Fox News "Hannity" - Transcript: DeSantis and Gaetz on GOP calls for criminal investigations
Interview
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HANNITY: Great job, Savannah. Great job, Meghan McCain.
It's about time members of the media took the kid gloves off and asked some real tough questions. Like we've been saying, Mr. Comey, do you want to sit down for a real interview? I'll give you three hours on my radio show, 575 stations, and a full hour here on the Fox News Channel.
And, finally tonight, James Comey, his BFF Andrew McCabe, they appear to be headed for a really ugly breakup. This comes after Comey confirmed today that he kicked off the investigation that led to McCabe being fired. McCabe is now firing back at Comey, and saying that he disclosed to his former boss that he was leaking to the media.
The question is that since McCabe could face criminal charges, is he going to flip? Will he cooperate against Comey?
Joining us now with a reaction, two of the lawmakers that signed the criminal referral later today, Congressman Ron DeSantis of Florida, and Matt Gaetz, thank you both for being with us.
Congressman DeSantis, to me, this has been a long time building. This has been a long time coming. So often, we hear the attorney general say there's a process, if I get a referral, I will look into it. They have now not only the referral but the specific laws that you believe and I believe were violated in each case.
REP. RON DESANTIS, R--FLORIDA: Well, that's right, Sean. And he has this guy, Huber, who we now know, he's appointed. And I want to make sure that people like Huber know that these are -- this is information that Congress has developed. It's been in the public square, and then to focus on this stuff, because you have situations where Comey, he is out on this book tour acting like his values trump all, but yet he testified in front of the Congress that he didn't exonerate Hillary until after the interview, when we know evidence has come out that he exonerated her two months before with the memo.
Then you look at somebody like Andrew McCabe. He rushed into prosecute Michael Flynn. They went in, they interviewed him, and prosecuted him for false statements. McCabe lied to the FBI. It is documented now multiple times.
Is there a different set of rules for McCabe? This is all about equal application of the law.
HANNITY: Well, think about this, I mean, when Meghan McCain actually asked Comey today about, oh, well, I lie, I told some of my lies in the book and you could still lie and be a good person like Andrew McCabe, I'm saying, wait a minute. Does that apply to General Michael Flynn, who was charged with lying to the FBI?
Congressman Gaetz?
REP. MATT GAETZ, R--FLORIDA: Sean, if lies were music it, Jim Comey would be Beethoven. But when you lie to Congress, it's a crime. When you leak information that's classified, it's a crime.
And when you allow your personal politics to dictate the outcome of an investigation before you're even conducting the investigation in earnest that could be obstruction of justice. And so, in Congress, we did not just want to sit around and hope that Jeff Sessions and others would seriously look into these matters. We wanted to specifically detail the violations of law and then demand action from our attorney general because we cannot allow this to stand. The director of the FBI, James Comey, fired, the deputy director, Andrew McCabe, fired.
HANNITY: Well, here's the problem --
GAETZ: Strzok, fired and reassigned. It's all over the place.
HANNITY: And, Congressman DeSantis, this is a big problem. I know it has been over a year. We're waiting for the inspector general to finish his report on the Clinton email investigation, but here's what we do know -- he doesn't have prosecutorial powers.
Now, I understand that the attorney general put this other person in place and supposedly, they can work in conjunction with each other. Is that going to get the job done?
Let me -- here are the facts as we know them. Clinton violated 18 USC 793, mishandling classified information, top secret, special access programming information. She deleted 33,000 emails. She acid washed her hard drive with bleach bit, she beat the crap out of her devices or had an aide do it so that there's no record of it.
Is that not obstruction of justice? Is that not a violation of law? I mean, it's a simple yes or no here.
DESANTIS: That's why -- so, that's why it's so frustrating. Comey says that because Trump supposedly said that Comey, man, I hope you can find it to let Flynn go, that that is a potential obstruction of justice. But yet, when he was FBI director, he didn't pursue any obstruction of justice for the bleach bitting emails that were under congressional subpoena. Those were the critical emails in the Hillary Clinton investigation. And yet, Jim Comey didn't pursue that.
So, how could you be so zealous with everyone associated with Trump's campaign, but then bend over backwards, time and time again, to not go after obstruction, or to not go after Hillary?
HANNITY: All right. Great job today. This is a big day. Finally, now, it's moving. Thank you both.
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