welcome to "hannity". tonight we are in beautiful davenport, iowa with a massive crowd. welcome all of you. thank you for being here. wow! in a little more than one month the very first republican caucus will be held right here in this state as it should be. by the way, and just a moment the candidate leading the republican field by far, donald j. trump will join us for the full hour tonight. let's be clear. in 2024 the stakes could not be any higher. after three years under joe biden, our country is imploding on every level. our economy is wrecked by inflation. our souther order and is an utter disaster. the american people are not safe. take a look. >> what i would say what is unique about the environment we are in right now in my career is there may have been times where individual threats could have been higher here or there than where they might be right now. i've never seen a time where all the threats were so many of the threats are all elevated all at exactly the same time. that's what makes this environment we are in now so fraught. >> are you concerned that international terrorism threats to the homeland are rising as the border continues to be broken? >> i am concerned that we are in an ellaville you didn't and heightened threat environment from foreign terrorist organizations. for a whole host of reasons. obviously, their ability to exploit any port of entry including our southwest border is a source of concern. >> that was the fbi director christopher wray today on capitol hill. make no mistake, our wide open joe biden border is now a massive national security nightmare. it is a clear and present danger and it is only getting worse every day under president biden. in the past two years over 6000 illegal immigrants from afghanistan have crossed our southern border along with 3000 egyptians, more than 600 the rain ins, iran, the number one state-sponsored terror. more than 500 syrians, 12,000 russians and a whopping 26,000 people from china. this is a dire national security crisis. but that is only one part of the problem. for years america's bloated bureaucracy has become politicized. that includes the fbi, doj, which have wasted precious time and resources with political motivated witchhunts. they are looking in traditional catholics or angry parents that go to school board meetings or pro-life advocates that are nonviolent. trump supporters. donald trump himself. instead of investigating real threats like terrorism, human trafficking, drug trafficking, gang violence, the fbi hyper- partisan washington field office has obsessively, compulsively been targeting one person, one man, one family and that is donald trump, the trump organization and the trump family. the 45th president is bowing to fight back and obliterate the deep state. let's take a look. >> if you put me back in the white house there rain is over. it will be over. and they know it. america will be a free nation wants again. we are not a free nation now. we don't have free pressure. we don't have free anything. in 2016 i declared i am your boys. today i add i am your warrior. i am your justice. and for those who have been wronged and betrayed, i am your retribution. and i am your retribution. i will not let this happen. >> that has become a controversy among the left. like you said earlier, we will play that and get a response tonight. that is an important promise. america's weaponize, politicized bureaucracy has got to be dismantled. the far left hacks and the media mob disagree. once again they are predicting doom and gloom if donald trump is elected. here's the washington post yesterday, quote, "the fear of a looming trump dictatorship. this is today's headline from salon.com. americans are sleepwalking into a trump dictatorship. that is now their favorite word. over at fake news and cable news channels they are featuring the same brand of fear mongering. obviously it's clear they don't want to talk about joe biden and his failed record. take a look. >> dictatorship. is that what we would have if we reelected donald trump? >> i think it's a very, very real threat and concern. >> the phrase sleepwalking into dictatorship should wake people up. >> correct me if i'm wrong. is not the kind of dictatorship with concentration camps and martial law overnight. that's not what we are going to get. we will get trump borrowing from the all ban playbook in the lodi playbook in india. what does that look like? what would that look like in america? >> beers of a dictatorship. the alarming prediction for a second trump turn. >> liz cheney is right when she said we are sleepwalking into a donald trump dictatorship if people don't wake up and remember what donald trump was to the four years what he tried to do to our democracy. >> here is the thing. we already know what would happen under a trump presidency. why? because he has already been president. lower taxes, stronger growth, a secure border, peace in the middle east, new trade deals, energy independence and a push to reform a load of bureaucracy. there was no dictatorship. we did not lose our constitutional rights. we did not go to war. the people who hate donald trump simply have been and continue to lie to you. now it's joe biden has been using the justice system, his doj, to inflict retribution against his political rivals. it is joe biden who called donald trump supporters eight, quote, "threat to america. the very guy that says maga republican, making america great is somehow bad. joe biden is leading this country into the brink of yet another possible war. that is why donald trump is now beating joe biden in almost every every major poll. take a look at your screen. messenger harris survey has trump against joe biden up by six points. now the big question, can donald trump seal the deal and get the country back on track? joining us now for the full hour, the 45th president of the united states, davenport welcomes former president donald trump. >> thank you! [ yelling ] >> usa! usa! >> thank you. great to see you. have a seat. >> thank you. >> before we get into issues and we have a lot to get into, let's talk about these polls. >> i love you too. >> by the way, i have lost all control of this debate as well. here we go. let me ask you. when you look at this and look at the polls and see the enthusiasm. you have done rallies and crowds. how are you feeling about it? >> i feel great. it has to be. if it's not, we are going to be in big trouble. we will have no country anymore. we have no choice. we have enthusiasm. we did phenomenally in 2016. we did much better in 2020. i will tell you the enthusiasm, some bad things happen. but the enthusiasm that they have now is bigger than either of those two races. we are less than a year out. but close to a year i've never seen anything like it. we have crowds that are incredible in iowa. we were here last week. we had overflow crowds. other candidates have seven people standing on a farm and they are talking. it's a very nice thing to watch, especially for me. i enjoy watching that. we have tremendous enthusiasm because they want to see. i see biden talking about maga. maga means make america great again. that's what it means. that is what people want to. they want to see our country be great again. right now we are not a great country. we are a country in decline. we are a declining country. we are left out all over the world. people that respected us three years ago you wouldn't have ukraine and russia. you wouldn't have had the attack on israel. you wouldn't have had that withdrawal. you would have withdrawn but we would have withdrawn from afghanistan with tremendous strength and power. that's the way i had it set up. in afghanistan we didn't lose a soldier. many soldiers were being killed by snipers and others during the obama administration and biden was there. i guess he wasn't doing so much other than collecting cash probably. but many, many soldiers were killed. i spoke to the head of the taliban. i said don't do it. don't do it. for 18 months we didn't lose one soldier in afghanistan. nobody knows that. until that fatefulay where they killed our soldiers. they killed our soldiers. they left americans behind and you covered it better than anybody. they also left $85 billion of the best military equipment. i rebuilt the military. they left 85 billion, not million, billion dollars worth of military equipment behind in the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country. the people of this country just don't want to take this anymore. so we gave them $85 billion. they killed our people and they have people there. they have americans that we didn't even get out. it was like a surrender. after that russia said, you know, these people are incompetent. they are overrated. they went in and attacked ukraine. that never would have happened. i use to speak to vladimir putin. i was the apple of his eye, ukraine. i said don't do it. don't do it. i won't tell you exactly, but it was tough. he said you wouldn't do that. i said, yes, i will. no, you won't do it. he didn't believe me but he believe me 10%. that's all he had to believe me and he didn't do anything. he never did anything. by the way, president xi. i had the exact same conversation. he would have absolutely. is looking at taiwan very strongly. it never would have happened. again for four years it didn't happen. it was never going to happen. and now it's very possibly going to happen, which would be a shame. it's one of those things. thank you, i would like to be back. >> let me ask you this. earlier today joe biden, i'm sure he mumbled the words as usual, he said this. if trump wasn't running, i'm not sure i'd be running. he said that at a campaign event today. how do you react to that? >> i think somebody gave him a talking point that would sound good. i just found out that democrats are funding nikki haley's campaign. i hear that democrats are contributing to a ron desantis or ron to sanctimonious campaign. and then you hear the talking points. the only thing they are good at is cheating at elections and great talking points. they say we want to run again strong. we did really well in 2016 and we did so much better in 2020. the person they don't want to run a guess is us. it's not me, it's us. it's a movement the likes of which this country has never seen before. we have never seen the likes of what we have all done together. this is not me. its everybody here and millions and millions. i think it's not 75 million people. i think it's 150 million people are more than that. who doesn't want to see strong borders and a strong military and low taxes and lower interest rates and go out and by a house? >> i see what the media is doing. i will put a montage together. they want to call you a dictator. you used the words, i am your retribution. before that you said if you had been wrong and you used other words as well. but i want to be very, very clear on this. to be clear, do you in any way have any plans whatsoever if reelected president to abuse power, to break the law, to use the government to go after people? >> you mean like they are using right now? in the history of our country what's happened to us, again, has never happened before. over nonsense, over nothing, made up charges. i often say al capone was one of the greatest of all time if you like crimimi he was a mob boss the likes of which, scarface they call him, he got indicted wants. i got indicted four times. i wonder what my father and mother would say looking down. >> we've had a lot of private conversations that lead up to your announcement and the day you came down that escalator. we had some passionate discussions back and forth. you were telling me that a rack should give us oil to pay for the war and american blood should not be shed overseas in these long wars. we talked a lot about that. you have been under fire from that day forward. russia, you talk about it all the time. now you face as many as four criminal trials during an election year. i have said this publicly and i will say it in iowa. i am not sure that donald trump can get a fair trial in new york, washington, d.c. i don't think you can get a fair trial in fulton county, georgia. where i think you would do better in terms of real justice would be on appeal. the trials will take place. >> let's do it in iowa! >> there you go. but that has got to weigh heavy on you. what is your reaction to that considering all the charges all stem from a couple years ago? >> they could have done this three years ago and it would have been long over. but they didn't want to bring them because they have no case. they saw how well we are doing in the polls. the two questions i get more than any other is number one, will they do it again, sir? will they do it again? will you stop them? we are going to stop them. number two, how do you take it? how do you get up in the morning and take it? that part is easy for me to say. i love what i do because we are going to make our country greater than ever before. it is so important. it is so important. we are going to do things. we will close the border, day one. the border gets close. day one and a half we drill. drill, baby, drill. drill, drill, drill. and probably on day two we will get rid of this ridiculous electric car mandate. you are going to by a car. it doesn't go far. there is a little problem. it's very expensive and doesn't go far. i guess they want to keep you away from going too long a distance from your home. the whole thing is crazy. they want to make electric army tanks and make electric trucks. what the electric trucks don't go very far. on a diesel fuel truck, the big ones, great ones, you go to thousand miles. on an electric truck have nothing left because the battery is so large. it takes up most of the space. that's another problem. it only goes 300 miles. and yet it doesn't matter to them. a child would understand, therefore you can't do it. you talk about a supply-chain problem, therefore you can't do it. the country is sick. you say this. do they know what they are doing? are they smart? do they know what they are doing? how can they do it? i see john kerry all over the place talking about we have to get rid of our coal plants. and yet china is building one coal plant a week. massive coal plants. and they are doing it just automatically. john kerry wants us to stop doing anything. we can't. we have a country. we have to fire up our factories. wind is not going to fire up our factories. it's the most expensive energy. even solar. i like solar from a concept standpoint, but it's massively expensive. we can't allow china to build a factory a week and we do nothing. they build a coal plant and they are obvious about it. and then biden goes to see them about global warming. the only global warming we should be thinking about and worrying about because it could happen tomorrow is nuclear global warming. not global warming. >> we almost have to go to a break. i want to go back to this one issue because the media has been focused on this and attacking you under no circumstances. you are promising america tonight you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody? >> except on day one. >> meaning? >> i want to close the border and i want to drill, drill, drill. >> that is not retribution. >> i'm going to be--i love this guy. you are not going to be a dictator, are you? i said no other than day one. we are closing the border and drilling, drilling, drilling. other than that i am not a dictator. steam x that sounds like you're going back to the policies when you are president. take a break. we are in beautiful davenport, iowa. donald trump with us for the hour as "hannity" continues. thank you for being with us. - i'm sherry - and i'm john. i'm a pharmacist. as we were starting to age, it's like, well how can we help our cognitive abilities? we saw prevagen. i did read the clinical study and went ahead and gave it a try. i feel that prevagen is helping me with overall clarity and as a pharmacist, i've recommended it to, not only just customers, but also to friends and family as a safe product to try. prevagen. at stores everywhere without a prescription. this is how it feels to du more with less asthma... ...thanks to dupixent. dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems. it's an add-on treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma. and can help improve lung function for better breathing in as little as two weeks. dupixent helps prevent asthma attacks... and can even reduce or eliminate oral steroids. imagine that. dupixent can cause allergic reactions that can be severe. get help right away if you have rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor about new or worsening joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines, including steroids, without talking to your doctor. who knows what you can do when you du more with less asthma. ask your doctor about dupixent. the most prescribed biologic for asthma. - [speaker] at first, just leaving the house was hard. - [speaker] but wounded warrior project helps you realize it's possible to get out there - [speaker] to feel sense of camaraderie again. - [speaker] to find the tools to live life better. - [narrator] through generous community support, we've connected warriors and their families with no cost physical and mental health services, legislative advocacy, career assistance, and life skill training for 20 years, and we are just getting started. - wounded warrior project has been with me every step of my journey. - they've helped me realize it's possible to rise to the top again. - it's possible to get the help i need for me and my family. - it's possible to hate pushups again. - to feel understood. - to begin healing both inside and out. - to feel like myself again. - and now i know anything is possible. 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(inspirational music) welcome back to "hannity". we are broadcasting from beautiful davenport, iowa. thank you all for coming. we continue now with former president donald trump as we head into the iowa caucus season. a two-part question on joe biden burke one is on his cognitive decline and the second is about the biden family syndicate as i call it. let's play an are and see joe biden. >> with the nature not when the political--look, some of the political players and some of the--let me ask a rhetorical question. no, i won't. anyway. >> i could play tape from almost every day. i think another horrible moment for him was that gag on air force one after he left israel. my question is, what do you think about his cognitive state? and number two, the issue of hunter biden, joe biden lying to the country as a candidate and president. i never had a discussion with hunter or my brother or anybody for that matter on foreign business deals. we know according to devon archer he was on phone calls. we know he was meeting with oligarchs like the former first lady of moscow at café milano. it doesn't seem to get the attention in the media that anything involving you gets. what is your reaction to both? >> they have been after all of my numbers and facts and figures and found out that it was incredible. someone said you must be the most honest guy in the world. after all these years they saw my tax returns, they saw everything. they went up to