‘Hannity’ on Texas school shooting, Biden targeting gun lobby

This is a rush transcript from “Hannity,” May 25, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: And welcome to HANNITY.

We start tonight with a FOX News alert. Tonight, major breaking news surrounding the horrific shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

Now, coming up a full report on all the disturbing new developments about the shooter.

Plus, we will discuss Beto Bozo O’Rourke’s pretty despicable political stunt from earlier today and the mayor of Uvalde will join us.

But, first, we check in on the ground in Texas with our very own Sara Carter.

She was just out at a vigil that took place there — Sara.

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Sean, I can’t even begin to express what an enormous loss this community has suffered here today. I’m here at this vigil at the Fairplex here in Uvalde County and the families that came here to honor those that died the children that died came here they said with broken hearts with just a need to be together in a time of mourning.

You can see everybody’s leaving right now we’ve got a lot of crowds behind us. But I got to tell you, Sean, earlier today, it didn’t matter where I went in this town. People were hugging each other. They were saying, you know, I knew a child that went to that school and it makes sense. This is a population of just over 16,000 people so everybody knew somebody. Everybody was connected to somebody.

I did know somebody in this town. I knew — I know a family here that I live only about maybe an hour and 40 minutes from Uvalde here in Texas and the family was shocked and stunned to discover that a number of people on their daughter’s softball team had been killed in the incident at Robb Elementary.

Their daughter was so broken up over it. I was with this family earlier today they just couldn’t come and speak. They wanted to so badly, talk to the American public but it felt like — they said it felt like someone had kicked the spirit out of them.

But the daughter — ten-year-old daughter was very aware of what was going on and I asked her how she was feeling and, Sean, the only thing she could do was cry, come run up to me and hold me and just hug me. And I got to tell you, for the families out here, that strength is — that strength is what they need right now. They say what they need is not politicizing this. They want to be able to take time to mourn the loss of those that they lost here. They want that moment to mourn the loss of those that they lost.

And they need that time and, you know, it’s interesting, Sean, but it’s only been a day right and for some people they say it feels like a week’s gone by. And you talk to the officials, you talk to others, some of them say they feel like this isn’t even real yet and when you see the parents and when you see the neighbors around the school and you see and you feel that loss inside your heart and I’m a mother, you know that what happened here was just — with such pure evil but this town says they are going to get through this. They are going to comfort one another and they want the arrest of the American public to know that what they need right now is just a lot of love, a lot of understanding and a lot of patience.

HANNITY: All right. Sara Carter on the ground in Texas tonight a very emotional report.

You know, you tell us a little bit more about that family you tried at one point to interview them it just became impossible because of the grief that you saw.

CARTER: I — yeah, it’s, you know, I know the family from being out here covering stories along the border. Sean. You know, I spend a lot of time out here on the border and have become very familiar and the people in Texas are so warm and welcoming they make you feel like you’re their family too and so you become very close to people I spoke with the mother. She has three children she is a rancher her husband’s a rancher out here in Uvalde about, you know, roughly 30 minutes from downtown.

They live in the county so she homeschools her children. Her children though, however play on the sports teams with the kids at school. They come over to their house. They spend the night at each other’s homes.

So they all know each other. They’re all very, very close. She says that they’re all like family you know because it’s such a small community.

And what had happened was when she found out that there was an active shooter at the school. She said, you know, none of the parents believed that there was actually an active shooter at the school, until they were told by authorities what was going on. They believed that the school was on lockdown, that the kids were safe. Everybody was concerned.

Her husband actually coaches, you know, the baseball team out here in Uvalde and his daughter was on that team with a lot of the girls that were in the classroom that was targeted. So, for her, it was — it was impossible.

For the family that wanted to come, they wanted to speak but at the very last minute, both her husband and her asked if they — they just said they needed time and I get that, you know? I mean, this is — this is something that I think like for many people it comes in a state of shock. There’s some anger here. I think people are going through the grieving process the — you know, all of those steps that people go through when they grieve. I know many people in the audience have felt that, you know, themselves.

So I think, right now, I wanted to take this time to say that — you know, I think it was important for us and I think was important for the show to not — to not force the families to come on and talk, to give them their space, to let them know that we love them, to let them know what an amazing community they are, to let them know that we are — we are going to tell their story and we are going to tell the truth. We are going to tell the whole story but we want them to know that we are there to support them and that we are there to love them.

And right now, I know the mayor was speaking. Mayor Don McLaughlin, he is an amazing man. He has really been there for the community.

Texas DPS has been here, the Texas Department of Public Safety has been out here with the families. Not too far from where I’m standing, actually, the FBI is here. And there’s a lot of families here still and they’re all staying together and going together later on into the night — Sean.

HANNITY: All right. Sarah, I know for this audience, I speak for them. They feel the same way, all loving prayers for all of them. Thank you, Sara Carter. Appreciate it. So sad.

And here now with the very latest on the deranged 18-year-old gunman is our very own Trace Gallagher. Trace, what have we learned?

TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sean, despite Texas Governor Greg Abbott saying that 18-year-old Salvador Ramos does not have a history of mental illness, those who knew him paint a very disturbing picture. One friend says Ramos would use knives to repeatedly cut his face just for fun.

We have learned that Ramos was bullied over a childhood speech impediment, started wearing all black clothing and combat — combat boots to school and then stop showing up to school altogether. The 18-year-old also had numerous run-ins with his drug-addicted mother, some of which involved police. The mother’s boyfriend called the relationship tumultuous and called Ramos a weird kid.

His social media footprint includes pictures of rifles that he called his wish list and pictures of rifles that he recently purchased. Police say he bought a semi-automatic rifle on March 17th. A day later, he bought 335 rounds of ammunition and two days after that, another rifle.

Yesterday, he shot his grandmother, sent a message to an unknown person confirming he shot her and said he was going to attack the elementary school. Minutes later, he killed 19 children and two teachers — Sean.

All right. Trace Gallagher, thank you.

Now, tonight we do send our all our love all our prayers to everyone in Uvalde, Texas. There, can you think of anything worse than losing a child? Just for a second you think about that aspect of it as captured very well by Sara Carter who’s been there with the families all day.

Yesterday, we lost 19 innocent children, two brave teachers because of the evil actions of a despicable, soulless monster. You can’t have a conscience or a soul and do something this evil, right?

Let me be clear though, there is a solution. We’ve got to talk about solutions. Most people don’t want to get to the root cause of anything but if we want to protect our kids which we must do and prevent this thing from happening again, we need an honest discussion.

We protect our politicians. They are secured with police, with Secret Service, with armed gunmen around them. We pay for that and rightfully so. We should protect our elected officials.

Celebrities, athletes, they all have bodyguards. They can afford it they deserve the protection as well.

We just spent, what, $40 billion that we sent to Ukraine to protect democracy. I think it’s well past time that we as a country maybe we should save a few of those billions of dollars and send them to every school in the country so they can hire well-trained, well-qualified armed guards, particularly retired police officers, retired military. We can do that if we choose to.

If we make it a priority to protect every stadium, every concert venue, every airplane in this country that we all get on and use, we can do the same for our schools and for our children. Without a doubt, finding real, actionable solutions to protect our kids is critically important and we don’t have to infringe on people’s rights to do so. Unfortunately, Sarah is right. Sadly, many on the left, they’re not interested in a real solution. In fact, they don’t even really seem to care about gun violence at all unless and until it fits a preferred political narrative.

Now, take a look at your screen. Since 2019, 4,598 children have been shot and killed in the United States. Of those — of that number, 53 of those deaths were school shootings and of course we on this program have stated over and over again. You know, that this literally is our national treasure. These lives — these precious kids, all lives definitely matter. One death is a tragedy.

So why on the left — why do they seemingly always ignore the young kids routinely being gunned down in cities like Baltimore and Washington, D.C. and New York, Los Angeles, Chicago every single week? We had 28 people shot in Chicago last week. By the way, that’s on the low side for a typical weekend there.

No one on the left ever talks about it. They don’t seem to care on this program. We have been scrolling the names of murder victims, people that have been involved and have been shot in the Windy City. We have done this since 2009.

Since that time, 1,381 children under the age of have been shot and killed in Chicago that includes eight years of the Obama-Biden presidency and vice presidency. But they could they couldn’t be bothered at the time. They never addressed — they barely mentioned the epidemic of violence in Obama’s home city of Chicago.

They didn’t lift a finger. They didn’t even try. They didn’t do next to nothing. They barely spoke about the carnage in one of America’s major cities.

So you got to ask yourself a question, why is that? Well, in short, if Democrats, the media mob and if they can’t use a shooting to try and vilify Republicans or conservatives, what, they just ignore it? What — how is that possible?

And then you listen to Joe Biden before we even knew the actual number of people shot yesterday rushes to politicize this.

So, now, sadly, like always, they use the horror in Uvalde, Texas, to score what cheap political points. Because if they really cared about all those kids, why didn’t they lift a finger? For, Joe, eight years, you’re a vice president. Why didn’t you do anything?

Last night, before we even knew the actual real death toll, President Biden raced — rushed in front of a camera politicized the shooting lashing out at the so-called gun lobby. And meanwhile, one Democratic congressman takes to Twitter and calls Ted Cruz a bleeping baby killer. And then there’s this lunatic Beto Bozo O’Rourke and he’s running again for statewide office, it’s not going well for him.

So, today, he interrupted an official press conference in Uvalde with his very own political stunt. Take a look at this circus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sit down!

BETO O’ROURKE, FORMER U.S. CONGRESSMAN: The time to stop the next shooting is right now and you’re doing nothing. You’re all doing nothing. You said this is not predictable, this is totally predictable when you choose not to do anything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, you are out of line! Sir, you are out of line! Sir, you are out of line.

O’ROURKE: — to stop this from happening again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of here. Get out of here, please.

MAYOR DON MCLAUGHLIN, UVALDE, TX: I can’t believe you’re a sick son of a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) that would come to a deal like this to make a political issue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not the place to do that.

O’ROURKE: This is one you —

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why don’t you get out of here?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: This was supposed to be an informative briefing for parents, the community, the general public. There were family members of victims in that room, there were parents there in the room crying.

But there’s Bozo, didn’t seem to care. He wanted to see his name in the headlines. He wanted to raise money for a struggling campaign. He wanted the focus to be on him, so as CBS News even reported he orchestrated this disgusting stunt from beginning to end. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TV ANCHOR: Could you make out what was being said by Beto O’Rourke?

JANET SHAMLIAN, CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I did see what happened just before the press conference started. I was in the third aisle — third row on the aisle rather, and there were two people across the aisle from me.

And a moment before the press conference started, they got up from their seats when Beto walked in. So they were seat holders for him, and then he sat down. So his presence wasn’t really noticed in the 15 or 20 minutes that people were gathering inside because he was not in the room. So this seems something very clearly staged by Beto O’Rourke and his campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: It was staged and Beto Bozo will lose this election badly. And by the way, he’s all over the map now when it comes to guns, the Second Amendment.

Let’s go back in time, remember during his presidential campaign, that run, remember he bragged often about wanting to confiscate your guns and hell yeah he’s coming for your ARs and your AK-47s? Well, now, as a gubernatorial candidate in an election year conversion, he’s trying to defend the Second Amendment. Not what he did before.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O’ROURKE: Americans will who own AR-15s, AK-47s will have to sell them to the government. I fully expect our fellow Americans to turn in their AR-15s and their AK-47s.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you in fact in favor of gun confiscation?

O’ROURKE: Yes.

Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.

I’m not interested in taking anything from anyone. What I want to make sure that we do is defend the Second Amendment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Oh, now, that he’s running for governor, he wants to defend the Second Amendment. No, we’re not going to confiscate guns. Just a tip — isn’t this what we find so repulsive about politicians? They have no real convictions, and he’ll say and do anything to get elected.

Beto Bozo is no hero here. He’s spineless. He’s an out of work politician. He wants to feel important and he’s politicizing a tragedy.

The real heroes, if you will, in Uvalde were those that risked their life and limb to save as many kids as they could and they did, including the elite Border Patrol official, the one that rushed into Robb Elementary School, the one that returned fire and ultimately killed this murderer.

And, by the way, just take a look at this. This is his hat. Take a good look at that. As you can see, he came within millimeters of losing his own life.

Joining us now with reaction is Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, Outkick founder Clay Travis.

Congressman, start with you. If it wasn’t so revoltingly political, I could live with the fact that people have different views on what the answer is. But we protect our politicians with armed guards. We protect our Hollywood stars with armed guards. We protect our elite athletes with the armed guards.

Why can’t we do it for every school in America at — hasn’t the time now come to do that?

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): No, certainly, Sean, you’re exactly right. We need trained security personnel at schools. We need — we need training — we need security at school. So that makes all the sense in the world and that’s what we should be focused on instead of the politics.

But never forget, Democrats, you know, what they’ve said their motto is never let a crisis go to waste and that’s what we saw today from Mr. O’Rourke. And I think most of the country agrees with the mayor’s response.

This is terrible. This is tragedy what happened there and our heart goes out to these families who’ve lost a loved one, not — and this is not a time to turn it into politics like he attempted to do and like the Democrats are attempting to do. They’re going to bring legislation to the floor.

The answer is not to destroy the Second Amendment. The answer is not to defund the police like the like the Democrats have talked about. The answer to do what you describe — trained security personnel at schools and security at our school so that kids and teachers can learn in a safe environment. That’s what we got to focus on.

HANNITY: You know, Clay, why the deafening silence? They gave all these numbers out of all these kids — you know, the eight years Joe Biden’s vice president barely mentions — I think Obama twice or three times mentioned violence in Chicago. They never lifted a finger, and you’re talking about, you know, nearly 1,400 kids that died during the time that that they were in office. Why didn’t they lift the finger then?

CLAY TRAVIS, OUTKICK FOUNDER: It’s a fascinating question and an unfortunate one. And, first of all, Sean, you’re 100 percent right. My kids are in first grade and fifth grade. I walk them to and from school — elementary school every single day. I can only imagine what these parents are going through.

But we have an armed police officer in our school. The kids love her. She is a phenomenal asset to that school. She teaches kids that they can trust police and that they are able to understand that she’s there to protect them. I think every school in America should have an armed police officer.

To your point on why we don’t talk about this, I got a big question for you, Sean, and also for the congressman, why did this suddenly start in 1999 with Columbine? All of our history, people have been able to go buy guns. The Second Amendment has always been in effect.

We did not have mass shootings inside of schools until Columbine and since then we’ve had a lot of copycats. We have had a ton of people attempting to reenact what they did I believe because unfortunately we’re making these mass shooters famous.

And what I would say is what you did when you were talking about these gentlemen who charged into the school to save all of those children. Let’s talk about the children, let’s talk about the people who lost their lives, their families. Let’s not make these shooters famous.

And the selective outrage for when we decide to care about the death of children and when we do not is a great and fantastic and an unfortunate question, because our murder rates are skyrocketing right now. All over the country, overwhelmingly children are bearing the brunt of that violence and for the vast majority of the time, we just pretend that their lives do not matter.

When there’s a school shooting, everybody shows up and pretends that they care about kids and then they vanish. We all know there will be more kids than this shot and killed in big cities all weekend long coming up unfortunately over Memorial Day weekend and the vast majority of them will never be talked about, their killers won’t be found and we won’t even pretend that we are even focused on trying to bring justice for those families either.

This is a national outrage. Joe Biden has no answer for it and the numbers of murders continue to skyrocket all over the country and that’s why people keep buying guns by the way because they feel like they have to protect themselves.

HANNITY: Jim, why the deafening silence? Eight years Joe Biden is vice president and all these kids are dying in Chicago and then before we even know the death toll last night, when in God’s name will we stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name — where in God’s name is our backbone? You know how many scores of little children who witnessed what happened and seeing their friends die as if they were in a battlefield and he says it over and over again.

But where was he those eight years when all that violence was taking place, in his president’s hometown? Because they didn’t lift a finger to help Chicago.

JORDAN: No, what the country I think needed yesterday was to focus in on the families who are hurting, this community who is hurting. The fact that we — you can’t — you just any family who has to go through this is just so tough.

As Clay said, we’ve got grandkids — I mean, they were in grade school. So I know what they did. It’s got to be terrible. So that should have been the focus.

But it’s hard to explain why Joe Biden does so many things that he does now and says all the crazy things that he says? I mean, you can just go policy area after policy area. So I don’t know.

But I do know that the country has figured it out and the country — the country wants to focus on the mourning with these families who’ve had this terrible thing happening — happen to them, not the politics of this.

HANNITY: All right. Jim Jordan, thank you. Clay Travis, thank you.

Coming up, we’re going to go back live to Uvalde Texas with the very latest on the horrific shooting. Now, earlier today, the Texas AG Ken Paxton, he’s going to weigh in. Now also the mayor that called Beto O’Rourke a sick SOB, he’s joining us as well as we continue. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sit down!

O’ROURKE: The time to stop the next shooting is right now and you’re doing nothing. You’re all doing nothing. You said this is not predictable, this is totally predictable when you choose not to do anything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, you are out of line! Sir, you are out of line! Sir, you are out of line.

O’ROURKE: — to stop this from happening again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of here. Get out of here, please.

MCLAUGHLIN: I can’t believe you’re a sick son of a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) that would come to a deal like this to make a political issue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not the place to do that.

O’ROURKE: This is one you —

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why don’t you get out of here?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Now, tonight, there is grief, there is heartbreak across the Uvalde, Texas community. Friends and family remember their loved ones killed in yesterday’s evil school shooting massacre.

For the very latest on the ground, we go to our own Jeff Paul who’s there.

Jeff, the latest, please?

JEFF PAUL, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Sean, we’re starting to learn more not only about the shooting itself but the man who investigators say shot and killed 19 kids and two teachers apparently about 30 minutes before the shooting took place. Authorities say that suspect fired off three messages on social media, to who these went to and they exactly went and were open that part is unclear. But what we do know is that two of these messages referenced shooting his grandmother, a third though referenced him wanting to go to an elementary school to, quote, shoot it up.

But after shooting his grandmother, investigators say the suspect took off eventually crashing his truck near Robb Elementary. We know there was a armed school police officer on the grounds but it didn’t stop the suspect from entering. Eventually barricaded him himself inside a fourth grade classroom, killing 19 kids and two teachers.

The aunt of one of those victims is trying to remember her niece 10-year- old Eliana Garcia but her heart she says is so broken right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIRIA ARIZMENDI, AUNT OF 10-YEAR-OLD SHOOTING VICTIM: She was very happy and very outgoing loved to dance and sing and play sports. She was big into family, enjoyed being with the family. She was very sweet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Now, Sean, we’re also learning tonight that the mother of the suspected shooter says she is surprised to hear about this shooting. She reportedly told a newspaper that she basically thinks her son isn’t a violent person and that he was a loner and didn’t really have too many friends — Sean.

HANNITY: All right. Jeff Paul on the ground in Texas tonight. Thank you.

Here with more updates on the tragedy in Texas is the State Attorney General Ken Paxton who won his primary yesterday.

Normally, I would congratulate you. Thank you for being with us, after you got the endorsement from President Trump.

So we didn’t even know how many people as I mentioned had actually been killed and Joe Biden races out to the cameras when in god’s name will we stand up to the gun lobby, where in God’s name is our backbone? I’m sick and tired of it, we have to act. Don’t tell me that we can’t have an impact on this carnage and we have to have the courage to stand up to gun manufacturers, and he says all of this.

And meanwhile while he was vice president, you know, we had over a thousand kids killed and they didn’t lift a finger in Chicago. That’s Obama’s hometown.

I asked the question a different way, if my question to anybody that wants all these restrictions and they only bring it up when it’s politically convenient, what are you going to do if somebody breaks into your home — in the dark of night and wants to bring harm to you and your family? I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to defend my family. I’m going to defend my home.

What will people do because criminals by their very nature — you would know better than me, they don’t seem to obey laws, do they?

KEN PAXTON (R), TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL: No, and that’s why this is so ridiculous they constantly bring this up because they have a political agenda of stopping law-abiding citizens from exercising their Second Amendment right. And the reality is this guy came in and he murdered people. There is a law against murder. He’s not going to follow a single gun law if he’s willing to violate a murder law.

And I don’t understand why they make that argument they get away with it because it doesn’t make any sense at all. And you’re right, if they were in the same situation and Biden is in that situation. He has people with guns around him every day and that’s okay and yet here we are saying that, you know, guns should be taken away from law-abiding citizens. It doesn’t make sense.

HANNITY: What was your reaction to Beto O’Rourke?

PAXTON: You know, I knew immediately, just as you have been talking about tonight that it was a stunt, it just automatically came to me. It — I didn’t see him when we started and then you know we were in there for a little while and then, all of a sudden, he just pops up. He’s got cameras all over them and he’s just yelling.

And this in my opinion just not the place to do it. We’re Americans first. We’re Texans. We’re thinking about these families. We’re thinking about these lost kids, these lost teachers.

And this — you know, I understand he disagrees with us. That’s okay. He’s running for governor. He has his right to his opinion but this is really a poor choice on his part to come make his case.

HANNITY: Yeah. You know, as I look at this and I watch this and the instant politicizing of this, why do you think it is — you know, all these years that I’ve scrolled the names that Americans never hear, of people shot, shot and killed in big cities like Chicago? And why don’t they lift a finger to help those cities?

You can predict on any given weekend, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 people are going to be shot in all of these different cities and you never hear from anybody about that. How come it’s so selective?

PAXTON: It’s typical of liberalism. It doesn’t work. They have all these gun laws in Chicago and the cities that have the most stringent gun laws are the ones that have the biggest problems and they don’t want to talk about it.

HANNITY: Yeah. Ken Paxton, thanks for being with us tonight. Our prayers are with Texas.

Straight ahead, some of the media mob had a predictably outrageous response to the horrific shooting. Michael Moore actually wants the Second Amendment repealed. We’ll check in with Kellyanne Conway, Mike Huckabee and the mayor that called Beto Bozo, a sick SOB will join us straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Now, we head back to the repulsive political stunt from Beto Bozo O’Rourke who interrupted a very important briefing about Uvalde and the shooting that took place and he was then confronted by the city’s mayor. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sit down!

O’ROURKE: The time to stop the next shooting is right now and you’re doing nothing. You’re all doing nothing. You said this is not predictable, this is totally predictable when you choose not to do anything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, you are out of line! Sir, you are out of line! Sir, you are out of line.

O’ROURKE: — to stop this from happening again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of here. Get out of here, please.

MCLAUGHLIN: I can’t believe you’re a sick son of a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) that would come to a deal like this to make a political issue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not the place to do that.

O’ROURKE: This is one you —

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why don’t you get out of here?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Here with more is the mayor of Uvalde, Don McLaughlin, is with us.

Mr. Mayor, first, our sincere apologies, love, prayers and thoughts are with you and your entire community. We’re so sorry this happened to everybody there. Thank you for being with us in this tough time.

I want to ask you first and foremost about that moment. Were there — were there family members that lost loved ones in that room at that time?

MCLAUGHLIN: That I don’t know. That I don’t know. But that was not the time or place to have that discussion. If he wants to have that discussion, that’s fine. But today at that conference was not the time or place to do that.

HANNITY: There wasn’t, but there were parents. There were people crying I understand, parents in the audience. Is that correct?

MCLAUGHLIN: Yes, there was.

HANNITY: Yeah.

MCLAUGHLIN: Yes, there was.

HANNITY: When you when you first saw this and, obviously, you took it upon yourself to stand up and tell them to shut up and I think rightly resonated with a lot of people in the country by calling them an SOB, it’s a clear political stunt. But even before we knew how many people had actually been killed in your community, already the president of the United States had spoken out about this and politicized this. And I have a hard time understanding without any knowledge or even a death count in a tragedy like this why people race and rush to politicize it. What are your thoughts on that?

MCLAUGHLIN: Well, first and foremost, our hearts are broken here in Uvalde. My heart’s broken for these families that lost these children and won’t come back. But that’s the problem. Every time we have one of these, it’s a political deal.

What happened to the grown men that we elected to represent us in Congress that can’t sit down at a table and come to a conclusion? I’m not going to get 100 percent of what I want, you’re not going to get 100 percent what you want.

But nobody wants to have that discussion. It’s either going to be my way or the highway. And we keep politicizing this.

And yes, we have a gun problem, sure. Do we need an expanded background check? Possibly, but we also have a mental health problem that nobody wants to address and maybe — maybe we don’t have any signs today from that young man, but it could have been there two years ago that he could have reached out and we could have gave him some help. We’ll never know that.

And still —

HANNITY: You know, Mr. Mayor —

MCLAUGHLIN: — 19 families, 21 families are suffering.

HANNITY: Mr. Mayor, 4,598 kids have been shot and killed in the United States since 2019, the smallest percentage of them are school shootings. I’m a believer that God creates every human life and every human life is precious, and we need to preserve and protect it. As far as school shootings specifically go, I think the time has now come where we must protect our kids the way we protect Hollywood stars and our elected officials that have armed security with them. Is that a possible answer for example in your community?

MCLAUGHLIN: Yeah, we formed the police, we formed the police department, Uvalde Consolidated, (INAUDIBLE) we formed the police department. You know, thank God there was one there — one there when he was.

Yes. We need to put armed security guards and armed police officers in our schools.

HANNITY: I think — I think it should be mandatory and I think our children deserve what our for example D.C. elected officials have, and by the way, we pay for it and I think it’s the right thing to do. I think with got to protect our elected officials.

But I also believe — we got to protect our children also. And I also believe that we are not doing a good job — you know, here, Uvalde is getting lectures from politicians and the very same people that ignore the violence in Chicago and Baltimore and D.C. and L.A. and New York, I don’t really think you need lectures from people haven’t cleaned up their own backyard. What do you think?

MCLAUGHLIN: No, I agree with you totally. I’ve spent some time in Chicago. I spent three months there when I went through a cancer treatment and every weekend it was 10-15 deaths. You can’t buy a gun in Chicago. You can’t buy bullets in Chicago.

But yet look at what happens there every weekend. It’s a tragedy. We need to address — we need to address these shootings, we need to address a lot of things. But the gun-control they are talking, that’s not going to stop these people from getting those guns. They are going to get them however they want.

We need to come to the table, sit down and come to something that’s going to work for everybody.

HANNITY: Mr. Mayor, I know you had your vigil tonight and I know it’s been a very emotional, you know, tumultuous, you know, 48 hours, 24 hours for the people in your city. What is — what is — what are the plans for the days to come? Do you know yet?

MCLAUGHLIN: We don’t. Our biggest and foremost is make sure these families are cared for, their needs are met, whatever they need. Like I said, you know, thank God we did have the state here because we didn’t have the resources to deal with what we’ve had to deal with, and what they’ve brought into our community has been just unbelievable, and the outpouring of love that we got from all over the country and the support we’ve gotten.

You know, in the next couple of days, we’re going to continue to grieve but we are also a strong community. You know, one man asked me today, said we will be stuck with the stigma for the rest of our lives in Uvalde as a place where a school shooting was. You know, that may be true, but we are not going to — we’re not going to choose to embrace that.

That we are going to embrace the community. We are strong, caring, and loving for one another.

HANNITY: Mr. Mayor, I know I speak for this audience, a lot of love and prayers in these very, very difficult days for you and families especially in the community. Thank you for being with us, sir.

All right. And now, far left voices all across the media mob, they are exploiting the tragic shooting in Texas to launch more smears against conservatives, advance an agenda. Listen to Whoopi Goldberg, who is saying she’s going to punch someone in the face if she heard some of the Republican offer thoughts and prayers. Really, Whoopi?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WHOOPI GOLDBERG, “THE VIEW” CO-HOST”: That’s the question. What are we doing? Because we’re — why are we always at square one with this? And I swear to God, if I see another Republican senator talk about their heart being broken, I’m going to go punch somebody. I can’t take it in the thoughts and prayers.

If your thoughts and prayers were really with everybody, you would have done something by now.

So you sold an AR-15 at the gun show? See you in court. Does your neighbor have too big an arsenal? Call the cops.

If you’re going to get all in my business and tell me what my family can and cannot do, neither can you.

They are going to come for those AR-15s and you better get ready to give them up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Not going to happen, Whoopi. Why don’t you join with us and why don’t we protect these kids in every school across the country with armed police officers, armed retired military officers, people that know what they’re doing.

One way in, one way out, metal detectors, whatever it takes. That will protect kids. That protects a lot of your Hollywood friends, doesn’t it?

Over at MSDNC, you’ve got filmmaker Michael Moore — yeah, he’s taking it a step further. He wants a full repeal of the Second Amendment. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL MOORE, FILMMAKER: I think that we need some really drastic action here. We need a moratorium perhaps on gun sales. We need — who will say on this network or any other network in the next few days it’s time to repeal the second amendment? You can’t say that. Well, why not?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Here with reaction: author of this brand-new book, by the way, just out. It’s called “Here’s the Deal”, Kellyanne Conway, along with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is with us.

Kellyanne, you worked at the White House. All around the White House, all throughout that building, upstairs, downstairs, around the president, outside in the Oval Office, guys with guns protecting our president. If you go to the Capitol, we have people with guns protecting our elected officials. We pay for that and it’s the right thing to do.

Can’t we do that for our kids?

KELLYANNE CONWAY, FORMER SENIOR COUNSELOR TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes, we can, Sean. We can take all that leftover COVID money and harden these targets. By the way, the Hollywood people are one thing. I can excuse anger and emotion, we all feel it, and we all have the right to express our thoughts, prayers and heartbreak. There’s no question for these fallen angels and their teacher.

Sean, my problem is with the hypocritical politicians. I want to ask any Democrat out there who’s screaming about this the following questions, did you spend as much time on school safety and hardening and protecting our kids as you did on impeaching a president not once or twice? I know there’s a January 6th commission. Is there a school safety commission to President Trump? President Biden?

What are these Democrats who own all of Washington and in charge of all of Washington actually doing? I find it to be — some of them are ignorant, some of them are arrogant and some of them are both of the above. How about using the same rigor to protect our children from violence that you use to protect them from the virus?

I mean, my goodness, you have these kids in masks, social distancing, they weren’t even on the campuses or in the classrooms and that was fine for a while. But don’t they also deserve to have their lives protected, their safety protected? Same vigor that you insisted and apply to that apply here, it’s very simple.

HANNITY: Well, you know, it kind of hard. I think Kellyanne has a point, Governor, seems only selectively care about shootings. They ignored all the violence, all the dead kids in Chicago when Joe Biden was vice president. They never said a word. They never lifted a finger to stop that.

They only seem to care about one riot, not the 574 riots in the summer of 20 that they lied to us about being mostly peaceful that killed dozens of Americans, injured thousands of cops and caused billions in property damage. Why do we always have selective moral outrage like this?

And by the way, the real — the real winner in the Huckabee family is your daughter Sarah Sanders who I think won by a much bigger margin than you did in her primary than you did and yours, but I’m just saying.

MIKE HUCKABEE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I knew you would have to bring that up. Yes, she did, and I’m proud of her.

HANNITY: Congratulations.

HUCKABEE: But I’m heartbroken to see what I’m seeing in the country and you just played a couple of video clips that reveal what’s wrong. The fact is that good fruit doesn’t come from a poisonous tree.

And when you have irrational people like Whoopi and Michael Moore, they are irrational. You’re not going to get a rational solution from irrational people, it doesn’t happen.

I love with the mayor of Uvalde had to say in the spirit in which he said it. That’s who I need to be listening to right now.

And the fact is there’s a time to have discussions and ideas, but there’s a time just to hug people and weep and recognize that there’s some real pain. And when the mayor said that he hopes people won’t think of Uvalde as a place where they had a school shooting, I’d say to the mayor, I don’t think they will. They’re going to see a community that came together, that bonded together, went to church, lit candles, hug each other, put flowers out.

That didn’t fix anything, Sean, but it made us human. It made us rational people, because that’s what rational people do in the midst of their grief. Irrational people point fingers, try to make it political, run up and stage an incident like Beto did, which was just disgusting.

And we need rational people running the country, not irrational people, and I pray that the people of Uvalde will understand that America is not pointing fingers, they are lifting hands. And that’s what we need to assure them of they have given us an example of what a community does in the midst of grief. It

HANNITY: Well said, Governor, thank you for being with us. Congratulations again to Sarah. And Kellyanne Conway, thank you as always.

Now, while many on the left call for new major gun restrictions in the aftermath of the massacre in Uvalde, the Texas Governor Greg Abbott warning against oversimplifying the issue, pointing to the gun policy failures in places like New York and Chicago.

Here with reaction we have the host of “Cross Country”, Lawrence Jones. You don’t want to miss the show. Also FOX News contributor Lara Trump.

You know, it’s always protectable where they are going. And guess what may be made this little different is the speed at which they politicized it, before we even knew the death count. That seems to be a record.

LARA TRUMP, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah. Well, it’s not surprising, unfortunately, Sean, to see this happen and, gosh, look, every parent in America, every person in America is just heartbroken over this. I cannot for a second imagine being one of the family members of these 21 individuals that were killed yesterday. It’s a horrific situation.

But yes, they always jump to gun control. But 50 years ago, we had much more lax gun laws than we have now. We have actually more guns per family than we do now per household. And so what changed? Why all of a sudden, Sean, in the past couple decades have we seen a rise in his?

And you have to ask yourself that, that’s what any rational person would do. And you look across the board at things like the fact that, you know, we have the dissolution of the family in so many respects. We have fatherless children on the rise in America. We have the loss of religion in so many aspects of our country where it was a foundation of our country at one time.

You can’t discount the rise of social media and the role that that has played in things like this. And then the mental health aspect of this obviously has to be a focus instead of the guns, because sane people do not do things like go into an elementary school and assassinate children. Sane individuals do not go to a grocery store in Buffalo intent to kill people. Sane individuals do not go to a New York City subway trying to murder as many people as possible.

So obviously mental health has to be addressed here. They always jump to gun control, but when you look around the country, Sean, states like California with some of the most stringent gun policies, they have the most murders per year with guns compared to any other state.

HANNITY: That’s a good point.

L. TRUMP: It doesn’t make sense, we’ve got to address mental health and we’ve got to get back to our foundation in religion in America.

HANNITY: LJ, you’ve been on the ground in Texas all day talking to the people there. What are they telling you?

LAWRENCE JONES, HOST OF “LAWRENCE JONES CROSS COUNTRY”: Sean, they want the media, they want the Democrats to take a breath. I mean, it is so thick here. Do you realize they started politicizing this before many of these young people were identified?

I mean, it is very sickening — I’ve been on the air since 4:00 a.m. Central Time dealing with this, talking with family members, talking with surging units, rangers have been pulled off the investigation because what they witnessed today, reviewing the bodies, you’ve got justice of the peace who I’m going to talk to tomorrow staff to make sure he notified and identified every single victim’s parents.

That’s what we’re dealing with on the ground. And to the mayor’s point, who was just on the program, Sean, he told all the press, he told all the politicians, local, national, everyone, that he did not want any politicization or he was going to call them out, and what does Beto do? He takes the first opportunity to make it about him.

I mean, it’s just sick. I don’t even want to have the debate right now. I want to get these kids to their resting place. I want to give these families closure.

And it just seems like the other side is not interested in that. Right now, these were innocent children. We’ve got to figure out how this happened, why this happened, and how to prevent this from happening again.

But we also have to pray for these families and give them the support, love that they need, Sean. That’s what they’re asking for on the ground.

HANNITY: Powerful comments, LJ. Powerful comments, Lara. You’re both right on the money.

More HANNITY right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Unfortunately that is all the time we have left tonight. Please remember, set your DVR so you never miss an episode. Thank you for making this show possible.

Don’t forget FOXnews.com, hannity.com for the latest news and information. Our thoughts, our prayers remain with the people of Texas and Uvalde especially tonight and please keep them in your prayers. Tough times for them ahead.

All right. Stay with us. Let not your heart be troubled. Laura is next. We’ll see you tomorrow night.

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