Sean opened the show with a subject that was far from what should have opened the show, namely his one-on-one interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that aired in the second hour. Instead of Netanyahu, Sean addressed harassment claims aimed at him. "The environment in which we are working here, there is day-to-day hostility toward the President and anybody who dare support him," offered Hannity. "I've been 30 years in Radio, and I've been with Fox News since I started, and there has not been a time in my career where there hasn't been an attempt to smear or besmirch me." Sean vehemently denied the accusations and then moved on to his excellent interview with Prime Minister Netanyahu. The Sean Hannity Show is live weekdays from 3 pm to 6 pm ET on iHeartRadio and Hannity.com. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
You are listening to the Sean Hannity radio show podcast.
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Why do I sense and feel and believe in my gut, my heart, my mind, my body, my soul?
Um, that a lot more people in the media probably listening today.
I'm just guessing.
Linda, what do you think?
It's probably more people listening today.
Just a few.
Just people that probably don't like me or this show, and they're dying for gossip.
Anyway, we've got a lot to get to.
This is going to be a big week for Trump.
It looks like we've got a deal on healthcare, but it probably won't be voted on this week.
Maybe get an update from Jamie Dupree if if he's around.
Uh Jamie was uh writing us earlier today, and of course, the president on Wednesday will be unveiling his uh economic plan, which is so desperately needed to um to get this economy back on track and get Americans out of poverty off of food stamps and and back to work.
Look, I've got to start with something that I'd I'd rather not waste a lot of airtime on, that I'd rather not have to discuss.
I'd rather not have my family have to go through, but it is what it is, and you know, I want to just say this.
I am extraordinarily humbled and and very, very thankful for all of you in this audience.
One thing I've always known my entire career, now 30 years in radio, 21 and a half years of Fox, is that I don't have this opportunity every day, but not for all of you and all of my irredeemable, deplorable friends that cling to their God, guns, bibles, and religion.
Um I have to say thank you because the the notes and the comments on social media that you have been making and and the fairness of judgment more than anything else, when the case has been presented, um, it's not that difficult to discern what's going on here.
And and all of you have gotten it and gotten it very quickly and have offered words of support, it means a lot to me.
And you know, I want to start by addressing something that I have mentioned on the air before, but it is the reality if you are a conservative and a prominent conservative in the country today, and that is what I can only call a well-orchestrated effort by very intolerant people on the left that is purposefully designed to silence every conservative voice,
and they're willing to do it by any means necessary.
This is not a paranoid conspiracy theory.
And it's just gotten to a point here where I've I've got to speak out and I've got to bring you in the loop, and you've got to understand the environment in which we are working here.
I think most of you do, because you see the the day-to-day hostility just towards the president.
And you see the hostility of anybody and everybody that dares to like and support him.
How dare us disagree with them?
And I'll explain who them are in a minute.
They are in a minute.
Um, it's kind of like right out of the rules for radicals.
This is Saul O'Linski, isolate, destroy, and etc.
They're targets.
But look, I've been 30 years in radio.
I've been at the Fox News Channel probably 21 and a half years since they started in October 1996.
I have to be honest, I mean, during that time, there has not ever been a time in my career that there wasn't an effort or an attempt to smear and slander and besmirch me.
I mean, in all reality, I've been called everything.
I don't think there's anything I haven't been called or accused of in the course of my career.
Um, but it's never been like it is today, as it is now.
And, you know, so you understand the environment that Rush and Mark and Glenn Beck and Laura Ingram and myself and Michael Savage and everybody in radio works under here.
You need to understand this.
And some of us get along and some of us don't get along.
But it mostly we do get along.
But every single minute, every single second, three hours on radio every day, one hour on television every night, there are people in their underwears, some in New Mexico, for example, that are being paid to monitor every single word that all of us say.
Every word, not some words, not some days, every minute, every day, every prominent conservative that you like or maybe don't like are being monitored in the hopes that one word, one phrase, one sentence will come flying out of our mouths, and they can twist distort, or maybe we just say something stupid.
We can't apologize for it because it's too late then.
And that those words will be used because they don't like our politics to destroy and silence the voices that you want to hear and ruin people's reputation in the process and get us off the air.
Now, and they they use varying methods from there.
They'll attack, they'll start these boycotts, advertiser boycotts.
Wow, they said this.
Are you going to support them?
And advertisers are naturally skittish.
That's why I say I don't support boycotts.
I don't want boycotts of liberal shows on radio or TV.
I think they should be able to Bill Marr eviscerated me this weekend.
And I think Bill Maher should say anything he wants to say.
I can criticize it, I can fight back if I want.
He's irrelevant to me, but it's um it's the environment we're working in that we live in.
I can tell you in 30 years, I don't know that it's ever gotten this intense.
I think under the in the age of Trump, it's only gotten worse.
That I support the president, I support his policies.
And, you know, you've got a liberal fascism that has emerged that can't stand opposition voices, and they want to shut us all down.
All of us.
Now, if you don't know, I gotta be honest, I have a pretty thick skin.
I really do.
None of this, it's like water off a duck's back to me.
I call people out, I'm on the air four hours a day, I dish it out, give my opinions, my point of view.
And for all these years, uh, you know, people ask me all the time, oh, are you okay, my friends?
They're like, oh, dude, I read that article.
Are you okay?
Are you okay?
I'm like, yeah, what are you talking about?
You know, am I supposed to is this that's supposed to affect me?
It doesn't.
Maybe I've just got a missing chip like Jennifer Aniston once said about Brad Pitt.
I don't know.
But in light of recent events, I've now come to the conclusion I can't remain silent anymore.
I can no longer let this slander, these smearing attempts of me slide by.
And I just made a decision that from now on, because I could either be silent, take it like I have for 30 years, not give a rip, but it's now to the point they they want, there are groups of people that want me off the air badly.
They want my voice silenced.
So I can either sit back and wait for that day to come, or I can fight.
And I've decided, for those of you in my audience that like this show, that like My TV show that I don't want them to be able to take it from you, nor do I want them to be able to take it from me.
And I think that our voices combined are very important.
Conservative talk radio is extremely important to the future of the country, in my view.
As is the Fox News Channel.
Extremely important to the country.
So from now on, I'm making an announcement.
I made an announcement this weekend.
Any person, any group, any organization, any media outlet that slanders, besmirches me, lies about me, my character, they're not getting a pass.
Because at this point, enough is enough.
And I have hired a team of some of the best attorneys, I mean the best in the country to work on my behalf.
Now, as I'm sure everybody knows, isn't it great when you have to read lies about yourself all weekend long and everybody knows about the lie the weekend that was told?
It just came for me this weekend when an individual who, for well over a decade, I mean, it's what is it, 12 years, whatever, however many years, has made one outrageous allegation and told numerous lies about me for well over a decade.
And now this person has resurfaced with more untrue claims about me.
Person goes on a radio show, makes unfounded accusations, which, by the way, now, interestingly, after my statement, they're now backing off of, but that's a separate issue for a separate day.
Only after I responded to the baseless and false claims, but this is not the first time I've had to deal with this individual.
This person has repeatedly spread lies about me back in 2010.
You may remember I was doing my freedom concert tours, raising a lot of money, millions of dollars for the Freedom Alliance, and a charity that supports our veterans and scholarships for the children of slain and severely injured soldiers.
I have donated, I just checked in with my accountant who did the math, well over a million dollars, most of it, to this particular charity, but other military charities in my life.
I spend hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket to facilitate these concerts.
And, you know, this person was went out an allegation saying that I was misappropriating funds to pay for planes and hotels and for myself.
Not one plane, not one hotel room, not one meal was ever paid for by this group, and they they refuted it themselves.
No apology, no correction after these slanderous accusations are made.
So I released a statement this weekend.
No correction.
Why don't you make why doesn't anyone ever correct?
Just say I'm sorry, I'm wrong.
We made a mistake.
So this weekend I released this statement.
I said, let me be clear.
The comments about me on a radio show last week by this individual are 100% false, a complete fabrication.
This individual is a serial harasser who has been lying about me for well over a decade.
The individual has a history, by the way, people are coming out of the woodwork.
You wouldn't believe how many emails I have of making provably false statements against me in an effort to slander, smear, besmirch my reputation.
The individual is not just slandered me over the years, but many people who this individual disagrees with.
The individual desperately seeks attention by any means necessary, including making unfounded personal attacks and using indefensible and outrageous political rhetoric.
And I said bluntly, my patience with this person is now over.
And I have retained a team of some of the finest and toughest lawyers in the country who are now in the process of laying out the legal course of action we will be taking against this individual.
Now, in this fiercely divided vindictive political climate, I will no longer allow slander and lies about me to go unchallenged.
I see this as a coordinated effort that is now afoot to silence those with conservative views.
So I'm just pledging today on the radio like I did this week, and I'm going to fight every single lie about me by all legal means available to me as an American.
again.
I'll have more about this on the other side.
There's too much news.
I'm not going to allow myself to be distracted, but I do have more to say because there's a bigger picture here that I want to share with you, and I don't think others are going to get to.
All right.
I'm not going to say much more about this except, and I'll deal with this tonight on Hannity 10 Eastern on the Fox News Channel.
I'm things are so out of control right now.
It's like blood in the water.
Let's get this person.
Let's get that person.
You know, it reminds me of 2010 when the IRS was weaponized against Tea Party and conservative groups to silence them in the lead up to the 2012 election.
It worked.
There's nothing that people would like more than to shut down Fox.
Shut down this radio program, Rush, Laura, Beck, my buddy Levin, the great one, Savage, all these people.
Shut down everybody.
So it's not about one individual.
This is not about Sean Hannity here.
Because I'm telling you that this is a well-orchestrated attempt to now silence the voice of every conservative in the country.
And if if somebody doesn't finally take a stand here, frankly, I wish it was somebody other than me.
I don't feel like doing this.
But if we don't stop it now, there won't be any conservative voices left.
I'm not the only person here that these liberal fascists routinely target.
And like me, conservatives are monitored, you know, every conservative is monitored every word they say, every word they write.
And contrary to the left's stated position about being so open-minded, you know, this effort to silence is alive and well in America today.
Their goal is simple shut up, shut down, completely silence conservatives by any means necessary.
And unlike the left, I have no problem with what liberals say.
None.
I have no problem with Bill Mars slandering me.
There's this girl, I don't even remember her name.
Call me something on Twitter this weekend, and I kind of made fun of her.
And it turns out she works at Fox Sports, and then people are like, oh, you're gonna get her fired.
I'm like, no, whoa, whoa, whoa.
I don't want to fire anybody.
You can say anything you want about me, but if you slander me, smear me, besmirch me, lie, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go after you with my team of attorneys.
So, you know, I call people out for their bias.
We explain why they're wrong, but I'm I never call for the left to be silenced.
So I will tell you one other thing.
This is don't think this isn't tied to President Trump because it is.
I've never seen any one individual smeared and slandered like him.
And we've seen it repeatedly.
The left has no limits in these efforts to destroy him.
They've gone after his wife, his 10-year-old son, his daughter, his son-in-law, his, you know, Rheinz and Bannon and Miller and Kellyanne, I mean, in the most vicious, vile way imaginable.
Ultimately, their goal on the left, they want as much collateral damage.
They want no support for the president.
They've tried to undermine the outcome of this election since November 9th.
So I just ask you, you know, as I will be, things will be coming out about this case that I am going to just lay it all out for you.
Just have an open mind.
That's all I ask.
I was light about this weekend.
I was smeared this weekend.
We allow this to happen to America, America as we know it.
Freedom of speech as we know it is over.
All right, 25 now till the top of the hour.
Uh honestly, we've got too much to get to today to really focus on me, but I just want you to know the environment in which we're working.
The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin B.B. Netanyahu will join us at the top of the hour.
We got the attorney general Jeff Sessions is going to join us.
And we've been telling you about the attack on extortion 17 that killed 17 Navy SEALs and 13 other brave Americans.
Well, now we have a whistleblower, retired Air Force captain Joni Marquez is now speaking out.
She was there because of the rules of engagement in the Obama era.
She literally had the enemy in her sights, asked for permission to fire and take them out.
They were firing on Americans, and she was denied permission, which would have saved the lives of 30 Americans.
How does this possibly happen?
Sarah Carter broke this uh story, of course, with uh circa.com.
She's the senior national security correspondent.
She'll also join us today.
It's unbelievable to me.
Um, some bad news for the left, and that is this Washington Post, but this has got to drive the liberals insane.
Because Trump would win the popular vote now over Clinton by four million votes.
And, you know, also two thirds say Democrats are at a touch with you, the American people.
But when you get into this whole issue of Trump, you know, it's the his approval rating now, according to this poll, not exactly a favorable poll for Donald Trump, but anyway, has him at 42%.
And as the networks love to emphasize, that's the lowest approval rating of any president in history at this point in their term.
Okay, but the fake news department media, Democratic media, still gives Trump 99% negative coverage, more than any other president that I've seen in my lifetime.
And a lot of the things about him that are said are smear and slander.
This is by the mainstream media.
But the bombshell in this survey is that the American people, if they could redo the election today, Donald Trump would defeat Hillary Clinton by winning the popular vote.
Don't you someday want to see a woman president of the United States of America?
All right, I told you to burn those tapes.
That's a hundred dollars.
And that one, and all of them, and don't play them anymore.
It's irritating.
We played it enough during the campaign.
Stop.
It's driving me.
I can't take it.
Anyway, but they have him winning 43% to 40%, and as this poll samples adults as opposed to registered voters or likely voters, adult voters samples almost always skew in favor of Democrats, which suggests that Trump's popular vote victory would even be higher than 4 million.
According to Wikipedia, there were almost 129 million votes cast last November.
And uh that's a lot of votes when Donald Trump would win the popular vote today.
And by the way, 98% of people that voted for Trump don't regret it.
And I don't regret it.
You know, they're trying to say he's had a horrible hundred days.
He didn't get Obamacare repealed and replaced yet.
Well, give him time because this weekend the Republicans agreed on the issue that was the sticking point for the Freedom Caucus, thanks to the Tuesday group and the study group and the and the moderates working with the Freedom Caucus and all together finally.
And as it relates to specific issues, they've got a deal.
I don't think they're going to do it this week.
It looks like next week, which is why I told them to come in this week, uh, last week and get it done.
Because I knew this week was going to be consumed by this continuing resolution, and of course, the threat of Chucky Schumer and Nancy Pelosi of a government shutdown because they don't want to fund the continuing resolution if Trump is going to get money to build the border wall, which he in fact supports, and we'll even ask Jeff Sessions about this because Jeff Sessions was down at the wall when we were in Israel last week, and we'll get his take on all of this.
Oh, by the way, another bit of bad news for the liberal media.
More Trump success.
U.S. home resales rose more than expected in March to the highest level in more than a decade.
Existing home sales climbed 4.4% for the month.
By the way, we had the lowest home ownership rate in 51 years.
Now maybe people are feeling better about the economy and thinking, all right, maybe I'll jump in.
Interest rates are still low.
And if there's any way you can pull that off and get a low interest rate loan, relatively low, 4%, 4.2%, whatever it is, get it now because I remember when interest rates were double digits.
It'll happen again at some point.
Sales have now increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.71 million units as of last month, the highest level this gauge has seen since February of 07.
So this is why do you think this is happening?
Oh, by accident.
I'm sure Trump had nothing to do with it.
Sixty-seven percent, more than two-thirds of Americans now say the Democrats have out of touch with the American people.
You think maybe they want to shut the government down this week, but it's not going to help them politically.
I'll tell you what I think people want today.
And I'll tell you why I think Trump is as popular as he is, especially in Red State America.
If you watch my buddy Sean Hannity, Bill Cunningham on with George Stevalos, he is a great American.
There's a different country in the middle of the country in Ohio, in Michigan, in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and all those little red states in the middle that basically consume ninety five percent of the landmass in this country.
And then you got the big cities that go Democrat, but anyway.
But the Democratic Party is now viewed as more at a touch than either President Trump or the party's political opponents.
Two-thirds think Democrats are out of touch because the American people just gave them eight years and they've done nothing.
They squandered it.
Highest level of lowest level labor participation rate, 13 million more Americans on food stamps, 8 million more in poverty, one in six American men, 18 to 34 in jail or out of work, live in a mommy's basement.
I mean, these economic statistics are horrible.
And you know what people want?
They want to get back to work.
They want to survive.
They want to do well.
They want to prosper.
They want a better America for their for their kids and their grandkids.
That's what they want.
This is not that hard to figure out.
I don't know how many of you were watching.
Uh failed French president Holland called on the French to oppose Le Pen.
Le Pen.
How do you say it?
You're you've you've got the French accent.
Marine Le Pen.
No, do it in your French accent.
No, it's just to say Marine Le Pen.
Do it in your New York accent.
No, I'm definitely not going to do it.
First of all, Marine Le Pin.
I just hope she wins.
That's all I care about.
Yeah, well, anyway, there's going to be a runoff here.
And Holland called on voters to back the liberal Macron in the second round of the presidential election.
When does this happen?
On May what?
May 7th?
May 7th.
May 7th?
All right.
So we'll be watching that pretty closely.
We have more Trump derangement syndrome out there.
You've got a you know, can you imagine anyone ever did this to Obama?
Left-wing college professors, all the taxpayer-funded universities, they continue to fast uh fantasize about killing Trump.
Could you imagine if this happened with any professor on any college campus and they're fantasizing about assassinating then President Obama?
It wouldn't be tolerated, nor should it be tolerated.
Anyway, a professor at an Alaska university is has put a painting of President Trump's decapitated head on display at the college art gallery.
How is that art?
Is that like the Virgin Mary, a picture of the Virgin Mary with elephant dung or the U.S. American flag dipped in a toilet or a place for people to stomp on the American flag?
Unbelievable.
By the way, did you see we have another American airline disaster?
Now we had a good trip.
We went out on L Al.
We went came back on Delta.
Which did you like better?
Delta or L Al?
Um I like them both.
I mean, the people were amazing on both.
I felt very lucky to have such good trips.
By the way, I'm great that you can sleep on planes because I come home.
This was the worst part of my weekend.
So I come home.
I have no sleep in Israel at all, like two hours and in three days.
I slept a little bit on the plane, you know, knocked myself out with booze and Advil PM.
And uh, so I get a little bit of sleep, not much, land, and then I say, you know what, I'm gonna stay up.
This way I'll really sleep great tonight.
And then I go play golf a little bit with a buddy of mine.
I'm not a good golfer.
I just go out to get some fresh air.
And then I take my daughter to dinner at her favorite restaurant.
I hadn't seen my daughter in a while, and I go take her out to dinner, my whole family.
And then I'm at the restaurant, and I'm thinking, oh, I'm gonna sleep.
And then all of a sudden, all hell breaks loose in my life.
I'm like, oh, no, not when I'm at my worst.
Not when I'm why is it when I'm that tired?
Unbelievable.
Anyway, so we had the United Airlines, you know, in that case, they bring on the police because they overbooked the flight and they drag this poor guy out by his hands that dragging him down the aisle.
I mean, it's just so dumb.
When all they had to do was say, how many people would like four free tickets to anywhere United flies first class, and we'll pay for your hotel room.
Okay, and we'll give you eight tickets, and we'll give you two thousand dollars.
But now they're gonna pay millions by the time it's said and done.
Now, you got this video.
It starts late, the video of an American Airlines flight attendant, apparently nearly waxes poor mother that's holding twins in her hands.
And, you know, with the metal stroller, you know, the poor woman is reduced to tears.
Then a passenger stands up for the woman and says, Hey, I'd be pissed too.
What are you doing?
You know, you don't pick on a lady with two kids.
What are you doing?
Trying to wake the guy up.
The guy gets in his grill and sticks his finger in his face, and The guy goes right back at him.
Pull the Hannity on him.
Really?
You want to go here?
You let's go.
Let's throw down.
Pretty funny.
But not funny for the poor mother.
I felt bad for that poor woman.
Good grief.
You know, here's the simple answer.
Oh, madam, welcome aboard.
Oh, what what beautiful children you have?
Let me help you get settled.
Can I help you with your stroller?
Can I hold one of your children for you?
Can I make it how can I make it easier for you?
How hard is it to travel with children?
Think about all the people we saw coming home from Israel from Passover.
These people have you have so much stuff when you have children.
And it's like the best way to make things move along more quickly is to help, not to hinder.
And they ended up, they did upgrade her to first class and get her where she needed to go, and they apologized.
At least they started to do the right thing, unlike United.
A little bit late for Yeah, that guy needs to go.
He should not be working anywhere with people or customer service.
He needs to work somewhere where there's absolutely no human interaction because he clearly does not know what he's doing.
Unbelievable.
And it's not that hard.
You know, if you remember, and you're not going to give me credit for this, but with everybody in our staff, and remember, especially on the way back, we had our film crew with us.
I mean, everybody.
I mean, all the guys were all in the same flight.
It was really cool.
We're all in business class together.
So, you know, it was it was kind of fun, although it was a late night flight and we were sleeping.
But it was nice to hang out because we're all good friends and we've all worked together for 20 years.
But if you notice, somebody, I won't mention names, me walked around and what did I try?
I I helped Fran, I helped you, I helped Sweet Baby because his back is awful, putting your stuff, and you putting your bags in the overhead compartment, like I did on the way out for you.
Case you forgot.
You help everybody with their bags, I have to say.
Because I'm because I can handle my back is fine.
I think I'm the only person that was assaulted or had you know bread or socks thrown at them.
But putting that aside, okay.
It wasn't a loaf of bread, it wasn't a loaf of bread.
The socks were brand new, not old smelly socks.
They came with the elegant.
The details don't matter, do they?
Yeah, the details matter.
It's not a big loaf of bread.
They're they're clean slice, not dirty.
It's like a baby roll type of bread that you can eat.
You can eat one.
You can only throw bread at people when it's very small.
Oh my god.
But you are very nice.
You're always offering to help people.
Do you want me to carry your bag?
Can I put your bag up?
You helped elderly women.
But you want to know why.
Why?
Because I watch these poor people on airplanes struggle.
And you know what?
For most people, they all overpack.
I'm not an overpacker.
And I lift these bags and I like, well, look at the person.
I'm like, really?
Really?
300 pounds?
How many pairs of shoes the lady you got in here?
And because I can, I'm strong.
I I do a hundred push-ups a day, a hundred sit-ups a day.
So it's easy for me, and I see these poor people about to throw their backs out.
Listen, when you started doing push-ups right when we were about to get on the plane, I was trying to figure out what you were doing.
And then you looked at me, you said, I'm prepping.
I have a lot of luggage to get in the overhead.
So I need to get my my workout in by the way.
You've done lying to our audience.
And then the sit-ups right there in front of everybody.
I was like, I was embarrassed.
You're as bad as all of these liberals that lie about me and slander.
You know what I'm gonna do?
I'm gonna sick my team of attorneys now.
Good luck if they're friends of mine too.
You're in trouble.
Well, don't give their names away yet because I I I want I won't.
That's that's privileged.
But um you will admit they're three of the toughest best attorneys in the country.
Watch out.
You know what I think I'm gonna have to do?
I think I'm gonna have to put them on a full year-round retainer because I don't think these these attacks are stopping by any means.
And you know what I'll do?
I'll just let them handle it all and then I'll go to sleep every day.
I think that sounds like a good idea.
I think that's a pretty good idea.
That's sort of like, you know, you do your job, Ethan his and sweet baby his and Jason his and Sunshine over there hers, and everybody at Fox does their job and I do mine, and you know, we'll just maybe we ought to just create a new law firm.
Conservative, save conservatism our us.
And I'll fund it and I'll defend everybody.
All right, are you done making fun of me?
I'm glad you've enjoyed this.
Meanwhile, I'm at the the most tired I've been after this trip.
By the way, who filled in for me?
I didn't even ask because I was in a meeting.
That's because you have people to handle those things.
Who filled in?
Mark Simone.
I love Mark.
I saw Mark I saw Mark at a at uh an event.
By the way, I've never been to an event in New York without seeing Mark or Curtis.
It's hilarious.
And I did get to see Curtis came to Alan's funeral, which was really nice.
And I saw Mark at this uh event that took place the other night.
And I just love the everybody knows him.
And nobody knows me.
Everybody knows Mark Simone.
He's like Mr. New York.
Right, hour two Sean Hannity show.
Uh we just came back from an amazing trip to Israel.
One of the the highlights was literally showing how small a country this is.
Joining us now is the Prime Minister who I was gonna have on Friday's program, but obviously we got delayed with other issues.
Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for taking time today.
How are you, sir?
It's great to see you.
Well, I'm fine, uh Sean.
It was wonderful to see you in Israel.
It's good to talk to you today.
You know, that helicopter ride, I don't know if you had a chance to watch the program, but when you actually see it up close and you see that when we take off from Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean and we go up the coast and you're looking out your window and you can see the borders and you can see where Israel's enemies are,
just like in twenty fourteen when I was in Gaza and you look out in towns like Sarot and and where they've been hit with ten thousand rockets in ten years from Gaza, it is it is the most precarious, defensible th most precarious and dangerous situation on the face of the earth.
It's scary to me.
Yeah.
Um let me try to give your audience a feeling for the size of Israel.
If you fly across the United States from the East Coast to the West Coast, it'll take you about five hours, right?
All right.
If you fly from the west coast of Israel to the eastern border of Israel, it'll take you on that same airplane, five minutes.
You got that?
Five minutes across Israel.
Five minutes with you know, so five hours compared to five minutes.
So Israel is a small country, an exceedingly small country.
It's about the size of New Jersey.
But it is a very powerful country, uh, among other things because of the spirit of our people, the courage of our soldiers, and the friendship that we enjoy with the American people and the help of the United States.
We appreciate that very much.
Israel is a forward position for the United States and for the Western world for Western civilization.
I you know, if you look at it, you say there's the United States, you know, there's Europe, then you get to Israel, and it sort of stops at that point.
I mean, there are other friends of the United States, and I'm, you know, gr very glad that the there are governments in our region in the Middle East who are friendly with the United States.
But Israel is the only place where both the people and the governments, the government and the people, are solidly pro-American, solidly pro-Western, solidly rooted in our common values of democracy and freedom.
And that's the strength of Israel.
Our values and our willingness to defend those values.
And when we defend ourselves, we also defend our common civilization against our common enemies.
The enemies that are called militant Islam.
You know, Mr. Prime Minister, you can see that inclusive this just when you go to the old city in Jerusalem, where you have a Jewish sector and you have an Armenian sector, and you have a Christian sector, and you have a Muslim sector.
All in what uh how many square miles are we talking about where all of the one square mile.
One square mile.
And and so all of these religions, you know, are included in this this historic land, which is Israel and Jerusalem.
Indeed it is.
Yeah.
But uh uh they are.
But I I have to say that in the all the thousands of years of Jerusalem's history, and in since and in all the centuries since the rise of the great uh monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
The only time that people of these three faiths could worship freely in their respective religious sites, has been under Israel's sovereignty.
When Israel became the sovereign of Jerusalem, when Israel became responsible to maintain uh peace and tranquility For the holy sites, that's when you've had uh that kind of unfettered access and that kind of religious freedom.
And you know, that's no small thing in the Middle East, where you have uh militant Islamists butchering other Muslims, butchering Christians, Christians are under tremendous uh uh uh assault in the Middle East.
Uh you know, the fact is that the only place where those rights are guaranteed and where Christians are guaranteed uh a thriving future is in the state of Israel.
And today, this year we're marking fifty years of the liberation of Jerusalem and fifty years of religious freedom in this holy city.
What is the percentage of Arabs that actually vote in Israeli elections for those that don't know how inclusive Israel as a country is?
Well, people don't know that uh, you know, of the Israel's eight million citizens, uh over a million, close to a million and a half, are actually Arab citizens.
And they're the ones who, you know, they vote uh for our parliament, they vote in our elections, they serve in the government, they serve in the Supreme Court.
Uh people don't know that.
And they're probably looking the Middle East, uh, I don't think that's very common to have that kind of freedom.
Israel is a genuine democracy.
Mr. Prime Minister maligned it's maligned terribly, but it is in fact a beacon of uh liberty and human rights in an otherwise uh fairly dark region.
I don't disagree with that at all.
Let me ask you, I thought the best speech, and I've known you for well over two decades of my life now, going back a long time, and I've known you when the first time you were Prime Minister, I've known you since that time, now that you've taken you may end up being the longest consecutive serving prime minister in Israeli history following Ben Gurion,
but I guess the best speech I think you ever gave was here on American soil when you came to talk and speak out against this horrible Iranian deal, and that is a hundred and fifty billion taxpayer dollars going to Iran, they spin their centrifuges, questionable questionable inspections, twenty-five days' notice, uh the right to partner with Russia to build missile defense, uh build their conventional weapons.
It was a horrible deal.
You tried to warn America.
President Obama was very angry that you came here and spoke that way.
But I thought it was one of your best speeches.
You know, I went back and I looked at Bill Clinton.
He s promised that when he gave North Korea four billion dollars, they wouldn't get nuclear weapons.
Well, they got them.
And President Obama and Susan Rice and John Kerry said once they drew the red line in the sand with Syria, they wouldn't get they wouldn't they got rid of all their chemical weapons.
We know that's not true.
To me, this deal will facilitate a nuclear armed Iran unless they're stopped.
What is your warning to the people of this world?
Look, I spoke about this with uh President Trump uh and with Secretary of uh Defense uh uh Jim Mattis, who was just here.
Uh I think we see eye to I. I don't think, I know we see eye to I that Iran is not the solution to the problems of the Middle East, but in many ways the main problem because most of uh you know all the countries in the region uh are suffering from Iranian aggression,
and to have this Iran that is the foremost sponsor of terrorism in the world, uh to have this terrorist state uh walk into a nuclear arsenal, which is what this agreement ultimately pays, is obviously a big mistake.
And uh yes, I took that message uh to the American Congress.
I had uh I had many areas of agreement uh with uh President Obama, but I also also some disagreements.
And this was a very strong area of disagreement because I think that a nuclear Iran threatens the future of my country, and I've felt obligated to speak about it.
This agreement does not obligate Israel.
We will do anything that we need to do to make sure that this terrorist regime that calls death to America, death to Israel, uh that harms and harasses U.S. ships, that's killed U.S. soldiers in Iraq, that stamps on American flags and threatens to eradicate my state.
I'll do everything in my power to make sure that this regime uh does not have nuclear weapons.
Well, I think it's a simple mathematical equation.
A squared, nuclear weapons, B squared in the arms of radical Islamic mullahs, the number one state sponsor in the world, equals a potential Holocaust, and I don't use that word lightly in our time, and I know you talked about it this weekend.
Prime Minister Benjamin Nanyaho is with us.
He'll stay a few minutes longer on the other side, eight hundred nine four one Sean, toll free telephone number.
All right, as we continue with the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu continues with us.
My next question to you is, you know, one of the maybe a positive outcome of the President of President Obama's really bad deal is it has brought Israel closer.
A new alliance is emerging in the Middle East with Saudi Arabia, the emirates, with the Egyptians, the Jordanians.
And if you add America to that equation, it seems to me that there is an alliance strong enough to stop Iranian hegemony in the region and to stop their pursuit of nuclear weapons.
There's no question the countries in the region see as I do that Iran is uh the greatest threat to the peace and tranquility uh of the region.
There is uh very broad agreement of that.
And if uh uh before I I sp I was the only one speaking out loud, the others who are saying that openly, and again, there's uh a clear change in the American position, a very welcome change that uh President Trump uh has enunciated.
Uh look, today is Holocaust Day, Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Uh, and my responsibility as the Prime Minister of Israel is to make sure that such tragedies never repeat.
I think this is obviously uh something of vital interest to me and my people, but I think it's also something of vital interest to the world, to uh America and to all civilized people.
Iran seeks to dominate the world.
Iran seeks nuclear weapons.
Iran is also building submarines, satellites, uh precision guided missiles, and many, many other weapons, and it is arming terrorists left and right.
It is uh threatening uh it is trying to conquer Yemen, it is in Iraq, it is in Syria, it has killed many, many Americans.
Uh it is supporting Hezbollah in Lebanon.
This is uh an all-purpose terrorist state.
Uh it also hangs gays, it kills opposition uh leaders, uh hangs them from cranes, it tortures journalists.
Iran is a bad deal.
It's a bad regime.
It should not be allowed to have nuclear weapons.
And yes, it is creating a change in uh uh our part of the world because as I told you last week, for the first time in my lifetime, many of the Arab states uh are thinking differently about Israel, not as their ally uh uh enemy rather, but as their indispensable.
Let me ask you about that, because you said to me in this interview, I want peace, I've been to war, and you said that in the case of the Palestinians, they need to prove that they want peace.
And Mahood Abbas, for example, says one thing about the blood of Israelis when he is in the Middle East and he'll be coming to see the president soon.
And I am fairly certain that he will tell the president just the opposite and won't be reiterating those things he says when he's back home.
So my question to you is, you know, is there another option besides land for peace, because you barely have defensible borders now?
Is there an option to partner, say with the Emirates or the Saudis, and and perhaps President Trump can can broker that deal.
I think there are many possibilities uh in the region, and I'd love to be able to uh uh speak to President Trump about that, uh continue the conversation we've had.
Uh as far as the Palestinians are concerned, as far as Israel is concerned, nobody wants peace more than Israel because we know the cost of war.
I know the cost of war.
Uh I lost my older brother in the war of on terrorism.
He fell while leading the Israeli rescue mission to untender to release 103 Israeli hostages.
It succeeded, but he was the lone military casualty of this great rescue mission.
I myself was wounded in trying to and successfully rescuing.
You are shot in the shoulder, I remember, yeah.
Uh no, it wasn't the shoulder, it was in my arm, and I still feel it.
Right uh but from uh friendly fire too.
But we burst into a Sabina airplane in order to uh liberate uh uh Israeli and other passengers who were held hostage by uh four terrorists, two pa four Palestinian terrorists, and we were able to overcome them.
Uh so you know, if you face death, if you've experienced death of your loved ones uh and fallen comrades, uh you know the cost of war, and therefore, you know, nobody wants peace more than Israel.
They the people of Israel yearn for peace, pray for peace, and are ready to do a lot for peace.
One thing they're not ready to do is give land which is then turned not for the purpose of peace but turned against us as a base to attack us.
You've already tried that is unfortunately what has happened in the past.
Yeah.
We in the territory, but we didn't get we gave the land, we didn't get peace.
We got thousands of uh rockets fired in the cities of Israel, and we don't want to have that happen again.
Uh the Palestinians uh, you know, they speak peace to uh foreign audiences, but to the own people, they say, you know, we have to dissolve the State of Israel.
Nice Israelis.
Uh we can't accept a Jewish state.
And I'm talking about, unfortunately, their leaders.
I'd like to see that change.
If it changes, if we accept Israel genuinely, uh, you know, we could have uh we could have a brilliant future for both Israelis and Palestinians.
But that's a how could how can how can a boss speak of peace with us with Israel?
And at the same time pay terrorist murderers, okay, who are in our jails, he's paying them stipends.
He's paying the families of uh uh dead terrorists.
Three hundred million dollars a year or thereabouts.
Hundreds of millions of dollars a year is over a decade, that's a billion dollars going to pay terrorists who are hellbent on murdering Israelis.
So I'd like to see a change in that.
These are the kinds of you know I have no conditions on uh meeting, on talking.
Uh that's fine.
But if you really want to see a change, a move towards peace that Israelis would embrace and would would uh would be enthusiastic about is to see a real change in the Palestinian policies.
You know, if someone paid anyone who murdered Americans by a sliding scale, the more Americans they killed, the more money they got, which is what the Palestinian authorities paying these Palestinian killers.
Wouldn't you expect to see a change if they said they they professed they wanted peace?
Well, I believe that peace.
The Palestinians should stop paying terrorist murderers.
That's the way to go get to peace.
And that's the law of the land.
Mr. Prime Minister, it was an honor to see you.
It was great to be back in your country.
Um incredible hospitality by everybody.
It is uh also great to have you back here.
We look forward to you back to when you are back in the States.
And uh thank you so much for all the time and your generosity.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Sean.
Always a pleasure to talk to you.
Thank you, sir.
All right, 800 nine point one Sean toll free telephone number, you want to be a part of the program.
Jeff Sessions, when we get back, as we continue.
Well, we're gonna get paid for one way or the other.
I know there's four billion dollars a year in excess payments, according to the Department of Treasury's own inspector general several years ago that are going to payments to people uh tax credits that they shouldn't get.
These are mostly Mexicans, uh, and uh those kind of things add up.
Four billion a year for ten years is forty billion.
There are a lot of ways we can find money to help pay for this, but in the law of the case.
How are you gonna capture that money?
What's that money?
The uh the Department of Treasury uh several years ago under the Obama administration said that if you change the regulations and enforced it properly, he would save up to four billion dollars a year.
Uh there are other things that we can do at the border to create revenue that would pay for the wall.
There's no doubt about that.
But in your discussions with your counterparts in Mexico, they've given no indication at all that the Mexican government is prepared to pay a single cent for this wall.
Well, uh uh, I don't expect the Mexican government to appropriate money for it, but there are ways that uh we can deal with our trade situation to create the revenue to pay for it, no doubt about it.
Even though he hasn't kept the specific commitment right there.
The President did say, as I said this week to the Associated Press that the dreamer should rest easy.
He's not going after the dreamers.
That's his policy.
He said, Is it the policy of the Justice Department?
That the Homeland Security has primary jurisdiction there.
Their first and strongest priority, no doubt about it, is uh the criminal element that we have in our country that have come here illegally.
So they're focusing primarily on that, and uh there's no doubt the president has sympathy uh for young people who are brought here at early ages.
So they can rest easy?
Well, uh, we'll see.
Uh I believe that uh everyone that enters the country unlawfully is subject to being deported.
However, uh we've got we don't have the ability to um round up everybody and there's no plans to do that, but we're gonna foc focus first, as the president has directed us on the criminal element, and we've got to get that under control.
I don't think it's any doubt that the open border, the lawlessness that we've had is a factor in the rise of um this MS 13.
We know they're violent.
We know that if we focus our prosecutorial and investigative resources, and we had a meeting today with all the top Federal law enforcement officers uh and the agencies in our government to focus on this group.
And as we have cases and we work them hard, we uh pursue convictions and then we deport people who are here unlawfully.
Uh we can devastate this gang.
We're gonna we're going after them.
We are not going to allow them to take over a block uh a corner of our communities and terrorize people with this violence.
They use machetes, they kill children, they put children uh in uh prostitution at age twelve.
Uh, this is uh one of the most violent gangs in in the history of our country, no doubt about it.
All right, that was the Attorney General Jeff Sessions, I believe, on Thursday when we were in Israel, and he, of course, talking about the president keeping another promise, wants to build the border wall.
Border wall border wall now has become a big issue as it relates to the continuing resolution.
Democrats don't want to fund that wall, even though it is the law of the land.
Mr. Attorney General, welcome uh back to the program.
We appreciate you being with us.
Sean, it's uh honor to be with you.
Thank you for giving me this opportunity.
Yes, sir.
All right.
Well, let's talk about first of all the success.
I mean, just enforcing the laws since the president has gotten into office, we've seen what, a sixty-seven percent reduction in illegal immigrants even without the wall.
Is that true?
That is absolutely uh true.
I knew that we can make good progress.
But I didn't know March that I guess the third month he's been in office, we had the low we would have the lowest entry of illegal aliens in seventeen years.
Uh so we've seen great things.
General Kelly, Secretary Kelly of Homeland Security, his border patrol, his ICE officers, their morale is surging.
I've just come from the border.
Uh they are motivated, they're making real progress.
But you know, let's be frank.
The truth is that if Hillary Clinton had been elected, we'd be nowhere close to this.
It's his appointment of General Kelly.
It's it's Donald Trump's clear message that do not come into this country illegally, uh, that has reduced the attempts to enter unlawfully, and he really deserves credit.
I doubt he would have well Hillary would have appointed me as attorney general either.
But um, so we just set a position where this administration is focused.
We need the wall to finish the job.
And Sean, we are at a point.
I want everybody to understand we can end illegality at the border.
We can create a lawful system of immigration.
We just need to follow through, stay on path, stay on uh the right way, and then people can come lawfully.
They come every day by the millions.
And we we admit one point one million people a year, the lawful residents, permanent residents in the United States.
So we're not against talking about ending immigration.
We're talking about creating a lawful system, one a great nation can be proud of.
Let me ask some of the comments.
Now you got Chuck Schumer, the Democrats all threatening to shut the government down if the Republicans appropriate the money as they should by law to pay for the wall, and you agree with the president that Mexico will pay for it.
And you said by cutting off improperly paid tax credits granted mostly to Mexicans that the government would save more than enough to pay for the wall.
Yes, it would do it.
And let me I didn't make it really clear, but these are tax credits that are going to people that are not citizens, that don't have Social Security numbers, and are filing IN documents, and in the course of it, they're not paying taxes, they're asking for refunds for for tax credits for children and other reasons.
We bet IG just hammered the fraud and abuse in that system.
And uh it was uh the Obama administration's inspector general that found this.
It has not yet been closed.
Uh it's a it's uh just one of the incredible abuses where we reward uh illegal immigrants uh or even legal immigrants with uh benefits they shouldn't get.
Yeah.
Well, to me it's uh it's a very simple thing.
I mean, the billions of dollars we're also spending on on the health care system, the educational system, the criminal justice system is enormous, and we've been paying this now for decades, on top of the fact that I I've always felt the greater danger was that if somebody comes across the border, maybe they just want a job and a better life and an opportunity that America provides.
Uh having been down there fourteen times or twelve times, I get it.
But it also means so too can enemies of this country that want to bring harm to our towns and cities, they can easily cross the border too, right?
Absolutely.
Uh it's danger to us.
We need to end this lawlessness, and we have this surge of heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine.
Almost all of that is coming across the border, our border with Mexico.
Virtually all of it.
Uh we can gain some real advantages uh to to slow that down too with a good controlled border.
Uh, but people I I was like you, you know, we've we've seen uh the public entrance and exit places where people come through by the hundreds of thousands uh each day.
So that won't end.
Uh it's only the illegality that we seek to end and to protect America.
And I think, Sean, our democratic colleagues, when they filibuster uh this bill, somebody needs to ask them who it is that they represent.
Who are they trying to protect?
Are they trying to protect drug dealers, uh illegal immigration people, uh gangsters who come across our border, or the American people?
Who are they who who do they have a duty uh and oath to support, protect, and defend?
Well, it's the American people, no doubt about it.
Well, you're saying that four billion dollars a year in excess payments over ten years, that's forty billion dollars.
How much do you think the wall's gonna cost for the seven hundred some odd miles that we want to build?
You know, I don't know what that would be.
I've hear some numbers that are certainly inflated, I understand, that uh people are throwing out.
General Kelly and pr um President Trump are uh focused on that.
They're going to be building prototypes within a a few months and they'll study which ones are most effective and most cost effective.
So General Kelly was with me Thursday and Friday um this week at Texas and L uh San Diego at the border, and uh he's gonna do a real good job of working on that.
Yeah.
Let me ask you some other questions.
There there seemed to be some unfinished business as it relates to the Attorney General's office on a number of matters when you came into office.
One was Hillary Clinton's email server, one was the Clinton Foundation.
These these phony accusations, even though James Clapper and Comey and others said and the media keeps running with this this fake Russian story that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, there's never been a shred of evidence.
Uh I know you have recused yourself from that particular case, but are any of these other cases moving forward at all?
Because I just kind of think if Sean Hannity didn't follow the law and tried to circumvent Congress and and I didn't and I had a a private server with top secret information and special access program information on it that I don't think I'd get off so easy.
Well, Sean, we have a duty to enforce the law, and uh I intend to try to do that.
I have made a de I'm making a determined effort to reduce public comment about any kind of investigations, uh, and that goes back to the classical rule I was always taught in the Department of Justice, and that is you don't confirm or deny investigations.
It just leads to more and more uh talk, which is unhealthy.
So I'm not going to get into that, but uh if people have been violated the law and there's a case out there, we won't hesitate to bring those cases.
In other words, that wouldn't be the president's decision.
For example, everyone likes to ask the president, well, what he's gonna do about the the Clinton Foundation or the email server scandal, but that would not be his decision, would it?
That's right.
Uh um usually our cases start at the lowest level with uh FBI and drug enforcement officers and uh and alcohol tobacco and firearms people, they bring cases.
Our prosecutors evaluate them uh and bring those cases uh every day, and that's the way the system works.
Sometimes it uh uh is a case that comes in in a different way or um the attorney general is involved in, but usually not.
What do you make of all of these stories, Mr. Attorney General, about surveillance unmasking leaking of intelligence.
For example, we know what happened to General Flynn was a violation of the espionage act.
Um, is it possible to actually find the people responsible for leaking that information?
Well, we've had too much leaking.
We've had too much loose talk.
And some of the leaks have just been very, very damaging on to our uh capabilities uh to be effective in the future by uh telegraphing to the enemy what our capabilities are so they can uh protect themselves against it.
You don't want the terrorists to know how you might catch them by having some strikes.
So uh yes.
Oh, we we take this very seriously.
And uh we will investigate cases and it's true and they are not easy to make uh but it's not impossible either.
We've had some pretty big names uh uh be uh proven guilty of these kind of offenses.
And if people uh want to test us, uh we just may well uh um break a case in the future too.
All right, we gotta take a break and we'll come back.
We'll continue more with the Attorney General of the United States, Jeff Sessions.
Retired Air Force Captain Joni Marquez can't get the image out of her mind.
A Navy SEAL ejected from a burning US Chinook helicopter, then his heat signature on an infrared camera fading from red to blue as life slipped from his body on the ground.
We had to sit and watch that, and I think that that was probably one of the hardest things that I had to do is know that that man was you know dying on the ground.
It's just one of those things where you know that it could have all been prevented.
Rules of engagement changed under the Obama administration to prevent civilian casualties, kept them from firing against suspected targets without permission.
Right now the rules of engagement are s are are absolutely bizarre.
They pour the blood of our soldiers out like water on the sand.
They lost a dad to this war.
They lost someone that that meant everything to them.
And uh for me, you know, I I wasn't able to prevent that.
All right, eight hundred nine four one Sean Tollfree telephone number, news roundup and information overload hour.
You have a decorated retired AV uh Air Force officer who witnessed one of the most deadly attacks on Navy SEALs.
I mean the best of the best in US history now breaking her silence, saying the government in fact covered up evidence detailing the twenty eleven downing of a Chinook helicopter gunship that killed thirty-eight brave fighters in Afghanistan and how it could have been prevented had it not been for restrictions to the military's rules of engagement, which I was just talking about with Jeff Sessions that were changed under the Obama administration.
That voice you heard narrating was our good friend Sarah Carter, who is the senior national security correspondent for circa dot com.
She joins us as well as retired Air Force captain Joni Marquez, who witnessed this attack and said the government covered up the evidence and the details about all of this.
Thirty Americans killed, eight Afghans killed.
It could have been prevented, and Karen Vaughn, Karen's been on the program many times before, mother of Aaron Vaughn, who lost his life in this attack.
Welcome all of you back to the program.
Sarah, great work as always.
Uh Captain Marquez, um, I'm so sorry that you had to witness this, but I'm very thankful that you're willing to speak out and tell the country what happened in not only in this particular case, but what the rules of engagement were as it endangered brave men and women that were willing to fight bleeding die for their country.
Thank you, Sean, for having me.
I appreciate you.
I appreciate you.
Tell us the story.
Tell us what happened.
So on that night, um my crew and I we were called in, um an emergency situation, and so that's why I described it as a nine one one event.
Um we were told to come overhead the ground forces.
The ground forces were infilling um already.
And so we were pushed south of the target area.
They already had air weapons team uh ready for them to provide close ground support.
And so for us, we were just kind of hanging out to the south of the target, waiting to be called overhead.
The men, the ground forces um walked onto the objective area and as they were probably eight hundred meters away that's when they had a troops in contact.
And I apologize there if I wasn't clear enough when I spoke earlier um a couple months ago about this situation.
Um it wasn't really a fire fight, you see.
It was the ground forces taking fire from the enemy.
And it probably lasted maybe 10 to 15 seconds.
There was enough time for the JTAC to realize that they were being shot at and you called in the AWT to take out the threat.
From that point we knew that there was a situation occurring that the men were taking fire and we wanted to be let overhead immediately.
Unfortunately the JAC um held us off he only wanted the AWT to respond to the event.
So they took two passes and they took out the eight Taliban members or so they thought at that point the JTAC cleared us overhead um we the censors looked to the eight men and two of them were crawling away from so two of them survived our attack against them.
Correct.
So you're under fire you call an assault helicopters to engage the enemy that is is literally your you're number one order to fly close in air support above one of the most dangerous areas inside of Afghanistan assisting troops with the 70 Army 75th Ranger Regiment that were being fired on by these eight heavily armed Taliban insurgents.
Okay, so you're able to kill six of them to walk us through two others are surviving here what happens?
Right.
So mind you the AWT were the ones that took out the the six and so then we were cleared overhead and that's when the censors and myself saw the two crawling away and the navigator asked immediately for permission to engage because we knew that they were evading and we didn't know their capability at that time if they were going to circle back and try to shoot at our men.
So we wanted to eliminate the threat as quickly as possible.
And that would be after they've been firing on Americans that would be common sense.
Why do you even need permission at that point?
Well because you see with a joint terminal attack controller being on the ground he is responsible for all munitions that are being released during that point over an objective.
He has the the say as to what we can do for him because he calls us in.
So you were you were the fire control officer aboard those AC one thirty gunship, right?
You were making sure the sensors weapons were aligned and allowing the crew to hone in on the targets in other words these two remaining people.
Correct.
And then permission was denied?
That is correct because I'll have you know Sean at that point in time uh the Hearts of Minds campaign obviously was ongoing that was from 2003 until 2011 and um during that time it created a greater fog in this war.
We uh questioned you know what it was that we could actually do.
I mean I remember a point in time where we were trying to set pre-assault fires and there was a wall and we were trying to figure out just amongst you and myself the ground commander that you have you relay to this person that you have two enemy forces still alive people that had been firing on U.S. troops you ask for permission to engage,
you're denied and as a result 30 Americans are killed the eight Afghanist as the ones that were fighting are killed also but 30 Americans are killed including Karen Vaughn's son who's on the line here, Aaron Vaughan.
That's exactly I sean in I don't know if you want me to jump in here but I just want to add that uh you know when we when we went to um Virginia Beach to receive the testimony of the you know of the investigation of the shoot down we were given 2500 some pages and just as civilians,
people who had no military background experience whatsoever, we learned that what was happening in this war was ungodly, unimaginable and Sean flat out criminal and what Joni's explaining to you right now about the the inability to shoot people who were shooting at Americans this is a drop in the bucket to the stories we've heard but it did as you said ultimately end up killing our son and 29 other Americans and as you said eight Afghans.
And this nonsense has got to stop.
This is the battle that Billy and I have my husband and I have been fighting for the last five and a half years just saying if we can engage enough American Americans and let them know what's happening to our warfighters how how they're being compromised by politicians and by attorneys that are sitting you know drinking wine over white linen tablecloth while these people are out here losing their lives.
You know, people like you, Sean, have made this possible, and I thank God for you every day of my life for people like you who who keep sounding this alarm and for Sarah Carter who wrote this article.
But most of all, Sean, and I Sarah, I know you'll agree with me for brave, fearless people like Joni who are it's gonna make me feel emotional, who are willing to come forward and say, if I have to go to Leavenworth to tell the truth about what's happening in our military to save lives, I'll do it.
And that's who Joni Marquez is.
And there's probably nobody in this world that I have more profound respect for than her for her willingness to to put herself at risk like this.
And and wow, Joey.
Well, you're you're you're she's saying your son Aaron, and he was one of seventeen Navy SEALs, because those two men that she was not given permission to engage, uh, ended up literally picking up a Taliban fighter, hit one of those two, hit the Chinook with a rocket launch grenade.
Sarah will bring you in here that ended up killing thirty Americans.
Seventeen of them were Navy SEALs, including Aaron Vaughn, Karen's son, and by the way, months before these same SEALs were the ones responsible for kidding killing bin Laden.
If they would have been allowed to engage that these men would be alive.
Karen's son would be alive today.
Well, some of the so they were from the same counterpart team, SEAL team six counterpart team that did kill Osama bin Laden.
And, you know, when you look at Joni, her bravery, an amazing human being who is willing to tell the truth and put her name on the record and speak out despite anything that was going to come towards her.
So I give that respect to her.
She is a voice for the voiceless for all the people that have died because of ROEs or hearts and minds, you know, these issues that that she brings up are not just this story.
They're endemic to the entire problem that I was seeing in Afghanistan since I started going there in 2007, Sean.
And you look at this, you look at this story and what she says, and you see that these two insurgents, they made their way out.
They did not get permission to fire to engage these uh two enemy fighters, and what happened was they made their way into a village and they were able to get into the village and regroup with more and more fighters.
And that was the issue.
So they were regrouping, they were getting more people out there, they were moving further up and um into the you know the L Z area of where the Chinook was eventually going to come into.
But you can also hear from Joni's story that you know, any calls down to the command, ground command, that to turn the Chinook back around, to not let it land, that the area was not safe, were also ignored.
So these are the issues that we have to face and the issues that need to be faced as a nation.
When we send our troops into harm's way to fight, to fight a war, we know that things are gonna happen.
But one of the things that we expect, and I think most people with common sense expect is that our ground command and that our troops will have a say in the fight, that the fight will not be navigated from Washington, DC.
You you can't let people that aren't there make those decisions.
It's just ridiculous.
And and in this case, 30 Americans died.
All right, we're gonna take a break.
Sarah Carter, senior national security correspondent circa.com, retired Air Force Captain Joni Marquez, she could have prevented this.
She could have stopped this.
She wasn't given permission.
One of the people that lost her sons was Karen Vaughn, na uh mother of Navy SEAL Aaron Vaughn.
We'll get to more on uh the other side, then we'll get to your phone calls 800-941 Sean.
As we continue, final moments here with Sarah Carter, senior national security comp correspondent for circa.com, retired Air Force Captain Joni Marquez, Karen Vaughn, she lost her son Aaron, a Navy SEAL.
This was in this important extortion seventeen case, where in fact that we had Americans engage with eight Taliban that were heavily armed, and two of them ended up surviving, and while they had an opportunity to engage and kill those two combatants, permission was denied.
As a result, 30 Americans, including 17 Navy SEALs were killed.
Joni, I mean, Captain Marquez, this this was all preventable.
You there's no doubt in your mind you had these two fighters in sight, and you could have killed it those engaging Americans and killing Americans.
Absolutely, Sean, and that's what's so disgusting about all of it.
You know, I've been living with this hell for about six years of my life now.
And um I also would like to set the record straight on something.
I apologize, Sarah again for not being clear on this because of nerves or whatnot from two months ago.
But the actual enemy that took out the helicopter wasn't in the it wasn't co-located with the twelve men that that force gained up to be.
They were probably another mile, a mile and a half away in some other building.
So the two weren't even related in that regard.
Oh my goodness.
I apologize for not making myself clear on that as well.
No, no, no.
You you offered no apologies.
You you were doing your job and and you were you were doing everything possible to keep our guys safe, and had you been able to do your job without these ridiculous rules of engagement, Karen Vaughn's son Aaron would be alive today.
And and uh Karen, if it was me, I'd be apoplectic every hour of every day.
I'd never get over this.
You know, Sean, it's something I really have to monitor and control in myself, not to be angry.
What I want now, the productive thing to feel now is a desire for accountability, because only through that can we can we receive the change that we need to make sure another American son or daughter does not die to these reckless criminal rules of engagement.
And and that's the goal here.
There's nothing I can do to bring Aaron back.
I I do want accountability for the people who made the decisions that night.
Joni, when she when you hear more of her story, you will be even more stunned at what's about to come out, uh, because get that was just the first thing that went wrong that night, Sean, and it just kept getting worse from there.
And you know, I had an I had an admiral turn around to the grieving parents at the debriefing, and one of the dads asked, why didn't we just use a drone strike on the guys that the SEALs were coming in to interdict that night?
And and Admiral Harward turned around and put his hand on my knee.
I was sitting right behind him, and he said, Because we want to win the Afghans' heart and minds.
And so basically what if if I was strong, if I was as strong as I am today on that day, I probably would have punched the guy in the face because he's looking at parents and wives sitting there grieving unimaginably over the deaths of their sons and their husbands, and that's his thing is we cared more about the Afghans than we cared about your loved ones' life.
And that's exactly what's going on, and it has to stop.
Sarah, I'm gonna give you the last word here because we're running out of time.
Well, I think the next step, Sean, is really going to be whether or not uh the Trump administration is going to take a good look at this and say, you know, what do we need to do to ensure that this never happens again, not on their watch, and that they can put into action rules of engagement that are reasonable that don't tie the hands of our troops, our airmen, uh, and that and that save lives instead of take lives.
And I think that is going to be the most important thing to come out of this.
Joni's bravery, Karen's bravery, the bravery of all the families that have spoken up, and the loss that they've endured is something that we all as Americans have to remember and not be afraid to seek the truth and find it and not be afraid to tell it.
Can I add one final word, Sean?
Yeah, really quick, Karen.
We're out of time.
However, parent feels let him fight or bring them home, Sean.
Let them fight or bring them home.
I agree wholeheartedly.
We're not going to fight, bring them home.
I agree.
Thank you, Sarah Carter.
Thank you, Karen Vaughn.
You're in our prayers, and many, many thanks, Captain Joni Marquez, for your courage in speaking out so we can prevent this ever from happening again.
All right, 800 941 Sean.
When we come back wide open telephones, you want to join us.
All right, 25 now till the top of the hour.
Wow, what incredible times we're living in.
I can't believe that last half hour.
Thirty Americans die because the engage order is denied.
Let's just pull out our let's give you time to get the rocket launch grenade and let's kill 17 Navy SEALs and 13 other Americans.
Unbelievable.
All right, 800 941 Sean, if you want to be a part of this extravaganza, wide open telephones.
Let's say hi to David in North Carolina.
David, hi, how are you?
Glad you called, sir.
You're a great American, and what a privilege to speak with you.
I understand you were recently in Israel as I listened to your broadcast.
I was just there last month and presented our tour guide, a make America greater than hat.
And almost everywhere I went, I had uh Jews asking um, does America like Trump?
And I said, Well, Half of us do.
And they said that Trump was good for Israel.
And did we agree?
And I said, Absolutely, Trump is good for Israel.
Listen, let me let me tell you something.
Um I I can only tell you at the end of the day that Israel has the least land mass of any country, and it's literally surrounded by Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt.
And at different times, they've been surrounded by nothing but enemies and taking incoming from all sides.
And then they got the Mediterranean on the other side.
When you fly in a helicopter, like I do, uh, like I did last week, and you see just the landmass here is as Bibi was saying, all right, it takes five and a half hours to go from New York to LA, it takes five minutes to go across Israel.
The same plane.
That pretty much says it all.
They need defendable borders.
They need to build peace with real partners.
You know, you can't have Mahmoud Abbas talking about you know the blood of Israelis and say and and indoctrinating kids to killing Jews, you know, and say that where he lives, and then come to Washington and say, Oh, I want peace.
Just give me money and tell Israel to give us land, then they have no defensible borders.
So it's ridiculous to me.
Anyway, 800 nine four one Sean, you want to be a part of the program back to our busy phones.
Uh let's say hi to Lee is in Durango in Califor uh, Colorado.
What what's going on?
How are you, sir?
First of all, I'm I'm uh not a sir, I'm a man, but I'm calling last week you were talking about Linda throwing bread at you.
Yeah, no, no, no, no, no.
Linda claimed I threw bread at her.
Okay.
When we were on the plane.
That's when we were on the pl, and Linda said I threw a loaf of bread at her.
And it wasn't true.
Right.
So in your defense, I wanted to call and say there is a restaurant uh here in America that makes its its claim on throwed rolls.
They throw rolls across the restaurant.
When you say you want another roll, they chuck them all the way across the restaurant.
So I think you're in good company, and I think you can throw all the bread and rolls you want.
Well, I yeah, exactly.
I was trying to be nice because Linda didn't have her food.
I had mine.
I was trying to share, and literally on L Al when you when you're across the the way like that, there was nothing in between us.
It's not like I was hitting anybody.
I just threw the roll, just wasn't one of my best toss because I was tired.
You did hit somebody I did not hit anybody.
You hit him it hit the top of your chair.
First of all, it's a mini, it's a mini loaf.
It's not like it's a makeup loaf.
It's a mini loaf with little lines and you know, it's not a loaf of bread, it is a baby roll.
It's not a baby roll, there was a baby roll next to the loaf.
You couldn't even put an egg inside this you could have put two eggs inside of it.
Yeah.
You go and see now in your old age, let me tell you.
First of all, Linda, he's your boss.
Let him throw rolls.
Exactly.
Did you tell him?
Did you tell him what you threw in the morning?
Would you throw it at me in the morning?
Uh I don't I don't think it matters what time.
Oh, trust me, he threw something else in the morning.
Why don't you tell me throw at me in the morning across the aisle?
Remember, do you?
Sean took off his dirty socks that he wore, and then he threw them at me across the aisle.
I threw it on the wheel.
No, excuse me.
That is a that is such that is a lie because when you get in first class on L Al, they give you this little baggie with toothpaste and lotion and and ear muffs and and eye things that you close your eyes with.
And so I get on, and they also include socks.
So I said, Here, Linda, you want a free pair of socks.
And I gave her the fresh brand new L L socks.
I stand correct, but they were clean and fresh socks that he threw at me.
That's right.
They were L's.
Because I'm never gonna wear those L L socks.
I'm not wearing you, mind you, the beautiful woman sitting next to me, Lee.
This beautiful woman Livia is sitting next to me.
She goes, That's your boss.
I said, Yeah, it's just we're like your brother.
He's like your brother.
I was passing, I was passing them on to you.
What are you talking about?
Yeah, you're passing a lot to you.
The rolls in the socks.
There you go.
See, now now you got an idea.
We're all gonna get jobs at the uh restaurant where we all throw rolls at each other and we'll take our socks.
And it's a fabulous restaurant group.
It'd be a big hit.
It is a hoot.
I'll put it in Times Square.
The tourists will come from miles to do it.
I think it's a great idea, Lee.
I love it.
All right, well look it up.
It's in Missouri, Lambert.
All right, thank you.
We appreciate it uh so much, Lee and Durango, Colorado.
Uh let's go to Heather in Clearwater, Florida.
Heather, hi, how are you?
Glad you called.
Hi, Sean.
Thank you for uh taking my call today.
I'm great.
How are you?
I'm good.
What's going on?
Well, I am furious over Obamacare.
My my parents have become victims of Obamacare.
Basically, about eight and a half percent of my dad's gross income is unusable.
They paid because of the subsidy of the premium, and he paid or he was paid more in the prior year.
He was taxed over eight thousand dollars because of the subsidy.
They were gonna get a refund back until I put in his insurance information.
And mind you, the Obamacare was never usable.
They've had to be self-pay patient to every doctor because there is either no network or the doctor will not accept it.
And I'm outraged that the GOP can't get their stuff together and repeal that.
Well, listen, it's the only thing I know is they've come to some agreement, and it was announced this weekend.
I don't think they're gonna get it done this week, which I wish they would have.
They I I knew this was gonna happen, which is why I kept saying last week I wanted them to come back from recess.
And if they would have come back from recess, it would have been it would have been a a lot better because now they've got to deal with the CR and Democrats are threatening to shut the government down, which I'm all in favor.
If they want to shut it down, shut it down.
Over funding the border wall, that's an eighty twenty issue, seventy thirty issue for Republicans, and the American people in the last election said that they want that border wall.
So I'm all for it.
Let them shut the government down and they'll take the blame for it and they'll show that they're obstructionists, just like with Neil Gorsuch and every cabinet appointee of Donald Trump.
There's hardly a Democrat that will ever vote for Trump.
They just refuse to work to make the country a better place after they gave us the mess that was Obama on the economy, Obama's foreign policy.
So I think it's in, you know, let everybody understand.
But I do believe, based on the waivers that the waiver agreement that the study group, the freedom caucus, the moderates, all the varying coalitions, the Republicans in the House have made, in consultation with the U.S. Senate, I think we get to the point where it's gonna get done now.
And that's good news for people like your parents and and people that have seen dramatic increases this year alone, a hundred and sixteen percent premium increase in Arizona on average since Obamacare passed, five thousand four hundred dollars a year per family increases.
We didn't keep our doctors, we didn't keep our plans, uh, and we didn't save twenty five hundred dollars per family per year.
And nobody in the media will tell you that.
Anyway, I appreciate it.
800 nine four one Sean is our number.
Wayne is uh where are you, Wayne?
In Oh, my buddy Wayne Depree, is that you?
What's going on, my friend?
What's up, big brother?
How are you doing?
How's everything?
You holding up.
I'm holding up, man.
What's going on?
Good, good, good.
Listen, um, I have been uh, you know, how things happen on internet and stories go by and everything.
I'm watching uh some lady claim some things about you, and I was I just want to let you know I got your back.
I'm um because I've been you know, we've been together for uh five, six years now.
Yes, sir.
And um and and I know just how important your reputation is, and you have done everything.
You talked about your life, you talked about your Christian background, you talked about what you are, um what your family means to you.
We we we know how you take care of your taxes and you look over your taxes two or three times because you know that the government is out for you.
So we know that you watch over your reputation so that it is it is not fully by opportunists.
And when I saw this yesterday, I was like, oh my God.
You know, I I and you know I you know, I have my website and I I didn't want to do anything until I saw something from you, and then when I learned later on in the day, um that you uh that that you're gonna take care of it the way that you're gonna take care of it, then I say, you know what?
You look I got you.
I got you.
Listen, I I will say this.
People have have been amazing.
It's listen, none of this is fun.
You know what it's like.
You're in the public eye as I am.
And it's open season on conservatives and in this environment, it's it's let's take them down.
People don't understand that every word we utter, you know, on radio or TV or in the internet is is being monitored.
You know, I'd like to say we're all perfect people.
Nobody's perfect.
I mean, I don't, but in this particular case, um, as I said earlier, this individual has for well over a decade been lying about me, big making false charges and telling lies about me.
And, you know, it gets to a point, you know, where You gotta do something.
You you just gotta do something here, and you have to.
And and for me, you know, this is the bottom line for me.
This this is not about me.
This is not about any one individual.
But if it doesn't stop now, if I don't stand up for myself here, it's never gonna end.
And so I'm putting everybody on notice that I'm not gonna take this crap.
And if you slander me, if you lie about me, if you besmirch me, I now have a team of the best attorneys in the country, and I'm going after you.
Right.
And that's it.
And that goes for news organizations, that goes for political organizations.
You know what?
I'm just gonna put these people on retainer and pay them, and I'm going after everybody.
You know, one thing, one thing that I want everybody out there to understand is that you have to do this because the left and even the right feel like they can make a name for themselves if they throw these things out there, and then the next day, well, you know what?
I really say it like oh, you took me out of context.
No, no, no, no, no.
Sooner or later, these you have to show these people that they can't do this because and and then if they do it to you, they'll do it to anybody else, they'll do it to me, they're doing it.
And we can't do that.
But I I just wanted to call in to tell your audience, because I know most of them support you, but I I mean listen, I I appreciate it, and I will say this the audience gets it.
The audience, you know, they I I laid out the facts for everybody.
People have common sense, they get it.
Um, and and I get it.
You know, it's look, I've had a bullseye on my back for 30 years in radio, 21 and a half years in Fox.
I can handle this.
Um, and but having people being so supportive is is really humbling to be honest.
Uh thank you, my friend.
Wayne Depree, Baltimore.
Uh Vanessa in New Mexico, we got a minute for you, Vanessa.
How are you?
Glad you called.
I'm doing great, Sean.
Thank you.
And I just want to tell you, I am so thankful you're fighting back.
I am so thankful you have the courage.
You have the backbone.
You're not gonna take this crap.
Um, I was so glad also to see that at Berkeley the Republicans to are threatening to sue.
This is what we have to do to keep common sense, courageous, compassionate people in the public eye.
So thank you.
I'll be on my knees in prayer, and you know, as you continue to tell us, let not your heart be troubled, because Jesus has overcome the world.
So just keep fighting.
Amen.
I agree.
All right, thank you so much, Vanessa.
And by the way, thanks to you know all of you irredeemable deplorables out there, because you know, we don't have the honor of this microphone without your help and support.
You get to decide.
That's why, you know, all these boycotts and silencing and all these efforts by the left of silence people, it's unbelievable to me.
Let the people decide.
And if they don't want this show on the air anymore, it'll go away.
Problem is they know that people see it as the like sole alternative to the mainstream media.
