For years the Republican establishment has asked Conservatives to hold their noses and vote for Bob Dole and John McCain. The line was always that a moderate vote would be better than the liberal alternative. Now, those people in the establishment are picking up their toys and going home. The Sean Hannity Show is live Monday through Friday from 3pm - 6pm ET on iHeart Radio and Hannity.com. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
So, Mr. Speaker, you have said throughout this process that you will support the Republican presidential nominee.
Now you have a presumptive nominee, Donald Trump.
Will you support him?
Well, to be perfectly candid with you, Jake, I'm just not ready to do that at this point.
I'm not there right now.
And I hope to, though, and I want to.
But I think what is required is that we unify this party.
And I think the bulk of the burden on unifying the party will have to come from our presumptive nominee.
I don't want to underplay what he accomplished.
He needs to be congratulated for an enormous accomplishment for winning not now a plurality of delegates, and he's on his way to winning a majority of delegates, but he also inherited something very special that's very special to a lot of us.
This is the party of Lincoln, of Reagan, of Jack Kemp.
And we don't always nominate a Lincoln and a Reagan every four years.
But we hope that our nominee aspires to be Lincoln and Reagan-esque, that that person advances the principles of our party and appeals to a wide, vast majority of Americans.
And so I think what is necessary to make this work for this to unify is to actually take our principles and advance them.
And that's what we want to see.
Saying we're unified doesn't in and of itself unify us, but actually taking the principles that we all believe in, showing that there's a dedication to those and running a principle campaign that Republicans can be proud about and that can actually appeal to a majority of Americans.
That to me is what it takes to unify this party.
All right, that was Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House.
Happy Friday, and we're glad you're with us.
Write down our toll-free telephone number.
It's 800-941 Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
All right, so I tweeted out last night because I'm just ticked off on a level that I can't even begin to describe.
Paul Ryan is the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
He's not a pundit.
He's not a talk show host.
He is somebody of enormous importance in the Republican Party.
And he knew when he went on this interview that he was going to be asked this question.
There's certain predictable questions you know you're going to be asked if you're the Speaker of the House.
And, you know, two days after the Republican Party picks its nominee for president, somebody you've been openly critical of, you know, you're going to be asked.
You know, I thought Newt Gingrich captured it pretty well last night when he said he made a big mistake today.
He's the Speaker of the House.
He too has an obligation to unify the party.
He too has an obligation to reach out.
Now, it doesn't matter if he and Trump have some fundamental disagreements.
Based on what Trump's saying, I would think there's a lot more they can agree on than what they probably will end up disagreeing on.
And so I said last, well, maybe I maybe we need a new speaker.
Maybe I'm not ready to support Speaker Ryan anymore.
I mean, in other words, if the circular firing squad is going to continue and it's going to be led by top Republican leaders, it almost seemed orchestrated to me yesterday.
I have no evidence of collusion, but you have the two Bushes, you have Mitt Romney not going to the convention, you have Paul Ryan.
It's a little odd that they all come out on the same day and either are not endorsing, you know, or not going to the convention.
Doesn't it seem a little bit odd?
Well, who are they rejecting here?
Is it really that they're rejecting Donald Trump?
Or is it also do they consider a factor in at all that a record number of GOP primary voters actually went out and voted for Donald Trump?
And some are saying, well, they didn't know what they were voting for.
Oh, really?
You don't think the people of Indiana, a record number of people showing up in Indiana on Tuesday, had no idea whatsoever that this was Ted Cruz's do or die state?
Of course they knew.
They made a decision.
Some of you like it.
Some of you don't like it.
You're going to have to decide on your own which way you go.
Now, look, I know that there are many sincere people out there.
I want to be very clear about this.
And, you know, blessed are the peacemakers.
There are some very, very sincere people.
And, you know, me watching politicians do this, it just makes me think, and this was my thought yesterday, and I have no evidence to back this up at all.
But my thought was they didn't expect this to happen this week.
They didn't have no idea.
I think that every bureaucrat, establishment type in D.C., and I go back to my monologue on Wednesday, that if you want to know why two insurgent candidates, two very different people, Ted Cruz, I'm being honest here, probably the most hated man in D.C., they despise him.
They hate him.
They hate Donald Trump, too.
And so they expected this to go all the way through June.
And they also probably expected that as part of the negotiations going into the convention, that they would be able to get concessions out of either Cruz or Trump and negotiate whatever positions that were important to them as a means of getting their backing and their support.
Well, that happened quicker than anybody had anticipated here.
And, you know, it's, you know, you got some people that are so locked in right now.
I mean, you have a Republican campaign that's just starting and a primary that was, like many primaries, intense, filled with anger and vitriol.
You know, for people that forget, I mean, go back to South Carolina in 2008.
It was not pretty.
Ask John McCain.
He was bitter against George W. Bush for years over what happened here.
It's not that unusual that this sort of thing happens.
What's important, though, is I think people have got to begin the process of starting to heal.
And the conservative movement, unfortunately, by the signs of it this week, seems like it is falling apart.
And it's supposed to take leaders like Paul Ryan that do this.
You know, they have to air all his dirty laundry in public.
He went out there.
Paul Ryan doesn't do many interviews.
I would argue probably the purpose of that interview was to say just that because that was the single most obvious question that was going to be asked.
Now, I know people, you know, parties and movements, they're sort of abstract.
And, you know, we got to remember that there's not the Democratic Party is a coalition party.
In many ways, so is the Republican Party.
If you're pro-life, you're probably likely to be a Republican.
If you're pro-Second Amendment, you're probably likely to be a Republican.
If you believe in conservative justices, you're probably going to be a Republican.
And maybe some of these other issues they deal with don't matter.
If you care about the economy and jobs and the debt and the deficit, you're probably going to be a Republican.
If you care about energy, you're probably going to be a Republican.
So you have individuals for years that have been fighting mostly side by side.
You know, you've got this great schism that is emerging here.
And I know that some of these people are sincere.
I think probably the vast majority of people that I know that were Ted Cruz supporters, I mean, they're friends of mine that went all in for Ted, that they're sincere in their beliefs.
And some of them, I guess, may not vote in the end.
Some will come around and they'll say, I can't have Hillary.
I'll vote for Trump, even though there's certain things about him that I don't like.
But to go out publicly as a powerful speaker like Paul Ryan, I've got to tell you, to me, was reckless and irresponsible.
And in a way, it seems to me that, you know, when you look at all of the statements of all of these prominent Republicans, what I had said I think would happen is now happening is you've got Republican establishment types now openly trying to sabotage the odds, the chances of Donald Trump to win this nomination.
I mean, it's so obvious to me.
Now, I got to tell you something.
Be careful what you wish for here.
This campaign is far from over.
Those of you that may be on the fence, you'll have plenty of time to make your decision.
You're going to find out more things about both candidates as the general election race begins to heat up.
I know, for example, conservatives are looking forward to what is Donald Trump's list of judicial, what's his judicial philosophy.
He said he would release the names of the potential Supreme Court justices and would only choose from that pool.
He's going to make that promise.
And I know people that care about the generational impact of one Supreme Court justice, that might be a tipping point for a whole lot of people.
A lot of people are going to wait and watch and see who he picks for vice president.
A lot of people are looking at the idea and have been encouraging people like myself, put his promises down on paper, contract with America.
Many people want to see who are the type of people he will surround himself with.
You know, maybe some successful governors and successful senators and congressmen that might be willing to join and serve their country.
So there's a lot that's going to happen between now and the time that you go into the voting booth in November.
And, you know, all I can say is when I heard these comments yesterday, I said, you know, I just frankly can't believe it.
Although I really can.
I thought I knew how bad the establishment was, how entrenched it was, but I never thought it was this deep and this fractured and this bad.
For all the times, this very same establishment that asked you as a conservative, you conservatives out there to hold your nose and vote for Bob Dole and vote for John McCain and get all in and you got to do it for the party and it's so much better than what the other option is.
Well, those people are now picking up their toys, a lot of them, and they're going home.
Now, I understand some are principled.
Some don't like Donald Trump's style.
Some don't like his position.
Some don't trust his conservatism and his transition to conservatism.
Okay, well, you know, you can only, for any candidate, you can only listen to what it is they say.
I am not going to spend every hour of every day trying to convince you, this audience, what to do.
I'm just not going to do it.
It's not my role.
I'll lay out the differences, the choices that will be upon you come November.
And then you will make the decision on your own.
And I know many of you, I would expect the people are principled.
I have very little faith in the people being principled.
I do worry about others that have other motives.
I do worry about people that have, you know, their own careers, the fact that, you know, Washington could be completely upended in a Trump presidency and that things could actually get done for once.
But don't forget for one minute that those people that maybe are screaming the loudest, angriest the most at you, the voters, they're probably the ones that caused you to go out and vote insurgent this year in the first place, either for Trump or either for Cruz.
You know, the only tip of the hat that I ever gave as to where I was leaning in this race as I was doing all these interviews is when we got to the point it was Cruz versus Trump.
And I applauded people because I know that most of you thought deeply and long and hard about the choices that were available to you and that you realized that you needed a real fighter.
And you narrowed it down, you winnowed it down to two people, an outsider who's never served in office and Ted Cruz, the most hated guy in Washington.
And I said, I get it.
I understand it.
And why did we get to that point?
Because those same D.C. people broke promise after promise to you.
They never used the power of the purse.
They basically enabled and let Obama roll them on his agenda.
Obama got everything he wanted passed.
They go through the series of votes on health care to prove, you know, they'd have to repeal health care 55 times just so they can go back to their districts and say, I voted again to repeal health care.
But that didn't give them any courage to use the power of the purse to repeal the aspects of Obamacare that they could repeal.
They said they'd stop executive amnesty and they'd stand strong if we gave them the Senate.
And then they caved on that too.
And at the end of the day, then they gave Obama every budget that he wanted.
And they have now funded the Obama presidency till its very end.
No fights, no confrontation, no fear of being blamed for a government shutdown now.
And now they're angry and lashing out at you as if you did something wrong.
You know, there are consequences for action here.
You know, Speaker Ryan, I know, supported a type of amnesty that others, you know, as Speaker, he passed an omnibus bill, which included a massive increase in the number of low-skilled foreign workers to fill U.S. jobs.
Why?
We can see what immigration is now doing, the impact on our educational system, our health care system, our criminal justice system.
We can see the impact, the crime that's happening, 642,000 crimes in an eight-year period in Texas alone.
And Republicans, if they wanted to build the wall, they had both houses of Congress.
They could have funded the wall or they could have waited and fought it out with Obama and shut the government down, but they would have had to expend too much political capital.
So there's a reason, there's a cause, ineptness, fear, a desire to keep power that these politicians were motivated by, not what's in the best interest of the country.
And as a result, people fed up, threw up their hands, and they said, I'm going insurgent.
And it ended up Donald Trump won.
And Donald Trump seems like the type of guy that's actually going to fight, actually going to fight hard, negotiate hard, and try and accomplish things that Republicans have been incapable of accomplishing.
And as a result of their failure, their weakness, their timidity, we now have a country that is in rapid decline because that's always what happens when you elect liberals.
The country goes in decline.
And as predicted, it's in decline.
He has failed and he's failed miserably.
Liberalism has failed again.
Wow, big shocker.
Massive headline.
More people in poverty on food stamps.
The lowest labor participation rate or the highest one in terms of numbers, more people out of the labor force than ever before.
One in 20% of American families have nobody in the workforce.
None.
Nothing.
Zip.
Nada.
Mary Matlin had some really interesting comments.
It was on Real Clear Politics today.
Longtime Bush family political strategist, top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney.
Mary Matlin predicted that Donald Trump has an excellent chance of defeating Hillary Clinton, quote, in a landslide.
Now, I don't take things, until every vote is counted and they say so-and-so is the next, we project to be the next, the 45th president of the United States, I don't believe anything.
But anyway, the more you attack Trump, she points out, the stronger he gets.
She warned on Bloomberg, we've been wrong at every single juncture.
People are sick of political correctness.
They're sick of identity politics.
The veteran Republican operative said Trump could win Colorado, New Mexico, and possibly some of the Midwestern states.
She didn't think he'd win Pennsylvania.
She went on to say that she is not a pro-Trump person, but someone just dispensing facts.
I'm a never-Hillary and provisional Trump, she said.
I like his attitude.
I like his strategist chutzpah.
She says, I like that he had the gall to put micro-messaging over micro-targeting.
That's an interesting comment.
I like what I know of his economic policy.
I just don't know enough.
I think he could not only win, but he could win in a landslide if he would stop his high school boy antics with women.
Otherwise, he's going to force suburban women to Hillary.
But I think he can peel off African Americans, non-traditional millennial voters, if he runs on the jobs message.
I think it would be great if he reins it in.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney said he will, in fact, support Donald Trump as he has always supported the GOP nominee and will do so this year.
Kudos to Cheney.
By the way, out in Wyoming, Liz Cheney's running for Congress.
I think she'll be an awesome, awesome congresswoman from there.
And I really hope that she will get that gig.
Now, with all the talk about the Democrats and what's happening on their side, Bernie Sanders supporters actually shut down a Hillary event.
But don't look now, the Democratic Party's inevitable nominee had another one of her campaign events shut down.
Now, just days after Donald Trump sewed up the nomination, who would have thought with 17 candidates, the Republicans would finish ahead of Hillary Clinton, even with the delegate corruption of the superdelegates that they have, which pretty much guaranteed her the nomination.
But anyway, so she was given a speech out in Los Angeles, and these protesters became so loud they forced her to end the event early.
It was a largely Latino crowd in Monterey Park, and Clinton weathered the interruption after interruption after interruption.
The protesters being let out all had Bernie Sanders' names on their lips.
And what's funny about this, the Business Pack Review put out there that the media went bonkers after Donald Trump's Cinco DeMayo Taco Bowl tweet.
Anyway, so Hillary has a Cinco DeMayo rally where she was shouted off the stage by Latino Bernie Sanders supporters and is virtually ignored by the press.
Among the chans protesters were shouting is release the transcripts, referring to the transcripts of speeches she made to Goldman Sachs, which each one, she made more money in one 30-minute, one-hour speech than most people make in three or four years for crying out loud.
Sanders warned that the Democrats may not unify behind Hillary.
Now, while the media is obsessing over a handful of Republicans who say they're not ready to support Donald Trump, and it is big news, but it's actually the Democrats that I think may have a bigger problem on their hands.
Not only is Sanders refusing to get out of the race, and not only is he poised to win the majority of the remaining primaries, and this is a pretty important point.
He's about to go on a roll here.
And I got to tell you, I think it's going to be bigger than most people think.
She's about to hit another losing streak.
Now, she may be the Democrats' so-called inevitable nominee.
You strip away those superdelegates.
She has a neck-and-neck race with Bernie Sanders.
Anyway, on the heels of his Indiana victory, he seems pretty well positioned for wins in West Virginia and Oregon, which are coming up.
And for Clinton, the prospect of additional Sanders wins is for her.
She's looking at it as more of a headache.
But even if there's a little chance that Sanders can win the nomination, every victory raises new questions.
Why can't she finish him off?
A 74-year-old, angry, curmudgeon socialist, and she's not even close to closing this out.
In Kentucky, which votes in the same day as Oregon, she might win there, but maybe not after her comments about coal mining.
Who knows what impact that's going to have?
There have been two California polls in the last two weeks, and Hillary does have a pretty big lead there, but the Fox survey only had her up by two points against Bernie Sanders.
Anyway, so he's saying, quote, if we're to have a unified party in the fall, no matter who wins the nomination, we cannot have a Democratic National Convention in which the views of millions of people who participated in the Democratic nominating process are not being represented in the committee membership.
He said that sends a very clear message that the Democratic Party is not open to the millions of new people that his campaign brought into the political process.
So they got their own problems going on.
And there's a majority that wants Bernie Sanders to stay in the race.
Clinton's calling, the Clinton campaign is calling for Bernie to drop out.
But there's a new survey out.
Anyway, NBC survey, 57% of Democrats, Democratic leaders want Sanders to campaign until the convention.
Only 16% think that he should drop out now.
And more surprisingly, perhaps 28% of Clinton supporters actually agree with that.
Now, Donald Trump, never missing an opportunity, has waited on this.
And he said, with Hillary Clinton unable to win enough primaries to force Bernie out of the race, Donald Trump is now urging Sanders to go third party.
That's hilarious.
He put out a tweet.
He said, Bernie Sanders has been treated horribly by the Democrats, both with delegates and otherwise.
Well, he should show them and run as an independent.
I actually like this idea, too.
That would be pretty good.
That'd be a great idea.
We have more bad job numbers.
Here we go.
The job numbers do not bode well for the candidate who promises to keep Obama's economic policies in place.
Anyway, job growth in March, the worst in seven months.
The economy added 160,000 jobs in April.
Labor Department reported on Friday, down from a measly 208,000 in March.
That doesn't even keep up with the numbers of people leaving the job force.
Anyway, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady said April's lackluster job numbers show our economy is not living up to its potential.
Add to this, of course, our GDP growth at 0.5%.
Well, that's near a recession number.
And maybe when it's adjusted, maybe it's negative growth.
All right, let's get to our busy telephones here.
We got Vicki in California.
We'll start with you.
Vicki, hi.
Happy Friday.
Welcome to the Sean Hannity Show.
Hi, Sean.
Thank you.
I just want to let the no Trump people out there who are Republicans who won't vote for him because their candidate lost.
I think they're serving a disjustice to the American people.
The majority of the American people have shown that we're tired of being screwed.
We want it fixed.
And if you can't jump on the bandwagon, then you don't have any right to complain or, you know, get praise for what Trump does or Trump doesn't do.
You don't vote for him.
You vote for Hillary.
You don't have a say.
Look, people are going to have to make up their own minds.
And, you know, I suspect that a lot of people that may be saying that they're, maybe people are still kind of, the wound is open, especially because it got so contentious at the end between Cruz and Trump.
I mean, think back in the beginning of the race.
They were the two guys that were getting along.
And it ended up, you know, there's a lot at stake.
Both of them played hardball.
Neither one, you know, neither one was perfect.
They went hard at each other, which is what politics is.
It's a blood sport.
It's an ugly sport.
I always think that it should be, it should be, if Trump made president, Trump and Cruz.
And Cruz made president, Cruz and Trump.
What a powerful, what a powerful group are those two.
I would be fine with that.
I just don't know if the healing can be deep enough at this point.
I mean, I think it got pretty scorched earth at the end.
It got pretty ugly at the end.
But I would have Ted Cruz on the short list for sure.
I mean, if they could bridge the gap, absolutely.
Another person that a lot of people have been writing about and actually was winning our poll.
Is our poll still up, Linda?
Who's winning still?
Is Newt Gingrich still winning?
You know, we'll take a look, but he was winning significantly.
I think Newt would be a great choice.
There's only been two times in the modern political era where we have had successful advancement of conservative ideals that have benefited the country.
And that was the Reagan presidency and Newt Gingrich's contract with America.
He was the architect.
He brought Republicans to power in 40 years, and they actually got stuff done.
And they did a lot of good things at the time.
He's the smartest guy I know in politics.
I think he understands Trump, would be a good compliment to him.
He's also not somebody that wants to be president.
I think that's always helpful.
I think that was helpful to George W. Bush.
Dick Cheney never wanted to be president.
And he has the experience of being around Capitol Hill.
All these guys in Washington seek out his counsel and advice.
He's just the smartest strategist there is.
So we'll see.
There's a lot of good people.
You have Marco Rubio out there.
You have all these governors that I keep naming that could team up, and you can get a team of rivals and mention or name cabinet officials ahead of time, release the names of the Supreme Court nominee pool that you're going to choose from.
There's a lot of great ideas out there that I think could help a lot, especially comparing and contrasting Hillary Clinton and the people she'd put in office, the justices she'd appoint.
All right, back to our phones.
Thank you, Vicki.
I appreciate it.
William is in Louisiana.
William, hi, how are you?
We're glad you called.
Doing well.
I love your show.
I've listened to you almost religiously every day.
But I'm just fed up with all the tearing that's going on.
And whether it was Trump or Cruz, heck, I even supported Ben Carson at the beginning.
I just switched it up toward the middle.
But now you've got establishment people trying to derail everything.
And honestly, they should be held accountable.
So next time around, you know, you have people who say, oh, I'm going to leave the country if Trump wins.
Well, how about if Trump loses, every one of them, their jobs are accountable and people should vote them all out?
You know, again, I go back.
Do you agree with me that in large part, all these exit polls that showed that 60, 65% of Republicans felt betrayed by D.C. Republicans, don't you think that had a major cause in the way people voted this year?
Oh, yeah, definitely.
So they caused it, and now they're not going to rally around the choice of the people.
Well, that's only going to further alienate their relationship with the people that keep them in power.
I mean, does Paul Ryan have a...
I agree with you on the...
They're just trying to save their own skins and that they're trying to make everyone.
Oh well, we told you so.
Now look, you guys lost because you voted.
There's nothing.
Listen, I'm going to tell you right now that these establishment types they're, they're almost hoping and I have no doubt many will be involved in sabotaging Donald Trump hoping Hillary wins, so they get the, they get their moment in the sun and they say, you guys screwed this up, you didn't listen to us.
Thank you, William.
Kathy Montana, we have a minute Kathy, it's all yours.
Hey, how's it going, Sean?
I'm just getting really sick and tired of all the moaning and the whining and complaining about how Trump is, I'm not going to vote for him, and so forth, and so on.
You know what?
Let's look at it this way.
If he wins, we got our foot in the door.
If he doesn't, that means the Hillebeast is in, and then we have no chance of ever, ever changing.
I agree with you.
Anyway, I'm getting some feedback here, guys.
But I agree with you totally.
It's the only chance you have.
I mean, this is, you know, I also think, again, you know, I don't, Republicans didn't keep their promises.
I'm pretty cynical.
But if Trump keeps his promises, and if he kept his promise on energy independence, on building the wall, on the pool of candidates he would appoint to the Supreme Court, on getting our budget in balance and eliminating Obamacare, that's just five things right there.
If he did that alone, the country is infinitely better off than what Hillary Clinton would offer.
But I'm not in the business.
You all make your own decision here.
Well, with respect to the Republican process and Mr. Trump, there's going to be plenty of time to talk about his positions on various issues.
He has a long record that needs to be examined.
And I think it's important for us to take seriously the statements he's made in the past.
But most importantly, and I speak to all of you in this room as reporters, as well as the American public, I think I just want to emphasize the degree to which we are in serious times, and this is a really serious job.
This is not entertainment.
This is not a reality show.
This is a contest for the presidency of the United States.
And what that means is that every candidate, every nominee, needs to be subject to exacting standards and genuine scrutiny.
It means that you got to make sure that their budgets add up.
It means that if they say they've got an answer to a problem, that it is actually plausible and that they have details for how it would work.
And if it's completely implausible and would not work, that needs to be reported on.
And the American people need to know that.
You know, if they take a position on international issues that could threaten war or has the potential of upending our critical relationships with other countries or would potentially break the financial system, that needs to be reported on.
That needs to be reported on.
You in the media, you need to do your job.
800-941 Sean, you want to be a part of this extravaganza.
You know, this is pretty rich Austin Goolsby.
Let me ask you a question.
Did you hear about Donald Trump's associations that he actually started the day that he made that announcement?
Remember, he came down the escalator at Trump Tower?
Yeah.
You know who he was meeting with?
You know who he was meeting with before he came down?
This was just announced?
Who, who?
Members of a domestic terrorist group that bombed the Pentagon, the U.S. Capitol, and New York City police headquarters.
He started his political career meeting with those people on that day.
Did you not hear that?
Wait, Donald Trump?
Donald Trump.
It just, you didn't see this?
We just, he was meeting with, there's a radical leftist group in the 60s.
Apparently, he's been friends with this guy for years, sat on boards with this guy, gave speeches with this guy.
And it's announced that he made it just before he made his announcement.
He started his political career talking to that guy.
And by the way, the guy's not sorry about bombing the Capitol, the Pentagon, and New York City police headquarters.
How is that possible?
I don't know.
Nobody in the media has asked him, and it just got released.
Now, doesn't that disqualify him from being president?
Don't you think they have to start over?
Your buddy Ted Cruz should get in there?
Look, I told you, and we've still not decided yet.
I told you Ted Cruz will find a way to do this.
But wow, I can't, I don't even know what to say.
I'm going to have to look at this.
It's on the front cover of Drudge.
Where have you been all day?
You've been in class or something or what?
I've been teaching.
I got to get.
All right, but don't you think if you're hanging out with a guy that's responsible for domestic terror attacks and says he's not sorry for it, and you're sitting on boards with the guy and you're literally giving speeches with the guy and you talk to him just before you announce your career in politics, that disqualifies him in my mind?
Doesn't that disqualify him?
I don't know.
I mean, it depends what the context is.
The guy's a terrorist.
He was part of a group that bombed.
Wait a minute.
This happened 50 years ago or what?
No, it happened.
No, it happened in the 70s.
He sat on boards with the guy, gave speeches with the guy, met with him just before he began his political career.
You've got to be kidding me.
Part of a group that bombed the Pentagon, bombed the U.S. Capitol, and bombed New York City police headquarters.
And he actually said, I wish I did more.
I don't know.
That sounds weird.
But come on, that person can't be president.
You agree?
Wait a minute.
I'm on Drudge here.
This is about Sumner Redstone.
Oh, you're finding it look good.
What are you getting at?
What are you saying?
Oh, wait a minute.
Well, Obama's lecturing the first thing.
Obama's lecturing the media.
Let's see.
Who was I talking about?
Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dorn.
Now, here's a question: as Obama lectures the media, by the way, you fell hook, line, and sinker.
I hate to talk to a friend.
I believe you.
I believe you.
That teaches me to be trusting of what you tell me.
You should.
That's exactly right.
I know I'm a horrible person, but it worked.
Now, here's Barack Obama began his political career in the home of members of the Weather Underground, a domestic terrorist organization that bombed the Pentagon, the Capitol, and New York City police headquarters on all days 9-11, 2001, the day we were attacked.
In the New York Times that morning before the attack, there was a quote by Bill Ayers saying he's not apologetic and he wished he did more.
Now, Barack Obama ran for president.
He just lectured the media how they need to vet these candidates.
These are serious times.
This is a big job.
How many times in the course of that campaign do you think that Barack Hussein Obama, your buddy, was asked the question about Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dorn, a guy he sat on boards with?
Hang on.
A guy he sat on boards with.
Can I finish?
I'm asking how many times drum up a controversy came out in that very campaign.
Okay, how many times in that campaign in 2008 was Barack Obama asked about Bill Ayers?
Do you know the answer to that?
I wasn't with him for the entire time.
Just take a guess.
Do you think it was 50 times, 100 times?
How many times do you think?
I know it was many.
I know you talked about it many, many times.
How many times was he personally asked about it?
I don't know.
I know.
It was well-known public knowledge.
Okay.
It was well known to my audience because I brought it up.
But how many times did the mainstream media, he just lectured the media that they've got to vet the candidates?
How many times, how many times was he asked?
Okay, so he started his political career in the home of the unrepentant terrorist.
He sat on boards with the unrepentant terrorists.
He gave speeches with the unrepentant terrorists.
And I'm trying to help you here.
How many times did the media in the course of that long campaign ask him about Bill Ayers?
What?
How many times in the course of that campaign did the media that he's lecturing to vet these candidates?
How many times did they ask him?
I wasn't with him the whole time.
I'm going to tell you.
I know that topic was covered by many, many members of the media.
But that's not my question.
I didn't ask if the topic was covered.
It wasn't covered.
Look at all sorts of things.
He was asked in the whole campaign, go look it up, a total of one time about his association.
And the only reason, you'll be proud of me for this, the only reason he was asked is because the day before George Stephanopoulos hosted a debate, I said, hey, you're going to ask him about Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dorn?
And he said, who are they?
He was on my radio show the day before.
He didn't know who they were.
And then he went up.
When he was asked, literally, in the debate.
No, he was asked one time throughout the entire campaign about these guys.
What are you basing that on?
Basing it on my research and my following that more than anybody.
Okay.
Name one of the time he was asked about.
And I agree.
You can't disagree with what the president just said there.
Yeah, but wait a minute, but he didn't get that.
My point is.
He's a job of public vetting.
He didn't get vetted.
No, he got vetted by me, a couple of others of us.
You're a member of the media.
Oh, but he didn't come on my show.
Let me play the question and answer.
Let me play for you.
There are two questions that I don't think anybody has asked Barack Obama, and I don't know if this is going to be on your list tomorrow.
One is the only time he's ever been asked about his association with Bill Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist from the Weather Underground, who on 9-11 of all days in the New York Times was saying, I don't regret setting bombs.
I don't think we did enough.
When asked about it by the Politico, David Axelrod said they have a friendly relationship and that they had done a number of speeches together and that they sat on a board together.
Is that a question you might ask?
Well, I'm taking notes right now.
September 11th, 2001, of all days, there was an article in the New York Times, and there are a number of quotes about Bill Ayers, and the Politico had in there the comments from David Axelrod.
I think that's an interesting question that nobody in the media has really brought up.
We've highlighted a little bit more here on this program, but let me see if I can help you.
You want any more questions?
Yeah, keep going.
The Chicago Reader talked about and commented, has comments of Barack Obama why he attended the Million Man March.
Most people don't know that, I don't think.
That's pretty.
Didn't he write about that in his book?
I don't remember that in particular, but I know that he was quoted extensively in the Chicago Reader December 8th, I forget the year.
I'm going back a couple of years.
My memory's not that good, George.
So I asked him.
Now, this is what happened the next night during the debate.
On this issue, general theme of patriotism in your relationships, a gentleman named William Ayers.
He was part of the Weather Underground in the 1970s.
They bombed the Pentagon, the Capitol, and other buildings.
He's never apologized for that.
And in fact, on 9-11, he was quoted in the New York Times saying, I don't regret setting bombs.
I feel we didn't do enough.
An early organizing meeting for your state Senate campaign was held at his house, and your campaign has said you were friendly.
Can you explain that relationship for the voters and explain to Democrats why it won't be a problem?
This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood who's a professor of English in Chicago, who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from.
He's not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis.
And the notion that somehow, as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago when I was eight years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense, George.
This kind of game in which anybody who I know regards.
All right, this is the answer.
By the way, you've got to give me props for planting the question.
I do give you props.
And the way this played out, in my view, is exactly how these things should play out.
He gave a perfectly rational answer, in my opinion.
And when Sarah Palin tried to raise that issue through the campaign, if you remember, it got no traction because as he was.
Because the media wouldn't follow up.
That's what happened.
That happened when he was a kid.
And the age at which was in 1995.
The age.
I was Barack Obama when he ran for the U.S. Senate.
I never saw any.
Okay, but he started.
This is what you're neglecting.
And this is where the follow-up, if he's going to lecture the media on vetting, the follow-up would have been this.
Okay, you were eight years old when he did the bombings.
He's still unrepentant.
Why did you start your political career in his house?
Why did you sit on boards with an unrepentant terrorist?
Let me finish.
Let me finish.
Why did you sit on boards with an unrepentant terrorist?
Why did you give speeches with him?
And then why did you lie to us and say, oh, he's just some guy in the neighborhood?
That's the follow-up.
That's a follow-up, but it's completely bogus.
But it never happened.
The follow-up never happened.
Sean, that was an actual presidential debate.
Right?
The question was asked one time and only one time.
All the political reported on it once.
If you look at Donald Trump and you say he's got a long history of declaring bankruptcies and stiffing contractors, etc., that should come out.
Now, I think that it is worthwhile to follow the, let's call it the Hannity approach of giving the candidate the opportunity to give an explanation that maybe it's not as bad as what their detractors are saying about them.
Well, let me ask you, if Donald Trump, let me ask the question this way.
If you found out what I said at the beginning of this half hour, if it was news today that Donald Trump, just before he came down the escalator, had consulted with a domestic terrorist who bombed the Pentagon, the capital, New York City police headquarters, was unrepentant, wished he did more, and that he gave speeches with this guy and sat on boards with this guy.
You're saying that you think the media that Obama lectured today would only ask him one time between now and Election Day.
They asked many more than one time, and there were many more.
All right, how much do you want to bet?
You have to find it for me the next time.
Find it for me.
I will give $1,000.
40 years ago.
I'll bet you $1,000.
The American people should decide whether they think that's right.
But the media didn't follow up.
Donald Trump was cavorting with some very unpleasant characters, but I don't think that that's going to be considered very relevant by the voters.
I don't know if he was hanging out with unrepentant terrorists in an age of terrorism.
I think that's a big deal.
But listen, I think this is a fun exercise.
Wasn't this like your favorite appearance ever?
You did.
You had me.
I was like, wait, what?
Donald Trump met with these people.
So you've got to give me credit.
I didn't just take a bet.
I knew I knew you, and I believed you.
I know.
That's pretty.
I didn't immediately say, oh, he's disqualified.
Yeah, you kind of were like so stunned you couldn't believe it.
All right, so here's the deal.
You want to bet $1,000 that you can't find another media person that asked him?
No, wait a minute.
You want to take that bet?
Complete our bet.
I want you to commit our bet about it.
Listen, we'll do one bet at a time.
I got to go.
Are you taking my bet on the finding the other journalist or not?
Before the election?
Anybody asked him about it?
Anybody followed up on Stephanopoulos' point.
I'm taking the bet on the you flying me to New York in a jail and giving me dinner.
And I want to roll dinner.
I want you to cook the dinner.
Goodbye.
I'll take the bet at some other point.
Katrina has a good point.
Or is it Katarina, Katarina in New Mexico?
Hey, Katarina, how are you?
What's going on?
Hi, Sean.
Great to talk to you.
Well, I was listening yesterday and wanted to chat with a few.
I'm a Cruz supporter, and I wanted to chat with you a little bit about what it would take to bring someone like myself over to the Trump table.
Look, it's, you know, as I said before, there are some very, very sincere people that I have nothing but respect for.
There's still, it happened this week where your candidate got out.
And I got to tell you, I understand how deeply you feel about it.
I don't know.
I'm not going to spend, as I said yesterday, all my time on the program trying to convince people to vote for Trump, but I will say this.
There's certain things, you know, you're going to hear Donald Trump lay out that pool of names of people that he would nominate to the Supreme Court.
I think I'm pretty confident.
I think it's his number one promise.
He's going to build a wall.
He's said repeatedly what he'd do on health care, and he likes healthcare savings accounts, and he repeated it yesterday.
We know he believes in energy independence.
That's important.
We know his philosophy on ISIS and foreign policy.
You know, so you're going to have to make a choice because on all of these issues, it's the opposite.
Does it make sense?
It does.
But, you know, there's a significant level of trust that needs to be built here.
There's been a lot of flip-flopping taking place that a lot of us just don't know where he's going to stand when it all comes down to actually putting the policy together.
You know, a lot of the flip-flopping from my perspective, though, there's been some during the campaign.
I can't dispute that because it's true.
But most of the flip-flopping came for what he was before his political life.
And I kind of, you know, maybe it's after interviewing him.
And I remember once I asked Senator Cruz, do you just not believe, for example, he's pro-life?
Do you just not believe he's going to build the wall?
Do you just not believe when he tells me he wants to be energy independent?
And his answer was he doesn't believe him.
That's what he said, and that's fair.
My personal observation is I do believe him.
I think he has every intention, if he does become president, to be successful.
That's my perception.
Now, you can't say that any of the 17 candidates that we can sit here and guarantee in stone, we know Republicans promised to repeal and replace Obamacare, and they had their symbolic votes, but they never actually used the power of the purse that they had at their disposal.
So they broke their promise, too.
They broke their promise on stopping executive amnesty.
Well, what a lot of us have begun to recognize is they'll say what they need to say, and they may absolutely believe these principles and standpoints before they get to Washington.
And it's like the minute they step into that Capitol building, they all come down with Potomac fever.
And they start making deals.
And that's one of his key phrases.
I'm a deal maker.
Okay, well, we, and as you have stated, we gave you the House.
You did nothing for us.
We gave you the Senate.
You did nothing for us.
And they all get back in their smoke-filled luncheon rooms and cut deals, and the American people are always left out of it.
Yeah, I mean, and you know what?
And that was my explanation is how we've got to this point.
I said on Wednesday, how did we get here?
And it's their failure that paved the way for the most hated guy.
Let's be honest.
The most hated guy in Washington was Senator Ted Cruz.
Now, so he was the insurgent candidate.
He was the guy they never liked.
They never thought that they'd have to try and align with him to try and stop Trump, who was the outsider insurgent.
You know what I mean?
And I've been making the case all along that they hated both of them.
And I, you know, at one point when it was very clear it was Cruz versus Trump, I remember coming on the air and I gave the biggest hint I gave in the process, which is where I was leaning, which is I said that I think the voters have chosen very well.
You've chosen an outsider insurgents.
And in that sense, I have deep respect for the people that voted for both of them and understand why they voted for both of them, for different reasons.
Well, there's an honest reason that Senator Cruz was the most hated man in Washington because he was one of the few that was actually standing up for the American people.
100%.
And I praised him in interview after interview.
I mean, some of the Cruz people are mad at me.
You know, if you look at my interviews closely with either Trump or Cruz, the Our Town Halls, et cetera, my method was pretty simple.
I really wanted them to take the microphone and have the opportunity to speak their mind to you, the viewer, and to the people that were there.
And I tried to interrupt as little as possible, ask about the big issues that matter the most, how they're going to govern, talk a little bit about the state of the race, where we were, you know, it's things like that.
But, you know, I kind of let them all go.
I didn't sit there if, let's say, Ted Cruz said something about Donald Trump that wasn't true, I wasn't interrupting, or if Trump said something about Cruz that was an attack, I wasn't interrupting.
And some people like the style, some people don't.
I think it's otherwise if you start arguing with the candidate, it's like you're pleading the other person's side.
I didn't want to be in that position.
I understand.
understand but at this point why don't you just do this why don't you just Katerina, why don't you look at the judges that he lays out?
Why don't you look at how serious you think he's going to be on the wall?
You know, examine his economic plan, his health care plan in a little more detail.
Look at the people that he announces that will be around him.
His vice presidential choice is going to be very important.
People will be paying very close attention.
And then, you know what?
You have time to make your decision.
Well, what's missing for most of us, most of us Cruz supporters, goes back to that level of trust.
And we know that Donald Trump is a guy that's in the middle of a transformation coming from the left, being from a liberal state, and trying to take on leadership of the entire country, which doesn't follow the same left-leaning values.
Even if he would come out to us today and say, you know, I'm trying to wrap my head around this whole conservative principle idea, and I'm looking at it, and a lot of this makes a whole lot more sense.
So I am looking at things from a small government standpoint.
I want to do things like bring the Keystone Pipeline up.
Let's repeal Obamacare and Dodd-Frank, which, by the way, is killing the lending industry.
Release Fannie Mae from federal ownership to start rebuilding the private sector.
Defund the EPA.
Replace it with something that's a much less bureaucratic conversation.
Katerina, you're singing my song.
And frankly, most of the candidates actually said a lot of the same things, including a lot of the things that you're talking about here.
All right, let me move on, though, Katarina.
A lot of people want to talk to me, and I want to get to them.
Let's go to Don in Lake Ron Concoma.
Big Don, welcome aboard, my friend.
How are you?
Hey, Sean, it's great to talk to you again, as always.
Heylison, I was just referring to that video clip you had last night on Hannity of Speaker Ryan when he said he wasn't ready yet to endorse Donald Trump because he said that Trump has some work to do to bring unity to the Republican Party.
Well, there's some truth to that.
You know?
I'm not disagreeing.
For some people, I think that is an honest assessment and an honor.
Look, I'm not saying you heard me yesterday, Don.
You heard me say, I had said from the very beginning, I will support the nominee.
Absolutely.
This week we got the nominee.
So I knew where I was.
If it was Ted Cruz, I'd be supporting Ted Cruz.
If it was Marco, I'd be supporting Marco.
So if people need more, need time to get some faith and hope and understanding and a belief, I have zero problem with that.
My problem with Speaker Ryan is deeper, though, is he's the Speaker of the House.
He has a top leadership position.
He has an obligation to unify the party.
He did not have to do that interview yesterday on CNN.
He knew he would be asked about it, and he purposely went out there and gave that answer knowing what the predictable result is.
He's not stupid.
And for me, I think he was anticipating this process at least would go to June 7th.
It didn't happen.
I assume he was hoping, as were other leaders, that they would have a chance to kind of navigate and negotiate with Trump on issues if he was going to be the nominee.
They never got that choice.
And what he's basically saying, from my perspective, is come and kiss my ring.
And unfortunately, what that doesn't include is the fact that Paul Ryan, granted, he wasn't Speaker.
Boehner was Speaker.
But Republicans didn't get the job done.
Republicans, look at the exit poll.
60% feel betrayed.
That's the success of Cruz.
That's the success of Trump.
And now they're putting in their demands.
I don't want the same old in Washington.
You know, I said the agenda that needs to be advanced is simple.
Balance your budget, live within your means, energy, independence, build the wall, have the biggest, meanest, toughest military in the world.
Let education go back to the states.
You know my conservative solution caucus.
I have not changed one bit.
So if they can get those simple things done and really do it, I'll be happy.
If not, then America continues its rapid decline into Europe and chaos.
I'm just saying that Trump can be a major voice in unity.
No one can draw the crowds.
He can.
You can't deny it.
Paul Ryan can't.
Mitch McConnell can't.
The writers at NRO can't.
Nope.
And, you know, look, just interviewing all the candidates as much as I have, I feel I have a pretty good hope for whether or not they're sincere.
You've been terrific.
You have given them all a fair shake, and we've learned so much from them.
And you were a major force behind that.
And thank you very much.
I appreciate it.
You know, some people are still mad at me.
I couldn't win for losing from the get-go here.
I want you to know that, Don.
There was no winning in the end for me.
But anyway, appreciate it.
I just hope the country wins and we get back on track.
Let's go to Brooklyn, New York.
The all-new AM710, W-O-R.
Jeff is next.
How are you?
Glad you called.
What's going on?
How are you?
I'm just totally furious with the establishment.
They tell us that they want us to bring everybody together.
But at the same time, they're telling us that being Trump is the nominee, that they would turn around and vote for Hillary.
So how is that together?
They said they don't trust who Trump is going to put as the Supreme Court, yet they know who Hillary is going to put as the Supreme Court.
Well, Trump's going to give you the pool of candidates before the election.
So you're going to have that.
He said he promised he's going to lay out the names of the people, you know, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 people, of which those are the only people he will choose.
And that's going to tell us a lot about his judicial philosophy.
Who do you think Hillary is going to choose?
A left-wing radical like Sodomayor.
Right.
So the establishment rather than keep the elite, rather keep their backroom deals going, which they feel they could do with Hillary.
Because Trump didn't take $10 million from Exxon.
Trump didn't take $10 million from any company that they're going to make their nephew or grandson the ambassador of Bangkok or China somewhere.
He took nothing.
And the fear in the super-rich elites and both parties are dying.
So I think they'll both go together to keep Trump out.
That's the only answer I could have.
I've said this before.
Look, I'm not going to spend my time talking to everybody into who to vote for.
You make up your own mind.
But the active outward sabotage of somebody who was the choice of the people is breathtaking to me by the same arrogant people that created a path for insurgency.
That's my take.
Anyway, 800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program, David in Ohio.
David, hi, how are you?
Glad you called.
Hi, Sean.
How are you?
I'm good.
What's going on?
No, no, hey, I just wanted to say I'm with you.
I've been listening to you since the early 2000s, and it's an honor to talk to you.
But one thing that's concerned me really over the past six, eight months is the same frustration you felt back in 2007 leading up to the Obama first Obama term.
And the media hasn't really been critical of the path of the candidates.
There is some truth to that.
I agree.
But you know what?
I would argue that there's one big difference.
I don't know any of the candidates, including Hillary for that matter, as bad as she is, although she was an Alinsky disciple herself.
But there's a lot of things I have that I'm preparing that I will bring to the air about Hillary Clinton to make sure everybody knows exactly what their options are and what's at stake.
I don't know that Donald Trump hung out with unrepentant terrorists.
I don't know that he went to a radical church, the church of GD America.
I don't know that he hung out with communists and his thought process was ingrained in him by Frank Marshall Davis or radical leftists like Alinsky and Acorn.
I just haven't seen that in his past.
We know he's a businessman.
We know that he wasn't really involved in politics only to keep his businesses running.
Right.
Well, I believe he was, just like you said, he was involved in politics just up to the point that he needed to be for his businesses.
But I believe that we can see that based on who he has dealt with and the reasons that he says he did, I think it just shows us who he is as a person and who he would potentially be as a president.
And that's what I'm saying.
But look, again, I'm not going to tell you what to do, who to vote for.
Look at all the evidence.
You decide.
I would take into account the direction of the country, how bad things are, and see who you think is going to best be capable of doing a job that will put this country on track.
To me, it's not an option.
I'm never Hillary.
I think it would be a third term of Obama.
And I also think we'd be a lot better off if we actually talked to each other instead of yelling at each other.
Let the other side do the yelling.
We're going to be talking and rolling up our sleeves and getting to work because it's not enough.
It's not enough to diagnose the problem.
For a second, as we continue our final hour, free-for-all, glad you're with us.
News Roundup Information Overload Hour.
Notice Hillary is telling people it'd be nice to talk to each other and not yell.
One big problem.
Listen again.
She's yelling.
And I also think we'd be a lot better off if we actually talked to each other instead of yelling at each other.
Let the other side do the yelling.
We're going to be talking and rolling up our sleeves and getting to work because it's not enough.
It's not enough to diagnose the problem.
We need to solve the problem.
And his is Hillary and her past.
I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration, somehow you're not patriotic and we should stand up and say we are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration.
What does Mr. Clinton think through the mouth of Mrs. Clinton?
Wait, you want me to tell you what my husband thinks?
My husband is not the Secretary of State.
I am.
So you ask my opinion, I will tell you my opinion.
I'm not going to be channeling my husband.
I know that we can finish the job of universal health care coverage for every single man, woman, and child.
I know.
I know we can combat climate change and be the clean energy superpower of the 21st century.
I know we can make our education system work for every one of our children, especially those who come with disadvantages.
I know we can make college affordable and get student debt off the backs of young people.
And I know we can protect our rights.
Women's rights.
Gay rights.
Voting rights.
Immigrant rights.
Workers' rights.
I know, too, we can stand up to the gun lobby and get common sense gun safety measures.
Go to the end of the line.
Why don't you go to the end of the line?
The fact is, we had four dead Americans.
Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they'd go kill some Americans?
What difference at this point does it make?
Makes a difference that she lied because she was telling her daughter and she was telling the Libyan president and the Egyptian prime minister that it was a terror attack while simultaneously lying to you, the American people.
And by the way, for somebody who lectures us on not yelling, she yells an awful lot.
Anyway, the woman card, the gender card, sure to be played in this general election by Hillary Clinton.
Joining us, Sally Cohn, political commentator.
By the way, is more of a Bernie Sanders leftist socialist commie supporter.
And Ellen Karras is with us, who worked in derivatives and filming.
And by the way, her comedy special is on June 2nd at the Broadway Comedy Club.
How are you?
Good.
Thank you.
Have you seen my friend Tamara Holder, how good she's getting in comedy?
Have you noticed?
I did not get to see her in person, but I actually got a preview of her set one of the nights before.
It's so good.
I'm not kidding.
I really am proud of her.
She's doing so well.
Yeah.
All right, Sally.
Yeah.
Yes.
No, listen, I'm telling you, she's got great jokes about me.
She tears me up.
I love her.
Yes, she does.
Thanks a lot.
Hey, Sally.
Yeah.
So does Hillary yell?
At times, I mean.
A lot.
Doesn't she get loud and scream a lot?
I don't think any more or less than any other politicians.
Looks like she's like.
Doesn't it sound like she was yelling when she said, well, we're not going to yell like the other time.
Didn't that sound like yelling?
I was speaking in a large audience, and you could hear what she was trying to speak over.
You've spoken to large audiences.
You know, you have to project in that kind of space.
I don't yell.
Well, Sean, we don't have to argue about this.
There are social science studies that, you know, when men hear women's voices or when, in fact, by the way, when women hear women's voices, they're more likely to think they're being angry or yelling or argumentative, and the men are being strong and making solid points.
So we know.
This isn't a matter of opinion.
We know based on research that men and women view men and women's voices differently.
And by the way, they view, you know, put the same thing.
I've watched you.
I have a name with a female name on it, and people prefer the male candidate with the same exact credentials.
We know that.
But I've watched you give speeches.
You've sent me copies of, what do you call those, that lecture series you're a part of again?
The TED Talks, yes, Sean.
The TED Talk thing.
Okay, and I've watched you give your speeches.
You've been kind enough to send me copies and links to it.
I've watched them in their entirety, and at no time during your speech do you scream.
Yes, and I'll do deference to myself.
Those were in front of audiences of a few hundred, not several thousand.
I mean, I haven't spoken in front of stadium-sized audiences.
I don't know if you have.
Everyone I know who has, you're yelling to project.
Well, I come out and I say hello.
We really get it.
I'm going to go wherever I am.
All right.
Well, why do you like Bernie better than Hillary?
Why don't you like her?
Well, I don't not like Hillary.
Just because I prefer Bernie doesn't mean I don't like Hillary.
I agree with Hillary on 90% of her policies and positions.
And on the 10%, I think Bernie is better.
I want a president.
I want a Democratic Party that is more reflective and responsive of working people and a little less cozy with Wall Street, a little less quick to jump to war.
And I think Bernie is helping make not only Hillary, but the party's not.
Don't you think she should release the speeches that she got paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for before these bankers and all these Wall Street types?
I would like her to lease those speeches.
By the way, this is funny because when you critique Hillary Clinton for being too cozy with Wall Street or, you know, too quick to go to war, you realize I'm critiquing her for being too close to aligned with traditional Republican Party stances.
The only problem I have is that Hillary Clinton did what was politically expedient.
Once we commit troops to win Mosul and pollution to Creed and Ramadi, you don't pull out too early to the point that all that territory, blood, sweat, treasure, and tears that we lost and the financial burden and the families that suffered, you don't pull out early like she did because it was politically expedient.
You finished the job.
And what Obama did by pulling out early was allowed ISIS to build their headquarters in those very areas that Americans had secured.
And I think that's a big point about her record.
That is her record.
And nobody talks about that.
If she's talking about her experience and what she's been doing, that is on her watch.
And that is something that she was in charge of, and she should be responsible for.
But for some reason, she knows everything.
She knows how to roll up her sleeves.
And I find it very offensive that she is the speaker for the woman's movement.
Like, how did that happen?
And when did that happen?
And what has she ever done for women that's so magnanimous?
My life hasn't changed.
I was working in 1992 when she was first lady.
My life hasn't changed because of anything that Hillary Clinton has done as a woman, and especially someone that's had so many different careers.
You know, let me ask this.
I'm somewhat speechless.
I didn't, first of all, every president in American history and every man who's ever run for president has implicitly run on the fact that he's a man.
There are men cards littered throughout American politics and American history.
I don't really recall this.
What are you talking specifically about?
It doesn't mean she is the standard bearer for.
When has a person said, vote for me because I'm a man?
When did that happen?
He didn't have to.
That was just called the way things were done.
Well, Hillary has actually said, is it a time for a woman to be president?
Presidents elected before us were implicitly elected.
But you said they played the man card.
Give me an example.
Implicitly, they played the mail card.
Vote for me, I'm a man.
That's implied.
Whenever that's heard anybody says, give me an example.
I've never heard anybody say that.
It's implied by American history.
Come on, by the fact that up until Barack Obama, the 41st 43 presidents were all white men.
I just think that shame is irrelevant.
You want to vote for Hillary on what she stands for?
That's great.
But to vote for her on the sole purpose that she's a woman and it's time and it should be her is ridiculous and dangerous.
What are the differences that you see between it was certainly a factor.
Of course it's a factor, just like it's a factor.
You don't think Trump is running on machismo?
No, I don't.
I don't think he's ever once said, vote for me, I'm a man.
Isn't it time for a man to be president?
No.
It's this whole message.
We're going around in circles.
Well, trust me, I'll get it done.
What woman could ever run for president with the thin promises and knowledge that he's running for and gets to the business?
Okay, so let's look at the last eight years.
You supported Obama and voted for him twice, right?
I did.
And are you proud of his record?
Listen, I don't have to agree with 100% of the time.
I didn't ask that anyone supports me.
Tell me what he has done that is so heavy.
Sally, Sally, come on.
You've got to play ball here.
Tell me what he has done to make the lives of Americans better.
We've had 53 straight months of private sector job growth after the second worst recession in the history of our country, which was caused by Republican economic.
We're going back eight years, and we're blaming Bush.
He's the only—let me give you the numbers that I'm looking at, because our numbers— That unemployment number that came out today, that is so fictitious. There is— There are people that have dropped out of the workforce.
There are people that have taken jobs at a much, much lower salary or at a much lower skill level than they have.
There are still plenty of people that are out of work.
And some of these jobs have gone and they will never, ever come back.
Let me give the statistics that I think matter.
Here are the numbers that matter to me.
We have millions of more Americans in poverty since he's become president, millions of more Americans on food stamps.
We have the lowest labor participation rate in 40 years.
We have one in five families, 20% of American families, don't have a single family member working, not one.
He's doubled the debt.
He said $9 trillion in debt, taking a credit card in the name of our kids to the Bank of China is irresponsible.
It's reckless, irresponsible, and unpatriotic.
Well, he's accumulated more debt than every other president before him combined.
He's made a mess of Iraq.
He gave the mullahs in Iran $150 billion.
He has destroyed, temporarily at least, our relationship with our greatest ally in the Mideast, Israel.
And I can't really, besides giving the okay to get bin Laden, I really can't think of one other thing that he's been successful at.
I love this.
This is so much fun, Sean.
This is what I want to do on a Friday afternoon.
Look, first of all, you want to compare absolute numbers of policy of poverty and the debt versus percentages.
He has cut the deficit.
So in absolute terms, he has cut it.
What do you want?
I'm going to agree with both of you that the economy is not where it should be.
That wages have gone down.
So you know what we should do?
We should, I don't know, raise your hand.
So you talk about he raises the deficit, he triples the defense.
We should increase unemployment benefits, but your side won't do that.
Or fixes, he has proposed them.
You fix the slave.
That's not a job for anybody.
You can't put a band-aid on something that is bleeding profusely.
It's always about extending some benefit, giving another benefit, giving another entitlement.
It's ridiculous.
It's not a solution.
And you're just throwing more money at, and that incentivize people not to go back to work, or they feel that it's not cost-effective because they can get more from the program than they can if they actually go out to work.
Charlie, I got a question for you.
Ready?
All right, do you realize how little food stamps covers?
And by the way, you've cut those two.
You're so upset with there being so many more people.
Who's cut them?
I don't think anybody's cut anything.
They haven't cut food stamps.
Obama is absolutely not.
All right, here, let me let me we haven't cut anything.
That's ridiculous.
More people on food stamps, millions more since when he became president.
All right, I have a question because you're going to support Hillary in the end.
So if you're so worried about, well, yeah, I want to get poor people a job.
I want to be energy independent.
She said she wants to destroy the coal mining industry, take away coal miners' jobs.
I want to build on the energy strength that we have on this country.
She's against fracking.
Fracking will create thousands, hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Drilling will create millions of jobs and millions and millions of dollars in productivity for the country.
She's against that.
So here's my question for you: name three specific things.
All the years Hillary's been in public office, three specific, very key word, things that she has done to make the lives of the average American better.
Go.
Seriously, you're playing music?
Yes.
She worked for universal health care.
I believe in that.
She fought for rights for children and families.
I believe in that.
She fought to.
Let me give the rules.
Wait, wait, wait.
Give the rules.
You asked me what I'm answering.
First responders in New York to get health cases?
No.
You're not answering the question.
Here's the question.
You got to pay close attention.
Fighting doesn't get the job done.
Just because she fought, just because she has a position, what did she specifically do that got done accomplishments that made the lives of the people?
Could you list me Donald Trump's specific accomplishments?
Yeah, after you're done.
What do you want here?
Three specific things.
You're fighting experience and knowledge and having worked through the process and having negotiated and compromised on bills.
And yes, she fought for universal health care, didn't get it, ended up getting a compromise version that has given down the road under President Obama that has given health care to millions of people who are grateful for that affordable health care and insurance.
I don't, you know.
Right.
Well, other people are paying for it through high premium and high deductibles.
You know what?
We were already paying through.
Tell me, you know what?
I need your solution.
What's your solution?
Is it more tax cuts for the rich anyway?
We've done that.
How do we fix this whole you think we're?
By the way, people lost, millions lost their doctors, lost their plans, and the average increase in health care costs this year alone was over 35% nationwide.
Happy Friday, 800-941, Sean, our number.
You want to be a part of the program?
Lines are jammed.
Let's get to Scotty's in Colorado.
Scott, happy Friday.
Welcome to the Sean Hannity Show.
Sean, you were so right.
And I just want to say thank you on behalf of so many of us in Colorado.
As everybody was saying, everybody knew the rules going into the election, blah, blah, blah.
However, the voters did not.
I can assure you that.
So when we showed up for precincts and we figured it out that we weren't going to be voting, and not only that, it wasn't a primary.
So a small percentage of the only show up because most of us had to work.
Most of us, doctors, lawyers, they couldn't make, meaning myself, my wife had to stay home with my kids.
So we couldn't even represent everybody.
And then when we figured out we couldn't even vote, what I want to thank you for is by making this attention to us, we're moving in Colorado now for a presidential primary, both Democrat and Republican, so all of us are represented.
Look, I look, you're right.
Everybody knew the rules going in, but it doesn't encourage maximum participation state conventions.
They just don't.
65, yeah, I know people would say 65,000 people participated, but you could have had a million people participate.
That's the point.
You know, that's another interesting point, too.
I mean, if you look at the record, Donald Trump, I think you had the other system back in 2012, didn't you?
And you just changed it for this year, and now you're changing back again.
So before you could vote for the president in the caucus, but you've got to remember that if your wife has to stay at home with the kids or you're a single mom or you're a doctor, you can't go to the caucus for those three hours, the very first one, that starts this ball rolling.
Yeah.
Look, I think it's hard of the convention process.
If states want a caucus, they can caucus.
If they want to have primaries, they can have primaries.
I think every delegate should be bound at least on the first ballot.
Otherwise, what's the point in people voting if they're not going to have at least some representation at the convention?
And I think those choices, you have a national party.
I think it's well within their rights to do that.
So, anyway, well, thank you.
I appreciate it, Scott.
Let's get back to our phones.
Dana is in Arlington in Texas.
Dana, hi, how are you?
Glad you called.
Hi, Hart.
Hi, how are you doing?
I'm a Democrat, and this is the first time I'll ever vote Republican.
But I am so, I am not ashamed to say that I'm voting for Donald Trump.
But who I am ashamed, I will not tell nobody I'm going to vote Republican.
To see the way that this party acts, I would be ashamed to tell anybody.
All this griping, the man has brought over Democrats that had never voted the party.
Now we united and we're voting.
We want our country back.
And only things that only things the Republicans do is talk about how ignorant we are.
I am an analyst.
I am not ignorant.
I want the borders closed.
I live in Texas and we really need to get the borders closed.
Another thing, just because Donald Trump said he's for planned parenthood, I am too.
I am not for abortion.
I do not support abortions, none of that.
But when I was younger, I'm from Kansas City.
We lived in the projects.
I didn't have money to go get an exam.
Planned Parenthood gave me the exam.
Well, he said he would stop.
He said he would stop federal funding.
He said he, well, look, Planned Parenthood makes a fortune in the abortion business.
It's like abortion ink, the way I see it.
And that's why those tapes were so damning from my perspective of them talking about selling baby body parts so they can buy Lamborghinis.
And it's nauseating.
And then, of course, the government goes after the guy that taped them, not them that broke the law.
But look, I hear what you're saying.
I would just urge you this way, Dana.
I don't think any American should have to live in fear for expressing their heartfelt beliefs.
I know tensions are high right now.
It tends to happen in every election, but it's a lot higher this time around.
You have a right to your own mind.
You have your own heart.
You have your own soul.
You make your own decisions.
And as I said earlier, I know that the Never Trump people, that some of them I think are sincere.
I do think in terms of establishment types, I think it's a lot deeper for them.
I think they want the power.
I think they thumb their noses at the people that voted in record numbers.
And I think that's where they're coming from.
So there's a distinction.
But you let not your heart be troubled.
You follow your heart.
And I hope things get better for you.
Sounds like you started out with a pretty rough life.
How did you pull yourself out of that poverty?
No, no, no.
Actually, we wasn't in poverty.
My mother just rebellion.
My daddy, my grandpa, was the first black commanding officer.
And we wasn't in poverty.
Well, you said you had Trump, but you said you didn't have the money to get an exam, so I figured you had fun.
My mother was single with three children.
But just because we weren't in poverty at all, but what I'm saying is we did go to Plaren Parenthood to get some of our exams.
It wasn't about abortions.
So, you know, some clinics, I'm not saying Planner Parenthood, that is in poor neighborhoods.
I have two kids in college.
I have one child that has a very good job.
And the thing of it is, is that just because clinics are in poor neighborhoods don't mean that they're abortion factories.
Now, I don't believe in abortion.
No, no, no, no.
I'm saying I want to be very clear.
No, no, no.
But listen to me.
This is important, Dana.
Dana, it's important.
No, I didn't say, look, I'm saying Planned Parenthood.
Yeah, they do other things, but they're in the abortion business.
And what Trump has said, he's not going to give federal funding to it.
And he's pointed out some of the other things that you have.
I don't think they're ever getting out of the abortion business.
And, you know, to me, that's sad because I think every life is precious.
But anyway, make your final thought and then we'll move on.
Is because I know people say, well, he's not good because he's for Planned Parenthood.
Well, that's the reason why I brought that point up is just to not to defend him, but tell the public that just because he said that doesn't mean that he believes in abortion because I don't believe in abortion.
I don't at all.
I don't support anyone killing a baby.
But that's why I was saying that you call back this show anytime you want.
We love you.
We appreciate your call and your insight, and I'm glad you're doing well.
Thank you.
Thank you.
800-941 Sean, if you want to be a part of the program, let us say hello to Robert in Columbus, Georgia.
What's up, Robert?
How are you?
We're glad you called.
Hey, how are you doing, Mr. Anthony?
Good to talk to you.
I'm good.
What's happening?
Hey, real quick, I want to go ahead and let you know now.
I will be supporting Donald Trump because I get physically ill just thinking about giving a vote to Hillary Clinton.
But with that being said, I want to just let you know about an interaction I had with my daughter the other night, and it got me to thinking, and I wanted to get your opinion on it.
Watching TV, Donald Trump was on the television.
My six-year-old comes in and says, Daddy, he always seems so angry, and sometimes he says ugly things.
He needs a timeout.
And it got me to thinking.
I know that he has been a successful man.
There's no debating that Donald Trump has been successful.
And with that, he has his talents.
He's able to negotiate deals.
He understands trends.
I understand all that.
But to be a leader, as far as I understand it, one of the qualities that I feel is most important and sometimes overlooked is the quality of humility.
And my question to you is: whether or not you think that Donald Trump would ever truly be able to be humble enough to be a positive influence for the nation?
You know, there's certain skills needed for certain jobs.
You know what I have found in my life experience is very, very, very, very successful people, and I'm speaking generally now, their blessing is their curse.
What makes them so good, so creative, so strong, so a driving force, get things done, you name it, ends up also being difficult because you can't kind of turn that switch off that makes you great at work every day.
I mean, I was reading about Steve Jobs the other day.
Apparently, he was a pretty difficult person.
Doesn't surprise me in any way.
Some on-air talent that I know are absolutely bonkers off-air, but that's neither here nor there.
It doesn't take away their great talent that they have on air.
So, you know, I don't know if I really want, you know, a wallflower as a president.
I want somebody that is extremely confident, not arrogant or cocky, but confident.
Confident actually is from the Latin derivative confideo with deity, that you have strong beliefs, you fight for them, you know that you're right, and that will stand on those beliefs and fight for them.
I think what's been missing is that Republicans, in particular, I keep going back to what I said on Wednesday, the cause of what happened in this insurgency year can be traced directly back to Republican weakness and failure in Washington.
So we're going to need somebody strong that's also going to have enough strength for other people.
Is he humble and softer in his personal life?
From what I have seen up close, I've seen him with Don Jr. and Eric and Ivanka and his son Baron, who's not in the media very much.
He has a young son that's 10 years old.
And you know what?
Yeah, he's a different guy.
He's not out there like at work yelling at people.
He's very different.
I think projecting strength and really being strong is important for that job.
Look, the reason this process is so grueling, it's the toughest job in the world.
Anyway, I hope that answers your question.
Fred in Florida, Leesburg, how are you, sir?
Hey, Sean.
Great talking to you again.
Yes, sir.
Happy Friday.
What's going on?
Let me get off speaker.
I hear so much trash talking about how Donald's going to screw the veterans, right?
I'm going to tell you something that you can take to the bank.
That in the first hundred days, Donald Trump will reorganize the veterans administration.
I worked with Donald for five years in the late 80s and early 90s.
I worked an electrical contractor who did most of his electrical work.
I was the accounting executive.
And I had lunch with Donald several times, and we discussed his deep passion for our veterans.
He feels that they're not getting a fair shake, and he always felt that.
And how's he going to do it?
Well, John, one thing Donald taught me personally and helped in my career was never try to reinvent the wheel.
Donald said, take the wheel, tighten certain spokes, replace spokes that are rusted or broken, and then find spokes that are in the wheel but not in the right place that you can move and strengthen that wheel.
And that's what I feel Donald is going to do.
And I know that he will change that veterans administration.
Listen, I tell you, it's a national tragedy.
I mean, you have institutionalized bureaucracy, and it's all over the country.
And we've let these poor guys, literally some of them dying, waiting to get the help that we had promised them.
It's a national disgrace.
I did have this one town hall with Trump where there was an injured vet in the audience, and we actually brought him on stage, and he talked to Donald Trump.
It was a pretty compelling moment.
And he said, I will get that done.
So we'll see.
I have no reason not to believe him.
Michael in Chicago, thank you, Fred.
Hey, Michael, how are you?
Thank you very much.
Honor to speak to you.
Honor is all mine.
Thank you.
I just wanted to say I was trying to think how Trump supporters in general feel why they're backing Trump.
I backed him from way back.
I just felt that none of the other candidates, especially constitutional conservatives, would ever be able to be elected because of the way the country leans to the left right now.
More than 50% of the country leans to the left.
They're uninterested in religion, religious values, conservative values.
You need someone who has other issues that he's running on, which national security, securing the border, the financial system and jobs that he's not running on a strict conservative values platform that has appealed to the other side, that can bring the other side over.
You know, you raised it a great question.
And I got to tell you, I talked about it.
I talked about that.
Nobody talked about.
Let me answer you because I'm running out of time.
What you're talking about is electability.
And I have sat there with every one of these 17 candidates, every one of them, and while I'm interviewing them, thinking to myself, is this person, can this person win a general election against Hillary Clinton?
I have thought it over and over and over and over again, and I don't have the perfect answer.
I really, I just can't say with any certainty that any of them would beat Hillary.
You know, I take this very cautiously.
As I said, I think Hillary starts out with 47% of the vote.
I think she could be running for president in an orange jumpsuit and shoes without laces, and you'd still have half the population wanting to vote for her.
You'd have her on videotape killing somebody, and liberals would justify it on TV that night.
So I don't know the answer who was the most electable.
I don't know.
But I think everything was factored in by the people.
Look, I think everybody got basically a fair shot.
I think everybody had their shot.
And I think a lot of people are wringing their hands.
The media's been unfair, and they covered Donald Trump more and so on and so forth.
I think everybody knew who they were voting for.
And I put a little bit more faith in people than some of these establishment types that have nothing but contempt for people and are maybe trying to undermine and sabotage what the people have voted for.
