‘Hannity’ on Durham probe and Clinton campaign

This is a rush transcript of “Hannity” on February 15, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: And great tribute to PJ O’Rourke. Thank you, Tucker.

Welcome to HANNITY.

Tonight, the struggle for civil liberties in Canada continues as the country’s wannabe dictator Justin Trudeau now attempting to squash peaceful protests, enforce draconian COVID mandates in perpetuity — at least it seems. We’ll have the very latest live from Ottawa in just a moment and it’s getting bad.

Also tonight, we’ll check in on the White House where in the midst of a crisis at home and abroad multiple crises — well, Joe Biden spent precious time today telling a really weird bizarre story about putting a dead dog on some random woman’s doorstep. The precipitous cognitive decline continues.

But, first, we begin tonight with the story the media mob refuses to report and that is the Hillary Clinton spying scandal. And that’s what it is.

As we first reported last night, a bombshell filing from the Durham probe details how the Clinton campaign and their associates actively, according to, of course, John Durham, exploited Internet data, mine from Trump Tower, and even the Trump White House to smear Donald Trump. The mob and the media, they don’t want you to see this story, just like the media mob ran defense on the Hunter Biden laptop story just before the election for the Biden family syndicate. Now, the media is covering up yet another scandal.

So let’s take a moment to read directly from the Durham court filing against Attorney Michael Sussman who is charged with lying to the FBI about his work on behalf of Hillary Clinton. Now, according to the filing, Sussman was, quote, a lawyer at large at a large international law firm that was then serving as counsel to the Clinton campaign. The document continues, the defendant’s billing records reflect that the defendant repeatedly billed the Clinton campaign for his work and, quote, the defendant had assembled and conveyed allegations about Donald Trump to the FBI on behalf of at least two specific clients, including a technology executive at a U.S. -based internet company and the Clinton campaign.

Stay with me here. Durham then goes on to explain how these allegations were exploited from Internet data mine at, quote, a particular health care provider, Trump Tower, Donald Trump’s central park west apartment building and the executive office of the president of the United States. Those are his exact words.

In other words, they were mining and exploiting data from the White House and likely after Trump was inaugurated and in the filing, it continues, quote, the defendant further claimed that these lookups demonstrated that Trump and or his associates were using supposedly rare Russian-made wireless phones in the vicinity of the White House and other locations.

Now, those claims about Trump and Russia turned out to be bogus but when you mine any unauthorized information from any computer, any device whatsoever in any form, that would be by definition, at least according to the dictionary I read, spying. And assuming Durham is correct and we believe in the presumption of innocence, by the way, we always do and we always make that caveat.

The — if the allegations detailed in this filing are true, then this would — this would be what Nancy Pelosi called electronic Watergate. In other words, maybe the word she used was right in the first place and she was talking about 2016 ironically. This is not from the mind of Sean Hannity or the imagination of conservative media. This is according to a federal court filing from a respected federal prosecutor as part of an investigation now overseen by Merrick Garland, Biden’s attorney general.

Now, through Sussman and this tech company the Clinton campaign was mining and exploiting internet traffic from the White House of a sitting president. As “The Wall Street Journal” put a, quote, Trump really was spied on.

To be clear — now this is separate and apart from the dirty Clinton bought and paid for Russian disinformation dossier that was used to get four FISA warrants to spy on then candidate Trump, Trump’s transition team and then later, President Trump.

Remember Clinton and the DNC, they funneled money to a law firm called Perkins Coie. They hired Fusion GPS, who hired then former MX — M6 — former spy himself Christopher Steele and then top officials took Clinton’s dirty dossier and the disinformation in the dossier and presented it to the FISA court as verified because it says at the top of a FISA application verified. The facts are none of it was verified, it was all unverifiable and it was all full of lies or as Christopher Steele’s sub-source referred to it — that was just bar talk.

Now, in a six-page response, in fairness, Sussman’s attorney responded to Durham and his legal team is claiming that these allegations are irrelevant to the charged offense and are plainly intended to politicize this case in plain media coverage and taint the jury pool.

But keep in mind, this isn’t the only spying allegation that the Clinton campaign is facing. Now, remember, it was Michael Sussman’s law firm Perkins Coie that hired Christopher Steele on behalf of the Clinton campaign to dig up Russian dirt on Donald Trump.

By the way, it’s all been debunked. So there is a nexus between both separate instances. So, now, the obvious question is, what did Hillary Clinton know, when did she know it and when did a lot of people know and when did they know it. And according to former President Trump, this Durham probe is exposing the crime of the century and predicting that this is just the beginning.

Well, I agree with them and I’ll add, this makes Watergate look like child’s play. And remember, in Watergate, 69 people were indicted, 48 people were convicted, and a U.S. president had to resign in disgrace.

Now, here with more is the former chairman of the House Intel Committee, Devin Nunes, along with FOX News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett.

Okay, there are two separate instances here. As you read the filing, Devin Nunes, to me I think it’s very clear what Durham is saying. Your thoughts?

DEVIN NUNES, FOREMR CHAIRMAN OF THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Well, clearly, anyone able to get into the White House no matter who the president is something that is unprecedented. Those should be the most guarded communications in this country. .So this is going to take — hopefully, Durham gets more and more information out. Hopefully, he can bring more indictments.

And then, look, Sean, it’s going to take my old buddies in the Congress are going to have to spend years looking into this and just how did this happen, how can contractors have communications of Americans all over the country? It’s frightening, in the Trump Tower, into President Trump’s apartment and then when he’s in the White House.

It’s really, really a dark, dark chapter of American history.

HANNITY: Now, Gregg, some might say that this isn’t really spying because all they’re really doing is checking where it’s — it’s not an infiltration of the server, but it’s a device that’s capable — my understanding and I’m the least technically knowledgeable person you’ll ever meet, I need my kids to download an app, that’s how bad I am — but my understanding is it would check all the IP addresses that in fact were being searched from computers in the White House or in Trump Tower or any of the other locations.

Now, that to me is still a form of spying. Is it not?

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: It is and spying or surveillance, they’re pretty much interchangeable words surveillance is more technical. It’s in government documents. But the good old-fashioned everyday common usage is spying, and they’re the same thing. In this particular case, a tech company being paid by the Hillary Clinton campaign is using cyber sleuths to penetrate in an unauthorized way the servers to collect data without permission, without knowledge of Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, the Trump transition, and allegedly the Trump White House.

I mean, it’s absolutely breathtaking and stunning and, you know, what’s so shocking about this is as I read the court filings I was jotting down all the different felonies that appear to have been committed, it’s a crime to lie to the FBI. It’s called defrauding the government. If two or more people are involved, it’s a conspiracy to defraud the government and clearly, there was more than one person involved here.

And then you’ve got a computer fraud and abuse, just what I described, penetrating a server in an unauthorized way without permission or knowledge. You know, that’s 18 USC 1030.

And then, finally, you’ve got the racketeering statue. I mean, what — what Durham is describing here sounds very much to me like a criminal enterprise for the purpose of committing illegal acts such as fraud and obstruction of justice, lying and perjury and so for the list goes on and on. These are all things that I think Durham is likely considering.

But I wrote a column today for FOX News saying it is unlikely in my judgment that Hillary Clinton, who is the architect of it all, who funded it, financed it, directed it and disseminated the information through her cadre of cronies, I doubt that she will ever be held accountable because she did —

HANNITY: Even though it’s her campaign —

JARRETT: — levels of people.

HANNITY: And it’s her campaign paying for it. Unbelievable.

Let me go back to the document if I — if I may, Devin Nunes and read this to you. And this is back to Durham’s filing and he said in connection with these efforts, you know, the — he says the purpose was for them to assemble details about dubious Trump-Russia ties, and he says and is filing what is called the factual background which now Sussman’s team wants — stricken from the record.

Anyway, in connection with these efforts, tech executive one exploited his access to non-public proprietary internet data the filing reads then it says tech executive one also enlisted the assistance of researchers at a U.S.-based university who are receiving and analyzing large amounts of internet data in connection with the pending federal government cyber security research contract.

And it says tech executive one tasked these researchers to mine Internet data to establish an inference and a narrative tying then candidate Trump to Russia. Durham reportedly added in doing so, tech executive one indicated that he was seeking to please certain VIPs referring to the individual’s law firm. That would be Perkins Coie, I assume and the Clinton campaign.

That seems to be a direct link that Durham is making there about what actually happened here.

NUNES: Yeah. So, Sean, let me just simplify this. What they did is they spied on a presidential candidate and then the president of the United States. When they didn’t find anything, they made it up and they framed a sitting president of the United States and tried and got the — you know, the whole Mueller investigation.

That’s what hap — that’s really what happened here. It’s really — it’s really that simple. But I want to take you back to a further uh filing back a few months ago on tech executive one. This is also someone who clearly was working with highly sensitive government contracts and had bragged about supposedly going to get a top cyber security job in the incoming Clinton administration. I think that kind of sums up everything that people need to know about this.

HANNITY: All right. I’ll give you the last word, Gregg Jarrett and maybe you’re right. But now, we have two different paths of spying, do we not? If you believe the filing of Durham and what he’s saying and for what — I’ll read that last paragraph once again, in doing, so they did it to please certain VIPs, individuals, law firm one, and the Clinton campaign and mine Internet data to establish an inference and a narrative that candidate Trump was tied to Russia.

Now, isn’t that very similar to the dirty dossier that we now know is debunked?

JARRETT: Oh, it’s nearly identical in so many different ways and I agree with Devin Nunes wholeheartedly that they didn’t find any evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. Why? Because it never existed. So what they did was they took innocuous information and they tried to transform it and peddle it as nefarious connections between rump — Trump and the Kremlin.

And then they went to the FBI. They went to the CIA, and they presented this information again that’s a crime to present phony information. But even worse, they sold it to the gullible Trump-hating media that, of course, reported it for the better part of two to three years.

HANNITY: All right. Thank you, Devin Nunes, and — by the way, congratulations on your new job. And, Greg Jarrett, thank you.

Now, tonight, the mob, the media, they’re avoiding this story like the plague. Why? It’s obvious, because Trump was right. They were wrong. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This sensual conspiracy theory that animates Donald Trump’s entire presidency that he was spied on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even before all of the facts are in, Mr. Trump is alleging he’s the victim, tweeting, they spied on my campaign. We will never forget.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president using the document to renew his unfounded claim the Trump campaign was spied on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why do you think the president keeps pushing this, what is his angle for this deception?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow, by the way, there was no spying, of course.

BILL BARR, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think there was a — spying did occur. Yes, I think spying did occur.

RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC HOST: Spying did not occur.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Of course, Hillary Clinton who Greg Jarrett referred to as the mastermind behind the Trump Russia collusion hoax is also avoiding these new allegations in the Durham probe. Today, she managed to duck questions from `The Daily Mail” or reporter who caught up with Hillary on the streets of New York City. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Hillary, Laura Collins, “Daily Mail,” did you pay to spy on the Trump campaign? Are you going to comment on the spying allegations, Hillary? Did you pay for the having spied on?

(EN VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Here with reaction, FOX News contributor Joe Concha and the editor-in-chief of justthenews.com, John Solomon, who has also obtained classified FBI documents related to informant Stefan Halper attempting to get an inside look into the Trump campaign.

Let me — let me get your headline John on this and let me hold up. This is the 36 pages that you got a hold of. There we go — we’ll center it for everybody at home to see and cover my face. I look better this way.

But the question is, what is the headline you’re getting out of this? And why is this document important? What does it tell us?

JOHN SOLOMON, CEO & EDITOR IN CHIEF OF JUST THE NEWS: Well, the president of the United States Donald Trump declassified this document just before he left office I obtained it. It’s the tasking orders. It’s the FBI sitting with an informant telling him this is how we want you to spy on the Trump campaign.

Here’s a scenario, here’s our goal, if you don’t get something from Carter Page, move on to Mike Flynn. If you don’t get something from Mike Flynn, move on to George Papadopoulos. Every reporter that sits here and looks into the camera and says there was no spying just read this document every person I’ve sent it to, is this a spy document? And they say absolutely, it’s the road map for surveillance.

So spying, let’s just throw that one out the window.

HANNITY: But these documents that Donald Trump declassified, aren’t they the tasking orders for FBI informant Stefan Halper to infiltrate the Trump campaign? Is that your interpretation of this?

SOLOMON: It’s actually what they say. They say it flat out, what his job is to do, get inside the Trump campaign and find out if they’re colluding with Russia. Start with Carter Page, move on to Mike Flynn if you can get to him or Paul Manafort and end up with George Papadopoulos. By the way, he then goes on to make recordings under the FBI supervision of people like Carter Page and George Papadopoulos.

And they show that they’re innocent and the investigation continues on anyways. It’s really remarkable and now the Clinton campaign are doing the same thing.

HANNITY: You know, you think about it. You make the comparisons to Watergate, Joe Concha. Okay, it was a break-in. The break-in was to steal confidential information at the DNC and to plant bugs. Okay, they take the information out, the bugs don’t work. They get caught when they go back to try and make the bugs effective, and it ends up with what 48 people convicted of crimes, and one president resigning in disgrace.

This is more electronic Watergate except at a much higher level. The media was wrong for three long years. They missed the entire Trump Russia collusion story. They missed the FISA court being lied to on four separate occasions. They never covered the Hillary Clinton dirty disinformation Russian dossier.

Now, you’ve got this new aspect, this news story and they’re trying to throw a wet blanket on it without even looking into what exactly it is that John Durham is communicating here.

JOE CONCHA, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: And let’s put the shoe on the other foot. With all that said, Sean, let’s say a prosecutor with impeccable bipartisan credibility found that Donald Trump’s campaign had spied on his Democratic opponent, and then a tech executive exploited his access to computer data at the White House to find derogatory information on a Democratic president, do you think “The New York Times”, “The Washington Post,” CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC would mostly ignore or dismiss that story? It’s rhetorical Tuesday, Sean, so you don’t have to answer that.

And besides, we all know the answer that it would be wall to wall because we’ve already seen this movie to your point, except that movie wasn’t non- fiction. It was fiction. Trump Russia collusion, that was presented as gospel, instead of dossier gossip.

And now a big question to ask is what did the heads of our intelligence agencies know at the time and when did they know it? Because let’s look at where these heads of these intelligence agencies are now, right? John Brennan, CIA director at the time, now he’s a partisan pundit on MSNBC. James Clapper, director of national intelligence, now at CNN. Andrew McCabe, deputy director, FBI, signed by CNN after being fired from the agency for leaking to the press. James Comey, two anti-Trump books and a Showtime movie.

Are we really supposed to believe now that when they were in a position of power, that they acted in an apolitical manner and without an agenda? Again, it’s rhetorical Tuesday, Sean. You don’t need to answer that.

HANNITY: All right. Let’s talk about the media narrative today, John, and that there’s no spying. You know, you said to me on a private call, it’s simply laughable. But the effort of countries well after the election or parties, the first month into Trump’s presidency.

So he’s got four FISA applications approved, once when he’s a candidate and two when he’s a president. So we’re now we’re dealing with that as an undercurrent.

And then all of this is going on and then the question is to — at — they’re literally saying or Durham is saying here to exploit for political purposes and create a phony narrative about a relationship that never existed — except ironically, it really did exist. And that is that the only collusion with Russia was Hillary Clinton paying for a dirty Russian misinformation dossier or a series of intel put together by Christopher Steele who eventually disavowed a lot of it himself, and then his sub- source laughed at. That was — it never meant to be used for any type of FISA application.

And they got away with all of that up to this point and the media not only got it wrong, they blamed Donald Trump and accused him of something he was never guilty of.

SOLOMON: Yeah, you can’t say it any better than that, Sean. Listen, if John Durham proves his case, this is a simple headline. The Clinton campaign spied and the Clinton campaign lied, and the American public suffered for three and four years of it. Donald Trump unnecessarily suffered, as did many of the people around him like Carter Page and others. This is a more than a political dirty trick now.

What John Durham lays out is the early outlines of a conspiracy to try to feed false information to the FBI to enlist them into the political dirty trick. That’s what these new documents are starting to hint at. Let’s see if he can make the case.

If he does, the headline one day in the history books will be Clinton spied and Clinton lied.

HANNITY: Yeah, and when one of “The New York Times” going to give back those phony Pulitzers because the media was complicit for three long years, no retractions, no corrections, no apologies, no nothing. They just move on to the next set of lies that they pedal to their audience, the next conspiracy theory they peddle to their audience.

Perfect timing for Rachel Maddow, the biggest conspiracy theorists in the country to be on leave. Anyway, thank you both for being with us.

Straight ahead, the freedom convoy holding strong in Ottawa. We’ll speak with a spokesperson for the truckers convoy. Now, my friend Geraldo has been vilifying the truckers. He and I go one-on-one because this is not tolerable, and I’ll explain why, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. So the spineless, gutless, coward, Biden of the north Justin Trudeau is in complete disarray tonight as his unprecedented power grab to launch what is an authoritarian crackdown on truckers by invoking the so-called Emergencies Act which has never been used in the country’s history is only making the convoy stronger abroad and at home, because get this, a new poll from Rasmussen finds that a whopping 59 percent of likely U.S. voters, they support the trucker convoy, only 33 percent opposed. And even some in the far-left media mob are defending their right to peacefully protest.

Take a look at this new editorial from of all places “The New York Times,” which I rarely read and rarely quote. Protests are a necessary form of expression in a democratic society, particularly for those whose opinions do not command broad popular support.

And even the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, they’re slamming this bazaar, this unprecedented and frankly dangerous reckless power grab.

And yet, Trudeau wants to launch an all-out authoritarian crackdown on what has been a peaceful protest the whole time.

So what’s Justin going to do? Is he going to send in the police, crack some heads, arrest these truckers, imprison them, confiscate their rigs, find them a hundred thousand dollars as some reports have it?

And remember, the same Justin Trudeau, that guy right there who is kneeling with Black Lives Matter and Antifa, he’s the guy that was saying that he’d protect the right of Canadians to peacefully assemble.

And when it comes to an actual peaceful protest, well, Trudeau is calling these guys every name in the book — racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, no evidence whatsoever to back up any of these claims. And now, the premiers in the provinces of Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan, they’re now pushing back against all of this and the extreme use of the Emergencies Act.

And these truckers are the heroes — remember of the pandemic. They kept the world running. They stepped on COVID grenades every day. They kept trucking, farmers kept farming, packers packed, nurses were nursing. Hospital workers worked in — diving on COVID grenades and working in a COVID Petri dish every day.

And now, in this case, Trudeau basically wants to label them terrorists and destroy their livelihoods completely.

Here with reaction is the Freedom Convoy 22 spokesperson and board member Benjamin Dichter is back with us.

Benjamin, all right, so now they’re talking about — let’s see — arresting you guys, hundred thousand dollar fines, time in jail, confiscating your rig, revoking your licenses and destroying your life, because you’re peacefully protesting?

BENJAMIN DICHTER, “FREEDOM CONVOY 2022” SPOKESMAN AND BOARD MEMBER: That’s basically it and when I say peacefully protesting, I would call it more of a demonstration because what do we get what are we guilty of? Some trucks parked illegally? Okay, I’m not sure that that warrants the response from the government.

But one of the things that they did include in this emergency act is it forces tow truck companies under duress to come in and tow the trucks. And if they refuse to tow the trucks, then the government can say, fine, we’re canceling your business license and fining you a hundred thousand dollars or some obscene number like that.

HANNITY: All right. But the bottom line is, I’m reading that the tow truck operators all of a sudden, their equipment’s not working too well and they’re not going to cooperate with the authoritative rule of the ever so wimpy prime minister.

You have — my understanding also is cops are winking and nodding and saying, guys, we support you, we don’t want any part of this. And I got to imagine that military members, they don’t want any part of going after brave Canadians that are just expressing views.

DICHTER: Well, he said in his press conference that he’s not going to call in the military and we were all laughing because our response was — yeah, you tried that last week and the military said thanks but no thanks. We don’t — this is not in within our privy and many of us have families in military and policing, and that’s how we found out.

So, you know what they say, a general without an army is a fool. Justin Trudeau just hasn’t realized that yet.

HANNITY: Yeah, the question is, what I think is very critical for the truckers is that they stay peaceful as they have been. It’s almost been like a block party atmosphere from what I can see. And that you hold the line, because now you have five provinces that are supporting the truckers and they’re eliminating the mandates. So there are — you’re racking up wins all around the country, you have the people support and I think the only way that that could be broken is if say some outsiders try to disrupt what has been a peaceful protest. Do you agree?

DICHTER: I agree and that has been attempted the — for the past two weeks, there have been you know agent provocateurs that have come in. But you know, there’s so many truckers that are either ex-military or from military families, they saw what happened in January 6th and they’re aware of not taking the bait that people will try to antagonize them.

And that’s why — that’s part of it — how it became such a friendly and peaceful atmosphere and everybody brought out their barbecues and their cooking and feeding everybody, I mean, these are guys who live so much of their life on the road alone and this thirst for interaction with people and to engage and meet their friends of course from across the country has been some of our biggest leverage. And it’s allowed so many of them to establish new friendships. It’s really a beautiful thing.

HANNITY: Well, just keep it up and I think that you’re going to win in the end, all around the world, all of these draconian mandates are being lifted. Maybe Justin needs to follow the science and for example look at the John Hopkins study, you might learn something.

Benjamin, good to see you. Thank you and keep up the good work.

Unfortunately, not everybody understands, the power the importance of the freedom convoy. Here’s what our very own Geraldo Rivera has been saying in recent days about the truckers. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT AT LARGE: Their behavior has been nothing short of thuggish. In Ottawa, they’ve kept people in the neighborhood awake all night, revving their engines, blowing their horns. They’ve deprived Ottawa businesses of tens of millions of dollars. Now, they’re blockading the international bridges. To give them the mantle of freedom fighters is absolutely appallingly naive.

I must say Jesse that I am deeply embarrassed by the affection — the misguided affection you all are heaping.

GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS HOST: You’re embarrassed by us?

RIVERA: I am embarrassed.

GUTFELD: What a turnaround.

RIVERA: I am embarrassed.

These truckers are selfish, self-involved.

JEANINE PIRRO, FOX NEWS CO-HOST: They’re hard working people.

RIVERA: I know protecting national security, and shame on them. Shame on anyone who cheers them on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Geraldo, you’re a friend. I hate to say it, shame on you. They opened the bridges, by the way, and they opened them peacefully. But here you’re talking about the heroes of the pandemic, along with all medical professionals and these are the people that kept all of Canada going in the toughest times of the pandemic and you’re calling these guys who don’t agree with you that are protesting peacefully thugs, you’re calling them selfish, you’re calling them self-absorbed.

And with all due respect to our friendship, you owe these guys an apology because they frankly deserve our praise for all that they did for not only their country but they showed bravery in the toughest moment the country was facing.

RIVERA: Well, I you know love you you’re my friend and my brother and I stand by every word I said. I want Benjamin to explain why the Teamsters Union has, quote, denounced the ongoing freedom convoy that continues to hurt workers and negatively impact our economy. That’s the Teamsters Union. The Truckers Union, the American Trucking Association is opposed to what they were doing.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Geraldo, they opened up the bridge, they opened up the bridge peacefully.

(CROSSTALK)

RIVERA: Sean, you — you give them credit for opening up the bridge when they were facing court orders?

No confrontation. What about the truckers who took out the crow bars when the police first tried to move them and hanging the — banging the crow bars.

HANNITY: What do you want? Do you want the police to go in there and take — do you want them to start cracking heads of truckers? For what?

RIVERA: I notice when you put those surveys up, they were from last Thursday. Five days, five or six days ago. The latest survey I saw was 70 percent of the people polled are opposed to what the freedom convoy has been doing.

HANNITY: What poll is that?

RIVERA: I don’t have the exact — look it up. Look it up.

HANNITY: Here’s what I don’t understand about you.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: You have made your living — you have made a good living in your entire life doing amazing work throughout your career. You’ve made it having freedom of expression. You may not like their opinion. You may not agree with their opinion, but in a free society, if we don’t allow for protests, peacefully protests like this, you don’t have freedom.

RIVERA: What about the freedom of the business owners? What about the freedom of the people who want to visit their capital city in what about the autoworkers who couldn’t work because they have no parts?

HANNITY: You’re arguing a point from a week ago because the bridge is now open and commerce has continued. So, they’re not in the way of any bridge any more. The question is, why do you go from 0 to 1,000 and how come people that were heroes just a year ago, you’re calling thugs and selfish and self-absorbed. Do you know how I view these people?

RIVERA: In the early days Benjamin, your guest, noted how there were agents provocateurs. If that’s what they were, is that — is considering the people with swastikas and Confederate flags from the early says? Were they provocateurs?

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: You’re a provocateur. That’s how you get a living. That’s how you get paid. You say things that are on your mind. You have freedom.

RIVERA: Is this nation now going to be held hostage? For how much longer? It’s in his third week.

HANNITY: How about as long as they feel it’s worth fighting for? How about we believe in a concept that we give lip service to and it’s called freedom and they have the freedom to disagree with the government mandate that the rest of the world is eliminating and half of Canada is now eliminating.

RIVERA: How do the Teamsters denounce them? The Teamsters denounced them. Denounced them.

HANNITY: I’m praising them and you’re calling them thugs. I don’t think they’re thugs.

RIVERA: Their behavior has been thuggish.

HANNITY: Unlike the summer of 2020, they actually are peaceful. They’ve been doing a great job. They’re keeping the peace. But they’re standing up for something that they believe in and I would think you would applaud that.

RIVERA: What about the group that was arrested in western Canada with the heavy weapons and the extended magazines and the body armor?

HANNITY: Oh my gosh.

RIVERA: I mean, come on.

HANNITY: Geraldo, this has been like a block party. I’m telling every one of these truckers. They’re trying to set you up to respond. Stay peaceful the whole time. If they do that, they’re going to win. That’s my prediction. Give you the last word.

RIVERA: What’s the impact of the allies in the media of prolonging this agony? What is the impact of all your friendly loving comments to these groups?

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I support them.

RIVERA: How much longer are they going to stay there?

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I support the cause of freedom, Geraldo, unapologetically.

RIVERA: How much longer do they cripple the capital city of Canada?

HANNITY: Do you know what?

(CROSSTALK)

RIVERA: You have to live with that. You have to live with that.

HANNITY: Last point. You have a mandate. Mandate is you get a vaccine. You get the second shot. You get the booster.

RIVERA: Do you think this is about vaccines?

HANNITY: You can still get COVID and transmit it. If you have a previous infection, natural immunity, and a booster you can still transmit COVID. So, the science doesn’t back up any reason to force this upon these guys if they don’t want it.

RIVERA: This is not about vaccine. Most of these guys are vaccinated. This has nothing to do with vaccines any more.

HANNITY: It has to do with freedom. That’s right. I agree with you on that point.

All right. Geraldo, thank you.

Coming up, you’re not going to believe the bizarre story that Biden — what he told today. He brags about putting a dead dog on some woman’s door step. I’m not making that up.

Then later the family of Halyna Hutchins filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Alec Baldwin and others. We have the details, straight ahead.

(COMEMRCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Another day, another bizarre blunder from Joe Biden, because yet again today, Biden turned an event into story time with Joey as he reminisced about putting a dead dog on a random lady’s door step. We all needed to hear this. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNTIED STATES: I got a call one night. A woman said to me, obviously, not of the same persuasion I was politically. Called and said, there’s a dead dog on my lawn.

I said, yes, ma’am. I said, have you called the county? She said, yes, they’re not here. I said, well, I’ll get him in the morning. She said I want it removed now. I pay your salary.

So I went over it, I picked it up. She said I want it out of my front yard. I put it on her door step.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Good job, Joey. You made a funny.

Here with reaction, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, former Trump White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus.

Reince, I’ll start with you tonight. He also talked about Ukraine and Russia today. We’re looking for diplomatic solution. We’re looking for a diplomatic solution. We’re looking for a diplomatic solution. We can’t guarantee the results.

And all I’m thinking is, if I’m president of the United States and Putin wants a diplomatic solution, I’m not talking to Putin until he pulls his troops back from the Ukrainian border. Because right now, Putin has all the leverage. Am I wrong?

REINCE PRIEBUS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Well, you’re not wrong. You remember Biden was the one that called himself a human gaffe machine.

Problem here, Sean, is that Biden doesn’t have a strategy. At least when Trump was in office, he had a strategy. It was a carrot and stick strategy. On one hand, he was respectful to Putin. He talked to him often.

He said things that he was criticized for like, hey, wouldn’t it be nice if we got along with Russia? But, on the other hand, he sanctioned the daylights out of oligarchs, energy companies. He sanctioned every company that had anything to do with the Nord Stream pipeline, if you recall that.

And the problem is that weakness abroad and trouble at home is a Molotov cocktail of destruction. Biden is stumbling and bumbling his way through every day. In the mean time, we need leadership in this country. And, unfortunately, 20 percent of the American public, only 20 percent thinks he’s going to be a successful president. Last week when CNN polled people around the country and said, can you name something that Biden has accomplished, 58 percent of the people said nothing.

HANNITY: They said no.

Let me ask you, Mike Huckabee —

PRIEBUS: Weakness is an incurable disease.

HANNITY: Looks to me like Vladimir has all the leverage here, because now, you will extract all the concessions he wants. Or he’ll just walk into Ukraine and nobody’s going to lift a finger to stop him. So he wins either way.

MIKE HUCKABEE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, let’s keep in mind that Putin is a student of Joseph Stalin. And recently, friend of mine, Colonel Ken Allard, who was once was the dean of the War College at West Point, mad the observation that Joseph Stalin said that you put your bayonet forward and you stick it. If it hits mush, you keep going on. If it hits steel, you retreat.

Putin is following that Stalin philosophy. He’s sticking the bayonet forward. And he probably going to find mush. If he does, he keeps going. Only if he hits steel does he retreat and stop.

So it’s a good lesson from history, and there’s no doubt that Putin would love to see the recreation of the old Soviet Union. Let’s not kid ourselves. He’s nothing other than a former KGB full blown communist that decided to kind of go along with the new Russia. But only to the point that he could try to one day bring back the good old days of the Soviet Union.

HANNITY: So either he gets Ukraine or he gets concessions that whatever he wants, and I don’t see Joey stopping him at any point. It’s sad.

All right. Thank you both, Reince Priebus and Mike Huckabee.

When we come back, Alec Baldwin now facing a wrongful death lawsuit for his role in a fatal shooting on the set of the movie “Rust.” Those details coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Now, tonight, a big development in the Alec Baldwin fatal film set shooting as the family of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins has filed a wrongful lawsuit against Baldwin and other “Rust” producers for the death of Hutchins.

Now, look at your screen, the family’s legal team released this re- enactment of the shooting detailing the alleged sequence of events that led up to the fatal tragedy. Don’t forget, there’s still an on going criminal investigation.

Here to break it all down, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, along with armorer Bryan Carpenter is back with us.

Pam, let me start with you. The criminal investigation continues. This is a lawsuit. We can’t forget that Baldwin waited a month to hand over his phone, which I found very odd.

Where do you see this going?

PAM BONDI, FORMER FLORIDA ATTORNEY: Well, Sean, I think the lawsuit is very well taken. We often talk about criminal cases on here. But remember, in a wrongful death lawsuit, the standard is much lower, preponderance of the evidence.

And what do they have to prove? Four things. Negligence. That just by his carelessness or recklessness, in part, caused her death. That’s it.

And breach of duty, meaning he shouldn’t have pointed a gun at her. Causation, he shot her. And damages.

So it’s a much lower standard. I think like you said, he waited to turn in his text messages. Also, he said it was a complete accident.

If they have experts, Sean, to say that that gun, the trigger pressure, could not have gone off accidentally and their re-enactment shows that they say he pulled the trigger back and fired. Was he joking around? Probably. But he had a duty to not act that way on set.

And also, they’re saying there were massive standards that were violated as to safety protocol on a set. And he knew he was handling a real gun.

HANNITY: Brian, let’s get your take. How did a live round get in that gun and who’s responsible?

BRYAN CARPENTER, WEAPONS MASTER: Well, it’s a duality of responsibility there on a moving set. You have on one side, the producers’ responsibility, which is ultimately to make sure that entire safety is followed on the set in its entirety, the right people are hired, and the protocols are implemented.

The other side of that is the armor and the props master, which are the studio mechanics side. It’s their job as well to make sure that the protocol put in place is followed. They’re the ones there.

Between the two of those, there are multiple levels that were in place and that have always been followed on other movie sets to keep a live round from making its way into that atmosphere.

So, to say that one made it, it would be a least six to eight levels of protocol having been breached or safety that wasn’t followed.

HANNITY: Pam, I have 15 seconds. I think this case gets won by the Hutchins family or settled out of court. Do you agree?

BONDI: I do. Frankly, he should have tried to settle out of court immediately. I think his actions after spoke volumes, especially if he lied about playing around with a gun. He posted those horrible things with his wife making him out to be a victim.

I’m sure the family did not appreciate that.

HANNITY: Well, I wonder if an insurance policy is in place as well.

More HANNITY after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Unfortunately, that’s all of the time we have for this evening. As always, thank for being with us. You make the show possible. We never forget it.

We hope you set your DVR to never miss an episode of HANNITY. Don’t forget my website, the news, information, 24/7, Hannity.com.

In the meantime, let not your hearts be troubled. Laura Ingraham’s show starts right now. And I did not get my hat in the mail today.

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