i'm really excited. >> i'm in my workshop with all my elves and were all messed up >> tucker: that's real. we will play that every night. have the best night and a great weekend. sean hannity now. ♪ welcome to the special edition of "hannity." i'm jason chaffetz in for sean. tonight we look at the too cozy relationship with china. despite participating in a close relationship with a chinese spy, congressmanto eric swalwell of california somehow remains on the house intelligence committee. now, after receiving an f.b.i. briefing aboutw, swalwell, house minority leader kevin mccart thy is demanding answers -- mccarthy is demanding answers. watch this. >> we were briefed for an hour. i can't tell you what it is

in, but i can tell you this. what i learned today and anyone in the room with me would never allow swalwell to be on the intel committee a or continue to be on it. i don't know if the briefing before for leaders if they have the same information they have today. but if that was the case, he should not be serving. >> the big quest tonight. do you really trust eric swalwell with america's biggest secrets? why should we? come to think of it do you everyone trust nancy pelosi with the state secrets? add to that, joe biden's son hunter seems to have been selling access to the biden family. and the federal government for years. in fact the family seems to have taken millions of cash and equity from well-connected chinese nationals. according to a fox news.com report, hunter biden may be getting payments from china right now. he is facing a federal criminal investigation in tona

the international money laundering and tax evasion. in a truely pathetic softball interview with the former comedian fan boy colbert biden said all the accusations against his son are politicallyy motivated. watch this. >> you know the people who want to make hay in washington will try to use your adult son as a cogil against you. what do you say to those people? >> look. we have great confidence in our son. i'm not concerned about any accusations that have been made against him. this is used to get to me. i think it's foul play. but it is what it is. he is a grown man. he is the smartest man i know. i mean in pure intellectual capacity. as long as he is good, we're good.

>> jason: wow! obviously you'd expect real hardball questions from stephen colbert. well, over on msnbc a prominent anti-trump attorney was just absolutely distraught that republicans have pushed for a special counsel to investigate the biden scandal. watch. >> what would the purpose be if anyone was actually dealing in good faith of the special counsel?ou >> so we don't really know the facts and it's very dangerous to speculate on the basis of some leaks. it might be the underpayment of $110,000 in taxes. that is what some reporters arear suggesting. it might be something else. i do think it's absolutely outrageous for the republicans like lindsey graham to insist on a special counsel here. >> jason: really? our special counsel investigations -- are special counsel investigations only for the anti-trump witch hunts

with no basis in facts? we have bad news for the bidens. as sean hannity calls them the biden family foreign crime syndicate. the scandal is not going away. watch. >> according to text message by fox news we can report hunter's exbusiness associates were actively looking for ways to "get joe," remember the big guy involved in their china venture. one of hunter's former partners everyone texted, "let's get the company set up and then tell "h" and family and the high stakes and get joe involved." get joe involved. let me repeat. way would hunter's business associates want to get joe involved with a private equity deal in a foreign country like china which is a hostile regime toward us?oe were they selling the access? again, special treatment. are they compromised? remember hunter biden under a federal criminal probe as we speak involving international

money laundering, tax evasion. this is not going away. it's not a right wing smear. >> jason: joining us with reaction is the house minority whip steve scalise. a fox news contributor sarah carter and american conservative union chairman matt slapp. thank you for the three of you for joining us. whip scalise, start with you. you are in the house leadership. they are in the house of representatives. give us more insight, what kevin mccarthy was briefed on, what are the members hearing and talking about and why in the world would nancy pelosi put our nation at risk? there are 200-plus democrats they could have picked but they picked one sleeping with a chinese spy. >> you can't make this stuff up. you served in the house. you know how hard it is to get on the house intelligence committee. i and here is a guy who was compromised when he was a councilmember in california before elected to congress. targeted by the chinese. ended up having a relationship with a chinese spy but she infiltrated his office with

other chinese spies. then he gets on the intel committee in his second term. look, there are more questionsse than there are answers right now. speaker pelosi won't answer these direct questions. why is he still oni the committee? he needs to be removed from the committee. it makes you wonder. look. clearly the house democrats have a china problem. they have been soft on china on so many fronts. but we were about to put together a bipartisan commission to look in to the china activities a year ago. and speaker pelosi pulled the plug on it. we went forward anyway.. mccartney had mccall as the leader and he put out a blistering report listing all kind of problems china caused in the united states. it pegs the question why did pelosi pull back on the china commission and why keep swalwell on the committee? what is going on with china they have a blind eye toward c the espionage that infiltrated members of congress who will serve on the house intelligence committee?

>> jason: if you look at what is going on in northern california, the greater san francisco bay area. dianne feinstein had a spy embedded with s her organization for a long time. > for 20 years. >> jason: 20 years. why eric swalwell was on the committee in the first place is a question they need to continue to ask. we have to walk and chew gum atc the same time, sarah, because we have a biden family scandal going on. and the potential appointment of a special counsel. but to hear the media talk about it, oh, no, there is no need over here. why are we bothering with that? >> but the democrats, jason, didn't care. so for four years they drug the trump administration through every bit of the dirt they could. they took everybody that surrounded president trump and they targeted them with an unvalidated dossier that came from a british spy. that took information from russian spies. now we see the information on china. look, china and russia both. but particularly china plays a long game.va d the chinese intelligence

operations in the united states are vast. what we are seeing is just the tip of the iceberg. you brought up senator dianne feinstein. we see how they started a longyo time ago with the representative swalwell when he was in the city council. it makes me wonder how many more people are in china's pocket. remember, china can go after not just joe biden on the economic issues but they look at his son as a potential target to take biden as well, because they can shake down his son. we don't know what happened. we don't have enoughwe information there. there absolutely must be an investigation. this is potentially the most damaging thing that could happen to the united states. and kevin mccarthy is 100% right on this. there absolutely must be an investigation. because it goes far beyond hunter biden.

this is not just about him. this is about our country, and about his father and this is about to potential damaging impact that the chinese has inside the democratic party. >> jason: well, it also goes when we talk about the biden family, not only does it go to hunter biden but to joe biden's brother jim. you have to look over to ukraine and look to china. it just seems to be never ending. that is why i want to bring in matt. o matt, it's your birthday. birthday boy, i want to give you a chance to answer the questions. because what is going on between eric swalwell and the biden family, they are not off to a great start. >> well, jason, this is what happens in a republic when you don't have a free and honest media. the democrats get such a pass by 90% of the national media that they think they can get away with near everything. think about this. the intelligence committee and people like sara carter warned us. the purpose is to make sure that the nation is safe from foreign attacks. and those who want to destroy america. instead the democrats use the

intelligence committee to do everything they could to block president trump and to ultimately use that committee to impeach him. it became the ultimate d.n.c. committee. instead of for the central purpose. the democrats lost their credibility on this question of national security.. when they used our national security apparatus as cudgil against the enemies. biden didn't have to have any press conferences while he ran for president. a lot of things were not given scrutiny.ny you when they read the text and see the efforts to profit off of joe biden, it'ses problematic. if biden to be the path he starts with such a shadow over his presidency, because of the illicit voting in the last election.ro now you have a central question about is there corruption with the way and his son and his brother have organized this business venture. here is how you solve it politically. you know this, jason. get in front of the cameras

and answer all the questions. if they don't answer any of the questions, if they keep avoiding this, it makes people think that they don't have good answers. >> jason: well, only holding weekly press briefings. everybody then theyon just pick five or six reporters, hand picked the ones they want. i saw an article for the first time today where people actually started to complain. but the ones that will actually also really make a difference, steve scalise, is the special counsel. do you support a special counsel? how does the department of justice administer justice? something i haven't seen for a while by the way. how do they get that to happen? >> happy birthday to matt schlapp. there needs to be a special counsel. there are so many questions out there that need to be answered.

these are serious national security questions. swalwell has never been shy to get in front of a camera. the fact he is avoiding theac press tells you there is something serious going on there. why he is still on the intelligence committee boggles the bind. hunter biden more things continue to come out. you go back to the first presidential debate. president trump brought up this stuff. and joe biden denied there was anything going on with hunter biden in china or russia. now you see more things that there is actually an investigation going on. look, there are a lot of serious questions that are i being raised. that should have been answered by the way to matt's point if there was an aggressive press out there doing their job on both sides. they went off trump on things that turned out not to be true and impeached him on something that never happened. frankly, the things that they were accusing trump of they were doing themselves. the spy activity was the chinese spy infiltrating democrats. not russian spies infiltrating republicans.

>> jason: i am not a fan of the special counsel but i think this merits it given the broad scope of the biden family and where we are with the election. matt schlapp, happy birthday. sorry to get you riled t up to talk about biden with the birthday boy. happy birthday. >> happy birthday, matt! >> thanks. >> jason: congressman scalise, sara carter, thank you to all three of you. tonight it's obvious that the main stream media working hard to minimize the hunter biden criminal probe. but before the election, they wouldn't touch the story at all. "new yorkw theim times" back in february thought hunter biden's new career as an artist was a story. and congratulations are in order to hunter biden. as "vanity fair" is reporting that the federal investigation in to his taxes isn't stopping him from getting a solo art show at a press citious new york city gallery next year. joining us with more is miranda devine and tammy bruce. thank you for being here. tammy, i'm start withre you.

hunter biden had time for an interview with the "new york times" about his art career. he hasn't had time to answer senator johnson's questions and respond to a senate inquiry. and the "new york times" doesn't seem to have the space in its paper or online to do a single story about eric swalwell and what is going on. what is your take on this mess and the lack of the coverage from the "new york times"? and the other liberal media. >> thank you, jason. great to see you. matt had great points about the media. we are all seeing the degree of how it is affecting the national security. it's not just an irritant or we would rather havet certain different kind of story. courtesy of the internet, foxou news and the other elements in fair and balanced reporting we really now do know what is going on.to we are able to judge what it is we are not being told.

that has been the key throughout the years. this is what the media now apparently does well. w it's lying by omission. so, as opposed to entity in our republic that it is supposed to hold the powerful to account, they now have thrown their lot in. not with even all the powerful but with a particularly party with a particular agenda. now their mission is not informing us but manipulating us, in brainwashing us in some degree to move along a certain kind of message. rather boy mission, by not telling you about let's say that the chinese connection with hunter biden and the family or it's an elevating someone up to cast them to n a different light like a story about his art show. this moves in an abandonment of a job they have to do linked to the security of the country, to the legitimacy of the government. there is a point where it will

all collapse. because now that we know whatt is happened, they are going along, merry along as if nothing can stop them. there has to be a point where the conversation gets to be very serious because it's about the election interference. and national security, especially dealing with the foreign interference and the money going to politicians, thatn kind of dynamic. we have a huge, no matter who is in the white house forou tsee next four years, next eight years, 12, et cetera, we have a big job to do to deal with what the media has become. and how dangerous it is to our internal work. and to external work. >> jason: you know, miranda, i served eight and a half years in the united states congress. i think if i had to list out the three or the fourck biggest disappointments right near the top of the list would be theos lack of the intellectual

curiosity and the fairness with the media to report legitimate stories. and report them without a bias. that is so obvious at this point. miranda, you are with the "new york post." you were publishing some off the greatest, or the best work most in-depth investigative stuff before the election. only to have it suppressed. when you look now at december 18 and the issue, how do you see it? how do you explain it to people in nebraska, iowa, and louisiana? what is going on here? >> hi, jason. well, it's a very clear case of suppression by the media. it was actively first of all ignored. and then censored.ar the "new york post," we got the hunter biden laptop. we published our first stories oon october 14. which was three weeks before the election. ample time for there to be a proper forensic analysis of it all in the media. unfortunately the day we published, we had the other madia ignoring us -- media ignoring us and big tech censoring us. twitter actually closed down our accounts for two weeks. telling us we had broken their

hacked materials rule, when we had about at all. they admitted afterwards there was nothing about hacked material in what we did. but you saw this evolution of the media, first of all ignoring the story, pooh-poohing it and then, you had 50 former intelligence operatives; such as, john brennan and james clapper, notorious for the pushing of the russian collusion lie. they signed a better saying our story and the laptop from hunter biden that he so recklessly abandoned at a delaware mac repair shop was russian disinformation. they admitted they never s looked at the laptop and they hadn't any evidence to suggest it's russian disinformation but that is what they said. that was the story run by the "new york times," cnn and the de"washington post." and all the rest of the sort of establishment media that the rest of the media looks t

to, to set the narrative. it was only after the election when hunter biden thought it was safe enough to come out and issue a press release, curiously under the banner of his father's o biden-hastier transition team, admitting that hunter was under federal investigation for what he called, so-called tax issues. since then we have found that there are as many as four separate investigations in washington, and delaware. in to the various aspects of hunter biden's overseas business dealings including potential money laundering. this is a big issue. this is not just pushed away and talking about it as the tax issue. not just hunter biden. it's actually about joe biden. and joe biden's involvement in his family's influence peddling schemes, overseas whether it be ukraine, russia, kazakhstan or most importantly

for america's national security, china. what did joe biden know? and how intimately involved was he in that business? we see quite a bit. >> jason: yeah. it's, it is telling that hunter biden has something to say. and then it comes out from the campaign letterhead. i think that is just another clue of how in-depth and how wide this is. i do think it involves the entire family. as sean hannity said, it ain't going away. thank you so much for joining us tonight. up next, there is a war going on inside the democratic party. that they don't want you to know about. here is a hint. a.o.c. is not going to be happy. that should be good enough for you to stick around after this commercial break because charlie hurt and andy biggs be here next to discuss. ♪ the usual gifts are just not going to cut it.

we have to find something else. good luck! what does that mean? we are doomed. [ laughter ] that's it... i figured it out! we're going to give togetherness. that sounds dumb. we're going to take all those family moments and package them. hmm. [ laughing ] that works.

♪ >> welcome back to this "hannity" special. joe biden is having a rough start to his transition with some in his own party openly criticizing his decision. for example, many progressives have publicly complained about the numerous obama-era holdovers tapped to fill biden's cabinet. the lack of pushback from biden and his team has projected an image of weakness. don't take my word for it. with politico writing that, "biden has often seemed as if someone fixed a 'kick me' sign to the back of his suit jacket." progressive anger at joe biden is not the only fissure within the party. days after congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez supported calls for pelosi and schumer to give up their leadership roles, a democratic steering committee snubbed the outspoken congresswoman from new york by not appointing her to the energy and commerce

committee. which would oversee issues like the green new deal and medicare for all. alexandria ocasio-cortez also made waves backing biden deputy chief of staff jen o'malley dillon, obviously reaching her hand out across the aisle calling republicans a bunch of "f-ers." and a.o.c. doubled down sayingma yeah, that is the right word. joining with us the reaction is arizona congressman andy biggs and fox news contributor charlie hurt. gentlemen, thank you for joining us. congressman, i want to start with you. it really was amazing in the election.ss not a single republican running for re-election in the house of representatives lost. not a single one of them. yet pelosi said there would be more than a dozen, you know, victories.ti that never materialized. creating one of the closest splits in the house of representatives we ever had. you have a fissure with alexandria ocasio-cortez. evidently a weak joe biden. not able to come in. what is going on over there if house of representatives?

not that i miss it. but what is going on? >> good to see you, jason. i will tell you, you are not missing much. what you are missing is a front row seat to the remaking of the democrat party. this is alexandria ocasio-cortez and the squad. they don't want to just remake the party they belong to. they want to remake america, destroy the america we know. and replace it with a marxian economy and government. they always wanted to use joe biden as trojan horse to manipulate him in to that. the problem with that, they have picked fight with virtually every other democrat. like henry cuellar, old line democrats. running people against them. while doing that, they have made themselves outcasts within that caucus, itself, while using social media to try to influence the rest of america.a.en so you've got this hard leftist, like a.o.c. trying to take over the party. and remake the country and the party. those that don't want that are clinging h to it. you know, pelosi is going to, it looks like she will try to

isolate a.o.c. and the squad this time. let's see how it goes. i'm interested to see how it develops. >> jason: yeah. i think this is intertwined with what is going on with joe biden. ocharlie, you know, donald trump was a leader. you could call him a lot of things. the guy was a leader. he was taking charge and saying hey, we are going to go over and take that mountain right there. i understand that biden and obama were leading from behind ng but i can't imagine donald trump taking a story that sayso he wears a jacket that says, "kick me" on the back. likeke they are writing about biden. there couldn't a weaker image than that. >> no doubt. we are seeing the effects ofp that. president trump remade, i arguen not only remade the republican party and in a lot of ways we will see he remade the democratic party as well. one of his most effective tools has always been to put his enemy, to put his opponents in untenable

positions. that is what the democrats have done. i don't blame anybody. for people like a.o.c., no one is to blame more than people like nancy pelosi and joe biden. they are the ones who refuse to stand up to these people before. then, of course, joe biden didn't have the decency to actually run a campaign. wdidn't have the decency to ask people for their vote on policy positions or campaign where he laid out his vision. his only vision was donald trump, i'm a nice person. or something like that. the problem with that is now there is this huge vacuum. it's an issue vacuum.al mandate vacuum. where joe biden has no mandate and everybody in the democratic party, it's like a feeding frenzy among sharks where everybody is running in trying to fill the void with the crazy agenda. the problem with that is that

the agenda that the people are are insane. whether it's taxing guns, taking people's guns away, raising taxes, getting back to bed with iran. or giving the rest of the store away to china. whatever it is they want to do. they are trying to foist all of this on to joe biden. and while part of me says this is going to be a lot of down sit back and watch. the people will tear each other to pieces. the problem is that america is in the balance. and this country could go down the drain based on what a lot of the people are trying to espouse. >> jason: yeah. this is the problem, the challenge. real quickly, congressman biggs, i have to ask you with the margin so tight and so close, can nancy pelosi run the gauntlet and actually garner 218 votes to be the speaker of the house? >> it will be really close. it looks like she is trying to isolate the a.o.c.s of the world. that makes it very, very close. i don't think her margin will

be more than what? 7, 8, maybe max 10? tight. she can't lose more than five votes in the scenario. >> what she is doing with the congress races in iowa and new york is a travesty. more on that later. thank you for joining us. coming up next, the democrats' far left agenda on full display across the country. including in the upcoming georgia senate runoff. we have the latest examples and get reaction from larry elder and our favorite leo terrell. stay with us. ♪ - hello, michael youssef here,

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or "i need friends," for fear that people might think less of them. but god said that he is the friend who sticks to you closer than a brother. you can trust him. he will be by your side through all the challenges of your life. i know it experientially. he's waiting for you to come to him, will you come to him? - [narrator] do you feel alone, isolated, forsaken? you can find hope and peace today. visit findingtruepeace.com to find out more, that's findingtruepeace. ♪ >> jason: now radical far left lawlessness is on full display in los angeles tonight. soros backed district attorney

george gaskon unveil ald series of new special directives. like ending cash bail. along with no longer prosecuting trespassing. misdemeanor drug possession, disturbing the peace and resisting arrest. but guess what? this is not just far left los angeles where the extreme ideas are gaining momentum with democrats.. for example, in austin, texas, the u.s. attorney is blaming police defunding for spike in violent crimes. homicides there are up 54% just this year. more troubling is the far left extremism is steps away from taking power in the united states senate. if the republicans don't turn out in the georgia senate runoffs. because georgia senate candidate raphael warnock has also embraced some of the dangerousat ideas. he is making it clear that he is ready, willing and able to carry out this destructive

democratic agenda if given the opportunity. just listen to warnock in his own words. take a look. >> america, nobody can serve god and the military. you can't serve god andnd money. you cannot serve god at the same time. >> no matter what happens next month, more than a third of the nation that would go along with this is reason to be afraid. america needs to repent for its worship of whiteness. on full display. and to set the captors free and preach the year of the lord's freedom. in other words i came to dismantle the value system of the empire. but here is the p problem. the religious folk who should be fighting with me against the empire are in cahoots with the empire. it's religious folks trying to steal money from the poor and

give it to the rich through this terrible tax bill.ey there is some jacked up theology coming from american pulpits. >> jason: so let me be clear. these senate races in georgia are critical. critical to preserving president trump's progress and his agenda. critical to making sure thatnd these far left fantasies don't become f reality. like ending the filibuster. packing the supreme court. defunding the police. pushing open borders. raising your taxes. adding washington, d.c. as a state.it so much more. it's all on the ballot in georgia in just over two weeks. joining me now forg reaction, civil rights attorney leo terrell with salem radio host larry elder. larry, i want to start with you, because i think both of

you are in california. i mean m california government is nuttyor enough. but what the, what is going on here in los angeles with this district attorney, it's spreading out. it's going out more than just crazy los angeles. >> well, it's scary, jason. many my first office with law was d.a.'s office, i was a certified law clerk for them the second summer. the d.a. are in open rebellion against the radical left wing guy.y. i want to remind people that george soros spent $2.5 billion to get this man elected and he displaced the incumbent who was a black female who ran last time unopposed. that is how strong she was. i thought the left was concerned about the gender and racial diversity but they have no problem getting rid of a black female d.a. a in california this is a single party state, jason. the democrats not only have a majority, they have super majorities in the senate and in the assembly. so it doesn't even matter how left wing the law is, if the governor were to repeal it, they have enough votes to

override his repeal. so it doesn't matter. we have illegal aliens who can wive legally in the state. illegal aliens who can get in-state tuition and understood funded liability of trillion dollars and highest marginal state income tax rate in country at 13.3%. they want to raise the taxes more. this is what the country can look forward to if we lose both races in georgia. >> jason: now leo, you live in california. you know what is going on in los angeles. you understand the democrats. is this a warning to the people in georgia? what should they be on the lookout for? they are trying to export the craziness out of california. >> that is the why i am going to georgiaing on wednesday. we have l.a. county. georgia has the same population. 10 million people. in l.a. county, they are allowing cop killers out of jail.as they are not handling any type

of gang activity.. one thing about george gaskon he was up front and honest about what he was going to do. he is a friend to criminal. raphael warnock lying about his record. you did an excellent job to show the video. he is in bed with george soros. he is in bed with bernie sanders and trying to run as a moderate. warnock will turn georgia in to l.a. county. that is why kelly loeffler and david perdue are necessary. not only to protect georgia from the disaster in l.a. county as you correctly stated, this is to protect the trump legacy. i want to spend all day in georgia telling people you don't want what we have in l.a. county.t it's a disaster. the criminals are in charge in l.a. >> jason: yeah, i can't even believe it. they are not going to prosecute people for resisting arrest. >> yes. >> jason: go ahead and beat up your local cop.

beat up your local police officer. that is just fine. we will neverr p prosecute you. i don't know how the men and women who serve on law enforcement deal with that type of s atmosphere. nevertheless, larry, i want to ask you about something. i was reading it today aboutf mayor bill de blasio. i mean, second maybe only to los angeles. toggles back and forth. new york is always trying to be the worst mayor in the country. he was saying that his budget submission will be contingent upon what happens in georgia. because he is counting on chuck schumer to be the majority leader and becameout new york and new york city. >> well, he should get in line. a whole bunch of the democrats are anticipating and hoping that democrats win in georgia for that very same reason.at you don't think the governor of california is praying that the democrats win? because he wants more money from washington, d.c. and he knows that if the senate is in control of the democrats, and the house, and biden is president, the money t will flow. that is what they are counting on.si

>> can i just add -- >> jason: go ahead. >> one other point. it's simple. bill de blasio who is the worst mayor in the country is now looking toward georgia in order to salvage his budget. why should people in georgia throughout this country basically subsidize democratic mayors, democratic governors who allow the cities to burn all summer long? it's ridiculous. we cannot lose georgia to the democrats. one final point, happy birthday matt schlapp. [laughter] >> jason: yeah. thank you for that. real quickly, we have less than a minute here. i want to askic you really quickly. when you defund the police, doesn't it hurt the little person more than anybody else? here are people that can't provide their own security more than it does anybody. >> well -- >> crime in l.a. -- >> jason: larry, go first. >> i was going to say, murders are up in l.a. robberies are up in l.a. the mayor just now decided to

take a big chunk of the budget of the police and spend it for youth programs. iof mean honestly. this is just an insane place. this is chinatown. >> no civilized society is without protecting its people. what hurts, if you defund the police you hurt people of color more than you hurt anyone else. people who have money can have their own private security. it's a disaster. it should never happen in this country. >> jason: i tell you the people in georgia better be fired up and better show up and vote, because it matters. it matters to all of us. it matters to georgians and to people across the country. leo and larry, thank you very much. coming up, there continues to be backlash against harsh covid restrictions put in place for small businesses. we will hear from a restaurant owner who slammed new york governor andrew cuomo's indoor dining ban. you want to see it. it's up next.

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♪ >> jason: welcome back to this special edition of "hannity." officials continue facing backlash from small business owners as they impose more draconian coronavirus restrictions.. last night, dirty jobs host mike rowe joined "hannity" to discuss the new measures. take a look. >> it's been a slow burn for me to be honest. but i have come to the point where candace mentioned irredeemable and deplorable. no word for 40 million peoplece in this country. "nonessential." it's crazy. we have deemed a giant hunk of our people essentially one click away from unimportant or worthless. what happens to an economy when you call men like those nonessential people?

>> jason: meanwhile, in california, there are reports of growing democratic support for a recall of california governor gavin newsom. a group seeking to oust newsom already has over 800,000 signatures. over halfway to the 1.5 million they need by mid-march to get the recall effort on the ballot. on the other coast in new york, in response to governor cuomo closing indoor dining, one new york city restaurant owner rocco sacramone dined outdoors in a snowstorm. watch this. >> so as you can see we are having an outdoor dinner. only four of us. hopefully we're not breaking the rules. pizza on the plate looks nice. we have a piece of mozzarella. guys, mozzarella on the snow plate here. .this is how we'll do our outdoor diner or outdoor lunch in new york city from today

on. >> jason: joining us now with more is the new york city restaurant owner you just saw. rocco, i hope i'm pronouncing your name right. fox news contributor emily compano. i know i pronounced her name right. rocco, thank you for joining us. explain to people at home what you are going through in your restaurant.ri >> thank you very having me on, jason. it's really tough times now for any restaurant in the city. the motive of the video is not to mock anyone. but just to show how it's almost impossible to have dinner outside in new york city in the month of december in the middle of a snowstorm. or rather when theew temperatures are in the 20s and 30s. tents do not work. heaters do not work. none of this works. it's impossible to make a patron to give them a full

satisfaction, the full experience of a dining experience at the restaurant. >> jason: so, rocco, if you had an opportunity to talk to governor cuomo or mayor bill de blasio for that matter what fwould you tell them? >> well, we follow the science. i totally agree. i'm not a doctor. i'm not a scientist. but before we make any decisions to shut something down, let's not just shut down because we want to shut down. let's think about it first. this is the month of december. okay? we have christmas is here. my restaurant went from 35 to 40 employees. we went to four or five maybe. so let's just, not to horary up but to justo do it because we need to shut down. >> jason: emily, rocco makes a good point. there isn't science back that i'm aware of that supports this idea.

how do you think the courts will look at this? your background is in the law. >> well, we have seen one case that thus far where a judge did rule in the california restaurant association favor said you are right. the science hasn't differentiated between the indoor and outdoor dining and the transmission thus far. but after that, the governor issued another edict banning outdoor and indoor dining. and then that is what we heard a lot of the headlines about the strip club ruling. a couple of hours ago the ruling that enabled the strip clubs to remain open and apply to all of san diego county restaurants, now that was overturned at the appellate level. keep in mind, too, to rocco's points a lot of the restaurant owners with the ruling said we don't want to open because we can't put resources in to t it if we know we might get shut down really soon afterwards. so it's not that the green light has any type of dependability whatsoever. because they are used to the fact that it's green light, red light, throughout the whole thing with no science to back it act up.

there is no way of predictability with this at all. let alone bringing employees back. >> jason: so what are you going to do? what do you tell the employees you tell people who love going to your restaurant? >> i mean, i feel really bad for my employees. we have people that have been working at the restaurant for ten years, 15 years, 20 years. how do you let someone go after all this time? you know? they impose so many rules and regulations on us, right? we had a filtration system that supposedly, it's supposedly clearing the air. but then we do all this work then we get shut down again. so i ale give you an example what happened today. today we have no internet, no phone lines, nothing. how are we going to deliver today for example? there is no solution to this problem. we just keep on dragging it and dragging it and dragging it. >> jason: emily -- rocco,

your food looks great. i wish you the best. emily, i have about 15 seconds here. >>es thank you. >> jason: can these people like rocco prevail in the courts? >> i hope so. as an attorney and just as an american my heart goes out to you. your food looks delicious. i hope that we will see --ea >> jason: thank you. >> -- some comfort for all of you. >> jason: i have to tell you. rocco, you represent a lot of people from coast to coast. business is hard enough. it's enough to be in an employee and rely on thest tips and those things. butd god bless you. you make a good product. odit's essential. thankct you so much. good luck to you. all right. more of this "hannity" special after the break. ♪

welcome back to this special edition of "hannity." if you want t >> welcome back to the special edition of "hannity," if you want to dive in deeper, i recommend my book. i wrote one called "the

deep state." i hope you enjoy it and find both of my folks and my photography portfolio on my web page. thanks for joining us tonight on the special edition of "hannity" and have a great weekend. if "the ingraham angle" is up next. ♪ >> laura: hey, everybody. i'm laura ingraham. this is a special edition of "the ingraham angle." this is my last for the year. so let's get right to it. trump's triumphs. that is focus of tonight's angle. as i close out this year, i thought it was super important to reiterate how fortunate we were to have had a president like trump for four years. no such forget the savagery of his critics, the rank media bias and, of course, the controversy surrounding the 2020 election mail-in ballots.ai set that aside for a moment. just focus on what president trump against incredible strong head winds did for our