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Feb. 17, 2017 - Sean Hannity Show
01:51:02
The Trump Press Conference - 2.16
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Welcome to the Sean Hannity Show.
It's Mark Simone here for Sean.
Happy to fill in.
I just found out about it ten minutes ago, but that's okay.
Uh Sean is putting together a big, big special program tonight for television.
Uh 10 o'clock Eastern time, Fox News Channel.
BB Netanyahu will be a part of it.
Paul Ryan will be a part of it.
Exclusive stuff tonight, 10 o'clock, Fox News Channel, Hannity.
Don't miss it.
Hey, uh, if you're just tuning in, I mean not on this show, but just tuning in on uh if you've been busy working or you've been involved in something and now you just want to get caught up, uh, an amazing event took place this afternoon uh at the White House.
Now, I have uh been uh a little concerned the last couple of weeks uh as uh Donald Trump went into the White House, became the president.
I uh and I've been thinking about this for the last week, got kind of lost in there.
You'd see him occasionally in a formal statement or something, but it was uh always Sean Spicer or somebody else.
And I've been thinking to myself, where's that Donald Trump that we saw every night on the campaign trail?
You know, when you read all these attacks, all these vicious, ugly attacks, this nitpicking, the whole mainstream media banging away at him day and night.
The one thing during the campaign, you'd put on those rallies or those press conferences, you watch him speak for an hour, and you'd really hear him.
You'd hear him loud and clear and not all this other stuff.
But lately it's been all the other stuff, and when you hear him, it's for a little 30-second clip or a minute.
So uh every day there's that press conference at Sean Spicer Press Conference.
So today, everybody was a bit surprised when Donald Trump announced he would do the press conference at 12, and then 12 became 1230, and then it was about 1245, and he started.
So we thought maybe uh he was gonna come out and make some sort of an announcement, but no, he just came out and he did the press conference himself, personally.
Uh, East Room of the White House, big, huge press conference.
I mean a lot of press.
And this went on for quite a long time.
An hour and eighteen minutes.
And it was a tour de force.
It was brilliant.
It was unbelievable.
He's got to do this at least once a week, maybe two, three times a week.
We'll play a clips from it.
You're not gonna believe how good it was.
Somebody obviously said to him what I was thinking, what I was concerned about.
Somebody obviously they've been talking about it, and somebody just said to him, or maybe he said it himself, somebody said, go back to the candidate.
Go back to the campaign trail.
Be what you were on the campaign trail.
Don't worry about anything.
Just go out there, be yourself, do exactly what you did on the campaign trail.
Now you might say as that was what's that little worm there.
What's that a little wormy guy?
Brian Stelter, the little wormy guy on the CNN as soon as this is not presidential.
You got like a little beaver gnawing away.
Not presidential.
You know what?
If the president is doing it, obviously it's presidential.
And you have to remember this.
He did that on the campaign trail for a year and a half.
He put that on display, so he's not fooling anybody.
That was well on display for a year and a half, and people voted him in.
So if that's what they voted for, that's what they should get.
And it was amazing to watch.
Now, if you were to go uh on Facebook or if you were to go somewhere, uh the uh crazy uh liberal friends of yours, uh or the people that live in the bubble, uh all over Facebook, frightening.
It was unhinged, it was uh it was scary.
I mean, uh we're gonna have nightmares over so but if you go to the other side and listen to your friends, that was brilliant, that was real, that was authentic.
It was an amazing uh thing.
And now you you think back if anybody can remember this far back, but in the beginning of the Bush administration, do you remember Rumsfeld would sort of do this?
Not with this kind of skill, and not on this level, but Rumsfeld would come out and be pretty candid and pretty blunt, and he'd take on the reporters, and I don't know if you remember this, but in the early stages of the war, he was a major television attraction.
Even the New York Times and Maureen Dowd, they used to write these columns about how he'd become a matinee idol every day.
It became must-see TV.
Everybody would watch these Rumsfeld briefings.
Now, as the war uh didn't go so well, then they came to hate Rumsfeld.
But Trump should do this at least, President Trump.
I keep forgetting, President Trump.
At least once a week he should do this.
Don't do it every day, because then you become like Alec Baldwin, where eh, it was funny.
Okay, now 97th time, it's tired, it's exhausted, stop doing the same sketch.
Uh okay, let's take a listen to some of this.
If you missed it, it was great.
He he's been accused recently of uh only taking questions from the uh uh the friendly press and not the mainstream press.
This time he took on everybody.
That CNN moron, Acosta, when he I mean he and he engaged with them, he was great.
Um, let's just take a listen to some of these uh some of the press conference.
Uh now we first he was talking about the leakers, take a listen.
This morning, because many of our nation's reporters and folks will not tell you the truth and will not treat the wonderful people of our country with the respect that they deserve.
And I hope going forward we can be a little bit uh a little bit different, and maybe get along a little bit better if that's possible.
Maybe it's not, and that's okay too.
Unfortunately, much of the media in Washington, D.C., along with New York, Los Angeles in particular, speaks not for the people, but for the special interests and for those profiting off a very, very obviously broken system.
The press has become so dishonest that if we don't talk about it, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people.
Tremendous disservice.
We have to talk about it to find out what's going on, because the press honestly is out of control.
The level of dishonesty is out of control.
Pretty good.
All right.
Now that's kind of uh just a calm one.
But there were moments where he got very funny, he got very engaged.
Uh actually, let's see, let's go to uh do we have Jim Acosta?
That, yeah.
This is Jim Acosta, this CNN, uh left-wing uh, you know, hates Trump kind of a CNN guy.
You know, and everybody was wondering, will he call on uh CNN?
Last few times, no CNN.
He called him and took uh took the question.
The tone, Jim, if you look, the hatred, the I mean, sometimes sometimes somebody gets well, you look at your show that goes on at 10 o'clock in the evening.
You just take a look at that show.
That is a constant hit.
The panel is almost always exclusive anti-Trump.
The good news is he doesn't have good ratings.
But the panel is almost exclusive anti-Trump, and the hatred and venom coming from his mouth, the hatred coming from other people on your network.
Now, I will say this.
Uh I watch it.
I see it.
I'm amazed by it.
And I just think you'd be a lot better off.
I honestly do.
The public gets it, you know.
Look, when I go to rallies, they turn around, they start screaming at CNN.
They want to throw their placards at CNN.
You know, I I think you would do much better by being different.
But you just take a look.
Take a look at some of your shows.
In the morning and the evening.
If a guest comes out and says something positive about me, it's it's brutal.
Now they'll take this news conference.
I'm actually having a very good time.
Okay.
But they'll take this news conference.
Don't forget, that's the way I won.
Remember, I used to give you a news conference every time I made a speech, which was like every day.
Okay?
No, that's how I won.
I won with news conference and probably speeches.
I certainly didn't win by people listening to you people.
That's for sure.
But I'm having a good time.
Tomorrow they will say Donald Trump rants and raves at the press.
I'm not ranting and raving.
I'm just telling you, you know, you're dishonest people.
But but I'm not ranting and raving.
I love this.
I'm having a good time doing it.
But tomorrow the headlines are going to be Donald Trump rants and rant.
I'm not ranting under sit down.
Just because of the just because of the attack of fake news and and uh attacking our network.
I just want to ask you, sir.
I'm changing it from fake news, though.
Doesn't that underminate very fake news?
I know.
Aren't you?
Go ahead.
Uh real news, Ms. President.
Real news.
And you're not related to our new uh I am not related, sir.
No.
I do like the sound of second.
I look at Acosta, I must.
You know, I looked at that name.
I said, wait a minute.
Is there any relation there?
Alex?
I'm sure you check that out.
No, I checked it.
I said they said, no, sir.
I said, do me a favor, go back and check the family tree.
Hey, it was great.
The whole thing was like that.
Candidate Trump back in action.
Uh and you know, I like right after the I listened to Rush right after.
Rush was thought it was wonderful, thought it was brilliant.
But you know, forget that.
I had to go to CNN.
Sure enough, there's the panel of idiots, the panel of uh haters.
And I before I could get the sound on, I could tell just from their faces.
Jake Tap, who's he may be Mr. Fake News, but he's a nice guy, Jake Tapper.
He had a look in his eyes of just a livid, vicious look in his eyes.
And that Brian Stelter, he's up on the monitor now.
Look at this.
It's an hour later.
He's still glaring.
He they are furious.
They are livid.
Even that Wolf Blitzer, who in real life is a nice pleasant guy, you could see steam coming out of every pore.
He they were furious.
So this was good.
This was excellent.
And sure enough, I brought up the sound in Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer were saying, presidential.
You can't behave.
A president cannot behave like this.
Why?
What's going to happen?
You know, you go back to your typical president, they just put on a totally fake persona.
You know, like when the um special prosecutors appointed and or there's an investigation and they cut to the president, they ask him, he always says, I I welcome this investigation.
You don't welcome this investigation.
Or uh we want them to look into this, or uh you know whatever you see that statement we stand by him completely, and the guy's fired the next day.
I think this is what people I know this is what people voted for.
Just be honest.
Just tell the truth.
Say what you really think.
You know, when you say it's not presidential.
What is so great about having a very formal, very guarded uh president, whoever uh Hillary Clinton-ish character where every word that comes out of their mouth, focus grouped, lawyered, checked.
Let the president just say what he really believes and what he really thinks.
It was an amazing, amazing uh press conference.
Now, I wonder what you think.
Uh call me up.
Uh and listen, if you're one of these people, I see all my Facebook friends frightening.
It was unhinged.
What a nightmare.
I I'm scared.
If you're one of those, if you're one of these snowflakes out there, call us.
Uh the number is 800-941-Shawn 800-941-Shawn.
It's Mark Simone here for Sean Hannity.
Follow me on Twitter, Mark Simone NY at Twitter.
Uh, and don't forget Hannity tonight.
That's where Sean is right now.
He's putting together very special program tonight.
Exclusive interview, B.B. Netanyahu.
Exclusive interview.
Paul Ryan, it's 10 o'clock tonight on the Fox News channel.
Oh, we got a lot of great uh people to talk to.
Uh Lou Dobbs, Ann Coulter, Larry Cudlow, and uh more coming up.
Mark Simone here for Sean Hannity.
Hey, welcome back.
It's the Sean Hannity Show.
Mark Simone here for Sean, the big news of the day, an amazing presidential press conference.
We'll be uh throughout the program.
We'll play you clips from it.
Uh did you hear about you know what Hillary Clinton did last night?
I don't know what's going on with these Clintons.
I don't know what they're trying to pull.
All of a sudden they're out on dates.
The uh Bill and Hillary they're in a scene in a restaurant uh they're going to Broadway shows so here in New York last night they go see this Broadway show Sunset Boulevard.
Do you remember that old movie?
It's a big Andrew Lloyd Weber musical version of Sunset Boulevard.
This is Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton.
You know the story Sunset Boulevard is about an old aging has been who used to be big and got all the big movie roles and now nobody's interested anymore.
She can't get the work like she's been forgotten about and uh what were they thinking?
Wouldn't somebody say to her, hey, you're opening yourself up for some jokes there.
And when they're sitting there watching this, and it's a story about this old woman.
She got too old.
She's a has-been.
Her career's washed up.
You don't think Bill Clinton leaned over and go, hey, who's that remind you of?
He's attacking my faith.
Sigh.
I love that one.
And that's where they put into the tele, they told her, you know, when you do this, then go, oh, like that.
But she read it right off the teleprompter.
The cue.
Sigh.
And you wonder why she lost.
The Russians must have just hacked right into her and made her screw that up.
I'm just chilling in Cedar Rapids.
Yeah, she sounded so authentic and real.
That's why Donald Trump is the president of the United States, among other reasons.
Just so real.
So authentic.
Let's see.
Let me see.
Cut nine.
This is, he's talking about Schumer and the Democrats.
Just listen to some of this press conference today.
we have an administration where the Democrats are making it very difficult I think we're setting a record or close to a record in the time of approval of a cabinet I mean the numbers are crazy when I'm looking some of them had to approved immediately I'm going forever and I still have a lot of people that we're waiting for.
And that's all they're doing is delaying.
And you look at Schumer and the mess that he's got over there and they have nothing going the only thing they can do is delay.
And you know I think they'd be better served by you know approving and making sure that they're happy and everybody's good and sometimes I mean I know President Obama lost three or four and you lose them on the way and that's okay that's fine.
But I think it would I think they would be much better served John if they just went through the process quickly.
This is pure delay tactics and they say it and everybody understands it.
Well it was a brilliant press conference and it was I don't know how long you figured that would go a half hour it went like an hour and eighteen minutes and every time you said okay just five minutes more it would go another 20 minutes he opened up he talked at length about the issues I'm watching CNN all they're covering is that he said hey I had the most electoral votes since Reagan they've pointed out this is not true that's a I've got graphics charts.
I think he meant uh most of any Republican since Reagan.
So, silly mistake, little nitpicky nothing.
This is all they're covering on CNN right now.
Anyway, we're going to play you the clips throughout the program.
So, you're going to love hearing this.
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Lou Dobbs, uh, Ann Coulter, uh, Larry Cudlow, Mark Levine will be here.
We'll all uh they'll all be commenting on this amazing Tour de Force of a press conference that took place uh just moments ago.
We'll get to that.
We'll get to um General Flynn.
Uh lots of stuff to talk about.
Uh also what's next?
There's a new executive order that he mentioned would be coming out today.
And the uh travel ban, the more careful vetting executive order, he did say they will rewrite it and it will be out soon.
It's Mark Simone here for Sean Hannity.
Don't forget big special edition of Hannity tonight.
Exclusive interview, BB Netanyahu and Paul Ryan tonight, driving liberals crazy.
Three hours a day, every day, the Sean Hannity show is back on the air.
Hey, welcome back.
It's Mark Simone here for Sean, to my great surprise, but uh he's putting together a big show, a big special show tonight, Fox News Channel on Hannity Tonight at 10 o'clock.
Exclusive interview with BB Netanyahu.
Uh exclusive interview with Paul Ryan.
I'm sure they will be uh besides interesting, they'll be breaking some big news on this program.
They're putting it together as we speak.
Uh with us right now, uh one of our favorite uh regular guests, Mark Levine, is uh a fascinating guy, Democrat.
Well, it can't be perfect, uh, from the Virginia House of Delegates, and uh let's talk to him about all that's happened today.
Mark Levine, how are you?
I'm good.
How are you, sir?
Very good.
I hope you got to see this amazing press conference that the president himself ran today for about an hour and a half.
Wasn't that a Tour de Force?
Oh, actually, I didn't know you're going to talk about the press conference.
I'm afraid I missed it, but I did hear that apparently You saw it.
You don't want to admit it was brilliant.
No, I I heard that he basically answered very complex questions with tweet worthy answers.
But I I did not actually see it, so I just gotta be honest with you there.
What is it with you people and the tweets?
He he drives these Democrats nuts with the tweets.
Well, you know, some of us like sophisticated answers to sophisticated questions rather than simplistic stuff.
Now, I was watching this, and he went into such detail about policy at great length, and then I'm watching CNN when all they covered was, hey, he was wrong about the electoral college number.
You guys do tend to nitpick them a little.
Why is he still talking about the election?
I mean, here his his national security advisor has just been fired because he had contacts with Russia, which committed espionage against the United States to get Donald Trump elected, and he's focused on the electoral college numbers.
I mean, I would think consorting with the enemy would be a bigger deal.
Apparently, what happened with Mike Flynn, we have the real story.
I don't know why, but he kept watching the clip of Obama over and over again when he whispered to the guy, do you left to the election with more flexibility?
And it's stuck in his head, and he blurted that out to a Russian guy.
Uh-huh.
So your your position is that Donald Trump knew nothing about Michael Flynn's contact with the Russians.
Because, you know, it's interesting.
Richard Nixon said he didn't know anything about the Watergate break-in, but the cover-up still got him removed from office.
So given that this cacking is far worse than anything that happened in Watergate, I'm just curious if it's your position that just uh Flynn didn't tell Trump what he was doing.
Is that what you think?
Uh I would think, since Flynn didn't do anything wrong, certainly not a crime what he did, since he didn't do anything wrong.
I would think if he got fired, it must have been that they didn't feel he came clean with them or told them everything.
But what he did was when he was talking to the Russian guy, he said, hey, after the election, you know, we'll work something out, which is what, of course, President Obama did.
We have the video, which is uh so the Clinton.
Oh, what happened?
I'm talking about uh whether or not Trump, through his emissaries, called on Russia to commit espionage against the United States, which uh some people might classify as treasonous.
Uh sure exactly what happened, but I do think we need to get to the bottom of it.
You feel that you would have to beg Russia to do espionage against the United States.
Otherwise they wouldn't be doing it.
You have to go ask them.
Please do some history.
We know they did it in order to get Donald Trump elected.
No one disputes any of that.
And I think that if Donald Trump's advice, no one no one disputes any.
That's right.
No one disputes it.
Except everybody.
No, no, no, no, no.
Even Donald Trump concedes now, he just did it for a long time, but he concedes now that Russia hacked in illegally committed espionage into what?
In order to get elected.
But did they hack in?
They hacked into the DNC to get Richard Dixon elected.
Okay, let me explain to you the difference.
Okay.
In uh Watergate, Woodward and Bernstein uncovered corruption at the RNC.
They were immediately given a Nobel Prize, a Pulitzer Prize, a parade, a book deal, a movie deal.
In this case, somebody hacked into the DNC, and they're the villain.
Hey, whoever hacked into the DNC, all they did was give them the transparency that they always claimed they would have.
So so your view is that the Watergate burglars who hacked into the DNC in the nineteen seventies were were heroes as well.
G. Gordon Liddy, your friend, I guess.
Uh, they were heroes uh when they broke in to try to plant bugs in the DNC?
No, I don't think so.
But what they were doing in the DNC was trying to get Larry O'Brien's uh they broke into Larry O'Brien's desk.
That was it.
But let me ask you a question.
Do you believe the Russians hacked into Donna Brazil and got her to steal debate questions?
Then they hacked into Debbie Wasserman Schultz, had her rig the debates and the primaries to screw up uh Bernie Sanders.
That didn't happen.
Uh you know, Donna Brazil and and and Ted Rossman Schultz, but the thing that did happen was yes, Russia did hack into private servers in order to get Donald Trump elected.
I mean, that's what every uh one of our intelligence services says.
No, actually, wait, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
That's even what Donald Trump didn't want to do.
Only one intelligence service has a report that says that.
The other seventeen signed off on it, but you'll notice nine of them would not give it full uh uh recommendation.
They had uh caution about it.
Not everybody gave it a full yes.
Well, how about this?
Uh can you agree with me that we need a full investigation into this to find out whether one of America's greatest enemies committed espionage to choose our president?
Do you think that's worthy of a of an investigation, or do you think it's not the one?
I was gonna go away for President's Day weekend, but I could cancel that.
We could do this if you want.
All right, so you think political investigation.
I just want to make clear here, because you know, there's some conservatives that are saying it doesn't matter if our greatest enemy hacked into us.
We really don't care.
As long as Donald Trump got elected, we don't care whether Putin did it or not.
But I gotta tell you there are a number of conservatives, and I include, you know, Lindsey Graham and John McCain and Frank and Michael Pand.
There's two objective guys.
He became vice president who said this is important stuff, and we need to know whether our greatest enemy, one of our greatest enemies, is is actually trying to influence our elections.
So I praise those Republicans that want to get to the bottom of this.
You should lie down and take a couple of aspirin.
Getting yourself worked up over this.
I think it matters when our enemies I mean, I'm not pro-Putin.
I don't know why Republicans you know Ronald Reagan used to be very much against the Russian dictatorship, and and I stood with him on that.
And I'm just surprised that so many Republicans are running away and defending Putin.
I just I've never seen it before, and it's kind of shocking to me.
Uh I must admit.
All right, I'll explain it.
First of all, nobody's defending Putin.
Uh second of all, nobody's buying this hacking story.
It could be that Hillary just screwed up the whole election.
I know Trump has not attacked Putin and he's always tried to say nice things in any interview, but uh Do you agree with him on that?
Well, I know I know what his president is, because I I know what his master plan is and why he's doing that.
Really?
What's his master plan?
Uh he's a negotiator.
He's always negotiating, and his thinking was uh oh, you guys are kind of screwing this up for him, but his thinking was always don't attack Putin is gonna make an attempt to separate Russia and Iran.
The only real strength Iran has is the alliance with Russia.
If he can separate Russia from Iran, it's gonna be a lot easier to deal with Iran then.
So that's his thinking.
See, I recall Republicans mocking President Obama for trying to do a reset button with Russia.
And you know what?
I was with those Republicans.
I said it was foolish to try to trust Putin.
I condemned President Obama, But President Obama hasn't played near the kind of footsee that that Trump has.
I mean, Trump.
have video of him leaning over and say, hey, wait until after the election.
I'll take care of you.
I'll take care of you.
There you go.
That's playing Footy and a kiss on the chin.
You know what?
If Vladimir Putin was a bad guy when Obama was president, I think he was.
I think he's a very dangerous dictator who's invaded Ukraine and done some a lot of awful things.
Then I he doesn't suddenly become a good guy just because your president likes him a lot.
He's still a really bad, dangerous enemy of the United States of America.
And I respect those Republicans that actually say that rather than suddenly switching all their positions because Trump feels the other way.
I mean, doesn't that make sense, Mark?
Okay, Joe McCarthy.
Let's look for anybody who knows a Russian.
But if this is how you feel, if you feel this strongly about it, how must you feel about Hillary Clinton giving them our uranium?
You know, it's interesting that when the President of the United States may be involved in a scandal far worse than Watergate involving America's greatest enemy, you're still going over um, you know, weird talking points regarding Hillary that aren't accurate because there were nine people on the whole uranium general.
But but it's just i i it's a direct question.
If the president of the United States, let me just ask you this way if Donald Trump as candidate actually authorized his people to talk with Russia to encourage them to commit espionage to get him elected.
Can you and I at least agree that's a clearly impeachable offense?
Well, yeah.
All right, good.
He robbed Fort Knox, that's an impeachable offense, too.
But there's no evidence he didn't do.
I think that may come out over the next few months.
I do realize when they say there was contact, certain Trump people, the Russians, it was all the Paul Manafort guys.
And that's because they had clients over there.
Manafort was briefly involved in the campaign, but uh there's no evidence of anything.
But again, just tell us.
See, I think the president's men do what the president wants him to do.
But that was exactly the question at Watergate.
What did the president know and when did he know it?
And I think that's going to be the question that comes up again here.
All right.
You do realize you're a smart guy, you're a very articulate guy.
But when normal people are listening, you say the worst scandal since Watergate, the worst thing everyone.
No, it's far worse than Watergate.
No, definitely, definitely.
Far worse than Watergate.
In Watergate, at least there were Americans hacking into Americans.
We weren't relying on on Russians to commit espionage.
I I think it's far worse than Watergate.
Okay, first or worse than Watergate.
Now uh uh evaluate this.
Worse than Civil War?
No.
Worse than World War II.
No.
Okay.
So it's above Watergate and World War II.
No, that's right.
Once again, when Hillary gave all our uranium to Russia, you felt how about this?
Hillary didn't give all Iranium to an enormous uh chunk of our uranium to Russia.
No, what happened was uh there was a whole policy that uh nine people signed off on nine agencies that Hillary wasn't even involved in, but I get how your talking points work.
It's more than a talking point.
She gave all that uranium.
Uh actually called on Russia to commit espionage against the United States and profited from it that you think he should be impeached.
That's big news.
Because not everyone on your side of the radio sphere believes that.
So I'm glad to hear that you as a patriotic American don't believe in encouraging our enemies to commit espionage against us.
I'm I'm proud that we're on the same side on this one.
Oh, good.
I'm glad we made you happy.
I'm glad we cleared that up for it.
I appreciate it, Mark.
So uh when you watch those Joe McCarthy movies, you must say, Well, that is a good guy.
Look at him.
He goes after anybody, knew a Russian, saw a Russian, talked to a Russian, heard of a still an investigation.
I just want to know what happened.
And and I know that there are a number of Republicans that also agree with me and want it too, and I praise them as well.
All right, well, uh let us know.
Keep us in touch, keep us uh updated on that investigation.
Well, uh I assume it's gonna be in the news.
Uh there's the Intelligence Committee, there are a number of other committees.
Uh and I do I do give Lindsey Graham and John McCain uh a courage award for being willing to do what's right for the American interest and and not just for their president.
You know, when I think of who's the most objective person on this, it certainly would be a tie between John McCain and Lindsey Graham.
You don't like either one of them, huh?
I love uh uh Lindsey Graham, I'm not crazy, but I love John McCain.
Uh actually know John McCain's a wonderful guy, but if I wanted an objective guy on this, uh I don't know he'd be my first choice here.
You know, I think this is the big deal.
I think it's gonna become a big deal.
I I know I gotta tell you something.
It's not just me that says so.
Uh I you know, I I talk to a lot of Republicans all the time.
And a lot of them won't go public.
But they're saying behind the scenes is this is the worst White House we've ever seen.
Absolutely.
You are definitely on to something.
I would if I were to clear some shelf space for that Nobel Prize.
You're on to something.
But anyway, hey Mark Levin.
I thought just me.
Obviously, it's it's a big feeling.
I mean, we've never had a president who's this much disliked in a month in office in American history.
No, definitely.
No question about it.
Anyway, we I hate to stop, but I'm getting a headache here.
But no, you're a great guy.
Do you have a website or something people should go to?
I do.
Marklevine talk.com.
People can check me out.
Mark Levine Talk.com.
Yeah, don't confuse me with uh Mark Levin.
I'm obviously I don't think you gotta worry about that too much.
Don't worry about it.
Mark Levine Talk.com.
You're a great guy.
We love talking to you.
Thanks for being with us.
Thanks for having me on, Mark.
Take care.
Or you can follow me on Twitter, Mark Simone NY at Twitter, or go to Markssimone.com.
Oh, and w don't forget Hannity tonight, big special show.
Exclusive interview, BB Nutanyahu.
Exclusive interview, Paul Ryan tonight at 10 on the Fox News Channel.
We'll take some calls in just a minute.
Had enough back room deals and party politics.
So is Sean.
He gets the answers you need on the road to 2016.
This is the Sean Hannity Show.
Hey, welcome back.
It's Mark Simone here for uh Sean Hannity.
I love that Mark Levine.
You know, because he really believes it.
It's um, you know, the these Chuck Schumers, if you know if you're a Democrat, you're a liberal Chuck Schumer's fighting for us.
Chuck Schumer doesn't believe one word of that.
He's whatever sounds good, he says.
But some of these guys really believe Russia hacked into everything.
They really believe Steve Bannon is a nightmare.
Steve Bannon is controlling everything.
You know, if you walk around here in Manhattan, go into any place and talk to people, they're so frightened, worried about Steve Bannon.
They don't realize that's why you read all these New York Times articles, go ten feet out of New York or Washington.
They never heard of Steve Bannon.
They don't want to hear about Steve Bannon.
They don't they don't worry about Russia.
If you said to anybody in the middle of the country, Russia acting, they'd say, act into what?
What did they hack into?
Like there's some place the election, they hacked right into it.
And uh so anyway, Ann Coulter will be with us, Lou Dobbs will be with us, Larry Cudler got some of the smartest voices coming up.
Hey, if you uh love guns and you love uh the very best, finest.
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So if you just uh coming out of work or you're just uh putting the radio on and you haven't been following the president of the United States, Donald Trump today, rather than Sean Spicer, he came out, he did the press conference.
It went for well over an hour.
It was a masterpiece of a press conference.
Uh it was very frank, very funny.
It was the Donald Trump you know from the campaign trail, the Donald Trump you saw in those rallies.
It was brilliant.
Uh we know it was great because uh look at the CNN on the screen.
They still can't get their eyes back in their head.
They're still shaking, trembling with uh anger, with their livid, they can't believe it.
You know, uh one thing about Donald Trump, he's charming, he's a great salesman.
He just needs to get out there more and talk directly uh to people.
That's really, really the key to all this.
You know, I I know though he's telling you it's just a reality TV star.
You know, he was he got that job at The Apprentice because they wanted the biggest name in business.
That's why they went to him.
Uh he got that job by being one of the most successful businessmen in the world by being the most famous real estate developer on the history of the earth.
I mean, you're talking about a man of tremendous achievement before he starts the apprentice.
So whenever they say that's the reality TV star, you watch that press comment, you see how this guy got to be where he is in every field.
Credible salesmanship, incredible charm.
Uh I know, I know, you're all still steaming.
Uh you're frightened, you're hysterical, you're you think he was unhinged.
Get over it.
Uh Lou Dobbs will be with us when we come back.
Mark Simone here for Sean Hannity.
This is how we move.
We lied up with our hands.
This is how we move.
And if members of the administration are essentially conspiring with Russia, either through the campaign earlier or now in the administration itself.
I mean, look, Wolf, that's the definition of treason.
And I think we're gonna make a deal.
It might be a bigger and better deal than people in this room even understand.
That's a possibility.
So let's see what we do.
Let's start.
Doesn't sound too optimistic, but that's good negotiator.
That's the art of the deal.
Freedom is back in style.
Welcome to the revolution.
We martin down the mash bullets at the moon, baby.
This is how we move.
Sean Hannity Sean Hannity show.
More behind the scenes information on breaking news and more bold inspired solutions for America.
Sit down, the most important.
Just because of the attack of fake news and and uh attacking our network, I I just want to ask you, sir.
I'm changing it from fake news, though.
Doesn't that underve.
Very fake news.
I know, but aren't you?
Go ahead.
Uh real news, Mr. President.
Real news.
And you're not related to our new uh I am not related, sir.
No.
I do like the sound of sexual.
I look at Costa, I must.
You know, I looked at that name.
I said, wait a minute.
Is there any relation there?
Alex.
I'm sure you check that out.
No, I checked it.
I said, they said no, sir.
I said, do me a favor, go back and check the family tree.
The tone, Jim.
If you look, the hatred, the I mean, sometimes sometimes somebody gets well, you look at your show that goes on at ten o'clock in the evening.
You just take a look at that show.
That is a constant hit.
The panel is almost always exclusive anti-Trump.
The good news is he doesn't have good ratings.
But the panel is almost exclusive anti-Trump.
And the hatred and venom coming from his mouth.
The hatred coming from other people on your network.
Now, I will say this.
Uh I watch it, I see it, I'm amazed by it, and I just think you'd be a lot better off.
I honestly do.
The public gets it, you know.
Look, when I go to rallies, they turn around, they start screaming at CNN.
They want to throw their placards at CNN.
You know, I I think you would do much better by being different.
But you just take a look.
Take a look at some of your shows.
In the morning and the evening.
If a guest comes out and says something positive about me, it's it's brutal.
Now they'll take this news conference.
I'm actually having a very good time, okay?
But they'll take this news conference.
Don't forget, that's the way I won.
Remember, I used to give you a news conference every time I made a speech, which was like every day.
Okay.
No, that's how I won.
I won with news conference and probably speeches.
I certainly didn't win by people listening to you people, that's for sure.
But I'm having a good time.
Tomorrow they will say, Donald Trump rants and raves at the press.
I'm not ranting and raving.
I'm just telling you, you know, you're dishonest people.
But but I'm not ranting and raving.
I love this.
I'm having a good time doing it.
But tomorrow the headlines are going to be Donald Trump rants and I'm not ranting and well, if you uh just tune into all of this, Don uh Donald Trump, President Donald Trump himself did the press conference today for over an hour, an hour and eighteen minutes was an absolute tour de force.
He's back, the candidate, the guy you knew from the campaign trail.
Uh straight talking, funny, uh blunt, it was brilliant.
Now, uh, it's Mark Simone, by the way, here for Sean Hannity.
Uh the bat signal went up at the last second.
Uh Sean uh uh couldn't get back here in time because he's putting together a big special for tonight, 10 o'clock Fox News Channel, been an exclusive interview, B.B. Netanyahu, exclusive interview with Paul Ryan.
Now, my DVR, there's only two things I have said on it.
Hannity, 10 o'clock, and Lou Dobbs tonight, 7 o'clock, Fox Business Network.
This is a show you must see every weeknight, uh, 7 o'clock Fox Business Network, smartest show on television.
And we've got the man here himself, Lou Dobbs.
How are you?
I am great, Mark, and delighted to be with you.
Now, I thought that press conference was brilliant.
I thought it's exactly what we need.
Get reconnect with the public.
I'm watching CNN.
I hate to admit, I just had to hear what they had to say.
They said this was uh unhinged, it was unpresidential, frightening.
Oh, man.
I I think you absolutely nailed it as you always do.
I mean, this is a president who has his mojo.
Uh I don't know whether he's been uh holding it in reserve here for a few days, but uh he unleashed it today.
Uh and he's right.
It wasn't a rant, it wasn't a rave, it was an undressing.
He absolutely tore apart the national left wing media.
Uh Jim Acosta has not figured out one element, neither has apparently the management of CNN.
They are really not an equal in any way to this president.
He used Jim Acosta adroitly, brilliantly, as his foil and got some of the biggest laps of the uh the afternoon in that uh news conference.
It was it was great fun.
It was great to see the president just uh frankly manhandle the entire national left wing media.
You know that uh Jake Tapper, he may be crazy on the air, but he's a nice man in real life.
I'm watching him.
He looked livid.
He his eyes were filled with rage.
He said, This is unprecedential that you now what is he saying?
You can't behave this way if you're a president.
Yeah.
Yeah, he he expects uh with the august majesty and might of the national left wing media uh that uh this president would play the part of uh pinata, a victim.
Uh and uh and he just really cannot accept the fact that that Trump is bigger, not only bigger than life, he's bigger than the entire the entire media.
He they can't lay a glove on this guy.
They keep trying and trying and trying.
And he still has, as of today, the most recent ratings, uh uh the latest Paul, the Rasmussen Paul puts his popularity at 55%.
This is with everybody on his neck.
Mark, does anybody notice that the stock market for crying out loud is up 2.8 trillion dollars?
Now see, that's not fake news.
That's real confidence, that's real expectation that his leadership is going to lead to better days for all Americans.
And that market is moving accordingly.
It the market doesn't lie.
That is real confidence being expressed with real money every day.
Hey, and let's point out on dozens of occasions, President Obama looked in the camera and said Fox News is lying.
I'm not gonna take a question from Fox News.
He attacked them all the time.
And they would uh the same press would say, Well, he was forced to do that.
Look what happened look how they made him do that.
Right.
It's the the double standards, the hypocrisy, the utter frankly, the limited IQs that are both leading and in uh representing that network, is embarrassing because they have neither principle uh nor capacity.
And without one, they're doomed.
Now, wouldn't you recommend after watching this today that Donald Trump, President Trump, do this at least once a week?
You know, I think CNN would write him a check if he would do that.
Even if they had to be the foil and the and and the butt of his jokes and his humor, as well as uh considerable uh frustration, certainly.
Yeah, uh for the last couple of weeks.
I've been a little worried that he lost touch with the American public.
You'd only see him for a minute in a very formal setting.
Uh to go back and do these kind of things.
This is the guy we know from the campaign trail.
This is the guy we need to see in the White House.
Yeah, and and just because other presidents have done it one way doesn't mean he has to do it that way.
Jake Tapper is not a not a presidential Historian.
You know, he he does an hour show on CNN in the afternoon.
I'm sorry, that doesn't give you standing to tell the President of the United States how he should behave, what he should say, and how he should say it.
And the arrogance of the left wing media is so palpable and so uh suffocating that they haven't got a chance here of doing what they obviously are uh committed to doing, which is uh wounding him.
He is not wounded.
In point of fact, the more they attack him, and the more he responds as he did today, and you're quite right, Mark.
I mean, this should be a weekly performance.
Uh but uh, you know, I on the other hand, uh I think he's got it just about right.
He'll figure the uh the balance that he wants, and that's the way it'll be.
You also agree that the uh mainstream media, they're so far out of touch that they don't realize when they do all these articles and attacks on Steve Bannon or whatever that the middle of America, nobody knows who Steve Bannon is.
They don't want anything to see Steve Bannon, they just turn the page and don't they got other things to worry about.
You know what they're reading about Steve Bannon in the in the New York Times or the Washington Post.
Uh most people in America, if they were actually reading those two left-wing uh uh publications, you know, they'd say, hey, that's a guy I kind of like to, you know, know more about.
I I'm delighted we've got somebody with his intellect, his experience.
My God, he's a former naval officer.
Uh he is a successful entrepreneur.
He worked for one of the biggest and most successful financial firms on Wall Street, Goldman Sachs, and my gosh, he is uh an inspired uh economic nationalist who cares about the country and cares about protecting and serving uh Donald J. Trump as president of the United States.
That's pretty exciting stuff.
And by the way, America's first.
Yeah, not to put that I love Steve Bannon, and but yeah, I'd love to read his background, and then that's it.
I don't need to read every day about every breath he takes.
Nor, especially in a publication that's trying to slice him and watch him bleed out.
Yeah.
Hey, I don't know if you know about this.
Everybody missed this little story today.
Do you know that the New York Times fired one of the theater critics?
They found out he had a cozy relationship with a major Broadway producer, and they said this could cause some possible bias.
We can't have this guy.
You're right.
I missed that.
That is wonderful.
It was in the paper today.
That's why I gave it to you.
Should use this.
Oh my gosh.
This was the one attempt of the Times to root out bias at their paper.
The theater critic got fired.
You know, that the whole the whole paper, the the the you know, the guild, everybody must have just stopped and uh and they're and sucked up their breath as they read it.
The headline, New York Times worries about conflict of interest and editorial staff.
Well, apparently they were able to tap into his email, the company email, and they saw he not only was friendly with this Scott Rudin, he was emailing back and forth.
They were coordinating a little.
Oh my gosh.
Unbelievable.
So uh now what happens next?
We have already heard uh from some of these people that this was the most unhinged meltdown ever by a president.
Are we going to read that for two days?
Oh, yeah, uh you know, they at this point i probably the answer is correct the correct answer is probably uh the degree to which they will continue to I mean I say this directly.
The national left wing media worked so hard to savage uh President Trump and his administration that they make asses of themselves every day.
Have at it because they are the net uh net net losers in it all.
And he uh he is obviously the winner.
And the American people, Mark, are really big winners because we're seeing what the left wing media is.
There's no longer nuance or subtlety or or veils uh uh being uh you know put in front of the truth.
The truth is the left wing media is so left-wing they can't get out of their own way.
They snarl, they they growl uh if if wimps can growl, that's what they're doing.
And uh it's just uh it's amazing to watch.
It's been a great public service on the part of the left and the Obama uh machine that is creating a shadow government to try to destroy the Trump presidency.
It it's a public service because we're seeing them for what they are.
This is the reality.
Hey, there's two shows you got to watch.
Obviously, Hannity every night at ten, but Lou Dobbs tonight, every night at seven o'clock, Fox Business Network.
Tonight, uh you're gonna have a hell of a show tonight.
We are indeed.
Seven o'clock tonight, uh Fox Business Network.
You can also see it again at ten and eleven, right?
That's right.
But we want you there at seven especially.
Seven o'clock, Lou Dobbs tonight, Fox Business Network.
Lou Dobbs, thanks for being with us.
Great to be with you, Mark.
Thanks so much.
Take care.
Seven o'clock tonight, Lou Dobbs, ten o'clock tonight, Hannity.
Don't miss these two shows.
Sean has a big special tonight.
Exclusive interview, BB Netanyahu.
Exclusive interview, Paul Ryan.
Big show.
Hey, uh, follow me on Twitter too.
It's Mark Simone NY at Twitter.
Mark Simone NY at Instagram.
Did you see the Trump hamburger?
He does everything well.
He makes one of the best hamburgers.
So it's uh Mark Simone NY at Instagram, Mark Simone and Y at Twitter.
We'll take some calls in a minute.
And then Ann Coulter coming up at the bottom of the hour.
We'll be right back.
Fighting the Trump hating liberal media one day at a time.
This is The Sean Hannity Show.
The Sean Hannity Show.
Welcome back.
It's the Sean Hannity show.
Mark Simone here for Sean.
Oh my God.
What is this?
It's delicious.
Uh Linda, what is this?
This is a really, really, really good ice cream, but we got you something special.
It's called the ice cream and donut sandwich.
It's an ice cream sandwich, vanilla chocolate ice cream between two donuts.
With chocolate glaze on the top of the donut.
Oh my god.
I'll try to put it up on uh Instagram.
And then a little chocolate cake crunch on top of the chocolate glaze, and Clays there wasn't enough chocolate.
Oh my God.
I took like two bites.
I got an ice cream headache, a sugar rush.
I'm gonna faint at any moment, but it's very good.
Boy, it's not easy doing this show.
Uh you first you'll walk in, and uh Lauren's dog jumps all whose dog is it?
Is that not actually your dog?
Nobody could live with that thing.
Yes, she's a service dog in training.
Service dog.
She's a nightmare.
No, she's wonderful.
You are just anti-dog.
I love dogs.
I really love dogs.
You ever go to your friend's house?
You love dogs so much you can't tell she's a female or a male.
You called her him like six times.
Uh it's uh no, that's not that'd be a bad looking female.
Say it's a male dog.
That'll make it look better.
But uh you ever have a friend who has a dog.
I love dogs.
You ever say like a cute little dog and they crawl up on the couch with you so nice?
Then you have another friend where you walk in and the thing jumps on you and grabs you and knocks you down, and then uh the person says, Oh, I don't mind him.
But as soon as you walk in, it's like all over you.
You know, they have uh dog trainers.
You can hire one.
A nice dog comes over, rubs against you a little or something, but then jump up and dig its claws into you and I'm supposed to be the trainer.
Yeah, well.
Uh you might want to hire somebody.
Uh help you out.
Well, listen, you're so Instagram and Twitter obsessed.
Why don't you take a picture of this so-called ugly dog and put her on your Twitter and Instagram and see if people like it.
Let the people decide.
You really need to get a grip on reality.
I'd win that battle in one second.
Go take that to Madison Square Garden when they do that dog show.
They wouldn't even let you in with that.
Oh, I I wouldn't even put a picture of that dog.
It's a nice dog.
He means well.
Uh she and you suck at this mark.
You couldn't tell what that dog is looking at it.
But um, anyway, the good thing about it, it's a lazy dog, just sleeping all day.
Some service dog.
It's awake, it knocks you down.
Uh, I've been here.
How long have I been here?
An hour and a half.
It's been sleeping for an hour and 20 minutes.
Some service dog.
So uh, what were we talking about?
I don't even remember.
Oh, the We're talking about your ice cream.
Yeah, that was good.
Hey, remember I you gave me that in front of the dog.
That's how bad this dog is.
I open up this incredible ice cream donut.
You know every dog jumps at food.
He didn't even wake up for that.
It's only dog too lazy to even try to grab my food.
She's well trained.
He she uh anyway.
Um uh let's see.
Who should we talk to?
Uh let's just take a uh uh oh well we'll we'll actually we'll we'll take some calls in just a bit.
We got uh a lot coming up.
Ann Coulter will be with us.
Got some of the smartest people on the show today.
Ann Coulter, uh Larry Cudlow, just ahead.
You know what?
Sean just had uh he Did those uh custom blinds.
He is raving about blinds.com.
They transform the room.
Now, the great thing is not just that they look phenomenal, you love the price.
You get a great, great price.
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Should I put up a picture?
I'll put up a picture of this uh donut ice cream sandwich.
Now nobody wants to see the dog.
Nobody's nobody's interested.
They could picture it already.
Uh and then Ann Coulter will be with us next.
The president had an unbelievable, effective tour de force of a press conference today.
We'll go over that.
Uh, we'll play you some of the clips.
You will love it.
We'll have uh people analyzing it from uh Ann Coulter to Larry Cudlow and more.
It's Mark Simone here for Sean Hannity.
Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Mark Simone NY.
Don't forget Hannity Tonight's special show tonight at 10.
10.
Keeping Uncle Sam accountable to you every day.
Hannity is on.
And you know, over course of time I'll make mistakes and you'll write badly, and I'm okay with that.
But I'm not okay when it is fake.
I mean, I watch CNN, it's so much anger and hatred and just the hatred.
I don't watch it anymore because it's very good.
He's saying no.
It's okay, Jim.
It's okay, Jim.
You'll have your chance.
But I watch others too.
You're not the only one, so don't feel badly.
But I think it should be straight.
I think it should be, I think it would be frankly more interesting.
I know how good everybody's ratings are right now, but I think that'd actually be I think that'd actually be better.
People, I mean, you have a lower approval rate than Congress.
I think that's right.
I don't know, Peter, is that one right?
Because you know, I think they have lower I heard lower than Congress.
Hey, uh, if you miss this, we'll play clips for for uh throughout the show.
Donald Trump held a tour de force of a press conference.
It's unbelievable.
Hey, and by the way, uh up on Instagram now, we have both things that we were talking about.
Lauren's crazy dog and the donut ice cream sandwich.
You vote, yes or no on each of them.
Mark Simone NY at Instagram, Mark Simone NY at Instagram.
We'll tally the votes in a few minutes.
With us right now, uh Ann Coulter, best-selling author.
Have you gotten to her book?
Huh?
Ann Coulter's at five.
Oh.
Oh, okay.
That ice cream donut get into your head.
Yes.
Oh god, that dog got me all first.
What does it say?
Oh, you're right.
It says five over.
But we're all really excited about her coming on, and we can't wait, so we'll see her in a half hour.
Wait a minute.
This is your fault.
Were you just talking to Ann Coulter?
I was, but that has nothing to do with you talking, Ann Coulter.
That's why I'm all confused.
You're just jealous that I got to talk to her first.
No, I was in the control room and I heard her answer the phone, Anne Coulter.
She's talking to her, so I figured you were putting her on old to um shouldn't eavesdrop, you know.
Oh, all right.
Let's start over.
Can you uh run the opening again to start this whole segment over again?
Uh so anyway, go to uh Mark Simone NY at Instagram.
We will see how this uh now take a look at this dog, and this is a pretty accurate picture of this dog.
It's one of these dogs, it just lies there.
Okay, somebody says so sweet, yes.
Oh, and more sweet looking.
Oh, okay.
Adorable.
The dog is winning so far.
Uh these are women.
Hey, some guys take a look at this and let me know what you think of this dog.
Anyway, the press conference was an absolute tour de force.
Did you notice in that clip he was talking about Jim Acosta and he said, you show every night at 10?
How would he know what time Jim Acosta is on?
Who even knows what uh what is on at any time on CNN?
Who follows this?
No, but that's what that's not what he was talking about.
Oh, what was he saying?
He was saying to Jim Acosta, he was saying every night at 10, look at the show that plays on your network, which is Don Lemon.
Who ever watches this at 10 o'clock?
You got to say he's all knowing he's Trump.
Oh, that's pretty good that he would know that.
I mean, I know he watches Hannity every night at 10 o'clock.
You know, seriously, if I if you put me on this game show and for a million dollars, what shows on 10 o'clock on CNN?
I I couldn't tell you.
I wouldn't know.
So uh if you missed all of this, it started today about 1245.
Uh nobody was expecting that till this morning when they said Donald Trump himself, the president himself will do the press conference.
And it was amazing.
I've never nobody's ever seen anything like this from a president.
Straight talk, said exactly what he thought, made fun of reporters, uh, insulted them when it was appropriate, and it was appropriate with some of these people.
And I think what happened is somewhere in the White House, somebody one day, maybe it was even him, and I've been thinking this myself.
Somebody said, You gotta go back to what you were on the campaign trail.
You gotta go back to being that guy you were as the candidate, and you gotta go back to that.
Just do it again.
Be yourself.
Just go out there and you know, I remember having a conversation with him once.
It was on the air, but it was about uh early 2016 when they were really hitting him on that Twitter stuff, and he said, eh, I guess I shouldn't tweet so much.
And I said, You know what?
That's you, go do it.
And they could hear him come to life.
He goes, Hey, you're right, that is me.
So I think that's what happened.
Somebody said, you know what?
Go be just go be yourself out there.
Don't worry about anything.
Trust your instincts.
And he did that on the campaign trail.
You remember there were moments we got into trouble and he was probably supposed to apologize.
We're probably supposed to be a little more formal.
And he said, No, you know what?
Mm-hmm, be myself.
And he did that all day today, and it was great.
Uh let's take a listen to some more of that.
Let's go to uh what do you think the best thing is there?
Did we hear all of the Acosta?
You have any more Acosta?
That was the best part.
This Jim Acosta is one of these fake news CNN weasels, and he gets up there with that pompous, sanctimonious attitude.
He he knows he's just gonna get slapped around.
He's just a punching bag for it.
Well, take a listen to more of it.
But if you go as an example, your CNN, I mean, it's story after story after story is bad.
I won.
I won.
And the other thing, chaos.
There's zero chaos.
We are running this is a fine-tuned machine.
And Rines happens to be doing a good job, but half of his job is putting out lies by the press.
You know, I said to him yesterday that you know, this whole Russia scam that you guys are building so that you don't talk about the real subject, which is illegal leaks.
But I watched him yesterday working so hard to try and get that story proper.
And I'm saying, here's my chief of staff, a really good guy, did a phenomenal job at RNC.
I mean, he won the election, right?
Won the presidency.
We got some senators, we got some all over the country.
You take a look.
He's done a great job.
And I said to myself, you know, and I said to somebody that was in there, I said, You take a look at Rice.
He's working so hard, just putting out fires that are fake fires.
I mean, they're fake.
They're not true.
And isn't that a shame?
Because he'd rather be working on health care.
He'd rather be working on tax reform, Jim.
I mean that.
I would be your biggest fan in the world if you treated me right.
Now, I sort of understand there's a certain bias, maybe by Jeff or somebody, you know, whatever, you know, whatever reason.
But and I understand that, but you've got to be at least a little bit fair.
And that's why the public sees it.
They see it.
They see it's not fair.
You take a look at some of your shows, and you see the bias and the hatred.
And the public is smart, they understand it.
Now, I was watching CNN and they explained to me, you're not supposed to talk like that.
You can't talk like that if you're president.
You can't say things like that.
And then I was trying to figure out why.
Why can't you uh that's exactly what he thinks?
Imagine I'm watching this Wolf Blitzer, Jake Tapper explained to me that it is unpresidential to actually say what's on your mind and be honest and say what you're really thinking.
This is unpresidential behavior.
You remember Nixon when they announced the uh investigation and he said, I welcome this investigation.
I was like two years old.
And I said, gee, why would he welcome it?
It doesn't sound right.
Doesn't make any sense.
Why would you welcome this investigation?
So it's nice to hear uh an honest, refreshing guy.
Didn't you always want to inject these people with truth theorem?
Well, now you got it.
And uh it was just perfect.
It was uh and it's not just the fake news, it's the um hysterical, hyperbolic nonsense.
You remember when that Chuck Todd first started, you said, uh a nice guy, that's Chuck Todd.
Looks a nice young guy just starting.
Now you look at him like some crazed Jekyll and Hyde nut.
You ever watch that meet the press when the uh Democrat is the uh guest?
He says, Well, tell us about this.
Oh, and tell us about this and tell us about it.
Then they come back from the commercial, and the Republican is the guest.
It's a different guy.
It's like Jekyll and Hyde's they tear into the guy.
Cut 14.
Now, I want you to listen to Cut 14.
This General Flynn thing, whatever this little hiccup is, listen to this hysterical hyperbolic nonsense.
Day one of what is arguably the biggest presidential scandal involving a foreign government since I ran contract.
What?
Take a breath.
Hyperbole aside, folks, hunker down, because this is a class five political hurricane that's hitting Washington.
What the hell is he talking about?
Hey, it's not just him.
Dan Rather uh tweeted out today, this is this Michael Flynn thing, biggest presidential scandal in history, surpassing Iran Contra.
What?
And that uh what is the Michael Flynn scandal?
Apparently, when he was talking to a Russian official, he said, hey, after the election, we'll see what we can do.
That's it.
By the way, I think they're gonna put out the transcript in the coming days because that's all it is.
The Russian guy said something, and he said, Well, you know, after the election, we'll see what we can do.
Do you remember the Obama clip?
I have it up on Twitter.
The Obama clip where he leans over to the Russian official, wait till after the election, well, be more flexible.
This is my last election.
Yeah.
And this is my watch and I hold possible.
And I transmit this information to Vladimir and I stand with him.
Thank you.
What were you shaving during that?
I could hardly hear a thing.
But uh you hear the Russian guy say, Yeah, I'll pass that along.
Oh let our president no.
So that's all it was.
Uh it's not illegal.
There's no possibility uh it's illegal.
It doesn't meet any requirement for the Logan Act.
And by the way, the Logan Act has never even been tested in a courts.
It's not illegal.
You could argue it's a breach of protocol, but not really.
You know, when the uh Clinton uh people were in the transition, before they went to the White House, they had won the election.
They told everybody, when talking to any foreign country and their officials, let them know.
We'll be flexible, we want to work with you, we want to help you.
They were told to do it.
It's that's uh now.
Why did Flynn get fired?
I don't know.
I don't know.
Uh I would think um they say, some people say, and it's possible, but that he wasn't completely honest with Pence or Trump.
And I but I don't know that it could just be about this.
So whatever the reason, obviously decided they didn't want to work with him anymore, or he decided he wanted to go.
But this is nothing.
This is the littlest blip in the world.
So when you keep reading uh Dan Rather Dan Rather used to be the biggest anchor in television when he writes, biggest political presidential scandal in history.
And Shuck Todd, I you know, and you watch that morning joke or whatever that show is morning show with uh this is uh it's completely off the rails.
The whole administration is falling apart.
You know, uh I'm watching these shows, they talk about the this uh badly the first term of the president's going.
We didn't even start the first term.
He's been in office like six minutes.
You know how long he's been how long has been in office?
Twenty days, twenty-one days, twenty-five days?
Nothing.
They haven't done a month yet.
You remember the Clinton uh administration was absolute complete chaos for the first three or four months.
It was uh just uh absolute disaster.
So just everybody calm down.
I think what you saw today in that press conference, that's all that's needed.
And you know what?
Do it in prime time next time.
Prime time.
Let the whole country watch.
Now you might say, uh, once a press conference at prime time, hey, this was pretty entertaining.
This is more entertaining than anything on television.
So I think uh I would I would recommend once a month primetime press conference, president of the United States, just like he did today, hour and a half.
It's it's an amazing thing uh for a president to do.
It's what's absolutely needed.
And uh it's gonna, it's his way of reconnecting, recapturing uh what he had with the public before.
You know, you're gonna have all these dark forces.
These uh Hillary Clinton, uh, with what you know, there's a little wormy thing she created, those uh Center for American Progress, Media Matters, all these little uh shadowy little organizations, or whatever this George Soros and her paying and uh doing, and uh President Obama with his uh shadow government, whatever they were.
Yeah, let them sneak around in the shadows and uh hide at night trying to do all this stuff, and let the president just come right out, primetime press conference once a month, and he called on everybody.
Ask away, I'll tell you whatever you want to hear.
Anyway, we'll take some calls in a minute.
800 three two uh eight hundred nine four one Sean is the number, eight hundred nine four-one Sean, Mark Simone here, uh Mark Simone NY at Twitter, Mark Simone NY at Instagram, vote on Lauren's dog tonight.
Special Hannity, exclusive interview, BB Netanyahu, Paul Ryan, tonight attend on the Fox News Channel.
More Hannity, less big government.
He's your watchdog on Washington.
Hannity is on Welcome back.
It's Mark Simone here for Sean Hannity.
I officially apologize to the dog.
Uh if you put the picture up on Instagram, he overwhelmingly won the vote.
Well, I gotta be honest, it was like 300 to nothing.
They love the dog.
Breaking news now.
All right, I apologize.
Mark Simone NY at Instagram.
Go look at this dog.
Uh God, you sound like someone died.
Everyone likes the dog.
Okay, Eeyore.
Well, I think it's a tribute to me just being a great photographer.
I even made that dog look good.
Uh the dog beat out the uh donut ice cream sandwich.
Let's go to uh Eileen in New York.
Eileen, you're on the Sean Hannity show.
Hi, Mark.
Yes.
I just wanted to say I love Lauren's dog, and I couldn't help but notice that the dog has a uh CCI vest on for uh puppy razor.
And I just wanted to say my daughter has one of those service dogs, and they are just amazing, and her life is totally different since she's had the service talk.
So I'm very thankful for Lauren being a puppy raiser for K9 Companions, and I know it's a lot of work reasoning those puppies, and it takes a while, but they're amazing.
They have them for 18 months, and then the trainers, the professional trainers at TCI, do all the advanced training skills.
So I'm sure Lauren's puppy's gonna pass with fine colors and be a great service.
Well, it sounds like your daughter has a wonderful dog.
Although let's be honest, this dog, I've been here two hours, he's just sleeping.
What kind of service dog is this?
One of the things we need them to do, because those service dogs have to go into the public everywhere.
Okay, well, you need a dog to sleep.
This is your dog right here.
We should get this actually.
I have the dog do the my pillow commercial.
Dog hasn't woken up yet.
He's still sleeping.
Look at this.
Uh anyway, uh, we'll take some more calls.
And Ann Coulter will be with us.
Larry Cudlow just ahead.
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So the uh press conference was amazing.
Uh if you didn't we're gonna play clips, we'll talk about it, we'll go over it.
I just want you to understand the president had a he personally ran the press conference, and for a long time it was an hour and eighteen minutes.
You're gonna get the papers tomorrow in the York Times and all this kind of thing to say.
It was a meltdown of there was like this word epic now.
Everything is epic.
Epic proportions.
Chaos, they're gonna say you ever see a video on Facebook where it says, Watch this epic comeback.
And then you watch it.
It's never anything.
It's always nothing.
Uh so you're gonna hear about this, but you're then gonna watch it with your own eyes, gonna say, Wow, that was really blunt, honest, real, authentic.
That's the Donald Trump I voted for.
That's the guy I saw in the campaign trail.
So he's gotta do more of this.
We'll go over it uh in the next hour.
Ann Coulter will be with us.
Larry Cudlow just ahead.
It's Mark Simone for Sean.
Big special edition of Hannity Tonight.
Don't miss it.
Don't miss it.
This is how we rule we lot in with our hands.
This is how we rule.
And if members of the administration are essentially conspiring with Russia, either through the campaign earlier or now in the administration itself.
I mean, look, Wolf, that's the definition of treason.
And I think we're gonna make a deal.
It might be a bigger and better deal than people in this room even understand.
That's a possibility.
So let's see what we do.
Let's start.
Doesn't sound too optimistic, but that's good negotiator.
That's the art of the deal.
Freedom is back in style.
Welcome to the revolution.
We burned down the massive bullets at the moon, baby.
This is how we Sean Hannity show.
More behind the scenes information on breaking news and more bold inspired solutions for America.
I'm here again to take my message straight to the people.
As you know, our administration inherited many problems across government and across the economy.
To be honest, I inherited a mess.
It's a mess.
At home and abroad.
A mess.
Jobs are pouring out of the country.
You see what's going on with all of the companies leaving our country, going to Mexico and other places.
Low pay, low wages, mass instability overseas, no matter where you look.
The Middle East, a disaster.
North Korea.
We'll take care of it, folks.
We're gonna take care of it all.
I just want to let you know.
I inherited a mess.
Maybe I'm not gonna be able to do a deal with Red, but at least I will have tried.
And if I don't, does anybody really think that Hillary Clinton would be tougher on Russia than Donald Trump.
Does anybody in this room really believe that?
Okay.
But I tell you one thing.
She tried to make a deal.
She had the reset.
She gave all that valuable uranium away.
She did other things.
You know, they say I'm close to Russia.
Hillary Clinton gave away 20% of the uranium in the United States.
She's close to Russia.
Can we I gave you know what I gave to Russia?
You know what I gave?
Nothing.
Can we conclude there'll be no response to these particular provocations?
Yeah, I'm not gonna tell you anything about what response I do.
I don't talk about military response.
I don't say I'm going into Mosul in four months.
We are going to attack Mosul in four months.
Then three months later.
We're going to attack Mosul in one month.
Next week, we are going to attack Mosul.
The meantime, Mosul is very, very difficult.
I don't talk about military and I don't talk about certain other things.
You're going to be surprised to hear that.
And by the way, my whole campaign I'd say that.
So I don't have to tell you.
I don't want to be one of these guys that say, yes, uh, here's what we're going to do.
I don't have to do that.
I don't have to tell you what I'm going to do in North Korea.
Wait a minute.
I don't have to tell you what I'm going to do in North Korea.
And I don't have to tell you what I'm going to do with Iran.
You know why?
Because they shouldn't know.
And eventually you guys are going to get tired of asking that question.
So when you ask me what am I going to do with the ship, the Russian ship, as an example, I'm not going to tell you.
But hopefully I won't have to do anything, but I'm not going to tell you.
Well, it's Mark Simone here for Sean Hannity.
At the last minute, uh, Sean uh is putting together a very special broadcast for tonight.
10 o'clock Fox News Channel.
Exclusive interview, B.B. Netanyahu, exclusive interview, Paul Ryan.
So at the last minute, uh Linda, the producer said, Who can we get?
Who's the best talk show host on earth?
Or she said, Who lives like three blocks from here?
He's got nothing to do and can run over here.
I think that's how I got here.
But uh with us right now.
Oh, by the way, I just want you to know there is breaking news.
They had this on CNN, this graphic for ten minutes.
Breaking news, defensive breaking news now.
It says on CNN, defensive Trump slams media in extraordinary press conference.
Let's turn now to Ann Coulter, who has written the book on Donald Trump.
It's called In Trump We Trust.
If you haven't gotten this book yet, get it.
The big bestseller, of course, Ann Coulter.com is their website.
Ann Coulter, breaking news.
It says, Defensive Trump.
Did you watch that?
He didn't look defensive to me.
Look pretty uh confident.
Oh my gosh, it was magnificent.
If I didn't have to go out tonight, I would just watch it over and over and over again.
Oh my gosh.
I was your producer and I were just talking about this.
Um Lauren he ought to get rid of this press secretary.
I mean, Sean Spicer, great guy, fabulous.
But I wish he'd just do it himself once a week.
I was in heaven watching this.
If I were a secretary of the interior, I'd get going on Mount Rushmore.
He's magnificent.
Yeah, yeah, so Sean Spicer, nice guy, but he, you know.
Nobody can do it like Trump.
And yeah, and as usual, not only is he funny, not only does he bring the conversation back to important points, but but i he he also um I mean you learn stuff at his press conferences.
He makes important points.
Um one point, I mean, the i i um the the the title of a John McCain book, which I'm sure he didn't come up with himself, um, Nightingale song.
The idea behind that is the nightingales don't know how how to sing until they hear the other Nightingale thing.
And that's what you feel like listening to Trump.
He says things that are right in front of your face, but then by saying it, oh yeah, that's right.
And one of the things was when he repeatedly said, No, it's not just when I do something wrong, I know there are gonna be some bad stories, but when I do good things, there's either no story or somehow you turn it into a negative.
And then he went on specifically um about CNN, um, saying it's not just that it's all anti-Trump panelists on your shows.
There's so much hatred.
It is hatred for me.
And he's right about that.
It is, it's hate coming out of their mouth.
Um he was also talking about, which was a really good point.
Um because the press has become, you know, the modern day John Bircher, they're suddenly, you know, so terrified about Russia.
He said, uh, you know, if I do anything anti-Russia, um I'd get lots of great press.
Yeah, that would make my popularity r rating soar.
But is that good for the country?
Wouldn't it be great if we had good relationship with with Russia here?
Um what other fantastic points did he make?
Well, I'm just gonna have to interrupt.
We have more breaking news.
CNN had this up for the last five minutes.
Trump claims I'm not ranting and raving.
Breaking news now.
He did not.
I swear to God, they just took it down, but for t I I I don't have the sound on.
That's so funny because I was gonna say that when you um said what their uh first breaking news was that he was defensive.
I loved that he preempted them by saying, and he wasn't he wasn't ranting and raving.
He was hilarious.
He's like a stand-up comedian.
Um and he was saying, you know, I I'm not ranting and raving.
I know you guys are gonna report that.
I'm gonna read that on the front page of the paper tomorrow.
Trump ranting and raving.
I'm not ranting.
Um very clever of him to preempt them that way.
Well, I was also Looking uh earlier today, Twitter, Facebook, all it's read was, oh my God, what a meltdown, epic meltdown.
He's hysterical.
Uh he's gone unhinged.
Uh I think he's got to do these in prime time from now on so that everybody, you know, at the end of the day, when they're not working, can sit at home and watch this with their own eyes.
Well, if this lures more people to watch it than that, then it's worth it.
Um I loved him talking about the fake news.
I mean, it was interesting.
He talked about what's going on with the country.
I was very happy to see that um because it is fake news.
They've been saying this roll out of of his executive order on the temporary travel ban.
Um how, oh, it's chaos, it's chaos.
He said it's not chaos, it's a well-oiled machine, and he used the word perfect.
The rollout was perfect.
The problem is the court, and he is 100% right.
He is 100% right about that, pointing out um of course we we can't, you know, warn the Senate and and the press and tell everyone, well, we're going to do this a month from now, because then all the terrorists pour in during that month.
You have to do it fast with no warning.
Um another great point, uh, which I I suppose you could have heard on television, except they only allow anti Trump people who hate trate the haters on.
Um he's also d he's he's he's announced a new moniker for for CNN um in addition.
He said it's not gonna be fake news anymore.
It's now going to be very fake news.
So uh I think would you agree somebody maybe it was him, somebody said to him, we gotta bring back the guy that was out there in the campaign trail.
The real you, let's bring him back.
Just go out there, forget everything, just be yourself.
Absolutely.
I I started tweeting that.
I guess after the um this insane Judge Roparts ruling, and it is insane, and then Ninth Circuit is absolutely wrong.
It's it's stunning that the never Trump movement has moved into one branch of our government.
Um I mean, these liberals talk about how, oh, democracy is threatened with Donald Trump.
No, it actually is threatened with never Trumpers, um, simply openly defying law and the Constitution in order to to c contravene this this travel ban.
That is one hundred percent the plenary power of the president to exclude aliens in the public interest.
The c Supreme Court has said that um in at least fifty decisions, um, and that they have no capacity to review a political decision.
A c a country we're a sovereign nation.
We admit whomever we want to, and that is up to the president.
That's the way Congress wrote the law.
It's part of his job as controlling foreign policy.
The idea that a court could rule this way, um, it really it is as if you have um, you know, the the New York Times editors who have gone mad, salon editors, running the court system now.
That was what the problem was.
There's no problem with the rollout.
Hey, uh you know nothing against Sean Spicer, wonderful guy, but I think uh what we saw today tells you one this Donald Trump is such an extraordinary figure, such an uh unique, amazing character.
There's no way a normal bureaucrat can go out and represent him in a press conference.
He could never capture what's I agree, and I'm really glad Trump is doing a rally this week, and we need to see more of him.
And I mean he can't do everything, I know, but you know, a once-a-week press conference would be fantastic.
Well, uh you gotta be careful.
You don't want to Alec Baldwin this thing where it's funny once and then you do it fourteen weeks in a row and you exhaust it.
Maybe a once-a month prime time press conference.
Okay, fine.
Sold.
Once every two weeks, we'll compromise.
Okay.
So um, what am I gonna read tomorrow?
I'm gonna read uh this was the most unhinged hysterical meltdown any president's ever had in public.
It's just like uh and I I'm glad Trump can see this about himself, because it's just like their reaction to the magnificent Stephen Miller, um, who did a all the Sunday shows um about the rollout, about the temporary Muslim ban, um travel ban.
Uh the and and and as I tweeted, um the left has three responses when when they can't answer you.
Um they'd like to call you stupid, but if They absolutely can't call you stupid.
Um they call you crazy, ugly, or they just exclaim, I can't even.
Just gasping in horror.
Um and you got all three of them with with Miller.
You we've been scrolling through them all with Trump.
Um, you ought to be proud.
It means they can't call you stupid.
In the famous line of Ambrose Bierce uh contempt is the emotion a prudent man has for an opponent who cannot be defeated.
And what's the other one?
A racist is what a liberal calls you when they're losing the argument.
Right.
That's Peter Brimelow's line.
Absolutely right.
The new modern definition of a racist is a conservative winning an argument with a liberal.
All right.
Well, everybody get Ann Coulter's book, In Trump We Trust.
Uh that uh really is the Trump book, bestseller in New York Times, bestseller look list in Trump we trust.
And you go to AnCulter.com.
What's today?
Thursday, your new column is out, right?
Yes, it is, and it's boffo.
It's about the useless silence of the lambs Congress.
What are they doing, Mark?
Well, go to AnCulter.com.
You can get the column there.
Follow her on Twitter and Facebook and Ann Coulter, thanks for being with us.
Good to talk to you, Mark Simone.
All right, take care.
Uh follow me on Twitter, Mark Simone NY at Twitter.
Hey, tonight, very special edition of Hannity.
That's why Sean's not here.
He's putting the show together now.
Big exclusive interview, BB Netanyahu.
Exclusive interview, Paul Ryan.
It's tonight, a big special on Hannity, 10 o'clock on the Fox News Channel.
Back in a moment, we'll take your calls.
1 800 941 Sean's the number.
Still waiting to fly out all those libs who promise to leave if Trump were elected.
This is the Sean Hannity Show.
Welcome back.
It's Mark Simone here for Sean Hannity.
Don't forget very special edition of Hannity tonight.
Exclusive interview.
BB Netanyahu and with Paul Ryan.
Hey, let's go up to uh Ottawa, Canada and say hello to Alex.
Alex, how are you doing?
Hi there.
How's it going?
Very good.
Glad to have you listening up there in Canada.
For sure.
What'd you want to say?
Well, uh, so I just wanted to make sure I did get it clear before hey, I make the comment.
But so Mr. Trump was saying that he doesn't think he was ranting and raving.
Well, I've known the guy for 25 years.
That's how he talks.
He's always uh calm, confident, in charge.
And you appreciate the honesty and the uh president saying exactly what he thinks.
I I can agree that that was honest, but surely that was over the top ranting and raving.
I mean, uh there's uh having a respectful conversation, and of course, that's not really the place for a two-way conversation when he's you know talking to the media.
But I I think there's still room there to say, you know, you guys haven't done the job I would expect you to do.
Can you try doing something else?
Um so if the cops come in and the the guys are robbing a bank, they should say, you know, you're not behaving the way we expect you to.
Right.
But if they're not sure.
They shouldn't come in and say, drop the money, stop robbing the bank.
Right.
But you see, he did talk and say something before he just.
We're gonna give you a quiz.
We'll play a clip.
You tell me if this is ranting or raving.
I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration, somehow you're not patriotic, and we should stand up and say we are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration.
Would you call that ranting and raving?
That was that was passionate speech.
Oh, okay.
But what about when Donald Trump said, I'm sick of your fake news?
What is that?
Well, I mean, to call it fake news is just disrespecting someone trying their best.
Oh, it's fake news.
Uh but okay.
CNN is for the corporate interest.
But do they ever try to say they're not?
They're trying their best.
They're admit they may as well admit that they're fake.
Every hour they got that guy go, this is CNN for the corporate interest.
Yeah, they're very honest about it.
That's true.
Well, uh kind of come on, you gotta say to yourself, thank God the guy just says what he thinks.
I agree.
Thank God we have a passionate president.
Uh I I gotta admit I don't agree with a lot of the policies that he's Oh, what a shot.
but then to go and say it has to be ranting to say the rollout of the executive order was smooth.
Ranting and raving.
I mean the definition of the remote.
Okay, so in other words, if a guy says if a guy says the rollout of the executive order was smooth, ranting and raving.
No, I'm saying raving, to say raving mad means to say something that is completely untrue and may as well go in a room, you're in an echo.
Okay, he was raving mad.
Thank you for clearing it up.
What's the temperature in Ottawa today?
Uh negative three.
We had a blizzard yesterday.
Good.
Serves you right.
That'll teach it.
Good.
I hope it snows tomorrow some more.
No, I'm kidding.
You're a nice guy, Alex.
Thanks for calling.
Don't do it again.
Uh anyway.
It's been cold here.
We had some snow last week.
I love hearing that.
Negative three in a blizzard in Ottawa, Canada.
Uh anyway, uh Larry Cudlow will be with us coming up in a few moments.
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Larry Cudlow, smartest guy around.
We'll see what he thought about uh today.
Coming up next, Mark Simone here for Sean King.
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In each of these actions, I'm keeping my promises to the American people.
These are campaign promises.
Some people are so surprised that we're having strong borders.
Well, that's what I've been talking about for a year and a half.
Strong borders.
They're so surprised.
Oh, he's having strong borders.
Well, that's what I've been talking about to the press and everybody else.
One promise after another after years of politicians lying to you to get elected.
They lied to the American people in order to get elected.
Some of the things I'm doing probably aren't popular, but they're necessary for security and for other reasons.
And then coming to Washington and pursuing their own interests, which is more important to many politicians.
I'm here following through on what I pledged to do.
So all I'm doing, I put it out before the American people, got 306 electoral college votes.
I wasn't supposed to get 22.
They said there's no way to get 22, 230 is impossible, 270, which you need.
That was laughable.
We got 306.
Because people came out and voted like they've never seen before.
So that's the way it goes.
I guess it was the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan.
In other words, the media is trying to attack our administration because they know we are following through on pledges that we made, and they're not happy about it for whatever reason.
Okay.
That's pretty tame, but there were other exchanges where he was really funny.
He really put down the press.
He really went after CNN.
It was an amazing tour de force of a press conference that took place today.
From now on, it's got to be Donald Trump doing the press conference.
It's Mark Simone here for Sean Hannity.
Uh Sean called away because he's putting together a big special tonight at 10 o'clock.
It'll be uh exclusive interview with B.B. Netanyahu, exclusive interview with Paul Ryan.
You'll see it tonight, 10 o'clock Fox News Channel.
Uh, with us right now, Larry Cudlow, of course, you know him from CNBC from the radio, but also he's got this wonderful new book out called uh the the uh uh uh I can't remember the title.
The uh Larry JFK JFK and the Reagan Revolution.
I couldn't remember.
Was it Reagan to the JFK and the Reagan Revolution?
Revolution, two tax cutters, one the Democrat and one a Republican.
That's Larry Cudlow, and it's a wonderful book, big bestseller, you gotta get it.
And uh it's a wonderful uh history of how JFK to Reagan, how he got uh all that done.
And uh Linda, let me just ask you, as a guy who worked for Ronald Reagan, a big part of the Reagan White House.
There are people that will say what Donald Trump did today is not presidential, you cannot behave like that in the press conference.
I know Reagan wouldn't have taken it as far as Trump had, but what did you think?
Well, yeah, I think one key point here is um President Trump is just pushing back on all these you know liberal left critics, you know, some from the media, some from the left wing of the Democratic Party, and what he's saying is look, I won.
I won.
I made a bunch of campaign promises, and I am already following through on these campaign promises, and you may not like them, but those are my promises, and I intend to keep them.
And the reason I find that interesting is that President Reagan had a very similar approach.
Look, when Reagan was elected, everybody was pounding him, everybody was pounding him.
Now, he had bigger popular vote numbers than Trump, but Reagan had a very clear agenda on tax cuts and economic growth and rollback regulations and defeat and destroy Soviet communism and building up American military, and he stepped right in and started right away, working on these things.
I think that's the sign of a sincere politician with a lot of integrity, and um you know, Trump has his way of saying things, Reagan has his way of saying things.
So you obviously have different styles.
But the political point, Mark, is he won, and he's pushing back against his critics because he intends to follow through.
And you know, we can get into it.
There's a whole laundry list of things he's already followed through on.
Yeah.
But it's obvious to me somebody said, or maybe he just said it to himself.
Let me go back to being the guy I was as a candidate.
I'll go back to the way I was on the campaign trail.
And I'm just gonna go out there and just be myself, and that's it.
Well, I like that.
Yeah.
I like that.
I you know what?
You could go a step further.
Uh I'd like to see him go out there with some really major league can uh rallies, you know, like campaign type rallies, 20, 30,000, 40,000 people.
So he gets in touch with his uh base with his supporters, um, and really kind of shows people, or at least reminds people, uh, how he did this and how strong he is politically.
So I don't have any problem with it.
I mean I I just don't have any problem with it.
He's doing what he has to do, and he's doing it in his own style.
And apparently the first rally uh is gonna be this Saturday night.
He's doing it in Florida.
Oh, I didn't know that.
Yeah, terrific.
Where is it?
Uh if you go to his Twitter uh feed, he announces it.
I think it's Tampa.
It's somewhere in Florida, and he'll do it this Saturday night.
First time as uh as president.
Uh, when you went into the you went in the White House day one, didn't you?
With with Ronald Reagan.
Hey, yeah, actually, I was in the transition because um, you know, from November, December until I was confirmed, uh, a dear friend of mine, John Rulage and I were putting the numbers together for Reagan's uh economic and uh tax cutting plan.
So, you know, I've been through this process.
Look, Trump's been president for about a month, actually, a little bit less than a month, I guess.
Twenty-seven days.
Um, there's always some glitches.
There's always some issues, there's always some disappointments.
It's not the end of the world.
You recover from that and you stay on message.
And I think you've got you know, take this whole business with General Flynn, which I'm not sure I still understand, to be honest with you.
But you've got a lot of people, and I reckon some of them come out of these intelligence agencies that don't like Trump, that are leaking things in connection with Democrats, or maybe the Democrats are just making stuff up.
They're trying to, You know, delegitimize Trump.
And when Trump says I got over 300 electoral votes, you can say he's bragging, but what he's saying, he's sending you a message.
The message is very clear.
You cannot delegitimize me.
I won.
I am the president.
I was inaugurated.
This is my agenda for national security, border security, tax cuts, roll back the regulations, get rid of Obamacare, one after another.
And he appointed a very good judge, Neil Gorsuch.
He's going in the right direction, and they'll work out the kinks as they move along.
But that's his message.
That's a good message.
Like he said today, they're going to get rid of the Obamacare, right?
Early March, they're going to have some sort of united Obamacare plan.
I think that's good.
And today he also said they're going to have a big tax reform package sometime this summer.
Now, Mark, my only criticism here, I'd like the business side of the tax reform for large and small companies with uh immediate uh investment write-offs and repatriation.
I'd like to see that in the first reconciliation bill this spring, because I think uh people are gonna wait until they see what the legislation is.
So my only hope is he'd get moving on the business tax stuff much earlier than this summer.
But getting rid of ACA, Obamacare and so forth, that's great stuff.
That's what he was elected to do, and he's doing it.
And he basically said today, uh uh, you're not gonna push me off my game.
You're not gonna push me off my game.
Now, uh Larry Cuddler wrote this wonderful book, JFK and the Reagan Resolution.
Uh uh Reagan Revolution.
So if you're interested in how these tax cuts have come about through JFK through Ronald Reagan, get this book.
But when you guys got in office, uh you you were gonna do this.
How long before you actually got the tax cuts in place?
Well, the first tax bill was signed in August 1981.
August so August 1981, and the bill, if I'm not mistaken, Mark, uh, the bill finally passed both houses um sometime shortly before that.
I I could say July or June.
And one of the important parts of that story is the you know, vicious vituperative opposition from then speaker Tip O'Neill, who was a left-wing Democrat and completely opposed Reagan's tax cuts.
So Reagan, being a great salesman, being a man of great civility, knowing how to market things, went over O'Neill's head and spoke directly to moderate Democrats, over office meetings, state dinners, Camp David, phone calls, you name it.
So in our book, we note that Reagan won the tax cuts that summer with something like 75 Democratic votes in the House, Mark.
That's an extraordinary thing.
And if you go back 20 years earlier, the Democrat, John F. Kennedy, who really was the first tax cutter, he had to do the same thing.
Because the Democrats, the Dixiecrats opposed him, the Republicans opposed him, and through civil arguments and facts and discussions, Kennedy was uh able to get that stuff through.
Uh he passed the House before he was tragically assassinated, and then Lyndon Johnson pulled the loose ends together in the Senate.
So you have to be persuasive.
I think you have to be civil and respectful about it, but it can be done.
And that's the story.
And by the way, JFK, a Democrat, Ronald Reagan, a Republican.
I don't know if there are any JFK Democrats around, but that party is not going to recover until they find and renew the legacy of John F. Kennedy's pro-growth tax cuts.
They're not going to recover the Democrats.
They ought to go and read my book, actually, because here's a Democrat who did it, and then Reagan did it twenty years later, and gave Kennedy credit for it, Mark.
He gave Kennedy credit for it.
Well, one of the reasons is a fascinating book.
It's JFK and the Reagan Revolution.
Uh, if JFK were in today's world, what would he he couldn't be a Democrat?
He was uh pro-life.
He was a tax cutter, supply cider.
Um he was a hawk.
Strong dollar, strong dollar, a hawk.
You're absolutely right.
Uh wanted the dollar tied to gold.
I think no, I I I don't think he'd be a Democrat today.
But but, you know, some the legacy of Kennedy could be used as a you know, sort of new beginning for this Democratic Party where maybe younger leaders will pop up.
Because right now the party's gone so far the left that they're not gonna be relevant.
And Obama was elected twice.
Yes, he was.
I think he was a popular figure, but I think the Democratic Party, you know, they lost the House, they lost the Senate, they lost the state houses, they lost assemblies in the state legislature.
So this drift to the left is killing the Democrats.
And my plea is to the Democrats, I have a lot of friends in the Democratic side, good people we talked to.
Read my book.
Read it.
You'll see.
These things can be done.
Bill Clinton was much more for Kennedy than uh the today's Democratic Party.
Hillary Clinton should have listened to Bill Clinton.
She would have been in better shape.
Hey, now you've been in the White House.
What do you do when you get there?
And you still got a lot of the appointees from the old administration.
You got those lifetime career bureaucrats.
These are the guys leaking everything.
What do you do about those people?
Well, you know, that's interesting point.
It's a difficult point.
Um I was associate director of OMB.
So I had the number three job in the budget bureau, which is very, very important agency for running the government.
And I had a career staff reporting up to me, I don't know, a hundred people, some hundred twenty-five people.
And I'll tell you what I did.
I met with them.
I talked to them.
Some of them liked Reagan's plan, some of them didn't.
But we had a lot of meetings, a lot of discussions, and they are pretty good.
OMB has a great career staff.
I'm the conservative side, fiscally.
Like the Treasury Department has a great career staff.
Um on the fiscal side conservative.
So I we worked with them.
Okay.
The political appointees like myself, David Stockman was the director, uh, Ed Harper was the deputy.
We worked with them, Mark.
We worked with them.
Now, this other stuff you're seeing today, I don't think it's coming out of the really good departments and agencies.
I think there's something going on here with the intelligence agencies.
That's the problem I'm having with this story.
And if that be the case, that is very, very bad, and may turn out to be um, you know, criminally culpable.
It may turn out to be treasonous.
I don't know.
But these leaks and transcripts are coming from the Intel community.
That's the best evidence that we can find.
And I don't know what's in there.
So they got to release the transcripts.
I mean, even the New York Times in this uh front page, whatever it was yesterday, they acknowledge that there is no evidence that Donald Trump's name ever came up with Russian communications.
Even the Times said there was no evidence.
So I don't know.
Go figure.
Well, everybody get uh Larry Cudlow's book is excellent.
Uh recommended reading, JFK and the Reagan Revolution.
You'll love this book.
Of course, you can watch Larry on CNBC.
You can hear him on the radio on Saturdays.
Larry Cudlow, uh, follow him on Twitter too.
Larry Cudlow.
Thanks for being with us.
Thanks, Mark.
See you soon.
Appreciate it.
All right, take care.
Uh you can follow me on Twitter, Mark Simone NY at Twitter.
Uh, if you go to Instagram right now, Mark Simone NY at Instagram.
Uh I'm gonna give up.
People already voted.
They love Lawrence Dog.
They weren't that crazy about my uh donut ice cream sandwich, but uh anyway.
And don't forget Hannity tonight, special edition exclusive interview with B.B. Netanyahu and with Paul Ryan.
It's tonight at 10 on the Fox News Channel.
We'll take some calls in a minute.
1-800-941 Sean is the number.
You told Sean you need his insider updates straight from the source on today's big news.
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Sean Hannity.
Sean Hannity.
Hey, welcome back.
It's Mark Simone here for Sean Hannity.
Uh don't forget tonight, uh, that's the reason Sean's not here.
He's putting together a very special show for tonight.
It's gonna be an exclusive interview with Bibi Netanyahu.
He's come to Washington to uh meet with the president, so this will be a big, big special edition of Hannity tonight at 10 o'clock.
Also, exclusive sit down with Paul Ryan, and that's all on tonight's Hannity at 10 o'clock on the Fox News channel.
And uh I would I I think it's I'd say it's been, I don't know, ten years since I've actually read the New York Times, but I am getting tomorrow's New York Times.
I am going to enjoy this.
They're going to write about how Donald Trump epic meltdown, an unhinged off the rails press conference.
It was brilliant today.
Nothing against Sean Spicer, but Donald Trump needs to do his own press conferences.
Nobody can do what he does.
We just have to figure out the formula.
Is it once a week, once a month?
I don't know.
And he's got to do them in prime time so the whole nation can watch them unedited and just take a look at him.
It was brilliant.
You'll see more coverage of it tonight on uh Hannity.
Um just amazing stuff.
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