tv Hannity FOX News June 21, 2012 12:00am-1:00am EDT
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is not. if he is part of it thin we had a series that have misled the committee. and if he is not part of it he has no business eck earthing executive privilege. >> now, the president of the united states claimed executive privilege. that brings into question whether or not eric holder knew about it and how much did the president know about this. >> sean: those are the big questions tonight. what is the administration tr trying to hide and are they now admiting that in fact the president himself did have knowledge of the scandal when denied it in the past. here with insight, jay seculo and the author of the brand new book the brief against obama, hugh hug hewitt is here. let's go to the president. this goes back to 2011 in march where he denied knowing about it and only hearing about it on the news. here is the president. >> there have been problems. i heard on the news about this
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story that fast and furious where allegedly guns were being run into mexico and atf knew about it but didn't apprehend those who had sent them. eric holder as the attorney general has been clear that he knew nothing about this. >> he has indicated that he was not aware of what was happening in fast and furious. certainly i was not. >> the mexican government complaind that they were not informed about the fast and furious operation. did you authorize this operation and was president calderon informed about it? >> first of all, i did not authorize it. eric holder the attorney general did not authorize it. he assigned an inspector general to investigate exactly what happened here? >> who was that? >> we don't have all of the facts. that is why the ig is in business to collect the facts. >> sean: let me start with jay.
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jay, we now discoverd that in fact the attorney general did know about this as early as 2010 and he went back and had to change his testimony before congress. how important is this conside considering we are talking about giving guns to cartels, to criminal organizations, to kidnappers and murderers as we have lost one agent here by the name of brian terry. >> and let's never forget this is about the dead border patrol agent killed serving our country and killed at the hands of our own weapons which is the real tragedy of all this. the president has created quite a constitutio constitutional sd serious constitutio constituti. the attorney general has made numerous misstatements to the united states congress. the department of justice filed a letter on february 4. that letter was incorrect as a matter of law and incorrect factually and took them 8 mon h months to withdraw the letter. roger clemens minute clemens ma
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perjury trial which he was found not guilty of for alleg d allegedly liying to congress. the attorney general files incorrect information and false statement statements and says w whoops i'm sorry. then the statement that he said he wanted to meet with the chairman of the committee and work something out. do an extraordinary accommodation of documents and desperately wanted to have the meeting yesterday. had to take place. we must have this meeting. he had a meeting all right and when this took place there was only one document that was really going out and that was the letter asking for the president to issue an executive order to cover eric holder. so the attorney general asked the president to assert a privilege to cover his own error. that is the real problem here and that is the fundamental mistake. >> sean: let me go to you, hugh hewitt. i support the executive privilege which can be placed back to george, washington, as you know. there has been court precedence
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on this that there is no legitimate claim to executive privilege if this is about covering up any type of wrong doing. >> the decision of the supreme court in 1974 grew out of water gate. the 40th anniversary this month of the break-in of water gate which is is an interesting way for the obama administration to commemorate that. this is an administration which discloses that which should be secret and keep secret that which should be disclosed. this is a very important power of the presidency but it belongs to the president. i'm he sure, jay, there is argument in front of the court it cannot wait to see how this goes to the district court in the district of columbia and i hope john boehner takes it there and dehe command that the subpoena be honored. >> sean: we have to talk about the process and we will do that later with congressman king tonight. the house of representatives does have the poured concreter to enforce the resolution and
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they will bring it before a civil suit before a federal district court and can them to enforce the contempt. >> that's right. >> sean: side of this. and then they will have to literally go line by line and paper are by paper are and document by document and explain why executive reporting is needed.dge is neeprivilege >> what is going to happen in that process is the committee will go and ask for the -- could even be a writ of mandamus or injunction to require compliance. that is going to take time in court. what happened in the interim and what is now developing is we have to be clear here, the attorney general of the united states who has said the incorrect statements to the committee is now demanding that the president which the president did, he demanded basically begged the president if you will to issue this executive order protecting, executive privilege and the district court and court of appeals are all bound by the supreme court precedent you mentioned in the nixon case. there is precedent from the
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d.c. circuit because this is where these issues come up, sean. when it is a cover up the privilege doesn't apply. this is what the american people need to be asking the themselves. what is it in these documents that they do not want the committee to see? remember that eric holder said he was going to go over the documents in private and would at least cover the details of what happened since february 4. what happens is the letter nine pages saying mr. president please protect me i'm about to get in real trouble here because the truth is about to come out. the truth will ultimately come out but now they have a political issue that is huge. >> sean: he has made false statements and had to admit them on two ope separate ohcat. these are drugs that the government gave to drug cartels and dangerous people and resu t resulted in 170 separate examples where the guns ended up at crime scenes and the death of an agent by the name of brian teresa payton arer te.
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>> his parents came out and denounced the action by the president. i hope soon governor romney steps up and says that he believes in executive privilege but that the american people are entitled to an answer before the election. i hope they pursue it the way bill clinton was not pursued throughout his trace gallaghe . the attorney general has projoked previous statement. he is on the record of having misled the congress. the president is on record sa saying he had nothing to do with this. was he liying then or is he lie lying now. it puts him in a position. >> sean: we are dealing with a very, very serious legal issue for the president. >> absolutely. and i think. >> sean: huge. >> i hope it goes to dick leon in d.c. district court. he was dick cheney's minority counsel on iran contra. this is an abuse of the office. >> sean: we have to let you
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both go. >> and sean interesting to hear is that then senator obama criticized president bush for legitimately employing the executive privilege. it has come home to roost. >> sean: i have that tape and we will show that and talk about the appropriate and inappropriate use of executive privilege. when we come back, more analysis of the president's attempt to disrupt the process. what happens now that the house oversight committee recommended that eric holder be held in contempt of congress? we will h eck in with congres congressman steve king and he will explain all of that and much more on this ed [ male announcer ] wouldn't it be cool if we took the nissan altima and reimagined nearly everything in it? gave it greater horsepower and best in class 38 mpg highway... ...advanced headlights... ...and zero gravity seats? yeah, that would be cool. ♪
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>> sean: welcome back to "hannity." the legal ramifications are mounting. we continue examining the legal aspects with two of our legal experts. author of the now "new york times" best seller the great destroyer david limbaugh is back. the cohost of the five kimberly guilfoyle. you are both lawyers. let me go through this slowly so people can really grasp th s this. there is an appropriate use of executive privilege. we as conservatives david support that. kimberly, you support it. >> yes. >> sean: there has to be certain criteria met. has to impact the military, diplomatic impact or some type of sensitive national security. do we have any indication on any level that this is an appropriate use of executive privilege? >> so far all indicators point
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to the fact that this is an abuse of discretion by the president exercising his poured concreter in this way and it is -- poured concreter in this way and it is really a problem. if it is not being used appropriately why is he doing it? what is he trying to cover up? what does he know and why did he do this to support eric ho d holder who should have stepped down when didn't turn over the documents? >> sean: usually if you go for executive privilege you do so in the beginning not on the 11th hour when the attorney general is about to be held in contempt, no? >> you don't do it casually and you narrowly define it and state what your objections are. holder and obama have been casual about it and act like they don't have to be bothered. holder acts like it is okay that he doesn't read his own e-mails informing him of fast and fuh fuhrous. he found out about it ten mon h
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months before he claimed he d d did. >> sean: and he had to go back seven months later and acknowledge that his testimony in front of congress was false. roger clemens was charged with liying to congress, perjury, wy would he not at some point potentially face this kind of charge himself considering it is such a high offense. >> when you have people in high places like the president who seems to go to great lengths to protect his friend here. yesterday we were able to speak about the meeting that happened in issa's office and specifi specifically get some of the information from a congressional oversight committee aide about the conversation and it was just one of arrogance i will decide what i will give you and then i want you to immediately drop all charges and any investigation whatsoever and cease this. >> sean: the question i have is when they invoke executive privilege they have to go through and give an explanation what is called a privilege log and every single item that they
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are invoking privilege on. is this as we look that the through a political prism, david, is this an attempt and has this been an attempt to stone wall now put this in the court system to get this beyond election day? is this a political strategy. in. >> i have no doubt about it. >> sean: why is or why not? >> there is nothing even argu arguably privilegeed here. this is about what holder new and why fast and furious was conceived. and why the people named were promoted and whistle blowers punished. why did they send the februar february 4 letter knowingly l e lying about when show learne td about gun locking. this is a situation where 200 people died and one was a border are patrol agent brian terry and they have not done anything but stone wall. >> sean: the president denied approving this. the question is who approved selling guns to drug cartels,
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kidnappers, drug runners and criminals. >> they act completely ignore rant. they are are trying to blame the bush administration. now, you have the president with the total abuse of his authority. >> sean: but it happened on their watch. >> and they have a loose relationship with the truth. they could have avoided this because also they should have turned over the privilege logs to say this is why it is a matter of national security and should be protected. they wouldn't even do that so there was no choice for the congressional committee members to go ahead and find him in contempt because he is the head justice official in the country and he refused to be transparent and turn over document. >> sean: a short clip here. this is president obama accus accusing the bush administration of hiding behind executive privilege. >> there has been a tendency on the part of this administration to try to hide behind executive privilege every time there is something a little shaky that is taking place. and i think the administration would be best served by comeing clean on this.
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>> sean: i think he should take his own advice. >> but he says all kinds of things. said all kinds of things on the campaign trail and a only later reversed them in sheer hypocr hypocrisy. what possible damaging information could there be. in if this is a legitimate assertion of privilege what could it be? >> sean: i have strong thoughts of what it probably is and it could be damaging. >> criminally. >> sean: for them to make the decision they would rather the country going through the debate over executive privilege there must be something fairly damning in there. >> they have to buy time to get past the election. >> there has been damning step revealed. the internal e-mail shows that holder lied. no big deal. i didn't know. it was inadvertent. >> congratulations david on the book. >> thank you. >> sean: next, the justice department is forced to retract
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another statement made under oath by the attorney general eric holder. we will play a tape and a explain who the stone wall ke p keeps growing at the department of justice. and congressman steve king's reaction to what happens next reaction to what happens next from herejourney across americ, i found new ways to tell people about saving money. this is bobby. say hello bobby. hello bobby. do you know you could save hundreds on car insurance over the phone, online or at your local geico office? tell us bobby, what would you do with all those savings? hire a better ventriloquist. your lips are moving. geico®. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. those little things for you, life's about her. but your erectile dysfunction - that could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for ily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat
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at the house. there is still time for a contempt of the house to be avoided if in fact the documents we have asked for are delivered by the time that the house is scheduled for contempt vote. >> sean: that was the chairman of the house oversight committee congressman daryl issa moments after his committee voted to recommend that the attorney general be held in contempt of congress. here to explain what that means is congressman steve king. let's start with the simple question. don't they have to go through a privilege log and identify on each item why they are justif justifying not handing this over to congress? >> i would say this, that they have gone through the motions now all the way through i in te oversight committee. the privilege component of that is looking back at some historical pieces of this but i believe now what this means is unless all of this date is
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provided it could probably be at the 11th hour and some negotiations made by the spea speaker i think it comes to the floor of the house of representatives for a vote on holding our attorney general eric holder in contempt of congress. that starts some things that i guarantee the white house is not going to want to see. >> sean: the attorney general is not going to enforce the law against himself. the question becomes for you guys in the house you do have the authority after speaking with many constitutional authorities today you do have the authority to enforce this resolution and that would mean to bring it to civil court and that would be to get a decision out of the courts. isn't that the next step for you legally he speaking? >> there is that case. i have been looking at that track of legal logic to take it to the civil court and but also there is some reasonable real analysis that says that it goes to the u.s. attorney here in the d.c. circuit who would convene a grand jury and if that turns tout be the case convening a grand jury then that starts the indictment process and that is something
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that is going to be awfully hard for are eric holder or the president to resist. and this assert, of executive privilege i think is the crescendo announcement of the day. as i looked at that i had this flashback that it was 40 years guy this week that the wate watergate break in took place. it wasn't the executive privilege date but president nixon asserted executive privilege then. the president mirrord that now. that means that that implies very strongly if it doesn't bring a conclusion to us out here that this information that daryl issa is searching for and trying to subpoena links inside the white house itself most likely that the information was prepared for the president's eyes and perhaps it was seen by the president. >> sean: before we make that leap, i want to make sure everybody understands fully the process that you in congress will go through. what you are going to do is bring a civil suit to a federal district court.
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and from that point you get to enforce this contempt you are going to ask the court to have the justice department list all documents what they call a privilege log which will require them to go through each document and explain how executive privilege applies. if we are talking about 1300 documents out of 140,000 they will have to explain each and every one how executive privilege applies, correct? >> well, yes, sean. and i leap past that because i will just tell you that i conclude that that is not going be a defensiv defenseible posie part of the white house. it is outside of the pursu purf the oversight of the united states congress that would imply national security is at stake or some delicate issue of national security. i don't think so. i think they cannot succeed in that assertion and so i would leap to this. i think at that point the grand jury that is convened is going to most likely come back with an indictment of eric holder. >> this is fascinating. so you really do believe this
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will be an indictment. what would the indictment be? we know that he made statements to the committee 7 months later he said oops i got them wrong. a statement last week and came back this week oops that was wrong. we know that in u.s. versus nixon you cannot exert ec executive privilege to cover up wrong doing of any kind. that precedent has been well set. what are you saying the charge would be congressman? >> contempt of congress. my legal advisors in house advise me this has a potential charge that eric holder would be facing unlikely to go that far but you could be up to one year in jail. i don't think they will let it go that far. >> sean: we just had the trial of roger clemens and liying to congress was at the heart of all six allegations and perjury so those are serious charges we
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are talking about here. what is it that possibly if we look at the three things the president can use. the three reasons. one is for the military or diplomatic or sensitive international security matters i believe in the right of executive privilege for a president because there are issues involving national security. the question here is what could possibly, you know, of the criteria that has been established what possible reason can they cited here on this -- in this case as we have been explaining all night? can you think of one? >> the only thing i can think of there is one connection of national security so volatile the president would take this extraordinary step and declare this executive privilege. that would be national security for foreign relations. that would emply the relations with mexico would be a direct component of that. i don't want to utter what i imagine it could be to go to that depth. i don't think they could prove such a thing and if i would say
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what my imagination tells me it is too volatile for television. >> sean: this went on for a full 18 months and there has been this back and forth and this game. do you think that was done for political purposes? i'm not asking you to specula e speculate. wouldn't it be usual to do this at the very beginning of the investigation? >> if they had such a case i would think so. i think they believe they can bluff daryl issa because he didn't blink in the short meeting that they had. they had to play another card. one can conclude this. there was knowledge of fast and furious either before or as it was being implemented or knowledge of the coverup after the fact and it is most likely goes inside the white house and the documents that daryl issa is asking for i believe were prepared for the president's eyes. whether he saw them or not i don't know. i believe they were prepared for the president's eyes and that is why they are exerting executive privilege. otherwise they would have pus
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pushed eric holder under the bus and in order to protect the white house. >> sean: that means the president in the interview when said he had no knowledge of it until he saw it on the news that would have been an inaccurate statement and similarly the testimony before congress by the attorney general would have been false, correct? >> sean, i agree with that rationale. and having watched watergate unfold i will say that we will find out the whole truth to this. this really launched some thi g things in motion today and i think the house will vote on the full motion for contempt of congress and once that happens the barrel is ove over the waterfall. we will see what happens in the wreckage afterwards. >> sean: thank you congressman. thanks for being with us. >> thank you, sean. >> sean: seems he can't get his facts straight. we will explain what eric hol holder said under oath that in fact forced the justice department to issue yet another retraction. plus, border patrol agent brian terry lost his life because of terry lost his life because of the botched fast and furious y irregular heartbeat
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>> sean: not only is the administration not willing to provide requested documents in the fast and furious investigation it seems their testimony is also less than truthful.ul. for the second time the department of justice forced to retract statements made. according to a senate judiciary report the recen most recent im last week. eric holder claimd that his predecessor was briefed about the tactics of another gun running operation known as wide receiver. now, listen to what he said. >> if you want to talk about fast and furious i'm the attorney general that put an end to the misguided tactics used in fast and furious. an attorney general i suppose who you would hold in higher regard was briefed on these kinds of tactics in an operation called wide receiver and did nothing to stop them. nothing. 300 guns at least walked in
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that instant. >> sean: that was news to senator chuck grassley and he sent a letter to the justice department asking about holde holder's assertion. now, the department of justice retracted the statement and said that holder inadvertently made the claim. this was not the first time the justice department was forced to correct the record. in december they sent a letter which claimed that the atf ma e makes every effort to interdict weapons purchased illegally before they cross into mexico. joining me with reaction, michelle malkin and fox news contributor tamara holder. let's go. this is a second time. now, we have the president on record, michelle and the president is on record saying i found out about this in the news. i was watching the news report. this is what he said back by the way march 25 of 2011 den denying that he knew anything about it or that in fact eric holder knew anything about it. let's go to it the 7 month
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period this goes from may 3, 2011 to november 8, 2011 when the attorney general admitted that he misled congress. >> when did you first know about the program officially i believe called fast and furious to the best of your knowledge what date? >> i'm not sure of the exact date but i probably heard about fast and furious for the first time ove over the last few wee. >> i first learned about the tactics and the phrase operation fast and furious in the beginning of this year i think when it became a matter of i guess about public controversy. in my testimony before the house committee i did say a few weeks. i probably could have said a couple of months. >> sean: michelle, we know in reality now that it was actua actually in 2010. so now we have a long period of time. >> yeah. >> intervening time. go ahead. >> well, i think it is very important all of the points that you are hitting. because it shows that every time that this attorney general
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has opened his mouth every key point that he has made about fast and furious has proved to be false and spurious. false and specious. that is why all of the paths led to this contempt vote tod y today. the stone walling that has gone on and, of course, the invok invokation now of this executive privilege which underscores something that those of us who have followed this for more than year and a half now have always known and felt and realized in our repo reporting of this. and that is that it is not just eric holder, it is barack obama himself who was at the center of the obstructionism and the center of the scandal. the bloodiest scandal of this administration. >> sean: we going to find out. tam, a you are shaking your head here. the reality is they have not been forthcoming of the documents as requested by congress. the last minute delay tactic seems to me there had to be
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some political considerations here. why didn't they invoke executive privilege from day one if they felt that it was warranted? >> there are always political considerations on both sides of the aisle. >> sean: the departmen departmf justice is not supposed to be political. >> give me the same amount of time as you give all of your republican friends. this isn't fair. if you look at what barack obama did in the beginning when said he was going to close gitmo and release the photos of abu ghraib and then decided when became president he wasn't going to do those things, those were things that bush did create that he liked or that actually worked. >> sean: let me tell you. >> fast and furious didn't work and they stopped it. >> sean: wait a minute. the difference here is we have the united states government that is giving guns to murder murderers, drug dealers, kidn p kidnappers, cartels, excuse me. >> it is called a war. >> sean: so you give the enemy weapons? >> it started during bush and
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did not work. >> sean: border patrol agents died here and now we are trying to get to the bottom of it and they have not been forth coming in giving the information for the family. will let me go to michelle. >> it takes time, sean. >> 18 months we have been investigating. >> pat tillman was killed in 2004 and it took three years for his family to be able to testify before congress in 20 7 2007. >> sean: why didn't -- they have the documents. >> thousands of documents take time. >> sean: if they have the documents why didn't they give them over earlier. this is an important question here. is this a delay tactic so they wouldn't have to expos something very embarrassing here? >> that is right. clearly they have something to hide. i mean it is the razor answer. the simplest answer is the right answer. can i just go back to this the tiresome blame bush card. because i don't think that tamara know hass she is talking
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about when we talk about the differences between fast and furious and operation wide receiver and project gun runner and i was at the forefront several years ago about raising questions about the marita initiative under the bush administration. >> i know -! 'cuse me. this -- >> this is not a partisan thi g thing. this is not a pa partisan thin. >> because i'm not a best selling author i don't know what i'm talking about? i clear early know what i'm talking about. >> sean: michelle, finish your point. >> for some of us the core of national security, second amendment rights, integrity in government actually matters. it is not just some sort of teasey game debate for us, tamara. >> no, it is not. and i'm not saying that the documents shouldn't be releas released. i'm not saying that the documents shouldn't been released. >> sean: i can't hear when you are both talking. i will let you get the last word. >> the difference is that in the bush administration they got the guns back and under the obama administration they let them go because they had an
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underliying gun control agenda that is clear in these documents if you you read it. u.s. attorney, former u.s. attorney dennis burke went after the staffers investigat investigating this and called them "stooges of the gun lobby. they are the ones with the ide logical valiantry that cause. >> the blood is on your peopl people's hands, tamara. >> we are all americans and it is on everyone's hands. the investigations take time. it is not appropriate to hold the attorney general in contempt after a matter of months. >> they took time. >> can i finish? >> they have been subpoenaed for months and months and mon h months. >> ky finish? >> i'm not going to let you get awhich with that lie. >> this throw the football are things that bush implemented that worked. this did not work. they put an end to it and it requires a timely investigati n investigation. to hold him in contempt after just a little while.
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give him some years. >> sean: they have had years for them to turn over documen s documents. >> the guy just died a year a ago. >> sean: thank you for being with us. and you are talking about agent terry and his family needs an answer. >> they do and so did the tillman family. >> for many nixon is synonomous with abuse i in the oval offic. will voters see this in the same light? we will hear from monica [ morgan ] lopez lomong started running when he was six and he didn't stop for three days and nights as he escaped life as a child soldier. twenty years later, he was still running, he just had a different thing driving him. every step of the way. ♪ visa. supporting athletes and the olympic games for 25 years. join our global cheer.
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and no one's around to hear it, does it make a sound? [ meows ] or if a tree falls on your car and no one's around to answer your call, do you make a sound? the answer is probably "yes" [ growling ] and "like a howler monkey." unless you're calling esurance. they have live humans on the phones to help 24/7. so you might make different sounds, like happy human sounds. esurance. insurance for the modern world. click or call. >> sean: from fast and furious and this scandal to the leak investigation obstruction has become a common theme for this white house and although the left would like to continue to harp on the controversies of the nixon administration the abuses of power orchestrated by team obama in recent weeks are glaring. joining me with a unique perspective is a close co con
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confydante of president richard nixon. it is called what the bleep happened. the happy warrior's guide. >> thank you for that. fill in the blank on the bleep. >> i thought i would let you supply your own inventive word. >> sean: okay. you were a close confidante from nixon. all day from people i have been hearing comparisons. are they accurate? >> water gate looks like chil child's play compared to what is unfolding in this case. in watergate we didn't have a dead body and here we have two dead bodies of two american heros, brian terry and jamie e zepata. for the president of the united states who have blown this off for a long time, the fast and furious investigation the mainstream media also refused to cover it until now. what the white house did today in invoking executive privilege the first time this president has done this in his term they have now blown this thing wide open.
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now, the mainstream media has to cover it and now they will have everybody on their tails investigating this thing. the problem here is that executive privilege is legitimate and it is certainly has its place when you are ta k talking about the president's constitutional duties. but invoking executive privilege in a case like this to withhold information from congress when they are trying to investigate the conduct of a government agency that is not required by the constitution, the justice department is not required by the constitution, no where in the documents is the justice department exist, they are really overstepping their bounds here and i think they will lose on this. >> sean: it seems to me they are are trying to hide something here. maybe i'm just stating the obvious here. there has to be something in the documents they don't want us to know because i don't see how it fits into the criteria with a lot of court precedent behind it that would establish their rationale for doing this at the 11th hour. what are in these documents that they don't want us to see? >> you mentioned president nixon. i worked with him during the
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last four years of his life and one of the things he always said to me it is a cliche but it as cliche because it is tr e true. it is never the actual crime it is always the coverup. >> sean: he would say that. >> yes, he learned the lesson. one of the things he said to me is why did i go through the damn fire if nobody is going to learn the lesson from it? >> sean: isn't this attorney general the most political since the nixon administration? >> the nixon administration constantly got pounded. they are still getting pounded for politicizing the justice department and going after their enemies. i'm not excusing what they did. what they did looked like chi d child's play compared to what this white house is doing. if you have nothining to hide u release the documents and cooperate with congress. you clear your name in front of the american people. you might give a speech and say this thing has gotten out of control. i apologize to the american people. here are all of the documents. they are not doing it and it is only going to take on a life of its own.
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>> remy davis who i think is wrong so often wrote a book tell the truth, tell it often, tell 2 yourself. >> they never learn, sean. >> do you think this could become bigger than water gate because we are talking about not just a botched break-in but in this particular case there are people that died. >> here are is my theory because now you have two american heros who are now you dead, i think throw the something more to this. where we keep talking about the idea this is a botched operation of fast and furious it may not have been. maybe what they are are trying to hide here is the fact that this was all by design and i write about this in what the bleep just happened. everything they do is by design and this operation was set up as an assault on the second amendment. flood the zone with guns. actually have some dead bodies. i don't think they intended american dead bodies but then trace the guns back to the united states as an excuse to crack down on legal gun owne ownership.
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>> sean: congrats on the brand new book out in book stores today. >> it is. >> sean: we will take a moment and remember the brave border patrol agent by the name of brian terry who lost his life because of this botched fast and furious operation. that's coming up next. >> and what does the family of brian terry think about today's action of the president? action of the president? we'll tell you about that, n [ male announcer ] we imagined a vehicle that could adapt to changing road conditions. one that continually monitors and corrects for wheel slip. we imagined a vehicle that can increase emergency braking power when you need it most. and we imagined it oking like nothing else on the road today. then...we built it. the 2012 glk. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services.
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>> sean: that was all the news today on the fast and furious scandal. we have been focu focusing on e main players including the attorney general eric holder but there is one person we never want to forget and that is slain border patrol brian terry. it was his death that brought the shameful scandal to light and here is what his mother said earlier today. >> my son and i were very, very close and my son was a person that believed in justice and he believed in telling the truth. he was a man of his honor and if anybody knew him they knew that. and i know he would be saying you know what, i died for my country and he was a true american and i think he deserves the truth and i think everybody should know the truth and it just is a bad thing that they did with fast and furious it should be acknowledged so it never happens to anybody else's
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son. >> sean: joining me mike myers and michelle fields. this is what makes this so outrageous. the family never got an apology from eric holder until he was shame inside it by the oversight committee. >> and leaked the apology before the family got an opportunity to look at it. this is important it is not about president obama. it is not about eric holder and certainly not about democrats. this is about brian terry a man who gave the ultimate sacrifi e sacrifice, his life in order to protect us and protect our country. >> sean: he was killed by guns that our government provided to the cartels and his family cannot get the truth and the answers from our government. >> that's right. and the government should be ashamed of itself includeing te democrats on the congressional panel today. it is interesting that we don t don't -- we are not able to hide national secrets but they hide documents in congress that has a right to inspect those documents. i find concern -- i find that transparently in government,
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the right for congress to monitor and to oversight with respect to the president and the executive branch issues a special counsel, this is red meat for democrats. they always talk about transparency and special counsels. but guess what? i was ashamed as a liberal democrat i was ashamed of congress woman maloney and eleanor holmes norton because they refused to even inquire. instead what they did was to say well, you know, we can't disrespect attorney general holder although attorney general holder can disrespect be congress. >> sean: the attorney general had every opportunity. he had 18 months to turn the documents over. he refused. why do you think he waited until the last minute? that is sauce patios t suspici. >> all the administration cares about is their reputation. >> sean: , no, reelection. >> so they can get reelected.
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instead of providing answers and justice to the family so they can properly grieve. >> they can't possibly be concerned about the reputation because we do have an attorney general bordering on as i always is say incompetent and we have a president who doesn't care about his represent because he is putting up phoney claims of executive privilege and the democrats are ought to know that it as phoney claim of executive privilege but they don't care. it is all partisan on their part. a shame. >> sean: we covered the legal aspects, the family, the political aspects. i have my own thoughts and we will let your audience decide. there is a lot more. this will not go away soon. thanks for being with us. appreciate it. that is all the time we have left this evening. we will have more on this tomorrow including part two of our interview with ann and governor mitt romney. thanks for being with us. greta is next and we will see
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captioned by closed captioning services, inc. >> greta: tonight is, president obama hiding something. if so, what and why? he signed an order barring attorney general eric hold fresh turning over subpoenaed documents. who is the president protecti g protecting? his attorney general? himself? or the sanctity of the executive branch of government? he just took the battle from boiling hat to nuclear. tonight you will hear from the house oversight committee chair daryl ice is a, karl rove, rush limbaugh, representative michele bachmann and brit hume. but first, a very heated hearing and a vote one that went straight down the party line. a house panel approving a contempt resolution for attorney general holder. our purpose has never been to hold the attorney general in contempt. our purpose has always been to get the information the committee needs to complete its work that it is not only entitled to but obligated to do.
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