President-elect Donald Trump has made creating jobs his number one priority. 60 Minutes recently ran a story on Joe Max Higgins, CEO of GTRLink, The Golden Triangle Development Group in Mississippi who has created over 6,000 jobs in the state. Could Mr. Higgins be the "job fixer" that President Trump needs? 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.
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Let not your heart be troubled.
You are listening to the Sean Hannity Radio Show podcast.
Let's start the program with some good news today for once, shall we?
Now, you got Obama saying the magic, well, what's he going to do?
Magic wand for those folks who lost their job right now because a plant went down to Mexico.
You know, that isn't going to make you feel better.
And so, what we have to do is to make sure that folks are trained for the jobs that are coming in now because some of those jobs of the past are just not going to come back.
And when somebody says, like the person you just mentioned, who I'm not going to advertise for, that he's going to bring all these jobs back, well, how exactly are you going to do that?
What are you going to do?
There's no answer to it.
He just says, Well, I'm going to negotiate a better deal.
Well, how exactly are you going to negotiate that?
What magic wand do you have?
And usually, the answer is he doesn't have an answer.
Usually, it's called a telephone, and usually it's called negotiating from a position of strength.
And the big announcement today is in the lobby of Trump Tower about an hour ago, Donald Trump announced that Soft Bank of Japan is going to invest $50 billion into the United States, and they're going to create 50,000 jobs here in the United States, which is a big difference from a magic wand.
It's called the telephone.
It's called effort.
It's called attitude between this community organizer, this rigid radical ideologue worshiping at the church of Acorn and Alinsky and the church of GD America, Reverend Wright, and bowing at the altar of Bernadine Dorn and Bill Ayers.
You know, I mean, that's 50,000 jobs more.
This is Masa, a soft bank from Japan, and he's just agreed to invest $50 billion in the United States and 50,000 jobs.
And he's one of the great men of industry.
So I just want to thank you for that.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
And if you'd like to speak to him, you can.
But one of the truly great men.
Thank you.
Yeah, the guy in the background.
Wow, that was pretty cool.
Play that again.
Here are the guy in the listen to the guy.
This is Masa, a soft bank from Japan, and he's just agreed to invest $50 billion in the United States and 50,000 jobs.
And he's one of the great men.
I mean, that's hilarious.
Wow.
Somebody just hanging out in the Trump Tower lobby, which has now become a major tourist attraction.
You can't, between the tree at Rockefeller Center in New York, you can't travel and Donald Trump's Trump Tower and shutting down Fifth Avenue around Trump Tower.
It is an unmitigated disaster.
And Comrade de Blasio is whining and complaining and begging Obama because he's got to pay the police to do their job.
And that's actually cracking me.
All right, 50,000 jobs.
He picked up his magic wand again.
It's called the telephone.
And he's negotiating deals.
By the way, if I'm in business, I'm going to like, I want to make a deal tomorrow because you can't buy that kind of advertisement the way Trump is.
You know, later, the next hour of this program, I want you to listen, and this guy's pretty amazing, Joe Max Higgins.
That's the guy I was telling you about yesterday that, you know, he's credited with generating 6,000-plus manufacturing jobs in Mississippi's Golden Triangle.
You know, when you kind of add in the truckers and those people that do transport of steel and the helicopters and all the associated businesses, the restaurants, the stores, the Walmarts, the Targets, the grocery stores, it's like he's created 12,000 jobs.
This was in a very depressed part of the country.
And this guy is doing on a smaller scale what Trump is now trying to do on a big scale.
And what he's done is he was able to convince local politicians.
He would fly around in a helicopter around the Golden Triangle in Mississippi.
He'd look down and he'd say, oh, there's a good place to put a manufacturing center.
There's a good place to build a steel mill.
There's a good place to build a tire manufacturing center.
There's a good place to build engines.
There's a good place to build a drone plant.
And he'd go and build the roads, put the sewers in, and then he would go fight for the jobs and incentivize the companies and say, see, we've got everything built out for you.
Why don't you come here?
And all the labor you could ever want.
And he was able to end up getting one of the big tire companies to go there, one of the big helicopter building companies to go there, a steel mill to go there, an engine building company, and a drone building company.
And people that were once out of work, you know, at the steel mill in particular, the average wage is $80,000 a year.
They interviewed this one young man working at the steel mill, and he was trained to do the job.
And this guy said he's now making more than twice what he used to make.
He's got a bigger house, more property, a nice car, and his kids go to better schools.
Well, that's kind of like the rungs of the ladder that he keeps telling you about that we want to put in there.
You know, winning elections isn't just about being able to say, my guy won and your guy lost.
What good is it if we don't improve the lives of the American people?
And that's why I'm so disgusted with Washington Republicans and Democrats because they always want to do things the wrong way.
And here you got this guy, a former coach, Joe Max, he likes to call himself.
And he's out there and he's thinking outside the box.
He's getting government to partner with him in a smart way, incentivizing companies with the attitude if we can make them money, they're going to create jobs for the people that live in our town and our cities, in our area.
And those people are going to be happy and they'll have a better future than they had before these manufacturing plants came in here.
Do you realize we have lost, since Obama's been president, over a million, over a million manufacturing jobs gone?
You want to know why Donald Trump won?
This is it.
He picked up the phone to carrier.
He picked up the phone.
He got a surprise visit working behind the scenes with the president, the CEO of SoftBank.
50 billion, 50,000 jobs.
That's not bad.
It's a good start.
Now, if we can duplicate all of these models on a grand scale, well, you know, for example, the one company that he was able to bring in, PACAR, truck maker PACAR used to build engines only in Europe.
Well, now they're building them in the Golden Triangle.
You know, the helicopter plant, now they're there.
You know, steel mills used to be all over the Rust Belt.
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin.
These states sound familiar to you?
Well, those are the people Hannity was talking about day in and day out last year.
Those are the real lives, the real people in real poverty on real food stamps that can't get a job, that can't buy a house, that can't advance.
Well, Hannity, you called this the Forgotten Man election.
Well, that's what we're talking about.
You know, what bothers me, I was reading in Breitbart today, alt-right radical news site, Breitbart, which isn't true, but that's the way the left wants to project it.
GOP leadership to delay Donald Trump's election-winning priorities.
This scared me today.
Now, between this, you know, I'm thinking about this guy who we'll talk to at the top of the next hour, Joe Max.
And I'm thinking about, all right, well, look at what he did in the Golden Triangle, and I'm thinking, well, they're talking about Democrats are loving it.
Anytime you talk about spending government money, they love it because that means they get to hang on to their power base, and that means they get to bring bacon back to their individual districts, and then they go out to brag to their constituents.
Look at what I did, and basically all it is is bringing money back, and it's like a big grand pay-to-play scheme.
And I'm thinking, if you're going to spend a trillion dollars, Paul Ryan was on 60 Minutes 2.
He never explained how he's going to pay for it.
How are we going to pay for a trillion dollars in infrastructure without going further into debt?
Well, one of the ways you do it is you grow the economy.
Another way to do it is, you know, there's all sorts of resources under our feet that we don't tap into.
Another way to do it is you pay as you go based on how the economy's going.
The way that you do it and get the most bang for your buck and don't lose 50% of every 50 cents of every dollar in the bureaucracy in Washington is you take it out of their hands.
You take it out of the hands of elected officials because they have shown themselves incompetent, incapable of getting anything done.
So if you're going to spend $500 billion maybe to start, because what worries me after reading this article in Breitbart today is all they want to do, even the Republicans, is do the things that they want, not the things that Trump won on.
And probably the most difficult policy Trump is going to face is controlling our borders, immigration reform, deporting criminals and others that didn't respect our laws and sovereignty.
But they got this guy, Representative Bill Flores of Texas, saying that he talked to Paul Ryan, and their strategy is to isolate and block Trump's populist campaign promises.
Well, that's a problem to me.
Like his immigration reforms.
Let's just do the things we agree on.
Let's do tax reform.
Let's do Obamacare.
Let's replace Obamacare.
Let us start dealing with border security.
Start, start the emphasis on the word starting.
Let us rebuild our national security.
And then on those areas where we're not exactly aligned with ours, we'll figure out the rest later in the next six months.
Let me translate what that means in Washington.
Go to hell.
We're not going to do that.
That's getting the tax increase up front.
You never get the spending cuts 10 years later.
That's getting the amnesty, never getting the wall built.
That's the way Washington works.
And if I'm Trump, I'd read this very closely because I'd see this as the writing is on the wall.
And if he wants to get his issues passed, he's got to keep negotiating just like he's doing with Carrier, with SoftBank, and with everybody else.
You know, I told a very good friend of mine, strong conservative, likes Trump, is worried about protectionism and his call for a 35% tariff.
And I said, look, I'm telling you right now, that's 99% bluster.
It could happen.
He said it.
He would do it.
I believe he'd do it.
But I think that this, why do you think Japan has soft bank investments?
Japan doesn't want to trade war with us.
China doesn't want to trade war with us.
And if Trump goes in there and says, okay, we're going to let your products come in here for free the way they always do, but you're going to let our products in for free, too.
That's called a negotiation.
And one of the things I've learned with Trump over the years is this guy never stops negotiating.
Everything in his mind circles around the prism of negotiation.
I don't think he, all of this is him negotiating with these countries ahead of time.
And he's probably got half of them literally wetting their pants over this, which is a good thing to do.
So the same thing needs to be there for Congress as well.
And Congress needs to know that if they want those things that they've been wanting for a long time and promising their constituents for a long time, well, they've got to do their part too.
And that means there might be parts of the Trump agenda that they don't like that he's got to use as a bargaining chip now, not just give them what they want.
And I'll tell you, the only thing that's scaring me about infrastructure is how do we pay for it.
The second thing that scares me about infrastructure is they constantly waste and abuse the process of spending your money.
And I don't want them wasting any more money with promises of shovel-ready jobs that won't be so shovel-ready.
Or infrastructure.
The shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected.
Or infrastructure projects that are never going to get off the ground that aren't the ones that should be prioritized, but are only there because Congressman A is going to say to Congressman B, C, D, E, and F, if you support my project, I'll support your project.
And maybe those aren't the best projects that's going to build the infrastructure in the country the way we need to.
And then the fact that it runs through the Washington bureaucracy means that you're really getting about 50 cents of every dollar because they waste it, they squander it, and they basically piss it down the toilet.
And so what I'm saying is you get a guy like Joe Max and say, Joe, here, all of these congressmen are going to write you.
All these senators are going to write you.
535 people are going to write you and tell you what they want.
After they write, I want you to study it, and then I want you to go through the infrastructure projects that every state needs, and I want you to make a priority list.
And the next thing I want you to do is I want a real, true, competitive bidding on every single solitary penny that we spend on infrastructure.
In other words, run government like a business.
Don't run it like they have been running it all these years gone by.
And that's common sense.
That means more jobs are going to be created.
More money's available for those jobs.
You get more bang out of your buck.
You'll actually get a dollar out of a dollar spent rather than 50% wasted or 50 cents of the dollar wasted.
And you'll actually get some real things done.
There's other ways of doing things.
And for all those people, economic fascism.
Well, Joe Max Higgins, who convinced his government down in the Golden Triangle to go ahead and invest in roads and sewers and electric grid for a steel mill before they even agreed to come.
Well, I wouldn't say that's economic fascism to the 12,000 people that now have good, high-paying jobs and careers in industries that never existed there.
And he's getting back four times, in some cases, what their estimates were that they would finally get back if they built it and the companies came.
And then he went out and showed these people, look at the roads we built you.
Look at the grid we built you.
Look at the sewers we built you.
There's where you're going to build it.
And we've got all the permits and it's ready to go.
You want to start?
That's how he did it.
That's called common sense.
That's how smart business people work.
Not community organizers, not Acorn members, not Alinsky disciples, not Church of GD disciples.
GD America disciples.
That's how it works.
And I'm going to tell you, there's a reason those states voted the way they did.
Now, Donald Trump's got four years.
You either deliver or you will go home.
Because the American people will send you home.
And if he's counting on Paul Ryan and company and the establishment to help him, forget it.
They're only going to do what's in their best interest.
That's my take.
Anyway, we want to hear from you.
800-941-Sean is auto-free telephone number.
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For some companies, offshore wasn't as great as they thought it was or as it was portrayed to be.
Many of the companies said, hey, if it's going to be consumed in the U.S., we can produce it in the U.S. cheaper and more efficiently than we can elsewhere and bring it in.
They save money by being here in Mississippi.
Now, tell our staff, if you leave our office and you didn't do something to make our place a better place today, then you need to find another job.
I said, these guys should be winning.
You know, it's something's not right.
They didn't see.
They didn't see that.
Correct.
They didn't realize that they were big and strong and fast.
Nobody ever told them they were big and strong and fast.
They just thought they were, you know, slow and stupid, I guess.
Joe Max Higgins enlisted the community college to provide customized training for PACAR.
So when the plant was ready, the workforce was ready.
Is the workforce here prepared for these new jobs coming in?
Nobody in the Golden Triangle made engines.
Nobody made any of this stuff.
So what you're really looking for is, do our citizens have the acumen for work?
Do they have the work ethic?
Are they skilled enough to be trained to do jobs?
And the answer is yes, yes, and yes.
The school now gears its training for each manufacturer coming in.
Higgins told us it's the critical part of his business plan.
The promise of a trained workforce caught the eye of his biggest catch yet, Yokohama Tire.
The Japanese company plans to employ 2,000 workers not far from the old Sara Lee plant.
It considered every county in the continental U.S.
So the people who say that the glory days of American manufacturing are over, you say?
I think that's not right.
These plants, they pay well.
Most of the working conditions are very good, and those are the jobs that are in demand.
If we can create those types of industries, those types of jobs, I think the sky is still the limit for the United States.
This is Masa, a soft bank from Japan, and he's just agreed to invest $50 billion in the United States and 50,000 jobs.
And he's one of the great men of industry.
So I just want to thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
And if you'd like to speak to him, you can.
But one of the truly great men.
Thank you.
All right, that was from 60 Minutes on Sunday night.
I was watching Paul Ryan, and then I stayed watching 60 Minutes, and they did a feature on a guy by the name of Joe Max Higgins.
He's the CEO of GTR Link, the Golden Triangle Development Group of Mississippi.
Now, this is a place that had disproportionate amount of unemployment.
This is a place that was suffering.
And, you know, in light of the carrier deal and what Donald Trump announced earlier today, that he got a surprise visit in Trump Tower today saying that SoftBank of Japan is going to invest $50 billion into the U.S., creating 50,000 new jobs.
I guess the magic wand that Obama was worrying about was now being waved again.
It was probably called a telephone.
And that's the difference between a businessman who has done deals his entire life versus a community organizer who, you know, worshiped at the church of Valinsky and Frank Marshall Davis and Acorn and the church of GD America, Reverend Wright, and hung out with unrepentant terrorist Arizon Dorn.
So I'm watching this report and I'm blown away because the Golden Triangle literally is a part of the country, was a part of the country that was doing very, very poorly.
We have lost since Obama's been president about a million manufacturing jobs.
Some of these jobs we can't fill because factories can't find properly trained workers.
And here comes a guy they call the coach, Joe Max, he likes to call himself, and he takes it upon himself to persuade local dumb politicians to build infrastructure, roads and sewers.
And in the case of enticing a steel company, which eventually did move to the Golden Triangle, an electric grid that they would need for their plant to power their plant.
So he brings a big tire company, a helicopter building company, a steel plant.
Then he brought one of his biggest gets was the truckmaker PACAR to build engines.
They used to only build engines in Europe.
Now they build them in Mississippi in the Golden Triangle.
Now, if the government's going to spend a trillion dollars in infrastructure, why do I not want that money in the hands of Washington bureaucrats, 535 greedy politicians that only know one way to spend your money, and that's to waste it and frankly to piss it all away?
I'd rather put it in the hands of somebody like Joe Max who joins us now from Mississippi.
How are you?
I'm fine, sir.
How are you?
Did you get a lot of reaction to that 60 Minutes piece?
We were unprepared for the 60-minute piece.
I will tell you, our phones are blowing up, emails, every one of my staffers is doing nothing but answering the phone since that report and your teaser yesterday ran.
Well, have you heard from anybody related to the Trump organization?
No, no, sir.
Well, I personally wrote a summary of what happened on 60 Minutes, and I sent it to the Trump kids and some of the people in the Trump campaign that they may want to pay attention to it.
And I hope one day you get a call.
How did you do this?
Explain how you got this position.
What was the state of the Golden Triangle?
And tell us about the business deals you put together.
I'm in economic development doing deals for about 30 years.
They're just shy.
About 13 and a half years ago, I got a call from a national headhunter that specializes in fighting people like us.
She said, I've got a job for you in Mississippi I want you to look at.
I said, you got to be blank and kidding me.
There's no blank and way I'm going to Mississippi.
I just watched Mississippi burning.
I see poverty, despair, no future, and no hope for a future.
Not interested.
Sean, I need to tell you, I was sitting in Arkansas doing this for a living when I said that, so a lot of people get tickled about that.
But I hung up on her, and then that night, I looked on the computer.
I started looking to see about this Golden Triangle area, what was here, and I made a decision pretty quickly.
I said, if God could give it to them or man could build it, they're in pretty good shape.
Good four-lane roads.
They got a waterway that connects the Great Lakes with the Gulf of Mexico, six railroads, major research university, major engineering school at Mississippi State.
And I said, these guys are losers, but they should be winning.
So I took the job.
And the first six months I was here, I was miserable as hell.
I figured out pretty quickly that they didn't know how to win.
They didn't know what to do.
And they really just, I mean, it was like pushing a noodle.
We couldn't get it done.
First Christmas, I was here.
I came in June.
Christmas, I was here.
Some of the community leadership tried to get me fired.
The people that were on my board said, no, we're going to keep him.
Very shortly thereafter, TVA came out with this mega site certification program, one of a kind, never been done in the business, to identify some of the best industrial sites in the Tennessee Valley, 80,000 square miles.
We entered a site, us in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, one, we were certified.
And within just months later, the steel mill came calling, and now there's a $1.75 billion steel mill on that first mega site.
How many people are employed by the steel mill?
Well, directly employed, getting a check from the steel mill, 650.
And if you add all the associated jobs with the contractors and the other vendors on there, the truck drivers that deliver the steel in and out, you can times that time.
You probably got twice that many that work out there that don't get a check from the steel mill.
But $650 at the steel mill at an average wage of $80,000 a year.
I saw the one guy on 60 Minutes.
He makes $100,000 a year, double what he used to make.
He's got a bigger house, more property, and more opportunity for his kids to go to better schools and a better truck.
Not a bad deal.
No, and that's the whole story of the whole triangle.
Pat Carr's general manager lives across the street from me.
And we were talking one day, and he said, you know, the first year we were here, every three months, we had to on off-day bring steam cleaners out and squirt the oil off the parking lot where the people had parked their cars.
He said, we don't do that anymore.
Well.
Wow.
Let me ask this.
How many deals have you now brought to the Golden Triangle?
And explain the infrastructure setup that you did to entice and how it paid off.
In other words, when you were building roads and sewers, when you built that power plant, whatever that thing is, the extra power grid for the steel mill, how that really turned the whole deal around so you can have those 1,300 jobs.
You know, how did you convince the local authorities to invest, not knowing for sure they're getting a return?
Well, you know, that's a good question.
And in the early days, you know, there's two key county leaders here, the president and board of supervisors, Harry Sanders, who is a Republican, and the longest-serving member of the county government, Leroy Brooks, who's a Democrat.
And I brought them both in, and I said, guys, if we're going to win here, you can't make economic development be a football.
You cannot do it.
We have to play for the long haul, and we have to invest in ourselves, and we have to reinvest in ourselves.
I said, when we make money, we've got to take it as a corporation, not take a dividend, and plow it back in hard assets, water, sewer, roads, acquisition of land.
And those two guys bought a hook line and sinker and said, we're in.
And I mean, and they've been in since day one.
And how much did they have to invest, that initial investment that we did?
Well, the initial investment to get the certified mega site was $170,000 we had to spend on engineering and work.
Once that happened, when the steel mill came, we had to invest $12.5 million of local money.
$12.5 million that purchased the site and that did some site improvement.
And that leveraged that, what was supposed to be a $625 million investment that ended up being $1 billion.
The math on that were that we were going to be able to pay our note.
We were going to be able to pay.
And we sought out low-interest loans with good terms.
And we borrowed $12.5 million.
And the way our model ran is we anticipated we were going to profit a quarter of a million dollars a year, get the plant, pay our bills, and put a quarter of a million dollars in the county's coffers.
As it turned out, the steel mill missed its estimate.
It cost more to build it, but the incentives were such that they didn't go up.
So instead of making a quarter of a million dollar profit on the deal, we made a million dollars a year profit a year.
So we sit down and we said, okay, let's take that money and let's plow that into purchase land and other stuff.
So since that time, we have purchased almost 8,000 acres of land.
We've installed miles and miles and miles of road, water, and sewer lines.
And by the way, I just want people to know, you're building this out in the wilderness, the roads, the power, the sewer lines.
I mean, there's nothing there, but you're building it to show them, hey, you can just drop your plan in here.
We've got everything set up for you.
Yeah, and not only do we have the water and sewer there, but we've done all the environmental work, all the due diligence with the cultural resources and all the wetlands and all the rules and regulations you have to follow.
We spend all the money to do that up front so that it is literally plug and play.
When they come in, there is no doubt, no chance.
And look, these companies want to get speed to market.
You know, every day, every month that they're in construction, they're not making money.
And so the quicker you can get them to making money, the quicker you can show them that they can be succeeding, the more you increase your chance of winning.
Well, I got to tell you, I found this whole thing amazing.
Let me ask you a question.
Like, for example, we just had this deal that Trump announced in Trump Tower with Soft Bank, $50 billion, 50,000 jobs.
We know the carrier deal, that was 1,000 or 1,100 jobs.
Do you think you could duplicate this model that you've created in the Golden Triangle?
Can you help Detroit?
Could you help Baltimore?
Could you help Milwaukee?
Could you help any depressed city using this model with government resources around the country?
Like, for example, Detroit, they're now talking about bulldozing entire neighborhoods to consolidate services because the population has had to leave as the auto industry has left Detroit, one of our great cities of all time.
Do you think this model could be duplicated?
Do you think government, if Donald Trump called you and said, I want you in charge of all the infrastructure money and it was your job and your task to do what you did in the Golden Triangle, could you duplicate that on a grand scale?
Well, Sean, I don't know that I would be the guy to do that, but what I will tell you is that.
Well, how about this question?
Could it be duplicated when you deal with it?
Well, what we have done here is no magic deal.
It's not rocket sign.
I tell my guys it's blocking and tackling.
And I watch you every night.
And I know you're a football, you're a sports fan, and I will tell you this.
I told my guys when we came here, I said, here's the way we're going to run this program.
Sean, you remember the Washington Redskins?
Yeah, of course.
You remember Rigo?
You remember These Times?
Oh, yeah.
I'm friends with Joe Teisman.
Yeah, well, introduce me.
Done.
What was their signature play?
Riggins and Joe?
The Washington Redskins signature play was the counter tray.
Okay, so.
Well, basically, what happened is they come to the line, tight end's on the left side, he goes into cadence, the tight end goes in motion to the right.
When the ball is snapped, Riggins took one half step to the left, the guard and tackle on the left side pulled to the right side.
Then Riggins turned and Feisman handed him off the ball.
You had two guards, two tackles, a center, and a big-ass tight end leading the way for Riggins to get that second and two, second and third, or third and two, third and three, whatever the play was.
I mean, it was crazy.
And I mean, the Chicago Bears, I mean, they would be sitting there.
They knew what they were going to run.
They couldn't stop them.
So what I said was, we've got to create in this business that counter tray mentality that we do blocking and tackling.
We do the small things.
We do them right.
We repeat them, repeat them until we can do them in the dark.
And more than likely, we're going to succeed.
So this is not rocket science.
I mean, people have to have infrastructure.
They have to have good power.
They have to have water.
They have to have sewer.
They have to have those things.
There's got to be a tax climate available there that will make them profitable.
These companies do not create jobs for the people.
These companies create jobs to make a profit.
And if you can help them make a profit, they will continue to invest in you.
You know, I got to tell you, that is the single most, you're right.
It should be obvious.
But you see how government mismanages people's money.
You see what they, for example, a stimulus bill ends up going all their cronies and all their friends and all their fellow contractors and nothing gets done.
I am going to put you in touch with Newt Gingrich.
I sent him, he wrote me back about you.
And I just, I'm interested in pursuing this on a grand scale because I'm worried about the amount of money they're talking about for infrastructure, knowing how Washington works.
I think what you've done here, you know, like the seven, what, million dollars or billion dollars that, what is it, seven million dollars.
That's all it is in tax incentives that carriers getting, but they're spending 35 billion redoing the plan and other things.
But I'm very impressed.
You don't get paid a whole lot hell of a lot of money for what you do and the money you're making for your community and the jobs you're creating for your community.
I just thought you were a local hero.
So let me see.
You had a tire plan, a helicopter plan, a steel mill, and an engine plan.
And two unmanned aircraft manufacturers, unbelievable.
Well, get me a discount on a drone.
I think I want one.
Well, these are military and they won't let you.
That's exactly the one I want.
I want that one.
Hey, Joe Max, coach, God bless you, man.
You really made my day.
I really make mine out every night.
I tune in and listen to you.
Did you hear me talk about you last night?
Yes, I did.
And my wife turned red.
You embarrassed her.
I did.
Why did I embarrass her?
I was proud of you.
You really inspired me.
You were so caring, sir.
All right, my friend.
God bless you.
You keep up the good work.
A lot of people owe you a debt of gratitude.
God bless you.
Thank you.
We're saving the jobs at the carrier plant from going to Mexico.
1,100 jobs.
And I'm asking all companies to keep their jobs in America, and we will work to make America a better environment for workers and businesses.
And we will crack down on all foreign trade abuses that undermine your ability and your company's ability to compete.
Those days are over when those companies are going to leave.
This is Masa a soft bank from Japan, and he's just agreed to invest $50 billion in the United States and 50,000 jobs.
And he's one of the great men of industry.
So I just want to thank you for that.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
And if you'd like to speak to him, you can.
But one of the truly great men.
Thank you.
All right.
More jobs, Trump president.
You know, I haven't talked a whole lot about it because the stock market is not the greatest indicator to me of where the economy is.
It does do one thing.
It shows investors have confidence in the market, confidence in the economic plan of the incoming president.
So, I mean, that's a good sign that way.
But, you know, people would call me and say, well, Lah, Hannity, you're trashing the Obama economy.
Look at the stock market.
I'm like, people in poverty don't give a flying rip about the stock market.
People out of work don't care about the stock market.
You know, people on food stamps, they don't give a rip about the stock market.
And I'll be honest, I have money that I can invest in the stock market, and I don't ever want to invest in the stock market.
I have the biggest fights with my financial guy who wants me to put more money in the stock market.
And I'm like, I don't want money in the stock market.
I don't trust it.
I don't know it.
I don't believe it.
I don't trust it.
And I want no part of it.
And he's like, how do you really feel?
Anyway, so the president-elect made this surprise visit at Trump Tower lobby today and says that SoftBank, a Japan company, is going to invest $50 billion into the economy.
How many jobs did they say?
50,000 new jobs.
Okay, now maybe Obama is going to say, well, what's the magic wand?
How's he going to make that happen?
I guess the magic wand ends up being a telephone.
And maybe, and this is what I said.
It was a very, very good close friend of mine who's just livid over the idea of protectionism.
It's a very close friend.
I said, I'm telling you, I know this guy.
All of that is a negotiation.
Everything with Trump is a negotiation.
And by saying he's going to put tariffs on Japan and China, guess what China and Japan are going to do?
They don't want to stop their products from coming into the United States.
We're going to get a much better deal.
It's called the negotiation.
Like, for example, I negotiate a contract for radio, contract for TV.
I say I want an obscene amount of money.
They come back with an obscenely low amount of money.
And then I come down like an inch, and then they come up two feet.
And that's how the negotiation.
No, I'm kidding.
You know what I'm saying?
I'm just, you make a deal.
We used to negotiate for cars.
We don't really negotiate for cars anymore because everybody knows what the price of the car is, what the car dealership paid for it.
You know what the deals are.
And frankly, they want to sell cars so bad, they're going to tell you what the deals are, even if you don't know what the deals are.
I mean, my buddy at King O'Rourke Cadillac, what's it that Dave Perricone, all I do is call him.
I don't even ask what the price is because he's not going to screw me because that's the kind of relationship we have.
He actually called me back after I bought my last escalate and he said, well, if you wait a little longer, they have this incentive that's coming out.
Why don't you just wait?
I mean, that's a guy that's looking out for my interests.
Why would I go anywhere else?
That's the guy when I call him and said, the stupid car doesn't work, and you pick it up.
He comes by my house, sends somebody over, picks up the car, leaves me another car so I don't have to worry about the car, and I get it back fixed, and it never costs me a dime because that's what my warranty is included with.
I mean, that's how you want to do business.
So Trump picks up the phone, makes a deal with Carrier.
Carrier, on top of the money, all right, they are getting incentives from Indiana, just like every other state offers incentives.
The only thing Trump offered was he's going to advance his agenda, which is a 15% corporate tax.
It's definitely going to be lower than the 35% it is now.
He's going to eliminate regulations.
They will have a seat at the table, Carrier, because now if the head of Carrier, the CEO of that company, calls and says, this regulation is killing my business.
Please help me.
Trump will look at it.
That's called win-win.
It's not pay to play.
It's called business.
It's keeping American jobs here.
And this is what Democrats don't seem to understand.
Look, I keep going back to three reasons why this election came out the way it did.
It's simple.
Obama screwed up royally.
Hillary's a horrible candidate with ethical and honesty issues.
And Trump was able to talk to the people that have suffered the most and say, this is how I'm going to fix it.
And now he's following through on it.
You know, I keep saying the best thing Donald Trump can do, just stay focused on your promises.
If I was him, I'd put a big checklist on his desk when he gets to Washington.
And on his desk, I'd have my checklist.
And that means the first people he's got to watch out for are Republicans because they're only going to want to pass their agenda.
And I'd say, okay, we'll pass your agenda and my agenda, and we're going to pass this and this and this too.
Or you're not getting what you want.
And they'll have to cave.
That's the difference between a community organizer, an Acorn, Frank Marshall Davis, Church of GD America, of Reverend Wright and Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dorn that couldn't get the only president in American history that couldn't get a single year of GDP over 3%.
And a guy that's been a businessman that's made deals his entire life.
You know, one of the more fun things, aspects in my life and career have been deal negotiations.
And I do it all the time.
You know, I've told you very honestly on this program, I don't like stocks.
And I prefer bricks and mortar.
You know, I recently helped somebody buy a place, a house, and so I told him exactly what to put in as a bid.
I researched the neighborhood for this friend.
This friend just doesn't know how to do it.
Researched the neighborhood, researched the last two years, recent sales, got a really good feel for what the price of the house should be.
I factored in how long the house had been on the market, which was a fairly long period of time.
And I said, okay, I would go in with this offer, close in 30 days, say you want to keep the furniture, and they will accept it and say you need to know within two hours or else you're going to go bid on another property.
And I said, also, take it furnished.
There's a long story why they did that.
And then I said, they're going to come back.
This is going to be their counter, and they're going to say, okay, we'll do the deal, but we need five pieces of grandma's furniture because grandma gave it to us and we have to take it with us.
It came back exactly at the number I said, and five pieces of grandma's furniture, and they can keep everything else.
And I don't believe it was grandma's furniture, by the way.
They wanted that furniture.
You just get a feel for doing these deals.
You just do.
The more you do them, the better you get at them.
And a deal's not good if it doesn't benefit both sides.
When I do contract negotiations, okay, this is what I want.
This is what I bring to the table.
And everything that I do is based on performance and based on how hard I'm willing to work on my job and serve you, my audience, every day.
I'm very proud this election year.
I really am.
I'm very, very proud that in the last 18 months, that very specific promises were made to you by me and my team.
And my team pulled it off every day.
And we fulfilled our promise.
We gave access to every candidate.
We let you decide the candidate.
You picked Trump.
I think you made a good choice.
And Donald Trump won the election, and we went all in.
We went up the tree with the large, what do you call it, trunk, out on the tallest branch, out to the littlest twig, out to the smallest leaf.
And we had a little piece of thread from the leaf we were hanging on because that's what our job is.
And we went all in, and you went all in, and the country were like spokes in a wheel.
We all went in the wheel.
We're all little spokes.
We all did our part.
Some of you just voted.
Some of you were active.
Some of you donated.
Some of you just had time to go out and vote.
Some of you encouraged other people to vote.
Some of you took people to the polls.
And lo and behold, we were able to get a win this time.
That's what it is.
We're all spokes in a wheel.
You need every spoke to make the wheel go round.
You need every vote to make the wheel go around to win an election.
So we're proud that we fulfilled our promise.
And other people, I can tell you right now, we're up and down like yo-yos during this election, and we stayed firm to our promise and our commitment.
Once you make a commitment, it's easy to stay firm on it.
It was simple.
We just had to make sure we delivered on the guests we promised you.
And I think, you know, it's funny, the New York Times called Fox today, they want to do a piece.
Now, I've been screwed by the New York Times so many times, And they want to do a piece on how did Hannity get it right.
I'm like, well, I got it right about Obama.
You going to write about that?
I predicted every horrible thing that would happen.
Nobody ever, because you know, Hannity was right about Obama.
They don't say that either.
What am I seeing that everybody else seems to be missing?
It's not that complicated.
If you understand that there's actually real people that live between New York, D.C., and San Francisco and L.A. that work hard, build the country, produce all the goods and services that people want, need, and desire,
and they're the forgotten men and women that have been screwed, then you kind of find out it's pretty easy to just listen to them and see the status of their lives and the rungs of the ladder that I once climbed up are all gone below my feet.
And the idea is to put the rungs of the ladder back in so everybody can climb up.
It's not that complicated.
Linda, am I right about this?
Nodding your head doesn't work on radio.
I tell you every day.
Yes.
I think that you're making a lot of really good points that America, we all work together to be spokes in a wheel and that we all.
You weren't paying attention.
You were talking about the family.
Yeah, you were talking about the ladder and the runs falling beneath you.
I'm listening.
I'm just commenting on all of it.
It's a grand theme that you're putting out today.
No, I'm just saying it's very profound and you missed it.
I'm having a moment of your profound statement where I'm encompassing it with the prelude.
She was totally distracted, half paying attention.
She picked up a couple of words and now she's like trying to cover her tracks.
But it's all right.
You have other duties besides listening to every word that you're talking about.
I listened and I'm staring at you to every word and the last words I heard.
That's the only reason I talked to you because you were looking at me.
So whatever you were multitasking.
No, right at that moment when you asked me to turn my mic on, someone did ask me a question.
Oh, it was Ethan.
Let me guess.
Listen, I'm not going to believe Ethan or Lauren or Jason because you cover for them and they'll cover for you.
You just left Linda speechless.
You can't ask a question.
You left her speechless, Sean.
She's in awe of your words.
Okay, this is now the whole team covers for Linda.
Like, for example, let's say somebody screws up the time that somebody's supposed to call into the show, and I'm like, now, should I fill, should I do another segment, or should I just sit here on live radio and say, okay, we're waiting for so-and-so to call in, or should I go in another direction in the show because I'm always way overprepared.
Anyway, I don't care which way it goes.
And Linda will say, I'll say, well, who screwed it up?
I did.
I did it.
I did it.
But let me just get back to you.
And meanwhile, she had nothing to do with it.
But let me answer your question.
Because you cover up for your team in there, and they now are covering up for you.
It's like, you know, but they're not just how out of touch people are with the middle of the country.
And you know, Mark Wahlberg, I don't know if you saw his comments.
I did, actually.
That was good.
That is literally someone in Hollywood saying what you're saying.
You know, the rest of the world, Hollywood is not in touch with the middle of America.
You know why?
Like, I met Mark Wahlberg.
He's amazing.
I met Mark Wahlberg at a Super Bowl one year.
You know, that's my son's Christmas present every year.
All right.
So I'm at a Super Bowl, and I went to like a pre-Super Bowl party thing.
I don't even know what the hell.
I mean, there's so much nonsense that you got to go to before you actually get to the game, which is all I really care about.
And I met him there, and you know why I like the guy immediately?
He's hanging out, and he's got his Harley boots on.
He's got jeans on.
He's got a t-shirt on.
And he goes, Hannity, what's up, man?
How are you?
Hey, my buddy likes your show.
Would you say hi to him?
Just very normal.
And I'm assuming he's a big Hollywood star, right?
I mean, he's.
Mark Wahlberg?
Yeah.
Are you joking?
He's like a really big deal.
He's like the biggest deal.
Well, he was very nice to me.
He's incredible.
And he was laughing.
He goes, my buddy so-and-so is a big fan of yours.
Oh, my God.
He's going to go nuts when he means.
He was on our show.
You do remember that, right?
Marcus Luttrell?
Yeah, I remember.
He was incredible.
I thought he was amazing in that movie.
I thought he was phenomenal.
But the point is, there's a Hollywood star who put himself in the limb.
And his brother does that cheeseburger place, Wahlbergs or whatever.
Wahlbergs.
Wahlbergers, yeah.
They have a great family.
He believes in family families.
He's a Boston kid that grew up and did well.
That's not my point.
My point is that he went out on a limb because all of his Hollywood friends are going to smack the crap out of him.
And he said, you guys need to be quiet.
You don't get the middle common, you know, forgotten man.
And that's exactly what you say.
And that's where I was going with all this before you berated me.
I didn't berate you.
I just was pointing out the obvious that you're being covered for by my staff in there.
No, we're not working on a deportation force.
Here's what we're working on with respect to immigration, securing our border, enforcing our current laws.
He talked about criminal aliens.
That's just enforcing laws for people who came here illegally, who came and committed violent crimes.
We should enforce those laws.
But really what we're focused on is securing our border.
Well, Trump said he was going to build a wall.
Yeah, I think conditions on the ground determine what you need in particular areas.
Some areas you might need a wall, some areas you might need double fencing.
My own view on this is whatever kind of device or barrier or policy to secure the border is necessary to secure the border, then do it.
Abdul Razak Ali Artan, the man police say deliberately rammed a car into a group of pedestrians, then got out and started slashing people with a butcher knife.
According to federal law enforcement officials, Artan was an 18-year-old Somali citizen living near the university as a legal permanent resident.
ISIS is now claiming responsibility for inspiring the attack on the Ohio State University campus.
Sometimes when I'm talking to young interns of the White House who are still immunizing themselves from the cynicism that's so chronic in this town, I remind them if you had to choose a moment in history to be born and you didn't know ahead of time who you were going to be, you choose now.
Because the world has never been less violent, healthier, better educated, more tolerant, with more opportunity for more people and more connected than it is today.
I have no idea who he's talking about.
None, what country he's talking about either.
Anyway, news roundup and information overload hour here on the Sean Hannity show.
Toll-free our telephone numbers, 800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
As I mentioned earlier, the thing that is concerning me the most in what I see Congress and their priorities and what they're laying out.
Now, of course, they hope to adjourn for the year by the end of the week.
And we're told that the continuing resolution budget is unveiled, along with a final deal on water resources and that bill.
But what concerns me is after January 20th, you got a top ally of House Speaker Paul Ryan outlining the GOP leadership strategy to, in the beginning, isolate and block President Donald Trump's populist campaign promises, which include some of his immigration reforms.
For example, what they're saying is, and this was quoted by Bill Flores, congressman from Texas, we all agree that some of the president's proposed policies are not going to line up very well with our policies.
Let's do the things we agree on.
Let's do tax reform.
Let's do Obamacare.
Let's replace Obamacare.
Let's start dealing with border security.
Let's rebuild our national security.
And then on those areas where his agenda is not exactly aligned with ours, we'll figure out the rest in the next six months.
The GOP congressional leadership, in other words, they want to pass all their priorities, but they don't want to pass Donald Trump's priorities, which means Donald Trump, I'm sure, at some point is going to figure out that there might be typical Washington maneuvering in place here.
And I hope that he is aware of what's going on.
Congressman Dave Brad is from Virginia, and Representative Congressman Brian Babbin is from Texas here to talk about this.
Some of the few congressmen that actually come on this program anymore.
Congressman Brad, how are you?
Hey, doing great, Sean.
Feeling good with the new momentum we have.
And you're right.
The election year issues, this seismic shift everyone felt was due to precisely these issues that affect the forgotten man, right?
The immigration issues, the trade issues, the cleaning the swamp.
Paul Ryan's better way agenda has some great stuff in it, right?
Tax reform.
We're all going to get to that.
But we've got the issues that won this election for us in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, et cetera, are the issues we've been fighting for.
I came in the week of Obama's unconstitutional amnesty, and Boehner said we're going to fight tooth and nail on that, and we didn't lift a finger, and then there's been executive action ever since.
And then my good friend Brian Babbin from Texas will tee it up, but he's had the great bill on the refugee cleanup, which he can explain to you.
And he's had the vetting stuff before it was cool.
And so we've had bills in the hopper.
We have five bills that have passed out of Goodlatt, the Committee of Judiciary, on immigration.
And Goodlatt is a very rational chairman.
These are not hair-on-fire bills.
These are just five immigration bills that will make this country a safer place.
And we have not, our leadership has not moved these bills.
And so that's the issue.
These five bills have to go.
Well, I agree with that.
I mean, look, for example, I mean, they have funding over the government that Obama's demanding $3.9 billion for refugee resettlement.
That's a 250% increase over the current year funding.
And I'm saying, well, Congress has the power of the purse.
The last time I checked our Constitution, does that still exist?
Or did we have an amendment that I didn't know about?
Brian, you want to weigh in?
Sure, I will.
Sean, how are you?
Great to be back with you.
Great to have you back, sir.
Yeah, and good to be on with my friend Dave Brad as well.
It's the continuing resolution negotiations that are going on right now.
I've had an op-ed out.
I've talked to the conference.
I've talked to a lot of my colleagues, including Dave, and he understands this.
We cannot add and increase the budget of the ORR or the Office of Refugee Resettlement and the refugee program.
We did that last December in the omnibus.
We increased it by $100 million.
And we must, we absolutely must prevent increasing the budget because we know, as you just said, Sean, this president is trying to get an end-of-the-year gift of $2.2 billion to his refugee program.
Well, we know, absolutely, on the heels of this Ohio state attack, a Somali refugee, we have got to stop the program until we can vet these people.
And we need to stop it from these hotbeds of Islamic terrorism.
And this refuge, this whole refugee program has been just taken over by this president.
You know, this bill started in 1980, this law.
It was sponsored by Ted Kennedy, none other, and signed by President Carter.
It was funded at $200 million, and now it's approaching $2 billion.
I mean, I think one of the reasons, and I keep arguing, that the Republican Party created Donald Trump is because they don't keep their promises.
They had show votes to repeal and replace Obamacare, but they'd never used the power of the purse.
Ted Cruz became a pariah because he tried to.
And then when it comes to an issue like this, they don't want to fight before they go home for their Christmas vacation.
And then I look at their priorities.
Well, let's only do the things we agree on first.
And that, to me, is Washington speak for we're not going to do the things that you really want and that you promised, Mr. Trump, which tells me that Trump better get his negotiating hat on and go in there and say, well, if we do what you want, we're also doing what I want.
We must, we must support this president-elect's agenda.
And immigration is one of the, if not the top, plank in his platform.
And so this is why I think that my bill or any of the other bills that would stop this program, as Dave mentioned a second ago, has got to be followed through with.
Well, Dave, do you see what I'm seeing here?
You know, for example, every time you're told from Washington that you're going to get a spending cut or a tax, you're going to get the tax increase, but you're also going to get a spending cut.
You always get the tax increase up front.
Ten years later, you never end up getting that spending cut ever.
If you offer amnesty, you always get the amnesty.
You never get the wall.
That's the way Washington works.
I'm tired of that game.
I'm tired of Republicans playing that game.
Yeah, no, you got it right.
I'm on the budget committee, and I think everybody knows Trump just won because we've had a vacuum here when it comes to fiscal responsibility.
The debt's at $20 trillion.
The unfunded liabilities, Medicare, and Social Security are insolvent in 12 years.
And we have a $100 trillion bill, and the kids won't get those programs.
And so for the last six years, instead of doing a budget, we don't do a budget.
We do an omnibus right before Christmas, loaded up with every toy imaginable that adds to the debt and then go home.
And for some reason, the American people, we had a huge outsider wave this year, right, with Trump and Bruce and all the good guys.
The outsider wave is only what it is.
It is what it is, but the reality is we all know gerrymandering has rendered 90% of politicians' seats safe.
Let's be honest.
Look.
Yeah, and money.
And money.
Well, and the problem is, like, I know they're talking about $1 trillion in infrastructure spending.
And Democrats love it, and Republicans love it because they're thinking it's going to work the same old way it's always worked, which is, okay, I'll give you this number of dollars for the project in your district.
You give me this number of dollars for the project in my district.
It runs through the Washington bureaucracy.
You get 50 cents on the dollar.
Rather than having a guy like I had on in the last hour, Joe Max Higgins, the guy that was featured on 60 Minutes this weekend, a guy that has figured out how to transcend the bureaucracy, incentivize businesses to build in the golden triangle in Mississippi, and he's creating thousands of jobs.
If we were to duplicate that success, that paradigm, that model, and take Washington, like, for example, if we're going to spend $1 trillion in infrastructure, how are we going to pay for it?
Paul Ryan didn't answer that question Sunday night.
He was asked it.
He just went right around it.
Now, there are ways to pay for things.
I would prefer infrastructure, spend as you go, and take it out of the hands, with all due respect to you guys, of your 533 other congressmen and senators that have agendas that basically, the top agenda being them being reelected.
Am I wrong?
Well, that's right.
Money's in the circle there, and it's run in the city, and everybody knows that.
And so the key is, can Trump set up some new capital pool where the money goes directly to shelver-ready jobs and bypasses the federal government network of cronies, right, where we dole out to our buddies and the state senators and the U.S. senators or whatever.
And that's the challenge going forward.
I think he's up to it.
I mean, he's been brilliant so far in the first few moves here.
It's looking good, but that's everybody, all of a sudden, the Democrats found the debt clock hiding somewhere back in the closet.
And the press is on our case, and the Democrats are on our case, and it's almost comical.
Congress.
We're being held up to all these standards and on ethics reform and the walling off Trump from his money after the Clinton Foundation has $2 billion and no press reports at all.
I watched Congressman Babbin this morning.
I saw this article.
Donald Trump tweeted out, the president-elect tweeted out, that he wanted to cancel the building of a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents because he said they were going to spend $4 billion.
And he later spoke to reporters at Trump Tower saying the project is ridiculous.
I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number.
We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money, he said.
They issued a statement saying that the company's currently under contract for $170 million to help determine the capabilities of these complex military aircraft that serve the unique requirements of the President of the United States.
Did we really spend $4 billion on an airplane?
I mean, did we really spend that much money?
It certainly has the appearance of that, Sean.
And, you know, as far as this is the man who, when they're talking about Trump, this is the man that's not even going to take a salary.
These are the kinds of things that I believe show a great example.
He is determined to drain the swamp.
As Dave said, he has made some great appointments already for his inner circle as far as his cabinet goes.
And we must, by all means, as a body in the Congress, both House and Senate, support this man and his agenda and push it through.
Okay, so now my next question, Congressman Babbin.
Are you getting any indication from Speaker Ryan, who said on 60 Minutes that he talks to Trump almost daily, that Speaker Ryan is also going to look at Trump's priorities, not only the things, quote, that are on his agenda?
Well, you know, we have a better way agenda in the House, and Trump's got his agenda, and there's quite a bit of overlap there.
I mean, there's some really, really good stuff.
And right before the speaker for our conference, when we were going to talk about leadership, I talked to Speaker Ryan on the phone in a private conversation.
I asked him, point blank, are we going to push?
Will you be pushing the president-elect's agenda?
And he said he would.
It really jives with our better way, and I really do agree with that with all the tax reform.
Well, why do I think, why does the suspicious side of me, and maybe I'm too cynical.
I've only been in radio now 30 years.
Maybe I've seen too much.
Maybe I've become too big a skeptic.
But why do I think Donald Trump better trust and verify and make sure the drain the swamp part of the agenda, the building the wall part of the agenda, the deportation part of the agenda?
Why do I think that has to be done up front?
Well, I agree with you 100%.
We're in the process of negotiating this continuing resolution, and the proof's going to be in the pudding.
And if we can't stop the increasing of the budgets of our refugee program and the immigration, monies being funded to build new infrastructure and housing and monies to spend on unaccompanied minors pouring across the Texas border, these are the things that Americans stood up and had a revolution at the ballot box to stop.
Well, I just hope, look, apparently Ryan's going to remain Speaker.
I just hope that Ryan is cognitive of the fact that Americans are fed up with the old way that Congress works, and this is an opportunity to reform Congress, get rid of the bureaucracy, drain the swamp, all those things that we've been talking about.
And if he's unwilling to do so, then I guess, you know, maybe a Freedom Caucus member will have to challenge him.
But if he says he's willing to follow through on it, I guess the proof, as you said, will be in the pudding.
But I hate to rush you guys off.
I wish we had more time, but we don't.
I appreciate you both being with us.
By the way, are you both members of the Freedom Caucus?
Yes.
Yep, absolutely.
Sean, yeah, and on the speaker vote, I did lay out my position in Newsmax.
If your folks want to Google Bratt and Newsmax.
Yeah, you're not voting for Ryan, right?
You're not voting for Ryan?
Yeah, I didn't last time, and so far he has not met my criterion for the vote yet.
And so, and it's tied to what you're talking about.
We need, there are five bills out of the House, mandatory you verify, strong interior enforcement, refugee program, Babbin's bill, asylum reform, and an end to Central American unaccompanied minds.
I've got to run.
You know what?
It is interesting.
The only people that will come on my show now are Freedom Caucus members.
You're the only people that like me.
It's interesting the other people won't come on anymore.
All right.
We love you, Sean.
All right, Sean.
Thank you for what you do.
All right, I appreciate it.
Well, in fairness, Kevin McCarthy said he'd come on the program when I talked to him fairly recently before the election.
Let me just warn all of you after talking with Congressman Dave Bratt and Congressman Babbin of Texas and other Freedom Caucus members that I check in with on a fairly regular basis.
I don't trust the Republicans in the House.
Sorry, I'm a Reaganite, a trust but verify guy.
That's how I view all of these things.
Anyway, so to me, Donald Trump's got to be very careful because it is a swamp in D.C.
And while I guess there's agreement on taxes and seven brackets to three and a 15% corporate tax, although Ryan wants a 20% corporate tax, I prefer the 15% and repatriation and energy independence and building the wall.
There's some agreement on some things.
But if you really want to get the reforms that he wants, if he wants to get those reforms, he's got to understand that every time we get a tax increase and spending cuts, we only get the tax increase and the spending cuts are pushed way down the line and they never happen.
Every time we talk about border security, you get the amnesty, you get the forgiveness up front, but you never get the wall.
And that's just the way Washington works.
And he needs to be fundamentally aware of what he is dealing with there.
These are people, Democrats and Republicans, that the only thing they really seem to care about is getting reelected.
You know, infrastructure, you're going to spend a trillion dollars, you better pay for it as you go, figure out a way to pay for it, unleashing America's resources.
That would be at least a good way to start.
When the money comes in, I'd do it as spend as you go, but I'd also pick somebody like this guy we had on earlier today, Joe Max Higgins, and I'd put him in charge.
Have Congress appropriate the money to him so they don't have any say in this.
They can send in their request.
They can give him ideas.
But ultimately, you need an outsider that's not going to benefit from that money in charge of that money or else it's never going to work.
Just telling you, I've been around this game too long.
I know how this all works.
All right, let's go to our busy telephones here.
Adam is in Montana.
Adam, hi, how are you?
And we're glad you called.
Thanks, Sean.
Love your show.
I've been listening for a long time.
I'm a guy that used to be a liberal Democrat and was hanitized.
Oh, thank you.
How long were you a Democrat?
Oh, I was a musician in Los Angeles, playing forever, you know, growing up.
My dad was a Reaganite, and back then, you know, we just clashed heads all the time.
But anyway, my question to you is, did your heart sink a little bit when Trump brought Elaine Cho to the fold and Corker?
I mean, these are, that's not draining the swamp as far as I'm concerned.
I'm not a fan of, I don't know Elaine Chow.
I know she was labor secretary for some period of time.
I know she's related to Mitch McConnell.
It's his wife.
You know, that's not the biggest assignment to me in my mind.
And, you know, I'm looking at some of the other appointments that I view as far more critical.
I am a little concerned about some of the past positions of DeVos at education.
I do like Mad Dog Mattitz as defense secretary.
You know, there's, you know, look, I like Carson at HUD.
I think that's a good selection.
I can't even remember them all off the top of my head.
Look, there's good people out there.
I don't know why we're agonizing and we're having a public, I don't know, it's like a public trial, a public audition for everybody that wants to be Secretary of State.
But that's, you know, Donald Trump's a smart guy.
He's way ahead of where other transition administrations coming in have been at this point in the transition, so I'm fine with it.
But at the end of the day, it's got to be people that want to advance his agenda, not their own agendas.
You know, they call it public service for a reason.
And you're supposed to serve the public.
Well, when you think of a servant, what does a servant do?
Well, a servant cooks your meals, I guess cleans your house if you have a servant at your house.
And by the way, I know that's not the politically correct term.
You know what I mean.
I'm making somebody who serves somebody else.
Jesus served people when he was beaten and died on a cross to serve others.
He washed the apostles' feet, which I'm sure were particularly disgusting, considering they were walking around in sandals and were probably pretty dirty, and it was a custom to be gracious.
And I'm sure it wasn't the most pleasant thing in the world to do, but it was a show of humility by Jesus.
Okay, I don't see a lot of politicians that have the idea of public service in their minds.
There are some.
I don't speak with a broad-sweeping generalization here, but that's what I'm really wanting.
I want real service.
All right, 800-941, Sean, if you want to be a part of the program, Dan Traverse City, Michigan on the Sean Hannity Show.
How are you?
Good.
Hey, Sean, how are you doing?
I'm good.
What's going on?
Good.
Hey, I want to make a comment on the Supreme Court nominee, but just a bit of fun for you.
You are correct.
Laura Ingram and Newt Gingrich do laugh at you every time you have them on your TV show.
And I have to tell you, it's fun for the viewers to watch them laugh.
All right, wait, wait, wait.
You're making your.
I'm missing your point.
Say it again.
I missed what you're saying.
Okay, Laura, this is a fun point for you.
Laura Ingram and Newt Gingrich do laugh at you every time you try to make your serious point on the TV show.
And you always say, hold it.
Why are you laughing at me?
No, Newton Gingrich and I, you got to understand, we go back since 1990 when I first interviewed him.
And we've been friends ever since.
You've got to understand, the night he became Speaker of the House, I was emceeing that event at the Cobb Galleria in Georgia.
We're really good friends.
He knows when I'm tweaking him.
He knows when I'm playing with him.
And he plays along.
No, no, no.
No, Sean, that's what I'm saying.
No, no, we all know it's in fun.
Yeah, it's all in good fun.
It's in fun, but it's fun watching you complain to them, even though we know it's in fun.
That's just a side note.
I just want you to know.
We enjoy that little fun interaction between you and Newton Laura.
But, hey, Sean, I'm the Supreme Court pip.
Yeah.
There's no, listen, I feel like I'm a second you, and the Democrats will not, they play to win.
I guarantee you, they are going to do a recess appointment with this garland or whatever his name is after January 3rd, whenever.
They're going to do it because they're going to flip the finger to everybody.
And I'm also willing to bet you, and I believe he's going to do it, period.
I kind of want you to be thinking on that and getting the battle plan for it.
And I also think he's going to pardon Hillary.
I'm willing to bet you he's going to pardon Hillary.
Do the recess appointment and pardon Hillary.
I think those bombs are coming because they will do anything.
Well, I don't doubt at all on the Hillary issue.
I don't doubt a lot of things that he's going to do on the way out are going to be pretty ugly and pretty shocking.
I think he doesn't care, and he really doesn't have a whole lot to hang on to in terms of a legacy.
Do you realize because Obama acted so unconstitutionally and illegally so often that Donald Trump will probably spend the first hours of his presidency undoing 80% of the Obama presidency, which was executive order, fiat, et cetera?
I mean, then Obamacare gets taken away.
What's left?
What is his legacy?
But poverty, food stamps, a doubling of the debt, the Iranian deal, the creation of ISIS, Benghazi, Libya, North Africa, the emergence or re-emergence of Russia and Putin.
There's no legacy here.
You're going to watch, you know, I'm sure CNN, the Clinton News Network, and MSNBC will try and thread the needle and make something up that he did, and they'll use the unemployment number.
It went in half.
Yeah, of course it goes in half when you don't count half the people that are still unemployed, but you don't count them anymore.
It's so idiotic, but whatever.
It's kind of stupid to me.
Anyway, I would say to the Republicans on the recess appointment in the Senate, don't shut the Senate down.
Keep them in session.
Just keep it in session.
Like they've done before.
In fairness to McConnell, he did it before.
He can do it again.
Tom is in Altoona, PA, Pennsylvania, the now swing red state.
How are you?
Hi, I'm good.
I just want to say Trump needs to focus on pushing his agenda and not worrying about compromising with Democrats right now, because if he does, he's going to get rolled by them.
I mean, they are vicious and they won't stop at anything.
I have told many people that are around the president-elect exactly that thing.
Look, I'm telling you right now, things are going to get ugly.
You've got all the signs, all the evidence, all the indications that the left is not accepting defeat.
They're not going to go away.
They're going to do exactly what they did during the Bush years.
The loony left is going to emerge, and it just is what it is.
And I just think it's, you know, if they put Keith Ellison, great.
They keep Nancy Pelosi.
I'm all for that.
They want to go loony left.
I'm all for it.
And if Donald Trump, look, conservatism works.
The reason that I warned about Obama, the very things that happened, the labor participation rate, the poverty rate, the numbers of people on food stamps, the doubling of the debt, you know, I warned about foreign policy.
The one thing I'll say about Obama, he is a rigid, radical ideologue.
And say what you will about Bill Clinton, I was never a fan of his.
Bill Clinton was a lot smarter, far more pragmatic, and far less ideological than Obama.
And Hillary was more like Obama than her own husband.
In as much as, you know, give me one example where Obama had a sister soldier moment.
Give me one example where he said something unpredictable.
The era of big government is over.
The end of welfare as we know it.
Now, you can argue that Newt Gingrich's election and a Republican Congress for the first time in 40 years had a pretty dramatic impact on then President Clinton, but it doesn't matter.
At least there are examples where he got it.
He understood the electorate that they were speaking loudly to him, rejecting Hillary care and his way of governance.
And lo and behold, it was one of those rare times where you have a Democratic president going along with a strong vision from a strong congressman.
I view Newt as a bit of a visionary, great historian, and they were able to balance the budget.
We haven't done it since.
And it'd be nice to see it happen again.
I'd like to see in these years government bureaucracies transformed.
You know, why did I spend time on the program today talking about, well, if you're going to spend a trillion dollars in infrastructure, give it to the Higgins.
Give it to the coach.
Because I know how these people act in D.C.
And they're not changing.
You know, some of them will go along with the flow, but as soon as the tide in their minds begins to shift, it's just going to be like Hillary voting for the war and pulling out.
They're not standing on principles that guide them.
They're standing on, uh-oh, let me put my finger in the air.
Let me see which way the wind's blowing, and let me catch the wind, and I'll surf on with the wind at my back.
Always.
They always want the wind at their back.
They never want it in their face.
Well, I want the guys that can accept that the wind is not always going to be at your back in life, and life's a little tougher than that.
And you're going to have headwinds.
And when you have headwinds, your job is to plow through and fight for the things you believe in.
That's why the Reagan presidency was so successful.
I'd argue that's why Newt Gingrich's governance was so successful.
And what did Newt Gingrich get for it?
He got thrown out.
There's only so much time that he had the goodwill of Congress, and finally they blew up on him and they abandoned him.
That's how I view it.
And I'm sure some will think they were so principled in what they were doing.
That's not really what happened.
Anyway, so the winds will shift against Donald Trump.
And probably sooner than later, the media has already latched on to doing everything they can do to smear, slander, besmirch, undermine, and destroy the Trump presidency before he's even taken office.
The games are only beginning.
I'm telling everybody, you know, go have your nice Christmas vacation because when we come back in January, you better be ready to hit the ground running and buckle up.
You've got very rocky waters ahead of you.
And the only thing I'd say to President-elect Trump, don't trust these people.
None of them.
They're not your friends.
If you want a friend in Washington, I'll buy you a dog, okay?
I'll buy you any puppy you want.
You can have it.
I'm not going to rescue you.
I buy real dogs.
Oh, look at Linda.
Go ahead.
Put your mic on.
It was a joke.
Say it.
Say what you want to say.
Swallow your puppy.
You should just say you're going to rescue a dog.
Rescue a dog.
You rescue dogs, right?
Dogs need a dog.
There are plenty of dogs that need to be rescued.
How many dogs need to be rescued?
Many.
Many dogs.
Millions.
So you want them to get a rescue dog, not a purebred like I got.
Correct.
Do you fault me for adopting and buying my puppies?
All animals deserve a home.
All animals deserve a home, even dogs.
One of those bougie dog lovers.
Oh, shut up.
I need to hear out of you.
I need to hear this out of you like I need a hole in the head.
