The 538 members of the Electoral College are set to cast their official votes on Monday. While it remains largely a formality, the liberals are continuing to push Electoral College voters to cast their vote against Donald Trump. Former Speaker Newt Gingrich joins Sean to discuss this vote and the future of Russian relations. 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.
You want smart political talk without the meltdowns?
We got you.
I'm Carol Markowitz and I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
We've been around the block in media and we're doing things differently.
Normally is about real conversations.
Thoughtful, try to be funny, grounded, and no panic.
We'll keep you informed and entertained without ruining your day.
Join us every Tuesday and Thursday, normally, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
You know, it's hard to find a person that doesn't totally love this great holiday spirit we have every year.
And while everyone is into the season of giving, don't forget the best way to ring in the holidays is to send your friends, your loved ones, your coworkers a beautiful, vibrant bouquet from our friends at 1-800Flowers.com.
Make them happy this year.
1-800 Flowers, they have a vast selection of elegant roses, lilies, daisies, and much more.
And the best part is they're only $29.99.
So you can deliver 1-800 Flowers seasonal bouquet to any friend, co-worker, loved one.
It's the perfect way to let them know how much they mean to you, especially during the holidays.
1-800 Flowers is the only company I trust to deliver fresh flowers from the field for, of course, our holiday gift giving.
Now, to get beautiful and vibrant bouquets starting at just $29.99, just go to 1-800FLOWERS.com, use your desktop, your mobile device, click on the radio icon, and put in my last name, Hannity.
1-800Flowers.com.
Don't forget to click on the radio icon, put in my last name, Hannity.
Let not your heart be troubled.
You are listening to the Sean Hannity Radio Show podcast.
Ah, the Clintons, they didn't lose.
The Russians stole it from them.
All right, we're going to get to Hillary's comments from last night in just a minute, but the anointed one is this is final press conference.
This will be Obama's last press conference all about Russia.
We're going to start fairly early in the press conference.
President, there's a perception that you're letting President Putin get away with interfering in the U.S. election and that a response that nobody knows about or a look back review just don't cut it.
Are you prepared to call out President Putin by name for ordering this hacking?
And do you agree with what Hillary Clinton now says that the hacking is actually partially responsible for her loss?
And is your administration's open quarreling with Trump and his team on this issue, tarnishing the smooth transition of power that you have promised?
Well, first of all, with respect to the transition, I think they would be the first to acknowledge that we have done everything we can to make sure that they are successful, as I promised, and that will continue.
And it's just been a few days since I last talked to the president-elect about a whole range of transition issues.
That cooperation is going to continue.
There hasn't been a lot of squabbling.
What we've simply said is the facts, which are that based on uniform intelligence assessments, the Russians were responsible for hacking the DNC and that as a consequence,
it is important for us to review all elements of that and make sure that we are preventing that kind of interference through cyber attacks in the future.
That should be a bipartisan issue.
That shouldn't be a partisan issue.
And my hope is that the president-elect is going to similarly be concerned with making sure that we don't have potential foreign influence in our election process.
I don't think any American wants that.
And that shouldn't be a source of an argument.
I think that part of the challenge is that it gets caught up in the carryover from election season.
And I think it is very important for us to distinguish between the politics of the election and the need for us as a country, both from a national security perspective, but also in terms of the integrity of our election system and our democracy to make sure that we don't create a political football here.
Now, with respect to how this thing unfolded last year, let's just go through the facts pretty quickly.
At the beginning of the summer, we're alerted to the possibility that the DNC has been hacked.
And I immediately order law enforcement as well as our intelligence teams to find out everything about it, investigate it thoroughly, to brief the potential victims of this hacking, to brief on a bipartisan basis the leaders of both the House and the Senate and the relevant intelligence committees.
And once we had clarity and certainty around what in fact had happened, we publicly announced that in fact Russia had hacked into the DNC.
And at that time we did not attribute motives or any interpretations of why they had done so.
We didn't discuss what the effects of it might be.
We simply let people know, the public know, just as we had let members of Congress know, that this had happened.
And as a consequence, all of you wrote a lot of stories about both what had happened and then you interpreted why that might have happened and what effect it was going to have on the election outcomes.
We did not.
And the reason we did not was because in this hyper-partisan atmosphere, at a time when my primary concern was making sure that the integrity of the election process was not in any way damaged, at a time when anything that was said by me or anybody in the White House would immediately be seen through a partisan lens, I wanted to make sure that everybody understood we were playing this thing straight,
that we weren't trying to advantage one side or another, but what we were trying to do is let people know that this had taken place.
And so if you started seeing effects on the election, if you were trying to measure why this was happening and how you should consume the information that was being leaked, that you might want to take this into account.
And that's exactly how we should have handled it.
Imagine if we'd done the opposite.
It would have become immediately just one more political scrum.
And part of the goal here was to make sure that we did not do the work of the leakers for them by raising more and more questions about the integrity of the election right before the election was taking place.
At a time, by the way, when the president-elect himself was raising questions about the integrity of the election.
And finally, I think it's worth pointing out that the information was already out.
It was in the hands of WikiLeaks.
That was going to come out no matter what.
What I was concerned about in particular was making sure that that wasn't compounded by potential hacking that could hamper vote counting, affect the actual election process itself.
And so in early September when I saw President Putin in China, I felt that the most effective way to ensure that that didn't happen was to talk to him directly and tell him to cut it out and there were going to be some serious consequences if he didn't.
And in fact, we did not see further tampering of the election process, but the leaks through WikiLeaks had already occurred.
So when I look back in terms of how we handled it, I think we handled it the way it should have been handled.
We allowed law enforcement and the intelligence community to do its job without political influence.
We briefed all relevant parties involved in terms of what was taking place.
When we had a consensus around what had happened, we announced it, not through the White House, not through me, but rather through the intelligence communities that had actually carried out these investigations.
And then we allowed you and the American public to make an assessment as to how to weigh that going into the election.
And the truth is that there was nobody here who didn't have some sense of what kind of effect it might have.
I'm finding it a little curious that everybody's suddenly acting surprised that this looked like it was disadvantaging Hillary Clinton because you guys wrote about it every day.
Every single leak.
About every little juicy tidbit of political gossip, including John Podesta's Risotto recipe.
This was an obsession that dominated the news coverage.
So I do think it's worth us reflecting how it is that a presidential election of such importance, of such moment, with so many big issues at stake and such a contrast between the candidates came to be dominated by a bunch of these leaks.
What is it about our political system that made us vulnerable to these kinds of potential manipulations, which as I've said publicly before, were not particularly sophisticated.
This was not some elaborate, complicated espionage scheme.
They hacked into some Democratic Party emails that contained pretty routine stuff, some of it embarrassing or uncomfortable because I suspect that if any of us got our emails hacked into, there might be some things that we wouldn't want suddenly appearing on the front page of a newspaper or a telecast, even if there wasn't anything particularly illegal or controversial about it.
And then it just took off.
And that concerns me, and it should concern all of us.
But the truth of the matter is, is that everybody had the information.
It was out there, and we handled it the way we should have.
Now, moving forward, I think there are a couple issues that this raises.
Number one is just the constant challenge that we are going to have with cybersecurity throughout our economy and throughout our society.
We are a digitalized culture, and there is hacking going on every single day.
There's not a company, there's not a major organization, there's not a financial institution, there's not a branch of our government where somebody's not going to be phishing for something or trying to penetrate or put in a virus or malware.
And this is why for the last eight years I've been obsessed with how do we continually upgrade our cybersecurity systems.
And this particular concern around Russian hacking is part of a broader set of concerns about how do we deal with cyber issues being used in ways that can affect our infrastructure, affect the stability of our financial systems, and affect the integrity of our institutions like our election process.
I just received a couple weeks back, it wasn't widely reported on, a report from our Cybersecurity Commission that outlines a whole range of strategies to do a better job on this.
But it's difficult because it's not all housed.
The target of cyber attacks is not one entity, but it's widely dispersed and a lot of it is private, like the DNC.
It's not a branch of government.
We can't tell people what to do.
What we can do is inform them, get best practices.
What we can also do is to, on a bilateral basis, warn other countries against these kinds of attacks.
And we've done that in the past.
So just as I told Russia to stop it and indicated there will be consequences when they do it, the Chinese have, in the past, engaged in cyber attacks directed at our companies to steal trade secrets and proprietary technology.
And I had to have the same conversation with Prime Minister, with President Xi.
And what we've seen is some evidence that they have reduced, but not completely eliminated, these activities, partly because they can use cutouts.
One of the problems with the internet and cyber issues is there's not always a return address.
And by the time you catch up to it.
All right, that's pretty much Obama's take.
Hillary now is totally blaming the Russians.
The Russians did it.
In a speech she gave last night.
Now, I have a lot of questions here, not the least of which is, okay, WikiLeaks has been in business 10 plus years.
We've known about hacking for all the years Obama's been president.
Why hasn't he fixed cybersecurity?
Why should we trust the CIA that lied about Benghazi being spontaneous?
They just happen to have mortars in their back pocket.
What about Obama two weeks before the election saying to Trump, you know, stop whining and go out there and campaign.
There's no possible way our elections can be rigged.
What about the New York Times using stolen Trump tax returns?
What about others examples of the media using stolen stuff for their stories?
And maybe Hillary Clinton shouldn't have set up the email server.
Maybe she shouldn't have lied.
Maybe the media shouldn't have colluded.
And maybe Obama should not have tried to influence the Israeli election.
And you're saying that the news media wouldn't have released information on Donald Trump the same way?
It's all a joke.
They can't handle the fact they lost.
We'll continue.
So like many of you, I used to suffer from insomnia.
No matter what I did, I just couldn't get a perfect night's sleep.
Well, then I met Mike Lindell, the inventor of MyPillow.
He got me fitted for my very own MyPillow, and it's changed my life.
I fall asleep faster.
I stay asleep longer, and now you can too.
Just go to mypillow.com or call 800-467-1962.
Use the promo code Sean to take advantage of Mike's two-for-one offer.
Now, MyPillow is made right here in the USA, has a 60-day unconditional money-back guarantee and a 10-year warranty.
And by the way, you can even wash it and dry it.
Just go to mypillow.com or call 800-467-1962 promo code Sean to get Mike's special two-for-one offer.
Vladimir Putin himself directed the culvert cyber attacks against our electoral system, against our democracy, apparently because he has a personal beef against me.
Putin publicly blamed me for the outpouring of outrage by his own people.
And that is the direct line between what he said back then and what he did in this election.
This is not just an attack against me and my campaign, although that may have added fuel to it.
This is an attack against our country.
We are well beyond normal political concerns here.
This is about the integrity of our democracy and the security of our nation.
What I was concerned about in particular was making sure that that wasn't compounded by potential hacking that could hamper vote counting, affect the actual election process itself.
And so in early September, when I saw President Putin in China, I felt that the most effective way to ensure that that didn't happen was to talk to him directly and tell him to cut it out.
And there were going to be some serious consequences if he didn't.
And in fact, we did not see further tampering of the election process.
All right, there you have it.
So this is now the narrative.
This is now where they want to take this election.
They can't admit that they lost.
They can't admit that Obama had a horrible economy.
They can't admit she was a horrible candidate.
They can't admit it didn't matter when Hillary Clinton was, you know, that we had a 99% certainty that five foreign national intelligence agencies got into her emails with top secret special access programs.
None of that mattered.
We've known about Wikileaks for 10 years.
And now all of a sudden, because they can't admit liberalism was rejected, they've got to come up with some elaborate, you know, conspiracy theory that they want you to, Russians did this.
Now, Julian Assange was on this program yesterday.
And say what you will, Wikileaks has a 10-year perfect track record.
Notice that they're not questioning the authenticity of the hack that exposed collusion with the news media.
The fact that Hillary got questions and cheated Bernie Sanders, racism, sexism, misogyny, anti-Semitism within the DNC.
Well, we're going to forget all the facts of that.
Forget the New York Times is perfectly comfortable using stolen Trump tax returns for their reporting.
Forget that there's no evidence whatsoever that has been presented by anybody that the Russians hacked into any of this.
You know, forget that the CIA is already been exposed to be politicized as they lied about Benghazi to benefit Hillary Clinton with the false narrative that this was a spontaneous demonstration related to a YouTube video and the spontaneous demonstrators actually had mortars and RPGs in their back pocket.
And they just decided, well, let's take them out now as if it wasn't a terror attack without ever speaking to anybody that was there on the ground at the time.
Now, the president's, he's been in office eight years, known about WikiLeaks for all the time he's been in office, known about attacks, as he mentioned, by the Chinese and everybody else.
And what has he done to beef up cybersecurity?
Nothing.
You know, I told him to knock it off.
I told them to stop.
Oh, that really, I'm sure, scared and intimidated everybody.
You know, maybe Hillary shouldn't have had a private email server set up.
Maybe she shouldn't have lied about sending or receiving classified information.
Maybe they, maybe we should look into whether or not the Wikileaks friend of Julian Assange, who said this was given to them near America University in a wooded area by a disgruntled Democrat who happened to believe that Bernie Sanders was cheated and was appalled at the corruption at the Clinton Foundation.
And by the way, if it's so horrible for outside countries to influence foreign elections, well, maybe the president, that would be President Obama, shouldn't have sent taxpayer money to campaign to oust Benjamin Netanyahu like they did to this one voice group, which ostensibly was used to support efforts to back the Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement negotiations.
But in reality, the money was used to build a voter database against BB, train activists against BB, hire a political consulting firm with ties to Obama's campaign, all of which set the stage for an anti-Netanyahu campaign.
So I guess what's good for the goose is good for the gander if you even believe the Russian conspiracy and everything that they're trying to say here.
You know, for example, was the media not supposed to cover WikiLeaks?
Well, then the New York Times, I guess, shouldn't have been covering Trump's stolen tax returns.
Maybe the media shouldn't have been colluding with the Clinton campaign at the level they were.
Maybe Obama should not try to influence, as I said, the Israeli elections.
You know, was the media supposed to not cover this?
Is that what Obama's argument is?
Sounds like CNN now.
Would they not cover similar information on Donald Trump?
Has everybody forgotten what Watergate was about?
Did everybody forget the sources in Watergate deep throat?
You know, the media has been exposed more than anybody here, more than the Clinton campaign.
You know, do we not want truth exposed to the American people, especially truth as it results for a major presidential candidate that lies with regularity and colludes to cheat in an election?
I'm sorry, it's not the information you wanted out there, but just like in the case of Watergate and in the case of Obama trying to influence Israel's election, you know, they're just mad they got exposed.
And it was the same president that was laughing.
Remember, the president was laughing just two weeks before the election.
Donald, I recommend you stop whining.
They couldn't do it even if they wanted to do it.
But the larger point that I want to emphasize here is that there is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America's elections, in part because they're so decentralized and the numbers of votes involved.
There's no evidence that that has happened in the past or that there are instances in which that will happen this time.
And so I'd advise Mr. Trump to stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes.
And if he got the most votes, then it would be my expectation of Hillary Clinton to offer a gracious concession speech and pledge to work with him in order to make sure that the American people benefit from an effective government.
And even Obama said today, they're not suggesting that the Russians were working or hacking into the electoral system.
They're just saying WikiLeaks exposed.
Hillary's argument is WikiLeaks exposure of the truth, because nobody has said Wikileaks is wrong.
But WikiLeaks' exposure of the truth of her and Podesta and her campaign and her collusion with the media had an impact on the mindset of the American people.
Now, do we not want truth exposed?
I mean, we've got to think about this here.
Did we not want sources like Deep Throat for Watergate?
You know, what are they really mad at here?
They're married that, well, that she really did violate the law.
She got a pass from James Comey.
You can't blame Comey.
Comey helped her.
And what they're really mad at here, what they're really doing here is, is they're making up a Roswell, New Mexico-style conspiracy as to why it is they lost that is not rooted in truth or fact.
And by the way, not that Obama had an atrocious record.
Leave him.
Not that he had an atrocious record.
Not that she was a horrible and exposed, dishonest candidate that thought the law didn't apply to her.
They just can't admit that they failed.
They can't admit eight years they knew about America's vulnerability to cybersecurity and did nothing.
Anyway, joining us now, we have two guest experts with us.
What you sent me, I can't read.
Bill Benny is with us, and Jonathan Gillum is with us.
Bill, what's your expertise and background?
Well, I worked for NSA for about 36 years and then worked in the community, the intelligence community, for about three or four years after that.
And most of it had to deal with setting up programs to handle the digital age and solve different problems, technical problems within NSA and the community.
Now, what's your take, Jonathan Gillam?
Well, you know, I think this is perfect because you have somebody from the NSA and then myself having been a former FBI agent looking at this from a criminal mindset.
I think your statements that you just made a second ago there, Sean, are exactly spot on because to me, this looks like a completely manufactured crisis in its same playbook that we've seen all year.
Yep.
Yeah, I mean, for example, we'll just use this campaign.
We don't even need to go back in past cases.
Hasn't the media, like the New York Times, when they use stolen Donald Trump tax records, doesn't the media do this all the time?
Yeah, from my perspective, I think they do.
But for example, from the technical side, the only one who has any standing to say anything about hacking is NSA.
And they've stayed very quiet here.
Now, the point is pretty simple.
In order for somebody in Russia to come across the entire worldwide network to get into some server in the U.S., they got to go first through the spying network in Europe and Africa and all around the world to get out.
And then they have to come into the spying network that exists inside the U.S. with all the tap points and trace route programs and other embedded implants and switches, servers, and all kinds of things.
There's no way that they could do that and come into a server and pull out tens of thousands of emails and not be picked up by NSA and know exactly where they came from, how they got there, when they came in, how much they took, how long it took to get back and which route it took to get there.
You know, all of these things are built into the existing collection routine for NSA.
And until NSA comes out and says, yeah, the Russians did it, they did it from this place, and then they passed the data they took to WikiLeaks, and here's how it got to Wikileaks, until they say that, you can't believe anything that's being said, certainly not from CIA.
Isn't that amazing that the CIA that was supposed to trust our big spy agency that they lied to us about Benghazi and that there are people now lying about this case?
I mean, does this, if I'm Vladimir Putin, and I know I didn't do this, and Julian Assange is actually the one telling the truth that it didn't come from Russia, and that there's no evidence at all that has been presented except Democrats claiming this, doesn't that risk destroying relations and hurting relations with Russia more than anything else?
You know, Sean, I think Russia, I grew up in Arkansas.
I swear Russia is sitting back like the rest of the world in a trailer park watching the drama unfold across the street.
That's what this is like.
It's so unbelievable.
And if you look at, and if you study the Democratic Party at all, you'll see that they follow, and I know this sounds crazy when I say this over and over, but they follow the playbook of mind comp by Hitler and Sololinsky to the T with this thing they use called the big lie, where they tell a big lie, they make it very simple, and they just keep saying it over and over.
Do you think Obama knows he's lying about Russia here?
I think he has to.
I think he does.
I think he does.
I'm sure Bill thinks he does.
So this is a coordinated effort between Josh Ernest Obama and Hillary Clinton and Democrats to delegitimize Trump.
Yeah, I put into question anything his entire administration has beaten before it comes in.
And we would have known about this if this were true a long time ago.
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, as far as I'm concerned, NSA should have known exactly when it happened and where it came from, where they went, how much they took, and where it went back to.
So the other guy from Wikileaks, Craig, whatever his name is, that revealed that he actually received the documents from a Clinton insider that was disgusted at cheating Bernie Sanders and disgusted at the Clinton Foundation corruption, and that documents were actually handed off by hand in a wooded area near American University is a far more likely scenario to you.
Yeah, because that would mean that there's no trace in the network of this data flowing back and forth.
That would say, okay, since NSA is saying nothing, they don't have any tracing, and so it didn't happen.
And so that means, I mean, the probability of them not seeing some of this things, some of the data of this magnitude passing around the network is almost zero.
I mean, they should absolutely be able to at least get part of it at a minimum, you know, with this entire.
I mean, we paid $10 billion a year just to make this network for the last 15 years.
So we should get something for all that money, you know?
Sean, our best sources in government always come from people who are either angry and have a vengeance or people who want money or they have some kind of patriotic streak in them.
And I keep saying all along, and I'd love to hear Bill's take on this, that the DNC, in my opinion, I think was hacked by somebody either in the Clinton campaign or it was orchestrated by the DNC because they knew this stuff was coming down the line and they wanted to play the victim card.
Now, it'd be very easy for them under the contact that Hillary Clinton has to go have somebody in Russia hack into the DNC or into Podesta's emails.
It wouldn't be hard to get somebody that lives in Russia that has an IP address in Russia to do that.
Wow.
All right, guys.
Thank you.
You know what?
They don't want you to focus on the content of how corrupt they are.
No, just focus on Russia.
No evidence.
Show me the evidence.
Vladimir Putin himself directed the culvert cyber attacks against our electoral system, against our democracy, apparently because he has a personal beef against me.
Putin publicly blamed me for the outpouring of outrage by his own people.
And that is the direct line between what he said back then and what he did in this election.
This is not just an attack against me and my campaign, although that may have added fuel to it.
This is an attack against our country.
We are well beyond normal political concerns here.
This is about the integrity of our democracy and the security of our nation.
I am in an odd historic position.
You know, back in 2008, I won slightly more votes than President Obama, but lost the delegates.
And now I won 3 million more votes.
But I'll shorten the electoral college.
So I know how the system works probably better than anybody else, but there were some events.
There were some unprecedented factors that I don't think we can ignore because to do so is at our peril.
Or take it from me, take it from independent analysts, take it from the Trump campaign, take it from Nate Silver, who's pointed out that swing state voters made their decisions in the final days raking against me because of the FBI letter from Reverend Comey.
And Nate Silver believed, I happen to believe this, that that letter most likely made the difference in the outcome.
But we're also learning more every day about the unprecedented Russian plot to swing this election.
And this is something every American should be worried about.
Now, I'm pleased that a bipartisan group of senators is calling for a robust investigation, and I agree, and I hope you do too.
And it should be, it should be modeled on the 9-11 Commission.
And we'll do everything possible to get to the bottom of what happened.
The public deserves to know exactly what happened and why in order for us to prevent future attacks on our systems, including our electoral system.
Trevor, I think what everybody has to reflect on is what is it about our political ecosystem?
What is it about the state of our democracy where the leaks of what were frankly not very interesting emails that didn't have any explosive information in them?
The result was interesting.
Ended up being an obsession.
And the fact that the Russians were doing this was not an obsession.
This was not a secret running up to the election.
The president-elect, in some of his political events, specifically said to the Russians, hack Hillary's emails so that we can finally find out what's going on and confirm our conspiracy theories.
You had what was very clear relationships between members of the president-elect's campaign team and Russians and a professed shared view on a bunch of issues.
All right, there you have it.
That's the president.
Well, the president also said that it was impossible to influence our elections.
That was just two weeks before.
We had Julian Assange for an hour on this program yesterday saying again and again and again, no state, Russia did not give them the information that they disseminated as it relates to the email server scandal.
There is no evidence, the FBI says.
There is no evidence, the director of national intelligence says.
The only people that are saying this are over at the CIA, the same people during Benghazi that coordinated talking points with the White House without talking to a single person that was there at the consulate when it was attacked, and they manufactured and went along with a manufactured story that a spontaneous demonstration related to a YouTube video resulted in mortar attack, RPG attacks against our consulate.
Now, the fascinating thing about that is I don't know many spontaneous demonstrators that just happen to bring mortars and RPGs just in case they get feisty.
Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, is here with us.
This is going beyond now.
This has now entered the realm of a full-fledged conspiracy that may even have national security implications.
And I want to get your thoughts on this because they can't admit they did anything wrong.
They can't admit that they lost fair and square.
So now they're going to blame it on the Russians and Vladimir Putin.
And the main source of the emails is saying unequivocally it did not come from them.
The FBI is saying it.
The director of national intelligence is saying it.
Why are they advancing this?
Well, I mean, first of all, the Democrats have this terrible dilemma.
I just saw this amazing article by John Podesta, who was the campaign manager.
Now, imagine his position.
They raised a billion dollars.
They had the incumbent president.
They had virtually the entire elite media.
And they lost.
Now, he goes around town right now as the big loser.
But what if it wasn't his fault?
What if it was the Russians or the Martians or little green people from a different galaxy?
I mean, what if, in fact, John Podesta would have won and Hillary would have won except for this intervention?
And, of course, it fits the left's whole model, which is they cannot believe that after eight years of Barack Obama, the country said enough.
The American people didn't want anymore.
And I think that's why you see a large part of this.
It started out being anti-Trump, but now it's kind of desperation fantasy time.
You know, can we hide in the closet and pretend that there's not a boogeyman in the house named Donald J. Trump?
Or can we at least blame the Russians for opening the door?
I mean, the whole thing is nuts.
Well, she's also blaming Comey.
Is it really Comey's fault that she broke the law?
Because the mishandling of classified materials is against the law.
I mean, I've told you before, Sean, you don't want to believe me, that I believe that an FSB agent, that's the new KGB, the FSB agent, who personally talked her into putting the server in the bathroom, was behind the whole thing.
If she had not been so deeply influenced by the Russians, she would never have had a private server everybody could hack.
She would never have deleted 33,000 emails.
She would never have lied about the other 22,000.
And I just think that poor Hillary Clinton, who has been apparently manipulated by the Russians all the time, you know, is going to have a really bad Christmas and New Year trying to explain to Big Bill why she lost.
I mean, can you imagine?
You know, have President Clinton and non-President Clinton.
I mean, that's a very painful experience for her.
Much better to say, you know, Bill, if the Russians hadn't intervened, I would have won.
Former FBI.
You're right, Hill.
It's not your fault.
Obama's director of the CIA is John Brennan, who recently disclosed, by the way, that he voted for the Communist Party ticket when he was in college.
Just as a side note, but former CIA officials Mike Murrell, Mike Hayden, Philip Mudd have all denounced him.
And former CIA operations officer Evan McMullin ran against him as an independent presidential candidate.
But all of these things, when the CIA made a decision on Benghazi to not talk to the people that were there, do you realize I've interviewed all those people that survived?
I interviewed those people that risked their lives and careers and disobeyed standdown orders and went over to help save lives.
And they were never once questioned by the CIA.
And this talking points narrative was literally manufactured and reinforced by the CIA.
Doesn't that show the CIA is politicized?
Yeah, look, look, the Obama administration's greatest single trait, other than lying to the American people, has been to consistently corrupt things.
They corrupted the Internal Revenue Service.
They have corrupted the Justice Department.
They've corrupted the Central Intelligence Agency.
There's an Inspector General investigation about a general officer who was pressured so deeply by the Director of National Intelligence that he then instructed over 50 experts at the Central Command basically to falsify their reports.
And they collectively filed a letter of complaint and said, we're being pressured to lie.
So in that setting, the fact that Brennan would lie about this doesn't surprise me at all.
That's their stock in trade.
Liberalism only survives today by lying.
And that's what you're getting from these guys.
And I think it's a sad commentary on where we are as a country.
And it's another case of why we should be so grateful that Donald J. Trump won and Hillary Clinton lost because it's really bad stuff.
But this is just more of the same bad stuff.
And I think that it is a lie.
Now, again, I'm all for serious hearings on the question of cyber war and the question of hacking.
And I said that ever since North Korea presumably hacked Sony back in 2014.
I do think there are profound reasons we as a people have to understand better this new world that we're living in and how dangerous it's going to be.
But that has almost nothing to do with where we are and what's going on.
But they're trying to weave a conspiratorial web here that I can't think of.
That is so unprecedented.
I can't think of any other example in history that matches this.
Well, there's no other example.
might go back to the affair of the French agents in the 1790s when we were a brand new country because there were French agents who came over here with money to bribe American leaders and they were roundly denounced and kicked out of the country.
But since then, not since the 1790s, have we had anybody stupid enough to try to do it?
And I actually think this entire fabrication by the propaganda media and these CIA leaks, repudiated by everybody else.
So it's not just the FBI versus CIA.
I mean, even the director of national intelligence has said he doesn't believe it.
I mean, it's just very profound to me.
And I think Obama is a little bit more resistant to buying into this fully.
But is it really anybody's fault?
Is it really Vladimir Putin's fault when we have a 99% certainty that five foreign intelligence agencies were able to hack into her unsecure server, five of them.
And there's no evidence that Russia was one of them.
I would suspect they probably are.
I suspect the Chinese probably are.
I suspect probably Iran, maybe even the Israelis, because they just probably happened on it because they're great at what they do.
And probably some other countries that are enemies of the United States.
She created that vulnerability.
She created that opportunity for them.
This was not achieved through a break-in that resulted, that happened at the State Department.
This was on her private server.
Well, that's right.
Look, that's part of what makes this whole thing so stupid.
I mean, she's the person who led the effort to lie about Ben Ghats.
Nobody made her do it.
She is the person who consistently lied throughout the campaign about her email scandal.
She is the person who agreed to allow her office to be used by the Clinton Foundation in what clearly was an inappropriate mixing of raising money and enriching herself and her husband while she served as such a state.
None of these things required foreign subvention of what she was doing.
But if you are the left and you're sitting around the evening thinking, it can't be that Donald Trump beat us.
It just can't be.
I mean, we're smarter, we're more politically correct.
You know, we and our friends had already divided up all the offices.
We were ready to move in.
And now along comes an excuse.
Let's hate the Russians.
Isn't there a big risk to this blame game, especially if it turns out it's not true?
Look, Julian Assange, I had him on the program an hour yesterday.
And the only time he hesitated to give an answer was when his friend, who was quoted in the Daily Mail, actually divulged that near American University, in a wooded area, he was handed by a Clinton insider this information about Podesta's emails that were legally obtained by an insider who was angry about the Clinton Foundation corruption and angry at the treatment of Bernie Sanders.
Far more plausible in my mind.
Yep.
And another thing we have to recognize here, to whatever degree hacking occurs, it should bother all of us.
And this is why I do think hearings might be useful.
It should bother all of us that we don't know.
I mean, Obama's best case is that he did not know at the time, was not able to announce it at the time, that it's all too confusing.
So even if you accepted the premise that it was the Russians, what you really get is the sense of American vulnerability because the Americans literally don't know.
I think that's really a problem.
All right, former Speaker of the House New Kingrich, I'm going to be on vacation the next couple of weeks.
When I am, I look forward to getting back and having you for these first 100 and 200 days.
I think this is going to be some of the most fascinating governing times in the history of this country.
And you as a historian, I know, are going to be eating this up.
Oh, look, it's going to be very, very exciting.
But I have to tell you before you go on vacation, Callista and I Damara are going to be at Sugar House in Alexandria signing Christmas gifts with her elephant books and my treason.
And it's been a great year.
And I think next year is going to be an even more interesting year.
And I look forward to sharing it with all of your listeners.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We appreciate it.
By the way, I received your very generous Christmas gift, too.
Thank you and Callista very much.
Appreciate it.
You're a great, great friend.
Thank you.
So are you.
All right, thank you.
He's going to be in Alexandria's Sugarhouse Salon in Alexandria, Virginia tomorrow signing books.
Republican members of the Electoral College, this message is for you.
As you know, our founding fathers built the Electoral College to safeguard the American people from the dangers of a demagogue and to ensure that the presidency only goes to someone who is to an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.
An eminent degree.
Someone who is highly qualified for the job.
The Electoral College was created specifically to prevent an unfit candidate from becoming president.
There are 538 members of the Electoral College.
You and just 36 other conscientious Republican electors can make a difference.
By voting your conscience on December 19th and thereby shaping the future of our nation.
I'm not asking you to vote for Hillary Clinton.
As you know, the Constitution gives electors the right to vote for any eligible person.
Any eligible person, no matter which party they belong to.
But it should certainly be someone you consider especially competent.
Especially competent to serve as President of the United States of America.
By voting your conscience, you and other brave Republican electors can give the House of Representatives the option to select a qualified candidate for the presidency.
I stand with you.
I stand with you in support and solidarity with conservatives, independents, and liberals.
And all citizens of the United States.
The American people trust that your voice speaks for us all.
And that you, you will make yourself heard through the constitutional responsibility granted to you by Alexander Hamilton himself.
What is evident is that Donald Trump lacks more than the qualifications to be president.
He lacks the necessary stability.
And clearly the respect for the Constitution of our great nation.
You have position.
The authority and the opportunity to go down in the books as an American hero who changed the course of history.
And you have my respect.
You have my respect.
You have my respect.
For your patriotism and service to the American people.
Unite for America.
There it is, 25 now till the top of the hour.
Left-wing Hollywood conspiracy theorists all trying to undermine America's electoral process.
Kind of like Obama tried to do with Bibi Netanyahu by using State Department money and sending his campaign team over there to defeat Bibi.
Austin Goolsby joins us.
He's a professor at Chicago's Booth School of Economics, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors for the Obama administration, which gave us this horrible economy that we now find ourselves in that never reached 3% GDP growth in a year and doubled the national debt.
Austin, how are you?
Oh, I thought you said the one that raised middle-class wages the most in the last 45 years.
Or were you thinking of some other people?
Actually, wages in terms of growth for the median family, median average income is down considerably by thousands of dollars, especially when you factor in Obamacare costing $4,100 more per family and going up this year.
The best year of 45 years.
I'm trying to decide what to get you for Christmas, Sean.
You know, Santa Claus is coming.
Nesting.
You like those?
Are you buying into all this rush?
The Russians did it crap too?
Look, I'm asking.
The Russians interfered, but I'm not buying into this.
Let's go try to.
I don't even like the Electoral College, much less we're going to go convince.
Who chose the electors?
We're going to go try to convince these electors to vote against the College of Committee.
Apparently, Obama wants to do that.
I'm not for that.
Well, I talked to Julian Assange yesterday.
He's the guy.
Now, for 10 years, you know, WikiLeaks has never been proven wrong.
I don't know what your thing is with that guy, Sean.
I'm not a fan of his.
You know what?
Why are you not a fan?
Because I think that his publishing stuff that I believe a lot of which came from powers that are hostile to U.S. interests and not editing it at all.
So he's putting out people's social security numbers, their addresses.
When you say nobody's died because of what he did, A, what kind of standard is that?
But B, how do you know nobody's died?
Let me ask you a question.
What's the difference if, let's say the story of this other guy, WikiLeaks, that broke in the Daily Mail yesterday is true, and outside of American University in a wooded area that these Podesta emails were handed off to WikiLeaks.
Are you telling me that if a series of emails that impacted Donald Trump were handed to the New York Times, which, by the way, published some of Donald Trump's stolen tax information and tax records, are you saying the New York Times wouldn't have run it?
Are you saying the Washington Post wouldn't have run it?
No, I think they probably would have run it.
They would have run it.
So WikiLeaks gets the information.
Wait a minute.
I'm not making a media critique here.
I'm talking about should we be disturbed if the Russians are involved in trying to mess with this election.
All right, let me reverse the question.
We now know, and I talked to John McLaughlin, who was B.B. Netanyahu's pollster, and we know $350,000 went to groups to help in the defeat and some operatives.
It's called One Voice is the name of the group, and that they used all that money, American money, and Obama operatives on the ground were there to defeat B.B. Netanyahu.
So if it's okay for Obama to try and influence the Israeli election.
Wait a second.
What?
I mean, I would think two things about that.
One, I don't know about the facts.
You see, but this is the problem.
I'm supported that those are the facts.
I know Ronald Reagan, when he was the president, the U.S. had an active program.
We were fighting a Cold War against the Russians.
We had an active program to try to influence elections in our favor.
And I understand that.
But think about what you're saying.
You're saying the U.S. does things in its own interest, so therefore shouldn't it be okay for the Russians to do that to us?
No.
We should be pushing back.
Well, then I have a question.
All right, tell me what evidence.
Give me the specific evidence that the Russians are involved here.
I'm not an intelligence officer.
I got classified briefings.
So you don't let me translate for everybody.
Do you want me to see Julian Assange and go get you some emails?
No, but the bottom line is you say something.
But why won't, for example, I know that Congress, which has constitutional oversight authority with separation of powers, so I am trying to understand here if you don't have any evidence and the CIA is not willing to present it to Congress in an oversight committee hearing, which they were asked to do this week, and everybody just keeps repeating our interpretation.
Now, this is what we do know.
We do know that there's no information that we didn't have before the election.
We also know that it's not Vladimir Putin's fault or the Russians' fault that Hillary broke the law and set up a private email server in a mom-and-pop shop bathroom closet.
It's her fault that hang on, let me finish.
We do know there's a 99% likelihood that five separate foreign intelligence agencies hacked into her unsecure email system.
We do know it's a crime to mishandle top secret and special access program information.
Trump won.
I'm not disputing that.
What I think should happen here is they should be concerned in Congress and President Trump should be concerned about interference from the Russians.
They are not our friends.
And I'm not saying that we should get a series of Hollywood stars to go tell the Electoral College to vote against him.
That's not what I'm saying.
I'm saying if other nations that are our rivals are tapping into our national government systems or trying to influence our elections, there should be consequences so they have an incentive not to do that in the future.
They should be investigated by Congress.
Okay, now I have my next question.
I'm going to surprise you.
I'm going to surprise you.
You're right.
Listen, we knew about WikiLeaks 10 years ago.
Now, here's my question.
Okay.
What has Obama done in the last eight years to beef up cybersecurity for the United States of America?
They have done many things.
No, they haven't.
No, they haven't.
And they have, A, they have spent a lot of money on that.
But you're going to say money doesn't equal security.
And I agree with you.
Now, they have taken a series of actions to protect a bunch of government sources, but also tried to strengthen private sector.
Okay.
But wait a minute.
But the president himself dismissed.
He dismissed out of hand the fact that Hillary did not abide by what we now know is the law and that she put top secret special access program information, even though she lied and said she didn't.
We know it's been confirmed.
Wait a minute.
Wait, wait, that's all a fact.
We know she put it on a private server because she wanted to avoid congressional oversight.
Now, you can't have this discussion and not talk about Hillary's culpability and the fact that Obama exonerated her, even though we have five foreign intelligence agencies.
Exonerated her.
Look, what I mean is Obama said she didn't do anything to breach national security, and that's not true.
I know that you have followed all of that story in more detail than I ever will.
So I'm inclined to accept your rendition of those facts.
But I will just observe two things.
Number one, somebody who's the Secretary of State for as long as she was Secretary of State, there are, in fact, truly top-secret business of the United States that take place via email.
And you would have 10, 20, possibly even more thousand emails with nuclear codes and the names of agents and stuff like that.
The fact that we are only arguing on this server about 17 things that were misclassified and that those are top secrets level of secret levels.
Let me educate you.
That shows you she wasn't doing the main secret business of the Secretary of State on that server.
That's just not correct.
Let me help you out here because obviously I know more about this than you do.
You do know that you probably had top security clearance, didn't you?
I did.
Okay.
You do know that there are different classifications, top secret being one of them, right?
Okay.
You've heard of special access program, right?
Yep.
Okay, that's the highest level of intelligence and secrecy we have within our government, correct?
Well, I'm not supposed to talk about it.
Okay, so let's presume that.
Let's just presume that's correct.
Okay.
And we do know that special access program-level intelligence was found on Hillary's computer, and that in spite of her claims that she never sent nor received, marked at the time that in fact she did.
And I have FBI Director Comey admitting all of it if you'd like me to play it.
Let's say they were.
Then your argument is one about you wish that Comey had gone after her more and why didn't he indict her and those things.
Fine.
I understand that argument.
I don't agree with it, but I understand it.
But that's a separate argument from whether we should be disturbed that the Russians are interfering with our elections.
And we should.
You could be as mad as you want at Hillary Clinton.
And you could think that she did something terribly wrong.
And they will be upset and be saying we need to get the Russians out of our business.
And I think President Trump would do well to that would be a bipartisan thing for him to do.
Let me just say this.
And influence.
I'm not enough.
I won, but I don't want other guys coming over here and messing with us.
Listen, I have been saying two of the great things that Julian Assange did for this country.
One, he exposed we don't have cybersecurity.
And if we would have taken it seriously, Obama had eight years to fix it.
He really has done nothing.
Two, he also did us a favor because he exposed just how corrupt, how disgustingly corrupt Hillary is.
Our government is.
The media is the media collusion with her campaign.
And the American people now are hip to and have woken up to the fact that, you know, CNN and MSNBC and CNBC and ABC and NBC and CBS and the New York Times and political.
So he's done, in that sense, he's done us a favor.
And by the way, what he did.
What do you mean it's Christmas time?
It's not Christmas time.
I mean, let's.
Oh, you want me to?
Oh, okay.
Let's be kind.
And that is the first person.
And the Julian Assange of the left finds out all the phone calls that you made or that other people in the media made to Donald Trump and the ways they helped him and blah, blah, blah.
And they try to turn that into a scandal.
As I said, I can't keep you out of prison, but I will come visit you and I'll bake you a cake or some other thing for the holiday.
I like two types of cakes.
I like one golden cake with chocolate icing, but I like a lot of extra icing.
And I like the vanilla cake.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then I like extra icing with the vanilla icing on top.
And by the way, somebody on top of Santa owes me some gifts this year, and that would be you because you lost the election.
I lost your dinner, but I do have one question.
Do you want fries with it, or do you want a happy meal?
No, I'll take the quarter pounder with cheese, french fries, and a Coke.
You know, in spite of the fact when I paid off my debt, not only did I buy you dinner at an expensive steak restaurant, but also expensive wine for you and your wife, who, by the way, I like her more than you.
I was shocked.
I never met a saint in real life until I met her.
We are in the doghouse.
You already are in the doghouse.
Why am I in the doghouse?
My wife, the audience needs to know what you did.
Valentine's Day, he sends my wife roses, gorgeous flowers.
And then that puts me in the position of, well, Sean Hannity said this.
What did you get me for Valentine's Day?
Because I'd never met a saint before.
That was really low.
That was actually really funny, I think, on my part.
And it shows I have a wicked sense of humor.
And I do like your wife.
I mean, she is a sweetheart.
I loved her.
Yeah, she is.
But she's a communist like you are.
It's ridiculous.
No, no, she's not a communist.
She's the most sensible person you'll ever be.
All right.
Good to talk to you, my friend.
God bless you, and Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Holiday season.
All right.
When we come back, a special hour edition, our final hour of the year, unless, of course, big news breaks.
And that is Santa Claus.
We're only going to take calls from, well, kids 12, 13, 13 and under.
All right, that's coming up in the next hour.
It's our yearly tradition.
Here comes Santa Claus.
Here comes Santa Claus right down Santa Claus Lane.
Kixing and blixing, and all his reindeers pulling on the reins.
Bells are ringing, children singing, all is merry and bright.
So hang your stockings and say your prayers, cause Santa Claus comes tonight.
Here comes Santa Claus.
Here comes Santa Claus right down Santa Claus Lane.
He's got a bag that's filled with toys for boys and girls again.
Hear those sleigh bells jingle, jangle.
Oh, what a beautiful sight.
So jump in bed and cover your head, cause Santa Claus comes tonight.
Ah, it's that time of year.
You know, before we get started, and I'm going to have a very special guest from the North Pole here in a second.
I want to thank all of you for what has been one of the most rewarding years in my radio career that I can even think of.
The fact that so many of you were able to filter out an abusively biased, alt-radical left news media and sort through all of the clutter and look at an election in a far more objective way than anybody gave us credit for looking at it and helping to at least create an opportunity to clean up the mess of Obama.
I am forever grateful to all of you and the role that all of you in this audience played in that endeavor.
And I will tell you this: the year we have coming up is going to be one of the most exciting, at times frustrating, at times hard and difficult and challenging, but hopefully the most rewarding as hopefully good things will happen that will provide opportunities for people that have been suffering for far too long because of government failure.
And that's my hope for 2017.
But as we say goodbye to 2016, this is my last show of the year, unless, of course, major news breaks out and Linda calls me back into work, which she always does.
She never gives me a day off.
But as I just wanted to say to all of you, thank you.
Thank you for all your work this year.
Thank you for all of your passion that you've shown this year.
Thank you for the support of both my radio and TV show.
And we have a big fight ahead of us.
Rest up.
Enjoy your time.
Enjoy your families.
Enjoy the downtime, whatever time you might get.
And Merry Christmas to all of you.
God bless all of you.
And happy new year to all of us for 2017.
Hopefully a year of great progress for the country.
But without any further ado, 800-941-Sean is our toll-free telephone number.
And we're not taking calls from anybody over the age of 12 today in this final hour because we have a special guest.
I've known him for many, many years.
He comes to us via the North Pole, and that's Santa Claus himself.
Santa, how are you?
How are you doing, Sean Hannity?
Big time, Santa Claus.
How are you, my friend?
Good to hear.
I'm so grateful you spend time every year and you come back on the program.
How you been?
Oh, just great.
This has been one special year.
Boy, my L's been working really hard.
Boy, they got some good letters this year.
Good letters this year.
Being good.
Yeah.
Well, I'm just can't wait to get out on Christmas Eve.
How's Rudolph and the Reindeers doing?
They doing all right?
Oh, Dasha, Rudolph, and all them.
They just getting a - he's getting his light ready to shine bright so we can get through the snow and get through the mountains and kids' life bright.
Santa, I got your Christmas card this year.
It was very nice of you to send one to me.
I'm not sure if I can interpret that that I'm on the good list for once in my life.
I've been incorrigible most of my life.
But it looks like you're gaining a lot of weight there, Santa.
It looks like, you know, you're...
Oh, Miss Clausen, she really can really fatten me up for the year.
Well, Santa, we have a bunch of little boys and girls that want to talk to you, so we're going to go to our busy telephones here on the Sean Hannity show.
Our special guest for the hour is Santa Claus himself from the North Pole.
Noah is in Cleveland, Ohio.
Noah, hi.
Welcome to the program.
How are you?
And say hi to Santa Claus.
Noah?
Hi.
Hi, Noah.
How are you?
Good.
You want to say hi to Santa?
Mm-hmm.
Okay, say hi to Santa.
How far?
How you doing, Noah?
You've been in this little boy.
What do you want Santa to bring you for Christmas?
He gave Nash costume.
What costume?
A PJ Mask costume.
Oh, a PJ Mask costume.
Oh, the cartoon PJ Mask.
Santa, do you have any of those this year?
Yes, sir.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
You've been a good little boy.
You've been good?
Have you been good all year?
Now, do you have any brothers or sister, Noah?
I only have two brothers.
Yeah, older or younger?
One's older than me.
One's nine, and one's four.
Now, you guys never fight, right?
You never have any disagreements at home, right?
Yeah.
Oh, you do?
But not too bad, right?
Yeah.
Not too bad.
Santa, is he on the good list this year?
Oh, he's on the good list.
He's on the, but you got to stop the fighting.
You got to love each other, Noah.
Got to love each other.
Okay.
All right, Noah.
We'll get that PJ mask to you, and I hope you have a Merry Christmas.
All right, Noah?
Thank you.
Okay.
Hi.
Bradley is in Pennsylvania.
Bradley's seven years old.
Bradley, welcome to the show.
Say hi to Santa Claus.
Hi.
Hi, Santa.
Oh, how you doing, Bradley?
Good.
What do you want Santa to bring you, Bradley?
A blue tablet.
A blue tablet?
What is a blue tablet?
It's kind of like an iPad.
It has games on it, and you can buy stuff.
Yeah, okay.
Being a good little boy?
Yes.
Do you have any brothers or sisters?
You're doing your schoolwork?
Yes.
You have any brothers or sisters?
I have two.
And you never fight with them, right?
Sometimes.
Santa, you know.
Oh, we can't have it fighting now.
We got to be good little kids.
We can't have fighting.
All right.
But he's on the good list, right, Santa?
He's on the good list.
All right, Bradley.
You made the good list.
All right.
We got it down.
A tablet for you, okay?
Okay.
All right.
A sunglass emoji pillow.
What's that?
Say it again.
Oh.
Sunglass emoji pillow.
Emoji pillows.
Santa, do you have those?
We have them.
Yes, we do.
It's very sunglassing.
You know, like two dollars of Lego sets.
Oh, yes, we have them too.
Lego sets.
Santa, you don't remember this.
You gave me Legos years ago when I was a little boy.
And I'm not a little boy anymore.
Yeah, I remember that.
All right, Bradley.
Merry Christmas to you, buddy.
Thank you.
Merry Christmas.
All right, we're going to go to six-year-old.
Six-year-old Tiara is in North Dakota, Santa.
Tiara, how are you, honey?
And welcome to the show.
And say hi to Santa Claus.
Hi.
Oh, hi, Tiara.
How you doing?
Good.
You been a good little girl?
Yeah.
Oh, you don't fight or nothing, which is you got any brothers and sisters?
I have two brothers.
One's younger, one's older.
Y'all don't do no fighting, do you?
A little bit.
Oh, you gotta be good.
Santa likes them real nice.
We don't like to fight.
You got to love each other.
All right?
You been doing good at school?
Yes.
Good job.
Good job.
Well, you on Santa's good list then.
Wow, that's really good.
Congratulations, Tiara.
Congratulations.
So you're on Santa's good list, okay?
You ready for Christmas?
Yeah.
All right, I wouldn't leave too many cookies.
Only one cookie for Santa, but I don't think you should leave many more cookies.
Santa's had plenty of cookies all year.
All right, Tiara, Merry Christmas to you.
Merry Christmas.
All right.
God bless you, sweetheart.
God bless you.
All right.
Haley is in Freehold, New Jersey.
Hale, you're on with Santa Claus.
Hallie, say hi to Santa Claus.
Hi, Santa Claus.
Hi, Tara.
How you doing?
Okay.
Good, you've been a good looker.
Yeah.
Awesome.
You go to school?
Not yet.
Oh, well, you on Santa's good list for sure.
And what would you like Santa to bring you?
I would like a Barbie team house and two toys and a Barbie mermaid.
Did you get that?
Get that?
A Barbie dream home and a Barbie pool and an elevator?
And you want that too?
Yes.
All right.
Oh, we have it for you.
We have it for you, Tiara.
You've been good all year?
Yeah.
Awesome.
You just made Santa's good list.
Awesome.
We love you.
Love you.
All right, Hallie.
God bless you.
Merry Christmas.
Bye-bye.
Oh, she loves you, Santa.
That's so awesome.
Santa, I don't remember saying I don't.
Now, Santa, how come you put coal in my stocking every year when I was little?
Why did you do that?
Well, you know, sometimes, Sean, you got to be naughty or nice, and we got to make sure.
And you know how you was.
Yeah, but you know what, Santa, you know what the worst part is?
I really haven't changed.
I gotten a lot of liberals in the country hate me this year, Santa.
What should I do about it?
They really despise me.
Well, just forget them because we did great this year, and Santa is happy, and I just can't wait.
You mean this will be the first year I don't get coal in my stocking the first time ever?
You got it.
You got it.
You've been a great, great, great young man.
Oh, I appreciate it.
All right, we're going to go to our busy phones.
This time, Santa, we're going to go to the important swing state of Pennsylvania where Arwen is standing by in Strouseburg, Pennsylvania.
Arwen, and apparently, I guess there are others on the line, too.
Oh, then we're going to talk to our sisters and brothers.
Arwen, say hi to Santa Claus, and we're glad you called.
Hi.
Hi, Arwen.
How you doing?
You been good?
Oh, what you want Santa to bring you?
I want an ever-after high doll.
You got that, Santa?
Do you have ever after high?
Is that what you want, Arwen?
Yep.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Anything else you want, honey?
A Lego set.
Everyone wants Legos.
Oh, the Lego sets is great this year, Sean.
Oh, that's great.
You've been good in school?
Yep.
You got good grades, Arwen?
Yeah.
What are your grades?
Mostly A's?
Yep.
Good for you.
Now, you have how many sisters?
Five.
Wow, five sisters.
Wow.
Wow.
Santa's going to be busy.
Yeah, he's going to be really busy.
Yeah.
Do your sisters and you ever fight, Arwen?
Sometimes.
Yeah, sometimes.
Santa, but that's normal, right, Santa?
That's normal, but we need for you to be good.
All right.
You've got to be good.
You've got to love each other, okay, Arwen?
Okay.
Arwen, now you're going to put one of your sisters on now, right?
Yeah.
All right.
We're going to hear Arwen's sisters.
Laurel is standing by, Santa, and we're going to talk to her.
And I know you know everybody, and you've gone over your list and you've checked it twice.
Laurel, are you there?
Oh, yeah.
Hey, Laurel.
Say hi to Santa Claus.
Hi, Santa.
Hi, Laura.
How are you doing?
Good.
Been good, little girl.
Yeah.
Oh, you made Santa's good list then.
What would you like Santa to bring you for Christmas?
I would like Disney stackable zooms.
All right.
What else do you want Santa to bring you?
By the way, Santa, Laurel, what are Disney stackable Zoom Zooms?
What is that?
They're like little stuffed animals that you can stack on top of each other.
Oh, and like you build like a pyramid of little stuffed animals or something?
Yeah.
Yeah, that sounds fun.
Sort of like Donald Trump.
You're building your own little buildings.
Maybe you'll be president one day.
What do you think, Santa?
Can you get those for her?
Yes, sir.
My little elves are hard at work.
Yes, we are.
We're ready to rock and roll.
Now, Laurel, you don't ever fight with your sisters, right?
Sometimes.
Yeah, but that's normal, Santa.
We heard that from all the kids.
They're all being honest.
Santa, when you ask me, I never ever did that.
But I'll tell you what, Laurel, stay on the phone there, hun.
And Santa Claus, you want to say goodbye to Laurel?
Then we're going to come back.
We've got to take a break, and then we're going to talk to Laurel's sister, Belly, okay?
Okay.
Right.
All right.
Okay, Laurel, you be good now and be ready.
And always love each other.
All righty.
All right, we're going to take a break.
And by the way, this reminds me, Linda, you remember when my kids were younger and I'd say to Patrick and Mary Kelly, they'd come on the air and I go, how was school?
Good.
Who'd you talk to?
Nobody.
What did you learn?
Nothing.
Well, that's only because they were talking to you, but when you talk to Santa, everybody has something to say.
Yeah, I think so.
All right, we'll take a break.
It's our special final hour edition of the Sean Hannity Show.
The full hour with Santa Claus from the North Pole.
Hannity tonight, 10 Eastern Fox News.
Yes, the left has gone insane.
Now conspiracy rules.
The Russians did it.
The Russians did it.
Now we got tape of Hillary.
It's actually humorous if it wasn't so nutty.
Quick break, right back.
We'll continue.
To the Lord above, cause Santa Claus comes tonight.
You better watch out.
You better not cry.
You better not pout.
I'll tell you why.
Santa Claus is coming to town.
He's making a list and checking it twice.
He's going to find out who's gnawing nice.
Santa Claus is coming to town.
He sees you when you're sleeping.
He knows when you're awake.
He knows if you've been bad or good.
So good for goodness sake.
Oh, you better watch out.
You better not cry.
You better not pile.
I'm telling you why.
Santa Claus is coming to time.
All right, 25 now till the top of the hour.
Hannity tonight, 10 Eastern on the Fox News channel.
And Santa Claus joins us from the North Pole.
And we're taking calls from kids that are 12 and under for the final half hour of the show for the year.
I want to again thank everybody for what a wonderful Christmas this has been.
And in terms of what a wonderful year it's been, I think for the country and all your hard work and contributions paid off.
Just get ready.
And I think Santa would confirm this.
They're going to do everything they can do, including make up Roswell New Mexico-style conspiracies that the Russians did it.
Santa, all right, we're going to go back to Arwen and Laurel's sister.
And her name is Belly, and Belly's eight years old.
Belly, hi, how are you?
Say hi to Santa.
Say hi to Santa Claus.
Hi.
Hi, Belly.
How are you doing?
Good.
How are you?
Oh, well, you've been a good little girl.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, how you doing in school?
Good.
Good.
No fighting or nothing, right?
Yeah.
Uh-oh, you've done some fighting?
Well, you just kind of have little disagreements with your sisters, right, Belly?
Everybody does that.
Yeah.
But mostly you've been a good girl, I bet, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
You want to tell Santa what you want for Christmas?
Mm-hmm.
All right, what do you want, honey?
A pooping-out cupcakes, troll.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
A what?
A poopy what?
A pooping-out cupcakes troll.
A pooping-out cupcakes, troll?
Yeah.
So the troll actually poops cupcakes like real poop?
No.
What is a troll that poops cupcakes?
What does that mean?
It's from the movie trolls.
Wait a minute.
You got to explain this.
So you want a troll that poops cupcakes.
Do I have that right?
Yeah.
And tell me, what does the troll actually do?
I don't really know what a troll actually is.
You mean, but the name of the toy is a troll that poops cupcakes.
I don't know what the name.
Oh, so but you've seen it, so you know it's a troll that poops cupcakes.
Mm-hmm.
Now, are these real cupcakes or fake cupcakes?
Fake cupcakes.
Well, actually, I think his name is Cooper.
Cooper.
Now, all right, so Belly, you got to help us out here.
Explain what does it mean when the troll poops a cupcake?
does that mean?
You got to explain it.
So, it's from the movie Troll.
It's a cup.
A pooping out cupcakes troll.
Yeah.
And so actually, like, it's sort of like poops, like, like, people poop.
Yeah, but.
Yeah, but hey, Santa, I haven't kept up with the latest inventions.
You know, the closest thing we had to this when we were kids, my sister had a girl doll that went pee.
I don't know.
I don't know about the pooping part.
Well, we had some that be on it.
Oh, my gosh.
My aunts know what she's talking about.
Oh, all right.
So, Belly, they know what you want.
So, is she going to get that, Santa?
The troll pooping cupcake troll?
You got it, Belly.
Wow.
And to think that some kids like may want an iPhone or a computer.
Why would you get that when you can get a troll that poops cupcakes?
All right.
Belly, you're cracking me up.
My belly's hurting.
Yeah, my belly's hurting too.
Hey, Belly, you made us all laugh very hard.
You sound like such a great girl.
God bless you, sweetheart, okay?
You too.
All right, now we have one more member of Arwen's family, and that's Anya.
We'll put Nanya on the phone.
Anya, are you there?
Hi, Anya.
Hi.
How are you?
Say hi to Santa.
Hi.
Hi, Anya.
How you doing?
Good.
What do you want for Christmas, Anya?
I want a Spectra doll.
Spectra doll.
What's a Spectra doll, Anya?
What is that?
He's from Monster.
Hi.
He's a ghost.
You want a ghost?
The ghost is scary.
Santa, is that...
He's not a scary little young lady, Sean.
She's not scary.
Wow.
Well, you've been a good little girl?
Yes.
You could tell by the sound of her voice, Santa.
Santa's good list.
Oh, that's great.
You made Santa's good list.
How does that make you feel, Anye?
Okay.
Yeah.
All right.
You want to say goodbye to Santa?
Yes.
All right.
Say goodbye to Santa.
Hi.
All right, Anye.
All righty.
Have a Merry Christmas.
All right.
You know, I have some politicians, Santa, that give me short answers, too.
When my kids were little, remember you used to talk to them and they'd say, hi, Santa.
They'd say, hi.
How are you?
Good.
How school?
Fine.
Who'd you talk to?
Nobody.
What'd you learn?
Nothing.
I mean, that's how my conversations on air with my kids went.
But I never heard of a troll that poops cupcake, Santa.
I mean, this is modern technology, I guess, coming through loud and clear.
Oh, it's a new deal.
It's new.
All right.
Let's know all about it.
We're going to go to the great state of Florida, Santa, another swing state, and say hi to Paulie.
Pauli is 13.
He wants to say hi to Santa.
Paulie, say hi to Santa.
Hi, Santa.
Hi, Paulie.
How are you doing?
I'm doing good.
How are you doing?
What'd you say, Paulie?
Say it again.
I said, I'm doing good.
How are you guys doing?
I'm good.
We're doing fine.
We're doing fine.
All my L's working hard and waiting for us that beautiful day to come to come and visit you.
Yeah.
Now, what do you want for Christmas?
Santa to bring you.
I want a gold chain with a St. Jude medallion and ray-bands that are justin' black.
And my third gift that I wanted already came true.
And that was when Donald Trump became our president.
You wanted Donald Trump to be your president?
Is that what you said?
Well, you've already got that, Paulie.
Yeah, so now I only have two things left on my Christmas list.
What else?
So, what are the two things again?
A gold St. Jude medallion chain and ray-bands that are justin' black.
Wow, Justin Black.
Can you pull that off, Santa?
Can you do that for our friend Pauli?
Oh, yeah, we can pull that off.
If we can pull in the new one in the White House, we can pull that off.
Yeah, I think you're right.
Now, Paulie, is he on the good list, Santa?
He's on the good list.
All right, Paulie, you made it.
All right, Paulie, Merry Christmas.
Say goodbye to Santa.
Hi, Santa.
Now, we're going to say hi to Paulie's brother.
Paulie, Merry Christmas.
We're going to say hi to Joey.
Joey is Paulie's brother.
How are you, Joey?
Welcome to the program.
I'm good.
Say hi to Santa.
Hi, Santa.
Hi, Joey.
How are you doing, son?
I'm doing good.
You've been a good little boy?
Yes.
All right.
What do you want Santa to bring you?
I want a gold chain with a yellow gold cross, and I want a pair of shoes.
Oh, gold chains is looking good this year, Sean.
Yeah.
Well, you've been to, how are you doing in school?
Good.
A's and B's.
Oh, good job.
You just made Santa's good list.
Santa loves that when they make them A's.
I prefer like a lot of A's, too.
I love them A's.
My sister gets three D's.
Wow.
Oh, yeah.
All right.
So you all set for Christmas?
Now, Santa, he's on your good list, right?
He's on the good list.
And Mr. Hannity, my mom watches your show every night, and she loves you.
And she loves Trump.
Oh, that's awesome.
Tell your mom I said thank you, okay, Joey.
And your show is on every night at 10 o'clock.
Oh, I really appreciate it.
I hope you're up watching it every night.
You'll learn more from my show than you'd ever learn from school, in my opinion.
That's the most I've learned about Trump ever.
Oh, that's awesome.
Well, good for you.
I'm proud of you.
Santa, I think you need to bring extra presents for Joey because he's a nice, conservative young man, okay?
You never know.
He's going to slip something different up under that tree.
All right, now we've got to talk to Joey's sister, Bella.
Bella, all right.
Thank you, Joey.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Bella.
Hey, Bella, say hi to Santa Claus.
Hi, Santa.
Hi, Bella.
How you doing, love?
You've been a good little girl?
Yes.
Oh, how you doing in school?
Good.
Good, good.
You made Santa's good list.
And all righty.
What do you want Santa to bring you for Christmas?
A lot of sports stuff and a mini basketball hoop.
You got that, Santa?
Oh, yeah.
We got a sports lady there.
Sports lady.
And what and red kitties does she?
All righty.
You got that, Santa?
We got it.
Okay.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you so much, Bella.
God bless you.
Okay.
Merry Christmas.
All right.
Let's get back to our phones here.
How much time do we have here, Linda?
Do we have enough time to take one more call?
Okay, let's go to Donald is in Louisiana, Santa, and Donald's five years old.
Donald, say hi to Santa Claus.
Hi, Santa.
Hi, Santa.
You carry.
Yeah.
How are you doing, Mike?
Hi, Donna.
Hi, hi, Donald.
Got my gosh.
Oh, my goodness.
That's my good.
Hey, Santa, we want Power Rangers for Christmas.
You want Power Rangers for Christmas?
Santa, can you do that?
All righty.
You can do that.
Of course, hi.
Say thank you, Santa Claus.
Thank you, James.
Oh, that's really nice.
Oh, Merry Christmas.
And you bet.
Wait, you've been a good little boy?
Kind of.
Yeah, he's been.
Santa, he's on your good list, right?
Oh, he's on the good list.
Oh, he's on the good list.
All right.
Well, we got to move on.
Thank you, Donald.
We appreciate it.
Let's go to Callan is in the great state of Georgia.
Callan is a four-year-old little girl.
Callan, how are you?
Say hi to Santa.
Hi, Santa.
Hi, Callan.
How are you doing?
How are you doing?
I bought a dollar dress for Christmas, please.
And I want to use that to deliver the New York.
Oh, yeah.
Wow.
Hey, Callan, I got a question for you.
Do you want Santa to bring you like a pink wig?
Ask your mom.
You want your hair to me, Dan.
Nah.
And the white stripe.
Purple with a white stripe.
Purple with a white stripe.
And by the way, what's your favorite music?
Who's your favorite music band?
Alice Cooper.
Alice Cooper.
What's your favorite song?
What's your favorite song by Alice Cooper?
Black Widow and Black Widow?
And then mine and white.
Wow.
She's been here before, Sean.
Whoa.
Hey, mommy, As Cooper.
What does mommy want?
I want to meet As Cooper, please.
Oh, you want to meet Alice Cooper?
I don't know.
Alice Cooper looks a little scary to me, Santa.
I don't know.
What do you think?
What can I say?
Oh, my kids.
Wow.
Yeah, exactly.
All right.
Well, good to Merry Christmas to both of you.
Callan, nice to talk to you, sweetheart.
God bless you, and God bless your mom, okay?
And we appreciate you being with us.
Say bye to Santa.
Bye, Santa.
All right, Kellen.
Be good, Merry Christmas.
All right, I think we have time for one more call, and that's going to be a little boy also from the great state of Georgia, Santa.
His name is Trace.
He's three years old.
Trace, Merry Christmas.
Say hi to Santa Claus.
Hi.
Hi, Trace.
How you been doing?
Hi, Hot Wheels.
Oh, he's a little bit of a child.
Oh, Hot Wheels.
You want Hot Wheels?
What else do you want, Trace?
A bicycle.
A bicycle?
What kind of bicycle?
Um, Hot Wheels bicycle.
Oh, you want a Hot Wheels bicycle, boy?
Oh, yeah.
What do you think, Santa?
Can you pull that off?
Oh, I think we can pull that off.
You've been a good little boy?
Oh, good, good.
You're on Santa's good list then.
All righty.
Hey, make sure you be a good little boy and do what mom and daddy tell you to do, okay?
All right, guys.
Thank you so much for being with us.
Santa Claus, it's been another amazing year.
Thank you so much for being with us and taking the time.
I know you got a lot of work to do before Christmas.
And to all the little boys and girls out there, Merry Christmas, Santa.
Oh, big time.
Sean?
What am I getting for Christmas, Santa?
I already got it.
Trump won.
Big time.
You got a great Christmas gift.
And John, this year, you're definitely going to have a better year this year.
So Santa is going to make sure everybody love one another.
Everybody stop fighting each other.
And oh, boy, Santa got a busy year this year because we have so many great kids.
Santa has really got his work cut out for him, Sean.
And I just want to wish the world and everybody in America Merry Christmas.
All right, Santa Claus.
You want smart political talk without the meltdowns?
We got you.
I'm Carol Markowitz.
And I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
We've been around the block in media and we're doing things differently.
Normally is about real conversations.
Thoughtful, try to be funny, grounded, and no panic.
We'll keep you informed and entertained without ruining your day.
Join us every Tuesday and Thursday, normally, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
