As the shutdown continues, President Trump spoke to the country today to explain his approach to finding a compromise. Listen as Sean reacts to the full press conference including President Trump's remarks to the nation. Plus, John Solomon, of the Hill, broke another bombshell last night. This is a must hear!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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All right, glad you're with us as we start and kick off the program with some breaking news.
Nancy Pelosi, remember she first, this is, well, she invited the president to give the State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress and that he would do it in the House of Representatives as it is normally done.
And she said, for security reasons with the government shutdown, I don't think we can do it.
Well, she had never checked with the Department of Homeland Security, nor did she check with the Secret Service about their capabilities of, well, protecting everybody as they normally would.
And the president got back to her and said, I did check with them.
And as they have said publicly, they have no problem securing the House.
And I plan to continue.
I plan on giving that speech on January 29th, as is custom.
And I plan to do that.
Now, here's what's interesting.
So the letter just came out from Nancy Pelosi.
Dear Mr. President, it says, when I extended an invitation on January 3rd for you to deliver the State of the Union address, it was on the mutually agreed upon date, January 29th.
At that time, there was no thought that the government would still be shut down.
In my further correspondence of January 16th, I said we should work together and find a mutually agreeable date when the government has reopened, and I hope that we can still do that.
I'm writing to inform you that the House of Representatives will not consider a concurrent resolution authorizing the President's State of the Union address in the House chamber until the government has opened.
Again, I look forward to welcoming you to the House on a mutually agreeable date for this address when the government has been opened.
Let's backtrack a little bit here because facts, truth, matters.
What you are now seeing is an implosion of a party in the country.
This is now, this is no longer the party of Scoop Jackson, you know, Democrats that even Tip O'Neill, even Joe Lieberman, you know, Ocasio-Cortez, or as Linda calls her, Oscario, because she says it because, well, the world she believes will end in 12 years.
So she's trying to scare everybody.
The part of it that is generational is that millennials and people and you know Gen Z and all these folks that come after us are looking up and we're like the world is going to end in 12 years if we don't address climate change.
And your biggest issue is your biggest issue is how are we going to pay for it?
And like, this is the war.
This is our World War II.
The world is going to end in 12 years.
And you're worried about how to pay for it because of climate change?
I think Linda hit it right on the head.
I don't even know if she put the thought in.
Did you come up with Oscario based on that statement or it just came flying out of the brain at the top of your tip of your mind?
I mean, honestly, as soon as I heard her, you know, doing the fear-mongering, I just thought of fear, and I just thought, man, this woman is just trying to scare everybody.
All right, so Alexandria Oscario, the world ends in 12 years, Cortez.
All right, but back to the point, though.
This is now her party.
Nancy Pelosi has lost total control of the radical, extreme, new socialist democratic base of her party.
That is the one that believes that the world is going to end in 12 years if we don't address climate change.
The one that proposes a 70% tax rate on some Americans.
That is the same party now that calls our system.
It's immoral for our economic system to allow billionaires to exist and give zero F words what established members of the Democratic House think, whatever she said on Stephen Colbert, who cares.
This is it.
Nancy Pelosi cannot go and even sit down with the president.
Now, let's go back and trace the history of this.
Government shutdown.
President says, yeah, this is about life and death.
And when we look at the numbers, in spite of what the rest of the media, the Democratic Party telling you, this is a manufactured crisis, manufactured, manufactured, manufactured.
The media says it.
The Democrats say it.
And in the meantime, we spend time interviewing and talking to angel moms and dads and people that lost their kids to illegal immigrants and people that lost their kids to illegal immigrants that were even in the criminal justice system.
But because of sanctuary city and state laws like Nancy Pelosi's hometown of San Francisco, her home state of California, literally, they will not hand over illegal immigrants that have committed crimes when they're out of jail to be deported as the federal law requires.
Actually aiding and abetting whatever future crimes are committed.
You know, it's obviously, and she, well, that's an anomaly.
No, it's not an anomaly.
We've all looked at the numbers.
We've all talked about it extensively.
The thousands of homicides, sexual assaults, violent assaults.
Now, that is not representative of the majority of people by any stretch that come across the border that want a better life for themselves, their kids, their grandkids.
They're coming here, by the way, because we are so great.
And it speaks volumes about who we are.
But we're just asking the 2% that are part of cartels, the 2% that they're trafficking in drugs and human trafficking, the 2% that some might even have terror ties, those people, we want to vet everybody for the safety and security of our country.
And also because we've already spent billions and billions and billions of dollars on our, well, let's see, criminal justice system, healthcare system, educational system, because, well, somebody has to take care of people that can't take care of themselves.
But here's where it gets interesting.
Trump didn't go on Christmas vacation.
Nancy Pelosi went to Hawaii.
Trump didn't go anywhere except to Iraq to visit the troops.
The president, the first weekend, invited Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to sit down with the vice president and hammer out a deal.
They sent low-ranking aides and wouldn't even bother to show up.
Almost on a daily basis, the president has been inviting the Democrats to sit down in the White House and discuss the problem, the life and death issues of our border, the 90% of heroin that's coming across our southern border into this country.
90% of heroin in America crosses that border.
You know, how many kids are dying?
What is it, 300 a week?
300 Americans a week are dying from heroin overdoses.
Add to that now the fentanyl crisis.
A lot of that drug is coming across the border.
So then, of course, the president stayed in the White House working, inviting people every day while, oh, let's see, Bob Menendez and all these Democrats went on a luxurious paid vacation by lobbyists, private jet.
Forget about carbon footprints.
I wonder what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez thinks about the private jet or thinks about the lobbyists paying for that luxurious resort in Puerto Rico or the dining and fun in the sun that they had.
We all saw the pictures of these guys on the beach, you know, showing off the great tens.
This was 10 days into the new Congress with the government shut down.
Nancy Pelosi wants to go away and go on a foreign junket that we're paying for that would have kept her away from any deal, guaranteeing that federal employees that she claims to care about would not be withheld a second check, which is now going to happen.
So they won't sit.
They won't talk.
They won't send representatives over.
And the president, okay, he goes out Saturday.
He says, okay, well, let me bring in DACA.
Let me bring in DREAMers.
Let me bring in all of the things, a lot of the things that Democrats have said they have wanted as it relates to immigration.
Well, before the president made the offer, they said, nope, they didn't even hear the offer.
So the only thing you can conclude here is this is raw politics.
This is all about power.
This is also partly about fear, Pelosi's fear of the base radical extremist socialist Democrats in her party that will throw her out as Speaker in seconds.
Now, if the Democrats, if they really cared about the furloughed employees not getting their checks, some 800,000 of them, by the way, the president signed a bill that they will get all back pay.
If they really cared about Dreamers and DACA and what they were willing to pay for just a few years ago under Obama, which is a wall, then they would sit down and make a deal with the president.
But obviously, Pelosi doesn't care about furloughed employees, doesn't care about the plight this puts them in, obviously doesn't care about DREAMers and DACA, obviously doesn't seem to want to confront a problem that we all know exists, the opioid crisis, with 90% of that heroin coming from the southern border.
She doesn't want to confront the cartels or the gangs that we know also wreak havoc on that border, the human trafficking that goes on in that border.
You know, I've been down there 12, 13, 14 times.
I don't even remember.
All the way from the Rio Grande to San Diego, the drug warehouses.
What Nancy Pelosi cares about, they are the no-deal party.
No deal, no discussion.
They are the obstruction party.
Now, the American people see this happening.
American people see that there's no room to discuss anything.
Now, what it's going to do is it's going to, president at some point is going to say, okay, I'll do it on my own.
I'm declaring a national emergency on our southern border.
Americans are dying.
There's a humanitarian crisis, and I'll go it alone.
You know, the fact that the Senate Democrats are allowing her now to pull them perceptually all the way to the far left on a position they all supported in the Obama years, that's pretty politically stupid because the one message is really loud and clear.
They care more about hurting Donald Trump, hating Donald Trump, than they do about solving problems for the American people.
Because if they cared about DACA, they cared about DREAMers, if they cared about furloughed employees, if they cared about safety and security of Americans, they would be at least sitting down at the table.
But that's not what they're capable of doing.
You know, and as far as the president goes, I think he'll go on indefinitely.
Now, I think he's going to choose the option of declaring a national emergency.
What happens from there will be interesting.
It doesn't matter.
This president's going to get the money for the wall one way or the other.
And that should be a reality that they face.
All right, 800-941, Sean.
We've got a lot to get to.
We'll talk more about the radicalization of the new extreme Democratic Socialist Party and who now is in charge of that party.
All right, 25 now until the top of the hour.
You know, I got to tell you something.
And if you're just joining us, Nancy Pelosi said, you're disinvited.
Just let just compare and contrast how the president has acted during this shutdown, what he's standing for versus the way the Democrats, led by, I guess you could say the new leader is really Alexandria Casio, or if you believe that the world will end in 12 years, Oscario Cortez, trying to scare everybody.
The world's going to end in 12 years if we don't address climate change.
The president didn't go on vacation.
Nancy did.
President didn't go on a lobbyist-paid junket to a beautiful resort 10 days into the new Congress.
The president didn't reject any offer to sit and talk to try and solve the problems as it relates to the border, the shutdown, the furloughed employees, and other issues.
You know, the president, you know, you got talking points, manufactured crisis, versus what is a reality of thousands of homicides, sexual assaults, violent cartels, 90% of heroin, most of the fentanyls coming from south of the border.
President sees it not as a manufactured crisis, but a real one.
You might want to ask the parents that lost their kids because of illegal immigration, the angel moms and dads that Nancy Pelosi wouldn't take the time to meet with.
And what side do you want to be on here?
The side that wants to stop the heroin, stop the gangs, stop the cartels, protect people on both sides of the border, because if it's secured, that means people won't make that perilous journey from Central America.
Well, that's going to save lives.
Or gun trafficking.
I haven't talked a lot about that.
That also happens south of the border.
And being able to vet those that want to come into our country, have a big wall barrier with a door, and say, just come in the right way, the legal way, respect our laws, our Constitution, our sovereignty, and then come into the United States.
Which side of this do you want to be on?
Because I've always said to politicians, I said, the best because look, I don't know what it is.
You become a politician, you want to get re-elected.
And almost the day after they get elected or re-elected, you know, they're thinking about their next election.
When what they really ought to be focused on, and this is what I think this president has done particularly well, is keeping your promises.
You go out on a campaign trail, you talk to people, you go to town halls, you meet with people, you make promises, you give speeches, and then a lot of these people when push comes to shove, they don't want to, you know, they just like being called congressman or senator or governor.
But the best politics is if you go out and lay out a bold agenda that you believe with all of your heart is going to solve problems, create solutions for the American people.
That is going to result in, oh, let's see, two years of Donald Trump, we have record low unemployment for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, women in the workplace, youth unemployment.
Also, our vets are getting back to work.
We have now had the best GDP numbers we've had in a long time.
We now have gotten to be energy independent.
And we haven't even gotten online the Keystone pipeline or the Dakota pipeline.
Anwar is now open for drilling.
There's decades of oil in Anwar.
And then, of course, we've got natural gas, which is opening up because the president's ended burdensome regulations.
And the president, of course, giving us the largest tax cuts, incentivizing businesses to stay, bringing in businesses and saying, well, how are we hurting your business and what can we do to help you?
President is not talking about the world ending in 12 years if we don't address climate change.
He's talking about, you know, think of all the other promises.
Think internationally.
Little rocket man.
No more rockets fired.
Let's see.
Remains of soldiers from the 50s brought home, hostages released, and we got a second summit that hopefully will make progress towards the denuclearization of the entire peninsula, which makes the world safer.
And then think about the promise on trade deals.
You know, Mexico will pay for the wall.
Maybe I'm the only one that asked him repeatedly, but I said to him many times during the campaign, I said, Mr. Trump, he was running for office, you don't really think Mexico is going to write you a check and say, here, we'll pay for the wall.
He goes, no.
But when we make new trade deals and pull out a NAFTA, it's going to benefit us so much financially that ostensibly that wall pays for itself.
Now they're saying they're not going to pay for it.
They will pay for the wall.
We're going to build the wall.
We're going to pay for the wall.
We're going to stop businesses from leaving our country and they are being drained out of our country, our jobs, our money, our base and our factories.
We are going to stop that.
You don't expect he's going to write a check, but what you're saying is that they will have to make concessions.
There's many different ways.
So in other words, you don't expect Mexico to say, yes, Mr. Trump, here's a check for $10 billion.
It's not feasible.
It wouldn't look good.
So you think the deals that you make with it will more than compensate for the wall?
Even if we tax him, we may tax him.
It doesn't make any difference.
Look, we lose a tremendous amount of money.
We have a trade deficit with Mexico of $58 billion a year.
People don't know that.
The wall is going to cost $10 billion.
So the president gets new trade deals with Mexico that's going to benefit American workers.
You know, the president kept that promise.
New trade deal with Canada that helps our farmers out and dairy people out.
We got even all the concessions already that China has made as it relates to allowing now the importation of American automobiles.
And you think about all the other concessions, soybeans, other American products, because of the massive trade deficit we've had over the years.
Then, of course, we have better trade deals.
What did it say?
The president said the State of the Union is canceled.
Really?
No, it says Trump Pelosi canceled the State of the Union because she's afraid of the truth.
The State of the OK, I don't know exactly.
You guys, I can't talk and do a talk show.
If you want to bring me some information in, I think we'll do it that way.
Headlines on fake news, CNN, or conspiracy TV, MSNBC are not exactly trustworthy, especially in light of last Friday.
So we'll have to wait and see what actually happens here.
But if you want to be a successful politician, this is what you've got to do.
Keep your promises.
Find solutions.
You know, the president engaging even our enemies, you know, I mean, think about all the Democrats that predicted World War III if the president continued to call Kim Jong-un little rocket man.
Think of, you know, they didn't expect hostages released.
They didn't expect one of those facilities taken down.
They didn't expect the remains of soldiers from the Korean War in the 50s returned.
That's what it is to be a good politician.
So if you're going to reject every offer, every concession, if you're going to not sit down with the president, you're going to go on junkets and vacations and taxpayer-funded excursions around the world, you can't then say that you care about people that are furloughed.
If you're offered DACA and DREAMers the things you say you want, you can't say you care about them when you reject it outright.
You can't say that, well, I supported a wall six years ago, but not anymore, and have a straight face on as you face your constituents because they don't care about this.
And I've told you this about the media, and I've told you this about the Democratic Party and the deep state, powerful forces that, you know, aligned to destroy the president.
Now, here's part of the other problem, and that is that you've got, you know, Alexandria Ocasio, or if you really believe that the world is going to end in 12 years, Oscario Cortez trying to scare us to death.
If you really believe that is the direction of America, then I don't think this is in sync with what most Americans believe.
Or a 70% federal tax rate on people that they determine make too much money.
Or Comrade de Blasio, as he said, there's plenty of wealth in New York.
It's just in the wrong hands.
Or Ocasio say it's immoral for our economic system to allow billionaires to exist.
Now, here's the problem.
This is a new radical, extreme socialist Democratic party.
Now, understand what America and our Constitution is about.
It's not about equal results.
You know, there are people that I know that do the noblest things in life, having made career decisions to be teachers, firemen.
So many in my own family in law enforcement, police, etc.
They know there's a limitation, but they are compelled.
They're God-given talents, and their heart drives them to serve others, nurses.
They don't get paid lots and lots of money, not becoming millionaires, but it's a choice, and in America, you get to choose what you want to do.
And whatever it happens to me, some people want to make money.
You know, I, for the life of me, would never want to work on Wall Street, be bored to tears.
But I'm going to tell you something else here.
They don't understand what freedom is.
They don't understand what our framers and our founders offered when they put this great nation, this great republic together.
And it is basically, we're endowed by our creator, who education from the Latin means ducre, to bring forth from within.
It is predicated on a belief that you have this talent.
You're born with it.
And that whatever your interests, wherever your interests lie, you then, the only way you're going to get rich that I can see is if you produce goods and services or inventions that people want, need and desire.
Unless you're doing it illegally.
But you think about it.
If you're not producing some goods, some service of some kind that people want, need, and desire and are willing to purchase, freely purchase, you can't become rich.
And it's this freedom, this opportunity that America offers that so many other countries will never offer.
And that every kid, if we give them, you know, the right circumstances, if the government's role is to keep us safe and secure, well, let's knock out 90% of our heroin coming from our southern border.
But the idea of freedom, it's predicated on that notion that we're endowed by our creator with certain gifts and talents.
I believe we're all created by God equally.
And that whatever drives us in our hearts, if you pursue your dream and find your talents and you serve others, goods or services produced, that in America you could all be successful.
That's that simple.
Now, if you have a 70% federal tax like the new radical, extreme Democratic Socialist Party wants, okay, well, then if you live in New York, you got to add another 10%.
So that's 80% tax.
California would be 83.5%.
Then if you work in New York City, that's another 4%.
So that's 70 federally.
That's 10 New York.
And that's 4% city tax.
That's 84% tax.
Then you add your sales taxes.
Then you add the high property taxes.
All right.
Who's going to go out and bother to dig down deep inside them to find their talents, produce those things that people want, need, and desire?
That is the failure of socialism.
It has failed every time.
Why did Obama, with all of his spread the wealth around ideology, end up leaving office with 13 million more Americans on food stamps, 8 million more Americans in poverty?
How is it Donald Trump has given us record low unemployment and a growing, thriving economy and energy independence and better trade deals and America is not being taken advantage of because those are the things he committed to and he's fighting for.
You either believe this wall is necessary because it's life and death or you want to politicize it.
But here's their problem.
They now are showing, just like the media showed Friday and Sunday and every second minute hour of every day, that their priority is not you, we, the people.
Their priority is destroying a president, hating a president, and offering the American people, they won't even sit down and talk about solutions when the president offers to give them everything they want and a daily invitation.
Which do you think works out better in the end with the American people?
I think serving the American people, looking for solutions, solving problems, keeping us safe and secure.
So we don't have any more angel moms and dads.
I thought they were concerned about separation.
Well, this is permanent separation.
All right, the president just responded to Nancy's Pelosi's decision that he not give the State of the Union address.
She won't let him give it in the House chamber.
Now, I'm telling you, just compare her actions, vacations, junkets, excursions, daily invitations, turned down, sending aides instead of directly negotiating.
Now, this, what is only a petty attack on her part.
Now, remember, she was going to go on the junket.
That would have guaranteed furloughed employees would not get a second check.
You cannot come to a deal unless people are willing to talk.
The president has offered the things that they say they want, meaning the Democratic Party.
But you've got not only crazy Nancy Pelosi, but you have now a radical, extremist, socialist Democratic party so far hard left, she cannot.
Our whole speakership is at stake.
Now, we got all of this as the president moments ago.
We're a little behind, and we'll play it in its entirety if you are an affiliate across the Sean Hannity Show Network.
Interesting, right?
Thank you very much for being here, and a lot of friends in the room, a lot of great friends.
And Mr. Vice President, thank you.
And Secretary Nielsen, thank you very much.
We're doing a great job at the border, considering we don't have the tools.
They don't give us the tools to work with Neene.
We have to have a wall.
We have to have a barricade of some kind, a steel barricade.
It's already designed.
We're building a lot of wall as we speak, a tremendous amount, and we're renovating a lot of the other walls.
Otherwise, by the way, with what's coming up, because of the strong economy that we have, we haven't had an economy like this, I guess, in over 50 years.
Would you say that's correct, Steve?
And because of the strong economy, everyone's pouring up, and we're stopping them.
But it's a lot of work.
We have an incredible people at the border, and you have to thank all of the Border Patrol agents and the ICE agents.
I see in Long Island, they don't want ICE.
The radical Democrats don't want ICE there because they're too good.
They're doing too good a job.
And I always talk about Long Island.
That's one of the real hotbeds for the MS-13 gangs.
And I just see this morning where the really radical Democrats don't want them there because they don't want to do anything to disturb MS-13.
And when you think about it, MS-13 is about the most violent gang, they say one of the most violent anywhere in the world.
And they have done, we're sending them out by the thousands out of our country.
So we think it's too bad.
But I would say this, that the State of the Union speech has been canceled by Nancy Pelosi because she doesn't want to hear the truth.
She doesn't want the American public to hear what's going on.
And she's afraid of the truth.
And the super left Democrats, the radical Democrats, what's going on in that party is shocking.
I know many people that were Democrats and they're switching over right now.
And they're switching over quickly.
So I hope they know what they're doing for their party.
So far they haven't.
If you know, I won the Senate, meaning we won the Senate all together, but we get no credit for that.
They don't talk about that.
They talk about the House.
I didn't have any chance to, other than a couple of people, like from Kentucky, where I went and campaigned for Andy Barr.
And for some others, they ended up winning their races, but I couldn't campaign too much.
Too many people.
But we did a great job with the Senate.
And people don't want to talk about it.
I will say that the American people want to hear the truth.
They have to hear the truth.
And the truth is all about and said, I think, and I hope well, we were planning on doing a really very important speech in front of the House and the Senate, the Supreme Court, and everybody else that's there.
It's called the State of the Union.
It's in the Constitution.
We're supposed to be doing it.
And now, Nancy Pelosi, or Nancy, as I call her, she doesn't want to hear the truth, and she doesn't want to hear, more importantly, the American people hear the truth.
So we just found out that she's canceled it.
And I think that's a great blotch on the incredible country that we all love.
It's a great, great, horrible mark.
I don't believe it's ever happened before.
And it's always good to be part of history, but this is a very negative part of history.
This is where people are afraid to open up and say what's going on.
So it's a very, very negative part of history.
I'd like to start today.
We're talking about shutdown.
We're talking about some conservative values.
These are the great conservative leaders of our country.
And they have very strong views.
And we'll be doing that after the press leaves.
But they have very strong views on the shutdown.
And it's not that we have a choice.
I don't think we have a choice.
We have to make our country safe.
We have done such an incredible job with such poor tools.
We have catch and release, where you catch somebody and then you have to release that person into our country.
We have so many different elements of rule and regulation.
It's a very sad thing that's gone on.
And this has happened over a long period of time.
You take a look at the Visa Lottery.
When there's a lottery, do you think they're putting their best people into those lotteries?
It's a lottery.
You know what a lottery is.
Does anybody think they're putting their best people in?
You have chain migration, where, as an example, the killer, the man who ran over people on the West Side Highway in New York, eight people killed, 12 injured.
And when you say 12 injured, nobody knows how badly injured they are.
This isn't like they had a headache.
This is big, big and horrible problems.
Loss of legs and arms and worse.
And this man brought in many people.
Many, many people, through chain migration, it's called.
So these are all Democrat principles that are no good for our country.
They're hurting our country.
And if we did what we had to do, you would bring crime down in half in our country because so much of it comes through our southern border.
Honduras is doing nothing for us.
Guatemala is doing nothing for us.
El Salvador is doing nothing for us.
And we pay them hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
But we're going to be stopping pretty soon.
In fact, we're looking at it right now.
We don't want to do it.
Because when caravans form in the middle of a country, the country can very easily stop those caravans from forming very easily.
I actually think they encourage the caravans because they want to get rid of the people from their country and certain people.
A lot of gang members are there.
In the last caravan, we had 618 people with criminal records and some of them very serious records.
I won't soon forget the man that was interview where he wanted some kind of pardon or whatever when he came into the country and the network person said, well, what did you do?
And he said, murder or something to that effect.
And goes, whoa, murder.
Well, we have, that's what we have.
We have a lot of very dangerous people that want to come into our country.
We're not letting them in.
We want people to come in based on merit.
We want people to come in that can help us successfully run all these companies that are pouring into the United States because of what we've done and because of all of the incentives, Steve, that we've given.
And because this is where the action is.
Steve Moore is one of the great financial gurus, and he would tell you how well we're doing as a country.
But we have a lot of people that really we need.
We have the lowest unemployment rate we've had in much more than 50 years.
African American, with Asian American, with Hispanic American.
We have the lowest unemployment rate we've had in the history of our country.
And that's why when you look at the Hispanic polls, I'm up 19%.
And the reason I'm up 19%, I don't even think it's the unemployment.
I think it's the fact that they understand better than anybody what's going on at the border.
And they say that President Trump is the only one that's saying it right, and he's doing what you have to do.
That's why people were so surprised when they saw the poll that just came out where I'm up to 50% with the Hispanic and up 19 points in a short period of time because they get it better than anybody at the border.
They know what's happening at the border and they know it's a big scam.
And the Democrats don't want to stop people.
That means automatically massive amounts of crime.
And we're not going to put up with it.
So Nancy Pelosi, knowing these facts and knowing it's something that she can't win, that she just went out and said, let's cancel for the first time in the history of our country, let's cancel the State of the Union address.
And it's a disgrace.
Just so you know, she uses on the basis of the shutdown, but when she asked me to make the address, formally in writing, most of you have a copy of the letter.
When she asked me to make the address, she did it during the shutdown, well into the shutdown, by a couple of weeks.
So the shutdown was going on.
Now she's blaming the shutdown.
So if it was because of the shutdown, why do you ask that the address be made?
And she asked that the address be made during the shutdown.
And now she's blaming the shutdown.
She also knew...
And we're going to continue our coverage of the president speaking out about Nancy Pelosi canceling the State of the Union in the House chambers.
President saying he's going forward at another venue, maybe not State of the Union.
We haven't gotten the specifics to be announced.
If your local station needs to take this break, feel free.
We will stay with our coverage.
She went to our people and she asked, would it be a security problem?
She knew it wasn't a security problem.
She blamed security.
But she knew it wasn't a security problem.
And she knew that loud and clear.
And she went to the people.
She asked, they said, we have no problem whatsoever.
I just got back from Iraq.
I was very safe in Iraq and I felt very safe.
We had great, great security.
If we can handle Iraq, we can handle the middle of Washington in a very, very spectacular building and a beautiful room that we should be in.
And that's where it's been for a very long time.
So it's a sad thing for our country.
We'll do something in the alternative.
We'll be talking to you about that at a later date.
But I have to say, it's an honor to have these great leaders with us.
And we're going to be talking about shutdown.
We're going to be talking about other things.
And we're going to be talking about outside of this event that we just discussed, how well our country is doing, because we're setting records in so many different ways.
We're setting jobs records.
Right now, at this very moment, we have more people working in the United States than at any time in the history of our country.
Think of that.
That's a big, big statement.
I just had a meeting on drug pricing and various other things.
And prescription drugs, for the first time in history, the history of our country, have gone down in 2018.
So for last year, just got the numbers, for the first time in the history of our country, prescription drug prices have gone down.
They've been like a rocket ship until I got here.
And we have more to do.
They're going to go down further.
But think of that.
For the first time, I say it because you guys don't want to report it, but that's a big thing because drug pricing has been very important to me, as is healthcare.
First time in the history of our country, in 2018, prescription drug prices have gone down.
That's a big number.
You didn't even know that.
I don't think anybody at this table knew that.
Just came out.
So we'll let you know it.
So it's too bad with Nancy Pelosi what she's done.
It's radical Democrats.
They've become a radicalized party.
They really have.
They've become a radicalized party.
I actually think they become a very dangerous party for this country.
If you listen to what they're saying, what they're doing, I think they become a very dangerous, a very, very dangerous party for this country.
I think that Chuck Schumer, sadly, is dominated by the radical left, and he's dominated by Nancy Pelosi.
Very strongly dominated.
He can't move.
He's a puppet.
He's a puppet for Nancy Pelosi, if you can believe that.
But that's what's become, and that's what's happening.
And we're not going to let it happen to our nation.
And we are not going to allow the radical left to control our borders.
Because if they do, you will see crime, you will see drugs, you will see human trafficking like you've never seen ever in the history of our country.
You will never see anything like what you would see.
So we will never let the radical left control our borders.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Are you going to give a speech on Tuesday night?
We'll be announcing what we're doing.
Sir, she said it's not canceled, but that she wants to come to an agreeable date.
So hopefully you agree to a new deal.
We'll see.
Well, it wouldn't be very hard, but that's not what she means.
And it's very sad.
I think it's a very, very bad thing for our country, and it's a horrible precedent.
And we have many positive things to say, but we also have things that we want to turn into positives that are big negatives.
The southern border is a very, very big deal.
It should have been handled by other presidents for many times, just like Israel with the, if you look, moving the embassy to Jerusalem.
Every president talked about it.
Nobody did it until I came along.
Same thing in a certain different way with the southern border.
It should have been stopped a long time ago.
They talked about it.
They had approvals for doing it, and they were unable to pull it off.
Other presidents should have done this.
We're going to do it.
And it's not because I want to, it's because I have no choice.
Because if we don't do it, this country is going to be worse than at any time in our history in terms of drug infestation and in terms of crime.
And our crime numbers are really good, but our crime numbers would be very much better if we had a stopped-up southern border.
And by the way, the caravan now, they're saying, is massive.
The caravan that's coming up, thank you very much, Honduras.
We send Honduras hundreds of millions of dollars and they send us caravans to three of those countries.
And, you know, as I said, we're probably going to be stopping that.
We're working on that right now.
I would stop it because, you know, you have two theories.
You can give more and let them do economic development or you can do less.
I'm of the less theory.
I don't think we should give anything to them.
And we've done this with numerous countries over the world where they're not treating us right.
We have countries that get hundreds of millions of dollars.
They don't even vote for us at the United Nations until we say we're not going to pay you anymore.
Then they immediately vote for us.
But that's not, I don't call that a vote.
So I want to thank everybody very much.
We're going to have a great meeting, and we will have a response to Nancy Pelosi in due course.
But what she's doing to the American people, what she's doing to our Constitution, is a disgrace.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
All right, that's the president saying Speaker Pelosi does not want to hear the truth.
Speaker Pelosi saying that the president is disinvited from the House chamber and the State of the Union address that would be on the 29th.
And then the president went into a passionate defense of what this is all about for him and its life and death and what's going on at the border.
And crime, drugs, human trafficking, if this is allowed to continue, that more people are going to die.
And, you know, it's so funny when you just compare and contrast.
There are things in life worth fighting for.
This is what has always frustrated me and so many of you, I'm sure, about politicians, is they don't go to the mat for what they believe in, what they say they will do.
We saw that with Republicans on the issue of health care.
We'll repeal and we'll replace 65 meaningless show votes during the Obama years.
Then they get their first opportunity to really do it.
Number one, they didn't have a bill ready seven years later.
And then number two, you know, well, maybe I didn't kind of mean all of that the same way.
That's what's missing.
The fact that you will put it all on the line.
He mentioned Israel and moving the capital to Jerusalem.
Every other president makes the promise doesn't do it.
All the battles, debates we had 2006, the Bush years, the 2013, 14, Obama years, all these same Democrats supported building and funding a border wall.
Now because Trump wants to do it, they won't meet with him.
They go on vacation.
They go on, they tried to go on a taxpayer-funded excursion, which would have guaranteed furloughed employees lose a second check.
They won't, a daily invitation with the president of the United States rejected outright.
And I guess they think that this is good politics, but what is it that they're actually fighting for?
And what is the president fighting for?
Well, the president keeps making the case that this is about drugs, 90% of our heroin coming across the southern border.
Now the added, you know, death provider of fentanyl.
Then you add to that, we have cartels and gang members, 4,000 homicides.
We have 10,000 sexual assaults.
We have 100,000 violent assaults, illegal immigrants.
How do you say, look in the eye of an angel mom or dad that lost their kid to an illegal immigrant, one, let's say, that was in prison, and then because of a sanctuary policy, was released for prison, not handed over to ICE, aiding and abetting literally lawbreaking, not complying with federal law, and then resulting in deportation.
If the deportation had actually happened, then the future crimes would not, including murder in some cases.
And the president is saying no choice but to make this country safe.
It is for him, it is life and death.
For Nancy Pelosi, it is about power.
It is about hating Trump more than wanting to help keep the border secure and help the American people and solve the problems we have.
This is what you should love in a president or any politician that is willing to stand and fight and even be willing to lose and go down in a future election fighting to keep the promises they made.
Promises made, promises kept.
On taxes, on the endless, overburdening bureaucracy that we have that is stifling business, gone, promise kept.
Energy independence, promises kept.
And that's only the beginning.
Wait till we open up those pipelines in Anwar and we extend natural gas coverage.
Wait till we create the venue by which we can get our energy, the lifeblood of any economy, over to our allies in Europe.
What is Nancy fighting for?
Nancy's fighting for her job that she doesn't really piss off the radical extremists that now dominate the Socialist Democratic Party.
Because if she even meets with Trump, how do you reject an invitation to meet with the president?
And then how do you claim you care about DREAMers and DACA when in fact the president said, okay, that's what you want.
I'll put it in the bill.
I'll put it on the table.
And then care about furloughed employees, but you're taking an excursion that would have taken you past their next pay deadline, meaning no hope of ever getting to a solution.
Now, the president standing strong is absolutely the right thing to do.
To make it about the American people and about what is the truth, not manufactured.
You can't look in the eyes of a parent that lost their kid to an overdose of heroin, likely coming across the southern border, and say, no, this is manufactured.
You can't look in the eyes of an angel mom and dad and say, no, that's manufactured.
You can't look in the eyes of, you know, what?
We went down to Texas, 642,000 crimes committed against Texans, including violent crimes and murder over a seven-year period when I sat through that security briefing with then Governor Rick Perry.
You know, we have this recent case of an illegal immigrant in Nevada on a, you know, killing four people in a month-long span.
Oh, is that a manufactured issue or is that a real issue?
Now, this is a moment of truth.
Do you want politicians to stand by their words?
Do you want the drug flow from the southern border to stop, the human trafficking to stop?
Do you want the cartels to be stopped?
The gun trafficking to be stopped, the gang members to be stopped.
That's what this is about for the president.
It's life and death.
For Nancy Pelosi, it's about, well, Nancy Pelosi.
Quick break, right back.
More coverage straight ahead.
But I would say this, that the State of the Union speech has been canceled by Nancy Pelosi because she doesn't want to hear the truth.
She doesn't want the American public to hear what's going on.
And she's afraid of the truth.
And the super left Democrats, the radical Democrats, what's going on in that party is shocking.
I know many people that were Democrats and they're switching over right now and they're switching over quickly.
So I hope they know what they're doing for their party.
So far, they haven't.
All right, that was the president just moments ago reacting to Nancy Pelosi saying no to the State of the Union address.
Remember her first attempt at canceling this, she said, oh, out of security concerns.
There were no security concerns.
She never contacted the Department of Homeland Security.
She never contacted at all the Secret Service.
They on their own went out with statements saying, no, we're prepared to fully do our job and are completely confident in our ability to do our job as we always have done.
And this is really about the president, life and death, the violence that is associated with the border, cartels, gangs, 90% of heroin, right on down the line.
Versus what is Nancy fighting for?
She's not fighting for anything except to disagree with Trump and to appease the radical extremist new base which represents the Socialist Democratic Party.
Now, we're going to get to our Freedom Caucus friends in a second.
I just want to remind you, constitutionally, I see some questions have come up from some people.
It's Article 2, Section 3, the executive branch, the State of the Union convening Congress, that he shall, meaning the President, from time to time give the Congress information of the state of the Union and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.
And he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both houses or either of them.
And in case of disagreement between them with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper, and he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers.
And he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed and shall commission all of all the officers of the United States.
I noticed some people asking the question that, well, if the president is it actually a state of the union if the president doesn't do it in the House chambers, I think it's pretty clear from Article 2, Section 3 that the term state of the union is pretty clear.
All it really says is the president shall from time to time give the Congress information on the state of the union.
The method here is not prescribed in any way.
State of the Union messages, you know, were long hand-delivered and read by a congressional clerk.
That changed, by the way.
The term state of the union wasn't given by a president until FDR in 1934, if you want the history of it.
The annual speech formally designated State of the Union in the mid-40s, but it's possible Congress could argue it wasn't a state of the union.
But again, that's not prescribed either from time to time.
There's no specific timeframe in here.
But as the president said, it's a terrible precedence, and it's a horrible precedent and a bad thing.
No reason not to.
Joining us now, we have Mark Meadows.
He's the chairman of the Freedom Caucus.
Andy Biggs, also a Freedom Caucus member, and he is, of course, from Arizona, where they deal with a lot of issues involving the border.
I've been down there 13, around 13, 14 times myself.
Chairman Meadows, your thoughts on what just unfolded there and the president saying looking for an alternative.
He did not say he wouldn't do it.
He just said that they're in the process of looking for an alternative.
Well, Nancy Pelosi has been really exposed in all of this, Sean.
As you can tell, she was in a shutdown when she originally invited him.
Then she described it as a security concern.
Both of those were false statements.
I mean, when you look at inviting the president of the United States, this is all about a political statement, making sure that the president doesn't have a venue in the people's house to address the nation.
So, you know, hopefully, you know, he finds an alternative spot.
Maybe Andy Biggs' home state of Arizona would be a perfect place to give a State of the Union address.
What do you think, Andy Biggs?
Sean and Mark, thanks for the shout out.
I think that Arizona would be the perfect place for a state of the union.
We're dealing with the border crisis every day down there.
And the reality is this is a political stunt on the part of Nancy Pelosi.
I mean, we know that because, I mean, I've talked to some Democrats.
They had the audacity to tell me, well, we just don't want President Trump's tone, or we don't want to hear from him.
But you know what?
This is the annual way it's become a tradition where the people can have access to all three branches of government coming together to show the world that at least on this way we're unified in the Constitutional Republic of America.
You've got the judiciary branch there, the president, the executive branch there, and the legislative branch there.
This is a travesty.
But you'll also welcome Arizona.
Let me tell you what the media would do then.
The media is going to take the Democrat side.
You know, manufactured crisis.
You know, and this is the point.
They wouldn't air it if the president said, gave it in another location.
Now, maybe if it's in an official location and all the Democrats are invited anyway and Republicans are invited anyway, I think then it will get more difficult, especially after what happened with BuzzFeed in Covington, Kentucky.
But my guess is that if the president did a rally, they wouldn't cover the rally.
They don't want to cover the president saying bad things about fake news and telling the truth about them.
You know, what this really comes down to, though, Mr. Chairman, is Mark Meadows is with us.
It really comes down to one thing.
Do you believe this is life and death and a humanitarian crisis?
Are there things in life, you know, we always say we want politicians to fight for what they promise.
We always say we want them to be tough and stand on principle.
That's what I see the president is standing on here.
90% of heroin, cartels, drug dealers, murder, sexual assault.
Again, it's 1 or 2 percent, but it happens.
Angel moms and dads are not looking at this as a manufactured crisis.
You know, parents that lose their kids to drug overdoses are not looking at this as a manufactured crisis.
And that, to me, life and death is worth fighting for, putting aside whatever the political consequences end up being.
Congressman.
Well, Sean, you're exactly right.
I can tell you, I looked in the faces of moms and dads who had lost children to illegal immigrants coming across our southern border.
And I can tell you, it was just one of the most heart-wrenching moments I've had where you see the tears still well up in those parents' faces and in their eyes.
And yet, we're somehow suggesting that the president is manufacturing this crisis.
I can tell you that it is a real crisis.
Andy Biggs knows it.
He lives in a border state.
But I know it, and I live in North Carolina because you continue to see it each and every day.
This president is not going to turn his back on the angel moms or dad, and he is staying resolved.
And, you know, you talk about mainstream media covering this.
What if the president were to make an announcement he was taking executive action on the border that particular night?
I'd hate to be the mainstream media that didn't cover his speech on Tuesday night, wherever it may be from.
Well, I mean, listen, I agree with you, and I think the American people, though, see something in Donald Trump that is rare.
Look, I've often said, and I mean this in all sincerity, that but for the Freedom Caucus, I don't have a lot of hope in Washington or the swamp or the sewer or the politicians that are there.
And what makes the Freedom Caucus distinct is you didn't take show votes, 65 of them or so, on repeal and replace of health care.
And then when it really mattered and you could have passed a plan, all of a sudden many of those same Republicans were afraid to take the position and act and fulfill a promise.
That is crucial.
Mark Meadows, to me, if you want to be a leader and you make promises, you better keep them.
You better not tell your kids you're going to take them to Disney.
If they get straight A's, they get straight A's.
And then you say, never mind.
If you say we're going to repeal and replace, you do it.
If you say you're going to secure the border and build the wall, you do it.
I think people, he is changing how people will see politics now, I think, forever, because there's a fearlessness here and a commitment to that promise.
I think this is a great moment for the country.
Well, I agree, Sean, and I can tell you that this president, you and I both know it.
He means what he says.
And what's happening is, is all of Washington, D.C., and indeed the country, is taking notice.
They're saying, well, surely he's going to back down.
That's not this president.
That's not what Andy Biggs and Mark Meadows and other members of the Freedom Caucus were elected to Congress to do.
It never hurts, as Jim Jordan would say, it never hurts to do what you told the people back home you would do.
And that's what we have to be serious about.
And I think, Andy Biggs, especially in a state like yours where you're on the front lines of seeing all of this.
I've been from the Rio Grande, San Diego many times on the border in Arizona.
And, you know, have you been to those drug warehouses?
I've described it.
What do you see when you go down to the border?
Yes, Sean.
As a matter of fact, I just took eight congressmen with me last Sunday and Monday so they could see some had never been to the border.
And, you know, it is a real crisis.
We actually were standing there and watched a fellow hop the fence and get apprehended right there at the border.
Our Border Patrol agents are underfunded.
We don't have walls.
We can point to all kinds of places where it's wide open spaces, people coming across.
It is a real crisis, humanitarian.
It's a drug corridor right down there through the Tucson sector.
And people like Mark Meadows, the Freedom Caucus guys, we're committed to doing what we said we'd do.
And I'm really pleased to say every indication we get from the White House is that President Trump is also committed to building the wall that he promised he'd build.
And that, you know what?
I heard an angel mom say this to my group.
She said, you know what, with a wall, you may not catch them all, but with no wall, you won't catch any.
That's where we are.
I can't understand for the life of me how they make an argument.
Mark Meadows, they supported the wall in the Obama years and funding it at even a higher rate.
How do you say it's manufactured when real drugs, real lives are being lost, real crimes are committed?
I sat in a security briefing, Congressman Meadows, with Rick Perry, governor at the time.
And in a seven-year period, I played the tape many times on TV, 642,000 crimes committed against Texans.
Now, some of them were small crimes, but others were murder and rape.
And drugs was paramount in a lot of those crimes.
I don't know how you put your head in the sand and not see this as a crucial moment for Americans, families, and their security.
Well, you have to look at it that way, Sean.
I think you're exactly right.
Most of these Democrats that are really pushing back the hardest are people who have voted for border fencing not once, but twice, and some of them even three times.
And yet it's because it's President Trump's border wall or fence that they don't want to support it.
But I can tell you that the people across America, your listeners right now, they know that we have to secure our border.
We have to secure our communities and that drugs and gangs are a direct result of not having a secure border.
And Andy Biggs, how many families have you met that have lost loved ones?
I've met dozens of families who've lost loved ones.
I mean, the count is great, and that's with those who've been killed.
I've also met others victims of the crime.
And we're not even talking, Sean, about all of the identity theft which goes along with illegal aliens crossing the border.
It is rampant.
You know, it really is rampant.
Now, you know the Ronabek family.
Let me give you one example.
Steve Ronnebeck, well, he was on radio many times.
He's been on TV.
His son Grant literally is working overnights.
He's 21, two years old, working overnight in a convenience store.
A guy that had already, illegal immigrant, held a woman hostage for over a week, two weeks, raping her brutally.
The guy serves his sentence, and lo and behold, guess what?
They released him, and he goes out and kills this young man who has all of his life ahead of him, destroys.
I mean, what parent is ever going to be the same if they lose their kid like that?
And for what when we can prevent it?
Yeah, you know, that's a sad case.
Steve is a good friend, and Grant, I mean, we would have Grant today.
Altamorano, who is the guy, he should never have been let loose back in the streets of the United States.
You know, and, you know, the same goes with, you know, Mary Ann Mendoza's, who I think you know, and her son.
I mean, this thing goes, it happens over and over again.
And these are preventable tragedies, preventable crimes.
So, you know, sometimes we say that things can't be prevented.
Here, there are clear ways to prevent this kind of crime from happening.
All right, last word, Mark Meadows.
Yeah, Sean, I want all those that are listening out there, our Border Patrol agents, our ICE agents, and many of our federal employees who literally have called to encourage us to hold firm and let the president hope for them.
I want to let them know that we've got their balance, the president has their ballot, and at the end of this, we're going to secure our country.
We're going to make sure they get their bank pay, but we're going to give them the resources to make sure that we have a safe America once again.
Yeah, I see Nancy really cares.
She's invited every day to the White House.
I see she really, really cares about, let's see, furloughed employees and really cares about angel moms and dads and, oh, Dreamers and DACA, because all of that was put on the table by the president.
Stay right here for our final news roundup and information overload in the final hour of the Sean Hannity Show.
I'm up 19%.
And the reason I'm up 19%, I don't even think it's the unemployment.
I think it's the fact that they understand better than anybody what's going on at the border.
And they say that President Trump is the only one that's saying it right, and he's doing what you have to do.
That's why people were so surprised when they saw the poll that just came out where I'm up to 50% with the Hispanic and up 19 points in a short period of time because they get it better than anybody at the border.
They know what's happening at the border, and they know it's a big scam.
And the Democrats don't want to stop people.
That means automatically massive amounts of crime.
And we're not going to put up with it.
So Nancy Pelosi, knowing these facts and knowing it's something that she can't win, that she just went out and said, let's cancel for the first time in the history of our country.
Let's cancel the State of the Union address.
And it's a disgrace.
All right, that was the president responding to Nancy Pelosi's letter disinviting the president for the State of the Union address.
Now, remember, first time, first letter was, oh, for security reasons.
But of course, she never checked with the Secret Service or the Department of Homeland Security.
Now it says no, because the government shut down.
But she's been too busy on vacation.
Her colleagues have been too busy on junkets.
She has tried to set off on excursions that would take her out of town for over a week at a time, which guarantees furloughed employees never get their check back.
And this now could go on for some time.
We have some news in that department: the president very clearly is now, and this just came in, that the White House, according to Breaking News, is seeking a list of programs that could be cut if the shutdown lasts into March, according to the Washington Post.
We have some other news, and then we're going to get to your calls here.
I know a lot of you want to weigh in on this today.
North Korea's little rocket man, Kim Jong-un, expressed great satisfaction after receiving a letter from the president as they now prepare for the second summit.
By the way, the same media, same Democrats predicting what?
Oh, that a nuclear war is going to start because the president called Kim Jong-un little rocket man and talked about fire and fury if he kept firing rockets over Japan and threatening Guam and threatening the entire region and kept building a nuclear weapons program.
Who would have thunk it?
You know, my button's better than yours and it works.
Scared everybody, even Kim Jong-un, and then the success there, or the success and the promise kept in Jerusalem as it relates to the capital and so in the embassy.
How many other presidents promised and then were afraid to do it?
And then the other promises: well, let's make NATO pay their fair share.
Why are we paying 72 cents of every dollar?
And Angela Merkel is making deals to make the hostile regime of Russia and the hostile actor Putin rich again with billions of dollars in energy deals with them.
How stupid is that?
Or the president renegotiating NAFTA.
Better deal with Canada.
Better deal with Mexico.
Yeah, we'll more than pay for itself, the wall.
As he said to me numerous times in the campaign, and I played for you earlier.
In other news, just quickly, scary, the lawyer representing the Covington kids, those are the kids literally received a bomb threat after giving celebrities and journalists 48 hours' notice to retract or face lawsuits.
It's going to be fun watching that list of retractions.
Anyway, an investigation is underway.
There was a suspicious package now found at the diocese of Covington.
Emergency crews called to the diocese.
Catholic, what they have is a diocese where usually the bishop is.
And under the auspices of the diocese, you have different schools of which I'm sure this Covington Catholic High School is a part of.
Anyway, the emergency crews were called to the Diocese of Covington on Wednesday to investigate a report of suspicious packages.
And in fact, they evacuated.
It was underway as of about an hour ago.
And when we get new information, we'll bring that to you.
I want to say one other thing, though, as it relates to the president and his constitutional power.
I want to remind you of something.
This is a, in spite of the forces against this president, the deep state, we now learned, wow, so many things about the upper echelon at the FBI, DOJ.
What did we learn last week with Bruce Orr's testimony?
And we learned, oh, that he warned everybody in the FBI about Hillary's phony Russian dossier created by a Trump hater, Christopher Steele, with dubious sources.
Guy fired for lying and leaking.
And then still, he was trying to funnel information through Bruce Orr to the special counsel long after he was fired for lying and leaking.
And, you know, all of this, all these forces against the president, he's a duly elected president by we, the people, by the people of this country.
And I've reminded you many times that this assault against the president to undermine him, delegitimize him, you know, these forces that I talk about, the Democratic Party, you know, Nancy Pelosi's not motivated by any principle here except she hates Donald Trump.
And she wants to keep her job and not, because the House is so radical, so extreme, socialist Democrat, she knows they'll throw her out as speaker in 10 seconds.
So this is self-preservation for her.
We know that the president has kept and fought for every promise he's made, and he's fulfilled them as many as he can.
And we got a guy that's now actually fighting tooth and nail to build the wall, which is one of his promises, big promises, just like he fought for the biggest tax cut, just like he promised and fulfilled the deregulation, which has been stifling and a stranglehold that's had on business in America, just like negotiating new trade deals.
Look at Canada.
Look at Mexico.
Look at our European partners.
Look at China almost daily now because their economy is slowing down offering concessions to the president on tariffs on cars and on food and farmers' subsidy and on buying American products, whatever it happens to be.
I've never seen anything like it.
We all say we want principled leadership in our politicians.
We want them to fight to keep their promises.
What was I so angry about with the Republicans?
Repeal and replace.
And when it mattered, the 65 meaningless show votes, you know, were for show.
Because when it mattered, they cut and run.
No spine, no courage, no backbone.
It was all about, you know, they were worried more about how it would affect them.
So we now have a president that's fighting and leading and trying to fulfill a promise who believes, as I do, this is life and death.
How do you talk to angel moms and dads or moms and dads or anybody, frankly, that loses a family member to heroin, 90% of it coming across the southern border, now fentanyl and other drugs.
And again, the 2%, you know, I don't have a problem with people coming into this country.
The 98% of people, they want a better life.
The 2% are dangerous to every American.
So Nancy does this for no principle cause except hating the president, and which, of course, the media does and the deep state does and never Trumpers do, etc.
It's amazing.
I mean, look at the president's promises on judges.
He went further today with that promise, pointing what, making 51 more appointments.
But Article 2, Section 3 matters.
Our rule of law, its foundations are our Constitution.
And Article 2 on the executive branch, Section 3, State of the Union.
Let me just read this to you a little slower than I did the last time, in the last hour.
He, meaning the president, shall from time to time give to the Congress, no set date here, information of the state of the union and shall recommend to their consideration such measures as he, the president, shall judge necessary and expedient.
Now, listen to this, because this is where it gets interesting.
He may on extraordinary occasions convene both houses or either of them.
Well, that would mean he could do this in the Senate.
And in case of disagreement between them with respect to the time of adjournment, he that would be the president may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper.
He shall receive ambassadors, other public ministers.
He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed and shall commission all the officers of the United States.
Now, I don't know what the president's going to do here, but I do know this.
That's pretty clear he can overrule her.
Constitution is clear.
Now, what is Nancy fighting for here?
For her radical, extreme base in her party in Congress, for her own power?
What is the president fighting for in this?
Safety and security of the American people.
Where's Nancy been?
Well, she went to Hawaii.
He stayed home.
He's invited Democrats almost every day and invitation after invitation rejected by the Democrats.
They won't even sit and talk.
The president has even, on Saturday, said, okay, let me sweeten the pot.
You care about DACA, you care about DREAMers.
I'll add that to the mix on top of the border.
Let's make a deal.
Still, before he even mentioned what he was offering, they rejected it outright.
They won't meet with him.
They won't negotiate.
Things that they believed in just a few short years ago with Obama in his second term, now they outright reject because their hatred of him supersedes their desire to help the so-called furloughed employees, well, not so-called, they're furloughed employees and get them back to work or the drugs that are coming across the country.
You know, why do we talk so much about opioids?
Because it's impacted everyone listening to my voice right now, every one of you knows somebody.
Maybe it's a neighbor.
Maybe it's an immediate family member.
Maybe it's a distant cousin.
Maybe it's somebody's son or daughter at work.
Everybody knows somebody because it's happening in every single town and city, big and small in this country.
That's a national emergency to me.
Standing up for the safety, security of the country is important.
One other thing about Article 2, Section 3: President shall, from time to time, remember, the method of the president is not prescribed here.
You know, and if you want some history on it, you know, there used to be State of the Union messages.
They were hand-delivered and read by the congressional clerk.
You know, the term state of the union wasn't given by a president until FDR, 1934.
And that speech was formally designated the State of the Union in the mid-40s.
Now, it's possible Congress could argue it wasn't state of the union if they at least never get a written report from the White House.
But other than that, you know, the question is to whether or not the State of the Union, if the president doesn't go to Capitol Hill but speaks elsewhere.
I think the Constitution is clear that he can go to one house or the other.
That he can also, you know, decide the time of adjournment.
In cases of disagreement between them with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper.
He shall receive ambassadors, other public ministers.
And, you know, I wonder if at the State of the Union, when it happens, I wonder if he's going to bring angel moms and dads and then say to them, you know, and ask them.
I know with all the breaking news we have, a lot of you want to talk.
Apparently, Kevin is in Kentucky and has an update on the evacuation of the diocese of Covington.
This, of course, where the Catholic high school is.
Kevin, welcome to the show.
What do you got?
Hey, Sean, thanks for taking my call.
It appears that they've evacuated the diocese offices and the church for suspicious packages.
Covington Catholic is actually up the street from the diocese.
It's about a three-minute drive, but there is a school, Covington Latin, that is right next to the diocese offices.
But we don't know if it's a real suspicion.
It's just suspicious.
We don't know anything about it beyond that, right?
They've said suspicious packages.
That's all that they've packages plural because I read package.
One news station said packages, but it could be one package.
Yeah, look, we're in no race to report first here.
We always want to get it accurate.
So, you know, but either way, I do like what the lawyer has said for the families to these Hollywood actors and actresses that want to punch this poor kid in the face and every other horrible thing that they've said.
I'm giving you 48 hours to retract and apologize.
I wouldn't give him 48 seconds.
I wouldn't, because it's not sincere.
You know, the only one I think that might have been sincere was Jamie Lee Curtis because she did it on her own.
She did it immediately.
Once she realized, oh, man, I fell for it.
You know, that was the proper thing to do.
Kevin, everybody there is in our thoughts and prayers.
I'm so sorry you're all going through this.
And we wish you all the best.
When we come back, a lot more calls coming up.
800-941-Sean.
What will the president do constitutionally?
He has options.
And he said an announcement will be forthcoming.
When that happens, we'll bring that to you live.
Your call's coming up next.
Sean Hannity Show.
All right, as we continue, a lot of breaking news.
This is an interesting, I think, remark by Newt Gingrich.
He put out.
And basically, it's amazing that Speaker Pelosi refuses to put the State of the Union invitation to a vote.
She clearly knows the House would override her.
She's being petty, obviously, and doing so.
You know, I got to say one thing.
I'm not even so sure.
There probably would be enough Democrats that do this.
Now, I read over the Constitution twice now.
I'm not going to do it again.
Article 2, Section 3, the President has the authority to go through with this.
President can do it in the Senate.
But to see the reasoning, the rationale behind this is key.
This is about her hating him, the new radical, extreme socialist Democratic Party.
They're like the media and BuzzFeed.
They're so blinded by their hatred of Donald Trump and all things Trump.
So blinded by it that they can't even see that this is now a president saying drugs, life, death matter to me more than whether I'm going to speak in the House chambers for the State of the Union.
And it's too important, and we need to save lives.
And fundamentally, that's what he was elected to do.
A duly elected president.
Now, she's elected, but she's elected by, oh, other Democrats.
Barely, by the way, if we're going to be honest, you barely got through.
So, all right, let's get to our phones.
Jim is in Raleigh, North Carolina.
What's up, Jim?
How are you?
Glad you called, sir.
Hey, Sean, thank you.
Thanks for the political grunt work that you do every day.
Thank you.
Pelosi just handed the president a golden opportunity.
Of course, he should take it.
Do you realize what this looks like?
Is she literally has handed the mantle to Trump, and he should take it and run with it.
Absolutely.
You say just go do it because of his constitutional authority to do so.
Yeah, that's exactly right.
You know what's going to happen to him?
Look, I honestly, I just love this fact that somebody that we sent to Washington, you know, he's the opposite of a politician.
For example, every politician tries to hide their, how do you say it, their other self.
You know, they always make the perfect pitch presentation.
You know, everything is thought out.
They never are real.
He's not like that.
He wears who he is on his sleeve.
But the one thing, you know, people say, well, I don't like that he writes on Twitter.
I'm like, well, the same guy that, you know, writes on Twitter and fights with people is the same guy fighting now to stop drugs from coming into our country and to prevent bad people from getting into the country.
And that is what we say we want all the time from elected officials, right?
Now we got it.
That's exactly right.
That's exactly right.
So can you imagine if he was in a venue in a city or whatever?
Sean, that crowd would be on their feet the entire speech.
What do you think they're going to do in Washington?
There's so much distraction and so much dysfunction going on in D.C. right now.
Take it to the people.
It is, after all, a state of the union speech, right?
It's not a state of Nancy Pelosi's mind speech.
Right?
Well, it's not a state.
It is.
I'll tell you what would happen.
You want my prediction, by the way?
You know who's going to be putting a box in that moment?
And I actually think it will happen.
It's going to be fascinating to watch.
The news media.
Remember, they're tight at the hip.
Manufactured crisis.
The Democrats say it, they say it.
What's the media going to do?
Well, it's not the way we usually do the State of the Union.
Should we cover it?
My guess is I'd predict they probably would go with Pelosi.
How sad is that?
Or they might know that that is a bridge too far, especially after BuzzFeed.
You know, they have been exposed.
They will never, it will never die down, the branding of fake news, ever.
Anyway, go ahead.
You got the last word.
Whoever carries that speech on, the ratings are going to go through the roof for that speech and for that night.
I guarantee it.
Special edition of Hannity.
I'll cover it live.
No problem.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Welcome to Hannity.
We now go to the president.
Yeah.
What?
I said, keep up the great work.
Absolutely.
That would be great.
All right, Jim, I love all my friends in North Carolina.
I have a lot of friends in North Carolina and South Carolina and Florida.
I do.
I mean, just whatever.
North Carolina in particular.
So there's a group called, Linda found this, ConstitutionCenter.org.
Can the House delay the State of the Union address?
They actually raise it as a question after the letter that Pelosi said, et cetera, et cetera.
And I just read you the Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution, which is the applicable clause of which we are discussing here.
It says, it's commonly understood that the latter part of the passage about the president's ability to convene Congress on extraordinary occasions is usually related to the presidential power to bring Congress back in session during a recess or adjournment.
And the Justice Department website, they point out, includes an opinion from Assistant Attorney General George T. Washington from about 1947 about President Harry Truman's requests for Congress to deal with domestic legislation during an adjournment after, in fact, they had at the time, you know, questioned the constitutionality of Truman's requests.
Well, the president has the power under Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution to call a special session of the Congress during a current adjournment.
Washington concluded.
The last such session was July 26, 1948, after Truman issued a presidential proclamation convening Congress.
And they write, their opinion is, while it's unclear the president could compel Congress to convene a joint meeting to hear a State of the Union speech during a congressional session, well, Reagan did delay his 1986 State of the Union speech, which was scheduled on the same day as the Challenger disaster.
But the custom since 1913 has been for the president to appear before a joint session of Congress for the State of the Union address.
But you go back again to Article 2, Section 3, that, you know, he may, meeting the president on extraordinary occasions, convene both houses, meaning he.
Doesn't say she, says he.
Or either of them, meaning the House or the Senate.
But read the last paragraph.
I'm getting there.
Okay.
And in the case of disagreement between them with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper, and he shall receive ambassadors, et cetera, et cetera.
Now, let me get to the last line.
Just the last paragraph.
But given the letter's wording.
Okay.
But, and then it goes on.
But given the letter's wording, I'll go right where you want me to go.
Thank you.
It is unclear what would happen if the president insisted on giving the traditional speech to Congress on January 29th.
In any event, it's clear under Article 2, Section 3, that the President does have the ability to tell Congress about the state of the Union in a way he sees fit.
He's also, and also there is implied duty for the President to report on the state of the Union.
Now, granted, they did it different ways in the past.
They would just send over a letter, let the clerk read it.
That's not the custom.
Now, this is going to be fascinating because I got to tell you something.
I can see Donald Trump doing any of those things.
Tell you what he's not going to do.
I mean, if you listen to the president today, and I don't know how it's all ultimately going to play out, I really don't.
One way or the other, he's fighting to the end to get the money for the wall.
Now, either Congress is going to eventually say, all right, give us this and this, and we'll take this, and they settle in the middle, whatever, or he's going to declare a national emergency.
Probably have to fight through the courts.
There'll be a series of court-shopping cases, probably California, Oregon, anything that's going to drive it to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which later will make it to the Supreme Court where they have like an 85% overturn rate.
They're overturned by higher courts, by the Supreme Court.
Fascinating times, really are.
Amazing.
Imagine a politician looking at this issue for what it is, life and death, and about safety and security.
What is Nancy looking out for?
What does Nancy want?
Mark, San Diego, what's up, Mark?
How are you?
Sean, you're a great American patriot.
Well, you too, sir.
Thank you.
I think the best way to describe Nancy Pelosi's blatant dishonesty is with her own words.
Little before the Affordable Care Act was actually passed, she said, let's pass it so everyone can find out what's in it.
That's such a great point, isn't it?
It's going to be very, very exciting.
But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.
I think we ought to pass the legislation for the wall.
Find out what's in it.
Absolutely.
Well, you sold me.
You know, I think you just need to call the president and tell him.
Well, I think you might have an error.
I don't know.
I keep reading about all that all the time.
You know what's amazing?
Everyone that says about this president, and Mark, thank you.
Good call in San Diego.
I love San Diego.
Cogo Radio is awesome.
Everyone says, well, they write these articles.
Well, Hannity talks to the president.
I need to confirm.
This is what my typical answer.
I neither confirm nor deny if I talk to friends, sources, anybody.
And when the paper or whatever, the reporter, I say, well, why don't you tell me who your sources are and tell me what they tell you, if in fact, or your friends?
It's none of their business who I talk to.
Never going to confirm or deny that.
But I will say this.
The president was so influenced by other people.
I know back during the campaign, I told him not to tweet a number of times.
A lot of influence I got there, huh?
All right, back to our phones.
Let's say hi to Thomas is in Plano, Texas.
What's up, Thomas?
How are you?
Hey, Sean.
Thanks for taking my call.
Hey, I think that the president should pick a Midwestern plan, invite only us deplorables, and leave the pampered politicians at home.
Well, you got to go directly to the text of the Constitution.
Remember, State of the Union, from time to time, give Congress information of the State of the Union.
So Congress has to be involved.
Now, it can be one chamber or the other, you know, convene both houses or either of them.
So it has to involve one of the, in my view, because then the press will say, well, it's not directly given to Congress, and therefore we're not going to carry it.
And they do anything.
Yeah, go ahead.
He could do a letter.
He could do a letter.
A letter to them, and they're able to watch it on TV just like the rest of us.
So it would be to them if they choose not to watch it, it'll be the same as them choosing not to show up.
It's a good point, too.
I mean, but you also have, remember, we're at a point in time where, you know, we communicate very differently than we once did, and you can communicate that way.
Interesting.
You know, we'll see.
Thanks for the call, Thomas.
Let's see.
Let's stay in Texas.
Can I interrupt for one second?
I just want to make sure everybody knows.
You didn't ask of you.
Can I interrupt for one second?
I want to make sure everybody knows.
Well, you nodded at me.
I'm claiming my time.
You nodded at me.
Claiming my time.
Better to ask forgiveness than permission.
Yes, you're not.
I do a combination effect.
On Hannity.com, we're taking a little poll on what folks think the president should do.
So people can go to Hannity.com and vote on Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution.
Just let us know what you think.
Okay.
That's it.
That message brought to you by Hannity.com.
Let's say hi to Ben in Texas.
What's up, Ben?
Hello, Sean.
I'm retired from ICE, and what I think is totally deplorable is when the action of Ms. Pelosi had a Republican did this to a Democratic president, there'd be such an outcry of disdain for that action.
100% right.
You're 1,000% right.
There's a double standard.
We know that.
Right.
Putting the wall.
Hey, El Paso is one of the safest cities.
Yeah, we do have a wall here.
Not the wall that, like they have out in Arizona, where you, or excuse me, out in New Mexico, we can toss stuff across and come in.
You're right.
Well, I got to tell you something.
Listen, you can't do better if, in fact, walls work and we know because we have it in other locations.
That's the point.
Anyway, how long did you work for ICE?
All total government service, 35 years, 11 months, and 29 days.
Wow.
Wow.
Thank you for your service.
How did you like Kamala Harris saying, you know, there's a perception that ICE is like the Ku Klux Klan?
Like, what?
I consider the source, unfortunately.
But can I make one suggestion, though?
Real quick.
Trump can do, hey, it's called video teleconferencing.
You put up a big TV in the House, a big TV in the Senate, and he does it straight there from the Oval Office.
Nobody has to worry about Pelosi's worry on security.
Listen, there are ways he can have fun with this.
But on the other hand, I like the fact that he's standing on the principle that this is life and death.
And it is.
And it's life and death for a lot of people.
And it's safety and security.
Life, death, safety, security.
What's Nancy standing for?
Her power and to hate Trump.
All right, we'll have the very latest on all of this tonight, watching the situation in Covington and the president and the state of the union.
Nine Eastern Hannity Fox, thanks for being with us.
See you back here tomorrow.
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