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Aug. 19, 2021 - Sean Hannity Show
29:05
Biden's Bunker
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All right, hour two, Sean Hannity Show.
Thanks for being with us.
Toll-free, our numbers 800-941-Sean, if you want to be part of the program.
When I hear this, that the ongoing chaos was priced into the withdrawal.
That's what Biden said to Democratic hack Stephanopoulos.
Biden digging in.
No one's being killed.
right now.
We have at least 15,000, according to him, Americans.
We don't even know the exact number, which infuriates me also.
Trapped behind enemy lines of a terror organization.
And we're reporting acts of terror that I just chronicled in the last hour.
Serious acts of terror.
And now we have no control whatsoever of the destiny of those Americans, except that we're now being told that the Taliban, the terrorist group, has promised safe passage to the airport.
And people are getting memos, you know, echoing yesterday's, yeah, now is probably a good time to head to the airport, but please note we cannot ensure your safety as you try to get to the airport, nor are they guaranteeing get the hell out of the airport.
Wow.
You know, did the military warn you?
Nothing that I can recall, but now we know that there was a plan completely in place that they dismantled.
It was called the Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau.
And that was formed under Secretary of State Bank Pompeo, tasked with providing aviation logistics, medical support capabilities for the department's operational bureaus, thereby enhancing the Secretary and America's ability to protect American citizens overseas in connection with overseas evacuations in the aftermath of a natural or man-made disaster.
I never saw this coming.
General Milley saying, competence, I mean, it is beyond any comprehension I have.
Except that, you know, our military leaders, General Milley, nothing I saw or anyone else saw.
All you needed to do, General, was read a newspaper because the newspaper said the Taliban was on the march and they've got, well, last week they were telling you they had 30, 40, 50, 60% of the country.
Joe Biden, I know he didn't respond for days.
He was on vacation.
He's going back on vacation.
I just, we just, it was just reported.
Great.
What about the Americans that now their fate, their future lies in the hands of the Taliban?
You can't screw something up this bad and spin out of it that we didn't see this coming.
Nothing, no warning that I saw.
Then the Intel community is blaming Joe Biden and they're blaming the Defense Department, the Defense Department blaming the Intel community, and everybody's pointing fingers at each other.
And the Biden administration literally went out of their way to dismantle the protections that have been put in place for a scenario and situation just like this.
I mean, it's unbelievable.
800-941 Sean is our number.
Senator Tim Scott, South Carolina, good friend of the program, joins us today.
Senator, let's get your overall take on the situation.
I look at this from every angle imaginable.
And, you know, short of a massive military presence, I don't see a lot of military options available, although there are British paratroopers.
It's been reported that have gone into Kabul and surrounding areas to protect British citizens and escort them personally to the airport.
But even under those circumstances, they're outmanned and outgunned and outnumbered now that billions of dollars of American weaponry is in the hands of the Taliban, also, sir.
Yes.
Well, Sean, thank you for covering this issue so comprehensively.
As usual, you are spot on and ahead of the curve.
When you look at President Biden's performance, the few words that come to mind, unmitigated disaster, dereliction of duties as commander-in-chief, talking about cutting and running during the fighting season, he ignored good intelligence.
And frankly, the message it sends to our allies could not be more crippling while he is safely tucked away at Camp David.
I can't think of a more bizarre and alarming picture that the President of the United States comes out of hiding, it seems like, for a press conference, won't take questions, and then ducks and runs again and always talks to George Stephanopoulos.
It is the greatest bizarre occurrence I've seen in the foreign policy disaster happening in real time with thousands of Americans trapped in a country without the greatest fighting force ever crafted in the history of the world at their disposal.
I don't understand how in the world he allows us to be where we are, but there we find ourselves with a lack of leadership from the White House.
When they say they didn't see it coming, you watch news, you follow news as closely as anyone in your business has to.
And you saw that the Taliban was on the march.
You saw that they were very quickly taking over significant portions of the country.
We all saw it coming.
And yet, you know, we watched, go back to last weekend, and even with this unfolding, you know, Joe stays on vacation, flies back to Washington, does a 10-minute speech, or as Chopper didn't, and then goes right back home.
And now he's going, now apparently, he's taking another long weekend in Delaware.
And when he's asked questions yesterday, he doesn't answer one of them, and he talks about COVID, not Afghanistan.
I really have a problem with this, Senator.
100%, because you have common sense, Sean, you should have a problem with it.
Every American in this country, and frankly, every American abroad should be shaking in our boots watching not only the President of the United States, but he's also the commander-in-chief of our military.
He is, this dereliction of duties cannot be seen best as the POTUS.
We have to see it best as commander-in-chief.
And what we're watching here is an absolute, utter disaster, one that is preventable, completely preventable.
You never leave anyone behind.
Certainly not 15,000 living, breathing Americans.
I hear around 15,000, but thousands of Americans left behind in a very uncertain environment with terrorists coming for every corner of the country.
I don't understand what he doesn't understand and how you go.
They're telling Americans, and I know from your fellow Senator Lindsey Graham, apparently both of your offices are being inundated with calls, desperate calls from families and people in Afghanistan even.
You know, how do we get out?
Now, the State Department is telling people you might want to start making your way to the airport, but we can't guarantee your safe passage to the airport.
We know the perimeter around Hamid Karzai International Airport is now in total control of the Taliban, numerous checkpoints, just even getting into the airport.
Then we got reports of all the violence, which I chronicled on the last hour.
I won't repeat here.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board actually says the U.S. is now hostage to the Taliban.
Walter Russell Mead at the journal, The Return of America Held Hostage.
I really see that every one of these American lives, Senator, their destiny is out of our hands and in the hands of a terrorist organization.
Am I wrong?
You are unfortunately right.
I saw the same Wall Street Journal op-ed editorial, and it said so clearly that we are literally watching the president and his efforts leave too many Americans at the mercy of terrorists.
And literally, people are being beaten as they get out of their cars, Afghans, and we are hoping and pleading with the terrorists, literally, to let our people come to the airport.
That is a weak picture.
It's a weak scene to be digested by Americans and our adversaries.
Bad enough for our allies to watch this, but our adversaries are being emboldened by the inaction of this president suggesting that we don't know if we can keep Americans safe in Afghanistan.
I honestly thought it was bad enough.
You know, it's interesting to watch Biden say that he inherited this from Trump, but then he abandoned the plan of the evacuation plans and contingencies that had been put in place by Mike Pompeo and President Trump.
And with President Trump's deal came based on conditions on the ground.
That was very, very specific.
Before the fighting season, that was specific.
And also the dire threat that they would be blown into another century if they dared not abide by every comma and every period in any agreement.
And that was said upfront and first.
And I'm told by many people that were on the call, it was a brutal, straightforward, no-nonsense threat.
We will destroy you if harm comes to a single American.
I don't see that fear existing in this plan of Biden.
Not at all.
As a matter of fact, Sean, the two things that we can contrast is one is strong leadership and the other one is weak leadership.
Under President Trump, what we saw very clearly was a deadline based on conditions.
Therefore, the deadline is not a deadline if the conditions changed.
Obviously, they have changed.
So watching national media try to conflate this into a Trump-Biden issue is just terrible because it's inconsistent with reality.
What we know, however, is that the Biden administration had a chance to do it differently.
They had a chance to make sure that the current catastrophe did not happen.
They decided to go with arbitrary deadlines set by themselves.
They have done this to themselves, to the American people, to our allies, and frankly, to the interpreters and the Americans in Afghanistan.
We know exactly where the blame of this issue, it is at the feet of President Biden by himself, no other administration, just this one.
Do you have any options?
Because I don't see any good ones, to be very blunt, because we both know what the Taliban's capable of.
So militarily, you know, we could show all the might of the United States now, but it's too late because they have control of where the Americans are, which is behind enemy lines.
Do you see any option other than counting on the goodwill of the Taliban?
And I can't believe, quote, those words are even flying out of my mouth.
Yeah, I will say as the answer is short and simple, no.
There are no good options left on the table.
The only options that we see fall into the category of too little, too few people on the ground to be able to hold anything other than the airport, according to both Secretary Austin and General Miley.
They both were in concert saying this is basically out of their hands.
They simply don't have the troops.
They don't have the authority to even increase the presence.
And frankly, bringing the troops back into harm's way is also a complicated decision that could have all been eliminated had we just not cut and run.
That is something that should never be synonymous with who we are as a nation.
And frankly, it is not.
It is, however, consistent with this administration.
It is not consistent with the American people.
It's not consistent with every single member of our armed forces who fought to keep that country stable for 20 years.
And in less than 90 days, we saw the efforts of thousands upon thousands of troops go down the drain because of the dereliction of duty of this administration.
There are no good options on the table that we can put there without putting in jeopardy more American lives.
It's the worst case scenario and one that I just don't understand how in the world President Biden allowed us to get into this situation.
Senator, our prayers are with everybody over there.
I want every American and frankly, all the people that we've made a promise to that if this day ever came, those that assisted us in our military effort over the 20 years, they deserve safe passage out of there as well because their destiny is now sealed.
Their fate is sealed.
They will be killed.
Either they leave or they die.
Our prayers are with all of them.
Thank you, Senator.
Appreciate it.
The update, 800-941, Sean, our number.
We'll get to a lot of your calls coming up.
We'll also talk to Brigadier General Don Bullduck.
And we'll have full coverage on Hannity tonight at 9 on Fox.
All right, 25 till the top of the hour.
Toll for your numbers, 800-941.
Sean, you want to be a part of the program?
The interview with Stephanopoulos, which was just a disaster.
Everything Biden is claiming, we anticipated this.
We factored this chaos in, and we all knew that there was going to be chaos.
And well, that's the opposite, first of all, of what he said in July when 300,000 army strong, one of the best trained in the entire world, and they've got an Air Force, and they're up against 75,000 Taliban.
Forget it.
They're going to crush them.
So everything, nothing explains why they didn't have a contingency.
General Milley, well, you know, nobody saw this coming for 11 days.
How could you not see it coming?
Because you must be blind.
All you needed to do was have a little satellite photo imaging that would show the Taliban conquering 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30% of the country, and on and on and on, and realize that this Afghan U.S. trained army, one of the best trained in the world, wasn't living up to what they claimed.
The fact that we don't know how many Americans are there, the fact that we don't know where they are, the fact that we can't get them safely to the airport, but we're telling them to go.
You know, nothing is Joe's fault.
You know, this is nothing we could have done.
Actually, there's everything that could have been done.
You could have executed with pinpoint precision the mobilization and extraction of every American in Afghanistan.
And on top of that, and Joe says there's about 15,000 of them.
We don't have a complete number.
We haven't accounted for everybody.
And those that we know will be killed if we don't get them out of there.
We'll deal with where they're going eventually down the line.
Doesn't have to necessarily be here.
I know some people are saying that shouldn't guarantee citizenship, but we promised people that assisted us in this conflict in 20 years, we would not abandon them should things come to this.
And at the end of the day, there's no spinning around the days of vacation.
There's no spinning around the lack of action, how you didn't anticipate the lack of planning.
There's no spinning around.
We had no idea this is happening.
None whatsoever.
It's all a big smokescreen lie.
It's a big lie.
You know, Biden claiming the withdrawal wasn't a failure.
Well, if now the fate of every American, every interpreter, everybody that helped us that will die when we leave eventually, the fact that every American life and the idea that they're going to get home is completely contingent on the Taliban keeping a promise of safe passage to the airport when we know that's not happening.
Listen to Joe.
When you look at what's happened over the last week, was it a failure of intelligence, planning, execution, or judgment?
Look, I don't think it was a failure.
Look, it was a simple choice, George.
We've all seen the pictures.
We've seen those hundreds of people packed into a C-17.
We've seen Afghans fall.
It was four days ago, five days ago.
What did you think when you first saw those pictures?
What I thought was we have to gain control of this.
We have to move this more quickly.
We have to move in a way in which we can take control of that airport.
And we did.
So you don't think this could have been handled?
This actually could have been handled better in any way.
No mistakes?
No, I don't think it could have been handled in a way that we're going to go back in hindsight and look, but the idea that somehow there's a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don't know how that happens.
I don't know how that happened.
So for you, that was always priced into the decision?
Yes.
Chaos was always priced into the decision, George.
Why didn't you bomb them when they took over 15% of the country?
Why didn't you push them back?
Why didn't you say this is not going to be, this is not going to end well for you?
Because those options, we saw it successfully used in Syria, the defeated Caliphate, which Joe couldn't figure out then.
You know, no mistakes at all.
There hasn't been a single thing they've done right here.
You can't screw it up any more than this.
Let's say hi to our friend Tammy in Louisiana.
Hey, Tammy, how are you?
Glad you called.
I'm fine.
How are you?
I'm good.
What's going on?
Hey, Sean.
I just want to first off thank you for always staying true to who you are.
And thank you for being the voice for so many Americans like myself.
Thank you.
You give me this voice.
Thank you.
What's that?
I just want to say the sky's the limit for the amount of corruption in our government.
I mean, I feel so betrayed by this administration.
I feel like we've been bought by China, Russia.
I'm beginning to think by the Taliban.
What happened to like Leave No Man Behind?
I mean, we left some of our own citizens.
They knew exactly what was going to happen if we pulled out the way we did.
Not only did they leave Americans, they left behind billions of dollars worth of high-tech military equipment that we, the American people, paid for.
Now, when we go to try to extract our people from there, we're going to have to fight against our own guns, tanks, helicopters.
I mean, you can't make this stuff up.
You can't botch it any worse.
I mean, this is the thing.
Listen, I believe in the power of prayer.
I believe in miracles.
But to put ourselves to make ourselves so vulnerable that the fate of every American there and the fate of every American supporter there and these families that are there is not in our control any longer.
The Taliban will control if they get to the airport.
What's your plan, Joe?
What are you going to do?
Are you going to strike them militarily?
Because I have a pretty sneaky suspicion that the way they respond will be, will shock the conscience and soul of the world in terms of the utter brutality of one precious American life.
So we're now, you know, we're there.
We have no control of the situation.
He's given up all total command and control to terrorists.
That's where we now are.
And any other spin doesn't work.
My heart goes out to all the people that have been left behind in Afghanistan.
I mean, this is something that should never happen.
This administration has been an embarrassment to our country.
President Trump always put the American people first.
At least they'll safe when he was in office.
I mean, other countries know that if Trump said he was going to do something, he did it.
They didn't mess with us.
Hell, our allies probably don't even trust us now.
I don't even trust this.
I mean, this is ridiculous.
Why should you?
What has he done to instill any confidence in anybody?
You know, the fact that the only option is prayer.
I believe in prayer.
I believe in God.
I believe in it deeply.
I believe in it profoundly.
But this didn't, we could have controlled.
We could have been the masters of our destiny here.
We should have been.
It's a failure.
It's in incalculable proportions on every level, incompetence at every level.
Why did you stay on vacation, Joe?
How did you get this wrong?
Anyway, good call, Tammy.
Ron is in Florida.
Ron, thank you for calling.
Thank you for having me on there, Sean.
I've got a good friend of mine who is over.
He's a contract worker in Afghanistan right now.
And normally talk to him a couple times a week, send him a text after everything was going on.
I said, have you made it out okay?
No reply.
And then his wife calls me up and tells me that he's in hiding and that he don't know.
And that's a hard time choking up a little bit because that's a hard conversation to have with your wife, not knowing if you're going to make it back.
And he's in hiding.
He said they're systematically going door to door looking for anybody who supported the United States and taking him out.
And he don't know what.
He said, I don't know how I'm getting home.
I don't know.
He's alone.
And this is just horrifying that this is taking place and this president doing what he did.
How dare you take the military out before you take all these American civilians out?
I'm just infuriated.
You have every right to be now.
Take your situation.
And by the way, I'm very sorry.
It's scary.
Do I think this person's life, this friend's life, this husband's life, father's life is in jeopardy?
I absolutely do.
Everybody's life is in complete jeopardy.
And we got the gang that can't shoot straight in charge.
And, you know, I don't really have words to say.
I mean, if everybody gets home safely, it won't be because of Joe Biden.
It won't be.
It will be because for whatever reason, the stars align in the right way at the right time.
But I will tell you, I'm not counting on that outcome, and I'm not counting on it expeditiously either.
And I, you know, we better be ready to buckle up.
This could go on for a while.
I hope I'm wrong.
Does anybody actually think that this is going to end peacefully with the evacuation?
No.
You know, we just armed them to the teeth.
We've got, what, 6,000?
I think the 82nd Airborne deployed 6,000 troops to help with this.
There is no way that this is going to end peacefully.
And I'm just like, how do you mess this up that bad?
Did he not listen to his military advisors?
I don't know.
Well, we went through this earlier.
Now, you're right.
The Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin insisting there's no way he can save these Americans that have been deserted and abandoned.
The Biden White House, we now know, I'm just giving you information, ignored a June recommendation from the Pentagon to evacuate Afghanistan.
They have the Pentagon pointing to the Intel community, the Intel community pointing at the Pentagon, everybody pointing at Joe Biden.
You have Taliban soldiers.
They're out there, many of them chanting death to America right now.
And that's on tape.
I've given you the list of brutality and human suffering and death that's already taken place and taking place there now.
They dismantled protections for all the Americans that are trapped abroad that had been put in place by Mike Pompeo and Donald Trump.
This had all been in place, just like the border was secure and just like we were energy independent.
I feel that we're going to start this war all over again for another 20 years.
The only solution I see is a massive military presence just to put exactly what was in place before.
And it's sad.
Now we're going to have to endanger more American lives because of this debacle.
It's very likely.
I appreciate the call.
We'll pray for your friend and every other person there.
Big time A.J. Houston, Texas.
My heart is troubled, big time.
Big time Sean Hannity.
You know what?
I want everybody to know this is why big time Sean Hannity loved this country because he's supposed to have big time Motown Joe Paggs doing his show, but it's so dire right now.
Big time Sean Hannity is on here telling everybody how sorry this administration is.
This is unbelievable what we watching, people.
This is treasonous to the core.
I'm just going to call it the way it is, Sean.
It's treasonous to the core what Joe Biden did on vacation.
He on vacation like Obama left Benghazi.
Do it sound familiar?
And then burned off.
And then he releases all that.
Sean, I'm so furiated.
The words, I need to be, like I tell Motown, we need to be at a bar, Sean, where we can cuss and fuck.
Yeah, where we can actually be real.
I know.
He can't quite be real.
We try to be as real as we can and still keep our jobs and not get fined.
Listen, you know, yeah, you just busted me, by the way.
I'm just trying to take a couple of long weekends over the summer.
I had this little injury that I've been trying to take care of.
It hasn't been working out too well.
Linda's laughing.
But, you know, and Joe Paggs, I can't, in good conscience, leave this show right now.
Yeah, you go.
I can't.
You go.
And Joe Paggs, you would be incapable, the best able hands ever, and he'll fill in as always.
Rose will fill in as always, and all these other wonderful people we always have.
But we have Americans now in a very, very dire situation.
Yes.
And I can't, how do I think about anything else?
This is my life.
This is my passion.
This is what we do.
But wait a minute, Sean.
And then you got that, I don't know, that black, what is he, Secretary of State or whatever?
He telling everybody, we can't get people out of harm's way and we don't have enough equipment to do it.
Sean, when he said that, I fell out on the, I'm like, are you kidding me?
Do he know how many people we didn't sent to war in one bunch and he can't get people out?
Sean, I'm telling you, and the sorry left-wing media is not going to do their job.
Just think if I need to make a t-shirt.
If this was Donald Trump, just think.
Imagine imagine.
You know, look, when all is said and done, I mean, there's no way that anyone can conclude intelligently that Joe Biden is up to the job of being the president.
He's not.
He's clearly not.
The people that he has surrounded himself with are the absolute worst.
This is the difference between complete, utter, disconnecting weakness.
There's a disconnect from truth and reality here as well.
Well, we factored this in, George, and we always anticipated that it would be chaotic.
Didn't have to be, Joe.
You could have, you could, we have the best logistics people in the military of any military on the face of this earth.
And we could have done it.
But the other thing that they missed, and this is the big part, is the Taliban were on the march.
We had all the evidence we needed of what was beginning to unfold.
And he did nothing to step in and either expedite this, as was recommended by the Pentagon, or stop them in their tracks.
We have the ability to do that, AJ.
All right, my friend, we love you.
You're the best.
Big time, AJ, Houston, Texas.
Thank you for checking in with us, 800-941-Sean.
If you want to be a part of the program, quick break.
We'll come back.
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