Sean updates the latest on Hurricane Irma, revisits Washington's efforts to support those still impacted by Hurricane Harvey and look toward the efforts to rebuild. 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.
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Claude, you're with us.
Welcome to the Sean Hannity Show.
It's a happy Friday for everybody, but our friends, our neighbors, people we know down in Florida.
We'll start the program.
Our thoughts and prayers are with you.
Hang in there.
Hang tough.
Americans are tough.
Floridians are tough.
I know none of this is going to be easy.
This is the big one.
I hope those of you that are being told to evacuate or evacuating, you know, there's some amazing stories to come out of what's going on now in preparation of Hurricane Irma.
Just to let you know, we'll have Joe Bastardi on in each hour of the program today.
We're also going to be doing some news, and that would include Freedom Caucus members Jim Jordan, Congressman Dave Bratt.
The rest of the Republican Party pretty much sucks, except for the Freedom Caucus at this point in my life.
I just had it.
Pat Buchanan will join us.
The Attorney General of Florida, Pam Bondi, is here.
Well, before I get to the good stories, let me just say, I talked to Pam Bondi's office today, and she'll come on and talk a little bit about it.
She's getting a lot of calls.
There are some crappy people out in this world that are out there charging 30, 40 bucks for a case of water.
Now, what's the average cost for a case of water?
Three, four bucks, right?
All right, charge an extra dollar.
If you really, you need the money that bad.
$2 extra.
Fine.
Got it.
I understand.
But why are you going to gouge people in what is really the hour of need that they have?
And anyway, she's been investigating.
And then on the other hand, and this is always the case, you see goodness and greatness emerge in people.
And I think, and I'll ask the Attorney General when she comes on, I think it was JetBlue the first to do this.
They are offering $99 flights out of Florida.
$99.
And you can take your animals for free because nobody wants, you don't want to leave your cat.
Look, if I had to leave my dogs, I wouldn't go.
You got to take your animals with you.
So they're people too.
I mean, I couldn't imagine leaving my house and saying goodbye to my dogs.
It's not going to happen.
And I think most people that have pets are like that.
So the airlines are being considered.
Then I think American followed with the same amount.
I'm not sure.
Delta, they had some high prices I saw, but I think they have some low fares too.
I don't know.
And then you've got other companies like Home Depot.
And when I was talking to Pam Bondi's office earlier today, they actually said that the guy, the head of Home Depot, who I know and I've met and I've known him for years and he's out of Atlanta, great guy.
I probably wouldn't be good if I mentioned his name, so I won't bother him.
But they called her and they said, what could we do?
And then you've got gas companies, and they're doing everything that they can do to get gas because they were having some gas shortages.
And, you know, maybe a couple of gas stations are gouging, but then the rest of them are not doing that.
And they're even putting people at the pumps to try and expedite the service because the lines are long and people are frustrated.
So it's, you see, goodness and greatness.
And like Texas, now knock on wood here, Governor Rick Scott has been amazing.
And he's been warning everybody for days.
He took the information.
Can you imagine living in an era where we didn't have meteorology or satellite imaging?
Imagine living in a world where you're just going about your daily business in Florida today with no idea one of the biggest storms ever to hit your state that will engulf the entire state is heading your way and you have no idea it's coming.
Well, that's what life was like before we had satellite imagery and we had forecasting.
And I know it's an imperfect science.
We give Joe Bastardi the hardest time if he's off by an inch.
And meanwhile, it saves lives.
And what I like about Bastardi more than any other meteorologist is he knows the history.
And he can tell you what happened in the 1800s.
And he could tell you what happened in the 1929 storm.
And he's also figured out that there's certain, if you will, road maps or pathways that these storms take, especially when you recreate the exact same conditions that existed when the storm happened back, quote, in the day.
So I think, you know, that's why I think he's been so accurate as it relates to both what happened in Texas and he's been dead on accurate here.
And for my friends in Florida, I know it's inconvenient.
There's some 650,000 people now that have been told to leave South Florida.
Now, this is a really, this is it.
It's serious.
And I think the governor made a great point again and again, every time he's been on TV, he's been telling everybody for days.
You know, they have pre-positioned.
And this is where government can really work well in people's lives.
And I hate government.
I despise governments.
You know, look at the Republicans in Washington.
They just suck.
You know, they weren't ready to do a debt ceiling increase, and they were off for the whole month of August and almost the whole month of July.
We've actually passed more bills.
All right, I don't want to hear this right now.
We'll get to that later in the program with the Freedom Caucus guys.
But it's frustrating.
Anyway, but to the, you know, to the ever-growing credit of Governor Abbott, the Lieutenant Governor, Dan Patrick of Texas, then we've got in Florida, we've got Governor Rick Scott.
I mean, he has handled this pitch perfectly and knew the potential at the first forecast.
And he's been preparing the state of Florida.
And he's been coordinating.
I talked to a friend of mine that works in the White House today.
The calls that have gone back and forth between the president and the governor, the president, the attorney general, the president and local politicians, or the chief of staff, General Kelly, have been a tremendous back and forth and cooperation.
We even have our Defense Department has already pre-positioned four warships off the coast of Florida, you know, so that they're ready to bear down and help the people of Florida, which we now know is inevitable.
It's not a question of if, it's when we get to go in there to help people out.
And our friends and neighbors in Florida are going to need the help of the American people.
There's going to be devastation.
God forbid there's no loss of life, but you always have these weather warriors that want to, you know, they're going to stick it out and they think they can beat Mother Nature.
And I don't think they're being particularly smart, but I'm not going to send a helicopter and force them out of there.
Everybody's been warned.
And we had the mayor of the Florida Keys on the program yesterday, and they've done a pretty good job.
This is really the first time the Florida Keys has been evacuated the way they've been evacuated.
But it looks like the Florida Keys.
It looks like Miami.
It looks like even the eastern side, although it's made a more westerly turn, you know, the Palm Beach, Broward County area is all going to get hit and hit hard.
But it looks like if I were to guess right now, we'll ask Joe Bastardi at the bottom of the hour.
My guess is this is a direct hit on my second home, which happens to be.
You know, I mention that and people say, you're thinking about you.
I don't care about my place.
You know, I want every person that lives in Naples.
And I know a lot of people down there because I've been going down there for years, not much, like once a year.
But I want all my friends down there to be safe.
I want all of my friends in Fort Myers to be safe, Sarasota to be safe.
All my friends in Miami to be safe.
That's all I care about.
And as the governor said, you can rebuild your homes.
You can get property back, but you can't get your life back.
So if you've been told, if you're one of the 650,000 that has to bear the traffic and the long lines at the gas station and some empty shelves, they've done a very good job.
I've been talking to my sheriff buddy Carmine, and I actually posted a news article about him.
You know, the sheriff's office in Florida, in Naples, and Collier County and Lee County, they've been going absolutely nuts getting everybody that needs help off the streets and pre-positioning.
The federal government is now pre-positioned in safety zones out of the way of the hurricane, all the food, water, medicine, baby formula, cots, blankets, and pillows that they're going to need.
And so, you know, right now, we just got to, you can't evacuate the whole state.
So now everybody's got to bear down and accept that this is going to be the big one.
And get your plywood, get your tape, get your supplies, get whatever you can.
More supplies are coming in, so stay in contact with your local stores.
More gas is coming in.
The governor's best decision a couple of days ago was getting all the neighboring states to lift their regulations so they can import more gasoline immediately into the state of Florida.
That has been successful.
You got literally, you know, tens of thousands of FEMA government workers now on the ground and pre-positioned to go right in following the hurricane to help those people that are going to need assistance and rescuing.
So, and for the few people that are trying to take advantage of this situation, you really suck.
There's something wrong with your soul.
You know, if you can't help your neighbor out in need, and this is your opportunity to gouge people, you just suck.
And yeah, maybe you can get 30 bucks for a case of water.
Great.
I hope you sleep well at night.
No, I'm serious.
If you can't, this is all hands on deck.
So, anyway, about 650,000 people now, and I know the traffic and my best counsel advice to my friends in Florida, just take a deep breath, listen to this program.
We love you.
We'll try and distract you for the next three hours in your ride.
And my buddy Mark Levin will take over from there.
Hang in there, and we'll get you home, and we'll get you to a safer place.
Mar-a-Lago, by the way, that too has been evacuated.
Anyway, the fuel shortages now, the good news I'm hearing, they created an app.
Hey, Linda, can you get the app and put it up for people where there are restocking groceries?
They are restocking the gasoline so we can make sure that we can help people because they created an app so people, you go on the app and you'll know whether or not you're wasting your time online at a particular gas station or spending your time driving to a store that doesn't have anything in it.
So I thought that was particularly helpful as well.
Anyway, it has now, but you've got to understand it's not just Naples, Marco, the Keys, Miami, West Palm, Palm.
It's not just southern Florida.
It's the whole state is now engulfed in this.
all the way up to St. Augustine and Jacksonville and Central Florida and Orlando and Miami.
It's everybody.
All of you are going to get hit by this.
This hurricane now, it's not a matter of if, will engulf the entire state.
And what's scary about this is we've been telling you, this is going to deliver a very destructive blow.
This is the real deal here.
So I'm just urging everybody to please take caution and be smart.
And we want you back here listening on Monday.
And there's nothing that's going to make me and everybody else happier than to write a check to Samaritan's purse and say, all right, we're going to help you rebuild your lives.
Just like we're helping the people of Texas rebuild theirs.
So, but it has taken a more westerly turn.
And by the way, this isn't just for our friends in Florida, because immediately after it gets out of Jacksonville, it's going from Savannah straight up through Atlanta into the Carolinas.
So Georgia is going to get particularly hit hard.
The coastal Georgia areas are going to get hit hard.
Atlanta is going to get hit hard.
As I said, the greatest evacuation in history, 650,000 people ordered to leave Florida.
If you want to know how bad some people are predicting this is going to be, the FEMA chief, Miami Beach Mayor, warning, get out now.
This was two days ago.
This is a devastating nuclear hurricane.
So do I want you to be afraid?
Not fearful, worried, scared.
I want you to be proactive scared.
In other words, I want you to just take it seriously, get your provisions, create a safe place wherever it is that you're saying, hunkered down, bunkered down, and we're going to do everything we can do to get everybody back up and running.
And I know the American people are the most generous people on earth.
And I know it's inconvenient.
I know it's a pain in the neck.
And I know for some of you, you're scared out of your minds.
I understand it.
But being scared, it never pays to worry.
You get nothing out of worry.
You get nothing out of being fearful.
You do a better job if you just stay focused on what it is you need, the provisions you need, the safety precautions you need to take, and the things that you're going to need to get through a few days until help arrives.
Because it's not going to be overnight.
You're talking about the entire state that is impacted here.
All right, we got a lot coming up on the program.
We do have the Attorney General of Florida, Pam Bondi.
We do have every hour this day on the Sean Hannity show, Joe Bistardi is going to be checking.
And also, Pap Buchanan, Freedom Caucus members Jim Jordan and Congressman Dave Bratt will also check in on this Friday.
800-941-Sean is our number if you want to join us.
Hang in there, our friends in Florida.
Our hearts, our prayers are with you.
We love you.
We need you back here with us on Monday.
Please be careful.
And we'll have the latest with Joe Bistardi, Pam Bondi, and much more straight ahead.
So speaking at the press conference earlier this week, the Florida governor Rick Scott, he told state residents to turn to apps and other online resources.
Now, one of them is Gas Buddy.
It's an app.
You download the app and it tells you what gas stations have what, which is just such a great resource for you.
And then you, of course, can use Google Maps and Waze and Expedia and all sorts of things if you're trying to fly out.
And some extra flights have been added late, especially, I think, out of Orlando and Jacksonville and Miami and Naples and some of these other places, Fort Myers rather.
So anyway, they're doing everything they can do.
And because they've been on it a couple of days, maybe the station yesterday didn't have gas, but they have it.
And they have the prices up too.
And I see that everyone is pretty much within the same range.
$2.60, $70, $0.80 a gallon.
You know, it's nothing that bad.
And in addition to Gas Buddy, the governor noted that the state is working with Google to keep its mapping app updated with the most current information.
You don't want to drive into a road closure.
They're giving you real-time traffic.
You know, obviously turn into your local News Talk radio station.
We've got great stations.
We got Fox News Radio in Naples.
We got WIOD in Miami.
We've got our station in West Palm.
We've got our station in Jacksonville, WOKV, WDBO in Orlando.
I mean, we got Tampa, WFLA.
I just can't mention all the stations.
And we have every cordon and every inch, square inch of Florida covered.
So you can find us on the radio and tell friends to find us.
And most of our stations are doing weather and traffic updates.
And if they've taken time out of the show, that's perfectly acceptable under the circumstances.
We know how important this is for our friends down in Florida.
So we've got a lot coming up.
Let me tell you, we'll have Pam Bondi, the Attorney General.
She'll join us in the next hour.
Joe Bastardi is going to be with us doing a hit all three hours of the program today.
Pat Buchanan will do some politics today.
We'll get his take on the pathetic state of the Republican Party.
Freedom Caucus members, the only people I like now in D.C., the only non-sewer swamp creatures.
Anyway, we'll have Jim Jordan, Congressman Dave Bratt, checking in today.
But again, our top story, Hurricane Irma bearing down on the entire state of Florida.
All right, buckle up, folks.
This is the big one.
Solid as a rock.
Honest, truthful.
This is the Sean Hannity Show.
The Libnan Evacuation Zone in these counties have been ordered to evacuate Lee, Hendry, Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, or Collier County.
You must evacuate by midnight tonight or find shelter to avoid life-threatening impacts.
If you're in this area and are planning to leave and have not done so by midnight, do not get on the road.
It will not be safe for you or the law enforcement needed to protect you.
Again, if you're in those counties, if you're planning to leave and do not leave by midnight tonight, you will have to ride out this extremely dangerous storm at your own risk.
I think about my mom and how hard it would have been for her to be completely broke and have kids and have to evacuate.
But you have to do it.
You can't afford not to do it.
Think about your family.
You have to keep your family safe.
Evacuations are not convenient.
They're meant to keep you safe.
We want all evacuations to be safe.
I'm glad so many people are driving to safe places.
Now, the largest evacuation ever.
We have some other news here for you.
If you're in Florida, 25 now to the top of the hour, Talladega, Super Speedway, the Atlanta Motor Speedway, are offering free campground space for any Irma evacuees, which is good to know.
I got to believe, probably because it's in a racetrack, that probably would be protected, well-built, hurricane-proof.
Look, I'm not, I don't know.
Talk to your experts.
I mean, you're hearing on, you know, from the governor, from the attorney general is going to join us later.
They'll give you all the latest on this.
But, you know, whether this lands or a cat four or five, I don't know.
The good news is that the governor and the attorney general who will join us later, they have been now all over this for a long time, and that has led to the evacuation of 650,000 people.
I understand through these applications that I put up on Hannity.com that you can literally get gas.
You can find out exactly a gas buddy, the app where you can get gas.
They also have differing apps that are available that will tell you exactly where you can get food and supplies.
And they're restocking.
So if it's even an hour ago, if they didn't have something, they might have restocked between now and then.
The ports had remained open the entire time.
The federal government literally has pre-positioned food, water, medicine, supplies, baby formula blankets, cots, and people.
They're apparently all ready to come in.
Four Navy ships are off the coast out of the way of the hurricane that are literally now going to be engaged the second they're out of harm's way and moving right into the state of Florida also with supplies.
As I understand now, we have the National Guard, State Guard, all have been called in and on duty.
Everybody is all hands on deck at this point, which is great news.
But it's still now it's going to engulf the entire state, and the evacuations are real, and the bottlenecks and the driving challenges are real, and the aggravation factor is real.
But you can't, you know, literally, when it now is impacting, has the potential of affecting and will probably affect every city in the state of Florida.
Nobody is going to come out unscathed here.
The whole state is going to get whacked.
And then it's going to move right from Savannah, Georgia, up through Atlanta is going to get hit particularly hard, right up the coast to the Carolinas.
So this is going to be, you know, buckle up.
This is going to be a long process for everybody here, and a lot of people are going to need help at the end of this.
And we are already making contact with Samaritan's Purse and some other organizations.
And you know what?
From Linda, I think you told me earlier that the Cajun Navy, they're going to be going up there.
And all of these different groups that are former military, former law enforcement, you know, they're doing exactly what they did in Texas, exactly what they did in Baton Rouge.
And they're just using their professionalism, training, their expertise to get on the ground and help those people that need help.
There's going to be people that didn't evacuate.
They need help.
And it makes it harder for everybody when some people don't listen.
But what are you going to do?
You just, we'll do our best.
We're going to try our best.
We just can't guarantee that we'll get everybody out.
It looks like it has now taken a more southwesterly turn here.
And we're going to get Joe Bistardi on in just a second because this is a catastrophic storm surge.
Greatest evacuation it's called in history of 650,000 people.
What is Sunshine laughing at in there?
What is going on with CIS over there?
What is it?
I'm not at liberty to discuss this issue.
Why not?
Oh, is that on the Do Not Talk About list?
I have been told that I am not allowed to discuss this issue.
So that's what?
She signed an NDA.
Did you really?
Yes, I did in blood.
FEMA Chief, Miami Beach Mayor warning, get out now.
This is a devastating nuclear hurricane.
Now, it's still not too late for a lot of you.
You can still, you know, we're talking about this, and we'll bring Joe Bistardi in here.
You still have time to at least get off the coast and get inland a little bit so you're at least away from the storm surges.
It makes a difference, Joe Bistardi, Weatherbell.com, the official meteorologist of the Sean Hannity show.
It does make a difference if you're off the coast, does it not, sir?
Well, yeah, that's exactly right.
The storm surge is what is a real concern because you could probably shelter yourself if you have a strong enough shelter, but you can't shelter yourself from water.
You can shelter yourself from wind.
Although, let me say something.
What is going to happen with this in reading accounts of the 1935 Labor Day hurricane where people, literally, the salt and the wind and the rain literally blasted clothes off people.
That's how strong that kind of wind is.
And I don't think that people understand what this storm is capable of.
We did some calculations here, and we came up with this, that we believe that the highest wind gust in the Miami area Sunday afternoon would be 100 to 120 miles an hour.
When you're talking about Naples, Bonita Springs, Marco Island, it may go over 150 miles an hour.
The same thing in the Florida Keys.
When you get up to Tampa, Orlando, and Daytona Beach, that area, it looks like 100 miles an hour, a peak gust probably coming Sunday night.
Jacksonville, so what I'm doing is I'm bringing it up the coast here.
Jacksonville, Monday morning, peak wind gust 80 to 100.
Atlanta and Savannah, Monday afternoon, peak wind gust around 80.
Charleston, 60 Monday night.
You have a timeline on when the worst of this is going to be moving up the coast.
And what's going to happen with this storm is it is absolutely ferocious at the core where it hits.
You're going to see it move almost due west tonight, and it may get into Cuba for a little while.
When it comes out of Cuba and starts making that turn to the north, and we were uncertain yesterday where it was going to turn to the north, we're getting more and more certain it's further west now.
When it comes across the Florida Straits, given the upper air weather pattern, the warmth of the water, with water temperature 88, 89 degrees, this system, I believe, unlike Katrina or Rita, which weakened in the last 12 to 18 hours, this system will be intensifying coming into the keys and then into southwest Florida.
So even though it's a four right now, we expected it to weaken because even though it went north of Hispaniola, dragged some dry air in from Hispaniola, this system may indeed be up to a five.
I think its barometric pressure will be lower than what it was when it was out near Barbuda by the time it hits the keys and into southwest Florida on Sunday.
All right, let's go through this and let's literally drive from Miami all the way up both coasts here.
So you think it's taking a little bit more westerly, and you thought this would happen early on, and not a lot of people picked up on it, but it's taken a little bit turn to the west, which means that if we're going to talk about it, the keys are going to get slammed.
Great thing that the mayor was on yesterday, told us they evacuated.
Marco Island, Naples, Miami, Fort Myers direct hit.
Yeah, that area there from Fort Myers down to the central part of the Florida Keys.
That's a direct hit.
And to the east of that, the upper keys and toward Miami, that storm surge is going to be very, very high.
About how high?
In other words, the storm surge will go, what do you anticipate?
Well, I agree with what the Hurricane Center has got out.
And a lot of places, and you've got to remember that we don't go up more than 8, 10 feet for quite some time.
So you may have a storm surge 10, 15, 18 feet in some places, just simply continuing inland.
And that is a big, big problem.
A lot of the unfortunate thing when you look at cities like New Orleans and even Miami, you're building them right on the coast.
And it's not like you go straight up in the air like you do in some of the other northern coastal cities where they rise 20, 30 feet very quickly.
Newport, Rhode Island, for instance, is 30, 40 feet above the ground.
So even in a real bad storm surge, they can get away with it.
But you can't do that down in these southern cities.
And the fact of the matter is, the storm surge is high enough, so it's going to engulf a lot of these areas along the Florida coast.
So that's basically what you have to be concerned about.
What we've done here, and they have area A, area B, area C that they evacuate based on the storm surge prediction.
So if someone tells you in A or B, get out of there, you've got to get out of there.
Like I said, you might be able to shelter yourself from the wind, but if there's water coming over your head, plus the waves on top of the water, when we talk about storm surge, we're just talking about the raise and elevation of sea level.
If you're piling 20, 30 foot waves on top of that, you can imagine what's going to happen.
So some of these places, some of these houses along the coast and condos, I'm not trying to make light of your situation.
There'll be beach battering waves here.
With all due respect, I don't have it.
I don't care about my stupid conduct with all due respect.
I know.
I want people to get out of there safely.
I just don't care.
As long as people are safe.
Let's say you're on.
Let's say you're on the.
Let's make that point.
No, I know.
But let's say you're on any coast and you move in 10 or 15 miles.
How much difference does it make?
Because you just described a situation where Miami and Naples and Fort Myers and Broward County, I guess, probably, and maybe West Palm, it's going to be anywhere between 140 and 160 mile-an-hour winds.
And by the time it gets up to central Florida and Orlando, you're talking about maybe 100.
And when you get to places like Jacksonville, it's going to be 100, then about 80 in Savannah and Atlanta, and then about 60 miles per hour when it heads to Charlotte.
Charleston.
I'm sorry, Charleston.
Charleston.
That's all right.
Charlotte may get that, but that's a gust.
The steady state wind will be a little bit less.
So where the steady state wind really is, you almost can't comprehend it.
We'll be within 30, 40 miles of where that center makes landfall.
And to just have a constant roaring wind that's like a freight track, it looks like a tornado.
It's like an F2, F3 tornado, except it doesn't stop.
And then you have a wind gust, you'll have wind gusts that come up maybe 10, 15, 20% higher than that.
So if you're a steady one-minute wind, for instance, is blowing 130, 140 miles an hour, and then a gust of 160, 170 comes along.
I'm saying these things because people have to understand.
Now, you can be brave with your family and the things you do and taking a stand on this or that.
This is not the time to be brave, all right, or foolhardy.
You get the heck out of the way of this thing because it means business.
All right.
What about those people that thought they were going to be really courageous and weather warriors?
And I mean, crazy people like you because you're a former ex-storm chaser, which I think is actually very cool on the one hand.
I'd love to be able to stay there one day and just watch it, but I'm just not willing to risk my life for it.
But those people still have time to get out, right?
I mean, if you're in the Florida Keys now and you're listening to this program, you can still get out.
If you're on the coast of Naples, you need to get out.
I'm not quite the crazy storm chaser.
I've seen enough weather.
I'm more fascinated about what sets up the weather and what the weather's capable of doing than I am of actually seeing it.
But the fact of the matter is, look, here's what happens.
It's like being in quicksand.
Once you realize you're in trouble, it's too late.
And so that's what I tell people with these things.
And, you know, if you studied the history of Florida hurricanes in the 1940s, the 1930s, the 1926 Great Miami hurricane, if you studied the history of those hurricanes and understand what they're really capable of doing, you would understand that this is, you've got to get out of the way of this thing because we've returned to that era, at least for this storm.
Yeah.
All right.
So the last thing that I would say is: so when does it actually hit?
When will they start feeling it in South Florida, Southwest, Southeast Florida?
Well, you'll start feeling it tomorrow afternoon, tomorrow night.
The storm's delayed about six to 12 hours, I think, as far as the landfall from what I was bringing up with you yesterday, because it's making more of a turn to the west, and so it's more distance to go before it comes out of Cuba or on the north coast of Cuba.
So the real, the worst part of the storm is coming across the Florida Keys late Sunday night.
And I think the landfall, the actual eye crossing the coast is probably Monday afternoon or Monday afternoon, maybe at noontime, right around Marco Island.
So you've got a long haul here where from Sunday afternoon or Sunday morning, it's in the center of the Florida Straits.
It then comes across the Florida Keys and then comes up just a little bit offshore before coming in.
And you think about that funnel, that cup-shaped bay in Southwest Florida.
But that's where it's going to happen.
Yeah.
All right, Joe Bastardi, Weatherbell.com.
Now, the good news: Joe is going to be with us every hour of the show today.
So, we'll talk to you in, well, about 40 minutes from now, thanks, or 45 minutes from now, Joe Bastardi, Weatherbell.com.
You can go to his website, of course, to get all the latest information, updated forecasting, of course, as this will engulf the entire state of Florida.
Hurricane Irma, we'll have more on that.
Also, Pat Buchanan, also Pam Bondi will join us in the next hour with Joe Bistarti.
She's the Attorney General of Florida and Freedom Caucus members Dave Brad and Jim Jordan.
My only advice: please be careful, all our friends in Florida.
I want to remind you: did you see what happened this week?
It was one of the biggest security breaches ever.
One of the largest credit reporting agencies, Iquifax, had a massive breach, 143 million Americans.
Did you see that?
Anyone with a credit history, pretty much.
Now, this isn't the time to do a LifeLock ad, but by the way, I'd get LifeLock.com because LifeLock detects all of these threats.
And if you have a problem, they'll fix it for you.
John Slee
talked to Director Mulvaney yesterday evening after this deal was announced.
We want to see a longer-term debt ceiling bill that has real conservative structural reforms.
And obviously, we didn't see that yesterday.
What does that mean?
In other words, you would have preferred to see spending cuts attached to this, not, in this case, a spending measure, in this case, emergency relief.
Yeah, and I mean, the emergency relief, I believe that should have been a standalone, but that's a tactical question.
But really, when we look at the debt ceiling, we've got to get our spending really under control.
Neil, you know it.
I know it.
The American people know it.
And so if we're going to do that, we've got to address this debt ceiling vote with some type of structural reform.
And so in that, I've just left a meeting where we're talking with our leadership on how we do that to make sure that Chuck Schumer doesn't have the power.
But as a speaker, trying to push through a conservative agenda, do you believe that Paul Ryan has been an effective speaker of the House?
Well, I think here's the interesting thing: as an effective speaker, the only thing that you can judge that on is the results.
One of my favorite quotes is: no matter how beautiful the strategy, we must occasionally look at the results.
And the results and the time remaining for that jury to make a judgment call on those results is running out.
We've got to be very, very aggressive in our corporate rates.
So if we're looking at a corporate rate of 25%, that's a non-starter for most of us.
We have to make sure that the hardworking American taxpayers get the break too.
So not just special interest groups.
We need to make sure that those moms and dads that need to put money back in their pocket, that it actually flows through to them.
All right, there, of course, you are hearing from the Freedom Caucus.
And I'm going to be blunt, truthful, and honest as always.
They are the people that I trust in Congress today.
They are the ones that I have the most faith in, that they will adhere to their conservative principles and focus on solving the country's problems, which should be at the forefront of everybody's discussion and debate in the country.
But everybody's so focused on Russia, Russia, Russia, when there's no evidence at all to this point.
Anyway, joining us now, he is the former chairman of the Freedom Caucus, Jim Jordan of Ohio.
In a second, we'll be joined by Congressman Dave Bratt.
Let me first start.
I guess Congressman Meadows is basically downplaying any friction or divisions with Ryan.
There was some divisions during the health care issue because nobody got to saw the bill, see the bill beforehand.
It was an establishment bill.
It was thrust on everybody, and it took a lot more work than otherwise I think would have been necessary.
But you guys worked many, many weeks and months to try and fix it.
What is the status with the relationship with the caucus and with the leadership now?
Well, it's fine, Tom, but the most important relationship is the relationship that Congress has with the American people.
And right now, it's not very good, and it's not very good because we're not doing what we said.
And you know that.
You talk about that every single day, and we appreciate that.
So that's the key here.
And frankly, on this most recent deal, it's not a good deal because anytime Nancy Pelosi is supporting something, you know it's not good for the American taxpayer.
But what options, what choices did President Trump have?
I told our conference today, I said lack of preparation leads to bad outcomes, and failing to make a decision is a decision in and of itself.
So the problem was we didn't put together a debt ceiling plan.
The only people who've offered a debt ceiling plan have been the Freedom Caucus.
We said cap spending going into the future.
Do some structural change.
We've offered plans.
You know, I'm sure we can stay here and discuss those.
I get so angry when you tell me that Congress wasn't prepared.
Didn't you guys pretty much take a July 4th holiday?
Then you took an August recess.
So, I mean, I would think you come back and you're ready to hit the ground running considering and Paul Ryan, God bless him last night, was making the case to Martha McKellum that this is the most productive Congress in history.
And I'm like, huh?
Let me play it for you.
We've actually passed more bills in the House for the President and his agenda in this first six months of his administration than in the first six months of Obama, Clinton, and both bushes.
The House has passed 316 bills.
That's a record pace.
Now, 260 of them are still in the Senate.
The Senate's busy working on judges and appointees and the rest.
But the House has been extremely productive.
Not just extremely productive.
The House has been more productive than any Congress in the modern era.
What's your response to that, Jim Jordan?
By the way, Dave Brad is with us now, too, from Virginia.
What about the key elements of the campaign, Sean?
What about controlling spending?
What about tax reform?
What about the border security wall that was a central element of this campaign?
What about health care repeal?
So while we might have passed a lot of bills, they weren't the centerpieces of what the campaign in the election on November 8th was all about.
And you're exactly right.
We took the longest break.
Back nine weeks ago, the Freedom Caucus had a press.
We said, do not leave.
Do not leave until we have an outline of the tax plan, until we deal with Obamacare, until we have a plan on the debt ceiling.
And instead, we took the longest break we've had in over a decade for a non-election year.
In fact, the break we just got back from was longer than some breaks we have taken during election years.
And you know how politicians like to be back home during election time?
This six weeks was longer than some of those.
So that was the problem.
We should have been here like we called for in the Freedom Caucus.
Stay here and get plans put together so that we can take the case of the American people and actually do what we said.
You know, Congressman Brad, I'm looking at this as a 14-week window that the Republicans have to actually get some things done.
And, you know, I don't know why anybody was floating the idea of a 25% corporate tax.
That is not what the president was talking about when he was talking about 15%, seven brackets to three, a middle-class tax cut, repatriation of multinational corporations, getting rid of things like the double tax death tax and other improvements, and turning, I guess, the tax system into a postcard so that people don't have to agonize over paying their taxes every year.
Yeah, no, you hit it on the head.
And I'll get at the leadership question a little bit because leadership promised in the Better Wave program a repeal of Obamacare, right?
And we also promised free market outcomes, price transparency, HSA, health savings accounts, all these free markets, shopping across state lines.
And what do we end up with?
None of that in the bill.
And so that's water under the bruds, under the bridge.
We'll just consider that a sunk cost.
But now taxes is up, and it's everything you just outlined, right?
So that's the hope.
And everybody is assuming that, but we have nothing on paper.
And I think Jim was just alluding to that, too.
So the Freedom Caucus, we're asking, we're going to vote on a budget reconciliation instructions coming up called a budget resolution.
That will contain no real budget going forward.
The appropriations bills are already done.
But it'll include the tax instructions.
And we're going to take a vote on that.
And we haven't seen it yet.
So I remember, Sean, how frustrated you were last time.
It's like, I'm going to put all you guys in a room until you get to yes, right?
So you ought to sound out the alarm right now again.
Put us all in a room right now, today, and say, let's see that tax plan, because we got to make sure the forgotten man, right?
That wasn't just a Trump phenomenon.
That was Bernie all the way through Trump.
The forgotten man, they know they've been getting ripped off.
We know we're going to get a corporate rate, but the S-Corp, the small business, we've got to make sure that's in there.
And then the repatriation, just all the stuff we assume is going to end up in a Republican bill if it's there.
Listen, we can all be on the same team.
I've got to be honest.
You guys, who are the only people that I really have any faith, hope, and confidence in in Washington.
And I'm so frustrated.
I can't even explain.
And as is my audience, because it should be about those very people that made the difference in this election.
And that's the forgotten men and women.
I mean, you guys in Congress are fine.
I'm fine.
But there was a point in my life where I was anything but fine.
And so I totally relate to where they are.
And I know these problems are infinitely solvable if only these conservative principles would be followed.
And the thing that frustrates, where is the identity?
What does this party stand for?
The president has outlined a Reagan-esque, this is Reagan all over again, tax plan for this economy.
And you add to that the millions of career jobs in energy if we become energy independent and commit to it.
And I just, for the life of me, you know, here it is, September, and they're not ready again.
How can they not be ready again?
It's frustrating.
You're exactly right.
What's the corporate rate going to be?
No one can say right now.
So we need those.
You just need the outline of a plan.
Introduce the bill.
Let's have the debate like we're supposed to, and then we'll get something done.
That's the frustrating part.
I think we could have got there on a lot of these issues if we'd have stayed here and put the plans together.
Unfortunately, we didn't.
All right.
So, well, I guess we're back to the drawing board.
Now we've got to start again.
So, you know, from my perspective, I think the only reason the president gave a three-month extension on the debt ceiling is he wanted to get the money over to the people in Texas because those people are desperate.
You don't have time to mess around when everybody's life has been upturned like this.
I mean, those people need the money fast, Congressman Brad.
Yeah, no, I agree with you.
But Mnuchin came over, Secretary of Treasury, and it was intellectually insulting the way it was sold to us.
His representation was we have to do this to save the treasuries.
And then some of the people said, you got to do this for the folks in Texas.
It was 100% vote.
There was no question on any of this, right?
We're going to raise the debt ceiling, and we're going to take care of the people in Texas.
It would have been a 100% unanimous vote, but you got to add one phrase.
And we're going to take care of fiscal concerns going out in the future so we don't throw the next generation under the bus.
And that was missing, right?
So we got jammed.
They linked the debts clean debt ceiling increase to the Harvey relief.
And that's unacceptable, right?
That makes it very hard for us to communicate with the American people as to what's really going on.
And that's the swamp in control, right?
The money.
And so on net, we're not worse off, right?
It's a three-month.
Listen, if they can't do 15%, can they do 16, 17 max?
You know, 25% is, you know, it's like they don't want to stand for anything.
Here's my gut instincts, and I'll throw it to you, Congressman Bratt, first.
I think the following needs to get done.
If you guys want to get re-elected, I'm not talking, listen, I'll go to bat for every Freedom Caucus member because you are the guys that the only guys that are fighting for conservative principles.
But if you don't get done this tax plan, this economic plan that will create jobs and invest the trillions from multinationals, corporations, lower the middle class cut, make the tax code easier.
If you don't move towards getting those energy jobs, there are millions of them, and you don't build at least 300 miles of the wall and begin to chip away at Obamacare, you guys, you know, all bets are off.
And watch Nancy Pelosi have a chance to become speaker again.
Good luck with that.
Yeah, no, that's right.
And so sound the alarm because Obamacare is not dead.
And Jim Jordan is the good leading in Mark Meadows on that.
That's a trillion dollars we need to do tax reform and get that right that we're missing.
The border adjustable is a trillion.
Immediate expensing is a trillion and a half.
All right, stay right there.
I want to ask you about the border when we get back.
All right, as we continue, Freedom Caucus members, Jim Jordan and Dave Bratt.
Thanks to both of you for being with us.
All right, so let's talk about DACA, the president's decision.
First of all, I know that some of my conservative brethren were mad about it, but I'm like, well, the president said he followed the rule of law, respect the Constitution, co-equal branches of government.
Obama recognized and then did it anyway that he didn't have the authority, the constitutional authority to usurp the role of the legislative branch.
And I thought the president's saying, okay, it's up to you guys.
If you want to change the law, I'll give you six more months.
I thought it was actually pretty gregarious on his part, and it's up to Congress to make the laws, not up to the president.
No, son, exactly right.
Obama knew his executive order was unconstitutional.
He said several times prior to making his executive order that it was unconstitutional, but he did it anyway, and he did it in 2012 in the spring of that year because it was a re-election campaign year, and he thought it would help him.
So what the president has done says, let's get back to the Constitution, let's get back to the rule of law, and let's give six months timeframe, a little wind-down timeframe for Congress to get this done right.
And I think what will happen is this will be the catalyst to get what we all campaigned on, what the American people elected President Trump to do, which is build the border security wall, like you said.
And what do you think, Dave Bratt?
Do you think that if my list would be good enough to say, okay, we're getting our promises, we made promises, promises made, promises kept.
If you got the economic plan in place, the tax cuts in place, repatriation in place, energy independence in place, and 300 miles of the wall built and maybe chipping away at Obamacare, is that enough to get us into 2018?
Yeah, no, that's the great agenda.
And on DACA, right, DACA and immigration is all about jobs, and that's what Trump ran on, right?
So we got welfare reform.
We got to get through.
We got to improve the labor markets.
And then if the left is serious on this DACA and immigration, first of all, you got to do E-Verify, and then you got to end chain migration because the mainstream media is saying 800,000 dreamers, et cetera.
And America has always been a country of immigrants.
We love everybody.
But it's not 800,000.
When you link it to chain migration, every one of those people can invite their entire extended family, not just mom and dad.
So it's $3 to $4 million.
You know what I'm going to do?
I'm going to come down there, and I'm going to put the Freedom Caucus in a room, and we're going to start kicking ass down there because I'm tired of the inaction.
Oh, I'm not kidding.
I'm so tired of the lack of urgency and how pathetic the Republican Party is.
Your party sucks.
I'm just telling you, your party is awful.
You and millions of Americans are frustrated, son.
That's why it's time to get to work and get this stuff done.
Well, my producers looking at me like, well, you know, there are members of that party.
I'm not saying I am making, I'm carving out an exception for the Freedom Caucus.
And I'm not being flippant here.
This is not hyperbole.
Get your job done.
You know, everybody else in America rolls up their sleeves every day.
In Ohio and Virginia, we all go to work every day.
There's not one person that works for me that has a lunch hour.
I'm so tired of this.
They come back from a month-long vacation and they're not prepared for the debt ceiling.
Yep, and one thing, Sean, you do a great job on those lists.
And when you say the party sucks, we ought to be held to an objective standard, and that's the party platform.
In Virginia, we have the Virginia Republican Creed.
We have all these documents that make our principles very clear, right?
And then for some reason, we can never execute on those principles.
When it says constitutional, free market, fiscal responsibility, that's on paper.
So the people ought to hold us up to that standard.
The idea that Chuck Schumer and Pelosi want to get rid of the debt ceiling altogether.
They're taught, right?
It shows you everything you need to know about the two parties.
Ours is better, but we have to follow our own creed.
All right, guys.
Thank you both for counting on you.
We'll probably be coming into town next week or the week after.
Look forward to seeing all of you.
Hope you'll come on the show.
And I just think this is it.
We now, I feel if we don't get involved and get very angry and get adamant about demanding they do their job, I just think they'll just coast along and not do a thing.
We shouldn't have to get angry after you made promises.
Do your job, but we'll remind you and we'll put as much pressure as we need to put on you to do it.
We'll continue.
Gold-inspired solutions for America.
This is the Sean Hannity Show.
If you leave, if you live in an evacuation zone in these counties, have been ordered to evacuate Lee, Hendry, Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, or Collier County.
You must evacuate by midnight tonight or find shelter to avoid life-threatening impacts.
If you're in this area and are planning to leave and have not done so by midnight, do not get on the road.
It will not be safe for you or the law enforcement needed to protect you.
Again, if you're planning, if you're in these areas, those counties, if you're planning to leave and do not leave by midnight tonight, you will have to ride out this extremely dangerous storm at your own risk.
School buses are aiding in evacuations.
Please take advantage of this service.
I am a father and a grandfather.
I love my family.
I can't imagine life without them.
Do not put yourself or your family in harm's way.
If you've been ordered to evacuate and are still home, please go to a shelter.
I encourage everyone to check on your neighbors.
If you know somebody in your neighborhood who is not evacuating and should please contact them.
Today is the day to do the right thing for your family and get to safety.
This storm is wider than our entire state.
Think about that.
It's wider than our entire state and is expected to cause major and life-threatening impacts from coast to coast.
Remember, Hurricane Andrew was one of the worst storms in the history of our state.
Irma is more devastating on its current path.
We are being very aggressive in our preparation for this storm, and every Floridian should take this seriously and be aggressive to protect your family.
Possessions can be replaced.
I think about my mom and how hard it would have been for her to be completely broke and have kids and have to evacuate.
But you have to do it.
You can't afford not to do it.
Think about your family.
You have to keep your family safe.
Evacuations are not convenient.
They're meant to keep you safe.
We want all evacuations to be safe.
I'm glad so many people are driving to safe places.
All right, that's the governor of the great state of Florida, Rick Scott.
And, you know, you've got to give kudos and props because this storm is beyond devastating.
And it is, when you read some of the things we've been reading, the greatest evacuation in history, 650,000 Floridians have been ordered to leave their homes.
You've got the FEMA chief, Miami Beach Mayor warning: get out now.
This was yesterday.
This is devastating, a nuclear hurricane.
Literally, you have the federal government, they have four Navy ships on standby.
They have all the materials at different stations prepared to go in.
In other words, they pre-ordered and delivered all the resources they anticipate that our friends in Florida are going to be needing.
We're told that, you know, traffic has been a nightmare.
Everybody knew that was happening.
Now for two days, it's been a nightmare.
And then you've got empty shelves in some places, but because the governor was so proactive and jumped on this, gasoline, which had been in shortage and some of the empty shelves, are now being restocked as he kept the ports open in Florida up until and including today.
And some of the bottlenecks, I know it's driving everybody crazy, but we don't want to lose any lives down in Florida because this has the potential of affecting now every single major city in this state.
And then it's going to move right through Georgia and Savannah and Atlanta and up to the Carolinas.
So, you know, this is going to be a long haul here for a lot of people, and it might be more damage than any storm we've seen in history.
This, of course, on the heels of everything that happened down in Texas, but this is a powerhouse.
This is dangerous.
And even Georgia, South Carolina will be facing this catastrophic storm.
Joining us now to discuss the latest on this, 23 now until the top of the hour, we have Pam Bondi is the Florida Attorney General, Joe Bistarti, back with us, Weatherbell.com.
He's been fantastic for us all week.
Pam, we'll start with you.
I've seen you all over the airwaves yourself.
I've got to give you and the Florida government, the governor, a lot of props here.
I mean, this is the biggest evacuation we've ever seen, but you had plenty of time.
And I think lifting the rules and regulations to get gasoline in and more supplies in, how has that worked out?
From what I have heard, there's an app available for people that need gas and supplies.
Yeah, Sean, there is an app, and thank you.
And I can tell you, I want to thank Scott Pruitt with the EPA as well, because we called General Pruitt, General Pruitt, he used to be my counterpart.
We called Secretary Pruitt.
And the EPA lifted the Clean Air Act standards on gas, where we can have blended fuel now for another additional 20 days to help us drive the prices of fuel down, which is going to help our state tremendously.
I cannot thank him enough.
Of course, the airlines are regulated by the federal government, the FAA, but I can't thank all the airlines enough.
They have been incredible corporate partners.
I have them on speed dial: American, Delta, United, and JetBlue.
They have capped.
I heard JetBlue was only charging $99 to get anybody out of Florida in harm's way.
Is that true?
Absolutely.
They've waived pet fees.
These are all the airlines that have done this.
$99 every airline?
No, no.
JetBlue 99.
American capped all their fees.
American at $99 out of Florida everywhere.
Delta capped theirs at $399 anywhere in the country.
And that's the CAC, the highest it can go.
United's done well.
All the airlines I've mentioned have waived.
Well, I got to give props to JetBlue.
I mean, they're always the first.
I love those guys.
I love the first people to put TVs in airlines, and that makes me happy.
I know that.
They're great.
They're great.
Yeah.
You gave a bit of an admonition about any companies who might be manipulating what's going on down in Florida, any price gouging issues when people are in need, which is a pretty crappy thing to do.
Have you seen much of this?
I sure have.
And you know what, Sean?
I'm going to say their name every chance I get if they continue to do it.
One you initially heard me go after was Chevron.
But you know, you have a lot of franchise owners in South Florida, and there was one particular who was very bad.
Chevron Corporate reached out to me, and they could not have been any better.
They're threatening to pull these licenses away.
And I have Chevron on Speed Dial now.
They have been incredible.
They really, really have.
We've been having a problem with 7-Eleven stores.
They're based in, I think, Florida and the Southeast United States.
7-Eleven Corporate, just about an hour ago, reached out to me, and they are all over it.
You know, Sean, when we're in a state of crisis, there's no reason to drive up the price of bottled water.
That's ridiculous.
How much were they charging in some of the worst instances?
$30,000, $40 a case, some $50.
That's all of them.
$7-Eleven was about $30 a case, but of course, it should have been about $3.
Home Depot reached out to me.
Home Depot is charging $2.97 a case of water.
Home Depot Corporate called me and said, What do you need in Florida?
We said plywood.
They had 20 trucks on the way.
Sean, listen to this.
335,000 pieces of plywood had been sold in Florida two days ago, so that shows Floridians are listening.
That's really an awesome story.
You know, we see always in tragedies.
I could tell you right now, Pammy, Pam, you're going to see the best in the American people.
We're watching what's happening.
We're praying for our friends down in Florida.
You know, it's my second home.
I'd love it to be my first home, but it isn't.
But I know what's happening down there, and all of us are watching, and whatever the needs are, just like, you know, we partnered on this program with Samaritan's Purse for the people in Texas, and we'll do the same thing.
I'm sure I'm going to give Franklin Graham a call again and have him on the program.
And I know the American people will do their best to help our friends and neighbors in the Sunshine State.
That's the right thing to do.
The federal government, how has it been with the president?
Have you talked to him?
I know Governor Scott has talked to him a lot.
The president called me a couple weeks ago.
We talked for over an hour.
I was in his office a couple days ago.
I was sitting in this office with General Kelly.
Of course, you know, I adore the man.
I was with the President General Kelly at great length talking about the hurricane, talking about the opioid crisis.
And I cannot give enough credit to Kellyanne Conway as well on the opioid crisis.
We've been all working on that together.
Yeah, I was just with him in D.C.
I obviously came home early due to the hurricane.
And I can't thank the federal government enough.
And, you know, Sean, the DOD 1033 that the president did is going to help save our law enforcement officers' lives.
I cannot understate the value.
I can't overstate the value of that enough, what he's done with that.
And if your listeners don't know what that is, you can explain it to them or I can.
Two days ago, a buddy of mine, Carmine, who lives in Naples, now Naples is in a direct path of this thing, just like Miami and just like the southeastern part of Florida.
This now has moved west, and we'll bring Joe Bistarti in here.
I literally tweeted out this picture.
They literally have gone all over town and they picked up every person that needs help, every homeless person.
They brought him to safe harbor and shelter.
And, you know, you can see an image of it.
Wink TV out in Fort Myers put a great story on about my buddy Carmine, and I put it up there.
Joe Bistarti, you have the Attorney General of Florida on here.
Tell her how bad this is going to be because it's going to engulf the whole state and when it's going to happen.
Well, Florida, of course, is legendary for hurricanes.
And not so much over the past 20, 30 years, but before that.
And this may be as bad as we've ever seen the state hit.
The Florida Keys, this could rival the 1935 hurricane in the Florida Keys, which is the worst one on record over there.
And we're also very, very concerned about this being as bad as Donna was back in 1960 in the southwest part of the state.
So this is a very, very dire situation that we're looking at.
And I want to compliment what happened in Florida also.
I've been down there the past couple of days, and I was amazed this morning.
I'm driving north now.
The gas lines were gone this morning, and they did a tremendous job at resupplying things.
And so I did want to pass that on to the Attorney General that was.
We've got to give credit to Pam and Governor Rick Scott and all the adjoining states that lifted their regulations from the get-go when Governor Scott asked them to get some gasoline and lift the burdens on trucks and the process that could be very burdensome.
And they got the gas and they're able to get these people back on the road.
And the same with supplies.
I want to make sure that we understand what's going on here with the weather with this storm.
I mean, I'm not the expert on evacuating people and things like that.
This storm is going to be slowing down and being very close to Cuba for a while tomorrow.
It may delay the onset maybe six, eight hours, but it's coming across the Florida Straits later tomorrow and tomorrow night.
And the atmosphere is absolutely loaded for intensification.
Unlike Katrina and Rita that weakened coming to the coast over the last 12 to 18 hours of their journeys, this one is likely to intensify all the way until landfall.
And that means that when this comes across the Florida Keys, it may be as strong or stronger than it was when it impacted Barbuda.
And I'm very, very concerned that we're going to see some of those bridges wiped out of the keys.
And when it gets to Marco Island, Bonita Springs, and these places, this is probably a benchmark hurricane.
Now, that does not mean that you let up on the East Coast.
Even though the direct hit is not going to be in Miami and on the East Coast, it's still going to be a very bad storm.
Where's the direct hit?
Where do you see the direct hit?
I think it's going to be, I'm becoming more and more convinced around Naples, Bonita Springs, after crossing the Keys.
And I'm working on the situation.
We were alluding to this yesterday.
Pam, we've told everybody that needs to evacuate, right?
And people are doing it.
Pam Bondi?
We have.
Sean, we have.
I lost you for a minute because I'm in the middle of a downpour.
Sean, we have.
And I'll tell you what, Floridians are actually listening.
They're doing great.
Governor Scott's been doing a great job.
We've all been educating the best we can to everyone.
And people are evacuating.
They're heeding our warnings.
They're getting out of town now before it actually becomes the truest of an emergency, which it already is, but our roadways are safe.
It's safe to drive out now.
Our airports are all closing.
Tampa International Airport's probably closed by now.
It was closing today.
But people need to get in their cars, get fuel.
If you don't need a full tank of gas to get where you're going, don't use it.
Take as much as you need and leave the rest for other people.
That's something very important.
All right, Pam, stay right there.
You can stay a couple of more minutes, and we'll have more with JoeBistartiWeatherbell.com.
You can check it out all weekend with the latest.
He was the most accurate in Texas, and sadly, for what's coming to Florida, the most accurate here.
But we use this information to stay safe.
Thoughts and prayers, by the way, to all our friends down in the Sunshine State.
We're going to be watching, and we'll be here available to help.
I can promise you that this country will not let you down.
I went long last segment.
All right, final word, Pam Bondi, Attorney General of the great state of Florida.
And Pam, I know I speak for everybody.
Your state, our friends in Florida, your thoughts and prayers are with us.
We urge everybody to please pay attention, take this seriously, and be safe.
Thank you, Sean, and look out for your fellow Floridians.
That's what we keep telling everybody as well.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you so much.
And we'll check in with you on Monday.
And, Joe, we're going to have you back in the final hour of the program today.
Your final word here as we head to a break.
Well, we believe this system will be near the north coast of Cuba for a while tomorrow, but when it starts coming across the Florida Straits, that's when it means business.
And I believe that it's going to be intensifying until landfall.
And the landfall comes across the Florida Keys very late Saturday night and the Sunday morning.
And then it looks like that Marco Island, Naples area may be where this hits directly.
Entire state of Florida is going to get a hurricane, and much of the state a major hurricane.
All right, really scary.
I hope people are paying attention.
Joe, we'll have you back at the bottom of the next hour.
Thank you for being with us.
800-941-Sean is our toll-free telephone number.
You want to be a part of this extravaganza.
A lot more to come.
We've got a busy edition here on the Sean Hannity show as we'll check in with Pap Buchanan at the top of the hour.
Quick break, right back, the latest on Hurricane Irma and your calls.
800-941-Sean.
We've actually passed more bills in the House for the President and his agenda in this first six months of his administration than in the first six months of Obama, Clinton, and both bushes.
The House has passed 316 bills.
It's a record pace.
Now, 260 of them are still in the Senate.
The Senate's busy working on judges and appointees and the rest.
But the House has been extremely productive, not just extremely productive.
The House has been more productive than any Congress in the modern era.
The reason I think that the storyline is that we haven't done much is because, in part, the President and others have set these early timelines about things need to be done by a certain point.
Now, our new president has, of course, not been in this line of work before.
And I think had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the Democratic process.
And so, part of the reason I think people feel like we're underperforming is because too many kind of artificial deadlines, unrelated to the reality and the complexity of legislating, may not have been fully understood.
And of course, our political adversaries would be love to say that anytime.
So, what I'm asking of you is to judge this Congress when it finishes.
How much have we done?
You're fired.
All right, you're fired.
Anyway, glad you're with us.
News Roundup Information Overload Hour on this Friday.
We have more on Hurricane Irma and your calls coming up at the bottom of this half hour.
There you hear Mitch McConnell.
The expectations are so burdensome and out of whack.
I mean, you know, we've only been promising for seven years, and nobody, the president obviously doesn't understand the happenings of Congress and the way the parliamentary procedures and how complicated they ever so are.
And nor does he understand our work schedule.
We only work about maybe 30% of the time because we have many vacations.
And on the vacations and junkets that you pay for, we're very, very busy working in the pool.
We're busy working, smoking cigars and branding, coming up with the world's answers so that one day we might actually pass a bill.
And then, of course, when we're in session, there's the Senate dining room, the Senate workout room, the Senate barbershop, all paid for by the little people, not by us.
But expectations are out of whack.
How is it that we ever expect that we're going to get something done after promising eight years?
We need at least eight years to work out the eight-year promise.
Most productive Congress ever?
I don't think so.
Pap Buchanan is with us.
You ever meet a more pathetic bunch of people than the people that are in the House of Representatives?
Well, I think they have certain expectations.
Yeah, what are they?
What people are going to sit still for?
They seem to be out of whack, Sean.
Well, they really are.
I mean, it's just so bad.
Look, I just had Dave Brad on, and I had Jim Jordan on.
I happen to be a fan of the Freedom Caucus.
These guys roll up their sleeves.
They themselves save health care in the House.
And it wasn't ideal, but it was actually workable.
It was the beginning of chipping away at Obamacare.
But, you know, Pat Buchanan, they didn't even have a debt ceiling bill, and they were off for nearly the whole month of August.
And they come back and they had no clue how to deal with the debt ceiling.
So the president needs to get money to Texas, and he made a deal with Schumer and Pelosi.
I don't blame him.
I don't blame him in the least.
I mean, he's a very much a can-do guy.
He's a guy that gets buildings done on time and even ahead of time.
Comes down to Washington, and they got the major piece of legislation, you know, dealing with Obamacare, which Republicans promised to do in three straight elections, and they don't know how to do it, and they didn't do it.
I mean, I understand Mitch's problem with McCain and Murkowski and Susan Collins.
But I'll tell you, Sean, the way Mitch talks, you really wonder whether the Congress of the United States that presently constituted in this 21st century in a time of cable and internet and all the rest of it, you know, it's talking about doing a taking two years to do a single piece of legislation, and that's the way we work up here.
The question is the relevance of Congress to the modern era.
It's not simply the Republican Party.
In the intermediate term, in December, look, if they don't give Trump something on infrastructure or on tax reform or on immigration, on DACA and the rest of it, he's going to go work with Schumer and Pelosi because he wants to get, he wants a record as president.
He wants to work with Republicans to produce it.
But if they're not going to produce it from their end, he's going to go find somebody that will.
Well, it's that.
And when are they going to get anything done?
Now, look, Pat, they've got 14 weeks till Christmas, and they've got a pretty big agenda.
Now, instead of going with a 15% corporate tax and the president's plan, I happen to think it's Reagan-esque.
Seven brackets to three, 15% corporate tax, middle-class tax cut, repatriation, multinationals to incentivize them to bring trillions of dollars back to this country to build factories, manufacturing centers.
Then, of course, energy independence.
Then the president gets rid of burdensome regulation to allow these businesses to flourish without government breathing down their neck every five seconds.
A perfect business environment coupled with energy independence.
We'd be golden in the economy.
Sean, I would certainly go along with that.
I might have different things if I were down there.
But if I were a Republican, I'd say, let's work it all out.
Let's get something done we can agree on.
We're not all going to be happy with everything.
And let's get our tax bill down to the president of the United States and have him sign it.
Now, of course, the point is, if the Republicans can't do that by December 1st or something, then I can't blame Trump for saying, look, we need a corporate tax cut.
Maybe we need to gear this thing to the working class.
And maybe we need to raise a little bit on the super rich to make the Democrats happy.
And if I have to do that, I will.
But the point you're making, and I am too, is Republicans have to get together and put together a tax bill through both houses consistent with their principles, policies, and beliefs and get it on the president's desk.
If he don't, he's going to find another way and other people to work with.
Well, then they're going to get to the point where I think the American people will walk away from the Republican Party and say, we've given you everything and you didn't keep any promises.
You know, they seem to be lacking any identity.
Pat, you've been a Republican your whole life.
I've been a registered conservative for a good many years now with one little switch back to the Republican Party for a primary.
But I've been mostly a registered conservative.
In New York, you can do that.
And I don't recognize this Republican Party.
I don't know what they stand for here.
Well, I have to say I was an apostate of the Republican Party back when I ran reform in 2000.
But let me say, and I came back into the Republican Party, but I do sort of understand the party, but it's time is passing the Republican Party by.
Time is passing the Congress by.
I mean, Mitch, I can understand what he's saying, but he's talking 1970s or something.
He's got to get the stuff done.
And, you know, it comes to a point where excuses don't work anymore.
And what Trump is saying is, fine, you can explain that to the folks when you go back home, but I'm going to get a deal done by ex-state.
And if you don't get me the bill, I'm going to go work with Pelosi and Schumer and get as much as I can because I believe in getting things done.
And I want a successful presidency.
And I want to do most of what I promised or as much of what I promised as I can.
Well, I like the president's agenda.
I think it's Reagan S. Is there anything in his agenda maybe short of trade?
And I know you agree with the president on trade, but anything short of the president's agenda that you could argue is not conservative.
No, I think he's got his agenda, as I see it, is populist conservative economic patriotism on trade.
You know, I think control the borders, I agree with those senators, cutting back on legal immigration, secure the borders, stop the illegal immigration, send the illegals back.
I agree with all this.
I would say stay out of these foreign wars.
But there's a general, and then the other side is sort of the older conservative that Trump defeated.
But many of the ideas, I mean, I like the ideas on Federalist Society, judges, and justices.
That's excellent.
I'm all for it.
So there's a lot of a huge amount we agree on, but you've got to start getting it done.
I mean, this is the problem.
This is the bare minimum.
This brand isn't working.
This is the bare minimum for me.
The bare minimum is the president's tax plan.
All right, if they have to go to 16% corporate tax to make the numbers work, 17%, I can live with it.
If it goes much higher, I really think they don't understand what conservatism means.
I agree.
Let me tell you.
Look, these corporations are, I mean, small business is the primary hire and people that employ people in the United States of America.
If it were up to me, I would take the small businesses, about 99% of them.
I would eliminate the corporate income tax on that.
And I go along with your larger corporations, 15% on that, repatriate those monies.
And, you know, I would take if Trump has to and he's got to cut a deal.
You know, I'm sorry.
It's the top one-tenth of 1% or whatever it is.
I would go along with Bannon's 42 or whatever it is to get the thing done if the Republicans won't do their end.
Well, that's the risk we're going to run.
I mean, I don't agree with Bannon one bit about, you know, listen, you give the middle class their tax cuts because they pay the burden of taxes anyway.
Corporations don't pay taxes.
They pass those funds on to the consumer.
So the consumer benefits that way.
But more importantly, you incentivize those corporations.
And the multinationals, they've got trillions.
They won't bring it back to the U.S. if the government's going to take 30%, 35%, 40%.
Let me tell you something else about the corporate tax.
You cut it down to 15%, and what's going to happen is a lot of these headquarters companies all abroad that move abroad, they're going to say 15% in the U.S. Let's move the headquarters there as long as we can make it long-term.
The lower the corporate tax, the more the incentive here, the more the incentive to produce here and everything.
And so that makes all the sense in the world.
You're right.
Reagan used to tell me, you know, corporations don't pay taxes.
People do.
The people pay the taxes.
They pass it on.
But I think the freest money in all of this are the multinationals because it's so much of it.
And people, if they don't understand the multinational corporations, they're in the business to make money, not throw it away.
So you let them in at 10% or less and incentivize them to build in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Missouri, Florida.
Any state that needs assistance, that needs economic growth, where you have millions looking for jobs.
Right, I would tell them, look, you can bring it all home, your three or five trillion, whatever you got over there, at 10%, but you've got to get it home within two years.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Invest it.
And by the way, they'll be happy.
You're going to get home in two years.
You can face Bernie Sanders.
Exactly.
You know, get the money in fast.
But the idea is you want them to bring the money here.
Look at what.
Remember when Ireland cut their corporate taxes to the lowest in the industrialized world?
By the way, our peeps did that, Pat.
I mean, you know, those are your people.
Of course, I'm joking.
You know what an Irish seven-course meal is, right?
You know what it is?
Six potatoes and what else?
No, a six-pack and a potato.
By the way, if I said that about anybody else but myself.
One good thing about the Irish is they make ethnic jokes about themselves.
That's it.
They're the only people I'll make ethnic jokes about.
And it's all true.
I mean, if you've ever been on Irish Wake, you know it's all true.
There's no lying about it.
All right, just kidding, of course.
800-941-Sean, a toll-free telephone number.
More with Pat in a minute.
As we continue, Patrick J. Buchanan is with us.
We'll get to your calls also coming up.
We have the latest also on Hurricane Irma now bearing down on Florida, all of South Florida and the entire state.
Every city is going to be hit and hit hard.
And we'll get an update from Joe Bastardi coming up later in the program.
Pat Buchanan, you know, noticed how the president did a really good job with Texas.
And the governor did a really good job.
And frankly, every local politician, with the exception of the Houston mayor, that said, everybody, don't listen to what you were told.
Now go back to your homes.
Forget him.
But everybody worked together.
Lives were saved.
Money's now being sent.
You know, frankly, a right purpose and role for the American government.
When our fellow neighbors are in need, we're going to help them out.
We've got to help them rebuild.
And the only thing they can pick on is Melania's shoes.
I know.
She had more spike teeth.
By the way, exhibit A that Trump did a great job.
You got to admire the media.
You really.
You really.
I don't admire them at all.
I'm sick of them.
I will say that they're so miserable and dreadful.
I mean, there are times, I mean, I thought Trump went down there.
And look, he's not a touchy-feely type, but he's down there clearly cheering these people up.
I'm Wikia.
We're going to help you out.
You know, that's his style.
And so he didn't hug anybody.
He wasn't in Houston.
Yeah, no.
He didn't hug enough people.
He didn't hug anybody.
There's no empathy.
No, he just went down there giving out food, making sure everything's working, making sure that there's enough people on the ground for rescue, coordinating with the governor and local officials.
You know, many of these, I feel sorry for some of these journalists.
They really are.
They seem to be just unhappy and miserable.
The only thing that makes them happy is if Trump's in trouble.
No, well, I got to tell you, they're almost like drug addicts at this point because they wake up in the morning and they need their fix and they're addicted to the hatred of Trump.
And they can't go a day without expressing the hatred or a conspiracy.
And all of this is now beginning, I think, to boomerang back.
What do you think?
Well, I do think.
I think that, look, I mean, there's no question about it.
And I talked to a famous liberal journalist called, you know, talked to me off the record and everything.
He said, never seen this kind of brutality and bitterness and the attacks on Trump.
And there are no doubt they've damaged him to a degree.
But let me say this.
Real permanent damage has been done to the American media.
Far more than in the Agnew case, where it was an argument over whether they sharply disagreed with us or not.
And they were on the other side on Vietnam and Agnew and Nixon and everything.
Here, I think you've got permanent damage done to the media's credibility.
And they've gone so far and it's, I mean, look, I pick up the Washington post.
I've been reading it for my 60 years or something.
Some days you pick it up and everything in there.
Unbelievable.
It's not attacking Trump.
Yeah, I know.
And by the way, they call me occasionally for comment, and I'm like, why would I comment to fake news?
I honestly, and I think, you know, the fake news thing?
I mean, you know, Trump shoots, that sticks.
Everybody's picked that up, and it's not simply a phrase or a slur or something.
Many, many, many people believe they really just got to break.
Engineering and pushing a particular agenda.
They think we, the people, are stupid, and we made a mistake.
And they think they know better than all of us.
And they're so arrogant that that's their mindset.
All right, Pap Buchanan.
Always love having you, my friend.
Thank you.
800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program, we'll get an update coming up from our friend Joe Bustardi at Weatherbell.com and much more as the Sean Hannity show continues.
is broadcasting now on over 500 radio stations around the world.
And now, here's Sean.
All right, 25 now till the top of the hour, 800-941 Sean, our toll-free number.
You want to be a part of the program.
All right, as we've been telling you all day, it looks like a direct hit.
Key Largo, direct hit, Miami, Naples.
It has now taken a little bit more of a westerly turn.
I'm talking obviously about Hurricane Irma, and it is literally engulfing the entire state of Florida.
And it's become, I know a lot of our friends and neighbors down there a traffic nightmare.
And 500,000 people have been told to leave South Florida.
And the gas problem still remains.
Empty shelves everywhere, but they're resupplying even as we speak.
Mar-a-Lago, in fact, was evacuated, as I've been telling you today.
The governor has made some really good progress on the issue of getting fuel and telling people of Florida where they can get it, as he has coordinated now for two days to get other states to drop their regulations and just bring the gasoline in so people can continue their drive to safer territory.
But it now has the potential, Hurricane Irma, of affecting every major city in Florida.
And we're just warning all our friends in Florida, take heed to whatever warnings are coming your way.
This is the big one.
This is not a game.
The official meteorologist of the Sean Hannity show, we have Joe Bustarti, Weatherbell.com.
When did you first send me this note about Hurricane Irma?
It feels like such a distant memory now.
It was 10 days ago on a Tuesday.
It's unbelievable.
And there's another one following this, right?
Yeah, well, here's what's going to happen, Jose.
It's going to miss those islands.
It's a very powerful hurricane, really intensified very quickly.
It's going to miss those islands by about 100 miles to the northeast, so it's a glancing blow.
But a week from today, we may still be talking about Jose because I think it's going to get stuck between Bermuda, the Bahamas, and the United States and mill around there for several days.
It may actually be something that we have to watch.
But CATIA is going into Mexico in the Southern Gulf, the entire Pacific basin.
I don't think I've ever seen the Pacific Basin without a tropical cyclone on this day.
It's amazing.
The Pacific shut down completely, but all the action's in the Atlantic.
And of course, our main focus is on Irma.
All right, let me ask you, they're calling this now the greatest evacuation in history.
650,000 of our Floridian friends now have been ordered to leave Florida.
And the FEMA chief, Miami Beach Mayor, warning, get out of this now.
This is a devastation, a nuclear hurricane.
Is that hyperbole or is that accurate?
Well, it's just kind of interesting.
At the beginning of the week, when I was consulting with our brain trust at Weatherbell, I said, you know, I feel like I should say that, but I don't want to say it.
It's the equivalent of that type of situation.
However, we've got some breaking news here for you.
And I'm getting pretty confident that this turn to the north is going to occur the latter part of the cycle.
This will still be a very bad hurricane on the east coast, but it's now the Florida Keys and Southwest Florida.
I am extremely concerned that we are going to see benchmark hurricanes.
What's a benchmark hurricane as bad as it's been?
So we're talking Donna in Southwest Florida.
For those of you who live there, you understand worse than Charlie.
Charlie was very small compared to Donna.
And in the Florida Keys, I am, you know, I can't tell people to get out, but I heard there's 10 to 15,000 people still there.
And that is just not the right thing to do, in my opinion.
You may get cut off.
You may have some of those bridges washed out because this storm is going to cross the Florida Keys and could get as strong, theoretically, as the 1935 Labor Day hurricane, which I've told people go on and Google it so you can understand what that storm did.
Explain to everybody that maybe is in a car and driving and doesn't have the opportunity now to Google this what that means.
Well, what that means is that you're looking at a hurricane where, and I believe what will happen with this, Sean, is that tomorrow it's going to be messing around with northern Cuba.
It may even go into northern Cuba for a little while.
But when it comes out and starts crossing the strait, it's going to start intensifying again.
And I still believe it has not reached its strongest point by way of barometric pressure.
I think that is probably going to occur sometime late Saturday night and Sunday.
It is also going to be delayed a little bit in that the landfall is in the Florida Keys.
That's the first place, very late Saturday night, Sunday morning.
But then Marco Island and Bonita Springs and that southwest tip of Florida may take the direct hit during the day Sunday.
We're watching this very closely.
It is a fluid situation, but I'm becoming watching what's going on.
I think the turn is a little bit later rather than earlier, and that's what's going to lead to this.
If you're in any of the evacuation areas and you stay, are you risking your life?
Oh, I think so.
I would never stay there.
Even in my crazy days, I wouldn't stay there.
So I think that when you're talking storm surge, and what will happen is even if that storm's on the western side of Florida, Miami's still going to get 100 mile-an-hour wind gust, and probably the East Coast, most of the East Coast of Florida will get that.
And that's going to go for Disney World, too.
This thing is going to maintain a lot of power inland because it's so powerful coming ashore.
And the entire state, I don't think Pensacola is going to get it.
And Tallahassee is going to get it.
But that entire peninsula is going to be raked by a hurricane.
And the equivalent, when you get to Jacksonville, it'll be a category one or two type hurricane.
Miami may have a category two or three type hurricane.
And that southwest corner, this could be a category five hurricane, even when it hits in there.
Donna was a four.
So we're talking about the threat of the strongest hurricane that they've seen in that area.
So basically, my home in Naples is going to be maybe cat four or five.
It's not a home.
It's a condo.
My objective opinion right now is, yeah, that's on the table.
Listen, I'm not worried.
You know what I'm worried about?
I'm worried about my friends in Florida.
I'm worried about, I'm not there.
You know, as the governor kept saying, and the governor, I really think he's done such a good job, and I'm really proud of him.
And he's been on this since the minute that he found out about it.
And it's really good to see competent government governing sometimes.
So the bottom line is this.
So let's talk about the timeframe so people understand what and where and how the entire Gulf, how the entire state is going to be engulfed.
And we'll go up the eastern coast of the United States and talk about Georgia, Atlanta, and Savannah and the Carolinas.
But let's start with Miami.
Let's start with Southwest Florida, Southeast Florida, and work our way up the state.
And when are these people going to be in the most danger?
Well, I think Miami, the core of the storm is Sunday in Miami.
So as far as the timing goes, I think anytime during the morning or afternoon, because it's not like we're looking at an eye passage in Miami, the entire six to ten-hour period there, there could be Hurricane Force gusting, and maybe a period for a couple hours where winds are gusting 100 miles an hour around the Miami area.
As far as the Florida Keys go, they get cut off very late tomorrow night, and that continues well into the day on Sunday.
And we're talking where this is across the Florida Keys.
Again, I'm worried about these bridges getting washed out in there.
But I had the mayor of the Keys on yesterday, Joe, and he basically said the whole place has been evacuated.
Yeah, well, that's good.
That's good.
I was told today that there's still some people that are staying there.
So I don't know.
But if the mayor says everybody's out of there, that's the best thing in the world because I think when you come back, things are going to look, you may not be able to recognize what happens with the power of this hurricane.
The worst part of the hurricane comes in to Naples, Bonita Springs, Marco Island, that area Sunday afternoon into Sunday evening.
I think the landfall is sometime between noon and 4 p.m.
That's what I'm estimating in that general area.
And then the storm continues north-northeast.
It passes between Tampa and Orlando very late Sunday night and early Monday morning.
Now, this is interesting because the south side of Tampa Bay, and then when the storm goes by, the wind comes in out of the northwest.
That may lead to a lot of flooding around Tampa Bay.
They're not going to get the storm surge from the south.
But when the storm goes by, there may be water coming back in from the northwest.
And as far as the Orlando area goes, I would say they're going to see wind gusts 100, 120 miles an hour in the Orlando area, even that far inland.
So that's very late Sunday night into Monday.
And Monday afternoon, the storm reaches the area over Gainesville.
I think it's going to pass very close to Gainesville.
The center passes to the west of Jacksonville, and that's when they get it the worst in there.
That'd probably be the equivalent of the category one or two hurricane for those folks, and then it works its way into Georgia Monday night to Tuesday.
All right.
But the thing is, when does it get into Jacksonville?
You said Tuesday, Monday night?
Jacksonville, I think, is getting it during the day, Monday is when Jacksonville has its worst.
And then it works its way into Georgia Monday night and Tuesday, the core, the core of the storm.
Of course, it's a large storm, and things start, I mean, if you're going to start looking at timelines for when tropical storm winds and hurricane force winds occur, probably six hours before the center is when the hurricane force winds occur and 12 to 18 hours with the tropical storm force.
So there are going to be some places in South Florida that are going to be under a 48-hour duration of tropical storm force winds and theoretically anywhere from 12 to 18 hours of hurricane force winds.
All right, let me ask this.
Then it goes into Georgia.
And the way the cone looks right now, Joe Bastardi, is that it looks like it's hitting the entire state.
How bad is it going to be from Atlanta to Savannah and then northern Georgia and then into the Carolinas?
Well, it's spreading out and weakening.
And let's remember the cone is not the cone of influence of the hurricane.
It's the possible track.
In other words, what you're seeing is the uncertainty being analyzed over there.
But I think Atlanta may see winds 50, 60 miles an hour very late in the day, Monday, Monday night, on Tuesday for a while, and a lot of heavy rain.
But I don't think this is going to produce the rain amounts carbon date.
And this is going to get way, way inland.
Remember when we were talking about Harvey, I told you it was going to stop very close to the Gulf and keep pulling in moisture.
So this is going to produce flooding rains.
There's no question about that.
But it will be weakening and it will be cutting itself off from the source of moisture.
So the rain amounts should not be as prolific in Georgia and into the southeast, though still heavy.
All right.
We're going to see you on Hannity tonight.
When we come on the air tonight, where's this storm going to be?
Will Florida be seeing the beginnings of this?
Well, some of the outer bands may be starting to affect Florida by then, the southeast part of Florida, but the real core of the storm will be to the southeast of Andros at that time.
And hopefully, I'll have a better definition as to whether I'm absolutely sure on this track.
As we said yesterday, if it turned 50 to 60 miles further west, this would happen.
It looks to me like it's going to try to do that.
All right, Joe, you've been phenomenal for the audience all week.
You've been phenomenal over Texas.
Your accuracy has been pinpoint perfect, as usual.
You study the history of all of these events more than anybody else I know, and you're so generous in sharing your knowledge.
And, you know, I like when you're off just a little bit because then we can give you a hard time.
But, you know, what you're really doing here is helping people save their lives and even in some cases help save property because they can take some precautions.
Obviously, you can't protect everything, but you've been amazing.
We love you.
Thank you so much for doing this for us all week.
We really appreciate it.
All right, Joe Bastardi, you can follow him all weekend on weatherbell.com.
And I'll be honest, I don't know anybody in weather that has been as accurate or who has enough as much background and history as he does.
I mean, you know, we give him a hard time when he, well, the 1929 hurricane, but the reason we go back and look at the history is because the history shows a pattern, and there's actually path patterns of these particular storms.
And a lot of people that work in meteorology don't know any of this history.
So it gives us context and texture, and I think it gives him a level of accuracy in a science that we know is imperfect.
But, you know, thank God we now have the ability to find these storms and see where they're going before they ever happen.
And could you imagine?
You don't have any forecasting.
You don't have any satellite imaging.
And all of a sudden, you're living in Florida.
You're going along your married day on Saturday morning, and here comes a cat five, and you have no clue.
Well, that's what it was like for generations of people.
That's how hard it was for all of them.
Wait, can we just tell one quick story?
I wouldn't normally do this to you.
You're breaking in in the middle of my very impactful, you know, because we've advanced as human beings in society, we can now use information to save lives.
And science, although this is imperfect, gives us answers to problems.
And that's a very profound point.
My time, I can reclaim it.
I'm reclaiming my time.
Reclaiming my time.
Reclaiming my time.
Go ahead.
Reclaiming my time.
Reclaiming my time.
Go ahead.
Go ahead.
So funny.
Lauren.
Reclaiming my time.
Lauren found this article.
If only I made the money that Minutian had.
That this couple is married 75 years.
God bless them.
103 and 94.
Their names are Harvey and Irma.
Can you imagine?
I don't think anybody's associating them with Harvey and Irma the hurricane.
It's so true.
Roger.
They are.
That's why there's a news article about Harvey and Irma.
Thank you, Lauren.
Thank you, Lauren.
Can we tell the Lauren story yet, or is that still untouchable?
It's up to Lauren.
No?
100%, no?
Well, you want to say something nice about me?
Every time I say I'll abide by your wishes, I expect something nice to be said.
I love you.
You're the greatest person on the planet.
I'm the best boss ever.
That's a given.
Oh, see, I can't turn against that.
This is why I am.
You're re.
I'll never be able to succeed in this regard because I can't be that nice.
Oh, no.
We have a bet on whether or not Linda's hateless returns before.
I told you I retired.
You say you're a changed woman.
I am a changed woman.
Oh, good grief.
I bet it's before Christmas.
And I'm putting a lot of money on that.
And I think that's cash in the bank.
No.
And last reminder on this Friday, you, somebody you know needs a job.
Well, a job seeker never pays a fee at expresspros.com.
18,000 jobs available on any given day, 800 locations around the country.
That's expresspros.com.
All right, that's all the time we have.
Full live coverage tonight at 10.
It's all hurricane.
It will engulf all of Florida.
For all of you in Florida, you are in our thoughts and prayers.
We'll have the latest on the forecasting and how to stay safe tonight at 10.