Transcript - Interview: Sean Hannity Interviews Donald Trump Via Telephone - March 27, 2019 | Factba.se

Sean Hannity

00:00:00 - 00:00:10 (10 sec)

All right. Joining us now exclusively on the phone, is the president of United States. Mr. President, thank you for taking time for being with us tonight.

Donald Trump

00:00:10 - 00:00:13 (3 sec)

Well, thank you, Sean, very much. It's an honor.

Sean Hannity

00:00:13 - 00:00:35 (23 sec)

I appreciate you being here. You really have not had an opportunity to react, to respond to the Mueller report, the A.G.'s letter, that summarized the report that exonerated you. No collusion after all these years, as you have been claiming. He left the decision as it relates to obstruction to the attorney general and deputy attorney general.

Sean Hannity

00:00:35 - 00:00:41 (6 sec)

They quickly said, no, that does not rise to the level. And I wanted to get your reaction.

Donald Trump

00:00:41 - 00:01:06 (25 sec)

Well, we are very happy about it. It's gone on for a long time, almost since the beginning of my term, and you know, if you look at it, we've done so much despite that. But it was a cloud. It was a cloud that most people didn't believe, fortunately. They spent more than $30 million, hundreds of interviews of people, in some cases very innocent people that were put through the ringer.

Donald Trump

00:01:06 - 00:01:25 (20 sec)

Millions of document pages, millions and millions of document pages, and after that, there was no collusion, there was no obstruction. It was such a ridiculous thing that happened. On the other hand, you know, you look at, how did this start? How did it start? You had dirty cops. You had people that are about FBI folks.

Donald Trump

00:01:25 - 00:01:37 (11 sec)

I know so many. They are incredible people. But at the top, they were not clean, to put it mildly. And what they did to our country was a terrible, terrible thing.

Sean Hannity

00:01:37 - 00:02:08 (31 sec)

Mr. President, we talked a lot on this program about the FISA abuse scandal. And this is what we know, that in August of 2016, we know Bruce Ohr warned everybody at the DOJ and the FBI that Christopher Steele hated you, that Hillary Clinton paid for the dossier, that it was not verified. But still in October, and then three renewal application warrants approved, they were told by the Grassley-Graham memo, the bulk of information came from that phony dossier.

Sean Hannity

00:02:08 - 00:02:28 (20 sec)

Andrew McCabe said, no dossier, no FISA warrant. There were Russian lies disseminated to the American people before the election, but it also violated the rights of Carter Page and gave a backdoor into your campaign for spying, which I know the media made fun of at the time, when you said it happened.

Donald Trump

00:02:28 - 00:02:58 (30 sec)

Well, when I said there could be somebody spying on my campaign, a lot of things happened. It was like -- it went wild out there. They couldn't believe that I could say such a thing. And as it turned out, that was a small potatoes compared to what went on. When you look at what happened, and when it happened, and the money that was spent, the millions and millions on the phony dossier, and then they used the dossier to start things, and there was no truth whatsoever.

Donald Trump

00:02:58 - 00:03:21 (24 sec)

It was a fraud and paid for by Hillary Clinton and paid for by the Democrats and the DNC. It's hard to believe. If you wrote this as a novel, no one would buy it. It would be a failure because it will be too unbelievable. Nobody would believe it's possible, the things that went on. And we're getting to the bottom of it, and it's got to be -- I mean, you can never allow this to happen to another president.

Donald Trump

00:03:21 - 00:03:33 (12 sec)

This can never, ever happen to a president again, Sean. That was a disgrace and an embarrassment our country, that they were allowed to get away with this. Hopefully, they won't get away with it.

Sean Hannity

00:03:33 - 00:03:49 (16 sec)

Do you now feel vindicated? Was there anything that the attorney general's report -- I know you have called for obviously the whole Mueller memo to be released, did anything surprise you? And what about the people that were collateral damage in all of this?

Donald Trump

00:03:49 - 00:04:11 (22 sec)

Well, people were hurt so badly, so badly. Their lives have been ruined and over -- you know, over something that should have never taken place, an investigation that should have never happened. There was no crime, as you know. You're only allowed to do this legally if there is a crime. There was no crime.

Donald Trump

00:04:11 - 00:04:33 (22 sec)

They've all admitted it. Comey, who is a terrible guy, Comey and McCabe and Strzok and Page, the lover, Page, and all of these people, they've admitted in testimony that there was no crime. So they'd started an investigation based on no crime. I will say this, our new attorney general, Bill Barr, is a great gentleman.

Donald Trump

00:04:33 - 00:04:45 (12 sec)

I've heard about him for years. He's a great man. Had he been there initially, this all would not have happened because what has gone on there is just a disgrace to our country.

Sean Hannity

00:04:45 - 00:04:46 (1 sec)

Mr. President --

Donald Trump

00:04:46 - 00:04:53 (7 sec)

So, but a lot of -- a lot of innocent people were hurt very badly, and it's very, very sad actually.

Sean Hannity

00:04:53 - 00:05:19 (26 sec)

For this to never happen again, what do you think the path is to getting to that point? In other words, the checks and balances that you believe need to be put in place so that a FISA court, in this case, it is not told Hillary paid for Russian lies, its own author doesn't stand by it, but yet it was used to obtain four FISA warrants that it gave a backdoor to your campaign.

Sean Hannity

00:05:19 - 00:05:28 (9 sec)

What do you think needs to happen to prevent this from ever happening again? What checks and balances, and what should be pursued or not pursued in your opinion?

Donald Trump

00:05:28 - 00:05:50 (23 sec)

Well, I'm going to leave that to our new attorney general, who has been so incredible, actually. That's based on a lot of people saying, this is a very, very special person. That's what you need in that position. That's a very important position. You need so many different -- you need genius, you need rationality, you need different levels of good.

Donald Trump

00:05:50 - 00:06:15 (24 sec)

And I'm also going to leave it to Lindsey Graham. He's head of Judiciary and Senate and a very, very good guy and a very smart guy. You know, I'm just going to let them do whatever they want to do, and I would imagine they don't like what they see, to put it mildly. But you would have to ask them. I think it is much more appropriate -- I purposely did not want to involve myself in this whole thing.

Donald Trump

00:06:15 - 00:06:42 (27 sec)

I wanted to let other people do it. And I wish he didn't take so long. You know, we are talking about really longer than, if you think about it, longer than Mueller -- it was many months before that that Strzok and Page were talking about the insurance policy, right? The insurance policy -- just in case Hillary Clinton lost, they wanted an insurance policy against me. And what we were playing out until just recently was the insurance policy.

Donald Trump

00:06:42 - 00:07:01 (18 sec)

They wanted to do a subversion. It was treason. It was really treason. If the Republican Party had done this to the Democrats, if we had done this to President Obama, you'd have 100 people in jail right now and it would be treason. It would be considered treason and they'd be in jail for the rest of their lives.

Donald Trump

00:07:01 - 00:07:22 (22 sec)

But it worked out the other way, and, you know, it just is really a horrible situation. And an incredible outcome, or certainly very close to an outcome, and we'll have to see how it all started. But I'm going to leave that to other people, including the attorney general, and others, to make a determination.

Donald Trump

00:07:22 - 00:07:39 (16 sec)

But it's very, very important for our country to know, because in 50 years from now, and 100 years from now, if someone tries the same thing, they have to know that the penalty will be very, very great, if and when they get caught.

Sean Hannity

00:07:39 - 00:07:54 (15 sec)

Before I get to the media question, would you consider, sir, a pardon? Look at General Flynn, for example, or Papadopoulos, who has had to spend 12 days in jail. Is that something that you would consider at some point?

Donald Trump

00:07:54 - 00:08:20 (26 sec)

Well, as I told you, many, many people were hurt, incredibly hurt by this whole scam, just a scam. But it's much worse than that. It's at the highest level, and the importance is so -- what it meant our country, it's a very, very dark period, and I think maybe we are shedding a lot of light. We are going to come into a bright, beautiful, sunny day.

Donald Trump

00:08:20 - 00:08:46 (26 sec)

But when you mention General Flynn, he was a man who had an incredible record in the military, you see what happened to him. The FBI said he wasn't lying, as I understand it, and if the Mueller group said he was lying, and you know what he has gone through, and what so many others have gone through. I could name names that would just go on for the entire -- your entire show.

Donald Trump

00:08:46 - 00:08:54 (8 sec)

It's a very, very sad thing. I don't want to talk about pardons now but I can say, it's so sad on so many levels.

Sean Hannity

00:08:54 - 00:09:20 (25 sec)

Let me ask you, I believe you probably have forever branded fake news fake news. I'm not sure if some of these companies will ever recover. I talked earlier in my monologue about, I don't really recall them ever talking about record accomplishments, record low unemployment, African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian-Americans, women in the workplace, youth unemployment, I mean, some really amazing numbers.

Sean Hannity

00:09:20 - 00:09:38 (19 sec)

But I see every second, minute, hour, every day, there are attacks. I will tell you a small snippet. I'm only picking one network in this case, CNN. And just a small snippet of some of the coverage and speculation and things that have been said about you and want to get your reaction. [Begin Video Clip]

Unidentified

00:09:38 - 00:10:01 (22 sec)

[Video Clip] Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump. We are looking at the possibility that the president of the United States and those around him during the election campaign colluded with a hostile foreign power to undermine the basis of our democracy. This is evidence of willingness to commit collusion.

Unidentified

00:10:01 - 00:10:22 (22 sec)

[Video Clip] It does look like collusion, it does look like he's listening to Putin more than he is American intelligence. So, this picture that the president is so desperate to avoid, this picture of collusion, begins to fill in. The president sees the walls are closing in and he's lashing out. He's desperate. He's obviously flailing around because he feels the walls closing in. [End Video Clip]

Sean Hannity

00:10:22 - 00:10:35 (13 sec)

Mr. President, I could play an hour's worth of coverage of that, for two years it's gone on. What is your answer? What is a reaction to the media? I know you have been very critical. Fake news. Yes?

Donald Trump

00:10:35 - 00:10:54 (19 sec)

As many people have said, and fortunately we have had some incredible people that really were fair. When you mentioned Rush or Mark -- Mark Levin, or Steve Doocy, and Ainsley in the morning, and Brian and Laura, Jesse, Jeanine -- I hope Jeanine's back soon.

Sean Hannity

00:10:54 - 00:10:55 (1 sec)

She's back Saturday.

Donald Trump

00:10:55 - 00:11:16 (21 sec)

So many people. I don't want to keep going because I'm going to leave out some people. I could again go so long. So many great people have been -- you know, they get it. Nobody has been tougher, nobody, on Russia than me. And everybody -- my enemies say that, when they are reasonable enemies, when they are fair.

Donald Trump

00:11:16 - 00:11:44 (28 sec)

You look at the pipeline, exposing that going into Germany. You look at oil with the number one -- I mean, it is what we have done with energy, and oil and gas and that is all competition from -- for Russia. You look at the Ukraine, you look at so many different levels. You look at our military. Look at the fact that we would have been powered by wind, which wouldn't have worked, by the way, because it only blows it sometimes, and lots of problems come about.

Donald Trump

00:11:44 - 00:12:03 (19 sec)

But we are stronger now as a country then we have ever been. We are doing better financially than we have ever done, our markets are hitting records all the time. I have many, many records of the highest stock market. People's 401(k)s are doing better than they have ever done by far. It's up almost 50 percent from the time I am elected president.

Donald Trump

00:12:03 - 00:12:28 (25 sec)

And other countries are way down. You look at China as an example, we are negotiating a deal with China. We're going to make a very good deal with China. China is way down. We are way up. But nobody has been tougher to Russia or on Russia than Donald Trump, President Trump. Nobody even close. And yet, with all of that, we want to have a great relationship with Russia.

Donald Trump

00:12:28 - 00:12:54 (26 sec)

We want to have a great relationship with China. All of these things are smart to do. We'll do great with it. But nobody has been tougher. And when I watched all of this nonsense, it was fake news, just terrible fake news, the good news is, based on polls and based on other things, based on where we stand now with the public, Sean, the people never bought it. They get what's happening.

Donald Trump

00:12:54 - 00:13:15 (22 sec)

Our country is doing fantastically well. More regulations cut than any other president, and that's only in two years. Nobody's come even close. The big tax cuts, so many things we are going to do, incredible health care that the Democrats, frankly, wouldn't even know how to do. We all become the party of health care, the party of really good health care.

Donald Trump

00:13:15 - 00:13:36 (21 sec)

We've done so much and we have so much planned. So when I had to listen to CNN, which is so, so fake, so horribly fake, I would just -- I wouldn't listen often -- believe me, I wouldn't want to listen often. But whenever I did, whenever I thought, I have never seen anything like it. And MSNBC, the same thing.

Donald Trump

00:13:36 - 00:13:57 (22 sec)

The good news is, I heard their ratings last night, both of them were -- they dropped off the folder. They dropped to a level that nobody could believe because now that they see the Mueller report, where you look at their finding -- I mean, the finding was very, very strong. No collusion, no obstruction, no Russia, no nothing.

Donald Trump

00:13:57 - 00:14:18 (20 sec)

And it's great. I notice your record, you had virtually record ratings last night. So, that's because you have credibility. So I want to think FOX. I want to thank some of those people I just named, but also many others, they have been so fantastic to me, and really to our country. And I really do -- they are really amazing people, great people.

Donald Trump

00:14:18 - 00:14:20 (2 sec)

And it wasn't so easy for them.

Sean Hannity

00:14:20 - 00:14:43 (24 sec)

Mr. President, you know, one thing I do want to point out often, and I honestly don't see it elsewhere in the media, you did keep your promise on your tax cuts. You did set records, ending bureaucratic regulation, judges, energy independence, trade deals, being tough on Iran, Jerusalem is now the capital, all those things.

Sean Hannity

00:14:43 - 00:15:04 (21 sec)

I want to ask you -- especially in a minute -- about immigration and health care. I want to first run down some names and get your thoughts. James Comey tonight in an interview suggested maybe he was fired for obstruction. I just played a tape of him saying that he could be fired anytime for any reason or no reason which -- so, your thoughts on James Comey?

Donald Trump

00:15:04 - 00:15:22 (18 sec)

Well, he's right about that -- for any reason. If you look at Article Two, for any reason. But despite that, that was an incorrect statement. When you say what I said, there was nothing said wrong there but they did not play the whole interview. When they play the whole thing, you see exactly. I mean, the fact is, it would only get worse.

Donald Trump

00:15:22 - 00:15:39 (17 sec)

And I said this. It would only get worse if I fired him. I knew that it was going to get worse, not better. I'm not going to fire him and everything goes away. It would be a bigger deal if I fired him, and I knew that. So it was a negative, not a positive. And everybody knew that. But NBC didn't want to play it that way.

Donald Trump

00:15:39 - 00:15:56 (17 sec)

They wanted to play it a different way. And when you talk about people that are dishonest, when you talk about bad, fake news, NBC, where we had the "The Apprentice" for many years as one of their most successful shows, NBC is as bad as CNN, I can tell you that.

Sean Hannity

00:15:56 - 00:16:18 (22 sec)

Let me ask you. Adam Schiff is saying there is no collusion. By the way, I think one of the funniest tapes I have played in the show ever is a hoax, you have a Russian talking about compromising material on a naked Trump, which is again talk about and he thinks it's shown to Putin, and he is literally colluding to get information and so he can impact our electoral system.

Sean Hannity

00:16:18 - 00:16:32 (14 sec)

But he is still to this day, now prior to the Mueller conclusion, that there was no collusion, none. It was quoted in the attorney general's report. We had a nine-month FBI investigation. They said no collusion.

Donald Trump

00:16:32 - 00:16:33 (0 sec)

Sean Hannity

00:16:33 - 00:16:48 (16 sec)

Lisa Page and Peter Strzok said no collusion. The Senate committee said no collusion. The House committee said no collusion. That is all before two years of Mueller. But yet, this guy is still pushing this conspiracy theory. Thoughts on Adam Schiff?

Donald Trump

00:16:48 - 00:17:19 (31 sec)

Well, Schiff is a bad guy. He knew he was lying. I mean, he's not a dummy. He knew he was lying. And for a year and a half, he would go on and just lie and lie and leak and call up CNN and others and just -- you know, I watch him, so sanctimonious, and gets on and says, oh, we want to talk about Russia. He knew it was a lie and he would get into the back room with his friends and the Democrat Party, and they would laugh like hell at what they were doing.

Donald Trump

00:17:19 - 00:17:37 (18 sec)

It's a disgrace. And he knew it was a lie. And therefore, in one way, you could say it's a crime what he did, because he was giving, I mean, horrible -- making horrible statements that he knew were false, and frankly, I heard they should force them off the committee, or if the committee chair. He should be forced out of office.

Donald Trump

00:17:37 - 00:17:57 (20 sec)

He is a disgrace to our country. And you have plenty of others. But he would go on night after night, talking about collusion, the collusion delusion. And I will tell you this about Russia, if they had anything on me, it would have come out a long time ago, probably a long time before I ran because they would have been much better off.

Donald Trump

00:17:57 - 00:18:11 (13 sec)

I hope we really get along well with them but they would have been a lot better off with Hillary Clinton as president. In terms of energy, in terms of oil and gas, look at what we are doing with the energy. It's incredible in our country. But that's a bad thing --

Sean Hannity

00:18:11 - 00:18:13 (2 sec)

First time in 75 years -- [Crosstalk]

Donald Trump

00:18:13 - 00:18:36 (23 sec)

-- competition for Russia. Hillary wouldn't let you drill, there would be no oil, there would be no gas, there wouldn't be anything to compete. Russia, if they were at all for me -- by the way, if you look at all of the things, they were sort of for and against both, not just one way -- but you look at all of the different things, Russia much rather have Hillary than Donald Trump.

Donald Trump

00:18:36 - 00:18:38 (2 sec)

I can tell you that right now.

Sean Hannity

00:18:38 - 00:18:52 (15 sec)

You, after the election, I remember, it was a little surprised because I know that a lot of the crowds -- you had a lot of big crowds, chanted "lock her up" on Hillary after the election, you said, let's move on. Do you feel that way today?

Donald Trump

00:18:52 - 00:19:19 (27 sec)

No, not really. I did feel that way very much, the night I won, they were all screaming "locker up, locker up." Look, she lost 33 -- they deleted 33,000 emails, and they were Bleach Bit, that's a big deal, a very expensive process. And almost nobody does it because it's so expensive. But that's the way you really get rid of it. So she deleted 33,000 emails.

Donald Trump

00:19:19 - 00:19:27 (8 sec)

Can you imagine if I did that? Supposing I did that, I gave millions of pages to these people that were --

Sean Hannity

00:19:27 - 00:19:30 (2 sec)

Donald Trump

00:19:30 - 00:19:50 (20 sec)

-- the case that was involved with the Clinton Foundation, and another case, Weissmann, you know all about Weissmann, and many others. We gave millions of pages, they found nothing. If they were up have found one bad sentence out of millions of pages, believe me, it would have been front and center. It would have been front and center.

Donald Trump

00:19:50 - 00:20:12 (22 sec)

But it's true, when I, on November 8th, '16, one of the great nights that a lot of people have had, since they came from the hills and the mountains, they came from the valleys, they came from everywhere, Sean. It was an incredible evening. And, you know, they have been rewarded because our job numbers, our unemployment numbers, all of the numbers that they really wanted are the best we have ever had.

Donald Trump

00:20:12 - 00:20:32 (20 sec)

But I will say this, I said, you know, let's get back on, let's not think about the past, let's think about the future. But now, I think thinking about the past is just OK because we can never let this happen again in our country or to another president. I'm not talking about me. I'm talking into the future.

Donald Trump

00:20:32 - 00:21:02 (30 sec)

We can never allow this treasonous -- these treasonous acts to happen to another president. This was an attempted takeover of our government, of our country, an illegal takeover. If it were the other way around, where I was doing it to President Obama or a Democrat, it would be virtually the maximum sentence that you can find no matter where you look in whatever legal book.

Sean Hannity

00:21:02 - 00:21:19 (18 sec)

Let me ask you now, I was very critical of the team that Robert Mueller put together. You mentioned Andrew Weissmann, I've gone through his record, was at Hillary Clinton's victory party. Only Democratic donors -- no Republicans at all, no Republican donors. And also Jeannie Rhee who work for the Clinton Foundation as a lawyer, was appointed.

Sean Hannity

00:21:19 - 00:21:39 (19 sec)

How do you feel about Mueller today and were you surprised at all, considering the team that he picked in this particular case? It seemed pretty partisan Democrat. And I thought it was extraordinarily unfair to pick that biased a team.

Donald Trump

00:21:39 - 00:21:42 (4 sec)

Yes, it didn't seem to be biased. It was biased.

Sean Hannity

00:21:42 - 00:21:45 (3 sec)

That's a good point.

Donald Trump

00:21:45 - 00:22:06 (20 sec)

It was tremendously anti-Trump. It was Never Trumpers, it was anti-Trump. I think in every single instance, I know that Andrew Weissmann was at her -- I guess you'd call it the wake, which was the big evening on November 8th, he was there to celebrate, you know, to celebrate a victory, he was there, and not a happy camper.

Donald Trump

00:22:06 - 00:22:28 (23 sec)

But these were people that contributed, most of them, contributed to her campaign. I mean, it was a shocking to see it. So, you know, I wasn't exactly sure -- I know one thing, I had nothing to do with Russia, but I wasn't exactly -- when I looked at the team that was assembled, I wasn't exactly sure what they -- you know, maybe they would take a sentence from here and a sentence from there, I had no idea.

Donald Trump

00:22:28 - 00:22:47 (19 sec)

I know one thing, I was the most innocent human being -- and they all said it, even Comey said he found no wrongdoing -- and one of the few times he didn't like him because he lied in front of Congress. Brennan lied. Many of these people lied to Congress and nothing happened. And yet with Flynn, where they didn't even know if he lied based on --

Sean Hannity

00:22:47 - 00:22:48 (1 sec)

They thought he didn't.

Donald Trump

00:22:48 - 00:23:13 (25 sec)

-- what the reports are, and others, look what happened to them on the other side. But these people with so many lies, and lies before Congress, which is just about the ultimate, sworn testimony where Comey told so much, and he leaked classified information. Well, if somebody in our team leaked classified information, it would be years in jail.

Donald Trump

00:23:13 - 00:23:36 (23 sec)

So nobody can understand what went on. Nobody really understands one of other thing, when the report came out, why didn't they look at all of these acts on the other side? Was it they only looked at our people? Now, all of that being said, the end result, it took a long time, almost two years, but the end result is no collusion, and no obstruction.

Donald Trump

00:23:36 - 00:23:38 (2 sec)

But it took a long time to get there.

Sean Hannity

00:23:38 - 00:24:07 (28 sec)

Mr. President, you have the ability to release the FISA applications. There was the original applications, the three subsequent renewal applications. We are told, Andrew McCabe said, no dossier, no FISA warrant. That was a backdoor to your campaign before the election. The dossier also was leaked to "The Washington Post," parts of it, and Isikoff and David Corn, to the American people, and, of course, never verified.

Sean Hannity

00:24:07 - 00:24:19 (12 sec)

Do you have plans to release those FISA applications, Gang of Eight information, the 302s of Bruce Ohr and others, and the five buckets are John Solomon and Sara Carter, as they call it?

Donald Trump

00:24:19 - 00:24:44 (25 sec)

I do, I have plans to declassify and release. I have plans to absolutely release. But I have some very talented people working for me, lawyers. And they really didn't want me to do it early on. Devin Nunes, by the way, and Meadows, you look at Jim Jordan, and all of the people, they worked so hard. And a lot of people wanted me to do it a long time ago.

Donald Trump

00:24:44 - 00:25:01 (17 sec)

I'm glad I didn't do it. We got a great result without having to do it but we well. One of the reasons that my lawyers didn't want me to do it is they said, if I do it, they will call it a form of obstruction, so they will say, oh, you released these documents so we would make all of this information transparent.

Donald Trump

00:25:01 - 00:25:19 (18 sec)

You know, and politics you always hear transparency. It would make it transparent. And then they call it obstruction, knowing the people we are dealing with. So, frankly, I thought it would be better if we held it to the end. No, but at the right time, we will be absolutely releasing it. I did the right thing by not doing it so far.

Donald Trump

00:25:19 - 00:25:27 (9 sec)

But you understand, they would call it something that it wouldn't be. It's the only time you would be transparent where they would say bad things about transparency.

Sean Hannity

00:25:27 - 00:25:49 (22 sec)

Mr. President, due to testimony, thanks to Georgia Republican Collins, we now have testimony, one thing that shocked me a little bit last week was the testimony of Strzok and Page were both of them suggesting the fix was in on Hillary, because it was being -- every decision was being run through the A.G.'s office.

Sean Hannity

00:25:49 - 00:26:15 (26 sec)

That means Loretta Lynch, who also met on the tarmac was Bill Clinton, which brings us to a higher level than maybe we once thought. Do you have any reaction to that with Loretta Lynch, apparently, according to Strzok and Page, running the show, making decisions for the FBI at the time? Remember the interaction between Comey and Loretta Lynch when she said it's an investigation and she said, no, it's a matter.

Sean Hannity

00:26:15 - 00:26:37 (22 sec)

Well, first of all, Doug Collins is fantastic, the job he is doing. He's been incredible. I wish he were chairman but he's not. But we are not off a match. I think we will retake the House because they see what we've done and we see the confusion and everything. All they want to do is investigate and now the investigation is turning out to be something that is not very good.

Sean Hannity

00:26:37 - 00:26:54 (17 sec)

And Nancy Pelosi is smart, she's right and what she is saying because, to be honest with you, especially now after this great result, because I didn't know -- you know, you just can't, when you see the people that we are talking about, you just don't know that you are going to get a no collusion answer. A strong no collusion answer.

Sean Hannity

00:26:54 - 00:27:13 (19 sec)

But I will say, I want to thank Doug Collins. I will also say, you start taking a look at what happened on the tarmac. A lot of people say a lot of bad things happen on the tarmac between Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton. I had a lot of planes for a long time. I've never stopped the plane on the tarmac to let somebody on the plane.

Sean Hannity

00:27:13 - 00:27:33 (20 sec)

And then they went and they talked about golf and their grandchildren for 40 minutes. It doesn't work that way. What did they talk about? And then she was exonerated. She was given one of the great free passes of all time. I guess Bill Clinton said he was there to play golf, but I know the area very well, Arizona.

Sean Hannity

00:27:33 - 00:27:55 (22 sec)

It's a little warm at that time of the year for golf, OK? People -- a lot of people -- is a great state, I love it, but you are not playing a lot of golf right there at that time. So, you have to find out, what happened in the back of that plane that so many things took place after that incident, that meeting between the Attorney General Lynch and Bill Clinton.

Sean Hannity

00:27:55 - 00:28:14 (19 sec)

A lot of bad things happened right after that. You have to find out. So, there are so many different things, and it's important for our country that those things be determined and found out. Last question about people -- if you don't mind, I want to ask you about substantive issues. A couple of big things happened in immigration and health care this week.

Sean Hannity

00:28:14 - 00:28:36 (22 sec)

The last two, we know that Clapper lied under oath. I believe the statute of limitations, though, has passed. In the case of Brennan, we know that there was surveillance, unmasking, leaking raw intelligence, an increase of 350 percent of unmasking. Samantha Powers, who was working for the U.N., asking for 300 cases unmasked.

Sean Hannity

00:28:36 - 00:28:37 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:28:37 - 00:28:37 (0 sec)

Sean Hannity

00:28:37 - 00:28:47 (10 sec)

But in that particular case of Brennan and Clapper, and Brennan in particular, multiple times accused you of treason.

Donald Trump

00:28:47 - 00:28:49 (1 sec)

Sean Hannity

00:28:49 - 00:28:50 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:28:50 - 00:29:10 (20 sec)

Well, I think Brennan is a sick person. I think there's something wrong for him. And I watch -- for him to come out of the CIA and act that way was so disrespectful to the country and to the CIA and to the position he held. And he was not considered good at what he did. He was never respected guy. Tough guy but not a respected guy.

Donald Trump

00:29:10 - 00:29:31 (21 sec)

But he lied to Congress. And the other night before the report came out, he predicted horrible things. Things he said were horrible. Then today, I guess he said something -- I didn't see it but I heard he said, well, I must have bad sources or bad information. I mean, this is a man who really is either sick or there is some other problem.

Donald Trump

00:29:31 - 00:30:01 (30 sec)

But the way he spoke -- and as you know, clapper lied, and perhaps the statute of limitations ran out on that one but it didn't run out on Comey, it didn't run out on Brennan or Strzok or Page or McCabe. I mean, McCabe, his wife got hundreds of thousands of dollars. He was running the FBI and running all sorts of cases, and his wife got hundreds of thousands of dollars from essentially Clintons, from Clinton's closest friend.

Donald Trump

00:30:01 - 00:30:23 (22 sec)

Then he ruled so favorably. I mean, he tried to say he was not involved, I don't think too many people believe that, I did not believe that. But she got all those good rulings. It's really a scandalous situation. It is so badly that it reflects it so horribly, a guy like Ohr with his wife, Nellie Ohr, and GPS Fusion.

Donald Trump

00:30:23 - 00:30:35 (12 sec)

She wrote the report, and the goes, gives it to her husband who is at the DOJ, and then he goes and brings it to the FBI, and she's getting paid for doing it. It's incredible.

Sean Hannity

00:30:35 - 00:30:35 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:30:35 - 00:30:40 (5 sec)

The things that happened are incredible, and very, very bad for our country.

Sean Hannity

00:30:40 - 00:30:57 (17 sec)

Well, I hope you are right. I think we got to get to the bottom of it because if we don't, and the media has been no help, the biggest abuse of power scandal. If I may move onto a couple of issues. Conservatives, when you had a 35-day shutdown, you are inviting Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer to sit with you.

Sean Hannity

00:30:57 - 00:31:32 (35 sec)

You put DACA on the table, Dreamers on the table, you wanted too quickly. They said they wanted the furloughed employees to be paid after 35 days. You decided, OK, the strategy is not working. I was pretty confident, I think I have known you well over 20 years now that you are just changing strategies. But we now know that they could not override the veto and that means how much money now is available for the wall, and what is the status, the progress, how many much more miles need to be built, how many have you repaired, how many miles -- where are we on all of this?

Donald Trump

00:31:32 - 00:32:01 (29 sec)

We have repaired, I mean, literally -- you know, many, many miles. I could give you numbers but many, many miles. We are building many miles. We're going to have hundreds of miles already under construction are soon to be under construction. Billions of dollars will be necessary. It's absolutely vital if you look at what's happening at the border, it's terrible with the human traffickers, the drugs, everything that is coming across, and that goes across the soft points, which are the points without the wall.

Donald Trump

00:32:01 - 00:32:20 (19 sec)

And we will have hundreds of miles built fairly quickly. Billions of dollars, we took a billion dollars in today. And I'm building and much less expensively than it was in the past. If you look at the past, they were talking about $25 billion to $30 billion. I'm building it for a fraction of that. The wall is better.

Donald Trump

00:32:20 - 00:32:41 (21 sec)

It's going up faster. The Army Corps of Engineers is doing a great job working with us and we have some real professionals, and the military has been incredible, putting up the barbed wire, essentially, it's barbed wire. It's actually barb wire plus. But it's incredible what they have done. You have seen it. I mean, you know, many, many miles of wire.

Donald Trump

00:32:41 - 00:33:03 (22 sec)

If we didn't have it, we would really have a problem. But we are really capturing -- let's use the word capturing -- we are capturing people that are coming in illegally, we are not just releasing them, in some cases, we are running out of room, and many cases now, we are running out of room. The laws are so bad, normally you just bring them back by the laws don't let you do that.

Donald Trump

00:33:03 - 00:33:40 (38 sec)

Our laws that could be easily changed by the Democrats, but they are so bad and so corrupt on immigration, whether it's catch and release or chain migration or any of the various things that we have to put up with, it's terrible. So -- but we are doing fantastic. We are building -- in fact, into weeks, I'm going to a location, it's going to be in California, believe it or not, they were begging us to build in San Diego, begging us to build a wall and we are just in the process of completing a major stretch of many miles of wall, and we are going to have a news conference there just to show people.

Sean Hannity

00:33:40 - 00:33:42 (1 sec)

Mr. President, do you --

Donald Trump

00:33:42 - 00:33:59 (17 sec)

It's really good stuff. It's better, less expensive, goes up faster, but it's actually better than what they were doing before. So we are going to have it done and we are in great shape. We got a great support from the Republicans, both in Congress, if you look at our congressmen and women and from the Senate.

Donald Trump

00:33:59 - 00:34:06 (7 sec)

I really had great support. A couple of them people voted against but you know what? That's OK, they had their reasons. We had great support.

Sean Hannity

00:34:06 - 00:34:14 (8 sec)

And you will be able to use, according to the Department of Defense, a significant number of billions of dollars because of your emergency declaration?

Donald Trump

00:34:14 - 00:34:34 (20 sec)

Many billions, yes. Many billions. You go to a lot of the generals, they will tell you, this is a national emergency. This is -- we need to defend our country. You have people pouring in. I mean, they are pouring -- we are capturing these people, we are getting them. But, you know, we don't do like other countries, other countries stand there with machine guns ready to fire.

Donald Trump

00:34:34 - 00:34:57 (23 sec)

We can't do that and I wouldn't want to do that, OK? It's a very effective way of doing it and I wouldn't want to do it. We can't do it. But we do -- if we have barriers, we have the walls like we are building now, and building -- a lot of people don't think we are building walls, we are building massive, many, many miles of walls right now, and we are gearing up to do many more.

Donald Trump

00:34:57 - 00:35:19 (23 sec)

We'll have hundreds of miles of walls built in the very near -- built and renovated, too, a lot of it, we were able to use the old carcass of a wall. We fixed it and we -- for a smaller amount of money, we were able to build a wall that is literally just as good as new. So we've done a lot of work on it, and a lot of talent has been involved, and we've had really a tremendous help, a lot of people agree.

Donald Trump

00:35:19 - 00:35:34 (15 sec)

I mean, most people agree. Even the Democrats agree. They don't say that. They go into back rooms, like I said before about Schiff, they go back there and they laugh. But they go into the room and -- everyone knows you need the wall. The Democrats, almost every one of them, voted for the walls in the past.

Donald Trump

00:35:34 - 00:35:41 (7 sec)

But now, they don't because they don't want to give us a victory. But they are hurting the country. They are not hurting me, they are hurting the country.

Sean Hannity

00:35:41 - 00:36:12 (31 sec)

Mr. President, you've heard about the New Green Deal, you see the people that would like to challenge you in 2020. Proposals of as high as a 70 percent top marginal tax rate for individuals, 90 percent for corporations, a wealth tax, the New Green Deal says no oil, no gas, at all. We are now energy independent for the first time in over 70 years, and we are now an exporter of energy because of ending bureaucracy and regulations.

Sean Hannity

00:36:12 - 00:36:34 (23 sec)

And then everything is free, everything. And on top of that, we are going to get rid of the combustion engine, and we are going to also get rid of perhaps cows and airplanes and we are going to build high-speed trains and just Medicare-for-All with no other choices. What is your reaction, as you watch this New Green Deal and the comments of all these new candidates?

Sean Hannity

00:36:34 - 00:36:35 (1 sec)

Do you have a new reaction to it?

Donald Trump

00:36:35 - 00:36:54 (19 sec)

Well, I don't want to speak badly about the New Green Deal, Sean, because, frankly, I'm afraid they will stop using it, because I really do want to campaign against it. It's ridiculous, all right, it's crazy. It will cost $100 trillion. Nobody knows what that means. That means is more money than you have in the world.

Donald Trump

00:36:54 - 00:37:14 (20 sec)

And it will be catastrophic. It's not going to happen. It's just talk. And, of course, they will campaign on it. They'll say, we're going to give free everything. You're going to end up being Venezuela if that's happening. We have a nice big problem with Venezuela. You look at Venezuela, was a wealthy country not long ago, and now, it's one of the poorest countries.

Donald Trump

00:37:14 - 00:37:31 (17 sec)

We'll end up being the same thing. The New Green Deal is ridiculous, but I don't want to speak badly because I want them to keep going forward with it. I really look forward to campaigning, just a little bit early, just like Elizabeth Warren. I hit her too hard, too early, and now it looks like she's finished.

Donald Trump

00:37:31 - 00:37:43 (12 sec)

I wish she would have been in the race and frankly, I would have loved to have run against her but I would say she's probably finished. But they have plenty left. New Green Deal is going nowhere.

Sean Hannity

00:37:43 - 00:38:13 (30 sec)

Let me ask you, many presidents have promised Israel that they would move the capital from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. You made a tough position, you got that done. I have known the prime minister of Israel personally for well over 20 years, like I have known you for well over 20 years. I've always viewed Prime Minister Netanyahu as a Churchillian figure with moral clarity, that few people had on the world stage, standing alone often.

Sean Hannity

00:38:13 - 00:38:42 (29 sec)

And I saw that you -- I thought it was a very big announcement about the Golan Heights being Israel's territory. As you see the rise of anti-Semitism, not just -- we have members of Congress that have said horrible things, but in Europe, and elsewhere, and the dangers of that small country, radical Islam, I just wanted to get your reaction to the importance of Israel as our close ally.

Donald Trump

00:38:42 - 00:39:01 (19 sec)

Well, you don't have to go to other countries when you see what is going on in this country -- yesterday, I was very honored to do the Golan Heights. That was something that was promised by many, many presidents over many, many years, and I got it done. Then you look at also Jerusalem, moving the embassy to Jerusalem.

Donald Trump

00:39:01 - 00:39:24 (23 sec)

For years, many presidents for many decades campaigned on it. They were going to do it and they never did it because frankly, it was much tougher to do than people whatever ever understand. It was very tough. I understand why they ultimately didn't do it, they didn't get it done, but I got it done. Not only did I get it done, I got the embassy belt for a fraction, a tiny, tiny fraction of the cost of what it was supposed to cost.

Donald Trump

00:39:24 - 00:39:51 (26 sec)

And now, as you know, the embassy is open. It's not just designated, it's open in Jerusalem. So, look, I'm very proud of what we have done for Israel. I'm very proud of my relationship with Israel, and what is going on with the Democrats, and with Jewish people and the Democrats and Israel is a shocking to me. You know, I grew up in a world where people really -- and Democrats, they loved Israel.

Donald Trump

00:39:51 - 00:40:08 (18 sec)

And now, I'm looking at a world where many Democrats seem to hate Israel. They seem to despise Israel. It is a tremendous surprise to me. What's going on with Israel and the Democrat Party is absolutely horrific. Terrible.

Sean Hannity

00:40:08 - 00:40:41 (33 sec)

I meant to ask you earlier, Devin Nunes, who's been on this show many times, and I think has been -- when he was the chairman of the House Intel Committee, he wrote and warned everybody, we have watched Russia over the years, a hostile regime, hostile actor on the world stage, we know that Barack Obama, caught on the microphone saying, you know, I'll have a lot more flexibility in my next term, and then the case of Schiff being caught on tape colluding, trying to get information about you to impact electoral system.

Sean Hannity

00:40:41 - 00:41:05 (24 sec)

But more importantly, we have known that they have impacted other nations' elections. Devin Nunes warned this country about how hostile they are on our elections. We need free, fair elections. We do know that they tried, attempted to influence, seemingly on both sides. How do we prevent them? We have 250,000 I.T. people working for our government.

Sean Hannity

00:41:05 - 00:41:14 (9 sec)

How do we not have the ability to stop this type of hostility coming from foreign powers, hostile regimes like Russia?

Donald Trump

00:41:14 - 00:41:33 (20 sec)

Well, first of all, let me say that Devin Nunes is someday going to be hailed as a great American hero. They tried to destroy that man because he spoke up for good and just and all of the things that you have to speak up for. But most people don't have the courage to do it. He will be someday hailed as a great American hero, what he did.

Donald Trump

00:41:33 - 00:42:05 (31 sec)

They tried to ruin him. They tried to destroy him. They tried to ruin his life and his family. And he just kept plugging like there was nothing going on. I mean, it was an amazing thing. As far as your other part of the question, in September, if you look, supposedly, the FBI told president Obama all about Russia trying to get involved in some form in the election, and he decided to do nothing about it because he thought Hillary Clinton was going to win.

Donald Trump

00:42:05 - 00:42:23 (18 sec)

So he didn't want to do anything because he thought that Clinton was going to win and he didn't want to upset the apple cart. But he knew about it. And the question is, one of the many, many questions, and this is probably not as big as other questions, because you are talking about major, major treason and corrupt -- all the things.

Donald Trump

00:42:23 - 00:42:39 (15 sec)

But one of the questions is, why didn't he do something? He knew about it. This wasn't up to me. I wasn't president when all this was happening. Why didn't President Obama and the Obama administration do something when they were informed about Russia and the election?

Sean Hannity

00:42:39 - 00:43:01 (22 sec)

Mr. President, I only have about another minute and a half. Thank you for being so generous with your time. Will you make it a priority before the 2020 elections to make sure that we have election integrity and beef up our defenses as a country, so no foreign an entity have any impact? And how important is that, and the steps that you are thinking about taking -- [Crosstalk]

Donald Trump

00:43:01 - 00:43:24 (23 sec)

I think it's very important to know that Russia or anybody else had no impact on votes. That is very important for people to know. That has been coming out, as you know, from every agency, everybody that has done it. So whether they tried, and how hard they tried, and President Obama knew, the bottom line is, they had a zero impact on the election of 2016. I'm very happy about that.

Donald Trump

00:43:24 - 00:43:46 (22 sec)

That is what we are all about. We can't allow that to happen in any way, shape, or form. But we are putting very strong safeguards and, this sounds a little old-fashioned, but the best backup is a paper back up, not a computer back up, and we have many paper backups, just in case there is a problem, something which they didn't have before.

Donald Trump

00:43:46 - 00:43:49 (3 sec)

But we are being very vigilant and working very hard --

Sean Hannity

00:43:49 - 00:43:50 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:43:50 - 00:43:53 (3 sec)

-- and we have tremendous systems in place, Sean.

Sean Hannity

00:43:53 - 00:44:04 (11 sec)

Ten-second answer. Will you get now, that the Justice Department on Obamacare, joining with a court decision, will we get that done? We only have 10 seconds.

Donald Trump

00:44:04 - 00:44:14 (10 sec)

We're going to do great. We are going along with Texas, we are winning the case, and we're going to have great health care. The Republican Party will be the party of great healthcare. You watch.

Sean Hannity

00:44:14 - 00:44:16 (2 sec)

And pre-existing conditions and choices?

Donald Trump

00:44:16 - 00:44:25 (9 sec)

All included. We're going to have pre-existing conditions, absolutely, and we already got rid of the individual mandate, which was costing people a fortune. It was terrible.

Sean Hannity

00:44:25 - 00:44:31 (6 sec)

Mr. President, thank you so much for your time tonight. We appreciate you seeing so long and answering so many questions. We appreciate it.

Donald Trump

00:44:31 - 00:44:33 (1 sec)

Thank you very much, Sean.

Sean Hannity

00:44:33 - 00:44:38 (5 sec)

That's all the time we have left. Let not your heart be troubled -- Laura Ingraham is standing by live.