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June 19, 2020 - Sean Hannity Show
01:31:10
The One and Only John Rich

John Rich, of the legendary Big and Rich, founder of RedNeck Riviera Whiskey and host of “The Pursuit” on Fox Nation. He is bringing a Father’s Day Concert to our audience today via FaceBook live. He will be reading some of the awesome stories about Dad. The Sean Hannity Show is on weekdays from 3 pm to 6 pm ET on iHeartRadio and Hannity.com. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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This is an iHeart podcast.
All right, glad you're with us.
It is Friday, 800-941.
Sean, you want to be a part of the program?
137 days until you, we, the American people, get to decide you will be the ultimate jury.
In my view, I can't overstate it.
America, the country we love, we grew up in, everything is on the line, and it is a tipping point of all tipping point elections.
Everything on the line.
You see what the 2020 radical extreme Democratic Party agenda is all about.
You know, I go into this.
I can't wait.
I'm getting out on the road.
I made a decision.
A lot of people are saying, you know, you can't go out on the road and do your book events.
I said, well, we'll figure it out.
We're a smart country.
I go through all of this because this is what I believe is true.
I believe that if we don't understand the principles of what built this great country, if we don't understand deeply what they want to do with this country and to this country, it will be unrecognizable if the radical extreme socialist Democrats get in power.
If we don't understand socialism and the failure of socialism, every single place and time it has been tried and the resulting lack of freedoms.
If we don't understand completely what the Democrats have put this country through, pure hell over lies, smears, slanders, conspiracy theories, and hoaxes, from the Russia collusion hoax to their failed attempt to undo an election when that failed with the Ukrainian BS taking on the most breathtaking hypocrisy.
If we don't understand that the mob in the media is nothing but the extension of all things, they're pravda.
That's all they are.
They're an extension of the Communist Party pravda.
They're the equivalent of that for the Democratic Socialist Party.
If we don't understand what this means in terms of limiting your freedoms, your choices, and you giving up control and power and everything pretty much you earn to your government, if we don't understand the choices and understand the president's beyond successful agenda, then we're going to lose the country.
It'll be unrecognizable to our children and our grandchildren.
That's just a fact.
That's why I'm excited about getting back out on the road.
The release of the book is in early August.
It's called Live Free or Die.
America and the World on the Brink.
And it's true.
And in Latin, I added, live free or America dies.
Hannity.com, Amazon.com.
If you want a specially boxed edition for Father's Day, you can get one.
Why did I write this book?
Well, you just want money, Hannett.
I don't need the money.
My last book, I gave every penny away.
The profit.
I didn't take one penny for myself in the last book.
I didn't do it.
That was conservative victory.
It was 2010.
And I did it because that moment called for what we needed in 2010.
And we, boy, we won.
This country stepped up.
This country woke up.
This country came alive.
We now need to wake up as soon as possible.
And you need knowledge, you need information, and I've laid it out.
I hate writing books.
This will be my last book.
I'm not writing another one, but it's comprehensive and it is as timely as it could possibly be.
And I'm just saying, we better, if you need, if you only vote, we gotta, everyone has to be deputized and be a spoke in the wheel.
All the forces are against re-electing Donald Trump.
The media, by far, universally, they are the greatest campaign propaganda contributors to Joe Biden.
This is not a joke.
This is not a dress rehearsal.
They mean what they say.
They used to try to hide it.
Not only have they put it on steroids and human growth hormone their agenda, but now they're just saying it.
And they think that, you know, they're convincing some people, oh, everything's going to be free.
Yeah, let's not have oil and gas and coal.
Wow.
You know, and let me tell you another thing.
You know, while their main target are conservatives, their main target's the president, let's be honest.
They've hated him the moment he came down the escalator.
It's been never-ending, unfair, unrelenting attacks.
You know, you kill Saul Lamani.
You can't get a good word out of these anti-Trump people, never Trump people, the Democratic radical socialists.
You kill Baghdadi.
You don't get a good word out of that.
You kill the Al-Qaeda leader in Yemen.
You don't get a word about that.
You know, you literally defeat the caliphate in Syria because you take off the handcuffs that Barack and Joe put on our military and you let them do their job and they won.
But he's also saying we don't want any of those wars.
We don't need them anymore.
A lot of our conflicts in the Middle East, but for the exception of our great relationship, never better.
No president's ever done more for Israel than Donald J. Trump.
No president has ever done more for religious freedom and Christians in America than Donald Trump.
You know, by their fruit, their actions, you shall know them.
And is anybody the perfect vessel?
Nope.
Nobody's the perfect vessel.
But he fights and he needs help because he can't do it on his own.
That's why I think when I see a million, two, three hundred thousand people in Oklahoma already on a massive line to go to his rallies.
He's doing two of them now in Oklahoma on Saturday.
I would say there are enough of us.
But you know what?
That's why I wrote the book.
I'm not selling it here.
I'm just, I will go out and I will meet you and I will, anybody that wants to come see me.
And I'm going to do as much work as I can possibly do.
But I'm just warning you, 137 days is going to fly by.
And if you think the lying and the smearing and the slander and the conspiracy theories and the hoaxes, if you think that it's going to let up, think again.
They will not stop.
It is a full-on effort to make sure this man doesn't win.
And if they win, that will be a guarantee that America becomes unrecognizable if that agenda is ever adopted.
And if you're going to vote for Trump, you might as well vote for the Republicans who won't be impeaching him and dragging the country through hell another four years.
Same with the Senate.
Martha McSally, Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, Corey Gardner.
All these guys have tough races.
Not Lindsey Graham, I don't think.
But you can't take any election for granted.
It's already hard enough for a Republican to win a national election.
It's hard.
You got to win Florida.
You got to win Ohio.
You got to win Georgia.
You got to win North Carolina.
You got to, you know, you got to win those.
That's off the top.
Then you got to hold the states that you usually hold.
Then you got to take Arizona.
Then you got to get in there and fight and hopefully take Pennsylvania with that idiot governor that, you know, like Cuomo, put COVID-19 patients at nursing homes, Governor Wolf.
You know, then remember, they start off with New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and California.
Yeah, the worst-run states run by decades of liberal madness.
Highest taxes, worst public schools, worst safety record ever.
That's what they will bring to the entire country.
You know, that's what's at stake.
And you know what?
You like fracking Pennsylvania?
Has it been good for your state?
Guess what?
It'll be in jeopardy if Joe Biden wins.
And Wisconsin, do you like the president sticking up for farmers, dairy farmers, and others in Wisconsin?
Right.
The jobs that weren't coming back in the industrial Midwest.
Do you like what Donald Trump did in Michigan?
Do you like what he's doing in Minnesota?
Minnesota, how are you feeling about Minneapolis?
How are you feeling about the lack of law and order there?
Michigan, how are you feeling about, you know, Governor Whitmer?
I think she put in more draconian measures, but she was out protesting with the protesters.
You don't hear anything about protesting.
You don't hear one word about COVID until Donald Trump says he's going to do a rally.
All he needs to call it is a political protest.
And I assume all the criticism will go away about what happened in Oklahoma.
Now we have the Tulsa.
Now, police have imposed a curfew in the downtown area there because in place of the president's rally, and the police posted on their Facebook page as part of our preparations for the president's rally, we're working on making the area secure for everyone's safety.
And they go through the curfew restrictions, et cetera, et cetera, and they put them out there.
You have more supporters lining up outside this center where this is taking place 50, 60 hours ahead of the event.
One said, I came here, you know, Sunday, last Sunday, at 9 a.m. for a rally this Saturday.
Unbelievable.
And, you know, the Tulsa mayor declared the civil emergency ahead of it because they think that some of these radicals are going to be out there.
You know, and it's just an amazing time.
All the president needs to do, I guess, is say it's a protest, then everybody will be fine with it in the mob in the media.
Because they weren't talking about COVID dangers and the lack of social distancing, even with the peaceful protesters, never mind the not peaceful protesters, the anarchists, and those that were burning down police stations and looting and arson and bricks and bottles and rocks and Molotov cocktails and hurting over 800 police officers.
They didn't seem to say a word about it.
Now Trump doesn't forget it.
By the way, I just read this.
This was on the Daily Wire.
John Zogby, 1,007 likely voters, 55% said they think the former vice president is in the early stages of dementia.
Wow.
There's an article on Business Insider.
Joe Biden worried in 1977 that certain desegregation policies will cause his children to grow up in a.
I don't even want to say it.
I don't even want to say it.
Polls show support for Biden about reparations as radioactive because he said it in a town hall, an NAACP town hall last Thursday.
Anyway, so we have an ABC News poll that shows three-quarters, 73% of Americans think the federal government should not pay money back to African Americans whose ancestors were slaves as compensation.
By the way, Democrats split, 54% yes, 45% no.
Republicans, 94% no.
Independents, 82% no.
We have another poll out, ABC poll, that most Americans, double-digit margin overall, opposing changing U.S. military bases named for certain Confederate leaders.
So, you know, these are the controversies that people want to drag into the campaign.
And they are, obviously.
But, you know, it's all on the line here.
It's all on the line.
And, you know, it probably won't impact those of us that are a little older.
They'll just take everything we have when we die, which is part of their plan, tax you to death, then double tax you with a wealth tax and triple tax you with a death tax.
You have to pay half your income if you're a New Yorker, 53% of your wealth, whatever you saved after you've paid all the taxes in your life on, then you give it to the governments.
Federal government, 40%.
State government in New York, 10%.
City, I think, gets 3%.
Unbelievable.
You already paid taxes 100 times on that money.
You can't donate it to charity, can't do that.
I mean, what if you want to just give it to your family?
What if you want to just spread it down?
It's your money.
It's your money.
It's not their money.
Anyway, Hannity.com, if you didn't get a gift for dad, all you do is print it out.
You can do it like an hour before you see dad on Sunday.
By the way, that's who I am.
I'm the late person all the time with gifts.
It's all on the line.
I can't wait to see a lot of you on the road.
Remember Hillary Clinton, irredeemable, deplorables?
Remember that comment?
Do you remember Barack Obama?
They're angry, bitter people in Pennsylvania that cling to their God, guns, Bibles, and religion.
Remember, Joe Biden said 10 to 15% of the American population, which is just really sick, by the way, of Americans are just not good people.
He also said about Trump supporters.
You know, he went out there with his disdain.
There are certain people who support this president because the fact that he's engaged in the politics of division, they support the notion that, you know, all Mexicans are racist and all Muslims are bad and dividing this nation based on ethnicity and race.
They're going to put you all back in chains, he once said.
Now, this is, you know, now we got Susan Rice.
Listen to Susan Rice.
This election and whoever Joe Biden chooses among many very talented candidates is about getting Joe Biden in the White House, somebody who can heal and unify the nation and remove Donald Trump and consign him and those who supported him in the Senate to the trash heap of history.
So you have then Joe Biden saying it's about 10 to 15% of the population.
You have the other things that he has said.
Then you also have him say for the first time ever, somebody who's bright, clean, and articulate.
You know, an African-American, first time ever, bright, clean, articulate.
Storybook, man.
Can't go to a 7-Eleven Duncan Donuts without a slight Indian accent.
Gonna put you all back in chains.
This is a guy that, you know, was against, you know, oh, desegregation of schools, no.
But Hillary Barack, Joe, Susan Rice, you know who they really hate?
Okay, they take all their anger out of Trump, but they hate we the people.
They think they're smarter than you.
We the people.
You know, that's why I guess some deep staters thought it was well within their rights.
They knew better than we did that they rigged the election for Hillary, and then they tried to undo the election of Donald Trump with what they had, their insurance policy.
How does that make you feel 137 days before the election day?
All right, thanks, Scott Shannon.
25 till the top of the hour.
Got to remind you, I'm sleeping better than ever.
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So Hillary, irredeemable deplorables.
Barack, bitter Americans that cling to their God, guns, Bibles, and religion.
Gun would be like the Second Amendment.
Just saying, you know, no other way to say that.
Then you've got Joe Biden, people who support this president because they like the fact that he's engaged in the politics of division.
They really support the notion that, quote, all Mexicans are rapist, all Muslims are bad, and dividing this nation based on ethnicity and race.
One of the few presidents succeeded by deliberately trying to divide the country, not unite the country.
Now, the Trump campaign fought back.
He said, Biden reveals his disdain for certain Americans, kind of like what Hillary said.
And, you know, remember, he said xenophobic, hysteria, that the president was hysterical, xenophobia, and fearmongering.
Remember, he said he's going to put you all back in chains.
Remember Joe Biden?
You know, you look at Biden's positions on the issues over the years.
We're going to start doing next week an expose on Joe Biden.
His words, if you look at the headline in businessinsider.com, we worried that certain desegregation policies would cause his children to grow up in a racial jungle.
Those are his words, you know, from 1977.
Other things that he has said are as equally shocking.
The fact that he is such an admirer of the former Klansman, you know, all of this is going to come into focus.
Joe Biden wants reparations.
Okay.
Well, if you look at the latest poll and this was out by ABC, Americans don't support It 73%.
And Joe Biden, he's got a lot to answer for.
Can't go to a 7-Eleven or Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.
Pussing comments he's made, praise of former segregationists, his comments on desegregation.
It's all going to come into play.
Then you got Susan Rice.
I'll play it again.
Here's what Trump supporters belong in the trash heap of history.
This election and whoever Joe Biden chooses among many very talented candidates is about getting Joe Biden in the White House, somebody who can heal and unify the nation and remove Donald Trump and consign him and those who supported him in the Senate to the trash heap of history.
Oh, you get an understanding here.
There is a deep contempt.
Now, I always talk about every two years, every four years, what happens.
Republicans are called racist.
They're called sexist.
They're called misogynists.
They are called homophobes, xenophobes, Islamophobes.
They want dirty air and water.
Their plan is for dirty air and dirty water.
That's what Obama said.
Lie.
And of course, they want everybody to die, grandma and grandpa in particular.
And they have commercials with whoever the politician is at the time throwing Granny in a wheelchair over a cliff.
This is played every two and four years.
It's predictable as the day is long.
What they're saying about Trump supporters is not true.
You know, the idea that you're a conservative, most, I don't know conservatives that support racism.
I don't know them.
And if they call themselves conservative, I want nothing to do with them.
I want nothing to do with any of the descriptions of people that they're describing.
None whatsoever.
You know what I want?
I want a government that believes in a smaller government, and I want one with limits on it.
That's why I've been very reluctant to say, yeah, you know, the president should get involved in Seattle.
Why?
Because that's the job of the state.
That's Governor Inslee's job, that crazy mayor's job.
They want to allow parts of their city to be taken over and negotiate with the anarchists to try and get one or two of the six city blocks they've taken over.
You know what?
That's really their problem.
If it gets to a point where, and we'll know when that moment is, and I hope we never get there, then the president has all the constitutional authority to restore order, which they should be doing.
That's their job.
But at the end of the day, you know, for all the talk about Joe and Barack, the facts are the facts.
They had eight years.
They left with 13 million more Americans on food stamps.
They had 8 million more Americans in poverty.
That's their record.
The lowest labor participation rate since the 1970s.
You know, there's something, you know, I saw this on one of the social media sites.
You know, Donald Trump gets blamed for everything.
Donald Trump is new to politics.
He didn't get into politics till he came down that escalator.
That wasn't very long ago.
What, five years ago?
Wasn't that long ago?
Joe Biden, okay, he entered politics in 1969.
He's been there 51 years.
Chucky Schumer, 45 years.
Pelosi, 33 years.
Let's see.
For Patrick Leahy, 54 years.
For Maxine Waters, 47 years.
Dianne Feinstein, 60 years.
What have they done?
What have they done?
You know, unbelievable.
Unbelievable.
Unbelievable.
And then this gets said all the time.
Donald Trump, okay, the lowest labor participation rate since the 70s, lowest homeownership rate in 50 years.
We had the worst recovery since the 40s.
They accumulated more debt than every other president before them combined.
Then, of course, their foreign policy, tell Vladimir I'll have more flexibility after the election.
Did they stand up to any country in their trade policies?
No, Donald Trump did.
Donald Trump beat back the caliphate.
They dropped cash on the tarmac of radical mullahs and got nothing for it, $150 billion in cash and other currencies.
You know, the facts are the facts.
That's why I wrote this book.
I'm putting all in there.
And I'm now at the point where I am now, this is it.
Let's lay the truth out and make sure everybody's informed when they go into the ballot box in 137 days.
Now, I have this problem in life.
It's called urgency.
I have a deep sense of urgency about all of this because no president has had to deal with all of this crap from this phony Russia hoax to this phony impeachment hoax to the never-ending smear besmirchment slander to the outright lying of the mob and the media, their hoaxes, their conspiracy theories.
They've never apologized for being wrong.
We've been right.
They were wrong.
We get attacked.
They never attack each other.
They just love each other and protect each other.
It's pretty despicable.
And, you know, it's just unreal.
You know, it's like Mike Pompeo.
Got to love Mike Pompeo.
He actually released a statement last night about John Bolton.
It's sad and dangerous that Bolton's final public role is that of a traitor who damaged America by violating a sacred trust with its people.
And, you know, it's like, I don't know what, did John Bolton forget that we have something called the internet?
You know, because I have him praising Donald Trump saying on China that he's never seen an American president as tough on China as this one.
And he didn't say it just once.
He said it over and over again.
Same with Russia.
He said it over and over again.
He said the same with Iran over and over again.
He said it on everybody.
Then he writes a book and says just the opposite.
It's not going to go anywhere now, but that's just, you know, this is what the president's had to deal with.
Pretty unbelievable.
But you know what?
There's something that I see happening, and it interests me.
And I think we might look back in retrospect and say, okay, it was all there right in front of our eyes.
We just, you know, you get kind of the fog of a political election, if you will, and you don't see things clearly.
Joe Biden, when you have his best supporters saying, yeah, no, no, no, I'm fine with him in the basement because he only sees two people a day and his body men.
The show's fine in the basement.
Leave me in the basement.
This Zogby poll, can you imagine if it was about Trump?
It would be everywhere.
It would be everywhere.
John Zogby, did you see that poll, Linda?
Sure did.
You know, 55%, they see he doesn't have a fastball.
I'm being generous about this.
The issue of whether or not he has the mental alertness, acumen, strength, stamina needed for the hardest job in the world.
You know, poll shows that Biden's support, you know, on a lot of these issues is just out of the mainstream.
I actually talked to a few experts we've had on the show, doctors and brainstormers.
Okay, I don't want to go into the, we're not going to diagnose him on the show, but let the American people decide if he has the mental alertness, strength, stamina, acumen.
I'd like to see six debates.
I think Reince Privus was right.
I'd like to see seven debates.
I'd like to see even more.
You know, we had record low unemployment, and that was because of President Trump's policies.
We've had, you know, African-American unemployment, the lowest ever, record after record after record after record.
Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, women in the workplace, youth unemployment, African-American youth unemployment.
You know what?
He beat the Caliphate, took out Baghdadi and associates, took out Soleimani, and took out the Al-Qaeda leader in Yemen.
And yeah, he has not been afraid to take on any country ever.
And he's actually shown more restraint than I think I would have in a lot of these things.
On to some other issues.
This is getting scary.
We have the New York Post saying that there are flyers making the rounds among the NYPD, encouraging them to call out sick on July 4th.
Wow.
Just stop for a second.
That happens.
What if it happened nationwide?
What if the sick out went on for more than a day?
What if a sick out, because I'm telling you, these broad sweeping generalizations, because of the actions of 1%, the few bad apples, I only talked about the 1% when I was talking about the deep state.
I always reminded people the 99% of good people because it's not fair to have broad sweeping generalizations of everybody.
Everyone's responsible for their own actions.
Most cops I know protect and serve, and it's a dangerous job.
And cops are being sick of bottles, bricks, and rocks, and Molotov cocktails being thrown at them, shots being fired at them, and knives being shoved into their neck.
All that has happened in the last couple of weeks.
They're sick of it.
In New York, you have a 28-year-old man wanting to know why a group of people in the Bronx were eyeing him aggressively, was disemboweled.
I'm reading from the New York Post when one of the people slashed him in the stomach.
Who are you going to call?
Next question.
Right?
Who are you going to call?
Who's grandma and grandpa going to call?
What about moms with young kids?
Who are they going to call?
80% of voters in this country now want order restored in this country.
77% of, this is McLaughlin associates, likely voters, said it's time to restore law and order.
Well, the president keeps offering to do it.
Everywhere he did do it, it worked.
These liberal states, decades run by liberals, the worst schools, the most violence, they don't want any help.
Pretty bad.
There's a lot at stake in 137 days.
I'm feeling the urgency.
I'm feeling the sense that we better get this together as a country.
We got a lot on the line here.
All right, we have a lot of updates as it relates to the new events.
We have new information.
The lawyer for one of the cops in Atlanta has spoken out, and we're going to play some of that for you.
We have Geraldo and Leo Terrell.
We'll even take a couple of your calls with them.
This is not when you now look at the new developments in this case, when you now know that the very same Fulton County DA, Paul Howard, just said two weeks ago that a taser is considered as a deadly weapon under Georgia law.
And the fact that in this case, right after the encounter, that Mr. Brooks was literally turning around and firing that at the police officer, Rolf, it's not as cut and dry.
We're going to compare it to the law that both lawyers, Leo Terrell and Geraldo.
We'll get to that next also.
Devin ends up taking out his taser and yelling at him, stop fighting, stop fighting.
Mr. Brooks grabs the taser from him and shoots Devin.
Devin gets shot with the taser.
He then falls over and lands on his head on the pavement and gets a concussion.
And we have the medical records, which the DA just had no interest in seeing.
We've got the medical records to show that he has a concussion.
He's got bruises on his legs, on his knees are injured, on his arms.
We are being fully cooperative.
We're going to answer all the questions that they have or the GBI has.
And we've already arranged to have the GBI interview next week.
But he's not a state's witness or defense witness.
He's a witness.
He is going to answer anybody's questions accurately.
And if and if Officer Rolf subpoenas him, he'll answer his questions.
Right now, the DA has charged him with a crime.
So he's a defendant now.
And he's not going to answer the DA's questions while they bring these false charges against him.
So I regret that the district attorney apparently was given a misinformation yesterday.
And Officer Brosnan is not going to be a quote state's witness, which is kind of TV talk.
He's either going to be a witness and describe the facts, or he's going to be sitting next to me at counsel table.
He's not cooperating against anybody.
He's going to provide accurate information about what happened.
He's going to describe what's in these videos and in these body cams.
He's going to describe what he saw, what he heard during these events.
You know, witnesses are witnesses.
They don't belong to either party.
They don't belong to the prosecution.
He doesn't belong to the state.
And he's not going to testify against someone.
Right now, we are focusing on the defense of him, the false charges that the district attorney brought against him, which, by the way, have nothing to do with the shooting, but the allegation that he was too slow in rendering aid, which is just preposterous if you look at the videos.
Officer Brosnan, the DA says Officer Rolfe kicked Mr. Brooks twice after he was shot and on the ground.
Did you see that happening?
I did not.
If you look at the video, what happened after the scuffle is that Officer Brosnan got a concussion.
He was thrown to the ground.
He was shot by his own taser.
And he walks up and starts running up and hears the shots and is disoriented, not only from the concussion, but by the crowds that have already started yelling.
And he is disoriented and doesn't know.
He doesn't even know who shot the gun.
And he actually hides behind a car when he hears the gunshots and then walks up to the scene.
So he didn't see Officer Rolf's first encounter with Brooks.
And so he can't provide any information about that at all, one way or the other.
If you just look at the video, you'll see that he knows very little about what happened during the initial encounter.
And he certainly rendered aid as fast as he could.
There were other officers there who also were standing there.
Officer Brosnan, with a concussion, is the only one, not the other officers who show up, who actually starts rendering aid and doing CPR and putting coagulant in the wounds and the compression bandages.
And he gets charged.
He gets charged with failing to render aid where all these other police officers are just standing there.
All right, hour two, Sean Hannity Show.
And as you can hear, that is the lawyer for the second officer who says his client suffered this concussion.
We didn't know that.
The prosecutor didn't tell us that when he went out with the charges.
He said he's not a state witness.
The DA's charges against his client, he says, are false, and that Officer Brosnan cannot recall Officer Rolfe's initial encounter with Rayshard Brooks because he had a concussion and he'd been tased.
He was the only officer there rendering aid to Rayshard Brooks from the beginning.
In other words, this is not what the DA said in any way, shape, manner, or form the other day.
Now we get into the issue of, all right, this happened in Ferguson.
My sources very early in Ferguson said that there were numerous minority witnesses that would corroborate Officer Darren Wilson's story as it relates to the events that were unfolding there with Michael Brown and that the initial encounter, in fact, did happen when Michael Brown reached into that car to try and grab that officer's gun.
And that's when a shot went off.
Nobody was injured with that shot.
And in fact, it was Michael Brown racing towards Officer Wilson who said to stop, stop, stop before deadly force was used there.
That's why it didn't come out the way that people thought it was going to come out.
Remember, the person involved in the robbery with Michael Brown was the one that came out with the phrase that everybody then repeated, you know, hands up, don't shoot, or whatever that phrase was at the time.
And the same with Ferguson, as with Ferguson, same with Baltimore.
I knew early on that there would be no convictions there.
And I said so at the time based on all of the fact-finding we were able to do fairly easily by just making some telephone calls and talking to people and working some sources, et cetera.
So now we have the issue of overcharge.
Now we have the issue of, okay, you can indict a ham sandwich because you only hear one side of the story from a prosecutor, from a DA.
But then we go back to where we were yesterday.
And, well, just a couple of weeks ago, we know that, in fact, that the very same prosecutor had said that a taser is a deadly weapon as it relates to the use of force laws in Georgia.
Anyway, Leo Torello is with us, civil rights attorney, Geraldo Rivera, Fox News legal analyst, author of, of course, the bestseller, Geraldo.
And, you know, Leo, I look at this case and I'm listening to this defense attorney, and this is only, you know, stage one in what is going to be probably a long analysis of every single frame, the video that every single angle that we have.
What, eight different cameras now?
John, you just laid out the beginning of the end of the prosecution case.
You know, when a prosecutor presents a case, he has to present enough facts to convince not only a court, but the public, as this prosecutor came out a couple of days ago.
And to omit the information that you articulated, the concussion, the fact that he was disoriented, the fact that he was injured, the fact that other officers render aid, how can he honestly expect the public to accept what he was bringing as charges?
And then the very key, clear statement that this officer is testifying as a witness, not a state witness, but a witness.
And it would be a conflict of his own interest to be a state witness when the state is bringing charges against him.
It just proves one point, which has been clear from the outset.
This prosecutor is trying to win reelection.
He's playing politics.
He's using these two officers, Sean, as part of his campaign strategy.
And there's no question.
The fact that they want this black-white scenario, these officers were black.
I don't think they would be overcharging.
And I would see some of these claims, charges against the officer, eventually being dismissed.
You know, Geraldo, I know you take a little different view, but you also, like Leo, believe that this was way, this was an overcharge in every particular way, correct?
Oh, yeah, absolutely, Sean.
This was a preposterous overcharge.
There's no way that this was the kind of premeditated felony murder that you would need to invoke a possible death sentence.
I think it is when you think about a child killer that cuts a baby's head off or a mass murderer or a terrorist.
You can think of places where the death penalty is arguably appropriate.
In this case, it is absolutely preposterous and extremely unfair to both of the cops involved.
I think that this was a very tragic incident.
And from looking at the tape myself, we all have the advantage now with all the body cams and dashboard cams and surveillance video from the establishments, the Wendy's and so forth.
We know pretty much what happened.
I think the case will boil down.
It won't be Bosn.
It'll be Rolf, and it'll be whether or not he was in reasonable fear of his life when he fired the fatal shots.
It's a very, in a sense, a simple case.
When he shot Mr. Brooks in the back two times, was he in reasonable fear of his own life or reasonable fear for the life of some other innocent third party?
And that's what the case will turn on.
It'll be a question of fact.
The jury will decide.
You know, if the attorney for Rolf is as good as the attorney for the other fellow, I think that the officer has a reasonable chance of a positive outcome.
But you have to remember, and Leo hinted at it, and John, you've been talking about it a lot.
This case is not happening in the vacuum.
This case is happening on the most public.
But that can't be.
Listen, any good defense lawyer, Geraldo, I know you agree with this, is going to remind this jury that their duty, their sworn oath, will be not to think about what the public thinks, not to think about what other events might be going on in the country.
This is about facts, and this is about a standard of facts presented to the jury.
And in other words, will 12 people find this officer guilty of what would be a death sentence, murder, if, in fact, when they are presented with the evidence?
Because Georgia law is clear.
If the police officer reasonably believes he is facing imminent danger or serious bodily harm, he or she can use lethal force.
Now, it just so happens it was only a couple of weeks ago that we know the district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, a guy by the name of Paul Howard, who laid out the case the other day, had said just a couple of weeks earlier, as many of you know, a taser is considered as a deadly weapon under Georgia law.
Now, the fact that you have Mr. Brooks turning around and firing the taser at the officer, not only would that then meet that legal standard in my mind, but then it would also answer the question, well, why did you shoot him in the back?
Because he only halfway turned around.
And do I think there might have been other options?
We can Monday morning quarterback all day.
I actually think there are.
And the prosecutor is also saying that he knew that the weapon had been fired twice.
Did he?
Did he know that for sure?
Are you sure you know that he knew that?
I think that'll all be brought in.
I would have preferred they just keep running and tackle the guy.
But I'm looking at a very different scenario here.
That is the law.
Leo on the law, what do you see?
Oh, Sean, you laid it out like a lawyer.
Let me just simply say this.
There could be other options available, but was it reasonable?
The district attorney can no longer go into the court on the opening day when he gives his opening argument.
He cannot say that taser is not a deadly weapon.
He has to concede that.
And based on the reasonable objective standard, the standard is very clear.
An officer can respond with deadly force if he felt an imminent threat to himself or to others.
And I would submit to you, you know, we talk about those free frames that the DA show.
This guy is acting in real time and split-second decision.
And he's going to have 50, 75 police experts begging to testify on his behalf to say his conduct was reasonable given the totality, and that's the magic word, the totality of a flea felon firing a deadly weapon at him.
This is going to end up bad for the prosecution and for that family, for that officer.
His bail should be reduced.
He should be released on bail.
He's not a flight risk.
And I'll say one last point, Sean.
You know, I don't want to mention any other cable network like CNN, but they wanted a George Floyd part two.
And they used this case and they were dead wrong.
And this officer is being victimized by a desire by a particular network to have a George Floyd part two.
And this is not the case.
Got to take a quick break.
More with Geraldo, more with Leo Terrell on the other side.
We'll get to your calls as well.
800-941.
Sean, you want to be a part of the program.
All right, as we continue, Leo Terrell and Geraldo Rivera, they both agreed to stay with us a little longer.
Maybe we'll take a couple of calls.
Because I guess, Geraldo, when you get into the legal aspects of this, and you have a good defense attorney, and nobody followed the O.J. Simpson case more closely than you, it becomes very different in a courtroom.
And that is that any good lawyer is going to remind the jury of their duty.
They're going to point out who started, initiated the resisting, the hitting of the cops.
They'll go frame by frame.
You know, stop fighting, stop fighting.
I'm going to have to tase you.
Get your hands off my taser.
Takes the taser.
We find out later that one of the cops was tased.
He also got a concussion.
Other cop follows Mr. Brooks in this particular case.
And the guy turns and points what we now know to be a taser is a deadly weapon under Georgia law.
That is a very high bar now to get 12 people beyond a reasonable doubt.
You know, there's no way you're going to get beyond a reasonable doubt on a premeditated felony, murder, capital case.
There's no way.
I think what will happen, Sean, is quietly they will add the charge of manslaughter as a lesser included charge because it is an impossible burden for the prosecution.
It's one thing to do it in a splashy press conference, but to do it with the meticulous recreation that a good defense attorney will mount, it's going to be painfully clear very, very soon that best it is, you know, he did not intend to kill this person, but it happened.
He felt provoked.
You know, I don't have the manslaughter statue in front of me, but it fits much more closely.
If at all, if any criminal liability attaches, it is manslaughter.
He did shoot this guy in the back, but there's no way it's going to be the death penalty case that the prosecution in its wild ambition covets.
I got it.
All right, we'll take a break here.
I'll tell you what.
Because it gets a little complicated on the legal side, and Leo and Geraldo are both lawyers, we'll take a few calls for them on the other side of this break.
Quick break, right back.
We'll continue on this Friday.
It's the Sean Hannity show.
Officer, the DA says that you are being hit with the assault charge because you stood on Mr. Brooks' shoulder while he lay dying.
If you look at the video, as Officer Broston approaches and Officer Rolf is already there, he doesn't even know that Mr. Brooks has been shot at first.
He doesn't even realize that first, Devin.
And he goes up there and he's trying to figure out, is this scene secure?
Is it safe?
He knows that his taser has been taken from him.
You can't see any blood at that point to be overly graphic here.
So he puts his foot, and he told the DA this, he puts his foot, he thought on his hand or on his arm to make sure he couldn't get a weapon because he didn't know what the situation was.
So literally for a matter of seconds, seconds, he puts his foot on his arm to make sure he can't grab a weapon.
Then he realizes what's going on.
He can see his taser is off to the side because it's got a flashlight on it.
And he can see the taser.
So he gets up and he, Officer Brosnan goes and gets the taser, puts it in his holster.
Other officers are now arriving within 50 seconds.
And Officer Rolf runs and gets his first aid kit.
He was not standing on his shoulders.
This description by the DA is completely belied by the video.
If you look at it, it's all on video.
It's all on video.
And the district attorney just kind of exaggerates this and makes it look like some terrible event where he's standing on his shoulders.
It is preposterous and it is not true.
And all you got to do is look at the video and it'll show that he didn't do anything like that.
And they charge him.
Two minutes is quite a long time.
Two minutes is quite a long time.
It's not somebody isn't.
The DA is saying it's two minutes.
And as somebody is wrong.
He's wrong.
And this is why we have a system of laws based on a constitution.
We have, we're supposed to have, Roger Stone didn't get it, fair and impartial juries that hear all of the facts, make a determination, look at the law, and then based on the law and whatever evidence exists.
In this case, they have the benefit.
This is why I love body cams.
This is why I love squad car cams, because we can see.
When you can see, when you can hear, you learn more.
And it's not just one person's word against another.
You get to get a fuller picture of the events as they have unfolded.
We continue with Leo Terrell, Civil Rights Attorney, and Geraldo Rivera.
Heraldo, I didn't want to cut you off.
You were making a point as it relates to now this new information, the law, the comments of Officer Brosnan's attorney.
Your thoughts?
I think that Brosnan's attorney is excellent.
I don't think that Brosnan should be cooperating at this stage since he has been arrested.
But I'm telling you, Sean, unless this prosecutor quietly adds the lesser included charge of manslaughter, he's facing a Herculean task.
I don't know how in the world, unless you get a highly charged political jury, which you would think that in the void process, the defense attorney for Ralph may ensure against, he's going to have a very, very tough time.
It's a very simple case to me.
To me, it's a question of he shot the guy in the back.
Okay, that's horrible.
You start with the horror.
He shot the guy in the back.
Now you have to back up and say, what's the law?
The law says do you back up to just seconds before when the guy does a slight turn and fires a taser at the end?
Yeah, sure.
I think that's a good question.
Which under Georgia law, according to this DA, is considered a deadly weapon.
I hear you.
That could be the start of the episode.
But you've got to look at the reality of the circumstances.
You've got to look at whatever.
One point, Leo, let me just make this one point.
You have to start with the drama, the dramatic.
The guy is dead.
Whatever he had done before he got to Wendy's or in his life or whatever misdeeds or however he's talking about.
No one's talking about that.
Nothing is relevant.
All that's relevant.
No one's talking about that.
We're talking.
I'm going to finish my last question.
We're talking about.
Let her finish.
Leo, a young lawyer named Leo Terrell, when I was covering O.J. Simpson, and I just heard that Ford is coming out with a Bronco, a new Bronco, on OJ's birthday, July 9th.
I don't know if that's true.
I got to check that out.
But that's where I discovered Leo Terrell.
But the whole thing will boil down to Ralt's state of mind.
Did he reasonably fear that his life or someone else's life was in danger when he fired that shot?
You know, that's it.
Was it a justifiable homicide?
That's the whole case.
Leo.
Let me just respond.
It's the totality of the circumstances.
You know, those defense attorneys are going to focus on the assault that Brooks made against these officers that led to the concussion.
And then he became a fleeing felon and he shot the stun gun, the taser at the officer.
And you keep saying he got shot in the back.
Okay, it looks like that.
It may be the case, but my point is, you wait until the forensic experts slow that frame by frame and give testimony as to when those shots were actually fired and what the officers were looking at.
But I want to go back to your point and what Sean has been saying throughout this entire ordeal.
All this information has been made available and was available at the time the prosecutor presented his dog and pony show.
And my question is: if he knew all this and if he has any intention on reducing the charges or including lesser included charges, he's going to do that later.
And why didn't he do it now?
And I would submit to you, it's all political and that's wrong.
You don't manipulate the judicial system for political gains because all the stuff that Sean's been talking about, the concussion, the admission that the taser is a deadly weapon, the prosecutor knew all this before he did his dog and pony show.
Well, I don't disagree with any of that.
I think that the prosecutor was a politician rather than a sincere prosecutor.
I think he was playing to the mob, and I think the charges were to placate the mob and to burnish the political ambitions of Howard, the district attorney, who's embattled on many fronts, as we understand, financial, legal, political.
I admit I submit to all those things.
I concede every one of your points, Leo.
I still come back to my point.
Was the fatal shots, were the fatal shots?
Well, that's the jury's decision at this point.
This will go to a jury.
Shooter thought his life was in danger.
And by the way, Geraldo, when you did your show and you had Leo on, did he ever get mad at you and take the official piece?
And throw down his microphone and walk off the set.
Show me the tape.
Show me some tapes.
Show me tapes.
Leo.
Leo, I have the tape.
Do you want me to really show it?
I have it.
You're accusing me.
Show me video.
I'm just asking Geraldo if he ever did it to you.
Geraldo, did he ever do that to you?
Leo is a bundle of emotion, but wrapped in a brilliant legal mind.
So I didn't know that.
Okay.
No, listen.
I'm just, he used to get mad anytime I mentioned O.J. Simpson.
He got so mad at me.
All right, let's go to our phones here.
Joe is in Georgia.
Joe, you're on with Geraldo and Leo Terrell.
Thank you for taking my call, Sean.
One of the things I want to say is I've been a law enforcement for local law enforcement for over four years, and I love my job every day.
But one of the things I would encourage every single one of my brothers and sisters out there in law enforcement to do is make sure you have a lawyer.
I pay monthly to have a lawyer on standby, and I've thankfully never had to use any of their services.
But you need a lawyer in this day and age.
But a lot of cops can't afford a lawyer on Retainer.
I don't know what Geraldo got an hour, and I don't know what Leo charges an hour, but it isn't cheap.
There are a number of programs out there dedicated specifically to law enforcement, and it's very affordable.
For instance, I won't say obviously the union I use, but I pay $30 a month, and I have a lawyer.
There are programs out there specific to law enforcement, and if your union or whoever you work for does not have it, encourage them to seek out these legal assistants to help you.
You have to have a lawyer in this day and age to help you out because you may have done everything absolutely 100% right, but you need that lawyer there to help you through that process.
Leo.
I don't know how the average copy police officer can afford a lawyer, but I'll tell you right now, he needs to be legally protected.
And lawyers give good advice.
And I'll tell you right now, it does not hurt to have a lawyer as a friend or either on a retainer.
All right, let's get back to our phones.
Jerry is in Washington.
Jerry, you're on the Sean Hannity show with Leo Terrell and Geraldo Rivera.
Glad you called.
Good to talk to you, 26 years law enforcement, state of Washington.
Thank you.
I want to discuss the concept of OODA loop.
That's observe, orient, decide, and act.
It's a concept that we train under, and it applies here.
It applies to every traumatic situation that probably everybody would go through.
But basically, what happens is these two officers are going through the OODA loop when they're fighting him.
And then when you watch the officer pursue, he's going through a new OODA loop when the suspect turns and points that Taser.
His training is the taser is a lethal weapon.
You see the officer transition to the handgun.
Okay, so that process goes from the brain down to when you make the decision to pull the trigger and use lethal force.
Law enforcement doesn't have the decision-making or the control of what the suspect does.
And what you see in this situation is after the suspect has already fired, that officer has made the decision to shoot.
What you got is a reaction from the suspect, and his choice was to turn and start running away.
So that's why you're probably going to see the glancing blow or, like they're saying, shots to the back.
But the decision was made for that officer at that time.
I am shooting because it is a lethal force.
And what do you think of his choice at that time in that split second?
That's the thing is we have to make these decisions in split second.
He made the decision.
I am in a lethal encounter.
According to the DA, that taser is a lethal force use.
He made the decision that he was shooting.
That's why he fired his rounds.
Again, like I said, we can't control what the suspect does.
They can either give up, lay down, or whatever.
In this situation, the suspect chose to turn and continue to try to run.
The officer had already made up his mind.
Do you think the officer is justified in his response?
I do.
Okay.
We appreciate the call.
Geraldo?
Well, I think that, number one, I admire the quality of your callers, Sean.
They're expert witnesses, every one of them, at least so far.
You know, I agree with everything.
It seems to me that the last caller could be an expert witness for the defense in laying out exactly how he laid it out.
That once the decedent turned and fired the taser, then it was all automatic pilot.
The pursuing officer Rolf knew that he had to use deadly force.
That was the transition from taser to the Glock.
But you also have to put it in the context of today in the real world.
And this is a very charged atmosphere we're all living in right now.
And, you know, you're in a town that's had some issues with race relations, with civil unrest, with the police controversies.
And this case will be tried in that atmosphere.
I think it's entirely.
By the way, you just made an argument for a change in venue.
You know that, which I would not be surprised.
Where could you move it?
I mean, once you're in jail.
Well, in other words, outside of that particular county where it took place, for one.
Stay right there.
Geraldo, Leo Terrell, final moments.
And we have our news roundup information overload hour.
Our friend John Rich will join us in the next hour.
All right, final moments, Leo Terrell, Geraldo Rivera.
Now, again, we're in the very early stages here.
It seems like it was not as was laid out by the prosecutor, the Fulton County DA Paul Howard.
Now that we know a taser is considered a deadly weapon under Georgia law from his own mouth.
And now one of the defense attorneys speaking out very loudly that the DA has it wrong.
Leo, how does this end up?
Charges being dropped on the officer accused of the assault as far as a felony murder.
I agree with Geraldo.
Sooner or later, charges will be reduced against the shooting officer.
And I hope for that particular officer, bail is reduced so that he can walk the streets and prepare for trial.
And a change of venue will be a hammer that the defense will use over the prosecution.
Geraldo, how does this play out in reality, not how you want it to play out?
Well phrased.
I think sadly the jury will split along racial lines.
It will be a hung jury at the state level.
They'll take it to federal court, civil rights case against the officer for denying Mr. Bix's civil rights.
There'll be a negotiated settlement, and the officer will do five years.
I'm going to mark this down here as you all say.
All right.
Geraldo, thank you.
Have a great Father's Day.
Leo Terrell, have a great Father's Day.
Thank you both.
When we come back, speaking of Father's Day, we'll talk about it with John Rich.
We'll get some of your calls in on this busy, wow, crazy, nutty, insane, at times depressing news week.
Straight ahead.
No reason in the world for you to roam.
We're all in this together.
All right, Roundup and Information Overload Hour.
Our friends Big and Rich releasing their stay home tune that they put out.
I don't want to stay home, John Rich.
I want to go out.
I want to go out.
I want to go to a baseball game.
I want to go to a football game.
I want to go to a big and rich concert in some outdoor amphitheater and have a few beers and maybe a little bit of that old, oh, there's a special whiskey that I know.
I recently got, I can't remember, Grandma Rich's recipe.
Man, I'm right there with you, Sean.
I can't wait to be out there giving those concerts and mixing it back up with.
It's got to be killing you, right?
Because this is your busy season.
Oh, man, right now, you know, we would be, this is one of the busiest months of the year is June, July, August, September, obviously.
We were going to do about 70 cities this year, and so far we haven't done one.
And we're not really sure when we're going to get to do them.
So I don't know, man.
We're crossing our fingers that there's some kind of breakthrough out there that makes people comfortable.
A vaccine, a medication, something like that.
Listen, the good news, I can report this.
I mean, we do know that they broke the sequence of this virus down faster than ever in history.
It took weeks, usually used to take years.
They've now literally whittled it down from 100 or so possibilities to 14 clinical trials taking place.
They're saying anywhere from September to January, a vaccine.
But more importantly, there was a British study Dr. Oz told us about earlier this week that people that are having severe respiratory distress, that there's a steroid treatment that's helping them and saving 33% additional lives on top of all the other treatments that they've had.
We're getting better at dealing with hotspots.
That's good.
The one anecdote that I use, John, is I lived right in the epicenter of this.
I went grocery shopping every week.
I went to my drugstore every week.
And where I would go, which is very busy, there, I see the same guys, you know, packing the shelves every week and the same cashiers cashing people out every week.
They used the plexiglass.
They all had masks.
They all had gloves.
And not one person, not one in any of those stores got sick.
The masks work.
I mean, that's, I'm just telling you, it would be impossible for all of them not to get this virus if the masks didn't work in some way.
We've come a long way.
I mean, you know, I think now we're kind of at the point with all the things you just laid out.
I think Americans should be allowed to make their own risk assessments.
You know, in Nashville, it's pretty crazy.
We have a really liberal mayor here who all the neighboring counties, for instance, have Little League Baseball going on.
But for my eight and 10-year-old boys who have been waiting all year to play baseball, he still won't let them play baseball.
But the Walmart or the Kroger or the Home Depot are packed to the brim with people, but the kids can't play baseball.
So, you know, there's some really parallel universes going on amidst this whole thing that I know a lot of people around the country are dealing with the same thing.
I will be honest, that gets pretty dadgum aggravating when your eight-year-old asks you, Daddy, is the mayor going to let us play baseball this weekend as you're walking into a packed Walmart store?
It doesn't make any sense, does it?
No.
You know, it's funny because the people have been pounding the president for having, they had like a million two wanting to go to his rallies.
He's now holding two of them in Oklahoma tomorrow, and they're going to do temperature checks.
Everyone's going to have to wear a mask.
And, you know, it's funny because in the middle of all the protesting, there were peaceful protests.
There was universal agreement and outrage and indignation over the video of George Floyd.
Nobody I know disagreed that that can't happen in this country.
But then the ensuing riots, the looting, the arson, the taking over of city streets, burning of precincts, not the peaceful protesters, those anarchists.
Yeah, America is outraged.
And the politicians didn't say a word about COVID-19 and social distancing either.
But if Trump calls it a rally, now all of a sudden COVID's top of the mind news again.
My suggestion is he just call it a protest and well, everybody will be fine with it.
Well, I mean, isn't a rally a form of freedom of speech?
I mean, the president has a right to speak and people have a right to be there to hear him speak and voice their opinion by being there.
I mean, I would look at that as freedom.
You know, I mean, you know what, John, I'm tired of being told what I can and cannot do.
But I've said to this audience, I'm going to wear a mask when I go out.
You know, I was in the epicenter of this.
I have no problem wearing it.
You know why I want to wear it?
Because I don't want grandma to get sick.
I don't want grandpa to get sick.
I don't want moms and dads to get sick or kids to get sick.
But for my own personal self, I wouldn't otherwise wear the mask.
But I'll wear it just in case for other people.
Sure, why not?
Is it really that big a deal?
It's not that big a deal to me because it's only going to be over a short period.
I'm the same way.
You mentioned my Granny Rich earlier.
She's almost 89, still runs her own business.
You know, she's a stud, man.
She's something else.
But that's what's on my mind, too.
If I go somewhere is, okay, I'll pop a mask on because I don't want to take anything back to Granny Rich.
So I'm on the same page as well.
Redneck Riviera Whiskey, Granny Rich Edition.
That's right, man.
Nationwide, RedneckRiviera.com's got all the stores.
She's doing great, by the way.
Instead, to tell you she said hello.
Tell Granny I said hello.
We send our love and our prayers to her.
And now your dad was a preacher, right?
Yes, he is.
Okay, but you told me once, and I might be wrong.
It might be the wrong words, but you kind of said he was a heart, you know, he's like a fire and brimstone guy.
Yeah, he's more of a revival style preacher.
So my dad has actually preached in prisons.
He went to 32 Mardi Gras in a row and preached on the streets in Mardi Gras every year.
I mean, he's that style of a preacher and not really the kind of guy most congregations would probably want to hear every Sunday morning.
But, you know.
You can't say that about your dad.
That's horrible.
He'd be the first to agree.
No, no.
He's there to preach to people, as he says, needs to hear it the most.
It might be the only time they ever hear that message.
So he's always laid it on him, laid it on him hard and still does.
So yeah, I grew up with a dad like that.
Father's Day's coming up.
Can I ask a question about Mardi Gras?
Sure.
Did people ever, you know, in the midst of the madness of Mardi Gras go over and talk to him and say, hey, I think you're right.
Absolutely.
That's why he kept going back.
You know, he would have hundreds of people that would throw stuff at him, spit at him, throw beer at him, be nasty to him.
And then you would have one person out of maybe 100 that would come up and say, tell me more about what you're talking about.
And, you know, people got converted to Christianity in the middle of Mardi Gras from my dad standing out there being a witness.
That's a fact.
Well, I guess we know where you got your got your, you know, you got that big and rich, you know, bigger than life personality.
I think I know where you might have gotten it from.
You might have gotten it from Granny Rich and your dad for sure.
All right.
So what are you doing on Father's Day?
How old are your kids now?
Two sons.
They are eight and ten.
And they grew up fast.
It seems like yesterday.
They're going up fast.
Yeah.
The only good thing about not doing concerts this summer, it'll be the first summer since they've been alive that dad wasn't out doing concerts.
So I get the whole summer with my kids.
So that's actually a great thing.
And we're going to go out and see my dad who we were just talking about.
You know, great fathers, being a great dad is probably the most important job a guy has.
Be a great dad first.
You know, I told the story earlier in the week.
So I lost my dad six months after I started at Fox.
My mom, not that long afterwards, too.
And I had been gone out of New York for 16 years.
And, you know, I come back.
I mean, he was aware of what I was doing.
And, you know, but then he started to be able to, I got him a satellite dish so he can watch Hannity and Combs in the day.
And then I did a late-night radio show at a local station.
I call it the ex-wife in New York.
And he would stay up 11 till 2 in the morning and listen to the whole show.
And whenever I'd see him, he goes, where did this all come from?
How did this happen?
You know, he couldn't understand it.
Grew up in the Depression, four years in the Pacific, World War II.
My mom grew up poor.
She was a prison guard all her life working double shifts.
And, you know, and I just, you know, my father just, I said, Dad, you used to scream at me.
You used to yell at me to turn that stupid radio off because I was listening to the early pioneers of talk radio all night long.
Right.
I was a lunatic.
It's it's what you love doing that.
It's your pursuit of happiness, man.
And you did it and you're great at it.
I'm sure your dad is so proud looking down on you.
No, it's either that or he thought I'd be seeing my mom every day in prison.
So it was not much of an option.
It's either going to go one way or the other.
Yeah.
Exactly.
So, you know, yeah, listen, Linda, and you, Linda, put on your mic because you got to get in this.
Yeah, but we were talking about this yesterday.
Mother's Day is like the holiday.
Let's be honest here, right?
Father's Day, we kind of get short-changed a little bit because Mother's Day, you got to go all out, right?
And now, Linda thinks that I'm wrong in this.
And for me, you know, my birthday, presents, Father's Day, just a call, say hi, I'm good.
First of all, you can't even be a part of this conversation because you're not a normal person.
Nobody can give you a participant.
Sean handles the show.
Oh, okay.
I can't be a part.
You go, go.
Well, you asked me to participate.
So here I am.
And you're welcome.
Hi, John.
How are you?
I'm good, Linda.
So in all seriousness, though, today we're doing something really fun.
You know, we're giving back to the audience.
And, you know, John was so gracious.
You know, we started talking when he sent me this funny song that him and Kenny did.
And I was like, dude, this is hysterical.
I'm like, we got to do something about it.
And we wrote about it on the website and talked a little bit about it when it first came out.
And I was like, you know, it'd be so great to do like a Facebook Live because John, you've been doing a lot of these Facebook lives and they're super fun.
And I was like, why not do it on ours and, you know, kind of give back to the audience and all the dads.
So today, right after we go off the air at six, a little over a half an hour from now, we're going to go right on to Facebook Live on Sean's page and we're going to feature John Rich and all you people who wrote in those awesome stories about your dad.
John's going to read a few of them in between doing some songs.
So it's going to be a lot of fun.
It's a nice way to do something positive in this crazy time.
Thanks for letting me do that.
I've put together a list of some of my favorite songs from country music that talks about dads.
Conway Twitty had one called That's My Job, which is one of the greatest songs ever.
I'm going to sing that.
And yeah, Linda, I'm going to read some of those stories.
Incredible, what you sent me.
Yeah, people, our audience is amazing.
Are you going to do it from the John Rich bar down in the basement?
Well, I'm not in the basement, but I am in the house.
It will be right here from my house in Nashville, Tennessee.
You know, it's going to be great to sing to folks and interact.
I wrote a song about my grandfather in World War II called The Man.
I'm going to sing that and, you know, really just put a big emphasis on how important it is to be a great dad.
You know, I'm a singer.
I'm a songwriter.
I do all kinds of stuff.
But to me, the most important title I have is Dad.
Somebody calls me that.
You know, somebody's looking to me to be a great one.
So I've spent a lot of time and energy doing the best I can at that job.
And I know we've got millions of guys just like that around the country.
All right, stay right there.
John Rich, Facebook Live on my Facebook page.
He's going to be doing a live show right after this show.
Most of them died in the 173rd Airborne.
On the 8th of November, the angels were crying as they carried his brother away.
With the fire laid and down in the hill all around, there were few men left standing that day.
Saw the eagle fly to a clear village.
All right, 8th of November.
One of my favorite songs.
John Rich is with us, Big and Rich, and he's going to be doing a Facebook Live special dad's edition.
He's going to take some of the notes you've sent in about your fathers, and he's going to play some songs for us on our Facebook page, Facebook Live, and you can link it to Hannity.com.
Also, you've got a show on Fox Nation.
I want to give you a chance to tell us about it.
Yeah, thank you.
It's called The Pursuit.
And I'm having a blast doing it.
It's based off the phrase that I've said a lot of times, which is our country doesn't guarantee us happiness.
It guarantees us the right to pursue happiness.
And the fact that we have the right to even go for our wildest dreams should inherently make us happy because we're the only country in the world that has that right.
So on this show, The Pursuit, I search out people that have chased the American dream, that have been through a lot of obstacles to get there.
They continue pursuing that dream, and we hear their inspirational stories.
It's everybody from rock stars and country singers to inventors to Olympians, and then even some people you've never heard of before, but I know about them.
And their stories are so incredible from being a homeless guy on the streets in LA to now being a television host, stuff like that.
You're talking about me again.
Why do you have to talk about?
John Rich, love it.
Facebook Live.
John Rich will be there.
You can catch him also on FoxNation.com.
Happy Father's Day, my friend.
My best to your father and your family and your kids.
And yes, we have the right.
We live in the greatest country God ever gave man.
Live free or die, John Rich, because we have an election in 137 days and everything's hanging in the balance.
Hey, amen to that.
Happy Father's Day to you as well, sir.
You have a great evening.
I'll see you on your Facebook page here in a few.
All right.
That's John Rich.
It's on our Facebook page.
Quick break right back.
Your calls are next.
25 to the top of the hour, 800-941 Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
Linda, did you notice our friend Jimmy Kimmel?
By the way, did you see Jimmy Kimmel tweeted something nice about me?
That not that long ago?
Oh, yeah, that he agreed with you on some of the things.
I never thought I'd say this.
I agree with Hannity.
So he announced he's taking a summer off to spend time with his family.
Oh, one more thing regarding my future, I want to say.
Tonight is my last new show for the summer.
I'm taking the summer off to spend even more time with my family.
I've been doing this job for almost 18 years.
I've done 3,130 shows, and there's nothing wrong.
My family is healthy.
I'm healthy.
I just need a couple of months off.
So while I am gone, a cavalcade of very kind and capable people will be filling in for me.
I think you're going to be very happy with them.
They will be guest hosting the show.
Guillermo, you'll make sure they don't steal any of my stuff, right?
Okay, Jimmy.
Okay, thank you, Guillermo.
As of Monday, our show will be on vacation for two weeks, and then we will have new shows with a variety of guest hosts.
Boy, I love that idea.
He said after 18 years and 3,130 shows, he goes, there's nothing wrong.
My family's healthy.
I'm healthy.
I just need a couple of months off.
You think I can take off the rest of the summer?
Would that be allowed?
I remember saying to you on more than one occasion that I think that you should take a few weeks off, not like two, because you only take two a year and actually take a little bit more time off so that you could actually travel and do some stuff.
And you looked at me like that.
Listen, I have traveled.
I've been to Iraq.
I've been to Vietnam.
No, no, no.
I've been to Singapore.
Not that.
I've been to Helsinki.
I've been to Fiji.
You know, Aruby.
Fiji.
They came in.
What am I going to do in Fiji?
What am I supposed to do?
Nothing.
That's the ball.
Why don't you go someplace and fish?
You like the fish?
I could fish right near my house.
I don't need to go all the way to Fiji.
You know what?
Absolutely.
When I think about Fiji, I immediately think Long Island.
It's like totally synonymous.
You're right.
What am I talking about?
Listen, It is an inside joke both on with my radio team, my television team, and they make fun of me because that's my list.
Let's see.
I've been to, well, we did go to London, but that was work-related also.
I thought London was gross.
I wasn't a fan of it either.
I actually was there twice now.
And we were doing the show, and the only place we could eat after the show, because it's, you know, whatever, three in the morning, four in the morning, was a casino sports bar.
And it was great.
We actually ended up loving the place.
And, but, you know, it was crazy outside.
There were a million, you know, people doing drugs.
And I mean, yeah, it's pretty, it's a lot of debauchery there.
It's pretty good.
Yeah, it was pretty bad.
And, you know, and it's funny, we came out one day.
You remember, I don't know if you were with us or not.
And this person begging for money for food.
And I said, well, we got a ton here, right here.
Take it.
And they didn't want the food.
They wanted the money.
Meaning they wanted to buy the drugs.
But which is sad, of course, and tragic.
And, you know, I hate seeing the human beings reduced to that.
That's what drugs does to people.
But look, we've been to Iraq.
We've been to Helsinki, Singapore, Vietnam.
Now, these are places I never really dreamed of going on vacation and a bunch of other places, wherever summits are, there we are with them.
But yeah, you know, all my staff, they all go to these wonderful places.
You know, look at Kristen, for example.
She's been this beautiful place in the Greek, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And I'm like, really?
What do you do there?
Everybody says the same thing.
They look at me like I have 10 heads on.
What do you mean, what do you do?
You go sightseeing.
I think the biggest problem is that you're going to be able to do that.
I mean, do I want to walk around Paris and look at that?
You've never walked around anywhere.
I mean, I remember being with you, I think it was Vietnam and we were in Vietnam or Singapore, one of those places.
And there's a group of us, we go out, and you're like, how long is this going to take?
How far are we from the hotel?
When do we get back?
What's up next?
How long are we staying?
I'm like, you know what?
Why don't you go back?
Why don't you just take a look at it?
No, that's not true.
Oh, you went to the temple.
Yes, you went to the temple.
Do you want to tell everybody what you did at the temple?
You want to tell everybody what you did?
Go ahead.
Your version of the temple?
Now we've been to Israel.
Well, first of all, I do like going to Israel.
I did love the old city.
But Israel was beautiful.
That was like the one place that we went on a tour with Dory Gold, you know, who worked on the table.
I went to another tour with Ron Dermer.
And I mean, it was amazing.
And then I flew a helicopter all the way from the Mediterranean up the coast right into the old city.
I did that too.
But you used all of that for TV.
It wasn't like you just did it for you.
We did radio.
It was different.
No, but I'm saying all that footage, all that stuff that we did when we did that tour, we were filming the whole time.
Right, but I got to see the whole country.
Okay.
You're clearly not understanding what I'm saying.
Moving on.
Now, listen, I did nothing wrong at the temple, just for the record.
Oh, I did nothing wrong.
Oh, that's an interesting recollection.
No, as a matter of fact, I was standing next to a monk at the temple.
Yeah.
Yes, I was.
Okay.
And what did you do at the temple?
Do you remember?
You mean with the incense?
I just wanted to smell it.
Okay.
Do you know what the incense was?
No idea what the incense was.
Okay, so those were people's prayers.
Okay, well, I double prayed for them then.
Oh, my God.
I did a double prayer.
Or disaster.
I have no words for you.
I literally don't.
Well, you know, look, I do love the fact that I do have this little problem called stopping.
I'm not good at it.
And that's why you need more time off because it's going to take a whole week to take off.
Okay, I'm going to tell you right now.
There's an election and the entire country, the future of the country is on the line.
I'm not going on vacation.
You know, I want to be that tiny little spoke.
Okay, so can we make a deal that you take off the month of December after Trump?
Maybe a couple of days.
Maybe I'll take a few extra days.
How's that?
Oh, sounds great.
If I ever accumulated all of my days that I haven't taken off in radio and TV, I'd be able to take off a year and get paid.
And maybe, listen, probably Jimmy Kimmel's smarter than I am.
What can I say?
I just hope everything's, you know, as he said.
Definitely interesting.
I agree with you.
What else was, oh, for Father's Day.
All right.
I got to tell you something.
If you're like me, you procrastinated.
And if you procrastinated, that means you didn't think about that.
But I have a last-minute gift that I, our book now will be released, Live Free or Die, America and the World on the Brink, and in Latin, live free or America dies.
And I started this project because I just knew I saw this building and building and building that this is going to be the tipping point in our lifetime, this election.
Everything is on the line.
And so I wanted to put on paper every single solitary bit of information that I know you'll never get from, except for a few of us on radio, few of us on television, and that's it about what is at stake here.
I have a history of what makes the fundamental founding principles of this country that made us the greatest country God ever gave man.
I talk about in detail what the 2020 Democrats agenda is.
You know, they talk about the new Green Deal and getting rid of oil and gas and socialism.
Well, I also give a whole chapter, a chapter on the history of failure, socialism.
We go into how awful Democrats have been with their lies and conspiracy theory and their hoax and the Russia collusion hoax.
It's a hoax of the century.
We go into their impeachment, another attempt to literally undo an election and unfairly, unjustly remove Donald Trump.
I talk about the complicity of the mob and the media, the hate Trump media mob.
I talk about this new stifling environment, the cancel culture, get rid of any speech you don't agree with, and how destructive a force it'll be to this country.
And I also give chapter and verse and compare and contrast.
This is what they stand for.
This is what Donald Trump stands for.
And Sean, you know, I think the audience would love to know.
I mean, you know, writing a book is not easy.
It's very difficult.
And so it's a huge undertaking.
It wasn't something that you took lightly.
Right.
It has been 10 years since conservative victory.
And it's a tipping point, right?
So we have people that are marching for peace.
We have others that are protesting and causing a lot of destruction.
We have people that are looking for change and solutions.
We have others who are just looking to make noise.
You know, there's a true dichotomy in the approach of how people are reacting to things that are happening in our society.
But I think one of the things that your book really points out is that we have to look back to our history to learn from all the things that happened.
So that was the same thing.
You know what that history is?
Our founders and framers, imperfect, but they got it right.
And they also paid attention to what they were doing wrong.
And that's what we're trying to do now.
And that's what you're saying with this book, you know?
And that's why the Father's Day.
It's to become a more perfect union and ways to right wrongs and correct injustices and our history of doing so.
And it's a nice, and let me say one more thing because you won't say it.
You know, your biggest, most important part of your life is your children.
And I think this week, as people got to hear you talk about your father, the bond that you had with your dad and how hard he worked and how little he deserved.
He bonded with the belt a lot.
Yeah, well, you deserved it.
Every time.
By the way, guilty.
Every time I deserved it, I did.
I'm sure it pained him to do it.
And he felt, you know, that was like the old school way of taking it.
Tell me later.
Why do you make me?
Why do you make me do it?
I feel horrible.
Can't you just listen and behave?
And that was the way they were raised from the old school.
You know, you come here from another country.
You got nothing in your pocket.
You're trying to do everything you can for your kids, and your kids aren't listening.
But, you know, and listen, you don't listen to me, so I feel them.
All that to say, you know.
Oh, I didn't know you're the boss.
Yeah, well, so most of the time.
But on Father's Day, it's a good time to start a conversation with your dad, right?
Because we're all caught up in our lives.
Everybody's got their head in their phones.
You know, they're not paying attention to this moment.
You know, even in the protests, you see everybody doing selfies and videos.
They just want to be a part of the social media movement of, I'm here, I'm a part of it.
Well, why are you there?
What does it mean?
And your book is, you know, especially on Father's Day, sit down with your dad, talk about history, talk about how we got here and where we're going.
And by the way, so you forgot to get a present, you go to Hannity.com.
We have a first, a special, only limited number, first edition, specially box set of the book, a special case.
And you print out the gift certificate.
And in a few weeks, when the book comes out, the book arrives at dad's desk.
But you say, here, dad, I got your special box, first edition run of Hannity's book.
Here's what I recommend to all of you that have your parents alive.
And take this from somebody who's lost his father over 24 years ago.
Whatever you want to say to your parents, because I realize now, you know, I look back at my mom's life, poor, you know, prison guard, 16-hour day.
She worked every day.
My father, poor, bed style, his mom died with complications from his birth, you know, depression, I mean, and real depression, real poverty.
And then 18 signs up four years in the Pacific, fights World War II, and, you know, becomes a family corporation guy, waiter on the weekends, all that.
And I just, I didn't appreciate their lives.
And now that I'm older, I wish I told him I appreciated it more.
And I didn't.
I did it at the end, but it was too late.
I should have understood.
I was just, you know, I was just very kind of independent.
I was like out on my own since I'm young.
I mean, the biggest problem is my parents never knew where I was ever.
And, you know, but they let me be free.
And, you know, my father at least got to see six months of the TV show.
And, but whatever you want to say to your mom and dad, and you could say it to mom too this weekend, just and learn from them.
Because, you know, now I remember why my father thought the way he thought.
I understand it.
I understand the depression better.
I understand fighting a war for four years in the Pacific and what that means.
I understand poverty.
I understand he grew up without a mom who died, you know, just a couple of months after he was born because of the complications of birthing him.
And, you know, whatever you want to say, you know, act like it's the last time you'll see them.
That's my humble advice and let it come from your heart.
All right.
Hannity.com, if you need a last-minute gift, I'm very proud of the book.
We will be announcing a book tour coming up in the days ahead.
Amazon.com also, if you want to get an early copy.
All right, that's going to wrap things up for today.
Look, Father's Day, to all you fathers out there, I want to wish you all a happy Father's Day and to your dads and grandpas and everybody else out there.
Hope you get some quality time.
Just call, tell them thank you, love you, thinking of you, whatever it happens to be.
If you need a last-minute gift, I'm very proud.
We have put everything, our heart and soul, into the new book, Live Free or Die.
And if you want a last-minute gift, you get a beautiful gift certificate.
Give it to dad.
Give it to grandpa.
And it's going to be released soon, as I said.
And it is a warning to this country and all that is at stake.
Our founding principles, the failure of socialism, the 2020 agenda, how awful the Democrats have been with their lies and conspiracy theories and hoax, the attempt to take out this president, how the media mob is the worst, and how Donald Trump and his reelection mean so much for our kids and our grandkids.
Just go to Hannity.com.
Just click on the special book offer that we have there.
You get a gift certificate, you print it out.
You can even do it Sunday just before you see Dad, and then they will get a copy on our soon release week.
Oh, don't forget, right after this program on Facebook Live, we have John Rich and he's doing a special on singing and notes that you have sent in about your fathers.
It's going to be really cool.
Facebook.com.
I'll link on Hannity.com, Hannity.com for Live Free or Die for Dad for this weekend, a special commemorative box set, first edition.
All right, have a great weekend.
Happy Father's Day.
See you back here on Monday.
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