we will be back at 8:00 pm to show the sworn enemy of line pomposity, smugness and groupthink. see you soon. ♪ >> sean: welco >> welcome to this special edition of hannity and we will highlight the big interviews we've done for the past two weeks. my interview with donald trump. >> i want to go to the double standard again whether it is the dossier or ukraine interfering in our elections, there is no quid pro quo, then you can add hunter biden and joe biden on tape bragging about using taxpayer dollars to demand the firing of the ukrainian prosecutor, hunter biden, no express, ukraine, china, no experience in oil, gas, energy, private equity.

>> hunter biden was thrown out of the navy. sean: why was he given that money? >> it was a pay off. why else? hunter biden with no experience. the number is 168,000. they get a $3 million payment in all of this and that is corruption. that something has to be investigated. i watch this crazy anderson cooper during the debate apologize for having to ask the question. if that were me, if that were my son that took $168,000 from this questionable company, new nothing about energy. included being thrown out of the navy.

in his position. that word don junior and eric trump, very outstanding men, the biggest story of the century. sean: what does it say about the media? >> the media is corrupt, not all media, i know some great people including you but i know some great journalists. they gave pulitzer prizes to people that got it wrong. all these people from the new york times which is a fake newspaper the we don't even want it in the newspaper. they are fake. you take a look at the new york times and take a look at the kind of reporting that turned out to be all wrong. and after the election the new york times apologized, they were covering and they apologized to their subscribers because they were losing thousands of subscribers.

the new york times wrote an apology. it wasn't really an apology, it was, they covered -- remember what i said. the good news is covered fairly again and got covered worse. i got covered worse but that is okay. you know who is covered worse than me, abraham lincoln. i heard the one person, used to be 5 or 6 and down to one, honest abe lincoln, they say he got the worst press of anybody. i dispute it. sean: 2020 is here. you said joe makes it, elizabeth warren, hers to lose, you had bernie, mayor pete, kamala harris. then you look at their positions, to marginal tax rate 73%, 90% corporate tax rate. the new green deal $96 trillion in ten years, medicare for all, no private options, running

against one of those. >> i don't want to talk about it. last time i took on elizabeth warren i thought she was gone. burning embers. pocahontas. there is only one. it is not her. what happened. she rose from the ashes and i give her credit for that. as far as i'm concerned the green new deal is fine. all of it is fine. paying 96% in taxes is all fine because i want them to keep talking about it and when it is time to run i will run but i don't want to talk them out of it. it is too early, we are getting down to 12 months. the first one in the corner of that beautiful bill and i was in the first night, standing in an area where abe lincoln was, all of them were and that is the way it was, four years and here we are, almost coming up but we

have tremendous support, taxes, regulations, we have over 100 days in a short time the stock market, much more than 100 days where the stock market hit an all-time high it is about to hit again, we are doing great and beating everybody. all over the world, china is not doing well, china is having the worst year in 57 years and we made a deal with for our farmers were 40-$50 billion worth of agricultural products bought by china before they sign the agreement. >> more about 2020, record low unemployment since 1969. when you ran you said what have you got to lose when you would speak to minorities, record low unemployment, hispanic americans, asian americans,

youth unemployment, what is your message to minorities in 2020, your base look strong at these rallies. what do you say to people who didn't vote for you last time? >> of american, hispanic, asian-american, have all set records, the lowest unemployment in the history of our country, not just 50 years but 51 years for the country and we will end of topping that, that will be historic and i think we will. household income is median household income. asian-american, hispanic american. in history of our country the best unemployment numbers and the best employment numbers. today it was announced we had the most people working in the history of our country, 160 million people. how do you beat me in a debate on those numbers, the best numbers. poverty numbers are the best for all those groups, poverty

numbers. the best numbers in the history of our country. another number came out with the moody's report saying i would win easily. the moody's report is very interesting. median household income under eight years of obama was up $975, that is eight years. under eight years of president bush, president obama, $400, eight years, eight years, $400, $975. me, to a half years, $5000 plus $2000 for the tax cuts that everybody got. you have one up 1000s, $975, the other one is up but that is over

eight years each one. i'm only here to and a half years and beat them by many times in 21/2 years. what proportion, it is a $5000, it is up $7000, median household income is a record, never done anything like that. the economy is the best it has ever been and you look again. china has gone way down. if hillary clinton had gotten elected right now china would have the number one economy in the world and right now they are not even close. we picked up trillions of dollars in value and china has gone way down by trillions and trillions of dollars was when the head of china spoke to me recently and the vice premier left in the past week, congratulations, mister president, on the incredible job, would never have expected this to happen. china is paying tens of billions

in tariffs and had a huge impact on china and hasn't cost us anything because they devalued their currency. they have eaten it totally but he said congratulations on the job. sean: let me ask you about iran, iran shot a drone out of the air and took tank hostage. you mentioned energy independence at the strait of hormuz. >> we haven't taken our takers. sean: they are just -- last year politically important. >> we are now energy independent. we have very few ships. that comment was made the other day, you don't see many american ships anymore. sean: you have syria, you have gotten criticism at an impasse. >> we have the same and bring soldiers back home. it was supposed to be 30 days and been there for ten years.

we were in afghanistan reducing those numbers substantially but they are supposed to be in syria for 30 days. one thing about syria when i took over isis was all over the place to a half years ago. when i started i got rid of that, all those prisoners, they were captured under trump. we killed many isis fighters. you hate - we took 100% of the caliphate, 100%. it is not like og, obama did it, i did it but it is now time to bring our soldiers home and it is very interesting that little fight for two days, i don't know that turkey would have done what they did, the cease-fire and i don't know if they would have moved out but went through two

days, two kids in a playground, they let them fight for a minute and then tear them apart. much easier to make a deal. sean: i sat down with mitch mcconnell to ask how he will handle impeachment in the u.s. senate. mitch mcconnell is with us and his memoir is entitled long game that includes a new forward by donald trump and is now out in paperback, welcome back to the program. it has been a while. most people don't understand, let's assume the house goes forward with this impeachment and it is over to the senate, walk us through how the process works and the options available and how you see this going down? >> as you have pointed out to

your viewers the democrats have wanted to do this for three years, the first headline in the washington post was they were going to impeach him. they finally got around to it and we will see two articles of impeachment, both of them pretty weak stuff. coming over to us. your question is what happens when? under the rules of impeachment the senate turns to it, have no option but to turn to it and it is the sole business until we finish. how we can impact that is with 51 votes. the chief justice is in the chair, tilting the playing field either way. opening arguments about prosecutors, and listen to the president's lawyers respond and then we will have to make a decision about the way forward

and everything i do coordinating with white house counsel, there will be no difference between the president's position and our position as to how to handle this to the extent that we can. we don't have the kind of control, typical issue comes over from the house and if i don't like it we don't take it up. we have no choice but to take it up. we will be working through this process hopefully in a fairly short time in total coordination with the white house counsel's office and the people representing the president. sean: i have to believe the federal rules for the admission of evidence would apply with the chief justice in charge and that would mean there would be no hearsay evidence allowed and that would mean you might have one or 2 opinion people, fact or experts but when we watched this unfold in the house especially at a shift show, everyone was a hearsay or opinion witness.

the one fact witness in the president said he wants now quid pro quo. that would be ambassador sondland. is that how we go forward? >> i will coordinate with the president's lawyers, no difference between us on how to do this. you raise the issue of witnesses. the president's counsel may or may not decide they want to have witnesses. the case is so weak coming over from the house. we know how it will end, there is no chance the president is going to be removed from office. my hope is there won't be a single republican who votes for either of these articles of impeachment and it wouldn't surprise me if we got one or 2 democrats. looks to be over in the house republicans seem to be solid and democrats seem to be divided. sean: you point out this is very weak.

we look at the obstruction issue. the president like every other past president has exerted executive privilege, they don't like it when there is a dispute between the legislative branch and the executive branch, that would be the role of the judicial branch which is to resolve disputes between the other branches of government but apparently they are in such a rush to do this that they didn't want to give the courts any time or they feared what the courts would decide. >> it is a thoroughly political exercise, it is not like a courtroom experience. it is a political exercise. they have been doing this for three years, finally screwed up the courage to do it. it looks to me like it may be backfiring especially in swing districts the speaker's party managed to win to get to the majority. we see this with the

politicians, a political process on the democrat side. sean: you are obligated to take it up. everybody understands that. whoever the house chooses to present their case they will present their case over along period. there is some dispute and i can be persuaded on either side which is a rare thing for me and that would be a lot of people would like to bring in adam schiff, hunter biden, joe biden. i'm more inclined to agree with senator graham on this. it is tempting and all those things must be looked into. there are real questions but i don't know if that would be the appropriate for him. once you have the 51 votes to end this which, very weak case, it would be smart to do so. what would your inclination be? >> i will take my cues from the

president's lawyers, you listen to the arguments on both sides and believe the case is so slim, so weak that you have the votes to end it, that might be what the president's lawyers would prefer and you can make a case for making it shorter rather than longer since it is a weak case. sean: we talked about the obstruction charge, you watched a lot of the coverage that has taken place in the house. do you see any evidence of wrongdoing on the president's part as you read the transcript, i read it over and over, i don't see what we hear joe biden bragging about, you're not getting 1 billion taxpayer dollars and so you fire the prosecutor investigating his son with 0 experience making millions, that didn't happen.

>> this is a really weak case and you will see bipartisan opposition to the articles. sean: how long would you imagine after the house presents its case, that will happen in full? >> if they do it this week we will get consent to go over christmas so we will return to what around the first of the year and stay on it until we finish. my hope is it will be a shorter process rather than a lengthy process. sean: you have your book. donald trump is a lot of things, i have known him longer than you, 20 some odd years. he is a disruptor, an iconoclast, a fighter and has gotten good things in the country. kept a lot of promises on

judges, tax cuts, certainly the money for the wall, ending burdensome regulation, better trade deals, baghdadi is did, the caliphate defeated. what have you learned that you didn't know? >> i will tell you what this book is about, the most long-lasting contribution donald trump and senate republicans have made for the country and that is putting young men and women who are strict constructionists believe the job of a judge is to follow the law on the courts. we did our 50th circuit court judge just yesterday. to put that in perspective barack obama did 55 circuit judges in eight years, we have done 50 in three years and have a year left. we are going to do more. one fourth of the circuit judges, most cases don't make it to the supreme court.

this has been the most long-lasting contribution the president could make into the future far beyond his tenure in office. so we will have a judiciary more inclined not to make it up on the fly. president obama said he wanted to appoint judges who had empathy. that makes sense if you're the litigant before the judge for whom the judge has empathy, not so good if you aren't. >> let's say somebody were to retire at the end of this year leading into the summer, you have been clear if the president appoints somebody you would follow through on that nomination? >> we would definitely do that. the president's forward is about judges. my afterword catches up what happened during the trump administration before the president was elected.

what we have done with the paperback you have shown on screen is talk about how the judge project came about. the most important decision i made in my career was not to fill the supreme court vacancy when justice scalia passed away. that was the beginning and now we have an explanation after three years but we thought the public would be interested in reading about and that is why we elaborated on this paperback. >> i was shocked former president obama left so many vacancies and didn't try to fill those positions. >> i was in charge of the last two years of the obama administration. heather: i will give you credit for that and take a bow. my interview with lindsey graham after or with's testimony as we continue.

>> and all-american christmas about true characters of the season. holiday movies and original specials featuring your favorite fox news personalities, faith, families and tradition, check out these exclusive shows. these folks don't have time to go to the post office

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>> live from america's news headquarters, merry christmas to you. it is a race against time and mother nature. millions of travelers trying to get their holiday destinations in time to enjoy the turkey and pumpkin pilot many might not make it because of forces beyond their control. heavy fog in chicago shutdown o'hare and midway, two of the busiest airport. in the southeast the storm has dumped a foot of rain intel 4 and 6 inches in coastal south carolina. britain's prince philip out of the hospital in time to celebrate christmas morning with his loved ones was the 98-year-old with other members of the royal family other estate in eastern england. buckingham palace tells us he was hospitalized as a

precautionary measure. now back to hannity. sean: here's my interview with senator lindsey graham after michael horwitz testified before his committee on his explosive fisa abuse report let me applaud you for a great job today. i know a lot of americans if they watch fake news cnn and all these other channels they might not have seen the great job you did because they only run things that are anti-trump. >> that is okay. you can live with -- you can live a lie. james comey has done more damage to the fbi than anybody since j edgar over. christopher ray if you are watching television have a mountain to climb. you have to come to the judiciary committee and prove you will change the culture of

the fbi. some people need to be fired and some people need to go to jail for what they did because the fbi and department of justice took the law into their own hands, trampled on the rights of carter page, constitutional rights of american citizen and surveilled donald trump in my opinion unlawfully for a long time. the day of reckoning is coming it is not here yet. sean: nobody associated was vindicated. let me stay on christopher ray, has not shown the urgency that is needed to get to the bottom of this, resolve this and make sure it never happens again. my mother was a prison guard working 16 hour shifts for years and years. my dad was a family court probation guy who worked two jobs.

most of my extended family were nypd cops, 19 and 20 i was appointed to the new york police department academy and no idea why they approved me. two members of my family were dating, they were fbi guys. one of them is still alive today and is more angry about this, all the hard work and risk he had taken for his country this is what i am hearing from everybody. >> james comey is one of the most conceited people i ever met in government, to suggest this report vindicated him is an affront to the report, to suggest that everything was done properly with the fisa warrant process regarding carter page insult our intelligence and mister horwitz to the country great service. people ask if i have confidence, yes but you have a hard job convincing republicans and democrats he will fix this.

sean: it's not easy to get out of the way. you heard the comments of the inspector general, i thought they were powerful and added clarity to his report and is working with in a bubble, prosecutor dermody attorney general william barr, there, and i do not believe would be made but for knowledge they have the we don't have the this is far deeper and far worse than anybody knows and it has taken them overseas to italy, great britain and other places. where do you imagine the ends up? i can't see it ending of any other way than people being indicted and going to jail? >> durham is looking at criminality. we know the fbi lawyer in charge of the fisa process altered an email from the cia saying carter page was a source, he altered the email to say he was not in

that was a big deal. i don't know what durham will eventually do but based on his statement i would be worried if i were a lot of the people involved in crossfire hurricane. if you were involved, as to horwitz what did we learn? you have a newspaper article to open a counterintelligence investigation. the standard is incredibly low but we learn from mister horwitz once the investigation was opened it became a committal enterprise and conspiracy to defraud the fisa court and travel on the rights of carter page 2 surveilled donald trump. and the threats coming from russia, they don't want to protect crump but to destroy trump. from the day he got elected until this thing was over the people in charge at the highest levels were out to get this guy to protect us from donald trump.

they didn't believe he was legitimate and doing everything they could at every opportunity to keep it going and they finally sent an fbi agent in an interview that was supposed to be an intelligent interview and briefing and the fbi agent was there to spy on general flynn and the president. that should scare everybody. sean: meeting comey was despicable bragging about i will say this as a result of this we will be less safe and when you say the same thing that concerns me. i know you stayed up. >> mister rosenstein, get ready to testify. my one on one interview with nikki haley straight ahead.

♪ >> sean: so i recently had a chance to sit and said the former us ambassador to the us nikki haley to talk about her new book with all due respect. how are you going to say again. because all these interviews are short you give a great life story but i want people to know a lot about you. i found things i found inspiring, your rise to be governor of south carolina and un ambassador. what has gotten a lot of people detention is the conversation, rex tillotson, general kelly, tell that story and out of it i

was wondering did you feel a need to tell the president this is what these guys are doing? >> i did tell the president. this is one page out of 250 pages but i did tell the president and hr mcmaster and others that knew of my concerns but keep in mind what i said is this wasn't that these guys thought this was the rogue president, they disagree with his politics, disagreed with of get out of our paris climate agreement, getting out of the iran deal, disagree with moving the embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem so when the president was charting a different course and giving us a strong hand for america and our friends, they thought he was going in the wrong direction. they were attempting to tell me if i would work with them they were trying to save america and

keep people from dying but when the embassy moved from tel aviv to jerusalem the sky is still up there. it didn't fall and we didn't see casualties but a courageous moment that many presidents tried before and technology day fact. sean: your relationship with president seems great. you talk about how much freedom he gave you as his governing style was one that you like. when you were first asked about the impeachment issue it is like the death penalty for a public official but you didn't think it was good practice to ask a foreign country to investigate, i want to take issue with that.

i read the transcript and the president has an oath to faithfully execute the laws of the land. a ukrainian court said ukraine interfered in our 2016 elections, the president is asking to get to the bottom of it and we have joe biden on tape bragging about a quid pro quo. if you fire the guy you get $1 billion, a guy he knew was investigating his son. to me that sounds like a crime. what does it sound like to you? >> if you look at the transcript it is clear the president wasn't demanding this be done, ukrainians didn't do the investigation, the president released the aid, to investigate americans, it goes to the fact that americans should be investigating americans and asking questions of joe biden and of his son and finding out what was going on with that situation and get to the bottom of it. there have been a lot of investigations that were very 1-sided against the president

and haven't been looking at the other side which is the other issues. i would like him to go back and say what was president obama's role in the situation in that all of that happened. in this situation what was joe biden's role and hunter biden's role in that process? what questions need to be asked. sean: as we look at the election, it looks like a good relationship with the president and you look at the democratic candidates and trump the disruptor but always listened to you and that is the person i have known for 25 years. is the president misunderstood? >> he is misunderstood. from the first day to the last day i worked for the president

he always listened. he was always conscious of hearing other voices, allowing people to debate the issues and made his decision. he is a disruptor. this is a time in the country we needed a disruptor but there wasn't the time i called him and said i think we should look at this another way where he didn't say how do you see that playing out and we have a great discussion of it? consider him a friend today and i will tell you that has been so hard, they have been trying to impeach him since the second he was inaugurated and if you look at the results of what this president has done, you are seeing record unemployment, an economy that is booming, look at the stock market from last week, but real hard decisions that were made. getting out of the iran deal, moving the embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem, getting out of the paris climate agreement which was an unfair situation. getting kim in north korea to come to the negotiating table. there have been some tough

courageous stand that have been made and i saw president who was very thoughtful, looked all the issues, made decisions and it was a pleasure and honor to work with him and it is not what people portray. the reason we got along was i told him the truth and he was always willing to listen to that and it is too bad people don't see what you see on tv is what you get but behind the scenes somebody cares about america and wants to do everything he can to strengthen it. >> disruptors today's language for keeping your promises which will be a big part of his reelection campaign. thank you for being with us. we continue this special edition of hannity.

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>> merry christmas to you. the world holding its breath after north korea promises to deliver a, quote, christmas present. nuclear negotiations between donald trump and kim jong un have collapsed but kim is demanding sanctions relief and donald from calling for more denuclearization efforts. the president downplaying the christmas threat saying it is a nice gift. astronauts teaming up with norad, norad has -- young girl mistakenly call the wrong members thinking she would connect to the north pole. instead she managed to call harry shoop who realized the mistake and assured the young

girl he was santa and the tradition was born. now back to hannity. sean: lawrence jones, special on the road election correspondence reporting exclusively on the show at trump rallies, even area 51, they replaced, kanye west's sunday service angelo steen's church. >> why are you supporting the president. >> i have common sense. >> why you supporting the president? >> you doing everything. >> what about impeachment going on? >> they know the fisa abuse report coming out. just trying to get ahead of it.

>> do you think it will backfire on the democrats? >> absolutely. >> anybody who knows about the constitution. and they are looking for something to convict him of. they haven't found anything. >> will they be victorious? do you think it backfires on them? >> it backfires 100%. >> any of the impeachment talk in washington right now. >> i think will backfire the democrats. >> i hope it will. it is just a distraction. >> why are you so fired up? >> i didn't get into voting until trump became president in 2016 and excited, my first rally. i'm proud of everything he is doing, four more years.

>> i like the way the economy has been in the market has been doing. >> tax cuts, building a wall, draining the swamp, cleaning house and we are backing him. >> i believe he says what he is going to do and does what he says he is going to do. >> when you're the media talking about impeachment -- >> we are too smart in texas. that is why we are here. >> a waste of our time and money. >> all the politicians for impeachment, a heavy price of about? >> absolutely. >> absolutely not. >> dollars impeachment -- >> not at all. >> if i thought were to i would be the first person, i don't want a russian spy in office but they haven't proved anything. >> do you think it is

ridiculous? >> it is ludicrous. >> why are you here? is there a reason? >> scientific reasons, we are here for the aliens. >> i want to hear about the aliens, they put out good talking points. >> when did you discover you where an alien? >> 1984. >> this is to protect my mind from interference of any kind. >> you seen any aliens? >> we are hoping. >> definitely. i want to. >> these guys had any interaction with the outside world? >> today, now. yesterday also know.

we had weird dreams the night before. >> i know that god has been calling me for a long time and the devil has been distracting me for a long time. someone who is professing god and the devil is going to do everything he can to distract people from knowing how to fully be in service to the lord. >> how did you feel about the sunday service experience? >> it was amazing, so cool to have somebody you looked up to musically to come here and see their life transform. tv can make things look better than it is but he is staying the course and walking his walk. >> how do you handle people seeing this?

you always talked about christ but in this new way. >> when i got the ultimate security guard, that is god, to secure my mind and spirit because the main thing people try to do is throw you off course and distract you and keeping our i on christ at all times. it is always in service and that remains the fear. >> liberated in service for the name above all names. >> do you believe in kanye? >> absolutely. >> to believe that he can go through it as one of the first rappers who crossed over and make it. >> i have been trying to get sean hannity to listen to hip-hop forever. and saying he is a big supporter

of kanye. how does it make you feel that you have people and now just differently rex, the same kanye, different lyrics. >> praise god for the anointing and talent and what he has given me, pursuing the arts, going to art school or the scholarship he gave me from the art institute of chicago and all the things, the platforms, the visual arts, live performances, now i can be in service to him. >> we will have more on our special edition of hannity after this. .

. these folks don't have time to go to the post office

they use stamps.com all the services of the post office only cheaper get a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. ♪ >> sean: unfortunately that is all the time we have left this evening. before we go, i'd like to wish you and your entire family a very merry christmas. you can say that on the show. we hope you will set your dvr, never miss an episode of vanity,

we will never be part of the mob, let not your heart be troubled. it's christmas, have a great night. ♪ ♪ a newborn king. ed: merry christmas and good morning. how beautiful does this tree look on fox square? griff: merry christmas, we want to share with you what an honor it is. we have a big show ahead for you. ed: we are going to have santa. >> food coming up. ed: we want you to send in your patriotic photos how you are celebrating and maybe how you decorate your