Peter Schweizer, author of "Secret Empires," took a long hard look at the candidate and former VP Joe Biden, and today relays a little more to us about Biden and his many connections. Peter reported in 2015, Hunter Biden’s troubling ties to foreign money, and now Chuck Grassley has called for a probe into these ties. Is Biden fit for the office of President?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.
Is the president right when he says a recession's not on the way?
He is not right, but a recession is okay.
A recession is a normal part of economic activity.
President Trump and his economic team are trying to tamp down talk of a possible recession after a volatile week on Wall Street.
Presidents get the credit when the economy's good.
They get the blame when the economy's bad.
And right now, with some signs of economic weakness and the market's growing anxious, President Trump is playing defense.
Questions about the economy that haven't been asked in more than a decade, warning signs that haven't been flashing this bright in more than a decade, and clouds that some analysts say haven't been this dark in a decade.
President Trump is attempting to downplay growing concerns about the U.S. economy could be headed for a recession.
Even in the face of some economic warning signs, the president and his top aides are now brushing off fears of a recession down the road.
friend of mine pointed out this morning, that it wasn't until Nixon's recession that the Watergate stuff drove.
So if a recession hits, you think that's where the bottom falls out?
I think so.
This morning, recession and re-election.
President Trump insisting he has no concerns about the economy after that 800-point plunge.
Josh, isn't the Fed cutting rates now just going to make the next economic downturn worse?
What's your prediction?
I've been hoping for a recession.
People hate me for it, but it would get rid of Trump, so you shouldn't hate me for it.
I mean, recessions are really bad.
People lose their jobs and we shouldn't win.
It's worth it.
That's going to make it tough.
Recession happens.
Trump loses.
I mean, I think that's the problem.
That's what I was saying.
There you go.
That's why I think you're going to see a lot of big crashes.
Once the psychology of the market really cottons onto the fact that this president isn't going to make a deal with China, things are as bad as we think, then you're going to see big crashes.
Also interesting among the Republican support in Congress, one of the things that I've often thought is when will Republicans in Congress stand up to the president on some of the offensive things he says when the economy turns out.
Maybe the one thing that gets their attention.
All right.
We've got to get to all that.
Yeah, let's see if we can talk America into a recession.
By the way, with all due respect, the latest numbers show the economy is still booming.
Hate to hurt Bill Maher.
All right, the president is speaking now as we come on the air.
All right, let's go to the president.
Let's dip in, hear what he's saying.
To stave off any kind of economic slowdown, we're pretty much passed.
Well, I'd like to see a cut in the Fed rate because that should have happened a long time ago.
I think they're being very tardy in not doing it and not having done it sooner.
They raised too quickly, and I've been quite vocal on that.
They also did quantitative tightening, which was ridiculous.
And so, and despite that, you know, if you look, I guess you could call it normalized.
But if you look, our economy is doing fantastically.
And if you take a look at the previous administration, they weren't paying interest.
They had no interest rates.
They had loosening, not tightening.
And frankly, it's a big difference.
And our economy is incredible.
Our jobs, you look at the jobs market, but you have to be proactive.
And so we really need a Fed cut rate because if you look at what's going on with the Europe, European Union as an example, they're cutting.
You take a look at Germany, what they're doing and what they're paying.
I mean, they're actually doing something inverse they've never seen.
Nobody's ever seen it before.
We have to at least keep up to an extent.
So right now, we're paying a very much higher rate of interest, and we didn't follow the world.
And generally speaking, that's okay, but you can't have that much of a disparity.
So we're looking for a rate cut.
We could be really greatly helped if the Fed would do its job and do a substantial rate cut.
Also, they were doing quantitative tightening, very bad to do.
They should do easing, actual easing, no tightening, or at a minimum, they should be doing nothing about that.
But they have to do a rate cut.
The other thing is, yeah, we're looking at various tax reductions, but I'm looking at that all the time anyway, tax reductions.
That's one of the reasons we're in such a strong economic position.
We're right now the number one country anywhere in the world by far as an economy.
Europe's got a lot of problems, and Asia's got a lot of problems.
You look at China, China's had the worst year they've had in 27 years, and they want to make a deal with us, but I can tell you I'm not ready to make a deal unless they're going to make the right kind of a deal.
I'm not ready to make a deal, so I don't know, but I will say this: something will happen, maybe soon and maybe a little bit later.
But China very much wants to make a deal.
What kind of tax cuts would you look at?
We've heard again, potential cut in the payroll tax, indexing capital gains.
What would you accept?
Well, you know, we've been talking about indexing for a long time, and many people like indexing, and it can be done very simply.
It can be done directly by me.
And so we've been looking at that, as you probably have heard, I can do it directly.
So we're talking about indexing, and we're always looking at the capital gains tax, payroll tax.
We're looking at, I would love to do something on capital gains.
We're talking about that.
That's a big deal, goes through Congress.
Payroll tax is something that we think about, and a lot of people would like to see that.
And that very much affects the workers of our country.
And we have a lot of workers.
Right now, by the way, we have more people working today than we've ever had before in the history of our country.
We have almost 160 million people working today.
I think the word recession is a word that's inappropriate because it's just a word that the certain people, I'm going to be kind, certain people and the media are trying to build up because they'd love to see a recession.
We're very far from a recession.
In fact, if the Fed would do its job, I think we'd have a tremendous spurt of growth, a tremendous spurt.
The Fed is psychologically very important, less so actually, but very psychologically important.
And if the Fed would do its job, which it's really done very poorly over the last year and a half, you would see a burst of growth like you've never seen before.
And that would be lowering interest rates and maybe putting some, if you look at what China is doing, if you look at what Germany is doing, if you look at what so many countries are doing, putting some money in because we want to compete with these other countries.
So I think that we actually are set for a tremendous surge of growth if the Fed would do its job.
That's a big if, frankly.
The Fed should be cutting, and I would say they should say, at a minimum, 100 basis points over a period of time.
Not at one time, but over a period of time.
Mr. President, would you want to please, I believe, in a country before tax cuts will be already money?
Well, I'm not talking about doing anything at this moment, but indexing is something that a lot of people have liked for a long time, and it's something that would be very easy to do.
And a lot of people have been talking about indexing for many years, and it's something that I am certainly thinking about.
I can say that a majority of the people in the White House at the level that does this kind of thing, they like indexing.
So it is something I'm thinking about.
Payroll taxes, I've been thinking about payroll taxes for a long time.
Whether or not we do it now or not is it's not being done because of recession because we are legitimately if we had a cut in interest rates by the Fed, if they would do their job properly and if they would do a meaningful cut because they raised too fast, you would see growth like you've not seen ever in this country.
Now, if you go from the election, that great November 8th date, if you go from November 9th to present, you're talking about almost a 60% increase in the stock market.
You're talking about unemployment numbers that are the lowest in history in many categories, and overall, almost the lowest ever in the history of our country.
I think it was 1969, and we are set to surpass that number.
I mean, our country is doing very well.
When I spoke to the president, we were just walking in, and he said, congratulations on the great success of your economy and your country, and I appreciated that.
But our country is doing very well.
Mr. President, would you agree strengthening American military forces in Romania?
Well, it's one of the things we'll be talking about today.
I assume you might be bringing that up, but it's something we'll talk about.
Would you like to have Vladimir Putin back in the G7, make it the G8 again?
So it was the G8 for a long time, and now it's the G7.
And a lot of the time we talk about, we talk about Russia.
We're talking about Russia, because I've gone to numerous G7 meetings.
And I guess President Obama, because Putin outsmarted him, President Obama thought it wasn't a good thing to have Russia in.
So he wanted Russia out.
But I think it's much more appropriate to have Russia in.
It should be the G8 because a lot of the things we talk about have to do with Russia.
So I could certainly see it being the G8 again.
And if somebody would make that motion, I would certainly be disposed to think about it very favorably.
But as you know, for most of the time, it was the G8.
It included Russia.
And President Obama didn't want Russia in because he got outsmarted.
Well, that's not the way it really should work.
Two years ago, you said that including Romania in our visa waiver program is a subject that should be discussed.
In this meeting, will you discuss that?
We've spent a lot of time on it.
We've spent a lot of time discussing it already.
Our countries have been discussing it, and we're going to take it up today at a very important meeting right after this meeting.
Do you like the idea?
It sounds like you like the idea, right?
The waiver, do you like the idea?
Okay, no, it's something we're thinking about.
Mr. President, on Venezuela, is the White House in contact with the Maduro regime with its number to Cabello?
Well, we are in touch.
We're talking to various representatives of Venezuela.
We're helping Venezuela as much as we can.
We're staying out of it, but we are helping it, and it needs a lot of help.
It's an incredible tribute to something bad happening, and there's something bad of socialism.
And it's amazing because 15 years ago it was one of the wealthiest countries.
Now it's one of the poorest countries.
It has oil reserves, has a lot of things going, but it's a very sad thing what's happened.
They don't have water, they don't have food, and we are helping a lot.
We are talking to the representatives at different levels of Venezuela, yes.
I don't want to say who, but we are talking at a very high level.
What's the status of the trade deal that you want to seal with Boris Johnson at the G7?
So I spoke with Boris Johnson.
I think he's going to be a great prime minister.
I think he's going to do a fantastic job.
I've known him.
A lot of people know that we have a very good relationship.
I think he'll be far superior.
I think he'll do something that will be a very, I think he's going to be very important for the UK.
I think he's going to be very important.
Dealing with the European Union, I hate to say this to you, but dealing with the European Union is very difficult.
They drive a hard bargain.
They're represented by Jean-Claude, who is a friend of mine, but he's a tough man.
He's a very, very tough man.
He's a great negotiator.
And we have all the cards in this country because all we'd have to do is tax their cars and they would give us anything they wanted because they send millions of Mercedes over.
They send millions of BMWs over.
But we're talking to the European Union.
We're going to see if we can work something out.
But I will say this.
Dealing with the UK, they have not treated the UK very well.
That's a very tough bargain they're driving, the European Union.
It's a very tough bargain.
And I think that UK has the right man in charge right now, the right person in charge in the form of Boris.
And if I turn to Afghanistan, what is your current thinking on pulling out the United States?
Well, we're talking to the government of Afghanistan.
We're talking to the Taliban.
We're talking to others.
And we're looking at different things.
We've been there for 18 years.
It's ridiculous.
We have taken it down a notch.
We're at about 13,000 people right now, 13,000 Americans.
NATO has some troops there too, by the way.
And we're having good discussions.
We'll see what happens.
We'll see what happens.
Look, it's 18 years.
We're not really fighting.
We're almost more of a police force over there.
It's been so many years.
But we're like a police force.
And we're not supposed to be a police force.
And as I've said, and I'll say it any number of times, and this is not using nuclear.
We could win that war in a week if we wanted to fight it.
But I'm not looking to kill 10 million people.
I'm not looking to kill 10 million Afghans because that's what would have to happen.
And I'm not looking to do that.
But it's a war that has been going on for almost 19 years now.
And frankly, it's ridiculous.
But with that being said, it's a dangerous place, and we have to always keep an eye on it.
Sounds like you'd like to pull it completely out if you could.
I'd like to look at various alternatives.
One of the alternatives is going on right now.
We're talking about a plan.
I don't know whether or not the plan's going to be acceptable.
All right, the president is about to wrap this up.
I can see 800-941.
Sean, I'm going to get back to this media obsession.
Let's pray for a recession when we get back.
We have a lot of other news we're going to get to today, especially the New York Times, crazy, creepy, sleepy Uncle Joe, the 2020 race, a lot going on today.
Oh, and of course, the virulent anti-Semitism that nobody in Congress wants to challenge.
We were along 800-941.
Sean, told for a telephone number.
You know, so you got, we just played the montage at the start of the program.
We didn't know that the president was going to talk.
Actually, we're going to go back to the president in a few minutes.
We're taping it right now.
We'll be a few minutes delayed because I want to get into this.
And it's like they're trying to talk our economy into a recession.
It's easy for Bill Maher, the multi-millionaire that he is.
He's not going to be impacted by a recession.
But in spite of all of the fake news media talking points, you know, Russia, Russia, impeachment, impeachment, racist, racist, stormy, stormy.
This is their new talking point.
Well, I have bad news for the recession wanters.
U.S. retail sales went up nearly a full point in July, much better than expected, easing fears about economic growth at home and worldwide.
Two regional Federal Reserve manufacturing surveys also came in stronger than expected, along with U.S. productivity growth.
Retail sales also had spikes, including the auto industry.
The best thing the expert forecast by more than 300 percent.
Sales up nine-tenths of a percent, including autos and gas.
Economists have predicted, you know, sales to rise just three-tenths of 1%.
It's three times better.
Online, non-store purchasing, up 16%.
Walmart, strong earnings.
All right, 25 to the top of the air.
We'll get back to the president, an impromptu presser at the White House.
We're going to just go to the important parts.
He takes on the squad and Talib and Omar, and we'll get to that in a second.
All of these people in the media mob, you know, the same ones, Russia, Russia, Russia, impeach, impeach, impeach.
Let's see, collusion, collusion, obstruction, obstruction.
Impeachment, impeachable.
Manufactured crisis.
Manufactured crisis.
Racist, racist, whatever it is, stormy, stormy.
None of this has worked.
It's not going to work.
I'm going to tell you about the New York Times in a minute after this.
In spite of all of them trying to talk down the economy, you know, guys like Bill Maher dumbling down.
He's wishing for a recession because then we can beat Donald Trump if everybody suffers.
What a bunch of selfish jackasses that they would ever do.
It's not going to impact their Hollywood lifestyle.
It's not going to impact anybody or their life in any way.
It's going to impact the working men and women in this country.
Anyway, but in spite of what they want, we still got numbers, and the numbers speak for themselves.
You know, racist, racist was their latest Hail Mary pass, but we have a Zogby poll yesterday that the president's approval rating has gone up 20 percentage points since Election Day 2018.
And it went up 20 percentage points in the Hispanic community.
And the Zogby poll now has him at a 51% approval rating.
And I think Trump always polls low.
There's a certain part of the population.
They're not going to give you that answer that support Trump.
So U.S. retail sales, that went up 0.7% in March, better than what was anticipated and expected.
That's easing fears about economic growth at home and worldwide.
You have two regional Federal Reserve manufacturing surveys.
They came in stronger than expected, along with U.S. productivity growth.
We see retail sales, excluding autos, they spot 1%, besting the experts' forecast by more than 300%.
And by the way, they had sales up nine-tenths of a percentage point.
That's a lot of money.
And economists had said it was only going to be three-tenths of a percent.
All right, three times stronger.
Online, other non-store sales, well, they're surging 16% versus a year earlier.
The best annual gain since December of 2000.
If you look at Walmart, they're usually a pretty good indicator.
They reported strong earnings.
You know, we smelly Trump voters, we like our Walmart.
And their earnings guidance was raised.
Walmart stock just went up 6%.
Amazon stock went up higher.
Target, which reports next week, they rallied 1.7%.
And while the Philly Fed manufacturing index fell to 16.8% in August from July's 21.8%, well, that beat the predictions that said it was only going to be 11%.
Well, it's 16, which is a healthy number.
And meanwhile, the New York Empire state manufacturing index rose 4.8%.
Experts had been predicting a 2.5% drop.
U.S. productivity rose at a steady 2.3% annual rate.
Again, the estimates, the forecast only ended at 1.5%.
You see a pattern here?
The media's economic experts, they're hoping and trying to talk down the economy, but the economy is not listening.
And the reason is, and the president was out there talking about cuts to the payroll tax, that would be great for the economy.
President also went out and started talking about maybe the Fed needs to cut by 100 points over time, which, by the way, would be what they did for Obama for eight years.
But they try to keep raising rates, which doesn't help the president in implementing his policies.
Now we have the latest on the crazy radical, you know, squad members out there.
They want to boycott Israel.
They're comparing Israel to Nazis.
Well, we boycotted Nazis.
What is it with the squad and their Nazi concentration camp constant comparisons?
I'll pay for the squad.
I'll pay for every member of the squad to go and look at Auschwitz and other death camps because obviously if they think the detention centers that provide everybody safety, beds, blankets, pillows, food, water, medicine, recreational facilities, soccer fields, telephones, TVs, and baby formula and diapers and doctors.
We're going to compare that to where mass murder and a Holocaust.
Well, if they're going to keep referring, making these Nazi analogies, comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, whether we boycotted the Nazis or the concentration camps to the detention centers, I think if they need the money, I'll pay for their trip.
And maybe we can get people that are actually knowledgeable about the Holocaust, about the mass murder, six million Jews slaughtered in Nazi Germany and in Poland and elsewhere.
Maybe they'll get it, and then we'll bring them to the detention centers so they really understand something.
But, you know, you got what?
You got the first one.
You got Omar.
By the way, did anyone ever forget that Barack Obama himself, yeah, if I remember correctly, he barred a member of the Israeli Knesset from coming to the U.S.
Oh, interesting little piece from the Daily Caller.
And he barred a member from the Israeli Knesset.
News broke that the Israeli prime minister wasn't going to allow Tlaib and Omar into Israel.
Well, the Daily Wire, I guess, reminded Joe Biden, the Obama administration, they banned the Israeli Knesset member, a guy by the name of Michael Benari in 2012.
He belonged to Israel's National Union Coalition.
And he requested a visa to attend two conferences, a request that was denied by the Obama administration.
The American consulate denied the visa on the grounds that Benari belonged to a terrorist group.
I don't know anything about the guy, to be very blunt.
But they finally said for humanitarian reasons they would allow Tlaib to come.
Now, it was Tlaib that made the comparison, the need to boycott Israel is, well, we boycotted Nazis, and she's the one that wrote for Louis Farrakhan's magazine, the most virulent, one of the most virulent anti-Semites in the country.
It was Omar who was tweeting out, it's all about the Benjamins, baby, and how Israel has hypnotized the world.
And I hope the world wakes up to the evil.
And may God bless the world to wake up to eat, you know, the evil that is Israel.
Well, it's the only democracy in the region, our closest ally in the region.
Now they want to fire Bill Maher because Bill Maher rightly said this is stupid.
Gillibrand, now they want to take away money from Israel.
Well, you know, okay, then Israel finally said Tlaib can come.
Well, she begs to go.
They said yes.
And then she says, I'm not going.
So what was the point of that?
Here's what the president said just moments ago.
On Israel, Congresswoman Elon Omar yesterday said that the United States should rethink its policy of aid toward Israel after she and Congresswoman Tlaib were denied entry.
Congresswoman Tlaib was later allowed to come in, but she decided not to.
Should there be any change in U.S. aid to Israel?
No.
And you should see the horrible things that Talib has said about Israel.
And AOC plus three, that's what I call it.
AOC.
Just take AOC plus three.
And you should see the things that the four of them have said about Israel over the last couple of years.
I mean, Omar is a disaster for Jewish people.
I can't imagine if she has any Jewish people in her district that they could possibly vote for.
But what Omar has said, what Tlaib has said, and then yesterday I noticed for the first time, Tlaib with the tears.
All of a sudden, she starts with tears, tears.
And I don't buy it.
I don't buy it.
I don't buy it for a second because I've seen her in a very vicious mood at campaign rallies, my campaign rallies, before she was a congresswoman.
I said, who is that?
And I saw a woman that was violent and vicious and out of control.
And all of a sudden, I see this person who's crying because she can't see her grandmother.
She could see her grandmother.
They gave her permission to see her grandmother, but she grandstanded it and she didn't want to do it.
So that's a decision of Israel.
That's not a, a lot of people are saying that was my decision.
That's a decision of Israel.
They can let them in if they want, but I don't think they want to.
When you read the things that they've said about Israel, how bad.
And if you look at their itinerary before they found out, you take a look at their itinerary, that was all going to be a propaganda tour against Israel.
So I don't blame Israel for doing what they did.
I have nothing to do with it, but I don't blame them for doing what they did.
I think it would have been very bad to let them in, including the four.
I'm talking about all four, but these two that wanted to get in, Omar and Talib.
And I think it would be a very bad thing for Israel, but Israel has to do what they want to do.
But I would not cut off aid to Israel.
And I can't even believe that we're having this conversation.
Five years ago, the concept of even talking about this, even three years ago, of cutting off aid to Israel because of two people that hate Israel and hate Jewish people.
All right, I'm going to jump in.
Well, why?
Why would they be allowed in after all they've said?
And then they're tweeting out cartoons put together at a contest Iran is running by a Holocaust denying anti-Semite.
You know, being banned is, I guess it's awful, but if you show nothing but hostility and won't even recognize Israel, you deserve not to get in.
And then they let you in, and then you're quiet and you can't get in.
By the way, we now have these leaked transcripts from the New York Times editor ordering their staff to punish, you know, to push the new hoax because Russia, Russia, Stormy, Stormy, Mueller, Mueller, none of it worked.
And so we got a hold of this transcript according to obtained first by Slate.
And you have this guy banquet, I guess, as the New York Times editorial meeting guy.
We built our, we put it on Hannity.com too.
We built our newsroom to cover one story and we did it truly well.
Meaning the lies, the witch hunt, the propaganda, the Russia, Russia, Russia story.
They missed the whole story.
And he said, well, chapter one of the story of Trump, not only for our newsroom, but frankly for our readers, was did Donald Trump have an untoward relationship with the Russians and was there obstruction of justice.
That was a really hard story, by the way, but let's not forget that.
We set ourselves up to cover that story, and I'm going to say it.
We won two bullets or prizes.
Two Pulitzer Prizes.
They need to be given back because it was all lies.
They missed the biggest story in their lives, which is, oh, rigging Hillary's investigation, the real Russian interference, the dirty dossier, the abuse of power, the premeditated FISA abuse, outsourcing intelligence to spy on the president, circumventing American laws.
No, they didn't cover any of that.
They finally did conclude late in the game, oh, the dossier was likely Russian disinformation from the get-go.
And then they go on our chapter one.
We did such a great job.
We had two bullets of prizes, and I think we covered the story better than anybody else.
They got the whole story wrong for two and a half years.
But then the Mueller report came out with Robert Mueller failing to establish Trump campaign, conspired or coordinated with Russia to fix the 2016 election.
The day Mueller walked off that witness stand, two things happened.
Our readers who want Donald Trump to go away suddenly thought, holy bleep, Bob Mueller's not going to do it.
Yeah, because you didn't have any evidence, you idiots.
You've been perpetrating a hoax and a conspiracy theory and a bunch of lies.
And Donald Trump got a little emboldened politically, I think, because you know, for obvious reasons, and I think that the story changed and a lot of stuff we're talking about started to emerge like six or seven weeks ago, and we're a little tiny bit flat-footed.
Oh, they missed the story we've been doing and being right about for two and a half years.
But I mean, that's what happens when a story looks a certain way for two years, right?
Then he used the gentlest terms possible, noting that the story changed.
Story didn't change.
They lied for two and a half years and they pushed lies and conspiracy theories.
Then he goes on, I think we've got to change.
Oh, you're going to admit you were wrong?
No.
The Times must write more deeply about the country, race, and other divisions.
Let's go after Trump on race and we'll dedicate the whole newsroom to that big lie that they're going to spread.
You know, the vision for the coverage for the next two years is what I talked about earlier.
How do we cover a guy who makes these kinds of remarks?
How do we cover the world's reaction to him?
How do we do that while continuing to cover his policies?
How do we cover America that's become so divided by Donald Trump?
That's the New York Times admitting they are nothing but propagandists and nothing but, you know, Trump bludgeoners with a political agenda.
They are no different.
You know, these bloggers, these weirdos that all day 24-7 in their basement, in their underwear, you know, the keyboard warriors that spread lies, conspiracy theories.
Well, that's basically the New York Times admitting that's them.
That's also the rest of the media.
If you agree with me, go to Joe 30330 and help me in this fight.
I watch what happened when the kids from Parkland marched up to, and I met with them and then they went off to up on the hill when I was vice president and then went off the hill to go into those neighborhoods.
We got to let them know who we are.
We choose unity over division.
We choose science over fiction.
We choose truth over facts.
The words that stunned the nation, and I would argue, I know, shocked the world.
International leaders spoke about it.
You had people like Margaret That, excuse me, you had people like the former chairman and leader of the party in Germany.
You had Algela Merkel.
We have this notion that somehow if you're poor, you cannot do it.
Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.
Wealthy kids, black kids, aged kids.
Mom lived in Long Island for 10 years or so.
God rest her soul.
And although she's, wait, your mom's still alive as your dad passed.
God bless her soul.
Better than anybody else.
Man, you don't know my state.
My state was a slave state.
My state is a border state.
My state is the eighth largest black population in the country.
You got the first sort of mainstream freaking American who is articulate and bright and clean and nice looking guy.
I mean, that's a storybook.
They're going to put you all back in chains.
You have the first, you know, articulate, clean, mainstream African-American.
Man, this is storybook.
Okay.
He's losing it.
What was amazing as we look at Biden, by the way, 800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
I'm looking at all this and I'm thinking, wow, does creepy, crazy, sleepy, creepy, crazy Uncle Joe, does he really understand how much trouble he is in?
I mean, all these reports out today.
First, his wife Jill is urging Democrats to hold their nose and vote for her husband.
How is that a campaign slogan?
I literally, I think Joe Biden came up with what should probably be her husband's campaign slogan, hold your nose and vote for creepy, you know, sleepy, crazy Uncle Joe.
Maybe we get bumper stickers that say as much, but the campaign buttons for the next 200-person Biden rally, vote for my husband.
I know he's a lose cannon loser, and he has the worst track record of anybody in Congress, but he's our only chance to beat Trump.
Even Axelrod is saying, no, you can't hide him.
You either can cut it or you can't, and that's probably the best that you got.
The story now that has come out, the New York Times, that Biden promised Obama that he'd never run in 2020, quote, because he'd be too old.
And Biden went so far as to pledge his undying loyalty to Obama, insisted that after two failed presidential campaigns, he'd given up on trying to be president.
And he also told Obama aides that Barack would never have to worry about him positioning himself.
And Joe Biden, of course, to voters, you may have to swallow a little bit with my husband so we can beat Trump.
I mean, what kind of slogan is this?
If his own wife knows he doesn't have a fastball, a curveball, he doesn't even have a knuckleball.
He has nothing.
Iowa Corn Poll, it's Biden and Mayor Pete.
Please tell me, Mayor Pete's not going to be the nominee.
He can't even run South Bend, Indiana.
But I guess is that what you're stuck with?
Elizabeth Warren, she did get a fairly good crowd, about, we're told, 12,000 people, according to the Washington Examiner, Town Hall, and a rally on Sunday.
I think this was up in New Hampshire.
So that's pretty interesting.
At least somebody got some crowd.
It's not a Donald Trump crowd, I'll tell you that.
And Obama once said, I don't know if you remember this, how many times is Biden going to say something stupid?
That was his own president saying that about him.
Anyway, but then the bigger picture is, well, we've got two other issues with Biden.
Number one is failed record, the economic record of Biden and Obama.
I won't regurgitate my statistics.
Then we've got the Iranian deal dropping $150 billion in cash and other currencies on the tarmac for the mullahs of Iran.
Then you've got this whole issue of Peter Schweitzer.
I know this came up in a little rift that went on between Fox News, Steve Hilton, and Britt Hume.
But he has problems with the sensitive tech issues with China.
And it's all chronicled in Peter Schweitzer's book, Who Joins Us Now.
It's always great to have Peter back as the author of Secret Empires.
And how are you, my friend?
I'm doing great, Sean.
How are you?
I want you to explain two particular issues.
John Solomon has hit this Ukraine issue really hard.
You hit the China issue really hard.
Combined, it shows a family that has enriched itself while he was vice president and taking advantage of that position to the point where he was willing to withhold American monies and aid to Ukraine unless they fired the guy that was investigating his own son.
Yeah, that's exactly right, Sean.
You know, Joe Biden becomes vice president in 2008 to President Barack Obama.
And he's got his son, Hunter Biden, who really, his professional background is basically he worked for a credit card company and then he was a lobbyist for online gambling companies.
What he did was he set up a private equity firm and said, I'm now in the investment business.
And Sean, this guy with no background in China, no background in Ukraine, really no background in private equity, lands these massive deals overseas while his father's vice president.
One of them is with Ukraine, as you talked about.
His father is the point person for Obama administration policy towards Ukraine, which means he's steering about $1.8 billion of U.S. aid.
If Joe Biden says you don't get the aid, they don't get the aid.
And lo and behold, Ukrainian corrupt oligarchs says, you know what, we're going to put the vice president's son on the payroll.
And so they put him on the payroll of a natural gas company.
So let's add to the list.
Hunter Biden has no background in energy policy either.
Puts him on the payroll and pays Hunter Biden, the son of the sitting vice president, $83,000 a month, basically to do nothing.
And as this oligarch who's paying Joe Biden's son is under Ukrainian investigation, Joe Biden, the vice president, tells the Ukrainians, if you do not fire the prosecutor who's looking into this oligarch who hired my son, I'm going to withdraw and withhold a billion dollars worth of aid.
And there's actually an audio tape of him saying that.
I got the audio tape right here.
We are prepared when Peter Schweitzer shows up.
Now, the president, the vice president is in Ukraine.
His son is under investigation.
The president is supposed to turn over a billion dollars in aid to Ukraine, and he uses taxpayer dollars, your money, as leverage to get the prosecutor investigating his son Hunter off the case and literally demand he gets fired.
And then later he brags about it.
I said, I'm not going to, we're not going to give you the billion dollars.
They said, you have no authority.
You're not the president.
The president said, I said, call him.
I said, I'm telling you, you're not getting a billion dollars.
I said, you're not getting a billion.
I'm going to be leaving here.
I think it was, what, six hours?
I looked.
I said, I'm leaving in six hours.
If the prosecutor's not fired, you're not getting the money.
Oh, son of a ⁇ you're fired.
Oh, son of a ⁇ so he leverages American tax dollars.
And how much?
So now, how much money a month was he making?
$83,000 a month for how long?
That's right.
How long did that go on for?
Up until about four or five months ago.
So he's made net several million dollars from the Ukrainians alone.
Now add to that, Sean, go halfway around the world.
Can I ask you, does he have any knowledge, background, experience to do any of these things or no?
No, no.
And his job, by the way, when he was hired by this energy company, it was to do regulatory compliance in the Ukraine for this energy company.
I mean, that assumes that he knows anything about energy.
There's nothing in his background.
And that he knows something about Ukrainian regulations.
I would dare say Hunter Biden probably doesn't know much about that either.
And that's not why he was hired.
Everybody knows why Hunter Biden was hired.
It's just that the Bidens don't want to admit it.
Let's go to the issue that you chronicled really well in your book.
And it is amazing all these guys go to Washington.
They're not paid the kind of money that would make one a millionaire.
You know, what is the average congressional salary today?
$175,000?
I don't even know what it is.
Yeah, something like that.
But then you have to pay for where you live, and then you have other expenses.
So it's not a position where you'd become a millionaire.
But interestingly, a lot of these politicians, they're there a long time.
They end up being millionaires.
How does that happen?
Well, they end up being millionaires or they set their kids up to be millionaires, which is what Joe Biden has done.
And we just talked about Ukraine.
You go halfway around the world to Beijing, China, and what you find is there was a big payday for Hunter Biden there as well.
The good news here, Sean, is we broke this story on your radio and TV programs last year.
Just a couple of days ago, Senator Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has asked the Treasury Secretary, Mnuchin, to investigate these deals because he's concerned about certain approvals that were given by the Obama administration of financial transactions involving Hunter Biden and the Chinese.
But in a nutshell, Sean, what they basically did was Hunter Biden flew over on Air Force 2 with his dad in December of 2013.
They were there for a couple of days.
Ten days after they returned, it was announced that Hunter Biden's small private equity firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners.
Let me slow down.
Does he have any background or experience in the type of business you're about to describe that made him rich?
None.
No background in China, no background in private equity.
And they get a billion-dollar deal that later becomes a $1.5 billion deal.
And to tell you how weird this is, Sean, the deal was unique in a lot of ways, but it was unique in that it was through the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, allowed them to take money in and out.
This was a deal that nobody else on the face of the earth had.
Not Goldman Sachs, not JPMorgan, not Bank of America, not Deutsche Bank.
Small, tiny Rosemont Seneca Partners, which is run by Hunter Biden, got this deal from the Chinese government.
And initially, you know, we reported this last year, Sean, and the Bidens said this is ridiculous.
It's not true.
Now they've admitted that, yeah, okay, it is true, but there was nothing unusual about it, which is totally ridiculous.
But this deal— How much did he get paid on that deal?
Well, the problem is we don't know, right?
We know because of the Ukrainians.
The Ukrainians released the corporate records.
We have the financial records that show how much the Ukrainians paid him.
We don't know how much Hunter Biden got in this deal.
And that's the problem, because there's no disclosure requirements for the son of the vice president to say how much the Chinese government is paying him in this deal.
But here's what's troubling.
It's not just that Hunter Biden got wealthy doing this and that Joe Biden has suddenly become soft on China.
It's that the whole purpose of this investment fund that now Hunter Biden is a partner in is to buy high-tech companies in the United States, some of which create dual-use technologies that benefit the Chinese military.
And this is one of the things that Senator Grassley wants Treasury to look into.
For example, this new fund that was created called Boai Harvest, Hunter Biden was on the board.
His business partner, Devin Archer, was the vice chairman of the investment committee.
They bought a Michigan company called Hennegas that produces very high-tech anti-vibration technologies that have applications to the automobile industry, but also to military technologies.
Their investment fund, financed by the Chinese government, bought Hennegas along with a Chinese aviation company that's run by the Chinese military.
The Chinese military that is hostile towards the U.S. All right, stay right there.
Peter Schweitzer is with us.
A lot of this information is in his latest book called Secret Empires.
You know, all of this corruption, all of this enrichment by all of these people and using the access, even with our enemy countries.
Oh, you get what you want as long as you let my kids make money.
Unbelievable.
All right, as we continue, Peter Schweitzer is with us.
Two amazing stories.
Has anyone else in the media picked up on either of these issues with Hunter Biden and his vice president father, Joe Biden, in the energy specter, in the bond, and I guess market specter in China?
This guy's making a bundle, and he's flying on Air Force 2 to get to China, and he's got a prosecutor that's investigating him that his father gets fired by leveraging U.S. dollars in aid.
A billion dollars worth.
Yeah, exactly.
I mean, it's a huge story.
And look, you broke this story in the national media when I came on your show last year.
Since that time, I have to give credit, ABC News actually did confront Joe Biden about this.
Joe Biden lied about it, said that there was nothing to it, but they at least asked him the question.
But, you know, Sean, what I tell people in the media is imagine if the names were different.
Imagine if this was, you know, President Trump and one of his sons flew over to Beijing, China on Air Force One, and one of his sons struck a deal in an area that they had no background and experience, a billion-dollar deal.
Would not the media be reporting it?
Of course they would.
Nothing like that's happened.
They're not talking about this because it hasn't happened, but it's happened with the Bidens.
And to me, it's that selectivity of the media, which is the reason their credibility is so declined.
We ought to be reporting corruption, whatever name is attached to it.
Listen, I agree with you.
I don't care who you are.
You're there to serve.
If you want to do government work, you're there to serve.
Right.
Exactly.
And if you don't want to serve the American people, then don't go into that business.
Go into another business.
All right, Peter Schweitzer, got a roll.
Thank you.
800-941, Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
All right, when we come back, we'll get right to the phones.
800-941.
Sean is our number.
You want to be a part of this extravaganza.
Lots more coming up straight ahead.
An amazing Hannity tonight at 9.
You don't want to miss.
So, Sean.
I didn't even get a word out.
Welcome back to the Sean Hannity Show.
Sean, do you know what today is?
I do know what actually.
I know what you're going to say.
It is.
It is National Radio Day.
Do you know what National Radio Day is?
I don't, but I have a special.
It celebrates the impact that radio has had on American life since its invention.
I was talking.
So, yeah.
I have a special soundbite.
All right, let's play it.
The notion that he'll come forward and say that he lied is not going to happen.
He's not going to concede that he lied to the grand jury because he did not.
Is this more of the arrogance?
That's it.
That was radio gold in the making.
All right, so let me explain what that was.
Oh, please do.
National Radio Day.
So I worked at the ex-wife station in New York for a long time.
And right next to my studio was the EIB studio of Rush Limbaugh and the EIB building.
Everyone did the show from the EIB building, which is actually called Tupen Plaza in New York.
But there were people that would come to New York.
Where's the EIB building?
And, well, Rush's building is right here.
We happen to have the studio adjacent.
Anyway, so they came to me once.
I think it was Kit Carson or somebody and says, hey, would you like to fill in for Rush?
And I'm like, sure.
So I'm in the beginning of the opening monologue.
And I'm doing the, I'm in the zone.
We got James Golden is there, Bo Snerdley.
Mike Mamon is there.
John Harry, I think his name was, he was there.
Kit Carson is a wreck thinking, oh, gosh, this guy's going to blow it.
Anyway, that was part of the opening monologue.
In the middle of the opening monologue, because Rush does have a gold microphone.
What is this made out of?
It's like made out of tin steel.
Teflon.
It's Teflon.
Teflon.
The way you treat a microphone is Teflon.
Yeah, nobody likes the way I treat a microphone.
Rush does it the right way.
He stands way, way back.
Bill Cunningham sits way back here.
Sean Hannity, you're a great idea.
Bill Cunningham sits way back because he talks too loud.
No, he sits back and he likes to lean back in his chair and he talks just extra loud and he's screaming when he does.
My kids would always ask that.
I'll get to that in a second.
Anyway, so into the opening monologue of Rush's show, and I'm thinking, oh, man, oh, man, 600 stations.
What am I going to do?
I'm trying to be on my game.
And his golden microphone, it is gold.
It falls.
And it's like, thud.
And then I'm like, I go down, pick up the microphone to the extent that I can.
I finish the monologue.
Then I go to a break.
And I'm sweating profusely by the time you get to the break because it was very early into the show.
You know what, Sean?
I think the audience should hear you drop it one more time.
No, here's the thing.
No, no, let's do it again.
He's not going to concede that he lied to the grand jury because he did not.
Is this more of the arrogance?
Oh, yeah, there you go.
There's a star is born right there.
On National Radio Day.
That was the moment.
Well, the great thing.
So Rush comes back from vacation.
He had heard about the story.
Oh, it was the drop road around the world.
Bo Snerdley, Sean Hannity, dented my microphone.
What happened?
He came back.
One of the funnier things, Kit Carson once, who was, I'm so sad.
I love that man.
And he worked for Rush all those years.
And it was a family.
We were in the same building.
So we all became really good friends.
Bo Snerdley, all those guys.
Mike Mamone, who we love.
And anyway, so one night I was doing, when I first left Atlanta to work at Fox in October of 1996, well, I got hired because I'd been doing nine to noon every day.
I got hired to work at WABC in New York City, station I grew up listening to, just like WOR, our new wife station in New York.
And I would do 11 to 2.
We were talking about it the other day.
Candy's asleep.
It was hilarious.
All night long.
But I'd love to.
What's very funny about that for a second?
It's just you laughing because it's so authentic.
You're like, oh, my God.
Oh, it makes me sad because she passed away too.
Marty passed away.
Oh, terrible.
Marty slammed the beaches of Normandy.
But we had a cast of ensemble characters that were, you know, insomniacs like me.
And it was great because it fit my lifestyle.
I don't go to sleep anyway, so I might as well talk.
And it was really something special.
And so I just became friends with all of these guys, and it opened up a door for me that I never thought I had.
And I forgot the original story I was going to tell.
Oh, I remember.
So at night, so Rush's phone bank, and this is when Kit got so mad at me.
So I don't know if Rush ever knew this.
Because Kit was, you know, he was Rush's guy.
He's very loyal to Rush, fought for Rush.
I had total respect for that.
And so I was on 11 to 2 one night, and then I'd go on, I went on the air, and Rush's lines are ringing 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
So we pick up the phone.
Welcome to the EIB network, Rush Limbaugh Show.
Mega Dittos.
So I go on the air.
All right, let's check in with Charlie's calling in from Florida.
Charlie, welcome to the EIB network.
Rush, mega dittos, mega dittos, Rush.
Mega Dittos to you.
And, you know, I'd do it for as long as I could keep it up.
The audience loved it.
The people had no idea I was, you know, playing around with them all.
It was kind of, radio could be so much fun.
You can have so much fun.
Kit Carson, now we had done it maybe three or four times before he found out about it.
And he came in, or I think we started doing the Rush Caller of the Night.
We do it just like one a night.
And Kit Carson comes up.
We're literally fuming.
You know, Irish guy, tall, red hair, in my face.
You think that's funny?
Better not happen again.
I said, okay.
You know, I mean, I probably should have asked permission, but, you know, I'd rather ask forgiveness, I guess.
Come on, that's pretty funny.
Listen, I love Kit, and Kit and I were very close.
But he actually told me, what did he say you were?
Oh, when I met Sean, he was a young buck, and he was a reverend.
I said, irreverent.
He was, and he had every right to tell me to knock it off.
You know, I think I'm being funny.
I'm enjoying myself.
I'm figuring, well, it's 11 to 2 at night.
Now, that station signal, you're heard in 38, 40 states.
It booms across the United States and Canada.
50,000-watt clear channel station.
I never asked Rush if he knew about that.
I don't think I want to ask Rush if he knew about it.
I'm going to text right now.
I don't want to get yelled at again.
We become friends.
You know what it is?
That would be something Rush would do.
Rush, if he was doing late night TV, late night radio.
I could see him doing that.
Anyway, it is National Radio Day.
Radio is such a great medium.
It's a heart medium.
You have to paint the picture.
I'm sitting here in my gray t-shirt, my jeans.
You know, we all just hang out all day.
Over there, they're drinking moonshine every day.
By the end of the show, they're all tanks.
Absolutely.
I can't even spell my own name.
All right, let's go to Dan is in Michigan.
Dan, the man, how are you?
Glad you called, sir.
I'm good, Sean.
How you doing?
I'm good.
What's going on?
Yeah.
Hey, happy National Radio Day.
And if I may, happy National Limbaugh and Hannity Radio Day.
Well, thank you.
It means a lot to all of us.
We can't forget our buddy Mark either, the great one.
Yeah.
I have a story with him.
I forced him to do radio.
I literally had to.
He didn't want to do it.
I'm like, no, no, no.
You're going to be great at it.
I promise you.
No, no, no.
I don't know how to do those intro and outro things.
What do you mean?
I said, okay, I'll write it out for you.
All right.
I'm Mark Levin in for Sean Hannity.
Call this number.
We'll be back.
I'm Mark Levin in for Sean Hannity.
Here's our number.
Now, let me go back to, I'll say what nobody else.
I'll say it.
Nobody else will say it.
There.
I said it.
Sean, you're pretty good at imitations.
I have to hand it to you.
Yeah, well, it got me in trouble with Kit Carson, and I feel bad about it now.
Why am I feeling guilty?
Because I was raised Catholic.
I feel guilty about everything.
Yeah, yeah.
Hey, Sean.
Yeah.
Hey, if we took, you know, and you've been nailing it perfectly, as you always do, but if we took all of our nation's inner cities, known areas, and we added up five brutal categories of crime: shootings, killing, armed robbery, armed assault, rape, and carjacking.
Those five brutal.
There are thousands of those brutal crimes every single week.
If you add all the nation's inner cities, thousands every week.
All cities, as you point out, run by liberal Democrats.
So here's the question, Sean, for the liberals.
What Republican-run area of the U.S. where any of those crimes on a weekly basis are being committed by white supremacist week in and week out?
Name me once.
Listen, I. Listen, let me tell you what I think of anybody with any sick, twisted ideology.
I find, you know what I think of white supremacists, racist jackasses, they're jackasses.
You know, I don't know how their whole lives become consumed with this ideology of theirs.
I'm like, go to work.
Have you ever met anybody outside of the five people you hang out with and chant your stupid slogans with?
And, you know, I don't care if it's Louis Farrakhan racism, white nationalism, racism, supremacy people.
To me, they're ignorant morons, and all they're doing is dividing this country.
And I don't have any pay or Black Lives Matters.
You know, what do we want dead cops or Antifa people or Occupy people?
I mean, what we see in every instance are people that need to go find a life and understand that other people exist in this world.
And your life that has been given to you by God, our natural rights, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
And that we're all created equal.
And I believe that with all my heart.
And I think people that don't believe that are dumb.
And I think they are ignorant.
And it drives me nuts when conservatives are portrayed this way because it's a total lie.
Because I don't know any mainstream conservatives that would think this way.
Can I add one more thing, Sean?
Can I add one more thing?
And listen, I agree with you.
My point is that you and I be the first ones cracking down on white supremacists.
But can you imagine if white supremacist were doing the brutal crimes in our inner cities around the country, that'd have been shut down 40 years ago.
But for some reason, they don't want to shut down the current brutal crimes.
And that's kind of my point, which is what you've been saying.
Listen, I am telling you, look, all this talk, like, remember when the James Bird ad came up and George Bush, an innocent person, dragged to his death, dragged with chains by the back of a truck.
You've got to be one soulless, evil SOB to do that to a fellow human being.
And he got the death penalty.
George Bush supported the death penalty.
Then he runs for president.
It becomes an ad where they have images, and the tagline is, well, it's like my father was killed all over again because George Bush doesn't support hate crimes.
James Byrne's daughter.
On June 7th, 1998, in Texas, my father was killed.
He was beaten, chained, and then dragged three miles to his death, all because he was black.
So when Governor George W. Bush refused to support hate crimes legislation, it was like my father was killed all over again.
Call George W. Bush and tell him to support hate crimes legislation.
We won't be dragged away from our future.
Okay, George Bush supported the death penalty.
You know, the idea that you're going to punish people for what's in their head when they commit an evil atrocity against a fellow human being, it's irrelevant in the sense as long as we punish them for the crimes they commit.
Thank you.
Brian, North Carolina.
What's up, Brian?
How are you?
Glad you called, sir.
Hey, big time Sean Hannity.
How are you doing, brother?
We've got to tell AJ next time he calls in somebody's trying to rob his act.
What's going on, Brian?
How are you?
I'm good.
That's my tribute to him.
I love him.
By the way, we met AJ.
Oh, AJ.
Oh, Linda and AJ were hugging for two hours together.
It was like, really.
You know what they say?
When you find a good thing, that will let them go.
But that held on tight.
AJ is so full of passion and life, wants knowledge, fights hard.
I love that guy.
I love him too.
He's awesome.
Well, listen, I called in because last Friday you had two pastors on, and one of them was basically, you know, an anti-gunner as well.
And he actually had the nerve to say that, you know, mass murders only occur by people with guns.
And what got me was I wanted to scream into the radio, dude, four people just died last week in California by somebody with a knife.
I believe it was a machete.
So, you know, you've said it a lot.
Evil exists in this world, and it doesn't matter what tool they want to use.
If they want to kill, they will kill.
Sick.
Listen, this is a I love the Rocky speech.
You know what?
We'll queue it up when we get back.
And he says to his son, this world, nothing is going to hit as hard as life.
It's not a matter how hard you get hit.
You know, you're going to be brought to your knees.
How hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.
Keep moving forward.
We'll play it on the other side.
We'll play it on the other side of this break.
800-941.
Sean told for your telephone number.
All right, here is the Rocky speech I was talking about with the last caller.
Let me tell you something you already know.
The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows.
It's a very mean and nasty place.
And I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it.
You, me, or nobody is going to hit as hard as life.
But it ain't about how hard you hit.
It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.
How much you can take and keep moving forward.
That's how winning is done.
Now, if you know what you're worth, now go out and get what you're worth.
But you got to be willing to take the hits and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you want to be because of him or her or anybody.
Cowards do that and that ain't you.
You're better than that.
During the 2012 military offensive in Gaza, you tweeted, Israel has hypnotized the world.
May Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.
How do you put that into context now?
And what do you say to American Jews?
So I remember when that was happening, watching TV and really feeling as if no other life was being impacted in this war.
And that really, those unfortunate words were the only words I could think about expressing at that moment.
Most of the things that have always been aggravating to me is that we have had a policy that makes one superior to the other.
And we mask it with a conversation that's about justice and a two-state solution when you have policies that clearly prioritize one over the other.
Such as.
I mean, just our relationship really with the Israeli government and the Israeli state.
And so when I see Israel institute law that recognizes it as a Jewish state and does not recognize the other religions that are living in it, and we still uphold it as a democracy in the Middle East, I almost chuckle.
When I talk about places like Saudi Arabia or, you know, Israel or even now with Venezuela.
The thing that was interesting in the class was every time the professor said al-Qaeda, he sort of like his shoulders went up and you know al-Qaeda, you know, hospital.
He's an expert.
When you get into Congress, will you vote against U.S. military aid for Israel?
Absolutely.
If it has something to do with inequality.
And there's, you know, this is kind of a calming feeling I always tell folks when I think of the Holocaust and the tragedy of the Holocaust and the fact that it was my ancestors, Palestinians, who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, the human dignity.
Their existence in many ways have been wiped out and some people's passport.
I mean, just all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews.
So I can't stand by and watch this attack on our freedom of speech and the right to boycott the racist policies of the government and the state of Israel.
All Americans have a right, a constitutional right guaranteed by the First Amendment to freedom of speech to petition their government and to participate in boycotts.
Americans of conscience have long and proud history of participating in boycotts specifically to advocate for human rights abroad.
Americans boycotted Nazi Germany in response to dehumanization, imprisonment, and genocide of Jewish people.
Well, here we are again, yet another comparison to Nazi Germany.
Will somebody take the full squad?
If it's legal, I'll pay for their trip.
I will pay, send an invitation from me.
I'll pay for their airfare.
And they've got to stop by every concentration camp they possibly can and maybe learn that the detention centers are not concentration camps.
And maybe they can learn when you say you want to boycott Israel, you can't compare it to Nazi Germany.
But the first tape we played was Congresswoman Omar and rightly being called out for saying Israel has hypnotized the world and may God expose their evil, et cetera, et cetera.
Then it moves on all about the Benjamins, baby.
And then it moves on to mocking Americans and the way that they say al-Qaeda.
I don't think there's any, this is after 9-11.
I don't find anything funny about it.
It was Talib who was making the Nazi comparison there.
She was the one that hooked up with writing for Screwy Louis Farrakhan and his, I mean, the biggest, most virulent, anti-Semite racist in the country.
And, oh, and there was a picture of him and Obama that they hid from the American people for 10 years.
I wondered about that out loud quite often.
And when she talks about Israel being racist, I never saw two people get it wrong like this.
So when you, there was a congressional delegation of about 70 representatives that went to Israel only a few weeks before.
This is before Talib and Omar chose not to go with them.
They could have gone then.
They didn't go.
They wanted to make a statement about Palestine, and they have no interest in learning about our Number one ally in the Middle East, the only democracy in the Middle East that gives the most freedom for people in the Middle East, that would be Israel.
And the congressional documents submitted for this delegation, well, they only talked about Palestine.
In other words, they're going to Israel, but there's no mention of Israel.
We have no embassy to Palestine because there is no Palestine.
But this was approved by our government, Nancy Pelosi's Ethics Committee, and this was not a trip to Israel.
I actually have a copy of it.
We'll put it up on Hannity.com.
And U.S. Congressional Delegation to Palestine, August 18th to 22nd, 2019, and depart D.C. to Tel Aviv, arrive in Tel Aviv, check in, welcome working lunch at the U.S. Embassy there, and the Congress persons understand the country's political dynamic security situation.
Talib has a map in her office.
It doesn't recognize the state of Israel, recognized as the state of Palestine.
Now, this is buying into the most radical views.
Even Bill Maher called this out on his show, and as a result, now they want to boycott Bill Maher and get Bill Maher fired.
And he said they've been pushing the bull leap.
And anyway, meeting with this whole boycott, how do you compare Israel to Nazi Germany and the Iran?
Why would you ever make fun of Americans' pronunciation of al-Qaeda after we lost 3,000 Americans on 9-11?
Then you got other people, even 2020 candidates, Gillibrand, demanding that Israel be held accountable for not allowing these women access to Israel.
Now, after Talib sent another letter making an appeal on a personal level, they gave her a humanitarian visa to see her grandmother.
I don't want that.
Well, why did you send the letter asking for that?
And I thought that the president really came out looking pretty well.
And, you know, Israel was being respectful and they were trying to reach out to her on a humanitarian level and gave her permission to visit her grandmother.
She's granted permission, then she grandstands and loudly proclaims she's not going to visit Israel.
Okay.
And she wrote the letter to the Israeli officials desperately wanting to visit her grandmother.
You know, so it gets pretty weird.
And then the grandmother fires back at Trump.
May God ruin him.
Wow.
Wasn't that nice of the nice old grand sick old grandmother?
May God ruin him.
Anyway, here to weigh in on this, but the bigger issue is where's the Democratic Party and their lack of recognition of our best closest ally in the Middle East, Kaylee McEnany and Jeff Lauder with us.
How are you?
Hey, great.
There's been no president in history that has been a better friend to the state of Israel, rightly so, than Donald Trump.
But I've never in my life witnessed so many Democrats that have turned on Israel and are even supporting people that are clearly virulently anti-Semitic.
Jeff.
Yeah, you know, Sean, once I took a look at this, this is not this group, MIFCA, which is virulently anti-Semitic and anti-Israel.
In 2016, they sponsored five Democratic members of the House to go on a five-day trip to Israel and the West Bank.
Now, you know, what is going on here?
What's going on here?
I'll answer my own question: is there is a serious rise in anti-Semitism on the American left.
This has been growing for a number of years.
Well, where's Chuck Schumer?
Where's Elliot Engel?
Where are some of these?
You know, where's Joe Lieberman speaking out?
Good for him.
Yes.
Yes.
I mean, and as he points out, there are Israeli Arabs who are members of the Israeli NASA, the parliament.
I mean, this is so unbelievably bad, and it's a stunt.
The president was exactly right.
When you go out of your way to say, oh, I want to be able to see my grandmother, and then they say, okay, come on, and then you say, oh, never mind, I changed my mind.
That's a stunt.
That's what that is.
And the irony is they're the ones that look foolish.
Kaylee, if any Republican made an analogy, especially after we sent our Fox cameras down to the detention centers, and I'll be the first to say nobody wants to be in a detention center.
I would argue that it's a lot safer in the detention center than it is in Chicago or some of these big cities that have been run by liberal Democrats for decades, and the violence is out of control.
The poverty rates are out of control.
And they seem their policies, they seem to never do anything that's going to fix it.
But they did have wreck facilities, soccer fields, televisions, telephones, beds, blankets, pillows.
We know that they had full access to medicine, medical supplies, doctors, and baby formula, diapers, all of it's being provided in a safe environment.
Yeah, go ahead.
Yeah, that's exactly right.
And Sean, if, you know, to your point, if a Republican had made these kind of comparisons about these detention facilities, there would be outrage.
I mean, it wasn't just AOC calling them concentration camps.
It was also Mary Ann Williamson, that very kind of star-studded Democrat candidate that's emerged from the field saying, hey, these ICE workers, what ICE is essentially doing, our law enforcement is equivalent to what Nazis did when they rounded up Jews.
You had Kamala Harris compare ICE, our valiant law enforcement, to the KKK.
These are horrendous comparisons.
They have no bearing in truth.
As you noted, there are rec facilities.
There are access to televisions in many of these facilities.
Well, it used to be if you made false analogies about the Holocaust, you were held to account because you can't minimize the death and destruction and inhumanity and evil of what happened in concentration camps.
Now Democrats do it with abandon, and nobody in the mob, the media mob, seems to care.
Why?
Yet they do it repeatedly.
The 2020 Democrat candidates do it.
It's amazing.
Because the media, Sean, since they're the cheerleaders for all these people, they're going to back them up.
They're going to back them up and ignore it.
I mean, I went through in my column today noting the descriptions of this MIFTA group by various mainstream media outlets.
And, you know, they referred to them as a Palestinian group.
I mean, they just sort of neutralized the whole thing.
There was no reference whatsoever to their actual record and the hate they spew and the fact that they publish things from American neo-Nazis of all things.
I mean, this is really disgraceful.
And it just goes to show something you have talked about a lot, is that the media is all in the tank for this with these people.
They're going to be their PR agents, and they're going to back them up.
What do you make of these, the recently released information on the New York Times, these leaked transcripts, and, you know, the failing New York Times, as the president calls them, and Ted Cruz, we now have over the weekend that they've moved from their Russia-Russia-Mueller-Mueller narrative, and the editor says that in effect, for two years we covered Russia, Russia, Russia, facts be damned, now we'll scream racism, racism, racism for 18 months.
Is that going to work?
It's not going to work, Sean.
It's appalling, but it's not surprising at the least.
You'll remember, Sean, in the advent of the 2016 election, President Trump won, took the media by surprise.
The New York Times released this letter, essentially apologizing to their readers for misleading them.
But yet, here they are misleading on Russia and then admitting that they had planned to mislead yet again on racism.
They don't learn lessons from the past, they just doubled down.
It is so disappointing, but it is not surprising at all.
We'll get Jeff Lord's answer on that when we come back.
Then your phone calls coming up.
News Roundup Information Overload Hour, 800-941 Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
All right, final words with Kaylee McInaney and Jeff Lord with us.
All right, Jeff.
So now they're going to go Russia, Russia, Russia, collusion, collusion, impeachment, impeachment, stormy, stormy, racist, racist, manufactured crisis, manufacturer crisis, asshole, asshole, and it never ends.
But now we know from the New York Times, oh, this is really about racism.
This is the plan.
Yes, this is exactly the plan.
And number one, to try and call half the people of America, aka Trump supporters, racist is not going to go over well.
That is a loser beyond all doubt.
But secondly, the much more dangerous thing that they're doing is trying to rewrite history, like Stalin used to excise people from old photographs once they fell out of favor.
They want to rewrite history and give a whole different American history based on race and slavery.
And I don't think they're going to be able to get away with it.
They, number one, excused the Democratic Party completely.
And the Democratic Party, needless to say, was built on slavery and segregation as it is built today on identity policy.
Kaylee, I know that Hillary Clinton's mentor was the former Klansman Robert KKK Byrd.
The segregationist J. William Fulbright was Bill's mentor.
And Al Gore's father was nowhere to be found for the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act.
How does the media forget that history?
You got 15 seconds.
Oh, trust me, Jeff Lord and I both tried to remind CNN repeatedly and often rebuked by our colleagues, but you're exactly right.
This is the party, the Republican Party's party of Lincoln.
The left history of completely racist actions is entirely ignored.
All right, guys, thanks for being with us.
Appreciate it.
News Roundup Information Overload.
Your calls up next: 800-941 Sean, toll-free telephone number.
And a great Hannity tonight, 9 Eastern on Fox will continue.
Hi, 25.
Now, until the top of the hour, 800-941, Sean, you want to be a part of this extravaganza?
You know, one of the things that I have been advocating more than anything, especially when it comes to issues of national security, national defense.
Well, number one, I want every American, we will see the standard of living of every American go through the freaking roof if we just go ahead with the resources that we own.
That would mean oil and gas and coal, the lifeblood of our economy, and stop being stupid and reliant on countries when it's our whole economy to provide the lifeblood of our economy.
A lot of these countries hate us.
You want to drive Putin to his knees, outproduce him, and get our natural gas to our allies in Europe.
And then, you know, people like Angela Merkel won't be making Putin and Russia rich again.
You want to talk about Middle Eastern countries, some that practice Sharia, and they hate our guts.
We got to kiss their ass for our oil when we have more oil than they do.
That's what makes this dumb new Green Deal proposal to eliminate oil and gas in 10 years scary.
But the next thing I want to do is when it comes to foreign entanglements, I want to make sure that we don't all get gung-ho, send our guys out to fight like we did in Vietnam, like we did in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And then all of a sudden, the war gets politicized by the very people that sent our national treasure to go fight those wars.
So what I'm suggesting is why I think the president is fighting so hard with these massive increases in military spending.
I know some people say the debt, the debt.
Once we build up our military and make it the baddest, meanest, toughest, most sophisticated, the next generation of weaponry is what I want.
In other words, so we don't ever have to put any boots on the ground, ever.
We won't be sending kids to Iraq.
Going door to door, knocking on doors and saying, you know, not knowing if there's a tripwire they're about to step on.
We didn't even have up armored Humvees early on in that conflict.
And then we lose 10,000 people, and then how do we define victory?
It's got to stop.
Anyway, one of the things over the years, I've got, I want our wars fought from Tampa or any other city.
I want buttons pushed, and I want people demolished that are our enemies.
I know that might sound controversial.
You might.
But if you're in a war, what's war about?
It's about winning it.
Otherwise, don't get in it.
If you have no plans to win it, don't get in it.
Somebody starts one with you.
You better be able to win it.
So we need both the next generation of offensive weapons and defensive weapons so nobody can mess with the greatest country God gave man.
It's that simple.
Anyway, I've gotten to know a lot of these military guys and they're just an extraordinary group of people.
When the word selfless comes up, that's them.
They do all these tours of duty.
Many of them even severely injured, losing limbs and legs and arms and disfigurement.
It's horrible to see.
Or you meet the kids of the fallen and you look in their eyes and it's like we have an obligation to take care of these kids.
But you don't get some of the fun stuff.
One thing I've learned about my military buddies is they all have sick, twisted senses of humor.
They are absolutely rock and roll fun.
I mean, you want to talk about freedom and fun.
That's their credo.
God family freedom and fun.
There's no better guys to hang out with.
You want to go out for a night on the town.
They're going to tell their stories abroad.
And I sit there.
Wow.
I thought I had good stories to tell about TV.
But anyway, one such person is in our studio.
Matt Best is with us.
And Matt has become really a phenomenon in his own right.
Got to give him a lot of credit here.
Army Ranger, five combat deployments.
Also former CIA contractor five years.
He's put out a new book.
It's called Thank You for My Service, which it's very, very funny.
It's an unapologetic lap your ass off military memoir.
Both vets, civilians, you can get a little insight into the lives that these guys live.
And Matt's devoted to veterans and looks for opportunities to meet them, talk with them, especially these guys with PTSD, which is real.
I've been involved in a few of those projects.
Anyway, how you doing?
Phenomenal.
Thanks for having me, Sean.
So Army Ranger, five combat deployments.
Where were they?
Fort Iraq and one to Afghanistan and Ranger Battalion.
Four in Iraq and one in afghanistan.
And were you part of these crews going door to door?
That's pretty much what I did my whole career was direct action, about 19 months on the ground there in special operations before being a contractor.
And it was always to kill or capture HPTs.
The problem is, is we didn't have enough guys.
We had to keep sending people like you back three, four, five times.
How many people that you work with that you knew that were strong, tough people are really struggling now back here?
Absolutely.
I mean, comparatively to me, I only have five trips.
I know friends that have done 15 and then gone on to tier one units.
And the toll it takes on your mind and body is astronomical.
Yeah, the stress and the pressure.
It's like adrenaline 24-7.
That's all it is.
You're hitting, you know, three, four, five targets a night, and each one behind the door, you're expecting someone to shoot at you.
Did you follow this case of Eddie Gallagher?
A little bit, yes.
I mean, there are people like Clinton Lawrence, others.
You know, in the Clinton Lawrence case, he's in Leavenworth.
You know, he's 20, 30 years in jail, whatever it is.
He took over a platoon, and the week before, members of that platoon and their leader had been killed and killed by a motorcycle bomber.
Then his first week there, he has to decide, uh-oh, holy crap, here come two guys on motorcycles.
What do we do?
Well, he made the decision not to risk the lives of his men.
Right.
And he took them out.
And now he's spending 30 years in jail.
How does some jackass in Washington get to determine whether or not he made the right call when it's life and death?
They're not there.
That's the really challenging part of that.
You know, I think that there's people try to put politics in war, but we're going to send men and women to go fight on behalf of America.
We have to let them do their job and do it correctly.
The second we start inhibiting what they can do on the ground.
We're just going to get friendly people killed and let the enemy take more of our lives, which is absolutely unacceptable.
What were the differences between Obama and Trump with the rules of engagement?
You know, I think the best thing Trump did, especially with ISIS, was said no holds bars.
He allowed tier one units and have the ground-level ground force commanders to do their job and just eradicate them, which was phenomenal, because prior to that, there was a lot of politics that were inhibiting them from actually killing ISIS.
You think about all that our guys go through.
I mean, it's been brutal.
I'm reading this book.
You have a pretty fun side in all of this.
I do.
You know, I think that I've spent so many years on the ground overseas that really what we did was laugh through the horrors of war.
And, you know, we're obviously professional on target, but when you get off, you have to laugh in the team room about guys jumping out right in front of you and blow themselves up and near-death experiences.
And humor is such a good therapeutic thing to deal with that.
And it kind of builds that cohesive and community in your teams.
Do you think the humor that you reveal in this book?
I love the chapter by thank you for my service.
Explain what that means.
Honestly, thank you for my service.
You know, this is the greatest country of all time, as you said earlier in the intro.
And I was blessed with the opportunity to serve my country, especially in special operations.
So I kind of want to combat that victim mentality towards veterans.
You know, I'm a guy here that has been fairly successful post-war, post-military.
And I want to influence our community to be great.
And moreover, take care of the people that actually need help, whether it's moral grief, PTS, and that kind of stuff, and making a change at the individual level rather than just splurting support veterans.
That doesn't do anything.
You have to take action.
Action gets resolved.
Have you seen since President Trump has gotten in office, I know that he's been trying to deal with the horrors that are known as the VA.
Have those problems been fixed?
Are they being resolved?
I would say there's a good mission forward to resolve it.
And the good part about the president in the White House right now is he actually cares about veterans.
And I think there's, you know, you have to do that because the country expects you to, but having that actual empathetic approach to men and women who have served, I believe that President Trump has that and that it's a wonderful thing.
You describe in the book, well, you had a bad skin infection over somewhere, right?
At one point?
I got a flesh-eating bacteria in the swamps of Florida in Ranger School.
It was not fun.
That doesn't sound like fun.
You were in Ramadi kicking down.
I remember covering it all.
I remember flying over there myself to Iraq with Don Rumsfeld at the time.
But you're going in, kicking down doors.
You don't know what's on the other side of that door.
You blew up trucks full of enemy combatants and you witnessed the effects of suicide bombings right in front of your face.
Tell us what that's like when you see that stuff.
Because, you know, one of the things I've noticed, and I don't think we need in America, we have an all-volunteer army, but I meet these kids in Israel.
They have to serve two and a half years.
Right.
And their service, I think, makes them tougher.
And the reality of their geopolitical location, there's a reality of those, you know, alarms going off constantly and those missiles that are being shot into Israel that are being taken out of the air because of the Patriot missile system we have.
Absolutely.
I think that that's part and what Thank You for My Service, my book is combating is this PC culture where people live in this fake safety bubble.
And I think guys like me and other people that have done far more have experienced war firsthand and understand how crazy some people are.
And I'm just thankful to be alive and most importantly, share those stories of what real war is like so people get a good education and perspective on what it's like to be on the ground and in a gunfight, you know, from 15 meters away.
You know, it is the hardest thing.
When you see, when you're successful in defeating an enemy and you get them and you blow them up and they don't blow you up, I would imagine even though you never grow up thinking you're going to end up killing somebody, when you do and you know that they wanted to kill you and the people you're out there fighting with, what does that feel like?
Well, I hope to never have to kill anybody again, but absolutely, you know, part of why I loved doing what I did so much was we'd often go after IED makers and people that were actively pursuing to kill Americans.
And then when you actually get to put a bullet through one of their heads and know that they will not, you know, essentially take any more lives of your brothers, that is a dark but fulfilling emotion for sure.
Well, I think it's the hardest job out there.
And, you know, I've been on, Dick Cheney and I once went together.
He supports this group out in Wyoming called Rivers of Recovery.
And all these guys that did all these massive amounts of duty and tours of duty and they'd come back.
And it just, they're not the same.
They're not the same person.
And it takes them a while to get back to civilian life.
It's not like, oh, I'm home.
Let me go back to hello, everybody.
I missed you.
Absolutely.
And I think that's part of why I co-founded Black Rifle Coffee with Evan Hafer was let's create a support system and opportunity for veterans and we can create an ecosystem that is pro-veteran.
And if civilians want to be a part of it, they have to assimilate to our culture.
And that's why we're so mission-focused right now with that company.
I was just about to get to that.
You started three massively successful businesses that directly benefit veterans.
One we're proud to have as an advertiser, Black Rifle Coffee Company, Article 15 Clothing.
And now you came out with Gunslinger's Whiskey.
Yeah, Ledslinger's Whiskey.
That's why I haven't had any.
Linda's been drinking it.
She's been taking it.
Evan and I are dear friends.
And you're welcome.
I took it off your hands.
You're welcome.
All right.
Tell everybody how Black Rifle came together because basically you were all drinking government coffee and it sucked.
Absolutely.
And Evan has such a cool background in coffee.
And then with my brand and marketing side, we kind of just joined forces and said, you know, everybody says it's time to support veterans, but then they don't do it.
And so we rallied around our own community and said, how do we make a difference?
And then how do we have people vote with their dollar, people that love America, that are patriotic, and you don't have to necessarily serve to do that.
And so we wanted to really build the infrastructure going forward to combat kind of hardcore progressive America that doesn't let police officers use their bathrooms.
Yeah.
No, it's unbelievable.
So you order all these beans.
Where'd you order them from?
We get them all over, but Colombia and Brazil mainly.
Okay.
And then you make your own blends that nobody else ever thought of.
Absolutely.
We roast everything in-house.
You create the best coffee with the least bitter taste and the most, I mean, it jacks me up.
I mean, I'm drinking some right now.
Matt, I think you should know that Sean is an AK-47 monthly pod member.
Thank you very much.
Yes, one of my favorite pods.
But what I thought was coffee, like at these, you know, at these companies that let you dispose of your needles in the bathroom and, you know, are rude to our police officers and law enforcement, those guys.
You guys wanted a different culture.
Will there be a day where every town and city, like they used to have Bucks coffee or something, is there going to be a Black Rifle coffee shop?
100%.
And I think that they're kind of sleeping on us because they consider us just a bunch of knuckle-dragging veterans.
And that's not the case at all.
So we're already rolling out our franchise.
How are your sales growth in the last couple of years?
Phenomenal.
And in part with your support of the company, thank you so much.
Well, you give back, by the way, you hire heroes, those that have served.
You hire first responders.
You hire people And you give back to these charities and causes a percentage of your income.
Absolutely.
And it's basically a company created by military heroes, hiring military heroes, and gives back to military heroes.
Absolutely.
We just want to serve an amazingly quality product and then also have a great mission statement because no one else out there is doing it.
The book is called Thank You for My Service, Matt Best in Bookstores Everywhere Now and Hannity.com.
And you're going to love this book.
It brings you inside the life of heroes and the bravest and best this country's got, our national treasure.
Hannity.com, Amazon.com, BookstoresEverywhere.
Thank you for my service.
Matt Best, good to see you again, bro.
Thank you so much, Sean.
Appreciate it.
Appreciate it.
That's going to wrap things up for today.
We are loaded up tonight.
Lindsey Graham predicting the FISA report is going to be devastating.
And we now know that the counterintelligence investigation began in Obama's office.
What did he know?
When did he know it?
Andy McCarthy, yeah, he's the one that said counterintelligence.
Well, that starts in the Oval Office.
Jesse Waters, Dan Bongino, Geraldo, much more.
Nine Eastern Hannity Fox News.
We'll see you tonight.
As always, thank you for giving us this opportunity every day, this microphone.
