This is a rush transcript of “Hannity” on March 8, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: I’ll take it. Thank you, Tucker.

And welcome to HANNITY.

Again we begin tonight with a FOX News alert. You the American people, you are now paying more for a gallon of gasoline than ever before in the history of this country and it looks like it’s only going to get worse.

Now, Joe Biden’s bold strategy to — let’s see — beg foreign dictators and murderers and thugs to pump more oil, that’s not working out particularly well. In fact, according to an explosive report in “The Wall Street Journal,” the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, they won’t even take his phone calls. That doesn’t get any more humiliating than that.

Now, they are furious that Joe has become buddy-buddy with the mullahs in Iran once again. They are the number one state sponsor of terrorism in the world. Why he’s negotiating with freeing up sanctioned money tens of billions of dollars, why he’s talking about importing oil from Iran is beyond any comprehension I have.

And according to Joe, rising gas prices now — well, that’s not his problem. There’s nothing he can really do about it. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Do you have a message to the American people on gas prices, sir?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They’re going to go up.

REPORTER: What are you going to do about it?

BIDEN: Can’t do much right now. Russia is impossible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: It’s all Russia’s fault except the problem is something called the truth.

Now, Joe, gas prices have been rising since the day you were sworn in and you cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline, you put a pause on new oil and gas leases on all federal lands, you ended drilling an exploration in ANWR and Alaska. We have vast resources there, and rejoin the Paris Climate Accords. You know, the climate accords where we pay all the money and China and India are viewed as developing countries.

You also enacted new regulations and environmental restrictions on energy production and, yes, under Biden, America went from being a net exporter of energy to a net importer of energy in less than a year and Joel lied about that earlier today. We are now producing less energy than when Donald Trump left office, and that is just a fact.

And according to Biden, his new domestic energy restriction has nothing to do with the high cost of gasoline. Before Russia, Putin invaded Ukraine, we’re paying pretty close to a buck 50 more a gallon. We’re paying more to heat and cool our homes. And we’re also paying more for every item we buy and every store we go to because of Joe’s economic and energy policies.

But this is what he says.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Look, let me be clear about two other points. First, it’s simply not true that my administration or policies are holding back domestic energy production. That’s simply not true. Second, this crisis is a stark reminder to protect our economy over the long term, we need to become energy independent. I’ve had numerous conversations over the last three months with our European friends of how they have to wean themselves off of us Russian oil. It’s just not, it’s — it’s not tenable. It should motivate us to accelerate the transition of clean energy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Joe Biden is simply lying. If he wanted to lift the restrictions that I just laid out for you, that would be extraordinarily helpful to the energy producing companies in this country, but he’s not going to do it.

His Press Secretary Jen Psaki has been lying herself repeatedly suggesting — oh, the free market’s to blame. That’s another lie.

According to her, these greedy oil companies are — they’re just sitting on 9,000 unused approved drilling permits for no good reason at all, that we need to ask them. Why aren’t they using those oil fields that we gave them? Well, Jen, we did as you asked and it turns out you are deceptive and you’re dishonest.

Let’s look at what the American Petroleum Institute says. Leases are issued prior to exploration, not every acreage of lease land has resources to tap into. That’s why oil is kind of a boom bust industry, because you’re taking a bet that there might be oil underground and sometimes it doesn’t work out that way.

Now, currently, the percentage of leases in production is right now the highest in two decades. In other words, with few exceptions the leases that can be used, they are being used. That’s why Joe needs to lift all the restrictions that he put in place to please the radical green new deal socialist Democrats. Jen, do you got that?

Anyway, now the oil industry is begging for more access to drilling and exploration. And as the Petroleum Institute put it, quote, it’s time for the administration to support domestic production send a message that America is open for energy investment. Why not just be open and honest and say we made a mistake? We should never put these restrictions on the energy sector? That’s not within them I guess.

So, Jen Psaki’s more interested in auditioning for a new job at fake news CNN or MSDNC than actually serve you the American people that are paying the highest price in history for a gallon of gasoline. And according to the climate alarmist cult that is the new Democratic Party, America’s biggest threat is not record high gas prices or 40-year inflation high, no — or war in Europe or dependence on foreign oil. It’s all about climate change. They want us to now transition away from oil and gas as soon as possible.

Okay. So if you’re struggling to fill up your tank, if you’re struggling to heat your home if maybe you can’t buy the products that you really want to eat in the store because it’s too expensive — well, the ever so let’s see experienced transportation secretary, Mayor Pete, and Vice President Harris, they have a solution. Just go out and buy yourself a brand new $60,000 electric vehicle at your local dealership, if they even have cars.

Well — and while you’re at it, Kamala Harris wants you to imagine a world, imagine, close your eyeballs imagine for just a second a world without the need for oil and gas. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Imagine all the heavy duty vehicles that keep our supply lines strong and allow our economy to grow, imagine that they produced zero emissions. Well, you all imagined it, that’s why we’re here today, because we have the ability to see what can be, unburdened by what has been, and then to make the possible actually happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: I feel like I’m back in first grade whenever she gives a speech.

Anyway, if she’s ever president, we are in deep shift.

Anyway, of course, President Trump was right. He warned us the gas prices, they would spike under Biden and guess what? It’s now happening. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have so much oil — we have more oil than anybody, okay? And it’s an incredible thing that if it’s happened over the last few years, a lot of great things and you’re paying, what, two dollars a gallon for your gasoline, that’s okay. You know what that’s like, that’s like a tax cut. That’s bigger than a tax cut. If Biden got in, you’d be paying $7, $8, $9. And they say, get rid of your car, we’re going to build some more windmills.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: I’ll put that in the column Trump was right again, and that was not the only thing President Trump predicted correctly. In 2018, during his speech at the U.N., he warned that Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and gas and energy was a very dangerous game. And guess what? They panned to the German delegation when he was speaking about them and they were laughing. They thought it was hysterical. I wonder if they’re laughing today. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: 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 so 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: I wonder if those guys are still laughing today because Germany is essentially funding Russia’s deadly invasion. Congratulations, Germany, for hurting Europe once again.

Back here at home, gas prices, they’re through the roof. Everything you buy at every store you go to as I said more expensive we are now at a 40-year plus high with inflation.

Obviously, the border is a train wreck. The economy is a train wreck. Americans are still trapped in Afghanistan. That’s an unforgivable train wreck.

By the way, if you’re counting, today’s day 206 since Joe turned the page and abandoned our fellow Americans behind enemy lines. Joe Biden is in a steep cognitive decline, but congratulations to the Democrats, that means no more mean tweets. I hope it’s worth it to you. I hope that we can survive three more years of what has been the single worst administration in modern American history and especially the modern presidency.

Now, maybe Joe could learn a thing or two about leadership and bravery from the past. Maybe we can show him what courage really looks like. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WINSTON CHURCHILL, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We shall fight in France. We shall fight on the seas and oceans. We should fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be.

We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We can fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We will not give up and we will not lose. We will fight to the end, at sea, in the air, we will continue fighting for our land, whatever the cost. We will fight in the forest, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Blood, toil, tears and sweat, I doubt it’s words that Joe Biden would even recognize.

Anyway, here with reaction, former senior counsel to President Trump, Kellyanne Conway is with us, along with FOX News contributor Ari Fleischer.

I don’t think I do my best work with Winston Churchill, but I actually have audiotapes of him, Ari, and what an amazing leader he was during the bombing of Britain and I would argue Zelenskyy has shown great courage.

All right. So here we have a situation where the one option that would be most obvious to not only help ourselves, but our allies in Europe, would be to produce our own energy because we have all these vast resources. That is not even being considered. But what is being considered is we sent a group of people to Caracas in Venezuela to deal with that murdering dictator thug. We’re begging OPEC. They won’t even take Joe’s calls anymore. They’ve said no to increasing production numerous times.

And my favorite of all time is the mullahs of Iran that have threatened to wipe Israel and the U.S. off the map and chant death to both of us, we’re going to do a deal with them and give them tens of billions of dollars, no any time, any place inspections, and then we’re going to buy their oil and make Iran rich again? Is that what we’re going to do?

ARI FLEISCHER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: You know, Sean, if you put all of Joe Biden’s policies into tweets, could you imagine the uproar? But it’s worse than that because it’s his actual policies, it’s what he’s doing.

And today, he committed two grievous errors, terrible mistakes. He said no to Poland and yes to the Green New Deal. When he said no and essence has thrown up all these roadblocks to getting Poland to transfer their fighter jets to Ukraine, what’s he thinking? Shouldn’t we be helping the Ukrainians to defend themselves? He should have said to Poland to the United States and to NATO, figure it out, find a way, get it done.

And as for the Green New Deal people, all his policies have been aimed at appeasing the Green New Deal movement in America, which means, of course, less production of fossil fuels. And now, he pretends it’s not what he’s doing.

Of course, that’s a huge contributor to why the price of oil and gas has surged. Electricity has surged, home heating oil has surged. All energy costs have searched for the American people.

It’s a deliberate policy because he would prefer the Green New Deal and we don’t have time for windmills. We don’t have time for renewables. I’m all for them, let that develop over the next few decades, as much as we can get. But fossil fuels is what we need today, and he’s not delivering it.

HANNITY: You know, Kellyanne, I thought the MiGs from Poland, I thought we were supporting that yesterday and now it’s a no. Why deep in my heart do I suspect that word got to Joe Biden that that might make poor Vladimir Putin angry? And he doesn’t want to make him angry, just like they don’t want a no-fly zone imposed either because that might make him angry and that would mean that Joe and our allies might have to do something about what’s going on. And by the way, I’m a no boots on the ground person.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, FORMER SENIOR COUNSELOR TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: Clearly, Sean, we are showing America weak — American weakness just when the world wants us to show American strength. And Biden is this odd combination of feckless and reckless all at the same time, and Putin sees it, everybody sees it.

You know, today with energy, Joe Biden could have chosen Canada and Texas, and he chose Venezuela and Iran. Think about that everyone.

It’s one thing for him to want to push this green new deal as Ari, you know, say correctly, but it’s quite another, he never wants to admit that Trump was right about anything. And clearly on American energy independence, that Trump was absolutely right. And remember, Trump is also the one in 2019 who crushed Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, punishing him for the way he was treating and brutalizing his own people, starving them, a million plus refugees crossing the border from Venezuela elsewhere.

And in addition to that, just the production, the shale production, the Keystone pipeline, that was 42,000 jobs that Joe Biden killed on day one and about 800,000 barrels per day. So the answer is right here.

You know, fellows, people complain nothing’s made in the USA anymore. Well, we have energy under our feet and off our shores, and we ought to be tapping into that and everybody knows it.

In July of 2021, Jen Psaki blamed rising gas prices on seasonal surges. Today, Joe Biden’s blaming it on Putin’s war. But this country is very smart and people know, particularly those who have gas in their cars as a necessity, home heating as a necessity. They know that the price of fuel has doubled from the day — from Election Day 2020, to today March 8, 2022. It’s doubled and that happened long before Putin invaded Ukraine.

Sean, to wrap up your point, Joe Biden has two problems with the polls. One, the polls here, p-o-l-l-s, public opinion is against him on anything including this issue. And he’s got a problem with the Poles, p-o-l-e-s, because they’re challenging him and their challenge — and he should as you say go back to NATO and say figure it out. But he’s not even — he’s not even able to do that.

HANNITY: It’s pretty sad and unfortunately pretty predictable.

Kellyanne, thank you. Ari, good to see you.

Now, with more on the record high gas prices as the head of the petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, which, by the way, I heard your server crashed because so many people are looking for the right place to get fill up their tank. Patrick de Haan is back with us.

Patrick, what’s going on across the country now that we are paying more than we’ve ever paid before?

PATRICK DE HAAN, HEAD OF PETROLEUM ANALYSIS, GASBUDDY: Well, Sean, as you mentioned, our site has been struggling all week as motorists look for any low price options. There’s very few left. As you mentioned, the national average now at an all-time record high $4.25 a gallon here at this time tonight.

As you see in the chart, it’s been a fast and furious increase. Sean, we’ve never seen prices rise this quickly over the period of one week. The last time we saw anything like it was back in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit. That sent the national average up 49 cents a gallon in one week.

As I sit here this evening, the national average is up 61 cents a gallon. That’s only for gasoline, Sean. The price of diesel there in your shot you see at $6.99. The price of diesel nationwide is about to skyrocket to $5.50, potentially $6 a gallon, Sean.

HANNITY: So what is the answer? Obviously, is — do you think the answers is in Venezuela or Iran or OPEC? They won’t even take Joe’s calls anymore.

DE HAAN: Yeah, I think that’s a great question. I — you know, and Americans, we can do something still. A lot of us are filling our tanks more often, Sean. You know, I hate for us to go to Venezuela and ask the Saudis as you say. I mean, there’s a lot in there.

But as Americans, you know, we can also try and do our part as well band together. You look at what’s going on in Ukraine and how the Ukrainians are all banding together as a country. We as Americans can do the same thing by curbing our oil consumption at least for a couple of months, Sean, because you know what, that’s probably better than going to Venezuela.

I’ve talked to those in the Permian basin and in Canada, there’s so many supply challenges.

HANNITY: Patrick, with all due respect, between oil gas and coal, we have more energy than can last for one to two hundred years. So the fact that we’re not self-sufficient and the masters of our own destiny make zero sense to me, and begging dictators and thugs and murderers to do deals with us is not — it shouldn’t not be an option on the table. But apparently it is.

But it’s going to get — how bad do you think this gets in the end?

DE HAAN: Well, Sean, I think I think Russia is still in charge here of the end game. I think we could see the national average rise to $4.50 maybe $4.75 a gallon for gasoline, and it’s realistic that diesel hit $6.

And, Sean, we’ve been talking about those $5 prices, right, they’ve been confined to California for gasoline. Those might start popping up in areas like Chicago where I am, the national — or excuse me — the average in Chicago now, $4.65 a gallon. So you’re going to start to see this hit more of mainstream America.

HANNITY: I paid over $4.50 a gallon for a gallon this weekend.

Patrick, thank you.

Here now with a full report from L.A. County where gas prices — they are the leader now — approaching $7 a gallon in some areas, investigative reporter Sara Carter is with us.

Sara, can you pan in? I want to see that sign behind you.

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Oh, yeah. You can see right behind me, Sean, the gas is $5.75 for premium. We’ve got like $5.65 for regular unleaded. It’s incredible.

The residents here — I’m actually in Burbank, California, right now, and the residents here in California say these are actually reasonable prices compared to what they’re paying for in Los Angeles or Beverly Hills. For example, we were just 30 minutes away where gas was as high as $7.55 a gallon for premium and $6.95 for regular unleaded. Residents say they’re really feeling the pinch on their pocketbooks and they’re even more concerned about how bad this is going to get.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARTER: Are you surprised at how high gas prices are?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. You know what? I’m not agree what the president said for the war, this is this price was before to the war starts.

CARTER: You’ve seen the rising gas prices. You have a big truck. I mean, do you expect it to keep going up?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hopefully, it doesn’t. But right now, I’m filling up them we’re $120.

CARTER: What were you filling up before?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: $85.

CARTER: So that’s a lot of money, that’s a lot of change.

What’s the worst case scenario?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don’t know, start running.

(LAUGHTER)

CARTER: They’re just going to keep going up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Start jogging, get a bike or electric. But still, you know some people can’t afford that.

CARTER: If you had a message for President Biden, for your lawmakers, what would it be?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We’re struggling, we’re struggling, and this is scary.

CARTER: Do you feel as though the president is not listening to those American people?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He don’t care about us. He don’t care about anybody, not you, anybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARTER: Five seconds.

Sean, residents are having a really hard time seeing the glass is half full. They say this is really tough times for them. They really want energy independence. That’s something I heard over and over again. Whether they were supporters of President Biden or whether they did not support him, they really wanted to see America become energy independent and less dependent on foreign energy.

And I think that’s the point that they want to make to the White House and to their lawmakers — Sean.

HANNITY: You know the irony, Sara, is right off the coast, California is a lot of — energy supplies that I guess will never tap into. We’ll just deal with murdering dictators, the mullahs in Iran, and Maduro in Venezuela.

Sara, thank you for that report. Appreciate it.

Now, quick note, as Putin’s bloody invasion of Ukraine continues, we are encouraging all of our viewers, if you want to support the innocent men, women and children that desperately need help and support the Red Cross and their mission, FOX News Corp by the way recently made $1 million donation to help those in need, who are now fleeing their homes in Ukraine, basically with the bag that they can carry. It’s a sad scene to watch, pushed out of their homes under the threat of being bombed out of their homes. Anyway, our prayers were with all of them.

And meanwhile, the Biden administration has officially banned oil imports from Russia, but they’re now standing in the way of a Polish plan to supply Ukraine with MiG fighter jets that were seemingly that they were fine with yesterday. It looks like Joey clearly is afraid of Vladimir Putin and caved at the last minute.

The administration is also refusing to open up oil and gas production right here in the U.S. So we have vast resources, as we’ve been telling you. In order to supply our allies in Europe, we could help them out as well. We could bring down the costs of filling up our tanks and the cost of heating and cooling homes and the costs of every good in service that we buy.

Anyway, what does it really mean for you, the American people?

Here with analysis, founder, executive director of Power of the Future, Daniel Turner, along with FOX business contributor Phil Flynn.

Phil, I mean, the main thing is, is how does this impact people? When you have a 40-year high of inflation and Wharton School of Economics says that’s going to impact that — inflation alone will impact American families between $3,500 to $5,000 annually. Now, we’re looking at these gas price increases, the predictions now are that will cost families an additional $2,000 a year.

Americans cannot afford this type of money we’re talking about here. What’s your take?

PHIL FLYNN, FOX BUSINESS CONTRIBUTOR: They can’t. They can’t. That is what I call the misery index live. You know I’m an oil and gas analyst and when gasoline prices go up like they do, my phone rings off the hook and I feel the pain in their voices.

And I know the elites in Washington and the green energy guys, they don’t really understand what it takes that you are living check to check and you not be able to drive to work because you can’t fill up your gasoline tank. So this is one of the most sensitive issues that we’ve ever had.

The Biden administration, though, coming in basically said, hey, if I’m president, your gas prices are going to go up. He said he was going to be the most green energy labor, you know he was a believer in the green new deal or Biden’s green energy plan, and guess what? You’re seeing that green energy price deal at the gas tank right now.

HANNITY: You know, maybe it’s — maybe it’s me, Daniel, but I think it’s beneath the United States of America, especially with the vast amount of natural resources we have, energy resources to be specific to turn around and start kissing the asses of mullahs in Iran, murdering dictators in Venezuela and kissing the asses of OPEC nations that have already rejected Joe Biden’s begging and pleading to produce more oil. I think it’s beneath us. Do you?

DANIEL TURNER, POWER THE FUTURE FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Absolutely, especially considering the amount of resources we have here in America. And just today, Sean, after the president’s remarks, he went to Houston for another purpose. And Houston’s the capital of America’s energy industry.

I imagine the statement would have made if he said while in Houston, I want to meet with the oil and gas industry executives. Even just the political win of saying he sent an olive branch and I think he purposely didn’t do that because he wants to send a message to the environmental left. When he was running for office, he told his supporters he wanted to put oil and gas executives in jail. He told people when he didn’t think the cameras were rolling that he wanted to cancel fracking, he wanted to end fossil fuels in America.

So what we’re experiencing — yes, it’s economic, and yes, it’s national security, but quite frankly, it’s Newtonian. This is the opposite and an equal reaction to 14 months of Biden’s persecuting this industry and we are all feeling the pain.

HANNITY: Well, I want to ask both of you and maybe, Phil, I’ll ask you first. The administration now has taken many shots at the energy sector and accused the energy sector of price gouging. To me, they’re paying more for a barrel of oil, they still have to pay to get it refined and I assume the profit margin is not going to change.

Do you see — get — do you see price gouging or them keeping their profit level at the same — at the same — keeping their profits at the same level?

FLYNN: They’re — they’re — well, it’s a reflection of the rising cost of oil that is caused by Joe Biden and no, there’s absolutely no gouging. Listen, this is an administration that, you know, listen, follow the money or the lack of money, right? This is an administration that its own Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, okay, went to the banks after the G7 energy deal and said, listen, we want to make sure that no banks lend money to fossil fuel companies unless absolutely necessary.

They’ve weaponized the Federal Reserve to go after banks to look at their carbon footprints and say, hey, if you’re lending money to U.S. oil and gas, you know, you could be a — it could be a crime against climate. We’re going to go after you.

They’re going after pension funds, investors. I have customers, Sean, whose banks have closed their accounts, why? Because they’re oil producers. That’s un-American in my view and I think that kind of pressure on pension funds and investors is what’s really killing the U.S. energy industry right now.

HANNITY: All right. Thank you both for being with us. Daniel, Phil, we appreciate it.

Now, a top-ranking intel chief told the House panel today that Putin is unlikely to be deterred by the Ukrainian insurgency and that escalation is likely because the Russian dictator believes he cannot afford to lose on the world stage.

And meanwhile, Kyiv is now bracing for yet another onslaught by Russian forces as the country’s humanitarian crisis is worsening by the hour. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: We hear loud noise from bombs. And I didn’t like it.

(CRYING)

(MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to go home. I really want to go home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: You can blame Vladimir Putin for the sights and sounds you just saw.

Here with more on the ground, he’s in Kyiv tonight, the capital of Ukraine, FOX’s own Benjamin Hall.

Benjamin, what’s going on tonight?

BENJAMIN HALL, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sean, you’d have to look back at today and say that what we’ve seen is a continuation if not an escalation of what we’ve seen over the last week, increasing number of attacks on civilian areas, an inability to get humanitarian aid into these surrounded cities and an inability for people to get out of them.

In the city of Mariupol, for example, 200,000 people remain stuck there, stuck without food, water, or heat. It is the dead of winter right now, and the humanitarian crisis there is growing. There is a shortage of antibiotics and painkillers, and the death toll in that city is unknown. Putin’s bombs though, they keep falling.

There was one successful evacuation today from the northern city of Sumy, 3,500 people taken out on buses but others failed. According to the Red Cross, the routes to Mariupol had been mined and other corridors were shelled. Russia has now announced another ceasefire for tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. where they will try again.

Meanwhile, although Russian forces do continue to make some gains, they also continue to suffer major losses. This convoy was destroyed outside Sumy. That being said, despite the Russian setbacks, the sheer scale and size of the army means they keep coming.

Zelenskyy today spoke and called again for help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENSKYY: We are looking for your help, for help of the civilized countries. Please, increase the pressure of sanctions against this country and please recognize this country as a terrorist state, and please make sure that our Ukrainian skies are safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HALL: Around Kyiv, there are more scenes of desperation as Ukrainians try to flee young and old crossing the European river to reach the capital scenes, repeated across the country. The mayor of that town saying he would never surrender but would stay and fight. And that is a story and a message that we’ve heard from so many people here. They will stay and fight until the bitter end, and they will get some help as well.

We’ve now heard 40,000 foreign fighters have come to fight the Russians here in the country, whether or not it has the effect of holding them back remains to be seen. But the Ukrainians are doing a remarkably good job of it at the moment — Sean.

HANNITY: All right. Benjamin Hall, thank you tonight.

And now, even far left Democrats are taking aim at Biden’s Ukraine strategy. Congresswoman Omar of the Squad warning the Biden administration about sending Ukraine weapons, suggesting a lack of accountability, calling it, quote, unpredictable, likely disastrous.

Now, of course, the Ukrainians — they need the U.S. assistance to keep up the fight. But they also need Europe’s help. It’s in Europe’s best interest.

But Biden also failed to act soon enough. Now, remember, it was Donald Trump that sanctioned Nord Stream 2, and it was, oh, that’s right, Joe Biden that gave him a waiver. It was Donald Trump who provided Ukraine with the game-changing Javelin missiles. It was Donald Trump who warned Europe and NATO repeatedly about the dangers of Russian dependents on our — Europe’s dependence on Russian oil. He was right all along.

Here with reaction, Florida Congressman Michael Waltz, along with the author of the “Strategy of Denial”, former Trump Defense Department official, Elbridge Colby.

Bridge, let’s start with you. Without the Javelins, without the Stingers, they’ve got no shot. Are they getting them fast enough?

ELBRIDGE COLBY, FORMER TRUMP DEFENSE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, I think — I mean, as you said, Sean, it’s already a case of somewhat too little too late. But I think it does sound like their stuff is getting in there along those as they call them rat lines.

But I think, you know what Ilhan Omar said, these people are standing up for their country, for their lives, we need to give them what they need. They can’t fight with nerf bats or something, so we should be ensuring that they can get the weapons that they need very quickly, because in a conventional fight like this matters of sort of one or two percent can be mean a dramatic difference.

HANNITY: You know, Congressman, I’m a new book — I’m no boots — I want to be very clear, not one American soldier needs to be drawn into this at all. But I do believe that we have, Congressman, other options, as Elbridge was just saying, and that is to provide them the means to fight their own battle.

Now, we learned some a thing or two under Donald Trump. Now, under Biden and Obama, the ISIS caliphate was built out. Under Donald Trump, using modern warfare, weaponry and technology, he was able — with pinpoint accuracy — to have missiles fired and buttons pushed in Tampa Bay, Florida, that took out uh the entire caliphate and defeated them in no time. Why wouldn’t the same strategies be used by NATO allies in this case? And I’m not saying the U.S.

REP. MICHAEL WALTZ (R-FL): Yeah, Sean, and President Trump also understood deterrence and as Iran was ramping up, attacking, international shipping, attacking energy supplies, even attacking our embassy, he took out Soleimani, and authorized that operation and Iran was quiet ever since.

In this case, I just want to say one additional thing on the — on the Stingers, that Elbridge was talking about. They didn’t get them soon enough. They’ve been begging for them for months. We were briefed in the Armed Services Committee that the United States couldn’t send them Stingers because they — we didn’t have the type of variant, it had some classified technology on it, therefore, we couldn’t give it to them. Now, here we are eight weeks later finally giving it to them.

You know what the problem was, three screws to take a part off. That’s what it took, the administration months to figure out. Imagine if the Ukrainians had had those Stingers on the rooftops on day one. So I agree with you, not a — not one American boot on the ground but this administration too little too late.

And they also ask for anti-ship missiles to defend their ports. They haven’t — they didn’t receive them. If they had those, we’d be in a very different place in the Black Sea too. So, they’re trying to make up for it now, but it’s Zelenskyy that is rallying Europe and rallying the world not, not Biden who’s leading from the rear.

HANNITY: Elbridge, I’m having a hard time understanding this 40-mile convoy that has been stuck in one place. I don’t know, what, is it day four, five, six now? And two things I would have imagined would have happened by now, number one, the Ukrainians, if they had the weaponry, they would have taken out the whole convoy, that has not happened. Or number two, a worst case scenario for the Ukrainians is that convoy would make it into Kyiv, and there would be a massacre that I shudder to think about, but neither one has happened. Why?

COLBY: Well, I don’t think we know. I think the Russians seem to be trying to accumulate as much combat power as possible. I mean, they’ve they seem to have fallen off their original overly optimistic plan, which was kind of decapitate the country, and then just install a new government and sort of skedaddle out on their terms.

And now, they’re basically bringing mass. But they’re facing real problems, Sean. I mean, they have a lot of troops but fewer than 200,000, and now, there’s — the Pentagon’s saying they’re committed. And for a country the size of Ukraine, that’s pretty small.

So they’re having trouble, you know, achieving even their sort of early stage objectives. And I think here, Sean, our goal has got to be to walk a fine line, but achieve our goals and not be scared of our own shadow. Look, this — we’ve been down this road on the other side before in Vietnam, where the Soviets — now the Russians, and I mean, Vladimir Putin was in the KGB, so he knows this history. They made our lives very difficult.

So, in a sense, look, this is a very dangerous situation. This could escalate, I fully agree with you about boots on the ground and so forth. But we don’t have to sit back, and things like the MiG example — look, we have the CIA, we have Special Forces, we have ways of working these things out.

Congressman Waltz was talking about the Stingers. You go back to Afghanistan. We are we’re practiced to this. We need to dust that off and give the Ukrainians what they need as quickly as possible to have the effect that’s necessary, and essentially we have the Russians in a tough position.

HANNITY: But, Bridge, we had months we were watching this build up happen and everyone’s saying, oh, he’s just faking it, he’s never going to go in. I’m like — what about Georgia in 2008, what about Crimea annexed in 2014?

I want to ask you, Congressman, though, the same question. That convoy remains stagnant. They’re staying in the same place. Why hasn’t — why haven’t the Ukrainians taken them out? And why haven’t they made their move to Kyiv? And if they did, I don’t like the outcome that I think would happen.

WALTZ: Yes, Sean, well, the briefings we received, that convoy does have Russian anti-air defenses around it, and it is being protected by the Russian air force. So, even though the satellite imagery makes it look like a sitting duck, to actually get at it from the air is harder than it looks. But the fact that it’s stuck there is one due to Russian incompetence in command and control. But two, they have huge logistics problems. In terms of fuel and food —

HANNITY: Congressman, not to interrupt you.

WALTZ: Sure.

HANNITY: If they had Javelins, they couldn’t fire them at that convoy successfully?

WALTZ: They could get closer to it but they have to get behind Russian front lines. The tanks and armored personnel vehicles that are in front of that convoy marching towards — slowly grinding towards — grinding towards Kyiv.

Sean, this is going to get worse before it gets better. We are seeing them drop landmines on humanitarian convoys. They did that in Afghanistan. They disguised them as toys so that kids would pick them up.

They sent missiles into hospitals in Syria and my fear, and watch for this, they also in Syria had false flag operations to justify the use of chemical weapons.

And I fear that Putin is about to go to that next level, because he cannot lose for his own grip on power and the Russian doctrine is to break the backs of the Ukrainian people.

HANNITY: Is that your got or is intel showing that as a possibility?

WALTZ: I can’t get into what the intel is showing, but that’s what they’ve done historically. They did it in Syria, and it is part of their doctrine to continue to escalate. They are so panicked. And just watch for that.

HANNITY: God help us. Anyway, thank you both.

Unfortunately, tonight, Biden and Kamala Harris are as beholden as ever to the far left climate alarmist cold and their party, as they refuse to unleash the power of the U.S. oil and gas sector. They refused to restore America to energy independence because instead of taking steps to drill here, drill now and we will all save now, frack here and frack now we will all save money, Vice President Harris and failed Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the genius with the wealth of experience he has, all their answer is go by neck and electric car instead.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Imagine a future, the freight trucks that deliver bread and milk to our grocery store shelves and the buses that take children to school and parents to work, imagine all the heavy duty vehicles that keep our supply lines strong and allow our economy to grow. Imagine that they produced zero emissions.

PETE BUTTIGIEG, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Clean transportation can bring significant cost savings for the American people as well. Last month, we announced a $5 billion investment to build out a nationwide electric vehicle charging network so the people from rural to suburban to urban communities can all benefit from the gas savings of driving an EV.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: As long as we are all imagining, imagine America had a strong president, vice president and a transportation secretary that had a little bit of life experience, this would be great for Tesla. I’m intrigued by Elon Musk.

I love innovation, I love new technology. And it’s very expensive that people can’t put the gas in their car, I doubt they can afford some of these vehicles.

So instead of taking steps to lower gas prices, they just want you all to go out and buy a pricey new electric car. Look at your screen. By the way, this is a great car.

A friend of mine actually has one, a Tesla model 3. That will run you about 50 grand. I’m told for my friend, he really loves it.

The new Ford Mustang electric car, that cost about 45 grand. The Chevy Volt, not exactly the most impressive card want to drive, but that’s 30 grand, just to name a few.

And by the way, don’t forget, after you buy the car, you might have to install a pricey home charging station. That will cost you a lot. And for example, in New York, and installation can cost between $2,000 and $10,000 for parts and labor. Whoops daisy. Maybe some people choose to pay the high gas prices.

Now, could these far left lunatics be any more tone-deaf map. They are that out of touch. They don’t seem to care, completely disconnected from reality.

They’d rather have higher inflation then drill here, drill now, and save money. They’d rather literally push our allies into Putin’s arms then to drill here, drill now, frack here and frack now and supply their energy needs.

Here with reaction, FOX News contributor Miranda Devine, along with former senator from a great state of Massachusetts, now in New Hampshire, thank God, live free or die, Scott Brown is with us.

Scott, your take?

SCOTT BROWN, FORMER U.S. SENATOR: Well, first of all, what are going to tell the single mom was on a fixed income, her insurance is going up, her home heating and oil where I just drove by where we get ours, $5.49 a gallon now. We were playing like a buck 80 when I got home from New Zealand.

And then you look at is that the high cost of gas and you look at inflation with food. What you tell that single mom — by the way, go buy a $30,000 to $55,000, $60,000 electric car and then convert your house a little bit and plug it in. To plug it in, you’ve got to have a power source, and that’s usually run by oil or coal or some — in New Hampshire, nuclear, and we need immediately, all right, to have an all-hands-on-deck approach to our energy independence.

We are only taking 3 percent of Russian oil, taking 61 percent from Canada. And as you referenced already, we are begging, begging these countries that want to hurt us and change our way of life to produce more oil. It’s dangerous, it’s against our national security interests, and I imagine, as you just referenced, a vice president who will go down and be the borders are and stop the fentanyl coming into New Hampshire and imagine a president who gets back to reality and actually focuses on putting America first and getting back to the Trump policies on energy independence.

HANNITY: The only answer is election day. Miranda.

BROWN: Yeah, yeah.

MIRANDA DEVINE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah, for sure. And, Sean, you’ve just seen Pete Buttigieg, Mayor Pete, the transportation secretary just channeling his inner Marie Antoinette. It’s just pure callousness to be taunting people with this mythology about electric cars.

It’s a fraud because electric cars need baseload reliable power to be charged. So somewhere, there is going to be fossil fuels, and we are the fossil fools if we continue to allow these green climate crazies to starve the country of the natural resources that are under the ground, and, you know, for all the Joe Biden has handed to the green new deal people, it’s him who has created this hostile environment to fossil fuels.

HANNITY: And we pay higher costs for everything we buy. We give — it compromises national security by not being energy independent, and we lose high paying career jobs, we lose lower gas prices, energy prices. We lose helping our allies out. It’s a lose-lose scenario every which way you look.

All right, thank you both.

When we come back, MSDNC host Joy Reid found a way to make the war in Ukraine about race. We’ll show you what she said. We’ll get reaction. Lara Trump, Leo 2.0 Terrell next as we continue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Now, over at MSDNC, far left host Joy Reid is actually injecting race into the coverage of the war against Ukraine, claiming it’s getting so much attention because the people there are white and they are Christian. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOY REID, MSNBC HOST: As the world watches the devastation unfolding Ukraine, 4,000 miles away, another crisis is deepening that we don’t hear much about in the U.S., that is the war in Yemen. The coverage of Ukraine has revealed a pretty radical disparity in how human Ukrainians look and feel to Western media compared to their browner and blacker counterparts. Some reporters using very telling comparisons in their analyses of the war. Don’t we need to ask ourselves if the international response will be the same if Russia unleashed their horror on a country that wasn’t white and largely Christian?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Here with reaction, FOX News contributors Lara Trump is with us, Leo 2.0 Terrell.

Leo, you’re shaking her head.

I don’t even know how to answer that, but this is NBC News. That’s what I’ll say.

LEO TERRELL, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: That’s not news. That’s not news at all. Joy Reid, Sean, would not have anything to say unless she plays the race card. Her whole analysis is racism.

She ignores what is happening in Ukraine. She ignores the obligation of the world to stop a madman in Russia from destroying annihilating people. And what she is basically saying is it’s only because of skin color and religion? I mean, that’s how idiotic this statement is and insults where we are over there — we are over there because we are trying to stop a madman who invaded a country who is destroying a country, who wants to annihilate the country.

And, Joy, you need to understand, it’s children, women, and men, but I’m telling you, Sean, if Joy Reid cannot play the race card, she cannot bring anything to the discussion. That’s her entire analysis.

And it’s so sad because of one thing. Race has nothing to do with our commitment to stop Putin.

HANNITY: You know, Lara, you look at Crimea. That happened under Obama and Biden. You look at the rise of the caliphate and ISIS, that happened under Obama and Biden.

We didn’t have any Putin territorial ambition play out on the world stage when your father-in-law was president. And he did wipe out the caliphate, and he showed us how to do it without putting a boot on the ground and using modern weaponry and modern warfare technology, and he wiped out the entire caliphate and people barely give him credit for it.

LARA TRUMP, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah, and isn’t it a same that nobody knows that Joe Biden wasn’t paying attention to any of that. Obviously, Donald Trump — you know, he’s a guy that nobody wanted to mess with. He exuded strength and you have a very different situation on your hands right now.

But Leo is exactly right with Joy Reid, by the way. Everything that the Democrats talk about has to be infused with race. That is the only thing that they know. That’s the only card, as you said, that they have to play.

And isn’t it convenient that this is a bit of a distraction? If she talks about race in this scenario, then we don’t have to remember that it’s because of Joy Reid of her fellow Democrats that voted Joe Biden into office that likely this situation occurred because as you just said, we didn’t have the sort of thing happening under Donald Trump. That’s what happens when you put a weak and inept person in the office of president of the United States who makes decisions based on emotion and not facts. You get this sort of situation.

And it is very different over in Ukraine. You have a sovereign nation that is being invaded totally unprovoked by a lunatic, a madman, as Leo just said, and this isn’t basic warfare where they are targeting military bases and military against military. This is innocent men, women, and children being murdered. They are being targeted now by Vladimir Putin.

This is abominable and it cannot happen. We cannot just sit back and watch this and obviously not cover it, Joy Reid.

And since she brought up places like Syria, there was action taken in Syria when the innocent Syrian people had chemical weapons used against them not once, but twice, and yes, Joy, who did that? It was President Donald Trump who sent tomahawk missiles in two destroying airfield and make sure that these people knew never to use chemical weapons against their people again.

So action was taken of course by Donald Trump, but this whole thing was a disgusting situation to hear Joy Reid due, but not surprising of course coming from the Democrat Party. It’s all they know.

HANNITY: We have 15 seconds, Leo. They feared Donald Trump, didn’t they?

TERRELL: Fear, afraid, very jealous of his accomplishments. That’s why they are angry at him. They are jealous of him.

And let me simply say this. He’s going to be back in the White House in 2024, end of story.

HANNITY: He’s going to win the election. He will be back in 2025, just to be official.

All right. Leo, thank you. Lara, thank you.

More HANNITY next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: As we end tonight, how about a new rule, no oil imported from OPEC, Iran, and Venezuela? Drill, Biden, drill, frack, Biden, frack, and let America be energy independent.

Thanks for being with us. Thanks for making this show possible. Please set your DVR. Never miss an episode.

Our coverage continues. Let not your heart be troubled. Laura Ingraham takes it from here. Have a good night.

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