>> open this? oh, my god, a spider in here. >> tucker: only 15 seconds left, show us the spider really quick, horrify us one last time. >> okay, so these things of a 3-inch diameter -- gosh, how do you get this thing out of your? >> tucker: i've got to get to sean hannity and three seconds, but that spider is horrifying. i hope you kill it. gentlemen, thank you. we will be back tomorrow. sean is now. >> sean: [laughs] give the spider all the time the spider wants, that is funny. trying to get it out, i want to see the spider. all right, tucker, thank you, great show. welcome to "hannity," and we begin tonight with a fox news alert, and just moments, the 45th president of the united states, donald j. trump, he will join us live for an exclusive interview. we will obviously talk about russia's invasion of ukraine, vladimir putin, joe biden, kamala harris, she was a disaster, by the way, and so much more, but first, breaking just moments ago, convicted hate crime hoax or jussie

smollett is now in a chicago jail after a judge, wow, gave a blistering beat down and sentenced him to yet only 150 days behind bars. take a look at this. >> comedians. mainstream talk show hosts. make jokes about us. they do sketches about you. i can't imagine anything worse than that. this is self-inflicted, these are things you did to yourself. this is self damage. >> sean: now, things got wild from there. needless to say, jussie smollett was not pleased. he caused a huge scene in the courtroom. we've got the tape. we are going to play him screaming again and again "i'm not suicidal," but tonight, back to our top story and we begin with is important warning from president trump. less than two years ago, he predicted, accurately, that joe biden's economic policies would "unleash an economic disaster of epic proportions." well, here we are. record high gas prices, meaning

the highest ever. anemic growth. historic levels of inflation, at a 40 year high. october, inflation was 6%. when joe became president, by the way, he inherited 1.4%. anyway, in november, it was even higher. in december, even higher at 7%. for the first time in decades. in january, a 40 year high, 7.5%. now the february numbers came out just today, and now we are at a whopping 7.9%. and it actually would be a lot worse if you calculate inflation like the federal government did under jimmy carter, before 1980, well, if you're calculated using the old method, it would be over 16%. either way, all of this inflation was reported well before vladimir putin's invasion of ukraine, before february 24th. but according to joe biden and jen psaki, they now have -- one thing they can blame on

everything. , vladimir putin, it is all vladimir putin's fault. today's inflation report, vladimir putin. this report today is a reminder that americans budgets are being stretched by price increases, and families are starting to feel the real impact of putin's price hike. today, psaki doubled down on biden's big lie and added an additional culprit, greedy oil companies. let's blame them. take a look. >> you may have noticed this week that your gas prices have gone up. i want to talk to you a little bit about why. and a lot of it has to do with vladimir putin. ♪ ♪ but part of this is on the oil company. right now, there are 9,000 approved unused permits that oil and gas companies could tap into now to ramp up production. the only way to protect the united states over the long-term is to become energy independent. that is why the president has been so focused on investing in clean energy technologies, so that we can rely on that and not

president putin to set the price of gas. >> sean: obviously, jen psaki is now auditioning for fake news cnn or msdnc, fit in perfectly, she keep telling lies like that. you need to stop lying. this idea that putin because last year's oil and gas spike is a lie. they need to stop lying that putin caused joe's 40 year high in inflation. we had that 40 year high before ukraine was invaded by russia. the most recent numbers from last month, russia invaded ukraine february 24th. as former obama advisor steven rattner points out, "these are february's numbers, and only a small russia effect, four days worth." this is biden's inflation come he needs to own it, but it is never going to happen. the new green deal socialist, his own party's climate alarmist cult, as i call it, they want more spending, they want zero domestic production of fossil fuels. they own joe biden, they own

jen psaki, the propagandist, they own kamala harris, the embarrassment, and joey campaign on all of these insane policies. you might remember he told you he would do every bit of this. >> if we don't stop using fossil fuels -- >> we are all dead. subsidies for fossil fuels. number one. number two, holding them reliable for what they have done, particularly in those cases where your underserved neighborhoods and you know the deal, okay? and by the way, when they don't come up with them in jail. i want you to just take a look, okay? you don't have to agree, but look in my eyes. i guarantee you, i guarantee you, we are going to end fossil fuel, and i am not going to cooperate, okay? >> would there be any place for fossil fuels, including coal and fracking, in a biden administration? >> no, we would work it out. we would make sure, eliminate

it. >> sean: all right, this has always been their goal. this is their policy. that was their promise. their promise is now being fulfilled. they know their energy restrictions and rampant spending or causing gas prices to spike. they know it is causing a 40 year high of inflation. may know that the average american family is hurting because of these policies, but they don't care. they care more about the radical new green deal socialist agenda. now listen to this clip from biden's energy secretary, she made these comments in november, as gas prices were arriving arising then. take a look. >> what is the grand old plan to increase oil production in america? >> [laughs] that is hilarious. would that i had the magic wand on this. as you know, of course, oil is a global market. it is controlled by a cartel, a cartel is called opec, and they made the decision yesterday

they were not going to increase beyond what they were already planning. >> sean: that was in november, at the time, gas prices were rising dramatically. jennifer granholm thinks it's funny, did not care, did nothing to increase domestic production because that was against their stated policy. look at this neutra faldo poll by our friend robert cahaly with russian oil band from our country, a vast majority of americans, nearly 80%, they want this country to increase our own oil and energy production, but again, the biden administration does not care, they are full of excuses and thn people are left holding the bag. you are paying more at the gas pump, paying more to heat and cool your home, paying more for every product you buy at every store that you go to. and that's okay with them. they care more about their new green deal socialist friends that obviously have more influence in the american people. so let's face it. they are not up to the job, economically, and this is hurting our national security, on top of everything else,

because now they are willing to go, what, bag medura in venezuela and go to the iranian mullahs and import oil from iran and beg opec that keeps rejecting joe biden every time you ask him to increase production? everyone knows joe biden is weak, he is a cognitive mess, and they know they can do pretty much anything they want. joe is either unwilling or unable to travel abroad so he always sends kamala harris in his place, and it just never goes well. she's obviously in way, way way over her head. for example, this week, the vice president in poland earlier today, she does not really seem to have any grasp on much of anything. pretty humiliating for the country. take a look. you decide. >> i am here, standing here on the northern flank, on the eastern flank, talking about what we have in terms -- the

eastern flank and our nato allies. i want to be very clear. the united states and poland are united in what we have done and are prepared to do to help ukraine and the people of ukraine. full stop. we all watched. the television coverage just yesterday. that's on top of everything else that we know and don't know yet, based on what we have just been able to see, and because we have seen it or not doesn't mean it hasn't happened. but just limit it to what we have seen. >> sean: following those remarks, trump's acting dni, ric grenell, tweeted "oh, dear god, this is a total disaster. she is not prepared. she isn't grasping issues and solutions, and she rambles." " i blame the sacramento vdf were never accurately vetting her. believe it or not, actually got worse.

the vice president, that means vice president harris, responded to a very serious question about refugees with one of her world famous laughing fits. that's right, the vice president giggling before the world when asked about what do we do with war refugees. watch yourself. >> is the united states willing to make a specific allocation for ukrainian refugees? and for president duda, i wanted to know if you think and if you asked the united states to specifically accept more refugees. >> okay. [laughter] a friend in need is a friend indeed. [laughter] >> okay, so -- >> sean: the war in ukraine, let's see, they are bombing maternity hospitals, they are leveling entire neighborhoods, we have mass graves with 70 people in it, the humanitarian crisis in eastern europe is very

serious. what are we going to do with the refugees? the stakes couldn't be higher, and europe is on the edge of a potential world war that's got to be avoided, and kamala is ducking it up, laughing it up, giggling, without answering a basic question. she never gave an honest answer to that question. americans here at home, abroad, everybody, the world deserves better. trey yingst has been in the middle of this war zone for weeks, bravely reporting on the horrors of this war. he joins us now with more. he is in the capital of ukraine, kyiv, tonight. i hope it is a little more quiet than other nights. what's going on, trey? >> yeah, sean, the ukrainian capital of kyiv is bracing for a russian advance on the city. over the past 24 hours, we've heard explosions in the distance. antiaircraft batteries trying to shoot russian planes out of the sky and air raid siren sounding even as recently as last hour. we know today the mayor of kyiv

says a town, half the city's residents have fled since the war began. getting close to the center of the population center of nearly 3 million people. staying in the city's ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy, who spoke today directly to russian soldiers who invaded his country. >> interpreter: if you just go home, do not believe your commanders who say you still have a chance in ukraine. nothing but prison and death awaits you here. you're taking our lives, and we will pay with yours. >> we have a sad update about that russian strike yesterday against a maternity hospital in the southern city of mariupol. officials say three people were killed there including one child, at least 17 others were wounded in the attack. the ukrainian president has called this attacking war crime and you can see from this video there is indeed evidence of a civilian area with women and children targeted in this russian strike. the deputy mayor of mariupol

detailed other disturbing actions by russians in the city since the invasion began saying more than 1200 people have been killed with dozens buried in mass graves. there is no time to bury the dead, lifeless bodies simply thrown into the ground, a gut wrenching reminder of the brutality being inflicted on the civilian population here. sean, the ukrainian people today don't need unity. they need antitank missiles. they did antiaircraft batteries, they are looking for any sort of air support they can get to push back this russian offensive. sean? >> sean: the vice president today -- after a judge prorated for quite a long. lack of time, jussie smollett, and only sentenced him to 150 days behind bars, 30 months probation ordered him to pay over $120,000 of restitution's and fines, take a look.

>> you embarrassed your valuable friends in high places, elected officials, people in the media, you embarrassed them. we have to live with that vehicle i don't know if those relationships can be prepared. you become toxic in your own workplace. your career future is uncertain at really best and it was really on a rocket ship to success and now you have turned yourself into riches to rags, and it is so unfortunate. your very name has become an adverb for lying, and i cannot imagine what could be worse than that. people talk about situations where somebody is lying and trying to manipulate, and maneuver a story, and your name comes up. pulling a jussie, something like that. that is awful. you are the butt of jokes. comedians. mainstream talk show hoax hosts. they make jokes about you. they do sketches about you. i can't imagine anything worse than that. this is all self-inflicted. these are things you did to yourself. this is self damage.

do you have any questions? >> i would just like to say that i am not suicidal. that is what i would like to say. >> okay. >> i am not suicidal. >> okay. >> i am not suicidal. i am innocent, and i am not suicidal. if i did it, then that means i -- the fear of black americans in this country for over 400 years and the fear of the lgbtq community in this country. your honor, i respect you, but i did not do this, and i am not suicidal, and if anything happens to me, when i go in there, i did not do it to myself, and you must all know that. i respect you, your honor. i respect your decision. jail time. i am not suicidal. i am not suicidal! i am not suicidal! and i am innocent. i could have said that i was guilty a long time ago.

>> sean: well come he is not suicidal, nor is he contrite, nor willing to admit to what he did. he is not the only person that looks pretty dumb tonight, in what was a typical rush to judgment, in 2019, joe biden tweeted "what happened to jussie smollett must never be tolerated in our count country. homophobia, racism have no place in our streets or in our hearts. we are with you, jussie." that is called rush to judgment. anyway, joe, did you really believe the b list after jussie smollett was recognized and attacked by two maga-hat-wearing trump supporters while on their way to get a subway sandwich in the middle of a freeze in chicago night? here with more, the very latest come out on gregg jarrett. gregg, your take? >> [laughs] well, we knew jussie smollett is an actor and this evening when he was sentenced, he proved he is a bad actor. saying "i'm not suicidal and if something happens to me behind bars, i didn't do it to myself,

i'm not suicidal," an obvious reference to jeffrey epstein, who was found hung in his cell. it was melodrama. i think he is angling for a made-for-tv series that nobody will watch. but the judge, as you point out, really ripped into him. in addition to what you just showed, the judge said, you are profoundly arrogant, selfish, narcissistic, a guy who craved attention and wanted to make yourself more famous. you through a national pity party for yourself. you are a charlatan pretending to be a victim of a hate crime, and that is shameful. the judge continued to lambaste him for doing enormous damage to the city of chicago, ginning up racism with a city that was already on edge and doing damage to real victims of hate crimes, who will now fear coming forward because they won't be believed because of you. sean? >> sean: gregg jarrett, thanks

for that analysis. we will have more tomorrow. president trump is only a mere few minutes away. first, back to our top story tonight and vice president kamala harris embarrassing this country on the world stage yet again. here with reaction to that, former hawaii congresswoman tulsi gabbard. tulsi, if you degrade the vice president, what will you greet her? >> is there anything worse than f? on the grading scale? this would be humorous if it weren't so dangerous. we have this person is just a heartbeat away from the presidency. we look back, we know she was anointed by the mainstream media, she was appointed by the clinton machine for two very simple reasons. number one is identity politics. she had the right skin color and the right gender. and number two, she had proven herself to be loyal to the power elite in washington, the warmongers, the clinton machine, and as a result, we are seeing, now they send her to poland, revealing the fact they are not

actually serious about solving this tragedy, this problem, we have seen how they are not serious about solving illegal immigration at our border because they put her in charge of solving that problem. this proves it is all about politics. the kamala harris show, getting her out there, giving her the opportunity to get some photo ops with our troops, with refugees, things that can bolster her eventual run for the presidency, which is so sad because really, this shows that the suffering of the ukrainian people really are just -- they are actors in the kamala harris show, and this is why we are facing the problems we are facing, that it is all about them. they don't care about the people. if they did, they would be taking action to address this skyrocketing inflation that started before the russian assault on ukraine. they would be taking action to address the fact that the american people are struggling to figure out, how do i pay for

filling up a gas tank as well as growth groceries or things for my kids? they would be addressing the real problems the american people are facing, but instead they are driven by their own political interests, their own political ambition, how they look in the media, and how they can get themselves ahead. this is the most heartbreaking thing about what we are seeing play out before us. >> sean: you know, i think you are displaying the emotion that many americans feel. it is heartbreaking to see america on the world stage represented by the president and vice president this way. i think may be in retrospect if we went back to the primary, people would look at you a lot differently, knowing what we know now. tulsi gabbard, thank you. we have former president donald trump joining us in a minute. first, we are joined by texas senator ted cruz. senator, good to see you. i see you joined the freedom convoy for a little while, and he rode shotgun, and i'm thinking how all of this relates to where we are in ukraine, what

to do with ukraine, and more importantly, this reluctance, mysterious reluctance and resistance democrats have, their adherence to new green deal radical socialism, and they would rather kiss the ass of the head of venezuela, maduro, the mullahs in iran, and begged opec, when we have enough energy in this country that would supply our own needs or at least 100 years, maybe 200. >> well, sean, let me start with just a word of encouragement. as you noted, i spent the day with the people's convoy. i went and joined them this morning, spoke with them, then joined the convoy, joined the lead rig, circling the beltway around washington, d.c., and then the lead rig, we broke off from the convoy and head straight to the capitol in washington, d.c., and i have to tell you, it was inspirational, seeing truckers from all over the country, they started in california, they came all across the country, their numbers grew

and grew and grew so that you had thousands of truckers, thousands of rvs and cars and people supporting them, standing up for freedom, standing up against these illegal and unconstitutional vaccine mandates, and the thing that was so powerful is as we would drive along, lining the streets, there would be people with signs, people with american flags waving. sean, just about every overpass that we went under, there were people lined up there, waving flags, saying thank you, giving you the thumbs up, and i do think the disaster that is washington, biden and schumer and pelosi, the abuse we are seeing from washington, the one good thing is it is waking people up. a lot of these truckers hadn't been political until suddenly these petty tyrants decided to say either you take this vaccine or you are fired, and they stood up and said that's not right. it's your choice. if you want to take the vaccine, i've taken the vaccine, if you want to take the vaccine, great, that is your choice.

but if you choose not to, that is your choice, also. and these politicians that want to fire truckers and cops and firefighters and soldiers and sailors and airmen and marines, teachers and doctors and nurses, it is wrong, and i've got to tell you, it was an inspirational day being with men and women, fighting for you and fighting for me. >> sean: i was listening to you saying i'm not a doctor, why are you asking me? i've been saying that the entire time. people telling me what i should tell people to do. take it seriously, consult your own doctor, make your own decision, read, get informed. last question. we are now begging venezuela, the iranian mullahs, and we are now begging opec to increase duction, and under no circumstances will joe biden consider domestic energy production, which would be great for states like yours in texas, grateful oklahoma, natural gas, ohio, west virginia, pennsylvania, alaska, anwr, a lot of energy,

we don't need their imports. we were energy independent under donald trump. >> yep. look, it is insane, and it's dishonest. so the white house talking point that you are going to hear from every democrat in the country, you are going to hear from the corporate media, is the increase in gas prices is all putin's fault, and it is just a flat out lie. listen, gas prices had increased nearly 50% under joe biden before putin invaded ukraine. the increased because as you played at the top of the show, putin declared war on u.s. energy production, he shut down keystone pipeline, he shut down leases on federal land, he shut down anwr, and when you reduce supply, reduce u.s. production, price goes up, and the bizarre thing now is the white house realizes they have a political problem, people don't like 8% inflation rates. people don't like gasoline rising over 50%, so what biden

is doing now is trying to go to enemies of america, trying to go to iran, trying to go to venezuela, and say, you guys, we are going to give you billions of dollars. the ayatollah in iran literally can'ts "death to america, death to israel," and biden would rather give him billions to use to murder americans thano unleash american energy. we were energy independent under president trump. we can be again, but joe biden did that and if we want to beat biden, the rhetorical things we need to do. number one, provide the ukrainians with offensive military equipment, not put u.s. soldiers in harm's way, but give them the tools, including the fighter jets, to beat the russians, and number two, use energy. use energy and cut off the russian oil and gas, get the europeans to sign contracts with american producers. it produces jobs, and it starves putin of the revenue he is using to wage war in europe. >> sean: all right,

senator ted cruz, we always appreciate you joining us, thank you. joining us now live on the flown, 45th president of the united states, donald j. trump. by the way, i noticed you got canceled again today, you may not know it yet, but you were on the podcast for an hour, you made the number one on all of you to podcast, you reached nearly 6 million views, and immediately, youtube removed the video. i guess if your name is donald trump you get canceled, if you're an ayatollah in iran and you threaten to wipe israel off the map, you don't get canceled. maybe you can explain that to me. >> well, i was asked to do that by a tremendous guy named dana white, you know dana white of ufc, great to be with him, and they are hot as a pistol and they have like i guess the top show or something, so i did it, and we had a lot of fun. it was a half hour or so. it became very much a sensation,

i guess they had 6 million hits in a very short period of time, the number one they have ever done. i told them, i said don't worry, it will be taken down because i'm doing it, it will be taken down. we talked about very good things. we talked a lot about policy, good policies, including energy independence and all of that. and i just heard a little while ago, they got taken down. this is not a free press. big tech is a disaster and our country is a much different place. what they are doing is really terrible. this is what they do in russia. if you look at russia, russia doesn't know, the people in russia don't even know they are fighting a war with ukraine because they have no press. but we don't have a press, either. we don't have a press, either, when they can do that. we had a very good conversation. four young guys, great people, you know, hot show, dana white only knows about hot, and this was the best show they have done i guess in terms of views and they actually took it down and really what it is, sean, they

have taken away the voice of the people, and i don't think that people will stand for it any longer. this is what is happening. this is what happens in other countries, not supposed to happen in this country. >> sean: let me ask you, mr. president, you see what is going on with vladimir putin. he invaded a sovereign country. you see that a maternity hospital was hit yesterday. you see entire neighborhoods have been leveled. we showed some images, a mass grave of about 70 people. we have seen dead bodies of men, women, and children in the streets of ukraine. your reaction to what you are seeing? >> well, my reaction is it is so sad because this would have never happened. if we have a trump administration, there was no chance that this would happen, and i know him well, and this was not something that was going to happen at all, and next you will see, i mean, let's see what happens, let's just watch, but when this horrible, horrible

situation happened in afghanistan, the -- it's not even believable how incompetent it was, the way they withdrew or surrendered or whatever you want to call it, bad things started happening for our country. the border is bad. a lot of things are bad. inflation is bad. but the way they got out of afghanistan, looked like a complete surrender, and i will tell you, putin was watching and president xi was watching, the leaders in iran were watching, kim jong un was watching, north korea, they were all watching, sean, and i will tell you, bad things started to happen. they no longer respect our country, and that is how this came about. it would have never ever happened, and he understood that. we talked about it. >> sean: let me ask you something. under the biden-obama administration in 2014, they annexed crimea. nothing happened when you were president. and now, this just happened with

ukraine once again, and now they are invading the whole damn country and innocent men, women, and children are getting killed. let me ask you, you say under your administration, this never would have happened. why do you say that with such confidence? >> well, before i answer that, i will tell you, under the bush administration, it was georgia. napo georgia that we know and love, but georgia nevertheless. it was georgia. so it happened, but nothing happened during our administration. that includes with taiwan. now they are flying farmers right over the middle of taiwan. that didn't take place. nobody discussed it. i also had a conversation with president xi of china, but i had a very strong conversation with president putin, and he understood, and i won't go into the great details of the conversation, because nobody has to know that, but i will tell you, it never ever would have happened. if we were -- if i was president, if we have the trump administration in there like we

had tremendous years, tremendous success, economy, energy independence, all of the things, largest tax cuts in the history of our country which helped bring about the greatest economy we have ever had, this would have never ever happened, so when i look at it and i look at the horrible things taking place, you wouldn't even believe what is taking place. to have everything on video, because people have cell phones today, so you see all of this, you see most of it in one form or another on video. it's a horrible thing to watch. it would have never happened and it never should have happened. i just watched, on your show, i just watch the vice president laughing about the immigration, this horrible situation with the immigration, and i just watch the laugh, and it was almost like the laugh of a madwoman. to be laughing about that. it's a sad situation. we have people in there that are grossly incompetent, and you know it. and so does everybody else.

and by the way, so do the democrats know it. >> sean: i'm going to get back to the issue of why putin would not do it if you were president. you came under some fire when you said vladimir putin is very smart. i think i know you a little bit better than most people in the media, and i think you also recognize he's evil, do you not? >> well, i was referring to the fact that he said this is an independent nation. talking about ukraine. and i said -- this was before there was an attack -- he's calling it an independent nation. now, and a lot of are changing, when you look, this doesn't seem to be the same putin that i was dealing with, but i will tell you, he wouldn't have changed, if i were dealing with him, he wouldn't have changed. you know, i supplied, i know biden and string to take credit and they are all trying to take credit about many of the things, incredible things that we did in the trump administration, but we supplied the antitank busters, they are called javelins, and

without them, you wouldn't have, you wouldn't have anything like what is happening. they are knocking out the tanks one after another after another, and this has become a much tougher situation, much, much tougher, also, gunnery for the aircraft, for knocking out aircraft, you know a lot of aircraft get knocked out of the air. that is what everyone is saying there aren't very many russian planes overhead? we hit them with the stingers and all the other things we supplied. we supplied tremendous amounts of equipment so they could defend themselves, and they have done a great job. you look at what is happening, however, with the planes, that is all botched up, the planes from poland, that is all botched up. >> sean: would you have allowed those? would you have provided planes to ukraine, now that they're showing a willingness to take on putin and fight? >> well, i would have done it a lot differently than they have done it. what they have done is just terrible, back and forth between the united states -- look,

biden, every time he gets up, he says they are a nuclear nation. he should say we are a nuclear nation, and you know, i rebuilt our whole nuclear arsenal, stronger, bigger, better than ever before. it's better and it's bigger than russia. he should say we are a nuclear nation and we don't want war and we don't want to wipe out anything to do and we don't want to wipe out russia. this is the way he should be talking. instead he is saying we don't want war, we are not -- you know, he doesn't talk about our nuclear capabilities. he keeps saying they are a nuclear nation, we don't want war, and he is playing right into putin's hands when he does that, but putin is having a lot of trouble right now, he is having big, big trouble because he thought this was going to be a 48 hour deal, and the ukrainians are good fighters, and largely, to a large extent, or certainly a big help, was the fact we gave them a lot of javelins.

you know, i don't know if you know, sean, they say obama-biden gave them blankets, and trump gave them antitank busters and javelins. >> sean: mr. president, i have been able to confirm, about the last 18 months, if my memory serves me well, of your presidency, the taliban, they didn't kill a single american. i have been told, people that heard the conversation, with you at the head of the taliban, you got criticized for even negotiating with them but you are pulling out and you are going to leave x number of troops in place and the military would leave last, you confirmed all of that to me. people told me, before you ever began the negotiations, that you said to the head of the taliban, let me make sure you fully understand me, or something to that effect, i'm paraphrasing, that if you don't follow -- if we make an agreement and you don't follow every dotted line -- every dotted i come across to tea, every period, every comma, i will blow you to

smithereens and i know where you are right now, and you gave the head of the taliban his exact location. i'm asking number one, is that true, would you confirm that, in a rhetorical come as it relates to vladimir putin, you see under your watch he would have never -- he would never be doing what he is doing now, did you have a similar conversation with him? >> in a slightly different form, the answer is yes. we did not lose one american soldier in 18 months. the taliban headed by abdul, who is there right now, he is leaving it right now, $85 billion worth of the best military equipment in the world, 700,000 rifles, machine guns, guns, night goggles, planes, tanks, they have one of the most powerful -- they can't use it, for reasons they can't use it, but it was not busted off like they say, some of these things

were brand-new, never used before. $85 billion, and they're selling a lot of it. one of the largest arms merchants right now anywhere in the world. abdul knew that he would be hit so hard, like they had never been hit before, if they kill any american soldiers, because they killed a lot of soldiers under the previous administration, as you know, and 18 months we went, and there was no reason -- i'm the one who got it down to 2,000, and we were going to pull out, but we were going to keep bagram, and not because of afghanistan but china, one hour away from where they keep nuclear weapons. billions of dollars, massive air force base, we were going to keep bagram. they took the military out first. i don't know, you talk about the hostages that are left in afghanistan, it's a very sad thing, we have american hostages right now, people, american citizens -- and others -- that

shouldn't be there, that should have come out. they are right now in afghanistan, and it is a terrible thing, but, but, they knew that they can't play games, they can't play around, and he understood, and we didn't have one soldier killed, not one military person was killed in 18 months, and actually, biden was the one that admitted that. he said whether you like it or not, it has been no soldier killed in 18 months. now people were not happy when he said it, but he said it -- >> sean: let me go back to that. >> very unusual, actually. >> sean: let me go back to the issue of the criticism. because i have known you well over 25 years, and when you got criticized for saying that vladimir putin is smart, we have had many conversations, and you have often quoted to me sun tzu, the art of war, keep your friends close and your enemies closer. is that how you viewed vladimir? did you view vladimir putin and

people like president xi and kim jong un and the iranian mullahs as enemies that you needed to keep close? >> i got along with these people. i got along with them while. that doesn't mean they are good people. that doesn't mean anything other than the fact that i understood them, and perhaps they understood me. may be they understood me even better, that's okay, because they knew there would be a big penalty. in north korea, i got along with kim jong un. when i first came into office, as you know, president obama met me in the oval office. he said probably the biggest problem we have is north korea, we are going to end up winning a war with north korea, could be a nuclear war. we have no problem with north korea. i got along with him while. we understood each other. i got along with putin, i got along with xi, that they understood, the takeover of taiwan, there was never going to be a takeover of taiwan. >> sean: i want to understand your thinking, though, and the

thinking is we got along, but you knew that they were looking out for their interests at all times. and you understood that they were capable of evil things. >> putin is for russia, and you see what happened. and that is all because they didn't respect our leader. look, there was nobody, and putin will tell you this, if he was telling the truth, and i am sure he has told it to all of his inner sanctum, nobody was tougher on russia man mean. i close down the pipeline. biden came in, incredibly, he opened the pipeline, closed the american pipeline, and pipeline, very soon you will be seeing that, but i closed the pipeline going into germany and other parts of europe. nord stream two. nobody had heard of nord stream two until i came along. i closed it down. it was a dead deal, and then he opened it up. i was sanctioning everybody.

as we said, i gave them the javelins, the antitank busters, i gave them weaponry in ukraine. nobody was ever tougher on russia then me. nobody was ever even close to being tough like i was on russia, and then you hear the russia, russia, russia hoax, the whole hoax made up by hillary clinton and the democrats, and frankly that was very bad for our country. i said it very often, very, very bad, very dangerous, very bad, and hopefully a lot of things are going to happen with those people because they created a false narrative, but nobody was ever tough on russia like i was, and putin will tell you, but putin will also tell a very small group of people that he would have never gone in while i was president, and he didn't. you know, the fact is he didn't. they went into georgia, and they went into crimea, and they went into -- and now they want the whole ball of wax. for four years -- sean, for four

years, they did nothing. >> sean: let me ask this question, then. let's say you were back as president tomorrow, or joe biden, you know, got smart for a minute, may be called you and said what do you think? with the situation as it currently is, what would you do if you were president right now? >> well, look, we lost our cards because we are not really in a position now, the kind of negotiating position we had before this disaster happened. and putin is in a bad corner because this was supposed to be over quickly, and it is turning to be a disaster because the ukrainians are brilliant fighters, and don't forget, you have come out of 47 million people, you could have 2 million people that are armed with rifles, that's a lot of people. he doesn't have anywhere near the capacity to handle that many people. so you will have a lot of people, a couple million people, perhaps, in ukraine with rifles, hiding behind columns and hiding

in the rooms it's very hard for him to do this right now. he was going to do it quickly, surgically, and it didn't work out. so anyway, he is cornered, and that is both a good thing at a bad thing. it's a bad thing because he could do some very bad things. he's got big power. so do we. we have bigger power than he does. but he could do some very bad things. so it is not a good time to be put in a position to try to negotiate. with that being said, i think he would -- i bet he said i wish i never started this mess, because he is in a mess, and even if he so called takes it over, he will be fighting for years, and you know, everything is knocked down, it is all knocked down, the cities have to be rebuilt, it is going to cost trillions of dollars to rebuild ukraine, and it's going to get worse before it gets better. >> sean: beyond the javelins and stinger missiles, do you believe nato countries, the united states, western european countries should be providing fighter jets, like poland was trying to offer and apparently

the biden administration stopped it? >> it is sort of strange we can give the javelins, we have no problem, but we can't give an airplane. so it is a little bit strange, right? we can give javelins, we can give all sorts of weaponry -- which i gave them -- but all of a sudden if you give an airplane, that is like it is going to start world war iii. you know, we have a problem. your people that are just being decimated. i see a mother, her legs are off and her baby is killed, and she is only concerned about the baby that just got killed. she couldn't care less, the legs, she is only concerned -- i'm looking at these scenes on television of things that are happening, and nobody can believe them. so something has to happen, sean. this can't continue. this is a -- and it truly is a crime against humanity. this is something that has to end, and it has to end soon. the problem with putin, he's got a very big ego, and if he ends now in most forms, if he ends

now, it's going to look like a big loss for him. even if he takes a little extra territory. i'll tell you, sean, it's a little hard for ukraine, also, because they are actually doing well, and they would like to see if they could have our country back, but also, what are they getting? they are getting all of these cities, look like they're almost completely bombed to the ground. >> sean: it's a war zone. the only way to describe it. i'm going to play two cuts of you. the first one is you at the u.n., and you were warning of germany's dependence on russian oil. and the second one is you lecturing the head of nato, i played the full 5 minutes come i can't play that much now, about europe's dependence on oil while we pay the larger freight terms of nato's defense against russia. i want you to hear the words you uttered back in 2018. >> reliance on a single foreign supplier can leave a nation

vulnerable to extortion and intimidation. that is why we congratulate european states such as poland for leading the construction of a baltic pipeline that nations are not dependent on russia to meet their energy needs. germany will become totally dependent on russian energy if it does not immediately change course. here in the western hemisphere, we are committed to maintaining our independence from the encroachment of expansionist foreign powers. >> the energy is a much different story than a normal trade. you have a country like poland, everyone accepts the gas fear of you take a look at some of the countries, they won't accept it because they don't want to be a captive of russia. germany, as far as i'm concerned, captive to russia because it is getting so much of

its energy from russia. so we are supposed to protect germany, but they are getting their energy from russia. explained that. >> sean: the german delegation was laughing when you were at the u.n. veneto head had nothing to respond. now we have the highest price per gallon of gasoline in the history of the country. we are paying more to heat and cool our homes, paying more for every item we buy at every store we go to, a 40 year high of inflation. you predicted a lot of this would happen. how do we get back to energy independence, because it seems, i don't know if you saw the montage of joe biden at the beginning of the show, this is what he ran on and this is what he promised, and these are the predictable result, aren't they? >> well come he didn't really run on it. if you remember the debates, he would not say anything negative about energy. he said he is considering this and that, he shut down the

pipeline, the keystone xl pipeline, he shut down almost immediately. he never said he was going to do that. he said he was going to study it. he's going to study it long and hard. so he never really said anything that he was going to become a radical on getting rid of our energy, our liquid gold, i call it liquid gold, it is under our feet, now we have to go buy it from venezuela and we have to buy it from iran? and opec? i mean, it's just -- and by the way, and russia? and interestingly, we are not going to buy from russia, but europe is, much of europe is, set i'm sorry -- that's the way it's been, europe on trade treated us very badly. it's europe and we will work to protect them also, but we are really protecting them, but they are not doing what we are doing. as far as the pipeline is concerned, i told angela merkel loud and clear, there was a lot of reporting on it, everybody knew it, and they sort of laughed at me when i said it, i said you are going to be a hostage of russia if you do notu

should never ever make this deal, and by the way, the previous chancellor of germany, heads up the company, the pipeline company, but nord stream two, i said if you make that deal, you are literally at the mercy of russia and germany should not make the deal. had an argument. there are those people that say i sent her a white flag of surrender, which i did, because they said -- >> sean: whoa, whoa, whoa. you said no mike sent angela merkel a white flag of surrender? >> oh, yes, i did come i sent it to her, trying to send it in humor, at that point you can have humor because nobody said no mike believed it was possible that what i said was true. by the way, gasoline watch, said it is going to be $7, $8 -- >> sean: hang on a second. let me prove your point, because i have two cuts of you warning about gas prices. listen. >> we have so much oil. we have more oil than anybody, okay? it's an incredible thing.

have over the last few years, and you are paying, what, $2 a gallon for your gasoline? you know what that is like? that is like a tax cut. that is bigger than a tax cut. if biden got in, you would be paying $7, $8, $9, then say get rid of your car. we are going to build some more windmills. >> and gas prices, you like that $2 gas, right? how about $5, $6? $7? darling, let's sell the car, too large, let's get a compact. biden's plan is an economic death sentence. >> sean: you were right, and now you are right -- i never thought i would see this country that i love with all my heart and soul, be begging a murdering thug dictator like maduro in venezuela, begging opec, who is continually been rejecting joe's please and begging for more production, and i never thought in my lifetime that we would be begging or doing

another deal with iran that would include importing oil and making the mullahs of iran which again and yet that is where we find ourselves today. your reaction? >> so, maduro of venezuela was ready to give up. had we been elected, which we were, had we been elected, i will tell you, maduro would have given up -- they were ready to just concede. they could not have gone on any longer. now it looks like they've got some valuable asset, they have a lot of oil, they have a lot of it, it is expensive, but at this price, they have a lot, almost more than anybody, he is going to be a rich person. it's going to be a rich country. you could say a rich dictatorship. and when you look at nato, what we did with nato, they were not paid up. they were delinquent. you had 28 countries, only eight of them were paid, including the united states, which was far more than paid up. we pay for all of the people that weren't paying, and i said

you have to pay your bills, and if you don't pay your bills, we're not going to protect you, they asked me that question, we are not going to protect you, if you are delinquent, we are not going to protect you, and as soon as i said that, they paid hundreds of billions of dollars right into the till, the secretary general, who is a wonderful guy, stoltenberg, he is my biggest fan, because he never thought it would happen. obama would go there, make a nice speech, everybody went there, bush, they all went there and made a speech, nobody said, hey, wait a minute, you are not paying their bills, we are protecting you, so they took advantage of us on trade, and on top of that, we took care of their military protection, and that has stopped vehicle nato now has at least the money, but it's a little bit -- it has been a little bit of a paper tiger. now we will see whether or not they hold together, but something has to be done about this killing. this is a savage situation. nobody has ever seen anything like this. >> sean: let me put up on the screen a for put out by the

trafalgar group, robert cahaly, one of the best pollsters in the country, and now that president biden has made the decision to ban russian oil imports, which of the following patient know my would you most support replacement oil coming from? 76.5% to say alaska, texas, pennsylvania, in other words, the u.s. 14.9% say canada. 4.5% say venezuela. 2.2% say iran, and 1.9% say saudi arabia. well, it seems overwhelming to me that americans prefer to go back to your policies. you did leave office with the country being energy independent and a net exporter of energy, something we hadn't achieved a long time, but if you listen to biden, it's a little sleight of we out produced in our first year more oil than donald trump did in his first year. but you were handed off their horrible energy policies in the first place, so you had to reverse it, and you ended up

with energy independence, so it's another dishonest moment from biden. >> we took over nothing. we took over, everything was dead, we just took it over and we did great. by the time we finished, we would have been bigger than saudi arabia and russia combined, and we had another thing called anwr. ronald reagan tried to get it approved, everybody tried to get it approved. perhaps as big as saudi arabia or bigger, in alaska, and we had it done. i got it done. it was totally done, it was approved, we got it in our big tax cut bill, it was all approved by the house, by the senate, i signed it, it was done, and they came in and they ended it immediately, almost on the first day, and lisa murkowski should have never -- from alaska -- should have never approved that person who came in because the person, one of the first act was to end anwr. this was as big, perhaps, or bigger than saudi arabia, in alaska, would have been jobs forever, would have been energy

forever, and now we have to start it all over again, so it is just a sad thing, but we would have been bigger than saudi arabia and russia combined, by far, and we became number one -- and also, totally energy independent. we didn't have to go to the middle east anymore. we didn't have to go to opec anymore. we were at $30 a barrel. we were at less than that during certain points of my administration, as you know very well, but we had an expensive energy, under $2 per gasoline, and now you are going to be -- i say today that even normal, beautiful, midwestern states are paying $4.05 -- in california it is almost $8. but it's going to go much higher than that. it is going to be a shock like this country has not had in a long time. >> sean: let me ask you, mr. president, about inflation. when you left, the consumer price index was 1.4%. today, a 40 year high of inflation, cpi is 7.9%.

if we used the old standard of measuring, cpi and inflation, it would be 16%. if we use the method in the carter years. every single american, warren school of business, estimates paying anywhere between $3500 to $5,000 a household. now we are looking at with these new record high gas prices, it is going to cost may be the average family another $2,000 a year. americans simply can't afford this. we have three more years of this. what are the american people to do? rick santelli had a pretty good line, he said, you know, first it was transitory inflation, now it is corporate greed, now blaming putin. they blame everybody but themselves because these numbers represent the preinvasion of ukraine. >> the wharton school, which i love, is the best. they have been pretty accurate in a lot of predictions, i will tell you that, and the numbers

that you are seeing right now our peanuts unless we do something fast, and it starts with energy. if you don't bring down energy costs, because it is a shock, energy is so all invasive, it is so powerful on every business, whether it is the trucks or the ovens that cook the bread or anything, everything is about energy, and if you don't get those costs down, you could really reduce inflation fairly rapidly if you solve the energy problem, but with energy doubling and tripling as you who see it has already started, but it is going to get a lot worse before it gets better with the attitudes of these people, you know, the green new deal is going to destroy the country. these people don't know what they are doing. >> sean: what do you think, biden is now trying to revive this iranian nuclear deal. ironically, i mean sadly, russia is brokering the deal, apparently, along with china, and that would pave the way from

importing oil from the in iran. now, i thought the last deal was done, to me, this one is dumber. speak with that deal happens, you can say that is potentially the end of israel. i don't think israel can allow it to happen. and this country can't allow it to happen. when i terminated that deal, that was such a bad deal. first of all, it was a very short-term deal, but it gave them a very open pathway to having nuclear weapons that you cannot let iran have a nuclear weapon, but it will be the end of israel, in my opinion, and i have been pretty good at prognosticating and pretty good at predicting what is going to happen, if you look at the record. covered all night long. but it will be a very bad flow. i don't believe that israel can allow that to happen. and now, what they have -- think of this. they have russia and china negotiating the deal for us, and they want billions and billions of dollars. again, if the trump administration continued on in

place, we would have already had a really good deal with iran. everybody would have been happier, it would have been done, and they would have never. they were ready to do it, but now china is buying, as you know, millions of barrels of oil. when i was there, i said to china, if you buy any oil, any oil whatsoever, from iran, making them therefore rich, you are not going to do any business with the united states. we are going to cut it off. we are going to go cold turkey, not doing any business with you. >> sean: 30 seconds. we have 30 seconds left. your thoughts on 2022, and are you going to run in 2024? less than 30 seconds. >> i think we are going to have a tremendous victory in the house. i think we have a really good chance of having -- we have some great people in the senate. and i think a lot of people are going to be very happy in 2024. we have to take them all back. >> sean: there is no doubt about it. i don't think things can get much worse. president trump, always great to have you.

thank you for your time. and unfortunately, that is all the time we have left this evening. we always thank you for being with us. you make this show possible. we are watching very closely, apparently, we are expecting from our intel community, telling us things are ratcheting up in kyiv. we will be watching all might. stay tuned. let not your heart be troubled. laura is next. we will see you tomorrow night. ♪ ♪ test >> i'm laura ingraham. this is the ingraham angle from washington tonight. the biden administration was supposed to restore america's prestige on the world stage. instead, biden has been careening from one crisis to another, leaving our international reputation in tatter, and most importantly, increasing the suffering of american citizens and others around the world. in moments, we explain how we got here and how we can turn the page. but first grim updates from ukraine tonight. the russian military convoy