we are definitely looking out for you. remember, the spin stops here. >> tucker: good evening and welcome to "tucker carlson tonight." much like general patton, donald trump believes the best defense is a good offense. trump went on an all-out attack on today's news conference, his first since last july. it was a high-energy event. here is a highlight reel of what happened. >> i will be the greatest jobs producer that god ever created. as far as hacking, i think it was russia. but i think we also get hacked by other countries and other people. i will say again, i think it is a disgrace that information

would be let out. i saw the information, i read it, outside of that meeting. it is all fake news. it is phony stuff. it didn't happen. it was a group of opponents who got together, sick people. and they put that together. hacking is bad and it shouldn't be done. but look at the things that were hacked, if putin likes donald trump, guess what, folks? that is called an asset, not a liability. i don't know if i'm going to get along with vladimir putin, i hope i do. but there is a good chance i won't. >> reporter: every president since the '70s -- >> don and eric are going to be running the company in a very professional manner, they are not going to be discussing with me. again, i don't have to do this.

go ahead, go ahead. no, not you. not you. your organization is terrible. as far as buzzfeed which is a failing pile of garbage, writing it? i think they are going to suffer the consequences. they already are. >> tucker: the news organizations published untrue information all the time, but buzzfeed -- even buzzfeed's editors could not verify the information published today. the report contained errors. many are arguing their decision to publish that peace piece was justified. joined now by matthew, thank you so much for coming on. >> thank you for having me. >> tucker: one of my favorite reporters wrote something this morning. he said, "wikileaks relentlessly

attacked publishing unverified information." you have been critical of wikileaks for publishing emails that did not belong to them and yet you are cheering on the information that is clearly wrong. >> i support their attempts to publish documents that would otherwise go unpublished. i support buzzfeed's decision to do the same when those documents are clearly part of an important story, they said they were and verified. they didn't say that everything in there was true. all they said was these documents are going to be discussed at the highest levels. they have said the source is credible and yet no one is showing it in the document. i think they did a public service. >> you were just criticizing the release of those wikileaks emails. but to the point of buzzfeed. there are lots of things that

are discussed privately, especially during campaigns. you know this well. that we don't publish because we are not certain if they are true and the bar is higher when they are personal, damaging to people's reputations. isn't it our job to verify that? isn't that why we have reporters in the first place? >> sure, buzzfeed is working and has been working for months according to ben smith to verify the things that were in that document. it's not that by publishing they are saying we accept all of these things as true. what they are saying is that the the document has been presented to the president, senior members of the intelligence community, and all the reporting before buzzfeed said there is this document but we are not going to tell you what's in it. but it is really important and in fact it could affect the entire trump administration. isn't that something that people

should be able to see? >> >> tucker: if it's not true, it's not going to affect the trump administration unless the media treats it like it's significant. we hear all kinds of things, i've heard all sorts of things about barack obama's romantic life. i hope they are not true. i would never report on that. isn't it irresponsible to pass on something that you can't verify? i don't know how you don't see that as a journalist. >> "the new york times," "the washington post," some of the leading journalist organizations routinely write stories that are based on information that they haven't verified. "the new york times" verified all the information that was in all the emails that were reported on? no. all the information that they got from intelligent intellige? no, they base those reports on

the credibility of the source. it is reportable he credible according to cnn sources, whose information has become part of a document does presented by the senior intelligence chief the united states. comes from a source that according to "the wall street journal" worked in russia for a decade or more, has 20 years of experience in russia, that sounds like a credible source to me. >> tucker: no, i think you've got the story wrong. journalist publish information's all the time that's wrong, they trust sources when they shouldn't. but they almost never publish information that they know to be inaccurate as buzzfeed did and admitted in the introduction. >> there were place things that were inaccurate, people names that were inaccurate. that doesn't mean that the -- it just means that someone was in a hurry, maybe. >> tucker: is been denied by everyone involved, there's no

evidence that it was true. it was written as campaign opposition research by a private-sector guy in great britain. we think. he was not a member of am i six, this is not intelligence information. we scoop up all kinds of rumor innuendo as you know, all the time. i don't think we would publish that kind of rumor stuff about hillary clinton, would we? >> so why is this different? >> name a news organization. name one. i have literally no idea what you're talking about. name a major news organization that published knowingly untrue information about hillary clinton that came from an intelligence source. i don't know what you're talking about. >> what you're saying buzzfeed knows this to be untrue? >> tucker: i am saying they know that certain facts in this document are provably untrue and

they have not proven a single fact in here. >> did every detail of every hillary clinton story, wasn't verified by the journalistic organizations that published those stories, yes or no? >> tucker: no, no. because not a single -- i'll tell you why. >> if you are a senior intelligence agent, and said he heard something in moscow about donald trump -- this was not written by someone like that. >> tucker: no, he is not a member of brutus intelligence. >> is a "wall street journal" story true? >> tucker: i think you're

factually wrong on that point. >> i am merely saying that thiss not a product of british intelligence, it is a product of a private company in london. the hillary emails, not a single one was proven wrong. not one. lots of news organizations passed on it. but when this is proved totally false, one person is saying this is true. no one is standing up to say it's true, including the man who reportedly wrote it. would you publishes yourself if you were running a news organization? >> yes. >> tucker: then you have low standards. i'm sorry. it's not a defense in trump, i wouldn't do it to obama. or hillary. >> this is a document that made up a briefing by all the senior intelligence agencies in the united states for the president of the united states. this is an important document that has been circulating to the

highest level of u.s. governmen government. >> tucker: you are throwing words around that you don't understand. this came across john mccain's desk and he passed it by his own admission to the director of the fbi who sent it up to chain because who knows what this is. not one person implicated and said i have evidence that this is true. there's no evidence adult that is true. it is almost certainly false. for political reasons, you think it is okay. >> according to a senior bbc reporter, he has a source that has made the same allegations. that's two sources now. are you saying that bbc is reporting things that aren't true now? >> tucker: it wouldn't be a source. i don't know who you are talking about. here's evidence, i will be the first want to say, won donald trump, what is this abou about? i'm out of time, mathew ingram,

i am sorry, good to see you. trump demonstrated this morning that his relations with the administration is different than president obama's. >> as far as buzzfeed which is a failing pile of garbage, writing it? i think they are going to suffer the consequences. they already are. as far as cnn, going out of their way to build it up, and by the way, we just found out, michael cohen, he is a very talented lawyer. he's a good lawyer, my friend. it was not this michael cohen that we are talking about. all night long, it's michael, i said, i want to see your passport. he brings his passport to my office. i say, hey, wait a minute, he didn't leave the country. he was out of the country. it turned out to be a different michael cohen. it's a disgrace, what took place. it's a disgrace and i think they ought to apologize to start with michael cohen.

>> tucker: his posture towards the press, sean spicer, sean, thanks for coming on. >> congratulations on the show. you were obviously they are when this happened, but there was really an interesting exchange with jim acosta who kept trying to ask a question and the president elect finally said no, i'm not going to take a question from your fake news. sean spicer, the incoming press secretary, said if i were to do that again, i was going to be thrown out of this press conference. did that happen? >> what happened was after the exchange that you just noted, he did it again towards the end, he continued to harass the president-elect, after he had ended the press conference and had been removed from the area, i went up to mr. jim acosta and

i said his behavior was rude, it inappropriate, and he said he had a right to ask weston. i informed him that i thought no one should be treated that way and treated that disrespectfully. and if he did it again in the future, i would have him removed. tucker, i've known you long time. you know i am a pretty solid republican. i don't care whether you are a republican or democrat or independent, but if someone did that to president obama or president clinton or frankly any other human being, i would say the same thing. nobody needs to be treated with that level of disrespect and rudeness. i think mr. jim acosta owes the president-elect apology. >> tucker: the president-elect basically made that same point. saying, you are fake news. there were organizations that were banned from trump events. i'm sort of wondering now why. the president-elect is certainly

capable of responding directly to people he doesn't like in the media. he's pretty good at it. he probably is some sympathy from viewers when he does it. why would he abandon news organizations when he so clearly enjoys betting them around? >> he's not. the answer is committed to ensuring that the people have access to the press. what the president elected today, he's going to do it again. he is going to set the record straight. he's not going to let dishonest members of the media publish factually inaccurate stories about him, his family, and i think for a lot of the folks in the media, they're used to these politicians sitting back and taking it. that's not for the president-elect is. >> tucker: this story today was about buzzfeed, that printed that dossier. 35 pages of what he said is totally false allegations about donald trump. you described buzzfeed today as

a hugely irresponsible left-wing log that was openly hostile to trump during the campaign. all of which is demonstrably true. i think that's accurate on the merits, you are right. but the rnc as i remember during the campaign reserved over a million dollars of space, signed a contract with buzzfeed, why would the rnc do business with and irresponsible left-wing blog that was hostile to its candidate? >> great question. let me just be clear, the buzzfeed story that was posted last night, its editor put as a footnote that they were unsure of the information that they were putting out and they should be taken with caution because it was unsubstantiated. to be carol about the storage that they publish themselves , we reserve time across 56 different platforms. everything from "the daily caller," fox news, buzzfeed, and the idea was, we didn't have to put any money

down, we could reserve time and adds across over 50 platforms. where's we came down the final stretch in the election. if our data told us the missing voters were on "the huffington post" or a newsmax or on foxnews.com, where the time reserved to go after those key constituencies the we had to get out the boat. the idea was to cover all of our bases across the political spectrum to be ready to ensure that we had have the capabilito get to the voters we need to. if you look at the election in terms of states, we had an amazing candidate with an amazing message. he combined that with a field operation that propelled us to victory. we did exactly the right thing. we will do it again and i think it is going to be the golden standard going forward. >> tucker: did you really think you are going to find trump folders on and irresponsible left-wing log? >> the goal was to make sure that wherever they were going to be, there were people even on the far left that were upset with hillary clinton, that

didn't trust her, there were open to a trump message. if you look at the number of people that supported bernie sanders. so sure, we had to be prepared. we put no money down on the platform. we reserve time that no matter where those voters were, and when you look at the breath and depth of the vote and the movement, it wasn't just republicans and conservatives. it was independence, liberals that were ready for change. we did the same thing back then. >> tucker: fair point. putting a plea to you. i know that you are going to redo the way the press operation works at the white house, it's probably overdue. they're probably going to bring in a lot of people that have been allowed in the briefings in the past. that's fine with me. here's what i hope you don't do, reserve interviews only for camp followers. for people who already agree with them. you see president obama doing it with buzzfeed and npr and all these puffy little pieces but

never letting someone who has real questions near him. will you allow people who are going to really ask questions hard questions near president trump? >> absolutely. what he did today. everyone in the mainstream media, some of the left-wing media all got questions in. he's not afraid of anybody right now. i think he aptly noted with respect to cnn, he's not afraid to back down from anyone, right, left, independent, center. he is tough. he will answer the questions. and deliver a very forceful message. i don't the gas to do with the outlet, he will deliver the message that he will make this country better again, whoever wants to hear it and will give him a shake for it. >> tucker: does he like the brawling? he seems to like it. >> he enjoys actually talking about what he can do to make the country better. the successes, whether it's creating jobs with sprint, or

breaking down the tax burden, the 35 for the new air force on one. people want to engage an egg lady with him, he's going to fight back. in a polite and respectful manner with the present elect, he is going to treat you in kind. if you want to be disrespectful and rude, he is not going to sit back and take it. this the man who fights and win wins. >> tucker: sean spicer, congrats on the new job. thanks for joining us. time now for twitter storm on our nightly forecast, donald trump wasn't the only person looking to humiliate buzzfeed and cnn. twitter user mike was one of money.

liam wrote this... an actual story. you think? yesterday morning, if at all possible. that was a consensus. tonight's twitter storm. up ahead, donald trump has announced his plans for illuminating ties with the trump administration and the ethics --

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>> tucker: donald trump's press conference this morning wasn't only about spanking his enemies and the media. he also announced its plans to avoid conflicts of interest. here's part of what he said. >> my company is much bigger, much more powerful than they ever thought. we are in many, many countries, i am very proud of it. and what i'm going to be doing is my two sons, who are right here, don and eric, are going to

be running the company. they're going to be running it in a very professional manner, they are not going to discuss it with me. again, i don't have to do this. >> tucker: some ethics efforts say the new plan does not come close to resolving conflicts of interest. we are joined from minneapolis, he is a law professor who served as an ethics attorney for president george w. bush. thank you for joining us tonigh tonight. >> thanks for having me, tucker. >> tucker: you heard with the present elect said, i'm distancing myself from the company, my boys are taking it over, neither my daughter and i will have conversation with them about how it runs. they are divesting from a bunch of foreign deals they have, and they are taking the profits and putting into the u.s. treasury. why that not enough? >> the problem remains if the president is going to own the business, first, the only addressed the profits from

barring government transactions with the hotels. we haven't heard about what they're going to do about loans from foreign government, leasing space to foreign government owned companies. so we haven't heard a comprehensive plan for sweeping out all the foreign government money before january 20th. that's awfully critical to comply with the constitution. but we also have some serious questions about these buildings around the world with the trumpet name on them. having the president's name on a building outside the united states, like the philippines or indonesia, or turkey, well, as i see in the news quite frequently, there are a lot of security concerns over there. it would be very tragic to have a building get attacked or people lose their lives because the president's name is on the building. they need to address that. i haven't heard any -- >> tucker: that's a legitimate question of course. but that's really matter to be resolved by the building owner, i would think.

back to the ethics question. certainly you've had presidents who have had investments. i think a lot of presidents have and it didn't seem to stop their presidency in the tracks. why is this different? >> licensing his name out, it's up to him whether his name is on a building or not. he may have a contract with the building owner but he can say a look at, i am president of the united states. it's dangerous to have my name on that building. i want my name off the building buildings. >> tucker: you may be right, from a humanitarian perspective. perhaps that is the right call. but from an ethics perspective. pro trumpet and anti-trump is concerned about. my question is why is what he doing not enough? can he only company but not run it? a lot of people do that i think, don't they? >> the operations overseas, who

has to pay for security for the building? who has to pay when he gets into a business operation overseas and there is some person who has influence with a foreign government overseas who then is trying to influence united states government policies? these are serious conflicts of interest and it just to say well, his sons are running the business, he's not, a lot of these businesses are connected with foreign government and he is in charge of protecting the interest of the united states of america. not getting himself all over the world, or having his sons on him behalf deal with the businesses over the world. he can have a couple billion dollars which is great, and then focus on running the country. this is a very, very important job. he has been chosen by the american people and he needs to give that the number one priority. this is too much of a distraction. right left with lawsuits, they

love suing the president of the united states. >> tucker: a lot of what you're saying is of course true, but i am having trouble discerning what is an ethical problem, a legitimate ethical conflict for him and what is just unattractive for bad p.r. >> anything that interferes with his ability to be the best possible president of the united states, is an ethical problem. his obligations are to the united states, he is going to take an oath next friday to uphold and defend the constitution. he will have to defend us against enemies, foreign and domestic. this is a dangerous world we live in. we can't have a president tied down with personal business. we went want to have fdr inside of world war ii if he had properties in berlin and frankfurt. sell the business and be president. >> tucker: all right, richard painter. thanks for joining us. up next, what does the leaked

dossier say about our intelligence agencies? have they been compromised by the hostility of the president-elect? some are saying that, including the president-elect himself. jim wolseley will join us in just a minute with his view where to go... and how to deal with my uc. to me, that was normal. until i talked to my doctor. she told me that humira helps people like me get uc under control and keep it under control when certain medications haven't worked well enough. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb,

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comparing intelligence agencies in the u.s. to the third reich. he tweeted... where are these leaks coming from in the first place? fair question and how worried should we be about what it means that intelligence services may be leaking that? ambassador, thank you for joining us tonight. >> good to be with you, tucker. >> tucker: president-elect trump's position seems to be, and a lot of people share this view, a lot of the stuff is coming from disgruntled employees in the executive branch, they don't like them, they favor hillary clinton and they are trying to undermine him before he even takes office. do you think that is true? >> this is something separate from the buzzfeed stuff. i suppose there could be some

people, i think would be a very small number, that would do something like that. i think the number is tiny. i think it is far more likely to be inventing stuff. from in the washington scene that gets tossed into the hopper. >> tucker: it right. if you're just an ordinary news consumer like me, a lot of the computer conclusions from the intelligence community are filtered through press accounts. like the "washington post" or "new york times," you've read that the intelligence community, again, whatever that is, believes that donald trump was the favored candidate of vladimir putin and was seeking to influence his whim. win. >> is hard to know were something like that is coming from. for example, one bit of evidence

that was discussed at great deal was a metal, it was given to -- i take it back, this was to the secretary of state. it gives a similar picture. something like that gets tossed into the hopper and people don't dig down and see that that metal is the same one that is giving to have visited athletes and vg performers and is not any kind of sign of closeness or cooperation. the only way to pick up what is going to happen with russia on cooperation is to watch and see what their morality is and how they operate. because we have to maintain a much firmer position than the

obama administration did. and i think that we will, if we do that, we have a chance of getting along reasonably well with the russians. but if we behave the way the government did during the obama administration, the russians will do everything possible to take advantage of that. i negotiated with them four times on four major treaties over a number of years. three of those times they were standard russian behavior, doer, unhelpful, prevaricating, et cetera. one of the form was terrific. it was right after the berlin wall went down. it was not much my negotiating skills than the loss of confidence that they are experienced as a result of that. but there was a like to work with. we put a 107 page treaty, all the nonnuclear weapons in europe, it was fine until pruden

a few years ago. >> tucker: anyone else is hard to know. it is hard to know somebody's motive. we know for's fact that putin advocated for trump's victory. how could you know what putin wants? should i be right to be skeptical of claims like that? >> sure. i think it is perfectly reasonable to be skeptical of claims of that sort. i don't think most of that is coming from the intelligence community. i think it is banter around washington. i don't think the hostility between trump and the committee is nearly what people are saying. i think it is remediable, i think it is going to be relatively easy for them to work together as soon as there is a

new government. >> tucker: i hope that is true for everyone's sake. thanks a lot, ambassador. great to see you. well, donald trump spent today at war with the press. in a break with senate president, cory booker of new jersey testified against his colleague, jeff sessions of alabama. who is of course the nominated for attorney general. it was somehow evocative of jim crow. brace yourselves. >> i want to express my concerns of being witnessed at the very end of these, testify at the end of all of this is the equivalent of being made to go to the back of the bus. >> senator sessions is on the question really qualified for the job. which he has been nominated. he is a good chris demand.

he has dedicated his life to public service and in the course of that, he is actually for the disenfranchised. not only did he fight for it, he accomplished it. he fought for civil rights. he prosecuted members of the ku klux klan and most important, he fought for the liberty of all americans. >> tucker: meanwhile, the secretary of state marco rubio aggressively questioned rex tillerson. watch. >> let me ask you this question. it's vladimir putin a war criminal? >> i would not use that term. >> based on all this informatio information? what has happened in the aleppo and the russian military, you're still not prepared to say that vladimir putin and his military have violated the rules of war in aleppo? >> those are very, very serious charges to make and i would want

to have much more information before reaching a conclusion. i understand there's a body of record in the public domain, i'm sure there is a record in the class by domain and i think in order to deal with the serious question like this -- >> the videos and pictures -- this new administration must thread the needle between pushing back between pruden's aggressions, ambitions, and bullying. and at the same time, find a way to stop a dangerous downward spiral in our relationship with russia. i believe mr. taylor sin is the right person at the right time to help accomplish both of those goals. >> tucker: the senate is going to get a few more opportunities to poke at trump's nominees but it is unlikely they will have a hard time blocking them. the past four years, only six cabinet nominees have failed to be confirmed.

up next, rush just as it's ludicrous suggesting they have compromising personal information on donald trump, whether it is true or not though, what is russia's motive in all of this? professor stephen cohen joined us next. u know...diarrhea? abdominal pain? but we said we'd be there... woap, who makes the decisions around here? it's me. don't think i'll make it. stomach again...send! if you're living with frequent, unpredictable diarrhea and abdominal pain, you may have irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea or ibs-d - a condition that can be really frustrating. talk to your doctor about viberzi. a different way to treat ibs-d. viberzi is a prescription medication you take every day that helps proactively manage both diarrhea and abdominal pain at the same time. so you stay ahead of your symptoms. viberzi can cause new or worsening abdominal pain. do not take viberzi if you have or may have had pancreas or severe liver problems, problems with alcohol abuse, long-lasting or severe constipation, or a blockage of your bowel

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that he is basically a pawn. >> this is if not the end game the last chapter in what appears to be an attempt to destroy trump's presidency before he gets to the white house. as for that document published in buzzfeed or whatever, i've seen stuff like that before in moscow. it is junk. you send me to moscow and i can get you a better dossier than that. it won't even have the factual errors in it. it is generated by so-called private intelligence agents, who are out to make a buck. they will sell it to anybody. what is it doing in our political discourse westmark why did cnn put it on the air? why is the cia and the fbi even touching this stuff? i've been studying russia as a professor, i've never seen anything like this. people in the mainstream media,

authoritative media, a place like "the new york times" are calling trump -- before he even gets in the white house. so i ask you, you live in d.c. what is going on? >> tucker: it is not clear to me. it comes at you so quickly, it's so nice of tarik. you are not in expert on russia. it doesn't look real but then who knows. as someone who has studied this for four years, this does not have the ring of truth to you. as a much larger effort to disable trump before he becomes resident. >> instead of trump and pentz , it got picked up with this free intelligence agency report is published last week. it is absolutely empty. even "the new york times" which is very anti-anti-trump so now

we get what is essentially tabloid stuff. i can only assume it's an assumption, the people in this country are desperate to wound trump for various reasons. one is to stop any kind of cooperation with russia. i would submit to you, tucker, that without a full debate about that possibility, with policies involved, these accusations against trump have themselves become a grave american national security threat. >> tucker: thank you for the reality check, professor. it is hard to know. thank you very much. i hope you come back. up next, what is it like inside a donald trump news conference? fox's john roberts enters "the friend zone" to tell us he was there today and he has lived to tell about it.

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>> since you are attacking us, can you give us a question? can you give us a chance? >> no, not you. >> you are attacking our news organization -- >> quiet. quiet. >> no, press the elect, can you give us a question? >> don't be rude. i am not going to give you a question. you are fake news. >> tucker: [laughs] did you see the man in the background? it was our own friend, john roberts, who is with us now in "the friend zone." what was that like, john? >> tucker, good evening to you. i have been to a lot of press conferences on the presidential level. i covered the white house from

1999 until early 2006, went to a lot of press conferences with president clinton, president george w. bush, and i've never seen anything like what happened today. the mood in the room got really hot, very combative, jim acosta who i've known since the days when we are at cbs news together, really kind of had a little bit too much in the frustration. too much of the cnn directed his way, that has been at him and all these trump events in the past months. and he said that's it, i will say my piece. and he did. >> tucker: to think you can measure the vibe in the room? do you think they were on his side or trump's side? >> for the most part, there are a lot of people who were on jim acosta side, to say trump shouldn't be icing out media in

a press conference. but then at the same time, there are a lot of people who are thinking that you know, even though he is the president-elect, this is a presidential press conference, you don't go yelling at the guy who is in charge. i know that something like that would not go over well at the white house. at least the presidential press conference. i would approach the things that even if you want to get answers and you are determined to get the answer, you have to do it in a respectful way. and i believe it to the folks at home to decide whether or not that happen today. >> tucker: wow. do you expect that press conferences or debriefing over which sean spicer will preside is going to be like this? >> maybe if linda mcmahon where the press secretary we might see things like that encouraged. by don't necessarily know tucker, if that is something we will see. we received a release from the

director of national intelligence, james clapper called and talked to donald trump tonight expressing dismay over the fact that this information was leaked, he is saying that this was not an official intelligence community document. it was generated out of the private sector. russia trying to collect compromising information on donald trump. clearly the intelligence community has been sort of rocked by what is going on here. they are trying to really walk it back. i was told that james clapper, there really kind of running away from what has gone on in the last couple days. >> tucker: wow. that is amazing news, thanks for telling us that. glad you are okay, tucker. some people are not able to cope with the fact that trump won. you two, the band, appears to be happy. here gle with obesity lose weight and keep it off. is what is coming up.

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a fan of the new album -- the world is a different place after trump's win, the next album will have to be changed accordingly. it will hopefully be out by new year's day, next year. "hannity" is next. >> sean: welcome to "hannity" ," we will have many guests tonigh tonight. the press conference today was the single greatest beat down of the alt left abusively biased mainstream media in the history of the country. and that is tonight's opening monologue. president-elect donald trump took on the press after the so-called journalist at cnn and buzzfeed expose themselves to be nothing more than political hacks. they ran wild with unconfirmed, completely unfounded allegations