his family, went after him. we thought maybe he would be a little bit, you know... restrained there. and that he'd really let it out here. but he let it out this morning. it'll be interesting what he says now. >> sandra: the press secretary said he'll be speaking with humility, with honesty. so we will hear from the president and just a moment. stay tuned. "outnumbered" starts right now. >> melissa: fox news alert, we are awaiting president trump, set to adjust the nation after his son impeachment acquittal yesterday on mostly party line vote. the lone g.o.p. defector was senator mitt romney, drained democrats to vote to convict on abuse of power charge. but voting with republicans to acquit the president on obstruction of congress. the white house saying the impeachment ended in "full vindication and exoneration," but suggesting the president is far from ready to move on. >> he and the family went through a lot. he and this country went through a lot. he's glad it's over. he will certainly talk about that. but i think he will also talk

about just how horribly he was treated, and that maybe people should pay for that. >> melissa: with the president do to speak any moment now after this historic vote, we want to bring in fox news chief political anchor bret baier, also anchor an executive anchor of "special report." it has been fiery so far this morning. speaker pelosi giving it right back a short time ago, saying, "you are impeached forever. he will never get rid of that scar no matter what headlines you carry around." bret, what do you think's response is going to be here? >> [laughs] well, i tell you, melissa, it'll be interesting to see. because national prayer breakfast breakfast, we didn't expect a lot of fireworks. but as he was kind of dismounting that speech, he did have a pointed comment. not only aimed at pelosi but also senator mitt romney. also at the beginning holding up that acquitted headline in "the washington post." he is impeached forever, but he

is also acquitted forever. he will probably make that point time and again. if he watched speaker pelosi's press conference, i would think it didn't tone down these remarks we are about to see, because she had some really pointed jabs and that q&a session. >> harris: bret, what do you think the white house press secretary, stephanie grisham, meant when she said there might be -- i'm paraphrasing here -- a pricprice to pay, payback? >> i don't know, harris. we will hear in the outlines of the speech. listen, he does want to get some things done with democrats. at the end of the pelosi news conference, there was talk that every time they meet they talk about infrastructure and drug prices as a possibility. but they haven't met. they haven't talked for three plus months. the situation in washington right now is as toxic as it has been. what the tone is now, we'll see

from the president. >> melissa: bret, there has to be a way forward somehow. because everybody is going to want to get something done so they can go home and tell their constituents they worked on something. is there any talk about how that could happen? there's always deals to be made. there's always something to be traded. it sort of a question of who the surrogates would be to go out there. is there somebody else the democrats would volley over to the white house to deal with the president? or do they go through the g.o.p.? what are people saying? >> there's not a lot of trust on either side. right now, i don't see a path forward to getting things done before the election. we are nine months away, that's the way forward. figuring out how to fight these battles before the election. we often say that we are always one election away from solving big problems, but it's true. in this current environment, who are the democrats going to send

over to the white house? chuck schumer and nancy pelosi, what has been said, this president takes internally. i think we will see some serious pushback from him right now in this speech. >> harris: when you look at the history of those two, i hearken back to the empty chair in the white house. you invite schumer and pelosi over and one of them doesn't show up, and the president's sitting next to one empty chair and the other one doesn't show up. that bad blood, if you want to call it that, or should be-ness, as we say in hockey, has existed for quite some time. i'm curious to know what they try to do today. you sob pelosi at a news conference a short while ago, bret, be asked about, "how do you get along after all the toxicity that lasted for months?" she said, "we managed to keep the government open to the president said he might shut it down, we managed to keep that open." do you think the president will talk about that today? what she should he say? >> i think he may mention the usmca trade deal.

that was the biggest bipartisan piece of legislation passed by this administration. nancy pelosi talks about it as if it's a foreign bill the retooled, exactly opposite of what was sent to them. that's not how the white house characterizes it. both sides took a w. so that likely will be mentioned here. there's possibilities around the edges. as far as big things, there is literally such animosity here. and on the democratic side there's a lot of depression after what has been not a great week. from the iowa caucuses to the acquittal, to kind of uncertainty about the way forward. >> brian: bret, a couple of things going on today. the president of course will set a tone for the future. prescription drugs could be done. there is a partisan bill and infrastructure, there is a willingness there. there could be something to get done over the next eight months. but whe when he saw the speakerf the house just basically saying

the president was on drugs, "he came up to me, i put my hand out, i was going to rip the script up anyway, but i felt bad for him because he looks sedated like he did last year." have you ever remembered the speaker of the house accusing the president of being on drugs before? >> no. like i said, we've reached another level. this president obviously takes it to another level on his tweets, as well. when he tweets about. but she's taking it to another level. often overlooked in this whole back and forth of the images was the traditional intro of the president in the state of the union. how the speaker, whether republican or democrat, says that was abandoned. and she said, "he is the president of the united states." then there was a handshake, the tearing up, and the back and forth afterwards. these are all images but they sent a message to the caucuses, "we are not dealing." the other thing i will note, mitch mcconnell yesterday, ask about mitt romney's vote, said he was disappointed, surprised.

but the importance according to the senate majority leader is the next vote for mitt romney. because he doesn't want mitt romney going over to the democrats. he needs that republican vote. >> harris: that's an excellent point. he also said -- there is no "naughty chair" in the room. they have different points of view. he needs his vote, that makes a lot of sense. you were talking about that handshake. i want to get your take on it. not to spend a lot of time on this, but the vice president also did not shake the president's hand. are we making too much about that moment? you see people like the fourth in power in the house, hakeem jeffries, on the democratic side. you see those leaders talking about how offended they were by that handshake. bret, is there something more we look at when we consider the fact that the president didn't shake either one of their hands? pence's or pelosi's? just out of fairness, i don't know. >> there's that he didn't see her, that he didn't shake the

vice president's hand. yes, there's all that. but the reason it's a focus is because nancy pelosi sent out a tweet afterwards with her outstretched hand to the president and am turning around and she said, "we will always reach out." right after the speech. it's not reaching out today. at the end of this press conference, that's not the message that you get. from "he looked sedated," to "he doesn't pray, he doesn't know anything about faith," two -- you could go through 5 or six things that nancy pelosi said. something tells me that at the end of the speech they will probably be more than six things the president says. >> melissa: i hope you will come back after the speech to reflect on what we are hearing. we are getting at here, probably minutes away. so i want to get us on the other folks on our couch right now, to give them a chance to kind of set the table here a little bit. >> harris: we'll see you in a bit, bret. >> gillian: it's been conventional wisdom in washington that partisan

gridlock is really hurtful to both parties. it hurts both sides of the isle equally. everybody suffers when lawmakers are split fairly evenly and can't get anything done. in the case of impeachment, we've actually seen that this bipartisan or partisan gridlock, excuse me, really ultimately saved president trump. and it shows it was much more devastating for democrats than it was for republicans. one thing a lot of people -- it's a lot more devastating for democrats because they weren't ultimately able to achieve their objective, which was to get president trump out of office. the vote in the senate fell far short, as we know come of the two-thirds majority that you need to have him removed from office. it was fairly close, it was split relatively 50/50. so that hurt the democrats a great deal here. so there's a question about moving forward, if the next four years, if the lay of the land stays the same. is this going to come back to bite them time and time again? that is something that a lot of

folks on the hill have been chattering about. >> lisa: i think the reason why we are seeing the reaction we've seen from speaker pelosi is because democrats are losing right now, and president trump and republicans are winning. they tried to take them down on mueller and russia and lost. they tried to take them down on ukraine and lost. you look at the latest gallup polls, president trump's approval rating up ten from november alone. republicans have passed the 50% threshold in margin for approval. now it's 51%. so republicans are moving in the direction of winning, and democrats are losing. you look what happened on monday night with iowa, they are trying to run the country and they can't even run a caucus. at the same time, you have president trump on tuesday night touting huge victories, with its trade deals like the usmca, china as well. the economy is booming. every single constituency in this country has been now better off under this administration. >> melissa: let me ask brian something about tactics. if it were me looking from the outside, you look at the president, it seems like the dominant strategy is to not

engage, not do name-calling. not fight with him in the arena that he likes to do. in the end, no one can resist it. nancy pelosi saying that he looked sedated, that -- all of the things i don't imagine her saying in the past. if you are a tactician, you hold yourself back from engaging in this way. because nobody fights with him on his level and wins. >> brian: i've been looking to give nancy pelosi the benefit of the doubt, because i've been hearing she's this great tactician, always moving to her three moves ahead. she's hiding all those moves, because she's been caught. she cannot say the impatient was beneficial to her. she cannot say she got what she wanted out of this. she cannot say she set an effective agenda in the house. a nice you sit there and adam schiff even said something, i will paraphrase. we have to calibrate what happened here before we know what's next. let me bring you back to what van jones set a couple days ago. nobody's talking about with the president is doing for

working-class and minority communities. he said, "people look at his comments as will nations and say he lost the african-american vote." but what he's doing is producing for these communities, and he said, "democrats, if you don't watch it, he will begin to actually get votes from these communities because that's his focus." >> harris: we will get into more of that is be at closer to south carolina where democrats traditionally have tried to scoop up the black votes. that's what joe biden is trying to prove to be his firewall. even at some of the trump rallies, it's been reported to me that they are registering people of color and that there is an outreach in that program. >> brian: about time. >> harris: will you get a lot of them that way? i don't know. i don't know who attends the rallies, i haven't looked demographically at it. but it is an interesting thought that there is no giving up on any particular community. i did want to say this, you brought up adam schiff and his take on nancy pelosi and where they go next. the party. what about senator mcconnell

yesterday? and he said -- basically, that he kind of felt sorry for her. she was playing it right in the beginning with her politics, keeping away from impeachment. and he said, "she couldn't resist those in her party any longer." and he said, "she should have followed her instincts. she was on the right road." >> brian: i will bring something else. compare mitch mcconnell -- you could say the worst thing to mitch mcconnell, and if you're donald trump, it doesn't phase in pit of her but he makes fun of him. he keeps hi his eye on the objective. and i suppose he's letting her motion give the best of her. i don't want to get into gender, it has nothing to do with gender. >> harris: please don't. >> brian: it's got nothing to do with gender. but she's emotionally. specie why do people go to that level within? on the inside of the tv screen, don't go to that place with him. he always end up losing. mitch mcconnell holds back. gillian, what do you think? >> gillian: i was going to piggyback on what brian said about senator mcconnell.

as soon as the final impeachment vote, the point of there being that he has taken the steps as they come along. he is not stopping. he's proven himself, we were talking about this early. he's proving himself to maybe be the most adept political maneuver-the art of this era. >> harris: do you think the two of them are alike? pelosi and the president? any similarities? >> lisa: i think president trump is a much more shrewd politician then nancy pelosi. gillian and i were talking about this in the green room and i told her, nancy pelosi has long been overrated. i was there in 2010 when she walked to the party off the cliff with obamacare. chuck schumer, later in 2014, said it was a mistake. they lost 63 seats in the house under her watch. i told jillian as well that mitch mcconnell is the most shrewd political tactician of our time. everybody should take notice of that. they won't admit it because he is on the right, he's not on the

left. two, if you want to know everything there is to know about the mainstream media, look at the coverage of mitt romney. his brave, he's heroic. what about collin peterson? what about jeff van drew who literally defected from his party over impeachment? or those who bucked to the party over impeachment? they are not painted as brave by the media. that tells you everything you need to know about the byes in the dishonesty that exists with the media. >> gillian: but also mcconnell's not going along with these calls from the rest of the party to bring the hammer down on senator brown a. >> harris: he won't allow those big personalities in the house to cross the chamber to come into the senate trial, either. he resisted that because he said, "that will rub some of the g.o.p. senators wrong. we've got this." >> melissa: i want to go to the point you made about van jones, that was really interesting. he lined up all the things the president has been doing. if you look at the state of the union, going through any program, whether it's the

criminal justice we've heard so much about him or school choice. historically black colleges. >> harris: opportunity. >> melissa: he has bent over backwards to produce for a community come that on the republican side --dash when he went for the union. everybody's like, "that's democrats, don't waste your time." >> brian: historically, people need to understand and people are going to point out that republicans were the ones fighting to end slavery. the republicans were the ones fighting for equal rights. somehow it reversed before i was lucky enough to sit on the couch. all. all of a sudden the republicans struggled to get 9% of the black vote. that's obscene. obscenely low. and they haven't made any effort, and that is inexcusable. >> harris: representative will hurd down in texas as talked about that. he said he is leaving his lawmaker status we can go help the party grow in those areas that we are talking about.

these are not just -- it's diversity at every level. it's not just race or religion or culture. its diversity of thought. those independents are sitting out there, and i don't know if they feel right now untouched, and spoken buy this whole impeachment process. certainly in the numbers, the polling we saw for a couple of months, they weren't being pulled over by the process to the democratic side. so who's talking to them? while we are talking about this whole thing of who is benefiting from economics, the president has his eye on some other things with the economy he wants to do next. he's talking taxes again, the middle class. he wanted to talk health care before, remember, mcconnell should've done months months a ago. >> brian: they have to do something. >> harris: they've got to do something going forward. that's what i should democrats into the midterms. they haven't put much out there. this is an opportunity for republicans. >> lisa: it depends, though. it depends on who ends up being the democratic nominee. if you have somebody like bernie sanders talking about an upheaval of your health care at home, basically over 100 million

people are going to lose their health care under medicare for all-type policy. if you have someone like that, democrats automatically lose the health care conversation just like they did in 2010 when you have people across the country losing a plan they were promised they would lose and also seeing increases to their health insurance premiums. >> harris: but you jus can't jut blame the democrats. if you're the party of ideas, which clearly they can be no for your republicans to be, they have to actually show some. we know they have been having those meetings. at least they were months ago, republicans. >> melissa: the bipartisan bill on prescription drugs. >> harris: but that's not health care, that's one segment of it. >> melissa: i don't think you saw the whole thing in total, you have to -- >> gillian: that's why hillary clinton -- >> harris: you have people losing their health insurance, you have to deal with that. >> gillian: a couple months ago we were sitting on the couch talking about hillary clinton thinking about running again. remember? we heard reports she was sticking a toe in the water. a lot were saying it was the

health care -- >> harris: which toe? i'm kidding. [laughter] >> gillian: but health care was a big part of the calculation for the african-american vote. her party's polling showed she wouldn't fare much better on these issues than she did last time around, and lo and behold she didn't decide to enter the race. >> melissa: we hear the applause starting here. >> lisa: that's a giveaway. >> melissa: [laughs] yeah. the president should be coming out any moment now. he will make remarks on the senate impeachment acquittal from the white house. we just saw his defense team come out and enter the room. we had thought originally that this was going to be the place where he responded, and not at the prayer breakfast. but he use the end of the prayer breakfast to address impeachment. so now we'll see what happens here as they take their seats. brian, real quick? >> brian: that legal team has been very, very busy, very effective. they had to prepare a lot. there was a lot of unscripted situations and they are not out of the woods yet. there are more challenges coming. >> harris: the president has a big day today.

later on he will meet at the white house with the kenyan leader who has been talking today about rejecting the u.s. china tussle and what that is like across the world. he will bring that -- that will be a very well-watch meeting come as well. and there is the song we always listen for. >> melissa: "hail to the chief" plays when he comes in, and we can see him now. and! ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. ["hail to the chief"] ♪ >> harris: as you mention, melissa, earlier today we are the president's first comments on impeachment. no doubt at this point after nancy pelosi, speaker of the house, has spoken. it'll come. >> melissa: absolutely. all right, let's listen. [applause] >> president trump: well, thank you very much. [cheers and applause] thank you.

thank you. [applause] wow. [cheers and applause] [continued applause] well, thank you very much, everybody. wow. we've all been through a lot together. and we probably deserved that hand for all of us, because it's been a very unfair situation.

i invited some of our very good friends, and we have limited room, but everybody wanted to come. kept it down to a minimum. believe it or not, this is a minimum. but a tremendous thing was done over the last number of months. really, if you go back to it, over the last number of years. we had the witch hunt, it started from the day we came down the elevator. myself and our future first lady, who is with us right now. thank you, melania. [applause] and it never really stopped. we've been going through this now for over three years. it was evil, it was corrupt, it was dirty cops. it was a leakers and lawyers.

this should never happen to another president, ever. i don't know that other presidents would have been able to take it. some people said no, they wouldn't have. but i can tell you, at a minimum, you have to focus on this because it can get away very quickly, no matter who you have with you. it can get away very quickly. it was a disgrace. had i not fired james comey, who was a disaster, by the way, it's possible i wouldn't even be standing here right now. we caught him in the act. dirty cops. bad people. if this happened to president obama, a lot of people would have been in jail for a long time already. many, many years. i want to start by thanking some of -- i call them friends because, you know, you develop friendships and relationships when you are in battle and in war, much more so than, "gee,

let's have a normal situation." with all we've gone through, i think we've done more than any president in any administration. really, i say, for the most part, republican congressmen and congresswomen and republican senators -- we've done more than any administration in the first few years. you look at all the things we've done. i watched this morning as they tried to take credit for the stock market. [laughter] think of that. let me tell you, if we didn't win, the stock market would have crashed. the market was going up a lot before the election because it was looking like we had a good chance to win. it went up tremendously from the time we won the election to the time we took office, which was november 8th until january 20th. that's our credit, that's all our credit. leading up to that point was our credit, because there was hope. one of the reasons the stock market has gone up so much in

the last few days is people think we are doing so well. they liked the state of the union speech. [applause] it really is, it's a true honor. making the state of the union speech, i was with some people who have been around. they've been all over the world. one of them is a highly sophisticated person. they said, "you know, no matter where you go in the world, it doesn't make any difference. there is nothing like what i witnessed tonight. the beauty, the majesty of the chamber. the power of the united states. the power of the people in this room." really, amazing. i don't think there's anything like that anywhere in the world. you can go to any other country, any other location, any other place. it's the beauty of everything.

it's what it represents, and how it represents our country. i want to start by introducing some of the people that are here. i know some are going to be left out, but they work so hard. and this is really not a news conference, it's not a speech. it's not anything, it's just -- we are sort of -- it's a celebration. because we have something that just worked out. i mean, it worked out. we went through hell unfairly, did nothing wrong. did nothing wrong. i've done things wrong in my life, i will admit. [laughter] not purposely, but i've done things wrong. this is what the end result is. [cheers and applause]

so... you can take that home. honey, maybe we'll frame it. [laughter] the only good headline i've ever had on "the washington post." [laughter] but every paper is the same. does anybody have those papers does anybody have them? they are like that. so i appreciate that. but some of the people here have been incredible warriors. they are warriors. there's nothing from a legal standpoint -- this is a political thing. every time i say, "this is unfair, let's go to court," they say, "sir, you can't go to court, this is politics." we were treated unbelievably unfairly. you have to understand, we first went through "russia, russia, russia." it was all bullshit.

[laughter] we then went through the mueller report. and they should have come back one day later. they didn't, they came back two years later after lives were ruined. after people went bankrupt. after people lost all their money. people went to washington to help other people. bright eyed and bushy tail, they say they came, one or two or three people in particular. but many people, we had a rough campaign. it was nasty. one of the nastiest, they say. they say andrew jackson was always the nastiest campaign. they actually said we topped it. it was nasty both in the primaries and in the election. but you see, we thought after the election it would stop. but it didn't stop, it just started. tremendous corruption. tremendous corruption. so, we had a campaign -- little

did we know we were running against some very, very bad and evil people with fake dossiers, with all of these horrible, dirty cops that took these dossiers and did bad things. they knew all about it. the fisa courts, should be ashamed of themselves. it's a very tough thing. and we ended up winning on the "russia, russia, russia." it should have taken the one day, it took years. then bob mueller testified. that didn't work out so well for the oversight. [laughter] but they should have said that first week, because it came out. is that right, jim jordan? they knew the first two days, actually. is that right? they knew we were totally innocent. but they kept it going, mark. the kept it going forever. because they wanted to inflict

political pain on somebody that -- i had just won an election, a lot of people were surprised. we had polls that said we were going to win. we have the "los angeles times" and a few papers, actually, tha. but it was going to be close. we did win. it was one of the greatest wins of all time. and they said, "okay, he won." i wrote this down because that was where a thing called an insurance policy -- to me, when i saw the insurance policy, and that was done long before the election. it was done when we thought hillary clinton was going to win. by the way, hillary clinton and the dnc paid for millions. millions of dollars, the fake dossier. now christopher steele admits that it's a fake. because he got sued by rich

people. i should have sued him, too. but when you are president, people don't like suing. i want to thank my legal team, by the way. [laughter] not for that advice, but for other. [applause] pat, jay, you guys, stand up. [applause] great job. right at the beginning, they said, "sir, you have nothing to worry about. all of the facts on your side." i said, "you don't understand, that doesn't matter. that doesn't matter." and that was really true. they made up facts. a corrupt politician named adam schiff made up my statement to the ukrainian president. he brought it out of thin air, just made it up. they say he's a screenwriter, a failed screenwriter.

unfortunately he went into politics after that. [laughter] remember, he said the statement? "don't call me, i'll call you." i didn't say that. fortunately for all of us here today and for our country, we had transcripts. we had transcribers, professional transcribers. then they said, "oh, well, maybe the transcription is not correct." but lieutenant colonel zinman and his twin brother, right? we had some people, really amazing. but we did everything. we said, "what's wrong with that," they didn't at this word or that word. it didn't matter. "at it. they're probably wrong, but added " now everybody agrees they were perfectly accurate. tim scott -- i don't know if tim is here, but he said, "are --" he was the first want to call me. "sir, i read the transcript. you did nothing wrong." and, mitch, he stayed there right from the beginning.

he never changed. mitch mcconnell, i want to tell you. you did a fantastic job. [applause] somebody said, "you know, mitch is quiet." i said, "he's not quiet. he's not quite." [laughter] he doesn't want people to know him. and they said, "is mitch smart?" and i said, "well, let's put it this way. for many, many years, a lot of very smart -- bad, in many cases, sometimes good -- people have been trying to take his place. to the best of my knowledge,

i've never even heard the subject come up, because they've been wiped out so fast." [laughter] this guy is great and i appreciate mitch. he has also given us 191, now. [applause] 191 federal judges. two supreme court judges. up to 191. great guy. great guy. he's a tough guy to read. i'm good at reading people. a tough guy to read. i told him -- they'd say, "how do you do with mitch?" and i'd say, "uh, i don't know." [laughter] that's what makes them good, when you can read somebody. fantastic job. he understood right from the beginning this was crooked politics. this was crooked politics. how about all these people? they are running for office. they are saying the worst things about me, like eight senators on the democratic side. most of them got wiped out.

they got 1% or less. most of them got less. they decided to go home. "let's go back to california. let's go back to --" wherever they came from. "go back to new york." how about that? our new york senator, gillibrand. "let's go back to new york." after they get nothing. then they take an oath that they will be fair, that they will be reasonable come all the different things. they are not fair. but here's the beauty, we have four left. they are saying the most horrendous things about me. it's okay, it's politics. and then they are supposed to vote! on me! they are trying to replace me, and then they are supposed to be voting. so i think -- i mean, i think it's incredible. so, mitch, i want to thank you very much. incredible. we have some of your folks here, they are incredible people. they've been great from the beginning. again, you are out of session, unfortunately. i only told these folks, "let's

do this today." we did a prayer breakfast this morning. i thought that was really good. in fact, it was so good, it wiped us out. by the time we finished, this will wipe that one outcome of those statements. [laughter] i had nancy pelosi sitting four seats away and i'm saying things that a lot of people wouldn't have said, but i meant everything. [laughter] i meant every word of it. we have some of the folks that are going to be leaving right after this. they work hard, and they did work hard. though cassidy, senator, stand up, bill. what a guy. [applause] great man. when i need to know about health insurance and pre-existing conditions and individual mandates, i called bill. or i call barrasso. those two guys, they know more than anybody. a man who just became a senator. he's a little bit like me. we have a couple of them. very successful guy in business,

and he said, "what the hell? i'll run for the senate," from indiana. and he ran. i saw him on television, destroying his opponent in a debate. i said, "this guy could win." i got behind him, and mike braun, you have done some great job. thank you very much. [applause] tough! a man who got james comey to choke. and he was just talking in his regular voice. he's the roughest man -- she's actually an unbelievable -- and i appreciate the letter you sent me today. i just got it. he's got this voice that scares people. [laughter] you know, people from iowa can be very tough. we are doing very well in iowa, but i tell you, chuck grassley. "you tell me, what did you say," he wasn't being rough, that's just the way he talked.

[laughter] that's when -- i think that's when comey announced he was leaking, lying and everything else. he choked! because he never heard anybody talk like that. i wish you got angry, you could have gotten the whole ball game. he would have said, "i give up!" chuck grassley is an incredible guy. [applause] and a man who -- you know, he was running against a tough, smart campaigner. we learned how good she was, right? she was a great campaigner. in fact, by the end of the campaign, i thought she was more for me than you were, josh. i was worried. she was saying the greatest things about me. you know i'm talking about i went to a great place,

missouri. and i said, "who do you have to beat her?" and they said, "well, we have four people." i said, "let me see them." can you imagine can make i'm interviewing people for the united states senate, this is what i do. where have i gone? but i love it. we get great people. the first when i met with josh hawley. after about 10 minutes and said to the people, "don't show me anybody else, this is the guy." he was the attorney general, ditto phenomenal job in the state. highly respected. and claire mccaskill. the theory was you couldn't beat her. great campaign-the art. remember last campaign, she was always going be taken up. peoplpeople say, "how did that n chemicals go it didn't happen with him. i'm putting this in the archives is 1 of the best ads i've ever made. she tried to convince people we

are best friends, but josh ended up winning by five or six points. you are unbelievable, you were tough, and you are something. one of the greatest supporters of the impeachment hoax with josh hawley. he was incensed, actually. he was incensed at what they were doing and what they were doing. i had some who said, "i wish you didn't make a call," and that's okay. if they need that. it's incorrect. it's totally incorrect. and you have some who used religion as a crutch. they never used it before... an article written today, "never heard him use it before." but today, it's one of those things. it's a failed presidential candidate, so things can happen when you fail so badly running for president. but josh hawley, i want to thank you. you were right from the beginning. man, did i make a good choice. [applause] thank you, josh.

tremendous future. a man who is brilliant, and who actually was deceived, to an extent. comes from a great state, utah, where my poll numbers have gone through the roof. and one of the senators' poll numbers -- not this one -- went down big. you saw that, mike? mike lee is a brilliant guy. he's difficult. [laughter] whenever -- we do sign a lot of legislation, it's big and it's powerful, but it sort of -- everybody has to approve it. i see 99 to one. 99 to one. i say, "don't tell me who's the one." [laughter] "is it mike?" "yes." [laughter] and he always has a good reason for it, too come by the way but he is, he's incredible. right at the beginning, he knew

we were right, mike. i appreciate it very much. fantastic. say hello to the people of utah, and tell them i'm sorry about mitt romney. i'm sorry. okay? [applause] we can say that mike lee is by far the most popular senator from the state. but you've done a fantastic job, mike. in many ways. in many ways. a young woman who i didn't know at all, but she has been so supportive. and i've had great support from other people in that state. she has been so supportive, and she has been downright nasty and mean about the unfairness to the president. kelly loeffler, i appreciate it very much. thank you. [applause] she started very early on. we have -- i don't know if we have other senators here, but we've got a hell of a lot of congressmen. i will go over them quickly.

they've also been -- it helped when we won, 197 to nothing. that's got to be a first, kevin, right? is that, like, a first? republicans have this image. i say democrats are lousy politicians because they have lousy policy. open borders, sanctuary cities. they have horrible policy. who the hell can -- oh, the new policy is raise taxes. they want to raise taxes. all my life, i wasn't in politics, but i would say if you are a politician you say you want to lower taxes. they want to raise taxes. they have open borders, sanctuary cities, reeser and brady's taxes, get rid of everybody's health care, 180 million people in the united states -- and they are really happy. and we are going to give you health care the cost more money if the country could make in 30 years if it does really well. that's one year. i always said, they are. they do two things.

they are vicious and mean. vicious. these people are vicious. adam schiff is a vicious, horrible person. nancy pelosi is a horrible person. and she wanted to impeach a long time ago. when she said, "i pray for the president, i prefer the president." she doesn't pray. she may pray, but i don't actually praise for the opposite. [laughter] i doubt sh dominic praise at all they do vicious -- they stick to give it prehistorically. i'm not talking about now. they stick together like glue. that's how they impeached, because they had whatever the numbers -- 220 people. so they don't lose anybody. they will be able to impeach anybody. you could be george washington, you could have just won the war, and they would say, "let's get him out of office. "they stuck together and they are vicious as hell. and they will probably come back for more, but they may not, because the republican party's

poll numbers, mitch, have now gone up more than any time, i think, since 2004 or 2005. you know what happened then. but in normal times, decades, you would call it -- that was an unusual time. it was for a very short period. the republican party's poll numbers -- and donald trump's poll numbers of the highest i've ever had. [applause] it's no way to get your poll numbers up. because from my family's standpoint, it's been very unfair for my family. it's been very unfair to the country. think of it. a phone call. a very good phone call. i know bad phone calls. this is a phone call where merritt don't like many people -- i think mike pompeo was probably on the call. many people were on the call.

they even have "apprenti come" bring up a favorite word of my current apprentice. they have apprenti on this call. there many people. in the case of ukraine, he's a new president, seems like a very nice person, by the way. his whole thing was corruption. he's going to stop corruption. we have a treaty, a signed treaty that we will work together to root out corruption in ukraine. i probably have a legal obligation, mr. attorney, to report corruption. they don't even think a corrupt way son who made no money, that got thrown out of the military, that had no money at all, is working for $3 million upfront, $83,000 a month. and that's only ukraine. then goes to china, picks up $1.5 billion. then goes to romania, i hear, and many other countries.

they think that's okay. because, if it is, is i ivanka n the audience? boy, my kids could make a fortune. [laughter] it's corrupt. but it's not even that, it's just general corruption. the other thing is mentioned in the call. something i've told mike pence, our great vice president. i would tell him all the time, and i told him when he went on the trip. because he was over there. he never mentioned anything about this, when you hide your meeting. it's a terrible thing. i told mike, i said, "mike, we are giving them money, and you are always torn about that because we have our country to build. we have our cities to build and our roads to fix. but we are giving the money. tell me, why isn't germany paying money? why isn't frantz? why isn't the united kingdom paying money? what aren't they paying money? why are we paying money? is that the correct statement to find out what the hell is going

on." i told that all my people come on b. asked that question. why isn't germany paying? why is the united states always the sucker?" because we are a bunch of suckers. but that's turning around fast. but it makes it harder when stuff like this happens. because you want to focus, and you want to focus perfectly. think we could have done, if the same energy was put into infrastructure, prescription drug prices. think of what we could have do done. and i'm now talking both sides. think of what we could have done if we had the same genus. because it's genius. i will say, it's genius on the other side. maybe even more so, because they took nothing and brought me to a final vote of impeachment. that's a very ugly word to me. it's a very dark word, very ugly. they took nothing. they took that phone call that

was a totally appropriate call -- i call it a perfect call, because it was -- and they brought me to the final stages of impeachment. but now we have that gorgeous word. i never thought a word would sound so good. it's called, "total acquittal." total acquittal. [applause] so, i want to come if i could real fast , just introduce a few of the people. i have to start with kevin. man, did you do a job. lucky you are there. it wouldn't have worked out. if you don't have the right people, i tell you, kevin mccarthy has done an incredible job. [applause]

he loves his job, he loves his country. i'll tell you what, mitch and kevin, they love what they do. mitch wouldn't even tell you he liked it. [laughter] mitch, do you like it? "i don't know." [laughter] he's the greatest poker player, right? and kevin would say, "i love it." right? and i will say, you are going to be speaker of th of the house because of this impeachment hoax. and i'm going to work hard on it. [applause] i'm going to try to get out to those trump areas that we won by a lot. you know, in '18, we didn't win back. we just won two seats in north carolina. two wonderful seats in north carolina that were not supposed to be won. but i went and i made speeches, and we had rallies, and we did a great job and we won. we took two seats, nobody writes about that. if we had lost them they would have been the biggest stories of the year. we are going to go, we are going

to do a job, and we are going to enact a lot of seats. people are very angry that nancy pelosi and all of these guys -- nadler, i've known and much of my life. he has fought me in new york for 25 years. i always beat him. i had to beat him another time, and i will probably have to beat him again. if they find i happened to walk across the street and maybe go against the light or something, "let's impeach him!" [laughter] so i'll probably have to do it again, because these people have gone stone cold crazy. but i've beaten him all my life and i will beat him again if i have to. [applause] but what they are doing is very unfair. very unfair. so, kevin mccarthy has been great. so, a few names, right? if you want, you can raise and i will say, "great, love to have you, wonderful." but we will do the best we can.

i have mike evident but my cabin is different, i appoint them. i didn't see all of them helping so much. they were running there, various bureaucracies prayed [laughter] my cabinet is great and they are all here, but today is the day to celebrate these great warriors. they are great warriors, they really fought hard with us. kelly armstrong, north dakota. kelly, thank you, great job. [applause] jim banks of indiana. jim, thank you, great job. [applause] andy biggs. where is andy? boy, oh, boy, andy. [applause] there's a guy. he's tough. i hear we are doing well in arizona, huh? going good, yeah? i saw a poll that was very good. for me. [laughter] i think martha is going to do -- we have some states that are going to be not easy, but arizona has been great and we are stopping illegal aliens from

coming in. we are putting up walls. new mexico, too, the state that's never been in play for republicans, is totally in play. nevada is really looking good. we are doing well. we are going to have a great -- there is more spirit. i will say this, there is more spirit now for the republican party, by far, than the democrats. mike pence just got back from a place, a beautiful place that chuck grassley knows well. iowa. and he was talking about this fiasco, the democrats -- they can't count some simple votes, and yet they want to take over your health care system. think of that. we also had an election out there, we got 98% of the vote. have two people running, you know. i guess to consider them nonpeople, but they are running. one of them was the governor. one was a congressman. they are running. we've got 98% of the vote, and

everybody from the media was saying, "who are those crowds over there?" they expected to be competitive for everybody's running because they want to enact. and it was trump. right, mark meadows? it was trump. this was the trump crowd. actually, a lot of my guys went there. they went to iowa, and a lot of friends went there. they say the spirit for the republican party right now is stronger, i think, than it's ever been in the history of our country. [applause] i think it's stronger than it's ever been. and that includes honest abe lincoln. a lot of people forget, abe lincoln -- i wish you were here, i give him one hell of an introduction. [laughter] but he was a republican. abe lincoln, honest abe. bradley byrne, alabama. what a great place. [applause] thank you, bradley.

a man who has been an unbelievable friend of mine and spokesman, and somebody who i really like. and i know, kelly, you are going to end up liking him a lot. something's going to happen that's very good, i don't know. i haven't figured out yet. but doug collins. where is he? [applause] you have been so great. thank you very much. thank you very much. thank you. really, an amazing job. a young man who is born with a great gene, because i know his father and how great a politician he was. he's from florida. sometimes controversial, but actually he's not controversial. he's solid as a rock and a friend of mine, matt gaetz. thank you, matt. [applause] great job. all right. this guy. so, he is the ncaa wrestling

champion when he was in college a couple years ago. that's a big deal. that means in all of college, you are a champ. you the best. his record was ridiculous, nobody could beat him. i see it, every time i see it. when i first get to know him, jim jordan, when i first got to know jim i said, "huh, never wears a jacket. what the hell is going on?" [laughter] he's obviously very proud of his body. [laughter] and they say where he works out with the congressmen, senators, they say when jim works out, even though he's not as young as he was, when he works out, the machine starts burning. it's a different form of a workout event us, right, sonny? there he is, look at that guy. one day and looking, he looks tough. i'm looking at those years. and i say, "those years have

something going on there." i said, "did you ever wrestle?" "i did." he doesn't talk, but i checked. this guy was a champion top wrestler. when i had the top -- i had all of the teams. by the way, your super bowl champions are coming. i think next week, or soon. very soon. every one of them want to be here. the coach loves us. the coach is great. andy reid. [applause] every one of them want to be here. people love it. but we had all of the ncaa championship teams here. they had the golf, the basketball, they had every team here. and one of the teams was wrestling. the wrestling team. was that penn state? and penn state won the title, they have a great team. i walked up with jim, and it's like i didn't exist. [laughter] those wrestlers, they grabbed him, they love jim jordan, and we love you, too. because you are some warrior. [applause]

a woman who became -- we have a couple of women that became stars. you two. i always like the name, lesko." i so that face , i had the cards, seven opponents. you have no idea how much the public appreciates how smart, how sharp you are. this, i can't tell. they just said, "you know, she's really good, she's really talented." i said, "let's go." we worked with her, she won her race. tough race. it's no longer tough. what she does out there is incredible. arizona loves her. but you are so incredible, representing -- i don't see me, representing our country and

getting us out of this impeachment hoax. we did was incredible. so, debbie, please stand up. debbie lesko. [applause] a man who i became very friendly with. i don't know why. you ever have it where -- i'll ask the media. certain people call, you take the calls. other people call, if they don't have information, they won't take anybody's call. both are people call, and this is a guy who -- he's just a very special guy. his wife, i actually like better than him, to be honest. [laughter] because he doesn't know that i know that he didn't actually support me right from the beginning, but she did. [laughter] and on my worst day -- right? on my worst day, my worst, i won't tell you why it's my worst but it was not one of my good days. she got on a bus, got many of the buses, and women all over north carolina, and they toured

north carolina. well, mark was sort of semisupporting another candidate. which he ended up leaving very quickly. i don't think he had a choice, because of your wife. so thank her. mark meadows is an extra ordinary guy. the only problem is i guess he's announcing that she would only win by 40 points, but he is announcing that he is not running this time. you have somebody good to run? is somebody going to win your district by at least 20 points, please? okay. but he's a tremendously talented man. not just as a politician, as a human being is incredible. and during these horrible times -- the way he worked, and jim, and all of you guys, the way they worked was so -- it was like their life was at stake. so many. ron desantis is another one. he worked so hard. he called me, he said, "sir, i would like to run for governor." i said, "governor? i don't want you to run. i like