Sean dedicates the show to coverage of Tropical Storm Harvey and the devastation that has hit Texas. President Trump's press conference is available throughout the podcast as Sean lays out the plan for recovery. Planning has begun and support for the people of Texas is coming together. Learn how you can help by visiting Samaritanpurse.org. 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.
Hey, with optimism, once again on the rise in America, the working people of this country are more important than ever.
On the job from hired to retired, also new podcast from our friends at Express Employment Professionals that digs into the lives of men and women at work and explores their journeys as they fight to make the American dream a reality.
Now check out the new podcast on the job from hired to retired on iHeartRadio, iTunes, or wherever you download your favorite podcasts.
Or just go to ExpressPros.com/slash podcast for more information.
All right, glad you're with us.
Sean Hannity Show, 800-941.
That was actually a CBS News reporter saving a driver and giving him a hug afterwards.
And we'll get to all of the stories.
In the worst of times, you see incredible humanity.
You see, you know, if you believe that human beings are capable of good and evil, we saw so much good on display this weekend, all the stories we watched out of out of Texas.
Heartbreaking on the other hand to see the kind of devastation that we have seen.
As of now, we suspect there are six people that have died as a result of this unprecedented flooding that has taken place in and around the Houston area.
I mean, uh but and I gotta give Joe Bastardi big props.
He was the one saying it's gonna be 47 inches, 47 inches, talking about the tides, talking about the impact, talking about areas that have never ever flooded before are gonna be flooded.
And he was dead on accurate, and he called it way, way days in advance, sending out emails to me and my staff that this was coming and this is all gonna happen here.
Um but the rescue continues, and the rescue is then it'll become rescue recovery and rebuilding.
Um I can't say enough good about you really need three components if you go gonna withstand something like we have witnessed and watched all weekend long, and you need the people, first and foremost.
The people don't care enough about their fellow neighbors and they're in it for themselves, you're you're done.
Because it's impossible.
There are not enough government officials that you could possibly put on any job site when something is this broad, this big.
I mean, imagine a drive from New York to Boston is about what, four hours, and you're talking about at least four hours in terms of the actual areas and more where we're ground that needed to be covered.
So you've got to have the people as a part of any effort that you're doing.
You also need coordination with local officials, state officials, and the federal government.
All three of them came together miraculously, and they did a phenomenal job.
And when you consider the when you consider the landmass that is impacted by all of this, and I know you don't want one death ever.
And it could have been so much more tragic, but for the people of Texas, the spirit of the people of Texas, the great work of the governor, the lieutenant governor is going to join us on the program today, uh, neighbor helping neighbor.
I mean, we saw this in New York on 9-11.
I mean, it was amazing.
I mean, New Yorkers are not they don't care about seemingly don't care about each other.
They'll pass people in the streets, they won't look each other in the eye on the subway or in buses.
But when 9-11 happened, it was all hands on deck.
It was everybody helping everybody else.
And all of a sudden, you got corporations setting up free food tents for anybody that was working down at ground zero.
You see the same spirit happening here, and then this is not going away in in two hours, two days.
The rain is gonna continue now.
I think what do we have?
Another potential of 25 inches of rain at this point.
So that hasn't stopped, and and you still haven't gotten the full thrust of how bad this is gonna be.
How many people have lost their homes?
My my niece lives down in the Houston area, and uh and she's a doctor down there.
And I I just I I really was inspired watching all of you this weekend, but with all of that said, the amount of damage and the cost of this damage, I would argue right now is incalculable.
I mean, home damage.
So many of these, they don't have flood insurance because their area never flooded before.
There's gonna be so many people that need to get their lives rebuilt here.
And when you think of all of the effort, every one of those homes and businesses you see underwater, you just gotta think how hard it was for most of those people to get those homes.
Seriously.
I mean, if they have worked their entire lives to get the down payment.
They have worked forever.
You know how much cost to furnish a house these days?
Furnishings, carpeting, tile.
Then you're going to be dealing with mold.
Then you're going to have to live somewhere else while you're rebuilding what you're doing there.
It is this is a life-changing event.
The trajectory of people's lives now have changed dramatically.
And they're all going to need our help.
And we will be there for them.
Like we've I worked with Samaritan's Purse, and Franklin Graham will check in with us today too.
When they had this issue down around Baton Rouge, and we went down there and Samaritan's purse.
You know what?
If you're an older person retired and you want to do something with your life, go volunteer with Franklin Graham and Samaritan's Purse, because they will be there building homes for people that can't afford to build them, rebuilding their lives, and it's going to take years.
It's not going to take months.
It's going to take years to get things back to where they need to be.
It's going to take forever for this water, you know, to finally get out of the way.
It's not like you can take a wet vac and say, oh, let me take it out by WetVac.
So information on how to donate will be giving you later in the program.
Everything's up on Hannity.com.
I just work, I prefer Samaritan's purse, but it doesn't matter who you want to give to.
Give to any organization you want.
I'm not asking.
If you can, I mean, some people can't afford it, don't give anything.
We understand it's not, but the these people are going to need our help.
And the first thing, first order of business, has been amazing.
And when you have people helping people, neighbor helping neighbor, and then you have competent local government, and especially and in particular the governor and lieutenant governor.
And then you have the governor and lieutenant governor, well, working and coordinating with the federal government.
And I talked to all my sources in Washington.
The minute they got word that this was coming, it was all hands on deck.
FEMA was down there days before this ever started.
And supplies were brought in days before this ever started.
So anyway, it's a lot happening.
I'll give you some of the stories that really move me.
Again, uh, the death toll now reportedly is at six.
Uh here's an amazing fact that most of you won't know.
There is a $10 billion, no pun intended here, rainy day fund that Texas has put away just for something like this.
$10 billion.
It's almost more than every other state combined.
And you got to give props to Governor Abbott and props to the former governor Rick Perry, that they were wise enough, smart enough to know that they need some type of funding if worst case scenario unfolds in their state.
And they prepared for this.
And these people that don't have insurance, they're going to need every penny of this.
I mean, this is this is like Noah's Ark catastrophic flooding here.
And areas never before we've never seen anything like this.
It's never been recorded in history.
And this is exactly the scenario that Joe Bastardi was warning everybody about, way before anybody else, and that I know of in weather is that the storm is gonna hit.
It went a little bit north of the exact local.
No, he actually, I think nailed the location, wasn't he?
Kept saying Rockport.
And that it was gonna go in 75 miles, and then it was gonna come back, and it was gonna hover.
And when it hovered, it was gonna dump.
He wrote us 46 inches of rain.
And then we started talking about the high tide on the coastal areas.
All of it happened.
It's it's uh it's eerily accurate in its in its prediction.
So, you know, you've got in some places five feet of rain.
These are life-threatening floods here, and um, you know, the president's gonna go down tomorrow.
There were a few people that want to get into politics today.
If you want to get into politics, I could talk about the stupidity of the Houston mayor, and I'm I'm just not gonna get there.
Um, when I saw that elderly couple, uh, that those people In the elderly people's home, what do you call that nursing home?
And I saw that it was up to their waist.
And I'm looking at these open, they were calm as could be.
The one lady that was knitting, I wanted to I wanted to race through the TV and give that woman a hug.
And they re were able to rescue all of them.
And then social media played a big part in all of this in a way that was frankly unprecedented in ways we'd never seen before.
I don't know if you saw the case.
There was a truck that overturned and a baby in the truck.
Every guy that saw that happen raced to the truck and save that baby's life.
That was pretty amazing.
It went viral, this dog carrying a bag of food.
That was that was on.
Then you got pictures of people that are sitting at their homes, everything they work for their entire life.
I mean, when you buy your first home, it's like it's it is a benchmark in your life.
It's like, wow, I uh I own this.
It's so rewarding for all the hard work that you put in every day.
Even at a case as we played coming into this where news crews finally put their cameras down at times, and and that was amazing that they were so helpful.
And you got a dog that was spotted chained up and abandoned in Victoria, Texas, that was saved.
Um, you know, you got these ridiculous stories, you know, in the midst of tragedy, sometimes you need just a slight bit of humor, but I mean, people catching fish in their house.
I mean, that's how crazy this got.
Um, look at this picture.
Did you see this picture of this old man being comforted by his dog?
As you look at his house, house is ruined.
His house is done.
And he has no idea.
I mean, the guy looks about 70, 72 years old, somewhere in there.
This guy doesn't know where he's gonna go next.
He doesn't know where he's gonna sleep.
Now he's gonna be taken care of.
The shelters now have gone up, people are being rescued, people are being moved out.
You've got the trailers that'll be ready to move in.
But we've got to get to that part of it because the storm keeps hovering.
We haven't gotten to the recovery rebuilding phase.
So it's going to take a little while.
Our friends from the Cajun Navy, they'll join us later in the program.
We met them down when we were in Baton Rouge and we saw the devastations of the floods there.
Well, they were up in Houston, they were saving people's lives.
The Coast Guard is saving people's lives.
You know, you had three Texas prisons evacuated with no incident.
Pretty amazing.
And residents now, when you look at the before and after pictures, wow.
It is it is incredible.
You know how bad this is.
It's everything that we saw in Baton Rouge.
It's everything that we saw after Katrina, and it's and actually, I think in terms of miles, it just goes on and on.
All right, 800-941 Sean.
Uh, we've got a lot coming up.
Joe Bostardi, we're going to start with at the bottom of the hour.
Then we have the Lieutenant Governor of Texas, uh, Dan Patrick is going to join us.
Reverend Franklin Graham will check in.
Uh, the only thing political we're doing today is Dana Rohrbacher who met with Julian Assange, but otherwise it's going to be topic A and the news of the day, which is all the events down in Houston.
All right, so I have insomnia, but I've never slept better.
And what's changed?
Just a pillow.
It's had such a positive impact on my life.
And of course, I'm talking about my pillow.
I fall asleep faster, I stay asleep longer, and now you can too.
Just go to mypillow.com or call 800-919-6090.
Use the promo code Hannity and Mike Lindell, the inventor of MyPillow, has the special four-pack.
Now you get 40% off, two My Pillow premiums, and two go anywhere pillows.
Now, MyPillow is made here in the USA, has a 60-day unconditional money back guarantee and a 10-year warranty.
Go to MyPillow.com right now or call 800-919-6090 promo code Hannity to get Mike Lindell's special four-pack offer.
You get two My Pillow premium pillows and two go anywhere pillows for 40% off.
And that means once those pillows arrive, you start getting the kind of peaceful and restful and comfortable and deep healing and recuperative sleep that you've been craving and you certainly deserve.
MyPillow.com, promo code Hannity.
You will love this pillow.
Long shot Hannity show.
Top story, obviously, the devastation that is unfolding in Houston and it goes on now.
I'm not going to do a lot of politics today, but for Dana Rohrabacher, it's the only day I could do the show and we're going to have him on his meeting with Julian.
But it really is difficult to comprehend when the mayor of Houston just won't listen to anybody.
And the Texas governor Greg Abbott begged him to evacuate, and he went out there and and he's defending the decision now, saying it would have been foolish to evacuate the people in Houston and so on and so forth.
He wouldn't even return the phone call of the governor who was calling to offer help and assistance.
It'd be like the governor not returning the president's call when the president called early on to offer assistance.
And you know, the idea, and I was reading one particular article, I think it was the Wall Street Journal piece.
You know, I don't get gambling with other people's lives here.
And when I read the comments that it was the right decision telling people when the mayor's gonna tell people don't get on the road, which is what he said, well, at that point, you you've got to expect as the mayor, people are gonna listen to you.
Now, in spite of all of that, Governor Abbott said, even and he said this Friday, even if an evacuation order has not been issued by your local official, if you're in an area between Corpus Christi and Houston, you need to strongly consider evacuating.
So at the end of the day, there were 24 inches of rain in 24 hours in the areas that are covered by the Houston mayor.
And I'm sitting here and I'm like thinking, we have five fatalities all in Houston.
We we have a report that might have been a six-one now, but they all came from Houston.
And it's very frustrating to just, you know, tell people don't get on the road.
Don't get as I was watching a guy being interviewed, he said, Why didn't you get on the road?
Well, the mayor, the mayor said don't get on the road.
And then he got on the road late, and as a result of getting on the road late, then it becomes problematic, and then you still gotta rescue the people.
You had enough lead time that that wasn't necessary.
All right, how much worse is this gonna get?
We'll check in with Joe Bastardi.
Also, the lieutenant governor of Texas, Dan Patrick joins us.
Reverend Franklin Graham with Samaritans Purst.
Also, we've got the Waco Navy is here to talk about their efforts to save lives along with all the efforts of all the other rescuers.
Amazing stories from this weekend.
Congressman Dana Roerbacher on one political issue today as we continue.
For how long in the dark?
Just to get here?
About twelve miles to get to my dad's house.
And you wrote out the storm.
What it was like for you.
Terrifying, man.
Uh lost everything.
It just so wipe me out.
Yeah, I'm scared.
Uh this is my home.
What about your friends and family?
Where where are they at, man?
Uh I don't know.
There's been no cell service since Thursday, Friday.
Um, haven't gotten a hold of anybody.
Um my mom and dad's watching.
I'm okay.
I there's no telling where my dad's at.
Um I'm here in Rockport waiting on you.
There's a lot of people that are finding out about Rockport for the first time.
Tell us what we need to know about this place.
It's a disaster.
It was beautiful.
This was a vacation retreat.
I mean, we got shrimp boats, uh, everything, and uh it's like Katrina.
Uh I've seen a lot of things, but that that terrified me.
We just lost everything I worked for.
The only thing I got is the clothes on my back, and hopefully my dad got out somewhere.
I don't know, maybe I should have left.
Uh maybe I should have left.
All right, 24 now till the top of the hour, 800 941 Sean is on number.
You want to be a part of the program, our ongoing coverage of the hurricane and its impact on the southeastern part of uh Texas.
We'll check in with the lieutenant governor later in the program.
Also, what can you do?
The Reverend Franklin Graham of Samaritan's personal check-in, and I work with them for years.
As a matter of fact, we worked as a show with him for years on the on the different relief efforts he's been involved in.
Most recently, I guess was Baton Rouge when we went down there.
Um also you're gonna meet uh the Waco Navy, sort of like the Baton Rouge guys, the Cajun Navy.
I mean, the number of lives that were saved were amazing.
Also, the only political thing we'll do today is Congressman Dana Rohrbacher, who met with Julian Assange.
Also will be asking him what the federal government will be able to do to help these people real rebuild their homes and their lives.
And the devastation has been be it's incalculable at this time.
Uh Joe Bastardi, I think you first wrote me the weekend before I'm watching this hurricane develop, you know, out wherever it was developing.
And when you tell me it's days out, I hardly pay attention.
When you say, okay, it's real and it's happening, and you did very early on, this I look, you you I wish we weren't having a call.
I wish we were having a call today where I'd be making fun of you for being wrong.
You were pinpoint accurate where it landed, pinpoint accuracy the time it landed, pinpoint accuracy how far inland it went, pinpoint accuracy on exactly how much rain would be dumped, how it would circle back, how it would stay in one place for days and days and days.
Um I know probably you wish I was making fun of you at this point.
This is unbelievable what has happened here.
Well, i it's uh in the one area where it's hitting, it's unprecedented in Southeast Texas, see a storm stall there and dump this much rain.
But it's not unbelievable if you've studied tropical storm and cyclone tracks.
And uh, you know, I brought up the example in uh eastern eastern Cuba in 1963, Flora, four days over the island, a hundred inches of rain at Santiago de Cuba.
And if you study tropical cyclone tracks globally, uh one of the professors I had at Penn State, Dr. John Kerr, you know, he made me do, he made me go look at Pacific Typhoons so I could see how wild these things can actually get in uh in all all across the globe because the weather is the weather's the weather.
So when you when you see something in front of you and you recognize the pattern, you say, okay.
Well then let me let me let me tap your brain and ask, all right.
So how many inches have fallen now by your calculations, and how many more inches can they expect in these affected areas?
Well, uh there's 25 to 35 inches of rain, it looks like in a wide area uh extending northeast uh southwest, uh excuse me, uh southeast northwest, from southeast to Houston to uh northwest and west of the city.
And what's going on now is it's reaching, and we we said back on Friday, it's coming back out over the water again, and the second leg of the journey is starting.
So what's happening is we're starting to see thunderstorms begin to to band just to the north of the center over uh coastal Texas, and it's raining very hard in Houston.
In addition, Houston is getting some pretty strong winds.
The winds are gusting at 40, 45, 50 miles an hour around Houston right now.
So the big problem we have now is this is going to come back out over the water and be out over the water till Wednesday morning.
I think the next landfall is between Galveston and Beaumont Port Arthur, and we're going to have to watch where these bands bands set up, and they may set up again in the area that's been devastated.
We have to wait until the storm gets out over the water to see exactly how it wants to start lining itself up because now it has to start all over again from where it was.
So you're basically s saying that they're now gonna get the another you're basically saying we're halfway done.
Well, I think we're halfway uh the I think the Houston's last rain from this occurs early early Thursday morning.
I think it's by them.
It goes by to the east of them on Wednesday.
I think we're 60% to 75% done with the totals in most of the area.
But that means that some of this area...
That's 35% more rain and they can't afford another drop.
Sean, I understand that.
That's why, you know, when I wrote you that letter last week, I said this looks like a catastrophic event coming.
And at that time, it was east of the Yucatan, just some thunderstorms going off.
And, you know, we want to also make sure that people on the Outer Banks and Virginia Beach know that they're going to get tropical storm conditions tomorrow with what should be Irma going by through there.
And it's a kind of pattern, folks, where in close to the United States, that's where these storms want to rev up.
In fact, in 10 to 15 days, don't be surprised if there's a threat on the East Coast.
And you can see this stuff coming based on the pattern.
So what we're going to do here is this.
Tomorrow morning, this thing should be located about fifty miles south-southwest of Galveston.
Tomorrow evening, about fifty miles south-southeast of Galveston.
So then the question is, well, does it rev back up again?
Because they can rev up very quickly over that water.
It has to re regain its structure, and then it'll come in just to the east of uh Galveston, and that means, and here's what's something I'm worried about that I haven't heard anybody cover it.
Maybe it's not a not a big deal, but I'm worried about Galveston Bay blowing into Galveston from the north from the unprotected side.
Well that now raises that now raises a question because you you saw the decision of the Houston mayor.
He wouldn't even take the phone call of the governor who left several messages on a cell phone and he's out there, he was out there all weekend telling people um don't get on the road and don't evacuate.
I mean when a mayor says that I think people tend to be closer to the mayor than the governor and they're gonna listen.
And so the only way that the only way to evacuate people now I'm assuming is by boat or helicopter.
Yeah but I I you know I don't listen I don't get involved with decisions on that matter.
Flooding's very different flooding's a very different but you're describing but you're describing a situation where another hurricane force like storm is that it's gonna go out and regroup and they're gonna be fifty miles south of Houston Galveston.
Well what could uh what what could happen is that's a worst case scenario.
What I'm worried about Galveston, I'm worried about Galveston and I don't I don't know what you do with Galveston.
Galveston hasn't has not had that bad a storm relative to Houston.
The Galveston's rain amounts have been I believe six or ten inches I've seen it move after it goes to Galveston is then going to move north from there.
Yeah it'll come it'll come north from there.
What I'm worried about is all that water that is going into Galveston Bay, where's it going to go if the wind turns to the north it comes back into Galveston from behind uh rather than you know from the seawall.
So what happens is this.
Wednesday evening, the storm is up in east Texas on the Texas-Louisiana border near the Sabine River.
Then it goes over the Arklatex Wednesday night and Thursday on into Arkansas, moves northeastward, and will be bringing rain into the northeastern part of the United States later Saturday and on Sunday.
That'll be from the remnants of Harvey.
What you're going to get on Virginia Beach and those places, because we have listeners there, they're going to get 50, 60 mile an hour wind gusts tomorrow.
tomorrow and three to six inches of rain and that's a significant system.
If we weren't talking about Harvey we'd be talking about that moves quickly out to see Wednesday.
But Texas you've got another twenty four to forty eight hours real tough forecasting in front of us.
I believe it's it's not a slam dunk as far as this thing goes uh the reintensification I'm worried about it.
I was I was working during Umberto and saw how fast that thing in two thousand seven rev back up in those northwest Gulf coastal waters and this is an area where even in our preseason forecast show we said look out in the northwest Gulf of Mexico this year because it had the look of the overall weather pattern that the the Gulf was going to be higher than normal activity in this area.
All right let me ask about this because for look we're it we're still in rescue mode and then we'll move to rescue God forbid recovery.
I think they did a pretty good job.
I I we're not expecting the death toll to go that high and a number of factors that I contribute to the success and one is neighbor helping neighbor the first and most importantly the governor lieutenant governor is going to join us later.
They did a great job and they coordinated very well and in conjunction with the federal government getting everything you know prepared for this.
So my next question is now how long is it going to take for all this water to recede and and go back and where is it going to end up going with hydrology.
I do know I've been you know I remember I remember when uh Tropical Storm Abbey came in in 64 the brass is going out of control because I was down in college station my dad was down there at Texas AM but um and it took a couple days to get back into its banks.
Most of the Texas the problem is you have a lot of a lot of the rivers out of it of the you know they're out of their floodplains.
There's a natural floodplain for these rivers and no one builds in there and uh they're out of the floodplain.
So uh I I can't really answer how long it's going to take uh to come back uh to to normal it looks to me like that's gonna take a long time.
That's a a lot of low standing ground over there and uh even though ra rain amounts to the east of Houston this summer have been above normal to the southwest have been below normal um you know it's a difficult question.
Probably a month before things really get back into their banks uh and back to back to normal as far as the river flow goes.
I will point this out though there's two things to point out that the rain amounts in San Antonio that I saw being forecasted never materialized six or twelve inches of rain.
If that had happened San Antonio would have been underwater too and you would have had to deal with both Houston and San Antonio at the same time.
So so it's fortunate and of course Corpus Christi as bad as it was there you saw that you saw what the worst was up at Rockport and a ransom Rockport got slammed.
I mean just slammed.
And and again to put this in perspective in 1960 and excuse me nineteen seventy when Celia went into Corpus Christi, a Rancis Pass had wind gusts a hundred and sixty one miles an hour.
So you could imagine that that particular storm.
But what happened was they kept moving.
These storms kept moving.
The reason why this didn't keep moving, folks, because the jet stream is we have abnormally cool air across the United States.
And so the jet had buckled southward.
The normal ridge of high pressure that's across the southern plains that keep these things moving west northwest, like you see with Carla and Celia and Gill and all these storms.
That wasn't there.
Instead a big upper trough caught it and it just got stuck.
And you see this happen quite often out in the Atlantic.
And so what you do is, and what I do is I practice with storms that are way out in the middle of nowhere to see what I'm forecasting with them to see how they behave, and then if I get one near uh close to land, at least I've seen the situation.
Let me let me ask this because I think it's really really important as we now move forward and we we still have thirty five percent of the storm that is yet to hit, and Galveston's gonna get whacked again as you pointed out on Thursday.
And I guess the next and and most important thing is um in an area like this, I know you know about mold, but all of these homes that were flooded, do you have to gut them?
Well, I I I I I can't I can't you're getting above my pay grade.
By the way, it's Tuesday night into Wednesday in Galvican.
I'm sorry, I'm not that that particular okay, that's okay.
Well no, I don't want to be like the Houston mayor here.
I want people to take it seriously.
Okay.
Well, I the uh uh uh I I don't know.
I don't I don't know what that uh si uh situation is and how that works out.
Oh mold is gonna be a big issue and that was a problem when we were down on Baton Rouge with Samaritan's Purse is you know if you don't gut it.
Now there's certain things you can do and ways you can treat wood, but then the wood begins to warp and you're all you're almost better off gutting the whole thing out because at the end of the day it's gonna be cheaper than all the treatments you're gonna give it.
That means all of those homes.
Yeah.
Uh uh, you know what though, uh if it's me right now, I'd fight the battle in front of me.
Yeah, get that battle done, and then move to the next battle when it comes.
Uh and last question turns out.
You saw Steve Harrigan nearly being blown away with those wind gusts on Friday night on TV because you were on with us.
You just so people understand, because you can talk about the nineteen fifties, twenties, the roaring twenties, and whatever hurricane happened any place in the world and give us pinpoint details, which we love and admire about you.
Um, but you also are a big storm chaser, and you know what that feels like to have a hundred mile per hour wind gust.
We only have about twenty seconds.
Describe that feeling to to people.
Well uh the highest I probably was in was Bell uh in seventy-six and uh nineteen seventy-six and uh standing outside and my my dad who's a meteorologist told me get the you know what inside the house uh because he had been through uh the hurricanes in Providence, Rhode Island.
And uh it isn't uh it it's an incredible feeling.
You know, the the wind is the wind when the wind doubles its wind speed, it's not just oh it's twice as much force.
Yeah, the force increases exponentially.
Oh yeah.
And the only way to replicate that is to is to be in a w is to be in a wind tunnel.
I gotta I gotta roll, but Jo uh uh Joe Bastardi, you've been amazing.
Our audience loves you, and thank you for your help and and we're gonna be praying more because of this thing coming back by Tuesday night, Wednesday morning.
Uh thank you, sir, appreciate it.
All right, eight hundred nine four one Sean, Joe Bestardi, weatherbell.com.
A lot on our top story today, the uh well, it's not even over yet.
Won't be over for a while.
We'll get to the latest on what's happening in Houston, Texas, and elsewhere.
Galvitson get ready, about to get whacked again.
Reverend Graham, Samaritan's Purse, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick.
Also be checking in today with Austin Shirley, Waco Navy, the Cajun Navy's been unbelievable.
And Congressman Dana Roerbacher, when we get back, we'll talk about federal funds and his meeting with Julian Assange.
All right, Clans you're with us, hour two of the Sean Hannity show, eight hundred nine four one Sean, our toll-free telephone number.
We expect the president is gonna have more to say on the hurricane sometime this hour.
When that happens, we'll bring it to you live.
Uh the president did speak moments ago about what's going down in Southeast Texas, and here's what he said.
I look very much forward to things are being handled really well.
The spirit is incredible of the people.
Uh The uh coordination between all of the different services, as you know, has been going very well.
Uh great respect for the governor.
He's done an incredible job.
And uh I look forward to the trips.
I'll be going there tomorrow.
We're leaving at about 8 30 in the morning.
Uh we don't know exactly which sections will be notifying you soon, but we'll be uh traveling throughout certain parts, and we may actually go back on Saturday, depending on where the storm goes.
We may also go to Louisiana on Saturday.
It's the biggest ever.
They're saying it's the biggest is historic.
Uh it's like tech really like Texas, if you think about it.
But uh it is a historic amount of water in particular.
There's never been anything like it.
All right, the president just speaking moments ago.
We think he'll speak this hour.
If he does, we'll bring it to you live.
We also have the lieutenant governor of Texas, uh Dan Patrick is going to join us, Reverend Franklin Graham with Samaritan's Purse.
Also, you meet some of the real heroes from uh this weekend, including people with the Waco Navy, just kind of like the the Cajun Navy, amazing military people that take all their talents and expertise and they go save lives.
And so uh that's all part of the program coming up later today.
Uh joining us now is California Congressman Dana Rohrbacher is back with us.
Uh Congressman, let me start with you about the hurricane relief and and as the president just said, we've never seen you know, this type of flooding and raining in areas that that frankly don't flood and you don't have a problem.
I can't I think it's incalculable the damage that we see.
Uh what will Congress do as they get back in session after Labor Day?
Well, you have to remember the pres this president as differentiated from the Republican position before, which I have been part of all my life, uh, is that we should uh focus on building infrastructure.
And uh quite frankly, Republicans have been more very concerned about balancing the budget, and that's been a highest priority, et cetera, et cetera.
Well, this president hasn't made that as priorities, priority if it's building the infrastructure means it will keep make us uh capable of handling this type of natural crisis.
So uh he's uh actually in an a in a in a good spot right now because he's positioned himself on building the infrastructure we need to keep America safe, even from natural disaster.
Yeah, well said, Congressman.
Um let me talk about this whole issue with Julian Assange.
I think I've interviewed him more than anybody else in the country, and I've had him on radio and I've had him on television, and I wanted to get your thoughts.
You you are the only Congressman to ever take the time to go and interview him.
And meanwhile, all we have heard is conspiracy theory after conspiracy with no evidence presented, and he's never been proven long wrong with WikiLeaks in eleven years, not one time.
And he was very clear on this program saying it was not Russia that Russia had nothing to do with the leak.
Let me let me let me play him saying that to you.
Hang on one second.
Al South is not the Russian government.
So in other words, let me be clear.
Russia did not give you the pedestal documents or anything from the DNC.
That's correct.
All right.
Now you went to meet with him.
Tell us why and what you learned.
Well, I I am alarmed that we have for the first time in our country's history a concerted and organized attempt to basically undo an election, to basically steal an election that's already happened by uh negating the ability of our president to put in place his policies and to basically uh undermine uh his efforts to establish uh uh his administration as was given to him,
the authority was given to him by the voters, and this blatant power grab has been excused by a the most incredible deluge of of uh false information and innuendo uh about the Russian government having colluded with President Trump or Trump during the election when there is no evidence to suggest that.
And the one piece of evidence that we have that there was uh some something that was released during the in during the campaign, uh the person who most responsible for that and knows the information, knows how how that information in the DNC got out.
He denies uh and when I met him adamantly, as you just played in your show uh Sean the Russians had nothing to do with it.
Well if they didn't that means that the American people are being it's a con job they're being lied to power job a power grab.
What a b I mean what would that mean?
Now again I I think this is very important in pointing out here.
WikiLeaks has never gotten a single thing wrong in eleven years.
Now if you look at all the coverage of Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, well the New York Times has been wrong again and again and again the mainstream media again and again outright conspiracy theories, tinfoil hat bizarre conspiracy theories on cable,
you know, with with me being the exception every single night the Washington Post wrong, the New York Times wrong, WikiLeaks has never been wrong, and isn't he the one guy on the face of this earth that would know where he got the information from here's the irony of it Sean is no one is claiming that the information that was released was inaccurate.
You know none of them are claiming oh they they put out false information which affected the election.
No whatever was put out by WikiLeaks was had no impact.
They said over and over again they've say everybody has said no impact, no evidence of any impact.
What about but it was releasing factual information and the only person so they're complaining that the Russians colluded with with Trump to release factual information.
OK, now they had to go in and steal it.
WikiLeaks, somebody stole it from the DNC.
But it wasn't the Russians.
We keep hearing it was the Russians.
Julian says it wasn't.
And what's more important in my discussion with him, Sean, it became clear that he was willing to, he will be willing, we hope, and we're working on now a procedure of how to move forward, and he will disclose exactly who did leak that information.
And it wasn't the Russians.
But we already have all and give us proof that it wasn't the Russians.
And we know that.
There's been some intelligence of it.
these these veteran intelligence officers have already looked into it and said it's clear just by the fact that uh the d this was downloading and not hacking and thus it had to be an inside job rather than a hacking from the outside which indicates that it was somebody in the inside and not some Russian hack from the outside which released the information to WikiLeaks.
All right if that's the case, sir I mean what you're saying is that the whole reason for the special counsel was ri would really be non existent.
Do here's my question Do you believe Julian Assange and do you believe he has the credibility I'll give you my my opinion is I do believe him.
Well I believe that uh I believe he knows listen uh Julian Assange is as doing things he's a moralist he's an idealist and he wants to get a g any information to the people of the world that's uh that's truthful information that's being kept from them by their government.
I have no reason to believe that he is lying right now.
There is no motive for him to do so.
And he will.
However, he has the evidence now.
He knows who gave him the information.
And I believe that if he releases that, which he's willing to show how he got the information, it will just basically disclose to the American people that they have been the victim of one of the most historic con jobs in the history of our country in order to steal the election results away from Donald Trump, who the voters voted for.
Do you believe that Robert Mueller has a duty to get his ass on a plane and go over there and talk to him and look for the evidence?
You know what?
I'm going to wait, and no one was seeming to move forward on that.
Julian was there all this time, not even any members of the Congress and investigative committees.
Now, let me just note this so people will understand.
People say, why is Dana Rohrabacher so in touch with these Russians here and here and here?
here Sean I am the chairman in the con United States Congress and I chair the committee that oversees our relations with Russia.
So when people when people are trying to say oh my goodness there's something sinister going on when Dana Roerbacher this is your job.
This is what you're supposed to do.
None of those stories ever mentions that.
Let me ask this.
Did Julian, according to reports, gave you a specific message to give the president?
Is that true?
Uh let me just put it this way.
We discussed what I would tell the president.
And have you spoke Well, I know you just had, I think you just had a big anniversary, so you were away for a week, so you wouldn't have been able to get in touch with the president.
Are you planning on telling the president all of this?
Uh d uh from it is my understanding from other parties who are trying to arrange the uh the rendezvous that a rendezvous with myself and the president is being arranged for me to uh give him the uh firsthand information uh from Do you believe the American people have a right to know this information?
And do you believe if the information comes out, the American people will conclude that the news media has been purposely lying to them?
Yes, and uh there's no doubt about that.
And if the information comes out, uh will there will be an outrage among the American people that their time has been wasted, they've had this story over and over and again, shoved down their throats as if the Russians colluded with Donald Trump, and this is an attempt, as I say, to negate their vote and in the ballot booth.
And then when American people realize that this is a con job and a power.
Let me ask this.
Is it upset?
Is it in any way in your mind related to Hillary's desire to re to erase thirty-three thousand emails?
That is it in your mind, they were subpoenaed emails and then bleach bit acid wash the servers and and hard drives and and destroy with hammers all of these devices.
Is it in any way related to her or to Debbie Wassom and Schultz and and the controversy with her IT guy that she kept working after it was proven he overbilled and had relatives that worked at McDonald's on the payroll and uh and then also had government hard drives smashed into little pieces in his garage.
You are absolutely right in your uh an implication of your question that this uh this has all been a huge effort on the part of of a a powerful liberal left establishment in this country and and and around the world to divert the attention of the American people from some of these horrendous things.
Hillary, when you talk about collusion, how where where's all the stories over and over again about Hillary uh raising tens of millions of dollars or at least millions and millions of dollars for the Clinton Foundation and her husband being paid for the case?
Oh, uranium one.
You're talking 145 million dollars, sir.
Right.
And let me and let me note, Sean.
Uh I'm trying to get this out in the public now where we can get this Julian uh Assange thing uh straightened out so that people know that it wasn't the Russians that that hacked into this system, and that's not how the this information was released.
But after that, I am going to be calling on uh on the United States Congress, on my fellow members of Congress, my Republican friends, we need to have a hearing specifically on Hillary and Russia and the tens of millions of dollars a good that went into the Uranium One Foundation, yeah, the Clinton Foundation.
Are you convinced, maybe, that this was by design?
I mean, based on your conversations, do you think that this false Russian narrative that there are top American leftist Democrats, what liberals that knew what they were doing, and that they purposely, you know, manufactured this.
Do you believe that?
Uh, I think that they took advantage of of of what was a negative and turned it into a positive.
The negative was they got all this information they were trying to keep secret from the American people.
It was disclosed through this wiki leaks uh establishment uh that that that serves as a vehicle to get information to to the people.
And once the information was uh and it made them look really bad And and helped lose the election.
So they created a red herring and they created the big bad Russian wolf, if you will, all for in the purpose of distracting, and then the narrative got bigger and bigger with their helps in the compliant media.
Well, once the information was out, they tried to turn uh a lemon into lemonade by saying, Oh, we're gonna bring hurt by this information, but let's let's take a look.
We can say that this was collusion on the part of the Russians and will blame it on the Russians.
So what they did is repeat over and over and over and over again and attempt to divert the American people from any look negative.
How certain are you everything you're telling me in my audience right now is true?
Uh 99%.
How certain are you that laws were broken?
Um, I'm not certain about that.
Um, I'm certain, no, I'm not certain about that.
I'm not certain what the legal status are.
We we certainly know that you can't you you can't mishandle classified information and destroy classified top secret and special access program information.
We know that you can't smash government hard drives.
We know that something's under subpoena and you don't hand it over, that's called obstruction, isn't it?
Yeah, I have not analyzed that part of this of this scenario yet.
And uh uh that I think that you will find it.
Congressman, I I just gotta let you go, but I'm gonna have you back.
Would you come back with us later this week on radio and TV?
Anytime you want me.
All right, thank you, Dana Roerbacher.
I want to take the president speaking on this epic flood.
Ninucho our stations along the Sean Hannity Show Network, we're not going to be taking this break.
A very positive meeting, and I want to begin today by extending my thoughts and prayers for those affected by Hurricane Harvey and the catastrophe of flooding and all of the other difficulties that they're currently going through in Houston in Southeast Texas, and now it's looking more and more like the state of Louisiana will be also affected.
My administration is coordinating closely with state and local authorities in Texas and Louisiana to save lives, and we thank our first responders and all of those involved in their efforts.
We're working directly with Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who, by the way, is doing a fantastic job, and his entire staff likewise, as well as with Governor John Bell Edwards, who's very much uh involved in starting the process of Louisiana.
We've pledged our full support as Texas and Louisiana battle and recover from this very devastating and historic storm.
There's probably never been anything like this.
Under the supervision of FEMA Administrator Brock Long, there has been uh a tremendous amount of work done.
He is he has been so outstanding in so many ways.
More than 8,500 federal workers are involved in the Texas effort alone.
I've also today declared emergencies in Louisiana at the request of Governor Edwards.
Recovery will be a long and difficult road, and the federal government stands ready, willing and able to support that effort.
Right now, the single most important thing is the safety and security of those still in harm's way, including the first responders who have been so terrific and brave.
Protecting the lives of our people is my highest priority.
Every asset at my command is at the disposal of local officials.
Tragic times such as these bring out the best in America's character, strength, charity, and resilience are those characters.
We see neighbor helping neighbor, friend helping friend, and stranger helping stranger.
And you see that all over.
You watch on television, you just see such incredible work and love and teamwork.
We are one American family.
We hurt together, we struggle together, and believe me, we endure together.
We are One family.
To the people of Texas and Louisiana, we are 100% with you.
We're praying for you.
We're working closely with your leaders and officials.
And I will be visiting the impact zone tomorrow to ensure that you're receiving full support and cooperation from the Federal Government.
And on Saturday, we think we're going back to Texas, and also we will be going to Louisiana.
Nothing can defeat the unbreakable spirit of people of Texas and Louisiana.
Right now, every American heart sends its love and support to those whose lives have been up-ended, totally up-ended.
Totally by this very horrible storm.
We ask God for his wisdom and strength.
We will get through this.
We will come out stronger.
And believe me, we will be bigger, better, stronger than ever before.
The rebuilding will begin, and in the end, it will be something very special.
And I just want to thank everybody in the affected area because it has been absolutely incredible to watch the spirit, the cooperation, and the love.
I would also like to share a message to the people of Finland who have recently suffered a terrorist attack in Turku.
We stand in solidarity with you against the terrorist threat.
We must all work together to deny terrorists, safe havens, cut off their finances, and defeat their very wicked ideology.
Mr. President, Americans are grateful for your steadfast support as an ally in the fight against terrorism.
Appreciate it.
Including your membership in the coalition to defeat ISIS.
Finland makes important contributions to the coalition and its effort in Afghanistan and has troops on the ground in Iraq training Iraqi soldiers.
In Afghanistan, Finland provides troops and financial contributions to support the Afghan national defense and security forces on a modern day frontier between barbarism and civilization.
That's what you have.
It's barbarism versus civilization.
We are particularly grateful to the Finnish citizens who have sacrificed for our mutual security.
Finland is a leading expert in cybersecurity.
In fact, we should be calling you pretty soon.
You do do a fantastic job with cybersecurity, and I congratulate you.
And uh, I think in a very short period of time, we're going to be right there with you, believe me.
The United States is very proud, partner of Finland's European Center of Excellence to counter modern threats, including cyber attacks.
In addition, we look forward to your leadership as chair of the Arctic Council.
The Arctic region has strategic and economic importance for both of our nations.
Very much so.
The foundation of our friendship is our shared love of freedom.
On behalf of all Americans, I congratulate you and the Finnish people on the 100th anniversary of Finland's independence.
100 years.
Fantastic.
In honor of Finland's All right, that's the President.
He is with the is it a President or uh of Finland.
And uh and they recently had a terror attack.
The President saying over 8,500 Federal workers in Texas in the effort down there alone.
The President said everything at his disposal is now being made available to local authorities.
He'll be headed to Texas tomorrow.
He's declared Louisiana, which will be hit next, also a disaster area, and they will have all the Federal help and assistance.
First order of business, people's safety.
When we come back, uh we will get to the President and the QA.
You won't miss anything important.
That I can promise you.
And then you're going to meet one of the heroes from this weekend as we continue on the Sean Hannity Show and take this hard break.
Music You want to talk to Sean Hannity.
Check him out On Twitter.
You can find him under at Sean Hannity.
All right, 25 till the top of the hour.
Top story remains.
The tragedy, the flooding, what is the worst in the history of Southeast Texas?
Now the President is doing a joint press conference.
We just gave you the President's statement.
While we were away, the President of Finland gave his statement.
So we're just going to pick it up with the first question just literally one minute ago to the President.
So we'll take a couple of questions.
How about we go to Texas?
Todd Gilman.
Todd?
Thank you, Mr. President.
Yes.
I'm wondering what you can uh tell the people of Texas to expect in terms of long-term recovery efforts.
And in particular, you have been feuding with some key congressional leaders.
You've also threatened a government shutdown potentially next month over border wall funding.
Are these going to hamper long-term the the funding that will be needed long-term for recovery?
No, Todd.
I think that you're going to see very rapid action from Congress, certainly from the President.
And you're going to get your funding.
It's a terrible tragedy.
Your governor has been absolutely outstanding in the job he's done and his entire staff.
And I will say that I just spoke with Greg, and he is uh working like 24-7.
Uh we expect to have requests on our desk fairly soon, and we think that uh Congress will feel very much the way I feel.
Uh very in a very bipartisan way.
That will be nice.
But we think you're going to have what you need and it's going to go fast.
Texas is a unique place.
It's a great, great state, great people, and I think you'll be up and running very, very quickly, really very quickly.
So yeah, I think you're going to be in fantastic shape.
I've already spoken to Congress and uh everybody uh feels for you and feels for what you're going through, but at the same time they have great respect, even additional respect for the state, because you've handled it so well so brilliantly.
But it's a long road.
Still pouring, still a lot of rain.
Nobody's ever seen anything like it.
They've I've heard the words epic, I've heard historic.
That's what it is.
But you will have uh what you want, I think, very, very quickly.
Uh and Todd, you can ask a question to the President.
Sure.
Thank you.
Did does this situation make you reconsider the the possibility of a government shutdown uh next?
I think it has nothing to do with it really.
I think this is separate.
This is going to go really very, very quickly.
Again, I've spoken to many of the people we're talking about, and everybody feels the same way I do.
Thank you.
And Mr. President, uh I wanted to ask you, um, your neighbor Russia has meddled in U.S. politics.
Um, they have a military exercise coming up in the next few weeks uh in the Baltic, there are tensions over there.
What kind of advice have you offered and can you offer to the United States in dealing with this adversary?
Sir, we are not feeling ourselves as advisors, but uh we are feeling ourselves as uh doing all what is possible to maintain peace.
And that is what we are doing in Baltic Sea area too.
Uh with uh actually uh you referred to different kinds of military training, which is uh going to happen there.
I have to tell you that um a couple of weeks ago I met uh President Putin and their uh media interested in uh why Chinese Navy is uh having a training together with Russians in Baltic Sea area.
Putin answered that uh it is not a block, it's not against anybody.
My answer was that we are also training in Baltic Sea with the United States and Sweden, and it is not a block, it's not against anybody.
So we have to be very careful that this uh huge training, huge military uh trafficking over politics, doesn't cause any accidental problems, because we know that uh from accidents might grow whatever.
And that is why uh I think it's important that we continue to work with NATO to enhance, like I said, dialogue between Russia and NATO.
And it is going forward.
We have a question.
Uh Phineas broadcasting company where you are okay.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I have a question to uh President Trump, if I may.
As uh President Ninister told, he's been raising the issue about the uh security situation in the Baltic region and the Baltic Sea specifically and uh has been concerned about the Russian planes flying there without uh transponders on so my question to you Mr. President would be Mr Trump would you consider Russia as a security threat?
Thank you.
Well, I consider many countries as a security threat, unfortunately, when you look at what's going on in the world today.
As you know, a few weeks ago, our great Vice President, Mike Pence, who's right here, was in the region and spent quite a bit of time there.
We consider that a very, very important part of the world.
We have great relationships there.
We have a great relationship with Finland.
And so I would consider many countries threats, But these are all threats that we'll be able to handle if we have to.
we won't have to handle them but if we do we will handle them.
Can I have a follow up as uh he had also uh so if the situation in the Baltic were to escalate what would the US be ready to do in that unfortunate circumstance we are very protective of that region that's all I can say we are very very protective.
We have great friends there great relationships there we are extremely protective a question for the President yes no sometimes he do you have a question for the President do you have a question for the President?
It's all right.
Somebody else can...
You don't have to.
Mr. President, Landemedia from Finland.
Okay.
Did you speak about climate change at all?
And what about your, Mr. President, Ninista initiative about cleaning up the Arctic and doing it together with the United States?
What kind of response did your idea receive here in Washington, D.C.?
We discussed a lot about black carbon.
And to to explain to everybody what happens is that from atmosphere black carbon covers the Arctic and we know what happens when sun shine meets black it melts the ice and the problem is not only Arctic if we lose the Arctic we lose the globe that is reality.
So we must fight against those emissions spreading black carbon.
I understood that the United States is going to put it in half.
And we know that black carbon sources are, a lot of them in Russia, they are old-fashioned energy plants producing heating.
The other problem is flaring.
You know that in oil fields they flare up the extra gas.
And the amount is huge.
Yearly they flare 40 times more than Finland spends gas.
So if we can, and here comes also a business to picture, it would be a good business to renew those old-fashioned plants, to make more with less energy.
It would be a business to stop flaring, take use of that gas which is now burned for women and uh I think that these elements are shots that we can continue discussing in Arctic Council we have uh heritage the chairmanship from United States and we continue the work.
We had a very good discussion in particular on the Arctic and black carbon and I think we have much in agreement One of the things we also agree on, we want crystal clean water, and we want clean air, the cleanest ever.
Very important.
So we have a lot of agreement.
John Roberts, yes.
Okay.
Mr. President, thank you so much.
Uh President Ninesta have a question for you as well, but if I could start with President Trump.
In the middle of uh Hurricane Harvey hitting on Friday night, you chose to pardon former Sheriff Joe Arpayao.
I wonder if you could tell us what was behind your thinking for issuing a pardon uh for the sheriff, and as well, what do you say to your critics, even some in your own party who say it was the wrong thing to do?
Well, a lot of people think it was the right thing to do, John.
And actually, uh, in the middle of a hurricane, even though it was a Friday evening, I assume the ratings would be far higher than they would be normally.
You know, the hurricane was just starting.
Uh and I put it out that I had pardoned uh, as we call, as we say, Sheriff Joe.
Uh he's done a great job for the people of Arizona.
He's very strong on borders, very strong on illegal immigration.
He is loved in Arizona.
I thought he was treated unbelievably unfairly when they came down with their big decision to go get him right before the election voting started, as you know, and he lost in a fairly close election, he would have won the election, but they just hammered him just before the election.
I thought that was a very, very unfair thing to do.
Uh when I mentioned him the other night, you saw the massive crowd we had.
The people went crazy when I said, what do you think of Sheriff Joe or something to that effect?
The place went absolutely crazy when I was in Arizona last week.
And as far as pardons are concerned, I actually did this just before the meeting because I assumed that somebody would ask me the question.
I didn't know it would be you, as you can attest, you didn't even know you were going to be called.
But I thought I would.
And uh, you know, Sheriff Joe is a great veteran of the military, great law enforcement person, uh, somebody that's won many, many elections in the state of Arizona.
But I I wanted to look at some of the other people that were pardoned over the years.
And if you look at, as an example, President Clinton pardoned Mark Rich, who was charged with crimes going back decades, including illegally buying oil from Iran while it held 53 American hostages, wasn't allowed to do that, selling to the enemies of the United States.
He was pardoned after his wife donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Clintons.
Then you have dangerous criminals.
President Clinton pardoned Susan Rosenberg, a member of the weathered underground, charged as part of a bank robbery that led to a guard and two police officers being killed.
Drug dealers.
Uh President Clinton commuted the sentence of Carlos Vignali, a central player in a cocaine ring that stretched from California to Minnesota.
Uh criminal leaker.
You've heard the word leaker.
President Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, who leaked countless sensitive and classified documents to WikiLeaks, perhaps in others, but horrible, horrible thing that he did, commuted the sentence.
And perhaps pardoned.
President Obama commuted the sentence of Oscar Lopez Rivera, who was charged as part of a violent independence group from Puerto Rico, responsible for 28 Chicago area bombings and many deaths in the 1970s and 1980s.
Sheriff Joe is a patriot.
Sheriff Joe loves our country.
Sheriff Joe protected our borders.
And Sheriff Joe was very unfairly treated by the Obama administration, especially right before an election, an election that he would have won.
So and he was elected many times.
So I stand by my pardon of Sheriff Joe, and I think the people of Arizona who really know him best would agree with me.
Thank you very much.
Mr. President, I'd like to claim prescience that you did all the research, but I'm afraid I have to confess the question was fairly obvious.
And uh President Ninesta, uh I'm sure that President Trump either briefed you today or you're aware of his new plan For Afghanistan that really relies at its core in bringing the Taliban to the table for negotiations.
Given the history and the ideology of the Taliban, do you ever believe that they would honor any kind of an agreement that was ever made?
Or would they, when the United States and Finland and other countries leave Afghanistan reneg on that deal?
Yes.
First of all, I want to underline that Finland has been involved from the very beginning to all the attempts to solve the situation in Afghanistan.
We have troops there.
We have also financial aid going on all the time.
We have to try.
We have to try in all possible ways to solve the situation in Afghanistan.
It has been ongoing quite a long time for decades.
All right, to the stations along the Sean Hannity Show Network, we are going to continue with this.
Reminder that the Lieutenant Governor of Texas Dan Patrick joins us, Reverend Franklin Graham will be joining us in the last hour of the program.
We'll continue with this press conference, giving stations now an opportunity to break away at the usual time.
These elements have to be all the time present when you discuss with whichever party in Afghanistan.
Yep.
I know there might be a couple of more questions, but do you want to take one more?
Would you want to take one more?
Go ahead, Pick.
Go ahead.
Please, again.
You're going to give her the same one?
No, she's not the same major.
Go ahead.
They are sitting side.
We have a lot of blunt women in Finland.
Go ahead.
Um Mr. President Trump, what kind of role do you see as Finland having in the U.S.-Russia relations?
Do you think Finland could be of assistance, helping U.S. get better relations with Russia?
Well, I hope that we do have good relations with Russia.
I say it loud and clear, I've been saying it for years.
I think it's a good thing if we have great relationships or at least good relationships with Russia.
That's very important.
And I believe someday that will happen.
It's a big country, it's a nuclear country.
It's a country that we should get along with, and I think we will eventually get along with Russia.
Finland is respected by Russia.
Finland has been free of Russia really, just about one of the few countries in the region that has been for a hundred years.
And uh Russia has a lot of respect for Finland, so that's always good.
But I think uh Finland is doing fine with Russia, and I hope that the United States will someday be able to have a very good relationship with Russia also.
I think that's very good for world peace and for other things.
Thank you.
As a follow-up, um, if Finland's relationship with Russia were to deteriorate, right?
Uh, would the U.S. what kind of assistance would the U.S. be willing to give to Finland bilaterally if we needed it?
Well, as I said before, that you know, our relationship with Finland is a very close one, and we're always ready to help Finland.
One of the things that is happening is you're purchasing large amounts of our great F-18 aircraft from Boeing.
And it's one of the great planes, one of the great fighter jets, and you're purchasing lots of other military equipment.
Uh and I think purchasing very wisely.
I know all of the military equipment, and I actually agree with everything you purchased.
We talked about it before.
Uh, I think Finland is really a respected country militarily.
It's got large armed forces for its size as a country, really proportionally, probably one of the biggest in the world, if you think of it.
I guess so.
But they're very respected militarily, and they're respected beyond militarily.
So hopefully it'll never come to that.
Thank you.
And President Ninista?
President Minister, did you discuss Russia?
And uh did you offer any assistance to the U.S. with their relationship with Russia?
Well, we like I said earlier on, we did discuss about Russia.
But uh actually I don't feel myself or Finland being any advisor to anybody, but uh we try to do our best.
And uh hopefully we get also results from that.
I want to remind you that uh in NATO meeting a year ago approximately, uh, It was stated by all NATO countries that with Russia you have to be deterrents, but you have to exercise dialogue too.
These two-way elements have to be there.
Yeah, go ahead.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Trey Yinks with One America News.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, do you believe that cutting FEMA's budget is the right thing to do?
No, I think what's going to happen is the FEMA money is relatively small compared to the rebuilding money.
So FEMA, right now we have the money necessary for Texas and Louisiana if we need.
But the all, you know, the real number, which will be many billions of dollars will go through Congress.
I think it will happen very quickly.
It will go very fast.
And I want to congratulate you on the network.
It's a great network.
Thank you.
If I may follow up on uh one other question from earlier, the Southern border wall, is your plan still to have Mexico pay for the wall?
Yes, it will.
One way or the other, Mexico is going to pay for the wall.
That's right.
It may be through reimbursement, but one way or the other, Mexico will pay for the wall.
We're right now negotiating NAFTA.
Uh, in my opinion, Mexico has been very difficult, as they should be.
Why wouldn't they be?
They had a sweetheart deal for so many years.
It's one of the great deals of all time for them, one of the worst trade deals ever signed.
I guarantee you, Mr. President, Finland would never have signed NAFTA with Russia or whoever you want to do.
This is not a deal that you would want to sign.
This is not a deal that Finland would know about.
Uh NAFTA is one of the worst trade deals ever signed at any time, anywhere in the world.
And I can understand why Mexico is being difficult, because why wouldn't they be?
They've had it their way.
But no Mexico will pay for the wall.
It may be through reimbursement.
We need the wall very badly.
As you know, Mexico has a tremendous crime problem, tremendous.
Uh one of the number two or three in the world.
And that's another reason we need it.
And the uh just to add on, tremendous drugs are pouring into the United States at levels that nobody's ever seen before.
This happened over the last three to four years in particular.
The wall will stop much of the drugs from pouring into this country and poisoning our youth.
So we need the wall.
It's imperative.
We may fund it through the United States, but ultimately Mexico will pay for the wall.
If I may follow up on Tuesday, you said if we have to close down our government, we are building that wall.
Well, I hope that's not necessary.
Yeah.
I hope that's not necessary.
Uh if it's necessary, we'll have to see.
But I hope it's not necessary.
The wall is needed from the standpoint of security.
The wall is needed from the standpoint of drug, tremendous the drug scourge.
What's coming through and the through that area, through the areas that we're talking about.
Uh as you know, I have General Kelly here.
We stopped uh traffic coming through, 78 percent.
It's going to be, I think 81 percent this quarter, which is a record.
In other administrations, if they stopped it just a little bit, like one or two or three percent, they consider that a great thing.
We're up to almost 80 percent.
We'll soon be over 80 percent.
But you need the wall to do the rest, and you need the wall for the drugs.
The drugs are a tremendous problem.
The wall will greatly help with the drug problem.
And ultimately, that's a good thing for Mexico also.
We have a very good relationship with Mexico, but I will say that dealing with them, I've always said, I've talked about NAFTA, you have heard me many times, and I've said that uh we will either terminate it or renegotiate it.
We're in the process of renegotiating right now, renegotiating the deal.
Uh, I believe that you will probably have to at least start the termination process before a fair deal can be arrived at.
Because the end of the press conference, actually, right there timed out perfectly.
When we come back, the Lieutenant Governor of the Great State of Texas, Dan Patrick, talk about the coordinating of efforts and support and help and rescue, and of course, rescue, recovery, and rebuilding.
Reverend Franklin Graham, Samaritan's Purse, what they have in store to help all of our friends in Texas in need.
And your calls, 800 941 Sean on number as we continue.
Stay right here for our final news roundup and information overload.
Uh he called and said, uh, Governor, whatever you need, you've got.
Uh and this is the quickest turnaround I've ever seen uh from the time that a governor made a disaster declaration uh to getting that granted.
Uh what that means uh for the lay person out there uh is because the president so swiftly granted uh my application for a disaster declaration, it means it triggered uh all the resources of FEMA uh to help Texas.
and what you will see uh over the coming weeks and months is a tremendous rebuilding from all this damage, and a large part of that will be because of FEMA helping out.
And so we are very appreciative of the way uh the president and the white house has responded to this catastrophe.
All right, that's the governor, and uh obviously things are top story news roundup information overload hour here on the Sean Hannity Show.
What is happening down in Texas?
Amazing inspiring stories, one after another that we've been following today.
The Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick of Texas is with us.
Lieutenant Governor, uh first our thoughts and prayers go out to our friends and neighbors and fellow citizens down there, and I know like me, many are going to be donating and offering whatever you guys need.
Let's first talk about people's safety and where we are at this moment because the rains continue.
Uh thank you, Sean.
Uh always good to be with you.
Uh I wish there were different circumstances this time.
Um, first of all, we are, as uh as the governor said, uh we are in a rescue uh to save lives right now.
You know, you do three steps.
Uh you know, it's first of all it's rescue and then it's rescue and recovery of lost lives, and it then it's rebuilding.
So we are still still in step one, Sean, because this storm in essence is still kind of in the first phase.
You know, the hurricane hit Rockport, as you know.
Um and and think about this, Sean.
That would be like a hurricane hitting New York, and then Boston gets flooded, because we're about the same distance close from Rockport as Boston is to New York.
And so that's the breadth of this storm, and there are hundreds of thousands of people who are displaced from their homes.
It could be close to uh three quarters of a million when it's all said and done, either at a family's home, a friend's home, or or at a shelter somewhere.
And so right now we're still looking for lives.
We're rescuing people off of rooftops and balconies and trees.
And Sean, every story is the same.
Every story that you see is people just grateful to God for their life, grateful that their family is survived, grateful to either the first responder or the volunteers that help them.
And they and because they realize when it gets down to these moments in life, um the stuff doesn't matter.
You can buy a new TV and more furniture, you can you know get the sheetrock repaired, and it may take six months or a year to get all of this done or more, but it's your life that matters.
And they're so grateful, Sean.
These stories are incredible.
I don't have enough time to tell you all of this, but it's incredible.
And we are, Sean, in a country that is so divine in so many ways.
Right now, Texas is one.
No Democrats or Republicans, no liberals or conservatives, no black, white, and brown.
It's neighbor helping neighbor.
Volunteers.
You know, this movie Dunkirk is about the great uh, you know, volunteer effort when when the armada went to France to save the soldiers.
Well, we have an armada, not quite as big as the Dunkirk, but we have people bringing votes from everywhere, just jumping in the water or getting their high-wheeled trucks and rescuing people.
And it's just in this terrible time, it's so uplifting uh to see Texas come together as I knew they would.
You really need as you deal with the three phases, Lieutenant Governor, you talk about rescue, rescue, recovery, and of course the rebuilding is gonna take an awful long time.
And it it's look, it's heartbreaking because you know what it's like.
Everybody in life, they worked their hardest to maybe get a down payment to buy the first home and and everything they worked their entire lives for, you know, now is just gone.
And and that's the least of the story when you're talking about saving human lives.
But they really to have a successful rescue, I think you've got every component in place, and that is you've got neighbor helping neighbor, which is amazing.
You've got local government, state government doing their job.
Coordination seemingly to me with the federal government has been amazing also.
Is there any one component that has gone shy short of the Houston mayor defending the decision not to evacuate, which I know has become a big controversy.
Yeah, well, first of all, let me thank um our mutual friend Donald Trump.
Um he has uh he responded not just like a president would, Sean, but like the CEO of a company would.
You know, and that's how he thinks.
And that is he's all a problem.
Uh the governor contacted him with our needs.
He contacted the governor.
They talked several times early on, and we got out in front of this.
So the the FEMA, the FEMA and and the federal government were ahead of this by days instead of trailing it by weeks, uh which we haven't seen in the past.
Uh so first of all, you got a president who thinks like a business guy.
Tell me what you need.
He's an action guy, get it done.
Uh and he's coming to Texas tomorrow.
The next thing is the governor and at the state level, we have done the very best we can getting ahead of the storm, even though it was a short notice storm, a week or less and it got very big.
And then you have the local officials.
You work in tandem and and for the most part it's working well.
The biggest issue I would say Sean right now, there's so many people needing help.
Yesterday the 911 system just in Houston had over fifty thousand calls.
I had a neighbor this morning and I'm in one I'm in the northwest corner of Houston that's been hit one of the hardest and right now as I talked to you on uh I got out yesterday I'm surrounded by water right now.
Uh but one of my neighbors down the street, their 84 year old father lives with them had a stroke and they called 911 and and and there was just no answer because they're overwhelmed with the calls and doing the best they can and so it was you know getting someone with a high truck to get this 84 year old father who had a stroke out to a hospital and thank God he's doing fine.
But it's all of these all of these issues that you right now it's not the bureaucracy that you count on.
It's just people doing instantly the right thing at the right time.
But it starts at the top the president has jumped out there and been a significant uh uh help to uh we're very grateful the governor is doing his job I'm doing the best to do my job all the all the local elected officials but it's the people it's the firemen it's the police it's the Coast Guard it's the Bob.
What about these guys the the Cajun Navy is out again in force.
These people are amazing, right?
Yeah well that's why I say it to me it's it's like it's like our Dunkirk.
I mean it's it's a flotilla.
I've got a a friend of mine bringing a 26th boat down from from Dallas today uh driving down here.
Now I it's funny I you know it's gonna be hard for me to get to him uh but I'm gonna be out I'm driving I'm going out today with a guy who I met him yesterday out twenty five years old did your did your house get flooded?
Did your house get flooded?
Did your house surround it?
Yeah my right now the water is halfway to my door uh over the mailbox and we are uh surrounded by water.
Uh my daughter's house uh if it's not flooded has uh water at the door um and my son is dry but look this this storm took in everyone Sean um if you look I I guess finish your story I didn't want I want to hear the rest of that story.
Go ahead.
Yeah well the rest of the story so yesterday I'm out um because my son in law had to try to get to his house.
He had to walk about a half a mile through water and and I see this big army truck come by and uh and be there's a road close side and this big army truck comes by it's got all these people in it.
I mean it's a big army truck big World War II, you know big army truck.
And I and so I get out and I you know walk through the water and I said hey who whose truck is this?
And a 25 year old guy gets out um and he says my truck and he has uh a K I'm sorry three P off-road and he has a car business in a place called Tom Ball Texas and uh he said I bought this truck to help out in storms like this two years ago when he was twenty three.
Wow we had big floods here too in last year.
And so he has been in fact I'm joining up with him shortly and I'm going out going out with him and we're gonna go neighborhood house by house and see who needs help.
And and he's just been doing that on his own.
And um yesterday there was this there was this young man who got picked up by the Coast Guard off a balcony and we landed on the ground reporter asking the question and he had his small son with him and he said and all they had were their backpacks.
And I never forget this kid Sean because the kid had one of these cartoon backpacks, you know the character on his back as he walked away and the man said, I've lost my car.
I've lost everything.
I don't have any clothes.
My son has nothing for school no clothes but we got well but we got our lives and we're grateful and thank God thank God.
And so this is when we as a Christian nation are tested to help each other and this is when we as a Christian nation really say to God it's in these times when it's tough that we look to you and we know it's in all of your will and that we will be fine.
And and I just see that spirit coming alive.
And you hate to see things like this happen to bring that about but you know better than anyone because I know your heart and I know better than anyone that's who we are as a people.
And sometimes we let politics and we let you know headlines of the day and and and the haters out there try to divide us.
We're not a divided country.
We we have a common bond that we love each other and we want to help each other.
Lieutenant governor I was here in New York on nine eleven and we saw the same thing happen.
I mean instantaneously people just came out to help their neighbor.
They weren't asking what their political orientation was either.
You know I remember I just it sticks in my memory I mean Campbell Soup set up free food immediately for everybody that was working down a ground zero.
Um is there anything now I I'm wiring money to Samaritans Purse I've worked with them for years and they are they're specifically the people in Houston.
Yeah You know, but so many people I've watched on social media and there are a few haters out there that just want to turn everything into politics, but they're the minority.
And you know and but everybody those of us that are not there we kind of feel helpless and we want to help out our friends in Texas.
What do you recommend we do?
Uh well well first of all our prayers are and never never underestimate the power of prayer.
But number two money is needed.
You know, look we will have FEMA dollars and that's why the president has already been so helpful and that will help us in the rebuild and the state we have thank goodness we protect our rainy day fund that the economic stabilization fund we have about 10 billion in it which is more than most states combined but that will that wow that's a great depleted that's depleted the quickly in times like this.
Yes.
And then many people have insurance and many people don't but the when you send in the money to Samaritans Purse or you send in money to Red Cross dot org, you're helping the people like those I talked about who have nothing left and there will be some government assistance but they're going to have to be people who have to rebuild their lives and so uh give now as much as you can give your audience I know is a very generous and giving audience.
They really are Samaritan's purse again is awesome or redcross.org uh and help our folks here and then you know what um uh people who who live nearby um uh if they've got a boat and they can come here and help.
I gotta take a quick break.
We'll come back more with the Lieutenant Governor of Texas.
He's in Houston now as we speak still unprecedented rain as we uh as we continue our coverage and that's Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick of Texas then Franklin Graham of Samaritan's Purse will join us.
All right glad you're with us news Roundup information overload hour here on the Sean Hannity show our top story is the flooding the disaster this is beyond anything they have ever seen down in Texas.
The Lieutenant Governor, Dan Patrick, is with us as we continue.
But how many people still are out there that you need to rescue?
Well, yesterday, just in Houston, we rescued, I'm told the numbers, and we'll be official until later, we rescued about 1,800 people yesterday.
We had 56,000 phone calls, as I may have mentioned, to 9-11 yesterday.
We still, I mean, into a 911.
We still have people on rooftops.
We still have people on balconies.
Are we getting them food and water in the meantime as the rescue effort moves forward?
In other words, we don't expect any more fatalities here.
to get these these people in these situations the food and water they need to just hang in there till till the till help arrives we're doing our best we you know from a state level we're doing our best volunteers are doing our best our churches are stepping up but uh this is an ongoing issue Sean this is not like look nothing like this has happened in American history.
You think of the great disasters the San Francisco earthquake, the Chicago fire, the Galveston flood, but this is going to be sadly maybe at the top of the list.
But in terms of economic damage and it's un incalculable.
Incalculable.
And and the and the stories you're right about humanity are amazing.
Are you glad the president is coming tomorrow?
Absolutely.
Look, you know, I think this president has done a great job as president, and he cares about people.
And I know that he loves Texas, and he loves every place else, but he's got a fondness for Texas.
And he was on the phone right away with the governor.
And I last talked to the president about three weeks ago before all this happened.
But I know he's a person of action, and he wants to get this done, and he'll put the right resources in, and he'll do all he can.
no we're we're uh we're happy to have him here Texas loves him he loves Texas and uh and it will be um and but it will be eye opening for him again too you can see it's like nine eleven Sean I was not there.
been to New York many times in my life, but it was not there at that time.
And the pictures never tell the story.
And you know what I don't understand?
Don't tell the story here.
Listen, I saw these elderly people, and this goes back to the evacuation issue.
I just don't, I'm not in a mode where I think anything should be politicized right now.
But, you know, listen, I understand Texas and I understand it's hard for government to tell anybody if they want to stay in their house.
If you're an adult and you're capable and you want to take the risk, my attitude is government shouldn't have the right to do that.
But when I saw all these old people in a nursing home, they, at that point, we've got to make decisions for people.
And I saw this poor woman knitting in she's up literally up to a waste in water.
Yes yeah I didn't understand that part of it.
Why did why did they not in that instance when they were given an evacuation order by you and the governor that the local people didn't want to do it?
I don't understand.
Uh it always happens.
Um there are um there are people who just decide they don't want to leave because that's their possession.
Uh there are other people who can ride it out.
And you know what is so happened so often, Sean, unfortunately.
Well, I guess fortunately is the right word.
Big storms are predicted and nothing happens.
And after a while, people get a little jaded.
Well, you know, it's really not going to be as bad as they say.
And every now and then it is.
And this is one of those times.
And the thing that concerned the governor, and the reason he said, I think appropriately a few days ago before the storm hit that you know, if you had a few vacation days, get out of Houston, get out of Corpus.
And Corpus was spared for the most part, because the storm moved a little to the right at the last minute.
But Houston, it was clear, Sean.
It was clear that we were going to be hit with with somewhere between fifteen and twenty-five inches of rain.
But there was the potential to get forty or more.
And now we're in that potential.
And I know to my own son and to my own daughter, I said to them, you know, I've got five grandkids, and I said to them, Look, you can't risk, you can't take a chance on the worst won't happen in this case, because if the meteorologists are correct, and if this storm stalls and we get 40 inches of water, that's unprecedented.
It's never happened.
And my certain niece is a doctor, and she lives down in in Houston, and she's sending me pictures.
I mean, everybody's home is underwater.
It's unbelievable.
Uh well, listen, Mr. Lieutenant Governor, we will we will take you up on your challenge.
The country's with you.
We are sending our our many thoughts and prayers to our friends in Texas.
And you guys hang tough as I know you will under very difficult circumstances, and you have our many prayers, sir.
Thank you, Sean.
It's the Texas size a disaster, but we'll have a Texas size effort.
We've got a Texas size heart joined by America.
We'll get through it to it.
All right, sir.
Thank you so much, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick of Texas.
We'll be right back.
Stay in touch with the Hannity Faithful.
Join the message board at Hannity.com.
The National Weather Service says that parts of Texas might be uninhabitable for weeks, even potentially months after the hurricane.
Uh, are you prepared?
Is FEMA prepared to be there for months on end?
Uh FEMA's gonna be there for years, sir.
Um this disaster recovery, this this disaster is gonna be a landmark event.
And uh we're already in the stages while we're focused on response right now and helping Texas, you know, respond.
Um we're already pushing forward forces to be on the ground to implement uh national flood insurance program policies as well, and and doing the inspections that we need.
So we're setting up and gearing up for uh the next couple years.
Chase and his friend Brian Brees helped a family of four evacuate their flooded home Sunday night.
The family had been calling 911 since six AM.
Putting yourself in harm's ways.
Help others.
It's awesome.
Chase is just one of hundreds of people who showed up wanting to help.
When this big rig drifted into danger, civilian Samaritans grabbed some rope and pulled the driver to safety.
Spirit of Texas, that's what it's all about.
We found Denise Lucille holding her six-month-old son waiting through waist-high water.
You have a place to go?
Yeah, actually, my in-mah's house right here on the air and fishing.
Watch the watch the water, watch the water man watch the lift to lift the baby to the baby.
Sue Madison has four feet of water in her home.
When we found her, she was just looking for a place to sleep.
And so the house is total on my furniture's total.
But what's the smile?
Could be worse, you're here.
Good luck.
All right, 24 now till the top of the hour, 800 941.
Sean is our toll-free telephone number.
You want to be a part of the program amidst unbelievable tragedy and loss.
Uh now news is reporting that six people have died, and we'll continue to update you throughout the day and tonight on Hannity at 10 Eastern.
The President will in fact go down and and visit Texas tomorrow.
Uh, obviously, FEMA is uh working now, they're gonna be on the ground for years.
When you look at the damage and destruction and loss of property, It's incalculable how big and massive this is, never before seen in in Texas history.
You know, but during the worst of times, you see the best and and the capability of the best in humanity.
You see Texas men rushing into flooded waters to save a a baby after a an overturned track uh truck you know went down in front of them.
You know, um amazing stories about even a news crew stepping up, putting their cameras down and saving a man's life while covering the hurricane.
You got people in their efforts to save their animals, one story after another.
Um you've got heartbreaking videos of people at their homes in tears.
It just breaks your heart.
And then there's the Cajun Navy again.
We met these guys down in in Baton Rouge when they had experienced the flooding.
We also met down there, Samaritan's Purse and the Reverend Franklin Graham.
And uh I'm I'm literally wiring money today because they have a special earmark just for hurricane relief efforts that are going down in this southeastern part of Texas.
And Reverend Graham, you're uh back with us, and uh, you know, it's so sad on you know everything that we're witnessing and Samaritan's Purse is always there, and and you guys I've seen the efforts I've worked with you now enough over the years to know that this is money good that goes directly to the people.
Well, Sean, thank you.
And uh you know the we we appreciate everybody that uh that donates and we appreciate everybody who prays.
Um we can only respond uh Sean as people support us.
And uh we'll have uh right now uh five we we will set up five different locations in South Texas that we will work out of.
And we'll have uh thousands of volunteers and we need probably right now, Sean, more than anything else, we need people to call who are willing to volunteer.
We need we need people who are willing to be the hands and feet of the Lord Jesus Christ in these next few months.
Because we'll we'll it's not just a few months, Sean, we'll be down there um we'll be down there probably for two years.
Uh uh when you have this kind of damage, uh right now the first thing is helping people to dry in their homes.
If the hoop if the roof blew off, we'll come tarp it.
Uh if you got flooded, we will come in and we'll we will drag your the your wet furniture and carpet and bedding and stuff like that out to the street.
Uh we'll help you uh take the drywall off the walls so you can your house can dry out, and then when all that's done, then we come back and we find the people without insurance, uh we find the elderly, and then we'll come back and we'll help rebuild those homes.
At no cost and all of this is at no cost to the to the to the individual.
Uh we look for those that are uninsured, those people that fall through the cracks and try to help them first.
You know, Reverend, I've just known you over the years and I've seen your work up close and personal, and when you make a pledge like that, I know you follow through.
And I I just ha I look, I just have so much love and admiration for all the work you do, and you do a lot of other great work around the world.
I mean, but people can specifically I know right now these are fellow Americans, uh Texas in need, and they can earmark the money specifically for what you described, right?
Right, and it will go a hundred percent to that.
And uh they can go to our website at Samaritans Purse dot org, and uh they can find out how to volunteer, but also if they want to make a a donation, they can do it right there.
Yeah, and I've watched I I actually was able to work with your group of people when we went down to Baton Rouge, and I remember then President Trump ab or candidate Trump, or I guess he was elected at that point.
I don't even remember.
But he went down there and and he was handing out water and he was donating money.
And I know i uh i i I I just I think it's incalculable how much money you're gonna have to need for this.
And when you talk about the volunteers, I've watched the efforts of of Samaritan's Purse over the years.
You f you will find those people without insurance.
You will find those people that literally have lost everything in this world that they have.
And I've watched you rebuild people's homes and lives in the process, and uh and that's that's why I have such admiration for you.
Well, Sean, I appreciate that very much.
The the people of uh South Texas um right now, if you like the Houston area where uh they're just inundated with water, uh that water isn't going to recede for several days.
And matter of fact, it'll probably keep rising maybe for the next twenty-four hours or so.
And we can't do anything in that area until the water goes down.
But when it goes down, what happens is the mold, everything that gets wet, every house that gets wet, every car that gets wet, uh in those in that warm temperature, the the black mold starts to to grow.
And it is extremely dangerous at that point.
Even to go in and work in these people's homes that that where the mold is.
And so we just need to pray for the protection of these volunteers.
Um it's uh it it's tough and it can be dangerous.
And and you also have to understand just things like snakes.
Uh when when you have floods like this, these snakes are trying to to survive too, and they crawl up in the rafters and get up into the houses and if that's another issue.
So just we ask people to pray.
Pray for our teams as we go in, and uh we thank everybody for the the for their financial support because there's a lot of people want to help and every dime counts.
Uh even if a person makes just a small donation, that that is something that that helps.
And it all it all goes to helping the people of South Texas.
Well, are you gonna be headed down there yourself?
I know you often actually get go down to these projects that you're involved in to help people and and you do as much as you can.
Obviously, you have to run the organization, but I mean I know I've known you to go down and do a lot of the work yourself.
Oh, I'll I'll be down there uh probably next week and uh right now you uh you know, I just want to see.
Well maybe I'll come down with you and we'll we'll do everything we can do to make the country aware of what the losses are and what the needs are and um I've been on a few trips with you in the past.
I've watched you up close and personal and it's amazing.
You inspire me 'cause I'm I'm the horrible sinner and you're the guy that's getting to heaven, so I'm trying to hang on to your coattails.
Listen, Sean, we're we're all sinners and uh the only way we're gonna make it to heaven is just saved by God's grace through faith in this price.
You say that to me every time.
You know I'm giving you a hard time.
Um well, but in all seriousness, um uh I just urge people to go to Samaritan's Purse and uh I I actually need your I usually send the routing number, but we'll send it whatever way it works out best.
I'll have uh we'll get that done for you today.
And uh I just uh I our prayers are with these people.
I I s I've seen so much good come out of other people in moments like this, and we see it down there in Texas.
It literally takes my breath away how good people can be, considering people people can be horrible too.
And this this is in the worst of times, it seems to uh bring out the best in humanity and and I've so I saw a lot of good on display all weekend.
Um Reverend, oh by the way, I heard you saw my movie, did you like it?
Uh uh yes, very much.
I like it a lot.
Oh, I'm glad that you got a chance to see well it doesn't come out till October, but uh I wanted you to get an early cut.
It is a faith-based movie, and um you just inspire me, you and your dad and your whole family, and uh our thoughts and prayers are with Houston today, sir.
Thank you for being with us.
Thank you, Sean.
God bless.
God bless you too.
800 nine four one Sean is a toe-free telephone number.
You want to be a part of the program.
All right, uh, let's go to Katie, Texas, Billy standing by.
Billy, thoughts and prayers with the great state of Texas, my friend.
What's going on?
Hey, Sean.
Well, uh, waters are still rising and um we are pretty much reined in, but um somehow the power and the cable are still on.
Well, there are some reports of power at outages in the wake um of Hurricane Harvey, so we've got to be clear about that.
But center point serves two point four million people customers.
Um ninety-seven percent of those people s uh still have power, which is you're right.
That's a bit of a miracle in and of itself, right?
Absolutely, yeah.
I mean, we've got uh three little kids in the house, and you know, just being able to have cartoons on and cook some hot food is great.
Um, we really are really appreciative of that.
Um talk about small blessings, right?
You get your lights on, you can watch cable TV, and uh you can cook for your kids.
That's very helpful actually.
Absolutely, yes, sir, yes, sir.
We're we're pretty well stocked up on everything else.
I mean, if the lights were to go out, we've got enough food and water and fuel and all that other good stuff.
Isn't it amazing how how incredible this entire group of people come together and all the stories that we saw over the entire weekend of of people stepping up and and helping out their neighbors and and government not screwing it up as badly as they usually do and botching it.
Yeah, just seeing my neighbors come together.
Um we've all got each other's backs, you know, we've all we're sharing whatever we need.
If we need extra water candles, baby formula, diapers, you know, everybody's really bonded together.
And you know, nobody's asking anybody today what their political value is.
Kind of refreshing it doesn't matter.
We're all Americans today.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, I know the president's gonna draw attention when he goes down there tomorrow.
And I look, I just say this because I've I just talked to people on social media, and everyone's was saying to me, Well, what can we do?
What can we do?
What can we do?
And and I just happen to know the great worker Samaritan's Purse, and I've worked with them over the years, and I know how they they literally turn over every dime you send them, and uh so it's uh I know they're gonna help those people that are most in need, and And so whatever you do donate to, whoever you donate to, it's uh extraordinarily appreciative, uh appreciated by all the people down there.
I can tell you that, and this is not gonna end when this rain goes away and the sun comes out.
It's not there's there's gonna be a lot of destruction and the billions and billions of dollars it's gonna cost to rebuild, it's just too massive even to think about right now, but it we gotta get it done.
Absolutely.
Yeah, they're they're saying that we could be effective for at least three months with standing water.
Um of course, long term, there's gonna be a lot more consequences to that.
So a lot of it for us is just keeping a great face and keeping the kids happy.
No, understood.
You know.
That's kind of cute.
Uh, you know, when I see people fishing in front of their house or a guy catching a fish inside his house, I don't think that's the kind of play date that anybody really wants, but um amazing stories, amazing courage of the people of Texas.
You're in our prayers, my friend.
God bless you.
Thank you for uh checking in with us.
800 941 Sean, uh Michael Phoenix, 550, KFYI.
What's up, Michael?
How are you?
Sean, thank you very much for taking my call.
You're a great American.
Thank you, sir.
Welcome to the program.
Thank you.
Um, first off, prayers to Texas.
God bless them.
Hope all is well.
Um, first thing, I see I see some light at the end of the tunnel for these people.
I see a public works program in the make.
I see where he could take this disaster and move it in a great direction to make our country and bring industry back to these areas.
You know, look, I mean I guess at this point we're just still focused on all right, the rain's still coming down.
The flooding is in the waters rising still dramatically.
There's still rescue operations going on.
Then we're gonna have rescue and recovery.
The death toll right now is about six.
Uh, and when you think of the magnitude and the distance we're talking about here, I mean you you're talking about a drive from New York to Boston, which is four hours.
That's that's a long distance.
So there's gonna be a lot of people that need our help and need our assistance.
And you know what?
Texas has always been there for the American people, and we'll be there for them.
That's just the way we roll.
Well, I think I think President Trump is is two steps ahead of everybody else at that point that he's already putting something in the works in that end.
It's being smart businessman that he is, he was two steps ahead of his uh his left side.
Go ahead.
Yeah, yeah.
And this is where the lieutenant governor who we just had on, and this is where the governor deserve a lot of credit.
They were all coordinating as soon as they know the storm was coming.
They did everything they could do possibly do, and it's it's kind of refreshing to see government not screw it up again, because they screw everything else up, and it and they actually did their job this time.
Well, let's hope that the the left doesn't swing it and uh you know hurricanes move to the left, and let's just hope that doesn't happen that way again in our in our government.
Let's hope they move on.
Listen, for those people that I saw on TV over the weekend, I I will get to them.
I have a lot to say to them, but it's not today.
You know, today is about let's rescue everyone that needs rescuing.
Let's let's offer all the recovery that we can.
Let's get people settled into their new lives or temporary lives, and then let's rebuild.
But I do have things on my chest that will be coming out about how people have politicized this tragedy is typical, you know, knee-jerk, arrogant, hateful selves come flying out of some, but to the credit of many, it was not even close to the majority.
Most people understood the magnitude and the needs should transcend all of politics.
Anyway, thank you.
God bless you, uh, Michael.
Appreciate the call.
All right, that's all the time we have left for today.
Hannity tonight, 10 Eastern Fox News, Hurricane Harvey now makes its way back to Galveston.
It's not all over.
There's still 30% more rain that's gonna be dumped there, and we'll have the very latest major Antifa protests out in Berkeley, and we'll get to the double standard of Democrats and Liberals on Pardons.
All right, so Hannity, 10 Eastern Tonight, Fox News, and uh our thoughts and prayers, obviously, with the people of Texas.
Back here tomorrow, and always thank you for being with us.
