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March 8, 2021 - Sean Hannity Show
01:38:59
Reopening America

Tate Reeves, Governor of Mississippi, has decided to do what's best for his state and allowing them to re-open and get back to work is the most important thing for the people of Mississippi to get their lives and their businesses back on track. 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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800-941-Sean, you want to be a part of the program?
I'm not going to spend a lot of time when Linda gets wound up on an issue and she is wound up on the royals.
I might do a segment, short segment on TV tonight about it, et cetera.
Look, if what she said is true, and the idea that questions surrounding the baby and race is all accurate, I mean, that's just, that is tragic.
It is sad, a sad commentary on the royals and their house, etc.
You know, the intramural squabble that took place between Kate and Megan means nothing to me.
This to me sounds like millionaire problems.
You know what we have right now?
And racism is a real problem.
If that whole story is true, I was as shocked as Oprah was listening to that last night.
But I look at this country right now and I see people still, 17 million of our fellow Americans out of work.
We have now people getting pink slips because of the stroke of a pen because of a radical agenda of Joe Biden.
I see the biggest waste fraud and abuse in our country's history with this $1.9 trillion fiasco disaster that they're selling as emergency COVID relief.
I see draconian shutdowns even continuing in states like Kentucky at this point.
Serious allegations of we have two women now who've come forward, more women in the Cuomo case in New York.
I see blue state governors now about to get the biggest red state to blue state bailout transfer of funds ever in history.
And it all makes me angry.
And I see the country headed in the wrong direction.
My biggest folk and wide open borders, wide open.
And people basically come on in.
Oh, don't come right.
Don't come now, but come.
And they're all coming.
And for all the talk about the need for mask mandates and social distancing and everything from Joe Biden, the guy that lectures us on masks, leaves the podium without a mask to shake hands with other people.
You know, I really don't feel like hearing his lectures nor seeing the video that we showed you in our investigative report last week at the border where literally people are not socially distant and they're not wearing masks and the catch and release is back and open borders are wide open.
It's never been this bad.
You know, I understand the real problems with the hierarchy and the royals and the monarchy.
It's never been the greatest interest of mine, but it is for many others.
And I understand, I mean, those were shocking allegations.
I don't know who to believe.
I don't know what to believe.
I don't follow it enough.
I'm not educated on it enough.
I thought these were shocking allegations that they will have to deal with.
That's all between them.
But at the end of the day, you're dealing with whole groups of very wealthy people that aren't dealing with the prospect of not being able to send their kids to college or losing their job or losing their home and losing their livelihood because of the new Green Deal, nor the burden that we're putting on future generations with monies.
You know, not only do we have 17 million Americans still out of work with the pandemic, well, now we're going to legalize up to 15 million people.
And we're saying, come on in.
And we've instituted catch and release and we stopped building the border wall and we're destroying the energy sector, the lifeblood of the world's economy.
And gas prices are already going through the roof.
Gas prices expected to skyrocket as U.S. oil production has plunged.
California now, $3.75 a gallon.
In some parts of the state, it's now top four bucks a gallon.
Here we go.
The money to heat your home is about to go through the roof.
The money to cool your home is about to go through the roof as the summer months are upon us.
And still, you know, the Democratic governors are having a hard time figuring out how to distribute the Trump vaccines in an orderly fashion like they're doing it down in Florida, like they're doing it in Mississippi and Texas and South Dakota.
And it is frustrating the living daylights out of me.
But Linda, you're still worked up about it.
I got it.
No, I'm not going to do it.
Can you comment about that?
Can I make a comment about that?
I care about America's right now.
I want them to get back to work.
No, that's what I want to talk about.
I want to talk about the truckloads of oil because, you know, it's very interesting.
I was reading something this weekend, and they were talking about how the oil was going through Maine and Massachusetts, coming from Russia, being shipped in.
So you got all of the waste coming across our oceans.
Then you've got it coming on truckloads throughout the entire country instead of just coming internally from the Bakken or the Keystone XL.
It's complete insanity.
And listen, this is now, these policies are hurting Americans, and it's only the tip of the iceberg.
It is only the beginning.
I don't think people are quite understanding this yet.
You know, you now, by the way, not only are gas prices up, heating prices up, African-American unemployment is now soaring under Joe Biden.
But not only that, Sean, we got a further point.
The whole idea about this is that we want to go green, right?
How are we going green with all these trucks on the road?
We're making Russia rich again, Linda.
100%.
China says today they're going to beat us.
We're going to make countries that hate us rich again.
We're making Iran rich again.
We're making China rich again.
We're making America poor.
And it's like we have the greatest resources right here in this country to be energy independent.
We prove we can do it.
And we're literally taking our greatest financial asset and now we're going to import it all and pay through the nose for it.
And we're losing high-paying career jobs on top of it.
I feel like I'm the only one screaming about it because I'm apoplectic.
This is the heart and soul.
You want to get to what makes America great?
Those guys that work in the energy sector, they make America great.
They lower the prices at the pump.
They lower the price to heat your home.
They lower the price to cool your home.
That is like a huge, massive tax cut.
And in the process, they work their asses off and they get six-figure salaries for really hard, difficult jobs with tons of overtime and tons of travel around the entire country.
They're just, they're all fired now.
You know, I watched, I was reading this weekend.
You want to talk about wide open borders?
Literally, you've got these sheriffs now saying, you know, we're getting five or six groups a day crossing in the exact stop.
And with the exact location where the fence stopped being built.
Okay, they're bypassing the fact that we're not finishing the fence.
And Arizona's sheriff's blaming Joe Biden's decision.
Stop construction.
Trump border wall.
Well, tens of thousands of illegal immigrants are now pouring into the country every week because they know they're going to get their amnesty.
And, oh, how convenient in three years, just in time for the next election.
So they're accommodating.
Now they're finally admitting that there's a little problem going on.
Biden's still separating migrant children from family members.
We still can't get in the cargo containers with the tiny windows with bars on them that we're told have beautiful butterflies on the wall to even get a look and see what it looks like inside the cargo containers.
Imagine Donald Trump stuck kids in shipping cargo containers.
The Border Patrol has no authority to test migrants for COVID.
Did you know that?
The Department of Homeland Security won't test all the people that they're catching before releasing them into the United States, but we're all getting lectured that we better mask and social distance.
I mean, you cannot, Ted Cruz tried to stop this weekend in this vote-a-thon stimulus checks for illegal immigrants.
Or they tried to stop, you know, now they're applying Obamacare for illegal immigrants in this country.
Texas Governor Abbott is saying, literally, Biden is letting COVID into the U.S. at the southern border.
You've got to end the scheme now, the governor of Texas said.
Democrats rejected an effort to prevent stimulus checks from going to both prisoners and illegal immigrants.
Wow.
I just, you know, what is this?
You know, what is going on here?
How is it possible that they're lecturing energy sector workers?
They got fired.
Oh, no, we want you to get other union jobs.
Well, how are they going to get those jobs when you have 17 million Americans out of work with a pandemic?
You're shutting down the biggest sector of high-paying career jobs in the energy field.
And then you have amnesty now coming to 15 million other people.
Well, what do you think happens to wages?
Supply-demand crisscross dictates the price.
And that means wages are going to go down in the sewer.
Forget about the minimum wage.
There are people that will work if you're here illegally below the minimum wage, whatever the number happens to be.
And those will be jobs that Americans won't be getting that otherwise probably would pay a lot more.
And then now I'm not even discussing the drug problem at the southern border because that's as real as everything too.
By the way, Biden, no, he's working hard.
He's now establishing a new gender policy council.
By the way, parents are really up in arms.
I'm not paying attention to all this stuff.
But now that, for example, gender neutrality does have an impact on girls' sports, which has been impacted by what's called Title IX that ensures that girls get the same number of scholarships as boys in sports and other scholarships, considering that most of the football teams at schools, they don't have a women's football team at most colleges.
Okay, so they have to have an equal number of scholarships for girls and other sports.
And then if somebody, again, I just, a lot of parents are furious about it because they're saying that's going to take away scholarships from girls that play, you know, whatever athletic sport they happen to play.
Anyway, the Department of Education has curbed the decision on race-based affinity groups.
All of this happening.
It is.
Oh, and Biden, by the way, is too busy, Jen Saki said.
She's too busy with historic crises to hold the press conference.
Too busy.
What do you mean it's too busy to communicate with the American people?
And the media mob, they just give Biden the pass on no press conference.
We might get his first State of the Union address or first speech.
He signs an order that's meaningless because HR won, hopefully Joe Manchin over the weekend.
I didn't like what Joe Manchin had to say.
Now it looks like he's being pressured by Schumer and company to give in on the filibuster.
Well, I'm not, I'm in favor of keeping the filibuster, the legislative filibuster, but it should be much harder to do.
I'm like, okay, what's the caveat?
What's the catch, Joe Manchin?
Sounds like Joe Manchin is beginning to buckle.
And if that's the case, those draconian HR1, you know, voting for felons, automatic registration, no voter ID, all votes by mail is going to be the law of the land.
Oh, and they also included in that something that nobody really picked up.
They included that any constitutional challenge to HR1, because our U.S. Constitution very clearly states the authority is within the realm of state legislatures deciding the means, place, time of voting in their specific states.
Well, if you want to challenge the constitutionality of that, they're trying to literally write into the law that you can only challenge it through the D.C. circuit court system.
In other words, the radical left D.C. circuit court system.
You can't even make this up.
That's how bad things are going to be.
You know, what did I say?
Yep.
America and the world on the brink.
Hey there, I'm Mary Catherine Hammond.
And I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
Long enough to know that it's gotten, well, a little insane.
That's why we started Normally, a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.
We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the truth seriously.
So if you're into common sense, sanity, and some occasional sass, you're our kind of people.
Catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday.
On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
I'm Ben Ferguson, and I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So down a verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
You know, it's funny.
People are asking me, what do you think about the Royals?
Do I think it's true?
I think it's probably true.
Linda's looking at me like shaking her head.
She has no idea.
But the point is, I don't know.
I don't.
I suspect that, unfortunately, there are ignorant people in this world.
Unfortunately, something that horrific could exist in this world that people think so ignorantly.
And that's why whenever the charge is made every two or four years, Republicans are racist, sexist, misogynist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic.
You know, now they're saying transphobic.
They want dirty air and water and want to kill grandma.
No, I don't want anything to do with any of those people ever.
Ever.
And I, you know, the people, I know for whatever reason, the people of Great Britain and seems like I guess over 18 million people watched this thing last night, which is a very high television number.
Americans have always been and seem to be in all these different shows, The Crown, et cetera, fascinated by all of this.
And I guess there's great interest in it.
I just, I care about America.
I like America.
Let's worry about Americans.
I am extremely worried about Americans out of work.
I'm looking at a Yahoo News piece out today.
The black unemployment rate in our country, the United States of America, even as most other Americans saw a decline in joblessness, underscoring the labor market recovery is uneven.
But the unemployment for African Americans went up to 9.9%, the highest among all race groups that are tracked, according to the Labor Department.
And these numbers came out Friday.
The overall U.S. jobless rate fell 6.2% to 6.2, with white Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian American workers seeing declines.
I want more record low unemployment set for every demographic, like Donald Trump had going pre-COVID for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans.
It's not going to happen when you have, when you add 15 million additional people with amnesty, or if you keep these draconian shutdowns with 17 million people out of work.
Hey there, I'm Mary Catherine Hale, and I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
Long enough to know that it's gotten, well, a little insane.
That's why we started Normally, a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.
We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the truth seriously.
So if you're into common sense, sanity, and some occasional sass, you're our kind of people.
Catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen.
I'm Ben Ferguson, and I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So down on Verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
25 to the top of the hour.
This is a very cool story.
Linda sent me this story.
She doesn't really care about royals either.
There's a McDonald's employee who turned 100 and has no plans to retire.
Says age is just a number.
How cool is this?
Turning 100 may be reason enough for many to adopt a slower pace of life, but not for a Pennsylvania McDonald employee, McDonald's employee, turned 100 on March 3rd.
No plans to ever retire.
I get paid.
I pay my bills, and that's good.
I never had a lot of money, but I always have enough.
She works at this, it's called Irwin McDonald's in Westmoreland County, three days a week wiping tables.
Anyway, to me, it's just the number, she said.
And she's become well known at a popular eatery, the site of a Big Mac museum for her smiles, songs, and dancing.
Became a widow when she was 50.
Been working ever since.
And I like working.
On Fridays, about 30 come, and we all sing in the McDonald's.
By the way, I know people don't believe me.
I love McDonald's.
Love it.
I love a quarter pounder with cheese.
I love their french fries and a Coke.
There's nothing better.
Well, I like White Castle too.
And I like Wendy's, too.
They're quarter with single and cheese.
I like both of their.
I love all the french fries.
I don't eat it that much.
I can't eat.
I mean, as I get older, it sucks.
I just can't.
You know, our friend Piers Morgan, I happen to like Piers Morgan.
I just do.
I mean, we competed against each other for a while.
And he didn't do very well lecturing Americans on the Second Amendment.
He's apoplectic over this interview.
Apoplectic.
He has the number one morning show in Great Britain.
I'm happy for him.
I'm sickened by what I've had to watch, calling it a two-hour trashathon of our royal family or monarchy, of everything the queen has worked so hard for while her husband is in the hospital and he's just getting started.
Anyway, so he has this other guy on who noted the apparent hypocrisy of how the royal family has ostensibly protected Prince Andrew amid these allegations of being connected to Jeffrey Epstein and maybe having sex with underage girls, or as Heber said, quote, raping minors on morning television.
They just got into it.
Quote, I think Morgan says what you said about the queen is disgusting.
I think it's unbelievable.
Then the guest said, I think you're disgusting.
Good morning, Britain.
Morning, everybody.
Hope everything's fine.
Man, oh, man.
Listen, there are horrible people that have horrible beliefs in this world.
There are.
That doesn't surprise me.
I don't know.
Maybe it's a, you know, I feel like, you know, when you run into horrible people, you just do everything you can do to stay as far away from them as you can.
But I have no way of knowing the truth or whatever of this whole thing.
I know they all are millionaires.
And it's like, and I know the people of Great Britain pay a ton of money.
We're watching very closely the first trial, Derek Chauvin on trial for the murder of George Floyd.
We'll have more on that later.
A lot of this is going to come down to the cause of death, the medical examiner concluding that Floyd died from cardiopulmonary arrest, basically cardiac arrest, while the officers restrained him.
He did have arterial sclerosis and hypertensive heart disease, and there was fentanyl in his system and evidence of recent methamphetamine use.
But as a martial artist, I can tell you that the most vulnerable part of the human anatomy is your neck.
You can't put that much pressure and pin somebody's face into the pavement like that for seven minutes and 46 seconds, which is what happened.
But, you know, you have to be careful in these cases, too, because if they end up overcharging, now it looks like they're going to allow the jury to have numerous options, which means they, my opinion, based on what I see and all the evidence, the tape doesn't lie, so that's pretty irrefutable to me.
They're going to have options as to what it is that they might convict on.
So we'll watch it closely.
Greyhound Bus Company is now demanding that the Biden administration test illegal immigrants for COVID before they board their buses.
The fact that they're not doing this is pretty unbelievable.
They have 185 people that have tested positive in Brownsville, Texas alone.
And Greyhound Bus Company is right because they have customers they've got to protect.
And there's no social distancing and there's no mask wearing.
And in some cases, there's no test giving.
And by the way, Biden is now being sued by 12 states over his climate change executive order.
There's going to be a flurry of these lawsuits in the days and weeks to come.
One thing I didn't know about HR1, it's look 791 pages.
So, you know, there's a lot of crap in it.
Start there.
This is the bill that would allow felons to vote, that'll allow automatic registration to vote, that would allow and institutionalize mail-in ballots in perpetuity.
This is the one that would unconstitutionally usurp the authority written into our Constitution for state legislatures to determine the time and manner of elections in their individual states.
So I don't think it's going to be constitution.
One of the things they do is they're going to try and mandate in this bill, if Manchin buckles on the filibuster, it's a problem, that would mandate any lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of HR1 could only be filed in the district court for the District of Columbia.
And all plaintiffs would be required to file joint papers or to be represented by a single attorney at oral argument.
I mean, sorry, that's ridiculous.
They're mandating no voter ID, mandating automatic voter registration, mandating no fault absentee ballots, meaning the provision would do away with any witness signature or notarization requirements for absentee ballots.
I mean, it's basically a wish list for how to be able to cheat in future elections.
Yes, cheat.
They have no checks and balances.
Now, if you want to go see your capital and you want to get in, you need a photo ID.
You want to go to a Democratic National Convention.
You need a photo ID.
Prevents election officials from removing even ineligible voters from the voting rolls or confirming eligibility and qualifications of voters.
I mean, it would ban all state voter ID laws.
You talk about brazen.
I mean, this is just, man, let's institutionalize the easiest way to cheat in elections.
It ensures illegal immigrants can vote because it would shield non-citizens for prosecution if they are registered to vote automatically.
Agencies would not be required to keep records of who declined to affirm their citizenship.
Allows same-day voter registration.
How are you going to have a background check there?
Requires registration for those under 18 and states to carry out a plan to increase, you know, well, people, what are we going to have?
15-year-olds voting next?
What's the legal drinking age?
Prohibits the publication of misleading information about elections, a federal crime to communicate or cause to be communicated information that is knowingly false.
Well, that could affect them because every two years they say that Republicans are racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, now transphobic, that want dirty air water and want to kill grandma.
That might apply to them.
Felons vote.
They're going to mandate early voting.
You know, the problem with early voting is that the campaign's not over yet.
There could be a last with a weekend before Election Tuesday, maybe you discover a DUI or some other criminal record that had been hidden.
That actually happened in 2000, in case you don't remember.
Unbelievable.
Kind of promotes ballot harvesting by saying the states that shall permit a voter to designate any person to return a voted and sealed absentee ballot to the post office.
We're not going to drop off 100 ballots, but I'm just doing it on behalf of my sick neighbor.
States are required to accept ballots 10 days after Election Day.
Prohibits selection officials from campaigning in federal elections.
Then we're going to pay for all that.
And it goes on further.
Urges D.C. statehood, requires curbside voting, mandates that absentee voter boxes be available for 45 days within an election.
This is supposed to be election day, not election months.
This is really, really dangerous for the country.
Because I don't want any cheating.
I don't want any cheating by Republicans.
I don't want any cheating by Democrats.
I want a free, fair election.
That's it.
And we have to know we have to, you should have to prove who you are to be able to vote.
We should have signature verification and voter ID.
That's the basics.
You need to have chain of custody issues where you have observers from both sides.
Considering the statutory language allows for observers to observe elections, you got to have it.
You got to watch the chain of custody.
Where do these things end up with?
Unbelievable.
This so-called COVID relief bill, you break it down, $350 billion blue state bailout.
That's what that number is.
State and local governments.
New York's going to get a fortune.
You got $570 million, 15 weeks paid leave for federal employees.
You got $128 billion for schools.
Only 5% of that money is emergency.
That's even going to be spent in fiscal year 2021.
$4 billion for agriculture, and including $1 billion for socially disadvantaged farmers.
I don't know what the criteria is.
$50 million in environmental justice grants.
$91 million outreach to student loan borrowers.
The National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, they get $270 million, $200 million for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, $10 million for the preservation and maintenance of Native American languages.
How is any of this considered emergency COVID relief?
Now, their $15 minimum wage did fail on the Senate bill, but it was passed along party lines 5049.
One Republican, not one Republican voted for the bill.
And you did have one Republican apparently had a sick family member that had to leave through no fault of their own.
Senate Democrats rejected all the Republican amendments, but three.
I mean, they basically vote to give stimulus checks in this bill to prisoners.
I'm not making that up either.
Wow.
Unbelievable.
Rand Paul did block funding for Planned Parenthood through the Paycheck Protection Program.
That was one thing that happened.
A small victory.
And that's your modern, this is the beginning of socialism.
And this is the beginning of American economic decline.
How can you say that, Mr. Hannity?
Do you want that?
No, obviously, I don't want that.
Because socialism always fails.
I don't care the name, whatever manifestation, whatever form it takes, the promises are mighty.
They are promising a cradle to grave, womb to the tomb, utopia.
It's been tried many, many times with many different names throughout history, and its history is one of failure.
Just like they can't keep cities and towns safe and secure, they failed, Democrats and blue states, just like they have the worst schools run by blue state governors and Democratic mayors, just like they fail on that front, just like Obamacare promises failed, so too will this fail.
By the way, they have more money for Obamacare than they're throwing in this bill, too.
Why not?
Let's just flood the zone with as much as we can possibly get.
I think they're even anticipating a major loss in 2022.
That's why they're pushing so hard on HR1.
How do you give, how do you justify emergency relief?
And only 9% of the money is going to emergency relief.
By the way, Democrats that have defended Louis Farrakhan, yeah, he's telling African Americans the COVID vaccine will kill them.
It's a vial of death, he says.
Biden COVID stimulus funds will go to illegal immigrants.
Fauci is predicting high schoolers will receive coronavirus vaccinations this fall.
Students struggling to read behind masks and screens, but expectations are no different, apparently.
One year ago today, since Fauci told Americans on 60 Minutes not to wear masks, now he's talking about double masking.
And then he's predicting another major COVID spike despite widespread vaccinations.
By the way, Florida beaches are filled with spring breakers.
That's not necessarily a good idea.
The problem with kids is that, listen, they don't, it's not as dangerous overall to younger people that get this.
It ends up not being a big deal for them.
The problem is then they go home and see mom and dad and grandma and grandpa.
That's where the problem comes in.
And again, then you have the rare exception where, you know, it could impact anybody, just like any virus.
Hey there, I'm Mary Catherine Hammond.
And I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
Long enough to know that it's gotten, well, a little insane.
That's why we started Normally, a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.
We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the truth seriously.
So if you're into common sense, sanity, and some occasional sass, you're our kind of people.
Catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
I'm Ben Ferguson, and I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So down at Verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
And our two Sean Hannity show, toll-free on numbers 800-941.
Sean, you want to be a part of this extravaganza?
Got a lot we're covering.
We'll update you on whether or not Cuomo can survive as governor of New York.
You got the head of both legislative bodies, both Democrats, now saying he should go.
And loudly, as that chorus continues and Cuomo remains arrogant, saying you'll have to impeach me out of office, those numbers might be attainable, if not now, in the near future.
Now that we have two more people making accusations against Cuomo on top of the investigation into the nursing home death scandal.
Anyway, Joe Biden last week refers to the governors of the great state of Texas, Governor Abbott, and the governor of the great state of Mississippi, Tate Reeves, as Neanderthals.
Here's what he said.
I think it's a big mistake.
Look, I hope everybody's realized by now these masks make a difference.
We are on the crush of being able to fundamentally change the nature of this disease because of the way in which we're able to get vaccines in people's arms.
We've been able to move that all the way up to the end of May to have enough for every American to get every adult American to get a shot.
And the last thing, the last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime, everything's fine.
Take off your mask.
Forget it.
Well, they don't have the mask mandate in places like Florida with a very high elderly population.
And the vaccine distribution has gone extraordinarily well there.
You have Republican governors, red state governors that have not put in these draconian measures of shutdown.
And those states are doing infinitely better than states like New York and New Jersey and Pennsylvania and Michigan and California.
It's unbelievable.
Anyway, the governor, great state of Mississippi, Tate Reeves, is here to respond to this.
Governor, welcome back to the program.
Great to have you back on.
Thanks, Sean.
Always a pleasure to be on with you.
Good to hear your voice this afternoon.
Now, you defended your decision and for all the right reasons saying you're lifting the mandate because, number one, people need to get back to work and want to get back to work.
And two, the numbers don't justify the mandate.
You're not telling people not to wear a mask.
You're saying that we're not going to mandate it.
Well, that's exactly right.
And these far-left liberals want to talk about science and data when the numbers are going up and we should make decisions based upon the data.
But then when the numbers are coming down, they want us to completely ignore it.
The fact is that our numbers have plummeted over the last month and a half, two months, in large part because there is a vaccine available now because of the Trump administration putting in Operation Warp Speed.
We were able to get a vaccine very, very quickly in this country.
And because of that, our hospitalizations are down 80%.
Our number of patients in ICU beds are down 80%.
Our number of patients on ventilators are down even more than 80%.
And so while we did not have a statewide mask mandated place since the summer, we did have some localized mandates.
And now we have none because the numbers don't justify it.
Well, I mean, that's a fair decision.
You know, one of the things I don't know, maybe these politicians in D.C. think we're all stupid.
I don't know.
But the idea is everybody now understands the importance of wearing a mask in certain situations, right?
If you're around anybody that's older, I'd recommend wearing a mask for their benefit, not your benefit.
And depending on whether or not you're risk-averse or not, you're going to make your own decision.
Everybody knows the risks involved wearing masks, social distancing.
It's all been beaten into our brains.
We now have a full understanding where we didn't have it originally.
It was one year ago today, I don't know if you know this, Governor, where Fauci told us we didn't need to wear a mask.
Well, there's no doubt about that, Sean.
The fact is, they came up with some convenient lies because they didn't want those of us that had our own decisions to actually go out and make a decision about masks because they wanted to protect masks for health care workers.
But if you start off the process by telling convenient lies, eventually people across America are going to quit listening to you.
The reality is that there are a lot of governors around the country that have really gotten used to signing these executive orders because they give them extreme power.
And for me, I want the power to rest with the people of my state, and I want the power to rest with the people of America because then they can make decisions based upon what they think is in their own self-interest and in the interest of their friends and family.
I assume you're paying close attention to H.R. 1, which would assert the constitutional authority, which mandates that state legislators provide the means and the time and the place of voting in elections.
And H.R. 1 would remove that and then even make any challenge.
They're actually trying to insert a provision that would limit any constitutional challenge to the DC district court system, which both you and I know is corrupt and it's filled with solidly left-wing justices.
I mean, this is madness that they think they can pull this off.
Well, you're exactly right because we do have a constitution in the United States, and that constitution allows for individual states to determine how they send their electors, whether it be in a presidential election or in races for the U.S. Senate.
And so it bothers me significantly because when you look at the challenges and the problems we had with the election back in November, I think it's very clear that if you look at a state like Mississippi, where we do not allow universal mail-in voting, we do not even allow universal early voting because I believe in the institution of Election Day.
And I actually went to, I actually have a new residence now that just got elected a year ago.
I changed where I vote, and now I vote in our capital city.
I went to vote on Election Day, stood in line for an hour and a half to vote, and I was perfectly happy to do so because I believe in that institution of Election Day.
Yeah, well, I agreed.
Now, you've seen this $1.9 trillion blue state bailout bill.
Only 9% of money is actually going to COVID emergency relief and all the other waste, fraud, and abuse in this bill.
How do the great people of Mississippi feel about bailing out states like California, New York, and New Jersey, states that are highly taxed with tax and spend politicians that don't balance budgets or fund their pensions, and a state like New York is going to end up with like $15 billion out of this bill?
It's very frustrating to me because I can remember 10, 15, 20 years ago, and my background is in economics and finance.
So I'm very much a fiscal conservative.
And I can remember 15 years ago thinking, you know, I just really couldn't be for a lot of these spending measures in the Congress because I'm going to saddle my kids with debt.
The reality is in 2021, we're no longer talking about saddling our kids with debt.
And by the way, my youngest is nine years old.
We're talking about saddling their grandkids, my kids' grandkids, with massive amounts of debt.
$28 trillion in debt in this country.
And the Democrats, as one of the first things that they do after having taken over the House and the Senate and the presidency, is a $1.9 trillion Democrat liberal wish list that has very little to do with COVID.
And that is exactly the reason that they had only 50 votes in the Senate to pass it.
All Democrats, not one Republican crossed the aisle.
And Sean, this is after last year when President Trump was in office.
Every single one of the five coronavirus bills that passed passed with overwhelming bipartisan support because they were focused on helping with COVID, not focused on building this Democrat wish list.
And my kids' grandkids are going to end up having to pay the bill, and that's just horrible.
Just an example of that.
If this were not intended to bail out blue states, then why did they allocate the resources to states based upon unemployment numbers, not based upon population?
And the reason for that is when these states on the West Coast and the East Coast shut down their economies, when they made it impossible for people to go to work, when they instituted draconian measures, we know that led to less people working, a slower economy, and more unemployment.
And this particular bill not only bails them out, it rewards them for making those bad decisions.
How are people at this point now?
Are they happy with your decision in your state?
I think they're very happy with the decision that I made.
I was actually out and about the last couple of days.
And Sean, I was very clear.
I said, look, if you are elderly or if you have not been vaccinated and you're going to be around those in the more vulnerable population, I encourage everyone to do the right thing and wear a mask.
But that's a choice that you need to make.
And the people of Mississippi, I believe, are very pleased by that decision.
They have the opportunity to get out and about.
And I was out and about this weekend and I ran into a lot of people who were wearing masks and a few people who weren't.
And that's perfectly okay.
And I'm guessing you're an old Miss fan who can't wait to get back to a football game.
I'm ready for college football with big crowds in the stand.
No doubt about that.
All right, Governor.
We appreciate you being with us.
If you're a Neanderthal, God only, I can't even imagine the description I'm going to get.
I'm glad things are working out better for the people of Mississippi.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Appreciate you having me on.
Let me tell you these, you know, if you're from a red state, think about this.
You've elected politicians that are fiscally responsible, that balance their budgets, that fund their pensions, and you live within your means, and you get more out of your tax dollar than these other states that are fiscally irresponsible, tax and spend big liberal states with all the waste, fraud, and abuse and the worst infrastructure.
You want to know where the worst infrastructure in the country is?
New York City, the highest tax state and city combined in the entire country.
Dilapidated, falling apart.
I mean, now it's not even a safe city considering they cut a billion dollars from the police budget.
You want to be walking down the streets of New York now?
Don't.
Stores closed here, restaurants closed, theater districts closed.
Everything's done.
And now your hard-earned tax dollars now will be transferred to fiscally irresponsible states that mismanage COVID from day one, and you'll be rewarding their irresponsibility.
I mean, again, that's where the money's going to come from.
Now, you're going to say, well, Hannah, you're going to be a beneficiary.
And I'm saying, I don't deserve it.
This state doesn't deserve it.
This is why not one Republican rightly didn't support it.
They shouldn't support it.
And if you come from a state and you got a Democrat, West Virginia is a great example.
What's going on with Manchin?
Why is Manchin supporting this monstrosity?
I don't think that he has a good answer for it.
Now it looks like he's beginning to buckle on ending the filibuster after he said the other week, you know, what part of no don't you understand?
Well, that didn't last too long.
Hey there, I'm Mary Catherine Hammond.
And I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
Long enough to know that it's gotten, well, a little insane.
That's why we started Normally, a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.
We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the truth seriously.
So if you're into common sense, sanity, and some occasional sass.
You're our kind of people.
Catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday.
On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
I'm Ben Ferguson.
And I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So down with Verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
All right, to our busy phones we go.
Mary is in the great state of Texas.
Mary, hi, how are you?
Glad you called.
Thank you, Sean.
I just think that this Como sexual harassment thing is a stupid, stupid smug screen to protect and try to not derail from the actual murders that he committed and had in the retirement homes.
I think that the Democrats want to, again, detract from something from him so that they can get rid of him and just kind of just, he's kind of the lamb, the sacrificial lamb, so that they can maybe make themselves look better.
I don't know.
But also.
Yeah, I think there are two things going on simultaneously because the phenomenon here is this is Democrats doing it to a Democrat, which you rarely see.
So what's the reason?
Now, when Ron Kim, a Democratic state representative, spoke out, and then the media spoke out, and then they both said that he was, you know, they didn't like the bullying tactics that they'd experienced.
I think that was cumulative.
That's my guess.
I'm just giving you my best guess here.
Then I'm thinking other Democrats, you don't hear many of them coming to his aid, none, as a matter of fact.
And I suspect on a more, I don't know, on a power-hungry level, that there are plenty of Democrats that want to be president that want him literally rendered unelectable so that he's out of the equation.
Again, I'm just giving you my best guess because this happens so infrequently when Dems go after each other.
Does that make sense to you?
Exactly.
And then the biggest scheme of all is they want all this going on so that you can't tell what's going on with the HHH1 laws that they're trying to pass.
They want all this stupid, stupid media and publication and public sea and so forth.
So, hey, look what's going to Como.
And let's just go ahead and pass these awful, awful laws in the Senate and legislature.
So, yeah, that I think is the biggest smokescreen of all the situation with Como.
Yeah, good insight, though, Mary.
I appreciate it.
But they're not doing it with the same enthusiasm either.
I don't hear the words, I believe.
Those are two key words in the whole Kavanaugh case.
I believe.
I don't hear anybody saying that, well, these are serious allegations.
We need to be looking into them.
A very different posture, very different rhetoric, with far less passion than that which we watched on display in the Kavanaugh case.
But that's to be expected, I guess.
Anyway, good call.
Appreciate it.
800-941.
Sean, you want to be a part of the program?
Speaking of Cuomo, we'll have more.
Michael Goodwin will weigh in.
Two more accusers of Cuomo.
Does this mean the end for him?
We'll analyze that.
We'll get to your calls and much more coming up straight ahead as we continue.
Hey there, I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
And I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
Long enough to know that it's gotten, well, a little insane.
That's why we started Normally, a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.
We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the truth seriously.
So if you're into common sense, sanity, and some occasional sass, you're our kind of people.
Catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen.
I'm Ben Ferguson.
And I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So down with Verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
All right, 25 till the top of the hour, 800-941.
Sean, you want to be a part of the program?
Two more women accusing Governor Andrew Cuomo of inappropriate behavior with great specificity here, and including a former press aide describing having to struggle to free herself from his repeated hugs.
A young assistant who now says that he left her feeling like, quote, just a skirt.
Former press aide, Karen Hinton is her name, enduring a very long, too long, too tight, too intimate embrace from Cuomo, dimly lit Los Angeles hotel room in December of 2000.
And anyway, he pulls me back for another intimate embrace, she says.
I thought at the moment it would lead to a kiss and it could lead to other things.
So I just pulled away again and I had to leave.
That's when he was with the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Anyway, this is Cuomo now.
I never meant to make anyone feel uncomfortable.
No way I'm resigning.
And he goes on from there.
If the question is going to be, how many people did I take pictures with one event at the mansion?
There's a line where I take hundreds and hundreds of pictures.
But I never, and I don't even think she said it.
I never meant to make anyone feel unwelcome in any way.
And I know if customs change, then I'll change the customs and the behaviors.
But I never meant to make anyone feel any uncomfortable.
There are some legislators who suggest that I resign because of accusations that are made against me.
I was elected by the people of the state.
I wasn't elected by politicians.
I'm not going to resign because of allegations.
The premise of resigning because of allegations is actually anti-democratic.
And we've always done the exact opposite.
You know, the system is based on due process and the credibility of the allegation.
Anybody has the ability to make an allegation in democracy, and that's great.
But it's in the credibility of the allegation.
Let the Attorney General do the investigation because that's democracy.
So, no, there is no way I resign.
You also have New York City, which is in a very precarious situation.
It's teetering to use a word.
Crime is way up.
Homelessness is way up.
Many people have left New York City.
Hamptons, Mid-Hudson Valley, other states.
We have to get New York City functional again and safe again and viable again.
And we have to do that quickly.
We have a new mayor that's going to be selected basically in June, I guess.
Something could happen in November, but basically in June.
And that work has to start right away.
Now, the state Senate majority leader, Andrew Stewart Cousins, has called for Cuomo to resign.
We also have other top officials, other state legislators joining this chorus, including his nemesis, Comrade Bill de Blasio.
The city controller, his name is Scott Stringer, on Sunday, joined the chorus of New York, again, mostly Democratic politicians calling for Andrew to resign.
And that is the great interesting non-story that people aren't really factoring in here.
This entire effort is led by Democrats.
The accusations are coming from people that worked for him.
The calls for resignation are by top Democrats.
Michael Goodwin is a phenomenal writer, reporter for the New York Post and a Fox News contributor.
And he wrote a great piece entitled Arrogant Andrew Faces a Fall and has a lot to say.
Sir, welcome back.
How are you?
Fine.
Thank you, Sean.
You know, I love you guys that write because I don't know how the hell you do it every day.
I mean, it is a lot to come out with really good, great columns.
And I thought you were really on your game with this.
And all throughout the post-election analysis that you were given every day, I thought it was phenomenal.
So I haven't had a chance to tell you.
Thank you.
I quoted you often.
What's your take now?
Where does this, you know, what happens from here?
Does he survive?
Well, thank you.
I believe your setup was exactly right, that you're seeing a rising tide of Democrats in his own party calling for his resignation, including, as you said, the head of the state Senate, the majority leader, and also the Assembly Speaker, another Democrat, said he shared that sentiment without actually using the word resign.
Cuomo, however, has made it clear that he's not going to resign and that if they want him to get out, they're going to have to impeach him.
Now, New York State has only ever impeached one governor, and that was more than a century ago.
So the machinery is a little creaky.
But it mocked, I should say, copies the federal system in that you need a majority in the Assembly for, in effect, an indictment, and you need a two-thirds vote in the state Senate for conviction and removal.
And, you know, the numbers are beginning to get closer to where just the people who have called for him to resign have basically, I think, started the clock ticking on impeachment.
That if he doesn't listen to them, then they will begin the impeachment proceedings.
Now, I don't believe that even if you included all the Republicans in both chambers, Democrats have veto-proof majority in both chambers.
I mean, New York is as blue as it gets.
But even if you used all the Republicans, if they were to vote yes in both chambers, I still think you're not quite there yet.
And because they are Democratic-run chambers, you would have to think that the leaders will want at least a majority of Democrats to support impeachment and conviction.
So I think this is a moving target here.
I do think the odds of Cuomo surviving are declining because of the statements by the legislative leaders, because of the increasing numbers of women coming out.
And I think there is a kind of fatigue factor.
The governor has tried two different apologies.
Now he's getting very combative again, as you played from his remarks yesterday.
By the way, you had an allegation.
It's sorry, not sorry, press conferences.
Yes, yes.
And his line that allegations should not lead to resignation, they're anti-democratic.
But he didn't always believe that.
He called on other officials who had allegations only to resign, including a former state attorney general.
When Justice Kavanaugh was in his confirmation hearings, Cuomo said those allegations are serious.
He should take a lie detector test.
If he won't, he should withdraw.
So he's now playing by a different set of rules for himself.
No surprise there.
But I don't think people should be thrown off their game by that.
He's going to do whatever he can to survive.
But I think finally he's going to have to confront these allegations, which he hasn't really done.
He's sort of danced around it.
But he's never said that.
But what is the option of confronting?
I mean, how do you confront it without an admission?
And then on top of that, then he's got this other bigger issue, probably from a legal standpoint.
Although, civilly, I guess, there could be ultimately lawsuits filed against him.
But on the legal front, this aide of his saying that they purposely withheld the real nursing home death number for the reason of preventing the Department of Justice from getting a hold of it.
Yes, that's a federal prosecutor's.
That is a potential criminal case in the Eastern District of New York, headquartered in Brooklyn.
They are examining that and the way that he withheld the actual number of deaths in nursing homes.
Again, he's created all of these problems for himself.
He really was quite untouchable, it looked like.
Even though his party is moving to the left, he had enough support in both chambers and among the public.
But he's created for himself these two problems now, two major problems, two investigations.
And on the question of answering the allegations, he has never sat for a real press conference.
What he's done is cherry-pick a few television reporters who have asked him decent questions, but he has not been asked directly.
You know, did you kiss Lindsay Boylan, which is one of her charges, without her permission?
Just kiss her on the lips in his office at a private meeting.
Did you effectively proposition this other woman?
And some of these things are backed up by documents.
There are emails in which he compares through one of his aides.
He tells the secretary, tell Lindsay Boylan, the woman who first made the charges, she reminds me of my former girlfriend.
Look her up, only she's the prettier one.
Now, can you imagine a governor asking a top aide in a government office, you know, look up my former girlfriend?
You could be her sister, but you're prettier.
And he's always touching her, she says.
So these are serious allegations.
And I think he's never been confronted because he's never sat down and taken all the press's questions.
He cherry-picks the reporters and the questions.
He does not take the questions that he really can't answer, I think.
Well, and I thought that it was particularly damning the CBS interview with Charlotte Bennett, inasmuch as she was able to corroborate in real time what she had been saying to a friend right after the incident happened, and those text messages were saved.
That seemed pretty damning to me.
Yes, I mean, and she's the one who actually made a report to the governor's lawyers, in-house lawyers, about his conduct.
And she said she didn't want a further investigation, but that report is existing.
And the Attorney General, who's going to be doing this investigation through an outside law firm, has told the state to make sure to preserve all these documents.
So the governor's idea that he can just kind of keep going, he's putting pressure on legislators not to call for his resignation.
He's trying to buy time.
Today he's at the Javits Center talking about vaccinations, surrounding himself with some supporters where the press is not allowed in.
So he's trying to look busy, look like he's doing the people's business, look like, you know, try to get headlines about something else.
Try to get people thinking of you in a different way.
And therefore, to minimize this problem, run out the clock, hope that people forget about it, and put off to another day the real reckoning.
It's going to be fascinating to watch.
Prediction, Michael Goodwin, will he make it?
You know, Sean, last week I would have said very high odds he will.
Today I would say very high odds he won't.
Wow.
And Michael Goodwin has a finger on the pulse like no other in New York.
Sir, thank you.
Always great to have you back on the program.
My pleasure.
Thank you, Sean.
All right, time for a quick call.
As we say, hi to, let's see, is it Buck in Texas?
Buck, how are you?
I'm sorry, Rick in Texas.
Rick, how are you?
Glad you called.
I'm very good, Sean.
How are you doing?
I'm good, sir.
Glad you called, sir.
Sean, I want to go back to a point that you were talking about the COVID passports that some of the liberal cities are trying to enforce.
I thought it was the understanding of most liberals that they didn't want identification cards for anybody, basically, to do anything, especially when it comes to voting.
So have a lot of time.
No, they just don't want it for voting.
They want it for everything else.
If you want to go to the Capitol, you're going to need a picture ID.
If you want to go to a Democratic National Convention, oh, you're going to get a picture ID.
If you want pretty much for everything else, you need it, but for voting, they don't want it.
And then they want to make it now.
They've added this little caveat that anybody that wants to challenge the constitutionality of this unconstitutional action, you're going to have to go through the very abusively corrupt and biased D.C. Court of Appeals.
That sounds about par on just about anything and everything you see the liberals coming up with to this point.
Yep.
It would forever render our election system in this country as one lacking integrity, and nobody will have confidence in the results moving forward.
And Manchin wobbling on the filibuster is a little scary.
But anyway, Rick, we're paying attention to it.
Please get in touch with your senators.
Joe Manchin, what does that mean?
Well, I'm against removing the filibuster, but I want to make it harder to do a filibuster.
What does that mean?
800-941 Sean, you want to be a part of the program.
All right, when we come back, news roundup, information overload hour, as we check in with Greg Jarrett, Horace Cooper, and much more.
A lot of news we're going to get to on the legal front straight ahead.
We'll be right here for our final news roundup and information overload.
All right, news roundup, information overload, our Sean Hannity Show, toll-free, 800-941- Sean, you want to be a part of the program?
We have a lot happening today.
Haven't really hit it yet, but this is day one of the trial for this officer, the main officer.
The other three officers will be tried separately over the issue of the death of George Floyd, which we know what the outcome and the result of all of that is.
You know, one of the things that you have to watch for, and this always frustrates me, and I called it on Ferguson early because I had people on the ground, people that I trust, that told me very early on that there were going to be eyewitnesses that will be on record,
African Americans, just happened to be part of the story because people tried to turn this into a racial issue with Michael Brown, that will confirm and corroborate everything that Darren Wilson said is true.
That Michael Brown had reached into the car.
That's when the first shot rang out.
And that he charged Officer Darren Wilson, who's no longer working.
And this whole hands-up, don't shoot narrative ended up being nothing.
I had my own sources and contacts in the case of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, and we knew from day one, and I said it, there's not going to be a conviction in that particular case.
Now, when you look at a lot of times, a lot of very aggressive state or local attorneys general, the expectation game is so high that you would expect, oh, this is going to be a no-brainer.
Okay, but there's certain very specific language in every law in every individual case.
Like, for example, in this particular case, there was some back and forth specifically on how to charge the officer.
And remember, this came up a number of times.
What is the proper charge?
He's charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
He used to face a charge of third-degree murder, but the trial judge threw it out last October.
He may reinstate it soon because of an appellate court hearing, and that could make a big difference on the sentencing.
But even in a jury trial, the ability to get the conviction, and you already know my opinion about how this was.
That would require, for example, the defendant, whether or not the defendant was endangering multiple people, not just one.
And the judge, Peter Cahill, thought it was multiple people.
And case law changed on February 1st, in which a Minneapolis Court of Appeals upheld the third-degree murder conviction of a man by the name of Mohamed Noor, another fired police officer who was tried for the shooting 911 caller while on duty.
And the court ruled 2-1 against the defendant, saying multiple charges were not necessary for a charge to stand.
And accordingly, Chauvin, in this case, the guy involved in the case of George Floyd, they asked the Cahill to reinstate the third-degree murder charge.
In other words, if you overcharge, you run the risk of dying.
Now, don't forget our friend Dr. Michael Baden did an independent analysis for the Floyd family, and he came up with a very different opinion as to what caused the death.
Now, for example, the medical examiner listed the cause of death as a cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement, subdual restraint, and neck compression, and concluded the manner of death was homicide.
Okay, Michael Baden, who I've known for a long time and is great at what he does, pointed out the very same thing, too.
Now, yes, there was a presence of drugs in his system at the time.
He had arterial sclerosis.
He had hypertensive heart disease.
He had fentanyl in his system and evidence of recent methamphetamine use.
Okay, none of that helped him in that moment, but the pressure on the weakest part of the human anatomy is going to play crucial here.
Greg Jarrett has the legal analysis for us.
Horace Cooper, legal commentator, and also he is the co-chair of the network Project 21, also author of the book, How Trump is Making Black America Great Again.
Welcome both of you to the program.
Good afternoon.
Greg, you always run the risk that these prosecutors, you know, politically ambitious, overcharge.
There's an expectation that there's going to be a guilty verdict here.
But if they don't charge him, if they overcharge the guy, and then the jury's given instructions, that always and quite often backfires and they don't get what they want.
Well, and it can also confuse the jurors.
So if in the end there are three charges, second-degree murder, third-degree murder, as well as second-degree manslaughter, you know, then you have a potential problem.
And the jurors can get confused on what the meanings are because the meanings are different for each one of them.
It looks like that for today, the jurors have been sent home, and there's an appeal to the Court of Appeals to reinstate the third-degree murder charge.
But, you know, in the end, I think your analysis is correct, Sean.
It's going to come down to causation.
Did the police officer Chauvin's actions cause Floyd's death?
And you do have an argument by the defense.
Wait a minute.
It's altogether likely he died from fentanyl consumption, methamphetamine, and underlying health conditions.
And so that will give the jurors pause.
Wait a minute.
Was Chauvin the sole cause of death?
Was he a substantial causal factor in the death?
And all of this can be very confusing with three separate charges.
Now, there is this part of me, Horace Cooper.
I'm eight years in significant, serious, five-day a week, hour and a half a day martial arts training, and the weakest part of the human anatomy is a neck.
If I were to, in a targeted strike, strike your neck and the bottom of your jaw simultaneously, and I hit your carotid artery, and it just, if it cut the blood for a fraction of a second, and I hit my target, meaning targeted strike, you would go down to your knees immediately because of the blood being cut off.
Just that slight fraction of a second.
And probably if you tried to stand up, you wouldn't be able to.
So that amount of pressure on the neck can never happen.
And he was handcuffed.
That's what frustrated me in this whole case.
If anybody knew any simple martial arts moves, you could easily manipulate two fingers of somebody handcuffed and you will get full compliance, full compliance without breaking their fingers.
So I don't disagree with how you've described it broadly.
What I'm really more troubled about is how there's been this attempt to isolate away from the actual circumstances that everyone found themselves in to determine whether or not criminality has occurred.
Even in your training case, if I came with a full face mask and a knife and went at you and you responded with the way you described, and I had some pre-existing health conditions, and I fell down and collapsed, you would most likely not be charged.
It would require the circumstances of how.
But the problem is, Horace, he was handcuffed, and the amount of pressure was seven minutes and 46 seconds.
We saw the facial abrasions of this guy's face, you know, smashed into the pavement.
And I'm telling you that that amount of pressure on the weakest part of the human anatomy is it's a, I frankly can't even believe he survived as long as he did.
I'm being very frank here.
Yeah, I continue to want us to look at the broad context.
If you just simply took a person who was speeding, you put them in the back of your patrol car, and this outcome occurred, we would have a different perspective.
The problem is that officers every single day, my cousin put in a 25-year-long career as a law enforcement officer in Houston.
And he tells me regularly, regularly, just because the person was held, constrained, and sitting in the back of the patrol car did not mean that the end of this process of making sure that they got down to the station occurred.
I want to make sure people don't violate the rights and lives of people who are accused, but I also don't want to make a situation where we say to officers, too bad for you, you make the wrong judgment, too bad for you.
I believe that we should have had a much better process of assessing what charges needed to occur in this case rather than the pressure from hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage and fires and protests.
That's not how justice is supposed to be determined.
What's your take, Greg Jarrett?
I just know what I know about the human anatomy.
Greg, I'm telling you, if I put you in a hold and I put my knee on your neck, or if you do what's called a rear-daked choke, if I lock in a real locked-in, both carotid arteries, or they also have other chokes you can use, but if I did, I guarantee you I can make you pass out on the ground, out cold, in 15 seconds or less.
I know you could.
And look, that would constitute, arguably, both recklessness, depraved indifference, as well as negligence.
And those are the key elements of the three charges that were involved here.
Look, jurors, and I, you know, I tried cases for a living, and I have covered hundreds and hundreds of cases from the courtroom.
And I've always noticed this.
Jurors take signals from figures of authority.
So here, you've not only got Dr. Michael Bodden, who can weigh in about his opinion on the cause of death, but you've got the Hennepin County medical examiner, Dr. Andrew Baker, who will say this is homicide.
It was preventable.
It was foreseeable.
There was bruising in the back of the neck.
And that, you know, the amount of pressure was a principal cause of Floyd's death.
And I think in the end, that will win the day for prosecutors.
I cannot tell you which among the three charges.
Well, all right, but now let me play Devil's advocate, and this is just for the sake of the discussion.
Because if you look at the autopsy, you've got he suffered a cardiac arrest, right, while being restrained.
History of arterial sclosis, right?
Hypertensive heart, none of that heart disease.
Fentanyl in his system and evidence of recent meth use.
This guy was walking towards his death at some point in the near future, just on those facts alone.
But now the question is, did those things cause, did they factor in?
I don't think it helped him.
I don't think there's any doubt about it.
But was this action alone enough to kill the guy?
Juxtapose what you've just said with the compelling and dramatic videotape.
That's my point.
Of the victim saying he can't breathe, you know, begging for his mother, and a police officer, the defendant in this trial, continuing to put pressure on his neck.
And I think that, as well as the authority figures who are going to say that, you know, the pressure on the back is what killed him, that will allow prosecutors to win at least one, if not more, of the convictions.
All right, stay right there.
Greg Jarrett, Horace Cooper, more on the other side.
We'll get to your calls on this and everything else we've been discussing today.
All right, final thoughts here, Horace Cooper and Greg Jarrett on the opening day of Derek Chauvin's case on trial and the case of George Floyd and his death.
How do you see this going, Horace?
Well, I think actually we're still looking at an overcharging circumstance.
I actually am not confident that this third charge is ever going to materialize.
I think when it goes up to the state Supreme Court, they're going to allow the trial court judges' discretion to continue.
And I think that because they're not actually being required to show that this was an intentional outcome, it is going to be a lot harder to get those unbiased jurors.
And there may be some biased jurors.
So you're saying they may have overcharged here and that could result in an acquittal?
Yes, I am saying that.
Exactly.
Greg?
I would disagree because I think the jurors will have choices here.
And the choices go from reckless behavior to depraved indifference to negligent actions which caused the death.
And I think they'll be able to pick one of those.
And I think the videotape supports it.
And I think, again, the medical examiner's autopsy findings as well as Dr. Michael Biden's independent examination will allow the prosecution to prevail.
But the fact that they have choices on charges is critical because in some cases they just pick one.
And when they go, when they overcharge, you run the risk of losing everything.
And that's happened a lot.
And people's expectations are what they are, correct?
Yes, that can happen.
But I don't see it here because these are three distinct charges with three levels of proof.
Yes, very great analysis.
I don't think that third charge is going to come to play.
And the other two simply don't require intentionality of a degree as how this case is being presented, both to the public and to the jurors.
All right.
Great analysis.
Thank you both.
Greg Jarrett, Horace Cooper, 800-941 Sean.
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All right.
When we come back, we'll take your calls straight ahead, 800-941 Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
We had a great Hannity tonight.
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News you won't get from the media mob and opinions you won't ever hear from the media mob.
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All right, 25 to the top of the hour.
We'll get to your calls here in just a second.
One thing you notice about politicians is when the passion that they have when it's somebody in the other party.
I call it the I Believer caucus.
Remember the Chucky Schumer, I believe he was passionate about it.
Goes to the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court.
You listen to me, Kavanaugh, you listen to me, Gorsuch.
Let's compare that to Chuck Schumer today.
I want to tell you, Gorsuch.
I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price.
You won't know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.
You won't know what hit you.
Let's listen to him very calmly talking about Cuomo.
Look, the allegations that have been made by Ms. Rush and Ms. Boylan and Ms. Bennett are serious, very troubling.
These women have to be listened to.
I've always believed that sexual harassment is not acceptable, must not be tolerated.
Now there's an investigation in the hands of a very, very capable person, the Attorney General of New York State.
I supported it and called for it, and now she's doing it.
I know the Attorney General will conduct a thorough investigation that will be totally, totally independent without any interference, outside interference, political or otherwise.
Well, let's listen to the I Believer Caucus, and you'll hear Chucky's voice in here.
And what a difference a party distinction makes.
Look, at its root, this is all about the abuse of power.
It's all about the abuse of power.
Whether it's Harvey Weinstein or the guy who, the plumber who has a secretary, he harasses.
It's all about the abuse of power, number one.
Number two, women should be believed.
First of all, anybody who comes forward at this point to be prepared to testify in the United States Senate against someone who is being nominated to one of the most powerful positions in the United States government, that takes an extraordinary amount of courage.
Not only do women like Dr. Ford, who bravely comes forward, need to be heard, but they need to be believed.
They need to be believed.
Let me just say right at the outset, I believe Dr. Ford.
I believe the survivor here.
There's every reason to believe her.
She has come forward courageously and bravely.
I believe her.
I stand with her.
You hope she shows up on Monday.
Do you hope that she shows up?
I don't think she should be bullied into this scenario where it's a he said, she said.
I believe Professor Ford.
I think she's credible.
And I think when the investigation is finished and when she testifies and Judge Cavanaugh testifies, I think a majority of senators will find her credible.
I believe.
You see the difference?
That's swamp, that's sewer.
That is, you know, people ask me, you know, I don't understand, Hannity.
Why don't you just, you know, there's five people down with Cuomo.
I'm finding them very credible.
I mean, I listened very closely to the interview of Charlotte Bennett, and then I saw that she had saved text messages right after the incident happened to one of her friends and described in detail what had just happened.
Seemed very credible to me.
But you see, the difference between who we are as conservatives, we've got to be consistent.
Either you believe in due process and presumption of innocence, or you do not, or you just rush to judgment only when it's politically convenient.
Well, I'm not comfortable being that person.
Anyway, let's get to our busy phones: 800-941.
Sean, if you want to be a part of the extravaganza, we got Patrick in California, the United Socialist Utopia of California.
Well, they're now saying they have acquired enough signatures for the recall effort against Gavin Newsom.
Hi, Sean.
What's going on, sir?
Thanks for having me on.
I've been following the COVID problem all year, like everybody else.
I did it with numbers, and I won't get into the numbers.
But here's the thing that really irons me: the six Democrat governors politicized the CCP Wuhan virus, they politicized it.
And then when Mario Cuomo put those patients, those elderly patients, the nursing home patients that went to hospitals and brought them back into the nursing home, it was wildfire.
And the amount of deaths.
Now, the other five governors that followed him-New Jersey, Illinois, Michigan, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania-they didn't lie about the numbers.
They didn't lie and try to obstruct Johnson justice.
What they did was try to make President Trump look bad.
They put politics over policy.
And if they get politically, politically crucified, it's Lenten.
That's a good word to use.
But if they get politically crucified, I'm all for it.
I'm going to tell you, I mean, if you look at the handling of things, Trump built the hospitals.
Man, the hospitals provided all the PPE, all the ventilators.
Cuomo left them empty.
You know, draconian shutdowns, you know, New York City is a very unique situation in my view.
You have the highest, you know, per capita population in the smallest geographical area.
It's very unique, very different from other states.
But you have other busy cities in Florida, and you compare it to, say, DeSantis.
You have the same weather out in California as you have in Florida, or ostensibly the same.
Draconian shutdowns didn't work in California, and they didn't use them down in Florida.
And DeSantis did much better, as did all these red state governors.
So it's fascinating how, you know, it was a year ago that Anthony Fauci said we don't have to wear masks.
That's how wrong the experts have been from the get-go.
And it was right around this time when you had Cuomo and de Blasio.
We're not going to join the countries.
We're New Yorkers.
And we have the best health care service in the world.
You know, all that crap.
Well, you know what?
They weren't ready.
Trump got his ass in here and bailed them out and still got the crap beat out of him by everybody in the media.
Now here we are, you know, Joe Biden whining about we were putting a million vaccines in people's arms a day before Joe ever got to be president.
Now he's got three of them.
That was thanks to Donald Trump.
I don't think he's ever going to get credit for any of the things that he did.
The fact that they left those places empty, I don't know.
But yes, they did politicize COVID.
Absolutely.
You know, I interviewed these authors the other day on TV last Friday.
And, you know, they took the Biden strategy to run for president was keep your crazy uncle in the basement strategy.
And a series of events outside, I mean, it just is amazing.
Never got a tough question.
He was in the media mob, big tech candidate protection program.
And now we see why they were hiding him and why it worked to his benefit the whole time.
We were right.
Anyway, to our phones, let's say hi to Debbie's in Kentucky.
Debbie, how are you?
Glad you called.
Hey there, Sean.
We love you in Kentucky.
Oh, my goodness, we do.
Thank you.
I love you guys too.
What's going on?
Well, I'll tell you, thank you to the governor of Mississippi.
And I want to say that Governor Bashir of Kentucky, he's had us on lockdown for a year now.
And we have a super majority of Republicans in our House and Senate in the state.
They passed laws in January to stop his government overreach.
He vetoed.
We overrode the veto.
So now he is sued, and he has his friend, Judge Philip Shepherd, who's done many, many favors for him, to put an injunction, and that is stopping the people of Kentucky, our will, from being done.
We want to be free.
By the way, what this judge did, you're right.
He ordered a temporary injunction last Wednesday blocking the implementation of the three bills passed by the Kentucky General Assembly that limited your governor's power to enact, quote, emergency orders and regulations as it relates to COVID.
And that's likely to be appealed by the Republican leadership in the legislature and the Attorney General, who I like a lot, Daniel Cameron, and the Kentucky Supreme Court will probably be the final arbiter.
But you're right, because he filed the lawsuit right after the legislature overrode his vetoes.
May I say this too, sir?
That this judge has helped this man for five years, ever since Governor Bevin was our governor.
But the problem is this, he's done that.
And as of March 31st, if this doesn't get resolved, and our Supreme Court here is also liberal, then we have to wait another year.
That's unconscionable.
We can't do that.
We've got over half of our people here that do not have a job.
My husband lost his job for a year.
He just now started a new position.
This has been devastating to us.
We cannot.
By the way, I'm so sorry.
What kind of work is your husband?
He's in sales, and he's, you know, he's in a different income bracket.
And to be able, and he's 62 now.
So this devastated us to mess up our retirement plans.
And we have a 15-year-old son.
I had my one and only child in midlife.
And we're not the only ones.
And we have an autistic brother-in-law we take care of and on and on and on and on and on.
We have a lot of responsibilities.
But just the mere fact that this, you know, our Supreme Court and this judge, Philip Shepard, one man, two men, the governor and this man, has overridden the will of the people when we have 75 to 25 in our House that are Republican and 30 to 8 in the Senate in Kentucky.
And we screamed loudly what we need.
And we need help.
We need this judge to change his mind.
It sounds like you need a new governor to me.
I mean, based on, you know, the numbers you're talking about in both chambers and in your state legislature, it just is frustrating.
They passed overwhelmingly.
They want to open the state.
But what you're describing is very, very real.
And in those states that adopted draconian shutdowns, there are plenty of Debbie's and Debbie's husbands out there whose lives have been upended.
And by not working, that means that, okay, now you're living on whatever savings you have.
And your husband, he's 62 years old.
How many more work years does the guy have in him?
I mean, I know a lot of people can work till they're 80, but not everybody.
And it gets very complicated.
You got a 15-year-old.
I assume you'd like to be able to pay for college or help, right?
I'm assuming you probably wanted to, you know, have some money to retire.
That might be shot by this point after a year of not working.
I mean, life is expensive as hell.
It really is for everybody.
But I'm telling you, we've got to get men and women in this country.
We're made to produce.
I'm sorry.
I know as appealing as it might be to people to think that, oh, I never have to get up and worry about getting up, going to work, putting in my 12, 14 hours.
I know people telling me that have retired or people that through no fault of their own lost their work, they're dying to get back to be miserable complaining about work, dying to.
They want to complain about working too much.
And it's been rough for a lot of people.
And, you know, I'm just hoping that you're in government, these politicians don't help.
Many of them suck.
And it just is not thinking about people.
My focus is on people like you and your husband and your 15-year-old and your future.
And that's why, you know, you would think a state like Kentucky, if the state legislature so overwhelmingly votes, the people of Kentucky are smart.
They know about social distancing.
They know about masks and they know the vaccine is out there.
You're probably your husband is going to get the vaccine.
If he hasn't gotten it, he's probably next on the list, being 62.
It doesn't help him if he can't get back out to work.
He's a real live real people survival we're talking about here.
All right, let's get back to our busy, busy phones.
Debbie, we wish you the best.
If we could ever help, call us back.
I hear you.
I hear you loud and I hear you clearly.
Let's say hi to Gerald.
Gerald is in South Carolina.
Sir, how are you?
Welcome to the program.
Good, Sean.
How are you doing?
I'm good.
Glad you called.
So in early January, I'm a central worker.
I haven't slowed down since the pandemic.
I've been steadily going.
So I had to fly into Canada.
And of course, before you get into Canada, you have to have a negative COVID test before you can enter the country.
On the 26th, the CDC issued a statement saying that anybody coming back from Canada had to have a COVID test.
Well, I have to fly out the 27th, so I had to delay my flight to get a COVID test to be able to get back into my own country.
But apparently, if I'm an illegal immigrant, I can just walk right on in with a free handy basket and just ask them to point me to the best state and city to go to.
Well, pretty much that's what's happening.
I mean, we did our investigative reports last week.
We're doing some from Arizona this week.
There's no social distancing going on down there.
There's nobody wearing a mask even in half the videos we have.
And yeah, and then people, you know, now we're getting people testing positive for COVID.
And we're getting lectures on mask mandates from a president that walks away from a podium, shakes people's hands without his mask on.
I just, it's unbelievable to me.
It's pretty unbelievable.
All right, so that's going to wrap things up for today.
Great Hannity tonight.
News you won't get from the media mob and all the hypocrisy on all levels of government.
And now the battle to prevent radicalism from taking complete hold of the country.
We'll check in with Don Jr., Kaylee McEnany, Dan Bongino, Dana Lash, Congressman Crenshaw, Miranda Devine, and Mark Morgan.
Just set your DVR.
Hope you'll join us tonight, 9 Eastern on the Fox News channel.
As always, we'll see you tonight.
Back here tomorrow.
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