Sean covers the latest news from the tragedy in Ft. Lauderdale where a gunman attacked people at the Ft. Lauderdale Airport. Sean talks to experts about the details of the attack and just how a gun could be carried into a secure location like an airport. 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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I hate starting a Friday afternoon like this.
We've got horrible news to report at the top of the hour today.
Five people at least are dead.
Shooting suspect is in custody after a lone gunman opened fire at the Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport in Florida without saying a word, according to witnesses.
Now, the TSA said there was another active shooter at the airport.
All the terminals and all flights in and out have been closed.
Now, the update is they suspect an active shooter is still in, I guess, one of the hangars at the it keeps changing by the minute here.
I'm just trying to give you the most accurate information.
The suspect in the first shooting was identified as Esteban Santiago.
Florida Senator Bill Nelson telling reporters he said that Santiago was carrying a military ID, but didn't elaborate.
Eight people rushed to the hospitals.
The Broward County Sheriff said, The city's mayor said that there was only one shooter involved in the first incident.
You know, it seems very unlikely that it's not related in some way, just thinking off the top of my head, but time will tell.
And anyway, one witness said John Schleischer told Fox News it's unreal.
What he saw was so real.
He didn't say a word.
He described the shooter as a slender man with dark hair, likely in his 30s, wearing a Star Wars t-shirt.
I guess we're going to have to ban Star Wars at some point.
Somebody will make that stupid argument down the line.
Anyway, Shep Smith, my colleague at Fox News, said that they heard the crews ordering passengers to take cover, and everyone was ducking down in and around the area.
He was shooting people that were down on the ground too, he said.
The gunman apparently got down on the ground, waited for police to arrive after he ran out of bullets, according to one witness telling CBS News.
We had my friend Ari Fleischer.
He says, I'm at the Fort Lauderdale airport.
Shots have been fired.
Everyone's running.
Have we tried Ari Fleischer?
Let's see if we can get him on the phone.
He's a friend of mine.
Thank God he's safe.
You know, the sad thing about all of this, whenever we report these incidents, and I don't know what it's going to come down to.
I don't know if by the time I get on TV tonight, it's radical Islamic terror.
You have to think that way.
And in this day and age, not to is just beyond stupid.
But whatever it ends up being, whatever the sick, twisted, ugly, evil motivation is, it doesn't matter for the families now whose lives have been forever changed.
Because five families at least are going to find out today that they're no longer going to see their loved ones.
And that never goes away for those people.
You think the victims of 9-11 and the families of victims of 9-11, you think in any way, shape, matter or for gone in their lives?
It doesn't happen.
Anyway, video posted on Instagram appeared to show the several people wounded in the baggage claim area of one of the terminals.
One person appeared to be lying in a pool of blood on the floor.
President-elect Trump tweeted out, monitoring this terrible situation in Florida, just spoke to Governor Scott.
Thoughts and prayers for all.
Please stay safe.
Ari Fleischer, as I said, was at the airport at the time.
He said everybody's running.
If you can check in with Ari for us, see how he's doing.
Jillian Saunders from Palm Beach told the AP in a direct Twitter message that she was watching the activity from the tarmac in a plane that was scheduled to take off for Los Angeles.
Everyone you see on the news, everything that you're seeing in the news is happening right outside my window.
I'm luckily on the plane, and they said we're right now the safest place at the airport.
Now, Governor Rick Scott's office said that state law enforcement have not confirmed the motive behind the shooting.
Scott is traveling to the scene to be briefed by law enforcement.
I will say this, Governor Scott has been really good in times of trouble and turmoil down in Florida.
He's done a great job.
Not that it's pleasant for anybody.
ATF was responding to the scene.
Homeland Security Secretary Jay Johnson was monitoring the shooting, getting regular updates, part of a standard practice.
And I can only say this is the 21st busiest airport in the U.S.
I was in the Fort Lauderdale area over the holidays for a short time.
And just great people in Florida.
Just sad.
The impact.
And then you got the other eight people that are wounded.
Maybe more now.
Anyway, Senator Nelson saying the shooter was carrying a military ID.
Not sure what that means.
I don't know what to extrapolate for it.
I'll only be giving a guess.
You know, one of the things that we have not done for military people, this is separate and apart.
I want to be very clear about this from the shooting, but there are over 250,000 military men and women just from the Iraqi-Afghanistan wars that have PTSD.
250,000.
And I can tell you that on a number of occasions, people have contacted me that I know that either friends or relatives or people that they know are in such deep turmoil and mental anguish that they're threatening to either harm themselves or others.
And I participated, for example, I went out to Wyoming and Rivers of a Recovery is one great group that works.
You know, it's basically soldiers helping other soldiers because these guys are really suffering.
They did way too many tours of duty.
They were under too much stress in combat.
You know, anybody could be broken under those circumstances living like that day and night.
It's not a human weakness.
And we really overwork these guys.
Anyway, the long and short of it, there have been many instances where I would reach out to one of my best friends in the world, Colonel Oliver North, who I just love.
And I can tell you that on numerous occasions, I said, Colonel, I said, I need you to do me a favor.
And he's like, what?
This person has PTSD and he's going to kill himself.
Or, Colonel, this person is threatening his family.
He's going insane in his house.
And he desperately needs help.
And Colonel North, God bless him, I know for a fact he spends hours and hours on the phone with these guys and then follows up and makes sure that they get the help that they need.
Well, it shouldn't take an act of God and everybody and get to that point to get the assistance that people obviously needed earlier.
And that goes to the heart of the entire VA scandal in this country.
Now, I'm not saying in any way that we know anything about this shooter.
I'm just saying, generally speaking, there are a lot of sick guys out there because we overwork them.
We put them in situations that no human being should have to endure.
You can't go on seven tours of duty.
You can't.
The human mind is not made for that type of stress.
And that's 24 hours a day.
That's a year at a time, deployment.
And some of these guys spent that much time in the most stressful situations imaginable.
And, you know, I remember that I had an uncle, Cornelius, who fought in World War II.
And it was the weirdest thing.
If during the night a plane flew overhead, he in his sleep would roll off the bed, under the bed, and not even wake up because of the stress of combat and warfare.
And that's why it's such a national disgrace that we have abandoned all of these men and women that were asked to do so much for us.
That's why I'm so angry that we committed all these men and women to win Ramadi and Mosul and Palusha and to Crete and Baghdad.
We send them in there.
They do their job.
They win the war.
And then we just hand it over to ISIS because the war became politicized.
What do you say to the parents of 5,000 Americans that fought, bled, and died for us?
What do you say to them?
What is the reason they did that if we didn't retain the victory that they achieved?
And it's the same thing with Vietnam: 58,000 Americans killed there.
And I'm not even talking about the hundreds of thousands injured, lost their arms, their limbs, their legs, had their faces blown off.
You know, I love this guy, Homes for Heroes.
What's his name?
I can't off the top of my head.
You know, all these guys, you know, double amputees, triple amputees.
And Homes for Heroes, they go out and they build homes specially designed and suited for these men and women that our government has forgotten.
You know, I'm not saying it's great, the American people, the generosity is spectacular.
The scholarship fund that I know Ollie North set up for the Freedom Alliance, you know, those kids are now coming of age.
I get updates from him all the time.
The money we raised in those Freedom concerts is all going to these kids now coming of age and getting ready to go to college.
That money was set aside specifically for the children of heroes lost or permanently injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I remember doing those concerts, Colonel North, every time he'd take to the mic, he'd cry at every concert because he spent so much time at Walter Reed and Bethesda.
I remember him taking me over there the first time.
It breaks your heart.
Remember the case we followed of that one young man and they were trying so hard to save this kid's leg and they literally had bolts inside his legs.
Like you could see it go right through the skin right to the bone.
And the idea was you'd separate the bone in the hope that the bone would actually grow back in.
You know how much pain these guys are in?
And they can't even take pain pills at some point because otherwise then they're going to become addicted to oxycontin or morphine.
It becomes such a dilemma for them.
So hard.
You know, the blessings of freedom that so many have fought for.
It's unbelievable.
And you know what?
It makes me even more incredulous because then to hear, like, we have cyber experts coming up on the program later today, you know, and I'm watching everybody, you know, all the hacking that took place.
The reason the John Podesta hacking is because he's an idiot.
If you have an email that you don't recognize with a link to it, don't click on the link.
If you see that there is a program that you support, don't open the program.
I mean, this is basic stuff.
You know, how many times have I discussed one of the things WikiLeaks from 10 years ago has shown us we don't have cybersecurity?
The first time I interviewed Julian Assange, he told me, oh, yeah, I was 16, I was able to break into NASA and the Department of Defense.
Since Obama's been president, hackers have attacked the U.S. electric grid, electrical grid, the Pentagon's Joint Strike Fighter Project.
They've hacked into NASA, the Department of Energy, the Federal Election Commission Networks, the U.S. Postal Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Oh, and yes, since Obama's been president, they've hacked into the White House.
They've hacked into the State Department.
They've hacked into the Department of Defense, the IRS.
23 million people, China hacked into the Office of Personnel Management.
And what have these people done?
Nothing.
They haven't fixed anything.
And with all their phony sanctimony and selective moral outrage because John Podesta, John Podesta fell for a phishing scam because he's an idiot.
And all these other instances were ignored.
And everyone's twisting themselves into pretzels.
Well, Vladimir.
Of course you don't trust the Russians.
I don't trust Vladimir Putin.
I don't trust the Chinese.
I don't trust the North Koreans.
I certainly wouldn't make a deal like Obama did with the Iranians.
This is simple, basic stuff.
You know, I've talked to so many security, cybersecurity guys in my life, and that's why it's so important I bring them on the program so you know what to do.
You can be 99.9% secure if you just don't click on a link that you don't recognize.
If you just don't open a file that you don't recognize.
You know, get an iPhone.
iPhone is far better encrypted than any other phone out there.
Doesn't mean you're not going to have people attempt it, but you know, it's just do the best you can.
And if they can encrypt the iPhone, you know, there's not even basic encryption at all of these different departments that I have mentioned to you.
It's unbelievable.
By the way, we have an update today.
Jonathan Carl, good for him, actually asked the Obama White House, hey, weren't you guys freaking out?
And why didn't they say one word when China hacked 23 million files at the Office of Personnel Management?
23 million.
In a New York Times article, Donald Trump said, China recently hacked over 20 million government names, referring to the Office of Personnel Management in 2014 and 15.
How come the president never mentioned this?
He said.
He said this is a political witch hunt, and he's right.
They're embarrassed that he won, he said, and he's right.
And that's why it's become, that's why they're focused on that.
And then we learn from the FBI today, which is a great story.
I saw this on the Daily Caller.
You know, they claim the DNC inhibited their investigation of stolen emails.
They wouldn't even cooperate.
And now they're whining about it.
Well, the Republicans cooperated.
And by the way, James Clapper's all mad that Donald Trump questioned the intelligence agencies.
Well, you know, James Clapper did point out that his fingerprints were all over the bogus Iraq WMD report.
Sometimes, and I love the intelligence people, but our intelligence officials aren't out there screaming, ranting, and raving as they should that we need cybersecurity.
It's ridiculous that we're this far along.
10 years of hacking has taken place and they haven't done a damn thing.
That ought to anger everybody.
Well, Hannah, you interviewed Julian Assange.
He releases hacked information.
He's telling us it's wide open.
If we'd learned from it, he wouldn't have anything left to print.
I mean, it's not his fault they're so stupid because they really are.
At this point, I blame all of them because they've been there forever.
And all the, when you hack the White House, the DOD, and the State Department, and you do nothing to fix it, at that point it becomes their problem.
That means you're just stupid.
Typical government.
All right, an update on the shooting in the Fort Lauderdale Airport, Hollywood area.
Scott Israel is the local sheriff, and he's holding a presser.
Let's carry her from the beginning here.
The active shooter shot at least 13 people.
Eight people, as I know right now, are in area hospitals being treated.
I don't know the degree of their injuries.
Five people have succumbed to their wounds and tragically are dead.
We are not releasing any information on any of the victims until we identify them, which is going to take some time.
And we are able to respectfully notify the next akin first.
The investigation continues.
We have area SWAT teams and the Broward Sheriff's Office SWAT team clearing the entire airport.
There'll be no movement in or about the airport until our SWAT teams give me real-time information that it's safe.
Right now, we're taking, this scene is considered fluid and active.
We won't be, well, we have one of the more critical pieces of information is we have the shooter in custody.
He's unharmed.
No law enforcement fired any shots.
The subject is being interviewed by a team of FBI agents and Broward Sheriff's Office homicide detectives.
There's been incredible cohesiveness and cooperation between the Broward Sheriff's Office, the FBI, FDLE, and all the local law enforcement entities.
We'll answer your questions at the end.
We'll answer your questions at the end.
At this point, I'm going to put the director of the airport on to tell you about what's going on at the airport.
Then you'll be hearing from the SAC, Mr. Piro.
Then I'll come back to answer questions.
Thank you, Sheriff.
As the Sheriff said, my name is Mark Gale.
I'm the airport director here at the Fort Lauderdale International Airport.
When the incident occurred, we responded.
Many of you know that we've suspended operations at the airport for the time being.
We're working together with all the law enforcement to address all the needs and concerns of the passengers that are inside the building and on airplanes right now.
They are all sheltered in place.
We're not sure exactly when the airport will reopen for operations.
We're going to work together with all the law enforcement that's here, our airlines and all the other agencies before we actually move to reopen up the airport.
But in the meantime, as the sheriff has indicated, we're just going to go step by step, methodically through the building before we take any steps to reopen operations.
We'll keep everybody informed as best we can through social media and our airport website as to when that may occur.
And we'll also be setting up a hotline for families or friends that may be looking for folks that they haven't been able to reach in contact with.
And we'll also publish that in the relatively near future, again, on our hop site and out through the website and through social media.
That's all I have for now.
Good afternoon.
My name is George Pierre.
I'm the special agent in charge of the FBI's Miami Field Office.
As the sheriff mentioned, the FBI is working very closely with the Broward Sheriff's Office, supporting their ongoing efforts here at the airport.
We're working jointly doing all of the witness interviews as well as the suspect interview.
The investigation is very early.
We have a lot of preliminary information that we are going through.
But at this point, our role is to actively support the Broward Sheriff's Office until we make a determination on the nature and the motive of this in the city.
Thank you.
We've heard about a shooting in Terminal 1.
What can you tell us about that, Mr. Firm?
At this time, there's been no shooting at any place else but at the downstairs of Terminal 2.
There's no confirmation of any shooting.
As a matter of fact, at this point, as I speak, the only gunshots fired at any time during this horrific incident have been downstairs in Terminal 2.
What happened at Terminal 1 when their home was evacuated?
So there heard shots upstairs.
It seems like somebody got injured evacuating.
It has nothing to do with any type of gunshot or anything like that.
Like what happened?
He heard shots after the initial home shooter at the other terminal.
He heard shots directly behind him inside the parking lot.
We have no confirmation of that.
We have law enforcement personnel, both federal, state, and local, throughout the airport.
No law enforcement in this time has confirmed that there's been any gunshots other than what's fired in Terminal 2.
We also saw someone being arrested.
Is there another person possibly involved?
Not in the shooting aspect of it.
We're reviewing tapes.
If someone was arrested, it might be for a plethora of things.
But to my knowledge, no one was taken into custody.
People could have been secured in handcuffs until we found out who they were, what they were, and how they were related or not related to this scenario.
So I don't know if they were physically arrested or not, but there's been no happened around the baggage area.
Any information?
One suspect only in custody.
We're not releasing any information on that suspect, yes, sir.
Are you able to say what kind of weapon was used in the shooting at Terminal 2?
No.
Was there been an automatic?
Was it a semi-automatic?
We're not going to comment on it.
Was there a struggle while apprehending him?
No, when we apprehended him, the subject was arrested without incident.
Any motive?
I don't know.
Does it appear that the shooter was waiting for somebody to arrive and go to baggage and then ambush them?
We're at the very beginning of the investigative stages.
That's what this is all about.
That's why at this point, the lead on the investigation is with the Broward Sheriff's Office.
If we do uncover at some time that this was related to any type of terrorist or terrorist activities, then the FBI will have complete incident command of this and we'll be assisting the FBI as we move forward with the investigation.
Also, I want to say this is not the time for anybody to pull 911 on this incident.
We're all over here.
If you have a real emergency, of course, but if it has lobby, please keep the 911 lines open.
And if you need information, you can follow us on Twitter at Sheriff BS.
At Broward Sheriff.
Twitter at Broward Sheriff.
Sir, have you been able to identify any vehicle at the airport that might belong to the shooters?
Not at this time, not to my knowledge.
So at this point, there doesn't appear to be a terrorism indication at all or too early?
No, it's too early to say either way on that.
That's what's going on right now.
The baggage area, where they were coming from, what were those people coming from?
So where were they going to know?
What flight were they in the airport?
I do know what flight, but we're not releasing any information until we can positively identify the big victims and in a respectful, dignified manner, notify the next that can.
We won't be giving away the airline at home.
No.
Sheriff, victims were men, women, or children.
No, we're not going to release.
This guy acted alone.
At this point, it looks like he acted alone.
Were they part of a family?
Were they part of a second active shooter within the last 33 minutes?
Can you speak to that?
Yes, there's no, at this point, there's no second active shooter.
There are no victims suffering for any gunshot wounds.
We heard that information as well.
It's not confirmed.
And right now, we're dealing with this incident right here.
Can you tell us what was going on in the parking lot?
I'm sure they were looking for, you know, clearing parking lots.
We have a variety of SWAT teams out and assets out clearing the entire airport to make sure it's safe.
So just doing their job, working very hard and diligently.
We have been able to get new information that is significant as this news conference has been going along.
This comes from Chip LaMarca.
Broward County, Florida is run by a board of county commissioners.
Chip LaMarca is one of those, and he says the shooter was a passenger on a Canadian flight with a checked gun.
So if you have a weapon, you can check it on a flight, and then you get to pick it up after the flight's over.
Can't be loaded.
He claimed his bag, got his bag from baggage, took the gun from the baggage, and went into the bathroom to load it.
He came out shooting people in baggage claim.
13 shot, 5 dead, 8 transported.
So here's what happened.
According to this reporting and more that I've just gotten on Associated Press, and I'll look at that for you in just a second.
The man was on a Canadian airlines flight, more specific on this Associated Press write-through, a Canadian Airlines flight.
He had a weapon when he was getting on the flight, which now, remember, he had a military ID.
So he's identified himself as military.
Even if you're a member of the military, you can't carry a gun on a plane, obviously.
But they will allow you under certain circumstances when pre-approved to take your weapon and check it as you would any other kind of baggage.
And then when it's time to go pick up your baggage, you can get it from them.
And that's apparently, according to multiple reports, what this man did.
He checked his airline, he checked his weapon, military ID, checked his weapon, got on the flight, landed at FLL, got off the flight at FLL, went to claim his bag, which contained his weapon.
He took his weapon, according to multiple reports, with him into the bathroom, loaded it in the bathroom, and that's when he came out and started shooting again and again and again.
And remember our witness, Mr. Sleischer.
Mr. Slicer was telling us all about this just a moment ago.
Listen, appear to be with anyone.
Did he say anything?
He did not say a word, and he was not with anyone that I saw.
He was actually standing in the middle of kind of a hallway that runs along all of the baggage claim areas.
And he must have been in front of, like between baggage claim one and two, firing into everybody that was at baggage claim three, which was the one that we were at.
A man in a Star Wars t-shirt pulls out a weapon and starts firing, unloads the weapon and reloads it and fires again.
Yes.
Did you, what happened after that?
We understand he's now in custody.
I don't know if you saw that part.
No, I stayed down, and my wife and my mother-in-law are traveling with me.
We're on vacation the first day of our vacation, and we stayed down until we saw a policeman come finally and said that we didn't have to stay down, but we should stay in that area.
My wife took a sweater from my mother-in-law and applied direct pressure to the gentleman that was right next to us.
He'd been shot in the head.
All the people seemed to be shot in the head.
And he told her that he was on Toumadin, and she held the pressure on.
And when the ambulance, when the ambulances finally arrived, when they took him out, he was still living.
We checked the man next to him, had no vital signs.
He was gone.
There have been reports there's some shots fired in the garage, and they're locking us down again.
They said that they think somebody's in the garage right now.
They just said that seconds ago.
Oh, we got there saying on the phone.
They told everybody to get on the floor.
Michelle, get down.
They told everyone to get down.
Oh.
Oh, God.
Everybody's laying down on the floor between the carousels.
We see authorities running in that direction, and there's a lot of activity outside.
John, what are you seeing?
Nothing.
We're down.
We're down on the ground.
Stay down.
They said there's something going on outside in the garage.
Well, it has been our experience that in the aftermath of such things, there are often scares, and we can hope for now that this is an inaccurate report and that, you know, with tensions high, that's our hope anyway.
John, how are you and your wife?
We're not good.
I think we're in shot still.
And this doesn't help.
We thought the scene was secure.
People are crying out.
People are scared to death.
Well, calm is the savior of the day.
Calm and keeping your head.
You have such remarkable composure, John.
And that sort of thing is invaluable at a moment like this.
Authorities are all over that airport.
And if there's a problem, they'll fix it.
Oh, they're telling everybody to get away down.
There are more shots that have been fired in the parking garage.
Is it a handful of you there?
Is it dozens of you there?
Oh, there's over 100 people at least.
They kept us.
They wouldn't let us.
We couldn't leave.
We didn't have our baggage, but they have us roped off.
They're searching people, laying down.
People are covered with blood.
I'm looking around it.
I mean, there are people that were helping people and holding people.
They just need to get us out of here.
This is awful.
All right, that was my colleague Shep Smith from a little earlier today.
If you're just joining us, now that was the about 40 minutes ago, that was the report of the second shooter in the garage or in a terminal nearby, but that was after the first shooter was already put, was already in custody.
Now, this is at the Fort Lauderdale Hollywood Airport.
And this gunman, in particular, we now know, have more details for you.
County officials saying that the airport shooter, and I've done this myself, actually, you can check a weapon, get on a commercial airlines if you have a license in not only the state you're leaving from, but going to.
And he had checked this weapon, had apparently a military identification with him, got the checked weapon, went into a bathroom, came out and started shooting, and didn't say a word.
Anyway, Chip LaMarca, Broward County Commissioner, was briefed on the shooting by the Broward County Sheriff's Office, who we also just heard from as well, saying that the shooter was a passenger on this Canadian flight and had checked that gun.
Then he went to the bathroom after claiming his bag and then loaded it and came out shooting.
And then as soon as that happened, then a second shooting or a second shooter is believed to be inside a garage.
That person has not been detained as of now.
That's what we know.
So there's still an ongoing investigation into what was going on there.
We know at least five people are dead.
We know that most of the shots were to the head, as this eyewitness described.
And on top of that, we know that at least eight to nine other people injured, maybe more.
We don't know the answer at this time.
Now, you did hear that one eyewitness talking about one of the people that were shot, and his wife was putting pressure on the wound.
Apparently, that victim was on Kumaden.
That's not a good situation for somebody on Kumadin, which is a blood thinner, which means if you bleed, you're going to bleed much heavy, much, much more, it'll be a much heavier bleed because it thins the blood.
That means more blood is going to come out on an expedited basis.
Now, the Florida senator, Ben Nelson, identified the shooter as Esteban Santiago.
And anyway, the New York Daily News is now reporting this guy that we just heard this eyewitness on with my colleague Shep Smith, John Schleisler, saying that this guy was wearing a Star Wars shirt, just randomly firing at anybody in the area.
Bill Nelson, Senator Nelson, told the network that the suspect's name is Esteban Santiago.
He was found with a military ID.
Not clear if the ID belonged to him.
Anyway, according to eyewitnesses, he just silently walked through, went through multiple magazine, ran out of bullets, and then sat on the ground waiting for police to arrest him.
There's some unconfirmed videos of the scene showing victims lying on the floor in baggage claim.
You don't even want to see this.
Anyway, we'll have more on this at the top of the next hour if you want to be on the show.
By the way, we might be checking in with some witnesses ourselves as the program unfolds here.
But we'll come back and we'll have the very latest at the top of the next hour.
800 941 Sean.
We also have some new news.
Also, Donald Trump, in fact, had been briefed on this intelligence briefing, and we'll give you his reaction to that coming up.
Breaking news now.
Here's Sean Hannity.
All right, hour two Sean Hannity show.
We have the very latest information.
The shooting is at Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood International Airport, starting about 1 o'clock this afternoon.
Just some side notes, the airport is closed.
People there advised to shelter in place.
Incoming flights more than 50 miles away diverted to other airports.
Some 2,000 flights as of now have been diverted or delayed or actually canceled.
Five people are now dead.
It was in the baggage claim area in Terminal 2.
We know that eight people were transported to local hospitals with injuries, and the shootings have been reported in multiple areas.
But the sheriff, Scott Israel, said only the only shootings known so far were in Terminal 2.
Male suspect actually was sent a picture by a really good friend of mine.
I have a picture of the suspect on my phone right now being arrested.
Anyway, it was what we know about him at this point.
It looks like he acted alone, according to Sheriff Israel.
We know Senator Ben Nelson identified the suspect as Esteban Santiago, who is carrying military identification, according to information that the senator received from the Transportation Security Administration.
We know the Broward Commissioner, Chip LaMarca, tweeted the shooter was a passenger on this Canadian flight.
He had a gun checked in, which is legal to do.
He claimed his bag, took the gun from baggage, went to a bathroom, loaded it without saying a word, came out shooting.
Most people, according to eyewitnesses, were actually shot in the head.
All police agencies in Broward County were asked to send units to the airport immediately.
Governor Rick Scott is on his way to the airport now, even as we speak.
President-elect Trump is being kept up to speed on the situation as well.
And on top of that, we know that a witness told ABC News that a man with a gun shouted, I'm not Jewish, I'm not Jewish, before he started shooting.
That's the only indication we really have of any motivation at this particular point in time.
I'm not sure what to make of that.
We know Ari Fleischer, our good friend, was at the airport.
He said, I'm at Fort Lauderdale Airport.
Shots have been fired.
Everybody's running.
I think we've heard from others that he's okay, but he's not doing interviews.
Linda talked to him.
Donald Trump tweeted out, monitoring the terrible situation in Florida, just spoke to Governor Scott.
Our thoughts and prayers are with all.
Please stay safe.
Federal officials told ABC that all departures and arrivals have currently been suspended, and that is the very latest that we have on the ground.
This was an interview that took place about an hour ago on the Fox News channel with my colleague Shepard Smith, who was an eyewitness to the shooting.
He did not say a word, and he was not with anyone that I saw.
He was actually standing in the middle of kind of a hallway that runs along all of the baggage claim areas, and he must have been in front of, like between baggage claim one and two, firing into everybody that was at baggage claim three, which was the one that we were at.
Now, Sheriff Israel gave a presser at the bottom of the last half hour, and this is what he had to say.
We have this shooter in custody.
He's unharmed.
No law enforcement fired any shots.
The subject is being interviewed by a team of FBI agents and Broward Sheriff's Office homicide detectives.
There's been incredible cohesiveness and cooperation between the Broward Sheriff's Office, the FBI, FDLE, and all the local law enforcement entities.
Now, I have a picture that was sent to me of a man being dragged off from the airport area.
I don't want to say what the source is.
It's a very good close friend of mine.
It was not Ari Fleischer, by the way, because I mentioned he was there.
But the man looks maybe 5'10, 11, white male, somewhat scraggly of a little bit of a beard, blue shirt, and two police officers obviously taking him away, and he is being handcuffed.
If you want to see the actual terror with five killed at Fort Lauderdale Airport, the Drudge Report has a couple of pictures up there now that you might want to take a look at.
Alicia Gentile is a reporter with our affiliate, News Radio WIOD, down in Miami.
And Alicia, what can you tell us?
What can you add?
Sean, yeah, the senior is very fluid and active.
Those are actually the words of Sheriff Scott Israel.
I'm looking down below me that I could see law enforcement officials just carrying evidence.
They're still investigating.
They haven't cleared the airport yet.
They're not deeming this airport.
Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport is safe.
All of the media were all here together watching them work.
Essentially, the airport director here has told us that the passengers that are here, they're safe.
They're sheltered in place.
They're safe.
They're not out on the side of the departure area where the media, where we are here, but we can see the law enforcement, but they did tell us the suspect is in custody.
The only shooting was in Terminal 2, but we're just watching them work.
I could see crime scene tape.
I don't see any passengers anymore on the runway.
They were there earlier, but they're not anymore.
And that's the scene of what it is here.
Heavy law enforcement here and still very fluid and active.
I'm going to send it back to you, Sean.
Let me ask you this, Alicia, because there was an eyewitness that was actually on the phone.
This was after the initial shooting took place.
This was about 45 minutes ago.
And the eyewitness was on the phone with the Fox News channel and my colleague Shepard Smith.
And at the time, they were all being told, again, this was after the initial gunman was taken into custody, that there were other shots in a nearby either garage or a terminal.
And now we're being—what can you tell us about that?
Is there an active shooter now believed still out there, or do they believe it was a lone gunman?
At this time, they believe it's just a lone gunman.
And yeah, people did say they heard shots in the parking garage and saw officers with guns drawn and Sheriff Scott Israel is that they may have had them drawn.
They may have been investigating.
At this time, he will not confirm that there was, he doesn't believe there was a shooter in the parking lot area garage.
I've witnesses that said they thought a shooting was in another terminal as well.
That's why there's been so many conflicting reports because there are people saying there was a shooting in the parking garage.
I did see police activity myself enter the parking garage.
I saw police run to the garage.
I saw police inside the garage.
But when we had the press conference and asked about it, we were told that that was not the suspect who was taken into custody, that that wasn't associated with him.
And they said the only active shooting or the only shooting here was at Terminal Two.
That's all they would confirm.
Well, let me ask you this if I can, because I'm looking at live pictures now, and there are so many people.
And by the way, in a very orderly fashion, being walked to different areas, but they're on the tarmac, which is not something you see on a regular basis at an airport.
Why are they on the tarmac?
From my view, there were people on the tarmac.
I don't see them anymore.
They did not.
It could be another terminal because I'm looking at live shots right now, and there's a number of people there.
Yeah.
Yeah, they were in front of my terminal on the tarmac.
So my guess is that that's a part of getting the passengers safe, evacuating them, because the people who were on the runway in the tarmac area here are gone now, and they may have been safely evacuated.
And they may be under shelter.
It's hard to see from here, but there is a little airport facility for in Barrier down by the way.
They may be in there, but they did say they got the passengers safely, and they looked like passengers.
They weren't uniformed people.
They looked like passengers to me, civilians, not no one in uniform, the people who were lying on the runway.
So they may have been evacuated safely.
That seems to be how they did it, to get people out.
Alicia, did you speak to any of the eyewitnesses?
I have not directly spoken to the eyewitnesses.
There have been a couple who have said they've seen things, but again, we've only heard what got Terminal 2 confirmed.
So a lot of people really shaken up.
I talked to a couple people who were passengers at the airport, and they were just so shaken up, crying, that they were just involved in here.
And I was asking them, they were telling me they were flying out, flying in, and they were just crying, shaken up, because they're in the middle of this.
And they just were confused and scared, as anyone would be in the middle of this kind of situation.
Yeah, it's unbelievable.
It's so sad.
And we both know that five are dead, and we know at least eight are injured.
Any reports that there might be others injured we haven't heard about yet?
Is that count likely to go up?
And is it true, the report that we heard from the one eyewitness that the shooter particularly was going for headshots?
I haven't heard a confirmation about the headshots.
I haven't heard anyone speak of that.
Yeah, the eyewitness that was on the eyewitness that was on Fox said that the people that he saw and his wife actually was caring for one of those injured was shot in the head.
And that particular person apparently was on Coovenden, which is a blood thinner, which really makes it very, very dangerous.
I mean, obviously, a shot in the head is dangerous for anybody, but in that case, the bleeding would be that much more dramatic.
And his wife was actually putting pressure and trying to help this poor person out.
But apparently, this individual was going for these headshots.
Any other word from the Senator Nelson's office?
And has there been confirmation that this person is, in fact, Esteban Santiago?
And do we know anything more about his military background if there is one?
We haven't gotten confirmation of the suspect's name from the press conference.
They said it was way too early to give us that information.
Yeah.
Well, we really appreciate your time.
Alicia Gentile, appreciate you being with us.
800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program, Dan Bongino is with us, former Secret Service agent, good friend of the program, former NYPD.
You know, you're watching this unfold as I am.
Now, it's not unusual to check a gun on a commercial airplane.
I've done it myself.
But you have to have a license from the state that you're going to the state that you're traveling to.
Right.
Yeah, I'll tell you, right now, one of the things they should be doing, and I'm sure they are, these are more than competent people working this, is you want to talk to people on the plane, Sean.
I mean, if he was coming from Canada and had this thing, the weapon checked, and you're absolutely right, that there's nothing even remotely uncommon about that.
I'm glad you put that out there.
You want to make sure, I mean, what happened on the plane to make this person come off a plane, uncheck a bag, go into a bathroom, and in what appears to be a very deliberate act.
It doesn't seem to be some random emotional outburst.
Did something happen on that plane?
And you're also going through now, you're going through this guy's entire contact network right now, finding out if there was some kind of a domestic incident beforehand.
You know, motive right now is number one.
They have to uncover a motive or else you're going to be spinning your wheels.
Yeah.
Well, one thing, apparently, we now are finding out that he might be from the state of New Jersey.
I see a report on the Drudge Report.
We don't know a whole lot about him at this particular point in time, and I assume we won't know a lot about him.
We might know more by the time I get on TV tonight at 10 Eastern.
But it's, you know, one of the things that I try to encourage my listeners in some way, shape, matter, or form.
Now, in an airport, it's unlikely you're going to be carrying a gun.
But there's got to be one of, you know, and I heard the voice of this poor guy that was on the Fox News channel.
Yeah.
And I wish that people would spend time in terms of some type of self-defense ability.
In other words, if it's one shooter with a gun, and especially if he has long and big magazines in his gun, I mean, he could fire off any number of bullets in a really short period of time, but at some point he's going to have to reload.
And I wish we could have some type of training for a lot of people that anybody that ever did this would know that within seconds, once that clip is empty, they know they're going to get tackled.
Yeah, you must have been, you were listening to the same coverage I was.
It was John Schindler, I think, was it?
I mean, his name even sticks out to me.
And I know I'm horrible with names.
I mean, it was really powerful.
There were some reports, which it looks like now are inaccurate, that there was a second shooting in a parking garage.
So he was in the baggage terminal this man.
I had him on the phone live.
And you're absolutely right, Sean.
I mean, the fear in his voice, you know, you can't hear that and think to yourself, gosh, I don't want to be a sheep.
You know, I want to be a sheepdog or a wolf here.
You know, I don't want to be the one preyed upon.
I mean, he was clearly, understandably, you know, terrified.
There was a shooting that just happened.
He had witnessed someone killed, and now he's hearing reports.
Again, later on, it appears that those reports are inaccurate, but other shots.
And, you know, I heard that same thing you did.
And I turned up the TV and put down what I was doing.
And it was really, while it was happening, it was incredible, transformative TV.
And you're right, it should spur people to action.
Well, it's sort of like when these incidents have happened in the past, I would ask people to call the show, see, we need to get rid of guns.
And I'm like, well, I carry a gun.
I've carried one my entire life.
You know, would you like somebody like me or Bo Deedle and me and Dan Bongino who do carry weapons, who are trained in self-defense, do you want us there or not?
I would rather be there because I train for this every day.
You know, I've been doing this now for five years.
Look, I don't have the level of training that you did as an NYPD officer or a Secret Service officer.
But I mean, we do serious martial arts training and blade and gun training, everything in between.
And we work out in different scenarios every day.
Well, you know, the great part about training yourself to defend yourself with a firearm is you don't have to have been NYPD in Secret Service to learn how to effectively use it defensively.
Remember, you know, in the Secret Service, we're trained to use those weapons in a number of different scenarios.
Terrorists, off-target assaults, hard-target assaults on well-protected protectees, law enforcement issues.
I mean, it's a big difference from being, you know, Joe civilian and just learning how to defend yourself if, God forbid, an active shooter, you know, you're on the ground, appears over you, straddles you, and points a gun in your face.
I mean, that's a far different level of training, and it doesn't require as much target skill as people in I probably spend a half hour a week on just stripping firearms at close range or in my back or pointed at my head or aimed at my chest and disarming a blade, which is even harder than disarming the gun.
It's easier to disarm a gun at close range than it is a knife.
Most people wouldn't, I don't think, know that.
And yeah, there's a number of different reasons for it.
I mean, knives are terrible.
I mean, the safe distance for a knife, most law enforcement people will tell you is 21 feet.
And that seems counterintuitive.
21 feet, the safe distance.
There's a video out there, I think it's called Defending Against Edge Weapons, where you'll see that a guy with a knife within 21 feet is on top of you before you even.
Oh, absolutely.
But I got to run.
But listen, Dan, we always appreciate you being with us.
Well, more of this coverage as well.
We'll get back at the top of the hour to the hacking incident, but it looks like in terms of this is a lone shooting incident, we now believe it's not two shooters, thank God.
And it looks like he's in custody.
We'll have more details on Hannity tonight at 10.
We'll get your calls in the next half hour as well.
Excuse me, ladies.
Would you mind telling us what you're going through right now?
My family's in Terminal 2.
I was taking the rental car back and kind of waiting between Terminal 1 and the rental car place.
Everybody started running out of Terminal 1, out of the rental car place.
Some lady was yelling for help down in the garage, so I just ran and here I am.
Were you here earlier?
I've been here probably, what about what time is it?
Probably about 12:30.
What did you see unfolding around one car?
I was returning the rental car, and my family just said stay there because they were putting everybody in a safe place in Terminal 2 because they heard gunshots and they ran.
My 90-year-old grandma's in there because she ran.
Yeah, they're fine.
They're in a Delta staff lounge.
Back to Michigan.
All right, those are new eyewitnesses that we hear.
You can just hear the panic and the absolute fear in people's voices.
It is a tragedy.
Of course, we're talking about the shooting.
It happened, I guess, about 1:30, 1:15 earlier today, a little over three hours ago, at the Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport.
And the airport, by the way, is still closed.
People were advised at the point to get shelter.
A lot of incoming flights, more than 2,000 flights nationwide affected.
If you're traveling, make sure you check with your airline provider, whichever airline you happen to be on.
We know and can confirm at this hour that five people are dead, at least eight others are injured.
What we've learned about the gunman is that the shooter literally apparently checked the gun.
He was on an Air Canada flight, and he ended up pulling the gun out of a checked bag, which, in other words, you check your gun in a special lockbox that you put on the airplane.
It's not allowed to be loaded at the time.
Then apparently he got the checked firearm, went into a bathroom, threw the clip in the firearm, and then came out, and according to one eyewitness, said nothing and just started shooting.
And now we have five people dead.
Apparently, there was one point we thought there might be another shooter in a neighboring garage or a neighboring hangar or whatever else part of whatever other part of the airport.
When it never got that confirmed, but that ended up not being true.
Anyway, joining us now is Jonathan Gillum.
Then we'll get to some of your calls here.
Then later on, we have the latest on the Russian hacking we'll get to.
Jonathan, you know, you and I talk a lot because your background is a Navy SEAL, and I'm not comparing my training to you, but I love to talk about self-defense with you because you're so good at it.
And, you know, it's so sad to hear people so helpless.
And when these guys drop that clip, I know what you would do.
You would charge the shooter, would you not?
Absolutely.
And, you know, it's unfortunate, Sean, that.
that we still as a country haven't gotten to that mindset where you may go to a coffee shop to get coffee and a cookie, and you may have to end up defending your life.
And people need to realize that that's just the world that we live in, that you need to be ready at all times to turn.
If you have a moment, go after that person.
And if we have more than one person that thinks like that, chances are these type of events are going to end very quickly because unless he's highly trained, it's going to take him at least a second, maybe a second and a half to reload that weapon if he has another magazine there.
I remember after Sam Bernardino, people were calling the show, see, Hannity, we don't need guns.
And I remember saying to them, well, I've carried a gun all of my adult life.
I've had a carry license in New York, Rhode Island, California, Alabama, and Georgia.
I've carried a gun more than half my life.
I've carried a weapon.
And I say to people, remember in Sam Bernardino, there were reports that this guy literally dropped the clip and was reloading.
And I said, well, would you want me in the room at that moment?
At least I would have an opportunity.
I may not make it.
I may not succeed.
Or Jonathan Gillam might be there or Bodito might be there or a police officer that's off duty or retired military personnel that's been trained in some way.
Do you want that person there, a law-abiding gun owner or not?
And most people understand that would be a good thing.
Yeah, and I can guarantee you, Sean, that you know this.
They're going to go straight after that.
This is going to start working its way up here in the next couple of days.
Next thing you know, you're not going to be able to transport weapons across state lines or something.
They're going to start pushing for something every time something like this happens, even though it's probably, from what I'm gathering, the intelligence that I'm getting from my sources in law enforcement, I am suspecting that this is going to be a lone person not affiliated with terrorism.
You'd think it's not going to be associated with terrorism.
Why do you say that?
Well, the information that I'm getting is that this is an individual that's in the Army and that he is a subject of a military ID, but he's the subject of what?
He's a subject of a criminal case.
And so I don't really know how much I should be putting out yet about this, but basically he's a subject of a case.
It seems like there's a lot going on in this guy's life.
And so, you know, I think the picture that I'm seeing painted about this guy is that he may have just lost it.
I have a picture of the suspect taken into custody.
It hasn't been released by anybody else, but a very good friend of mine sent it.
I'm not going to release it because law enforcement may not want me to do that.
What kind of case is it?
Can you tell us that?
I don't want to say that, Sean, because it is a criminal case, but I don't want to give the type of case.
Well, I did say at the beginning of the show because he did have a military ID, and I stand by this.
We have over 250,000 military men and women that serve multiple tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan that have PTSD.
We have a VA system that has failed them spectacularly.
They have denied them the care that we promised them.
And I know from my own experience, and I bet you've been through the same thing.
I have been informed by friends or by even distant associates of individuals in their life suffering from PTSD so bad that they're a threat to themselves or their families.
And in every case that I've gotten involved, I always rely on my best friend, one of my best friends, Ollie North.
And I know I can tell you example after example where he ends up spending hours and hours on the phone with these guys.
They all love him.
They all respect him.
And he never ends the conversation without a plan of action to get that person the help they need.
But a lot of these people are not getting that help.
That's why fixing the VA is so important.
It's not just, I mean, we have the people with physical injuries and limbs that are blown off and faces that have been mutilated, but we also have these guys.
We overworked many of these soldiers, and you've been in combat.
You understand this.
It's beyond the average stress that the average individual can even fathom.
You know, Sean, just from training, depending on what you do, your training, you can get, it's pretty amazing the mindset that you can start to develop just from being around explosions, breaching of doors and shooting, and a high volume.
And I'm agreeing with you 100% about the VA.
I think it's one of the biggest things that Trump has to go after, and I think it's a system that completely needs to be overhauled.
With this case, however, this person is an E-4.
He has not been in the military for a long period of time.
I think we're looking at somebody who has a mental problem, somebody who is in the fact that he's in the military, I think, is going to be kind of inconsequential to this.
And I think this is a guy who has some deviant issues, and that goes along with the case, the type of case.
All right, Jonathan Gillum, stay there.
We have a caller.
Neville is in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
My cousin, former NYPD officer, has a gun range down there.
We call him Big Head because he's like 6'10.
He's unbelievable.
I grew up with him.
And he was known as Black Cloud in the NYPD.
That was his nickname.
And he was really good at his job.
And, you know, he was a detective first grade when he retired.
He owns a gun range down in Port St. Lucie.
Neville is apparently a retired immigration agent and can give us more information about the laws about checking in a gun on a commercial airline.
Hey, Sean, nice to be on the show.
When you were speaking with Special Agent Bognino, you mentioned that any person can check a weapon on a plane as long as they have a license or a permit, but they don't even need that.
Just for factual purposes, a person, as long as they have the proper case, which you've already mentioned, and the ammunition is in its original thing that you purchased it with, then anybody can check a gun on an airplane as long as it goes into the baggage compartment.
And the second thing is, is that we don't know what the status of this individual is, but recent information is that he's either a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident, so this might not be pertinent.
But people can't come into the United States from other countries and carry a gun on an air, even check luggage.
They can't enter the United States with a gun.
There's only certain instances, and they have paperwork to fill out from alcohol tobacco.
Well, I think they'll have a harder time having the gun in Canada than the United States, to be honest.
Yeah, that's probably true.
But if this person came in on a Canadian flight, immigration has to check him and customs has to check him.
And that weapon has to be declared, and he'd have to have a reason for bringing it if he's a non-immigrant coming into the country.
Well, I know from my own experience that for me to carry a gun on a commercial airlines, you have to have a license from the state you're leaving to the state you're going.
And there is reciprocity.
For example, if you have a Florida gun license, I think there's reciprocity in 30-some odd states.
Now, my New York City carrier permit, which is very difficult to get, there's no reciprocity, but it's good for the entire state of New York only.
But that's if you're going to carry the weapon concealed in that state, but just to take it out.
Just to carry it, yeah.
But to get it on the airplane from state to state, there's nothing.
You're not required to show anything to the airline.
That's good to know.
We really appreciate it, Neville.
Thanks for what you do.
Jonathan, we're going to say goodbye to you.
If you get any more information, check back in with us.
We have a lot of other news that we've got to get to today.
We appreciate you checking in.
Thank you, buddy.
You got it, my friend.
All right, 800-941, Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
Donald Trump did release a statement after a briefing that he got earlier today on the intelligence issue.
He said, while Russia, China, and other countries, outside groups, and people consistently are trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our governmental institutions, businesses, organizations, including the Democratic National Committee, there was absolutely no effect of the outcome of the election, including the fact that there was no tampering whatsoever with voting machines.
There were attempts to hack the Republican National Committee, but the RNC had strong hacking defenses and hackers were unsuccessful, he said.
Whether it be the government, organizations, associations, businesses, we need to aggressively combat and stop cyber attacks.
That's been my point forever.
And to that end, Trump said he will appoint a team to give him a plan within 90 days of assuming the presidency.
And he said he has tremendous respect for the work and service done by law enforcement.
Yeah, Russia could have possibly been one of the culprits.
We don't know for sure.
And there's nothing in this report that has convinced me yet, but I haven't read the whole thing.
You know, and another question is, how did NBC get an exclusive look at the top secret report that Obama was presented?
Who gave it to them?
It's another great question.
And Trump demands a congressional investigation into Obama administration's leak on election hacking.
How in God's name, I mean, all of this leak, how does NBC News get it?
Well, that's because they're doing this for political purposes.
Now, I went through a whole series of examples both last night on TV, and we'll have more on this tonight, where, let's see, the Department of Energy, NASA, we have the Department of Personal Management, 23 million people hacked by the Chinese in 2015.
Obama never mentioned it.
The White House hacked.
I bet most of you never heard about it.
Since 2009, this all happened under Obama's watch.
The Department of Defense, the Department of State.
There's hardly a government agency that wasn't hacked.
And as it relates to the DNC, well, maybe Wikileaks got it through a third-party source or what.
It doesn't matter.
That wasn't necessarily, this was only a phishing scheme, and separate and apart from all the attacks, cyber attacks against our government that have been ignored.
And intelligence, as much as I love and respect intelligence and the intelligence officials and those that do the hard work of covert operations, they're not always right.
Even Clapper admitted that my fingerprints were all over the bogus Iraq WMD report.
And, you know, so questioning intelligence doesn't make you a bad human being because it's been wrong before.
You know, who gave NBC this information and why?
How do media outlets get it before the president-elect for crying out loud?
And why in 2008, when Wikileaks released the operating procedures for Camp Delta and Gitma, why didn't we fix it then?
And when they released the information, the video, a U.S. military video of attacks in Baghdad that killed two Reuters reporters, well, why didn't they realize we had no cybersecurity then?
When WikiLeaks released the Afghan warlogs or the Iraqi warlogs or the Syrian warlogs or the Gitmo files or diplomatic cables, why didn't we release these things then?
It's unbelievable.
We have said repeatedly over the last two months that our source is not the Russian government.
The first order of business is to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Repeal Affordable Care Act?
That's a problem.
You want grandma living in the guest room?
You repeal the Affordable Care Act.
We are two united caucuses, and we're united in our opposition to these Republican attempts to make America sick again.
Freedom is back in style.
Welcome to the revolution.
We're burning down the mashing bullets at the moon, baby.
This is how we rule the world.
Sean Hennedy, the new Sean Hannity show.
More behind the scenes information on breaking news and more bold, inspired solutions for America.
Coming up next, our final news roundup: an information overload hour.
Our source is not the Russian government.
So, in other words, let me be clear: Russia did not give you the Podesta documents or anything from the DNC.
That's correct.
Can you confirm whether or not you have information involving hacked info from the RNC?
We received about three pages of information to do with the RNC and Trump, but it was already public somewhere else.
Without revealing your sources, would it be fair to say that the information as it relates to Wikileaks and John Podesta's emails came from within the United States to you?
We have said it has not come from a state party.
We know where it came from originally, of course.
It's John Podesta, it's from the DNC, etc.
There's been no claim that has been held up, not even maintained anymore, that any of the information has been modified or is fake.
So, you can't confirm or deny if this information came from within the United States?
We're unhappy that we felt that we needed to even say that it wasn't a state party.
Normally, we say nothing at all, but we have a conflict of interest.
We have an excellent reputation, a strong interest in protecting our sources, and so never saying anything about them, never ruling anyone in or anyone out.
Sometimes do it, we don't like to do it.
We have another interest which is maximizing the impact of our publications.
Let me ask you this then.
Can you hear in order to prevent a distraction attack against our publications?
We've had to come out and say, no, it's not a state party.
Stop trying to distract in that way and pay attention to the content of the publication.
So, in other words, when you say state party, it wasn't another state like Russia or some other country.
Correct.
The U.S. government is accusing WikiLeaks of having received these materials from Russia, and you say it's false.
It did not come from Russia.
And the President of the United States is advancing the narrative.
Is the President of the United States lying to the American people?
Well, he's acting like a lawyer.
If you look at most of his statements, he doesn't say that.
He doesn't say WikiLeaks obtained its information from Russia, worked with Russia.
He said Russia's trying to influence the U.S. election.
Yes.
And you also note that he doesn't say, from the statements that I've read, he doesn't say that Russia was trying to influence the election for Donald Trump.
Our publications had wide uptake by the American people.
They are all true.
But that's not the allegation that has been presented by the Obama White House.
So why such a dramatic response?
Well, the reason is obvious.
They're trying to delegitimize Trump administration as it goes into the White House.
They're going to try, they are trying to say that President-elect Trump is not a legitimate president.
Do you believe governments regularly lie, propagandize, manipulate the minds of their citizens?
Fairer statements?
Yes.
You want to expose that truth to people.
Yes.
Regardless of whether it's Republican, Democrat?
Absolutely.
No political agenda.
Absolutely.
All right, news roundup and information overload hour.
It's the Sean Hannity Show.
And again, our thoughts and prayers go out to the people.
This tragedy.
Well, it's not a tragedy.
It's an act of murder of five people and plus killed in Fort Lauderdale at the airport.
I was around there over Christmas.
It's so sad when these incidents occur.
Well, the very latest on Hannity tonight, 10 Eastern on the Fox News channel.
As it relates, that's part of my interviews with Julian Assange.
We do have an update.
The FBI now has pointed out that the DNC inhibited, actually inhibited the investigation of stolen emails.
They wouldn't let them do their job to find out who was responsible, not responsible.
Why would the Democrats do that?
Anyway, Donald Trump has weighed in on this, making a point that I've made.
Now, since Obama's been president, hackers have attacked the U.S. electrical grid, the Pentagon's joint strike fighter project.
They've hacked into NASA, the Department of Energy, the Federal Election Commission Networks, the U.S. Postal Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
They've hacked into the White House.
They've hacked into the State Department.
They've hacked into the Department of Defense.
They've hacked into the IRS.
They've hacked into the Office of Personnel Management.
And Donald Trump, in an interview with the New York Times, referred to that, saying China, you know, in 2015, hacked 20-plus million government names, referring to that breach of computers at the Office of Personnel Management.
In early 2015, this all happened.
How come nobody ever talks about that?
All these years, they've had all of this hacking going on.
Obama's been the president, and they have not done anything.
Is it political?
Trump said, well, they're embarrassed about the outcome of the election.
And in that sense, this is a witch hunt only focusing on this.
And he's right.
If we want cybersecurity, we need to really delve into it and not use only those instances that advance some type of political narrative.
And by the way, James Clapper, my fingerprints were all over Bogus Iraq WMD report.
Oh, so we have to believe him as if it's ex-cathedra from the Pope himself speaking on faith and morals that the intelligence community can never get anything wrong as Clapper's trashing Trump for questioning intelligence.
Well, intelligence people have got a lot of things wrong.
Anyway, this briefing before lawmakers, you know, the question is, why did John Podesta go for the phishing email?
Anyway, 800-941-Sean is our toll-free telephone number.
Stuart McClure is with us.
He's the CEO, president, and founder of Scilance, advanced persistent threat protection based on unique artificial intelligence.
And executives at Silance, the world's only firm using artificial intelligence, they helped find and halt a breach and loss of personal data for these 22 million federal employees and contractors.
They intimately know about this.
Gary Malewski is the CEO of Snoopwall, a global leader in breach prevention and internet security.
Welcome both of you to the program.
We appreciate you being here.
Stuart, I guess you know intimately everything about this Chinese hack of 22, 23 million federal employees and contractors.
What can you tell us?
Well, yeah, we've been involved almost since the beginning when the OPM agency had first recognized some unique problems that they were having on their network.
And they didn't know if it was really hacking related, but brought us in because of our expertise.
And once we got in, we instantly knew that they were in a world of hurt.
And so we helped them not only identify the attackers and how they got in, but then to immediately prevent further loss of data and further loss of gaining of access so that we were able to, just within about four days, stop over 2,000 pieces of malware that were inside of OPM, sitting there dormantly or being actively used by the adversary that had been missed by all the other technologies with all the other layers, with all the other people that were involved.
And I think that's one of the things that is a common thread in all these discussions is, you know, we talk about the who, but it really is about the how and how are they getting in and why is it so easy?
Am I making a good point, though, in the case of Podesta?
I mean, Podesta just fell for a stupid phishing scam, right?
Yep.
So it wasn't like hacked.
You know, when I point out that the White House has been hacked and the State Department has been hacked and the Department of Defense has been hacked and the Office of Personal Management, which you have been brought in to help fix, you know, aren't they far worse examples of hacking than John Podesta falling for a stupid phishing scam?
Oh, yeah, 100%.
And that's why I sort of laugh at these sort of events when you have Podesta that, you know, okay, maybe him and maybe a few others.
We don't know the exact details because the government and the contracts have been involved haven't really produced any real details.
But let's presume they got in with real simple phishing emails, et cetera, and they just got emails.
I mean, so what?
I mean, emails are, I mean, they're helpful to get sort of triangulation around, okay, what's going on.
And by the way, if he didn't fall for the phishing scam, he wouldn't have been hacked.
Well, that's right.
I mean, I think, and that's one of the other things I always tell people, I mean, including my mom, my parents, my friends, it's like it is real simple to avoid getting hacked.
It really is.
People think it's some pixie dust mystery.
But if you just don't open links that you don't know and trust, if you don't open attachments that you don't know and trust, if you don't plug in USB sticks into your computer that you don't know and trust, you won't get hacked.
I mean, it's 99% plus prevention of that capability.
So that's really good for my audience to hear.
What you just said is very important for everyone listening to this program.
And do you believe that it's true?
I know that they had this instance where the FBI finally was able to hack an iPhone, but is an iPhone really encrypted as well as they say it is?
It's encrypted pretty well, but like, I mean, a lot of people have commented throughout all those attacks and trying to get the data off the phones in the terrorist tech.
It is quite easy to get it off still to this day.
But you have to be knowledgeable.
You have to know what you're looking for and how to do it.
That very few people really know.
So, you know, look, if you're in the inner circle, sure, you can get it done.
So can the bad guys do it?
Yes, 100%.
Can the good guys do it?
Well, some of us.
Gary, let me ask you, because, again, you're an expert in this.
What did Think of the why.
Why do you think they're focusing on this, but not the White House, NASA, the DOD, the State Department, the FEC?
Why do you think they're more focused on this?
It's all political, isn't it?
Sean, this is so political.
I'm actually disappointed in the FBI's report because it missed the last piece in the chain.
You know, that kid who owns the King servers in Russia where these IP addresses were.
Sean, take a credit card you got at a local Simon gift store without your name on it.
You can go have an IP address on his server in five minutes for $5 a month.
So he said when he found out the IPs were from his server, he said that he tried to reach Interpol, Europol, and the FBI because he tracked the actual keyboards down to IP addresses in Europe and no one wanted to help him find out where those computers were located and who was at those keyboards.
Did either both of you watch my interview with Julian Assange?
Oh, absolutely.
Fantastic job.
Did you believe him?
Let me start with you, Stuart.
Well, I certainly think he lends a lot of credibility to what he sort of reported in your interview.
I think it's very, very possible.
You know, emails could be searched from other locations.
They could be from insiders inside.
Actually, it could have been hacked up by anybody, but then someone hacked up the person that hacked them and then got those emails.
You know, it's very simple.
This is common tradecraft out there.
So, you know, where and how exactly it all happened, I think it's pointless to even discuss.
Well, what about attribution?
I mean, how long could it really take to definitively know this came for Russia or not?
Well, that's my point.
You know, and with OPM, you know, we knew very, very little about it.
That's why we didn't come out explicitly and say it was Chinese per se.
Now, in the Operation Cleaver report that we put out a couple years ago, it was definitively Iran, but we tracked them for five years.
I mean, five full years, a full investigation around the world.
And, you know, to get true attribution of any sort, it takes extraordinary measure and work to do.
And you just can't do it the way that a lot of folks pretend to do it.
They do it with deductive reasoning: well, is the language of the malware in the region that we want to attribute?
Is the work hours of where the adversary is supposedly working about the same nine to five in that region?
Or, you know, do they take off holidays that are specific to that country?
Those are very deductive methods.
There's no pure scientific way to do it, just as Gary was talking about.
Gary, what do you think about that?
Absolutely.
And Sean, let's step back.
Biggest question of the day.
Well, I have two big questions for you.
Did your vote change because you saw how nasty Podesta and his friends are?
Nope.
I already knew.
I already knew it, but I just, but having it validated was something I think the world needed to see.
Yeah.
All right, let's break in here with this interview.
And because Governor Scott is just stepping up to the microphone, if you guys can hang in there for a second, I know this is rude, but I don't mean to do that.
But I want to hear what he has to say on the Fort Lauderdale shooting here.
Anyway.
Okay.
All right.
The first thing I want to tell you is the citizens of Florida will not tolerate census acts of evil.
You just can't imagine how this ever happened in a state like ours.
Think of the innocent lives that are lost.
We still, according to the Sheriff's Department, we have five, as you know, we have five individuals that have lost their life.
We still have people fighting for their life in our hospitals.
Whoever is responsible will be held accountable to the full extent of the law.
So let me repeat this.
The state of Florida, the citizens of Florida, law enforcement in this state will not tolerate evil acts.
Whoever is responsible will be held accountable to the full extent of the law.
I heard about this when I was in Fort Myers.
I immediately came over here, got here about 1:45.
I've stayed in contact with the Sheriff's Office, Sheriff Israel, has done an outstanding job.
But the FBI, everybody involved has done an outstanding job.
There's been complete coordination between FDLE, the Sheriff's Department, the airport security, all federal agencies.
Everybody has worked together.
I reached out across the state, not only to our National Guard to make sure they were ready if there's any need for the National Guard, but also airports and sheriffs across the state where our major airports were to make sure whatever resources they need, the state was available to provide those resources.
My heart goes out to every family impacted.
The families that lost their loved ones and the family and the individuals that have loved ones still in a hospital fighting for their life.
You can't imagine how this could happen to any family anywhere in the world, but clearly we don't ever want this to happen in our great state.
I have reached out to President-elect Trump and spoken with him and Vice President-elect Pence multiple times to keep them informed.
And they told me whatever resources that we need from the federal government, they would do everything in their power to make that happen.
My number one priority right here, right now in Florida, is to keep everybody safe.
Everybody that lives in our state, everybody that travels to our state, do everything we can to get them safe.
As you know, this is an ongoing investigation.
There's a lot of information that law enforcement will put out at the time that they can put that out, and they'll do that as quickly as they can.
All right, that's Governor Rick Scott holding a press conference on the shooting at Fort Lauderdale.
Five confirmed dead, eight injured.
Now, for our affiliates across the Sean Hannity Show Network, we are going to give you the option on what you want to do on this local break.
We will stay with these press conferences.
How did you get here?
How did I get here?
I flew into Executive Airport.
Does the need to provide security for you detract from the need to provide security in the greater situation here?
I don't believe so.
I came here as quickly as I could to stay informed, make sure that whatever resources the state needed to provide, I made sure that the sheriff knew that, the airport knew that.
But on top of that, I did that for airports and sheriff's departments across the state.
On top of that, talking to our National Guard to make sure they were ready.
What information do you have on the gunman?
Well, this is an ongoing investigation.
All that information will be released through the Sheriff's Department at the appropriate time.
Do you know what I'm saying?
Tell us the status of the pressure.
We don't have details right now, but that'll be released at the appropriate time.
Right now, the biggest thing to do is pray for him.
You know, we went through polls.
The biggest thing is, you know, pray for those, you know, the individuals that ended up in the hospital.
Pray that every one of them survives.
Did you talk to President Obama?
I've not talked to President Obama.
Has he reached out to you?
No, President Obama has not reached out to me.
But I've talked to Vice President and President-elect.
Obama didn't reach out to Rick Scott?
I've got to Pence quite a few times.
Just keep them informed.
But Pence and Trump did.
All right, I'm sorry, I'd interrupt.
Do you know if the gunman flew through Minneapolis or Anchorage?
Look, this is an ongoing investigation.
The Sheriff's Department will release information as quickly as they can.
Did President-elect Trump contact you or people reach out to him?
I reached out to President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Pence.
But you didn't call the president, you called the president-elect?
You didn't?
Absolutely.
Would it be appropriate to call your president for resources?
I have a personal relationship with Vice President Pence and President-elect Trump, and I reached out.
Any other questions?
Should there be a ban on weapons and airports?
Look, this is horrible what happened here.
It's not a time to be political.
It's a time to mourn those that lost their life, finish an investigation, and pray for everybody that is still fighting for their life.
We'll take one more.
You mentioned Pulse.
This is now another incident that we have, a shooting on a large scale.
Does something need to happen?
You obviously have ambitions to run for Senate.
You think that something needs to happen both in the state and both nationally?
Let's remember, this is a senseless act of evil.
We are going to hold whoever did this accountable.
It's not time to do politics.
It's the time to remember, we have an active investigation, finish the investigation, mourn those that lost their life, and pray for those that are still fighting for their life.
Thanks, everybody.
Thanks for watching, everyone.
That's Florida Governor Rick Scott.
A couple of revelations there are a bit surprising.
But actually, Linda remembered this, and I had forgot.
Apparently, Obama never reached out in the summer of 2016.
Remember when Omar Mateen went on the shooting rampage at that Orlando nightclub at the Pulse nightclub, and they didn't contact him then.
Wow.
Well, at least the new sheriff, when he gets in town, 14 days from today, we're going to have the swearing in of a new president.
The era of Obama is going to be wiped out in seconds.
75% of Obama's agenda.
Look, if you rule by executive fiat, if you rule by executive order, if you rule by the pen, then it's easily undone.
And Trump apparently is cutting short the inaugural break.
I know him so well.
Like three hours.
No, no, no.
We could do it in 90 minutes.
I'm sure that's how that conversation went.
15 balls.
I'll go to three.
That's how he rolls.
I want to work.
He wants to roll up his sleeves and work.
You know the times that I have talked to Mr. Trump privately.
You know what time I talked to him?
Midnight, one o'clock in the morning.
He's always up.
It's the best time to get a hold of him.
And that's just going to be a very different you watch between him and Obama is going to be pretty dramatically different.
I have zero doubt you're going to see the Oval Office light on a little bit later into the night as he's probably working.
And he works all night.
You know, private businessmen, they don't have anybody else to rely on.
And I know from my own private business endeavors over the years that, you know what, at the end of the day, you can't get anybody to do it for you.
You've got to do it yourself.
You've got to be hands-on.
And you've got to hire the right people.
I mean, if I didn't have the right radio staff, my job would be 50 times harder.
As annoying as Linda can be with her snarky remarks in my ear.
And, you know, if I'm doing a segment that she doesn't particularly like, or if I push back, she has three or four pet topics that she insists that I do regularly, whether they're in the news or not.
And I say, no, not today.
She's just going to be cranky to make me miserable enough that the next time I'll do it.
So there's a method behind your madness.
Isn't that true?
Yes, it's true.
Boss, it's true.
Tell me.
Go ahead, put your mic on.
First of all, tell me.
First of all, I said you did a great job, and you were a consummate professional with your handling of this tragedy and this tragic news, and you did a really good job.
Well, you're being really nice.
And, you know, I don't want to cover these stories anymore.
I don't want to say the words anymore.
Our thoughts and prayers are with, and they are with the people.
But I don't want to say anything.
I'm so sick and tired of these shootings.
And I just know in my heart of hearts that evil is always going to be with us.
You know, the whole story of human history and existence, you must recognize evil exists.
I wrote a whole book about it, and I was compelled to write it.
I hate writing books.
Writing books is hard.
You got to write it, you got to edit it, you got to re-edit it, you got to polish it, you got to paint it, you got to finish it, then you got to ask people to buy it.
Then you got to go on book tours.
So I do care for these people.
There are five families today, five, that will never see their loved ones again.
There are families from 9-11.
Do you think they ever got over losing their moms and dads?
I don't think so.
They think about it, they live with that.
There's a hole in their heart every day.
And it's painful.
And we go from shooting to shooting to shooting and we forget that.
Now, some of you, at some point, this will be turned into a gun issue.
Well, I go back to San Bernardino.
I've been carrying a gun my entire adult life.
Now, do you want me in the room when the guy reloads with my gun or not?
I took a test out in Florida, bullseye, bullseye.
And the guy's like, wow, you really, you've shot before.
And I go, yeah, and I can't see anymore either.
And he left.
I had to take a test.
I got my Florida gun license.
I didn't tell you that.
Yeah.
All right, 800-941-Sean, toll-free telephone number.
You want to be a part of the program.
We'll come back.
The latest on health care is next.
This is Nnamdi Asamoah.
I play football for the Philadelphia Eagles, but what I do off the field with United Way might be more important.
I'm a volunteer tutor and mentor.
Why?
Because over a million kids a year drop out of school, and that's not okay.
It takes 12 years to create a graduate, but it takes about the same time to create a dropout.
And the difference between a child becoming one or the other could be me, or it could be you.
Studies show that if we get to these kids earlier, their chances are better.
And kids who read well by third grade are more likely to graduate.
So join me in United Way.
Suit up and take the pledge.
Become a volunteer reader, tutor, or mentor.
Because when a child succeeds, we all succeed.
Give, advocate, volunteer, live united.
Take the pledge at unitedway.org.
Brought to you by United Way, the Ad Council, and the National Football League.
In 1977, an eight-year-old boy picked up the game of golf from his father.
The odds of that same boy winning the U.S. Open twice, one in 1.2 billion.
The odds of him having a child diagnosed with autism?
One in 110.
Ernie Els encourages you to learn the signs of autism at autismspeaks.org.
Brought to you by Autism Speaks and the Ad Council.
NASCAR champion Bobby Lavoni here with my brother Terry and my nephew Justin.
You know, every sport has its essential safety gear.
For racing, we wear a helmet, fire retardant suits, and no mechs gloves.
For fishing, waterfowl hunting, and boating, we wear life jackets.
After an intense race, there's nothing more relaxing than fast fishing or a little duck hunting on the lake.
But we're the first ones to tell you, on the track or on the water, accidents happen fast.
In a crash, there's no time to put on a helmet.
And when a boater capsizes or is thrown from the boat, there's rarely time to reach a stowed life jacket.
But today's life jackets are lightweight and comfortable.
Fishing or hunting, they don't get in your way.
That's why you won't catch a Lavani on the water without a life jacket.
Don't let us catch you either.
Remember, you're in command.
Boat safely.
This message brought to you by the United States Coast Guard.
For more information on boating safety, visit www.uscgboating.org.
My name is Dale Posinski, and this is how I live United.
I volunteer with United Way, helping the homeless in my community by teaching computer skills and helping them build a basic resume to save on their very own USB drive.
It's huge when somebody says, hey man, that job that you helped me apply for, I got it.
My name is Dale Posinski.
I help people achieve financial independence.
So I don't just wear this shirt.
I love it.
Give, advocate, volunteer.
LiveUnited.
Go to liveunited.org.
Brought to you by United Way and the Ed Council.
This is All Hands Radio News.
I'm Petty Officer Liz Balahos.
If you think construction is a challenging endeavor on land, imagine doing it underwater.
Chief Petty Officer Lynn Rodriguez takes us into the world of a CB diver.
When I'm getting ready to dive, I'm nervous, I'm excited, my heart starts racing, and I just hope that I get the job done and the weather and the water's cooperating with us.
I am Chief Petty Officer Lynn Rodriguez.
I am a Navy construction electrician and CB diver.
We do underwater construction, we do demolition, build boat ramps, mooring inspections, cable inspections.
Depends on the job and the location.
We do some salvage, debris removal, depending where it's at.
Underwater when I'm working, I feel good.
I feel like it's just a way for me to get to work.
But at the same time, you have a lot of other things you got to worry about.
I have to worry about how much air do I have left.
I got to worry about my buddy, you know, because he's watching me and I'm watching him, making sure we're okay.
And if we're lucky, we get to see.
If not, everything is by feel.
You always have a buddy with you.
You're never doing anything by yourself.
You're never alone.
I followed my dad's advice to always prove myself and do what I can in the Navy and make him proud, make everyone proud.
So I try to do that with everything I do.
Being a woman, it's sometimes more challenging because we have to wear the same amount of gear that a man does.
And we have to do the same amount of pull-ups that a man does for the physical training and the test.
It's a challenge, but you can do it.
You just got to set your mind to it.
Taught me how to be a leader, independent, confident.
That's All Hands Radio News.
For more information, go to navy.mil, navy.mil slash underway, and navy.mil slash m.
Rolls crazy.
Three hours a day, every day.
The Sean Hannity Show is back on the air.
But I don't know if you have heard that it is a legislation for the future.
Not just about health care for America, but about a healthier America, where preventive care is not something that you have to pay a deductible for or out of pocket.
That prevention, prevention, prevention is about diet, not diabetes.
It's going to be very, very exciting.
But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it away from the fog of the controversy.
Repeal Affordable Care Act?
That's a problem.
Lifetime limits.
That's a problem.
If you're a senior, you know, Medicaid, almost half of Medicaid is about long-term health care.
You want grandma living in the guest room?
You repeal the Affordable Care Act.
This is part of an initiative that is part of the Ryan budget that says we're going to voucherize Medicare.
We're going to block grant Medicaid.
So this has a tremendous assault on the health and health security and the financial security that goes with what the Affordable Care Act has done for the American people.
And so make America sick again.
Is that what the Republicans want to do?
I certainly hope not.
Hopefully we can work together to find a path to address some of the concerns they may have, but not to undermine this pillar of economic and health security for the American people.
It stands right there with Social Security, which they want to undermine, Medicare and Medicaid, which they want to undermine, Affordable Care Act.
So the president asked us, are you ready?
Do you have the fight in you?
He didn't need to ask us that question, I don't think.
Because the first big fight of this new Congress will be over health care.
Republicans are plotting, and soon we'll be executing a full-scale assault on the three pillars that support the American health care system.
The Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid.
The Republican plan to cut health care wouldn't make America great again.
It would make America sick again and lead to chaos instead of affordable care.
Republicans would create chaos in the health care system because they're stuck between a rock and a hard place.
They have no idea what to put in place of the Affordable Care Act.
For years, they've talked about repeal, but for five years now, they have had nothing to put in its place.
If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period.
If you've got health insurance, you like your doctor, you like your plan, you can keep your doctor.
You can keep your plan.
No matter what you've heard, if you like your doctor or health care plan, you can keep it.
Under the reform we seek, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.
A system where we're going to work with your employers to lower your premiums by up to $2,500 per family per year.
We will start by reducing premiums by as much as $2,500 per family.
Here's what Change is saying to people who already have health insurance, and the employers who are providing it will work to lower your premiums by up to $2,500 per family per year.
I also have a health care plan that would save the average family $2,500 on their premiums.
And if you already have health care, then we're going to reduce costs an average of $2,500 per family on premiums.
We're going to work with your employer to lower the costs of your premiums by up to $2,500 a year.
And we'll cut the cost of a typical family's health care by up to $2,500 per year.
And if you've got health care, we're going to work with your employer to lower your premiums by $2,500 per family per year.
What did I tell you on Monday?
I said, be prepared.
This year is going to be a battle.
Donald Trump wants to fundamentally transform not only the economy by lowering corporate tax rates and repatriation, repealing, replacing Obamacare, energy independence, education, back to the states, choice in education, building the wall, vetting refugees, Supreme Court justices.
I said, you can't vote and just think it's all going to happen.
If you're not prepared for a battle this year and a fight on every one of these issues, then there is a chance this opportunity is going to be squandered.
And we need to get the country back on the right trajectory.
So the first thing that the Democrats always do is they resort to their fear tactics.
Oh, do you want your...
By the way, is it me?
I didn't even recognize Nancy Pelosi's voice anymore.
It's bizarre.
Anyway, so grandma's going to live in the basement.
Well, with all due respect, my mother-in-law has lived in an apartment in my house that I built for her for years.
She only recently moved to the villages.
And I don't know if she's wearing the gold or silver shoes.
I give her a hard time about it all the time.
But she's in the villages and having the time of her life, but she comes home and lives with us.
So I mean, I love my mother-in-law.
She's awesome.
Great lady.
Sometimes a pain in the neck, but she likes me mostly.
The dogs love her.
She's great with the kids.
She's the only grandparent my kids have.
They never knew my parents.
They never met my parents.
You know, my father-in-law died when they were very young.
I mean, she's been their only grandparent.
It's great to have her around.
Anyway, so, you know, I don't know what that means, like that's a punishment to have your relatives living with you.
I don't think so.
I love having my family at my house.
I'm sure most of you do.
Now, the Kaiser, I've been telling you all week, so they're going to try and scare old people.
They're going to try and scare you to death.
Every promise they made was broken.
Millions of Americans lost their doctors.
Millions of Americans lost their plans.
And the Kaiser Foundation, I've been giving you a wrong number.
I've been saying, on average, since Obama's been president in 2009, health care costs per family have gone up $4,100.
I've been wrong.
The Kaiser Foundation updated those numbers.
The average family increase for health premiums is $5,600 under Obama.
That does not include, if you live in Arizona, the 116% increase you are going to be seeing this year or all the other states that are seeing double-digit increases on average about 30 to 40 percent.
So, yeah, Republicans actually have nine different replacement plans.
Now, throughout all of this, there has been one person that has read this bill more than anybody else could probably cite the entire two or three thousand pages of it by memory.
She's the former lieutenant governor of the state of New York, patient advocate.
She is founded and is now the chairman of the committee to reduce infection deaths.
Betsy McCoy is with us.
Also, Nick Fish is the National Program Director for American Atheists.
Welcome both of you to the program.
Thank you, Sean.
Betsy McCoy, $5,600 on average.
Premiums have doubled since 2013.
Premiums in the individual market have doubled.
That's what Obamacare did.
Okay, now there are differing solutions and plans.
Competition, buying across state lines, portability, but also preserving pre-existing conditions will be in any Republican bill that always was.
Yes, and let me make it clear, because there's been so much fear-mongering.
It's distressing to watch.
There are approximately 20 million people who have gained coverage because of Obamacare.
16 million of those, Sean, are on Medicaid, a program that has been around since 1965.
The Congress is not abolishing Medicaid, and the states that have expanded it, well, it's up to them, but it's highly unlikely that they're going to do a 180 and throw new people off the rolls.
The Republicans simply want to make sure that taxpayers as well as patients are getting their money's worth.
So they're going to block grant Medicaid to the state because with all that spending, and right now Medicaid per capita spending is.
Well, let me explain this.
Block granting means instead of running the financing through Washington, you'll get a bigger bang for your buck.
The same amount of money will be spent, but you take because Washington basically weighs through the bureaucracy about 50 cents of every dollar.
Right.
So decisions are going to be made closer to home, right?
And you know that states will spend this money when it's a fixed amount of money much more carefully than when they just have an open line of credit with the federal government.
You know what happens when you give your kids your credit card?
Hey, they spend as much as they want.
But if you say you've got $100, make it, make it stretch, make it go someplace, they spend the money wisely.
And that's what we need because all the studies show that for all this new Medicaid spending, we're not seeing the kind of improvement in patients' health that we should be.
Reductions in high blood pressure, controlling diabetes.
We want to see the results.
I agree.
All right.
Nick Fish, you're the National Program Director, American Atheist.
Do you like Obamacare?
From an atheist perspective, the Affordable Care Act isn't something that we weighed in on on the policy side of things.
You know, we're not a health care thing.
But one of the problems that we had with the Affordable Care Act was creating all sorts of exemptions and little carve-outs for groups on the basis of religion.
So from that angle.
To be perfectly honest, you're kind of boring me with this discussion.
I don't think the little sisters of the poor need to be buying plans that go against their religious beliefs.
And I would like a little bit of religious tolerance from you atheists.
Yeah, carve-outs?
Why should the federal government be telling us anything that conflicts with our religion?
Exactly.
Well, so what they put in place were minimum standards, you know, and there weren't carve-outs in the Affordable Care Act, and there aren't carve-outs and all sorts of other things for people who object to blood transfusions or whatever else.
That's just included in the past.
Hey, Nick, let me ask you a question.
Do you think that if adults are going to have sex, do you think they should be responsible for their own birth control?
Well, I think that most adults are responsible for their own birth control.
So in other words, for example, if you're getting the pill, you can get it very inexpensively at Walmart for about $9 or $10 a month.
That's the problem.
That's exactly the issue, is that it wasn't inexpensive.
The problem with not covering these sorts of things and not providing preventative care is that it increases, and I'm sure Betsy knows this as well as anyone, it increases outcomes overall, that it's much more expensive to have a complicated pregnancy if you have an ectopic pregnancy than it is to just provide a different type of birth control that might be.
Let me go back to Betsy for a minute because this is really important.
I would argue that the Republicans, if they're going to make this health care transition successful, I agree with block granting money back to states, taking it out of the Washington bureaucracy.
I also think that you've got to be very careful with every dollar you spend.
The best way to do that is take it out of the hands of the bureaucrats, and maybe even an outside, I don't know, accountant can be responsible for the movement of that money.
The second thing that I think is most important is competition.
Allow the free market, allow portability, job to job, allow people to buy across state lines, competition.
And what's going to happen is those companies that left, like Aetna, Humana, and Blue Cross, and Blue Shield and United, they're all going to want to get back in the business because this is what they do.
That's right.
And furthermore, let me just make it very clear.
I've been working on this for days now, looking very carefully at the wording and the numbers.
The people who have preexisting conditions will be fully protected.
That is the most important thing to tell people.
You can't really say that yet because Nick, let her finish a thought.
I can't say that yet.
I've read every single one of these plans, looked at the budget numbers, considered how much it's going to cost, and I can say that people in the individual market with preexisting conditions will be taken care of.
Hang on a second.
Nick, have you read any of the plans?
Yeah, I've absolutely read that.
Which one?
And I've looked at Price's plan as well.
You looked at it or you've read it?
I haven't read it.
You haven't read it.
Well, I have, word for word, and I'm telling you that those plans provide for two things.
They provide that people with preexisting conditions will be able to get federally funded health insurance through high-risk pools.
And why is that better?
I'll give you an example.
Before Obamacare, people in the individual market who had cancer could go to the high-risk pool in their state and get a plan with, on average, a $38,000 subsidy.
That's what the federal high-risk pool provided, $38,000, $32,000, some years, more, other years, but a very hefty subsidy.
And they could get care at a cancer hospital and see an oncologist.
Obamacare plans, on the other hand, often exclude cancer hospitals, so people had to give up the kind of plan that would provide them with real specialty care.
And in 2014, they were moved into these Obamacare plans, which, for example, in New York City don't allow you to go to Memorial Sloan Kettering.
And we know from the research that people who are newly diagnosed with cancer, if they're not treated at the beginning at a National Cancer Institute-designated hospital, they have up to a 50% higher chance of dying.
So those people are going to be better off after Obamacare.
You disagree with that, Nick, or is that a good idea?
Is that most of those plans had, for example, lifetime limits.
They had maximum.
What I'm explaining is that people who had chronic conditions were enrolled in high-risk pools.
And those pools really looked out for people who had those conditions.
There was extra funding available.
Instead of foisting the cost of the sick on the small number of healthy people in the individual market, which is why premiums have doubled, but so that's the question: is how are we going to handle the people who are sick?
And it is a very complicated question.
It is something that's complicated because 35 states did it before.
And let me just point out that Alaska, this is a very interesting story.
Alaska was facing a huge premium hike this year, 40%.
So the state officials in Alaska didn't wait for Washington to solve their problem.
The state officials said, look, we're going to identify the people in our individual market who are seriously or chronically ill.
And we're going to set aside $55 million in funding to take care of their health.
And they were able to avert the premium hikes that everybody.
You know what I love about you, Betsy?
And I used to make fun of you because you carried this stupid bill around with you everywhere you went, but you know this top to bottom better than anybody else in the country.
And you've been proven right from day one.
God bless you for your hard work on this.
And I mean that.
You've been great.
Thank you.
Nick, well, you need to read more.
800-941-Sean is our toll-free telephone number.
You want to be a part of the program.
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Sean's got more behind-the-scenes information.
More contacts than anybody.
More friends behind the curtain.
Sean Hannity is on.
I don't know if you have heard that it is a legislation for the future.
Not just about health care for America, but about a healthier America, where preventive care is not something that you have to pay a deductible for or out of pocket.
That prevention, prevention, prevention is about diet, not diabetes.
It's going to be very, very exciting.
But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it away from the fog of the controversy.
Repeal Affordable Care Act.
That's a problem.
Lifetime limits.
That's a problem.
If you're a senior, you know, Medicaid, almost half of Medicaid is about long-term health care.
You want grandma living in the guest room?
You repeal the Affordable Care Act.
This is part of an initiative that is part of the Ryan budget that says we're going to voucherize Medicare.
We're going to block grant Medicaid.
So this has a tremendous assault on the health and health security and the financial security that goes with what the Affordable Care Act has done for the American people.
And so make America sick again.
Is that what the Republicans want to do?
I certainly hope not.
Hopefully we can work together to find a path to address some of the concerns they may have, but not to undermine this pillar of economic and health security for the American people.
It stands right there with Social Security, which they want to undermine, Medicare and Medicaid, which they want to undermine, Affordable Care Act.
So the president asked us, are you ready?
Do you have the fight in you?
He didn't need to ask us that question, I don't think.
Because the first big fight of this new Congress will be over health care.
Republicans are plotting and soon will be executing a full-scale assault on the three pillars that support the American health care system.
The Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid.
The Republican plan to cut health care wouldn't make America great again.
It would make America sick again and lead to chaos instead of affordable care.
Republicans would create chaos in the health care system because they're stuck between a rock and a hard place.
They have no idea what to put in place of the Affordable Care Act.
For years, they've talked about repeal, but for five years now, they have had nothing to put in its place.
If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period.
If you've got health insurance, you like your doctor, you like your plan, you can keep your doctor.
You can keep your plan.
No matter what you've heard, if you like your doctor or health care plan, you can keep it.
Under the reform we seek, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.
A system where we're going to work with your employers to lower your premiums by up to $2,500 per family per year.
We will start by reducing premiums by as much as $2,500 per family.
Here's what change is saying to people who already have health insurance, and the employers who are providing it will work to lower your premiums by up to $2,500 per family per year.
I also have a health care plan that would save the average family $2,500 on their premiums.
And if you already have health care, then we're going to reduce costs an average of $2,500 per family on premiums.
We're going to work with your employer to lower the costs of your premiums by up to $2,500 a year.
And we'll cut the cost of a typical family's health care by up to $2,500 per year.
And if you've got health care, we're going to work with your employer to lower your premiums by $2,500 per family per year.
What did I tell you on Monday?
I said, be prepared.
This year is going to be a battle.
Donald Trump wants to fundamentally transform not only the economy by lowering corporate tax rates and repatriation, repealing, replacing Obamacare, energy independence, education, back to the states, choice in education, building the wall, vetting refugees, Supreme Court justices.
I said, you can't vote and just think it's all going to happen.
If you're not prepared for a battle this year and a fight on every one of these issues, then there is a chance this opportunity is going to be squandered.
And we need to get the country back on the right trajectory.
So the first thing that the Democrats always do is they resort to their fear tactics.
Oh, do you want your, by the way, is it me?
I didn't even recognize Nancy Pelosi's voice anymore.
It's bizarre.
Anyway, so grandma's going to live in the basement.
Well, with all due respect, my mother-in-law has lived in an apartment in my house that I built for her for years.
She only recently moved to the villages.
And I don't know if she's wearing the gold or silver shoes.
I give her a hard time about it all the time.
But she's in the villages and having the time of her life, but she comes home and lives with us.
So why?
I mean, I love my mother-in-law.
She's awesome.
Great lady.
Sometimes a pain in the neck, but she likes me mostly.
The dogs love her.
She's great with the kids.
She's the only grandparent my kids have.
They never knew my parents.
They never met my parents.
You know, my father-in-law died when they were very young.
I mean, she's been their only grandparent.
It's great to have her around.
Anyway, so, you know, I don't know what that means, like that's a punishment to have your relatives living with you.
I don't think so.
I love having my family at my house.
I'm sure most of you do.
Now, the Kaiser, I've been telling you all week, so they're going to try and scare old people.
They're going to try and scare you to death.
Every promise they made was broken.
Millions of Americans lost their doctors.
Millions of Americans lost their plans.
And the Kaiser Foundation, I've been giving you a wrong number.
I've been saying, on average, since Obama's been president in 2009, health care costs per family have gone up $4,100.
I've been wrong.
The Kaiser Foundation updated those numbers.
The average family increase for health premiums is $5,600 under Obama.
That does not include, if you live in Arizona, the 116% increase you are going to be seeing this year or all the other states that are seeing double-digit increases, on average about 30% to 40%.
So, yeah, Republicans actually have nine different replacement plans.
Now, throughout all of this, there has been one person that has read this bill more than anybody else could probably cite the entire 2,000 or 3,000 pages of it by memory.
She's the former lieutenant governor of the state of New York, patient advocate.
She is founded and is now the chairman of the committee to reduce infection deaths.
Betsy McCoy is with us.
Also, Nick Fish is the National Program Director for American Atheists.
Welcome both of you to the program.
Thank you, Sean.
Betsy McCoy, $5,600 on average.
Premiums have doubled since 2013.
Premiums in the individual market have doubled.
That's what Obamacare did.
Okay, now there are differing solutions and plans.
Competition, buying across state lines, portability, but also preserving pre-existing conditions will be in any Republican bill that always was.
Yes, and let me make it clear, because there's been so much fear-mongering.
It's distressing to watch.
There are approximately 20 million people who have gained coverage because of Obamacare.
16 million of those, Sean, are on Medicaid, a program that has been around since 1965.
The Congress is not abolishing Medicaid, and the states that have expanded it, well, it's up to them, but it's highly unlikely that they're going to do a 180 and throw new people off the rolls.
The Republicans simply want to make sure that taxpayers as well as patients are getting their money's worth.
So they're going to block grant Medicaid to the state because with all that spending, and right now Medicaid per capita spending is.
Well, let me explain this.
Block granting means instead of running the financing through Washington, you'll get a bigger bang for your buck.
The same amount of money will be spent, but you take because Washington basically wastes through the bureaucracy about 50 cents of every dollar.
Right.
So decisions are going to be made closer to home, right?
And you know that states will spend this money when it's a fixed amount of money much more carefully than when they just have an open line of credit with the federal government.
You know what happens when you give your kids your credit card?
Hey, they spend as much as they want.
But if you say you've got $100, make it, make it stretch, make it go someplace, they spend the money wisely.
And that's what we need because all the studies show that for all this new Medicaid spending, we're not seeing the kind of improvement in patients' health that we should be.
Reductions in high blood pressure, controlling diabetes.
We want to see the results.
I agree.
All right.
Nick Fish, you're the National Program Director, American Atheist.
Do you like Obamacare?
From an atheist perspective, the Affordable Care Act isn't something that we weighed in on on the policy side of things.
You know, we're not a health care thing.
But one of the problems that we had with the Affordable Care Act was creating all sorts of exemptions and little carve-outs for groups on the basis of religion.
So from that angle.
To be perfectly honest, you're kind of boring me with this discussion.
I don't think the little sisters of the poor need to be buying plans that go against their religious beliefs.
And I would like a little bit of religious tolerance from you, atheists.
Yeah, carve-outs?
Why should the federal government be telling us anything that conflicts with our religion?
Exactly.
Well, so what they put in place were minimum standards, you know, and there weren't carve-outs in the Affordable Care Act, and there aren't carve-outs and all sorts of other things for people who object to blood transfusions or whatever else.
That's just included in the past.
Hey, hey, Nick, let me ask you a question.
Do you think that if adults are going to have sex, do you think they should be responsible for their own birth control?
Well, I think that most adults are responsible for their own birth control.
So in other words, for example, if you're getting the pill, you can get it very inexpensively at Walmart for about $9 or $10 a month.
That's the problem.
That's exactly the issue, is that it wasn't inexpensive.
The problem with not covering these sorts of things and not providing preventative care is that it increases, and I'm sure Betsy knows this as well as anyone, it increases outcomes overall, that it's much more expensive to have a complicated pregnancy if you have an ectopic pregnancy than it is to just provide a different type of birth control that might be.
Let me go back to Betsy for a minute because this is really important.
I would argue that the Republicans, if they're going to make this health care transition successful, I agree with block granting money back to states, taking it out of the Washington bureaucracy.
I also think that you've got to be very careful with every dollar you spend.
The best way to do that is take it out of the hands of the bureaucrats, and maybe even an outside, I don't know, accountant can be responsible for the movement of that money.
The second thing that I think is most important is competition.
Allow the free market, allow portability, job to job, allow people to buy across state lines, competition.
And what's going to happen is those companies that left, like Aetna, Humana, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield and United, they're all going to want to get back in the business because this is what they do.
That's right.
And furthermore, let me just make it very clear.
I've been working on this for days now, looking very carefully at the wording and the numbers.
The people who have pre-existing conditions will be fully protected.
That is the most important thing to tell people.
You can't really say that yet because Nick, let us finish the thought.
I can't say that yet.
I've read every single one of these plans, looked at the budget numbers, considered how much it's going to cost, and I can say that people in the individual market with preexisting conditions will be taken care of.
Hang on a second.
Nick, have you read any of the plans?
Yeah, I've absolutely read that.
Which one?
Better way, and I've looked at Price's plan as well.
You looked at it or you've read it?
I haven't read it.
You haven't read it.
Well, I have, word for word, and I'm telling you that those plans provide for two things.
They provide that people with preexisting conditions will be able to get federally funded health insurance through high-risk pools.
And why is that better?
I'll give you an example.
Before Obamacare, people in the individual market who had cancer could go to the high-risk pool in their state and get a plan with, on average, a $38,000 subsidy.
That's what the federal high-risk pool provided, $38,000, $32,000, some years, more other years, but a very hefty subsidy.
And they could get care at a cancer hospital and see an oncologist.
Obamacare plans, on the other hand, often exclude cancer hospitals.
So people had to give up the kind of plan that would provide them with real specialty care.
And in 2014, they were moved into these Obamacare plans, which, for example, in New York City don't allow you to go to Memorial Sloan Kettering.
And we know from the research that people who are newly diagnosed with cancer, if they're not treated at the beginning at a National Cancer Institute-designated hospital, they have up to a 50% higher chance of dying.
So those people are going to be better off after Obamacare.
You disagree with that, Nick, or is that a good idea?
Let's hack onto that is that most of those plans had, for example, lifetime limits.
They had maximum cost reimbursement.
What I'm explaining is that people who had chronic conditions were enrolled in high-risk pools.
And those pools really looked out for people who had those conditions.
There was extra funding available.
Instead of foisting the cost of the sick on the small number of healthy people in the individual market, which is why premiums have doubled, it was taken care of separately and put on taxpayers.
But so that's the question: how are we going to handle the people who are sick?
And it is a very complicated question.
It isn't very complicated because 35 states did it before.
And let me just point out that Alaska, this is a very interesting story.
Alaska was facing a huge premium hike this year, 40%.
So the state officials in Alaska didn't wait for Washington to solve their problem.
The state officials said, look, we're going to identify the people in our individual market who are seriously or chronically ill.
And we're going to set aside $55 million in funding to take care of their health.
And they were able to avert the premium hikes that everybody.
You know what I love about you, Betsy?
And I used to make fun of you because you carried this stupid bill around with you everywhere you went, but you know this top to bottom better than anybody else in the country.
And you've been proven right from day one.
God bless you for your hard work on this.
And I mean that.
You've been great.
Thank you.
Nick, well, you need to read more.
You want smart political talk without the meltdowns?
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And I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
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