President-elect Donald Trump called Mitt Romney for a second round of interviews as he seeks to fill the coveted Secretary of State position. Sean is joined by Newt Gingrich to discuss the "Cabinet of Rivals" approach that Trump is following. Does it make sense? The Sean Hannity Show is live Monday through Friday from 3pm - 6pm ET on iHeart Radio and Hannity.com. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Let not your heart be troubled.
You are listening to the Sean Hannity Radio Show podcast.
All right, hope you had a great, great Thanksgiving.
Write down our toll-free telephone number.
We'd love to hear from you today.
It's 800-941 Sean.
What's wrong with Linda today?
She's sick.
The baby's sick.
All right, we hope Linda's feeling better.
And she never takes a day off, hardly ever, so she must be dying.
I'll give her a call later, make sure she's okay.
Anyway, glad you're with us.
We have a big agenda item today.
Number one, sore loser Hillary.
And don't think this is Jill Stein.
Don't get buying into conspiracy.
A foreign country may have hacked into Wisconsin's voting machines.
Well, Wisconsin is saying, no, that didn't happen.
Even the president said, no, that didn't happen.
And what you have here, and it's pretty transparent and obvious, as long as we're going to have conspiracy theories by the left, although if it was Donald Trump saying it, it would be a big deal.
Donald Trump says illegal immigrants voted, it's a big deal.
If the left goes out there and they suggest, well, maybe the Russians did it, and they've been wrong the entire time.
I've talked to Julian Assange on this program.
He said, no, the Russians didn't do it.
And he knows where he got the information from.
So whether or not you believe him is up to you, but we have not been presented any evidence in those 17 cabinet bureaus or whatever Hillary was claiming.
It turned out to be two.
It's just a lie.
Anyway, so we have sore loser Hillary and her attacking Trump before the election about him accepting the results.
Imagine if Donald Trump did this, the alt-left radical media that was colluding with the Clinton campaign, they'd go insane.
I have to admit, you know, when we were both asked the question, I assumed he would say what everybody has always said, which is, hey, of course, you know, because to say you won't respect the results of the election, that is a direct threat to our democracy.
The peaceful transfer of power is one of the things that makes America America.
It is not a joke.
And look, some people are sore losers.
And, you know, we just got to keep going.
Yeah.
Sore loser, Hillary Clinton.
By the way, even though he won by 10,000 plus in Michigan and 24,000 plus in Wisconsin and 70,000 plus in Pennsylvania, they actually have to go to court in Pennsylvania for them to be successful in any way.
And they have to make a direct request for a that you can't make a direct request or file a direct request for a recount.
What you've got to do is you've got to prove and present a case that voter fraud actually happened.
And Trump won by over 70,000 votes.
They would have to prove that fraud was probable, which doesn't seem likely.
So then the question is: well, why are they doing it?
They're doing it because they want to delegitimize the Trump victory.
Now, you know, the different stages that people go through if you get diagnosed with stage four or five cancer and you're told it's probably, you know, six months that you're going to live.
And, you know, one of the first responses is shock.
Well, the shock response would be these kids on college campuses needing pet therapy and hot cocoa served by professors and coloring books and Play-Doh and aromatherapy and kitty cats and whatever else they need to get over.
But now the next stage is going to be a long stage.
And that's going to be the left unhinged in America.
You're beginning to see signs of it emerging everywhere.
They cannot accept that they lost.
And there's really three reasons why they lost.
Number one, while Obama, for whatever reason, some people may like him personally, Americans recognize universally that he's failed.
That's why the country's on the wrong track, 70% nearly.
And so the Obama economy, all the statistics I stated for a year about poverty and food stamps and the labor participation rate and home ownership rate and worst recovery and the doubling of the debt and Obamacare.
And, you know, these are real people, real suffering, real Americans, and government has hurt them, not helped them.
And the second thing is, Hillary was an atrocious candidate.
She's not, you know, if Bill Clinton was warm and fresh and new and offering a better way, if you will, or a different path, you know, she was old and cold and stale and corrupt and dishonest.
All right, that's enough.
You've hit your quota for the day, okay?
That is the most irritating shock in my ear.
Thank you very much.
So she just didn't have it.
And then Donald Trump, his message resonated.
His message about refugees.
We have the situation at Ohio State today.
I'll get to it in a minute.
His message on original is for the Supreme Court.
This will impact the country for generations.
His message on the wall, his message on the economy and repatriation and the corporate tax rate down to 15% and energy independence.
I read a great article today about how Trump can create millions of jobs just by becoming energy independent and how we can make the transition from gas in our cars to natural gas.
And it'll be cheap.
And cars can, you know, cars have been able to do this since the 70s.
You're like, what, Hannity?
What do you mean?
Yeah, you can run your car on natural gas, the combustion engine, that one.
It works.
You can convert it over.
It's fairly easy.
Now, it's going to take a little bit of, you know, there's going to be some transition to it.
But at the end of the day, the energy is going to be so cheap and so available, we'll never need Saudi Arabia for the rest of our life.
We import a million barrels a day from the Saudis.
We're so dependent on them.
So, and Donald Trump had that agenda and he outworked Hillary.
And whatever flaws he might have had, I think people saw that he was somebody that was risking a lot for himself and genuinely wanted to help solve the country's problems.
You know, look at what happened today.
Well, now we have one suspect has died in this Ohio State attack.
You had a man, a Somali man in his 20s.
They've now identified him.
He's 18 years old.
Abdul Artin, a student at the university, Somali refugee, left his homeland in 2007, lived in Pakistan, and then came to the United States in 2014 as a legal permanent resident of the United States.
And, you know, remember Hillary Clinton in WikiLeaks said, we can't possibly vet people from other countries.
And then she said publicly she wanted a 550% increase in Syrian refugees.
And I kept saying, well, why aren't we listening to our National Intelligence Director Clapper and our FBI Director Comey and our Assistant FBI Director Steinbeck and our House Homeland Security Chairman McCall?
And why aren't we listening to General John Allen, the former special envoy to defeat ISIS?
Because they all said ISIS, al-Qaeda, radical Islamists will infiltrate the refugee populations.
So Donald Trump was right.
And this is another reason why extreme vetting.
This is another reason why safe zones in Syria are a far better alternative for the safety and security of our country.
What are elections about?
They're about jobs and prosperity.
They're also about protecting the homeland in this day and age, especially in light of Ohio State and San Bernardino and Chattanooga and Orlando and Paris and all over Europe and everywhere else.
In this day and age, why would we take in people from countries whose values, cultures directly contradict our constitutional republic?
Why would we do that?
Makes no sense whatsoever.
So that's the latest news there.
And police say the Ohio State attacker, I mean, this guy literally, you know, we had eight others injured, one now pronounced dead.
He literally drives his car into a group of people, then pulls out a butcher's knife.
I do blade in gun training, defense.
I'd rather have a gun at close range.
Pay attention to what I'm saying here.
Some of you won't listen properly.
I'd rather have a chance at disarming a firearm than a blade.
A blade, a really big, sharp blade is impossible, very hard to defend against.
It's one of the, and you can do great damage with a blade if you have any knowledge of how to use that thing.
Anyway, so our thoughts and prayers go out to those people.
Let me say this.
I'll get back to the Stein issue in a minute.
I want to say this.
And I am thankful, and I was very thankful this Thanksgiving for all of you in this audience that give me this job every day to be with you, three hours and an hour on TV.
I hope this entire election season you feel like we've served you well.
I feel like I did keep my promises to you, which was let you decide on the nominee, and then I'm going full bore for that nominee and defeating Hillary Clinton anyway we can.
I was thankful for the results because I think we got a chance of, you know, fighting back the precipitous decline America's in.
But I had a chance to talk to a lot of people because I went out a lot over the five days that I was off, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and Sunday.
Watched a lot of football games, went to a sports bar, went out to a restaurant for brunch yesterday.
You know, stuff I usually don't do, to be honest.
And, you know, the first thing, people were happy.
People were happy at the victory.
They were hopeful.
They liked Trump's agenda as I like Trump's agenda.
They liked the people so far that he selected for the most part.
Reines Bannon, Flynn.
You know, some people had problems with Nikki Haley, but it's the U.N. ambassador.
Who cares?
Kellyanne and Rudy seem particularly well liked.
And then the next thing that I would hear inevitably out of everybody was, why is he doing this?
Why is he maybe letting Hillary Clinton off the hook?
Well, number one, the first thing I would say is I understand his point of view.
And Donald Trump's point of view is, all right, we got to move on.
I want to roll up my sleeves.
I want to get the economy fixed.
I want to implement my agenda.
I want to do it fast.
It's just the way he rolls.
And I know him now.
He works, has a great work ethic, doesn't sleep a lot, works all the time.
Doesn't even want to take vacations most of the time.
And dealing with Hillary, you know, he probably wants to reach out, bring the country together, be a gracious winner.
You know, the people that went to his rallies that were chanting lock her up and drain the swamp, they meant it.
And we cannot, without exception, we have to be a nation of laws, equal justice under the law.
And people are asking me, well, is he going soft on Hillary?
Well, the only thing I can tell you is this is not up to him.
He won't make this decision.
That's not a presidential executive decision.
It's going to be made by law enforcement.
It's going to be made by his Attorney General and the Justice Department, not by the President of the United States.
And what's pretty fascinating is I think before January 20th, that message is going to be loud and clear to Hillary Clinton.
And I would not be shocked.
As a matter of fact, I would think it's probably more likely than not that Hillary Clinton and her campaign are at some point going to ask Barack Obama, who's also up to his eyeballs in this mess because he was emailing that private server for a pardon for crimes committed or that may have been committed using the exact language that Gerald Ford used when he pardoned Richard Nixon.
So that's probably coming, that debate.
So get ready for that.
Now, the next thing that people are asking me, what is all of this about Mitt Romney?
And the answer is, I don't know.
That's my short answer.
I have no idea because they're apparently having dinner tomorrow night.
Donald Trump and Mitt Romney.
I've read Team Arrivals, which I think is a great book.
I understand the concept.
I understand all of Lincoln's rivals said far worse things about Lincoln.
Although Romney was pretty bad, we'll play it in the course of the program today.
What he was saying about Donald Trump.
And, you know, Donald Trump's base, you know, they had to go to war against Romney.
Romney declared war on Donald Trump.
I supported Romney.
I still to this day.
If he would have been elected in 2012, I would argue he would have been a far better president than Obama.
But, you know, every day, Romney and the Never Trumper movement of losers, all of you are losers, and all of you were dead wrong, and all of you should be apologizing to your audiences if you have any left, and all of you that were willing to let Hillary pick the next Supreme Court justice just so you can wag your finger in other people's faces.
Well, you all turned out wrong.
Thank God.
Hillary Clinton picking the next Supreme Court justice would have been a disaster.
So I don't know what it's about.
I understand a team of rivals, but this is a, you know, Romney was the personification of everything that is establishment, everything people voted against this year.
And people, you know, I would suggest to the Trump team, go look on social media what people are saying.
And Romney's comments, unlike Lincoln's rivals, you know, you can replay it 24-7 on social media and you can replay it on cable news.
This is a guy that said that Donald Trump was a racist, a sexist, a huckster, a phony, a fraud, a liar, everything, unfit for the office.
If I had to guess, you know, maybe he was even involved in funding Admiral Mullins.
I don't know that for a fact.
It wouldn't surprise me because there was a big push for him in Utah.
I don't know who, does anybody know who Romney voted for?
Did he vote for Hillary or did he vote for Mullins?
Or did he vote for the Libertarian?
Whatever, Gary Johnson.
But my guess is, who knows?
You know, and I think people are shocked that he's under consideration.
I'm kind of with Newt, Kellyanne, and Mike Huckabee on this.
I just don't understand it.
So I don't know what else to tell you.
All right, 800-941-Sean, Otto-Free telephone number.
And by the way, I'm an honest broker here.
If I want Donald Trump to succeed, I think his agenda is one that could make him a great president if he stays with his promises.
And I'd hate to see him get distracted or have people around him that would undermine him.
It's not good for any president.
So Jill Stein is, you know, she's working on behalf of Hillary.
You do understand that.
And there's specific reasons that we know this to be true.
Now, voter fraud, for example, we know that in Wisconsin, an election official said there's no evidence voting machines were hacked.
The president said it, well, I think it was last Friday.
The White House said it.
So they don't think anything's been hacked.
And so then the question is, well, why is Hillary doing this?
She's doing it to delegitimize.
And I don't think Stein is doing this.
Except Stein, I'd like to know who from Hillary's support group enticed her into doing this.
And I know there's a financial motive behind it because she's raised more money now than would be needed to have an actual recount.
So now Stein is out there saying, well, maybe we ought to have recounts everywhere.
Now, she's already going to have a hard time in Pennsylvania, probably because when she first did it, she didn't know Pennsylvania law.
And in Pennsylvania, she would have to present a case showing voter fraud took place.
Trump won that by more than 70,000 votes.
Stein would have to prove that fraud was probable, not likely.
And so per Pennsylvania regulations, there's only one way for Stein to get a recount in Pennsylvania, and it's a complicated process.
So now Stein, probably at the urging of Hillary, is saying, well, we probably need to go look at other states that were a little bit close.
And they won't stop until they think they could get enough electoral votes and come up with some bizarre conspiracy theory.
Now, here's a question.
The election's been over over three weeks now.
Some of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign is still up and running and still attacking Donald Trump like nothing ever happened, like an election.
And Politico reported that the remnants of Hillary's campaign roared to life on Sunday in their Twitter feeds boiling over in frustration as Donald Trump claimed that there were illegal immigrants that might have tipped the popular vote.
And our favorite, that whole question is irrelevant because if Donald Trump wanted to run up the popular vote, he just needed to go campaign in populous states.
He didn't even campaign in New York.
He didn't campaign in California, New Jersey.
And he could have run up his vote totals there.
And in Illinois, he didn't do it.
You know, he'd be basically focused on the states that matter, the states that were going to make the most, that make the biggest difference.
And that was smart because that's what elects presidents, not the popular votes.
You take the system that you're given and you run your campaign accordingly.
So he was smart.
And I keep hearing all these reports.
She's not even signed on to Jill Stein's push to have the ballots recounted.
Yes, she is.
She positively, beyond any shadow of a doubt, is contesting the results of the election.
And Hillary Clinton was the one lecturing Donald Trump at the debate and elsewhere about not accepting the election results.
I have to admit, you know, when we were both asked the question, I assumed he would say what everybody has always said, which is, hey, of course, you know, because to say you won't respect the results of the election, that is a direct threat to our democracy.
The peaceful transfer of power is one of the things that makes America America.
It is not a joke.
And look, some people are sore losers.
And, you know, we just got to keep going.
Well, it looks like the sore loser in this case is Hillary Clinton.
And Jill Stein, who's doing Hillary's bidding.
Well, Hannah, you have no evidence of that.
Well, I'd like to see the email exchanges that took place between the two campaigns, and then I'll weigh in.
But I think it's pretty evident and pretty obvious that the person that got less than 1% of the vote is not pushing this and that there's some kind of quid pro quo.
Listen, can you, here's a question for the alt-left radical media.
Can you trust what Hillary Clinton says?
Do you really believe that there was no coordination?
You want the American people to believe there was no collusion between the media and the Clinton campaign, and WikiLeaks blew that out of the water.
And by the way, there was a watchdog group, the alt-left radical media, they're spending more time covering Donald Trump's claim about illegal immigrants voting and their votes being cast, and as a great grand conspiracy.
Now, true, the vote, which is a group dedicated to rooting out voter fraud, they issued a statement today supporting part of Donald Trump's comments about illegal votes being cast in 2016.
And they say they support President-elect Trump's comment about the impact of illegal voting as reflected in the national popular vote.
We're still collecting data, and we will be for several months, but our intent is to publish a comprehensive study on a significant impact of illegal voting in all of its many forms and begin a national discussion about how voters, states, and the Trump administration can best address what is a growing problem.
I look forward to finding what their results are because I don't think there's any doubt that some illegal immigrants voted in this election, just like it has happened in past elections.
And I suggest that people go back and read some of John Funn's old work, as he has chronicled this in great detail.
He even put a book out dealing with part of the subject matter.
So anyway, her last concession, her election night concession speech was null and void.
Now it's full tilt, peddled to the metal with this attempt to overturn the Electoral College results, what amounts to, you know, a Hillary coup d'état.
And so we've got to get real first about Jill Stein's role in all of this.
Everybody's speculating what's driving Stein to push for these states to be recounted.
Is she in it for the money?
Has she been promised something from Hillary?
None of it matters.
The point is there's only one person who stands a remote chance of coming out on top, and her name is not Jill Stein.
So the obvious goal here is to have Hillary come up with enough votes to close the gap in the three states targeted by Stein, and then what?
She will do exactly what she said shouldn't happen with the peaceful transition of power.
Now, even with the chances being extraordinarily slim to none, you know, that result is still a million times more like than Stein actually winning a recount.
So if in fact, I can't believe the law even allows Stein to do this since he has no chance of coming up with enough votes to topple Trump.
But the fact is the Clinton campaign didn't want this to happen.
They would have said so.
They wanted this to happen.
And Hillary just doesn't want her fingerprints on it.
And the Clintons don't want their fingerprints on it because of what she said about Trump.
So I know all the experts out there in the alt-left radical media, oh, this is in the conspiracy realm of Sean Hannity and the Hannity likes of Hannity.
Fake news.
Meanwhile, these fake news people are feeding questions to Hillary Clinton before town halls.
They're asking the DNC for questions to ask Donald Trump.
These same media people, you know, that clearly are crying, even though they moderate debates.
They're crying the night that they have to announce Trump's the next president, bragging about as moderators how they got under Trump's skin while advising the Clinton campaign, giving the Clinton campaign opportunities to rewrite the stories they're writing about them, i.e. the New York Times and Politico.
So there's a lot going on here, but most of it is to delegitimize Trump and the election and the electoral victory.
And it looks, by the way, like it's becoming unraveled.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission found no evidence that any of its voting machines were hacked during the November 8th election.
Asked about the Clinton campaign's hacking allegations, the Commission's spokesman, Reed Magney, replied, no evidence of hacking.
The Commission previously issued a statement saying it will routinely audit the performance of a sample of machines which must achieve a performance rate of no more than one mistake per 500,000 votes since performing the audit beginning in 2006.
Not one machine has failed, the commission said.
Not one.
It's not going anywhere.
It's just now a matter of, okay, let's act like Jill Stein is doing this, and we're just supporting Jill's effort, but Jill has no possible way that she can come out the winner here.
Apparently, there was a formal election night deal between Trump and the Clinton campaign, stipulating that the loser would concede the election as soon as the results were clear and that they would abide by that concession.
AP has pointed out that Donald Trump's chief of staff, Reince Prievis, said that Hillary Clinton's now backing away from a deal worked out between the two presidential campaigns on how the loser would concede to the winner.
And on Fox News Sunday, Reince Prievis told Chris Wallace that the Clinton team cut a deal with Trump's team.
What do you think of the Hillary Clinton campaign now joining in on the effort?
Well, what I think is let's just assume that that's true.
I wonder whether Nate Elias and others are going to back off since on election night, Hillary Clinton was the one to say it's time to accept the results of the election and look to the future.
And it was their team that cut a deal with our team that said when the AP called the race, they would call within 15 minutes and concede, which they did.
It is a total and complete hypocritical joke that the group of people that thought that they were nervous about President-elect Trump not conceding are the people that are conducting recounts in states where we've won by over 68,000 votes.
Exactly.
So, well, does that surprise you?
It doesn't surprise me.
You know, one thing that Kellyanne Conway said, you know, for all the kindness of Donald Trump, I got to say this.
I think he was trying to be gracious.
I really do.
I think Trump was trying to say, all right, that's not my goal.
I'm not in this to persecute the Clintons.
They're good people, blah, blah, blah.
He's just being a gracious winner.
And it's being misinterpreted.
Well, that means he's not going to have her locked up.
It's not going to be his decision.
It's going to be the decision of the Justice Department, the FBI, the Attorney General.
We're now, well, apparently the Pennsylvania deadline has been missed.
So Pennsylvania is out.
This just broke on the Drudge Report.
And according to the Pennsylvania State Department, says Stein missed the recount deadline.
Anyway, she missed the deadline of file for a voter-initiated recount.
And according to the spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of State, the Philly Inquirer, reported Monday the deadline for a recount was Monday, November the 21st.
Whoops, they can still mount a legal challenge while the chances of litigation are uncertain.
The vote tally is clear.
Trump beat Clinton in Pennsylvania by over 70,000 votes.
So I don't think that's going anywhere.
And as I've been saying, Pennsylvania is very stringent rules about this.
But you've got to pay attention to this.
Electoral college revolt would be stopped in the House.
Some people have been asking me questions about that.
But let me go back to what Kellyanne Conway was saying.
She could still be prosecuted.
Just because Donald Trump said, oh, it's not my intention.
It has nothing to do with what Trump wants.
Trump doesn't get to tell, just like when Obama made those comments about Hillary and said, oh, it's no big deal what you did with the emails.
It was an improper remark.
He didn't know, number one, number two, he clearly doesn't know what the law was or doesn't care.
And Kelly Ann was warning on Sunday that the Trump Justice Department could very well prosecute Hillary.
What should be the determining factor is the law.
Did she violate the law with her email server?
I think the answer is pretty clear that she did.
And I think it's going to be cut and dry, yes or no.
And if she did, we can't have a justice system that treats some people one way and other people another way.
Christian Saussier is in jail right now.
He took six pictures in a submarine for his own personal use.
And he had to leave his mother, who's been on this program, his wife and his daughter at home, and he's spending a year in jail.
Look what happened to General Petraeus.
All Petraeus did was give the biographer, I guess he was having an affair with her, and I guess he's also meeting with Trump as we speak, but all he did was give her his schedule.
But that's what the law was, and he paid a big price for what he did.
And he shouldn't have done it.
It's nothing compared to what Hillary did.
If you're worried, there's a lot of media buzz about the so-called plan by certain Democratic operatives to sabotage the Electoral College and have electors vote for Hillary.
At least a half a dozen Democratic electors have signed on to an attempt to block Donald Trump from winning the Electoral College majority, an effort designed not only to deny Trump the presidency, but undermine the legitimacy of the institution.
The presidential electors, mostly Bernie Sanders supporters who hail from Washington State and Colorado, are now lobbying their Republican counterparts in other states to reject their oath and in some cases even state law and vote against Trump when the Electoral College meets on December the 19th.
Even the most optimistic among the Democratic electors acknowledges they're unlikely to persuade the necessary 37 Republican electors to reject Trump.
Even if they do, the Republican-run House, they could just elect Trump anyway.
So not only might they elect Trump anyway, they will elect Trump anyway, which begs the question, why are we even talking about that?
But that's your alt-left radical media.
I'm just telling you the things that they have out there today, and that's what they're doing.
You know, back to one other thing.
So I mentioned I don't understand Romney.
I understand his comments about Hillary, but I don't think it's his call and won't be his call.
I think he was just trying to be gracious and reach out and pull the country together after contentious election, which is sort of a normal role that a president would play, the winner would play.
And I went over the whole Romney thing.
I know some people, you're writing me, and people said this to me as I ran into them over the weekend, a series of small things about climate change and about offense and some places instead of the wall and keeping some aspects of Obama.
None of those things really bother me.
The only one thing that does stand out that bothers me is a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill.
You know, I'm worried this is going to be another Obama stimulus plan, and we've got to ask very pointed questions about how we're going to pay for it.
Democrats always love big government spending, but is Trump getting anything for it?
Is he going to get easy confirmation for his cabinet positions or a Supreme Court justice or his 15% corporate tax cut or his one-time 10% repatriation rate or repeal and replace Obamacare or energy independence or building the wall and sending education back to the states?
Because all Washington knows is horse trading.
This is how they keep their power, bringing money back to their districts.
But they'll blame Trump for any debt, any deficit.
Yeah, infrastructure is important, but the stimulus never created one shovel-ready job.
And if anything, I think what we've got to do is properly appropriate infrastructure funds, but how do you pay for it as you go?
And if you can't pay for it as you go, I don't think we can afford it.
Anyway, I happen to believe that debt matters.
I weigh in privately.
First of all, let me make very clear, Martha, that there's one person who will select his cabinet, and it's President-elect Donald Trump.
Whatever he decides will have my full support and respect, and he knows that, as does Vice President-elect Pence.
I think that there was the Never Trump movement, and then there was Governor Mitt Romney.
He went out of his way to hurt Donald Trump.
He gave two speeches that I can recall in this calendar year, and they were both about Donald Trump.
Evan McMullen ran in the state of Utah for president.
We don't know who Mitt Romney voted for.
This is his cabinet to form.
I mean, he won Michigan.
Mitt Romney lost it by 10.
We won Pennsylvania.
Mitt Romney lost Iowa by, I don't know, five points or so.
We won it by nine.
We won Ohio.
And so I just think that the political instincts and it wasn't just, I only wish Governor Romney had been as critical of Hillary Clinton and her policy positions.
I'm all for party unity.
I'm a big party unity person.
And look what Donald Trump's done.
He's got Nikki Haley in the cabinet, UN ambassador, daughter of Indian immigrants.
He's met with Ted Cruz.
He's taken calls from Mitt Romney, from Jeb Bush, from John Kasich, from Carlifi Arena.
I think party, he's working with Speaker Ryan.
Ryan's Priebus, the RNC chairman, is now his chief of staff going into this new White House.
So we're all for party unity.
I don't think a cost of admission for party unity has to be the Secretary of State position.
Well, I have very strong opinions, and I'm going to say them.
That doesn't mean that I wouldn't support whoever President-elect Trump picked.
I think there is nothing Mitt Romney can say that doesn't sound phony and, frankly, pathetic.
He made his case.
He made his case all year.
He did all he could to help cause Trump to lose Utah.
He called Trump vicious and vile things.
He described him in language that is not possibly compatible with being together.
And the idea that now that Trump has won, that Mitt would suddenly decide to issue a meaculpa and say, oh, gee, all the vicious things I said about you when you were running, I didn't really mean.
Well, he sure did mean them, and he sure did try to defeat Donald Trump.
And I think speaking for most of the Trump supporters, while we will support President-elect Trump in whatever he does, I think we would be enormously disappointed if he brought Mitt Romney in any position of authority.
Dishonesty is Donald Trump's hallmark.
He claimed that he had spoken clearly and boldly against going into Iraq.
Wrong.
He spoke in favor of invading Iraq.
He said he saw thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating 9-11.
Wrong.
He saw no such thing.
He imagined it.
He's not of the temperament of the kind of stable, thoughtful person we need as leader.
His imagination must not be married to real power.
All right, there you have it.
Our top stories today.
We got sore lose of Hillary Clinton, the issue over Donald Trump maybe picking Mitt Romney to be Secretary of State, and the idea that Hillary Clinton, of course, would not get locked up and not really drain the swamp.
Why did Donald Trump weigh in the way he did recently?
And, of course, this attack at Ohio State University.
Joining us now is former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich.
How are you, sir?
I'm doing well.
And let me just add that you left out the passing of Fidel Castro and the vivid demonstration of the left's inability to tell the truth about a man who was a vicious dictator who locked up thousands and who drove hundreds of thousands off the island.
So it's really been a very busy weekend.
Yeah, and to hear people talk about Castro in the way that they are is, you know, he was a brutal, murdering, thieving dictator.
I don't know what you can say good about this man, but people are threading the needle and they're finding every way they possibly can to say nice things about a murdering dictator.
I find that shocking.
Well, the elite media and the left-wing academics have always loved people who are anti-American.
And Fidel was sort of the most romantic of the anti-Americans.
So it's been a long love affair, which I think is very sad and a real commentary on some of the sickness in the American intellectual tradition.
That's so true.
I'm weighing in where you are.
I agree with you and your comments about Governor Mitt Romney.
Now, let me state, I supported him in 2012.
I wanted him to be the president.
I still think to this day that he probably would have been a good president.
But he went above and beyond and so out of his way to hurt Donald Trump and called him everything from a racist to a misogynist to somebody that was a huckster and a fraud and a liar and every other insult that could go his way and did everything possible to defeat him.
Why is this even being considered?
I'm having a hard time.
And everywhere I went this weekend, people were asking me, why is Donald Trump even thinking about this?
Well, I don't have a good answer for that.
And I also don't have a good answer for why, unless it's just to allow Romney to hang in the wind, why Trump is allowing this to go on like this.
All of us who have criticized Romney have said, if the president-elect picks him, we're going to be for the president-elect's choice because as a president-elect, he has the right to have the cabinet he wants.
But all of us are piling on saying we really think it would be a huge mistake to pick him.
And I've been a little surprised at how comfortable Trump has been to allow this to go on for a while.
I mean, he could have stepped in and said, I'm never going to pick him.
Romney would have gone back to obscurity.
He could have stepped in and said, I am picking him, in which case we frankly all would have cut it out.
But as long as it remains an open question, and frankly, when I look at the qualities of a Rudy Giuliani who has been in over 80 countries, who understands how to lead and manage a great organization, did more to turn New York City around than anybody else in modern times, just an astonishing figure.
When I look at all of that, I think to myself, you know, there's no comparison for which person will fight harder for America, which person will represent President Trump, first of all, the State Department itself.
I mean, if you're going to fight for America, you had better be prepared to overhaul the State Department because it does not have a very good tradition of understanding what fighting for America means.
That is the swamp, by the way.
That is totally the swamp.
Absolutely.
And so that is an example, I think, of what has to be looked at.
And I'd feel so much more secure seeing Rudy Giuliani go into the State Department because I know that he knows how to clean it up.
I'm not at all convinced that that's true of Mitt Romney, nor would it be Mitt Romney's natural instinct.
I mean, he's more likely to be part of the establishment than the guy who fundamentally changes the establishment.
You know, some people have made the argument to me, well, Trump is looking for a team of rivals like Abraham Lincoln.
And I've been arguing back, Lincoln didn't have 24-7 cable news and social media replaying over and over again all of his opponents and the horrible things they had said about him at the time.
And I do think it makes a difference.
What do you make of this Jill Stein Hillary Broham Clinton recount effort in Wisconsin, Michigan, and in Pennsylvania, number one in Pennsylvania, by the way?
You can't file a direct request for a recount.
And more importantly, I guess their belief, although even the White House and Wisconsin state officials have all said there was no outside influence at all, you know, this belief in some bizarre conspiracy theory that Jill Stein and Hillary Clinton seem to be advancing, that there was outside influence.
I think this is all an effort to delegitimize Donald Trump's win.
Well, absolutely.
I think this is one of those cases where, remember, up until about 10 o'clock Tuesday night on Election Day, everybody on the left was counting victory.
They knew they were going to win.
In fact, they knew they were going to win on a landslide.
They couldn't imagine an America that would elect Donald Trump.
So they're still in a state of shock.
And I think anything which slows down the Trump momentum automatically attracts a lot of Democrats.
And I think that anything which delegitimizes him automatically attracts him.
And I think what it actually does is it makes Hillary look stupid.
Because the fact is, the vote margin is big enough in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that it is literally impossible to imagine.
And it's over 10,000 in Michigan.
Michigan's the only one that's anywhere close to being close.
And it's 10,000 votes.
You're not going to change an election.
If you've got to change 10,000 votes, I don't see where they're coming from.
But if you only change Michigan, it doesn't matter.
Donald Trump is still the president.
So this is one of those things where they're off.
And I think if the Democratic Party is now going to become the party of weird events, which certainly, if they elect Congressman Keith Ellison as their national committee chairman, they will be the party of weird ideas.
There was a media piece that came out that said that Ellison was actually in favor of separate parts of the United States for black Americans.
Well, that's exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about.
I mean, you know, Ellison's, by the way, he's a very attractive, very pleasant guy.
I've done shows with him.
We've always had a good personal relationship.
But to imagine that one of the two major parties in the United States would pitch somebody who had as many different strange views as he does would be just, I mean, talk about going off a cliff and becoming a little bit, you know, this happened three times in my lifetime to the British Labor Party.
It's happened again now, and the British Labor Party is led by a guy so crazy that he currently is 70 points behind the prime minister.
I mean, think about that margin.
Yeah, that's massive.
Like 80 to 10.
And this is the third time for the British Labor Party where they've, under Thatcher, they had what they called the looney left.
And one of the reasons Thatcher did so well is she was always portrayed against these people who are crazy.
Well, if media covers Ellison's real beliefs, and I'm confident that a number of us will help them, I can't imagine the Democratic Party picking him and what that would say about where they're going.
Well, if they pick him, I mean, this is a party that then goes into Lewis Farrakhan territory and over a cliff, and I don't see how they get back in any short period of time.
But, you know, I don't think there are any more Zell Millers or Blue Dog Democrats out there or Scoop Jacksons.
It's a rare dying breed.
I mean, look at what's happened since Obama's been president.
They've lost, what, 13, 14 Senate seats, 65 House seats.
There's now 30 Republican state legislators that have changed hands.
So, I mean, it's an uphill task every way you look at it for them.
What do you think of Donald Trump?
Did reach out and say, well, I don't want to hurt the Clintons.
And everywhere I went this weekend, people said to me, wait a minute, what happened to Locker Up?
What happened to Drain the Swamp?
What happened to, you know.
Well, look, I think it's very important to draw a distinction here.
If he's saying that as President of the United States, he's not personally going to lead a vendetta against Secretary Clinton.
That's perfectly reasonable.
And frankly, he ought to focus on the future and he ought to focus on solving problems.
But under the rule of law, there are FBI and IRS investigations that are underway, and it would be totally inappropriate, in fact, a clear violation of the rule of law, for the new president to intervene and stop them.
So my hope is that what he's saying is that while he personally is not going to be trying to go after Hillary, he's going to have a hands-off approach and allow the appropriate figures to make the decisions based on the merits in terms of reestablishing the rule of law.
To me, this isn't even in his purview.
This is not his call.
This will be the call of law enforcement, the FBI, the Justice Department, and the incoming Attorney General, and he shouldn't weigh in one way or the other.
Am I wrong?
No, you're exactly right.
And also, the IRS member, there's also an IRS case underway against the Clinton Foundation.
So all of that, we ought to return to the notion that justice should be blind.
It should be applied equally to everyone without regard to who they are.
The presidents are not part of the justice process.
He does have the right to pardon people, but in order to be pardoned, you normally wait until you're guilty.
And certainly at the present time, I can't imagine Hillary Clinton rushing out to say, I'll declare I'm guilty if you promise to pardon me.
Plus, that doesn't solve the problem of 30 or 40 people around her who are also all in this problem.
But Gerald Ford said for crimes committed or may have been committed, and the power of the pardon is absolute, isn't it?
It is absolute, and deliberately so by the founding fathers.
So you could imagine that happening.
It'll be interesting to see whether or not Obama decides to do that on the way out.
But I can't imagine that President Trump would execute that kind of pardon for Secretary Clinton.
Well, I don't think he would, nor do I think he should.
And I think that's what people were saying.
But I do think there is a distinction saying he doesn't wish her ill, but that doesn't mean she's off the hook.
And I've got to imagine that I just see Jeff Sessions as a straight shooter.
If the evidence proves she broke the law, she's going to be charged.
Right.
And I think I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Sessions decide to convene sort of an outside counsel to advise him to make sure that nobody thinks it's a political decision either way.
All right, Mr. Speaker, great to have you.
We'll have you on Hannity tonight talking about many of these same topics, and we'll get to the Ohio State issue, what happened, the tragedy there, where you have a student plowing a car and stabbing victims with a machete.
We'll have more details on that in the next half hour.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
800-941 Sean is our number.
Let me just start from the top, and maybe we'll answer some of your questions.
About 9:52 a.m., a male suspect drove a vehicle over the curb, West 19th, west of College Avenue, struck pedestrian.
He exits the vehicle and used a butcher knife to start cutting pedestrians.
Our officers was on scene in less than a minute, and he ended the situation less than a minute.
He engaged the suspect, and he eliminated the threat.
The suspect is DOA.
The investigation is ongoing.
I want to thank all the doing a great job.
They did what they were trying to do.
We have a lot of agencies here that are assisting us: Columbus Police, Columbus Fire.
There were nine people transported to the hospitals, eight in stable condition, one in critical condition.
We have a lot of other agencies assisting us here, the State Patrol, Francophone County Sheriff's Office, FBI, ATF.
We are making sure that we do everything we can to investigate this very thoroughly and not leave any hole unturned.
Does the suspect have any other weapons?
It's an ongoing investigation.
We recovered a butcher knife.
The suspect is DOA.
Is he an OSC student?
The investigation is still ongoing.
Chief, is this a planned thing?
Did this seem to be planned in any indication this could be a terror attack?
It's too early to say.
The only thing that you can say, based upon common knowledge, that this was done on purpose, to go over the curb and strike pedestrians and then get out and start striking them with a knife.
That was on purpose.
Did the suspect say anything to the police officers?
Ongoing investigation.
Other suspects?
As far as we know, there was one suspect, and that suspect is DOA.
There were rumors of a second suspect, and we searched the Lane Avenue garage, and we could not find another suspect.
We believe that there was one suspect, and we have that suspect.
Was there a fire alarm hold before this, and that's why some of the students were out on the sidewalk?
Earlier today, there was a gas leak at a building, and so Columbus Fire was on scene checking that, and it was a valve.
Which building?
That was, I believe, Watt Hall, the one at West 19th in College.
So do we think that has any role in this at all?
Still under investigation.
That was the Ohio State Police Chief giving his assessment of what happened earlier today, a Somali man in his 20s behind the attack involving a car initially reported as a machete.
It wasn't.
It was a butcher knife on the campus of Ohio State University that left nine injured.
And after the suspect plowed his vehicle into the crowd, he got out of the vehicle, began attacking people with his butcher knife.
You know, I do a lot of blade and gun training and defense.
And I'll tell you, I'd almost would rather have a gun at close range pointed at me than I would a knife in terms of the damage that could be done.
And anyway, he was shot and killed by a campus police officer.
The campus was on shutdown for a pretty significant period of time.
Now, this was a huge issue in the campaign, and that was Donald Trump saying he wanted extreme vetting of refugees, and Hillary Clinton wanting a 550% increase in bringing refugees into this country, including from Somalia.
Listen.
The question is, with the U.S. preparing to absorb Syrian refugees, how do you propose we screen those coming in to keep our citizens safe?
I think that is the number one requirement.
I also said that we should take increased numbers of refugees.
The administration originally said 10.
I said we should go to 65.
But only if we have as careful a screening and vetting process as we can imagine, whatever resources it takes.
Because I do not want us to, in any way, inadvertently allow people who wish us harm to come into our country.
Yeah, meanwhile, she said in WikiLeaks that in one of her speeches that you can possibly vet them.
So she was willing to gamble with your life.
It looks like once again, Donald Trump is ahead of the curve.
Doesn't surprise me.
Joining us now, Dan Bongino, risk management consultant, former Secret Service agent, and NYPD contributing editor of Conservative Review, Jonathan Gillum, Navy CEO, former FBI and Federal Air Marshal, and host of The Experts.
Welcome both of you back to the program.
Jonathan, you were on Wednesday filling in for me, and I feel bad because I didn't know you were in.
And somebody tweeted, who's this guy in for you?
And I said, I don't know.
Who is it?
Well, if I'm going to listen to my show when I'm off, it's not a vacation, is it?
I got you handled when you're going to work.
Yeah, I mean, you're a great fill-in, and so is Dan Bongino.
Both of you guys have filled in for me.
But do you spent an hour, didn't you?
Talking, you're just telling me.
You spent an hour talking about all the different threats as they currently exist and are configured.
Well, we spent the whole three hours in different ways talking about the different threats.
But the reality is one thing that I really wanted to pressure people to realize that day is that you're a target whether or not the local law enforcement, the FBI, is telling you that there's an imminent threat.
America's a target.
And, you know, listen to that soundbite.
And I know Dan will agree with me.
Hillary Clinton was in charge of the State Department when Benghazi happened, and they did no vetting of the security forces that they hired to protect that area, and that's who turned around and attacked.
Well, they did that, but it's even worse than that because, again, they denied 600 times separate requests for extra security as the Red Cross and as the Brits and others were getting out of the area because of the rise in radicalism and radical training that was going on there.
Dan Bongino, let me ask you.
I mean, you know, it really brings into focus on so often.
Trump has been right.
The left has proven wrong, but you're never going to hear the corrupt media say, you know what?
Donald Trump was right on this.
It's never going to happen.
Yeah, it wasn't just Sean Trump being right.
Trump was just, it's not like Trump just made this up, Sean.
You know, Jim Comey, the FBI director, regardless of your opinion of him regarding the Hillary Clinton investigation, testified on the Hill that there was no effective process for vetting refugees.
And having been a former federal agent like Jonathan, and I know he knows this, the vetting of people from foreign countries, especially from regions that use Arabic names, Sean, has always been very difficult.
I remember the problems we had with SoundDex.
The names can appear in different orders.
It depends on what spellings used.
We've always had an issue with this vetting process.
This is nothing new to train law enforcement people.
Now, that became politicized because Barack Obama wanted to make an immigration issue out of really what was a national security issue, the importation of refugees from terror-ridden countries.
So, yes, you are correct.
Trump was right.
But for all the people who made Trump out to be some kind of an idiot, Trump was basing this on really hard data and metrics that the FBI director himself confirmed.
So, yes, he can take another celebratory round, you know, that he was right on policy.
Sadly, though, more people are dying because we're not, you know, we're not being more stringent on this policy.
Yeah, unbelievable.
I got to tell you, and to me, you know, the fact that Hillary admits privately, and I've always said this, Jonathan Gillum, I don't understand how people feel that it's perfectly acceptable and, frankly, will label anybody else who disagrees as racist to bring people from cultures and societies and countries whose values directly contradict our constitutional republic.
I mean, if you grow up thinking, like I can tell Lauren, Lauren, you got to cover up.
You got to wear this tomorrow.
Wear a burqa, cover your face.
I don't want to see it again.
Or you can't work.
You can't go to school.
You can't drive a car.
Gays and lesbians are killed.
I mean, these are countries Hillary took all this money from, but she claims to be champions of gay rights, lesbian rights, women's rights, religious freedom.
They persecute Christians and Jews in many of these countries.
How is it possible?
I can't wrap my arms around the idea that some people think it's okay to just gamble with the lives of Americans and defy Comey, Clapper, Steinbeck, and McCall, and General Allen, and all these other people that said, yeah, ISOS, they'll infiltrate that population, but let's take them in anyway.
Yeah, and when you, you know, let's think about it this way.
You know, I grew up in Arkansas and then came to New York after being in the SEAL teams and stuff when I was in the FBI.
I came here.
You know, growing up in the South and coming to New York, it's a huge change.
And there's a lot.
There's a cultural shock.
There's a cultural shock, yeah.
And, you know, there's a lot of things.
Where did you grow up in the South?
In Arkansas in the Ozarks.
I mean, where the Beverly Hill Billies were from.
I grew up very poor up in the Ozarks.
Did you really?
I didn't know that.
So coming here was a huge change and it was a culture shock.
You know, I used to wave and I remember guys in the Bureau telling me, you don't have to get involved in everything because you're going to use yourself in trouble.
You used to wave to people.
You know, I say, hey, how's it going?
How you doing?
I mean, that's a southern way.
You would walk down the streets of New York waving at your station.
Well, no, waving at people, but I mean, I would say hello if people smiled.
I'd look at him and smile, not realizing that in this city, you don't make eye contact.
Oh, no, you don't make eye contact.
And if you're on the subway, no eye contact.
None.
Zero.
But the point is, if we have issues with assemblance in here, you have to realize that not only can we not vet people, but we're not asking the right questions when they do come in.
Are you a Muslim?
Are you an Islamist?
Are you a jihadist?
Because if somebody is an Islamist.
But you know that ISIS, Al-Qaeda, all these terror groups, Boko Haram, Islamic Jihad, it doesn't matter which group, they're going to train their sympathizers to lie.
Absolutely.
And they're going to go through the questions ahead of time.
And they're going to have pre-prepared answers, and they're going to lie.
If they're willing to kill you, they're willing to lie to then kill you.
But there are certain areas where Islamists and jihadists exist.
You got to remember, Islamists make up the bulk of Muslims in the Middle East.
And those are the people that will support these things that are easily indoctrinated into the jihadist mindset.
The point being is that if we can't even figure out what the mindset is of these people, there's no way we're going to go back and be able to do house-to-house checks to see and interview people that they live next to.
It's just impossible.
So that's where, and Dan can speak about this.
You know, surveillance things like we had set up with the NYPD here that were taken away.
Being able to call somebody an Islamist or a jihadist or a radical Muslim in the FBI was taken away.
This political correctness, along with the lack of vetting for people, has destroyed our ability to protect ourselves from anybody who could be turned from an Islamist into a jihadist.
You know, I got to tell you, it's really scary because I think that it's this was basic 101 for people that want to come to this country and perpetrate some type of crime or some type of terror attack, Dan Bongino.
And it seems to me that all these politicians are just all too willing to gamble with our lives.
They don't care.
They've got their security.
They don't care about the average American.
Yeah, I did an interview.
I can't get the image out of my head, by the way, of Jonathan waving.
When I was a city cop, I can imagine someone who's a powerful.
Yeah, you'd probably lock him up.
Jonathan.
They have responded to a disorderly conduct when you're in the middle of the day.
That guy waved to me on the train.
The worst ones to wave at or say hello to her cops.
Hey, how's it going?
They just look at you like, Louie.
It's a funny story because I'm the kid from New York that ended up in Alabama, and I'll never forget.
I walk into a store and the lady.
Now, you all come back and see us.
And I turn around and say, what?
What?
You know, when I moved out south, I got into a conversation with the woman in the Publix on the grocery line.
I was stunned.
The woman behind me was letting it happen.
You know how it is in New York.
Hey, buddy.
Hey, buddy, come on.
Let's go.
I got things to do.
Hurry up.
Well, you know, it's interesting because I did an interview with your show with you about a year ago.
I remember I was in a hotel room somewhere on a trip, and I was telling you about how there's a cottage industry around false Syrian passports.
How just because whatever it may be, Dan Bongino or Sean Hannity or Johnny Gillum has a passport from Syria doesn't mean that that person is Sean Hannity.
So although Sean Hannity won't come up on any kind of a list, a watch list here outside of Media Matters, there's no guarantee that's the actual person.
I mean, that's the insanity, the almost suicidal nature of a policy like this.
You know, bringing people in in mass too, Sean, we're not talking 10 or 15 people at a time.
You played the clip in the beginning.
Hillary's talking about thousands of people at a time, but we can't even vet one or two effectively.
And we're asking our federal law enforcement infrastructure to vet, you know, tens of thousands.
It's really, it's a very definition of insane.
Yeah, it's totally insane.
I'm just saying this: Americans now are vulnerable.
Our enemies are out there.
And the sad part is, we don't even know where they are.
What?
There's a thousand FBI investigations that are ongoing, or up to 1,500 in all 50 states.
So every American really is at risk, and these guys are plotting in neighborhoods and towns and cities and blending in.
And they're just preparing for word to go out and terrorize Americans, right?
You know, this is very similar to the war on cops where you have a problem, but it's enhanced by the groups like Black Lives Matter and the Democratic Party.
We have a problem of vulnerability just by the sheer nature of who we are and people wanting to come to this country.
But that problem is enhanced by the Democratic Party and by individuals like George Soros who want no borders.
Whether they be motivated by money or motivated by their communist Marxist beliefs, it makes us even more vulnerable than just one or two people that could make their way in here and cause an attack or be a force multiplier.
This really does create a huge national security threat.
All right, guys, thanks, both of you, two great American heroes.
I would like to see both of you working with Trump in some capacity.
I hope you guys are applying.
You got to apply.
I did.
I did.
I put the application.
At Ben Gino, you got to apply.
You just don't get the job, you know.
It's in there.
All right, good.
Hey, and by the way, I'd rather have a gun whether or not a guy has a knife or a gun.
Well, they said that to the students, by the way.
You know, what did they say?
Take, protect yourself, defend yourself.
I'm like, with what?
Yeah.
You know, what do you think?
Throw the books at him.
Listen, the last person, and I'm you're trained.
You and I grapple all the time with messing around with each other.
What's the last thing you want to go up against?
A blade.
Seriously, I would rather have a gun at close range than a blade.
That sounds crazy, but I'm trained to disarm a weapon.
I'd just rather have a weapon and be on equal guns.
Yeah, then you're on equal ground.
Then it's a no-brainer.
Yeah.
All right.
Thank you both.
The only serious policy proposals that deal with the broad range of national challenges we confront today come from Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich.
One of these men should be our nominee.
Now, I know that some people want this race to be over.
They look at history and say a trend like Mr. Trump's isn't going to be stopped.
Perhaps.
But the rules of political history have pretty much all been shredded during this campaign.
If the other candidates can find some common ground, I believe we can nominate a person who can win the general election and who will represent the values and policies of conservatism.
Given the current delegate selection process, that means that I'd vote for Marco Rubio in Florida and for John Kasich in Ohio and for Ted Cruz or whichever one of the other two contenders has the best chance of beating Mr. Trump in a given state.
Dishonesty is Donald Trump's hallmark.
He claimed that he had spoken clearly and boldly against going into Iraq.
Wrong.
He spoke in favor of invading Iraq.
He said he saw thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating 9-11.
Wrong.
He saw no such thing.
He imagined it.
He's not of the temperament of the kind of stable, thoughtful person we need as leader.
His imagination must not be married to real power.
Mr. Trump is directing our anger for less than noble purposes.
He creates scapegoats of Muslims and Mexican immigrants.
He calls for the use of torture.
He calls for killing the innocent children and family members of terrorists.
He cheers assaults on protesters.
He applauds the prospect of twisting the Constitution to limit First Amendment freedom of the press.
This is the very brand of anger that has led other nations into the abyss.
Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud.
His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University.
He's playing the members of the American public for suckers.
He gets a free ride to the White House, and all we get is a lousy hat.
His domestic policies would lead to recession.
His foreign policies would make America and the world less safe.
He has neither the temperament nor the judgment to be president, and his personal qualities would mean that America would cease to be a shining city on a hill.
I'm convinced America has greatness ahead, and this is a time for choosing.
God bless us to choose a nominee who will make that vision a reality.
Thank you, and God bless you all.
All right, news roundup and information overload hour here on the Sean Hannity show, continuing our top stories today, and that is why is Donald Trump meeting again tomorrow night with Governor Mitt Romney?
We've got, of course, Trump's comments about Hillary Clinton, and is he ignoring the lock her up, drain the swamp chance and sore lose Hillary and Joe Stein.
Well, they were all over Donald Trump attacking him about accepting whatever the results are, and the media seems to have no problem with what Hillary and Joe Stein are doing.
And joining us now, we have John McLaughlin.
He's a pollster, founder of McLaughlin and Associates, Doug Schoen, pollster, author, political analyst, Fox News.
And thank you both for being with us.
And, you know, to your credit, both of you saw this election, and I did too, as winnable for Donald Trump.
And while John had it at 60%, I said it was 50-50 a couple of days before the election.
And Doug, you even had it at 40%, which I think was a lot more insightful than the average Democrat just not seeing this wave of support for Trump.
Well, I think, Sean, that we all got it right to a varying degree, though you and John were more accurate, certainly, than I was.
I think the big issue now that you raised in your introduction is that we as Americans, and I'm a Democrat, have to pull together behind our president-elect.
That means seeking to work with him where we agree, disagree constructively.
And I think what Jill Stein and Secretary Clinton are doing now is contrary to American interests.
They know that there wasn't any hacking.
President Obama's made that clear.
Even the Clintons have acknowledged they have very little chance of overturning the election.
I just think this weakens us around the world.
It delegitimizes Donald Trump.
And I think that it is a profound and misguided effort that will come to naught.
And, John, that's the whole point, isn't it?
To create, to delegitimize the election, to hurt Donald Trump in whatever way they can and energize their own base a little bit more.
Those that are still in shock and those that need pet therapy, aromatherapy, cry rooms, those that need hot cocoa served by their professors and coloring books and Play-Doh, those people.
It's really they're starting the reelection campaign early because they've looked at the results and they've looked what Trump did is their recount efforts aren't going to work.
There's 10,000 votes in Michigan.
They'd have to make up 26,000 in Wisconsin and 70,000 in Pennsylvania.
That's over 100,000 votes.
And granted, Trump won, but he didn't pay for a landslide.
So this was a very close election, but they'd have to win recounts in all three of those states.
It's impossible.
What is it in Pennsylvania?
It's over 70.
Over 70,000 votes.
So where are you going to get those votes?
Well, in Pennsylvania, you just don't have the right to say, I'm going to file.
You can't file direct requests for a recount.
You've got to first take it to court.
And Trump won Pennsylvania, as you point out, by over 70,000 votes.
They would have to prove that fraud was probable.
That doesn't seem likely.
And that's the end of the contest right there.
But you see, I don't even think I believe, and I have no evidence, no proof, but as long as the Democrats can spew their conspiracy theories, why do I suspect collusion?
Just like there was collusion with the alt-left media and the Clinton campaign, why do I expect that Hillary's not an innocent bystander here and that somebody very close to her was working with Joe Stein to advance this?
Well, I wouldn't suspect, but I'd say it.
It's like I'm looking at this and I'm saying, okay, Jill Stein's getting a good fundraising deal out of this.
She didn't get many votes, but she's raising millions now from extreme left donors who want to delegitimize Trump because they're having a very hard time in the Democratic Party.
They're looking at what Trump did and he did it with the Rust Belt.
Were you going to the bathroom there?
What was that noise?
It wasn't me.
Is that you, Doug?
I don't want to tell you.
And I don't think I want.
What was it?
I'm sorry?
What was it?
It is rappers in the car next to me having a demonstratively good time.
That's great.
Future part of the Trump coalition.
Yeah, exactly.
These guys, I don't think, are part of the Trump coalition.
Yeah, but it's like...
All right, let's go to Romney.
Why?
Now, Donald Trump's going to meet with Romney again.
And you've got now Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich and Kellyanne Conway and even people like myself that supported Donald Trump for the life of me can't figure out why Romney's in the mix.
Well, I would diverge with you and probably John on this one.
I think to bring the Republican Party together, even someone who was as extreme as Mitt Romney, who has a different but complementary worldview to the president-elect, is not a bad thing.
And as a Democrat, I think it's a step in the right direction.
I understand why it provokes outrage, discord, and the Republican right.
John, I just look, I understand the whole team arrivals concept.
Mitt Romney did every single thing imaginable to prevent Trump from getting the nomination and winning.
Right.
I'm looking at this compared to Rudy Giuliani or John Bolton, who really worked, busted their tails to help Trump get elected.
Now, the other part about it is Trump really needs a Secretary of State who's going to execute and implement and carry out his vision for securing America in a very dangerous world right now.
He needs somebody he can count on.
Mitt Romney, and I respect Doug a great deal because he's saying, you've got to put your Republican coalition back together again.
I'm like, this is the establishment Republicans who we rejected in the primaries and in the general election, and they were really irrelevant to the general election.
So when you're looking at this and you're saying, okay, you know, you're considering for something, but in this position versus some very worthy candidates who are really in tune with Donald Trump, I think maybe there's something else for Mitt Romney where he can demonstrate his willingness to work with Donald Trump as part of his team.
But there has to be that demonstration first.
In the meantime, you're up against some real candidates from Rudy Giuliani, John Bolton, and others who really worked hard to make sure Donald Trump won this race based on his message.
Yeah, I think it was pretty easy.
What about the idea?
And I understand where Donald Trump was coming from.
He wants to focus on jobs.
He wants to get his sleeves rolled up.
He wants to go to work.
He wants to implement his agenda.
That's a full-time job.
And he said, well, I'm not here to hurt the Clintons.
And people interpreted that, that somehow Trump is going to let the Clintons, if any laws were broken, on either the email server or with the Clinton Foundation off the hook.
But that's not his call at all, Doug, is it?
No, it's the Justice Department.
Still, I think it was an act of reconciliation on the president-elect's part to do what he did.
And I thought, look, I made it clear I couldn't vote for her, but I do not think that American and Michael Mukese, the former attorney general, and a solid Republican, agrees with me.
I don't think it serves the nation's interest to continue prosecuting or going after and investigating the Clintons.
I know others disagree.
They are entitled to it.
But I think we're better as one nation together.
But the bottom line is if she, if all these other people, we have, you know, how many people have gone to jail?
You have this guy, Christian Saussier, for example.
He took six pictures of a submarine.
He had to leave his mother, his wife, and his daughter, and he's now spending a year in jail for six pictures.
You know, what does that say if we don't have about the country if we don't have equal justice under the law, Doug?
I mean.
It says we have prosecutorial discretion that puts the higher interests of the country ahead of.
How is this in the better interest of the country?
Because we do not need a divided America.
If we're going to take on the very challenging and difficult world John speaks of, we can't do it as divided, which is why Donald Trump was right to say what he said, and Hillary Clinton was wrong to challenge the election.
And I, frankly.
What do you think, John?
I'm curious to your thoughts on this.
I'm looking at this, and I know we did a poll that we didn't release a post-election poll, but I know the majority of Americans, when you asked them, this is on election day, regardless of who you're, regardless of who wins the election, do you want to see the prosecution continue for the corruption between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department?
And 57% to 34%, they said they wanted it to continue, including 20% of the Clinton voters, while the Trump voters were nearly unanimous.
And what it was about, it's Doug's first point.
They don't want Donald Trump.
They don't want Barack Obama.
They don't want Hillary Clinton.
They don't want any of the politicians corrupting law enforcement.
They want the FBI and Justice Department to have independent people who make prosecutions.
Well, if that's the criteria, John, then she is going to be prosecuted.
If the criteria is the same that's applied to Christian Saussier and General David Petraeus and everybody else, then she's going to be prosecuted.
Right.
And then if somebody, whether it's President Obama or Donald Trump, after the facts are out there and people know what happened, if they say there's a criminal offense and should we consider pardoning her, that's something different.
But you know something?
But Donald Trump, I don't think, is in a position where he can do it having a president yet.
Well, no.
Okay, that's touche, but that wasn't my point.
But my point is, based on what he said to all of those people that showed up at his rallies that were chanting, lock her up and drain the swamp.
Yeah, but we don't know what the facts are right now.
Well, I can tell you my analysis, and I've been covering this extensively, is laws were broken.
Yeah, we've got a pretty good idea.
And the voters, because that was a big reason, ending corruption was a big reason why Donald Trump won this election.
Would it be a mistake?
So the person that really is in the position, if he wants to partner, would be Barack Obama for crimes committed or that may have been committed.
I think the public wants to know all the facts, get them all out there, let the investigation run its course.
Do you think the Clintons will ask Obama for a pardon?
No, I don't.
I thought she was lining up right next to the turkey on Thanksgiving Day to come right after.
So you think she will, John?
I think they might.
I think behind the scenes they'll send some third party intermediary to say, can you please get this to go away forever?
And based on some of those facts that we've already seen where the president knew she had that server after he told us no.
It's in his own benefit to do so.
He may want to do this because some of the facts that come about in the investigation may be embarrassing to him or may not be.
I think it will further delegitimize the country.
It's not going to delegitimize the country.
I think Obama's going to end up pardoning her.
Yeah, I hope he doesn't.
And I hope the judge.
You hope he doesn't.
But, Doug, she probably broke laws here.
Sean, we can say everyone broke laws all the time.
I think we would be best served as a country being one nation united to take on the scourge of terror, the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, the North Koreans.
We don't need a political battle that divides and distracts us.
And as I said, would it really be a battle if Obama did it?
Yeah, it would look outrageous.
But the point is, what she did was outrageous.
I mean, I understand.
Why can't the Democrats get their own problems out of the way?
Why does Donald – look, I don't see – Jeff Sessions, to me, is a pretty honest broker.
Yes.
I think with Jeff Sessions, he's going to look at it in black and white.
Law broken, law not broken.
Yes or no?
I did the polling for him the first time he ran for Senate in 96, and he is very straight-arrow, very honest.
He was a former U.S. attorney.
He'll let the facts know what's going on.
Does Comey stay or does Comey go?
Comey goes.
Yeah, I think you're probably right.
All right, guys, thank you both.
Thank you.
Gens, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.
By the way, do you all in there have a good Thanksgiving?
Jason, you have a good Thanksgiving?
Oh, it's fantastic.
I just OD'd on football.
Yeah, I totally OD'd.
Did you see the Michigan-Ohio State game?
Speaking of Ohio State earlier?
I saw that.
What?
Michigan, Ohio State.
Oh, you're not happy about it, huh?
I just liked it great.
Listen, I didn't have any skin in the game.
I loved the game.
Two overtimes.
It was great football.
It was a lot of fun.
Yeah, look, I even thought, you know, in the back of my mind, I knew the Jets weren't going to win, but I love they were giving Tom Brady a hard time until the last two minutes of the day.
Let's give everybody hope that the Patriots look very, very beatable, especially with Gronk hurt.
Is Gronk going to be back?
He shouldn't have played yesterday because he came back from a chest injury and then he left early.
He literally is right on his fingertips.
He was diving out.
It was a great pass by Brady, I thought.
You know, Gronk literally was a half a step away, and it would have been one of the all-time great Brady.
If he doesn't play, though, then they're ripe to be beaten.
Yeah, no, I agree.
Listen, you can't ignore Dallas anymore.
The Cowboys are real, and they're playing some great football.
And the Giants, you can't deny the Giants either.
They're doing pretty well.
It's amazing they have eight wins, but hey, they didn't stink it up like Seattle did yesterday, scoring five points.
Yeah, I don't know.
How was your Thanksgiving there, Ethan?
You have a good time?
My was great.
Gee, thanks for sharing.
I mean, what's there to say?
You have a lot of great year with Trump, so I'm great.
And what did you think, Sunshine?
It was absolutely delicious.
Shout out to my mom because she cooked, and it was.
Did you see on my Twitter account that I tweeted out me frying a turkey?
No.
Yeah, in my butterball turkey fryer.
You didn't see it?
Usually you go out for Thanksgiving.
Usually I'm at a tennis tournament for Thanksgiving.
My daughter was playing, but I didn't go to one match, and I'm glad.
I hate going to tennis now.
I'm sick of it.
Now, the one question is: did Treat assault anyone?
Yeah, did Treat jump on anybody?
Because I see Treat for 30 seconds and he was jumping all over Daddy.
She, not he.
Whatever.
And you were goading her into jumping.
Did I goat her?
No, I did not.
The dog is dumb.
The dog is not going to make it.
Stop this.
Bite your tongue and take that back.
I love the dog.
I want the dog to be the Hannity Show dog.
I'll take the dog home with me.
You want a dumb dog to be the Hannity Showdog.
Is that what you're doing?
No, what I'm saying is this dog is not going to make it to be a therapy dog.
A service dog.
She is a canine companion for independence.
So CIW.
Maybe we'll send the dog to one of these colleges where these kids need pet therapy and let the dog jump on them and they'll get over it.
I cannot believe this is happening.
I'm literally about to fing kill myself and I'm not kidding.
You better fix this shit right now.
I literally am going to die in an ambulance.
It's just the collector freakout continues.
All right, let's get to our phones.
We do have a lot to be thankful for.
And I tweeted out, you know what?
One of the things I am thankful for, Trump won.
And I am thankful for that.
I'm thankful the American people had enough sense to see through her lies, dishonesty, corruption, and the status quo of Obamaism.
Thank God.
Eric in Edgewater, Florida.
Eric, hi, how are you?
Glad you called, sir.
Mr. Hannity, what a pleasure.
You are truly a great American.
You're a great man, sir.
Thank you very much.
I appreciate your kind words.
What's going on?
I just want to say that in lieu of the recent attack against Donald Trump and the endorsement of Hillary Clinton, that Mitt Romney should be nowhere near Donald Trump's area at all.
Well, they're meeting tomorrow for dinner.
And I guess, you know, from everything I'm hearing, Trump is sick and tired of people telling him that they don't like Romney.
I don't know what the appeal is.
And look, I'm going to repeat what I said earlier.
I don't have an axe to grind against Romney.
I'm really ticked off at, and this is just honest.
I think Romney would have been a good president.
He would have been a great president.
I wanted him to win in 2012.
I went all in for him the way I did for Trump.
And I went all in because I know socialism fails.
I know redistribution fails.
I know that our country's lost for generations of Hillary's picking the next Supreme Court justices.
So to me, it was a no-brainer.
And he went all in to sabotage Trump.
And I, for the life of me, that disqualifies him from being Secretary of State or any other position.
And that's just it.
I would not pick him.
But you know what?
I didn't get elected president.
It's not my role to make the decisions.
But, you know, I'm saying as loudly to anybody that'll listen to me, I think it's a bad idea.
I think, look, it's bad enough.
If you want a friend in Washington, D.C., you can get a dog.
That's it.
And I said to Trump one day, I said, look, you get elected.
These guys are never going to be your friends.
And what you need is for them to come along with your agenda because you're out there.
You're laying out an agenda that I believe in.
I believe in originalists of the Supreme Court.
I believe lower corporate tax rates, repatriation, energy independence, eliminating Obamacare, education back to states.
I believe in the wall and vetting.
I believe in all that.
So for me, and I think for other people, that's what we want.
That's what we want him to do, what he said he's going to do.
He didn't mention Romney at all, but I'm a little surprised.
Lourdes is in Miami, Florida.
I got to send a big shout out to my friends in Miami.
I've known Lourdes for a long time.
And Ding Dong, the murdering dictator, is dead.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Woo!
Sean.
Yeah, he's dead where he belongs.
And now maybe the Cuban people.
Yeah, of course you're my Miami sister.
I love you.
You're a Miami sister from another mister.
How's about that?
I like it.
Listen, I saw the people of Miami.
I was so happy for them.
I was there.
And we love you here in Miami, Sean.
Let me play some of the celebration.
Listen, the people of Miami are, well, I'm living right next door to you for crying out loud if I ever get to retire one day, but this is what happened.
Come to her a little bit more because we got interrupted with the fireworks.
So why is it a dream come true?
Many people say they don't celebrate death.
You know, why is this a celebration?
This is a celebration because this man has done a lot of harm.
Much harm.
Has destroyed not only Cuban lives, but the causer of humor.
They cannot.
You know why?
Because they know the truth.
They know their family members, their friends and neighbors that had their property stolen, that were murdered, that just disappeared.
He is a murdering thug dictator, and the best dictator is a dead dictator.
Yep.
So I'm celebrating with our Berlin moment.
This is our Berlin moment.
Our Nazi Hitler down.
This is our moment.
We were there, and I talked to heroes that were 27 years political prisoners.
They had their kids shot.
You know, this pain is real.
It's not make-believe.
So this is our Berlin wall.
That's what I'm saying.
Listen, I'm hoping for the Cuban people that we can have the emergence of a constitutional republic, a friend of America.
But unless and until we get rid of that dopey brother of Fidel, Raul, it's still a dictatorship.
He's as equally complicit in the murder and the robbery and theft and torture of people.
And I'm just happy for the people of Miami.
I'm happy for the people of Cuba.
They're that much closer, I think, to liberty or the chance of liberty.
I pray.
Here's something, Sean, I don't understand.
The very same people calling Trump a fascist, right?
Apollo the waterboarding terrorists, enraged top immigration laws, right?
Protesting a fair election in this country are praising Castro.
Because I've been hearing too many people listening to the media.
I'm listening to what, the Prime Minister of Canada and even Obama's comments.
I can't take it.
You know, I don't know what it is with the left in America.
They seem to embrace these radical dictatorships.
Where was that Canadian idiot when they drowned in 94, 41 Cubans, 10 of them being children, drowned by the Castro brothers just because they wanted freedom?
Where were they?
You know what, Sean?
I have a brief with Geraldo Rivera.
He said that he watch tonight.
Geraldo and I are going to have a fight on TV tonight.
I'm telling you right now.
Well, you know what?
You have me on your side because he owes an apology to the Cuban people, to all the murdered Cuban people.
I don't understand where he was coming from.
I agree with you.
Sean, he called Castro charismatic, that he has education.
He put up a great educational system.
Sounds like Michael Moore.
Really?
Really?
Exactly.
Well, that's right.
You know, that's why the people of Miami, those of Cuban descent, they know because they've, you know, many people in Miami worked two, three jobs to send money back to their suffering relatives in Cuba.
There's a reason people getting broken down, dilapidated, rickety boats in shark-infested waters and inner tubes because they want, they're willing to risk their life to get the hell away from that dictatorship.
Lord, S, you know, I love you.
God bless you.
And God bless the people of Miami and the Cuban people for that much closer.
I know, at least.
At least.
And Geraldo's praising a dictator.
Are you kidding me?
I'll deal with him tonight, all right?
I promise you.
800-941, Sean Louise is in New York.
The all-new AM710, W-O-R.
How are you?
I'm good, Sean.
How are you?
I'm good.
What's going on?
First of all, I just want to thank you for helping light the political fire in me.
And I'm definitely not going to miss your interview with Geraldo tonight because I want to see you trash him.
I also wanted to talk to you about the Gilstein recount drama.
The Democrats were scrambling to get to register voters, especially these illegal aliens when Obama gave his permission for them to register to vote.
And those votes definitely have to be discounted from the popular vote because the Democrats are using it as an excuse.
You know, Hillary won the popular vote.
And they need to discount all those illegal aliens that voted.
They need to discount the fact that one in nine dead people per Lou Dobbs voted for Trump, or rather voted a Democrat.
The whole thing with Jill Stein, she's raising the money.
She's just raising the money.
She's kind of acting like Hillary Clinton.
She's raising the money for her party.
And she has no intention.
She knows that she's not going to win the vote.
She didn't even get one electoral roll.
It makes absolutely no sense why she's going through a recount because she even tweeted this weekend that she wasn't corrobor uh collaborating with um Hillary Clinton.
So it absolutely makes no sense whatsoever.
It really does.
No, it makes none.
All right, look, Louise, I got to tell you something.
Donald Trump, I talked to Reince Privus over the weekend.
I said, you have this covered, right?
And he said, we've got it covered.
We're taking it seriously, although it's not a serious effort.
This is all about delegitimizing the Trump win.
And it's what Democrats do.
And now they're looking at Keith Ellison.
I'm like, Keith Ellison, can you pick anybody more radical than him?
It's unbelievable.
You know, look, they're going to try, and this is what I keep warning people.
People keep asking me everywhere I go, well, Hannity, are you going to Washington?
I'm like, hell no, I'm not going to Washington.
First of all, nobody ever asked me.
Number one, I wouldn't go.
I think that what's going to happen in the country is what always happens when anybody, conservative, gets elected to high office, especially the presidency.
The left goes insane.
And you see the kids with the coloring books and the Play-Doh.
Well, that's just the initial shock of the diagnosis that they lost.
But then they're going to hit the anger stage, and that anger stage is going to last for years.
And they're going to be all over and trying to undermine every step of the way, any attempt to fix the country.
And that's where I think I could be most valuable.
And that is saying and doing things that nobody else in the media will say or do.
This is why people scratch their heads.
Why is Hannity so successful?
It's not me.
It's how bad they are.
And if they weren't so bad, if they did their job, if they didn't collude with Clinton, maybe I wouldn't be as popular.
But clearly, we're out on a limb where none of them would ever be because they don't have the courage to be.
They're just a bunch of sheep that go along with each other and validate each other.
And I'm not one of those.
And I have no problems whatsoever being called every name by a corrupt media.
They helped conceal who Obama was in 07 and 08.
They've helped conceal, they colluded with the Clinton campaign.
And if they weren't colluding, they weren't doing their job with the WikiLeaks findings and the email server findings and the foundation discoveries.
