Fox News "Hannity" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Jim Jordan

Interview

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First, joining us, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, Congressman Jim Jordan, along with former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

Mark, we start with you tonight. Your overall feeling about this.

And to me, I think one of the greatest weaknesses -- the reason I suspect Joe wouldn't stand next to Vladimir and do a press conference is because whatever they prepared for Joe to say probably before leaving Washington, if they stuck with the talking points and it didn't happen, Vladimir would have corrected him right then and there and embarrassed him on the world stage, that's my suspicion.

What's your take?

MARK MEADOWS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Well, obviously, that's one option. It's pretty pathetic when Joe Biden is more strenuous in his arguments with a reporter than he is with Vladimir Putin. You know, we believe that Vladimir Putin is going to change.

Here's what's going to happen -- he's going to get more and more bold. He saw the weakness of Joe Biden, the president of the United States. He never saw that when Donald Trump was in the White House.

Listen, here's the problem: he didn't get the easy questions from the seven hand-selected reporters that he had to call on. He didn't get to answer what color or what flavor of ice cream he liked. You know, when you're looking at Joe Biden, you have to think -- well, the curtains are blowing but the window must be closed.

HANNITY: You know, Jim Jordan, you were all over this. I was all over this. Mark Meadows was all over this.

When you really stand back, we heard nothing but three years of lies, a hoax and a conspiracy theory about Trump-Russia collusion. Okay, what did we learn? What is the truth?

That the only person that colluded in that paid for the dirty Russian disinformation dossier, that was Hillary Clinton and the DNC, and the deep state that then didn't verify it because it was all full of lies, as the bulk of information to secure FISA warrants to spy on candidate Trump and President Trump.

Okay, the -- I don't know of any Trump that got paid a penny from any oligarch in Russia, but I do know a guy by the name of Hunter with no experience that got three and a half million dollars from a Russian oligarch, the former first lady of Moscow.

How is it the media can get it all upside down and ass backwards? You got to help me out with that.

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): Yeah, the president's son gets paid by a Russian oligarch, by the wife of him, and you have Joe Biden taking off sanctions and approving the pipeline. I'm old enough to remember when the press called that collusion. But it's a whole different set of rules for this guy.

You asked the right question, Sean, in your monologue. What did we gain? What did America gain?

Absolutely nothing from this, and again, that's on top of what already happened with the sanctions in the pipeline.

Contrast this with President Reagan who said, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall, with President Trump who said America first all the time. And now, Joe Biden who says, oh, what can we do about climate change? What do we need to do? What do we need to give up?

That is what the world now sees and it is scary when you think about this is the guy making decisions and our adversaries see the exact same thing that you and I see and all your viewers see.

HANNITY: You know and let me go back to -- so I want to get your take on it, Mark Meadows, because you were -- you know, unfortunately, both of you were not very friendly to me because I would ask for information and you often hid it from me. But you knew it was true, you said, yeah, but I can't talk about it. And then I just asked the obvious question, am I over the target? And I might get some affirmation or read into it that I was getting affirmation.

But the reality is, it's the Democrats that bought the Russian dossier. The reality is Ukraine paid the Bidens. Russia paid the Bidens. Kazakhstan paid the Bidens. China paid the Bidens.

Now, imagine if it was Donald Trump's family that made all that money.

MEADOWS: Well, listen, what they do is have one standard for the Democrats and another standard for President Trump and his family. And when you start to see that, well, that's what the American people hate.

Jim's exactly right, when you start to see at what Joe Biden has given away and what have the American people actually received in it in return -- zero. Not a single thing. And yet, what we continue to see is a weakness abroad.

Listen, he gets an F for his abroad performance and quite frankly, the only good news about him going abroad is that he's doing less damage over here, and it's really sad.

But it is also important to remember, Sean, is every time they're going to accuse President Trump of doing things that they actually are guilty of.

HANNITY: You know, when you compare four years ago -- and I'll ask President Trump about this tonight, Jim Jordan. But when you compare four years ago to today and you look at what Donald Trump, when he went to the G7, he rocked that conference.

JORDAN: Yeah, he sure did.

HANNITY: He went in there and said, sorry, the day of us paying all of your bills is over. The day of unfair trade agreements, that's over too. And oh, everybody was offended. But who benefited? The American people.

JORDAN: No, the America -- yeah, the American people benefited, but Donald Trump is a leader who knows what he believes and went and did it and told the world why he was doing it because it was good for our country.

And it all -- I think happens to be good for the world when we lead, not when we -- when we show -- when we show weakness.

Never forget this too -- the Obama Biden administration, remember what they gave Ukraine. They gave them MREs and blankets. Donald Trump -- this came out during impeachment -- Donald Trump, President Trump gave him javelin missiles to deal with the Russian aggression.

And yet, what did they do? They impeach President Trump when he has a phone call with the Ukrainian president.

So, it is a complete -- as Mark said, a double standard but the American people see it. They see it for what it is, and they appreciate the leadership that President Trump displayed.

HANNITY: Knowing the hostile evil actor that he is and the hostile regime he runs, last question, Mark Meadows, what is Vladimir Putin thinking tonight in your view?

MEADOWS: He's thinking there's a new day for him, a open door basically for him to do whatever he wants to do.

He didn't get that kind of response from President Trump. I can tell you, it was always firm, it was always America first, and candidly, that's not the message that Putin got tonight and it's a sad day for the American people when we have thrown up the white surrender flag when traveling abroad.

HANNITY: Congressman Mark Meadows, Congressman Jim Jordan -- well, actually, chief of staff. We ought to call you chief. Thank you both for being with us.

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