This is a rush transcript from “Hannity,” December 7, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Welcome to HANNITY.

It’s hard to believe, right, 115 days Biden’s cowardice in Afghanistan is having a snowball effect all around the world, all of America’s international foes, every hostile regime. They’re all trying to take advantage of Joe and his obvious cognitive decline. His appeasement-centric policies and, frankly, sheer incompetence. He’s turned the page he tells us.

Well, what about the families that he left behind that are in harm’s way, under Taliban rule? Now, this is particularly true on the border between Russia and Ukraine tonight where hostile actor Vladimir Putin is now gearing up for a massive invasion, nearly 100,000 Russian troops, including tanks and artillery are already amassed at the border. Many are now fearing that an invasion could be imminent. And by the way, our intelligence feels that way as well.

But don’t worry because today Joe Biden called up Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and he gave him a really stern talking to. And here’s how the call started. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hello. Good to see you again. I — unfortunately last time, I we didn’t get to see one of the G20. I hope next time we meet, we do it in person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Hello. No doubt Vladimir Putin is shaking in his boots. According to the White House, Biden voiced his deep support when he finally turned on the microphone for Ukraine’s sovereignty and he vowed quote strong economic and other measures in the event of a military escalation.

Now, get this, Biden strategy reportedly includes reinstating sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline into Germany. You can’t make this up. Firing Keystone XL pipeline, energy workers, high-paying career jobs and giving Putin an opportunity to get Russia rich again.

A few months ago, Joe had lifted all sanctions on the very same pipeline and he got nothing in exchange. He was trying to appease Vladimir Putin, the hostile actor with all two predictable results and here we go again the administration is working on a plan to evacuate Americans from Ukraine, another unmitigated and preventable disaster.

Now, thus far, Biden’s international policy has been so terrible, even MSDNC’s most devout liberal Democrat, Chucky Todd, is now sounding the alarm. Take a look.

(BEGIIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHUCK TODD, MSNBC HOST: Does the White House accept that they’ve been a little too passive with Putin?

KRISTEN WELKER, NBC NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think privately they accept that there have been some missteps when it comes to the foreign policy strategy here whether that be with Afghanistan or with President Putin. Now, they haven’t outright acknowledged that for example in their meeting in Geneva earlier that the president wasn’t tough enough. But I think the point stands, here we go again. And what if any message is this sending to other potential foreign adversaries who are watching this quite closely? How does China for example view this?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: That’s pretty weird, because I remember only a few months ago when everyone in the mob in the media, they were out there lauding Biden’s tremendous foreign policy credentials. In reality, Joe Biden has never, ever, ever been good at anything and especially foreign policy. You might remember Obama’s former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, quote, Biden has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.

On the campaign trail and during the early months of the Biden White House, the press wing of the Democratic Party, in other words the media mob, they covered up all of Biden’s shortcomings and, of course, lied on his behalf, never asked tough questions. Now with multiple Biden-caused crises here and home and abroad, some in the media they’re no longer able to avoid the shocking reality which is one Biden failure after another.

And needless to say, Joe Biden is not pleased. Now, get this, according to the administration, the press is supposed to work hand in hand with the White House to make Joe look good.

So, in the past week, the White House has been holding private meetings with producers, anchors, reporters to, quote, reshape their coverage. No, they shouldn’t be taking talking points from you at all.

And right on cue, a Biden sycophant at “The Washington Post” published what is in a lot of ways a hilarious article. Quote: The media treats Biden as badly or worse than Trump, I don’t know what world that person’s living in.

Now, Biden chief of staff Ron Klain and he tweeted out the article. Now, Ron is living in an alternate universe that he himself was creating. This is the very definition. You don’t get better more sycophantic coverage it’s the entire media mob, print media. You have NBC, ABC, CBS, two news channels that say they’re news that are really propaganda for the Democratic Party.

Now, maybe the worst part of this, the press isn’t even trying to hide it. You got one idiot over at fake news CNN actually bragging about these strategy meetings with the White House on Twitter. Tonight, I do have some bad news for the mob and the media and the Biden White House, no amount of smoke and mirrors or dumb op-eds in “The Washington Post” is going to change the reality. The American people see this failure, as we speak, inflation, every American is feeling it firsthand, a 31-year high.

And Americans are furious about the supply chain issues causing massive delays and shortages and then getting lectured and scolded about oh how we should have purchased our Christmas gifts by Halloween, or, oh, you’re not going to get the color you want, oh the tragedy of the treadmill.

They’re embarrassed. They’re humiliated by the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Most Americans don’t like the idea of abandoning fellow Americans when you said you wouldn’t do it. Most Americans are deeply worried about the crisis Joe created at the southern border. They don’t like the preferential treatment.

If you’re an illegal immigrant, you don’t get a COVID test. There’s no vaccine mandate, but they are mandating vaccines from five-year-olds if you want to take a five-year-old kid to a New York City restaurant. And by the way, they’re getting sick and tired. The American people are being told that parents’ input in schools is not wanted. They’re tired of age inappropriate material being taught and critical race theory and other anti-American propaganda force-fed into our kids minds.

They don’t want Build Back Better/ New Green Deal radical Marxism, socialism to become the law of the land. The Democratic Party has lost its way. And guess what? You know who’s helping them out the most right now? That would be Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, is once again after promising again he’s bailing them out one more time, despite promising not to help the Democrats raise the debt ceiling again, he has been collaborating with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi on a plan that that would allow Democrats to raise the debt ceiling on their own supposedly, thereby giving them more time to pass Build Back Better/New Green Deal socialism. He’s doing it by creating a new rule the Senate never had before. We’ll see if he can get nine more Republicans to go along with this insanity.

In doing so, McConnell is throwing his fellow Republicans under the bus. He’s giving his Democratic colleagues a much-needed lifeline. They’re not including the Republicans in any way in any budget talks. It’s totally unacceptable.

Mitch McConnell needs to go. He’s not a leader.

Anyway, here with reaction, Louisiana Senator John Kennedy.

Now, on September, Senator, we were told, every Republican for two months, that you wouldn’t help the Democrats that have not allowed any Republicans to be a part of the budget talks. Mitch McConnell said they’re not going to help Democrats raise the debt ceiling. At the last minute, he caved.

Now, he’s going to create a new Senate rule. Is he going to get nine other Republicans to reach cloture and then therefore create the new rule and then the Democrats will then raise the debt ceiling again? Is that going to happen?

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): Well, they won’t do it with my support. My position hasn’t changed. We each have one vote.

Let me tell you what my position is. Senator Schumer and President Biden and Speaker Pelosi want to pass and implement the Build Back Better spending taxation and debt orgy (ph). And I don’t agree with it. And to do that, to pass it and implement it, they’ve got to borrow money, maybe as much as $3 trillion. And they need my vote to do that.

Now, why would I give them my vote if I don’t support the bill? And they say, well, you’re going to default on America’s debt. You’re voting to do that. No, I’m not.

Senator Schumer, by simply amending the budget resolution in reconciliation, can extend the debt limit on his own with no Republican votes and he can certainly do it without my vote. So if we end up defaulting, it’s a choice that Senator Schumer has made.

To me, this has been very simple from the beginning. The president and his woke allies think they can borrow us into prosperity, and I’m — they can’t and I’m not going to be a part of doing that.

HANNITY: All right. So the — I’m glad, Senator, and I think most Republicans will be with you. But Mitch has this uncanny ability to always get, you know, nine other Republicans to go along with the cloture vote.

Look, I’m not going to drag you into my position on this. I think the Republicans need a new leader in the Senate. I think caving to the Democrats, he’s — he’s buying them time to push their Build Back Better/New Green Deal socialism, which is bad for the country. I would think Republicans should be united on stopping the radicalism of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and the progressive caucus.

You know, I wonder if we can count on or rely on Joe Manchin more than Mitch McConnell at this point.

KENNEDY: Well, as I’ve said to you before, Sean, I don’t — I don’t hate anybody, and I look for grace wherever I can find it.

But I know what I believe and I am not going to vote to allow Senator Schumer and President Biden to borrow the money to pass the Build Back Better bill, and I’m certainly not going to do it when he can do it on his own.

Now, if he chooses to default on America’s debt, you know, that’s his decision. But it’s his decision alone.

HANNITY: Let me ask you about — we have one foreign policy crisis after another. You see the troops now, Putin amassing a hundred thousand troops on the border with Ukraine. You see, in China, they’re talking about reunification really the takeover of Taiwan. Their fighter jets are flying all over Taiwan airspace. Sanctions have just been lifted off of Iran.

I don’t understand any of those decisions, but I do believe that it is happening because they perceive Joe Biden is in a cognitive decline? He’s weak and he’s frail and they believe and have concluded, I believe, that he won’t lift a finger to stop any of it.

KENNEDY: Here’s what I think is going on, Sean — first, this is a serious matter. What President Putin has done is implement the single largest military buildup in Europe since the Cold War.

President Putin is a wolf. I think he thinks that President Biden is weak. I think he thinks that President Biden is a sheep in sheep’s clothing, particularly after Afghanistan and weakness invites the wolves. It’s just that simple.

Now, here’s what I think we ought to do. I think President Biden needs to call President Putin back and say, look, if you invade Ukraine, Ukraine’s going to fight back, and we’re going to put the full force of the United States behind them in terms of arming them and we’re going to ask all of our allies to make sure they’re properly armed too. We’ll at least find out who our friends are.

Number two, I think President Biden needs to tell Mr. Putin that if you do this, we’re going to eliminate you from the international financial system. Not a sanction here and there, we’re going to cut you off. We’re going to cut you off like a dead stump, and we’re going to start by expelling you from the Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications system, so we can’t even transfer money.

Number three, I think President Biden needs to tell President Putin, look, I made a mistake. You know, I tried to be a nice guy and said I wouldn’t sanction Nord Stream 2. I was wrong, whether you invade or not beginning tomorrow, I am going to sanction the living hell out of Nord Stream 2.

Germany’s going to be upset. I love Germany, but on the in this instance, they need to call someone who cares. We need to sanction Nord Stream 2, so President Putin knows we are serious and if he does all that I think he’ll avert the crisis. If he doesn’t, we won’t.

HANNITY: By the way, I add one other thing. Then, we need to produce more energy here and send it over there and then Germany will like us again, and won’t be reliant on a hostile regime and a hostile actor.

KENNEDY: You’re absolutely right. We’ve got enough natural gas if President Biden will let us produce it, that we can — we can send as much as Europe needs.

HANNITY: Senator Kennedy, you’d do a better job as president any day. Thank you for being with us.

Now, breaking earlier, Biden’s pick for bank regulator, a one-time devout communist just withdrew her nomination after bipartisan outrage surrounding her radical positions against capitalism. And meanwhile tonight, despite multiple self-inflicted crises at home and abroad, top Democrats on the Hill, along with Liz Cheney are now spending almost all of their time focused on one issue, the capital riot on January 2020.

We, of course, have condemned it here on this program. There is no commission for let’s see the 500 and some odd riots that took place in the summer of 2020, you know, riots that resulted in dozens of dead Americans, thousands of cops that were hit with bricks rocks, bottles, Molotov cocktails and injured. The billions of dollars in property damage from looting and arson. They don’t seem to care about any of those riots.

And the January commission — well, in the case of Liz Cheney, you kick off Jim Jordan, Jim Banks, and this is a decision. They’ve already made, a predetermined outcome when they kicked those guys off.

Now, we’re learning more that, in fact, the National Guard, Donald Trump in fact asked for it two days before. And we know that the chief of the Capitol police asked for it and was denied act denied the guard. Why? Why were guard members now whistleblowers saying that they were told to stand down?

And I know what Liz Cheney’s motives are. She wants to purge the party of Donald Trump.

Now to that end, Democrats have now subpoenaed multiple former Trump advisers and White House staffers. One of them includes chief of staff Mark Meadows, and he’s tried to comply — at this point, he’s using executive privilege. He joins us now.

Now, he’s written a terrific new book. I’ve read it cover to cover. I love it. It’s on amazon.com if you want a first edition copy. It’s in bookstores everywhere, as of today, and on hannity.com, “The Chief’s Chief”.

Mark Meadows is with us.

Let’s start with January 6. Did Donald Trump want — now this is the same Donald Trump that said many of you will now peacefully and patriotically march to the Capitol so your voices may be heard, that same guy — did he or did he not ask for the National Guard knowing that there would be big crowds in D.C. beforehand?

MARK MEADOWS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Well, Sean, you’ve reported on this before. You know, it doesn’t get much attention. I can tell you that not only did Donald Trump want to make sure the National Guard was available. He repeated that a number of times and I think that there are a number of people that he’s communicated with that can back me up on that particular assessment.

You know, in addition to that, we can all condemn what happened on January and rightfully so. But I’m not aware of anybody in the West Wing that had any advanced knowledge that the security was going to be breached at the Capitol.

That being said, as you mentioned, the January 6 Commission is continuing on. We’ve been trying to work with them in a spirit of accommodation to actually share what we know from a non-privileged standpoint while making sure that executive privilege is protected. The president has claimed executive privilege. I’m going to honor that. I’m not going to be the first chief of staff to actually waive that.

It’s not mine to waive, and it’s really not Congress is to waive. So, unfortunately, it looks like —

HANNITY: Let me ask you a question about it, because Liz Cheney is joining with others and they’re talking about holding you in criminal contempt as early as tomorrow. Your reaction?

MEADOWS: Well, obviously, they’re going to have to do and they’re a separate body. I can tell you that we’ve tried to work with the committee to provide them and even offered them other options in terms of answering questions that if this is — got a true legislative intent, we want to help them fix the problem where it never happens again.

But I can tell you that — you know, they’ve been pretty aggressive about holding people in contempt and, you know, they’ll do what they need to do and at this point, hopefully, the courts can work it out.

HANNITY: Yeah, when they kicked off Jim Jordan and Jim Banks, it was a predetermined outcome and Liz Cheney’s mission is to align with the very people that called her father a murderer, a war criminal and a crook, to align herself with those people and the worst foreign policy in American history with more weakness.

One of the things I really liked about the book and I know other things got, you know, the false positive and you were clear about that on COVID. It was so stupid the way the media covered it. But more importantly, you bring us inside the White House in a very different way, all these — than all these anti-Trump books.

And you speak glowingly of a president that works round the clock, never stops and kept his promises and it worked for the country as we now have learned in the last months.

MEADOWS: Well, it works for the country because he was working 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I mean, he was working me under the table.

But more importantly than that, you know, you have this lead in about what we’re seeing with Russia and Ukraine. I can tell you, it was a leader in President Trump who was strong. He didn’t say change your expectation. He says live up to your expectation.

And what happened is Vladimir Putin has changed his expectation. He expects weakness from the Oval Office and so that’s made him far more aggressive. It’s well beyond just Nord Stream 2. It really goes to the foreign policy initiative that we’re seeing coming out of the White House and sadly, it is very weak.

HANNITY: Two things I think define the Trump presidency and you capture this in the book, a guy that made promises and kept them, but also a guy that was tough with China and Russia and Iran. And I do believe that the world believed Donald Trump would act if provoked. I don’t think that exists today.

MEADOWS: Well, without a doubt they knew that he would act.

The other thing is when it was candidate Donald Trump, they were all concerned that we would be on the doorstep of a war if it was President Donald Trump. Not only did he strike a peace deal — historic peace deals, we didn’t have to worry about a new war because he was willing to show the might of the American people in every situation — and candidly, you know, I miss those days.

HANNITY: Yeah. Well, the book’s phenomenal, as I said, in bookstores as of today. “The Chief’s Chief”. It’s also on amazon.com if you want a first edition print copy, and hannity.com as well.

Mark, we’ll have you back on to talk more about it. Thank you for being with us.

All right. Coming up fake news CNN’s Don Lemon has some explaining to do after text messages he allegedly sent Jussie Smollett came up in court. We’ll tell you what they said.

And a reporter caught up with Alec Baldwin last night in New York City, and, well, the Hollywood liberal was not too happy about it, We’ve got the proof to show you straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

HANNITY: Well, apparently, more media malpractice from fake news CNN tonight after host Don Lemon completely ignored new revelations that he was texting Jussie Smollett to discuss an act of police investigation after the actor claimed that he was attacked by Trump supporters on the streets of Chicago. This goes back to 2019.

Smollett testified this week that he learned authorities were questioning his allegations after being tipped off by Don Lemon. Now, why didn’t Lemon mention any of those key details as part of his coverage and what is the full extent of his involvement in the saga? Because remember Lemon was one of Smollett’s biggest defenders, even as overwhelming evidence began to emerge suggesting that Smollett had staged the attack.

For example, here’s what Lemon had to say back in 2019. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: My concern is for him, and for his well-being. Every day, I say I know you think I’m annoying I can show you a text I know you think I’m annoying you, but I just want to know that you’re doing it — that you’re okay. You need somebody, you can talk to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: I ask again if CNN ever care about the real facts or reality or what we learned this week or they continue to fuel hoax after hoax they did three and a half years of the Russia Trump lie hoax conspiracy theory.

Meanwhile, here in New York, embattled actor Alec Baldwin — yep, another outburst last night after being questioned about his claims was not pulling the trigger in the fatal film set shooting. That took place, take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: What brings you to New York City?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I ask you to leave Mr. Baldwin.

REPORTER: Mr. Baldwin, why — who’s here?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I ask you to go away. Please go away.

ALEC BALDWIN, ACTOR: You don’t get to photograph under somebody’s private home.

REPORTER: This is not —

(CROSSTALK)

REPORTER: This is public property.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go away.

REPORTER: Who’s here? did you really not pull the trigger?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, an investigation is ongoing. We have more questions than answers, as it relates to Biden’s — Baldwin rather public remarks, prompting the actor and his wife to delete their social media accounts. I think they’ve done that before.

Here with reaction, the co-host of the Clay Travis/Buck Sexton show, Outkick founder, Clay Travis, FOX News contributor Joe Concha.

Good to see you both.

All right. Let’s start with Jussie Smollett — I don’t have a problem with Don Lemon. You know, CNN has a problem because they all call all these opinion hosts talk show hosts which I am. They say that they’re journalists. They’re not journalists, Joe. They’re talk show hosts. Members of the media, members of the press but they’re not honest about who they are.

Separate issue, I don’t have a problem with him texting Jussie Smollett at all. If he’s trying to get information or trying to be a friend, I don’t have a problem with that.

The question is what, did it impact his coverage and is he not reporting on all the information, for example, that came out at this trial that’s pretty damning to Jussie Smollett?

JOE CONCHA, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Sean, it’s activism in broad daylight. Here you have — according to Jussie Smollett — who, you know, granted he’s like the Adam Schiff of the acting community, but, you know, he did testify that Don Lemon contacted — I thought you’d like that — his sources in the Chicago police department and passed back to Smollett that they didn’t believe his story and led Smollett to hold evidence in the investigation, namely his phone, which was a very key piece of evidence.

So, yeah, it’s more than just a friend reaching out to a friend to make sure that he’s okay or maybe to try to secure an interview. He’s now involved in an active police investigation and sharing information with Smollett that led him to hold information.

Now, CNN needs to address this. But as is their MO, they won’t say or do anything until they absolutely have no choice to do so.

HANNITY: Let me play devil’s advocate. I don’t want to defend Don Lemon here.

CONCHA: OK.

HANNITY: But if he’s saying, do you have any comment, police are reporting or there are reports that in fact you’re a suspect in this case and that you’re being investigated, is — would that be fair for either a talk show host or a somebody that calls himself a journalist to do?

CONCHA: It’s one thing if he was reaching out for comment he was reaching out on a personal level because if that was the case, since Smollett would have come on his show, he did go on ABC with Robin Roberts and you would do an interview at that point. But this seemed to be more Lemon injecting himself here.

And look, I really paid attention to what John Malone had to say on CNBC recently. He’s now CNN’s leading shareholder, Sean, and Malone’s a pretty big deal in media. And he said that CNN needs to get back to doing, you know, journalism like it used to in the days of Bernard Shaw. He even praised FOX News in the process while on CNBC, what a world?

But I’ll leave it here, okay? The word is you’re going to see some major changes coming to CNN in 2022. The question is, can you put Humpty Dumpty back together, Sean? My kids say apparently, no, it cannot be done.

HANNITY: I’m going to let that one go. You’re leaving it wide open for me.

Clay Travis, your take?

CLAY TRAVIS, OUTKICK FOUNDER: Look, Don Lemon at an absolute minimum, Sean, should have to address his audience and explain why his name was involved in court testimony. Now, it’s also worth repeating but we don’t really trust Jussie Smollett very much. So exactly what he was saying Don Lemon did, it could be as Joe was saying that he was trying to get an interview and being as friendly as possible in the hopes that that was going to end up happening.

But if he truly was involved in telling Smollett that, hey, the police don’t believe you and he impacted the overall trajectory of this investigation as a result now that that has occurred in public testimony under oath, CNN and even Don Lemon himself has an obligation I believe to their viewership to explain what his role and relationship was in this overall story and look, look, they’ve already got an accusation of sexual assault against him.

They got to replace now Chris Cuomo, the entire CNN network may end up with Brian Stelter having to do 15 straight hours before all is said and done because he might be the only guy they have left which you would think their ratings can’t get any worse but I tend to think if Stelter were the only guy, Sean, maybe they would even get lower than they are right now. They’re in a rough spot.

HANNITY: I think they could probably use both of you to help them out. That would change dramatically, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.

TRAVIS: I’m banned. I’m banned for life, Sean. They don’t allow me to come on.

HANNITY: Why? Because you sell “Let’s go Brandon” t-shirts?

TRAVIS: Yeah, oh, yeah, because I come on your show. They hate you, but in all honesty, I went on like five years ago, and they still haven’t recovered from it.

HANNITY: Why would they hate little old me? I never call for any of them to be fired although they’re pretty — their ratings are horrific.

All right. Thank you, Clay, and thank you, Joe Concha.

When we come back, the co-hosts of “The View” don’t seem to be too happy that Dr. Oz is running for Senate. We’re going to tell you what they said. Dr. Oz will respond. That’s coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Last week, Dr. Oz announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate from the state of Pennsylvania, outlining his vision for an America first, Make America Great Again agenda. And, of course, that immediately prompted scorn and attacks from the media mob, very predictable. You know daring to question their far left orthodoxy.

Just listen for example to the smears from that hard-hitting news show on ABC called “The View”. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOY BEHAR, THE VIEW CO-HOST: What happened to him what happened to him he’s gone over to the dark side?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He said this: I tell you, schools are a very appetizing opportunity. I just saw a nice piece in “The Lancet”, which is a medical journal arguing that the opening of schools. It may only cost us two to three percent in terms of total mortality, and he was arguing that we should open up schools.

And my thought was, so you’re willing to sacrifice the lives of our children?

BEHAR: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was he willing to sacrifice the lives of his children and his grandchildren? And that’s when — right — and that and that’s when I saw — that’s when I saw the turn in him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Here with reaction, Republican Senate candidate for the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Emmy Award-winning TV host, Dr. Oz is with us.

All right. I thought we’d do this a little differently tonight. We’ll do kind of like a rapid round for people. I noticed you answered the question about your connections to Pennsylvania. You were attacked on that.

There are people all over the Internet saying you’re anti-Second Amendment. Is that true?

DR. MEHMET OZ (R), CANDIDATE FOR U.S. SENATE IN PENNSYLVANIA: No, I’m strongly pro-Second Amendment. I’ve got my carry, conceal. I own guns, and I think everyone should have a right to bear arms. It’s in the Constitution.

But can I say one thing before the rapid fire?

HANNITY: Yeah.

OZ: I want to say this last week has been absolutely life-changing, and millions of video viewers on doctoroz.com which I think people ought to follow lots of action, there are overwhelming calls from voters liking our message. I’m going to come back to that because of what the comments were offered on “The View” and other outlets.

I traveled to Christmas markets to visit with county Republican leaders. The campaign has made me so much more confident than it already was about America’s future. And these great ideas, they’re going to empower us to fix health care and education and the economy.

And I got to say what this specific things that we’ve been exposed to have changed my views because I realize that innovation and capitalism work. We can cut costs and save lives.

And I’ll tell you, the Hippocratic Oath, Sean, you know, is we always put our patients first. If I can be your public servant for the people of Pennsylvania, I will put voters first. That’s where they haven’t been in a while.

HANNITY: Where do you stand on education? And because I think, if kids don’t get a good education, basically you’re ripping out the rungs of the ladder to success in life. Is — can we do better than what we’re doing now? I don’t think we could do much worse.

OZ: We can do lots better and parents are worried about education because every parent wants their child to outperform then. Yet, we’ve got schools which offer values to kids that don’t align with what the parents want and parents can’t use the usual private sector solutions. They don’t have school choice. They don’t have charter schools that they can take their kids to. And charter schools cost less, provide better quality education and ought to be part of the puzzle.

But here’s the biggest issue at all, it ought to be dealt with at the local level. And too often, parents don’t have any voice they can’t get their schools to respond because they’re controlled at a much further distance than just the local school playground.

HANNITY: All right. Let’s go a little quicker, defund, dismantle, no bail laws in cities. We see these you know robberies now every single night. Your reaction? What’s the answer?

OZ: The answer is you have high quality police officers. We need law enforcement. It’s not working.

This city where I am right now had its 501st murder last week of a college student. The person who murdered him had actually been picked up earlier for a carjacking but was released. This is the kind of stuff that drives people understandably crazy, but it also undermines the very sanctity of our society which is safety. We need that.

HANNITY: Let’s talk about abortion. Hot topic issue. We just had a case in Mississippi argued before the Supreme Court last week. It might change the viability from 23 weeks to 15 weeks. It might send abortion laws back to the states.

Your thoughts?

OZ: I’m pro-life, and with the three possible exceptions of the mother’s life, rape and incest. That’s how I stand.

HANNITY: Yeah, which is a pretty common position for many in Pennsylvania.

Let’s talk a little bit about immigration. You talked about in your announcement that your parents came to this country legally. We see what’s happening at the border. Your — what would the answer be for Dr. Oz?

OZ: I think what the prior administration did was very wise. You don’t let immigrants across the border. That sends a message to cartels to stop human trafficking and also opiate trafficking across the border, which is what’s going on right now.

And because it succeeds, the cartels go back and get more folks to bring them across the border. Again, the only way to prevent this problem is to stop it at the point at which these people are entering into our nation.

HANNITY: What about the role of advice and consent and the type of justices you would want to want on the U.S. Supreme Court and other judgeships?

OZ: I think judges should follow the Constitution. They should read it carefully and adjudicate conflicts based on what the Constitution states. We don’t want to legislate from the bench.

HANNITY: How concerned are you about the troops amassing on the border with Ukraine, Vladimir Putin? How concerned are you about Chinese fighter jets flying over Taiwan and China talking about reunification? How are you feeling about lifting the sanctions to Iran which Joe Biden have — has done?

OZ: All three are major concerns. Let’s talk about China for a second. You know, we don’t want Taiwan compromised. Taiwan is a major producer of vital products, including semiconductors, but it’s also wrong.

This is a country that should have its autonomy. We want the same for the Ukraine. We want the same for people around Iran.

The United States has been there as a Lone Star, as a North Star for many of these countries. We need our country to be strong so people can look to us for leadership.

HANNITY: Why would Dr. Oz give up — I don’t know what your salary is but you have a successful daytime syndicated show. I would probably guess millions and millions of dollars to get into this I call it an Adam Schiff show. It’s — I say it affectionately.

Why would you enter the world of politics where by every definition it’s a blood sport and you know you’re going to take the slings and arrows? Why?

OZ: Because I love my country. I want to serve this nation.

I witnessed what happened during COVID, which I thought was reprehensible. Politicians didn’t know what to do, barked out draconian orders that they thought would make us safer but they didn’t. They closed parks, we can do better.

And the ladies of “The View,” if I can offer one big challenge here, we should be able to speak our mind openly. And if truly you’re going to look (ph) the name of the show, please do that. Understand why I’m doing this, why would I give it up?

I’m not going to the dark side. I’m actually having conservative values because they mean a lot to me. I love our country.

HANNITY: All right. Dr. Oz, we’re going to follow this race. It is a crucial Senate race. Thank you for being with us.

All right. When we come back Biden’s vaccine mandate for federal contractors just delivered a major blow. Now, we’ll explain and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem will react, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. So, the worst New York City mayor, Comrade Bill de Blasio, is leaving town. On his way out, he’s now implementing vaccine mandates for kids 5 to 12 years old. In other words, if the kid’s not vaccinated, they can’t eat at a restaurant, they can’t participate in any indoor activity in New York City.

Now, FOX News digital asked New Yorkers their reaction to these very, very rigid restrictions. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this point, it’s like, you know, if you’re not vaccinated, it’s like what are you doing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel — you know, I feel bad. This whole thing, it should not be this way. I mean, I don’t know why people have to lose their jobs they don’t want to get vaccinated or they’re not vaccinated whatever.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think everyone should get vaccinated. We’re all at risk from people who aren’t vaccinated.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can appreciate protecting and safety of the public I think that’s really, really important. But I think that he has his own agenda right now to get this stuff in beforehand, and why? What we’re not in a silo here. We know that there’s a new a new mayor coming in. So, why, why is he doing it now?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And breaking tonight, Biden’s vaccine mandate was dealt yet another legal reality check, with a federal judge in Georgia granting an injunction to block implementation of the federal contractor vaccine mandate nationwide. That’s four wins and four losses for Joe.

Thankfully, there’s still some sanity left in other parts of the country. Leaders are standing up against one size fits all medicine, and these restrictive vaccine mandates. For example, let’s look at the state of South Dakota. They continue to be a beacon of hope and freedom in the fight against the never-ending COVID rules and far-left lunacy.

Here to explain more, governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem, is back with us.

Governor, from the very beginning you said to the people, the citizens in your state, you said, we’ll give you all the information and I trust that you will make the right decision for you. And that has served your state well and other Republican governors, many of them followed suit, and some of them with high density populations as well.

GOV. KRISTI NOEM (R), SOUTH DAKOTA: Uh-huh. We did and it worked. People that were given personal responsibility took that seriously. They made good decisions in our states now are thriving. Where those under dictators and Democratic governors that made very different decisions are still suffering today.

Listen, our economy is the best economy in the country. Our people are thriving here. We have tripled the amount of revenue growth in one year that we typically do what our average is. We’re investing in long-term infrastructure projects, putting more money into reserves than we ever have before, and our people are doing very well.

Sean, I promised the people of South Dakota that I would fight for them and defend them from the federal government. We were a part of every single one of those challenges to these vaccine mandates and we’ve won every single one of those challenges now.

Biden knew he did not have the authority to do what he was doing. He was hoping to bully businesses into mandating to their employees, and now, we’ve overturned what the federal government’s agenda is and these businesses are backing off. I think you’ve seen the news on some of these health care organizations like the Cleveland Clinic, other businesses, say we’re not going to mandate anymore. We recognize that we need people to have an option, to have a choice.

HANNITY: We reported on this program, it was four six weeks ago somewhere there. And we went to the CDC’s own website, and it was 0.0008 percent, 162 kids at the time, 5 to 11, that died from COVID during the pandemic. Many of them we found out also had pre-existing conditions and under underlying health issues.

It’s almost the exact same percentage of kids we lose every year from the flu. So the question is why, if it’s not killing children, why would — why would somebody like De Blasio insist on a vaccine for a five-year-old to get into a restaurant?

NOEM: It’s about control. It’s about a control issue and reworking this country into what they see as a better model of government than what we have today. We’re a republic today. We allow people to participate in the democratic process and that is not what anyone wants to see in these Democrat leaders that are sitting in those seats.

So, that’s what’s interesting to me is that they are using fear and manipulation and control to promote their agenda and America is waking up to it. They’re pushing back. We’re seeing more people engaged than ever before and those of us in states that that trusted our people, we’re thriving. We’re doing great and the families here are very successful and their businesses are doing well.

HANNITY: Well, Governor, I’m an idiot for being in New York. I mean, I’m just — you know, I got to get the hell out of here. Great job. We always appreciate —

NOEM: Better for you to say that than me, Sean. We love you.

HANNITY: I need to get out of here.

Anyway, it’s great to see you, Governor. Thank you.

When we come back, more HANNITY right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Unfortunately, that is all the time we have left this evening. As always, thank you for being with us. You make the show possible. Please set your DVR so you never miss an episode of HANNITY.

But in the meantime, I have great news. Let not your hearts be troubled, “THE INGRAHAM ANGLE,” Laura Ingraham, is up next. I’ll see you tomorrow night.

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