Fox News "Hannity" - Transcript: Scalise compares Trump's Russia strategy to Obama's

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HANNITY: All right. On Monday, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise took to Twitter to defend President Trump.

And Congressman Scalise wrote, President Donald Trump went into this meeting with Putin from a position of American strength to combat Russian aggression. But it's important to remember how Russia was allowed to get to this point. He then gave a timeline of all of Obama administration's failures with Russia, starting with a reset.

He joins us now, the House majority whip, Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise.

Why don't you just go through this, because I didn't want to put it in my HANNITY history lesson because I thought you did a good job, but I did show Hillary with that silly reset button of hers.

REP. STEVE SCALISE, R-LA., HOUSE MAJORITY WHIP: And don't forget the cackle.

Sean, great to be back with you.

Look, there were so many different things that Barack Obama did when he was president. You know, he mocked Mitt Romney in that 2012 debate saying, you know, the '80s want their foreign policy back when Romney said Russia is a big threat.

The redline was probably one of those glaring points where he truly did go backwards in terms of strength, when he literally put that redline and said, Syria, you know, you've got to do these things, don't gas your own people, and, of course, after Syria gassed their own people, he sat back and let it go.

When the Ukraine -- I mean, you're talking about good friends of ours, allies of America were being invaded, President Obama sat by and did nothing. And Ukrainians, by the way, were asking the Obama administration, not for boots on the ground, but just for weapons to defend themselves. And he turned his back on them.

President Trump, by the way, in contrast, gave the Ukrainian missiles, gave them the ability to stand up to Russia. President Trump has stood up to Russia on a number of fronts. Obviously, that was one, expelling diplomats, President Trump increased sanctions, he worked with us in Congress to increase sanctions against Russia.

So, there's a big contrast between President Obama just ignoring --

HANNITY: Well, it's just like the president said it many times, yes, Russia did it. Yes, they meddled. Yes, they interfered.

It's sort of like, the left, if you're not backing up the Brinks truck and trying to bribe some kind of despot or dictator, if you're not making meaningless lines in the sand that you never have any intention of backing up, if you show weakness and if you appease, they like that.

Donald Trump didn't give a dime.

SCALISE: Keep in mind, Sean -- yes, keep in mind the meddling, the actual meddling in the election happened under President Obama's watch.

HANNITY: Exactly.

SCALISE: He was president. There is evidence that he knew something that was going on, he just didn't do anything because they thought Hillary was going to win.

So, you look at what President Trump has done, he's acknowledged there was meddling. We, by the way, and Chairman Nunes and his committee have done a great job, you pointed out, but Devin Nunes and his committee showed there was meddling, but there was no collusion between either campaign, and the meddling didn't have anything to do to change the outcome of the election.

We should still pursue it, and we are, but the meddling itself actually happened under Barack Obama's watch.

HANNITY: All right. Congressman, glad we have a few strong Republicans there who are willing to actually tell truth and give a proper history. Thank you for being one of them.

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