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Although we start with some bad news at the beginning of the program today as we speak.
We are watching a massive fire that has broken out at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Watching just a couple hours ago, maybe an hour and a half ago, the spire of this great cathedral literally collapsing.
And uh what we're hearing, this we were in the middle of a renovation project.
We know that for sure because we saw the scaffolding surrounding the spire.
And clearly there was some work being done.
Uh we're told that everybody that was inside of the cathedral at the time has been evacuated as soon as it began.
Um I mean, the pictures, you just it's so out of control.
There's there's no hope that this cathedral is going to be saved.
It's eight hundred and seventy years old.
It was uh Notre Dame, which means, quote, Our Lady was built in 1160, completed by 1260.
It'd been modified uh on a number of occasions throughout the centuries, and uh its cathedral is the Archdiocese of Paris, visited by more than 12 million people every year, and you know, watching the enormous plumes of smoke billowing into the city skyline.
Uh firefighters clearly are doing everything possible that they can do.
Uh the almost immediately thereafter, they thought it was related to the renovation work.
I have heard there are some French politicians.
I know one was just on Fox suggesting it might be something else, but it's way too early to go there until we have any type of confirmation.
But certainly, you know, we want to get to the bottom of whatever the truth is, and we'll wait, watch, and see.
But um apparently there'd been a series, I guess, of fires in some other churches around uh Paris uh that he was referring to.
Uh we'll look into that as the program unfolds here.
Uh 800-941 Sean is our number.
I don't know how many of you watched Tiger Woods this weekend, but that was one of the most phenomenal sporting events I think I've ever witnessed in my life.
I was uh texting earlier with Jim Gray, who works over at CBS.
He and Jim Nance, uh Jim Gray doing the radio broadcast for CBS, and uh Jim Nance, the I could tell in Jim Nance's voice.
Well, I think he's one of the best sports play-by-play guys ever, and he has this versatility.
He can do a number of sports, well known for what he does with golf and the masters in Augusta, and uh to watch Tiger Woods complete his comeback.
He came back last year a couple of times.
I mean, I was nervous watching him putt.
I didn't know it was just one of those moments.
Didn't you watch it?
Thought it was great, right?
Yeah, I mean, in Sunday, he wasn't particularly good on Sunday.
He was great on Saturday.
He was he was putting like he hasn't put it in a decade.
He played lights out Saturday.
He played smart on Sunday.
No, well, listen, I think it was uh the par five, he went for it in two, got there, great second shot, two putts, gets the birdie.
He was smart on the eighteenth hole because he knew he had a stroke to play with that all he needed was a five, so he didn't use driver on eighteen.
And then he knows that course like the back of his hand.
Oh, look at the par three eight-iron shot that he hit was you know a tapping.
I thought that ball was gonna go in the hole.
I thought he was gonna have a hole in one at one point.
It was uh you know, it's great to see.
I know everyone loves redemption stories, and obviously he'd been through so much publicly in his life, both his personal life and the injuries that he suffered.
I mean, his body, you know, it's four back surgeries.
Yeah, I mean, it's like everyone thinks the golf and tennis like they used to.
You know, watch the how hard they hit a served today.
Watch John Isner.
You know what I want to do with John Isner, he's a friend, I've become friends with him.
He serves uh a hundred and fifty-five, he's once served 155 miles an hour.
You know, all right, just imagine any one match, and then you know, if it's a round of 256, you know, you gotta keep playing all the way through the finals.
How many serves you've got to hit?
It's three out of five sets in those major tournaments, and how many practice serves have you got to hit before so you can actually play at that level, and there's so much torque.
You know, I knew a lot of my son's friends, they all got these stress fractures.
Amazingly gifted and talented kids or or disc issues in their teens.
And don't get me started because the stupid USTA overplays these juniors.
They're playing two age groups at once.
You play in local tournaments, and you play higher level local tournaments and two age groups.
Then you get finally into a regional tournament and then a low-rated national tournament, and then after the national tournament, a better national tournament, and they have four supernationals a year.
You don't ever stop playing.
It's like you play every you almost have to play every weekend.
And at some point, you know, then they'll have this is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
They have kids play two single matches a day, and if you're playing singles and doubles, two doubles matches a day.
You know, you imagine look at the torque and the body turn and think of your spine in the process of the way that Dustin Johnson hits a golf ball or Tiger Woods hits a golf ball.
I once actually had the uh honor of watching Dustin Johnson on on the on a practice range.
You you can't follow the ball at some point.
I don't have perfect 2020 vision.
In other words, he hits it so far, and it's got this spin, so it's in a perpetual rising motion that doesn't stop.
It's like defying gravity at some point.
And, you know, all these guys can now drive 300 yards.
Well, there are more.
They're all influenced by Tiger because Tiger was the one that you know he got all bulked up like you never used to see golfers do.
Now all these young guys are.
Well, they were pointing that out.
Jim Nance pointed out.
Well, he's strong and he's physically fit.
And yeah, I mean, look, I'm not trying to make fun of some of the older golf can't hit the ball.
He doesn't want to hit you don't need to hit the ball that far.
Well, no, well, he gets on guile more than power now.
Yeah.
Power used to be his thing.
Listen, the perfect uh example of what you're saying is true is on that par three that he nearly holed.
And he had to tap him.
Well, was that sixteen?
Heading into you know, seventeen and eighteen to win the tournament.
That was an em and that was on the heels of the par five.
They had also birdied because he knows the course so well, you know, knew exactly the distance for his second shot to reach the green in the par five and two.
But again, the the amount the amount of torque in practice, it's like they've got to hit millions of balls in practice, millions of shots to get to the level.
That's why we are in awe of these athletes.
You know, we talk about football players and hockey players getting the crap beaten out of them.
Listen, all these other sports now, it's the same thing.
You're beating up your body.
You're doing things that they never did before.
You can't compete uh in in tennis.
I don't care if you're uh, you know, playing women's tennis, men's tennis, and not serve the ball a hundred and ten miles an hour.
Or else they're gonna crack your serve and they're gonna get a free point every single time.
It's unbelievable.
You know, I remember I have my buddy, I won't mention names.
There's a couple of really good people that I got to know.
One is uh a kid in New Jersey, and he was the number one kid in the country for a while.
He hurt his but his back was hurt for years.
And then another kid out in California, the guy who put on the uh tennis channel, his son, was number one in the country when it was 14 years old.
Both had horrible back injuries.
It's just because the torque.
That's hard to come back from a back injuries.
Well, I mean, it's it's either stress fractures in the back.
I mean, I can identify the names of sixteen kids that I know had stress fractures.
I can identify others with this bulges at that age.
And it's because they're overplaying them.
It's you know, I now they're getting smart.
Look at Tommy John surgery in Major League Baseball.
Right?
Tommy John surgery.
It's they're now doing it to kids.
That's how they're doing it to kids before they get the injury.
It's crazy.
No, but I but the the level of performance now, we keep you know, look at um what's the reliever on the Yankees that throws 100 miles an hour?
Waldo Chapman.
Yeah, Chapman, I mean, and he and he was throwing 97 and the team was upset.
Well, now he used to be the anomaly.
He came into the league for 103.
Now you every team has two guys that can throw 100 miles an hour.
It's crazy.
Yeah.
And then you to get it over that little plate.
Good.
I was a pitcher.
By the way, when I was a pitcher, it was either one or two.
You're either going to get me on a good day or a bad day.
I was either going to strike everybody out or I was going to throw it over the backstop.
There was no in between.
I hope you didn't throw a slider when you were 14, 15 or so that that ruins your elbow.
I used to take the ball like this, throw it, arc it in the back of my head, and come down like that, and I'd aim the ball at the batter's head, and at that age they'd back out.
They'd back away like a right-handed banner.
I'm a right-handed pitcher.
They'd start a fight now doing that.
No, no, no.
They'd back out and it would drop in the strike zone.
That's how I that was my strikeout pitch.
And it worked so good.
It was a sinking curveball.
And yeah, I started throwing it even on the small mound when I was young.
But my elbow's fine.
The only other elbows not because when I fell off a roof, two and a half stories, you know, from my elbow down was totally disconnected from the rest of the arm.
It was dangling there.
And I grabbed, I went, ah!
Ah!
Boom.
And somehow I clicked it back in.
Doctor said that was one in a million shot.
And then for all the years, all my buddies lost teeth in hockey.
Because I played ice hockey, roller hockey, street hockey.
We played everything.
Well, I mean, yes and no.
I mean, if you're a pitcher in baseball, you got to get Tommy John surgery.
You can't, well, it depends what position you play.
Play, you know, shortstop or third base or if you're a relief pitcher, you can be you can hang around good 1500.
No, Mariano Rivera proved that.
He was amazing.
But that's still that's you know and he was an anomaly.
No one's like Mariano Rivera.
And it's just the best fair of watch.
Get yourself a nice three, four year contract for 15 million and you can retire.
Okay.
They don't take fat old guys with gray hair anymore playing, you know, major league baseball.
You remember David Wells, don't you?
Yeah, but I remember he was still feisty in his book.
He was amazing when it came back.
I mean, he was still playing pretty much.
CC Sabatia, it seems like he's got a little stick back, which is good to see.
I always like I always thought he was a great picture pitcher.
Uh anyway, we'll see.
But we're watching a lot of stories today.
We have uh we'll update you.
It is tax day.
I know many of you were miserable.
The only good news out of it is oh, even the New York Times admits most Americans benefited from the Trump tax cut.
That must be killing them.
Leading pro-Democrat investment firm is predicting Trump's reelection victory.
Um we'll give you some of the facts on the economy.
I actually think the president's saying, well, why don't we move all of the illegal immigrants into all of your sanctuary cities, and to watch the Democrats have a fit over that is amazing.
There's still a freak out over the president's tweet of the Omar video about 9-11 with the 9-11 video associated with it.
Um I'm gonna explain exactly what this week is going to be and what you can expect.
They the lying rage, destroy Trump media mob has one quote political bullet in their gun.
Meaning political attack.
So to be clear, everything else is now going to reverse itself in a major way.
And when the attorney general Barr mentioned the word spy on the Trump campaign, he sent a signal.
All of this is now gonna come tumbling down.
Mark Meadows is predicting that there will be criminal referrals with the IG's report.
So I'm gonna explain how this week is gonna evolve before the release of the Mueller report.
But we already know there was no collusion and no obstruction.
We already know the answer.
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So after two and a half years of lying, Tinfoil had conspiracy theories and everything in between.
Well, now we are at the point where the Mueller report is going to be out with some redactions for to secure methods and sources, which are just general.
You can't release grand jury information, uh innocent people's names, etc.
Now, remember the letter that Bill Barr, the attorney general, put out.
And remember what he said.
He said, as the report states, and he quotes the Mueller report.
The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.
Okay, you can't be there's no ambiguity.
That's not Barr's interpretation.
So we want the whole report.
What about obstruction?
Now we got a little insight from law and crime.
Uh apparently, I I always thought it was dumb that the White House counsel, uh Don McGann had spent 30 hours in front of Mueller.
Well if if that's not privileged, I don't know what would be.
And nobody knew what he said, but he said I got finished being yelled at for two years.
Well, that might be some insight into what Don McGann said.
So Don McGann, all right.
Let's say that Don McGahn said we need to fire Robert Mueller.
Okay, that's not obstruction.
We need to fire Comey.
Well, you can fire Comey for any reason or no reason at all, according to Comey.
Or I hope Michael Flynn doesn't get in trouble.
Oh, that'd be terrible.
Uh no, because Michael Flynn is facing a jail sentence perhaps for lying to the FBI.
So he didn't stop that.
What did he stop?
And here's the interesting thing.
In the letter that Barr wrote, he said, over the course of the investigation, we've engaged the offices with they've been this is an ongoing discussions with department officials regarding the legal and factual matters at issue in the special counsel's obstruction investigation.
After reviewing the special counsel's final report, consulting with department officials, office of legal counsel, applying the principles of federal prosecution that guide our decisions.
The attorney general and I concluded evidence developed during the special counsel investigation is not sufficient to establish the president committed any obstruction of justice.
And it wasn't regard to constitutional principles of indicting a sitting prison.
Now, what I'm gonna tell you next is what's gonna happen this week.
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All right, 25 now till the top of the hour.
Still uh watching, waiting.
We don't have a cause.
Apparently it was only five minutes after five to six minutes after the cathedral in Notre Dame in Paris had closed when this fire broke out.
Uh we don't know the reason.
Nobody is really officially given one except that they they think they've linked the the issue to a renovation works.
I I know there's a lot of chatter on the internet.
One particular politician, I guess was on Fox News with Chapp had said something to the effect that maybe he thought otherwise, but we we have no knowledge of any of that at this point.
If we do get it, we'll bring it to you immediately, obviously.
Um, but we know, I mean, this is a cathedral that is 870 years old.
It is viewed, it is I'm sorry, visited by some 12, 13 million people each and every year.
Uh, it was in the middle of a major renovation.
Watching the spire collapse, uh, it uh it had the feeling we were all watching it together.
We knew it was inevitable at some point as it was engulfed completely in flames as the entire cathedral is engulfed in flames.
I mean, even now in the dark sky, you can just see it is all lit up and on fire.
Firemen have been doing their very best.
And anyway, the frame is burning after the spire collapsed, and I don't think there's much they can do really.
I don't think there's any hope of saving anything at this point, which is a shame.
It was actually built in 1160, completed in 1260.
Haven't been modified, obviously, at different points and different times.
Um we'll watch the story and let you know any more details that become available.
So what's happening this week?
They announced on Thursday morning they will be releasing, as was promised, the middle of April by the attorney general that he is going to release the full Muller report with the few redactions.
I'm told it's not really a lot.
My sources are saying maybe 10% or so, which would be well, number one, you can't reveal it's illegal to reveal any grand jury proceedings or testimony.
That that you can't reveal that.
It's unlawful.
So the attorney general is still governed by the laws of the land.
Secondly, yeah, if there are sources and methods that would be compromised, yeah, of course, of course you can't reveal that.
Remember, the Democrats were claiming, well, this is what Devin Nunes did.
This is the first time in history.
Now they're begging for sources and methods to remain, and grand jury testimony, which would be illegal to remain.
Now, the most interesting thing, I'm gonna go over this again, because I think very smartly what the attorney general did.
Remember, he explained that Mueller's investigation, which went on almost two complete years now, had 19 full-time lawyers assisting a team of approximately 40 FBI agents, intelligence analysts, forensic accountants, and other professional staff.
They had issued 2,800 subpoenas, issued almost which is pretty insane.
500 search warrants, obtained more than 230 court orders for communication records, and uh issued almost 50 orders authorizing the use of pen registers and 13 requests to foreign governments for evidence and interviewed approximately 500 witnesses.
One of them, of course, being the White House counsel that Don McGinn, which I'm gonna get to in a second based on a long crime article I read over the weekend.
Anyway, so what they concluded was pretty obvious.
And what he did is he actually took the words as the report states.
Now, this is Russian interference, collusion, if you will, into the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Funny, nobody seems to care that Ukraine is now begging America to take evidence and saying they did collude and they did try to fear interfere in our elections, and they're willing to volunteer the information, and they say they did it to help Hillary Clinton.
Not one person in the media cares.
There's no I believers out there saying what they were saying about Justice Kavanaugh about the attorney general of Virginia.
There's such phony hypocrites on every level.
Anyway, so the special counsel investigation from Barr's initial four-page letter saying that he would release it, and now that'll be Thursday morning this week, did not find that Trump campaign or anyone associated with it, conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
That is now the fourth time that conclusion has been made.
A nine-month FBI investigation is concluded the same.
The House Intel Committee investigation concluded the same.
The Senate bipartisan Intel Committee investigation concluded the same.
And then Barr, the attorney general, says, as it relates to the issue of collusion.
And that is that the investigation did not, this is from Mueller's report.
The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.
Okay, it can't get any more clear on the issue of collusion.
Now, what does that mean?
First of all, it means that your lying media mob, tinfoil hat conspiracy media mob has been wrong for two plus years.
Now, what the media has slowly evolved into is well, they're moving in numerous directions.
They're trying to throw anything against the wall that they think might eventually stick and hurt Trump or justify some ridiculous impeachment effort of theirs.
This has been an epic fail of historic proportions for Democrats and for the media.
So on the issue of obstruction, the special counsel says that the special counsel's decision to describe the facts of his obstruction investigation without reaching any legal conclusion leaves it to the attorney general to determine whether the conduct described in the report constitutes a crime.
Oh, there's our hope.
Well, then it goes on.
Over the course of the investigation, the special counsel's office engaged in discussions with certain department officials regarding many of the legal and factual matters at issue in the special counsel's obstruction investigation.
After reviewing the special counsel's final report on these issues, consulting with department officials, including the Office of Legal Counsel, and applying the principles of federal prosecution that guide our charging decisions.
Well, the deputy attorney general who's been there from day one, the man that appointed.
Robert Mueller himself, Rod Rosenstein, and I, meaning Attorney General Barr have concluded that the evidence developed during the special counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish the president committed an obstruction of justice offense.
Then he makes a disclaimer.
Well, did you make that decision as a result of the constitutional consideration or Justice Department policies that you cannot indict a sitting president?
He said our determination was made without regard to and is not based on the constitutional considerations that surround the indictment of uh and criminal prosecution of a sitting president.
Then he explains, well, how did me and Rod Rosenstein get to this decision?
He said, in making this determination, we noted the special counsel recognized that the evidence does not establish that the president was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference.
In other words, what would the president be obstructing if he's not obstructing a criminal investigation?
For example, people would say because the president kept saying witch hunt.
That's he's obstructing, or that the president in frustration said, you know, this is ridiculous.
We ought to fire Mueller.
I'm sure he expressed things, but many times probably, but he didn't do it, did he?
Or get rid of Rod Rosenstein.
That didn't happen.
Or get rid of Jeff Sessions.
That didn't happen.
Well, he fired Comey.
Okay, he fired Comey before Muller was appointed.
And remember, Comey testified and said I could be fired for any reason whatsoever or no reason at all.
I serve at the pleasure of the president.
So that's not it.
Well, the president wished that Michael Flynn wouldn't get in trouble.
Okay.
Michael Flynn got in trouble.
He did not obstruct a thing.
And so I'm putting together in my mind, there's a couple of articles.
One I think was on Media I think it was a reference in the New York Times.
No, ABC had a tweet that I saw that mentioned Don McGann.
And I said, okay, I never made sense that the White House council spent 30 hours with Robert Mueller to me, anyway.
So he spent 30 years.
Then there was something that, well, he said this weekend or recently that you might be hearing a lot more about me.
I spent the last two years getting yelled at.
Okay.
Ding ding ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding.
Oh.
He doesn't like Trump.
So I'm taking it to the point.
Don McGann will probably be quoted in this thing as saying, oh, he wanted to fire, but it doesn't matter if he wanted to.
He didn't.
I had to talk him out of the president's venting.
Now here's the other irony in all of this.
The Democrats really care about believing women that are victims of violent rape or sexual assault, or only if it's Kavanaugh, but not the lieutenant governor of Virginia.
It's interesting, right?
Great question.
Do they really care about, you know, they really think walls are immoral when they were voting for them and voting to build them, pay for them, and won't cared about DACA and dreamers?
No, not if Trump does it.
How many instances?
It's the same with obstruction.
You watch when this comes out and they'll get their five lines.
Don McGahn says the president was going to do this.
But he didn't do it.
Maybe Don McGahn takes credit.
Well, first of all, nobody gets credit for what Donald Trump decides.
If Donald Trump wanted to listen to people, he wouldn't tweet.
I'm just telling you, everybody said to him, Don't tweet.
Don't tweet.
You got to stop.
You got to stop killing yourself.
Stop.
Nobody could.
He makes up his own mind.
You got to stop attacking.
He makes up his own mind.
So the idea that Don McGahn or anybody else, just because now, do I think the president vented about General Flynn, Comey, Mueller, he was doing it publicly.
And he didn't do any of these things.
So that's where I think this is going.
And you're going to hear the media go absolutely apoplectic.
Now, it also goes on to say, and making the decision, well, okay, there was no underlying crime.
And then it says, as it relates to Russian election interference, that while not determinative, the absence of any evidence or crime bears upon the president's intent with respect to obstruction.
Generally speaking, to obtain and sustain an obstruction conviction, the government would need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person acting with a corrupt intent engaged in obstructive conduct with a sufficient nexus to a pending or contemplated proceeding.
Oh.
The president didn't have the intent either, which the statute requires.
But here's the thing.
You watch this week when this comes out Thursday, and the insanity will ensue.
It is their last, it is their last attack on this.
And it's going to die like everything else has died.
But here's the good news.
By the way, Mark Meadows said today it's highly likely the Inspector General Horowitz will issue criminal referrals.
Well, Jim Jordan and I met with uh Inspector General Horowitz.
He and his entire team have been doing a great job.
And I might add an independent job to verify some of the things that uh we have long uh assessed as as problems.
And you're right, Chairman Nunes was with these criminal referrals.
Uh, you know, the the things that he alleges, uh, we've been able to see even in the non-classified area, uh, some real reasonable.
Let me let me let me tell you, uh let me finish this because I'm gonna run out of time here.
So this is what's next.
This is their last gasp, and it will be desperation.
But he wanted to, but he didn't.
But it was the but there was no underlying crime.
But here's the thing.
When Hillary deleted the emails and acid washed her hard drive and used bleach bit and busted up her devices.
What was her intent?
Her intent was to eliminate the evidence of a violation of a felony, the espionage act, where she had top secret classified information on a mom and pop shop bathroom closet.
That's intent.
And just like in the case, I believe, but not if you're a Democrat Lieutenant Governor of Virginia.
Same same hypocrisy.
But here's what's next.
We're gonna have more closed door testimony, like James Baker's explosive testimony last week.
You see in this testimony, the oars, they're turning on everybody, and Paige and Strzok are turning on the then Attorney General Loretta Lynch, which asked the question, what did Lynch know?
When did she know it?
Then we're gonna have the criminal referrals of Nuness.
Then we have Barr announcing his investigation into the investigators, then we have spying that he said took place.
Then we have Horowitz and the FISA and Jordan and Meadows saying, Yeah, there's gonna be criminal referrals with that.
Then we got the Uber report on leaking, then we're gonna get the FISA warrant applications, which are gonna show that they use the Russian dossier, which is in itself criminal, that they committed a fraud on the court.
Then we're gonna get the 302s, then we're gonna get after that all the other evidence.
Gang of Aid information.
And the Democrat conspiracy theorists have nothing left.
That's what this week is about.
That's what's gonna happen this week.
All right, as we continue hour two, uh Sean Hannity Show, 800 941, Sean Tolfrey telephone number.
If you're just joining us, uh really sad, tragic days the fire now is consumed.
The historic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Vatican has just speaked out uh spoken out, and they they are said it's devastating.
Uh there is a number of reports we've not independently confirmed of well, for first the French interior ministry, uh minister has a ministry officials said firefighters might not be able to save Notre Dame at all.
And we literally watched before our eyes as the spire been engulfed in flames.
We we knew it was a matter of time and came down.
They're in the middle of uh major renovation.
There are numerous reports that there might be out of this tragedy some good news.
The church had just closed five or six minutes prior, and most of the people that were in there when the fire started, uh it they think everybody got out safely.
Um other issues, uh apparently there's reports that the artwork had been saved, which would be pretty huge, as well as the treasure of the cathedral in in no in other words, the crown of thorns, the holy sacraments, uh, but the main spire, of course, dating back to the twelfth century collapsed.
Uh first built in 1160, complete a hundred years completed by twelve sixty.
And they had been in the middle of this renovation for some period of time.
Uh the pictures devastated.
They still literally the next 90 minutes will be crucial according to the Paris Fire Commander in any effort to save any of the remains.
Uh as you could just a full-on effort by the firefighters.
Uh what I was able to read during the break about these firefighters, that Notre Dame has in its favor the at Pompey Pir uh Paris or the world class firefighters.
Uh somebody wrote on Twitter that they saw their work when he served on a board and they have strong, dedicated, skilled responders.
You know, this is when five, I give all my firemen friends friends in New York a hard time.
I'm so horrible.
Because you know what?
When they're not busy.
They they cook the most elaborate, delicious meals you'd ever want to have in a firehouse.
You want to eat well?
I mean, you want to stay skinny, forget it.
It's not going to happen in the New York.
And then, you know, they work 24 hour shifts.
And if it's a slow period, they're allowed, especially senior guys are allowed to get what they call a little rack time.
So in case they're called.
And usually the junior guys, the rookies, and you only have a couple of years on the job.
They're left cleaning the fire trucks, cleaning the firehouse, cooking the meals, cleaning up after.
And it's it's, you know, you earn your stripes.
You're in your earn your time.
And it's really fun when you get to be a senior firefighter because all the junior guys have to do everything.
But then 9-11 happens.
Yeah, I don't think uh I don't think the perks match up to the risk of walking upstairs while everybody else instinctively is running in the other direction.
But you do it because you're dedicated to saving other people's lives.
There was an attempt, as it's weird that this happened on Friday.
I'm not making any connection here whatsoever.
Uh, but uh this cathedral, there was a bombing attempt on it back in 2016.
It was a car that had seven canisters of gas.
Um at the time they had they they were able to link it at that time, and I'll explain that in a second.
Information they got from intelligence services there, according to then President Holland, uh, accused of leading this Inez Madina was accused of leading the bomb attempt, posed as a man under the name Abu Omar on social media, recruiting jihadis in that particular case back in 2016 to join her and attacking Notre Dame, successfully recruited another person, a mother of three.
She then stopped hearing from the woman, but contacted Medina, and anyway, police then arrested Amel Sakot and Sarah Halfot, all three women armed with knives during the arrest.
Um accused of stabbing a police officer anyway.
She was the main woman involved in that incident was a female jihadist posing as a man to recruit other women as the city is was on high alert.
Now, that was in September of 2016.
19-year-old woman allegedly led an all-female jihadist cell in France, posed as a man to entice uh other women to join.
And this past Friday, March 20th.
No, I'm sorry, that was a month ago.
Anyway, there'd been a series.
I guess this past Friday she was sentenced.
That's that's the point of that.
And um from that incident, but uh there was a story on March 20th in Newsweek by Brendan Cole, and the headline was Catholic churches are being desecrated across France, and officials don't know why.
Nobody nobody is saying any of this has anything to do with this, but there has been issues involving the church being targeted in the past.
Remember before the 9-11 attacks on the Trade Center, remember we had the first trade center bombing in that case.
So we, you know, nobody has given a definitive answer.
Many have said it's likely connected to the $6.8 million renovations going on, but you know, in this day and age, you just have to look at any and all potential causes of anything like this.
Uh, in other news, so the president was interesting this weekend.
He was on a roll this weekend.
And he called out New York State Democrats over the weekend for giving free college tuition to illegal immigrants, but refusing to do the same for children of soldiers who sacrificed their lives for this country.
Now, late Friday night, the president called out the New York State Democratic Party for blocking additional tuition assistance for children of deceased or injured vets.
In New York State, Democrats blocked a bill expanding college tuition for Gold Star families after approving aid for illegal immigrants, the president tweeted.
No wonder so many people are leaving New York.
Very sad.
And the president was referring to the stalled state bill that would add funding to a program that provides tuition, college housing payments to kids, spouses, financial dependents of either slain or severely disabled or missing soldiers who served after 1980.
Passed twice in the Senate, but never made it out of the Democratic controlled assembly in New York.
But the state did provide 27 million in this year's budget for tuition assistance for the kids of illegal immigrants.
College funding for veterans' families was not increased.
Now, the president has come up with this idea of a sanctuary city refugee resettlement plan.
It's got everybody worked up.
You know, we've been hearing from all the experts all weekend long, insisting that the president doesn't have the legal authority to resettle asylum-seeking illegal aliens in sanctuary cities around the country.
That, by the way, may not be true.
Somebody needs to explain how then Obama got away with resettling tens of thousand thousands of Syrian refugees in cities all over the country, over the objections of 30 governors.
And if you go back to 2016 Tribune services, the most recent count shows that 11,491 Syrian refugees had arrived in the U.S. since October, the start of the federal fiscal year.
Many have gone to states that protested, like Texas and Arizona, which have received about 825 refugees each.
The Obama administration planned to accept at least 110,000 Syrian refugees in the coming year.
Okay.
Then we had an incident, encouraged, I guess, by open borders Democrats in Washington.
Now all these people say we better hurry and get in the United States before Trump finishes this wall, or we'll never get it.
Anyway, the post, New York Post pointed out, Mexican authorities said a group of 350 migrants broke the locks at a gate at the Guatemalan border on Friday, forcing their way into Mexico to join the larger group of migrants already trying to make the trip to the southern border border of the United States.
Migrants were reportedly acting hostile and aggressive.
The group of 350 pushed past police guarding the bridge, joined a larger group of 2,000.
That's now becoming a b big issue.
The president also won a huge court victory late Friday in his battle as it relates to keeping tens of thousands of asylum-seeking illegal immigrants on the Mexican side of the border until their claims are evaluated.
And actually it came from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which almost always takes the left wing side.
Anyway, the Trump administration can continue to send asylum seekers back to Mexico after the appeals court temporarily reversed the ruling that halted the policy.
That's an interesting win.
But if you remember, Obama did this homes whole the exact same thing.
It was funny because we want literally, who was it, Cher that was freaking out about this?
Literally saying, we can't even afford it.
Anybody that's here.
Why are we taking on all these other people?
We can't afford it.
Oh, really?
I mean, you know, it's it's like Donald Trump lives in Democrats' heads 24-7.
You know, I'm reading some interesting stuff.
The president now accumulating more money than any other president at this point in his presidency for re-election.
Money matters.
Big labor, the Associated Press had an article about, you know, one of the big constituencies of the Democratic Party, but that may change.
You look at the economic statistics.
Why wouldn't big labor support Donald Trump who actually creates real jobs?
Just in the energy sector alone, we're going to have hundreds of thousands of career-paying jobs for people.
Even truck drivers, you go train truck drivers in the oil industry and pay you 100 grand a year.
And I mean, it's amazing.
A red wave is rising.
Fox News.com, and the Democrats are powerless to stop it.
For once the Hill has an article, Democrats are getting smart, mapping out an early 2020 strategy to retake the House.
And then you got the war extremism.
You got Corey Booker, Sanctuary City proposal of the president reflects his contorted view he has about humanity.
Bernie Sanders, Medicare for All plan includes paying for illegal immigrants, but you can't get your own health insurance.
And then Bernie had to defend being a millionaire this weekend.
I didn't know it was a crime to write a good book.
No, Bernie, why didn't you donate it to the poor?
It's interesting to watch.
Democrats, they're all happy about immigration, except when you when the president talks about, okay, well, we'll put them in your cities.
And they'll be protected by your policies.
Then you've got this guy.
This is pretty interesting.
I'm not falling into this mayor Pete.
I mean, this it's interesting.
His name is Buddha Judge.
That's his name.
Pete Budajudge, I guess, is the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, the home of Nerd Day.
I mean, I guess to his credit, he looks like, you know, he could be debating in a on a college debate team at Harvard.
Sounds like it too, and he gives a speech.
I thought it was a terrible speech.
Um everybody's hyping.
This is it.
We we can change everything, and it'll be different.
We got to rethink everything.
That means be a socialist.
I don't think that's a good idea.
We know socialism fails.
And it's not gonna work.
But yeah, I'm actually enjoying, though.
You know, watching the New York Times have to admit that most Americans benefited from the tax cut of Donald Trump.
You know they didn't want to go there.
You know, they don't want to admit that.
And you know, and by the way, Nancy Pelosi asked on 60 Minutes last night what a fluff interview that was about AOC and friends.
That's like only five people.
No, not exactly.
Beta or Rourke's family connections are a key to his millions.
Much of Robert Francis's wealth came from his parents and his wife.
O'Rourke co-owns a shopping mall worth seven figures.
He received half of it as a gift from his mom.
And uh his wife has a trust fund valued between one and five million.
And in 2017, Beto sold an apartment complex, which he co-owned with his mom to a family friend and campaign donor.
Whoopsie Daisy.
Yikes.
I wonder how that's gonna go.
Um, what else do we have?
The controversy over Congresswoman O'Mar continues.
Yeah, well, she what she said, you know, that thing that happened on 9-11.
Well, we know what that was.
We lost nearly 3,000 Americans in the worst attack on our homeland in history.
Pearl Harbor and 9-11.
Think of those two dates.
Linda goes, are you sure that's exactly they only have one attack left?
And that's obstruction.
But Barr says, well, number one, you need intent, like, oh, Hillary had intent.
We know why she deleted acid washed, busted up devices, because she knew that she had violated the espionage act.
You can't have top secret classified information on a private server.
She had it.
That's one she wanted to get rid of the evidence.
No underlying crime, pleading your innocence, or saying this is a witch hunt, or we should fire Mueller.
Why don't we fire Mueller or saying that uh I hope that General Flynn doesn't get in trouble, or this is ridiculous, we ought to fire sessions, we ought to fire Rosency, but he didn't do any of it.
He's venting.
He's venting at what, you know, I remember Trey Gowdy, if you're innocent, act like you're innocent.
You know how innocent people, I think act, they proclaim their innocence.
Now we have four investigations.
Not guilty, not guilty, not you know, no collusion, no collusion, no collusion.
So what's following this?
Well, number one, all the deep staters we can tell in their closed door testimony.
They're they're creating a circular firing squad.
Paige and struck are blaming the attorney general and probably even Obama.
And then you got, you know, so we have more of those, that testimony.
Then we got the criminal referrals and newness, then we got the new bar investigation on yeah, real spying.
Horowitz report on FISA, likely according to Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan to produce criminal referrals there.
Oh, and then we have the Uber report, the FISA applications, the 302s, the gang of eight.
They've got nothing.
This is their last shot, and they're gonna try and make it into something it cannot legally ever be.
And that would be obstruction, which, by the way, that's already been concluded, too.
It's over, guys.
You've been wrong.
You've lied.
You bought the big lie, and you sold the big lie.
You've been in the business of politics.
Uh, Do you think that he sees advantage in torquing up the crisis?
Donald Trump is the arsonist who gets the credit for putting out the fire.
He is going to cause worse out migration and asylum seeking from America by cutting off all U.S. aid.
And then he wants to be the he wants to be the person who gets the credit for stopping it.
What we need is someone who will not play games or politics with people's lives or the security of this country, but will invest in the smart decisions and policies like investing in Central America to stop the outflow before it even begins.
We can try to address these problems at the U.S. Mexico border with walls or open arms, or we can address them in the countries of origin before they ever become a problem.
And that's what I want to do.
And that's why I'm here today.
To tell a different story than make America great again.
Because there's a myth being sold to industrial and rural communities.
The myth that we can stop the clock and turn it back.
It comes from people who think the only way to speak to communities like ours is through resentment and nostalgia.
They're selling an impossible promise of returning to a bygone era that was never as great as advertised to begin with.
You want to decriminalize small amounts of opioid use and possession.
Does that include heroin?
Yes, it does.
We need to decriminalize opiates for personal use.
And as you might not be surprised to hear from that, like I'm also for the legalization of cannabis.
We need to remove that from the federal controlled substance.
So cannabis and opioids, including heroin.
Any other illegal drugs you want to decriminalize?
It would be uh the opiates that are um the most common, which unfortunately right now include uh heroin and fentanyl.
What about cocaine?
Uh cocaine it would not be on the list of substances I would engage in this because of the the addiction has very different features.
All right, there you have three of the Democratic candidates for 2020, radical, extreme, socialist in every way, the last cut.
Andrew Yang, who wants to decriminalize uh heroin and fentanyl.
Like three grains of salt, or the equivalent size of three grains of salt of fentanyl will kill a 250 pound man.
Genius, absolutely genius.
Uh before that, it was uh that was Mr. Mayor Pete, if you care.
That was uh his name is Pete Buddig is his name.
And you know what's amazing about this guy is who is he?
What have you done?
And you come up with this brilliant idea.
We're gonna do something totally different.
Yeah.
Failed, tried a million times, any way you want it.
We are still following the tragedy out of uh France that's been unfolding all day.
Uh the fire breaking out at Notre Dame, the cathedral, eight hundred and seventy years old.
Uh watching the spire collapse earlier today was uh heartbreaking.
They were in the middle, you could see a lot of the scaffolding that was surrounding that spire, and as a six point eight million dollar renovation they were in the midst of.
Uh, they believe it's connected to that.
We haven't gotten any definitive answers.
We'll continue to watch and follow that story as we uh continue here.
Uh anyway, John McLaughlin, polster strategist, and uh as we look at these 2020 candidates, you know, it's pretty interesting.
First of all, we have Donald Trump has now accumulated more money to run for re reelection than any first-term sitting president ever.
Uh that's point number one.
Matt Towery is with us.
He likes to consider himself retired, but he's anything but retired because every time there's a big election, I got a full accurate analysis about what's about to happen.
And I basically steal it and I say, this is what's gonna happen, and just take all the credit because he's retired.
He doesn't want to be known anyway.
Um I've known here since since my Atlanta days.
Uh welcome both of you.
By the way, John, I give you a special shout out because uh listen, you were the polster for BB's historic uh re-election for consecutive five terms total.
He will pass the first prime minister of Israel in terms of the longest serving prime minister uh in the course of this term.
Uh and what's so amazing about it is it was the biggest labor party loss in their history, and number one, and number two, uh the margins were so big in terms of the right coalition led by Lakude, uh, that um I think uh the prime minister thankfully uh was re-elected, even though they tried to indict him five weeks before an election.
Right, and uh that it was really really uncalled for that they would do that.
But then it fortunately the the voters in Israel recognized what was going on and it was a witch hunt.
And in a conversation I had with President Trump uh back a few weeks ago, he said to me, he said, you know, it was just like over here with the attorney general, and I said, Well, yeah, he did appoint the attorney general, but he had a ten year independent term, but he did it, and uh fortunately he won and it was a decisive win.
And today I think the final uh right of center parties agreed to a coalition to recommend the prime minister, so it was a decisive win for the right, and the country is has moved right of center, Israel because of the success and the Donald Trump is is very well liked and appreciated in Israel,
and uh the Israeli voters really appreciate the relationship that Prime Minister Netanyahu has with President Trump, where he was able to move the embassy, he was able to recognize the silence he owed the goal in, and most importantly, he withdrew from that really bad Iran deal because in recent weeks you've seen the Hamas was shooting rockets at Israel.
Those are Iranian rockets.
The Iranians paid for that with the money we gave them from the bad Iran deal.
So uh great job, great job very important win.
Great job, Obama and Biden, and great job for you.
Um, you know, I watched the president, and it's so funny because but once uh the Republicans now are thinking ahead.
There's actually a Hill story today.
Uh Matt, how they're mapping out an early 2020 strategy to retake the House.
I would say that is a strong possibility for the Republicans because the president's going to be on the ticket.
Uh there was a Fox News piece, a red wave is rising.
I think all that's true.
You see this new Green Deal, you see a desire with all the problems we have at the border.
Democrats want to take down any border barriers whatsoever, eliminate ice.
Uh the fact that they'd get rid of the combustion engine, gas and oil, planes and cows, um, and everything else is free, whether you work or on or unwilling to work.
I just uh none of that is going to sell to the American people, and it's like it's like they're doing everything you could ever want them to do if you want them to lose like I do.
Well, it's it's a gift to Donald Trump.
He couldn't have a better scenario.
Uh uh you have one quote unquote moderate Democrat in the field, and that's Joe Biden.
And the left has tried to attack him every way they can.
They want him out of the race.
That was pretty obvious over the last few weeks.
And so I I think John and I, the last time we were on your show, pretty much concluded that we believe that the nominee will be substantially left center.
And this country, although millennials may feel that that that's something they can embrace, most other age groups don't go that way.
And um you see it in fact uh you talk about the spread.
Sean, there were state legislatures this year that took votes on resolutions urging Congress to reject the uh green dream.
So they're now taking it even to the state level.
So when you think about the House of Representatives and what these guys have to run on, and then the turnout effect that Donald Trump brings, because he's gonna bring that face out just in huge numbers.
I think the Republicans could take the House again.
And I think the President's in great shape.
He gave right now, I think Goldman Sachs went out on a ledge and said the president will likely be re-elected, but they then they hedged.
I wish they could be as bold in what they say about finances, and I wish they could be as correct.
No, they listen, they they did definitely hedge it, but also Wall Street money now is beginning to flow towards who they think the winner will be.
And they thought in 2016 it was it was Hillary.
You know, I think it even if it was Biden, it doesn't matter.
Biden still would have to run on the dumb things he says about he'd have to run on the failed record of him and Obama, and he would be pulled so far to the left in the primary that you know he it's there's gonna be very d h hardly any discernible difference between any of them.
Yeah, I don't think I don't think you're gonna see Biden as a nominee.
I I just think that the the the numbers uh the the number of candidates that you have are to the left when you as they start to drop out, where does their support go?
Unless Biden has a blowout in the first two or three uh primaries or in caucuses, which is highly unlikely given where they are.
I just see this going to the left.
It's gonna be a very distinct choice, as Newt Gingrich would say, very distinct choice uh in the election season and in November of twenty twenty.
What did you think, John, about the president's trial balloon uh of sending illegal immigrants that are flooding into the country because they see the wall as being built and repaired and the money now is in the coffers and this is going to happen and they're surging across the border to sanctuary cities and the president is saying,
you know what, because remember back in twenty fourteen when we had a migrant surge, uh and all of those kids remember if it was President Obama, you know, was targeting small and midsized cities and and now Trump said, well we'll just send all these people to your backyard, Nancy Pelosi, we'll send them to San Francisco.
We'll send them to sanctuary states and cities.
You know, and then you see somebody like Cher is freaking out saying well wait hang on a second.
Well you know if my state can't take care of its own, how can it take care of any more?
I'm like, oh maybe you're beginning to realize the cost on the criminal justice system, the educational system, the healthcare system, but I think for the president it's a a pretty smart jujitsu move on his part to say, okay, well if you want them so bad and you don't want to help us fix the problem, okay we'll let them loop move in next door to you.
Yeah I and you know what this issue is helping the president because like Matt said the Democrats are in this derangement derby that they're going so far left to be the most anti Trump candidate in the field because uh th th they're just not giving him anything.
They won't even protect our country and the borders.
They won't keep criminals out.
They won't keep terrorists out.
They can't even take care of these people.
And the Democrats are looking bad and the president's job approval is going up.
And what's different about when we helped Donald Trump uh when I helped Donald Trump win the primaries he was taking positions that the majority of Americans agreed with.
The Democrats now are taking positions like socialism, like government control of health care, like open borders, that the majority of Americans disagree with.
And that's the key to winning the president.
The contrast here is just terrible because the Democrats are so deranged that they won't even come to a compromise to secure the borders.
And Shera, who you mentioned, her sending a tweet out supporting the president on this, she's been really anti-Trump until this point.
So when you get those kind of conversions, it's a sign that, you know, the country's really moving this way because the Democrats are moving off the edge of the earth on the left.
Well said.
think i look obviously the president's economic success is gonna help I think the president's foreign policy we've never had better relations with Israel uh we did make progress with North Korea seemingly stalled president has taken tough sanctions and put them on countries like Iran and even Russia for the guy that was supposed to have colluded with Russia that now is behind him.
I know the Muller report is out this week but we already know the Muller report concluded that there's no conclusion whatsoever.
So whatever they're gonna try and say he obstruct he wanted to obstruct.
He wanted to fire Muller he wanted to let uh General Flynn get off.
He it maybe shouldn't have fired Comey all you know but that's it.
They don't have anything.
But now we're gonna turn this it's all going to flip on its head what happens with that and the investigation of the investigators how does this end Matt Towery?
How does this end John McLaughlin?
Well I think I think what's going to end is the scary part was having been involved in President Trump's campaign the idea that they were able to surveil on our campaign that they were able to spy as as Attorney General Barr correctly predicted and the attorney general barr is now getting attacked by the left he's always been a stand up uh tell like it is law enforcement official and right now they're looking into how could this have happened?
How could you basically I mean this is something they used to accuse Nixon of when he was president in the 70s that he was going to corrupt the IRS and the FBI and the CIA.
And you know the question now is as you brought it up is what did President Obama know when did he know it?
I mean they were literally spying on the campaign and uh that is something that's about America.
And Matt how what do you think now that the investigation is flipped and as John points out, yeah, they were spied upon meaning the Trump campaign and they abused power.
Um, it's funny to watch all these deep state actors now turning on each other.
Well, the interesting thing will be, Sean, whether the the other media, the rest of the media will cover that.
Uh, you know, we it's hard to get public opinion to move if people don't realize what's going on.
In fact, there was a poll that came out.
When but when indictments start coming in and criminal referrals go in.
I I agree.
And I one of the things that has to happen is they have to highlight it at the same level because for example, we saw a poll in which it was at least alleged that most Americans said they really didn't follow the information that was released when Barr said uh gave the synopsis that said the president showed the president hadn't given it done anything wrong.
So it's got to be highlighted, but at some point I think the avalanche comes and they have to start to cover it.
When that happens, that just adds to the moment President Trump in 2020.
That would mean they have to admit they've been wrong and lying for two and a half years.
Don't hold your breath.
That's true.
All right, we got a roll.
Thank you both.
News roundup information overload uh hour uh in the next half.
I was still following the story out of France and Notre Dame.
We'll get to that and the president's plan on the border and all the other news of the day.
And wow, how great was Tiger Woods this weekend.
Stay right here for our final news roundup and information overload.
Socialism, highly centrally planned, collectivist policies does not work.
With all due respect to those people who are talking.
Shouldn't forget the Soviet Union.
We should have a look at Venezuela.
Let's look at history, centrally planned, collectivist, these kinds of political economic models.
They are despotic, they are tyrannical, they impoverish.
Look at the economic performance.
I don't want to forget that.
I I want to have this conversation.
I like this conversation a lot.
The President uh not releasing his tax forms today.
I refer you to Secretary of Treasury Minution, all about that.
It's under audit.
He's submitted hundreds of pages.
You know the arguments.
One thing I want to say is um echo the Secretary of the Treasury, my good friend Steve Manution.
This administration has no intention to weaponize the IRS the way the Nixon administration did.
And all this looks a little too political for us.
All right, that was Lawrence Cudlow.
Glad you're with us.
News Roundup Information Overload Hour.
We're still following the tragedy out of uh France that took place, started earlier today, and that is a massive fire breaking out in the Notre Dame Cathedral, 870 years old, in the middle of a fairly large and significant six point eight million dollar renovation.
Uh watching that spire collapse uh earlier today was a disaster.
I mean, it's been out of control almost from the beginning.
Uh from all that we've heard is everyone was able to get out of there safely.
They think it's construction related.
Nobody's confirmed, though a hundred percent that is the case.
Um, but uh we'll continue to watch this.
And uh by the way, it was built in 1160, completed 1260, a hundred years, modified on a number of occasions throughout the century, and it is the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Paris, over twelve million people every year visiting.
Um anyway, we'll continue to watch that.
800 nine-41 Sean is on number.
Larry uh Cudlow is with us, our good friend who is now the president's uh economic advisor and head of the National Economic Council and former Reagan administration economist.
Remember, he wrote the book.
We've uh featured it many times, JFK, Reagan Revolution, The Secret History of American Prosperity, which we're living through now.
Mr. Cudlow, how are you, sir?
I'm great, Sean.
Thank you.
You know, the ironic thing is I know everybody in states like New York, California, New Jersey, Illinois, they're pissed off because now they can't deduct their state and local taxes, uh income taxes, which they were in past years able to do.
But when you really think about it, it was a benefit and a reward.
We were kind of rewarding these states for raising taxes and taking in money, and it was not something that was available to states like oh, Florida, Texas, Tennessee, or the Carolinas with ha that have no state income taxes or a very small state income tax.
Uh And red states were subsidizing all these big spending blue states.
Yeah, no, that's the subsidy point is fair enough.
Let me just raise a point here, because this argument is not as true as as a lot of governors are making it out to be.
Before the tax reform bill, before the tax cuts, uh high-end earners, Trump, with a lot of deductions, wouldn't have gotten the deductions because they would have been captured by the alternative minimum tax, the AMT, the dreaded AMT.
Now, under the new law, we basically abolished the AMT, basically 98 percent.
So actually, a lot of the upper-end taxpayers are going to get a $10,000 deduction for state and local taxes that they wouldn't have gotten under prior law.
So people forget about the AMT piece.
And so they really should stop belly aching.
And let me be honest with you, the economy is booming.
You know, ask the upper end folks how their businesses and investments are doing, and the answer is they're booming, and one key reason for that is the lower tax rates that we're celebrating today, along with the rest of the program on regulation.
So I'm just saying that argument just doesn't ring true to me.
But there's always the class warfare.
And you know, what I see, when you look at, for example, record low unemployment, if you look at household income increases, the people that have benefited the most, let's see, record low unemployment for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, women in the workplace, youth unemployment.
But more importantly, uh another important indicator is the jump in terms of real wages that have been experienced by low and middle income Americans, the people that frankly deserve it, even though we obviously have uh uh uh a tax system where the you know top 20 percent pretty much pay almost all the taxes.
That's right.
That's exactly right.
The top 20 percent pay almost all the taxes.
Let me guess see, the top 10 percent pay about 70 percent of the taxes.
Yeah.
The bottom the bottom 50 percent pay three percent of the income tax.
I'd say it's less than three, it's two point seven.
Okay, two point seven, stand corrected.
So the argument that the most successful earners, uh the rich, so-called look, I like rich people, I want everybody to get rich, including the non-rich.
Um, it's just, you know, they do pay the freight.
And at a certain point in time, as the uh evidence piles up, if you keep raising tax rates on the successful earners and investors, you're gonna get lower revenues and you're gonna sink the economy.
That's what happens when you raise tax rates.
Just take a look at my home state of Connecticut, for example, and there are other home states.
Look at the U.S. in the prior administration.
So that's not going to work.
None of that's gonna work.
Um Senator Sanders came out with Universal Medicare, Sean.
That would take 15 percent.
If you add that to the Green New Deal, we estimate 94 trillion.
15 percent of GDP within 10 years, and a hundred and eighty million Americans with health policies would lose them.
A hundred and eighty million people.
No, they're saying that.
Kamala Harris and others are saying they would not allow the option of private health care insurance.
It's gone.
And it would be a hundred and eighty million people.
Just imagine what that means.
So you want to decimate the economy, uh, you want to take everybody's health care away, you want to emulate the Soviet Union, you want to emulate uh Venezuela.
You know, I plead with people to be rational and reasonable to look at history and look at the evidence.
These collectivist policies, socialist policies, uh, will wind up not only taking away our liberty uh bill, impoverished the economy.
Let's be serious about this.
Well, uh, you know, I'll give you the quote I that's become one of my favorite quotes.
Look at New York, which has you know, when you look at New York State income taxes, New York State City taxes, income taxes, New York City income taxes, then you combine sales tax, highest property taxes in the country and everything else, this is what you get, a $2.3 billion shortfall.
And Andrew Cuomo actually accurately described why he has the shortfall.
We have one of the most progressive tax codes in the United States, which is a good thing, which means the richer you are, the more you pay.
However, that presents a very fragile economy, because then you are relying on a very small number of people for the vast amount of your tax dollars.
One percent of the taxpayers pay nearly half of all the taxes.
One percent pay nearly half of all those taxes.
Those one percent are the richest people in the State.
They're the richest people in the country, and they are the most mobile people in the country.
And you see the chart on the bottom.
Top 1 percent, about 46 percent, top 5 percent, 63 percent of all the revenue.
Top 10 percent, 74 percent of all the revenue.
Tax the rich, tax the rich, tax the rich.
We did.
Now, God forbid the rich leave.
Well, they're leaving New York and New Jersey and Illinois and California and droves, and Larry Cudlow, I mean, states like California uh sorry, states like Texas and Florida picked up nearly 400,000 new people, you know, migrating from other states.
Well, the incentives matter.
Look, I I've recently spoken with with Governor Cuomo, who is a friend.
Um his dad was a great friend, even with political disagreements, good folks.
And I think his analysis, what he's just played, is is really right.
By the way, um, to his credit, Governor Cuomo cut the New York State corporate tax, and really helped the economy.
Did that in his first term.
Uh I think it was a good thing.
And you know, my great hope is, and I've said this to him, that he would uh certainly make some income tax reductions, because all the reasons he just made during that clip.
I think it's very accurate, and I think it's true for the overall economy.
And look at, you know, again, I come back to the theme.
You know, what's President Trump's policies are rebuilding the American economy, the uh restarting incentives, right?
We're not punishing wealthy people, we are rewarding success, the war against business and energy is over, the low tax rates, which have affected the entire economy, the deregulation, the energy uh rollout, the trade reforms.
We're seeing, you know what our critics, Sean said couldn't happen, right?
3 percent growth, low unemployment.
By the way, one of the best parts is the females.
Females were the biggest um job creators in uh 2018.
They were the biggest additions to the labor force.
And by the way, people coming out of the woodwork who weren't even counted as unemployed because of higher wages, number one, over three percent, and um better job training and reskilling, what Ivanka Trump has been pushing.
So anyway, it all makes sense.
There's a rebuilding of the economy.
Let's keep it this way, right?
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Let's hang on to these policies.
Well, what did Reagan say?
They're gonna go on.
You know, are you better off than you were four years ago?
And I think that will be a primary question when the President comes up to re-election.
What for re-election?
What do you make of?
For example, there's a hundred Democrats, I believe, now in the House or close to it in the Senate.
You have many presidential candidates are buying into and supporting the new Green Deal.
Now, the new Green Deal, uh, say coupled with Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax, which by the way, 15 European countries adopted, only four kept it, which I think speaks volumes because so many people moved away after another bite at the apple after you've paid all your taxes.
But that would be free daycare, but also free guaranteed Medicare for all, a government-run health care system.
They would take over the energy sector in America.
There would be no oil or gas production, there would be no combustion engine, uh, but you get free, uh even, I guess, pre-K education all the way through college, government run, of course, government-run health care, government-run industry of energy.
It have the uh even a government healthy uh guaranteed healthy food department, job Salary, vacations, um, and and on and on, whether you're willing or unwilling to work.
And by the way, after that, they said, well, airplanes need to go, and cows probably have to go as well because they create too uh too many CO2 gases.
You know, here's what I can figure, Sean.
Like it's politically or economically.
Right now, we are witnessing a rising tide of prosperity.
The first real rising tide, probably in fifteen or twenty years.
And here are these other policies coming in, these big central planning collectivist socialist policies that would lead to deep, deep recession.
As I said earlier, we estimate here you could lose as much as fifteen percent of the entire gross domestic product inside ten years under these kinds of policies.
Why not let the the rising tide of prosperity continue?
Why not join us?
Why not have more tax reform?
Why not have more regulatory reform?
Why not have more energy pipelines and LNG terminals?
Why not have more trade reform?
The things that are generating growth, we need more help.
The Democrats seem to be coming in, and I I don't like to be partisan about this.
I mean, I wrote a book about JFK, who was a tax cutting supply side Democrat.
Those were the days.
I'm just saying, let the rising tide of prosperity flourish.
Don't roll it back and put us into a terrible deep recession.
It just doesn't make any common sense to me.
That's what I don't understand.
Even the New York Times had to admit today, if you're an American taxpayer, you probably got a tax cut last year, and there's a good chance you don't believe it.
And then it goes on to say, well, not even one in ten households actually got the tax increase, meaning the houses that already paid the taxes, they keep paying.
So it benefited those people that need it the most.
Yeah, it's a pretty good article by uh by Tankersley, Jim Tackersley.
He's a pretty good reporter, actually.
And I don't know what it is, this view that people don't like tax cuts or people didn't get the tax cuts.
I mean, left to center, right of center, roughly 70% of people got tax cuts.
We doubled the standard deduction, and you know, we did some good social policy.
We uh built up the uh child tax credit, for example, doubled the standard development.
Why what about the debt issue?
Well, the best way to deal with debt, my friend, grow the economy to its max, and then try to limit government.
Best you can.
I like the I like the Connie MacPenny plan or the Trump five nickel plan.
All right, I gotta run.
Uh all right, Larry Cudlow, thank you.
Uh appreciate it.
Uh, we're still watching this disaster unfold in in Paris.
Uh fire inflames, the 870-year-old Notre Dame uh cathedral.
We'll have more on that, and you'll meet a gang MS-13 gang member next.
Body of a young Hispanic female was found in the 9900 block of Sharp's Crest, Houston, Texas.
The victim appeared to have been executed and left in the street.
We were able to identify a group of uh MS-13 gang members who we believe are responsible.
Police in New York saying the suspect in a series of brutal crimes is a gang member and illegal immigrant who's been deported four times.
Tommy Vladim Alvarado Ventura is accused of stabbing two women and sexually assaulting a two-year-old girl.
Suffolk County police announcing the arrest of 17 gang members after a series of violent incidents, including the massacre of four young men.
And they used two females to lure four young males to the park.
And they were brutally bludgeoned and stabbed and hacked up with machetes.
It's gruesome.
I mean, it's not like you're shooting somebody from a hundred feet away.
You are you're getting blood splatted onto you.
The killers slashed Perez's neck.
Today, Alexandria police announced three suspects, an adult male, seventeen-year-old boy, and sixteen-year-old girl.
Investigators say those men are MS-13 gang members.
Yesterday, three subjects responsible for two attempted murders with bladed weapons and in one incident firing a handgun at the victim were taken into custody last night.
All purport to be MS-13 members.
19-year-old Miguel Lopez Abrega was charged with first-degree murder of the victim, as the press release says the victim had been stabbed over 100 times.
Investigators say the Queensman is a member of MS-13 and is responsible for killing a Valley Stream teen earlier this year.
According to court documents, Julio Caesar Gonzalez's fancy's brutally beaten body was discovered inside the Massapequa preserve in late March.
Police say he was shot and beaten with a large knife from machete.
He may have been left there for several weeks.
Twenty-year-old Victor Manuel Fuentes and five teenagers ages 17 and 16 who have not been named are a part of the dangerous international MS-13 gang and have been robbing Hispanic men at gunpoint in Lake Worth.
Two of those armed robberies were deadly.
Blanca Maritza Lopez was shot and killed Sunday evening inside the apartment she shared with her boyfriend.
According to court documents, neighbors heard two people arguing, and then a loud boom.
Investigators say he called 911 and then left.
They say he dropped their three-month-old daughter on a relative's porch, and he's been on the run since he is believed to be a member of the gang MS 13 who has bragged about killing people.
On Friday in federal court, MS 13 gang member Aldair Garcia Miranda pled guilty to racketeering conspiracy, including the murder of a 23-year-old man in Frederick.
MS 13 gang members were rounded up this morning, charged in three murders.
Sixteen-year-old Kayla Clavis and her fifteen-year-old best friend Nisa Mickins, brutally beaten to death.
All right, so that was uh obviously a montage of victims of crime.
How many times have we had angel moms and dads on this program that lost their loved ones, permanent separation, as we call it.
Nobody seems to really care.
Pelosi wouldn't even meet with angel moms and dads outside of her own office.
She was too busy doing what we don't know.
Uh four million if if in a two-year period you have over four million homicides, over thirty thousand violent sexual assaults against women, over a hundred thousand violent assaults against other Americans by illegal immigrant criminals.
At what point do you not say, uh, this is a problem.
Now I know that Nancy Pelosi and company think the war wall is immoral.
And I know that you have Beto Bozo complaining over the weekend about Donald Trump.
He's a on immigration, he's an arsonist who wants credit for putting out the fire.
And I think the president very cleverly said, Well, um, if you think this is such a good idea to take it.
All these people that are are not Americans that don't respect our laws, our sovereignty, our borders, and uh, we don't have an opportunity to vet them to check their backgrounds, their associations, whether or not their intent is to become a member of our family, or their intent is something nefarious.
Well, then what are we gonna do?
You know, ninety percent of heroin.
Yeah, that comes right across the southern border.
And now we have fentanyl on top of heroin.
And we have presidential candidate Andrew Yang wants to decriminalize Fentanol and heroin.
How dumb is that?
Really a genius there.
Um joining us now, Casey Diaz, who was violent gangster.
And by the way, his crimes caught up to him, landing him not only in jail but solitary confinement at the age of sixteen.
And uh, he talks about his road back to becoming a a nonviolent citizen and somebody that contributes to society's written a book.
It's called The Shot Caller, a Latino Gang Banger's Miraculous Escape from a life of violence to a new life in Christ.
He's the son of El Salvadorian immigrants, and he was brought to uh Los Angeles at the age of two.
An abusive impoverished family life propelled him at only eleven years of age into the Rockwood Street locos gang.
And he was willing to do anything to be number one, but years of chasing rival gang members led to a dramatic ambush and an arrest by the LAPD, and that's when at sixteen he was sentenced to more than twelve years in solitary confinement at one of California's toughest prisons, and as one of the state's most violent offenders.
You were in the the Rockwood Street Locos gang.
Is that the Okay?
Is now I know in Los Angeles you have the Crips and the Bloods, um, and those wars have been going on.
Did you battle them as well?
Yeah, uh you know, that there's always a a race uh war as well in particular with with uh Los Angeles gangs.
Um yeah, that's been an item for many years.
Let's talk about some of the violent things you did.
You started at eleven.
How do you start becoming a gangbanger at eleven?
And and that's the thing, you know.
Uh uh where people uh have uh uh that that don't know the truth and and how gangs work.
Uh you're recruited very young.
I mean, we uh gangs particularly uh look for young, you know, um uh the members that that or potential members that where there's no father involved, where there's no mentors involved, and that's who they go after.
I mean, and that's that's the the brutal truth is that they will look for the vulnerable, and that's who they'll entice and and you know when you come from a a low income uh city and there's no uh father figure, there's none of that like n nothing like that, the streets become uh your family.
And it's very easy to get enticed and and walk into one.
And what about like I I'm sure your parents like most immigrant parents, I know my grandparents had no money when they came here, and they ended up from Ireland to Ellis Island, they had no money at all whatsoever, and so they're working full time.
Did they know that you were hanging out with the wrong crowd at that time?
Well, you know, my mom uh she worked very uh uh early in the morning, four in the morning, and then she wouldn't get back until ten, eleven at night.
And my father, you know, he's uh uh alcoholic and very uh uh abusive uh person to towards my mom and uh and towards me.
But he would beat my mom, uh I mean, almost th I don't think I I could ever remember one week where she was not beaten by him.
So, you know, th there were I was left to my own uh, you know, demise uh very early in in my life, uh yeah, very little uh interaction with with uh parents.
So you basically were raised on the streets then.
Pretty much, yeah.
And when did you first try drugs yourself?
Well, uh drugs for me, uh, you know, I've I've tried here and there, but it wasn't my thing.
Uh it was the gang violence that that really drove me to uh to to um to a life of crime.
I it was just uh the brutality of it.
You know, you have you have different kind of gang members in every gang.
You have the guys that what we call wannabes, you know, that they dress the part top to top, and uh you pretty much they never do anything uh outside of you know little stuff like and I don't want to say little, but you know, burglaries and stuff that that's not looked at as uh by the gang as important stuff.
Then you have gang members that are wanting to top each other up and uh you know then then you're going into the very violent uh crimes is robbery, uh home invasions, kidnappings, all the way up to murder.
So th you know, that's that all exists in inside every gang.
What are the worst things you've done have you killed people?
Well, uh uh at sixteen I was arrested for uh uh a murder of a rival gang member.
I didn't ask if you were arrested, I asked if you killed people.
Yes.
How many pe one person?
Yeah.
Okay, tell us about it.
And how old were you?
I was sixteen, and um I was in a uh a little uh hamburger joint, and uh back in the eighties uh you were able to uh, you know, uh drive uh in these trucks in the back of these uh trucks, and I was uh minding my own business, just having a burger inside this joint, and uh uh I was recognized by this gang.
Uh they came in there, uh a fight ensued, and it uh I ran outside to where I had a stolen car, and I had a sod off shotgun there, and the guy, the first guy that came at me was the one that I uh ended up um ending his life.
And that's when you were then arrested by LAPD, sentenced to more than twelve years in solitary confinement.
What prison was it?
Uh New Folsom State Prison.
That that is a serious hard prison, right?
It is.
Uh, you know, uh my first meal was uh served by the Hillside Strangler there.
Now, were you in solitary the whole twelve years?
Uh no, I was in solitary for three uh three years and some change.
All right, so I can't uh you're sixteen years old and you're in solitary confinement and you got you know, twelve years total.
I mean, you must be going out of your mind a nutsell.
Um, you know, uh you you um when you're at at that kind of level of um uh uh violence and in in that kind of category um inside the gang, you really don't uh y you don't care.
You you don't you're very careless and life is very cheap and you know, uh i it's almost like a game and uh a game that you're actually enjoying.
That's that's the reality of it.
So the s the book goes into the story about this elderly woman who reaches out to you, paid you a visit, and all of a sudden you began to quietly, I guess, reflect and sort of like at a spiritual awakening, I g assume when when you were in solitary confinement.
That's correct.
Yeah, um this lady uh the it's she belonged to a very small church, and uh they would come there once uh once a month, and um she just interacted with me.
She was very bold, um and and and just a strong lady.
And she made it a point to tell me that you know she was gonna pray for me and that Jesus was gonna use me.
And I don't I didn't have any um religious background or I never had opened the Bible, never I wasn't interested in any of that.
So for me to hear that from her, it was just kind of uh it was strange to me.
I I thought she was uh you know, had some loose marbles and didn't know what she was doing.
But she know it she knew exactly what she was doing, and she was praying and interceding for my life and and um and I had an encounter with with Christ in my cell in in that solitary cell.
What happened?
And which made me uh uh step down for my my gang leadership uh there at New Folsom State Prison.
Isn't that a problem if you step down or step out of a gang, don't you then you know, become a target?
Uh absolutely, yeah.
Uh a hit was put on my life, uh a green light is what we called it, uh, because I stepped down and um they sent one of my very own uh gang members uh to do the you know to what what what we call uh taking out the trash.
That meant you know when you gotta get rid of somebody in there, and they sent one of my very own, and uh that was the the person, the first person that I actually led to Christ uh in there.
And um there was a few other uh gang members, one uh uh founder of the MS 13 that was there.
Uh uh I led him to Christ as well, and for two years we went through some uh some pretty big persecution for stepping down from our leadership.
So did it stop at some point?
Did they remove the hit?
Uh what happened was uh there was a big giant uh prison riot uh there after two years, and uh they they ended up um shipping all these inmates, this the Hispanic uh inmates out into other prisons and uh uh I talk about that in my book, the Shock Holler of of exactly in detail of what took place after that.
And uh that's pretty much when the beatings uh stopped.
Um evangelism began in that in that prison yard.
Um tell us about the experience.
I mean, uh you had some it's not just this woman that kind of lit a spark in you, something happened personally.
What happened?
Well, uh, you know, uh uh again I I didn't have any um any uh Bible teacher or anything like that.
I I just wasn't interested in that.
But um, you know, I I won't go into fine details on it.
I I'd rather have the reader uh read about uh read about it uh in the shock collar, but it it was one of those moments where a decision has to be made whether you're going to continue in this lifestyle or God touched your heart and some and and a change has to be made.
A decision has to be made, and for me that's what it was.
And you know, I I never knew how to pray, nobody had ever taught me how to pray, but I had such an encounter in there with him that I knew that I could never deny, and um, you know, it it just changed everything about my life.
Kind of like once the light goes on, even if he wanted to turn it out off, he can't.
Exactly.
Yes, uh that's a great way to put it, yeah.
Yeah, it's called the conscience.
Now, how what other acts of violence were you involved in?
Oh, there was uh many robberies, uh um many robberies, uh there was a lot of stabbings, uh a lot of um You stabbed a lot of people.
That was my preference, yeah.
I I didn't like the drive-by shootings.
Uh I I thought they were very uh improv you know, it was just kind of easy.
And I just that just wasn't my thing.
Uh my thing was to run into uh in um rival territory and and grab somebody and then stab them.
That was my um that was my thing.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, we really wish you b the best.
Um I'm you know, I believe in redemption.
I believe in it, and I wish you the best Casey Diaz, and I uh hope everything works out for you.
Thank you so much, uh uh Sean.
Thanks so much for having me on your show.
You br I appreciate it.
Thank you.
God bless you and all you do.
800-941 Sean, toll-free telephone number.
All right, that's gonna wrap things up for today.
Hannity tonight, a full coverage of this fire at this 870-year-old Notre Dame Cathedral.
Uh looking into the cause, we'll let you know if we have any updates.
Uh we'll have what this week is gonna unfold like.
And we have Mark Meadows, John Solomon, Sarah Carter, and Joe Concha and Rachel Compost Duffy, all coming up nine Eastern Hannity Fox.
