On this "Best of Hannity" episode, Sean is joined by Congressman Duncan Hunter, NFL legend Herschel Walker, Congressman Mark Meadows and the legendary Charlie Daniels as they all share stories of the brave men and women who have sacrificed so much to protect our freedoms. The Sean Hannity Show is on 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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Bring my son home.
He is an outstanding young man that fought willingly for his country.
My son made the decision.
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And that's all I'm asking you for is a second chance for my son.
Thank you.
All right, 24 now till the top of the hour.
That was the mother of Clint Lawrence.
If you remember back in 2013, we have covered this story a lot, just like the Christian Saussier story.
Remember, Christian Saussier took six pictures inside a submarine, and lo and behold, he got a year in jail for mishandling classified materials.
Hillary, she got away with murder and obvious obstruction of justice on top of it.
She did the same thing on a much deeper level.
It's unbelievable.
We have a two-tier justice system in America.
Anyway, Clint Lawrence is literally convicted, this guy, of murder, sentenced to 20 years in prison.
He took over a platoon in Afghanistan in July of 2012.
And just prior to his arrival, there had been a number of people in this platoon killed by middle-aged men on motorcycles speeding towards their patrol.
That same MO happened again, and he had to make a decision.
Do I protect my men?
Do I defend my men?
I know what had happened just about two weeks earlier.
Anyway, the prosecution was claiming the Afghani men were innocent, civilians, but we now know there's new evidence that has emerged in this case that prove the so-called middle-aged men were biometrically linked to IED events and common grid coordinates and linked to other IED markers and linked with American paratroopers having been killed in action.
And the new information about Clint's case regarding the Army's 2012 hearing in August report in which the Army admits that the enemy was scouting Clint's platoon that day.
They never turned over that report.
This man needs a pardon.
Anyway, we have Memorial Day coming up and Congressman Duncan Hunter, who's been from the very get-go, you know, fighting hard on this case.
And still this poor man has not gotten the justice he deserves and he's innocent.
How are you, sir?
Sean, I'm doing great.
Thanks for having me.
And, you know, the big thing that strikes me about this, it kind of, I hate to draw comparisons with the Mueller investigation on Trump, but what it looks like, these military lawyers and DOJ lawyers, they're not looking for justice.
They don't care about justice.
They don't care about doing the right thing.
They care about convictions.
And they care about convictions, even if that means with the same thing.
That's not the military I know.
I mean, you know, I was talking to Marcus.
I was talking to Marcos Luttrell yesterday, and we were just texting back and forth.
And everybody knows Lone Survivor.
We've all seen the movie, and he was it, and that was real life for him.
And he lost, you know, these are brothers to him.
These guys, you know, they all have each other's back with all the evidence in this case that shows that the people that were charging at them were in fact people that could, you know, blow up individual members of their platoon.
How were we sitting in the comfort and peace of our towns and our cities in the United States?
How are we to make that decision when it's not our ass on the line at that minute?
Well, two things, Sean.
Number one, it's the military, but they're military lawyers.
These guys aren't infantry Marines or soldiers or artillery Marines or soldiers.
They're lawyers.
And they have the same goal as Department of Justice guys do, and that's to get convictions.
Number one.
Number two, what you said is exactly right.
You have the people that are sitting back here in their nice air-conditioned Pentagon, second-guessing what the men do on the ground overseas, treating them like cops, treating them like what.
I mean, cops shouldn't even be treated the way that Clint Lawrence does when the evidence came out that he, in fact, killed bad guys.
And there's a new piece of evidence, which hopefully will help us get this case reviewed again.
If the president won't simply pardon Clint, we just got a piece of evidence in the last week.
We uncovered this.
Clint's lawyer uncovered this.
They killed another guy after that incident, after they killed the bad guys on the motorcycles.
They continued their patrol looking for insurgent ambushes, which is what they were told to do.
And they killed another enemy.
No one ever told the lawyer that.
Nobody.
The court had no idea that they had killed another enemy combatant on a totally separate engagement after they had killed the guys on the motorcycle.
So you have things like this that the Army intentionally is keeping from the defense lawyer and from the jury.
You know, you see this stuff when the Army screws up, that they just want to cover it and cover it and cover it up.
So like Pat Tillman, Pat Tillman, the great football player, died from the fire.
The Army could not bring itself to admit that.
It took them years to finally come out and say, yeah, he was killed by friendly fire instead of just doing the right thing in the first place.
And I think the Army's stuck now because one thing you'll never see a military service do ever, even God bless the Marine Corps, you'll never see the service admit that they're wrong ever, period.
You know, and by the way, joining us now is Captain Roger Hill, author of Dog Company, a true story of American soldiers abandoned by their high command.
Well, it sounds like exactly what happened in the case of Clint Lawrence.
How are you, Roger?
How are you, Captain?
What's going on?
You doing all right?
I'm good, sir.
Awesome.
Thanks for having me on.
Yeah, so what a tragedy.
Clinton did exactly as he was told.
He was trained.
Actually, he was trained for the circumstances that he was confronted with, and he acted, and his platoon acted exactly as they were trained, and they're being punished for it.
Now, after the fact, we have found out that the guys that they actually came across and killed were bad guys.
My argument is this, though.
Even if we had found out that those guys that they killed were innocent, or we were unable to prove that they had ties to the enemy or ties to bombmakers in this case, because of the fog of war and the type of combat that we fight in, the type of fighting that I've seen, the type of fighting that Duncan Hunter has seen, we have to give the benefit of the doubt to our troops on the ground, regardless of how these situations end up, as opposed to the collateral that's created.
Captain Hill, in this particular case, that very same platoon, was it two weeks earlier, a week earlier?
This is just before Clinton Lawrence took over the platoon.
The very same MO happened.
They were attacked by these.
Well, yeah, go ahead.
That's why he was there.
This is Duncan again.
That's why Clinton was there is because the lieutenant was killed.
I mean, they had their platoon commander killed by military-age males on motorcycles.
So Clinton Lawrence comes here to relieve the lieutenant who was killed, and then he sees the exact same thing.
What would you do?
What would anybody in their right mind who's in a combat situation and sees the exact same scenario unfolding that killed his predecessor?
You're going to kill those sons of guns.
And he did the exact right thing.
How do we judge in the comfort of our homes?
I mean, it is outrageous that we literally are putting handcuffs.
And then, of course, these insane Obama rules of engagement.
I just want to make sure that this gets the attention it deserves.
Has anybody gotten this to President Trump yet?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Hey, Sean, this is Duncan again.
I mean, I've written him letters.
You've talked to him and told him this by name.
And that was fantastic of you to do.
You know, President Trump probably has a bunch of military lawyers whispering in his ear saying, oh, you can't overturn military justice, blah, blah, blah.
We're being faced right now with the same bureaucracy that has one of Trump's ears.
We need to get the other ear and make sure we make a better case and get Clinton out of jail.
I mean, it's that simple.
Listen, I brought it up in an interview.
I've got to ask him again because he did respond in the case of Christian Saussier.
You know, just to show that this is not an isolated incident, Captain Hill, you know, you wrote a whole book on the story about American soldiers being abandoned.
What happened in your case?
Well, we found out that we had spies operating on our base and then in and around a lot of our patrols.
In fact, one of those spies was my interpreter when we ran what would I call a sting operation.
Basically, we collected on these guys for a while, found incontrovertible evidence against them, turned that over to our higher command.
They refused to pick these spies up for one reason or another.
And when I was faced with the thought of releasing them, which was according to our protocol at that time, our rules of engagement at that time, or confronting them myself and trying to get whatever influenced out of them, I took matters into my own hands.
I interrogated them myself, scared them into talking, and almost ended up in prison for it.
And so in a lot of ways, the situation isn't awful.
So you get a confession out of spies that puts everybody's life at risk, and you get in trouble for that.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I was facing it.
Why would anybody listening to this who has maybe a young kid 17, 18, 20 years old wants to go in the military?
Why after listening to this would anyone want to go?
I mean, if you're willing to already put your life on the line, now you're being told that it happens repeatedly that the government's going to abandon you if you have to make a split-second decision to defend those brothers that you're out fighting with.
Yeah, absolutely.
All things considered, I don't know that I could tell my own children to consider the military.
I'm sure you feel the same way.
Well, I saw it.
Listen, I was very clear on the air.
Barack Obama's president, I don't want anybody I know, wait till there's a new president.
Now I have a much more open mind to it because I know Donald Trump, if he fights, he's going to fight to win it.
Yeah, but again, to Duncan's point, has he gone back and reconciled any of these past grievances?
I mean, to me, that would be a true testament to his character.
He has the power to do so.
Why hasn't he acted?
Well, I'm not making excuses for anybody, but I will say that he did in the case of Christian Saussure.
That should give us all hope.
Number one.
Number two, You see what this president has lived under for the last, you know, since he's become president and the attacks.
And yet he's still making tremendous progress for the country on the economic front foreign policy.
But I am convinced that if these facts are given to him, and yeah, there are a lot of lawyers around a president, which is a pain in everybody's neck, but I am convinced that if he got the facts of this case, that he would do the right thing.
Duncan.
Duncan again.
You know, we sent him the letter that explained all of these things with the new evidence that Clint's lawyers were.
But you know, he didn't get the letter.
You need to go in the White House in the Oval Office and tell him.
Put it in his hands.
Yeah, here's what we're going to do, though.
We're going to try to get the Army to look at this again and save themselves this embarrassment.
Because this has happened with, we've saved a number of guys.
Charles Martlin, the guy that beat up the child pedophile in Afghanistan.
Army tried to kick him out.
Matt Goldstein, silver star Green Beret that killed some bad guys that had killed Marines.
The Army tried to kick him out.
I probably have about 10 names that I've saved, kept him in the Army in all of these cases because the Army kept screwing up over and over.
So it'd be great to see the Army fix this because we don't want to have to depend on the personality of the President of the United States going forward with the systemic problem we have in the military while we're at war of bureaucrats and lawyers in the Pentagon deciding when guys go to jail because they're committing acts of valor and courage in combat.
Because that's what you have right now.
And it's a system problem.
It could be fixed by the president, but as soon as you have a different president that doesn't love the military as much, boom, we're right back where we were where you're having guys getting put in jail for doing their jobs.
This needs a system fix where the lawyers get out of the way and the combat-hardened military leaders get to make these decisions.
I couldn't agree more.
I do believe that this president needs to be briefed in person with the lawyers there.
So this way, you know, you don't leave the room and then the lawyers come in and say, no, no, no, no, no, you can't do that.
You know, that happens every day.
All right.
Thank you, Duncan Hunter, for what you do.
I'm out of time, Captain.
Captain, we got a roll.
Thank you.
Thank you, Duncan Hunter.
You have a group of investigators, and they say that I am not a target, and I'm not a target.
But you have a group of investigators that are all Democrats.
In some cases, they went to the Hillary Clinton celebration that turned out to be a funeral.
So you have all these investigators.
They're Democrats.
In all fairness, Bob Mueller worked for Obama for eight years.
You look at the statements that were made.
If you take a look, as an example, at the Rod Rosenstein letter to me prior to the firing of James Comey, just read it.
Put it in the air.
Your viewers don't know about it.
Put that letter on the air.
It very much speaks very loudly, and that's just one thing.
I can tell you, there have been people who have been making threats privately and publicly against me for quite some time.
And I think they should understand by now the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted.
We're going to do what's required by the rule of law.
And any kind of threats that anybody makes are not going to affect the way we do our job.
The Department of Justice has written him a letter and responded as appropriate to him.
The request he's made is one that the intelligence communities and Department of Justice feels is not grantable.
We've explained that we'd be willing to talk to him about it before, the details of which I couldn't discuss.
We continue to pill the onion back.
And I'll tell you what happened.
Two weeks ago, we sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a classified letter.
Per usual, it was ignored, not acknowledged, just completely ignored.
So last week we sent a subpoena, and then on Thursday we discovered that they are not going to comply with our subpoena.
So what are you going to do?
It's about very important information that we need.
So what are you going to do?
The only thing left that we can do is we have to move quickly to hold the Attorney General of the United States in contempt.
And that's what I'm going to press for this week.
All right.
I think the president laid out the best case for himself.
And Chairman Nunes saying, would he stay?
And Rod Rosenstein line, we're not going to be extorted.
Well, the problem is we have separation of powers in this country.
We have a constitution in this country.
We have co-equal branches of government in this country.
Congress has a duty to, as it relates to oversight on all of these issues, as the judge in the Manafort case said on Friday, you know, no one group of government has unfettered power.
So it comes into play here.
They have been slow walking.
They have been giving out phony redactions in the name of national security when it's proven otherwise, like in the case of, oh, James Comey didn't believe that General Flynn was lying.
All that has to do with national security.
No, it does not.
And the fact that now they have created a constitutional crisis in the sense that Congress now is tired of all of this, all of the excuse making, and how consequences well beyond contempt of Congress if the Department of Justice and FBI officials continue to withhold documents in defiance with congressional subpoenas.
Joining us now, he is at the forefront of all of this is Congressman Mark Meadows, is the chairman of the Freedom Caucus.
How are you, sir?
I'm doing well, Sean, and you're right.
It is interesting the amount of pushback that we're getting from the Department of Justice.
And if doing your job is extortion, then shame on them.
Well, let's go through, number one, what your authority, whether be it the House Intel Committee, be it Trey Gowdy's committee, be it Bob Goodlatt's committee, et cetera, et cetera.
You know, this is the role of Congress.
That is your constitutional duty.
We have checks and balances, separation of powers.
Where does the DOJ and FBI feel that they can defy congressional subpoenas like this?
Well, it's kind of like the mystery man behind the curtain.
They act like there's this whole air of superiority that, quite frankly, most Americans and your listeners don't adhere to.
I can tell you this, that when I've asked the Deputy Attorney General to share the statute, and I mean the law, the actual law that would allow him to keep these documents from Congress, he can't quote that.
So it's interesting.
He says, well, we're going to follow the rule of law.
Well, the rule of law says that Congress has the ability to conduct oversight.
And indeed, we are not only entitled to these documents, we are demanding them.
And if they're not willing to do it, we will hold them in contempt of Congress and take the appropriate action.
Okay, let's talk about what the appropriate action is.
I mean, after you issue a subpoena and after deadlines are passed and after redactions after redactions are handed in, and then it's found out later that the redactions are for to prevent embarrassment, not for national security, as they claim.
What is the next step?
Well, the next step, and you've heard it talked about some, Sean, would certainly look at removal from office.
And that's obviously our founding fathers gave us the ability to provide impeachment documents.
It is a privileged resolution on the floor, which means that any member of Congress can bring it, and it would require a vote within two legislative days.
And yet here we are talking about that.
That's not where I want to go.
That's not where the vast majority of people want to go.
All I want are the documents that we have requested to provide proper oversight.
But I can tell you that the fuse is very short.
Chairman Nunes has obviously suggested that we ought to hold the DOJ in contempt of Congress.
Those discussions are happening today and tomorrow.
But this is something that will play out in days, not weeks, because I think the American people, and quite frankly, I'm tired of the talk and rhetoric.
It's time that we actually get something done.
Okay, so let's go through the different options or the ways that Congress can stop the, you know, stop this deadlock that is with the DOJ and the FBI.
What is the best ⁇ you know, and by the way, and the Department of Justice is not helping.
At the end of the day, where is our Attorney General?
Well, that's the problem, and I think that that's the frustration is generally an Attorney General for an administration would be the one that would actually make these documents flow at a much greater rate and much easier to Congress.
And yet what we're seeing is that Jeff Sessions has recused himself as it relates to any matter with regards to the Russian investigation.
And even beyond that, Sean, here's the problem is that Rod Rosenstein appears to be running the Department of Justice to the exclusion of Jeff Sessions.
And so it is one area that we can do is we can certainly appeal from our committees.
You mentioned Trey Gowdy.
Chairman Gowdy and I can request documents from the executive branch.
And indeed, the president has the ability to override it with his national security team if it does not, well, he can override it for any reason, but they could override it very easily if it did not include national security measures that would be put at risk.
You know, I know that Chairman Nunes revealed on Sunday that he would hold the Department of Justice Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt.
The Attorney General recused himself, I understand, from things involving Hillary, but he's a former senator, and I believe maybe even a former congressman, if I'm not mistaken.
But he certainly, we know he served in the Senate for a long time.
I don't understand why he would be a part of any effort, why he's not demanding that Sessions hand it over.
So if he continues to do it, is this something that you feel that Congress is going to have to do, hold Sessions in contempt?
Well, I do believe that.
I can tell you, Sean, and no one really knows this, but I reached out to the Speaker of the House last night to suggest that we take that action expeditiously, certainly encouraging him to do that, but also to give him some of the evidence and facts.
I mean, the Department of Justice would like to put out this narrative that they're being so cooperative and that it's the conservative members of the House Freedom Caucus that are not being reasonable.
There's a body of evidence that we have, both written and in email form and in letter form, but also in phone calls that would suggest that not only have we made appropriate requests, but they have inappropriately not responded.
And so, listen, I'll say it right here with you.
If Rod Rosenstein or Jeff Sessions wants to come on your show at any time, I'll make myself available.
Jim Jordan can make his self available.
They can bring their talking points.
We will bring the facts, and we will have a debate on national TV and let the American people.
Rod Rosenstein, we never would have gotten the Nunes memo because up to the last minute, my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong, is Rod Rosenstein personally went to Paul Ryan's office, begging and pleading Ryan not to release the information that led to the public finally becoming aware about the FISA abuse issue on how Hillary Clinton and the DNC funneled money through a law firm, hired a foreign national,
put Russian lies in a dossier, and then never told the court, A, that it was unverified, uncorroborated, and that she paid for it.
We wouldn't have known any of that, and that it was the bulk, to quote the Grassley Graham memo, of information in the application to spy on the Trump Campaign Associate Carter page.
Well, you're spot on, and you're right.
They were objecting until the minute it was released, and it was going to harm national security.
And I can tell you, there was nothing in there that harmed national security.
Quite frankly, it was embarrassing, perhaps, to even some of those that were objecting to it.
And listen, the American people deserve the truth.
Your listeners deserve the truth.
And at this point, we're going to continue to put pressure from a congressional standpoint until those documents and the truth is revealed.
And I can tell you, the president has been consistent on this.
He says, let the facts lead where they may, and let's be transparent.
And by the way, that was one of the things that he told James Comey, some obstruction of justice.
Right.
Well, you're exactly right.
I mean, he said he had told James Comey, if there's something bad out there, we want you to investigate it.
It doesn't sound like obstruction of justice to me.
All right, let's talk about what is the overall overarching issue, which is an obvious witch hunt against the president of the United States.
Is there any evidence to date from any of the committees investigating, from anything we can see with the special counsel that involves Trump-Russia collusion?
Because the judge on Friday in the Manafort case was as brutal as any judge I've ever witnessed in my life, beating down this notion that Paul Manafort's tax issues as it relates to the Ukraine, not Russia, in 2005 and through seven have anything to do with this, but it's all to put the squeeze and the screws to Paul Manafort to see if he sings or if he composes, which would mean, you know, give him any,
make up anything to make this go away for him.
Well, it's interesting you say that because you're right.
The judge was very direct and indicated what a lot of us have believed is that they're using some of these tangential pieces of evidence or suspensions to really squeeze witnesses to try to go after the president.
And the judge was very articulate in that.
We'll have to see whether that position remains.
But I can tell you this, that when you start to look at the body of evidence and where they're going after this, there is no evidence of collusion to date.
Not even my Democrat colleagues who would love to see this president impeached and out of office, they can't even put forth evidence.
They just say, well, we need to study it longer.
We need to investigate it longer.
But to date, after a year and a half, they do not have any evidence that would suggest collusion on the part of the president.
All right, got to take a break.
We'll come back.
We'll have more with Congressman Mark Meadows from North Carolina, chairman of the Freedom Caucus.
We have an incredible Hannity tonight, 9 Eastern, on the Fox News channel.
You do not want to miss.
We'll go through this judge's ruling again at the top of the next hour.
The other news of the day as well as it relates to North Korea and a big decision on Iran coming this week.
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We'll continue.
And now I want to see that truck.
Show it to me, please.
That truck outside, the monster, specially painted for this.
Now, wait a minute.
When you say you're giving it away, how's this work?
What we're going to do is take you're going to take current veterans of the military, active members of the military, and first responders, and they can go on at Rocket Ridge Truck, RocketRidgeGive.com.
Register, RocketRidgeGive.com and register to win this truck.
And then in March, we're going to do a drawing.
We're going to have six members of a panel to decide who's going to win the truck.
So you register, you're a veteran or a first responder, you say who you are and what you did.
What you've done for America, what you've done for someone else, because you know, right now, first responders and also our military is now.
And that's judged.
Yes.
Show me the truck again before.
We've got to go to President Trump any moment now, but show me that truck again, please.
It's got an eagle on the side, I think.
Beautiful.
The man who painted it right there, Tex is with us.
Yes, Texas.
Hang on, because Tech was Dorman.
Is that an Eagle?
It is an Eagle.
That's good.
Yes, and that's hand-painted.
So that's not a rat.
That's hand-painted.
I want it.
All right, that was my friend Stuart Varney interviewing the great Herschel Walker who joins us in studio.
Former NFL player, obviously, the Vikings, the Eagles, the Giants.
Now, also a potential mixed martial artist.
Maybe he's going to jump in the octagon.
What they were talking about is nominate a hero to win a truck, and it's called the True American Hero Truck Giveaway.
This truck is amazing.
You can go to my website, Hannity.com, and take a look at it.
And also with us, because he actually partnered, Herschel Walker did, with Rocky Ridge Trucks.
They launched this giveaway contest that awarded this hand-painted.
It's absolutely stunning, beautiful, completely American-made, 2018 Chevrolet Silverado, $1,500.
It's worth $80,000 to a U.S. veteran, Brian Jason.
You got the truck?
Sure did.
Oh, man.
Beautiful.
And first of all, congratulations.
This truck is awesome.
And that's all hand-painted, all of that?
That's hand-painted.
And another thing that's going to happen is Brian is also getting like a, tell him about your turbo.
You're not just a turbo, he's going to get some horsepower to it.
You're getting some crank it up even more?
Seriously?
I got to give Herschel credit for that one.
I think he threw that at Burl last minute.
Well, Ambrole was in that.
He had to do it.
They gave me a truck to drive around, and they gave me one with a little bit of superchargers on it.
And I said, well, this one don't have it on it.
So I think they deserve to have a supercharge.
So they gave him a little bit more and put a supercharger on him because we want to go fast.
Listen, I want to go fast too, but you haven't gotten pulled over by the cops as much as I have, obviously.
Well, I have gotten pulled over, but I talked my way out of it this time.
Of course, you're Herschel Walker.
Well, you know, everyone said I look like Herschel Walker, but they don't think I'm him.
Yeah, I get that a lot.
Well, this is a really cool thing.
So obviously, there's a big story behind you and the nomination and your service to your country.
I want people to understand how you got nominated and how you ended up, because there's so many heroes.
I mean, we should be doing this like once a day for everybody.
And maybe there's a way to do it.
I always like to dream big.
But tell us about your life, your career, your service in the military.
Well, first of all, I want to say, you know, there was over, what, 5,000 heroes nominated.
And, you know, all of them are heroes to somebody.
So, you know, I just happened to be the fortunate one to get picked.
But, you know, why was I picked?
You know, I obviously served my country at a very high level.
My team did a lot of good things overseas.
Unfortunately, I can't go into detail on a whole heck of a lot of it.
But the judges must have saw something in the write-up.
You know, I'll never take credit for what me and my team did.
It was a team effort.
Who nominated you?
An old boss of mine, actually.
He was a boss.
His name's Randy, and I'm in Pittsburgh.
Thank God Randy nominated you.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
And the funny thing is, you know, he moved and took a job in Dallas, so I haven't really seen him in a few years.
And I get this phone call that I was actually blowing off because I thought it was a scam.
This is Herschel Walker.
Not from Herschel, not from Herschel.
It was from Rocky Ridge.
And I thought it was a scam.
And then eventually they called Randy and Randy called me.
And he said, you need to call these people back because I nominated you for something.
So I didn't even know there was an award out there.
Tell us the story, though.
Everybody, I mean, look, 5,000 people.
Your story is pretty amazing.
Well, you know, like you say, he can't go into a lot of details because of some of the things that he did.
But one of the things about his stories that really touched us a lot is he never worried about himself.
And that's one thing I think that a lot of people don't realize about these great responders and our military service veterans and our active members is it ain't about them.
And that's the way Brian has been.
It was never about him.
He was always about someone else.
And when he won, it was like he wanted it for his team rather than for him and his wife.
And it was for him.
And that's what touched me a lot is he said, you know, my team.
And you go, wow, man, that's big there because, you know, being an athlete, sometimes we get selfish.
We get selfish and assume we deserve this trophy and it's not a team thing.
And that's what I like about Brian.
And that's the reason he deserved it and the reason he won it.
That's a really great story.
And those are all the stories that you're not allowed to tell that everybody wants to hear, you know.
But if people, and I know too many people in the military, I know too many people in the intelligence community.
And I know the dangers they face every day.
I mean, this is life and death stuff that you face that we kind of take for granted because, you know, we go about our daily lives, and that's why you do it so we can be free to pursue our dreams.
You know, look at this incredible man next to us here, Herschel Walker.
What a career you've had.
And I love the fact that you're so active in giving back.
I also am amazed you've taken some strong positions.
You actually like Donald Trump.
Oh, I do.
I like Donald, and I will continue to support Donald.
And, you know, what's sad about this whole situation here, and I'm not calling that Democratic.
I'm going to call out anyone that's not respecting Donald Trump.
He's our president.
I was listening to the news earlier and someone made a statement that he's your president, but they were asking the guy that's running, I think, Secretary of State, he's your president.
No, he's your president as well.
Unless you don't like him, then you leave this country because he was voted in by a system we put in place.
And if you don't like the system, you got to change this system.
But Donald Trump is my president.
He's my leader, and we should follow him, you know, whether you like him or not.
But what's great about it, and because of people like Brian, we have a chance to vote him out.
You know, we're not in a country where you can do something and you don't get a vote.
We have a voice today, but we got to use that voice in the right manner, and I speak out about it.
You also spoke out about the national anthem.
I was glad you did.
And this kind of dovetails into why Brian is here.
And I've always viewed that flag as sacrosanct in this sense.
Oh, it is.
People fought, bled, and died fighting under that flag.
And listen, I'm all for freedom of speech.
I'm all for freedom of expression.
I'm all for, you know, whatever cause you believe in, you know, peacefully, protest, demonstrate.
But not to stand for the flag to me was disrespectful to all that fought, bled, died.
It was disrespectful to America.
And I'm going to throw it back on leadership.
And I said, guys, you know, the commissioner, he could hate me.
I can never get into the Hall of Fame.
I don't care.
It's got to be leadership because when it first happened, he should have put a stop to it then.
And people say it wasn't about the flag, but it was about the flag because you decided you were not going to stand for the flag.
And there has been people that have fought and they died for it.
White, black, green, yellow.
It doesn't matter what color you are.
But you fought for that flag.
And they say it's not about the flag, but it is about the flag.
And I disagree with it.
But I also say leadership should have taken the place and said, no, you're going to stand because this is your job.
It is your responsibility.
And I think right there, I think leadership dropped the wall.
It's even in the bylaws and the rules that the team set out for the players.
And by the way, there are other freedom of speech issues that come up.
You're not allowed to do a dance in the end zone.
You're not allowed to do this in the end zone.
I mean, they've got so many restrictions about what you can and cannot do, what you can and cannot wear.
So the idea that we're stifling the NFL or players or freedom of expression, nobody wants to stifle them.
I actually liked Robert Kraft, who I got to know a couple of times I met him.
And he said, well, I said to my players, if you want, I'll match it dollar for dollar.
And we'll go into the community.
Whatever charity is most important, near and dear to your heart, I'll match it.
You know, let's bring it to the community.
And apparently he did, and it had a pretty big impact.
Well, you know, I think that shows good leadership.
And that's the reason you see the New England Patriots in the playoffs every year.
So they have good leadership.
And I said, that's what it takes in this country to also have Tom Brady.
Yeah, Tom Brady helps out a lot.
Yeah, that helps out a great deal.
And that's what I've been saying right now.
And that's why I stand behind Donald Trump.
I think he's a great leader.
I think the people should give him a chance.
He was voted in.
Give the man a chance to supervise, to run this country, because if you don't give him a chance, he's having to fight within his party, fight within the people.
Every day.
He's not on a free day.
And that's what's sad.
All right, I got to ask you, because do you work out with Herschel, Brian?
No, I do not work out.
You don't.
All right, so you have the most insane workout regimen of anybody that I've ever heard of.
And are you still thinking about going in the octagon?
Oh, no, I still would fight.
You know, it's no big deal.
You know, one of the things about it is – No big deal.
I'm not going in the octagon with you.
And I train five days a week.
Well, you know, I think what it is is I'm still competing.
And because I'm competing, I say that I do 1,500 push-ups.
I've 3,500 sit-ups a day.
And the reason why is the guy that I'm competing against may be doing 500 pounds in weights.
He may be doing all those things.
So I want to be ready when he steps into that cage or that octagon and let him know that, you know, I'll be your hunkerberry.
It ain't going to be an easy day for you.
I'm not going to be in there with you unless I'm coaching you.
How do you do 1,500 push-ups a day?
Yeah, one thing you do.
I do 100 to 200.
I mean, that's it.
Push-ups are very boring.
Push-ups are very boring.
So you want to play tricks on the mind.
One thing you don't want to do is do a standard push-up.
Move the hands around.
Yeah, we do.
You're told about it, but take a deck of cards.
What you want to do is take a deck of cars, split them in half, and flip a card over, and that's what you want to do in the push-ups, and go all the way down to the end of the deck, then start your way back up.
And you'll be shocked how many push-ups you've done, or decide to watch a TV show.
And if you're going to be a business, so you're saying take a card away every time you do a push-up?
Every time you do a push-up, if you turn the cars over, it's a 10, do 10 push-ups, do 9 push-ups, do three.
It's the only time in my life I'm going to hope for a two.
Well, and that works, but then when you're doing the two, go down real slowly or put the hands together.
Don't make it as easy for you because people think life is easy.
Life is very difficult.
And what you got to realize is you got to sacrifice.
You know, everybody don't want to sacrifice.
You know, you want to be an athlete, but you want to pay the price to be an athlete.
If you want to be an athlete, you can't go to a club.
You can't go out to a bar drinking.
You can't do this.
If you want to make good grades, I'm sorry.
When did you learn that?
Because most, a lot, not most, a lot of athletes, you know, so many talented athletes, they get caught up almost immediately in that other life because doors open that were never open before, and they're famous and they've got money that they never had before.
And they're going to the clubs, and then all of a sudden their performance begins to decline.
And it's really not a surprise.
A lot of people get caught up in that trap.
How did you avoid it?
Well, I think I avoided it by having my parents that gave me that foundation to understand that, you know, nothing is free in life.
And, you know, Brian will tell you, you know, there's a price for freedom.
And there's a lot of people that pay that price for me.
So I don't want to waste it.
You know, I don't want to waste it.
You know, my parents, I love them to death.
They give me a good foundation, but I also want to be a good father.
I want to show that same respect to my son because I want him to grow up to be like I was just son.
He's 18.
Mine's 19.
Yeah, oh, and you know what I'm talking about.
I know what you're talking about.
But you know, one thing that's great about him is the little boy just won the national champion and the competitive cheer gymnastic thing.
Every time someone sees me, they say, oh, is he a football player?
I said, no, he's a cheerleader.
He does that competitive cheer.
He loves it.
By the way, they're throwing you 45 feet up in the air.
Good luck.
Very, very difficult sport.
But one thing I tell them that they'll be proud of, he is also a student in college.
He's supposed to be a senior in high school.
He's a sophomore in college at SMU.
Oh, great.
Could have gone to Georgia for free, but he's at SMU where we're paying.
Sean, do you want to try something with Herschel right now?
You want to do some push-ups?
Because, I mean, you're incredibly strong.
You want me to do push-ups?
I think you and Herschel should get down on the floor and do some push-ups.
How many do you want me to do?
Yeah, two.
Lucky numbers.
We can do 25.
I'll tell you, why don't we do.
I'll tell you what.
You can watch me do 25 for Facebook.
No, I'll tell you what we'll do real quick.
It won't take that long.
We're going to do like five.
We'll do two minutes.
We'll do five, but we're going to do a hand position.
We're going to go all the way down and touch the chest on the hand.
We're going to go out five with one, two.
Got it.
Let's do it.
Okay, ready?
All right, by the way, Brian, God bless you.
Honestly, thank you.
I know you can't talk about what you've done.
I'm very, very happy about the True American Hero Truck Giveaway.
Awesome story that you can't tell, but it is one of heroism and one where it's nice to see the men that save our freedoms every day honored this way.
And it's been great to have you in the studio.
Thank you.
Superhero.
He's a true superhero right here.
That's why you don't have to do push-ups.
You already served yourself.
You don't have to do them.
All right.
I'm going to do this.
We'll put it on Facebook with Herschel.
All right.
And he was looking for a soul to steal.
He was in a bind because he was way behind, so he was willing to make a deal.
When he came upon this young man, sawing on a fiddle and playing it hot, well, the devil jumped up on Hickory Stump.
He said, Boy, let me tell you what.
I guess you didn't know it, but I'm a fiddle player, too.
And if you care to take a dare, I'll make a bet with you.
Whoops.
And you play pretty good fiddle, boy, but give the devil his due.
I'll bet a fiddle of gold against your soul because I think I'm better than you.
So he said, my name's Johnny, and it might be a sin, but I'll take your bet.
You're going to regret it because I'm the best it's ever been.
Johnny, you're rising up your bow and play your fiddle hard.
Cause hell's broke loose in Georgia and the devil gives the cards.
And if you, if you get this shiny fiddle, let him go.
But if you lose, the devil gets your soul.
All right, that can only mean one thing when we're playing the devil one down to Georgia.
That means our buddy Charlie Daniels is back.
And along with him is Bob Regan, is the founder of this group called Operation Song, a nonprofit group that empowers vets and active duty military to share their stories through songwriting.
And we're also going to be joined in a minute by Sean Nikette, an Iraq war veteran.
He co-wrote the song.
We played it on the air before.
That's called West Point to Arlington in memory of his special forces captain.
We'll play in a few minutes.
But let me welcome Mr. Daniels, sir.
I know, every time I start doing your song, you laugh.
I know.
I know you're making fun of me.
You still remember the words I am expressed.
What do you mean?
I still remember the words.
They're etched into my memory.
I had a great time when we did that on the Freedom Tour.
Oh, man.
It was so fun for me.
You look like Garth Brooks jumping around on the stage, thank you.
I swear you're going to fall off a drum riser or something like that.
Yeah, it was bound to happen.
If I stayed on tour with you, you were probably going to lose all your fans.
People would say, you're ruining the best song we're all waiting for.
People got, you would not believe what church people got out of it, man.
They loved it.
It was so fun.
Listen, I know how many times you've been over, you know, doing USO tours and seeing our military guys.
You have devoted so much of your personal time and your band's time.
I've been doing it for a lot of years.
I've been there, of course, I went to Iraq three times.
But I've been to Guantanamo.
I've been to Greenland.
I've been to, gosh, Kosovo and Bosnia and, I don't know, just wherever our guys and gals are at.
You know, we've tried to get there, especially in my younger years.
We've tried to get there.
What do you mean in your younger years?
You're only 30 years old.
You're very kind.
Also, about 51 years.
I hear you every weekend on Y2 Country.
They're playing you all the time.
Well, that's good, man.
I'm glad to know somebody's playing my records.
Of course they're playing your records.
Or, you know, you got the Zach Brown band giving you a run for your money on the devil.
Well, that's true.
They do a great job on that.
I've heard them do that.
Is that a compliment to a songwriter and obviously you're an icon in the country music industry?
And, you know, somebody is successful and really talented as Zach Brown comes along and he wants to play your song.
Is that a compliment to you?
Absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely is.
You know, I love hearing people do our stuff.
I like to hear other people do it, see how they, you know, how they perceive it to be.
But, yeah, absolutely.
And Sean, they do such a great job around us.
I mean, I've heard all kinds of people have written parodies of a song.
The best parody I ever heard was a song about the English-Scottish soccer game called Big Witty Went Down to Wembley.
And the refrain went, fights on the terriers, run, boys, run.
That's amazing.
I want to welcome your buddy Bob Regan here, Operation Song.
A great idea, brilliant, actually.
Nashville-based nonprofit empowers vets, active military, sharing their stories through songwriting.
You know, look, I wish I had the talent of a songwriter because I got a lot to say, obviously, Bob, but I'm not sure that Hannity singing about the Deep State, Deep State, James Comey, Ron Rosenstein would fly.
Well, we can work on that.
You don't need to see them.
Maybe water.
You'll get your.
Yeah, we'll call it muddy swamp waters.
We'll call it deep state waters.
Y'all get to get and write him a song, Bob.
Yeah.
We can do it.
I've written a song with just about every anyway.
This is Bob, and I thank you so much for this opportunity.
Well, we appreciate what you're doing for the troop.
Look, Memorial Day is this weekend.
And I know for most of us, that means family, friends, barbecue, golf, fishing, whatever you like to do.
But one of the vets that wrote one of these songs is Sean Niketta's name.
He's an Iraq war vet, and he co-wrote this song.
We played it on the show before, West Point to Arlington, in memory of his friend, Special Forces Captain Andrew Patterson Keele.
He lost his life serving in Afghanistan in March of 2013.
Anyway, so I want to feature this song, and I just think as you go through your weekend, just take a moment, you reflect about all those that literally gave their lives so we can have the best life possible on this earth and live in freedom and fun like we do in America.
I face Couldn't help but stop and pray for your family.
Wouldn't but just last May told me about your fiancé and how proud you were of that green beret going overseas.
You knew you were heading into hell.
But you had a job that was bigger than yourself.
Now I'm trying to live a life worthy of your sacrifice to be the husband and the father you never got to be.
And now your work is done.
Your course on earth is run.
It can be said.
Well done.
Be thou in peace.
Be thou at peace.
Just that became an amazing hit song.
Now, in order, and again, to honor Memorial Day, there's a new song.
It's called The Last Monday in May.
And what's amazing about this is it conveys the meaning of Memorial Day and the voices of fallen soldiers from the past 150 years.
And it's just so well done.
The vocalists are Ward Davis and Jimmy Rayselles, a Vietnam vet, Navy Special Ops, and Ian Wagner, Iraq Afghanistan vet and combat medic and Purple Heart recipient.
And anyway, they performed a song on the National Mall for the past four Memorial Days.
They're going back this month here.
Listen.
I took a musket ball in Chancellorsville.
I went down and I lie here still.
Underneath a cross of stone.
The world has turned and time's moved on.
There are seasons when it sinks that everyone's forgotten me Till the last Monday in May when all the springtime flowers bloom They come and decorate my grave But only bones lie here in two
My spirit flies as high as old glory.
On the last Monday in May, I fought on a distant shore in the war to end all war.
World War I turned into two They are gone into hell It's hard to rest so far from home But one day a year I'm not alone on the last Monday
When all the springtime flowers bloom They come and decorate my grave But only bones lie here in tomb
My spirit flies as high as old glory waves on the last Monday in May from the jungles of Vietnam to the mountains of Afghanistan whatever wars are yet to be will fight to keep our country free My child who went down in Iraq
One more week I'd made it back Now my war and battle's done I rest in peace and online My wife this year most days with me Won't you come keep us company
The last Mondaytime flowers bloom They come and decorate my grave But only bones lie here in tomb
My spirit flies as high as old glory waves Remember all of us and the sacrifices made on the last Monday in May I love this song the last Monday They're going to be singing that and featuring that coming up this weekend.
I mean, these are all vets that put this together, and they perform this song at the National Mall now for the past four Memorial Days.
You know, Sean, first let's start with you.
I mean, I don't know.
I mean, those songs just get me every time.
I think this is such a great, a great opportunity at Catharsis for all these men and women that go fight for us.
And they come back and they have to deal with, you know, PTSD and all sorts of difficulties, reacclimating themselves to a regular life.
And those that don't come back.
It's such an honor that you guys do this for them.
Yes.
Thank you, Sean, for having me on.
I'd like to say a couple words about Andrew, if you don't mind.
You know, we met at West Point when I first entered, really, and he was a mentor and a friend.
And he knew the dangers he was facing, but went anyway.
You know, there's no better definition of a hero than that.
But beyond that, the way he lived his life was one in which he was touching others' lives, obviously, constantly.
And so that's what really motivated me to write the song.
I had a hard time dealing with the loss of a mentor.
And so, yes, it did help me sort of process that.
But I also wanted family and friends of Andrew to know that he had an impact far beyond his own personal service in the military as well.
What a great honor to your friend.
Charlie, I've known you forever, and I know you give your heart and your soul, especially you got such a big part of your heart invested in freedom in this country and honoring those that serve this country.
There's certain songs when you're singing, and especially some of your patriotic songs, and you have a library full of them, amazing ones.
When you're actually on stage, it gets to you.
Has that ever happened?
Yes, it has.
I have had songs that get to me.
Nobody knows it, basically, but I have gotten to Gary Addle Stage before.
I feel very strongly about this country as you do, Sean.
I don't know a bigger patriot than you.
You're a good American and a wonderful patriot, but there's a lot of us out here that feel the same way.
And nobody much more any more so than the ones who've led their lives on the line to go and fight for us.
We can never, ever do enough for them.
We don't do enough for them.
We don't.
Definitely get Gary Addle Stage sometime.
I have done it.
I'm one-on-one engagement.
Absolutely.
All right.
So, Bob, and then Sean, tell us, you know, people want to be a part of this, what they can do to help you.
Well, first thing, go to our website, operationsong.org, and you go to the landing page.
There's a wonderful video of this song.
And just learn a little more about Operation Song.
We're on Facebook.
We're on all social media.
Just look for Operation Song on YouTube or SoundCloud.
We've written over 600 songs at this point with veterans of World War II.
Last weekend, we were at a retreat with 20 Gold Star kids.
And this idea just kind of took off.
And I had a wonderful career as a professional songwriter.
And I just kind of started doing this six years ago to see if it would work.
And it definitely works.
And I don't take any money for this.
This is my retirement gig.
But anyway, please just go look at Operation Song.
We've got so many wonderful songs on the YouTube channel.
We encourage the veterans to make videos.
There's a wonderful video of West Point Arlington, which tells the story of Andrew on there.
And I'll just say, you know, go check us out on the web.
And it's a real honor for me and all the songwriters that write with these veterans.
The men and the women, they say, come back to me and say, that was probably my best day ever as a songwriter.
I wrote a song that really meant something.
Well, I appreciate all that you're doing.
Sean, God bless you and continued best to you and your family and also the family of your friend, Special Forces Captain Andrew Peterson Kill, who lost his life in Afghanistan.
And Bob, thanks for what you're doing, Charlie.
Love you.
You're a family to me.
And we appreciate all you do always.
Thank you for having us.
Thank you, Arsonsong.org.
I appreciate it.
800-941-Sean, we have an unbelievable Hannity tonight.
We'll tell you all about it.
That's next.
And a very, very, very strong, heartfelt thank you to all of the families that this Memorial Day won't be with some of their loved ones that were out protecting our freedoms.
