While Sean is taking a much needed vacation, The Sean Hannity Show delivers the 'Best of Hannity', the best interviews from the last part of the summer including Stephen Miller, Herman Cain, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Larry Kudlow. Also, don't miss the great debate over ESPN's Robert Lee between Spencer Tillman and Dan Bongino! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
You are listening to the Sean Hannity Radio Show Podcast.
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Tell me what years meet Jim Makasa's definition of the Statue of Liberty, home, law of the land.
So you're saying a million a year is the Statue of Liberty number.
900,000 violates it, 800,000 violates it.
You're sort of bringing a press one for English philosophy here to immigration, and that's never for Jim.
What the United States has been about.
This whole notion of, well, they could learn, you know, they have to learn English before they get to the United States.
Are we just going to bring in people from Great Britain and Australia?
Jim, actually, I honestly say, I am shocked at your statement that you think that only people from Great Britain and Australia would know English.
It's actually, it reveals your cosmopolitan bias to a shocking degree that in your mind, no, this is an amazing, this is an amazing moment.
This is an amazing moment that you think only people from Great Britain or Australia would speak English is so insulting to millions of hardworking immigrants who do speak English from all over the world.
Jim, have you honestly, Jim, have you honestly never met an immigrant from another country who speaks English outside of Great Britain and Australia?
Is that your personal experience?
Of course there are people who come.
But that's not what you said.
And it shows your cosmopolitan bias.
And I just want to say. It sounds like you're trying to engineer the racial and ethnic flow of people into this country.
That is one of the most outrageous, insulting, ignorant, and foolish things you've ever said.
And for you, that's still a really the notion that you think that this is a racist bill is so wrong and so insulting.
Jim.
Wow.
We called it last week when that happened.
CNN Fake News.
Jim Acosta's basically been on a war against the White House from day one.
Clearly not an objective news reporter and part of the destroy Trump media and the propaganda media.
And I think he got an education from our friend Steve Miller.
I don't even, what is your position at the White House?
I don't even, I guess you're the senior advisor to the president.
Yes, that's right, Sean.
How are you?
I'm doing great.
Thanks for having me on the program.
And I look forward to talking a little bit about what President Trump is going to do today to make an immigration system that works for Americans.
Yeah.
Well, I want to ask, first of all, that was on the immigration issue, but it's not just that.
Have you ever seen such hostility towards a single president in your lifetime by the news media, which I think is so abusively biased and corrupt?
No.
And I'll also make this point, Sean, which is that, and your audience understands this well, which is that the wrong term to use, in my view, is the mainstream media.
Because Sean, you're mainstream.
I'm mainstream.
President Trump is mainstream.
They're real mainstream American values.
Strong borders, a strong national defense, a limited government that stays within its means, abiding by the Constitution.
What you saw at that press briefing was actually an extremist point of view, the point of view that basically says that you can't have strong border controls in the United States of America.
You can't set limits.
You can't prioritize the needs of American workers.
And so you have a movement inside elements of the media that is openly hostile, not only to the president, but to the ideas and views that animated millions and millions of American citizens to come out and vote in the last election.
Well, you know, when I talk about the president, I think the president has a strong identity and agenda for the country to solve our problems.
And this is my biggest criticism of Republicans right now.
We know the president is willing to sign a repeal-replace bill, unlike the phony show votes that we had all the years Obama was president.
I know that the president wants a middle-class tax cut.
He wants a corporate tax cut of 15%.
He wants repatriation.
I know the president wants energy independence.
I know the president believes in health savings accounts of solutions.
He wants to build the wall.
He wants education back to the states.
We know where he stands on vetting refugees and identifying evil in our time radical Islam.
Now, for seven and a half years, Stephen Miller, the Republicans promised to do all of these things, and they were ill-prepared to lead.
And I don't see any identity.
What do they stand for in the House and Senate?
You know, what are they hearing now when they go back home?
I have a pretty good idea that the people aren't happy with them.
Well, Sean, I think the point that you made is so important, which is that the President has an agenda for America, and we know what it is.
And now we need Congress to implement that agenda.
What we've done already on the administrative side and what we've done already on the executive side has been a sea change.
But Congress needs to step up and repeal and replace Obamacare.
Congress needs to work with us to pass a middle-class tax cut and corporate tax reform.
It needs to work with us to get control over our borders and our refugee programs and our vetting policies.
They need to work with us to get regulatory relief and reform where we've already done historic things in a short period of time.
This is the agenda that the American people voted for, whether they're Democrat, Independent, or Republican.
It's the right agenda for our country and it's an agenda rooted in our history and our values as a nation.
You know, if these simple things, I watched the president very closely on his most recent speeches that he gives, or the town halls, or I guess really their stadium speeches, and you see the overflow crowds, and you see the intensity and the applause and the energy that the president brings to these issues.
And then I'm thinking, okay, are the Republicans not watching the reaction that the president is getting to the things that he's saying?
And do they really think if they don't get their job done that there are not going to be consequences for them not keeping their promises?
Look, I think that no matter what party you're in, that the American people need to make sure that they are communicating to their members of Congress what they expect to be done this year and for the years to come.
This country needs corporate tax reform.
It needs a middle-class tax cut.
It needs to strengthen immigration enforcement and vetting into our country.
We need to repeal and replace Obamacare and end the Obamacare catastrophe.
And we need to create a leaner, smaller government that lives within its means and that prioritizes the defense and protection of our country.
Let me ask what happens.
I know Congress is on vacation again, and it's amazing.
And I spoke to somebody in the White House.
I heard the president's not on vacation.
And actually, the president was tweeting out all the work he's doing.
So is he not taking a vacation right now, as is reported?
Well, I think the good way to look at it is the President of the United States is really never on vacation.
I mean, every day the President, whoever the President is, is always involved in governing the affairs of the nation.
But this President in particular is always deeply engaged and invested in everything that is going on and everything that's happening.
And I think you'll be seeing some of what he's doing in the coming days in terms of different events and activities.
Well, I think that at the end of the day, I think that Congress, what would you say they ought to do on health care when they get back?
Because I know the president for his economic plan counted on a trillion dollars in savings on repealing and replacing Obamacare.
So does that hurt the ability of the president to do the type of economic reform that he wanted to jumpstart this economy?
Well, I'll just refer to what the president said when he was in West Virginia, and you were talking about the overflow crowds, the enormous enthusiasm, the incredible excitement about the president and what he's leading on.
And he said in that speech, Congress needs to keep its promises, fulfill its commitments, live up to its word, and get this across the finish line.
They were one vote short, one vote shy, and they need to keep working on it and to get the job done and keep their promises to the American people.
Well, I think it's a basic, simple, fundamental issue.
What does this Republican Party stand for?
And is this Republican Party going to keep their promises?
And I find there's a lot of hostility within the Republican Party, you know, over issues, all issues involving President Trump.
And I'm sitting there thinking, oh, I thought you wanted this for the last seven and a half years.
I know you've voted for it 60 times.
It's just frustrating.
Let me play a little bit more about you.
I know we played you with Jim Acosta.
How did you feel after that exchange?
Did you get a lot of positive email?
Well, I was very grateful.
I did get a lot of very nice comments from a lot of people.
And of course, it's not about me.
It's about President Trump, what he's doing for the country.
But I think that people were excited because the media was confronted with cold, hard facts, just facts, information, the truth.
And it was basically an environment where they were not allowed to get away with spin.
Do you think the media is ⁇ there's a lot of fake news today?
Because I believe there is, and I believe the media is basically one big group think, the mainstream media.
Well, there's obviously an enormous amount of groupthink that goes on in the media.
But also, one of the ways in which the media's bias is most apparent is by what they talk about and what they don't talk about.
So, for example, you know, staying on the subject of immigration, they will tell the story of what they regard as being an sympathetic case of a particular illegal immigrant and whatever they think that illegal immigrant is facing.
But they don't tell the stories of the American families that have lost loved ones to sanctuary cities and illegal immigrants, or the American workers that have lost jobs to illegal immigrants, or the American schools that have been affected by years of illegal immigration.
They don't tell the story from the perspective of the American citizen and the American family.
Well, I think that, you know, the people that changed this election were the forgotten men and women in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Missouri, and all around the country.
Some 50 million of them out of work, in poverty, on food stamps, and can't getting jobs.
They can't get jobs.
Exactly.
And they said this year, America, Washington, D.C., and indeed the world will hear our voice.
Well, so I know that they're waiting.
Explain the difference what the president's been able to do on his own versus what he needs Congress to help with.
That's a great question.
I mean, if you look at it.
By the way, I love when you tell me that's a great question.
Go ahead.
If you look at what we've done administratively, it's been historic.
For every one new regulation, 16 have been eliminated.
I've talked to people in the regulatory community.
No one's ever seen anything like it before.
To the extent in which we came in, we froze new regulation and we started taking the act to old regulations, small and large, including some very big ones.
You know, we ended the moratorium on coal leasing.
We took action on the Obama administration's clean power plan and the Waters of the United States rule, which is something that's very negative for our farmers and ranchers, and on and on it goes.
You've seen the progress we've made on border security and going after the criminal gangs and cartels and the MS-13.
You've seen what we've done in terms of beginning to improve law enforcement, like at the Justice Department, putting in new tough-on-crime policies to get some of the to reverse, hopefully, the surge in violent crime we've seen in recent years.
And what we've done on American energy obviously has been amazing.
Coal exports are up 60%.
This is because of a president who is led and led every day relentlessly.
And we have also made major, major changes at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
And this is true.
We have signed into law several major veterans bills, both on veterans' choice and also veterans' accountability to fire bad federal workers who fail our veterans.
But what do we need from Congress?
We need to repeal and replace Obamacare.
We're going to work with them on middle-class tax cuts and corporate tax reform to make America the best place in the world to hire workers, start a business, grow, and invest and move capital.
We're obviously going to need Congress to work with us on infrastructure.
We're going to need Congress to work with us to hire more ICE officers to keep our communities safe, to build a border wall to keep our country safe, to make long-term improvements to our immigration system like the ones the president unveiled last week to protect our workers and our wage earners.
And so these are all things where we're going to need Congress to step up.
It's not a Republican issue.
It's not a Democrat issue.
These are core American issues about taking care of our country and our people and their future.
All right.
Stephen Miller of the White House, he is a senior advisor to the president.
Thanks for being with us.
Great job last week.
I just want to say six months later, I'm going to be Trump.
I'm giving Trump, first of all, on a pass-fail basis, which is how you all probably went to college.
I had grades when I was in college.
But on a pass-fail basis.
I didn't go to Brown, okay?
Well, neither did I. On a past-fail basis, I give him a pass, okay?
On a letter basis.
On a letter basis, I'm going to give him a B. All right.
When he gets his tax cut, I'm going to move it to an A.
And I want to add, just give me a second, his regulatory reductions have been terrific, okay?
His ticket in energy.
We are taking Russia out of the energy business in Europe because of energy exports and because of opening up all of the fracking and LNG stuff that he wants.
All right, that's Larry Kudlow, 25 now till the top of the hour, a friend of mine.
And Larry, by the way, author of numerous books over the years.
And what's the name of your latest book?
Wait a minute, I got it.
Reagan from JFK and Reagan, A Revolution, The Secret History of American Prosperity.
Is my mind rush serving me well?
Yes, he nailed it.
That's not bad considering I had no idea.
You know, I thought of you and I wanted you back on the program for a couple of reasons.
And I heard your comments about a B.
I think that was a fair grade.
I'm literally giving Congress a D minus.
And the only reason it's not an F, because I'm holding out a little hope they may get their you know what together.
But Congress is pathetically slow, but you're right, on judges, on Obama-era regulations, on keeping his promises, moving everything, his agenda forward as he can do it without the help of Congress, very effective.
Yeah, I mean, it's look, I am very down on the Senate right now, the Republican Senate.
You know, I think this idea that six or seven or eight of these Republican senators are going to stop and hold up repeal and replace Obamacare, Sean, I think that's a betrayal of the voters who put them into office because the promise was very clear that they were going to repeal Obamacare and come up with something better.
So that's not Trump's fault.
I'm not going to blame Trump for that.
Nobody should.
This is really a betrayal of these Republican senators.
And, you know, some of them, maybe we'll name names, maybe we won't.
No, no, why don't you name names?
Because Mitch McConnell's for he'd get this done.
And I know that he ⁇ here's what we've heard.
We've heard, give us the House, we'll get rid of Obamacare.
Give us the Senate, we'll get rid of Obamacare.
Give us the House, Senate, and White House, we'll get rid of Obamacare.
Give us the House, Senate, and 60 votes.
No, I'm sorry.
I can't take it anymore.
Yeah, well, it's kind of a mystery to me, for example, why free market guys like Rand Paul, who's a friend of mine, and Mike Lee, who's a friend of mine, are against this.
Okay, I don't understand this.
Dean Heller from Nevada, I don't understand it.
Others have been railing against Obamacare for years.
Shelly Moore Cepito of West Virginia is against government control of health care.
Now she's against it.
You know, I guess charitably, you could say that the perfect has become the enemy of the good.
But if I'm less charitable, Sean, I think there's a lot of showboating.
As I say, a betrayal of the Republicans who voted them in in the first place.
And it's damaging the country, and it's damaging the administration.
I don't get it, but I'm not going to condone it.
On the other hand, I also think it's damaging them.
They're damaging themselves.
Don't you think at this point they're damaging themselves?
I do.
I do.
And there's some talk about some of them getting primaried.
I'm all for it.
I'm all for it.
You can't run.
You can't sunron on an agenda, get elected, and then vote against that agenda.
That's just nonsense.
It's, you know, false labeling.
So, yeah, I've lost my patience with some of these.
But the problem is, if they don't get it done, it won't matter if they're primaried because they're going to lose, and they're going to lose significantly, and their power is going to be diminished greatly.
And what I'm having a hard time understanding is that you notice Democrats never break ranks.
They always stay together.
Even when they're dead to rights wrong, they'll stay together.
It doesn't matter to them.
And Republicans, I understand I like independent thinking, et cetera, but the independent thinking is a bunch of nonsense if you can't agree to the fundamental thing you ran on.
And by the way, you know, perfect should never be the enemy of the good.
Sometimes you have to use Ronald Reagan's dictum, give me half a loaf now, and I'll get the other half later.
Why don't you just get rid of all the mandates, get rid of all the mandates?
That would be the first step.
I'll take the repeal and transition.
I'll be fine with that.
Yeah, okay, okay.
Yes, I'm willing to do it.
Just get something done.
But here's the deal.
Trump has made his promises good on rolling back regulation and cutting taxes.
He is so, I was in with him a few days ago, 10 days ago.
If he can't get a bank.
Why are you name-dropping on my show?
I don't understand that.
Well, I want to make a point in defense of Trump.
I'm teasing.
Go ahead.
He wants the business tax cuts, particularly the small business tax cut.
And he's not letting me down.
He's going to push hard for that.
It's time to move on if they can't do health care.
And he wants to double the standard deduction for individuals.
But Larry, there's a risk to that strategy.
If we let them off the hook and they don't get it done and they kick the can down the road, I would argue if they don't get repeal and replace done, and maybe they don't even.
Look, they may not even get tax reform done.
I'm not worried about tax reform as I am the economic plan.
I want tax reform, but I definitely, if we're going to get people out of poverty off of food stamps and back in the labor force, energy is certainly going to create millions of high-paying jobs.
I think we're close to a million new jobs, right, since he's been president, or somewhere 800,000.
What's the number?
You know better than I do.
Yeah, it's a little short of a million.
Okay, so short of a million, if we want people to get back to work out of poverty, then you've got to have the corporate tax cut, the middle-class tax cuts.
The repatriation plan was brilliant.
I love it.
Especially you can even incentivize them further if they'll build in certain depressed cities, right?
Look, all this, this is the key, and he's going to go there, okay?
He's going to go there.
And if this dumb health reform thing holds it up, he'll pivot and go to tax cuts to grow the economy.
You're right, by the way.
You know what's the most popular thing is the small business tax cuts.
All the surveys show this.
And this is where better jobs and higher productivity and higher wages and creating brand new businesses for more jobs.
This is so important to the economy, which basically hasn't hardly moved in 15 years.
Now, Trump wants it.
He says he wants it.
He's ready to roll on it.
And that's why I gave him a B between rolling back regulations and the tax cuts.
And he is going to move towards infrastructure.
And he's got Putin over barrel because we're going to export natural gas.
No pun intended.
You're right.
I couldn't resist.
These are good things, and I'm going to give him credit.
And as you say, the Gorsuch nomination was absolutely crucial.
That's like a 25-year conservative judge for him.
What do you make of all the Russia distraction?
That's all it is.
There's no collusion.
There's no there-there.
This is the swamp at its worst.
But you know what?
I don't think the president's going to let that bog him down.
In other words, that's a fight.
Let it be fought.
I don't even understand any of this stuff, but he's going to go forward.
I mean, this is what he's seen, and he's going to make good on his promise for growth-oriented policies.
That's all you can ask of president.
Growth and defense and national security.
It really comes down to this, though.
It comes down to safety and security, peace and prosperity, and then the economy.
If he becomes the president that creates jobs, we become energy independent.
He builds the wall for security.
I see him rolling in the reelection.
Well, I do.
By the way, if the Republicans would let him, he could help them in 2018 if they get this stuff through.
Yeah, that's a big issue.
Irony, the GOP senators are slitting their own throat.
Just let Trump do what he wants to do.
It's a very solid growth, as you say, and security agenda.
That's why I give him a solid B right now.
What do you give Congress?
I'm going to give the Senate, I don't know, a D minus because they're not doing what they said they were going to do.
Even the House got something through on health care, although I'm a little concerned that Speaker Ryan is not working the right way on the tax cuts.
I'm a little concerned about Ryan.
Do you, well, yeah, I mean, do you think that there are Republicans?
Pat Toomey actually says, he goes, I couldn't, I think our biggest problem is none of us saw this coming.
We had no idea he was going to win.
He won back in November.
You know, you would think emotionally, mentally, they'd have the time to adjust.
And I'm just, I'm looking at these guys.
Do you think some of these guys want him to fail?
Well, I guess I choose to think not.
I can't be sure about that.
I just think there's a lot of grandstanding and freelancing.
This is the GOP at its worst, Sean.
I don't blame McConnell.
McConnell's tried it.
You do not blame McConnell.
He's the leader that stops at the top.
Come on.
You've got to blame him.
He's got to get the job done.
He did it with Gorsuch.
He held everybody firm.
Well, all I can say is he's tripping everything.
And he's, you know, let's take Medicaid.
So they found some extra change on a CBO markup, which I don't really believe, but whatever.
So they're putting even more money in Medicaid.
Mitch McConnell's tried to do that.
And even that is not working with some of these stubborn Republican senators.
Actually, I don't really blame Mitch McConnell at all.
At this point, I think he's trying to call out every stop to get this debate going again this week.
And maybe they'll finally come up with something.
And they should not, Trump.
They should not, Sean, absolutely not go away on any Christmas summer vacation.
No August vacations.
Do you know how many days are scheduled?
Legislative days, it's less than, I think it's about 30 or less than 30 days left if they take their schedule as it currently is configured.
Yeah, it's well, it's a little more than that.
It's about 40-something days.
But that's not enough because they've got to get the tax cuts through.
See, the president has said, you're not going home until you get health care.
All right.
And then McConnell says, so we'll extend for two weeks.
I would have said you're not going home until we get health care and tax cuts.
Okay.
I would have put the tax cuts in there because to even get that in the fourth quarter in the autumn, that takes some time.
Okay.
There's more agreement on taxes, fortunately, but it still takes some time because they've got to get a budget resolution and they got to keep the government going.
So this is crazy.
The children should not be in this position.
Right now, they're in a position of weakness.
They should be with three houses in a position of strength.
Did you ever, did the president ever talk to you about going in the administration?
Yes.
And what did you say?
No.
Obviously, you're not there.
What's that?
I love my job.
I didn't ask you if you love your job.
I asked you what you said to him.
Did I ask you the question, Larry?
You've been a friend for years.
Do you love your job?
No, I said, what did you say?
Nice podcast.
I love my job, Sean.
I love my job.
You know, the only reason I'm letting you get away with that is because I've known you all these years, but you know, if you were left of center, I'd be pounding you right now.
Well, listen, I'm not left of center.
You're a great broadcaster.
And now he's going to flatter me.
No, no, that gets you nowhere.
I'm still working on CNBC, and I'm still working on my weekend radio show, and we're still selling books about supply side, and I think I can help President Trump doing exactly what I'm doing right now.
Well, I do think that the president needs congressional help, and at this point, they better now see the urgency.
Putting aside their own personal feelings for the president, they better see that their futures are now directly tied to their actions.
And if they decide to be inactive, if they can't, you know, what I've suggested is put them in a room and don't let them have Senate dining room fare, send in Kentucky Fried Chicken, my favorite, and original recipe, and send in Wendy's and send in McDonald's and pizza and beer and water and Coke and Sprite.
And they can't leave the room and then take off the air conditioning like our framers and founders.
And I think they'll probably find a solution faster than we could ever dream of.
Well, you could be right.
Whenever I write or talk about keeping them home in August, the response from the public is hugely positive, huge.
So let's hold their feet to the fire.
Really, that's what you need to do.
And the response of Washington is shut up, Larry.
Right.
Oh, no.
People hate this.
House members and senators who've come on the show with me don't even want to talk about it.
Don't even want to talk about it, except Mark Meadows and the Freedom Car.
By the way, you and I fabulous.
This is why you and I get along so well.
They are the only people right now, and a couple of senators in fairness.
I actually thought Ted Cruz's amendment was superb on health care, and I thought it was a big step forward.
And it certainly would have helped with free market competition and lowering premiums, in my opinion.
And it was actually confirmed in a study.
But they're the only people that I actually trust in Washington now.
They're the only people that seem to have the urgency, the sense of a desire to fulfill promises.
And I'm like, why aren't these guys in charge?
Well, you're right about that.
And I wonder whether there's going to be unrest in the House.
I mean, you're right, Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan, Dave Bratt.
Those guys are great.
And by the way, you're also right about Ted Cruz.
Ted Cruz has been a terrific leader during this whole issue.
And you're also right.
The Cruz idea of letting insurance companies put their own product out for customer demand is a terrific idea.
And it would really end all these mandates, which have caused premiums to go sky high.
Now, if the Republican Party can't back that, what can they back?
That's the part of this thing that just, you don't have to get everything this time, okay?
Let's just get a few key things like consumer choice that'll bring premiums lower.
How about we get the tax cuts?
How about we get just repeal Obamacare and transition off it, and then we can have free market solutions and cooperatives and health savings accounts and things that people like yourself and I've been talking about for a decade or more.
It's ridiculous.
All right, Larry, got to let you run, man.
Appreciate it.
I'm all for it.
Stay hang in there.
Keep up the fight.
Oh, no, I never fight.
I'm a very peaceful, calm individual, if you didn't know that.
I went into one of the longer monologues I ever did on TV last night laying out this case.
We all find white supremacy, the Klan, David Duke, repugnant.
And I played a history of Donald Trump over the years, especially in the last year, but even going back to 2000 and even said since he was a young kid, this is how he was raised.
But literally by name, renouncing, denouncing, disavowing, as he says, all of these different things.
And I watched what he said as I went over again the words that he used on Saturday, the things that he said on Monday, the things that he said on Tuesday.
And he does it again and again and again and again and again.
And then Sunday, because he didn't mention the specific groups by name, there was a collective media meltdown.
And it was obvious who he was talking about.
And then after his press conference the other day, which we carried live right here on this program, it was like both sides to blame.
Well, the ACLU says they were both sides to blame.
The AP reported there were both sides to blame.
And that doesn't mean in any way that one side, I think there's a natural abhorrence, frankly, a moral indignation and righteous indignation when you see bigoted, hateful, racist people.
It just, it makes good people instinctively, you know, recoil against evil because that's evil.
And I think that's, for those people that were shouting at them and protesting again, it's all fine.
But whether you like it or not, even as the ACLU said, strange bedfellows with Hannity, but you have a right to free speech and you can't punch the people you don't like.
Well, there'd be a lot of punches thrown in this country.
And the group Antifa was there and Black Lives Matter was there.
And I raise a lot of questions.
And we just played Hillary Clinton saying that the former Klansman, Robert KKK Byrd, was her mentor.
J. William Fulbright, we now know and was the mentor of Bill Clinton.
I mean, this is a guy, if you look at his history, signed the Southern Manifesto, opposition to the Supreme Court, the historic 54 decision, Brown versus Board of Education.
And, you know, J. William Fulbright, Bill Clinton's mentor, filibustered the Civil Rights Act, as did Robert Byrd, the mentor of Hillary.
But they don't have to go through the same type of treatment as Republicans.
And we see this every two years and every four years.
And the media has zero desire to tell the truth at this point in our lives.
Herman Kane is with us, fellow talk show host out of Atlanta, our major, massive 50,000-watt AM-FM flamethrower, News Talk WSP.
How are you, sir?
John, I'm doing great.
Thank you.
And, you know, that montage that you played earlier, I want you to know that I just came back from lunch.
And if you had played any more, I would have thrown up.
The hypocrisy is just absolutely outrageous.
That's all you can say.
Because as you've indicated, the media is not going to cover it.
They're giving Hillary and all of the hypocrites a path.
But all Donald Trump has to say is twinkle-tinkle little star, and they'll find something wrong with that.
What do you think it is?
I mean, you know, I actually was thinking about this after you were on the TV show with me last night.
I remember when you were running for president and you were getting a lot of traction and you were kicking, you know, some serious butt.
You were doing great.
And I remember watching it was fascinating because in many ways you were the outsider coming in in the last election cycle.
And you had new innovative ideas, solutions, which I love.
999.
Everybody remembers 999 and I kid you about it a lot, but it worked.
And then all of a sudden, you had to be taken down by some people.
Right.
The second you got out of the race, the second you were gone, everything disappeared.
Race because I was a threat.
And I was taken out of the race with lies.
Bottom line, it was with lies.
But as you know, that's what the liberals and the Democrats will do if they feel you are a threat.
The last thing that the Democrats wanted was for me to win the Republican nomination as a black man, an ABC, an American black conservative, and go up against Barack Obama.
They paid people to lie to destroy my life if they could have, in order for me to drop out of the race.
I didn't drop out of the race because I couldn't take the heat.
I dropped out of the race because I didn't want my family to have to listen to all of the malarkey that was being spun by the media.
And that's exactly what they're doing today.
We're never going to get good people to run.
No, not at that rate.
And not at this rate.
And frankly, one thing President Trump has is a very thick skin.
He doesn't care.
He doesn't care.
Now, Donald Trump called me before he declared that he was going to run, which I considered it an honor.
And he asked me what advice would I give him?
I said, I don't need to give you any business advice.
I don't need to give you any problem-solving advice.
I said, be prepared for multiple lawsuits.
You can afford to fight them.
I couldn't.
This is why I couldn't stay in the race.
And as we have seen, Donald Trump has had to fight multiple lawsuits.
In addition to fighting the establishment, all of the Democrats, all of the liberals, and some of the Republicans.
But he's hanging in there because he is a fighter.
And this is why so many people are proud that he is the president of the United States.
Here's what the liberals don't understand, Sean.
All of this racial stuff is not going to cause Trump supporters to cross over to the dark side.
They're simply not going to do that.
You tell a very interesting tale that I think I really hope people are listening to, Herman.
And I want to get your reaction to what the Republicans are doing and some of this argument what the president tweeted out today about history.
And I know you live in Georgia, where I live four wonderful years of my life.
And I love the people down south.
I lived in Alabama for a while, lived in Georgia.
And growing up in New York, it's just a different experience.
And collectively, it makes us the United States of America.
But there's certainly differences in if you grow up in a city or you grow up in a suburb or if you grow up, you know, south, north, east, west.
There are differences.
And we'll talk about them when we get back.
Handy headline, a bite-sized version of the show that you can take with you everywhere you go.
To sign up today for Hannity Headlines.
Go to Hannity.com.
All right, as we continue, Herman Kane is with us, nationally syndicated radio talk show host out of Atlanta.
Let me ask you about a couple of things the president tweeted today.
We now see what happened in Durham, in Baltimore, in Brooklyn, New York, and around the country.
And he said, it's sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statutes and monuments.
He said, you can't change history, but you can learn from it.
Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, who's next?
Washington, Jefferson.
He said it's foolish.
He also said the beauty is being taken out of our cities, our towns, our parks will be greatly missed, never able to be comparably replaced.
And then he also specifically went after Lindsey Graham.
And he said, publicly seeking, publicity-seeking Lindsey Graham falsely stated, I said there is moral equivalency between the KKK, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists, and people like Miss Heyer, this young woman who tragically lost her life.
He writes such a disgusting lie.
He just can't forget the election trouncing the people of South Carolina will remember.
And then he said the public is learning even more about how dishonest the fake news is.
They totally misrepresent what I say about hate, bigotry.
It's a shame.
You have something in Georgia.
I've been there.
They have a light show, at least they used to, Herman, at Stone Mountain.
And they have the Confederate president at the time, Jefferson Davis, among others.
Stonewall Lee and Jefferson Davis.
That's who it was.
What are your thoughts about this movement?
I think this movement is bull feathers.
And here's why: bull feathers?
Bull feathers.
And you can use whatever word you want to use for the second part of that phrase.
Oh, we know what you meant, Herman.
We know you well.
Here's the thing: ignorance of history does not make you smarter.
That's what the Democrats and the liberals are trying to do.
The second thing that they're trying to do is: if you start this process of eliminating any sort of things that remind us of an ugly past, what's next?
Are they then going to rip it out of history books so our children will be ignorant?
Are they then going to want to dismantle Mount Rushmore?
Where does it stop?
And as Newt Gingrich said, it does not stop.
And so my point is simply this: we do not need to erase our history.
We do not need to sandblast images of the Confederate off of Stone Mountain.
Why?
It's part of our ugly history.
How do you eliminate the ugly history of slavery?
How do you eliminate the ugly history of the civil rights movement and Jim Crow?
You can't.
It's part of our history.
The good news is we have gotten past that.
And the people who want to drag us back, as Andrew Young said, to fight the Civil War again is a waste of time and a waste of money.
You know, Herman, I think one of what do you make of this argument I made for years?
Our founders were nowhere near perfect.
Everybody knows that it is morally reprehensible and evil, slavery.
Did our framers of our Constitution and founding fathers, in their wisdom, in this sense, know that the fight wouldn't have been won then, the United States wouldn't have come together, and that they put in place the way to right wrongs, correct the moral injustices that many did see at the time?
Here's what our founders realize, which is the greatness of our founders.
Number one, they set the bar where America needed to be when they said we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.
Sean, that set the bar where we aspire to get to.
We are closer to that bar today than we have ever been in history.
The founders set the bar high.
They didn't set the bar.
We just go.
It's our job to finish the job and make it a more perfect union.
And all of these people that want to focus on race, they want to focus on demagoguing conservatives and liberals, conservatives and Republicans, they are trying to drag us backwards instead of helping us to go forward.
That's the bottom line.
Herman Kane, thanks as always for being with us.
Love having you on the show.
You're the best.
They're Americans in every way, but on paper.
Apollinar Alts Marado had come in and wanted to buy cigarettes.
Altamorano then pulled a gun and pointed it at Grant.
Grant immediately offered up the cigarettes.
And Altamorano then shot him point blank in the face.
My son's death was completely preventable.
Apollinar Alts Marado had been in the country illegally since he was 14.
If the federal government wants our police officers to tear immigrant families apart, we will refuse to do it.
My youngest son, Joshua, was a senior in high school and had his whole life ahead of him.
He went to school and never returned.
As Josh walked up to the doors of the school that morning, Hermilo Morales walked up as well.
At trial, the killer testified on his behalf and gave exact testimony on how he systematically killed Joshua.
To be clear about what Chicago is, it always will be a sanctuary city.
You are safe in Chicago.
You are secure in Chicago.
And you are supported in Chicago.
He first threw a punch in the face so that Joshua's vision was messed up and he could not fight back.
He next kneed Joshua in an abdomen so that he would go to the ground.
Josh went to the ground as his spleen was sliced in half.
The killer was aggravated that it was not over yet.
He was a black belt in mixed martial arts and thought he could do this without any blood.
He was aggravated it was not over.
He said he grew tired of watching bloody bubbles come from Joshua's nose as he was trying to breathe.
Next, he took a closet rod and beat Josh over the head again and again until the rod broke in four pieces.
We are not going to sacrifice a half million people who live among us, who are part of our community.
We're not going to tear families apart.
So we will do everything we know how to do to resist that.
Joshua was still breathing.
Next, he strangled him.
He let him go to see if it was over.
No, it's not over.
So he continued until there were no more bloody bubbles.
He must have said it six times from the stand.
He waited and he watched him die.
He tied Josh's body up, stuffed it in the back seat of our truck, bought gas, dumped Josh in a field, and set his body on fire.
The killer went home, took a shower, and went to see a movie, had popcorn and coke.
It's obvious the Republicans are more afraid of the dreamers than they are of ISIS.
Today she was killed.
We were walking arm in arm on Pier 14 in San Francisco, enjoying a wonderful day together.
Suddenly, a shot rang out.
Kate fell and looked at me and said, Help me, Dad.
Those are the last words I will ever hear from my daughter.
America First will be the major and overriding theme of my administration.
All right, 24 now till the top of the hour.
Toll for your telephone numbers, 800-941.
Sean, if you want to be a part of the program, you recognize some of the voices there, the mother of Joshua Wilkerson and Grant Ronabach's father, Steve Ronaback.
He was the one that was working at the Quick Trip in Arizona.
And overnight, you know, here's a kid, 22 years old.
He's making money, and he gets killed over a pack of cigarettes.
Now, the Attorney General of the United States, Jeff Sessions, has been all over this, and he's been warning sanctuary cities, as he discussed earlier today, to comply with immigration law or they will lose their federal money.
The Attorney General of the United States joins us now.
Mr. Attorney General, sir, how are you?
Thank you, Sean.
It's good to be with you.
Well, I've got to give you a lot of praise for this.
I have interviewed so many of the families that lost loved ones to illegal immigrants over the years.
And when you look at the statistics as it relates to sanctuary cities, the C in August 2016 study of the relationship between those policies and crime rates show that cities refusing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities significantly have consistently higher violent crime rates than do non-sanctuary cities.
So it's just a data issue even at this point, correct?
It's common sense.
There can be no doubt, whatever the crime rate is in a city, a city who refuses to allow the federal government to deport criminal aliens is creating more crime in their city.
It's just that simple.
And they also, as you lead in, shows that just basically calling on people illegally in the country to come to their city, promising them they won't be deported, even if they commit crime, even if they are involved in a gang or assaults or selling heroin, they don't get deported from, they won't even call the federal government who has a responsibility to remove them from the country.
It's just really, I thought we had a bipartisan consensus that at least criminal aliens would be deported.
Certainly everybody who enters the country unlawfully is subject to being deported.
But for those who come unlawfully and then commit crimes, it's just beyond belief that cities wouldn't cooperate in that.
Mr. Attorney General, we even have more data.
When Phoenix dropped their sanctuary city status from 2008 to 2009, in a one-year period, the murder rate in that city dropped 27%.
Other crimes fell as well.
Auto thefts down 36%.
Robberies down 23%.
Just general thefts also went down by 19%.
Burglaries down 14%.
Assaults down 13%.
But the rates fell again.
But the smaller numbers, I mean, it seems that just data point-wise, if criminal, illegal immigrants see that they are protected, they are going to gravitate towards those cities.
How do the cities justify assisting in law breaking?
Why do I think that I'd be handcuffed, perp walked, mugshotted, and put in jail if I just disobeyed the laws?
The Phoenix numbers are stunning, actually.
And that's common sense.
And you are correct.
These cities are making, I believe, a colossal error, among others.
So I just urge them to reevaluate what they're doing.
It's not too late, both for their own financial benefit, but also for the safety of their city and for good policy.
Cities and mayors do not get to decide an immigration policy for the United States.
President Trump has been clear: we want a lawful system of immigration, ones that serve our national interest.
And admitting and keeping criminal, illegal aliens in the country cannot be in our national interest.
And we, at the Department of Justice, are committed to supporting our Board of Patrol and ICE officers at Homeland Security and doing everything we can to restore common sense and lawfulness and fairness to this system.
You know, what I never understood, Mr. Attorney General, I always viewed that we're a nation of laws and our laws are founded upon our Constitution.
And for the last administration and for these individual cities to ignore the law of the land the way they have, there seems to have never been any accountability for that.
And I don't know, maybe it's sort of like, you know, I pay my taxes.
It's sort of like there are laws, you obey the laws.
I've never understood this effort or this belief system that says that you can just ignore the law.
And then when you see that as a result of ignoring the law, you know, in the case of this one guy, I talked about his father, he's been on the program many, many times.
Grant Ronebeck, well, the illegal immigrant that shot him in the face and murdered him had already been convicted for holding a raping a woman, kidnapping her, and holding her hostage for an entire week, was let go and was not deported.
This is happening all over.
It just makes no sense.
Look, it is a, I've been in law enforcement for a long time before I had this job.
And the way it works is that if a city arrests somebody for a crime and they know another jurisdiction has charges against this individual, they hold them and cooperate in turning them over to the next jurisdiction so that justice can be done there.
These people are breaching that collaborative approach.
These cities and sanctuary jurisdictions between federal and state law enforcement and flat refusing to even allow their police officers to tell the federal officers that they're holding somebody who's illegally in the country who's committed a serious crime.
Now, you were Attorney General in Alabama.
Isn't that aiding and abetting in a crime?
I mean, I just, to me, it's so flagrant a violation of law.
So what's going to happen now to these cities, Mr. Attorney General?
What are you going to do from here?
You're obviously warning these cities that they better comply with the rule of law or they'll lose federal money, and that money is significant, correct?
And we've heard, for example, Mayor Emmanuel in Chicago constantly saying he doesn't care.
Well, Chicago sued us.
Instead of spending their money and helping the police be cooperative, they barred the police from being cooperative, barred the police from allowing the city to actually remove criminal aliens that are illegally in the country and due to be supported.
So they're filing a lawsuit against us, and we go into court.
What our plans are to say with regard to the grants that we're issuing, that if you don't cooperate on these matters, it's a condition of the grant and you don't get the money.
And you have to certify that you're in compliance and you have to prove you're in compliance.
And if you're not cooperating in reasonable partnership arrangements with the federal government, you shouldn't get federal money.
There's no reason for us to reward cities who flatly refuse and actually act to undermine the laws of the United States.
You know, I went down, I've been down to the border, Mr. Attorney General, some almost a dozen times covering issues involving the border.
I've seen the drug warehouses floor to ceiling, massive, massive rooms.
I've been there on horseback, all-terrain vehicle.
I've been in helicopters out on boats.
I've been on foot.
And I've been all the way from the Rio Grande through San Diego in an office building where a tunnel had been dug from Mexico up into that specific office.
So I've seen an awful lot while I was down there.
And my most recent trip was with then Governor Rick Perry, and I sat through a session where they actually gave the statistics.
I have it all on video, where the Department of Public Safety, you know, they had a PowerPoint presentation in a seven-year period between 2008 and 2014.
Over 600,000 crimes were committed by illegal immigrants against Texans, including, you know, thousands of homicides and sexual crimes.
Now, I know it's a border town.
I know it's a border state, but I just don't think people are aware of the magnitude of the problem nor the impact financially it has on the criminal justice system, on the medical system, the health care system, and on the educational system.
It's a huge cost.
It's a you think of the prison and then just the cost of the victims of crime that they suffer and the psychological pain that they suffer, often traumatic for years.
So these are a big cost of crime.
We cannot allow this to happen.
We're also seeing across the border incredible surges in crime.
Cities that used to be safe, now Americans are afraid to even go and visit in those cities, and it can cross the border.
And it's already beginning to impact on the American side of the border.
So we need to end this lawlessness.
The wall is a huge step in the right direction.
People are not entitled to enter this country unlawfully.
They just are not.
They should apply and wait their time.
And if they don't get admitted, they don't get admitted and they're not entitled to enter unlawfully.
Give me a break.
How simple is this?
So I do believe that with the support of President Trump, the good leadership we're getting out of the Department of Homeland Security, our work at the Department of Justice, we can continue to see the improvement.
We're down about 50%.
The illegal entrants are down about 50%.
We are not satisfied.
We want zero.
We want to restore a lawful system, and we're not satisfied with even halfway.
But it does reduce the amount of time and effort and money you have to expend when through the president's leadership, we've already received, you know, reduced the number we have to deal with.
I have a last question.
I'm not sure to the extent how much you can talk about them.
I know you mentioned there's a federal investigation of Charlottesville underway, and I know you've also spoken about an investigation into leaking.
Is there any update you have on those issues or tell us a little bit what they're about?
Well, there's no doubt the FBI moved immediately.
Even Saturday night, they were conducting interviews in Ohio and gathering evidence.
And so we're supporting the local police in Virginia and working collaboratively with them.
We're also investigating all the possible federal charges that are possible there.
You know, people are entitled to march and to counter-march in America, and they should be protected in those rights, and we intend to do so.
With regard to the leaks, yes, we are working hard at those.
A lot of these things are bitter political leaks, then some of them are dramatically damaging to national security.
They are a high priority of ours, and we're going to continue to work on it.
We've had a dramatic increase in leak investigations.
FBI and Department of Justice are increasing our resources and personnel dedicated to that.
It's just out of control.
It cannot be accepted.
It's unlawful, and we need to stop it.
They're not easy cases to make, as you well know, but we are working at it aggressively.
All right, Mr. Attorney General, always a pleasure to have you.
Thank you for updating us on that and restoring the rule of law and order and investigating these important matters really matter to the American people.
And we hope you'll come on the show whenever you can.
We really appreciate your time, sir.
Thank you.
Good to be with you, Sean.
So there is this ESPN play-by-play guy, Robert Lee.
And I mentioned this yesterday.
I am just amazed at sports broadcasters.
I wish I could do what they do.
I can't.
And I mentioned, for example, the NHL.
If you watch NHL networks, if you watch NBC Sports, and they've got every NHL night rivalry night on the NHL, and you just listened to, you know, this guy, Emmerich, who's the broadcaster, he's so amazing.
I'm like, how does he possibly do this?
On the tribe from Creek to Scar.
John went to the outside.
Brilliant for the county star.
Lost it.
Poked away by Marchron.
Cances to the outside.
Takes his own pass.
Marchron along in front.
Now, you can just hear, and it doesn't matter in the case of it's sort of like radio broadcasting, although he's on television, Doc Emmerich.
And I'm just, it's really hard to follow hockey play by play like that.
And he does it so well.
Anyway, I was very aware of who Robert Lee was, and he was scheduled to do the UVA home opener.
And then the USPN president decided to send out a memo, and they had had a meeting, and they decided because his name is Robert Lee, he happens to be an Asian American.
It shouldn't matter.
He's a great broadcaster.
The guy's amazing.
And they said, well, because your name is Robert Lee and we have the monument issue and we're debating whether or not to take in.
Of course, they're talking about Robert E. Lee.
Well, we're going to put you on a different broadcast.
And I'm like, this is the single dumbest thing I think I've ever heard in my life.
And just listen to what a great broadcaster Robert Lee is.
Robert Lee, Nate Ross, back with you.
Asheville controlled that first half lead for about 15 and a half minutes.
They've matched their biggest lead, six points here at halftime, led as always by Ahmad Thomas.
12 points in 12 minutes.
Final five and a half seconds.
They get in for Teague.
He starts off the court with three.
Teague trying to get the shot away.
He will.
He'll hit it.
ACO Teague sends it to overtime.
A steal.
Teague ahead for Thomas.
Pull him home.
Winsome timeout.
A 6-0 is time the game.
First and 10 from the 35.
Pump Fake.
Throw wide open.
You open it for a touchdown.
Brad.
And here is all.
I grew up loving the radio.
My parents, it wasn't shut off the TV.
It was turn the radio off.
And I was up late at night and I listened to the radio.
It drove my parents nuts.
They'd try to steal my radio and I'd find another one.
And he's, could you imagine?
All of that is extemporaneous.
You got to know the players.
You got to know the names.
You got to go to the 25, the 20, the 15, the 10, you know, touchdown and make it exciting.
And they do.
It is one of the most gifted, incredible skills.
To do this is insanity.
Anyway, here to get some opinion on it.
My good friend Spencer Tillman.
He's the lead studio analyst for college football today, CBS Television Network pregame halftime studio show.
Former running back, by the way, eight seasons with the Houston Oilers at the time and San Francisco 49ers.
Dan Bongino is with us.
Former Secret Service agent, NYPD, also contributing editor of Conservative Review.
Welcome both of you back to the program.
Thank you.
Have you with you?
Spencer, you know my love of sports, and I don't know if you've always known my love of sports broadcasters, but I'm fascinated with them because I can't do what they do.
Yeah, you do.
You do it every single day.
No, not what they do.
I don't have to identify everybody's name and be able to pronounce it right.
Yeah, but you say what you see.
Nobody is so deaf with understanding the names of politicians that the movers are shaking in this business.
It's not the same.
You're being a friend.
It's not the same, Spencer.
It's much different.
It's harder.
In real time, it's faster.
No question about that.
It's faster.
It takes, yeah, no question.
It's a skill.
Look, you have this skill.
You're an amazing broadcaster.
And Dan Bongino.
He's filled on this program.
He's an amazing broadcaster.
And I'm looking, and you knew who Robert Lee was before this.
I knew who Robert Lee was before this.
Maybe a lot of people didn't.
I don't know.
I think he's pretty popular, actually.
And, you know, and then they pull this move.
What was your reaction, Spencer?
Well, listen, I never, I try to refrain from commenting on what other networks do at the bottom because it's just courtesy more than anything else.
But generally, it is an overreaction to society.
You know, we're so politically correct.
And I get frustrated because we're not tackling the real issues.
We're dealing with these ghosts and perceptions of what are the real issues.
And so I'm disappointed in any network, anyone, any leader, any administrator that would make that call, whether it happened at the regional level or the network level, as we're learning in these days after the event.
It doesn't really matter.
The sentiment, if you're in charge of a responsibility of making those kinds of choices at any level, you got to have a worldview.
You got to have a sense of history and understand what matters.
And that has to filter in your choices that you make.
So I'm disappointed that the people who are responsible for being the pathway or the conduit through which we see such an important aspect of our community that is sport through our daily lives.
I'm disappointed that they didn't exercise better judgment in that regard.
But it doesn't.
You are so diplomatic and so nice, which goes to the listen.
If anybody that knows you, that's who you are.
I get it.
And you're just a nice person.
You know who one of my favorite sports, opinionated sports commentators is, and he's a good friend of this program and of mine.
And I'm jealous because he's going to be at the Mayweather McGregor fight.
He's covering it, is Stephen A.
And I just worry that Stephen A., one day, because ESPN is so quick to fire, somebody says something controversial, oh my gosh, gee, whiz, we can't.
It's like we feign this outrage when people give strong opinions.
And I'm like, I love strong opinions.
Bring it on.
Let's hear it.
Let's have a solid debate about it.
My opinion is this.
It's like Bill Walsh used to tell us when I was with the 49ers, complexity and preparation, simplicity and execution.
You've got to spend a lot of time knowing your history, knowing the games, as the case may be.
We're talking about sportscasters, controversial issues.
You better do a deep dive before you make that kind of choice and that decision.
That's all I'm saying.
I'm disappointed that they didn't do a deeper dive.
That was a superficial knee-jerk reaction response to a situation.
If we keep Spencer on long enough, he's going to open up, and he's opening up now, and it's coming flying out.
Let me go to my buddy Dan Bongino here.
And I guess it also raises issues of Colin Kaepernick.
We'll get to in a second, but what is your take, Dan?
Yes, Spencer is he's a gentleman.
I really admire his restraint.
Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of control.
No, if we keep him on an hour, it'll be flying off the handle.
It's going to be great in an hour.
If you put two beers, you give him two beers, it's even going to be greater.
That's right, that's right.
That's right.
Get those inhibitions down.
No, and listen, this is peak liberal craziness.
I mean, we've reached peak.
It's Saturday.
Sean, I swear on my life, when I saw this story, I was watching Fox and it came up on my life.
I thought it was a joke.
I thought Tucker was like, It's sad.
It's funny.
It's a story about a fake Trump tears thing.
And I thought, I said to my wife, Paul, I go, Paula, this is so funny.
Listen to this stupid story.
They kicked an Asian broadcaster off because he shares the name of the Confederate general.
And my wife goes, Dan, this is true.
Like, this is, I'm just, I'm moving in now.
You can't believe it.
You know, it's funny because there's so much fake news out there.
There's a story that I spent at a Trump hotel, like $42,000 or $7,000, and I made them fly in a 70-year-old lobster.
And another story that said, I died in a bicycle accident.
And I'm like, where does this crap come from?
I don't blame you for thinking it's fake news.
Noah, when your livelihood is what we do, which is picking apart liberal silliness, even us, we were like, no, come on, this can't be.
I know.
It just goes to show you this one.
Here's the takeaway: that liberals have America believing right now that a fringe portion of America, not all Democrats, but literally the fringe left of the far left, that that is a position widely held.
And that is what scared ESPN to the point where they removed an Asian American broadcaster for fear of associating him with a Confederate general dead more than 100 years.
It is literally insanity.
Like insane.
All right, guys, I hate to stop any good debate.
Stay right there.
We'll continue.
All right, as we continue Sean Hannity Show, we continue with Spencer Tillman and Dan Bongino.
Let me throw this at you.
And I am a huge free speech advocate.
And Colin Kaepernick, he was one of, he was on track.
He had a trajectory, I thought, to be one of the best quarterbacks from the NFL ever.
I mean, his arm is phenomenal.
And I watched this whole thing unfold last year, and he has every right.
And frankly, I respect that.
He knows he's going against a lot of people's beliefs, and he's standing out there on his own, and he knows the consequences, and he's willing to stand up for what he believes in.
I have no problem with that at all.
But then when teams don't want to hire him, you know, I understand their decision as well.
Thoughts?
Yeah, well, the NFL is a private organization, right?
It's private ownership.
It has the league that is its face and represents it.
But those individual 32 teams can do whatever they want to do.
I remember famously, it was Vince Lombardi who was concerned about some things that were happening in Green Bay.
It was one of the major establishments at the time that would not allow African-American players to stay at the hotel.
And Vince Lombardi went over and had a conversation with the man.
He said, hey, look, I will die for the right for you to do what you want to do with respect to who stays in your hotel.
However, I will also exercise the right for anyone within the Green Bay Packer organization not to patronize your place.
And he did that with the same type of respect, but he did it with respect and discipline.
What I think Colin Kaepernick's problem is.
Didn't the L.A. Dodgers, didn't the Dodgers, sorry, the Dodgers do that?
Not L.A. at the time.
Didn't the Dodgers also do that with Jackie Robinson?
Absolutely.
And see, those types of statements, however, even though it was an internal one and it was obviously happening during the time we didn't have Twitter and it couldn't have gotten blown up the way that this story does here today, what it speaks to is the respect and an awareness.
Vince Lombardi literally went there.
I just think the optics of Colin's efforts were wrong from the beginning.
And then I'm going to be difficult here and speak what most people don't speak.
Today, culturally, if you've got a big Afro, most people, black or white, aren't mature enough to look past the image and impression of what that represents.
And they will take a snapshot of it, and then it becomes representative of what they believe you're really all about.
Even though your message may be pure, it may be just, it may be right.
The optics just do not look right.
But, Spencer, is it the optics?
Because I actually think the 90 whatever percent, I can't put a percentage on it.
I think are good people that judge their fellow man as created by the same God and by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.
Now, yeah, they're an ignorant, bigoted, racist, hateful, evil white supremacist.
There are evil people in this world, but I don't think people look at Kaepernick from a visual standpoint and say they're against Kaepernick.
I think he was well loved and idolized and adored by fans.
I think it's position more than looks, no?
Well, there's the thing that we don't know.
In a private room without consequence, how many people would object to that or maybe show a sense?
Look, our last election is a classic case of it.
The moral majority actually didn't speak loud enough during the race.
Everyone thought, the pundits thought, even many conservatives thought that Donald Trump had no way of winning that.
That's the part that you don't know.
But again, it's in that private room without consequence.
Then when it happens, and then the actions define it, then we know what people perhaps were thinking, or at least we can make that assumption.
Yeah, let me get Dan's reaction to that.
Dan.
Yeah, well, Sean, I don't have any respect for Colin Kaepernick at all, and I have no problem saying that.
And I don't think this is a principled stand either.
Is it about looks?
Is it about what he does on the field and his stand he's taken?
Listen, I couldn't care any less about what the guy looks like.
You want to take a principled stand, get your butt off the bench, get off your knees, and go volunteer in a soup kitchen and donate tens of millions of dollars to some cause that matters to you.
You know, Sean, listen, people go after you, and this isn't some like stupid butt-kissing moment, but I know what you do behind the scenes for the vet because it matters to you.
You want to take a principled stand, get off your ass, and get out there and go do something and donate your money, you joker, because by him doing this and disrespecting the country and smacking everybody in the face like the clown he is, you know what he's doing?
He's taking down the NFL and all those other hardworking people with him.
Guys who really need this job, not everybody in the NFL is a multi-billionaire.
He's a disgrace.
And this is an emergency.
Let me just say this.
I disagree 100% where you're coming from.
I think he's not a clown.
I think he's a thinking young man.
He has made some optical moves that were not the best.
He is getting good counsel from people like Dr. Harry Edwards and others that understand history.
The guy is actually trying to make a principled statement about something that is a very real issue that we've not dealt with in this nation.
About what?
Spencer, what is he making a principle statement?
Let me explain to you.
If you'll be quiet for a minute, I'll explain to you.
The historic marginalization of African Americans in this nation is a matter of record, and we do not acknowledge it to the extent that it manifests itself in all of the areas, employment.
Historically, it is clear that we have a problem in this nation.
And unfortunately, people like Colin Kaepernick don't present it in a way that we need to address it in an effective manner.
The optics are getting in the way of what he's trying to communicate.
So I'm not in the...
Spencer, when you speak out for communist regimes like he does, he's a clown.
I'm sorry.
I have no respect for the guy.
We have no idea what he's talking about.
I've not heard him speak out for communist regimes.
I have heard him speak out.
And as we continue, Sean Hannity shows you with our friend Spencer Tillman, Dan Bongino, with us.
They were discussing Colin Kaepernick.
And Dan was pretty adamant in expressing his thoughts that he's a clown, and Spencer's taking issue with it.
Dan, I'll let you finish your thought and we'll let Spencer respond.
Well, listen, the guy wears socks that depicted cops as pigs.
What kind of principal is that?
Is this guy serious?
I mean, burglars would break into his house tomorrow and steal his stuff if it wasn't for a men and women in blue.
He's a joke.
The guy's a total farce.
I mean, comparing him to anyone with principles who's actually fought the good fight is embarrassing.
I'm serious.
I have zero respect for him.
And the fact that he's destroying the NFL, really, the people in the NFL should be really, really upset.
Get this guy off the silence.
You want to disrespect the anthem?
Do it in a locker room.
If he had that kind of power to destroy the NFL, believe me, he wouldn't be alive right now.
I don't think that would be the case.
Again, the socks, that's part of the optics.
If 27, 28.
By the way, I want to help my friend Spencer out.
He wouldn't be alive right now.
This is called a talk show.
That is called hyperbole.
It doesn't mean physically harming somebody by anybody in the NFL that would ever do that because Colin Kaepernick spoke out on his personal beliefs.
Go ahead.
Well, yeah, I mean, again, ultimately, what it amounts to is those are, again, gets back to the original comment about optics.
The optics of the situation is what it is.
He's a young man that made poor decisions.
He's since got some counsel about that.
That's the disappointing thing about all of this.
The real issues are not being addressed here.
We're dealing with the hyperbolic parts of it and the easily exploitable parts, the symbolic parts, pigs, socks with pigs on it, the afro.
All of that stuff paints a picture in a narrative, and it gives someone an opinion about someone.
But what is the more is it that he's taken the knee?
Is it the socks more than whatever?
I think it is people that are offended because the blanket statement that he's disrespecting the flag.
And I think this, listen, if you read the, go read.
Do you think he is when he does that?
Do you think he is disrespecting the flag?
Sean, you're a bright man, and you know I love and respect you.
Go read and listen to the second stanza of the lyrics that Spancer Scott Keat wrote.
If you read that narrative, which we never sing, by the way, you'll understand exactly why people who are educated, white and black, understand, at least to a larger degree, the plight of people like Colin Kaepernick.
When you look at the lyrics, just go read the lyrics.
I encourage your listeners to go read the lyrics.
We know it by heart.
Everybody knows it.
But everybody doesn't know it, Sean.
Everybody doesn't know it.
You know the first stanza, but read the entire lyrics from the second stanza.
That's only a portion.
Read the entire song.
And when you put it in that context, people that function with a sense and awareness of history.
No, listen, this is an incredible conversation.
I mean, I don't know how else do you accept the symbolism of wearing Castro or killer communist on your t-shirt and pigs as cops on your socks.
I mean, listen, with all due respect, Spencer, the guy's a joke.
What symbol?
I didn't understand.
Like, is there an alternate way to interpret a cop depicted as a pig on someone's like, like, what's the alternate way?
Like, I don't get it.
There's only one way to interpret that.
That's to be a childish, immature jerk and to insult people who, by the way, make a 1 1000th of what this Joker jerk makes on the sideline, go to work every day and put their cabooses on the line so people like Kaepernick can live in these multi-million dollar homes.
And you put socks on, what are you, a funny guy?
What is he, a comedian?
You're a quarterback.
Get on the field, you clown.
Play the football.
By the way, Linda has that second stanza.
Linda, go ahead, read it.
I didn't know it by memory.
I don't know if any of you did.
It's just a part here where it's.
No, no, I don't think so.
Not today.
But it just talks about, you know, it's.
Dan and Spencer are really mad now that you won't say it.
I think they're just Spencer's just happy that someone's going to validate this because nobody knows about this stanza.
And so that this will give a little fuel to the fodder.
But it talks about, it's actually a third stanza, and it's decrying former slaves that were working for the British Army.
And it says, their blood is washed out, their foul footsteps, pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave from the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
So it's basically minimizing the black soldier as well as talking about the fact that he's an underling.
Yeah, so again, understand when people put their hand over the heart and they sing the star-spangled banner, there is another narrative that Francis Scott Key scripted and wrote to that.
We don't think about it.
Like much of history, most people are going on autopilot and entropy sets in.
The further we get away from the truth of history, our knowledge and understanding.
Well, let me ask this question.
I could put you guys on for three hours one day, and I think this would be a really worthwhile conversation for the country.
And it's a tribute to both of you.
But do you agree with me that most, the majority, the overwhelming majority, Spencer, view racism as evil, which it is repugnant and disgusting?
Absolutely, Sean.
Listen, civil societies exist because the majority of people choose to obey the law.
If that was not the case, we would not have elected a Barack Obama.
I am an optimist in the strictest sense of the definition.
However, we cannot have this convenient attitude about when people have this misgivings about history and when we begin to voice them.
Privileged groups, I don't care if it's white, black, green, yellow clubs, whatever the organization.
Reinhold Niebuhr wrote this in his book, Moral Man, Immoral Society.
Privileged groups rarely give up or share privilege without great and strong resistance.
That's all I'm saying.
And what we feel and what we see in the neo-Nazi reaction to this nonviolent act in Charlottesville is part of that resistance.
It is a small faction, but unfortunately, they have a large voice and the inherent nature of what we are in our culture.
I don't even think it's a loud voice.
I think they are a tiny, tiny loud.
Yeah, but most people see them as insane.
I mean, you do know that.
Most people.
By the way, don't you see?
When I praised the Boston protesters on Monday, what I said was there is a natural instinctive revulsion at people that want to associate themselves with that type of hatred.
And the fact that 99% of them went out there and stood up, we ought to applaud them all because they did it.
They did it peacefully.
And the few little agitators that were there, the police handled perfectly.
I thought it was a strong stand.
And every conservative, Dan Bongino, that I know, you know, absolutely, I don't know these people who they are.
Would I ever want to know them?
And it's not the conservative movement.
Where I go sideways with people is when they try and brand falsely conservative as every two, four years, we get the same crap that racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, homophobic.
And you've dealt with it in your career.
You know, Sean, I was listening to your show after that dreadful shooting of Steve Scalise.
And, you know, I have my own little thing I put on.
And you and I were both absolutely unequivocal and crystal clear on this point.
For as much as we can't stand Bernie Sanders' ideological views, he was in no way responsible for the acts of a deranged.
Not at all.
And I said it at the time.
You said it a thousand times on the show because I listened that day, I listened the next day, and I heard you say it.
And every conservative out there with credibility said the same thing.
But what happened with these lunatics, this guy in Charlottesville, some maniac who has absolutely nothing to do with pure conservative values and the respect for God-given big R rights, kills a woman tragically, horrifically, and all of a sudden every conservative in the country is supposed to apologize?
Are you insane?
Like, condemn?
Absolutely, of course.
But apologize for what?
We have nothing to do with these neo-Nazi maniacs.
The Republican Party is the party that fought Jim Crow, that fought slavery, that fought for big R rights.
Did people forget this?
I mean, you want to talk about history, Spencer?
That's real history.
The real history of freedom and liberty is the history of the Republican Party.
It has nothing to do whatsoever with Democrats and their tendency to pin every single act of a pick on Republicans.
Spencer, you can bail out because I know this, you don't do a lot of politics.
And this is the thing that frustrated me on the whole thing is, you know, I went back to 1991 and I have a tape of Donald Trump condemning Duke and racism and white supremacy and him saying it to Matt Lauer 20 years ago and him saying it all throughout the campaign and him saying it all throughout Charlottesville.
And also knowing the man and knowing his business and knowing the people he associates with and knowing the people that he brought into his campaign.
I know it all of all races, creeds, colors, and backgrounds.
I'll finish this one thought.
And the only thing I'm going to say is the media would never tell that part of the story.
And they'd never tell the part of the story where Hillary Clinton just seven years ago was praising a guy that was a former Klansman and claimed that he was one of the greats of all time in politics and her mentor.
And J. William Fulbright, well, Bill Clinton praised him as his mentor.
And he signed on to the Southern Manifesto.
And you keep saying that we need to know our history.
Well, I wouldn't be praising somebody that signed on to the Southern Manifesto to go against the Supreme Court and their decision on Brown versus Board of Education.
And the segregationist, J. William Fulbright, like Robert Byrd, were against the Civil Rights Act of 64 and the Voting Rights Act of 65.
And Lyndon Johnson, to get those historic bills passed, relied on the Republicans to get it done, not the Democrats and not the people the Clintons praise.
Yeah, and the reason why those types of things happen is because everything moves toward decay.
Listen, if you go to Europe right now, I guarantee you you will not find a high school with Hitler's name on the side of it, right?
Why is that?
There is a part of the country that believes, the continent that believes and understands the travesty that that represented.
And to think that someone at any point in time in history would subsequently come back and name a school after someone that was responsible for so much is reprehensible.
In a similar way.
So 57.
Wait a minute.
There are 57 highways, schools, monuments, including the West Virginia State House in West Virginia, that praise Robert Byrd, the former Klansman.
Should they be taken down?
Here's what I'm saying.
The consciousness should be re-examined for why they were there in the first place.
I mean, that's the kind of thinking that needs to go into any decisions that are made.
We need to go back and look at all traditions and examine them.
And if they fail in providing definitive enough support that they support what America stands for, they should always be re-examined.
And yes, in light of new information, people are reintroduced into the legal system all the time.
That's not new.
We've always known that Byrd was a former Klansman.
We always knew J. William Fulbright was against the Southern Manifesto.
So she answers your own question.
That should be an indictment to anybody that did it.
Anybody that authorized that should be brought together.
But I guess what I'm saying, Spencer, is I'm talking about the double standard because they have ignored Trump's history, and they are trying to bludgeon him that he didn't say it enough times the right way.
And meanwhile, there's this history over the course of his life where he has.
There's also the Clintons' history, where they have praised people that did support the Southern Manifesto, that did even filibuster the Civil Rights Act in the case of Byrd.
Al Gore's father was one of them, voted against it.
And the history is the Republicans supported it.
And they were never bludgeoned the way Donald Trump is getting bludgeoned.
Look, I'm not trying to drag you deep into politics.
You're a friend, and I— No, that's okay.
Listen, I stay out of that.
Sean, what I will do is talk about human nature.
And the fact of the matter is very, yes, it is good and evil, and it is yet very predictable.
This is all part of a struggle that must be.
Time does a number on all of us.
There was a time when Muhammad Ali was reviled.
They sent him to jail for his beliefs and what he stood up for.
And I cannot think of a more iconic figure than to see him with that cauldron in his hand trembling from Parkinson's at that point.
Was there a more popular person in the world than Muhammad Ali?
What he did then was no different and no less unjust now than what he did.
Listen, I'll say this, through the prism of history, 58,000 American heroes and America's treasure died in a war that became politicized.
And we can't ask these brave men and women to do that ever again.
All right, I want to get a response from Dan Bongino.
You know, Sean, the problem with this is this is a very slippery slope.
Spencer makes a good point.
You know, listen, there are obviously still a lot of open wounds about what happened in our history of the country with race, which is always going to be trouble.
The problem I have with this is this was a problem all over the world.
We were the one country on earth that, as you accurately stated, forfeited hundreds of thousands of lives to wipe the stain of slavery clean.
Now, if we're going to start wiping down monuments and taking down monuments, where does it end?
I mean, are we basing it on what?
A level of imperfection?
What level of imperfection?
If it offends one group, what if it offends another group?
I mean, listen, what about statues of FDR?
I mean, he was responsible for the interment of Japanese during World War II.
Do we take that down?
The problem I have with this is the slippery slope never ends.
It's time to acknowledge our history.
It's not sanitized.
It's not perfect.
It's not clean.
Sometimes it was ugly, but we are still the greatest and most prosperous country on earth.
We should acknowledge the history, acknowledge our imperfections, and move on and stop catering to liberal snowflakes' feelings about everything.
And Sean, if this was such a big deal, by the way, why was it?
Let me get a quick response.
Then I got to take a break.
Spencer.
I agree with Dan.
What he just said.
We cannot have knee-jerk reactions to the people.
No, no, no.
You can't agree because you're ruining my program.
I mean, just stop.
I mean, this is ridiculous.
This is what I disagree with.
The focus should be on education.
Only after people understand the truth can we make a conscious choice and decisions about what the nation.
But you know something?
Look at the mysterious reluctance and resistance, especially, and this becomes political for me because conservatives have been saying, Let local municipalities, towns, and cities decide, let the states decide because they're going to have an active role.
Thank you, Spencer Tillman.
Thank you, Dan Bongino.
Love you both.
And I'll have you back.
This is a great hour and I think an enlightening one.
