Sean Hannity Show - The Press Conference - 1.11

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Jan. 12, 2017 - Sean Hannity Show

01:36:03

The Press Conference - 1.11

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	Let not your heart be troubled.
	You are listening to the Sean Hannity Radio Show Podcast.
	So, like many of you, I used to suffer from insomnia.
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	Your attempts to build a better relationship with President Putin.
	Well, you know, President Putin and Russia put out a statement today that this fake news was indeed fake news.
	They said it totally never happened.
	Now, somebody would say, oh, of course he's going to say that.
	I respected the fact that he said that.
	And I'll be honest, I think if he did have something, they would have released it.
	They would have been glad to release it.
	I think, frankly, had they broken into the Republican National Committee, I think they would have released it just like they did about Hillary and all of the horrible things that her people, like Mr. Podesta, said about her.
	I mean, what he said about her was horrible.
	If somebody said about me what Podesta said about Hillary, I was the boss, I would have fired him immediately, or that person, because what he said about her was horrible.
	But remember this, we talk about the hacking, and hacking's bad, and it shouldn't be done.
	But look at the things that were hacked.
	Look at what was learned from that hacking.
	That Hillary Clinton got the questions to the debate and didn't report it.
	That's a horrible thing.
	That's a horrible thing.
	Can you imagine that if Donald Trump got the questions to the debate, it would have been the biggest story in the history of stories, and they would have said, immediately you have to get out of the race.
	Nobody even talked about it.
	It's a very terrible thing.
	On that intelligence report, the second part of their conclusion was that Vladimir Putin ordered it because he aspired to help you in the election.
	Do you accept that part of the finding?
	And will you undo what President Obama did to punish the Russians for this or will you keep it in place?
	If Putin likes Donald Trump, I consider that an asset, not a liability.
	Because we have a horrible relationship with Russia.
	Russia can help us fight ISIS, which, by the way, is number one tricky.
	I mean, if you look, this administration created ISIS by leaving at the wrong time.
	The void was created.
	ISIS was formed.
	If Putin likes Donald Trump, guess what, folks?
	That's called an asset, not a liability.
	Now, I don't know that I'm going to get along with Vladimir Putin.
	I hope I do, but there's a good chance I won't.
	And if I don't, do you honestly believe that Hillary would be tougher on Putin than me?
	Does anybody in this room really believe that?
	Give me a break.
	If you indeed do believe that Russia was behind the hacking, what is your message to Vladimir Putin right now?
	He shouldn't be doing it.
	He won't be doing it.
	Russia will have much greater respect for our country when I'm leading it than when other people have led it.
	You will see that.
	Russia will respect our country more.
	He shouldn't have done it.
	I don't believe he'll be doing it more now.
	We have to work something out.
	But it's not just Russia.
	Take a look at what's happened.
	You don't report it the same way.
	22 million accounts were hacked in this country by China.
	And that's because we have no defense.
	That's because we're run by people that don't know what they're doing.
	Russia will have far greater respect for our country when I'm leading it.
	And I believe, and I hope, maybe it won't happen.
	It's possible.
	But I won't be given a little reset button like Hillary.
	Here, press this piece of plastic.
	I looked at her like, what is she doing?
	There's no reset button.
	We're either going to get along or we're not.
	I hope we get along.
	But if we don't, that's possible too.
	I am extremely careful.
	I'm surrounded by bodyguards.
	I'm surrounded by people.
	And I always tell them, anywhere, but I always tell them, if I'm leaving this country, be very careful because in your hotel rooms, and no matter where you go, you're going to probably have cameras.
	I'm not referring just to Russia, but I would certainly put them in that category.
	And number one, I hope you're going to be good anyway.
	But in those rooms, you have cameras in the strangest places.
	Cameras that are so small with modern technology, you can't see them and you won't know.
	You better be careful or you'll be watching yourself on nightly television.
	I tell this to people all the time.
	I was in Russia years ago with the Miss Universe contest, which did very well, Moscow, the Moscow area, did very, very well.
	And I told many people, be careful, because you don't want to see yourself in television.
	Cameras all over the place.
	And again, not just Russia, all over.
	Does anyone really believe that story?
	I'm also very much of a germaphobe, by the way.
	Believe me.
	What are you trying to tell the people?
	I think it was disgraceful, disgraceful, that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake out.
	I think it's a disgrace.
	And I say that, and I say that.
	And that's something that Nazi Germany would have done and did do.
	I think it's a disgrace that information that was false and fake and never happened got released to the public.
	As far as BuzzFeed, which is a failing pile of garbage, writing it, I think they're going to suffer the consequences they already are.
	And as far as CNN going out of their way to build it up, and by the way, we just found out I was coming down, Michael Cohn.
	Michael Cohn is a very talented lawyer.
	He's a good lawyer in my firm.
	It was just reported that it wasn't this Michael Cohn they were talking about.
	So all night long, it's Michael Cohn.
	I said, I want to see your passport.
	He brings his passport to my office.
	I say, hey, wait a minute.
	He didn't leave the country.
	He wasn't out of the country.
	They had Michael Cohn of the Trump Organization was in Prague.
	It turned out to be a different Michael Cohn.
	It's a disgrace what took place.
	It's a disgrace.
	And I think they ought to apologize to start with, Michael Cohn.
	Since you're attacking us, can you give us a question?
	No, Mr. President-elect, go ahead.
	Mr. President-elect, since you are attacking our news organization, can you give us a chance?
	You are attacking our news organization.
	Can you give us a chance to ask a question, sir?
	Go ahead.
	Sir, can you stay quiet?
	Mr. President-elect, go ahead.
	Can you stay categorized?
	I'm just asking a question.
	Mr. President-elect, can you give us a question?
	Don't be attacking us.
	Can you give us a question?
	Don't be returning.
	No, I'm not going to give you a question.
	I'm not going to give you a question.
	Can you stay categorically?
	You are fake news.
	Sir, can you state categorically that nobody Mr. President, that's not appropriate, Mr. President-elect?
	You got to look at the headline on the Drudge Report right now.
	It's got a big CNN, and in quotations, you are fake news.
	That was Jim Acosta, that last bit that you heard, saying to a president-elect, can you ever remember a time when Barack Obama was treated that way by the news media?
	Because I can't.
	I do remember phoning.
	Mr. President, do you realize how great you are at your job?
	And I'm actually going to montage some of this later and tonight as well on Hannity.
	Anyway, glad you're with us.
	Write down our toll-free number.
	It's 800-941-Sean.
	If you want to be a part of the program, Newt Gingrich, Michael Cohn, who you just heard the president-elect talking about, will be on the program today.
	We'll go through the horrific treatment by so many people against Jeff Sessions, who will be the next Attorney General.
	There's no issue in all of that, so we'll get to that.
	You know, I was thinking today, it actually got picked up by Mediaite today.
	Now, over the years, they've not exactly been the most friendly news outlet to me, but I was pretty happy.
	Hannity applauds Trump for total beatdown of the media at Presser.
	All right, it was fair.
	And they put up my tweets.
	They certainly were quick to throw up a mistake that I made and not take the time to actually read my timeline, but that's neither here nor there.
	I made the mistake.
	It's my fault.
	I own mistakes when I make them, which is not too often.
	So I tweeted out earlier today.
	I said, wow, at real Donald Trump, wow.
	A total beatdown of the alt radical left mainstream media.
	And I said in 08, journalism is dead.
	Now it is buried.
	And I'm thinking, do you remember when Joe Wilson lied out, yelled out, you lied to Obama, what a big deal it is?
	You think tonight they're going to make a big deal about how CNN treated Donald Trump, our president-elect, in the last 24 hours and their horrific decision-making?
	I mean, was there any doubt after they were exposed as colluding with the mainstream media and exposed by WikiLeaks as colluding?
	I mean, was there any doubt where they stood in terms of which side they were pulling for?
	I don't think there's that much.
	Remember what WikiLeaks exposed?
	Donna Brazil leaking debate questions to the Clinton campaign.
	Donna Brazil pushing back at CNN, her own network, over coverage of the Clinton campaign.
	We found journalists who covered Clinton were invited to these big, expensive dinners at Podesta's house and others, apparently.
	Katie Couric caught trying to offer a showcase of Clinton's personality in an interview.
	Let me translate that for you.
	A squishy propaganda film by Katie Couric.
	And remember, Glenn Thrush over at Politico sent a story to the campaign.
	Oh, before I post this, don't tell my bosses I'm doing this, but I want to make sure you approve that it's not going to, you're not going to be offended when it gets posted.
	Or a Huffington Post writer saying the outlet wanted to make sure Clinton is elected.
	Or John Harwood over at CNBC, worried that he offended Podesta with a story about Clinton.
	He ended up hosting a debate.
	And Harwood mocking reporters who asked Clinton tough questions.
	Or Harward emailing Podesta about questions he should ask Jeb Bush.
	Hey, John, can you tell me what questions I should ask Jeb Bush?
	I'm too stupid to think of it myself.
	I'll never forget once early in my career, somebody came up to me and said, it was working for my show and they were brand new.
	And they said, oh, by the way, here's your questions.
	And I look at them and I'm like, very well thought out.
	I'm very impressed.
	And then I handed him back to this young woman and I said, but that's my job.
	That's what I do.
	I make up my own questions.
	When you had, let's say, CNN source tipped off, an ally about the poll findings.
	That's not that big a deal.
	Who cares?
	They're getting out in an hour anyway.
	Reuters offering to share House Benghazi Committee Intel with the campaign of Hillary Clinton, political reporters offering campaign the chance to edit.
	New York Times allowing edits.
	I've been interviewed all these years by the New York Times.
	I never get that opportunity.
	An MSNBC producer praising Clinton, telling them what questions, Clinton campaign suggesting what questions should be asked, and then those are the questions asked, colluding with NBC in an interview about the Clinton Foundation, the campaign bragging about support, Univision pressuring to attack Trump, the Boston Globe pumping up the campaign.
	You know, we get attacked, and I'm the, you know, I think back over the years here, who vetted Barack Obama?
	It wasn't the mainstream fawning press.
	You know, who went into depth about what black liberation theology was about and sitting in the pews of GD America and Jeremiah Wright for 20 years?
	We did.
	I did.
	You know, who went back to who Frank Marshall Davis, the great influence of Barack Obama, was?
	Who went back to what Acorn organizing meant to people?
	Who went back to him being an Alinskyite disciple?
	And who got into why would this man ever announce his political career in the home of an unrepentant terrorist?
	And if that's not bad enough, sat on boards with him, gave speeches with him for years.
	Imagine if that was Donald Trump for just a second.
	Last night, the president gave his farewell address.
	I came on five minutes after, and I think I'm the only one in the media that gave you his very accurate, specific failed record.
	Nobody else in the media is going to do that.
	You know, all of the institutions in our government that have been hacked, all they talk about is Russia.
	What about 23 million Americans, the Office of Personnel Management, the White House, the State Department, Department of Defense, every government agency, basically?
	The media doesn't tell you that.
	They're not going to tell the truth about Obama.
	They never vetted Obama.
	I don't remember anybody in the media yelling at Obama the way that Jim Acosta at CNN did.
	You know, and the media colluding, CNN is fake news.
	ABC, NBC, CBS, the New York Times, the political, they're all fake news and they all don't do their job.
	And they're all lazy and they're all overpaid.
	I'm the only one in news that will admit that most of us are overpaid.
	It's ridiculous.
	They get paid for doing a crappy job with an agenda.
	And these are people that are supposed to be fair, balanced, and objective and present both sides.
	That's not my job.
	My job is I give opinion, but I end up doing their job in the process because they're unwilling and they've chosen sides.
	And we're going to get into all this today.
	Michael Cohn, who you just heard the president-elect mention, will be with us.
	Newt Gangrich and much more coming up on the program today.
	The land of the free because of the brave.
	It's the Sean Hannity Show.
	There is now, I think we have hit the point where the straw has broken the camel's back as it relates to the monopoly of the mainstream media.
	And.
	And you've got to understand here: if nobody in the media is going to treat President Obama the way they treated Donald Trump today, Americans that voted for Donald Trump are fed up, they're disgusted, and they're loving every second of the.
	See those people in the back there?
	They're all frauds.
	They're all liars.
	Because they do lie.
	I've been a victim of their manipulation.
	I've been a victim of their lies myself.
	I just don't care.
	It doesn't matter to me.
	Everything that could be said and written about me has been said and written.
	And it's like the people that are friends of mine in my life, they go, oh my God, are you okay?
	I'm like, huh?
	What are you talking about?
	That article that they wrote.
	And I'm like, what article?
	Because I don't look at it.
	Did you ever read the comments on the article that somebody wrote and people say horrible things about you on Twitter?
	And I'm like, yeah, Twitter is fun.
	I have fun on Twitter.
	But the point is, Jim Acosta screaming the way he did, you know, it is, we're living through a pretty unprecedented time here.
	You cannot trust the news media.
	They've been exposed.
	They've been exposed as having an agenda in this election.
	They've been exposed as being dishonest.
	They've been exposed as being fraudulent.
	They've been exposed as not being objective, fair, and balanced.
	And the reality is, and not doing their job.
	They should be pointing out to you tonight, well, nobody yelled at Barack Obama that way except Joe Wilson.
	They should have last night pointed out as I did the record, the real record of a Barack Obama presidency.
	They did not because they're fawning still, and I'm sure some of them were crying and others were getting thrills up their leg causing Obama gasms because that's happened when he first started.
	They should have told you all of the instances where their own media outlets were coordinating and colluding like CNN with the Hillary campaign.
	They didn't do that.
	They never vetted Barack Obama.
	They should have done that back in the day.
	You know, we'll have Newt Gingrich on later.
	I experienced this with him back in 94 before he ever became president.
	He was the Gingrich that stole Christmas.
	And poor tiny, what was the name of the?
	No, not Tiny.
	Was it Tiny Tim?
	Whatever the kid's name with the broken crutches and Scrooge.
	Tiny Tim?
	Okay.
	Yeah, they had him with broken crutches that Newt broke, of course.
	We'll get to Newt Gingrich.
	to Michael Cohn later on.
	Okay, winner is on the way.
	And if you listen to this show, you know there's only one product that I absolutely rely on when I get a sore throat or a scratchy throat.
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	Now, work with me, people.
	So this season, look, you're going to have some throat issues.
	And do what I do to soothe my golden throat.
	I use Pine Brothers Throat Drops.
	You will love this product.
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	You can find Pine Brothers at CBS, Select Walmart, Target, ShopRight.
	Why?
	Because they are the best.
	We have much hacking going on.
	And one of the things we're going to do, we have some of the greatest computer minds anywhere in the world that we've assembled.
	You saw just a sample of it two weeks ago up here where we had the six top people in the world.
	They were never in the same room together as a group.
	And we're going to put those minds together and we're going to form a defense.
	And I have to say this also.
	The Democratic National Committee was totally open to be hacked.
	They did a very poor job.
	They could have had hacking defense, which we had.
	And I will give Reince previous credit because when Reinz saw what was happening in the world and with this country, he went out and went to various firms and ordered a very, very strong hacking defense.
	And they tried to hack the Republican National Committee and they were unable to break through.
	We have to do that for our country.
	And we could be a Chuck Schumer and sit back and criticize it.
	And people would come, they would come begging to us, please, we have to do something about Obamacare.
	We don't want to own it.
	We don't want to own it politically.
	They own it right now.
	So the easiest thing would be to let it implode in 2017.
	And believe me, we'd get pretty much whatever we wanted, but it would take a long time.
	We're going to be submitting, as soon as our secretary is approved, almost simultaneously, shortly thereafter, a plan.
	It'll be repeal and replace.
	It will be essentially simultaneously.
	It will be various segments, you understand, but will most likely be on the same day or the same week, but probably the same day, could be the same hour.
	So we're going to do repeal and replace, very complicated stuff.
	And we're going to get a health bill passed.
	We're going to get health care taken care of in this country.
	You have deductibles that are so high that after people go broke paying their premiums, which are going through the roof, the health care can't even be used by them because the deductibles are so high.
	Obamacare is the Democrats' problem.
	We are going to take the problem off the shelves for them.
	We're doing them a tremendous service by doing it.
	We could sit back and let them hang with it.
	We are doing the Democrats a great service.
	So as soon as our secretary is approved and gets into the office, we'll be filing a plan.
	And it was actually pretty accurately reported today, the New York Times.
	And the plan will be repeal and replace Obamacare.
	We're going to have a health care that is far less expensive and far better.
	I mean, it's such a difference, isn't it?
	I mean, I'm watching Obama last night.
	Now, let me go back.
	This is where was the media coverage last night, like I had at 10 Eastern Hannity on Fox, that actually played Obama's promises on Obamacare.
	Keep your doctor, keep your plan, save on average per family $2,500 per family per year.
	Nowhere.
	Nowhere to be found.
	You know, this is what you heard last night.
	He came in with so-called journalists having thrills up their legs and Obama gasms, and he's going out the same way.
	Rather than go into his failed record, which I mentioned in the last hour and did an entire monologue on this radio program and yesterday on TV about they never do their job.
	They never did their job on Obamacare.
	They never vetted this guy.
	They never did their job on the economy, his broken promises and failure in foreign policy.
	They never did any of the things that they should have.
	They never mentioned all the hacking incidents as we have done here on this program.
	I mean, it's amazing how much more information we provide our viewers and listeners than the mainstream media.
	It takes your breath away at some point.
	But we know why.
	We know the collusion that now exists.
	WikiLeaks did us a favor.
	We now know we can never trust the news media.
	But if you watched any other show besides mine last night, this is the crap you are hearing.
	America will forever be indebted to him for the character that he showed and for the class that he showed and the dignity that he showed beyond reproach.
	And he's been scandal-free, frankly, in the White House.
	We haven't had that for a while.
	That song of hope that brought him to the White House, part campaign speech, part State of the Union, sermon on democracy, a song of gratitude and hope.
	It was everything.
	It was the 2004 keynote address.
	It was the race speech in Philadelphia, all of it combined.
	And I don't think that anyone could have done a better farewell address.
	What we owe this man and his family for bringing that example to all of our children and our nation.
	Oh, this room was electric.
	It still is electric.
	People are on their feet.
	Some people are crying.
	Many of them are cheering.
	The crowd here hanging on his every single word.
	Just consider this.
	Roger Bannister broke the four-minute model in 1954.
	It never happened prior to that.
	Within a year, 24 runners have done that.
	In these eight years, President Obama has shown America what's possible, what we can look like, that we are now a more diverse nation from top to bottom.
	There just aren't a whole lot of cultural events that pull us together for a lot of Americans.
	Last night was one of those.
	One of our friends of yours indicated that they told their kids to sit down and watch this with them.
	That's good parenting.
	That was a spectacular moment last night.
	And the speech was, I thought, spectacular in this.
	We are not going to be hearing a speech like this from a sitting president for the next four or eight years.
	To be honest, I mean, he is an orator.
	That's just who he is.
	And that's why he can hit it out of the park like this.
	Well, this is the kind of speech that got him elected the president of the United States.
	It's going to be a while.
	You know, who knows how long before we can hear a speech like this.
	This is a rock and roll concert, a political rally.
	The energy levels are high.
	And the amount of love in this city for the president is just sky high.
	Well, he stayed not only in office, but now is leaving office with an incredibly positive approval rating and is the most respected man in America.
	He's very eloquent.
	You cannot take that away from him.
	He's one of the most eloquent presidents we've had for a long, long time.
	You saw the people coming to hear him speak.
	These are his passionate supporters, people who love him.
	You know, we saw someone with a My Brother's Keeper jacket on on the back.
	You know, this is an emotional night for them.
	He'll go down in history as both a consequential and excellent president viewed from the very beginning of the country until now.
	I think his economic record is a very important thing.
	I honestly can't take it anymore.
	I can't.
	And we could keep playing more and more, but I'm the only one that told the truth to the American people last night, all factually based.
	Obama has an abysmal record on the economy.
	He was a horrible president.
	Much of what he has done, the damage it's going to take forever to undo the damage of his debt, the damage in foreign policy, the damage of Obamacare.
	I went over all of this in detail yesterday on radio and last night on TV.
	I won't repeat it again because I have other things to talk about.
	Nobody vetted him in the beginning.
	Nobody gave you the real record of eight years last night.
	Nobody told you all the instances and hacking during his presidency and he did nothing.
	And the obsession now with Russia, nobody told you any of the truth of any of these things.
	He came in the same way.
	You may remember we played this back in the day.
	The feeling most people get when they hear a Barack Obama speech, I felt this thrill going up my leg.
	I mean, I don't have that too often.
	And that is an objective assessment.
	I thought it was Hollywood.
	It was romance.
	There's only you in my life.
	The only thing that's right.
	And we should be comfortable and will be with him in such a setting.
	My first love.
	It was realism.
	You're every breath that I take.
	I felt this thrill going up my leg.
	I don't have that too often.
	And by I want to share all my love with you.
	An Oval Office setting showing that he's comfortable.
	No one else went.
	This is valuable material.
	This is real estate of the highest order.
	All right.
	I don't know.
	I just don't have enough time.
	I just don't have enough.
	Every time I hear that, I still laugh.
	But it's really not funny because we have an information crisis in the country.
	So you heard Jim Acosta at CNN talking to President-elect Trump today and ending it.
	What's the last thing that he said?
	That's not appropriate.
	His lecturing the president-elect?
	Well, let's compare that to remember Jeff Zelany of the New York Times.
	Remember the enchanted question?
	During these first 100 days, what has surprised you the most about this office, enchanted you the most about serving in this office, humbled you the most and troubled you the most?
	Let me write this down.
	Surprised.
	Troubled.
	I've got, what was the first one?
	Surprised.
	Surprised.
	Troubled.
	Troubled.
	Enchanted.
	Enchanted.
	And humbled.
	And what was the last one?
	I played Jim Acosta again from CNN earlier today.
	Play him.
	Are we living in Nazi Germany?
	What were you driving at there?
	What are you trying to tell the people?
	I think it was disgraceful.
	Disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake out.
	I think it's a disgrace.
	And I say that, and I say that.
	And that's something that Nazi Germany would have done and did do.
	I think it's a disgrace that information that was false and fake and never happened got released to the public.
	As far as BuzzFeed, which is a failing pile of garbage, writing it, I think they're going to suffer the consequences they already are.
	And as far as CNN going out of their way to build it up, and by the way, we just found out I was coming down.
	Michael Cohn, I was being, Michael Cohn is a very talented lawyer.
	He's a good lawyer in my firm.
	It was just reported that it wasn't this Michael Cohn they were talking about.
	So all night long, it's Michael Cohn.
	I said, I want to see your passport.
	He brings his passport to my office.
	I say, hey, wait a minute.
	He didn't leave the country.
	He wasn't out of the country.
	They had Michael Cohn of the Trump organization was in Prague.
	It turned out to be a different Michael Cohn.
	It's a disgrace what took place.
	It's a disgrace.
	And I think they ought to apologize to start with Michael Cohn.
	Sir, since you're attacking us, can you give us a question?
	No, Mr. President-elect, go ahead.
	Mr. President-elect, since you are attacking our newsletter.
	Not the organization.
	Can you give us a chance?
	Your organization.
	You are attacking our news organization.
	Your organization.
	Can you give us a chance to ask a question, sir?
	Go ahead.
	Sir, can you stay?
	Quiet.
	Mr. President-elect, go ahead.
	Can you stay cash-cutting a question?
	President-elect, can you give us a question?
	Don't be afraid of you.
	You're attacking us.
	Can you give us a question?
	Don't be rude.
	No, I'm not going to give you a question.
	I'm not going to give you a question.
	Can you stay categorically?
	You are fake news.
	Sir, can you state categorically that nobody?
	No, Mr. President-elect, that's not appropriate.
	That is some serious enchantment there.
	That's the same thing.
	My buddy, so CNN has now put out a big release.
	They're desperately trying to distance themselves from the BuzzFeed report that they went ballistic on yesterday, saying both BuzzFeed and CNN went public.
	And they're going on to say that there's a difference.
	While CNN merely said that President Obama and Donald Trump were briefed on a summary of the information, I watched their coverage.
	Jake Tapper and his guests, they were going nuts.
	It was pure hysteria.
	My buddy Joe Concha, one of the more honest media critics in the country, just sent me his column out today.
	These BuzzFeed reporters and editors were fighting back tears as Obama gave his farewell address, and he put all the tweets in from the BuzzFeed people.
	Will I ever stop crying?
	And tears, says another one.
	I'm sad.
	This is sad.
	Barack Obama's going home.
	I am so sad.
	This is the saddest series finale ever shown on television.
	How will I ever stop weeping?
	And it goes on from there.
	Barack's crying.
	Michelle's crying.
	Malia's crying.
	I'm crying.
	And it doesn't end.
	How do they go away with this?
	Did it maybe when they talked about hookers and golden showers and knowing Donald Trump as a germ phobe, maybe that could have raised a little red flag in somebody's mind.
	They could have sourced it.
	I even was pretty nice to Ben, whatever his name is, over at BuzzFeed last night.
	I'm not trying to be a jerk, but these people are always wrong.
	You know what they hate?
	They hate that I'm always right.
	I was right about Obama in 08.
	Do you think they're ever going to write a report?
	Oh, Hannity was right.
	No, that's never going to happen.
	But it's more important that I'm right for you, my audience, because you're the people I serve.
	I wrote out today, one has to wonder if Donna Brazil and CNN, both who colluded with Hillary Clinton, gave the talking points of fake news yesterday.
	This was a total beatdown of the media today.
	You know, I said to Ben Smith, he put out this big disclaimer after he put out the article, and I said, as you've probably seen, we published a secret dossier making explosive, unverified comments, and he was explaining to people why he did it.
	And I said, hey, Ben, I verified Michael Cohn was never there.
	I asked this respectfully.
	I'm being nice.
	Why didn't you wait?
	And for all the attacks on WikiLeaks, they have a 10-year track record of 100% accuracy.
	They haven't been proven wrong yet.
	If they are, I'll tell you.
	Ben, this tweet I said seems like a CYA for this article, which is that they wrote, BuzzFeed has published explosive, secret, unverified reports on Trump and Russia.
	And that's exactly how CNN hyped it yesterday.
	Media and journalism is dead.
	We'll get Newt Gingrich's take on that when we get back.
	Michael Cohn, who became at the center of this, I guess I'm the only media person that actually said, Michael, were you in Prague?
	No.
	And then I tweeted his tweet, retweeted it of his passport, and then all these people started, well, just because it's not open, Hannity, you idiot.
	You're so dumb.
	And they've failed the American people.
	Journalism will never be the same.
	Sean Hannity.
	Donald Trump's infrastructure plan could create up to 11 million jobs.
	My only plea is make sure we pay for it.
	We cannot afford more debt.
	I didn't like Republicans in the Congress boosting the debt.
	What are they doing?
	$10 trillion.
	Trump says the release of a smear report is a tremendous blot on the intelligence community.
	We need some work.
	The intelligence community is behind with cybersecurity.
	I've been saying this forever.
	Now maybe they'll listen.
	It's a pretty funny story.
	Saylor invoking the Hillary defense in a classified document dispute.
	We got France's anti-immigration presidential candidate has now surged into the lead.
	And the black caucus, the CBC, is threatening to kick somebody's ass after Duncan Hunter took down the anti-cop painting.
	Wow.
	We have more of that.
	Newt Gingrich is next.
	What were you driving at there?
	What are you trying to tell the people?
	I think it was disgraceful, disgraceful, that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake out.
	I think it's a disgrace.
	And I say that, and I say that.
	And that's something that Nazi Germany would have done and did do.
	I think it's a disgrace that information that was false and fake and never happened got released to the public.
	As far as BuzzFeed, which is a failing pile of garbage, writing it, I think they're going to suffer the consequences they already are.
	And as far as CNN going out of their way to build it up, and by the way, we just found out I was coming down, Michael Cohn.
	Michael Cohn is a very talented lawyer.
	He's a good lawyer in my firm.
	It was just reported that it wasn't this Michael Cohn they were talking about.
	So all night long, it's Michael Cohn.
	I said, I want to see your passport.
	He brings his passport to my office.
	I say, hey, wait a minute.
	He didn't leave the country.
	He wasn't out of the country.
	They had Michael Cohn of the Trump Organization was in Prague.
	It turned out to be a different Michael Cohn.
	It's a disgrace what took place.
	It's a disgrace.
	And I think they ought to apologize to start with, Michael Cohn.
	Since you're attacking us, can you give us a question?
	No, Mr. President-elect, go ahead.
	Mr. President-elect, since you are attacking our news.
	Can you give us a chance?
	Your organization.
	You are attacking our news organization.
	Your organization.
	Can you give us a chance to ask a question, sir?
	Go ahead.
	Sir, can you stay?
	Quiet.
	Mr. President-elect, go ahead.
	Can you stay categorized?
	Mr. President-elect, can you give us a question to me?
	Don't be attacking us.
	Can you give us a question?
	Don't be rude.
	No, I'm not going to give you a question.
	I'm not going to give you a question.
	Can you stay categorically?
	You are fake news.
	Sir, can you stay categorically that nobody no, Mr. President-elect, that's not appropriate.
	I am extremely careful.
	I'm surrounded by bodyguards.
	I'm surrounded by people.
	And I always tell them, anywhere, but I always tell them, if I'm leaving this country, be very careful because in your hotel rooms, and no matter where you go, you're going to probably have cameras.
	I'm not referring just to Russia, but I would certainly put them in that category.
	And number one, I hope you're going to be good anyway.
	But in those rooms, you have cameras in the strangest places.
	Cameras that are so small with modern technology, you can't see them and you won't know.
	You better be careful, or you'll be watching yourself on nightly television.
	I tell this to people all the time.
	I was in Russia years ago with the Miss Universe contest, which did very well.
	Moscow, the Moscow area, did very, very well.
	And I told many people, be careful, because you don't want to see yourself on television.
	Cameras all over the place.
	And again, not just Russia, all over.
	Does anyone really believe that story?
	I'm also very much of a germaphobe, by the way.
	Believe me.
	I'd never seen a press conference like that in my entire life.
	And everything that I said back in 2008, journalism is dead.
	Trump probably buried it today, at least people's faith and confidence.
	If you didn't feel that journalism was dead after this election season, where the media, every single media outlet was proven to collude with the Hillary Clinton campaign, I don't know what else to tell you.
	Joining us now is former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich.
	Can you remember a single time the person that was arguing and shouting at the president-elect was Jim Acosta from CNN, and his last line was, you're not appropriate.
	Do you ever remember Barack Obama ever being treated like this?
	No, but of course Barack Obama is the press's hand-picked, loved candidate.
	You know, there was a certain amount of yelling back and forth that Reagan used to get into, particularly Sam Donaldson.
	But I think a couple of things going on here.
	One is, you know, Trump is deliberately trying to shrink and isolate CNN.
	And CNN is working hard to be worthy of that.
	This whole interlude of this, I mean, all of our listeners ought to think about this.
	The so-called intelligence leadership happens to have a two-page document about which we know nothing, which alleges Trump might have done something which they cannot define.
	And apparently, in the only specific fact which has shown up, the Trump staff person who is allegedly in Prague meeting with Russians has never been to Prague, has never been in Czechoslovakia, has never been in Eastern Europe.
	Now, how hard was it for the CIA, the FBI, the NSA, somebody to call this guy and ask him?
	I mean, these things are not, you know, and so what you're seeing is the collusion of the Obama political appointees in the intelligence community and the anti-Obama news media trying to create a totally false image.
	You know, I'm talking about fake news.
	But the old word for fake news, of course, is propaganda.
	This is just pure propaganda.
	And I think Trump is particularly angry about it because it is such blatant.
	And by the way, I thought Rice Priebus did a great job this morning.
	Did you see him on the Today Show?
	I saw him on the Today Show, and I saw him on Fox News.
	I mean, he was on fire.
	He was a lot of stuff.
	I mean, he was doing a great job, and it was the right job.
	I mean, I think when people go out of their way to lie about the next president of the United States, you owe it to them to hit him in the forehead and say, are you guys just nuts?
	We're not going to tolerate this.
	We don't have to put up with the news media being utterly, totally irresponsible and dishonest.
	We can call them out.
	I was with you in 1994, and our friendship goes back even before then.
	And I remember how bad it became for you before you ever became speaker, were sworn in as speaker in 1995.
	I mean, that Christmas, you were the gingrich that stole Christmas.
	That Christmas, you were the one that was going to throw Granny off the cliff.
	You were the first victim of the Granny over the cliff narrative.
	You were going to, and you ended up balancing the budget, creating huge economic growth, ending welfare as we know it, the era of big government, it began to shrink under your vision, and things for the country generally got better.
	But yet you had to go through all of this on your own without hardly any help.
	Well, look, that's right.
	But as much as the media went after me, it was never as hostile as they have been to Donald Trump.
	It is astonishing.
	And by the way, I have to say, just in passing, I was with Congressman Mo Brooks this morning, who occupied your radio slot for two weeks before you came to Huntsville.
	That's true.
	And we were talking about you this morning.
	That really brought back a lot of memories basically a quarter century ago.
	It was amazing.
	Believe it or not, this is my 30th year in radio.
	That was 1990, if you can believe that, 26 years ago.
	Well, I just want ⁇ let me ask you this.
	Do you remember, let's backtrack a little bit here because we've been friends for such a long time.
	Remember when I was vetting Obama, and I was saying about Obama, wait a minute, there's something not right here, a guy that under the tutelage of Frank Marshall Davis, an avowed communist, and his Alinsky disciple worship and acorn activism and 20 years of black liberation theology in the church of GD America, but he didn't know anything about Reverend Wright's real point of view and starting his political career in the home of unrepentant terrorists.
	And I was hammering this, and you even thought I was being a little too hard.
	But the media, only one time did he ever get questioned about Bill Ayres.
	He sat on boards with him, started his political career in his house.
	He gave speeches with him, was friends with him.
	And the only question that came to him throughout the entire campaign was from George Stephanopoulos, and I literally hand-fed it to him the day before a debate.
	And his response was, oh, it's just some guy in the neighborhood.
	Could you imagine if Trump had that history and how the media would have treated him?
	Well, I think that since the media makes things up about Trump because they can't find the smoking gun, if they had anything comparable to what you're describing for Obama, they would have buried him.
	I mean, this is part of the frustration you're seeing, is that these guys are doing everything they can.
	They're still in a state of shock.
	I just gave a speech yesterday at Heritage.
	I'm giving a little one tomorrow on the meaning of Trump and Trumpism and all that.
	And when you lay this stuff out, you know.
	By the way, you need to put these online.
	I was talking to Jim DeMint about your series, and by the way, I'm stuck following up on this.
	I'm like, great, following Newt Gingrich speaking.
	That sucks.
	That is the worst position to ever be put in.
	It was horrible.
	I'm like, really?
	But, in any event, they're actually available on Facebook.
	I know it was a compliment.
	It was a very weird compliment.
	It was not a weird compliment.
	I don't want to follow you.
	And when you speak, it's like I'm dead.
	But anyway, no, you're still pretty darn good, actually.
	I remember in Des Moines one time, you were brilliant.
	Anyhow, here's the deal.
	What's fascinating is that you have the media still in a state of trauma.
	And I tried to explain in my speech yesterday.
	Remember, all the pollsters, all the consultants, all the left-wingers, which is, of course, 90% of the media, all were convinced until 9 or 10 o'clock Tuesday night Clinton was going to win in a landslide.
	And all of a sudden, it's just like being on the Titanic.
	I mean, all of a sudden they hit this iceberg called the American Voters.
	Their ship starts sinking.
	And I think to this day, when they watch these hearings and they see, you know, Rex Tillerson, and then they turn and they see, you know, General Mattis, and then they turn and they see General Kelly.
	And, I mean, just go down the list of people who are being, you know, watched Jeff Sessions do a great job yesterday.
	If you're the left-wing news media, you're thinking, I've got to, I must be in a nightmare.
	This can't be the real world.
	I mean, how can I wake up and get out of this?
	I think that's part of what you see in their treatment of Trump, is that they are just literally almost deranged and being upset.
	I wonder where we go from here.
	I know there has been talk, and I actually have suggested it, that I think this dog and pony show interview with the press secretary every day for the cameras, I got to be honest, I think this has to end because it's going to get ugly and uglier and uglier every day.
	And, you know, Donald Trump has other options.
	He can go directly to the American people, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and he'll reach as many, if not more, people.
	You know, George Washington went up to deliver a State of the Union and disliked the experience so much that every president sent up their State of the Union in writing until Woodrow Wilson some 120 years later.
	Trump has every right as president to interact with the American people any way he wants to.
	And if he decides to have very few press conferences, or if he decides to only have press conferences with people who represent local press outside of Washington, or if he decides to exclude the news channels and only do press conferences with people who write for conservative publications, the President of the United States is allowed to set the rules he wants to live by.
	Now, there are consequences to that, and that people decide whether or not they think it's a fair thing or whatever.
	But I do think that there's no reason.
	One of the lessons I learned very painfully in 1995, I tried doing a regular briefing on camera for the media, and it rapidly got to be a game of gotcha.
	And you could tell the media were spending half the morning preparing questions designed to either start a fight in the Republican Party, start a fight with the Senate, get me in trouble.
	And after about three weeks, we said it was too painful.
	We just couldn't keep doing it.
	I remember I did an interview, and you did this as a personal favor to me.
	Roger Ailes asked me to fill in on a program called Talk Live, and you gave me an entire hour.
	It was Saturday night on CNBC, and that ultimately led to the job that I got at Fox.
	I mean, our career paths have crossed backwards and forwards over these many years, and our friendship, of course, has gotten deeper over these years.
	But I can't believe you're the historian.
	There's always been sort of a contentious relationship with the White House and the news media.
	I don't think it's ever been this bad.
	Has it been?
	And if you're devising Donald Trump, what would you tell him to do?
	Well, I tell him to break up the whole monopoly game.
	I tell him to redesign the White House press room so that it is tied into Facebook and is tied into Skype and it's tied into Twitter and into YouTube.
	I would tell him to take the White House Press Corps and move them over to the old executive office building so that they're not wandering around the White House feeling like they're just privileged people.
	I would tell him to fundamentally change the rotation system they currently have where a handful of elite reporters sit in the front row.
	There are 500 and some members of the White House Press Corps.
	I'd rotate all of them through there.
	I wouldn't allow a handful of people who have the kind of arrogance you saw at that news documents.
	I wouldn't let them be the guys who get to dominate every day.
	And I'd say to them, look, if you're going to behave like that, you're likely to be back in the press room, oh, in April.
	Does it bother you that John McCain is now admitting he played a pretty central role in disseminating these bogus reports by handing it over to the FBI in December?
	No, I think if I got a report that I didn't know whether it was real or not, I would feel an obligation to turn it over to an appropriate authority.
	That doesn't bother me.
	I don't think John went out and spread it.
	I think he said, you know, I got this report and I hand it over.
	Well, I think that is a citizen's duty.
	If you run across a report that says so-and-so might be influenced by the Russians or the Chinese or the North Koreans or the Iranians, you should turn it over to the appropriate authority.
	What makes me angry is how does it end up as a two-page addendum and then get leaked to the news media when it's all junk?
	I mean, they've had all that time.
	If John gave it to them in December, look how many months they've had.
	They've had a year to track down and say, you know, this is baloney, which apparently it is.
	I mean, just based on the one story of the guy who met with the Russians in Prague who's never been in Czechoslovakia in the Czech Republic nowadays.
	I mean, that is so blatantly stupid.
	Well, Michael Cohen's going to join us at the top of the next hour.
	My monologue on TV tonight, my opening monologue is going to be Journalism is Dead, and I'm going to bring up the history of how it has failed the American people.
	And then, of course, you're going to be joining us, Laura Ingram, tonight, Michael Cohn tonight.
	So we'll see you then, former Speaker of the House, New Gingrich, as always.
	And we haven't even gotten to the first 100 days, and it's more interesting than it's ever been.
	Thank you.
	Take care.
	Senator Sessions has not demonstrated a commitment to a central requisite of the job to aggressively pursue the congressional mandate of civil rights, equal rights, and justice for all of our citizens.
	In fact, at numerous times in his career, he has demonstrated a hostility towards these convictions and has worked to frustrate attempts to advance these ideals.
	If confirmed, Senator Sessions will be required to pursue justice for women, but his record indicates that he won't.
	He will be expected to defend the equal rights of gay and lesbian and transgender Americans, but his record indicates that he won't.
	He will be expected to defend voting rights, but his record indicates that he won't.
	He will be expected to defend the rights of immigrants and affirm their human dignity, but the record indicates that he won't.
	His record indicates that as Attorney General, he would object to the growing national bipartisan movement towards criminal justice reform.
	His record indicates that we cannot count on him to support state and national efforts towards bringing justice to the justice system and people on both sides of the aisle who readily admit that the justice system as it stands now is biased against the poor, against drug-addicted, against mentally ill, and against people of color.
	If one is to be Attorney General, they must be willing to continue the hallowed tradition in our country of fighting for justice for all, for equal justice, for civil rights.
	America needs an attorney general who is resolute and determined to bend the arc.
	Senator Sessions' record does not speak to that desire, intention, or will.
	With all that is stake in our nation now, with the urgent need for healing and for love, I pray that my colleagues will join me in opposing his nomination.
	This is truly one of my life's greatest moments.
	I am humbled to be able to participate here in paying tribute to some of the extraordinary Americans whose footsteps paved the way for me and my generation.
	I feel blessed and honored to have partnered with Senator Sessions in being the Senate sponsors of this important award.
	All right, 24 now till the top of the hour, 800-941.
	Sean, you want to be a part of the program?
	Watching this unprecedented move, senators do not do this to other senators.
	There's a certain cordiality that historically has always existed in the United States Senate, even as phony as it may happen to be in real life, but that is how they have run it up till today.
	I couldn't help, Linda, do you get this impression?
	I couldn't help watching Corey Booker.
	He's like, I think he thought he was on Broadway and he was giving a theatrical performance that he thinks he's Barack Obama.
	He's trying to be Barack.
	That didn't seem like the Corey Booker, who has, by the way, a history of making up a lot of phony baloney stories about himself, which we will get to later in the program.
	Anyway, Kerry Severino is with us, Chief Counsel, Policy Director of the Judicial Crisis Network.
	Phil Holloway is the founder of the Holloway Law Group based in Cobb County in Georgia, my former hometown, and former prosecutor and police officer.
	Welcome both of you to the program.
	Carrie, did you get that same impression that this is Corey Booker auditioning to be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2020?
	Oh, yeah, this was his dry run for his stump speech.
	I mean, he was trying to echo, I love what you said about him being trying to echo Obama because he was totally doing that.
	He was talking about hope.
	He was using the arc of history language.
	I mean, it was a little bit egregious, particularly in light of how he actually recently sponsored legislation with Senator Sessions to give the congressional gold medal to the marchers in the Selma civil rights marchers.
	He had all sorts of wonderful things to say about Leonardo.
	Well, they gave that for the Selma to Montgomery marchers, the Freedom Riders.
	They gave it to Rosa Parks.
	You look at the history of him fighting for voting rights changes to help black Americans, all the prosecutions he was involved in and the Klan.
	I mean, he's the exact opposite of the way they tried to portray him, which we went over in great detail on Monday.
	Yeah, and Booker absolutely knows it.
	He said he was honored to work with Sessions on legislation.
	But now, of course, it's not in his political interest to say that.
	It was really shameful.
	He and then several of the other members of the panel, members of Congress, Representative Senator Richmond, actually said that because their panel was the last one of the day, it was like being sent to the back of the bus.
	It was really just race baiting at its ugliest.
	And that was a real shame.
	But I have to say, the final speaker was really compelling is William Smith, who was a former chief counsel.
	He had worked for Senator Sessions and was so compelling.
	Also, a black man saying how great he was.
	He said the senator really crushed it, and I think that was it.
	These hearings overall just show that there's no question Senator Sessions is going to be confirmed as the next attorney general.
	I don't think there's any doubt about it, and it was a foregone conclusion after his testimony yesterday.
	I didn't think they laid a glove on him.
	Philip Holloway, did you get the impression he was running for president and wants to be the Democratic nominee in 2020 as I did?
	Well, it sure sounded like that, Sean.
	Thanks for having me.
	And what else this sounded like is, and of course this wasn't a trial in a courtroom, but it's a legal type setting.
	And what you have here, and you did a wonderful job of displaying this prior, inconsistent statement that he's made.
	And if this were a court of law on cross-examination as a witness, this is someone who would be eviscerated on cross-examination, would have zero credibility.
	So why he was trotted out there by the left to say these things, knowing that he's been on record, and you've got the audio that you played for the audience, is beyond me.
	I can't imagine why it would make any sense whatsoever.
	And when he wants to talk about racial division, then you can go all the way back to the very beginnings of the Obama administration, because one could easily, I think, make the argument that this divided society, if we have one now, and I think we do certainly, it's in large part due to the divisive policies of President Obama and the statements that he's made, particularly in the area of criminal justice issues that we've seen during the last eight years.
	You know, my friend Eliana Johnson, who is one of the few people that I actually like over at National Review Online, and I'm very proud of her.
	She once worked for me on the TV show, and she has done so extraordinarily well, and I just think the world of her.
	And she went on to explain this story and all these tall tales that Booker has been telling over the years that turn out not to be true.
	And one of the central characters in one of Booker's stories is about T-Bone.
	And T-Bone apparently was a drug pusher who the mayor said threatened his life at one turn and then sobbed on his shoulder the next.
	Well, it turns out that that was a figment of his imagination, even though Booker has talked about him in very emotional terms and in great detail.
	And he admits he told the story a million times.
	The Star Ledger picked it up, and she compiled all of this together.
	And look, he was a New York City councilman and an ally.
	But anyway, the T-Bone story was a fixture in his thumb speech, and there weren't many details.
	Anyway, it turns out that this whole thing ended up being false.
	That I guess this guy is so ambitious, as evidenced by breaking with Senate protocol and doing what he did earlier today.
	And then when he finally got caught on this, he said, well, T-Bone was actually a composite of several people he'd met while living in Newark.
	So he made him up wholesale.
	And anyway, when he got caught on it, and to me, I mean, I don't understand somebody that needs to prop themselves up like this.
	It's like patting a resume to me.
	What is your reaction to that, Kerry?
	Yeah, well, I mean, at least Joseph Homer actually existed.
	But, you know, it's a good point that these guys also weren't cross-examined because a cross-exam would have demolished all of these arguments, particularly the last one.
	And it's funny because I think the last panel didn't have any cross-examination because you had those members of Congress on there, like Senator Booker, like Representative Lewis and Richmond, and they get the collegiality.
	They get the respect of people not cross-examining them.
	But you know what?
	They have no respect to be standing up there.
	And it was really frustrating listening to the kind of slander that they were saying.
	You know, I understand people like Representative Lewis can give these compelling stories of working in the civil rights movement.
	That's amazing.
	But then to stand up there and suggest that a good man like Jeff Sessions is the cause of this.
	I mean, it is.
	I mean, how do you make that case start?
	How do you make that case when the guy prosecuted the Klan and was involved in the first case that actually involved civil rights and voting rights and fairness for those that were predominantly being discriminated against?
	How do you say that against the guy that worked to create equality?
	Remember the disparate sentencing laws as it related to powder and crack cocaine that disproportionately impacted black Americans?
	And he partnered with even Dick Durbin for crying out loud to get that done.
	Let me ask you this if I can, Philip.
	So Charles Johnson, writing at the Daily Caller, gives another phony story that Corey Booker told that he tells the story that he entered a burning building next to his own property after breaking the restraints of a police detective in order to rescue this individual, Zena Hodge, who was in a fire back in April of 2012, and it got international media attention from the New York Times, CBS, ABC, Oprah, the New Jersey media.
	Well, it turns out that, you know, in order to rescue Hodge, as he said, after breaking the restraints, he claims he threw Hodge over his shoulder and carried her to safety while sustaining second-degree burns on his hand.
	He goes on Oprah's next chapter to tell the legendary hostess that he had a come to Jesus moment in which he felt he might not survive.
	The only problem is, according to the people that were there, neighbors and community activists, they said, we don't believe he went in there.
	I don't believe he saved her.
	I don't believe he pulled her over his shoulder and brought her out.
	I mean, who makes up stories like this unless you have some type of severe, you know, inferiority complex or some bizarre mental illness?
	I'll tell you who makes it up, Sean.
	It's people who want to pad their own resumes.
	It's people who have a certain particular agenda, in this case, perhaps a political agenda, someone who wants to further their own interests at the expense of the truth.
	You know, you can take a lesson from Barack Obama's playbook back in 2009 when he called the Cambridge police and said they acted stupidly in the incident involving Professor Gates.
	You know, that sort of set the tone for, I think, politicians without knowing all the facts, without being truthful about the facts, taking to their bully pulpit and saying things to the American people that are divisive in nature and that serve only to further a political agenda.
	And I think in the case of the Obama administration, one could make the argument that it was an intentional decision to create a racial divide, even though he wants to now claim that we are more racially unified than ever under his administration.
	You know, let me move on if I can, and I want to ask you both about the president's.
	I thought this was a shameless act of self-promotion last night and how sad it is he didn't have any real accomplishments he can speak of.
	And what a lot of people don't seem to understand yet in the country is within the first hours of a Trump administration, all the executive orders, because he didn't want to fight through Congress and he doesn't believe in separation of powers and co-equal branches of government, so he ruled through executive fiat.
	Well, the problem with governing that way is all of this will be undone in the first few hours of Donald Trump's administration.
	And Obamacare will be repealed and replaced at the same time, which I'm glad Donald Trump pushed for.
	But here is the real record, and I brought it up yesterday here, and I brought it up on TV last night.
	He will leave office with $20 trillion in debt.
	He will have accumulated more debt than every other president before him combined.
	His regulation paperwork is 583 million hours.
	His payment to Iran in the hostage deal and the bribery deal, $1.5 billion.
	His Criminal Aliens Act or criminal illegal aliens released were $86,288 just in a two-year period from 2013 to 2015.
	The new federal regulations finalized since he took office, 2,988.
	The average increase in college costs, nearly $5,000 at four-year public colleges.
	And if you're a Democrat, you lost the presidency, 13 Senate seats, 64 House seats, 13 governorships, and 33 state houses.
	That is not a record to be proud of.
	So then, is that the reason he went to the issue of race as hard as he did last night?
	How do you explain what he was saying about race last night when race relations got worse?
	Race relations absolutely did get worse.
	I mentioned the incident in Cambridge.
	Go forward just a few years later to the incident involving Trayvon Martin.
	Of course, you know, George Zimmerman was found not guilty, but before an investigation was even done, President Obama weighs in and says, if I had a son, he would look like Trayvon.
	And so he basically, time and time and time again, even going up to the Ferguson situation, which, of course, led to widespread rioting, he says things without investigating, without knowing the facts.
	He creates division and then has the audacity to go on national television and say that race relations under his administration are much better than they have been in, I think, 20 years is what he said to George Stephanopoulos just a couple of days ago.
	So it just defies all credibility.
	And then you could even talk about, you know, you lifted a long laundry list of mine, and I was trying to keep up.
	I've got a list that includes most of that, but you've got the Bo Bergdahl situation, swapping for Taliban 5 and all sorts of other things.
	He's alienated.
	But I haven't even mentioned that Iran and China and North Korea and the Russian reset in Benghazi and Egypt and Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria.
	I mean, there's not a single place in the world that's better off.
	But I've got to let you both go, Kerry.
	Thank you, Philip.
	Thank you.
	We appreciate it.
	News roundup and information overload.
	Michael Cohn was not in Prague.
	It turns out it's another Michael Cohn.
	Journalism is dead, and Donald Trump buried it earlier today in what I thought was one of the best press conferences I've ever seen in my life.
	He eviscerated them, and it wasn't hard.
	What you had this morning about are we living in Nazi Germany?
	What were you driving at there?
	What are you trying to tell them?
	I think it was disgraceful.
	Disgraceful.
	That the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake out.
	I think it's a disgrace.
	And I say that.
	And that's something that Nazi Germany would have done and did do.
	I think it's a disgrace that information that was false and fake and never happened got released to the public.
	As far as BuzzFeed, which is a failing pile of garbage, writing it, I think they're going to suffer the consequences they already are.
	And as far as CNN going out of their way to build it up.
	And by the way, we just found out I was coming down.
	Michael Cohn, I was being, Michael Cohn is a very talented lawyer.
	He's a good lawyer in my firm.
	It was just reported that it wasn't this Michael Cohn they were talking about.
	So all night long, it's Michael Cohn.
	I said, I want to see your passport.
	He brings his passport to my office.
	I say, hey, wait a minute.
	He didn't leave the country.
	He wasn't out of the country.
	That Michael Cohn of the Trump organization was in Prague.
	It turned out to be a different Michael Cohn.
	It's a disgrace what took place.
	It's a disgrace.
	And I think they ought to apologize to start with Michael Cohn.
	Sir, since you're attacking us, can you give us a question?
	No, Mr. President-elect, go ahead.
	Mr. President-elect, since you are attacking our news.
	Can you give us a chance?
	Your organization.
	You are attacking our news organization.
	Your organization.
	Can you give us a chance to ask a question, sir?
	Go ahead.
	Sir, can you stay quiet?
	Mr. President-elect, go ahead.
	I'm just asking a question.
	President-elect, can you give us a question?
	Don't be attacking us.
	Can you give us a question?
	Don't be retired.
	I'm not going to give you a question.
	I'm not going to give you a question.
	Can you stay categorized?
	You are fake news.
	Sir, can you state categorically that nobody?
	No, Mr. President-elect, that's not appropriate.
	Oh, Mr. President-elect, that's not appropriate.
	That was Jim Acosta at CNN, and it is fake news.
	There's no corroboration.
	And I said in 08 repeatedly, because the media never covered Barack Obama's radical and extremist background with Acorn and being a disciple of Alinsky and Frank Marshall Davis, really 20 years in the pulpit, in the pews of the pulpit of GD America and Pastor Reverend Wright hating America, but he didn't know, and starting his political career in the home of an unrepentant terrorist.
	He only got asked about that one time.
	One time, Barack Obama, in 08.
	And I said, Journalism is dead in 08.
	And today, Donald J. Trump buried it because there's no honesty, no truthfulness, no integrity whatsoever.
	Michael Cohn is in the studio with us.
	He's an executive vice president, special counsel to Donald J. Trump, and also, full disclosure, a personal friend of mine long before this election ever started.
	I retweeted.
	Well, there goes my reputation now, Sean.
	If it couldn't have been worse as a result of this fake wording, you got to start.
	You got to start it right away.
	You know, I'm feeling really good now, thanks to Mr. Trump.
	You know, there's that old expression: where do you go to get your reputation back?
	You go to Donald Trump, who then has a press conference in front of the entire world who's watching it, and he turns around and he tells CNN, who did a disgraceful thing, not just to Mr. Trump, but to me as well, that they owe all of us an apology.
	They owe the American people an apology.
	You know, you're mostly a behind-the-scenes guy, but you did come out and do interviews this election season.
	And I know it's not your first love because you've worked for Donald Trump all these years behind the scenes, and I know the type of person you are.
	You roll up your sleeves every day, you go to work, you do your 14, 16 hours a day, and you go home, and there's a lot of work to do at home.
	Interesting because there's a tremendous number of people, even before the campaign, that come after Donald Trump.
	For whatever the reason may be, I feel very loyal to him, to the company, to the children, Melania.
	And I got to be honest with you, it needs to stop.
	The man won the election.
	Let him be the great Donald Trump president of the United States of America that he will be.
	This actually hurts you.
	I'm looking at you, and I know you so well.
	This affects you.
	This affected you.
	Well, because it doesn't affect me personally, but it affects me now because it affected my wife, my children, my in-laws.
	And it's based on fake news.
	They did it in order to create a salacious story that they can run with over and over and over again.
	I mean, breaking news.
	Michael Cohen in Prague with Kremlin GSO agents.
	Well, shouldn't somebody have at least called me and asked me, were you ever in Prague?
	Because the answer is no.
	Well, last night, well, I checked with you, and then I saw your tweet, and then I retweeted your passport.
	And then all of these news people, I went back later and I looked at what some of the comments were.
	Well, the passport's not open, Hannity.
	And I'm like, okay, but it's been confirmed by Michael Cohn, and I've known him for years.
	And I happen to know where you are.
	Because we went over the date.
	Because your son is a top recruit in Major League Baseball.
	He's a pitcher.
	He's tried out for the Yankees, the Mets.
	I don't want to tell all the teams.
	were out in Los Angeles and he was in a tryout.
	That's correct.
	He was meeting with a baseball coach.
	And you have sent me many videos of your son pitching and he's an amazing pitcher, talented pitcher, and you spent a lot of time, as much free time as you have with him.
	And you were out there at the given time.
	You were supposed to be in Prague.
	Right.
	It happened to also be my 50th birthday.
	Right.
	And my daughter was already out there with some friends.
	So instead of having her come back, and we needed to go to the school in order to meet because my son's only 17, a junior in school.
	So we went out there.
	And I have a thousand friends that live in L.A.
	So all of a sudden now at this time, I'm in Prague.
	And I'm saying if they would have called me, I would have explained to them.
	I've never been to Prague.
	I've also never been to Russia.
	I don't mean to laugh, but I mean, it's got to be a little disconcerting.
	And then when it came out this morning, oh, that was some other Michael Cohen.
	What a shocker that there's another Michael Cohen.
	Can a Michael Cohen who's listening to your show right now call in?
	I told you this before.
	One of my best friends growing up was named Michael Cohn.
	What a shocker.
	What a shock.
	I've never heard that name before.
	It's so uncommon.
	I'm sure you had a lot of Sean Hannity friends.
	No, I didn't.
	No, you don't even have one now, do you?
	I'm trying to get rid of you.
	I bet you will.
	Sean, Sean, you have been, in all fairness, you have been a beacon for Mr. Trump, for the campaign.
	And it's very rare that people thank you because everybody's so busy, especially now in the transition.
	But on behalf of, obviously, Mr. Trump, the campaign myself, you actually deserve a thank you.
	And America is going to thank you after Donald Trump proves to be the great president that he's going to be.
	Number one, I made a promise to my audience, and I kept my promise.
	And number two, Michael, in spite of what people think and write about me, I'm a guy that two decades of my life did blue-collar work.
	And I remember where I come from, and I have a belief in God.
	And I could tell you that the agenda that he's proposing, originalists on the court, vetting refugees, repatriation money coming back from multinational corporations at a low rate, energy independence, seven brackets to three, a 15% corporate rate, one of the lowest in the industrialized world versus one of the highest.
	And energy independence and education back to the states and protecting our borders and having a foreign policy that's built on predicated on strength.
	And don't forget about rebuilding the inner cities.
	Look at behind you.
	See, the Conservative Solution Caucus, that's 2014.
	Yeah, let's also not forget about rebuilding the inner cities.
	Which you, by the way, you introduced me to Pastor Darrell Scott, who's become one of my best friends.
	That's correct.
	That's the type of person that Daryl is.
	I met Darryl in 2011 at a big meeting that was put together by evangelists, Paula White, well, Dr. Creflo Dollar and others.
	You put Darrell and all this together, the diversity coalition you built.
	We have over 12 million people with the recent now addition of a gentleman that was no fan of Mr. Trump's initially, Javier Palomares from the USHCC, the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
	And I gave him my commitment that this administration wants to work with everyone.
	What's the goal?
	Mr. Trump's goal is, well, is always to win.
	But Mr. Trump's goal is to do whatever is necessary to make America great again, to put Americans first.
	And that includes Hispanics.
	It includes African Americans.
	It includes Sikhs and Muslims.
	Donald Trump has no animus towards anyone.
	And that was the basis of what the National Diversity Coalition for Trump was all about.
	And we are now over 12 million strong and growing every day.
	Is there anybody that you know of possibly within the campaign or around Donald Trump or maybe at the third, fourth, fifth, sixth level down that anybody knows, talk to anybody in Russia?
	No.
	No.
	There's no relationship.
	The last time that there was any activity between the Trump organization, actually really wasn't even the Trump organization.
	It was the Miss Universe pageant was held in Moscow six years ago.
	Yeah, a long time ago.
	Yeah, six years ago.
	Yeah.
	What do you make of, and you and I had a private you know the reason, Sean, why they did it?
	Because the whole hacking issue was coming to arrest Kellyanne Conway, who's fabulous, and Sean Spicer, another fantastic guy, put this whole nonsense to bed, and they didn't want it to go to bed.
	So how do you bring it back to life?
	Oh, you recreate a relationship between Mr. Trump and Putin, and then you create some sort of salacious story which reads like a bad the Americans episode and you run with it, which is exactly what CNN did.
	And I'll say it a thousand times.
	From Jeff Zucker all the way to, you know, to you name it, whichever a host is doing it, they owe Mr. Trump an apology, they owe my family an apology, and they owe the American people an apology.
	And your listeners should demand it.
	I agree, but I wouldn't hold your breath because that's not how these news organizations work.
	They double down on stupid.
	That tends to be the trend that we see.
	And you know, you can never fight.
	WikiLeaks, you know, a lot of people were upset that I actually went to London and the Ecuadorian embassy and I interviewed Julian Assange and I asked him point blank, did you ever talk to Donald Trump?
	No.
	Any surrogate of Donald Trump's?
	No.
	Did you ever talk to Vladimir Putin?
	No.
	Did you ever talk to anybody else?
	No.
	That's associated with Putin.
	Now, all I can do is ask the questions.
	And at least that gives people information and an opportunity to decide for themselves.
	And WikiLeaks has never been wrong in 10 years.
	BuzzFeed was wrong yesterday and CNN was wrong yesterday.
	Yes, and they've been wrong throughout the entire campaign.
	And it's not the first time that CNN has done this.
	What do you make?
	What do you have the collusion we discovered how they betrayed Bernie Sanders, how questions were given to Hillary before town halls and debates, how the media from the New York Times, Political, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and all these big news organizations, with the exclusion of Fox.
	Could you imagine if I ever gave Donald Trump questions before an interview with him?
	Even though I'm a partisan, I'm somebody that gives my opinion.
	They would go nuts.
	Of course they would go nuts because it's not what they want.
	They only see it the way that they want to see it.
	There's no rational reason for giving somebody a question in advance to a debate.
	You ruin the purpose of a debate.
	And it's unfair.
	And this is as just one example amongst many of CNN and the Democratic Party's failure.
	And the American people see this failure.
	And it's why Donald Trump won in a landslide victory.
	Let me ask you this, Ben Smith of BuzzFeed, and I tweeted out last night.
	I said, this isn't going to end well for CNN.
	I said, I hashtag CNN EpicFail.
	Did you see that, Ethan?
	Yeah.
	Anyway, well, as you've probably seen this evening, this is Ben Smith.
	We published a secret dossier making explosive, unverified allegations about Donald Trump in Russia.
	I want to briefly explain to you how we made the decision to publish it.
	We published it, which Ken Bensinger obtained through a characteristically ferocious reporting so that, as we wrote, Americans can make up their own mind.
	Don't they have an obligation to vet the material?
	Especially if it includes such salacious information about prostitutes and I'll use the words in the dossier, golden showers for crying out loud.
	Personally, I would have liked to have seen Mr. Trump give out golden shower heads to the press today at the meeting.
	I thought that would have been classic.
	I think he gave a pretty big beatdown of the money.
	Let me tell you, he sure did.
	And good for Mr. Trump.
	It's why I love the man as much as I do and why I respect him the way I do.
	This man doesn't back down to anyone.
	He's not going to back down to government leaders.
	He's not going to back down to pressure.
	They don't even have to handle him.
	Why should they?
	He's going to charge through to get his agenda done and it's going to put money in the pockets of every American.
	He's going to rebuild the economy.
	He's going to bring jobs back.
	He's going to go through repatriation, as you talked about.
	Energy independence, repealing, replacing Obamacare.
	By the way, these are all terrible, terrible things.
	These are terrible things for America.
	We should be energy-dependent, right?
	Should allow the Middle East to continue to skyrocket prices of oil so that they can get rich, that we can end up going broke, which is exactly what we are.
	We should be protecting the whole world free of charge.
	Donald Trump thinks like what he is.
	He's an amazing businessman.
	He has a mind which is very different than that of the standard politician.
	And he is done.
	It's why he ran.
	He said, I can actually fix this country.
	I know what I'm doing.
	And as we learned today, he's giving up a lot of money.
	He sure is.
	A lot of money.
	And you would know more of the details.
	And let me tell you, can you give me the name of that guy that he was going to do the $2 billion deal with?
	I'll take it.
	Sure, because he wants to open up a Hannity hotel.
	Bring your own towels and soap.
	And bring some shampoo from somebody else's hotel.
	You know, I can only imagine the abusive comments I'd get if I was a CNN host right now.
	You're on the bottom of the bottom.
	Though I do have to say, I saw a segment Jake Tapper did where he argued on behalf that this is wrong and that they weren't doing it yesterday.
	No, that he was not doing it.
	Oh, no, he was full hysteria mode yesterday.
	So he's covering his ass today.
	Well, you know what?
	I'm thankful that at least he's covering.
	Oh, okay.
	But today.
	You know what?
	At least somebody from CNN has no excuse for what they did.
	CNN put out a statement today.
	It was disgusting.
	Listen, Mike, I'm going to send you a My Pillow.
	I know you.
	You didn't sleep an hour last night, did you?
	No, again, because I know you.
	And it's not because of the attacks on me.
	I have very thick skin.
	It's not a problem.
	You're worried about your family.
	Sure.
	And it's wrong to do to somebody else's family.
	So Mike Lindell's the inventor of My Pillow, and he's a personal friend of mine.
	I have insomnia.
	I've spoken to you, I think, at three in the morning before.
	But anyway, so since I've got my pillow, I do fall asleep faster.
	I stay asleep longer.
	I am going to mail two My Pillows to your house so you can get some rest.
	You look pretty stressed out after a night of no sleep.
	We do appreciate you.
	And you know what?
	I can actually use those pillows, and I'm going to tell you why, because I have lost a lot of sleep, and I continue to lose a lot of sleep because my mind can't shut down.
	I'm looking to see the things that they've done over the course of the last couple of weeks or the last 24, 48 hours.
	And I'm concerned that they're going to continue this nonsense once Mr. Trump is inaugurated.
	You and I have discussed this.
	They are going to try to destroy Donald Trump.
	And there's no other words that need to be spoken.
	And I'm going to make this statement to your audience.
	There's no way in the world I'm going to let it happen.
	Well, you know, you're kind of like Linda to me.
	It's her job to worry.
	It's my job to do my show and her to clean up the mess.
	You really look out for Mr. Trump, I think, more than he looks out for himself.
	But anyway, you can get your very own MyPillow.
	MyPillow.com, 800-919-6090.
	Promo code Hannity, you'll get two for the price of one.
	MyPillow, the official pillow of the National Sleep Foundation.
	Good news: U.S. Jobs, it's made here in the USA, has a 60-day unconditional money-back guarantee and a 10-year warranty, where you can spend more sleepless nights staring at the ceiling or watching Hillary Clinton's speech reruns on a pillow that does not work for you.
	Or go to mypillow.com or call 800-919-6090.
	Mention my name, Hannity, two for the price of one.
	The day those pillows arrive, Michael Cohn, you'll start getting the kind of peaceful, restful, comfortable, deep healing, recuperative sleep you've been craving and deserve.
	Mypillow.com, promo code Hannity.
	Michael, good to see you.
	Thank you.
	We'll see you on TV tonight.
	Yes, thank you so much, Sean.
	When we come back, wide open telephones here on the Sean Hannity Show.
	On that intelligence report, the second part of their conclusion was that Vladimir Putin ordered it because he aspired to help you in the election.
	Do you accept that part of the finding?
	And will you undo what President Obama did to punish the Russians for this or will you keep it in place?
	If Putin likes Donald Trump, I consider that an asset, not a liability.
	Because we have a horrible relationship with Russia.
	Russia can help us fight ISIS, which, by the way, is number one tricky.
	I mean, if you look, this administration created ISIS by leaving at the wrong time.
	The void was created.
	ISIS was formed.
	If Putin likes Donald Trump, guess what, folks?
	That's called an asset, not a liability.
	I don't know that I'm going to get along with Vladimir Putin.
	I hope I do, but there's a good chance I won't.
	And if I don't, do you honestly believe that Hillary would be tougher on Putin than me?
	Does anybody in this room really believe that?
	Give me a break.
	If you indeed do believe that Russia was behind the hacking, what is your message to Vladimir Putin right now?
	He shouldn't be doing it.
	He won't be doing it.
	Russia will have much greater respect for our country when I'm leading it than when other people have led it.
	You will see that.
	Russia will respect our country more.
	He shouldn't have done it.
	I don't believe he'll be doing it more now.
	We have to work something out.
	But it's not just Russia.
	Take a look at what's happened.
	You don't report it the same way.
	22 million accounts were hacked in this country by China.
	And that's because we have no defense.
	That's because we're run by people that don't know what they're doing.
	Russia will have far greater respect for our country when I'm leading it.
	And I believe, and I hope, maybe it won't happen.
	It's possible.
	But I won't be given a little reset button like Hillary.
	Here, press this piece of plastic.
	I looked at her like, what is she doing?
	There's no reset button.
	We're either going to get along or we're not.
	I hope we get along.
	But if we don't, that's possible too.
	Does anybody in this room believe that Hillary Clinton would be tougher on Russia than me?
	I've got to admit, it was the most entertaining, and it was probably the biggest public beatdown of the mainstream media.
	You've got Jim Acosta.
	CNN is now trying to publish a statement distancing themselves from the entire BuzzFeed report.
	You know, especially the headline on Drudge All Day is a picture of CNN.
	You are fake news, both BuzzFeed and CNN.
	Went public with these reports that a British intelligence official had compiled memos.
	By the way, the beginning in the hiring started in the primary process with Republicans doing op research on Donald Trump.
	And then it was picked up by the Democratic Party doing op research on Donald Trump.
	That's where it all came from.
	And none of it has been confirmed.
	And it says it hasn't been confirmed.
	And I actually tweeted out last night, and I thought I was being very respectful, probably more than maybe I should be, but I was trying to be very respectful to Ben Smith, who's over at BuzzFeed.
	And my message to him was kind of pretty simple.
	And that is, Ben, verified, Michael Cohn, because I talked to Michael Cohn.
	Michael Cohn's a friend of mine.
	Michael Cohn put out his press release, was never there.
	And I asked this respectfully.
	This is what I said on Twitter.
	I asked this respectfully.
	Why not wait till you confirm before you publish?
	And for all the attacks on WikiLeaks, they have 10 years of accuracy without a single incident of them being proven wrong.
	Hanity, you once said Wikileaks and Julian is, I know, I've dealt with it with him a hundred times.
	I have.
	Does that mean I trust Russia?
	Hell no.
	China?
	Hell no.
	Putin?
	Hell no.
	Iran, North Korea?
	No, they're all hacking us.
	And that's why I've gone through every government agency, and I was glad to see Donald Trump mention the Office of Personnel Management because that happened in 2014, where they got Laura Ingram, Jonathan Gillums, Pete Friends of mine, Ron Christie, all friends of mine.
	All their information was hacked.
	22 million Americans, and not a single thing was said by President Obama.
	The White House hacked.
	Not a single thing said by Obama.
	The State Department hacked.
	The Department of Justice hacked.
	Even the Postal Service and the IRS, basically every government agency had been hacked.
	Every single one.
	WikiLeaks has been reporting for 10 years now.
	Some point, when do you say that it's the fault of our government for not defending government websites?
	And Obama hasn't done a thing.
	You know, and Ben Smith over at BuzzFeed, well, he says, here's the note I sent to BuzzFeed and the staff this evening and why we decided to reveal the secret dossier and the explosive, unverified allegations about Donald Trump and Russia.
	Really?
	Hookers?
	In a Ritz Carlton in Moscow or wherever the hell it was and golden showers?
	Maybe Donald Trump, the germ phobe, might have given you a little bit of hesitancy there and you can't verify it and you're just going to throw it out there.
	Now, I guess if it happened, you know, and I guess if there's really a videotape of it, yeah, that's going to hurt Donald Trump.
	But as he said today, it's fake news.
	And as Michael Cohn said, it's fake news.
	And, you know, I don't want to sound and pat myself on the back.
	I had to explain to people last night because Andrew Carell, who I also know, and I don't have anything against the guy, used to work for Media.
	He said, Hannity, that's a closed passport, my dude.
	And I wrote Andrew, I confirmed with him.
	I actually made the phone call.
	I think it was a text, actually.
	I don't remember calling him.
	Another guy writes me, hey, dip shoot.
	You can enter Prague from any point in the U.E.U. And I wrote back, hey, dip shoot.
	At least I confirmed with a source, Michael Cohn, that he was never there.
	And his passport shows he was never there, meaning in Europe.
	Michael Cohn, I retweeted, I've never been to Prague in my life.
	I mean, it's hilarious.
	If it wasn't so outrageous, but it's fake news.
	You know what else was fake news?
	Everything that you heard reported in the 2016 election cycle.
	What do you mean, Hannity?
	You're a bitter partisan.
	I contend we're more accurate on this program with information that I give you about all the government agencies that were hacked, information I gave about the Obama economy last night and Obama's failures that he didn't talk about last night than the mainstream media.
	You know, I don't even know what else to say.
	At some point, we've got to recognize we have an information crisis.
	Now, I'm a believer in free speech.
	I believe that these guys can print everything they want.
	But the fact that these are so-called credible news organizations, who owns BuzzFeed?
	Isn't it NBC, Comcast Universal?
	I think they own it.
	You know, people got mad at me.
	Why?
	Because I got in an airplane.
	I flew a total of, what, 16, 18 hours, was on the ground for six hours, and I can't think of a single question I should have asked Julian Assange that I didn't ask him.
	Now, maybe you say, okay, he's not credible, but at least you got to hear him deny that he ever talked to Putin.
	It's on the record that he never talked to a Putin surrogate.
	It's on the record that he never talked to Donald Trump or Donald Trump surrogate.
	At least it's on the record, and nobody else in the media seemed to want to do this.
	Can I ask you this?
	Have you ever talked to Vladimir Putin?
	No.
	Have you ever talked to any of his surrogates?
	No.
	Have you ever talked to Donald Trump?
	No.
	Any of his surrogates?
	No.
	Not one.
	There was some report that you might have talked to somebody who was not associated with the campaign, Roger Stone.
	No, that's false.
	I think where this Roger Stone claim is coming from is there's a radio guy on WBAI, which is a mutual friend, He wanted to come and see me to see if I would set up a radio show on WBAI, but he didn't.
	He did come to London, but he didn't meet with me.
	So last night, as I was heading home, I made a decision, an editorial decision, because I've learned a lot in my career.
	I learned a lot when I was in Atlanta and the Richard Jewell case.
	And everybody in the media, he fits the Atlanta Journal Constitution at the time.
	They profiled him.
	He fits the profile of a lone bomber.
	After all, he lives with his mother.
	It ended up that Richard Jewell was a hero.
	And I never forget, I learned such a valuable lesson.
	That was in 1996, early in my career, 20 years ago now.
	That 20 years ago?
	Yeah.
	Okay.
	My math is good.
	And one day, Richard Jewell gave me the first interview with him after it all settled out.
	And he said, that day when the Atlanta Journal Constitution came out with that story, I was listening to you on the radio show that you do.
	And I heard you say, just because he lives with his mother does not make him, does not fit a profile and is not evidence.
	And he said, you were the only one that defended me at a time when everybody in the country thought I was the bomber at the Olympic Center in Atlanta.
	I learned a lesson there.
	When Barack Obama rushed to judgment without any due process, without any evidence presented, in the Cambridge case, in the Ferguson case, in the Baltimore case, in the Trayvon Martin case, I call him a four-time loser as a constitutional attorney and the president of the United States of America.
	He ought to know better.
	But because it advanced the narrative he wanted to advance and it was a high profile and had a racial component, he went forward with it.
	Then he's lecturing us last night on all issues involving race relations, which have gotten infinitely worse since he's been president.
	But in each one of those cases, I never rushed to judgment.
	In each one of those cases, I waited for the facts to be presented.
	And lo and behold, Hannity interviewed George Zimmerman, had the first interview at the time.
	Barbara Walters was down trying to get it from me, and she didn't get it.
	She applauded me, though, on the view.
	And I asked every question I could then.
	And I remember, I think I have a pretty good read on people.
	I just knew that Zimmerman was telling the truth.
	That was my take.
	Kept it to myself, but I thought it would come out.
	And then all of a sudden, you get an eyewitness to the case that saw Trayvon Martin, identified him grounding and pounding George Zimmerman's head into concrete, and that George Zimmerman was the one that was screaming for his life on that tape, and he was acquitted.
	Just like the whole story of Michael Brown came out, and the whole story of Freddie Gray came out.
	And then the president had that stupid beer summit years ago.
	Last night, I tweeted this after my TV show.
	It had to be after 11.
	I said, at WikiLeaks, 10 years is a pretty impressive record because they have not got anything wrong in 10 years.
	It's pretty impressive.
	It exposed a lot of corruption in our media and how we have no cybersecurity.
	If we would learn from it and we build cybersecurity, there wouldn't be WikiLeaks, at least for the United States, maybe for other countries.
	And then I said, I read the BuzzFeed News disclaimer, and then I wrote this last night.
	How this plays out will be interesting.
	My bet, meaning my prediction, and I hashtag CNNEpic Fail because I saw with the breathlessness and hysteria by which they were reporting the story yesterday.
	And from literally the time I got off the air at 6 o'clock until I got back on the air at 10 o'clock, nothing made sense.
	It didn't fit.
	The disclaimers, the way they wrote it, I looked at the dossier.
	I did all of that.
	And the only mentions I made were casual.
	I'm like, oh, everyone's running with this story.
	It's going to be interesting.
	But I refused to do it.
	Now, I get accused of being a partisan.
	I don't hide the fact that I'm a conservative.
	Do I?
	Have I ever.
	You think everybody now in America, I've been on the radio 30 years, Linda.
	I've been in TV at Fox.
	This is my 21st year.
	You think anybody doesn't know that I am a conservative?
	Is that a big surprise?
	But it's interesting.
	We did their work in 07 and 08.
	I remember people thought I was going too far.
	Friends of mine said I'm ruining my career by investigating the radical associations that Obama had, you know, with Frank Marshall Davis, an Alinskyite disciple, Acorn, who Acorn was, what black liberation theology is, his closeness to the church of GD America, sat in the pews for 20 years.
	The Reverend Wright, he is like family to me, but I had no idea he was such a bigot and hated America so much.
	No, no, no, not God bless America.
	GD America.
	America's chickens come home to roost after 9-11.
	I was the only person that saw something as radically wrong that he announced his political career in the home of an unrepentant domestic terrorist.
	I thought it was very strange that he stayed friends with him and sat on boards with him and gave speeches with him.
	And then I'm accused of being partisan.
	I'm doing their job.
	This is what they ought to be doing.
	Anyway, we're going to have full coverage.
	I'm going to do a media takedown tonight in my opening monologue.
	And then we've got, we've got such a good show tonight.
	Then we've got Newt Gingrich.
	Then we've got Michael Cohen on tonight.
	Then we got Laura Ingram is back tonight.
	Ari Fleischer is back tonight.
	And then we're going to look at all of the measures Donald Trump has taken to get rid of any appearance of impropriety.
	Herman Kane, Anthony Scaramucci, will join us for that.
	And Sheriff David Clark will join us about all these horrific things that are being said about Senator Jeff Sessions, 10 Eastern.
	You want smart political talk without the meltdowns?
	We got you.
	I'm Carol Markowitz, and I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
	We've been around the block in media and we're doing things differently.
	Normally is about real conversations.
	Thoughtful, try to be funny, grounded, and no panic.
	We'll keep you informed and entertained without ruining your day.
	Join us every Tuesday and Thursday, normally, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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