearing immigration law enforcement officers, Harris also supports sanctuary cities and that great state of hers, the sanctuary state of California. She wants to halt construction of our border wall as a prosecutor in San Francisco, oh, San Francisco, she allowed while scores of violent criminals to walk free.

Now, she was infamous for offering plea deals to anyone that would take them, especially and even violent felons. Still, somehow her conviction rate was among the lowest of all prosecutors in the entire state of California. And during her tenure, San Francisco's homicide rate -- well, it's skyrocketed. It surged.

And Harris was also accused of prosecutorial misconduct. Some on the left believed that she was disproportionately targeting minorities for prosecution. And that's not even touching the surface. Kamala's presidential run -- well, it was absolutely wrecked.

Remember, Tulsi Gabbard called her out for her current practices as a prosecutor. Who could forget this moment?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TULSI GABBARD, D-HAWAII: Senator Harris says she's proud of her record as a prosecutor and that she will be a prosecutor president, but I'm deeply concerned about this record. There are too many examples to cite, but she put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana. She blocked evidence.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

She blocked evidence that would have freed up innocent men from death row until the courts forced her to do so. She kept people in prison the other sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California.

The bottom line is, Senator Harris, when you were in a position to make a difference in impact and these people's lives, you did not. And worse yet, in the case of those who are on death row, innocent people, you actually blocked evidence from being revealed that whatever freed them until you are forced to do so. There is no excuse for that, and the people who suffered under your reign as prosecutor owe -- you owe them an apology.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Wow, in addition to that brutal takedown, Harris is also facing criticism for taking donations, get this, from Jeffrey Epstein's law firm while demanding the top DOJ officials recuse themselves from any matter related to Epstein.

So why on earth would Joe Biden choose Kamala Harris? Well, guess what, he had plenty of other radical far left options. In fact, according to David Axelrod -- well, Kamala Harris wasn't even Biden's topic at all. Apparently, he wanted to tap Michigan's ever corrupt, incompetent, far left governor there, that's Shutdown Whitmer. And Axelrod believes that Whitmer was not picked because of her race. That would be identity politics on steroids and human growth hormone.

And according to the Trump campaign, there is a much more obvious reason that biden tapped senator Harris. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AD NARRATOR: Kamala Harris ran for president by rushing to the radical left, embracing Bernie's plan for socialized medicine, calling for trillions in new taxes, attacking Joe Biden for racist policies. Voters rejected Harris. They smartly spotted a phony.

But not Joe Biden. He's not that smart. Biden calls himself a transition candidate. He's handing over the reins to Kamala while they jointly embrace the radical left.

Slow Joe and phony Kamala, perfect together, wrong for America.

HANNITY: All right. Think about this. It was only a few short months ago at a debate that Biden couldn't even remember who Kamala Harris was. Now, she's his running mate.

And just today, the Biden campaign photographer, look at this, they released a picture showing Joe talking to Kamala Harris. Look at what you see, there appears to be a script in the picture and Joe actually has his phone backwards.

But over there at MSDNC, state-run conspiracy television, Roswell Rachel Maddow's Area 51 channel, well, they have now been accused tonight of cropping that apparent script out of their coverage. That's how you know it's bad.

So, what's going on? Does Joe Biden actually need a script to have a casual conversation? Is it really that bad? Will Biden actually leave his basement bunker to ever really campaign? He's been doing little mini campaigns, baby step campaigns. He shows himself for an hour or two and, run races right down to the bunker basement where he can hide. And that's all he's been doing.

Is he going to make Senator Harris do all the heavy lifting and campaigning? Keep in mind -- well, he's now the same age as Ronald Reagan was when he left office. So, yes, as the Democrats and the mob and media asked about Ronald Reagan in 1984, this question remains. We will ask it if the media mob won't. And that is about Joe Biden's fitness for the toughest hardest most difficult job on the face of this earth, especially given what we see every day when he does pop his head out of the bunker.

You know, he's ever confused, confounded, forgetfulness, those bouts of rage. He's having trouble with speech and numbers, what office he's running for, what day of the week it is -- really scary moments. The American people deserve answers.

As I've been saying, I think before any vote is cast every American needs to see that first debate. Before the first debate, we have 16 states now scheduled to allow early voting. That shouldn't happen, especially in light of Biden being in hiding for all this time.

Now, no matter what, one thing will remain true. Now more than ever, Joe Biden is running on the most radical platform of any candidate from any major party in U.S. history, now with the most radical running mate ever.

In other words, if these insane socialist policies are implemented, that would mean that it is predictable America will suffer, Americans will suffer. We will lose our freedoms. We lose our very way of life. It will be threatened.

In 84 days, America and the world as I say in "Live Free or Die", America and the world are on the brink. President Trump will be joining us in a minute. We're just beginning to touch the surface of our vetting here on this program.

Here with reaction, she's a host of the highly rated "Justice", Judge Jeanine Pirro." Salem Radio nationally syndicated host Larry Elder, civil rights attorney Leo Terrell.

I know you come on the nights I have the president on, Leo, because he gets to say hello to you like he did the last time unexpectedly.

LEO TERRELL, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Look, the next -- listen, for the next 84 days, I'm not sleeping. Before I endorsed President Trump, I said if Kamala Harris is selected, I'm voting Republican. And she got selected.

I want to be very clear to the American public. Kamala Harris was selected for two reasons, because she's a woman and because of her race. That's called affirmative action.

She's not qualified to be a vice president. She's not qualified to be one heartbeat away from the highest office in the land. This woman has gone so far left -- I want people to understand it: if you like your health care, she wants to take it away. She believes in socialized medicine. She has no principles or no scruples.

And also, what is important, the only thing she's truthful about is one thing. She called Joe Biden a racist. That is what she is correct about. But she was -- she shot down President Trump and Tim Scott's proposal for a justice reform.

She shot it down because it came from Republicans. We have to save this country and I agree with you, Sean, this election is very important. We want to preserve American institutions or do we want our institutions destroyed by extremist Biden and Harris.

I say, let's keep Trump in office.

HANNITY: It's never been this radical. The stated policies are socialism, Larry Elder. You know Kamala Harris. You live in southern California. Leo lives in Southern California. You guys have known her for all these years.

And I look at -- she was the cosponsor of the green new deal. You look at what she said about Biden and I'll ask Judge Jeanine about that in a second. You'll look at her position on taxes. Every single thing I just mentioned here and I'm thinking, they have quadrupled down on radicalism the likes of which we've never seen before.

Usually, a candidate would move to the center and the general election. They've gone in just the opposite direction, defies all logic and common sense that I see.

LARRY ELDER, SALEM RADIO NATIONALLY SYNDICATED HOST: Well, welcome to the modern Democratic Party. This is the party that supports the New Green Deal, $15 minimum wage, college debt forgiveness.

They want to take on the wall. They want porous borders. They want to raise taxes on rich people. They want the so-called wealth tax, you name it.

The problem is not Kamala Harris. It didn't matter who Joe Biden selected. The problem are the policies of the Democratic Party. The Obama-Biden administration gave us the worst economic robbery since 1949. The first time we've ever had a recovery were, we have had at least one year of 3 percent GDP.

Notice nobody in the woman administration, the holdovers, the pundits, they ever brag about the stimulus plan. They never brag about the cars for clunkers. They never bragged about cars for clunker. Remember all that.

That's the kind of stuff that Mao Zedong would have done. These are radical, crazy left-wing people that believe you can tax, spend and regulate to death.

HANNITY: You know, you look at this, it's Bolshevik Bernie. He's the economic czar. Then, of course it's AOC, Joe Biden pledging trillions to this new green deal madness, Judge. Then you look at what she said about Biden. That was a brutal takedown.

And his -- well, I think she was actually right about what she was saying about Biden and race. Eliminate private health insurance -- I don't think America is going to accept that readily either and the billions of new taxes and the New Green Deal that she cosponsored. I don't think that's going to go over very well.

JEANINE PIRRO, HOST, "JUSTICE": It's not going to go over well, Sean, but they are going to call her a moderate and they're going to try to sell her as a moderate just as they are trying to sell Joe Biden as a moderate.

The question that I come way with those who really pick this woman to be vice presidential -- to be the vice presidential candidate? She had 2 percent --

HANNITY: Joe Biden did. He had notes in front him and everything.

(CROSSTALK)

PIRRO: I'm not sure he did. Yeah, sure, you agree with me then. I mean --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: He read the notes and he had his phone backwards.

PIRRO: -- said she believes the women -- she believes the women who accused him of sexual, inappropriate actions, and here's a woman who spent her life and law enforcement as a prosecutor, as an attorney general and now she's going to turn around to the woke Democrats and say I'm with you.

And, you know, you have to say, have you heard her say one thing about the lawlessness in this country? And then you have to ask yourself who is she? Is she that transactional a candidate? That her moral compass doesn't matter, that she can put 1,500 people in jail for marijuana and laugh about the fact that she is smoking a joint herself?

I mean, American people, we can sense who is authentic and who isn't. You know what, the longer this goes on, Sean, the more I believe Joe Biden isn't even going to be on the ticket in the end because I can't believe he'd pick this woman.

(CROSSTALK)

TERRELL: I'll tell you. I know why -- I know why she was picked, because Joe Biden put himself in a box. Joe Biden has made racial gaffes the last month. One, he said, if you don't vote for me, you ain't black. Two, he said black people think alike.

PIRRO: Right.

TERRELL: And then 100 black so-called leaders, they're not my leaders. They're not Larry's leader, said you better pick a black person.

Now, could you imagine if President Trump said I'm going to pick someone based on race and sex? It would've been crucified. But the Democratic Party --

(CROSSTALK)

TERRELL: -- as a party of racism.

HANNITY: Larry?

ELDER: Sean, we should count -- we should count our blessings. Joe Biden was probably two insults of black people away from being forced to pick Maxine Waters. So let's count our blessings.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: Predictions real quick. Go ahead real quick, Judge.

PIRRO: Well, look, the biggest issue in this country right now is the lawlessness. Have you heard Joe Biden or Kamala Harris talk about it? No.

Donald Trump is the only person who's going to deal with the issues that are confronting us now. Forget about their backgrounds, their authenticity, all of that is garbage. The only thing that matters and someone is going to protect us and our economy.

HANNITY: All right, let's look at it from a political standpoint only. A scale of 1 to 10, politically speaking, 10 being the best choice he could've made, 1 the worst choice. Where is it, Leo?

TERRELL: OK, that's a good question, let me think about it -- a negative 20. A negative 20. It's horrible.

HANNITY: Larry?

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: Larry? How do you feel, Leo?

Go ahead, Larry.

ELDER: I think she gives him vigor. She gives him vigor. He's doddering. He's stuttering.

She gives him vigor. She is energetic. She's attractive. She's a black. She's a female. She checks all the boxes for the left, so I think she's going to be a net plus for him.

HANNITY: OK, fair analysis.

Judge, last word?

PIRRO: You know what I think? I'll -- I'll give her the same number that the people gave her in the presidential primaries and that is 2 percent. So, I will give her 2.

HANNITY: Wow.

(LAUGHTER)

PIRRO: You know what, we've got to -- we've got to make sure by the way that --

TERRELL: I like that.

PIRRO: Thank you, I'm glad you like it, Leo.

HANNITY: I like it too.

PIRRO: We've got to make sure people understand it's not just titles. It's not just titles. It's who they are.

HANNITY: Yeah.

PIRRO: And when you peel back the layers of hogwash that the mainstream media is telling us, she's not who they are trying to sell us.

(CROSSTALK)

TERRELL: Hey, Sean, when you talk to the president -- Sean, when you talk to the president, tell them I need a red hat. I need a red hat.

HANNITY: A red hat? Do you want it signed and delivered?

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

TERRELL: I need --

HANNITY: OK, I'm sending you a free book. And now, you're asking the president to give you a Make America Great Again hat. I'll see if I can work something out for you, OK?

TERRELL: I need your hat and I need a red cap.

HANNITY: Larry, Leo, Judge, thank you.

PIRRO: Leo, call me, I have one.

HANNITY: Here with more is the architect. Karl Rove.

Karl, I'm dying to hear how you take this on.

KARL ROVE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think she's a calculating political chameleon (ph) and I think you've heard this through your previous guests. Endorsed Medicare-for-All, called for the abolition of private health insurance, and then skittered back from the edge when she got some political heat. She is a cosponsor of the Green New Deal and he has tried to distance herself if she gets political heat.

But at the end of the day, we know who she is by her impromptu comments. You mentioned one of them, referring to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement as the KKK, suggesting people who will are in jails, we ought to consider letting the vote.

Judge Jeanine touched on one. She's refused to condemn the violence we've seen in Seattle, in Portland, and even in her own home town of Oakland. When there is terrible violence there, we did not hear her condemning the violence and the riots in that town.

So, we know she is by how she (INAUDIBLE) impromptu comments. I also agree with what the panel said. She's not exactly the best candidate in the world. She didn't set everybody on fire in the Democratic presidential primary, and remember she barely won the race for attorney general over a bland, well-qualified but bland Southern California Republican prosecutor in that great state of California, far left state. She barely won the attorney general race.

So, I'm -- she's good on the inside politics. Look at all the oppo dumps that she's done on poor Karen Bass. There's only one person all that stuff came from and it's Kamala Harris' operation.

I do think this -- politically, she's going to be for Biden, the attack machine. She is going to be going after President Trump. And when -- and President Trump is the great counterpuncher, but you ought to remember, she is not the target. When she attacks him, he ought to use it as an opportunity to attack Biden.

If she goes the president on any issue, he goes after Biden on that issue, because he's a real target. She's just along for the ride.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Well, let me ask you that. Is your -- let me follow up -- is your advice to the president barely mention her and stay focused on Biden is a weak candidate? By the way, for your Skype, I'm going to buy you a light. You are in the shadows. It's like we have you in silhouette tonight. But go ahead --

ROVE: Your people told me that I was, you know, in an undisclosed location. So, I don't know. It's, you know, they bring me a wired phone --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: In Mark Levin's hidden bunker, yeah.

ROVE: Exactly, exactly.

Now, look, I -- no, he should respond but he should respond in a way that allows them to go back to Biden. Hold her responsible for the things she says and does about the president. Hold him responsible.

This isn't about him. This is about Biden.

And Biden is going to try to let her be the attack machine and the president can draw him back into this by not letting him get away with it.

HANNITY: All right.

ROVE: Think about this, can I step back for just a moment for the politics of it? Think about the previous choices for vice president. President Trump that I want to governor from the Midwest was demonstrated a credible record of governing and somebody who can outreach and represent the conservative religious values of the heartland.

Barack Obama set I want somebody was a long experience in Washington, D.C., and can help me navigate Capitol Hill. And has foreign policy experience.

George W. Bush said, I want the guy who was demonstrated to me that he knows how to make things work and would be a good partner to me. If something happened to me, people would have confidence that Dick Cheney would be a good fit.

HANNITY: All right.

ROVE: That's not the case here. None of those considerations entered in here. It was sheer politics and I think some of the panelists were right. It's covering up for some of his mistakes of the recent months.

HANNITY: Wow. All right, Karl, I owe -- I owe some lighting in Mark Levin's basement bunker, the hidden bunker.

All right. Thank you for being with us, Karl Rove.

ROVE: Can I have a ginger ale? Mark?

HANNITY: He needs a light.

All right. Joining us more before we get to the president, who's calling in any minute, is Louisiana Senator John Kennedy.

Senator, your reaction to all of this?

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY, R-LA.: Well, Sean. Kamala is my colleague. So first I say congratulations to her.

I think the fairest way to describe Senator Harris is to say she's a San Francisco Democrat. Vice President Biden has promised to be the most liberal president in history, and she will enthusiastically help him achieve that end.

They both believed that they can tax, spend, and regulate America into prosperity. They both believe vetting people at the border is racist. I happen to think it's prudent. They both believe that abortion is morally acceptable.

They both believe in what I call the "I deserve, you owe me" mentality. Their vision of America is in America of safety nets where no one has to take responsibility, where it's always somebody else's fault, where every child gets a trophy.

They believe that government is the only thing they can make America great. I don't. I think America is great because of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. But that's what I think the Biden-Harris administration, if there is one, will stand for.

HANNITY: Senator, I could talk to you all night. There is someone who has a higher position with you who's going to join us right now and I guess if we have to give way, nobody better than the president. Senator, thank you as always for being with us.

Joining us now live -- he's in the White House as we speak -- is the president of the United States.

Mr. President, thank you, sir, for joining us. Appreciate you being here.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Thank you, Sean.

HANNITY: Let's start with the big news today, Kamala Harris.

Your initial thoughts?

TRUMP: Well, if you read the various political pundits, you would've said maybe that would've been the one.

A lot of people think it's a dangerous choice. I think she is the most liberal person, supposedly, in the Senate. That's pretty liberal. But she is supposed to be the most. I'm not sure that's what the country wants.

I think, if it is, we have got problems. But I would be surprised if it is.

She wants to raise taxes. She wants to get rid of your Second Amendment, no guns for protection, no nothing. She is very strong on the Second Amendment, getting rid of it, and very bad to the military. She wants to cut the military. She wants to cut spending for the military and the vets.

And, you know, I don't quite get the choice. But we will have it out. We have a great vice president named Mike Pence. And he will take care of business, just like he did the last time against a different candidate.

HANNITY: Well, Vice President Pence, by the way, will exclusively join us on this program tomorrow.

Let's go through some of the specifics.

She was one of the first Democrats to co-sponsor, I call him Bolshevik Bernie, Bernie Sanders, who, by the way, he used to be an outlier in the Democratic Party, and way outside the Democratic mainstream. She co- sponsored his -- not only his single-payer Medicare for All, which would be, anywhere, estimates from $32 trillion to $54 trillion.

She wanted to eliminate private health insurance even for Americans that like their plan. That sounds extreme, sir.

TRUMP: Well, that's 180 million people. And they love their plan, not like it. And they don't want to take it away.

And if you're going to socialize medicine, which is what she wants and support strongly, and it's what Biden wants, ultimately -- he's not going to have a choice, because his party wants it. The people that really control the party -- he will never control the party -- they want it.

That means you're destroying something that 180 million people love. They have a plan that they really like. That's a very hard thing to do, very hard thing to do.

And, by the way, I have to say, Larry and Leo and Jeanine and your great Senator John Kennedy, who is fantastic, and Karl Rove, who has been so great, last -- you know, Karl and I had our disputes previously. We like each other a lot now. He's been great. But Karl was great tonight.

And I will say, that was some little precast I had on. That was very impressive. Thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: That's -- I guess that we would call that the opening act, Mr. President.

TRUMP: Well, they were good. They were good.

HANNITY: One of the things -- I have talked a lot about this.

And when you were a candidate, I asked you many, many times about the need for America to become energy-independent. And you went forward with the Keystone XL pipeline, the Dakota pipeline. You have opened ANWR.

And for the first time in 75 years, America is now energy-independent. And we are now also -- it's been a longer period of time -- the largest producer of energy in the entire world.

She was a co-sponsor in the U.S. Senate of this radical Green New Deal. Joe Biden has already pledged trillions of taxpayer dollars for that plan.

And all I see is that would eliminate the lifeblood of the world's economy, America's economy, in the next 10 years, according to the original plan that she, again, was a co-sponsor of.

How do you see that in terms of the geopolitical strategic even defense of this country, because, that to, me is a crucial program that is scary? You know, to go back to energy dependence is scary to me.

TRUMP: Well, we are now energy-independent for the first time I guess ever. And we are very powerful on energy.

And we -- when we had the pandemic hit us from China, which should have never happened -- they should have never let that happen. But there was obviously a lot of energy around. And we saved it. I saved it. We called Russia, President Putin. We called the king of Saudi Arabia.

They cut 10 million barrels of oil a day. And we saved the energy. And now, we are at $41 a barrel. But, more importantly, for the people driving cars, we are around $2 and even less a gallon. And that's fantastic.

She's against petroleum. She is against fracking. So is Biden. And that means you can't win Texas. You can't win Pennsylvania. You can't win Oklahoma or North Dakota or many other states. And it also means your electric bills would go up literally by 10 times. You wouldn't -- it wouldn't be even sustainable.

And if they went with this crazy Green -- it's like child's play. If they went with the so-called Green New Deal, you're talking about a -- catastrophic for the country. You would probably have to close 20 to 25 percent of your businesses even to qualify. And they wouldn't function properly, because we don't have that kind of energy.

It's crazy. This can't -- they can't power our massive -- we have these massive plants, some of which and many of which are being built under me. The car companies are moving back from Japan and from other countries, coming in from Germany. They're coming back to America, first time in 42 years.

And you can't even think about firing up those plants with the kind of things they're talking about. Wind is nice. It's nice. It's -- but it's -- it causes tremendous environmental problems, from sight to home values going way down. If you see a windmill and you hear a windmill, your home is worth half or less than half. It kills all the birds.

The whole thing is crazy, what they want to do. And they will destroy the country. We have built the greatest.

And if you see what has happened, we had the greatest economy in the history of the world, better than China by far. We were lapping them. And then, all of a sudden, when the plague came in, we had to close it down. We saved millions of lives.

And now we're opening it up, and we're setting records. And you even see the stock prices today, where the markets are -- Nasdaq is higher than it ever was. And the Dow is just about ready. I mean, it's right at -- almost at the same level. Who would have believed that in the middle of a pandemic, which we are soon going to have vaccines and therapeutics.

It's going to be -- it's going to all be good next year. We're going to have one of the greatest years we have ever had, if it isn't blown out the window by tripling and quadrupling taxes and regulations.

HANNITY: Let me specifically go into the issue -- and it was a signature issue for you in 2016 -- and that is building the wall.

And you can update us on that part. And, yes, it was a heavy lift. And you had to find a way to reallocate funds from the Defense Department and other where, but -- and elsewhere.

But you have two candidates now that support amnesty. Kamala Harris supports sanctuary cities, the sanctuary state of California, wants to eliminate ICE.

Your reaction to the very different positions that you have on this very key issue and an issue that has defined your first campaign and is a big issue still today?

TRUMP: So, the wall is well under construction. We have 281 miles up, 281 miles.

That's one of the reasons that the border numbers are so good, because, wherever it's built, nobody comes through. You can't get through it, unless you're a climber of Mount Everest. That's about it. You would have to be of that talent.

So, we have 281 miles. The rest is being built. By the end of the year, it'll be mostly finished. We may add another 50 miles that was unplanned for in certain areas that are little bit tough. So, we will make that determination.

But the wall is built. You don't hear about that anymore, Sean. And, remember, that was like the biggest topic. As soon as I won, the Democrats stopped talking about it. And when they stop, their co-partner stops. That's the media, the corrupt media, the fake news. So, you don't hear about it.

But the wall is going up and having a tremendous impact. And it's exactly what the Border Patrol wanted. We designed it together. And it's exactly what they wanted. They wanted steel, concrete, and rebar. I said, how about one? They said, we need all three for strength and for other reasons, security.

HANNITY: Yes.

TRUMP: So, that -- and, if you look at ICE, these people are incredible.

They are taking out thousands of MS-13 gang members. These are the roughest there are anywhere in the world. They are crazy. They are crazy. And we are either bringing them back to their country, or we are not -- we're putting them in jail. In some cases, we really have to put them in jail. We don't want to have to pay for them for the next 50 years, but we don't want to take a chance.

They are so violent. They kill people with knives because it's more painful and it goes slower. That's what they say. It goes slower, and it's more painful. We are taking them out by the thousands.

And Guatemala, if you look at Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, these are countries that wouldn't take people back. Tremendous problems came to our country. They wouldn't take them back. Now they take them back.

You know, we were paying them for years hundreds of millions of dollars a year, ridiculously. And I said, you mean we're paying them the money? We don't take them back. We bring them to the country. They wouldn't accept. They wouldn't let our planes land before me.

And when I got there, I said, well, if they won't do that, then we are not going to pay them anymore. Once I said that, we stopped paying them. And then all of a sudden, they take these people back gladly, with -- very, very happily.

Mexico has 27,000 of their soldiers on the Southern border. And people aren't coming in now. They don't go past the Mexican soldiers, so, very, very few people coming in illegally. And then that's helped, of course, by the wall.

So, we have made tremendous strides. We let people come in legally. We want people to come in through merit, where they can help our country, where they can love our country. And that's what's happening.

And the Democrats stay away. The -- I call them the radical left, because, if you look at the races, you look at some of the races that are taking place, all of these old, mainline, older mainline Democrats are being beaten by radical left, I don't know, I guess you could say anarchists in a certain way.

But the people that are winning these races for the Democrats -- Eliot Engel, he was a staple many, many years. And you know who I'm talking about, a staple, from a very nice part of the world that's going bad on us, New York. It's going bad.

I left there. It was four years ago. It was a wonderful place. You could see signs of badness, but it was a wonderful place. And now it's -- crime is up by many, many times. And what's happening in New York is so horrible for our country, what they have done. What Mayor de Blasio has done to that city in a short period of time is horrible.

But you look at Eliot Engel, and gets beaten easily by the radical left. And the Democrats, that's where they are. They don't want petroleum. They don't want Second Amendment. They don't want religion. They don't want anything. It's -- it's disgraceful.

HANNITY: Let me go to -- you know, I played at the beginning of the program -- and it was interesting to me that you had tweeted almost within minutes today the ad about Kamala Harris.

And did you have an instinct that it was going to be Kamala, or perhaps the names that had been mentioned the most, did you have ads prepared for all of them?

TRUMP: No, but we really have some very talented people. It was quick. And we have some talented people.

Yes, I thought it might be her, because, if you remember, she was going to do very well. She was one of the people that was projected to have a chance at winning. And all she did, as people got to know her, she went down. She finished at two percent, probably less than that, and she fled.

Remember how quickly? She said horrible things about Biden. The one thing I felt he couldn't do -- I mean, she took what somebody said about her -- some horrible things that were said about Joe, and she said she agreed with the woman that said them.

That was a terrible statement. And I said, you know, just that statement alone. But she made terrible statements. She essentially called him a racist and other things that were very bad.

And you know, I said, he probably can't pick her, but let's do something on her, because people were saying it could happen. And we had others in mind also. We had some -- we had some other choices.

She was my number one draft pick. She was the one that I thought would be the best for us.

HANNITY: She's your number one -- your number one draft pick?

TRUMP: Mike will handle it very easily. Mike is a pro.

HANNITY: Well, I mean, she did talk about things.

You know, I know that you get attacked pretty much, as I have said. And I will say it, with the mob and the media watching, because they lied about Russia. We now know that the FBI knew from the subsource of Christopher Steele that that dossier was phony.

We know that Hillary Clinton's -- even The New York Times now recognized that her bought-and-paid-for Russian dossier was likely Russian disinformation from the beginning.

But my question is more about her attack on Biden on the issue of race. And you know, the reality is, he did praise the guy that filibustered the Civil Rights Act. Imagine if you had done that. Biden did support the anti-busing amendment of Robert Byrd.

And, by the way, he did say he worried his children would grow up in a racial jungle, referring to school and integration. And he did, you know, use the comment more recently, "You ain't black," and "Poor kids are just as smart as white kids," and in a previous campaign, "They are going to put you all back in chains," and "You can't go to a Dunkin' Donuts or a 7- Eleven unless you have a slight Indian accent," and what he said about even Barack Obama, clean and bright and articulate, and that's storybook, and man.

He likes to say the words, "Come on, man, come on, man."

Your reaction to her attacks on him on the issue of race?

TRUMP: Well, first of all, what you said about Russia, "The New York Times" is fake reporting. It's a fake newspaper, as far as I'm concerned, and "The Washington Post," likewise.

I always try and figure out which is worse. And then you have CNN and, frankly, ABC, CBS, NBC. And -- but you have some good ones in between. Locals are great. Locals, we do great in. I couldn't possibly be here.

And on social media, I don't -- does anybody do better in terms of people watching and the importance of social media? So, we get the word out.

But you know, the sad thing is, you have so many incredibly talented writers, journalists, frankly, including yourself, because I consider you really a journalist, to a very -- to the largest extent, the job you have done, because you got the Russia hoax correct.

And your people that came on that show night after night, including, by the way, our great congressmen and senators, and senators -- you had John Kennedy on tonight. You have a lot of them on. But a lot of people got it right. And a lot of our Congress and Senate got it right.

And they got it wrong, and they got Pulitzer Prizes. The Pulitzer Prize is worthless, as far as I'm concerned, because, when you have the Maggie Habermans getting a Pulitzer Prize, and she got it all wrong, she doesn't - - I haven't spoken to her in forever. She is like my biographer, like she knows everything about me.

She knows nothing about me. And they talk about they have sources. They don't have sources. They are made up. They make them up in their mind. They have no sources. I know when there are sources.

But, if you look at The Times, and I guess The Washington Post, they got Pulitzer Prizes, and they were totally wrong. And they got them, I guess, before the end result.

And there was no collusion. And now this thing turns out to be a total hoax. And now it finds out that we caught Obama-Biden. That's why I didn't think that Susan Rice could get it, because she's part of this whole illegal thing that happened, which is one of the worst, perhaps the worst, political scandal in the history of our country.

And they got caught. Now let's see what happens. But they are caught red- handed.

And -- but these writers -- the writers got Pulitzer Prizes. And that shows you, a Pulitzer Prize is worthless. And, frankly, you ought to start a petition to return the Pulitzer Prize, because they were all wrong. They were wrong on the whole subject of Russia, Russia, Russia. It was made up, fabricated. It was a crime that was committed.

And you look at Hillary Clinton, where she paid for the fake dossier. And now the dossier is proven to be totally fake. It's a disgrace what happened. And no other president should have to go through it, Sean.

HANNITY: Mr. President, they got it all wrong. And they are listening to you tonight. They were wrong. There was no evidence of any Trump-Russia collusion.

TRUMP: None.

HANNITY: We now know, in January of 2017, the subsource said, yes, none of this is true. This is bar talk.

They never went after Hillary for her subpoenaed e-mails that were deleted and BleachBit and hammers. They never went after what turned out to be premeditated fraud on the FISA court. It says on the top of a FISA application, "Verified."

Not only was it not verified, it was unverifiable. And they were warned not to use it on numerous occasions, and definitively by January of 2017. They ignored her bought-and-paid-for dirty Russian, now debunked dossier.

They ignored the biggest abuse-of-power corruption scandal in history, which then brings us to your comments yesterday about where we are.

There's two issues that I would like to see, as somebody that is a talk show host. And that does include straight journalism, opinion, and, yes, investigative journalism that the media mob doesn't do.

I'd like to know -- I'd like to, number one, before any voting takes place, see you debate Joe Biden. You have invited him.

And I'd also like to have resolved what happened in 2016 before the American people vote in 2020. We haven't gotten there yet. We're waiting for the -- any Durham action that might happen.

Your -- your thoughts on both?

TRUMP: Well, I hope it goes quickly.

But this is the greatest political crime, the worst political crime, I think, in the history of our country. And I hope that they do it properly, because this is -- this affected -- this had to do with Obama and Biden, as well as Brennan and Comey and Clapper. And you go down to Page -- Lisa Page, and her lover, Peter Strzok, and McCabe.

But you look at all of these people, and they're all implicated. Now we're going to find out. Let me tell you, the Democrats play a much dirtier game than the Republicans. And I say that in a very negative way. It's a disgrace. They play a much dirtier game.

They will impeach you over a phone call that was perfect. Nothing like that has ever happened before. They impeached me over a phone call that was absolutely perfect. You couldn't have made a better phone call. There was nothing done wrong with that phone call.

And they play a much dirtier game, a much tougher game than the Republicans. The Republicans, fortunately, much better policy, but they ought to get tougher. The Republicans have to get tougher.

And this whole thing with this mail-in ballot, that's a rigged election waiting to happen. It's rigged, and everyone knows it, because you can't send out 60 million mail-in ballots to everybody in the -- who knows who's getting them?

The mailmen are going to get them. And people are going to just grab batches of them. And you talk about China and Russia. They will be grabbing plenty of them. It's a -- it's a disaster. It's a rigged election waiting to happen.

And it's just common sense. You wouldn't even have to know anything about politics or elections. It's common sense.

And an absentee ballot is OK, where you send in for a ballot, they go through a process, and they send it to you, and then you send it. It's fine.

But these mail-in ballots, where they send millions of them all over the country, it's a -- it's going to be a rigged election. And this country shouldn't allow it. The courts have to step in. We are in many different courts right now. If the courts don't step in, the federal courts, you will never know who won the election.

Just like in New York, they had an election with Carolyn Maloney, a third- rate congresswoman that I have known for a long time, third-rate. Well, she won, but they have no idea where the ballots are. Where are the ballots? Many missing ballots. Her opponent is having a fit. But they declared that because it was so embarrassing.

Then you look at Paterson, New Jersey.

They declared her the winner because it was so embarrassing.

You look at then Paterson, New Jersey. Look at what happened there. Look at what just happened in Virginia, where they sent in 500,000 applications. And they're -- most of them are to wrong people. They sent some to dogs. They sent two to cats. They sent people that are -- that passed away, dead people.

They were sent to dead people, and 500,000 applications. This is crazy, what we are doing. And it's not a question of anything else. It can't work. It hasn't worked in little districts. Small, little defined districts, they can't do it.

And it's an impossibility. Plus, the post office isn't set up for this. The post office is not set up for millions. When you look at what they did in Nevada, and take a look, where they are sending millions of ballots, and you don't have to have a confirmed signature, there is nothing to say that that person signed it.

It's going to be catastrophic corruption.

HANNITY: You know, you mentioned a lot there.

And you know, when I went to the 2016 Democratic Convention, amazing, I needed a photo I.D. to get in. Just saying.

You also mentioned, you know, the media ignored Joe Biden on tape: You're not getting a billion taxpayer dollars unless you fire the prosecutor --

TRUMP: Right.

HANNITY: -- investigating my son, who goes on "GMA" and said he had no experience.

Let me move on to another topic, though, and that is, this is now...

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: And, by the way, we should have voter I.D., Sean. We should have voter I.D.

HANNITY: Well, I -- you need it to get into the Democratic Convention.

TRUMP: So simple. So good. They don't want it because it's too -- and you're right. To get into the Democratic Convention, you need I.D., but to vote --

HANNITY: Right.

TRUMP: -- they don't want voter I.D. What does that tell you?

HANNITY: Let's ask about law and order, which is now on the ballot.

You see what -- you mentioned New York City. You see the shootings, 40, 50, 60, 70 shot in Chicago every weekend, Portland, Seattle, Portland now, what, day 74 of anarchy.

You have offered all of these big cities help, all these mayors. The one thing they all have in common, they been run by liberal Democratic mayors for decades and liberal Democratic governors for decades.

And now security and safety -- now, some people would argue, including me, that if you can't -- that is the number one job of government. We had a one-year-old child killed in a stroller in New York in a park, a beautiful seven-year-old girl killed in Chicago in her grandmother's backyard on Fourth of July weekend, an eight-year-old beautiful girl killed in Atlanta, when her mom made a wrong turn into the CHOP zone there.

You watched my interview with Horace Lorenzo Anderson Sr. He lost his 19- year-old son in the "Summer of Love" zone, when the mayor out there allowed the anarchists to take over city blocks and police precincts.

We now know about Kamala Harris' view. I mentioned it during my opening monologue. Joe did -- he's trying to walk it back -- say, the police, they have become the enemy. And he's all for reallocating funds away from the police.

And Kamala Harris praised the LAPD for the cuts in that city, a billion cut in New York, and it's become a disaster.

Your reaction to this whole defund the police effort madness that's going on in the country?

TRUMP: Well, it's ridiculous.

And we should do the opposite of defunding. We should help the police more. They have been taken -- their guts have been taken out. And it's -- it's very sad.

Now, we have talked to the governor. If you look at Oregon and you look at what's going on out there, we're willing to help. You know, we need -- they're supposed to call and say, please send help.

But, honestly, they have 10,000 great law enforcement people there. Really, they can take care of it themselves. But we'd be glad to send in the National Guard and solve the problem, like we did in Minneapolis. We solved that problem in one hour after they arrived. We can do it in Portland so easy. We can do it in Chicago, a little more difficult. It's a different kind of a problem.

One is anarchists, and the other are people that go around indiscriminately shooting everyone and themselves. But we can solve the problems, if they ask. They have to ask. We are ready, willing, and able.

We went to Portland to save the courthouse, if you can believe it, an expensive courthouse, a beautiful courthouse. It was going to be destroyed. It was going to be set on fire. And the mayor wasn't saving it. And the governor of the state wasn't going to save it.

So we sent Homeland Security, 300 people. And they -- it was very easy for them. They could've marched forward. They are not allowed to do that. They have very strong restrictions, unfortunately. And they were -- they surrounded it, and they protected it, and it's fine. And they are still there, by the way.

You know, the mayor likes to say they're -- they are still there. They are to protect the courthouse. It's not for them to do anything beyond that. They are not allowed to.

But we can have the National Guard go in and clean out Portland in a matter of hours, less than hours. But they have to ask us for that. And they don't want to ask. And it's not because they are too proud. It's because they truly don't have a clue as to what's happening.

HANNITY: Mr. President, you know, I listen to the New Green Deal promises, and everything is free -- free government, free pre-K through college education, student loan forgiveness, guaranteed government job, guaranteed government wage, guaranteed government vacation, guaranteed government healthy food, guaranteed government health care.

Kamala wouldn't even give you the choice of a private plan. Biden and Obama, they had eight years. They never set a single record of low unemployment for African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans, women in the workplace, youth unemployment, African-American youth unemployment.

They had eight years to do criminal justice reform. They didn't do it. You did. They had eight years to do police reform. They didn't do that either. You did that. And you also committed the most amount of money per year for the longest period of time for historically black colleges.

Why did your policies set records? And why did they give us -- end up, after eight years, we had 13 million more Americans on food stamps, eight million more in poverty, and the lowest labor participation rate since the '70s?

Why didn't their economic plan work, and why is yours working, considering this is going to be the biggest choice election, I would argue, in history?

TRUMP: So, one reason is, they didn't care. They never even tried to get criminal justice reform, which is a big deal.

And I got it. And nobody else was able to get it. And I don't think anybody else could've gotten it. And they never really tried. They never really helped the black colleges and universities. They call them historically black colleges and universities.

They never -- they never helped. And these wonderful people, like, 40 people, 42 people would come up, the heads of each college. And after two years of seeing them, I say: "Why do you people keep coming back? Why are you continuing to come back?"

"Well, we have to come back and ask for money."

I said: "Every year, you have to ask for money? Every year? That's not -- that's terrible."

And one man said something. A wonderful guy in charge of one of the colleges, the head person at one of these really good colleges, said to me: "Yes, they make us feel like beggars, because, every year, they make us come back for money."

"And you have been doing this for years?"

They said: "Yes, sir, we have been doing this for years."

I said: "We have to give you long-term financing. And we have to give you a number that's higher than you're asking for."

And I did that. And Obama could have done that, too, but he didn't. He could've done that. And he could've possibly at least tried criminal justice reform. He didn't even try.

I have done more for the black community than any other president, other than perhaps Abraham Lincoln. And I will tell you, when you look at what we did with Tim Scott on Opportunity Zones, it's incredible, the jobs that we are producing for African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans.

But the jobs that we are producing -- Tim Scott is incredible. The jobs that we are producing, it was an idea that Tim had, and we took it. And we made it into an incredible thing, where jobs are being done. And areas that haven't been invested in, in decades are being brought back. It's an incredible thing to see.

And we did these things. And Obama didn't do it. And this mostly helps the minority communities, the black community. It's incredible, what has happened. It's actually incredible, some of the things we have done.

And we have tremendous African-American support. I will tell you that, Sean, tremendous. We have tremendous Hispanic support.

And you know who likes the wall the best of all and who likes the border safety the best of all? The Hispanic, because they understand the border better than anybody. And they understand the bad people that can come in through the border. And they don't want them in our country.

And the Hispanic appreciate more than anybody else what I have been able to do at our Southern border.

HANNITY: Mr. President, we have had the worst pandemic since 1918, the invisible enemy, as you call it.

I have noticed, in Arizona, Texas and Florida, it looks like the flattening of the curve. If the pattern holds, you will see -- I know the death rate has gone up. Then it will drop. And then it will drop precipitously, if the pattern holds in the Northeast and elsewhere.

My question to you is, you know, we are now in the final phase of human trials for a vaccine. Where are we? When do you expect the vaccine? You have talked about distribution. Tell us about that in the two minutes we have left. Tell us about where we are with therapeutics.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: OK. So, the therapeutics are great.

We could have something very soon. And that's where you would go and give a transfusion or a shot in hospitals. And people are going to come out, and they are going to walk out pretty soon after that, and they're going to be in great shape.

And we are having a tremendous success with that. And you will be hearing about that soon, and the vaccines by the end of the year, and maybe before that, maybe substantially before that. We're having tremendous success.

We are in stage three trials already. The previous administration or any other administration could've never been there. We are doing more testing than any country in the world by far. And because of that, we will have more cases. We are testing people, we have more cases. If you don't test, you don't have cases.

And that's called fake news gold, because they say, cases. That's all they say, is talk about cases. But what we're doing is the greatest testing anywhere in the world, the most and the best, best quality. And we are doing very well with it.

All of these incredible people, they get very little credit. All of the ventilators -- we are now making ventilators for everybody in the world. We have all we can use. And it's hard to make and complicated and big and expensive. But we are making them and distributing them all over the world.

We have done a great job. And it's moving along. We're going to have the vaccine soon. And we are going to have therapeutics very soon.

HANNITY: It's a scary thing. And you know, you rightly point out that this -- this shouldn't have happened.

And the world would've helped out China, had they only asked. It is sad that they put a travel ban from Wuhan province to China, and you couldn't fly from China to Wuhan, but they left it open to the world.

TRUMP: That's right.

HANNITY: Mr. President, you have been very generous with your time.

We're 84 days to go, and we have got -- now we have -- OK, it's you and Governor Pence -- well, Vice President Pence, former governor, and Kamala Harris and Joe. We will watch closely.

I appreciate you being with us, sir. And we will continue to update people.

And thank you. Whenever you can join us, we love having you on the program. Thank you.

TRUMP: Thanks a lot, Sean. Thank you very much.

HANNITY: All right.

Now, a couple of programming notes. We'll get the reaction from Vice President Mike Pence on this show tomorrow night.

Hannity.com, Amazon.com. Thank you for making our book "Live Free or Die" number one, week two.

Let not your heart be troubled, because the great Laura Ingraham is standing by live.

Laura, good to see you. Great show last night, by the way.

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